E-paper Pakistan Today 3rd December, 2012

g Decision follows recent successful talks with Afghan foreign minister g Pakistan willing to play facilitator for Afghan reconciliation, but won’t extend any guarantee for success

4 more MQMMNAs resignover dual nationality

KARACHIStAff RePoRt

Four of the six MPAs of Sindh Assembly whoresigned on Saturday over the dualnationality issue were again given ministries

on Sunday, as MQM’s four more MNAsresigned from their NA seats onSunday. The latest resignations camefrom Haider Abbas Rizvi, Tayyab

Hussain, Nadeem Ahsan and FauziaIjaz. They had submitted resignationson November 29 that were acceptedon Sunday. Those who resigned onSaturday were MQM’s RazaHaroon, Mohammad Ali Shah,

Askari Taqvi and Abdul MoeedSiddiqui, and PPP’s Murad Ali Shahand Sadiq Memon. The lawmakersapparently resigned after failing tofile affidavits with the ElectionCommission of Pakistan to provethey did not have dual nationalities.However, Raza Haroon wasappointed Sindh CM’s adviser, whileHaider Abbas Rizvi and MohammadAli Shah have been made the Sindh

CM’s special assistants. Also, PPP’sSadiq Memon and Murad Ali Shah

were again sworn in as ministers alongwith Khawaja Izhar of the MQM. They

resigning members were appointed underArticle 130, which allows a chief minister to

nominate whomsoever he wishes as aminister for six months, even if he is not anelected lawmaker. The assistants andadvisers have all been allowed powers equalto that of a minister. Such a precedent wasset in the case of Interior Minister RehmanMalik, who was appointed an adviser to thePM after being declared ineligible by theSupreme Court. On Saturday, six SindhAssembly members sent their resignationsto the speaker after failing to file affidavitswith the Election Commission of Pakistan toprove they did not have dual nationalities.Sindh Governor Dr Ishratul Ebad Khanadministered the oaths at Governor’s House.

CoNtINuED oN PagE 04

Monday, 3 December, 2012 Muharram 18, 1434Rs 15.00 Vol III No 156 19 Pages Karachi Edition

PAGE |19PAGE |03

National Assembly’slast session may not be the least

PTI may consider alliance with parties

not in parliamentPAGE |04

Pakistani becomesworld snooker champion

ISLAMABADSHAIQ HUSSAIN

PAKISTAN may release MullahAbdul Ghani Baradar, thedeputy of Taliban supremecommander Mullah Omar, soonin the wake of recently

concluded successful talks with AfghanForeign Minister Zalmai Rassoul.It was during the visit of Rassoul on Fridaythat Pakistan agreed to free more Talibanprisoners in the future.The move by Islamabad is being seen as asignificant development to impress uponthe Taliban to become part of the peaceand reconciliation process with the Afghangovernment as well as the United States.Pakistan’s decision about the release ofmore Taliban leaders was announced in ajoint Pak-Afghan statement released bythe Pakistani Foreign Ministry at the endof Afghan foreign minister’s visit toIslamabad, but it did not give any detailson when the prisoners would be releasedor about their identity. There was also noword in the statement about the fate ofMullah Baradar, whose freedom is beingdemanded by Kabul for months now.Baradar was arrested in Pakistan in 2010.Before the fresh decision on Talibanprisoners, Pakistan had released around 10Taliban prisoners, a move that waswelcomed by Kabul as a positive first stepand also an indication that Islamabad wassupportive of the Afghan peace process.“Now that we have a successful visit byForeign Minister Rassoul to Islamabadand his productive talks with Pakistanileaders, it is expected that Mullah Baradarwill be set free soon. Also we may see someother Taliban leaders being set free by

Islamabad,” said a diplomatic source,seeking anonymity.Pakistan and Afghanistan have also setup a commission to look into the issueof prisoners and this body will start itswork soon to expedite the wholeprocess.The source said Afghanistanalso wanted Pakistan to play a roleof a “bridge” to reach out to variousTaliban groups such as theHaqqani network, allegedlybased in North Waziristan andcurrently the most powerfulmilitant organisationassociated with the MullahOmar-led Taliban.He said Pakistan waswilling to play a role of afacilitator when it came tothe Afghan reconciliationprocess, but it would notextend any guaranteeabout its success.“To expect that Pakistanhas full control over theTaliban is naïve, butIslamabad can use its ‘goodoffices’ for the success of thepeace process in Afghanistan,”he said. A Pakistani official,however, declined to commenton the early release of Baradar,but said Pakistan was willing toplay its due role and take allpossible steps for the peace andstability in Afghanistan.“We support the Afghan-ledpeace process and we willcontinue with that and Islamabadis willing to do whatever it can inthis regard,” he said, while askingnot to be named.

Baradar maywalk free soon!

KARACHIINP

The engine of an Islamabad-boundPakistan International Airlines (PIA) flightcaught fire just before take off on Sunday. According to reports, the flight PK-308was on the taxiway when the fire brokeout in one of its engines and the planewas stopped before take off. Declaring emergency, the Civil AviationAuthority (CAA) cancelled the flight.Rescue teams were sent in to bring thefire under control and evacuate thepassengers. A private TV channel saidthat Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP)Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry, LawMinister Moula Bakhsh Chandio andseveral parliamentarians were on board.After the incident, the CJP summonedthe senior-most officer of the PIA.

Defence Minister Naveed Qamar has alsoconvened an emergency meeting of thePIA management in Islamabad onMonday. In an interview, Chandio saidthe passengers were made to remain inthe aircraft for two hours, adding that thecondition of several passengersdeteriorated after the incident. He saidthe incident was “inefficiency andmismanagement” on the part of the PIA. Memberof the

National Assembly (MNA) Yusuf Talpursaid he would raise the issue during thenext session of the National Assembly. Hecalled for replacement of old aircraft. Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N)MNA Shireen Arshad said the aircraft’sdoors were locked, and as a result she andsome other passengers suffocated. Shesaid they kept sitting in the plane for twohours without oxygen. She said thegovernment should take serious notice ofthe incident. Federal Secretary for Production GulMohammad Rind said that passengers werenot even supplied water. He said people

were crying in the aircraft and vowed neverto travel with the PIA in future. no fire:The airline later said that the flighthad been called off due to “technical reasons”.Meanwhile, CAA Spokesman PervezGeorge denied that the aircraft’s enginehad caught fire. He said the scheduled timeof PK-308 (Karachi-Islamabad) was4.00pm, but the flight had been delayed byone hour due to “technical reasons”.“When the plane was ready for departureat 5.00pm, one of its engines did not start.Upon this the flight was stopped and thepassengers disembarked,” the CAAspokesman added.

According to a handout issued by thenational flag carrier, “PK-308 was beingoperated on Boeing 747 which has fourengines. At the time of departure three ofits engine started normally while thefourth engine was not starting due tofaulty starter while the plane was onground for which the captain called theengineers. They tried to start the engine.When it did not start, the aircraft wasparked and passengers weredisembarked. The starter of the enginewas changed and the same aircraft with402 passengers took off from Karachi andsafely landed in Islamabad at 09.30pm.”A PIA spokesman further said that theelectronic media kept televising thereport of fire without verification,adding that such news damage thenational flag carrier, which is a strategicnational asset.

PIA aircraft carrying CJP, lawmakers catches fireg Denying reports of fire, CAA spokesman says flight got delayed because one engine did not start

KHI 03-12-2012_Layout 1 12/3/2012 5:58 AM Page 1

02News

Today’s

LookQuick

NEwS

Story on Page 09

CARtooN

Story on Page 11

INFotAINMENt

Story on Page 14

Sikh with a turban to protect the Queen Serbian villagers claim encounter with a vampire!

Monday, 3 December, 2012

NA secretariat: Speaker keen to oblige deputationist

ISLAMABADoNLINe

National Assembly Speaker Dr Fehmida Mirza has givenapproval for extending the tenure of deputation and con-tract officers, all while regular employees still wait fortheir turn for promotions. Sources said Joint SecretaryQamar Abbasi of the Secretariat Group had come to theNational Assembly five days ago on deputation on a seatfalling vacant after the retirement of Najma Sadiqui. Theysaid Riaz Hussain Bukhari was also performing his dutieson deputation, while Akhlaq Hussain’s contract had beenextended. The sources said Joint Secretary CommitteeAbdul Majeed Sadhio’s and Ahmed Ahsan’s contracts hadalso been extended. Grade-19 officers in the secretariatsaid the time-scale formula was a political stunt and theNA speaker had done justice, as such things never hap-pened even in the tenure of army dictator Musharraf.

Fatima Bhutto rejects reportson political embarking

MonItoRIng DeSK

Fatima Bhutto, grand-daughter of PPP founderZulfikar Ali Bhutto anddaughter of the late Mur-taza Bhutto, has rejectedreports that she plannedto contest the upcomingelections. In a tweet onher Twitter, Fatima said,“The Tribune story existsonly in the gallopingimagination of the author.It is obviously, wildly un-true.”The English daily

had on Saturday quoted Fatima’s mother Ghinwa Bhuttoas saying she planned to begin her political career. Gh-inwa reportedly said that Fatima would contest the up-coming election from Liaqatpur tehsil in Rahim YarKhan for the NA-192 seat.

ECP to move against ‘dual national’ MPs

MonItoRIng DeSK

Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) has decided tomove forward the names of MPs, who have not submittedtheir affidavits over dual nationality, to Supreme Court(SC), Geo News reported. Talking to ‘Geo News’, ECP Sec-retary Ishtiaq Ahmed Khan said the commission hadsought affidavits from the MPs as per the directions of theapex court, adding that names of those who have not sub-mitted their sworn statements would be sent to the SC.Ahmed further said the ECP would also review the matterof those MPs who did not submit affidavits and have ten-dered resignation over dual nationality. Decision on itwould be made as per the law and constitution, he added.

Riots being planned inKarachi, says Altaf

KARACHINNI

Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) chief Altaf Hus-sain on Sunday said that riots are being planned inKarachi and ‘quarrels between Sindhis and Mujahirshave been instigated through planned conspiracies’.Addressing MQM workers and supporters at JinnahGround Karachi via telephone, he said that the lawand order situation in Balochistan and KhyberPakhtoonkhwa was worse than that in Karachi. Con-demning the remarks of a presiding judge who hadblamed MQM for being the only powerful party inKarachi, he demanded the Chief Justice of Pakistan totake suo moto notice regarding the matter. “Suchkind of remarks can harm democracy in the country,”he said.

Hindus protest destruction of temple

MonIotoRng DeSK

Hindus on Sunday protestedthe destruction of a Hindutemple in Karachi that wasrazed, along with somenearby homes, by a builder.The countryy’s minorityHindus have complained ofincreasing harassment anddiscrimination in recentyears, including the destruc-tion or desecration of theirplaces of worship.Residents and members ofthe Hindu community onSunday said a builder with apolice escort razed the smalltemple in one of the olderneighbourhoods of Karachi,along with some surround-ing buildings.The outer walls and roof ofthe temple were demol-ished, and rubble wasstrewn about the area. Localresidents said authoritiestook statues and artifactsout of the building before itwas destroyed.One of the longtime resi-dents, 75-year-old Kali Das,said he was born in the areaand remembers when thetemple, called Sri RamaPeer Naval, was built. Hesaid more than a hundredfamilies lived nearby andprayed at the temple.

ISLAMAbAD: A customer purchases mobile phone SIMs at a shop in Aabpara Market on Sunday. the government has imposed a ban

on over-the-counter sales of cellular SIMs. NNI

ISLAMABADANweR AbbAS

TWENTY percent population ofBalochistan would not be al-lowed to cast votes in the up-coming elections as they do nothave their Computerised Na-tional Identity Cards (CNIC)

and are not enrolled in the voters’ lists, Pak-istan People’s Party senator from BalochistanSardar Fateh Mohammad Hassni told PakistanToday on Saturday.

In an exclusive interview with PakistanToday, Senator Hassni, chairman of the SenateStanding Committee on Port and Shipping, dis-closed that the province’s 20 percent popula-tion, living mostly interior Balochistan, doesnot have their CNICs; due to which they do nothave their names registered in the voters’ lists.

He said that the province is facing difficul-ties in getting its people registered, especiallyin Pahtun and Baloch areas, and therefore can-not even apply for their CNICs.

“However, this would not affect the upcom-ing polls because people living in the cities dohave their CNICs. It is the people living in vil-lages who are unregistered,” he said.

He added that there has been an immenseimprovement in the situation as many peopleare applying for their CNICs now.

“The situation was much serious earlier,which now has been redressed to a large ex-tent,” he said.

“The government is trying to ensure, by in-cluding National Identity Card numbers into

voters’ lists, that only those with genuine voteswould be able to cast their ballots,” he said.

“Now, no one can cast multiple votes andclaim that his or her vote is registered in fourdifferent places. This is impossible now,” headded.

He claimed that the upcoming general elec-tions will not be delayed and the Pakistan Peo-ple’s Party will win with an overwhelmingmajority as the party has delivered a lot in theprovince.

“We have ensured the supremacy ofdemocracy. Everyone knows what happened in1990; Asghar Khan Case has made everythingpublic. The public will stand by our side in theupcoming elections and will help us win,” hemaintained.

Agreeing that religious extremists andbanned outfits are working in Balochistan, thePPP leader said that the rise in the incidents ofsectarian and target killings in Balochistan re-flect the presence of such elements in theprovince.

Condemning the killing of Hazara Shias, hesaid that the Quetta Hazara community isbeing victimized.

“We oppose the bloodshed and killing of in-nocent people. Balochis are peaceful peopleand want tranquility in the province,” he said.

He further said that the entire Baloch lead-ership will have to sit together and find a wayout of Balochistan crises.

“When our people, politicians, establish-ment and government become united in theiraims, only then can we find a solution toBalochistan’s issues,” he said.

20% of Baloch populationto stay out of pollsg Inclusion of CNICs in voters’ lists will filter out fake votes


03NewsEDItoRIAlDual nationality...:

CoMMENt

Articles on Page 10

and our parliamentarians.

Arif Ansar says;Imperial overstretch: The future of US War on Terror.

Adeel Amjad says;Malala and fatwa: The right to education.

ARtS & ENtERtAINMENt

Story on Page 13

KARACHI

Story on Page 05

SPoRtS

Story on Page 15

Lindsay’s father fears for her life court verdict on KbD pointless


‘we are not quite ready for the Australians’

ISLAMABADANweR AbbAS/AgeNcIeS

Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) chiefImran Khan on Sunday said his partyhad not as yet decided to form a coali-tion with parties currently occupyingthe Parliament; however the option,he said, could not be ruled out forparties which had a presence outsidethe House, except Pervez Musharraf’sAPML. In addition, he requested thepeople of Karachi to not vote for po-litical parties who operated their ownmilitant wings.

Talking to media at a local hotelafter visiting intra-party electionpolling stations, Khan opined that er-rorless and perfect voter lists were es-sential for transparent elections.

He said in his sixteen-year polit-ical career, holding intra-party pollswas the toughest decision he had in-troduced, however, the decision hesaid had materialised now that PTIwas going through elections from theunion council level up to the centralleadership.

“No other political party has thecourage to hold intra-party elec-tions,” he said with pride, adding thatafter completion of these polls PTIwould appear as a true democraticpolitical force.

Khan termed these intra-partyelections a “first step” towards intro-duction of a true democratic order inthe country by eliminating family en-terprises and autocracy from politicsin the political parties.

He said following the party elec-tions in the federal capital, theprocess would be conducted in Khy-ber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) and eventu-

ally the other provinces. The entireprocess, he stated, would be com-pleted by the end of January, 2013.

While responding to a questionregarding the situation in Karachi, hestated that his party still had con-cerns over voter lists in the city, how-ever, PTI supported delimitation inKarachi, he said, adding that the de-cision of the Supreme Court must beaccepted regarding Karachi’s voterlists.

He said all parties with the excep-tion of one agreed upon new con-stituencies.

The PTI chief was of the view that“the ruling parties in Karachi haveformed their own militant wings.Until and unless these militant wingsare smashed, peace cannot return tothe commercial hub of Pakistan.

Now the people of Karachi willhave to decide whether they wantpeace and security or are they happyremaining hostages to these politicalmilitants,” he said.

On the Kalabagh dam issue,Khan said the dam should be builtonly if all provinces agree on theissue. “The PTI supports more waterreservoirs to meet the energy crisis,but again consensus is a must to con-struct the dam”.

Khan said he feared if the damwas constructed without evolving aconsensus, it might trigger unrest asthe people of KP and Sindh had reser-vations on the construction of thedam.

“There is a dire need to removetheir reservations,” he added.

The PTI chief said his party hadrequested the election commission toallot his party the election symbol of

‘scale’- symbolising justice- in the up-coming general elections.

Commenting on his post-electionstrategy; Khan said that the first thinghe would do is to disengage Pakistanfrom the American war on terrorism;adding that such disengagementwould make the “Jihad syndrome” goaway.

Khan is known to be an outspo-ken critic of the use of Americandrones in Pakistan; describing themas a “violation of all humanitarianlaws”. He also criticised the Obamaadministration for its handling of thesituation in the region.

“We will be a friend of the US butwe’re not going to be slaves of theU.S.,” he said.

“They are losing the war, becausethey are losing the hearts and mindsof the people,” he told a Dubai-basedAl Arabiya News Channel in an exclu-sive interview.

With just a few months to gountil the upcoming elections, Khanseemed more confident than everthat he will emerge a winner this timearound.

Khan also described the situationin Syria as a mess, adding that he“can’t understand any head of statekilling his own people”.

As for the situation in Syria, Khandescribed the deadly conflict as “amess.”

“I believe in democracy, I do notbelieve in these dictatorships but theproblem is there’s a different stakewhen it comes to pro-US dictatorsand … anyone who’s perceived not tobe pro-US like Libya or Syria. It’s thedouble standards that are causingproblems,” he said.

gHALAnAIAPP

Two people were killed, while a policemanwas injured in two blasts in MohmandAgency and Charsadda on Sunday.

In Mohmand, two outlaws, one of themstated to be a suicide bomber, were killedin a blast in Yakagund tehsil of theAgency.

According to the political administra-tion, the explosion occurred when the out-laws were planting an improvisedexplosive device (IED) on the main Gha-lanai Road near Sharmakhano gate in Yak-agund early on Sunday.

Both of them were killed on the spot.The Khasadar Force rushed to the spotand started investigation.

Meanwhile, a policeman was injuredwhile a police mobile van was damaged ina roadside bomb blast in Charsadda.

Per details, a police van carrying offi-cials to a checkpost in Zareef Kore areawas targeted with a bomb planted alongthe road in Shabqadar area of Charsadda.

As a result, policeman Mukhtar Shahwas injured while the vehicle was also par-tially damaged.

Police have started probing into the in-cident.

Freed Taliban unwilling to go back

PeSHAWARSHAMIM SHAHID

ALMOST all of theAfghan Talibanleaders and com-manders releasedby Pakistan on

the request of the Afghan govern-ment are reluctant to go back toAfghanistan to avoid a fate simi-lar to that of Arsala Rahmani,who was shot dead by the Talibanafter initiating reconciliationwith President Karzai throughformer President Mujaddadi.

Three top Afghan command-ers whose release is demandedby the Afghan peace delegationchief Salahudin Rabbani how-ever, still remain in custody ofPakistan’s law enforcing agen-cies.

Highly placed sources toldPakistan Today that nine leadingTaliban leaders and command-ers, declared free on the requestof the Afghan peace delegation

on November 16, 2012 have re-fused to be handed over toAfghan authorities and are reluc-tunat in joining Afghani politics.

However, all 12 leadingAfghan Taliban leaders and com-manders were issued passportsby Afghanistan’s diplomatic mis-sions on November 17.

Sources said Anwar-ul-HaqMujahid, who lead the Tora Boragroup affiliated to Tehrik TalibanAfghanistan is at present residingwith relatives in Peshawar.Whereas son-in-law of the for-mer commander Mullah Dadul-lah, who is a trader by profession,is in Quetta.

The remaining released Tal-iban personnel are still scatteredin different parts of Pakistan witha majority of them living with rel-atives in Peshawar and Quetta.

Mullah Abdul Ghani Biradar,former minister for justice Mul-lah Noorud Din Turabi and Mul-lah Abdul Ahad Jehangirwal arestill in custody of Pakistan’s law

enforcing agencies. Turabi is saidto be ill and unable to walk,whereas Jehangirwal is in deten-tion owing to security grounds.Biradar, who was not included inthe first batch declared free byPakistan on November 16th, issaid to be part of the secondbatch that Pakistan authoritiesplan on releasing.

