IRFAN ALIGI

KARACHI—The Chief Secu-rity Officer of the President AsifAli Zardari was assassinated onWednesday evening nearPeople’s Chowrangi by an al-leged suicide bomber, who hadchased him and blasted him.

The bulletproof land cruiserjeep of the deceased was totally

smashed. The sound of the blastwas heard within a one kilometreand some body parts, probablyof the suicide bomber, werefound on 4th storey of a buildingin the vicinity of the blast.

Shaikh and one of hisfriends succumbed to injurieswhile on the way to the JinnahPostgraduate Medical Centrewhere the bodies and injured

were taken by the ambulanceservice provider, the ChhipaWelfare Association.

As many as 3 became vic-tims of the suicide blast while8 were injured.

According to Police offi-cials, the suicide bomber hadused some 4 kilogram of explo-sives. Sheikh was the chief

President’s security officer dies in blastTwo police officials among dead in suicide attack

Continued on Page 6

STAFF REPORTER

ISLAMABAD—Prime MinisterMuhammad Nawaz SharifWednesday said that peace andsecurity are of paramount impor-tance for economic growth asboth are intertwined. “Pakistanhas suffered long at the hands ofterrorism and we cannot affordinaction anymore.

Curbing terrorism is mygovernment’s top most priority”,said the Prime Minister in a meet-

ing with parliamentarians fromthe Federally AdministeredTribal Areas who met him at thePrime Minister’s Office.

Reiterating the resolve of hisgovernment to eliminate terror-ism, the Prime Minister said thatwe have no option except vigor-ously pursuing a well-plannedand coordinated strategy to finda meaningful solution to theproblem of terrorism.

Expressing the utility of dia-logue, the Prime Minister said,

“the door to dialogue should bekept open all the time.” He fur-ther said that FATA parliamen-tarians are the real stakeholdersand their input and consultationfor finalizing roadmap for peacein the region is a must.

Showing deep pity over thelawlessness and economic back-wardness prevailing in FATA dueto terrorism, the Prime Ministersaid that he wants to give peace

Peace, security inevitablefor economic growth: PM

Continued on Page 6

SALIM AHMED

LAHORE—A ceremony washeld here to sign agreementswith regard to cooperation be-tween Punjab government andvarious foreign companies inenergy, metro-rail and infra-structure sectors. Punjab Chief

Minister Muhammad ShahbazSharif, Kh. Ahmed Hasaan,Chairman Planning & Develop-ment, Secretary Energy, Secre-tary Health, Secretary Informa-tion, DG LDA and ManagingDirector Metro Bus Authoritywere also present on the occa-sion. Under the agreements,

foreign companies will extendcooperation in energy, metro-rail and infrastructure sectors.

Secretary Energy UsmanAkhtar Bajwa, Chairman LDAAhad Cheema on behalf ofPunjab government while HuangJian Jun, Chairman Sematic

Huge foreign investment inPunjab, agreements signed

Continued on Page 6

Dar calls for anationwide price

control mechanismSTAFF REPORTER

ISLAMABAD—Federal FinanceMinister Ishaq Dar on Wednesdaysaid that a mechanism would bedeveloped to monitor prices ofessential items of daily use across

Continued on Page 6

9 ministersinducted inSindh CabinetIRFAN ALIGI

KARACHI—The Sindh Cabinetwas expanded Wednesday byinducting 9 ministers and 1advisor to the Sindh ChiefMinister Syed Qaim Ali Shah.The Sindh Governor Dr IshratUl Ebad Khan administeredoath to the newly inducted

Continued on Page 6

Complaint Cellresolves problem of

working womenPESHAWAR—The provincialgovernment established Pub-lic Complaints and RedressalCell resolved the issue of ex-tension in the lease of Work-ing Women Hostel,Hayatbad. The expiry of thelease of rent between the De-partment of Social Welfareand Women Developmentand the owner of the buildingof Working Women Hostelhad created concern amongthe inmates of the facility.

The department was ar-ranging alternate accommo-dation to the working womenin Hashtnagri and they werereluctant in shifting to thenew venue. The matter wasbrought into the notice of theofficials of Public Complaintand Redressal Cell, which in-tervened into the matter andresolved the matter amica-bly.—APP

Inquiry intorecruitment sought

MULTAN—The Railways Vigi-lance Cell has sent a report tothe ministry and requested aninquiry into alleged corrup-tion of former Multanofficial(s) in recruitment. Vigi-lance Cell Railways MultanDeputy Director JamshedAlam told APP that manycomplaints of bribery for re-cruitment in the tenure offormer divisional superinten-dent were received recently.

The present divisional su-perintendent after taking noteof the complaints directed theMultan Vigilance Cell to launchan inquiry. The vigilance cellcompleted its inquiry whichdeclared that 300 applicationswere received after taking bribeduring tenure of previous DSRailways Muhammad AliRajpur. The report also saidsome lower cadre employeesallegedly collected moneyfrom the applicants. Thedeputy director said the de-partment had cancelled allappointments.—APP

One killed, twoheld in targeted

operationQUETTA—One suspect hasbeen killed and two othersarrested in a targeted opera-tion launched in Dasht areaof Mastung district here onWednesday.

Official sources saidthat Anti-Terrorist Force(ATF) along with other LawEnforcement Agencies(LEAs) carried out a tar-geted operation in Dashtarea following a tip-off, inwhich an exchange of firetook place between law en-forcement personnel andthe armed men that left onesuspect dead while twoother were arrested.

Sources said that thedead and arrested suspectsbelonged to a banned outfitthat was stated to be in-volved in target killings ofpolicemen, Shia pilgrims,Levies officials in the area.LEAs also recovered a hugequantity of arms, ammunitionand shifted the criminals toan unidentified location forinterrogation.—APP

Attique wisheshappy Ramazan

to nationHAMEED SHAHEEN

ISLAMABAD—Sardar AttiqueAhmed Khan, ex-Premier ofAJK and President of Mus-lim Conference, has wishedwelfare and success to thepeople of Pakistan and Jammuand Kashmir on the advent ofholy month of Ramazan onThursday (today).

In his message from Lon-don he exhorted the faithfulsto offer additional prayers forthe pleasure of Allah and forthe end of tribulations fromthe face of earth for all hu-man beings.

He advised the faithfulsthat they must try to befrinedmaximum people during theRazaman month as it endowsour heart with generosityand open-mindedness. Hesaid that Ramazan is highlytruthful religious and spiri-tual exercise. Fasting isobligatory in all divine reli-gions. He appealed to thefast-keepers to pray for theearly liberation of Kashmirand Palestine.BASHIR AHMAD RAHMANI

H A F I Z A B A D —Muttah idaMahaz Asataza Hafizabad havestrongly condemned the regis-tration of 36 male and femalePresiding Officers who con-ducted general election in NA-103 at the Saddar Police stationand termed the allegations ab-solutely baseless and con-cocted in order to make themscapegoat and to save the skinof responsible persons.

At the emergent meetingof the Muthidda MahazAsataza was held here todayunder the chairmanship ofDistrict Chairman Fiaz AhmadWarraich and which was at-tended among others by of-ficer-bearers of others teach-ers associations includingAbu Bakar Alvi, Rana WaqarAhmad, Naseer-ud-Din Butt,

Allegations against 36 male,female POs baseless, concocted

Shabbir Muhammad Gujjar,Sahib Khan Sundarana, Sul-tan Ahmad Hanjra, MushtaqAhmad Bhoon and largenumber of teachers.

The meeting demandedthe withdrawal of FIR andinquiry into the allegationsby retired Judge of HighCourt or Supreme Court toascertain the real facts. Themeeting threatened that allteachers of the district wouldstage sit-in demonstration infront of the Press ClubHafizabad on Friday. Theyalso said that if the baselessFIR was not withdrawn theywould boycott the upcomingby-election in NA-103.

*****Prices of all the veg-

etables and fruits have beenincreased to welcomeRamazan-ul-Mubarik by the

traders here. The prices ofpotatoes, tamatoes, onion,garlic, mango, peach etc.have been raised during thepast few days, thanks to thehoarders, who had hoardedthe commodities to fleece thefasting people during theholy month of Ramazan.

*****Some unidentified accusedopened firing at the resi-dence of advocate Sidra inMohallah SharifpuraHafizabad today but the po-lice was reluctant to registerFIR against the accused.

The District Bar Associa-tion Hafizabad has an-nounced to boycott the Dis-trict Court on July 11 (Thurs-day) to protest against theincident and non-registrationof a case against the accused.The motive of the offence

could not be ascertained.

OUR CORRESPONDENT

TAXILA—No lull in miseriesof the residents and tradersliving in precincts of WahSaddar Police station as Po-lice is in deep slumber in thearea. It has been observedthat monster of bloody rob-beries took its ugly headagain as they remained upin the arms in various partsof the city during last fewweeks in the area by swagingcash, gold ornaments andother valuables the tune ofmillions of rupees.

In recent incident, a traderwas shot dead and his secu-rity guard was critically injuredas armed robbers opened in-discriminate firing during abloody robbery incident abakery located near ChachiMohallah on GT road in limitsof Wah Saddar Police station

on late Tuesday night.Victims and sources said

that four bandits riding twomotorcycles reached at a bak-ery located on GT roadaround 12pm and made hos-tage the staff of the shop ongunpoint. As they weresnatching cash from thecounter two shop keepersnamed Ashaq Hussain andKhalid resisted and voicedalarm resultantly the outlawsopened indiscriminate firingresultantly one shopkeeperAshaq Hussain died on thespot and Sajid received mul-tiple bullet injuries andrushed to local hospitalwhere his condition is statedto be in danger.

The robbers fled awayfrom the scene successfullywith looted booty. On Thurs-day a man along with hisfour unknown companion

stormed a shop located onJalala road in same Police sta-tion limits and critically in-jured a man identifiedMohammad Zahid and hisnephew Umar Arshad andfled away by resorting toaerial firing.

Mudassir Mehmood, aresident of Asifabad reportedto Wah Saddar Police thatfour masked men equippedwith weapons scaled the wallof his house and made themembers of the house hos-tage on gun point and fledaway with 2 told a gold, cashRs 0.13 million and other valu-ables.

While in same Police sta-tion limits, five dacoitcsscaled the house of MuradAli in Mazar Colony andmake hostage the family ongunpoint and closed them ina room. The masked dacoitcs

completely searched thehouse and took away 20 tolagold, cash worth Rs 0.1 mil-lion and four cell phonesand fled away from scenesuccessfully.

As many as 32 cars, 18motorcycles and 4 other ve-hicles were stolen duringlast six months in the area.As many as 38 burglarycases have also reported inthe area during last sixmonths in which outlawsdeprived masses from cashand other valuables worthRs 9,099,000. The gangs ofthieves also roam like mon-sters unabated in the areaand 25 cases of theft regis-tered in the area besides alarge number of unregis-tered cases in which thievestook away cash and goodsworth Rs 2802000, revealsofficial Police record.

Outlaws on loose in Taxila, Wah:police seems in deep slumber

I S L A M A B A D — S u p r e m eCourt (SC) will take up forhearing today the petitionfiled by Sindh governmentseeking two months periodfor implementation of apexcourt orders on withdrawingshoulder promotions. A 2-members bench of SC com-prising Justice Mian SaqibNisar and Justice Amir HaniMuslim will hear the petition.

A report on implementa-tion of SC orders in regard toshoulder promotions, amal-gamation and deputationwas filed by the governmentof Sindh in the court. Sindhgovernment had issued or-ders for withdrawing shoul-der promotion orders in re-

SC to hear Sindhgovt petition orders

spect of civil servants but ithas requested the court toallow him two months moreto retrieve the shoulder pro-motion orders with regard topolice officers.

Government of Sindh hastaken the plea that with-drawal of shoulder promo-tion orders in respect of po-lice officers will affect theendeavors being employedon maintaining law and ordersituation in the province inthe prevailing situation.

Those who were grantedshoulder promotions includeFarooq Awan, ChaudhryAslam, Rao Anwar, OmarKhatab, Khurram Wari andothers.—Online

STAFF REPORTER

P E S H A W A R — K h y b e rPakhtunkhwa Governor, En-gineer Shaukatullah said onWednesday that we canrightly claim to be proud ofthe educational institutions,from where men of caliber andintellect graduated, and whosince then have been signifi-cantly contributing towardsensuring future building ofthe nation and developmentand strengthening of thecountry. Talking to a delega-tion of elders and education-ists who had graduated fromthe Government High SchoolNo.1, Thana of Malakand;the first institution of its na-ture, established one centuryago and called on him atGovernor’s House.

The Governor welcomedthe elders hailing fromMalakand who were led byMNA, Junaid Akbar Khanand while mentioning theongoing Centenary Celebra-tions of Islamia College,Peshawar, further observed,“we indeed are custodians ofvery limited number of insti-tutions which bear enrichedhistory and tremendous con-tribution, as far as their roletowards promotion of mod-ern knowledge; awareness

and socio-economic uplift ofthe people is concerned”.

An ex- Principal of theSchool, Muhammad NawazTahir presented copy of thePostal ticket which was intro-duced by the Federal Gov-ernment in acknowledgementof historical importance of theschool as well as a set ofbooks which he himself hadwritten. Similarly, the sittingPrincipal of the School, NoorAkbar presented list of thosestudents of the school whohave achieved distinctionsfrom time to time.

Congratulating thepeople of Thana; the del-egates in particular towardsmaintaining the respect andesteem of the institution, theGovernor further stated thatthere is also the need to makeconstant efforts to maintainthe status and quality of edu-cational facilities; teachingmethods and level of encour-agement towards ensuringbetter contribution of the in-stitution in future too.

Meanwhile, the Governorwas informed that the school,being the solitary institution inthe entire region at the time ofits establishment used to offerboarding facility to those whohave been coming for studiesfrom far flung areas.

Governor wantspromotion of education

DERA GHAZI KHAN: Border Military Police personnel sowing the weapons seized from the alleged dacoits.

ISLAMABAD—The world islooking anew onBalochistan as China is mak-ing a thumping entry by tak-ing over control of GwadarPort and agreeing to buildan ambitious Gwadar-Kashgar economic corridorin partnership with Pakistan.Balochistan, the largestprovince of Pakistan, withan area of 347,190 squarekilometres, but sparselypopulated with 7.9 millionpeople, has emerged as a vi-brant factor when it comesto trade and energy suppliesin the region.

Rana Abdul Baqi, an ana-lyst, says Balochistan’s for-tunes will be changing asChina will make its invest-ments to turn the provinceinto a trade and energy cor-ridor linking Gwadar Port toSilk Route extending intoCentral Asian states. Grow-

ing interest of China in tak-ing advantage ofBalochistan’s potential asregional trade hub, hasdrawn attention of otherpowerful players, many giv-ing out ambivalent vibes.

Prime Minister NawazSharif calls Gwadar-Kashgar economic corridor,a game changer, benefittingthree billion people in theregion. Balochistan prov-ince will serve as a transitzone for Iranian natural gaspipeline for Pakistan andGwadar port is seen as a lo-gistical hub for Afghanistanand Central Asia’s land-locked nations. China,which is partner of Paki-stan, in many of its megastrategic infrastructureprojects took control ofGwadar port during the firstvisit to Pakistan by China’spremier Li Keqiang in May.

China’s Overseas PortsHolding Company tookcharge of the port under anagreement signed in Febru-ary after buying shares ofthe Gwadar Port from Port ofSingapore Authority (PSA).Talking recently at a confer-ence on Balochistan, AbdulBaqi expressed concernabout growing interest ofworld powers and named in-telligence agencies CIA,Mossad and RAW as troublemakers in Balochistan. Hesaid former ambassador ofPakistan to the United StatesHussain Haqqani issued vi-sas to thousands of Ameri-cans, many of them intelli-gence operatives of infa-mous outfit Blackwater.

Gwadar port has assumedgreat importance in defencestrategy of Pakistan. AbdulBaqi reminded that India’snavy, which besieged Karachi

port in a war some decadesago, will now get its naval tailextended. Now Gwadar portwill be connected to far northof the country through twoadditional routes includingIndus Highway giving morestrategic space to Pakistan’sarmed forces.

Former army chief General(R) Aslam Beg sees conspira-cies all around when it comesto events in Balochistan andis blunt in saying that PervezMusharraf set the country inwrong direction by aiding anattack on Afghanistan. Hestressed that politiciansshould take lead in effectivelyadministering Balochistanprovince and resolving griev-ances of people. Defence ana-lyst and leader of PakistanMuslim League (N) Lt Gen (R)Malik Abdul Qayyum holdsprevious federal govern-ments responsible for creat-

ing mess in Balochistan.He saw Balochistan as

a golden bridge connectingland locked states with sealanes of Strait of Hormuz andPersian Gulf and trade routesreaching far and wide in Eastand Central Asia and MiddleEast. Abdul Qayyum quotedfigures of 19 trillion cubic feetof gas and six trillion barrelsof oil that go with huge de-posits of gold, copper, ironore, marble, limestone and awealth of minerals still lyingunexplored in Balochistan.

American think tankslike Carnegie Endowmentfor International Peace men-tioned worriness of UnitedStates over growing Chi-nese influence in the region.Pakistani analysts also takenote that seven consulatesof India are working in ar-eas of Afghanistan close toPakistan border.—APP

World looks anew on Balochistan as China dreams big Shoulder promotions

PTI to win by-pollsPE S H AWA R—Pakistan Tehrik Insaf(PTI) governing the KhyberPakthunkhwa would fully participatein the upcoming by-elections sched-uled in August this year and wouldwin it like the general elections, saidChief Minister Pervez Khattak. Talk-ing to a PTI delegation from Bannuhere Wednesday the Chief Ministerimpressed upon the party workers toprepare themselves for the by polls

by shunning the petty differences. The PTI has oneagenda which is to change the present obsolete systemof governance with new ones wherein justice prevailedin the society and people gets the facilities. The presentKPK government he said is working on plugging theways of corruption in police stations, Patwar Khanasand other social sectors so that to make welfare ori-ented entities. He argued that performance of the gov-ernment departments could not improve unless politick-ing was stopped adding the present PTI governmentwould not tolerate any political interference in the gov-ernment departments. About the proposed local gov-ernment system, the chief minister said that we are bring-ing a system wherein all the powers would be shifted atvillage level and the local communities would be re-sponsible for the education, health and other services.The meeting on this occasion agreed to give party ticketto Malik Adnan for PK-70 for coming by-elections inBannu. MPA Shah Muhammad was present on the oc-casion.—APP

Free emergency servicesPE S H AWA R—Khyber PakhtunkhwaMinister for Health Shaukat Yousafzaion Wednesday directed the authori-ties of concerned to immediately startfree emergency services to patientsat government hospitals and startingof MRI and CT Scan machine. He alsodirected prevention of sub-standardmedicines to hospitals and providingMRI, and CT scan facilities to everyregion besides conducting these tests

on reasonable rates as announced by the government.He expressed these views while presiding over a highlevel meeting of the coordination committee of his de-partment. It was attended by Secretary Health Fakhar-e- Alam, DG Health Services Dr. Zafar and other highranking officials. The minister said the government ofTehrik-i-Insaf has accorded high priority to health sec-tor and initiated reforms to bring massive improvementin service delivery to mitigate the suffering of ailinghumanity. He said a working group comprising exportsof health have a lready been constituted that will com-pile their recommendations by July 25, this month. Hesaid the government would provide best medical careto the poor segments of the society for which the roleof doctors and para-medics is a paramount importance.He directed the authorities concerned to ensure the at-tendance of doctors in the hospitals and imposed banon doctors private practice during office timing epcially08:00 am to 02:00 pm.—APP

Focus on food securityFAISALABAD—USAID Pakistan Direc-tor Jo Lesser said that the issues of foodsecurity, water, energy and climatechanges were main areas of concernsthat need to be addressed with collabo-rative efforts. Addressing a meeting ofCentre for Advanced Studies held atVideo Conference Room, University ofAgriculture Faisalabad (UAF) here. Ex-ecutive Director HEC Dr MukhtarAhmad, UAF Vice Chancellor Prof Dr

Iqrar Ahmad Khan, UET Peshawar Vice Chancellor Dr ImtiazHussain Gilani, Prof Bilal from Nust, Dean Prof DrMuhammad Iqbal, Dr Sultan Habibullah Prof Dr Baber, DrQamer ur Zaman, Prof Dr Muhammad Ashfaq, Prof. Dr.Ashfaq Ahmad Chattha and other notables were presenton the occassion. She said that USAID was setting upthree centers for advanced studies including Food Secu-rity Centre at the UAF, Centre on Energy at NUST withsatellite centre at UET Peshawar and the Centre on Waterat UET Jamshoro Sindh. She said that USAID was commit-ted to uplift the country and the projects were aimed ataddressing the issues at the national level. Speaking onthe occasion, UAF Vice Chancellor Prof Dr Iqrar AhmadKhan said that four chairs would be set up under FoodSecurity/Agriculture Centre at UAF including ClimateChanges Chair, Bio Diversity Chair, Agriculture Policy Chairand Precision Agriculture Chair that will help the countrymove the new height of the progress in the term of in-crease in production and to ensure food security. Hestressed the need to develop forecast short, mid and longterm weather scenarios, to develop strategies for copingclimate change, promoting precision agriculture to copewith the challenges.—APP

‘Hard decisions’HYDERABAD—Prof. Dr. Nazir AMughal, Vice Chancellor of thecountry’s oldest higher education in-stitution, the University of Sindh (SU)Jamshoro has vowed to initiate harddecisions for improvement in the edu-cational status of the University andto achieve one of the top rankingsgiven by Higher Education Commission(HEC). The VC also vowed that all de-cisions will be implemented at any cost

to ensure quality education to the learners. A Universityspokesman informed here that the Vice Chancellor vowedthis while presiding over a meeting of the Deans Commit-tee, which discussed at length various issues includingthe conduct of pre-entry tests for admission to Bachelorand Masters’ Drgree Programmes, start of summer classesand admission to M. Phil Programme on merit. The ViceChancellor said that summer classes will be conductedfrom August 19 to September 5, 2013 for those studentswho have failed in semester examinations of first, secondand third years and on September 6, 2013, these studentsshould appear in the failure papers examinations. Thesestudents would have to pay a fee of Rs 2,000/- per course,he added. He asked all Deans of Faculties to submit theresults of the semester examinations to the office of theController of Examinations within 15 days so thatorganising of summer classes could be ensured in sum-mer vacations in future. APP/jvd/saf/mdi Mehran Uni-versity of Engineering and Technology (MUET) Jamshoroplans to organise an important moot on Thar coal to findout solution to power crisis with proper utilisation of thecoal reserve of Tharparkar. This was informed by the ViceChancellor Mehran University Prof. Dr. Abdul QadeerKhan Rajput while addressing the participants of the sym-posium on “Utilisation of Thar Coal for resolving powercrisis,” organised on by Mehran University in collabora-tion with the University of Sindh (SU). The Vice Chancel-lor said that ongoing research on Thar coal has unfoldedthe point that the issues of power crisis could be re-solved by utilising the huge reserves of Thar coal in powergeneration.—APP

Power fluctuationsdamage gadgets

HYDERABAD—Hundreds ofelectrical and digital applianceswent out of order due to poweroutage and fluctuations in dif-ferent parts of Hyderabad. Thecitizens of Hyderabad alreadysuffering hardship due toscorching heat and the hours’long power outage as well aslow and high voltage broughttheir lives more miserable.Markets were deserted andmany people closed their busi-nesses early.

As the summer season isround the corner, the powerload shedding has increasedand unannounced poweroutages are creating manyproblems for the people. Dueto load shedding studentsare facing extrem difficulty astheir examinations havestarted. Residents of differ-ent localities complained ofthe prolong power suspen-sion and water shortage. Thepeople have appealed to thehigher authorities to solvetheir problems.—APP

MULTAN—National Produc-tivity Organization (NPO) willorganise a three-day festivalfor young entrepreneurs ofMultan, Muzaffargarh,Lodhran and Bahawalpurdistricts in collaboration withthe USAID during the nextmonth of August.

“We are going to hold athree-day family festival fol-lowed by musical night oneach day with auspices ofthe United States Agency forInternational Developmentin which young artisans willdisplay their handicrafts. Wehave invited nominations byJuly 16 from interested en-trepreneurs,” AssistantManager NPO Ali Ahsan

told APP on Wednesday.He added that they would

set up a total of 80 stalls with 20ones for each district and 50 percent stalls would be allocatedto young entrepreneur below29. “Out of total stalls, 50 percent will be for male and 50 percent for female entrepreneurs.”

The assistant manager saidthey had formally applied forthe venue to seek permissionfrom the local administrationand added that registration,stalls, lodging and pick anddrop for entrepreneurs wouldbe free. “The festival is aimedat providing entertainment tofamilies along with projectionof handcrafts of young entre-preneurs”, Ahsan said.—APP

ISLAMABAD—The presentspell of monsoon rains hasdecreased the temperaturesacross the country andwould continue in upperPunjab, upper KhyberPakhtunkhwa, Kashmir andGilgit Baltistan till today withoccasional gaps. The syn-optic situation says that sea-sonal low was lying overnorth Balochistan and itsadjoining areas. Monsoonalcurrents from Arabian seaare continuously reachinginto the upper and easternparts of the country. A west-ern disturbance was also af-fecting northern parts of thecountry.

According to Met office,rain-thundershower accompa-nied by gusty winds with iso-lated heavy falls in northeastPunjab is expected at scatteredplaces of Punjab includingRawalpindi, Gujranwala,Sahiwal, Sargodha and Lahoredivisions. In KhyberPakhtunkhwa, rain-thunder-shower accompanied by gustywinds is expected at scatteredplaces of upper KP (Malakandand Hazara divisions)while atisolated places Kohat,Peshawar, Bannu divisions)during next 24 hours.

While in Sindh andBalochistan mainly hot andhumid weather is expected inmost parts of the provincesduring next 24 hours. In Kash-mir and Gilgit-Baltistan rain-thundershower accompanied

by gusty winds is expectedat scattered places of Kash-mir and GB during same timespan.

