e-paper pakistantoday 21st December, 2012

Friday, 21 december, 2012 Safar 7, 1434Rs 15.00 Vol iii no 174 19 pages Lahore edition

PAGE |04PAGE |09

Indian police ask womento carry red chili powderfor rape protection

PAGE 04

Iran-Pakistan gaspipeline project at allcosts, says Hina Khar

ISLAMABADAnwER AbbAS

Despite the National Assembly appearing likea classroom full of rowdy children, the Houseon Thursday passed the crucial yet controver-sial “The Investigation for Fair Trial Bill2012”, which authorises the state to interceptprivate communication in order to hunt downterrorists and could expose public privacy andcivil liberty to greater threats.

The 48th session of the National Assem-bly was opened by NA Deputy Speaker FaisalKarim Kundi, during which the Investigationfor Fair Trial Act 2012, recently approved bythe NA Law and Justice Committee despiteheavy opposition - was tabled by Federal Min-ister for Law and Justice Farooq H Naik.

The Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz(PML-N) and Muttahida Qaumi Movement(MQM) put up strong resistance against thetabling of the controversial bill, calling it anattempt to curb civil liberties, people’s privacyand a tool for victimisation and blackmail.

The bill was approved after incorporatingamendments proposed by the PML-N andMQM during clause-to-clause reading, withinclusion of 30 PML-N clauses that were pre-sented by Zahid Hamid and Anusha Rehman.

However, three amendments suggestedby the PML-N in the draft of the bill were re-jected. “We in principle support the bill,”Zahid Hamid informed the House while de-

bating the legislation, “as it is the need of timeto control terrorism and to prevent more civil-ian and military losses.” “However, we wantthis bill to be approved with some amend-ments ensuring the fundamental rights of civilliberties and privacy of citizens with somechecks and balances to make it more effectiveand unquestionable,” Hamid added.

He said it was for the first time that inves-tigation against an alleged accused would beinitiated, clipped with collection of evidences,prior to the registration of an FIR, and theparty believed, there should be some criteriaand permissions that might not affect the pri-vacy. Anusha Rehman questioned who wouldensure the privacy of the person accused priorto proven guilty.

Mahmoodset to replaceKhosa inPunjab

LAHORESTAFF REPORT

In a major political move late onThursday night, the Pakistan People’sParty (PPP) high command decided toreplace Punjab Governor Sardar LatifKhan Khosa with Pakistan MuslimLeague-Functional Punjab PresidentMakhdoom Ahmad Mahmood. Thedecision was made in a meeting held inKarachi chaired by President Asif Ali Zardari, who is also the co-chairman of the PPP.

Hear no evil,speak no evil!g Civil liberty and privacy at risk as NA passes ‘spyingbill’ g PML-N, MQM resist ‘The Investigation of FairTrial Bill 2012’, get 30 amendments included

Punjab Governor House deniesKhosa being changed

Continued on page 04


Modi wins Gujarat for BJP third time in a row

LHR 21-12-2012_Layout 1 12/21/2012 2:18 AM Page 1

02News

friday, 21 December, 2012

Today’s

LookQuick

newS

Story on Page 09

CaRToon

Page 11

InfoTaInMenT

Story on Page 14

Pakistan, US ties have weathered another storm: Sherry How will it all end on Doomsday 2012?

Kashmir solution imperative for regional stability: president

KARACHI: President Asif Ali Zardari has reaffirmed Pakistan’s contin-ued moral‚ diplomatic and political support for the just cause of the Kash-miri people. He was talking to a seven member APHC delegation led byMirwaiz Umar Farooq that called on him in Karachi on Thursday. Pak-istan People’s Party Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari was also present inthe meeting. The president said the Kashmir issue should be resolved ac-cording to the aspirations of the Kashmiri people and UN resolutions. Hesaid there could not be durable peace in the region without just settlementof the dispute. During the meeting, Zardari assured the visiting delegationthat the Kashmir issue would be resolved per the aspirations of the peopleof Kashmir. According to Asif Ali Zardari, the PPP and the APHC shared a“bond of blood” and PPP founder Zulfikar Ali Bhutto had said that theparty’s “existence starts with the Kashmir issue”. The PPP would adhere tothe vision of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto and Benazir Bhutto and, therefore, wasbound to follow them, the president added. OnLInE

36 people register to appear before Lal Masjid CommissionISLAMABAD: Thirty-six persons including Maulana Abdul Aziz andhis wife Ume Hassan got their names registered to depose facts aboutthe operation before the Lal Masjid Commission.Per details, those registered include at least 18 males and 14 females.The commission will continue to register the names of interested wit-nesses till the 26th of December, excluding public holidays. Accordingto sources, the commission after completion of the process of registra-tion will decide the sequence of recording of evidence. STAFF REPORT

Recruitment of blue-eyed candidates inBalochistan judiciary challenged in SCISLAMABAD: Violating the rules in recruitment, the BalochistanJudicial Selection Board has appointed several blue-eyed and politi-cally-influential candidates as civil judges and judicial magistrates inthe province. A constitutional petition was filed in the Supreme Courtagainst the new appointments of civil judges/judicial magistrates inBalochistan, stating that blue-eyed and influential candidates wereappointed by the Balochistan Judicial Selection Board Quetta. GulnazBaloch, one of the affected candidates, on Thursday filed a constitu-tional petition in the apex court in which allegations of nepotism andfavouritism were made in the appointments of civil judges and judi-cial magistrate in Balochistan. The petitioner stated that injustice hadbeen done to her by not only disqualifying her from availing the quotaseat of Sibi zone in which Yahya Asif was given favour, but also dis-qualified from the women’s reserved seat. She said the favouritismand nepotism had been done by the interview panel because appoint-ments of under-mentioned candidates did not reflect bona fide exer-cise of power on their part. OnLInE

CD shops blown up in CharsaddaNOWSHERA: Militants blew up two compact disc (CD) shops inCharsadda while a blast occurred outside a house in Khyber Agency, aprivate TV channel reported on Thursday. According to the police,unidentified men had planted explosives outside two CD shops inCharsadda’s Sardheri Bazaar. No loss of life was reported in the inci-dent. The police reached the spot and collected pieces of evidencefrom the rubble. On the other hand, explosives planted outside ahouse in Jamrud area of Khyber Agency partially damaged the housebut the residents remained safe in the explosion. OnLInE

PESHAWARSAJJAD ALI

PAKISTAN Tehreek-e-Insaf(PTI) chief Imran Khan onThursday said the reign ofcorrupt and inept politicianswas over and the PTI govern-

ment would recover the plundered wealthof the nation. “There would be no place forself serving politicians in a new Pakistanwhere everyone would be held accountableby the PTI government,” a fiery Imran tolda youth convention at Tehmash FootballStadium.

“There is no chance for Asif Zardariand Nawaz Sharif to rule this country in fu-ture for times have changed and so havethe people. They would have to face strictaccountability. We would recover thelooted money which was transferred out ofPakistan illegally and has been kept in off-shore accounts,” said Khan.

“I would ask my old friend Asfandyar

Wali how he transferred his wealth toDubai and Malaysia illegally. I would alsoenquire from Fazlur Rehman how he tookhis money abroad. I ask Altaf Hussain toreturn to his homeland and he would beexonerated from all his sins. He has beenruling Pakistan from abroad,” remarkedKhan criticising political leaders fromacross the national divide.

He said the PTI had created a specialcell which was collecting data on all civilservants who were following illegal ordersof the government despite clear orders bythe Supreme Court disbarring civil ser-vants to abide by illegal orders from thegovernment.

He said that one of the so-called leadersof a major political party had been groomedby the ISI while the other became a leaderafter his late wife left a letter for him. Hesaid he had asked both these leaders tocome for a live television debate with himbut they were not prepared to face him.

He said both these politicians were

now grooming their children to pass ontheir legacies of corruption to the upcom-ing generations. He reiterated his resolveto flush out corrupt and selfish politiciansfrom the country and put an end to dynas-tic politics. He urged students to go fromdoor-to-door and convey the much neededPTI message of change to the people atlarge. He called upon the people to notvote for those who had off-shore accountsin foreign banks because they were respon-sible for the plethora of problems beingfaced by the masses.

“You are the future of this country andyou have to lead from the front. So beready for the future responsibilities be-cause the ISF would provide the futureleadership to the country,” he said.

Khan thanked Nawaz and Zardari forbuying loyalties of politicians who had leftPTI and said that both parties were doinga great job by attracting turnouts, cleans-ing PTI from corrupt people during theprocess.

PESHAwAR: Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf

Chairman Imran Khan addresses ISF

‘Tsunami Convention’ on Thursday. INP

PTI to flush out corruptpoliticians: Imran Khang Says PTI special cell collecting data on civil servants who are following govt’s illegal orders


03News


eDIToRIaLLand grants:

CoMMenT

articles on Page 10-11

Remnants of the colonial era.

Aziz-ud-Din Ahmad says;MQM blinks, finally: After a well-rehearsed, but failed, strategy.

Adeel Amjad says;First, the basics: Our flawed primary education system.

In Spearhead Research;The polio murders: Part of a plan to desatibilise Pakistan, maybe.

aRTS & enTeRTaInMenT

Story on Page 19

BuSIneSS

Story on Page 14

SPoRTS

Story on Page 15

Paris Hilton’s ‘Romantic and Magical’ Christmas Vacation in Aspen KSE hits 16,900 mark as TRG, byco shine Team management to decide openers: Hafeez

Govt bulldozed fair trial bill: nisar

ISLAMABADSTAFF REPORT

Leader of the Opposition in National AssemblyNisar Ali Khan on Thursday said the govern-ment was bulldozing the legislation titled “TheInvestigation of Fair Trail bill 2012” despitereservations from opposition parties, addingthat the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz wouldreview the bill if it came to power.During the readings of the ‘The Investigation ofFair Trail bill 2012’ prior and after the approvalof the bill, Nisar said the legislation was impor-tant if the amendments by opposition partieswere made part of it. He said legislating hadnever been an issue in Pakistan, but issue athand was implementation of existing laws.The PML-N leader said the government alwaystried to bulldoze legislations in the National As-sembly during its five-year tenure, despite reser-vations and opposition, and set a bad trend.He was of the view that his party had strongreservations on two other bills – AccountabilityBill and Tax Amnesty Bill – and would opposethem as well.Nisar said now that the bill had become a law,issues like tapping of telephones, e-mails – al-ready in practice by the intelligence agencies –would not be discussed in dark any more.However, expressing his reservations on the lifeof the legislation, he said the bill should havebeen initially imposed for a one-year period tojudge its productivity or misuse. “The next gov-ernment should have reviewed the bill after oneyear,” he added. elaborating, Nisar said, “Wewant to keep its period as limited as possible.”