In a similar fashion, Pakistanhas also demanded release of allits nationals imprisoned in vari-ous jails of Afghanistan. Amongstthem, a majority have been ap-prehended on charges of lackingproper travelling documents.

However, almost a 100 out ofthem are considered hardcore el-ements of various banned terror-ist groups such as Sepah SahabaPakistan, Lashkar-i-Janghaviand others. These elements areimprisoned in Kabul, Helmandand Qandahar prison houses.Swat’s Qari Sohail is alsoamongst those imprisoned inAfghanistan.

g Party chairman urges people not to vote for parties haring militant wings

PTI may consider alliance with parties not in parliament: Imran

Two killed, cop injured inMohmand, Charsadda blasts

Two suspectedterrorists killedin Peshawar motorcycle blast

PeSHAWARAgeNcIeS

Two suspected terrorists were killed in a mo-torcycle bomb blast in Yaqatoot area of Pe-shawar late on Saturday night.According to police, the blast took place in DirColony area of Peshawar where a bombplanted in motorcycle carrying two personsexploded.As a result, both motorcyclists were killed onthe spot.Police said the two people were looking for atarget but the bomb exploded before time. Po-lice also recovered a firearm from the site ofthe incident.The Bomb Disposal Squad said seven kilo-grammes of explosives were used to make thebomb. Police have started investigation aftergathering necessary evidence from the blast site.



04

QUettASHAHZADA ZULfIQAR

THREE people, in-cluding a doctorand a Frontier

Corps soldier, were killedand several others in-jured in acts of violenceacross Balochistan onSunday.

Per details, a doctorwas killed by armedmen in Jaffarabad dis-trict.

Police said the inci-dent occurred in RD238 area when uniden-tified armed men shotdead Dr Shamsud Dinand escaped. Sepa-rately, unidentified

armed assailants seri-ously wounded a manidentified as Mahboobin Zarghoonabad area ofQuetta by opening in-discriminate fire onhim.

He was beingshifted to hospital whenhe succumbed to his in-juries. Meanwhile, apersonnel of FrontierCorps Balochistan waskilled and three peoplewere injured in land-mine and bomb blastsin Dera Murad Jamalitehsil and Kalat district.According to police, asecurity man was killedin a landmine blast inDera Murad Jamali

tehsil of Naseerabaddistrict, 400 kilometresaway from Quetta. Theysaid unidentified menhad laid a landmine inKatro area that ex-ploded when a FC sol-dier Sher Muhammadstepped on it. He died ata hospital while beingadministered first aid.In another incident, twomen were injured in ablast in Babu Mohallaarea of Kalat district.

Police said the ex-plosives were plantedclose to the outside thewall of NADRA office inBabu Mohalla near thedeputy commissioner’soffice.

HYDeRABADAPP

The Federal Minister for Parlia-mentary Affairs Moula BuxChandio stated the governmentof Pakistan Peoples’ Party (PPP)will bury the issue of Kalabaghdam once and forever. While ad-dressing a press conference atthe Cirucit House on Sunday, thefederal minister said the time forraking up the buried

issue of Kalabagh dam washighly inappropriate as it had the

potential to cause disharmony inthe general elections. He said itwas under the purview of thedemocratically elected govern-ment to make decisions on eco-nomic and energy issues insteadof the court. According to him,no political party in the countryhad welcomed the order, eventhe opposition party PakistanMuslim League (Nawaz) hadsaid the judiciary should not ven-ture into such issues. “This is aproject which has been rejectedby the assemblies of Khyber

Pakhtunkhwa, Sindh andBalochistan. Even the people ofthese provinces have expressedtheir popular disapproval of it,”observed Chandio. The ministerdenied that the PPP governmentwas involved in any way in theLahore High Court (LHC) judg-ment saying that the parties op-ponents were levelling suchbaseless accusations.

He criticised the PunjabChief Minsiter Shahbaz Shariffor supporting the dam projectwithout considering the fact that

it posed a risk for inter-provin-cial harmony. When asked whythe secretaries of Council ofCommon Interest (CCI) andwater and power ministry pre-sented fudged facts before theLHC which based its order onthose facts, the minister ex-pressed a lack of knowledge as towhat transpired in the court.

“I don’t know the technicali-ties of the matter which were putforward in the court,” he re-sponded. Out of the CCI, reviewplea in the Supreme Court and a

resolution in the provincial as-semblies, the PPP governmentwill use the most appropriateforum to bury the issue, the min-ister said. Talking about theSindh Peoples Local Govern-ment Act, 2012, he said the PPPgovernment was open to acceptamendments in the new systemprovided that they were con-vinced that the changes weremeant to improve the system. Inreply to a question about thePPP’s position with regard to thedelimitation of the electoral.

Indian minister sayswilling to talk to Pakistan in any language it understands

neW DeLHIINP

Indian External AffairsMinister Salman Khurshidhas said that India is willingto speak to Pakistan in anylanguage they understand,may it be cricket, war ordialogue. Commenting on thegovernment’s decision toallow the Pakistani cricketteam to tour India,Khurshid in an interview toIndia TV said if Pakistanunderstands the language ofcricket, we will try to speakto them in that language; ifthey understand thelanguage of war, we willspeak to them in thatlanguage; and if theyunderstand the language ofdialogue, we will speak tothem in that language.Khurshid also said thefuture of India-Pakistanrelations depended onaction being taken againstthe perpetrators of the 2008Mumbai attacks and addedthat it was impossible tomove ahead if Islamabaddid not respond to a requestfor voice recordings of theperpetrators of the attack.“If there has to be furthermovement in our relations,Pakistan must showaccountability. Our thenhome minister PChidambaram had giventhem a list of persons whosevoice recordings wereneeded, but they did notsend it,” he said.

FC trooper, doctoramong three killed inBalochistan violence

SoFIAAgeNcIeS

Pakistan’s Mohammad Asif defeatedEngland’s Gary Wilson in the final towin the IBSF World Snooker Champi-onship on Sunday in Sofia, Bulgaria.Asif, who was unbeaten in the tourna-ment, defeated Wilson 10-8. In a bestof nineteen frames match, Asif wasleading through most of the final andwas 6-3 up at the break. Pakistan’snumber one cueist started off wellreaching 3-1 but later made mistakeswhich Wilson took advantage of towin the the fifth and the sixth frames

to level the scores at 3-3.Wilson madea comeback after the break, levellingthe scores at 8-8. At this point in thematch, Asif demonstrated brilliantcue control to win the seventeenthand eighteenth frame to clinch thetitle. President of the Pakistan Bil-liards and Snooker Association, Alam-gir Sheikh, termed the victory aturning point for snooker in Pakistan.Asif was the third Pakistani to reachthe final of the world event and thesecond one to win it. Before him, Mo-hammad Yousuf won it in 1994 while,in 2003, Saleh Mohammad was de-feated by Pankaj Advani of India.

Pakistani becomesworld snooker champion

PPP govt would bury KBD issue forever: Chandio

ISLAMABAD/LALAMUSAAPP

Talking to a private televisionchannel, Kaira said stealingpublic mandate was a crimeand any such act is punish-able under the law. The min-ister said action would betaken in line with theSupreme Court order in theAsghar Khan Case. He furthersaid that General (r) HameedGul should have been

summoned by the courtduring the case hearing andaction should have beentaken against him also.

Replying to a question,the minister said the Army

leadership had informed thecourt that there was no polit-ical cell in Inter-Services In-telligence (ISI). He furthersaid that the ISI was underthe prime minister and therewas no need to place it underthe interior ministry. He saidthat the timing of the filing ofa petition against the exten-sion of the Army chief wassurprising.

“The army chief did notseek extension, rather an ex-tension was granted by theprime minister,” said theminister. He said it was theprerogative of the chief exec-utive of the Country to ap-point head of any national

institution. Kaira said thePresidency in the past used tobe a hub of hatching conspir-acies but the PPP had made ita center of politics. He alsostated that media, judiciaryand civil society were free,however, the parliament hadyet to achieve the same sta-tus. The present army leader-ship has tried to strengthenthe parliament, he added.

Kaira said national insti-tutions were yet to achievethe strength similar to thosein the developed countries,such as the United States(US) and the United King-dom. Separately, in a meetingwith Jamia Qadria Aliya chief

Pir Muhammad Afzal on Sun-day at LalaMusa, Kaira saidIslam was a religion of peace,harmony and tolerance,which taught respecting oth-ers’ sentiments.

Kaira stressed the need forpromoting true Islamic valuesof peace, tolerance and reli-gious harmony in the country.“We love peace as per theteachings of Hazrat Muham-mad (PBUH) and want to con-quer the world through loveand dialogue,” he said. Theminister said at present someelements were trying to enforceothers to accept their creedsrather than convincing themthrough logic.

stealing public mandate a crime: Kaira

4 more MQMMNAs resign overdual nationality

Meanwhile, Chief ElectionCommissioner Fakhruddin GEbrahim said on Sunday thatthe seats vacated in theNational Assembly wouldremain so until the generalelections.Sources in the ElectionCommission of Pakistan saidthe body had decided tomove forward with criminalproceedings against dualnational lawmakers whohave announced theirresignation.They said orders would besent to the relevant districtand sessions judges, toproceed with criminal casesagainst dual nationallawmakers.If the accusations are proven,the lawmakers could face asentence of up to three yearsin jail and five yearsdisqualification fromstanding for public office.

Balochistan Health Department withholds salaries of doctors on strikeQUeTTA: The provincial health department on Sundaywithheld the salaries of all the doctors of Bolan MedicalComplex (BMC), Civil Hospital and Fatima JinnahHospital (FJH) who were on strike, said a Balochistangovernment spokesperson. However, the spokesmanclarified that all the doctors who are working regularlyare getting the salaries. “Out of the almost five thousanddoctors in the province only 500 doctors’ salaries havebeen withheld. These included the doctors who shouldbe working at BMC, Civil Hospital and FJH, but are onstrike persistently,” he said. ageNCIes

US-Pakistan defence

meeting today iSLAMABAD: High-level talks between the US andPakistan regarding cooperation in the defence sectorwill be held in Rawalpindi today. A US delegationconsisting of 24 members, led by Dr James Miller,arrived in Islamabad on Sunday to participate in thesession. The Pakistani delegation will be headed byDefence Minister Naveed Qamar and will includesenior officials of the armed forces, Defence SecretaryLt Gen (r) Asif Yasin Malik and ISI DG Lt GenZaheerul Islam. NNI

ISLAMAbAD: President Asif Ali Zardari celebrates the 41st National Day of the United Arab emirates (UAe) by cutting a cake at the UAe embassy. INP

CoNtINuED fRoM PagE 01



KARACHIAftAb cHANNA

SINDH Small IndustriesCorporation - instead offulfilling its raison d’êtreof promoting small andmedium industries is

busy inducting political appointeesand putting extra burden on the al-ready cash strapped entity PakistanToday learnt.

Sindh Small Industries Corpora-tion (SSIC) has 52 ghost clerks, 25ghost peons and 18 ghost watchmenwho are drawing monthly salariesagainst serving at the entities head of-fice located at Regal Chowk, Saddar.The total number of junior staff whichSSIC could induct on the payroll forserving at its head office was decreedto be 100. However Pakistan todaylearnt that the number of ghost polit-

ical appointees drawing salaries forserving at SSIC head office was morethan 1000. Resultantly, the corpora-tion’s saving, placed in different bankaccounts was reduced to Rs 60 millionagainst the Rs 800 million when thecurrent Sindh coalition governmenttook charge of the province in 2008.Well placed sources alleged that allpolitical appointees of SSIC wereworkers of MQM. PT also learnt thatSindh Industries and Commerce De-partment had objected to these politi-cal appointments, citing the extrafinancial burden they would cause onthe corporation. However the com-merce minister also serving as thechairman of the corporation nullifiedthe recommendations of his depart-ment officials and inducted the ghosts.

The politically-appointed workershave never carried out their respectiveduties at their respective offices but

are still drawing salaries. The SSIC isfacing a liquidity crisis and its regularemployees are facing delays in pay-ment of salaries as a result. The scribealso learnt that minister commerceand industries promoted Abid AliKaimkhani, a grade-18 officer as Man-aging Director SSIC. However, thereare a number of senior officers ofgrade-19 including Qurban Memon,Tariq Memon and Saeed Pathan whodeserved the post but were over ruled.An audit of SSIC is need of the hourand if an audit is not undertaken, SSICmay become another white elephantlike PIA, Railways and Steel Mills.

The ghost clerks are: Haseeb,Kamran, Naveed, Ali Hyder Brohi,Sami Zafar, Khuram Aijaz, Muham-mad Khalid, Irshad Ali Bugti, Ali,Khalid Ahmed Shaikh, Rafiq Ahmed,Shabir Ahmed Brohi, MuhammadAkbar, Muhammad Fahad Saeed,

Shazia, Syed Riazuddin Asim, AmirHussain, Muneer Khan, MuhammadZubair, Amir Ali, Mutlib Shah, AsimMir, Kashif Basit Mirza, MuhammadKashif Changezi, Muhammad Sohail,Asad Jafri, Muhammad Ishtiaq Hus-sain, Nyara Tabsum, Awaisul Haq Sid-diqui, Muhammad Hanif, FarhanRasheed, Muhammad Ramzan Bohio,Rizwan Ahmed Memon, Syed FaisalHussain, Ms Uzma Ansari, AmberUsman, Zeeshan Hassan Hashmi,Muhammad Khalid, Nusrat Khatoon,Kamran Noor Khan, Aftab, NoorulDin, Shah Nawaz, Kamran, ZeeshanSabir, Mohammad Danish, Moham-mad Tahir, Mushtaq Ali, Riaz Ahmed,Zeeshan Hyder, Mohammad Imran,Syed Sheraz Ali, Sher Mohammad,Ayyaz Gul, Ghulam Ali, Umer Farooqand Mohammad Amjad.

The ghost peons are: Khalid Mal-lah, Tarachand, Muhammad Ismail,

Mumtaz Khan, Muhammad Asif,Muhammad Adnan Nisar, Muham-mad Amir Khan, Amnullah, ShahbazAli, Muhammad Yaqoob, MuhammadAdnan, Muhammad Akram, AsifAhmed Qureshi, Muhammad Sultan,Sujauddin, Atar Iqbal, Zakir Hussain,Shah Nawaz, Abdul Awais Azeem,Azam, Zaheer Ahmed, Sahib Khan,Abdul Hameed and MohammadAdnan.

The ghost chowkidars are: Shah-nawaz son of Ghulam Mohammad,Abdul Hameed, Mohammad Achar,Akbar Ali, Abdul Shakur, Ali BuxBugti, Atta Mohammad, Shahnawazson of Mohammad Nizamuddin,Muhammad Ishaq, Abdul Aziz,Muhammad Danish, MuhammadAmir Ahsan, Imran Nagori, FarhanKhan, Muhammad Mohsin Khan,Iftikhar Khan Sherwani, GhulamMustafa and Rizwan Majeed.

No industrialisation, but employment increasing SSIC has 52 ghost clerks, 25 ghost peons, 18 ghost watchmen at its head office

KARAcHI: Activists of of MQM listening the telephonic address of Altaf Hussein during a public gathering at Jinnah ground. ONLINe

4 outlaws arrestedKARACHI

INP

The police on Sunday arrested fouroutlaws and recovered arms, snatchedmotorcycles and mobile phones fromtheir possession.According to SSP Khuram Waris, po-lice during action in North Nazimabadlocality of the city nabbed four crimi-nals.The police recovered two TT pistols,two motorcycles and 15 mobiles fromthe possession of detainees identifiedas Ijaz, Faizullah, Pervez and Khalid.Police said that the detained culpritswanted by various police stations instreet crimes, picket looting, purse andmobile snatching cases.A case has been registered against theaccused at concerned police stationand investigations were in progress.

SUKKURNNI

We will not let Kalabagh Dam built atany cost. The verdict of court in this con-nection seems pointless.

These views were expressed by Fed-eral Minister for Religious Affairs Khur-sheed Shah on the occasion ofinaugurating a number of projects at theCivil Hospital.

The minister said it was the ‘prerog-ative of the parliament and provincesand not the judiciary to decide fate of thedam’.

About the proposed de-weaponiza-

tion, he said it should be conducted inthe entire country and not justKarachi. ‘All stakeholders should sitdown and build consensus on theissue’, he added. On elections, he reit-erated that efforts are afoot to holdthese transparently in the country.

It is to be mentioned here a verdictof Lahore High Court to build KalabaghDam has drawn stern reaction from theruling Pakistan Peoples Party, whichhas a strong vote bank from the interiorSindh.

This might broaden the rift betweenthe ruling party and judiciary in thecountry.

Court verdict onKBD pointless

Courtver-



06 Karachi

KARAcHI: customers select warm clothes from a roadside vendor in Saddar area on Sunday. ONLINe

HIV transmission

from parents

major cause of

AIDS among kidsKARACHI

APP

Over 1,500 children are infected by HIVdaily through parent-to-child-transmission(PTCT). A seminar titled “HIV/AIDS in chil-dren” was organized by Dow University ofHealth Sciences (DUHS) in collaborationwith Civil Hospital Karachi Department ofPaediatric, and the Sindh AIDS Control Pro-gramme to commemorate the World AIDSDay 2012. Physicians treating HIV-AIDSpatients and child specialists, said that over90 per cent of all HIV positive children in-herited the virus from their mothers. Theywere of the opinion that the most effectiveway to protect children against the HIV wasto prevent its transmission to them fromtheir affected parents-to-be and to preventunplanned pregnancies in the HIV-infectedwomen. The speakers of the occasion in-cluded Dr Ashraf Memon, a senior specialistphysician who attends HIV-AIDS patientsand is associated with Sindh AIDS ControlProgramme, Civil Hospital Head of Pedi-atrics Department Prof. Ayesha Mehnaz,and senior child specialists Dr. Noor unNisa Masqati, Dr Nida Noor and Dr Sh-agufta Baloch.Dr. Ashraf Memon said that in 2011, therewere 10600 registered HIV patients in Sindhand said that these included men and womenof all ages. He told that the annual incidence ofHIV in Pakistan was 0.1 percent. He said thatthe pregnant women already infected withHIV must be provided with antiretroviraltherapy (ART). The ART is administered tothe patients only if it is required, he added.He said that the ART was not only importantfor the prevention of virus being transmittedto the child but also an important mode oftreatment for the infected patients. Dr.Ashraf Memon also emphasized the impor-tance of safe delivery practices and safe in-fant- feeding options as they couldsignificantly curtail risk of mother-to-childHIV transmission. Prof. Ayesha Mehnaz saidthat “twenty two children are presently undertreatment at HIV-AIDS Treatment Centre ofCivil Hospital.” She said that treatment forchildren, with the virus, was available at ded-icated institutes as well as in certain govern-ment hospitals. Prof. Ayesha Mehnaz alsohighlighted importance of blood screeningfor HIV as well as other blood borne infec-tions during pregnancy followed by effectivecounseling and timely treatment to preventtransmission of the diseases.Karachi Civil Hospital Paediatric Unit DrNoor-Un- Nisa Masqati in her presentationtitled “Management and Treatment ofHIV/AIDS”, said that children acquire HIVduring pregnancy, labour, birth and evenafter birth. She added that management ofHIV/AIDS in pediatric group includes anti-retroviral therapy (ART), treatment of acutebacterial infections followed by prophylaxisand treatment of opportunistic infections.

Chinese, Iranian delegations arrivein metropolis

KARACHIAPP

A delegation of China Investment Corpo-ration (CIC) led by its President, GaoXiqing, arrived landed at Jinnah interna-tional on Sunday. The Chinese delegationis on a two day visit of the metropolis. Onarrival at the Karachi Airport from Islam-abad, the delegation was received by thegovernment and State Bank of Pakistan(SBP) officials. An official of the SBP pre-sented bouquet to the Chinese on behalfof the Governor of State Bank. Meanwhile, an Iranian parliamentary dele-gation, led by National Security and For-eign Policy Commission of the IslamicConsultative Assembly of Iran ChairmanAlaeddin Boroujerdi, arrived fromTehranon Sunday. The four member delegationwas received at Jinnah International bySenator Mushahid Hussain Syed and Ad-viser to Sindh Chief Minister, Haleem AdilShaikh. The delegation left for Islamabadyesterday evening.