The highest temperaturesof Dadu was 44øC, Sibbi,Sukkur 43øC, Nokkundi 42øC,Islamabad 32øC , Lahore30øC , Karachi 34øC,Peshawar 34øC, Quetta 37øC,Murree 22øC, Muzaffarabad34øC, Gilgit 32øC. Rainfall re-corded during last 24 hourwas: Gujranwala 95mm,Mandibahaudin 65mm, Jhang

54mm, Noorpur Thal 48mm,Sialkot (A/P), Islamabad (Z/P)46mm, Mangla 39mm,Parachinar, Kotli, Lahore (A/P) 36mm, Lahore (PBO) 30mm,Rawalpindi 28mm, Jhelum27mm, Chakwal 25mm,Islamabad (Golra) 24mm,Rawalpindi (Shamsabad)23mm, Sialkot (City) 21mm,Islamabad (Saidpur) 19mm,Drosh 15mm, Joharabad,Mianwali 14mm, Sargodha10mm, Mirkhani,Muzaffarabad 08mm, Murree06mm, Kalam 04mm,Faisalabad, Malamjabba03mm, D.I Khan, Saidu Sharif,Gupis 02mm and kakul,Astore, Balakot 01 mm.—APP

PESHAWAR—The KhyberPakthunkhwa Government hasplanned to initiate seven megaprojects for increasing stu-dents enrolment, uniform edu-cation and encourage acade-micians performing duties inhard areas of the province.Official sources in EducationDepartment told APP onThursday that the governmenthas declared education emer-gency in the province andseven mega projects are beinginitiated under this programmeto give equal opportunities tochildren of poor and rich to getquality education at their door-steps. He said the Governmenthas already launched DaPakhtunkhwa Scheme (Stars ofKP) to motivate and encour-

age talented students, addingits scope has been increasedfrom 10 to 20 position holdersin Matric and Intermediate Artsand Science, from each educa-tion board in the province forwhich Rs.10,000 (Matric) andRs. 15,000 (Inter) respectivelyshall be granted to them for aperiod of two years.

The scheme shall alsocover Diplomas of AssociateEngineering, Business Ad-ministration and Certificate/Diploma of Commerce fromBoard of Technical Educa-tion for which Rs. 360 millionhas been allocated in budget2013-14. Under removing thegender disparity in educa-tion scheme, he said the girlsstudents from the districts

with less/weak girls enroll-ment shall be granted a sti-pend of Rs. 200 per month toremove the gender disparity.The parents would also bepersuaded to enroll theirdaughters and about 41,667girls shall be benefitted fromthe scheme and that Rs. 100million has been earmarkedfor this purpose in budget.Under Conditional Grantsprogramme, missing facilitiesincluding additional rooms,latrines, boundary walls arebeing provided in schoolsunder this initiative throughcommunity participation.The civil work for the facili-ties is executed through Par-ent-Teacher-Councils forwhich Rs. 1 billion has been

earmarked in the budget.He said the Chief Minis-

ter KP Endowment Fund hasbeen established for financialassistance to deserving stu-dents admitted against selffinancing schemes in the dis-ciplines of Engineering, En-ergy, Geology, IT, Electron-ics and Public Finance in alleducational institutions, ex-cellence centers and univer-sities of the Province. Hesaid the number of self fi-nance seats in top educa-tional institutes would alsobe increased and the Govthas earmarked Rs. 500 millionfor this scheme. Under theRokhana Pakhtunkhwa Pub-lic-Private-Partnership Edu-cation scheme.—APP

KP Govt set to initiate 7 projectsfor uniform education system

Monsoon rain spell tocontinue: Met office

Young entrepreneursfestival next month

MULTAN—The Multan Elec-tric Power Company (Mepco)transferred and posted 21officials on Wednesday.

According to officialsources, XEN Operation firstdivision DG Khan WakeelAhmad Nadir has beenposted as Deputy ManagerTechnical MEPCO circle DGKhan, Ashraf Mehmood fromconstruction divisionMuzaffargarh as XEN Opera-tion first division DG Khan,Muhammad Afzal Nadeemfrom M&T division RahimYar Khan as XEN Operationdivision Rahim Yar Khan,Jaam Gul Muhammad Zahidfrom operation division

21 Mepco officials reshuffledRahim Yar Khan as Modeltown division Bahawalpur,Abdul Wahid from Modeltown division as XEN M&Tto MEPCO divisionBahawalpur, MuhammadSaleem Khan from M&T di-vision Bahawalpur to opera-tion division Lodhran,Muhammad Javed Iqbal fromoperation Taunsa division asDeputy Manager regionalcomplaint centre MEPCOHeadquarters, RanaMuhammad Ayyub fromLodhran division to opera-tion division Muzaffargarh,Nasir Ayaz Kormani from op-eration divisionMuzaffargarh as Deputy

Manger Technical MEPCOcircle Muzaffargarh, SDOoperation MEPCO sub divi-sion HassanabadMuhammad Waseem Akhtarwas promoted as deputymanager (operation/O&m)while his services handedover to distribution generalmanager technical MEPCOMultan, SDO Jinnah sub di-vision Rahim Yar KhanShahzad Habib Gill was pro-moted as XEN and serviceshanded over to deputy man-ager technical MEPCO circleRahim Yar Khan, SDO ImranMajeed was promoted asXEN and deputed at opera-tion division Taunsa.—APP

Man kills wife,two daughters,injures another

KHANEWAL—A man alleg-edly killed his wife and twodaughters, and injured an-other at Qital Pur area ofKabirwala, police said onWednesday. According todetails, Muhammad HayatChadhar r/o Mauza Ber Baigi,Qital Pur, wanted his 17 yearsold daughter Asma Bibi marryto his nephew but his wifeShahnaz Bibi wanted to givehand of Asma to a person inthe family of in-laws of an-other daughter Firasat Bibi.

In a fit of rage, MuhammadHayat shot dead his wife, 10years old daughter Mehwishand Firasat Bibi (20) and in-jured Asma Bibi.—APP

HYDERABAD—The ConsulGeneral of the United Statesin Karachi Michael Dodmanalong with Mission DirectorUSAID Pakistan GregoryGottileb and CommissionerHyderabad Jamal MustafaSyed inaugurated the projectof establishment of Facultiesof Education in three univer-sities of Sindh province onWednesday at thge Univer-sity of Sindh (SU) Jamshoro.According to a press release,these Faculties of Educationwill be established with thefinancial assistance of thegovernment of the UnitedStates in the University ofSindh, Shah Abdul Latif Uni-versity and the Karachi Uni-versity.

Speaking on the occa-sion, Michael Dodman saidthat completion of thisproject will not only help inpromting cooperation in edu-cation sectors betweenPakistsan-USA but also pro-vide an opportunity to teach-ers to acquire the knowledgeand training of latest meth-ods of education. He in-formed that USAID will pro-vide US dollars 40 million forthe establishment of 16 newFaculties of Education in dif-ferent universities of Paki-stan within next two years.The buildings of the facul-ties will be equipped with

state of the art facilities in-cluding internet and medialibraries, he said and in-formed that 2500 studentsand 200 teachers will getbenefits from these facultiesevery year.

Michael Dodman in-formed that USAID in collabo-ration with Higher EducationCommission will also intro-duce two new teachers’ edu-cation programmes. Theseprogrammes including 2-YearsAssociate Degree in Educa-tion and 4-Years Bachelors ofEducation were prepared in2010 and now USAID islaunching these degreeprogrammes in 110 universi-ties and teachers’ training col-leges of the country, he saidand added that USAID is alsoextending cooperation toGovernment of Pakistan informulation of effective poli-cies for teachers’ training.Commissioner HyderabadJamal Mustafa Syed whilespeaking on the occasion,termed this project, an impor-tant development for provi-sion of quality education toyouth of Sindh province.

He informed that sinceyear 2009, around 600 schoolshave so far been repaired withthe financial support of UnitedStates while 12 thousandsteachers have been trainedbesides 10 thous.—APP

US CG opens3-varsity edu

faculties project

HYDERABAD: US Karachi Consul General and others inaugurating the Faculty of Education Building, University of Karachi.

LARKANA: Commissioner Ghulam Mustafa Phull visiting Children Hospital CMCH.

AbbottabadCommission report

raises lot of dustTHE findings of the leaked report of the Abbottabad Commission

have raised a lot of dust as its different aspects are being debatedby relevant circles and media including understanding on drone

strikes, security and intelligence failures, lack of coordination amonginstitutions concerned and the need for genuine civilian oversight overadministrative and security apparatus. The revelation that there wastacit understanding between the United States and the then Govern-ment of Pakistan over drone attacks exposes repeated claims of ourpolicy and decision-makers on the contrary and is a big question mark ontheir credibility and trustworthiness.

America’s get-Osama operation in Abbottabad was a Hollywood likethriller for others but which brought national shame to Pakistan on twoaccounts – presence of the world’s most wanted man in close proximityto a military training facility for years and free hand that the US strikemission got to carry out operation in the heart of the country withoutapparent knowledge and reaction by our institutions and agencies con-cerned. It was in this backdrop that legitimate demands were made forinstitution of an independent inquiry into the shameful episode and therewere expectations that the Commission, headed by a judge of good repu-tation, would come out with answers to many questions agitating mindsof people of Pakistan but unfortunately this has not happened. In the firstinstance, it is ironical that like many other similar probes, the report ofthe Abbottabad Commission was kept under carpet despite repeated as-surances by the quarters concerned to make it public. No one knows howit was leaked to Al-Jazeera but its publication has not led to fall of heav-ens and the credit should have been taken by the Government for for-mally making it public. Even if there are some sensitive things in anysuch report with regard to national security or relations with other coun-tries, people of Pakistan, being the ultimate sufferers, have every rightto know them so that such follies are avoided in future and the institu-tions concerned too should set their own houses in order. Secondly, it issad that the Abbottabad Report is somewhat vague as no definite con-clusions have been drawn even after wastage of considerable time andresources. The report has raised more questions than answering thosethat formed the basis for constitution of the Commission. We would,therefore, propose that the Commission should take the nation into con-fidence through media by officially releasing the report and answeringquestions that it has failed to respond to in the report.

Tauqir too choosesto be defiant

THE central character of Rs. 82 billion scam – Tauqir Sadiq, formerChairman of Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority (OGRA) is finally

back home to face the court. Frantic attempts were made during tenure ofthe previous Government to shield the accused as he was not broughtback home despite frequent instructions by the highest court of the land.

It is, however, strange that despite his involvement in the mega corrup-tion case, Tauqir Sadiq has adopted defiant posture and has the audacityeven to question the judges of the Supreme Court. He is believed to be themain culprit but still he claims he was under pressure to become approver.There are reports that his defiance started even before the aircraft landed inPakistan and no one knows the bounds of this shameless attitude. This defi-ance is not confined to Tauqir Sadiq alone as we witnessed Shahrukh Jatoimaking victory signs when sentenced to death in Shahzeb murder case andsimilar gestures were made by a number of convicts in fake degree, corrup-tion and criminal cases. This is reflective of the moral decay of the societyand is in sharp contrast to resignations and even self-immolation (in coun-tries like Japan) by those erring during periods of their power and authority.These are ugly trends and need to be taken note of by all concerned.

Micro financing facilitiesshould be expanded

MICRO finance banks and other institutions distributed an amountof Rs 28.3 billion among the beneficiaries during the first six months

of the last financial year which is a very small amount when compared tothe population of over 180 million. The basic objective of the Microfinance is to extend financial services to low income individuals to en-able them to lift themselves out of poverty.

More than ten micro finance banks and institutions are functioning inthe country but their outreach growth rate has not increased to the requiredlevel. There has been 13 percent increase in micro finance during the lastyear, which reflects industry’s potential in the country and confidence ofinvestors in the business environment for micro finance. Potentialmicrofinance market in Pakistan is around 28-30 million people, butmicrofinance banks served only one million borrowers. The primary rea-son for lack of microfinance growth in Pakistan is that it is still largelyregarded as a social service rather than a financial service. Furthermore,the small and medium enterprises, which constitute 90 percent of businessin Pakistan and are regarded as an important instrument of employmentpromotion, are neither being served by mainstream banks nor themicrofinance sector. Financial and business experts believe that if the mi-cro finance sector is encouraged by the government, it could become anengine of growth and create hundreds of thousands of new jobs. Youngpeople have turned to street crimes and extremism because the countrycannot offer them jobs to earn their livelihood. Therefore it is necessarythat the government should encourage the micro financial sector, as worldover it has proved to be a successful tool to create jobs, particularly amongstgroups with difficulties to raise finance from more traditional sources.

PM’s China visit

That a lie whichis all a lie may bemet and foughtwith outright,But a lie which ispart a truth is aharder matter tofight.

HowPakistanprevails

overEgypt in

democracy

Both Egypt and Pakistan,two of the largest Muslimcountries, have struggled to

show that Islam and democracycan be compatible. In recent days,however, each has gone down avery different path toward thatworthy goal. In Egypt, millions ofprotesters took to the streets lastweek to demand the ouster of anelected Islamist president. On July3, the military complied. That washardly the best way for a youngdemocracy to self-correct.

In contrast, Pakistan not onlysaw its first peaceful handover ofn elected civilian government lastmonth, but on Monday, an officialreport was leaked that stronglycriticizes all levels of government– especially the military – for fail-ing to search for Osama bin Laden,even though the Al Qaeda leaderhad been living in Pakistan fornearly a decade. The report wascommissioned by Pakistani law-makers after the American secretraid that killed Mr. bin Laden in2011, embarrassing the country.To Pakistan’s credit, the 336-pagereport reflects the kind of humbleself-examination that any democ-racy needs to prevent abuse orneglect by those in power. Namedafter the area where bin Ladenlived, the Abbottabad Commissionwas led by a Supreme Court judge.Its findings were based on 52 hear-ings and interviews with morethan 200 people, including top in-telligence officials. This is the sortof root-and-branch probe thatshows a seriousness of oversight.

The four-member commissioncites the influence of radical Is-lamists within the security forces,suggesting a lack of will by theInter-Services Intelligence (ISI)agency to hunt down the world’smost notorious terrorist. “In thepremier intelligence institution,religiosity replaced accountabil-ity,” it stated. But the blame fornot spotting bin Laden in his gi-ant compound was spread widely.“How the entire neighbourhood,local officials, police and securityand intelligence officials allmissed the size, the strange shape,the barbed wire, the lack of carsand visitors … over a period ofnearly six years beggars belief,”the report said. (Among the moreinteresting findings is that binLaden walked around in a cowboyhat to avoid detection.) One of thereport’s recommended reforms isthat “the people” (elected civil-ians) have better control over theISI or else Pakistan risks “becom-ing further degraded to an intelli-gence and police state.” This isbold criticism for a country thatonly recently emerged from beingruled by the military.

The report didn’t go so far asto name names of those who con-tributed to the “culpable negli-gence and incompetence.” “It isobvious who they are,” it stated,adding that it may be politicallyunrealistic to suggest punish-ments. “But as honorable men,they ought to do the honourablething,” it offered, “including sub-mitting a formal apology to thenation for their dereliction ofduty.” While the report is not per-fect – it was leaked, not officiallyreleased – it should be held up asan example of how a constitutionalsystem can keep a check on theconcentration of power, whetherit be the military or a religious fig-ure who claims special authority.Every elected government needsregular lessons on accountabilityand humility. “The great benefitof democracy is that it allows forself-correction,” said Sen. JohnMcCain (R) of Arizona in a speechlast December. “It allows imper-fect human beings to strive ... tolive up to the high standards of ourown values, which are perfect andeternal.” — The Christian Sci-ence Monitor

MEDIA WATCH

Lord Alfred Tennyson— British poet

PM’s visit to China and signing of MoUs was need of thehour. Pak-China economic

corridor, energy cooperation, motorway, metro services and plans forbullet train and exemption of sover-eign guarantees to cut cost of financ-ing are steps in right direction. Butkeeping in view the history ofMoUs, it would be better that bothcountries adopt speed, accountabil-ity and transparency to complete theagreements within stipulated timeframe. The report of establishmentof Joint Cooperation Mission is apractical step and it shows that gov-ernment is serious about complet-ing the projects to come up to thepublic’s expectations.

The proposed rail (and road)link between both countries is aroad to Europe. Sino-Euro Rail-way is set to develop further asChinese and EU authorities plan toexpand the 11,179-km Chongqing-Xinjiang-Europe railway networkto 18 EU countries which is cur-rently linking Chongqing withDuisburg, Germany, viaKazakhstan, Russia, Belarus andPoland. The complete trip takes 16days, less by up to 20 days than theusual shipping time. The cost isone-fifth that of transporting cargoby air (More cooperation on Rail-ways sought, July 4, 2013, ChinaDaily). China and Russia are al-ready headed towards expandingexisting rail links. Pak-China eco-nomic corridor will link Pakistanto Europe and Asia. PM is there-fore right in saying that it will be a

TTP’s foreign connections

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Sunday Magazine

Sadia Zahid MalikEditor

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

In the past too, Pakistan hasw i t

nessed a perennial wave of subversive acts. In this regard, while

talking to the BBC and Voice ofAmerica (VOA) through mobilephone, the late Baitullah Mehsud,former Chief of the Tehrik-e-TalibanPakistan (TTP), Waziristan hadclaimed responsibility for the high-profile terror-attacks in Pakistan. Infact, Bailtullah Mehsud was com-mon agent of Indian secret agencyRAW and American CIA. He nevertalked to Pakistani media, but hadgiven interview especially to VOA.Question arises as to why; he wasnot killed by drone attack duringconversation. While, playing adouble game, he was inciting theinnocent tribal people against thePakistani government so as toweaken the country by following theinstructions of his paymasters. Hewas having a number of secrets re-garding foreign intelligence agen-cies. Therefore, US had killed himthrough a CIA-operated drone strike.

However, like Baitullah, hissuccessor, and Chief of the TTP,Hakimullah Mehsud is also collec-tive agent of RAW and CIA, andhis main mission is to destabilisePakistan in accordance with theagenda of anti-Pakistan externalpowers.When in 2009, military op-eration started in South Waziristan,India with the tactical help of theUS had also intensified its strategyto sabotage the same through gue-rilla tactics applied by itsWaziristan-based agents and mili-

game changer. It is said thatcontrol the debt and control thecountry. Pakistan needs to adoptrenewables, and coal so that itcan provide cheap energy topublic, clear its debt andstrengthen its economy. The

speed of shifting of thermal powerplants to coal and adoption ofrenewables will determine the fateof our economy, jobs and manufac-turing. Government will have to endhold of oil mafia, private power sec-tor and nationalize energy sector tomake Pakistan energy surplus.Privatization has failed in UK andEurope. The reports of adopting coaland renewable energy will allow Pa-kistan to build mega water storagesacross the country to store water foragriculture purposes, protect foodsecurity and use deserts for agricul-ture. It will help Pakistan to becomefood basket, dairy hub and alliedvalue added products/produce inthe region. China is investing inrailway including metros to providerelief to public.

There is no doubt that corrup-tion has destroyed overseas projectsin Pakistan. But there is no tolerancefor it in today’s China. People’sCourt gave death penalty to formerrailways minister for bribery andabuse of power. The verdict wasgiven after 4 weeks of investigation.Experts said that it shows that thecrackdown on corruption has beentightened, especially among high-level officials (Graft fight steppedup; ex-rail chief sentenced, July 9,2013, China Daily). Earlier VP ofChina’s Central Bank was givendeath sentence for corruption. Aclear policy on corruption and trans-parency in the projects will help bothgovernments to control corruption,serve people and strengthen eco-nomic diplomacy. A comprehensive

security policy is must to realizethese objectives. The developmentof ports is not acceptable to interna-tional forces because it changes stra-tegic balance. It explains delays de-velopment of ports in Africa andGwadar, killings of Pakistanis andforeigners, rise in sectarianism, oc-cupation of Afghanistan and estab-lishment of permanent militarybases in Afghanistan, support for

India’s illegal nuclear deal, andcontinuation of drone attacks inthe name of SWAT to justifyfoothold in the region under AsiaPacific policy. Pakistan shoulddiscard SWAT, return armedforces to traditional role and im-prove policing to protect public.

Accordingly, Islamabad shouldsecure its borders with help of di-plomacy, advanced border surveil-lance technology including Chinesedrones, and traditional methods suchas mining, fencing, and border con-trols. Chinese drones are 1/30th the

price of western drones. The pros-pects of border industrial zones insecuring Pakistan’s borders shouldalso be examined. China, Myanmarand Koreans are employing millionsin such zones for mutual economic,job and security benefits.

Civilian intelligence setupsshould also be improved and heldaccountable for their failures. For-eign embassies should be relocated,the so-called diplomats should bescrutinized and staff of embassiesshould be rationalized. Dual nation-als should be screened and permit-ted to work as per the laws. PTCLshould be nationalized regain con-trol of security, end abuse of satel-lite technology, and foreign control.NSA spying reports have shown thatWestern embassies and military set-ups are involved in spying in hostcountries. Islamabad should upholdthe law on foreign spying to protectconstitutional rights of its people andask UN to tell western countries topass laws to hold their citizens ac-countable for overseas crimes.

Police should be returned underdistrict magistrate (DMG). In turn,both should be held accountable forcrimes, loss of life and property. Itwill only be possible if SWAT policyis replaced with anti-state policy sothat criminals are punished underexisting laws. The hue and cry inmedia about failure of judiciary andstate to punish terrorists is hot airbecause the same media blamespowerful state for protecting policefor its crimes against public. PM hastalked about cleansing of bureau-cracy. It should include all other set-ups including police. The culpritsshould be brought to book in accor-dance to the law in next three monthswith help of judiciary, It will helpPakistan to do business with Chinaand rest of the world.

tants. And leader of theTTP Maulvi Fazlullah whohas close connectionswith Pakistan-based TTPleader HakimullahMehsud, had run to Afghani-stan. Based in the Afghan

provinces of Kunar and Nuristan,his insurgents intensified sub-versive activities in Pakistan bysending suicide bombers andheavily-equipped militants in thecountry. Pakistan’s civil and militaryleadership lodged a strong protestwith their counterparts in Afghani-stan, but no action was taken againstthese terrorists. Besides, Kabul alsorejected Islamabad’s demand to handover Maulvi Faqir, former deputycommander of the TTP to Pakistanalong with four other accompliceswho were from Pakistan’s tribal ar-eas, and had been arrested by Afghansecurity forces in February 2013.

In fact, to fulfill the collective co-vert designs of India, Israel and US,TTP has been given a free hand bythese countries to continue acts ofsabotage in Pakistan because it is theonly nuclear country in the Islamicworld. In this regard, Pak-China stra-tegic ties and Pak-Iranian closefriendship also irritate them.

For the purpose, America hasbeen acting upon a secret strategyagainst Pakistan by continuing droneattacks. As results of elections 2013,Pakistan Muslim League (N) andPakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI)which have now formulated theirgovernments had repeatedlyfavoured peace dialogue with theTTP and to make efforts to stop at-tack by the spy planes. While duringelection campaign, TTP which con-ducted terror-assaults on the leadersand election-sites of other politicalparties such as ANP, MQM and PPPhad said that it will not target PML-

N and PTI as these are liberal par-ties. But this militant group killedtwo PTI members of the KhyberPakhtoonkhwa assembly. Andambitions of the newly-electedgovernment received a greaterblow when on May, 29 2013; USpilotless aircraft killed four menin North Waziristan.

In this respect, US State Depart-ment stated that Wali-ur-Rehman, theTTP second in command was killedin a drone attack on a tip off providedby an informer from HakimullahMehsud group. This has been a graveblow to Wali-ur-Rehman’s faction ofTTP, while Hakimullah Mehsud suc-ceeded in eliminating his major oppo-nent in TTP. Notably, killing of Wali-ur-Rehman has been an outcome ofsplit between TTP high command andHakimullah Mehsud who is respon-sible for the death of Wali-ur-Rehman.

The new leader Khan Saeed aliasSajna hailing from Mehsud tribe ofShobikhel must realise that theirleader has been eliminated byHakimullah Mehsud group to get theaward of $5million from US. The USState Department refused to disclosethe real name of informer belongingHakimullah group, however, it con-firmed that the award will be paid. Inthe past, Hakimullah Mehsud madenumerous attempts to kill Wali-ur-Rehman and this time his plot suc-ceeded by providing information toCIA about his location.

Nevertheless, TTP has lost the vi-sionary leader who had supported tostart negotiations with the newly-elected government of Pakistan toreach a peace accord and bring peacein the country. But under the pretextof drone attacks, Hakimullah Mehsudwho has clandestine connections withCIA withdrew its offer of peace talkswith the government. While, again onJuly 2, a US predator attack killed 17

people in North Waziristan.Especially, US President

Barack Obama who has recentlystated that America will con-tinue these strikes on Pakistanalso seeks to create obstacle inthe way of Islamabad’s peaceprocess with the TTP. Majorityof our political experts see CIA-operated drone attacks in Paki-stan in isolation, while there isa collaboration of these strikeswith the subversive activities ofthe TTP, which have especiallybeen taking place in KhyberPakhtoonkhwa, Balochistanand Karachi as part of the USsecret strategy.

Particularly, heavily-armedmilitants enter Pakistan from Af-ghanistan where tentacles of terror-ism exist. In this context, India hasset up secret training centres in Af-ghanistan where its military person-nel in connivance with RAW andCIA have been imparting training ofguerilla warfare to the youngsters,having connections with SouthWaziristan-based TTP where someother such centres are also working.

While, Pakistan has been facili-tating US-backed dialogue with theAfghan Taliban in Qatar, but US andPresident Karzai are playing doublegame with Islamabad by thwartingthe peace dialogue of Islamabadwith the TTP, as they are assistingthis outfit in carrying out terror-as-saults inside Pakistan.

