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ISLAMABAD: Mourners during 9th Moharram-ul-Haram procession on Thursday.

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Hakimullah’s death plunges TTP into disarrayISLAMABAD—The killing ofone of the most wanted mili-tants in a US drone strike hasexposed centuries-old rivalrieswithin the group he led,Tehreek-e-Taliban, making theinsurgency ever more unpre-dictable and probably more vio-lent.

Hakimullah Mehsud’sdeath this month has set off apower struggle within theoutfit’s ranks, which could fur-ther unnerve a region already ontenterhooks with most US-ledtroops pulling out of

neighbouring Afghanistan in2014.

When a tribal council de-clared Mullah Fazlullah as thenew leader of TTP last week,several furious commandersfrom a rival clan stood up andleft.

“When Fazlullah’s namewas announced, they … walkedout saying, ‘The Taliban’s com-mand is doomed’,” said onecommander who attended theNovember 7 ‘shura’ meeting inSouth Waziristan, a lawlesstribal region on the Afghan bor-

der.Others at the shura declared

loyalty to the hardline newleader and stayed on to map outa plan to avenge Hakimullah’sdeath through a new campaignof bombings and shootings.

“This is the start of our fightwith the Pakistan government,an American puppet,” theTaliban official said.

“Those who forced the So-viet Union out of Afghanistanare capable of breaking up Pa-kistan,” he added, alluding tosenior commanders whose rite

of passage into war started withthe rebellion against Soviettroops in Afghanistan in the1980s.

TTP have always been di-vided, a loose alliance of mili-tant bands united only by ex-tremist beliefs and their hatredof the government and all thingsWestern. The group operates in-dependently of its Taliban alliesin Afghanistan, who are fight-ing US-backed forces there.

But the death ofHakimullah, a member of thedominant Mehsud tribe, and the

The offices of PakistanObserver will remain closedtoday (November 15) on ac-count of Ashura-e-Muharram.Therefore, there will be no is-sue of Pakistan Observer onNovember 16.

Sikandar accuses PTI of doingnothing to curb corruption

QWP quits KP govt, to sit on opposition benchesTARIQ SAEED

PESHAWAR—Feeling perturbedover the expulsion on Wednes-day, of two ministers of theQaumi Watan party (QWP)from the PTI led coalition gov-ernment of KhyberPukhtunkhwa over the chargesof corruption and incompetence,Sikandar Sherpao the QWPleader and scion of party chiefAftab Ahmad Sherpao struckback on the PTI governmentsaying Imran Khan led PTI didnothing for ending corruptionand upholding the merit. He alsoannounced to sit on the opposi-tion benches.

“Merit is limited to onlyfewer persons” Said SikandarSherpao who also tendered hisresignation as senior ministerKP moments after the announce-ment of sacking of his two partymen from the KP cabinet by the

Chief Minister Pervez Khattak,while addressing a news confer-ence Thursday.

“We have not been con-sulted in political affairs,

Sikandar Sherpao the parlia-mentary leader of the QWP saidwhile announcing to leave thegovernment. “PTI itself had in-

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Pak proposesCommonwealthReserve Fund

COLOMBO—Foreign SecretaryJalil Abbas Jilani, representingPakistan at the CommonwealthForeign Affairs Ministers meet-ing being held in Colombo, SriLanka, ahead of the Common-wealth Summit, proposed theestablishment of a Common-wealth Reserve Fund to assistmember states facing socio-eco-nomic vulnerabilities, lack ofaccess to financing for develop-ment, high and escalating debtburden and natural disasters.

The proposed fund, forwhich a detailed Concept Paperwould be submitted to the Com-monwealth Secretariat, couldserve to enhancing cooperationfor developing, inter alia, amechanism for early forecastingof financial crisis and guide thecountries to take precautionaryand timely measures.

Dwelling on the theme ofthe Commonwealth Summit,“Growth with Equity; InclusiveDevelopment”, Mr. Jilani in-formed the meeting about theformulation of Vision 2025 –Pakistan’s long term develop-ment programme, which aims tocreate a globally competitiveand prosperous country provid-ing a high quality of life for allits citizens.

Prime Minister MuhammadNawaz Sharif is leadingPakistan’s delegation to the Com-monwealth Summit. During hisstay in Colombo, the Prime Min-ister will meet with the President

Nawaz‚ Rajapaksa discussways to consolidate ties

Greets Sri Lankan people, govt for hosting CW SummitCOLOMBO—Prime MinisterNawaz Sharif and the SriLankan President MahindaRajapaksa at a meeting in Co-lombo discussed regional situa-tion on Thursday.

The two leaders exchangedviews on ways and means toconsolidate bilateral relations indifferent fields and matters re-lating to the CommonwealthHeads of Government Meetingbeing held here.

Regional situation alsocame under discussion.

Meanwhile, Prime MinisterMuhammad Nawaz Sharif hasreaffirmed Pakistan’s resolve to

promote peace and socio-eco-nomic development in theworld.

He expressed these views ina special message given on hisarrival in Colombo Thursday torepresent Pakistan in the three-

day Commonwealth summitbeginning.

The Prime Minister said be-ing a democratic and a respon-sible member of the global com-munity‚ Pakistan subscribes tothe work of the Commonwealththrough sustainable economic

and social development andpoverty alleviation.

He congratulated the gov-ernment and people of Sri Lankafor hosting the 23rd Common-wealth Summit.

Nawaz Sharif expressed theconfidence in the leadership ofSri Lankan President MahindaRajapaksa. He said the Com-monwealth would become astronger and more cohesive or-ganization under his leadership.

The Prime Minister recalledthat he had represented Pakistanin the Harare Summit in 1991‚where the landmark declaration

Picture on Back Page

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54,000Pakistanis

deported fromSaudi Arabia

LONDON—Pakistan ambassa-dor to Saudi Arabia, MuhammadNaeem Khan has said that fromMay to November 3, at least 0.8million Pakistanis legalised theirstatus to work in Saudi Arabiafor which Pakistan embassyworked day and night for thepast six months.

Ambassador MuhammadNaeem Khan told BBC thatthere are 1.5 Pakistanis in SaudiArabia out of which 54,000 weredeported after they failed to

PML-N not todestabilize PTI’sgovt in KP: PR

STAFF REPORTER

ISLAMABAD—Minister forInformation and BroadcastingSenator Pervaiz Rashid saidon Thursday that the PML-Nwill not become part of anyeffort to destabilise the PTIgovernment in KhyberPakhtukhwa.

Reacting to media reports

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Fazl’s close aideabducted in Tank

OBSERVER REPORT

TANK—Close aide of MaulanaFazlur Rehman, Haji SherBahadur and his companionHaibat Khan were abductedfrom Tank area on Thursday,police sources said.

According to the sources,both the abductees had gone toDolat Gorna area of FrontierRegion Tank where they werekidnapped on the way.

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Pilgrims flood Iraqshrine as bombs kill 45KARBALA—Attacks againstShias, including a suicide bomb-ing that ripped through a reli-gious procession, killed 45people in Iraq Thursday despitemassive security deployed forone of the holiest days of theirfaith.

The bloodshed came as aflood of worshippers, includingtens of thousands of foreign pil-grims, thronged the centralshrine city of Karbala for theclimax of Ashura, braving therepeated attacks by militants thathave marred the occasion in pre-vious years.

The suicide bomber struck

in a Shia-majority area ofconfessionally mixed Diyalaprovince, north of Baghdad, kill-ing 36 people and wounding 65,security and medical officialssaid.

It was the third attack of theday to target Shias.

Earlier, coordinated blasts inthe town of Hafriyah, south ofthe capital, killed nine people,while twin bombings in thenorthern oil city of Kirkukwounded five.

Shias from Iraq and aroundthe world mark Ashura, whichthis year climaxed on Thursday,

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FO: Pak has no favouritegroups in Afghanistan

ISLAMABAD—Foreign Officespokesperson Aizaz AhmadChaudhry said “We believe thatthe Afghan people should be al-lowed to decide their fate of theirown”.

Pakistan says it will con-tinue to play a positive role inpromoting peace and reconcili-ation process in Afghanistan.

In an interview with Radio,Aizaz Ahmad Chaudhry saidIslamabad strongly supports anAfghan-led and Afghan-ownedpeace process that is all inclu-sive.

The spokesman said “we

believe that the Afghan peopleshould be allowed to decide theirfate of their own and no regionalcountry should interfere in theiraffairs.

He made it clear that Paki-stan has no favourite groups inAfghanistan.

The spokesman warned thatany political vacuum in Af-ghanistan after 2014 drawdowncould prove harmful for the re-gion.

About relations with India‚he regretted that New Delhi hasnever demonstrated sincerity at

Drone combatmissions maybe trimmed

WASHINGTON—The Air Forceis grappling with how to man-age a potential glut of drones andmay eventually scale back thenumber of combat missionsflown with unmanned aircraft bymore than 25 percent, theservice’s top commander saidWednesday.

Gen. Mark A. Welsh III, theAir Force chief of staff, said thePredator and Reaper drones thathave been a mainstay of the warsin Afghanistan and Iraq are notwell suited to many other re-gions where the U.S. military islooking to bolster its presence,such as the Pacific.

“I am a big fan of UAVswhere they make sense,” he said,referring to unmanned aerialvehicles. “We shouldn’t rushinto buying a whole bunch of

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Shahbaz: Steps takenfor maintenance

of law, orderSALIM AHMED

LAHORE—Punjab Chief Min-ister Muhammad ShahbazSharif has directed police andconcerned agencies to performtheir duties diligently for pro-moting brotherhood, religiousharmony and maintaining lawand order during Muharram ulHaram and remain fully alert onthe occasion of Yaum-e-Ashur.

He said that no negligencecan be tolerated in the presentsituation. He said that whateverhumanly possible has been donefor maintaining peaceful atmo-sphere during Moharram-ul-Haram and has expressed thehope that these efforts wouldyield positive results.

He was addressing a meet-ing of nine Divisional Commis-

sioners and Regional Police Of-ficers of the province throughvideo conference for reviewingthe implementation on the planevolved for security arrange-ments on the occasion of Yaum-e-Ashur.

Ministers, administrationand police officers in the Com-missioners’ offices while Pro-vincial Ministers RanaSanaullah Khan, Col. Retd.Shuja Khanzada, Chief Secre-tary, Inspector General Police,Home Secretary and officialsattended the meeting at the cen-tral control room of Civil Sec-retariat.

Muhammad Shahbaz Sharifsaid that all required resourceshave been provided to the po-lice but it is need of the hour that

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Indo-Israelimissiles venturefails to take offHYDERABAD—The jointventure between India’sDefence Research andDevelopment Organisation andIsraeli Aerospace Industry tomanufacture Long RangeSurface-to-Air Missile (LRSAM) and Medium RangeSurface-to-Air Missile (MR-SAM) has turned out to be anon-starter.

The long range missileswere to have been delivered tothe Indian Navy by 2012 whilethe medium range missilesshould be in the Indian AirForce weaponry by 2017.However, both the deliveryschedules are way behindschedule and show no signs of

Haqqani murdera conspiracy:KhurshidISLAMABAD—Oppositionleader in National AssemblySyed Khurshid Shah has saidkilling of Nasir ud DinHaqqani is a conspiracyagainst Pakistan and nogovernment institution isinvolved in this murder.

In his talk with Online hereon Thursday he called upon thegovernment to probe into thematter to ascertain who areinvolved in this incident.

Opposition position is veryclear on the issue of talks withTaliban, he said adding “wewill continue to supportgovernment with respect totalks with Taliban. Govern-ment should decide what it hasto do, he underlined.

Sri Lankan‘war crimes’warning forCameronCOLOMBO—British PrimeMinister David Cameron waswarned by the Sri Lankangovernment not to quiz themover alleged war crimes in2009, local media reported onThursday.

The prime minister hasrejected calls to boycott aCommonwealth summit in thecountry, saying he would usehis visit to raise its humanrights record.

But the Sri Lankans saidhe had no right to bring it upas he had not been invited onthat basis.

Cameron is also holdingtrade talks with his Indian coun-terpart, who is among those

OUR CORRESPONDENTS

KARACHI/ISLAMABAD—Anumber of terrorist bids werefoiled by security agencies per-sonnel in Karachi, Islamabad,Peshawar, Lahore,Muzaffargarh, Quetta andChaman which saved many pre-cious lives on Thursday.In Karachi a major bid of ter-rorism was foiled when six al-leged militants reportedly fromLashkar-e-Jhangvi were killedduring an exchange of fire withpersonnel from the Crime Inves-tigation Department of police inMauripur area and a suicidebombing attempt was foiled inIslamabad and the alleged sui-cide bomber and mastermindwere arrested.

CID SSP Aslam Chaudhryclaimed in a press briefing thatthe militants belonging toLashkar-e Jhangvi, a banned re-ligious outfit, were preparing to

Ashura today, 9th Muharram processions taken out

LeJ militants, police clashin Karachi, six killed

Security forces foil suicide attack on IslamabadImambargah, 20 kg bomb defused in Peshawar

launch attack during processionson 9th of Moharram.

He also claimed that theCID also executed Ameer GulHassan, Karachi chapter chief ofbanned Lashkar-e Jhangvi. TheKarachi chief had mastermindedthe attack on the convoy of Jus-

tice Maqbool Baqar, attack onImambargah Ali Raza and bombblasts in Hyderi in NorthNazimabad. The other militantskilled in encounter were alsowanted for more than 50 casesof heinous crimes.

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OBSERVER REPORT

KARACHI—Cellular serviceswere restored in a number ofcities on Thursday after beingsuspended earlier during theday in several cities of thecountry due to security con-cerns during Ashura holidays.

The cellular services wererestored in some cities ofPunjab in the evening, accord-

Cellular services to besuspended in 80 cities today

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ing to the report.Meanwhile, authorities de-

cided that cellphone serviceswould remain suspended inLahore till the end of 10thMuharram.

Moreover, the mobilephone services are set to be sus-pended again across 80 citiesin the country from 9 am till 10pm on Friday as part of secu-

rise of Fazlullah, a Swat Val-ley native and hence an out-sider in the eyes of tribesmen,changes the picture in TTP.

Under Hakimullah, theTTP had been open to the ideaof peace talks with the govern-ment, even though no mean-ingful negotiations had takenplace.

Fazlullah ruled out anytalks and declared the start ofa new campaign to attack gov-ernment and security installa-tions in Punjab, Prime Minis-

Mazarirejects QWPallegationsSTAFF REPORTER

ISLAMABAD—Rejecting alle-gations against the PakistanTehreek-e-Insaf and its chair-man Imran Khan, partyspokeswoman Shireen Mazarisaid that Qaumi Watan Partyleader Sikandar Sherpao lev-elled baseless allegationsagainst the PTI chief in a bid

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HYDERABAD: Mourners in the Zuljinnah procession marking 9th Muharram ahead of Ashura at Latifabad.

SARGODHA: A shopkeeper displaying gas heaters as their demand has increased inthe winter season.

ISLAMABAD—Prime Minis-ter Muhammad NawazSharif has said that in thewake of ongoing conflictbetween the right and false-hood, we need to seek in-spiration and guidance fromthe uprightness of HazratImam Hussain (RA) to frus-trate the evil designs ofthose damaging the truespirit of Islam. In his mes-sage on the Day of Ashura,commemorating the martyr-dom of Hazrat ImamHussain (RA), the grandsonof Prophet Mohammed

(PBUH), the Prime Ministersaid the heart wrenching inci-dent of Karbala has no paral-lel in the history of mankind.

He said by sacrificing hislife along with his family,Imam Hussain proved that fora true Muslim, nothing wasmore important than thehonour and dignity of Islam.

He said the historic en-counter between the forcesof truth and falsehood madeIslam an everlasting religion.“Though the Day of Ashurarecounts a story of grief andanguish, it actually portrays

the triumph of virtue over thevice,” the Prime Ministercommented.

He said the steadfastnessdemonstrated by HazratImam Hussain (RA) in theface of cruelty and tyrannyproved that uprightness al-ways prevails and that anyenemy could be defeatedwith the determination andabsolute faith in God. He saidthe devious terrorists, whoare subjecting innocent citi-zens to extremely brutalityand defaming Islam, prob-ably do not know that a na-

tion with staunch followersof Hazrat Imam Hussainamongst its ranks can neverbe dispirited by them.

He hoped that the nationwith unwavering faith in Al-mighty Allah and strong willpower will defeat the enemiesof Islam. “Let us pledge to-day that we utilize all our en-ergies to preserve thehonour and dignity of Islam,serve the nation and rid thecountry of all evils to de-velop it as a true Islamic wel-fare state,” the Prime Minis-ter remarked.—APP

Nawaz stresses seeking guidancefrom Imam Hussain’s uprightness

STAFF REPORTER

ISLAMABAD—Denmark willspend US$ 50 million forprogrammes focusing oneconomic and democraticdevelopment, education,human rights and genderequality in Pakistan.Denmark’s Minister for De-velopment CooperationChristian Friis Bach earlythis month launched thenew developmentprogramme 2013-16 for Pa-kistan here. According tosources, Denmark will al-most double its commitment

from around USD 8 million an-nually to USD 14 million overthe next three and half yearsas a continuation of the firstprogram launched in 2010.

Aid to Pakistan is a smallportion of Denmark’s overallstrategy for Pakistan and isexpected to become a cata-lyst for broader social andeconomic change, genderequality and transformationin lives of people. The mainobjective of the programmeis to contribute to improvingthe lives of poor people andtheir ability to create a betterlife for themselves.

The new program con-sists of two major compo-nents. The first componentaims to provide support topeace building, livelihoodsand education in KhyberPakhtunkhwa, Federally Ad-ministered Tribal Areas andBalochistan. The support willbe provided through a MultiDonor Trust Fund (MDTF)with a total budget of USD15 million, which is adminis-tered by the World Bank andimplemented by the provin-cial authorities.

The MDTF program fo-cuses on reconstruction and

economic development inthe areas bordering Afghani-stan and will strengthen thewrit of the state. In addition,USD 11 million will be chan-nelled to the United NationsChildren’s Fund (UNICEF) forearly recovery of educationalservices in the border areas.

The second componentfocuses on enhanced democ-ratization, human rights andgender equality. Dollar sevenmillion support will be pro-vided to state building, in-cluding statutory bodies inthe human rights area andprovincial assemblies in their

Denmark to spend $ 50m on education, economic dev in Pakrole as duty bearers and $ 13million for civil society orga-nizations as rights holderrepresentatives in the areasof democratization, humanrights and gender equalityand $ 4 million for strength-ening of bilateral ties throughpeople to people partnershipprograms.

The Danish developmentprogram framework reflectedthe strategic choices made tosupport Pakistan in its demo-cratic transition, especiallytaking account of the contin-ued conflicts in the north-western border areas. The

Danish development strat-egy has a rights-based ap-proach and focuses on theunderlying power relationsand fundamental causes ofdiscrimination and poverty,giving priority to actionsaimed at benefiting the poor-est.

Denmark is keen to shareits expertise in agricultureand energy sectors particu-larly wind mills and solar en-ergy, with Pakistani entrepre-neurs. Several leading Dan-ish companies are alreadyoperating in Pakistan in phar-maceutical and dairy indus-

tries.The Danish embassy,

for the first time, will open acommercial section later in2013 in order to strengthenthe commercial relations. In2012, the total Danish ex-port of goods to Pakistanwas around USD 93 millionand for the first five monthsof 2013 the export of goodsto Pakistan has increasedby around 30 percent com-pared to the same period lastyear. It is estimated thatthere will be an increase of10 percent in the export ofgoods to Pakistan in 2013.

ISLAMABAD—Turkish Presi-dent Abdullah Gul receiveda high level parliamentarydelegation from Pakistan, ledby Chairman of the SenateStanding Committee on De-fence and Defence Produc-tion, Senator MushahidHussain Sayed. The TurkishPresident appreciated thesmooth transfer of powerfrom one elected governmentto another elected govern-ment as a result of recentelections in Pakistan, says amessage received here fromAnkara.

He said this was an in-dication that democracyhad strengthened and Paki-stan was moving in the rightdirection. President Gul saidboth Pakistan and Turkeyhave similar problems andhoped that like Turkey, Pa-kistan will also overcomechallenges it is facing to-day.

Abdullah Gul said recentinitiatives undertaken by theleadership of Turkey and Pa-kistan in the economic fieldare yielding positive results.Senator Mushahid Hussainconveyed the best wishes ofthe Parliament and thepeople of Pakistan.

He said Turkey and Paki-stan are joined together withdeep and abiding bonds offriendship and brotherhoodwhich have withstood thetest of times. The Senatorsaid coming to Turkey is likecoming home, for him and forall the delegation. He appre-ciated the positive role ofTurkey in the region, particu-larly Turkish contribution forhosting Afghanistan-Paki-stan-Turkey trilateral summitmeetings.

He said Turkey has maderemarkable progress in thelast decade and commendedthe public welfare orientedpolicies of the Turkish gov-ernment. Pakistan Institutefor Legislative Developmentand Transparency(PILDAT), a Pakistani think-tank, organized the visit witha purpose to understand theevolution and consolidationof democracy in Turkey. Thedelegation’s engagementsinclude meetings with Turk-ish leadership, Speaker andvarious Parliamentary com-mittees of the Turkish GrandNational Assembly, politicalparties and interaction withleading Turkish think-tanks. —APP

Pak MPs meet withTurkish President

RAFIULLAH MANDOKHAIL

ZHOB—Zhob Militia held aday-long free medical camp inMani Khwa area of Sherani dis-trict and treated twelve hundredpatients suffering from variousdiseases. Medical team, com-prising FC and PPHI specialistmale female doctors with para-medic staff examined twelvehundreds patients includingwomen and children besidesproviding free of cost medi-cines. The medical camp washeld in the remote area alongZhob-D.I Khan highway.

Commandant FC Col. TalatMasood and Deputy Commis-sioner Sherani Saeed Umranivisited the medical camp andinspected the health facilities.

Maj. Asim, SHO Mani KhwaGhafoor Khan Mandokhailand Executive Monitoring Of-ficer PPHI Syed Aman Shehwere also present on the occa-sion.

Dr. Arshad, Dr. AbdulHanan, Dr. Khair Muhammadand lady doctor examined thepoor and deserving patientsand free medicines were pro-vided besides performing theirdiagnostic tests. Children un-der five years of age were ad-ministered anti-polio drops andgifts were also distributedamong them.

Talking to newsmen Com-mandant Col. Masood said thatFC was not only working tomaintain peace and harmony inprovince but also putting ef-

forts in providing basic neces-sities such as health and edu-cation. All possible measureswould be taken for the purpose.He said.

He further said that FC heldfree medical camps in variousparts of the district periodically,where thousands of patientswere provided medicines freeof cost. FC doctors were extend-ing their expertise in free medi-cal camps set up for the poorand needy patients in for-flungareas of Zhob and Sherani dis-tricts. He added.

Meanwhile, residents ofthe area highly appreciated en-deavors of FC to mitigate suf-ferings of patients living in thedistant areas and suggestedmore camps in future.

FC, PPHI doctors treat 1200patients in Mani Khwa camp

FAISALABAD—District Coor-dination Officer (DCO) NoorulAmin said female volunteerswould be recruited in the dis-trict besides engaging entirelady staff of Health and Popu-lation departments to achieve100% target of anti-polio cam-paign.

Chairing a meeting of Dis-trict Polio Eradication Commit-tee here on Wednesday, theDCO said the drive will com-mence from November 18 whichwould continue by November20 in the district.

He directed to monitor thecampaign to ensure the admin-istration of polio vaccine dropsto children up to the ago of fiveyears. Earlier, the World HealthOrganisation (WHO) andUnicef had suspended poliooperations in Pakistan andcalled back their field workersdue to security threats after thekilling of two more people as-sociated with the anti-poliodrive in Charsadda district andsimultaneous attacks on polioteams in Peshawar and Now-shera.

Two more anti-polio work-ers were shot dead and one wascritically wounded in five

coordi-nated attacks inPeshawar, Charsadda andNowshera districts onWednesday to raise the deathtoll of polio vaccinators to eightin the country in less than 30hours. Five vaccinators, includ-ing four females, were killed inKarachi while a young girl waskilled in Peshawar on Tuesday.Senior WHO officials felt theremaining polio workers wouldhave remained safe had theKhyber Pakhtunkhwa govern-ment accepted their recommen-dation to suspend the ongoingthree-day anti-polio campaignin the province after the killingof polio vaccinator Farzana Bibiin Peshawar on Tuesday.

The WHO had recom-mended to the KP gov-ernmentto postpone the anti-polio drivedue to the deteriorating secu-rity situation and growingthreats to the vaccinators. OnWHO’s recommendation, thegovernment cancelled the vac-cination campaign in Sindh andin Quetta, Pishin and QillaAbdullah dis-tricts inBalochistan, but the KP gov-ernment-turned down its pro-posal and decided to con-tinuethe campaign.—APP

Lady volunteers to berecruited for polio drive

GCCI wants govtaction to end

transporters strikeABDUL QAYYUM KHAN

GUJRANWALA—PresidentGujranwala Chamber of Com-merce and Industry has ex-pressed concern over strike bygoods transporters that wascreated a massive hindrance forthe export activities. He ap-pealed the Government to re-solve genuine demands oftransporters at earliest to avoidfurther losses to the economy.

President GCCIMohammad Numan Salah udDin said due to this import andexport activities countrywideon all the ports have been sus-pended. The transportation ofall kinds of goods within thecountry is also suspended.The strike has entered 7th day.

DCO for SammundriRoad completion on

priority basisFAISALABAD—District Coor-dination Officer (DCO)Noorul Amin Mengal hasvisited Sammundri Road hereand checked quality of con-struction near NoveltyBridge.

The construction of theroad was assigned to theNational Logistic Cell (NLC)and the DCO directed theNLC engineers to completethe remaining part of the roadon priority basis.

He also directed that allsorts of encroachmentshould be removed fromNovelty Bridge and issueddirectives for completing aplan of Jail Road and JhangRoad improvement at the ear-liest *** Chak Jhumra policeclaimed to have arrested adrug peddler and seized nar-cotics from his possession.

A spokesman of the po-lice department told here thatpolice conducted raid nearChinioti Gate and nabbed adrug peddler, Asim Sharif andrecovered more than one ki-logram hashish from his pos-session. Police locked theaccused behind the barswhile further investigationwas under progress.—APP

STAFF REPORTER

PESHAWAR—Inspector Gen-eral of Prisons in KhyberPakhtunkhwa (KPK) has an-nounced reduction in pun-ishment for two months in alljails across the province withrespect to religious event ofMuharram. KPK prisonersreceived pardon of 60 days(two months) in there pun-

ishments in accordance to jailrules 1985 which allow reduc-tion in sanctions.

The pardon was given tothose detained personspresent in jails and lockupsexcluded the accused in thecorruption cases of the Na-tional Accountability Bureau(NAB), terrorism acts andstate enmity.

The decision of top po-

lice official was applicablefrom November 13. I tshould be mentioned that10th of Muharram, alsoknown as Ashura, have itseminence between Sunniand Shia Muslims at onceas Sunni sect observes fastfor thanking the Allah(God) on Musa (Moses)’svictory over the EgyptianPharaoh on the day.

KP announces reduction inpunishments for 2 months

PAC first meetinglikely in Dec

ISLAMABAD—Public Ac-counts Committee (PAC) firstmeeting is likely to be con-vened in the first week ofDecember. Sources said PAChas sent letter to all minis-tries, divisions and constitu-tional institutions on Novem-ber, 8 saying that informationhas been received in PACsecretariat that the institu-tions are not holding meet-ing of their respective De-partmental Accounts Com-mittees (DAC) and due to thisreason the important mattershave been put on hold. Hold-ing of DAC meeting onmonthly basis be ensured,letter said further.

PAC has also asked Au-ditor General of Pakistan(AGP) to direct its auditorsto extend cooperation to min-istries, departments and in-stitutions.

Sources said a letter hasalso been sent by PAC to Su-preme Court (SC). When con-tacted by Online in this re-spect, SC sources said no let-ter has been received by it fromPAC. SC sources told Onlinethat it is holding DAC meetingregularly and no audit objec-tion is pending.—Online

Fesco checks1,843 connectionsFAISALABAD—The Fescoteams checked 1,843 connec-tions and issued them detec-tion bills on Wednesday. Theteams checked a total num-ber of 1,843 connections, in-cluding 1,474 domestic, 220commercial and 149 indus-trial.

The teams issued detec-tion bills of 16,786 units to 14domestic consumers on elec-tricity stealing.

Meanwhile, detectionbills of 24,317 units were is-sued to five domestic con-nections on slow meters,20,317 units to three indus-tries. Two other industrieswere also issued bills of 6,520units on slow meters. Mean-while, it is reported that ear-lier, the raiding team of Pesco,Bannu sub division has sent8 power pilferers to jail anddisconnected power supplyto consumers defaulting 1.3million rupees.

According to details,SDO Rulral, Umer Gul alongwith his staff and SHO Pescopolice station, Taj Ali con-ducted raids against powerpilferers in different areas in-cluding Sabzi Mandi, MitaKhel and adjacent localitiesand arrested 8 power pilfer-ers. Besides, the Pesco teamalso dislodged a 50 KVtransformer on account ofdefault.

According to the notice,power supply from ShehbazGarments feeder emanatingfrom 132-KV Bandala grid sta-tion will remain suspendedfrom 12 noon to 6 pm on Sun-day (November 03) whileDijkot City and Maanpurfeeders originating from 220-KV Sammundri RoadFaisalabad grid station willobserve shutdown from 9 amto 2 pm on Monday (Novem-ber 04). Similarly, electricitysupply from Riaz Abadfeeder emanating from 132-KV Lalian grid station, Sohaland Kamal Abad feedersoriginating from 132-KVThikriwala grid station willremain suspended from 9 amto 3 pm whereas ShehbazGarments feeder emanatingfrom 132-KV Bandala grid sta-tion will observe load shed-ding from 12 noon to 6 pm onNovember 04, 2013.—APP

IG Motorwaypolice proceeds

to TurkeyOBSERVER REPORT

ISLAMABAD—Inspector Gen-eral National Highways &MotorwayP o l i c eZ u l f i q a rA h m e dC h e e m ahas pro-ceeded toTurkey toa t t e n d e dtwo daysInternational Conference ofSenior Police Officers.This conference is scheduledto be held in the coastal cityof Turkey “Antalya”. In-spector General NationalHighways & Motorway Po-lice Zulfiqar Ahmed Cheemawill also present his paper inthe conference. He will returnback on 18 November.

Upper parts ofcountry, AJK in

grip of severe coldMUZAFFARABAD/GILGIT—Azad Kashmir and upper ar-eas of the country includingKPK and Gilgit-Baltistan havecome under the grip of severecold. The cold spell is beingexperienced in Malakand,Swat, Muzaffarabd, NeelamValley, Skardu, Hunza, Gilgitand Chilas. Weather expertssaid the cold weather is theresult of light rain in Mingoraand adjoining areas and lightsnowfall in mountains of Gilgit-Baltistan and Pattan, MalamJabba and Kalam in MalakandDivision. Reports say thatmountains in Malam Jabbaand Kalam are covered withwhite snow and large numbersof people are visiting the area.

Light cold is being experi-enced in Rawalpindi,Islamabad, Quetta, Ziarat andKalat where people havestarted wearing winter clothes.Temperature dropped to minusfour degrees in Astore while itwas minus three degrees inSkardu, Kalam and Kalat, HunzaMalam Jabba minus two andRawalakot minus one degreesCentigrade on Thursday. Ac-cording to Meteorological De-partment, cold and dry weatheris expected in most parts of thecountry during the next 24hours. However, light rain withlight snowfall over the hills isexpected at one or two placesof Gilgit-Baltistan. Light rain-thunderstorm is expected at iso-lated places of south westernparts of Balochistan in the next48 hours.—INP

LUMHS resists land grabbing attemptHYDERABAD—The authorities of LiaquatUniversity of Medical and Health Sciences(LUMHS) Jamshoro have taken a seriousnotice of an attempt to grab its land andinitiated legal action by lodging a com-plaint at Jamshoro Police station againstthe culprits. A University spokesman saidhere that on November 12, 2013, some un-known people were constructing a houseon the land of Liaquat University of Medi-cal and Health Sciences, Jamshoro near

the Transport Workshop. The people involved in illegal con-struction were warned and the construction was stoppedimmediately, the spokesman informed and added that the ac-cused tried to resist, threatened the university officials andalso used abusive language but finally escaped from the spot.The University authorities have lodged a complaint withJamshoro Police Station and called for strict legal actionagainst those involved in grabbing of the University land,the spokesman said. The Chairman Election Committee SindhUniversity Teachers Association (SUTA) Prof. Dr. PervezAhmed Pathan announced here on Wednesday that the an-nual elections of the Association will be held on December 3at Qazi Rafique Hall of the Institute of Physics, University ofSindh, Jamshoro.—APP

Anusha for utilizing skilled youthISLAMABAD—Minister for InformationTechnology and Telecommunication,Anusha Rehman on Thursday underlinedthe need for utilizing youth equipped withtechnology and telecommunication facili-ties in a proper manner. She said that thereis need to make progress through youthgetting degrees in the information tech-nology and telecom sectors. Talking tomedia, she said that the government isproviding opportunities in the field of

Information Technology (IT) and Telecom so that youngpeople could make progress in an appropriate manner.Anusha Rehman said that Pakistan is located at a veryimportant place and added that collaboration and coop-eration of the regional countries could help boost theeconomy. She said that Pakistan is a peaceful, moderateand developing state, adding that there is dire need toutilize the skilled manpower of the country for bettermentof the area. Replying to a question she said that 125 millionpeople are using the mobile facility. —APP

SHANGLA: Policemen displaying the suspects and bottles of liquor recovered fromthem, during a press conference.

