Continued on Page 6

LAHORE: Governor Punjab Makhdoom Syed Ahmed Mahmud administering oath to Najam Aziz Sethi as caretakerChiefMinister of Punjab on Wednesday.—Online photo

Continued on Page 6

IRFAN ALIGI

KARACHI—“The political statusquo has to be ended and the coun-try should take a trip to a rightdirection. The people of the coun-try have become more aware ascompared to their simplicity theyhad five years ago. Now thepeople would not allow the poli-ticians of dynasty to exploit themandate and the traditional poli-ticians have to be defeated in theupcoming general elections.”

All Pakistan Muslim League(APML) Chief Gen (Retd)Pervez Musharraf said this whileaddressing a press conferenceheld Tuesday at a local hotel inthe city.

He said the APML would notclaim to give surprises or cleansweep the upcoming elections

but was confident to say that itwould win from many seats. Noalliance was decided as yet but

the APML had been in negotia-tions with other like-minded po-litical forces to form an alliancefor the elections, he added.

He said the APML was go-ing to contest the elections withrather immaturity as the partycould not gain much time to getreconciled as regards the intra-party reorganization and selec-tion of the nominees for the elec-tions. However, those so far se-lected were examined by theAPML district and divisional of-fices. He said the APML had suf-fered due to absence of him.

He said that the politiciansshould prefer the national inter-ests but unfortunately, they hadproved to be absolutely self-centred and placed the interestsof the country and the nation sec-ond to their interests. The coun-try had prospered in his time andthe APML would again struggleto make the country stronger in

Continued on Page 6

ECP to work for ‘participation’in Balochistan polls: CECSTAFF REPORTER

QUETTA—Chief Election Com-missioner Fakhruddin GEbrahim said on Wednesday thatthe Election Commission of Pa-kistan will work towards per-suading political parties inBalochistan to participate in theupcoming elections.

Speaking to the media atQuetta airport, Ebrahim said thathe had been afraid that somepeople would boycott the elec-tions, but that has not happened.

He said said that he will tryand persuade those people whoare feeling alienated. Ebrahimsaid that peace and security wasnot just an issue forBalochistan, but also for therest of the country.

The election commissionersaid that he wants to “put at easepolitical parties in the province”.

Ebrahim also said that theECP will ensure that the electionswere conducted in a secure envi-ronment.

The chief election commis-sioner along with ECP memberswill meet leaders of 13 politicalparties in Quetta to discuss theupcoming general elections andto reconcile dissident Balochleaders to contest in the polls.

Meanwhile, a press releaseissued by the ECP on Wednes-day said that the participants willalso ‘deliberate over the securitysituation in the province and de-vise a strategy to ensure that theelections are held peacefully’.

The CEC will meet with theleadership of National PartyBalochistan, Balochistan Na-tional Party (Awami),Balochistan National Party(Mengal) Hazara Democratic

MUZAFFAR ALI

LAHORE—Senior journalistNajam Sethi took oath as care-taker chief minister of Punjab onWednesday. He was selected asthe interim head of the provin-cial government after marathondeliberations by the treasury andopposition members in the out-going provincial assembly.

The oath was administeredby Governor Punjab MakhdoomAhmed Mahmood. A number ofpeople belonging to various po-litical parties and hailing fromcivil societies participated in this

Sethi takes oath ascaretaker CM Punjab

Asks bureaucrats not to meddlewith election process

official ceremony. Pakistan Mus-lim League-Nawaz (PML-N)leader and former Law MinisterPunjab Rana Sanaullah, PakistanPeoples Party (PPP) Punjableader and former oppositionleader in Punjab Assembly RajaRiaz, PML-Q leader ChaudharyZaheer-u-din and others promi-nent personalities were alsopresent on this occasion.

Speaking to reporters aftertaking oath, Najam Sethi said thatthe interim setup would be apo-litical, and that no political ap-pointments would be made dur-

Continued on Page 6

Nominationforms submitted

by candidatesopen to all: ECPISLAMABAD —The ElectionCommission of Pakistan (ECP)has said the nomination formssubmitted by the candidates areopen to all.

ECP spokesman has saidunder the law anyone in a con-stituency can acquire a copy ofthe nomination papers, accom-panying declarations and state-ments filed by a candidate fromthat constituency.

The person desiring to havecopies of the nomination paperswould have to pay a fee of 10rupees per page in the shape ofCourt Fee Stamp.

Akhtar Mengalto take partin elections

KARACHI —Balochistan Na-tional Party (BNP) Chief AkhtarMengal has announced that hisparty would actively take part inthe forthcoming general elec-tions.

The decision was taken in ameeting of BNP, headed by theparty chief Akhtar Mengal inKarachi.

Talking to media followingthe meeting, Mengal said that ifany candidate of his party washarmed then the establishmentwould be to blame.

He said that there was onlyone-point agenda in the meetingwhile the situation of Balochistanprovince in upcoming days wasalso reviewed.

Mengal further said that heis a political person and he hasno enmity with anyone.—Online

Continued on Page 6

Notificationregarding Karachidelimitation issuedISLAMABAD—The ElectionCommission of Pakistan hasissued the details of delimita-tion of constituencies inKarachi.

In this regard‚ notificationwas issued on 22nd of thismonth.

According to notification‚amendments shall be made inthe final list of constituenciesof following three NationalAssembly seats NA-239Karachi West-cum-KarachiSouth‚ NA-250 Karachi South-cum-Karachi East‚ and NA-254Karachi East-cum-Malir.

Similarly‚ amendments

Commissionsubmitsmissingpersons reportISLAMABAD—The judicialcommission constituted for therecovery of the missingpersons on Wednesdaysubmitted it report in theSupreme Court of Pakistan,stating it has traced 378missing persons cases while633 are pending.

An apex court benchheaded by the Chief JusticeIftikhar Muhammad Chaudhrycontinued the hearing ofmissing persons’ case.

In report submitted bybefore the bench, the commis-sion said that 24 cases werecompleted in Sindh while 100

Imran tocontest fourNA seatsSTAFF REPORTER

KARACHI—Pakistan Tehrik-i-Insaaf (PTI) chairman will becontesting from NA-1(Peshawar – II), NA- 56(Rawalpindi – VII), NA-71(Mianwali – I), NA-126(Lahore – IX), party spokes-man Shafqat Mehmood said onWednesday.

In NA-56, Khan is likelyto be standing in contest withSheikh Rasheed, whereas,Saad Rafique of PakistanMuslim League – Nawaz(PML-N) is another contenderfor NA-126.

Khan launched PTI’selection campaign on March23 at a public meeting inLahore during which hepromised his supporters toremain truthful, fight againstoppression and eliminatemisuse of authority andtaxpayers’ money if he came to

Continued on Page 6

Today’s issue of PakistanObserver carries a one-PageSpecial Report on ‘CreatingAwareness About Corpo-rate Social Responsibily’ onPage-10.

ASHRAF ANSARI

ISLAMABAD—Father ofPakistan’s nuclear programme,Dr A Q Khan has urged theyouth to work for Pakistan’sprogress and prosperity of thepeople.

He was delivering his ad-dress as chief guest at goldmedal awards ceremony ofNazriya Pakistan Council(NPC) at Aiwan-i-Quaid,Fatima Jinnah Park, Wednes-day.

He saw no reason for Paki-stan being backward when ithas been blessed with vast natu-ral resources and its people aretalented. He lamented that Pa-kistan has not been able to fullyharness its resources both natu-ral and human for reasons wellknown. He pointed to variouschallenges being faced by Pa-kistan due to its economic and

social degradation. The emi-nent scientist said, that Paki-

stan had come in to being asa result of unprecedented

sacrifices of the Muslims ofSouth Asia and commitment

of the Founder of Pakistan,Quaid-i-Azam Mohammad AliJinnah and his comrades. “Weneed to work with the samezeal that characterized the Paki-stan movement to safeguard ourcountry against its enemies andbuild it in accordance with thevision of Father of the Nation. Weneed to make sacrifices for thesake of our country”, he ob-served.

Dr A Q Khan congratulatedthe gold medal awardees and ex-pressed the hope that otherpeople would also take inspira-tion from their examples.

Chairman Sultana Founda-tion, Dr Naeem Ghani in hispresidential address analyzedcauses of prevailing situation ofthe country and said that therewas need to strengthen nationalinstitutions. He pointed out that

NPC Gold Medal Awards

Dr A Q Khan urges youth to work for Pakistan’s progress

ISLAMABAD: Eminent nuclear scientist, Dr A Q Khan addressing NPC Gold Medal Awardsceremony at Aiwan-i-Quaid. —PO photo Sultan Bashir Continued on Page 6

STAFF REPORTER

ISLAMABAD—AddressingGold Medal Awards Ceremonyat Aiwan-i-Quaid, ChairmanNazriya Pakistan Council(NPC) and Editor-in-Chief Pa-kistan Observer Zahid Maliksaid, there are clear signs thatPakistan is set to enter a newera of progress after overcom-ing its current challenges.

He said there are certainforces working against Pakistanbut the nation was fully awakeand it will foil all nefarious de-signs. He said, the NPC GoldMedal recipients have achievedmarvels in various fields of na-tional life and they have provedContinued on Page 6

Pak set to enter era ofprogress: Zahid Malik

ISLAMABAD: ChairmanNPC Zahid Malik address-ing the NPC Gold MedalAwards ceremony at Aiwan-i-Quaid.—PO photo

Musharraf pledgesto break status quoDenies hand in assassinations of Benazir, Bugti

ECP receives list of284 defaulter MNAsISLAMABAD—The ElectionCommission of Pakistan (ECP)has received a defaulters’ list of284 former members of NationalAssembly (MNAs) along withother key political leaders.

According to the list, formerMNAs have not submitted theirtelephone bills.

The list included names ofChaudhry Nisar, Qamar ZamanKaira, Makhdoom Amin Fahim,Nadeem Afzal Chan, BushraRehman, Anwar Alam Khan,Abdul Qadir Patel, ManzoorWatto, Firdous Ashiq Awan andothers.

Chaudhry Ahmed Mukhtar isa defaulter of Rs 86,225,Chaudhry Nisar 38,000, FaisalKareem 29,000, Abdul QadirPatel 22,000, Asfandyar Wali2,244, Fehmida Mirza 20,000,

Continued on Page 6

SALIM AHMED

LAHORE—Syed Yusuf RazaGialni, former Prime Minister ofPakistan and Senior Vice Chair-man PPPP, has welcomed thedecision of the Balochistan Na-tional Party to contest the forth-coming elections adding itclearly manifested the victory ofthe democratic process over thedraconian rule. Democracy be-

Gilani welcomes BNP’sdecision to contest polls

lieves in plurality whereas dic-tatorship prefers exclusiveness,he added.

Talking to media here, hesaid that building bridges amongthe people was the beauty of thedemocratic process which inturn accelerated the process ofnational integration and cohe-sion so important for the politi-cal stability and economic pros-perity of the people on perma-

nent basis. He said that the de-cision of the BNP was good fordemocracy and for the federa-tion of Pakistan and must beappreciated by all the politicalleadership of the country.

He said that the PPP govern-ment gave the Aghaz-i-Haqooq-i- Baluchistan to the peoplewhich was a sincere effort of thedemocratic government to ad-

Continued on Page 6

12 die as busoverturns on

Indus HighwaySTAFF REPORTER

JAMPUR—At least 12 personsincluding women and childrendied while several werewounded, when a passenger busoverturned on the Indus Highwayon Wednesday here.

Police said that the mishapoccurred on Indus Highway atHameedwala in Tehsil Jampur of

Continued on Page 6

ISLAMABAD—Chief Justice ofPakistan (CJP) IftikharMuhammad Chaudhry onWednesday observed that theElection Commission of Pakistan(ECP) knew better how to imple-ment Articles 62 and 63 of theConstitution.

The CJP made the observa-tion while heading a three-mem-ber bench during the hearing ofa petition filed by Dr MubashirHassan against ‘pre-poll rigging’.

During the course of pro-ceedings, the Chief Justice re-marked that the petitioner wanted

to ensure implementation of Ar-ticles 62 and 63. However, thecourt had already directed theECP to ensure voters access tothe candidates’ data and soughtdetail over the steps taken in thatregard to avoid pre-poll rigging.

ECP knows how toimplement Articles 62, 63: CJP

Continued on Page 6

Continued on Page 6

Naeem Ghani for building national institutions

SALAHUDDIN HAIDER

DESPITE some excitingdevelopments duringthe week-end, Paki-

stan politics is still in flux,fluid rather,where pre-dictions willbe too pre-mature, andeven assess-ments canbe mislead-ing, but onepoint can be

safely stressed. A change isnot only overdue, it has be-gun to be visible butwhether for good or worse,is a again a million dollarquestion, For cricketer-turned-politician, ImranKhan, the Minar-e-Pakistanrally at Lahore on the inde-pendence day of March 23,was a real kick off, boostedhis image enormously, forc-ing former prime ministerNawaz Sharif to demonstratean equally powerful show ofstrength at a rally inMansehra, the KhyberPukhtunnkha town, border-ing Punjab today. Both theseevents drew considerableattention from pundits,most of whom seem unani-mous that the real fight forsupremacy will be between

Tehrik-i-Insaf and the Paki-stan Muslim League (N), es-pecially in the main battlefield of Punjab, which be-cause of being the largestprovince, has the highestnumber of 148 national as-sembly seats of a total 272.

With elections being lessthan 50 days away, expecta-tions had also heightened onthe return after 4 years of ex-ile of former military Presi-dent, Pervez Musharraf. Hissupporters had turned up insubstantial number, defyingsecurity restrictions, andbraving for long hours thesimmering sun overhead, butlooked disappointed in theend. Musharraf took almostthree hours to come out ofthe terminal building, and fi-nally when he showed up, hewas without a public addresssystem. He uttered a few sen-tences, which remained inau-dible to the flag waving, slo-gan chanting crowd. Fromthere he was whisked awayunder heavy police cordon,lodged in a hotel in the heartof the city, but spent all day,meeting people inside hissuite for more than 24 hours.

In harsher, but realisticterm, this, for any politician,yearning for power, was amassive setback. Threat tolife seemed genuine especially

after a Taliban statement tosend suicide bombers for him,but why did he accept theviewpoint of security advis-ers to remain aloof from a pub-lic, optimistic about his capa-bilities to turn the tide ofevent, has remained unex-plained, even till after the sec-ond day of his reaching here.Such a response from him toa rising wave of enthusiasmin the country, appeared sur-prising, especially whenMusharraf had himself dis-closed that he had reached anew understanding with themilitary, relied more on army’sthan civilian security. He wasprovided a bullet proof car,and heavy security cordonbut a politician’s real assetsare the masses.

Whether he is busy ondrawing a new strategy tolaunch himself for electioneer-ing after reaching IslamabadWednesday morning, re-mains to be seen. But analystsagree that time is of essencenow . Musharraf already suf-fers from a number of handi-caps, each more importantthan the other. His announce-ment to contest elections fromall four provinces, required asolid base, and a party struc-ture, which is yet to be seen.As for the Peoples Party, itseems in problems, and Asif

Zardari, facing legal complica-tions, has finally quit the partyleadership in a bid to pre-empta hostile verdict from theLahore High Court. A senioranchor person, with soundprofessional reputation, how-ever claimed publicly in his TVinterview, that Bilawal Bhuttoseemed unhappy with the fa-ther, and has refused to be theparty chief.

The PPP now has madehim patron in chief, and alsoreshuffled the hierarchy, re-placing old loyalist JahangirBadar to pass on the mantleof the party’s secretary gen-eral ship to former governorLateef Khosa, and also ap-pointing a new person as cen-tral information secretary inplace of former informationminister, QamaruzzamanKaira. There is no party chiefnow, which is a point to pon-der Ground realities supportthe argument that, Zardari andhis party have lost consider-able face in the country be-cause of unprecedentedmisgovernance, failing to haltthe economic meltdown, andallowing the country to suf-fer from an inept foreignpolicy.

Generally the hope has be-gun to build around NawazSharif, whose younger brother,Shahbaz, has done much bet-

ter than others in his strong-hold of Punjab province.Nawaz is being seen as the nexthead of government, and if hemusters a substantial strengthin the national assembly, andretains his hold in his homeprovince of Punjab, he maymake things difficult for Zardarito seek another term as Presi-dent beyond August this year.But much would depend, onwhether Nawaz also winsmeaningful seats from the restof the three provinces. He maybenefit from alliance with PirPagara’s Muslim League,called as the Functional group.But nothing could yet be saidabout his chances in thetroubled south-western,Balochistan and an equallyunstable Khyberpukhtoonkhaprovinces.

For the presidential race,the two houses of the parlia-ment, the senate and the na-tional assembly, and the fourprovincial legislatures, votetogether. Nawaz can rebuildhis strength in the upperhouse only in March 2015, afar-fetched dream. While thereal picture will take anotherthree to four weeks to emerge,next two weeks may helpbuild some kind of a hazyscene. Till then, a wait andsee approach alone will haveto be relied upon.

Despite exciting development Pakistan politics still in flux

ISLAMABAD—Vice PresidentJamaat-e-Islami Siraj ul Haqhas stressed the need forfree, fair and transparent elec-toral process in the country.Speaking in a private newchannel programme, Siraj ulHaq said that peaceful envi-ronment and foolproof secu-rity would be required forcasting vote in Karachi.

He said that media wasplaying a vital role to ensuretransparent elections in thecountry. He said that journal-ists, both electronic and print,were creating awarenessamong the masses so thatthe voters could choose the

right and honest representa-tives. He hoped that the Elec-tion Commission would en-sure free, fair and transpar-ent election process.

Sadiq ul Farooq of thePakistan Muslim League-Nawaz said that the MutahidaQaumi Movement should goto courts if it had some reser-vations on the matter of de-limitations. MQM leaderFaisal Sabzwari said that therewas no problem in Karachi forvoters, who would cast theirvote without any trouble. Hesaid those creating hype re-garding the Karachi situationshould avoid.—APP

SheikhupuraBar Association

delegationcall on CJP

ISLAMABAD—A 24-memberdelegation of District Bar As-sociation Sheikhupura headedby its President ChaudharyMuhammad Boota Tahir calledon Chief Justice of Pakistan(CJP) Justice IftikharMuhammad Chaudhry here onWednesday. Welcoming thenewly elected cabinet membersof Sheikhupura District Bar As-sociation, the CJP said thatthere is close relationship be-tween bench and bar which ismeant for establishing justices,rule of law and supremacy ofthe Constitution in the coun-try, said a press release.

Lauding the role ofSheikhupura Bar during thelawyer movement, the CJPsaid that the Sheikhupura Baralso played pivotal role forconstitutionalism in the coun-try and they should demon-strate same commitment anddedication for providing in-expensive and expeditiousjustice to the litigant partiesby redressing their griev-ances at their doorsteps. Themembers of the delegationdiscussed issues concerningadministration of justice.They apprised the Chief Jus-tice of Pakistan of their prob-lems and requested for pass-ing appropriate orders to theconcerned quarters for ar-ranging circuit sittings ofBanking and Drug Courts atSheikhupura.—APP

MD-OPF directs toshift AJK Regional

office to MirpurISLAMABAD—Managing Di-rector (MD), Overseas Paki-stanis Foundation (OPF)Syed Iftikhar Hussain Babarhas directed the authoritiesconcerned to shift its re-gional office to Mirpur cityfor the convenience andeasy access of overseasworkers belonging the AJK.The press release issuedhere said that during his visitto OPF Regional OfficeMirpur, the Managing Di-rector visited OPF Eye Hos-pital Building and showedhis satisfaction over thepresent condition and itsmaintenance.

He had a detailed meet-ing with Principal MohtarmaBenazir Bhutto Medical Col-lege and discussed the issueof re-opening of the hospi-tal. It was agreed by the bothsides that hospital should bemade functional as soon aspossible and besides an eyeSurgeon, a medical special-ist will also be provided bythe medical college authori-ties.—APP

ISLAMABAD—The NationalDatabase and RegistrationAuthority (NADRA) has in-troduced a ‘whistle-blower’system to minimize corruptionand to increase transparency.The system provides a plat-form to its employees and thepublic in general to report anymisconduct, abuse, fraud andinefficiency that they mayencounter while having theoption to remain anonymous.

A NADRA official toldAPP on Wednesday that inorder to further increase

transparency related to ID-card processes, a system-generated SMS-TrackingService was introducedthrough which citizens wereconstantly updated regard-ing the status of their ap-plication, ranging from thesubmission of documentsto the actual printing of thecard.

He said that the author-ity had also involved theNational Accountability Bu-reau (NAB) and the FederalInvestigation Agency (FIA)

along with its own vigilancedepartment to keep a strin-gent check on all possiblemalpractices and in order tobring to book any delinquentelements. He said that theauthority had now inked amemorandum of understand-ing (MoU) with the Trans-parency International Paki-stan (TIP) for the implemen-tation of integrity pact.

Now with the TIP’s in-volvement further transpar-ency will be ensured in pro-curement.—APP

NADRA introducesnew transparency system

M U L T A N — M a k h d o o mJaved Hashmi andMakhdoom Shah MehmoodQureshi have launched theircampaign for election 2013from one platform of PakistanTehrik-e-Insaf (PTI).Makhdoom Shah MehmoodQureshi had contested elec-tions from PPP platformagainst PML-N’s MakhdoomJaved Hashmi from 1993 to2008,but today they were to-gether to take on their politi-cal rivals from one plateform.Makhdoom Javed Hashmihad been contesting thegeneral election since 1985and the 2013 general electionwould be his 8th contest.

Makhdoom ShahMehmood Qureshi had con-tested his first election in1993 for National Assemblyseat and the forthcoming elec-tions would be his fifth elec-tion. It looks as if the twoimportant political figures oldrivals found the slogan of‘change’ more importantthan their political rivalry,says a noted intellectual andwriter Shakir Hussain Shakir.But time will tell how this de-velopment translates intoreal change for the bettermentof their constituents, headded.

As many as 200 aspirantsfiled their nomination papers

for six seats of NationalAssem-bly and 13 seats ofProvincial Assembly in thecity. Though main parties in-cluding Pakistan People’sParty, Pakistan MuslimLeague and Pakistan Tehrik-e-Insaf have finalized most oftheir candidates in Multan,yet a large number of aspir-ing candidates are confidentto secure party tickets. Ac-cording to sources, fourPML-N candidates includingRana Mahmoodul Hassan,Tariq Rasheed, Ch. AbdulWaheed Araein and MianAmir Saeed Ansari have beengiven green signal to takepart in the election.—APP

Hashmi, Qureshi join electioncampaign from same platform

Siraj for free, fairelectoral process

PIMA Punjab,Sindh, KP

elections completedISLAMABAD—Pakistan IslamicMedical Association (PIMA)presidential elections for threeprovinces have been com-pleted. PIMA members electednew office-bearers for twoyears (2013-2015) through se-cret ballot during provincialconventions held on 22-23March in Sukkur, 23-24 Marchboth in Faisalabad andMardan, said a press release.According to the results an-nounced by provincial electioncommissioners, Dr KhubaibShahid, Prof of Radiology atFatima Memorial HospitalLahore, Dr Abdul Qadir SoomroDeptt.of Dermatology PakistanSteel Hospital karachi.—APP

Man gunneddown

STAFF REPORTER

PESHAWAR—Unknown gun-men, riding a motorbike shotdead a man in the limits ofGulbarg police station hereon Wednesday. Accordingto police, Imran Ali was go-ing to some work whenreached at Izaat Khan Chowkin Gulbarg area was am-bushed by motorcyclist. Heexpired on the spot. Policehave registered case andstarted investigation. Thereason behind the coldblooded murder could not beimmediately ascertained.Meanwhile, unknown out-laws have reportedly killed anAmbulance driver atSherikaiara area outskirt ofcity, Wednesday.

ISLAMABAD—Caretaker PrimeMinister Justice (retd) MirHazar Khan Khoso onWednesday said that generalelections were significant asthey marked the first demo-cratic transition from oneelected civilian government toanother. He was talking toPrime Minister of Azad Jammuand Kashmir (AJK) Ch. AbdulMajeed, who called on himhere at the PM Secretariat tocongratulate him on assump-tion of his office.

The AJK Prime Ministerassured the caretaker PrimeMinister of all cooperationand expressed the hope that

the democratic processwould be strengthened in thecountry with the holding offree, fair and impartial elec-tions under his guidance.

Meanwhile, BalochistanGovernor Nawab ZulifqarMagsi called on caretakerPrime Minister Justice (retd)Mir Hazar Khan Khoso hereat the Prime Minister’s HouseWednesday afternoon andcongratulated him on assump-tion of the office. During themeeting, overall political situ-ation in the country, particu-larly in Balochistan, came un-der discussion, a PM Housepress release said.