Consequences of these preda-tor strikes and the coming ones aredangerous for Pakistan, as the en-tire nation now expects retaliationfrom TTP terrorists who would cre-ate difficult challenges for theelected government. It means, inconnivance with CIA and RAW,TTP which has already commencedsuicide attacks, bomb blasts, tar-geted killings and attacks on secu-rity forces’ check posts includingsectarian violence would further

Rizwan Ghani Email:sadcat44@hotmail.com

Sajjad ShaukatEmail: sajjad_logic@yahoo.com

There is no doubtthat corruption hasdestroyed overseasprojects in Pakistan.

But there is notolerance for it in

today’s China.A clear policy oncorruption and

transparency in theprojects will help

both governments tocontrol corruption,serve people and

strengtheneconomic

diplomacy.

Voice of the People

RailwaysrehabilitationRAJA GHAZANFAR ALI

Impossible to rehabilitate. FederalMinister of Railways Saad Rafiquehas recently announced that hewould rehabilitate the most cor-rupted department of Railway but Iam of the view that it would be im-possible to rehabilitate and set rightthe worst and out of control Depart-ment of Railway without shufflingand termination of all cruel, sense-less, ill-minded and most corruptedofficers of the Pakistan Railway andspecially Chairman Railway and itsall Divisional Superintendents ofDivisional Head Quarters of Paki-stan Railway because these cor-rupted officers are still in their chairson the basis of on sourceful politi-cal ground.

Hence, it is useless to spendmore and more million of Rupees& even billion of Rupees for Reha-bilitation of Pakistan Railways. I amsaying on the following ground. 1)-Now most of the passengers of ACSleeper Class do not like to travelby trains because of Un-satisfactoryservices ie selling of Fake and poi-sonous beverage and stale bad-smelling lunch/ dinner/breakfast etcby the goonda types railway cater-ers who are giving monthly bhuttato all Divisional Superintendent.

This secret was told by Nazirand others Caterers of Lahore Rail-way Station platform Nos 1,2 &3.Now it is the main reason that nowmost of the passengers like to pre-fer to travel by luxury type deluxeAC buses or by air. It is also noticedthat in every trains, there are always50 % ticket less Passengers who aretraveling free with the Help of rail-way servants, adding to financiallosses sustained by the PakistanRailways. Now existing tracks canbe used for goods trains.

Railways Department cannot beset right without termination of allcorrupted officers but it is impos-sible to terminate such sourceful of-ficers and as such, it is useless torehabilitate the Pakistan Railway. Iwill urge Federal Minister of Rail-ways that the funds should be uti-lized in constructing Motorwayfrom Multan to Gwadar via DeraGhazi Khan, Mastung, Kalat andalso new railway track from Gwadarto Jacobabad.—Rawalpindi

WelcomeRamadan

AYMEN IJAZ

The holy month of Ramadan hasapproached with its bountings andblessings once again. The layman inPakistan welcomes this month withdeep anticipation irrespective ofRamadan challenges that lie ahead.Loadshedding and the dramatic in-crease in price of all the essentialfood items are the serious issues atpresent. Unfortunately, a local manwho earns and spends within thelimits of his monthly salary is mostlyoverburdened with the sky rocket-ing price of dates, fruits and dailycommodities which is beyond hisroutine monthly budget. The whole-salers and the merchants haveadopted ill-faceted strategy of grab-bing and stock piling money throughearning profit thrice than usual. Infact, Ramadan has become more likean instrument of profit making ratherthan symbol of help, care, generos-ity and distribution.

With the arrival of Ramadan,people who are already tormentedwith the price hike of CNG, petroland diesel finds it unaffordable toprovide their family with the basicday to day requirements resultingin the overgrowing frustration anddiscontent among poor and middleclass. Apart from this inflation,loadshedding is another problemthat threatens local public. Fear ofa miserable life in such scorchinghot weather with low water sup-plies and long scheduled or un-scheduled power cut offs, duringSehr and Iftar particularly contin-ues to loom over their heads. Both

Leaders or luterasCOL RIAZ JAFRI (RETD)

Abdul Majeed in his letter on 9th July says “PM Should Pay” for the driveway costing crores beingconstructed to connect the PM House with the helipad in the Presidency for his traffic and hassle

free travel to the helipad. He argues that since the PM is a temporary allottee of the official accommoda-tion he cannot make any alterations or additions in the official accommodation, and if any change ismade the temporary occupant is responsible to bear its cost and restore the property to its originalcondition when he leaves. So far so good, but, what about the changes made to the private personalproperties of the Presidents, PMs, CMs lying not in the capitals but at far off places like Karachi, Larkana,Multan, Lahore, Gujar Khan etc. etc. and at times more than one as some of them have more than onewife and the residences of all wives are declared as official residences, and upgraded/renovated costingmillions to improve their security by constructing huge perimeter walls, installing CCTV cameras, bar-riers, Security Posts etc and spending other millions on additional structures for offices, meetings andconference halls, offices for the staff etc apart from very lavish and expensive furnishings, furniture andfittings. Should all these be not removed when they leave, some of them ignobly or chucked out by thecourts? Alternately, must they not pay for these all if they want to retain them all costing millions andmillions? But who cares in Pakistan, especially in the case of our such overlords? Believe it or not, someof our worthy legislators are known to even decamp with the Air Conditioners and Blankets of the MNA/MPA Hostels and Parliament Lodges on vacating them!!—Rawalpindi

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Deterring an Asia nuke race

How many nuclear weaponsand delivery systems does acountry need as an effective

deterrent against the threats of attack?Finding an acceptable balance is criti-cally important in Asia, where fourof the world’s nine nuclear-armedstates are located.

The Stockholm InternationalPeace Research Institute (SIPRI) re-ported in June that all four Asian na-tions with nuclear weapons —China, India, Pakistan and NorthKorea — appeared to be expandingtheir arsenals while the UnitedStates, Russia, France, Britain andIsrael were either reducing them orholding the number static.

Asia may be sliding into a nucleararms race, aggravated by underlyingtensions and mistrust. As one nuclearweapons state enlarges its arsenal,other regional atomic powers do thesame. SIPRI estimated that China,India and Pakistan had each addedabout 10 warheads to their opera-tional stockpiles in 2012.

Meanwhile, as the SIPRI reportnoted, each is improving deliverysystems: the ballistic or cruise mis-siles or bomber aircraft that couldcarry nuclear warheads. Withoutmutual restraint in Asia, other re-gional countries with civilian nuclearreactor experience and the necessaryresources and skills could also decideto protect themselves by developingtheir own nuclear arms. Such poten-tial “threshold” countries includeSouth Korea, Japan, Taiwan, Austra-

lia, Indonesia and Vietnam. FormerUS Senator Sam Nunn, a drivingforce for a nuclear threat reductiongroup of security specialists andformer senior officials from 18 coun-tries, cautions that when “a large andgrowing number of nuclear-armedadversaries confront multiple per-ceived threats, the risk that deterrencewill fail and that nuclear weapons willbe used rises dramatically.”

Another prominent member ofthe group, former US Secretary ofDefence William Perry, says thatthere is only a short time left to pullback from the edge of a nuclear preci-pice. “Asia is an important backdropfor this discussion, as a nuclear-armedNorth Korea threatens regional sta-bility and could spark a new wave ofproliferation,” he warns.

Their comments follow a recentcall by US President Barack Obama forAmerica and Russia to open new armscontrol talks to further cut their de-ployed long-range nuclear arms by asmuch as one-third. The last bilateralStrategic Arms Reduction Treaty(START), signed by Moscow andWashington in 2010, requires each na-tion by 2018 to cap its stockpile offielded nuclear warheads at 1,550. Sounder Obama’s proposal, a new ceil-ing could become approximately 1,000deployed strategic warheads apiece.

Under the current START pact,the two former Cold War adversariesalso agreed to limit fielded nucleardelivery vehicles, including bombersand missiles based on land and at sea,to 700, with an additional 100 al-lowed in reserve. But the START dealdoes not cover all nuclear warheadsor delivery systems, only those

classed as long range. Nor does it en-compass all nuclear armed states, al-though at least 90 per cent of atomicarms belong to the US and Russia.

The SIPRI report estimates thatat the start of 2013, eight of the ninenuclear armed nations had approxi-mately 4,400 operational atomicweapons, with nearly 2,000 “in a stateof high operational alert.” North Ko-rea was assessed to have perhaps sixor eight nuclear bombs, none of themoperational. This evidently meansthey cannot yet be made small enoughto be carried by North Korean mis-siles or bombers.

SIPRI said that if all the nuclearwarheads held by the nine nations withatomic weapons were counted, the to-tal would amount to approximately17,270 nuclear weapons, with a vari-ety of short-, medium- as well as long-range delivery systems. The total war-head count includes spares, those inboth active and inactive storage, andintact warheads set to be dismantled,as well as operational warheads.

Obama also called for the reduc-tion of US and Russian non-strategic,or tactical, nuclear weapons in Europe.These have never been officiallycounted or limited by any internationaltreaty. One reason Russia gives forbeing reluctant to negotiate further bi-lateral nuclear cuts with the US is thatsome other nuclear-armed countriesare strengthening their warhead andmissile capabilities. This is an evidentreference to China among others, eventhough Moscow and Beijing haveformed a “strategic partnership” tooppose US and Western domination.

China’s position is that the USand Russia have the overwhelming

Views From Abroad

Michael Richardson

Was in Spain a few yearsago with some friendsfrom India and remember

their first visit to the beach: “She’stopless!” breathed my young friendogling a woman sunning herself,“I’ve never seen anything like this!”He stared at hundreds of womensunbathing, but slowly his eyes leftthem and started looking at thebeautiful Mediterranean Sea!

“Isn’t she beautiful!” he saidwith a longing sigh and this time I

knew he was not talking about toplesswomen. It had taken him just awhileto move from never having seenwomen topless to seeing other thingsof beauty. It had taken him a few mo-ments to move from lust to joy! It’snot women bathing topless we havein Mumbai, what we have are plasticdolls, mannequins looking out of shopwindows with expressionless eyes,wearing two piece bikinis.

Along comes a municipal corpo-rator looks aghast at lifeless form,maybe with a little envy at shapelyplastic body, declares such plasticbeauties are against Indian culture!“Whoa! Whoa! Madam where did thatcome from?” Indians are now one ofthe biggest globetrotters madam, theyroam the earth like never before and

do you know what we are known for?Staring! Ogling! Leering!

Our men unashamedly, and to theutter disgust of the locals, stare at,stare down every woman they see onforeign road, ‘cause we’ve never seenwomen walking around, dressed asthey wish to dress, in India. Whatthose mannequins also declare is afree woman, but that’s another sub-ject. Let our men stare at those bi-kini mannequins madam, and youcan bet your last dollar or Swiss Eurothey will soon get bored and get onwith other things. Because we excelin such prudery, we are an embarrass-ment abroad.

Look at our state home minis-ter; watch his furtive eyes, not look-ing for terrorists but seeing no girls,

Lusting for the mannequin..!dance in bars! Quite a few ofMumbai policemen guard bars tosee waitresses don’t suddenly gy-rate to music. What the honorableminister needs to realize is therewould be less crime against womenif such activities were legitimatelyallowed. But men and women asthese continue ruling the roost, andwith their silly notions and mis-guided ideas India is slowly butsurely becoming the rape capital ofthe world as lustful men with fren-zied hands and curious eyes tearopen the whole nine yards to findwhat lies therein. Instead let themlook away from mannequin andsigh, “Isn’t she beautiful!” And youknow they speak of the Arabian Sea.—Email:bobsbanter@gmail.com

these problems seem inevitable atthe moment and have overwhelmedthe actual joys and delights thismonth suppose to endow upon us.

In consultation on these Ramadanchallenges, the new government hastaken necessary price control mea-sures by providing little relief throughRamadan package. The governmenthas announced subsidy of 2 billionsat Federal level for Utility storeswhile subsidy of 4 billions has beenannounced at Punjab level. In addi-tion to this, Ramadan bazaars will beestablished all across the country un-der the supervision of Food Ministryto ensure quality, quantity, fair priceand availability of all daily productsto consumers. Certain arrangementsare also made regarding loadsheddingcomplains. There will be noloadshedding during Sehr, Iftar andTaraweeh time as per PrimeMinister’s instruction. The govern-ment has also ordered strict and fool-proof security at Mosques and pub-lic sensitive areas to ensure law andorder in the country. The administra-tion and security agencies are mak-ing tight efforts to maintain peace andstability in Ramadan to avoid any actof violence or terrorism.

To conclude, fasting despite se-rious challenges is not the actual taskof Ramadan but the sanctity ofRamadan lies in the act of submis-sion and contemplation. One mustnot just refrain from misdeeds butgo beyond the physical ritual offastings and try to purge one’s soulfrom impure thoughts, greed, angerand jealousy. This is the month thatteaches us to help poor and includethem in our joys by raising moneythrough charity, donating clothes,food items and holding Iftar dinnersfor the less fortunate. Ramadan is thebest time to repent and seek Allah’sforgiveness by being best at ourmoral and social behaviour. MayAllah give us strength not only todeal with the worldly challenges ofloadshedding and price hike but alsoto get prepared for the challenges ofthe world hereafter (Ameen). HappyRamadan 2013 to All..!—Islamabad

Karachistampede

MAHRUKH IBRAHIM

Stampede in Karachi during distribu-tion of food items among the poor notonly highlights the poverty in Paki-stan but also the bitter fact that we donot learn lesson from the past becausethis incident is not the first of its kind.In the past so many people lost theirlives on such occasions but thosephilanthropists who help the poor byproviding them staple goods did notbother to draw any mechanism fordistribution of edible items.

Some people argue that such trag-edies occur because of the hastinessbut they ignore the reality that pov-erty and price hike is on the rise andthe purchasing power of commonman is decreasing. Therefore whenthey find any opportunity to get fooditems free of cost they try to getmaximum. There is a need to makea system to avoid such eventualityin future. I have some suggestionsin this regard. The poor and deserv-ing people in large number shouldnot be called on one day but theyshould be called in groups on dif-ferent days to avoid rush. The cou-pon system may also be introduced.3: The best way is that the aid itemsshould be delivered on the doorstepsof deserving people instead of call-ing them on one specific place.—Abbottabad

Qaim Ali Shahand Karachi

M AHMED

Your editorial “Can Qaim Ali Shahdeal with Karachi” (July 8) the an-swer is emphatic NO. This is not thefirst time that President Asif AliZardari has chaired law and ordersituation in Karachi but the end re-sult has been zero, more killing,deaths and more fight between vari-ous groups. The Rangers have car-ried out over 80 operations in Lyari

majority of strategic nuclear weap-ons and delivery systems, meaningthose capable of travelling intercon-tinental distances and causing mas-sive destruction. So Washington andMoscow should continue to make“drastic” cuts in their stockpiles in averifiable and irreversible manner.

Cheng Jingye, China’s top en-voy to a U.N. nuclear non-prolifera-tion conference, said last year thatonce this was done, “other nuclear-weapon states, when conditions areripe, should also join the multina-tional negotiations on nuclear disar-mament.” But when might that be?

One of the concerns of US crit-ics of Obama’s latest proposals isthat China could use any extendednew round of START negotiationsthat involve only America and Rus-sia to enlarge and modernize its ownnuclear arsenal in secret. Some USanalysts say that this is already hap-pening. The critics argue that if thesize of the US and Russian arsenalskeep dropping, China might be ableto achieve numerical parity, or near-parity, quite quickly with the today’stwo dominant nuclear powers.

SIPRI estimates that China hasabout 250 nuclear warheads, com-pared with 300 for France and 225for Britain. It reckons that India has90 to 110 atomic warheads, Pakistanhas 100 to 120, and Israel 80. Theseare well within minimum credible de-terrence limits. Keeping them therewill be the key to preventing a post-Cold War nuclear arms race in Asia.The writer is a visiting senior researchfellow at the Institute of South EastAsian Studies in Singapore.— Courtesy: The Japan Times

Ramadan and its hijackersRamadan is a month of tremen

dous blessings. Today it is alsoa time of great challenges. The

challenges come from a head-on col-lision between Ramadan and the ma-terialism, consumerism, and hedo-nism that have unfortunately en-gulfed Muslim societies. Approachedcorrectly and observed diligently, theformer could help us overcome thelatter. In our present state of decay,the opposite seems to be happeningin many cases.

Ramadan’s month long intensivetraining programme begins to teachself-discipline by rearranging our dailylife. It changes the time we go to bed,the time we get up, the times we eat.We learn to do without the permissiblejoys of this life for the long prescribedhours of the day. After a day of fast-ing, we break the fast only to rush tothe maghrib salat, which cannot bedelayed beyond a few minutes. Anhour or two later we are ready for thespecial nightly prayer, a unique prayerwhich can only be performed duringRamadan and which both highlightsand cements our special relationshipwith the Qur’an. We stand and listento the entire Qur’an being recited fromheart in the taraweeh prayer.

This is in addition to our own read-ing of the Qur’an that aims at finish-ing at least one cycle of the completereading during the month on our own.With all the extra acts of worship, thereis hardly any time left for anything be-yond the essential during the day andnight. This is special time, when therewards for voluntary acts of worshipequal the rewards of mandatory actsand the rewards for the latter are mul-tiplied up to 700 times. With the scalesof rewards so extraordinarily high dur-ing this month, it would be folly towaste our time on things that can bedone during ordinary time — through-out the rest of the year. The opportu-nity cost is just unbelievably high todo otherwise. Yet that is precisely whatwe manage to do in so many cases.

Consider iftar, the breaking of thefast at the end of the day. A Jewishacquaintance once told me about hisfast of Yum Kippur. Unlike the Is-lamic fasts, all Jewish fasts are a oneday affair but the day is longer. Itstarts twenty minutes before sun-

down on the previous night. At theend of the fast, he said, “I went to arestaurant and ate like a pig.” Withthe maghrib salat and the taraweeh,the Ramadan fastdoes not permit that.Neither does thespirit of Ramadanpermit indulgence.Yet today one cansee fancy restau-rants in the Muslimworld offering highpriced iftar dinnerspecials that inviteyou to do just that.One could substituteDubai or Jeddah orKuala Lumpur orany other Muslimcity for Karachi; themessage will remain the same. In-stead of turning your attention to Al-lah, turn it to the exquisite setting andculinary delights. Indulge. Turn thebreaking of the fast into a status sym-bol. Exquisite (i.e. esoteric), extrava-gant, lavish. This is how the agentsof rampant consumerism counterRamadan’s message of simplicity,sacrifice, and self discipline. Allwhile advertising their special regardfor the holy month.

To be sure, the fraction of Mus-lims going to these fancy restaurantsis small, although it is increasing. Buttheir influence on the society goesbeyond these numbers. For they setthe norms and expectations for thelarger society. Lavish iftar parties forwhich people drive long distancesand miss their prayers are an indica-tion of these influences.

Consider taraweeh, the speciallong nightly prayer that is a hallmarkof Ramadan. Throughout the Muslimworld Muslims stand up in theseprayers to listen to the recitation of theQur’an, leading to khatam or comple-tion of a complete cycle of readingduring the month. Everyone, youngand old alike, cherishes the opportu-nity to take part in this very specialact of worship. There is a small dif-ference between juristic schools re-garding the details of taraweeh. A ma-jority offers twenty rakats to finish theday’s portion of Qur’anic reading. Asmaller group finishes the task in eight

rakats. But both groups perform thekhatam. We can discern an emerginggenerational gap in the forms oftaraweeh. The twenty rakats with the

complete khatamare for the ‘uncles’.For the youth, re-gardless of the fiqhischool they belongto, it is just eightrakats.

The practicecould be excused ifa person were tooold, too weak, ortoo tired after along day’s work.But we are talkingabout younghealthy people whowould spend the

rest of the time gossiping or otheryouthful activities even as the prayergoes on. Should this disregard be al-lowed to hide behind a technical le-gal cover?

There are other variations of thisdistortion in taraweeh that cut acrossage groups. At some places people sitand listen to the Qur’anic recitationbefore the taraweeh so as to reduce theamount that would be recited intaraweeh. At other places some peoplejust sit back and listen to the recitationwithout joining the prayer. With thesetrends, one wonders whether, if un-checked, this very important part ofRamadan will be distorted beyond rec-ognition in a generation or so.

The same observations can bemade about Qiyam-ul-Lail.Ramadan nights, especially duringthe last third of the month, are meantto be spent in personal acts of wor-ship, in salat, zhikar, duas, readingthe Qur’an and seeking forgiveness.Instead these are spent in talks, so-cialization, and bazaars set up on themosque compounds.

The most solemn and demandingact of worship for Ramadan is theI’tikaaf, when a person secludes him-self from the world around in a cornerof the mosque to devote himself to-tally to remembering Allah andstrengthening his personal relationshipwith Him. The act could provide spiri-tual rebirth and carries tremendousrewards. Yet today one can see laptops,

cell phones, iPads, and other modernwidgets routinely forming a part ofthe equipment of itikaf. It is an openquestion how can anyone realize thegoals of itikaf with activities likewatching videos, Internet surfing,texting, and chatting.

One famous hadith states thatthere are those who get nothing fromtheir fasts but hunger and thirst andnothing from their qiyam-ul-lail butsleep deprivation. While telling usabout the great blessings of Ramadan,the Holy Prophet (PBUH), alsowarned about the possibility that itcould cement our loss and wretched-ness if we are not serious about tak-ing advantage from its blessings. Inone famous hadith He said that thereare those who get nothing from theirfasts but hunger and thirst and noth-ing from their qiyam-ul-lail but sleepdeprivation. In another hadith He saidameen as angel Jibrael cursed theperson who finds Ramadan in a stateof health and yet does not use it towin freedom from the Fire throughacts of devotion and worship. Therecan be no sterner warnings thanthese. We have been forewarned tobe forearmed. If we pay attention tothem and become serious aboutRamadan, then it would be a monthof tremendous blessings.

This requires fasting with ourwhole body and soul. Our eyes,ears, tongues, and hearts should betotally committed to the fast by notseeing, hearing, or speaking haramthings or thinking haram ideas.Honesty, truthfulness and Allahconsciousness or taqwa should beour guiding values. We shouldavoid all frivolities, including theones that are committed in the nameof religion. Only then we will real-ize the sweetness in the acts ofworship like prayers and recitationand utter foolishness of exchang-ing them for entertainment. Thiswill turn Ramadan into a month ofspiritual renewal that would re-charge our batteries of iman andtaqwa and prepare us to face theworld and its temptations withmoral uprightness for another year.Otherwise the blessings would havebeen hijacked from us.— Courtesy: Albalagh

The Spirit Of Islam

Khalid Baig

with no result, in fact it is turning intoa Beruit. The root cause of disorderis Bhatta collection from transport-ers. As reported in the media eachtrawler that passes on Mauripur Roadhas to pay Rs 5000/ per container.The average flow of containers isaround 200 to 300 per day, it is hugeamount and hence the battle on whois stronger? Like Lal Masjid, our in-telligence agencies have miserablyfailed to stop the flow of prohibitedbore weapons as mentioned in youreditorial. Heavy weapons like ma-chine guns, rocket launchers, antiaircraft guns, rocket propelled gre-nades, IED’s are being used againstlaw enforcement agencies. The crimi-nals push forward women as humanshield and carry out their acts.

Qaim Ali Shah in this old agecannot deliver. Look at his priorities.He is raiding Police Stations duringodd hours where as he is least both-ered what is happening in Lyari.Kutchi community are peacefulpeople they have been renderedhomeless and ssuffered a lot and needour immediate attention. It is strangein a province where law and ordersituation is getting worst every daythe Sindh government is withoutHome Minister. It appears that thefederal government sooner or laterwill have to intervene to bring peacein Karachi. A proper planned opera-tion of short duration to un arm theseunscrupulous elements of society isthe only solution. If this does not hap-pen the entire city will be engulfed inthe worst law and order situation. PPPand MQM must sit together alongwith other parties and bring peace inKarachi and end to extortion andBhatta’s and arrest various gangs op-erating in Karachi. Nothing short ofit will work. Short term measuresshall prove counter productive, gov-ernment has to move fast.—Karachi

Chinese warningLUBNA HAMEED

This is with reference to the newsabout a Chinese general warning In-dia against ‘new troubles’. Appar-ently, the ever-growing Indian armyand its military power are posing athreat to India itself. Once the mili-tary men have all these high-techgadgets, they would surely need toplay with them too. The Indian gov-ernment and its armed forces oughtto realise that South Asia needspeaceful existence. Any move thatspells trouble for one can very eas-ily become trouble for all and thatincludes India as well.—Rawalpindi

Power & waterK ANWER

THE finance minister was confusedwhen he recently talked about thegovernment’s energy policy. Hepraised China’s Three Gorges Damwhich he said was producing morepower than our total demand, and la-mented that no government had fol-lowed China’s example. Then he con-tradicted himself by downplayinghydel power which, according to him,was not sustainable through the yearas its output reduced considerablyduring the winter months.

Coal was the only sustainablesource of power, he said, and manycountries were using coal for theirpower needs. He seemed to be for-getting that we need water as muchas we need power, and coal will notgive us water, nor will wind and so-lar panel. Desperate times requiredesperate measures. The people needto be told boldly why they are suffer-ing and who is responsible. By re-maining silent the PML-N govern-ment is taking all the blame on itself.—Lahore

security officer of the presidentas well as an active worker of thePPPP.

Those injured in the incidentincluded one FIA personnel and6 cops. The health departmentauthorities imposed an emer-gency in the JPMC and otherhospitals.

Shaikkh was said to be atrusted friend of the President anda die-hard worker of the PPPP.He had escaped death in pastwhen a group of armed assailantshad targeted him with latest as-sault weapons and a rocket wasfired.

Shaikh had joined the PPPPas student worker of the People’sStudent’s Federation. He wasimplicated in late Judge NizamJanjua murder case but was freedas not guilty.

He had received life threatsseveral times and always movedin a bulletproof land cruiser jeep.Despite being the Chief SecurityOfficer to the President, Shaikhdid not move without police pro-tection and at the time of deathin suicide blast, he had a policeconvoy moving beside him.

The President and the PrimeMinister while condemning thesuicide blast expressed condo-lences over the deaths and di-rected the authorities concernedto provide best medical treatmentto those injured in the blast.

