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Karachi gets someattention at least................................................Hassle-free transferof pension................................................India raises military budget

See Page 04

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Presidentsigns PPBinto law

STAFF REPORTER

I S L A M A B A D —Pres iden tMamnoon Hussain on Fri-day signed into law the Pro-tection of Pakistan Bill (PPB).The new law doubles themaximum sentence for ter-rorism offences to 20 yearsand allows security forcesto hold suspects for up to60 days without disclosingtheir whereabouts or allega-tions against them.

Moreover, it permits se-curity forces to shoot sus-pects on sight with the per-mission of a grade-15 offi-

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STAFF REPORTER

ISLAMABAD—Prime Minister Nawaz Sharifon Friday affirmed that joint operationsagainst presence of militants in various

parts of the country should be enhancedto ensure that terrorism is effectively rooted

Nawaz mulls politico-securitymatters with Shahbaz, Nisar

out from North Waziristan as well as therest of the country.

The premier was meeting with ChiefMinister Punjab Shahbaz Sharif and Inte-rior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan at

the Prime Minister House.The meeting comes daysafter ties between Nisar andthe PML-N leadershipnormalised following a meet-ing between the interior min-ister and the prime ministerhimself.

Sources told media thatthe meeting discussed is-sues pertaining to nationaland internal security as wellas issues relating to the situ-

ation in North Waziristan and progress of

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PPP Govt-establishment reached deal onMusharraf for no impeachment: Gilani

PML-N treatment inappropriate; Kayani wanted NWA operation to be his aloneIRFAN ALIGI

KARACHI—The establishment had nego-tiated the issue of former President Gen-eral (Retd) Pervez Musharraf followingwhich the later had tendered his resigna-tion as President of Pakistan. It was a bigachievement of the political governmentthat Musharraf, who had become Presi-dent through a public referendum andthe apex judiciary, had endorsed his po-sition as President, had quit his post.

This was stated by former PrimeMinister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani whiletalking to newsmen on the occasion ofhis visit to PPP Media Cell in Clifton,

Karachi Friday.PPP Media CellIn-charge SenatorSaeed Ghani, PPPKarachi DivisionGeneral SecretarySyed Najmi Alam,Habib Ud DinJunaidi, LateefMughal, Zulfiquar

Qaimkhani and Manzoor Abbas werepresent.

Musharraf’s resignation was part ofa secret deal between the former demo-cratic government and the establishmentfor former President Musharraf. The deal

had reached a decision that Musharrafwould leave the country and the Parlia-

PML-N had no agreementwith establishment: PR

OBSERVER REPORT

LAHORE – Federal Minister for Infor-mation and Broadcasting PervaizRashid said on Friday that if formerPrime Minister, Yousaf Raza Gilani had

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GAZA CITY—Israeli war-planes kept up deadly raids onGaza on Friday but failed tostop Palestinians firing rock-ets across the border, as theUnited States offered to helpnegotiate a truce. With theviolence growing worse, USPresident Barack Obama in aphone call to Israeli Prime Min-ister Benjamin Netanyahu saidhis government was willing tobroker a ceasefire.

Obama said he was con-cerned the fighting could es-calate and “called for all sidesto do everything they can toprotect the lives of civilians”,the White House said. “TheUnited States remains pre-pared to facilitate a cessationof hostilities, including a returnto the November 2012ceasefire agreement.” The2012 deal, brokered by formersecretary of state HillaryClinton and Egypt, endedeight days of Israeli airstrikeson Hamas targets in a previ-ous showdown.

Appeals for an immediatetruce also came from UN chief

Ban Ki-moon at an emergencymeeting Thursday of the Se-curity Council, saying aceasefire was “more urgentthan ever”. Russian PresidentVladimir Putin issued a similarplea in a phone call toNetanyahu, urging an imme-diate end to the bloodshedand expressing concern overcivilian casualties.

But Israel appeared benton dealing a fatal blow to theIslamist movement Hamas,which controls Gaza, withNetanyahu reportedly sayingtalk of a ceasefire was “noteven on the agenda”. Israeliair strikes killed more than 30Palestinians on Thursdayalone, many of them womenand children.

Hamas, the Palestiniangroup ruling Gaza, also ap-peared to have no interest inletting up, striking deep insideIsrael over the past 48 hours,with rockets crashing downnear Jerusalem and Tel Avivand even as far away asHadera, 116km to the north.

Israel continues deadlyGaza bombing

100 killed, 1090 Hamas sites targeted

Turkey asksIsrael to haltGaza offensiveANKARA—Turkey’spresident on Friday calledon Israel to halt itsoffensive on the Gaza Stripand not to carry out aground incursion, whilethe prime minister saidthere can be no normaliz-ing of Turkish-Israeli tiesas long as Israel’s actionscontinue. “I would like toremind Israel that (aground operation) would

ECP extends tribunalstenure for 3 months

92 petitions still await decisionISLAMABAD—The Election Commission of Pakistan hasextended the tenure of election tribunals for another threeto six months following their failure to resolve all post-election disputes within the legally-stipulated deadline, as92 petitions are still awaiting decisions.

However, the presiding officers of Loralai, Sukkur andDera Ismail Khan tribunals have not accepted the exten-sion, bringing the number of tribunals working across thecountry to eleven.

The ECP constituted 14 tribunals across the countryfollowing the 2013 elections to redress election-relatedcomplaints of contesting candidates. The tribunals werelegally bound to decide each case within 120 days of itsreceipt.

The election results were officially notified on May 22,2013, following which the candidates were given time untilJuly 6 (45 days) to submit their petitions. The ECP receiveda total of 409 petitions, while one petition was filed directly

ASI killed by resisting women

8 killed, 6 injuredin road accidents

MIRPUR—As many as four persons including a womanwere killed and six others severely injured as an over-loadedpassenger jeep fell into deep ravine near the remote topmountainous town of Panag Shareef some 160 kilometersfrom here late Thursday. According to SuperintendentPolice Kotli Ch. Muhammad Amin while talking to APPhere on Friday said that the jeep belonging to Sajid Nawaz,with 10 passengers on board was on way from Kotli to thetop hill village of Mariayan.

The ill-fated jeep met the accident while taking a sharpturn in the severe steep as it skidded off the road and fellinto the deep ravine killing four of its occupants on thespot and injuring six others including the driver, he added.Meanwhile, it is reported that the accident on HyderabadSuper Highway claimed three lives and injuries to two oth-ers when a truck hit a long wheeler vehicle near Nooriabadsome 80 kilometers away from here on Friday morning.

It was the third accident on the highway during lastseven days which claimed the lives of 13 persons, theIncharge Edhi Foundation Mairaj Qureshi informed.

On Friday morning, he informed that the driver of aKarachi bound truck lost the control from steering and thetruck hit the long wheeler vehicle, moving on the same di-rection. As a result of fire, which broke out in vehiclesafter the accident, two passengers of the truck died on thespot while three others namely Muhammad Sharif 30, Sul-tan 60 and Sameer Khan 65 received serious injuries. InjuredMuhammad Sharif breathed his last on way to hospital.

The Edhi ambulances shifted the bodies and injuredpersons to Liaquat University Hospital. The bodies of thetwo deceased persons could not be identified yet, Edhivolunteers informed.Faisalabad: A police man was killed by resisting womenduring a raid in Garh police limits on Friday. According toa police spokesman, ASI Rehmat Ali of Garh police, on atip-off, conducted raid at a house in Garh Fateh Shah toarrest a Proclaimed Offender Jaafar Ali.

During raid female inmates resisted and severly beat theASI. As a result, he received critical injuries and was rushedto Allied hospital where he breathed his last.—APP

ISLAMABAD—The National DisasterManagement Authority is continuingdistribution of relief assistance amongthe Internally Displaced Persons ofNorth Wazirsitan in Bannu and D. I.Khan regions.

Sources of NDMA told RadioPakistan’s correspondent Aftab Sherazithat Pak Army and World FoodProgramme have so far jointly distrib-uted over eighty-six thousand six hun-dred food packs among IDPs.

Disaster management authorities,army, and the UN bodies are takingpart in the relief efforts.

UNHCR has distributed kits ofnon-food items among twenty- eightthousand families of IDPs.

NDMA has handed over onethousand tents to Deputy Commis-sioner Bannu for distribution amongthe IDPs.

IDPs are also being providedmedical facilities.

Bannu: Internally Displaced Per-sons (IDPs) from the North WaziristanAgency (NWA) while expressing sat-isfaction and happiness over the re-lief activities and support by the gov-ernment have categorically stated thatthey fully support the military opera-tion in the tribal area which would helpbringing peace and stability in thetroubled areas.

Though far from their homes, tem-porary residing in the IDP camps, thesepeople are full of hope that with theeffective and result-oriented operationin the NWA, the day is not far whenthey would return safely to their na-tive homes.

“Federal government and primeminister Nawaz Sharif have turned outto be pretty helpful in this hour of trialwho covered our wounds of hopeless-ness with affection and care,” saidNasib Khan Dawar, a displaced per-

IDPs relief work in full swing: NDMA

Over 86,000 food packsdistributed among affectees

son from the NWA while talking toAPP.

Expressing gratitude over provi-sion of food, ration and other essen-tial items to the dispersed families,Dawar maintained though the govern-ment can not provide house like atmo-sphere in the camps, yet the effortsare commendable.

To a question, Dawar informedthat the concerned authorities havealso started providing fodder for thecattle which would help survival of theanimals in the camps.

Mausam Khan Wazir appreciatedthe measures by the government in theIDP camps saying that they left theirhouses because of a national causeand that is why they are not repentingon this decision.

“Army is safeguarding our home-land and the operation in the NorthWaziristan was vital for maintaining thewrit of the government and getting ridfrom the terrorists who carry out theiractivities in the country,” he said.

He told that he, alongwith his fam-ily reached at Mandan after travellingfor three days on foot and took ahouse on rent in the area.

To a question, he said that the PakArmy was distributing food items andother stuff in a very organized mannerwhile people could be seen queuingfor getting themselves registered.

Wazir appreciated the distributionof relief money among the dispersedpersons which help mitigating theirsufferings in this holy month ofRamazan.

Another displaced person,Makhell Khan Wazir highly praised therole of Pak Army in carrying out thisoperation and said that all the tribalare with the military and would fightagainst terrorists, if needed.

“We will face all the difficulties as

these hardships are not for us but forthe nation and for the country. Thisoperation is indispensable for the pros-perity and integrity of the country,”he said.

Makhell Wazir said that theywould not leave any terrorist in theNorth Waziristan upon their return tohometown.

History proved that the tribal havealways proved themselves loyal andfaithful and they never stepped backin safeguarding the frontiers of thecountry. IDPs satisfied over relief ac-tivities Director FATA Disaster Man-agement Authority (FDMA) FarmanKhilji has said that registration of IDPsfrom Razmak and Shawal areas of NorthWaziristan Agency began in Peshawarfromn Friday (today).

Talking to Radio Pakistan, he saidthat the total number of IDPs has nowgone up to about eight hundred sev-enty-seven thousand (877,000).

He said the camps have been es-tablished by FDMA and jointly admin-istered by Pakistan Army and FDMAwherein all facilities like shelter,cooked food, water and other alliedservices are being provided to the dis-placed persons.

FDMA Director said that five dis-tribution points have been establishedwhere food, hygiene kit and cashgrants are being given to IDPs.

He said proper arrangements havebeen made for privacy of women andplayground for the children in thecamps.

Farman Khilji said electricity isbeing provided in the camps round theclock and doctors are also availablefor 24 hours.

The Director FDMA further saiddrinking water and ice are provided tothe IDPs. He said sufficient food isbeing provided to the IDPs.—APP

SALAHUDDIN HAIDER

WHAT is Tahirul Qadri upto ? will hi andTehrik-i-Insaaf chief Imran Khan beable to form a nexus.most 68 years old,

is still searching for identity,and finds itself atcross-roads again. Soon after coming on the

map of the world, it plunged intocrisis, deeper and deeper, andnow Qadri and his aides arethinking of putting it on a com-plete U=turn— bringing backthe presidential system. Hisaides, coming into contact andtalking on condition of anonym-ity argue that parliamentary sys-tem needs to be folded for beinga tool for machinations, black-

mailing and factory for corruption. The Presi-dential system, would be a check on it, as boththe Head of State, and the parliament will beelected on the basis one-man-one-vote, bothindependent of each other, and thusParliament’s role will restricted to guiding thegovernment and legislate, while the Presidentwill be free to implement his policies, and evenmay exercise veto powers, on the American pat-tern.

Laudable thinking, if remains limited to plan-ning stage alone. In practice, it would invite thewrath of almost all major political forces. Theformula whenever put forward, would cause anupheaval, and ultimately will vanish into thinair. Pakistan has , unfortunately been turnedinto a laboratory rat, military adventurers likeAyub Khan and Ziaul Haq, enjoying it to theirmaximum delight for 10 and all years, and politi-

Will Pakistan opt for presidential form of government?cians unfortunately, in their lust for money, aretrapped by corruption phenomenon, caring littleabout the poor people, whose votes they ex-ploit to win elections.

Minhajul Quran chief colleagues do notconceal the fact that Qadri has already formed acore committee of 9 different people—eachknown experts of his field, and has even hiredKunwar Dilshad , former secretary to electioncommission to reform the electoral system.Whether he is working on switching to Presi-dential form of government, can not be said withauthority now, but some kind of changes arebeing planned.

A couple of major questions will requireanswer, the moment scholar-politician makes itpublic—mustering of enough votes to amendthe Constitution, framed after considerable ef-fort in 1973 and enjoying unanimity of mostpolitical parties. They will naturally be up inrebellion. And secondly, even if “hidden hands”and perverted minds are churning out theoriesat the moment, they need to gauge the publicsentiments first before opting for their plans tobe publicized. People of Pakistan, inherited Brit-ish and Indian system of governments, are tunedto parliamentary democracy, and have rejectedunitary or presidential forms, whenever they gota chance to do that.

What is more dangerous is the plan thatQadri and his followers have in their minds ofblocking the main highways from Karachi portright upto Peshawar to disrupt or perhaps to-tally block the supply lines like of petrol, foodand essential items to various cities. They areon a sinister plan that if it works for ten days,Nawaz may be asked to accept it as no confi-

dence in him, and may be forced to step down.A new government of one-year term will be in-stalled to clean the mess and make the countrya corruption-free society, and revert to goodgovernance.

Qadri is dead against monopolizing the ma-jor administrative and financial institutionsamong rulers families. Secondly, they argue thatmacro level projects like major highways, etchas actually relegated the micro economic plans,which would have been a source of comfort forthe poor. Whether any one in present circum-stances can do, is a big poser.

Also, how could Imran or Qadri, separatelyor jointly can, force the government to its knees,experts are still trying to search for solution.True Imran’if he succeeds in spearheading hislong March to the capital city on the Indepen-dence day of August 14, and Qadri puts intoaction his plans for “revolution within weeksand that too constitutional, democratic andpeaceful” can cause turmoil of incrediblenarture. But is the government of the day soweak to keep watching helplessly and nowcounter it effectively.

If those relying on support of their “ pro-moters” for the success of their plan of dis-lodging the government, do manage a helpinghand, it wont be easy for them achieve theirobjective. These are some of the questionshaunting the minds of the analysts and politi-cal pundits. But Qadri is out to play mischief,Whether he can really be effective or his think-ing of army forcing the PML(N) governmentout of office for fear of turmoil, is somethingthat is beyond comprehension, atleast for thenear future.

Security rehearsalheld at Parco

MULTAN—Unified Com-mand Centre, set up on theorders of Corps CommanderMultan, to combat any emer-gency situation in the divi-sion, organized a securityrelated rehearsal at Pak-ArabRefinery (Parco) inMuzaffargarh district on Fri-day to assess the prepared-ness of security apparatusdeployed there.

Major General Hasnaat,Commander of Unified Com-mand Centre, witnessed therehearsal which was partici-pated by Pakistan Army,police, Parco securityguards, elite force and Res-cue 1122, says a release is-sued by ISPR Multan.

Major General Hasnaatcommended the participantson successful security re-hearsal and stressed thatcombined effort by all LawEnforcement Agencies(LEAs) can defeat the men-ace of terrorism.—APP

STAFF REPORTER

PESHAWAR—The KhyberPakhtunkhwa Chief MinisterPervez Khattak has an-nounced holding a protestagainst Water and PowerDevelopment Authority(Wapda) for carrying outhours-long unscheduledloadshedding in the prov-ince.

All the elected membersbelonging to PakistanTehrik-e-Insaf (PTI) wouldhold a walk upto the WapdaHouse here on July 16 tolodge a formal protest overthe cruel power outages inKhyber Pakhtunkhwa, theprovince producing electric-ity double than its consump-tion, said the chief ministerwhile addressing a pressconference at CM SecretariatPeshawar. He also asked thepublic to join the protest andregister their sentiments andanger against Wapda.

He said the federal gov-ernment and Wapda did notpay attention to the hue andcry of people of the prov-ince due to power cut in thesizzling weather that too inthe Holy month of ramazan.Consumers were cursing theprovincial government fortheir sufferings especiallyfor water shortage becauseof non-availability of powersupply and the federal gov-ernment was exploiting thesituation for political pointscoring, he alleged.

KP to protest against WAPDA forlong unscheduled load shedding

Pervez Khattak whilecriticizing the federal gov-ernment said that there wasno justification ofloadshedding in a provincegenerating cheapest electric-ity double than its consump-tion. “We had offered tak-ing over the Peshawar Elec-tric Supply Company(Pesco) along with genera-tion, distribution and trans-mission, but the federal gov-ernment is reluctant andwants us just to collect bills.We are not even given ourshare of 16 percent in thetotal power generation and

the province is facing severeloadshedding,” he com-plained. He said the federalgovernment was trying todefame the PTI through cre-ating hurdles for its govern-ment that’s why the PTI hadno option but to launch aprotest against the Wapdaand federal government. Heasked the federal govern-ment to release Rs 100 bil-lion outstanding againstWapda besides the Rs 57billion amount of mark up.He complained that the fed-eral government had cappedthe net hydel profit on six

billion despite the fact thepower tariff is being hikedconstantly. He said the prov-ince could generate morecheap electricity from theextra natural gas for whichhe had already talked to theprime minister.

Chief Minister also de-manded repatriation of se-nior government officers andFC platoons to the KP say-ing the province was shortof senior officers of grade 19and above and junior offic-ers were appointed on se-nior level posts in police anddistrict management etc.

HYDERABAD: Ladies busy in purchasing artificial jewellery in a local market aspreparation gaining momentum for upcoming Eid.

SUKKUR: Leader of Opposition in National Assembly Syed Khursheed Ahmad Shah talking to media at SukkurAirport on Friday.

PESHAWAR: Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Pervez Khattak addressing mediaconference.

ZA Bukhari tobe remembered

OBSERVER REPORT

ISLAMABAD—The 39thdeath anniversary of fatherof broadcasting and the firstdirector-general of RadioPakistan, Zulfiqar AliBukhari popularly known asZ.A. Bukhari will be ob-

served onSaturday.

Born intoa spiritualfamily inPeshawar in1904, ZABalso servedas general

manager of Pakistan Televi-sion. With his indefatigableenergies and love for broad-casting, he worked at the ra-dio station till late into thenight. He would sit with sing-ers, guide them, composenew tunes and would evensing with them. He intro-duced many innovativeideas. He would write manyprogrammes and broadcastthem, too.

ZAB gave utmost im-portance to the correctUrdu pronunciation. Duringhis tenure’s tenure, radiostation was a place fre-quented by intellectuals,writers, musicians, poetsand scholars. He turnedRadio Pakistan into an in-stitution where raw handsgot their early training andwent ahead in search ofgreener pastures.

Five of a familyembrace Islam

MULTAN—Five of a Christian family including two womenand two children embraced Islam here on Friday at a localmosque.

Aurangzaib, 45, a resident of Quaray Wala nearRashidabad converted to Islam along with his wife, AfshanZaib, 35, two sons named Vishal Zaib, 10, Sahil Zaib, 8, andmother-in-law, Sughran Bibi, 60, before Juma prayers hereon Friday.

Aurangzaib, a painter by profession, was namedMuhammad Abdullah, his wife Afshan as Sakina Bibi, hissons as Muhammad Siddiq and Muhammad Umer Farooqand Sughran as Zainub Bibi after embracing Islam at thehands of Maulana Qari Muhammad Sadeed.

Talking to this news agency, Abdullah said that theyhad decided to embrace Islam after being inspired by itsgolden principles. He added that they had accepted Islamon their own free will and nobody had pressurized them.

Every wise man should opt for the true religion, hesaid, adding that his whole family knew that he was goingto embrace Islam today along with my wife, two sons andmother-in-law.

He said that his uncle’s son first converted to Islamalmost two years back and married a widow. My cousin,Muhammad Abdur Rehman, was also a source inspirationfor us, Abdullah said. —APP

Rs2m cheque forfamily of

martyred wardenMULTAN—Chief Traffic Of-ficer Multan on Friday gaveaway a cheque for Rs 2 mil-lion to father of a traffic war-den who was martyred lastyear by dacoits.

According to traffic po-lice sources, traffic wardenShahbaz Ali was shot deadby dacoits last year. Theywere later arrested and someof them were killed in an en-counter with police.

The Punjab governmenthad announced Rs 2 millionfor the family of the martyredtraffic warden. Chief TrafficOfficer Mehr Javed deliveredthe cheque Shahbaz’s fatherDr Manzoor Ahmed.—APP

ANF arrests six personsincluding lady smugglers

ISLAMABAD—Anti Narcotics Force (ANF) has recovered29 kg charas and six kg opium, arresting six persons in-cluding two lady drug smugglers.

ANF conducted four operations in various cities in-cluding Lahore, Peshawar and Karachi, said a press re-lease.

According to details, ANF Lahore arrested two ladydrug smugglers namely Salma alias Nazu and Mumtaz Bibi,both residents of Swabi and recovered 18 kg charas fromtheir personal possession. They were arrested near BusStand, Bund Road, Lahore.

ANF Lahore acting upon an information arrestedMuhammad Khalid r/o Lahore and recovered 8.4 kg cha-ras from his possession. He was travelling on motorcycleNo. LEW-695-13 near Tezab and Chemical Market, EkMoria Pull Road, Lahore. He was to deliver the drugs tostreet sellers, of whose investigation is under process.

ANF Lahore, Road Check Team arrested Ihtesham UlHaq r/o Haripur at main Faisalabad Motorway Interchangeand recovered 1.2 kg charas from his possession. Initialinterrogation revealed that the individual was local dis-tributer of narcotics.

ANF Peshawar Vigilance Team on routine checkingarrested Arshad and Amjid, both residents of Charsadaand recovered 6 kg opium and 1 kg charas from their pos-session. They were arrested while travelling in a passen-ger coach No. LWC-9271 at Rashakai, Motorway Inter-change. They were to distribute the drugs to street sup-pliers at Lahore.

Recovery cases have been registered in ANF PoliceStations and further investigation is under process.—APP

PESHAWAR—The KhyberPakthunkhwa Government hasplanned 65 projects costingRs.2014.891 million for uplift of watersector to enhance agricultural produc-tivity by ensuring requisite, equitableand reliable irrigation supplies to thecultivable lands of the province.

The government will undertake amega project regarding providing rail-ing and fencing of canal passingthrough Peshawar city that would notonly enhance beauty of Peshawar butwould also averts human losses es-pecially of children.Flood managementof Shah Alam and Naguman rivershave also been planned by the gov-ernment to protect properties and irri-gated lands of people from possiblethreats of floods during monsoon sea-son, official sources in Irrigation De-partment told APP on Friday.

Most of low laying areas ofCharsadda inundate when water sur-face in these rivers get high especiallyduring monsoon by inflecting heavylosses to properties and agriculturalcrops of farmers and growers. There-fore, the government has planned to

manage flood in River Shah Alam andRiver Naguman especially in monsoonby removing encroachment from itsbank sides and construct flood pro-tection walls.In addition to revampingJindi River in Charsadda, the govern-ment would undertake construction offlood embankment on river side ofKabul River. This would help save pre-cious land from soil erosion and willaverts flood threats.ConstructionKiyala Dam district Abbottabad withCCA of 3000 acres, Kundal Dam in dis-trict Swabi with CCA of 5000 acres andZamir Gul Dam in district Kohat withCCA of 2000 were also planned.

Work on detail design and con-struction of Pehur Highlevel Canalhaving CCA of 25000 acres and SiranRight Bank Canal having CCA of 12000acres would be initiated with assis-tance of Asian Development Bank.

Focus on improvement and exten-sion to guide bund for protection ofarea between Guide Bund and uptoSpur No.1 Dera Darya Khan Bridgewould be made.To complete theseprojects, the government has ear-marked Rs.4737 million for 131 projects

out of which 66 are ongoing with allo-cation of Rs.2722.109 million and 65are new with allocation of Rs.2014.891million for fiscal year 2014-15.

Sustainable development of irriga-tion infrastructure with focus on ho-listic management and institutionalreforms and transparent and sustain-able management of water resourcesfor improving irrigation service deliv-ery would be ensured.

Also, priority would be given toimprovement on farm water manage-ment and payment of canals sides.

The province’s economy is mainlyagrarian and it predominantly dependson an effective irrigation system.

This year out of the total watersector’s budget maximum resourceshave been allocated for the construc-tion of dams new including Gul Dheridam, Dhoke Toru-Jhangra Dam, Kiyaladam, Kundal dam & Zamir Gul dam indistrict Kohat.The department willalso execute diverse projects pertain-ing to construction and improvementof irrigation channels, construction ofnew flood protection works and instal-lation of tube wells.—APP

KP plans 65 new projectsfor uplift of water sector

IGP dismissesDSP Heaquarters

BattagramPESHAWAR—The InspectorGeneral of Police KhyberPakhtunkhwa Nasir KhanDurrani has dismissed DSPHeadquarter Battagram fromservice in light of the depart-mental inquiry reportagainst him with immediateeffect.

According to details afew days ago the IGP hadsuspended DSP headquar-ters Battagram ShaukatZaman on ill reputation, cor-ruption and registering fakecases of Narcotics againstthe innocent citizen and hadordered departmental in-quiry against him, says apress release here on Friday.

The DIG inquiry and in-spection conducted the de-partmental inquiry againstthe suspended DSP andhave termed all the allega-tions against the DSP cor-rect and submitted the de-partmental inquiry report toIGP today.

The IGP in light of thedepartmental inquiry reporthas dismissed DSP ShaukatZaman from service withimmediate effect and issuedproper orders in this con-nection.—APP

PESHAWAR—Speaker, KhyberPakhtunkhwa Assembly, Asad Qaiser hassaid current situation demanded that thereshould be no political point-scoring, andefforts be made to promote unity and soli-darity.

He was addressing a grand meeting ofthe district presidents and general secre-taries of different political parties in JirgaHall, Bannu on Friday. Besides, ProvincialMinister Mushtaq Ghani and MPA Fakhar-e-Azam a large number of important figuresand senior government officials were alsopresent on the occasion. The Speaker KPAssembly said that the problem of IDPswas not specific for any particular partyrather it was the problem of the whole na-tion.

He said that presently the whole nationwas passing through a difficult challeng-ing phase. He said that the tribes of Bannuwere facing a crucial responsibility.

He said that an amount of Rs.5 millioneach have been released for District Head-quarters Hospital (DHQ) Bannu andWomen & Children Hospitla and anotheramount of Rs.2.5 million for Khalifa GulNawaz Hospital. He said that the govern-ment has stored a huge quantity of medi-cines for 1,82,000 patients in Bannu and tillnow over 90,000 patients have been pro-

No scope for pointsscoring: Speaker

vided free medicines. He said that all hos-pitals of the district are required to workconsecutively three shifts and daily reportof that would be dispatched to SecretaryHealth on daily basis. He said that in caseof the lack of performing duties or refusalfrom duties, stern action disciplinary actionwould be taken against doctors concernedincluding registration of FIR, dismissal fromservice and ban on their private practice.The speaker said that a committee has beenconstituted under the chairmanship ofDeputy Commissioner Bannu and membersincluded Medical Superintendent (MS),concerned MPAs, PPHI and Imran KhanFoundation. The committee, he said wasempowered to purchase anything includ-ing medicines, beds, quilts for hospitals,fans and air-conditioners. He said that theprovincial government had provided twobuses for Baka Khel IDPs camp with imme-diate effect. He said that recommendationsfor inclusion of the residents of TehsilShawal in IDPs would be sent to federalgovernment. He urged the parents and vol-unteers for special focus on administeringpolio drops to the children of IDPs. He saidthat the shifting of 378 tube-wells of Bannuon solar power will be completed within aperiod of one week while 37 more would berepaired.—APP

All majorrivers run

normal: FFCISLAMABAD—The FederalFlood Commission (FFC)on Friday said that pres-ently, all main rivers in-cluding Indus, Jhelum,Chenab, Ravi and Sutlejwere flowing normal whilethe River Kabul contin-ued to f low in MediumFlood in Warsak-Nowshera reach.

According to dailyFFC report, the River Swatwas at Low Flood Stage atCharsadda Road Bridge.

Today’s actual r iverflows and reservoir eleva-t ions indicates thatTarbela and Mangla Damsare at elevations of1462.42 feet and 1204.95feet respectively, whichare 87.58 feet and 37.05feet below their respectiveMaximum ConservationLevels of 1550.00 feet and1242.00 feet.

The combined l ivestorage capacity ofTarbela, Chashma andMangla reservoirs is 6.907MAF as compared to lastyear’s 9.002 MAF.

According to FloodForecast ing Division,Lahore, Seasonal Lowprevails over Northwest-ern Balochistan and ad-joining areas. A feebletrough of Westerly Wavelies over North of Af-ghanis tan.

As predicted by theFlood Forecast ing Divi-sion, Lahore, mainly hotand humid weather is ex-pected over most parts ofthe country during thenext 24 hours. However,isolated thundershowersare expected overMalakand Division ofKhyber Pakhtunkhwa dur-ing the same period.

No significant rainfallevent has been reportedby FFD, Lahore during thepast 24 hours except forKotli = 9 mm.—APP

Three housingcolonies

declared illegalFAISALABAD—FaisalabadDevelopment Authority(FDA) has declared threehousing colonies illegal andwarned people not to pur-chase any plot in theschemes.

According to a spokes-man for FDA, the illegalcolonies include Imtiaz Gar-den, Edan Valley and Execu-tive Block extension of EdanGarden.

He said that no personor company was authorizedto develop any housingscheme without the permis-sion of FDA but theschemes were developedwithout fulfiling require-ments.—APP

Karachi-LahoreMotorway to

complete by-2017ISLAMABAD—Constructionwork of Karachi-LahoreMotorway (KLM) whichwould benefit a huge popu-lation of the country will becompleted by September2017.

According to officialsources, the Karachi-Lahore Motorway wouldfacilitate people commutingbetween Karachi and othermajor cities of the countryi n c l u d i n gSukkur,Badin,Ghotki,Rohri,Dadu,Pano Aqil, Abro, Rahim yarKhan, Sadiqabad, Zahir Pir,Jalalpur Peerwala AbdulHakim , Mamo Kajan andNankana Sahib.