The Prime Minister said

that the holding of peacefuland fair elections in the coun-

try was the foremost priorityof the government and everypossible assistance would beextended to the Election Com-mission of Pakistan (ECP) inthat regard. He directed theBalochistan Governor to en-sure maintenance of law andorder in the province.

Earlier central leader of Pa-kistan People’s Party andformer minister for informationQamar Zaman Kaira Wednes-day dispelled the impressiongiven by the section of themedia as if there were differ-ences between the party chair-man Bilawal Bhutto Zardariand President Asif Ali Zardari.

Talking to APP,the PPPleader said that the partyChairman Bilawal BhuttoZardari will be a part of theelection campaign. However,Kaira added that due to secu-rity reasons, he will not par-ticipate in every public meet-ing. To a question, Kaira saidBilawal Bhutto Zardari will notbe leading the party’s electioncampaign due to securitythreats.He said that seniorPPP leaders including formerprime ministers Yusuf RazaGilani and Raja Pervez Ashraf,Amin Fahim and NazarMuhamamd Gondal will runthe election campaign.—APP

Elections facilitate democratic transition to next govt

PESHAWAR: Caretaker Information Minister KP, Musarrat Qadeem awarding shield to a participant during YouthMedia Festival organized by URDO at Nishter Hall.

STAFF REPORTER

PESHWAR—District adminis-tration, Peshawar has launchedcrackdown against the use oftinted glasses in vehicles andin a joint operation in collabo-ration with traffic police re-moved it from hundred of ve-hicles. According to details,Deputy Commissioner,Peshawar, Mohammad JavedMarwat after banning the useof tinted glasses in vehiclesunder Section 144 issued spe-cial directives to Additional As-sistant Commissioner (AAC)-

Crackdown on vehicleswith tinted glasses

IX for the implementation.The AAC-IX along with

Police Station Hayatabad andTraffic Police carried opera-tion in Hayatabad and challan400 vehicles under Section188 and traffic laws for viola-tion of Section 144 and pre-sented a detail report toDeputy Commissioner. TheDeputy Commissioner whileexpressing satisfaction overthe action directed all addi-tional assistant commission-ers for carrying such opera-tion in the jurisdictions of theirpolice stations concerned.

‘Deprivations of common man increase’LAHORE—Ameer, Jamaat-e-Islami,Pakistan, Syed Munawar Hasan, hassaid that the deprivations of a com-mon man increased due to poor man-agement of resources and every onemust come forward to help out thepeople suffering in natural calamities.He was addressing a ceremony heldto hand over ambulances to the Al-Khidmat Foundation, the welfare wingof the JI, here. Three ambulances have

been handed over for relief work in the flood affecteddistricts of D.G. Khan, Rajanpur, and Rahimyar Khan.JI, Punjab chief, Dr Syed Waseem Akhtar, also spoke onthe occasion. Provincial chief of the Al- Khidmat, RaoMuhammad Zafar, was also present. In his address, SyedMunawar Hasan said that Pakistani society comprisedof people who were deprived of the basic needs as pricespiral had crippled the big junk of the society. In such asituation, he said, it was the moral and religious duty ofthe well to do to come to the help of their less fortunatebrethren. Munawar Hasan said that Al Khidmat Foun-dation played a major role in relief works during recentfloods and earthquake in country. He said that Al-Khidmat Foundation had a vast net work which hadwon the hearts of the people through its timely reliefactivities and its work in the fields of health and educa-tion was expanding gradually. JI Punjab Ameer SyedWaseem Akhtar told the ceremony that as many as 115ambulances had been imported from Japan which werebusy in the service of the poor and the deserving peoplein the province.—APP

Democracy best political systemIS L A M A B A D—Leader of PakistanPeoples Party (PPP) RubinaQaimkhani has said that PPP wouldoppose any un-democratic agenda asdemocracy is best system to protectthe Constitution. Talking to a privatetelevision channel, she said that con-tinuity of democracy is only solutionof all the problems. She said that lead-ership of PPP had rendered many sac-rifices for restoration of democratic

system in the country. She said that credit goes to theleadership of PPP who had accepted the mandate of allthe political parties, adding PPP is ready to sit with anypolitical party for betterment of the country and itspeople. Replying to a question, she said that PPP is thelargest democratic party of the country and alwaysworked to boost democracy in the country. PPP leaderRubina said that the Parliament was the supreme insti-tution and also playing a role to boost the democraticsystem. Meanwhile, Provincial President of PPP AnwarSaifullah Khan on Tuesday receives nomination papersto participate in the upcoming General electoral fromNA- 26 Bannu and PK-74 Lakki-1. According to details,former federal minister Salim Saifullah Khan would con-test the political battle from NA-27 of Lakki Marwat whileformer MNA Humayn Saifullah Khan would contest elec-tion from constituency PK-75 Lakki Marwat. In a publicmeeting, Humayun Saifullah, candidate of PPP from con-stituency PK-75 of Lakki Marwat said that the opposi-tion has failed to deliver and if voted into power allbasic facilities of life would be provided to people. Partysources said that Saifullah brothers have been startedpolitical convincing and thousands of people have beenjoined their parties under their leadership.—APP

Barozai start talks with political partiesQUETTA—Caretaker Chief MinisterBalochistan Nawab Ghous BakhshBarozai has initiated talks with the lead-ers of political parties and tribal no-tables in a bid to create conducive en-vironment for holding free fair elec-tions through measures of confidencebuilding. Nawab Barozai shared issuewith the leaders of PPP, PML-N, JamateIslami, PML-Q and tribal leaders at CMSecretariat at length pertaining to the

smooth and uninterrupted election process in all thirtydistricts of the province. My nomination as caretaker CMis confidence reposed in me by the people of Balochistanfor which I am liable to ensure peaceful elections in theprovince, he said while talking to the delegations whoseparately met with Nawab Barozai. Hailing the participa-tion of the nationalist and other parties who boycottedgeneral elections in 2008, he said that it is good omen forthe political stability, durable peace and prosperity ofBalochistan. The first and foremost priority of my gov-ernment would be provision of secure and peaceful envi-ronment where contesting candidate could run smoothelection campaign and voter cast vote without any fear,Nawab Barozai said while stressing the resolve of hisgovernment. He thanked the political parties for assuringtheir all-out support and hoped they would continue co-operating with the caretaker government and electioncommission for conduct of free, fair and transparent elec-tions in Balochistan. I am confident that with the supportof political parties and people of the province, real repre-sentatives of the public would come to power and putBalochistan on the track of peace and prosperity, he main-tained.—APP

Alliance with MQM can’t be ruled outHYDERABAD—Pakistan MuslimLeague-Likeminded leader ArbabGhulam Rahim said he has discussedoptions of an alliance with the PakistanMuslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) in theupcoming elections. Talking to the me-dia on his arrival here, he said that heheld a meeting with the PML-N leader-ship in Lahore in which options of analliance in the general elections werediscussed in detail. The former Sindh

chief minister said his party will take active part in theelections. He said seat adjustment with the MuttahidaQaumi Movement could not be ruled out. Replying to aquestion, he said neither he would oppose nor supportthe recent delimitation in Karachi. Arbab Rahim said thatthe Election Commission is free in Pakistan. He said thatthe Caretaker Prime Minister is a gentleman but he wouldnot comment on Caretaker Government. Arbab Rahim wasreceived by Arbab Zakaullah, Arbab Lutufullah, NuzhatPathan, Dr. Hadi Bux Jatoe and supporters. The process ofobtaining the nomination forms for contesting from thethree National Assembly and six Sindh Assembly seats inthe upcoming polls continued on the third day here. TheMuttahida Qaumi Movement’s (MQM) former HyderabadZone In- charge and member Sindh Organising CommitteeSiraj Rajput obtained the forms for NA-220, PS-45 and PS-46 while the former MQM MPA Waseem Hussain also gotthe forms for NA-220, PS-45 and PS-46. Similarly, MQM’sSyed Muhammad Jaffri received the nomination form forNA-219, Haji Nawab Ali, Dilawar Qureshi, MuhammadWaseem Arain and Umar Qureshi for PS-45 and formertaluka nazim Muhammad Rashid Khan for PS-46. The PPP’sDr. Sagheer Ahmed acquired the nomination form for NA-220, PPP district vice president Amanullah Siyal, PashaQazi and Azhar Siyal for PS-45 and Babu Abdullah Qaziand Ali Hyder Shah for PS-46.—APP

GUL HAMAAD FAROOQI

CHITRAL—An awarenesssession regarding (TB) Tu-berculosis was held atShaheed Benazir Bhutto Uni-versity Chitral Campus underauspices of District TB Con-trol office in collaborationwith Aga Khan Health Ser-vices (AKHSP) and Red Cres-cent society Chiral. DeputyCommissioner ChitralRahmatullah Wazir as chiefguest on the occasion. Ear-lier that a walks was also heldleading by Dr. Saad MalukDistrict TB control officer, Dr.Nazir Ahmad District Healthofficer, Dr. Noorul Islam MSof DHQ Hospital. Address-ing on the occasion Doctorsand expert said that TB is acurable disease and its treat-ment is totally free of cost

from diagnosing to medicine.They said that Islam

stressed upon cleanlinessand science also declaredthat most of diseased causedby dirtiness. They said thatwe should to keep our bodyand houses clean and ar-range for cross ventilation inour houses. They said thatTB is not such a dangerousdisease but its treatment ispossible and totally free ofcost.

They said that if a patientdiscontinues its treatmentand took no complete dose itdivert in Multi drug resis-tance MDR and after thatconvert in XDR and its treat-ment is also not possible.They said that this diseasespreading orally, by cough-ing, sneezing and its germstransfer to other through air.

STAFF REPORTER

P E S H A W A R — K h y b e rPakhtunkhwa Caretaker Min-ister Sports, Tourism, YouthAffairs, Archive and Environ-ment Sameen Jan BabarWednesday paid a surprisevisit to the Peshawar Museumand Directorate of SportsQayyum Sports Complex. TheMinister was accompanied bySecretary Sports, Tourism,Youth Affairs and ArchiveSyed Jamal Uddin Shah, Sec-retary EnvironmentMuhammad Adeel Khan, Di-rector General Pakistan ForestInstitute Syed SaeedBadshah, Director MuseumDr. Shah Nazar, Director Gen-

eral Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Di-rectorate of Sports IltafUmarzai, Curator MuseumNida Ullah Sehrai and was thor-oughly briefed about the work-ing affairs of the departmentscame under his ministry.

He said the working con-dition of these entire depart-ments would be improved. Hesaid being Caretaker Minis-ter, it is his responsibilitiesto look into it and use all re-sources for the improvementof working of these depart-ments. Secretary MuhammadAdeel Khan briefed the min-ister about the forestry andenvironment and presentcondition of the forestry inKhyber Pakhtunkhwa. He lis-

tens to some of the proposalas well and gave on the spotdirectives.

The Minister also visitedPeshawar Museum and wasbriefed by Dr. Shah Nazar. Dr.Shah Nazar briefed the Min-ister about the potential thatthe province have in archeol-ogy. He also visited the IslamicGallery, took keen interest inthe antiques of Iranian andGhandhara Civilization. Dr.Shah Nazar threw light on thearcheological potential atTakht Bhai, Swabi, Swat andPeshawar. Later the CaretakerMinister also visited histori-cal Wazir Bagh and given onthe spot directives for the im-provement of Wazir Bagh.

KHAIRPUR—A one-day semi-nar on Academic Advisingand Exchange Opportunitiesin the United States was heldat Shah Abdul Latif Univer-sity (SALU), Khairpur . Theseminar was organised byPak-US Alumni NetworkSukkur Chapter and ShahAbdul Latif University,Khairpur. SALU Dean Fac-ulty of Natural Sciences ProfDr. Yasmeen Faiz Kazi pre-sided over the seminar. TheCultural Affairs Officer at USConsulate General in Karachi,Kristin Haworth was the chiefguest. Caryn Anderson Infor-mation Resource Officer inthe US Embassy, Islamabad,Keisha Tons and Prof Dr.Nisar Ahmed Kanhar werethe honorary chief guests.

Addressing the seminarProf Dr. Yasmeen Faiz Kazisaid that as we know that

according to the NationalAcademic Advising Associa-tion the academic advising isa series of international inter-action with curriculum and aset of students’ learning out-comes. She said that aca-demic advising synthesisesstudents’ educational expe-riences with the framework oftheir aspirations, ability andlives to extend learning be-yond campus boundariesand timeframe.

She said currently the fo-cus is moving strongly to-ward recognition and rewardof academic endeavour be-yond traditional outputs andthe creation of economic,societal and policy relatedimpact. There is an increas-ing requirement of academiato pursue knowledge ex-change (KE), she further said.Dr. Yasmeen highlighted the

efforts undertaken by SALUin this regard and informedthat the seminar aims at ca-pacity building academically,culturally and socially. Cul-tural Affairs Officer at USConsulate General in KarachiKristin Haworth said thattheir mission is to increasemutual understanding be-tween the people of theUnited States and the peopleof other countries speciallyPakistan by means of educa-tional and cultural exchanges.

She said that they areproviding grants to foreignscholars to deliver lectureand/ or conduct post-doc-toral research at U.S institu-tions for a semester or a yearand Fulbright Foreign Stu-dent Programme enablesgraduate students, youngprofessionals, and artists toconduct research.—APP

Sameen wants sub-ordinateoffices to deliver to masses

Women Dev Deptdistributes awardsQUETTA—Additional Secre-tary, Women DevelopmentDepartment, Salma Qureshidistributed live achievementawards among the women fortheir meritorious services intheir fields in a ceremony heldin connection with 23rd Marchhere Wednesday. Salma saidthat women should come for-ward and show their abilitiesand skills in every field of life.”Male and women have equalrights in the light of Islamicteachings,” she noted.

Resolution of womenrights had been passed in 2009in Balochistan Assembly thatwas moved by former ministerGhazala Gola after hectic ef-forts, Salma added. WomenDevelopment’s DirectorShaista Nawab said that ef-forts were being taken to pro-vide basic facilities towomen.—APP

TB awareness event heldat Shaheed BB University

STAFF REPORTER

P E S H AWA R — J a m a a t - e -Islami (J.I) KhyberPakhtunkhwa Wednesdayannounced the list of partycandidates for the NationalAssembly constituencies ofthe province and FederallyAdministered Tribal Area(FATA). According to a listunveiled by provincial gen-eral secretary, J.I, KhyberPakhtunkhwa, ShabirAhmad Khan, he himself willcontest from NA-, PeshawarNA-2, Peshawar Dr.Mohammad Iqbal Khalil,NA-3 Peshawar Israrullahadvocate, NA-4 PeshawarSabir Hussein Awan, NA-5,Nowshera Asif LuqmanQazi, NA-6 Nowshera

JI lists its NA contestants from KP, FATAMerajuddin Khan, NA-7Charsadda Arshad Khan,NA-8 Charsadda MaulanaAbdul Mastan, NA-9Mardan-I, Atta-Ur-Rehman.

NA-10 Mardan-2 MaulanaSultan Mohammad, NA-11,Mardan- 3, Gul Nawaz Khan,,NA-12 Swabi-I MohammadUsman Khan advocate, NA-13 Swabi-II, Amir Nawaz Khanadvocate, NA-14 Kohat, PirMohammad Fahim, NA-15,Karak Maulana Taslim Iqbal,NA-16 Hangu HajiMohammad Aslam, NA-17Abbottabad-I Habib-ur-Rehman Abbasi, NA-18Abbottabad-2 Waheed AkhtarTanoli, NA-19 Haripur GhulamNabi Khan advocate, NA-20Mansehra-I Haji MohammadYunas Khattak, NA-21

Mansehra-2 Abdul MalikKhan NA-22 Battagram NisarAhmad Khan, NA-23 KohistanMaulana Noor-ul-Haq, NA-24D.I. Khan Zahid Mohibullahadvocate, NA-26 Bannu Pro-fessor Mohammad IbrahimKhan, NA-27 Lakki MarwatProfessor Shabir Ghulam, NA-28 Bunner Sher Akbar Khanadvocate NA-29 Swat-I AkhtarAli Khan, NA-3 Swat-2, FazalSubhan.

NA-31 Shangla HakimWaliullah, NA-32 ChitralAbdul Akbar Chitrali, NA-33Dir Upper SahibzadaTariqullah, NA-34 Dir LowerSahibzada MohamamdYaqub and NA-35 MalakandSyed Bakhtiar Maani whileNA-25 Tank had been keptvacant so far.

Pak-US Alumni seminar exploreacademic exchange opportunities

RAHMATULLAH KHAN

PESHAWAR—Jamiat Ullema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) leaders fromTehsil Bara Khyber Agencyhave demanded of the gov-ernment to establish shelterfor with full facilities of provi-sion all food and non-fooditems to Internally DisplacedPersons (IDPs) from Terahvalley. Speaking at a pressconference here at Press clubon Wednesday, the JUI-FKhyber Agency senior naibameer Shamsuddin Afridi,said that more than 1.5millionpeople were forced to leavetheir area due to ongoing con-

JUI-F demandsfacilitated shelters for IDPs

flict in the Tirah Valley,Khyber Agency.

Flanked by JUI-leadersfrom the agency, he said thegovernment was yet to takeany step for establishment ofmakeshift camp for IDPs, whilethe foreign donor agencieswere mobilized their relief ac-tivities to affected people in theagency. He maintained the dis-placed people were compelledto live in open area due to non-establishment of makeshiftcamp from them. “Tribesmenare patriotic citizen’s of thisstate, who rendered their livesfor protection of motherland,he noted.

HYDERABAD—On a revisedreport, duly verified by theDeputy CommissionerNaushahro Feroze, the SindhRelief Department has madea partial modification in itsprevious notification regard-ing calamity-affected areas ofDistrict Naushahro Feroze.According to Corrigendum/Notification of Sindh ReliefDepartment issued here onWednesday, eight dehsnamely Detha, Dhabhro,Larik, Kandiaro, Lakha,Ghanghara, Bazidpur andGhulam Shah of TalukaKandiaro, 12 Dehs namelyMoro, Fatu Balal, AbadKehkat, Qaim Koor, Karap,

Karoocha, Dumber Ji Wai,Sadhooja, Chando, Daras,Wad Pagia and Dheeran Jagirof Taluka Moro, 24 Dehsnamely Bhiria, Dingro, RajoKerio, Panhwari, Chakar Wah,Dheengo, Mango, Burirra,Dali, Kot Bahadur, Kanjar,Chanheen Manumal, Jalbani,Khahi Qasim, Khah Jagir,Palano, Mad Aleem, GherGajo, Kandir, Bela Wah,Molan Ryati, Ladho Rano,Tharushah and Dali Pota ofTaluka Bhiria and six Dehsnamely Sangi, Bhagori, MoleDino Haji, Mehar Haji,Chibhur Bhanbhun andKhuda Bux Jalbani of TalukaMehrabpur have been de-

clared calamity affected areas.Lecture on Disaster and

Humanitarian Reporting atSALU: A writer, columnist andjournalist from Inter-News Eu-ropean Union, Suhail Memonhas stressed upon Humanitar-ian Reporting as a tool of lifeand saving property of humanbeings during any natural di-saster. This he said while de-livering a lecture on Disasterand Humanitarian Reportingorganised by Department ofMedia Studies, Shah AbdulLatif University (SALU),Khairpur on Wednesday.

Suhail Memon furthersaid that our reporters focuson traditional current affairs,

political and criminal report-ing while they do not giveimportance to areas like hu-manitarian reporting and di-saster reporting. He said “ wenot only provide informationto people regarding anynatural disaster but alsoserve the people by provid-ing true information and do-ing the functions of fore-warning and surveillance”.

He pointed out that in thewake of last super flood 2010,the radio was a major tool ofinformation, a HumanitarianOrganisation had distributed10,000 radio sets for weatheradvisory. Similarly, he said inthe Earthquake of 2005.—APP

Sindh calamity-hit areas re-notified

PESHAWAR: Relatives of Sheharyar protesting against killing of Sheharyar and de-manding justice, in front of PPC.

CHITRAL: People crossing the river through a suspension bridge at Kari Village, theonly source of cross transportation.

ISLAMABAD—Pakistan Me-teorological Department(PMD) on Wednesday fore-cast scattered rain and thun-derstorm for Quetta, Zhob,Qalat Division, D.I Khan andD.G Khan Division during thenext 24 hours. However, iso-lated rain is likely at someplaces of Bannu, Kohat,Peshawar, Malakand Divi-sion, Upper and CentralPunjab, Kashmir and GilgitBaltistan during the next 24hours.

Dry weather will prevailin other parts of the countryduring the next 24 hours, ac-cording to the Met Office.The synoptic situation saysthat a shallow trough of west-erly wave is likely to extendto the Upper and Centralparts of the country duringthe next 24 hours. The maxi-mum temperatures recordedduring the last 24 hours wasIslamabad 28C, Multan,Faisalabad, Lahore andKarachi 30C, Murree 18C,

Sporadic rain likelyMuzzafarabad 27C, Peshawer28C Skardu 20C, GilgitBaltistan 26C and Quetta 13C.The KP Met Office hereWednesday forecasted scat-tered-rain thunderstorm inPeshawar, DI Khan and

Bannu divisions during next24 hours. According to MetOffice here, a shallow troughof westerly wave is affectingBalochistan and is likely topersist during next 24-48hours.

The weather ofParachinar, Peshawar, Bannuand DI Khan will remaincloudy with chances of rainin the said period. Also, scat-tered rain-thunderstorm isexpected in Quetta.—APPQUETTA: A Pakhtunkhwa Milli Awami Party (PKMAP) candidate receiving nomination form for election-2013 at Civil Court.

Journalistclimbs to top

It is indeed an honour for the entire media community that one of itsprominent figures – Najam Sethi – has unanimously been selected tohead Government of the largest province of the country for the interim

period. The Caretaker Chief Minister has good reputation and a highlyanalytical mind and hopefully he will live up to his reputation by holdingfair elections without favour or pressure.

With assumption of power by Najam Sethi, the process of estab-lishment of the caretaker set up at the centre and in the provinces isnow complete and hopefully the new governments would devote theirfull attention to their fundamental assignment of making arrangementsfor transparent elections. Media and judiciary are considered to be fullyindependent in Pakistan and with judges and journalist in power, theirindependence, impartiality and honesty is at test and they will have towork hard to come up to expectations of the people and the parties.This is important because already some circles have started raising con-cerns as orders of the otherwise independent Election Commission arenot given any importance by the concerned Governments and a case inpoint is the issue of appointment of Deputy Governor of the State Bankwho remains firmly in his seat despite orders on the contrary by theCommission. And this is not the only case, as politically appointedpeople are there in every Ministry, department and corporations andthey continue to induct people on political considerations on contractand other basis, making mockery of the neutrality of the caretaker set-up. Some circles also point out that this is perhaps because of the factthat PPP has succeeded in placing its nominees at the Federal and Pro-vincial levels who are maintaining the status quo at the behest of theparty. As for Najam Sethi, he will have to exercise extra care as in thepast his analyses and inclination have been more towards PPP thanPML(N).

Untimely departureof Bilawal

PPP and presidential spokesmen have strongly rebutted a widely circulating report that the Chairman of the PPP and Patron-in-Chief of the

PPP Parliamentarians Bilawal Bhutto Zardari has left the country after a‘tiff’ with his father President Asif Ali Zardari over handling of some is-sues by the PPP Government and party affairs especially distribution oftickets for elections. The report by PTI claimed that on one occasion Bilawalwas so agitated that he remarked “If I had to vote, even I wouldn’t vote forthe PPP”.

There is no reason not to believe former Information Minister QamarZaman Kaira and presidential spokesman Farhatullah Babar who rejectedcontents of the reports and emphatically stated that Bilawal proceededabroad for security reasons and would be back to take charge of the elec-tion campaign. However, the timing of his departure has given birth torumour mongering as he opted to leave the country within hours of reg-istration of PPP in his name and at a time when other political parties hadkicked off their election campaigns and PPP too was expected to do so.No doubt, the party has effectively been campaigning for the last severalmonths as it held many public meetings that were addressed by partyleadership and it has already announced to launch formal campaign fromLarkana from April 4 but the fact remains that the party faces challengesin mass mobilization due to security concerns. President Zardari has con-fined himself to the four wall of the Presidency during the last five yearsand he will surely not lead the campaign after ceding of Co-Chairman-ship of the party. Bilawal is away and even if he returns the issues ofsecurity and language barrier would remain there. The onus will, there-fore, be on eloquent leaders like Raja Pervez Ashraf and Qamar ZamanKaira to build and maintain the tempo.

Renewed Indianinterest in IP

After opting out of the Iran-Pakistan gas pipeline in 2009, citing costsand security issues and in return obliged by Washington with the

signing of nuclear deal, India is showing renewed interest considering itbeneficial for New Delhi. Indian Minister for Petroleum and Natural GasM. Veerappa Moily on Sunday said that the Indian Government is intalks with Iran and the United States to discuss sanctions regarding thegas pipeline project.