Militants and rumours undermine polio fightMONITORING DESK

Pakistan’s efforts to rid itself of polioare being hampered by a toxic mix ofconspiracy theories about plots to ster-ilise Muslims and hostility from mili-tants.

The Muslim-majority nation of 180million people is one of only three in theworld where the highly infectious, crip-pling disease remains endemic and in-fections shot up from a low of 28 in2005 to almost 200 last year.

This week nine people working on aUN-backed polio immunisation pro-gramme were shot dead in Karachi andthe northwest, murdered for trying toprotect children from a cruel diseasethat can leave limbs flaccid and uselessin a matter of hours.

The Pakistani Taliban have deniedresponsibility, though they have threat-

ened polio workers in the past and inJune they banned vaccinations in thenorthwestern tribal area of Waziristan,condemning it as a cover for espionage.

Concerted vaccination efforts haveseen infections in Pakistan fall to 56 thisyear, 45 of which were in the tribal dis-tricts, which are strongholds for Talibanand other militants, and neighbourhingKhyber Pakhtunkhwa province.

“Certain elements we refer to asTaliban, though it’s a very general term,feel threatened by the presence of peo-ple going round vaccinating children intheir areas,” Guido Sabatinelli, the topWorld Health Organisation (WHO) of-ficial in Pakistan, said.

In Afghanistan, Sabatinelli said, theTaliban are “absolutely in favour” ofvaccination, but in Pakistan suspicionof immunisation programmes intensi-fied after the jailing of a doctor who

helped the CIA find Osama bin Ladenin 2011 using a hepatitis campaign ascover.

Resistance also comes from par-ents, often poorly educated and impres-sionable, who believe wild conspiracytheories about the vaccine.

“They think polio drops contain pigfats, some said it will make the childreninfertile and they will not be able to be-come father and mother in future,” saidJanbaz Afridi, a senior doctor workingon the polio campaign in KhyberPakhtunkhwa. Sabatinelli said WHOand its local health partners had madestrenuous efforts to work with religiousleaders to dispel these myths — oftenspread by imams.

The chief of Pakistan’s council of re-ligious scholars told AFP that prayerleaders at thousands of mosques acrossthe country will condemn the killing of

polio workers at Friday prayers.“There is no room for criticism

against polio immunisation campaign,as top scholars at major Islamic institu-tions like Al-Azhar in egypt, Deobandin India and Binouri Town in Karachi,have already issued fatwa (religious de-cree) in favour of the campaign,”Maulana Tahir Ashrafi said.

This week’s campaign was aimed atreaching a million children who missedvaccination in a drive in the autumn,most in the northwest and Karachi.

Polio in Pakistan is concentratedamong Pashtuns, the dominant ethnicgroup of the northwest who also have alarge migrant population in Karachi.

WHO says Pashtuns account forthree quarters of polio cases nationallybut only 15 percent of the population,and in Karachi the figure rises to 90percent.

Lawmakers, religiousleaders flay attacks on polio teams

QUETTAAPP

Balochistan lawmakers and religious leadersflayed the attacks on polio workers termingthem as a massive loss for the entire nation. “Attacks on the health teams working againstthe menace of polio virus were beyond justifica-tion,” said provincial minister and PPP Balochis-tan President Mir Sadiq Umrani. Balochistan Minister for Inter-provincial Coor-dination Ruqaya Saeed Hashmi expressing herconcern over the unabated incidents of violenceagainst health teams said a typical mindset wasopposing the anti-polio drive which was aimedat securing our children from disabilities. Balochistan excise and Taxation Minister Mo-hammad Amin Umrani said there was a direneed to sensitise the masses about the cripplingdisease of polio. The service of the health teams who risked theirlives working for the cause is commendable, hestated. Renowned religious scholars includingQari Abdul Rasheed and Maulana Hasan saidIslam did not allow killing human beings.

Shaikh under fire in SenateISLAMABAD

STAFF REPORT

MINISTeR for Fi-nance Dr AbdulHafeez Shaikh cameunder fire in the Sen-ate session on Thurs-

day as members from the treasury andopposition benches slammed the govern-ment for violation of the constitutionthrough the tabling of the tax amnestybill in the Senate, four days after it waslaid in the National Assembly.

Senate Chairman Syed Nayyar Hus-sain Bokhari was forced to defer the TaxLaws (Amendment) Bill 2012 for today(Friday) after seeking sense of the House.

Surprisingly for the treasurybenches, it was none other than theirown buddy and a seasoned parliamentar-ian, Mian Raza Rabbani, who raised thematter on a point of order even before thebill was tabled.

Following objection by a treasurymember, pin-drop silence was observedin the House and the treasury and oppo-

sition members looked onto Rabbani andthe Senate chairman, having no clue ofthe situation.

Rabbani objected to the laying of thebill by the finance minister only in the Na-tional Assembly, stating this was a viola-tion of Article 73 of the constitution as thebill was not tabled simultaneously in bothHouses and the finance minister had totable the bill in both Houses of parliamentsimultaneously on December 17.

Reading out the proviso of the Article73, Rabbani said the money bill had to belaid in both Houses of the parliament si-multaneously and the Senate would haveto send its recommendations to the Na-tional Assembly within 14 days.

He said the bill had been laid beforethe National Assembly on December 17,while the same was being laid in Senateon December 20, which was a grave vio-lation of article 73. He said the Senatehad been deprived of debating and for-mulating its recommendations over thebill for four days.

Leader of the Opposition SenatorIshaq Dar also agreed to the notion of

Rabbani, saying the bill was a seriousviolation of the constitution. He alsosaid the government could not declareany bill a money bill without a certifi-cate by the National Assemblyspeaker.

Dar said why had the bill not beenlaid in the House when the Senate wasalso in session on December 17.

He said under the law, even if theSenate was not in session, the govern-ment would have to summon the Senatesession so as the money bill could be laidsimultaneously in both Houses.

Dar said the government had giventhe FBR powers of lawmaking, whichwas prerogative of parliament. He saidintroduction of tax amnesty scheme wasprerogative of parliament, but the samehad been decided by the FBR.

He said the finance minister shouldclarify before the Senate whether it was amoney bill or not. Minister of State for Fi-nance Saleem H Mandviwala said the billbe deferred for Friday and the financeminister be allowed to answer questionsby the members.

The chairman then deferred the bill,directing that any cabinet minister mightappear on Friday and respond to the ob-jections raised by the members.

During the question hour earlier,State Minister for Communications DostMohammad Mazari was caught unpre-pared by members.

The minister asked Zahid Khan to re-peat a question four times and even thencould not apprehend the question, forc-ing Khan to drop his query all together.

Khan taunted Mazari by calling him“unable minister”.

earlier, the Senate chairman ex-pressed his anger over the absence ofministers during the question hour anddirected Leader of the House JahangirBadr to arrange a meeting with the primeminister and brief him on the absence ofthe ministers.

Rabbani asked the chairman to exer-cise his powers and pass fixers againstthe absent ministers. He said after thepassage of the 18th ConstitutionalAmendment, the ministers were ac-countable to the House.

ISLAMABADKASHIF AbbASI

Pakistanis over 50 years of age might hear a goodnews soon as the authorities concerned have dis-cussed for the first time in detail the issue of com-missioning “Viagra” in the country and subsequentlyallowing sales of the drug in local market.

The Ministry of National Regu-lation and Services discussed theissue in detail in the 235th meet-ing of Drug Registration Boardheld on September 18, however,they deferred the matter forpolicy decision.

A reliable source in the min-istry said the in-board meetinghad deferred the matter for policydecision and now the relevant policywas being examined to take a final deci-sion in this regard.

According to documents available withPakistan Today, as many as seven items relatingto erectile dysfunction were discussed by the board.

The seven items included Silnafil 25mg tabletsfor erectile dysfunction, Silnafil 50mg tablets for

erectile dysfunction and pulmonary arterial hyper-tension, Silnafil 100mg tablet, Sildenafil Citarate,which is generic/brand name of Viagra, Salis 2.5mgand 5mg tablets and Salis 20mg.

Sources in the ministry said despite a ban on saleof Viagra, the drug was easily available at almost atall major drug stores across the country.

They said in view of illegal sale of thedrug, some officers in the ministry

supported lifting the ban on itssale in the country.

They said besides Viagra,two other drugs – Cillec andLivtra – were also easily avail-able in the market. Sources said

Viagra was currently beingsmuggled from Dubai, India and

America. Cillec and Livtra are beingillegally imported from UK and Ger-

many.COMMON SIDE EffECtS: According

to a study, the most common among side ef-fects of Viagra are headache, facial flushing,

dizziness, visual problems (such as blurred vision,bluish vision and sensitivity to light), nasal conges-tion and an upset stomach.

g Rabbani accuses finance minister of violating constitution in tax amnesty bill g Dar says fBR given powers of legislation

Local Viagra coming to a store near you soon!


The PML-N leader said herparty suggested validating thelegislation initially for a periodof one year, followed by a de-tailed review to improve it,whereas the 10 sub-laws in thepresent bill should be restrictedto the five focusing on terrorism.

Hamid said that presentlaw empowered 15 intelligenceagencies, but without any solidcoordination, and if the recom-mendations by the PML-N wereaccepted, the agencies wouldhave been reduced to seven butwith strong coordination. Healso mentioned his demand thatany probe being initiated on de-mand of some other countryshould be triggered when a for-mal request was introduced bythat particular country.

During the clause-to-clausereading of such a sensitive bill, anon-serious and careless ap-proach was observed by the ma-jority of parliamentarians fromalmost all parties, most of whomremained encircling Prime Min-ister Raja Pervaiz Ashraf to gettheir various applications andrequests approved.