ISLAMABAD—The Meteoro-logical Department forecastlight rain at isolated places ofMalakand and Hazara divi-sions during next 24 hours thatwould hopefully bring the ex-isting temperature down. Ac-cording to Met Office spokes-man here, Rawalpindi divi-sion, Kashmir and Gilgit-Baltistan are also likely to re-ceive rain at isolated placesdue a shallow westerly trough,which is still prevailing overKashmir and adjoining hillyareas.

In next 24 hours, mainly dryweather is expected in mostparts of the country. However,light rain-thunderstorm is ex-pected at isolated places ofMalakand, Hazara, Rawalpindidivisions, Kashmir and Gilgit-Baltistan. Tourists attractiveareas like Thandyani, NathiaGali, Donga Gali and Ayubi indistrict Abbottabad andKalam and Malam Jabba inSwat district are likely to receivelight rain. However, mainly dryweather is expected in mostparts of the country duringnext 48 hours. Weather re-mained dry in most parts of thecountry. However, light rainthunderstorm occurred at a fewplaces of Malakand, Hazara,D.I.Khan divisions Kashmirand Gilgit-Baltistan in last 24

Light rains at hillyareas likely

hours.The maximum rain was re-

ceived by Dir 8milimeter fol-lowed by Chakwal 7mm, Kalam6mm, Kotli, Balakot 5mm,

Rawalakot, D-I-Khan 3mm,Chitral, Hunza, Lower Dir 2m,Kakul and Muzaffarabad 1mmrespectively. The maximumtemperature was recorded atLasbella and Sibbi 40Cwhereas pollen count todayremained as 163 per m3 of air.

The Karachi Met Office onThursday forecast a fair orpartly cloudy weather withhazy or misty morning almostacross country during the next24 hours. It said the maximumand minimum temperature isexpected to remain in the rangebetween 30C to 32C and 18Cto 20C respectively.

The weather report saidthat mainly dry weather islikely to prevail elsewhere inSindh and Balochistan region.However rain is expected atisolated places in Quetta divi-sion of Balochistan.—APP

LARKANA: Security personnel checking people to avoid any untoward incident at Larkana-Shikarpur Road.

ISLAMABAD—The WorldDiabetes Day aimes tochange education worldwideso that it provides the infor-mation that people need inorder to live with the condi-tion and treat the diseasecarefully.

The day was observedon Thursday across world in-cluding Pakistan with itstheme “Diabetes , Education,and Prevention” for the pe-riod 2009-2013 .

World Diabetes Day(WDD) is the primary globalawareness campaign whichwas introduced in 1991 by

the International DiabetesFederation (IDF) and theWorld Health Organization(WHO) in response to thealarming rise of diabetesaround the world.

Diabetes affects bloodglucose levels. Most of thefood we eat is turned into glu-cose or sugar for our bodiesto use for energy. The pan-creas, an organ that lies nearthe stomach, makes a hor-mone called insulin to helpglucose get into the cells ofour bodies.

In diabetic condition, thebody either does not make

enough insulin or can not useits own insulin as well as itshould. This causes sugarsto build up increasing theblood glucose level and dis-turb the metabolic functionsof vital organs in the body. Ifleft untreated, diabetes cancause serious health compli-cations including heart dis-ease, blindness, kidney fail-ure and lower-extremity am-putations.

Moreover, there are dif-ferent types of diabetesi.e.Type 1, type 2 and ges-tat ional diabetes mell i-tus .—APP

Diabetes Day aims to changeeducation on diabetes prevention

MUZAFFARGARH—Law en-forcement agency on Thurs-day thwarted major terrorismbid of the miscreants by dif-fusing heavy explosives out-side the central Imam Bargah,Shitte house of prayer, in KotAddu, district MuzaffarGarh, officials said. Lives ofhundreds of Muharram devo-tees were saved by the one-time action of Punjab policeby recovering device bombof at least 8 kilograms of ex-plosives, police officialssaid. Kot Addu tehsil is avery historic city situated insouthern Muzaffargarh dis-trict in the Punjab provinceof Pakistan.

Miscreants planted the

device bomb in theprocession’s path inside be-grime outside the ImamBargah, however, the BombDisposal Squad (BDS) offi-cials diffused it. More con-tingents of security forceshave been called at the spotand security measures hasbeen increased by the higherauthorities.Kurram Agency: Securityforces on Thursday foiled abig terror bid to target Shiaprocession in Kurram agencyby recovering huge cache ofarms explosives during raidon compound of terror groupleader. According sourcesthat to security forces raidedthe compound of Qari

Naeem, leader of banned mili-tant outfit located inAnudanad area of tribalagency. Forces arrested twoterrorists and recovered hugecache of arms, explosives.

Forces recorded 55 IEDs,Two RPGs, several kilogramsof explosives, 15 landmines,16 anti-tank mortals, 5 bombsand anti-aircraft guns andmortals.

The arrested suspectswere shifted to undisclosedlocation for investigations.Sources said these terroristswere plotting terror attackson Shia processions inKurram agency.Quetta: The Frontier CorpsBalochistan arrested two

suspects and recoveredheavy cache of explosivesfrom their possession in bor-der town of Chaman, onThursday. The spokesmanof FC said that on a tip-off,targeted operation was car-ried out in border town ofChaman. The FC arrestedtwo suspects besides recov-ering heavy cache of explo-sives from their possession.

The recovered explo-sives include detonators 250,wire rolls 61, explosive bricks18, suicide jacket, 1, Impro-vised Explosive Devices 6,explosive sticks 2600, localgrenades 08 and other mate-rials. Further probe was un-derway.—Agencies

FC arrests 2 suspects, recover explosives

Police foil terror bid in various areas

CHAMAN—Two bullet riddledbodies found in a graveyardin Miralizai area of Chaman, onThursday. Police said that un-known men killed two men anddumped their bodies in grave-yard of Miralizai. According todoctors, the bodies had re-ceived bullets in their heads.

The Levies force said thatthey found a chit along thebodies inscribed that the deadwere personnel of Afghan Po-lice belonging to Kandharprovince of Afghanistan andthey were shot dead for join-ing Afghan police. The LeviesForce shifted the bodies at thehospital morgue. Further probewas in process. WAHCANTT: Additional District &Sessions Judge MuhammadIqbal sentenced a man to deathtwice, besides fine of Rs.0.2million in a double murder casehere the other day.

According to the pros-ecution, Syed Nazeer HussainShah was allegedly gunneddown his sister in law, SabarUl Nisa and her son in law,

Mohammad Rizwan in a daybroad light incident, whenthey were returning from thelocal court after hearing theircase on March 13, 2012 in thelimits of Taxila Police station.Earlier Saba Ul Nisa had al-legedly killed her husbandBasheer Hussain Shah oversome domestic dispute andshe was on bail when she wasshot dead by the deceasedbrother along with his son inlaw when they were returningfrom the court.

Taxila Police soon afterdouble murder case had ar-rested the accused. Duringprosecution, the accusedSyed Nazeer Hussain Shah hadconfessed that he had killedthem to take revenge of hisbrother’s murder.

Vehari: Three people werekilled and four another, includ-ing three women, sustainedserious injuries in a collisionbetween an oil tanker and achingchi rickshaw at Gharamor,some 35 km away form here onWednesday late nignt.—APP

2 bullet-riddled bodies found

Man sentenced to deathtwice for killing two

RAZA NAQVI/SHER GONDAL

ATTOCK—The 9thMuharram Procession ofAlam-o-Zuljinnah was takenout from Syed Imran Bukhariat Sheenbagh amid tight se-curity on Thursday Morn-ing. The Azadars recitedNoha in groups and also per-formed Zanjeer Zani andMatum. Sabeels of water,Milk and food stalls weresetup by local organizers atdifferent points for theMourners. While a specialMobile Medical team fromDistrict Head quarters Hos-pital Attock and Rescue 1122provided treatment to themourners.

The procession after

passing through its tradi-tional routes ended peace-fully at Imam BargahHussainiya Sheenbagh.Later, a Majlis was held in theImam Bargah Sheenbagh inwhich Uleema and ZakireensMolana Ghulam Abbas Jafferand Zakir Adeeb Haiderhighlighted the sacrifice ofHazrat Imam Hussain and theBrutality of Yazidiyat atKarbala.

Mandi Bahauddin: Largenumber of mourners heldprocessions on 9 Muharramhere in main city, and majortowns including Phalia andMalikwal of the district to re-call the immortal sacrificesrendered by Hazrat ImamHussain (RA) and his com-panions in Karbala battle

field. The mourners’ proces-sions emanated from differ-ent localities of the city andafter passing on the specificroutes under tight securitymerged in a big processionat Haveli Buggey Shah,Sufipura. From there the bigprocession took the route ofold Rasul Road, Gurrah Roadand Sadder Ba-zaar andended at CentralImambargah.

Speakers threw light onbright and can-did teachingof Hazrat Imam Hussain (RA)and his great companionswho stood with him facingthe forces of evil. In proces-sion the mourners were beat-ing their chests as a ritualand showed love and agonyof their hearts.

Muharram procession reachesdestinations peacefully

PESHAWAR—Video Link Sys-tem has been launched at CMSectt Peshawar. The K-P ITdirectorate installed this sys-tem with cost of Rs 35 mil-lion.

The K-P Chief MinisterPervez Khattak formally inau-gurated it by live video linkconferencing with Commis-sioners of Kohat and DeraIsmail Khan simultaneouslyand apprised himself with thesecurity arrangements ofMuharram. He also passedon certain orders to them inthis regard. Ashfaq Khan,Principal Secretary to CM,was also present on this oc-casion.

Initially the Videoconferencing facility hasbeen provided to CM Secre-tariat Peshawar, CabinetRoom Civil Sectt, Chief Sec-retary, Additional Chief Sec-

retary, Secretary P&D, Sec-retary Home & Tribal AffairsDepartment and all DivisionalCommissioners wherein theChief Minister could contactthem all anytime with the ad-ditional facility of data trans-fer as well. The Deputy Com-missioners throughout theprovince were also beinglinked with the system in thesecond phase.

Through this facilityChief Minister can chair meet-ing with all the authoritiessimultaneously, can sharepresentations and can trans-fer data or file works. Themeeting proceedings canalso be saved and can beviewed later. Bilal Jabbar, Di-rector Information Technol-ogy K-P and Noor SherAfridi, AD IT CM SecttPeshawar, have pioneeredthis crucial project.—Online

Video link systemlaunched at CM Sectt

91 shopkeepersfined for

profiteeringFAISALABAD—Price controlmagistrates imposed fine ofRs 81,500 on 91 shopkeep-ers for profiteering in thedistrict. The price controlmagistrates checked 159shops of fruits, vegetables,meat and other daily useitems and found 91 shop-keepers for overcharging.The teams imposed fine ofRs 15900 on shopkeepers intehsil city, Rs 21500 in tehsilSaddar, Rs 9500 inTandlianwala, Rs 16700 inSamandri, Rs 9700 in ChakJhumra and Rs 8200 in tehsilJarranwala.

Meanwhile, officers ofhealth department checked46 shops in different bazaarsand got samples of 29 edibleitems which were sent for labanalysis. Similarly, drug in-spectors checked 32 clinicsand medical stores, of which6 were challaned and threewere sealed. A petrol pumpin Tandlianwala was alsofined of Rs 3000 on less mea-surement.—APP

BISE Larkanaannounces results

of SSC Part-ILARKANA—Controller of Ex-aminations Board of Intermedi-ate and Secondary Education(BISE) Larkana, announced theresult of Secondary SchoolCertificate (SSC) Part-I (ClassIX) Annual Examinations2013,Science Group and GeneralGroup.

According to result ga-zette issued by the Controllerof Examinations, BISE LarkanaSikandar Ali Mirjat, 36728 can-didates were enrolled from allthe six districts of Larkana,K a m b e r S h a h d a d k o t ,Shikarpur, Jacobabad,KashmoreKandhkot and twotalukas Khairpur Nathan Shahand Mahar of Dadu district.Out of these 36595 candidatesappeared in the annual exami-nations2013 in Science group.Out of them 32731 candidateshave been declared passed infive papers, 1893 in four pa-pers, 893 in three papers, 177in two papers, 98 boy and girlstudents passed in one paperand 183 candidates failed in allpapers, while the result of 620candidates has been withheldon various grounds. The re-sult Gazette adds that for SSCPart-I (Class-IX) Annual Exami-nations2013 in General Group,3636 candidates were regis-tered from all the six districtsof Larkana and two talukasKhairpur Nathan Shah andMahar of Dadu district.—APP

Message of KarbalaASHURA is being observed today in the backdrop of height

ened security and calls for maintaining complete peace because of unfortunate incidents of the recent past when proces-

sions were targeted by terrorists and trouble-makers. The Federal andProvincial Governments have taken every possible step to ensure fool-proof security and have also sought help from religious leaders andscholar who hold key to maintaining sectarian peace and harmony.

Traditionally Moharram processions remained peaceful in the dis-tant past and in fact were supported and facilitated by majority Sunnisect realizing that the supreme sacrifice of the grandson of the HolyProphet (PBUH) and his companions was common legacy of theMuslim Ummah. But unfortunately, the real message and spirit ofKarbala has been lost because of intolerance, lack of accommodationand seeds of discord and disunity sowed by our enemy to advance itsagenda of creating rifts among ranks of Muslims. The sacrifice ofHazrat Imam Hussain (RA) is a beacon of light for Muslim all overthe world showing path to righteousness and as a living example ashow to challenge and fight the forces of tyranny and injustice. Thelegacy of Karbala is that Imam Hussain (RA) accepted his fate andeven accepted the fate of his family without surrendering his will toany other than Allah Almighty. Such courage against tyranny dis-plays the fact that putting our faith in Allah Almighty is enough andvictory will be achieved in the hereafter. The courage of those youngchildren who faced grown men on the battlefield showed that thestrength of faith can overcome all fears of death or loss. The role ofHazrat Zainab (RA) was an exemplary lesson for all believing womenas she kept her faith in Allah Almighty despite watching the massa-cre of her entire family. Karbala was the sad story of inner conflictswithin the Ummah and it is unfortunate these continue even todayand as a consequence Muslims are target of victimization through-out the world. We can bring about revolution in our life and societyby understanding the message of Karbala in its true perspective andby following teachings of Islam in letter and spirit.

Imran displaysleadership qualities

TRUE to his general image, PTI Chairman Imran Khan has reactedinstantly to allegations of corruption against some members of

KPK Cabinet and two of them belonging to QWP of Aftab Sherpaowere sacked on Wednesday. Another PTI Minister was also fired afterhe was disqualified by the Supreme Court in fake degree case.

The sacking of two Ministers has created uncertainty in the Prov-ince as, according to reports, Imran Khan has asked the Chief Minis-ter to end alliance with Sherpao. This will surely create difficultiesfor PTI in smoothly running affairs of the Province where it is alreadyfacing tough opposition from JUI(F) and ANP but the decision of thePTI leader to move firmly and quickly against those guilty of corrup-tion is reflected of his resolve to show zero tolerance to corruptionand do principles-based politics. There were reports of corruptionagainst Bakht Bedar and Ibrar Hussain and an investigation revealedthey received bribes in appointments and promotions in their re-spective Ministries. Action against them required courage and de-termination and we are glad that Imran showed the muscle, sendinga strong message to others who might be involved in similar prac-tices. In fact, there are reports that some of the PTI Ministers arealso guilty of corrupt practices but they have been spared for now.There are also reports of corruption and misdeeds from other Prov-inces and we expect that their Chief Ministers too would follow thegood example set by the PTI Chairman. Imran Khan has emergedtaller and if he persists with such approach it would not only benefithim and his party politically but also the country as a whole.

Record opium productionin Afghanistan

OPIUM cultivation in Afghanistan has risen to a frightening proportion of more than 200,000 hectares in 2013, a 36% increase

over last year, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime said ina report Wednesday. The report, part of the agency’s annual survey,indicates a grave trend for the country and raises alarm bells for theinternational community.

The 2013 figure represents the highest total cultivation ever forAfghanistan, surpassing the previous peak of 193,000 hectares in 2007.Total opium production reached roughly 5,500 tons, an increase of 49percent since 2012. In 2001, the much blamed Taliban led govern-ment in Afghanistan banned poppy cultivation, citing Islamic prohi-bition against drugs and wiped out 99 percent of the production of thecrop. This was due to the fact that Taliban led government had estab-lished a firm hold in the poppy producing areas and the farmers knewthat if they violated the orders they would be punished for the crime.But since the take over of Afghanistan by US led NATO forces, poppycultivation has been on the increase and every attempt by the occupa-tion forces and the UN to persuade the farmers to shift to alternativecrops has failed because the return from poppy is much higher. TheWestern countries malign the Taliban for what they call suppressingwomen and girls rights, but it must be admitted that they ensured lawand order, zero corruption and a crime free society. But corruptionand lawlessness resurfaced in Afghanistan after the arrival of foreignforces. With the release of this year’s report, Yury Fedotov, ExecutiveDirector of UNODC called for a more comprehensive and integratedresponse to the drug problem. To achieve the objective, counter-nar-cotics efforts must be an integral part of the security, developmentand institution-building agenda but the weak Karzai led governmentis unable to deliver on any of these fronts. We strongly believe thattargeting poor farmers would not deliver the desired results and theinternational community would have to get serious about removingknown traffickers from positions of responsibility. At the same timefarmers must be provided profitable alternatives and the agriculturesector be revamped to offset the need for cultivating poppy.

Manmohan loses leverage in Lanka

Whipping and abusesare like laudanum: Youhave to double thedose as sensibilitiesdecline.

New partyin China

BO Xilai has a reason to smiledespite his incarceration.The disgraced Chinese poli-

tician, who was sentenced to lifelast month on charges of corrup-tion and abuse of power, is nowchairman of a new political party.His supporters say they haveformed the Zhi Xian Party (Su-premacy of the constitution) to actas a pressure valve within the sys-tem and help fight for the rightsof citizens. Wang Zheng, a univer-sity professor who founded theparty, is treading a cautious path,saying it is not meant to underminethe authority of the one-party sys-tem in the country, but to act as aninterest group for upholding theconstitution.

The doctrine and intentions ofthe new-founded group, nonethe-less, are debatable. The fact that Bohas been named its chairman eventhough he fell from grace with theruling Communist Party of China(CPC) making an exemplary caseof him is certain to be a thorn inthe party’s flesh just as its third ple-num session has finalised theagenda for the next decade and de-cided to move on from the scan-dals and drama that erupted duringthe trials of Bo and his wife, formerbusiness woman Gu Kailai.? De-spite Wang’s claim that the neworganization is meant to defend theconstitution, it could be an obliqueretaliatory tactic to caution the CPCagainst penalising Bo further.While Gu, who has been convictedof murdering her business associ-ate, Briton Neil Heywood, waspressured during her trial to giveevidence that incriminated Bo, hehowever has so far not made anystunning revelation to incriminatesenior party leaders and utterly dis-grace the CPC. However, the newparty could be a gentle reminderthat the skeletons in Bo’s cupboardcould start rattling if he is leant ontoo heavily. It is not unlikely thatat some point the new party willquestion the modus operandi of thegovernment, which is already fac-ing allegations of corruption, nepo-tism and malfunctioning. On theother hand, the powers that be inBeijing are likely to come downhard on Bo’s fledgling party if itshows signs of seriously challeng-ing the CPC, just as they did in1998, when Qin Yongmin, a humanrights activist with a better non-political image than Bo, was jailedfor 12 years for trying to registerthe China Democracy Party. Whilethe two sides play their little game,the Zhi Xian Party has made itspoint. Bo may be down but is stillnot out of the ring. The stab at in-troducing political pluralism in one-party China, be it for whatever rea-sons, will have caught the eye ofthe world and Bo has secured forhimself a platform from where hecan voice his thoughts.— Khaleej Times

*****

Time forworld tostep in

FIVE days after typhoonHaiyan ravaged central Philippines, killing thousands

and destroying towns, aid is onlytrickling in and survivors are beg-ging for more food. Reports of chil-dren holding out their hand, seek-ing food and water, have added anextra dimension to the disaster.

Philippines President BenignoAquino says he believes 2,500people have died, despite the rap-idly-climbing toll. Typhoons andnatural calamities cannot bestopped, but suffering definitelycan be. The UN has launched anappeal for $301 million to help thevictims. Aid has begun to come intothe Philippines from countriesaround the world. The responsibil-ity for its distribution, however, lieswith the country. Access to the dev-astated areas is difficult and com-munication lines have been cut, butrelief to the survivors must go handin hand with the search for survi-vors. While the immediate needsof food, clothing and shelter mustbe met on an emergency basis, of-ficials will now have to ensure thatwater-borne diseases, includingcholera, are kept at bay. It is ashame for the entire world to standby and watch when those fortunateenough to escape nature’s fury begfor food or fear diseases in thestorm’s aftermath. — Gulf News

MEDIA WATCH

A statesperson is distinguishedfrom a politician by the manner in which the overall na-

tional interest is protected rather thansectional demands that when con-ceded have the impact of harmingthe overall interest. By staying awayfrom the Colombo meeting of theCommonwealth Heads of Govern-ment, Prime Minister ManmohanSingh has severely harmed the in-terests of the country whose inter-ests he is presumed to protect.

Sri Lanka is crucial to the evolv-ing Indian Ocean strategy of India,which envisages a coming togetheron trade and security issues of the lit-toral countries. Unless Colombo be-comes an enthusiastic partner in sucha strategy, it will not be difficult forthose powers seeking to limit India’sinfluence in the Indian Ocean Rimfrom using the unique location of SriLanka as the ideal platform for dilut-ing Delhi’s reach. For both India andSri Lanka, it makes sense for a coor-dinated strategy to be evolved andimplemented. However, for this tohappen, domestic public opinion inboth countries needs to be on board.In the case of India, with the excep-tion of a few strands of opinion inthe state of Tamil Nadu, there is over-whelming goodwill for Sri Lanka.The people of that country are seenas ethnic cousins who are themselvesoutgoing and friendly. Buddhism is

the preferred religion withinthe majority Sinhala commu-nity in Sri Lanka and Indiais the country where PrinceSiddhartha, the founder ofBuddhism, was born. Thereis therefore a special reso-nance in visits to India, es-pecially to locations thatevoke memories of the pe-riod when Emperor Ashoka

ensured pride of place to LordBuddha’s teachings within the vast ex-panses of territory that he controlled.

In India, there has been asychophantic race by politicians withinthe Congress Party to name as manyitems as possible in honour of theNehru family. Although much atten-tion, including by the higher judiciaryin India, has been paid to the statuesof Bahujan Samaj Party founderKanshi Ram and his acolyteMayawati, the fact is that the numberof such statues is minuscle when com-pared to the thousands of statues ofJawaharlal Nehru, Indira Gandhi andRajiv Gandhi that dot the country. Fly-ing from Indira Gandhi airport in Delhito Mumbai and crossing the RajivGandhi Sea Link to the city before tak-ing a flight to Rajiv Gandhi airport inHyderabad to visit a Jawaharlal Nehruscheme, visitors may be forgiven forbelieving that the Nehrus are to Indiawhat the Al Sauds are to Saudi Arabia,ever-present and all-powerful. Hadsome element of geopolitical calcula-tion been present in the naming of air-ports, the Indira Gandhi airport atDelhi would have been renamed theEmperor Ashoka International Airport,so as to kindle the memory of a greatprince. The association of EmperorAshoka with Buddhism would alsohave served as a whiff of “soft power”reaching out to the Buddhist-majoritycountries of the world, such as Japan,

Thailand and of course Sri Lanka,besides enthusing Buddhists fromcountries across the globe, includ-ing in China, where Buddhism is thefastest-growing religion with hun-dreds of shrines and temples com-ing up each year to cater to the spiri-tual needs of millions.

Now that the LTTE has been de-feated, the revulsion which thatorganisation evoked after the assassi-nation of Rajiv Gandhi twelve yearsago has died down. People have for-gotten that for the LTTE, the captureof northern and eastern Sri Lanka toset up a Tamil Eelam ( or homeland)was only Stage One of LTTESupremo Velupillai Prabhakaran’sdream. The devout Christian andloving husband and father who wasnevertheless merciless with his foes( ie anyone who did not uncondition-ally follow him). Stage Two wouldhave been to use captured Sri Lankanterritory to create an insurgency inIndia which over time would createGreater Eelam, comprising not onlythe north and east of Sri Lanka but thewhole of Tamil Nadu state in India, aswell as parts of neighbouring AndhraPradesh and Kerala.

An LTTE state would have beena security nightmare for India, whichis why it was a surprise when in 2009frantic efforts took place in Delhi toenforce a cease-fire between the SriLankan Army and the LTTE whichwould have saved the latter exactly theway Rajiv Gandhi saved Prabhakaranin 1987 by enforcing a cease-fire justwhen the Sri Lankan Army was aboutto destroy the LTTE. Those in Delhiand in Chennai who take the side ofLTTE remnants in Sri Lanka forgetthat the reward Rajiv Gandhi got forhis deliverance of Prabhakaran was toget killed less than five years later bythose he had saved in 1987.

India sabotaging Taliban peace talks

PAKISTAN has made numerous peace overtures to India.It has bent backwards in sug-

gesting mechanism to ensure lastingpeace. There have been offers of ano-war pact, withdrawal of forcesfrom the international boundary aswell as the Line of Control, perpetualcease fire, no first use of nuclearweapons but each gesture has beenrudely spurned. Instead, Pakistan ispainted in a bad light as an aggres-sor, the harbinger of terrorism andmaster of proxy wars. Whereas thetruth is far from it.

Pakistan’s sincerity in improvingrelations with India is beyond anydoubt, however, Indian deep seatedanimosity against Pakistan and herhegemonic designs spoil all efforts tohold meaningful talks to bring sus-tained peace in South Asia. India hasalways explored ways to harm Paki-stan through direct actions or usingsurrogate wars to destabilize Pakistan.Ample evidence now exists that theDecember 13, 2001 attack on the In-dian Parliament, the 2007 carnage onboard the Samjhota Express and the2008 Mumbai Attacks were all or-chestrated by Hindu extremists whilePakistan was blamed for the assaults.So much so that in the wake of theDecember 13, 2001 attack on IndianParliament, Indian forces werelaunched to take punitive actionagainst Pakistan. It was only swiftdeployment of Pakistani troops for apossible riposte and internationalpressure that kept the Indians at bay.In the aftermath of the Mumbai at-tacks, Indian air force fighter aircraftwere dispatched for surgical strikes

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Sunday Magazine

Sadia Zahid MalikEditor

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

Harriet B Stowe—US writer

Manmohan Singh sent a high-levelteam to Colombo in June 2009 to tryand persuade President MahindaRajapaksa to stop the army offensive,but failed in the effort. Just asPrabhakaran killed Rajiv Gandhi andanother South Asian leader whohelped him, President RanasinghePremadasa of Sri Lanka, he may haveturned his guns on Manmohan Singhonce he escaped the noose fashionedfor him by Gotebaya Rajapaksa,theDefense Secretary of Sri Lanka andthe architect of the successful waragainst Prabhakaran.

By choosing political expediencyover national interest and cancelinghis attendance at the Colombo Com-monwealth meeting, Prime MinisterSingh has ensured that the biggestlosers will be the Sri Lankan Tamils,who incidentally favoured the IndianPrime Minister’s visit to their coun-try. The main reason why PresidentRajapaksa made concessions to theTamil groups, such as the holding offair elections, was to secure the good-will of India. Now that he has beenmade aware that such goodwill is achimera, at least so long as the presentgovernment is in office in Delhi, it isunlikely that he will further inflamehardline Sinhala opinion by givingmore concessions. The Tamil Naduparties which succeeded in keepingthe PM from going to Colombo willsoon begin to reap the bitter effectsof the reduced influence of India. Adrop caused by decision ofManmohan Singh to bypass theCommonwealth Summit in a coun-try that is only a few minutes flyingtime from his own.— The writer is Vice-Chair,Manipal Advanced ResearchGroup, UNESCO Peace Chair &Professor of Geopolitics, ManipalUniversity, Haryana State, India.

against Muridke, the allegedheadquarters of Hafiz HussainAhmad, who has been por-trayed as being the master-mind behind the Mumbai at-tacks. Again it was the timelyinterception of the Indian

fighter aircraft by Pakistan Air Forceair defence system that thwarted theIndian adventurism.

The advent of 9/11 provided In-dia with a fresh tool to whip Paki-stan. Initially Indian leaders tried toally themselves with the US, offer-ing their airspace and air bases to sup-port operations against Afghanistanand also club Pakistan in the terrortriangle. Pakistan’s timely action tosupport anti terror operationswrecked Indian machinations butlater Indian Chanakyan maneuverscreated fresh opportunities for them.Indian political leadership derivessadistic pleasure as Pakistan suffersat the hands of terrorism while itsintelligence agencies leave no stoneunturned to destabilize Pakistan. In-dian RAW conducts subversive ac-tivities and runs proxy war insidePakistan using Pakistani dissidentsand Afghan conscripts. The reports byPakistan’s intelligence agencies anddetailed information presented by Pa-kistani media proclaiming that Indianagencies are involved in different ter-rorist attacks in Pakistan were notonly ignored for lack of evidence butalso termed as stereotype.

In the guise of development andreconstruction projects in Afghani-stan, India strategically placed its in-telligence operatives, who recruited,trained, armed and launched miscre-ants in Pakistan to launch a war ofinsurgency in Balochistan and terrorattacks in Pakistan’s major citiesthrough FATA and the tribal belt.Criminal elements were attracted tothis clandestine operation, as they hadaccess to state-of-the-art weapon sys-

tems, communication equipment andunlimited funds. They found it expe-dient to operate as India’s stand-insin its heinous plot against Pakistan.

The ongoing dirty war is continu-ing to bleed Pakistan, inflicting lossesto the law enforcing agencies includ-ing the Pakistan Army, Rangers, Po-lice and the intelligence organiza-tions. The odious Indian machinationthrough its substitutes is hurting theinnocent civilians, women and chil-dren alike and taking a huge toll oflives besides maiming and injuringthem. Pakistan’s exterior maneuverhas been found wanting. Whereasthe hard evidence implicating theIndian spy agency RAW was pains-takingly collected and collated byPakistan’s intelligence organiza-tions, the same was not effectivelypresented to either the UN or inter-national organizations. On the otherhand, Indian Foreign Office and me-dia have been on the same page,painting Pakistan as aggressors.

Acting on the Chanakyan dictumof “tell a lie so often that it appears tobe the truth”, Indian agencies havemanaged to present Pakistan in theworst image and have gained the up-per hand. Pakistani side remainedsomewhat defensive in providingevidence to India for supporting ter-rorism inside Pakistan, fearing thatpeace process with India may getdamaged, though many incidents re-vealed clear signs of Indian involve-ment. On the other hand India foundit convenient to further blackmailPakistan on the peace process. Indianscholars and writers openly suggestedthat a proxy war inside Pakistanwould accrue India benefits beyondproportion as Pakistan will be weak-ened. Consequently Indian hiddenefforts continue to destabilize Paki-stan by supporting terrorists fromTTP and those belonging to Afghani-stan for conducting acts of terrorism

inside Pakistan.A peace process between the

Government of Pakistan and TTP isimminent despite setbacks. Such de-velopments are abhorrent to Indianleadership, who not only disapprovesuch talks but also make overt ef-forts to support some TTP leadersto undertake suicide attacks or useIEDs for blasts in sensitive areas inan attempt to sabotage the dialogueprospects. Recently US led NATOISAF commander endorsedPakistan’s assessment and viewpointthat Kabul-New Delhi nexus washarboring safe havens across DurandLine. He further contended that In-dian agencies in connivance withAfghan NDS conduct subversiveactivities inside Pakistan to derail thepeace process between Governmentof Pakistan and TTP.

In this regard arrest of LatifullahMehsud by US Special Forces re-vealed that terrorist attack in UpperDir targeting Major GeneralSanaullah Khan Niazi was under-taken by Indo-Afghan nexus. Hefurther proclaimed that terrorist at-tacks against Peshawar Church, inQissa Khawani Bazaar and on anofficial bus of Peshawar Secretariatwere also planned and sponsoredby Indian intelligence agenciesworking in Kabul. The aim was toderail the peace process betweenGovernment of Pakistan and TTP.While the Pakistani Parliament isrecouping after the successful tar-geting of TTP CommanderHakimullah Mehsud and contem-plating taking the dialogue processwith the TTP forward, the need ofthe hour is to remove the detrimentsin the path of peace. Indian plot tosubvert the peace process must beexposed and condemned by all andsundry including the media.—The writer is retired PAF GroupCaptain and a TV talk show host.