Dubbed the “peace pipeline”, the seven billion dollar project hasfaced repeated delays since it was conceived in the 1990s to connectIran’s giant South Pars Gas Field to Pakistan and India due to deliber-ate Indian delays to draw maximum benefits from the United States inreturn. The US has persistently opposed the project under the pretextthat it violates sanctions imposed on Iran over nuclear activities. Paki-stan which meets almost 48 percent of energy needs from indigenousnatural gas is facing shortage of 2.8bcfd as country’s current naturalgas demand is about 7.27 bcfd, while the supply is only 4.45 bcfd. Thisdemand and supply gap is expected to further increase to around 8 bcfdby 2022 and it was left with no alternative but to go ahead with the IPproject. Realizing the designs behind Indian indecision, Pakistan andIran finally went ahead and officially inaugurated construction workon 11th of March, 2013 that is scheduled to deliver 750 million cubicfeet of gas per day (mmcfd) to Pakistan by January 2015. It is esti-mated that the pipeline project on completion will contribute about fiveper cent to Pakistan’s GDP. Pakistan suffered a lot due to Indian bar-gaining with US and now if New Delhi takes the decision to join theproject, this must be agreed after taking sovereign guarantees that itwould not back out once again.

Whatever happened to SAARC?

The first step is thehardest.

GenMusharraf

returnsGen Pervez Musharraf has

returned to Pakistan, proclaiming an intention to

“save” his country. If there is any-one capable of saving Pakistan, heis not it. When General Musharraf,who took power in a bloodless coupin 1999, was forced to resign aspresident in 2008, he was facingimpeachment. A decade in powerexposed his dictatorial tendencies;he suspended constitutional ruletwice, declared a state of emer-gency in 2007, unleashed a violentcrackdown against political oppo-nents and fired the chief justice ofthe Supreme Court and five otherjudges.

After the 2008 elections, whichput his political adversaries incharge of the government, top ci-vilian and military leaders orches-trated General Musharraf’s depar-ture. He has since lived in Londonand Dubai, planning his return. Butonly a small crowd greeted him onarrival at the Karachi airport onSunday. General Musharraf facesnumerous court challenges in Pa-kistan, including criminal chargesin the deaths of Benazir Bhutto, theformer prime minister, and aBaluch leader. He has denied thecharges, but it is essential that thecases be adjudicated. HumanRights Watch and other activists arealso pushing for him to be held ac-countable for human rights abusesduring his presidency. GeneralMusharraf’s successor, PresidentAsif Ali Zardari, Ms. Bhutto’s wid-ower, has a deeply flawed recordon corruption and governance. ButMr. Zardari and his PakistanPeoples Party did the right thingthis month when the governmentstepped down at the end of its five-year term, setting the stage for elec-tions on May 11. Pakistan facesprofound challenges, includingmilitant violence and a crippledeconomy. The last thing the coun-try needs is General Musharraf,who has shown his preference forautocracy over democracy.— The New York Times

*****

PacifyingKarzai

The past few weeks havemarked conspicuous ebb inUS-Afghan relations. With

Afghan President Hamid Karzai ac-cusing the US of collaborating withthe Taleban, it became clear that theAfghan government and its West-ern allies are not on the same pageregarding Nato’s 2014 exit strategy.Karzai’s strident rhetoric againsthis country’s biggest ally— thattoo, at a time when Chuck Hagelwas visiting Afghanistan for thefirst time as defence secretary —raised concerns about the transitionprocess. And considering howbadly Iraq has fared after the with-drawal of US forces, these concernswere fairly warranted.

According to analysts, one ofthe reasons causing a strain in US-Afghan ties was America’s contin-ued refusal to transfer control of theBagram prison to Afghan authori-ties. In the past, the detention cen-tre has been compared to the one atGuantanamo due to lack of trans-parency regarding the list of detain-ees and allegations of torture andabuse. With allegedly thousands ofAfghans incarcerated at the noto-rious prison — many held withoutcharges — American control of theplace has signified the impotenceof the Afghan government. But atthis critical phase of the transitionprocess American leaders havemade the smart decision to ingrati-ate themselves with a high-strungKarzai by letting go off Bagram.As expected, the decision has actedas an effective damper on soaringtensions between the two countriesand smoothed the way for a transi-tion. America has also agreed toKarzai’s demand to withdrawAmerican special operations forcesfrom a district of Wardak province,after claims of abuses surfaced.

And there’s another reason forthe Afghan leader’s change of tone.He had earlier voiced his resent-ment about the US and Taleban de-liberately keeping him out of theloop during peace talks, but nowKarzai, most probably with Ameri-can assistance, is expected to soonmeet the Taleban in Qatar. So, it’sno surprise that the pacified Afghanpresident is now alleging that themedia misinterpreted his inflam-matory comments!— Khaleej Times

MEDIA WATCH

— Proverb

The one fundamental preceptrelating to international groupings is that top priority is in-

variably accorded to strengtheningof the moorings and establishing ofthe infrastructure. It is only afterthese fundamentals have been suit-ably taken care of that attention isdiverted towards what may betermed as embellishments and trim-mings. The question of expansionbeyond the strict regional regime,if at all considered necessary, is rel-egated to the lowest priority. TheSouth Asian Association for Re-gional Cooperation (SAARC) hassurprisingly turned out to be the sin-gular exception.

Ever since its inception,SAARC has been engaged more insuperficial ostentation rather thantackling the basic impediments thatstand in the way of regional integra-tion of any sort. For instance, somany ancillary bodies have sproutedunder its benign shade that it is nowdifficult to discern the original or-ganism, such as it is. One reason forthis sad mix-up of priorities hasprobably been the general atmo-sphere of suspicion and distrust thathas always characterized the rela-tions between the biggest member

Plunderers are ganging up again?

HURMAT GROUP OF PUBLICATIONSZahid Malik

President & Editor-in-ChiefPh: 051-2256006

Faisal Zahid MalikEditor

Ph: 021-32631102

Gauhar Zahid MalikExecutive Editor

Ph: 051-2853818

IslamabadPh Exchange: 051-2852027

Reporting Desk: 051-2852028, News Desk: 051-5879329Marketing: 051-2262254, 2852029 Fax: 051-2262258

Email: observer@pakobserver.net Website: www.pakobserver.net

KarachiFaisal Zahid Malik

EditorPh: 021-32211777, 32635403

Fax: 021-32626902Email: obskhi@pakobserver.net

LahoreKhalid ButtResident Editor

Ph: 042-37593341, 37566702Marketing Ph: 37597364

Fax: 042-36300043Email: obslhr@pakobserver.net

QuettaGhulam TahirResident Editor

Mobile: 0333-7944760E-mail:obsqta@pakobserver.net

PeshawarTariq SaeedResident Editor

Mobile: 0321-9001476E-mail:obspwr@pakobserver.net

MuzaffarabadAbdul Hameed Shaheen

Resident EditorPh: 051-2852028, Mobile: 0315-5010791

Email: obsmzd@pakobserver.net / abdulhameedshaheen@yahoo.com

Sunday Magazine

Sadia Zahid MalikEditor

Ph: 2852027-8, Ext: 116Email: magazinesocialdiary@hotmail.com

General Musharraf (R) has finally come back to Pakistan.His army career is the best

illustration for his character: He isextremely ambitious, an adventurerwho can go to any extent - toachieve his personal goals. Thoughpeople don’t hold any good forHussein Haqani but we remembera battery of articles includingSehbai’s columns highlighting al-legations of corruption appearing inprint media and social mediaagainst which he had issued sternwarnings to foes. His infamous rolein the Kargil war where he sacri-ficed the lives of hundreds if notthousands of brave Pakistani sol-diers for his personal glory has justbeen in the media again. His pro-motion to COAS was by getting outof his way General Ali Kuli Khan.

When the government ofNawaz Sharif was planning an in-vestigation into Kargil advance, hestaged his coup on 12th October1999, after a notification for his re-placement by a blue eyed Generalof Engineers Corps was issued,while Gen Musharraf was abroad,but actions have proved that he hadplanned for this coup much before;It is a fact that he landed back inKarachi from Colombo around 8pm but waited till mid night to getUS clearance courtesy ex-US GenZinni, who perhaps got him this Okand the US Ambassador later fi-nalized do’s and don’ts before headdressed the nation in early hoursof 13th October 1999. If he wasforced to react then why he delayedhis address to the nation who weregetting unnerved for the reasons,when a section of press reportedthat Indian commandos were alsoalert on a nearby air base for inter-vention. It is a fact as well thatwhen he assumed power in 1999

people had pinned great hopein him In his 2nd address to thenation on 17th October 1999 heannounced his famous 7-pointEconomic Reforms agenda thatwere: 1. Rebuild national con-fidence and morale. 2.

Strengthen the federation, removeinter provincial disharmony and re-store national cohesion. 3. Revivethe economy and restore investorconfidence. 4. Ensure law and or-der and dispense speedy justice. 5.Depoliticize state institutions. 6.Devolution of power to the grassroots level. 7. Ensure swift andacross the board accountability.

And what he did soon after thatwas he also embarked on the samepath of economic stagflation to pro-mote “beggars thy neighbourspolicy”. In two years it becamecrystal clear that he was no differ-ent than his predecessors in power,so he also resorted to promote cor-ruption at all costs. He announcedlaunching of seven mega projectsto jump start his economic reformagenda. One was Lahore toFaisalabad Motorway project givento Hasnain Brothers on BOT byNawaz government which was firstcancelled and then given to samecompany on same rates with gov-ernment financing the project in-stead of BOT. The life of commonmen became miserable, while sy-cophants and hangers on plunderedthe country. That his reform agendawas not only tainted but full of cor-ruption and it was on this accountthat columns started appearing inpress that Corruption is going onunabated.

Then he has been promisingwith Omar Asghar Khan a ministerin his cabinet who had some linkswith officials of World Bank & IMFto create a lobby for him in the USto perpetuate himself in power andin turn he might have promised thathe would make Omar Asghar asPrime Minster. When 9 / 11 hap-pened he himself became US pup-pet by deciding to side with the USwithout even consulting anybody-

a situation from which we are un-able to come out and are sufferinguntil today. But later he distancedhimself from and abandoned OmarAsgher, who formed a party ofworkers of his own that threatenedMusharraf’s rule, was mysteriouslyfound dead in Karachi.

When General Musharraf real-ized that he needs a political con-stituency to make his rule accept-able he tried to fool people by cre-ating the Q league with full supportfrom US– a handmade democraticsetup emerged where Prime Minis-ter Jamali was under his direct eyewhile Chief Minister Punjab wasdictated by Rangers boss directly.Dissatisfied with Jamali’s perfor-mance then he brought in CityBanker Shoukat Aziz, who was al-ready found involved in banksmoney laundering case in which thebank CEO Mr. Reed was sacked.But Shokat Aziz was given thePrime Ministers prestigious chair tofurther make Pakistan a hostage ofIMF & World Bank to ruin thecountry.

The US was not satisfied be-cause Musharraf became unpopu-lar with the masses after Lal masjidepisode and the threatening of ChiefJustice Iftikhar Choudhry andBaloch leader Akbar Bugti’s mur-der in an army encounter. Dr. AbdulQadeer and his atomic programmewere humiliated to please foreignmasters.

That was when the US decidedto remove Musharraf from thescene and a joint venture with PPPwas floated that Benazir willinglyagreed to and NRO was hatched.But when Benazir thought shewould lose Punjab in elections dueto her new love with US to allowUS access to Dr. Qadeer and IEAEinspection of our nuclear installa-tions, she initiated seat adjustmentwith PML (N) that threatened theUS plan she was assassinated.

Musharraf had still hoped thatthe PPP would retain him as Presi-dent in a power-sharing arrange-ment; hat was why he allowed the

state and the smaller states ofthe region.When a regional Organiza-

tion of this genre is set up, thefirst evolutionary steps areinvariably based on the con-cept of notional equality of themember states. Bilateral fric-tions and hang-ups are gener-ally made subservient to the

overall interests of the Organizationas a whole. Advantage is then takenof the ambiance created by the com-monality of interests to minimize thepolitical differences among memberstates, if not settle them once for all.The experience of ASEAN is a casein point, where Indonesia - by far thebiggest member state - took a con-scious policy decision to maintain alow profile so as not to give the smallstates a feeling of having to deal withthe ‘big brother’.

For reasons best known to itself,the Indian establishment missed noopportunity to throw its weightaround to browbeat smallerneighbours. Because of (unfounded?)fears that the small state memberswould gang up against it, India hasmade no secret of its intention to dealwith each neighbour individually ona bilateral basis and on its own terms.The two landlocked member states –Nepal and Bhutan – have been par-ticularly singled out for some heavy-handed treatment. Sri Lanka has hadto contend with an insurgency thatcan hardly be called entirely indig-enous. Maldives barely manages tokeep its head above the water againthanks to Indian overtones. Despiteits untenable pretensions, Pakistan

too has been on the receiving end.On the economic front the Or-

ganization has made little or noheadway. Despite the hullabalooabout the importance of SAFTA,India has made little attempt toeliminate the hidden non-tariff bar-riers in its bilateral trade with mem-ber states. Even today, with all thetalk about free trade and CBMs, In-dia has made little effort to ensure alevel playing field in its economicand commercial relations with itsSAARC partners.

It was somewhat intriguing tofind that the member states shouldhave opted for an expansion of theAssociation’s membership, in a de-cision that amounted to virtually re-defining the South Asian region.How the inclusion of Afghanistan asa full member affects the alreadysomewhat precarious balance offorces within SAARC is fast becom-ing evident to the discerning ob-server.

It is a sad state of affairs that theSummit Conferences of SAARChave been characterized more withissues other than those of direct con-cern to the Association. In several ofthe past summit meetings, for in-stance, it was the bilateral meetingson the sidelines that cadged the head-lines. In fact, during one the mereinstance of a handshake overshad-owed all the deliberations of the meet-ing. In the past meeting, surprisinglyit was the agreement on expansion ofmembership that was given out as the‘success’ story of the Summit.

The past SAARC meetingsshould have been occasions for the

leaders of the member states to bendtheir energies to settle issues of vi-tal concern to the region as a whole.Nothing of this sort has happened.It is true that the Charter discour-ages references to ‘bilateral issues’.But, then, there are several issuesthat are no longer of purely bilateralconcern and which are crying out forsolutions. Among them are issues re-lating to

(1) Natural Disasters (2) Appor-tionment of Water Resources (3)Sharing of Energy Resources (3)Preservation of Environment (4)Poverty Alleviation (5) Educationfor All; and (6) Extremism and (7)Terrorism

Despite the imminent need totackle these issues, nothing tangibleappears to have been achieved. Ifanything, there are more schismsthan convergences.

If one looks back at the recordof the fruits of the past SAARC sum-mits, one finds precious little thatone can latch on to. The only note-worthy element that stands out is theextremely positive and constructivecontribution of the smaller memberstates. Nepal, Sri Lanka, Maldivesand Bhutan have more than pulledtheir weight in the Association’ssomewhat erratic march through theminefield of South Asian politics.These states have perforce to maneu-ver within very restrictive param-eters and yet they have given ampleevidence of their commitment to theprinciples and ideals of SAARC.The same cannot be said about thelarger (and more influential) mem-ber states.

emergence of PPP in the 2008 elec-tions. But he clearly underestimatedthe will for power of Benazir’s hus-band who turned out to be as ambi-tious as or even more ambitiousthan our General. On succeeding tothrone Musharraf’s fate was sealedby his manipulation and he had togo into self exile.

We still remember how he wasleaving with full military protocoland in uniform. His legacy, theNRO, has tarnished not only hispopularity but the government thatcame into power thanks toMusharraf and NRO that laid thefinal brick to complete the damagethat he had initiated. While the PPPgovernment kept alive Musharraf’sfatal foreign policy and the alliancewith the US they undid in no timewhatever economic developmenthad taken place during his rule. Somuch that after completion of 5 yeardemocratic tenure the coffers of Pa-kistan are reported empty.

Today Pakistan is in a mess: theBalochistan situation is out of hand,the Lal-masjid operation has re-sulted in multiplication of the num-ber of Pakistani Taliban and Talibanattacks. Does Musharraf still thinkhe can escape trial and justice?Probably he does. His coming isanother brazen step of this ambi-tious and adventurous General per-haps in agreement with his foes.The only outcome of his arrival –if it takes place- will be the justicethat hopefully is administered tohim and all those who have suffereddue to his mis-rule.

His facing the bars of justicewill go to prove that justice couldbe delayed but can not be deniedand that is our belief. Law of na-ture works and Wheel of naturaljustice grinds and some time grindsfast that we can see it with our na-ked eyes also. Man proposes andGod disposes. God please grant usthe serenity to accept things that wecannot change, and courage tochange things that we can and thewisdom to know the difference.God bless Pakistan.

Ali Ashraf KhanEmail:balti@super.net.pk

Khalid SaleemEmail: binwakeel@yahoo.com

Friendly FireFriendly FireFriendly FireFriendly FireFriendly Fire

Voice of the People

Was a country that came intobeing in the name of religion destined to be a theoc-

racy in the longer run? And that iswhat exactly happened with Pakistan.Pakistan is awash with religious mili-tancy and radicalism. The religiousmilitants have taken Pakistan hostage.The sectarianism is assuming mon-strous proportions and running amokwith the social peace and stability ofthe country. The founders would havenever imagined that in the state theyare striving hard to create, the reli-gious sects would slaughter in publicview their opponents and still getaway from justice.

The civil liberties in the Islamicstate of Pakistan are fast disappear-ing. The national institutions like po-lice, courts, municipalities, post of-fices, banks, schools, hospitals, wa-ter and power, transportation, taxa-tion and revenue collection are in astate of continuous decay and dys-function. All these state building de-partments are infested with unremit-

Destined to be a theocratic State?

WAPDAdefaulters

RAJA GHAZANFAR ALI

It is reported by all national dailiesof Pakistan that most of Ex Minis-ters and MNAs of dissolved govthave not paid their Electricity Billsand other Govt taxes and dues ofmillions of Rupees.Hence they arealso the defaulters the Wapda. Nowquestion is how WAPDA will re-cover these electricity arrears fromtheir sourceful defaulters.I thinkthat WAPDA, as usual get recov-ered these arrears from the bills ofthe powerless and poor consumersof WAPDA as it was adopted andremained a bad practice to re-cover all the financial losses causedby powerful and sourceful politi-cians from the poor public /peo0ples of Pakistan through Util-ity Bills of the poor.

Hence I will advise to Chair-man Wapda to avoid to re-adopt thisbad practice of recovering of finan-cial losses of the defaulters of exministers and MNAs through theelectricity bills of the poor consum-ers of WAPDA. Hope that WAPDAofficers should not commit suchtype of cruelity upon innocentpeople of Pakistan.

—Rawalpindi

Threat todemocracyM FAZAL ELAHI

Can anyone deny that democracyin Pakistan has always been a non-performing democracy? One onlywishes one could. The million dol-lar question is, who should be heldresponsible for this; the politicians,the bureaucracy or the people? Ifthis vital issue is put to vote, spon-taneous response from every seg-ment of the society would naturallybe the politicians. Undoubtedly, thepoliticians (public representatives)who are voted to power by thepeople with the expressed intent tomanage the affairs of the countrymust be held ultimately responsiblefor the failure of democracy to de-liver.

Can we, however, overlook thefact that there are other players toowho are involved in the process ofgovernance of the country, and areequally responsible for making de-mocracy perform effectively or in-effectively. The bureaucracy ofPakistan is equally responsible forthe poor or non-performance of de-mocracy in this country. By doingso, they, like the politicians of thiscountry, have brought undesirablethreat to democracy by the undemo-cratic forces. The bureaucrats ofthis country have always attributedtheir failure to govern effectivelyto the gratuitous diktats of the rul-ing politicians. Is this stance oftheirs justifiable? No, it is totallyinvalid particularly when seen inthe backdrop of the policies andrules and regulations that are thereto run the affairs of every govern-ment ministry and organization.

This amply proves that the poli-ticians and the bureaucrats of thiscountry are equally responsible formaking democracy non-performingin our part of the world. Their per-sonal gains and interests have al-ways been supreme to them and ob-viously, therefore, they have delib-erately kept the benefit and inter-est of this nation always on the backburner. In the attainment of theirpersonal goals the politicians havealways exerted undue pressure onthe bureaucracy and other state in-stitutions, and compelled them todo things that were in their benefitand interest. The bureaucracy hasnot been different either. Most ofthe time, they audaciously com-plied with the unlawful orders oftheir political bosses. They haddone so on the pretext of savingtheir jobs. Getting undue personalbenefits for themselves is yet an-other reason why they have alwaysgone out of the way to oblige theirbenefactors.

The people are also partly re-sponsible for the deep mess thiscountry is in today. They certainly

Children & corporal punishmentKALEEM UR RAHMAN

This is apropos of Imran Takkar’s letter, ‘Legislation, children and corporal punishment’ (March11). The writer has urged the government to take all appropriate legislative, administrative, social

and educational measures to eliminate corporal punishment meted out to school children. I wouldlike to draw the attention of the writer towards the ground realities of our educational institutions,particularly in rural areas where the situation is not so simple so as to implement ban on corporalpunishment. Being a teacher of a rural area of Punjab, observing students frequently involved inkeeping arms and dealing in drugs in the school premises is a painstaking and heartrending experi-ence for me. These are the students who are the least rogue, as those more influential never bother tocome to school. Despite the best efforts, I find that there is no way I can compel them to attend theirclasses. Despite advocating a ban on corporal punishment for about a year, I sometimes wonder howmuch following “Mar naheen pyar” (not caning but affection) has deteriorated moral values in oureducational institutions. Then, I ponder, why not the ban be extended to the guardian who punisheshis intransigent child when he abuses, steals and infringes laws, paving the way for more ‘old homes’in our country. Arguments abound, punishment and reward are an integral part of our religion, asIslam not only permits but also decrees reprimanding and beating the child for the purpose of correc-tion.—Sheikhupura

READERS

Email:editorial@pakobserver.net

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

—Editor

cannot be absolved of this responsi-bility. In a democratic dispensationit is the people who elect and placetheir representatives at the helm togovern the country and bringprogress and prosperity to the nation.Had the people of Pakistan exercisedtheir right to elect their representa-tives judiciously, and sent men of in-tegrity and competence to the cita-del of power, democracy in thiscountry would not have been a non-performing democracy. It wouldhave delivered well and restrainedthe undemocratic forces from dis-lodging the democratic dispensa-tions on the basis of poor or non-performance.—Islamabad

Musharraf’spositive aspects

MAHRUKH IBRAHIM

Ex-President of PakistanGen.Pervaiz Musharraf finallylanded in Karachi after more thanfour years in exile. He made in-tolerable mistakes in past becauseof which Pakistan is suffering to-day, but the bottom line is Paki-stan would not have pulled throughthese past 8 years without a dic-tator like Musharaf. We are like abunch of bratty childrens whosesincerity is a passing fancy, ouryesterday’s heroes will betomorrow’s villan. It all dependson which side of bed we woke upat that morning. I’m not sayingthat Musharraf was a “Role model”for all of us, but all I’m saying isthat the positive aspects of his lead-ership should be given their deserv-ing credits .And may be those posi-tive aspects help him to re-gainimplicit trust of public.—Abbottabad

Merit & goodgovernance

HASHIM ABRO

Good governance means governancebased upon merit and transparency.Thus, merit and transparency arewidely recognized as core principlesof good governance. Unfortunately,since decades good governance,strong laws and transparency arealien to my home province Sindh.Like the past successive rulers, lastweek gone rulers also did not makeany effort to promote good gover-nance in the province. They virtu-ally paralyzed the civil service andmade the government functionarydysfunctional in the province. Theyinitiated a system of nepotistic ap-pointments- such duds and dufferswho adopted flawed and failure poli-cies in the province. That’s why; theprovince has the highest ratio of un-educated, unemployed and underem-ployed people. It is never advisablein the personal business to employfriends and family members who arenot qualified, so why do it at theheart of our federal and provincialgovernments? This is not just unethi-cal but also socially unjust. We musthave to discourage such dirty prac-tices in our society in the future.

Indeed, the appointment of hon-orable retired judges of superiorcourts and one thorough professionaljournalist in the caretaker dispensa-tion as Prime Minister and ChiefMinister has caused much excite-ment among the public in the coun-try and in the Diaspora but it is pre-mature to say whether they willcome up to the expectations of thepeople or not because ours is a un-just, complicated, complex and cor-rupt society where men of integrityalways suffer. Aside from free, fairand transparent polls, it is going tobe a real challenge for them; muchmore is desired from the caretakersetup in its couples of months. How-ever, Honorable Mr. Justice ( Retd)Mir Hazar Khan Khoso, CaretakerPrime Minister and caretaker chiefminister, in particular, Mr. Justice (Retd) Zahid Qurban Alvi, ChiefMinister, Sindh, urgently need toentrench the norms of Good Gover-nance.