IG for coordinationbetween policeand agencies

KARACHIAPP

Sindh Inspector General of Police (IGP)Fayyaz Ahmed Laghari has asked thedeputy inspector generals and superin-tendent police officers (intelligence) todevelop close coordination with differ-ent government intelligence agencies.The IGP, in a directive on Sunday, saidintelligence sharing was crucial tocounter unscrupulous elements, includ-ing perpetrators of terrorism and crimi-nal activities in the metropolis.He also ordered the police officials topresent him security plans for their re-spective areas on the occasion ofChehlum of Hazrat Imam Hussain.Police media directorate on Sunday saidthe officials have been asked to preparecontingency plans, and also update themin accordance to the emerging needs, forthe remaining days of Muharram andfor the month of Safar respectively.

KARACHIAPP

SINDH Governor Dr Ishrat ul Ebad di-rected the authorities concerned to ex-pand the network of command andcontrol centres across the province.Chairing a meeting to review the existent

command and control system at the Governor Houseon Sunday, he urged for a composite and technologi-cally sophisticated “Anti Criminal Mechanism,” in theprovince. He said that “the existent surveillance sys-tem must, not only be strengthened but also made ef-ficient in all parts of Sindh,”

It was decided during the meeting that the Commis-sioner of Karachi would be the focal person for controland command system in the metropolis. The Governorordered integration of the command control centers op-erating under KMC and Karachi police head-office re-spectively. He also directed that the command andcontrol system in the city must develop close networking

with the authorities of Karachi Port Trust, Port Qasim,Steel Mills, Civil Aviation and other relevant organiza-tions. Dr Ishrat ul Ebad ordered the officials tostrengthen community policing and surveillance in eightzones of the city, made as per the recommendations ofthe business community. He asked the Deputy Commis-sioner South and chief of the Citizen Police Liaison Com-mittee to ensure beefing up security in the businesscenters and industrial areas of the city. The Governor ex-pressed confidence that updated security measureswould also address the issue of encroachment and vio-lation of traffic rules. He ordered the officials to take ac-tion against vehicles plying in the city as well as theprovince without authorized number plates. The meet-ing extensively discussed different aspects of the surveil-lance system and recommended for its expansion,besides strengthening and making it more result-ori-ented. The Sindh Governor made it clear to the officialsconcerned that the command and control system couldonly be beneficial if its application was optimally utilizedin preventing crimes and nabbing the criminals.

Governor orders expansion of command, control centres in Sindh

KARAcHI: Dr fauzia Siddiqui and American woman wave to the workers of the Aafia Movement during a public gathering at banaras chowk

held to demand release of Dr Aafia Siddiqui. ONLINe


low

High

170CtUESDAy wEDNESDAy tHURSDAy29°C I 19°C 29°C I 20°C 31°C I 20°C

PRAyER tIMINGSFajr Sunrise zuhr Asr Maghrib Isha

05:30 06:00 12:20 16:00 17: 25 20:00

CIty DIRECtoRy

RESCUE 1122

EDHI CoNtRol 115, 32310066, 2310077

MotoRwAy PolICE 130

PolICE 15

GoVERNoR’S HoUSE 136

CHIEF MINIStER’S HoUSE 99202051

FIRE BRIGADE 16, 99215007-8

BoMB DISPoSAl 15, 99212667

RED CRESCENt 35833973

KHIDMAt-E-KHAlQ FoUNDAtIoN 36333811

EMERGENCy HElP

HoSPItAlS

BlooD BANK

HUSSAINI 32238405-8

FAtIMID 32225284, 32258656

PwA 99215740, 32735214

CoMPlAINt

KESC 118

SUI GAS 1199, 99231603

PtCl 1218

KwSB 1339

CDGK 134

RAIlwAyS

ENQUIRy 117, 99213565-6

CIty StAtIoN 99213538

CANtt StAtIoN 99201118

AIRPoRt

FlIGHt ENQUIRy 114

PIA RESERVAtIoN 111-786-786

CollEGES / UNIVERSItIES

KARACHI UNIVERSIty 99261300-06NED UNIVERSIty 99261261-8FUUASt 99244141-9DUHS 99215754-7SMIC 99217501-3FASt-NU 111128128, 34100541-7SzABISt 111922478IoBM 35090961-7IBA 111422422IVS 35861039-40

ABBASI SHAHEED 99260400-09

CIVIl 99215749, 99215960

JINNAH 99201300-39

NICVD 99201271-6

AGHA KHAN 34930051

tABBA 36811841-50

lol WAAlAy

It's Unscripted. It's all based on audience suggestions.you call the shots. And it is darn hilarious!lIVE Improvisational Comedy runs wild at the MAD Schoolwith "lol waalay" - the Improv troupe by Firefly theatre.tickets @ Rs. 300/- and will be available at the MADSchool entrance. For further details call MAD School:0336 235 0775ExClUSIVE RADIo MEDIA PARtNER: CityFM89

BRC All STARS oPeN MIC

SUNNy

wEAtHER UPDAtES

28°C

KIDz XPo 2012

this 03 Day mega show would bring lots of kidsattractions under one roof. It’s a kind of event whichkids would love to attend. A special ‘Activity Village’has been dedicated for numerous fun activities, excitingcompetitions & enlightening awareness sessions.Moreover, 100+ top brands would also exhibit the bestrange of products & services at this grand event!

DAtE: DEC 14 to 16, 2012 VENUE: ExPo CENtER, KARACHI

Base Rock Cafe All Stars open Mic

Call to register: 0303 2596824


DAtE: DEC 08, 2012

VENUE: BASE RoCK CAFE, FEE UNKNowNDAtE: NoV 03 to DEC 25, 2012 VENUE: MAD SCHool - MUSIC ARt DANCE

07Karachi

RIDING SHOTGUN WITHKarachi’s bullet-dodgers

AUBReY BeLFoRD

eDHI ambulance driver Az-izullah, at the Civil HospitalKarachi morgue. The GlobalMail meets Azizullah in theearly hours of the morning at

one of Edhi’s ambulance stations, acramped shopfront that houses offices anda call-dispatch centre. Out the front of thebuilding is a cradle in which women canleave unwanted babies, no questionsasked. About an hour after dawn, the firstmajor call comes through: a shooting in theupscale Javed Bahria neighbourhood. Az-izullah jumps into the ambulance and tearsover a bypass, by the city’s port, and pastthe slowly rousing city.

It turns out today’s call is a little differ-ent to the usual. Outside a two-storey bun-galow, dozens of police and paramilitaryofficers are milling on the road. We’re toldthat behind the house’s high fence are thebodies of three members of a kidnappinggang, shot dead by police several hours ear-lier. The kidnapping victim is Malik ZainulAbideen, a wealthy 80-year-old petroltrader. Abideen had been seized twomonths ago, explains Ahmed Chinoy, whoheads the Citizens-Police Liaison Commit-tee in Sindh province, and is standing out-side, red-eyed from the night’s work. Thedead men can’t be interrogated, but Chinoysays they had likely kidnapped ZainulAbideen to raise money for a militantgroup, perhaps the Taliban.

Edhi driver Azizullah, on a call to pickup the bodies of the three suspected kid-nappers.

Just as the ambulance services havebeen formed to answer a dire need, theCPLC is a citizen-led outfit that has sprungup to fill the void left by Pakistan’s weakstate. Chinoy, whose day job is as a busi-nessman, oversees an organisation that as-sists the families of the more than 100people kidnapped in Karachi every year.

The CPLC remains behind the scenes, ad-vising relatives as they negotiate with kid-nappers for ransom, while quietly tracingand analysing communications and coor-dinating with police.

In Abideen’s case, negotiations hadbroken down. The kidnappers initiallyasked for 200 million rupees (AUD2 mil-lion), and then dropped it to 40 million,but the family would not agree to pay. Dur-ing the impasse, the CPLC picked up a leadon the kidnappers’ whereabouts, and earlythis morning, the police had gone in, gunsdrawn.

The bodies are inside, but as a mediascrum forms it becomes apparent thatevents must follow a script before thecorpses can be removed. Chinoy leads thepack to a car where Abideen, bearded andtoothless, is waiting. Two months after hewas snatched on his way home from themosque, and despite having been confinedand subjected to beatings, he’s surprisinglywilling to talk.

Ambulance crews remove the body ofa suspected kidnapper shot dead by police.

“Why would they kidnap me?” he asks,by way of response to a local reporter’squestion. “Because they wanted money.Only money.”

Abideen is bustled back into the car,and police open up the gates to the home.Inside are the remnants of the morning’sraid: bullet holes, the bodies of the threekidnappers, and a clumpy pool of con-gealed blood. As journalists collect imagesof the carnage for Pakistan’s graphic TVnews, police show off bottles of alcohol thatthey say belonged to the kidnappers. Aftera couple of minutes, Azizullah and otherdrivers move in to pick up the bodies bare-handed and haul them to the morgue.

This turns out to be an ordeal. The firsthospital, Jinnah Postgraduate MedicalCentre, flat out refuses to take the bodies.The drivers are forced to wait outside themorgue’s locked gates in the gathering heat

while another place is found. The vans car-rying the bodies don’t have air condition-ing, so the rear doors are left open.

Finally, word comes through that CivilHospital Karachi will accept the kidnap-pers. But at that morgue Azizullah findsthat the bodies of two young men founddumped on the roadside earlier this morn-ing are already occupying the slabs. Theyare unidentified, but by the manner of theirdeath it’s assumed that they belonged to apolitical party, a gang, or both. The men’sarms and hands show markings consistentwith torture before death, which was deliv-ered on the roadside via multiple gunshotsto the head. Both men were shot at closerange, directly through each of their eyes.

Out the front of the building, is a cradlein which women can leave unwanted ba-bies, no questions asked.

It’s only after helping move these menaway that Azizullah and his colleagues candeposit the bodies they’re carrying.

In fast-growing Karachi, corruption isall-pervasive and politics is inextricablytied up with brutal militia violence.

Before the Muslim state of Pakistanwas partitioned from British India in 1947,Karachi was a sleepy port town of fewerthan half a million people, and with a sig-nificant Hindu middle class. In the blood-shed of partition, the Hindus left. Theywere replaced by a massive surge of Muha-jirs — Muslims who had fled newly inde-pendent India. For decades, the Muhajirswere marginalised in local politics. Then,in the 1980s, the Muttahida Qaumi Move-ment, or MQM, burst onto the politicalscene as a party for the migrants. This trig-gered a pattern of violence as its armedworkers entered into battle with estab-lished political interests, while — critics al-lege — engaging in myriad illegalmoney-making activities.

To be continued…

Courtesy The Global Mail

Not even the cops will venture across all the violent divisions betweenenemies in Pakistan’s blood-soaked megacity. Only the guys driving themake-shift ambulances do that. No gloves, either. One night in Karachi


08


NewsNorth Korea to

launch long-range

rocket in December

MonItoRIng DeSK

North Korea is to launch a long-rangerocket between 10 and 22 December,its official news agency said.The KCNA said the aim was to launch a satellite.Previous - unsuccessful - launcheshave been criticised as breaches of aUN ban on North Korean ballisticmissile tests. The announcement islikely to increase tensions with NorthKorea's neighbours, with South Koreaexpressing concern over Pyongyang'sannouncement.South Korean officials called the movea "grave provocation" and a "challengeto the international community".The atmosphere in South Korea isespecially tense as the countryprepares for a presidential electionscheduled for 19 December, accordingto report by BBC. North Korea's mostrecent rocket launch, in April, was afailure. The US, Japan and SouthKorea said the rocket flew only for ashort time before breaking up andcrashing into waters off the Koreanpeninsula. Earlier this week SouthKorea halted a satellite launchminutes before take-off after problemswere found during the final checks.'Peaceful purposes' North Koreanscientists and technicians had now"analysed the mistakes" of the Aprillaunch, the Korean Committee forSpace Technology said, via KCNA.The rocket will be of the same Unha-3variety as was used in the April test. Itwill be launched "southward" from theSohae base near the Chinese border,KCNA said, implying it would bedirected over the East China Sea.The flight path had been chosen toavoid debris falling on neighbouringcountries, the agency said."Unha" is Korean for "galaxy", and isthe name given by North Korea to thespace launcher version of itsTaepodong-2 missile, which has anestimated range of 2,200km. Themissile has not yet been successfullytested. There had been recentspeculation that North Korea wouldattempt another launch soon, with aUN Security Council committee onThursday warning the country against such a move.Saturday's statement insisted theforthcoming launch would be for"peaceful purposes". The test will bethe second to take place under theleadership of Kim Jong-un, who tookover leadership of the country afterthe death of his father Kim Jong-ilalmost a year ago.

DAMASCUSAgeNcIeS

TEN reported dead inDeir al-Asafir, 15 killed inHoms; fighting betweengovernment forces andrebels around Damascus

continues for fourth straight day; stateTV says Assad forces 'eliminate' scoresof rebels, calling them terrorists withties to al-Qaida.

Syrian army forces pounded rebel-held suburbs around Damascus withfighter jets and rockets on Sunday, ac-tivists said, killing at least ten andwounding dozens in an offensive to stoprebels closing in on the capital.

In Syria's central city of Homs, acar bomb killed at least 15 people andwounded 24 on Sunday, Syria's statenews agency SANA said. It said theblast in the city's Hamra district alsodamaged many nearby residentialbuildings. Rebels planned to push intothe Damascus city center from theirstrongholds on the outskirts and fight-

ing has been fierce. The army sent re-inforcements after a week of rebel ad-vances, including the capture of twomilitary bases near the capital. Activistssaid the heavy rocket attacks on Sundaykilled at least ten in the town of Deir al-Asafir, 12 km east of Damascus. Videopublished by activists from the townshowed at least five bodies, one of thema young boy and one an elderly man.The other bodies were wrapped inblood spattered white sheets.

Another video showed smoke ris-ing over the skyline and some build-ings in flames. Opposition reports aredifficult to verify because the govern-ment restricts media access in Syria.

Syria's 20-month-old uprising hasgrown increasingly bloody in recentmonths, and activists say more than40,000 have died. More than 200 peo-ple were killed on Saturday accordingto the opposition-linked Syrian Obser-vatory for Human Rights, with at least43 dead around Damascus and its sub-urbs. Syrian security sources and diplo-matic contacts told Reuters that Assad's

forces launched an offensive this weekin a move to seal central Damascus offfrom the suburbs.

The army's assault appears tohave staved off a rebel advance intocentral Damascus so far. But neitherside has gained ground in recentdays, and fighting continues along theoutskirts of the city despite heavyshelling by Assad's forces.

Clashes around Damascus Inter-national Airport went into their fourthday on Sunday. It has effectively beenclosed since Thursday when the armytried to push back rebels there who saythe entire airport road had become abattleground. "The Free Syrian Armyis striking the reinforcements tryingto enter the airport to help theregime's forces...there are clashes allalong the airport road," said AbuNidal, a rebel spokesman in Damas-cus, speaking via Skype.

Rebels say they want to control theairport because the army has used it tobring in weapons. Western intelli-gence reports earlier this year said that

Iran, Assad's main backer, had beenusing civilian aircraft to fly militaryequipment and personnel throughIraqi airspace into Syria.

American officials say that armsflow has continued due to Iraqi reluc-tance to check flights, according to aNew York Times article. It said onlytwo inspections had occurred sinceIraq agreed to a U.S. request in Sep-tember and that Iran may have beentipped off about the searches.

Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki toldreporters in a press conference inBaghdad that there was no such re-quest. "There is no ability to inspect allplanes destined to Syria and there wasno U.S. request to inspect all aircraftsbecause they know that this is not pos-sible," he said on Sunday. "We said tothe Syrians, Iranians, U.S, UN and theworld, we said as the Iraqi Govern-ment, we are committed to (prevent)the weapon ... We prevent the passageof arms for you because our constitu-tion states that Iraq is not a pathwayor a seat for any similar actions".

MonItoRIng DeSK

Guarded by rifle-toting police, immi-gration authorities in western Myan-mar have launched a major operationaimed at settling an explosive ques-tion at the heart of the biggest crisisthe government has faced since begin-ning its nascent transition to democ-racy last year, according to anAssociated Press report on Friday.

It's a question that has helped fueltwo bloody spasms of sectarian unrestbetween ethnic Rakhine Buddhistsand Rohingya Muslims since June,and it comes down to one simplething: Who has the right to be a citizenof Myanmar, and who does not?

A team of Associated Press jour-nalists that traveled recently to theremote island village of Sin ThetMaw, a maze of bamboo huts withoutelectricity in Myanmar's volatile west,found government immigration offi-cials in the midst of a painstaking,census-like operation aimed at veri-fying the citizenship of Muslims liv-ing there, one family at a time.

Armed with pens, stacks ofpaper and hand-drawn maps, theyworked around low wooden tables

that sat in the dirt, collecting infor-mation about birth dates andplaces, parents and grandparents --vital details of life and death span-ning three generations.

The operation began quietly withno public announcement in thetownship of Pauktaw on Nov. 8, ofwhich the village of Sin Thet Maw isa part. It will eventually be carriedout across all of Rakhine state, thecoastal territory where nearly 200people have died in the last fivemonths, and 110,000 more, mostlyMuslims, have fled.

The Thailand-based advocacygroup, the Arakan Project, warns theresults could be used to definitivelyrule out citizenship for the Rohingya,who have suffered discrimination fordecades and are widely viewed as for-eigners from Bangladesh. Muslims inSin Thet Maw echoed those concerns,and said they had not been told whatthe operation was for.

"What we know is that they don'twant us here," said one 34-year-oldMuslim named Zaw Win, who saidhis family had lived in Sin Thet Mawsince 1918.

So far, more than 2,000 Muslim

families have gone through theprocess, but no "illegal settlers havebeen found," said state spokesmanWin Myaing.

It was not immediately clear,however, what would happen toanyone deemed to be illegal. WinMyaing declined to say whetherthey could deported or not.Bangladesh has regularly turnedback Rohingya refugees, as haveother countries, including Thailand.

Few issues in Myanmar are assensitive as this. The conflict has gal-vanized an almost nationalistic furoragainst the Rohingya, who majorityBuddhists believe are trying to stealscarce land and forcibly spread theIslamic faith. Myanmar's recent tran-sition to democratic rule has openedthe way for monks to stage anti-Ro-hingya protests as an exercise in free-dom of expression, and for viciousanti-Rohingya rants to swamp Inter-net forums.

In the nearby town of Pauktaw,where all that remains of a once-sig-nificant Muslim community are theashes of charred homes and black-ened palm trees, the hatred is clear.Graffiti scrawled inside a destroyed

mosque ominously warns that the"Rakhine will drink Kalar blood."Kalar is a derogatory epithet com-monly used to refer to Muslims here.

Myanmar's reformist leader,President Thein Sein, had set aharsh tone over the summer, say-ing that "it is impossible to acceptthose Rohingya who are not ourethnic nationals."

But this month, he appeared tochange course, penning an un-precedented and politically riskyletter to the U.N. promising to con-sider new rights for the Rohingyafor the first time.

In the letter, Thein Sein said hisgovernment would address con-tentious issues "ranging from resettle-ment of displaced populations togranting of citizenship," but he gaveno timeline and stopped short of fullycommitting to naturalize them.

By law, anyone whose forefa-thers lived in Myanmar prior to in-dependence in 1948 has the right toapply for citizenship. But in prac-tice, most Rohingya have been un-able to. They must typically obtainpermission to travel, and some-times even to marry.

Assad’s forces pound rebel strongholds, 25 killed across Syria

MyanMar verifying MusliM citizenship

toKYoAgeNcIeS

At least seven people were missingand several feared dead afterabout 150 concrete panels fellfrom the roof of a tunnel on themain highway linking Tokyo withcentral Japan.

Efforts to rescue any survivorstrapped inside the tunnel werehindered by heavy smoke afterone vehicle caught fire inside theSasago Tunnel, about 50 milesoutside Tokyo.

Rescuers also temporarily sus-pended work because of fears of afurther collapse. They were at-tempting to reach at least severalvehicles believed buried in therubble, including a truck whosedriver was trapped inside and hadcalled his company for help.

“I could hear voices of peoplecalling for help, but the fire wasjust too strong,” said a woman in-terviewed by public broadcasterNHK after she escaped from thetunnel.

