e-paper pakistantoday 23th march, 2012

LAHORESTAff RePoRT

THE country’s entire system hasfailed and the government haslost its writ not only in Balochis-tan but also in other areas, JusticeJawad S Khawaja said on Thurs-

day while hearing a suo motu case initiatedagainst a girl’s gang-rape in Faisalabad.

The bench, comprising Justice Jawad SKhawaja and Justice Athar Saeed, was hear-ing the case at the Supreme Court’s LahoreRegistry. The court continued the proceed-ings after police did not arrest the main ac-cused, Asghar Ali, a close aide of Punjab LawMinster Rana Sanaullah, despite strict or-ders given by the bench on the last hearing.

The bench was hearing an appeal filedin the Supreme Court by rape victim Sam-ina Bibi, who sought cancellation of bailgranted to the alleged rapists by the LahoreHigh Court (LHC). However, the apex courtconverted her appeal into suo moto noticeon March 6 due to the seriousness of the of-fence, and directed the police to arrest As-ghar, who remains at large from day one.

In his remarks Justice Khawaja said,“The girl, who cannot sleep at the night dueto the agony of what happened to her, iswaiting for justice, and the police is comingto the court every time with an excuse fornot arresting the accused.”

“So whether it is the Khadim-e Ala ofPunjab (chief minister of Punjab) or thejudges seated on fancy chairs in the courtsof law, they are all equal partners in the ob-noxious crime committed against the inno-cent girl,” Justice Khawaja said, whilelooking towards the police high-ups linedup in the court and the victim girl whostanding in a corner of the courtroom.

“It is alleged by some quarters that theSupreme Court is unduly interfering into theworkings of the institutions, but tell me shouldwe not give justice to this girl? Can we leave herat the mercy of police’s callousness which inthis case helped a culprit escape from its cus-tody?” “The court handed over the custody ofthe accused in this case to the district police of-ficer (DPO), but he managed to escape.

Pakistan lifts AsiaCup in thriller, BD garners praise

PAGE | 19 PAGES | 07, 08

islamabad — peshawar edition Friday, 23 March, 2012 Rabi-ul-Sani 29, 1433Rs15.00 Vol ii no 265 22 pages

The entire systemhas failed: SC

g Court says govt has notonly lost its writ inBalochistan but also inother parts of the country

g Justice Khawaja scoldspolice for not arrestingan alleged rapist linked toPunjab law minister

Continued on page 04

ISLAMABADMASooD ReHMAN

The contempt of court case againstPrime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilanitook a new turn on Thursday withAitzaz Ahsen’s argument that the ex-isting Contempt of Court Ordinance,2003, stood void after the incorpora-tion of Article 10-A in the constitu-tion through 18th Amendment.

Aitzaz, who is defending the PMin the contempt of court case, arguedthat the existing contempt of courtlaw was not in conformity with theconstitution, thus contempt proceed-ings could not be conducted under it.

He asked the court to declare this lawvoid. However, the court told himthat he could properly challenge it.

A seven-member special bench ofthe Supreme Court, comprising Jus-tice Nasirul Mulk, Justice Asif SaeedKhan Khosa, Justice Sarmad Jalal Os-many, Justice Ejaz Afzal Khan, Jus-tice Ijaz Ahmed Chaudhry, JusticeGulzar Ahmed and Justice Muham-mad Ather Saeed, was hearing thecase. Aitzaz said that Article 10-Agives the right of a fair trial to everycitizen, thus under the said article, thebench which had already

No verbalagreementswith US now: FO

ISLAMABADSHAIq HuSSAIN

Pakistan on Thursday said no verbalagreements would be made in the futurewith Washington and there would becomplete transparency and predictabilityin its relations with the United States. “TheParliamentary Committee on NationalSecurity (PCNS) has clearly recommendedthat no verbal commitments be made, andeverything should be reduced to paper.

Aitzaz challenges contempt ofcourt law, bench’s competence

Continued on page 04Continued on page 04

DHAKA: (L-R) Bangladesh’s Shakib Al Hasan, captain Mushfiqur Rahim, Nasir Hossain and Tamim Iqbal react after Pakistan

won the final match at the Asia Cup Cricket Tournament on Thursday. REUTERS

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02Friday, 23 march, 2012

News

Today’s

LookQuick

islamabad

story on Page 10 story on Page 05

news cartoon

Page 13

Post competition held at RAC to mark Pak day celebration BISP is nation’s pride: PM

Take interest inmasses’ problems,PM tells cabinet

ISLAMABADSTAff RePoRT

PRIME Minister Yousaf Raza Gi-lani on Thursday reprimandedhis cabinet ministers for nottaking interest in resolving themasses’ problems in general as

he observed in the cabinet meeting that theywere just facilitating people from their re-spective constituencies.

A source in the federal cabinet told Pak-istan Today on Thursday that Gilani ex-pressed displeasure over the ministers’attitude of taking interest only in the prob-lems confronting the people from their con-stituencies.

Information Minister Dr Firdous AshiqAwan too dropped a hint in this regard duringpress briefing on the cabinet meeting and toldreporters that the prime minister had directedall ministers to mark their presence in everyprovince of the country. “The ministersshould not only confine to their own con-stituency and monitor the affairs of their min-istries properly,” she said.

To a question on progress made so far inthe Benazir Bhutto murder case, the informa-tion minister said a mindset was behind thisassassination. “One thing is clear that it is notan act of an individual as a mindset is behindit… its a international conspiracy in whichsome local and international players are in-volved,’’ she said.

To a question about the next prime min-ister if Gilani was removed for any reason,Firdous said the PPP was not seeing such asituation in the near future. “It is too early tocomment on it … if it happens the matter willbe sorted out while taking allied parties intoconfidence,” she added.

On appointment of new chief electioncommissioner, Firdous said the prime minis-ter and leader of opposition in the National

Assembly would jointly decide to appoint newchief election commissioner.

The information minister also dispelledthe impression that PPP-led the governmenthade any anti-media policy. “The media is ourpartner… it is our power and we will neveradopt any anti-media policy,” she added.

The federal cabinet reviewed the imple-mentation status of cabinet decisions pertain-ing to Privatisation, Production and Railwaysdivisions. The cabinet was informed that 50percent decisions pertaining to Production,50 percent to Privatisation and 45 percentpertaining to Railways had been imple-mented.

The cabinet also discussed progress on re-structuring of Pakistan Steels Mill. The primeminister directed that complete plan in thisregard should be brought before the cabinetin the next meeting.

The cabinet considered and gave its ap-proval for confirmation of the decisions takenby the Economic Coordination Committee(ECC) in its meeting held on March 13. Thecabinet was informed during the presentationon Consumer Price Index (CPI) that duringthe week ending on March 15 there was atrend of rise in price of 25 items includingtomatoes, rice, gram pulse, vegetable ghee.

The cabinet considered and accorded itsapproval, in principle, to start negotiationsand for signing of the inter-governmentalagreement between governments of Pakistanand the Italy for Euros 57.75 million or CDCP-II Ministry of the Economic and Finance ofItaly through Artigiancassa SPA committed tofinance the Citizens Damage CompensationProgramme II (CDCP-II) through a soft loanof Euros 57.75 million of which 99 percent isuntied and 1 percent is tied.

The cabinet considered and accorded itsapproval to signing of the Agreement onTransfer of Offenders between Pakistan andUzbekistan.

‘Musharraf was aware of Bhutto’s murder timing’The reports by both the United Nations and the Joint Investigation Team (JIT) blameformer Pakistan president Pervez Musharraf for the assassination of former primeminister Benazir Bhutto, according to an article published in the New York DailyNews. The reports come in the wake of criminal proceedings against the seven ac-cused in the case, including Musharraf, and the Pakistan government requesting In-terpol to issue an international warrant for Musharraf’s arrest. According to MarkSiegel’s article, the United Nations’ 70-page report concludes that the failure of po-lice to effectively probe Bhutto’s assassination, and the destruction of evidence, was“deliberate and ordered from above”. The JIT report said that Musharraf, workingalong with two police officers, was aware of the assassination plot against Bhutto andits timing, and personally ordered the destruction of evidence. The police officers fa-cilitated the terrorists, who devised various phases of the plot, from conception to ex-ecution and cover-up operations, it added. Despite the fact that Musharraf hadordered security teams to guard two other former prime ministers who were his polit-ical supporters, Bhutto was provided with virtually no security. NewS DeSK

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Newsarts & entertainment comment

Sanctions?:

articles on Page 12-13

It is for the US to end the talk about sanctions.

Not enough:There just isn’t going to be enough water.

fahd Husain says:

Kuldip Nayar says:A party losing its ethos?: The Congress is losing.

Foreign news

story on Page 18 story on Page 15

sPortsAmir must focus on rehabilitation: Lorgat

story on Page 18

Priyanka bags Jaya Bachchan’s role in ‘zanjeer’ remake french ‘al qaeda’ suspect dies in violent last stand

Will the real author please stand up?: Is parliament supreme?

qudssia Akhlaque says:Parliament in focus: What did president’s address omit?

ISLAMABADAfP

AT least 943 Pakistaniwomen and girls weremurdered last year for al-legedly defaming theirfamily’s honour, the coun-

try’s leading human rights group saidon Thursday. The statistics highlightthe growing scale of violence suffered bymany women. Despite progress on bet-ter protecting women’s rights, activistssay the government needs to do more toprosecute murderers in cases largelydismissed by police as private, family

affairs. “At least 943 women were killedin the name of honour, of which 93 wereminors,” wrote the Human Rights Com-mission of Pakistan in its annual report.Seven Christian and two Hindu womenwere among the victims, it said. TheCommission reported 791 “honourkillings” in 2010. Around 595 of thewomen killed in 2011 were accused ofhaving “illicit relations” and 219 of mar-rying without permission.

Some victims were raped or gangraped before being killed, the commis-sion said. Most of the women werekilled by their brothers and husbands.Only 20 of 943 killed were reported to

have been provided medical aid beforethey died, the commission wrote. De-spite the rising number of reportedkillings, activists have praised parlia-ment for passing laws aimed atstrengthening women’s protectionagainst abuses. Rights groups say thegovernment should do more to ensurethat women subjected to violence, ha-rassment and discrimination have ef-fective access to justice. Last year, aBelgian court sentenced four membersof a Pakistani family to prison for themurder of their daughter, who defiedthem by living with a Belgian man andrefused an arranged marriage.

will appear in asghar Khan caseif summoned: nawaz sharifDUBAI: Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) President Nawaz Sharif has said thathe would appear before the Supreme Court if summoned in connection with the AsgharKhan case. Talking to reporters on Thursday in Dubai, Nawaz said the federal govern-ment was violating the court’s orders, and was following the footprints of former dictato-rial regime. He said the rulers should honour and implement the judgments of the courts.He said that martial law would never come in Pakistan again. The PML-N chef said thatPakistan was left alone in the world due to the incompetence of the rulers. He said thepeople were facing load shedding, unemployment, worst law and order situation, and thePML-N would address all the public issues after coming into power. NNI

QuEttASHAHzADA zuLfIqAR

Balochistan MPAs on Thursday expressed concern over theworsening law and order in the province, suggesting holdinga meeting to devise a strategy to curb mounting lawlessnessin Balochistan.

The assembly session started with Speaker AslamBhootani in the chair. Irrigation Minister Aslam Bezinjo saidthat robbing passengers and kidnapping of bus drivers onhighways had become a routine matter on Quetta-KarachiHighway. Criminals used vehicles having ministers’ nameplates while committing different crimes with impunity, hesaid, adding that the CM should take the issue of law andorder seriously and ensure that Quetta-Karachi Highway re-mains safe for all. PML-Q MPA Jaffar Mandokhail supportedBezinjo’s views.

Health Minister Ainullah Shams rejected allegations that

some provincial ministers were involved in kidnapping forransom and asked the CM to conduct an independent inquiryinto he matter. He said there were a number of showroomsin Quetta where smuggled vehicles were being sold withoutany fear but authorities concerned were paying no attentionin this regard. Expressing concern over law and order, SeniorMinister Abdul Wasay said that they should not condemnsuch incidents because they were in the government. He saidthat it was our responsibility to ensure security to people andtheir property but unfortunately so far the elected represen-tatives had failed to do so, adding just statements on theirpart were tantamount to cheating the people.

Wasay said that criminal gangs were so powerful that theywere even not sparing anyone, including politicians. TheHouse also disposed of a resolution asking the provincial gov-ernment to provide financial assistance to poor studentsstudying in Army Institute of Medical Sciences after assurancethat the issue would be resolved in the provincial cabinet.

Nearly 1,000 women

‘killed for honour’

Balochistan MPAs concerned over law and order

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News

KABuLAfP

THE West will sub-sidise Afghan se-curity forces bymore than $4 bil-lion a year after

US-led troops leave in 2014,President Hamid Karzai saidon Thursday, implicitly ac-cepting a cut in the plannedsize of his military.

Western officials toldAFP that no final agreementshad been reached on fundingor on the size ofAfghanistan’s security forcesafter combat troops inNATO’s US-led InternationalSecurity Assistance Forcewithdraw. But Karzai told agraduation ceremony at a

military academy in Kabul:“It’s set that post 2014, forthe next 10 years until 2024,the international community,with the US in the lead andfollowed by Europe and othercountries, will payAfghanistan security forces$4.1 billion annually.” Itwould cover both the armyand “other armed forces”, hesaid, adding: “We agree andthank them.” Karzai’s West-ern allies in the war againstTaliban insurgents want toavoid the country descendinginto civil war after they leave.

But while NATO officialshave long projected futureAfghan forces at 352,000men, the US recently circu-lated a proposal for a totalstrength of 230,000, and

Western officials say the $4.1billion cost is based on thatfigure. It is a fraction of cur-rent Western spending on thewar. The 10-year conflict hascost the US, alone, more than$444 billion. But Afghan de-fence officials have expressedconcerns over whether secu-rity forces 230,000 strongwould be adequate. The de-fence minister, GeneralAbdul Rahim Wardak, re-portedly warned that if it wasnot based on “realities on theground” it could be a “disas-ter”, “putting at risk all thatwe have accomplished to-gether with so much sacrificein blood and treasure”.

Following Karzai’sspeech, a Western officialstressed that the numbers

were part of a model beingdiscussed in the run-up tothe NATO summit in Chicagoin May, nothing had been de-cided and “everything is con-ditions based”. “This is partof an ongoing discussion be-tween coalition planners andour Afghan allies and willcontinue in Chicago and be-yond,” he said, adding thatunder the concept Kabulwould contribute $500 mil-lion to the $4.1 billion. “Thenumber of Afghan forces willbasically come to a peak laterthis year” and should then re-duce, he said. “In the best ofall worlds in the out years theinsurgency will go down andas the insurgency goes downthen fewer Afghan forces willbe needed.”

I think once parliamentaryprocess is complete, we willdefinitely proceed in accor-dance with the policyguidelines,” said ForeignOffice spokesperson AbdulBasit at the weekly pressbriefing.

He said, “We do not seeany reason as to why thegovernment of Pakistanshould be giving any verbalcommitment on any issuebecause this whole processis aimed at bringing abouttransparency and pre-dictability in our relationswith the US and NATO.The government willstrictly abide by parlia-mentary policy guidelines.”

The FO spokespersonwas asked that the parlia-mentary committee hadrecommended that all theagreements with the NATOand the US should be writ-ten, so was it that the pre-vious understanding andagreements for the logisticsupport and usage of aircorridors were oral?

“If you read the parlia-mentary committee’s rec-ommendations carefully,you would see that they re-ferred to two written docu-ments. One has alreadylapsed in February thisyear which was about Ac-quisition and Cross-servic-ing Agreement with the US.The other was an MOUsigned on 19 June 2002with the ISAF, with the UK,then the lead nation. ThatMOU is still valid,” Basitsaid.

He said, “The parlia-mentary committee hasrecommended that thesewritten agreements shouldbe revisited, if need be, andappropriate provisions areincorporated to preservePakistan’s interest.”

“Depending on whatthe final recommendationsand the policy guidelines ofthe joint parliamentarysession are, we will then

proceed accordingly butobviously if we were to re-visit some of the agree-ments which wereconcluded in 2002, we willhave to engage with the USintensively. For now, weare all waiting for the par-liamentary process to com-plete,” he said.

To discuss the PCNSrecommendations, US Am-bassador Cameron Munteralso called on Foreign Min-ister Hina Rabbani Khar atthe Foreign Office onThursday. Speaking on theoccasion, Hina Khar saidthe parliamentary processwould give public owner-ship to the re-engagementand transparency and pre-dictability in Pakistan’s re-lations with the UnitedStates.

Meanwhile, when Basitwas asked aboutBangladeshi press reportsthat former ISI DG AsadDurrani provided money toBangladeshi government in1991, he said, “Let me saythat these news reports aretotally baseless. These arenot only baseless but alsopart of mischievous effortsto damage the brotherlyand mutually beneficialPakistan-Bangladesh rela-tionship.”

“Pakistan strictly ad-heres to the principle ofnon-interference in inter-nal affairs of other coun-tries and that it would beill-advised to give credenceto such false, misleadingand self-serving stories,”he said.

When his attention wasdrawn to media reportsthat some French werebeing trained by the Tal-iban in North Waziristanand the French authoritieshad raised the issue withPakistan, he said, “I denythese reports.”

Asked that as a policystatement Pakistan alwayscondemned drone attacksinside Pakistan and whatwould the policy be after

the parliamentary process,he said, “The parliamen-tary process is not yet com-plete. So, let us wait.”

“Our position on droneattacks is very clear. Weconsider these as illegal,unacceptable and counter-productive. It is an issuethat involves our sover-eignty. So, we cannot reallyagree or accept dronestrikes inside Pakistanunder any circumstances.We have made our positionvery clear on that,” Basitsaid.

Asked whether Pak-istan saw the Taliban as thenext major stakeholder inAfghanistan, Basit said,“Pakistan’s position wasmade very clear by theprime minister himself inhis statement on February24 urging all parties, in-cluding the Taliban andHizb-e-Islami to join thereconciliation process.”

“Our position is veryclear. We do not supportany specific group. Whatwe support are the effortswhich lead to genuine rec-onciliation in Afghanistanand ensure peace and sta-bility there,” he said.

To a query on diplo-matic efforts being madeby Pakistan about sepa-ratist Baloch elements liv-ing in European countries,he said, “As I have told youearlier we had made de-marches with certain coun-tries and that we had beenassured that they wouldnot allow their respectiveterritories to be used foranti-Pakistan activities.”

Commenting on 32 In-dian consulates working inAfghanistan and their rolein destabilizing Balochis-tan, he said, “Your infor-mation about the numberof Indian consulates inAfghanistan is incorrect.There is definitely foreigninterference in Balochis-tan, and we are not oblivi-ous to externalinterference.”

No verbal agreementsContinued FRoM page 1

served a show cause noticeto the premier was not com-petent to conduct the trialproceedings. He repeatedlystressed that the judges ofthe seven-member specialbench who issued the showcause notice to the premierand later framed contemptcharges against him, werenot competent to conductthe trial proceedings, “as itwould be a violation of theconstitution”.

He said that althoughArticle 204 of the constitu-tion dealt with contempt,however Article 10-A was agoverning law, thus it shouldbe followed for the dueprocess of law, and ensuringand safeguarding the funda-mental rights of the citizens.“It’s a plain surgical situa-tion that a judge who initi-ates contempt proceedingsand then frames charges isnot competent for the trial ofthe accused,” Aitzaz argued.

“Prosecution of any casewill not be possible if Arti-cle-10A is considered inde-pendent of all laws,” JusticeGulzar Ahmed noted. “Dou

you mean and want to saythat after issuing the shownotice and framing thecharges, we should have re-ferred the case to anotherbench,” Justice Nasirul Mulkasked, to which Aitzazreplied in affirmative. ThePM’s counsel said the matterwas related to the qualifica-tion and disqualification ofthe prime minister, thus itwas necessary that a fair trialmust be conducted.

To a court query, he saidhe believed that the judgeswho initiated contempt pro-ceedings were not compe-tent to conduct trialproceedings. “You cannotget a fair trial if the com-plainant is himself thejudge,” Aitzaz argued.