In any case, free, fair and trans-parent elections are so crucial to thefuture of the Pakistani nation, there-

No time to waver on Syria

To most Americans, Syria lookslike a mess best left to Syriansand their neighbours to sort out.

Yet the conflict that President Basharal-Assad unleashed against his peoplethreatens to produce a large, ungov-ernable space, with refugees racingfor the borders; terrorists setting upshop; chemical and biological weap-ons unguarded and available for sei-zure; and many of Syria’s 22.5 mil-lion people targeted for detention, tor-ture, forced displacement and evenmurder because of sectarian identifi-cation.

Although there are no simple so-lutions to this sizable mess, some-thing could be done, soon, to miti-gate a bloodbath and perhaps avoid aSomalia-like failed state: The UnitedStates and its partners can support themainstream Syrian opposition in es-tablishing a legitimate, functioninggovernment on liberated Syrian soil.

Syria’s descent into chaos begannearly two years ago. Millions of eco-nomically marginalized Syrians hadlong watched with sullen passivity as

a young president promised reformwhile his avaricious relatives accu-mulated wealth under the protectionof government security services.Peaceful protests broke out in 2011after teenagers writing political graf-fiti were arrested, tortured and deniedaccess to alarmed parents. WhenAssad responded by permitting po-lice to shoot protesters, he tossed alighted match on the dry tinder ofeconomic grievance. The flames werefanned by social media, headliningthe contempt the regime felt for ordi-nary Syrians.

Assad’s mainstream opponents,armed and unarmed, still try to resisttaking the regime’s sectarian bait. Yetregime tactics have given rise to aradical, jihadist presence alongsidethe mainstream armed opposition,one whose tactical proficiency andanti-Alawite sectarianism havealarmed all Syrian minorities.

By using largely Alawite forcesto terrorize largely Sunni Arab popu-lation centres, Assad knowingly runsthe risk of setting up Alawite non-combatants for reprisals. Nearly allof the Syrians killed, injured, incar-cerated and tortured because of theirsect have been Sunni Muslims. To

some Syrians, Assad has implicatedhis own sect in acts that are unspeak-able. In fact, very few Alawites haveanything to do with the regime’scriminality. Yet Assad’s intent is tomake them complicit, persuade themto fight for him and convince hiscountrymen, as he pumps mortarrounds, artillery shells and Scud mis-siles into residential neighbourhoods,that he alone stands between themand foreign terrorists intent on slaugh-tering minorities. This takes cynicismto new depths.

It is urgent that this reckless re-gime be terminated and replaced withsomething dedicated to the rule oflaw, citizenship, civil society andminority protection. Syria’s main-stream opposition, already recog-nized by the United States and othersas the legitimate representative of theSyrian people, is debating whether toset up a functioning government onSyrian soil — one that could serve asa credible, attractive and reassuringalternative to the Assad regime.

Such a government would needrecognition, financial support, tech-nical assistance and help with self-defence (well short of US “bootson the ground,” something no one

Frederic C Hof

ting maladies of corrup-tion, malfunctioning, redtape, disorder, and law-lessness. The visibleprogress that one canwitness is the number ofmosques growing; thereligious traditionalevents celebrated everyyear with renewed pas-

sion and fanfare and sectarian ven-dettas escalating.

If this nascent country was sup-posed to be rampaged and taken overby bigots and religious reactionarieswith no vision of civility and the needof a civil society, then better it wasnot created. The cut throats funda-mentalists force the people to remainstuck up in the past, follow the ritu-als and then feel free to indulge inany conceivable villainy, wickedness,lawlessness and rioting. A good citi-zen, a good human being and a goodMuslim are the benchmarks to be setin a civilized society specifically in acountry like Pakistan with an officialreligion. Perhaps in Islam and in otherreligions, all these three facets mergein varying degrees. In Pakistan, un-fortunately, we are neither of these.The religious robots are being manu-factured by the preachers, clerics andtheocrats that are mentally barrenabout the imperatives of a modernsociety and its fundamentals.

The conflict between state and re-

Views From Abroad

Indian super power syndrome

The pretext for resorting to corruption in India is culturally imbedded in Indian society as a

whole. It is even sanctioned by In-dian scriptures which render the In-dian culture susceptible to corruption.It is ironical that India, a country thatterminally suffers with corruption dis-ease, aspires to become a regional po-liceman. Indian aspersions to achievesupremacy in the region has beenelaborated by C Raja Mohan in For-eign Affairs magazine back in 2006.

According to him India’s grandstrategy divides the world into threetiers. First one deals with the influ-ence in its immediate neighborhood,second; the extended neighborhoodand the third deals with the influ-ence in global matters as a worldpower. Most disturbing however, isthe first tier that encompasses theimmediate neighborhood where In-dia seeks primacy and a veto powerover the actions of outside powers.whereas, the second and third tier ofIndia’s strategy are no more doablein the current global environment,

India is focused on Pakistan, whichit considers a big hurdle in imple-menting first tier of its grand strat-egy. Indian designs on Pakistan,therefore, clearly establish its hege-monic ambitions in South Asian re-gion.

From the very outset of the par-tition of the sub-continent, Indiamade its overtures clear to Pakistanwherein it started off with willfulblocking of the Pakistan’s share incash balances that existed in the of-ficial coffers of pre- partition Indiaand cutting off water flows from riv-ers through network of water head-works that lay under its control. Thisindicates that India had a hegemonicmind set since the time the twocountries became independent. Itswars with Pakistan and a number ofother issues like settlement of Kash-mir issue, Sir Creek, Siachen andconstruction of reservoirs on down-ward flow of rivers into Pakistanthrough Indian occupied Kashmirand often threatening statements likethe recent LoC incident and attackon CPRF camp in occupied Kash-mir, were all designed to subjugatePakistan into Indian submission.

Despite all the odds in erecting a

friendly relationship with India, Pa-kistan keeps making concessions butIndia chooses not to respond in kind.in a knee jerk reaction over a suicidalattack on CRPF camp by Kashmirifreedom fighters, Indian governmentopted to shut doors on group touristvisa facility that was agreed uponbetween the Pakistani Interior Min-ister and the Indian Home Minister.Whether it is candle light vigil atWagah border, participation of Paki-stani sportsmen in sports activities inIndia or Pakistani artists visiting In-dia for strengthening the camarade-rie, are some examples that indicatethat Pakistan is willing to walk anextra mile when it comes to estab-lishing friendly relations with India.In a rude retaliation over LoC inci-dent India sent back home Pakistanihockey players who were already inIndia to participate in Indian hockeyleague. During the women cricketworld cup in India, Pakistan’s womencricket team was made to stay withinthe premises of a cricket stadium insub-standard conditions whereas allother teams were accommodated infive star hotels.

Notwithstanding the detestableincident on the LoC or CPRF camp

fore, the caretakers need to come upwith a plan that promotes good gov-ernance in which transparency andfairness are core values. For this, theCaretaker Prime Minister has tochoose the best to join his team inorder to accomplish the mission thatmay seem impossible to the rest ofthe watching world.—Islamabad

STA claimsclean

SAEED HAI

This is with reference to a news itemregarding the Sindh Tennis Associa-tion (March 15). It is unfortunate thatthe reporter seems to have deliber-ately avoided the facts and interna-tional games rules, while also ma-ligning the STA.

For instance, regarding the prizemoney in the tournaments, the factis that the International Tennis Fed-eration does not allow prize moneyfor juniors. Only a limited amountin kind is permissible. Hundreds ofplayers enter our development series— not prize money tournaments.The STA works on long-term plan-ning of grooming them for highernational and international tourna-ments; the idea is to give maximummatch practice.

In India, they organize 200 suchtalent series tournaments withoutany prize money. In open SindhRanking championships, Pakistan’stop players always participate andget good prize money. The reportabout STA said the sponsors spent ameagre amount and got good pub-licity. The report also said that theorganisers were making big moneyout of it. This is not true. All our cir-cuit events’ budgets are pre-ap-proved by sponsors with completeitem-wise break-up.

Appreciating the transparencyby our valued sponsors, we proudlystate that it has continued for decadeswithout any break. Moreover, all ouraccounts are audited and approvedby the STA at its meetings. The STAalways welcomes NGOs to sponsortennis. We do not ask them about theamount they spend on tournamentsor coaching camps.

We are more concerned with thetechnical side and strictly followcodes and by-laws of the game. Ten-nis is among the few sports in Paki-stan that receives a large number ofsmall and big sponsors. This ishardly matched by other sports. Howcould the writer suggest the PTF totake action against the STA for tak-ing part in national games? More-over, the PTF never issued any di-rectives about participation in theLahore Games.—Karachi

Violence bringsus disrespect

SAMEER AHMAD

IA Rehman’s article ‘The fatal dis-order’ (March 14) exposes a sad re-ality encompassing our social andpolitical mindset. We should at leastbe honest with future generations intelling them about ‘where we wentwrong’.

It is pointed out by Mr Rahmanthat sectarian clashes reek from vio-lent psychology against beliefs. Ithas indeed created an imbalanceboth in the justice system and ourconstitution. The imbalance thus cre-ated has further exploited other ar-eas of social infrastructure, makingus one of the most disrespected na-tions around the world.It is better to de-learn the violent andbrutal theocratic lessons before na-ture teaches us a harder lesson.—Rawalpindi

attack in Kashmir, acts of certain in-dividuals or groups should not betaken as cue to blame Pakistan. It isvery unfortunate that many peoplein India consider Pakistanis to be ter-rorists. Regularly stereotyping Pa-kistanis on the basis of their nation-ality or religion, India has becomedeeply prejudiced and offensive inits overtures towards Pakistan. Manyin India appear to be falling in linewith the destructive ideology of ShivSena wherein they are determinedto keep Pakistanis at bay at all fo-rums, create roadblocks towards itsdevelopment, feign unrest and spon-sor terror and sectarian incidents inthe country. The deep rooted anti-Pakistan rhetoric gets fuelled upwhenever a terror incident or issuesthat crop up in India like unrest overfrequent rapes’ and discontent overmassive corruption taking place inall official quarters of Indian gov-ernment. With the Indian establish-ment and the political leadershipcontinuing to make Pakistan escapegoat for all of its ills and doing noth-ing to curb anti-Pakistan feelings inits masses, the lines of division be-tween the two countries will onlycontinue to spiral.

in the opposition wants). It is nowonder that Washington hesitates:The commitment of time and re-sources, even with partners doingmost of the heavy lifting, wouldbe considerable. And, yes, ad-vanced, stand-off weaponry mighthave to be employed to dissuadethe regime from terrorizing civil-ians under the new government’sjurisdiction. Tough decisions willbe required.

Yet absent a non-sectarian gov-ernment in Syria, one dedicated toprotecting vulnerable populationsand serving as an alternative toAssad, the likelihood of state fail-ure and sectarian chaos in Syria willcontinue to grow. As hard as thechallenges are now, they could soonbecome unmanageable. A crediblealternative to Assad is desperatelyneeded. It will not happen withoutUS encouragement and support. Thewriter was special adviser to theObama administration for the tran-sition in Syria from March to Sep-tember 2012. He is a senior fellowof the Rafik Hariri Centre for theMiddle East at the Atlantic Coun-cil.— Courtesy: The Washington Post

ligion has started after the state of Pa-kistan came into being. Prior to that,under the British rule, the sectarianbad blood and mutual annihilation,the sway of religious factions and theensuing massacres were almost non-existent. This is one of the great trag-edies of the modern times that a statethat came up in the name of religion,is now hostage to the religious lordsand fanatics who brook no mercy andno humanism. They forcibly drive thepeople to adopt a way of life that isout of sync with the imperatives of amodern civil society. The Islam thatthey project, profess and force downthe throats is not the real Islam. It is adistortion and deformed version ofIslam depending upon the sect onebelongs to. In Pakistan the religiousfundamentalist are serving Islam ingetting it a bad name. A liberal andprogressive Islam could be the an-swer to integrate the tradition with themodern. But the emphasis of the re-ligious clergy is on a kind regimentedtheocracy that did not exist even inMadina during the time of first fourcaliphs.

Now an orgy of bloodletting issweeping across the whole country.The barbarous religious militantsequipped and armed with all kinds ofdeadly weapons have managed tostrike terror in the hearts of the citi-zens with loathsome and bestial acts.They kill at will; kidnap for ransom,

slaughter kidnapped captives if theransom is not paid or if they belongto a different sect. They targetmosques, shrines and funeral pro-cessions, destroy schools, publiclyflog outgoing women and beheadthe religious rivals. The Islamic radi-cals pick up the youth from the reli-gious seminaries and train them intosuicide bombers. They do not feelany qualms of moral or religiousconscience in marrying underagegirls with old bearded Jihadists andmilitants. This is how they spreadthe Islam: by intimidation, by fearand hair-raising punishments and bybombing and brutal vendettas. Thecult of Taliban and within Pakistanthe Jihadist groups profess and fol-low another kind Islam that looksmore barbarians and savage thanwhat the Prophet of Islam (PBUH)preached and passed on to human-ity under the divine command.

The indispensable need of thepresent times is to cast away con-servatism and embrace also whatwas beneficial for the Muslims ashuman beings and citizens of a mod-ern state. We in Pakistan need anenlightened and forward lookingIslam, not the one that looks like anisland of ignorance and primitive-ness catapulting brutal sectarianfeuds, bigotry and ruthless cults likeTaliban. —The writer is a seniorjournalist and a former diplomat

Last year, one night I heard thesound of the waves. It was notthat the waves were lashing

the rocks and creating a definiteroar, it was not that the waters wereswirling alive down below, it wasjust that my mind, my ears and bodystrained from where I sat to catchthe sounds that were not particularlypushing to be heard. As my earspushed to hear those sounds, myeyes looked into the night trying to

see the stars but couldn’t at firstglance, nor even the second butslowly with intense concentration, thefirst sparkle lit the sky, then the sec-ond and suddenly the whole sky waslit with twinkling lights and I felt apeace.

“You’re smiling!” he said.“What?” I asked, still straining myears to listen to the now fading soundof those retreating waves, and squint-ing to catch a glimpse of disappear-ing stars. “You’re frowning!” he said.“Yes, I just lost the sound of thewaves and can’t see the stars anymore!” “Stars and waves? I thoughtyou were listening to me?” he asked.“Yes,” I said wearily, “I was at first,then got distracted by the sounds and

the sights around!” “But I can hardlyhear the waves,” he said, “And whereare the stars?” “If you listen carefully!If you squint up!” I whispered. “Butyou are not supposed to do that whenI am speaking!” he cried pained.

“I guess so,” I said, “But thenmy eyes and my ears are quite loyalyou know!” “Loyal to whom?” “Tomy mouth,” I said easily, “They geta little offended when their fellowmate isn’t heard for awhile!” “Andyour mouth wanted to say some-thing!” My ears flapped, yes, andmy eyes blinked inacknowledgement. “So what did youwant to say?” “Oh many things!”“Why didn’t you say them?” “Youwere speaking!” I said. “But you

The waves and stars..!should have interrupted me!” “Didonce,” I said, “Did twice, but I sawyour irritation, so I stopped!”

“And concentrated on thewaves and the stars?” “I told you,”I said, “My ears and eyes, they beloyal to me, and when they don’thear their friend the mouth open-ing, and my voice adding to the con-versation once in a while, theyswitch off!” “I’m sorry,” he said,“If you’ve finished your meal let’sgo!” I knew he hadn’t trained him-self to take criticism, especiallyabout listening to others in a con-versation, “No!” I said, “I’ll stay!The waves and stars need me to lis-ten and wink back at them..!”—Email:bobsbanter@gmail.com

Urooj Raza

Saeed QureshiEmail: qureshisa2003@yahoo.com

Column from DallasColumn from DallasColumn from DallasColumn from DallasColumn from Dallas

COURT NOTICE

In the Court of Mr. RanaMuhammad Yousaf Shahib,Judge Banking Court No-I

Gujranwala OLD P.W.DRest House OPP. Commis-sioner Officer, Gujranwala.

Suit No.129-1/2013HBL Gojra —PlaintiffVersusMr. Shehzad Mehmood —De-fendantSummons U/S 9 (5) of the Fi-nancial Institutions (Recoveryof Finances) Ordinance; 2001(Ordinance No.XLVI of 2001)Summons to: (1)Mr. ShehzadMehmood S/O MuhammadHussain Caste Jatt Gondal R/O Bukkan Tehsil MalakwalDistt, Mandi Bahauddin Pres-ently R/O Mohallah GodalTown Mandi Bahauddin (2)Muhammad Iqbal S/OMuhammad Hussain Caste JattGondal R/O Bakkan TehsilMalakwal Distt, MandiBahauddin.WHEREAS the aforesaidplaintiff has instituted a suitagainst you and other for therecovery of Rs=176231 alongwith mark up/interest and costetc, claimed to be payable byyou. A Summons u/s 9(5) Or-dinance XIVI of 2001 referredto above is hereby issued re-quiring you to make within 30days of the service of the Sum-mon, an application for leaveto defend the suit in the formof written statement U/S 10 ofthe said ordinance.

Take notice that on yourfailure to file such applicationwithin time specified above,the Banking Court shall pass adecree as prayed for in theplaint, in the favour of theplaintiff Banking Company.Next date for further proceed-ings, in the case has been fixedon 14.06.2013.

Given under my hand andthe seal of the court, this21.03.2013Seal of the Court

Banking Court IGujranwala

COURT NOTICE

In the Court of Syed ImamAli Shah, Judge BankingCourt No-II Gujranwala

Suit No.123/2013UBL Branch G.T. Road,Gujranwala —PlaintiffVersusShahid Younas —DefendantSummons U/S 9 (5) of the Fi-nancial Institutions (Recov-ery of Finances) Ordinance;2001 (Ordinance No.XLVI of2001)Summons to: Shahid Younis S/O Younis Masih R/O H NO-098, Mohallah KatchaFatamand, Near Church,Gujranwala.WHEREAS the aforesaidplaintiff has instituted a suitagainst you and other for therecovery of Rs=46,292/80-along with mark up/interest andcost etc, claimed to be payableby you A Summons u/s 9(5)Ordinance XIVI of 2001 re-ferred to above is hereby issuedrequiring you to make within30 days of the service of theSummon, an application forleave to defend the suit in theform of written statement U/S10 of the said ordinance.Take notice that on your fail-ure to file such applicationwithin time specified above,the Banking Court shall pass adecree as prayed for in theplaint, in the favour of theplaintiff Banking Company.Next date for further proceed-ings, in the case has been fixedon 09.05.2013.

Given under my hand andthe seal of the court, this21.03.2013Seal of the Court

Banking Court IIGujranwala

COURT NOTICE

In the Court of Sayed AdnanMehdi Civil Judge MandiBahauddin.

Fiaz Ahmad Vs HajiMohammad-ul-lah etcSuit for Permanent Injunction.Memo.

Haji Mohammad-ul-lahSon of unknown Caste Pathan,Mohammad Akram jamadarBhata Haji Mohammad-ul-lahR/o Nogazi Market Fateh Jangroad Islamabad.

Whereas the services ofabove mentioned respondentsis not possible through ordinarymeans, therefore, he is directedto attend this court personallyor through his council on 4-4-13. Otherwise the ex party pro-ceedings shall be taken againsthim.

Given under my hand andseal of the Court.

Sd/-Civil Judge Mandi

Bahauddin

Sethi takes oath ascaretaker CM Punjab

From Page 1

terms of economy and defence,he said. Musharraf categoricallyrefuted ideas that he had returnedto the country with the supportand assurances of his friends inUS and Saudi Arabia. However,he said that he had friends every-where in the world and was notaware if any had done anythingin his favour. Any things that de-picted any hidden or open dealwas fake, he said.

He said that he had alwaysplaced the interest of the countryon top of everything and he hadreturned to the country with am-bitions to make the country stron-ger and prosperous.

He also categorically deniedto have been involved in the mur-der of Nawab Akbar Bugti andsaid that Bugti was killed insidethe cave along with one Colonel,one Major and two Captains ofthe Army, which was an undeni-able proof that the Bugti had at-

Musharraf pledgesto break status quo

From Page 1tacked the Army officers insidethe cave with the explosives andhad also died as the cave had col-lapsed.

He said that those that hadhanded over Dr Afia to the USwere traitors and that he was un-aware of her arrest.

Musharraf said that the inci-dent of Lal Masjid was the resultof action taken by the state as theterrorists inside the Masjid hadchallenged the writ of the gov-ernment. He said that the terror-ists had shot five cops from theminaret of the Masjid and a Colo-nel was martyred while he wasbusy in rescuing children andwomen from the Masjid. Those94 killed inside the Masjid wereterrorists, he claimed.

The former President saidthat it was the government thatwas responsible for providingsecurity to the slain PPP leaderBenazir Bhutto and the role of the

President was completely out ofthe picture. He said that he hadfriendly relations with theMuttahida Qaumi Movement andwould contest elections also froma seat in Karachi’s area DHA.However, it was too early to as-sert whether the MQM wouldsupport him or not.

He said that he was proud ofthe Kargil War as it was for thefirst time that the Pakistani troopshad completely paralysed the In-dia Army and had captured fivekey positions while the IndianArmy was fast asleep. However,the Kargil War was turned into apolitical defeat, he claimed.

He said that those that hadleft the APML was a routinematter as the politicians keepchanging parties for their inter-ests and unfortunately it hap-pened in the party because he wasnot in the country and was oper-ating through a remote control.

will also be made in the follow-ing eight constituencies of Pro-vincial Assembly: PS-89‚ PS-112‚ PS-113‚ PS-114‚ PS-115‚PS-116‚ PS-118 and PS-124.

In the meantime‚ ECP hasalso given the details of re-de-scription of 129 constituencieson administrative basis allacross the country. As per thenotification issued on 8th of thismonth‚ both constituencies ofIslamabad are also included inre-description.—NNI

are still pending.In Balochistan, 59 cases

were concluded while 48 arestill remaining.

In Khyber Pakhtunkhwa,125 cases of missing personswere concluded and 279 are stillpending.

The commission said itheard 135 cases in Punjab and148 still pending while inIslamabad, 16 cases were com-pleted and 20 are pending.

The report also stated that inFATA, 12 cases of the missingpersons were concluded while26 are yet to be heard.

In Azad Jammu and Kash-mir, 9 cases were completed and11 are pending. —NNI

power.The 60-year-old Khan is

shaping up to be the biggestwildcard in the May 11 election– the first transition betweendemocratically elected govern-ments in a country that has a his-tory of military coups.

Much of Khan’s support hascome from young, middle classPakistanis in the country’s ma-jor cities, a potentially influen-tial group. Almost half ofPakistan’s more than 80 millionregistered voters are under theage of 35, but the key question iswhether Khan can get his youngsupporters to show up at the poll-ing booth on election day.

CommissionFrom Page 1

NotificationFrom Page 1

The spokesman also re-jected a news item that ECP isrefusing to give copies of nomi-nation forms to people.

He said sufficient numbers ofnomination forms were sent to allreturning officers appointed forconducting elections. He saidthere is no administrative legalbar to obtain nomination formfrom concerned Returning Offic-ers.—Online

NominationFrom Page 1

Imran to contestFrom Page 1

there was no possibility ofany socio-economic develop-ment in the absence of strongand viable national institu-tions.

He said, all of us shouldquestion ourselves as to whatwas the reason of our social de-cay even when there are so manysuccess stories at individuallevel. Perhaps the answer wasthat people of Pakistan, by andlarge, had not learned to fix na-tional targets. They seem to be-lieve in achieving only indi-vidual goals.

The executive secretary ofNPC, Kanwar Dilshad said, therewas need for the nation to seekguidance and inspiration fromthe role model personality ofQuaid-i-Azam Mohammad AliJinnah. He said, Quaid’smotto, Unity, Faith and Disci-pline should be the guidingstar for the people of Pakistan.

Recipients of NPC GoldMedals belonged to various seg-ments of society. They wereawarded these medals in the cat-egories named after Quaid-i-Azam, Allama Iqbal, Sir SyedAhmed Khan, Dr. A. Q. Khan,Allam Shabbir Ahmed Usmani

and Shaheen. Following were therecipients:

Qari Najam Mustafa, AllamaShabbir Ahmed Usmani GoldMedal for his achievements in thefield of recitation of the HolyQuran.

Anwar Maqsood, Quaid-i-Azam Gold Medal, in recogni-tion of his contribution to artand literature.

Lozina Shoaib, Quaid-i-Azam Gold Medal who hasearned a name in the field of soft-ware engineering even thoughshe is on wheel chair being a spe-cial person.

Dr Mohammad IftikharKhokhar, Allama Iqbal GoldMedal for writing useful booksfor children

Sardar Amjad Pirzada,Allam Iqbal Gold Medal for be-ing first Pakistani journalist de-prived of eyesight.