The dead body of BilalSheikh was shifted from hospi-tal to his residence in Gulbahar.

Fear and panic gripped thecity and people rushed to theirresidences in a state of panic.

Meanwhile, PPPP Patron-in-Chief, Bilawal Bhutto Zardaristrongly condemned the attack onPPPP activist and Security Of-ficer of Bilawal House.

While expressing profoundgrief and shock over the incident,he said that anti-democratic andextremist mindset was behindsuch barbaric act of terrorism,which needed to be stopped withfirmness and unity.

“We will not be intimidatedby such cowardly acts and suchacts will not deter our resolve tofight terrorism,” he added.

Bilawal Bhutto Zardari paidrich tributes to Sheikh for hisstruggle for the restoration ofdemocracy.

Security officerFrom Page 1

COURT NOTICE

Before: Mr. Asghar AliFaheem Bhatti Judge

Banking Court# II, P-92Malik Road, Gujjar Basti

FaisalabadNational Bank of Pakistan atCivil Line Faisalabad - Vs-M/S Abdullah Weaving Fac-torySUMMONS U/s 9(5) of theFinancial Institutions (Recov-ery of Finances)Ordinance (2001)NOTICE TO-1)- M/SAbdullah Weaving Factoryhaving place of Business at 13kilometer Sheikhupura Road,80 Maraba village, Faisalabad.(Partnership concern)2. Mr. Muhammad NajeebTabasam S/O MirzaMihammad Abdullah R/OChak No. 203/R.B MnawalaHouse No. P-825, Faisalabad.(Managing Partner/Mort-gagor)3. Mr. Muhammad ShafiqueS/O Muhammad Abdullah R/O Chak No. 203/R.BManawala QabristanFaisalabad. (Partner / Mort-gagor)4. Mirza Hafeez Ullah S/oMirza Muhammad AbdullahR/O Chak No. 203/R.BManawala Mohallah NewAbadi Faisalabad. (Mort-gagor)5. Mr. Habib Ullah S/o MirzaMuhammad Abdullah R/OChak No. 203/R.B Manawalanear Qabristan Faislabad.(Mortgagor)Whereas: the aforesaid plain-tiff has instituted a suit againstyou and others for the recov-ery of Rs- 10013931-39 alongwith markup / interest and costetc claimed to be payable byyou. A summon U/s 9(5) ofordinance no. XLVI of 2001referred above is hereby issuedrequiring you to make within30 days from the service ofthis summon, an applicationfor leave to defend the suit U/S 10(1). Take notice that onyour failure to file such appli-cation within time specifiedabove, the Banking Courtshall pass a decree as prayedfor in the plaint, in favor of inthe plaintiff Banking Com-pany. Next date of the furtherproceedings in this case hasbeen fixed on 12-08-2013.Given under my hand and sealof this court on 01-07- 2013.

JudgeBanking Court-1I

Faisalabad.

COURT NOTICE

Before: Mr Asghar AliFaheem Bhatti Judge

Banking Court# II, P-92Malik Road, Gujjar Basti

FaisalabadMCB Bank Limited at GrainMarket Toba Tek Singh- Vs-M/S Maxim Trading Com-panySUMMONS U/s 9(5) of theFinancial Institutions (Recov-ery of Finances)Ordinance (2001)NOTICE TO-1. M/S MaximTrading Company, (i) GrainMarket, Kamalia District TobaTek Singh. (ii) 702-B, BatalaColony, Satiana Road,Faisalabad a partnership con-cern through its partners Mr.Tahir Mehmood and Mr.Muhammad Safdar Hussain2. Mr. Tahir Mehmood S/oGhulam Rasool r/o (i) 92-APeoples Colony No. 1,Faisalabad (ii) 105-B,Peoples Colony No. 1,Faisalabad3. Mr. Muhammad SafdarHussain s/o MuhammadHussain r/o Chak No. 317 JB,Noor Pur, Post Office Same,Tehsil and District Toba TekSing.4. Mst. Latifan Bibi w/oGhulam Rasool r/o (i) 92-A,Peoples Colony No. 1,Faisalabad. (ii) 105-B,Peoples Colony No. 1,Faisalabad.Whereas: the aforesaid plain-tiff has instituted a suit againstyou and others for the recov-ery of Rs. 8222703-54 alongwith markup / interest and costetc claimed to be payable byyou. A summon U/s 9(5) ofordinance no. XLVI of 2001referred above is hereby issuedrequiring you to make within30 days from the service ofthis summon, an applicationfor leave to defend the suit U/S 10(1). Take notice that onyour failure to file such appli-cation within time specifiedabove, the Banking Courtshall pass a decree as prayedfor in the plaint, in favor of inthe plaintiff Banking Com-pany. Next date of the furtherproceedings in this case hasbeen fixed on 21-08-2013.Given under my hand and sealof this court on 03-07- 2013.

JudgeBanking Court-1I

Faisalabad

COURT NOTICE

Before: Mr. Asghar AliFaheem Bhatti Judge

Banking Court# II, P-92Malik Road, Gujjar Basti

FaisalabadUnited Bank Limited atKatchery Bazar Faisalabad -Vs- Allah Dita.SUMMONS U/s 9(5) of theFinancial Institutions (Recov-ery of Finances)Ordinance (2001)NOTICE TO-1. Allah Dita S/O Maqsood Ahmad R/OHouse # 18, Muhalla ShahbazTown, Block-C, Faisalabad.2. Zulfiqar Ali S/o MaqsoodAhmad R/o House # P-456,street # 4, Shadab Colony,Jhang Road, Faisalabad.Whereas: the aforesaid plain-tiff has instituted a suit againstyou and others for the recov-ery of Rs. 2190220- alongwith markup / interest and costetc claimed to be payable byyou. A summon U/s 9(5) ofordinance no. XLVI of 2001referred above is hereby issuedrequiring you to make within30 days from the service ofthis summon, an applicationfor leave to defend the suit U/S 10(1). Take notice that onyour failure to file such appli-cation within time specifiedabove, the Banking Courtshall pass a decree as prayedfor in the plaint, in favor of inthe plaintiff Banking Com-pany. Next date of the furtherproceedings in this case hasbeen fixed on 24-07-2013.Given under my hand and sealof this court on 05-07- 2013.

JudgeBanking Court-1I

Faisalabad

COURT NOTICE

Before: Mr. Asghar AliFaheem Bhatti Judge

Banking Court# II, P-92Malik Road, Gujjar Basti

FaisalabadNIB Bank Limited 3-LiaqatRoad Branch Faisalabadnk -Vs-Muhammad Ashfaq.SUMMONS U/s 9(5) of theFinancial Institutions (Recov-ery of Finances)Ordinance (2001)NOTICE TO-1. MuhammadAshfaq S/o Abdul Sattar R/o(i) House # P-511, Street no.12, Rajay Wala SarfrazColony, Faisalabad. (ii) CityFabrics, Shop # 09, ShalimarPlaza, Basement, KarkhanaBazar, Suttar Mandi,Faisalabad.Whereas: the aforesaid plain-tiff has instituted a suit againstyou and others for the recov-ery of Rs. 4299020-47 alongwith markup / interest and costetc claimed to be payable byyou. A summon U/s 9(5) ofordinance no. XLVI of 2001referred above is hereby issuedrequiring you to make within30 days from the service ofthis summon, an applicationfor leave to defend the suit U/S 10(1). Take notice that onyour failure to file such appli-cation within time specifiedabove, the Banking Courtshall pass a decree as prayedfor in the plaint, in favor of inthe plaintiff Banking Com-pany. Next date of the furtherproceedings in this case hasbeen fixed on 24-07-2013.Given under my hand and sealof this court on 05-07- 2013.

JudgeBanking Court-II

Faisalabad

COURT NOTICE

Before: Mr. Asghar AliFaheem Bhatti Judge

Banking Court# II, P-92Malik Road, Gujjar Basti

FaisalabadFaysal Bank Limited atLiaquat Road Faislabad -Vs-Umer Hayat.SUMMONS U/s 9(5) of theFinancial Institutions (Recov-ery of Finances)Ordinance (2001)NOTICE TO- Umer Hayat S/o Muhammad Tofail R/O:- (I)House No. P-149, Street No.5, Muhalla Khalid Abad,Faisalabad. (ii) Zam Zam Oiland Cake Traders, P-184,Street # 5, Old Green Market,Karkhana Bazar, FaisalabadWhereas: the aforesaid plain-tiff has instituted a suit againstyou and others for the recov-ery of Rs. 275311- along withmarkup / interest and cost etcclaimed to be payable by you.A summon U/s 9(5) of ordi-nance no. XLVI of 2001 re-ferred above is hereby issuedrequiring you to make within30 days from the service ofthis summon, an applicationfor leave to defend the suit U/S 10(1). Take notice that onyour failure to file such appli-cation within time specifiedabove, the Banking Courtshall pass a decree as prayedfor in the plaint, in favor of inthe plaintiff Banking Com-pany. Next date of the furtherproceedings in this case hasbeen fixed on 23-07-2013.Given under my hand and sealof this court on 05-07- 2013.

JudgeBanking Court-1I

Faisalabad

COURT NOTICE

Before: Mr. Asghar AliFaheem Bhatti Judge

Banking Court# II, P-92Malik Road, Gujjar Basti

FaisalabadNIB Bank Limited at 03-Liaqat Road Faisalabad - Vs-Abdul GhaffarSUMMONS U/s 9(5) of theFinancial Institutions (Recov-ery of Finances)Ordinance (2001)NOTICE TO-(1) AbdulGhaffar S/O Abdul Majeed R/o (i) H# P-48, SheikhupuraRoad, Haji Abad, NearMakkah Traders, Faisalabad(ii) Mughal Foam Center, P-48, Sheikhupura Road, HajiAbad, near Makkah FoamCenter, Faisalabad.2. Muhammad Zikria CNICNo. 3100-58481297 R/o P-48. Sheikhupura Road, HajiAbad, Faisalabad.Whereas: the aforesaid plain-tiff has instituted a suitagainst you and others for therecovery of Rs. 3242698-20along with markup / interestand cost etc claimed to bepayable by you. A summonU/s 9(5) of ordinance no.XLVI of 2001 referred aboveis hereby issued requiring youto make within 30 days fromthe service of this summon,an application for leave todefend the suit U/S 10(1).Take notice that on your fail-ure to file such applicationwithin time specified above,the Banking Court shall passa decree as prayed for in theplaint, in favor of in the plain-tiff Banking Company. Nextdate of the further proceed-ings in this case has beenfixed on 23-07-2013.Given under my hand andseal of this court on 05-07-2013.

JudgeBanking Court-1I

Faisalabad

COURT NOTICE

Before: Mr. Asghar AliFaheem Bhatti Judge

Banking Court# II, P-92Malik Road, Gujjar Basti

FaisalabadFaysal Bank Limited atLiaquat Road Faisalabad - Vs-Muhammad Zulfiqar.SUMMONS U/s 9(5) of theFinancial Institutions (Recov-ery of Finances)Ordinance (2001)NOTICE TO- MuhammadZulfiqar S/o Mukhtar AhmadR/o1. Chak No. 204 RB,DKHANA Khas, Tehsil andDistrict, Faisalabad.2. Niagra Mill Pvt. KashmirRoad, Nishat Abad,FaisalabadWhereas: the aforesaid plain-tiff has instituted a suit againstyou and others for the recov-ery of Rs. 162911-66 alongwith markup / interest and costetc claimed to be payable byyou. A summon U/s 9(5) ofordinance no. XLVI of 2001referred above is hereby issuedrequiring you to make within30 days from the service ofthis summon, an applicationfor leave to defend the suit U/S 10(1). Take notice that onyour failure to file such appli-cation within time specifiedabove, the Banking Courtshall pass a decree as prayedfor in the plaint, in favor of inthe plaintiff Banking Com-pany. Next date of the furtherproceedings in this case hasbeen fixed on 23-07-2013.Given under my hand and sealof this court on 05-07- 2013.

JudgeBanking Court-II

Faisalabad

COURT NOTICE

Before: Mr. Asghar AliFaheem Bhatti Judge

Banking Court# II, P-92Malik Road, Gujjar Basti

FaisalabadFaysal Bank Limited atLiaquat Road Faislabad -Vs-Khurram Raza.SUMMONS U/s 9(5) of theFinancial Institutions (Recov-ery of Finances)Ordinance (2001)NOTICE TO- Khurram RazaS/o Ghulam Murtaza R/o 1.House # 649, Street # 2,Muhalla Aub Colony,Faisalabad. 2. Khurram RazaGarments, P203 Jhang Bazar,Faisalabad.Whereas: the aforesaid plain-tiff has instituted a suit againstyou and others for the recov-ery of Rs. 677949-26 alongwith markup / interest and costetc claimed to be payable byyou. A summon U/s 9(5) ofordinance no. XLVI of 2001referred above is hereby issuedrequiring you to make within30 days from the service ofthis summon, an applicationfor leave to defend the suit U/S 10(1). Take notice that onyour failure to file such appli-cation within time specifiedabove, the Banking Courtshall pass a decree as prayedfor in the plaint, in favor of inthe plaintiff Banking Com-pany. Next date of the furtherproceedings in this case hasbeen fixed on 23-07-2013.Given under my hand and sealof this court on 05-07- 2013.

JudgeBanking Court-1I

Faisalabad

COURT NOTICE

Before: Mr. Asghar AliFaheem Bhatti Judge

Banking Court# II, P-92Malik Road, Gujjar Basti

FaisalabadFaysal Bank Limited atLiaquat Road Faislabad -Vs-Abdul Hafeez.SUMMONS U/s 9(5) of theFinancial Institutions (Recov-ery of Finances)Ordinance (2001)NOTICE TO- Abdul HafeezS/o Gulzar Ahmad R/O: 1.House No. 24, Street # 17, X-block, Madina Town, Fsd. 2.H.A Tex Shop # 59, MarketSatiana Road, Faisalabad.Whereas: the aforesaid plain-tiff has instituted a suit againstyou and others for the recov-ery of Rs. 158400-70- alongwith markup / interest and costetc claimed to be payable byyou. A summon U/s 9(5) ofordinance no. XLVI of 2001referred above is hereby issuedrequiring you to make within30 days from the service ofthis summon, an applicationfor leave to defend the suit U/S 10(1). Take notice that onyour failure to file such appli-cation within time specifiedabove, the Banking Courtshall pass a decree as prayedfor in the plaint, in favor of inthe plaintiff Banking Com-pany. Next date of the furtherproceedings in this case hasbeen fixed on 23-07-2013.Given under my hand and sealof this court on 05-07- 2013.

JudgeBanking Court-1I

Faisalabad

the country. Presiding over the17th meeting of the National PriceMonitoring Committee, Dar saidthat district price control commit-tees would be established thatwould comprise of representativesfrom government bodies, con-sumers and producers.

The finance minister saidthat price hikes will be controlledby acting on the recommenda-tions put forth by the committee.

Dar expressed regret at thefact that a mechanism to moni-tor prices could not be devisedeven after holding talks with thegovernment for 45 days, and is-sued a call for making consumerprotection laws functional.

The finance minister saidthat he looked forward to the co-operation of the provinces so thatthe price disparities amongst theprovinces could also be moni-tored.

“Traders in Sindh would bewarned against black-marketing,hoarding and profiteering,” saidthe finance minister, adding thatFood Department and UtilityStores Corporation would bringtheir stocks in the market in caseof shortage. Fair price shops andRamazan Bazars would also beformed in all the provinces. Thegovernment has already an-nounced a Rs2 billion Ramazanrelief package. The meeting ap-proved a number of measures bythe provinces and IslamabadCapital Territory administrationfor keeping a check on prices dur-ing Ramazan. It was decided thatin Punjab, district price controlcommittees will be activated and

Dar calls forFrom Page 1

SALIM AHMED

LAHORE—Former InformationMinister and PPP Leader, QamarZaman Kaira, has regretted theunderstanding of a section of me-dia who were holding the Presidentof Pakistan responsible for OBLdebacle as well adding that it re-flected poorly on their lack of un-derstanding because the Presidentwas the notional Supreme Com-mander of the armed forces whohad no role in their operational andprofessional responsibilities.

In a parliamentary system ofdemocracy, the President is a cer-emonial head who hardly takespart in the governance of the coun-try and the Executive part of thegovernment undertakes it for

which it is accountable to the Par-liament and not to the President.

Mr. Kaira said that it wasunfair to expect from the Armyand the Intelligence Agencies todetect the US helicopters whenthese flying machine took offfrom an airbase in Afghanistanto execute OBL operation inAbbottabad. The US helicopterswere equipped with the lateststealth technology that our radarare unable to track them down onour radar’s screen and for thatmatter no other country has suchtechnology . It will not be a trib-ute to the knowledge of thosewho blamed the Pakistan AirForce was incompetent and in-efficient, commented Mr. Kaira.

He said that it was lack ofmeasuring technological capabil-ity of the Pakistan Armed Forcesthat hindered its ability to eitherpre-empt or scramble the US he-licopters before their enteringinto the air space of Pakistan.

He said that the presence ofOBL in Afghanistan, Pakistan oron Pak-Afghan Border wasequally the failure of CIA, UKMI6, ISI and other internationalagencies who were engaged inhunting down OBL adding CIAsucceeded after 11 years that re-flected the improbability of theissue not withstanding that theUS had declared him number onewanted man on the face of planet.

Mr. Kaira lamented the crit-ics of the Armed Forces who ex-pect the security apparatus tocontain the military operationalreach of the only Super-Powerwhose resources for its armywere any body’s guess.

He suggested that theAbbottabad Commission reportshould be withdrawn by the Com-mission to determine whether Pa-kistan Armed Forces had the ca-pability to see such stealth tech-nology equipped flying machineson their radar system. He sug-gested to the lobby to let the bet-ter sense sway their thinking anddesist from demoralizing ourbrave soldiers and officers whowere deeply committed to elimi-nate the scourge of extremism andterrorism. Wild speculations willserve the cause of the enemy ofPakistan, he concluded.

PPP leader says president isceremonial head

Capital Company Ltd., ChinaZong Fong Investment CompanyLtd. and Mr. Brigham Edward,Chief Executive Officer AIC,LLC signed the agreements onbehalf of their companies.

Before the signing ceremony,a meeting was held to review thepace of investment by foreigninvestors in various sectors par-ticularly energy. Addressing onthe occasion, MuhammadShahbaz Sharif said that Pakistanis facing energy crisis and gov-ernment is taking steps on emer-gent basis for coping with thisserious problem. He said thatovercoming energy crisis is toppriority of the government andthis issue also remained on thetop during his recent visit ofChina.

He said that agreements weremade with a number of Chinesecompanies for cooperation inenergy sector.

The Chief Minister saidthat metro bus service andother projects are a clear proofof this fact. The representa-tives of foreign companies saidthat they would implementthese agreements speedily andtheir engineering team is go-ing to reach Lahore next weekin this regard.

Huge foreigninvestment in

Punjab,agreements signed

From Page 1

COURT NOTICE

Peshawar High Court,Peshawar

C.R NO 149/2013Muhammad Fayyaz VSSalau-ud-DinFixed for 16/9/2013 before theDeputy RegistrarNOTICE TO :- 10) Mst, Asifjehan11) Mst. Sultan jehan(Drs) of Firdos Khan 12) Mst.Abida Jehan died throughLRs12/1) Zain Khan (Hus-band) 12/2) Kamran Khan12/3) Jawad Khan( Ss) 12/4Mst. Khushbo (dr) 13) MstSaeedajehan Begum 14) Mst.Hameedajehan begum drs/oFirdos Khan 15) MohammadIdrees khan s/o Hikmat Khan16) Mst. Nizakat begum didthrough LRs 16/1) Jinab-e-Ali(Husband) 16/2) Shah room16/3) Shah Fahad 16/4) ShahSaood 16/5) Waqas (ss) 17)Mst Shaukat begum d/oMuhammad Arsal khan 18)Iftekhar Ahmad Khan 19)Zulfiqar Ahmad Khan 20)Mukhtiar Ahmad Khan 21)Imtiaz Ahmad Khan (ss) 22)Mst Jehan Ara Begum d/oAbdul Shakoor Khan 23)Arshad Javed Khan (ss) 25)Mst. Sajida begum 26) Mst.Nasira Begum 27) Mst. NighatBegum 28) Mst. AzraShaheenbegum drs/o Fida MuhammadKhan 29) Abdul Qayyum diedthrough LRs 29/1) Mst.Shaheen Begum (wd) 29/2)Nasir Khan 29/3) Tahir Khan(ss) 30) AbdusSamad Khan 31)Muhammad Khalid Khan (ss)32) Mst. Tasleem Begum d/oFaghfoor Khan 33)RoohulIbrar Khan 34) SajjadSarwar Khan (Ss) 35) Mst.Shahida Begum d/o GhulamSarwar Khan 36) Mst. ZakiaBegum d/o MuhammadAsghar Khan 37) Iqbal HaiderKhan s/o Ghulam haider Khan38) Nazar Muhammad Khans/o Fazal Illahi 39) Muntazir s/oUmar Khitab R/O GeedarMehmood Abad Tehsil & dis-trict MardanWHEREAS notices were is-sued to the respondents men-tioned above for appearancebefore the Deputy Registrar butthe said respondents could notbe served through normal pro-cess AND WHEREAS the serviceof the said respondents is notpracticable through normalprocess; they are, therefore,served within this notice fortheir appearance before theDeputy Registrar on 16-9-2013at 8.30 A.M. personally orthrough an authorized counselor an authorized agent, failingwhich exparteproceedings shallbe taken against them. Given under my hand and sealof the Court this 29th day ofJune 2013

ADDITIONALREGISTRAR

OPEN AUCTION

As per the orders of G E Air(PAF) Mianwali Cantt differ-ent kind of condemned storewould be auctioned on 18 July2013 at 10.a.m. All conditionswould be announced beforethe auction.ADVERTISER—Haji DanishGul & Company Governmentauctioneer bazaar JehangirPura Peshawar .Cell- 0333-9129652.

prices of essential items will befixed keeping in view the mar-ket condition by consulting allstakeholders.

In Sindh, all Commissionersand Deputy Commissioners willhold meetings with various trad-ers and caution them againsthoarding, black-marketing andprofiteering. It was decided thatin case of any shortage, Food De-partment and Utility Stores Cor-poration will bring their stocksin the market and control roomswill be established in offices ofall Commissioners and DeputyCommissioners in the province.

To properly monitor theprices in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa,it was decided that to fix pricesof all essential commodities, Dis-trict Price Review Committeeswill be established, prices will bemonitored by district administra-tion and Food Departmentjointly, District Administrationwill plan Jumma and Atwar Ba-zaars at suitable places and strictwatch on Atta Dealers to ensureavailability of Atta throughoutthe province.

In Balochistan, price lists willbe notified in consultation withtraders and consumer society, ex-isting stocks of essential items willbe verified and measures will betaken to improve supply and ad-dress shortage and Itwar, Jummaand daily Ramazan Bazaars willbe made operational. In IslamabadCapital Territory, it was decidedthat rate lists of fruits, vegetables,chicken, eggs will be fixed ondaily basis and the prices of yo-gurt, Basin, Pakora, Samosa,Jelabi will be notified by DeputyCommissioner.

as a gift to the people of the re-gion. Enumerating the sacrificesthat Pakistani civilians and law-enforcement agencies’ personnelhave rendered in the war againstterror, the Prime Minister said,“we salute all those who laiddown their lives in the fightagainst terror and those whowithstood the onslaught of hard-ships of time without getting in-timidated in the process.”

The Prime Minister said thatthe people of Pakistan haveshown their utmost resilience intheir hour of adversity and it isthis national character and unre-lenting hope for peace which willhelp us defeat the forces of ter-ror. The meeting also discussedvarious proposals and recom-mendations put forward by FATAparliamentarians to bring the areainto the national mainstream.

Responding to their sugges-tions for the uplift of FATA, thePrime Minister expressed the re-solve of his government to insti-tute such policies and projects inthe area which would help thepeople of the area to play theirpositive and constructive role atthe national level.

NawazFrom Page 1

ministers. Portfolios of thenewly inducted ministers andadvisor would be announcedshortly.

Dramatically, SharmillaFarooqui was not taken in thecabinet. Sources claimed thatSharmilla Farooqui could be in-ducted in the Sindh cabinet at alater stage.

Sources claimed that SyedOwais Muzaffar would be givebncharge of 5 ministries at a timeand if the MQM chooses to siton the treasury benches, it wouldbe easier for the provincial gov-ernment to re-distribute and re-locate the ministerial portfolios.

The new ministers includedwere Syed Owais Muzzafar, JamMehtab Dahr, Mukesh KumarChawla, Ali Mardan Shah, GiyanChand, Rubina SadaatQaimkhani, Dost Ali, JawedNagori and Jam Khan.

Muhammad Khan Junejohad been appointed as advisor tothe Sindh CM.

9 ministersFrom Page 1

COURT NOTICE

In the Court of Mr.Zulqarnain Sahib, Civil

Judge ChakwalCivil Appeal: Divorce Ahmed Khan etc VS KhizarHayat etc MemoJaved Iqbal S/O MuhammadIqbal R/O Rawal Bala Tehsil& Distt, ChakwalWhereas serving of summonto the respondent in the caseas titled above is not porrible,the respondent is herely informed through this ad in thisnewspapers that the respon-dent has been announced toappear in this court in personon be represented by a lawyerin this court on 12-07-2013 at08.00 hours. In case of non-compliance, ex-party proceed-ing shall take place.Given under my hand and sealof the Court.

Sd/- Civil Judge Chakwal

LAHORE—The interim chair-man of the Pakistan CricketBoard, Najam Sethi has madeit clear that he will not be tak-ing any illegal or unconstitu-tional decision in the affairsof the Board and importantdecisions will be taken afterreceiving detailed orders ofthe apex courts.

“Changes in the PCBconstitution, holding theelections for the slot of theChairman PCB, and formationof the new selection commit-tee and decisions on otherimportant issues relating tothe PCB will be taken afterreceiving detailed orders ofthe Islamabad and SindhHigh Courts,” he told news-men after a meeting of theGoverning Board of the PCBhere on Wednesday at na-tional cricket academy.