Justice Khosa told Aitzazthat these were not the pro-ceedings he was pointing outwith respect to Article 10-A.He said when a judge issuesa show cause notice to thecontemnor, he asks in thenotice that why the con-tempt of court proceedingsshould not initiated againsthim. He asked Aitzaz that itwas wrong to say that the

court had decided to punishhis client.

Justice Ejaz Afzal Khannoted that the proceedingscould not be conducted if theissue of prejudice was raisedtoo much. Aitzaz, however,contended that this was nota matter of personal like ordislike, but of a fair trial. Hecontended that the judgeswho initiated contempt pro-ceedings against the premiercould proceed with the trial,adding that if this processcontinued, the premierwould be deprived of hisfundamental right.

When Aitzaz repeatedlystressed that the Contemptof Court Ordinance, 2003,was in conflict with Article10-A of the constitution,Justice Osmany askedwhether the bench shouldfollow the contempt of courtordinance or Article 10-A.Aitzaz said the bench wouldhave to follow the constitu-tion. To another query byJustice Osmany thatwhether justice was not en-sured before the introduc-tion of Article 10-A, Aitzazsaid the said article had

strengthened fair trial andjustice. Justice Khosa toldhim that if he was not satis-fied with the Contempt ofCourt Ordinance, he shouldchallenge it properly.

At the onset of the hear-ing, Aitzaz, while clarifyingsome media reports abouthis comments on the judgesof the special bench, said hisparty had complete trust inthe members of the specialbench. He contended thathis comments about hisclient that he was a “peer-o-murshid and gaddi nasheen”(patron and custodian of ashrine) were distorted by asection of the media. He saidhe did not seek any favour inthis context.

“You should clarify yourposition in this regard out-side the courtroom, as thecourt has not sufficient timefor hearing such clarifica-tions about media reports.

The court adjourned fur-ther hearing until Monday,asking Aitzaz to conclude hisarguments on that day.Aitzaz had requested thecourt to adjourn the hearinguntil next month.

Aitzaz challenges contemptContinued FRoM page 1

Who had helped him runaway?” Gathering courageto defend the police,Faisalabad City Police Offi-cer (CPO) Bilal SiddiqueKamyana said the DPS in-volved in the case had beenmade an OSD (officer onspecial duty) after an en-quiry into the escape of thealleged rapist from policecustody.

The judge replied, “Donot say this, as you knowvery well. The one whoshould have been sus-pended has been awardedimportant posting by youbosses.” Punjab AdvocateGeneral Ashtar Ausaf sug-gested printing advertise-ments in variousnewspapers to seek publicsupport for police in ar-resting the fugitive ac-cused. The judge expressedannoyance over the sug-gestion, saying, “Ads willbe a mere joke. Do youthink the accused, who is aclose man of the Punjablaw minister, will surren-der himself before policeafter the ads?”

In a warning tone, Jus-tice Khawaja said that thecase was a test for policeand courts, adding that ifthe police failed to arrestthe accused, its top offi-cials should prepare to

leave. The rape victim, Sam-

ina, told the bench that thealleged rapist was pres-surising her to make acompromise and end thecase. “Bibi, you mightmake a compromise, butthe court will not leave thecase because it is now a suomotu notice and not justyour appeal petition whichyou had filed for the can-cellation of bails,” thejudge replied.

The court adjournedthe hearing until March 27,giving the Faisalabad CPOanother chance to arrestthe rape accused.

According to the detailsof the case, Asghar calledSamina Bibi to his officefor a job interview, butraped her along with hisfour friends. The D-TypeColony Police Station inFaisalabad registered acase of gang rape on theapplication of the victimagainst Asghar Ali, AnsarAli, Muhammad Ihsan,Tariq Ali and Karam Hus-sain under section 365-Band 376/2 of PakistanPenal Code (PPC). ExceptAsghar Ali, all the accusedwere arrested, however,LHC judge Mazhar IqbalSindhu had granted bailsto them about sevenmonths ago.

Entire systemContinued FRoM page 1

West to pay Afghan military$4bn a year, says Karzai

nation celebrates

Pakistan day today

ISLAMABADoNLINe

The nation will celebratePakistan Day on Friday tocommemorate the LahoreResolution passed in 1940.The day would dawn with 31gun salutes in the federaland 21 gun salutes inprovincial capitals. Therewould be a public holiday inall federal and provincialgovernment offices, banksand private offices. Thenational flag will be hoistedon important public andprivate buildingsthroughout the country andall Pakistani missionsabroad. This year too, thepermanent feature of thearmed forces parade onPakistan Day has beencancelled. TV channels andFM radio channels will airspecial programmes andnewspapers will bring outsupplements to highlightimportance of the day.Political, literaryorganisations andeducational institutionshave organised specialfunctions to mark the Day.People will visit themausoleum of the founderof the nation Quaid-e-AzamMuhammad Ali Jinnah inKarachi and Mausoleum ofDr Allama Iqbal to pray fortheir souls.

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Friday, 23 march, 2012 05

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News


THE Supreme Court on Thurs-day accepted a request by spyagencies, allowing them to givethe court an in-camera briefingover the worsening law and

order and alarming increase in incidentsof targeted killings and abductions for ran-som in Balochistan.

A three-member bench of Chief Jus-tice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, Jus-tice Khilji Arif Hussain and Justice TariqParvez also directed the Balochistan chiefsecretary to submit a detailed report overincidents of targeted killings and abduc-tions for ransom, as well as the arrests ofthe accused who were involved in targeted

killings during the last three years.The court also directed the spy agen-

cies to point out during the in-camerabriefing the areas of the province wherelaw and order was extremely hostile.

The court observed that it was theduty of the provincial police and politi-cians to take steps to ensure stability inBalochistan.

The court was hearing a petition onBalochistan’s deteriorating law and orderand incidents of targeted killings, filed byBalochistan High Court Bar AssociationPresident Hadi Shakeel Ahmed.

The provincial inspector general of po-lice and chief secretary appeared beforethe bench on notice. The chief justiceasked the chief secretary that what washappening in the province as even two po-

licemen were killed the previous day.Upon this, the chief secretary said they

were hopeful that the law and order situa-tion would be controlled. “You might see astable situation in files, but the position onground is not stable,” Justice Khilji ArifHussain said.

Expressing concerns over closingdown of schools in Balochistan, the chiefjustice said teachers were reluctant to per-form their duties due to worsening lawand order, adding that the court should beinformed in this regard.

“For how long will matters be kepthidden, because such an attitude is also af-fecting the situation,” he added.

The court asked what steps had beentaken by the provincial government for de-veloping the local body system.

Meanwhile, the court also expresseddissatisfaction over the Sindh police’ re-port on the murder of Balochistan Assem-bly Member Mir Bakhtiar Domki’s wifeand daughter.

Sindh police claimed that someprogress had been made in the case, but itcould not be shared in open.

The court then directed the Inter-Ser-vices Intelligence (ISI), Military Intelli-gence (MI) and Intelligence Bureau (IB) togive in camera briefing on Balochistan.

On the last hearing, the attorney gen-eral for Pakistan had told the bench thatthe ISI and MI wanted to brief the court inchamber over the Balochistan issue.

Both the top spy agencies have alreadysubmitted their classified reports over theBalochistan situation.

LAHOREINP

Criticising parliamentary commit-tee’s recommendations on US-Pak-istan relations, PakistanTehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) ChairmanImran Khan said on Thursday thatseeking apology from the UnitedStates while asking for more dollarswas not logical to open NATO sup-plies, and warned of protests

against the current parliament if itrestored supply routes through Pak-istan. He warned that if the sittingparliament restored NATO suppliesfrom Pakistan, then his party wouldstage protests against both NATOand the sitting parliament. He saidthat each minute of parliament’ssession drains Rs 65,000 from thenational exchequer, but the parlia-mentarians have failed to redressthe masses’ suffering masses.

SRInAGARoNLINe

Jammu and Kashmir LiberationFront (JKLF) Chairman YasinMalik will arrive in Islamabad onSaturday to appear before thememo commission.

A JKLF spokesman said thatMalik had left Srinagar for NewDelhi to proceed onwards to Pak-

istan on Saturday, after he wasasked by the memo commission tosubmit his application in person.

Malik had written a letter toChief Justice of Pakistan IftikharMuhammad Chaudhry, seekingpermission to depose before thememo commission after key wit-ness Mansoor Ijaz claimed thatMalik had met a senior RAW officialin New Delhi.

23rd march anddream of socialwelfare state

FARzAnA RAjA

March 23 is remembered as Pakistan Dayand rightly marked as a day of rejoicingbecause it was the same day when the basisof our beloved homeland were laid downwith a clarity of vision and a vivid line ofaction to achieve it. It was the day when thePakistan Resolution was approved by theprominent Muslim leaders from acrosssub-continent. This vision was inspired bythe dream of Allama Iqbal who, almost adecade ago, had envisioned a separatehomeland for the Muslims of thesubcontinent, where they could live theirlives in accordance with their religious,social and cultural ideologies. This vision ofIqbal was evidently reflected in theresolution tabled by Maulvi Fazal-e-Haq,another prominent supporter and leader ofMuslim identity, on March 23, 1940.This resolution was not only based on aroadmap to acquire a new country but alsocomprised of an agenda of economic, socialand religious freedom, for the Muslims ofthe subcontinents who were marginalisedand discriminated against, in every field oflife, due to their fewer numbers.

bisP is nation’s

pride: PmISLAMABAD

STAff RePoRT

Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani onThursday told his cabinet that the BenazirIncome Support Programme (BISP) was apride of the nation, as it had earnedworldwide recognition as an effective socialsafety programme. He said developingcountries had been advised by the UNsecretary general to replicate the same. Theprime minister also constituted a committeeconsisting of the minister for informationand broadcasting, BISP chairperson,minister for interior and prime minister’sspecial assistant in the social sector toformulate a strategy to create awarenessamong the people about the programme asan effective instrument of womenempowerment as per vision of ShaheedMohtrama Benazir Bhutto.

terms with Us mustbe made public: Fazl

PESHAWARSTAff RePoRT

Reaffirming his party’s firm stance infavour of new terms and conditionsregarding relations with the UnitedStates, chief of Jamiat Ulema–e-IslamFazlur Rehman said, “All matters in thisrespect must be made public rather thendeals beyond the curtain.” “Strategicpartnership between the US and Pakistanhas already been terminated. NowPakistan needs long-term links with USon the basis of friendships,” Fazlremarked during a chat with reporters ata lunch on in Peshawar on Thursday.Flanked by senior leaders and stalwarts ofthe party, Fazl said blockade of suppliesto NATO has put the US under pressure,therefore, the government needs toremain careful in revival of new termsand conditions with the US.

osama’s brother-in-law allowed tomeet sisterISLAMABAD: The Islamabad HighCourt (IHC) on Thursday allowed ZakaryaAhmad Abd Alftah, brother of Osama binLaden’s Yemni widow, to meet his sister.The court issued notices to Inter-ServicesIntelligence (ISI) and ministries of defenceand interior to submit replies within twoweeks over a petition filed by Osama’sbrother-in-law. Islamabad High CourtChief Justice Iqbal Hameedur Rehmanheard the case, argued by MuhammadAamir Khalil. The petitioner had asked theIslamabad High Court for quashment ofcases registered against Amal AhmadAbdul Fattah, his sister and Osama’sYemeni widow, by the FIA. oNLINe

SC to hear spy agencies’ stance

on Balochistan in-camera

PTI to protest if NATO suppliesrestored, says Imran

Yasin en route to appearbefore memo commission

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Islamabadncsw launches fourresearch studies


National Commission on the Status ofWomen (NCSW) launched four researchstudies and paid tribute to women parlia-mentarians for their efforts towardswomen’s empowerment in Pakistan. Thestudies were carried out with the supportof Aurat Foundation and USAID underGender Equity Programme (GEP). The cer-emony was attended by a multitude of peo-ple from all walks of life. NCSWChairperson Anis Haroon said that NCSWwas authorized to make recommendationsto amend, abolish or repeal such laws, poli-cies and customary practices which under-mine and deny the fundamental rights anddignified status to women and minoritiesin Pakistan. She deliberated upon the roleof NCSW, especially after the introductionof 18th Amendment in the constitution. GEP representative Simi Kamal told thatGEP was a USAID supported programmeof Aurat Foundation focusing on reducinggender-based violence, improving access ofwomen to justice, empowerment at home,the workplace and public spaces, as well asbuilding capacities of institutions for Gen-der Empowerment. GEP works with criti-cal Pakistani govt organisation on acooperative basis in support of the genderpolicies”, she added. Simi Kamal also gave an overview of theresearch programme of NCSW which isbeing financed by USAID under GenderEquity Programme of Aurat Foundationand highlighted the importance and needfor carrying out the studies.Research studies were presented by the au-thors who shared the key findings with au-dience. The second segment featured theparliamentarians from across Pakistan.The studies included “Appraisal of the Ca-pacities of Women Development Depart-ments (WDDs) at provincial level” by DrRiffat Haque, “Shelter/Crisis Centres andGender Crime Cell” by Afia Zia, “Assess-ment of Disaster Management Institutionsand Development of a Gender ResponsivePreparedness Plan” by Mr Sohail Manzoor.

RAwALPINDI: Participants of a walk on the International water Day organised by wASA. STAff PhOTO


Amajor concern for the waterconservation drive that 60percent of the available waterresources are wasted. Thiswas stated by International

Center for Agricultural Research in DryAreas (ICARDA) Country Head Dr AbdulMajid. He was speaking at a seminar titled‘Water and Food Security’, organised by theInternational Islamic University Islamabad(IIUI) Environmental Science department.

He stated that there was a need for im-proving the water reservoirs to cope withthe water shortage and that dams couldeasily be built to add to the existing water

reservoirs. On food security, he said thetraditional methods used to harvest cropsare costly and that new technology shouldbe applied to get better results.

IIUI Faculty of Basic and Applied Sci-ences Dean Prof Dr Irfan said social behav-iours regarding water consumption need tobe changed. He stated that the need forwater and food is growing faster than thehuman population. He added that waterconversation is the key for the survival ofthe generations to come.

Atlantis Premium Chief Executive Of-ficer Mohsin Lodhi said water is the mostimportant element for human survival.

He stated that Islam also teaches thejudicious use of water. He added that therehad been a rise in Pakistan in the deaths

caused by polluted water.PoLISh nAtIonALS ceLeBrAte

SUcceSS of MoUntAIneerS: Themembers of the Polish community cele-brated the success on Thursday of two pol-ish mountaineers who became the firstclimbers to summit the Gasherbrum I, theworld’s second highest mountain.

On March 9, the two Poles made his-tory when they stood 8,068 metres high onthe ‘Hidden Peak’ in the Karakoram Range.

They made their ascent without usingoxygen- a feat unheard of among moun-taineers.

However, the celebrations were marredby the deaths of three mountaineers wholost their lives during the expedition.

The mountaineers included Nisar Hus-

sain, a high-altitude Pakistani porter, Aus-trian national and team leader GerfriedGoschl and Swiss national Cedric Hahlen.

Talking to the media at a ceremony or-ganised in this regard, Polish team leaderArtur Hajzer said climbing the GasherbrumI was previously considered impossible, es-pecially during the winter season.

“Many people attempt the climb insummer. However, it is impossible to climbany higher than 8,000 feet in February asthe weather does not allow it,” said Artur.

Elaborating on the harsh conditionsthe team faced, he said the winds exceeded300 kilometres at 10,000 metres and thattemperatures at the base camp dropped to30 degrees below zero. At the summit, itdropped 30 to 50 degrees below zero.

FUUast awards degrees on 4th convocation


As many as 962 students were awardeddegrees at the fourth convocation of Fed-eral Urdu University of Arts, Science andTechnology (FUUAST) here on Thursday.Some 19 students received gold medalsfor their outstanding performance. International Islamic University (IIU)Rector Professor Fateh Mohammad Malikwas chief guest on the occasion.The students from the departments ofMBA, BBA, MA Economics, Engineering,Computer Science, Urdu, M Phil and PhDreceived degrees and medals.Those brilliant students who were givengold medals include Salman Amir andMuhammad Muzzamil of BS ComputerSciences; Bilawal Yameen and EhtashamHaider of MSc Computer Sciences; Zo-haib Arfi, Sadia Haleem, Tayyaba Mum-taz and Umer Rehman of BS AppliedPhysics; Nisara Parveen, Aqeel Zahid,Waqar Anwar, Ayesha Noreen, Sonia Arifand Zulfiqar Ali of MBA; MuhammadRaza, Tayyaba Kalsoom and MariumNaseem of MSc Economics and UmairIqbal of BSc Electrical Engineering.While addressing the participants, FatehMalik said that educated youth is a na-tional asset and they should play theirrole for prosperity of the country. He said promotion of Urdu language wasneed of the hour as Urdu is widely spokenlanguage in all the Middle East countriesespecially in India and Afghanistan.Prof Fateh Malik said FUUAST is playingcrucial role in promoting the national lan-guage of the country.“Youth is the backbone of any country andthey must utilise their capabilities andequip themselves with latest education forthe betterment of the country”, he said.Earlier, Vice Chancellor Dr MuhammadQaiser said FUUAST was based on theunique ideology and dream of “BabaeyUrdu” Maulvi Abdul Haq where the stu-dents are getting knowledge of scienceand technology besides Urdu language.


The climate change could cost theeconomy of Pakistan up to 14 bil-lion dollar each year for natural dis-asters and other losses which isalmost 5 percent of the country’sGDP, said former federal state min-ister for environment Malik AminAslam. He was addressing a semi-nar titled “Outcomes of Post-Dur-ban Climate Change Negotiations”organised by Centre of Excellence,Environmental Economics and Cli-mate Change, Pakistan Institute ofDevelopment Economics (PIDE)here on Thursday to discuss the im-plications of these negotiations onPakistan as climate change is di-rectly impacting the economy ofPakistan.

While speaking on the occasion,PIDE Vice Chancellor Dr RashidAmjad said unfortunately suchglobal conferences were becoming afutile exercise as all member coun-tries either developed or developingwant to safeguard their own agen-das and individual benefits.

“However, there is a strongneed to understand that instead ofupholding individual interests andblaming one another for GHG emis-sions, we should look for practicaland collective preventive measuresas climate change is a threat for theentire world,” he said.

While giving a detailed presen-tation, Amin Aslam said the DurbanClimate Change Negotiations wereimportant platform to discuss thethree challenges like resuscitate theKyoto Protocol, deliver climate fi-nance to vulnerable countries and

how to survive in the overall eco-nomic recession.

Talking about its implication onPakistan, he said Pakistan is a verylow emitter but one of the worst vic-tims of climate change, as accord-ing a Germanwatch places Pakistan‘most affected’ for 2010 and in top10 for 1990-2010.

He said Pakistan was focusedon its red lines like Pakistan shouldbe included in extreme climate vul-nerability definition to scoping cli-mate finance and ensure itsdevelopment pathway not be con-strained, “which we achieved sofar,” he claimed.

He explained that basic vulner-ability of Pakistan was that it was inthe region of glacial melting zone,which means living in a neighbor-hood of unavoidable ‘vulnerability’with main issue being ‘water’.

He said in Pakistan maximumnatural disasters (90 percent) wereclimate related and the damagecosts of these natural disasters wasgoing up with the top three disas-ters occurring in the past threeyears. “Most alarming thing is thatthe frequency of these natural dis-asters is going up with 60 percentoccurring in the past 10 years.

Talking about the Durban Ne-gotiations, he lamented: “All toughdecisions frustratingly delayed likethe final shape of second CP ofKyoto Protocol was delayed till2012, emission cuts on carbon pol-luter countries delayed till 2020,decisions on how large the cutswould be till 2015, delivery of cli-mate finance till 2020 but onlything recued was ‘ a fruitless nego-tiation process”.

Climate change to costPakistan $14 billioneach year: ex-minister

Need to raise water reservoirs stressed

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Islamabad

ISLAMABAD: CDA staff unloads plants from tractors at Constitution Avenue for spring. .STAff PhOTO


NATIONAL University ofModern Languages(NUML) is playing a veryeffective role in connectingdifferent nations of the

world by imparting knowledge of diverselanguages and promoting internationalharmony among various cultures by ar-ranging people-to-people interactions.

Parliamentarian and Turkey-Pak-istan Friendship Group Leader in TurkishGrand National Assembly Burhan Kay-aturk stated this here on Thursday duringhis visit to the university.

