Monday, 24 September, 2012 Dhual-Qi’da 6, 1433Rs 15.00 Vol III No 88 19 Pages Lahore Edition

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Match-winner Ajmalhas New Zealand in a spin

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Protests against anti-Islam film, cartoonscontinue across world

Pervez Musharraf calls for international

legislation over blasphemy

Govt distancesitslef fromBilour’s bounty

ISLAMABADAgEncIEs

The government on Sunday distanceditself from a $100,000 bounty offered by acabinet minister for the death of themaker of an anti-islam film that hassparked protests across the Muslim world.Railways Minister Ghulam Ahmed Bilouron Saturday invited members of theTaliban and al Qaeda to take part in the“noble deed”, and said given the chance,he would kill the film-maker with his ownhands. A spokesman for Prime MinisterRaja Pervez Ashraf, rejected Bilour’scomments, made on Saturday, a day afterangry protests across Pakistan against the“innocence of Muslims” left 21 peopledead and more than 200 injured. “This isnot government policy. We completelydissociate (ourselves) from this,” ShafqatJalil told AFP. The spokesman said Bilourwas a leader of the Awami National Party(ANP) and the prime minister hadcontacted the party’s chief Asfandyar Walikhan. The spokesman did not rule outaction against the minister, but said hewould continue working as usual for thetime being. Meanwhile, ANP spokesmanZahid khan said the party believed in non-violence and had always talked of peaceand stability. He said the declaration ofaward by Bilour was his personal act andhad nothing to do with the party policy.An explanation would be sought from himabout this statement, he added.

Govt raisespetrol price byRs 1.73 per liter

ISLAMABADAgEncIEs

The Ministry of Finance on Sundayapproved a summary, increasing the pricesof petrol and compressed natural gas(CNG) for the next week under the weeklyrevision of POL prices. Under thesummary, the price of petrol has beenincreased by Rs 1.73 per liter. The prices ofCNG will also go up in line with the petrolprice hike due of a set mechanism underwhich CNG price should stand at 60percent of petrol price. The CNG price inregion-i, comprising Balochistan andkhyber-Pakhtunkhwa, has reached Rs99.28 per kg from Rs 97.69 per kg, while inregion-ii, which includes Sindh andPunjab, the price will be Rs 90.70 per kgfrom Rs 89.25 per kg. The price of high-speed diesel (HSD) has been reduced by 47paisas per litre for the upcoming week. Theprice of kerosene oil has been slashed by Rs3.05 per liter.

Pakistan asks India to stopopposing Diamer damg islamabad trying to tell new Delhi its opposition costing country’s struggling economy heavilyg india’s stance also impacting ongoing peace process

ISLAMABADshAIq hUssAIn

PAkiSTAN has asked india tostop opposing the construc-tion of Diamer-Bhasha Damat various international finan-cial institutions (iFis), as New

Delhi’s opposition to the vital dam wascasting a negative impact on the ongoingindo-Pak peace process, besides causinghuge loss to the country’s exchequer.

india is against the construction of Di-amer-Bhasha dam on grounds that it is lo-cated in the ‘disputed territory’ ofGilgit-Baltistan and hence it has been op-posing islamabad’s endeavors to seek therequired financial assistance for the impor-tant project from multilateral creditors.

“Through diplomatic channels,

Pakistan is trying to impress uponindia to drop its opposition to themega water project as it is vital for thestruggling economy of the country andalso that New Delhi’s decision to op-pose the dam is also not based on prin-ciples, as the people of this areas hadthemselves decided their accession toislamabad,” said a diplomatic source,seeking anonymity.

He said india had also been told thatits opposition to the dam was impactingthe ongoing peace process between thenuclear neighbors and hence it was re-quired to review its decision.

Owing to the reluctance of iFis likeAsian Development and World Bank toextend funds for the Diamer-Basha Dam,a huge loss of $2.5b in the cost of the con-struction has already been caused to Pak-

istan’s exchequer.The cost of Diamer-Bhasha Dam was

estimated at around $11 billion in 2009,which however, has now reached ataround $13 billion with an increase of$2.5billion due to the delay in the financ-ing of the project.

A Pakistani official, who also soughtanonymity, said the dam had a storagecapacity of about eight million acre feet(MAF) and the expected electricity gener-ation was 4,500MWs.

He said the project was supposed tobe completed by 2017 but due to some fi-nancial problems, the dam constructionwas expected to be delayed by three tofour years.

The ADB has reportedly committed$4.5 billion to $5 billion for constructionof the project. The bank had also pledged

that it would act as the government’s in-vestment banker in raising the moneyfrom international capital markets tomeet funding requirements.

Similarly, the World Bank too is reluc-tant to provide funds for this dam ongrounds that india is opposing the project.

The official said the good thing so farwas that United States had assured Pak-istan to extend around $500 million inassistance for the mega project from the$7.5 billion kerry Lugar assistance pack-age for islamabad.

Pakistan is also seeking Chinese as-sistance for the construction of dam. Theofficial said Pakistan would not seek anNOC from india for Diamer-Bhasha Dambut it would continue to nudge New Delhiagainst the blocking of financial assis-tance to the project at the iFis.

DERA MURAD JAMALIstAff REpoRt

Prime Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf onSunday announced an initial package ofRs 2.6 billion to support the flood-affected people of Balochistan andrehabilitate the canal system.Addressing a public gathering, heannounced compensation worth Rs 0.4million each for the families of those whohad lost their lives in the flood.

The prime minister directed for immediaterelease of Rs 600 million to cope with foodneeds of three flood-hit districts. “The government will try its utmost tocope with the situation through well-coordinated efforts,” he added.He said after rescue and relief effort,foremost priority should be therehabilitation of irrigation infrastructurethat had been badly damaged by the floods.The whole area is under water, he added.He said that the federal government

would initially release Rs 2 billion forinfrastructure rehabilitation.Ashraf directed the National DisasterManagement Authority to arrange20,000 tents immediately, instead of10,000 as planned by NHA to provideshelter to homeless people.He said the number of tents should beincreased in accordance with therequirements, and assured the peoplethat the federal government wouldprovide funds without any delay.

He praised the efforts of the Balochistangovernment as well as army troops fortheir rescue efforts.“We will neither politicize it nor willmake any tall claim. The only priority isto reach the flood-affected people at allcosts,” said the prime minister. He said the Balochistan chief secretarywould continue to apprise the federalgovernment about the needs of flood-hitpeople so that the government mayrespond accordingly.

The prime minister said floods hadcaused devastation at a large scale inseveral areas, including Rajanpur,Jacobabad and Shikarpur. However thegovernment would cope with thechallenge using all its resources, headded. He said it was suggested to give acall for help to international communitybut he decided that the governmentwould first exploit its own resources. “The world also questions as what youhave done from your own,” he added.

PM announces Rs 2.6b for food, infrastructure in flood-hit areas

DERA MURAD JAMALI: An aerial view of the villages and fields which were inundated by recent flood. online

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sufism’s message of tolerance has universal relevance: sherry Arctic expert predicts final collapse of sea ice within four years

Monday, 24 September, 2012

Waziristan ‘peace march’ willhelp stop drone strikes: Imran

Pakistan Tehreek-e-insaf (PTi)Chairman imran khan onSunday said PTi’s forthcomingWaziristan march will enablethe world to see the massivedestruction caused by droneattacks in the Tribal Areas. Hesaid the US-led drone attackswere killing innocent people inthe Tribal Areas,adding thatthe march towards Waziristanwould also be helpful in haltingthe attacks. khan was talkingto a delegation of the PTiSialkot led by Mir UmerFarooq Meyer (member PTisPunjab Political and Strategic

Committee) that called on him at his Lahore office. The PTi chairmanstrongly criticised the government for not declaring the names of thePakistani people being killed brutally by the drone attacks. MonItoRIng DEsk

Expected service extension ofGen Kayani challenged in IHCiSLAmAbAD: The expected extension in service of Chief of Army StaffGeneral Ashfaq Pervez kayani has been challenged in the islamabad HighCourt. A private TV channel reported on Sunday that a petition filed inthe iHC pointed that the age of the incumbent COAS had crossed 60years as on April 20, 2012. if the government extended his service, itwould be unconstitutional and illegal, therefore, the COAS should beremoved from his position, the petition said. iHC Chief Justice iqbalHameedur Rehman will be hearing the petition. AgEncIEs

KP police equipped withphone tracing system PeSHAWAr: The federal government has handed over latest andsophisticated system to khyber Pakhtunkhwa police for tracingtelephone of terrorists and culprits involved in heinous crimes.Sources said the federal government handed over the system to the kPpolice to locate culprits and terrorists in the area as with this systemall mobile and telephone numbers could be traced. onLInE

PPP has not taken U-turnon Swiss letter: KairaLALAmUSA: Minister for information and Broadcasting Qamar Zamankaira on Sunday said the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) had not taken a U-turn on the Swiss letter as the Supreme Court had also asked for seeking amidway to resolve the matter. Talking to reporters, the minister said thecourt had also assured the government that its concern would be taken careof, thus hinting at a way out. “We have also responded in positive,” headded. To a question about former prime minister Yousaf Raza Gilani,kaira said the PPP respected the sacrifice rendered by Gilani. He saidGilani was an asset for the PPP and he had run the coalition governmentwith vision, ability and commitment. Referring to the joining of the PML-Nby brothers of PPP leader Nawabzada Ghazanfar Ali Gul, kaira said thePPP was like an ocean and it would have no effect if any individual left orjoined it. “Anyone who parts ways with the party will suffer the dent.Nawabzada Ghazanfar Gul has also said the act by his relatives will notaffect his loyalty to the party and that he will remain with the party,” kairasaid. earlier, the information minister spent a busy day in Danga andoversaw the development work in NA-106. App

President condemnsMardan church attack

ISLAMABADApp

President Asif Ali Zardari on Sunday condemnedand deplored the attack and the subsequentburning of a church in Mardan by a mob duringFriday’s protests. The president in a messagesaid the highly provocative anti-islam film hadbeen condemned throughout the world andparticularly in Pakistan by Muslims and non-Muslims alike. However, the ransacking of publicand private property, particularly the places ofworship of other religions was itself an un-islamic and highly condemnable act, he added.He said ransacking and vandalizing the reveredplaces of worship and inflicting damage to thelives and properties in retaliation amounted toplaying into the hands of the perpetrators of thecrime who produced the anti-islam film for thesame reason. Describing the torching of thechurch as ‘unfortunate and reprehensible ‘ thepresident said that it was contrary to theteachings of islam which held the places of allreligions in high regard. He said that incidentslike these portrayed Pakistan and Muslimsnegatively in the eyes of the internationalcommunity. The President called upon thekhyber Pakhtunkhwa (kP) government to takeall appropriate measures for protecting theplaces of worship of Christians and otherminorities and to address their grievances andtake measures to avoid such incidents in thefuture. A protesting mob in Mardan city onFriday set a Sarhadi Lutheran Church on fire andalso torched the building adjacent to the church. Probe committee: Meanwhile, interiorMinister Rehman Malik formed a committeeheaded by the kP inspector general of police toprobe the attack on the church.

nAsEERABAD: Army personnel distribute food items among flood affected people in naseerabad division of Balochistan. inP

ISLAMABADonLInE

THe first round of talks betweenPakistan and the internationalMonetary Fund (iMF) will startfrom tomorrow (Tuesday) inDubai, where Pakistan’s ability

to pay back a remaining debt of approxi-mately $6.4 billion will be reviewed.

During the weeklong talks, an iMFteam will also arrive in islamabad to holdpolicy-level dialogue which will be a signif-icant part of the parleys that involve meet-ings with President Asif Ali Zardari andPrime Minister Raja Pervaiz Ashraf, ac-cording to an official.

The official said that the $1.18 billionamount received in Coalition Support Fund(CSF) from the US had given some space tothe country’s economic handlers to repayinstallments to the iMF on monthly bases,and more foreign inflows were expected inthe coming months from other donors es-pecially after improvement in relations withthe US, which had also disbursed $280 mil-lion for the energy sector last month. The of-ficial said the country’s foreign exchangereserves would continue to face pressure

due to re-payment of iMF loans in the nextmore than three years, as Pakistan is likelyto go to the iMF in the current fiscal year toseek another loan for the retirement ofiMF’s Stand-by Arrangement (SBA) facility.

Despite depressive economic situationof the country, the government had paidback a total amount of $1.2 billion to theiMF during last fiscal year 2011-12 fromforeign currency reserves held by the StateBank of Pakistan (SBP).

According to the repayment scheduleagreed between Pakistan and iMF, Pak-istan will repay $7.6 billion to the iMFuntil the end of the Fiscal Year 2014-15.The $11.3 billion SBA program had ex-pired on September 30, 2011, and the lasttwo trenches of $3.7 billion could not bepaid to Pakistan by the iMF following is-lamabad’s failure to pursue key reforms aswell as the emergence of the revenue fig-ures fiasco. Pakistan had entered into a$11.3 billion program in 2008 with theiMF and got disbursements of about $7.6billion, but failed to get the remaining $3.7billion due to slippages in performance cri-teria, leading to suspension of the programin May 2010, and was ended unsuccess-fully on September 30,2011.

Pakistan, iMF toreview debtpayment in Dubai

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In no way a rational call.

Basharat hussain qizilbash says;A man to respect: The one who could unite the Arabs.

Arif Ansar says;The empire may strike after all: US and Israeli strategy on Iran.

Rabia Ahmed says;The 21st September: A day of love, but clearly no love for the Prophet (pbuh).

artS & entertainMent

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I am already married kareena kapoor EcB may not supervise all banks: Merkel ally harbhajan, new-look India stun England in World t20

Monday, 24 September, 2012

QUETTAshAhzADA zULfIqAR

Anumber of religious parties andorganizations held ralliesagainst the blasphemous filmin various towns of Balochis-tan, including the provincial

capital, on Sunday.Dozens of workers of an NGO, Al-Falah

education, staged a demonstration outsidethe Quetta Press Club.

Participants carried placards and ban-ners and chanted anti-US slogans.

Speakers criticized the rulers, sayingthey should give up the slavery of the USand promptly sever diplomatic relations

with it. They said Muslims would never tol-erate blasphemy against Prophet Muham-mad (PBUH) and were ready to rendersacrifices in the name of islam. A protestrally was taken out in Dalbandin town ofChagai district by JUi-ideological and AhleSunnat Wal Jamaat. Jamaat Ahl-e-Sunnahleaders Sanaullah Farooqi, and Hafiz Ham-dallah said profane acts by the US againstislam were a conspiracy but Pakistanirulers had kept mum over it. They de-manded stern action against the US film-maker. Meanwhile, a protest rally was alsoorganized by Jamaat Ahl-e-Sunnah inNushki where protestors marched throughthe roads chanting anti-US slogans andcondemning the blasphemous film.

Protests rage on inBalochistan againstanti-Islam film

Robbers had a field day on Sunday yet againLAHore: Jewelry, cash, cars, motorcycles, mobile phones, laptops and other electrical gadgets worth millions ofrupees were looted by robbers in Lahore on Sunday. Per details, Zameer Ahmed, a resident of Township was robbedof jewelry, cash and mobile phones with an estimated value of Rs 1.1 million at gunpoint when robbers broke into hishouse. Umar, a resident of kahna had to part with jewelry, cash and a mobile phone, all worth Rs 800,000. in an-other incident, robbers took jewelry and furniture worth Rs 700,000 from the house of Haji Fiaz on Barki Road. inseparate incidents, robbers looted jewelry, mobile phones and other goods worth Rs 500,000 from Abdul Qadir, jew-elry, mobile phones and other goods worth Rs 300,000 from the house of Bakhtiar, jewelry, mobile phones and cashworth Rs 200,000 from the house of Jawad Ahmed, Rs 200,000 in cash from Altaf at kotlakhpat, and jewelry worthRs 200,000 from the house of Pervez in Sandah. idrees, a resident of Naseerabad and Wasif of Litton Road wereboth robbed of jewelry, mobile phone, electrical gadgets and cash worth Rs 100,000 each. Robbers also looted Rs200,000 in cash from Shahbaz’s mobile shop in Model Town, Rs 100,000 in cash from Hamza’s mobile shop in Mil-lat Park and cash, mobile cards and mobile phones worth Rs 100,000 from Tahir’s mobile shop in iqbal Town. Mo-torcycles were stolen in Manawan, Gulshan-e-iqbal, Harbunspura, and Masti Gate while cars were stolen in ModelTown, Joher Town and Gulberg areas of the city. stAff REpoRt

qUEttA: Workers of the Al-falah Education Welfare organization burn Us flag during a

demonstration against blasphemous film outside the press club on sunday. online

LAHORE/KARACHIInp

All Pakistan Muslim League (APML) ChiefPervez Musharraf, on Sunday, stressedupon the international community to comeforward for legislation over blasphemousmaterial, saying that it is an international

crime to talk or make inflammatoryvideos/audios against any prophet.

He said this while talking to his party’sCentral information Secretary Aasiaishaque. The former president con-demned the act of making a blasphemousvideo and said that the West should lookin to the matter if they want to show realconcern for Muslims of the world. He saidthat the present government should tacklethe issue wisely, and asked APML workersto participate in peaceful protests againstthe blasphemous video. “Many peoplehave lost their lives during the protestsheld on the day of Love with the Prophet,APML feels grief over this huge loss,” Per-vez said. He said that the government isresponsible for taking effective steps forthe protection of life and property of themasses, the public should also cooperatein this regard. Slating the west’s inactionagainst the blasphemers on the plea offreedom of expression, the APML chiefsaid that rulers of the west should alsocome forward to resolve this issue. Pervezappealed to the nation to demonstratetheir anger in peaceful ways and avoid de-stroying public and private property.

Musharraf calls for internationallegislation over blasphemy

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WASHIngTOnAgEncIEs

PAkiSTAN’S Ambassa-dor to the United Na-tions Hussain Haroon

has said that the UnitedStates was responsible for theanimosity that bred against itin the Muslim world.

Haroon said if the USwanted an end to attacks on itsembassies, personnel and as-sets in foreign countries, itshould stop interfering in thedomestic political discourse ofthe Muslim world and shouldnot provide legal covers to peo-ple propagating against the sa-cred totems of islam. He saidthe US had lost favor amongstPakistanis because it has baseddroning the country’s citizenson caprices of officers sitting inPentagon, who deemed them-selves above the covenants ofinternational Law. Comment-ing on the state relations be-tween Pakistan and US, he said

the US should shun perceivingPakistan as a client state andrealize that Pakistan had theright to enhance relations withits neighbors. The ambassadorsaid that Pakistan was neithera rogue state nor was it sup-porting anti-American ele-ments. Haroon said, “if thegovernment of Pakistan wasacquiescent of what is happen-ing in Pakistan, they wouldn’tbe firing teargas and bullets atthe protestors.” The ambassa-dor said Pakistan wantedtrade, not aid from the US.

He said the Pakistanigovernment demanded pref-erential trade, as that enjoyedby Jordan and egypt, addingthat the US was pronouncingPakistan a double agent in theAfghan war and this fact an-gered him, because the USwas bent on portraying Pak-istan as a scapegoat for itsfailures in Afghanistan. Com-menting on a question re-garding the American

demand to gun down Haqqa-nis, he said, “it’s a punitiverelationship, where if we dothe right thing, we get re-warded; and, the moment wetry to think for ourselves, weget banged over the head witha brick or a stone or a stick. idon’t think that is an equi-table relationship.”