He informed theIslamabad High Court hasdirected him to resolve is-sues within 90-day after hisappointment as interim chair-man of the Board but he willexecute the orders of thecourt after getting detailedorders.

“I don’t want to indulgemyself in any illegal or un-constitutional acts or deci-

I will not take any illegal orunconstitutional decision: Sethi

sions and as the interimchairman of the PCB I will befollowing the directions ofthe courts in letter and spirit,”he asserted.

He dispelled any impres-sion that the governingboard meeting was sum-moned secretly saying thatdue to lesser time and extraload of work the meeting wascalled on emergent basis andits invitation was extended toits all members one dayahead of it.

He said the governingboard members have reposedconfidence on him and he

would be endeavouring tolive up to the expectations.

“I have come to knowabout the affairs of the PCBand issues pertaining to theBoard and as the interimchairman I will be doing myutmost to resolve them,” hesaid adding “Necessary di-rections have been given tothe Chief financial officer ofthe PCB to take measures toreduce the expanse of theBoard.”

He said: “A lot of ques-tions have been put up re-garding the budget of thePCB whose approval will begiven after my visit to theWest Indies.”

Najam Sethi said in nextfive to six days he will be pro-ceeding to the West Indiesto review the performance ofthe national team and to lookinto the allied matters relat-ing to the team.

To a question, he pointedout that the process ofawarding TV rights will becarried out in a transparentway of bidding to dispeldoubts and a former Presi-dent of ICC Ahsan Mani willbe assisting the PCB free ofcost in this regard.

The chairman PCB said

the national selection com-mittee as well as the teamcaptain, vice captain and thecoach are responsible for theteam selection and they willalso be responsible for theresults achieved by the team.

He mentioned that aschairman PCB he is not draw-ing any financial benefitsfrom the PCB and he will notbe availing the first class trav-eling facility by air nor anyofficial of the Board will beentitled for it.

To a question regardingdown or right sizing in thePCB, he said different op-tions are under consider-ation and necessary mea-sures will be taken to reducethe expenditure in the PCB.

“The slot of ChairmanPCB is not a bed of roses, itis a challenging assignmentand I will try to do justice bymaintaining transparency inall manners,” he asserted.

He said the house alsodiscussed the matter of over-hauling the domestic cricketstructure and it was decidedthat the proposal tabled inthis regard will be put up inthe next meeting of the gov-erning Board for their ap-proval.—APP

CHITRAL: Players of Jang Bazaar and Moldeh team struggling to get holding on the ball during final of 2nd MalikSaad Shaheed Football Tournament 2013.

Jang Bazaarteam win Saad

ShaheedFootball trophyGUL HAMAAD FAROOQI

CHITRAL—Second MalakSaad Shaheed Football Tour-nament 2013 concluded atparade ground of Chitral.Shahzada Amanur Rehmanroyal prince and chief patronof District Football Associa-tion was chief guest on theoccasion of final match.

Some 32 teams partici-pated in this tournament.Both of teams’ players playedaggressively and no goalwas score until first half timeeven upto the end of secondhalf time.

Hence the Refry giventhem chance of running pen-alty. During running penaltyAhmad captain of Jang Bazarscore final goal and wonMalak Saad Shaheed Foot-ball tournament trophy. Talk-ing to this scribe HussainAhmad coordinator of MalakSaad Shaheed Trust said thatmain objective of the tourna-ment to pay rich tribute to ourpolice martyred. ShahzadaAman said that Chitral havegood potential and players ofthe area can contest on na-tional and international levelbut unfortunately there is nopublic stadium at Chitralwhere our players can im-prove our skill.

He announced 10000 forwinner and 5000 for runnerup team and distributed cupsand awards among the play-ers. A large number of spec-tators were present at paradeground who enjoyed finalmatch.

LAHORE: DG Pakistan Rangers (Punjab) Major General Mian Muhammad Hilal Hussain giving away 1st prize to thewinner of Pakistan Rangers Punjab Body Building Show-2013 at Rangers Headquarters.

NOTTINGHAM—Australiafast bowler Peter Siddleripped through England’s toporder as the hosts collapsedto 185 for six at tea on an ab-sorbing opening day of thefirst Ashes test at TrentBridge on Wednesday.

The fiery Siddle dis-missed Joe Root before lunchand he added the wickets ofKevin Pietersen, JonathanTrott, Ian Bell and Matt Priorin the afternoon session toput Australia in control of thematch.

Jonny Bairstow was un-beaten on 32 at the intervalwith Stuart Broad on one.

England captain AlastairCook won the toss and choseto bat in overcast conditions.

James Pattinson’s firstball of the series was a mas-sive wide and the fastbowler initially struggled tofind his line as the ballswung extravagantly in theair.

Cook clipped MitchellStarc crisply through mid-

wicket for the first four of thegame and although the En-gland openers had to survivethe odd unplayable delivery,they looked comfortable atthe crease.

On 13, however, Cookdrove loosely at a wide ballfrom Pattinson and nickeda routine catch through towicketkeeper Brad Haddin.

The Australians wildly

1st Investec Test: Five starSiddle rips through England

celebrated the wicket of theEngland captain, who scored766 runs in the last Ashesseries, but the situation wastailor-made for the phleg-matic Trott.

He greeted Siddle to theattack with successive foursand also dispatched spinnerAshton Agar’s first ball intest cricket to the extra coverboundary.

Root, opening for the firsttime in tests, struck six neatfours but he was completelydeceived by the first ball ofSiddle’s second spell, a rapidfull-length yorker whichcrashed into his stumps toend a second-wicket partner-ship of 51.

England took lunch on 98for two but Pietersen, return-ing to the side after injury,nibbled at a Siddleoutswinger in the first overof the afternoon session andwas well caught by Australiacaptain Michael Clarke atsecond slip for 14.

Trott struck eight

sweetly-timed fours andwas two runs short of hisfifty when he carelesslydragged a wide Siddle de-livery on to his stumps toleave England in trouble at124 for four.

Bairstow and Bell shareda fluent 54-run partnershipfor the fifth wicket beforeBell, on 25, limply hung hisbat at a Siddle outswinger

and edged a catch to ShaneWatson at first slip.

Prior then swatted a wideball from Siddle straight to

Phil Hughes at point to givethe bowler his eighth five-wicket haul in tests and sendthe few pockets of Australianfans in the crowd into rap-tures.

Australia sprang a sur-prise by picking the 19-year-old Agar, who has playedonly 10 first-class matches,ahead of off-spinner NathanLyon.—AFP

England 1st innings:Cook b Pattinson .......... 13JE Root b Siddle ............ 30Trott b Siddle ................. 48Pietersen b Siddle ......... 14Bell c Watson b Siddle . 25Bairstow b Starc ............ 37Prior c Hughes b Siddle . 1Broad c & b Pattinson .. 24Swann not out ................. 0ST Finn c Haddin b Starc . 0Anderson not out ........... 0Extras: (b6, lb5, w8, nb2) . 21Total: (9 wickets) ......... 213Fall of wickets: 1-27, 2-78, 3-102, 4-124, 5-178, 6-180, 7-213, 8-213, 9-213Bowling: ........... O-M-R-WPattinson ............ 16-2-67-2Starc ................. 16.4-4-54-2Siddle .................. 14-4-50-5AC Agar ............... 7-1-24-0Watson ................... 4-2-7-0

SCOREBOARD

TRENT BRIDGE: Joe Root was cleaned up by Peter Siddle’s yorker during England vsAustralia 1st Investec Test on Wednesday.

WAH CANTT: Lt Gen Muhammad Ahsan Mahmood, Chair-man POF Board inaugurating the newly upgraded Swim-ming Pool situated at Haider Road.

SPORTS REPORTER

WAH CANTT—Theprogress of any society re-lies upon sports related

Newly renovated swimmingpool of POF inaugurated

healthy activities. POF ad-ministration alwaysendeavours to provide beststandard sports facilities tothe employees and their fami-

lies. These views were ex-pressed by Lt GenMuhammad AhsanMahmood, HI(M) ChairmanPOF Board on the eve of in-augural ceremony of newlyrenovated Swimming Poolsituated at Haider Road, WahCantt. which is meant for POFEmployees and their families.

Chairman POF Board fur-ther remarked that this Swim-ming Pool has been up-graded by spending hand-some money and is at par withInternational standard. POFChairman added that it hasbeen built with the amountearned by POF employeeswho worked day and nightfor the progress of POF andnow it should be our collec-tive obligation to take care ofthis precious asset, so thatno one could dare to damageit.

Earlier, President POFSports Control Board Mr.Muhammad Rizwan in hiswelcoming remarks told thatthis Swimming Pool was con-structed in way back 1968and now it has been up-graded after 45 years whichwould certainly provide anexcellent facility to the inhab-itants of Wah Cantt. He fur-ther said that it is a beautifulgift for the residents of WahCantt. by POF administrationand due to keen interest ofChairman POF Board in thepromotion of sports activi-ties Wah Cantt. will soon getthe status of Sports City.

PSB summercoaching camp

concludesPESHAWAR—A month longsummer coaching camp ofthe Pakistan Sports BoardCoaching Center Peshawarconcluded here on Wednes-day with 20 each squash andathletic players took part.

Former World ChampionQamar Zaman and SquashWizard Jansher Khan gracedthe occasion as chief guest.

Former World No.2Mohib Ullah, who is also Di-rector Sports PSB CoachingCenter, former national ath-lete Ghulam Noorani Khan,officials, coaches and play-ers were also present on theoccasion.

A total of 20 boys andgirls trained under qualifiedsquash coaches Mohib UllahKhan, Pervez Khan andShehzad Khan impartedtraining and coaching to theyoungsters in afternoon ses-sion. Speaking on the occa-sion, Qamar Zaman said hold-ing of coaching camps forsquash players and athleteswould benefit for kids.

He termed good coach-ing at grassroots level wouldalso help the youth to learnbasic techniques under thesupervision of trained andqualified coaches. He alsolauded the role of DirectorSports PSB Coaching CenterPeshawar Mohib Ullah fortaking keen interest. He alsoadvised the youngsters towork hard for winning moreprime and laurels.—APP

Why Razzaqnot in the

team: SarfrazISLAMABAD—Former TestCricketer Sarfraz Nawaz onWednesday questioned Pa-kistan Cricket Board (PCB)for their biased attitudeagainst the talented all-rounder Abdur Razzaq, say-ing if a veteran of the age ofShahid Afridi could be givenanother chance, why Razzaqhad been overlooked.

Prior to the announce-ment of the squads for theWest Indies series, PCB’smedical experts had physicalfitness tests of the playersincluding Harris Sohail,Sohaib Maqsood, RazaHassan, Nasir Jamshed,Muhammad Irfan, ZulfiqarBabar, Sharjeel Khan, UsmanQadir, Shahid Afridi andAbdur Rehman. It was Afterthe tests the experts senttheir recommendations to theboard, to decide their selec-tion in the national teams.

Talking to APP, Sarfrazsaid why was Razzaq over-looked by the board in thistest. “If Razzaq would havefailed in the test, the PCBwould have a reason of drop-ping him from the squads,rather than ignoring him fromthe test,” he questioned. The former pacer said hecannot understand why suchdiscrimination was done bythe board.—APP

NORFOLK, VA —The Navywill attempt to land a drone thesize of a fighter jet aboard anaircraft carrier for the first timeWednesday, showcasing themilitary’s capability to have acomputer program perform oneof the most difficult tasks a pi-lot is asked to do.

If all goes as planned, a suc-cessful landing of the X-47Bexperimental aircraft will meanthe Navy can move forwardwith its plans to develop anotherunmanned aircraft that will jointhe fleet alongside traditionalairplanes to provide around-the-clock surveillance while alsopossessing a strike capability.The aircraft’s success would

pave the way for the U.S. tolaunch unmanned aircraft withoutthe need to obtain permissionfrom other countries to use theirbases. The X-47B experimentalaircraft will take off from NavalAir Station Patuxent River inMaryland before approaching theUSS George H.W. Bush, whichis operating off the coast of Vir-ginia. The drone will try to landby deploying a tailhook that willcatch a wire aboard the ship andbring it to a quick stop, just likenormal fighter jets do. The ma-neuver is known as an arrestedlanding and has previously onlybeen done by the drone on land atPatuxent River. Landing on a shipthat is constantly moving while

navigating through turbulent airbehind the aircraft carrier is seenas a more difficult maneuver.

“Your grandchildren andgreat grandchildren and mine willbe reading about this historic eventin their history books. This is nottrivial, nor is it something thatcame lightly,” said Rear Adm. MatWinter, the Navy’s program ex-ecutive officer for unmanned avia-tion and strike weapons.

Just like a traditional airplane,if the landing has to be called offfor any reason at the last second,it can perform a touch-and-gomaneuver. It performed nine suchmaneuvers in May, when it alsotook off from an aircraft carrierfor the first time. he X-47B will

never be put into operational use,but it will help Navy officials de-velop future carrier-based drones.Those drones could begin operat-ing by 2020, according to Winter.Four companies are expected tocompete for a contract to designthe future unmanned aircraft,which will be awarded in FiscalYear 2014. The two experimentalaircrafts that have been built forthe first round of testing will beretired and placed in museums atPatuxent River and at Naval AirStation Pensacola in Florida.

The move to expand the ca-pabilities of the nation’s dronescomes amid growing criticism ofAmerica’s use of Predators andReapers to gather intelligence and

carry out lethal missile attacksagainst terrorists in Iraq, Afghani-stan, Pakistan and Yemen.

Critics in the U.S. and abroadhave charged that drone strikescause widespread civilian deathsand are conducted with inad-equate oversight. Still, defenseanalysts say drones are the futureof warfare. The X-47B is far big-ger than the Predator, has threetimes the range and can be pro-grammed to carry out missionswith no human intervention, theNavy said.

While the X-47B isn’t astealth aircraft, it was designedwith the low profile of one. Thatwill help in the development offuture stealth drones, which

US Navy to attempt 1st unmanned carrier landingwould be valuable as the militarychanges its focus from the MiddleEast to the Pacific, where a num-ber of countries’ air defenses area lot stronger than Afghanistan’s.The X-47B has a wingspan ofabout 62 feet and weighs 14,000pounds, versus nearly 49 feet andabout 1,100 pounds for the Preda-tor. While Predators are typicallypiloted via remote control by some-one in the U.S., the X-47B reliesonly on computer programs to tellit where to fly unless a human op-erator needs to step in. The Navysays the aircraft relies on precisionGPS navigation, a high-integritynetwork connection and advancedflight control software to guide it-self. Developed by Northrop

Grumman under a 2007 contractat a cost of $1.4 billion, the X-47Bis capable of carrying weapons andis designed to be the forerunnerfor a drone program that will pro-vide around-the-clock intelli-gence, surveillance and targeting,according to the Navy, which hasbeen giving updates on the projectover the past few years.

“It has taken several years ofsoftware development, thousandsof simulated landings in high fi-delity labs and many hours offlight test in the Patuxent Riverlanding pattern to prove this aircraftis up for the challenge,” Capt. JaimeEngdahl, program manager for theNavy Unmanned Combat Air Sys-tem wrote in a blog post.—AP

Justice Nasiracting CECISLAMABAD—Justice Nasir-ul-Mulk, Judge, Supreme Court ofPakistan was sworn in as ActingChief Election Commissioner ofPakistan here on Wednesday.Chief Justice IftikharMuhammad Chaudhry adminis-tered the oath of the office to Jus-tice Nasir-ul-Mulk. Judges of theSupreme Court of Pakistan, At-torney General of Pakistan, of-ficers of Election Commission ofPakistan, prominent lawyers andLaw officers also attended theceremony. Dr. Faqir Hussain,Registrar Supreme Court of Pa-kistan conducted the proceedingsof oath taking ceremony. Offic-ers and staff of the SupremeCourt of Pakistan were alsopresent at the occasion.—Online

Fire guts morethan 30 shopsFAISALABAD—Fire caused byan electric short circuit guttedmore than 30 shops in an oilmarket here in the wee hours ofWednesday. According to rescuesources, the fire broke out in agodown of the oil market locatedin Karkhana Bazar, blowing upthe drums of oil which createdpanic in the area. Due to inflam-mable material the fire spreadrapidly and engulfed the sur-rounding shops. Ten fire bri-gades reached the site of the in-cident and extinguished the fireafter three-hour long hectic ef-forts.—INP

Complaint Cellset upStaff ReporterISLAMABAD—On the direc-tions of Federal Minister for In-terior and Narcotics Control,Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan, aComplaints Cell has been estab-lished in the Ministry of Interior.The Complaints Cell has beenactivated to address any griev-ances the general public may haveagainst the officials of the Minis-try of Interior and NarcoticsControl.Complaints can be regis-tered at the following 24-hourhelpline number: 051-2270786.

Chhotu gang fleewith 8 copsRAJANPUR—The gang of out-laws who have taken nine po-licemen hostage in river forestadjacent to Rajanpur fled fromthe area along with eight police-men in captivity on Wednesday.A hostage policeman suc-cumbed to injuries Tuesday. Thegang of kidnappers led byGhulam Rasool alias Chhotuescaped from the area as 700policemen from five districtsfailed to recover their colleaguesfrom captivity of dacoits. Theauthorities on Tuesday gave an8-hour deadline to gangsters torelease abducted policemen andalso decided to call Rangers forassistance in the ongoing policeoperation in Kachcha Jamal areaof Rajanpur. The police havealso called commandoes andgunship helicopters to help indifficult forest terrain along IndusRiver, where around 40 membersof the gang are engaged in gun-fight with the Punjab police forlast three days. —INP

STAFF REPORTER

ISLAMABAD—The SupremeCourt on Wednesday sought areport on the details of expendi-ture incurred to bring backformer oil and gas chief TauqirSadiq.

The apex court also orderedthe National Accountability Bu-reau (NAB) to clarify who willbe charged for these expenses.

UAE authorities had handedover Sadiq to a team of officialsof the NAB on Monday night.

The former Ogra chairman,

SC seeks report on cost of bringing back Tauqirwho is accused of being involvedin a multi-billion rupee scam, hadfled abroad soon after the Su-preme Court declared his ap-pointment illegal on Nov 25,2012. A two member bench of thecourt, headed by Justice JawwadS Khawaja, was hearing the casepertaining to the Ogra scam onWednesday.

The bench directed NAB toinclude in its report the details ofthe expenses incurred by the for-eign lawyers as well as NAB of-ficers’ travel and accommodationto bring Sadiq back.

During proceedings, the bu-reau presented its initial report onbringing back Sadiq to the coun-try. An accountability court inIslamabad had sent the fugitiveformer Ogra chief on a 14-dayphysical remand.

Justice Khawaja questionedthe NAB on what action it hadtaken on reports of various influ-ential personalities aiding Sadiq’sescape from Pakistan.

Prosecutor General KKAgha replied that a senior inves-tigating officer had been assignedand the report would soon be pre-

sented in court.However, Agha pointed out

that the approval of a NAB chair-man, a position that has been va-cant since May 28 when the SCdeclared the appointment offormer chief Fasih Bokhari void,was vital for the bureau to pro-ceed further.

The bench ordered NAB tosubmit a detailed report in thenext hearing on what actions ithad so far taken to implement thecourt’s verdict in the Ogra case.

Proceedings were subse-quently adjourned until July 24.

ALI SYED

ISLAMABAD—Amid the hugehike in inflation with the adventof holy month of Ramadan, theelectric power consumers wereextended a relief of Rs 1.50 perunit by National Electric PowerRegulatory Authority (Nepra).This is first relief to the powerconsumers in the last threeyears.

Believe it or not, but it hashappened. With the new govern-ment of PML-N installed at thecenter, masses experienced thehuge taxation and its adverseimpact on petroleum productsand amid the huge hike in infla-tion, the positive news in reduc-tion of power tariff has been re-ceived as music to ears.

The decision to reduce thepower tariff by Rs 1.50 per unit

has been taken by the regulatorfor the month of June under thehead of fuel adjustment mecha-nism.

However, the consumers ofthe biggest city of the country—Karachi will not be benefitingfrom the decision as it will notcome into effect for the consum-ers of the Karachi Electric Sup-ply Company (KESC).

However, the consumers ofall discos except KESC will bebenefiting from the decision.Nepra has sought the reportabout the fault appeared in thepower plant of the Jamshoro andowing to the shutting down ofthe plant, the electricity couldnot be generated on gas. Theregulator was told the probe hasstarted into the fault in theJamshoro plant and the respon-sible will be fixed.

Nepra cuts power tariffby Rs. 1.50 per unit

ISLAMABAD—Pakistan is sup-porting and facilitating peaceprocess in Afghanistan and cur-rently relationship with Af-ghanistan has improved. These views were ex-pressed by Special secretaryMinistry of Foreign Affairs andDG Afghanistan while briefingthe Senate Standing Commit-tee on Foreign Affairs andKashmir Affairs and Gilgit-Baltistan presided over bySenator Haji Muhammad Adeel

The Committee discussedin detail the Afghan peace pro-cess with particular reference totalks with Taliban and role ofPakistan in opening the officeof Taliban at Doha. SenatorHaji Adeel and other membersof the Committee observed thatpeace process is important,

however steps should be takento improve security situationwith in the country also. Hesaid that Pakistan has suffereda lot of losses because of ter-rorism. He said that we shouldnot compromise on our nationalinterests. Chairman of theCommittee further observedthat the matter is of extreme na-tional significance and needsdetailed discussion.

The Chairman of the Com-mittee decided to take up thematter in presence of the Advi-sor to PM on Foreign Affairsand Secretary of the Ministry.

Earlier the Committee wasgiven a detailed briefing ontalks with Taliban and role ofPakistan in whole peace pro-cess. Special secretary Minis-try of Foreign Affairs and DG

Afghanistan informed theCommittee that Pakistan isplaying a role as facilitator forpositive and constructive en-gagement.

It was stated that Pakistansupports an Afghan-owned andAfghan-led peace process.They informed that peace andstability in Afghanistan is di-rectly linked with peace andstability in Pakistan and cur-rently relationship with Af-ghanistan has improved and theleadership of both the coun-tries is in contact with eachother. The PrimeMinister of Pakistan has ex-tended an invitation to AfghanPresident and the AfghanPresident has extended invita-tion to the Prime Minister ofPakistan for a visit.—Online

Pakistan, Afghanistanties has improved

ISLAMABAD: KP Governor Engineer Shaukatullah Khan called on Prime Minister Muhammad Nawaz Sharif at the PM Office.

CAIRO —Egypt’s new leadershave won $8 billion in promisesof aid from wealthy Gulf Araballies in moves aimed at stabi-lizing a political transition lessthan a week after the army de-posed the country’s Islamistpresident.

Also on Tuesday, the interimpresident named a new primeminister and Egyptian armedforces warned political factionsthat “maneuvering” must nothold up the military’s ambitiousfast-track timetable for newelections next year.

The sharp message under-lined how strongly the militaryis shepherding the process, evenas liberal reform movementsthat backed its removal ofMohammed Morsi complainedthat now they are not being con-sulted in decision-making.

The Muslim Brotherhooddenounced the transition plan,vowing to continue its street pro-tests until the ousted Morsi,Egypt’s first freely elected presi-dent, is returned to power.

Tuesday’s appointment ofeconomist Hazem el-Beblawi asprime minister, along with thesetting of the accelerated time-

table, underlined the army’s de-termination to push ahead in theface of Islamist opposition andoutrage over the killing of morethan 50 Morsi supporters onMonday.

Saudi Arabia and the UnitedArab Emirates provided a wel-come boost for the new leader-ship. The two countries, bothopponents of Morsi’s Brother-hood, celebrated his ouster byshowering the cash-strappedEgyptian government withpromises of $8 billion in grants,loans and badly needed gas andoil. In doing so, they are effec-tively stepping in for Morsi’sGulf patron, Qatar, a close allyof the Brotherhood that gave hisgovernment several billion inaid. During Morsi’s year in of-fice, he and his officials touredmultiple countries seeking cashto prop up rapidly draining for-eign currency reserves and plugmounting deficits — at timesgetting a cold shoulder.

The developments under-lined the pressures on the newleaders even with the countrystill in turmoil after whatMorsi’s supporters have calleda coup against democracy.—AP

Gulf states to aidEgypt by $8b

ISLAMABAD—The EuropeanUnion Delegation Wednesdayinformed that the funds for im-proving Parliamentary Perfor-mance project have been in-creased from 4.7 million Euroto 5.7 million Euro and theproject has been extended from2014 to 2016. In their meetingwith Chairman Senate, SyedNayyer Hussain Bukhari at theParliament House here, the

EU increases fund for MPs Performance projectmembers said the project wouldhelp in improving the legislativework of the Parliament andwould also assist in improvingthe performance of NationalAssembly and Senate throughyoung Parliamentary associateprogramme.

The Chairman Senate saidthat the political forces have toplay a responsible role tostrengthen democracy and

democratic institutions in Pa-kistan.

“We highly appreciate theassistance provided by EU forimproving performance of Par-liamentarians.”

The Delegation was headedby member of European Parlia-ment Mickle Gahler which alsoincluded EU Envoy in Pakistan,Lars Gounnar, Mr.Berend andMs. Eva. —APP

UK can takeaction againstAltaf: Gahler

ISLAMABAD—European Union(EU), Chief Observer of Elec-tion Mission and Member EUParliament Michael Gahler onWednesday said that Britaingovernment can take actionagainst MQM chief AltafHussain about his alleged threat-ening statements to media aswell as his opponents.

On the occasion of releas-ing the final report on elections2013, held on May 11, the EUchief observer said that the Brit-ish government was responsiblefor taking action against AltafHussain as the MQM chief isresiding there in Britain for thedecades.

“Altaf Hussain currentlyresiding in Britain and the Brit-ain government can decide anyaction against him” Michaelsaid. —NNI

Woman stonedto death

DERA GHAZI KHAN—Motherof two children was stoned todeath over recovery of a mobileon the decision of Panchiyathere on Wednesday.