The parliamentarians kepton gossiping with each other insmall groups, an issue dulyraised by Sardar Ayaz Sadiq,Raja Mohammad Asad Khanand some others.

A few even enjoyed shortnaps, while a group of parlia-mentarians, including Mir

Muawar Ali Talpur, KashmalaTariq and Rukhsana JamshedBhutta kept violating the rules ofthe House by taking photo-graphs through their cellularphones and tablet PCs.

At one instance, Kundi said,“No one is participating in theclause-to-clause reading of thebill and the House appears to bea fish market while such an im-portant legislation is beingtaken up.” During the debate onthe draft, Opposition LeaderNisar Ali Khan said the legisla-tion would be illegal if passed inits present shape.

“We would stand in the wayof this bill to ensure security of acommon man and would notpermit government to get it ap-proved in its present form.”Qaumi Watan Party chief AftabAhmed Khan Sherpao flayedthe role of the government dur-ing its five-year tenure, sayingcompleting tenure meant noth-ing as the rulers delivered noth-ing. Despite the importance ofthe bill, the government shouldhave taken on board the oppo-sition and other political partieswho have reservations in thisaccount, Sherpao said. He saidlegislations were introduced forthe welfare of the public, not toabuse them or curb their rights.

Zafar Baig said the legisla-tion would be used as a trap forpoliticians as well as the generalpublic and would not only curbcivil liberties, but become a toolfor blackmailing.

PML-N MNA AbdulQadir Baloch said interfer-ence of the military was beinglegislated and legalisedthrough the said bill and itwould prove dangerous in thefuture. But the governmentargues that the law will allowinvestigations by law-enforce-ment agencies and securityagencies “by modern tech-niques and devices” in casesrelated to terrorism. The billbecame controversial becausecertain quarters felt it wouldpose a threat to people’s pri-vacy and civil liberties. Thelegislation allows securityagencies to tap people’s phonecalls and intercept other pri-vate communications in orderto catch terrorists. The gov-ernment will also be able toaccess “data, information ormaterial in any documentedform any mean through audiovisual device, CCTV, still pho-tography, bugging, observa-tion or any mode of moderndevices or techniques ob-tained under the Act -docu-ments, papers, pamphlets,booklets” for surveillance. Thegovernment can also intercept“emails, SMS, internet proto-col detail record, call detailrecord and any form of com-puter based or cell phonebased communication. It alsoincludes any means of com-munication using wired/wire-less/internet protocol-basedmedia/gadgetry.”

QUETTASTAFF REPORT

Unidentified gunmenattacked two passengerbuses near Macch area ofBalochistan’s Bolan districtlate on Thursday, killingthree people and injuringsix others. Some of the passengerswere abducted by theattackers as well, a privateTV channel reported.

Sources said unidentifiedassailants came out ofnearby hills and opened fireon two passenger busesnear Mach, spread chaosamong the passengers.The Sadiqabad-bound buseswere coming from Quetta.Initial reports suggest theattackers took some of thepassengers hostage.The injured weretransferred to a hospital inQuetta.

The incident forced ablockade of traffic onQuetta-Jacobabad highway.Other reports said a clashhad erupted between theattackers and paramilitaryforces after they attackedthe passenger buses.According to securitysources, the exchange offire between the attackersand forces had in fact led tothe blockade of the mainhighway.


04

The meeting was attendedby PPP Chairman BilawalBhutto Zardari, former primeminister Yousaf Raza Gilani,his son Ali Musa Gilani andMakhdoom Ahmad Mahmood.

Mahmood, who waselected to the Punjab Assemblyfrom Rahim Yar Khan’s PP-292 constituency and is closelyrelated to PML-F chief PirPagara, Yousaf Raza Gilani andPakistan Tehreek-e-Insafsenior leader Jehangir KhanTareen, is expected to take oathas the new Punjab governor onSaturday (tomorrow).

Talking to a private TVchannel, Mahmood said thedecision would consolidatePPP’s position in South Punjab.However, a spokesman of thePunjab Governor’s House hasrefuted the reports, saying nosuch decision had beenintimated to Governor Khosaand he will be meeting withPresident Zardari on Saturday.

Mahmood was previously

district nazim of Rahim YarKhan and is a distinguishedbusinessman with interests inagriculture and dairy farming.He also owns two sugar mills inJamal Din Wali andSadiqabad. His two sons arealso politically active;Makhdoom Mustafa is amember of the NationalAssembly while MurtazaMahmood is a member of thePunjab Assembly.

PML-F Member of theSindh Assembly Nusrat SehrAbbasi told Pakistan Todaythat the PML-F Punjab chiefhad met the PPP leadership inhis personal capacity and theparty had nothing to do withthis meeting. “The PML-Fleadership will decide his fatein the party in the next coupleof days,” said Abbasi, who wason Thursday nominatedleader of the newly formedopposition alliance in theSindh Assembly. Latif Khosawas appointed governor of thePunjab after the assassinationof Salmaan Taseer.

NEW DELHIAGEnCIES

The 23-year-old girl gan-graped on a bus in south Delhiwas brutalised so badly thatshe had only 5% of her intes-tine left inside her when shewas brought to hospital onSunday night.

On Wednesday, doctors atthe Safdarjung Hospital re-moved the remaining 15 inchesof intestine in a bid to stop thespread of a life-threatening in-fection that had begun to de-velop in her many injuries.

The girl is in a critical con-dition and faces the prospect ofnever being able to eat a mealin her life if she survives.

But doctors said she wasfighting on, and her brothertold HT that she had written,“Mother, I want to live,” on apiece of paper.

As outrage continued tobuild across the nation, headded: “We want the cul-prits to be hanged as early aspossible.”

A doctor in the hospitalsaid that it appeared that thegirl had been violated with a

metal rod.“It appears to be that a

rod was inserted into her andit was pulled out with somuch force that the actbrought out her intestinesalong. That is probably theonly thing that explains suchsevere damage to her intes-tines,” he said.

According to sources, oneof the accused persons whowere brought to the hospitalfor a medical examination onTuesday confessed to havingseen a rope-like object — likelyher intestines — being pulledout of the girl by the other as-sailants on the bus. Thesources said that the girl hadbite marks on her body.

According to doctors, thegirl withstood the surgerywell and her vital parameterssuch as blood pressure, urineoutput, pulse rate and respi-ration are within the accept-able range of normalcy. DrAthani said that the girl’s ab-domen, which had beenopen until today, had beencleaned and closed, with atube inserted in her stomachto drain fluids.


HeARING theReko Diq leasecase on Thurs-day, Chief Justice

Iftikhar MuhammadChaudhry said that additionaldocuments were used totamper with the original formof the Reko Diq agreement.

A three-judge bench of theSupreme Court was hearingthe case consisting of identicalpetitions filed against the fed-eral government’s decision tolease out gold and coppermines in Reko Diq in Balochis-tan’s Chagai district to TethyanCopper Company (TCC) — aCanadian and Chilean consor-tium of Barrick Gold andAntofagasta Minerals.

Reko Diq sits over the pop-

ular Tethyan copper belt and isknown to have the fifth largestdeposits of gold and copper inthe world. The chief justice en-quired what issues sprang upafter the passing of severalyears that new documents hadto be released.

Counsel for TCC, KhalidAnwar, said BHP had not doneanything unlawful, nor had itpressurised anyone into sign-ing the joint agreement.

Anwar added that theBalochistan governor had

given permission to the chair-man of Balochistan Develop-ment Authority (BDA) for thejoint agreement. The counselsaid it was not the Balochis-tan government, but BHP,which was being plundered,as it had spent hundreds ofthousands of dollars for min-eral exploration. In his re-marks, Chief Justice IftikharChaudhry said additionaldocuments had been used totamper with the agreement’soriginal form.

He added that in the jointagreement, the BDA, not theprovincial governor, was a party.The chief justice moreover in-quired the need for delegatingpowers held by the provincialgovernor to the BDA chairman,observing that from 1993 to2000, no issue was reported inthe Reko Diq agreement.

Original Reko Diq miningagreement tampered with: CJ

India rape victim still critical,writes to mother ‘I want to live’

Continued FRom page 01


Gunmen attack passengerbuses near Macch, three killed

BJP wins Gujarat for3rd consecutive term

NEW DELHInnI

India’s main opposition, theBharatiya Janata Party (BJP),scored a political hat-trick bywinning Gujarat state assem-bly elections by a huge marginunder the leadership of con-troversial Hindu nationalistChief Minister NarendraModi.

The BJP got the mandateto rule Gujarat for anotherfive years, bagging 116 seats inthe 182-member state assem-bly, while the state’s main op-position Congress party wononly 60 seats.

After his emphatic win,the BJP chief ministertweeted, “no need of lookingbehind... We want infinite en-ergy, infinite courage, infinitepatience...”

Modi, in power since2001, has been tipped as a po-tential future prime minister.Under his leadership, Gujarathas developed highly and pro-gressed into one of India’seconomic powerhouses.

However, he is oftenbeen described by his criticsas a divisive figure andblamed for doing little dur-ing the 2002 communal riotsin the state, in which over1,000 people, mostly minor-ity Muslims, were killed.

Modi, who was at thehelm at the time, denies all al-legations.

Hear no evil, speak no evil!

Mahmood set to replaceKhosa in Punjab

Indian police askwomen to carryred chili powderfor protection

NEW DELHInnI

Seeing a rise in abuse againstwomen in India, a police com-missioner of Thane, Maharash-tra, has advised women to carryred chili powder with them at alltimes. “Women should keepwith them a packet of chili pow-der and make use of it if attackedby anti-social elements,” NDTVquoted him as saying. earlierthis week in New Delhi, a younggirl was gang-raped by five menin a moving bus, while her malefriend was beaten to an inch ofhis life. “The women have hadenough. It’s time for them to actnow. The women should learnself-defence and in case anyoneis seen misbehaving, be it aknown or an unknown person,they should inform elders aboutit,” he added.

SC to say final

Raja said 1,100 employeeswere inducted in gas utilitieswith a stroke of pen, addingthat due to high employees,the UFG had increased toseven percent. He said thereal issue was UFG, addingthat four fertilizer plants inPunjab had been shut for thelast two to four months.