The ambassador also ex-pressed his discontent overraiding of Osama’s compoundin Abbottabad by US marineswithout prior consent from thePakistani authorities. He al-leged that the US was unneces-sarily hyping up the case of DrShakil Afridi and propagatingthat he was under custody be-cause he had blown the hornover Osama’s hideout. Haroonsaid Muslims, especially Pak-istanis, had been friendly withthe westerners and the ani-mosity which was planted inthe 1980s could be nullified ifboth sides were serious in put-ting aside past differences.

US itself breedsglobal hate againstit: Hussain Haroon

tEhRAn: Iranian zelzal missiles are displayed on sunday in a square south of tehran to mark the “sacred Defence Week,”

commemorating Iran’s eight-year war with Iraq. aFP

Curbs on Iran female students

stir rights concernnICOSIA

Afp

As iran’s academic year kicked off on Saturday,a US-based rights group raised concern aboutnew restrictions putting scores of universitydegree courses off-limits to women.Human Rights Watch said in a statement thatthe restrictions extended a creeping“islamicisation” of iran’s universities that havebeen imposed under President MahmoudAhmadinejad. Citing an August report by theiranian news agency Mehr, the group said thatwomen were barred from 77 courses in variousuniversities, including those in computerscience, chemistry engineering, businessadministration and sciences. A much smallernumber of courses were also barred to men insome campuses, including studies in history,linguistics, literature, sociology andphilosophy. “As university students across iranprepare to start the new academic year, theyface serious setbacks, and women students inparticular will no longer be able to pursue theeducation and careers of their choice,” LieslGerntholtz, women’s rights director at HumanRights Watch, said in the statement. Some iniran and elsewhere saw the restriction as anattempt to reduce women’s access to higher

education and reinforce the patriarchaldomination. Currently, around 60 percent ofstudents are female and 40 percent are male.But the dean of iran’s Petroleum University ofTechnology, Gholamreza Rashed, was quotedby the iRAN newspaper last week as blamingmarket forces — implying job prospects wereshrinking because of Western sanctions. Hesaid his school was no longer accepting femalestudents due to “the hardship of the worksituation, and because the oil industry does notneed female students right now.” iranian statemedia have made little or no mention of thenew restrictions. But other news websitesspoke of extra curbs imposed on campuses,particularly a new push to segregate men andwomen into separate classes to preventmixing of the sexes frowned upon by iran’sruling clerics. Mehr last week quoted theminister of science, research and technology,kamran Daneshjou, as saying authorities inthe islamic republic “welcome theestablishment of one-gender universities,schools for only men or women.” He said thatwas the direction “our religion envisions forus.” Daneshjou dismissed Western criticismof iran’s steps, saying: “The angrier Westernmedia gets, the more we realise we aremoving in the right direction.”

nEWS DESK

Awal Gul knows that home isjust a two-hour drive over thejagged ridgeline that separatesPakistan from Afghanistan. Buthe hasn’t been there in morethan 30 years, since Soviet tanksrolled into kabul.

A refugee of a long-gone era,he doesn’t have a patch of landto return to, or a house or a job.That may not matter.

Pakistan is growing in-creasingly impatient as host ofthe world’s largest refugeecommunity — millions ofAfghans who fled the Soviet in-vasion and, later, Taliban rule.At the end of the year, Afghansin Pakistan will lose legal statusas refugees, making them vul-nerable to deportation.

“We’ve spent three decadeshere, but every day we feel likestrangers,” Gul, 45, a thin, silver-bearded Afghan who lives withhis extended family of 24 inkhazana, home to a large clusterof refugees living in two-room,thatch-roofed mud huts, toldLos Angeles Times. “We can’t af-ford to build real houses here.even if we could, we wouldn’twant to because we know thisisn’t our homeland, and that oneday we’ll eventually have to goback to Afghanistan.”

To Gul, it feels like fallingwithout ever landing. “We’re in

an awkward situation, stuck be-tween the sky and earth.”

Afghan refugees say theyfeel caught in the gears of con-flicting agendas in their home-land and adopted land.

Afghan leaders insist that ashattered economy and the 10-year war against Taliban insur-gents make it impossible tobegin accepting returningrefugees en masse. Pakistani of-ficials say they don’t have plansto immediately begin repatriat-ing Afghans, but they also don’tplan to continue hosting an esti-mated 3.5 million Afghans in acountry struggling to meet thebasic needs of its own people.

“We know what the situa-tion in Afghanistan is, but that’sthe failure of the Afghan govern-ment and the internationalforces there,” said engineerShaukatullah, Pakistan’s minis-ter of states and frontier regions,who oversees Afghan refugees inPakistan. “in 10 years, theyhaven’t been able to providerefugees a secure place to live.That means the whole burden ison Pakistan.”

Forcing Afghan refugees togo home could jeopardize fragileties between Afghanistan andPakistan, said Neill Wright, thechief representative in Pakistanfor the Office of the United Na-tions High Commissioner forRefugees. That relationship has

already been strained by a recentsurge in cross-border militantattacks and accusations fromkabul that Pakistan continues tosupport the Haqqani network, apotent wing of the Afghan Tal-iban responsible for high-profileattacks in the Afghan capital andeastern Afghanistan.

There are 1.68 million regis-tered Afghan refugees living inPakistan, according to the U.N.refugee agency. An additional 1.8million are unregistered and livingin the country illegally, Pakistaniofficials say. Registered refugeesare issued special identity cardsthat allow them to stay in Pakistan.Those cards expire Dec. 31.

Pakistan has yet to announcewhat action it will take. Officials inkabul say large-scale deportationsby Pakistan could destabilizeAfghanistan at a time when thecountry is particularly vulnerable.Afghan President Hamid karzai’sgovernment is struggling to acceptmore of the burden of securing thecountry before Washington’splanned withdrawal of troops bythe end of 2014.

U.N. refugee agency officialshave been trying to persuade thePakistani government to extendrefugee status for Afghans in thecountry. But islamabad isn’t rulinganything out. “They are looking atall the options, including forcingrefugees back. That would havehuge consequences,” Wright said.

in addition to damaging tieswith kabul, deporting Afghansalso could harm Pakistan’simage in the international com-munity and jeopardize crucialeconomic and humanitarian aidfrom international donors.

Nevertheless, the presenceof Afghan refugees remainsdeeply unpopular in Pakistan, asentiment Pakistani leaders arelikely to weigh ahead of what areexpected to be hotly contestednational elections early nextyear. Many Pakistanis contendAfghan refugees are a source ofrising crime and key players inattacks that continue to beset thecountry. “They are involved init,” Shaukatullah said whenasked about links betweenAfghan refugees and terrorismin Pakistan. “They have connec-tions with these things.”

it’s a misguided stereotype,Wright said, but one that per-sists. “There’s no evidence tosupport it,” he said. “And thereare endless media articles thatsay the refugees are bringingpolio into the country and arenot contributing to the economy.And yet there are so many whoare employed, running trans-portation companies, manufac-turing rugs, doing lots of jobshere in Pakistan.”

especially discouraging formany Pakistanis, Shaukatullahsaid, is that the rate of Afghans

returning to their homelandcontinues to drop. According toU.N. figures, in 2010, 109,383Afghan refugees returned toAfghanistan from Pakistan andiran, which also hosts a largeAfghan refugee community. Lastyear, the number of returningrefugees dropped to 52,096.

So far this year, nearly42,000 Afghan refugees have re-turned home. Shaukatullah saysthat’s not enough, adding thatthe return rate is negated by thenumber of children born toAfghan refugees each year,which he said is about 83,000.Children born to Afghanrefugees in Pakistan do not getPakistani citizenship; manyrefugees who are in their teensor younger have never set foot inAfghanistan. Sangar is one ofthem. The 19-year-old, who, likemany Afghans, uses just onename, was born in Pakistan andgrew up in the refugee colony inkhazana after his family fledAfghanistan more than 30 yearsago. He runs his tailoring busi-ness from a tiny, darkened stallno bigger than a garden shed.

“even if they bulldoze ourhouses, we won’t go,” Sangarsaid, shooing away flies with afan. “if i’m forced to go toAfghanistan, i don’t know whati would do there. i was bornhere, grew up here and studiedhere. Pakistan is my country.”

Pakistan weary of hosting millions of Afghan refugees

Monday, 24 September, 2012

file Photo

68 trainee police officials rendered unconsciousafter consuming poisonous food

MOnITORIng DESK

Several trainee police officers wererendered unconscious after consumingpoisonous food in karachi on Sunday.According to a private TV channel, morethan 68 police cadets under training atthe training centre in Razaqabad wentunconscious after eating poisonous foodserved to them by the canteen. Thereport said 33 of the unconscious traineeofficers were taken to Jinnah Hospitalwhile 35 were sent to Steel MillsHospital karachi. However, ten to 15 ofthe unconscious were said to be in

critical condition. Fellow cadets said themanagement had given them food whichwas unhygienic and not fit to eat.Another private TV channel reportedthat two of the unconscious cadets haddied. However, Sindh inspector Generalof Police (iGP) Fayaz Laghari confirmedthat some cadets had fainted due to thepoisonous food but said none hadpassed away. “We have arrested thecanteen in-charge and we will takeaction against those responsible,” hesaid. Meanwhile, the fellow cadetsprotested against the management anddamaged the canteen property.

three killed in

balochistan

QUettA: Around two FCpersonnel were killed in abomb blast in Noshki while an-other unknown person waskilled near Dhadhar on Sun-day. According to details, an FCvehicle was targeted by a re-mote controlled device 15 kmfrom Noshki. The blast de-stroyed the vehicle and two FCpersonnel were killed on thespot. in another incident, oneperson was killed by unidenti-fied militants in firing in Dhad-har. Meanwhile, FC arrested 15suspects in Quetta. sTaFF rePorT

PcG foils hashishsmuggling attempt

KArAcHi: Pakistan CoastGuards (PCG) have seized ahuge quantity of hashish froma truck near Windar (Balochis-tan). A PCG special mobile pa-trol team searched asuspicious truck near the Nakakhari Check Post at Windar,and found some 597 kilogramsof fine quality hashish worthRs 14,000,000. aPP

LHR 24-09-2012_Layout 1 9/24/2012 5:39 AM Page 4

05

Monday, 24 September, 2012

News

PESHAWARstAff REpoRt

Anotorious militant com-mander was killed alongwith his accomplice duringan encounter with police inthe Azakhel area of Now-

shera in the early hours of Sunday. A police official said that Taliban

commander Farooq was attempting toenter his native Nowshehra district tocarry out sabotage activities.

The Police Crime investigation De-

partment (CiD) acted on a tip-off re-garding the militants’ plans, and tight-ened security along Nowshehra’sboundaries with the frontier regions ofPeshawar. Both Farooq and his accom-plice were stopped by the police whilethey were entering Nowshehra. Policesaid the militants were asked to surren-der, but they started shooting at the po-lice. Both the militants were killed inretaliatory fire, police said. Senior offi-cials have also confirmed Farooq’s deathalong his accomplice Mati-ur-Rehmanand called it a “big achievement”.

A police official said that Farooq wasregarded as one of the most dangerousmilitant commanders in the area, and hadbeen involved in several acts of terrorism.

Separately, the dead bodies of twoout of five persons abducted from theoutskirts of Peshawar a couple of daysago were found dumped in the Badhab-her area on Sunday morning. A police of-ficial said that the killed persons wereidentified as the driver and police guardof Bannu District Revenue Officer SajidNawaz. Three persons are still missing.On September 19, Sajid Nawaz and his

five colleagues were abducted from Dar-wazgai area, which connects Peshawarwith Dara Adam khel. Sajid Nawaz wasrecovered on next day, but the remain-ing employees are still missing.

Meanwhile, a leading tribal elderfrom South Waziristan, Malik FatehSher Mehsud, was shot dead by uniden-tified militants in Tank on Sundaymorning. Mehsud had migrated to Tankalong with his relatives a couple of yearsago. He had been supporting the civil-ian and military administration in theongoing war on terror.

Police kill Taliban commander,

accomplice in Nowshera

LoWER DIR: Jamaat-e-Islami chief syed Munawar hassan addresses a public gathering at timergara on sunday. inP

NAB officials toappear beforeSC tomorrowin RPPs case

ISLAMABADAgEncIEs

The National Accountability Bureau(NAB) chairman and other NAB officialswill on Tuesday appear before a three-member bench of the Supreme Courtheaded by Chief Justice iftikharMuhammad Chaudhry in connectionwith non-implementation of the verdictin the rental power plants (RPPs) case.NAB officials issued notices includedCol (r) Shehzad, kamran Qaiser, Razakhan and all supervisors andinvestigation officials.During the last hearing, the chief justicerefused a request by NAB’s deputyprosecutor general for a closed-doorhearing of the case. The court had warned that NAB wouldbe held responsible if any of the accusedfled the country.

PM tries in vainto bar Dastifrom commentsagainst ANF

ISLAMABADonLInE

Prime Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf hasrestricted Pakistan People’s Party (PPP)leader Jamshed Dasti from commentingon ephedrine drug case. Dasti, a member of the NationalAssembly, had earlier given a statementagainst the Anti-Narcotics Force in theSupreme Court while standing next to theaccused Ali Musa Gilani, son of formerprime minister Yousaf Raza Gilani. Sources said the prime ministerpersonally phoned Dasti and told him totake his statement back. However, Dastiremained adamant and refused to“compromise on principles”. Online was unable to contact Dasti, whohad a busy schedule during the day.However, his closest aide Muzaffar iqbalGormani confirmed that Dasti hadreceived a phone call from the primeminister over the issue. Gormani further said that the PM hadalso asked National Highway Authority(NHA) Chairman Muhammad AliGormani to convey his (PM’s) directives,but added that Dasti remained firm overwhat he called his “principled stand”.

Two Pakistanisstabbed near Greekanti-racist demo

ATHEnSInp

Two Pakistani immigrants were in hospitallate on Saturday after being stabbed on themargins of an anti-racism rally on theoutskirts of Athens, police said. One ofthem was said to be in a serious condition.The attack, in the western suburb ofMetamorfossi, came after the end of thedemonstration, in which about 300 peoplewere protesting racist violence. Amotorbike and a car stopped in front of themen and a group of people got out andattacked them with knives. A thirdPakistani immigrant with them at the timeescaped unhurt, said police. Since the neo-Nazi group Golden Dawn won seats inparliament in the June election, there hasbeen a sharp rise in racist attacks in theimmigrant quarters of Athens. Last month,a young iraqi was stabbed to death by fivebikers. Protests against the surge in racistviolence also took place in the port ofPiraeus, next to Athens, and in anotherAthens suburb.

LOnDOnMAJID khAttAk

A new survey suggests that youngerBritons of all political persuasionsare less likely to support anti-im-migration or anti-islamic policiesthan older ones.

The survey was carried out byYouGov on the behalf of the ex-tremis Project. extremis project isa Uk-based platform for independ-ent, objective and evidence-basedresearch on extremism and terror-ism. During the survey, Britishpeople were asked to say whetherthey would be more or less likely tosupport a party that supports stop-ping all immigration into the Ukand reducing the numbers of Mus-lims in the Uk.

The survey finds out that 71%of British Conservatives aged 18-24said that they would be less likelyto support a party that promised tohalt immigration into the Uk ascompared to 66% of Conservativesaged over 60 who would favor such

a party.Similarly, while 63% of Conser-

vatives over 60 would favor a partythat said it would reduce the num-bers of Muslims in the country,only 28% of 18-24 year old Conser-vatives felt the same.

According to the survey, 41% ofthe people would be more likely tovote for a party that promised tostop all immigration into the Ukagainst only 28% who said theywould be less likely to support sucha party. Around 37% of peoplewould be more likely to support aparty that promised to reduce thenumbers of Muslims in societyagainst only 23% who said theywould be less likely to do so.

Professor Matthew Goodwinwho instigated the research and isan associate professor at Notting-ham University said 60% of all 18-24 year olds declared themselves tobe less likely to support any partythat espoused policies opposed toislam or committed to ending im-migration.

WASHIngTOnApp

Pakistan’s Ambassador to the United StatesSherry Rehman told an American audience ata cultural event on Saturday night that Sufismembraces the spirit of tolerance and inclusion,and its message is increasingly relevant in thisage of competing ideologies.

She was speaking at the Smithsonian in-stitute, where popular Pakistani Sufi singerSanam Marvi gave a mesmerizing perform-ance, attended by Foreign Minister Hina Rab-bani khar.The new US ambassador toPakistan, Richard Olson, senior American of-ficials and a large number of Pakistani andAmerican followers of the mystic poetry andmusic attended the performance by the ac-claimed singer. in her remarks, sherry made itclear that Sufism was not a sect of islam. “itspractice encapsulates the very essence of ourfaith,” the Pakistani envoy said.

“For over a decade now,” she said, “wehave seen the marketplace of global ideas dis-torted by new walls of hatred and prejudice...This negativity causes many to lose hope in theproject of peaceful civilizations, that instead ofclashing, nurture the best in humanity.”

She told the audience that Pakistan’sfounding father, Quaid-e-Azam MohammadAli Jinnah, actively advocated a plural modelof citizenship, asserting that all Pakistani citi-zens shall enjoy the same rights and privileges,regardless of their religious affiliation.

Sherry explained to the attentive audiencethe message of Sufism as she observed that“being grounded in the mystical connectionbetween the individual and the divine, Sufism

embraces the spirit of tolerance and inclusionin both its discourse and practice”.

“This is one of the reasons why Sufi saintsplayed a central role in the spread of islam, es-pecially in South Asia, making it the secondbiggest and the most practiced religion in theworld,” she added.

“The Sufi doctrine is simple and universal,that the light of God abides in the heart of eachperson. The Sufi ‘tariqa’ or the Sufi way guidesus on the roads of the inner journey towardsdiscovering the self, for the ultimate goal ofreaching the divine light and wisdom that eachone of us carries within.”

“What could, indeed, be a more appropri-ate and opportune time to think and reflectabout the message of unity, peace, together-ness and patience exemplified by the life andteachings of Sufi saints and their philosophy oflife?” the ambassador stressed.

Younger Britons opposestrict immigration,anti-Muslim measures

sufism’s message of tolerance

has universal relevance: sherry

LHR 24-09-2012_Layout 1 9/24/2012 5:39 AM Page 5

Monday, 24 September, 2012

LAHOREAgEncIEs

PROTeSTS against the blas-phemous anti-islam filmcontinued in Lahore onSunday, as several religiousgroups took out rallies to

condemn the hate film produced in theUS.

Heavy contingents of police had beendeployed at the US Consulate and in itssurroundings to deal with any emer-gency.

Special children held a rally under theaegis of Jamatud Dawa, while anotherprotest rally was organized by the womenwing of Wahdat ul Muslimeen.

idara Sirat-e-Mustaqeem Pakistan,Fidian khatm-e-Nabuwat and JamaatAhl-e-Sunnat also staged rallies againstthe blasphemous US movie.

Heads of the organizations, Pir Syedirfan Shah Mashahdi, Dr Ashraf Asif Ji-lali and Allama Hassan Rizvi led the rally.

Hundreds of protesters, includingchildren, participated in the rally thatstarted from the Punjab Assembly andended at Lahore Press Club.

The protesters were carrying bannersand placards inscribed with different slo-gans against the US and notorious PastorTerry Jones.

Addressing the attendants, the lead-ers of the organizations condemned themovie makers and vowed to sacrificetheir lives for the sanctity of Holy ProphetMuhammad (PBUH).

They demanded the government topressurize the US government to arrestthe accused and hang him.

Separately, scores of people staged aprotest demonstration against the sacri-legious movie at Jora Pul, Lahore Cantt.