According to details, a mo-bile phone was recovered fromArifa Bibi, hailing from BastiQaimwala of Dera Ghazi Khan,after which the uncle and rela-tives summoned the Panchiyat.

The Panchiyat gave deci-sion to stone to death thewoman after which she wastaken to unpopulated area andkilled by pelting stones andbricks at her.—INP

Stock marketcloses at

all-time highOBSERVER REPORT

KARACHI—Pakistani stockscontinued their upward trend,breaking through their all timehigh record on Wednesday. Themarket gained 263.72 points onthe back of heavy trading wit-nessed in the banking and oil andgas sectors.

The benchmark 100 indexof the Karachi Stock Exchangegained 1.16 per cent, closing ata record 22984.94 points.Record activity was witnessedon the local bourse as volumesreached close to a four-year highof Rs18 billion. Large cap stockssupported overall activity as for-eign inflows increased, evidentfrom the fact that top threestocks made 35 percent of thevolume.

Riding on the back of con-tinued optimism in the market,the oil and gas sector saw heavygains as investors expected gasprices going up in the future.This, coupled with the govern-ment plan to resolve the circulardebt issue, bolstered investor op-timism in the power sector as well.An analyst at Optimus Securitiesclaimed continued foreign invest-ment in the market led to the riseyet again.

Taliban rejectappeals for

Ramazan ceasefireISLAMABAD—The AfghanTaliban have rejected appealsmade by Afghan President HamidKarzai and a senior UN officialfor a ceasefire in Ramazan andvowed to increase attacks, claim-ing the “reward of fighting ismuch higher in the holy month.”

President Karzai in hisRamazan message had asked theTaliban to stop fighting.

“On the occasion of the holymonth of Ramazan, I appeal to theTaliban to follow the path of peaceand to stop killing people. I invitethem to come and help the coun-try and start an honourable life,”Afghan state television quotedPresident Karzai. A day beforeKarzai’s appeal to the Taliban,a UN official also asked all sidesin the conflict to show respectto Ramazan.

“Afghanistan has enduredmore than three decades of vio-lence and is undergoing a politi-cal and security transition whichis vital to its future development– I take the opportunity to alsocall upon all parties to the con-flict to respect the sanctity of thismonth and allow Afghan fami-lies to worship and celebrate inpeace,” UN Secretary-General’sSpecial Representative, JánKubiš, said.

The Taliban however dis-missed both the appeals and saidthat its fighters will step up at-tacks.—AP

WITH MRI scans becoming cheaperand more common, perhaps the daysof the CT scan that does a similar

function using X-Rays rather than magneticfields, are numbered. A report shows that thecancer risk from CT scans,especially Brain Cancer andLeukemia can triple in somecases.

The Article published inThe Lancet, and written byDr Mark Pearce and Profes-sor Sir Alan Craft,Newcastle University, UK;Professor Louise Parker,Dalhousie University,Halifax, NS, Canada; DrAmy Berrington deGonzález, National CancerInstitute (NCI), National In-stitutes of Health (NIH),Bethesda, MD, USA, andcolleagues, represents theculmination of almost twodecades of research in thisarea, and is jointly funded bythe UK Department of Health and NCI/NIH.

It shows that 2 or 3 computed tomogra-phy (CT) scans of a child’s head (child mean-ing under 15 years old in this case), can triplethe risk of brain cancer. The total dose of ra-diation would be around 60mGy, while 5 to10 scans giving a dose of some 50mGy ormore, triples the risk of leukemia.

The researchers go on to point out thatthe risks are still miniscule as the diseases arenot particularly common, thus an increasedrisk is far from absolute certainty of contract-ing the disease. The CT scan is a useful andsometimes necessary diagnostic tool, andtherefore physicians must weigh the risks and

make patients and their parents aware.The retrospective study used records

from the radiology departments of some 70%of the UK’s hospitals, and gathered data from180,000 patients who underwent CT scans

between 1985 and 2002. Bylooking at the number andtypes of CT scan from therecords, the researchers esti-mated the dose absorbed inmilli-Grays (mGy) by thebrain and bone marrow in pa-tient for each scan. The datawas then cross-checked withcancer incidence and mortal-ity reports in the UK NationalHealth Service Registry be-tween 1985 and 2008. It wasthen possible to show if a per-son having scans was morelikely to develop cancer. Fromthis, they calculated excessincidence of leukemia andbrain tumors.

The UK has relatively lowusage of CT scans due to a

nationalized health service and the IonisingRadiation (Medical Exposure) Regulations,that make sure scans are only done whenmedically justified.

“The immediate benefits of CT outweighthe potential long¬term risks in many set-tings and because of CT’s diagnostic accu-racy and speed of scanning, notably remov-ing the need for anaesthesia and sedation inyoung patients, it will, and should, remainin widespread practice for the foreseeablefuture ... Further refinements to allow reduc-tion in CT doses should be a priority, notonly for the radiology community, but alsofor manufacturers.

CT scans raise cancerrisk for children

ISLAMABAD: A great rush was seen at Utility Stores where commodities on subsidized rates are available on the occasion of Ramazan.

ISLAMABAD: Adriano Chiodi Cianfarani, Ambassador of Italy called on Speaker NationalAssembly Ayaz Sadiq at Parliament House on Wednesday.

STAFF REPORTER

ISLAMABAD—Roots Millen-nium Schools Digital LiteracyDepartment organized a Mil-lennium Digital LifestyleExpo 2013 here on Tuesday atRoots Millennium Schools,Head Office, I-9/3 Islamabadunder the leadership of Mrs.Tayyaba Noureen – ManagerDigital Literacy & ICT Cur-riculum.

This event was structuredto increase focus on develop-ing skills that enable all thelearners to live, learn andwork as an adaptable and suc-cessful professionals in anever changing and digitallyrich environment.

The ‘Millennials DigitalLifestyle Expo 2013’ was de-signed for the teachers andstudents to showcase theirprojects. It was a great learn-

RMS Millennials Digital Lifestyle Expoing experience where studentsalong with their teachers re-flected their learning, and got theopportunity to share their expe-riences of using different ICT

tools that cater to the core skillsof 21st century i.e. Collabora-tion, Communication, CriticalThinking and Technology Lit-eracy & Creativity.

Students from RMS nation-wide participated in theMillennial Expo 2013 to show-case their talent in the field ofICT & Digital Literacy. In this

Expo students’ project wasjudged by a panel of experi-enced and high profile profes-sionals from Intel & MicrosoftPakistan.

Chief Guest & Adjudica-tor of the ceremonywasMuhammad Usman Khan -Citizenship & Partners in Learn-ing Executive Microsoft Corpo-ration along with AdnanShaukat - Education Ac-count Manager MicrosoftCorporation, Ramla Hussain- Senior Trainer Intel Educa-tion Initiatives, Afshan Javed- Senior Trainer Intel Educa-tion Initiatives. As we live in“Digital Literacy Era”, wherecommunications is handledonline through emails, mes-sages, chats and throughother applications.

At the heart of educationin the 21st century, Informa-tion Technology has a veryvital skill set in the informa-tion age. Information Tech-nology in modern age hasevolved from a back officecomponent to a core opera

ISLAMABAD: Improvised stalls have cropped up selling traditional Ramazan delicaciesincluding Phenian which are liked by people to brake their fast.

July 11

‘The Department of EnglishLanguage, AIOU is con-ducting a 10-day long ‘Di-ploma TEFL Workshop at itsmain campus in Sector H-8here from July 11’.

ISLAMABAD—Ambassadors ofArgentina and Italy separatelycalled on Speaker National As-sembly Sardar Ayaz Sadiq onWednesday.

They exchanged views ona wide range of issues includ-ing enhancing parliamentaryand economic ties between Pa-kistan and these countries.

Talking to Ambassador ofArgentine Rodolfo J. MartinSaravia‚ the Speaker said thatPakistan attaches immense im-portance to Argentine andwants to take the existing warmrelations between the two coun-tries to new heights throughparliamentary and economiccooperation.

Ambassador of ArgentineMr. Rodolfo J. Martin Saravia

Pakistan to enhance tieswith Argentina, Italy

said that his country also at-taches great significance to Pa-kistan and would extend its all-out support to Pakistan forovercoming its prevalent chal-lenges.

He expressed his country’sdesire to utilize huge economicand human resource potential inPakistan for mutual benefit. Heagreed that relations betweenboth the countries could betaken to new heights throughparliamentary diplomacy. Healso congratulated Speaker, Na-tional Assembly on his elec-tions as Speaker of the AugustHouse.

Later, the Ambassador ofItaly H.E. Adriano ChiodiCianfarani called on SpeakerNational Assembly. Talking to

the Ambassador, the Speakersaid that Pakistan values highits relations with Italy and de-sires to further strengthen itthrough people-to-people andparliamentary contacts.

He asked the Ambassadorto energize the engagement be-tween business community ofthe both the countries espe-cially in energy sector to over-come the prevalent energy scar-city in the country.

The Ambassador of Italysaid that his country also at-taches great importance to itslongstanding relations with Pa-kistan and assured the Speakerof his government’s unwaver-ing support to democracy andsustainable development in thecountry.—NNI

Allotment toKuri Model

Village affecteesISLAMABAD—Senate StandingCommittee on Cabinet Secre-tariat and Capital Administra-tion and Development Division(CADD) here on Wednesdaysaid the allotment to Kuri ModelVillage affected people would bestarted on July 31.

The committee, met hereunder the chairmanship of Sena-tor Kalsoom Parveen, was ap-prised that payments and allot-ments to the affected people ofsector E-12 would be started ina week. The committee was fur-ther informed that decision onillegal occupants of Sector I-11had already been taken and ac-tion would be started thismonth.—APP

Faisal Mosquetimings for Namaz

ISLAMABAD—During the holymonth of Ramadan, the timingof Namaz-e-Isha would be 09:15while Namaz-e-Jummah wouldbe offered at 01:30 at FaisalMasjid, Islamabad.

According to the circular re-leased by the management ofIslamic Centre of Faisal Masjid,Imamat of Namaz-e-Traveehwould be lead by QariMuhammad Ikhlaq, Qari MuftiZia ur Rehman, QariMuhammad Nauman and QariEhsan Ullah while Khatam-ul-Quran would be done at 25thTraveeh. The Urdu Khutaba inNamaz-e-Jumma duringRamadan would start at 12:45while the Khutaba of Juma-tul-Wida would be delivered byhonourable Prof. Dr. SahibzadaSajid ur Rehman.—NNI

CDA reelingunder ‘municipal’

burdenRIAZ MISSEN

ISLAMABAD—The manage-ment of the Capital Develop-ment Authority (CDA) isseized with the confusion as towhether the new governmentwill keep on burdening the au-thority with municipal role orhand over the same to anelected body after holding thelocal government elections inthe federal capital.

Islamabad High Court or-dered the federal governmentin October last year that itshould hold local governmentelections in Islamabad withinsix months.

The municipal functionshave been assigned to CDAsince 1960’s beyond its origi-nal task of planning and devel-oping the federal capital. Themunicipal role continues tilltoday despite the fact the sys-tem has been experimented inthe rest of the country severaltimes.

The prospects of the CDAreturning to its original taskemerged after GeneralMusharraf had promised localgovernment in Islamabad.Later, Senator Babar Awansaid, in late 2011 that the fed-eral capital will have a provin-cial assembly and he was sec-onded by premier Gilani inApril next year when he hintedat self-rule for Islamabad.

“Development and mu-nicipal functions make con-flicting roles,” said a senior of-ficial of the Capital Develop-ment Authority adding that themore the city developer is sub-jected to act as a civic agency,the more it will bring ineffi-ciency its affairs leading to ul-timate decay.

ISLAMABAD—Long queues ofpeople were witnessed at UtilityStores in the twin cities ofRawalpindi and Islamabad onWednesday, a day before the startof holy month of Ramzan, topurchase commodities on subsi-dized rates.

The government is provid-ing subsidized basic foodstuff,including ghee, oil, dates, pulses,rice and sugar at the stores.

A 20 kg flour bag is beingsold for Rs 635 at the outlets ofUtility Stores Corporation(USC) against Rs 775 in theopen market, vegetable ghee for

Peoples throng USCs to buycommodities on subsidized rates

Rs 120 per kg against Rs 160,cooking oil for Rs 140 per litreagainst Rs 170, dates for Rs160 per kg against Rs 200,baisen (gram flour) for Rs 70per kg against Rs 90, whitegram for Rs 85 kg against Rs100, pulses for Rs 65 per kgagainst Rs 85, tetra pack milkfor Rs 74 per litre against Rs85, rice for Rs 90 per kg againstRs 120 and sugar for Rs 47 perkg against Rs 57.

Chaudhry Asad, a cos-tumer at Utility Store G-7, toldAPP that saving of Rs 20-30 peritem would make a big differ-

ence when the grocery for thewhole month was purchased.

Amin Khan, who was pur-chasing food items at UtilityStore I-10, said there was a bigdifference in prices of daily usecommodities at the state runstores as compared to the openmarket.

There is great rush at theUtility Stores and the peoplehave to wait in long queues tomake payment for the grocerythey purchased, he said andurged the government to openmore stores for providing reliefto the masses.—APP

Security plan forIslamabad during

Ramazan finalizedISLAMABAD—The law enforce-ment agencies have finalized se-curity plan for federal capitalduring Ramazan and 40 mosquesand 29 Imambargahs have beendeclared sensitive.

Spokesman Islamabad Po-lice said that more than 1500cops and officials would performsecurity duty during Ramazan in685 mosques and 40Imambargahs of the city.

He said that patrolling ofpolice mobile vans would alsobe increased in the city.

It should be mentionedthat due to ongoing securitysituation citizens have ex-pressed deep concerns overthe security of worship places,Ramazan Bazaars and publicplaces.

The law enforcement agen-cies (LEAs) have vowed to takeall possible measures for protect-ing public lives and proper-ties.—INP

CITY REPORTER

ISLAMABAD—National Uni-versity of Modern Languages(NUML) arranged a two-dayworkshop on “Thesis and Dis-sertation Supervision” to en-lighten the faculty membersabout the best ways of judgingresearch activities for a doctoraldegree.

Prof Dr Masood AshrafRaja who is highly reputed andrenowned scholar and DirectorNUML-University of NorthTexas (UNT) collaborationproject supervised the work-shop sessions.

Speaking on the occasion,Dr Masood Ashraf said super-vision of a master thesis or PhDdissertation in US is a respon-sibility where the thesis direc-tor, supervisor or committeelook after the larger interests ofthe students carrying out theresearch.

NUML holds workshop onthesis, dissertation supervision

Dr Raja while introducingparticipants about the actualprocess of dissertation super-vision at US Universities saidthat student’s role was to con-vince three members and a di-rector to supervise his thesis.

These three members con-stitute a committee and Direc-tor guides you to get your taskaccomplished in specific area.

He said that entire processinvolves Course Work, Selec-tion of Research/Topic andCommittee, The DissertationWriting Process, and Oral De-fence and they all entail gooddeal of reading, interactionbetween students and their Di-rector, writing, revision, andpreparation before Director’sbuilding up the consensusamong members of thecommittee that s tudent’sproduct was ready for puttingit into the final defence, headded.

BriefsConversion ratesKARACHI—The followingrates will be applicable forconversion into rupees ofForeign Currency Deposits,Dollar Bearer Certificates,Foreign Currency BearerCertificates, Special U.S.Dollar Bonds and profitsthereon by all banks and forproviding Forward Coveron Foreign CurrencyDeposits (excluding F.E. 25deposits) by the State Bankon July 11, 2013. The ratesare U.S. Dollar Rs100.1248,Japanese Yen Rs0.9998, Pound Sterling Rs149.0157 and Euro Rs128.2698.—APP

Tokyo stocks closelowerTOKYO—Tokyo stocksended 0.39 percent lower onWednesday, reversingearlier gains ahead of aspeech by US FederalReserve chief BenBernanke, with investorswaiting for clues to thefuture of the bank’sstimulus programme. TheNikkei index at the TokyoStock Exchange ended56.30 points lower at14,416.60. The Topix indexof all first section shares fell0.14 percent, or 1.69 points,to 1,195.20.—AFP

Nakheel profit upDUBAI—Developer Nakheelsaid on Tuesday that first-half profit climbed 57 per centcompared to the same periodlast year, on the back of arebound in demand forproperties in Dubai. A strongpipeline of Nakheel projectsis under development acrossmajor property sectors. Thecompany recorded a netprofit of Dh1.2 billion asrevenues surged 36 per centto Dh4.23 billion in the firsthalf of 2013. “The strongresults reflect the ongoingsupport of the Governmentof Dubai and the commit-ment by Nakheel todelivering the postrestructuring plan. —AP

Saudi sukuk marketgains momentumRIYADH—Depressed initialpublic offering (IPO) activityin the Gulf CooperationCouncil (GCC) continued intothe second quarter (Q2) of2013 with three new listingsraising a total of only $ 48million. This compared to twoIPOs in Q1, 2013 raising anaggregate of $ 337 million,representing an 86 percentdecrease in total value raised.The average offering valuedropped 94 percent thisquarter compared to the samequarter last year where fourIPOs were witnessed raising atotal of $ 1.1 billion. —AFP

STAFF REPORTER

ISLAMABAD—The businesstarget of Postal Life Insur-ance (PLI) Northern Pakistanrose to Rs. 413.721 millionagainst the set target of Rs.363.53 million, showing posi-tive growth of 113.8% duringthe fiscal year 2012-13. Thebusiness target of LahoreRegion rose to Rs. 270.447mln against the set target ofRs. 217.100 mln, Multan Re-gion business rose to Rs.79.802 mln against the set tar-get of Rs. 100.000 andPeshawar Region businessrose to Rs. 46.471 mln againstthe set target of Rs. 46.434mln, said a report presentedby Nasir Hassan, GeneralManager PLI Northern Paki-stan in a daylong workshophere at Postal Staff College.

The report also high-lighted the new business ter-ritories including mobile in-terface with customer, socialmedia presence, inroads inaffluent corporate sector and100% interactive website forimproving business.

The report also stressed onthe investment in the Informa-tion and Technology cadre,

equipment and strategy andcreation of two more regions.

Nasir Hassan, GeneralManager, PLI said that the tar-get given to his Circle for thefinancial year 2012-13 was suc-cessfully achieved due to thehard work of his dedicatedteam.

Additional Director GeneralPakistan Post Fazli Sattar Khantalking to reporters on Wednes-day said that Pakistan Post wasadopting modern marketingstrategies to provide good ser-vices. Fazli Sattar Khan saidthat due to the wide network ofover 12000 Post Offices, PostalLife Insurance (PLI) servicesare fully extended to both ur-ban and rural areas.

“Pakistan Post is runningthe PLI business on no profitno loss basis where maximumbenefits are given to the PolicyHolders at the minimum cost”,he added. He said that sinceevery post office serves as itsoutlet, thus it gives Postal LifeInsurance an enormous ad-vantage over its business ri-val and helps to offer a widerange of insurance policies tocustomers at the lowest pre-mium while ensuring highestbonus on their investment.

PLI businessgo up by 413.721m

STAFF REPORTER

ISLAMABAD—Federal Minis-ter for Planning and Devel-opment Ahsan Iqbal saidthat government believed ineconomic cooperation tocompete with global marketeconomy for economic boostand prosperity of the coun-try.

He said that governmentis committed to enhance theeconomic ties to search newinvestment opportunities andto get the avenues for busi-ness in all over the world. He

added that “We believe inpeaceful co-existence and forthis government has startedeconomic diplomacy to en-hance the economic coop-eration with different coun-tries.”

Ahsan Iqbal said thatPrime Minister MuhammadNawaz Sharif has started thejourney of economic coop-eration from the visit ofChina to make strong eco-nomic ties between bothfriendly countries. Talking toa private televisionchannel,he said that during

the Prime Minister NawazSharif’s visit to China, lead-ership of both the countrieshas agreed to enhance themutual annual trade volumeand provide investment op-portunities to the businesscommunity of the bothcountries.

Replying to question, hesaid that China and Pakistanhad signed different agree-ments in the field of energyand communication to estab-lish trade and economic cit-ies in Gwadar and other cit-ies of the country.

Govt active to competewith global market: Ahsan

STAFF REPORTER

KARACHI—Overseas Paki-stanis remitted an amountof $13,920.26 million duringthe last fiscal year (July2012 – June 2013), showinga growth of 5.56 percent or$733.64 million comparedwith $13,186.62 million re-ceived during the same pe-riod of the last fiscal year(July- June 2012).

The inflow of remit-tances during July-June2013 from Saudi Arabia,UAE, USA, UK, GCC coun-tries (including Bahrain,Kuwait, Qatar and Oman)and EU countriesamounted to $4,104.73 mil-lion, $2,750.17 million,

$2,186.21 million, $1,946.01million, $1,607.88 million and$357.37 million respectivelycompared with the inflow of$3,687.00 million, $2,848.86

million, $2,334.47 million,$1,521.10 million, $1,495.00million and $364.79 millionrespectively in July-June

2012.Remittances received

from Norway, Switzerland,Australia, Canada, Japan andother countries during the

last fiscal year (July-June2013) amounted to $967.79million as against $935.36 mil-lion received in the last fiscal

year (July- June 2012).The monthly average re-

mittances for July-June 2013period comes out to$1,160.02 million compared to$1,098.89 million during thecorresponding period of thelast fiscal year, says a pressrelease issued here by StateBank of Pakistan Wednes-day.

Last month (June 2013),an amount of $1,164.79 mil-lion was sent home by over-seas Pakistanis, up by 4.23percent, compared with$1,117.52 million received inthe same month of 2012.

In June 2013, the inflowof remittances from SaudiArabia, UAE, USA, UK, GCCcountries (including

Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar andOman) and EU countriesamounted to $353.18 mil-lion, $218.60 million, $179.93million, $171.94 million,$138.18 million and $31.03million respectively com-pared with the inflow of$333.68 million, $219.14 mil-lion, $206.60 million, $126.72million, $128.12 million and$29.24 million respectivelyin June 2012.

Remittances receivedfrom Norway, Switzerland,Australia, Canada, Japanand other countries duringJune 2013 amounted to$71.93 million as against$73.98 million received in thesame month (June 2012) ofthe last fiscal year.

$13.92b workers’ remittances in FY13

Success in businessrequires training anddiscipline and hard

work. But if you’re notfrightened by these

things, the opportuni-ties are just as greattoday as they ever

were.—David Rockefeller

AMANULLAH KHAN

KARACHI—The State Bankof Pakistan has appointed 11banks, brokerage housesand Investment Companiesas Primary dealers for the fi-nancial year 2013-14. It is maymentioned that almost all theleading banks, brokeragehouses and investment com-panies had applied for theprimary dealership of thecentral bank.

After evaluation of per-formance of the each bankand other comp;any theState Bank has appointedFaysal Bank Limited, HabibBank Limited, NIB Bank Lim-ited, JS Bank Limited, Na-tional bank of Pakistan,United Bank Limited, BankAlflah Limited, MCB BankLimited, Citibank NA (Paki-stan Operations), Pak OmanInvestment Company Limitedand Standard Chartered

Bank( Pakistan) Limited.Interesting to note is the

fact that during out going fi-

nancial 2012-13 , Faysal BankLimited, Habib Bank Limitedand NIB Bank Limited werethe top performing Primarydealers in the previous finan-cial year. It will not be out ofplace to mention that strongbanking insititutions play animportant role in meeting thefinancial deficit of the gov-ernment which heavily relies

upon bank borrowingthrough securities and T.Billsto cater to its financial needs.

On the other hand thecommercial banks also feelhappy in lending to the gov-ernment is always a secureand free from any risk of de-fault, however the fall out ef-fect of government borrow-ing not only attributes tohigh rate of inflation as wellas instrumental in increasingthe interest rate in the county.

SBP appoints 11 banks, investmentCos as primary dealers for 2013-14STAFF REPORTER

ISLAMABAD—The LiquifiedPetroleum Gas (LPG) Dis-tributors Association hascalled upon the governmentto take notice of frequentraises in prices of the com-modity to extend relief toconsumers in the holy monthof Ramazan. “Everywhere inthe world, price of commodi-ties comes down on the oc-casion of religious festivalsbut, here, we see things oth-erwise, the government isneeded to take notice to with-draw at the least the recentincrease of Rs 5 per kg, Rs 60per domestic and Rs 240 percommercial cylinders to giverelief to masses in the monthRamazan”, the Association’schairman told reporters.

He said the Oil and GasRegulatory Authority(OGRA) should play its roleby taking action against theunethical forces in the LPG

sector, that were extractingmoney through unjustifiedraises. However, he hoped,the government would makesolid measures for promotion

of LPG to extend relief toconsumers.

“We have high hopesfrom government to take ef-fective steps for provision ofrelief to common people bypromoting the LPG and open-ing its filling stations, across

the country,” he added. Hesaid the LPG associationwould be fully co-operatingwith the government by pro-viding workable proposals toit in order to resolve issuesfor promotion of LPG to ex-tend relief to consumers whowere already faced with highprices of daily-use commodi-ties.

He said the PML-N partyhad the capability to drive thecountry out of the economicproblems and overcome theenergy problem, besides re-solving all outstanding issuesof the business community.Replying to a question, he saidthe association has alwayswelcomed the government’sinitiative and added the newLPG policy would address vari-ous issues that could not becovered in the previous poli-cies besides encouraginggrowth of LPG industry for itssustainable and enhancedavailability of LPG products.

Call to decrease LPGprices in Ramazan

ISLAMABAD: US Ambassador in Pakistan Richard Olson called on Federal Minister for Finance Senator MuhammadIshaq Dar.

STAFF REPORTER

ISLAMABAD—The public-sector oil marketing company-PSO has managed to clear itsoverdrafts with all banks andnow has a net surplus cashposition of Rs. 2.1 Billion. Thiswas revealed by thecompany’s MD Naeem YahyaMir in a meeting Wednesdaywith the company employeesat PSO House to review over-all achievements of the pastyear and outline the upcom-ing projects. “ The historicachievement to clear over-draft was made possible withsupport of the government,”the MD observed, thecompany’s spokespersonsaid.