M D NalapatEmail: mgnalapat@gmail.com

GeopoliticalGeopoliticalGeopoliticalGeopoliticalGeopoliticalnotes from Indianotes from Indianotes from Indianotes from Indianotes from India

Sultan M HaliEmail: sm_hali@yahoo.com

Voice of the PeopleWhose

war is this?ABUBAKAR BHEEL

The statement of Jamaat Islamichief given in favor of militant out-laws has opened avenues for a de-bate touching very sensitive andcritical issue. He pronounced a de-cree that anyone fighting in colli-sion of Americans is on the way onnon-believer ship and if he is killedduring such strike he would not begiven the status of a ‘martyr’. Onthe opposite side adversaries aretaking this statement as an act oftreason. Some of them went to theextent of demanding that a formalcase be launched therefore.

The real issue is not to declarewho is martyr but is to answer thequestion whose war is this. If waronly belongs to Americans, Talibanare friends of state and its citizenry,they are ready to accept the su-premacy of the Constitution of Pa-kistan if the state deserts the Ameri-cans in this war and no further dam-age would be caused to public andits property. The war is not ours andthe state of Pakistan is being usedas pawns in their hands. But if thesituation is not so and they chal-lenge the writ of the government,disregard the Constitution, its lawsand deem entire system un-Islamicand have ambitions to replace theentire system with their own de-fined version of sharia, the war isour own war and the Governmenthas every right to exterminate suchanti-state elements. The Talibaneven waged terrorist activities be-fore 9/11. According to data pub-lished by South Asia TerrorismPortal, 17954 civilian and 5428 se-curity personals were killed in ter-rorist strikes, between 2003 t02013. The history and facts onground strengthen the view that thewar is between state and anti-stateelements and any linkages withAmerican interests is another issue.We are not fighting an outrightproxy war and the Army of Paki-stan is not mercenaries.

All the citizens of a state in gen-eral, and the personals assignedwith the duties of defence of Paki-stan are always ready to sacrificetheir lives for the security of state.Even they take pride in doing soand families of martyred do rarelylament their death. What is theforce that actuates the youngArmymen to prefer the motherlandto their own lives? It is none elsethan patriotism, which means thatthe interest of state is supreme, ir-respective of the fact the statestands on right principles or not. Ifany political party has any reser-vations regarding those principlesfor whom the country is in the stateof war, they can call the issue inquestion in Parliament. But to ques-tion the martyrdom of Forces issomehow unreasonable as it is theresponsibility of foreign office todetermine friends and foe globally.—Via email

Impact ofdrone strikesMAIDAH HARIS DAR

The Media Society of Institute ofBusiness Management alongwiththe Egalitarians hosted a screeningof the documentary Unmanned:America’s Drone Wars by RobertGreenwald. The documentary re-volved around the impacts of thedrone attacks.

As the screen flickered withdisturbing images of bodies strewnby the attack, it spoke volumes ofthe trauma that the people in theareas of Waziristan faced. The at-tacks which were supposed to killthe militants did not find its markand more than often ended up tak-ing the lives of innocents, morethan 300 children have been killedin these attacks.

Between interviewing a droneoperator the documentary cut toscenes showing the despair of thefamilies living in constant terror ofbeing killed. The operator admittedthe fact that despite all the assetsthere is room for error and narratedan incident where he accidentallykilled a child and would shoulderthat burden for the rest of his life. Itis tragic to see that the drones haveaffected people at both ends but de-spite this there seems to be no end.

The public is unaware of thetruth, that the people dying in theseattacks are not militants but mostlyinnocent civilians, who have noth-ing to do with the terrorists. It isfurther agitating, cruel and disturb-ing as it enrages the people whohave been victims to these attackswhen they are told through the ra-dio reporting that the terrorists arebeing killed.

Even if the drone attacks stop,the trauma of these wars runs toodeep; people have lost loved onesand are scarred for life. But thereremains a hope that if these attacksare stopped then some degree of

KPK MinistersCOL. RIAZ JAFRI (RETD)

Three honourable Minsters of KPK namely Yousaf Ayub (PTI),Bedar Bakht and Abrar Hussain (both of Quami Watan Party)

have been removed from the KPK Provincial Cabinet on the chargesof corruption against them. Yousaf Ayub apart from the corrup-tion charge also stood disqualified by the Supreme Court for hold-ing a fake graduation degree. If the corruption charges are correctthen mere laying off the Ministers is not much of a chastisementfor them and they should have been also booked for corruptionand handed over to the FIA or Police for proper investigations andlegal action. No doubt, the PTI has taken a bold step by dismissingits own Ministers yet, it would have been an historic and worthemulating by others a step taken by any ruling political party forgetting the cases of corruption registered against its own Minis-ters. There is still time for the PTI to do so and set an example forothers to follow. It would go a long way in weeding out the corrup-tion from our ruling elite.—Rawalpindi

In Egypt, a spring of discontent

A year ago, the MuslimBrotherhood’s leaders in thisregion of the Nile Delta

seemed confident that they owned thefuture. But then came the militarycoup on July 3 that toppled PresidentMohamed Morsi and killed hundredsof his supporters.

The story of this tumultuouscounterrevolution is clarified by avisit to this town in the heart of thedelta. You encounter an odd combi-nation of a bottom-up popular rejec-tion of the Brotherhood and a top-down military putsch. I was happy tohear demands for citizens’ rights,even amid the cheers for the gener-als. But it’s fair to say that the basicproblem of this region — not enoughjobs for a rapidly expanding popula-tion — hasn’t improved at all.

The Muslim Brotherhood lead-ership here has disappeared, intoprison or hiding. Their headquarterson Nasser Street has been convertedinto a commercial day-care centre. Afew blocks away, the offices of theBrotherhood’s political wing, theFreedom and Justice Party, have beentaken over by an interior design firm.

There’s a spooky feeling that Broth-erhood members have become “un-persons,” not seen or discussed.

Mohammed Mansour, a 21-year-old business student whose cousin isa Brotherhood supporter, explainedwhy Morsi has so little support now:“The Muslim Brotherhood is an orga-nization that operates in the dark.When they were given the opportu-nity to operate in the light, they failed.”

To get a sense of what politicalactivists here think, I contacted localmembers of a leftist group called theApril 6 movement, which helpedpower the 2011 Tahrir Square revo-lution that toppled Hosni Mubarak.A year ago, they talked loudly out-doors along a Nile canal, denounc-ing Morsi. This time, they asked tomeet inside a cafe on Talaat HarbStreet. But they proved to be as out-spoken as ever — especially in warn-ing against continued military rule.

“Most people here hated theBrotherhood and Morsi,” arguedMohammed Kamal, a computerteacher at a local high school. But he’sworried that Gen. Abdel Fatah al-Sissi, who led the coup (spoken ofhere as a popular “revolution”), willdecide to run for president next yearand “a military uniform will enter thepresidential palace again,” in a reprise

Views From Abroad

of Mubarak. “We appreciate whatSissi has done in getting rid of theMuslim Brotherhood. But the armyis there to protect, not to rule.”

Mostafa Ibrahim, a 49-year-oldlawyer who heads the local chapterof the liberal al-Dostour Party, saidhe had recently gone to the local gov-ernor and admonished him: “Noth-ing will change unless you change thepeople under you.” The “faloul,” orremnants of the Mubarak regime, stillhold many key positions. These ac-tivists conceded that they were in theminority and that, if Sissi decided torun, he would get 90 percent of thevote. “People are tired of disorder,”said Kamal. “They want to get onwith their lives.”

What happened during the yearof Morsi’s rule helps explain whythe Islamists lost support. The Broth-erhood tried to install a member asgovernor late last year, but he lastedonly three months. There was an in-terim period of no governor, and thenthey tried again to install their ownman in June. He never could get tohis office because of daily protestsoutside. Meanwhile, Brotherhoodmembers began using local servicessuch as distribution of butane gas towin political patronage. Under theBrotherhood, “There was no clear

David Ignatius

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THE articles, columns andletters are published on thesepages in good faith. However,the contents of these writingsmay not necessarily match theviews of the newspaper.

—Editor

Muharram, a sanctified monthMUHARRAM is the month

with which the Muslims begin their lunar Hijrah Cal-

endar. It is one of the four sanctifiedmonths about which the Holy Quransays, “The number of the months ac-cording to Allah is twelve (men-tioned) in the Book of Allah on theday He created heavens and the earth.Among these (twelve months) thereare four sanctified.”

These four months, according tothe authentic traditions, are Zhul-Qa’dah, Zhul-Hijjah, Muharram andRajab. All the commentators of theHoly Quran are unanimous on thispoint, because the Holy Prophet(PBUH), in his sermon on the occa-sion of his last Hajj, declared: “Oneyear consists of twelve months, ofwhich four are sanctified months,three of them are in sequence; Zhul-Qa’dah, Zhul-Hijjah, Muharram, andthe fourth is Rajab.”

Muharram has certain other char-acteristics special to it. AlthoughMuharram is a sanctified month as awhole, yet, the 10th day of Muharramis the most sacred among all its days.The day is named ‘Ashurah’. Accord-ing to the Holy Companion Ibn‘Abbas, (RA) the Holy Prophet(PBUH), when migrated to Madinah,found that the Jews of Madinah used

to fast on the 10th day of Muharram.They said that it was the day on whichthe Holy Prophet Musa (PBUH), andhis followerscrossed the Red Seamiraculously andthe Pharaoh wasdrowned in its wa-ters. On hearing thisfrom the Jews, theHoly Prophet(PBUH), said, “Weare more closelyrotated to Musa(PBUH), than you,”and directed theMuslims to fast onthe day of ‘Ashura’.(Abu Dawood)

Some peopleattribute the sanctity of ‘Ashura’ tothe martyrdom of Sayyidna Husain(RA), during his battle with the armyof Yazeed. No doubt, the martyrdomof Sayyidina Husain (RA), is one ofthe most tragic episodes of our his-tory. Yet, the sanctity of ‘Ashura’cannot be ascribed to this event forthe simple reason that the sanctityof ‘Ashura’ was established duringthe days of the Holy Prophet(PBUH) much earlier than the birthof Sayyidna Husain (RA). On thecontrary, it is one of the merits of

Sayyidna Husain (RA),that his mar-tyrdom took place on the day of‘Ashura’. Another misconception

about the month ofMuharram is thatit is an evil or un-lucky month, forSayyidna Husain(RA), wasmartyred in it. It isfor this miscon-ception thatpeople avoid hold-ing marriage cer-emonies in themonth ofMuharram. This isagain a baselessconcept, which iscontrary to the ex-

press teachings of the Holy Quranand the Sunnah. If the death of aneminent person on a particular dayrenders that day unlucky for alltimes to come, one can hardly finda day of the year free from this badluck because every day is associ-ated with the demise of some emi-nent person. The Holy Quran andthe Sunnah of the Holy Prophet(PBUH), have liberated us fromsuch superstitious beliefs.

Another wrong practice relatedto this month is to hold the lamenta-

plan for development of Menoufia.There was no investment, no visitsby ministers, no opening of newfactories. You could feel a sense ofstagnation,” said Mohammed el-Shamy, a reporter for Akhbar el-Yom newspaper.

When I visited here a year ago,Badr el-Falah, a local Brotherhoodmember of parliament, talked of eco-nomic development — but withoutany specifics. He disappeared afterJune 30 and “nobody has heard ofhim,” said Shamy with a shrug. Asdiscontent with Morsi increased lastspring, the Tamarod movement be-gan circulating petitions calling forMorsi’s removal. According toIbrahim, the petition was signed by2.6 million people, or more than halfof Menoufia’s 4.5 million residents.The group claims it obtained 22 mil-lion signatures across Egypt.

Since the generals stepped in, se-curity here is better and “people arehappier and more relaxed,” saidKamal. But there are no new jobs— and that’s the core problem.Mansour said he has no idea what todo when he graduates, except try toemigrate: “The person who gradu-ates in Menoufia doesn’t get a jobin Menoufia. He gets on a bus.”— Courtesy: The Washington Post

tion and mourning ceremonies inthe memory of martyrdom ofSayyidna Husain (RA). As men-tioned earlier, the event of Karbalais one of the most tragic events ofour history, but the Holy Prophet(PBUH), has forbidden us fromholding the mourning ceremonieson the death of any person.

All the authentic jurists areunanimous on the point that themourning of this type is impermis-sible. Even Sayyidna Husain (RA),shortly before his martyrdom, hadadvised his beloved sister SayyidahZainab (RA), not to mourn over hismartyrdom in this manner. He said,“My dear sister! I swear upon youthat in case I die you shall not tearyour clothes, nor scratch your face,nor curse anyone for me or pray foryour death.” (Al-Kamil, ibn al-Athir vol. 4 pg. 24)

It is evident from this advice ofSayyidna Husain (RA) that this typeof mourning is condemned even bythe blessed person for the memoryof whom these mourning ceremo-nies are held. Every Muslim shouldavoid this practice and abide by theteachings of the Holy Prophet(PBUH) and his beloved grandchild Sayyidna Husain (RA).— Courtesy: Albalagh.com

MY daughter just sent me aphoto, where she is sittingon a cycle in Central Park,

New York. Under the photo, she haswritten, ‘thank you for teaching mecycling daddy!’ It was while look-ing at her picture that I came acrossthis lovely article on cycling:

At first, I saw God as my ob-server, my judge, keeping track ofthe things I did wrong, so as to knowwhether I merited reward or pun-ishment when I die. He was out

there sort of like a president. I recog-nized His picture when I saw it, but Ireally didn’t know Him. But later onwhen I met God, it seemed as thoughlife were rather like a bike ride, but itwas a double-seater bike, and I no-ticed God was in the back helping mecycle. I don’t know just when it wasthat He suggested we change places,but life has not been the same since.

When I had control, I knew theway. It was rather boring, but predict-able it was the shortest distance be-tween two points. But when He tookthe lead, He knew delightful longcuts, up mountains, and throughrocky places at breakneck speeds. Itwas all I could do to hang on!Even though it looked like madness,He said, “Pedal!” I worried and was

anxious and asked, “Where are youtaking me?” He laughed and didn’tanswer, and I started to learn to trust.

I forgot my boring life and enteredinto the adventure, and when I’d say,“I’m scared,” He’d lean back andtouch my hand. I gained love, peace,acceptance and joy; gifts to take onmy journey, God’s and mine. And wewere off again.He said, “Give thegifts away. They’re extra baggage,too much weight.” So I did, to thepeople we met, and I found that ingiving I received, and still our bur-den was light. I did not trust Him, atfirst, in control of my life. I thoughtHe’d wreck it; but he knows bike se-crets, knows how to make it bend, totake sharp corners, knows how to jumpto clear high rocks, knows how to fly

Cycling with God..!to shorten, scary passages. And I amlearning to shut up and pedal in thestrangest places, and I’m beginningto enjoy the view and the cool breezeon my face with my delightful con-stant companion, GOD.

And when I’m sure I just can’tdo it anymore, He just smiles andsays... “Cycle Bob, cycle!” Andthat’s exactly my dear reader, whatI intend doing. Just cycle. So of-ten common sense comes in theway and tells me not to take a risk,not to climb a mountain, not to takethe rough and narrow, but then Ismile as I remember who sits infront and holds the handle bar. Thatall I have to do is cycle, just pedalas He leads me on..!—Email:bobsbanter@gmail.com

Technology for conflict resolution

CONFLICT resolution is avery hot topic these days inthe research sector. Many

Governments of the World are in-terested in finding out better andcheaper ways for conflict resolution,especially for situations that createwars between nations.

Generally the human interactionof any armed forces can create ten-sion, which can result in unintentionalfighting between them, which caninflame an already tense situationbetween two nations resulting inbattles and war.

The US Forces have learned inAfghanistan that pouring money intoa war, will not help you win the war.The Afghanistan war has already costthem their prestigious credit ratingand created a host of domestic andfinancial problems for the nation, re-sulting in the US’s decision to endthe Afghan War quickly by apparently

“killing” the head of the Al Qaedagroup in Abbotabad, Pakistan.

Research has shown us thatconflicts can be resolved if both theparties can communicate, or evenif one party can convey their mes-sage and have the other party listento the message. This would beenough to resolve the conflict. Mostconflicts in the world arise becausethe humans involved at the frontlines cannot communicate effec-tively, but with today’s advancetechnology all of that can bechanged.

For example, many of the USdrone aircraft’s are designed to flyfor a few days, tracking any suspi-cious activities with the heat andnight vision camera. Once any sus-picious activity is detected, the dronetracks the enemy to their home andthen guides a US raiding party onthe unsuspecting enemy or fires ex-ploding missiles on them.

Now if these drones wereequipped with laser guided bomb-lessmissiles that can be fired at any en-emy involved in any suspicious ac-

tivity. The missile would drop in-frontof the enemy but would not explode.Instead it would hold flares and loudspeakers, that would convey a warn-ing message to the enemy and scar-ing them into retreat.

This way the enemy would bedeterred from entering into a con-flict with the US forces, reducingthe cost from damage to equipment,use of weapons, vehicles and wouldalso save lives. This mechanism ofwarning the enemy would show theenemy that they are being tracked,and the US forces are vigilant. Plusthe laser guided warning shot willshow them the accuracy of theweapons. And in the long run, ifenough enemy soldiers witnessthese attacks and lives to tell thestory to others, it would help de-moralize the enemy.

On the other hand, constant fight-ing between two forces emboldensthe soldiers on both sides to continuethe fighting, resulting in atrocitiescommitted by soldiers on civilianpopulations. It also causes losses tohuman lives, vehicles, equipment and

demoralizes the soldiers on bothsides of the conflict. Also conflictsstop all economic, social, culturaland scientific activities, this effec-tively stopping the advancement ofan entire nation or civilization.

I understand that using suchloudspeakers in missles might seemridiculous to people who considerfighting on the front line to be moreintense and dangerous, where sol-diers either kill or be killed. Butwith the latest technology, espe-cially unmanned drones, using thisoption is not only viable, it is alsointeresting. The US Army and otherconflicting nations have used weap-ons, tanks, soldiers etc to end con-flicts, but history shows us that suchmeasures can be very damaging toboth the conflicting parties. There-fore using a new technique that canone day reduce the wars and battlesand instead help start dialogue andnegotiation for conflict resolutioncan maybe one day help bringWorld Peace.— The writer is freelancecolumnist.

Shahryar Khan BaseerEmail:shahryar01@hotmail

The Spirit Of Islam

Mufti Taqi Usmani

normalcy would return to the livesof these people. As the documentaryended, there was great appreciationfrom the students who understoodthe impact and felt the pain of thepeople. “Watching it on screen madeit so sad and scary that I can’t evenimagine what those people must gothrough” said one student whowatched the documentary.—Karachi

Shisha smokingARIFA ABDUL RAHIM

I would like to draw the attention ofthe health Ministry to look intohealth problems. In our country, thesale of cigarettes and tobacco is pro-hibited by law to anybody under theage of 18. Nowadays Shisha smok-ing is very common in our country;mostly the teenagers are Shisha ad-dicts. Shisha smoking is typicallypracticed in groups, with the samemouthpiece passed from person toperson. Shisha also known as wa-ter-pipe smoking, is just as harmfulas cigarettes.

Shisha smoking also containshundreds of potentially dangeroussubstances, including charcoal, nico-tine, arsenic, cobalt, chromium andlead. It has also been proven thatlong-term habitual use of water-pipes, as with regular cigarettesmoking, is associated with lung,gastrointestinal and bladder prob-lems as well as pulmonary, cardio-vascular and hematological diseases.Other dangers include infectionssuch as tuberculosis, hepatitis C,pulmonary aspergillosis andHelicobacter pylori infection.

There is an urgent need to edu-cate the public against the dangersof the Shisha use. Our religiousscholars as well as non-governmen-tal organizations should come for-ward and educate the public againstthe Shisha epidemic which is rap-idly spreading in our country. It isthe responsibility of high authoritiesto take a serious action against thisdangerous addiction.—Karachi

Breastfeedingbest panaceaRANA TASSAWAR ALI

In Pakistan, we have many factorsinvolved causing conditions result-ing in malnutrition. Overall, thecountry is unaware of this chronicissue. The literacy rate of womenand girls is 12-26 percent - fewwomen are educated. There is strongevidence in the National Nutritionsurvey (NNS-2011) that poorbreastfeeding is one of the maincauses of malnutrition in Pakistan.Every year, thousands of motherslose their babies due to use of for-mula milk and poor breastfeeding.According a survey conducted by anorganization working on malnutri-tion, 84 percent of mothers are ad-vised by health care practitioners touse formula milk. For this reason,the formula milk industry in Paki-stan is growing fast. Unethical mar-keting is also a cause of the increaseduse of formula milk among moth-ers; various studies provide evidencethat health care practitioners receivegifts from multinational producersof this product.

In Pakistan, there are so manydifferent traditional practices that arethe big hurdle in exclusivebreastfeeding. The urban and ruraldivision in the country creates gapsin behavior change communications.In urban areas, the families mostlyengage in feeding formula milk,while in rural areas, the traditionalpoverty is the cause of malnutrition.In our country, pre-lacteal feeding(Ghutti) and honey are commonlygiven to the newborn babies. Thecultural variations also provide evi-dence of other forms of pre-lactealfeed, including “Gurr’’ (jaggery)more commonly given in northernareas of Punjab/KP/Gilgit-Baltistan.There is a finding that watereddonkey’s milk , which is perceivedto prevent epilepsy, is also given, inGilgit-Baltistan.

Pakistan is like most other de-veloping countries in terms of dis-eases in children under the age of

five. Social, cultural, political andeconomic factors are not helpful inimproving the malnutrition situationin country. The situation requiresstakeholders’ full support in termsof investing in nutrition, allocatingof resources, and creating strongbehavioral change communicationmessages to discourage harmful tra-ditional practices.

It is responsibility of the Stateto provide protection and promotionof breastfeeding practices. The Gov-ernment of Pakistan must implementlegislation enhancing practices ofexclusive breast feeding.—Islamabad

Man is destroyingthe World

TAUQEER AHMAD

Naturally, man’s curiosity to findunique and new things has been in-finite since he has learnt to put themto ease his life. He has created waysto save lives, barriers to halt disas-ters; even strength to rule on uni-verse; however, his curiosity hasbecome itself a big danger for hisexistence, through weapons of massdestruction, intense threat to Ecosystem, clashes for power and su-periority, many more.

While the human race has beentermed as Ashraf-ul-Makhlooqat, ithas wronged the fundamentals ofhumanity, by itself. Man can turnthis earth into heaven, whereas can-not be stopped from turning it intohell, In short, selfishness, greedi-ness, brutality, bravery, wisdom,curiosity, humanity and knowledgehas rated him superior to the angels,as well as worse than devil in thehistory. The factors that incited himmost are the greed of power andwealth, being superior to all and rul-ing others; that is why he is alwaysready to assault the weaker to gethim recognized as such.

If we look at the needs of sur-vival, power does not matter here,as the basics for survival are food,shelter, cloths and security - sameas the day first, not the one man isfighting for. In fact there had beenseldom wars on the issues of food,shelter and humanity but thousandson power, wealth and egoism, thatinflicted numerous losses of humanlives, which is still an alarming is-sue for humanity.

People usually say that man isprogressing toward infinity, to a di-rection he had never imagined of, butI believe that he has had enoughprogress to be social and sensible;now he is reverting back again to aunsocial, senseless, merciless wildman who used to dwell like barbar-ians, killed everyone and had no painfor others. World War I and II werethe evident realities, that were started,left thousands dead; the end of thesewars was not because of man’s re-morse but because one of the com-batants eventually surrendered hispower to other. The same tendencyis predicted to lead to bloody clashesin the future, the end is not here.

The current arena of technologyis said to be an era of mass destruc-tion. Man has started writing his owndestiny and a new aspect of his vi-cious progress would demolish theentire system of nature on Earth. Thequestion is who is to be blamed ifman himself is the killer of human-ity? He himself is deteriorating thefuture of this planet. Aren’t we sen-sible enough to differentiate betweenthe good and bad. If we are not, dowe deserve to think that we are su-perior to animals; we don’t deserveto be reckoned as animals becauseanimals too behave within theirsenses at least which we cannot ex-pect from the man of this time.—Peshawar

RAMZY BAROUD

IN an initially pointless exercise that lasted nearly anhour, I flipped between

two Palestinian televisionchannels, al-Aqsa TV ofHamas in Gaza and PalestineTV of Fatah in the WestBank. While both purportedto represent Palestine and thePalestinians, each seemed torepresent some other placeand some other people. Itwas all very disappointing.

Hamas’ world is fixatedon their hate of Fatah andother factional personal busi-ness. Fatah TV is stuck be-tween several worlds of ar-chaic language of phonyrevolutions, factional rivalryand unmatched self-adora-tion. The two narratives aregrowingly alien and will un-likely ever move beyondtheir immediate sense of self-

gratification and utter absur-dity.

It is no wonder why Pales-tinians are still struggling to tellthe world such a simple,straightforward and truthfulstory. Perhaps it is now out ofdesperation that they expectIsrael’s New Historians, inter-national experts who make oc-casional visits to Palestine oran unexceptionally fair west-ern journalist to tell it.

But what about the Pales-tinians themselves? This is rarebecause factionalism in Pales-tine and among Palestinians inthe Diaspora is also destroy-ing the very idea of having acommon narrative throughwhich they can tell one cohe-sive story, untainted by thetribal political mentality whichis devouring Palestinian iden-tity the same way Israeli bull-dozers are devouring whateverremains of their land.

Even if such a narrativewere to finally exist, it wouldlikely be an uphill battle, forIsrael’s official narrative, albeita forgery is rooted in history.On May 16, Shay Hazkani, de-scribed in a detailed Haaretzarticle the intricate and pur-poseful process throughwhich Israel’s first Prime Min-ister David Ben-Gurion re-wrote history.

Factionalism in Palestineand among Palestinians in theDiaspora is also destroyingthe very idea of having a com-mon narrative through whichthey can tell one cohesivestory

“Catastrophic thinking:Did Ben-Gurion try to rewritehistory?” was largely based ona single file (number GL-18/17028) in the State Archivesthat seemed to have escapedcensorship. The rest of thefiles were whisked away after

Israel’s New Historians -Benny Morris, Avi Shlaim, TomSegev, Ilan Pappe and othersgot their hands on numerousdocuments that violently ne-gated Israel’s official story ofits birth.

“Archived Israeli docu-ments that reported the expul-sion of Palestinians, massacresor rapes perpetrated by Israelisoldiers, along with otherevents considered embarrass-ing by the establishment, werereclassified as ‘top secret,’”Hazkani wrote in the Israelipaper. But GL-18/17028 some-how survived the official on-slaught on history.

The lone document spokeof the “evolution of the Israeliversion of the PalestinianNakba(The Catastrophe) of1948.” That evolution tookplace under the auspices ofBen-Gurion himself betweenthe years 1960-1964, where he

assigned one scholar after an-other to basically fabricate his-tory, which they surely did.Zionist leaders were at leastastute enough to understandthe power of collectivememory, and its possible im-pact on international publicopinion. So they tailored theirown versions of history veryearly on as to counter futuregenerations of Palestinians.

Salman Abu Sitta is one ofPalestine’s foremost histori-ans. The man has done moreto preserve and document Pal-estinian historical records thanany other historian alive. In aninterview with Lebanon’s Al-Akhbar newspaper on Aug. 5,2012, Abu Sitta was, of course,fully aware of the Israeli at-tempts at restyling history.“The Israeli maps of the 1950swere nothing more than theBritish survey of Palestinemaps overwritten in Hebrew,”

he said. “From 1960 onwards,the survey of Israel depart-ment started to issue mapsdevoid of all these original Pal-estinian names, and replacedwith Hebrew ones.”

The reference to 1960 ret-rospectively corroboratesHazkani’s story based on theenduring file GL-18/17028. Sixand a half decades later thatfight continues, betweenIsrael’s attempts to erase thehistory of Palestine, while Pal-estinians, through indepen-dent efforts (no thanks to thewarring factions) try to pre-serve their own. “The war runsalong several fronts, not onlymilitarily, but it is also a battleover the minds of people…Weare not trying to obliterate anyother’s history we are tryingto say that we will not allowyou (Israel) to erase ours,”Abu Sitta said. Yet Israel’s ef-fort at abolishing Palestinian

Palestinians struggle to tell the world their simple, straightforward and truthful story

UN Climate meet:‘It’s about survival’

DESMOND BROWN

FOR the small island developing states of the Caribbean, there is nothing more important than the UnitedNations Climate Change Conference taking place here at

the national stadium of Poland from Nov. 11-22.“We’re being impacted by climate change right now. We

have to fight sea level rise, we are looking at increases in thefrequency and severity of storm events, so it’s about survival,”Hugh Sealy, vice chair of the Clean Development Mechanism(CDM) Executive Board, told IPS.3 “In my humble opinion, andforgive me for being melodramatic, this is the most importantdecade facing mankind,” said Sealy, a national of Grenada. “Whatwe do in the next seven years will affect generations to come.”

The CDM is the largest carbon market in the world. It has sofar delivered more than 315 billion dollars in assistance to devel-oping countries. It has launched more than 7,400 projects since2004 and has saved the developed countries about three billiondollars in cost compliance. The CDM now has a regional col-laboration centre at St. George’s University in Grenada with twomore centres in Lome and Kampala. A new report released hereshows that Haiti led the list of the three countries most affectedby weather-related catastrophes in 2012. The others were thePhilippines and Pakistan.

Germanwatch presented the ninth annual Global ClimateRisk Index at the onset of the Climate Summit in Warsaw. “Thelandfall of Hurricane Sandy in the U.S. dominated internationalnews in October 2012. Yet it was Haiti - the poorest country inthe Western Hemisphere - that suffered the greatest losses fromthe same event,” said Sönke Kreft, team leader for internationalclimate policy at Germanwatch and co-author of the index.

In the last two decades, the 10 most affected countries havewithout exception been developing nations, with Honduras,Myanmar and Haiti taking the brunt during the period 1993-2012, the report noted. The Germanwatch Climate Risk Indexranks countries according to relative and absolute number ofhuman victims, and relative and absolute economic damage.The core data stems from the Munich Re NatCatSERVICE. Themost recent available data from 2012 as well as for the 20-year-period 1993-2012 were taken into account for the preparation ofthis index.

“Our results are really a wake-up call to ramp up interna-tional climate policy and to better manage weather-related di-sasters,” said Kreft. “The year 2015 represents a major mile-stone, which needs to deliver a new climate agreement, and theinternational disaster framework is also up for renewal.” Theclimate summit in Warsaw is expected to chart a road-map for anambitious 2015 agreement. But Sealy and a very vocal Carib-bean delegation at the summit are determined to leave Warsawwith some tangible benefits. “I live in Grenada right now,” Sealytold IPS. “The cost for electricity in Grenada is 40 U.S. cents perkilowatt hour, it’s one of the highest in the world. Ten percent ofour GDP is spent on importing diesel. It’s a constraint for theentire economy. We have hotels that can’t pay their electricitybills. “If we can get something out of this conference that saysthat monies will pour into developing countries to help themtransform their energy sectors then that’s a sustainable devel-opment benefit that will affect the entire region.”

Sealy’s role here is as the lead negotiator for work streamtwo for the alliance. He explained that at the 2011 climate summitin Durban, it was agreed that developing countries and devel-oped countries have to come together to take mitigation actionto reduce CO2 emissions. “Work stream one is trying to comeup with a 2015 agreement that would come into effect in 2020.Work stream two, which is what the alliance pushed for, sayswe cannot wait until 2020 for an agreement,” Sealy said.

“We have to take action now so we insisted that we havea work stream two and my job here is to make sure that coun-tries move forward in the next seven years enhancing mitiga-tion,” he explained. “So what we hope to get out of workstream two is a technical process that identifies the mitigationpotential that developing countries could take and also themeans of implementation the finance, the technology trans-fer, the capacity building that would allow small islands tomove forward.” The Warsaw conference also negotiates howto directly address climate-related loss and damage, a topic ofspecial interest to small island states. On Wednesday, theWorld Meteorological Organisation (WMO) reported that thisyear is on course to be among the top 10 warmest years sincemodern records began in 1850. The first nine months, Januaryto September, tied with 2003 as the seventh warmest suchperiod on record, with a global land and ocean surface tem-perature of about 0.48°C (0.86°F) above the 1961–1990 aver-age, according to the report.

WMO’s provisional annual statement on the Status ofthe Global Climate 2013 provides a snapshot of regional andnational temperatures. It also includes details on precipita-tion, floods, droughts, tropical cyclones, ice cover and sea-level. “Temperatures so far this year are about the same asthe average during 2001-2010, which was the warmest de-cade on record,” said WMO Secretary-General MichelJarraud.

“All of the warmest years have been since 1998 and thisyear once again continues the underlying, long-term trend, thecoldest years now are warmer than the hottest years before1998,” he said. “Atmospheric concentrations of carbon dioxideand other greenhouse gases reached new highs in 2012, and weexpect them to reach unprecedented levels yet again in 2013.This means that we are committed to a warmer future,” addedJarraud.