The length ofmotorway will be 1160 kilo-meter and will also serve forspeedy and early trading ofgoods in different parts ofthe country, said the offi-cial. He said that fundshave already been releasedfor land acquisition of theproject and constructionwork would likely to startby year end.

Karachi-LahoreMotorway will start fromHub Karachi and end at theBabu Sabo interchange atLahore, he said. Replyingto a question, he said thegovernment was committedto providing comfortableand affordable transport fa-cilities to its citizens withinminimum possible time.

He said that last weekExecutive Committee of Na-tional Economic Council(ECNEC) approved theKarach i -Mul t an -Lahoremotorway project and its387km Sukkur-Multan sec-tion at a rationalised costof Rs 259.353 bn. Ten percent cost of the project willcome from the Public Sec-tor DevelopmentProgramme (PSDP) and therest from credit financingby the Chinese govern-ment.

The project envisagesconstruction of six-laneSukkur-Multan section ofthe 1148km, includingbuilding of bridges, inter-changes, nullahs, etc.

ECNEC also approveda project for land acquisi-tion, compensation of af-fected properties and relo-cation of utilities for themotorway at a rationalisedcost of Rs 51 bn.—APP

LAHORE: Head of Pakistan Ulema Council Hafiz Muhammad Tahir Ashrafi leading the rally against Israeli aggression in Gaza.

TAXILA: Assistant Commissioner Taxila, Shahid Imran visiting Sasta Ramazan Ba-zaar to check quality of food items and fruit.

Case registeredfor Rs 5m tax

evasionMULTAN—Customs Intelli-gence Multan officials havelodged an FIR against acompany owner and an ac-countant for Rs 5 million taxevasion and demoted a cus-toms appraiser on wrongassessment.

Additional CollectorCustoms IntelligenceMultan Nisar Ahmad saidthat a Multan-based foodfactory had imported carbonrolls from Austria but pre-sented invoices and otherdocuments showing a lessamount.

On suspicions, customsintelligence officialschecked the record and ac-cording to their initial as-sessment Rs 5 million worthof duty theft was detected.

The officials lodged anFIR against company ownerChaudhry Zulfiqar and ac-countant Waseem. Customsintelligence has also formedteams who are raiding to ar-rest of the accused.—APP QUETTA: President ASWJ Balochistan chapter Maulana Ramzan Mengal addressing

the protestors.

PMD predictsthundershowers at

isolated placesISLAMABAD—Pakistan Meteorological Department (PMD)on Friday forecast rain/thundershower at isolated placesof Rawalpindi and Islamabad within next 24 hours.

The rain-thundershower is also expected at isolatedplaces in Kashmir, Gujranwala and Hazara divisions dur-ing evening/night. Moreover,dust raising winds is expectedin Multan and Bahawalpur di-visions.

However, mainly very hotand humid weather in mostparts of the country in next 24hours.

According to synoptic Situation, seasonal low lies overNorth Baluchistan and its trough extending southeast-ward. Weak moist currents are penetrating Kashmir andupper parts of Punjab.

Thursday’s Highest & Other Cities Max Temp wereSibbi 45øC, Dalbandin, Bhakkar, Dadu, Noorpur thal andNokkundi 44øC, Bahawalnagar, R.Y.Khan, Rohri, Mianwali,Bahawalpur, Moenjodharo, Larkana and Sh. Banazirabad43øC.

Islamabad 39øC, Lahore 42øC, Karachi 34øC, Peshawar41øC, Quetta 37øC, Skardu 33øC, Murree 27øC,Muzaffarabad 40øC, Gilgit 36øC, Faisalabad 41øC, Multan41øC, Hyderabad 38øC. Rainfall during last 24 hrs (mm),Kotli 09. The Multan local Met office has forecast hot anddry weather with chances of dust raising winds (DRW) forthe city and its suburbs during the next 24 hours.—APP

Karachi gets someattention at least

DURING his visit to Karachi on Thursday, Prime Minister NawazSharif announced historic projects to ease out some of the pressing problems of Karachiites. In line with his passion to develop

infrastructure of the country on modern lines, as this is key to develop-ment, he declared intention of the Federal Government to provide as muchas Rs. 118.5 billion for Karachi-related development projects includingthe Rs. 42 billion Malir Highway project, Rs. 15 billion for Rapid BusTransport called Green Line system and Rs. 55 billion for acquisition ofland for Karachi-Lahore Motorway, besides provision of 6.5 billion forgreater water supply scheme for the city.

Development packages were also announced for Karachi in the pastby previous governments but hardly any one of them saw light of theday, as neither the required funds were released nor was there genuinewill to accomplish them. This is despite the fact that Karachi expandedat a mind-boggling speed both in terms of area and population adding tothe woes of its residents. In this backdrop, the package announced byPrime Minister Nawaz Sharif is unique in the sense that the projects aretime-bound. Karachi-Lahore Motorway being a gigantic project, it will,obviously take some time to complete but allocation of hefty Rs. 55billion this year for land acquisition is reflective of the resolve of theGovernment to implement it expeditiously. However, the other impor-tant project of Green Line Bus is to be completed within months andone can rest assured it will be as PML(N) has track record of achievingresults in the given timeframe. While appreciating these schemes thatare aimed at resolving some of the serious problems of Karachiites, wewould welcome announcement of the PM for his resolve to go for se-lected targeted operation to restore glory, security and peace of the city,turning it into a ‘city of lights’. Development projects can produce de-sired results only if there is security of life and property, which is notthe case in Karachi for several years. A targeted operation was launchedsome months back under the leadership of the Provincial Chief Minis-ter but it seems the campaign became victim to political expediencies,as no worthwhile results are visible with killing spree continuing andextortionists operating freely. Now that the law-enforcing agencies areequipped with necessary legal powers to eliminate crime, we hope seri-ous and sincere efforts would be made to restore peace in Karachi.

Hassle-freetransfer of pension

THE present Government seems to be alive to the miseries inflictedon poor pensioners by the bureaucratic rigmaroles as a meeting held

under the chairmanship of Finance Minister Ishaq Dar reviewed thepension-related issues in depth on Thursday and tasked Finance Secre-tary to come out with a report in two months for evolving a satisfactorymechanism for disbursement of pensions. The business model explainedby Punjab was appreciated but credit goes to the Finance Minister forgiving directions for simplification of the procedure and fast track dis-bursement of pensions.

One feels sad the way civil servants, who spend their entire life inpublic service, are treated and even humiliated during and after retire-ment and that too by their own colleagues in service. In the first place,despite repeated instructions by the governments of the day and differ-ent tiers of judiciary, a retiring civil servant has to undergo a cumber-some process for completion of the pension documents. Once the docu-ments are complete, it takes months for release of first monthly pensionwhile payments on account of GP Fund and gratuity are delayed evenfor years and in some cases the beneficiaries expire. Then most of thedepartments require their pensioners to visit their offices every monthas a proof of their being alive. The increases announced by the govern-ment during budgets are granted after much delays and this is particu-larly the case of the ex-servicemen. They are deliberately mentally tor-tured by way of wrong calculation of increases and made to visit GPOsand other related offices to rectify the wrongs. Then the grant of pen-sion through Pakistan Post is also a torturous process for infirm and oldpensioners as it consumed almost entire day besides palm-greasing ofthe corrupt to the core Pakistan Post staff. In this backdrop, it makessense to use latest IT instruments for disbursement of pensions likeATM cards and Easy Paisa. We hope that the announcement in this re-gard by the Finance Minister would not remain a lip-service and practi-cal steps would be taken for simplification of all pension-related proce-dure and fast track payment of pension and pensionary benefits.

India raisesmilitary budget

INDIA boosted military budget by 12 percent in 2014-15 over the previous year in a budget presented on Thursday and further opened the do-

mestic weapons industry to foreign investment to help rebuild the military.Finance Minister Arun Jaitley set the military budget at 2.29 trillion Indianrupees ($38.35 billion) for 2014-15, 50 billion rupees more than what theprevious government agreed in an interim budget earlier this year.

Hike in military spending for the new year is just a tip of the icebergas India has elaborate plans to modernize its armed forces through pro-curement of arms and equipment worth billions of dollars from differ-ent Western sources, a beeline of which is visiting New Delhi thesedays to get their share of prospective lucrative contracts. India has beenthe world’s top arms buyer for the last three years, trying to replaceageing Soviet-era military weapons with modern weapons. One fails tounderstand what prompts India to go for such massive hike in militarybudget and go for a defence shopping spree at the cost of its teemingmillions. India faces no threat from its small neighbours, rather they arethreatened and coerced by New Delhi through different tactics. Thoughin theory India claims to be taking steps to counter threats from Chinabut given the peaceful posture of Beijing there is hardly any justifica-tion for this jingoistic approach. It is, however, understood that NewDelhi is pursing the agenda of Greater India and the ruling BJP is all formilitarily strong India to brow-beat Pakistan and counter China.

Ashraf Ghani wins the race

Restoretrust to

douse thefire inGaza

THE latest mini-war between Israel and the Hamasmovement is as

unwinnable for either side as pre-vious rounds in 2009 and 2012.Though it has stockpiled thou-sands of rockets and some longer-range missiles, Hamas lacks theability to inflict serious damageor casualties; a new anti-missilesystem has blocked most of thewarheads headed toward Tel Avivand other populous areas. Israel,for its part, can target Hamas com-manders and infrastructure inGaza but probably can’t entirelysilence the rocket launchers. Aground invasion of Gaza, forwhich troops are now being mus-tered, would cause heavy casual-ties and, if it destroyed Hamas,leave Israel with the task of gov-erning the territory and its nearly2 million people.

Both sides thus seem to beplaying for tactical rather thanstrategic gains. Israel would liketo reduce the military powerHamas has built up since the lastconflict, slightly more than 18months ago; Prime Minister Ben-jamin Netanyahu on Wednesdaysaid his aim was to stop therocket attacks and restore“quiet.” Hamas hopes to winconcessions, including the re-lease of operatives recentlyrounded up by Israel and theopening of its border with Egypt,in exchange for a cease-fire.

Those goals hardly seemworth the bloodshed — nearly 50people reportedly had been killedin Gaza by late Wednesday, in-cluding civilians — or the eco-nomic losses to both Palestiniansand Israelis. In fact, neither sidewanted war. Hamas had justagreed to back a united Palestin-ian government with the WestBank-based Fatah movement,while Israel quietly offered a trucebefore the escalation of hostilitieson Sunday. As so often happensin the Middle East, acts by ex-tremists forced these events: thekidnapping and murder of threeIsraeli teenagers allegedly byHamas militants apparently actingon their own; the revenge murderof a Palestinian by Israeli thugs;the initial firing of rockets fromGaza by small militant groupschallenging Hamas’s authority.

The first imperative in thesecircumstances is to stop the fight-ing before it escalates beyond thecontrol of either side. That will beharder than in 2012, when theObama administration teamedwith Egypt’s then-Islamist gov-ernment, but contacts at least havebegun. The larger challenge willbe finding a way forward fromwhat, before the new fighting, wasalready a dangerous low point inIsraeli-Palestinian relations. Sincethe collapse of US-sponsoredpeace talks in April, both sideshave been gravitating towardmilitant strategies: Israel is con-templating new settlement con-struction, while Palestinian Au-thority President Mahmoud Abbasis relaunching his campaign toobtain Palestinian membership ininternational organizations, suchas the International CriminalCourt, that then can be directedagainst Israel.

Obama administration offi-cials argue that this deteriorationproves that it was right to pursuea comprehensive Israeli-Palestin-ian peace settlement. In our view,the failed US effort, with its tighttimetable and disregard for the ob-vious unwillingness of leaders onboth sides, merely raised expec-tations that could not be met, mak-ing a backlash inevitable. What’sneeded is not another diplomaticblitz but a more patient, incremen-tal and sustainable effort to restoretrust between Israelis and Pales-tinians, improve economic condi-tions in the West Bank and Gaza,and create the foundations for aneventual settlement. That is if thefire in Gaza can be put out.— The Washington Post

MEDIA WATCH

PEACE in Afghanistan wasshattered by the invasion ofNorthern Alliance ground

forces fully supported by US led al-lied forces in October 2001, uproot-ing the Taliban and forcing them totake shelter in neighboring Pakistanand Iran. Occupation of Afghanistansparked an insurgency led by Talibanand assisted by Al-Qaeda. It led tolongest war in the recent history be-tween the US led occupation forcesand rag-tag Mujahideen wagingJihad to free their country. After fail-ing to defeat the Taliban, the US andits allies have been left with nochoice but to withdraw in utter hu-miliation by December 2014. As thetime for the exit of occupation troopsfrom Afghanistan is drawing closer,fears of unraveling of post 1989 sce-nario are being expressed.

The US military generalsproved professionally too weak tohandle the guerrilla war. They couldneither win the hearts and minds ofcommon Afghans, nor could defeatthe rag-tag militants. Instead of re-vising war strategy to correct faults,they derived satisfaction in puttingthe blame of their failures on Paki-stan. The US exit strategy seems asconfused as it was during the courseof the war. With no political recon-ciliation with the insurgents in place,long-term stability in Afghanistanremains questionable.

After keeping unpopular HamidKarzai in power from 2001 onwards,third presidential election was orga-nized in April 2014. The first roundof presidential election took place on

Kashmir exists on UN agenda

INDIAN government has askedthe United Nations MilitaryObserver Group on India and

Pakistan (UNMOGIP) to vacate itspremises in New Delhi. This hasbeen done to convey an impressionthat Kashmir is a settled issue, asNew Delhi considers the whole ofKashmir as an integral part of thecountry and has been against third-party mediation or external involve-ment in the region including theUNMOGIP that was set up in 1949.Last year also, India had suggestedat a meeting at the UN SecurityCouncil that the U.N. Military Ob-server Group in India and Pakistan(UNMOGIP) be wound up, as it hadbeen ‘overtaken’by the SimlaAgreement of 1972. India had takenthe plea that following Simla Agree-ment, the two countries were re-solved to settle their differences bypeaceful means through bilateralAgreement. However, Pakistan hastaken the position that Jammu andKashmir is a disputed territory, andresolutions are still valid that gavethe right to the people of Kashmirto decide about their future.

Whereas Pakistan military con-tinued to lodge complaints withUNMOGIP about ceasefire viola-tions in Kashmir, India lodged nocomplaints since January 1972, andrestricted the activities of the UNobservers. It is true that according toTashkent Declaration after 1965 Warand Simla Agreement after 1971 War,

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Weekly Magazine

Sadia Zahid MalikEditor

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

Those who can wina war well canrarely make a goodpeace and thosewho could make agood peace wouldnever have wonthe war.

both India and Pakistanhad agreed to resolve alldisputes through bilateraldialogue. But it nevermeant that UNSC resolu-tions have become redun-dant. In fact, the Kashmirdispute is very much alivein the UN. In case, Indiacontinues to balk at resolv-

ing the Kashmir dispute either on thebasis of the UNSC resolutions or anyarrangement, which is acceptable toIndia, Pakistan and the people of Kash-mir, there can never be a durable peacein the region. The international com-munity has to understand that Tashkentand Simla agreements were signed byPakistan under duress.

However, one should not ignorethe fact that Article 103 of ChapterXVI of the UN Charter clearly states:“In the event of a conflict betweenthe obligations of the members of theUnited Nations under the presentCharter and any other internationalagreement, their obligation under thepresent charter shall prevail”. Unfor-tunately, both the Congress and BJPhave identical stance so far as rela-tions with Pakistan and resolution ofKashmir issue are concerned. TheCongress leaders often expressedwillingness to discuss all issues ordisputes with Pakistan includingKashmir, but when pressed for mean-ingful dialogue to resolve Kashmirdispute, they said Kashmir was anintegral part of India. The BJP hadvowed to act tough with Pakistan, andwould not discuss Kashmir issue withPakistan. Today, Kashmir stands as apotential nuclear flashpoint whichcould consume the lives of millionsof people in an instant. To avert amajor disaster, there must be a seri-ous, result-oriented and time-boundprocess of dialogue between the lead-ership of India and Pakistan, and of

Jammu and Kashmir. Indian hatredand animosity against the KashmiriMuslims is deep-seated and its reflec-tions can clearly be seen through In-dian repressive tactics including tor-ture, extra-judicial killings, rape andfake encounters by Indian SecurityForces in IOK that continue unabated.The aim is to deter Kashmiri popu-lace from demanding their right ofself-determination. The repression,oppression and atrocities by Indianforces have turned Kashmir into a hellthat would stretch Dante’s imagina-tion reflected in his famous poemDivine Comedy. However, these actscould not break the will ofKashmiris. The heroic strugglewaged by the people of Kashmir isunparalleled in the history; they arecommitted to continue their struggletill their objective is achieved. It hasto be said that no solution can befound without participation and con-sensus of the people of Kashmir.

Historical evidence suggeststhat Kashmiris have passed throughthe longest ordeal and faced deathand destruction.

They had faced repression evenbefore the partition when the Britishhad sold Kashmir to Gulab Singh, aformer governor of Maharaja RanjeetSingh for 7.5 million rupees. Onceagain at the time of partition whenpeople of Kashmir had dreamt offreedom, the plan of annexing Kash-mir was contrived and implementedby Lord Mountbatten and Nehru, andRaja Hari Singh was coerced intosigning the controversial document,as he was hesitant to go against thewishes of Kashmiris. Since thenKashmiris are suffering; and no othernation has perhaps gone through sucha long ordeal in history and their un-ending nightmare continues. HumanRights Watch and other groups everyyear issue reports of Indian forces’

April 5 in which 8 candidatestook part. Abdullah Abdullahwon 45% votes and AshrafGhani who had allied him-self with Rashid Dostumearned 31.56% votes andstood second. Zalmay

Rassoul secured third position whileGul Agha Sherzai following him andothers dropped out of the race.

As no candidate won more than50% votes in the first round as requiredin the Afghan law, Abdullah and Ghaniwent into a run-off. AlthoughAbdullah, who is half-Tajik and half-Pashtun, had a lead of 14%, Pashtunvote in the second round was crucialfor him to beat Ghani hailing fromPashtun Ahmadzai tribe. To gainPashtun vote which is the largest eth-nic group, he joined hands with HamidKarzai’s brother Mahmoud Karzai andalso secured backing of presidentialcandidates Zalmay Rassoul and GulAgha Sherzai. Ghani allied withDostum secured the backing ofGulbadin led Hizb-e-Islami as well asof Ahmad Zia Massoud. These mix ofethnic alliances made the next roundmore complex and challenging.

Apparently Ghani had goodchances of filling up the gap withthe leading contender with the helpof Pashtun votes, but Abdullah re-duced the effect of this factor by al-lying with Pashtun warlords. It waswidely speculated that the contestwill be close and the margin of vic-tory narrow thereby making thingsdifficult for the winner to run thegovernment smoothly.

Amidst conflicting guesswork, therun-off was held on June 14 in whichthe voter turnout was more than thefirst round despite the Taliban threatof blowing up polling stations and sev-eral terror attacks taking place on thepolling day. Unofficial vote count incertain polling stations pushed Ghani

ahead of Abdullah. Failing to recon-cile with the sudden change of for-tunes, Abdullah raised a storm sayingthat high-level fraud had taken placeat the behest of Karzai in the countingof votes to make Ghani wear thecrown. Abdullah had raised similarconcerns during the 2009 elections aswell when he was pitched againstHamid Karzai and the latter was de-clared winner in the run-off round.

This time Abdullah was very con-fident to win the race particularly af-ter he got a reasonably good lead inthe first round. The Pathans probablyopted for a full-Pathan rather than ahalf-Pathan who prides to be a Tajik.They didn’t forgive him for the rawdeal he had given to the Pathans whenhe was holding a powerful portfolioin the government for a long time.Seeing that the trophy which waswithin his grasping reach is slippingout of his hands, Abdullah threatenedto boycott the election knowing fullwell that counting was only half waythrough and after the announcementof preliminary results on July 2, hewould have a month time to registerhis complaints with the ElectionCommission. He led a procession inKabul on June 27 protesting againstrigging in vote counting. Electionresult was finally announced on July7 and Ghani was declared winner. Hebagged 56.4% votes as against hisrival securing 43.5% votes. Ghani hasagreed to audit votes in 7,000 sus-pect polling stations. Final result willbe announced on July 24.

A government with a heavy man-date from all the ethnic communitieswould enable it to confront the com-plex internal challenges squarely. Aweak government will not only re-main fearful of Taliban but also at themercy of USA, both for economicand military support and would pleadfor longer stay of residual force. Had

Abdullah won the race, being highlypro-India he would have forgeddeeper politico-economic-military-intelligence cooperation with India.Ties with Pakistan would not havebeen so friendly since Abdullah’sregime would not have wrapped upRAW’s set up on Afghan soil gearedtowards Pakistan. Ghani on the otherhand may not be so keen to leanheavily upon India and may prefercloser ties with Pakistan. Helped byPakistan, he will have a better chanceto reach an agreement with theTaliban for a power sharing politi-cal settlement. He however mustintegrate rather than alienate the non-Pashtun Afghans to keep Afghani-stan strong and united.

Like Abdullah, Ghani will forsure sign the bilateral securityagreement, a prerequisite forAmerica’s stay in Afghanistan be-yond 2014. Although the securityand combat responsibility will betransferred completely to the Kabuladministration by the end of thisyear, the presence of up to 12000residual forces would keep the USinvolved in the Afghan conflict tillat least 2016, implying thereby thatwar in Afghanistan will continue.The question is whether limited USpresence will be able to guaranteethe stability when well over130,000 troops couldn’t. TheTaliban are likely to step up theirmilitancy to force the residual forceand the US installed regime to quit.They have already initiated an of-fensive in Sangeen District ofHelmand Province putting ANA’scapacity to confront the Talibanthreat to a severe test. Instability inAfghanistan will keep Pakistan’swestern border turbulent.— The writer, a retired Brig, isDirector MEASAC ResearchCentre.

brutalities. International humanrights groups have in the past calledfor a probe into whether the un-marked graves held bodies of civil-ians who disappeared when Indiansecurity forces tried to crush the free-dom movement. However, Kashmiriyouth started peaceful movement, andare determined to take their struggleto logical conclusion.

There is no denying that stateviolence or counter violence neverhelps solve the problem but the bigpowers should understand the grav-ity of the situation and help resolvethe Kashmir issue. But is unlikelythat they will do it, because onlywhen public protest fits into the geo-political designs of the US and theWest that they declare it a popularmovement and honor it with theaward of a color label. The orangerevolution of Ukraine, the rose revo-lution of Georgia, the cidar revolu-tion of Lebanon and much earliervelvet revolution of Czechoslovakiawould pale before the Kashmiris’movement for their freedom; yetthey were given colors by the color-blind big powers.

In 1999, following the UnitedNations-sponsored act of self-deter-mination, Indonesia relinquishedcontrol of the territory, and EastTimor became the first new sover-eign state of the 21st century on May20, 2002. Anyhow, people of Jammuand Kashmir continue with thestruggle for their right of self-deter-mination acknowledged underUnited Nations Security Councilresolutions of 1948 and 1949. Inter-national community should help re-solve the dispute between the twonuclear states, as war between themwould be dangerous for the regionand the world at large.—The writer is Lahore-basedsenior journalist.

—Winston Churchill British statesman

Mohammad JamilEmail: mjamil1938@hotmail.com

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Asif Haroon RajaEmail: asifharoon7751@yahoo.com

Voice of the People

War of survivalNAZIA PARVEEN

The story of 13 years of war hasmany painful chapters. Nation is instate of war for the last 13 years. Theterrorists have been testing patienceof the nation. We lost our loved ones,our peace, our image, our confi-dence. Nobody knows when andwhere there will be an attack. Gov-ernment played its role to solve thisissue through negotiations for morethan a decade but unfortunately thereal objective was to give maximumdamage to Pakistan. Till 2010 TTPwas not having any agenda exceptgiving maximum damage to state.Number of agreements were signed,number of demands were accepted.Sometimes demand was impositionof Sharia, sometimes, stoppage ofdrone attacks. But nothing was fruit-ful. Then after so many attacks, theydid one more by attacking Karachiairport which was a huge damageto the image of Pakistan internation-ally. The decision of Operation wastaken and finally the dialogue gamecame to an end.

Jihad means struggle. Every oneperceives it differently but I thinkthe most important one is to servehumanity. Right now the operationZarb-e-Azb is the biggest Jihad byPakistan Army. As this event is mostimportant in history of Pakistan. Itwill either make or break Pakistan.No doubt the Armed forces of Paki-stan are exhibiting great courage andvalour in the battlefield. Army willundoubtedly deal with this threatwith glory. As previously it did inSouth Waziristan. I hope results ofthis operation will be same as ofSWA. Here we need to get unitedfor the survival of Pakistan.

Some people are still trying tocreate misconceptions by sayingdoors of negotiation should be openas it is the solution of the problem.From those, I just want to ask onequestion i.e do they really want thesurvival of Pakistan? Where werethey when these terrorists brutally cutthroats of our innocent soldiers whowere someone’s entire world, wherewere they when we lost more than50,000 people just on name of peacetalks and waiting for the solution ofproblem peacefully. Pakistan ArmedForces are committed to eliminateterrorism from Pakistani soil. Opera-tion should continue till the last ter-rorist is present in NWA I pay myhumble tribute to all those who gotmartyred in this war of survival ofPakistan and all my prayers for thesafety of our soldiers who are fight-ing against TTP in North Waziristan,as I believe they’re the only savioursof Pakistan after Allah (S.W.T)

I will conclude with few goodlines I have read somewhere “WhenFreedom was in danger, enemy allaround, we heard the thunder, asnation’s freedom was defended.They live, jump, fight and battle tovictory with the greatest assemblageof men on earth. Nation salutes theband of brothers in arms. PakistanArmy Zindabad - PakistanZindabaad !!”—Rawalpind

Plight of anA-level student

AHMED HASAN ANSARI

Some two years ago, I made a con-scious decision to do A-Levels in-stead of F,Sc. In hindsight, it mighthave been the biggest mistake of mylife. It turns out I would have beenbetter served had I gone through withmy father’s wishes and followed inhis footsteps as the current educa-tional setup for higher studies is notfavourable to those with affiliationswith the Cambridge/London board.

The first obstacle in our path isthe dreaded equivalence certificate.Never had I thought that such a thinpiece of paper could govern my plansfor the future. The procedure of ap-plying for the certificate is easy andthe process efficient but the resultscan be potentially catastrophic. Themathematical formula applied forequivalence means that the highestpercentage that an O/A Level studentcan achieve, no matter how many

Karachi also needs rescue serviceGHAZANFAR ALI KHAN

Former City Nazim Karachi, Syed Mustafa Kamal added three snorkels to the city Fire Department.Afterward no snorkels were added to the city fire department. Karachi should also have a rescue

1122 service so that any incident of fire can easily be handled. Sindh government has always claimed ofhaving established a rescue 1122 but it is non-existent. Whenever there is any fire incident in the city,there is a fight between Karachi Metropolitan Corporation and Cantonment Board that this area is nottheirs. Karachi should have one centralized rescue department to work in every area. There is need oflatest fire tenders, snorkels and ambulances to cater for the needs of the city. Each industrial zoneshould have a fire station. According to some reports fire tenders at Karachi airport did not have foam,instead water was used to extinguish fire involving chemicals. The fire at the Baldia garment factory inKarachi is eye-opener for all of us. A boiler blast in SITE area and the PNSC building in Karachi, arethe recent incidents. On average in Karachi 3-4 fire incidents take place every day. We do not learnlessons from such incidents and ignore preventive measures. It has once again raised the necessity ofacquisition of required equipment and its installation in different sites especially the multi-story build-ings. Therefore we would impress upon the Municipal authorities and Cantonment Board to make itcompulsory for all the high rise buildings to have their own fire fighting equipment, and train everyoneon how to evict from a building during the time of fire as well as taking care that fire exists are providedbefore approving the building plan to avoid any further loss of innocent lives.—Karachi

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Corruption of public morals

A great number of people areabsorbed with the greatestshow on earth (the football

World Cup), while another majorityis busy counting undue profits by wayof carrying out illegal trade and saleof adulterated food. If you lookclosely, we in Bangladesh are reli-giously focused on profit-makingmechanisms in this holy month. Thefact is, we have graduated further andfurther into money-making schemes.Majority is busy counting undue prof-its by way of carrying out illegal tradeand sale of adulterated food.

The perturbing point is, these il-legal traders have now teamed up andfind themselves sturdy enough tochallenge law enforcers and the bonafide government officials who chal-lenge them in accordance with thelaw of the land. Scenario one: TVchannels were airing a scene of theroving magistrates checking food atthe iftar stalls of the city. Most of thefood items were found to be prepared

with oil gone bad andmusty edibles.They were fined in-stantly, and the ownershappily paid off the billsin cash. There was not asign of remorse on theirsmiling faces for theyknew business will go onas usual once these gov-

ernment elements left the place. Sofrustrating was the situation in theseselling outlets that a lady magistratewas heard commenting that “onlysmall fines are not enough to arrest thetrend of immoral trade, there shouldbe a harsher penalty for this …”

Scenario two: In a narrow alleyof an old building in the city, Iftaritems were being sold. The stinkypassageway and the visibly sicken-ing surroundings of the makeshiftshop were simply inconceivable fora normal mind. No one would eventhink of using that dark passage as atoilet. When challenged by the mo-bile teams of BSTI and magistrates,the shop owners challenged themopenly, saying that it was not the jobof the BSTI and magistrates to chal-lenge us, that they were workingwith the permission of the police.God save this nation.

Scenario three: Look at the stateof traffic and the roads in the city. Seethe rain-clogged lanes and dangerous

pot holes, the water-logged surfaceswe call “roads.” Add to the misery bywatching the sweating and dehydratedcommuters huddled inside a vehicle,waiting to reach their destination.

Scenario four: In the midst of theunbearable traffic and broken roads,the pavements of the city have comeunder the full control of small trad-ers and motor-bike riders, and aresometimes even convenient publictoilets. You can’t challenge the mo-torbike riders because they think theyhave the legal right to plough throughthe pavements. Rather, pedestrianshave to give way to them while theyhonk their horns with great agitation.

Scenario five: The educationminister and his colleagues have a goat Transparency InternationalBangladesh (TIB). TIB was at faultfor bringing up the irregularities ofthe private universities registration,their operations, selling of certifi-cates, and many other areas of dissi-pated practices. Even before the TIBcould come up with such reports, Ibelieve we all knew what is happen-ing in the majority of the private (so-called) universities. The minister, theVCs of the universities, and othervested quarters have teamed up andchallenged the TIB to prove its sur-vey report or apologize. So you can’tsay anything against the law break-ers. Strange isn’t it?

Scenario six: The banks are at itendlessly. The branches, regional of-fices, and HQs are all hit by the gangof predators from inside their ownranks. The directors are now quitevalorously involved in the fray ofminting money. A director of a bankin Chittagong was allegedly caughtstealing only Tk140cr. He was quiteat ease when he was being taken awayby the police from his office. Shameand morale have long left these souls.

We are likely to be fed up withnews of such scams in banks, NGOs,ministries, and any public or privateenterprise. On the one hand the gov-ernment is absolutely impatient andintolerant to any type of criticism,local or global, and on the other, thepeople are also becoming self-de-clared community leaders who dowhat they wish. So the nation iswedged between claws of thieves andmurderers. Whether you steal moneyor life, you still manage to get away.