Abdul Wahid Meer, Sir SyedGold Medal for his services in thefield of education.Aqeela Asif, Sir Syed GoldMedal for her writings on Paki-stan movement.

Asghar Abid, Allama IqbalGold Medal for his contributionto literature.

Mohammad Mohsin Ali,Sir Syed Gold Medal for hishigh achievements as a stu-dent even in trying circum-stances.

Mohammad Naveed Asif,Sir Syed Gold Medal for his aca-demic achievements amid pov-erty.

Babar Iqbal, Dr A Q KhanGold Medal for his recordachievements in the field of In-formation Technology.

Zeeshan Abbasi receivedShaheen Gold Medal. He wascaptain of Pakistan BlindsCricket Team.

Moosa Feroz, Dr A Q KhanGold Medal for his achievementsin the field of mathematics at atender age of 13 years.

Syed Ali Hameed, ShaheenGold Medal for his achievementsat the Commonwealth Youth Par-liament.

Asia Arif received ShaheenGold Medal for learning ArabicLanguage as a child and becom-ing a university student at the ageof 7 years.

Mohammad Akram,Shaheed Gold Medal for makingrecord in T-20 tournament of theblind.

Mohammad Asif receivedShaheed Gold Medal who be-came snooker world champion.

Dr A Q Khan urges youthFrom Page 1

that Pakistanis have the potentialto develop the country at a fastspeed.

Mr Malik criticized thosewho try to paint bleak picture ofthe country and ignore its greatpotential. He was confident thatdark days are coming to an endand the country is at the verge ofa bright dawn. He believed thata shining face of Pakistan willsoon dispel negative world viewof Pakistan.

He urged the youth to workfor Pakistan and they should re-alize difference between the stateand the government. He said, onehas the right to criticize the gov-ernment but there is no reason tobring the state in question.

He said, NPC has been try-ing to promote awareness amongthe people about objectives ofPakistan movement and their re-sponsibilities towards the nation.

Pak set to enterFrom Page 1

LAHORE: Ex-leader of PML-Q Zubaida Jalal in a group photo with ex-chief minister Punjab Shahbaz Sharif afterjoining PML-N.

ing the tenure of the caretakergovernment. He said that hewould not allow any bureaucratin Punjab to meddle with theelection process or create hurdlesin holding free and fair elections.“This is my message to the ad-ministration and bureaucrats inPunjab: let us hold free and fairelections. And if we get to know,through the media or othermeans, that some bureaucrat isinvolved in illegal actions, he willhave to deal with me,” said Sethi.

“Elections can’t be held amidterrorism. We will do everythingwe can and tackle it with brav-ery. We will also not tolerate sec-tarianism and violence againstminorities at any cost,” he said,adding that he would talk to po-lice officials and the Lahore HighCourt chief justice with regardsto security.

When asked about the pro-tocol he will receive as interimCM, Sethi said that he would optfor minimal security and minimaldisturbance to civil life. Sethisaid that people consider journal-ists to be “mere critics” who donot know how things are actuallyrun in the government. “Now, we[journalists] are inside and wewill show you what we can doadding he said Journalists will bemy eyes and ears and keep meinformed of problems in theprovince. He also asked the

people to send in constructivecriticism to his setup so that theymeet their standards.

“There is no political agendaof this interim administration.The caretaker government’s jobis to ensure support for free andfair elections,” said Sethi. “Wehave only one agenda: to holdfree and fair elections in the coun-try on the orders of the SupremeCourt and the election commis-sion,” he said.

He said no concessions to bemade for those who break lawand order while corruption wouldnot be tolerated at any cost.

Emphasizing that he was notwilling to give any favours, Sethisaid that he was “nobody’s friendor relative” as long as he wascaretaker CM.

Answering a question by thereporter, he said he was lookingforward to appointing a cabinetof roughly not more than “twoor three” members in size, thoughhe had been recommended tokeep eight to ten people in thecabinet. “We’ve confidence inthe person of Najam Sethi andhope that he’ll show impartialityas caretaker chief minister like hehas been doing impartial (politi-cal) analyses,” former law min-ister Rana Sanaullah of the PML-N had told the media outside thePunjab Assembly Tuesdayevening after the provincial gov-

ernment and their allies agreedon Sethi name as the caretakerchief minister.

The decision of his appoint-ment was made after hectic de-liberations of the provincial par-liamentary committee consistingof members from PakistanPeople’s Party and Pakistan Mus-lim League-Nawaz (PML-N).

The committee announcedhis name yesterday for the topslot of the province. The two par-ties took three days to agree uponnomination of Najam Sethi.

Mr Sethi is an experiencedcaretaker. From among all thenames that have been discussedfor inclusion in the interim gov-ernments tasked basically withthe May 11 elections, Mr Sethiis the only one with a previouscaretaker term to his credit. Hewas a federal minister in the care-taker set-up under Malik MerajKhalid following the dismissal ofthe Benazir Bhutto governmentin 1996.

During his student life, MrSethi had fought along with theBaloch against army operation in1974. Later, he shifted to Lahoreand set up a books publishingbusiness on The Mall, beforebringing out a weekly, The Fri-day Times. He had been pickedup by security agencies duringthe previous regime of NawazSharif in the late 1990s.

Party, Pakhtoonkhwa MilliAwami Party, Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam (F), Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam(N), Pakistan Peoples Party, Pa-kistan Muslim League-Nawaz,Pakistan Tehrik-i-Insaf, Jamaat-i- Islami, Awami National Partyand Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid, the press release added.

ECP to workFrom Page 1

dress the feelings of political andeconomic alienation of thepeople of the province.

He said that BalochistanPackage was implemented to alarge extent during his watch thatwas perhaps instrumental of win-ning the hearts and the minds ofthe people to a degree whichmight have convinced the BNPleadership to join the mainstreampolitics of the country within theframework of the constitution.

The former Prime Ministersaid that the National FinanceAward was a landmark achieve-ment in the context ofBalochistan province because itsubstantially increased the finan-cial resources of the province foraccelerating the pace of eco-nomic development of the prov-ince to bring it at par with theother provinces at the earliest.The Accord was signed atGowader manifesting the impor-tance the government attached toBalochistan, he added

Syed yusuf Raza Gilani saidthat the handing over ofGowader Port to China and theinauguration of the Iran-Paki-stan Gas Pipeline Project werevery important decisions of the

PPP led democratic government,and the Gas Pipeline Projectwould help in overcoming theenergy shortage in the countryby the end of next year, so badlyneeded to realize the full poten-tial of the national economy.He further said that fulloperationalization of GowaderPort would create tens of thou-sands jobs for the Baloch youththe accumulative effect of whichwould be staggering as it wouldsubstantially improve the qual-ity of life of the people of theprovince besides emerging asthe energy corridor of the worlddue to its strategic location.

He said that the PPP govern-ment took such strategic deci-sions despite the internationalpressure. It was the manifesta-tion of Pakistan‘s independentforeign policy in the real senseof the world., he said

By judging the qualitativeperformance of the democraticgovernment during the past fiveyears, he expressed his confi-dence that the people of Paki-stan would cast their votes in

favour of the truly federal partybecause they believed that it re-mained steadfastly committed totheir wellbeing even under ex-treme odds like Zia-ul-Haq’sdictatorship. The track record ofthe democratic government willearn the support of the people atthe end of the day, he concluded.

Gilani welcomes BNP’s decisionFrom Page 1

Maulana Fazlur Rehman 25,227and Jamshed Dasti of Rs 13,152.

The Election Commissionhas forwarded the list to return-ing officers to launch inquiryagainst the MNAs. —NNI

ECP receives 284defaulter MNAs

From Page 1

district Rajanpur, when a speed-ing passenger bus on its wayfrom Dera Ghazi Khan to KotMittahan trying to avoid a head-on clash with a tractor trolleyturned upside down, which re-sulted in the death of 12 personsincluding women and children,while several persons out of over40 on board were wounded.

The bodies and the injuredhave been shifted to the JampurTehsil Headquarter Hospital,where some of the injured are re-ported to be in critical condition.

12 die as busFrom Page 1

The bench was apprised thatthe condition of holding a degreehad also been quashed this time,whose notice should be taken of.

Azhar Siddique, one of thelawyers representing DrMusbashir Hassan, apprised thecourt that the ECP was givingfalse information about the veri-fication of degrees as revealed bythe Higher Education Commis-sion (HEC). The Chief Justiceasked him to identify the personsabout whom the ECP had pro-vided wrong information so thecourt could summon them.

He remarked that that howcould the ECP handle electionsand the court proceedings sideby side. Either it should conductelections or attend court pro-ceedings, he added. AJ Doger,another counsel for the peti-tioner, contended that the Su-preme Court, in its July 31 or-der, had declared November 3steps taken by former PresidentGen (retd) Pervez Musharraf asnull and void.

Pervez Musharraf, who hadviolated the Constitution, is nowpreparing to contest elections, headded. On this, the CJP said thatthe objection should be raisedfrom where Musharraf wouldsubmit nomination papers.

Later, the court adjournedthe hearing for one week.

Dr Mubashir Hassan, in hispetition, has alleged that Rs 50billion are being used to rig theelections.—APP

ECP knowsFrom Page 1

US general warnsof al-Qaeda threat

in TunisiaTUNIS—The chief of the U.S.Africa Command has warnedabout al-Qaida attempts to gaina foot-hold in Tunisia.

Gen. Carter Ham told Tuni-sian radio late Tuesday that “itis very clear to me that al-Qaidaintends to establish a presencein Tunisia.”

The North African nation of10 million was the birthplace ofthe 2011 pro-democracy ArabSpring uprisings and has sinceseen a rise in radical Islamicmovements.

Ham said that followingtalks with the government,which is led by moderate Islam-ists, he is convinced it is “com-mitted to doing everything it canto pre-vent al-Qaida from estab-lishing a presence.”

Ham, who took over AfricaCommand in March 2011 and isstepping down, was on a re-gional tour that included visitsto southern Algeria andLibya.—AP

IT ministryassures AGe-voting forexpatriats

ISLAMABAD—Pakistan Attor-ney General Irfan Qadir onWednesday met the officials ofthe Ministry of InformationTechnology to discuss the issueof extending the facility of elec-tronic voting to Pakistanis liv-ing abroad.

Pakistan’s general electionsare scheduled to be held on May11 and the country’s SupremeCourt has directed the authori-ties to take immediate steps forthe voting facility to overseasnationals.

“The attorney general metthe ministry’s officials and theyhave assured the provision ofvoting facility to overseas Paki-stanis to the AG,” a private newstelevision reported.

The report quoting thesources said the officials hadassured the AG that the e-vot-ing system would be establishedwithin one month. —NNI

Labour’s David Miliband, oncetipped to lead Britain, exits politics

LONDON—Former British for-eign secretary David Miliband,once tipped as a potential primeminister, said on Wednesday hewas leaving politics to boost hisbrother’s chances of leading theopposition Labour party to vic-tory in an election in 2015.

His departure ends specula-tion he might replace brother EdMiliband as Labour leader be-tween now and 2015 if his sib-ling falters. But the move wasalso seen as a sign he did notthink it likely that Ed would win.

David Miliband, 47, had al-ready retreated from frontlinepolitics after narrowly losing aLabour leadership election in2010 which pitted him againstEd, 43.

The battle between the broth-ers gripped the British politicalworld. David was viewed as themore gifted politician and mostLabour MPs backed him, but thetrade union movement, the bed-rock of Labour support, tippedthe vote in favour of Ed.Miliband said he was stepping

down as a Labour MP to take upa job in New York as head of theInternational Rescue Committee,a global humanitarian aidorganisation. The brothers’ par-ents were Polish Jewish refugeeswho fled the Holocaust.

Although Labour is 10 pointsahead of the ruling Conservativeparty in polls, many MPs thinkthe lead should be much greaterat this stage in the election cyclegiven the grim state of theeconomy.

They are concerned the partyis still not trusted on the economyby voters. Some Labour support-ers also think Ed Miliband hasbeen slow to prove his credibil-ity and polls show many voterscannot imagine him as primeminister.

David Miliband said onWednesday his decision to leaveBritish politics altogether wouldboost Labour’s chances of win-ning the next election by endingspeculation he was waiting in thewings to stage a comeback if hisbrother was ousted. “I know that

the country faces very big chal-lenges,” he told BBC TV. “I wantLabour to be able to address thoseissues in an uninhibited way andI think that with my departurethat can now happen.” He said hefeared being a distraction to themain task “It’s unusual to havetwo brothers in a Cabinet or ashadow Cabinet. It’s very, veryunusual, I think unique, to havetwo brothers fighting a leadershipelection. I don’t want to be a bit-part player in a soap opera.”

Allies and detractors saidthey thought his decision to relo-cate to the United States was asign he believed his brotherwould not win the next electionand therefore be able to give hima high-profile job in any newgovernment.

“It does show a lack of con-fidence about Labour winningthe next election,” Peter Bone, anMP in the ruling Conservativeparty, told Reuters. “If he thoughtLabour had a good chance ofwinning he would have stayed.—Reuters

BosnianSerbs guilty of Bosnia

war persecutionTHE HAGUE—The Yugoslavwar crimes tribunal on Wednes-day convicted two seniorBosnian Serbs of playing impor-tant roles in a campaign of mur-der, torture and persecution tar-geting Muslims and Croats dur-ing the 1992-95 Bosnian warand sentenced them each to 22years’ imprisonment.

Mico Stanisic was interiorminister in the breakawayBosnian Serb republic set upduring his country’s bitter war,while Stojan Zupljanin was asenior security official in chargeof police.

Presiding Judge Burton Hallsaid both men were in a posi-tion to prevent or punish crimesand did neither as Serb policeand paramilitaries went on arampage of killing and mistreat-ment of non-Serbs early in 1992as they tried to carve out a“Greater Serbia” during thebloody disintegration of Yugo-slavia.

He said the men “both in-tended and significantly contrib-uted to the plan to removeBosnian Muslims and BosnianCroats from the territory of theplanned Serbian state.”

Zupljanin was convicted ofextermination in part because heset up a notorious police unitwhich the court ruled “commit-ted heinous crimes against Mus-lims and Croats, including rape,torture and murder” and that hedeliberately shielded police un-der his command from prosecu-tion in at least two massacres ofMuslims. Only six trials remainto be completed.—AP

BIPIN DANI

OBSERVER

CORRESPONDENT

MUMBAI—Sadly it has notbeen the practice adoptedby the Indian cricket boardto invite the former greatplayers on dias at the post-match presentation. In-stead, the dias is full of dig-nitaries of host associa-tions and sposnors. De-spite the BCCI’s standinginstructions to all host as-sociations to keep the num-ber of dignitaries as mini-mum as possible, the DelhiTest match saw RajeevShukla, S.K.Bansal andC.K.Khanna on dias at thepost-match presentation.

Apparently, no formergreats were invited at anyother match centres exceptin Delhi, where the Man ofthe Series was to be an-

BCCI ‘obliges’ so-called dignitariesat post-match presentation

nounced and Sunil Gavaskarand Allan Border’s presencewere significant because theseries between the two na-tions has been named afterthem.

This is in contrast toCricket Australia (CA), whichhas a policy to make admin-istrator available, only in caseof necessity, according toPeter Young, the StrategicCommunications Advisor.

Informing fromMelbourne, he said, “everycountry is different and pub-lic expectations vary fromplace to place. We find in ourown country that fans wantto see current athletes, so wetend to not have administra-tors unless absolutely nec-essary”.

“Maybe one administra-tor on behalf of all cricket,with the speaking roles fo-cussed on the current ath-

letes (answering questions)and a high profile telecaster(asking questions) in a pre-sentation that is as tightand as short as possible”,he added.

Terming Border andGavaskar’s presenece, headded, “I don’t know but Iwould guess the BCCIwould decide who appears,just as we decide here inAust who appears. AllanBorder’s presence is en-tirely appropriate – a legendof the game and one of thetwo names on the Border-Gavaskar trophy.

Australia’s few formerplayers were present duringthe series and would’nthave been it wise to makethem available on dias ? Itis time for the Indian cricketboard to think on this lineof hospitality and showpatronage.

CHITRAL: Players trying to defeat rival team in Tug of War match during 3-day Jashn-e-Baharan (spring seasonfestival) at Kar Village where different colourful programmes are playing.

PARIS: Spain’s Pedro scored the only goal of the game, securing Spain’s one point lead over France in Group I.

PARIS—World championsSpain retook control of 2014World Cup qualifying GroupI with a 1-0 win over France,Pedro Rodriguez scoring theonly goal of the game in thesecond half at the Stade deFrance.

Pedro’s scrambled effortjust before the hour mark wasSpain’s reward for dominat-ing possession and assuredplay despite coming into thegame trailing France by twopoints at the top of the group.

The home team was al-ways a threat going forwardbut could not find a way pastVictor Valdes in the Spaingoal and finished the gamewith 10 men after youngmidfielder Paul Pogba wassent off late on.

With just three matchesleft to play, Spain now leadFrance by a point, with onlyone team qualifying auto-matically for the finals in Bra-zil.

Del Bosque welcomedXavi Hernandez back into theSpain starting line-up afterinjury, while Xabi Alonso,Pedro and left-back NachoMonreal also came in as four

Spain go top of group Iafter beating France

changes were made fromFriday’s surprise 1-1 drawwith Finland.

Meanwhile, Deschampskept faith with youngstersRaphael Varane and Pogbaafter both impressed on theirdebuts in last Friday’s winagainst Georgia as the hostsmatched Spain’s 4-3-3 forma-tion.

Spain, playing all in red,should have taken the leadfrom their first attack,Monreal cutting the ballback for Xavi to blaze overfrom a glorious position in-side the penalty box fiveminutes in.

Karim Benzema had beencriticised for his recent poorform at international level, buthe was not afraid to try hisluck at the other end with afirst-time attempt fromChristophe Jallet’s cutback asFrance pressed.

Despite that opening,Spain soon settled into theirrhythm, controlling posses-sion and removing the stingfrom the game.

Chances followed, withXavi firing rather tamely wideafter being picked out by

Alonso, before a Pedro shotwas easily held by HugoLloris.

Then came a moment ofreal controversy on the half-hour mark when Pedro wentto ground under a challengefrom Lloris as both playerswent for a through ball.

Hungarian referee ViktorKassai waved away the vo-ciferous Spanish appeals fora spot-kick as television re-plays suggested theBarcelona player was al-ready going to ground beforecontact was made.

The visitors’ anger wouldhave been even greater hadthey fallen behind seven min-utes before the interval.

Mathieu Valbuenafound Franck Ribery, whosefirst touch, with his head,took him clean through ongoal, but Valdes won hisduel with the BayernMunich winger.

The game remained levelat the interval but Spain’sshare of possession in thefirst-half was upwards of 75percent, and the world cham-pions did not have to waittoo much longer to break

through.In the 58th minute,

Monreal cut in from the leftflank and drilled the ballacross goal, with Pedro react-ing quickest to divert itgoalwards.

A desperate Lloris got atouch but just couldn’t stopthe ball crossing the line andthe little winger from Teneriferaced away to celebrate withthe travelling fans.

France were now chasingthe game but Pedro cameclose to scoring again fromsubstitute Jesus Navas’ cen-tre soon after.

The home side, whocame from behind to draw 1-1 in the reverse fixture inMadrid in October, remaineda threat on the break andBlaise Matuidi forced a saveout of Valdes after beingpicked out by Ribery.

But their hopes of find-ing a way back into thismatch bit the dust whenPogba was dismissed with 12minutes remaining. Havingbeen booked just momentsbefore, he was cautionedagain for a studs-up tackle onXavi.—AFP

Egypt snatchWorld Cup winover Zimbabwe

JOHANNESBURG—MohamedAbou Trika converted a pen-alty to earn Egypt a dramatic2-1 home victory over Zimba-bwe Tuesday in a 2014 WorldCup qualifier. The veteranmidfielder netted two minutesfrom time in the Mediterraneancity Alexandria after HosnyAbd Rabou had put Egyptahead midway through thesecond half and KnowledgeMusona equalised.

Abd Rabou scored from afree-kick and Musona off along-range shot beforeMohamed Salah was trippedand United Arab Emirates-based Abou Trika calmly slot-ted the ball past WashingtonArubi. Authorities allowed10,000 spectators to watch thegame in the 90,000-seat Borg ElArab stadium after recentgames involving the nationalteam were staged behindclosed doors because of post-Arab Spring security concerns.

Riots following a nationalleague game in Port Said 13months ago led to 74 support-ers of Cairo club Al-Ahly be-ing killed, and a subsequentban on domestic football waslifted only this year.

Success maintained theperfect record of the Pharaohsin Group G with nine pointsfrom three matches after defeat-ing Mozambique at home andGuinea away last June.

Zimbabwe, who were play-ing their first competitivematch under German coachKlaus-Dieter Pagels, were de-feated at home by Guinea anddrew away to Mozambique inthe opening rounds.—AFP

MIAMI—Two-time defend-ing champion NovakDjokovic crashed out in thefourth round of the MiamiMasters Tuesday while lastyear’s runner-up AndyMurray eased through to thequarter-finals in straight sets.

World number oneDjokovic was stunned 6-2, 6-4 by German 15th seedTommy Haas but US Openwinner Murray had no suchdifficulties, breezing pastItaly’s Andreas Seppi by thesame score in the $8.5 millionATP and WTA hardcourtevent.

The Serb lost for just thesecond time this season,never getting to grips withHaas, who kept Djokovic offhis game with a number of

Haas shocks Djokovic,Murray in quarters

skillful shots.Haas, who turns 35 next

week, advances to the lasteight where he will faceFrenchman Gilles Simon whooutlasted Djokovic’s coun-tryman Janko Tipsarevic 5-7,6-2, 6-2.

Haas hit seven forehandwinners and won 76 percentof his first-serve points,snapping Djokovic’s 14match-winning streak in Mi-ami.

Haas easily won the firstset then clinched victory onhis second match point witha forehand winner to the opencourt, ending the 80 minutematch.

Djokovic, who had wonthis event three times (2007,2011, 2012), had one double

fault and won just 54 percentof his second serves.

This is the first time since1999 Haas has beaten a worldnumber one. He defeatedAndre Agassi in three setsat the Grand Slam Cup for hisonly other win over a worldNo. 1 in 15 contests.

Scotsman Murray, the2009 Miami winner who lostto Djokovic in last year’s fi-nal, needed only 86 minutesto book a date in the last eightwith ninth seed CroatianMarin Cilic.

World number threeMurray only lost threepoints (28/31) on his firstserve all match. He also firedthree aces and had twodouble faults.—AFP

PESHAWAR—Top seeded BilalZakir, a high rated player, se-cured stunning victory againstBabrak Khan and took berthinto the semi-final of Under-19category of the 15th Chief ofAir Staff National JuniorSquash Championship beingplayed here at PAF HashimKhan Squash ComplexWednesday.

Bilal Zakir, a promisingyoungster, who had a key rolefor Pakistan when beating In-dia in the final of the 16th

Bilal reaches CAS U-19Junior Squash semi-finals

Asian Junior Championshipplayed in Korea, did not lookbehind when he took the firstset 11-6 and did the same inthe remaining two sets, he wonby 11-7 and 11-8.

Another promising young-ster and seeded player AliBokhari of Punjab, who alsotoured with gold medalist teamwon the title of 16th AsianJunior Squash Championship,defeated Abbas Shoukat in athrilling four sets battle, thescore was 11/8, 9/11, 11/4, 11/6

(3-1), Tayyab Aslam beatSalman Hashmi in straightsets, the score was 11/7, 11/6,11/3 (3-0), while Ammad Faridbeat Zeeshan by 3-0, the scorewas 12-10, 11-9 and 11-7. In theUnder-17 quarter-finalsIsrarAhmed beat Arbab Aizaz in aone-sided affair, the score was11/7, 11/8, 11/2 (3-0), AhsanAyaz beat Waqas Younas by11/4, 11/3, 11/3, Iqtidar Khanbeat Aamir Khan in a thrillingbattle as both stretched to fivesets battle.—APP

KEY BISCAYNE: Tommy Haas of Germany hugs Novak Djokovic, of Serbia after Haaswin at the Sony Ericsson Open tennis tournament.

LONDON—England coachAndy Flower admits his play-ers will need to show signifi-cant improvement from theirdrawn series against NewZealand if they are to retainthe Ashes against Australiathis year.

Flower’s side narrowlyavoided a shock defeat in theTest series in New Zealandthis week after grinding outa nerve-jangling draw inAuckland after the previoustwo matches had also endedin stalemate.

England were relieved toavoid the embarrassment oflosing to a team who cameinto the series in disarrayfollowing a poor run of re-sults and controversy overRoss Taylor ’s removal ascaptain.