The MD further stated thatPSO had registered high prof-its in each of the three quar-ters of the FY13 and wouldhopefully continue to performwell in the future as well.

He reiterated the vision hehad outlined for PSO lastyear which envisioned trans-forming the Company into anintegrated Energy Company.Following this he mentioned

some of the key initiativesundertaken in PSO in the pastyear.

These included signing aContract of Affreightment forthe transport of Furnace Oilwith the Pakistan NationalShipping Corporation as well

as signing an MoU with thegovernment of KhyberPakhtunkhwa for the estab-lishment of 40,000 barrelstate-of-the-art refinery inthe province.

He also took this oppor-tunity to outline some of thealternative energy projectsthe Company was exploringwhich included signing anMoU with Engro to look into

the feasibility of exploringthe Thar Coal project whilealso signing an MoU with theBalochistan government forestablishment of a Jathropaplantation for bio-diesel cul-tivation in the province. TheMD also shared with the em-ployees an overview of hisinnovative ideas which hadsuccessfully been imple-mented in the past one year.

These included develop-ment of Biker’s Priority Lanesat PSO’s retail forecourts, theestablishment of world’s firstCommunity Owned SocialPump at District Jhelum andthe inauguration of the firststreet under the Company’s“Street Support Program’ inThatta, Sindh. During theevent, the MD also recog-nized some of the Companyemployees who had gonebeyond the call of duty anddistributed certificates of ap-preciation amongst them. Liv-ing up to its role as thenation’s leading Public Sec-tor Company, PSO is commit-ted to fulfilling the fuel needsof the country in a timely andresponsible manner.

PSO clears overdrafts with all banks

MUZAFFAR ALI

LAHORE—The Bank ofPunjab (BOP) on Wednes-day launched a pioneer fi-nancing product named“BOP Solar” to facilitate itscustomers against the pre-vailing energy crisis in thecountry at affordable price.According to a press releaseissued here, customers willhave the option to go forstandardized solar solutionsor customize the product ac-cording to their individualrequirements. The designing,customization and installa-tion of the solar systems willbe done by the authorizedvendors of BOP. These au-thorized vendors have beenselected through transparentprocess which included duediligence on their financialand technical capabilities.

Currently the list includes sixvendors.

BOP Solar will be avail-able in all the major cities ofthe country. Financing up toRs 5 million will be providedbased on the need of the cus-tomer. The repayment can bemade from 1-7 years. This isa pioneer product and it isexpected to be a trendsetterfor the industry. This prod-uct is also expected to give aboost to the solar industryin Pakistan by making it moreaffordable for the consumer.

BoP launchestrendsetter solar project

Xpress Money,Dubai Islamic

Bank’s ‘RamadanSpecial’ promotion

SALIM AHMED

LAHORE—Xpress Money, theworld’s most dependablemoney transfer brand, has an-nounced its ‘Ramadan Special’promotion in association withDubai Islamic Bank. The spe-cial offer brings a host of at-tractive prizes for XpressMoney customers, receivingremittances from more than 100branches of Dubai Islamic Bankacross Pakistan. Commencingon July 08, during the Holymonth of Ramadan, the offer willlast until October 18, 2013 cov-ering both Eid ul Fitr & Eid ulAdha seasons.

Remitters can send moneyfrom across the world to any ofthe Dubai Islamic Bankbranches in Pakistan and theirbeneficiaries will stand a chanceto win 6 motorcycles and 25mobile phones through variouscontests in three months alongwith a guaranteed prize witheach transaction. Commentingon the promotion, Mr. RizwanHamdani, Country Manager –Pakistan, Xpress Money said,“It is that time of the year again;it is Ramadan, the holiest ofmonths. Xpress Money im-bibes the values of faith, purityand spreading of happinesswhich is the spirit of Ramadan.We believe in giving back toour customers at every point.Hence we initiated this‘Ramadan Special’ promotionwhich is bound to bring a smileon the faces of our customers.”

Dollar slipsagainst yen

TOKYO—The dollar slippedagainst the Japanese yen inAsia on Wednesday as mar-kets looked for fresh insightson the Federal Reserve’sstimulus tapering plans laterin the day, analysts said. TheUS currency eased to 100.90yen in afternoon trade, re-versing earlier gains anddown from 101.11 yen in NewYork late Tuesday. “Falls in(Tokyo) stocks are promptingselling in yen crosses,” a se-nior dealer at a major UK bankin Tokyo told Dow JonesNewswires.—AFP

LSE down by80.27 points

LAHORE—Bearish trend pre-vailed in Lahore Stock Ex-change on Wednesday as itshed 80.27 points, following theLSE-25 index opened with5073.53 and closed at 4993.26points. The market’s overallsituation also did not not cor-respond to an upward trend asit remained at 5.498 millionshares to close against previ-ous turnover of 7.232 millionshares, showing a downwardslide of 1.734 million shares.While, out of the total 96 ac-tive scrips 31 moved up, 36remined equal with 29 shedvalues.

Pakistan State Oil Com-pany Limited, Attock RefineryLimited and Pakistan Petro-leum Limited were major gain-ers of the day by recording in-crease in their per share valueby Rs 16.60, Rs 9.91 and Rs7.60 respectively. Pakistan In-ternational Airline, PTCL andSui Northern Gas PipelineCompany Limited lost their pershare value by Re 0.99, Re 0.75and Re 0.59 respectively.

The Volume Leader of theday included Sui NorthernGas Pipeline Company Lim-ited with 675,000 shares,Faysal Bank Limited with553,000 shares and PIA with384,000 shares.—APP

Heavy buyingat KSE

KARACHI—The KarachiStock Exchange (KSE) onWednesday showed intensebuying and its bench mark 100-index crossed two upper bar-riers to close at historic highof 22984.94 points. The KSE-100 index climbed 263.72 pointsup while 30-index increased by357.26 to close at 17663.93.

Significant trading was wit-nessed in Foods, Aviation,TeleCom, Banking, Oil and Gassectors. Out of total 369 activescrips, 163 moved up while 188shed values and 18 remainedunchanged.

Unilever Foods closedhigher by Rs 240 to close at Rs5129 while Iceland Textile closedhigher by Rs 30.60 to close atRs 642.75. The stocks of WyethLtd and Indus Dyeing lost theirper share value by Rs 79.44 toclose at Rs 1799.50 and Rs 15.54to close at Rs 525 respec-tively.—APP

Gold Tezab 42000.00Silver Tezabi 677.14

Gold Tezabi (24-Ct)42350.00Gold 22 Ct 38730.00SilverTezabi 685.00Silver Thobi 625.00

USA 99.90 99.70

UK 148.55 148.25

Euro 127.67 127.42

Canada 94.95 94.76

Switzerland 102.63 102.42

Australia 91.56 91.38

Sweden 14.69 14.66

Japan 0.9892 0.9872

Norway 16.16 16.13

Singapore 78.20 78.04

Denmark 17.11 17.08

Saudi Arabia 26.64 26.58

Hong Kong 12.88 12.85

Kuwait 348.16 347.46

Malaysia 31.35 31.29

New Zealand 78.36 78.20

Qatar 27.43 27.38

UAE 27.20 27.14

KR WON 0.0877 0.0876

Thailand 3.193 3.186

IMF trims globalgrowth forecast

W A S H I N G T O N —Manymajor emerging econo-mies have weakened sincethe spring, the Interna-tional Monetary Fundsaid on Tuesday in the lat-est update to its economicforecasts, while advancedeconomies, including theUnited States and Europe,continue to trudge alongwith subpar growth andthe euro area remainsmired in recession. Thefund now expects the glo-bal economy to growabout 3.1 percent in 2013,the same rate as in 2012and down from growth of3.9 percent in 2011. Thatis 0.2 percentage pointslower than the Washing-ton-based fund forecastin April.

Olivier Blanchard, thefund’s chief economist,said in the periodic updatethat emerging economieswere experiencing a “slow-down in underlyinggrowth,” and the fundlowered its forecasts forChina, India, Brazil,Mexico, South Africa andRussia, among othercountries. “It’s clear thatthese countries are notgoing to grow at the samerate as they did before thecrisis,” he said.

Given that emergingeconomies have in nosmall part powered theglobal recovery, theirslowdown has a signifi-cant effect on the rest ofthe world, the fund said.For instance, Mr.Blanchard said, if growthin the so-called BRICS,Brazil, Russia, India, Chinaand South Africa, were 2percentage points slowerthan expected, a half-per-centage point would beknocked off the UnitedStates’ growth rate. “Itmatters,” he said.

The fund said that therecession in the euro areahad proved deeper thanexpected in recent monthsbecause of the persistentcombination of tight creditconditions, low demandand government budgetcutting. Next year, thefund’s forecasters expectgrowth to pick up in the17 countries of the eurozone, but to a slower ratethan previously thoughtjust 0.9 percent, down fromabout 1 percent as fore-cast in April.

The fund cut its esti-mate of United Statesgrowth by 0.2 percentagepoints for both 2013 and2014. It now sees thecountry’s economy grow-ing 1.7 percent this yearand 2.7 percent next year.

Japan is one brightspot in the globaleconomy, the I.M.F. said.The country has beenmired in stagnation anddeflation for a decade.But since the beginningof the year, the govern-ment has been engagedin an athletic effort tospur the economy withaggressive asset pur-chases by the centralbank and a jolt of gov-ernment spending.—INP

ARIFWALA: Women farmers are busy in their work in a rice field.

LAHORE: Federal Minister for Railways, Khawaja Saad Rafique addressing the workers during his inspection visitto Mughalpura workshop.

STAFF REPORTER

FAISALABAD—The govern-ment should concentrate onregional trade to increasePakistan’s exports as manycountries of the globe arepreferring to regional tradewhich is 60 percent of totalworld trade.

In a meeting here on Tues-day, Mian Zahid Aslam Presi-dent Faisalabad Chamber ofCommerce & Industry (FCCI)said that there are massivechanges in international tradeand 60 percent trade isamong regional blocs.

He said that export desti-nations of Pakistani productshave greatly suffered due toconsistent recession in theEU and USA markets andPakistan’s governmentshould now concentrate onregional trade under the cir-cumstances.

He said that instead offocusing on the traditionalmarkets, Pakistan shouldconcentrate to enhance itsexports to China, MiddleEast, Turkey and Indiawhere Pakistan with its geo-graphical location canprove regional and intra-re-

Regional trade be concentratedto increase exports: FCCI

gional trade hub. Hestressed the need to en-hance regional trade par-ticularly for the textile prod-ucts for which there is agreat potential in the re-gional markets.

He urged the govern-ment for enhancingPakistan’s exports by way ofincreased number of tradedelegations to the emergingand regional economies andalso concentrating more ontrade diplomacy as well asproviding congenial andbusiness friendly environ-ments in the country.

STAFF REPORTER

LAHORE—The visit of PrimeMinister Nawaz Sharif toChina has helped in restor-ing confidence of businesscommunity on economicpolicies of the government.President Pakistan EconomyWatch Murtza Mughal saidthis in a statement here onWednesday.

He said that PM’s visitwas a success, adding, posi-tive response from Chinesegovernment and private sec-tor for resolving energy cri-sis is a good omen and will

result in economic stability inPakistan.

“PM’s timely visit toChina reflect strong com-mitment of the PML-N gov-ernment for economicprogress and providing asustainable and long termsolution to energy crisis”,he said. He said thatChina’s GDP is 8.227 trilliondollar and would be a houseof 30% investment of theworld till 2030.

He said that being aneighbouring country andhaving Chinese control onGwader port, Pakistan will

PM’s China visit infused newconfidence in biz community

also avail lot of benefits offast progress in China.

He said that ShahbazSharif’s visit to Qatar couldhelp increase the pace of LNGimport project. CM Punjab’svisit was in time and quiteuseful, he said. MurtzaMughal expressed his hopethat the policymakers ofPML-N would give properconsideration to the chang-ing scenario of investment inthe region. He praised theleadership of PML-N for fo-cusing on poverty alleviationand long term economic de-velopment.

STAFF REPORTER

H Y D E R A B A D —ChairmanSub-Committee on Munici-pal, HDA and Sindh BuildingControl Authority Affairs ofHyderabad Chamber of Com-merce and Industry (HCCI)Zulfiqar Ali Chohan hascalled upon the Sindh Gov-ernment to allocateHyderabad DevelopmentFunds to civic institutions sothat the repair and mainte-nance of deteriorating infra-structure of the city could becarried out.

In a statement issued hereon Tuesday, he said that de-teriorating infrastructure ofthe city is causing adverseaffect on the trade and indus-try while no arrangement hasbeen made for prompt dis-posal of rainwater accumula-tion as a result of expectedheavy rains in the city.

He said that the residentsof Hyderabad City, Latifabadand Qasimabad are experi-encing great inconvenienceas a result of acute shortageof drinking water while anumber of roads and streetshave become water ponds as

a result of accumulation ofsewage water becauseWASA has no funds to op-erate filter plants and waterdisposal pumps or even makepayment of salaries to work-ers.

He said that wheneverthe attention of officials isdrawn to WASA and theMunicipal Corporation re-garding public grievances,the managements concernedshow reluctance citing non-availability of funds as thereason. He called upon thedistrict administration ofHyderabad to draw attentionof the Sindh Government topublic issues with request ofallocation of funds for therepair and maintenance ofdeteriorating infrastructureof the city.

He said that trade andbusiness community is pay-ing infra-development taxalong with billion of funds onimport and if the provincialgovernment allocated districtdevelopment fund from thecollected taxes forHyderabad district, the cityinfrastructure could be im-proved.

HCCI sub-body chief for allocatingHyd dev funds to civic bodies

STAFF REPORTER

ISLAMABAD—Chairman Na-tional Highway Authority(NHA) Hamid Ali Khan hassaid that completion of allongoing NHA projects in ac-cordance with internationalstandards was the need ofthe hour for development ofindustry, trade, agricultureand tourism that will ulti-mately strengthen thecountry’s economy. Whilechairing Executive BoardMeeting of NHA here he re-ferred to Prime Minister MianMuhammad Nawaz Sharif’svision that all Motorways inthe country will be upgradedto six lane, and elaborated onthe importance of communi-cations sector in the eco-nomic development of thecountry.

Inspector GeneralMotorways Zulfiqar AhmadCheema, Additional Secre-tary Finance Division Khizar

Hayat Gondal, Joint Secre-tary CommunicationsSahibzada Faiz MahmoodFaizi, Member Admn NHAZiaul Haq, Member Construc-tion Yousaf Ali Khan, Mem-ber Planning RajaNosherwan, Vice PresidentNESPAK Qazi Iftikhar, ChiefNational Transport ResearchCentre Muhammad ShamsudDin Qureshi and SecretaryNHA Akbar Ali Memon par-ticipated in the meeting.

The meeting reviewed indetails progress on Peer NoriBadshah Bridge, KhushalGarh Bridge, City Ring RoadMultan, Bahawalpur Chowk,Kumharanwala Chowk,S u k h a r - S h i k a r p u r -Jaccobabad Road, Khanewal-Multan Motorway, Qallat-Quetta-Chairman Highway,Qilla Saifullah-Zhob Road andother ongoing projects, in-cluding reconstruction ofSher Shah Bridge Karachi.

The meeting also dis-

cussed matters relating toNHA projects in pipeline.Decision was taken to ensuretimely completion of all on-going NHA projects in accor-dance with the internationalstandards; to remove all hin-drances in the way of con-struction process and to sortall issues amicably.

IG Motorways PoliceZulfiqar Ahmad Cheema andMember Planning RajaNosherwan stressed theneed to further vitalize(NTRC) National TransportResearch Institute. TheChairman NHA apprised theparticipants over the settingup of Flood Emergency Re-lief Cells for safety measuresto be taken for possiblefloods and said that neces-sary machinery and equip-ment have been dispatchedto areas in the range of pos-sible floods and relief work-ers have been put on alert topreempt traffic disruption.

NHA projects to be completedas per int’l standards

STAFF REPORTER

PE S H AWA R —Pak-AfghanJoint Chamber of Commerceand Industry (PAJCC)I isplaying instrumental role incementing bilateral relationsbetween the business com-munity across the border,despite existing political up-heavals and sensitive socio-cultural issues.

This was stated by Co-President PAJCCI, Mr. KhanJan Alkozoi while visitingPAJCCI booth with Afghandelegation at an exhibition,said a press release issuedhere on Wednesday.

The Afghan delegationwas led by Co-President -PAJCCI, Mr. Khan Jan

Alkozai along with M.Yonass Mohmand, VicePresident, PAJCCI-Afghani-stan, Haji NizamuddinTajzadda, Director, Mr.Ahmadullah Afghan, Execu-tive Director and Mr.Naqibullah Safi, Deputy Ex-ecutive Director. A.Q. Khalil,Director, PAJCCI- PakistanChapter welcomed the del-egation from Afghanistan atPAJCCI booth on behalf ofMuhammad ZubairMotiwala, PresidentPAJCCI. A.Q. Khalil briefedabout the immense progressof PAJCCI, under visionaryleadership of ZubairMotiwala, in the short spanof time and ensured that infuture the bond between the

business communitieswould be significantly en-hanced.

He also raised importanceof holding joint exhibitionrelated to business invest-ment opportunities acrossthe border in both Afghani-stan and Pakistan in order toattain the desired economicresults. The delegation alsovisited other stalls at the ex-hibition and was enthralledwith the response shown bybusiness community of Pa-kistan at the PAJCCI kiosk atthe event. Ms. Faiza, Secre-tary General also briefedabout the response and in-terest of business commu-nity and presented PAJCCIprofile to the delegates.

PAJCCI role as bridge booststrade between Pak, Afghan

Promotion of seedlesscitrus imperative tograb int’l markets

F A I S A L A B A D — P a k i s t a nshould promote seedless cit-rus, which are in high demandglobally, in a bid to grab theinternational market wherecitrus with seeds are beingdiscouraged. This was ech-oed at a meeting of Board ofDirectors, Endowment FundsSecretariat (EFS), Universityof Agriculture Faisalabad.The meeting was presidedover by UAF Vice Chancel-lor Prof Dr Iqrar Ahmad Khanwhereas Farmers AssociateCEO Afaq Ahmad Tiwana,Ayub Research Director Gen-eral Nooral-ul-Islam, ChiefPlanning Officer (r) NatiqHussain and Director Plan-ning and Development, AgriUniversity, Peshawar RizwanAhmad were the guests.

The meeting approved aproject of UAF under whichseedless plants will be grownin the five districts of thePunjab, including Faisalabad,Sargodha and Toba TekSingh, on fields of farmers forthe demonstration purpose.The ten farmers will be se-lected from the each district.

UAF Vice Chancellor ProfDr Iqrar Ahmad Khanstressed the need of the tech-nology transfer to farmersthat will help in increasing peracre production of the coun-try.

Talking about edible oil,he was of the view that Paki-stan is importing the edible oilworth 3 billion dollars whichis one of the areas of con-cerns. He called for promot-ing the oilseed crop to be-come self sufficient by givingawareness to farmers.—APP

Fair price shops tosell commodities at

subsidized ratesSTAFF REPORTER

LAHORE—Agriculture Min-ister Punjab Dr Farrukh Javedon Wednesday said that fairprice shops have been set upat 335 Sastey Ramazan Ba-zaars across the province toprovide daily use items atsubsidized rates. Availabilityof 721.543 ton grain pulse,665.468 ton gram flour,1734.317 ton potato, 1576.532ton onion, 199.830 ton okra,187.532 ton bitter gourd,205.118 ton round gourd,189.542,000 dozen bananas,345.138 ton dates and 457.891ton rice would be made avail-able in the fair price shopsduring the month of Ramazan.

Talking to reporters, hesaid, the government underthe Chief Minister ’sRamazan Relief Package wasspending Rs 3.5 billion forsubsidy on food items inSastay Ramazan Bazaars.

AMANULLAH KHAN

KARACHI—Oil and Gas Regu-latory Authority (OGRA) hasnot approved the Sui South-ern Gas Company’s(Unaccount For Gas) UFGlosses at 7% and its previousdecision of 4.5% UFG bench-mark remains unchanged.Since there is no change inOGRA’s decision, hence thereremains no question of anyadditional cost of Rs. 18 bil-lion being imposed on gasconsumers across the coun-try. SSGC has emphaticallydenied the reports regardingchange in UFG benchmark.

The gas tariff is uniformfor all consumers across thecountry and there is no dif-ference between SSGC andSNGPL on this count, SSGCclarified. Even if OGRA al-lows SSGC all its rightful ex-

penses, the increase in tariffwill only be 5%. Moreover,70% of SSGC consumers whoare already highly subsidizedmay not even be affected.Notwithstanding the afore-stated, the matter of the 4.5%UFG benchmark set by OGRAis subjudiced and SSGC hasconsequently been granted astay by the honourable SindhHigh Court against OGRA’s de-cision after hearing detailed ar-guments raised by the Com-pany in a petition filed beforethe Sindh High Court in thisregard.

SSGC’s UFG currentlystands at 105 mmcfd and thefigure of 400 mmcfd as sug-gested in the media is there-fore 4 times higher than theCompany’s UFG. According toSSGC’s understanding, the105 mmcfd may result in gen-eration of not more than 400

mw of electricity. This is, how-ever, assuming 0% UFG whichis not possible in real terms.Even in developed economies,6% UFG is generally accept-able, and it does not includethe added theft and law andorder which is prevalent in Pa-kistan. Despite the stringentbenchmarks, SSGC has takenextraordinary efforts in curb-ing UFG across the board de-spite adverse law and orderconditions prevailing in its op-erational areas. Measuresaimed at curbing theft, mini-mizing leakages and an elabo-rate meter change activity haveproduced encouraging resultsin reducing UFG. SSGC ex-pects a reduction of 2% in UFGover last year. In monetaryterms, that means an increaseof Rs. 2.9 billion in theCompany’s bottomline.

It is quite clear that unsub-

stantiated facts have beenplaced before the media. Thetruth is that the honourableSupreme Court is currently re-viewing the grant of licensesin the CNG sectors by OGRAwhereas Lahore and SindhHigh Courts are reviewing thetariff determinations made byOGRA for SNGPL and SSGC,respectively. As per media re-ports, the Supreme Court hasalready taken cognizance ofthe inability of the Authorityto control gas theft. Althoughthousands of theft cases havebeen placed before OGRA bythe Company, the Authorityhas not acted on them andhave instead issued stay or-ders against the utility compa-nies for recovering amounts ofstolen gas themselves. Dueto the inability of OGRA to actagainst gas theft, there existsno real deterrent for gas

thieves. As a consequence, theinstances of gas theft haveconsistently increased. It alsohas to be highlighted thatOGRA by law is required toconsider the cost of alterna-tive fuel while setting theprices. However that has nothappened and large industrialunits are currently buying gasat a fraction of the cost of al-ternative fuel prices. Clearlythere seems to be a larger con-spiracy in play meant to bank-rupt two companies – SSGCand SNGPL who are amongstthe few large scale govern-ment-owned companies tohave never asked the govern-ment for bailout funds. Thefigure of Rs. 18 billion asquoted in the sections of thepress has been deliberatelyflaunted to distract the publicfrom these true facts.

As far as stay orders

granted by the Sindh HighCourt is concerned, the Au-thority is expected to showmore responsibility and notgive the impression that thepetition pending in the SindhHigh Court has been institutedby private shareholders. Inreality, it is SSGC which haschallenged the determinationmade on the first of June 2013on the Company’s revenue re-quirements under the relevantprovisions of law. The im-pugned decision was againstthe law, in disregard of thejudgments of the superiorcourts and passed without therequisite quorum. Moreover,UFG benchmark was set with-out carrying out mandatoryconsultation as required bylaw and as held by the LahoreHigh Court in SNGPL’s caseas well as the meaning andpurpose of consultation as

explained by the SupremeCourt. It is also not correctto state that the petition hasbeen filed for the benefit ofprivate shareholders. Thepetition has been filed onbehalf of SSGC by the dulyappointed legal counsel ofSSGC and has been filed toprotect the interest of theCompany in which the Gov-ernment of Pakistan directlyand indirectly holds 86%shares, and the interest of thepublic at large.

Unfounded allegationsonly serve to distract the su-perior courts and the public atlarge from the real issues be-ing reviewed by the superiorcourts. SSGC expects mediato show more levelheadedness and responsibil-ity in projecting the gas utili-ties so that a true picture iscommunicated to the people.

No justification of imposing additional burden of Rs18b on gas consumers

STAFF REPORTER

ISLAMABAD—Pakistan andArgentina will sign a memoran-dum of understanding on co-operation in the field of Sani-tary and Phytosanitary to pro-mote the agriculture sectors forensuring food security. Thiswas stated by Federal Ministerfor National Food Security &Research, Sikandar HayatKhan Bosan while talking toAmbassador of ArgentinaRudolph J. Martin Saravia whocalled on him here Wednesday.

The minister appreciatedArgentina’s technical andresearch assistance in ensur-ing food security and en-hancing agricultural produc-tivity in the country. He alsoappreciated Argentina’s ef-forts in facilitating of export

mangos and citrus from Pa-kistan to Argentina whileboth sides also agreed forexploring future collabora-tion in various areas.

Pakistan has a large capac-ity to design and manufacturethe seed processing plantsand small agricultural equip-ments of various modelswhich can be exported to Ar-gentina, he added. Speakingon the occasion, Ambassadorof Argentina said that Pakistanhas a great potential in meatexport and his country waswilling to assist Pakistan inestablishing modern meat pro-cessing units. He said that hiscountry will also initiate aprogramme for exchange ofagriculture production tech-nologies for crops like sun-flower, linseed and fruits.

Pak, Argentina to enhancecooperation in agri-research

PQ shippingactivity

KARACHI—Three ships car-rying containers and edibleoil were berthed at Qasim In-ternational Containers Termi-nal and Liquid Cargo onTuesday. Meanwhile threemore ships carrying contain-ers, iron ore and furnace oilalso arrived at outer anchor-age of Port qasim during last24 hours.