The Fire and Disaster Manage-ment Agency issued a statementlate last night saying five peoplewere confirmed to have been in acar that burned inside the tunnel,and at least one other was in atruck. However, officials said theycould not confirm the exact num-ber of people believed dead.

Executives for Central JapanExpressway said the company wasinvestigating why the concrete

panels had given way. A check ofthe three-mile tunnel’s roof inSeptember and October foundnothing amiss, they said.

It said two people were con-firmed hurt, but the injuries werenot severe. The tunnel, whichopened in 1977, is one of many inmountainous Japan. The locationof the collapse, about a mile insidethe tunnel, was complicating res-cue efforts, reports said.

several feared dead afterJapan sasago tunnel collapse

west Bankcheers MahmoudAbbas after UN vote

RAMALLAHAgeNcIeS

Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbashas returned to a hero's welcome in theWest Bank after his successful move toupgrade the Palestinians' UN status."Now we have a state," he told cheeringsupporters in Ramallah. "Palestine hasaccomplished a historic achievement."On Thursday the United NationsGeneral Assembly voted to recognisethe Palestinians as an observer state.In response Israel halted the transferof tax revenues to the PalestinianAuthority (PA). The decision,announced on Sunday by the Israelifinance ministry, means 460m shekels($120m) will be withheld in December.The PA, which rules the West Bank, isheavily dependant on tax revenuesIsrael collects on its behalf. A ministryspokesman said the money wouldinstead be used to offset the PA'sdebts, which include millions owed toIsrael's electricity company.The Israeli decision was announced asPalestinian President Mahmoud Abbasreturned to the West Bank from theUN in New York.He told thousands of flag-wavingsupporters in Ramallah that the vote toupgrade the Palestinians' status from"non-member observer entity" to "non-member observer state" had shown theinternational community stood behindthe Palestinian people."The march was a long one, and thepressures were enormous," Mr Abbasadded. "But we stood fast and weprevailed, because we are the voiceof these people."

Mr Abbas also called for reconciliationbetween Palestinians - a reference tothe split between the PA in the WestBank and Hamas in Gaza.On Friday Israel announced it wouldmove ahead with building thousands ofnew homes in Israeli settlements in theWest Bank, in another apparentresponse to the UN vote.At a meeting on Sunday, Israel'scabinet formally rejected the UN's decision.Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahucalled the campaign for Palestinianstatehood spearheaded by PresidentAbbas "a gross violation of theagreements signed with the state ofIsrael", a reference to peace accordssigned in the 1990s.He said that only negotiations withIsrael could lead to the establishmentof a Palestinian state.


09


NewsPak-Afghan govtsshould not let militants rejointheir groups, saysKP minister

PeSHAWARSHAMIM SHAHID

Welcoming the recent developmentsbetween Islamabad and Kabul on rec-onciliation with the Taliban, theprovincial government of KhyberPakhtunkhwa (KP) has advised thetwo sides to stay wary of terroristsand other troublemakers. “Both Pakistan and Afghanistan mustensure that hard line terroristsshould not go back to their groupsafter release,” KP Information Minis-ter Iftikhar Hussain said while talk-ing to Pakistan Today. He expressed satisfaction over in-creasing contacts and understandingbetween the two neighbouring coun-tries, particularly on the release ofprisoners and joint efforts for peace.However, he cautioned that suchgoodwill gestures must not be mis-used by either side. He said that the Afghan Taliban im-prisoned in Pakistan might be extra-dited, but the Afghan governmentshould keep them in prison. He sug-gested a similar approach to dealwith Pakistani militants imprisonedin Afghanistan. He believed that such steps wouldprevent their reunion with militantgroups hiding in the mountainousbelt along the border. In response to a question, he saidthat his government’s demand formilitary action against militants wasnot confined to Waziristan. “We de-mand military action against all mili-tants whether they are sheltering inPakistan or Afghanistan,” he said,adding that the NATO and Afghantroops should fulfil their responsibili-ties in Afghanistan. He said both Pak-istan and Afghanistan should takeeach other into confidence, addingthat it was required for the success ofthe proposed military action. “The US has become a real party intothe ongoing war on terror,” he said,when asked if Pakistan andAfghanistan could tackle the issue ofterrorism without the United States.He said the three countries mustbuild trust in order to get rid of ter-rorism and militancy. He said theissue could be easily resolved throughpolitical dialogue.

70 Afghan nationals arrested

QUettA oNLINe

Law enforcement agencies arrested70 Afghan nationals under the For-eign Act at the Taftan border onSunday. The agencies said the 70 illegal immi-grants entered into Pakistani terri-tory without visa documents. Thesecurity personnel deputed at theborder arrested them. The 70 Afghan nationals have beenhanded over to the local administra-tion so that investigation could becarried out.

DeRA ALLAHYAR: A flood-affected boy sits outside his tent. with the winter drawing close, the tent is reflective of the state of a large number of IDPs. ONLINe

JALALABADAgeNcIeS

TALIBAN insurgentslaunched a major sui-cide attack on Sundayagainst a NATO base atan Afghan city airport,

killing five people and wounding sev-eral foreign troops, officials said. Nineattackers were also killed, some blow-ing themselves up in two vehicles atthe perimeter gate of the Jalalabadairport and others shot as they at-tempted to storm the base, policesaid. NATO helicopters fired on theinsurgents as they followed up the carbombing with rocket-propelledgrenades, mortars and small armsfire.

The Taliban claimed insurgentshad entered the airport, which is closeto the eastern border with Pakistan,but this was denied by NATO’S Inter-national Security Assistance Force

(ISAF). “Insurgents including suicidebombers attacked the perimeter ofthe Jalalabad air base this morning,”a spokesman said. “None of the at-tackers succeeded breaching theperimeter. I can confirm that therewere helicopters involved in the coali-tion response to the attack.” “A num-ber of ISAF forces were wounded,” headded, noting that it was ISAF policynot to disclose the number of thoseinjured.

The airport complex has multiplelayers of security, with the NATO baseset well back from the first entrance,which an Afghan official said hadbeen breached. Three Afghan guardswere killed and 14 wounded, whiletwo civilians also died and four otherswere injured, police spokesmanHazrat Hussain Mashriqiwal said.

“First there was a car bombingnext to the entrance followed by gunattack by the insurgents,” a seniorAfghan security official said. “They

couldn’t reach NATO forces and theywere killed in the area between thefirst and second gates.”

The Taliban claimed their mili-tants had entered the airport andcaused heavy casualties.

“First a fedayee (suicide bomber)mujahid… detonated a car bombcausing the enemy heavy casualtiesand losses and removed all the barri-ers,” the Taliban said on their website.

“After the attack other fedayeemujahids entered the base… andstarted attacking the invading forcesin the base.”

The hardline Taliban Islamistshave waged an 11-year insurgencyagainst the Afghan government,which is backed by 100,000 NATOtroops, since being overthrown in aUS-led invasion for harbouring alQaeda leader Osama bin Laden.

The airport has come under at-tack on two previous occasions thisyear. On February 27, six civilians, an

Afghan soldier and two local guardswere killed in a suicide car bomb at-tack, but NATO troops escaped un-hurt.

The airport also came under at-tack on April 15, when the Talibanlaunched their spring offensive with aseries of commando-style assaultsacross Afghanistan. The latest assaultcomes as the usual summer fightingseason should be drawing to a closeand shows that the insurgency re-mains resilient as NATO forces pre-pare to withdraw in 2014.

With the end of the US “surge” inAfghanistan, the Taliban have sur-vived the biggest military onslaughtthe West will throw at them.

The last of the extra 33,000 sol-diers President Barack Obama de-ployed nearly three years ago left inSeptember, and the vast majority ofthe remaining NATO force of morethan 100,000 will follow by the endof 2014.

Taliban suicide attack on NATO base kills fiveg ISAF refuses to release details of casualties

LonDonMAJID KHAttAK

British born Sikh will be the first armysoldier to guard Buckingham Palacewearing a turban instead of bearskin toperform ceremonial duties.

Guardsman Jatinderpal SinghBhullar, 25, who joined the Scotsguards this year, has been given per-mission to wear a turban outside Buck-ingham Palace, the official residence ofQueen Elizabeth, breaking the hun-dreds-of-years-old tradition. Soldiers

guarding the Buckingham Palace al-ways wear bearskin.

Bhullar has refused to cut his hair,beard and want to protect the Queenwhile wearing his turban. He is based atWellington Barracks in Birdcage Walk.The base is used by soldiers from theScots Guards’ F Compan, who at pres-ent are responsible for public dutiesand guarding the Queen.

According to military sources,Bhullar, who is from Birmingham, isexpected to parade for the first timenext week. When he marches with his

colleagues he will become the firstguardsman not wearign a bearskin.

Traditionalists in the Scots Guardsay the allowances made for Bhullarwill make the whole company lookridiculous to tourists and onlookers.The regiment traces its origins back to1642 and its soldiers have wornbearskins on parade since 1832. Fam-ily sources said as a devout Sikh, it ismandatory for Bhullar to wear a tur-ban. It is intended to protect his hair,which he never cuts, and to keep itclean. For centuries, Skihs have worn

turbans inbattle andfought aspart of theBritish Army –i n c l u d i n gBhullar’s grandfa-ther, who served inthe Second World War.Bhullar’s father spoke ofhis pride and condemned the bul-lies. “He is one of only 20 to 25British-born Sikhs in the BritishArmy.”

ISLAMABADINP

President Asif Ali Zardari has calledupon state institutions, civil society,philanthropists and the citizens tomake concerted efforts for activeparticipation of special people in thenation’s progress.

In a message on the occasion ofInternational Day of Persons withDisabilities, the president assuredthe special people that the govern-ment was committed to taking spe-cial measures to meet their needs.He said the theme of this year, “Re-moving barriers to create an inclu-sive and accessible society for all”,called for greater efforts to integratethe people with special needs in the

productive and mainstream of oursociety and harness their potential inachieving national developmentgoals.

He said the societies should bestructured in a way that they notonly meet the needs of special peo-ple, but also engage them in the taskof national development by remov-ing all visible and invisible barriersthat continue to hinder theirprogress. The president said the daywas an occasion to pay tribute tothose men and women of couragewere fighting the battle of life, withor without any support, despite theirphysical, mental or other disability.“It is also an occasion to reiterate ourmoral, social and religious obliga-tion to continue working for creation

of an enabling environment whichtakes into account the special needsof the special persons,” he said.

Zardari said, “We need to pauseand ponder over the problems of thespecial people and how best to solvethem. For a developing country likePakistan the initial aim must be toachieve the same standards thatexist in other civilized nations for ad-dressing the problems of the specialpeople.”He emphasized that therewas a need to revitalise efforts forproviding equal opportunities to all,including people with disabilitiesboth in the pubic and private sector.

“The problems of special peopleare compounded by the lack of pol-icy and legislative measures and in-frastructural support.

President for bringing special people into national mainstream

FC claims of foilingQuetta terror bidturn out falseQUeTTA: The FC on Sunday claimedhaving foiled a major terrorism bid byseizing a bus laden with huge quantityof explosives and arresting five ac-cused.However, when the details were re-ceived, the seized explosives turned outto be harmless potassium chloride.Other household items, including shoes,pulses and grams and blankets were re-covered among the items falsely re-ported as explosives.The FC had earlier said the bus was im-pounded at Quetta-Karachi Highwaynear Akhtar Abad area when it wasstopped at a checkpost on a tip off.It had said 6,000 to 7,000 kilo-grammes of explosives had been re-covered. AgeNcIeS

sikh with a turban to protect the Queen


Comment10


The eleventh hour for the USmay have finally arrived inthe form of the fiscal cliff.In the aftermath of theelections, the American po-

litical system is involved in the kind ofintrospection and deliberation thatshould have been initiated earlier.Raising taxes and cutting entitlementprogrammes was one part of the de-bate during the elections, the otherhalf had to do with the defence spend-ing. The war on terror that waslaunched in the aftermath of 9/11greatly expanded the powers andspending of the defence and securityestablishment. Now that Osama isdead, many are questioning if theseexpenditures and special war authori-sations should continue, especiallywhen many believe the real challengelies in the pacific.

The matter is unlikely to be re-solved easily and mixed messages areemanating from within the Obama ad-ministration. Speaking in Britain on 1December, Obama ally and PentagonGeneral Counsel Jeh Johnson, for thefirst time, initiated a debate about thestate that would represent the end ofthe war against Al-Qaeda (AQ). On theother hand, while speaking at the Cen-ter for a New American Security on 20November, the US secretary of defencepresented an argument for why the waron terror should continue.

It was the first important speechdelivered by an administration officialsince Obama got reelected. In this ad-dress, he laid out the broad outline forthe future US defence posture. Notonly that, he presented a genuine as-sessment of the existing and emergingchallenges related with the waragainst terror. Moreover, the speech

provides a critical glimpse of how theUS is evaluating its performance indisrupting, dismantling and defeatingAl-Qaeda (AQ).

Leon Panetta pointed out that al-though US was limiting its militarypresence in Iraq and Afghanistan thatdid not mean the threat to its nationalsecurity posed by AQ had vanished. Headded that as compared to previouswars the US has been involved in, thepresent conflict was of a different na-ture and would require a long sustainedeffort. However, recognising the politi-cally charged environment that sur-rounded the fiscal debate, he went onto qualify and explain how the full po-tential of AQ had been degraded.

Panetta especially noted that theAQ’s capability to wage large-scale at-tacks on the US was no longer there,and its top leadership had been deci-mated. Nonetheless, he surprisinglyadmitted that AQ virus had nowspread to Somalia and North Africaand it was attempting to exploit theArab Spring. PoliTact has particularlymade this argument all along; whilesuccess may have been achieved in theAfPak region, AQ and its affiliate arenow spread all over the Islamic world.Furthermore, the hardcore tacticsadopted by the western powers havefurthered its recruitment efforts andhave dangerously shifted the publicdiscourse in favour of Islamists. Thisdynamic is visibly playing out in thepresent Egyptian crisis.

To counter this risk, Panetta as-sured full American support to the gov-ernments that were emerging from theArab revolt. He went on to add that theUS Special Forces were already con-ducting joint operations with thosecountries to contain the extremists. Atthe same time, he emphasised that theregion was going through a major tran-sition, which needed to be influencedand managed by international actors.This was the clearest indication thatUS and NATO were not about to let theregion run its natural evolution withIslamists potentially taking overpower. In other words, we can expectmore foreign military interventions, asliberal and moderate Islamists are in-creasingly unable to hold the ground ordeliver on western interests.

Mr Panetta himself posed the in-triguing question: while the enemyhas been weakened, he pondered whatit would take to finish AQ. The de-fence secretary made it known thatAQ was always on the look out for newand remote safe havens. Therefore, tocounteract this, US will maintain

pressure on Pakistan, Yemen and So-malia to prevent it from reconstitutingthere. He elaborated that this wouldentail enhancing the capabilities ofthe allies. As US moves to a lighterfootprint tactics, its own SpecialForces are slated to grow to 72,000strong by 2017, to be accompanied bya mushrooming in numbers of dronesand reapers.

Another important step towardsfinishing off AQ, he added, was to pre-vent it from getting new recruits. And,for this purpose, the full force ofAmerican diplomacy and interna-tional development tools would beused. However, the continued heavy-handed kinetic approaches are erod-ing American perception as a benignforce of change, to more of a bully.

No one would disagree with whatMr Panetta had to say. After all, thisargument was not presented for thefirst time. And, this is exactly theproblem he is confronted with. He ex-plained his deepest worry was thatthere was no longer any constituencyin Congress to continue the fight forthe long haul. In other words, and asPanetta put it: faced with the eco-nomic realities, there was a shortageof a political will to do what needs tobe done to protect the US interests.He emphasised what really alarmedhim was if the American system andpolitical leaders would live up to thechallenges they were confronted with.

Mr Panetta’s speech presented acomplex message. He seemed to besaying that the longest war US hasever been involved in was over, butthen it was not. Moreover, he added,American soldiers were coming homebecause the goals were achieved, butthe threat was not eliminated. Hewent to state how the present conflictwas different from all the previousones. In his opinion, the nation doesnot have to choose between nationalor fiscal security.

In essence, Leon Panetta wasgrappling with a challenge of formu-lating a defence strategy by being cog-nizant of not only the emergingthreats, but also the economic reali-ties and political landscape. For thefirst time, American public and gov-ernment are beginning to feel whatimperial overstretch looks like.

The writer is chief analyst atPoliTact, a Washington based futuristadvisory firm (www.PoliTact.comand http:twitter.com/politact) andcan be reached [email protected]

Imperial overstretchthe future of US war on terrorArif Nizami

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

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

Dedicated to the legacy of the late Hameed Nizami

...and our parliamentarians

Dual nationality...

As our Parliament failed to pass a law regarding dualnationality holders and the Election Commission’sgiven deadline was reached on this Friday, there wasbound to be some action from the parliamentarian who

had not submitted their affidavits. The news and political circleare abuzz with the news of at least 10 out of 16 (four MQMMNAs citing personal reasons, six Sindh MPAs)parliamentarians, who had not submitted their affidavits byFriday, having resigned from their respective legislatures. Themove probably was spurred by the fact that the ECP hadthreatened to revoke the membership of those who failed tosatisfy it regarding their status on dual nationality.

Politicians, most of whom are busy gearing up for theupcoming elections, seem to have landed another issue at theirhands. In a coalition government, every single MP counts. Infact, in certain cases, it can make a difference in getting a billpassed or rejected. And with a setup like ours, it is all the moreimportant where political divides run across the aisle on amajority of issues, including, ironically, that of dual nationality.With the next elections already looming on the horizon, thegovernment is in no position to risk alienating whatever littlemajority it holds in the National Assembly, though a vote of noconfidence or by-elections at this time seem more improbable.The ECP says with only three months remaining till thegovernment completes this term, holding by-elections would betaxing, costly, and an exercise in futility. Who would want to bean MP with the assurance of only a few weeks in office?

Another fallout of this episode could lead to some bills notbeing passed by the parliaments. As is the case, many agovernment world over, try to rush through some importantbills right at the last stages of its term for the simple fact thatthey have to face a little less opposition then. But when it has tostruggle to maintain its majority, how would it pass any newlaw? Important political issues on which the election campaigncould be based, like the Seraiki province, may see a politicaldeath.

However, the Sindh government has countered the move byappointing three of the six MPAs as advisor and specialassistants. The legal loophole that anyone can be appointed asan advisor for at least six months without being a member of anassembly provides perfect excuse to the government though ithas only provided an opportunity to the opposition and itscritics. Realistically speaking, this was also somewhat expectedof the government. Nevertheless, it is the ECP that needsappreciation for working with a neutral character and pursuingthe order of the Supreme Court to its fulfilment.

By Arif Ansar

In Islamic Jurisprudence, a fatwa is alegal ruling or opinion issued by anIslamic scholar. In technical terms, it

is a code of law derived from the Quranand from the teachings and actions of Mo-hammed (PBUH). The reason for provid-ing the above very basic definition is tragicand seriously shocking in the context ofmodern world. The term fatwa has beenused daily by quasi-religious leaders fortheir own makeshift beliefs to prove theirsociopathic attitude in the light of Quranand Sunnah. Verily, the real sanctity of thelegal principle of fatwa is continuing tolose its importance and meaning.

Recently, as reported in the Huffing-ton Post, Islamic radicalists and rathercontroversial clerics in Britain have pre-pared a fatwa on Malala Yousafzai. The14-year-old girl will be declared apostateand accused for turning her back onIslam. The statement issued againstMalala states that “If someone apostatiseslike this woman did by allying with theAmericans and saying her favourite per-son is (Barack) Obama and that she doesnot want the Sharia or hijab and wants tolive under a secular state, she has put her-self in a very precarious situation. It is nosurprise what happened to her in Pak-istan. Malala is mature Islamically, she isnot immature, she has reached that pe-riod we say is adulthood.”

So, as per the charges levied onMalala by alleged attackers and these rad-icalist thinkers, she is being charged withidealising Obama, not wearing hijab anddeclaring herself pro-secular. Such hatredand cowardice can never be the voice ofmy religion. Our beliefs about Islam as themost tolerant and advanced religion ofhuman history are based on the teachingsof Islam. The ones targeting these teach-ing are not Muslims but the real enemiesof Islam. The fatwa should be targeted at

these religious criminals and not the oneswho are trying to reform the society.