The visiting Turkish parliamentarianmet Rector Maj Gen (r) Masood Hasanand Director General (DG) Brig AzamJamal. Head of Turkish Department DrZakeriya Naz also accompanied him inthe meeting. Burhan was heading a del-egation of Turkish officials includingTurkish Ambassador Mustafa Babur Hi-zlan and other high officials from Pak-Turk International EducationFoundation and representatives of Turk-ish media, business and Turkish Air-lines.

Burhan told the Rector NUML thathe happened to be alumni of Universityof Engineering and Technology (UET),Lahore, and had also worked as an engi-

neer in Pakistan. Therefore, he has a very long link

with Pakistan and wants that both coun-tries develop more and more coopera-tion in all those areas where they canhelp each other, he added. He observedthat he was deeply impressed by the per-formance of NUML as it was impartingthe language learning and providing anopportunity to Pakistani and other for-eign students to come and learn lan-guages of their choice. Languageproficiency has enabled NUML gradu-ates to perform their duties effectively atdifferent national and international or-ganizations and assist in the business ofglobal world, he added.

Moreover, Turkish AmbassadorMustafa Babur Hizlan told that Turkishstudents did not prefer to study inBritain and other western countries as itwas getting very costly for them. Theypreferred to come and study in NUML asit had all necessary language learning in-frastructure and different languages ofthe world were taught on modern lines.

Turkish Parliamentarian BurhanKayaturk and Ambassador MustafaBabur Hizlan also inaugurated TurkishLanguage Laboratory at Turkish Lan-guage Department and delegation ofTurkish officials along with the Rectorand the varsity DG also visited Turkishlanguage classes.

He told the students that Turkishgovernment was the cognizant of the factthat the knowledge of Turkish language,exchange of students and teachers, andpeople-to-people meeting could bringboth brother countries closer to eachother.

The Rector briefed the visitingguests about the Turkish and other de-partments of the university. He told theguests that he appreciated the friendlygesture of Turkish embassy and govern-ment for assisting the university in thecapacity enhancement of the depart-ment. In the end, the Rector presentedsouvenirs and shields to the visiting of-ficials.

cuban envoy visitsradio Pakistan


Cuban Ambassador to Pakistan JesusZenen Buergo Concepcion on Thursdaysaid his country was deeply interested inpromoting ties with Pakistan in variousfields. He was speaking during his visit toRadio Pakistan headquarters in Islamabad.He was briefed on the working andachievements of Radio Pakistan by Direc-tor General Murtaza Solangi.The Cuban ambassador said Cuba hadawarded scholarships to Pakistani studentsand 300 doctors would graduate next year.He added Cuba intended to increase schol-arships for Pakistani students in variousdisciplines. “At present, 900 Pakistani stu-dents are studying in Cuba, and on theirreturn, they will serve as ambassadors ofCuba in Pakistan,” he remarked.Concepcion congratulated Pakistanis onPakistan Day and thanked Islamabad forsupporting a resolution at the United Na-tions, asking for lifting of US embargoes onCuba. He said Pope was visiting his coun-try from March 26to March 28, which theCubans were viewing as a great diplomaticvictory. He said both Cuba and Pakistanwere victims of disinformation and nega-tive impression spread by foreign media,which had absolutely no connection withground realties.He expressed willingness to enhance coop-eration between the two countries in cul-tural field as well. He said a Cuban troupewould visit Radio Pakistan during its tourto Pakistan soon.The ambassador recalled the Cuban helpfor the victims of the 2005 earthquake inPakistan. “Cubans were the first to reachand last to leave Pakistan during thattragedy,” he remarked. He said the Cubanshad arrived along with 32 hospitals andover 600 medicos. He said all the hospitalsand equipment were gifted to Pakistanwhile leaving the country.While giving briefing to the visiting digni-tary, PBC DG Murtaza Solangi said RadioPakistan was the biggest electronic mediaorganisation in the country, having theunique honour of pronouncing the creationof Pakistan. He said Radio Pakistan airednews and programmes in 23 Pakistani and11 foreign languages.Later, the ambassador was taken to varioussections of the broadcasting house, includ-ing News Channel, Current Affairs Chan-nel, National Broadcasting Service,Community Channel FM-93, FM-101 andEnglish Channel FM-94. He also recordedan interview during the visit.

Five out laws arrestedISLAMABAD: The city police claimedto have arrested five outlaws on Thurs-day from various areas of the city.Shehzad Town police arrested Nisar andrecovered a 12-bore pistol, a 12-boregun and 500 grams of hashish from hispossession. The Margallah police appre-hended Tahir and recovered looteditems from him. Meanwhile, the Golrapolice arrested Qasiar Mehmud for pos-sessing a 30-bore pistol. The SabziMandi police arrested Jadoon Masihand recovered revolving lights from thecar he was driving. STAff RePoRT

RAWALPInDISTAff RePoRT:

Rawalpindi Arts Council (QAC) onThursday organized a poster competi-tion in connection with Pakistan Daycelebrations among the schools andcolleges of Rawalpindi and Islamabad.

Naheed Manzoor was the chiefguest and distributed shields and cer-tificates among

The title of the competition wasHistorical Places of Pakistan. ResidentDirector Waqar Ahmed was also there

Naheed Manzoor applauded the ef-forts of the students. her view is thatPakistan is very beautiful country andit was achieved after the great sacrificesof our ancestors

In school category, Amaar from JSPublic School secured first position,Adil of same school got second whileSarmzi of RAC remained third in postercompetition.

Similarly, in college category, Am-mara Shakeel from Government DegreeCollege for Women F-Block Rawalpindistood first, Tahir Saleem from

Rawalpindi Arts Council got secondand Aroosa Naeem from Fauji Founda-tion secured third position.

Resident Director Waqar Ahmed

said that the Council has arranged dif-ferent programs to celebrate PakistanDay with zeal and zest. A variety pro-gram will be held on Friday at 7pm.

more steps requiredto counter humantrafficking: expertsISLAMABAD: Human trafficking is avery serious social issue and hasbrought Pakistan to the limelight with ahumanitarian focus, but there is notmuch focus in the media on this criticalhuman rights problem. This was ob-served by media experts during a con-sultation held on Wednesday. Theconsultation was a critical part of a proj-ect of International Organisation for Mi-gration (IOM) and was arranged andconducted by PINFO, an info-knowledgeand communication management or-ganisation. IOM at present is working inthe districts of Pakistan where humantrafficking is endemic. The human traf-ficking cannot be seen in vacuum, the par-ticipants noted and shared that thecountries where this issue was rampantwere usually politically unstable and eco-nomically weak. “The people of thesecountries only wish to leave their areasand go to greener pastures,” a participantnoted and added that situation in Pakistanwas also challenging. There was a consen-sus among the participants that Pakistan’ssociety must appreciate the actuality of theproblem and should not fall prey to the fal-lacious promises that the human traffick-ers usually made. STAff RePoRT

Post competition held at RAC to mark Pakistan Day celebration

NUML promoting cultural harmonyamong nations, says Turkish MP

ISB 23-03-2012_Layout 1 3/23/2012 1:39 AM

Editor’s mail 11Friday, 23 march, 2012

Send your letters to: Letters to Editor, Pakistan Today, 4-Shaarey Fatima Jinnah, Lahore, Pakistan. Fax: +92-42-36298302. E-mail: [email protected]. Letters should be addressed to Pakistan Today exclusively.

times changeEvery time a new baby is born, a new

invention is taking steps towards com-pletion. Chances are that the new kid willprobably be handling that invention inbut a few years time comparing that tothe fact that not thirty years ago, therewasn't a single telephone around to in-form the happy yet tensed families. Wecan say that the generations are speedingtowards modernisation every passingmoment.

While all the new inventions arehelpful, they are also killing the simplic-ity in every child's mind. They're ruiningthe generation in the most easiest ways;through blasting off kids' ears with theover-the-top quality, yet ridiculously ex-pensive headphones; through smallest,undetectable MP3's that are probablybeing listened to in many lectures andclass at this moment; through patheti-cally advanced gaming consoles that aredepriving children of nature's best sun-shine and sheer simple happiness.

Teenagers listening to music and notthose important lectures could face prob-lems in future. Children glued in front oftheir TVs, tongues sticking out in ridicu-lous concentration, are missing out onwhat could be their perfect childhood.It's not very likely that in the years tocome, they'll be telling their childrenhappy 'tales' of their young days. But it'shighly likely that they just might be com-paring video games’ graphics and in theprocess, ruining their child's life too.

We need to get out and help thosewho are blindly wrecking their eye sightsfor temporary fun. Sure, these inventionsare a huge help in this fast moving world,but as they say 'excess of anything isbad'.

FATIMA MOTALAKarachi

de-radicalisation centresThis is apropos of your editorial “De-

radicalisation centres” (23 January). It isquite encouraging that two de-radicalisa-tion centres are being set up in BajaurAgency and Tank, which will be jointlyrun by Pakistan Army and the FrontierCorps. Efforts will be made to de-radi-calise detainees arrested in conflict zonesthrough interventions such as psycholog-ical counselling, vocational training andskills’ development.

The ground work has yet to start butwe have started receiving a number ofobjections, like these centres are beingset up in adjacent areas where there isgrowing militancy, there is a suspicionthat such centres will become informaldetention centres, forces should only re-main involved in aggressive action andthere should be a clear distinction be-tween the responsibilities of the civilianand military arms and to achieve organi-sational efficiency and transparency, itshould be only civilian arm of govern-ment at the forefront of all such initia-tives.

It has been rightly pointed out thatthe state cannot rely solely on militarystrategy to turn the tide. But why weshould have only aggressive picture ofour army, paramilitary forces and agen-cies. We must work together and makethese centres a success story. It is hightime that we trust our own people andinstead of handing over these centres tosome foreign NGO or put it on sale toprivate parties, we should work in har-mony.

AFSHAIN AFZALKarachi

black day in sindhThe University of Karachi had publi-

cised on Friday that the university willremain open on Saturday despite MQM’scall to observe black day. As a result, sev-eral of us decided not to go since therewas no public transport on the streetsbut this morning two point buses wereattacked by miscreants near the univer-sity. The driver was a qualified one so hemanaged to dodge the miscreants butcouple of students got bruised. Severalcases like this were reported in differentparts of the city.

Karachi University and other institu-tions should know that today was a strictcall of strike and therefore they shouldhave closed the campus rather than urg-ing the students to risk their lives andcome to attend classes.

This act is not only perilous for thestudents but it makes their parents con-cerned as well who have no idea if theirchild is going to come back home safelyor not. In university every class andevery lecture is imperative and that iswhy students try their best not to miss asingle day.

Most of the time when there is astrike call, the university is also closedbut I don’t why this time it wasn’t likethat. Also these unusual and one-day-be-fore called strikes are no benefit to any-body.

These strikes or rallies are only goingto destroy our economy and our educa-tion system. The political parties need tostop thinking about their own benefitand need to sit down with the govern-ment and think about saving lives andsaving the country.

AISHA AHMEDKarachi

misuse of cell phonesCellular technology is taken as one of

the most fascinating inventions of sci-ence. It was hard to communicate andmeans of communications were slow be-fore its arrival.

Excess of everything is bad and Pak-istanis have the ability to make every-thing look bad. Mobile phones areexcessively used in our country. Moraland ethical values are overlooked whileusing cell phones. I believe that thisthing in the hands of young blood is oneof the root causes of many ills of our so-ciety.

A daughter is sitting with her fathercontinuously ticking the keypad and fa-ther is chill enough to let her do that. InPakistan phone packages are cheaperthan everything. There are parents whoare proud that their son/daughter knowseverything about technology. They don'tknow that they are doing everything butstudies. Young ones who don't have any-one to text find an interest in the form ofgames.

It has been proved that excessive useof cell phone is injurious to health. Fore-most effect is on eyesight, but the mainproblem is that such a user gets lethargicas he is no more interested in physicalgames and exercise. The use of cellphone should be made limited and par-ents should keep an eye on their chil-dren.

AREEBA HUSSAINKarachi

reclaiming our cultureThe collision between modern and

old culture has set the background forthe creation of several questions in theminds of people. The huge economic cri-sis, terrorism, lack of energy resources,desire for the revolutions and more im-portantly the planning to overcome thesecrises has affected the minds of people toa greater extent. The situation all over isvague and one can imagine himselfstanding on a film set of a war sceneamong the nations.

There is a huge difference amongstthe cultures all over the world but if wetake it in a broader sense, we see onlytwo cultures: the western and the east-ern. All the countries in the west share al-most the same culture and same is thecase in our part of the world.

In the eastern part of the world, the

religious culture is given priority andpeople stick to it. In the west, religious isjust a part of their culture. Whatever theydo is their culture; their culture dependsupon their acts. They believe their cul-ture is progressing with the progress intechnology.

If we look closely at their practices,their acts have no controversy with theirculture and both are the same. Some peo-ple blame the west for their obscenityand bluntness. They are of the belief thattheir thirst for glamour, fame, money andsex is a wrong approach towards life.Those who blame them don’t realise thatit is important to be honest with oneself.

How many people defend their cul-ture? This type of a question easily an-swers why their culture is dominant onus. We, the Muslims of subcontinent and

the nationals of the Islamic Republic ofPakistan are living in a world where thereis no importance of Islamic culture, Is-lamic traditions and Islamic spirit whichare necessary for an Islamic state. Ourcountry is the only nuclear power in theMuslim world and thus is believed to bethe fort of Islam.

We have got the most intelligent peo-ple, the most knowledgeable jurists ofthis era, a country packed with naturalresources and a country with a strongarmy, but instead of living strongly withour religious values and norms, we aregradually giving up on this.

We are running after glamour, fameand money which can be deposited inSwiss banks. Some people call it mod-erenisation and globalization, a globali-sation in which our Islamic values and

norms will only be limited to our holybooks, a globalisation where we will onlybe under the cultural dominance of thewestern people.

All the social institutions recognisedby sociologists as social are playing theirrole to promote western culture. They areimposing it on a nation who has got itsown religion, a proper routine life andtraditions. How are we calling ourselvesMuslims? We blame the society and theenvironment but we forget that the soci-ety is made from us and the environmentis regulated by us. We need to recall oursocietal values left far behind, we need toupdate the concept of traditionalismwhich is buried in the rapid growth of thewestern culture.

ARIF HUSAIN BUKHARIIslamabad

fake it, till you make it

Quail farming is good for meat productionQuail farming can offer numerous

benefits in terms of meat production, nu-trition, and eggs. Salient features of quailfarming with nutritive composition of itsmeat and eggs can be summed as:• Lesser market age 4-5 weeks• Less initial investment• May be started as cottage industry• Easily manageable by household ladies• A better tool to alleviate poverty

Meat qualities:• Tastier than chicken• Promotes body and brain development

in children• Best balanced food for pregnant and

nursing mothers• Less fat and cholesterol content

Japanese quail (Coturnix coturnixJaponica) was first described as a re-search model by and was used as a pilotanimal for more expensive experimentsin 1960. During 1970, research withJapanese quail expanded from avian-sci-ence related topics to biology and medi-cine, as bird could be kept easilyrelatively in large number in a small fa-

cility and be used as model animal forwide variety of works, from embryologyto space related sciences. At the event ofWorld Poultry Congress, 2004, the quailhas been declared as the model avianspecies for future research. Quails arenow commonly used as an experimentalanimal for biological research and vac-cine production, especially Newcastledisease vaccine to which disease quailsare resistant.

In Pakistan quail farming was startedin early 1970, with the introduction of ex-otic breeding stock of Japanese quails.However, quail production has remainedas one of the neglected components ofpoultry sector in the country. Very littleresearch work has been conducted on itsbreeding, incubation, housing, nutri-tional requirements, feeding, manage-ment and disease control aspects inPakistan.

About four decades back a breedingstock of hybrid Japanese quails was im-ported in Pakistan with good genetic po-tential having better egg production

performance, egg quality parameters andhatching traits compared to local quailcalled “Betair”.

But unfortunately, due to continuousinbreeding, genetic potential of the im-ported quail might have deteriorated. Si-multaneously no serious attempt hasbeen made to improve genetic potentialof our native quail.

Although public and private sectorsmade efforts for the development of quailfarming, but the measures were not ade-quate and fall short of expectations forproducing high yield of quail meat at areasonable low cost.

The private sector was not given ade-quate monetary and technical incentives.Even public sector organizations dealingin quail and allied industries faced enor-mous hurdles due to bureaucracy andlack of application of modern quail pro-duction technology.

These together with many otherproblems including poor quail manage-ment, low live body weight and meatyield, late ready to market age and lack of

quail processing are some of the impor-tant reasons for slow development ofquail farming in the country.

The low live body weight and meatyield appears to be a great hurdle for de-velopment of commercial quail farming.The situation therefore calls to take im-mediate concrete steps to improve ge-netic potential of our local quail.

Avian Research and Training (ART)Centre, of the University of Veterinaryand Animal Sciences, Lahore has beenworking on this thing for sometime now.The main aims and objectives of this cen-tre are as under:• Human resource development in the

field of quail/avian production.• Technical guidance and advice to the

stake holders, small farmers andhouse-hold women in avian produc-tion.

• Research for enhancing genetic poten-tial to improve performance and meatyield in local quail strains.

AHMED SULTANUVAS, Lahore

PIA is facing serious problemsnowadays. Flight delays and cancella-tions have become the norm ratherthan the exception. The Pakistan Inter-national Airlines is also suffering fromsevere financial crisis.

It is, in fact, passing through a criti-cal phase because of poor management,lack of maintenance, corruption and fi-nancial issues. There are complaints ofterrible service, long delayed flights,emergency crash landings, cancellationof flights, and shortage of planes. Theseissues create frustration among thepassengers. They feel fear and life riskwhile travelling through PIA.

PIA has, in all, 39 aircrafts in itsfleet. A number of aircrafts have been

grounded due to shortage of spare partsor overhauling. Latest news reportclaimed that PIA had grounded 18planes. A recent PIA flight PK 303,from Lahore to Karachi, was 6 hoursdelayed on 15 March, 2012. The badgovernance, poor performance and cor-ruption are the major causes of its fail-ure.

Unfortunately, PIA is functioningwith costs higher than returns. The air-line charges are enormously high forboth domestic and international flights.PIA claims that increase in oil pricesand devaluation of Pakistani currencyare the major reasons behind its deficit.

PIA in the past was known all overthe world for its excellent performance

and superior quality. That was thegolden period for PIA. Now PIA isgoing in loss. A couple of months ago,rumours circulated that the increasedfrequency of emergency landings byPIA were being orchestrated to tarnishits image and reputation. Investigationshould be carried out to find out thetruth.

PIA should give primary impor-tance to the safety of the passengersand make efforts to avoid any untowardsituation. Several untoward incidentshave occurred in the last decade. It isnecessary to tackle such incidents seri-ously to minimise the losses.

NIMRAH AMJADKarachi

‘An Italian court threw out bribery charges against formerPrime Minister Berlusconi under the statute of limitation.’ Thisis actually how it wants the Italian people to believe that noth-ing is wrong with their leaders and they can’t do anything

wrong. Almost the same situation is in Pakistan. Let’s see whathappens here.

Z A KAZMIKarachi

Pia under crisis

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Comment12Friday, 23 march, 2012

Arif NizamiEditor

Lahore – Ph: 042-36298305-10 Fax: 042-36298302Karachi – Ph: 021-34330811-3 Fax: 021-34330900Islamabad – Ph: 051-2287414-6 Fax: 051-2287417

Web: www.pakistantoday.com.pk Email: [email protected]

Dedicated to the legacy of the late Hameed Nizami

on world water day

not enough

Nothing inspires more Malthusian angst than waterscarcity does. There are seven billion people tofeed in the world. And around two billion moreare expected to be around by 2050. There just

isn’t going to be enough water.

Of course, it is not just the two classically Malthusianfactors of demography numbers and limited resources thatare coming into play. Further mitigating factors like climatechanges and the like are moderating the game as well. Notto speak of fresh water zones lying in conflict zones.

With food, Malthusian apprehensions were being kept atbay. Just when the world was going to see the proverbial hitthe fan, the “green revolution” increased food productioncapabilities. And right about now, though the age of cheapfood is over, it is believed that perhaps genetic modification,once apprehensions about it are removed, could perhapsplay a role in meeting production targets.