Dr Waqar Masood, thepetroleum secretary, in-formed the bench that acommittee had been formedunder the chairmanship ofthe federal law minister dur-ing eCC meeting. The secre-tary said the governmenthad its own concerns andreservations over the CNGprices.

Justice Khwaja said theyhad stayed the CNG prices,which were under debateacross the country, however,the court would not be influ-enced by the debate.

Talking to reporterslater, APCNGA ChairmanGhayas Paracha demandedthe government to reopen700 stations “illegally”closed down across thecountry.

Paracha demanded gasload-shedding be at leastminimised, if not stopped.He said they were not sug-gesting prices to OGRA,rather informing about ex-penses.




LAHORERAnA HAIDER

DeSPITe the ban on kite flyingfirst by the Lahore HighCourt and later by the Punjabgovernment, enthusiasts ofthe sport have been spotted

flying their kites at night and in some areasat daytime as well.

The festival was banned by the LahoreHigh Court (LHC) some years ago because ofthe increasing number of deaths caused bypeople getting entangled in kite string. Thematter was then handed over to the Punjabgovernment who banned the festivities on aprovincial scale. Despite the ban, however, kiteflying was observed in many areas of Lahore.

The involvement of area police of severallocalities, including Ghaziabad, Ichhra,Wahdat Colony, Shadbagh and Ravi Road,has encouraged kite-flying enthusiasts topursue the activity despite the ban. Accord-ing to police sources, people fly their kites ingroups after paying off the police a sum of Rs10,000 to 15,000.

Zia Ahmad, a kite flying enthusiast, toldPakistan Today that he used to participatein the festivities ever since he was a youngboy, visiting places like Kot Abdul Malik andTamokay village. He said that the ban did nothinder his activities as he could easily bribethe area SHO with a sum of Rs 20,000.

He insisted that flying kites was not abad thing but admitted that kite string wasdangerous since it was sharp and yet difficultto break. He added that kite-flying enthusi-asts would understand why the thickness of

the string was important to the sport. He further said that no chemicals were

being used in the making of the string andanyone insisting otherwise was lying.

“Most enthusiasts fly kites in the dark ofthe night to avoid police action. It makes itharder for the police to identify the rooftopsfrom where the kites are being flown,” saidRaza Ali, a resident of Ichhra. He acknowl-edged that kite string could pose a seriousrisk to motorcyclists but said there was noother option left with enthusiasts.

Iqbal Town Station House OfficerMuhammad Sarwar denied that kite flyingwas taking place in his jurisdiction. “I haven’tnoticed any kites flying in my area but if peo-ple do fly kites at night time how can the po-lice control it since its difficult to identifysuch rooftops,” he told Pakistan Today.

All Pakistan Kite Association memberKhawaja Nadeem told Pakistan Today thatabout 150,000 kite-makers were suffering dueto unemployment because of the ban on Bas-ant festivities. He said that the chief ministerhad formed a committee to probe into thematter but there had been no representationof those who were involved in the kite-makingbusiness in the committee. He advised the CMto make four zones in the city specifically forthe annual festivities so that people couldenjoy the festival without any hindrance.

He also said that the CM should takenote of the 150,000 families facing povertybecause they had been forced to shut downtheir businesses in the wake of the ban. Hefurther said that due compensation shouldbe granted to such people so their problemswere eased.

LAHORESTAFF REPORT

Punjab Inspector General of Police Habibur Rehmanon Thursday said police would spare no efforts for thearrest of former Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority chiefTauqir Sadiq.

The IG said he was not afraid of taking investiga-tions all the way to the Governor’s House.

Speaking to reporters after a meeting of the NationalAccountability Bureau (NAB) officials, he said the Inte-rior Ministry would be requested to form a joint com-mittee comprising representatives of investigationagencies to uncover who had benefited from TauqirSadiq’s embezzlement case.

He said Sadiq was a national criminal whose propertywould be confiscated, adding that his relatives would alsobe investigated in the probe.

LAHOREwALEED MALHI

Changing of signboards on TheMall has started under theDilkash Lahore project. FromAnarkali to Regal, more than ahundred boards have been re-moved and the work is expected tobe completed soon, PakistanToday has learnt.

During the first phase, the citydistrict government has removedboards of Subway, Bata and en-sari and only a single board will beallowed from now on. Under theproject, which aims to restore thefacade of historical buildings inthe city, around 50 historicalbuildings on The Mall will beshowcased which had been hid-den behind large billboards.

The Mall is divided into fourzones, from Alfalah Chowk to HallRoad, Regal Chowk to High Court,High Court to Queens Road andfrom Queens Road to Anarkali.Different designs have been pro-cured for each zone, keeping inmind the buildings located oneach stretch. Mall Road, which is8 km long, holds significant his-

torical and cultural value as mostof the buildings lining the road area collection of Mughal and colo-nial architecture.

According to an official of theDilkash Lahore Committee; “Thesizes of the boards will be thesame but the designing may bedifferent. This is only because wewant to maintain the beauty of thecity and exhibit its historicalvalue. There are many historicalbuildings located in the city, espe-cially on The Mall”.

Officials added that no shopwill be allowed to keep colouredsigns. Shops will be allowed todisplay their names or advertisetheir brands in a certain style andformat only.

On the other hand, shopkeep-ers have shown anger against re-moval of their billboards. They arenot appreciative of the notices,which they are bound to follow.

A shopkeeper talking to Pak-istan Today said; “We are un-happy about the notices,particularly because they do nottell us what the new guidelinesare. We do not accept the noticesand would resist”.

LAHORE: Punjab Chief Minister Shah-baz Sharif has said that Kalma Chowkunderpass will be opened in the first

week of January next year.He stated this while presiding over a

meeting regarding alternate traffic

arrangements due to the construction ofKalma Chowk underpass on Thursday.The chief minister said, all resourcesshould be utilized to keep the traffic flowsmoothly at alternate routes and trafficwardens should be deployed at everypoint for the guidance of the citizens.

He said, the government is awareabout people problems due to the closureof Kalma Chowk and taking every possi-ble steps to ensure timely completion ofthe project. STAFF REPORT

Citizens deprived of

valuables, labourer’s

house torched

by drug peddlersLAHORE

STAFF REPORT

Robbers deprived citizens of valuablesworth millions of rupees in varioushits in the city on Thursday.Per details, two robbers forcibly en-tered Shiekh Muhammad Saeed’shouse in Tariq Block, Garden Townand looted 35 tolas of gold and othervaluables after taking the familyhostage at gunpoint. In another inci-dent, a woman was deprived of hermobile phone and money by two mo-torcyclists in Sattukatla.Separately, drug dealers Amir,Naveed and Waqas torched the houseof Fiaz, a daily wager, in Nishtar areafor stopping them from peddling nar-cotics. The Nishtar police is avoidingregistration of a case against the drugpeddlers. Meanwhile, an 18-year-old girl namedMarrium was run over by a speedingtruck at Abdullah Gul Interchange.The police arrested the driver andhave filed a case against him.

Ban not stoppingkite flying in city!

Will even raid Governor’sHouse to catch Sadiq: IG

Kalma Chowk underpass to be opened in January: CM

Shops on The Mall to haveone signboard only

LAHORE: Members of the Tehreek Minhajul Quran Children’sWing hold a rally outside the Lahore Press Club ahead of the arrival of Dr Tahirul Qadri in the country. INP



06

CIne STaR RISe of THe GaRDIanS 3D 12:30aM

PH: 35157462 DaBanGG 2 02:00PM

RISe of THe GaRDIanS 3D 04:15PM

DaBanGG 2 05:45PM

DaBanGG 2 08:15PM

DaBanGG 2 10:45PM

Sozo woRLD TaLaaSH 02:45 PM

PH: 36674271 KHIaLDI 12:00, 05:30 PM

DaBanGG 2 08:15, 11-00 PM

Sozo GoLD TaLaaSH 05:45, 11:30 PM

PH: 36674271 KHIaLDI 03:00 PM

JaB TaK HaI Jaan 12:00, 08:30PM

SuPeR CIneMa DaBanGG 2 12:00, 07:15, 09:30, 11:45 PM

aT RoYaL PaLM KHILaDI 02:15 PM

PH: 111-602-602 JTaLaaSH 04:30 PM

36118679 RISe of THe GuaRDIanS 11:45 aM, 03:30, 05:15 PM

wReCK IT RaLPH (3D) 01:30 PM

DaBanGG 2 09:15, 11:30 PM

DaBanGG 2 11:30 aM, 01:45, 04:00, 06:15PM

Lahore

LAHORESTAFF REPORT

tHe Pakistan Pharmaceutical Manufac-turers Association (PPMA) on Thursdayannounced a strike in Punjab with clo-sure of factories and medicine productiondue to “unfair treatment” by the Punjab

government. Addressing a press conference, PPMAVice Chairman Nasir Qureshi said the unfair behaviorof the government was affecting the pharmaceuticalindustry all over the country. He said the mishandlingof Tyno syrup incident by the Punjab government hadforced them to close down their units all over Punjaband stop production of medicines.

“We deeply regret the loss of lives in the incidentbut it would be unfair and unjust to blame the phar-maceutical company,” he added.

He said according to the forensic report by thecentral drug laboratory, Tyno Syrup was not the causeof deaths, adding that the deceased were already drug

addicts. He stressed that the Punjab government haddeliberately not made the results of the forensic re-port public to hide its own failure in handling the sit-uation. Qureshi said that goodwill was the mostvaluable asset of any medical company and a singlefalse news item would affect the entire pharmaceuti-cal industry of Pakistan.

He also requested the media to avoid reportingwithout knowing complete facts and stressed the needof getting information from technical people insteadof non-technical and political figures who don’t havecomplete knowledge of technical matters.

He stressed the need to improve the working ofdrug regulatory inspectors and added that the marketwas full of unregistered medicine.

“Many pharmaceutical manufacturers have closeddown their business and many more are consideringclosing down which would render about 4.5 millionpeople jobless and drug manufacturing sector wouldbe eliminated from Pakistan which should be a pointof worry for the country’s policy makers,” he added.