But Flower knows that

Flower demands Englandimprove ahead of Ashes

kind of lacklustre showingwon’t be enough againstAustralia, who travel to faceEngland before hosting asecond Ashes series laterthis year.

“We’ve got a big year ofinternational cricket and wewill need to be sharper, bet-ter and more skilful,” Flowertold BBC Radio Five Live.

“But it has been a won-derful winter and to win inIndia was a really specialmoment. The only series wehave lost was the one-dayseries in India.”

While England werestruggling to avoid defeat inNew Zealand, Australia wereslumping to a dismal 4-0 se-ries loss in India, whereFlower’s men won 2-1 threemonths earlier.

Even so, Flower refused

to write off the Australiansand preferred to focus on

England’s forthcomingrematch against NewZealand on home soil, whichserves as a warm-up for theAshes.—AFP

Ponting to playon for

TasmaniaSYDNEY—Former Australiacaptain Ricky Ponting sayshe will play another seasonwith Tasmania after they wonthe Sheffield Shield competi-tion.

The 38-year-old retiredfrom international cricket inDecember and had been ex-pected to make the currentdomestic season his last, butsaid he was in good touchand wanted to carry on.

“I’ve told Tasmaniancricket this week that I’m re-ally keen to play on again nextyear,” said Ponting, who waslast week named SheffieldShield player of the year,having topped the inter-statecompetition’s run-scoringlist.

“But in the same breath,I’ve also told them not tocontract me.

“I don’t want to take acontract spot and pull out atthe last minute. “If I getthrough the (Australian) win-ter really well and I’m stillkeen to play again next year,then I’ll obviously go roundagain.”—AFP

PAF organizestraining campfor top squash

playersISLAMABAD—The PakistanSquash Federation (PSF) hasorganized a long term train-ing camp at the recently reno-vated Jansher Khan SquashComplex, Abbottabad fromWednesday.

The camp will mainly fo-cus on the physical fitnessof the players for whichArmy’s help has also beensought, said a PSF press re-lease issued here.

PSF National HeadCoach, Jamshed Gul Khanalong with a couple of assis-tant coaches will impart courttraining to the players,whereas their physical train-ing would be looked after byarmy trainers.

Chief of the Air Staff, Pa-kistan Air Force (PAF), AirChief Marshal Tahir RafiqueButt, who is also the Presi-dent Pakistan Squash Fed-eration, had directed in theAnnual General Meeting ofPSF that a training campshould be arranged for thetop professional players toimprove their physical fit-ness and squash training forthe forthcoming Interna-tional events in Pakistan andabroad, including the 17thAsian Individual SquashChampionship and theWorld Mens’ Team Champi-onship.

A group of 16 players,including some upcomingtalent, has been invited forthe camp. They include thetop professional players likeAamir Atlas, FarhanMehboob, Nasir Iqbal, Dan-ish Atlas and others. How-ever, owing to their injuries,Atlas brothers have not yetreported at the camp.—APP

Zardari approvescompensationISLAMABAD—President AsifAli Zardri has approved com-pensation of Rs one million ru-pees for the family of late Dis-trict Election Officer QuettaZiaullah Qasmi. ZiaullahQasmi was killed in firing byunidentified miscreants in thebeginning of this month inQuetta. Former Prime Minis-ter Raja Pervez Ashraf had ad-vised the President for ap-proval of the compensation ofRs 10 lakh for the bereavedfamily. —INP

UK deports 85PakistanisISLAMABAD—Eighty-five de-ported Pakistanis have beenmoved from Britain through aspecial flight to IslamabadWednesday. These deportedPakistanis were staying ille-gally in United Kingdom theywere captured and deported bythe British Immigration De-partment. These deported Pa-kistanis belonged to differentcities of Pakistan includingGujranwala and Gujrat. TheFIA Immigration officials havehanded over those deportedPakistanis to Passport Cell forinterrogation. —INP

FWO officerinjured blastWANA—An officer of theFrontier Works Organisation(FWO) was injured when itsvehicle hit a roadside plantedremote controlled bomb atGomal Zam road near Nagharsmall dam in South WaziristanAgency on Wednesday. Ac-cording to official sources, theFWO vehicle was completelydestroyed in the blast. No oneclaimed responsibility for theblast till filing of this report.—INP

Governmentofficial shot deadPESHAWAR—A governmentofficial belonging to Shia sectwas shot dead on Wednesdayby unidentified armed men inan apparent sectarian attack onWednesday, police said. Ac-cording to police, PeshawarMunicipal Corporation Sub-Divisional Officer KhawajaImran was on his way in hiscar along with his son inGulbarg area when unknownarmed men opened fire at him,killing him on the spot, whilehis son sustained injuries. Theattackers fled the scene aftercommitting the crime. No out-fit claimed responsibility forthe killing till filing of this re-port. It merits mentioning herethat the target killing incidentsare on the rise in Peshawar,which has caused an atmosphereof fear in the city. —INP

Haraj quits ERRAchairmanshipISLAMABAD—Chairman ofEarthquake Reconstruction &Rehabilitation Authority(ERRA) Hamid Yar Haraj hasresigned from his post. Thesources told Online that SardarHamid Yar Haraj remained onthe slot for almost three yearson honorary basis, but recentlyhe quitted his job. The sourcessaid that ERRA officials heldan informal farewell ceremonyin his honour. He returned allthe perks and facilities to thedepartment after his resigna-tion except one vehicle whichis in the use of his family,which he would hand over toERRA soon, the sourcessaid.—Online

ISLAMABAD—Election Com-mission of Pakistan (ECP) hasfixed April 15 as last date for re-ceipt of applications for postalballot papers for general electionsto National Assembly and pro-vincial assemblies.

According to the ECP, thisfacility is being extended only topersons in the government ser-vice, members of armed forces,holders of public offices, theirwives and such of their childrenas are registered voters and ordi-narily reside with them providedthat they are stationed at a placeother than the constituency,where their votes are registered.Persons detained in prison or heldin other custody are also entitledto vote by postal ballot.

Similarly, the last date in thisbehalf for such polling person-nel and police personnel as areposted at a polling station otherthan one at which they are en-titled to cast their vote, has beenfixed at April 25, 2013. Personswho are appointed to act as Pre-siding Officers, Assistant Presid-ing Officers and Polling Offic-ers and the Police Personnel whoare assigned duties at the pollingstations, have been advised toapply for postal ballot by April25, 2013 by which time their ap-pointments as polling personnelare expected to have been final-ized.

The ECP has explained thatapplications for postal ballotshould be made on the prescribedform with the Returning Officerof the constituency in which suchpersons, are enrolled as voters.

Forms for postal ballot can beobtained from any Returning Of-ficer. The voters to whom postalballots are issued will not be en-titled to vote in person at pollingstations and applications willhave to be forwarded or endorsedby the office or department ofvoter to guard against unautho-rized person applying for postalballot.

The form of application in-dicates the name of applicant, hisor her father’s name, or, in thecase of female applicant, thename of her father or husband,CNIC number in addition to theaddress and serial number of theelector in the electoral roll, (withpart thereof i.e. male, female)along with the name of electoralarea where he or she is registeredas voter. The number and name

of the constituency of the electorhas also to be given in the appli-cation.

The application should befiled or sent by post under the sig-nature or thumb impression of theapplicant with the Returning Of-ficer of the constituency, wherethe elector has been registered asa voter. Such applications should,in no case, be addressed to theElection Commission Secretariatat Islamabad or the ProvincialElection Commissioners.

The Returning Officers willsend a postal ballot paper to anapplicant making request for it,together with one large envelopmarked “B” addressed to him-self; one small envelop marked“A” and declaration form accom-panied by printed instructions forguidance of applicant. —APP

Postal ballots

April 15 last date toreceive applications

MQM to make seatadjustment, no

electoral allianceKARACHI—Muttahida QaumiMovement (MQM) DeputyConvener, Farooq SattarWednesday said that his partywill never enter into any elec-toral alliance in the upcomingelections.

MQM, however, couldmake seat adjustment with thelike-minded parties, he added.

Talking to media here,Farooq Sattar in an unequivocalterm declared that his partywould not give tickets to taxcheats, loan defaulters, thosewho got loans written off, lootednational wealth and the fake de-gree holders.

MQM Deputy Convenersaid that the big sardars andwaderas are hurdles in the wayof progress and resolution of is-sues. Farooq Sattar said thatthe new delimitations of con-stituencies in Karachi tanta-mount to robbing the votes of thepeople. Karachi is being dis-criminated and we have knockedthe door of court for justice asregards new delimitation, hesaid. —INP

Musharraf getsnomination

papers for fourNA seats

ISLAMABAD—Aspiring can-didates for national and pro-vincial assemblies in Punjabhave received around 5000nomination papers till Wednes-day, the fourth day of receiv-ing the nomination papers.

Former military rulerPervez Musharraf has receivednomination papers to contestelections from four constituen-cies of the National Assembly.Musharraf will file his nomi-nation papers today (Thurs-day) for the National Assem-bly seats of Karachi, Chitral,Kasur and Islamabad.

The Muttahida QaumiMovement (MQM) leaderFarooq Sattar has submittedhis nomination papers for NA-249 seat in Karachi.

In Punjab around 1641candidates have receivednomination papers and six ofthem have submitted their pa-pers.—INP

Meera plans torun elections onreserved seats

MUZAFFAR ALI

LAHORE—As the election fe-ver grips the country with poli-ticians holding rallies and strik-ing deals to grab large share ofseats, Lollywood actress Meerais also planning to becomePunjab Assembly member onreserved seats for women.

Meera’s mother ShafqatZehra talking to media repre-sentatives here on Wednesday,said her daughter would takepart in election on the reservedseats for women in the provin-cial assembly.

NEW YORK—A third memberof SEAL Team 6 has come for-ward with new details ofOsama bin Laden’s death, call-ing into question previous,highly-publicized accounts ofthe raid on the al Qaeda leader’scompound in Pakistan. CNNreports that this new retellingof events is more in line withthat of Matt Bissonette, theSEAL who wrote “No EasyDay” under the pseudonym“Mark Owen,” published in Oc-tober 2012. Those accounts areat odds with the story told inFebruary’s issue of Esquire,

which Bergen says paints amore “heroic” picture of whatactually occurred inAbbottabad.

The main point of conten-tion seems to be whether binLaden was shot while reachingfor his gun, an assertion madeby the SEAL member knownonly as “The Shooter” inEsquire’s piece. Bergen’ssource tells him that this ac-count is “complete B-S,” insist-ing that bin Laden did not havea firearm within immediatereach.

Rumors questioning The

Shooter’s story are not new. OnMonday, a day before Bergen’sreport aired, military bloggerand former Navy SEAL Bran-don Webb debunked many ofthe claims made in Esquire, cit-ing anonymous SEAL sources.

Piecing together what actu-ally happened on May 1, 2011has understandably proven dif-ficult, as Bergen notes that thehighly elite and incredibly se-cretive SEAL Team is under“serious lockdown,” prohibit-ing members from sharing de-tails about the bin Laden raidwith the public.—INP

New details on bin Laden death emerge

IRFAN ALIGI

K A R A C H I — M u t t a h i d aQaumi Movement (MQM)contestants Wednesday sub-mitted nomination papers withthe election commission ofPakistan (Provincial office) inthe city.

According to details,MQM submitted nominationsfor 20 electoral constituenciesof the National Assembly andon 46 seats of the Sindh pro-vincial Assembly.

MQM Deputy ConvenerDr Farooq Sattar filed nomi-

nation papers from NA-249while Tahir Qureshi, DilawarKhan, Irshad and Asif Siddiquialso filed nominations from thesame constituency as the sup-porting candidates.

On NA-250, Dr Sattar,Kunwar Khalid Younus SamanSultan Jaffery, KhushbakhtShujaat, on NA-252, Dr Sattar,Dr Khalid Maqbool Siddiqui,Shaikh Salahuddin, SufyanYousuf, Farhan Ahmed and AliRaza Abidi filed nominations.

Kunwar Naveed, AbdulWaseem, Khawaja Izhar UlHassan, Abdullah Sheikh andAdil Khan filed nominations on

NA-243 while on NA-245,Kunwar Khalid Younus, RehanHashmi, Amin Ul Haq andKhushbakht Shujaat had filednominations.

Dr Sagheer Ahmed,Waseem Ahmed, Arshad Vohraand Ali Raza Abidi submittednominations on NA-251 whileon NA-266, Gulfaraz KhanKhattak, Asif Hasnanin,Ruknuddin, Ayub Shan andKhalid Iftikhar filed their nomi-nations.

Ashfaque Manghi, SajidAhmed, Nadeem Razi and SattarAnsar filed nominations on NA-257 and Amir Khan, Sufyan

Yousuf, Iftikhar, FarhanAhmed and Sheikh Salahuddinfile on NA-247.

Sardar Nabeel AhmedGabol, Sufyan Yousuf, ShoaibFarooqui, Anwar Alam filed onNA-246 while on NA-248,Sardar Nabeel Ahmed Gaboland Muhammad Ali filed theirnominations. Salman MujahidBaloch, Gul Hassan, KhawajaSuhail and Sheikh Feroze hadfiled their nomination on NA-239 while on NA-240,Khawaja Suhail, KamranIftikhar, Salman Sajid andAbid Ali Omang submittedtheir nominations.

MQM candidates file nominations for20 NA and 46 PS constituencies

YANGON—As anti-Muslim vio-lence continue to boil in centralMyanmar, authorities have im-posed curfews in more towns inan attempt to stop groups of Bud-dhists from setting fire to mosquesand Muslims’ homes, local mediareported on Wednesday.

The fresh restrictions comeafter a state of emergency wasdeclared last week in the citywhere clashes between the twocommunities first broke out, leav-ing at least 40 Muslims dead.

Officials put dusk-to-dawncurfews in place in the townshipsof Gyobingauk, Okpo andMinhla, the New Light of

Myanmar, a state-run newspaper,reported in its Wednesday edition.

Police has reported arson at-tacks on Muslim properties inthose three townships in recentdays. U.S. authorities have issueda warning to U.S. citizens inMyanmar amid the unrest thatbegan last week in the city ofMeiktila, in the central Mandalayregion, and spread to other towns.

The situation has fueled fearsin the commercial capital,Yangon, prompting stores to closein a popular shopping districtMonday.The U.S. Embassy toldU.S. citizens to avoid the MingalarMarket and Yuzana Plaza part ofYangon, the same area where the

stores were shuttered.During the clashes in

Meiktila, which were reportedlyset off by a dispute between aMuslim gold shop owner and twoBuddhist sellers, rioters set fire tohouses, schools and mosques,prompting thousands of residentsto flee their homes.

The government declared astate of emergency in the city Fri-day, allowing the military to helpreinstate order.

But as the situation there ap-peared to calm, authorities re-ported arson attacks by groups ofBuddhists in other towns in theregion over the weekend. —Online

Myanmar re-inforces more curfewsto prevent attacks on Muslims

ISLAMABAD—Pakistan andMoldova have held first everbilateral talks by their ForeignMinistries at Chisinau.

Additional Secretary (Eu-rope), Ministry of Foreign Af-fairs, Ayesha Riyaz, led the Pa-kistan delegation which includedPakistan’s Ambassador toMoldova (resident in Romania),Rab Nawaz Khan, while theMoldovan delegation was headedby Ala Beleavschi, Director Gen-eral (Bilateral Relations Divi-sion) at the Moldovan Ministryof Foreign Affairs and EuropeanIntegration. These were the firstever Bilateral Talks held between

the two Foreign Ministries. Thetwo sides reviewed the entirerange of bilateral relations anddiscussed ways to enhance theprofile of existing bilateral ties.

A draft MoU on BilateralPolitical Consultations as well asa draft visa abolition agreementon diplomatic and official pass-ports was presented by the Paki-stan side for consideration by theMoldovan side. The Pakistandelegation also had separatemeetings with Iurie Leanca, Min-ister of Foreign Affairs and thetwo Deputy Foreign MinistersNatalia Gherman and AndreiPopov.—Online

Pakistan-Moldovahold bilateral talks

ISLAMABAD —The ElectionCommission has convened ameeting of political, religiousand nationalist parties ofBalochistan in Quetta on Thurs-day (today).

A delegation of ElectionCommission headed by ChiefElection CommissionerFakhruddin G Ebrahim to holdtalks with estranged Balochleaders on their reservationsabout elections.

Talking to newsmen inIslamabad, Secretary ElectionCommission Ishtiaq AhmedKhan said members of the Pro-vincial Election Commission arealso in contact with the Baloch

CEC to hold talks with estrangedBaloch leaders in Quetta today

leaders.He said members of the

Commission will meet all politi-cal leaders includingBrahamdakh Bugti and SardarAkhtar Mengal and persuadethem to take part in loomingelections. He said the commis-sion will also visit Punjab, Sindhand Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa prov-inces. The provinces will beasked to devise security plan forthe elections.

The Election Commissionof Pakistan (ECP) has conveneda meeting of political, religiousand nationalists parties onThursday (March 28) inQuetta.—Online

Psychological storm asAustralian troops return

from Afghanistan CANBERRA—Australians arebeing told to expect ‘a tidalwave of psychological prob-lems’ as troops return homefrom Afghanistan. The Gov-ernment has announced 1000Australian troops will be backhome by the end of the year.Australian correspondentMurray Olds says their in-volvement in the troubled re-gion has dragged on for over adecade.

“39 Australians dead, hun-dreds have been injured, butformer commander of Austra-lian forces in Afghanistan, Ma-jor General (ret) John Cantwellhas been saying ‘Listen, getset.”—INP

ISLAMABAD: A group photo of recipients of NPC Gold Medal Awards with Dr A Q Khan, Dr Naeem Ghani, Zahid Malik andKanwar Dilshad. Recipients of the awards in the picture are Qari Najam Mustafa, Lozina Shoaib, Dr Iftikhar Khokhar, AmjadPirzada, Abdul Wahid Meer, Aqeela Asif, Asghar Abid, Mohammad Mohsin Ali, Mohammad Naveed Asif, Babar Iqbal, ZeeshanAbbasi, Moosa Feroz, Syed Ali Hameed, Asia Arif, Mohammad Akram and Mohammad Asif. PO photo by Sultan Bashir

SPENDING hours watching TV or playing computer games each day does notharm young children’s social develop-

ment, say experts.The Medical Research Council (MRC)

team who studied more than11,000 primary school pu-pils says it is wrong to linkbad behaviour to TV view-ing, BBC Health reported onTuesday.

Although researchersfound a small correlationbetween the two, they sayother influences, such asparenting styles, most prob-ably explain the link.

But they still say “limitscreen time”, this cautionaryadvice is because spendinglots of time in front of theTV everyday might reducehow much time a childspends doing other impor-tant activities such as play-ing with friends and doinghomework, they say.

‘We found no effect with screen time formost of the behavioural and social problemsthat we looked at and only a very small effectindeed for conduct problems, such as fight-ing or bullying”, said Dr Alison Parkes Leadinvestigator.

For the MRC study, published in Archivesof Diseases in Childhood, Dr Alison Parkesand colleagues asked UK mothers from allwalks of life about their child’s TV viewinghabits and general behaviour.

Almost two-thirds (65%) of the 11,014five-year-olds included in the study watchedTV between one and three hours a day, 15%

watched more than three hours and less than2% watched no television at all.

Watching more than three hours’ TV aday at this age predicted a very small increasein “conduct” problems at the age of seven.

After their seventhbirthday, these boys and girlswere slightly more likely toget into fights, tell lies or bebullies than their peers, ac-cording to their mothers’ re-ports.

Dr Parkes said it waswrong to blame social prob-lems on TV.

“Our work suggests thatlimiting the amount of timechildren spend in front of theTV is, in itself, unlikely toimprove psychosocial adjust-ment.”

Prof Annette Karmiloff-Smith, of Birkbeck, Univer-sity of London, said that ratherthan focusing on the possibleadverse effects of TV and

video games, it would be better to look atwhat positive impact they could have onchildren.

Prof Hugh Perry, chair of the MRC’sneurosciences and mental health board,said, “We are living in a world that is in-creasingly dominated by electronic enter-tainment, and parents are understandablyconcerned about the impact this might behaving on their children’s wellbeing andmental health.

“This important study suggests the rela-tionship between TV and video games andhealth is complex and influenced by manyother social and environmental factors.”

TV time does not breedbadly behaved children

ISLAMABAD: A view of Interactive Theatre’s drama on women protection which was presented at National Press Club.

RAWALPINDI: A scene of hue of flowers at an exhibition in connection with spring festivalat Arid Agriculture University.

RAWALPINDI—The five daysAnnual Spring Flower Show,organized by Pir Mehr Ali ShahArid Agriculture UniversityRawalpindi commenced at Uni-versity campus on Wednesdaywith an aim to provide people afascinating opportunity to haveglimpses of charming coloursand fragrance of spring season.

Spring Flower Festival starts at AAUR Director General, Agency

for Barani Area DevelopmentGovt of Punjab Tariq JaveidMalik was the chief guest alongwith Prof. Dr. Rai Niaz Ahmad,Vice Chancellor, PMAS-AAURformally inaugurated the event,which will continue till March31. Different institutes, compa-nies, universities, schools,

flower nurseries etc. are amongthe participants of the FlowerShow. The show included pot-ted plants as per theme, cut flow-ers and artistic arrangements.Floriculture lovers from acrossthe city visited the University tosee a good variety of foreign andlocal flowers and plants that hadbeen put on display.—APP

LIAQAT TOOR

AFTER gaining independence, People’s Republicof Bangladesh is moving

fast on the path of peace andprosperity. Struggling to over-come bitterness, both Pakistanand Bangladesh have great po-tential to boost their multi-di-mensional relations. Bilateraltrade has grown manifolds dur-ing the last 42 years and yet thereare many sectors which are stillunexplored.

To celebrate 42nd Anniver-sary of Independence and Na-tional Day of Bangladesh,Suhrab Hossain, High Commis-sioner of Bangladesh to Pakistanthrew a grand reception at a lo-cal hotel on Tuesday evening.

Politicians, former parlia-mentarians, retired diplomats,members of diplomatic corps,businessmen, mediamen andfriends of Bangladesh joined theHigh Commissioner on this joy-ful day for his country.

On arrival of the ChiefGuest, Saleem H. Mandviwalla,

former Finance Minister, na-tional anthems of both the coun-

tries were played. Later, theHigh Commissioner was joined

by the Chief Guest and othereminent personalities in cuttingceremonial cake amidst ap-plause by the participants.

Suhrab Hossain is a wellknown personality in Pakistanwho is ever ready to promote in-terest of his coun-try. An energeticand professionaldiplomat, hispresence in diplo-matic and other important circlesis very strong.

The High Commissionerand his spouse RawsanaraHossain greeted each and ev-ery guest warmly and treatedthem with traditional dishes ofPakistan and Bangladesh, par-ticularly Bangali ‘RasGullaiy’. Bangali music wasflowing in the hall entertain-ing the participants. A screenin the corner was showingsocio-economic developmentand independence struggle ofBangladesh.

The participants settled in

Bangladesh National Day

Pakistan, Bangladesh have great potentialto boost multi-dimensional relations

People of both countries have great honour and regard for each other; Commercial ties are grow-ing for mutual benefit; Participation of Pak elite in celebrations mirrors respect for Bangladesh

ISLAMABAD: Chief guest Saleem H Mandiwalla, High Commissioner of Bangladesh SuhrabHossain and Mrs Rawsanara Hossain, Ambassador of Argentine Rodolfo Martin Saravia,Syed Feroz Shah and Zahid Maqbool cutting the cake on the occasion of 42nd Indepen-dence & National Day of Bangladesh, at a local hotel.

groups and discussed varioussubjects including Pak-Bangladesh relations, Paki-stani politics and regional situ-ation.

Pakistan and Bangladeshare struggling to overcome bit-

terness of thepast to moveahead and playimportant rolein South Asia.

The people of both the coun-tries have a great respect andregard for each other. Pakistanibusinessmen are investing inBangladesh without any fear.

Both have common goalsand dreams to become peace-ful, independent and prosper-ous states.

They can achieve suchgoals by cooperating with eachother in economic and commer-cial fields.

Days are not far away,when Pakistan and Bangladeshwill fulfill their dreams withhand in hand.

1530 pollenpatients treated

CITY REPORTER

ISLAMABAD—More than 1530allergy patients were treated atthe free pollen allergy reliefcamp set up at Aabpara Com-munity Center here onWednesday.According to aspokesman of Islambad CapitalTerritory (ICT) Administration,350 patients were treated on the6th day and they were providedmedicines free of cost.

Free pollen allergy camp isorganized by Islamabad Capi-tal Territory Administration, ineach allergy season in order toprovide relief to the allergypatients.The citizens, by andlarge have appreciated the ser-vices of doctors and para-med-ics working at the camp.