When rulers rule with a totalitar-ian mindset, all wrong becomes right.When society is taken for a ride, theeventual outcome is always disas-trous. In the process, we are eitherdying a slow death or becoming in-habitants of a dead community withfrozen minds and lukewarm bodies.—The writer is the DhakaCorrespondent of PakistanObserver.

Views From Abroad

The German-American break-up

PRESIDENT Obama has beenlistening all too well to Germans — spying on them from

more than 150 National SecurityAgency sites in Germany, accordingto secret NSA documents that formercontractor Edward Snowden leakedto the weekly Der Spiegel. Germans,who acutely remember the totalitar-ian surveillance of Nazi Germany andEast Germany, cherish their strict dataprotection and limits on state moni-toring. The pervasive spying on oneof America’s most valuable partners— including the snooping on GermanChancellor Angela Merkel’scellphone from a rooftop listeningpost at the US Embassy in Berlin —has enraged the German public.

Now, with the fresh revelationthat the CIA recruited an intelligenceofficial as a spy, and the possibilityof a second spy in the Defence Min-istry, the fury is reaching a tippingpoint. US Ambassador John B.Emerson was called on the carpet bythe German Foreign Office on July 4about the first incident. On Thursday,Germany ordered the CIA stationchief in Berlin to leave.

And the brouhaha isn’t goingaway. German President Joachim

Gauck, widely revered for his yearsas a Protestant pastor and humanrights activist in the former East Ger-many, said that if the spying allega-tions were true, “enough is enough.”Karl-Georg Wellmann, a prominentmember of Merkel’s Christian Demo-cratic party, is calling for the expul-sion of any and all US agents.

What’s more, leading Germanpoliticians are calling for reassessingnegotiations with Washington over atransatlantic free-trade agreement thatcould be vital to the economic futuresof both Europe and the United States.And Interior Minister Thomas deMaiziere announced that Berlinwould terminate a no-spy agreementit has enjoyed with the US and Brit-ain since 1945 and begin monitoringthem in Germany. As Stephan Mayer,a spokesman for Merkel’s party, putit, “We must focus more strongly onour so-called allies.”

So-called? Such statements, un-thinkable only a few years ago, ac-curately reflect a broader antipathytoward America among the Germanpublic, which largely sees Snowdenas a hero, particularly for his revela-tions about the extent of Americansurveillance in Germany.

Ever since the Bush administra-tion launched the Iraq war in 2003— which then-Chancellor GerhardSchroeder vehemently opposed —

many Germans have come to viewAmerica as a militaristic rogue state,more dangerous even than Russia orIran. Indeed, a recent Infratest Dimappoll indicates that a mere 27% ofGermans regard the US as trustwor-thy, and a majority view it as an ag-gressive power.

The result is that Germany is un-dergoing a fundamental transforma-tion. After the Nazi defeat in 1945,the republic’s first chancellor,Konrad Adenauer, emphasized thatGermany had to end its tradition oftrying to manoeuvre between Eastand West as an independent power.Instead, it had to bind itself to theWest, economically and militarily.Only Washington could guarantee afree and democratic West Germany.But it is precisely this tradition thatis coming to an end as Germany be-gins to act on what it perceives asits new national interests.

Already Germany is much moresympathetic to Russia than theUnited States. Schroeder, the formerchancellor, serves on the board ofGazprom and is a buddy of RussianPresident Vladimir Putin. Anotherformer chancellor, Helmut Schmidt,said that it was “entirely understand-able” that Putin would annexCrimea. What’s more, German busi-ness interests dictate that Berlin seekto maintain a friendly stance toward

Tips for flying..!

SOME of my Asian friendshave been after me to warnother Asians how to behave

on board a flight, since most Asiansseemed to be viewed with suspi-cion: Here are some simple guide-lines you could follow to escapebeing handcuffed, imprisoned andtreated as a terrorist:

First of all, never smile at theair- hostess when you enter an air-craft! I do agree she smiles at youbut don’t for heaven’s sake ever re-

Jacob Jeilbrunn

turn the smile, don’t even say thankyou, if she helps you put your lug-gage on the rack. Pretend she doesn’texist! If you do otherwise, the cap-tain will be told about your strangeways and you may end up smilingyour way to a lock up!

From this, you may gather thatsmiles are not allowed on board; mostoften you may be happy going backto your families you haven’t seen formonths, or even years, but never al-low a trace of joy to show; these peoplehave been trained to believe that signsof happiness are signs a radical fanaticdisplays before setting off a bomb!

After being seated order a cock-tail! You don’t drink? Sorry my friend

when in the sky do what frequent fli-ers do! Don’t order a soft drink andnever ask for water! Most flight stew-ards don’t know what water is and mayalert security and the nearest airport ifyou ask for the same. Even if you haveto pour your drink onto your neigh-bor, do so, but see you have a cocktailin your hand!

A cocktail in your hand and ofcourse a book on your lap! You willnotice most fellow non- Asian typeshave a book lying open, never mindthe pages aren’t turned from Dubaito Tokyo, but an open book puts youabove suspicion; it makes you lookeducated. For God’s sake don’t holdthe book upside down as some fel-

low passenger may notice theturned around book and report youfor suspicious behavior!

With these few suggestions Iwish all you passengers a happy andsafe journey, and if you still want toreach safely without landing up insome strange 4 by 4 cell in a strangecountry then here’s a last suggestion:Apply white paint on yourself be-fore a flight; with that on you, youdon’t need to practice the other pointsI have just suggested. White paintworks wonders and will ensure youare above any sort of suspicion! Allthe best my fellow Asians in yourtravels around a troubled world..!—Email: bobsbanter@gmail.com

Moscow. Similarly, Germans areallergic to any military confronta-tion with China, which hasemerged as one of their most im-portant trading partners.

It shouldn’t be entirely surpris-ing that decades after the fall of theBerlin Wall, a reunified Germanyis moving from docile Cold Warally to a sovereign power that feelsless inhibited by its Nazi past andless indebted to the United States.But there’s no reason for the US toantagonize a long time ally, either.The two sides need to forge new tiesbased on mutual respect. They con-tinue to have many common inter-ests in trade, in deterring Russianaggression and in combating terror-ism in the Middle East.

In trampling on German civilliberties, the Obama administrationis besmirching America’s imageand allowing Germans to feel mor-ally superior to their former con-queror. If Obama is unable to reinin spying on Germany, he may dis-cover that he is helping to convertit from an ally into an adversary. ForObama to say auf Wiedersehen to along time ally would deliver a blowto American national security thatno amount of secret informationcould possibly justify.— Courtesy: The Los AngelesTimes

worldwide distinctions he/she pos-sesses, is a meagre 90%. I say ‘mea-gre’ after looking at Matric results inthe newspapers that contain students’photographs with their marks in ex-cess of 94-95%. This really pushes usonto the back foot, as before we evenapply for national universities, we areat a severe disadvantage.

The second and more terrifyingobstacle is the entry test for universi-ties, especially engineering, itself.When I saw the entry test for one ofthe most respectable universities inPakistan, I was flabbergasted at thepattern. I saw questions that werepure “cramming” with no iota of con-cept attached with them. It was as ifthe universities were looking for thecandidates who could cram the best.After seeing such a sight, I had nooption but to look for help. Help thatthousands in Pakistan turn to annu-ally: Tuition. Tuition centres havebecome a booming business in Paki-stan. In this age of loadshedding, ter-rorism and political instability, it re-mains unfazed. These centres havegrown deep into our society and manya students turn to them in their hourof need. When I joined the centre, myfears became even more compoundedas I observed many F,Sc. studentswho had crammed almost 90% of thesyllabi required. I was truly scaredand for the first time in my life un-sure about my future. The teachersthere would try to defend the wholeconcept of cramming or “Ratta” as itis called and would tell us that suchquestions in the paper are “informa-tion-based”. I don’t hold a grudgeagainst the teachers but I hold oneagainst the system. Not all A-levelstudents come from rich backgroundsand can go abroad for studies. I ac-knowledge the fact that the HEC istrying to cater to the minority but weare students as well and require equaland fair opportunity for enrolment inthe prestigious institutes of this coun-try. I urge the HEC to establish a stan-dard testing procedure, just like SATin the US, for students. A solutioncould be an up-gradation of the cur-rent National Testing Service so it canbe implemented in universitiesaround the country.—Islamabad.

Nothing is moreprecious than life

M IJAZ NASIR QURESHI

A society can only deserve to becalled civilized if it respects its laws,rules and regulations. Similarly foran organization like a hospital, com-prising of educated people, it is veryheartrending if the managementbreaks its own rules.

Last week, I had to go to ShaikhZayed Hospital, Lahore for the treat-ment of my mother. I experiencedmultiple weaknesses in the manage-ment. Management has not the pas-sion to serve the people with bestquality services. Poor people were invery miserable condition and con-strained to wait for the death, whichcure their pains/problems becausethey have not much money to curetheir diseases. The hospital, once hav-ing a good repute, has stooped so lowthat the poor patients get little butinsults to their injuries. Once upon atime a welfare organization estab-lished to serve ailing humanity, innow fully commercialized withcommercialised doctors and para-medics. It might be having best equip-ment and infrastructure but it is of nouse to the poor needy patients whocan neither afford the heavy hospitalbill nor digest the arrogance of thepractitioners of the ‘noble profes-sion’. For instance, if a patient needsventilator, he/she is told to search fora hospital that has ventilator andmove to that hospital by its own. Al-though this hospital (Shaikh ZayedHospital) also has the ventilators butthese are pre-reserved for the eliteclass who affords its expenses.

The behaviour of the staff (Se-curity staff, Nurses and Peons) is alsounbecoming of an institution like that.They demand some “Baksheesh”from the attendants/visitors of thepatients. If they give then they aretreated gently otherwise they are notallowed even to visit their patients.There are also reports that the staff

has settled the commission percent-age with the pharmacies around thehospital; where the contents of theprescriptions are sold out while theprescription holder is advised to getthe medicines fro the private pharma-cies. All these defects show the weak-nesses of the management. And theseweaknesses are the stain on the faceof the good governance of the gov-ernment. All these weaknesses can beremoved through better management.The patient should be facilitated anddeserving patient should be given freemedical facilities.

It is not only with Shaikh ZayedHospital, these evils are rampant evento more severe proportions in othergovernment hospitals where thepeople do expect free and better careand treatment. In my view, our pri-orities should be changed. Health andeducation should take precedence tothe improvement of infrastructure/development work. Government andNGOs should pay their special atten-tion on the problems faced by thepoor patients. Development worksare not so necessary than the health.There is a famous quotation “Noth-ing is more precious than life”.—Lahore

ME crisisARSALAN BOBY

Looking sad, broken hearted and cry-ing scenes are rampant in Palestinewhere Israel is playing a role of mightis right. The UNO is silent, the superpower US has tapped its lips and Is-raelites premier Benjamin Netanyahuwants more escalation in Gaza. Atleast 41 Palestinians have been killedand over 100 wounded in the ongo-ing Israeli rocket attacks on variousplaces of Palestine. This time worldis calm. Especially at the time whenMuslims fight for their right they aredubbed as terrorists. On contrary, ifother fight, they are said to be fight-ing for protection and security.

Undoubtedly, Muslim countriesare waging war against extremists.The ongoing operation Zarb-e-Azb inNorth Waziristan is an obvious reflec-tion that Islam does not allow theextremist activities. While here inGaza and Hamas attacks, Israel isfully backed by some hidden ele-ments to sabotage the state of Pales-tine. One should know Palestine isnot so militarily strong to fight its op-ponent Israel. Meanwhile those whoare supporting Israel they are actu-ally violating the rules of humanrights. The world at large is silent andeven the role of UN is also dubious.If UN does not rise to the occasion,then its future will not be differentthan League of Nation, which lost itsutility and became a part of hiatrywith advent of the World War-II.—Shikarpur

Institute of skinM MUDDASIR FAYYAZ

I want to bring to the notice of all thegovernment officials, regarding theproblem faced by the citizens at Insti-tute of Skin situated near RegalChowk, Karachi. First of all there isno space for pedestrian since SindhRangers have placed barricades on thefootpaths for their safety, which resultsin heavy traffic jams during daytime.Moreover, there is not a single policeofficer and walk through gate insidethe institute, which can be disastrousas thousands of people, who come fortreatment, put their lives at stake.

Therefore it is the duty of theSindh government to intervene in thismatter as soon as possible because ifsome urgent steps are not taken, thenthere is a fear of terrorism.—Karachi

Synchronisation thru digitalisation

SYNCHRONISATION is thecollection, arrangement, co-ordination and harmonisation

of similar data to operate the uni-son system. On the other hand, digi-talization is the integration and onlining of records of everythingabout and for everyday life usingmodern computational technolo-gies. Both are necessary for thesmooth and efficient working andfunctioning of the system.

In Pakistan, NADRA hasstarted smart card with 36 securityfeatures though these features aredysfunctional right now. People arecalling it breach of their privaciesand secrecies. When a person failsto keep on his secret with himselfand tells a fellow saying him not totell anybody else. He is actuallypulling the wool over his own eyes.

A question arises whether a stateshould have access to its citizensor not? The answer is yes. The otherquestion is whether the fellow citi-zens should have access to fellows?The answer again should be yes butdubiously, it is no. When people areready to share their ins and outswith the state, they should not hesi-tate to share their details with fel-low beings. The myth of privacymust be broken.

Here we are caught up in num-bers game. Same person is allotteddifferent birth, citizenship, NTN,CNIC, bank accounts, Vehicle, edu-cational registration, job, voter, driv-ing license and house numbers.Which number to be remembered?Same person has different identities.Result is ambiguity, corruption, ex-ploitation and security issues. Thebetter is that a specific numbershould be designated to a person thatshould be his identity in every dis-cipline and walk of life. Most of thetime those people cry for privacy

who are either cynical or havingmalicious intensions. They want tohide their wrong doings, lootings,assets, confiscated properties andbank balances from the eyes of stateand the victims to save themselvesfrom taxation, and social, judicialand media accountability. A trans-parent and integrated person whoearns through right means andhardworking is above fear and doesnot demand privacy.

Land records are still under tra-ditional manual Patwari culture.Resultantly, land disputes and fraudsare out of control. There are suchmesses that grandfather of grandfa-ther starts a case and it is not de-cided even till four generations.Though in Punjab, government hasstarted computerisation of landrecords with the financial assistanceof World Bank but it should be all-embracing, transparent and imple-mented all over the country to getrid of Patwari mafia and irregulari-ties that delay a case to generations.

National Archive of Pakistan isplaying its due role in digitalizingthe governmental records but itspace is very dawdling due to bud-geting and technological con-straints. Introduction of online lodg-ing of FIR by government of KPKis a superb step. It should be ex-tended to the whole country to over-come corruption, ghosts and repres-sion from police stations.

All types of records should becomputerised, digitalized andsynchronised for easy compilation,accession, processing and furnish-ing. Government should taketimely, effective, efficient stepsbased on national interests in thisregard to overcome the systematicloopholes, red-tapism and ambigu-ities by synchronising the data. Assaid by Vera Nazarian, a famouswriter that in the kingdom of glasseseverything is transparent, and thereis no place to hide a dark heart.— The writer is a freelancecolumnist.

Muhammad Ali SattarEmail:malisattar@outlook.com

Dhaka CallingDhaka CallingDhaka CallingDhaka CallingDhaka Calling

Zulqarnain Sewag Email:dcjhang@yahoo.com

Israeli army launches air raids on besieged Gaza Strip.

Ukraine Needs anInternational Intervention

IGOR IVANOV

ONE of the most vivid images found in old Slavic epictales is that of a knight at a crossroads facing the difficultchoice of which road to follow. The right choice leads to

glory and honor — the wrong choice to defeat and death.This image involuntarily comes to mind when I view the

tragic events in Ukraine with feelings of pain and alarm. Sooneror later — but hopefully sooner — hostilities will end there. Andyet, history has shown that all wars, and especially civil wars inwhich brother kills brother, leave deep scars on the body of soci-ety. Healing those scars, if they heal at all, is a long and painfulprocess. People will long debate the question of who was re-sponsible for this tragedy and how a fratricidal war could eruptin the middle of Europe in the 21st century. And because nobodycan bear the burden of such a curse, the participants will attemptto shift the blame to their neighbor or political opponents.

However, such mutual accusations and denunciations willnot improve the situation for anybody. All of us — Ukrainiansand their neighbors — will inevitably have to answer the mainquestion: With Ukraine now at a historic crossroads, what futureawaits it? Although the current Ukrainian leadership claims thatthe country has made its choice in favor of Europe, that is largelya rhetorical statement. After all, before it can “go over to Eu-rope” or anywhere else, Ukraine must full establish itself as acountry and a society.

That is why the country faces a very difficult choice: Eitherit will embark on the long and painful path of restoring nationalunity, forming democratic institutions, resolving its socio-eco-nomic problems and conducting a balanced foreign policy, orelse it will degenerate into a failed state, with all of the seriousconsequences that this would entail for Ukraine itself and forEurope as a whole.

It goes without saying that all sane and responsible politi-cians as well as ordinary citizens both in Ukraine and beyond itsborders should desire nothing but peace for that country and forit to overcome the awful consequences of this terrible tragedy.

Of course, the main responsibility for resolving the crisislies primarily with the politicians who have come to power inUkraine. They will have to account not so much for how theygained power or even what they promised their citizens, but forwhat type of country they pass on to the new democratic govern-ment institutions that will eventually replace them.

Are the current Ukrainian authorities capable of meeting thishistoric challenge singlehandedly? Probably not. They lack therequisite legitimacy, institutions and resources for it. But mostimportantly, they lack the trust of at least part of the Ukrainianpopulation. Perhaps the association agreement that Ukraine re-cently signed with the European Union, and that was accompa-nied by so much fanfare, can rescue that country from its currentcrisis? Of course, in signing that document, the EU shouldered amajor political and moral responsibility for Ukraine’s future. Itis up to Brussels to assess whether it can carry that burden, butinitial reactions indicate that most Europeans are horror-strickenat the prospect of having to pay down Ukraine’s debts in addi-tion to their own.

Under such circumstances, only the combined efforts of theinternational community can save Ukraine.

Half-measures alone cannot solve a problem of this scaleand complexity. And although the creation of an EU ContactGroup — in which negotiations are already underway — is astep in the right direction, it is already proving inadequate to thetask. The Ukrainian crisis long ago extended beyond that country’sborders and is rapidly coming to resemble the recent Balkan trag-edy. Entire regions are burned and the number of civilian casual-ties dramatically increases as armed confrontation continues withaircraft, tanks, artillery and multiple rocket launchers.

The scale of the tragedy requires an urgent convening of ahigh-level international conference on Ukraine. That meeting,held under the auspices of either the UN or the Organization forSecurity and Cooperation in Europe, should involve participa-tion by Ukraine, Russia, leading European states and the U.S.The agenda must address one very specific question: How canwe all work together to save Ukraine?

That conference should produce a detailed and comprehen-sive roadmap out of the crisis, along with a prioritized actionplan that includes deadlines for the provision of outside assis-tance and strict external control measures for the implementa-tion of the agreed upon points. The procedures for implementingthe roadmap should be as transparent and democratic as possibleand should involve the entire spectrum of responsible politicalforces and all the regions of the country. Only such concertedaction can successfully isolate the extremists inside Ukraine onthe one hand, and achieve the mutual understanding and trustbetween the major international players on the other.

—Courtesy: Moscow Times.[Igor Ivanov is the president of the Russian International Af-fairs Council (RIAC) and served as Russian foreign ministerfrom 1998 to 2004].

ZHANG MENGXU

EXACTLY one year ago, the Egyptian mili-tary ousted the first democratically electedpresident Mohamed Morsi amid internationalopposition. US President Barack Obama there-fore began to adjust his policy toward the long-term US ally. On the one hand, he suspendedsignificant military aid to Egypt under pres-sure from the US Congress. On the other hand,he did not fully stop cooperation with the Egyp-tian military, due to the country’s strategicimportance.

And now, Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, who usedto be head of the military, has become the presi-dent through legal procedures, after which theUS lifted its ban on the military aid for Egypt.However, just one day later, Egypt was con-demned by the US for convicting three Al-Jazeera journalists on what was widely seenas trumped-up charges due to its rivalry withQatar, Al-Jazeera’s sponsor.

The twists and turns of Egypt-US relationsindicate the contradictions within US foreignpolicies. If the US wants to promote democ-racy in the Middle East, it should not turn a

US grits teeth thru Egyptian crackdowndeaf ear toward the undemocratic methods usedby the Egyptian military to crack down onopposition groups such as the Muslim Broth-erhood. But if the US wants to deal a heavyblow to terrorism and maintain national secu-rity, it cannot lose Egypt as an important stra-tegic pillar.

After the 9/11 attacks, promoting democ-racy became the primary task of the Bush ad-ministration in the Middle East. In a campaignengineered by neoconservatives such as DickCheney and Paul Wolfowitz, the US toppledthe Saddam regime by force. The Arab Springthat started in 2011 could be seen as part ofthe chain of consequences of US democraticplans in the region. However, the Arab Springevolved into turbulence. Iraq has been miredin chaos. When the promotion of democracyhas met with a series of troubles and threat-ened US security interests, the US has to adopta pragmatic approach toward Egypt.

Egypt has a population of more than 90million. It controls the Suez Canal that con-nects the Mediterranean Sea and the Red Sea.The military has firm control over the situa-tion. Secular forces now have the dominant

position. All these determine that as long aschaos in the Middle East continues, the UScannot extricate itself from the region and itmust draw support from Egypt to stabilize theregion.

Egypt is positioned between North Africaand West Asia. If Egypt is dragged into a dis-order, then extremists in Libya can associatewith extreme forces in Syria and Iraq. The largepopulation of Egypt and its impoverished statewill also brew hotbed for extreme forces.

Egypt cannot live without the US, either.One obvious reason is the military aid of $1.3billion and economic assistance of $250 mil-lion that the US offers Egypt every year.Though not much, this can serve as a signalthat Egypt is a country highly dependent onforeign investment and assistance.

US changing policy on Egypt will be fol-lowed by European countries. Sisi needs tosolve his country’s economic plight urgentlyand show he can govern better than the Mus-lim Brotherhood. Therefore, he cannot escapethe need for Western support.

When both have their own need, neitherwill lead the situation to a dead end. Sisi has

to restore order through his iron fist, while hismeans may violate US standard of democracy.The US is well aware that terrorism is its big-gest menace and it needs Egypt to providebacking for its anti-terrorism efforts, so it willnot impose too heavy sanctions on Egypt. Af-ter all, the strategic benefits of the alliance forboth far exceed their discrepancies, and thebilateral relations have been developing ac-cordingly.

Yet, US actions since the 9/11 attacks havehurt the feelings of its traditional allies suchas Saudi Arabia and Egypt. Many political sci-entists in Egypt hold the view that the US,despite its lack of understanding of the MiddleEast, tries to change this region in an arrogantmanner. And in the end, neither side wants toaccept the consequences.

Since Sisi became the president, he hasn’tshown much intimacy toward the US. Abroader foreign policy may be a better optionfor Egypt

.—Courtesy: GT.[The author is a reporter with People’s Daily.He was previously stationed in Egypt.opinion@globaltimes.com.cn]

TOKYO—Japan and Australiaare strategic partners that sharethe responsibility of fosteringpeace and stability in the Asia-Pacific region. We urge the twocountries to deepen their mu-tual relationship on the occa-sion of Prime Minister ShinzoAbe’s visit to Australia.

In his talks with AustralianPrime Minister Tony Abbott onTuesday, Abe explainedJapan’s reinterpretation of theConstitution to allow limitedexercise of the right of collec-tive self-defence. Abe stressedthat the aim of the reinterpre-tation was to “protect the livesand peaceful livelihood of thepeople and let Japan play amore proactive role in the in-ternational community”.

Abbott welcomed Japan’smove and credited Japan asbeing a peace-loving country,saying that “Japan has been...anexemplary international citizenin the postwar era”.

The reinterpretation enablesJapan to exercise its collectiveself-defence right and order theSelf-Defence Forces to protectAustralian vessels when anemergency occurs on the KoreanPeninsula or elsewhere.During aspeech to the Australian Parlia-ment, Abe said, “Australia andJapan have now freed ourselvesfrom one old layer and are nowmoving towards a new ‘specialrelationship.’” We concur withAbe’s view.

Abe and Abbott signed anaccord on the joint develop-ment of defence equipment.

Japan-Aussie tiescrucial to defence of

Asia-PacificAustralia is interested inJapan’s submarine technology,and the two countries arescheduled to conduct a jointstudy on the fluid mechanics ofships. We urge the two nationsto steadily continue coopera-tion in this respect.Trilateralcooperation: It also is essentialto expand joint exercises be-tween the SDF and the armedforces of Australia and theUnited States, an ally of bothJapan and Australia.

China has been trying tochange the status quo in theEast and South China seas byforce. Australia has strong eco-nomic ties with China, but likeJapan and the United States itplaces emphasis on the rule oflaw. It is important for the threenations to join hands and tena-ciously press China to exerciserestraint.

Abe and Abbott also signedan economic partnership agree-ment. Japan will reduce tariffs onAustralian beef, while Australia’stariffs on Japan’s medium-sizedcars will be removed. The twonations will work for early en-forcement of the agreement.

The two leaders alsoagreed to cooperate to bringabout the early conclusion ofthe Trans-Pacific Partnershipmultilateral trade negotiations.

Prior to his visit to Austra-lia, Abe held talks in NewZealand with Prime MinisterJohn Key. Abe and Key con-firmed that they will workproactively for a conclusion ofthe TPP talks—ANN.

JEDDAH—The world’s largest Muslim blocThursday urged the UN Security Council toforce a halt to Israel’s air war on Gaza thathas killed more than 80 Palestinians in threedays. The Organization of Islamic Coopera-tion, after a meeting of its executive com-mittee in Jeddah, said it was forming a min-isterial team to lobby the Security Counciland international community “to halt the Is-raeli aggression.”

The committee demanded that OIC am-bassadors in Geneva call a meeting with theUN Human Rights Council to form an inter-national commission to investigate Israel’scrimes and violations. OIC summit presi-

OIC demands actionagainst Israeli atrocities

dents, foreign ministers and members of thecommittee on Jerusalem must mobilize ef-forts as soon as possible and network withinternational actors, said a committee state-ment. The committee also demanded that theinternational community place settler lead-ers and extremist groups, such as HilltopYouth, on the list of terrorists and the mostwanted in the international justice system.

“The OIC must provide legal proof toreinforce that the current Israeli administra-tion is a racist Apartheid government accord-ing to international law,” said Iyad Madani,OIC secretary-general. “The OIC must facethe bitter reality lived by the Palestinians both

before and after the invasion and aggression,”he said, adding: “The Islamic Group in NewYork has issued a statement calling for theSecurity Council to assume its responsibili-ties in compelling Israel to stop its aggres-sion,” he said.“Israel has violated all inter-national and human conventions,” chargedthe Saudi State Minister for Foreign AffairsNizar Obaid Madani, who chaired the Jeddahmeeting. The 57-member OIC said it wouldalso push for an urgent meeting of the UNHuman Rights Council in Geneva to inves-tigate “the crimes of occupying power Israeland its violations of the rights of Palestin-ians—AN.

DHAKA—The government has prohibited mar-riages between Rohingya refugees andBangladeshis, considering that such marriagescreate social and cultural problems and force itto give citizenship to refugees.

The inspector-general of registration (IGR)under the law ministry issued a circular yester-day, asking the marriage registration officesacross the country to prevent kazis (marriageregistrars) from conducting any marriage be-tween refugees, who are the nationals ofMyanmar, and Bangladeshi citizens.Referringto the circular, IGR Khan Md Abdul Mannantold The Daily Star that legal action would betaken against kazis from now on for registeringmarriages between Rohingyas andBangladeshis.

Their licences may be cancelled or they maybe dismissed from their jobs, if they do it in vio-lation of the order, he said. Rohingya refugees,

Bangladeshis not allowed towed Rohingya refugees

who live in a certain area in the country, wedBangladeshi nationals, and after the marriagethey get citizenship and Bangladeshi passport,the IGR said.

With the passports, Rohingyas went to dif-ferent countries, including Saudi Arabia, andcommitted crimes there tarnishing the image ofthe country.The government even faced manyproblems because of them, Abdul Mannanadded.

About the government’s move, human rightsactivist and jurist Shahdeen Malik told The DailyStar the right of two adultS to marry each otheris recognised by all international human rightsinstruments, including the Universal Declara-tion of the Human Rights.The prohibition on themarriages between Rohingyas and Bangladeshisis certainly an unconstitutional restriction anddiscrimination against the right to life, headded—ANN.

MAYLASIA—Leaders of the Malay-Muslimcommunity are taking steps to put across the rightmessage about the Syrian crisis, which has drawnfighters from around the world to take uparms.The Islamic Religious Council of Singapore,or Muis, has roped in mosques, religious teach-ers and madrasahs to explain the conflict to Mus-lims here and to put things in perspective.

The government has also started workingwith the Malay media, like the Berita Hariannewspaper, to put out explanatory articles, andis looking into cyberwellness programmes thatwill guard against young people beingradicalised via the Internet.Some Malay-Mus-lim groups have also sourced for bona fide chan-nels for Singaporeans to provide humanitarianaid and donations to victims of the conflict.

Minister-in-charge of Muslim affairs YaacobIbrahim said of the efforts: “It shows the com-munity is taking ownership of the challenge andwe want to do something about it.”

Dr Yaacob was speaking to reporters after aclosed-door dialogue with 60 community and

Explaining Syrian conflict toSingaporean Muslims

religious leaders, at which he and deputy primeminister Teo Chee Hean spoke of the Syriancrisis.The conflict has claimed 150,000 lives anddrawn foreigners, including Singaporeans, tojoin what some see as a jihad. This has sparkedfears of the spread of extremism around theworld.Yesterday, Teo, who is also home affairsminister, reiterated concerns about the conflict’simpact on security and social cohesion here, say-ing it has the potential to be worse than theJemaah Islamiah threat.

In 2001, Singapore arrested members of theterror group after the authorities discovered itsplot to attack targets in the country, leading toworries it could affect community relations.

But radical ideology today, Teo said, canspread more quickly than in 2001 because ofthe Internet and social media. The ease of airtravel to Syria has also made it easier for peopleto join the fight.And the scale of violence in thesectarian war in Syria and Iraq has “causedemotions to run high”, drawing some to the fight.—ANN.

BEIJING—Cyber security andregional territorial disputes re-main bugbears between Chinaand the United States despitetwo days of high-level talks,which were hit by fresh allega-tions of Chinese hackers break-ing into a US governmentagency’s computer network.

At a media briefing yester-day after the annual Strategicand Economic Dialogue(SED), both sides were eagerto point out how they hadachieved more than 90 “impor-tant outcomes”, mostly involv-ing deeper cooperation ontrade, finance and climatechange.