Berth occupancy was85% at the port on Wednes-day where a total nineships namely NystedMaersk, Maersk Kolkata,Hanjin Irene, M.V Faith,M.T Sofia, Pearl’s of JebelAli, M.T Karachi, TheresaLibra and Wan Zhou Xianare currently occupyingberth to load/offload con-tainers, cement, iron ore,furnace oil and edible oilrespectively during last 24hours .

A cargo volume of 127506tonnes comprising 91920tonnes imports and 35586tonnes exports inclusive ofcontainerized cargo carried in2694 containers (TEUs) washandled at the Port Qasimduring last 24 hours.—APP

Hong Kongstocks end higherHONG KONG—Hong Kongstocks climbed 1.07 percenton Wednesday following apositive lead from Wall Streetand despite worse than ex-pected Chinese trade data.The benchmark Hang SengIndex added 221.55 points, toend at 20,904.56 on turnoverof HK$52.85 billion (US$6.82billion).

New World Developmentrose 3.0 percent to HK$10.96,while Sun Hung Kai Proper-ties gained 1.3 percent toHK$100.00. Chow Tai Fookjumped 13 percent toHK$9.16 after the world’slargest jewellery retailer lateon Tuesday reported a big-ger-than-expected 48 percentrise in fiscal first-quartersales, thanks to sliding goldprices.— AFP

KARACHI: DG Rangers, Sindh, Major General Rizwan Akhtar and IG Police Shahid Balochcalled on Chief Minister Syed Qaim Ali Shah.

KARACHI: People buying dates from a stall as the commodity is in high demand in the month of Ramazan.

CT scans raise cancerrisk for children

WITH MRI scans becoming cheaperand more common, perhaps thedays of the CT scan that does a

similar function using X-Rays rather thanmagnetic fields, are numbered. A reportshows that the cancer riskfrom CT scans, especiallyBrain Cancer and Leukemiacan triple in some cases.

The Article published inThe Lancet, and written byDr Mark Pearce and Profes-sor Sir Alan Craft,Newcastle University, UK;Professor Louise Parker,Dalhousie University,Halifax, NS, Canada; DrAmy Berrington deGonzález, National CancerInstitute (NCI), National In-stitutes of Health (NIH),Bethesda, MD, USA, andcolleagues, represents theculmination of almost twodecades of research in thisarea, and is jointly funded bythe UK Department of Health and NCI/NIH.

It shows that 2 or 3 computed tomogra-phy (CT) scans of a child’s head (childmeaning under 15 years old in this case),can triple the risk of brain cancer. The totaldose of radiation would be around 60mGy,while 5 to 10 scans giving a dose of some50mGy or more, triples the risk of leuke-mia.

The researchers go on to point out thatthe risks are still miniscule as the diseasesare not particularly common, thus an in-creased risk is far from absolute certaintyof contracting the disease. The CT scan is auseful and sometimes necessary diagnostic

tool, and therefore physicians must weighthe risks and make patients and their parentsaware.

The retrospective study used recordsfrom the radiology departments of some 70%

of the UK’s hospitals, andgathered data from 180,000patients who underwent CTscans between 1985 and2002. By looking at the num-ber and types of CT scanfrom the records, the re-searchers estimated the doseabsorbed in milli-Grays(mGy) by the brain and bonemarrow in patient for eachscan. The data was thencross-checked with cancerincidence and mortality re-ports in the UK NationalHealth Service Registry be-tween 1985 and 2008. It wasthen possible to show if aperson having scans wasmore likely to develop can-cer. From this, they calcu-

lated excess incidence of leukemia and braintumors.

The UK has relatively low usage of CTscans due to a nationalized health service andthe Ionising Radiation (Medical Exposure)Regulations, that make sure scans are onlydone when medically justified.

“The immediate benefits of CT out-weigh the potential long¬term risks inmany settings and because of CT’s diag-nostic accuracy and speed of scanning,notably removing the need for anaesthe-sia and sedation in young patients, it will,and should, remain in widespread practicefor the foreseeable future ...

KARACHI: Silani Welfare Trust distributing one month ration among the needy people.—PO photo by Sultan Chaki

KARACHI: Dead body of Bilal Sheikh, Chief Security Officer of Asif Ali Zardari, who diedin bomb blast.—PO Photo

IRFAN ALIGI

KARACHI—The officers con-cerned should take effectivemeasure to control the prices ofessential commodities duringthe month of Ramadan so as toprovide relief to the commonmen. The Provincial Ministersand Secretaries of departmentsconcerned to personally moni-tor the price control mechanismin the districts and take prompt

Qaim for effective price-controlmechanism in Ramazan

steps to stop the hoarding andprofiteering.

Sindh Chief Minister SyedQaim Ali Shah issued these di-rectives to the officials con-cerned in a high level meetingheld at the CM House Wednes-day to review the arrangementsfor Ramadan. Provincial Minis-ter Information Sharjeel EnamMemon, Provincial Advisor forFinance Syed Murad Ali Shah,Chief Secretary Sindh Chaudhry

Muhammad Aijaz, AdditionalChief Secretary (Home)Waseem Ahmed, AdditionalChief Secretary Food, Secretar-ies of Finance, Agriculture andPrincipal Secretary to CM SindhNaveed Kamran Baloch at-tended.

He said that Ramadan wasa sacred month during whichprofiteering, charging overthe prescribed price andhoarding of the essential com-

modities should be stoppedand people may be providedessential eating items on pre-scribed prices.

Sindh CM strictly directedthe Divisional Commissioners,Deputy Commissioners, Assis-tant Commissioners andMukhtiarkars of the province topay random and surprise visitsof the markets to assure that thecommodities be sold on theiractual prices.

KARACHI—The NationalHighways and Motorways Po-lice (NH&MP) are actively en-forcing traffic rules and disci-pline on road on the special di-rections of Inspector GeneralNH&MP Zulfiqar AhmadCheema.

During the last 15 days,thousands of road users havebeen challaned by taking strictaction for violating lane disci-pline and over speeding, said astatement issued here on

NH&MP enforces trafficdiscipline on roads

Wednesday.Millions of people are being

briefed daily on road safety andtraffic discipline on toll plazasby the officers of MotorwaysPolice.

Strict action is being takenagainst the under age drivers andwithout Iicense drivers all overPakistan and they have beenchallaned while the drivers ofPublic Service Vehicles (PSV)who are not holding driving li-censes are not allowed to enter

on motorways and highways.Strict action has also been

taken against overloaded ve-hicles and no overloaded vehicleis allowed to enter onmotorways and at highways.

Zulfiqar informed that strictenforcement is being ensured onroads to implement traffic rulesand discipline.

He also said that help is be-ing provided to road users in dis-tress and are struggling to makesafe roads for the people.—APP

KARACHI—The Chief Sec-retary of Sindh, MohammadIjaz Chaudhry has directed theprovincial secretary for healthand commissioner Karachi tofacilitate Karachi Metropoli-tan Corporation in improvis-ing its “Anti Dengue / MalariaCampaign,” and protectpeople against the fatal dis-eases.

Presiding a meeting in hisoffice on Wednesday the ChiefSecretary said need based fi-nancial requirement would befulfilled by the government, inaccordance to the rules and

Officials to asked quickenanti-dengue fever campaign

regulations, so as to ensure pre-vention of dengue, negelria aswell as malaria and the associ-ated complications.

Sindh Secretary for Health,Inamullah Dharijo told the ChiefSecretary and others attendingthe meeting that 1000 bed netswould be provided, in next 72hours, to the hospitals wheredengue units have already beenestablished.

Dharijo also asked the Di-rector Malaria Control to presenthim a detailed report about mea-sures already adopted to handlemalaria and dengue fever cases

at public sector hospitals.Commissioner of Karachi,

Shoaib Ahmad Siddiqui on theoccasion said that a publicawareness program, with majorfocus on prevention as well re-quired intervention to handledengue fever, malaria andnegelria is already underway inall five districts of the metropo-lis.

This, he said is beingcomplimented with strengthen-ing of inter- departmental link-ages with all relevant stake-holder taken on-board to preventthe mentioned diseases.

The Commissioner saidthat tire shops are being in-spected, problematic swim-ming pools, with inadequatearrangements, are beingclosed and efforts have alsobeen made to furnish many ofthe city hospitals with bed netsand kits.

The Chief Secretary ofSindh, Chaudhry Ijaz Ahmedstressed need for social mobi-lization and directed the KMCofficials to also involve NGOsand teachers of local schoolsand colleges in the anti dengue/ malaria campaign.— APP

KARACHI—CommissionerKarachi, Shoaib AhmadSiddiqui has ordered an inquiryto ascertain identity of peopleresponsible for incident leadingto stampede during distributionof Ramazan ration bags in thecity.

In his directives to theDeputy Commissioner-East,Samiuddin Siddiqui, he said adetailed report must be submit-ted to him in two days timewith clear identification ofthose responsible for the unfor-tunate incident, resulting in thekilling of two women on thespot.

It was on Monday that a lo-cal welfare organisation had ar-ranged distribution of free rationbags among needy women at Al

Inquiry to ascertain peoplebehind stampede ordered

Nisa Club/Marriage Hall,Gulshan-e-Iqbal.

The number of women whohad gathered at the site to col-lect the bags was registered tohave grown much beyond theestimates of the donors conse-quently the desperate womenfearing to be left out got chaotic,said a preliminary report pre-pared by Assistant Commis-sioner, Gulshan-e-Iqbal,Mushtaq Ali Solangi.

Poor management and abso-lute lack of discipline were iden-tified to be the major factorscausing death of Uzma, wife ofAsif, (aged between 25 to 28years) and Nusrat, wife of Altaf(aged between 40 to 45 years).

Both the women were resi-dents of Surjani Town and died

of suffocation, after beingpulled down to floor andtrampled under the feet ofother women.

According to the prelimi-nary report prepared by A.C.Gulshan-e- Iqbal, the organisershad not sought any prior permis-sion from Deputy Commis-sioner-East nor did they intimatethe area police about theprogramme.

The Commissioner Karachi,taking notice of the preliminaryreport has appealed to the philan-thropists and welfareorganisations that charity work,including distribution of ration, isappreciable, however, administra-tion of the concerned area mustbe adequately informed about anysuch programme.—APP

Boy Scoutswalk aboutconsumers

rightsKA R A C H I—Sindh BoysScouts Association Wednes-day arranged a public aware-ness walk to ensure closecoopoeration between citizensand the administration againstprofiteers and other unscrupu-lous elements fleecing unas-suming consumers under oneor other pretext.

The walk, started from Pa-kistan Arts Council and culmi-nated at Karachi Press Club, wasparticipated by boy scouts of allage groups, including commu-nity based scouts as BurhaniScouts and Bohra Boys. It wasled by Commissioner Karachi,Shoaib Ahmad Siddiqui andSecretary, Sindh Boy ScoutsAssociation, Akhter Miralongwith Additional Commis-sioner, Karachi (II) Haji Ahmedand other notables of the city.The walk was also joined by thecitizens in general and the dis-cipline that was maintained inthe exercise was highly appre-ciated by all.

People, including commis-sioner acknowledged that an at-tempt has been made to involvemasses for protection of theirrights. The commissioner saidthe city administration, as perdirectives of the government,has launched a crackdownagainst shopkeepers and trad-ers trying to exploit the con-sumers.—APP

Motor vehicletax system

computerizedKARACHI—Director Gen-eral of Excise and TaxationDepartment, Shoaib AhmedSiddiqui said that the motorvehicle tax system in each dis-trict has been computerized toeradicate corruption and rev-enue leakage in the depart-ment.

Shoaib stated that the pro-fessional tax in Excise Depart-ment has also been made online and this system startedfunctioning in Karachi sincefirst of July.

He further pointed out thatthe infrastructure cess is al-ready on line. Shoaib also in-formed that the properly taxand excise duty system wasalso being computerized.

He said that the purposeof these measures was to eradi-cate corruption and generatemore revenue.

On being established onmodern lines, the generation ofrevenue will be more, publicgrievance will be removed andit will also save time, he con-cluded.—APP

188 profiteerschallaned,Rs 1.28m

collected as fineKARACHI—During the on-going crackdown against theprofiteers in the metropolisthe officials pertaining to allits districts and sub divisionson Tuesday challaned 188profiteers and violators of of-ficial price list.

According to the statisticsmade available to the mediaon Wednesday Rs 1.28 millioncollected as fine from 67 milksellers, 25 fruit sellers, 30vegetable sellers, 16 ownersof general provision stores, 46chicken sellers and four floursellers were fined last.

The CommissionerKarachi , Shoaib AhmedSiddiqui has asked all thedeputy commissioners and as-sistant commissioners to con-tinue with the crackdown withdue care that measure adoptedby them against the profiteersmust prove to be real deter-rent.—APP

CT scans raise cancerrisk for children

LAHORE: Badshahi Masjid workers busy in cleaning the frontyard in connection with the start of Holy Fasting Month of Ramazan-ul-Mubarak.

WITH MRI scans becomingcheaper and more common, perhaps the days of the CT scan that

does a similar function using X-Rays ratherthan magnetic fields, are numbered. A re-port shows that the cancerrisk from CT scans, espe-cially Brain Cancer andLeukemia can triple in somecases.

The Article published inThe Lancet, and written byDr Mark Pearce and Profes-sor Sir Alan Craft, NewcastleUniversity, UK; ProfessorLouise Parker, DalhousieUniversity, Halifax, NS,Canada; Dr Amy Berringtonde González, National Can-cer Institute (NCI), NationalInstitutes of Health (NIH),Bethesda, MD, USA, andcolleagues, represents theculmination of almost twodecades of research in thisarea, and is jointly funded bythe UK Department ofHealth and NCI/NIH.

It shows that 2 or 3 computed tomogra-phy (CT) scans of a child’s head (childmeaning under 15 years old in this case),can triple the risk of brain cancer. The totaldose of radiation would be around 60mGy,while 5 to 10 scans giving a dose of some50mGy or more, triples the risk of leukemia.

The researchers go on to point out thatthe risks are still miniscule as the diseasesare not particularly common, thus an in-creased risk is far from absolute certaintyof contracting the disease. The CT scan isa useful and sometimes necessary diagnos-

tic tool, and therefore physicians mustweigh the risks and make patients and theirparents aware.

The retrospective study used recordsfrom the radiology departments of some

70% of the UK’s hospitals,and gathered data from180,000 patients who under-went CT scans between 1985and 2002. By looking at thenumber and types of CTscan from the records, theresearchers estimated thedose absorbed in milli-Grays(mGy) by the brain and bonemarrow in patient for eachscan. The data was thencross-checked with cancerincidence and mortality re-ports in the UK NationalHealth Service Registry be-tween 1985 and 2008. It wasthen possible to show if aperson having scans wasmore likely to develop can-cer. From this, they calcu-lated excess incidence of

leukemia and brain tumors.The UK has relatively low usage of

CT scans due to a nationalized health ser-vice and the Ionising Radiation (MedicalExposure) Regulations, that make surescans are only done when medically justi-fied. “The immediate benefits of CT out-weigh the potential long¬term risks inmany settings and because of CT’s diag-nostic accuracy and speed of scanning,notably removing the need for anaesthe-sia and sedation in young patients, it will,and should, remain in widespread prac-tice for the foreseeable future .

LAHORE: Federal Minister for Religious Affairs Sardar Muhammad Yousaf unveilingthe plaque to inaugurate the renovation work of Haji Camp Building.

LAHORE: Commuters move on the road during heavy rain in the provincial capital.

MUZAFFAR ALI

LAHORE—The Lahore policehave appeared clueless so farabout the murders of asmany as 13 girls who wereraped, tortured and murderedunder mysterious circum-stances in the different locali-ties of the metropolis duringthe last two and half months.

According to police in-vestigation, all the deceasedgirls’ were 16 to 28 years oldand apparently they be-longed to Pashtun ethnicity.Autopsy reports also revealthat the victims were heavilyintoxicated prior to their mur-ders. Rape and the marks ofsevere physical tortures arealso identical in all the vic-tims. These similarities indi-cate that either a serial killer,religious fanatic or a gangrunning brothel house couldbe involved in these blindmurders.

“We don’t have any clueinto these blind murders andsimilarly we can’t arrest any-one until we have some solidproof,” said SSP Investiga-tion Abdur Rab Chaudhary.Interestingly, the police alsoseemed lethargic and reluc-

Police clueless about a serialkiller of young girls

tant to investigate the caseon modern lines and reachout to the culprits.

The serial of killingstarted when an unknowndead body of 20 years old girlwas found from the precinctsof the Shahdarah police sta-tion on 13th April 2013.Twodays later, another 20-year-old girl was found shot deadin the Valencia Town Lahore.According to Kahna Police,unidentified killers rappedthe young woman, shot herdead, and fled after throwingher dead body in the poshresidential locality.

Since then 13 unresolvedmurders of young women inLahore raise the strong pos-sibility that a serial killer orreligious fanatic could be in-volved in rape-torture mur-der cases but investigatorshave so little informationabout these murders, it’s dif-ficult for them to say flatlythat they have a serial caseon their hands. However, onething that investigators aresure about is that all the vic-tims belong to KhyberPakhtunkhwa and otherprovinces so this is the rea-son the police have failed to

establish the identification ofthese victims.

According to details, asmany as 13 dead bodies ofbeautiful girls were foundfrom various parts of the cityduring the last two and halfmonths who were allegedlymurdered after rape whilefive out of thirteen werewrapped in gunny bags.Another dead body of 22years old unknown girl wasfound along the Bund Roadin the localities ofShafiqabad police stationand she was asphyxiated todeath after making victim ofsevere torture. Similarly,unknown dead bodies ofyoung girls found from theprecincts of Islampura, QilaGujar Singh, Sundar, Mus-lim Town and Sheikh ZaydHospital had analogous de-tails which showed that allthe victims were assassi-nated either with bluntweapon or shot at the heador strangulated to death af-ter alleged raped.

A CIA police official, whospoke to Pakistan Observeron condition of anonymity,said now after initial investi-gation, the police are work-

ing on the line that all thesevictims could be residents ofanother province that wasthe reason police did not re-ceive any complaint of miss-ing girls from the localitiesfrom where their dead bod-ies were found. He furtherdisclosed that pimps runningbrothels in other provincesare settling down in Punjabalong with the bunch of pros-titutes. He said the police didnot rule out the possibility ofthe involvement of a seriallady killer or a gang. How-ever, he claimed that the vic-tims neither were the resi-dents of Lahore or other cityof Punjab and if anyone ofthem belonged to Punjabthen police could identity thevictims after receiving a com-plaint at least from their fami-lies.

DIG InvestigationZulfiqar Hameed said he hadformed a special team com-prising senior officials of CIAto investigate the serial kill-ings of young girls in Lahoreand soon a big breakthroughis expected in this regard.

SALIM AHMED

LAHORE—Punjab ChiefMinister MuhammadShahbaz Sharif has felicitatedthe nation on the commence-ment of Ramazan-ul-Mubarikand said that this holy monthprovides us an opportunityof earning the blessings ofAllah Almighty.

In his special message,Shahbaz Sharif said thatRamazan-ul-Mubarik givesus the lesson of sacrifice,therefore, we should take careof those sisters and brothersduring this month who needour attention. He said that themotherland is passingthrough a very critical phaseof its history and nation isfacing serious challenge of

Shahbaz felicitates Muslims overadvent of Ramazan-ul-Mubarik

terrorism. The Chief Ministerasked the entire nation tobow before Almighty Allahduring this sacred month andoffer special prayers forpeace, development andprosperity of the country.

Muhammad ShahbazSharif said that Punjab gov-ernment is giving a specialpackage of four billion rupeesfor the provision of qualitydaily use items to the peopleat reasonable rates duringRamazan-ul-Mubarik.

He said that special moni-toring teams have also beenconstituted for ensuring pro-vision of quality essentialitems at fixed rates. He ap-pealed to the trading commu-nity to extend cooperation tothe government for the pro-

vision of daily use items tothe fasting people at cheaperrates during the holy month.

The Chief Minister saidthat besides administration,the role of public representa-tives is of great importancewith regard to provision ofquality items to the people atfixed rates during Ramazan-ul-Mubarik.

Therefore, elected repre-sentatives have been as-signed the responsibility ofpersonal supervision ofRamazan bazaars,Dastarkhwans and fair priceshops, he added. He saidthat Pakistan MuslimLeague-N government is tak-ing all necessary steps forproviding maximum relief tothe people.

PML-Ncandidates for

bye-pollsinterviewedSTAFF REPORTER

LAHORE—The Parliamen-tary Board of Pakistan Mus-lim League-N Wednesdayinterviewed the aspiring can-didates for bye-elections on21 vacant seats in the prov-ince at the Central Secretariatof PML-N Model Town.

The Parliamentary Boardis comprised of HamzaShahbaz Sharif, GhulamDastigeer Khan, Raja AshfaqSarwar, Rana Tanvir Hussain,Sheikh Aftab Ahmad, RanaSanaullah Khan, PervaizMalik, Rana MashhoodAhmad, Saood Majeed,Anosha Rehman, Saira AfzalTarrar, Abid Sher Ali, MianJaved Latif and SardarArshad Khan Leghari. TheBoard interviewed the candi-dates for six National Assem-bly and 15 Provincial Assem-bly seats.

The Parliamentary Boardwill send its recommenda-tions to the President PML-N Muhammad Nawaz Shariffor final selection.

Ramzan BazaarcleanlinessSTAFF REPORTER

LAHORE—Lahore WasteManagement Company(LWMC) has issued cleanli-ness plan for Ramzan Bazaarsfor the holy month in orderto ensure the provision ofclean environment to shop-pers.

Cleanliness and aware-ness camps will be set up inall 20 Ramzan Bazaars of thecity deploying special crewand machinery of Albayrakand Oz Pak.

Sanitary crew will beequipped with wheelie bins,waste bags and other sanita-tion tools. New waste drumshave also been installed.Teams of social mobilizers willbe deployed to impart aware-ness among shopkeepers andvisitors about proper disposalof waste. Complaints will beregistered and redressed onthe spot as well.

LAHORE—As may as 6,582under trial Muslim prison-ers and convicts, housed inCamp Jail and Central JailKotlakhpat Jail in the citywil l observe fast duringRamazan-ul-Mubarik.

Deputy Inspector Gen-eral Lahore Region MalikMubashar Khan told APPhere Wednesday that 3,576inmates had been kept inCentral Jai l ,Kotlakhpatwhile 3006 are housed inCamp Jail and Muslim pris-oners will observe fast.

He said superinten-

Prisoners in city to observe fast in both jails :DIGdents of Jail had been di-rected to make it sure theprovision of quali ty andhygienic food containing3000 calories daily to all in-mates at Sehr and If tarstrictly in accordance withjail manual.

He said new menu in-cludes chicken four days aweek and beef two days, inaddition to best quality su-per basmati rice.

Tea prepared with pack-aged milk will be serveddaily. At Sehr, parathas willbe served and sweet drinks

and proper meal at If tarwith dates.

Deputy Inspector Gen-eral Lahore Region MalikMubashar Khan said thatimmaculate arrangementshave been made in jails toprovide quality food to theprisoners on the directionof Chief MinisterMuhammad Shahbaz Sharif.

“Special lectures onIslamic values will be de-livered to prisoners by re-ligious personalities at jailmosques on a daily basis,”he said, adding that special

arrangements have alsobeen made for Sehr, Iftarand for offering prayers.

All doctors posted inthe jails have also been di-rected to check the qualityof food before it is cookedand served,he added.

He said that Senior Su-perintendent Central Jai lKotlakhpat Kamran Anjumand Camp Jail, Ejaz Asgharhave been directed to per-sonally supervise Ramadanarrangements followed bythe surprise visits by DIGsand IG.—APP

LAHORE—Agriculture Min-ister Punjab Dr FarrukhJaved on Wednesday saidthat fair price shops havebeen set up at 335 SasteyRamazan Bazaars across theprovince to provide dailyuse items at subsidizedrates.

Availability of 721.543ton grain pulse, 665.468 tongram flour, 1734.317 ton po-tato, 1576.532 ton onion,199.830 ton okra, 187.532 tonbitter gourd, 205.118 tonround gourd, 189.542,000dozen bananas, 345.138 tondates and 457.891 ton ricewould be made available inthe fair price shops duringthe month of Ramazan.

Fair price shops to providecommodities at subsidized rates

Talking to APP, he said,the government under theChief Minister ’s RamazanRelief Package was spendingRs 3.5 billion for subsidy onfood items in Sastay RamazanBazaars.

He said, besides, districtmonitoring teams and assem-bly members, representa-tives of Agriculture Depart-ment and Market Committeeswould ensure quality com-modities of daily use at gov-ernment prescribed rates.

He said, no mismanage-ment and dereliction on thepart of officers would be tol-erated in maintaining theprices at minimum level. “Wehave devised a mechanism to

discourage profiteering ofthe middle man at the fairprice shops which the Min-ister said would help avoidprice hike,” the Minister said.He said, complaint cells hadbeen developed in provincialcapital for monitoring SasteyRamazan Bazaars.

Answering a question,the Minister said, foolproofmeasures had been taken forsecurity of shoppers atRamazan Bazaars.

“We have also doubledthe security aroundmosques, imambargahs,churches, railway stations,and other important placesto avoid any untoward inci-dent.—APP

Rain inundatesroads

LAHORE—Most of the cityroads after rain were inun-dated on Wednesday, affect-ing the flow of vehicular traf-fic, speaking the volume ofWASA’s performance.

Thin public transport wasseen in the city due to whichpeople had to face immenseproblems and many employ-ees could not reach theirdestinations on time.

The water accumulatedat Shahdra, Data DarbarRoad, Shah Alam Market,Urdu Bazar, Anarkali, AzamCloth Market, NicolsonRoad, Mcload Road, DavisRoad, Railway Station,Gawalmandi, LawrenceRoad, Misri Shah, ShadBagh, Ik Moria Pull,Kashmiri Ghati, KhokharRoad, General Bus Stand,Lajpat Road, Farrukhabadand many other low lyingareas of the city.—APP