Ironically, the radical extremist work-ing on this fatwa is living in a “non-Mus-lim country” with precariously ananti-Islam environment and very secularapproach towards clothing. The conceptof women education is a test case for oursociety. They give arguments in favour ofblinding the women from their right toeducation. Historically, the customary ap-proach towards women rights in Pakistanwas based on sheer negligence of the statein showing faith in equality of rights.Women were even deprived of their rightto vote in recent by-elections in FATA.

For a radical thinker, any girl trying tobreak into this conservative agenda is anapostate and is worthy to be held account-able for denying the basic teachings ofthese clerics. Many girls in Pakistan aredevoid of their basic right to education dueto overly protective approach adopted bytheir parents. Some do not get to schooldue to social pressures and the rest ofthem are deprived of their right to educa-tion due to a conservative outlook on thesocial evils by their blood relations. Thus,females tend to necessarily participate inthings felt suited to them by “men”.

Half truth is a lie and these religiousclerics have hijacked the teachings ofIslam by telling the half truths aboutIslam. Quran and Sunnah are the basicsources of Islamic jurisprudence and boththese sources clearly outline the impor-tance of education for both men and

women. The teachings of Islam do not setdifferent standards for the education ofmen and women. This is a false pretenceset by these clowns who are misusing re-ligious teachings. These clerics hinder theprogress of Muslims by terrorising peopleabout the afterlife instead of focusing onhow to reform the present.

According to a Hadith in Sahih Mus-lim, “The best of the speech is embodiedin the Book of Allah, and the best guidanceis the guidance given by Muhammad(PBUH). And the most evil affairs are their(the misguided Muslims) innovations, andevery innovation is error.” Most of the rad-icalists back their agenda with the teach-ings of Muhammad (PBUH) while theyignore that Muhammad (PBUH) was try-ing not only to introduce a new faith butwas also trying to transform Arabic soci-ety. Many of Arabia’s ills laid down byProphet (PBUH) under the concept of Ja-haliya are so strictly followed by theseradicalists. One such example is their ap-proach towards education in general andfor women in particular. Islam gives itswomen the right to education, inheritanceand right to choose their spouse amongcountless others. Denying them their basicrights is just going to do more harm.

So, how to move forward? Whatshould be the next step? What Malala suf-fered in the shape of wounds will soon re-cover. But she and her family will remainin constant danger of attacks from theseradicals. Hundreds of girls schools inSwat have been destroyed in the past

three years by these radicals and thou-sands of girls in northern areas have beendeprived of their basic fundamental rightto education due to hostility towardswomen education. The people glorifyingthe role of the attackers on Malala arecowards and their approach towards reli-gion is a cause of concern for us.

Creating fear, distress and hatredabout people of other faiths will not bringgood name to Islam. Our main enemy isneither the Christians nor Jews, it is us.They are among us. They know that theyare wrong but they are too adamant toadmit it and would rather sink this societywith their egotistic monopoly on religiousthoughts. They have put more restrictionson simple beliefs and have made an earn-ing out of spreading confusion and chaosabout our religious.

Can you think of a religion that wasmeant to bring forward a society sufferingfrom the menace of inequality, injusticeand other social evils? Pakistan can achieveall the glory it aims at but only by doingaway with the half truth. The state has toplay its role in educating the people of thiscountry about the teachings of Islam; oth-erwise, the worse part of the half truthabout Sharia will consume the last ray ofhope the people have. Pakistan can onlyprogress through education and denyingthis basic right to anyone, let alone women,will be more fatal than any other offensive.

The writer can be reached [email protected]

the right to education

By Adeel Amjad

Malala and fatwa


Comment 11


Lahore High Court had beenhearing several petitions (includingone by this scribe) requesting for adirection to the government forconstruction of Kalabagh Dam toafford earliest relief to the people ofPakistan from violation of theirfundamental rights by unending load-shedding and growing water scarcity.

On 29 November 2012 Mr.Justice Umar Attta Bandial ChiefJustice of Lahore High Court directedthe federal government to constructKalabagh Dam (KBD) in complianceof the decision of the Council ofCommon interests (CCI) taken on 16September 1991. The bold andlaudable decision by Chief JusticeJustice Umar Atta Bandial waswelcomed by the people with great joyit assured them much needed relieffrom continuing violation of theirfundamental rights guaranteed underthe Constitution, due to unbearablehardship of load-shedding and water,food scarcity. In fact currentgovernment had contravened CCI

decision of September 1991 byburying the project on 26 Mayn 2008.

The Apex Court decision has irkedsome self-serving politicos whoconsider Pakistan as their personalfiefdom. Their contention that 3provincial assemblies of Sindh, KPKand Balochisdtan had passedresolutions against construction of thedam was nothing but a house of cards.They conveniently forget that thedecision by the Chief Justice of LHC tobuild the dam was based on the factthat its construction was approved byCCI in 1991 as noted earlier.

Secondly, we should be aware thatKBD is a c highly complex gigantichydraulic engineering undertaking. Tounderstand even rudimentaryelements of a multipurpose project asKBD and to pass resolutions based onjudgment on their merits or demeritswithout technical help falls with duerespect, beyond comprehension of ourhonourable members of the provincialassemblies and the parliament. Not toforget that some of them are illiterate

and many holders of fake degrees.None of the assemblies in questioncalled for any briefing by competentengineers before passing resolutionsopposing construction of KBD.According to press reports, somemembers even did not know on whatriver the KBD was to be built on. Ihave been associated with Mangla,Tarbela and Kalabagh dams sinceJune 1956 even before WAPDA wasborn. And studied many more abroadas Chief Technical Advisor UNO. Inmy assessment, technically,economically and environmentallyKBD would be by far the best projecton the Indus. The only river withsurplus water to be stored in summerand released for irrigation of Rabi(winter) crops predominantly wheat.KBD will yield live storage of 6.1 maf(million acre feet). It will help irrigateat least 4 million acres of cropland.

Water released for irrigation willbe passed through a power house togenerate 3600 mws (mega watts) ofmuch cheaper and environmentally

friendly hydro-power as a byproduct.Electricity produced at Kalabagh willabout RS 1 per unit against Rs 16-20of thermal power paid by the people.

Water stored will be shared by all4 provinces according to their fixedshares. Water power generated atKalabagh Dam will also be used bythe whole country through the Wapdanational grid. With its designs andcontract documents already finalizedand with World Bank funding certainfirst power units of KBD ifimplemented on a war footing, couldbegin supply of electricity 5-6 yearsafter start of construction – muchearlier than any other project on theIndus. In short, only KBD couldafford urgently melded relief fromcrippling agony of unending load-shedding, water scarcity and skyrocketing prices, rates and races inthe earliest possible time frame.Name it Pakistan dam if some areallergic to Kalabagh dam.

BASHIR A MALIK (ALIG)Lahore

Editor’s mailSend your letters to: Letters to

Editor, Pakistan Today, 4-ShaareyFatima Jinnah, Lahore, Pakistan.

Fax: +92-42-36298302. E-mail: [email protected].

Letters should be addressed to Pakistan Today exclusively.

A moral and ethical defeatIt was very shocking and horrible to see the

death of Owais Baig during the fire that erupted inthe State Life building some days ago. When he washanging from the building and was striving for hislife, many people were standing under the buildingincluded rescue workers, media and common people.They all were watching Owais hanging from the win-dow of the top floor but nobody stepped forward andoffered him any help. At last, he could not balancehimself in that position, fell on the ground and died.

But his death raises many questions for thewhole nation. First, it challenges the capacity of ourrescue institutions. If we cannot save a personhanging for more than ten minutes, how can we res-cue people trapped in buildings on fire? Our so-called responsible media instead of helping the mantelecasted the whole gruesome episode live. And themost sordid point of this episode was that thesenews channels were showing the whole incidentagain and again. One can imagine how the family ofthe deceased young man could have born thisfootage on news channels.

ZAHID RASHIDRawalakot, Azad Kashmir

Ignoring verifiable dataIt is a pity that some editorials have come out in

support of Sindh’s concern that the flow in the Induswill be reduced if Kalabagh dam is built. Dams arebuilt the world over to overcome shortages and not tocreate them. Mangla dam was built to compensatefor the loss of the three eastern rivers and broughtabout a green revolution in the country. Could it havedone this by reducing the flow in the Jhelum? Tar-bela dam increased supply to the canals by 25 per-cent, could it have done this by reducing the flow in

the Indus? Sindh got an additional 7 million acre feetof water from Tarbela dam? As per the Water Accordof 1991, Sindh stands to get 2.2 million acre feet fromKalabagh dam, can it get this if the dam reduces flowin the Indus? Please check with the Sindh irrigationdepartment to see the post-Tarbela increase of 7 mafover the pre-Mangla withdrawals in the canals ofSindh, also the 27 lac acre increase in the area undercultivation. These increases did not come about byreduction in the flow of the Indus. In this day and ageof technology, we should speak on the basis of verifi-able data and not on the basis of hearsay.

It is being said that Kalabagh dam can be builtonly after developing a consensus. We need to revisitthe Water Accord of 1991 in which many concessionswere given to lower riparian Sindh. Distribution ofriver waters was taken away from Wapda and en-trusted to the federal body IRSA which has a higherrepresentation from Sindh. Provinces can only raisea 10 day indent of their requirement to IRSA andhave no direct control over the supply to their canals.The canals in Punjab are already being monitored byengineers from the Sindh irrigation department.Sindh’s share was increased in all future dams by re-ducing Punjab’s share. Equal share of 37 percent forboth despite the vast difference in population andarea under cultivation. It must be remembered thatPunjab cannot utilize even its reduced share of 37percent without the left bank canal at Kalabagh dam.In fact north Punjab will not get any water from anydam on the Indus, be it Tarbela, Bhasha, Akhori,Skardu or Katzara dam. Two thirds of north Punjabwill revert from irrigated to barani, with a 50 percentreduction in national food production.

ENGR KHURSHID ANWERLahore

Another issueAs if CNG pricing crisis was not enough to dis-

rupt the public life, now comes another bombshell from the Pakistan’ Superior Courts – Kal-abagh dam. Punjab’ High Court has ordered thefederal government to construct the Kalabaghdam; a controversial project lingering on for lastmany decades. This is the project on which coun-try’ three out of four provinces have shown seri-ous reservation.

I wonder why the Superior Courts are wander-ing in the areas wherein they don’t have the expert-ise. Court is the forum which is supposed to provideverdict based on the facts presented before it. Itshall not be courts’ job to get involved in economicand political management of the country. Court’sverdict on CNG price has not only disrupted theeconomic activity in the country due to non-avail-ability of CNG at Supreme Court’s proposed price,but has also adversely affected the government’ planto reduce the gap between petrol and CNG pricing.This is to make it less attractive for general con-sumers to make it available for industries. Same isapplicable for court order on delimitation of con-stituencies in Karachi which amounts to unneces-sarily incite the ethnic tension. Presentlyconstituencies are based on 1998 census; if therewere some irregularities in formulation of in 2002constituencies, those shall have been rectified.Court’s next target appears to be the local govern-ment bill recently passed by the Sindh assembly.Earlier, we have already seen court’s unnecessaryinvolvement in memogate scandal.

This turmoil is not taking us anywhere; eco-nomic and political decisions shall be left for theconcerned parties to take. A jack of all trades can’tproduce a genuine thing unless limit himself tonon-issues such as Samosa size and its pricing.

MASOOD KHANJubail, Saudi Arabia

Anathema to politicos

terror in KarachiEvery year we used to make plans to

visit Karachi to enjoy the sea sight, butnow things have changed. The series ofkillings and mafia wars prevalent inKarachi have changed the entiresituation. We are scared to go there aswe might become victims to somethieves or terrorists. The city of Quaidis engulfed in terror and the innocentpeople of Karachi are handicapped bythese mafia.

The provincial government seemstotally incapable to control the anti-state elements and the lawenforcements agencies have failed toprovide protection to people. In fact,attacks on police and rangers in Karachihave aroused a question on theirsecurity. Karachi now seems to be someother state where there’s no writ of thegovernment and anyone can do what hefeels like. People across Pakistan arehesitant to go to Karachi because theyare scared that they might fall prey toterrorists.

Everyday dozens of people arekilled, many are injured and streetviolence has increased manifold butnobody is sincere to sort out the mess.Everyone is busy blaming the other andin this chaos the only people benefittingfrom it are the terrorists, the mafia andthe anti-state elements. We shall notblame anyone as the problem lieswithin. These terrorists and mafia areable to spread their violence because weare allowing them to do so. As wetighten our grip on them they willautomatically refrain themselves fromsuch acts. A common example is thearmy operation in 90’s, the streets gotclear of the criminals, thugs andkidnappers for a long time until we gavethem a free hand to initiate theiractivities again.

It’s up to us that what we want. Theday we start sorting out our issues andstart taking things seriously everythingwill get better and life will be back tonormal again. I pray that life gets backto normal in Karachi so that peoplecan spend their lives with peace.Ameen!

SYED MUHAMMAD ABUBAKERLahore


It looks like Dennis Quaid and wifeKimberly Buffington-Quaid havefinally reached the end of theirrelationship road. Back in October,Kimberly filed for legal separationfrom her husband of eight years,and now, Dennis has reciprocatedby filing for divorce, according toPeople. The “What to Expect WhenYou’re Expecting” actor reportedlyfiled divorce docs in Los AngelesSuperior Court on Friday and isrequesting joint physical and legalcustody of the soon-to-be-formercouple’s 4-year-old twins, Thomas

Boone and Zoe Grace. Dennisoffered to pay spousal support toKimberly, People reported. Aspreviously reported onAccessHollywood.com, back inMarch, Kimberly — a former realestate agent — initially filed fordivorce. She then put the divorce onhold in April, hoping to work thingsout with the 58-year-old actor, butfiled for separation in October.“Kimberly and Dennis Quaid havedecided to legally separate aftereight years of marriage,” a rep forDennis said in a statement to Access

Hollywood at the time. “They askthat their privacy and the privacy oftheir family be respected during thisdifficult time. No further statementwill be given.” Dennis andKimberly tied the knot in 2004.This will be the third divorcefor the actor. Dennis and MegRyan divorced in 2001 (theyalso have a 20-year-old son,Jack, together). In 1983,he divorced from actressPJ Soles after nearly five years of marriage. News DesK


Stewart working hard onrelationship with Pattinson

ACTrESS Kristen Stewart is reportedly trying

hard to make her relationship with boyfriend

robert Pattinson work following her cheating

scandal. Their relationship hit a rocky patch when

Stewart’s intimate photos with “Snow white And The

Huntsman” director rupert Sanders became public.

Stewart and Pattinson split, but they were back together

again. “rob is at a point where he sometimes ignores

her. He’ll go out and won’t respond to her calls or texts

right away. Things will be strained for a while,”

USmagazine quoted an insider as saying. Now that she’s

back with Pattinson, they “hang with his friends more.”

“She knows she has to go along with it. She is working

hard at the relationship,” said a source. NewS DeSK

Manisha Koirala to beflown to US for treatment

BOllYwOOD star Manisha Koirala will be flown

to the US for treatment for ovarian cancer,

her family has said. The Nepali-born actress

was discharged from a Mumbai hopital on friday

after she reportedly fell unconscious. Her father,

Prakash Koirala, has told Nepal’s English daily The

Himalayan Times that she will be operated on on

Monday. “The cancer is in its preliminary stage, but

we don’t want to take any chance and her friends

also have suggested that she be taken to the US,” he

father. “Her health condition is normal now. She is

taking rest.” The actress’ brother Siddhartha and

mother Sushma are attending to her, he added. The

42-year-old actress was one of India’s top actresses

in the 1990s after she made her debut in 1991. She

has since starred in a number of films with varying

successes. Koirala has won awards for her roles in

the 1995 films ‘Bombay’ and ‘Akele Hum Akele Tum’.

She took a break from acting after her marriage in

2010 and has since taken an active part in social

activities, working with organisations that prevent

trafficking of girls from Nepal. News Desk NewS DeSK

RECEIVING a stand-ing ovation for hisact based on a shortstory by IsmatChughtai in Lahore,

veteran Indian actor NaseeruddinShah said that his appearance inthe play was the ‘most memorableperformance’ of his career.“Tonight was the most memorableperformance of my life,” Shahcommented after appearing in aplay based on Chughtai’s ‘Ghar-wali’ last night.

The play was part of the ac-claimed show ‘Ismat Apa KeNaam’ that was organised to paytribute to poet Faiz Ahmed Faiz.

“Throughout my life I havedone theatre and films but thekind of love and appreciation I’vegot from Lahorites, I never experi-enced anywhere in the world,”Shah said. He performed with hiswife Ratna Pathak Shah anddaughter Hiba Shah at the Al-hamra Art Council.

People from all walks of life in-cluding fans of Shah, Faiz AhmadFaiz and renowned writer Ismat

Khanum Chughtai (1915-1991),considered the fourth pillar ofUrdu literature enjoyed the livelyperformances. The Shah familyperformed three plays based onChughtai’s short stories, ‘ChuuiMui’, ‘Mughal Bacha’ and ‘Ghar-wali’. They were directed by theactor. Chughtai’s revolutionarystyle of writing was well conveyedby the trio and earned them astanding ovation. Though the sto-

ries were different, they dealt withwomen’s issues and the behaviourof a male-dominated society to-ward women. Clad in a black sher-wani and white pyjamas, Shahoffered a brief introduction for theplays. He held Chughtai in high es-teem, saying, “I am doing theatreto pay tribute to the great writersof the subcontinent and to intro-duce a new generation to their fan-tastic writings.” News DesK

‘Jessica Biel on Married LifeWith Justin Timberlake’

If anyone’s allowed to get gushy on national

television, it’s definitely newlywed Jessica Biel.

The happy-in-love actress, who tied the knot with

Justin Timberlake in Italy Oct. 19, couldn’t contain her

enthusiasm when asked about married life during a

chat with Ellen DeGeneres “It’s weird because it feels

like almost nothing has changed, yet something that

you can’t really describe, or something that isn’t

tangible, has changed,” Biel, 30, shared. “It just feels

incredible.” Continued the Playing for Keeps actress,

“You have this partner who’s gonna be with you . . .

and also change lightbulbs, and do dishes with you. Her

favorite thing about marriage? “I think the weirdest

and kind of most wonderful thing is that word, ‘That’s

my husband,’” Biel said. “That’s the word. News DesK

Naseeruddin Shahwows audience

I have been in thisindustry becauseof action: Akshay

With two of his films - “Housefull 2” and “Rowdy Rathore” - havingmade it to the Rs. 100 crore club, Akshay Kumar has been tagged as one of

Bollywood’s most bankable actor. Though the actor feels the pressure of suc-cess, he says once a film releases, he doesn’t dwell too much upon its box-of-fice performance. “Pressure comes as the film nears its release time. But afterthat if it doesn’t work, I am on the next film. But I don’t take a big hit too seri-

ously also, because the next Friday you have to go in the same circle... you neverknow what will happen the next Friday. I just take it as it comes. I just work

and entertain,” Akshay said during an interaction. Akshay made his Bol-lywood debut with 1991 film “Saugandh” and went on to aquire the

tag of Khiladi Kumar for his inclination towards action. Over theyears, the actor has however shifted his focus to comedies. “After

‘Khiladi 420’, I stopped (doing action movies) because I got mar-ried. I just wanted to work on comedy, romance and everything.

Being a father and a husband, a man has to settle down a littlebit. Now my son has grown up, I want to go back to action,”said the actor, who is married to actress Twinkle Khannaand has two kids - Aarav, 10 and daughter Nitara, who wasborn in September. With “Rowdy Rathore”, Akshay re-turned to his love for action and his new film “ Khiladi 786”will see him in a similar avatar once again. Directed byAshish R. Mohan, the film also features Asin Thottumkal.It releases Dec 7. “It is a great thing to return to action. Itis my love. I have been in this industry because of action.I have tournaments of action. I have my own personalgyms. Action is what I am. It’s because of action that Iam here,” said the 45-year-old martial arts expert. Overthe years, the genre of action has been mixed with com-edy and successfully presented to the audience throughhit films like “Dabangg”, “Ready” and “RowdyRathore”. Akshay says today’s audience is eager towatch over-the-top action movies. “Audience wants thisfrom me. They want over-the-top action (movies). These

are their demands and we have to try and give it to them.The films are made for everybody. Not only masses but

classes also love this,” he said. News DesK

Kate Beckinsale leaving herhouse in los Angeles.