“These are important ac-tions that have set the founda-tions for the meeting betweenour presidents in Novemberand injected positive energyinto our new model of rela-tions,” said vice-premier WangYang at the briefing that tookno questions from the 100-plusreporters present.ChinesePresident Xi Jinping and USPresident Barack Obama areset to meet in Beijing on thesidelines of the Apec LeadersSummit and assess the “newmodel of major-power relation-ship” that both agreed to forgeat their Sunnylands summit inCalifornia in June last year.

Both leaders had instructedtheir representatives at the SED- a yearly event to discuss bi-lateral and global issues - topursue “win-win” cooperationand handle differences properlyto avoid confrontation thatwould be “disastrous” to bothcountries and the world.

The US representativeswere Secretary of State JohnKerry and Treasury SecretaryJacob Lew, whose counterpartswere Wang and state council-lor Yang Jiechi, who overseesforeign policy.But differences

Cyber security issuekeeps China, US apart

on key issues such as cyber se-curity did not appear to havebeen narrowed, receivinghardly a mention at the brief-ing yesterday.

Wang and Yang did notbroach the cyber security issue,while all Kerry said was thatboth sides recognised the“chilling effect” the loss of in-tellectual property has on theirinvestments and competitive-ness and that “frank exchangemust continue in this area”.

Cyber security talks thisweek were spiked after Chinasuspended its involvement in abilateral working group in May,following the US indictment offive Chinese soldiers for eco-nomic espionage.

The New York Times re-ported yesterday that Chinesehackers in March had brokeninto and gained access to Of-fice of Personnel Managementdatabases before being detectedand blocked.

The hackers appeared to betargeting files on governmentemployees who have appliedfor top-secret security clear-ance, according to senior USofficials. In a sign that a widedivide also remains onBeijing’s maritime spats withits neighbours, Yang warned of“strategic misjudgment” be-tween China and the US, ac-cording to a report by the offi-cial Xinhua news agency.

At the briefing yesterday,he cautioned the US not to takesides in the disputes that Chinahas with Japan in the EastChina Sea and a host of Aseannations in the South ChinaSea.

But in a closed-door ses-sion on Wednesday, Kerry re-portedly warned China itwould be “unacceptable” forit to try to create a new statusquo on both seafronts—ANN.

The foreign look ofObama’s ‘lose-lose’

DONALD LAMBRO

IF you watched the MSNBC show “The Daily Rundown” onMonday, you might have been shocked to hear a panel ofliberal journalists say some uncomplimentary things about

Barack Obama’s presidency. With his job-approval polls falling,the economy in first gear, incomes in decline, inflation on therise, good jobs in short supply and a thicket of administrationscandals, the news media have begun to turn against PresidentObama, and it isn’t mincing words.

Carolyn Ryan, The New York Times’ Washington bureauchief, bluntly talked about “the national funk we’re in, the sortof national malaise,” as in Jimmy Carter-type malaise.

The foreign-policy debacle in Iraq, where well-armed ter-rorist armies are close to bringing down its government, and “thiscrisis on the [Texas] border does go to this question of compe-tence,” Ms. Ryan said. “I feel like it can be a negative for Presi-dent Obama, where it seems like so many things in this countryjust aren’t working,” she added.

NBC’s chief political analyst Chuck Todd, the host ofMSNBC’s morning program, readily agreed. “Boy, you can seethat 30-second TV ad, right? You start with the health care rollout,you go to the VA, you go to Syria, you go to Iraq, and you can goto the border. You can draw a straight line,” he said.

Veteran USA Today analyst Susan Page said the tens of thou-sands of children coming into the country illegally from CentralAmerica threaten to hurt Mr. Obama with his core constituencies,especially Hispanics, if he deals with the problem through massdeportations. “This is a kind of a lose-lose for him, politically speak-ing,” Ms. Page said. Mr. Obama traveled to Texas on Wednesday —raising millions for his party’s 2014 races — where he met withTexas Gov. Rick Perry, a Republican, in Dallas, but decided not togo to the border to inspect the crisis firsthand, which angered Demo-crats. “This is a Katrina moment, right?” Ms. Page said. “You’regoing to a fundraiser, and you’re not going to the border wherethere’s this crisis?”Washington Post chief political analyst DanBalz said the crisis at the border was bad news for Mr. Obamaand for Democrats. “When we have seen these mass arrivals, it’shurt the party that’s been in the White House, badly.”

The Washington news media has become increasingly criti-cal of Mr. Obama lately and the multiple troubles that have en-gulfed his presidency in his second term.

“The notion of Obama’s incompetence in matters both for-eign and domestic is really beginning to sink in with the press,”writes longtime media critics L. Brent Bozell III and Tim Gra-ham on their CNSNews.com website.

—Courtesy: Washington Times.

Putin calls on BRICSbloc for bigger

opposition to WestMOSCOW—Speaking on theeve of a trip to Latin America,President Vladimir Putin saidBrazil and other emerging pow-ers must play a greater role inworld affairs, suggesting theycould do more to counter U.S.influence.

In an interview publishedon Friday, Putin framed his tourof Brazil, Cuba and Argentinaas part of an effort to build amulti-polar world at a timewhen he is isolated by sanctionsover Ukraine and his relationswith the West are at their frosti-est since the Cold War.

Russia sees strong relationswith Brazil as “strategically im-portant” in opposing Westernclout, he said, ahead of nextweek’s summit with fellowBRICS nations, which includesChina, India and South Africa.

“This powerful and fast-de-veloping country is destined toplay an important role in theemerging poly-centric worldorder,” Putin told the ITAR-tassnews agency.He said Moscowwould back Brazil to obtain aseat on the UN Security Coun-cil, where Russia is a veto-wielding member along withthe U.S.

The Russian leader hasramped up criticism of whathe says is U.S. meddling inother state’s affairs as theformer Cold War superpow-ers clashed over Russia’s an-nexation of Crimea in Marchand its political support ofseparatists in easternUkraine.In a veiled dig atWashington on Friday, Putinalso criticized cyber espio-nage. Last year’s revelationsby former U.S. intelligencecontractor Edward Snowdenof U.S. surveillance have ledto a rift in its ties with Euro-pean allies—Reuters.

STAFF REPORTER

PESHAWAR—Khyber Pukhtunkhwa ChiefMinister Pervaiz Khattak visited historicparks of Gor Kha-tri, Wazirbagh and NamakMandi bazar. During his visit to NamakMandi, the chief minister expressed satis-faction over the arrangements for the pro-posed food street and asked for openingfood street there as soon as possible.

He said that it would be a gift of thegovernment to residents of the provincialmetropolis on Eidul Fitr. He said that foodstreets would also create business oppor-tunities in the area. People and shopkeep-ers chanted various welcome slogans onseeing chief executive of the provinceamong them there.

During his visit to Gor Khatri Park,Pervez Khattak termed it a suitable place

for recreation of people as well as estab-lishing another food street there. He di-rected the officials concerned to bring im-provement in the design and construct al-leyways to increase utility of the site andmake it inviting for the people.

The chief minister said that residentsof the historic city would witness pleas-ant changes in current financial year. Headded that grandeur of the city would berevived through projects of mass transitand other public uplift schemes. He saidthat issues related to traffic and sanita-tion would soon be resolved to facilitatepeople. He also visited Wazir Bagh anddirected authorities concerned to revampthe park going by its original design. Heap-proved ownership rights for those,who had constructed houses on the stateland adjacent to the park.

Khattak visits parks of Gor Khatrithe ongoing military opera-tion.

The meeting noted withsatisfaction that the civil andmilitary leadership appearedto be on the same page onmatters of national security.

Chief Minister Shahbazupdated the premier regard-ing the measures taken bythe Punjab government forthe effective facilitation of theinternally displaced persons.The meeting also discussedthe prime minister’s visit toKarachi and the decisionstaken during his time in thecountry’s financial capital.

Nawaz mullsFrom Page 1

SP SalmanFrom Back Page

and policemen in Lahore. Theconfrontation had startedwhen a 15-member police teamtried to remove barriers in frontof PAT chief Dr Tahirul Qadri’shouse and the Minhaj Inter-national Secretariat.

While recording his state-ment before the JIT, Elite Forcein-charge Abdur Rauf claimedthat Khan had ordered the se-curity personnel to shoot atthe protesters’ legs in order towound them. Rauf added thatthe security officials had ex-pressed their reservations asthey were afraid that windcould alter the trajectory oftheir bullets, which couldcause serious injuries.

Rauf further said that whensecurity personnel did not firedespite the SP’s order, SHOShaikh Amir Saleem – who wasat the scene – complained tothe SP, asking him to issue theorder again. He said that uponreceiving the order again, thepersonnel had fired around200 rounds at the protesters.

Eight Elite Force person-nel corroborated Rauf’s state-ment before the JIT which isexpected to record statementsof 34 more officers today. TheJIT had detained nine police-men for their alleged role in thedeaths of the PAT workers.“Eight Elite Force personneland Sabzazar SHO inspec-tor Sheikh Amir Saleem werenot allowed to leave after re-cording their statements forfurther interrogation,” theofficial had said.

with them as ‘he is a citizen ofPakistan’.

Meanwhile, the ElectionCommission of Pakistan onFriday provided a copy of thenomination form of PakistanTehrik-i-Insaf chief ImranKhan to Arsalan Iftikhar, sonof the former chief justiceIftikhar MuhammadChaudhry.

A source in the ECP toldmedia that the document wasgiven to a representative per-sonally nominated by Arsalan

Iftikhar. In an written applica-tion to the ECP secretary,Arsalan had requested that hebe given a copy of the PTIchief’s nomination form whichthe latter had filed when con-testing elections for the Na-tional Assembly last year.

After examining the nomi-nation form, Arsalan may de-cide on his future course ofaction by filing a referenceagainst Imran with the ECP,ultimately seeking his disquali-fication.

Arsalan intends to seekproceedings for Khan’s dis-qualification from the NationalAssembly allegedly for con-cealing facts about certain as-pects of his personal life in thenomination form.The form, already described asa public document by an ECPofficial, had been placed onthe commission’s website toensure transparency and in-vite objections to provision offalse information or conceal-ment of facts.

Former CJP will respondFrom Back Page

with the Lahore tribunal.As many as 292 out of

384 petitions have so farbeen decided or disposed ofby the tribunals. Twenty-four petitions were ac-cepted; 22 dismissed due tonon-prosecution; 28 dis-missed as withdrawn; 62dismissed after completetrial whereas 126 were dis-missed on technicalgrounds making the peti-tions not-maintainable. Thereasons for dismissal of 30petitions are not known toFAFEN due to non-avail-ability of their copies of or-ders despite continuous ef-forts to obtain these by thelawyers.

Of the 24 petitions ac-cepted, eight were filed byindependent candidates, sixby PPPP members and fourby PML-N candidates.None of the petitions filedby PTI have been acceptedso far.

On the other hand, 10petitions accepted areagainst PML-N, the partywith the highest number ofseats in the National Assem-bly. Eight petitions cite in-dependent candidates asrespondents, while two citereturned candidates of PTIas defendants.—INP

ECP extendsFrom Page 1

ment would not impeach him.Unfortunately, the presentgovernment had ignored therole of the Parliament due towhich the circumstances hadreached a devastating stageand the present governmentwas facing the music of theworst situation around.

Sadly, the former PM Gilanisaid that the politicians hadlittle endurance as they couldhardly bear to see others. Itwould be better to amend theconstitution so that the ten-ure of the elected governmentshould be for 4 years insteadof 5 years. Pakistan People’sParty had offered tremendoussacrifices for democracy.

Gilani said that there wasnothing wrong in the creationof new provinces as per theaspirations of the people of aparticular demography. Theaspirations of SouthernPunjab for a separate provincewould certainly be honouredone day and it was unfortu-nate for the PPP to fail to cre-ate the southern Punjab Prov-ince owing to lack of one-thirdmajority in National Assembly.

While showing his annoy-ance over the present situa-tion in other parts of the coun-try, he said, “Punjabi leader-

ship should not only think ofPunjab but it should lookaround the whole of the coun-try because sole developmentof Lahore would dissipatewaves of deprivation and frus-tration across the board.”

The Internally DisplacedPersons were citizens of Paki-stan and as per the Constitu-tion of Pakistan; they had ev-ery right to migrate to any partof the country, said Gilani,adding that all the IDPs werenot terrorists and their major-ity was loyal to the country,who had actively participatedin the struggle for the creationof Pakistan.

He was of the opinion thatPPP had during its previousgovernment amicably man-aged the influx of 2.5 millionIDPs during military operationin Swat Valley, which was theworld’s largest internal migra-tion in history and they werediligently assisted to resettlein their homes. However, 3.5million Afghan refugees, whoreached Pakistan during Af-ghan War in 1980, were still inPakistan.

The government at centerhad not yet taken the nationand the political leadershipsinto confidence over the on-

going military operation inNorth Waziristan Agency, hedeplored.

While defending the po-litical parties over their consti-tutional rights, the former PMsaid that protest demonstra-tions and production of rallieswere the jewels of democracyand reminded the incumbentPrime Minister MianMuhammad Nawaz Sharif thathe had also been doing thatsame.

When asked about PPP’sstance on ongoing agitationin the country, he categoricallystated that PPP won’t be partof any adventure against de-mocracy as the politics of early90s was buried long ago andPPP would not like seeing therevival of early 90s politics.

He said that PakistanTehreek-e Insaf ChairmanImran Khan and federal gov-ernment should resolve theirissues through dialogue.

He said that all shouldabide by the constitution.When asked, he said that hewas not feeling anything fishyand there would no prematurechanges in the present set-up.When asked about his son,he said there was no clue ofHaider Gilani as yet.

PPP Govt-establishmentFrom Page 1

an agreement with establish-ment, Pakistan MuslimLeague Nawaz had neverbeen a part of it.

Talking to media, he saidthat the responsibility ofdecision on former Presi-dent Pervez Musharraf ’streason case is on the court,adding that the judiciary isfree.

He said the complainantin Musharraf case is thestate of Pakistan and not thegovernment.

Information Ministersaid that it is up to the judi-ciary to decide if the stepstaken on November 3 byMusharraf constitute a vio-lation of Article 6 of the con-stitution.

He said that if everyoneis equal before law then ev-ery citizen is answerable be-fore the court of law, addingthat it would be up to thecourt to decide whether thatcitizen is innocent or not.

PML-N had noFrom Page 1

cial. According to the law,the order to shoot a personon suspicion will come onlyfrom an official of a law-en-forcement agency or a po-lice officer of grade-15 orabove.

Based on two presiden-tial ordinances decreed inOctober 2013 and lastJanuary, the legislation hadrecently been approved inthe Parliament and onlyawaited the president’ssignature for it to comeinto effect.

With the formal presi-dential assent today, thelegislation has finally be-come law for two years, in-stead of the previouslystipulated three years.

Earlier on July 2, theNational Assembly hadpassed the legislation witha majority vote in a specialone-day session of the342-seat lower house. Thelegislation was able tomake it through the housesof Parliament following ac-

commodation of many op-position amendments towhat had become the mostcontroversial legislation ofPrime Minister NawazSharif ’s one-year-old ad-ministration on grounds ofviolation of fundamentalrights.

Dangers of abuse Thelegislation has been criticisedby various quarters and rightsgroups and is being viewedas a tool that can be used tosuppress peaceful politicalopposition and criticism ofgovernment policies.

The Human RightsWatch (HRW) went so faras to say that Pakistan’s

new anti-terrorism law hasgiven a “green light for abus-ing suspects” and should bewithdrawn.

The group also said thatthe legislation has violatedPakistan’s international legalobligations.

The Human RightsCommission of Pakistan(HRCP) has also describedthe legislation as an attackon fundamental rights. “TheHRCP is appalled at the fail-ure of parliament to blockthe passage of the Bill, a dra-conian legislation to thecore,” HRCP spokespersonZohra Yusuf had said in astatement.

President signs PPB into lawFrom Page 1

Senior Hamas member and themovement’s formerG a z aprime minister Esmail Haniyaruled out any backing downby the Islamist movement.“The enemy [Israel] is the onethat started this aggressionand it must stop, because weare [simply]defending our-selves,” Haniya said in a state-ment early Friday.

Sirens wailed across occu-pied Jerusalem for the secondtime running on Thursday anda series of loud explosionsechoed across the city as theIron Dome anti-missile systemshot down two rockets firedfrom Gaza, the army said. An-other two crashed down inopen areas in the occupiedWest Bank, witnesses andsecurity officials told AFP.

Hamas claimed firing fourmissiles at occupied Jerusa-lem. Early Friday six Palestin-ians were killed in two attackson Gaza, five of them - includ-ing a woman and a seven-year-old child - in a strike onthe home of an Islamic Jihadmilitant in Rafah, Gaza’s emer-gency services spokesmanAshraf Al Qudra said.

Since the start of the Is-raeli campaign in the earlyhours of Tuesday, around 95Palestinians have been killed

and more than 500 injured, ac-cording to Al Qudra. As thenumber of victims in Gaza rose,Egypt opened the Rafah bor-der crossing, with hospitals innorth Sinai placed on standbyto receive the wounded, Egyp-tian state news agency Menasaid.

“We are still facing a dif-ficult, complex and compli-cated campaign,” Netanyahusaid after a security cabinetmeeting. Israel has confirmedpreparations are under wayfor a possible ground attack,with tanks seen massingalong the border andNetanyahu facing mountingpressure from coalitionhardliners to put boots backon the ground in the territoryfrom which Israeli troops andsettlers withdrew in 2005.

Since the start of the op-eration, the Israeli military’sbiggest offensive on Gazasince November 2012, itsforces have hit over 1090 “ter-ror sites”. In the same period,Gaza fired 407 mortars and rock-ets that struck Israel, whileanother 118 rockets were in-tercepted, an army spokes-woman said Friday.

Neither side has shownany sign of backing down,and Israel has approved the

call-up of 40,000 reservists.Analysts said Hamas had aclear aim: to drag Israel into aground war hoping to inflictheavy casualties on its troopswho would likely come underfire from anti-tank missiles andexplosive devices.

Fighters would also beseeking to capture Israeli sol-diers to use as leverage. In anews conference, Hamas’sarmed wing the Ezz Al DeenAl Qassam Brigades issued aveiled threat to kidnap sol-diers, saying a “ground warwill be a chance to free Pales-tinian prisoners.”

Hamas spokesman SamiAbu Zuhri said in a separatestatement that Israel would“pay the price for its crimes,”saying an Israeli ground as-sault would be a mistake, call-ing Israeli troops “cowards.”Meanwhile on Israel’s north-ern border witnesses reportedtwo rockets fired from Leba-non hitting near the town ofMetula.“ One projectile hit an openspace near Kfar Yuval, be-tween [northern Israeli towns]Metula and Kiryat Shmona,”a military spokeswoman toldAFP, adding the army did notyet know whether it was amortar shell or a rocket.—AFP

Israel continues deadly Gaza bombingFrom Page 1

lead to dangerous develop-ments and sow the seeds ofhatred,” President AbdullahGul said on his way out of amosque following Fridayprayers.

“Such an escalationcould lead to chaos in ourregion,” he said. The esca-lating violence between Is-rael and Hamas militants inGaza comes at a time whenTurkey and Israel have beenworking toward improvingties that were soured afterIsraeli commandos stormeda pro-Palestinian aid ship in2010, killing eight Turks andone Turkish-American.

Israel apologized to Tur-key for the deaths andagreed to pay compensa-tion under a US-brokeredarrangement in 2013. Turk-ish officials said in Marchthe sides were close toreaching a compensationdeal that would lead to a res-

toration of ties.But Prime Minister

Recep Tayyip Erdogan, saidon Friday that cannot hap-pen at the moment.

“We cannot look posi-tively at a process of nor-malization while bombs areraining on our (Palestinian)brothers,” Erdogan said ata meeting where he unveiledhis policy aims if electedpresident. “We cannot be onthe side of the oppressor.”

Israel’s military has car-ried out more than 1,000strikes against Gaza targetsin four days of fighting thathave killed more than 100people, including dozens ofcivilians. Hamas militantshave fired hundreds of rock-ets into Israel, includinginto the country’s two larg-est cities, Jerusalem and TelAviv, which were inter-cepted by its rocket-de-fense system.—AP

Turkey asks IsraelFrom Page 1

SALIM AHMED

LAHORE—Punjab Chief Min-ister Muhammad ShahbazSharif has said that all out helpand assistance will be pro-vided to Pakhtun brethren andsisters of North Waziristanwho have been displaced inthe war against terrorism andthey will not be left alone inthe hour of need.

He was presiding over ameeting of the steering com-mittee set up for IDPs. Themeeting reviewed the processof provision of financial assis-tance to the displaced personsof North Waziristan. He saidthat Punjab government has

Punjab govt. to providecash aid to IDPs: Shahbaz

decided to provide cashamounts to IDPs and arrange-ments have been completedin this regard. He announcedto launch a vigorous fund rais-ing campaign for the IDPs andsaid that help to the distressedbrothers is a national, religiousand moral obligation. He saidthat government and peopleof Punjab will not rest contenttill complete rehabilitation ofthe displaced Pakhtun people.

The Chief Minister saidthat help and assistance to theaffectees of North Waziristanis a form of worship and everymember of the society shouldplay his role in this noblecause. He said that Punjab

government has already sent70 trucks carrying relief itemsworth crores of rupees for thedisplaced persons.

He said that the ChiefMinister’s Relief Fund forIDPs has also been set upand Punjab government hasdeposited a sum of 50 crorerupees while AssemblyMembers of Pakistan Mus-lim League-N have donatedtheir one month’s salary to-wards this fund. ShahbazSharif said that philanthro-pists and well-to-do peopleshould donate generously tothe Chief Minister’s ReliefFund and assured that ev-ery penny of their donations

will reach the deserving per-sons.

The Chief Minister alsogave approval to the launch-ing of a vigorous fund rais-ing campaign for IDPs andsaid that overseas Paki-stanis, industrialists, traders,affluent persons and Cham-bers of Commerce and Indus-try should be contacted forthis purpose. He also con-stituted a committee headedby Member Provincial As-sembly Manshaullah Buttfor contacting overseas Pa-kistanis and directed that thecommittee should work hardfor collecting maximumfunds for IDPs.

OmbudsmanFrom Back Page

office observed if the bills werenot delivered in a proper man-ner, it constituted as an act ofmaladministration on the partof the utility companies.

Giving its verdict the Fed-eral Ombudsman directed theChairman of the Water andPower Development Author-ity, Chief Executive Officer ofK-Electric and the ManagingDirectors of Sui SouthernGas Company and the SuiNorthern Gas Pipelines Lim-ited to personally look intothe matter and to issue spe-cific instructions for makingchanges in the issuance anddue dates for the utility billswhile also rectifying the dis-tribution system.

Man shot deadover personal

enmitySTAFF REPORTER

KARACHI—A 30-year-oldman was shot dead by his rela-tive in Orangi Town Sector 11½ on Friday.

SHO Pakistan Bazaar po-lice station said that a man waskilled by one of his relativeover personal enmity in OrangiTown Sector 11 ½ and es-caped away. The policereached at the spot and shiftedthe dead body to AbbasiShaheed Hospital (ASH) formedico-legal formalities.

He was identified asRameez. Later, heirs of the de-ceased arrived at the hospitaland took the dead body forburial. The area residents in-formed me that they sawWakeel alias Kallu while open-ing fire on Rameez.

Modi to visitUS inSeptemberNEW DELHI—Extending aformal invitation to PrimeMinister Narendra Modifor a visit to the US,President Barack Obamahas expressed keenness towork closely with him tomake the bilateral relationsa “defining partnership” inthe 21st century. ThankingObama for the invitation,Modi said he looksforward to a result-orientedvisit in September with“concrete outcomes” thatimpart “new momentum andenergy” to the strategicpartnership. Obama’s letterof invitation was handedover to Modi by deputysecretary of state WilliamBurns when he called onhim here.—PTI

US spy chiefexpulsionwasinevitableBERLIN -Germany’s decision to askthe CIA station chief inBerlin to leave the countrywas an inevitable re-sponse to fresh allega-tions of U.S. spying onBerlin, German ForeignMinister Frank-WalterSteinmeier said on Friday.Officials said the U.S. spychief would be leavingsoon.”Our decision to askthe current representativeof the U.S. intelligenceservices to leave Ger-many is the right deci-sion, a necessary stepand a fitting reaction tothe break of trust whichhas occurred,”Steinmeier told report-ers.—Reuters

Concernoverpresident’shealthLUSAKA—Thehealth of ZambianPresident Michael Satacame under scrutiny inparliament Friday withopposition lawmakersrequesting a meeting withthe ailing leader, who hasnot been seen in publicfor three weeks. Sata, 77,is believed to havereturned last week fromwhat the governmentcalled a “working holi-day” in Israel. Zambianauthorities have crackeddown on political oppo-nents and journalists whohave reported that thepresident is in poorhealth. Request Mutanga,a lawmaker with theUnited Party for NationalDevelopment asked VicePresident Guy Scott if hewould allow selectedlawmakers to visit Sata atState House, where he issaid to be “resting”.

STAFF REPORTER

LAHORE/ISLAMABAD—Dr Arsalan Iftikharsaid on Friday that his father, former chiefjustice of Pakistan Iftikhar Chaudhry, willreply to the allegations made against himby Imran Khan soon, adding that he isdoing his “homework” on the matter first.

Dr Arsalan called out the PakistanTehreek-e-Insaf chairman for raising“baseless” allegations against him on tele-vision.

Khan, he said, had claimed he(Arsalan) was a billionaire and ownedmany cars, when in fact, he only owns a2007 model car, he added. The formerCJP’s son further claimed that the PTI chiefhad abused him and his father.

He also demanded Khan’s resignationon the basis of providing false informa-tion in his nomination papers, claiming thePTI chief hid important details about hispersonal life and past history, in regards

Former CJP will respond soon toImran’s allegations: Arsalan

ECP gives copy of Imran’s nomination papers to Arsalanto his daughter, Terian J Hance.He added that he came to know aboutthis after obtaining a certified copy ofKhan’s nomination papers. He also saidthat he would approach the National Da-tabase Registration Authority (NADRA)to confirm whether he has mentioned hisdaughter in those documents or not.

Dr Arsalan went on to add that ifKhan has denied rights to his daughter,he would not be able to provide them tothe daughters of the nation either.

He also said he would approach theIslamic Ideology Council for their pointof view on the matter and would file areference against Khan, regardless ofthe time it may take.

Asked whether he had taken his fa-ther on board regarding this matter, DrArsalan said that while he tr ies tohandle his own matters himself , hefamiliarises his father

STAFF REPORTER

ISLAMABAD—The government onFriday announced that the celebra-tion of 67th Independence Day ofthe country will span two weeks be-ginning from August 1.

Reportedly, Prime MinisterNawaz Sharif will address the flaghoisting ceremony at D-Chowk andsources reveal that no other politi-cal activity or protests will be al-lowed during that time. Prominentpersonalities including armedforces’ chiefs, foreign ambassadors,members of parliament along with

2-week long Independence Day celebrations from Aug 1other key personalities of the coun-try will participate in the event.

According to details, an impor-tant meeting in this regard took placeat Prime Minister House where it wasdecided that the tradition of celebrat-ing Independence Day during thetime of 1997-1999 will be revived.

It was discussed in the meetingthat the tradition of celebrating Inde-pendence Day with national zeal andfervor had stopped after former Presi-dent Pervez Musharraf took over thegovernment. Federal Minister for In-formation and Broadcasting SenatorPervaiz Rashid will oversee the ar-

rangements of the special event. Ac-cording to the official sources, themain ceremony used to take place inclosed hall of Convention Center butthis time the ceremony will take placeat D-Chowk in front of the parliamenthouse. Reportedly, Prime Ministerwill address the nation after flag-hoisting ceremony where he will payrich tributes to Pakistan Army mar-tyrs who sacrificed their lives for thesake of motherland during the mili-tary operation Zarb-e-Azb.

The military band will play thethemes of the national song to re-vive the national spirit on this occa-

sion. Information Ministry has as-signed the administration of statetelevision to provide every supportin solidarity of Pakistan Army.

According to sources, the cel-ebrations will continue in all fourprovinces and across the countryfor at least two weeks and specialadditional celebrations will takeplace to show solidarity with thearmy. Sources further said that ow-ing to the Independence Day cel-ebrations, political activity of anykind including protests and sit-indemonstrations will be banned in thefederal capital.

An innocent teen falls victim to brutish Israeli air assaults in Gaza.

OBSERVER REPORT

QUETTA—Health officialsfrom Pakistan and Afghani-stan on Friday put theirheads together to discuss allways and means to eradicatepolio virus from the region.

Unicef organised a re-gional cross-border coordi-nation seminar of health of-ficials from both countries inQuetta.

An increase in the num-ber of polio cases in Pakistan

Pak-Afghan agree oncoop to eradicate polio

and Afghanistan promptedthe UN organisation toabridge the differences be-tween the two neighborsand bring their officials to-gether to launch a combinedeffort to eradicate the poliovirus.

“We will work togetheruntil polio virus is completelyfinished from the region,”Balochistan Health MinisterRehmat Baloch assured theAfghan delegation duringthe seminar.

OBSERVER REPORT

ISLAMABAD—The FederalOmbudsman (WafaqiMohtasib) directed thepublic utility companiesoperating in Pakistan to fixthe due date for consumersto pay their bills up to theseventh day instead of thelast dates of each month.

The directives were is-sued by Federal Ombuds-man while hearing publiccomplaints against malad-ministration of variouspower and gas supply com-

Ombudsman directs for changein power, gas bill payment date

‘SP Salmanordered firing onPAT protesters’

MUZAFFAR ALI

LAHORE–Elite Force in-charge, in his statement tothe Joint InvestigationTeam (JIT) holding an in-quiry into the Model Townincident, alleged that SPSalman Ali Khan had or-dered security personnel toopen fire on Pakistan AwamiTehreek workers.

He gave this statementbefore JIT on Friday. OnJune 17, at least 14 PAT work-ers were killed and dozensof others injured in violentclashes between partyactIvists

Continued on Page 7

Continued on Page 7

panies and added that thebills should be distributedat least ten days ahead ofthe due date.

The written complaintssaid that the due date forpayment of bills are beingfixed on the last dates of themonth and consumers areunable to pay the bills ontime, resulting in disconnec-tion due to non-payment ofbills, for no fault of theirown.

They said this createshardship for the low incomegroups and the salaried

class, who received theirremunerations during thefirst week of the month.

Besides the consumersare also subjected to pay-ment of surcharges on over-due payments, which seemsunjustified, the complain-ants added.

The Federal Ombuds-man was further told thatthe bills were usually deliv-ered at various shops andother locations by the dis-tributors and the consum-ers are expected to collectthem.

The Ombudsman’s

Premier wants swiftexecution of Economic

Corridor projectsSTAFF REPORTER

ISLAMABAD—Prime Minister MuhammadNawaz Sharif on Friday chaired a meetingat the PM’s House to review the progressof projects under the Pak China EconomicCorridor and directed for their timelycompletion.

On Gaddani Power Project, the PrimeMinister gave instructions to expedite thework on jetty at Gaddani on priority basis.

The Prime Minister said China was anearnest trading partner of Pakistan and itscooperation would yield economic benefitsin the country.