Is the same going to happen with water? Even if we wereto control carbon emissions, under the assumption thatglobal warming is going to decrease, and if we were tosomehow generate more energy through eco-friendlyrenewable sources like wind and tidal to undertakedesalination projects, we would still not be able to grapplewith this problem.

An effort, globally to deal with conservation is going tobe essential. Consider Pakistan, consider how much waterwe waste. Consider how, in a soon to be water insecure citylike Lahore, people wash cars, say, with drinking water. Toomuch water is wasted in the agricultural sector as well, withnot many agriculturalists bothering with laser-levelling theirland.

Water in the country should be metered and billedappropriately. This would be an unpopular decision by thegovernment but it should be taken.

If there is a national consensus on large reservoirs, let usbig large dams. Till then, let us desilt and properly line ourcanals and manage urban water sources well.

In addition to this, we need to work with theneighbouring countries, all of whom have serious waterproblems of their own, to work on well-calibrated, holisticsolutions to take care of our large populations.

not like Pakistan doesn’t have enoughproblems

sanctions?

As parliament debates the parameters of relationswith the US, discordant notes emerge from theUS. On Wednesday, Secretary Clinton reaffirmedthat, notwithstanding the ups and downs, the

Obama administration remains committed to relations withPakistan. The same day, a State Department official gave thelist of the 12 countries that could be subjected to USsanctions unless they significantly cut oil purchases fromIran. Islamabad already continues to be pressured againstthe construction of the badly needed Iran-Pakistan gaspipeline. While none of the UN sanctions binds its membersto stop the import of oil or gas from Iran, a US law requiresthe imposition of sanctions to safeguard its interests.Pakistan, which is hard pressed by power shortages, cannotbut give priority to its own national interests. Washingtonhas to understand that sanctions imposed on Pakistan in thepast did not deter successive governments from pursuingwhat they considered to be vital policy options. These onlymade the US unpopular in the country.

The US has looked the other way as regimes playing vitalrole in its strategic plans violated US laws with impunity. Inthe case of the present sanctions also, important allies havebeen given reprieve for six months. While Islamabad maynot always be acting in accordance with Washington’sdemands it remains an important ally. The US would createproblems for the fledgling democracy by imposingsanctions. What is of utmost importance for Washingtonand Islamabad is to improve mutual cooperation to be ableto put a decisive end to militancy in the region. Unless thetwo are on the same page, the pot will keep boiling inAfghanistan even after the withdrawal of the foreign troops.This would bode well neither for Pakistan nor for the rest ofthe world.

There is a need for rationality to prevail both inWashington and Islamabad. All out attempts need to bemade at this juncture to improve the ties rather than createnew causes of grievance. It is for the US to end the talkabout sanctions. Unless Pakistan is able to put an end to thepublic uproar over gas and oil shortages, it cannot single-mindedly pursue the fight against militancy.

Numbers are important ina parliamentary systemand PM Singh’s asser-

tion that he has them should beassuring to the ruling Congress.After its debacle in state elec-tions of UP and Punjab, theparty’s anxiety is understand-able.

Even if he has the requisitenumbers, they meet the needsof the constitution, not that ofgovernance. Except for the firstfew years, the ManmohanSingh government has beenlousy in its performance. Pricerise has been constant and thedecline in growth relentless.The same Manmohan Singhwho introduced economic re-forms with Victor Hugo’s wordsthat the time for the idea ofIndia has come and none canstop it is now bereft of ideas. Heis listless and his governmentgives the impression as if it hasoutlived its stay.

If one were to count thescams, they would beat all thegovernments hollow since inde-pendence. So much money, tril-lions of rupees have linedpockets of ministers, bureau-crats and outsiders, both Indianand foreigner. Never before hasthe public exchequer been

looted so openly and sounashamedly.

But for some enterprisingmedia hands and activists, thescandals would not have cometo light. And the Prime Minis-ter’s Office (PMO), the kingpin,would have gone on keepingManmohan Singh in the dark ifthe Supreme Court had notpointed out that officers andadvisers at the PMO were toblame. Strange, no one hasbeen punished, strengtheningthe belief that Dr ManmohanSingh knew all but stayed quietbecause of political compul-sions.

How these instances of cor-ruption do square up with thenumbers is the question. Evenif the Congress had a majorityon its own, its stock is so dam-aged that the party would needto overhaul itself and effectsome miracles to come backinto the people’s reckoning.

The reason why the peoplevoted for it in the past fordecades was the different imagethe Cognress projected from itsrival, the BJP. Whether it iscompetitive politics or theabandonment of values, theCongress looks a duplicate copyof the BJP. Both are corruptand both are communal andcasteists. True, when IndiraGandhi ousted morality frompolitics in the seventies, theparty lost the sense to differen-tiate between right and wrong.Still there were times, even dur-ing Manmohan Singh’s regime,when the hope of cleaner andnobler politics flickered. Whydo the future of governmentand the Congress look so bleaknow? Can the Congress turnback from the precipice?

In fact, the party can begina new chapter if it were to intro-duce a bill in parliament to laydown that the political partieswould accept money onlythrough cheques and would gettheir accounts audited by therecognised chartered account-ant firms. This step will raisethe reputation of the Congressand remove the stigma that thesuitcases full of currency goright up to the top in the partyto finance elections. The BJP isno different but the responsibil-ity of cleansing the system lieson the shoulders of those inpower.

The Congress is, however,doing the opposite. With thehelp of the obedient CentralBureau of Investigation (CBI)the scandals are minimised tofavour the party which comesto support the Congress.

More than that is the ab-sence of remorse. The insensi-tive Congress continues tomake mistakes. Take the caseof reservations. During the re-cent election in UP, which has19 per cent of the Muslim elec-torate, Law Minister SalmanKhurshid introduced a sub-quota for Muslims from theoverall 27 per cent reservationsfor Other Backward Classes.That the Muslims are 80 percent backward is a fact whichthe Sachar Committee hasbrought out, but the Law Min-ister using this during the elec-tions has muddied the watersof pluralism and given strengthto the BJP’s obsession withHindutva.

The Congress is supposedto have secular credentials.Casting even a shadow on themtantamount to betraying the

ethos of independence. Butthen the Congress of today is in-creasingly going away fromthose values and principles.Now its purpose is to concen-trate power at the centre, unlikeMahatma Gandhi’s precept ofdecentralisation. Federalism isthe core of the constitution andit is that very core which HomeMinister P Chidambaram andhis ministry are trying to de-stroy. The proposed creation ofNCTC is nothing but setting upmachinery for snooping aboutwhat the states are doing in thesubjects which the constitutionhas allotted them exclusively.The protest raised by some ofthe chief ministers should haveput an end to this move. Yet thePresident’s address mentionsthe proposal.

If nothing else, such acts ofthe Congress government mayrevive the third or fourth frontof non-Congress and non-BJPchief ministers. They are meet-ing on April 19 to chalk outtheir strategy on how to stopthe centre from encroachingupon their authority. They havealso been disturbed by homesecretary’s remark that thechief secretaries should not“act like stenographers” to thechief ministers. This may havemade the non-BJP states all themore determined to have aloose kind of liaison so thatthey are not pushed by the cen-tre any more.

Were this to happen, thePrime Minister’s claim that hisgovernment has the numbersdoes not mean much. His otherallies may also leave him.

The writer is a seniorIndian journalist.

Border CrossingsBy Kuldip nayar

Will the real author please stand up?The report is here. That’s all we know

If you think the parliament is finallytaking charge of foreign policy andnational security issues – don't. Allow me to explain: the Parliamen-tary Committee on National Secu-

rity has submitted its report and a debatewill ensue from next week. The report hasspelt out recommendations for revivingties with the United States which havebeen in deep freeze since the NovemberSalala massacre. These recommendationsare a curious mixture of belligerence, real-ism and often pure jest. The parliamentar-ians will now shower their pearls ofwisdom on the contents of the report in agallant effort to reach at some conclusion.

Prepare to be amused.Many points in the report deserve to

be contested. Others require a realitycheck. But such a critique – if it has tohave some substance – will need the par-liamentarians to have a fair understandingof the nuances that often define our rela-tionship with the United States. Blamingthe Americans for everything under thesun may make for solid political grand-standing, but not serious policymaking.This report is a policy document, not a po-litical manifesto. It will require scrutinywith some sophistication. This may beasking for too much.

Let's add a rider here: it is clearly un-realistic to expect the parliament to bestuffed with foreign policy experts. It isalso unfair to ask the parliamentarians asa whole to conjure up substantive alter-nate narratives. Once these limitations arefactored in, a limited role remains forthese representatives. They can give sug-gestions and then at some stage shout'ayes' and 'nays' to determine the fate ofPakistan's policy towards the UnitedStates.

The equation does not add up. Onereason perhaps is the absence of a proper,institutionalised foreign-policymakingframework. In plain English, this meansthe parliament doesn’t have the structureto make such policy because, well, it neverhas.

Consider how this report got done. Thetask was assigned to the committee on na-tional security. So far so good. Then therewas radio silence. No one knew what thecommittee was doing. A shroud of secrecywas blanketed over all proceedings. Seniorofficials were summoned before the com-mittee to provide input, but no one knewwho was saying what and why. For threemonths, the committee worked behindclosed doors. And then, voila! The reportappeared all primed and padded with aribbon on top. Did the members of thecommittee – no Kissingers them – brainedup the recommendations? Did the ForeignOffice provide a ready-made draft? Or didthe military high command tell them whatneeded to be said? We do not know. It istherefore not surprising that the commit-tee finds itself standing on weak legs.

It could have been different. Open,transparent and, thus, more legitimate.Yes I'm referring to the committee hear-ings format. Now such a format is not partof the procedure in our parliamentary sys-tem but that does not mean a more infor-mal way could not have been adopted. Insuch a manner, options backed by solidlogic and reasoning could have been de-

bated and discussed. Individual and insti-tutional viewpoints could have been airedand dissected. In addition to providing aricher and deeper discourse, this wouldhave also painted a transparent picture ofwhere the political leadership stood, andmore importantly why it stood where itstood.

Distilled and filtered through such aprocess, the report would have arrived inthe parliament already injected with a de-gree of public legitimacy. This would havelifted the burden off the shoulders of theparliamentarians and allowed them tolook at the bigger picture. A nip and tuckhere and there, and the deed would havebeen done.

The stuff that dreams are made of.What we now have is a document whosereal authors remain a mystery, tall claimsnotwithstanding. The opposition led byPML(N) has already stated its reservationvociferously. The religious parties and theDefence of Pakistan Council are smellingtreason. Rallies and protests against thepossible re-opening of the Nato supplyroutes have been announced. The rightwing is licking its lips and sharpening itsswords. The hunt is about to begin.

The worst possible scenario is thewhole thing being reduced to a farce. Mud-slinging matches over serious policy mat-ters are generally not very useful. In theend, the politicians may end up being theirown worst enemies, and allowing the na-tional security establishment to sniggerand say: "we told you these guys can't han-dle these issues". The pendulum then willswings back from the parliament to GHQ.

Brace for the empire to strike back.

The writer hosts a primetime talkshow on ARY News. He has worked as Di-rector News of Express News and DunyaNews and Editor The News, Islamabad.He can be reached [email protected] or on Twitter@fahdhusain

By Fahd Husain

The Congress disappoints. Again and again.

A party losing its ethos?

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Comment 13Friday, 23 march, 2012

For the past week, the parlia-ment has been the focus ofattention with two joint sit-

tings of both the houses for his-toric as well as symbolic reasons.The joint session convened lastweek marked the fifth consecutiveaddress by any elected head of thestate in Pakistan, signalingstrengthening of democratic dis-pensation in the country. Equallyimportant was the joint sessionthis week as the ParliamentaryCommittee on National Security(PCNS) tabled foreign policy rec-ommendations for debate. Signif-icantly, this is for the first timethat the parliament is taking thelead on foreign policy formulationwhich has been, until fairly re-cently, the exclusive preserve ofthe security establishment.

President Zardari’s addresswas long on rhetoric and high onhollow claims. As he gloriedmostly in past laurels, no visionor roadmap was offered for thefuture. He raced through the writ-ten text, blowing the PPP-ledcoalition government’s trumpetas if the nation was as out oftouch with reality as the presidentought to be, living in that clois-tered Aiwan-e-Sadr. Perhaps themain objective was more to gothrough the motion of makinghistory than to make much sense.

Much has been said and writ-ten on the contents of president’saddress, particularly on the do-mestic aspect so no point burden-ing readers with more on this.However, the foreign policy seg-ment of the presidential addresswas largely missing from the ani-mated national debate and dis-cussion that followed it. From theinternational perspective, thetiming of the address was partic-ularly important in the backdropof three key developments: theendgame in Afghanistan and theAfghan reconciliation process;

the mounting pressure from theUS and international communityon Iran regarding its nuclear pro-gramme; and the process of areset in Pakistan-US relations.Hence the diplomatic communityhad its eye and ears tuned in.

In the bilateral context, thepresident specifically referred toAfghanistan, the Afghan-ledpeace process and the transittrade agreement. He talked abouttrade with India and perhaps toblunt the likely domestic criticismin the same breath underlined theneed to resolve the difficult issueof Jammu and Kashmir.

On Pakistan-US relations, thepresident acknowledged that 2011had been a challenging year andmade it clear that Islamabadwould continue to engage withWashington despite irritants.Characterising Pakistan’s rela-tions with the US as multi-dimen-sional and important, he left it at:“We seek to engage meaningfullywith the US on the basis of mu-tual interests and mutual re-spect.” Conspicuously, heoverlooked the most controver-sial issue of US drone strikes andtook no position on it.

Notably, the president talkedabout Pakistan attaching greatimportance to Russia, hinting in-tense engagement between thetwo countries in the comingmonths. This has also been advo-cated by the PCNS in its recentrecommendations. In a positivedevelopment Russia has showninterest in investing in the IPproject and a high-level Russiandelegation with officials of Russ-ian gas giant Gazprom is expectedto visit Islamabad. Russians arealso keen on investing in Tharcoal. More importantly, RussianPresident Vladimir Putin will visitPakistan this September in whatwill be the first-ever trip to Pak-istan by any Russian head ofstate.

It was obvious from the Pres-ident’s address that Pakistan’sdiplomatic radar will be more re-ceptive to East Asia, Africa andLatin America, regions that offertremendous opportunities for bi-lateral cooperation but have beenignored in the past.

Iran came out as the mostglaring, and a rather intriguing,omission in the presidential ad-dress at the joint session. Non-mention of Iran was a

conspicuous departure from hisprevious year’s address and cameas a surprise particularly after thewarm embrace with Iran at thetrilateral summit in Islamabadlast month. At a post trilateralsummit press conference with hisIranian and Afghan counterpartsonly in February, PresidentZardari had emphatically de-clared that Pakistan will pursuethe Iran-Pakistan (IP) gaspipeline project come what may.He had gone on to declare thatTehran will find Islamabad on itsside in the event US attackedIran. His declaration and gestureof solidarity was widely welcomedat home and in Iran. And comingfrom no less than a head of stateand supreme commander of thearmed forces it was not a messagethat US could have ignored. PMGilani and Foreign Minister Kharwere equally categorical in theirstand on the IP issue amid strongvoices of opposition from Wash-ington. Dismissing US threatsand rejecting any foreign pressureon the IP project their messagewas loud and clear: that the proj-ect is in Pakistan’s national inter-est and it won’t be dropped.However, this firm resolve of thetop leadership did not reflect atall in the presidential address. Asomewhat lame explanation givenby a senior Pakistani diplomatwhen his attention was drawn tothis omission was that Iran is partof the Islamic world which thePresident mentioned in his ad-dress. But then so is Afghanistanand it was specifically mentioned.

The multi-billion dollar IPproject is vital for energy-starvedPakistan which is currently in themidst of unprecedented energyand power crisis. So then why didIran and the most important en-ergy project for Pakistan not fig-ure in the president’s address? Isthere a re-think or a sign of Pak-istan getting cold feet? Was it adeliberate omission in view of thevery obvious and growing US un-ease? Or did the President wantto simply take the cushion of theparliament to proceed ahead withthe IP project? This should beclear in the coming days.

The writer is a senior jour-nalist and has been a diplomaticcorrespondent for leadingdailies. She can be reached viaemail at [email protected]

of endings and new beginnings

On the EleventhGlaring omission in presidential address

Parliament in focusT

his week was like watching KabhiKhushi Kabhi Gham: a little happiness,a little sadness.

First, please permit me to blow my owntrumpet. I’m very happy today. The Guardian,one of the most respected English-languagenewspapers in the world, noticed my blog onDelhi, called The Delhi Walla.

In a cover feature called ‘Tales of the City’,the daily said: “From Delhi to New York, thereare local bloggers opening their cities up to theworld.”

The Delhi Walla was featured with fiveblogs based in New York City, Cardiff (Wales),Isle of Wright (England), Portland (USA) andOttawa (Canada) respectively. Written byPatrick Barkham, a feature writer for theGuardian, the story had this to say about me:

“Five years ago, Mayank Austen Soofi(that’s me!), “a small-town guy” from UttarPradesh, was a frustrated writer working as awaiter in a five-star hotel in Delhi. Daily excur-sions into his new city were his escape; hewrote about the city to understand it himselfand The Delhi Walla blog, created in his locallibrary, was the result. A celebration of thefood, culture and books of India’s capital, itaims to profile 1% of Delhi’s 11 million popula-tion. “Each seems to live in a different Delhi.To have a fleeting sense of their personal Del-his makes me appreciate the nuances of myDelhi,” he says. In his approach he eschewsnegativity and criticism. “I write without in-tending to be provocative,” he said in an inter-view with Rediff.com. “I don’t like writing badthings about people. No point.” He has starteda reading club called The Delhi Proustians,

written four guide-books and a new bookwill be published byPenguin India later thisyear. “I think it’s thebest narrative non-fic-tion to have come out ofIndia after Mala Sen’sexcellent India’s BanditQueen. You see, I don’tfake modesty,” he says.”

Isn’t this cool?But this week came

with a bit of sadnesstoo. Two evenings ago, Iknocked at the door ofPayal Singh, keeper ofher family’s treasure:six hardbounds of theeleventh edition of En-cyclopedia Britannica.

“These hefty booksbelong to my mother’sfather,” Payal said,showing me the valu-ables. “He was an Eng-lish teacher and couldrecite the entire Shake-speare from heart.”

The volumes in darkbrown suede consti-

tuted Payal’s entire library. They are precious,especially so after the company that producesthe famed reference books announced in thismonth that henceforth, according to the UK-based The Independent, Encyclopedia Britan-nica will concentrate on the onlineencyclopedias, and that the last-ever print edi-tion – a 32-volume set weighing 129 pounds –won’t be replaced when the last 8,000 sets arefinally sold.

Payal’s encyclopedias are also more valu-able because the eleventh edition, published in1910 and 1911, was considered a masterpiece.It was not merely used for reference, but wasalso read for pleasure.

Writing in The New Yorker‘s website, au-thor Roger Angell describes ‘The Eleventh’ as“the most popular and acclaimed edition ofthem all — the Koh-i-noor, the Cary Grant ofthe genre.”

Like many others, the website of theCanada-based newspaper National Post alsopublished a story on the closure of the print runof Encyclopedia Britannica. It referred to TheEleventh, saying:

Connoisseurs agree that the 29-volume11th edition, published in 1911 in associationwith Cambridge University, was far andaway the best. It appeared about the time theownership of the Britannica was moving fromBritain to the United States, where it was soonowned by Sears Roebuck and later becamepart of the University of Chicago.

The 11th was the first edition with a com-prehensive index and the first to include biog-raphies of living people. The editors enlisteddistinguished writers to contribute many ar-ticles, a practice later abandoned. In the 11th,Thomas Henry Huxley wrote on biology,Bertrand Russell on geometry, AlgernonSwinburne on Mary Queen of Scots and PrincePeter Kropotkin, famous as both a philosopherand an anarchist, on the philosophy of anar-chism. The illustrations were so good that sin-gle pages were often framed and soldseparately. When Jorge Luis Borges receivedhis first literary prize, he used the money tobuy a copy of the 11th and cherished it for therest of his life.