Holding banners and placards, theprotesters chanted slogans against theblasphemers besides demanding his pub-lic hanging.

Speakers said western nations hadbeen exposed and their apathy towardsthe issue was highly deplorable.

They praised the federal governmentfor deciding to observe Youm-e-ishq-e-Rasool at the national level and register astrong protest.

Protests continue against blasphemous film

robbers strike at willMOnITORIng DESK

Robberies had a field day in the city, asthey struck various areas of the provin-cial metropolis at will on Sunday.Per details, a citizen, Zafar, was re-turning after withdrawing cash fromSoneri Bank Faisal Town’s ATM whentwo robbers on a motorbike inter-cepted his car and made away with Rs25,000 in cash and a mobile phone atgunpoint. in another incident in kahna, robberslooted a cash van of a noted beveragescompany and took away Rs 50,000 incash and a mobile phone.Separately, three robbers forced intothe house of retired deputy superinten-dent of police (DSP) Sheikh Qayyumand robbed him of Rs 100,000 andother valuables at gunpoint. An anti-dengue campaign worker, Ru-bina, was robbed by two men in Shal-dara, making away with thousands incash and a mobile phone.Also, advocate kahawarSaleem was de-prived of his carin Township.

iranian delegation

visits rangers

instituteLAHORE

stAff REpoRt

An iranian delegation visited theRangers institute of Technical edu-cation (RiTe) on Sunday.Members imam khumaini ReliefFoundation were received by SectorCommander Rana Zahid. Head ofthe iranian delegation Husain An-wari, said that Pakistan was pro-gressing in the field of technicaleducation and ensured iran’s coop-eration in funding technical educa-tional endeavors in Pakistan.

LAHOREnnI

Deputy Prime Minister Chaudhry Pervezelahi on Sunday said Pakistan was theonly country of the world which regis-tered its agitation against the sacrile-gious film at the government level,adding that no Muslim could toleratedefamation of islam or Prophet Muham-mad (PBUH).

Talking to reporters, he said respectof the Holy Prophet (PBUH) was a mat-ter of great importance for all Muslims.

He said the protests had given a mes-sage to the world that Muslims were

united and would not let anyone defametheir religion.

However, he said a better messagewould have been given to the world hadthere been no violence.

The deputy prime minister said thefederal cabinet had decided to raise theissue of the profane movie at the UN,adding that the issue would also be dis-cussed at the OiC.

To a question, he said islamabad didnot have sufficient police force andneeded provincial support to maintainlaw and order. “But the lack of coordina-tion created problems,” he said.

“Had the Punjab government coop-

erated with the federal government‚ thesituation on the day of agitation wouldhave been different.”

elahi said action would be takenagainst those who damaged public prop-erty.

“The law and order in Punjab is ex-tremely poor and the businesses of peo-ple are being destroyed in the name ofdevelopment,” he added.

elahi said the Rapid Bus Transitproject would be worse than the SastiRoti project, as it was not feasible. Hesaid general elections would be held ontime and if any province wanted to holdlocal bodies’ election, it could do so.

Muslims cannot tolerate defamationof Holy Prophet (PBUH), says elahi

LAHOREApp

A medical research on cardiac complica-tions declared diabetes, smoking and hy-pertension the major causes of heart attacksin Pakistan. A four year study conducted atCardiac Surgery Department of Allamaiqbal Medical College (AiMC) and JinnahHospital revealed that diabetes, smoking,hypertension and cholesterol were majorcauses of heart ailments among the patientsof all age groups in the country.

Studies throughout the world have

proved the causality of the above mentioneddiseases with cardiac complications; how-ever, the study conducted by AiMC is thefirst of its kind conducted by Pakistanihealth professionals using native popula-tion as the sample. Sources in AiMC saidbetween February 2008 and January 2012,a total of 608 cardiac patients were treatedat Jinnah Hospital. All of the 273 patientswho were operated on were suffering fromdiabetes, smoked, were hypertensive andwere on medication for keeping in checktheir cholesterol levels.

The study found that children between

ages of five to 20 frequented the hospitalcomplaining of heart complications whichwere traced back to their birth.

Symptoms of heart complications de-veloped due to lifestyles choices precipitatebetween 30-60 years and almost all bypasspatients were between the ages of 40 to 80.

AiMC Cardiac Professor Dr Tayyab saidthe hospital had a 99.50 percent successrate in open heart surgeries, the highest inPakistan. He added that AiMC PrincipalProfessor Dr Shaukat Mahmood had ap-proached the government to allocate fundsfor expansion of the cardiac ward.

Diabetes, smoking, hypertension major causes of heart attack

LHR 24-09-2012_Layout 1 9/24/2012 5:39 AM Page 6

07

Monday, 24 September, 2012

Lahore

cine Star heroine 02:00PM, 8:15PM 1:45aMPh: 35157462 the cold liGht of daY 04:45 PM

dredd 06:30PMbarfi 11:00 PM

Sozo world barfi 12:00PM, 05:30 PMPh: 36674271 raaz 3 03:00 PM

heroine 11:30 PM

Sozo Gold barfi 2:30PM 08:15PM, 11:00PMPh: 36674271 raaz 3 12:00PM, 05:30PM

SuPer cineMa cocKtail 04:00PMat roYal PalM heroine 09:00PMPh: 111-602-602 ParanorMan (3d) 01:15PM

raaz 3 (3d) 03:00PMbourne leGacY 05:30PMheroine 10:45PM

citizens protest demolition of shrines

LAHOREApp

Religious organizations protested against the Punjabgovernment for relocating tombs of religious saints tomake space for the Rapid Transport Bus Project (RTBP).Tehaffuz Namoos-e-Risalat and Mazar Aulia Mahazstaged a protest demonstration against demolition ofshrines and mosques to make space for bus stops forRTBP. The participants were carrying banners andplacards inscribed with demands to restore the bull-dozed shrines.Addressing the protesters, religious scholars con-demned the move, saying they would continue theirprotest until the government did not give into theirdemand.Allama Waqarul Hussnain Naqvi, Dr Amjad HussainChisti, Allama Asghar Arif Chisti, Allama Syed NoorulMustafa Qadri and Pir SA Jafari led the protest atRavi Road. Graves from four of the five shrines demol-ished have been relocated to Miani Sahib graveyard,while one been moved to the Ravi Road graveyard.

LAhoRE: Deputy prime Minister chaudhry pervaiz Elahi talking to reporters after meeting federal Minister for housing sardar talib hassan nakai. nni

dG anti-corruptionshould investigateKeMu theft

LAHOREUMAIR AzIz

The Punjab Anti-corruption directorgeneral needs to constitute an unbi-ased investigation team to probe intothe theft of machinery worth Rs2,500,000, from the third floor of thePunjab institute of Preventive Oph-thalmology (PiPO) at king edwardMedical University (keMU).The machinery was stolen a year agoand has not been recovered until now.A ward attendant named Sabir hasbeen made the scapegoat in this mat-ter.However, the keys of the store inwhich the equipment had been storedwere in the possession of three peo-ple, but only one has been arrestedand interrogated so far.Machinery worth Rs 1,500,000 wasstolen from the same store two yearsago and six people had been declaredresponsible (inquiry report available).Farce investigations were carried outapparently to save big shots involvedin the matter.Young doctors would also be person-ally meeting the anti-corruption DGto raise the issue.

LAHOREonLInE

PUNJAB Chief Minister Shah-baz Sharif on Sunday saidrevolutionary programs forthe youth initiated in theprovince at a cost of billions

of rupees were yielding positive and en-couraging results.

Talking to a delegation of assemblymembers, Shahbaz said thousands ofpoor and unemployed but talented andintelligent youth were benefiting fromthe programs launched by Pakistan Mus-lim League-N government.

He said it was the utmost effort ofthe Punjab government that the youthwere given their due right through theseprograms, like green tractor scheme, lap-top scheme, self-employment scheme,provision of buses for colleges, solar pan-els and bio-gas pilot projects.

He said other provinces were alsofollowing the programs started for theyouth by the PML-N government, whichwas a reflection of their confidence in

these successful programmes.The chief minister said a new iden-

tity had been given to the youththrough youth programs and equal op-portunities of progress had becomeavailable to them.

He said 200 buses were being pro-vided to the colleges across the province,while 1,200 buses were being purchasedfor public transport.

He said arrangements were being

made for plying special buses for thedwellers of backward and poor areas.

The CM said interest-free small loanswere being given under the Chief Minis-ter’s employment scheme with a sum ofRs 2 billion and loans of Rs 15,000 to50,000 were being offered for smallbusinesses.

He said the distribution of loansthrough mosques, imam bargahs andchurches was a welcome step.

breach in canal

washes away

makeshift homesLAHORE

Inp

A breach in the canal inundated a sur-rounding gypsy population in Lahore onSunday. According to rescue sources, abreach emerged in the canal nearThokar Niaz Baig, which washed awayseveral temporary houses erected in thearea. Rescue personnel reached thescene and rescued 19 stranded peopleand shifted them to safety. Lahore Dis-trict Coordination Officer (DCO) NoorulAmeen Mengal also visited the area andmonitored rescue activities. Dozens ofmud and stone houses of the gypsieswere razed to the ground due to watergushing out from the canal. The authori-ties concerned initiated efforts to repairthe breach to avoid further losses soonafter the incident. The DCO also consti-tuted a committee to investigate the rea-sons for the breach and asked for areport within a couple of days.

214th urs of warisShah starts today

LAHOREnnI

The 214th Urs of Sufi poet Pir WarisShah will start at Jandiala Sher khannear Sheikhupura toady (Monday).People from close and far-off areaswould be attending the three-day cele-brations to remember the noted Punjabipoet. Waris Shah, best known for hisseminal work Heer Ranjha, is known asthe Shakespeare of Punjabi language.His poetic work has been translated inseveral languages of the world.

bookmaker, 10gamblers nabbed

LAHORERAnA hAIDAR

Ten gamblers were arrested when policeraided a gambler’s house in Gulshan-e-Ravi on Sunday, Pakistan Today haslearnt. According to police sources, Gul-shan-e-Ravi Police was informed that awanted criminal, Shamshad, was pres-ent in House number 472-F of Gulshen-e-Ravi. Upon raiding the house, policefound that a book-line was in operationon the premises along with other gam-bling activities. Though Shamshad couldnot be arrested, police were successful inapprehending ten other miscreants fromthe spot. Those arrested included iftikhar,Usman, Shahid, Sajjad, MohammedTaimur, Jamshaid, Hassan Raza, Nasirand a bookmaker Faiz Ullah. Three oftheir accomplices – bookmaker MalikBabar, Baber Rana and Maqsood – es-caped arrest. Police also took into custodyRs 100,000, a laptop, two telephone sets,two cameras and 11 mobile phones. Theysaid the arrested men were locked up inGulshan-e-Ravi police station.

Punjab govt’s programsyielding results: CM

LHR 24-09-2012_Layout 1 9/24/2012 5:39 AM Page 7

low

high

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04:30 05:51 11:55 16:16 17:59 19:20

citY directorY

reScue 1122

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Police 15

GoVernor’S houSe 99200081-7

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hoSPitalS

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coMPlaint

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railwaY Police 1333

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Pia reSerVation 111-786-786

colleGeS / uniVerSitieS

PunJab uniVerSitY 99231257Kinnaird colleGe 99203781-4queen MarY colleGe 36362942GoVt. colleGe uniVerSitY 111-000-010uMt 35212801-10luMS 35608000uet 36288666lcwu 99203072SuPerior colleGe 111-000-078

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children’S 99230901-3

defence national hoSPital 111-17-18-19

PartlY cloudY

weather uPdateS

34°c

08

Monday, 24 September, 2012

Lahore

YOGA AND MEDITATION CLASSES

date: aPril 01 to deceMber 30, 2012Venue: faiz Ghar, lahore

a unique blend of Yoga, Meditation, neuro-linguisticProgramming, Sufism & more.achieve self-insight, mind-body harmony & betterhealth.

Yoga Master Shamshad haider

100 GHAZALS OF MAULANA RUMI

hast-o-neest centre for traditional art & culture

invites you to its Monthly Saturday Sitting with

Janab ahmed Javed Sahib

(director, iqbal academy Pakistan)

on 100 Ghazals of Maulana rumi

3:30 to 5:00 pm, last Saturday of every month

date: March 31 to deceMber 29, 2012 Venue: haSt-o-neeSt centre, lahore

Photo walk through the royal trail (delhiGate to Masti Gate)for registration:communication@walledcitylahore.gop.pk,042-99204196

date: SePteMber 29, 5:30-9:30 aM

Venue: delhi to MaSti Gate

PHOTO WALK THROUGH THE ROYAL TRAIL

LAHOREApp

tHe participants of ameeting have de-manded the revisionof the `Right to Freeand Compulsory edu-

cation Act 2011' to maximize the re-quired prospects and safeguardingthe future of the young generationof Pakistan.

Academic experts hailing fromdifferent government, semi-govern-ment and private institutions whilediscussing the education act, al-ready passed by the Senate, saidthat the penalties mentioned in theact were not clear and it should beexplicitly stated whether thepenalty would be criminal or civil.

They also asked for clarifyingwhich procedure should be fol-lowed once a penalty was imposed,officials from the Ministry ofHuman Rights told agencies onSunday.

They said instead of using onlythe term "he" in the act when refer-ring to a child, it was more appro-priate to use "he/she" to be moregender sensitive in this regard.

This simple change would go along way in ensuring that girls werealso allowed to reap the benefitsfrom this act, said the officials.

They added that it was neces-sary to make sure that childrenknew their rights and were aware oftheir entitlement to free and com-pulsory education.

The participants of the meetingsaid that the act should make clearprovisions for what was to be donein case of emergencies such asfloods, earthquakes and other dis-asters, while adding that displacedchildren must be accommodatedelsewhere to avoid a break in theireducation.

During the detailed discussionon the bill, the participating mem-bers said that Section 1 (3) of theAct read, "it shall come into forceon such date and in such areas".

Commenting on this point, theparticipants agreed that the use ofthe word `areas' was too vague andleft the areas of the Federally Ad-ministered Tribal Areas (FATA),Gilgit Baltistan (GB) and AzadJammu and kashmir (AJk) unde-fined.

The participants stated that theareas in which the law held themost importance should be definedmore clearly in the Act.

Section 2 (a) (ii) read "a schoolestablished, owned, or controlledby the Local Government". Here theparticipants were of the opinionthat other authorities designated by

the Constitution to act in place ofthe local government should be alsomentioned for the sake of clarity.

Section 2 (d) addressed the par-ents "whose annual income is lowerthan the minimum limit specifiedby the appropriate government".The participants agreed that furtherclarity was required as to what ex-actly was the amount that "mini-mum limit' indicated in thisparticular section. This was neces-sary as otherwise ambiguity mayrise as to whether this referred tothe poverty levels, minimum wagelevels etc, they added.

Section 2 (g) read "Free educa-tion means education free of anyeducation related costs includingexpenditure on stationery, schoolbags and transport." The partici-pants felt that this section shouldinclude whether or not uniformswould be provided as well, as itamounted to a significant cost forthe low income households.

Section 2 (k) outlined the defi-nitions of "school" in the Act. Theparticipants agreed that in this casethe term "school" had the potentialto be restrictive. it would be prefer-able to replace it with a more all-en-compassing phrase like"educational institutes" to includereligious seminaries and other suchinstitutions.

Section 3 (3) (j) read that thegovernment was obligated to "pro-vide all training facilities for teach-ers and students." Here it should beadded that all training facilitiesmust conform to the provisions ofthe Convention on the Rights of theChild.

Section 5 (3) mentioned the"service rules" which schools had toadhere to. The participants saidthat while the service rules were inplace for the public sector, therewas no corresponding set of rulesfor the private sector.

There must be more clarity onwhat rules would apply to privateschools, religious seminaries etc.

The participants agreed that theuse of the terms "formal and non-formal education" in the Act werebeneficial as it effectively covered asituation where a child too old to beenrolled in a formal system still hada right to education in a differentsystem.

Officials of the National Com-mission for Human Development,the Ministry of education andTraining, National Commission forChild Welfare and Development,the Ministry of Human Rights,United Nations Children Fund,OXFAM, Sahil, SPAARC, idara-e-Taleem-o-Agahi and other organi-zations attended the meeting.

Experts seek revision in Rightto Free Education Act 2011

LAhoRE: students take part in a cleanliness campaign on Davis Road in collaboration with the LWMc. inP

LHR 24-09-2012_Layout 1 9/24/2012 5:39 AM Page 8

09

Monday, 24 September, 2012

Foreign News

UnITED nATIOnSAfp

WAR in Syria, mountingtensions over iran’s nu-clear drive and anti-Western protestsacross the Muslim

world will cast a shadow over the annualUN gathering of world leaders startingTuesday.

Words of warning and defiance areexpected when US President BarackObama, iran’s leader Mahmoud Ah-madinejad and israel’s Prime MinisterBenjamin Netanyahu join more than 120heads of state and government at the UNGeneral Assembly.

Because of international divisionsover the 18-month-old Syria conflict, theUN is holding no formal meeting on thecivil war.

But Obama and Western leaders areexpected to call for action in theirspeeches. The US president is one of thefirst speakers on Tuesday after the eventis opened by UN Secretary-General Banki-moon.

“We’re going to have to work to pre-vent iran from getting a nuclear weapon,”Obama said previewing his speech Satur-day. “We’re going to have to make surethat not only our diplomatic posts aresafe, but we go after folks who threaten ortry to kill Americans.”

Ban and UN-Arab League envoyLakhdar Brahimi agreed in talks Saturdaythat the conflict is a “steadily increasingthreat to regional peace and security,” aUN spokesman said.

And the Syria campaign will bepressed outside the General Assembly.Brahimi will brief the UN Security Coun-cil on Monday on his talks with PresidentBashar al-Assad.

Syria will also dominate a SecurityCouncil ministerial debate on links withthe Arab League on Wednesday, the eu-ropean Union is set to launch a new ap-peal for humanitarian funds and aFriends of Syria ministerial meeting isplanned for Friday.

Diplomatic wounds over Syria are notclose to healing. Neither Russia norChina, which have three times vetoed Se-curity Council resolutions on Syria, will

be represented by a senior leader in NewYork. Assad is expected to send his for-eign minister.

“everyone will be thinking aboutSyria, talking about Syria, but there willbe no decision and no major progress,”said one senior UN diplomat, speaking oncondition of anonymity.

Stewart Patrick, an expert on interna-tional institutions and global governancefor the Council on Foreign Relationsthink-tank, said that Syria will be one oftwo “lightning rod” issues at the summitwith the iran nuclear showdown.

Ahmadinejad is in New York for prob-ably his last appearance at the GeneralAssembly. This time there is feverishspeculation that israel is planning a mili-tary strike on bunkered iranian nuclearfacilities that Tehran insists are for peace-ful purposes, but Western nations sayhide attempts to develop a nuclear bomb.

Ahmadinejad speaks to the assemblyon Wednesday, when a new walkout ispredicted if the iranian leader repeats oneof his toxic remarks about israel.

Top officials from Britain, China,France, Germany, Russia and the United

States — which are attempting to negoti-ate with iran — are to meet on Thursdayjust after israel’s prime minister ad-dresses the assembly.

Netanyahu and Obama will not meetin New York and this has heightenedspeculation of a rift between the two. TheUnited States and its allies have steppedup warnings to iran, however, that time isrunning out for a negotiated solution tothe showdown.

The deadly protests in Muslim na-tions against an internet video made inthe United States that mocks islam willalso receive much attention.