Sealy told IPS that the key issues for the Caribbean atWarsaw include “recognising that climate change is affect-ing us now and we need support now to not only adapt butalso to transform our economies.” He pointed to TyphoonHaiyan that hit the Philippines with sustained winds of 300kilometres an hour and peak winds of 380 kilometres perhour. “How can we adapt to that type of storm in the Carib-bean? It’s totally impossible. So what the world has to do isreduce their emissions and that’s what we’re trying to dohere. We are trying to bring a sense of urgency to this con-ference that we have to do things now, not wait until 2020,”Sealy added.

—Inter Press Service

history never ceased, startingwith the destruction of hun-dreds of Palestinian villagesand expelling their populationsin 1947-48, to rewriting maps,to changing names of townsand streets, to manufacturingalternate histories, to more re-cently, outlawing Palestinianmemory. Yes, precisely that.

In March 2011, the IsraeliKnesset passed what isknown as the “Nakba Bill.” Itfinancially penalizes any orga-nization or institution that per-ceives and commemoratesIsrael’s founding as a day ofmourning for Palestinians. Thelaw, officially known as “Bud-get Principles Law (Amend-ment 39) Reducing BudgetarySupport for Activities Con-trary to the Principles of theState,” was as a continuationof Ben-Gurion’s project ofphysically erasing Palestin-ians, severing their rapport

with their own land, and pre-senting a construct of historyto the rest of the world a his-tory that was deliberatelymisconstrued by few indi-viduals following official in-structions.

Alas, a largely inventedhistory that is so focused andwell funded seems to trumpgenuine history that ismostly distorted by the in-competence of its owners.True, there are many Abu Sittatype historians, who see Pal-estinians through the trans-parency of the collective, notthe distorted prisms of indi-viduals or factions. However,their voices are muffled andtrounced by overwhelmingodds the Hamas versus Fatahversus the rest, the divisionof the national identity basedon geography, politics andfunds, among other factors.

—Courtesy Alarabiya

DHAKA—Bangladeshi gar-ment factory owners said, theyhad agreed to a proposed 77percent rise in the minimumwage, but police used teargasand rubber bullets to break upnew protests by stone-throw-ing workers calling for a big-ger increase.

Bangladesh’s official wageboard had proposed the riseto $68 a month as the minimumwage, up from $38, after a stringof fatal factory accidents thisyear thrust poor pay and con-ditions into the internationalspotlight.

The factory ownersagreed to the proposal at ameeting with Prime MinisterSheikh Hasina on Wednesdaynight after several days of vio-lent protests by workers.

“We have agreed to thenew wages after the prime min-ister assured us she wouldlook into our problems,” saidMohammad Atiqul Islam,president of the BangladeshGarment Manufacturers’ andExporters’ Association.

He said the new wage, to

Bangladesh factories agree topay rise, but protests go on

be officially approved by thewage board, would be effec-tive from next month.

“In the greater interest ofour garment sector, we agreedto it. But many small factoriescannot afford the rise,” Islamtold Reuters.

Workers demanding a $100a month took to the streets,blocking major roads and at-tacking factories in the Ashuliaindustrial belt, on the outskirtsof the capital, Dhaka.

Police used water cannon,fired rubber bullets and lobbedteargas to disperse the stone-throwing demonstrators, wit-nesses said. More than 50people, including police, werewounded.

“We will continue protest-ing until we realize our de-mand,” a protester said. Vio-lent protests over the pay risehave forced the closure ofmore than 100 factories thisweek. About 200 were shut onThursday.

Labour Minister RajiuddinAhmed Raju urged workers togo back to work. He said con-

tinuing unrest could threatenlivelihoods and warned of ac-tion against trouble-makers.

“We are working to ensuredecent pay for garment work-ers,” he told reporters after ameeting trade unions. “Cul-prits who are trying to destroythe industry won’t be spared.”

The new wage would stillbe the lowest for garment work-ers in the world, saidKhandaker Golam Moazzem, aresearch director at the Centrefor Policy Dialogue think-tank.

The protests have coin-cided with violent anti-govern-ment protests and strikes ledby the main opposition partydemanding next year’s elec-tions take place under a non-partisan government.

The impasse between theruling party and oppositionover election rules is a freshthreat to Bangladesh’s $22 bil-lion garment export industry,the economic lifeblood of theimpoverished country of 160million, employing about 4 mil-lion people, most of themwomen.—Reuters

CAIRO—Egypt’s top generalhailed a new era of defensecooperation with Russia, dur-ing a visit by Russian officials,signaling Egyptian efforts torevive ties with an old ally andsend a message to Washing-ton after it suspended militaryaid.

Tension between Cairoand Washington has mountedsince the army overthrew Is-lamist President MohamedMursi on July 3. Last month,Washington announced itwould withhold deliveries ofsome military and economic aidpending progress on democ-racy.

Both sides billed as historicthe visit to Cairo by Russia’sdefense and foreign ministers,though officials said nothingto indicate the conclusion ofmajor agreements during ajoint news conference by theforeign ministers.

And playing down specu-lation of a big shift in Egyptianforeign policy defined by closeties with Washington for morethan three decades, ForeignMinister Nabil Fahmy saidRussia was not meant to be a“substitute” for anyone.

Egypt and the SovietUnion were close allies untilthe 1970s, when Cairo movedcloser to the United States,which brokered its 1979 peacedeal with Israel.

General Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, Egypt’s army chief anddefense minister, told his Rus-sian counterpart, SergeiShoigu, the visit indicated thecontinuation of “historic stra-tegic relations via starting a

new era of constructive, fruit-ful cooperation on the militarylevel”, the state news agencyreported.

Shoigu and Sisi talkedabout strengthening militaryrelations between the coun-tries, the agency said.

“It’s meant to send a mes-sage to say Egypt has options,and that if the United Stateswishes to maintain its strate-gic alliance with Egypt, it willhave to drop the conditions itattaches to the military aid,”said Yasser El-Shimy, Egyptanalyst with the InternationalCrisis Group.

Washington has said itwould consider resumingsome of the suspended aiddepending on Egypt’sprogress in following the in-terim government’s plans tohold elections - a plan the gov-ernment says it is committedto seeing through.

Seeking to mend fenceswith Egypt, U.S. Secretary ofState John Kerry expressedguarded optimism about a re-turn to democracy during aNovember 3 visit to Cairo.

A Western diplomat inCairo said the prospect of theUnited States resuming aidearly next year was one factordiminishing the chances of amajor new defense deal withMoscow. Analysts have alsoquestioned how the heavily in-debted Egyptian state wouldpay for new armaments, say-ing it would likely require morefinancial support from Gulf al-lies that have pledged $12 bil-lion in support to Cairo sinceMursi’s downfall.—Reuters

Sisi sees new Russiadefence cooperation

Sri Lanka: ‘Nothing to hide’despite pressure before summit

COLOMBO—Sri Lanka’spresident defended hisgovernment’s human rightsrecord, saying he had “noth-ing to hide”, but on the eve ofa Commonwealth summit inColombo he faced fresh ques-tions over the treatment ofethnic minority Tamils.

Mahinda Rajapaksa saida system was in place todeal with rights violations,amid allegations of abusefour years after a civil waragainst Tamil separatistsended. The concernprompted Canadian PrimeMinister Stephen Harper toskip the summit.

“We have a legal systemin Sri Lanka,” Rajapaksa saidin Colombo, where a three-daymeeting of leaders from theCommonwealth of mostlyformer British colonies beginson Friday.

“If anyone wants to com-plain about the human rightsviolations in Sri Lanka,whether it is torture, whetherit is rape ... we have a sys-tem,” he said.

“If there (are) any viola-

tions, we will take actionagainst anyone. So we areopen. We have nothing tohide.”

British Prime MinisterDavid Cameron, speaking inIndia on the way to Sri Lanka,called for greater freedom ofthe press, an end to tortureand a full investigation intowar crimes.

“There need to be properhuman rights (and) democ-racy for the Tamil minority inthat country,” he said in NewDelhi ahead of a meeting withIndian Prime MinisterManmohan Singh, who willalso miss the summit, al-though partly because of do-mestic pressures. Tamil rebelsbased in the north of Sri Lankafought government forces for26 years until the armycrushed them in 2009.

A U.N. panel has saidthousands of civilians, mostof them Tamils, were killed inthe final offensive to defeatthe rebels. Both sides com-mitted atrocities, but armyshelling killed most of the vic-tims, it concluded.

The government says SriLanka is on the path to recon-ciliation, helped by fast eco-nomic growth, and Rajapaksa- who had hoped the Com-monwealth meeting wouldcast his country in a positivelight - underlined the benefitsof peace.

“Today, no one is gettingkilled,” he told a news confer-ence. “We have finished thatwar, that menace. People arerelieved.”

Cameron, who has arguedthat attending the Common-wealth meeting was preferableto boycotting it, said he wouldvisit the Tamil-dominatednorthern city of Jaffna topush his case for greater rightsthere. “I think it’s very impor-tant to go. There needs to beproper inquiries into whathappened at the end of thewar,” he said.

Cameron added that,while determined to deliver a“tough message”, there hadbeen progress in terms of po-litical rights in the north andreconciliation with minoritygroups.

Sri Lankan officials havebristled at what they see asCameron’s interference.

“We are a sovereign na-tion. You think someone canjust make a demand from SriLanka?” government spokes-man Keheliya Rambukwellatold the BBC. “We are not acolony. We are an indepen-dent state.”

But the build-up to thesummit has been overshad-owed by an opposition pro-test in Colombo, a slew of re-ports from rights groups criti-cizing the government and anincident on Wednesday in-volving a foreign televisioncrew prevented from visitingthe north.

A train carrying a crewfrom Britain’s Channel 4,which has previously re-ported on alleged war crimesin Sri Lanka, was stopped bypro-government protesters.

Also on Wednesday, a carcarrying opposition leaderRanil Wickremesinghe was at-tacked by hundreds of pro-testers in the capital, Colombo.He was not hurt.—Reuters

MOSCOW—Russian Presi-dent Vladimir Putin and Syr-ian leader Bashar al-Assaddiscussed plans for a peaceconference and progress inthe elimination of chemical

w e a p o n sduring atelephonecall, theK r e m l i nsaid.It gavefew detailsbut saidPutin hadu r g e d

Assad’s government to do allit can to alleviate the suffer-ing of civilians and “posi-tively assessed” the Syriangovernment’s readiness tosend a delegation to theplanned peace talks.

Putin also voiced concernover what he called persecu-tion of Christians and otherreligious minorities by ex-tremists in Syria, apparentlyblaming this on Islamist mili-tants fighting Assad’s gov-ernment.

“The hope was ex-pressed that the governmentof Syria will do everything

Putin discusses Syriapeace moves with Assad

possible to alleviate the suf-fering of the civilian popula-tion and restore peace be-tween faiths,” the Kremlinstatement said.

Putin also “expressedsatisfaction” with Syria’s co-operation with an interna-tional mission overseeing theelimination of its chemicalarms under a deal brokeredby Russia and the UnitedStates. Washington andMoscow are also trying toarrange an internationalpeace conference in Geneva.

The statement appearedintended to portray the Syr-ian president as taking aconstructive approach to ef-forts to secure peace in hiscountry after more than 2-1/2 years of conflict, and tounderline Moscow’s poten-tial role as an interlocutor.

Russia has been Assad’smost powerful backer duringthe conflict, sending armsand blocking Western ef-forts to condemn or pres-sure Assad. Russia says itis not trying to prop upAssad but that his exit can-not be a precondition forpeace talks.—Reuters

Former Germanarms-industry

lobbyist convictedBERLIN—A former arms-in-dustry lobbyist involved ina corruption scandal linkedto former Germany Chancel-lor Helmut Kohl has beenconvicted of tax evasion andsentenced to six-and-a-halfyears in prison.

The dpa news agency re-ported Thursday thatKarlheinz Schreiber wasfound guilty in Augsburgstate court.

Schreiber, a Canadian-German dual national, was ar-rested in Canada in 1999 andextradited to Germany wherehe was convicted in 2010 butwon a retrial on appeal. Pros-ecutors say he didn’t declaremoney he received as kick-backs for the sale of helicop-ters to Canada’s coast guard,tanks to Saudi Arabia andother arms deals.

Allegations the 79-year-old gave a cash donation tothe former treasurer of Kohl’sparty triggered a scandal thatdeepened with Kohl’s 1999admission he accepted off-the-book donations him-self.—AP

TOKYO—Japan is planningto send about 1,000 troopsto the Philippines in what of-ficials say could become themilitary’s biggest relief effortever.

The decision was postedon Prime Minister ShinzoAbe’s official Facebookpage.

Japan has sent its SelfDefense Forces, as its mili-tary is known, on 13 prior di-saster relief efforts. While theexact number for this missionhas yet to be decided, it will

Japan sending 1,000troops to Philippines

be one of the largest if notthe largest ever.

Foreign Ministry spokes-man Koichi Mizushima said:“We are really concernedabout the situation in thePhilippines.”

The contingent will pri-marily transport relief sup-plies, but could include somemedical workers. The SelfDefense Forces have alreadydispatched a 50-person medi-cal team to the Philippines.Japan has also sent 25 civil-ian doctors and nurses.—AP

An Iranian Muslim Shiite girl is beautifully dressed to take part in the annual religious performance of Taazieh inthe Iranian town of Noosh Abad near the central city of Kashan.

LAHORE: Law Minister Rana Sanaullah visiting routes of Zuljinah procession in Mochi Gate and Raang Mahal onThursday.

rity arrangements made for theobservance of Ashura.

Security arrangements weremade for Muharramul Harramacross the country in order toensure the establishment ofpeace and order and to deal withany possible threat of terrorism.

Militants in Pakistan oftendetonate bombs using cellphones and the government hasimplemented similar servicesuspensions in the past.

On the request of the Sindhgovernment, cellular serviceswere suspended in the cities ofKarachi, Sukkur, Hyderabad,Ghotki, Khairpur, Rohri andJacobabad.

The Sindh government alsoimposed a ban on pillion-riding

Cellular services to be suspendedFrom Page 1

across the province on Muharram9 and 10. The ban, however,would not apply to women, chil-dren below the age of 12 years,senior citizens, disabled persons,journalists and personnel of law-enforcement agencies,Sharfuddin Memon, the consult-ant to the Sindh home ministryhad said on November 12.

The civil administration inLahore had also announced theclosure of cell phone networksin areas where Muharram pro-cessions would be carried out,following which services weresuspended in Gulbahar, MallRoad, Islampura and other areas.Cellular networks were also par-tially closed in some areas.

Earlier on November 13,

Punjab Law and Local Govern-ment Minister Rana SanaullahKhan also announced a ban onpillion riding in Punjab onMuharram 9 and 10.

Moreover, services havealso been blocked in multiplecities of Khyber Pakhtunkhwaprovince, including Peshawar,Hangu, Kohat and Dera IsmailKhan among other areas whichhave been declared sensitive.Officials said the ban was im-posed in order to thwart possibleterrorist attacks.

Mobile services were alsosuspended in some cities ofAzad Kashmir, includingMuzaffarabad, Neelum,Rawalakot and Kotli during theAshura holidays.

vited us to join the government,”he said referring to post electionscenario of the province.

Sikandar alleged that PTI’sgovernment had failed to evenset up parliamentarian commit-tees after passage of manymonths. “However, we wouldkeep playing our effective rolefrom opposition benches.” Hemaintained.

The Chief Minister KhyberPukhtunkhwa Pervez Khattak, itmay be recalled, had on Wednes-day sacked three ministers overcharges of corruption and in-competence as well as holdingfake degree. Those sacked in-clude two ministers of theQaumi Watan Party (QWP) acoalition partner in the KP gov-ernment and a PTI minister fromHazara.

Those removed from theKhyber Pukhtunkhwa provin-cial cabinet included YousafAyub, Bakht Baidar Khan andIbrar Hussein.

Both Bakht Baidar Khanand Ibrar Hussein who held theportfolios of Labor, Man Power& Industry and Forest & Envi-ronment respectively belonged

Sikandar accuses PTIFrom Page 1

to the coalition partner QaumiWatan Party (QWP) of formerChief Minister NWFP AftabAhmad Khan Sherpao.

The third minister who wassacked from the cabinet by theChief Minister on Wednesday isYousaf Ayub Khan who is a PTIlaw maker and returned to KPassembly from KP -50 Haripur11. He held the important min-istry of communication andworks.

The PTI provincial ministerYousaf Ayub, it may be recalledwas disqualified by the ElectionTribunal in fake degree case.

The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf (PTI) Chairman ImranKhan had directed KhyberPukhtunkhwa Chief MinisterPervez Khattak to end alliancewith Aftab Sherpao’s QaumiWatan Party over its reluctanceto take action against its minis-ters involved in corruption de-spite repeated warnings by theprovincial government. “QWPfailed to take any action againstits ministers despite warnings”.Imran Had said.

Imran Khan also applauded

provincial ministers belongingto the Jamaat-e-Islami, PTI’spartner in KhyberPukhtunkhwa, for their ‘exem-plary role’ in curbing corruption.

Meanwhile the to QWP hascalled a special meeting of itscore committee in order to final-ize strategies for the future.

On the other hand, theousted ministers had refused toobey orders of CM PervezKhattak and said that corruptionevidences should be provided tothem before imposition of deci-sion.

The sacked QWP) MinisterIbrar Hussein has announced tomove Supreme Court over hisdismissal. Ibrar Hussein was ofthe view that Pakistan Tehreeke Insaaf (PTI) Chief Imran Khanlevelled allegation against himwithout any evidence.

He said that he would go toSupreme Court and would askImran Khan and Jehangir Tareento present evidences againsthim. Ibrar Hussein claimed thathe would present corruption evi-dences of Imran Khan andJehangir Tareen, a senior leaderof the PTI.

The CID, on a tip off raidedthe militants’ den in Mauripurfor their arrest; however, themilitants opened fire on the CIDteam that resulted in injury to 3CID personnel. The injured per-sonnel were rushed to Civil Hos-pital Karachi for medical care.

The CID personnel in retali-ation killed six militants andtook two suicide jackets, 5Kalashnikovs, grenades and aweapons-loaded vehicles into itscustody, said SSP CID.

He claimed that the militantshad a plan to carry out wave ofterrorism on processions ofMoharram ul Haram and atImambargah Hussainia Irania inKharadar.

The deceased persons wereidentified as Gul Hasan,Muhammad Arif, KhalidHussain, Maqbool Ahmed,Naveed Arif Chota and GhulamKadir.

Chaudhry Aslam claimedthat Gul Hasan was involved inmore than fifty cases of sectar-ian killings in Karachi.

The suspected militantswere also said to be involved inthe infamous attacks on SindhHigh Court judge JusticeMaqbool Baqar andImambargah Ali Raza amongothers, the SSP alleged.

In Islamabad a suicidebombing attempt was foiled andthe alleged suicide bomber andmastermind were arrested.

According to initial reports,they were planning to attack theImambargah in Sector G-6,Islamabad on Muharram 9, butsecurity forces foiled the attackby arresting them the night be-fore.

Police also seized suicidejackets and other equipmentfrom them.

The alleged suicide bomberand the mastermind behind theattack were identified asMuhammad Saeed Abdullahand Matiullah.

Matiullah is an Afghan citi-zen and was issued a Pakistani

LeJ militants, police clashFrom Page 1

visa on October 20. He had vis-ited Pakistan before many timesand was deported back to Af-ghanistan when he was foundinvolved in issuing fake visas.

Meanwhile, two suicidejackets, five Kalashnikovs, twoTT pistols, two hand-grenadesand a huge quantity of arms wererecovered during the operation.

In Peshawar, Police defuseda 20-kilogram remote-controlledbomb in the Achini Bala area onthe outskirts of city on Thurs-day, foiling a major terrorist at-tack in the capital of KhyberPakhtunkhwa.

Police sources said thebomb was planted in the middleof the patch of Ring Road thatcomes in the Achini Bala area.

Upon receiving informa-tion, police called the BombDisposal Squad to defuse thebomb. The BDS through watercharges defused the 20-kilogramremote controlled-bomb. Thecity has seen frequent attacks bymilitants in the past few years,with targets ranging from civil-ians to policemen and other lawenforcement personnel.

Meanwhile, Muharram pro-cessions were taken out in sev-eral cities of the country to markthe martyrdom anniversary of

Hazrat Imam Hussain (R.A) andhis companions.

According to reports, latenight processions would also betaken out in different cities of thecountry.

The 9th Muharram proces-sion in Karachi concluded at theImam Bargah Husainia Iraniaafter passing trough its tradi-tional routes.

The mourners taking part inthe procession paid homage tomartyrs of Karbala.Ambulances and Fire Brigadewere put on high alert to copewith any emergency. The pro-cession was monitored throughclosed circuit cameras.

Ashura, the tenth ofMuharram will be observed withdue sanctity and solemnityacross the country today amidsthigh security alert across thecountry to pay tributes to thesacrifices rendered by HazratImam Hussain (RA) and hiscompanions at Karbala to up-hold the banner of Islam.

Alam, Tazia and Zuljinnahprocessions will be taken outfrom all the major cities andtowns of the country which afterpassing through their traditionalroutes will terminate after sunsetafter which Majalis-e-Sham-e-Ghariban will be held.

was adopted setting out the coreprinciples and values of theCommonwealth.

He said commonly knownas the “Harare Principles”‚ thesevalues and principles encom-passing democracy‚ freedom‚peace‚ the rule of law‚ respectfor human rights and opportu-nity for all‚ serve as a bindingforce amongst its member states.

On the sidelines of the Sum-mit‚ the Prime Minister will alsohold meetings with his SriLankan‚ Australian and NewZealand’s counterparts and otherleaders to promote bilateral re-lations.

avoiding the summit.Manmohan Singh is joined

by the prime ministers ofCanada and Mauritius, who arestaying away in protest over al-legations that the regime of SriLankan president MahindaRajapaska carried out warcrimes at the end of a civil warwith Tamil separatists four yearsago.

Tamil representatives andthe Labour opposition urged MrCameron to join the boycott, butthe UK PM argues he canachieve more by using his atten-dance to “shine a spotlight” on“some of the human rights is-sues”. But the Sri Lankans re-acted angrily to that suggestion.

“The invitation to PrimeMinister David Cameron wasnot based on that,” minister ofmass media and communica-tions Keheliya Rambukwellatold the media.

“We are a sovereign nation.You think someone can justmake a demand from Sri Lanka?

“We are not a colony. We arean independent state.”

Asked about the comments,Cameron maintained he wasright to raise questions, adding:“That’s exactly what I’ll be do-ing.”

The UN estimates that40,000 civilians were killed inthe last five months of the 26-year conflict but the Sri Lankanauthorities deny responsibility.

British media in Sri Lankawho have been asking questionsabout the government’s humanrights record have struggled toget answers.—Online

Nawaz‚ Rajapaksa discuss waysFrom Page 1

Sri Lankan‘war crimes’

From Page 1

remotely piloted aircraft justbecause we can.”

Welsh’s comments at abreakfast sponsored by the De-fense Writers Group are the lat-est sign that the Air Force mayhave overfed its once-insatiableappetite for drones.Under plans pushed by then-Defense Secretary Robert M.Gates at the height of the Iraqand Afghanistan wars, the AirForce was supposed to buyenough drones and train enoughcrews so that it could fly 65combat air patrols round-the-clock by 2013.

The Air Force never quitereached that high, having maxedout at 62 combat air patrols to-day. Welsh said the service

Drone combat missions may be trimmedFrom Page 1

would probably reduce thatnumber substantially. Althoughofficials haven’t finalized a fig-ure, he said “in the vicinity of45 would be a good start.”

It takes up to four drones toprovide 24-hour coverage for asingle combat air patrol.

Although the aircraft areunmanned, they require lots ofpersonnel to fly them by remotecontrol and provide support onthe ground — about 400 to 500people for each combat air pa-trol.

“I don’t know where we’regoing to go, but building bigger,more expensive, more cosmicdrones probably isn’t the an-swer,” Welsh said. “There’snothing cheap about them.”

The armed Predators andReapers are tailor-made forcounterterrorism operations andwar zones such as Afghanistan,where the U.S. military controlsthe skies and the enemy lacks

sufficient firepower to shootdown the drones.

But the slow-moving planesaren’t designed to withstand an-tiaircraft defenses or air-to-aircombat.

Welsh told reporters that theAir Force needs to spend moreon other methods to conduct re-connaissance and gather intelli-gence from the air. He declinedto be specific, but other AirForce officials have advocatedmore money for satellites,manned spy planes and ad-vanced stealth drones, as well asmore-powerful electronic sen-sors for surveillance.

In Asia, the Air Force is stillplanning to expand its use of an-other kind of surveillance drone— the Global Hawk — whichcan stay aloft much longer andfly far greater distances than theReaper or the Predator. Unlikethose drones, the Global Hawkis unarmed.—INP

every Pakistani should fulfill hisnational responsibility for main-taining law and order and extendcooperation to governmentagencies.

He said that instructionshave already been issued to po-lice officers to ensure imple-mentation on security plan at allcosts, remain present in theirrespective areas, carry out spotchecking and ensure implemen-tation on the law.

He said that in case of anyviolation and taking law intohand, strict action should imme-diately be taken against the per-sons without any discrimination.He said that there should be noshop or hindrance in the routeof procession. The chief Minis-ter directed that processionsshould be monitored throughCCTV cameras and best ar-rangements of light should bemade. He said that police shouldremain present at the culmina-tion of the procession of Ashurtill leaving of the last mourner(Azadar).

The Chief Minister said thatthe staff deputed on anti-dengueduty in Lahore, Sheikhupura andRawalpindi should continue per-forming their duties.

Ministers, Commissionersand RPOs performing their du-ties in various districts in-formed the meeting about thesecurity arrangements in theirrespective areas whereas In-spector General Police gave abriefing regarding security ar-rangements on the occasion ofYaum-e-Ashur throughout theprovince.

Shahbaz:Steps taken

From Page 1

by setting up procession tentswhere pilgrims gather and foodis distributed to passers-by.

An estimated two millionfaithful gathered in Karbala,site of the mausoleum ofHazrat Imam Hussein, grand-son of the Prophet Mohammad(PBUH), whose death in thecity at the hands of soldiers ofthe caliph Yazid in 680 AD liesat the heart of Islam’s sectar-ian divide.

Security measures havebeen stepped up, with more than35,000 soldiers and policemendeployed to Karbala and sur-rounding areas.

Concentric security perim-eters have barred vehicles fromentering the city while helicop-ters hover overhead.

Turkish Foreign MinisterAhmet Davutoglu also offeredAnkara’s assistance during arecent visit to Baghdad.—AFP

PilgrimsFrom Page 1

Earlier‚ on his arrival thePrime Minister was warmly re-ceived at the Bandaranaike in-ternational airport by the leaderof House in the Sri Lankan Par-liament Nimal Siripala de Silva.He also heads the Ruling Free-dom Party.

He was presented a bouquetby children clad in traditional SriLankan dress.

Special Assistant to thePrime Minister on Foreign Af-fairs Tariq Fatemi‚ Minister ofState for Information Technol-ogy and Telecom AnushaRehman and Foreign SecretaryJalil Abbas Jilani are accompa-

nying the Prime Minister.The theme of the conference

is ‘Growth with Equity’-Inclu-sive Development’.

Pakistan is one of the eightfounding members of the Com-monwealth‚ which signed theLondon Declaration of April1949.

Pakistan makes annual con-tributions to five heads of theCommonwealth namely Com-monwealth Secretariat ‚ Com-monwealth Foundation‚ Com-monwealth Fund for TechnicalCooperation‚ CommonwealthYouth Programme and the Com-monwealth of Learning.—NNI

that the PML-N was mullingover establishing its governmentin KP with the help of other par-ties, the information ministersaid the PML-N chief has madeit clear that the party which hasbeen given mandate by themasses in KP has the right to rulethe province.

He said the PML-N’s policyin this regard was very clear andno one should have any doubt.

Pervaiz Rashid remindedthat recently the PML-N couldhave easily ousted the AzadKashmir government but it didnot do so.

He said the PML-N wanttold the PTI to continue itsgovernment in KPK and servethe masses.

He said the PML-N wantsto take all the political partiesalong on national issues. Hesaid the party will not indulgein such matters which coulddamage national interest.

PML-N not todestabilize PTI’sgovt in KP: PR

From Page 1

legalise their status in SaudiArabia till November 3.

“There is a fear of impris-onment and deporting of thou-sands of Pakistanis in the King-dom,” Naeem said.

These Pakistanis have beenfacing difficulties after the startof a drive against illegal immi-grant in the kingdom.

Saudi authorities have senttens of thousands of illegal resi-dents from Asian and Africancountries to their homes.

The drive was started afteran Amnesty Scheme for the im-migrants to get the legalised sta-tus in the kingdom.

However, most of the Paki-stanis, about 800,000, got thebenefit of the scheme and gotthem registered legally there.

Meanwhile, Makkah policehave detained 4,060 illegal work-ers following the governmentcrackdown on visa and residencyviolators over the past 10 days.

Spokesman Col.Abdulmohsin Al-Maiman toldArab News that the illegalworkers were handed over to thedeportation center for their fi-nal exit to their home countries.

Makkah police chief Gen.Asaf Al-Qurashi guided thefield operations against illegalforeign workers, he said. Manysecurity forces were involved inexecuting the raids, includingsecurity patrols and the TrafficDepartment, he said.—NNI

54,000Pakistanis

From Page 1

Interior minister has talkedof 6 weeks for holding dialogueprocess with Taliban, he said.If any terror incident occursagain within these six weeksthen government will do what,he questioned. Governmentshould improve its intelligencenetwork to guard against recur-rence of any terror related inci-dent, he stressed.—Online

Haqqani murderFrom Page 1

to hide corruption of his partyministers.

In a statement issued in re-sponse to Sherpao’s allegationslevelled today at a press confer-ence, Mazari said that the QWPleader was making personnelattacks, which was againstmoral values.

Earlier, addressing a pressconference QWPs’ senior leaderSikandar Sherpao announced toquit the provincial governmentand told media that they werenot fond of joining the govern-ment instead it was PTI, whoinvited them to join the coali-tion.

He said that the QWP hadasked the PTI to come up with aclear policy on corruption butImran Khan’s party didn’t payany heed. Sherpao said that thePTI was under political pressureand was trying to befool thepeople.

Mazarirejects QWPallegations

From Page 1

the bilateral level to resolve thelingering Kashmir issue.

Aizaz Ahmad Chaudhry saidPakistan supports mediation ofthird party particularly of theUnited Nations to resolve theKashmir dispute but unfortunatelyIndia opposes this idea.—INP

of Sri Lanka and the Prime Min-isters of Australia, Malta andNew Zealand.—INP

Pak proposesCommonwealthReserve Fund

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FO: Pak has nofavourite groups

From Page 1

LAHORE: Traffic police warden issuing tickets to motorcyclists on the violation of pillionriding rule at Jail Road on Thursday.—INP photo

Indo-Israeli missilesventure fails to take off

From Page 1meeting them even in the nearfuture, according to Indianmedia reports.

DRDO officials are blamingthe lack of progress in the jointventure due to lack of transpar-ency and non-transfer of tech-nology by their Israeli counter-parts. And the recent trials thatwere conducted by the Indiandefence organization failed tomeet the standards of both theIAF and the Indian Navy.

According to sources, theLR-SAMs project was commis-sioned in 2006 and the deliveryof the missiles to the IndianNavy should have happened by2012.

Similarly, the MR-SAMventure was signed in 2009 and

the missiles are to be deliveredto the Indian Air Force by 2017.Both the projects are way behindschedule and show no signs ofmaking progress.

“Frankly speaking, rightnow, not much is going on in thejoint venture due to various is-sues between the two sides. Ex-pecting Israel to share its tech-nology with India is unfair. Butsuch things should have beenclarified before the joint venturewas entered into,” said an offi-cial.

DRDO is maintaining thatit is because of the lack of trans-fer of technology that the trialsthat have been conducted so farhave ended up as failures. —INP

Israel warplanesstrike Gaza

after militantmortar fire

Gaza City—Israeli war-planes bombed two separate tar-gets in the Gaza Strip Thursdayafter Palestinian militants firedprojectiles across the border, thearmy said.

The strikes in northern Gazacame just hours after witnessesreported an Israeli army incur-sion across the Strip's easternborders, to which Islamist mili-tants claimed to have respondedwith mortar fire.

The military said "aircrafttargeted two concealed rocketlaunchers in the northern GazaStrip" in response to two projec-tiles that had hit Israel sinceWednesday.

An spokeswoman told AFPone of the projectiles was arocket and the other a mortarround.—AFP

WASHINGTON—The De-fense Department saidWednesday it is cancelingplans to buy additional cargohelicopters from the Russianarms export agency that hassupplied Syrian PresidentBashar Assad’s militaryforces with arms and ammu-nition.

The additional 15 Rus-sian-built Mi-17 helicopterswere to be purchased nextyear at a cost of $345 millionand then delivered toAfghanistan’s national secu-rity forces.

Bipartisan opposition tothe Mi-17 acquisition grewas the violence in Syria esca-lated and U.S. relations withRussia deteriorated. A grow-

ing number of lawmakers fromboth political parties objectedto acquiring military gear fromRosoboronexport, which hasprovided Assad’s regime withweapons used against Syriancivilians.