Chief Commissioner,Islamabad, Tariq MahmoodPirzada said that maximumtreatment facilities are beingprovided to the patients at thecamp. District Health Officer,Islamabad, Dr. M. Azhar andDrug Inspector, Islamabad,Sardar Shabbir Ahmed, Dr.Muhammad Osman Yusuf,Hakeem Rizwan Hafeez andDr. Nasir are attending the pa-tients for which three types oftreatment facilities including al-lopathic, homeopathic and Tib-e-Unani, each with separatecounters, are working to facili-tate the patients.

ISLAMABAD—The IslamabadHigh Court on Wednesday or-dered the SPP operation ofIslamabad Police to vacate theflat in Sector G-6/1 from staff ofthe Inspector General Police(IGP) within three days.

A single member bench ofIHC comprising Justice ShaukatAziz Siddiqui resumed hearing ofplea filed against illegal occupa-tion of police on flats of G-6/1.

IHC orders IGP staff tovacate flats within 3-day

During the course of hear-ing, an official of estate officeapprised the bench that a lowerstaff official of IGP Islamabadis not vacating the flat despiteof court direction and estate of-fice order. On last date of hear-ing, the court had ordered theIG police to vacate the flatsfrom police officials and reportthe bench within one week.

Justice Siddiqui had as-

signed the task of reclaiming theflats from the policemen to SSPand directed to extend maximumsupport to the Estate Office inthis regard.

The flats were temporarilyoffered to police officials in2007 during the Lal Masjid op-eration. Though the operationwas over within a few days, thepolicemen made the flats theirpermanent abode.—APP

ISLAMABAD—Preston Univer-sity and Valparaiso University(VU), Indianapolis IndianaUSA, inked a Memorandum ofUnderstanding (MoU) for aca-demic cooperation at a ceremonyheld here today.

Dr. David L. Rowland, Deanof Graduate School, ValparaisoUniversity signed the MoU onbehalf of his university and Dr.Allah Wadhayo Baloch, RegistrarPreston University, SaimaAbbasi, Representative ofValparaiso University in Pakistan,and the senior faculty and man-agement of Preston Universitywere also present on the occasion.

According to the MoU,

Preston, VU ink MoU for academic coopPreston University will recom-mend its undergraduate studentsfor admission to VU’s mastersprograms.

Details of entry point quali-fications and other important re-quirements necessary for ad-mission in VU’s mastersprogrammes have also been lu-cidly spelled out in the MoU.

It has also been mutuallyagreed that in recognition of thispartnership, VU will supportone visiting scholar fromPreston University for every 12students that enroll in a post-graduate master’s program atVU and completes at least onefull year of study.

Addressing on the occasion,Dr. David L. Rowland, Dean ofGraduate School, ValparaisoUniversity, Indianapolis IndianaUSA said that the academic co-operation that VU and PrestonUniversity is seeking, throughsigning of the MoU between thetwo institutions, will provideboth VU and Preston Universityand opportunity to mutually ben-efit from each others experience.Teh cooperation between the twoinstitutions would also equallybenefit the students and facultyof preston University. ensuringtheir access to high quality edu-cation and training at VU-USA.—APP

Literacycentres set upin Adiala Jail

RAWALPINDI—The Punjabgovernment has established 15literacy centres in the city in-cluding three centres in CentralPrison Adiala, aimed at impart-ing education to inmates, be-sides making them good citizensafter their release.

On the directives of the Sec-retary Literacy Punjab, ProjectDirector Kalsoom Nawaz andDistrict Education Officer (el-ementary) Zahoor Hussain Shahformally inaugurated the educa-tion outlets the other day.—INP

Submarine cabledamage affects

internet servicesSTAFF REPORTER

ISLAMABAD—One of the in-ternational submarine cable(SMW4) has experiencedfault in sea waters near Alex-andria, Egypt . This has im-pacted internet services inthe entire regions of the FarEast, Middle East, Pakistan,India and North Africa. Theinternational consortium ofoperators in the Region thatmanages the submarine cablesystem is proceeding to de-ploy repair services to restoreservices at the earliest.

Meanwhile, PTCL has al-ready undertaken necessaryactions to minimize the im-pact on the services to cus-tomers in Pakistan, by mak-ing alternate arrangement forinternet capacity. This hasbeen made possible becauseof PTCL multiple submarinecable systems facility in Pa-kistan.

Customers may experi-ence slow browsing duringpeak hours and PTCL sin-cerely regrets this temporaryinconvenience caused tovalued customers, under theprevalent circumstances.

UBL Omni identifiedas ‘sprinter’

in global surveySTAFF REPORTER

KARACHI—UBL Omni hasbeen identified as a sprinterin a Global survey by theGSMA’s Mobile Money forthe Unbanked (MMU)programme. The survey, titledGlobal Mobile Money Adop-tion Survey, analyses the stateof the mobile money industryin 2012 and illustrates keyfindings from theprogramme’s Mobile MoneyDeployment Tracker, a data-base that monitors the num-ber of live and planned mo-bile money services for theunbanked across the globe.The annual survey was devel-oped to quantify the state ofthe mobile money industryand to enable mobile moneyproviders to benchmark theirperformance.

The findings of the sur-vey which was carried out inJune 2012 were released atthe GSMA Global MobileWorld Congress held inBarcelona last month. UBLOmni has been identified asa “sprinter” because of itsrapid growth, along with 13other mobile money orbranchless banking deploy-ments around the world.

As of today, globallythere are about 150 deploy-ments with a total “registered”agent base of just over half amillion. UBL Omni’s agentbase gives it a 2.4% share ofthe global agent market andis the only bank to feature inthe survey. The Bank also hasa 1.4% share of the globaltransaction count contribut-ing towards making UBLOmni a sizable player in theMobile Money market.

“International prominencefor our branchless bankingmodel is a matter of great pridefor us,” said Atif R. Bokhari,President & CEO, UBL. “Weare the only commercial bankin Pakistan that has taken thelead in setting up a new busi-ness model to a scale that makesOmni a meaningful benchmarkfor the global branchless bank-ing industry.

STAFF REPORTER

KARACHI—In the 21st An-nual General Meeting held inKarachi on Wednesday,March 27, 2013, the share-holders approved the Bank’sannual financial results forthe year 2012. Profit beforetax of Rs. 5.04 billion was reg-istered, with the increaseddeposit base amounting tomore than Rs. 217 billion,while a cash dividend of 20percent (Rs. 2 per share) wasannounced.

20 new branches wereadded to the branch networkduring the year 2012, enhanc-ing the Bank’s branch out-reach to 183 branches span-ning 28 cities Pakistan-wide.

HabibMetro continued tofortify its trade finance exper-tise, as PACRA awarded thepremier AA+ and A1+ creditratings to the Bank for the12th consecutive year.

HabibMetro’s footprint isscheduled for expansionwith the opening of 25-30new branches during theyear 2013. According to Presi-dent & CEO, Sirajuddin Aziz,‘with product innovation/en-hancement, efficacious finan-cial delivery and unparalleledcustomer service being thestrategic priorities at theBank for the current year, weat HabibMetro are geared tofurther enrich our customers’banking experience with theBank.’.

HabibMetro declarescash dividend 20pc

Abdul Aziz, President and CEO Ufone with Rainer Rathgeber, Group Chief Com-mercial Officer Etisalat at the first wallet opening ceremony of Ufone’s branchlessbanking.

STAFF REPORTER

ISLAMABAD—The Water andPower Development Author-ity (WAPDA) has success-fully completed the 17.4megawatt (MW) Gomal ZamPower House - a componentof the Gomal Zam DamProject. Gomal Zam Dam isthe first-ever mega project inwater sector constructed inthe Federally AdministeredTribal Areas (FATA), says apress release.

The power house is cur-rently on test run and willstart providing electricity tothe National Grid in a month.Gomal Zam Dam Project lo-cated in South Waziristan

Agency, consists of threemain components includingdam, power house and irriga-tion system.

The dam was completedlast year, the power house isnow complete, while the irri-gation system is at the ad-vanced stage of completion.Gross storage capacity of theproject is 1.14 million acre feet(MAF) of water to irrigate163,000 acres of land. Thepower house will contribute91 million units of electricityannually to the system,which is sufficient to supplypower to about 25,000 house-holds.

Gomal Zam Dam Projectis of immense importance for

socio- economic uplift of thepopulace of remote areas,particularly FATA andKhyber Pakhtunkhwa. Theproject would ensure avail-ability of water for irrigatedagriculture, control floodsand provide low-cost hydelelectricity. The United StatesAgency for InternationalDevelopment (USAID) hadprovided $ 40 million to helpcomplete the main dam andthe power house.

Another $ 40 million arealso being provided by theUSAID for completion of ir-rigation component of theproject and $ 12 million arecommitted for developmentof Waran Canal System.

Gomal Zam dam to start 17.4MW power generation soon

STAFF REPORTER

ISLAMABAD—Pakistan ispassing through a challeng-ing phase in terms of meetingits energy requirementsPrices of conventional en-ergy sources are soaring dayafter day, causing negativeimpact on the country’seconomy. The solution lies inexploring locally availableenergy resources, especiallyAlternative / Renewable En-ergy (ARE) technologies inthe country.

Sugar Mills waste (Ba-

gasse), is one of a cheaper re-newable fuel, utilized in co-generation power systemswith high pressure boilers(minimum 60 bar); this wouldnot only help sugar mills tomeet their own energy require-ments, but they would also beable to export surplus electric-ity to the grid.

Bagasse is environmen-tally friendly and can help miti-gate greenhouse gas emis-sions from the country’s powersector. Other benefits in-cludes, precious savings inforeign exchange spent on im-

port of furnace oil. US$ 500million can be saved by con-sumers in fuel cost if 2,000MW is generated by cheaperbagasse instead of HFO. For-eign exchange savings for thecountry through the use ofthis indigenous fuel instead ofimported HFO will be over US$1 billion annually.

Sugar mills in the countrygenerally operate for 120 daysduring the crushing season.The combined crushing ca-pacity of the various sugarmills located in the country ismore than 590,000 tons per day.

Pakistan crushed 48,249,000tons of sugar cane during thelast crushing season (2011-12),which yielded over 15 milliontons of bagasse assuming 32%fiber on cane.

Efforts were made by theGovernment of Pakistan in pastto tap the available potentialof bagasse in the country. In2008, the Ministry of Waterand Power after approval fromthe Economic CoordinationCommittee (ECC) introducedthe National Policy for Power-Cogeneration by Sugar Indus-try in 2008 (the “Cogeneration

Policy, 2008”); administratedby the Private Power Infra-structure Board but unfortu-nately no power plant wasmaterialized on account of dif-ferent shortcomings.

The Government of Paki-stan has now taken anotherstep to attract the sugary in-dustry owners to setup Co-Generation Bagasse/Biomassbased power plants. Recently,the ECC has approved the‘Policy Framework for PowerCo-Generation, 2013 (Ba-gasse/Biomass), to be admin-istrated by the Alternative En-

ergy Development Board. TheFramework has covered majorconcerns of the Sugar MillsAssociation and relevant Gov-ernment Agencies/ Depart-ments.

Unique features of thisFramework includes, its appli-cability on all Bagasse / Biom-ass based projects commis-sioned after January, 2013;whereas, the project develop-ers have been given the choiceto design project of any size.

To bring such projectsinline within shortest possibletime, National Electric Power

Regulatory Authority(NEPRA) will announce Up-Front Tariff, based on per unitenergy delivered to the grid.Other lucrative features in-clude mandatory evacuationof all the energy offered bythe Power Producer andavailability of all financial andfiscal incentives available torenewable energy projects asper clause 8.6 of RenewableEnergy Policy, 2006.

The Government has re-sponded to the call of thesugar industry by offering anattractive‘Framework’.

Pakistan crises thru energy crisis, alternate remedial measures core need

People are definitelya company’s greatestasset. It doesn’t make

any differencewhether the product

is cars or cosmetics. Acompany is only as

good as the people itkeeps.

—Mary Kay Ash

STAFF REPORTER

ISLAMABAD—A high level del-egation comprising Mr. JosephKulang John Konga, Ministerof State/Chairman Board of In-vestment, Mr. John Ijino LakoDG Ministry of Finance, Re-public of South Sudan visitedZTBL along with other repre-sentatives The purpose of thevisit was to explore avenuesand possible opportunities forthe Sudan Govt. to get the ex-pertise vis-à-vis consultancy inthe area of Agricultural Tech-nologies from ZTBL.

Mr. Afzal Sharif, Advisoron Business Developmentwelcomed the delegation onbehalf of the President ZTBL.Mr. Sharif briefed the delega-tion that ZTBL a the only fi-nancial institution of the Govt.

of Pakistan engaged in thedevelopment of agriculturesector in the country. Ms.Razia Begum, EVP (RP&T)gave a short presentation onZTBL to the delegation whichwas followed by a brief talkby Mr. Naseer Parvaz Qureshion the IT related develop-ments made by ZTBL for ag-ricultural credit. Mr.Muhammad Shah Zaman,SVP, President Support De-partment briefed the delega-tion about the expertise avail-able with the Bank and tech-nical assistance/technologytransfer which could be madeavailable to South Sudan inthe field of agriculture devel-opment.

John, while briefing theparticipants informed thatRepublic of South Sudan is

the youngest nation in theworld and came into being in2011 after the division ofSudan into two countries bythe United Nations. SinceSouth Sudan is in its infancystages and need to help fromthe world for the developmentof institutions in almost allwalks of life for developmentof the people in the country.

The purpose of visit toZTBL is to explore areas ofinterest and how the SouthSudan could utilize the ser-vices offered by the ZTBL forthe development of agricul-ture sector. He informed thatwe are on a fact finding mis-sion in Pakistan and visitingvarious organizations/depart-ments both in the public andprivate sector to find out ar-eas of interest.

Sudan exploring newcooperation avenues

AMANULLAH KHAN

KARACHI—The bullet proofcars suddenly are much indemand especially by theunnerved business peopleof what they called horrify-ing law & order situationmaking it difficult to com-mute safely on the cityroads. The worsening lawand order situation is quitereflected in the growing de-mand for bullet-proof carsin Karachi due to crumblinglaw and order in the hub ofPakistan’s industrial andcommercial activities.

Director Toyota Cen-tral Motors (TCM)Shahzad Godil briefing themedia on the occasion of

Toyota Dream Car Contestheld at TCM the other daysaid that i t was unusualthat at least 20 orders arebeing placed with the fac-tories for bullet proofingevery month by the privatesector part icularly busi-nessmen.

He said that only politi-cians, law enforcing agen-cies use to order for bulletproof vehicles. He disclosedthat there are four factoriesare working in Karachi forbullet-proofing the vehicleand cost of bullet-proofingof each vehicle comes toabout Rs3 million. He saidthat it can be proofed up tothe A.K 47. Shahzad saidthat demand for bullet-

proofing vehicles has alsoincreased as three bullet-proofing factories workingupcountry are receivingabout 15 to 20 orders permonthly for bullet-proofingthe vehicles and they aremostly from KhyberPakhtoonkhwa andIslamabad.

He said that demand forbullet-proofing from Punjabis almost nil. To a questionhe said that there is aboutonly 20 to 30 per cent costdeference in localized bul-let proof vehicles and im-ported ones. He said thatTCM has a contract forsupply of bullet proofingcomponents with world’stop manufactures.

Security concern

Bullet proof cars demand ups

STAFF REPORTER

LAHORE—Wateen Telecom issponsoring the first ever SouthAsia Strategic Leadership Sum-mit, which will be held in Karachion the 2nd and 3rd of April 2013.

The forum is being hostedby the Nutshell Forum organi-zation, which organizes leader-ship and management summitsand has been doing so in Paki-stan since 2005. WateenTelecom will be participating asa Gold Sponsor at this year’sevent for the first time as a signof their support for the NutshellForums and other such man-agement and leadership events.

Nutshell has distinguisheditself as one of the premier cor-porate management and lead-

ership event organizers.Their portfolio of confer-

ences organized includes the1st Pakistan Business LeadersSummit, 1st Pakistan PharmaSummit,1st Pakistan JudicialAcademies Summit, 1st Mar-keting & Branding Summit, 3editions of Lahore Manage-ment & HRD Summit, 9 editionsof Annual HRM Forum, 4 edi-tions of International Manage-ment Summit, 2 editions of Na-tional HRM Conference andmany others including approxi-mately 300 training workshops,seminars, group discussions,product launches, press brief-ings, cultural events and cor-porate dinners in Pakistan,Dubai, Bahrain, Singapore & SriLanka.

Wateen Telecom to sponsor SouthAsia leadership summit

STAFF REPORTER

KARACHI—P&G Pakistan re-cently announced the launchof its Social Commitment Report- 2013 at its Annual Stakehold-ers’ Dinner reception hosted byMr. Faisal Sabzwari, CountryManager P&G Pakistan. Thereport encompasses P&G’s ef-forts to touch and improve livesof Pakistani children in needthrough its Live, Learn andThrive (LLT) corporate cause.

P&G’s LLT program fo-cuses on 3 aspects of a child’sdevelopment. It aims to pro-vide children with: i) opportu-nities that can help ensure a

healthy start to life throughsafe drinking water, nutritionand hygiene programs, ii) ac-cess to educational facilities,tools and programs that en-hance the ability to learn bybuilding schools and provid-ing supplies and iii) programsthat build self-esteem, lifeskills, inter-personal skills andindependent-living skills fordisabled children. “P&G isdedicated to its Purpose oftouching and improving lives.We believe every child shouldhave access to quality educa-tion, health and hygieneawareness and skill-develop-ment programs.

P&G launches SocialCommitment Report

SCB celebrating150th anniversary

STAFF REPORTER

KARACHI—Standard Char-tered Bank, the country’s larg-est and longest serving inter-national bank is celebrating the150th anniversary of its opera-tion in Pakistan. Headquarteredin London, StandardChartered’s banking legacy ofover 150 years comes fromsome of the world’s most dy-namic markets in Asia, Africaand the Middle East.

In Pakistan, Standard Char-tered which started as The Char-tered Bank first set up itsagency office in Karachi on 23March 1863. The Bank now has121 branches spread across 24cities. Besides being crucial toits operations, the Bank em-ployees a workforce of over4,500 employees.

Commenting on this spe-cial milestone, MohsinNathani, CEO, Standard Char-tered Pakistan said, “StandardChartered has been committedto the long term growth anddevelopment of this country.This commitment has spannedone and a half century and re-mains just as strong today. Weare proud to be part ofPakistan’s rich heritage andhistory. Our journey has beenpartnered through supportfrom our clients, customers andregulators. Thank you for be-lieving in our ability to contrib-ute towards growth and devel-opment in Pakistan.”

The last decade has seenthe bank transforming itself tobecome part of the social andeconomic fabric of the country.

SNGPL actionagainst gas

pilferers hailedMUZAFFAR ALI

LAHORE—Pakistan Steel Re-Rolling Mills Association(PSRMA) has welcomedSNGPL action against gas pil-ferers and urged the authori-ties to continue their opera-tions in larger national inter-ests and for the wellbeing ofhonest steel manufacturers. Ina statement issued hereWednesday, the CentralChairman of PSRMA AliAhmad said that issuance ofRs.23 crores detection Bill toone of the gas thieves wouldhelp eradicate this menacethat is one of the reasons ofeconomic meltdown beingwitnessed by the country.

Mobile phone importreaches $459.46mStaff ReporterISLAMABAD—The import ofmobile phone increased by1.7 per cent during the firsteight months of current fiscalyear as compared to thesame period of last year. Theimport of mobile phone intothe country during July-February (2012-13) wasrecorded at $459.46 millionagainst that $451.8 millionduring July-February (2011-12), according to the data ofPakistan Bureau of Statistics(PBS). The mobile phoneimport into the countryduring the month of Febru-ary 2013 decreased by 13.94per cent and 18.58 per centwhen compared to that inFebruary 2012 and January2013 respectively. The mobilephone import duringFebruary 2013 stood at$51.088 million against$62.746 million in February2012 and $59.346 million inJanuary 2013, the datarevealed. It is pertinent tomention here that thecountry’s trade deficitdecreased by 10.06 per centduring the first eightmonths of the current fiscalyear as exports expandedby five per cent and importswitnessed negative growthof 2.41 per cent.

SMEDA seeks SMEsector stakeholdersproposalsSalim AhmedLAHORE—The Small andMedium EnterprisesDevelopment Authority(SMEDA) has launched amove to collect opinions andsuggestions from SMEsector stakeholders in orderto reposition SMEDA’s rolein SME development ofPakistan. According toSMEDA sources, in the firstphase, general entrepre-neurs, academics and SMEsector experts were ap-proached through massmedia. Whereas, in thesecond phase, all chambersof commerce and industry,trade & industrial associa-tions, DFIs, investors forumsand academic institutions arebeing approached to havetheir suggestions. A letterbeing sent by CEO SMEDASardar Ahmad NawazSukhera, along with abrochure bearing four majorquestions, has urged theSMEs to extend theirsuggestionsatsuggestions@smeda.org.pkfor larger economic interestof the country.

PQ shipping activityKARACHI—Three shipscarrying containers andedible oil were allotted berthat Qasim InternationalContainers Terminal, MultiPurpose Terminal and LiquidCargo Terminal during the last24 hours, port sources saidhere Wednesday. Five moreships scheduled to load/offload containers, cement,wheat and G. cargo alsoarrived at the outer anchorageof Port Qasim during the last24 hours. Berth occupancywas 55% at the Port onWednesday where totalnumber of six namely AbuDhabi, CGM Debussy, SunBright, Al Salam II, RongZhou and Feng Hai-I arecurrently occupying berth toload/ offload containers, rice,diesel oil and edible oilrespectively. A cargo volumeof 77181 tonnes comprising45368 tonnes imports and30135 tonnes exportsinclusive of containerisedcargo carried in 1677 contain-ers (Boxes) were handles atthe Port during the last 24hours.—APP

ISLAMABAD—The PakistanRailways (PR) is set to priva-tize one more train, whichhas been dysfunctional forthe last one year. A PR offi-cial told APP on Wednesdaythat the Railways had de-cided to outsource the op-erations of Quetta Express,which was suspended inMarch last year because ofshortage of locomotives andsuffering loss. The trainused to ply between Lahoreand Quetta.

The decision to restorethe Quetta Express has beentaken to facilitate the people

of Balochistan as the work-ing of locomotives has beenimproved now, he added.

He said that the train ser-vice would be restored in themid of April. The official saidthe Pakistan Railways wasalso working to outsourcethe Bolan Mail service,which runs between Quettaand Karachi, in order to earnhealthy profit.

The PR is likely to invitean expression of interestfrom the interested parties inthe coming week for BolanMail, which will have 10coaches, he added. Pakistan

Railways has alreadyprivatised three trains, outof which two are success-fully running. Quetta Ex-press will be the fourth train,after Shalimar Express, Busi-ness Express and NightCoach, which have beenoutsourced by the PakistanRailways on the basis of apublic-private partnership.

The Night Coach with 14coaches, runs between Lahoreand Karachi via Faisalabadand Multan while the ShalimarExpress and the Business Ex-press, also ply between Lahoreand Karachi.—APP

Pakistan Railwaysprivatizing another train

SPENDING hours watching TV or playing computer games each day doesnot harm young children’s social

development, say experts.The Medical Research Council (MRC)

team who studied morethan 11,000 primary schoolpupils says it is wrong tolink bad behaviour to TVviewing, BBC Health re-ported on Tuesday.

Although researchersfound a small correlationbetween the two, they sayother influences, such asparenting styles, mostprobably explain the link.

But they still say “limitscreen time”, this caution-ary advice is becausespending lots of time infront of the TV everydaymight reduce how muchtime a child spends doingother important activitiessuch as playing withfriends and doing home-work, they say.

‘We found no effect with screen timefor most of the behavioural and social prob-lems that we looked at and only a verysmall effect indeed for conduct problems,such as fighting or bullying”, said DrAlison Parkes Lead investigator.

For the MRC study, published in Ar-chives of Diseases in Childhood, Dr AlisonParkes and colleagues asked UK mothersfrom all walks of life about their child’s TVviewing habits and general behaviour.

Almost two-thirds (65%) of the 11,014five-year-olds included in the study

watched TV between one and three hoursa day, 15% watched more than threehours and less than 2% watched no tele-vision at all.

Watching more than three hours’ TVa day at this age predicted avery small increase in “con-duct” problems at the ageof seven.

After their seventhbirthday, these boys andgirls were slightly more likelyto get into fights, tell lies orbe bullies than their peers,according to their mothers’reports.

Dr Parkes said it waswrong to blame social prob-lems on TV.

“Our work suggeststhat limiting the amount oftime children spend in frontof the TV is, in itself, un-likely to improve psychoso-cial adjustment.”

Prof AnnetteKarmiloff-Smith, of

Birkbeck, University of London, said thatrather than focusing on the possible ad-verse effects of TV and video games, itwould be better to look at what positiveimpact they could have on children.