Muslim leaders will reaffirm theiranger in their speeches and the film willtop the agenda at a meeting of foreignministers from the 57-member Organiza-tion of islamic Cooperation on Friday.

OiC Secretary General ekmeleddinihsanoglu told AFP that world leadersmust “come together in solidarity and asa political gesture and show of goodwill”to condemn the film and “to underline theethical responsibility of all to respecthuman dignity and not to insult the‘other’ over most sacred values.”

BEIJIngAfp

China’s first aircraft carrier washanded over Sunday to the navy of thePeople’s Liberation Army, state presssaid, amid rising tensions over dis-puted waters in the east and SouthChina Seas.

The handover ceremony of the300-metre (990-foot) ship, a formerSoviet carrier called the Varyag, tookplace in northeast China’s port ofDalian after a lengthy refitting by aChinese shipbuilder, the Global Timesreported. During the handover cere-mony the aircraft carrier raised theChinese national flag on its mast, thePLA flag on its bow and the navy’scolours on its stern, the short onlinereport said. A ceremony to place theship into active service would be heldsometime in the future, the paper saidwithout elaboration.

China’s defence ministry was un-available to comment on the cere-mony. The announcement comes at atime of heightened tensions over mar-itime disputes in the Asia-Pacific re-gion, where China’s growingassertiveness has put it on a collisioncourse with Japan, Vietnam and thePhilippines. China also Sunday post-poned a ceremony marking the 40thanniversary of the establishment ofdiplomatic ties with Japan, due to anoisy territorial dispute with Tokyoover the Diaoyu islands, known inJapanese as Senkaku. Tensions havealso risen this year with Vietnam andthe Philippines over disputed islandsin the South China Sea.

Beijing confirmed last year it wasrevamping the old Soviet ship, and hasrepeatedly insisted the carrier posesno threat to its neighbours and will beused mainly for training and researchpurposes. But numerous sea trials of

the aircraft carrier — currently onlyknown as “Number 16” — since Au-gust 2011 were met with concern fromregional powers including Japan andthe United States, which called on Bei-jing to explain why it needed an air-craft carrier.

Construction of the Varyag origi-nally ended with the 1991 collapse ofthe Soviet Union.

China reportedly bought the car-rier’s immense armoured hull — withno engine, electrics or propeller —from Ukraine in 1998 and began torefit the vessel in Dalian in 2002.

The PLA — the world’s largest ac-tive military — is extremely secretiveabout its defence programmes, whichbenefit from a huge and expandingmilitary budget boosted by the na-tion’s runaway economic growth.

China’s military budget officiallyreached $106 billion in 2012, an 11.2percent increase.

TEHRAnAfp

iran could launch a pre-emptive strike if israel pre-pares to attack it, a senior Revolutionary Guardscommander told broadcaster Al-Alam on Sunday, aday after his boss warned that conflict was inevitable.

Should israel and iran engage militarily, “noth-ing is predictable... and it will turn into World Wariii,” Brigadier General Amir Ali Hajizadeh told iran’sArabic-language television network.

Hajizadeh, who is in charge of RevolutionaryGuards missile systems, said: “in circumstances inwhich they (the israelis) have prepared everythingfor an attack, it is possible that we will make a pre-emptive attack. But we do not see this at the mo-ment.”

He added that iran would deem any israeli striketo be conducted with US authorisation, so “whetherthe Zionist regime attacks with or without US knowl-edge, then we will definitely attack US bases inBahrain, Qatar and Afghanistan.”

He warned that israel “cannot imagine our re-sponse — and it will sustain heavy damage and that

will be a prelude to its obliteration.”On Saturday, the head of the Revolutionary

Guards, General Mohammad Ali Jafari, said war be-tween iran and israel “will eventually happen, but itis not certain where and when.”

it was the first time a senior iranian official hadacknowledged a probability of war breaking out be-tween the two arch-foes.

Jafari, quoted by the iSNA and Fars news agen-cies, also said such a conflict would lead to the anni-hilation of israel. “if they begin (aggression), it willspell their destruction and will be the end of thestory,” he said.

On Sunday, Jafari’s deputy, Brigadier GeneralHossein Salami, told Fars in an interview that iran’s“defensive strategy is based on the assumption thatwe will engage in a war, a massive battle against aglobal coalition led by the US.” He said the islamicrepublic had made preparations to “crush” the enemyby hitting “enemy bases in the region, the security ofthe Zionist regime (israel) and the energy market, aswell as the lives of enemy forces.” He added: “We willnot start a war. But if someone wages war against us,we will launch continuous offensives.”

Syria, Iran nuclear fears,

Muslim protests cloud UN summit

Suicide blast atNigeria church killstwo, wounds dozens

KAnOAfp

A suicide bomber who tried to ram anexplosives-packed car into a church inNigeria on Sunday killed a woman and achild while badly wounding dozensmore, the Red Cross said. The attackertargetted the St. John’s Catholic Churchin the northern city of Bauchi, wheretight security was imposed after a wavechurch bombings claimed by the radicalislamist group Boko Haram.Worshippers were being screenedoutside the building when the bomberapproached, ramming his car into theline of people waiting to enter Sundayservices, the head of the Red Cross inBauchi state, Adamu Abubakar said. “Wehave three dead in all, including thebomber, a woman and a child. Forty-eight others were seriously injured in theexplosion,” he told AFP. He said thechurch building was not damaged in theblast. Officials said the attack occurredin the Wunti area of Bauchi city, capitalof Bauchi state. Suicide blasts targettingChristian Sunday services were a nearweekly occurrence in Nigeria earlier thisyear, but the violence had ebbedrecently. While there was no immediateclaim of responsibility, the attackresembled those previously claimed byBoko Haram, blamed for killing morethan 1,400 people in northern andcentral Nigeria since 2010. Boko Haramclaimed responsiblity for a similar attackon June 3 in Bauchi city in which asuicide bomber tried to drive a vehiclepacked with explosives into a church,killing at least 15 people and woundingdozens more. Since re-launching itsinsurgency in 2010, the group’s attackshave grown increasingly deadly andsophisticated, including suicidebombings at the UN headquarters inAbuja and an office for one of thecountry’s most prominent newspapers.The deadliest attack so far was in kanoin January, when at least 185 people diedin a series of coordinated bombings andshootings. Muslims have often been itsvictims, but President GoodluckJonathan warned that the group wasseeking to spark a religious conflict withthe series of attacks on Christians.Nigeria, Africa’s most populous nationand largest oil producer, is dividedbetween a mainly Muslim north andpredominately Christian south. Thegovernment recently said it wasengaging in back-channel talks in aneffort to halt the violence. A previousattempt at dialogue this year collapsedwhen a mediator quit over leaks to themedia and a Boko Haram spokesmansaid they could not trust thegovernment. Boko Haram is believed tohave several factions, including ahardcore islamist wing.

At leastfour killed inIraq attacksbAGHDAD: Bombings in iraqkilled at least four people, amongthem two soldiers, and woundedat least six other people onSunday, security and medicalofficials said. A magnetic “stickybomb” attached to a minibusexploded in Sadr City in northBaghdad, killing two people andwounding six, an interior ministryofficial said, while a medicalsource put the toll at three deadand eight wounded. And in thenorth iraq city of Mosul, aroadside bomb killed two soldierswhen it exploded near theirpatrol, army First LieutenantWalid Hammoud and Dr MahmudHaddad said. The latest violencebrings the number of people killedthis month to at least 173, whilemore than 670 have beenwounded in attacks, according toan AFP tally based on security andmedical sources. Violence in iraqis down from its peak in 2006 and2007, but attacks are still carriedout almost every day. Afp

China navy takes delivery of firstaircraft carrier: report

BAnDAR sERI BEgAWAn: the Royal couple of Brunei Darussalam, princess hajah hafizah sururul Bolkiah and her groom pengiran haji Muhammad

Ruzaini (L), prays at the end of the sitting-in-state on royal dais ceremony at Istana nurul Iman in Brunei's capital on sunday. Daughter of Brunei's

sultan and her groom were officially presented to the royal court in a colourful ceremony in the tiny oil-rich monarchy. aFP

strike on iran would trigger

‘World War iii’: Guards

LHR 24-09-2012_Layout 1 9/24/2012 5:39 AM Page 9

Comment10

Arif NizamiEditor

Lahore – Ph: 042-36298305-10 Fax: 042-36298302Karachi – Ph: 021-35381208-9 Fax: 021-35381208Islamabad – Ph: 051-2287414-6 Fax: 051-2287417

Web: www.pakistantoday.com.pk Email: editorial@pakistantoday.com.pk

Dedicated to the legacy of the late Hameed Nizami

In no way a rational call

a bounty

The greater the power, the greater the responsibility.Or so they say. But finding a semblance of rationalityin our neck of the woods is becoming an impossibletask with each passing day. We do not seem to be able

to record even a peaceful protest, even when it has officiallybeen declared a day to profess love, much less forcing theworld to mend its ways. As if what happened on the 21st ofSeptember wasn’t enough, Federal Minister for RailwaysGhulam Ahmad Bilour has upped the ante by announcing abounty of 100,000 dollars on the maker of a movie that hasdisrespected Prophet Muhammad and brought millions ofMuslims on to streets in protests all over the world.

While his passion is commendable, his gesture is not,more so considering that he is a federal minister. His actionmight incite violence from not just one or two religiouszealots but many more, the least the government would wanton its hands right now. The very public who protested, mindyou they were largely on rampage, as they celebrated a day tohonor love for their Prophet, a Prophet actions from whoselife they quotes so passionately to convince the world thatislam is a peaceful religion, could provide a launching pad tosome extremists in disguise. After all, it takes not much tocontort an ideology or a statement.

The carrot he is dangling in front of the Taliban and Al-Qaeda and the general public — by inciting them to commitmurder, in itself a crime — would also hand over the stick inthe hands of those who take his offer to heart. More thanthat, it represents a disappointing lack of confidence in thegovernment by none other than a minister of the samegovernment. Yes, the acts of that American filmmaker mustbe discouraged but so should be the ones proposed by theminister. in fact, what Mr Bilour is proposing is somewhatsame what the maker of that sacrilegious film has done: toincite people to violence.

With the country already at war with terrorists and lawand order situation not much to boast of, violent protests andcalls for violence would do us no good. What we lack is aunified approach on how to handle the issue and how toconvey our message to the West. it won’t make much of aconvincing case to the western governments, even though weare right in demanding action against blasphemers, if wekeep announcing a price on the heads of their citizens.

Rational approach calls for rational measures, not forpassionate appeals for more violence.

Monday, 24 September, 2012

Us and Israeli strategy on Iran

The empire may strike after all

The debate continues about israel’sintent and readiness to strike iran’snuclear facilities and what iran

would do if that was to occur. The narra-tive covering this debate has revolvedaround if israel will hit iran before the USNovember election. Recent coverage wasmore concentrated on the difference ofopinion between President Netanyahu andPresident Obama over establishing clear-cut red lines for iran. There are alsodoubts about if military strike on iran’snuclear facilities can completely destroythem. Reports indicate that even if US andisraeli acted jointly, the program will

likely be set back only by a couple of years.in short, prior to the recent events in

Libya, US remained reluctant to pursue anall-out military solution towards iran’s nu-clear program. However, since the killingof Chris Stevens, the optimistic view of thetrajectory of Arab Spring in the US is giv-ing way to the narrative israel has pro-moted all along. early signs indicate achange of US posture may be in the offing.

Deciphering this ongoing deliberationreveals that iran is not going to back downunder the pressure of economic sanctions.Therefore, to israel it is obvious that thereis no alternative to a military strike andcovert operations that are already under-way. especially, when there is an alarmthat iran is fast approaching the point ofno return in acquiring nuclear capability.

On the other hand, the US is not sosure that the military option is the only oneavailable. Like in iraq and Afghanistan, USlikes to work on the political and militarysolutions in tandem. This approach has notworked out very well in both places.Nonetheless, the US has relied on eco-nomic sanctions, covert operations anddiplomacy for the time being.

There is obviously the dynamics ofArab Spring to consider that has workedin the favor of US up to this point. Withthe spreading Arab revolt the balance ofpower in Middle east is being altered to

such an extent that ultimately, in combi-nation with economic sanctions, iran willbe left without allies and depleted ex-chequer. And, this change in itself mayconvince the iranians about the futility ofits nuclear ambition. The parallel here isnot much different than the example ofPakistan. The spreading war against ex-tremists and its worsening economicwoes have persuaded the country its timeto change the nation’s security policiesand ties with india.

However, recent events of NorthAfrica, Middle east, includingAfghanistan, are now pushing US towardsa rethink of its strategy. The protests thaterupted in the aftermath of the anti-islamvideo and the killing of the American am-bassador in Libya have revealed alarminglevels of anti-Americanism. On the otherhand, the spreading green on blue attacksin Afghanistan present a stark reflection ofthe collapse of approach there.

For all intents and purposes this year’s9/11 anniversary marked the beginning ofthe next phase of the war on terror andArab Spring, the two interconnected phe-nomenon. it is worth mentioning that therecent protests around the islamic world,and the reasons behind them, are notwithout historical precedence. During theSepoy Rebellion of 1857 in the subconti-nent, the underpinnings also involved cul-

tural and religious miscalculations. Thepresent mishandlings are already produc-ing dire consequences in Afghanistan andmore serious consequences are likely tofollow. in a statement regarding the eventsof Libya, Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Penin-sula (AQAP) was already making theseconnections with history when it praised‘Omar al-Mukhtar’s descendants’ for thekilling of the American ambassador.

The harsh tactics adopted in the firstphase of the war against terror have grad-ually eaten up the credibility and space thedespotic leaders of the region needed toremain in power. At the same time, mod-erate islamist and nationalist are resur-gent while the secular and liberal spacehas consistently shrunk. On the otherhand, the US is in need of allies that retainsome level of public support to implementthe counterterrorism strategy. The chal-lenge being, in the second phase of thecampaign against extremists, in manyplaces, such allies no longer exist or haveno political space to operate.

The killing of the American ambassa-dor and the initial ambivalence of theegyptian and Tunisian authorities to con-trol the protests have given credence to theisraeli claim that moderate islamists, thatcame to power as a result of the Arab awak-ening, have a soft corner for the radical is-lamists. Moreover, the extremists will

eventually take over the moderates. if thisreally is the case, then that means extrem-ist groups are indeed benefiting by thepresent flux and chaos in the region and byexploiting the direction of the uprisings.

The Republican Party is leading thecharge to counter this and have blamedObama for not fully supporting israel. inan interview with Fox News Newt Gin-grich commented, “i think we should havea total reassessment of our entire strategyfor the region.”

Representing the threat perception ofisrael, Gingrich went on to state the Mid-dle east is heading for serious turmoil, “Asthese dictatorships collapse, you’re seeingmore and more weapons get in the handsof extremists. The israelis have a realfear... they may suddenly see Syrian chem-ical weapons being fired at them byHezbollah in very substantial quantities.”

The politicking of American electionsand events of the Middle east appear to bemoving US policy closer to the israeli po-sition, even with all the risks. There is avery real chance that israel will act inde-pendently and the US will be dragged in tothe conflict, even when it does not want to.

The writer is the chief analyst forPoliTact (www.PoliTact.com andhttp:twitter.com/politact) and can bereached at aansar@politact.com

politactBy Arif Ansar

a man to respectthe one who could unite the Arabs

“Gamal Abdul Nasserand after” by Profes-sors Doctors Qalb-i-Abid and MassarratAbid recalls an era

when the egyptian President Nasseremerged as the undisputed voice of hun-dreds of millions of the otherwise frac-tured Arab world. The Arab unity hasremained an elusive dream. Can it ever beachieved? is it practically possible? Theauthors try to explore both the questions.

if there is a leader, who has the willand vision as well as charisma and sin-cerity of purpose, the Arabs can be unitedbut only to an extent. For example, Syriaformed a union and Yemen set a federa-tion with Nasser. Gaddafi of Libyabegged for a similar merger and Jordan,too, toyed with this idea. Yasser Arafat,the late leader of the Palestinians adoredhim. And most important of all, the Arabstreet loved and believed in what Nassersaid, eulogizing him as the “Lion of theArabs”. Why did the Arabs covet these at-tributes in Nasser? Simply because intheir early history, they had seen howtheir leaders had established grand em-

pires in Spain, Africa,Arabia and Turkey thatextended to the heart ofeurope in Vienna. Withthe disintegration of theOttoman empire, theArabs came under theyoke of the British andFrench colonists. Thissubjugation resulted indecades of humiliationwhereby in their ownlands their status was re-duced from being mas-ters to slaves. With thenationalization of theSuez Canal in 1956 andby winning the waragainst the combinedmilitary might of theBritish, French and is-raelis, Nasser had re-gained the lostself-respect of the Arabs.By all definitions, it wasa grand achievement.

Sadly, instead of ral-lying round him, some ofthe Arab leaders, partic-ularly of Saudi Arabiaand Jordan played in thehands of the westernpowers. The authorshave shown how the thenSaudi government triedto bribe Syria’s interior

minister Colonel Sarraj to first break theUnion with egypt and later to assassinateNasser. The role of the iraqi leadershipwas equally dubious because it agreed tojoin the US sponsored military pactCeNTO with headquarters in Baghdad.To undermine Nasser’s efforts to boostegyptian agro-based economy by build-ing the High Aswan Dam, the Americansunilaterally withdrew the financial com-mitment that they had already made forbuilding the dam, thus pushing Nasserinto the Soviet embrace, who stepped for-ward to foot the project to gain a footholdin the Middle east.

Those who think that Nasser wasanti-American or a socialist are deficientin history because he was just an Arabnationalist, who believed in pan-Arabismas an article of faith. Both the learned au-thors are right in pointing out that it wasthis aggressive pan-Arabism that in-volved egypt in several unnecessary con-flicts not only with the pro-AmericanArab regimes but also with israel. Allthose resources that should have beenspent for his people’s development werefrittered away in reckless military adven-tures. For example, he got involved in theLebanese civil war. Later on, he tried tooverthrow king Hussein’s government inJordan. in addition, he got embroiled ina civil war in Yemen against Saudi Arabiawhich dragged on for five years resultingin the employment of 70,000 troops ofwhich 10,000 lost their lives. As if all thiswas not enough, he began to help the Al-gerian revolutionaries in their independ-ence movement which brought him indirect conflict with France.

Nasser’s charisma began to waneafter egypt’s defeat at the hands of is-rael in the 1967 war and within a fewyears, he died. even in his death, he re-mained a controversial figure. He hadmany supporters (he has the distinctionof having the biggest funeral in the his-tory of the Arab world) but his detrac-tors abound as well. They criticize himfor his nationalization program; for pur-suing an aggressive foreign policy; forfighting unnecessary wars; and for op-posing the US and the western bloc.Such critics are found in every under-developed country because they blindlybelieve that a country can only prosperby siding with the West and by adoptingthe capitalist economic system.

But Nasser had lived by his dreams.Though he came of lower-middle class,the son of a postman, poverty had not de-prived him of the virtues of pride, courageand independence in thought and action.These virtues are noble yet not tolerated

by the Western powers if found in theruler of a backward country because theseclash with their vested interests.