“I applaud the DefenseDepartment’s decision to can-cel its plan to buy 15 additionalMi-17 helicopters fromRosoboronexport,” Sen. JohnCornyn, R-Texas, said in anemailed statement. “Doingbusiness with the supplier ofthese helicopters has been amorally bankrupt policy, andas a nation, we should nolonger be subsidizing Assad’swar crimes in Syria.”

Cornyn, the Senate’s No.2 GOP leader, said he was in-

formed of the decision lastweek by Deputy Defense Sec-retary Ashton Carter.

Pentagon spokeswomanMaureen Schumann said thedepartment re-evaluated therequirements for Mi-17s inconsultation with Congress.“We currently do not haveplans to purchase additionalMi-17s from Rosoboronexportbeyond those” already undercontract.

Top U.S. military officialshave maintained the Russian-made helicopters are ideallysuited for the Afghans, whoare rebuilding their air force andneed a reliable and easy-to-operate helicopter for trans-porting troops throughout thecountry’s harsh environment.

Overall, the Defense Depart-ment has paid more than $1billion since 2011 for 63 Mi-17sthat have been delivered to Af-ghanistan or are on order.

Russian Embassy spokes-man Yevgeniy Khorishkoplayed down the Pentagon’sdecision. He described it as asingle action that doesn’t af-fect the broader military andtechnical cooperation be-tween the two countries.

Rosoboronexport an-nounced Monday that 12 ofthe Mi-17s had been deliveredto Afghanistan in the monthof October.

The shipments, the exportagency said, reflected thejoint effort between Russiaand the U.S. to combat inter-

Pentagon cancelling to buy Russian-made helicopters

COLOMBO: Prime Minister Muhammad Nawaz Sharif writing remarks in the Guest Book after his arrival atBandaranaike International Airport, Sri Lanka.

QUETTA: Commander Southern Command Lt Genral Nasser Khan Janjua inspecting explosive and weapons seizedby FC. IG FC Major General Muhammad Ejaz Shahid and Home Minister Sarfraz Bugti are also present.

KABUL—Would-be Presi-dential candidates who weredisqualified from the race bythe Independent ElectionCommission weeks ago an-nounced the formation of anew coalition in Kabul.

Named the “NationalCommitment for Saving Af-ghanistan,” the coalitionaims to push for just resolu-tion to problems in the elec-toral process, as well as fightagainst corruption and bringpeace to Afghanistan.

All 17 Presidential hope-fuls who failed to make theIEC’s preliminary list havejoined the coalition.

They have also filed chal-lenges with the ElectoralComplaints Commission(ECC) looking to overturn

Disqualified Afghan presidentialcandidates form coalition

the IEC’s decision and getreadmitted into the race.

Although the candidatesdid not elaborate much onhow, practically, they wouldbe pursuing their noble goals,they were adamant about theends they had in sight.

“Today, in the continua-tion of our struggle to bringpeace, rule of law, defend civilrights, fight crime, economicand political corruption andinjustice in the country, weannounce our formation un-der the name of NationalCommitment for Saving Af-ghanistan,” coalition memberSultan Ali Dost Zada said.

It could be that the can-didates are preparing them-selves just in case the ECCdoes decide to readmit them;

if they continue to stay in thelimelight and effectively cam-paign they remain in-stridewith the 10 candidates whodid make the preliminary list.It could also be that they aretrying to rally popular sup-port behind themselves andagainst the bureaucrats whoruled them.

“We raise our voice to-day and we ask that ourvoice speak to every Afghan,every patriot and everyonewho is tired of these condi-tions,” said another coalitionmember Daoud Sultanzoy

Regardless of what comesof the coalition, what was clearon Wednesday was that youcan take the candidate out ofthe race but not the race out ofthe candidate.—NNI

ISLAMABAD—The Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan on Thursdaysaid it was still standing byits stance on the debate chal-lenge given to the SunniIttehad Council, but the SICis looking for excuses to es-cape from the challenge.

In a statement, the TTPMohmand Agency chapterchief Umar Khalid Khurasanisaid the SIC was looking for away of escape by saying thatthey want a direct debate withthe TTP instead of video link.

He said the TTP represen-tatives in Karachi and Lahorewill not be able to make directdebate with the SIC due to itsongoing conflict with thegovernment forces. The

TTP says debate challengeto SIC still valid

Taliban leader said they willnot allow the SIC to escapefrom the debate and will an-swer all their questions.

Umar Khalid said being inthe state of war Taliban needto be armed with weapons. Heclarified that the Taliban werenot in a state of war with thewhole nation but they werebattling against the “secularsystem and its patrons”.Hesaid if the SIC is not ready tocome to FATA for debate thenTaliban will also not come tothe city area. He said the de-bate should either be held out-side the country or the Talibanbe given guarantee of com-plete security forholding thedebate in Pakistan.—INP

national terrorism.Frank Kendall, the

undersecretary of defense foracquisition, told Cornyn in aletter last year that the De-fense Department “con-demns the actions ofRosoboronexport in supply-ing arms and ammunition tothe regime of Bashar al-Assad in Syria, whose forceshave used these weapons tomurder Syrian civilians.”

Rosoboronexport’s direc-tor general, Anatoly Isaykin,said in February that sincethere are no sanctionsagainst shipping weapons toSyria, Russia was still fulfill-ing its contract obligations.“These aren’t offensiveweapons,” he said.—AP

IAEA: Iran haltsexpansion of

nuclear facilitiesVIENNA—Iran has not ex-panded its nuclear facilitiesin the last three months, a UNatomic watchdog reportshowed Thursday, in a pos-sible confidence-buildingmeasure by Tehran beforetalks next week.

The International AtomicEnergy Agency said that onlyfour new uranium enrichmentcentrifuges were operating atIran’s Natanz plant and noadditional machines at theFordo facility. It also said thatIran has also not begun oper-ating any new-generation IR-2M centrifuges and that “no... major components” hadbeen installed at a reactor be-ing built at Arak.—AFP

D H A K A — B a n g l a d e s hopposition’s five top leadersdetained last week wereplaced on eight-day remandThursday in two cases filedagainst them for attempting tokill policemen and creatingviolence in the capital city.

Dhaka’s MetropolitanMagistrate Rezaul Karim re-jected their bail petitions andgave police five days in onecase and three days in theother case. Accused MoududAhmed, MK Anwar andRafiqul Islam, who are mem-bers of standing committee,the highest policy-makingbody of former Prime Minis-ter Khaleda Zia’s Bangladesh

BD opposition’s five topleaders placed on remand

Nationalist Party ( BNP), wereshown arrested in the twocases filed on Sept. 24 andNov. 6.

The accused, who alsoincluded BNP ChairpersonKhaleda’s Advisor AbdulAwal Mintoo and her SpecialAssistant Shamsur RahmanShimul Biswas, were arrestedduring a surprise crackdownon opposition on Nov. 8 nightand during the early hours ofthe subsequent day.

Police arrested the BNPleaders hours after Khaleda’sopposition alliance an-nounced a 72-hour nation-wide strike from Nov. 10 morn-ing, demanding national polls

slated for early 2014 under anon-party caretaker govern-ment.

Protesting the arrest of topleaders, the opposition alli-ance extended its 72-hourshutdown by 12 hours. Term-ing the cases as “false andfabricated,” BNP spokesmanRizvi Ahmed had earlierclaimed that the arrests weremade as part of thegovernment’s conspiracy tohold a one-party election.

The two leading leadersof the South Asian country’spolitics held phone talks onOct. 26, the first direct con-versation between the twoleaders since January, 2009

BEIRUT—Shia militants fromHezbollah will keep fightingin Syria’s civil war alongsidePresident Bashar al-Assad’sforces as long as necessary,the group’s leader HassanNasrallah said on Thursday.

Hezbollah has helpedturn the tide in Assad’sfavour this year, leading therecapture of the town ofQusair and fighting along-side his forces south of Dam-ascus and in the northerncity of Aleppo. “As long asthe reasons (to fight in Syria)remain, our presence therewill remain,” Nasrallah said ina speech in front of tens ofthousands of LebaneseShias marking the religiousceremony of Ashura insouthern Beirut.

“Our fighters are presenton Syrian soil...to confront allthe dangers it faces from theinternational, regional andtakfiri attack on this countryand region,” Nasrallah said,referring to the foreign Islam-ist rebels fighting in Syria.Takfiri is a term for a hardline

Hezbollah will stay in Syria aslong as needed: Nasrallah

Sunni Muslim who seesother Muslims as infidels,often as a justification forfighting or killing them.

The 2-1/2 year-old civilwar has polarised the MiddleEast between Sunni Muslimpowers such as Turkey andthe Gulf Arab states, whosupport the Sunni rebels, andShia Iran and its Lebaneseally Hezbollah, who backAssad. The president be-longs to the Alawite faith, anoffshoot of Shia Islam.

As well as drawing Shiaand Sunni fighters into Syriafrom Lebanon, the conflicthas raised sectarian tensionswithin the small Mediterra-nean state, as violence hasspilled over the border andbrought the country to po-litical deadlock. Prime Minis-ter Najib Mikati resigned inMarch but his designatedsuccessor has failed to reachconsensus on forming anewgovernment.

Nasrallah said any at-tempt by Hezbollah’s Sunni-led political opponents to

link a deal for a new cabinetwith demands for its with-drawal from Syria would befutile. Hezbollah, a politicalmovement as well as a mili-tant group, had two ministersin Mikati’s government.

“Anyone who speaks ofHezbollah’s withdrawal fromSyria as a condition to form anew government...is impos-ing a crippling condition,” hesaid, and the organisationwould not bargain theregion’s future “for a few use-less cabinet portfolios”.Former Prime Minister Saad al-Hariri said Nasrallah’s loyaltyto Tehran and to Assad wasendangering the country.

“Hezbollah chose to sac-rifice Lebanon’ssovereignty,dignity, and na-tional unity for the sake ofBashar al-Assad and to ex-ecute the decision of the Ira-nian leadership to protect thisregime,” he said in a state-ment, responding toNasrallah’s speech. “It is achoice that history willcurse.” —Reuters

NIAMEY—Nigeria’s army of-fensive against Islamist mili-tants has pushed nearly40,000 refugees over its north-ern border into Niger, a U.N.agency said, in a drive that isstraining food supplies in thedrought-prone country.

The United Nations esti-mated in June there were 6,000refugees from Nigeria but thefigure has soared as PresidentGoodluck Jonathan hasstepped up attacks on Boko

Nigeria offensive drives 40,000refugees into Niger: UN

Haram militants. The U.N. Of-fice for the Coordination ofHumanitarian Affairs (OCHA)said in its latest monthly re-port that of a total 37,332 refu-gees, nearly 29,000 are offi-cially Niger nationals and therest are Nigerian.

“These figures, threetimes above the level the hu-manitarian workers were plan-ning for, give an indication ofthe difficulties of developinga humanitarian response,” it

said.Boko Haram is seen asthe biggest risk to stability inNigeria, Africa’s most popu-lous country and top oil pro-ducer, which shares a 1,500kilometre border with its land-locked northern neighbourNiger along the edge of theSahara Desert.

The United States for-mally designated Boko Haramand splinter group Ansaru asterrorist organisations onWednesday.—Reuters

3 injured inAwaran explosionQUETTA—Three people wereinjured in a suspected IEDblast in earthquake hit districtof Awaran on Thursday. Ac-cording to details receivedfrom local police, the IED wasplanted on a road in ShahGhazi area and went off whena donkey cart was passingby. Three people received in-juries who were later shiftedto District Headquarters Hos-pital for treatment. Sourcessaid the IED was planted totarget security forces con-voy in the area.—Online

Curfew imposedin HanguHANGU—Three-day curfewhas been imposed in Hangu,a town in KhyberPakhtunkhwa province, in abid to avoid any possible un-toward incident duringAshura. According to HanguDC Syed Ahmed Jan, the cur-few has been imposed fromMuharram 9 to 11. Cellularphone services have alsobeen blocked in the town, hesaid. Aerial were planned sur-veillance would on Muharram9 and 10, he added.—INP

Rana visits routes ofmain processionLAHORE—Provincial Minis-ter for Law and Local Gov-ernment Rana Sanaullah onThursday visited routes ofthe main procession fromNisar Hawali to KarbalaGamay Shah to review secu-rity arrangments. Talking tothe media, the minister saidfour helicopters would moni-tor the procession on 10thMuharramul Haram as jam-mers and walk-through gateshad been installed in routesof the main procession. Hesaid foolproof security ar-rangements had been madeto avoid any untoward inci-dent. The minister saidpeople should cooperatewith police to maintain lawand order situation and suf-ficient police personnel hadbeen deployed on the pro-cession routes.—APP

Ghusal of Data GanjBakhsh’s shrineLAHORE—The 970th annualghusal of the shrine of Al-Shaikh Al-Syed Ali Bin UsmanAl-Hajveri known as HazratData Ganj Bakhsh was heldhere on Thursday. The cer-emony was started with reci-tation of the Holy Quran whilerenowned Naat Khawan,Marghoob Hamdani and oth-ers presented Naat Rasool-e-Maqbool (SAWW). Later,ghusal of the shrine was per-formed with rose water andwreaths were laid besides“Chadar Poshi”. Specialprayers were offered forpeace, stability and prosper-ity of the country. ReligiousAffairs Committee DataDarbar chairman Federal Min-ister for Finance Ishaq Darwas the chief guest.—APP

A WOMAN in Taiwan has become thefirst person in the world with a confirmed case of a new strain of bird flu,

adding to a growing body of evidence of thepotential threat from animal viruses that mu-tate to be able to infect people. Scientists fromTaiwan said the infection -with a bird flu strain calledH6N1 - appeared to be oneisolated human case andprobably posed little threatfor the moment. But itshowed how this virus, likeothers in the past, had beenable to acquire geneticchanges allowing it to jumpacross species.

Another new strain ofbird flu, called H7N9, iscontinuing to infect and killpeople in China after it firstemerged in humans thereearlier this year. Infectiousdiseases that pass from ani-mals into humans are knownas zoonoses and have keptscientists on the alert fordecades. Several major human epidemics,including the worldwide outbreak of HumanImmunodeficiency Virus (HIV) that causesAIDS and the 2009/2010 H1N1 flu pandemic,began as zoonotic events. Many diseases alsomake the jump and then just peter out.

“This again underscores that there are somany viruses out there and we just don’t re-ally know which pose the greatest threats tous,” Wendy Barclay, a flu virologist at Impe-rial College London, told Reuters when askedabout the H6N1 case. She called for morevigilance, surveillance and research into ani-mal diseases with the potential to jump tohumans.

In study in journal Lancet RespiratoryMedicine on Thursday, scientists said theH6N1 case was found in a 20-year-oldwoman from central Taiwan who went intohospital in May with flu-like symptoms andshortness of breath. Initial tests on throat-

swab samples taken from thepatient indicated an unclassi-fied subtype of a flu virus, theresearchers said, and furthergenetic analysis showed it wasa new H6N1 bird flu virusvery similar to chicken H6N1viruses that have been circu-lating in Taiwan since 1972.

The woman respondedto treatment with Roche’s flumedicine Tamiflu and hassince fully recovered, theyadded. Ho-Sheng Wu, who ledthe case study from the Cen-tres for Disease Control inTaipei, said the important fea-ture of the genetic analysiswas that it showed the virushad a mutation in thehaemagglutinin - a binding

protein on the virus’ surface - that enables itto get into human cells and cause infection.

Further investigations into the patientfound that she worked in a delicatessen, hadnot been abroad for three months prior toher infection, and had not been in close prox-imity to poultry or wild birds. “The sourceof infection remains unknown,” Ho-Shengwrote in the study.

Barclay agreed that the woman’s caseappeared to be “for now an isolated case”,adding: “It is possible that in these days ofincreased vigilance we are picking up theoccasional zoonosis that we previouslymissed.”

New Taiwan bird flu showsanimal virus risk to humans

Quaid Millat-e-Jaffariya Allama Syed Sajid Ali Naqvi hoisting Alam in connection to the Ashura procession in Rawalpindi.

ISLAMABAD—Youm-e-Ashurawill be observed on Friday withsanctity and religious fervor allover the country including twincities of Islamabad andRawalpindi amid tight security.

Majalis-e-Iza will be held inImam Bargahs and processionswould be taken out with ZulJinnah Alm O’ Taazia. MajalisShame Ghariban will be held onthe culmination of these proces-sions.

In Rawalpindi, the centralprocession of Ashura will betaken out from Imam BargahColonel Maqbool Hussain, Col-lege Road and from ImamBargah Hifazat Ali Shah, BoharBazar including the Zul Jinahthat will be taken out from ImamBargah Ashiq Hussain TaleeMohallah.

All the processions would

Ashura to be observed withreligious sanctity today

join at Fowra Chowk to form amain procession, which wouldbe culminated at KarbalaGraveyard , Westridge almost at10:00 pm , where Mujlis Sham-e-Ghareeban would be held.

The participants (mourners)of these processions will alsocarry out Zanjir Zuni at SabziMandi Chowk, Habib Chowkand in Trunk Bazar. During theprocession, various speakerswill address the participants ofthe procession at FowaraChowk.

Many social and religiousorganizations and other NGOswould hold Sabeels of waterwhere water and , milk andother home made sweet bever-ages would be distributedamong the mourners. Similarlythe traders of the city would alsoorganize langers , where free of

cost meal would be distributedamong the people

On this occasion, BoyScouts in celebration with CityDistrict GovernmentRawalpindi will hold a medicalcamp at Habib Bank Chowkwhere doctors will be availableto provide medical treatment tomourners.

Eminent scholars and officebearers of the Muharram Com-mittee of Tehrek e Nafaze FiqaJaferia from district Rawalpindiwill also accompany the mourn-ers through out the way.

District Administrationand Police have made foolproof security measures to en-sure law and order during cen-tral procession of 10th ofAshura Muharram in the twincities of Rawalpindi andIslamabad.

Commissioner RawalpindiZahid Saeed , Regional PoliceOfficer , City Police Officer,DCO and other high officialswould remain on the streets ofthe city through out the day tomonitor the security arrange-ment . Heavy deployment of po-lice and rangers would be madein all points of the city to avoidany untoward incident. Dozensof walk through gates and othersecurity gadgets woulkd also beused to ensure safety of themourners. Police would usesniffing dogs also in this regard

Sources went on to say thatInterior Minister had put the se-curity agencies on high alert tocheck the movement of out-lawed outfit while several de-funct organization men werebeing arrested from sensitivedistricts of the country.—Online

STAFF REPORTER

ISLAMABAD—Roots SchoolSystem-Ivy International,DHA1 Flagship campus,Islamabad held the award cer-tification ceremony of Moti-vated Volunteer EmpowermentProgram (MOVE) arranged byMs. Anita R. Florijn, ProgramDirector Family EducationalServices Foundation (FESF)that was conducted as part ofthe Roots Summer InternshipPrograms offered exclusivelyfor all O-Levels, A-Levels,B.Sc. & ACCA students eachyear. The MOVE Program wasconducted by Family Educa-tional Services Foundation(FESF) and munificently spon-sored by the National Bank ofPakistan, CSR division.

A total of fifty O and Alevel students participated in in-teractive, in-house workshopson volunteerism, communica-tion skills and team-building,fundraising, project planningand management as well as re-port writing. As part of the sec-ond phase of MOVE, the stu-dents completed 15 hours of

MOVE internship award ceremony at Roots DHA1-Ivyfield work during the summerbreak and worked on challeng-ing community service projectsincluding an advocacy andawareness campaign on child la-bor, an environment project for

underprivileged children, twoschool renovation projects andmentoring the children despitefacing communication problemssince most of the young childrenonly spoke in Pashto or Punjabi.

The students presented

power point presentations en-riched with photographs, flow-charts and graphs, videos andmultimedia. The first groupworking on the project ‘Renova-tion for Education’ renovated the

‘Unique School’ that was indreadful conditions by installingwater coolers, energy savingbulbs, soft boards, informativeposters, book shelves, tables andchairs using the funds they hadcollected through local

fundraising. The second groupworked on improving the envi-ronmental conditions of an un-derprivileged school called‘Chakra Primary School’ locatedaway from the populated areas of

Rawalpindi.The school had a very dry

environment without any trees toshelter the poor children whocame to study and sat outside inthe blazing sun. Roots studentsplanted tall trees that could grow

in harsh climate and cleaned theentire school and installeddustbins.

The third group conducteda summer camp at the ‘ChildWelfare Bureau’, Morgahmainly focusing on inculcatingself-confidence, optimism andgrooming the children aboutpersonal hygiene. Lastly, thefourth group made a projectcalled PACE that emphasized oncreating awareness against childlabor and exploitation throughthe social media. It was shock-ing to hear about the dreadfulstories of the poor children andthe grave problems that theywere facing like physical dis-abilities, drug abuse, stealing,displaced families andhomelessness.

The students tried to coun-sel and help the poor childrenand gave them a ray of hope. Ms.Anita R. Florijn was delightedto see all the students work sohard and said, “You are like theunique Chinese Bamboo Treethat is easy to plant but does notsprout for four seasons and thenamazingly grows 80 feet highduring the fifth season.

ZUBAIR QURESHI

ISLAMABAD—Even four daysafter the mystery murder ofNaseeruddin Haqqani that tookplace last Sunday on the SimlyDam Road, Bhara Kahu, capi-tal police are still keeping amum and clueless.

SSP Dr Rizwan on a queryby Pakistan Observer Thursdaysaid the investigators areclueless about the whereaboutsof the dead body or the wholeincident.

“We have no substantive in-formation and there is nothingnew in this case,” said the capi-tal police chief’s text message.

However, according to asource, authorities have decidedto conduct a thorough searchoperation after Youm-e-Ashur inthe suburbs including Bhara

Police search to nabHaqqani’s killers

Kahu, Nurpur Shahan, Nilor,Golra, Dora and Bani Gala, asthey fear more Afghan/Talibanoperatives presence there.

Regarding the murder ofAfghan Taliban’s spokesmanand the eldest of nine sons ofHaqqani Netwirk chief,Jalaludding Haqqani, they havenot only refused to register anFIR, but also transferred the sta-tion house officer (SHO) of thesaid police station.

The new SHO InspectorAslam is clueless like the localpopulation of the area. “The in-cident took place two days be-fore my joining as SHO, I knownothing about it,” the police of-ficer keeps telling every in-quirer.

According to the eyewit-nesses including father of thebaker Muhammad Farooq, who

had been hit in the abdomen andright arm, the assailants firedindiscriminate gunshots at theman who looked like Afghannational.

In fact, the assailants them-selves looked like Afghan na-tionals. Qadeer Muhammad isthe father, a shoemaker by pro-fession. While talking to thePakistan Observer he said, “Webelong to Mardan and have noenmity with anyone.

They (assailants) were defi-nitely after the unidentified Af-ghan national (Naseer Haqqani).My son is a thorough gentlemanand at present is in a critical con-dition at PIMS.

He is in the ICU and doc-tors say Thursday is very impor-tant day, if he does not come toconsciousness by them, his re-covery will be difficult.

ISLAMABAD—Acting SSPTraffic has given deadline tillDec 15 to non permit vehiclesto get their papers completed.

The extension has beengiven on the request of TaxiUnion, which met the Acting

Dec 15 deadline fornon-permit vehicles

SSP the other day.The Taxi Union led by their

president Malik Aftab soughtextension for completion of pa-pers of non permit taxis andthose who have permits fromother districts.

SSP traffic adhering to theirrequest has granted extension tillDec 15 to get the papers com-pleted however vowed to carryactivities against over chargingpublic transport vehicles andtraffic violators.—Online

FIA inspectordismissed

ISLAMABAD—Afzal KhanNiazi, an Inspector of FIA wasdismissed from service oncharges of abetting human traf-ficking at Benazir Bhutto Inter-national Airport.

Director General, FederalInvestigation Agency (FIA)Saud Ahmed Mirza told APPthat the inspector was dismissedfrom service for getting in-volved in human trafficking.

The DG said that prior todismissal of Afzal Niazi, twoofficials of the Agency were alsodismissed from service on cor-ruption charges. The DirectorGeneral said that an internal ac-countability unit has been estab-lished to purge this importantinstitution from the corrupt ele-ments.—APP

Street criminalsarrested

ISLAMABAD—Islamabad Po-lice have arrested 279 personsinvolved in street crimes duringthe current year and recovered243 snatched mobile phones andlooted cash from their posses-sion, a police spokesman said onThursday.

Inspector General of police(IGP) Islamabad Sikandar Hayatand Senior Superintendent ofpolice (SSP) IslamabadMuhammad Rizwan asked all thepolice officials and Station HouseOfficers (SHOs) to launch ag-gressive campaign against thoseinvolved in street crime. Capitalpolice also obtained the record ofthose persons who had ever re-mained involved in street crimesand arrested 279 criminals dur-ing this year.—APP

Mourners touching the Tazia during 9th Muharram procession ahead of Ashura at G-6.

CNG’s availability has become more difficult and long queues of vehicles are seen at CNG stations.

05:50

01:30

04:00

07:00

Zohr

Brothers in Islam establishregular prayers and charity

November 19

TALENT carnival for stu-dents, organised by thestudent Affairs Forum, atthe Rawalpindi Arts Coun-cil, Cultural Complex,Shamsabad, Rawalpindi.

Continuing

EXHIBITION of paintingsby Najmul Hasan Kazmi, atthe Nomad Art Gallery,House 72, Street 32, Sec-tor F-6/1, Islamabad, 10 a.m- 7 p.m, continuing up toNovember 20.

A policeman passing near the fire which erupted in the green area of F-8.

ISLAMABAD—The sale ofwinter foods has witnessedsurge in twin cities ofIslamabad and Rawalpindi,with the mercury going downsharply.

The people have startedenjoying the traditional localwinter foods like doodhjalebi, rasmalai, gaajar halwa,chicken corn soup, Kashmiritea, fried fish and coffee etc.

Several markets includ-ing Melody, Karachi Com-pany, Super Market, JinnahSuper, Aabpara, F-10, Blue

Fumigation department worker spraying fumes of anti-dengue virus in Tramri Chowk.

Sale of winter foods goesup in twin cities

Area, Commercial, Saddar,Raja Bazaar and other placesare witnessing stalls of win-ter delights and are doinggood business, due to highdemand for winter foods.

A chicken corn soup stallholder at Sittara Market saidthat soup is high in demandthese days, adding that heprepares two large utensils ofcorn soup on daily basis andit all sells out.

Besides, fried food likepakoras, samosas, and veg-etable rolls are also high in

demand these days. A vendor said that fish

consumption multiplied inwinter, which was evidentfrom a dramatic surge intheir sale during the coldweather.

In addition to regularfish shops in the twin cit-ies, mobile fish vendorsroaming around with theirware on bicycles and hand-pushed carts are a commonsight these days, and usu-ally they offer a good pricemargin.—APP

RAWALPINDI—Punjab Min-ister for Labour and Man-power, Raja Ashfaq Sarwarsaid that the citizens shouldextend full cooperation to getadministered anti-poliodrops to their children dur-ing anti-polio campaign tostart from November 18.

He said, it is a nationalduty of all the citizens to ex-tend their help and assistancefor making the anti-poliocampaign a real success.

He said that all the ar-rangements have been madeto cover all areas and achieve100 percent target of the cam-paign.

Raja Ashfaq Sarwar saidthis while presiding over ameeting. WHO representa-tive Zubair Mufti on this oc-casion presented detailedbriefing on polio. Commis-sioner Rawalpindi KhalidMasood Chaudhry, DCOSajid Zafar Dall, public rep-resentatives including MalikIbrar Ahmed, MuhammadHanif Abbasi, Malik ShakeelAwan, Begum TahiraAurangzeb, Seema Jilani,Sardar Nasim, Dr. JamalNasir, Ch. Sarfraz Afzal, Raja

Citizens urged to extendcooperation to eradicate polio

Muhammad Hanif Advo-cate, Haji Umar Farooq, ZiaUllah Shah, Ch. Ayaz, Zaib-un-Nisa Awan, TehseenFawad, Lubna Rehan, MalikIftikhar, Sobia Iram Satti,Engineer Qamar ul Islam andHaji Pervaiz Khan attendedthe meeting.

The provincial ministersaid that polio virus thoughexists in the country, but itcan be eliminated and we cansafeguard our kids who areunder five years of age, if weadminister polio vaccinedrops to them.

Raja Ashfaq Sarwar saidthat polio teams of healthdepartment would adminis-ter anti-polio drops to700,000 children under five-year age by visiting house-to-house in districtRawalpindi and 100 percentcoverage would bee n s u r e d . C o m m i s s i o n e rRawalpindi Khalid MasoodChaudhry said that coordi-nated arrangements will beensured to administer anti-polio drops effectively tothe children and with the co-operation of public repre-sentatives, work of polio

teams would also be moni-tored. DCO RawalpindiSajid Zafar Dall said that re-quired polio vaccine, man-power for polio teams andother logistic arrangementshave already been com-pleted.

He said that health de-partment has constituted1638 teams which would ad-minister polio drops inRawalpindi district by visit-ing house to house, while 90teams will be deputed ontransit points like busstands, airport, railway sta-tion and entry posts of thedistrict. Besides this, therewould be fixed points forpolio drops administrationin three teaching hospitalsof Rawalpindi, 99 BasicHealth Units, six RuralHealth Centers and six THQHospitals of the tehsils.

WHO representativeZubair Mufti while givingbriefing informed that poliovirus actually exists in sew-erage lines and if childrenless than five-year age areadministered polio vaccinedrops, they can be protectedfrom this disease.—APP

RAWALPINDI—Strict actionbe taken against thosethrowing solid waste andgarbage in Nullah Leh andcases be registered againstthose creating unhygienicconditions and not observ-ing principles of cleanlinesssaid Punjab Minister forLabour and Manpower RajaAshfaq Sarwar.He said, “Wecan safeguard ourselvesfrom dengue and other dis-eases by observing hygienicprinciples and adopting pre-cautionary measures.”

He stated this while pre-siding over a meeting of Den-gue Control Committee heldhere in Commissioner Office.

Commissioner Rawalpindi

Action be taken forthrowing garbage in Leh

Khalid Masood Ch., DistrictCoordination Officer (DCO)Sajid Zafar Dall, public repre-sentatives including MalikIbrar Ahmed, MuhammadHanif Abbasi, Malik ShakeelAwan, Begum TahiraAurangzeb, Seema Jilani,Sardar Nasim, Dr. Jamal Nasir,Ch. Sarfraz Afzal, RajaMuhammad Hanif Advocate,Haji Umar Farooq, Zia UllahShah, Ch. Ayaz, Zaib-un-NisaAwan, Tehseen Fawad,Lubna Rehan, Malik Iftikhar,Sobia Iram Satti, EngineerQamar ul Islam and HajiPervaiz Khan attended themeeting.

The Minister said thatRawal Town, Potohar Town

and administration ofRawalpindi and ChaklalaCantonment Boards shouldcontinue lifting of solidwaste from various Nullahsand garbage points regularlyand dump the same at theland-fill site.

He underlined the needof lifting garbage from streetsand local points well-in-timeunder a regular schedule.

He said Chief MinisterPunjab Muhammad ShahbazSharif had directed the authori-ties concerned to continueanti-dengue activities on war-footings and warning was is-sued that negligence on partof officials concerned wouldnot be tolerated.—APP

Traffic planfor Ashura

RAWALPINDI—In order toensure the security of themourners of Ashura, City traf-fic police (CTP) Rawalpindihave issued traffic plan.

According to the plan,there will be complete ban onparking of any vehicle, mo-torcycle or handcarts on theroute the processions.

City Traffic Officer (CTO),Rawalpindi, Syed IshtiaqHussain Shah said emergencysquads have also been ap-pointed to maintain the flowof traffic in the city. The trafficpolice have prepared a trafficplan for 10th of Muharram tofacilitate the citizens, headded.The CTO directed theofficials to ensure parking atthe distance of 200 meters fromthe route of the processions.The CTO also asked the war-dens to remove all kind of en-croachments from the routesof processions besides keep-ing a vigil on suspected per-sons and things.—APP

ISLAMABAD—Speaker Na-t ional Assembly SardarAyaz Sadiq cal l ing uponthe nation to rise above pa-rochial differences, narrowmindedness, sectarianism,ethnicity and maintain har-mony, unity and brother-hood in our ranks in accor-dance with golden prin-ciples of Islam and followthe path of Hazrat ImamHussain (RA).

In his message onYoum-e-Ashura, thespeaker said that this is thepath which the HolyProphet (Peace Be UponHim) taught us to followand his followers (RA) of-fered great sacrif ices.“Yaum-e-Ashoor remindsus the lesson of adherenceto the truth, f i rmness ofbelief and being steadfast

NA speaker calls formaintaining unity

against tyranny” he added.Speaker urged that being aMuslim it is our obligationthat we stand up againstthe evil forces that stir updiscord and create con-frontation in the society, toachieve their nefarious de-s igns .

He said that HazratImam Hussain (RA) and hiscompanions (RA) were thenoblest models in preach-ing and practicing theQur’anic philosophy of pa-tience, sacrifice and martyr-dom.