We won’t suffer forTyno blame: PPMA

LAHORE: The solo exhibition of Ijaz-ul-Hassan’s paint-ing will start today (Friday) at Lahore Art Gallery. Ijaz-ul -Hassan is one of Pakistan’s prominent artists. He rose tofame during 1970s because of his distinct approach, di-verse imagery and unique visual vocabulary. Hassan takesspecial care to seek out trees that have matured and ac-quired striking individual identities. Most of these imagessymbolize human struggle and growth. Ijaz has had sevensolo exhibitions, many group shows and in the course ofalmost five decades, has produced an extensive body ofwork including large murals for public spaces. STAFF REPORT

Ijazul Hassan’s paintings to go on exhibition today

LAHORESTAFF REPORT

A five-member bench of the Lahore High Court(LHC) on Thursday adjourned the hearing of a con-tempt petition against President Asif Ali Zardari tillJanuary 14, with directions to the attorney generaland federation’s counsel to forward their argu-ments on Article 248 (2) at the next hearing.

The bench headed by LHC Chief Justice UmarAta Bandial heard the contempt petition filed byMuneer Ahmad Khan against President Asif AliZardari for not complying with the court order indual office case.

earlier, Additional Attorney General AbdulHai Gilani informed the court that Attorney Gen-eral of Pakistan (AGP) Irfan Qadir would not at-

tend the day’s proceedings on account of a strikecall announced by Pakistan Bar Council.

However, the chief justice observed that itwas not appropriate for a principal law officer toobserve a strike. He further said that the strikewas scheduled to start at 10.30am whereas thebench started its proceedings at 10am. The chiefjustice added that the attorney general had prom-ised to forward arguments on Article 248 (2) andhis absence was acceptable for the bench.

Chief Justice Umar Ata Bandial stressed thatit was an important constitutional matter and as-sistance on behalf of federation would be helpful.

The bench adjourned the hearing till January14 with directions to AGP and federation’s coun-sel to forward arguments on the implication ofArticle 248 (2) in the case.

Committee begins probe inhelicopter landing issue

LAHORESTAFF REPORT

An enquiry committee formed by thePunjab government started investiga-tions on Thursday on the matter ofPakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf ChairmanImran Khan’s helicopter not being al-lowed to land in Pakpattan during avisit. Committee members reachedPakpattan and recorded statementsfrom PTI local leaders and PakpattanDCO and DPO. DIG Zulfiqar AhmadCheema is expected to complete the en-quiry in a few days.

LAHORESTAFF REPORT

Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid (PML-Q) seniorleader and Deputy Prime Minister Pervaiz elahi onThursday said a provincial government that had dis-appointed its people could not hope for a better Pak-istan after its successive failures.

Talking to a delegation from the Nankana Dis-trict Bar, he said the PML-Q government had ren-dered tremendous service to the people , addingthat their successes in the province had not beenforgotten by the people.

He said if the party got another opportunity to form

a government in Punjab after thegeneral elections, it would set newrecords of development.

He reminded the people pres-ent at the meeting that during thetenure of PML-Q in the province,prosecution service was introducedand provided facilities for ad-dressing complaints throughConsumer Courts to citizens.He said that this service hadhelped the masses get jus-tice easily and inexpen-sively.

PML-Q lives in people’shearts: Pervaiz Elahi

LHC adjourns Zardari dualoffice hearing until Jan 4

Crackdownon electricitytheft

LAHORESTAFF REPORT

Lahore electricity Sup-

ply Company (LeSCO)

Chief executive

Muhammad Saleem on

Thursday ordered a

crackdown on electric-

ity theft across the city.

According to details,

detection bills of

183,000 units worth Rs

2700,000 were issued

and Rs 3,458,000 was

also recovered from de-

faulters.

LAHORE: People from different walks of life participate in an awareness walk against drugs on Thursday. INP


Low

High

070CSaTuRDaY SunDaY MonDaY18°C I 06°C 19°C I 07°C 19°C I 08°C

PRaYeR TIMInGSfajr Sunrise zuhr asr Maghrib Isha

5:31 6:57 12:01 2:46 5:04 6:31

CITY DIReCToRY

eMeRGenCY HeLP

HoSPITaLS

BLooD BanK

faTMID 35210834-8

ISLaMIC aLLIanCe 37588649/37535435

CoMPLaInT

waPDa 111-000-118

SuI GaS 1199

RaILwaYS

CITY STaTIon (enquIRY) 117

ReSeRvaTIon 99201772

RaILwaY PoLICe 1333

aIRPoRT

fLIGHT enquIRY 114

PIa ReSeRvaTIon 111-786-786

CoLLeGeS / unIveRSITIeS

PunJaB unIveRSITY 99231257KInnaIRD CoLLeGe 99203781-4queen MaRY CoLLeGe 36362942GovT. CoLLeGe unIveRSITY 111-000-010uMT 35212801-10LuMS 35608000ueT 36288666LCwu 99203072SuPeRIoR CoLLeGe 111-000-078

MID CITY 37573382-3

SeRvICeS 99203402-11

MaYo 99211100-9

GeneRaL 35810892-8

SHeIKH zaID 35865731

SIR GanGa RaM 99200572

uCH 35763573-5

ITTefaq 35881981-85

CMH 366996168-72

SHouKaT KHanuM 35945100

JInnaH 111-809-809

aDIL (DefenCe) 36667275

CHILDRen’S 99230901-3

DefenCe naTIonaL HoSPITaL 111-17-18-19

PaRTLY CLouDY

weaTHeR uPDaTeS

20°C


FasHion nigHt out 2012

THu DeC 20 2012 aT 04:00 PM venue : MM aLaM RoaD

Two male and female winners with best

pictures will be awarded with a cash prize

of 10,000 each.

FaCes poRtRait pHotogRapHy WoRksHop

The mark of a true portrait photographer is the

ability to consistently produce high quality

images - getting control of light is a

combination of experience, expertise, instinct

and that is what this course is all about.

THu DeC 20 2012 aT 03:00 PM venue : LaHoRe

Have you always wanted to make a film ofyour own, but aren't sure of how to start, oreven what to do if you finish your film? withthis "1 day filmmaking workshop", you willlearn practical, no-nonsense approaches todeveloping, producing, marketing, and sellingyour independent film and video projects.

Sun DeC 23 2012 aT 01:00 PM venue: RoYaL PaLM GoLf anD CounTRY CLuB

WoRksHop on FiLm/DoCumentaRy making

ReSCue 1122

eDHI ConTRoL 115

MoToRwaY PoLICe 130

PoLICe 15

GoveRnoR’S HouSe 99200081-7

CHIef MInISTeR’S HouSe 99203226

fIRe BRIGaDe 16

BoMB DISPoSaL 99212111

MCL CoMPLaInTS 99211022-29

LaHoRe waSTe DISPoSaL 1139

07Lahore

LAHORE STAFF REPORT

JAMAAT-e-ISLAMI chief MunawarHasan on Thursday called on the elec-tion Commission of Pakistan (eCP) toadopt immediate and effective meas-ures under the law to prevent corrupt

government officials and members of parliamentfrom contesting in elections again.

In a statement, he said if the eCP strictlyimplemented the Peoples Representative Actthere was no reason the people could not getrid of all their corrupt leaders.

He also urged the National AccountabilityBureau (NAB) to recover all the ill-gotten

wealth from the looters.The JI chief advised the nation to stand

united against the corrupt elements that haddrained the wealth of the nation. He said thenation could not afford to make more mis-takes and warned that if the corrupt peoplewere elected again, the country would enter adeep state of crises.

Hasan said the country had witnessed theworst form of dictatorship during the last fiveyears under the garb of democracy. During thisperiod, unanimously adopted resolutions of theparliament were discarded and the judiciarywas ridiculed, he added.

He said President Zardari’s desire to see an-other five-year term was a joke and said that his

government had been more loyal to the UnitedStates instead of its own people, causing wide-spread terrorism in the country.

Moreover, he said that Karachi had seena marked increase in target killings, terror-ism and extortion adding that while the cor-rupt leaders played the blame game, themasses continued to suffer. He further saidthat only one party was enjoying all ministe-rial posts and looting public wealth inBalochistan.

Furthermore, the JI leader said thatsuch a bleak record of the elected regimehad darkened the future of the countryand it was t ime that people took a standagainst such injustice.

JI urges ECP to conductfree and fair elections

LAHORESTAFF REPORT

Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) Presi-dent Nawaz Sharif on Thursday said timely gen-eral elections were indispensable for a strong andstable Pakistan. Talking to Sindhi politician AliGohar Meher in Raiwind, Nawaz said free andfair elections should be ensured to put an end tothe current crises facing Pakistan. “Timely elec-tions will help the country in successfully dealingwith the challenges it faces currently,” he said.He said maintaining law and order in Karachiwas vital for the survival of the economic hub ofthe country. The PML-N leader said safeguardingthe life and property of citizens should be theforemost priority of the government. He said allreligious schools of thought should join hands forthis purpose and ensure that religion does notbecome a source of strife in the country.

Nawaz added that the Sindh chapter of the PML-N was dedicated to peace in Karachi.

LAHOREAPP

The South Cantonment Police arrested awoman drug peddler during a raid andconfiscated one kilogramme of hashishfrom her possession. Per details, thepolice raided on a tip off and arrested

Razia Bibi red-handed while she wasselling hashish at a secluded alleyof the city. A case has been regis-tered against her besides lockingher behind bars.

Meanwhile, police arrestedtwo dacoits named Amer andTariq on charges of mastermind-ing a robbery at Bhatta Chowk.

The police recovered valuablesstolen during the robbery and two pis-

tols from their possession.