His time witnessed the peak of theCold War and the world was divided intotwo hostile blocs. Russians’ closenesswith Nasser provided them with a pivotin the oil-rich strategic Mideast and withleaders of Syria, Yemen, Libya, Sudan,etc. lining up behind him; there werechances of a socialist upsurge whicheisenhower’s Doctrine of Containmentcould never afford. As CiA got into gear,the Muslim Brotherhood made sixteenlife attempts at Nasser that culminated inthe execution of Brotherhood’s leader,Syed Qutub. Today, history has made fullcircle as not only the ‘militant’ Brother-hood has emerged as the biggest party inthe egyptian legislature, its leaderMuhammad Mursi has been elected asthe president and the radical movementas a whole is projected as ‘moderate’ bythe US. Moreover, after Nasser’s death,President Sadat not only expelled theRussians but under the US influence,shook hands with the israelis at theCamp David. No wonder, egypt re-mained the most trusted Arab ally of is-rael and the recipient of an Americanlargesse of well over $1 billion per year –the second highest amount of yearly as-sistance given by the White House to anycountry in the world other than israel.

About a year back, Hassanain Heikal,who served as Nasser’s information Min-ister and now conducts a popular showon the ‘Aljazeera’ ruffled the hornet’s nestwhen he claimed that Nasser did not diea natural death but was poisoned in thecoffee that was served to him by Sadat.We do not know the veracity of such out-landish claim but what we do know isthat post-Nasser, the Palestinians be-came orphans. The authors have givendetails of the Palestinian issue and how ithas been dictated by israel. Similarly,post- Nasser, the Arab world turned intoa lucrative ground for the Western neo-imperialists with no one to hold them to-gether and stand up to israel.

The timing of this book could nothave been better because only a leaderof Nasser’s caliber can save the Arabs inthe storm that is gathering in the Gulf.Yet, the horizon remains bleak. Ah-madinejad is the only glimmer but hebeing a Persian is a different story forthe Arab ‘asabiya’; so much for Muslimbrotherhood and unity.

The writer is an academic andjournalist. He can be reached atqizilbash2000@yahoo

Eye on historyBy Basharat Hussain Qizilbash

LHR 24-09-2012_Layout 1 9/24/2012 5:39 AM Page 10

who is innocent?As per the challan (charge sheet) submitted by

the Pakistani police team who was investigating ablasphemy case against a teen-age mentally sickChristian girl, Rimsha, no evidence has been foundthat Rimsha desecrated the Holy Quran; instead themosque imam, khalid Chishti, has been accused oftampering with evidence by adding burned pages ofHoly Quran into the polythene bag allegedly beingcarried by Rimsha. Regardless of the policeinvestigation, we know the facts on ground: Rimshaand her family has been sheltered in a ‘safe’ place inislamabad (how safe that is only time will tell), anumber of Christian families have left the poorneighborhood fearing reprisal attacks, Civil JudgeAmir Aziz, who was earlier hearing the case has goneon leave, counsel for accuser, Rao Rahim, hasalready announced that if Rimsha is not punished bythe court then a number of ‘Mumtaz Qadris’ will dothe job (a reference to Punjab governor’s murderer).

in this backdrop, if it is proved that imam khalidChishti burnt the Holy Quran prior to adding them tothe polythene bag, he could be declared accused underthe blasphemy law – 196 PPC (wherein he may facedeath penalty). We all know that blasphemy law hasbeen misused by mischievous people to target theiropponents, settle personal score, evacuate propertiesand businesses, and in most cases the defendants,though found innocent by the courts, were murderedin broad day light, socially boycotted, thrown out ofthe area. Accusers were never charged and theyachieved whatever they were looking for.

We need to break this cycle of death game; let’srequest authorities not to book imam Chishti underthe blasphemy law-196 PPC, instead he shall becharged for fraudulent and tampering with evidence –a charge to be handled by an ordinary criminal court.

MASOOD KHANJubail, Saudi Arabia

twisted factsThis is in connection with the September 21,

2012, the day declared as the Day of Love forProphet Muhammad (PBUH) by the federalGovernment and protest day by various political andreligious parties. The day was hijacked by someextremist elements and the media which chose toshow clips of the looting, arson and killings only.Unfortunately the hypocritical behavior of our mediais not understandable, they look towardssponsorship and chose to cover only those incidentswhich they believe would enhance their rating.

Majority of our so-called intellectuals onelectronic media discuss and analyze the incidentsand problems without taking into consideration theground realities in an inconclusive manner. Nodoubt, incidents of looting, arson and burning ofprivate and public properties are not liked by anysane person. However, we have to look into the

causes that why some people may be 2% of ourpopulation choose to acts like this. We saw scenes oflooting and arson in United kingdom last year andUSA few years back similar to the one which we sawon our screens on Friday. The only difference is thatthey learnt a lesson and tracked down the realmiscreants behind them and made accountable eachand every culprit through CCTV coverage. We on theother hand while sitting in our lounges issuedsweeping statements blaming all the people whochose to protest.

We should appreciate some political partiesespecially PTi etc. Whose leaders along with theirsupporters protested in a peaceful manner andcondemned the movie. However, the politicians andthe rulers who announced the day as a Protest dayand remained inside their houses due to securityconcern should be condemned. We should also lookinto the fact that the attitude of the miscreantsclearly depict the widening gap between the “Haves”and “Have not” as they could be seen looting,laughing and enjoying which is not a good omen.

Khalid KhanLahore

we ought to thinkWe cannot stop Jewish lobby against islam. This

animosity is well known to us and it existed even1400 years back. We also cannot do anything aboutthe ‘freedom of press’ syndrome of the Westernworld. These slanderous attacks on the sanctity ofislam and our Holy Prophet (SAW) will go on atregular intervals, as history has told us. We can’tbreak our properties and assets lest we should be leftimpoverished. So let us think of something concreteand productive to thwart the Jewish onslaught.Muslims must convene a get together in which allMuslims countries must appear, regardless of theirinternal and political differences.

All sections of Muslims must represent,regardless of their sect or belief. Muslims mustcreate a huge islamic Media Centre from where thetrue picture of islam is projected. Let the West knowwhat islam is. We hear that their intellectuals studyQuran as a book and get convinced of its logic,explanation and historical truth of events mentionedin Quran. Let us project them in an orderly way ofexpression and especially in a way that the faithlessand distorted youth of West find answers to theirbewilder ness. This perpetual activity will not onlydiscourage the lunatics of the West to say anythingderogatory but will also curtail US intervention intoiraq and Afghanistan and now the entire Me.

The US won’t get away with their oft-repeatedallegations against islam and practices of islam.Hijab won’t be a problem to the police in the West.This islamic Media must be backed up rich islamiccountries which have abundance of wealth. Thisislamic Media must have a multi-faceted design andrun by islamic experts and undisputed scholars.Access to this media center must be made easy toMuslims all around and easier for non-Muslims toreach it. We have to correct our image in the worldand leave no space for them to make a joke of us.The asking is? Can we do this? Or shall we break ourcountry every time they trigger a reason? Can ourgovernments take the initiative or will they onlydebate on 6 men being sent to islamabad by PML-Nto ransack islamabad?

AMJAD H MIRZALahore

An affirmation of belief in Muham-mad (peace be upon him) as themessenger of God is an integral part

of the shahada, the basic declaration offaith for all Muslims, who also recite thedurood five times a day as part of their dailyprayers to confer salutations and blessingson their Prophet. Those who subscribe tomilads organise and attend them to cele-brate the birth of the Prophet. Clearly allthis is insufficient as far as the powers thatbe were concerned, who felt an additionalexpression of devotion was required. Andso the Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) has, asit were, been made to ‘join the club’.

There’s Mother’s Day and Father’sDay, Secretary’s Day and St Valentine’sDay… and now… Ishq-e-Rasool Daymubarak to everyone. Did you have ahappy Prophet’s Day?

it appears several people didn’t, cer-tainly not a Haji sahib from Hyderabad,who refused to close shop on Friday in ex-pression of devotion. He was accused andbooked under the anti-blasphemy act, andhis house was attacked by a mob. When hetried to defend himself he was also ac-cused of attempted murder. Haji sahib isnow on the run, and a certain Majlis-e-

T a h f u z - e - k h a t m - e -Nabuwat, already takingpart in the protest againstthat stupid video, hasthreatened to launch an-other protest next weekunless the Haji is foundand brought to ‘justice’.

in fact it was gener-ally not a good day for thisentire impoverishedcountry, for which thisunplanned shut downspelt a (further) massiveloss of revenue. To givesome idea of the scale ofloss, closure of businessin a single area of karachialone on the 18th of Sep-tember following the callfor a strike by the Jamaat-i-islami was calculated atapproximately five billionrupees to the exchequer.

The human cost faroutweighed the economic:scores of people died,hundreds were injuredand as many arrested; theinjured included mem-bers of the police and firefighting authorities. With-out doubt the Muslims ofPakistan bear a great lovefor the Prophet, but youhave only to see the ex-

pressions on the faces of rioters pho-tographed breaking and looting on the dayto realise that this affair was about settlingold scores for most protestors, and even a‘fun day out’, and no expression of love,since violence and the Prophet Muham-mad (pbuh) have nothing in common.

Most governments would be disturbedby such a drop in its economic figures, butin Pakistan such drivel originates from thegovernment itself. Any doubts on that headshould be dispelled by an announcementmade by the Federal Minister for Railways,Ghulam Ahmed Bilour, who offered a$100,000 reward for the capture or deathof the maker of the offensive video. Theminister issued a statement saying that al-though ‘he was aware that it was a crime toinstigate murder, he was ready to committhat crime because there was no other wayto instill fear among blasphemers.’

Ishq-e-Rasool Day henceforth joins thelong list of things confused with the religionitself such as the anti-blasphemy laws ofthis country, and as some would add, mi-lads. interesting that people forever rantingagainst ‘bida’at’ (religious innovation)should not recognise a bida’at when it isflung so openly at them. Obviously they lacksomething essential in their understanding.

Which is a problem shared by thosewho have made it a punishable offence todeny the holocaust. You’d think they’d un-derstand the sentiment aroused in the Mus-lim world when the Prophet of islam isdenied the courtesy and respect owed him,but, apart from packets of thinking individ-uals, that does not appear to be the case.

According to Robert Fisk writing in TheIndependent earlier this month, ‘A NewZealand editor once proudly told me howhis own newspaper had re-published thecartoon of the Prophet with a bomb-filledturban. But when i asked him if he plannedto publish a cartoon of a Rabbi with a bombon his head next time israel invadedLebanon, he hastily agreed with me thatthis would be anti-Semitic.’

‘There’s the rub, of course,’ Fisk contin-ued. ‘Some things are off limits, and rightlyso. Others have no limits at all. Severalradio presenters asked me yesterday if theunrest in Cairo and Benghazi may havebeen timed to “coincide with 9/11”. it sim-ply never occurred to them to ask if thevideo-clip provocateurs had chosen theirdate-for-release to coincide with 9/11.’

Which leads to the question, of course,whether the declaration of an Ishq-e-Ra-sool Day has been as opportunely timed tocoincide with the elections?

The writer is a freelance columnist.Read more by her at http://rabia-ahmed.blogspot.com/

Comment 11

Monday, 24 September, 2012

Editor’s mailSend your letters to: Letters to Editor, Pakistan

Today, 4-Shaarey Fatima Jinnah, Lahore, Pakistan.Fax: +92-42-36298302.

E-mail: letters@pakistantoday.com.pkLetters should be addressed to Pakistan Today exclusively.

A day of love, but clearly no love for the prophet (pbuh)

The 21st september

By Rabia Ahmed

LHR 24-09-2012_Layout 1 9/24/2012 5:39 AM Page 11

Miley Cyrus is ateeny bopper at iHeart musicfestivalThe Hannah Montana star drew gaspswith her tiny waist and barely-there hipsat last night’s iHeart Radio Festival.Wearing a minute Moschino skirt thathighlighted her spindly form at the LasVegas event, 19-year-old Miley looked ashadow of the young woman with a fullerfigure of a year ago. Her pretty black croptop displayed a washboard stomach.Miley, who got engaged to Hunger Gamesstar Liam Hemsworth in June, is said tofollow a very strict diet and exerciseregime.She is such a fan of Pilates, whichworks her lower body and tonesher glutes, that she takes up toSiX classes a week - andtravels with Pilatesworkout DVDs wherevershe goes. The former childstar has also adopted a specialgluten-free diet.earlier this year, Miley wasforced to deny anorexia rumoursafter photos of her skinny framecaused shock among her manyyoung fans. neWs Desk

Monday, 23 September, 2012

12

I AM AlreAdy

MArrIedKAreeNA KAPoor

Riteish Deshmukh may not be a successfullead actor in a film, but he has made acareer playing funny characters andsecond fiddle to the lead star, and yetcreating his own space in 100 crore filmslike ‘Housefull’, ‘kya kool Hai Hum’ and‘Dhamaal’ series. Lately, Riteish has beenfrequently visiting Vadodara for shootingthe sequel to ‘Masti’ — ‘Grand Masti’ at theLaxmi Vilas Palace. in an informal chat hetells us how having a famous surnamedoes open doors for him to meet people,but at the end of the day it is a struggle forhim. excerpts from the interview:being an actor with a perfect comic timing,you are repeatedly doing films withnaughty humour and adult content.Of course, i am stereotyped! And in myspace, i don’t mind being stereotyped. But

the kind of films that i am doing are the onlyfilms that are doing `100 crore business inB-Town. it’s only when such films work, iget to play a lead role in a film like Tere NaalLove Ho Gaya. But next year, i am doing anaction-thriller and a drama based film. ican’t question why i am being offered a rolein a sequel or repeatedly being asked to do afunny, loud comedy film (naughty humour).if someone like Akshay kumar can do filmslike that, then actors like us are in noposition to question. We have to accept thataudiences like such films.Were you confident of making it big in films?i am an accidental actor. i thought my firstfilm would be my last film. i was pretty surethat with my face and personality, i wouldnever be offered another film because evenmy first film came as a surprise! i was ready

to leave B-Town and was quite confidentthat no one would be ready to work withme. if my films have worked, if actors andfilmmakers have worked with me, then ican only say that they have been kind.Secondly, people had this idea that being apolitician’s son would get me enough workin films, and it took a long time to come outfrom being called ‘cm/ex cm’s son’ to justbeing Riteish Deshmukh. Don’t get mewrong, i am proud to be my father’s son andhe was very successful in his career as apolitician, but it was a task changingpeople’s perception of me.You bond very well with stars like Shahrukh Khan,Salman Khanand AkshayKumar. Do you feel somewhere thesefriendships have helped you in your career?i have never analysed my equations with the

stars so much as people like to do. i am friendswith Sanjay Dutt, Ajay Devgn, AbhishekBachchan and Amitabh Bachchan. Being myfather’s son helps me with an initial meetingand a cup of tea but more than that everyonewants to earn money at the BO. Friendships orcontacts don’t get you work. i don’t discusspolitics with my friends and they don’t discussfilmy projects with me. My friendshipswith karan Johar or Sajid khan have neverbeen about work. i don’t chat with friends withthe expectation of working with them.What are your plans now? Are you gettingbored of constantly being a part of anensemble cast in a film?‘Bored’ would be a strong word to use,but let’s say i am focusing on myarchitecture work and also co-producinga Marathi film. coUrTesy Toi

I DON’T MIND BEING STEREOTYPED: RITEISH

Contrary to reports Hrithik Roshan is not doing a romanticcomedy with director Siddharth Anand. Hrithik has actually signed

up to do Anand’s long-in-the-pipeline remake of the JamesMangold action-thriller knight And Day. And for the role of Hrithik’s

co-star-on-the-run , played in the Tom Cruise film by Cameron Diaz, Sid-dharth Anand has asked katrina kaif. katrina, according to a source veryclose to the desi knight & Day is very keen.But there is one hitch, katrina

has been asked to be the female lead in Yashraj Films’ Gundey .Herrakhi-brother Arjun kapoor who plays the lead , has personally askedkatrina to do the film. Says the source, “Both the films would be shot

around the same time. So katrina can only do one of them. knightAnd Day is a huge temptation.katrina loved Cameron Diaz’s

part in the original And the heroine is there in nearly everyscene with the hero. When katrina came together with

Hrithik in Zindagi Na Milegi Do-bara she was hardly given

any playing time with him.Here the temptation is to be

there all through withHrithik on screen. Also, Sid-dharth Anand is very keen to

get katrina on board withHrithik.” However there is Ali

Abbas Zafar’s Gundey beckon-ing katrina.And she is in a fix.Says our source, “Ali and kat-

rina shared a great rapportwhen they did Mere Brother kiDulhan.it was decided between

them that katrina would be partof the director’s

next.Gundey would also give hera chance to work with two new

leading men Arjun and Ranveer,one of whom happens to be a close

friend.” At the moment katrina isundecided about which of the two

projects to give the nod to. We hearefforts are on to work out the ac-

tress’ dates, so she can accommo-date both the projects.

coUrTesy Toi

Katrina’s dilemma

AMY Winehouse’s ex-husband Blake Fielder-Civil has finally confessed to The Sun He got

the tragic star into hard drugs. Therecovering junkie, 30 — in jail when the popdiva died a year ago after a booze bender —

told of his relief an overdose did not killher. He said: “i don’t know whether it

absolves my guilt or responsibility. But itmeant i didn’t kill my ex-wife.” Speaking

exclusively to The Sun, Fielder-Civiladmitted: “i was the one who brought

drugs into the relationship. “Whenthe toxicology results came back i

was relieved there were no drugs inher system.” Despite his candour,

he STiLL insists the Back To Blacksinger’s downward spiral was her

own fault. He insisted it was notdrugs but her boozing that was always

the problem. Fielder-Civil was in jailin Leeds in July last year when his exdied aged 27 at her home in Camden,North London. Unable to attend her

funeral, he held a ceremony for her inhis cell. Following his 14-month

stretch for burglary and having afirearm he ended up in

hospital from drugs andbooze. neWs Des

Blake: i did get amyon hard drugs

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Monday, 23 September, 2012

13

Age no bar in romance,says Paresh rawal

In Priyadarshan’s Kamaal dhamaal Malamaalthere is a love triangle between om Puri(david), Paresh Rawal (Peter) and Sona nair

(Maria). The love triangle was apparently Priyan’sidea, wherein best friends, david and Peter, fall forthe same woman, Maria, and how it strains theirfriendship. About playing a romantic, Paresh said,“I’m young, aren’t I? Priyan felt the need to createthe romance track for me. And believe me when Isay that age has nothing to do with romance. It’s allin the heart.” om Puri, who plays Shreyas Talpade’sfather, said, “Playing the role of a disappointed fatherinstigated the actor in me.” Sona, who has two menrunning after her in the film, said, “The sepia-tonedmoments have been captured with some heavy dutyhumour. The retro effect was a memorableexperience for me. coURtEsy toI

love is painful, says emma Watson

AActress Emma watson used to believe lovewas a “pain” and admits she has had somebad experiences in the past. The 22-year-old

is currently dating student will Adamowicz. “when Istarted dating, I had this kind of `Romeo and Juliet`,fateful, romantic idea about love. It was almost thatyou were a victim - that there was a lot of paininvolved and that was how it should be,”femalefirst.co.uk quoted watson as saying.“Shakespeare said the course of true love never didrun smooth and I had a sense it had to be painful. Itwas such a revelation to realise it shouldn`t be thatway and you get to choose who you love and who yougive your heart to.” “The sad thing is you only learnfrom experience, so as much as someone can tell youthings, you have to go out there and make your ownmistakes in order to learn,” she added. nEWs DEsk