Their unflinching faithin Almighty Allah and theDay of Judgment, their ex-emplary devotion, daunt-less courage, and unfailingpatience in the way of Al-mighty Allah was a uniqueexhibition of the spirit of

patience and martyrdomdescribed in the HolyQur’an.

On this day of Ashura,the battle was fought be-tween the forces of truthand falsehood, whichwould continue to impartMuslims a lesson of sus-tained struggle against op-pression, he said.

The Speaker said thatthe best way to pay trib-utes to the martyrs ofKarbala is to make commit-ment on this day to workand devote oneself for thedevelopment and strengthof the county.

“We have to forget ourtr ivial differences andadopt the teachings of Is-lam and promote peace, se-curi ty and brotherhood.”he urged.—INP

Munawar’sremarks aconspiracy

RAWALPINDI—The spokes-man of Pakistan Ex-Service-men Association (PESA)Brig Masud ul Hassan hassaid that the statement ofAmir of Jamat-e-Islami SyedMunawar Hassan regardingmartyrs of amry has disheart-ened many while tarnishinghis image.

Whole nation has re-posed the confidence in thedefence forces after the con-troversial remarks which isencouraging, he added.

Talking to Dr. MurtazaMughal, President of the Pa-kistan Economy Watch, BrigMasud ul Hassan said thatthe move seems part of aninternational conspirqacyaimed at weakning anorganised institution.

He said that military is notbattling Afghan Taliban butthe Pakistani Taliban whichenjoys support of enemycountries.

The former militarystretigist said that ISPR hasnot interfered in the politics,rather it has discharged itsduty to keep morale and dig-nity of the army.

Why were the supportersof terrorists silent when gov-ernment was announcingheadmoney on those whohave employed terror as apolitical weapon, he ques-tioned.

Speaking on the occa-sion, Dr Murtaza Mughalsaid that safeguarding coun-try is not a crime. He said thatwe are proud of the servicesand sacrificed of armedforces which have kept thecountry intact.

He lauded the visit of PMto GHQ as a timely action toboost the morale of army. Hesaid that supreme sacrificesof the army cannot be ig-nored under any circum-stances.—NNI

Hub of importedvariety for rich

RAWALPINDI—Landa BazaarRawalpindi has turned intohub of imported variety forthe rich segments of societyand a prohibited area forpoor people.

The prices of secondrated winter outfits and foot-wear have spiraled out ofreach of the poor and lowermiddle class. The shop keep-ers also avert their faceswhen any poor customerfrom lower class or low paidstrata of society approachesthem for purchasing somewinter outfit.

The Landa bazaars areoperating in the areas ofBanni chowk, Committeechowk, Jamia Masjid chowkand Railway road.

A sweater which wasavailable at the rate of Rs 50in previous year is now be-ing sold out at the ratesranging between 200 to 500,.The jacket rate has gone upfrom Rs 400 to Rs 600.Likewise rate of imported foot-wear has soared up at mete-oric speed and access to thisvariety of shoes has becomea distant dream for the poorand lower middle class.—Online

Cancellation ofAshura holidays forteachers withdrawn

RAWALPINDI—Education De-partment Rawalpindi has with-drawn the verbal orders oncancellation of 9th and 10thMoharram holidays for teach-ers due to strong protest fromteachers associations andclerks associations.

The education departmenthad directed all the teachersto remain present in the respec-tive schools during YumeAshura holidays onMuharram 9th and 10th in con-nection with anti dengue cam-paign. DEO (Secondary) hadissued directives verbally toheads of all the schools to en-sure attendance of all theteachers on the occasion ofAshura in the schools besidessending a copy of attendanceregister to him through mail.

All the teachers had an-nounced to evolve proteststrategy against the cancel-lation of the holidays anddue to this move on the partof teachers organizations theeducation department hasnot only withdrawn its or-ders on cancellation ofMuharram 9th and 10th holi-days but also restored Sun-day weekly holiday.—Online

6000 securitypersonnel to manYoum-e-Ashur

processionRAWALPINDI—Rawalpindipolice has finalised a foulproof security plan for Youm-e-Ashur procession today(Friday).

In this regard 6000 secu-rity personnel would performduties to ensure full securityfor the procession of Youm-e-Ashur. Besides district po-lice Special Branch police,Elite force, Muhafiz Squad,Punjab Constabulary, Ladiespolice, police volunteers andmembers District Peace Com-mittee would perform duties.

CCTV cameras have beeninstalled on the roads throughwhich the processions wouldpass. No one would be allowedto stand on roof tops with theexception of policemen.Specialchecking would be performedprior to the start of the proces-sions and the routes would becleared by the Bomb DisposalSquad.

People participating inthe procession would bechecked through metal de-tectors and than would bemade to go through walkthrough gates before theirentrance into the procession.

Female police wouldcheck the females wearingburquas.—Online

Public transportturns into bloodsucking bug for

commutersISLAMABAD—Suspension ofCNG supply five days a weekhas given license to thewagon owners and taxi driv-ers from twin cities ofRawalpindi and Islamabad tounleash loot and plunderspree on the commuters.

The citizens complainedthat on one hand the gas isnot being provided for burn-ing domestic stoves and onthe other side closure ofCNG stations for five dayshas let the transporters tocommit dacoity on their pock-ets.

The transporters don’tbring wagons on roads indesired number and the wag-ons which are plied on theroutes have evolved a pickand chose system for com-muters. Those who are des-tined to move to short dis-tance areas are allowed toembark on the wagons andthose who have to proceedto the last wagon stop aredenied entry.

Due to artificial shortageof wagons, the commutershave to wait for hours onwagon stands and this waytheir timely attendance in therespective offices has be-come a distant dream.

The women commutershave to face an agonizingsituation as they have to be-come target of derogatoryremarks from the unrulypeople while standing onwagon stops till the arrival ofany wagon and when anywagon stops there they arehuddled into it like cattle.

Owing to non availabilityof sufficient wagon service,the commuters are forced tohire taxi and on such occa-sions taxi drivers turn intosuch creature on the earthwhich tries to drain out ev-ery penny from the pocketsof the poor commuters likethe blood sucking bugs.

The citizens have de-manded for withdrawal of 5-day CNG holiday decisionand its restriction to twodays a week to extricate themfrom a perpetual state of dis-tress and anguish.—Online

SRINAGAR—Strongly re-senting the proposed exten-sion of lease of Tosmaidanmeadow in central Kashmiras firing range to Army, theChairman of Hurriyat Con-ference (G) Syed Ali Geelanicame down heavily on theGovernment of India (GoI)accusing it of “pursing Is-raeli-type policy by grab-bing agriculture and forestland in Kashmir to makeKashmiris dependent onit.”

Geelani extended sup-port to the ‘Save TosmaidanCampaign’ by people and acivil society group, sayingthe conglomerate would“fight all attempts of NewDelhi on land grab in Kash-mir.” “The proposed exten-

sion of Tosmaidan firingrange lease is part of a con-spiracy hatched by Govern-ment of India to makeKashmiris dependent. Israelis using similar tactics in Pal-estine to quell resistanceagainst it. Government of In-dia is also pursuing Israelipolicy to suppress ongoingmovement of Kashmir fortheir inalienable right to self-determination,” Geelani said,addressing a seminar ‘JammuMartyrs and Our Responsi-bilities’ at party headquartersat Hyderpora here.

Elaborating, Geelani ac-cused the Army of “occupy-ing 5200 of forest land inShopian for constructing agarrison.”

“Army intends to cut

four lakh trees to undertakethe constructions. It has alsooccupied another 856 kanalsof agriculture land inBijbehara for similar purpose.Government of India wantsto establish garrisons and fir-ing ranges in every nook andcorner of Kashmir. It wantsto turn Kashmir into an am-munition depot,” he alleged.

Geelani alleged that NewDelhi has “finalized aproject” to replace fencing onthe Line of Control with Pa-kistan with a permanent wall.“The wall will be like BerlinWall. According to media re-ports, the land for the pur-pose has been acquired un-der Land Acquisition Act andstate government is awaitingnod of 24 legislators to un-

dertake the project,” he said.“New Delhi wants to

change demography in Kash-mir by settling non-localshere. Over five lakh non-lo-cals mostly from Bihar haveestablished colonies in vari-ous areas of Kashmir andeven purchased shops andother properties in northKashmir’s Kupwara district.They enjoy full patronage ofpolice and administration,”he alleged.

Paying rich tributes toJammu martyrs, Geelani said,“Muslims of Jammu divisionrendered unflinching sacri-fices for the Kashmir move-ment.”

“Over five lakh Muslimsof Jammu were massacred in1947 with active support of

then political dispensationof which Sheikh MuhammadAbdullah was part of. Mus-lims of Jammu are still reel-ing under suppression byadministration, army, policeand communal elements.They are living under con-stant suppression of 26500Village Defence Committeemembers with ninety per-cent of its members propa-gating RSS and BJP commu-nal mentality,” he said.

Geelani said in 2006 hespent winter in Jammu andinteracted with Muslimsthere. “They felt sense ofbelonging and openly ex-pressed their feelings for theongoing movement in Kash-mir. However, this did not gowell with administration and

Geelani: New Delhi attempts to change Kashmir demographyin 2007 I was put underhouse arrest in Jammu for 27days and not allowed tomeet anybody,” he said.

“Successive puppet re-gimes in JK have left nostone unturned to separateMuslims of Kashmir andJammu. Inordinate delay inopening of Mughal Roadwas part of such a con-spiracy. It is high time to re-vive our association withMuslims of Jammu divisionto jointly pursue the Kash-mir movement,” he said.

Geelani castigatedJammu and Kashmir govern-ment for what he said “act-ing as more loyal than theking.” “JK police which com-prises of Kashmiris hasbeen at the forefront sup-

pressing their own people.Pro-India parties includingNational Conference, Con-gress, Peoples DemocraticParty, Peoples Conference,CPI (M) and all pursuing NewDelhi’s anti-Kashmir agendato suppress our movement.Even people at the helm ofKashmir University are work-ing against the cause ofKashmiris,” he alleged.

Hitting out at some NewDelhi and Mumbai basednews channels, Geelani said“they have damaged theKashmir cause by labelingit as terrorism.” “Ongoingmovement of Kashmiris isindigenous. Besides politi-cal means, gun has beenone of the factors for reso-lution of Kashmir. While

Mahatma Gandhi ledpeaceful struggle forIndia’s movement for Inde-pendence against British,Subhash Chander Boseformed independent armyand other leaders usedviolent means for the move-ment. In this backdropKashmiris’ movement forright to self determinationcannot be labeled as terror-ism,” he said. However,Geelani maintained thatthere is no shift in the standof Hurriyat (G) on Kashmir.“We would continue topeacefully pursue our ob-jective to resolve the Kash-mir dispute according toaspirations of Kashmirisand UN resolutions,” hesaid.—NNI

Undeclared restrictionstrigger chaos in Srinagar

SRINAGAR—Normal life wascrippled in Srinagar aftergovernment imposed severerestrictions on the movementof people without any priorannouncement. Scores ofpeople were injured and doz-ens detained when policeused force on Muharram pro-cessions.

Srinagar witnessed cha-otic scenes since morning aspeople left their homes fornormal work but police andpara-military Central ReservePolice Force (CRPF) stoppedthem at barricades erected atnumerous places. This trig-gered massive traffic jams aspolice had laid concertinawires at vital crossings tostop the movement of peopleand vehicles.

The unending queues ofstranded vehicles stretchedover miles as people wereseen fuming and cursing thegovernment action.

The forces had laidspools of barbed wires atAmira Kadal, TRC Crossing,Dalgate, Karan Nagar,Jehangir Chowk, BudshahChowk, Maisuma, Abi Guzarand Footbridge. However,Muharram mourners defiedrestrictions and took out pro-cessions in several localities.The forces resorted to lathi-charge and burst scores oftear smoke shells to dispersethem.

Witnesses said a largegroup of mourners as-

sembled at Batamaloo. Themourners, dressed in black,marched towards BudshahChowk, however they wereintercepted by the forces.The forces burst tear smokeshells and resorted to batoncharge to disperse themourners. Scores of mourn-ers were detained by the po-lice.

The forces also inter-cepted a procession ofmourners near Shaheed Gunjthat started from Kak Saraiarea of city. The mournersclashed with police and para-military forces resulting ininjuries to several persons. Apoliceman was also injuredduring the clashes.

At some other places thatincluded Chinkral Mohalla inHabba Kadal area, SuthraShahi, Magarmal Bagh andTankipora, police and CRPFdispersed the Muharramprocessions. Police andCRPF burst tear smoke shellsand baton charged themourners leaving around 20persons injured.

A Muharram processionwas also taken out at Dalgatewhich later ended peacefully.

A group of mourners,showing stiff resistance, re-grouped near ExhibitionCrossing as clashes brokeout between them and po-lice. Clashes also erupted atHari Singh High Street andJehangir Chowk as somemourners tried to march to-

wards Abi Guzar in LalChowk. Scores of mournerswere injured in the police ac-tion while as over 120 werearrested. “Five policemenwere also injured in theclashes,” police said.

The arrested personswere detained in police sta-tions Shaheed Gunj, RMBagh, Kothibagh and KaranNagar.

Due to the severe restric-tions, business establish-ment in most parts of Srinagarwere closed. Schools, banks,courts and government of-fices were also badly affectedand the students who had toappear in their annual exami-nations also faced lot of in-convenience.

Most of the people whohad to take flights could notreach the Airport in time dueto traffic jams and severe re-strictions.

A senior Health Depart-ment official said the restric-tions were unprecedented.“We had no prior informationabout the restrictions. I camefrom Tral and we were askedto take the by-pass route andthe traffic was divertedthrough Chanapora. FromRambagh I had to foot thedistance up to JehangirChowk to reach my office inold secretariat.”

The restrictions im-pacted movement of patientsto tertiary care hospitals incity as attendants were seen

Imam Husain’s sacrifices sourceof inspiration: Farooq

carrying their sick babies onshoulders from Sonwar to-wards G B Pant hospital.

Police had erected barri-cades near Ram MunshiBagh police station wherethey were only allowing offi-cial Ambassador cars andpolice vehicles. “I don’tknow why they imposed thecurfew without informing us.Look at me and my wife aswe have to carry our child onshoulders to the hospitalsince we were stopped atDalgate. They have no mercyeven on patients,” saidGhulam Muhammad Bhat, aresident of Ganderbal.

Similar situation was wit-nessed at Lal Ded and SMHShospitals where patients hadto face lot of problems dueto the restrictions.

The journalists alsofaced tough time as the po-lice did not allow them tomove at some places.

Students of class 12 haveto face tough time whilereaching their examinationcenters to appear in Biologypaper. Students alleged thatthe forces deployed did notallow them to proceed to-wards examination centers.

“Deployed forces atMunawarabad Chowk didn’tpay any attention to our re-peated pleas. We showedthem our roll number slips (ad-mit cards) but they asked usto return and forget about ex-ams,” a student said.—NNI

ISLAMABAD—Chairman ofJammu and Kashmir People’sFreedom League MuhammadFarooq Rehmani has urgedMuslims to commemorate themartyrdom of Hazrat Aali (RA)and his family members by re-kindling the spirit of Jihad inaccordance with the tenants ofIslam and the legacy of Husain(RA) as left behind by him inthe 1st century of Islam in thebattle field of Karbala.

According to KashmirMedia Service, in his tributeto Hazrat Hussain (RA) and hiscompanions, MuhammadFarooq Rehmani said thatHazrat Hussain and his familymembers sacrificed their livesfor Allah, and Prophet (SAW)to show to the whole world‘what virtue is and how it canbe differentiated from vice andfoul playing of treacherous anddespotic rulers.

He said Imam Hussain(RA) was endowed with exem-plary wisdom and toleranceand gave enough time to therulers of his time to correctthemselves, but when theycontinued to rule over thepeople without followingQur’an and the Prophet of Al-lah (SAWS), he had no alter-

native save to announce hiscourse of action as demandedby the people in line with theteachings of Islam.’

Muhammad FarooqRehmani said Imam Husain(AS)’s life will continue to in-spire Muslims across the worldgeneration after generationwho they regard as torch-bearer of faith and sacrifice forgood. It’s extremely sad thatthe Muslim world is in whirl-pool and has gone instable andinsecure due to ignorance, in-fighting and enemy conspira-cies.

Muslim states, societies,schools of thought don’tdemonstrate as one body andone soul; but make enemies’grand design of dividing anddisintegrating the crescentregion easy by their individualinterpretations, and actions.He said Quran and Sunnawere enough to interpret willof Allah but unfortunatelysome elements were bentupon leading Muslims offtrack of Quran and Prophet(SAWS) under differentnames. Muslims must remaincautious and conscious in allconditions.

He said, “Notwithstand-

ing Muslim demographic andgeographical power in theworld Muslims have becomeslaves in their own countries;their resources and policies arebeing dictated and controlledby alien forces, they are beingdivided and sub divided tofight against each other. Everyenemy in any garb has directedits canons, missiles and dronesto Pakistan to weaken thisgreat state of Muslim power.Jammu and Kashmir is underillegal and forcible occupationof India for the last 66 years.”

“Muslims of Kashmirkilled and brutalized duringall these years or forced toflee from their homeland totake shelter in Pakistan havegone up to millions. The UNthat had adopted plebiscitein Kashmir as the only wayout to bring peace has left theKashmiris at the mercy of In-dian rulers. In Palestine, Zi-onist rule of Israel is all outfor more and more illegal andforcible settlements of nonPalestine populace tochange the Muslim majoritycharacter of Palestine and killthe concept of an indepen-dent and sovereign state ofPalestine.”—APP

BRUSSELS—British Conser-vative MEP, Sajjad Karim,made a powerful call to EUcitizens, especially from thePakistani and Kashmiri com-munity, to lobby their politi-cians in helping Kashmirachieve peace.

At a packed seminar high-lighting the Kashmir conflictin the European Parliament,MEP Sajjad Karim said withthe European election com-ing ahead in the next fewmonths, the Kashmiridiaspora has an opportunityto engage and put pressureon their EU officials to bringabout a real change in theapproach to Kashmir.”

The British MEP chairedthe seminar which featured ahighly distinguished panel ofspeakers, including thePresident of Azad Jammu andKashmir, Sardar MuhammadYaqoob Khan. President ofAzad Jammu and Kashmirwas invited by Sajjad Karimto take part in events for the

AJK President, Sajjad Karimcall for Kashmir solution

5thannual conference in theEuropean Parliament high-lighting the Kashmiristruggle which the MEP ishosting.

The President was confi-dent his visit and the confer-ence would raise awarenessin the EU of the appalling hu-man rights abuses which aretaking place in Kashmir. Dur-ing the exhibition he said:

“This is a fantastic con-ference and I am very proudof Sajjad Karim’s work in theEuropean Parliament to raiseawareness of the Kashmirstruggle. The global aware-ness of the situation in Kash-mir is increasing.” The Presi-dent of Azad Jammu andKashmir was also accompa-nied by Ms Farzana Yaqoob,Minister for Social Welfareand Women Affairs, whocontributed to the panel dis-cussion and spoke at theopening reception.

Mr Karim, who was rap-porteur for the EU-India Free

Trade Agreement which wasadopted in 2009 and success-fully implemented the inclu-sion of the Human Rights andDemocracy clause, spoke onthe need to highlight theKashmir conflict in the EU.He said thevsingle biggestbattle we have is when wecome up about MEPs who areunaware of the Kashmiris’struggle.

The seminar and confer-ence was well attended withMEPs Jean Lambert and PhilBennion. Both are membersof the European ParliamentFriends of Pakistan group ofwhich Sajjad Karim is chair-man.

Other speakers at theevent were Ali Raza Syed,who is Chairman of the Kash-mir Council in Brussels andwas instrumental in helpingto organise the exhibition. Hequestioned the actions of theinternational community andcalled for more support of theKashmiri’s.—INP

Shia-Sunni CoordinationCommittee denounces

police actionSRINAGAR—Shia-Sunni Co-ordination Committee hasdenounced, what it said, theunprovoked police actionagainst Muharram mourn-ers at Batamaloo and KakSarai here.

“Dozens of peacefulmourners were injured as aresult of baton charge andteargas shelling by the po-lice,” a spokesman of theCommittee said in a state-ment. Meanwhile, the Com-mittee, on the instructions ofAmir Muttehida-Majlis-e-Ulema (MUU) and HurriyatConference (M) chairmanMirwaiz Umar Farooq, orga-nized several meetings andgatherings to strengthenunity and foil the evil de-signs of miscreants. Onesuch gathering was con-vened by Imam and Khateebof Mirza Akmal-u-DinBadakshi (RA) shrine andAnjuma-e-Himayat-ul-Islamleader, Khurshid AhmadQanungo. The participantssternly condemned the gov-ernment imposed ban onMuharram procession.

The meeting further de-cided to establish two con-trol rooms one in MirzaAkmal-u-Din Hawal and theother at Hawal Chowk.“Representatives of boththe Shia and Sunni commu-nities were asked to moni-tor the ongoing situationthrough these controlrooms,” the spokesmanadded.—NNI

S R I N A G A R — E u r o p e a nUnion and parliament can-not evade from its Humani-tarian obligation about theKashmir issue. Peace is notestablished in vacuum .forestablishing or restoringpeace, the issues and prob-lems detrimental to it haveto be resolved first, Chair-man JKLF Yasin Malik said.

Addressing Europeanparliament through a videolink Malik was speaking atthe invitation of parliament.He said Europe, its unionand parl iament are reck-oned to be at the top of hu-man civilization and demo-cratic values. This is the re-gion and parl iament thathas a distinction of raisingvoices for voiceless na-tions like Jammu Kashmir.That is why all poor and op-pressed nations alwayslook towards Europe andits parliament for help andalways believe that in pur-suit of t ruth and just icethey wil l f ind Europeanparliament behind them al-ways .

Malik said there was atime when this august par-l iament visi ted Kashmirand termed it as a beautifulbig prison and raised i tsvaliant voice for freedomand human rights ofKashmiris. He said it was

the continues persuasionof European nations, par-liament and United Statesof America at whichKashmiri’s unilateral lymade a historical transitionfrom violent to non violentresistance against India.

These nations and insti-tut ions had pledged tosupport and work for theresolution of Kashmir butalas! After we the people ofKashmir collectively madethe transition, the world in-stead of respecting andsupporting it turned theireyes from the oppressedpeople of Jammu Kashmirand left them alone to facekillings, torture, imprison-ments and other oppres-sive measures at the handsof India.

JKLF Chairman saidduring the recent peacefulpeople’s revolution Indianforces killed 72 in 2008, 45in 2009 and more than 125in 2010 and these killingsare going on unabated. Butnobody is raising anyvoice against this humantragedy.

He said that todayKashmiris wonder that IsEurope, that was onceknown for its human val-ues and f ighting for therights of poor nation, alsokeen and inclined to trample

those values for safeguardits t rade and economicalbenefits with India?

Malik said it is the USAand Europe that used mili-tary might against Talibanin Afghanistan but todayare leaving Afghanistanand ready to talk to evenTaliban who fought withguns .but on the other sideare Kashmiris who haveforsaken violence and areresisting peacefully but areleft helpless. Isn’t this at-titude of the world glamor-izing violence and hencepushing new generat ionstowards using violentmeans to solve their prob-lems? Yasin said USA andEurope will have to rethinkand retreat from this crimi-nal attitude towards subju-gated people. These na-tions and their institutionswill have to break theircriminal s i lence overJammu Kashmir and therole of European parliamentin this regard is most im-portant and compulsory.

Malik hoped that Euro-pean parliament as in past willsafeguard its high valuesand play its role for the earlyresolution of Kashmir issueto ensure peace, stability,prosperity and progress ofthe sub continent and worldas well.—NNI

Women of Indian para military forces arresting peaceful women protestors in Srinagar

EU can’t evade its humanitarianobligation about K-issue: Yasin

Masarrat re-arrestedsoon after released

by courtSRINAGAR—The illegally-detained Jammu and KashmirMuslim League’s vice Chair-man, Masarrat Aalam Buttwas re-arrested by Indianpolice soon after his releaseon court orders from CentralJail in Srinagar.

Masarrat Aalam Butt,who is facing injustice andsuffering due to continuedillegal detention Central Jail,Srinagar, was released undercourt orders but police per-sonnel from Nageen PoliceStation rearrested him imme-diately after the release.

Earlier, a court in Badgamon Monday sent MasarratAalam Butt to Central JailSrinagar on 10-day judicialremand.

Masarrat continues toremain under illegal deten-tion under draconian PublicSafety Act since his arrest inthe wake of 2010 uprising inKashmir.—KMS

MIRPUR: Security personnel conducting flag march on different roads of the city toensure Law & Order during Ashura.

AJK govt startsplan to cater

with local needsof milk, meat

MIRPUR—An integrated planhas been made by the AJKgovernment to overcome theshortage of milk and meat inAzad Jammu and Kashmir(AJK).

A senior AJK governmentofficial from Livestock andAnimal Husbandry Institutetold APP here Wednesday thatthe government has decidedto extend every possible as-sistance and incentives to theprivate sector intending tomake investments in the dairy,poultry and vegetable sectorsin the area.

The official said that pro-vision of latest equipment forthe progress of dairy, poultryand vegetable farms and to getthe power tariff reduced inAJK are the foremost prioritiesof the government. He saidthat bright prospects are avail-able for the intending inves-tors for establishment of thefarms for production of dairy,poultry, fish and vegetableproduces in the area.—APP

Diabetes on risein Kashmir

SRINAGAR—“More thanone-third of adult Kashmirishave either diabetes or pre-diabetes,” prominent endo-crinologist Dr Abdul HamidZargar has said during a func-tion held in connection withthe World Diabetes Day.

“Diabetes and its atten-dant complications are a ma-jor threat to the health ser-vices resources of many de-veloping countries. It is so-cial and economic cost nowand in the future will be over-whelming to the progress anddevelopment of many popu-lations, particularly in thedeveloping countries,” theformer Director SKIMS at afunction in the City.—NNI

Gold Tezab 47142.00Silver Tezabi 788.75

Gold Tezabi (24-Ct) 46030.00Gold 22 Ct 42090.00SilverTezabi 789.00Silver Thobi 760.00

USA 107.20 107.00

UK 171.67 171.35

EURO 143.24 142.97

Canada 102.28 102.09

Switzerland 116.23 116.01

Australia 100.58 100.39

Sweden 16.25 16.21

Japan 1.0832 1.0811

Norway 17.44 17.41

Singapore 85.98 85.82

Denmark 19.20 19.17

Omani Riyal 260.00 259.00

Saudi Arabia 28.58 28.53

Hong Kong 13.83 13.80

Kuwait 378.16 377.45

Malaysia 33.52 33.46

Newzeland 88.77 88.61

Qatar 29.45 29.40

UAE 29.19 29.13

KR WON 0.1004 0.1002

Thailand 3.387 3.381

Trade deficitshrinks

STAFF REPORTER

ISLAMABAD—Pakistan’strade deficit has narrowed byover nine percent during thefirst four months (July toOctober) of the current fis-cal year 2013-14 against thecorresponding period of lastyear due to healthy growth inexports and minor decline inimports during the periodunder review.

The country’s trade im-balance has reduced to$5.883 billion in July-Octo-ber period of the year 2013-14 from $6.484 billion of thecorresponding period of pre-vious year, showing a declineof 9.27 percent in one year,revealed the figures of Paki-stan Bureau of Statistics(PBS) on Tuesday.

Exports have grownslightly faster than importsduring period under reviewleading to reduction incountry’s trade deficit. Ac-cording to the PBS figures,exports rose by 5.11 percentto $ 8.576 billion during theJuly-October 2013-14 from$8.159 of the same period ofthe last year. However, im-ports marginally decreasedby 1.26 percent to $14.459billion in July-October 2013-14 from $14.643 billion ayear ago. Therefore, the tradedeficit stood at $5.883 billionin the period under review.

The continuous slowingdown of imports allowedsome breathing space to eco-nomic managers who arestruggling to cope with thechallenge of building foreigncurrency reserves. Thecountry’s foreign exchangereserves are sharply declin-ing due to repayment to theIMF. The IMF has projectedthat Pakistan’s exports wouldgrow by 11.4 percent againstthe imports growth estima-tion of 7 percent for the on-going financial year.

On this basis, combinedwith healthy projections inremittances growth, Pakistanand IMF have worked out acurrent account deficit of just0.6pc of the gross domesticproduct. If the current ac-count deficit widens morethan the projected level, itwill create problems for theState Bank of Pakistan in ful-filling its commitments to theIMF. The central bank willface problems in maintainingforeign currency reserves onpreviously agreed levels, inaddition to achieving quar-terly targets for net foreignassets.

According to the PBSfigures, the overall exportsgrowth went down by 28.91percent in October 2013 ifcompared with exports ofprevious month. The countryexported goods worth of$1.864 billion in October2013 against $2.622 billionof September 2013.

Similarly, the imports alsoreduced by 13.45 percent in theperiod under review over lastyear, as the country importedgoods worth of $3.281 billionduring October 2013 as com-pared to $3.791 billion of Sep-tember 2013. The country’strade imbalance increased by21.21 percent in October 2013.

KARACHI—Follow-ing were the bullionrates in major citiesyesterday.

KARACHI:

MULTAN:

Currency Selling Buying

Bullion Rates

RS PER 10 GRAMS

STAFF REPORTER

LAHORE—Engr. Akber Sheikh,Chairman Association of Build-ers and Developers (ABADNorth), who has earlier servedas Chairman Constructors Asso-ciation of Pakistan (CAP) andas Chairman All Pakistan Tex-tile Mills Association (APTMA)Punjab Zone has congratulatedthe Federal Government and theGovernor Punjab for success-fully campaigning for GSP plusstatus for Pakistan exports to EUresulting in positive vote atINTA meeting.

He has expressed hope thatEU parliament’s plenary sessionwill also result in positive out-come. He has said that job cre-ation is the single most impor-

ABAD offers to set up hybridgarment park near Lahore

tant tool in the fight against ter-rorism. Engr. Akber Sheikh hassaid that to gain the full benefitof the anticipated duty free mar-ket access, Pakistan will have toincrease its garment productioncapacity manifold. In this regardthe 1000 acre garment park pro-posed by Government of Punjabis a welcome step.

However chairman ABADhas proposed, as an immediatestep, construction of smallerhybrid garment parks spreadover the province. He has of-fered to set up a hybrid garmentpark over an area of about 200acres, near Lahore. In the pro-posed garment park, the garmentmanufacturing area will haveadjacent housing scheme forworkers. The housing scheme

will provide health, educationand vocational training facilitiesat workers doorsteps.

ABAD-NR has offered toset up this garment park withfacility for 5000 stitching ma-chines. The park will provideemployment for 10000 workers.These workers will be providedhousing under the CM AshianaHousing model or Prime Min-ister 500000 houses initiative iflong term housing loans can beprovided to the workers. Theproposed garment park will pro-vide annual exports worth 150million dollars.

ABAD has also offered tohelp the government in execut-ing the government sponsoredgarment parks in Public PrivatePartnership mode.

KARACHI: SVP of the KCCI Muffasar Atta Malik, presenting Chamber’s crest to Specialist Remuneration Planning,Saudi Arabian Airlines, Dr Faisal Abdullah M Alotaibi.—PO Photo

Pak companies to meet leadingUS energy concern: Shahid

STAFF REPORTER

LAHORE—The All PakistanBusiness Forum (APBF), criti-cizing the State Bank’s move toincrease discount rate by just 50basis points described it a blowto the industry and called forregionally competitive interestrates and urged the central bankto bring its key policy rate tosingle digit to counter weakgrowth and revive private in-vestment.

APBF Chairman, NabeelHashmi said here Thursday thatthe SBP has made a U-turn byraising the discount rate to 10percent from 9.5 percent in theWednesday’s monetary policystatement. “This will hinder theinvestment in industrial sectoronce again and result in expand-ing defaulters’ list.”

He said there was no level-playing field in the region in

APBF seeks discountrate in single digit

terms of interest rate as well asenergy tariff. Pakistan is farahead of the regional competi-tors so far as the interest ratebench mark was concerned,charging now 10 percent against7.25 percent in India, 6 percentin China and 7.75 percent inBangladesh, he observed. Ac-cording APBF chairman, an av-erage electricity tariff for indus-try in the South Asia region wasbelow 10 cents against 15-18cents in Pakistan, as tariff costin China, India, Bangladesh andSri Lanka was 8.5 cents, 11.3cents, 7.3 cents and 9.2 cents.

Hashmi said that the inter-est rate should not be higher than8 per cent for the sake of expan-sion in investment activities andfor creating jobs for the millionsof young people entering the jobmarket every year. He said thatavailability of cheaper money isabsolutely necessary for bring-

ing down the cost of productionas it is like any other industrialinput. If its price is raised, thecost of production also goes up.

APBF central presidentRashid Mehr said that Pakistanigoods had already lost their dueplace in the global market forbeing uncompetitive. He saidthat high interest rate also keepsthe manufacturers from invest-ing money in capacity expan-sion, in technological up-grada-tion and product diversification.