Timely polls vital for Pakistan’sstability, says Nawaz Sharif

LAHORE: PML-N President Nawaz Sharif addresses a Christmas gathering. NNI

Robbers busted anddrug lady grounded


08


News

Putin says Assad’s fatenot main concern

MOScOWAGEnCIES

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday saidthat the country’s main concern in Syria is the fate ofthe nation and not that of President Bashar al-Assad.Speaking at his annual press briefing in Moscow onThursday, Putin said he wanted to ensure that any so-lution to the conflict in Syria must prevent the opposi-tion and government forces just swapping roles andcontinuing to fight indefinitely. “We are not concernedabout the fate of Assad’s regime. We understand whatis going on there,” Putin said.“We are worried about a different thing - what next?We simply don’t want the current opposition, havingbecome the authorities, to start fighting the people whoare the current authorities and become the opposition -and (we don’t want) this to go on forever.”In his speech, Putin denied propping up Assad andstressed that Moscow was only seeking to avert a per-petual civil war. “What is our position? Not to leaveAssad’s regime in power at any price, but to first (letthe Syrians) agree among themselves how they shouldlive next,” Putin said. “Only then should we start look-ing at ways to change the existing order.”Putin argued that Russia’s call for dialogue was meantto avert “an endless civil war” between the armedrebels and government forces who still control most ofthe capital Damascus. “We want to avoid (Syrian) dis-integration,” Putin said. Putin’s comments came lessthan a week after Russia’s chief Middle east envoy saidit appeared that Assad would not be able to fend off therebels much longer. The foreign ministry later deniedan official shift in Russia’s position toward Assad andnoted that Moscow still recognised the Assad regime.

S Korea’s Park vows morediplomacy with North

SEOUL AGEnCIES

South Korea’s President-elect Park Geun-hye onThursday said that North Korea’s launch of a long-range rocket last week is a major security concernthat underlines the urgency for more diplomacywith its communist neighbour.“North Korea’s long-range missile launch showedhow grave the security reality is that we are facedwith,” Park said at a press conference on Thursday, aday after she won a historic election, which made herthe country’s first female leader. “I will definitely keep my promise to open a new eraof the Korean peninsula through strong security anddiplomacy on the basis of mutual trust,” the 60-yearold conservative leader said.During the campaign, both Park and her main chal-lenger Moon Jae-in offered competing commitmentto improve ties with Pyongyang and its new leaderKim Jong-un.

UNITED NATIONSAGEnCIES

UN Secretary-General BanKi-moon on Thursday saidthat there is no prospect ofan end to the 21-monthconflict in Syria. Ban told a

year-end news conference on Wednes-day that the only way to stop the vio-lence was a political settlement, urgingthe deeply divided UN Security Councilto unite and “give a very strong politicaldirection” to the opposing sides.

“Syria began the year in conflict, andends the year in war,” Ban said. “Day by

day, the death toll has climbed. Month bymonth, the regional spillover has grown.”

On his part, UN Under-Secretary-Gen-eral for Political Affairs Jeffrey Feltmansaid in a report to the 15-nation SecurityCouncil that “if nothing is done to changethe current dynamic, and to move towarda political solution, the destruction of Syriawill be the likely outcome”. Feltham’s com-ments came days after Farouq al-Sharaa,Syria’s vice-president, conceded that nei-ther side can win in the conflict.

Sharaa is the most prominent figureto say in public that Assad will not be ableto win the conflict.

Speaking to the Lebanese al-Akhbar

newspaper, the vice-president said thathe “realise[d] that change is inevitable”,but that neither side was in a position to,on its own, say that it was representativeof the Syrian people.

UN diplomats and officials, however,say privately that it may be too late for anegotiated solution in a conflict thatlooks increasingly deadlocked.

The UN concerns come as Syrianrebels claim to have captured at least sixtowns in the central province of Hama.

Qassem Saadeddine, a member of therebel military command, said most of therural western part of Hama province wasunder the control of the rebels.

“The battle is ongoing. We have freedmany areas (of Hama) and we are study-ing plans to liberate more,” Saadeddinetold Reuters by Skype from inside Syria.“Three-quarters of western rural Hama isunder our control.” He said the townstaken by rebels included Latamneh,Helfaya, Kfar Naboudah, Hasraya, Tibatal-Imn and Kfar Zita, and that fighting hadalso broken out in the city of Hama itself.

The Syrian Observatory for Humanrights, an opposition-linked groupwhich monitors violence across thecountry, said several of the Hama townsoverrun by rebels came under bombard-ment on Wednesday. In Damascus,

rebels who seized control of theYarmouk Palestinian refugee camp onMonday declared the neighbourhood a“liberated area” on Wednesday andhanded it over to Palestinian control.

The Syrian opposition’s recent suc-cess is one of a few significant militaryand diplomatic gains in recent weeks.

They have captured several army in-stallations across Syria and secured for-mal recognition from Western and Arabstates for its new coalition. The capture oflarge parts of Hama province could nowgive the rebels effective control of astretch of territory from the northernTurkish border 180 km to the north.

ALGIERSAGEnCIES

Falling short of an apology, President Francois Hol-lande on Wednesday acknowledged that France’scolonisation of Algeria was “brutal and unfair”.

“For 132 years, Algeria was subjected to a brutaland unfair system: colonisation. I acknowledge thesuffering it caused,” Hollande told the Algerian par-liament on Thursday on the second and final day ofa landmark visit to the North African country.

“We respect the act of memory, of all the mem-ories. There is a duty of truth on the violence, theinjustices, the massacres and the torture,” he saidof the 1954-1962 Algerian war which ended in Al-gerian independence and France’s withdrawal.

Referring to specific atrocities, Hollande citedthe massacres at Guelma, Kherrata and Setif wherenationalist unrest that broke out at the end ofWorld War II was brutally suppressed by Frenchforces, leaving thousands dead.

“On May 8, 1945, when the world triumphedover brutality, France forgot its universal values,”Hollande said.

The truth “must also be spoken about the cir-cumstances in which Algeria was delivered from the

colonial system, in this war whose name was notmentioned in France for a long time, the Algerianwar” of independence, he added.

“establishing the truth is an obligation that tiesAlgerians and French. That’s why it is necessarythat historians have access to the archives.”

The French president said after arriving in Al-geria on Wednesday that he had not come to saysorry for the crimes committed during the colonialperiod. But he stressed the importance of recognis-ing what happened as a way of beginning a new erain relations between the two countries, bound to-gether by human, economic and cultural ties.

More than half a million Algerians live inFrance, and hundreds of thousands of othershold French nationality, but many are also frus-trated at not being able to obtain visas and seeka better life in europe.

Hollande promised on Thursday to “better ac-commodate” Algerians seeking to move to Franceand to streamline the visa process, saying thatdoing so was of “mutual interest”.

It is necessary to “manage the flow of migrants”but the demand for visas “must not become an ob-stacle course, or worse still, a humiliation,” he toldthe Algerian parliament.

UN sees no hope for end to Syria violence

Israeli attacks on media in Gaza criticized

Tel AvivAGEnCIES

Israel violated international laws by tar-geting media in Gaza during the Novem-ber 2012 conflict, US-basednon-governmental organisation HumanRights Watch on Thursday said.During the eight day conflict, the Israeliarmy targeted media personnel and of-fices of al Aqsa TV, al Quds educationalRadio, Quds TV, and Alwan Radio.The four attacks on journalists andmedia facilities by Israel in Gaza “wasunlawful as it violated the laws of warby targeting civilians and civilian ob-jects that were making no apparent con-tribution to Palestinian militaryoperations,” the rights organisation saidin a statement on Thursday.The attacks left two Palestinian camera-men killed, ten other media workerswounded and four media offices de-stroyed, including one in a buildinghousing international media.The Israeli government has consistentlydefended the attacks by stating that theattacks were on legitimate military tar-gets. However, Sarah Leah Whitson, theMiddle east director at Human RightsWatch, said in the statement on Thurs-day that “journalists who praise Hamasand TV stations that applaud attacks onIsrael may be propagandists, but thatdoes not make them legitimate targetsunder the laws of war.” Internationalhumanitarian laws classify journalistsand media workers as civilians whoshould be immune from attack unlessdirectly participating in hostilities.If found guilty of breaking internationallaw, Israel could be prosecuted for warcrimes. The statement mentioned thatboth sides were involved in unlawful at-tacks on civilians.

MANILA: Filipino women gesture during the

‘One Billion Rising Philippines’ campaign to

stop violence against women. AGENCIES

SANA’A AGEnCIES

Yemeni President Abd-Rabbu MansourHadi on Thursday announced the re-structuring of the army and defenceministry, in a bid to remove allies of for-mer head of state Ali Abdullah Saleh, thecountry’s state television reported. Haditook a series of drastic decisions onWednesday, including one scrapping theelite Republican Guard which was under

the command of Saleh’s oldest sonAhmed, the broadcaster said.

It was not yet clear whether Ahmedwould remain in the defence ministry.

Mohsen Khosrouf, a retired armybrigadier, said Wednesday’s moves were“the most important decisions” taken byHadi and warned, “no one can resistthese decisions because they are backedby international resolutions, and anychallenge will be a challenge to interna-tional community.” Incumbent Hadi

took over the reins of power in Yemenmore than a year ago, after Salehstepped down as part of a power transi-tion agreement brokered by the US andneighbouring Gulf countries, following ayear-long uprising against his rule.

Restructuring the army was a top de-mand by Yemenis after Saleh’s ouster inFebruary, but Saleh is still in Yemen andmany blame him for behind the scenesmaneuvering to stall the new leader-ship’s reform efforts.

The moves on Wednesday comeafter thousands of Yemenis marchedacross the country on Friday, demandingmore rapid reforms and the removal ofSaleh’s aides from key government andmilitary positions.

On Monday, a committee of Na-tional Dialogue by representatives fromdifferent political forces and NGOs saidthat the president should unify ranks ofthe army in order to proceed with na-tional reconciliation.