We have high hopes from`Barfi`: ranbir Kapoor

Bollywood film ‘Barfi!’ has got an officialentry to the oscars, and actor Ranbir Kapoorsaid he has high hopes from the film even

though at the moment it has not reached thenomination stage. “we are not nominated yet. oncewe do, the feeling will come. we have a lot of faithand hope from the film,” Ranbir told reporters. TheFilm Federation of India (FFI) shortlisted somecritically acclaimed films, including ‘Paan SinghTomar’ and ‘Kahaani’, but ‘Barfi!’ was selected torepresent India in the Best Foreign language Filmcategory. Ranbir seemed elated by this achievement,but said it was a bigger achievement that the filmhad been loved by the audience. “It feels great, butthe greater feeling is that the audience is liking thefilm and its doing great at the box office,” he said.The actor said he had not expected the film toperform so well. “It has reached people’s hearts. Thelove that the film has got and the collections showthis. we really didn’t expect it to reach that far,” hesaid. The film has managed to cross Rs.60 crore atthe box office, but when asked about joining the 100crore club, the actor said jovially: “I want to cross500 crore, everyone crosses 100 crore.” neWs Desk

everyone is praising your performancein Heroine. What’s Saif’s take on it?Saif doesn’t watch that many Hindi movies.Jab We Met (2007) was the last film of minethat he watched, and Dabangg (2010) wasthe last Hindi film he watched! As forHeroine, he is least bothered about thehoopla around it.the film industry is cruel to marriedfemale actors. Are you ready for that?i am shocked by this cynical and jadedthought! i would never compromise my careerfor my love or vice versa. They are twoseparate paths in my life. Look at my mother-in-law. Her best works were after hermarriage. She is a huge inspiration and powerfigure for me. She supports my decision tocontinue to work and so does Saif. He is freeto work with whoever he chooses to and i canwork with whoever i wish to. Who knows! imay be the game changer!As Kareena Kapoor Khan?Why not? Saif and i have been livingtogether for five years. We bought this placetogether and did it up together. i have beento Pataudi several times. everyone knowsabout it. But we also have our own lives. Wedo our respective movies and come backhome to each other. Being together hasn’tchanged our work status, so how is it goingto change now?but won’t being mrs Saif Ali Khan mark anew chapter in your life? Seriously, what’swrong with everyone! Saif and i just cannotfathom the hype around the wedding. Listen, iam already married! We just have to legalize iton paper and we are doing that soon!What are your honeymoon plans?None, ya! We go on holidays as if there’s notomorrow. The other day my friend Arjunkapoor (Boney kapoor’s son) told me that ifSaif and i go on another holiday again, it’llbe our 250th honeymoon! But in Decemberwe are taking off again.What’s your relationship with Saif’schildren? Great, touch wood! i love them a lotand get the same love and respect from them.They are growing up fast. Sarah looks so lovely!madhur had approached you for hisearlier movies Page 3 (2005) andFashion (2008). What was it about

Heroine that appealed to you? DuringPage 3 and Fashion, i was very caught up.The characters i was doing were also lighterand bubblier. But by the time this moviecame, i was done with light roles. Heroine isabout a declining and imbalanced superstar— a very brave and bold role. i wanted totest whether i could carry a role like this. ihave given 200 per cent to this role. She’s avery complex character, very aggressive,manipulative and bold, yet she’s very fragile.And the only similarity between Mahi(kareena’s character in Heroine) and me isthat i am over-emotional like her. Otherwisei am a very calm, composed and sorted girl.Have you ever gone through what mahigoes through? Hello, i am not a decliningsuperstar! i am very much here andhappening. Anyway, i was born and broughtup in this industry and i have seen it all. idon’t take success and failure seriously. Theonly thing i do seriously is march forward.if i fall, i get up and march again.Your cousin ranbir said that he wasborn into luxury. can you say the same?We weren’t brought up in luxury, as peoplethink about the kapoor clan. My mom(Babita) and sister (karisma) really struggledto give me a better life. especially my mom,because she was a single parent. everythingwas very limited for us. Lolo went to collegein local trains, but i escaped that because ididn’t go to college here. But i took the schoolbus like everyone else. We had one car anddidn’t have enough money for a driver. it’sonly because mom brought us up like thisthat we value everything we have today. Thebad days we have seen have made us verystrong and fragile at the same time. And theexperiences have made me a very intenseperson. You know, actors draw a lot fromwithin (themselves) to better their craft.Such as? i never rehearse for a shot. if it’san emotional one, it’s easier for me. i drawfrom my bank of emotions.What has Saif contributed to your life?Lots. But most importantly the understandingthat’s there’s a life beyond movies. He’sliberated me as a person. i learnt to appreciatethe finer things in life. We frequently go onholidays across the globe. There are lots ofother things which we do together. it’s nice

going skiing and fishing. i have

dev eloped a keen interest in art andpaintings, so we go to exhibitions andmuseums. Slowly, i am developing an interestin reading as well. i also learnt to appreciateand be with nature. As for holidays, i amcurious by nature so i love travelling.back to your movies. After you’re married,will you be cautious when you choose roles?Absolutely not! i will be the same kareena,doing the quintessential happy and bubblykareena kind of roles. Having said this i’llalso do roles that challenge me as anactress. Like Heroine. Actors are greedy.They can never be satisfied. i want praise aswell as box office returns. i am part of threebig movies that went on to createthe Rs. 100 crore club.With Heroine you’ve touched the peak ofacting. What next? Hmm. i don’t mindplaying the bubbly Geet kind of characteragain. Maybe imtiaz Ali should come upwith a Jab We Met 2. it’ll be good fun.Before you ask me who the cast should be,well… i am the lead actor in the film, itshould be imtiaz’s choice and i’ll be fineworking with anyone.What do you like best about Saif? Saifis very english, yet very desi. Look at him asLangda Tyagi in Omkara (2006). So real!But the best part about him is hisdetachment and least-bothered attitudetowards competition in the industry. Hetruly doesn’t care. He has his own space,own idea and that’s what he loves following.He doesn’t take all this very seriously but heis too good at his job.Will you miss being in Sanjay Leelabhansali’s ram Leela? Certainly. Lookslike my relationship with Sanjay is jinxed.Somehow we just don’t get to work together.First it was Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam(1999) and now Ram Leela. Nevertheless,there’s always a next time. He’ll writesomething big again, and this time i willensure that we definitely work together…whatever the cost.Heroine rAntS: kareena’s take on twopowerful dialogues from the film.“Mumbai daily ke editor ho. Stars ki dostitumse nahin tumahri kursi se hai.”exceptionally honest and real statement.

Let’s not foolourselves. We use

each other andboth the

partiesbenefit

from it.

coUrTesy HT

Vivek Oberoi says he wasapprehensive to take onthe role of a 25-year-oldDelhi guy in hisupcoming film ‘KismatLove Paisa Dilli’.The 36-year-old, who is returning tothe big screen after a gap of twoyears, will be seen opposite MallikaSherawat in the romantic comedy.“i was nervous enacting this part. ihave done many films over the yearsbut still i was very conscious that i

had to play the character of a 25-year-old. The character has his owntraits which are very distinctive tohim,” Vivek told PTi. “He has thisboyish charm even as he does thesequirky, mad things and findshimself in the craziest of situations.To get the part right, i also had tomodulate my voice so that itdoesn`t come across as too strong,”he added. This is the first timeVivek and Mallika have been pairedtogether on the big screen. Themovie also marks the comeback forboth, as Vivek was last seen in 2010film ‘Rakta Charitra’ and the actressin ‘Double Dhamaal’, whichreleased last year. The movie isdirected by Sanjay khanduri of ‘ekChalis ki Last Local’ fame and will

hit the theatres on October 5.Talking about the movie`s story linebeing similar to that of Abhay Deol-starrer ‘ek Chalis ki Last Local’,Vivek said, “it is an extension to`ek Chalis ki Last Local` in a way.it was an adventure film and that`sabout it. it didn`t really have anydeeper thing to say and wasbasically on the periphery.” The actor says what he likes aboutthe movie is its different title.“What i love about the film is thatit transitions through the wholetitle. The meaning of all four iswell integrated into the narrativedue to which you get thesymbolism of `kismat`, `love`,`paisa` and `dilli` in a person`slife,” he said. neWs Desk

Vivek oberoi is nervous to play a 25-year-old in ‘KlPd’

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14Infotainment

Monday, 24 September, 2012

real life mermaids inFlorida aquarium

ONCe merely myths that enervated littlegirls’ fantasies and haunted sailorsdreams, these legendary aquatic creatures

are being brought to life in an aquarium in Florida.“The Florida Aquarium in Tampa has threemermaids on its staff. During the day they work asdivers and at night they perform for guests,”Buzzfeed notes. Dressed in sequined bustiers andiridescent fish tails, “mermaids” erin, Lauren andkatie swim, wave and frolic as aquarium guestsgawk and take photographs through the glass.Reminiscent of Hannah Fraser, the mermaidperformer and model who swims with whales andother sea creatures to promote marine conservation,these three bubbly ladies are quite something tobehold. Weeki Wachee Springs in Florida is thoughtto be the site of one of the first mermaid shows in theUnited States, CNN reports. The performance tookplace in a small theater in 1947. coURtEsy hUffpost

Jack the English pointer gives Lauren Rowe a drink from a water fountain on

the first day of spring in Brisbane, Australia.

A giraffe runs loose on the streets after escaping from its enclosure at a

circus in Italy.

Twitter will reportedly unveil a newtweet downloading feature by the endof the year, according to Geekosys-tem. if you’ve ever been terrified thata server crash will result in the loss ofyour entire Twitter history, then thisfeature should make you the happiestresident in the Twitterverse. Assum-ing, of course, that you have anythingon your Twitter page worth saving.

PC Magazine explains that thenews arrived shortly after the discov-ery by two University of Virginia re-searchers that a large chunk ofinformation disappears from Twitterafter two years. Given the amount ofinformation that is pumped into Twit-ter every single second, storing everybit of data for eternity seems a littlefar fetched. However, the news under-standably disturbed some users,many of whom have documented im-portant events in their lives through

the micro-blogging website.According to TechCrunch, Twit-

ter CeO Dick Costolo revealed thecompany’s plan to implement atweet-downloading feature at theOnline News Association conference

in San Francisco. However, Costolodid indicate this timetable was basedupon the engineers’ capacity, sothere’s always the chance it could getdelayed until next year.

Although downloading your

tweets may sound like a great fea-ture, it probably doesn’t mean muchto users who have been archivingtheir posts using third-party apps.However, given the company’s re-cent limitations on the use of third-party clients, the ability to downloadtweets using services other thanTwitter may be on its way out. Whilesome have been vocal about theirdisappoint with these new regula-tions, Twitter claims developerswere given fair warning months ago.

“Nearly eighteen months ago, wegave developers guidance that theyshould not build client apps that mimicor reproduce the mainstream Twitterconsumer client experience,” MichaelSippey explained. “And to reiteratewhat i wrote in my last post, that guid-ance continues to apply today.”

Are you excited about the abilityto download your tweets? nEWs DEsk

British skinny dippers failto outstrip world record

HUNDReDS of naked British swimmersplunged into the cold North Sea onSaturday but failed to set a world record

for the biggest ever skinny dip, organisers said.Around 200 people ran into the sea at sunrise atDruridge Bay in Northumberland, northeastengland, where water temperatures were around 12C (54 Fahrenheit). Organiser Jacqueline Higginson,34, said that while the charity event had raisedthousands of pounds for the mental health groupMind, it had failed to reach the necessary numberof participants. Higginson said they “ran naked intothe sea to raise money for Mind and to celebrateourselves and our bodies. “i did a skinny dip lastyear where we broke the world record, i don’t thinkthere was enough to do it today but there wasenough of us for it to be a lot of fun,” she said. Therecord-setting event in Llangennith, Wales in June2011 involved 413 people. Afp

W HiLe the iPhone 5 is getting excellentreviews from bloggers and other re-viewers, and fans jamming shopsfrom Sydney to Paris to pick up thetech juggernaut’s latest iPhone, Nokia

is endeavouring to claim its flagship phone - Lumia920 - better than Apple’s newly launched iPhone 5,which has broken all sale records by topping twomillion pre-orders in the first 24 hours. Nokia, in anew Facebook post, compared the key features ofboth the smartphones, and expectedly, has givenextra points to the Lumia 920 in every feature. Thisis because, Nokia wants to convince you that theLumia 920 is better than the iPhone 5. But, is it so?

Following are Nokia’s 9 reasons that why theLumia 920 is better than the Apple iPhone 5:

1. ScreenThe Nokia Lumia 920 has a bigger and sharper

screen than the one on the new Apple iPhone 5.The Lumia 920 has a 4.5-inch Huge PureMotionHD+ WXGA iPS LCD, ClearBlack display, whilethe iPhone 5 features a 4-inch Retina display witha resolution of 1136x640-pixels. Also, the NokiaLumia 920 has a resolution of 1280x768 pixels,which is higher than the Apple iPhone 5.

2. CameraThe Nokia Lumia sports an 8.7 megapixel rear

PureView camera with optical image stabilisationand Carl Zeiss optics, while the new iPhone 5 hasan 8-megapixel camera. But Nokia did not men-tion about the improvements in noise reduction,low-light performance, and fast photo taking in

the new iPhone’s camera. Also, the 920’s front-facing camera offers 1.2 megapixel front cameracompared with the iPhone 5’s 720 pixels.

3. MapApple inc’s home-grown Maps feature is already

facing criticism from users globally for a number ofgeographical errors, missing information and becauseit lacks features that made Google Maps so popular,including public transit directions, comprehensivetraffic data or street view pictures. The new programhas no public transit directions, limited traffic infor-mation, and flat-out mistakes, such as putting one cityin the middle of the ocean. “Nokia’s suite of location-aware apps and services on its new Lumia devices putit in a clear lead over its competitors in terms of thedepth, breadth and integration of the mapping, nav-igation and transport experiences it can offer. it alsoleads in terms of the global coverage it provides,” saidTim Shepherd, senior analyst at Canalys.

4. DesignNokia’s Lumia 920 lets offers unique Live

Tiles customisation, unlike the iPhone 5 on whichicons are displayed in a single way, which can notbe changed according to personal interests.

5. ImageWhile both cameras offer a Panoramic mode

to let users shoot a single photo covering as muchas 360 degrees, but Nokia, in the race, gives itselfpoints for image stabilisation.

6. User interfaceAccording to Nokia, the Lumia 920’s super

sensitive touchscreen can be used not only withyour fingertips, but also with finger nails, glovesand even any kind of pens. Nokia calls iPhone 5’sscreen to be only sensitive, not super sensitive.

7. ChargingThe Nokia Lumia 920 comes with built-in wire-

less charging. it can be charged without being pluggedin; the user just places it on a wireless charging pod,while Apple’s iPhone 5 features ordinary charging.

8. Design and colourNokia says the Lumai 920 comes in various

colours unlike the Apple iPhone that comes onlyin two colours. The Lumia 920 comes in the black,white, grey, red and yellow colours. On the otherhand, the iPhone comes in white and silver, andblack and slate colours.

9. AccessoryNokia Lumia 920 offers more number of ac-

cessories as compared to what Apple offers withthe iPhone 5. nEWs DEsk

Twitter may unveil tweet downloading by the end of the year

Arctic expert predicts final collapse of sea icewithin four years

AS sea ice shrinks to record lows, Prof PeterWadhams warns a ‘global disaster’ is nowunfolding in northern latitudes. in what he

calls a “global disaster” now unfolding in northernlatitudes as the sea area that freezes and melts eachyear shrinks to its lowest extent ever recorded, ProfPeter Wadhams of Cambridge University calls for“urgent” consideration of new ideas to reduce globaltemperatures. in an email to the Guardian he says:“Climate change is no longer something we can aimto do something about in a few decades’ time, andthat we must not only urgently reduceCO2 emissions but must urgently examine otherways of slowing global warming, such as the variousgeo-engineering ideas that have been put forward.”These include reflecting the sun’s rays back intospace, making clouds whiter and seeding the oceanwith minerals to absorb more CO2. Wadhams hasspent many years collecting ice thickness data fromsubmarines passing below the Arctic Ocean. Hepredicted the imminent break-up of sea ice insummer months in 2007, when the previous lowestextent of 4.17 million square kilometers was set.This year, it has unexpectedly plunged a further500,000 sq km to less than 3.5m sq km. nEWs DEsk

Nokia’s 9 reasons why the Lumia 920 is better than the Apple iPhone 5

LHR 24-09-2012_Layout 1 9/24/2012 5:40 AM Page 14

PALLEKELEAfp

OFF-SPiNNeR Saeed Ajmal took four wick-ets as Pakistan kept their nerve to pull offan exciting 13-run win over New Zealandin the World Twenty20 group D match on

Sunday. Ajmal took 4-30, his fourth four-wickethaul in Twenty20 cricket, as Pakistan restricted NewZealand to 164-9 after setting them a daunting 178-run target on the back of a brilliant career best 56 byNasir Jamshed at Pallekele stadium.

New Zealand gave Pakistan a scare in the finalfive overs when they needed an improbable 70 runs,with captain Ross Taylor hitting three boundariesoff Umar Gul's penultimate over before he was runout for an 11-ball 26.

Ajmal was the difference between the two sidesas Pakistan unleashed its spinners, while kiwiopener Rob Nicol (33) and Brendon McCullum (32)made major contributions to the New Zealander'sreply.

Despite the loss New Zealand qualified for theSuper eights round on superior net run-rate. Pak-istan play Bangladesh on Tuesday to decide whojoins New Zealand in the next round.

Brendon McCullum, who made the highest T20score of 123 in his team's 59-run win overBangladesh, hit four boundaries and a six but wasfinally bowled in the 16th over by Gul to almost endNew Zealand's hopes.

Pakistan captain Mohammad Hafeez said he wasconfident his bowlers could deliver victory.

"i was confident that my varied bowling will de-fend the total and Ajmal was once again outstand-ing," said Hafeez. "Once we got Brendon out wewere sure of the win and even the runs in the penul-timate over didn't disturb us."

Taylor was critical of his team's fielding."We leaked quite a few runs and at one point i

thought we would be chasing a 200 run target, butwe pulled them back," said Taylor.

earlier Jamshed made a 35-ball 56 and added76 for the second wicket with Hafeez (43).

Jamshed hit two boundaries and four sixes asPakistan plundered 92 off the first ten overs. Hafeezhit two fours and two sixes off 38 balls.

imran Nazir made 25 with five boundaries.Jamshed was aggressive from the start, smash-

ing paceman Adam Milne for a six before hittingtwo off spinner Nathan McCullum in successiveovers. He reached his maiden fifty off just 27 balls,

improving on his previous best of 45 he madeagainst Australia in Dubai last month.

New Zealand reined them in in the middleovers, claiming three wickets for just 11 runs includ-ing that of Jamshed caught in the outfield off DanielVettori. Umar Akmal scored 23 with three bound-aries and a six.

New Zealand were uncharacteristically sloppy inthe field, with Taylor dropping Hafeez on nought inkyle Mills's first over while Nicol failed to hold onto a head-high Jamshed hook off the same bowlerwhich went for six.