He said that the availabilityof liquidity to the business com-munity is need of the hour as theSBP tight monetary policy in thename of financial discipline hadalready caused irreparable dent tothe private sector growth andbrought in an unusual surge inunemployment. He said that nei-ther any industrial expansion tookplace nor any investor put moneyin any new business venture.

Pakistan soon to getGSP status: Dar

STAFF REPORTER

KARACHI—All Pakistan Ship-ping Association (APSA) hassent SOS to government to re-solve the issue of ongoing strikeby the goods transporters other-wise the vessels calling Karachiports would be diverted by theshipping lines to other destina-tions.

In a statement the APSA hasintimated the government toimmediately resolve this issueand clear the ports congestionotherwise the shipping lineshave threatened the stakehold-ers to divert their vessels call-ing Karachi ports to other desti-nations in the region.

The APSA while showinggreat concern over the situation

APSA wants transportstrike issue resolved

warned the government to seri-ously take up the issue as thecountry is facing irreparable lossof internal and external trade.Goods transporters strike hasentered into 7th day and ship-ping industry is incurring biglosses due to vessels calling Pa-kistani ports, paying heavy portand other dues as there is noloading/discharging due to thisstrike besides creating heavycongestion in container termi-nals, as no outflow, is takingplace.

All the shipping companies,shipping agents, cargo handlingfirms and all concerned alongwith APSA, appealed to the au-thorities concerned for early re-solving this issue in order toavoid disrepute abroad.

STAFF REPORTER

ISLAMABAD—Olive expert andNational Project Director (Ol-ive) Dr. Muhammad Munir saidPakistan Agricultural ResearchCouncil (PARC) is playing aleading role in introduction ofolive plantation in Pakistan withthe financial support of ItalianGovernment and technical sup-port of Provincial Governments.He said up till now 1700 acresolive plantation has been madein Punjab, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa(KPT), FATA and Balochistan.

Five to six years backplanted trees, are now, at fruit-ing stage and these fruits needsutilisation for income. There isgood marketing of these fruitsat reasonable price but to in-crease the income of olive farm-

Olive plantation nowat fruiting stage

ers and to alleviate poverty,these fruits should be utilised atlocal level and farmers shouldprocess and prepare the productsby their own. By involving ru-ral females in value added prod-ucts of olive fruits at householdlevel, a significant increase intheir income can be attained.

Pakistan Agricultural Re-search Council (PARC) in col-laboration with Barani Agricul-tural Research Institute (BARI)Chakwal and Afnepak Projectorganised a training course forfemale farmers on “Olive ValueAddition” at Bari Chakwal toassess the need of future and tosupport the farmers to generateincome through preparation oflive products.

The female farmers weretrained about the medicinal im-

portance of olive and how tomake the products of olive. Theywere trained practically how tomake olive pickle, jam,murrabba, syrup and bakeryitems.

On concluding session ofthe training, Ivan Virtuosi, Ital-ian Experts and DirectorAfnepak, Dr Nasir MahmoodCheema, DPD (Olive) PARC,Dr Muhammad Tariq, DirectorBARI Chakwal, Dr FahadKarim Awan and other olive ex-pert addressed the participantsand said that in Pakistan 52pcpopulation is of females andthey can play a vital role in thedevelopment of agriculture.

They said this training willprovide females an opportunityto learn about the preparation ofproducts from olive.

ISLAMABAD: Shahid Rasheed Butt, patron-in-chief of the Islamabad Chamber of SmallTraders and Small Industries with the leaders and members of the chamber and other busi-nessmen after an agreement.

STAFF REPORTER

ISLAMABAD—Finance Minis-ter Muhammad Ishaq Dar hasexpressed the hope that Pakistanwould soon get GeneralizedSystem of Preferences Plus sta-tus that would be helpful to raiseannual exports up to about twobillion dollars.

In an interview‚ he said theGovernment had utilized diplo-matic and other channels in thisregard and European Commis-sion and committee had recom-

mended Pakistan for GSP sta-tus.

He hoped that exportswould be started to Europeancountries on 1st January 2014after the approval of EuropeanParliament.

Dar said government is alsonegotiating with the UnitedStates for boosting trade and in-vestment activities.

He said it is a good sign thatUS Overseas Cooperative De-velopment Council and Interna-tional Finance Cooperation are

increasing investment in Paki-stan.

Talking about Iran-Pakistangas pipeline project‚ Ishaq Darsaid financial planning isneeded to implement theproject and Iran has excused forinvesting five hundred milliondollars on pipeline project inPakistan.

Talking about the issue ofprice hike‚ the minister said gov-ernment is working on a mecha-nism to control the prices of ba-sic commodities of life.

Pakistan’s power sector delegationmeets with President OPIC, USPBCWASHINGTON—Federal Min-ister for Water and PowerKhawaja Muhammad Asif metwith President Overseas PrivateInvestment Corporation (OPIC)Ms. Elizabeth Littlefield and herteam here on Wednesday andreviewed the programme port-folio of OPIC in Pakistan.

The President of OPIC, whohad visited Pakistan earlier thisyear, noted that the recent reformsintroduced by the Government ofPrime Minister Nawaz Sharif inthe energy sector had sent posi-tive signal to the US businesscommunity and would lead to en-hanced flow of FDI in the com-ing months. Sharing details of theexisting OPIC portfolio in Paki-stan worth $400 million, Ms.Littlefield hoped that followingthe investor friendly policies of thegovernment, the size of the OPICprogram would increase substan-tially in the near future. She in-

formed that OPIC was consider-ing a range of projects includingin the field of Wind Energy, Foodprocessing and other sectors. Apresentation on the OPIC windprojects in Pakistan was also madeduring the meeting.

Minister for Water andPower emphasized that with thepersonal commitment of thePrime Minister to continue withhis reform agenda, Pakistan waspresenting an attractive choicefor international investors. Heassured Ms. Littlefield that theUS investors will be providedfull facilitation by the govern-ment. He also highlighted theimportance that Pakistan at-tached to attracting investmentsto build transmission lines andrelated infrastructure.

Terming wind energy as oneof the priorities of the govern-ment, Secretary Water andPower informed that the govern-

ment was determined to estab-lish the “Wind Corridor” andwould ensure that the additionalelectricity is added in the sys-tem without any delay.

President OPIC thanked theMinister for Water and Power forhis keen interest in the power sec-tor reforms and hoped that OPICwould be able to significantlyenhance its investment in Paki-stan during the next two years.

The US Pakistan BusinessCouncil (USPBC) at the USChamber of Commerce for aBusiness Roundtable alsohosted the Pakistani power del-egation on Wednesday. TheUSPBC invited senior execu-tives from several US compa-nies and associations includingthe American Wind Energy As-sociation, Solar Energy Indus-tries Association and Geother-mal Energy Association for dis-cussion with the Pakistani side.

HOUSTON—Minister for Pe-troleum and Natural ResourcesShahid Abbasi and US Ambas-sador to Pakistan Richard G.Olson have arrived here to leadan oil and gas trade mission toHouston, Texas to boost energycooperation between Pakistanand the United States.. Duringthe two-day mission, nearly 30private Pakistani companies,state-owned enterprises, and oiland gas officials are expectedto meet with leading U.S. en-ergy companies to identifybusiness opportunities, explainincentives offered by the Paki-stani Government, and attractinvestment from the privatesector to Pakistan’s oil and gassector.

The trade mission delega-tion includes officials from thePakistan Ministry of Petroleumand Natural Resources, heads ofseventeen leading Pakistani oiland gas firms, including bothstate-owned enterprises and pri-vate firms, and representativesfrom the U.S.

Department of State and

U.S. Department of Commerce.The delegation immediately fol-lows the conclusion of the fifthU.S.–Pakistan Energy WorkingGroup in Washington, part of theStrategic Dialogue frameworkre-energized during US Secre-tary of State John Kerry’s Au-gust visit to Pakistan. ThatWorking Group was co-chairedby Minister Abbasi as well asPakistan’s Minister of Water andPower Khawaja MuhammadAsif, and by Ambassador CarlosPascual, U.S. Special Envoy andCoordinator for InternationalEnergy Affairs.

The United States and Pa-kistan have worked closely ona sustained basis, including aspart of the Strategic Dialogueframework, to better developand diversify Pakistan’s energysector, a key priority of the Pa-kistani Government and people.The trade delegation’s consul-tations with investors comple-ment their Working Group dis-cussions on a variety of topics,including renewable energysources.—INP

Minister stressesadoption ofmodern techSTAFF REPORTER

LAHORE—Punjab AgricultureMinister Dr Farrukh Javed hassaid that adopting modern tech-niques in agriculture, livestockand oilseeds sectors could helpPakistan to obtain food autarky.

“Revamping role of privatesector through incentives andcreation of investment-friendlyenvironment is one of the majorbenchmarks of PML-N led gov-ernment,” he said. The minis-ter said the government had con-tributed a lot to the promotionof agriculture, livestock market-ing and now grading of fruits forexports was being done by theprivate sector. He said, food se-curity was as important as na-tional security and bipartisan ap-proach was required to fix thenuts and bolts of the emergingbusiness embedded scenariowhich is not subjected to poli-tics and ensures sustainabilitythrough continuity of policies ofnational importance. He said,agricultural research had beengiven new shape and now ourresearch was aiming at discov-ery and interpretation of factsrelating to our own realities andrequirements.

The minister said, identifi-cation of problems was also abig achievement on the part ofthe agriculture department. Hesaid, keeping in view the shareof agriculture in nationaleconomy steps were being takento improve it further. Since, hesaid, Punjab was considered asfood basket, latest machinerywas being imported to get bet-ter yield.

Etihad mayplace $2.5b deal

with BoeingDUBAI—Abu Dhabi’s EtihadAirways may buy an additional12 aircraft from Boeing , includ-ing 10 787 Dreamliners and two777 jets, sources familiar withthe matter said.

The value of the deal, ifsigned, is expected to be around$2.5 billion based on the aver-age list price of the aircraft.Etihad and Boeing declined tocomment.

It was unclear if the an-nouncement of the deal wouldbe made at the Air Show inneighboring Dubai, home to ri-val airline Emirates .

Etihad was expected to havea low presence at the event, setto be dominated by Emirates andQatar Airways.—Newswire

PQ remainsactive

KARACHI—Two ships arrivedat port to load/offload contain-ers at QICT, palm oil LCT onWednesday.

Berth occupancy was main-tained at 35% at the port onWednesday were a total fiveships namely M.V KPS-I AlicanBey - Powership, M.V AlamSayang, M.V CMA CGMMozart, m.T Bunga Angsana,M.V Cardinal are currently oc-cupying berths to load/offload,containers, cement, palm oil,fertilizer.

Cargo handling operationswere carried out smoothly at theport where a cargo volume40353 tonnes comprising 27482tonnes import, 12871 tonnesexport and (975) Tues washandled at the port during last24 hours.

M.V CMA CGM Mozartsailed on Thursday morning.

M.V Bux Contact, M.VDubai Express, M.V JPO Libraat QICT, M.V Oceanus 9 atEVTL, M.V Lito at FAP, M.VAl Naser at ICOB arrival onThursday.—APP

FBR delayingover Rs200bnrefund cases’

STAFF REPORTER

LAHORE—Former presidentLahore Tax Bar Association(LTBA) Zahid Attiq Chaudhryhas alleged that the FederalBoard of Revenue (FBR) wasunnecessarily delaying refundcases of over Rs200 billion toshow fake growth.

He said that claim of 25 percent increase in revenue collec-tion during first four months ofthe current financial year wasnothing but jugglery of words.

He said that the FBR takingsupport of delayed refund washoodwinking both the govern-ment and the International Mon-etary Fund (IMF). He said thatGST was increased by one percent while further tax and extra-tax rates were also enhanced inthe budget for the year 2013-14so the increase in revenue col-lection was a natural thing.

However, Zahid Attiqclaimed that this was not a realgrowth in the collection by theFBR.

Former LTBA leader alsoalleged that the FBR was hold-ing on refunds of over Rs200billion to show increase in itscollection to meet the conditionsof the IMF.

He further alleged that thetarget of the FBR for first fourmonths was Rs670 billionwhile it had collected onlyRs630 billion, which showsthat in actual its collection haddecreased.

He said that GST was in-creased by one per cent whilefurther tax and extra-tax rateswere also enhanced in the bud-get for the year 2013-14 so theincrease in revenue collectionwas a natural thing.

However, Zahid Attiqclaimed that this was not a realgrowth in the collection by theFBR.

He demanded of the govern-ment and the FBR to ensureimmediate payment of delayedrefunds.

STAFF REPORTER

ISLAMABAD—Senate StandingCommittee on Cabinet Secre-tariat and Capital Administra-tion on Wednesday welcomedthe appointment of ManagingDirector (MD) Pakistan Interna-tional Airline (PIA) on the rec-ommendations of the commit-tee.

The committee, which metwith Senator Kalsoom Parveenin the chair, was of the view thatthere is need to improve the per-formance of state-owned enti-ties, adding that these are na-tional assents and people work-ing in them are public servants.

Appointment of MD PIA welcomedThe committee further sug-gested that only skilled and eli-gible people should be appointedin the government’ departmentsand measures should be taken todiscourage political pressure forresisting such appointments.

During the meeting, AbdulRauf Chaudhry, chairman of thecommission for the appointmentof higher rank officers, informedthe committee that the commis-sion has appointed officers in asmany as 58 government andsemi-government departments.The committee was further in-formed that the commission hasalso shortlisted candidate fordifferent slots in PTA while ap-

pointment process of memberFinance and member TechnicalPTA has been completed.

The committee was told thatappointment process of chair-man Ogra, Nepra and Pemrashould be made transparent andthey would be appointed only onmerit basis. Secretary Establish-ment Division, Shahid Rashidsaid that the central selectionBoard has approved the promo-tion of grade 20 officers in dif-ferent government departments.

The committee was told thata total of 601 officers were pro-moted while only 81 officers ofPakistan Administrative Ser-vices (PAS) were demoted.

LARKANA: A view of cricket match between Sukkur and Karachi teams during All Pakistan Inter-Board Girls CricketChampionship played at PCB ground, organized by Larakana Board of Intermediate and Secondary Education.

LAYYAH: MPA Ch Ashfaq Ahmad with winning team of Ashraf Sugar Mill Football Club Bahawalpur at prize distribution ceremony of All PakistanFootball Tournament at TDA Ground.

CHAMAN: Saeed Ali Achakzai, Vice President of Chaman Press Club and Haji NomanKhan, District Cricket Association President and Akhtar Gulfam, Secretary meetingwith the players during the semi-final match of All Chaman Deputy CommissionerDawood Khailjje Distract Killa Abdullah Cricket Tournament.

‘We don’t havethe system to

tap talent’KARACHI—Pakistan has notbeen able to win a singlemedal in tennis in AsianGames since 1978, whichleads people to ask ques-tions of the sport authoritiesin the country.

Pakistan has three med-als in tennis in the AsianGames. In the 7th AsianGames held in Tehran in 1974,Pakistan tennis team won thebronze medal. In the 8thAsian Games in Bangkok in1978, Pakistani team won thesilver medal, while Nadir Alialso won bronze medal insingles.

Since then, Pakistan hasfailed to achieve any creditat this prestigious event.

This scribe contactedSaeed Mir, who was part ofthe team that won the bronzein the 7th edition and askedhim what went wrong withthis sport. “I feel we don’thave the system to tap thetalent we have. The nationalcause has not been amongthe priorities of tennis au-thorities although a numberof facilities are at their dis-posal,” said Saeed.

He further said that ten-nis authorities’ attitude hadmade players look for theirown benefits. “Things werenot easy for us in our times,yet we never thought be-yond Pakistan and only triedto bring glory for the coun-try.—APP

Hania reachesSindh ArchiveTrophy final

KARACHI—Hania Naveedreached the final of ladiessingles of 1st Sindh ArchiveTrophy, a ranking tennischampionship, at Bath IslandClub here.

In the semi-finals, Haniabeat Wania Khan 6-3, 6-3.

Hasan Farooq defeatedMaheen Dada 6-4, 6-2 in jun-iors’ under-17 singles; Hasanbeat Rayyan Jawad 6-2, 6-4in under-15 singles; andMuhammad DadasmashedZubair Raja 6-0, 6-3 in under-13 singles. In men’s singlesquarter-finals, Fahim Ramzanbeat Waseem Nawaz 6-4, 5-4(retired).—APP

KARACHI—Both KarachiZebras and Karachi Dolphinsromped to their third succes-sive victories when they over-whelmed Lahore Eagles andQuetta Bears, respectively, inthe National One-day Cup2013-14 here.

In a Group I game here atthe National Stadium,Karachi Zebras defeatedLahore Eagles by four runs.Chasing 183, Lahore Eaglesneeded 13 runs off the lastover, bowled by off-spinnerHaris Ayaz.

They required a six off thelast delivery but Adnan Dan-ish (28*) managed only asingle.

Keeper Zeeshan Ali top-scored with 37, which in-cluded one four and one six.Opener Ahmad Dar made 27with six fours.

Left-arm spinner UsmanBasharat (2-22), Haris Ayaz(2-36) and pacer WaqarAnwar (2-43) bowled well.Earlier, Karachi Zebras werebowled out for 182 in 41.1overs.

Opener Ashraf Alislammed 79-ball 59 with eightfours. Babar Agha (35) andAli Mudassir (24) were theother main contributors.

Leg-spinner Tanzeel Altafgot 3-38, while left-arm spin-ner Qaiser Ashraf picked 3-51. The victory helped Ze-bras firm their grip at the topspot with six points.

In a Group II show hereat the NBP Sports Complex,Karachi Dolphins defeatedQuetta Bears by three wick-ets to move to six points atthe summit.

Zebras, Dolphins recordthird successive wins inNational One-day Cup

Dolphins achieved the170-run target in 41.5 overswith Saad Altaf scoring 44not out in which he smashedfour fours. Asif Zakir belted43.

Left-arm spinnerMohibullah picked 3-24,while Hamal Wahab captured2-28.

Earlier, Quetta Bears werebundled out for 169. Abid Ali(45), Taimoor Ali (34) andMohibullah (31) were the dis-tinguished scorers.

Leg-spinner ShahzaibAhmed picked 4-31.

In Group I, RawalpindiRams also registered theirthird straight triumph whenthey defeated Peshawar Pan-thers by five wickets at thePindi Cricket Stadium.

Peshawar posted 269-6 inthe stipulated 45 overs.Mehran Ibrahim hammeredunbeaten 90 off 77 balls with11 fours and a six. OpenerIftikhar Ahmed slammed 68-ball 63 with nine fours.

Off-spinner MuneerAnsari got 3-42, whileHaseeb Azam picked 2-67.

Rams raced to the targetin 42.4 overs after losing fivewickets.

Muzammil Nizam belted aquick-fire 56-ball 68 with eightfours and a six. Naved Malikscored 59 off 55 balls and in-ternational Awais Zia hit 55off 68 balls with five fours.

Khurram Shehzad hit 42-ball 41 with two fours and twosixes. Iftikhar Ahmed got 2-46.

Abbottabad Falcons reg-istered their first win in threematches when they defeated

Sialkot Stallions by four wick-ets at the Abbottabad CricketStadium.

Stallions perished for 219with Naveed Sarwar smash-ing 72 not out with five fours.Azizur Rehman got 3-49 andShakeel Shah picked 3-38.Babar Khan claimed 2-39.

Abbottabad reached thetarget in 44 overs. KamranGhulam blasted 63 not out off65 balls, hitting ten fours.Bilal Asif claimed 3-21.

At the LCCA Ground inLahore, Lahore Lions cruisedto their second win in threemeetings when theysnatched a nine-run victoryagainst Multan Tigers.

Lions posted 168 all out.Tigers were dismissed for 159with Aamir Yamin scoring 45with four fours and a six. Left-arm spinner MohammadIrfan got 4-12, while MustafaIqbal claimed 3-35.

Islamabad Leopards re-corded their first win whenthey crushed HyderabadHawks by 103 runs at the Dia-mond Club Ground inIslamabad.

Afaq Rahim struck 126with 16 fours and four sixesand Imad Wasim blasted 82with nine fours and threesixes to guide Islamabad topost 356-5. Aslam Sattar got2-66.

Hyderabad Hawks werebowled out for 253. FaisalAthar (53), Haris Khan (52)and Shoaib Leghari (45) werethe prominent contributors.Imad Wasim also did well withthe ball, picking up 3-26.Kamran Hussain captured 2-57.—APP

DUBAI—One of the biggesttournaments in the ICC’sAssociate and AffiliateMembers’ (AM) calendarsgets underway tomorrowwhen the ICC WorldTwenty20 Qualifier UAE 2013(WT20Q) commences.

Sixteen teams will com-pete for the six availableplaces in the tournamentproper, to be staged inBangladesh from 16 March to6 April 2014.

A total of 72 matches willbe played at six venuesacross Abu Dhabi, Dubai andSharjah from 15 to 30 Novem-ber, with all matches free towatch for spectators. Thetournament will see 16 sides,split into two groups of eight,compete for six availablespots in the ICC WorldTwenty20 2014 inBangladesh. The sides thattop the two groups at theconclusion of the groupstages will automaticallyqualify for Bangladesh 2014.

The sides that finish sec-ond and third in each of thetwo groups will play cross-over matches, with the twowinners also progressing tothe ICC World Twenty20Bangladesh 2014.

The sides that finishfourth and fifth in each of thetwo groups will also playcross-over matches, with thewinners of these twomatches then playing the los-ers of the second/third cross-over fixtures; the victors ofthese matches will then com-

ICC World Twenty20 QualifierUAE 2013 gets under way

plete the lineup of qualifiersto the ICC World Twenty20Bangladesh 2014.

Once the six qualifyingteams have been identified,the event will see a semi-fi-nal double-header takingplace at Zayed Cricket Sta-dium in Abu Dhabi, where thewinner of Group A will playthe winner of Match 63, andthen the winner of Group Bwill play the winner of Match60. The victors of these twogames will then progress tothe final of the tournament.

The losers of the semi-fi-nals will then play each otherin the third/fourth play-off,while the final two qualifyingsides will play a fifth/sixthplay-off. The complete tour-nament schedule can befound here.

The final finishing posi-tions of the teams in thisevent will determine whichgroup each team will go intofor the first round of the ICCWorld Twenty20 Bangladesh2014, alongside Bangladeshand Zimbabwe.

Afghanistan, Canada,Ireland, The Netherlands,Namibia and Scotland earneddirect qualification into theWT20Q 2013 by virtue of fin-ishing in the top six of theprevious event, held in theUAE in March 2012. Joiningthose six sides with auto-matic qualification is host,

the UAE, while the remain-ing nine sides have pro-gressed through 11 regionalqualifying tournaments. Noless than 72 AM countriesfeatured in these regionaltournaments.

The 16 sides have beendivided into two groups ofeight, with defending cham-pion and top seed Irelandtopping Group A and num-ber-two seed Afghanistanheading Group B. Othersides in Group A are Namibia,Canada, Uganda, USA, Italy,Hong Kong and the UAE,while Group B also includesThe Netherlands, Scotland,Kenya, Bermuda, Denmark,Nepal and Papua NewGuinea.

Another key feature ofthe tournament will be thepresence of a member of theEmirates Elite Panel of ICCUmpires, Steve Davis, who isone of the 16 umpires whowill be officiating at the tour-nament.

Mr Davis said he wasdelighted to be workingalongside the umpires fromthe Emirates InternationalPanel of ICC Umpires and theICC Associate and AffiliatePanel of International Um-pires. “I am delighted to beworking with the associateand affiliate as well as inter-national panel umpires asthey bring fresh attitude and

energy to umpiring,” he said.He added: “We last

worked together in Malaysiain 2011during an ICC WorldCricket League tournamentand it will be interesting tosee how some of them haveprogressed. Our aim is tokeep providing these umpireswith access to updated train-ing material, maintain astrong linkage to umpiring atthe elite level and continueto support their develop-ment.

“This tournament is justas important to the umpiresas it is to the players andteams. I’m really proud to bejust one member of that um-piring team.”

The match official ap-pointments can be viewedhere on the ICC website.

A perfect icing on thecake to what will undoubtedlybe an event to remember willbe the broadcast coverage of16 matches that will be live-streamed on the ICC’s offi-cial website, www.icc-cricket.com, while the lastfour days of the tournamentwill be broadcast round theglobe by the ICC’s broadcastpartner, STAR Sports and itslicensees. Among the eightlive matches that will bebroadcast from the ZayedCricket Stadium are the semi-finals and final of the tourna-ment.—NNI

DUBAI—South Africa will bewithout JP Duminy andMorne Morkel for the sec-ond T20I against Pakistan inDubai on Friday, as bothhave been sent home to restahead of Pakistan’s trip to SAlater this month.

All-rounder Duminy andfast bowler Morkel bothplayed in the Test and ODIseries, so CSA decided togive them a break, especiallywith the series against Indiacoming up in early Decembertoo.

The Proteas won the first

T20 with ease on Wednes-day, meaning the seniorduo’s presence would not beas important, given a seriesloss would not be on thecards.

Proteas team manager,Dr Mohammed Moosajeesaid: “We have a busy sixmonth period of cricketahead of us culminatingwith the ICC WorldTwenty20 so it’s vital for usto manage workload andmental freshness at oppor-tune moments, especially forthe players that play in all

three formats.“We’ve seen how fired

up Dale (Steyn) has beensince his rest so we may alsoneed to look at following thesame approach with a guy likeAB (De Villiers) who is animportant part of our seniorplayer group.”

This doesn’t mean theirdomestic franchises can getexcited ahead of the One DayCup final at Newlands on Fri-day, as both players havebeen prohibited from playingfor the Cobras (Duminy) andthe Titans (Morkel).—INP

Morkel, Duminy givenrest for second T20

MUMBAI—Legendary Paki-stan batsman Zaheer Abbasbelieves that it will be ex-tremely difficult for India toget “another player ofSachin Tendulkar’s calibre”and says the retiring greatwould have been as suc-cessful a player had hebeen born in any other era.

“It will be extremely dif-ficult for India to get aplayer of SachinTendulkar’s calibre. The joythat he has given to peoplelike us can’t be describedin words and people like mehave learnt from him even ifwe had retired much beforehe came into the interna-tional scene,” former Paki-stan captain Zaheer Abbastold PTI.

Abbas, who scored morethan 5000 runs in his 78Tests, stated with convictionthat although Test cricketwas tougher in 1970’s andearly 80’s compared to now,Tendulkar would have beenequally successful in thoseeras also.

“I feel it’s unfair to com-pare cricketers of two dif-ferent eras. Myself andSunil (Gavaskar) played ata time when you had AndyRoberts, Dennis Lillee, JeffThomson, Michael Holding

Sachin would havebeen equally good in

any other era: Zaheerand later Malcolm Marshallat their peak. It was an erawhich required differentkind of mindset and cour-age.

“But a great player is agreat player irrespective ofthe era in which he plays. Ifirmly believe thatTendulkar would have gotas much success againstLillee, Roberts or Marshallas he got against Lee,McGrath or Shoaib Akhtar.All because of a propertechnique and enormouscourage to play fast bowl-ing,” the 66-year-old formerPakistan captain said.

Abbas was present atthe National Stadium inKarachi in 1989, whenTendulkar made his debutand also remembers watch-ing him play in all the otherthree Tests in that series.

“When I found aschoolboy getting hit byWaqar Younis and not evenshow that he is hurt, it wassomething that caught myattention. He had alreadybecome a man at 16. If youcan face Waqar with confi-dence, who was the fastestat that time along withWasim Akram, then you arecertainly destined for great-ness,” Abbas said.—INP

Steven, Walkerto miss England

vs ChileLONDON—Captain StevenGerrard and defender KyleWalker will miss England’sfriendly against Chile atWembley on Friday becauseof minor injuries, British me-dia reported on Thursday.

Midfielder Gerrard, 33,aggravated a hip injury inLiverpool’s win over Fulham,while Spurs right-backWalker missed England train-ing.

But Chelsea midfielderFrank Lampard, who hadbeen feeling unwell, trainedwith his international team-mates. Michael Carrick, 32,and Danny Welbeck have al-ready withdrawn from thesquad.

The Manchester Unitedduo have Achilles and kneeinjuries respectively and willalso miss the friendlyagainst Germany on Tues-day.

Welbeck, 22, who hasscored eight goals in 20 ap-pearances for his country,was named in the squad de-spite not having playedsince 19 October.

The absence of Gerrardand Carrick, combined withArsenal midfielder JackWilshere’s continuing recov-ery from an ankle injury, in-creases the chances of a de-but for Southampton’s AdamLallana.—Online

PSB allots threeevents to SSB

KARACHI—Sindh SportsBoard (SSB) will organise atleast three events of PakistanSport Board’s (PSB) annualcompetitions. The PSB allot-ted provincial sports boards,Gilgit-Baltistan and AzadJammu and Kashmir varioussports competitions of under-14 boys and under-16 girls.

The PSB has given un-der-16 girls athletics andtaekwondo championshipsto SSB, ‘The News’ haslearnt. SSB will also organiseboys’ under-14 athleticschampionship.

The final dates and placesof the events would be an-nounced by SSB when prepa-rations were completed,sources said. These deci-sions were made at a meetingheld at Pakistan Sports Com-plex, Islamabad, recently.

The meeting was at-tended by the heads of thesports boards of Punjab,Sindh, Balochistan, KhyberPakhtunkhwa, Gilgit-Baltistan and Azad Jammu &Kashmir. The competent au-thority gave final approval ofthe number of games andschedules of youth tourna-ments to be organised dur-ing 2013-14.—APP

BIPIN DANI

OBSERVER

CORRESPONDENT

DUBAI—Ratilal Parmar,one of the many fans ofSachin Tendulkar is readywith the unique gift thistime. A Morbi-based busi-nessman (in fabrication in-dustry) has travelled toMumbai to gift SachinTendulkar the two currencynotes bearing numbersSachin would score in twoinnings of his farewell Test.

‘I have collected thetwo sets of currency notesof all six digit numbers from000001 to 000400 for SachinTendulkar (total 800 notesof IRS 10 each) and the twonotes from this collectionwill be presented to SachinTendulkar after the conclu-sion of this Test’, he saidover telephone fromWankhede Stadium.

‘I am Sachin’s fan and

You score runs,‘noteworthy’ gift ready

has the collection of 100notes having numbers asdates on which the legend-ary batsman scored one hun-dred centuries. Last year Ipresented him a 10-rupeenote that bears the number240412 which denotes thedate of Tendulkar’s 39th birth-day’.

His journey for collectingcurrency notes having spe-cific numbers started in 1984when he first bought the lot-tery tickets.

Initially, he started giftinghis friends and their childrenthe notes with numbers per-taining to their birthdates andanniversaries. But later on, hebegan to gift similar uniquenotes to the celebrities andpoliticians. Gujarat chief min-ister Narendra Modi, the fa-ther figure of BollywoodAmitabh Bachchan andSachin Tendulkar have cur-rency notes from Parmar’sunique collection. On Thurs-

day, he also presentedSharad Pawar the 10-rupeenote having number 121240as Sharad Pawar’sbirthdate.

‘I also have a note hav-ing number 83M 000401and it will be the biggestday of my life if Sachinscores these many runs infront of Lara, who is alsohere for his farewell match’.The world record for indi-vidual score in Test inningsstands in the name of BrianLara.

‘I have also brought thetwo notes of seven digitshaving six zeros at the endbut hope that opportunityto present these notes toSachin doesn’t arise’, the57-year-old Parmar signedoff.

Laster year, for hisunique collection of cur-rency notes, Parmar’s namehas also figured in LimcaBook of records.

MUMBAI: BCCI secretary Sanjay Patel presents Sachin Tendulkar with a portrait before the start of India vs WestIndies 2nd Test on Thursday.

DUBAI—If Wednesday setthe tone for this four-match,two-country mini-series thenwe don’t have much to lookforward to in the next week.It was as one-sided an affairas you can get in the short-est format and both teams willhope for something morecompetitive as the UAE legof their contest comes to anend.

It will be up to Pakistanto make it more of a duel.Their batting collapseshave become the source ofserious concern as poorshot selection and lack ofapplication continues tohaunt them. They needsomeone to bat through,another few to bat with him,partnerships to form andmore resistance put up. Inshort, they need more dedi-cation and more fight.

South Africa’s bowlershave hardly been challengedso far and it would make awelcome change if they were.Their batting has improvedconsistently through theODIs and although theydidn’t have to do much be-yond the formalities onWednesday, they will want toassert themselves even fur-ther before heading home,where batting is likely to bemore difficult.

Shoaib Malik spent 35minutes at the crease - thesecond-longest stint of anyPakistan batsmen (UmarAkmal batted for 55 minutes)- faced 23 balls but only had12 runs to show for it. He

Pakistan vs South Africa 2nd T20

Pressure on Pakistan to liven up contestdemonstrated the rightmindset in wanting to givehimself a little bit of time tosettle in but the wrong intentwhen he grew so frustratedthat he fell into the trap ofchasing a wide ball and be-ing stumped. If he can avoidmaking a similar error, Malikis the likeliest candidate to

take responsibility in the Pa-kistan line-up, a quality theycertainly need.

He does not have the ag-gression and pace of DaleSteyn but LonwaboTsotsobe has played anequally important role withthe new ball. In conditionswhere he has found someswing and bounce, Tsotsobehas been a perfect partner toSteyn.