Yemen’s president shakes up the army

France acknowledges Algerian colonial suffering


09


News

SIALKOT: A large number of vehicles seen waiting for CnG at a filling station on Thursday. ONLINE

Centre, Balochistangovts have failed: SC

ISLAMABADOnLInE

The Supreme Court on Thursday ruled that thefederal and provincial governments had failed inproviding security to the people of Balochistan.A three-member SC bench of Chief JusticeIftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, Justice GulzarAhmed and Justice Sheikh Azmat Saeed heardthe proceedings of the case on a petition by theBalochistan High Court Bar Association over thebreakdown of law and order and human rightsviolations in Balochistan.During the hearing, the chief justice said theBalochistan government had lost its constitu-tional authority to rule over the province. Hestated that Habibullah Mujahid was recoveredafter paying ransom. “If the government had re-covered him, the apex court would have givencredit to the Balochistan government,” he said.Counsel for the Balochistan government, ShahidHamid, told SC an abducted man, Qasim, was re-covered when he was being transferred to an-other place, adding that Levies personnel hadarrested the culprits in Mastung. The chief jus-tice asked whether the culprits involved in ab-duction of Dr Saeed had been arrested. Hamidsaid it had been investigated so far that culpritsinvolved in kidnapping Dr Saeed belonged toQuetta city. The CJ remarked that the SC was in-terested in the recovery of missing persons.“The Balochistan chief secretary has been mal-treated by the Balochistan government becausehe supported and implemented the court’s or-ders,” Justice Chaudhry remarked, adding thatthey would protect the chief secretary.He said everyone knew who killed Shias inBalochistan and it was not a difficult task to con-trol sectarian killings, just like they had beencontrolled in other areas of the country.“It is a constitutional responsibility of the gov-ernment to protect life and property of citizens,”the chief justice stated. During the hearing, theBalochistan home secretary submitted a reportregarding the law and order in the province, butthe court declared the report unsatisfactory andthe chief justice said no one had been arrestedover killings of hundreds of innocent people andnothing had been done to control and improvethe law and order in province.He said ministers rushed towards police stationin order to get culprits released from police cus-tody and if a federal minister could go to jail, whycould provincial ministers not. The court saidpeople were recovered after paying ransom andthe law and order in Balochistan was evidentfrom reports submitted by the federal andprovincial governments. The SC ordered thecounsel for the Balochistan government to sub-mit another report on the next hearing and in-form SC how was the province being ruled. Anearlier interim order by the apex court on Octo-ber 12 was reproduced that had ruled that theBalochistan government had lost its constitu-tional authority to govern the province becauseof violation of fundamental rights and a failure toestablish the writ of law. The court later ad-journed the hearing until January 14.

Pakistan, US ties have weathered another storm: Sherry WASHINGTON

InP

In the wake of improved relation withthe US, Pakistan’s Ambassador SherryRehman has said both countries have“ramped up” their cooperation in thepast few months which indicate that bi-lateral ties have “clearly weathered” an-other storm.

“The Pak-US relationship hasclearly weathered another storm. In thepast six to eight weeks both the govern-ments have ramped up their coopera-tion as well conversations.”

“Five working groups that have re-cently concluded intensive engagementin either Washington or Islamabad in-clude defence, economic cooperation,

energy security, counter-terrorism, lawand order, and strategic security,”Sherry said.

“High-level meetings in Brusselshave been productive,” she said refer-ring to the meeting between US Secre-tary of State Hillary Clinton andForeign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar.

“Trilateral meetings onAfghanistan continue,” Sherry said.The Pakistan ambassador was respond-ing to questions on the improvement inties between the US and Pakistan.

In the last six months, the US hasreimbursed more than $1.8 billion inthe coalition support funds, with thelast installment of $688 million beingnotified to the Congress by the Penta-gon early this month.

SC suspends actingPeMRa chairman

ISLAMABADOnLInE

The Supreme Court on Thursday suspended theacting chairman of Pakistan electronic MediaRegulation Authority (PeMRA) Dr Abdul Jabbarand stopped him from working as the actingchairman. A two-member SC bench of JusticeJawad S Khwaja and Justice Khilji Arif Hussainheard the case in a petition requesting the forma-tion of a media commission. Justice Khwajastated that a new chairman for PeMRA had notbeen appointed for a year-and-a-half.“Though the acting chairman PeMRA had beenappointed to monitor the authority while a newchairman was being sought, Dr Abdul Jabbar hadissued orders upon orders in his capacity of act-ing chairman,” he stated.Justice Khawaja said Jabbar would not continueworking as the acting chairman and it was essen-tial to have a permanent chairman for PeMRA.The SC then adjourned proceedings indefinitely.

26/11 case: Indian legalexperts’ team arrives

ISLAMABADOnLInE

A four-member team of Indian legal expertshas arrived in Pakistan to finalise the terms ofreference of a judicial commission that is ex-pected to visit India next year to gather evi-dence on the 2008 Mumbai attacks. Thedelegation, led by a joint secretary of the HomeMinistry, includes legal experts from the In-dian Home and external Affairs ministries.Public Prosecutor Ujjwal Nikam – who han-dled the prosecution of Ajmal Kasab, the lonesurviving terrorist involved in the Mumbai in-cident – is also part of the team.The team will hold talks with Attorney Gen-eral Irfan Qadir and other Pakistani officialsto finalise the terms of reference for the sec-ond judicial commission that will go to Indiato investigate the Mumbai attacks.Pakistani authorities decided to send anotherpanel to Mumbai as the findings of the first ju-dicial commission were rejected by an anti-terrorism court, as its members were notallowed to cross-examine four key witnesses –the police officer who led the probe into theattacks, the magistrate who recorded Kasab’sconfessional statement and two doctors whoconducted autopsies of nine terrorists killedduring the attacks.

SC to issue judgement inIHC judges’ case today

ISLAMABADOnLInE

The Supreme Court will today (Friday) issueits judgement on the reference filed by Presi-dent Asif Ali Zardari seeking court’s advice onresolving a controversy over the appointmentof the Islamabad High Court judges and a pe-tition filed by Advocate Nadeem Ahmad.A five-member special bench of the SC,headed by Justice Khilji Arif Hussain, hadconcluded proceedings in the case on Decem-ber 14 and had reserved its verdict.The presidential reference, which included 13questions for the court, was filed in the Islam-abad High Court after the president had with-held notifications on the appointments of IHCjudges, as recommended by a judicial commis-sion meeting, on the grounds that Justice AnwarKhan Kasi was not as senior as the justice he wasreplacing on the judicial commission.

ISLAMABADAGEnCIES

fOReIGN MinisterHina Rabbani Khar onThursday said the Pak-istan-Iran gas pipelineproject would be im-

plemented at all costs.Talking to reporters‚ she said

President Asif Ali Zardari willvisit Tehran shortly.

To a question‚ she saidthere were differences withthe United States on theissue of drone attacks. Theforeign minister said Pak-istan strictly stood by itsprinciple and position onthe Kashmir issue.

Meanwhile, SaudiArabia’s AmbassadorAbdul Aziz binIbrahim bin SalihAl-Ghadeer, calledon Khar to extendan invitation fromSaudi Arabian For-eign MinisterPrince Saud Al-Faisal bin Abdu-laziz Al-Saud, tovisit Saudi Arabiaat her earliest con-venience. Khar saidshe would be very

pleased to visit Saudi Arabia, asPakistan attached immense impor-tance to its special relations withthe country.

She asked the ambassador toconvey her best wishes to the Saudiforeign minister, adding that shewas eagerly looking forward to hermeeting with the his royal highness.

The ambassador thankedthe foreign minister for ac-

cepting the invitation, andnoted that her visitwould further enhancethe exemplary relationsbetween the two broth-erly countries.

Bilateral issuesand regional matters

of mutual interestwere also dis-

cussed duringthe meeting.

S e p a -rately, talk-ing to ap r i v a t eTV chan-nel, Kharsaid ter-r o r i s m ,militancyand inci-dents ofv i o l e n c ein Pak-

istan and Afghanistan were a greatthreat for regional peace.

She said Pakistan wanted theUnited States to have responsibleexit from Afghanistan to keep re-gional peace and stability.

The foreign minister said Pak-istan’s role was to assist the Afghangovernment in achieving its objec-tives and responsible transition andexit of the US was possible throughreconciliation.

Khar said the two sides wantedthat all elements which used vio-lence to prove their strength, utilisepolitical means to achieve theirgoals. She said national reconcilia-tion between the Taliban and theAfghan government will be neces-sary for a peaceful and prosperousAfghanistan.

To a question, she said peacetalks between the Taliban andAfghan authorities in future shouldbe held in Kabul and not on foreignsoil. She said intra-Afghan dialoguewoudl be needed to maintain peacein Afghanistan. Khar said Pakistansaw it role as a facilitator whichhelped the Afghans to maintaintheir sovereignty and take decisionsaccording to their own needs.

She said the international com-munity had a consensus that peaceand stability should be maintainedin Afghanistan.

g foreign minister says terrorism threatens regional peace, economic stability

IP gas pipeline projectat all costs: Khar


Comment10


In his confrontation with theSupreme Court, Altaf Husain hasfinally beaten a retreat. Reversinghis previous belligerent stance, onTuesday he directed the party’s co-

ordination committees in London andKarachi, and leaders of zones, sectors,units and different wings to cancel allscheduled demonstrations against the SC’sdecision to call him on contempt charges.He asked them to show patience and re-frain from using inappropriate languageagainst the judiciary. He appealed to MQMworkers not to go to the Supreme Court on7th January, which was in fact a decisionof the party, and urged them to respect thesanctity of the court. He insisted that onlylegal and constitutional experts from theparty should attend the court. “I do notwant the sanctity of the court to be violatedand I do not want to pursue the path ofconfrontation,” said the MQM chief.

This was a big come down from theearlier confrontational posture of theMQM after Altaf Hussain’s telephonic ad-dress to party workers on December 2. Theaddress contained highly derogatory re-marks about the SC judges and also car-ried veiled threats of lawlessness inKarachi if action was not taken against thejustices who had ordered the delimitationof constituencies. “To improve the law andorder, it is important that such judges areexpelled or the Chief Justice should takesuo motu action… If the chief justice does-n’t take action then the case will go into thepeoples’ court,” Altaf Hussain had thun-dered. He warned the judges to apologisefor their remarks against the MQM or their“names will be wiped out”. The MQM’sanger mounted as the CJ did not pay heedto the party chief’s demands and the SCbench dealing with the issue ordered theelection Commission to move apace vis avis the delimitation of constituencies.

The diatribe led the SC to issue con-

tempt notice on December 14 directingAltaf Hussain to appear in the court onJanuary 7. In his order, the CJ said thathe had read the text of the speech andfound it to be offensive and threatening.The language used in the speech was tan-tamount to an attempt to obstruct justice.