Ireland V West IndIes

Today’s maTch

Monday, 24 september, 2012

Page 18

radwanska aims todefend Pan Pacific open

Match-winner Ajmal hasNew Zealand in a spin

icc defends

world t20’s

monsoon datesCOLOMBO

Afp

The international Cricket Council on Sun-day defended the scheduling of the WorldTwenty20 as monsoon rains threatened toruin the tournament in Sri Lanka. "This wasthe only period available in the FutureTours Programme this year to conduct thetournament," an iCC spokesman told AFP."All the teams were aware of it." The two-yearly tournament, being held in Sri Lankafor the first time, coincides with the tradi-tional start of the monsoon season in the re-gion. The first four days of the event, whichopened on September 18 and continues tillOctober 7, stayed rain-free before badweather on Saturday affected both games inHambantota and Colombo. The match be-tween South Africa and Sri Lanka in thesouthern port town of Hambantota was re-duced to seven-overs-a-side, which the Pro-teas won by 32 runs. in Colombo, Australiawere 100-1 in 9.1 overs chasing West indies'total of 191-8 when heavy rain forced thematch to be called off in front of 18,000fans at the Premadasa stadium. Australia,who still needed 92 more from 65 balls towin the game with nine wickets in hand,were declared winners by 17 runs accordingto the Duckworth-Lewis method that de-cides rain-hit games. The forecast for therest of the tournament is for worseningweather. "There will be showers at times inthe western, southern and centralprovinces," meteorologist Pabodini karuna-pala told AFP. "By the first week of October,we will start getting more rains.

Sri lanka steps up

security after clashesCOLOMBO

Afp

World Twenty20 hosts Sri Lanka are tobeef up security after angry fans clashedwith baton wielding police in Hambantotawhere the home side lost a match to SouthAfrica, officials said Sunday. Local resi-dents in the southern port town stormedthe ground after they were told that ticketsfor Saturday's match at the 35,000-capac-ity Mahinda Rajapakse international Sta-dium had been sold out, a security officialtold AFP. "The crowds got very boisterousand they smashed the barricades andforcibly entered the grounds," the officialsaid, asking not to be named. "The batoncharge did not deter them. A few thousandgot in." Heavy rains shortened the group Cgame to seven-overs-a-side, which SouthAfrica won by by 32 runs. Witnesses saidlocal fans pelted stones at vehicles leavingthe match venue after Sri Lanka lost thematch. A heavy presence of the elite Spe-cial Task Forces commandos could notdeter the angry crowds. "Their anger wasbecause they could not enter the grounds,"another official said. "When they brokedown the barricades and came in theystarted shouting and making a big rum-pus." Camillus Abeygunawardena, the topsecurity officer for the tournament, saidthere were unruly scenes outside the sta-dium, but insisted that players and specta-tors inside the stadium were wellprotected. "The problem was that localsresidents wanted to get in, but they did nothave ticket," Abeygunawardena said. "Thatis when trouble started." With Hamban-tota not due to host any more matches, hesaid security would be stepped up for therest of the tournament in Pallekele andColombo, but was confident there will beno repeat of Saturday's incident. Theclashes between police and fans came de-spite an unprecedented security operationfor the tournament, the biggest sportingevent ever to be hosted by Sri Lanka.

PalleKele: Saeed ajmal celebrates the wicket of new zealand

cricketer daniel Vettori during the icc twenty20 world match. aFP

PalleKele: Pakistan wicketkeeper Kamran akmal successfully runs out new zealand captain ross taylor

during the icc twenty20 world match. aFP

COLOMBOAnDy WILson

As england’s women concluded theirpreparations for their bid to reclaim theWorld Twenty20 title, their opponentsin Thursday’s opening match in Gallewere sipping tea as they watched fromthe boundary of the Moors Cricket Clubin Colombo.

There is something surprising, evenintriguing, about the notion that Pak-istan can field a women’s internationalcricket team. But they insist it should nolonger be seen as any big deal.

“We have been playing since 2005,and now all of our players are paid bythe Pakistan Cricket Board, just as inevery other country,” said their man-ager, Ayesha Rasheed, as england werecrushing South Africa in their finalwarm-up match. “Women are going out

to work, to do everything the same asmen, and our matches are now beingwatched by families.

“Before we came away we had AamirSohail, Javed Miandad and intikhabAlam working with the girls. Our domes-tic competition even has a team fromFata [the Federally Administered TribalAreas] in Waziristan, and this team hasplayers from Quetta, from Abbotabad,from all over the country.”

Pakistan are unlikely to challenge,especially having been drawn in a groupthat includes india and Australia, as wellas england. But their presence will stillenrich an eight-team competition thatwill be played entirely in Galle until thefour semi-finalists head north toColombo to dovetail with the men’stournament at the end of next week.

it would be a major surprise ifengland are not among them. in the

Moors pavilion, Mark Lane, the formerHampshire second-team wicketkeeperwho has been coaching them since2008, said the team are focused onmaking amends for the previous WorldT20 in the Caribbean in 2010. Then,england, winners of the inauguraltournament at Lord’s in 2009, failed tomake the last four after losing to Aus-tralia and West indies.

“We’ve had a great preparation,”said Lane, reflecting on comfortablehome victories over Pakistan and Westindies, followed by a powerful battingdisplay against South Africa in whichedwards retired after reaching a half-century. “But this is T20, and the lastgame of the West indies series showedagain that anything can happen, whenDeandra Dottin made 60-odd and wonthem the match.”

Dottin, the niece of the West indies

and former england bowling coach OttisGibson, is one of several players withwell-known cricketing connections.West indies are coached by the formerTest opener Sherwin Campbell, andAustralia include Alyssa Healy, daughterof Greg and niece of ian who spent sometime in Yorkshire this summer with herboyfriend, the fast bowler Mitchell Starc.

But women’s cricket is producingplenty of stars in its own right, of whomthe Sussex wicketkeeper-batsmanSarah Taylor is regarded as england’sbrightest. She was blistering with thebat, even by her own standards, indominating a second-wicket partner-ship with edwards on Saturday, as fruitbats and parrakeets flew over theground. As Lane says, anything canhappen in Twenty20. But england lookin good shape to make up for theirCaribbean disappointment.

Pakistan women are ready for their World T20

pAkIstAnMohammad hafeez b franklin 43Imran nazir c and b southee 25nasir Jamshed c n Mccullum b Vettori 56kamran Akmal c Mills b oram 3Umar Akmal c n Mccullum b oram 23shoaib Malik not out 9shahid Afridi c Williamson b southee 12Extras: (lb2, w4) 6total: (for six wickets, 20 overs) 177fall of wickets: 1-47 (nazir), 2-123 (hafeez), 3-129 (kamran), 4-134 (Jamshed), 5-159(Umar)Bowling: Mills 4-0-35-0, Vettori 4-0-23-1, southee 4-0-31-2 (w1), oram 4-0-44-2(w1), n Mccullum 2-0-23-0, Milne 1-0-12-0, franklin 1-0-7-1 (w1)nEW zEALAnDR. nicol b Afridi 33k. Williamson run out 15B. Mccullum b gul 32D. Vettori c Jamshed b Ajmal 18J. oram b Ajmal 11R. taylor run out 26J. franklin c Jamshed b tanveer 13n. Mccullum c Malik b Ajmal 5t. southee c gul b Ajmal 1k. Mills not out 0A. Milne not out 0Extras: (lb5, w5) 10total: (for nine wickets, 20 overs) 164fall of wickets: 1-53 (nicol), 2-54 (Williamson), 3-102 (Vettori), 4-108 (B Mccullum),5-122 (oram), 6-143 (franklin), 7-157 (taylor), 8-160 (southee), 9-164 (n Mccullum)Bowling: hafeez 4-0-15-0, tanveer 3-0-33-1 (w1), gul 4-0-39-1 (w1), Arafat 1-0-12-0(w1), Afridi 4-0-30-1 (w2), Ajmal 4-0-30-4Result: pakistan won by 13 runs, toss: pakistan, Umpires: Bruce oxenford (AUs) and MaraisErasmus (RsA), tv umpire: nigel Llong (Eng), Match referee: graeme La Brooy (sRI)

scoREBoARD

PalleKele: a Pakistan fan looks on during the icc

twenty20 cricket world cup match against new zealand

at the Pallekele Stadium. aFP

LHR 24-09-2012_Layout 1 9/24/2012 5:40 AM Page 16

Sports 16

Monday, 24 September, 2012

LAHOREstAff REpoRt

As the Punjab Youth Festival 2012 is mov-ing towards upper level the competitionsare getting challenging and tougher for theparticipants while the categories and sec-tors are getting wider and extensive.

On Sunday, the Tehsil level, which is thethird phase of the Festival, drew the atten-tion of the participants towards quality ofcompetitions. And in sports alone nearly30,000 tookpart in differ-ent eventswhile the gen-eral categoryevents alsodrew the samenumber of at-tention. Fromamong thetotal partici-pants 8331were the win-ners. The com-petitions in theTehsil levelstarted on Sep-tember 18 and137 UnionCouncils areinvolved in 91events beingheld in 10 sec-tors of the soci-ety. in Lahoredivision, 1449people tookpart in differ-ent sportsevents while608 were the winners while the Lahore citysaw more than 1000 involved in 19 eventsand 445 turned out to be the winners.

in Gulberg Town, 348 took part in theevents including cricket tape ball, hardball, basketball, table tennis, chess, tug ofwar, arm wrestling, football, badminton,billiard and athletics while weightliftingand bodybuilding was held at Ravi townapart from the other events.

in Shalimar Town, athletics competi-tions were held at union council 21 andAhmed Farooq won first position, unioncouncil 22’s Saifi ullah was declared secondwhereas Umer Sadaqat of the same unioncouncil achieved third position. in Tug ofWar, union council 18 defeated union coun-cil 22. in Billiard, union council 22 beatunion council 21, 2-0. in the Table Tennis

competitions, union council 17 beat unioncouncil 18, 2-0. Union council 19 outplayedunion council 20, 2-0 and union council 22defeated union council 21, 2-0. in the Bad-minton tournaments, union council 20 beatunion council 19, 2-0. The score was 21-19,21-11 whereas union council 22 beat unioncouncil 21, 2-0. in the Chess, union council22’s Arshad beat union council 21’s Tayyab1-0. in Cricket Hardball, union council 18’sAdnan Xi defeated union council 22’s AmirXi by 40 runs. in the second match, union

council 19’sAkbar Xi beatunion council21’s ShahbazXi by 5 wick-ets. inSamanabadtown, Bad-minton tour-n a m e n t s ,union council92 beat unioncouncil 104.At Sheik-gupura, 386took part inthe sameabove eventsand 108 werethe winnerswhile compe-titions of matand mudw r e s t l i n gwere also wit-nessed atM u r i d k ewhere 36wrestlers tookpart in the

competitions and 12 won their bouts.in other parts of the province, active

participation was recorded as in Bhakkar511 took part in seven events of cricket, ath-letics, arm wrestling and tug of war and 66got top position. Similarly at NankanaSahib, 117 players participated in naatkhani, qirat, badminton and chess and fatefavoured 63 people. At two districts of Sahi-wal, a total of 660 took part in team sportsevents and 52 got to the top. in Sahiwalalone 310 got involved in arm wrestling,athletics, volleyball and cricket while 350took part in different events in Pakpattan.Vehari saw participation of 300 people infootball, hockey and cricket events and halfof the won their matches. in Dera Ghazikhan’s districts of Layyah 642 took part in13 events and 40 were the winners.

Punjab Youth Sports Festival 2012

events get wider,competitive

COLOMBOAfp

HARBHAJAN Singh grabbed4-12 on his return after a yearin the wilderness as india de-molished defending champi-

ons england by 90 runs in the WorldTwenty20 on Sunday. Rohit Sharma hitan unbeaten 55 off 33 balls as the new-look indians scored 170-4 before englandwere shot out for their lowest T20 total of80 in front of 20,000 spectators at thePremadasa stadium. india rested seamerZaheer khan, spinner Ravichandran Ash-win and opener Virender Sehwag for thegroup A match that held only academic in-terest since both teams had already qual-ified for the Super eights.

But it was a morale-boosting win forthe 2007 champions ahead of the nextround, as they dominated england fromstart to finish. Harbhajan, 32, who hadbeen out of favour with the selectorssince August last year before being re-called for the World Twenty20, claimeda wicket off his second delivery when he

came on in the sixth over. When his spellfinished in the 12th over, england hadslumped to 60-8 and lost their ninthwicket also at the same total. englandwere in danger of falling for the lowestever total in Twenty20 internationals --

67 by kenya against ireland in 2008 --before the last-wicket pair of Steven Finnand Jade Dernbach prevented the humil-iation. But the total still fell below eng-land's previous lowest score of 88 againstthe West indies at the Oval last year.

Harbhajan, new-look Indiastun England in World T20

InDIA

g gambhir c kieswetter b finn 45

Ik pathan b finn 8

V kohli c Bairstow b swann 40

Rg sharma not out 55

Ms Dhoni c hales b Dernbach 9

sk Raina not out 1

Extras (b 1, lb 3, w 8) 12

total (4 wickets; 20 overs; 97 mins) 170

Did not bat yuvraj singh, harbhajan singh, pp chawla, AB

Dinda, L Balaji

fall of wickets 1-24 (pathan, 2.4 ov), 2-81 (kohli, 10.3 ov), 3-

119 (gambhir, 15.5 ov), 4-166 (Dhoni, 19.4 ov)

Bowling: st finn 4-0-33-2, JW Dernbach 4-0-45-1, scJ Broad

4-0-36-0, tt Bresnan 4-0-35-0, gp swann 4-0-17-1

EngLAnD

c kieswetter c kohli b chawla 35

AD hales b pathan 0

LJ Wright lbw b pathan 6

EJg Morgan b harbhajan 2

JM Bairstow b chawla 1

Jc Buttler b harbhajan 11

tt Bresnan c gambhir b harbhajan 1

scJ Broad c gambhir b Dinda 3

gp swann st Dhoni b harbhajan 0

st finn not out 8

JW Dernbach run out (Balaji) 12

Extras (w 1) 1

total (all out; 14.4 overs; 68 mins) 80

fall of wickets 1-2 (hales, 0.6 ov), 2-18 (Wright, 2.4 ov), 3-39

(Morgan, 5.2 ov), 4-42 (Bairstow, 6.6 ov), 5-51 (kieswetter, 8.1

ov), 6-54 (Bresnan, 9.6 ov), 7-60 (Buttler, 11.1 ov), 8-60

(swann, 11.4 ov), 9-60 (Broad, 12.1 ov), 10-80 (Dernbach, 14.4

ov) Bowling: Ik pathan 3-0-17-2, L Balaji 1-0-10-0, AB Dinda

2-0-26-1, harbhajan singh 4-2-12-4, pp chawla 4-1-13-2, yuvraj

singh 0.4-0-2-0

toss England, who chose to field

Result: India won by 90 runs

points India 2, England 0

player of the match harbhajan singh (India)

Umpires Aleem Dar (pakistan) and sJA taufel (Australia)

tV umpire hDpk Dharmasena

Match referee Rs Madugalle

Reserve umpire Asad Rauf (pakistan)

scoREBoARD

LHR 24-09-2012_Layout 1 9/24/2012 5:40 AM Page 17

Sports17

Monday, 24 September, 2012

li na tight-lipped

over political crisistoKYo: Chinese star Li Na remainedtight-lipped Sunday about her decisionto participate in Japan's Pan PacificOpen this week as a political crisis be-tween the two countries deepens. Lastyear's French Open winner remainedstoney-faced and refused to respond toquestions about the row over tiny is-lands in the east China Sea, causingmoments of awkward silence. Had shethought about skipping the tourna-ment? Did she feel pressured to come,after Chinese badminton players de-cided not to attend the Japan Open? Lionly acknowledged that she was follow-ing a tour schedule that was set a yearago, while officials at the $2.17 m eventstood by to block questions with anyhint of diplomatic connotations. Afp

SinGaPore: red bull driver and winner Sebastian Vettel of Germany

celebrates following his victory in formula one's Singapore Grand Prix. aFP

fcc inter-School

basketball

from todayLAHORE

stAff REpoRt

Forman Christian College inter-School Bas-ketball Tournament 2012 is being played onSeptember 24 to 28. The Tournament isbeen organized by the FC College Sports As-sociation; Dr. Manzur Gill (ex Chief Ad-vancement Officer, Forman ChristianCollege) will be the Chief Guest of the open-ing ceremony on 24th September, 2012.

chroma open table

tennis in final leagueLAHORE

stAff REpoRt

in the third day of Chroma Open TableTennis Tournament Asim Qureshi, QasimAziz, Asim Aziz, Mehboob elahi, SalmanVirk, Yasir Bhatti, Faryal Minhas, UmerZaka have qualified for the final league oftop eight players. They beat their respec-tive competitors in group leagues to be inthe next round. The Final league will beplayed in the evening today reSULtS: GroUP A: Jehangir khan btFaryal Minhas 3-1, Asim Qureshi bt Shab-nam Bilal 3-0, Salman Virk bt Jehangirkhan 3-2, Asim Qureshi bt Faryal Minhas 3-0, Waqas Ayub bt Hafiz zeeshan 3-0, AsimQureshi bt Jehangir khan 3-0, Waqas Ayubbt Ahmad Hussain 3-0, Hafiz Zeeshan btShabnam Bilal 3-1, Asim Aziz bt Jehangirkhan 3-0, Salman Virk bt Waqas Ayub 3-2,Faryal Minhas bt Hafiz Zeeshan 3-2, AsimAziz bt Hafiz Zeeshan 3-2, Qasim Aziz btBilal Yasin 3-2. Group B: Mehboob elahi btM. Abdullah 2-3, Bilal Yasin bt Yasir Bhatti3-2, Abdullah bt Shahzaib Maqbool 3-0,Mehboob elahi bt Yasir Bhatti 3-0, A.Qayyum bt Abdullah 3-1, Qasim Aziz bt btUmar Zaka 3-2, Yasir Bhatti bt ShahzaibMaqbool 3-0, Qasim Aziz bt Bilal Yasin 3-2.

PRATTVILLEAfp

American Stacy Lewis birdied four of the first fiveholes in firing a seven-under par 65 to grab a two-stroke lead after Saturday's third round of the $1.3million Navistar LPGA Classic. World No. 3 Lewismatched the low round of the week at the RobertTrent Jones Trail course with a bogey-free day tostand on 15-under 201 after 54 holes with compa-triot Angela Stanford second on 203 after a third-round 68. Lewis opened with back-to-backbirdies and added another set at the fourth andfifth holes. She closed the front nine with a birdie,added another at the par-4 11th from 15 feet andmade her last at the par-3 16th.

Third-ranked lewischarges into lPGa lead

LAHOREstAff REpoRt

Ghazanfar Mehmood of Rawalpindi Golf Club seized the31st Punjab Amateur Golf Title after backing up his modestround of 77 on the first day with two tremendous roundsof 71 and 70 on the 2nd and third day of this Punjab Ama-teur Golf Championship that concluded at the remarkableand historic Lahore gymkhana Golf Course.

Ghazanfar surfaced as the champion with a perfectionoriented golfing performance on the final day on Sundayand in the final go he did not relent for a moment. The allround effort comprised perfect tee shots on the par 4's andpar 5's, crisp approach shots from the 120 yards distanceand some adept putts on the greens. And his card for thefinal day reflected four birdies and 12 regulation pars, sevenof them coming in a succession from holes 12 th to the 18th.

The two bogies in the earlier part of the round onholes 2nd and 5th hole were adequately taken care ofthrough later birdies.

As for the other contenders Mubariz faded out in theearlier part of the chase as he lost strokes with gay aban-don in the front nine. Sardar Murad, Fakhar imam andSajid khan also met the same fate giving Ghazanfar a freeride to his moment of glory. And this grand performancealso secured for him a free trip to karachi to participate in

the Sindh Amateur Championship, as confirmed by Asadi. A. khan, SVP, Sindh Golf Association and also a memberof Pakistan Golf Federation executive Committee.