After concerns over hisfitness in Sri Lanka, he hascome back committed andperforming well. He dedi-cated his showing on

Wednesday night to his fa-ther and brother - incidentallyit was their birthday althoughthe former has passed - andsaid he wants to follow upwith something just as spe-cial in the final match.

Team newsNeither Ahmed Shehzad

nor Sohaib Maqsood was

successful at the top of theorder so Mohammad Hafeezmay consider returning theredespite the prospect of hav-ing to face Steyn early on.Nasir Jamshed may also comeinto contention if Maqsoodis dropped.

The middle order shouldremain the same but AbdurRehman could find himselfout of the XI. MohammadIrfan is due a break and maymake way for Junaid Khan.

Pakistan: (likely) 1Mohammad Hafeez (capt)/Nasir Jamshed, 2 AhmedShehzad, 3 Sohaib Maqsood,

4 Shoaib Malik, 5 Umar Akmal(wk), 6 Shahid Afridi, 7 AbdulRazzaq, 9 Sohail Tanvir, 10Saeed Ajmal, 11 Junaid Khan/Mohammad Irfan

South Africa have sentMorne Morkel and JPDuminy home to give thepair, who play in all formats,some rest ahead of the homesummer. That may make roomfor Henry Davids to comeback into the XI, with eitherHashim Amla or Quinton deKock moving down the or-der. The team managementalso indicated that AB deVilliers would need to have abreak and if he sits out, DavidWiese could come into con-tention. South Africa mayalso consider swapping spin-ners with Imran Tahir makingway for Aaron Phangiso.

South Africa: (likely) 1Henry Davids, 2 HashimAmla 3, Quinton de Kock(wk) 4 Faf du Plessis (capt), 5AB de Villiers/David Wiese,6 David Miller, 7 RyanMcLaren, 8 Wayne Parnell, 9Dale Steyn, 10 LonwaboTsotsobe, 11 Imran Tahir/Aaron Phangiso

If South Africa win theseries 2-0, they will go up toNo.2 on the ICC T20rankings, from their currentposition of fifth. If Pakistanmanage to square the series1-1, they will stay second,with South Africa staying atfifth place. The head to headrecord between these twoteams is not exactly the same.Both have won fourmatches.—AFP

NEW DELHI—Zaheer Khan,Virender Sehwag andHarbhajan Singh find them-selves out of a central contractfor the 2013-14 season, whileGautam Gambhir and YuvrajSingh find themselves down-graded in the BCCI’s retainerlist, released on Thursday.

Suresh Raina is the sur-prise inclusion among the five

players in the highest grade;the others are captain MSDhoni, Sachin Tendulkar, RAshwin and Virat Kohli. Thelist also features five playerswho were not rewarded witha contract last year. They areBhuvneshwar Kumar (GradeB), Mohammad Shami,Ambati Rayudu, JaydevUnadkat and Mohit Sharma

No central contract forZaheer, Sehwag

(all in Group C).While Zaheer and Sehwag

featured in Grade A last year,Harbhajan was included inGrade B. ESPNcricinfo under-stands that they were axed be-cause none of them is assuredof a place in the team in any ofthe three formats. Their exclu-sion need not, however, be theend of their career, becauseBCCI rules say that any non-

contracted player who featuresin any international match dur-ing the contract period isawarded a Grade C contract forthe rest of the tenure.

Ravindra Jadeja, ShikharDhawan and Murali Vijay havebeen upgraded from Grade Cto B for their “exceptional” per-formance in the last contractcycle, while Rahane’s demo-

tion on the reverse route wasdue to the fact that he hasfailed to make most of his lim-ited opportunities.

Tendulkar’s mention inGrade A may have raised quitea few eyebrows since the vet-eran batsman is playing is mak-ing his last international ap-pearance during India’s sec-ond Test against the WestIndies. However, since the

annual retainers are awardedon a pro-rata basis, Tendulkarwould be eligible for twomonths’ compensation sincethe beginning of the retainercycle in October. Rahul Dravidand VVS Laxman were alsonamed in the top categoryand were paid proportion-ately during the 2011-12cycle.—AFP

NEW DELHI: Zaheer, Harbhajan and Sehwag, out of a central contract.

MUMBAI—Rarely have fansof a team in as dominant aposition as India were at theWankhede Stadium felt thistense. In the first two ses-sions, West Indies hadserved up another dose ofinept batting to roll over for182, and then India’s open-ers battered 77 at nearly arun-a-ball. That’s whenShane Shillingford strucktwice in an over, to the deliri-

Tendulkar 38 after WestIndies fold for 182

ous cheers of the home fans,and brought SachinTendulkar to the battingcrease, perhaps for the finaltime.

The knowledge that onefalse stroke could mark theend of the career of India’sbest-loved cricketer made ita nerve-wracking experience,even for the lucky few whohad managed to wranglehard-to-find tickets. Whether

Tendulkar felt a similar anxi-ety or not, he produced aninnings of such composurethat some fans wonderedwhy he had announced hisretirement. In about 100 min-utes in the middle, he showedoff some of his signaturestrokes including the classi-cal cover drive and the ef-fortless punch down theground.

The day began with a se-ries of tributes to Tendulkar -the BCCI president NSrinivasan handed him a me-mento, a painted portrait waspresented to him, the WestIndies side gave him a framedautographed shirt, the coinat the toss was speciallyminted in his likeness - andended with fans euphoricover having watched him batone more time. And, as hasalways been the case withTendulkar, they were hopingfor one more century fromthe man who already has 51of them in Tests.

West Indies were hopingfor a century from at least oneof their batsmen as well. Ev-ery Darren Sammy pressconference is littered with talk

about sensible batting, theneed to shelve rash strokesand for the team to grind outovers. No one seems to begetting the message, least ofall the captain himself, as forthe third innings in a row thisseries, West Indies made areasonable start before ut-terly collapsing.

After being asked to batby MS Dhoni - a decision thatsurprised the experts - WestIndies had progressed to 93for 2 at lunch, and havingplayed out the traditionallydifficult early hours and thenew ball, should have beenlooking for a substantialscore.

Instead, they slid from140 for 3 to 182 all out asIndia’s spin pair of R Ashwinand Pragyan Ojha rippedthrough the batting.

It wasn’t an easy surfaceto bat on, with Ashwin ex-tracting bounce and turn inthe first session itself. Thenew-look opening pair ofBhuvneshwar Kumar andMohammed Shami con-stantly attacked the stumpsand had the ball swervingboth ways.—AFP

West Indies 1st innings:Gayle c Sharma b Shami 11Powell c Dhawan b Ojha48Bravo c Dhoni b Ashwin29Samuels c Vijay b Ojha . 19Chanderpaul b Kumar .. 25Deonarine b Ashwin ..... 21Ramdin not out .............. 12Sammy c Sharma b Ashwin0Shillingford lbw b Ojha .. 0Best c Dhoni b Ojha ....... 0Gabriel c Dhoni b Ojha ... 1Extras: (b 8, lb 8) ............ 16Total: (all out) .............. 182Fall of wickets 1-25, 2-86, 3-97, 4-140, 5-148, 6-162, 7-162,8-162, 9-172, 10-182Bowling: ........... O-M-R-W

Kumar ................. 17-2-45-1Shami .................. 12-2-36-1R Ashwin ............ 15-2-45-3PP Ojha ............ 11.2-2-40-5India 1st innings:Vijay b Shillingford ....... 43Dhawan b Shillingford . 33CA Pujara not out ......... 34SR Tendulkar not out ... 38Extras: (b 8, nb 1) ............. 9Total: (2 wickets) ......... 157Fall of wickets: 1-77, 2-77Bowling: ........... O-M-R-WSammy .................. 6-0-27-0Gabriel ................... 6-0-32-0Shillingford ........ 12-1-46-2TL Best ................. 5-0-27-0Samuels ................ 5-0-17-0

DUBAI—Henrik Stenson en-joyed a near flawless openingday of the $8 million DP WorldTour Championship on Thurs-day, marred only by a missedpar putt from three feet on thefinal hole. At the Earth courseof Jumeirah Golf Estates, theSwede shot a sublime four-under-par 68 to remain oncourse to become the new Eu-ropean No1, finishing as thebest among the nine playersin with a chance of winning theRace to Dubai this week.

Stenson was just twoshots off the early pace set bySpaniard Alejandro Canizares,while Australia’s MarcusFraser and Thai KiradechAphibarnrat were tied secondat five under par after shoot-ing rounds of 67.

Welshman JamieDonaldson, second last weekat the Turkish Open and oneof eight players who can stillovertake Stenson, was tiedalongside the Swede andSpain’s Rafael Cabrera-Bello at68. Race to Dubai No2 Justin

Stenson on course for No1spot, Canizares leads in Dubai

Rose of England opened witha 70, No. 3 Graeme McDowellof Northern Ireland was on

level par, while No4 Ian Poulterof England started with a 69.—APP

Serbia to missTipsarevic in

Davis Cup finalBELGRADE—Serbia will bewithout injured number-twoplayer Janko Tipsarevic forthe Davis Cup final againstholders the Czech Republicstarting here on Friday, theSerbian Tennis Federationsaid before Thursday’s draw.

Tipsarevic, the worldnumber 36, has been ruledout by a heel injury, federa-tion spokeswoman NedaMiletic told AFP.

Led by world number twoNovak Djokovic, Serbia, the2010 champions, have picked117th-ranked Dusan Lajovicto replace Tipsarevic.

The draw is due at 1200GMT on Thursday.—APP

Pieterseneases fitnessdoubts withhalf-century

SYDNEY—Kevin Pietersenproved his fitness for nextweek’s Ashes opener with abreezy half-century as En-gland closed on the CricketAustralia Invitational XI’sfirst innings total in their tourgame Thursday.

Pietersen, who had a cor-tisone injection for a trouble-some knee earlier this week,cracked 57 runs off 71 ballsas he warmed up for his 100thTest starting in Brisbane onNovember 21.

Jonathan Trott (83) andskipper Alastair Cook (81)also spent valuable battingtime in the middle, asEngland’s top order fine-tuned for the first Test at theGabba, reaching 302 for fiveat the close on the secondday of the four-day tourmatch in Sydney.

At stumps, Joe Root was26 not out and JonnyBairstow was unbeaten on11. England trailed by justtwo runs on the first inningsafter Steven Finn earlierstaked his claim for the firstTest fast bowling vacancy,finishing with five wickets for103 to help dismiss the homeside for 304 midway throughthe first session.

Pietersen lookedscratchy early in his inningsas he nicked a couple shortand wide of the slips andhesitated on occasions whenrunning between wicketswith partner Cook.

But he appeared physi-cally unencumbered duringhis 93-minute stay at thecrease to further boostEngland’s confidence aheadof the Ashes.

He smashed seven foursand two sixes and almostseemed as if he was trying toget out when he skiedlegspinner James Muirhead(2-97) into the outfield.

“Kev seems fine, I haven’theard him complain about (hisknee),” Trott said. “It’s alwaysnice to see him in full flow andbeing confident in warm-upgames.—AFP

Cullen upstagesScott in Masters

first roundMELBOURNE—Nick Cullenupstaged Masters championAdam Scott with a blazing six-under opening round to leadthe Australian Masters atRoyal Melbourne on Thurs-day.

Cullen, who won lastyear’s Indonesia Open,holed an eagle and six bird-ies on his way to a 65 andlead world number two Scottand Germany’s MaximilianKieffer by two shots.

Left-hander Cullen, 29,who turned professionalonly four years ago, surgedto the outright lead with apurple patch from holes 11 to13, first chipping in for eaglethen notching two birdies toclimb from two-under to six-under.

“I hit it really well andputted pretty solid. I pitchedin on the 11th which alwayshelps,” said Cullen, who holedhis eagle from 59 metres with awedge. He briefly reachedseven-under before finishingwith a bogey.—AFP

A woman in Taiwan has become the firstperson in the world with a confirmedcase of a new strain of bird flu, adding

to a growing body of evidence of the potentialthreat from animal viruses that mutate to beable to infect people. Scien-tists from Taiwan said the in-fection - with a bird flu straincalled H6N1 - appeared to beone isolated human case andprobably posed little threatfor the moment. But itshowed how this virus, likeothers in the past, had beenable to acquire geneticchanges allowing it to jumpacross species.

Another new strain ofbird flu, called H7N9, is con-tinuing to infect and killpeople in China after it firstemerged in humans there ear-lier this year. Infectious dis-eases that pass from animalsinto humans are known aszoonoses and have kept sci-entists on the alert for decades. Several majorhuman epidemics, including the worldwideoutbreak of Human Immunodeficiency Virus(HIV) that causes AIDS and the 2009/2010H1N1 flu pandemic, began as zoonotic events.Many diseases also make the jump and thenjust peter out.

“This again underscores that there are somany viruses out there and we just don’t reallyknow which pose the greatest threats to us,”Wendy Barclay, a flu virologist at ImperialCollege London, told Reuters when askedabout the H6N1 case. She called for more vigi-lance, surveillance and research into animaldiseases with the potential to jump to humans.

In study in journal Lancet RespiratoryMedicine on Thursday, scientists said theH6N1 case was found in a 20-year-old womanfrom central Taiwan who went into hospitalin May with flu-like symptoms and shortness

of breath. Initial tests on throat-swab samples taken from thepatient indicated an unclassi-fied subtype of a flu virus, theresearchers said, and furthergenetic analysis showed it wasa new H6N1 bird flu virus verysimilar to chicken H6N1 vi-ruses that have been circulat-ing in Taiwan since 1972.

The woman respondedto treatment with Roche’s flumedicine Tamiflu and has sincefully recovered, they added.Ho-Sheng Wu, who led thecase study from the Centres forDisease Control in Taipei, saidthe important feature of the ge-netic analysis was that itshowed the virus had a muta-tion in the haemagglutinin - a

binding protein on the virus’ surface - thatenables it to get into human cells and causeinfection.

Further investigations into the patientfound that she worked in a delicatessen, hadnot been abroad for three months prior to herinfection, and had not been in close proxim-ity to poultry or wild birds. “The source ofinfection remains unknown,” Ho-Sheng wrotein the study.

Barclay agreed that the woman’s caseappeared to be “for now an isolated case”,adding: “It is possible that in these days ofincreased vigilance we are picking up the oc-casional zoonosis that we previously missed.”

New Taiwan bird flu showsanimal virus risk to humans

Muharram procession passing through M.A Jinnh Road.—PO Photo by Sultan Chaki

IGP Sindh Shahid Nadeem Baloch talking to senior police and rangers officers during his visitto the entire route to witness security arrangements for 9th Muharram-ul-Harram procession.

IRFAN ALIGI

KARACHI—The procession of9th Moharram that took a start atNishtar Park in the morning ofThursday safely reached its desti-nation, the Hussainia IraniaImambargah in Kharadar amidintense security including block-age of all routes of entry and ex-its, ban on pillion riding and sus-pended cellular network services.

The procession of 9thMoharram was started with theoration of Shiite scholar MaulanaShahenshah Naqvi. The 9thMoharram procession while pass-ing through selected routes includ-ing Old Numaish Chowrangi, sev-enth Day hospital, Empress Mar-ket, Regal Chowk and Tibet Cen-tre made a short stay atImambargah Ali Raza where the

Muharram processionsamid intense security

mourners offered Zohrain prayerscollectively. Later the processionreached the destination ofHussainia Irania in Kharadar andwas ended with the concludingoration. The mourners recitedmarsiya and performed matumwith hands and sharp tools.

The security in the city espe-cially alongside the routs of the9th procession was extra-high. Allthe routes of entry and exits weresealed with barbed wires andheavy contingent of police, Rang-ers and other agencies of law en-forcement had acutely guardedthe procession to prevent any un-toward incident. The video moni-toring and aerial surveillance wascontinuously done. Shops andmarkets were kept shut.

The 10th Moharram proces-sion, the largest in Moharram was

being producedFriday (today),which routes were the same.However, security measures werefurther beefed up and the mainprocession was allowed to take toits routes after intense securityclearance. The mourners and par-ticipants of the 10th Moharramprocession were searched for anystuff that could cause damage ofany kind before they were allowedto join it.

The cellular network servicesas was kept suspended on 9thMoharram from 7 AM to 9 PM,was again suspended on 10thMoharram for the same duration,which had badly affected thepeople of the city.

The video monitoring of 10thMoharram main procession wasbeing conducted with 1250 closecircuit cameras that were moni-

tored from the Command andControl System installed at theCivic Centre and at Nishtar Park.The participants of the main pro-cession were allowed to enterthrough the passage of walk-through gates.

More than 8000 cops and of-ficers of Karachi police along with200 sharp shooters stationed onrooftops would guard the mainprocession. Special passes wereissued to the newsmen and forvehicular parking.

Earlier, Sindh Chief SecretarySajjad Saleem Hotiana had withKarachi police chief, additionalInspector General of Police ,Sindh Shahid Hayat visited routesof 9th Moharram procession andissued necessary instructions formaking the security measuresimproved.

KARACHI—Sindh Minister forInformation and Local Govern-ment Sharjeel Innam MemonThursday paid a visit to variousparts of Karachi to see securityand cleanliness arrangementsmade on the eve of Muharram 10.He was accompanied by seniorofficials of Karachi Municipal

Corporation (KMC) and Lo-cal Government Department,said a press statement.

The minister appreciated ef-

Harmony to be maintainedat all costs: Sharjeel Memon

forts made by the KMC and theLocal Government Departmentwith regard to cleanliness andprovision of possible facilities tomourners on the routes of mainMuharram processions.

He noted that strict securityarrangements had been made bythe police and Rangers and over25000 law enforcement person-nel had been deployed in the city.He hoped that with the help oflaw-abiding people, all conspira-

cies would be foiled and har-mony among people of variousschools of thought will be main-tained at all costs.

The Minister was informedby officials of the Local Gov-ernment that in view of the gov-ernment directives, all necessarysteps had been undertaken toensure cleanliness and provideadequate facilities to mournersin cities and towns across theprovince.—APP

KARACHI—Inspector Gen-eral of Sindh Police ShahidNadeem Baloch was told thatover 25,000 security person-nel will perform security du-ties in Karachi, on the occa-sion of processions andmajalis of Muharram-ul-haram.

Over 9000 security per-sonnel will perform securityduties at the main Ashura pro-cession in Karachi on Novem-ber 15.

The Sindh Police chiefwas told this in a Karachi po-lice report about security planfor processions and majalis ofMuharram in Karachi, said astatement on Thursday.

He has directed the police

9000 security personeldeployed for Ashura

to take all possible measures atthe level of police stations withthe coordination of stakehold-ers to ensure peace and main-tain inter-faith harmony duringthe Muharram-ul- haram.

He also directed the policeto provide lists of containingcontact numbers of SHOs,DIGs and all control rooms tothe organizers of mourning pro-cessions and majalis.

He further directed to takeappropriate steps to set up tem-porary police reporting centerson the route of main procession,besides deployment of spe-cially trained personnel in thesensitive areas.

According to report, 620mourning processions and

about 320 majalis will be heldin the metropolis duringMuharram.

The IG Sindh has directedto install walk through gatesat entrances of Imambargahsand venues of majalis and saidthe security personnel shouldcheck identity of participantsand perform body search withthe coordination of organizersof processions and majalis.

Shahid Nadeem Balochhas also directed the police of-ficials to take all necessarysteps with the coordination ofulema as well as organizers ofmajalis and processions to en-sure foolproof security ar-rangements on the occasion ofMuharram.— APP

DG Rangers visitsImambargahs

KARACHI—The Director Gen-eral Pakistan Rangers Sindh onThursday visited theImambaragahs here where blastsoccurred on Wednesday night.

He met with the administra-tion of the Imambargahs andseparately also met those whowere wounded in the blast, saida statement on Thursday.

The DG Rangers directedrangers and police to beef up se-curity at the Imambargahs andprocession routes and ensurefool proof security cover.—APP

MQM leadersstress need

of peaceCITY REPORTER

KARACHI—Muttahida QaumiMovement (MQM), RabitaCommittee members AhmedSalim Siddiqui and Adil Khanmet prominent ulema and schol-ars, Allama Hassan ZafarNaqvi, Dr. Jameel Rathore andDr. Waqar Azeemi as a part oftheir ongoing efforts to maintainenvironment of harmony andpeace during Muharram.

MNA Iqbal Mohammad Aliand the party’s ulema commit-tee In-charge Javaid Ahmed andmembers were also present onthe occasion, said a statementon Thursday.

The Rabita Committeemembers in their separate meet-ings with the ulema and schol-ars said that promoting inter-faith harmony and respect foreach other’s faith was in truespirit of Islam.

They said that their partychief Altaf Hussain has alwaysdescribed intolerance as a con-spiracy against the people andagainst the Muslim unity.

JI’s workers’convention

KARACHI—Secretary General,Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) PakistanLiaquat Baloch Thursday saidthat those who raise voiceagainst tyranny and play theirrole practically for the su-premacy of Islam are truly ful-filling the character of HazratImam Hussain (R.A).

He expressed these viewswhile addressing a workers’ con-vention, organised by JI DistrictCentral in Masjid-e-Huda here onThursday, said a statement.—APP

Rangers arrest15 criminals

KARACHI—Pakistan RangersSindh has arrested 15 criminalsand recovered weapons of dif-ferent types during raids andsnap checking in different areasof the metropolis.

The Rangers conducted tar-geted raids in Ghazi Goth,Majeed Colony, Landhi, Surjaniand Nazimabad areas, said astatement on Thursday. Snapchecking was also carried out inGulshan-e-Iqbal and Toll Plazaareas, the statement said.—APP

Sectarian harmonytop priorityCITY REPORTER

KARACHI—Member nationalassembly (MNA) Sajid Ahmedsaid that the country needed roleof every single citizen regard-ing the promotion of sectarianharmony and religious brother-hood if we wanted to defeat theterrorism.

While urging for unity andtranquility, the MNA said thatPakistan was passing throughcrucial time and the belovedcountry had threats from all cor-ners so it was the national dutyof every citizens to play its rolefor protecting the country.

While talking to PakistanObserver, DMC Malir adminis-trator Ghulam Rasool said thatthe administration of the DMChad in consultation with theMQM lawmakers finalized itsstrategy quite earlier and hadmaintained the traditions ofMalir for extra-cleanliness andsectarian harmony.

A woman in Taiwan has become the firstperson in the world with a confirmedcase of a new strain of bird flu, adding

to a growing body of evidence of the potentialthreat from animal viruses that mutate to beable to infect people. Scien-tists from Taiwan said the in-fection - with a bird flu straincalled H6N1 - appeared to beone isolated human case andprobably posed little threatfor the moment. But itshowed how this virus, likeothers in the past, had beenable to acquire geneticchanges allowing it to jumpacross species.

Another new strain ofbird flu, called H7N9, is con-tinuing to infect and killpeople in China after it firstemerged in humans there ear-lier this year.

Infectious diseases thatpass from animals into hu-mans are known as zoonosesand have kept scientists on thealert for decades. Several major human epidem-ics, including the worldwide outbreak of Hu-man Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) thatcauses AIDS and the 2009/2010 H1N1 flu pan-demic, began as zoonotic events. Many dis-eases also make the jump and then just peterout.

“This again underscores that there are somany viruses out there and we just don’t reallyknow which pose the greatest threats to us,”Wendy Barclay, a flu virologist at ImperialCollege London, told Reuters when asked aboutthe H6N1 case. She called for more vigilance,surveillance and research into animal diseaseswith the potential to jump to humans.

In study in journal Lancet RespiratoryMedicine on Thursday, scientists said theH6N1 case was found in a 20-year-oldwoman from central Taiwan who went intohospital in May with flu-like symptoms and

shortness of breath. Initial testson throat-swab samples takenfrom the patient indicated anunclassified subtype of a fluvirus, the researchers said, andfurther genetic analysis showedit was a new H6N1 bird flu vi-rus very similar to chickenH6N1 viruses that have beencirculating in Taiwan since1972.

The woman respondedto treatment with Roche’s flumedicine Tamiflu and has sincefully recovered, they added.Ho-Sheng Wu, who led thecase study from the Centres forDisease Control in Taipei, saidthe important feature of thegenetic analysis was that itshowed the virus had a muta-tion in the haemagglutinin - a

binding protein on the virus’ surface - thatenables it to get into human cells and causeinfection.

Further investigations into the patientfound that she worked in a delicatessen, hadnot been abroad for three months prior toher infection, and had not been in close prox-imity to poultry or wild birds. “The sourceof infection remains unknown,” Ho-Shengwrote in the study. Barclay agreed that thewoman’s case appeared to be “for now anisolated case”, adding: “It is possible that inthese days of increased vigilance we arepicking up the occasional zoonosis that wepreviously missed.”

New Taiwan bird flu showsanimal virus risk to humans

A view of 9th Muharram procession taken out at Islampura bazaar.

MUZAFFAR ALI

LAHORE—Thousands ofmourners on Thursday are hold-ing processions regarding ninthof Moharramul Haram in differ-ent parts of the provincial me-tropolis in the memory of one ofthe greatest personalities of Is-lamic world who gave unprec-edented and unparalleled sacri-fice for the uplift of MuslimUmmah against historical re-pression and oppression.

The main procession of 9thMuharram was commencedfrom Nisar Havaily and afterpassing through its traditionalroute ended at the Karbala Game

9th Muharram

Processions taken out intight security

Shah before Maghrib prayers.Provincial Ministers includ-

ing Provincial Food MinisterBilal Yasin reviewed all the se-curity arrangements and dis-cussed security measurementswith police as well as organiz-ers of mourning procession. Alot of people from minoritieswere also present on this occa-sion.

Talking to Pakistan Ob-server, Sardar Balbir Singh saidImam Hussain (RA) sacrificedhis and his family members’lives for the glory of Islam andhe was not only a guiding starfor Muslims but also for the

minorities across the world. Hesaid Sikh community has deepreverence and respect for ImamHussain and they were also partof those who were mourning forImam’s sacrifices.

Preachers and clerics arewholeheartedly throwing lighton bright and candid teachingsof Imam Hussain (RA) and hisgreat companions who fell vic-tims to atrocities of cruel forcesof cruel rulers.

In view of serious terrorismthreats, the authorities had madestrict security measures for theprocessions as thousands of po-lice personnel belonging to dif-

ferent branches of law enforce-ment agencies were deployed tomonitor them. Pillion riding hasalready been banned for 9th and10th of Muharram while shut-ting down mobile phone serviceis also being considered, at leastfor certain sensitive areas.

Policemen were deployedalong the routes of processionsand at the rooftops of the build-ing along both. The residents ofthe buildings along the routewere barred from opening theirwindows and coming to roofsbut women and children wereallowed to watch the processionfrom windows.

CITY REPORTER

LAHORE—In large cities likeLahore, the tradition ofZuljinah has gradually been de-centralized, however, theZuljinah procession taken outon 9th of Muharram-ul-Harram from Nisar Haveli isconsidered to the biggest pro-cession of its kind in the coun-try that culminates atImambarbagh Karbala GamayShah on 10th of Muharram inthe evening.

The route of the processionincluded Imambargah GhulamAli Shah, Chowk NawabSahab, Mochi Gate, Lal Khoo,Fazal Haveli, Takia NathayShah, Koocha Shian, ChuhattaMufti Baqar, Old Kotwali,Kashmiri Bazaar, Dabbi Ba-zaar, Sunehri Masjid, PaniwalaTalab, Chowk Nogaza, ChowkTarannum Cinema, Chowk

Nisar Haveli remains integral part of Yum-e-AshuraTibbi, Bazaar Hakeeman,Chowk Novelty, MohallaJogian, Oonchi Masjid andBhaati Gate.

Though childless, NawabNisar Ali Khan Qizalbash willlive on in Lahore, particularlyamong the Shia community in theWalled City. It is from the havelinamed after him that starts thecity’s biggest procession of theAshura (10th of Muharram), theday Muslims mourn the death ofImam Hussain (RA).

The first procession to beginfrom the haveli was in the 1850s.It was then actually the MubarikHaveli. The Nisar Haveli wasone part of the Mubarik Haveli,which was divided in two afterPartition as property was dividedin the Qizilbash family in 1928.The part where the main Ashuraprocession begins was named theNisar Haveli, while the other partretained the name Mubarik.

The Mubarik Haveli wasbuilt by the Mughals. Accord-ing to legend, it was namedMubarik, which means blessing,because a royal son was bornthere.

It is also said the Koh-e-Noor was kept there for a while.The Qizalbash family got it onlease from the Mughals. Maha-raja Ranjit Singh took it overbriefly, but it returned to theQizalbash when the East IndiaCompany established itself inIndia. Elderly Shia residents ofthe Walled City said theQizalbash family were also thefirst to begin Zuljinnah proces-sions in Lahore, which are nowa vital part of Ashura proces-sions.

The Qizalbash family has itsroots in Iran and Afghanistan.According to one account, theycame to India with the Mughalemperor Humayun from Persia.

According to another, someQizalbash came from Afghani-stan with Ahmad Shah andNadar Shah. Nawab Nisar AliKhan Qizalbash, who died in1944, was the great grandson ofNawab Raza Ali Khan, one ofthe originators of processions inthe area, and whose son NawabFateh Ali Khan also played a keyrole in promoting processions.

The current Nawab,who is also the license holder forthe central procession, is alsonamed Raza Ali Khan. His threesons are Nawab Fateh Ali Khan,Nawab Muzaffar Ali Khan andNawab Jaan Ali Khan.

Syed Mustafa Ali Shah isthe current caretaker of the NisarHaveli, following on from hisfather and grandfather.

Some elders feel that theNisar Haveli is now not bigenough to handle the main pro-cession, but don’t want to lose

this traditional start. There is noland available around the Havelifor expansion because of theclosely-packed architecture ofthe Walled City.

The Qizalbash family isalso credited with holding thefirst Zuljinnah procession inLahore, when they startedmourning for Imam Hussain inthe Haveli in the middle of the19th century. At that time therewas only one Zuljinnah, a horsemeant to represent the steedImam Hussain rode intoKarbala.

Later, other imambargahsbegan holding Zuljinnah pro-cessions, and now there are be-lieved to be more than 50Zuljinnah kept by differentfamilies in the city. TheQizalbash Waqaf, or trust, takescare of seven Zuljinnah that areloaned out free to imambargahsfor processions.

Rana visitsroutes of main

processionLAHORE—Provincial Ministerfor Law and Local GovernmentRana Sanaullah on Thursday vis-ited routes of the main processionfrom Nisar Hawali to KarbalaGamay Shah to review securityarrangments.

Talking to the media, the min-ister said four helicopters wouldmonitor the procession on 10thMuharramul Haram as jammersand walk-through gates had beeninstalled in routes of the main pro-cession.

He said foolproof security ar-rangements had been made toavoid any untoward incident. Theminister said people should coop-erate with police to maintain lawand order situation and sufficientpolice personnel had been de-ployed on the procession routes.

Rana said no person would beallowed to enter the processionwithout checking. Mobile phoneservice had been suspended in 13sensitive cities of the province forsecurity reasons, he said. On 10thMuharramul Harram, mobilephone service would be sus-pended from 10:00am to 8:00pm,he added.—APP

Law Minister Rana Sanaullah visiting routes of Zuljinah procession in Mochi Gate andRaang Mahal on Thursday.

Ghusal of Data GanjBakhsh’s shrine

LAHORE—The 970th annualghusal of the shrine of Al-ShaikhAl-Syed Ali Bin Usman Al-Hajveri known as Hazrat DataGanj Bakhsh was held here onThursday. The ceremony wasstarted with recitation of the HolyQuran while renowned NaatKhawan, Marghoob Hamdaniand others presented NaatRasool-e-Maqbool (SAWW).Later, ghusal of the shrine wasperformed with rose water andwreaths were laid besides“Chadar Poshi”. Special prayerswere offered for peace, stabilityand prosperity of the country.Religious Affairs CommitteeData Darbar chairman FederalMinister for Finance Ishaq Darwas the chief guest.—APP

Five suspectedterrorists arrested

LAHORE—On the eve of Ashura(10th Muharram), Lahore policeclaimed to have foiled an attemptof terrorism Thursday, arrestingfive alleged terrorists with so-phisticated arms. Following a tipoff, police said, the law-enforc-ers raided a house in Shahdaraarea and arrested five terroristswho were planning to targetMuharram processions in thecity. Arms, explosive material andmaps of different areas of Lahorewere recovered from the suspectedterrorists whom police shifted toundisclosed location.—NNI

SALIM AHMED

LAHORE—Lahore High Court(LHC) has disposed of a notice“woman succumbed to acid in-juries” as complete police reportof the case has been submittedbefore the Anti-Terrorism Courtand no further directions are re-quired by the Complaint Cell onadministrative side becauseregular proceedings have beeninitiated against the accused per-sons.

Lahore LHC disposes ofacid throwing complaint

According to details,Naziran Bibi of Mangtanwala,Nankana Sahib was passingthrough theMiani Sahib Grave-yard when an accused threw acidon her.

The victim was shifted tohospital where she succumbedto her burn injuries. A case un-der Section 302 and 7-ATA wasregistered on the complaint ofthe victim’s brother Imran whowas accompanying her at thetime of the attack.