He said these projects would end the loadshedding of electricity and bring new indus-tries in the country. The Prime Minister wasgiven a briefing by Minister for Planning,Ahsan Iqbal about the development projects,being undertaken by Chinese companies.

The meeting was attended by Chief Min-ister Punjab Shahbaz Sharif, Finance MinisterMuhammad Ishaq Dar, Minister for Water and

Power Khwaja Asif and Minister for Rail-ways Khwaja Saad Rafiq. The Chief Minis-ter Punjab said the Chinese collaboration inthe projects was a catalyst in expediting theprocess of development in the country.

Ahsan Iqbal briefed the Prime Minsterthat all out efforts will be taken to completethe development projects in the span of threeyears that includes Port Qasim Power Plantof 660 MW, Coal fired Power Plant of 1260MW in Sahiwal, Wind Power Project of 250MW in Gharo and 660 MW coal-fired projectin Thar.

The Prime Minister was told that timelyreview and timeline matrix of the respectiveprojects had been formulated.

Ahsan Iqbal said China and Pakistan mu-tually agreed to follow the timeline. Special As-sistant to PM on Foreign Affairs Tariq Fatemi,Secretary Water and Power Nargis Sethi, Sec-retary Planning Hassan Nawaz Tarar, Secre-tary External Affairs Division Saleem Sethi andSecretary Communication Babar YaqoobFateh Muhammad were also present.

KABUL—Secretary of State John F.Kerry held urgent meetings Friday withboth presidential candidates in Af-ghanistan in a bid to resolve a messyelection dispute that threatens to un-ravel years of U.S. efforts to build afledgling democracy.

Kerry met separately with AshrafGhani and Abdullah Abdullah in Kabulin a hastily arranged visit that under-scored the Obama administration’sconcerns that the political impassecould turn violent. Both men haveclaimed victory in the election to re-place President Hamid Karzai, who isconstitutionally barred from a thirdterm.

The crisis escalated Monday whenelection officials announced initial re-sults from a June 14 run-off vote thatgave a large and surprising lead toGhani, a former finance minister, afterhe finished well behind Abdullah inthe first round of balloting in April.Abdullah has alleged widespreadfraud and accused election officials ofconspiring with Ghani’s campaign andKarzai’s office to rig the results.

Both men believe they have wonthe race and are haggling over theterms of a partial recount of ballots

over the next two weeks.“The results that were announced

on Monday are preliminary; they areneither authoritative nor final, and noone should be stating a victory at thispoint in time,” Kerry said before meet-ing with Abdullah.

The U.N. mission in Afghanistanannounced a proposal for an ex-panded audit of votes that would in-clude thousands of ballot boxes whereWestern officials believe the chancesfor fraud and ballot-box stuffing werehigh.

They include ballot boxes that werereturned with more than 595 ballots,female-only ballot boxes that werestaffed by male election workers, cer-tain voting sites where votes fromwomen exceeded those from men, andballot boxes where the votes receivedby either candidate totaled a multipleof 50, starting with 100.

Under those terms, some 8,050 bal-lot boxes would be audited, or morethan one-third of the total. The U.N.said that represents 3.5 million votes,far above the 1 million-vote marginGhani holds in the initial results, andmore than enough to swing the elec-tion in either direction.

Ghani’s campaign had reportedlyacceded to the U.N. proposal in meet-ings Thursday, but Abdullah’s campwas believed to be holding out for aneven wider audit of up to 11,000 ballotboxes.

Abdullah did not comment pub-licly on the U.N. plan but said in briefremarks before meeting Kerry that hehoped “all of us will utilize the pre-cious time of your presence here inthe best interests of our country.”

Ghani, who has told supporters heis confident of victory, said he favored“the most intensive and extensive au-dit possible.”

“Our commitment is to ensure thatthe election process enjoys the integ-rity and the legitimacy that the peopleof Afghanistan and the world will be-lieve,” Ghani said.

The prospect of Mr. Abdullah,who has the support of many power-ful former warlords, attempting to seizepower added a new layer of peril tothe crisis. It raised the possibility ofAfghanistan’s still fragile governmentand security forces fracturing, possi-bly along regional and ethnic lines,just as American-led combat forces arepreparing to withdraw.—Agencies

Kerry tries to calm Afghanpresidential candidates

Continued on Page 7

KABUL: US Secretary of State John Kerry talking with Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai at the presidentialPalace on Friday.

COMBINING two types of polio vaccine,including one that is injected rather thangiven orally, appears to give better im-

munity and could speed efforts to eradicate thecrippling disease, scientists said on Friday.British and Indian research-ers said the inactivated po-lio vaccine (IPV), which isgiven by injection, couldprovide better and longerlasting protection if givenalongside the more com-monly used live oral poliovaccine (OPV).

Serious polio outbreaksin Asia, Africa and Europeover the last 10 years havehampered efforts to wipe outthe disease, caused by a vi-rus that replicates in the gutand can be passed onthrough contact with in-fected faeces. Polio invadesthe nervous system and cancause irreversible paralysiswithin hours - and the WorldHealth Organization’s re-peated warning is that as long as any child re-mains infected with polio, children everywhereare at risk.

Most vaccination campaigns - includingemergency ones that were started last yearcovering 20 million children in Syria andneighboring countries - use multiple dosesof OPV to boost immunity among those atrisk. “Because IPV is injected into the arm,rather than taken orally, it’s been assumed itdoesn’t provide much protection in the gutand so would be less effective at preventingfaecal transmission than OPV,” said JacobJohn, an associate professor at the India’sChristian Medical College, who led the

study.But his team’s research, which covered

450 children from a densely populated ur-ban area in Vellore, India, found that wherethey already had a level of immunity due to

OPV, the injected vaccine ac-tually boosted their gut immu-nity. “It looks as if the stron-gest immunity can beenachieved through a combina-tion of the two,” he said. Poliore-emerged in Syria in 2013 forthe first time in 14 years, fan-ning fears of a wider interna-tional spread and prompting avast regional emergency vacci-nation campaign.

Children in unsanitary con-ditions are particularly vulner-able to infection with the poliovirus, which can spread throughcontaminated food and water.Although transmission of in-digenous polio has been declin-ing substantially in endemicareas since 2012, around 10countries are currently consid-

ered to have active polio transmission. Po-lio is still endemic in three of these - Af-ghanistan, Pakistan and Nigeria - and theremainder are countries that were once po-lio-free but have been re-infected.

The Indian children involved in thestudy, by John’s team working with re-searchers at Imperial College London, hadall received OPV during standard vacci-nation programs. Half of the children weregiven a dose of the injected IPV vaccineand half given nothing, and a month later,the children were given a “challenge” doseof the live oral vaccine to simulate rein-fection.

Combining vaccines mayhelp eradicate polio

Chief Minister Punjab Shahbaz Sharif talking to customers and vendors during a surprisevisit to Ramazan Bazaar at Haideri Chowk.

LIAQAT TOOR

ISLAMABAD—The holyMonth of Ramazan wit-nessed a graceful goodbyeon Thursday evening to a Tu-nisian diplomat MouradBourehla who is leaving af-ter spending successful fiveyears representing his coun-try in Pakistan as Ambassa-dor

Ambassador of King-dom of Bahrain MohamedEbrahim MohamedAbdulqader, who is alsoDean of Arab Corps hosteda farewell Iftar Dinner inhonour of the outgoing dip-lomat which was attended bya large of members of Dip-lomatic Corps, especially be-longing to Arab and Africancountries. Minister forSAFRON Abdul QaderBaloch and Gen. (retired)Ehsan ul Haq were alsopresent.

In his brief remarks for hisTunisian friend, Bahrain Am-bassador said this is the firstevent held by group of ArabAmbassador and this practicewill continue in future now.

He said MouradBourehla is very good friendof mine and he has playedan active role in Arab Am-bassadors group. “We willmiss him,” he said.

The Tunisian Ambassa-dor while thanking all fortheir presence in the Fare-well Iftar dinner paid trib-utes to the activities of ArabGroup in promoting deep

A graceful goodbye to Tunisian friend

Dean of Arab Corps Mohamed Ebrahim Mohamed Abdulqader, Ambassador of Tunisia Mourad Bourehla, FederalMinister for SAFRON Lt Gen (Retd) Abdul Qadir Baloch, Lt Gen (Retd) Ehsan-ul-Haq, Former Deputy SpeakerNational Assembly Faisal Karim Kundi, Ambasador of Egypt Said Hindam, Ambassador of Algeria Dr Ahmad Benflis,Ambassador of Iraq Dr Rushdi Al-Ani, Acting Ambassador of Saudi Arabia Jassim Mohammad Khalid Al-Khaldi,Ambassador of Iran Ali Reza Haghigian, Ambassador of Argentine Rodolfo Martin Saravia and Deputy Head ofMission Somalia Embassy Ali Sheikh Abdullah during a farewell Iftar Dinner hosted by Dean of Arab Corps MohamedEbrahim Mohamed Abdulqader in honor of Ambassador of Tunisia Mourad Bourehla, at a local hotel.—PO Photo bySultan Bashir

rooted friendship with Paki-stan and its people.

“Pakistan is a great coun-try with its rich history, gen-erous people, diversified cul-

ture, renowned poets, wiseleaders and brilliant future. Iam more than confidence de-mocracy is definitely installedand nothing can derail it de-

spite many challenges,” hesaid.

“In Tunisia, the cradle ofArab Spring, we experiencedthis difficult way and after

ZUBAIR QURESHI

RAWALPINDI—Punjab Chief Minister MianShahbaz Sharif on Friday made a surprise visitto the city’s Ramazan Bazaars in various ar-eas and monitored the prices and quality ofthings being sold there.

Where the Punjab CM visit was a pleas-ant surprise for the people who had come forshopping there, it made the district adminis-tration nervous as some of them had no priorinformation about the CM visit.

A senior official of the district govern-ment while talking to Pakistan Observer con-firmed that very few people, perhaps those ofthe PML-N or top level officers of the dis-trict/police administration knew about thechief minister’s visit.

“I received a call from the DC office torush towards the Haideri Chowk where theChief Minister was present inspecting ratesand quality of things,” said he.

Shahbaz’ surprise visit surprises many

District administration officers rush tofollow CM at Ramazan Bazaars

By the time, I could reach there the CMhad moved to another bazaar. Later I had toface the music for being late, admitted the poorofficial.

The chief minister Shahbaz Sharif wasaccompanied by the Chairman of theRawalpindi Metro Bus Project and formerMNA Mohammad Hanif Abbasi, RPOAkhtar Hayat Laleka, former PMA ZiaullahShah, Maqbool Ahmed Khan and others. Thechief minister interviewed a number of cus-tomers, male and female, and inquired aboutthe rates and quality of various food and dailyuse items.

They expressed satisfaction over the stan-dards of the things and hoped the district gov-ernment would continue to hold such bazaarsfor the rest of the Ramazan. The chief minis-ter while talking to media on the occasion saidhe himself was monitoring the prices of thefood and other items being provided at theRamazan Bazaars. There is zero tolerance in

case people complain of high prices or sub-standard things, he said.

The chief minister visited each section ofthe bazaar for instance, flour, sugar, fruit, veg-etables, meat, poultry products and generalitems sections. On the occasion, Mian ShahbazSharif also chatted with the shopkeepers whoconfirmed that they were receiving commodi-ties on subsidized rates. “The end result of allour efforts should be relief to the people,” saidthe chief minister. The chief minister also vis-ited the green channel stall of the RamazanBazaar and appreciated the quality and kindof flowers displayed there.

A number of customers on the occasionappealed to the chief minister to keep provid-ing things at low prices during the rest of theyear too. To this the Punjab chief minister re-plied that the government’s first and foremostintention is to provide relief to the people andin the days to come, they themselves will seethe result of these efforts.

three years we reached theconclusion we can not goback to the square one.Freedom and democracy isactually our fate,” he said.

Acting Ambassador of Saudi Arabia Jasim Al-Khalid handing over 10 million Polio Vacci-nation doses in Islamabad.—PO photo

Saudi Arabiadonates 10m

doses of poliovaccine

ZUBAIR QURESHI

ISLAMABAD—Saudi actingambassador JassimMohammad Al-Khaldi on Fri-day handed over more than 10million doses of Oral PolioVaccine to the NationalProgramme Manager of Ex-panded Programme on Immu-nization (EPI).

The aid was promised dur-ing side meetings between theSaudi authorities and the Min-ister of State for Health at theWorld Health Assembly inNew York in April this year.Polio vaccine-giving ceremonyheld at the EPI main secretariat.The doses will be utilized tovaccinate travellers in the lightof the International TravelRegulations for polio endemiccountries.

According to a press re-lease, the vaccine will fulfillone-year requirement of Pa-kistani. National ProgrammeManager on behalf of theMinistry of National HealthServices and Government ofPakistan thanked Kingdomof Saudi Arabia for the sup-port in most needed timeswhen Pakistan is strivinghard to eradicate polio fromthe country and save the livesof its children.

Saudi envoy on the occa-sion reiterated his commitmentto support Pakistan and prayedfor the country to be free ofpolio at the earliest. The cer-emony closed with signing ofthe document and physicallyhanding and taking over of thevaccine along with media brief-ing.

ISLAMABAD—Displaying and putting wares on roadshave become a common practice in most of the mar-kets of the Capital city causing inconvenience to notonly road users but also to pedestrians.

This unchecked exercise presents bad face ofthe Capital, especially during the month of Ramazanwhen people visit markets for their Ramazan andEid shopping.

In Abpara and Karachi Company (G-9 Markaz),the encroachment of commercial area in front ofshops is at its peak.

Bashir Ahmed, a pedestrian, told APP that sev-eral link roads do not have space for walkers, en-croached by shopkeepers, forcing pedestrians towalk on main roads instead of footpaths, causing

Shopkeepers encroach footpaths, roadsin Federal Capital

traffic problems and accidents as well.If any place is spared from overflowing of goods

then the shopkeepers display their goods at foot-paths to park two-wheelers or four-wheelers, headded.

Munir, another pedestrian said that it takes himthirty minutes from corner to corner of the marketbecause of such overflowing of wares by the shop-keepers as his house is situated nearby the market.

With respect to land-grabbing, Munir com-mented that the condition was worst in residentialsectors where most of the land grabbers and en-croacher are highly influential due to which theauthorities are reluctant to take action against them.

Although, the CDA’s Directorate of Enforce-

ment has been trying hard to clear the capital cityof the menace of encroachment, it has achieved littlesuccess.

Usually, CDA staffers are able to, at best, dis-place encroacher such as fruit vendors and stallholders who return after a while.

CDA official admitted ground reality that it isimpossible to remove the illegal kiosks from thecapital territory as whenever we remove or bull-doze such encroachments from an area of the city,ten more construct on other side.

He said the process of removing such illegalkiosks is going on expeditiously but he cannot drawa line that when authority could succeed to get ridof such encroachments.—APP

03:45 01:3005:30

09:15

Zohr

Asr

Isha

Fajar

Meghrab at Sunset

Brothers in Islamestablish regularprayers & charity

A suspected extortionist arrested in Sadiqabad in the custody of police at Ashraf Town Police Station.

Youngsters enjoying bath in a pool to beat temperature and get relief from hot weather in the city.

July 12

Nina & Habib are very pleasedto put an exclusive speciallaunch of Nina’s latest fashioncollection of bags, clutches,shoes, jewellery, tights, scarfs,ready to wear shirts, tops andunstitched fancy suits. Anopening of this launch is ontoday 12 July, 2014; the tim-ings are from 08:00 pm. tillmidnight. Address: Shop no.8,E11/3 Markaz, Islamabad.

*****

July 12-13

ADMISSION process at Inter-national Islamic UniversityIslamabad is in full swing anda great rush of applicants hasbeen witnessed in couple ofdays. The university will re-main open on Saturday on Sun-day to facilitate the students intheir admission process.

STAFF REPORTER

ISLAMABAD—The PC-I of Islamabad ModelPrison project is being prepared and will be fi-nalized till August 25, this year.

This was stated by Sub-Divisional Officer(SDO) of the project, Salim Zafar while talkingto media on Friday.

He said the design and drawing of the projectwas under preparation and that the contract ofthe project was given to Sikandar Ajam Khan(Sikandar Ajam and Associates) who was a re-nowned Engineer, Consultant, Architect andTown Planner.

The prison, with the proposed capacity tohouse 2,000 inmates, will be divided into dif-ferent classes with a separate block for VIP pris-oners, most of whom are currently detained inAdiala Jail, Rawalpindi, as the capital city hasno prison.

Besides, the jail will also have a trainingcentre for the jail officials and a vocational in-stitute for the prisoners.

Iftikhar said an area of 720 kanal had been

PC-I of Model Prison to befinalized by Aug 25

acquired for this purpose at Sector H-16 while abudget of Rs. 100 million was also allocated forthe project in budget 2014-15.

The Public Works Department (PWD) is theexecuting agency of the project which will costover Rs. 1.2 billion.

The plan to construct the jail was preparedin 2011 and it was to be completed within twoyears. However, due to the shortage of fundsand lengthy paperwork and non-possession ofland by CDA, the project could not be executedon time.

When contacted, the Spokesman of CDAsaid the civic body had completed the posses-sion of land process and handed over to the au-thorities concerned for the project.

It may be noted that there has been a press-ing demand from the Punjab prison depart-ment for a separate jail in Islamabad as around1,000 prisoners charged with committingcrimes in Islamabad are currently housed inthe Adiala Jail. The number of prisoners inAdiala has swelled to 4,000 against its capac-ity of 2,000.

STAFF REPORTER

ISLAMABAD—Due to increase in price ofLiquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) during theHolly Month of Ramazan, the sale of fire-wood have increased in twin cities ofIslamabad and Rawalpindi.

With the increase in prices of LPG, a number of people including hotelowners, vendors have started using fire-wood to run their s toves duringRamzan.

Talking to media, Mukhtar Ahmeda vendor complained that abrupt rise inLPG and firewood price had hit hard

Sale of firewood rises owing toincreasing price of LPG

their business, who depend on it forcooking and heating in winter sea-son.

He said that firewood sellers were alsocashing the situation and charging theirown. Due to the Ramzan, the consump-tion of firewood and LPG was went risewhich lead to price hike of these items, headded.

A resident of G-6/4, Abid Ali said thatLPG was being sold at 130 per kg withdomestic cylinder at Rs 1510, which isunaffordable.

The prices of dry wood had alsoreached 1100 per 40 kg, he said.

He said that retailers were earninghigh profit by overcharging the massesas they are selling the commodity onhigher prices.

Zahid Khan, a citizen, said that theycouldn’t buy LPG and firewood due tohigher prices in absence of natural gas forstoves.

A firewood trader, Umair Ali, said thatthe jump in price of firewood was becauseof huge transportation cost and its increas-ing demand.

The residents urged the authoritiesconcerned to take action against the sud-den increase in firewood prices.

RAWALPINDI—The Battalion CommanderPunjab Constabulary SP Syed Abid Abbas dis-tributed compensation cheques worth Rs 2 mil-lion each among the heirs of the three constableswho were martyred during terrorists attack onImambargah Qasar-e-Shabbir.

The cheques were distributed by BC/SPPC among the heirs martyred on behalf of In-spector General of Police (IPG) PoliceMushtaq Sukhera during a simple ceremonyheld in Punjab Constabulary here on Thurs-day.

Collective prayers were offered for the mar-

Cheques distributed amongheirs of martyred policemen

tyrs who laid down their lives in the line of duty.A large number of PC officials were also presenton the occasion.

SP Syed Abid Abbas expressed solidaritywith affected families. He said that as the mar-tyrs of Qasar-e-Shabbir Imambargah includingConstables Zaheer Abbas, Faheem Abbas andMuhammad Imran were the hero of the nation,who rendered sacrifices to save others. He saidthat Commandant PC Capt (retd) MuhammadZubair and IGP Punjab Mushtaq Sukhera hadtaken steps for swift payment of the compensa-tion.—APP

ISLAMABAD—Directorate of Customs Intelli-gence, Rawalpindi Thursday confiscatedsmuggled electronic goods dumped in a GodownNear Fazaia Colony Dhowk Gangal.

Director General Customs Intelligence hadgot the information that Messrs Smart Zone (Pri-vate) Saddar Road Peshawar was involved insmuggling in the garb of Afghan Transit Tradeand was causing millions of rupees loss to thenational exchequer.

The Customs Intelligence on a tip-off con-

Customs confiscatessmuggled electronic goods

ducted raid and recovered 948 pieces ofSamsung Split Air-conditioners Thailand made,foreign made Microwave Oven 20 pieces, LEDTVs, Washing Machine Refrigerator and etc,said a press release.

Confiscated goods were worth of Rs 50million. The goods were confiscated under Cus-toms Act. The raids are also being conducted tonab the accused.

A case has been registered and further in-vestigation is underway.—APP

ISLAMABAD—Justice Ejaz Afzal Khan, Judge, SupremeCourt of Pakistan, has said that justice was the founda-tion and object of any civilized society and nothing couldbe honorable in any society where there is an absence ofjustice.

He expressed these views in the certificate-award-ing ceremony of a one-week training course on “SkilledBased ADR Training” for Civil Judges -cum- Judicial

Magistrates from all over Pakistan, Azad Jammu andKashmir and Gilgit-Baltistan, held here at the FederalJudicial Academy/ Center of Excellence for Law andJudicial Education, Islamabad, on Friday, in which hewas the chief guest.

He said, “The greatest challenge that the justice de-livery system faces today is the delay in the disposal ofcase and prohibitive cost of litigation. Alternative Dis-

pute Resolution is thought of as a weapon to meet thischallenge. The primary object of ADR system is avoid-ance of vexation, expense and delay and promotion ofthe ideal of “access to justice” for all. ADR system seeksto provide cheap, simple, quick and accessible justice.ADR is a process distinct from normal judicial process.ADR system is not only grounded in our culture andcivilization but also it is enjoined in our Holy Book. It is

one of the most attractive options for speedy justice de-livery.

Collective and coordinated efforts of all mainstakeholders of the administration of justice systemcoupled with evolving the ADR system in accordancewith our indigenous conditions were essential for aneffective and swift justice delivery to the litigant pub-lic.—INP

Greatest challenge is delay in disposal of cases

Nothing can be honorable in a society wherethere is no justice

Papin Damproject to becompleted by

2018-19STAFF REPORTER

ISLAMABAD—The 200 mwPapin dam project, being con-structed by the Pakistan Waterand Power Development Au-thority (Wapda) in districtRawalpindi will be completedby 2018-19. According to anofficial of Wapda, the storage offlood water will also be utilizedfor irrigating agriculture devel-opment of 18,000 acres of agri-cultural area. The Papin projectwill help socio-economic uplift,poverty reduction and womenemancipation, he said.

He said that upon thecompletion of the project, itwill contribute 200 kW to thenational grid system and wouldalso result in bringing greenrevolution by irrigating a vaststretch of agriculture land in thePotohar region.

He said that the govern-ment believes in upliftingpeople with the developmentof infrastructure and provid-ing all basic facilities of life

RAWALPINDI—The commercial use of residen-tial units without paying change of purpose feeis on the rise in Rawalpindi Cantonment Boardjurisdiction due to sheer negligence of the con-cerned officials.

In several residential areas, commercial ac-tivities including private schools, medical clin-ics, nursing homes, beauty parlours, shops, pri-vate offices etc have badly affected the envi-ronment of the areas. The business activitieshave created severe traffic and security prob-

lems for the residents. Besides heavily popu-lated localities, these activities are also rampantin front areas including Peshawar Road, RajaAkram Road, Westridge and Valley Road areas.

According to a survey, most of the residen-tial units being used for business purposes areconstructed to fulfil the requirement of the com-mercial activities. This puts a question mark onthe performance of the Cantt Board officials whoapprove and check the building plans for thehouses.—INP

Commercial use of houses putsquestion mark on Cantt Board

CITY REPORTER

ISLAMABAD—The Acting Speaker, MurtazaJaved Abbasi has stressed the need for stringentawareness campaign among the masses to con-trol the HIV virus. He said that HIV Aids is afatal epidemic and large number of people be-come its victims annually across the world.

He expressed these views while talking toMarc Saba, UNAIDS Country Director for Pa-kistan and Afghanistan who called on him inthe Parliament House, Friday. The ActingSpeaker reiterated pledge of the present govern-ment to accord top priority to the HIV/AIDSprevention strategies and interventions.

The Acting Speaker on this occasion em-phasized the need for greater collaboration be-tween the UNAIDS and the parliament for ac-tive role of parliamentarians to cope with theincreasing number of HIV cases in Pakistanparticularly among people who inject drug. Hethanked the UNAIDS for their support in devis-ing National strategy and mobilizing resourcesfor the HIV response in Pakistan.

He also called upon the international com-munity to play even greater role in this collec-tive responsibility to complement efforts aimedat reduction of new infections and focus the at-tention towards Zero new infections, zero Dis-crimination and Zero AIDS related deaths.

Awareness campaign againstHIV virus stressed

CITY REPORTER

ISLAMABAD—The Supreme Court on Fridayrestored senior journalist Mohammad Malick asManaging Director of the state-run television.

A two-member bench, comprising JusticeSaqib Nisar and Justice Athar Saeed, took upMalick’s application and restored him as MDPTV after suspending a ruling of the IslamabadHigh Court (IHC).

In its decision, the court observed that theIHC verdict has caused an ‘irreparable’ lossto the national channel by barring the MDfrom working. Issuing notices to parties, thecourt later adjourned the hearing for an in-definite period. The IHC had cancelledMalick’s appointment, declaring it null andvoid, on the grounds that the government hasnot fulfilled legal requirements for the high-level slot.

Supreme Court restoresMohammad Malick as MD PTV

Four robbersin police

uniform loota warehouse

RAWALPINDI—A gang of fourrobbers in police uniformstormed into a warehouse of acellular company at Gangal andmade off with valuables worthmillion of rupees, informedsources here.

According to details, fourrobbers wearing Punjab po-lice uniform entered ware-house of a private cellularcompany at Gangal and madehostage all the security guardson gunpoint. Later, the rob-bers tied the guards withropes and looted preciousstuff from the warehouse andrun away.

The warehouse managerImran Hashmi reported theincident to police on which acase was registered.

SI Raja Arif, the inchargeof Police Chowky Lalyal, whencontacted, confirmed the inci-dent and said police havelaunched operation to arrest therobbers after registering acase.—APP

People offering Friday prayer in Faisal Mosque.NAB arrests aperson over

cheating chargesISLAMABAD—The NationalAccountability Bureau (NAB),Rawalpindi on Friday has ar-rested an accused, GhulamHaider on the charges of cheat-ing and defrauding public atlarge.

The accused is allegedlyinvolved in corruption / cor-rupt practices by way of cheat-ing public at large as he re-ceived an amount of Rs26.6million in the name of FruitBusiness (Merchant) fromgeneral public and disap-peared after paying them profitfor some time.

The arrest warrants of ac-cused Ghullam Haider was is-sued by Director General (DG)NAB (Rawalpindi).—APP

Muslims offer Friday prayers at historic Jamia Masjid in Nowhatta, Srinagar.

ISLAMABAD: Norway Ambassador to Pakistan meeting ex-Premier of AJK BarristerSultan Mehmood in his residence here on Friday.

DR. GHULAM NABI FAI

WASHINGTON DC - On July 8, 2014,the Spokesman of Indian Ministryof External Affairs made a formal

statement saying, “As far as we (India) areconcerned the UNMOGIP (United NationsMilitary Observer Group in India & Pakistan)has outlived its relevance. This is a consis-tent stance that we have articulated on sev-eral occasions since the Shimla accord.”Whatis the legal ground of the spokesman’s pro-nouncement? Christopher Hitchens hasmade it easy to understand when he said;““Perhaps you notice how the denial is sooften the preface to the justification.” AndGeorge R.R. Martin confirms it by saying“Most men would rather deny a hard truththan face it.”

The spokesman has conveniently forgot-ten that India and Pakistan are signatories to

Is UN Office vacation a path to ‘Insaniyat”?various United Nations Security Council reso-lutions. These resolutions constitute anagreement because, unlike most resolutionsof the Security Council, their provisions werefirst negotiated with the parties and, it wasonly after their written consent was obtainedthat they were adopted by the SecurityCouncil.These resolutions are binding onboth India and Pakistan to respect the ver-dict of the people of Kashmir to be obtainedthrough a free vote under the impartial su-pervision of the United Nations. India, how-ever, recognizing that the people of Kashmirwould never freely vote accession to India; itcontrived excuse after excuse to frustrate aplebiscite. One of the excuses is that Secu-rity Council resolutions have been super-seded by the Simla Agreement.

The implication is false because it wouldrun counter to a standing principle of interna-tional relations which is set out in Article 103 of

the Charter of the United Nations (accepted byevery Member of the United Nations, includ-ing India). The Article says: “In the event of aconflict between the obligations of the Mem-bers of the United nations under the presentCharter and their obligations under any otherinternational agreement, their obligations un-der the present Charter shall prevail”

What, then, is the relevance of the SimlaAgreement as far as instituting a peace pro-cess between India and Pakistan, fully rec-ognizing Kashmir’s inherent right of self-de-termination, is concerned?

First, it may be that the Simla Agreementis being invoked because of lack of knowl-edge about its actual terms and the circum-stances in which it was signed. India is tak-ing full advantage of this factor to spread themisinformation that the Simla Agreement ab-solves her from the responsibility of strivingfor a settlement of the dispute. By citing the

Simla Agreement at this stage, or encourag-ing others to do so, India obviously seeks toprevent those basic issues of the disputebeing addressed that were fully taken intoaccount by the United Nations.

Second, despite the circumstance of theSimla Agreement, the Agreement nowhereprecludes a settlement of the Kashmir dis-pute along the lines laid down by the UnitedNations with the consent of both India andPakistan. Nor does it require that the UnitedNations be by-passed in the effort towards asettlement. On the contrary, it expressly saysthat the relations between the two countriesshall be governed by the principles and pur-poses of the Charter of the United Nations.The Agreement thus reinforces the obliga-tions of both India & Pakistan to achieve asettlement in accordance with the resolutionsendorsed by the Security Council resolutionsand, if their bilateral efforts fail, to turn to the

United Nations for assistance. Nothing wouldbe more contrary to the Charter — and, there-fore, to the Simla Agreement itself — than tobar recourse to the United Nations.

The spokesman needs to understand thata sincere and serious effort towards a justsettlement of the Kashmir dispute mustsquarely deal with the realities of thesituation and fully respond to the people’srights involved in it. The Simla Agreementdoes neither. Indeed, it was not intended todo so. A peace process that ignores thewishes of the people of Kashmir and isdesigned to sidetrack the United Nationswill not only prove to be an exercise in futilitybut can also cause incalculable human andpolitical damage to all parties concerned.[ Dr. Fai can be reached at 202-607-6435or gnfai2003@yahoo.com].

SRINAGAR—In occupied Kashmir, Hurriyetleaders, Mukhtar Ahmad Waza, SyedBashir Andrabi, Zafar Akbar Butt andMuhammad Yousuf Naqash have paidglowing tributes to the martyrs of July 13,1931, who voiced against the atrocities ofthe Dogra rule and laid down their lives.