“My grandfather had all the 29 volumes ofthe eleventh edition,” said Payal. “Some wentmissing. Many others were destroyed by silver-fish. We are left with volumes 7, 8, 23, 26, 28and 29.”

Opening volume 23, I found a page thatshows the presence of silverfish.

“Oh,” said Payal.Later, while flipping through another vol-

ume, Payal discovered more silverfish attack.It was very sad. But, let’s end on an optimisticnote. The entire Eleventh can be found on thenet. Happy reading.

Mayank Austen Soofi lives in a library. Hehas one website and four blogs. The websiteaddress: thedelhiwalla.com. The blogs: PakistanPaindabad, Ruined By Reading, ReadingArundhati Roy and Mayank Austen Soofi Photos

Delhi CallingBy Mayank Austen Soofi

Cross CurrentsBy Qudssia Akhlaque

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MuMBAI: they had once scorched thescreen with their sizzling chemistry. but anilKapoor and madhuri dixit, bollywood’s ‘dhakdhak’ pair had not been the best of friendsover a year. by refusing to play sonamKapoor's mother in anil’s desi version of‘Freaky Friday’, madhuri had reportedlyangered her former co-star. recently,filmmaker Vidhu Vinod chopra decided tostep in and sort out the problems. it waslearnt that all is well again between the twoactors. now chopra surely had vestedinterest in the patch up. the filmmaker, whocompletes thirty years in the industry, willbe holding a first of its kind, retrospective ofall his productions across various theatres inthe subcontinent starting march 9. For thescreening of his 1989 blockbuster ‘Parinda’,chopra needed his lead actors anil andmadhuri to walk the red carpet. He askedthem to let bygones be. and both agreed,realising that they were angry over a rathertrivial issue. the ‘trivial’ issue in questionedoccurred when anil offered madhuri Jamielee curtis’ role in his version of ‘FreakyFriday’. anil had quite a few names in hismind for the role including Kirron Kher,rekha and even shabana azmi. sonam wasto play the lindsay lohan's character.initially madhuri had agreed but later hadbacked out citing date problems. accordingto a source, this had annoyed anil. However,one phone call from Vidhu Vinod chopraseems to have worked wonders. the oncesuperhit bollywood jodi will once again walkthe red carpet. AGeNCIeS

14 Friday, 23 march, 2012

nEWS DESK

Ruling millions of heartswith her modeling andacting skills, Pakistan’swell recognised fashionm o d e l - t u r n e d - d r a m aartist Sadia Imam will tiethe knot very soon. AfterReema Khan and fashionmodel Aisha Linnea, Sadiais also to get married.Sadia Imam’s to-be-hus-band belongs to a wellknown family in Karachiand Sadia’s family is alsohappy with her decision.Sadia started doing radioshows from Islamabadand later appeared on TV.She was earlier married in2005 to Pakistani-Aus-tralian Aslam Khan.

IN LIMELIGHTRihanna and Katy Perry

plan LOS AnGELES

AGeNCIeS

SINGERS KatyPerry and Ri-hanna areplanning torecord a girl

power duet. The pop starsare working on an "iconic"collaboration, but are notin a rush to record it."We've collaborated on alot of things, but just notsongs yet. It's one of thosethings that's got so muchbuild up that we have todeliver," dailystar.co.ukquoted the ‘Part of Me’singer as saying. "I want itto be like that Eurythmicsand Aretha Franklin song‘Sisters Are Doin It forThemselves’, not like(Shakira and Beyonce

song) ‘Beautiful Liar’,” shesaid. "But I definitely wantto do something that is so

iconic. (Rihanna) kind ofbusy too. We're both busybut we planted the seedtwo years ago.” ‘BeautifulLiar’ would be Beyonce'ssmash 2007 collaborationwith Shakira, which hitnumber one on the Bill-board Hot 100. “How dis-appointed would you be ifthat song came out and it'sno good? Sometimes youhave to wait for great-ness," Perry added. How-ever, the 27 year-old cameunder fire for criticisingBeyonce, forcing her totweet: “Everyone whothinks I dissed anyone,puhlez. Get a life, cuz it'snot mine! #hoodratcomi-nout. If ya ears are filledwith wax it's time to get acleanse boo. Anywayz . . .(steps off box)."

A pain inthe back

This one’s for the

red carpet

girl power anthem

Sadia Imam to

tie the knot

MuMBAI: a week back ranveer singh suffered aback injury while shooting for Vikramadityamotwane’s ‘lootera’ in dalhousie. though, themakers tried to underplay the seriousness ofthe accident, it was discovered that ranveer,unable to walk post the injury, was not onlymoved out of the location on a stretcher, butalso advised complete bed rest. amidst reports

of motwane’s film being postponed dueto the actor’s condition, ranveer’sfather said, “He has been broughtback to mumbai. He is resting athome. Frankly, i cannot tell you whenhe will resume shooting. First, lethim recover.” ranveer getting injuredon the sets is surely not the first.scary action sequences are slowlyadding up to the list of back injuriesin bollywood. in october 2011,Hrithik suffered a fall on the sets of‘agneepath’. the back injury thatinitially seemed minor, turned out tobe pretty serious. King Khan is alsothe king of injuries. the actor, whohas broken several bones in his body(knee, arm, etc), too suffered a slipdisc in his back in 2002. akshayKumar also injured his back on thesets of ‘Khiladiyon Ka Khiladi’. theactor still carries a special pillow tothe sets of his films so that he canuse it while sitting on the plasticchairs between shots. He needs to itto support his lower back. AGeNCIeS

MuMBAI: Priyanka Chopraseems to bear a fixation forthe Bachchans. After havingappeared in the remake ofAmitabh Bachchan starrerblockbusters- ‘Don’ and‘Agneepath’, PC is all set fora hatrick as she has beenchosen as the female leadin a yet another Big Bremake - ‘zanjeer’. Thistime, the bubbly actress willreprise the role of noneother than Jaya Bachchan.The actor bagged thecoveted role, despitespeculation that she isbeing sidelined by theinfluential lot in theindustry. After this newdevelopment, these reportscan now be put to rest.Moreover, according to asource, for her part in thenew age ‘zanjeer’ that is setagainst an oil mafiabackdrop it is rumoured thatPriyanka has been offered acool Rs 11 crore. It has beenlearnt that Priyanka, whohas already had her meetingwith the makers of the film,is up for the challenge andwill mostly give her nod ofapproval soon. AGeNCIeS

mUmbai: Veena malik poses

on the set of her forthcoming

film ‘mumbai 125 kms’. AfP

moscow: a model displays a creation by

russian designer slava Zaitsev to mark

his brand 50th anniversary during the

mercedes-benz Fashion week. AfP

london: Hugh grant, Pixie lott and david tennant attend the british

premiere of the film ‘the Pirates! in an adventure with scientists’. AfP

ISB 23-03-2012_Layout 1 3/23/2012 1:40 AM

15

LOS AnGELESReuTeRS

ACTOR Robert DeNiro apologisedfor joking at aD e m o c r a t i cfundraiser with

Michelle Obama about thepossibility of having a "whitefirst lady" at the White Houseafter November's presidentialelections. The Oscar-winningstar of ‘The Godfather: Part II’and ‘Raging Bull’ said he hadintended no offense with theremark about the wives of Re-publican presidential con-tenders Newt Gingrich, RickSantorum and Mitt Romney.“My remarks, although spokenwith satirical jest, were notmeant to offend or embarrassanyone -- especially the firstlady,” De Niro said in a state-ment. De Niro found himself inhot water after the fundraiserwhen he introduced Michelle

Obama as the main speaker.“Callista Gingrich, Karen San-torum, Ann Romney. Now doyou really think our country isready for a white first lady?”De Niro said. “Too soon,right?” Newt Gingrich calledthe remarks inexcusable anddivisive. Michelle Obama's of-fice said the joke was "inappro-priate."

LOS AnGELESAGeNCIeS

THE Hollywoodstar will join Scar-lett Johansson in‘Alfred Hitchcockand the Making of

Psycho’, a film following thelegendary director's struggle tobring the most chilling movieever made to life on the bigscreen. So does she fall prey toAnthony Perkins' derangedmotel owner–manager, Nor-man Bates? Fortunately forher, no. Instead, per Deadline,Biel will essay the role of VeraMiles, the actress who playedLila Crane in the classic 1960horror thriller and managedto escape from Bates in ‘Psy-cho's finale. Alas, Johanssonisn't so lucky. She gets to playJanet Leigh and, take aftertake, recreate the infamousshower scene in which Leigh'scharacter, Lila's sister MarionCrane, is stabbed to death.

Anthony Hopkins stars asHitchcock and Helen Mirrenas his wife, Alma Reville. Bielwill next be seen starring op-posite Colin Farrell in the re-make of ‘Total Recall’, whichhits theaters in August.

Depp lends vocalsto new rock tune

LOnDOnAGeNCIeS

SuperstarJohnny Depphas teamedup with hisrocker palMarilynManson torecord a coverversion ofCakly Simon’sclassic ‘Youare so vain’. The ‘Pirates of theCaribbean’ star offered his services forthe collaboration, playing drums andlead guitar while Manson providedvocals for the tune. The song willappear as a bonus track on Manson`supcoming album ‘Born Villain’, DailyStar reported. “We wanted to do acover of a song which we thought wasironic for each other. It’s a bonus trackon my new record and the video willprobably be us looking at each other ina mirror,” Manson said. It’s not thefirst time the 48-year-old actor’s rockcredentials have gone down on record.He has also contributed guitar tracksto Oasis’ 1997 album ‘Be Here Now’.

Twitter tries (and fails)to kill off eddie MurphyLOS AnGELES

AGeNCIeS

Fortunately,rumours ofEddieMurphy'sdeath havebeen greatlyexaggerated.TheHollywoodstar hasonce againfallen victimto the dreaded Twitter death hoax,after word has been trending that hedied in a snowboarding accident inZermatt, Switzerland. Sound familiar?It should, as the exact same fate wasfalsely reported to have befallen himin December 2010. Thankfully,however, Murphy is alive and doingjust fine. Such claims are routinelyfound to have been sourced to a fakenews story by Global Associated News,a website enabling people to createtheir very own celebrity deathheadline. Either way, Murphy is partof an exclusive club of celebs who'veread about their own demise onTwitter including Owen Wilson, RebaMcEntire, Dwayne "The Rock"Johnson and, most recently, RowanAtkinson of Mr Bean fame.

Robert De Niro

apologises for ‘white first lady’ joke

Jessica Biel to star with Scarlett Johansson

in ‘Psycho’

MuMBAI: He chose not to take up the role ofdawood and be overshadowed by others insanjay gupta’s ‘shootout at wadala’. thoughthis surely angered the filmmaker, Vivekoberoi had bigger plans for his next gangstercharacter. the actor has now agreed to playthe lead in Kumar taurani’s next.the film, yet untitled, is a lovestory. when contacted tauraniconfirmed that he has indeedsigned Vivek for the role andadded, “my venture will go onfloors on march 24. theassociate director of ‘Prince’,Vinnil markan will direct this.neha sharma is the femalelead opposite Vivek.” However,when probed further, tauranirefused to divulge furtherdetails. a source close to theactor said, “Vivek did not wantto disappoint his producers bytaking up a small role in‘shootout at wadala’. He isalready playing the lead in‘Kismat luv Paisa dilli’ and themain villain in ‘Krrish 3’. Hesimply chose to put behind allthe accusations that sanjaygupta made and let his workdo the talking.” thus, the actoropted for taurani’s nextgangster film to lend himvoice. AGeNCIeS

nEW DELHIAGeNCIeS

The ban on the upcoming film‘Agent Vinod’ in Pakistan has dis-appointed actor Saif Ali Khan,who is also the co-producer of thefilm. Reacting to the ban, Khansaid that it’s a shame because theidea is to have open films betweenthe two nations. “It’s a shame. It’sroughly if all the people in thisroom went to see the film in themall. I think it translates to abouta crore, which is a lot of money.Its not out about the money, it’s ashame because the idea is to haveopen films between the two coun-tries,” the actor said. “I was veryproud that this was not a jingois-tic film that was bashing Pakistan.In fact the heroine in our movie isplaying a Pakistani girl. So wewere hoping that they would ap-preciate that because really wecan’t give them better,” he added.The film was banned becausesome negative elements were

shown as being from Pakistan inthe film, said Khan, who was ac-companied by his girlfriend andco-star Kareena Kapoor. “It’s a re-alistic kind of thriller in the sensethat we have shown that there aresome negative elements in Pak-istan towards India and maybetheir censors have problem withus saying that. Maybe we haveshown a few people on the mostwanted list being harboured inPakistan, which surely is also afairly known fact,” he asserted.“So, maybe they have taken of-fence to that. But in the end wewant the RAW (Research andAnalysis Wing) agent to win andall the baddies to lose. If they areuncomfortable to that thenmaybe we should just publicisethe fact that ‘Agent Vinod bannedin Pakistan’. Which we probablyshould be,” he added. The censorboard of Pakistan banned the filmfor its alleged reference to thePakistani intelligence agency,Inter Services Intelligence (ISI).

Saif: It’s a shame Pakistan has

banned ‘Agent Vinod’

Vivek Oberoi’s gangsta rap

Priyanka bags Jaya Bachchan’s

role in ‘Zanjeer’ remake

MuMBAI: his might come as a shockerbut if rumours are to be believed, actorranbir Kapoor was the one whointroduced the new love birds in tinseltown – nargis Fakhri and shahid Kapoorto each other. ranbir who was at onepoint of time linked to his ‘rockstar’ co-star introduced her to shahid at one ofhis parties. and the duo hit off instantly.so much so that now the latest buzz isthat nargis has shifted to shahid’sapartment. ranbir and shahid’sfriendship is also recent. the two actorshad met formally before but bondedduring this year’s Zee cine awards inmacau. the camaraderie between thetwo actors has increased ever since thenand shahid was also invited to be a partof ranbir’s first world tour. ever sincenargis met shahid, the two have beenspending a lot of time together. nargis isa constant factor in all of shahid’sparties including the famous birthdaybash in goa where Fakhri went a dayahead with shahid to organise the party.while ranbir continues to be linked tohis exes Katrina (they are reportedlyback together) and deepika(they havebecome best of friends on the sets ofayan mukherjee’s next), he is makingsure that his ‘good friend’ nargis alsogets ample attention from shahid.although the couple in question hasdenied the link up, sources close to thetwo have admitted that they are indeedin a relationship. AGeNCIeS

The Ranbir factor in Shahid-Nargis

love story

mUmbai: neha dhupia poses

during the inauguration of a

new retail ‘digi world’ store.

mUmbai: saif ali Khan is seen

riding a motorbike while

promoting his upcoming film

‘agent Vinod’. AfP

LOS AnGELESAfP

The plush Los Angeles man-sion where Michael Jacksondied is on sale for $23.9 mil-lion, and a major celebrity isinterested in buying it, accord-ing to realtors and the TMZcelebrity website. The seven-bedroom, 13-bathroom prop-erty, described as thecentrepiece of an "elegant andsophisticated French chateauestate," includes its own movietheater, a gym and a pool, saidthe realtors' website. "The es-tate... offers a glamorous the-ater for screenings in a grandstyle, a magnificent wine cellarand tasting room, elevator, aspacious spa with gym, and anelegant guesthouse," as well asan "expansive pool and gar-dens," it said. TMZ reportedthat the property went on saleon Monday, and said a "major

celebrity" is set to visit it. Re-altor Mauricio Umansky, headof The Agency in Beverly Hills,will only show the property toserious buyers who have pre-qualified, meaning they havethe money to buy it. Thesinger, who was in Los Angelesrehearsing for a series ofcomeback London shows atthe time of his death, wasbeing treated with the drug aswell as others to help him bat-tle chronic insomnia.

Michael Jackson's home on sale for $23.9 million

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Friday, 23 march, 2012

16 Foreign News

tOuLOuSEAfP

ASELF-PROCLAIMED alQaeda militant died ina hail of bullets onThursday as he jumpedout of an apartment

window at the end of a 32-hoursiege in southern France.

Mohamed Merah, the mainsuspect in a wave of shootings thatkilled seven people, had tried toblast his way out of the siege in thecity of Toulouse after members ofan elite force known as RAIDentered his flat. But InteriorMinister Claude Gueant said the23-year-old had been found deadon the ground in a dramatic end tothe lengthy standoff.

“The killer came out from thebathroom shooting very violently.

The bursts of gunfire werefrequent and hard,” Gueant said.“A RAID officer who is used to thiskind of thing told me that he hadnever seen such a violent assault.“RAID officers of course tried toprotect themselves, to return fire,and then in the end, MohamedMerah jumped out of the windowwith a gun in his hand, continuingto fire. He was found dead on theground.” The exact cause of thedeath was not immediately clear.Merah’s flat was reportedly on thefirst floor above the ground floor.

Sustained bursts of gunfire hadbeen heard outside the apartmentshortly after sources told AFPpolice were moving “rapidly” toend the siege, but progressing“step by step” through theapartment in fear of booby traps. Atotal of around 300 shots were

fired. Three loud explosions nearthe apartment were heard shortlybefore police said the officers hadmoved in, and an ambulance wasthen seen passing through asecurity cordon.

Merah had been holed up sinceTuesday night after being trackeddown by police as the main suspectin a wave of shootings that killedseven people, including threesoldiers and three Jewish children.Gueant had earlier said police hadlost contact with Merah but that hehad told authorities he wanted “todie weapons in hand”. Prosecutorssaid Merah, a Frenchman ofAlgerian descent, had fought offseveral police assaults on the flaton Wednesday and bragged tonegotiators of having been trainedby Al-Qaeda on the Afghanistan-Pakistan border.

PARISAfP

Muslims in French suburbs remain vul-nerable to extremist indoctrination butthose lured into radicalism are an “ultra-minority” and the spread of jihadism isdeclining, experts say.

Mohamed Merah, a 23-year-old sus-pected Al-Qaeda militant of Algerian de-scent was killed Thursday following ashootout with police, after being linked toseven murders in southwestern France inthe last eight days. The former residentof a Toulouse suburb is believed to havebeen drawn into radicalism after joininga group of Salafists — an ultra-conserva-tive brand of Islam — and travelling toAfghanistan and Pakistan. Such trips toAghanistan “were quite common in the1990s,” amid the euphoria of the muja-

hedeen victory over Soviet troops whohad invaded the country, said SamirAmghar, author of “Salafism Today.”

“A number of people went toAfghanistan and Pakistan to train,” ex-plained the sociology professor atFrance’s School for Advanced Studies inthe Social Sciences. “But for severalyears, we have seen a decline in jihadismbecause of the strong pressure of theFrench and European security services,”he added. He said current estimates putthe number of Salafists in France at be-tween 12,000 and 15,000, but “jihadistSalafists are an ultra-minority.”

Gilles Kepel, author of “Jihad, TheTrail of Political Islam,” said it was “wor-rying when the Salafists impose theirrules, for example, wearing of the full veil,on other Muslims.” “When there is a rup-ture between their values and the values

of the French Republic, it makes fertileterrain for radical Islam,” he stressed,adding that extremist recruiters targetthose “who are marginalised.” They arespeaking “in a general manner to peoplein working class neighbourhoods, but notstrictly to the working classes.

Radicals also target “a strong propor-tion who are from the middle and upperclasses. People who have studied, who areuniversity graduates,” Amghar said. But,he explained, the channels through whichextremist recruiters connect with newsympathisers have evolved since the Sep-tember 11, 2001 attacks in the UnitedStates. “In the 1990s, the radical imams,the preachers, were able to recruit in themosques,” he said.

“After September 11, because of thesurveillance of the French intelligenceservices in the mosques, it became very

difficult. The recruitment from then onhappened through interpersonal rela-tions, or over the internet. Bernard Go-dard, co-author of “Muslims in France”,said probing Merah’s path to radicalisa-tion was a crucial next step. “We’ll haveto see how he was initiated, how he wasfed jihadism,” Godard said. SpeakingThursday after Merah was killed, FrenchPresident Nicolas Sarkozy vowed to crackdown on extremist indoctrination.