12


Kareena towatch ‘talaash’

with SaifKareena Kapoor is yet to

watch her own film ‘Talaash’and is planning to catch the

movie with husband Saif AliKhan once he is free from hiswork commitments. The sus-

pense thriller, also starringAamir Khan and Rani Mukherji,

opened to a good response this Fri-day. Kareena, who plays the

role of a street-walker,said Saif is very

keen to watchthe film. “Thisyear I haven’t

seen ‘Ekk MainAur Ekk Tu’ or

‘Talaash’ on-screen as I wasso nervous for

both the films. Iam gonna see

the film on De-cember 10 once

Saif returns fromLucknow,” Ka-reena told PTI.Saif is shooting

for his upcomingfilm ‘Bullet

Raja’ in Luc-know. “He isvery keen to

see the film be-cause he lovesAamir’s workhe has a lot offaith in Zoyaand Reema.

News DesK


Jennifer Lopez wowed thousands of fans in Indonesia, but theydidn’t see as much of her as concertgoers in other countries- the American pop star toned down both her sexy outfitsand her dance moves during her show in the world’s mostpopulous Muslim country, promoters said Saturday.Lopez’s “Dance Again World Tour” was performed in thecountry’s capital, Jakarta, on Friday in line withpromises Lopez made to make her show moreappropriate for the audience, said Chairi Ibrahim fromDyandra Entertainment, the concert promoter. “JLo wasvery cooperative ... she respected our culture,” Ibrahimsaid, adding that Lopez’s managers also asked whethershe could perform her usual sexy dance moves, butwere told that “making love” moves were notappropriate for Indonesia. “Yes, she dressed modestly... she’s still sexy, attractive and tantalizing, though,”said Ira Wibowo, an Indonesian actress who wasamong more than 7,000 fans at the concert. Anotherfan, Doddy Adityawarman, was a bit disappointed withthe changes. “She should appear just the way she is,”he said, “Many local artists dress even much sexy,much worse.” Lopez changed several times during her90-minute concert along with several dancers, whoalso dressed modestly without revealing their chestsor cleavage. Most Muslims in Indonesia, a secularcountry of 240 million people, are moderate. But asmall extremist fringe has become more vocal inrecent years. They have pushed through controversiallaws - including an anti-pornography bill - and havebeen known to attack anything perceived asblasphemous, from transvestites and bars to “deviant”religious sects. Lady Gaga was forced to cancel hersold-out show in Indonesia in May following threatsby Islamic hard-liners, who called her a “devilworshipper.” Lopez will also perform in Muslim-majority Malaysia on Sunday. “Thank you Jakarta foran amazing night,” the 43-year-old diva tweeted toher 13 million followers Saturday. News DesK

After taking offense at AamirKhan’s TV show SatyamevaJayate (SMJ) for “projecting menin a bad light”, several men’srights activists are now taking upcudgels against his film Talaash.Anil Kumar, one of the foundersof the Save Indian FamilyFoundation (SIFF), says, “We areprotesting as we have beenobserving Aamir as an actor for ayear now. He has portrayed anti-male agenda on his TV show andhe has indulged in spreading malehatred in the society. Theprogramme had only half-truthsand was dangerous. The domesticviolence issues were only one-sided. We have decided we arenot going to watch Talaash or anyof Aamir’s movies and not justthat, we will also urge people tostay away it as well. Why doesn’the take up real-life campaignswith other actors and really dosomething? We should also beagainst violence in movies andnot just homes.” Adds ViragDhulia, the head of GenderStudies at a men’s rightscommunity center, “We are not

against Talaash, but Aamir. Wewant to send out the message thathe can’t portray a negative imageof men. We had provided SMJwith statistics and evidence butthey were not shown. Celebritieshave social responsibility andthey should watch what they say.So far, 12-15,000 families haveboycotted the film and we will dothis for all his movies until heapologises publicly to all men inthe country. If he can demonisemen, then what is the problem inapologising?” News DesK

Superstar Salman Khan asserts that Dabangg 2is not a copy of the first film and the audienceshould consider it as a movie after interval.“It’s not the same. We are not copying andgiving you the same picture. It’s a different

film,” the 47-year-old said here on Friday.“Dabangg was of a particular genre and now asimilar genre film is coming out Dabangg 2,” hesaid on the sets of Bigg Boss 6 where he launchedthe item song Fevicol se from his new filmDabangg 2.The song features Kareena Kapoor.“Consider part one (Dabangg) as the one beforeinterval and this (Dabangg 2) as after the interval,”he added. Earlier, the actor launched the promo ofthe new film. Asked why he chose to promoteDabangg 2 on Bigg Boss, he said: “I am the host ofBigg Boss. Wherever I get time and wherever thechannel feels that Dabangg 2 promotions can bedone, they do it.” Directed by Arbaaz Khan,Dabangg 2 also features Sonakshi Sinha and isslated for a December 21 release.

15,000 men to boycottall Aamir’s films untilhe apologises!

Actress Lindsay Lohan’s fatherMichael Lohan fears his daughter’slife could end tragically. Michaelbelieves she is addicted to alcohol,cocaine and prescription drugs andshe needs to return to rehab.Hethinks Lindsay may be going back tojail after assaulting a young womanin a nightclub and being chargedwith lying to police about a caraccident earlier this week. In anopen letter to her 26-year-olddaughter via HollywoodLife.com, heblamed all her problems to heraddictions and pleaded with her to

return to rehab — for a sixth time.“Do I believe Lindsay the newreports that Lindsay is drinking twolitres of vodka a day? I believe she’sdrinking to drown her sorrows.When I was at the ChateauMarmont I saw bottles. People tellme what she’s doing,” he wrote.Michael also agreed with US chatshow hosts Kathie Lee and BarbaraWalters that Lindsay’s life couldend tragically. “I have the samefears. Why is it okay for them to talkabout Lindsay and not me? I’m herdad,” he added. News DesK

LINDSAy’S fATher feArS for her LIfe

Jennifer Lopez tones down concert in Indonesia

13


SERBIANVILLAGERS CLAIMENCOUNTERWITH A VAMPIRE!

neWS DeSK

D EPENDING on which version of “history” you sub-scribe to, vampires originated in Egypt, China or,most infamously, Romania, where the real Romanian

prince Vlad Tepes(1431-1476) is thought to have been atleast a partial model for the decidedly fictional Dracula ofBram Stoker's imagination.Or, if you’re to believe officials in the village of Zarozje,Dracula is alive and well in Serbia. Yes, fear is said to bespreading.The fears revolve around Serbian vampire Sava Savanovicwho is, it should be noted, acknowledged locally to be afairy tale character. Still, villagers are packing aroundhawthorn stakes and garlic and putting holy crosses up overdoorways, according to a report by Weird Science."People are very worried. Everybody knows the legend ofthis vampire and the thought that he is now homeless andlooking for somewhere else and possibly other victims isterrifying people," Miodrag Vujetic, local municipal assem-bly member, told ABC News. "We are all frightened."Might it all be just a ploy to generate tourism? Maybe, ormaybe not, ABC reports. Many people in the region “stillbelieve in vampires and take them quite seriously," saidBalkan historian James Lyon.In general, belief in vampires is rooted in the humanpropensity for superstition and false assumptions in oldentimes about what happens to buried bodies, writes Live-Science columnist Benjamin Radford, author of "ScientificParanormal Investigation: How to Solve Unexplained Mys-teries." For example, if a grave were dug up, peoplemight’ve mistaken ordinary decomposition processes —such as a body being surprisingly preserved for long peri-ods if buried in winter — for supernatural phenomena.

14Infotainment

rare James Bondmanuscript with Ian flemingnotes to fetch £80,000

THE Diamonds Are Forever script featuresFleming's alterations on almost every pageand was prepared by his secretary Ulrica

Knowles, a real-life Miss Moneypenny. A first editionof Fleming's completed novel, with a note from theauthor to Knowles, is also going under the hammeralongside the manuscript. The original text includesname changes for some of the key characters in theplot, which tells the story of a diamond smugglingscheme involving American gangsters. The villainDolly Kidd was originally called Boofy Gore, afterArthur 'Boofy' Gore, who in reality was a close friendof the famed author. NewS DeSK


neWS DeSK

IF you just can't ever getyour hair to look right,take heart: At least you'reless likely to be a psy-chopath, according to a

report by the Huffington Post. Astudy led by Nicholas Holtzmanand Michael Strube at Washing-ton University in St. Louisfound that people with person-ality traits known as the "DarkTriad" -- narcissism, Machiavel-lianism and psychopathy --were better than others at usingclothing, makeup and hairstylesto make themselves look attrac-tive, Scientific American re-ported Tuesday.

Psychopathy is character-ized by varying blends of certainpersonality traits, which mayinclude egocentricity, manipu-lativeness, superficial charm,high stress tolerance, lack offear, lack of empathy and lack ofguilt or remorse.

The study involved 111 col-lege students -- 64 percentwomen -- who were pho-tographed in their everyday at-tire. Researchers then had eachsubject wash off any makeupand change out of his or herown clothes into a t-shirt andsweatpants. Subjects with longhair were asked to pull it backinto a ponytail. All subjectswere then photographed in thisunadorned state.

The subjects also took per-sonality tests that measuredtraits that included the Dark

Triad. Additionally, each sub-ject provided contact informa-tion for several friends, so thatevery person's personalitycould be assessed by his or herpeers. Each subject's self-as-sessment and peer-assessmentwere combined to create a com-posite personality score. A sep-arate group rated both sets ofpictures for physical attractive-ness.

Researchers found that inthe first group of photos -- inwhich subjects wore their ownclothes and makeup --subjectswho scored high marks for theDark Triad were typically ratedas more attractive than subjectswho scored low marks for thesetraits. This was also true of sub-jects who scored highly for psy-chopathy alone.

However, in the second

group of photos, in which sub-jects were forced to wear plainclothing and no makeup, therewas no correlation betweenphysical attractiveness and"dark" personal traits.

As Julie Beck of PopSciwrites, these results suggestthat "mean people are just asugly as the rest of us, they'rejust better at fooling everyoneinto thinking they're hot."

crocodile snatches9-year-old boy!

POLICE are searching for a 9-year-old boywho was snatched by a crocodile as he wasswimming in the mouth of a river in northern

Australia, according to a report by the HuffingtonPost. Northern Territory police say the boy wasswimming with a group of people at Port Bradshawon Saturday when he was grabbed by the crocodile.Nearby people attempted to kill the crocodile withspears, but it then dragged the boy farther into thewater. Police planned to continue searching onMonday but expressed pessimism about the chancesof finding the boy alive. Two weeks ago, anothercrocodile snatched a 7-year-old girl who wasswimming at a Northern Territory waterhole. Thecrocodile was fatally shot the next day and the girl'sremains were found inside it. NewS DeSK

Meet obama, the fish!

SCIENTISTS have named five newly discoveredfish after former and current U.S. politicalleaders, including President Barack Obama, Bill

Clinton, Al Gore, Jimmy Carter, and Teddy Roosevelt,reports the Tennessee Aquarium Conservation Instituteand Scientific American, according to a report byMongabay. The fish were formerly described earlier thismonth in the journal the Bulletin of the AlabamaMuseum of Natural History. The fish are all species ofdarter, a group that is found widely in the United States.The species were identified after research on theSpeckled Darter (Etheostoma stigmaeum) concludedthat it could be divided into nine separate species, fiveof which are now named after U.S. leaders. Theseinclude the Spangled Darter (Etheostoma obama) fromTennessee; the Cumberland Darter (Etheostoma gore)and the Bluegrass Darter (Etheostoma jimmycarter)from Tennessee and Kentucky; the Highland Darter(Etheostoma teddyroosevelt) from Missouri, Arkansas,Kansas and Oklahoma; and the Beaded Darter(Etheostoma clinton) from Arkansas. The researchers— Steve Layman at Geosyntec Consultants inKennesaw, Georgia and Rick Mayden at Saint LouisUniversity in Missouri — say they named the speciesafter leaders they believe demonstrated environmentalleadership and commitment. NewS DeSK

PSychoPAThS,‘DArK’ PerSoNALITIeSbetter at making themselves look attractive



Page 18

Murray loses toretired Roddickin Miami Cup

PeRtHeSPNcRIcINfo

Two days remain in this match, andtwo possibilities. The first, by far themost likely, is a convincing SouthAfrican victory, set-up by the sparklinginnings of Hashim Amla and AB de Vil-liers and finished off by Dale Steyn,Vernon Philander and Morne Morkel.

The second, still too outlandish tocontemplate, is Australia finding a wayto bat for long enough to reach a winningtarget of 632. David Warner and EdCowan made a sound enough start onthe third evening to reach 0 for 40 by theclose, but in terms of the task ahead theyhave barely reached base camp at thefoot of Everest.

Amla and de Villiers provided a richday’s batting entertainment at theWACA ground, both falling short ofdouble centuries but delighting specta-tors with their marriage of aggressionand invention. De Villiers’ century wasparticularly notable as his first whilealso carrying the wicketkeeper’s gloves,opening the path to an extended stintin the dual role.

Australia’s bowling was made tolook ordinary in the extreme at timesbefore Mitchell Starc and Mitchell

Johnson found some heat in the earlyevening to polish off the South Africantail. In all the visitors’ innings lastedjust 111.5 overs, the runs arriving atmore than five per six balls, and itsspeed has left plenty of time for Aus-tralia’s batsmen to negotiate. The pitchis still playing very well and the out-field extremely fast, but the visitingbowlers are refreshed and focused onthe goal of wrapping up the match, theseries and the ICC’s No. 1 ranking.

Cowan and Warner began the pur-suit with unhappy first innings memo-ries; Cowan’s of a golden duck,Warner’s an unwise waft at Steyn thatpinpointed the start of Australia’ssharp second day slide from a promis-ing position to a dire one. They foughtout the closing overs in characteristicfashion, Warner hitting boundariesboth certain and uncertain, Cowanwatching the ball intently and surviv-ing an exquisitely probing first spell byPhilander.

There was some tension evident onSouth Africa’s side when Cowan twicepulled away from the bowler, citingflies around his helmet. He exchangedwords with the visiting captain GraemeSmith before a can of Aeroguard wascalled for. So far the Australian open-ers’ stand has been merely a nuisance,but their survival placed a slightly dif-ferent slant on a day that had been aSouth African waltz for most of its du-ration.

Resuming with a lead of 292, SouthAfrica rose to salute Amla when heflicked Johnson to fine leg for his 18thTest century, a stroke representative ofhis legside mastery.Amla’s movementacross outside offstump to play to legwas exaggerated attimes, but apartfrom the sliceddrive fromJ o h n s o n s ’wide ballthat juste l u d e dM i c h a e lH u s s e y ’ sreach hewas seldomtroubled.

K a l l i sr u m b l e dalong com-f o r t a b l yenough him-self untilM i c h a e lClarke swungStarc aroundto the

Prindiville Stand end, teasing out a top-edged hook shot that Johnson held wellat fine leg, the ball dying into the breezelate in its path. De Villiers took his timeto get established but accompaniedAmla to the interval with an enormousamount of time left to stretch Aus-tralia’s eventual target.

There was acceleration on re-sumption, de Villiers advancing toping Nathan Lyon down the groundfor a straight six, while Amla tookadvantage of Hussey’s introductionwith a pair of boundaries. Clarke re-sponded to the calls of the WACAcrowd by handing Ricky Ponting abowl for the final over before thesecond new ball became due.

Given how Starc and John Hast-ings started with it Clarke might havebeen better off keeping Ponting on, asde Viliers and Amla attacked with im-punity. It took Johnson’s introductionto draw a few false strokes, and ulti-mately a wicket when Amla blocked adrive back to see the chance snaffled byJohnson’s outstretched right hand.

Dean Elgar wore a sharp blow onthe elbow before playing inside a fullerdelivery to be pinned LBW - thoughthis did not stop him from seeking animprudent review in the manner ofPonting the day before. Two wickets inan over did little to unsettle de Villiersthough, and the three reverse-sweptboundaries to go to three figuressummed up the marriage of skill andinvention he has used so well as a bats-man and now a wicketkeeper also.

After tea the runs arrived ina torrent, de Villierstaking progressivelymore liberties and Fafdu Plessis showing thepenchant for shots aswell as forward defen-sives. Their concen-tration was brokenwhen Clarke called fora highly speculativeLBW referral againstde Villiers, the breakin rhythm provingmore helpful than

the video evi-dence. Johnsonbroke the standnext ball with aswift deliverygoing across du

Plessis, and thefinal five wicketsmelted away for31 runs. Whetherthat is of any con-

sequence for SouthAfrica will not be known

until tomorrow.

amla and de Villiers set target of 632 ‘we are not quite readyfor the australians’

neWSDeSK

After the defeat in the P Sara Testto New Zealand Graham Ford, theSri Lanka coach, has said his teamhad to improve on their battingagainst pace ahead of the three-Testseries in Australia, which starts De-cember 14 in Hobart.

Sri Lanka have only a three-day warm-up match against aChairman’s XI at Canberra to putright their shortcomings ahead ofthe Test series.

“I was hoping that we wouldhave a very good Test seriesagainst New Zealand which wouldbe a fantastic way of preparing forthe Australia series particularly asthey have a useful seam outfit,”Ford said.

“If we could pass the testagainst this seam bowling we wouldknow we were in quite a good posi-tion to take on Australia. Unfortu-nately we didn’t really pass the testwith flying colours although therewere quite a few batsmen thatshowed some decent form.

“I was hoping for a lot betterthan that but there were signs thatwe were starting to find our feetagainst pace, but what we are re-ally gaining out of it (we had achat about it as well) was that wenow realise that we are not quiteready for the Australians. Once weget there the work that we do isgoing to be very intense. We are

going to have to practise outsideour comfort zone so that we areready for what they are going tothrow at us.”

Ford blamed the poor per-formances of the batsmen in theNew Zealand series on playing toomuch one-day cricket. “We justslipped off our Test match processwhen it comes to batting,” saidFord. “It is part of internationalcricket these days having to switchfrom one format to the other wejust had such a lot of instantcricket that Test match batting hasbeen a long way away from theirminds. In a very short space oftime they had to try and switchthat on and they didn’t switch it onas well as we had hoped to.

“Quite a number of our bats-men, although we got a few Testmatch specialists, have played ahuge amount of T20 and ODIcricket in recent times and the Testmatch process hasn’t really been intheir minds,” Ford said.

“Even though we talk about it,the nervous energy takes over andsuddenly the body reverts back tothe one-day processes. Also thislast Test having had long hours onthe field, the mind sometimes playsa few tricks and you are not quite asmentally tough as you should be forTest match cricket. Hopefully wewere able to learn from all of thatand really start to gear ourselvesfor much bigger scores.”

SoUtH AfRIcA 1st innings: 225

AUStRALIA 1st innings: 163

SoUtH AfRIcA 2nd innings

AN Petersen c & b Johnson 23

gc Smith* c Lyon b Starc 84

HM Amla c & b Johnson 196

JH Kallis c Johnson b Starc 37

Ab de Villiers† c †wade b Starc 169

D elgarlbw b Johnson 0

f du Plessis c clarke b Johnson 27

RJ Peterson c Johnson b Starc 0

VD Philander not out 14

Dw Steync †wade b Starc 8

M Morkel b Starc 0

eXtRAS(b 4, lb 4, w 3) 11

totAL 569

bowling

MA Starc 28.5-154-6, SR watson 9-3-24-0, Mg

Johnson25-1-110-4, Jw Hastings19-1-102-0, NM Lyon22-2-

128-0, MeK Hussey4-0-26-0, DA warner3-0-14-0, Rt

Ponting1-0-3-0

AUStRALIA 2nd innings

eJM cowan not out 9

DA warner not out 29

eXtRAS (lb 2) 2

totAL 40

to bAt SR watson, Rt Ponting, MJ clarke*, MeK Hussey,

MS wade†, Jw Hastings, Mg Johnson, MA Starc, NM Lyon

bowLINg

Dw Steyn 5-2-14-0, VD Philander 5-0-15-0, M Morkel 3-0-

9-0

Match details

toss South Africa, who chose to bat

test debuts Jw Hastings (Australia); D elgar (South

Africa)

Player of the match tba

Umpires Asad Rauf (Pakistan) and RA Kettleborough

(england)

tV umpire bf bowden (New Zealand)

Match referee RS Madugalle (Sri Lanka)

Reserve umpire JD ward

ScoReboARD

KHULnAeSPNcRIcINfo

BANGLADESH recordedtheir biggest win in ODIsin terms of runs, thrashinga listless West Indies by

160 runs to take a 2-0 lead and are inprime position to claim the five-matchseries. The spinners delivered for thesecond game in succession, butBangladesh owed their early domi-nance in this match largely to AnamulHaque, who became the third teenagerfrom the country to score a ODI cen-tury, and Mushfiqur Rahim for pro-pelling them to 292. The cushion ofruns was more than enough for thespinners to run through the line-up.