Mukhtar Ahmad Waza addressing Fri-day congregation in Islamabad said, “Thisday has the significance of marking thebeginning of the ongoing freedom struggle.On this day the Kashmiris for the first timeraised their voice against the atrocities per-petrated by the Dogra rulers on them and22 persons offered supreme sacrifices oftheir life.”

Urging people to observe a completeshutdown on July 13 and make the APHC’sstrike call a success, he said that the ongo-ing freedom movement was the continua-tion of the mission of the martyrs of 1931.

Syed Bashir Andrabi addressing a gath-ering at Reshipora in Pulwama said that theincident served as a milestone in the free-

Glowing tributes paid toKashmiri martyrs of july 13

dom history of the people of Kashmir. Hetermed the sacrifice of the martyrs of 13thJuly as a beacon of light for the freedomloving generation of Jammu and Kashmir.He said that the best way to pay tributes tothe martyrs was to carry forward their mis-sion to its logical conclusion.

He said that Delhi’s decision to closethe UNMOGIP office in New Delhi couldnot change disputed status of Jammu andKashmir. He asked India to read writing onthe wall and give the Kashmiris an oppor-tunity to decide their future as per theiraspirations and the relevant UN resolu-tions.Zafar Akbar Butt in a statement andMohammad Yousuf Naqash during his in-teraction with people at Panzinara,Shadipora said that the ongoing freedommovement was the continuation of thestruggle of the martyrs of 1931. They saidthat the people of Kashmir would continuetheir ongoing liberation struggle till com-plete success—KMS.

SRINAGAR—With the Muslim WakfBoard under intense public criticismover its ‘failure’ to provide assistanceto the needy, it has also failed to un-dertake renovation works on some ofthe revered shrines in Kashmir. Thefamed Hazratbal shrine on the Srinagaroutskirts is a case in point.

The central dome of the Hazratbalshrine, housing the holy relic ofProphet Muhammad (PBUH), is beingrenovated for half a decade now. TheBoard, which boasts of spending awhooping Rs 72 crore on differentunder-construction works, has spentRs 3 crore on marbles used on clad-ding of the dome.

In September 2013, the Chief Min-ister Omar Abdullah, who is also theChairman of the Board, gave nod tomarble-cladding of the dome and fixedDecember 31 of the year as deadlinefor its completion. The project wasawarded to the Jammu and KashmirProjects Construction Corporation(JKPCC), a government-owned com-pany incorporated in 1965.

In the same month, after Omar’snod to marble cladding, patches of thedome crumbled during Zuhr (after-noon) prayers. The Government hadinitiated a magisterial inquiry into theincident which didn’t see the light ofthe day.Panicked by the dome disas-ter, locals staged a massive anti-gov-

6 years on, Hazratbal shrinedome work awaits end

ernment demonstration in the neigh-borhood.

These Wakf Board people arethieves who have plundered the char-ity raised in the name of shrines,” theprotesters had alleged. The crumblingof the dome marble also highlightedthe negligence of the Board in com-missioning different works.

The resentment among localsagainst the Wakf Board continues ascompletion of the marble-cladding onthe dome sees no end.“Marbles andstone worth lakhs were earlier usedon the dome but it all crumbled,” saidan elderly local, Muhammad ShabanGanie, who offers five times prayersat the Shrine.

“I saw the dome crumbing. I criedthat day. I have been offering prayershere for the past 40 years. I must say theWakf Board is neglecting this reveredshrine.”Even, members of a local com-mittee, which oversees issues relatingto Hazratbal shrine, criticized the WakfBoard for “not being held accountable.”

“My assessment says the workon the dome has been going onsince 1947,” said a member of thecommittee. “There is no one inter-ested in it. Omar Abdullah (Wakfchairman) is also not taking any in-terest in the Wakf affairs.”Anothermember said, “Wakf is doing noth-ing. Our national asset is being ne-

glected. And money is beingwasted.”M Y Taing, known historianand critic, slammed the “lazy ap-proach” of Muslim Wakf Board forfailing to complete construction workof the dome.

“It has been long since construc-tion work on the dome was started,”he said. “Hazratbal is a revered shrineof Kashmir. Lakhs of people assemblethere every Friday to offer congrega-tional prayers. The dome should havebeen completed by now.”

Prof. M Y Qadri, Chairman of Mus-lim Wakf Board, estimated that thedome would be completed by the endof Ramadhan.“It was a complicatedconstruction. We had to work on itthree times due to its complexity,” heclaimed. “But till Eid it will be com-peted.”

Kushal Chand, JKPCC’s GeneralManager for Kashmir division, said oftotal 38 layers of marble, they havecompleted 21 on the dome.“We took the work in October 2013and the work on marble was started inApril this year,” he said. “We are try-ing to finish it by the end of thismonth.”In the month of Ramadhan,the public voice against Wakf Boardhas grown stronger and analysts saythe body was being used by main-stream politicians as their “politicalfiefdom—GK.

Kashmir is globallyrecognised dispute: Mirwaiz

MAHARAJA BAZAAR, - (IHK)—Policeflexed muscles on women protesters whoblocked Airport Road against water short-age in Jammu and Kashmir’s summer capi-tal Srinagar.

Women protesters had blocked the vi-tal road near Naaz Cinema crossing overwater shortage in Saraibala, Maharaja Bazarand its adjacent areas. Resenting the po-lice action of beating peaceful female pro-testors, the traders in Maharaja Bazar andSaraibalal downed their shutters and ob-served a shutdown.

The protesters who blocked the busyroad resulting in massive traffic jam saidthey were facing acute drinking watershortage as the taps were running dry.

“Like previous year, this year too ourlocalities have been facing worst drinkingwater shortage,” the residents, mostlywomen said.

The women protestors according toCNS blocked the road as a result the traf-fic came to halt during morning hours. Thelong fleet of stranded vehicles stretchedover miles haunted commuters.

“For the past one month we are beingdeprived of the water supply. We have tocrave for a drop of water,” a woman pro-testor told CNS.

In a bid to clear the road and removebottlenecks police swung into action anddispersed the women protesters. Localsalleged that police used excessive-forceto disperse the peaceful women protest-ors. Four persons including two women

IHK police flex muscleson women protesters

according to reports received injuries.They have been identified as Haseena

Bano, Mumtaza Banoo , GhulamMohiuddin Dar, and Majid Khan. Policealso arrested the salesman MuhammadOmar of Nowgam. Eyewitnesses told CNSthat police picked Omar from his shop‘Classic Store’ in Alsafa Market.As a markof protest against the police action thetraders in Maharaja Bazar and Saraibalaclosed their shops and observed a shut-down.

“Which law permits a male cop to breakhis lathi on women protestors? Kashmir isthe only part where people receive lash-ing without any provocation and reason,”a shopkeeper told CNS.

Masjid Iqra Sarai Bala President BashirAhmed Malik said that locals here are suf-fering due to want of potable water. “Frompast five years, administration is givingassurances to the people that water pipeswill be laid in the area, but nothing wasdone,” he said adding that area observedshutdown against the ‘overreaction’ ofpolice.

When contacted SDPO Imtiyaz IsmailParrey said that some of the protestors re-sorted to indiscriminate stone-pelting thatresulted in the injury of a police constablewho received at least 4 stitches in his head.“For over an hour these people made thou-sands of commuters hostage and we sim-ply sought the help of lady contingent todisperse these protestors,” Parrey said—KD.

Asking UNMOGIPto vacate offices,

unrealistic:Mirwaiz

SRINAGAR—Terming the de-cision of GoI askingUNMOGIP office to vacatethe government buildingfrom New Delhi as unrealis-tic and contrary to theground realities, Hurriyat (M)said GoI should accept thatKashmir is a dispute andneeds political courage toresolve it. The spokespersonfurther stated by closing UNObserver’s office would notsolve Kashmir problem andinstead would aggravateit.The reaction came duringmeeting of Hurriyat (M) Ex-ecutive Council, GeneralCounsel and Working Com-mittee members atconglomerate’s headquar-ters here.

The meeting was chairedby Hurriyat (M) Chairman,Mirwaiz Molvi Dr. UmarFarooq.The meeting attendedby representatives of allHurriyat (M) constituentstook a detailed view of the on-going political situation andorganizational matters. Be-sides, the meeting also final-ized the two-day programmeto be held to commemorate themartyrdom anniversaries ofJuly 13, 1931 martyrs.On July12, 2014, Hurriyat would orga-nize a seminar titled “13 July1931-The starting chapter ofKashmir Freedom Move-ment” at Hurriyat headquar-ters. It was also decided that aresolution on the politicalstand and line of action for theresolution of Kashmir issue,based on the Hurriyat (M)constitution would be passedon the occasion.On July 13,2014, the Mirwaiz would leada peaceful rally from historicJamia Masjid to Mazar-e-Shuhda Naqashbandh Sahab(RA) to pay tributes to the July13, 1931 martyrs and offer acollective Fateh Khwani. Onthe same day, differentHurriyat leaders would alsolead the rallies from differentcorners of Kashmir to con-verge at historic Jamia Masjid,besides separate programmeswould be held at Sopore,Handwara, and Anantnag topay tributes to the martyrs.

The meeting was at-tended by Professor AbdulGani Bhat, Moulana MasroorAbbas Ansari, Bilal Gani Lone,Agha Syed Hassan AlMoosvi, Musadiq Adil,Mukhtar Ahmad Waza, Advo-cate Abdul Majid Banday,Hakim Abdul Rashid, Advo-cate Shahid-ul-Islam, SyedSalim Geelani, Javaid AhmadMir, Abdul Mannan Bukhari,Shaheen Iqbal—RK.

Yasin Malikarrested,demos inSrinagar

SRINAGAR—In occupiedKashmir, forceful anti-Indiaprotests erupted atMaisuma in Srinagar, today,following the arrest ofJammu and Kashmir Libera-tion Front Chairman,Muhammad Yasin Malik, byIndian police.

Muhammad Yasin Malikwas scheduled to lead a sit-in protest at Lal Chowk inSrinagar in connection withthe ‘Quit Kashmir’ campaignand against the Israeli bomb-ing on civilians in Palestine.Indian police used bruteforce against the demonstra-tors injuring several people.Many protesters includingJKLF leaders, Bashir AhmadButt, Showkat AhmadBakhshi and Sheikh AbdulRasheed were arrested on theoccasion.

On the other hand,Kashmiris on both sides ofthe Line of Control and theworld over will observe theKashmir Martyrs’ Day onSunday, the 13th of July, toreaffirm the pledge that theywould continue theirstruggle till they achievedtheir inalienable right to self-determination. The day willbe marked by completeshutdown in occupiedKashmir and a march to-wards Naqashband Sahib inSrinagar. It was on 13th Julyin 1931 when the Dogratroops shot dead 22Kashmiris, one after theother, outside the CentralJail in Srinagar.

The All Parties HurriyetConference Chairman,Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, ad-dressing a gathering at JamiaMasjid in Srinagar paid glow-ing tributes to the martyrs of13th July 1931. Hurriyet lead-ers including Agha SyedHassan Al-Moosvi Al-Safvi,Mukhtar Ahmed Waza, ZafarAkbar Butt, Syed BashirAndrabi, Muhammad YousufNaqash and Abdul MajeedTramboo, paying homage tothe martyrs said that their sac-rifices would not be allowedto go waste—KMA.

SRINAGAR—In occupied Kashmir, the fo-rum patronized by the veteran Hurriyetleader, Syed Ali Gilani, has condemned thebanning of lecture of a US-based promi-nent author and academician, Mridu Rai, inSrinagar.

The forum spokesman in a statementissued in Srinagar said that occupied Kash-mir was actually a police state where thepuppet regime was totally intolerant to-wards the opposite voices.

He maintained that India’s claim of be-ing the largest democracy of the world was

Ban on US scholar’s lecture in Srinagar denouncedtotally exposed in the occupied territorywhere the freedom of expression had beenpractically banned and people were not al-lowed to peacefully put forth their viewpoint.

The spokesman said that the ignoranceexpressed by the district administrationabout the ban on the lecture was surpris-ing and ridiculous. “The deputy commis-sioner Srinagar should explain that whichauthority other than he can ban suchevents and who is authorized to do so,” headded.—KMS

SRINAGAR—In occupied Kashmir, the AllParties Hurriyet Conference (APHC) Chair-man, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq has said thatKashmir is an internationally recongniseddisputed territory and urged the UnitedNations to fulfill its responsibility by set-tling it in accordance with the aspirationsof Kashmiri people.

Mirwaiz Umar Farooq addressing a gath-ering at Jamia Masjid in Srinagar said thatKashmir dispute could be resolved throughUN resolutions or tripartite talks betweenPakistan, India and the true representativesof Kashmiri people.

He said that India was trying to changethe disputed nature of Kashmir by utilizingdifferent tactics but would never succeedin its nefarious designs.The APHC Chair-man termed the recent announcement ofIndia that United Nations’ Military Observ-ers Group in India and Pakistan should va-cate its office in New Delhi as unrealisticand contrary to ground realities. “This isvery unfortunate. Instead of showing cour-age to resolve the Kashmir issue,” he said.

Paying rich tributes to the martyrs ofrule, adding, they fought for the rights ofpeople and laid their lives for the causestarted by Mahajar-e-Millat MoulanaYousuf Shah.

In connection with the July 13 martyr-dom anniversary, Mirwaiz stated thatHurriyet had chalked out programmes topay tributes to martyrs.

He stated that on July 12 a seminarwould be organized to commemorate themartyrs while on July 13, 2014, Hurriyat lead-ers would lead the rallies from different cor-ners of Kashmir and would converge at his-toric Jamia Masjid

Meanwhile, Agha Syed Hassan Al-Moosvi Al-Safvi, addressing a gatheringin Badgam paid glowing tributes to themartyrs of July 13, 1949 and said that thesacrifices of Kashmiri martyrs would notbe allowed go waste. He said that the peopleof Kashmir had rendered unprecedentedsacrifices for Kashmir cause and the ongo-ing liberation movement would be taken toits logical conclusion at all costs—KMS.

I’ve always had myown access to thepublic, because I

started off makingmy clothes for a

little shop, and soI’ve always hadpeople buyingthem. I could

always sell a few,even if I couldn’t

sell a lot, andsomehow my

business grewbecause people

happened to like it.I’m in a fortunate

position.

—Vivienne Westwood

ISLAMABAD—Minister for Finance, Muhammad Ishaq Dar here onFriday expressed displeasure over the poor performance of HouseBuilding Finance Corporation Limited (HBFCL) and ZariTraqiti Bank Limited. The minister chaired a meeting for reso-lution of SBP credit line issue with HBFCL and ZTBL andwas informed that HBFCL owes Rs.13.2 billion since 2006and the institution is not been able to clear its overdue creditline.

It may be mentioned that neither HBFCL is doing anybusiness for the last many years nor been able to recoverloans from the defaulters. Whereas salary bill is consumingwhatever meager earning they have in the form of repaymentof house building loans. The Finance Minister was furtherinformed that ZTBL owes Rs.93.2 billion (principal Rs.54.5billion, mark up 38.7 billion) to the State Bank of Pakistan andfor the last 15 years, the credit line has not been cleared. Hewas informed that poor balance sheet of ZTBL has ham-pered its progressand financial standings.

Finance Minister said that it is very unfortunate that boththese important financial institutions have poor balancesheets and were not performing upto the expectations. Hesaid that agriculture credit and sustainable agricultural growth arethe government’s budget strategy preferences. Number of new ini-

Dar expressee displeasure over poor performance of HBFCL, ZTBL

ISLAMABAD: Federal Minister for Finance, Senator Muhammad Ishaq Dar chairinga meeting on resolution of SBP Credit Line to ZTBL and HBFCL.

tiatives have been announced in the budget to boost agriculturesector. On the other hand, house building industry is also an impor-tant catalyst for economic turn around in the country.

He said that in line with the priorities of the political leadership ofthe country, the government would like to strengthen both the insti-

tutions so that they can aggressively market their products, providefacilities to farmers and ordinary people for house building. Theminister and all the three major stakeholders viz SBP, ZTBL and

HBFC unanimously decided to convert their loans into eq-uity at par and for immediate payment of interest by HBFCto SBP. Finance Minister while addressing the managementof the both ZTBL and HBFC emphasized that they have tostart a new beginning with new management and boards toaggressively market their products and a task force shouldbe formed for recovery of non-performing loans.

He said that expectations from new management are thatthey would strengthen both the institutions and to reformand restructure the institutions with the objective of makingthem vibrant financial institutions with robust balance sheet.It was further decided that all legal, corporate and adminis-trative requirements will be completed by 21st of July 2014subject to approval by the SBP Board of Directors in orderto resolve this 15 years old outstanding issue which washampering the performance of both the critically importantfinancial institutions. The meeting was also attended by Gov-ernor State Bank, Ashraf Wathra, Finance Secretary, Dr.

Waqar Masood, Chairman SECP, Tahir Mahmood, President ZTBL,Talat Mehmood and MD HBFC, Pervaiz Saeed.—APP

IS L A M A B A D—Minister for Petroleumand Natural Resources, Shahid KhaqanAbbasi visited Turkmenistan, to attendthe 18th meeting of the Steering Com-mittee of TAPI (Turkmenitan-Afghani-stan-Pakistan-India) Gas PipelineProject . According to a message re-ceived here Thursday, the two-day meet-ing of the Steering Committee that endedon Wednesday in Ashgabat was also at-tended by Deputy Chairman of the Cabi-net of Ministers of Turkmenistan,Baymrat Hojamuhammedov, AfghanMinister of Mines and Petroleum,Muhammad Akbar Barqzai and Secretary,Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gasof India, Saurabh Chandra.

Petroleum minister attends meetingon TAPI Gas Pipeline Project

The Steering Committee reviewed theprogress made on the project so far anddiscussed the matters relating to the for-mation of consortium of companies toinvest in the project.

The Minister for Petroleum and Natu-ral Resources also called on the Presi-dent of Turkmenistan and rei teratedPakistan’s commitment to the t imelyimplementation of the TAPI Gas PipelineProject. He also conveyed warm greet-ings and good wishes from the Presidentand Prime Minister of Pakistan to thePresident of Turkmenistan. The twosides discussed prospects for enhance-ment of bilateral relations in differentfields.—APP

AMANULLAH KHAN

KARACHI—Karachi development projects in-volving billions of rupees and prompt sanc-tioning of funds for these projects was thehighlight by Prime Minister Mian MuhammadNawaz Sharif visit to Karachi. Abdullah Zaki,President KCCI has said that Rs15 billiontransport project of Green Line Bus Serviceto be fully funded by Federal governmentalong with sanctioning of Rs6 billion forcompletion of Lyari Expressway would cer-tainly help in resolving the pressing issue ofsevere traffic congestions everyday on almostall streets of Karachi whereas the approval ofRs12 billion for greater water supply project,K-4, would effectively deal with the water scar-cities being faced by Karachiites”, he added.

President KCCI expressed satisfactionover Prime Minister’s announcement to ini-tiate work on Malir Motorway project, M9,which is likely to cost Rs42 billion. He saidthat this important project will link Karachi

PM Nawas ensures quick release of funds for Karachi developmentTransport, Layari Express Way, water supply issues to be resolved on war footing basis

Port and Port Qasim, which will be welcomedby businessmen and industrialists who arecertainly going to benefit from this importantproject on its completion as it will facilitatesmooth flow of goods between the two ports.He also expressed satisfaction over PM’s an-nouncement to commence development workon Karachi-Lahore Motorway in a few monthsas the federal government had already re-leased Rs55 billion to the National HighwayAuthority for acquisition of land whereasearly completion of Gadani Power Park andtwo power projects at Port Qasim would helpin reducing the rising demand-supply gap.

Abdullah Zaki, however, underscoredthe need to announce exact commencementand completion dates of these developmentprojects for Karachi city so that the repre-sentatives of business community could per-sonally monitor the work in progress andensure timely completion of these importantprojects. He said, “It is really heartening tonote that Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif fully

understands and realizes the significance ofKarachi city as during yesterday’s meetingat Governor House, the Prime Minster termedthis important city as jugular vein of thecountry’s economy.” President KCCI, whileappreciating Prime Minister ’s optimismabout regaining Karachi city’s past statusof ‘city of lights’, assured full support andcooperation on behalf of the entire businesscommunity in making Karachi city a safer andsecurer place for living and for doing busi-ness .

Commenting on Sindh government’s rolein facilitating the business community, Presi-dent KCCI said that the business commu-nity of Karachi city fully acknowledges andappreciates Chief Minister’s keen interest invarious development projects, particularly inthe industrial zones of the city. He noted thatChief Minister Sindh recently inauguratedtwo reconstructed concrete roads in Site areamade from the financial package of Rs270million and underscored the need to improve

infrastructure of other industrial zones aswell. “We are fairly optimistic that keepingin view Chief Minister’s determination toimprove law and order situation of Karachi,a clear and stringent strategy will soon bedevised to restore complete and durablepeace all over Karachi”, he emphasized, add-ing that the operation against criminals needsto be intensified and criminal activities suchas kidnapping for ransom, extortions, streetcrimes, target killings should be dealt withiron hand.

Abdullah Zaki, on behalf of Karachi city’sBusiness & Industrial Community, reiterateddemands to deploy army in Karachi under theConstitution in aid of Civil Government andcomplete shutdown of all prepaid SIMs.“These two demands were discussed andresolutions were passed during a meeting heldat KCCI on June 23, 2014, which was dulysigned by Chairman Businessmen Group &Former President KCCI Siraj Kassam Teli,President KCCI Abdullah Zaki, Senior Vice

President Muffasar A. Malik, Vice PresidentMuhammad Idrees, Chairman Site Associa-tion of Industry, Younus M. Bashir, ChairmanLandhi Association of Trade & Industry ZiadBashir, Chairman Bin Qasim Association ofTrade & Industry Amin Ali Muhammad, Chair-man F.B. Area Association of Industry, SheikhMuhammad Tehseen, Chairman North KarachiAssociation of Trade & Industry, MahmoodRangoonwala and Chairman Site Superhigh-way Association of Trade & Industry JavedGhouri. In light of the decisions taken dur-ing the said meeting, a formal letter alongwith resolutions was sent to Prime Ministeron June 25, 2014 and the deliberations dur-ing yesterday’s meeting with Prime Minis-ter were based on the resolutions passedon June 23, 2014”, he added. He was of theview that deployment of Army in Karachihas become inevitable due to expected re-percussions of Zarb-e-Azb Operation ashas been done in Islamabad, Multan andother cities whereas Karachi.

ISLAMABAD: Minister of State for IT Mrs Anusha Rahman chairing a consultativemeeting regarding Telecom Policy Review.

ISLAMABAD—Chairman LPG Distribu-tors Association, Irfan Khokhar Fridaywarned to go on strike from July 18 if noaction was taken against blackmarketingpractices in the sector demaging the in-terests of common consumers. Talkingto APP Irfan said the association in ameeting categorically decided to raisevoice against three consecutive hikes ofthe LPG prices in three days, which itclaimed was unjustified.

He demanded that Oil and Gas Regu-latory Authority (OGRA) should takestern action against profiteer marketing

LPG distributors to go on strike topress demands: Chairman

companies, earning Rs 70 million dailythrough illegal practices.

He said the association would stage asit-in outside the OGRA office on July 22 asa part of its protest,if the situation remainedsame. He also demanded abolishment of 17percent GST on imported LPG, besides, bind-ing the local LPG quota holders to import 50percent of LPG out of their full quota andsell the both at uniform price. The rate listshe said,should be pasted at a visible place atLPG plant gate as per the OGRA rules andlicenses of violator companies should becancelled.—APP

ISE-10 index staysbearishISLAMABAD—TheIslamabad Stock Exchange(ISE) on Friday witnessedbearish trend as the ISE-10index was down by 10.98points to close at 4542.32points. A total of 9,600shares were traded, whichshowed a positive growthof 4,600 shares, whencompared with previousday’s trading of 5,000shares. Out of 119companies, share prices of59 companies recordedincrease while those of 59companies decreased and1 companies remainedstable in today’s trad-ing.—APP

Conversion ratesKARACHI—The followingrates will be applicable forconversion into rupees ofForeign CurrencyDeposits, Dollar BearerCertificates, ForeignCurrency Bearer Certifi-cates, Special U.S. DollarBonds and profits thereonby all banks and forproviding Forward Coveron Foreign CurrencyDeposits (excluding F.E-25 deposits) by the StateBank on July 14, 2014. Therates are U.S. Dollar Rs.98.7391, Japanese Yen Rs.0.9740, Pound Sterling Rs.169.0808 and Euro Rs.134.3642.—APP

Portugal allays fearsover crisis-hit bank BESLISBON—Portugueseauthorities on Fridaysought to allay market fearsover the financial health ofthe country’s biggest bankBanco Espirito Santo,which has seen its sharesplummet over its parentcompany’s debt woes.“There is no reason todoubt the security of thefunds entrusted to theBES, and its savers haveno need to be worried,”Portugal’s central bank saidin a statement. PrimeMinister Pedro PassosCoelho added that “there isno reason for the state tointervene in a bank whichhas solid capital and whichhas a comfortable marginto deal with any eventual-ity, even the most ad-verse.—AFP

Pak BizExpress opensdoors for new

venturesSALIM AHMED

LAHORE—Success of PakBusiness Express (PBE) hasopened up new doors ofjoint ventures under public-private partnership. It isPakistan’s first private trainservice that is giving stag-gering amount to the na-tional exchequer. Director ofthe PBE Mian Shafqat Alisaid that inspiring successof Pak Business Express hasstarted a new era of Public-Private Partnership as thethis private sector ventureis earning huge money atthis point in time when Pa-kistan Railways is in the pro-cess of revival.

He said that in the past,Pakistan Railways was fac-ing huge deficit and suspen-sion of trains on a large num-ber of routes was order of theday but now situation isquite different and encour-aging and Pakistan Railwaysis well on the way of progress& prosperity. Mian ShafqatAli said that the very objec-tive behind this venture wasrevival of Pakistan Railwaysand bringing back the lostglories once attached to it.The amount Pak BusinessExpress has so far paid to Pa-kistan Railways is biggerthan the grand total what therailway authorities are get-ting from all other trains.

He said that Pak Busi-ness Express has so farspent Rs 170.65 million toensure comfort to passen-gers from buying ticketsto their destination. PakBusiness Express spent abig amount to reduce traveltime between Lahore andKarachi. Pak Business Ex-press is the only train thatis travelling in betweenLahore and Karachi inrecord time, he added.

“Time was the biggestissue for the train travelersand the management of PakBusiness Express has fo-cused on this issue vigor-ously and this is the onlyreason that the occupancyof this private sector runtrain is improving with ev-ery passing day.

ISLAMABAD: Country Head of Askari Islamic Fahd Sardar Khan handing over dona-tion cheque of Rs. 2.4 million for IDPs to the representative of the Pakistan Army.

ISLAMABAD—The government is taking allpossible measures towards fast tract de-velopment of alternative and renewableenergy resources to diversify the energymix and ensure energy security and sus-tainable development in the country. Offi-cial sources told APP here Friday that theAlternative Energy Development Board(AEDB) has been mandated to act as a cen-tral agency for development and promotionof Alternative and Renewable Energy (ARE)technologies in the country and to facili-tate the private sector investment in thissector.

They said the AEDB has undertaken anumber of supportive measures in order topromote ARE technologies and to attractprivate sector investments, which includeidentification of new corridors for wind andsolar energy projects development. Re-source assessment of these corridors isunderway. National Grid Code for windpower projects has been amended. Grid In-tegration Plan 2010 -2015 for wind powerprojects has been developed by AEDB tosupport NTDC. The local manufacturing ofmicro wind turbine has been started. Manu-facturing for large wind turbines is alsobeing encouraged.

M/s DESCON has set up a wind turbinetower manufacturing facility and has pro-vided towers for the first wind project inPakistan. M/s Three Gorges Corporation /CWE (China) has also established a towermanufacturing facility which will be up-graded to wind turbine assembling facilityin future. Similarly issues related to financ-ing of projects have been resolved and now

Measures afoot for fast trackalternative energy development

leading financing agencies like InternationalFinance Corporation (IFC), Asian Develop-ment Bank (ADB), Overseas Private Invest-ment Corporation (OPIC), Economic Coop-eration Organization (ECO), Trade Bank etc.are offering financing to wind powerprojects in Pakistan.

Thirty five wind power IPPs holdingLOIs issued by AEDB are at various stagesof project development. In solar energy, 24LOIs for cumulative capacity of approxi-mately 792.99 MW On-Grid Solar PV powerplants have been issued. Four companieshave submitted the feasibility studies oftheir projects and one feasibility study isapproved by AEDB. Other sponsors are atthe stage of preparation of feasibility stud-ies Solar Village Electrification Programmewas initiated under PM’s directive. 3000Solar Home Systems have been installed in49 villages of district Tharparkar, Sindh.Another 51 villages in Sindh and 300 vil-lages in Baluchistan have been approvedfor electrification using solar energy andwill be implemented shortly.

AEDB in light of SRO 575(1)12006 is-sued duty exemption certificates for a largenumber of solar panels/solar modules toprivate sector companies for installation/generation of almost 64.57MW of energyin the country. These solar panels/solarmodules are deployed all over the country.AEDB issued tax exemption certificate forimport of almost 16715 units of Solar WaterHeaters in the country. These heaters aredeployed all over the country especially inBaluchistan, Gilgit-Baltistan, KhyberPakhtunkhwa and Northern Punjab.—APP

Weeklyinflation goes up

ISLAMABAD—The Sensi-tive Price Indicator (SPI) forthe week ended on July 10for the lowest incomegroup up to Rs. 8,000 reg-istered increase of 0.24 per-cent as compared to theprevious week. The SPI forthe week under review inthe above mentionedgroup was recorded at205.97 points against205.48 points registered inthe previous week, accord-ing to data of Pakistan Bu-reau of Statistics (PBS).The weekly SPI has beencomputed with base 2007-2008=100, covering 17 ur-ban centers and 53 essen-tial items for all incomegroups and combined.

The SPI for the com-bined group increased by0.23 per cent as it went upfrom 214.74 points in theprevious week to 215.24points in the week underreview. As compared to thecorresponding week of lastyear, the SPI for the com-bined group in the weekunder review witnessedincreased of 6.95 percent.As compared to the lastweek, the SPI for the in-come groups from Rs.8001-12,000, Rs.12,001-18,000,Rs.18001-35,000 and aboveRs.35,000 increased by0.24 percent, 0.24 percent,0.23 percent and 0.23 per-cent respectively. Duringthe week under review av-erage prices of 6 items reg-istered decrease, while thatof 20 items increase withthe remaining 27 items’prices unchanged.

The items which regis-tered decrease in their pricesduring the week under re-view included tomatoes,potatoes, moong pulse(washed), red chillies (pow-der), masoor pulse (washed)and mash pulse (washed).The items which recordedincrease in their averageprices included LPG, ba-nanas, cigarettes, egg hen(farm), sugar, garlic, onions,chicken (farm), georgette,wheat, wheat flour (bag),shirting, beef, washingsoap, gur, salt (powdered),mutton, mustard oil, grampulse (washed) and kero-sene oil.—APP

Samsungannounces

new TVC forGalaxy Tab SK A R A C H I — S a m s u n gElectronics Co., Ltd. todayannounced the third Gal-axy Tab S TV commercial,created to demonstrate thedisplay power and unri-valed viewing experienceof Samsung’s latest tablet.The new commercial, di-rected by world famousfilm and television directorJake Scott, brings his cre-ative eye to the Galaxy TabS campaign to showcasehow the device has rede-fined the tablet viewing ex-perience for consumers.