He said he wanted legal actionagainst people who regularly consulted ji-hadist websites or who travelled abroadfor indoctrination and an end to Frenchjails being a breeding ground for extrem-ism. “Henceforth, any person who habit-ually consults Internet sites which praiseterrorism and which call for hatred andviolence will be punished under criminallaw,” he said in a televised address.

french intelligenceunder fire over ‘alQaeda’ serial killer

PARISAfP

The French government went on thedefensive Thursday amid questions overwhy its intelligence service had failed todeal with petty criminal turned allegedjihadist serial killer Mohamed Merah. Withhindsight, Merah’s past appears to makehim an obvious suspect — he had at least15 criminal convictions, some withviolence, had become a radical Islamistand travelled to Pakistan and Afghanistan.He and his brother were both known toFrench intelligence because of theirfundamentalist Salafist ideology. One pressreport said that in 2010 Merah forced ayouth to watch videos of Al-Qaeda hostagebeheadings. When the boy’s mothercomplained, Merah allegedly attacked her,putting her in hospital for several days.Merah allegedly later went into the streetoutside the women’s house, wearingmilitary fatigues and brandishing a sword,shouting “I’m with Al-Qaeda,” theTelegramme newspaper reported. Acriminal complaint was lodged and policeinterviewed the woman but apparentlythere was no follow up. French far-rightleader Marine Le Pen, who has beenlambasting Muslim immigration as part ofher presidential election campaign, wasquick to accuse the government of “laxity”towards the “fundamentalist risk”.Socialist Jean-Pierre Chevenement, aformer defence and interior minister, saidthe killings were “a warning for services incharge of anti-terrorism”.

Riyadh eases banon single men in shopping malls

RIYADHAfP

Single men in Riyadh will be able to visitshopping malls during peak hours after aSaudi prince eased restrictions aimed atstopping harassment of women, mediareports said Thursday. Prince Sattam binAbdulaziz, Riyadh’s governor, has decided“not to prevent any single men from visitingmalls” in the capital on evenings andweekends, when malls are most crowded, Al-Riyadh newspaper reported. The decision wasmade by a committee made up of localofficials and representatives from the fearedreligious police, said the daily. Shopping mallsare a favourite leisure destination for youngmen and women in the ultra-conservativekingdom, where cinemas and theatres arebanned. Previously, single men were onlyallowed into shopping centres at lunch timeon weekdays, a move the authorities said wasintended to prevent women being harassedduring peak hours. But that had “manynegative consequences, including thegathering of men outside the shopping mallsand harassing women” there, the dailyreported, according to the committee.

TouLouSe: french members of the RAID special police forces unit leave after the assault on the besieged flat of self-professed al qaeda

militant Mohamed Merah on Thursday. AfP

French ‘al Qaeda’ suspect dies in violent last stand

Despite shootings, extremist Islamwaning in France: experts

Sarkozy vows to crack downon extremist indoctrination

PARISAfP

French President Nicolas Sarkozy vowed on Thursday to crack down onextremist indoctrination in the wake of the murder of seven people by a self-proclaimed Islamist militant. He said he wanted legal action against peoplewho regularly consulted jihadist websites or who travelled abroad forindoctrination and said he wanted to stop French jails being a breedingground for extremism. “Henceforth, any person who habitually consultsInternet sites which praise terrorism and which call for hatred and violencewill be punished under criminal law,” he said in a televised address. Anyperson who travels abroad for “indoctrination into ideologies which lead toterrorism” will be prosecuted, Sarkozy said, shortly after the alleged killer ofthe seven was shot dead by police in Toulouse. The president added that hehad asked his justice minister to investigate the propagation of extremistideologies in French prisons.

Threat of strike onIran is working:Israel’s Barak

jERuSALEMAfP

The threat of a military strikeon Iran is preventing theIslamic republic from takingthe final steps towardsdeveloping a nuclear bomb,Israeli Defence Minister EhudBarak said on Thursday. “Weare seeing with our own eyesthe reason why Iran, whichreally wants to achieve amilitary nuclear capability, isnot taking some of the stepsdefined by the IAEA asbreaking the rules, why it isnot breaking out,” he toldpublic radio, referring to theUN’s International AtomicEnergy Agency. “One of thereasons is the fear of what willhappen if, God forbid, theUnited States or maybesomeone else acts againstthem,” Barak said, referring tothe threat of an air strikeagainst Iran’s nuclear facilities.Israel and Washingtondisagree over the imminenceof the Iranian nuclear threat,and the only way to overcomethis disagreement was to stepup the sanctions imposed onTehran and to ensure theupcoming talks achievedresults, Barak said. “There’s apoint of disagreement and theonly way of getting over it andresolving it is by acceleratingthe sanctions, and by settingdown a short timetable for thetalks next month, to test if theymean to stop their nuclearprogramme or not,” he said.

ISB 23-03-2012_Layout 1 3/23/2012 1:40 AM

Foreign News 17Friday, 23 march, 2012

RAMALLAHAfP

Palestinian premier SalamFayyad on Thursday urgeddonors to hastily providepromised funds to help thePalestinian Authority weather afinancial crisis.

Speaking a day after ameeting of internationaldonors in Brussels, known asthe Ad Hoc LiaisonCommittee, Fayyad said themonies were crucial to helpthe Ramallah-basedPalestinian Authority to meetits obligations. At the close ofthe meeting, NorwegianForeign Minister Jonas GahrStoere who chairs thecommittee, urged supporters“to ensure the contribution of$1 billion (760 million euros)in assistance” in 2012 andurged Israel to facilitate thetransfer of tax monies due tothe Palestinian Authority.

“What is more importantis that this money, or at least

part of it, is transferred asquickly as possible so thePalestinian Authority candeal with its difficult financialcrisis,” Fayyad told theofficial Voice of Palestineradio. The European Unionhad pledged 155 million euros($204 million) and theUnited States was working tocomplete its allocations for2011. “What is equallyimportant is funding from theArab countries,” said Fayyad.“Funding from the region iscrucial. Until now, all we havereceived from the Arabcountries in 2012 is $32million (24 million euros)from Qatar, which we aregrateful for but we need muchmore,” he said. “ThePalestinian Authoritydepends on its tax revenuesin addition to financial aid inorder to fulfill its obligations,including salaries. If the aiddoesn’t come through... it willseriously hinder thePalestinian Authority from

fulfilling its obligations.”In its closing statement,

the committee referred to theneed for “burden sharing”between the donor nations. Italso hailed a technicalagreement between theIsraeli and Palestinianfinance ministries to makethe collection of tax monies“more efficient andtransparent” and urged a“swift conclusion andimplementation” of the deal.And it called on Israel “tofacilitate sustainable growthof the Palestinian economy...by taking further steps toimprove movement of peopleand goods, development, andtrade and exports” in the WestBank and Gaza, as well as ineast Jerusalem. The WorldBank, the InternationalMonetary Fund and the UnitedNations have all expressedconcern over the budgetaryproblems difficulties being facedby the Palestinian Authority as aresult of Israeli restrictions.

DeNPASAR: Balinese Hindu devotees carry effigies called ‘ogoh-ogoh’

symbolising evil, on Thursday as part of a traditional celebration

ahead of the Day of Silence, locally known as ‘Nyepi’. AfP

Palestinians urge donors tocough up promised funds

Portugal hit bygeneral strike againstausterity measures

LISBOnAfP

Public services across Portugal ground to ahalt Thursday as unions staged a 24-hourstrike against austerity measures agreed bythe government in return for aninternational bailout. Garbage wentuncollected, ports and schools closed,public transport was disrupted and otherpublic services were affected by thecountry’s second general strike in fourmonths. The metros in Lisbon and Oporto,Portugal’s second-largest city, were closed,forcing tens of thousands of commuters tofind an alternative way to get to work orschool. The majority of ports, including theport of Lisbon and Viana do Castelo in thenorth, were closed, according to thecountry’s biggest union — the GeneralConfederation of Portuguese Workers(CGTP) — which called the strike. Thestrike disrupted rail service between Lisbonand Oporto and halted garbage collectionin several cities including Lisbon and itssuburbs and the southern city of Evora,famous for its Roman ruins, it added. “Theparticipation rate is strong in the publictransport sector, among garbage collectorsand the health sector,” CGTP secretarygeneral Armenio Carlos told reporters,adding that “dozens” of schools wereclosed. Some taxis in Lisbon sported blackribbons in solidarity with the strikers. Butwhile public services were widely affected,most banks, restaurants, supermarkets andpharmacies in the Portuguese capitalremained open.

IAEA says in talkswith N. Korea overinspectors’ visit

VIEnnAAfP

The UN atomic agency IAEA has begun con-sultations with North Korea over a possiblevisit to the country by its inspectors to monitorits nuclear activities, a spokeswoman saidThursday. This comes as neighbour SouthKorea prepares to host a nuclear security sum-mit in Seoul next week, with Pyongyang’satomic programme likely one of the hot topics.“I can confirm that the IAEA has started con-sultations with the DPRK (North Korea) aboutits invitation,” International Atomic EnergyAgency spokeswoman Gill Tudor told AFP byphone Thursday. She could not yet say how-ever when the consultations would end andwhen the inspectors’ visit to the isolated coun-try might take place. North Korea expelled UNinspectors in 2009, but announced earlier thisweek that it had invited them back to monitora nuclear freeze deal with the United States.On February 29, Pyongyang had agreed to sus-pend its uranium enrichment programme,along with long-range missile launches andnuclear tests, in return for 240,000 tonnes ofUS food. It also promised to readmit IAEA in-spectors after a three-year absence.

Mali presidentsafe after coup

BAMAKOAfP

Mali’s President Amadou Toumani Tourewas under guard by loyalist troopsThursday after being forced to flee an attackby a military junta which claimed to haveousted his regime. The putschists, callingthemselves the National Committee for theEstablishment of Democracy, said they hadacted due to government’s “inability” to putdown a Tuareg-led insurrection in the northand tackle terrorism. Foreign powersexpressed alarm over the coup, with Francesuspending cooperation with its formercolony, urging soldiers not to harm Tourewho was at a military barracks in Bamakounder protection from his elite paratrooperguard. The junta appeared on statetelivision overnight and their leaderrevealed to be Captain Amadou Sanogo.The 63-year-old Toure has not spokenpublicly since and remained in Bamako,protected by his presidential guard at amilitary camp.

BEIRutAfP

FIERCE clashes raged acrossSyria despite a UN SecurityCouncil peace call, with 10civilians on a bus trying toflee to Turkey among at least

26 people killed Thursday, monitors andactivists said.

The bus, with women and children onboard, was shot up near the town of Ser-min in the northwestern province ofIdlib, said the Syrian Observatory forHuman Rights, without identifying theassailants. An opposition activist on theground, Milad Fadl, contacted by AFP inBeirut, said the civilians were headed forTurkey to escape the bloodshed whenregime forces opened fire.

The Britain-based Observatory saidearlier that a 17-year-old boy was killedand dozens wounded in an army assaulton Sermin itself. Army forces attackedseveral towns, while rebel fighters struckarmy posts in several provinces and an-

nounced a command structure to coordi-nate hit-and-run strikes in and aroundthe capital. In the deadliest attack on thearmy, five soldiers were killed in a raid ona military checkpoint in the region ofLatakia, said the Observatory.

The region has a large population ofAlawites, members of the minority off-shoot of Shiite Islam to which PresidentBashar al-Assad also belongs and whichforms the backbone of his regime. In thesouth, rebel fighters killed a soldier andwounded four others near the village ofSaida in Daraa province, where Syria’syear-old revolt against the regimeerupted, said the monitoring group. Armydeserters killed two soldiers in the town.

It added three civilians were killed astroops sprayed heavy machinegun fire inQusayr, a town in the flashpoint provinceof Homs, central Syria, where rebel forceskilled four soldiers. The reports could notbe confirmed due to restrictions on themovements of foreign media. The escala-tion came just hours after the SecurityCouncil passed a statement urging Assad

and his foes to implement “fully and im-mediately” international envoy KofiAnnan’s peace plan. Annan’s plan callsfor Assad to pull troops and heavyweapons out of protest cities, a daily two-hour humanitarian pause to hostilities,access to all areas affected by the fighting,and a UN-supervised halt to all clashes. Acorrespondent at the scene also reportedviolent clashes in and around Sermin, avillage near the town of Banash in Idlib,as army shelling and tank fire threw upthick plumes of black smoke.

Free Syrian Army fighters and regu-lar troops were locked in close-up streetfighting, rebel Sergeant Abu Adel toldAFP by telephone from the scene of theclashes, as civilians took shelter in base-ments. At least four civilians, includingtwo children, were killed and more than30 wounded, according to FSA sources.“Tanks have been posted on the Sermin-Banach road blocking any evacuation ofthe wounded or villagers from fleeingthe clashes,” said another rebel fighter,Abu Salem.

Syria deaths pile up despite UN peace call10 killed on busfleeing Syria violence

BEIRutAfP

Ten people, including women and children,were killed on Thursday as they werefleeing violence in Syria’s northwesternIdlib province on board a bus headed toTurkey, monitors said. Rami AbdelRahman, head of the Syrian Observatoryfor Human Rights, said the bus driver andnine members of two separate familieswere killed when the vehicle came underfire. He said the killings took place near thetown of Sermin, along a road that linksIdlib province to Turkey further north.Milad Fadl, a local activist reached by AFPfrom Beirut, said regime forces had openedfire on the bus headed to a refugee camp inTurkey. Abdel Rahman said the victimsincluded three children under the age of 15and two women.

EU to slap travel, assets freeze on Assad’s wife: diplomats

BRuSSELSAfP

The European Union is set to slap a travelban and assets freeze on President Basharal-Assad’s wife Asma and other membersof his family, EU diplomats told AFP onThursday. Asma al-Assad is on a list of 12people, including a handful of the presi-dent’s relatives, whose assets will be frozenand who will be barred from travel acrossthe 27-nation bloc, the sources said. As aBritish-born and British-educated formerinvestment banker, it was widely believedAsma al-Assad’s grounding in Western val-ues would help give the regime a more hu-man face and shatter the isolation of thesecretive Assad family. But in the lastweeks she became the focus of sharp criti-cism after Britain’s Guardian newspaperreleased e-mails showing the ruling coupleshopping for luxury goods as the countryslid into bloody chaos. She will be one of adozen names added by EU foreign minis-ters Friday to a blacklist of around 150firms and people already targeted in 12previous rounds of European sanctions, EUsources told AFP. An EU diplomat saidmembers of the 27-nation bloc were agreedon adding 12 people and two companies tothe list but that no joint move was expectedon closing EU embassies in Damascus un-less the situation deteriorated.

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10ThWeST ASIA BASeBAll CUP

friday, 23 March, 2012

Page 21

DuBAICRICINfo

MOHAMMAD Amir must go through a processof rehabilitation, including educating himselfand others about the perils of corruption, andnot focus on the reduction of the ban imposed

on him by an ICC tribunal for his involvement in spot-fix-ing, the ICC chief Haroon Lorgat has said. Lorgat also saidthe ICC rules do not allow for a reduction of the five-yearban and stressed the importance of respecting the verdictthe independent tribunal had reached.

In his first statement after returning to Pakistan fromEngland on February 26, Amir had said he would not re-quest the ICC to reduce his ban, which runs until 2015.Lorgat said Amir should start the rehabilitationprocess by doing the right things. "I would preferthat the starting point should not be about whetherwe [ICC] could reduce the sentence," Lorgat toldESPNcricinfo in Mumbai, en route to Sri Lankawhere he will release the first batch of tickets forthe ICC World Twenty20. "Let that [the re-duction of the ban] be the end result of aprocess of rehabilitation since he has nowcome clean, if that is indeed the case. Partof the sanction he received from the ICC tri-bunal was to educate himself and for him toeducate others. So let us do all the necessarybuilding blocks before we get to a point whereanyone could ask, 'Does he now deserve a re-view?'" Amir was released from custody afterserving half of his six-month sentence for hisinvolvement in the spot-fixing scandal duringthe Lord's Test in 2010. The Crown Prosecu-tion Service had brought charges againstAmir, Salman Butt and Mohammad Asifunder conspiracy to accept corrupt pay-ments and conspiracy to cheat at gam-bling after a sting operation carried outby the now defunct News Of the World.Butt and Asif had pleaded not guilty incourt but were found guilty in November 2011;Amir pleaded guilty to the charges and did not

stand trial. Amir, however, had pleaded not guilty beforethe ICC's tribunal in Doha in February 2011.

Life could have been different and perhaps easier forAmir, Lorgat said, had he pleaded guilty in front of the ICCtribunal in Doha. Amir had maintained he was innocent atthe time. The three-man tribunal - comprising MichaelBeloff QC, Sharad Rao and Justice Albie Sachs - bannedSalman Butt, Mohammad Asif and Amir for ten, seven andfive years respectively, after finding them guilty of spot-fix-ing. Amir's reaction to that decision was that he would ap-peal the ban in the Court of Arbitration of Sports inSwitzerland. He later decided not to appeal. "I find it veryunfortunate for Mohammad Amir. We did provide himwith lots of opportunities," Lorgat said, when asked if he

was disappointed Amir did not confess in Doha. "Thetribunal might have looked at it differently and whoknows what decision they could have come to onsanction. It could have been a different story. I amsad for him." In an interview on Sky TV after hisrelease from custody, Amir said he had beentricked into bowling no-balls to order during the

Lord's Test by his agent Mazhar Majeed andhis captain Salman Butt. He said he didnot "have the courage" to admit his guiltto the ICC tribunal. Lorgat's advice forAmir was to not to give up and, "do all theright things." "Come into the educationprocess and don't just give up thegame," Lorgat said. "Retain your faithin the future. He must be prepared totell his story and explain to otherswhat they need to be careful of." Lor-gat felt the ICC, the PCB and Amir, andall other stakeholders, should work to-gether to try and ensure no otherplayer falls prey to corruption. He saidAmir could talk, over video, to the play-

ers during the ICC Under-19 World Cupto be held in Australia later this year. "If

Mohammad Amir stands up and deliversa message of caution about this murky

world, people are going to sit up and listen.That is one example of rehabilitation."

Amir must focus onrehabilitation: Lorgat

LAHORESTAff RePoRT

Hosts Pakistan will play Iran in the opening match of the10thWest Asia Baseball Cup at the Punjab Stadium here onFriday.

Iran was the first team to arrive Pakistan on Wednes-day. Meanwhile, secretary Pakistan Federation BaseballKhawar Shah said that Afghanistan had also reached thecity on late Thursday evening and the third foreign team SriLanka will arrive on Friday.

Khawar while welcoming all the foreign teams in Pak-istan ensured fool-proof security arrangements for them.“The Punjab government has made excellent securityarrangements for the visitors and Inshallah the event willbe successfully end on March 28,” he said.

“The PFB made hectic efforts for a successful bid to getthis event and as we have organized first SAARC Cup in La-hore last year, and all the foreign teams returned back homehappily this time five teams have confirmed the participa-

tion including India, besides Pakistan,” he said,But he said later on India failed to send the team, leav-

ing it a four-nation contest. He said though Nepal had alsoexpressed the desire to come to Pakistan, but it was, too lateto entertain them at that stage.

The secretary said the Pakistan team was fully preparedto get top position,. He said Iran and Sri Lankan were twotough contestants.

“Our boys are well trained by a Korean coach and theyare looking in a good shape to beat all the sides to win thetop position and to enter the main round of the Asia Cupwhere it will be playing against giants like South Korea,Japan, Taiwan and China,”he said.

He said one team from this round and another one fromthe East Asia qualifiers would make the six-team contest ofthe Asia Cup to be held later this year.

Khawar said Iran was a fast emerging nation in the base-ball arena but Pakistan had the potential to give them toughtime. Pakistan Olympic Association president Lt. Gen. (retd.)Syed Arif Hasan will inaugurate the tournament.

COLOMBOAfP

England displayed their batting prowessahead of next week's Test series in SriLanka by winning the final practicematch with an astonishing run chase onThursday.

The tourists surpassed a stiff target of359 from 64 overs with four wickets and20 balls to spare against a Sri Lanka De-velopment XI in the three-day match atthe Sinhalese sports club in Colombo.

Wicket-keeper Matt Prior led the as-sault with a blistering 84 off 60 balls,and was ably supported by KevinPietersen (52), Ravi Bopara (66) andSamit Patel (72).

Graeme Swann brought up the win

for the world's top-ranked Test side with14 runs off three balls -- four, six and four-- off leg-spinner Kaushal Lokuarachchi.