Prof Hugh Perry, chair of theMRC’s neurosciences and mentalhealth board, said, “We are living in aworld that is increasingly dominatedby electronic entertainment, and par-ents are understandably concernedabout the impact this might be havingon their children’s wellbeing and men-tal health.

TV time does not breedbadly behaved children

KARACHI: Rangers taking their positions during search operation in Lyari.

KARACHI: Leader of MQM Dr Farooq Sattar submitting his nomination paper for NA-249 at returning office in City Court.

KARACHI: Former Speaker Sindh Assembly Nisar Ahmed Khuhro cutting cake alongwith Deputy High Commoner of Peoples Republic of Bangladesh to celebrate BD’s 42ndNational Day.—PO photo by Sultan Chaki

KARACHI: Writer Umar Khattab Khan presenting his book ‘Funkaar Kahanian’ to chiefguest, Himayat Ali Sahir, at the book launching ceremony at Arts Council.—PO photo

Honorary ConsulGeneral of

Morocco calls oncaretaker CM

IRFAN ALIGI

KARACHI—Honorary Con-sul General of The Kingdomof Morocco Ishtiaq Baig(T.I) Wednesday called onSindh caretaker Chief Min-ister Justice (Retd) ZahidKurban Alavi at CM House.

He discussed matters ofmutual interest and stressedto increase bilateral trade be-tween Pakistan and the king-dom of Morocco.

He also hoped thatthere will be twin city (PortCities) cooperation be-tween both countries whilethere was big opportunityof exporting textile, rice andother things. Caretaker CMsuggested that there wasneed of exchange of teams,groups and delegations ofyouth of bothcountries,being both coun-tries muslims, inter-exchengewill certainly bring goodrecult.

On the occasion, theHonorary Consul Generalpresented a book entitled“AAJ KI DUNYA” to Care-taker Chief Minister Sindh.

Music fansenthralled byGerman &

Pakistani musiciansKARACHI—The music fanswere on Tuesday night en-thralled by German and Paki-stani musicians at a fusionconcert arranged by TehzeebFoundation and Goethe In-stitute.

Sitar master Ashraf SharifKhan from Lahore andChristoph Reuter, pianist andcomposer based in Berlin(Germany) along with Tho-mas Rndiger, a percussion-ist also from Berlin, per-formed on the occasion. Theorganisers said that the au-dience enjoyed their under-standing of bringing to-gether all their influencesfrom different musical partsof the world.

Ashraf Sharif Khan fromLahore, at the age of 21, wasawarded the Khwaja-Khurshid Anwar Prize andthe Hazrat Amir KhusroPrize.He had played numer-ous concerts in the U.S, Eu-rope, Africa and Asia.

Christoph Reuter studiedjazz piano in Berlin, Germany,and graduated as student ofProf. Richie Beirach (NewYork). As a pianist he playedconcert engagements in Ger-many and many other coun-tries like France, Spain, Italy,Turkey, Sweden etc.

Besides his solo perfor-mances he is a music direc-tor and accompanist of vari-ous singers and bands.Asa composer he had wrote hisfirst piano concerto for sym-phony orchestra in 2007, withtwo more following till to-day.—APP

Use ofpolythene bags

bannedSTAFF REPORTER

K A R A C H I — C a r e t a k e rChief Minister Justice(Rtd) Zahid Kurban Alavihad banned the usage ofplastic bags and publictransport running withoutthe fitness certificateacross the province ofSindh.

In this regard neces-sary direct ives had beenissued to the authori t iesconcerned by the care-taker CM secretariat onWednesday.

Alvi had also directedthat the car Registrationcounters be established inthe offices of the all deputycommissioners in the prov-ince.

According to other direc-tives, issued by the CM Sec-retariat, there would be banon the sale of un registeredvehicles, all the show roomshad been asked not to sellnew vehicles without regis-tration, while it must be en-sured that vehicles and mo-tor cycles be registeredwithin one month.

Riding on bikes byyoung boys, riding motorcycles without helmet hadalso been banned while incase of violations of thesedirectives Rs. 500 wouldhave to be paid as challan,the directives further said.

KARACHI—A high levelmeeting was held onWednesday under the chair-manship of Inspector Generalof Police (IGP), Sindh,Shahid Nadeem Baloch, atthe Central Police Office toreview the police securitymeasures in connection withcoming general election.

The meeting was at-tended by Additional IGs ofSindh, Traffic, Karachi, CID,DIGs of Karachi, Head Quar-ters, Hyderabad, Larkana,Mirpurkhas, Sukkur, CID,Special Branch, Crime, Traf-fic, Administration and allDistrict SSPs of the province.

Shahid directed the po-lice officers to finalise earlythe District Election Contin-

gency Plan in consultationwith the respective district,sessions judges and deputycommissioners.

He also directed SpecialBranch to assist DistrictSSPs in finalisation of theElection Contingency Plan.

IGP directed police offic-ers to ensure survey of thepolice stations along with thedesignated district head ofElection Commission and re-spective Deputy Commis-sioner and submit a report inthis regard at the earliest.

The IGP further asked tosubmit within 24 hoursthrough respective RangeDIGs, details of additionalrequirements including man-power, logistics etc for the

coming elections.He also directed to fur-

nish categorised details ofnumber of polling stationswith reference to most sensi-tive, sensitive and normalpolling stations.

Shahid stressed to iden-tify general issues prevailingin the respective districts andadopt measures to resolvethem at local level by involv-ing community members andlocal leaders.

He said that extra-ordi-nary security measuresmust be entrusted to pro-vide security to the livesand properties of thepeople, vital installationsgovernment/semi-govern-ment buildings etc.—APP

Sindh polls security aspectsdiscussed in high level meeting

KARACHI—Chief Justice(CJ) of the Sindh High Court(SHC), Justice Mushir Alamhas lauded the Sir Syed Uni-versity of Engineering andTechnology (SSUET) for pro-ducing 10,000 engineers forthe country.

He was addressing aschief guest at the 16th Con-vocation of the Universityheld at the Expo Center hereon Tuesday evening.

Some 1,100 passing outgraduates, including a grouphaving done Masters in Civil,Bio-Medical Engineering andMathematics, were conferred

CJ SHC lauds SSUET for meetingrequirement of engineers in country

degrees in Computer, Elec-tronics, Civil, Bio-Medical andTelecom Engineering andComputer Science.

Gold, Silver and Bronzemedals were also given tothose bagging first, secondand third positions in all theengineering disciplines.

Addressing the passingout graduates, CJ MushirAlam told them that they areequipped with creative andinnovative abilities and pre-pared to take up the chal-lenges ahead and thus con-tribute towards more success-ful and technologically ad-

vanced Pakistan.Pakistan, he pointed out,

is land of opportunity and Al-lah has gifted Pakistan with3rd largest coal mines; 3rdnumber in cotton production;4th number in rice production;5th largest gold mine, 6th larg-est army; 7th nuclear power,11th biggest gas reservoir;11th number in wheat produc-tion and world’s biggest youth(20-30 years) make up nearlyone-third of Pakistan’s totalpopulation.

‘Just as we have high con-fidence on your capabilitiesand on the excellence of the

academic and attitudinalgrooming each one of youhas received, I personally,and above all your parents,family members and all havevery high expectations fromeach of you’.“It is strongconviction of all of us thatthe engineers could changethe country if you devoteyour energy and time to makenew breakthroughs,” CJMushir Alam emphasisedand added that all above re-sources Pakistan was giftedwith “await your explorationto convert Pakistan as astrong, industrialised.—APP

KARACHI—Unabated vio-lence continued to claim in-nocent lives as three personsincluding a woman werekilled and several others in-jured in fresh spate of vio-lence in different localities ofthe city on Wednesday.

According to rescuesources, unknown armedmiscreants opened fire at twopersons near Meeran Nakaarea of Lyari, killing them onthe spot and fled the scene.The bodies were shifted tohospital for post-mortem

Violence claims three more lives,6 suspects nabbed with arms

where, according to hospitalsources, the victims wereshot in the head whichproved fatal. Tortured deadbody of an 85-year-oldwoman was found from ahouse situated in Rafah-e-Aam Society, Malir.

Meanwhile, more than 10people were injured in variousincidents across the metro-politan city. Rangers con-ducted operation in SanghoLane, Phool Patti Lane, ShahBeg Lane and Aath Chowk ar-eas and conducted house to

house search after closing en-try and exit points of the lo-calities. During operation, sixsuspects were arrested withweapons. The arrested peoplewere shifted to unknown lo-cation for further investigation.

The citizens have ex-pressed grave concerns overthe law and order situationwhich has not only adverselyaffected routine life but alsohurting educational activitiesand business depriving hun-dreds of thousands people ofemployment.—INP

AMANULLAH KHAN

KARACHI—Most parents andteachers are reluctant to dis-cuss sensitive issues with chil-dren and inform them about thephysical and emotional as-pects of puberty, whichpushes them to seek informa-tion from unreliable sourcesand exposes them to exploita-tion.

his finding was derivedfrom a baseline study con-ducted by ‘Lifeline’. Address-ing a press conference, ChiefExecutive of LifeLine Omer

Need for knowledge about adolescenceAftab said that there was asevere vacuum of informationin the 100 million plus Pakistaniyouth. To date, no serious,concerted efforts have beenmade to sensitize them on theirbasic rights. Without properguidance, youth falls into badways and is scarred for life.The LSBE course, which is amajor initiative, is being taughtmostly in urban and semi-ur-ban areas and ignores 62% ofthe population.

The objective of the studywas to “gauge and assess thelevel of understanding of dif-

ferent key stakeholders aboutadolescent & youth sexual andreproductive health right(SRHR) issues”. Data was col-lected from 9 districts of Paki-stan, includingIslamabad,Lahore, Lodhran, Karachi,Jamshoro, Peshawar,Abbottabad, Quetta andPishin. Adolescents, parents,teachers, politicians, promi-nent religious leaders, EDO’s,District Managers of Popula-tion Welfare Departments andNGO representatives of theselect districts made the targetrespondents for the study.

THE Pakistan Pediatrics Associationhas estimated that around 1,000 to1,200 school-going children of six

to 16- year age take up smoking every dayin the country.

According to a report ofthe association, besides thenew smokers, ex-smokers inthe low socio-economicgroup reported spending 25per cent of the total house-hold income on thishabit.The report focuses onthe anti-smoking social mar-keting strategy in Pakistanwith an aim to reduce smok-ing prevalence, especiallyamong the youth. To reducethe prevalence of smokingand its associated cancers,immediate actions are re-quired by public health au-thorities, the report sug-gested.

The trend of cigaretteusage has been going up-wards and, according to the World HealthOrganization, in Pakistan, the usage ofcigarette smoking is increased by 30 percent compared to 1998 figures.

The WHO reported that a comprehen-sive ban on tobacco advertising, promo-tion and sponsorship can decrease theconsumption of tobacco products forabout seven per cent provided all the othertobacco control measures are kept con-stant where as in some cases such inter-vention are found to decrease tobacco useup to 16 per cent.In Pakistan, 19 per centof adults of 18-year age and above smoketobacco while each year, approximately

Over 1000 school-goingchildren start smoking daily

60,000 people die of tobacco-related dis-eases in the country. Among youth of13-15 year age, around 34 per cent reportbeing exposed to second-hand smoke inpublic places and 27 per cent report ex-

posure at home.Project Coordinator,

TheNetwork for ConsumerProtection, Dr Sobia Faisalsaid that smoking was thesingle most avoidable riskfactor for cancers.

“Majority of smokersknow about this fact but it isdifficult for them to give it upmainly in the face of wide-spread smoking advertise-ments by the tobacco indus-tries,” she added.She saidthat social marketing was aneffective strategy to promotehealthy attitudes and influ-ence people to make real,sustained health behaviorchange by transitingthrough different stageswhich include

precontemplation, contemplation, prepa-ration, action, and maintenance. Dr Sobiasaid that social marketing could influencesmokers to voluntarily accept, reject,modify, or abandon their smokingbehaviour. In Pakistan, the smoking preva-lence has been increasing, necessitatingeffective measures, she said.

She said that it was a high time toeducate the country’s people about thehazards of tobacco, particularly school-going children to strive against promo-tional tactics adopted by the tobaccoindustry.

LAHORE: A butterfly extracting nectar from a flower at a local park.

LAHORE: PML-N President Muhammad Nawaz Sharif addressing a delegation of PML-F led by Dr Irfan Gul Magsiwho joined PML-N.

LA H O R E—Dr SadiaShaukat a prominent figureis working as a Professorat Township Campus, Uni-versity of Education,Lahore. She is a dedicatedteacher and passionate re-searcher.

Recently she was se-lected for Best TeacherAward by HEC in the rec-ognition of her services foryear 2011. She loves withcommunity work andwants to make it sustain-able. She has observed theconcept of Environmentalsustainable developmentby visiting some foreigncountries and she is en-gaged in ESD activitiessince 2007. She haslaunched a series of ESDcampaigns to bring abouta positive change at herworkplace and also playeda significant role for theuplift of community.Following is the gist of atete-e-tete with PakistanObserver;Q: How do you define yourrole as a communityworker?A: I enjoy while workingon environment, I am acommunity lover now, be-cause I believe the con-nection and relat ionshipwith the community thatdevelops from communityservice adds an invaluablelayer to education. I alsothink “Community Serviceis one way of putting yourmark on the world and ex-periencing diversity to en-hance your mind and

spirit” through Communityservice I t r ied to helppeople and gained an un-derstanding about eachother and a sense of humancompassion.Q: Do you have any signifi-cant event of your life whichturned your thinking to-wards ESD?A: Yes, I cannot forget thevoice of my consciousnesswhich endorsed me to takeinit iat ive for further, aspeople say good consciousis a good pillow. It was verystrange that day, it seemedas something was chokingmy breathe...Oh it was like…like I can hardlyinhale…suffocation al laround and I rushed out ofroom to find air so that Ican save my life and what Isaw outside!!! Darkness,obscurity, and smoke ev-erywhere. I felt scary andmore suffocated as if it wasthe end of my l ife whensuddenly a ray of greenlight fell over my eyes andmade me feel better. Thatmoment I opened my eyesand found myself on mybed. This dream turned mythinking towards ESD.Q: Do you have any train-ing regarding ESD?A: University of Educationprovided me such a won-derful supportive platformto carry on my work on ESD.UOE sent me to PlymouthState University, USA for atraining course on Environ-mental Stewardship in 2008.Where I learnt differenthands on activities andstrategies for preservingenvironment. After comingback from this training I ar-

ranged a series of activitieson Environmental steward-ship.Q: What type of activitieshave you arranged for thepromotion of ESD?A: I conducted different ac-tivities such as seminar on“Environmental Awarenessand Education”. The pur-pose of this activity was totrain the students for the

welfare of community.Later on I arranged a Talkon climate change with helpof WWF to make aware thestudents regarding the ef-fects of climate change onhuman behaviour and itsfuture hazards. Similarly Idesigned some interven-tion strategies for raisingstudents’ awareness aboutthe conservation of energyresources and recyclingmethods.

My students gave mepositive response aboutmy ESD campaigns by de-signing colorful and attrac-

A journey towards environmental sustainable developmenttive posters on ESD duringtheir teaching practice.They used these postersfor raising awareness ofschool students and sur-rounded are of their univer-sity.Q: How do you manageyour work on ESD withyour job?A: Yes it is tough for me tomanage but I tried to link upthe concept of ESD with myteaching. According to thenature of subjects I incor-porate ESD concepts, whenI teach Art and Craft my stu-dents love to engage itsconcepts while making theirartwork. My students madevery effective environmen-tal strategies by using trashmaterial. Well I arrangeseminars and exhibitionsfrequently at my workplace.Q: Can you share your suc-cessful event on ESD withu s ?A: Yes, An exhibition oflearning models on topic 3R’s “Recycle, Reduce andReuse”. Approximatelyhundred models were dis-played in the expositionwhich was made with wastematerials of daily routinelife by using creative skillsin which paintings, artificialshowpiece, mechanical andelectrical models wereprominent.Q: Do you collaborate withNGO’s for the promotion ofESD?A: Yes, I am working withsome national and interna-tional NGO’s but WWF andITA is significant.Q: How do you get fundson ESD implementation?A: I am very thankful to my

University which is sup-porting me generously.Being a PSU alumni I havebeen granted funding forcontinuation of ESD ac-tivities like my workshopon Keeping Classroom En-vironment Clean throughWaste Management Tech-niques.Q: How do you feel aboutthe attitude of people re-garding ESD activities?A: Well, I get a very goodresponse on my work.People encourage and mo-tivate me towards ESD.Q: Have you publishedyour work on ESD?A: Yes I have publishedmy work in forms of re-search reports and papers.Prospective Teachers’ Be-liefs regarding InformationSeeking and ResponsibleBehaviour towards Envi-ronment at Post GraduateLevel is my significantcontribution.Q: What type of chal-lenges do you face whileimplementing ESD?A: Yes sometimes whenpeople resist to acceptchange and their reluctantbehaviour towards ESD.To bring about change inthe thinking of people isvery difficult but I do ef-fort until I do not observeany positive outcomesthrough their actions.Q: what are your futureplans?A: I want to establish insti-tute for “Education for Sus-tainable development” atUniversity of Education toensure a sustainable futureby all aspects socially, cul-turally and environmentally.

InterviewMuzaffar Ali

Sadia Shaukat

STAFF REPORTER

L A H O R E — P a k i s t a nPeople’s Party (PPP) Punjabhas welcomed the appoint-ment of Najam Aziz Sethi asCaretaker Chief Minister(CM) Punjab.

These views were ex-pressed by PPP PunjabGeneral Secretary TanveerAshraf Kaira and informa-tion secretary Raja AmirKhan in a joint meeting withmedia-men at PPP Punjaboffice here on Wednesday.

They said that decisionwould be helpful for free andtransparent elections.

The PPP leaders allegedthat PML-N wanted to sendthe issue of caretaker CMPunjab to the election commis-sion but the PPP had saved thehonour of democracy by re-solving the matter in the par-liamentary committee.

They hoped that care-taker CM Najam Sethi wouldperform well and ensurepeaceful, free and transpar-ent polling in the province.

They hoped the day ofMay 11 would be decisiveday for the nation regarding

STAFF REPORTER

LAHORE—The Lahore HighCourt Justice Nasir SaeedShaikh on Wednesday hasreferred the case against anattempt to form regionalbenches of High Court to theChief Justice Lahore HighCourt with the recommenda-tion that larger bench shouldbe constituted in order tosettle the issue properly.

When LHC Justice NasirSaeed Shaikh resumed hear-ing of the case, thepetitioner’s counsel AllahBux Gondal told the courtthat the Punjab governmenthas not consulted the HighCourt Bar Association re-

garding formation of fivemore benches throughoutthe province.

The lawyer also re-quested the court that thatthe provincial governmenthas violated the constitutionand the law; therefore stayorder should be issuedagainst the aforesaid steptaken by the provincial gov-ernment.

The Justice Nasir SaeedShaikh referred the case to theChief Justice with the recom-mendation of formation oflarger bench that may be ableto handle the issue in accor-dance with rules and regula-tions. Meanwhile, the LahoreHigh Court Wednesday

sought details of dependantsof its all the Class-IV employ-ees.

In a circular addressed toall the officers at LHC Princi-pal Seat and Additional Reg-istrars of its benches atRawalpindi, Multan andBahawalpur, all class-IV em-ployees have been directedto furnish the list of their chil-dren with name, age, educa-tion and marital status withinthree days, positively.

The step is aimed at ame-liorating the lot of the chil-dren of low paid court em-ployees. They will have ac-cess to library books andother facilities available un-der the ambit of law.

Regional benches issue

Case referred to LHC CJ

STAFF REPORTER

LAHORE—The City DistrictGovernment Lahore will re-pair more than one centuryold buildings Newton Halland Patiala People library of

City govt to repair Newton Hall,Patiala People Library

King Edward Medical Uni-versity under Dilkash LahoreProject.

District CoordinationOfficer (DCO) Lahore Noor-ul-Amin Mengal expressedthese views while visitingKing Edward Medical Uni-versity on Wednesday.

Vice Chancellor of KingEdward University FaisalMasood, EDO works & ser-vices and others were alsopresent on this occasion.

Mengal announced thatCity District GovernmentLahore would repair dam-aged and obsolete buildings,i.e. Newton Hall and King

Edward Library underDilkash Lahore Project andwill bear 50 percent expensesof repair work while fifty 50percent amount will be givenby King Edward administra-tion.

He also stated that repairand construction workwould soon be commencedby works and services de-partment of CDGL.

On this occasion FaisalMasood, vice chancellor,announced that to be con-structed underpass to linkUniversity and Newton Hallwould be named afterMengal.

PPP hailsSethi as caretaker

CM Punjabits future.

Meanwhile, PIAF hascongratulated senior jour-nalist and political analystNajam Sethi for assumingcharge as caretaker ChiefMinister Punjab.

In a joint statementChairman PIAF Malik TahirJaved, Senior Vice ChairmanKhamis Saeed Butt and ViceChairman Amjad Ali Jawahoped that Mr. Najam Sethiwould utilize his best abili-ties to overcome electricityand gas shortage by tight-ening nose around the pil-ferage.

PIAF office-bearers saidsince caretaker Chief Minis-ter have command over theissues being faced by theeconomy, therefore, busi-ness community under-stands that the things on theeconomic front would take apositive turn.

They said that law andorder is an other issue thatrequire CM attention.

They said that PIAFwould extend every possiblehelp and cooperation infulfilment of his agenda dur-ing his stay in office.

WomanOmbudspersonvisits Joseph

ColonySALIM AHMED

L A H O R E — W o m a nOmbudsperson Punjab, Dr.Mira Phailbus visited JosephColony, Badami Bagh alongwith a team of Children Com-plaint Office.

She met women and chil-dren of the affected colony,enquired about their stateand problems and observedthe efforts made to provideto them relief and comfort.

Dr. Mira Phailbus said thatnecessary measures were tobe taken immediately in orderto get the traumatized womenand children out of the agonyand the anguish. She said thatthey needed special care sothat they could lead normallife again. “it is our responsi-bility to bring smile back onthe faces of these children”.Dr. Phailbus said she advisedthe women to take care of theirchildren’s education. Beforeleaving the grief stricken area,Dr. Mira Phailbus and the Fo-cal Person of the CCO, EhsanGhani distributed books, colorpencils, card caps and ediblesamong the children.

PBTA startsregistration ofblood banks

LAHORE—The Health De-partment Punjab has startedregistration of blood banksin the province and licensesare being issued to run ablood bank.

This was stated by theSecretary Punjab BloodTransfusion Authority(PBTA) Dr. Jaffar Saleem whilebriefing about the function-ing of PBTA. He disclosedthat in future no unregisteredblood bank could be oper-ated and if anybody foundviolating the law, such bloodbank not only be sealed butcriminal proceedings wouldalso be initiated against theowner under “Punjab SafeTransfusion Ordinance”. Hesaid that there is nothingmore precious than the hu-man life and safety of humanlife is the number one respon-sibility of health departmentPunjab.

Dr. Jaffar Saleem said thatFatmeed Foundation,Sundas Foundation, RedCrescent Society andHussainia Foundation weredoing well but these organi-zations have to adopt morepreventive methods duringthe collection of blood dona-tions for ensuring that onlysafe blood should be trans-fused to the patients.—INP

Free medicalcamp at KotLakhpat Jail

LAHORE—A medical campwas organized at Central JailKot Lakhpat here Wednes-day to provide free medi-cines to prisoners sufferingfrom various chronic dis-eases.

As many as 20 specialistsof skin, eye, dental and phy-sicians examined 300 pa-tients who turned up fromvarious jails of the provinceto get their medical check-upin central jail Kot Lakhpat.

The doctors provided thepatients with medicines aftertheir medical check-up.

Talking to APP, SeniorSuperintendent Jail MohsinRafiq Chaudhry said that onthe directive of IG Prisons,the free medical camp wouldbe organized in the jail everymonth.—APP

Urs of Hazrat MadhuLal Hussain on

March 30LAHORE—The two-day an-nual urs celebrations ofMadhu Lal Hussain popu-larly known as ‘MelaChiraghan’ will begin at hisshrine, Baghbanpura here onMarch 30, Saturday.

Director General Reli-gious Affairs Hassan Rizviwill perform inaugural cer-emony of the urs celebra-tions by laying traditional‘chadar’ on the grave of sufisaint. Auqaf departmenthas allocated over Rs 458,000for ‘langar’ (free meals) to bedistributed among devoteesduring the urs.

Mehfil-e-Samaa andMehfil-e-Naat will be held inwhich noted qawwals andNaat khawans will performduring the urs days. Reli-gious and spiritual meetingswill also be held and ulemamushaikh will threw light onthe teachings of HazratMadhu Lal Hussain.—APP