The third instalment inSamsung’s new tabletcommercial series puts theGalaxy Tab S’s industry-leading display to the test,showing side-by-sidecomparisons of a widerange of images on thedevice’s Super AMOLEDscreen next to traditionalLCD screens. These bringthe extraordinary SuperAMOLED technology tolife, resulting in moreimmersive and breathtak-ing visual experience.—PR

Currency Selling Buying

USA 98.50 98.30

UK 168.78 168.44

Euro 133.99 133.72

Canada 92.60 92.41

Switzerland 110.33 110.10

Australia 92.47 92.28

Sweden 14.54 14.51

Japan 0.9721 0.9701

Norway 15.96 15.93

Singapore 79.25 79.09

Denmark 17.97 17.94

Saudi Arabia 26.26 26.21

Hong Kong 12.71 12.68

Kuwait 349.28 348.57

Malaysia 30.90 30.84

Newzealand 86.83 86.66

Qatar 27.06 27.00

UAE 26.82 26.76

Kr. Won 0.0967 0.0965

Thailand 3.058 3.051

AMANULLAH KHAN

KARACHI—Overseas Pakistani workersremitted an amount of $15,832.25 millionduring FY14 (July – June), showing agrowth of 13.72 percent when comparedwith $13,921.66 million received duringFY13 (July – June). The inflow of remit-tances during FY14 (July – June) fromSaudi Arabia, UAE, USA, UK, GCC coun-tries (including Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar andOman), and EU countries amounted to$4,729.38 million, $3,109.43 million,$2,464.14 million, $2,180.14 million,$1,860.03 million and $431.79 million re-spectively as compared with the inflow of$4,104.73 million, $2,750.17 million,$2,186.24 million, $1,946.01 million,$1,607.88 million and $357.37 million re-spectively during FY13.

KARACHI—Standard Chartered Pakistanlaunches its third annual Sustainability Re-view, setting out how it has delivered on itsstrategy to provide a strong return forshareholders, while creating social and eco-nomic value in the communities where itoperates. As the largest international bankin the country with 116 branches in 22 cit-ies of Pakistan, Standard Chartered is nowtruly a part of the social fabric of this coun-try. Through the Bank’s sustainability strat-egy we seek to strengthen relationshipsbetween the business, community, govern-ment and customers.

Giving back to the community remainsan important part of Standard Chartered’ssustainability agenda. In Pakistan, theBank’s community efforts are focused oneducation and health. During 2013, theBank contributed PKR 24.6million on theseinitiatives. Through the Bank’s educationprogramme, it has extended more than 3300post-matriculate scholarships to deservingstudents and supports institutions for bothvocational and higher learning. Since 2003,Standard Chartered has improved accessto eye-care for more than 25 million people

ISLAMABAD—Multidimensional reforms aimed at goodgovernance, stability, development and strategic directionfor FATA is the need of the hour. This was stated by Fed-eral Minister for Textile Industry Abbas Khan Afridi whilechairing a consultative meeting with FATA Reforms Com-mittee (FRC) here Friday. He added that it is now impera-tive to have political, legal and social reforms backed bybroad consensus.

Political will complemented with vision can only steerFATA out of present chaos, the Minister said adding thatFATA is a distinct entity with historic customs and tradi-tions so, it needs special attention. Political system needsto be made more functional and efficient. The Ministerwas of the view that proper communication network, em-ployment generation, corruption elimination, accountabil-ity, merit based recruitment and infrastructure develop-

Pearl ContinentalHotel hostIftar dinnerSTAFF REPORTER

KARACHI—Pearl Continen-tal Hotel here hosted a re-ception for diplomats of vari-ous countries based inKarachi, senior journalistsand other important person-alities associated with dif-ferent sections of the soci-ety. Naats by prominentnaatkhuwan and luckydraws added to the gran-deur of the iftar/dinnerprogramme , having a largeparticipation, .

General Manager , PCHotel, M, Azeem Qureshiwelcomed the guests.The Consul Generals in-cluded from Japan, UnitedStates of America, Iran, Ger-many, Russia, Indonesia,France, and Switzerland.The reception provided thebest interaction opportunityespecially between the dip-lomats and the journalists.

Summer InternshipProgramme-2014

of Mobilinklaunched

IS L A M A B A D —Country’slargest mobile phone opera-tor, Mobilink on Friday con-ducted internship orienta-tion session to mark start ofits annual Summer Intern-ship Programme-2014. Thecompany has enrolled stu-dents for a project basedinternship programme aftera rigorous selection criteria,encompassing a series oftests and interviews for vari-ous departments atMobilink.

The Summer Interns2014 are Bachelors’ or Mas-ters’ students of Higher Edu-cation Commission (HEC)recognized institutions. VicePresident Human Re-sources & Administration atMobilink, Sadia Ahmad hassaid the Summer InternshipProgramme is a part ofcompany’s strategy to givepractical learning opportu-nities to deserving stu-dents.

The Programme will be avalue adding experience forthe enrolled students andadded that she is confidentthat they would make themost of it for a better andbrighter future. The intern-ship spans over two monthsand will engage the internsthrough a range of learningactivities includingtrainings, networkingevents, competitions andrecognition schemes. Theactivities will focus on im-proving both functional andbehavioral skills of the in-terns to develop them forcorporate world of Paki-stan.—APP

Political will, infrastructure developmentmandatory for FATA uplift: Afridi

ment can only guarantee peace and prosperity in FATA.The Federal Minister lamented the lack of education andmedical facilities in FATA.

He urged the government to equip the determinedyouth with education and further streamline their ser-vices so that they might not fall prey to terror elements.The Minister highlighted that FATA is blessed with natu-ral resources and suggested that a proper mechanismmust be evolved for the mineral exploration.

The minister reiterated that good governance is theonly solution to woes of FATA. The ambiguities in useof development funds and ghost projects must be ad-dressed immediately. Ejaz Qureshi (Ex-Secretary KPK),Lt Gen (Rtd) Syed Sabahat Hussain, Laiq Shah (Ex-Sec-retary to Governor KPK), Mussarat Qadeem andMudassar Riaz Malik attended the meeting.—APP

ISLAMABAD—Federal Minister for Com-merce Engineer Khurram Dastgir Khan helda meeting with the US Principal DeputySpecial Representative to Pakistan and Af-ghanistan, Elizabeth Jones to discuss theimplementation status of the Joint ActionPlan (JAP) agreed upon in the talks heldunder the Trade and Investment FrameworkAgreement (TIFA). US Ambassador to Pa-kistan Richard Olson was also present inthe meeting, said a press release issued.

The minister appreciated the US govern-ment for voting in Pakistan’s favor in themeeting of Board of Governors of WorldBank on Dasu Dam. During the meeting theminister said that the Joint Action Plan wasa right step forward towards enhancing traderelations between the two countries. How-ever, specific actions along with respectivetime lines need to be chalked out by the twosides to achieve the desired objectives.

The minister also commended the US

Dastgir, US representativediscuss JAP implementation

Trade Representative’s continued supportin holding successful business opportuni-ties conferences and said that the 3rd Pak-US Business Opportunities Conference isscheduled for 2nd week of November thisyear in Islamabad for which the two sideshave started meetings at working level.

Minister also discussed the way for-ward on the MoU signed between the twosides during TIFA regarding EconomicEmpowerment of Women Entrepreneurs inPakistan, facilitation of Pakistan companiesin the procurement processes of the USgovernment institution and the prospectsof private US investment in Pakistan.

The minister directed the Trade Devel-opment of Pakistan develop proposals tokeep a sustainable growth in Pakistan’s ex-ports to the US. A meeting between rightafter the month of Ramzan where meaning-ful proposals to enhance Pak-US trade vol-ume is expected to surface.—APP

Workers’ remittances rise13.72% to $15.83b during FY14

Remittances received from Norway,Switzerland, Australia, Canada, Japanand other countries during FY14amounted to $1,057.34 million as against$969.16 million received during last fis-cal year. In June 2014, the inflow of re-mittances from Saudi Arabia, UAE, USA,UK, GCC countries (including Bahrain,Kuwait, Qatar and Oman), and EU coun-tries amounted to $471.88 million, $295.63million, $222.34 million, $200.82 million,$168.62 million and $37.42 million respec-tively as compared with the inflow of$353.18 million, $218.60 million, $179.96million, $171.94 million, $138.18 millionand $31.03 million respectively in June,2013. Remittances received from Norway,Switzerland, Australia, Canada, Japanand other countries during FY14amounted to $102.57 million.

Standard Chartered Pakistan launchessustainability review 2013

ISLAMABAD: Federal Minister for Textile Industry Abbas Khan Afridi in a meetingwith FATA Reforms Commission.

ISLAMABAD: Federal Minister for Commerce, Engr Khurram Dastgir Khan receiv-ing a briefing from the Director General Trade Development Authority of Pakistanduring his visit.

KARACHI: The General Manager of Pearl Continental hotel Karachi M.AzeemQureshi, hosted an Iftar Dinner in honor of Consul General of Switzerland Emil Wyss,Consul General of Indonesia Rossalis Rusman Adenan, and senior journalists at hotelpremises. Picture shows Tarek M.Khan, Barrister Abdul R.Sattar, Jam Farooq anddiplomats from Japan, Germany and Iran with host.

in deprived areas through Seeing is Believ-ing, its programme to tackle avoidable blind-ness. In Pakistan the Bank has funded morethan 566,000 cataract operations to date. A20 per cent reduction in cataract blindnessin Pakistan is attributable to the Bank. As aresult, the Government of Pakistan hasmade Standard Chartered its official andonly corporate partner.

Standard Chartered encourages its em-ployees to get involved in communityprojects and offers staff three days paid leaveto volunteer each year. Bank staff have re-sponded positively, volunteering nearly12,500 days since 2009. In 2013, 4,827 em-ployee volunteering days have been re-corded, an increase of five per cent. NajamSiddiqi, Acting Chief Executive Officer andChief Financial Officer, Standard Chartered,Pakistan said: “Here for good, our brand prom-ise is all about commitment – to our custom-ers and clients, to our people and to the com-munities where we work. In 2013, what con-tinued to be a challenging and changing glo-bal environment, we stood firm in our deter-mination to create long term value for societyas well as our shareholders.—PR

MUZAFFAR ALI

LAHORE—L’Atelier, a multi-retail store, onThursday inaugurated a three-day Eid bazaarin Lahore with a bang in which illustrious Paki-stanis fashion designers launched their brandsadorned with traditional and modern embel-lishments in celebration of the upcoming Eidfestivities. The launch at L’atelier was attendedby a diversity of social personalities, mediaand fashionistas alike.

Despite a lot of funs and recreation at thispompous inaugurating ceremony, the strik-ing feature of this mega event was an an-nouncement of donating funds to assist In-ternally Displaced Persons (IDPs) migratedfrom North Waziristan due to the ongoingwar against terrorism. In this regard, Pakistan’stop fashion designers including MishaLakhani, Sania Maskatiya, Silk by FawadKhan, Zahra Shahjahan, Asiha Khadeeja andSadia Mirza donated their selective prêt wear

L’Atelier inaugurates a 3-dayEid Bazaar in Lahore

at this Eid Bazaar and the money getting fromthis sale would be donated to IDPs.

Talking to Pakistan Observer, Zahra Raza,CEO L’atelier, said we should come forward tohelp our displaced brethren at this time of or-deal. “Leaving your home and all the belong-ings, leaving your room and your comfortablebeds, leaving your towns and your favouritespots holding only the hands of your lovedones is not an easy task and we should dosome elixir works for their wounded hearts witha hope that the roar of war will be replaced bythe laughter of peace soon. Soon they will re-turn to their home but until that dream becomesa reality we have to play our part and contrib-ute in whatever way possible to ease their mis-ery. This is a month of blessings, giving,charity and sharing so everyone should playits role,” she added. She said the customerscould get 70 percent off on their selectiveprêt wears and this was unusual discountbeing offered to our valuable customers.

Tobacco companiesbolster a bruised

FTSELO N D O N—UK sharesedged higher on Friday asmerger activity helpedcigarette makers advance,although the FTSE 100 in-dex was still on course torecord a drop of close to 3percent this week. Impe-rial Tobacco led the gain-ers, up 3.5 percent, aftersaying it was in talks withReynolds and Lorillard toacquire certain assets andbrands the two companiesmay sell. Reynolds andLorillard are in talks abouta deal that would merge theNo. 2 and No. 3 U.S. ciga-rette makers, Reuters haspreviously reported. Brit-ish American Tobacco,which owns 42 percent ofReynolds, advanced 1 per-cent.—AFP

LAHORE: Workers busy in spreading the prepared vermicelli for drying purpose attheir workplace during Ramazan-ul-Mubarak.

HYDERABAD: Workers busy in packing bangles at their workplace to deliver to dif-ferent markets as bangle-selling business is at its peak because of Eid-ul-Fitr.

NOTTINGHAM: Virat Kohli drops Sam Robson at leg slip during England vs India, 1st Investec Test at Trent Bridge.

PESHAWAR—A total of 31 matches decidedon Friday in the ongoing KhyberPakhtunkhwa Squash Coaching and Train-ing Summer Camp here at PAF Hashim KhanSquash Complex here.

Promising Abbas Khan defeated MajidKhan in the last League round match andremained unbeaten in the Under-10 categorywherein 24 players took part. Abbas Khanfaced tough resistance against Majid Khanin the last League round match as bothstretched to five sets battle.

The match was also witnessed by formerWorld Champion Qamar Zaman along withsummer camp coaches Gulab Sher, Karam,Asghar, Nazir Khan, Sajid Khan and RiazKhan.

Winning first two sets by Majid Khanfailed to click in the remaining three sets wonby Abbas Khan. The score was 3-11, 7-11,12-10, 11-7 and 11-9.

Furqan got third position in the same cat-egory of the league by defeating Fahad by 3-1, the score was 11-9, 6-11, 11-8 and 11-9.

In the Under-9 category Humam Ahmadwas so far unbeaten in the 24 players battleas he defeated Fahad Khan by 3-0, 11-5, 11-4and 11-8 and also recorded victory againstAbdullah Nawaz at 3-0, the score was 11-8,11-9 and 11-5. Mobeen Khan beat AzadKamran by 3-1, the score was 4-11, 11-6. 11-7and 11-7, Yasin defeated Malik Husafa by 3-0, the score was 11-6, 11-3 and 11-9, Rohaid

31 matches decided in KPSquash Summer Camp

NOTTINGHAM—India’s bowlers knewhow to bowl on this Trent Bridgepitch, Bhuvneshwar Kumar had saidat the end of day two. It was similar toan Indian pitch, and the bowlers wouldneed to bowl stump-to-stump and staypatient.

They stuck to this plan for most ofthe first session, without any reward,as Sam Robson and Gary Ballancebatted with a fair degree of assuranceto put on a century partnership for thesecond wicket. Everything changedafter lunch, though, with England los-ing six wickets to go to tea on a wob-bly 205 for 7.

India’s straighter line had been inevidence right through England’s in-nings. Where India’s batsmen haddefended 288 balls from England’sseamers and left 257 balls alone,England’s batsmen, by tea, had de-fended 141 balls and only left 72 alone.But it took until the 33rd over of theday, and the second over of the post-lunch session, for India to taste anysuccess.

It came from Ishant Sharma, whogot the ball to duck back in from agood length to make Robson pay forstaying stuck in his crease. The ballhit his front pad before cannoningonto his back pad, and both of thesehappened in front of middle-and-off.Umpire Bruce Oxenford had little hesi-tation in giving Robson out, even ifHotspot picked up what might havebeen a faint inside edge.

The umpires changed the ball twoovers later, after it looked to have goneout of shape, and the replacement,much to India’s delight, showed itselffar more responsive to the clouds thathad gathered overhead. In his firstover with this ball, Ishant got it to curllate into the left-handed Ballance andping him on the front pad right in front- this time, there was absolutely nodoubt about the decision. Only twoIndian batsmen had been dismissed

PSB to reopenoutdoor swimming

pool soonISLAMABAD—The outdoorswimming pool of PakistanSports Board (PSB) atSports Complex Islamabadwill be reopened soon afterremoving some technicalfaults.

The pool remainedclosed due to renovationand maintenance work.However the filling of theswimming pool is being car-ried out now on regular us-ers and the facility will avail-able for use soon, an offi-cial of Pakistan SportsBoard (PSB) told APP.

“Our engineers willcheck the swimming pool inorder to remove some of itstechnical flaws and then thepool will be opened foruse,” he said.

The PSB has two of thebest swimming pools of thecountry at Sports ComplexIslamabad the one is indoor;while the other is outdoor.These pools were devel-oped in 1984 with the coop-eration of China.

The indoor swimmingpool has around 700 hun-dred members of the public,including 200 women. Whilesome national events havebeen taking place at the in-door pool, the outer poolremained closed for the pastfew years.—APP

KA R A C H I—Pakistan’s junior interna-tional Saud Shakeel produced a sterlingal l - round display in AlamgirGymkhana’s exciting two wickets vic-tory over Faisalabad Wolves Star in thesecond Peace Cup Ramazan FloodlightCricket Tournament here at the LawaiStadium Naya Nazimabad on Thursdaynight .

Saud a member of Pakistan Under-19team which lost to Australia in ICC WorldCup Under-19 final, took two wicketswith his slow left arm spin and hammereda match winning 64 off 47 balls with fiveboundaries and brace of sixes.

Spinners duo of Junaid I lyas andShahzaib Ahmed shared six wickets be-tween them to spin out Faisalabad

Saud dazzles in Alamgir Gymkhana’sexciting win in Peace Cup cricket

Wolves Star for 120 in 19.1 overs. SohailRafiq smashed an attacking 32 in 19 ballswith five hits to the ropes and two overit.

Alamgir Gymkhana cruised to victorywith four balls to spare thanks to SaudShakeel’s brilliant batting. Off-spinnerMuhammad Maqbool brought his teamclose to victory with four wickets fornine runs. But his effort went in vain inthe end. Summarized scores:

Faisalabad Wolves Star 120 all out in19.1 overs (Sohail Sadiq 32, M.Imran 28,Shahid Jalal 20, Junaid I lyas 3-26,Shahzaib Ahmed 3-11, Saud Shakeel 2-15) Alamgir Gymkhana 121-8 in 19.2(Saud Shakeel 64 Najeebullah 24,M.Maqbool 4-9).—APP

KARACHI—Najam Sethi has onceagain been reinstated as the chairmanof the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB)after the Supreme Court (SC)declared null and void thenotification issued by thegovernment on Mondaywhich removed Sethi fromhis post.

The SC also set aside theappointment of Justice (R)Jamshed Ali Shah, who wasgiven the task to conductfresh elections to appoint anew chief of the PCB, as theacting chairman of the boardfor 30 days.

According to a state-ment issued by the court, thenew Constitution draftedunder Sethi was also illegalsince his appointment wasbeing challenged in court.

The court also declared the pro-cess to hold fresh elections as invalid.

Sethi was removed from his poston Thursday and was to serve as amember of the PCB’s Board of Gover-

Supreme Court reinstatesSethi as PCB chief

India seamers slice up middle order

SC sets aside PCB new constitution’s notification

nors until fresh elections to appoint anew chief were held. The removal fromhis office, thus made him eligible to

contest in the elec-tions.

A two-memberbench, compris-ing Justice AnwarZaheer Jamali andJustice MianSaqib Nisar, heardthe case regard-ing the restora-tion of ZakaAshraf as PCBhead and said thatthe government’sa notification wasakin to challeng-ing the court’s au-thority.

Speaking tothe media after the court’s order, Sethisaid, “I’ve told the honourable courtthat I have no desire to hold onto thepost but would like to complete thetasks handed to me. The court heardmy side and has allowed me to con-

tinue in my role until the matter in fi-nally settled.”

The Supreme Court Friday sus-pended the notification relating toPakistan Cricket Board (PCB) newconstitution issued by the primeminister and ordered status quo inthe Board with Najam Sethi as chair-man.

SC two-member bench comprisingof Justice Saqib Nisar and JusticeAnwar Zaheer Jamali was hearing theappointment of PCB chairman casehere.

During the hearing, Justice SaqibNisar enquired when the court had is-sued stay order on the matter, howthe government after making the con-stitution issue notification relating tothe same matter?

Attorney General Salman Butt saidthat the court had reinstated NajamSethi by issuing stay order on May21, 2014 and the court again orderedon May 27 for maintaining staus quo.

Justice Saqib Nisar enquired didyou take permission from the court forthe issuance of notification?—APP

beat Hamza by 3-0, the score was 11-3, 11-8and 11-7.

In the Under-13 category Hamid beat Zainby 3-0, the score was 11-5, 11-8 and 11-4,Movia Hussain beat Zargham Khan by 3-1,the score was 3-11, 11-7, 11-5 and 11-9, HamidHassan beat Qaseem by 3-0, the score was11-7, 12-10 and 11-8.

In the Under-11 category Noor Zamanbeat Rahim Abbas by 3-0, the score was 11-8,11-9 and 11-6, Muhammad Shoaib Khan beatHamid Zafar by 3-1, the score was 12-10, 6-11,11-9, 11-6, Malik Muzalifa beat Hamza Hamidby 3-0, the score was 11-8, 11-3, 11-6, MalikHamza beat Dawood Khan by 3-0, the scorewas 11-6, 11-6 and 11-7, Muhammad AbbasNawaz beat Hamza Irfan by 3-0, the score was11-5, 11-6 and 11-5, Asad Ullah beat FalakSher by 3-1, the score was 5-11, 11-8, 11-6 and11-7, Ali Sher beat Zikria by 3-0, the scorewas 12-10, 11-7 and 11-9, Jawad Hussain beatAfaq Khan by 3-0, the score was 12-10, 11-6and 11-5, Fahid Sharif beat Hamid Adil by 3-0,the score was 11-9, 11-9 and 11-5, MuhammadHamid beat Walid Khalid by 3-1, the scorewas 12-10, 6-11, 11-8 and 11-8, Khurshal Riazbeat Ibrahim by 3-0, the score was 11-9, 11-4and 11-8.

In the round fourth Noor Zaman beatJawad Hussain by 3-0, Zikria beat Hamid Aliby 3-1, Muhammad Ammad beat Falak Sherby 3-1, Ibrahim beat Hamza Irfan by 3-0, MalikHamza beat Khushal Riaz by 3-0.—APP

SPAIN: Participants run in front of Jandilla´s bulls during the fifth bull-run of the San Fermin Festival in Pamplonaon Friday.

England v India, 1st Investec Test

India 1st innings: ...................... 457England 1st innings:Cook b Mohammed Shami ............. 5Robson lbw b Sharma .................. 59Balance lbw b Sharma .................. 71Bell c Dhoni b Sharma .................. 25Root not out .................................. 35Ali c Dhawan b Mohammed Shami14Prior c Dhoni b Kumar .................... 5Stokes c Dhoni b Kumar ................ 0Broad not out ................................ 29Extras: (lb 3, w 1, nb 9) .................. 13Total: (7 wickets) ......................... 256Fall of wickets: 1-9, 2-134, 3-154, 4-172, 5-197, 6-202, 7-202Bowling: ........................... O-M-R-WKumar ................................. 18-7-35-2Shami .................................. 19-3-79-2I Sharma ........................... 22.4-3-91-3RA Jadeja ........................... 17-4-27-0Binny .................................... 5-0-21-0

SCOREBOARD

bowled or lbw. All of England’s topthree had been dismissed with no helpfrom fielders.

Ian Bell looked in fluent touch rightfrom the time he pulled his first ball tothe square-leg boundary. Having ca-ressed his way to 25, he fell victim toindecision, bottom-edging Ishant tothe keeper while trying to withdrawhis bat from a short, rising ball out-side off.

The indifferent bounce consumedMoeen Ali ten overs later, when hetook his eyes of a Mohammed Shamibouncer that didn’t quite rise as ex-pected, and ended up gloving the ballto slip. Bhuvneshwar came to the partywith ten minutes to go for tea, swing-ing the ball away from the right-handed Matt Prior and then the left-handed Ben Stokes to have bothcaught behind. Prior had reason to feelaggrieved by his dismissal, with re-plays showing a fair sliver of daylightbetween ball and outside edge.

Before this rush of wickets,Robson and Ballance had lookedlargely untroubled, and had seemedby lunch to have won the contest ofpatience. Ballance took guard outsidethe crease, helping him get closer tothe pitch of the ball when the bowlersdrew him forward. Robson got on topof the ball when he defended off thefront foot, and even Bhuvneshwar’sinswing, by and large, didn’t cause hishead to fall over.

The majority of the session passedwithout incident. As he had done yes-terday evening, Ishant produced anedge from Ballance, but the balldropped well short of third slip, andbeat the left-hander’s bat on a coupleof occasions early in his spell.

Robson was almost entirely un-troubled by the fast bowlers, and onlyproduced a chance when RavindraJadeja came on, inside-edging as hetried to work the ball around the cor-ner. Virat Kohli dived to his left from

leg slip and got his fingers under theball but couldn’t hold on. Robson wason 43 at that point.

Robson, courtesy those leg-sidefours off Shami, outscored Ballancetill late in the session, when thebowlers lost their discipline and sentdown a series of four-balls. There hadbeen no fours for 12 overs beforeBallance took three off one Ishantover, two clipped off his legs and oneslapped past backward point.

Stuart Binny, who replaced Ishantfrom that end, released a little more ofthe pressure, leaking four boundariesin his first three overs, and both bats-men reached their 50s with steeredfours down to third man off him. Binnydidn’t bowl at all in the second ses-sion, and with Jadeja threatening toplay a bigger role in England’s sec-ond innings, India may come to won-der if they should have gone with theextra spinner.—AFP

RAWALPINDI: PPP leader Raja Imran Ashraf inaugurating Shaheed Benazir FloodLight Tournament at Dhoke Charaghdin.

SBP Governorcup cricket

tournament beginsMULTAN—The 2nd StateBank of Pakistan Governorcup floodlit tap ball crickettournament 2014 began atthe sports ground, LMQroad.

General Manager MCBSultan Zeb was the chiefguest at the ceremony.Four matches were playedon the first day of the tour-nament.

Allied Bank Limited de-feated NBP by 40 runs, Sum-mit Bank beat State Bank by45 runs, HBL defeated BankAlfalah by 12 runs and FirstMicro Finance Bank de-feated KASB Bank by 47runs.—APP

Pakistan to feature in HockeyChampions Trophy

KARACHI—Pakistan is among the 8-na-tion competing in 35th edition of Men’sHockey Champions Trophy being stagedin India city of Bhubaneswar from De-cember 13 to 21, according to Interna-tional Hockey Federation (FIH).

As per news gathered on Friday, fromthis year the tournament will begin to beheld biannually due to the introductionof the Hockey World League, returningto its original format changed after theinaugural tournament in 1978.

Pakistan had honour of launching andpioneering Champions Trophy with in-augural edition held at Hockey Club ofPakistan Stadium here in 1978. Pakistanalso won the title.

Alongside the host nation, the topfive finishers from the tournament’s pre-vious edition and the winner of the 2012Champions Challenge-I qualify automati-

cally.The remaining spots were nominated

by the FIH Executive Board, making atotal of eight competing teams. If one ofthe teams refuses to play, that place willbe award to next best finisher in the pre-vious tournament, the same applies tothe teams nominated by the ExecutiveBoard.

Teams taking part in the event includeddefending champion Australia, runners-up the Netherlands, Pakistan (3rd in 2012)

Belgium, Argentina (winners of 2012Champions Challenge-I), England (Nomi-nated by FIH Executive Board), Germany(Nominated by FIH Executive Board).

Pakistan is also likely to take part inOlympic Test Hockey Tournament whichwill be held in Rio de Janeiro (Brazil) fromNovember 19 to 26, 2015. FIH will nomi-nate the teams for the event.—APP

PBCC asksPCB to approve

their budgetI S L A M A B A D — P a k i s t a nBlind Cricket Council(PBCC) Chairman Syed Sul-tan Shah has asked the Pa-kistan Cricket Board (PCB)Chairman to approve theircurrent fiscal year budget ofRs 19.9 million as last yearthe 35% deduction in bud-get has made it difficult forthem to manage activities.

The National BlindCricket team will be participat-ing in the Blind Cricket WorldCup to be held in South Af-rica in November this year anda special grant of Rupees 6.2million has also been in-cluded in the budget for theteam’s participation. Cur-rently the blind cricketer keptin A category gets a total ofRs 12,000 monthly accordingto the central contract whichaccording to their need isvery less.

Talking to APP, SultanShah said currently Pakistanis defending World Cham-pion and have prepared wellfor the upcoming event. “In-dia and South Africa can givea tough time to Pakistan in themega event,” he said.

However the PBCC hasshortlisted 30 players for theforthcoming extravaganzastarting from November 25 toDecember 9.

The players includeIdrees Saleem, MuhammadHaroon, Muhammad Waqas,Muhammad Salman,Muhammad Zafar, Israr ulHassan, Sajid Nawaz, TariqSamuel, Muhammad Ayaz,Muhammad Afzal.—APP

BUENOS AIRES—Thousands of Argentine fans are ex-pected to attend Sunday’s World Cup final but PresidentCristina Kirchner will not be among them as she is sickwith throat trouble.

Kirchner disclosed thenews Thursday in a letter toBrazilian President DilmaRousseff.

The letter said Kirchnerwill meet Saturday with vis-iting Russian PresidentVladimir Putin and attend asummit of emerging powersnext week in Brasilia.

But she will miss the fi-nal Sunday in Rio of theworld’s premiere sportingtournament, to which shehad been invited byRousseff.

Kirchner said in the let-ter that for a week she hadbeen fighting pharyngolaryngitis—inflammation of thepharynx and larynx.

Kirchner also said that on Monday she has to travel tosouthern Argentina to be with her grandson Nestor Ivanon his first birthday.

“As a grandmother, you can imagine how eager I am toshare this event with my family,” Kirchner said to Rousseffin the letter.

Kirchner has not appeared in public all week.The leaders of both finalists, Argentina and Germany,

and hosts Brazil are female.Germany’s Angela Merkel has said she will attend the

match.—AFP

Barcelona agreeto sign Suarezfrom Liverpool

BARCELONA—Barcelona an-nounced Friday they hadstruck a deal to sign Uru-guayan striker Luis Suarezfrom Liverpool, sealing thetransfer despite the uproarover him biting a World Cuprival.

Suarez “will be travellingto Barcelona next week for amedical, to sign his five-yearcontract and to be officiallypresented to the media andfans as an FC Barcelonaplayer,” the club said in astatement.

“Liverpool FC confirmsthat Luis Suarez will be leav-ing the club after a transferagreement was reached withFC Barcelona,” a statementread.

“The player now has per-mission to complete the usualformalities, which will thenconclude the transfer.

“We would like to thankLuis for his contribution andthe role he played in helpingbring Champions Leaguefootball back to Anfield.