Out-of-form Ian Bell was the lonebatsman to miss out, falling for 11. He hasnow scored just 25 runs in three inningson the tour so far.

The tourists suffered a blow when itwas revealed that Bopara was unlikely tobowl in the two-Test series due to a sidestrain.

Bopara will, however, still be avail-able for selection as a specialist batsman,a team spokesman said.

The home team, who resumed theirsecond innings at the overnight score of44-1, moved to 199-4 before the inningswas declared during the lunch break.

Angelo Perera, a 22-year-old right-

hander, followed his 85 in the first in-nings with an unbeaten 90 off 70 balls,studded with eight boundaries and sixsixes. The tourists won the first practicematch against the Cricket Board XI by aninnings and 15 runs.

The first Test opens in Galle fromMonday, followed by the second inColombo from April 3.BRIef SCoReS: sri lanka development Xi 1st innings: 431-6 declared (chamara silva 163, thilina Kandamby 64, an-gelo Perera 85, stuart broad 3-69, steven Finn 2-93, samitPatel 1-83)england 1st innings: 272-4 declared (andrew strauss 100retired, Jonathan trott 101 retired)sri lanka development Xi 2nd innings: 199-4 declared (an-gelo Perera 90 not out, steven Finn 1-17, tim bresnan 1-16)england 2nd innings: 360-6 (Kevin Pietersen 52, ravibopara 66, matt Prior 84, samit Patel 72)england won by four wickets.

afghanistan qualifyfor world t20

DuBAIAfP

Afghanistan booked their place in the2012 World Twenty20 on Thursday with a47-run victory over Namibia in the firstfinal of the 16-nation qualifying tourna-ment. In a battle of two undefeated teams,Afghanistan were bowled out for 146 intheir 20 overs before Namibia were dis-missed for 99 in the 19th over.Despite the loss, Namibia will get a secondchance of making the World Twenty20when they face either Ireland or theNetherlands in Saturday's second qualify-ing final. Afghanistan, who also played inthe 2010 World Twenty20 in theCaribbean, saw openers Karim Sadiq (28)and Javed Ahmadi (24) give their side aflying start with a partnership of 57 by theseventh over. But Namibia slammed thebrakes on the scoring rate with skipperSarel Burger taking with 3 for 16.However, the African side never recoveredfrom a precarious 18 for four by the fourthover with seamer Dawlat Zadran boastingfigures of 3 for 1 off his first two overs.Burger and Nicholaas Scholtz, with 22runs each, gave a little middle-order impe-tus, but Afghanistan were simply too pow-erful in all departments as they coasted toa place in the finals in Sri Lanka in Sep-tember and October.Right-arm fast bowler Aftab Alam claimed4 for 25, sweeping up the tail in theprocess. Earlier, Ireland swept pastCanada in the play-offs, winning by 10wickets while the Netherlands edged outScotland by three wickets.Ireland will face the Dutch on Friday withthe winner of that game taking onNamibia on Saturday for the second avail-able berth in Sri Lanka. Afghanistan andthe winner of Saturday's final play-off willmeet in the tournament finale on Saturdaynight. The winner will be slotted intoGroup B in Sri Lanka alongside Australiaand the West Indies with the runner-upgoing into Group A against India and de-fending champions England.

wi summon barathfor out-of-form Powell

GROS ISLEtAfP

West Indies have dropped out-of-formopener Kieran Powell and replaced himwith Adrian Barath for the remainingtwo one-day internationals against Aus-tralia. Powell made just 20 runs in thefirst three matches of the series, whichstands at 1-1 with one tie, ahead of thelast two games in St Lucia on Fridayand Sunday. The 21-year-old Barath hasplayed 12 ODIs for West Indies sincehis debut two years ago.weST INDIeS SquAD: darren sammy (captain),adrian barath, carlton baugh, tino best, devendrabishoo, darren bravo, dwayne bravo, Johnsoncharles, sunil narine, Kieron Pollard, Kemar roach,andre russell, marlon samuels.

PHF announcesJunior team formalaysia tour

LAHORESTAff RePoRT

The selection committee of the PakistanHockey Federation on Thursday selectedan 18-member junior national team formatches against Malaysia and Korea. The trials to select the final lineup ofPakistan junior hockey team were held atthe National Hockey Stadium Lahore andthe national selection committee final-ized the following contingent after ap-proval of President PHF. The juniorhockey team is like to leave Lahore forKuala Lumpur on April 4. TeAM offICIALS: rana mujahid ali (team manager),anjum saeed, danish Kaleem and ahmed alam(coaches), dr. asad abbas (team doctor) and syedabuzar Umrao (Video-analyst).PlaYers: mazhar abbas (capt), amjad ali, muhammadKhalid, muhammad aleem bilal, waseem abbas,muhammad Kashif Javed, tasawwar abbas, FaisalQadir, Zohaib ashraf, m. bilal Khan, Fahad Khan,muhammad irfan (V.capt), Hafiz Umer sardar, muham-mad dilber, muhammad Jaffar, muhammad suleman,muhammad Umair & Hafiz rizwan ali.

gayle, wicb standoff continues

BAnGALOREAGeNCIeS

Chris Gayle's return to the West Indiesteam has been delayed once again as nodecision was taken in the meeting in-volving Gayle and the WICB. Gayle hadmet with the chief executive, Ernest Hi-laire, and president, Julian Hunte inthe meeting chaired by the prime minis-ter of St. Vincent, Ralph Gonsalves. Gayle was expected to return to theWest Indies team for the ongoing seriesagainst Australia which ends on April27 after the meeting. Gayle is also contracted to play in theIPL for Royal Challengers Bangaloreuntil May 27 and in the English countyT20 tournament for Somerset and wassaid to be keen in taking part in bothtournaments. This in turn makes himunavailable for the series against Aus-tralia as well as West Indies' tour ofEngland that starts on May 5 and goeson till June 24. This is believed to bethe reason behind the continuing im-passe. Gayle last represented West Indies inthe World Cup quarterfinal against Pak-istan in March 2011. He was not consid-ered for selection after his publiccriticism of the WICB and the coach,Otis Gibson. Gayle had also refused totake back his comments or issue anapology for the same. The WICB hadalso asked Gayle to make his prioritiesclear saying that he would not be givenpermission to play in T20 tournamentsaround the world if he was available toplay for West Indies at that time.

Pakistan to take on Iran in opener

Brilliant England win Sri Lanka tour match

williams, clijsters maketriumphant returns

colombo: england cricketer Kevin Pietersen plays a shot during the third day of a three-daypractice match against sri lanka development Xi at the sinhalese sports club ground. AfP

ISB 23-03-2012_Layout 1 3/23/2012 1:40 AM

DHAKAAfP

PAKISTAN claimed the Asia Cupwith a thrilling two-run victoryover a dogged Bangladesh onThursday, breaking the hearts

of home supporters who saw their unfan-cied side take the game to the wire. Thevisitors -- tournament winners in 2000 --held Bangladesh to 234-8, agonisinglyshort of Pakistan's 236-9 despite impres-sive half-centuries from Shakib Al Hasan(68) and opener Tamim Iqbal (60).

Stunned silent crowd, agonized TamimIqbal, a tearful Mushfiqur Rahim, gloomyNasir Hussain and a pensive Shakib AlHasan. Emotions ran high and Sher-e-Bangla Stadium was engulfed in it. Neverhad Bangladesh played such a high profilegame. For the first time, odds were notstacked against them and they played,played not like underdogs but as heavy-weights at par with their opposition Pak-istan. Stats generally hide more than whatthey reveal, but here the 2-run loss does nothide anything; it only reveals character, thecharacter of a bunch of youngsters talentedcricketers. Pakistan paceman Aizaz Cheemastarred with the ball, grabbing three wickets,while fast bowler Umar Gul and off-spinnerSaeed Ajmal each took two to strangleBangladesh's run-chase. But Shahid Afridiwas awarded the Man of the match award.The hosts, appearing in their first Asia Cupfinal, looked well placed to win the day-nightmatch, watched by Bangladesh PresidentZillur Rahman and Prime Minister SheikhHasina, but faltered in the final over.

Needing nine runs to win with threewickets in hand they could manage only six,as Cheema held his nerve to see out the game.

Cheered by a capacity crowd, Bangladeshstarted their innings strongly, reaching 68 forthe opening wicket through Tamim and Mo-hammad Nazimuddin (16), before Pakistanstruck with three wickets in the space of 13runs. Tamim, who was initially dropped fromthe squad but later added as a 15th member,hit eight fours in his fourth successive half-century before being caught by Younis in the

covers off Gul. Shakib kept alive Bangladesh'shopes with an 89-run stand for the fourthwicket with Nasir Hossain (28), but his dis-missal in the 44th over put the hosts underpressure. Bangladesh had earlier restrictedPakistan's free-scoring batsmen with tightbowling and a solid fielding performance.

Left-arm spinners Shakib and AbdurRazzak and paceman Mashrafe Mortazabagged two wickets apiece for Bangladesh,with Sarfraz Ahmed leading Pakistan's in-nings with an unbeaten 46. Having upset theodds to beat World Cup winners India and

runners-up Sri Lanka in league matches,Bangladesh looked like they could repeat thetrick after capturing three wickets in theopening 15 overs to have Pakistan at 55-3.

Mortaza struck in his third over when hehad opener Nasir Jamshed (nine) caught byMohammad Mahmudullah in the covers be-fore seamer Nazmul Hossain trapped YounisKhan leg-before for one. Bangladesh's field-ers expertly supported their bowlers withNasir running the tourist's skipper Misbah-ul-Haq out with a direct-hit before Nazmulheld a good catch at mid-on to account for

Mohammad Hafeez (40). Nasir had a handin one more dismissal when he dived forwardat long-off to take a superb catch to removeShahid Afridi after the batsman had hit onesix and four boundaries in a brisk 22-ball 32.

The hosts did not allow Pakistan to builda big partnership, the highest stand of the in-nings being 59 for the fifth wicket betweenUmar Akmal (30) and Hammad Azam (30).teAM congrAtULAteD: PresidentAsif Ali Zardari, Prime Minister Syed YousufRaza Gilani and PCb chairman Zaka Ashrafhave on Thursday congratulated the Pakistan

team for winning the Asia Cup after a high-tension final against Bangladesh. The presi-dent and the prime minister congratulatedthe players, coach, manager and the officialsfor winning the Asia Cup. The PCB chairmanbesides congratulating the Pakistan team alsopraised the efforts of the Bangladesh team.Bangladesh made history by reaching theirfirst-ever Asia Cup final with a comfortablefive-wicket win over Sri Lanka, four-timewinner of the tournament, on Tuesday night.However, Pakistan halted their fairytale whenthey beat fighting Bangladesh in the final.

Sports 19Friday, 23 march, 2012

Pakistan win Asia Cup, B’desh praisePAKISTAN:

Mohammad Hafeez c Nazmul b Razzak 40

Nasir Jamshed c Mahmudullah b Mortaza 9

Younis Khan lbw b Nazmul 1

Misbah-ul-Haq run out 13

umar Akmal c Rahim b Mahmudullah 30

Hammad Azam c and b Shakib 30

Shahid Afridi c Nasir b Shakib 32

Sarfraz Ahmed not out 46

umar Gul c Shakib b Mortaza 4

Saeed Ajmal b Razzak 4

Aizaz Cheema not out 9

eXTRAS (b2, lb8, nb4, w4) 18

ToTAL (for nine wickets; 50 overs) 236

fall of wickets: 1-16 (Jamshed), 2-19 (Younis), 3-55 (Misbah), 4-70

(Hafeez), 5-129 (Azam), 6-133 (Akmal), 7-178 (Afridi), 8-199 (Gul),

9-206 (Ajmal).

BowLING: Mortaza 10-0-48-2 (w1), Nazmul 8-1-36-1, Razzak 10-

3-26-2, Shahadat 9-0-63-0 (nb4, w2), Shakib 10-1-39-2 (w1),

Mahmudullah 3-0-14-1.

BANGLADeSH:

Tamim Iqbal c Younis b Gul 60

Mohammad Nazimuddin c Younis b Afridi 16

Jahurul Islam c Younis b Ajmal 0

Nasir Hossain c Misbah b Gul 28

Shakib Al Hasan b Cheema 68

Mushfiqur Rahim c Jamshed b Cheema 10

Mohammad Mahmudullah not out 17

Mashrafe Mortaza c Jamshed b Ajmal 18

Abdur Razzak b Cheema 6

Shahadat Hossain not out 0

eXTRAS (lb5, nb2, w4) 11

ToTAL (for eight wickets; 50 overs) 234

fall of wickets: 1-68 (Nazimuddin), 2-68 (Jahurul), 3-81 (Tamim),

4-170 (Nasir), 5-179 (Shakib), 6-190 (Rahim), 7-218 (Mortaza), 8-

233 (Razzak).

BowLING: Hafeez 10-0-30-0 (w1), Gul 10-2-65-2 (nb1), Ajmal 10-

2-40-2 (w1), Afridi 10-1-28-1 (w1), Cheema 7-0-46-3 (nb1), Azam

3-0-20-0 (w1).

Result: Pakistan win by two runs

Man of the match: Shahid Afridi (PAK)

Man of the tournament: Shakib Al Hasan (BAN)

Toss: Bangladesh

umpires: Steve Davis (AuS) and Ian Gould (eNG)

TV umpire: S. Ravi (IND)

Match referee: David Boon (AuS).

SCoReBoARD

dHaKa: the Pakistan team celebrates with the asia cup at the sher-e-bangla national stadium. AfP

LAHORE/ISLAMABADSTAff RePoRT

The Pakistan Cricket Board has onThursday announced teams for FaysalBank Super 8 Twenty-20 Cup 2011-12

The tournament will be playedfrom March 25 to April 1 at the PindiStadium, Rawalpindi.

In continuation of its three-yearcontract for Domestic Cricket withPCB, Faysal Bank will now be collabo-rating with PCB to organize the secondT20 Cricket Tournament of the secondseason. The three year partnership be-tween PCB and Faysal Bank is settinga precedent which is going to go a longway in uplifting the standard of do-mestic cricket in the country. Thematches will be telecast live on a pri-vate channel. A total of eight teamshave been divided into two groups.

Group-A have Faisalabad Wolves,Peshawar Panthers, Karachi Zebras,Lahore Lions and Group-B includesLahore Eagles, Sialkot Stallions,Rawalpindi Rams, Karachi Dolphins.

Aarij Ali, Head Retail, Faysal Bankreiterated the banks commitment tocricket and said: “Faysal Bank has re-cently launched its corporate cam-paign. We now have a Brand Promiseto share with Pakistan.”

Subhan Ahmad, COO PCB said:“PCB’s resolve is to further strengthenthe domestic structure in line with ourvision of providing cricketing opportu-nities at all levels and in achieving thisobjective Faysal Bank has been ourvalued partner."

The opening match will be playedbetween Faisalabad Wolves-PeshawarPanthers. Faysal Bank will be award-ing the winning team Rs 2.5 million asprize money and Rs 1 million for therunners up. Two matches will beplayed every day starting at 4:00pm,and 8:00pm respectively. the ScheDULe of

MAtcheS IS AttAcheD:

March 25: Faisalabad Wolves-Pe-shawar Panthers, Lahore Lions-Karachi ZebrasMarch 26: Lahore Eagles-Sialkot Stal-

lions, Rawalpindi Rams-Karachi Dol-phinsMarch 27: Karachi Zebras-FaisalabadWolves, Lahore Lions-Peshawar Pan-thersMarch 28: Karachi Dolphins-SialkotStallions, Lahore Eagles-RawalpindiRamsMarch 29: Lahore Lions-FaisalabadWolves, Karachi Zebras-PeshawarPanthersMarch 30: Karachi Dolphins-LahoreEagles, Rawalpindi Rams-Sialkot Stal-lionsMarch 31: Both the Semi Final April 1: FINALThe first semi final between Winner ofGroup (A) Vs Runner Up of Group (B)and the second Semi Final betweenWinner of Group (B) Vs Runner Up ofGroup (A). The teams and manage-ments were selected by their respectiveregional associations for the event.the teAMS:

Rawalpindi Rams: Sohail Tanvir(Captain), Umer Amin (V.Captain),Naveed Malik, Awais Zia, JamalAnwar, Babar Naeem, Hammad Azam,Muhammad Nawaz, Yasir Arafat,Yasim Murtaza, Samiullah, Muham-mad Rameez, Adnan Mufti, UmairMushtaq, Nasir Malik, Tahir Niazi,Muhammad Ayaz, Zahid Mansoor. Of-ficials: Sabih Azhar (Coach), AmirAhmad Shah (Manager).

Peshawar Panthers: Umar Gul(Captain), Muhammad Fayyaz, GoharAli, Akbar Badshah, Rifatullah Mah-mand, Zohaib Jan, Israrullah, ShoaibKhan, Muhammad Rizwan, Jamalud-din, Musadiq Ahmad, Imran Khan,Iftikhar Ahmad, Waqar Ahmad, AftabKhan, Riaz Afridi, Aslam Qureshi, AfaqAhmad. Officials: Abdur Rehman(Coach), Roazamin Khan (Manager).

Lahore Lions: Abdul Razzaq,Adnan Rasool, Ahmad Shahzad,Aizaz Cheema, Imran Ali, JahangirMirza, Jamshaid Ahmad, KamranAkmal (Captain), Nasir Jamshaid,Raza Ali Dar, Sohail Ahmad, UmarAkmal, Wahab Riaz, Kashif Siddique,Fahad ul Haq, Asif Yousaf, TanzeelAltaf, Muhammad Irfan. Officials:

Mohsin Kamal (Coach), M. Ijaz Butt(Manager).

Lahore Eagles: Taufeeq Umar(Captain), Saad Naseem, MustafaIqbal, Muhammad Khalil, MuzaffarMahboob, Muhammad Hamza, Ju-naid Zia, Imran Farhat, Azhar Ali,Asif Raza, Adnan Akmal, HamzaParacha, Asif Ashfaq, Ali Azmat,Emmad Ali, Humayun Farhat, WaqasAslam, Fahad Masood. Officials:Manzoor Elahi (Coach), Najam Mirza(Manager).

Faisalabad Wolves: MuhammadHafeez, Asif Ali, Ali Waqas, MisbahulHaq (Captain), Jahandad, FarrukhShahzad, Imran Ali, Naveed Latif,Sabir Hussain, Khurram Shahzad,Muhammad Salman, Saeed Ajmal,Imran Khalid, Muhammad Talha,Asad Ali, Waqas Maqsood, ShahidNazir, Ali Raza. Officials: Ijaz AhmadJr. (Coach), Tariq Fareed (Manager).

Sialkot Stallions: , Imran Nazir,Kamran Younis, Shahid Yousaf, ShoaibMalik (Captain), Ali Khan, AbdulRehman, Rana Naveed ul Hassan, Sar-fraz Ahmad, Shakeel Ansar, AyubDogar, Naveed Arif, Raza Hassan, AliAkbar, Qaisar Abbas, Haris Sohail,Rizwan Sultan, Kashif Sohail, MansoorAmjad. Officials: Naveed Anjum(Coach), Naeem Akhtar (Manager).

Karachi Dolphins: Shahid KhanAfridi- (Captain), Muhammad Sami,Asad Shafiq, Khalid Latif, ShahzaibHassan, Rameez Raja, Sarfraz Ahmad,Fawad Alam, Tanvir Ahmad, SohailKhan, Rumman Rais, Faraz AhmadKhan, Haris Ayaz, Tariq Haroon,Ahmad Iqbal, Javed Mansoor, HafizAsad, Mir Hamza. Officials: M. Mas-roor (Coach), S.M. Ishaq (Manager).

Karachi Zebras: Akbar urRehman, Adnan Baig, Faisal Iqbal,Khurram Manzoor, Rameez Aziz,Hassan Raza (Captain), ShaharyarGhani, Muhammad Hassan, DanishKaneria, Atif Maqbool, Anwar Ali,Uzairul Haq, Azam Hussain, FakharZaman, Saeed Bin Nasir, TabishKhan, Fahad Iqbal, Zohaib Shera. Of-ficials: Tahir Mahmood (Coach),Saeed Jabbar (Manager).

Wolves-Panthers to open T-20 Cup

LAHORESTAff RePoRT

The semi-finals line-up of the 2nd FMC Pak-istan International Squash Circuit-I, 2012were decided on Thursday with the topseeded played making the last four.