West Indies opted to bowl first,primarily to nip out as many wickets aspossible using the early morning mois-ture and then exploit the easier battingconditions in the afternoon. As it tran-spired, batting appeared twice as toughwith the psychological setback of chas-ing 293 against a four-pronged spin at-tack that had rendered the match a

no-contest even before the halfwaystage of the chase. Bangladesh neededjust over 31 overs to wrap things upand bettered their previous highest vic-tory margin of 146 runs against Scot-land in 2006. Ravi Rampaul’s 5 for 49was a forgotten statistical highlight.

West Indies had some semblance ofcontrol in only two, albeit brief, phases.The first was when they took two earlywickets when the seamers had someassistance and the second whenBangladesh inexplicably took theirfoot off the pedal during the battingPowerplay. In between, Bangladeshruthlessly choked the opposition.

The moisture on the pitch had dis-appeared after the first half hour, hand-ing the advantage to the batsmen, whichMushfiqur and Anamul relished duringtheir 174-run stand. Sunil Narine’s for-tunes on tour took a turn for the worseas the pair toyed with his bowling,which lacked the turn and bite he is nor-mally associated with. Mushfiqur wasliberal with the sweep, and also em-ployed the late cut. Anamul improvisedwell against Narine, bringing up his

maiden fifty with a late cut. With littleseam movement on offer, Anamul wasable to smash it through the line despiteminimal footwork. He was strong on thepull as well, fetching boundaries offDwayne Smith and Narine.

Bangladesh were progressing at ahealthy 5.31 runs per over but ironi-cally lost momentum when the fieldrestrictions were on after the 35th overfor the mandatory Powerplay. Theseamers wisely dished out short deliv-eries, exploiting the new one-day rulethat allows two bouncers an over.Bangladesh scratched around for 20runs and lost two wickets in that pas-sage, including that of Mushfiqur, whoplayed a tired pull to midwicket for 79.

Anamul slowed down as he ap-proached his century, consuming 23balls in the 90s, but his wait endedwhen he pulled Rampaul to deep squareleg and with the pressure off his shoul-ders, biffed Andre Russell for two sixesand a four off consecutive balls. BothAnamul and Mominul Haque fell toRampaul - who picked up his secondfive-wicket haul - going for big hits.

Bangladesh ransacked 68 off the lastfive overs to post their biggest totalagainst West Indies. While Chris Gayle’sdip in form didn’t affect West Indies’fortunes in the Tests, his no-show in theone-dayers so far is having a telling im-pact. A strong start was needed, and itwas important West Indies knocked offas many as possible with the new ballbefore the spinners came on in tandem.By the time that happened, West Indieshad lost three of their top four, includ-ing Gayle and Marlon Samuels.

Gayle’s departure - caught behindgiving Mashrafe Mortaza the charge -and tight bowling from the spinnerschoked the run-rate. Samuels tried tocut Sohag Gazi but got a thick edge toMushfiqur, who took a sharp catch.Abdur Razzak trapped Dwayne Smithlbw, in a spell which read 5-0-19-3.Darren Bravo too edged the left-armspinner Razzak and Devon Thomasmissed a straight one. The wheels werefalling off for West Indies whenSammy went for the lofted drive overextra cover off Mahmudullah butfound the fielder.

Bangladesh thrash WI to record biggest winbANgLADeSH

tamim Iqbal c Pollard b Russell 5

Anamul Haque c Narine b Rampaul 120

Naeem Islam c Narine b Rampaul 6

Mushfiqur Rahim*† c Simmons b Rampaul 79

Nasir Hossain c gayle b Rampaul 4

Mominul Haque c Pollard b Rampaul 31

Mahmudullah not out 3

Mashrafe Mortaza not out 18

eXtRAS (lb 6, w 19, nb 1) 26

totAL 292

bowLINg: R Rampaul 10-1-49-5, AD Russell 9-0-58-1, DJg

Sammy 5-0-35-0, SP Narine 10-1-48-0, DR Smith 9-0-46-0, MN

Samuels 7-0-50-0

weSt INDIeS

LMP Simmons c tamim Iqbal b S gazi 9

cH gayle c †Mushfiqur Rahim b M Mortaza 15

DM bravo c †Mushfiqur Rahim b A Razzak 28

MN Samuels c †Mushfiqur Rahim b S gazi 16

DR Smith lbw b Abdur Razzak 0

KA Pollard b Naeem Islam 25

Dc thomas† b Abdur Razzak 0

DJg Sammy* c sub (J Islam) b Mahmudullah 12

AD Russell run out (Mominul Haque/†M Rahim) 9

SP Narine c tamim Iqbal b Sohag gazi 10

R Rampaul not out 0

eXtRAS lb 2, w 6) 8

totAL 132

bowLINg: Sohag gazi 7.1-2-21-3, Mashrafe Mortaza 6-0-26-1,

Abdur Razzak 5-0-19-3, Abul Hasan 1-0-9-0, Naeem Islam 7-

0-28-1, Mahmudullah 5-0-27-1

ScoReboARD


LAHoReStAff RePoRt

IN a tight contest, Karachi Dol-phins, requiring 26 to win off thefinal over, lost by five runs at theGaddafi Stadium in front of a

crowd of 5,000. Middle-order batsmanFawad Alam, who scored an unbeaten 40off 17 deliveries, smashed 20 runs off fivedeliveries through two sixes and aboundary, before being beaten by SohailTanvir off the final ball.

Umar Amin scored a half-centuryand bowled an economical spell to be ad-judged the man of the match.

After having chosen to bat first,Rawalpindi started briskly as the openersput on 64 runs in 44 deliveries. The topfour batsmen progressively outscored

each other, with No. 3 Babar Naeem,who scored 44, and Amin consolidatingon the solid platform laid by the openers.Captain Shahid Afridi was expensive,giving away 49 runs in his four overs, asRawalpindi scored 188.

Karachi, in their chase, suffered anearly blow when opener Shahzaib Hasanwas dismissed for a duck off the secondball of the innings. His partner KhurramManzoor kept Karachi in the chase withtwo productive partnerships of 51 runsand 49 runs respectively for the secondand the third wicket. But with the re-quired run rate climbing steadily, Alamand Tanvir Ahmed added 53 in five oversto keep them in the hunt. But Karachi fellshort.

Scores: Rawalpindi Rams 188 for 5(Amin 52*, Naeem 44, Malik 39) beat

Karachi Dolphins 183 for 7 (Manzoor 50,Alam 40*, Tanvir 33) by five runs

MALIK HeLPS StALLIoNS tHRoUgHCaptain Shoaib Malik scored a half-

century and took four wickets to helpSialkot Stallions to a 72-run triumph inthe opening match of the day in Lahore.Chasing 150, Quetta lost wickets regu-larly, and were in trouble at 50 for 6, be-fore Jalat Khan provided some resistanceby scoring 17. But the target proved be-yond them.

Sialkot, after being asked to bat first,began positively with their openers put-ting on 21 for the first wicket. They wob-bled when Haris Sohail was run out for11 but captain Malik, who scored 51, andShahid Yousuf laid the anchor for astrong total with a 57-run partnership.

For Quetta, Nazar Hussain, the left-armseamer, took his career-best figures of 3for 16.

Scores: Sialkot Stallions 149 for 7(Malik 51, Hussain 3-16) beat QuettaBears 77 for 6 (Jalat Khan 17, Malik 4-13)by 72 runs

LIoNS beAt fALcoNSKamran Akmal’s aggressive half-

century and Mohammad Hafeez’s fourwickets drove Lahore Lions to a 30-runvictory against Abbottabad Falcons inLahore. Chasing a stiff 187, Abbottabadwere off to a brisk start courtesy of a 45-run opening stand between YasirHameed and Mir Azam. Hameed, whoscored 45, added a further 54 with cap-tain Younis Khan. But quick wicketsthereafter pegged them back and they

stumbled to fall 31 runs short.Lions were earlier off to a similar

dominant start, with openers NasirJamshed and Ahmed Shehzad scoring 51in 7.2 overs. No. 3 Akmal consolidated onthe platform to score 59 off 33 deliveriesto push them to 148 before falling in the17th over. His younger brother Umarscored a quick 22 to take them to 186.

They picked their first wicket in theseventh over, when left-arm spinnerMustafa Iqbal dismissed Azam. But at 99for 1, they lost three wickets for six runs,which jolted them. Although middle-order batsman Khalid Usman scored aquick 27, it wasn’t enough.

Scores: Lahore Lions 186 for 7(Kamran 59, Jamal 2-37) beat Abbot-tabad Falcons 156 for 6 (Younis Khan 47,Hafeez 4-25) by 30 runs.

Sports 16


Rams leave Dolphins high and dry

CARSonAgeNcIeS

David Beckham’s L.A. Galaxy team-mates urged him to stay on for anotheryear after they won their second succes-sive MLS Cup on Saturday, and whiletheir hopes will surely be in vain, the re-action epitomized the affection inwhich he has come to enjoy.

A chant of ‘one more year’ rang outfrom the Galaxy locker-room as theplayers celebrated their win after Beck-ham’s final game in Major League Soc-cer.

“We were telling David that wewanted him for one more year,” saiddefender Todd Dunivant. “We said thatlast year too and we got it, so why not

push our luck a little bit? We will seewhat happens.”

Beckham, however, has beenadamant that now is the right time forhim to end his time as a player in MLSand enjoy one more challenge, with sofar an unnamed team, before returningto MLS in an ownership role.

His coach Bruce Arena said he wassure the former England captain, whohas won league titles in his homelandwith Manchester United and in Spainwith Real Madrid before two titles withGalaxy, would find success.

“Many would think it is the lastchapter, I think David thinks there isanother chapter and if there is it isprobably going to be another greatchampionship,” he said.

But while Beckham’s passing, set-pieces and influence on his Galaxyteam-mates have all been ingredients inthe past six years that have pleasedArena, it has been the midfielder’s offfield impact which has delighted manyin the States.

“Twenty years from now we aregoing to look at this league and still talkabout David Beckham as the one whohelped turn us,” said Arena.

Former U.S. national team goal-keeper Kasey Keller, who played inEngland, Spain and Germany before re-turning home and playing in MLS forthe Seattle Sounders, said Beckhamhad been exactly what the North Amer-ican league needed.

“It was at a time when the league

needed something to give it a big globalkick-start and there wasn’t a biggerglobal personality in the game thanDavid Beckham,” he told Reuters.

“It just made the league relevant,made people take notice and because ofthat other teams were able to step up.”

The league has enjoyed rising at-tendances during Beckham’s six years,while is also witnessed the arrival ofother high profile internationals such asFrance’s Thierry Henry and Ireland’sRobbie Keane.

Keane believes Beckham’s move tothe States handed the league the credi-bility needed to attract players of his ilk.

“He has been fantastic for thisleague,” said Keane.

“He has put MLS on the map and

made players like myself want to comeover and play here because the leaguehas grown massively. That’s in a hugepart down to David.

“We are certainly going to miss himbut I am so happy we have sent him offwith a championship.”

Beckham said it was for others todiscuss his legacy to the North Ameri-can league.

“I just hope I’ve brought a bit of in-terest to the game. When I decided tocome here, I raised some interest and ifthat is the single thing that I have donethen great,” Beckham said.

“I think the foundations are therenow in this league, it is a 17-year-oldleague and it will continue to grow.”

Beckham bows out, hailed as turning point for MLs

AB: Hard work

ahead for SAPeRtH

AgeNcIeS

South African vice-captain AB de Villierssaid on Sunday the Proteas were nottaking anything for granted, despitebeing in a seemingly unbeatable positionin the final Test against Australia at theWACA Ground. De Villiers made 169 asthe Proteas piled on 569 in their secondinnings to set Australia an improbable632 runs to win in just over two days ofcricket. Australia reached 40 without lossat stumps on day three, still 591 runsbehind South Africa. It was the second-biggest target Australia had ever been setin Test cricket, and they need tosubstantially beat the current record runchase to win the match and claim the topranking in Test cricket off the SouthAfricans. The world record run chasestands at 418, set by the West Indiesagainst Australia in Antigua in 2003.However, wicketkeeper De Villiers said itwas too early for the South Africans tocelebrate spoiling retiring Australianbatsman Ricky Ponting’s farewell match.Perhaps mindful that he was part of theSouth African team that reached avictory target of 414 on the final day inPerth in 2008 for the loss of just fourwickets, De Villiers said there was still alot of work to be done before they wonthe match and the series.

Chelsea drawn awayto Southampton inFA Cup third round

LonDonAgeNcIeS

Holders Chelsea will face Premier Leagueopposition in the third round of the FACup after Sunday’s draw gave them atricky start to their defence away toSouthampton. Last season’s runners-upLiverpool will play at either Lincoln Cityor Mansfield Town, two former FootballLeague clubs now plying their trade inthe minor leagues of English soccer. Theplumb tie of the round features WestHam United at home to ManchesterUnited - one of four all Premier Leagueclashes. Queens Park Rangers, stillwithout a win in the Premier League after15 matches, are at home to WestBromwich Albion and Swansea City hostArsenal having beaten them 2-0 at theEmirates Stadium in the league onSaturday. Premier League championsManchester City, winners of the trophy in2011, are at home to Championship(second division) side Watford.Tottenham Hotspur host third tierCoventry City, reviving memories of the1987 FA Cup final won by Coventry, whileNewcastle United face a tough trip to playBrighton and Hove Albion of theChampionship.Ties will take place on Jan 5-6.

LAHoReStAff RePoRt

The people of Lahore on Sundaywitnessed the world’s popularfreestyle wrestling here at theNational Hockey Stadium with10 Japanese wrestlers put on dis-playing their skills in this style ofthe game.

Chief Minister Punjab MianShahbaz Sharif not only wel-comed the introduction offreestyle wrestling Pakistan butalso announced the establish-ment of Wrestling Academyunder the patronage of world’srenowned Japanese wrestler Mo-hammad Hussain Antonio Inoki.

Deputy Speaker Rana Mas-hood Ahmed Khan, who is alsochief organizer of sports Punjab,Usman Anwar, Director GeneralSports and Youth Affairs Punjabwere also present on the occa-sion. Among the guests the fam-ily of Jhara (Zubair) Pahlwan,Nasir Bholu, Raja Farooq, ZainQadri and Malik Naseer gracedthe occasion.

On the day five Japanesebouts were held but to start the

activity three fights among Pak-istani wrestlers were conducted.

From among the five mainbouts, Shogun Okamoto,Kawaguchi, Kendo Kishin, Aitis-ushi Sawada and Kazuyuki Fujitagot to a comfortable win acceptfor the last fight that yieldedquite a stir.

Shogun Okamoto defeatedJoh Akira, Kawaguchi beatThaka Kusou, Kendo Kishinoverpowered Nobuyuki Karash-ing, Atisushi Sawada edged asideSinichi Suzukawa and KazuyukiFujita, who is also champion inhis style of competition downed

Hideki Suzuki.Although the first four fights

developed interesting competitionbut the fight between KazuyukiFujita and Hideki Suzuki grew bigfight among the supporterwrestlers of the fighting competi-tors. But to ease the situationInoki walked on to the ring andgave one slap each to the fightingwrestlers to back down.

Earlier, the Chief Ministerhighlighted the dominance ofPakistan wrestlers in the field andalso read out some of the popularnames of wrestling and remindedthe time when Inoki had a fightwith Akram Pahlwan and JharaPahlwan in 1976 and 1979. TheCM also formally announced thatthe Punjab government is estab-lishing freestyle wrestling in col-laboration with Inoki so that thePakistan talent could be seen inwhole of the world.

Speaking on the occasion,Inoki said that this is his fourthvisit and it was the love of the peo-ple of Pakistan that attract himback to Pakistan. “It is also to markthe 60 year diplomatic relationsbetween Pakistan and Japan.

shahbaz welcomes Inoki’ssupport for wrestling academy


Sports17


KEY BISCAYNE: Andy Murray of Great Britain

serves the ball to Andy Roddick of USA during

the inaugural Miami Tennis Cup at Crandon

Park Tennis Center in Florida. AGENCIES

neWSDeSK

GRAEME McDowell, who rel-ishes playing golf in California,edged closer to his first win intwo years by ending the thirdround of the World Challenge

with a two-shot lead.The former US Open champion,

who despite several close calls has en-dured a barren title run worldwidesince his play-off victory at the WorldChallenge in 2010, fired a flawlessfour-under-par 68 on Saturday topost a 13-under total of 203.

“I played very solidly againtoday,” McDowell said after sinkingtwo long-range birdie putts early onto maintain his grip on the tourna-ment. “Bogey free is always nice onany golf course.” McDowell said hewas very happy with the way he hasbeen hitting the golf ball.

“It’ll be a nice way to finish theyear if I can get a good win tomor-row, but there will be a few guys onthat board that will have a littlesomething to say about it for sure,”he said.

McDowell’s closest challengerwas first-round leader KeeganBradley who matched the day’s bestround with a six-birdie 67 at a rain-soaked Sherwood Country Club tofinish at 11 under.

Tournament host and defendingchampion Tiger Woods, bidding forhis fourth victory this year, was afurther three strokes back after nar-rowly missing a seven-foot birdieputt at the last to card a 69. Woodsfailed to birdie any of the five par-fives on the hilly course that windsits way below the Santa Monicamountains as he ended the day levelwith fellow American Bo Van Pelt,who birdied the par-four last for a70.

“It was wet out there,” Woodssaid about the saturated Sherwoodlayout after mixing four birdies witha lone bogey. “It was a little sloppyearly, and overall I thought it wastough to get the ball close today. “Ididn’t play the par-fives well and did-n’t play (hole) eight well again. Imissed a few opportunities out there.I felt like I played decent enough to

get to 10 under, to get to double dig-its, and just didn’t do it. “As of rightnow I’m five back. I’m going to haveto shoot a low one tomorrow and seewhat happens.”

On a soggy morning, 2010 USOpen champion McDowell began thethird round with a commandingthree-shot lead but that was swiftlytrimmed to just one after the fast-starting Bradley birdied two of thefirst three holes.

However, McDowell got his put-ter working in scintillating fashion,sinking birdie putts from 30 feet atthe par-five second and the par-fourfourth to restore his three-stroke ad-vantage.

Though American Bradleypicked up another shot at the sixthto apply early pressure on McDow-ell, the Northern Irishman main-tained his grip on the tournamentwith further birdies at the ninth and11th before parring the last sevenholes. “It would have been nice topick a few more (shots) up on theway in, I guess, finishing with sevenstraight pars when there are some

chances out there,” said McDowell,who was runner-up on his debuthere in 2009.

“I played disciplined golf tosome of those tighter pins, couldn’tseem to get anything to drop. “Buttwo shots ahead going into Sunday,I’ll take that any week, anywhere,any time. It’s right where you needto be,” he added.

Flawless McDowell stays in control at Sherwood

neWSDeSK

Thailand’s Pornanong Phatlum gave herselfan early 23rd birthday present by becomingthe first woman to win the Hero Women’s In-dian Open three times. Phatlum, who turns23 on December 4, gave a dominant finalround display at DLF Golf and Country Clubin Gurgaon on Sunday.

She shot rounds of 72, 65 and 66 for awinning total of 203, 13 under par, winningby four strokes from the defending championCaroline Hedwall. “I’m so happy now. It’s likea big tournament; I won and in two days itwill be my birthday so it’s going to be a big

present for me,” said Phatlum, who previ-ously won the event on the same golf coursein 2008 and 2009, when it was sanctioned bythe Ladies Asian Golf Tour and Women’s GolfAssociation of India, before it became tri-sanctioned with the Ladies European Tour.

“I love winning at this golf course and Ilike to play here very much,” continued thediminutive world No 93, who stands 5’3” tall.“I think my approach shots and putting werethe best part of my game. I have a lot of pres-sure today but I told myself to relax.”