“Everyone at LiverpoolFootball Club wishes Luisand his family well for the fu-ture.”

No details of the fee norhow it is to be paid were dis-closed and Suarez, currentlyserving a four-month ban forbiting Italy’s Giorgio Chielliniat the World Cup, is set to beconfirmed as a Barcelonaplayer next week.—AFP

SANTO ANDRE (Brazil)—The WorldCup’s top-scorer Miroslav Klose hasthreatened to abandon his strict fitnessregime to become a ‘party animal’ if Ger-many win Sunday’s final against Argen-tina.

The 36-year-old is the sole survivorfrom Die Mannschaft’slast World Cup final in2002 and is eager to tastevictory at Rio de Janeiro’sMaracana Stadium in hisfourth World Cup finals.

He scored a record16th World Cup goal, his71st for Germany, inTuesday’s 7-1 semi-finalrout of Brazil.

The Poland-bornstriker is poised to win his137th cap in Rio and saysall his focus is on Argen-tina—but the World Cuptitle may stir his innerparty animal.

“I can’t really guaran-tee anything, but if we dowin the trophy, I can imagine that I willrelax and there is a party beast, even inme,” he quipped Thursday.

But 12 years after losing the 2002 fi-nal, the last thing the veteran wants is toadd Rio heartache to the bitter defeat inYokohama. “We enjoyed the win againstBrazil, but we ticked it off after 24 hours,”said Klose.

“In the next game, we have to againplay to the best of our abilities.

Klose to party if Germanywin World Cup

“It feels really awful to lose a final, soit’s our time to win this one.”

A diligent trainer, Klose puts his ca-reer longevity down to his daily fitnessregime, and has a gym in his home.

Having made his debut in 2001, heequalled, then broke Ronaldo’s record of

15 World Cup goals dur-ing Brazil 2014. But Klosesaid it will all count fornothing if Germany lose toArgentina.

“It’s a hugely emo-tional thing for me, butpeople who know me,know that my focus is al-ready on Argentina—100percent,” he said.

“Yes, I have overtakenRonaldo as the best goal-scorer, but that is some-thing to take on board an-other day.

“If we lose the final,my joy as the top-scorerwill be significantly damp-ened.”

Despite having witnessed Brazil’sRonaldo score both goals in their 2-0 vic-tory, Klose said he will not use the 2002defeat as motivation.

He says the current squad are unifiedin their desire to become world champi-ons.

“That was 12 years ago and I was re-ally young, then as now, I just try to soakeverything up, but you can’t compare thetwo matches,” said Klose.—AFP

FIFA finesArgentina

for breachingWorld Cup

rulesRIO DE JANEIRO—FIFAhas f ined the ArgentineFootball Associat ion300,000 Swiss francs($340,000) for failing tobring players to pre-matchnews conferences at theWorld Cup.

The FIFA Disc ip l in -a ry Commit tee sa idThursday that Argentina,which plays in the WorldCup f ina l aga ins t Ger -many on Sunday, hadbreached thecompetit ion’s media andmarketing regulations.

The rules require teamsto bring at least one playeralong with the coach to of-ficial news conferences heldone day in advance of eachmatch.

Only coach AlejandroSabella has appeared forArgentina at the last foursuch news conferences.

FIFA said the purposeof the regulations is to “al-low media, and ultimatelyfans, to have an opportu-nity to follow a team’spreparations, while also al-lowing each team to havethe best possible environ-ment for those prepara-tions.”—AP

Argentine presidentto miss WC final

due to illness

Ticket fraud accused on therun in Brazil

RIO DE JANEIRO—An executive from theWorld Cup´s hospitality services firm es-caped out the back door of his plush Rio deJaneiro hotel Thursday to avoid arrest oncharges of illegally selling tickets, authori-ties said.

Police launched a manhunt for RaymondWhelan, a British director of FIFA partnercompany Match Services, accusing him of

fleeing the beachfront Copacabana PalaceHotel after a judge ordered him and 10 othersuspects to be held in detention. “The En-glishman fled through the hotel´s back doorand is considered a fugitive,” Rio police said

in a statement, just three days beforeSunday´s Germany-Argentina final at theMaracana Stadium. “We saw him in (secu-rity) footage leaving in a hurry,” FabioBarucke, the case´s lead investigator, toldreporters, adding that Whelan had fled anhour before police arrived.

Brazilian TV showed footage of Whelan,wearing a blue shirt, walking with anotherman who points to him to sit on a chair nearthe service exit before he left the hotel,which is heavily guarded and houses topFIFA officials.

Whelan is accused of being involvedwith a scalping network that has sold thou-sands of tickets worth millions of dollars,going back to the 2002 World Cup.

Whelan, who denies the charges, wasinitially arrested at the same hotel on Mon-day but was granted preventive release thenext day. His passport was seized by the au-thorities, but police fear he may have acquiredanother one from the British consulate.

Police filed charges against him and 11others on Wednesday and submitted thecase to prosecutors, who requested an ar-rest warrant against all except one who wascooperating with investigators.

Prosecutors said the 12 suspects facecharges of organized crime, illegal ticketsales, corruption, money laundering and taxfraud. Ten of them are in jail, except forWhelan and the suspect who iscooperating.Brazilian media have publishedleaked phone calls between Whelan and oneof the chief suspects in the case, French-Algerian Mohamadou Lamine Fofana, dis-cussing hospitality packages for games in-cluding Sunday´s final. But Match Serviceshas defended Whelan, saying he was inno-cent and that there was nothing illegal aboutthe conversations.—AFP

BRASILIA—After Brazil’s utter humiliationagainst Germany, anything less than a win

in Saturday’s third-place match against anindifferent Netherlands team would deepenthe gloom hanging over the World Cup

hosts.Brazil’s astounding 7-1 semi-final thrash-

ing by rampant Germany ended their dreamof winning a sixth World Cup, and a first onhome soil, and plunged the nation into de-

Brazil face must-win game the Dutch don’t even want

Brazil captain ThiagoNetherland captain Robin

spair.There is still the prospect, an appalling

one for many Brazilians, that arch-rivals Ar-gentina could win Sunday’s final in Rio deJaneiro.

Although third spot would be scant con-solation for many, the match at the nationalstadium is one Brazil, and under-fire coachLuiz Felipe Scolari, must take very seriously.

By contrast, Scolari’s Dutch counterpartLouis van Gaal, whose side exceeded manypeople’s expectations by reaching the lastfour, has said the third-place game is point-

less and that too will ramp upthe pressure on the hosts.

Savaged in local mediaafter the Germany match,Scolari labeled the semi-finaldisaster the worst day of hislife and he and his staff arewidely expected to step asideafter the tournament whetherthey beat the Dutch or not.

“We have a deal ... untilthe game on Saturday andafter that, probably, we willhave a conversation to sortsome things out,” Scolarisaid.

“I will continue with mylife, the players will also con-tinue to be winners and wemust continue,” he added.

“History will have torecord that Brazil, for the first

time since 2002, reached the semi-finals.”POINTLESS MATCH

Van Gaal also came in for criticism afterhis side, who began the tournament bythrashing holders Spain 5-1, failed to score

in either their quarter-final against CostaRica or Wednesday’s semi against Argen-tina.

They beat the Costa Ricans on penal-ties but lost their shootout to Argentinawhen goalkeeper Sergio Romero stoppedtwo Dutch spot-kicks.

V a nGaal, whowill takecharge ofManchesterUnited afterthe WorldCup, told anews confer-ence theth i rd-p laceg a m e“ s h o u l dnever beplayed” andnoted he hadbeen sayingthe samething for 10

years.“But the worst thing is I believe that

chances are that you lose twice in a row,” hesaid.

“And a tournament in which you’veplayed so marvelously well, you would gohome as a loser just because you could pos-sibly have lost the last two matches and thishas got nothing to do with sport in my view.

“So, in a football tournament particularlynot at the last stage you shouldn’t have play-ers playing match for third-fourth place. Be-cause there is only one award that countsand that is becoming world champion.”

The Netherlands have never wonsoccer’s global showpiece despite reachingthe final three times. They lost in 1974 and1978 to West Germany and Argentina respec-tively and were beaten 1-0 by Spain in SouthAfrica four years ago.

Brazil and the Netherlands have played11 times and four times at the World Cup,including the quarter-final in 2010 when theDutch came from behind to win 2-1.

Meanwhile, Brazil football great Zicosays coach Luiz Felipe Scolari must be re-placed if his country is to move past its dis-appointing World Cup performance.

“We should thank him (Scolari) andthank (assistant coach Carlos Alberto)Parriera too. But we need to choose newpeople with new thoughts about how to playthe Brazilian way,” the three-time World Cupveteran said Thursday, just two days afterBrazil’s humiliating 7-1 semifinal loss to Ger-many.

Zico said Sao Paulo coach MuricyRamalho would be an ideal candidate to leadBrazil.

“He is one the greatest champions ofthe Brazilian league, which is one of the hard-est in the world to win,” Zico said.

Ramalho was reportedly offered the na-tional job in 2010, but amid some confusionwith his then club Fluminense, he turnedthe position down. He is known as a pro-gressive coach, defined by tacticalflexibility.“We had no alternatives,” Zico saidof Brazil’s tactical approach to this WorldCup. “They stayed focused entirely on thesuccess of the 2013 Confederations Cup.They kept the same formation and the sameteam. Everyone had a year to work out ex-actly how to play against Brazil.”—AP

BRASILIA: Brazil’s forward Neymar is greeted by players and Brazil’s coach Luiz Felipe Scolari as he arrives a training session in Teresopolison Friday.

Neymar backs ‘friend’ MessiTERESUPOLIS (Brazil)—Brazilian super-star Neymar said Thursday he wantsteam-mate Lionel Messi to lead Argen-tina to victory in the World Cup finalagainst Germany.

At an emotional press conference,Neymar broke down in tears as he relivedthe challenge which broke a vertebrae inhis back and left him fearing he would beparalysed.

With Brazil’s dream of winning a sixthWorld Cup decimated by their 7-1 ham-mering by Germany, Neymar said he wantsBarcelona team-mate Messi to claim thetrophy on Sunday against the Germans.

“Messi’s history in the sport is so im-portant, he has won a lot of trophies andI will be cheering for him,” Neymar told apress conference.

“He is a friend, he is my team-mateand I wish him luck.”

Neymar was ruled out of the WorldCup in a rugged challenge by Colombiadefender Juan Camilo Zuniga in Brazil’s2-1 quarter-final win.

The 22-year-old wiped away tears ashe described his fears immediately afterthe knee in the back that he would beparalysed.

“I was blessed in that situation be-cause it wasn’t more serious. Two morecentimetres up and, well, I could be in awheelchair. So it is really difficult.

“It happened at such an importantpoint in my career,” he said.

“It was something I cannot accept.That challenge and what happened wasunacceptable,” he added.

“I would not say there was malice be-cause I can’t speak for him, but everyonewho understands football knows thatchallenge was not normal.

“When someone comes from behind I

British director of FIFA partner companyMatch Services

can’t do anything about it. I did not haveany control and I ended up being hurt.”

FIFA decided not to take actionagainst Zuniga for the challenge that willkeep Neymar out of action for up to sixweeks.

Neymar, though, insisted he held no

bad feelings towards Zuniga after theNapoli defender called to apologise tohim.

“Of course I would forgive him. I donot feel any anger, he even called me thenext day to apologise. He said he didn’tmean to hurt me and apologise.”

Neymar returned to Brazil’s trainingcamp in Teresopolis for the first time sincethe incident on Thursday in a bid to lifthis teammates’ spirits after their humilia-tion at the hands of Germany.—AFP

COMBINING two types of polio vaccine,including one that is injected rather thangiven orally, appears to give better im-

munity and could speed efforts to eradicate thecrippling disease, scientists said on Friday. Brit-ish and Indian researcherssaid the inactivated poliovaccine (IPV), which isgiven by injection, could pro-vide better and longer lastingprotection if given alongsidethe more commonly used liveoral polio vaccine (OPV).

Serious polio outbreaks inAsia, Africa and Europe overthe last 10 years have ham-pered efforts to wipe out thedisease, caused by a virus thatreplicates in the gut and canbe passed on through contactwith infected faeces. Polioinvades the nervous systemand can cause irreversible pa-ralysis within hours - andWorld Health Organization’srepeated warning is that aslong as any child remains infected with polio,children everywhere are at risk.

Most vaccination campaigns - includingemergency ones that were started last year cov-ering 20 million children in Syria and neighbor-ing countries - use multiple doses of OPV toboost immunity among those at risk. “BecauseIPV is injected into the arm, rather than takenorally, it’s been assumed it doesn’t provide muchprotection in the gut and so would be less effec-tive at preventing faecal transmission than OPV,”said Jacob John, an associate professor at theIndia’s Christian Medical College, who led thestudy. But his team’s research, which covered450 children from a densely populated urban

area in Vellore, India, found that where theyalready had a level of immunity due to OPV,the injected vaccine actually boosted their gutimmunity. “It looks as if the strongest immu-nity can been achieved through a combina-

tion of the two,” he said. Poliore-emerged in Syria in 2013 forthe first time in 14 years, fan-ning fears of a wider interna-tional spread and prompting avast regional emergency vacci-nation campaign. Children inunsanitary conditions are par-ticularly vulnerable to infectionwith the polio virus, which canspread through contaminatedfood and water. Although trans-mission of indigenous polio hasbeen declining substantially inendemic areas since 2012, around10 countries are currently consid-ered to have active polio trans-mission. Polio is still endemic inthree of these - Afghanistan, Pa-kistan and Nigeria - and the re-mainder are countries were once

polio-free but have been re-infected.Their stools were tested after a week to

see if the polio virus was present, specificallythe two remaining types which have not yetbeen eradicated - serotype 1 and serotype 3.In the children who had received IPV, 38 per-cent fewer had serotype 1 in their stool and70 percent fewer had serotype 3, comparedto those who had not been given IPV, accord-ing to the study results published in The Lan-cet medical journal. “An additional dose ofthe injected vaccine is more effective at boost-ing immunity against infection than the oralvaccine alone,” says Nick Grassly, a profes-sor of vaccine epidemiology at Imperial.

Combining vaccines mayhelp eradicate polio

People chanting slogans during a protest rally against Israeli aggression in Gaza.

A man distributing Iftari among travellers at Cantonment Railway Station.

AMANULLAH KHAN

KARACHI—As many as 4672 people lost their livesin road accidents last year in the country and around9864 people got injured in total 8885 road accidentsreported.

The report also highlighted the main reasons be-hind road accidents were overloading, poor road con-struction, ignorance of traffic rules, rash driving, un-trained driver, one wheeling, use of cellphones and/or drugs during driving, traffic violations like sig-nal crossing, wrong parking and wrong overtaking,etc besides the brake failures and damaged / expiredtyres. While suggesting the initiatives to cope withthe situation, experts emphasized that major causesof accidents should not be ignored which are en-

dangering millions of lives in the country. Expertssaid, “We need to act everyday to reduce loss of lifeat this rate. We need to have a solid and foolproofimplementation of road safety plans which involveseducating youth and teenagers about the importanceof life as they are usually the ones putting not onlytheirs but others’ lives at risk by over speeding ordoing one wheeling either just for fun, showoff orto meet deadlines.”

They mentioned that it is very easy in Pakistan todrive a commercial vehicle either a bus or a heavilyloaded truck leave alone a car without having a driv-ing license while many with the driving licenses hadit made illegally without even bothering to pass thepre-requisite examination. The concerned authoritiesshould take notice of such practices and bring the

system back to the right track to ensure the road safetyas many of these drivers don’t even have ability toread the traffic signs properly.

Additionally, there is no criteria to judge the physi-cal fitness of a commercial vehicle or a car in Paki-stan which is proliferating the rate of fatal accidentsin the country along with it claiming more and morelives every year, they said. Fitness tests means moneyfor the Inspectors or else how come over 30 year oldbuses and trucks would be allowed to ply on our roads.No bus, truck or any other commercial vehicle pro-duced before 1985 should be allowed to operate.

Many drivers don’t care about the condition oftheir vehicle’s tyres and often keep on using themfor a longer periods and these tyres loose the roadgrip eventually causing accidents.

Road accidents claim 4672lives, injuries to over 10,000

STAFF REPORTER

KARACHI—Sindh Chief Minister(CM) Syed Qaim Ali Shah had di-rected the management of food depart-ment to discuss deliberate and evolvea strategy to provide wheat and flourto the targeted poor segment of thesociety on cheaper and affordable rates.Till the plan was implemented, ben-efits of the subsidy of Rs 3 billion pro-

vided on wheat should be trickleddown up to grass root level.

This he directed while presidingover a meeting about provision ofsubsided wheat and flour to the poor-est of poor, held at CM House KarachiFriday.

Sindh Minister for Food JamMehtab Dahar, Advisor to CM for Fi-nance Syed Murad Ali Shah, Secre-tary Finance Sohail Rajput, Secretary

to CM Allamuddin Bullo, SecretaryFood, Additional Secretary Agricul-ture, Director Food and other officersattended.

The CM said that Sindh had short-age of wheat amounting to 858 metrictons in hand at present. Sindh govern-ment had spent Rs 3 billion for thesubsidy on wheat to maintain the sta-bility in the prices of wheat and flourat reasonable rate within the reach of

common man. He said It was becauseof the mechanism evolved by the Sindhgovernment that prices of wheat andflour were more lower than the pricesin Punjab.

He directed the officers concernedto discuss and deliberate and evolvestrategy, enabling the Sindh govern-ment to provide wheat and flour to thepoorest of poor’s on more concessionalprices as compared to present.

Rs 3b subsidy on flour should trickledown to grass-roots level: Qaim

IRFAN ALIGI

KARACHI—Short term kidnapping for ran-som incidents and extortion had drastically es-calated in Karachi and the situation hadreached a level of utter helplessness for theorganisers of traders’ associations that theygather a hefty sum of money for the extor-tionists for their safety and thus the extortionistgangs enjoy the safe receipts of money theydemanded in extortion from the traders.

The extortionists and the traders’ associa-tion had now reached an agreement that a suf-ficient sum of money would be given to theextortionist gangs every month and that theextortionist gangs would neither kidnap norwould kill the trader for money. Accoridng to

details, incidents of extortion recorded inJanuary were 75, which escalated to 82 in Feb-ruary, 93 in March, 84 in April, 78 in May, 61in June and around 13 in July, 2014.

The worst affected market in this regardwas the Old City Area, Kharadar andMithadar, Boulton Market, Jodia Bazaarwhere more than 100 smaller or medium scaleretail and wholesale markets were situated.

Traders’ associations in the Old CityArea deliver Rs 100, 000 to the extortionisteach month failing which the extortionistskidnap traders for ransom under short termkidnapping strategy, attack the businessoutlets of those that refuse to pay the moneyin extortion while using assault weaponsand grenades.

New trend of extortion

Traders pay hefty moneyto keep away extortionists

Water withoutchlorine

raises threatsfor NigleriaSTAFF REPORTER

KARACHI—Karachi Water andSewerage Board (KW&SB) hadbeen supplying potable water tothe inhabitants of Karachi with-out treating it with the Chlorinedue to which the people inKarachi had been exposed toserious threats of being affectedby the deadly Nigleria virus.

Sindh Health Departmenthad obtained 1050 water samplesand the reports revealed that 414samples of water did not containChlorine. Water samples ob-tained from different areas ofKarachi did not contain Chlorineof which 38 water samples fromBaldia, 30 from Orangi, 43 fromSITE, 30 from Lyari, 21 fromShah Faisal Colony, 29 samplesfrom Landhi, 33 from Gulberg,18 from Bin Qasim, 17 fromSaddar, 19 from Jamshed, 10from Gulshan-e Iqbal, 21 fromKorangi, 32 from Liaquatabad,23 from North Nazimabad, 21from Malir and 19 from Gadap.

The Nigleria virus had sofar claimed 5 lives, 4 fromKarachi and one fromHyderabad. The absence ofchlorine-treated potable water tothe inhabitants of Karachi hadexposed them to serious threatsof getting affected from thedeadly Nigleria virus.

STAFF REPORTER

KARACHI—Police atrocitieson the civilians had been sky-rocketing in Karachi while thehigher authorities seldom tookimmediate action against Policepersonnel despite complaintsand protest.

A couple of incidents ofPolice atrocities were observedat Haideri Police station wherea student was arrested for mint-ing money and a lady was keptin the police station on themercy of cops, which had irkedthe people of North Karachi anda social and human rightsorganisation, Pasban Pakistan.Pasban Pakistan vice president

Abdul Hakeem Quaid had con-demned Police atrocities on ci-vilians and means of mintingmoney from people in Karachi.

While sharing details of avictim to the hands of HaideriPolice station’s SHO NadeemTanoli and a cop Kamal Ansari,he said that the said SHO had

raided the house of Saif Ul Is-lam Bukhari in sector 11-A inNorth Karachi in plain clothesand took his son Masab BinSaif, a student of intermediate.They had covered his eyes witha black strip. Quaid said thatSaif told him that the SHONadeem Tanoli had phoned his

85 year old mother and de-manded Rs 50,000 as bribe forrelease of Masab and told hismother that failing to pay themoney, the student would bekilled in a Police encounter forwhich permission had alreadybeen obtained from the Inspec-tor General of Police, Sindh.

People protest against Police atrocities

COMBINING two types of polio vaccine,including one that is injected rather thangiven orally, appears to give better im-

munity and could speed efforts to eradicate thecrippling disease, scientists said on Friday. Brit-ish and Indian researcherssaid the inactivated poliovaccine (IPV), which isgiven by injection, could pro-vide better and longer lastingprotection if given alongsidethe more commonly used liveoral polio vaccine (OPV).

Serious polio outbreaks inAsia, Africa and Europe overthe last 10 years have ham-pered efforts to wipe out thedisease, caused by a virus thatreplicates in the gut and canbe passed on through contactwith infected faeces. Polioinvades the nervous systemand can cause irreversible pa-ralysis within hours - andWorld Health Organization’srepeated warning is that aslong as any child remains infected with polio,children everywhere are at risk.

Most vaccination campaigns - includingemergency ones that were started last year cov-ering 20 million children in Syria and neighbor-ing countries - use multiple doses of OPV toboost immunity among those at risk. “BecauseIPV is injected into the arm, rather than takenorally, it’s been assumed it doesn’t provide muchprotection in the gut and so would be less effec-tive at preventing faecal transmission than OPV,”said Jacob John, an associate professor at theIndia’s Christian Medical College, who led thestudy. But his team’s research, which covered450 children from a densely populated urban

area in Vellore, India, found that where theyalready had a level of immunity due to OPV,the injected vaccine actually boosted their gutimmunity. “It looks as if the strongest immu-nity can been achieved through a combina-

tion of the two,” he said. Poliore-emerged in Syria in 2013 forthe first time in 14 years, fan-ning fears of a wider interna-tional spread and prompting avast regional emergency vacci-nation campaign. Children inunsanitary conditions are par-ticularly vulnerable to infectionwith the polio virus, which canspread through contaminatedfood and water. Although trans-mission of indigenous polio hasbeen declining substantially inendemic areas since 2012, around10 countries are currently consid-ered to have active polio trans-mission. Polio is still endemic inthree of these - Afghanistan, Pa-kistan and Nigeria - and the re-mainder are countries were once

polio-free but have been re-infected.Their stools were tested after a week to

see if the polio virus was present, specificallythe two remaining types which have not yetbeen eradicated - serotype 1 and serotype 3.In the children who had received IPV, 38 per-cent fewer had serotype 1 in their stool and70 percent fewer had serotype 3, comparedto those who had not been given IPV, accord-ing to the study results published in The Lan-cet medical journal. “An additional dose ofthe injected vaccine is more effective at boost-ing immunity against infection than the oralvaccine alone,” says Nick Grassly, a profes-sor of vaccine epidemiology at Imperial.

Combining vaccines mayhelp eradicate polio

Volunteers distributing free food among the people to break their Fast at Al-Qadsia.

People offering Jumma prayers at Data Darbar Mosque.

STAFF REPORTER

LAHORE—On the appeal given by theMilli Yakjehti Council (MYC), PalestineSolidarity Day was observed across thecountry on Friday to express the nation’sconcern over the killings of the innocentPalestinians in Israel bombings.

The Ulema and Khatibs in their Fri-day sermons condemned the Israelibombings besides the indifference of theMuslim rulers over the Israel’s attacksin Gaza resulting in large scale killingsof Palestinian men, women and children.They underlined the need for the unityof the Ummah to enable the Muslimworld face the enemy designs. S e c r e -

Shahbaz acknowledgesUK support to Pakistan

SALIM AHMED

LAHORE—A delegation led by actingDeputy Head of Mission of British HighCommission Ms. Susan Hyland met PunjabChief Minister Muhammad Shahbaz Sharif.Relations between Pakistan and Britain andcooperation in different sectors were dis-cussed in the meeting.

The Chief Minister said that there aredeep-rooted friendly and trade relations be-tween Pakistan and Britain. He said thatBritain is a major trading partner of Paki-stan and its cooperation in health, educa-tion and other sectors of social developmentis commendable. He said that thousands ofyouth have been made skillful under Skills

Development Programme with the collabo-ration of British Department for Interna-tional Development (DFID).

He said that the scope of Skills Devel-opment Programme is being extended to thewhole province. He said that a massiveprogramme is also being started with thecooperation of DFID for uplift of health sec-tor.

He said that Schools ReformsProgramme, with the cooperation of DFID,has also yielded positive results. ProvincialMinisters Rana Mashhood Ahmed Khan,Col (Retd.) Shuja Khanzada, ChairmanPlanning & Development, Chairman PunjabInvestment Board and Secretary Industrieswere also present on the occasion.

tary General, Jamaat e Islami, LiaqatBaloch, has said that the US, the UnitedNations and the Muslim rulers were re-sponsible for the delay in the solution ofthe Palestine issue. In his address at theFriday congregation at Jamia MasjidRahimya, Gulberg, the JI central leadersaid that the Zionist state was a US baby, and was shedding the blood of the Pal-estinians but there was no check on her.He said, the Muslims were being victim-ized in Kashmir, Burma, Iraq, Syria andin some African states but the worldcommunity remained unmoved.

Liaqat Baloch said that the peopleof Pakistan stood with their Palestinianbrothers in their hour of trial. Later, talk-

ing to the media, Liaqat Baloch, slatedthe one year performance of the PML(N)government which had added to the wor-ries of the common man instead of re-solving their problems in any way.

He lamented that the Nawaz Sharifgovernment was also following the poli-cies of Pervez Musharraf .He also saidthat the energy crisis had further deep-ened during the one ear period adding tothe miseries of the masses. In reply to aquestion, Liaqat Baloch said that PTIchairman Imran Khan had lawful rightto stage Long March. However, he saidthat it is the need of the hour that t politi-cal parties should unite for the progressof the country.

Palestine Solidarity Day observed

Minister visits Ramazan Bazaars

No compromise be madeon quality of food items

SALIM AHMED

LAHORE—Punjab Minister for Labour and Man-power Raja Ashfaq Sarwar paid surprise visit to theRamazan Bazaars for checking the quality, availabil-ity and prices of the essential items here on Friday.

He went to Ramazan Bazaar Samundri road,Samnabad and Model Bazar Jhang road and checkedthe quality of each and every item. Meanwhile, MPAsMian Tahir Jamil, Madiha Rana, PMLN leader MianGhulam Hussain Shahid, DCO Noor ul Amin Mengaland other officers also reached at the Ramzan Bazar.

The Minister Labour warned that no compro-mise would be made on the quality of the fruits, veg-etables and other food items. He asked the manage-

ment of the Ramazan Bazaars that immediate actionshould be taken against the stall holders involvedselling items after mixing the inferior quality intogood quality and such unscrupulous elements/stallholders should be removed from the Ramazan ba-zaars.

The minister said that special attention was fo-cusing on making the Ramazan bazaars more benefi-cial for the consumers as per directed by the ChiefMinister Punjab Muhammad Shahbaz Sharif. Add-ing he said that if we were claiming selling of qualityfood items on cheaper rates in the Ramazan bazaarsthen we would fulfil this commitment for the relief ofthe masses. He said that it was also our prime re-sponsibility to control the prices of essential com-

modities in the general market and the relevant lawwas being enforced effectively under which the PriceControl Magistrates had been made activated to checkthe prices and they were taking stern legal actionagainst the profiteers and hoarders. The labour min-ister appreciated the general arrangements in theRamazan bazaars and said that there was a room forthe further improvement. He also met with the peoplebusy in shopping and inquired about the benefits ofthe Ramazan bazaars and said that the Chief Minis-ter Punjab had given Ramazan package of Rs.5 bil-lion and the people’s were being provided with flour,sugar and other items on especially subsidized priceswhich was a proof of public friendly policies ofpresent government.

Controlling rapidly growing populationSTAFF REPORTER

LAHORE—The Provincial Min-ister for Excise & Taxation, Fi-nance Mujtaba Shujaur Rehmanhas said that in order to providecivic amenities to every citizenof country we have to control therapidly growing population,therefore, a comprehensiveawareness campaign will belaunched in the province.

He said that education andhealth is priority of the presentgovernment so that to providequality educational and health fa-cilities to every citizen, however,it could be achieved only whenout population remain within re-

sources. While talking to variousdelegations at his residence re-garding World Population Daywith the theme ‘Invest in youngpeople Friday, to ensure a brightfuture’, Mujtaba Shujaur Rehmansaid that increasing population af-fects our socio-economic condi-tions also as 40 million people areliving low poverty line, 58 mil-lion people have no access to safe& clean drinking water, 59 mil-lion people are living in one roomhouse unit, whereas, only 20 per-cent population have the facilityof trained birth attendant.

He maintained that increas-ing population is deeply decreas-ing our food stocks and nowabout 70.7 million people are

facing lack of food and starva-tion in the world, whereas, ev-ery 6th person in developingcountry is the victim of lack of

food. He said that governmenthas established 1500 family wel-fare centres, 110 mobile serviceunits, 118 family health clinics

and 1456 social mobilizers forthe guidance and service deliv-ery to the people regarding popu-lation welfare initiatives.

Two developmentschemes approved

STAFF REPORTER

LAHORE—The Punjab govern-ment on Friday has approved 2development schemes of differ-ent development Sectors with anestimated cost of Rs 3658.295million.These schemes wereapproved in the 2nd meeting ofProvincial Development Work-ing Party of current fiscal year2014-15 presided over by thePunjab Planning and Develop-ment Board Chairman,Muhammad Irfan Elahi, saysP&D Spokesman.

Secretary P&D Arif AnwarBaloch, Chief Economist P&D,Members of the Planning &Development Board, ProvincialSecretaries concerned and othersenior representatives of the rel-evant Provincial Departmentsalso attended the meeting.

According to SpokesmanP&D, the approved develop-ment schemes included:Consultancy Services of a Cor-porate Law Firm for Preparationvetting of Concession Agree-ment for Establishment of ve-hicle inspection and Certifica-tion System in Punjab on PPPMode.(PC-II) at the cost of Rs0.925 million and Provision ofMissing Specialties for

Upgradation of DHQ Hos-pitals (AIMH&GSBH Sialkot)to Teaching Hospitals at the costof Rs 3657.370 million.