Ghazanfar ended the championship with a score of218 plus 2 strokes penalty for a rules violation, followedby Waseem Rana of DHA, karachi at a three rounds ag-gregate score of 226 and Sajid khan at 228 while theother nearest challengers at the start of the final roundfinished way behind. Sardar Murad and Fakkhar imam

ended the Championship at a score of 230 followed byMubariz at 231 and M. Rehman of Royal Palm at 233.

in the race for net honors Salman Jehangir reallyblossomed and with final round score of net 65, heemerged as the winner of best net. His net aggregate was208. The runner up was Dilshad Ali Changezi of Quetta,with a net 213 and Dr. Arshad Mehmood secured thethird slot with 217.

Other Results;Best rounds in gross were won byMubariz Ahmed (1st day), M. Rehman (2nd day), khalidMehmood (3rd day);Best rounds net went to Zulfiqar Ali(1st day), Fakhar imam (2nd day), and Waleed Zubair(3rd day). Winners of Seniors event were Omer Farooq(1st gross), Ghias Bhatti (2nd gross), and Mian Tariq Per-vaiz (3rd gross) and in the same category Asad khan (1stnet), Tashfeen Baig (2nd net), Ali Malik (3rd net). As forLadies, Ghazala Yasmin (1st gross), Tahira Nazir (2ndgross), and Asma Shami (3rd gross); Tehmina Rashid(1st net), Maryama khan (2nd net) and Sameea Javed(3rd net), Sponsors of this Championship were PunjabGolf Association and Shezan.

At the conclusion of the event, Zia ur Rehmanawarded prizes to the winners in a grand prize distribu-tion ceremony attended by Javed Nasrullah, ConvenorGolf, Shahid Gul Qureshi (Captain Golf), participatingplayers and families.

Ghazanfar wins 31st Punjab amateur Golf title

lahore: Ghazanfar Mehmood of rawalpindi with chairman

lahore Gymkhana and convener Golf. sTaFF rePorT

LHR 24-09-2012_Layout 1 9/24/2012 5:40 AM Page 18

watch it LiveTEN SPORTSWORLD T20: IRELANDV WEST INDIES07:00PM

Sports 18

Monday, 24 September, 2012

top seed tsonga

to face Seppi

for Metz title

METZAfp

italian fifth seed Andreas Seppi endedhopes of an all-French final at the Metz ATPevent when he knocked out Gael Monfils 3-6, 6-1, 6-4 in the semi-finals on Saturday.Monfils was returning to the circuit thisweek after a four-month injury absence, butran out of steam against the dogged italian.French top-seed Jo-Wilfried Tsonga willface Seppi in Sunday's final after defeatingRussian veteran Nikolay Davydenko 6-0, 3-6, 6-4. "i am happy about being in the finalagain here. i am rather positive about mygame," said defending champion Tsonga."it's always been tough against Andreas. itwill be a difficult match. He is very solid andplaying very well lately so i will prepare my-self for a big fight."

Milan suffer

third league

defeat at udineseMILAn

Afp

Massimiliano Allegri's tenure as coachof Serie A giants AC Milan came underfresh scrutiny when the Rossoneri suf-fered their third defeat of the season ina 2-1 reverse away to Udinese.Milan opened their campaign with de-feat at home to Sampdoria and havefailed to win or score any goals at theSan Siro in three attempts including thescoreless draw against ChampionsLeague opponents Anderlecht.Reports have since suggested only a winon Sunday would save Allegri's job, butthat was of no concern to Udinese, whostarted the day fourth from bottom.The hosts opened the scoring in the40th minute when giant Swedish strikerMathias Ranegie rose to send a headerunder the crossbar of beaten keeperChristian Abbiati.italy under-21 international Stephan elSharaway levelled for the visitors 10minutes after the restart with a right-footed shot from outside the box thatlodged in the left hand corner of the net.

Van Persie makes

liverpool pay penaltyLIVERPOOL

Afp

Robin van Persie's second-half penaltysecured a 2-1 Premier League win forManchester United over 10-man Liver-pool at an emotionally-charged Anfieldon Sunday.The Dutchman's goal saw United com-plete a come from behind victory afterRafael da Silva's effort had cancelled outLiverpool captain Steven Gerrard's vol-ley early in the second half.Victory saw United move to within apoint of Premier League leaders Chelseabut left Liverpool, who saw JonjoShelvey sent off in the 39th minute, stillsearching for their first league winunder manager Brendan Rodgers.

TOKYOAfp

THe world number-three Ag-nieszka Radwanska preparedto start her campaign to de-fend the Pan Pacific Open

Sunday, as 19 of the top 20 playersgathered in Tokyo for the $2.17 milliontournament.

Victoria Azarenka and MariaSharapova, the world number one andtwo, also proclaimed their resolve tolift the trophy after the final, slated forSaturday.

Third-seed Radwanska, whose firstmatch will feature former world num-ber-one Jelena Jankovic, said her vic-tory in Tokyo last year served as aspringboard to make 2012 her best sea-son, having reached the final at Wim-bledon.

"For sure, i have great memoriesfrom here. it started here (and) i wona couple of big titles," said Radwanska."i think i (have been) hitting good oncourt since i won here."

Sharapova, winner here in 2009and 2005, promised strong perform-ance to continue her "tremendous"successes in the current season, includ-ing achieving a career Grand Slam bywinning the French Open, as well as re-ceiving the silver medal at the LondonOlympics.

"i am really proud of what i haveachieved. But yet, the year keeps going,and we are here again," Sharapovasaid. "The goal is to try to play yourbest and win this tournament."

The only player missing in the fieldamong the top 20 women is SerenaWilliams, whose electrifying perform-ance this season has mesmerized fansand left rivals in awe.

in this year alone, the 30-year-oldAmerican won Wimbledon by beatingRadwanska in the final. She beatSharapova to collect the gold medal atthe Olympics. Williams also over-whelmed Azarenka to take the USOpen.

Strong performance among topplayers this year has made the women'stennis more fun for fans and playersalike, Azarenka said.

"Obviously she (Williams) is differ-ent because i have not beat her yet, buti have beat everybody else before," saidAzarenka, who was left in tears afterthe loss in New York, despite her firmgrip on the world number-one ranking.

"As far as this year, a lot of top

players have been pretty consistent,"Azarenka added.

"i feel like it's really, really compet-itive right now, which makes it moreinteresting not only for the crowd butalso for players as well to be more mo-tivated... and to improve and to be al-ways looking forward to gettingbetter," she said.

Among major actions on courtSunday, 12th-seed DominikaCibulkova of Slovakia beat AnabelMedina Garrigues of Spain 6-3, 7-6(7/3).

Roberta Vinci, italian 14th seed,managed a 6-4, 4-6, 7-5 win againstBarbora Zahlavova Strycova of theCzech Republic.

Radwanska aims todefend Pan Pacific Open

ValKenburG: Philippe Gilbert of belgiun celebrates his victory as he crosses

the finish line of the Men elite road world championships. aFP

nishikori braces for tough Malaysian open

KUALA LUmPUr: Asia's top player kei Nishikori of Japan will face atough fight in the ATP Tour's Malaysian Open which begins on Monday.Nishikori, the third seed for the event at the Putra Stadium in kualaLumpur, is headed in draw by the in-form world number five and topseed David Ferrer of Spain and world number 11 Juan Monaco from Ar-gentina, the second seed. Rising star Nishikori, the world number 17, re-ceives a bye into the second round of the 28-player tournament as one ofthe top four seeds. But lying in wait for Nishikori, who reached the lastfour in 2011, is a likely semi-final against Monaco and, should he winthat, a potential final against Ferrer. Afp

SIngAPOREAfp

Red Bull's Sebastian Vettel survived an inci-dent-packed Singapore Grand Prix to reignitehis world title defence with a thrilling victoryon Sunday. After two safety cars, crashes andthe shock retirement of title-challenger LewisHamilton, Formula One's youngest doublechampion finished in front of McLaren's Jen-son Button for only his second win of the sea-son. Championship leader Fernando Alonsowas third, claiming his eighth podium of theseason in the dramatic night race around thenarrow, demanding street circuit through theheart of downtown Singapore.

Force india's Paul di Resta took an im-pressive fourth and Mercedes' Nico Rosbergwas fifth, ahead of Lotus's former worldchampion kimi Raikkonen. Romain Grosjean,Felipe Massa, Daniel Ricciardo and MarkWebber rounded out the top 10 in a race thatdid not even reach the 61 allotted laps afterhitting its two-hour time-limit, meaning it washalted after 59. With the win, Vettel climbs tosecond in the standings behind the consistentAlonso, who has a reduced lead of 29 points.Raikkonen lies third and the unlucky Hamil-ton drops down to fourth.

"This has been one of toughest races of theyear, to be honest," said Vettel, last year's win-ner in Singapore. "There are so many bumps,there's no room for mistakes and it just seemsto go on forever... i'm just incredibly happy."

Hamilton made a smooth start from poleaccompanied by Williams driver Pastor Mal-donado, but a misjudgment on the first cornercost the Venezuelan two places as Vettel andButton sailed through.

Several cars ran wide on the first two cor-ners and Caterham's Vitaly Petrov lost some ofhis front wing, but an investigation found nocause for punishment. Ferrari's Massa was thebig loser in the early jostling as he dropped tothe back after pitting with a puncture. At thefront Hamilton and Vettel, swapping fastestlaps, were peeling away from Button. Red Bulldriver Webber came in for soft tyres on lapnine, setting a trend followed by the leadingdrivers. Meanwhile his team-mate Vettel over-came a scare at turn 10, the notorious "Singa-

pore Sling". Sauber's Sergio Perez also had aproblem at the tough corner and Maldonadowould have had his heart in his mouth as hepounded the brakes and narrowly averted aslide heading wide into a left-hander at the endof a long straight. Hamilton pitted from thelead on lap 12 but was soon back in front,ahead of Vettel. But disaster struck on lap 23when a gearbox failure put him out of the race,prompting gasps from the crowd.ScHUmAcHer UrGeS Probe intocrASH: Seven-time world champion MichaelSchumacher Sunday said he was determined toget to the bottom of a brake failure that causeda dramatic crash and put him out of the Singa-pore Grand Prix. The Mercedes driver said de-spite pumping hard on the brakes, he wasunable to prevent himself from ploughing intothe back of Jean-eric Vergne's Toro Rosso in asmash that left his car partially airborne. Themost spectacular collision of an incident-packedgrand prix put both drivers out of the race onlap 39. "At one point i couldn't accelerate andthen i went hard on the brakes and tried tobrake as hard as was possible, but the accidentwasn't recoverable," Schumacher said.

Vettel wins dramaticsingapore Grand Prix

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Monday, 24 September, 2012

Published by Arif Nizami at Qandeel Printing Press, 4 Queens Road, Lahore. Editor: Arif Nizami

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HOng KOng/ TEHRAn/RIYADH/DHAKAAfp

HUNDReDS of thousands ofMuslims across the worldcontinued protests against ananti-islam film and Frenchcartoons on Sunday.

New protests gripped Hong kong,Turkey, Greece, Saudi Arabia, iran andBangladesh. in Hong kong, protesters,who numbered more than 3,000 accord-ing to police and organizers, held up ban-ners to denounce the film and cartoons asthey marched through the city chanting“Allahu Akbar” or “God is great”. Thegroup, including women and children,briefly clashed with police as they tried tobreak through a cordon outside the USconsulate to deliver a petition letter, ac-cording to an AFP reporter at the scene.

“Freedom of speech should not beused against any religion,” Saeed Uddinof the incorporated Trustees of the is-lamic Community Fund of Hong kong, agroup that claims it represents some300,000 Muslims in the city, said beforethe march. “This is not the first time thatour Holy Prophet (PBUH) has been in-sulted and attacked,” he said, brandingthe cartoons and the film as “malicious,

disrespectful and derogatory”.Saeed, a Pakistani who has lived in

the southern Chinese city for 35 years,urged the American and French govern-ments to take action against the film-maker and cartoonist who were behindthe controversial works.

Most schools, shops and offices wereclosed across Bangladesh on Sunday asopposition parties enforced a nationwidestrike to protest against the defamation ofProphet Mohammed (PBUH) in the film.Thousands of police patrolled the capitalDhaka and roads were quiet across thecountry on what is normally a businessday in the Muslim-majority country of153 million people. About 40 islamic ac-tivists were briefly detained after theytried to barricade a main road and threwbricks at police, local Dhaka police chiefAbul kashem told AFP.

in Chittagong, Bangladesh’s secondlargest city and only port, protesterstorched a bus and damaged a police van,police said, adding that three students hadbeen arrested. Several islamic parties thatare allied with the main opposition partycalled the strike to protest over the anti-islam film and the French magazine. TheBangladesh government has condemnedthe internet film and blocked video-shar-

ing website YouTube in an effort to calmtensions. in iran, around 400 peopledemonstrated in front of the French em-bassy in Tehran on Sunday to protest in-flammatory depictions of ProphetMohammed (PBUH) in the American-made film and in the French satiricalmagazine.

The crowd, shouting “Death to Amer-ica,” “Death to israel,” “Death to Britain”and “Death to France,” was kept away bypolice in anti-riot gear, witnesses toldAFP. No violence was reported. Wit-nesses said one officer fired a blank roundin warning after a protester threw an eggthat hit the outside of the embassy. Thedemonstration ended after around 90minutes. The embassy took security pre-cautions ahead of the protest, minimizingstaff and closing the French school inTehran. iran’s foreign ministry said theislamic republic “strongly condemns in-sults against islamic sanctities” andcalled the cartoons “an organised plot...by Zionist circles”.

Meanwhile, hundreds of Saudisdemonstrated against the anti-islam filmin a Shia village in the eastern provinceof the kingdom, which bans any protests,witnesses said on Sunday.

Chanting slogans, the protesters

marched in Awamiya late on Saturdayfollowing a call by Shia cleric Abdulkarimal-Hubail, in line with worldwide demon-strations against the movie.

Demonstrators on Friday in nearbySihat village of Qatif district burned the is-raeli and US flags, also in protest againstthe film that was produced in the UnitedStates. Security forces did not intervene de-spite a ban on demonstrations.

in turkey, some 500 protesters in is-tanbul burnt US and israeli flags as theygathered around the Turkish city’s iconicTaksim Square, unfurling banners withslogans such as “Death to America”.Greek police fired tear gas to dispersenearly 1,000 demonstrators in centralAthens after some of them — largely im-migrants from Pakistan, Afghanistan andBangladesh — tried to break through acordon to march toward the US embassy.

Meanwhile, israeli police said aPalestinian woman had tried to stab a po-liceman on an east Jerusalem street onSunday, apparently in protest against thefilm. And an islamist militant groupclaimed a deadly cross-border attack onisrael from egypt’s Sinai peninsula inprotest at the film, a US-based monitor-ing agency said, citing a statement postedon islamist websites.

Landslides kill26 in northeastIndia, 8 missing

nEW DELHIonLInE

Flash floods and landslides triggered byheavy monsoon rains in northeast indiahave claimed at least 26 lives andanother eight people are missing, areport said on Sunday. india’s armyand air force launched rescueoperations in areas badly hit by therains that have been lashing the statesof Sikkim, Assam and ArunachalPradesh for days, the Press Trust ofindia said. in a remote area of northSikkim, at least 21 bodies, includingthose of members of the indo-TibetanBorder Police, had been found whileeight other people were missing, thenews agency said. in Assam, five deathswere reported in widespread floodingthat submerged a major wildlifesanctuary and parks, the news agencysaid. The rains have swollen the mightyBrahmaputra River and its tributaries,causing floods that have affectedhundreds of thousands of people in theregion, the report said. The air forcewas dropping food supplies to peoplemarooned by floods. india’s northeasthas been especially hard hit bydevastating rains during the monsoon,which runs from June to September.

Afghan officialsclaim killing 20Taliban fighters

gHAZnI CITYInp

Twenty Taliban fighters and two localcommanders of a public uprisinggroup were killed during a gun-battlein Afghanistan’s southern province ofGhazni, members of the anti-rebelmovement said on Sunday. The clasherupted at around 3am after a groupof heavily armed insurgents attackedcheckpoints established by thetribesmen in the Andar district, killingtwo commanders – Mastana andQahraman – of the uprising group,and injuring three other tribesmen, acommander of the group, Haibatkhan, told Afghan media. TwentyTaliban, including eight Punjabis andfour Waziristanis, were killed as theuprising members retaliated, he said,adding that the clash ended at6.30am. “The Taliban killed two tribalelders and seized some others,” headded. A Taliban spokesmanZabihullah Mujahid said twocommanders of the uprising groupand eight militiamen were killed andfour others were injured when thefighters attacked five checkpoints ofthe tribal militia. The rebels capturedthree checkpoints, he added.

Protests against anti-Islam film,cartoons continue across worldg nationwide strike in Bangladesh, as saudi shias, Hong kong Muslims protest against anti-islam film, cartoons g 400 protest near French embassy in iran

KAtHmAnDU: An avalanche in Nepalkilled at least nine climbers including aGerman man, an italian, a Spaniard and alocal guide trying to conquer one of theworld’s most deadly mountains, officialssaid Sunday.The expedition of about 25 members werenear the top of Manaslu ahead of a final pushto the 8,156-metre summit when it was hit bya wall of snow on Saturday night. “Nine bodieshave been recovered from the mountain,including one Sherpa guide and a Germanmountaineer,” Basanta Bahadur kunwar, thelocal deputy superintendent of police, told AFPby telephone. “So far, 13 people have beenrescued alive, of whom five have beenairlifted to kathmandu for treatment,” headded. Three climbers were thought to still bemissing when rescue operations were calledoff for the night. Ang Tshering Sherpa, vice-president of the Nepal MountaineeringAssociation, identified one of the dead as anitalian after speaking to a rescue helicopter

pilot and local government officials in Samar.“One italian climber’s body has broughtdown to Samar, a town near Manaslu, alongwith the one dead Sherpa,” he told AFP. “it’svery difficult to communicate with the basecamp because the weather is bad.”The ministry of tourism identified a thirddead man as Spanish. The nationalities andgenders of the other dead and injured werenot known by Sunday evening, but the groupalso included some French members. Policesaid several injured climbers were stuck atbase camp because rescue helicopters couldnot fly due to poor visibility. Manaslu, theeighth highest mountain in the world, isconsidered one of the most dangerous, withscores of deaths in recent years and just a fewhundred successful ascents. “The avalanche-hit camp three of the Manaslu peak locatedat 7,000 metres resulting in a flood of snow,”said Laxmi Dhakal, head of the homeministry’s disaster response division.Nepal is home to eight of the world’s 14

peaks over 8,000 metres, including theworld’s highest, Mount everest, and attractsthousands of mountaineers every year. Mostcome in the spring, when Himalayanconditions are at their best, but there is alsoa short climbing season in late Septemberand October after the monsoon rains end.Nepal’s worst-ever climbing disasterhappened in 1995 when a huge avalanchestruck the camp of a Japanese trekkinggroup in the Mount everest region, killing42 people including 13 Japanese. in 2005 apowder-snow avalanche ploughed into aFrench expedition’s base camp, on kangGuru, in the Manang region of centralNepal, sweeping all seven members of theteam as well as 11 Nepalese staff to theirdeaths. Manaslu saw its worst disasterwhen a South korean expedition wasburied by snow attempting to climb thenortheast face of Manaslu in 1972. The 15dead included 10 Sherpas and the koreanexpedition leader. aFP

NINe clImBers kIlled IN NepAl AvAlANche

hong kong: Muslim protestors pray ahead of a demonstration against a Us-made anti-Islam film on sunday. over 3,000 Muslims protested against french cartoons and

the blasphemous film, as protestors briefly clashed with the police. aFP

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