The colourfully dressed Phatlum may besoftly spoken and shy when speaking English,but she let her golf do the talking on a warm

and sunny final day near New Delhi.Having started the final round tied for

the lead with Australian Bree Arthur on sevenunder par, she took control of the champi-onship with an outward nine of five under 31in the final round, to gain a three stroke leadover Hedwall, to whom she had finished sec-ond 12 months earlier.

It turned out to be an exciting final roundduel and both players birdied the first hole.Hedwall then caught Phatlum with a birdieon the fifth. At the par-five sixth, Phatlummade a 15-footer for eagle while Hedwallcould only respond with a birdie after findingthe bunker right, short of the green.

PHATLUM CLAIMS THIRD INDIAN OPEN TITLE

Lofty ambitionsfor Al HabtoorTennis Challenge

DUBAIAgeNcIeS

Organisers of the annual Al HabtoorTennis Challenge are hopeful ofattracting the world’s top women’stennis stars as the tournament expandsover the next few years.The 15th edition of the event concludedon Saturday, with 42-year-old Japaneseplayer Kimiko Date-Krumm — rankedNo. 121 in the world — becoming itsoldest winner so far thanks to a 6-1, 3-6,6-4 victory over Kazakhstan teenagerYulia Putintseva. But with a possiblerelocation from the Habtoor GrandResort and Spa to the new tennis complexbeing built on the site of the formerMetropolitan Hotel on Shaikh ZayedRoad at Business Bay, Khalaf Al Habtoor,Chairman of the Al Habtoor Group ofCompanies, has high hopes for the future.“Over a period of time we have perfectedthe art of putting this annualtournament together. We have adedicated team led by Hani [Al Khafief]and Ivica [Ancic] and we can be proudof what we put together during thistournament,” he told Gulf News. “Ourintention is to attract the best playersfrom all over the world.

Keegan Bradleycalled ‘cheater’

tHoUSAnD oAKSAgeNcIeS

Keegan Bradley was heckled by aspectator on Saturday because he uses abelly putter and an anchored stroke thatgolf’s ruling bodies have deemed to beillegal — although the rule will not gointo effect for three more years.“I had some guy here call me a cheateron the last hole, which was no fun,” saidBradley, who is two shots behind leaderGraeme McDowell at the WorldChallenge presented by NorthwesternMutual. “That’s unfortunate. It’s verydisrespectful. But it’s fine with me. I’vegot to try and look at it as motivation tohelp me try to win this tournament.”Bradley is going to be at the forefront ofthe anchored debate because he becamethe first player to win a majorchampionship using a belly putter whenhe captured the 2011 PGA Championship.Bradley does not agree with the UnitedStates Golf Association and R&A, whichon Wednesday announced a proposal toban anchored strokes. The three-timetour winner has said he is unlikely toswitch to a conventional putter.Later that day, Bradley said one of hisTwitter followers told him to prepare hisjob application to send to Burger King,insinuating he won’t be able to make aliving without the belly putter.It was actually a putting tip fromBradley’s caddie, Steve Hale, that helpedhim shoot 67 on Saturday at SherwoodCountry Club. “He told me to move theball position up a little bit in my stance,”Bradley said. Bradley said he did notrespond to the heckler and that he’sreceived plenty of support as well.“Don’t worry about it; you’ll make puttswith that short putter or something sillylike that,” he said. “But there’s alwaysgoing to be people that are negative.That’s fine with me.”


Sports 18


watch it Live

ESPNSports Center07:30PM

Davies to partnerFeng in ladies’challenge

DUBAIAgeNcIeS

Four-time major winner and Golf inDubai ambassador Laura Davies hasbeen paired with Shanshan Feng, theonly golfer from mainland China towin a title on the LPGA Tour, for theOmega Dubai Ladies MastersChallenge Match, which will be held atthe Emirates Golf Club par-3 course onMonday.The match, which showcases some ofthe marquee players competing in theLadies European Tour’s season-endingevent here later in the week, will alsosee Dubai-based amateur Kavita Sehmiin action. Sehmi, who plays off a onehandicap, will team up with AmericanMichelle Wie, while the six-playergreensomes event also sees SouthKorea’s Seo Kyung-hee paired withdefending Dubai champion LexiThompson, who also won last year’sChallenge Match alongside Sweden’sSophie Gustafson.The nine-hole event, which starts at6pm, will provide spectators with anopportunity to see the game’s biggeststars up close and personal. All fanswill have access to the course and theywill be allowed to take photos of theplayers.The match will be followed by a galadinner reception featuring a best-dressed competition. The players,sponsors and invited guests can alsobid for a selection of sportsmemorabilia during an auction in aidof Breast Cancer Arabia.Golf in Dubai, the promoters andorganisers of the Dubai LadiesMasters, have announced details of theentertainment that will be available atthe ‘public village’ during the mainevent from December 5 to 8.There will be a giant TV screenshowing the live action, food and drinkoutlets, games for children and freegolf clinics. Various distributors of golfequipment will also display their waresat the exhibition hall in the village.

neWSDeSK

RECENTLY retired AndyRoddick beat third-rankedAndy Murray 6-2, 6-3 onSaturday in the MiamiTennis Cup exhibition

event. Roddick will play 11th-rankedNicolas Almagro of Spain in the finalSunday. Almagro advanced with a6-3, 6-4 victory over 14th-rankedJohn Isner.

Murray, trailing 2-5 in the firstset, surrendered his serve in theeighth game when he sailed a back-hand crosscourt wide. In the secondset, Murray saved two break pointsfrom down 0-40, but couldn’t con-vert the third to give Roddick a 5-3lead. At 15-0, Roddick double-

faulted twice in a row, but went onto win the final three points of thematch with a service winner and twoforehand winners.

‘’If we had gone three sets Iwould’ve had a full body cramp andit would’ve been awkward for all ofyou,’’ said Roddick, who kept a run-ning dialogue with the crowd.‘’There’s no comeback (to tennis forme).

‘’Andy was nice to me tonight.’’Roddick has put on four pounds

since retiring following the USOpen. He says he’s content in retire-ment and is playing a lot of golf.

‘’I don’t miss the travel at all,’’Roddick said. ‘’It’s nice coming hereand seeing familiar faces. I still enjoyhitting tennis balls, but I haven’t lost

that part of it. I haven’t lost any ofthe innocent parts of tennis. I just doit in front of less people.’’

Murray, the Olympic goldmedalist and U.S. Open champion,wasn’t surprised that Roddick won.

‘’Andy hasn’t hit that many ballsthe last few months,’’ Murray said.‘’Maybe his timing was a little bit off,but he still hits the ball very well. Itwas only a few months ago he wasmaking a decent run at the U.S.Open.’’

Roddick has beaten Almagroboth times they met in straight setsand both meetings were on hardcourts. They met here at CrandonPark in the 2010 Miami Mastersquarterfinals and the 2011 ShanghaiMasters in the round of 16.

Murray loses to retiredRoddick in Miami CupAndy Roddick beats Andy Murray in Miami Tennis Cup to qualify for the final against Almagro

Sfeila takes tophonours at 20thGolf World Cup

DUBAIAgeNcIeS

Dubai Creek Golf Club’s Rabih Sfeilatook the honours in the 20th edition ofthe Dubai Duty Free Golf World Cup,which features more than 100 invitedguests from all over the globe.Sfeila scored a total of 80 stablefordpoints from his rounds at TheMontgomerie and Dubai Creek courseson successive days last week to take afive-point victory ahead of fellow Creekmember Bayar Khan, who was awardedthe trophy for best local male performer.The runner-up in the men’s categorywas previous champion and ex-DubaiCreek captain Francisco Giles on 74points, while the second runner-up prizewent to David Warren, who also had 74but lost to Giles on a count-back. Theprize for best international male went toJames Kfouri, who scored 70 points.“It has been a wonderful couple of daysand I would like to say a huge thank youto Dubai Duty Free for looking after usso well and also to the teams at DubaiCreek and The Montgomerie for all oftheir efforts. I already cannot wait untilnext year,” Sfeila said.In the ladies’ category, the top prizewent to another Dubai Creek member inthe shape of Naema Maya, who shot twoconsistent rounds for a total of 66 pointsand victory by two over Nancy Miller.The latter collected the prize for the bestinternational female performer.The runner-up prize was awarded toPaula Johnstone with 60 points asBarbara Foley collected the trophy forsecond runner-up with 57.The seniors’ category was won by lastyear’s champion Clark Francis, whoscored 70 points to win by one ahead ofGeorge Henry. Sandy McPherson wasthe winner in the super senior divisionon 64 points.

LoS AngeLeSAgeNcIeS

The arrest of a tennis referee before a match at the U.S.Open in connection with her husband’s death was ashocker last summer. On Friday, the case took anothersurprise twist when prosecutors dropped the murdercase against Lois Goodman.

The case was dismissed by Superior Court JudgeJessica Silvers after prosecutors said they received ad-ditional information and were unable to proceed be-cause of insufficient evidence. “I feel I’m being treatedfairly now. It was just a terrible accident,” Goodman, 70,said outside court. Goodman has refereed matches be-tween some of the greatest tennis players in the world.She was arrested by Los Angeles police in New York inAugust as she arrived to be a line judge at the U.S. Openand made her first court appearance wearing her uni-form. District attorney’s spokeswoman Sandi Gibbonsdeclined to elaborate on the new information that led tothe dismissal. However, defense attorney Alison Triesslsaid she believed private polygraph tests conducted bya former FBI polygraph examiner were pivotal in prov-ing that Goodman did not kill her husband. The case wasdismissed without prejudice, meaning it could be refiled.But Triessl believes it’s over. “We’re elated,” Triessl said.“This has been a living hell for her. Justice has beenserved. She did not do this.”

Los Angeles Police Chief Charlie Beck said in a state-ment that the case remains open and detectives werecontinuing the investigation. Goodman had been accusedof bludgeoning her 80-year-old husband to death with acoffee cup. She said she was innocent, and her lawyerssuggested Alan Goodman died in an accidental fall.

They said he fell down stairs then managed to gethimself upstairs to the bedroom and was found dead inbed. Blood was spattered throughout the house, police

said. Defense private investigator Scott Ross told TheAssociated Press that famed pathologist Dr. MichaelBaden examined the coroner’s evidence in the case andfound that Alan Goodman died of a heart attack, notfrom any injuries. “His heart was four times the normalsize,” Ross said.

The couple had been married 50 years and had threegrown daughters. They lived in the San Fernando Valleyarea of Los Angeles their entire lives.

Alan Goodman died in April. Authorities initially be-lieved he fell down the stairs while his wife was away,but they later said it was a homicide after a mortuary re-ported suspicious injuries on his head. Authorities thenalleged he had been clobbered on the head with a mug,and they began to treat Lois Goodman as a suspect.

Defense lawyers said there was little forensic evi-dence in the case because of the delay in the investiga-tion. They recently disclosed Lois Goodman had passedpolygraph tests supporting her claim of innocence. Acriminal law expert said such a serious charge is “veryvery rarely” dismissed this quickly. “It sounds like theyhave little doubt that she was not responsible for thecrime or they would not have acted this quickly,” saidlaw professor James A. Cohen, director of the trial ad-vocacy program at Fordham University School of Lawin New York. He said Baden’s analysis of the case mayhave played a significant role. “When you have a well-respected medical examiner saying there is no foul play,that has to be considered,” he said.

Goodman pleaded not guilty after her arrest. Aftera brief stay in jail, she was released on electronic moni-toring and subsequently came to court for pretrial hear-ings with friends and family present to support her.

“I definitely want to get back to refereeing,” Good-man said after the dismissal. “But first I want to call myclose friends that supported me and thank them againand again.”

Tennis referee murder casedismissed in California

neWSDeSK

Martin Kaymer clinched his first title of2012 as he won the Nedbank Golf Chal-lenge in rainy conditions at the GaryPlayer Country Club by two strokesfrom local hero Charl Schwartzel onSunday. The German started the day atfive-under par for the tournament andenjoyed a slender one-stroke lead whenhe teed off. However, a serious bottle-neck at the top meant that he wouldface stiff competition with numerousplayers making early moves at the be-ginning of the final round.

Kaymer looked to have made theideal start as he eagled the par-five sec-ond, but cancelled it out immediatelyafter with an ugly double-bogey at thethird. The chasing pack seized the op-portunity and, at one stage, he hadSchwartzel, Bill Haas and Louis Oost-

huizen for company at five-under.But as the rain teemed down, the

27-year-old Kaymer came good as heput together three birdies in a row

around the turn. He also had a few for-tuitous breaks on the back nine as somewayward tee shots went unpunished,most notably on the 14th where he

scrambled to make a pivotal birdie.And, although Schwartzel pushed

him all the way, the German showedtremendous tenacity as some crucialrecovery shots and clutch putts on a dif-ficult back nine were enough to post afinal round of 69 which got him overthe line by two shots.

The win firmly underlinesKaymer’s return to form after a difficult2012. Since his heroics in the RyderCup, the former PGA champion hasbeen knocking on the door and he’s fi-nally broken the victory drought toclaim the lucrative winner’s cheque of$1,250,000.

The South African crowds hadevery reason to believe that they wouldsee a South African lift the crystal tro-phy for the first time since 2007, asSchwartzel and Oosthuizen made im-pressive starts to their days.

KAYMER MAKES IT A GERMAN DOUBLE AT SUN CITY



19

Published by Arif Nizami at Plot No 79, Sector 24, Korangi Industrial Area Karachi. Editor: Arif Nizami

ISLAMABADtAYYAb HUSSAIN

Heavy business is on agenda as thePakistan People’s Party (PPP)-led coali-tion government plans to ignore thereservations of the major oppositionparty – the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) – over the controver-sial National Accountability Bill 2012,which is being dubbed by legal expertsas discriminatory and in violation of thefundamental rights, Pakistan Today hasreliably learnt.

Well-placed sources said the gov-ernment plans to summon the 48thsession of the National Assembly onDecember 10, and there is a strong like-

lihood that it may prove to be the lastsession of the lower house. “The gov-ernment plans to get around 16 billspassed during the next session, includ-ing the controversial National Account-ability Bill and 15 other bills which havealready been passed by various stand-ing committees,” sources said.

They further said that a summaryhad already been moved to PresidentAsif Ali Zardari to summon the sessionof the incumbent assembly whichwould stand dissolved on the midnightof March 17 after completing its prede-termined five-year term. This would bethe second legislature in the country’shistory to complete its stipulated term.“The government is all set to table the

controversial National AccountabilityBill 2012, which has already beenpassed by the NA’s Standing Commit-tee on Law and Justice despite the factthat the PML-N members opposed thebill which is being termed as a newform of the National Reconciliation Or-dinance (NRO) by some experts,” saida source in the PPP.

The source said that some other im-portant bills such as the Fair Trial Bill2012, National Counter Terrorism Au-thority (NACTA) Bill 2012, Election Re-forms Bill 2102, and some other billsmight also be included in the list asthere was a strong possibility that thismight be the last session of the NationalAssembly. Despite successive parleys

between the PPP and the PML-N, boththe parties have failed to evolve consen-sus over the Accountability Commis-sion Bill. On November 14, the NationalAssembly Standing Committee on Lawand Justice had met to discuss the billbut failed to evolve consensus. Later, inan in-camera session, the governmentgot it approved on the following dayafter not being able to woo the PML-Nmembers. Law Minister Farooq H Naeksaid the National Assembly StandingCommittee on Law and Justice had com-pleted review of the revised draft of theNational Accountability Commission Bill,which would be tabled in the National As-sembly in the coming week for approval.In the proposed bill, the imprisonment on

corruption charges has been reduced toseven years from 14 years. However, thePML-N has reservations over the bill in itsentirety. PML-N member Zahid Hamidsays that the proposed commission wasnothing more than a toothless authorityas it fails to empower the commission.The commission would not have the au-thority to freeze the property of the ac-cused living out of the country, he added.He also expressed his party’s concernsover the fact that the commission wouldnot have the authority to investigate casesolder than 10 years. According to the newbill, the chairman of the commissioncould either be a retired Supreme Courtjudge or a retired grade-22 officer of thefederal government.

Pentagon plansmajor expansionof spy programmeWASHinGTon: The US Department ofDefence will send hundreds of additionalspies overseas as part of an ambitious planto assemble an espionage network that ri-vals the CIA in size, US officials said. Theproject is aimed at transforming the De-fense Intelligence Agency (DIA) which hasbeen dominated for the past decade by thedemands of two wars, into a spy service fo-cused on emerging threats and moreclosely aligned with the CIA and elite mili-tary commando units. When the expansionis complete, the DIA is expected to have asmany as 1,600 “collectors” in positionsaround the world, an unprecedented totalfor an agency whose presence abroad num-bered in the triple digits in recent years.The total includes military attachés andothers who do not work undercover. ButUS officials said the growth will be drivenover a five-year period by the deploymentof a new generation of clandestine opera-tives. They will be trained by the CIA andoften work with the US Joint Special Oper-ations Command, but they will get theirspying assignments from the Departmentof Defense. Officials said among the Penta-gon’s top intelligence priorities are militantgroups in Africa, weapons transfers byNorth Korea and Iran, and military mod-ernisation underway in China. “This is nota marginal adjustment for DIA,” theagency’s director, Lt Gen Michael T Flynn,said at a recent conference, during whichhe outlined the changes but did not de-scribe them in detail. “This is a major ad-justment for national security.” The sharpincrease in DIA undercover operatives ispart of a far-reaching trend: a convergenceof the military and intelligence agenciesthat has blurred their once-distinct mis-sions, capabilities and even their leader-ship ranks. Through its drone programme,the CIA now accounts for a majority oflethal US operations outside the Afghanwar zone. At the same time, the Pentagon’splan to create what it calls the DefenceClandestine Service, or DCS, reflects themilitary’s latest and largest foray into se-cret intelligence work. The DIA overhaul —combined with the growth of the CIA sincethe September 11, 2001, terrorist attackswill create a spy network of unprecedentedsize. The plan reflects the Obama adminis-tration’s affinity for espionage and covertaction over conventional force. It also fitsin with the administration’s efforts to cod-ify its counterterrorism policies for a sus-tained conflict and assemble the piecesabroad necessary to carry it out. INP

CAIRO: Egypt’s top court saidit has suspended its work“indefinitely” after protesterssupporting PresidentMohamed Morsi surroundedthe courthouse on Sunday.The Supreme ConstitutionalCourt said the suspension ofthe court sessions was inprotest of what it called“pressures.” Riot policestand guard behind a gate infront of the SupremeConstitutional Court during arally by supporters ofEgyptian President MohamedMursi in Maadi, south ofCairo, December 2, 2012. Thecourt was due to examine thelegality of the Islamist-dominated constituentassembly that drafted thecountry’s new constitution.But several hundredprotested outside the courtbuilding. In recent days,about 30 Christian, liberaland secular members haveboycotted the constituentassembly to protest whatthey call the hijacking of theprocess by President Morsi’ssupporters, who dominate theassembly. Any ruling from thecourt would have been adirect challenge to thepresident, who last monthgave himself sweeping new

powers, placing himself andthe constitutional assemblyabove any oversight,including by the judiciary.Morsi has said the decree ofextreme powers would endimmediately once the peoplevote on the constitution in anational referendum set forDecember 15. The presidentannounced the date after theassembly handed its finaldraft of the constitution tohim late Saturday. The draftconstitution retains theprinciples of Islamic law asthe main source of legislation.Earlier Saturday, tens ofthousands of Islamistsdemonstrated across Egypt insupport of Morsi and the draftconstitution, demanding theimplementation of what theycalled “God’s law.” TheMuslim Brotherhood called forthe rallies. The president is aformer member of the once-banned group. Also Saturday,thousands of protestersdemonstrated in Cairo’sTahrir Square for a ninthstraight day against thepresident and the draftconstitution. They have beenvoicing opposition to thedecree that gave thepresident extraordinarypowers. AGENCIES

NA’s last session may not be the leastg over 16 bills likely to be tabled in National Assembly g government determined to move ahead on its proposed bills despite opposition’s reservations

egyPT ToP coUrTSUSPeNDS WorKAfTer Pro-MorSIProTeSTS

egyPT ToP coUrTSUSPeNDS WorKAfTer Pro-MorSIProTeSTS

coUrT’S rULINg WoULDhAve chALLeNgeD MorSI’S‘SWeePINg NeW PoWerS’chrISTIAN, LIBerAL AND SecULAr MeMBerScoNTINUe BoycoTT ofcoNSTITUeNT ASSeMBLy


E-paper Pakistan Today 3rd December, 2012

Documents