In the quarter-finals, Amir Atlas Khan,Farhan Zaman, Aqib Hanif and Danish AtlasKhan beat their respective rivals with littleresistance.

The semifinal matches will be playedtoday at 2.30 pm and AVM Syed Razi Nawab,Senior Vice-President Pakistan Squash Fed-eration will be the chief guest while in thesecond Mian Fazal Haq, Senior Vice Presi-

dent Punjab Squash Association will be theChief Guest.

The final match will be played on March24 (tomorrow). Farooq Shahid, MD FMCUnited (Pvt) Ltd. will be the chief guest.

RESULTSAmir Atlas Khan (Pak) beat Syed

Hamzah Shah Bukhari 5-11, 11-9, 11-6, 9-11,11-2 (3-2) 70 Min

Danish Atlas Khan (Pak) beat M. SaqibYousaf (Pak) 11-1, 11-3, 11-13, 11-3 (3-1) 55Min

Farhan Zaman (Pak) beat Kashif Shuja(NZL) 11-9, 7-11, 7-11, 11-7, 11-5 (3-2) 64 Min

Aqib Hanif (Pak) beat Owais Khan (Pak)9-11, 11-4, 11-2, 13-11 (3-1) 36 Min.

Amir Atlas in PakInt’l Squash semis

SEPAnGAfP

Formula One pace-setter Jenson Button Thurs-day warned Malaysia's notorious downpourscould decide this week's grand prix after winningthe washed-out edition in 2009. The McLarendriver said the fast-running Sepang circuit wasa very different proposition to last Sunday's Aus-tralian Grand Prix, where he seized control of thenew season with victory at Melbourne's park-land lay-out. But he said Malaysia's frequent tor-rential rain was the unknown factor that had thepotential to throw teams' plans into disarray, oreven end the race altogether. "It's so different tolast weekend. It's very fast and flowing and it'svery smooth compared to a street circuit," But-

ton said. "And it's one of those places where youreally don't know what the weather's going to do.Previously when I won here the race was cutshort because of a red flag. That's the thing -- itdoesn't just rain, it chucks it down.

"So if it does rain we hope we can continueracing because it's a great circuit." Button's solewin at Sepang, near Kuala Lumpur, came whenofficials were forced to call off the grand prixmid-race when a tumultuous storm made thetrack undriveable. Button, in the lead at thetime of the stoppage, went on to win that year'sdrivers' championship. On Thursday after-noon, sporadic heavy rain soaked swelteringSepang as drivers visited the track. Free prac-tice starts on Friday morning and the race be-gins at 4:00 pm (0800 GMT) on Sunday.

Button fears Malaysian wash-out

islamabad, Police in dar Hockey finalLAhore: Islamabad has qualified for the final o the 1st All Pakistan Munir Dar Gold CupHockey Tournament being played at Bahawalpur Stadium. Islamabad will take on PakistanArmy in the final. Army beat Air Force 4-1 and Islamaad beat Police 2-1. Pervaiz Tari andSaeed Rasool were the chief guests of the matches. STAff RePoRT

ISB 23-03-2012_Layout 1 3/23/2012 1:40 AM

Sports20Friday, 23 march, 2012

orlando: Holly sonders of the golf channel during the pro-am as apreview for the 2012 arnold Palmer invitational presented by mastercard atbay Hill club and lodge. AfP

ORLAnDOAfP

Tiger Woods says he is back at full strength aftera tendon strain and physically ready for the chal-lenge of eight rounds in eight days that he facesplaying this week's PGA event at Bay Hill.Woods comes into the Arnold Palmer Invita-tional, his final tuneup for the Masters in twoweeks at Augusta National, after a practice roundlast Sunday at Augusta, the two-day TavistockCup exhibition and a practice round Wednesday."I feel really good now," Woods said. "That's justbecause of treatment. I've had some good thera-pists on board and they've done some really goodwork." Woods withdrew in the final round of theWorld Golf Championships event at Doral earlierthis month with tightness in his left Achilles ten-don, sparking concerns that nagging injuries hadreturned to foil yet another season.

The 14-time major champion, chasing theall-time record 18 major titles won by Jack Nick-laus, pulled out after hitting a tee shot on the 12thhole in the last round of his third consecutivetournament in as many weeks. In making his re-covery with the Masters in mind, Woods decidedto test his endurance and stamina with a Sundaypractice round, then the Tavistock team exhibi-tion the past two days and at Bay Hill, where hehas won six times. "It felt great at Augusta andthat was the test," Woods said. "I playedTavistock because of that test and here Iam ready to go." Woods said that theAchilles tightness could return withoutwarning but noted that he recognizes thesigns of trouble and has learned thatproper treatment at the proper time getsthe situation back to normal."That's one of the reasonswhy I wasn't really thatconcerned about it,that I would comeback and play these

events, because when it gets that tight, treatmentfor two or three days, it's all fine, all the swellinggoes way and I'm good to go," Woods said.Woods felt a twinge of pain in his back onWednesday when a photographer took a pictureof him in the middle of his downswing and hestopped, but said his back loosened up and feltfine. Time has taught Woods not to play throughthe injuries when they happen.

"I used to be able to just kind of play throughit, but then again, that's also set me back and oneof the reasons why I had surgeries is that I wouldignore those and just kind of play through it,"Woods said. "I had success, but the problem is, itwas also detriment at the same time physically."I've changed my practice routine based on that.If things aren't feeling right, I just won't hit ballsfor four or five hours. I'll go work on somethingelse." Woods tried to play through knee andAchilles injuries last year and made his injuriesworse, forcing him to miss the US and BritishOpens. Tournament host Palmer says he seesflashes of Woods in his prime in the form thatWoods has shown, even though Woods has notwon a tour-sanctioned event since November of2009. "I'm watching him swing and I'm watchinghim play, and I see some moments of the old-fashioned Tiger that is very good," Palmer said.

"He's strong enough and smart enough todo the things that he always did. It's

just a matter of getting it in theproper order to make him play thekind of golf that he played in the

past 20 years. "If I were makinga prediction, I would say, lookout, because one of these days,

he's going to come back and playpretty good golf." Palmer's event

will not include World No. 1 LukeDonald or World No. 2 Rory

McIlroy, both choosing torest in the two weeks prior to

the year's first major.

wapda securethird place inchallenge cup

LAHORESTAff RePoRT

Wapda has o Thursday secured third posi-tion in the KPT National Football Chal-lenge Cup-2012 at Karachi. WAPDA beatNavy 4-1 on penalty kicks at the KPT Foot-ball Stadium. WAPDA got its goal throughZulfqar Shah (FW & Captain) 1 Goal @ 59minute and Muhammad Afzal (FW) 1 Goal@ 69 Minute. (1 goal each by Rana FakharHayat, Zulfqar Shah, Akram Masih andMuhammad Shahid in Penalty Shout out).Navy’s scorers were Sajjad Ahmed (FW)@ 7 Minute, Muhammad Ramzan (DF)through Penalty Kick @ 27 Minute (1 goalby Shahid Muneer in Penalty Shoot out).The final of the event will be played onFriday when KRL will take on KESC at theKPT Football Stadium, Karachi.

teams reach lahorefor int’l cycle race

LAHORESTAff RePoRT

All the participating of the Lahore to SahiwalInternational Cycle Race has reached the cityto take part in the event which will paddle offon March 23 from Punjab Stadium. IdrisHaier Khawaja, Secretary General PakistanCycling Federation, said that the participat-ing teams from Sindh, Balochistan, KhyberPakhtun Khwa and Punjab and Aftghanistanarrived here while all the arrangements ofthe race have been finalised. Rana Mas-hood, Deputy Speaker Punjab Assemblyand Mian Mujtaba Shuja-ur-Rehman Min-ister for Education, Excise and Taxationwill be the chief guest of the occasion andwill flag off the race for Sahiwal at 08.45am. The commissioner and DCO Sahiwalwill be the chief guest to welcome the raceat Sahiwal and after lunch break will giveaway the cash prizes of Rs 100,000 to thefirst six position holders of the race.

ISLAMABADAPP

Pakistan Blind Cricket Council (PBCC)has set a four-member committee toprobe in national team’s dismal per-formance against India in the ODI andTwenty-20 series held at Chennai thismonth.

India’s blind cricket team beat Pak-istan both in the Twenty-20 and ODIseries. The committee comprisesImran Ahmad Sheikh as chairmanwhile members include TariqMehmood Awan, Bilal Satti and YousafHaroon. Talking to APP, Syed Sultan

Shah, Chairman PBCC and senior vice-president of the World Blind CricketCouncil said, “The committee will sub-mit its report to PBCC on April 16. Wenever lost to any team so poorly. I amreally disappointed with the team’spoor show.”

Sultan blamed the aging playersand their physical fitness for the na-tional team’s defeat against India.

“Some players in the team are get-ting old and are not physically up to themark,” he mentioned.

Sultan said a lot of changes are ex-pected in the team before the Blind

Cricket World Cup to be played in De-cember this year at Bangalore, India.

“We won’t be including the agingplayers in the team and instead youngplayers would be given the chance,”Sultan said adding that Masood Jan,Muhammad Fayaz, Muhammad Shah-baz and Ch. Muhammad Mudassar’sfuture to be named in the World Cupsquad is at stake.

“Anees Javed’s performance wasn’tup to the mark in the recent tour toIndia and he too would have to earn hisname in the mega event’s squad,” hesaid.

Sultan further pointed at theteam’s poor running between the wick-ets in the series against India and saidthere are chances that Abdul Razzaqwon’t lead the team in the World Cup.

“He isn’t performing well and hewill have to earn his name in the teamnow,” Sultan concluded.

However Pakistan blind cricketteam captain Abdul Razzaq has said hewould retire after this year’s WorldCup. “I would run an academy for blindcricketers at Lahore after my retire-ment. I want to give youngsters achance to come up and play after myretirement,” he said.

secretariesmeeting forsindh games

KARACHI STAff RePoRT

The Chef de Mission of Karachi Divisionfor the forthcoming Sindh Games, ZahidRizvi has called the meeting of AllKarachi Zone discipline secretaries. Themeeting has bee called to on March 24 atSSB Sports Complex Nazim Abad to dis-cuss the details about the traveling, ac-commodation and match eventsschedules at Mirpurkhas. Zahid also ex-pressed his delighted to announce thatthe sprint queen of South Asia NaseemHameed will also grace the Games as spe-cial invitee. He added that all teams areselected on merit and he was confident toretain Mohinjo daro Trophy this time aswell. Meanwhile, the Karachi Tennis As-sociation has finalized the names of bothmale and female tennis teams which willrepresent Karachi zone in the games.The selection committee was comprisedSarwar Husain (secretary KTA East) andMohammad Fahim (secretary KTASouth). The men team: Khalid Ali Nazar,Fahim Ramzan, Robin Das, Fahad Khan,Suroor Khan (official). Women: HaniaNaveed, Urooj Iltifat, Neha Khan, WaniaKhan, Hajra Nadeem (official).

MIAMIAfP

Former World No. 1 golfer Rory McIlroy is takingsome time off from preparing for next month'sMasters to support girlfriend Caroline Wozniackiat the WTA and ATP hardcourt event in Miami.

McIlroy, who led after the first three roundsat last year's Masters only to fade in the back nineon Sunday, enjoys watching Denmark's Wozni-acki, the fourth seed who will open this weekagainst Czech Barbora Zahlavova Strycova. "Ten-nis events have a different atmosphere," McIlroysaid in comments posted on the WTA website."It's packed into a smaller space so there's a littlemore buzz going on. It's a nice change to be onthe other side of the ropes, being a supporter. I've

been to a lot of tennis tournaments the last fewmonths." Northern Ireland's McIlroy, who livesnearby, was World No. 1 for two weeks after win-ning the US PGA Honda Classic earlier thismonth but England's Luke Donald won last weekto end McIlroy's brief first global golf reign.

McIlroy appeared with Wozniacki on Tuesdayand the story of a "no junk food" bet he lost to Woz-niacki was revealed. McIlroy lost when he enjoyeda slice of his mother's birthday cake. Wozniacki re-ceived a diamond bracelet as a result. "He's a verybad liar so he actually told me straight away after-wards," Wozniacki said. "He was like, 'I feel guilty.'I said, 'Don't feel guilty. I feel great!'" McIlroy mightget his chance at a rematch, however. "I was think-ing to make another one because it was too easy,"Wozniacki said. "He didn't even last two weeks."

PBCC to probe in blind team’spoor show against India

McIlroy enjoys cheering girlfriend Wozniacki

Tiger back at fullstrength for Bay hill test

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Sports 21Friday, 23 march, 2012

WaTCh iT LivE

ESPNSports Center

07:30PM

KEY BISCAYNE: Kim Clijsters

returns the ball to Jarmila

Gajdosova of Australia during

the Sony Ericsson Open at

Crandon Park Tennis Center. AFP

MIAMIAfP

FORMER world number onesVenus Williams and KimClijsters made triumphantreturns to the WTA afterlong layoffs with victories on

Wednesday at the WTA and ATP Miamihardcourt tournament. Seven-timeGrand Slam champion Williams, whohas not played a WTA event since pullingout of last year's US Open, defeatedJapan's Kimiko Date-Krumm 6-0, 6-3 in77 minutes. "It was great to be back outthere," Williams said. "It was definitely abit nerve-wracking... but I was able to geta great start and settle in and play wellagainst a really difficult opponent. It wasdefinitely an ideal start."

Williams announced at last year'sUS Open she had been diagnosed withthe auto-immune disorder Sjogren syn-drome, an illness that saps her energyand causes pain in her joints. "Just to bein this tournament is a huge win for me,"Williams said. "That's what I told myselfgoing in, that this is a win. I have noth-ing to lose. I just tried to get in the tour-nament. There were a lot oftournaments I didn't make." Williams,who did play doubles for the US Fed Cupteam last month, pulled out of last year'sUS Open after a first-round victory. "Atthis point in time it's important for meto play smart," Williams said. "I'm an at-tacker. That's what I do best and that'swhat I tried to do today. I don't have thetime to give any points away. I have tostay really focused on my game plan.

"The good thing is I'm playing well.I know how to play, so I haven't lost anysteam in that, the fact that I can playtennis. That's comforting for me."

Belgium's Clijsters, playing for thefirst time since her Australian Opensemi-final loss to World No. 1 VictoriaAzarenka, rallied to eliminate Australia'sJarmila Gajdosova 4-6, 6-1, 6-0. "It's al-

ways tough to get that first matchrhythm under your belt," Clijsters said."When it comes down to my game I feltI wasn't quite going through my shots asI should have. "I was just trying to findthat rhythm, but on the other handmaybe forgetting to still play aggressivetennis. But as I started to feel more com-fortable with the conditions and being in

a match situation again I was hittingbetter, and that definitely showed in thesecond and third sets." Clijsters, whowon at Miami in 2005 and 2010,skipped last week's Indian Wells tourna-ment to rest her injured ankle, the latestin a list of ailments in the past year thathas also included a bad shoulder, wristand abdomen worries.

Williams, Clijsters maketriumphant returns

KeY biscaYne: Venus williams in action against Kimiko date Krumm during the sonyericsson open at crandon Park tennis center. AfP

Kleybanova makes

moving comeback

after cancer fightMIAMI

AfP

Russia's Alisa Kleybanova, a former top-20 player who missed the past 10 monthsbattling Hodgkin's lymphoma, is makingan inspirational return to the WTA Tourthis week at Miami.Kleybanova defeated 64th-ranked Jo-hanna Larsson of Sweden 2-6, 6-3, 6-2on Tuesday to reach a second-roundmatchup on Friday against compatriotMaria Kirilenko, the 22nd seed who losther only career meeting with Kleybanova."I still feel like I'm building my game,and it'll take time before I reach my high-est level," Kleybanova said. "I'm just going to try to get better withevery match. I hope the good results willcome, but I'm not going onto the courtjust thinking of winning. Who knowswhat will happen in the next one?"Kleybanova's comeback on and off thecourt at the $9.6 million hardcourtevent played alongside an ATP eventcaptured the attention of her fellowplayers, including World No. 1 VictoriaAzarenka of Belarus."Highlight of my day yesterday wasseeing Alisa Kleybanova being on thetennis court back winning! so happyfor her!" Azarenka said in a message onher Twitter website.Surrendering two service breaks in thefirst set Kleybanova battled back to ad-vance, breaking in the fourth game ofthe second set and holding into thethird, where she jumped ahead 4-0 toseize command."For everyone else it's just the first roundbut for me it was very emotional," shesaid. "I'll always remember it. It will al-ways be the first match of my comeback."I felt I was playing better the more I wason the court. It's not just about the winthough, it's that I'm back on court. "If I didn't win, it's not like I would havebeen mad. I was just happy to be play-ing points, feeling all the emotionsagain... it's something I missed a lot."

teen titanthompson seeksanother lPga win

CARLSBADAfP

Lexi Thompson, the 17-year-old USprodigy who became the youngest winnerin LPGA history last September, takesaim at another title starting Thursday atthe $1.7 million LPGA Kia Classic.Thompson won the LPGA Navistar Clas-sic by five strokes and was given a tourmembership after becoming the youngesttour champion at 16 years, eight monthsand eight days. Now she gets to enjoy anofficial rookie season."I'm just going to focus on my goals andwhat I want to improve on my game,"Thompson said. "I'm really happy withwhere my game is at. To get that win gaveme a lot more confidence."I've been working on a lot of short game,putting a lot, doing my putting drills. Butthe specific thing I'm working on my ballstriking is just posture, keeping my pos-ture good and a good set-up."Scott Thompson, Lexi's father, served asher caddie last season, but he now carriesthe clubs for older son Nicholas on the USPGA's developmental tour, with Lexi'sclubs in the hands of veteran bagmanGreg Johnston. "Greg knows pretty muchevery golf course and knows it reallywell," said Thompson. "He has a lot of ex-perience so hopefully it will help me outin the long run, and hopefully he'll be onmy bag for a while."Thompson will challenge a field at La-Costa that includes World No. 1 YaniTseng of Taiwan, who won her secondtitle in four starts this year at last week'sLPGA Founders Cup.Tseng has 14 career LPGA victories andbecame the fastest LPGA player to win $8million, doing so in 99 events over fouryears, one month and two days.Retired Mexican star Lorena Ochoa heldthe old mark of 115 events over fouryears, four months and 16 days.Sandra Gal of Germany is the defendingchampion of the event, the final tuneupfor next week's first major championshipof the season, the Kraft Nabisco Champi-onship at Rancho Mirage."This week is all about trying to prepareyourself as good as possible so can you gointo next week with lots of energy andkind of stress-free," said World No. 3Suzann Pettersen of Norway.World No. 2 Na Yeon Choi of SouthKorea, Japan's Ai Miyazato and reigningUS Women's Open champion So YeonRyu of South Korea are also in the field.

ishikawa vows notto abandon Japan

ORLAnDOAfP

New US PGA Tour special temporarymember Ryo Ishikawa plans on spendingplenty of time at events in Japan even ashe works towards being able to play a fullschedule in America one day. The 20-year-old Japanese sensation, speaking onthe eve of his Thursday start at the ArnoldPalmer Invitational at Bay Hill, Florida,said he will not abandon playing in homeevents, at least in the near future. But inTokyo, the Japanese daily Nikkan Sportsreported that Ishikawa's camp had started"research" on a house where he wouldbase himself in preparation for his "full-scale participation in the US tour nextyear." "Long term, yes, it's my dream to beplaying the majority of events over here,"Ishikawa said in Orlando. "But it wouldn'thappen in the near future because theJapanese Tour helped me reach where Iam. I'm really grateful for what I have inJapan. "For physical reasons, the timedifference and geological differences,distance-wise, for my physical state, Ithink it's better to stay over here (in theUS) and play. That would be the idealsituation. But in the near future, no."

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Published by Arif Nizami for Nawa Media Corporation (Pvt) Ltd at Plot # 7, Al-Baber Centre, F/8 Markaz, Islamabad. Editor: Arif Nizami, Executive Editor: Sarmad Bashir, Resident Editor: Rana Qaisar

ISB 23-03-2012_Layout 1 3/23/2012 1:40 AM

e-paper pakistantoday 23th march, 2012

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