The notice led immediately to thewell-rehearsed activity in Karachi with“unknown young men” indulging in aerialfiring and burning of vehicles. The exer-cise is considered necessary to ensurethat the city closes down the next day.This naturally led the shopkeepers andtraders to close their businesses. Foodoutlets, banks and petrol pumps were alsoforcibly closed. A similar exercise was re-peated in Mirpurkhas, Tando Allahyar,Nawabshah and Kotri where there wereshut downs for fear of mob attacks. TheMQM initially denied having called for“protests” and maintained that these werea spontaneous reaction of the populationwhich had great respect for Altaf Husain.The fig leaf was however soon removed.

A couple of days later, the MQM startedholding rallies against the SC order. Onewas led on Sunday personally by FarooqSattar outside Karachi Press Club where hetook the hype a step further. He declaredamong slogans against the SC, “The peopletoday have given their mandate against thiscase against Altaf Hussain. And if speakingup for the rights of the people is a contemptof court then we will commit it again.” Hefurther declared that all MQM leaders andthe people of Karachi would appear beforethe apex court on January 7 at the time ofthe hearing of contempt notice. Subse-quently, more rallies were taken out. Inplaces the CJ’s effigies were burnt.

Altaf Husain now openly supportedthe protests. In a statement from London,he said he valued public sentiments overthe SC decision. He maintained that it wasa legal and constitutional right of the peo-ple to hold peaceful protests. A day later,the MQM leader sent an emotional mes-sage to the party workers and sympathis-ers indicating that he might quit politics ifthey so advised. “I will submit your opin-ion to the coordination committee and de-cide about my future in its light.” This wasmeant to be an indirect call for moreprotests in his support and against the SC.

The same day Farooq Sattar ruled outAltaf’s appearance before the apex court.While Altaf Hussain said he was afraid ofnone, the same day Farooq Sattar de-clared that his leader would not come tothe country because there were threats to

his life. He once again reiterated that theremarks by a SC judge against the MQM’smandate in Karachi were discriminatory,illegal and unconstitutional. Instead oftaking action against the judge who usedsuch terms against the mandate of a dem-ocratic party, the CJ had issued the con-tempt of court notice against the MQMboss. Reiterating his party’s stance on de-limitation of Karachi’s constituencies, Sat-tar said singling out Karachi would not beacceptable. “Door-to-door verification ofvoters should be carried out throughoutthe country,” criticising the election Com-mission of Pakistan (eCP), he said voters’verification and delimitation of con-stituencies was the commission’s task. “Ifelection Commission can’t take its owndecisions…then it should be dissolved.”

MQM had undertaken well-rehearsedexercises of the sort both against its op-ponents and allies in the past whenever itwanted its demands to be accepted. It in-variably succeeded in arm-twisting. Theperception was that similar tactics againstthe SC would produce the desired results.

A day later, MQM was, however,singing a totally different tune.

What forced the party to beat a re-treat, the first ever in the last five years?

One possible reason is the refusal by itscoalition allies to support it against the SC.The PPP, which is keen to pass the rest ofit tenure peacefully, is in no mood to takeon the courts. It wouldn’t like its coalitionpartner to upset the apple cart. earlier,nearly all political parties had called intoquestion the accuracy of Karachi voters’lists. Many also supported the delimitationof constituencies in Karachi. The MQM,thus, was totally isolated when Altaf Hus-sain launched the attack on the SC.

The coalition allies are all seriouslyengaged in preparations for the elections.None would like any kind of social distur-bance that could sabotage the elections.Many would in fact look at moves of thesort with deep suspicion. Similarly, themedia is widely supportive of a peacefultransfer of power and does not favourany squabbling or act of brinkmanshipthat could scuttle it.

While there can be two opinionsabout the apex court’s frequent use of itscontempt powers, on one issue there is awidespread consensus in the country:nothing should be done by any politicalparty that might delay the elections.

The writer is a former academic anda political analyst.

Arif NizamiEditor

Lahore – Ph: 042-36375963-5 Fax: 042-32535230Karachi – 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

Remnants of the colonial era

Land grants

Many would readily agree that generals should not receiveland grants and residential plots. Similarly, the judges andbureaucrats should not enjoy similar privileges. Othercategories of government servants performing equally

important and sometime equally hazardous jobs do not receiveanything other than pensions after they retire. They are told that thedangers they face while performing their duties are trade hazardswhich they accepted while voluntarily joining the army. Why should apeculiar category be given extraordinary treatment? The grants areconsidered to be a remnant of the colonial era. Military commanders ofmore advanced countries who fought world wars and major conflictsspread over years were not given land grants. Neighbouring India tooprovides nothing other than pension to its generals. It is logical toquestion the continued prevalence of the practice in Pakistan?

Land grants in the barrage areas of Sindh to generals andbureaucrats were, in fact, being criticised widely as early as in late 50’s,both inside the West Pakistan Assembly and outside. These gave rise togrievances that were to peak in later years. The land grants are, in fact,a reminder of the dominant position the military had acquired insociety. Now that democracy is beginning to take roots, these arebound to be questioned. The grants to bureaucrats and judges havebeen frequently used in the past to reward docile government officialsand members of judiciary willing to bend the laws and regulations atthe bidding of the rulers. During the Musharraf era, the governmentapproved a package for grade 22 officers which included a second plot.The grants were extended to judges in 2008. To keep both judiciaryand bureaucracy really free and independent, the practice has to bestopped.

Three cheers for the PAC to take a principled and courageous standon the issue. The Committee directed the defence ministry onWednesday to stop allotting agricultural lands to army generals andother military officials. It also directed the government to annul thepolicy of handing out two plots to grade 22 bureaucrats and toSupreme Court judges. The PAC chairman stated that the committeehad no objection to the allotment of agricultural lands to widows, andmartyrs’ families. Few would disagree with that.

But is the PAC the right body to get the policy changed? Few wouldexpect the defence ministry to carry out the directives posthaste. Asthings stand the Registrar of the SC failed to appear when called by thePAC. The best forum to stop the practice is either the cabinet or theNational Assembly. The PAC would do well to approach the two.

After a well-rehearsed, but failed, strategy

By Aziz-ud-Din Ahmad

MQM blinks, finally

The current government in Pakistanhas constantly sought praise forthe insertion of Article 25-A in the

Constitution of Pakistan. The right to ed-ucation provided in the said article statesthat “The State shall provide free andcompulsory education to all children ofthe age of five to sixteen years in suchmanner as may be determined by law”.However, the ground realities are verydifferent. The primary education of Pak-istan is treated as a joke for the basic ed-ucation standards and the growingcontrol of private sector has defamed thepublic education system at primary level.Similarly, the Higher education Com-mission is left with no choice but to con-stantly warn the government about thedeteriorating situation of education sys-tem in Pakistan.

The irony is that President Zardari,in his recent participation to the UN-eSCO event in France for supportingMalala, started a fund for the globalcause of providing education to childrenwhile the current government, his partyPPP’s government, in Pakistan has donenothing to work for primary education inthe country. The presence of thousandsof ghost schools in the country is a realshame. Sindh’s education minister re-cently confessed the presence of thou-sands of ghost schools in Sindh only,while the Punjab government is more fo-cused on creating a parallel educationsystem through a new network ofschools; thus, ignoring the issue of ghostschools. Similarly, the Balochistan gov-ernment is a mystery and is better off leftunsaid while Khyber Pakhtunkhwa isalso facing criticism due to its badlystructured primary education system.

Punjab is treated as one of the devel-oped provinces of the country where theprovincial government is very strong andactively engaged in working for youth.The establishment of Danish School sys-tem, laptops scheme, internships andother such privileges to the students area constant reminder of the willingness ofthe Punjab government to work for thebetterment of youth. However, leavingaside the above mentioned achievementsof Punjab government, no work has beendone for redefining the curriculum at

primary level. The government in Punjabhas taken no step towards the introduc-tion of a uniform syllabus for the chil-dren. As a matter of fact, the syllabusintroduced in Danish Schools is differentfrom the other public schools.

Pakistan bears the burden of one ofthe most illiterate countries of Asia. Themajority of youth in Pakistan do not havethe opportunity to experience a goodchildhood. The education at all levels isgetting costly with each passing yearwhile the government is ignoring theneeds of public education sector in thecountry. The education sector in Pak-istan, especially in Punjab, has emergedto be a very trendy business with very lu-crative aspects. The competition in themarket is getting stiffer with every pass-ing day and the costs are reachingrecords heights due to this soaring com-petition among the investors with thebest produce of educated youngsters inthe market. The only difference being theinability of these youngsters to find suit-able environment to utilise their skills.Thus, thousands of trained doctors, en-gineers, lawyers and other professionalshave left the country for good and havesettled down in europe, America or otherdeveloped countries due to better em-ployment opportunities and sound envi-ronment for progress and prosperity.

The current education budget of Pak-istan states an amount of Rs 4670 million

being proposed for Pre-Primary and Pri-mary education Affairs Service while anamount of Rs 5,699 million being ear-marked for Secondary education Affairsand Services. Similarly Rs 35,675 millionhas been allocated for Tertiary educationAffairs and Services, Rs 53 million for So-cial Welfare and Special education Divi-sion and an amount of Rs 135 million hasbeen allocated for Subsidiary Services toeducation. In addition to this, an amountof Rs 963 million has been fixed for ad-ministration and Rs 679 million has beenearmarked for education Services. Theaforementioned plan clearly lays out thespending on education sector with onemajor issue of curiously unsolved myth ofmoving forward in the years to come.

The question herein comes with mul-tifold problems. The federal and provincialgovernments try to avoid answering theneeds of the public due to inherent inter-nal and external threats. Thus, the demol-ishing of hundreds of schools in Swat ortribal areas or the presence of ghostschools is taken as a routine matter by theconcerned corners of the government. Theissue of conflict of interest is also relevantin such circumstances. Private educationsystem has invested a lot to be taken seri-ously by the people of this country andwithout doubt, private education industry,with its growing infrastructure and a hightarget market, is one of the biggest in thecountry now. Thousands of private schools

and colleges are flushing down educationby applying cramming and other methodsin order to keep their records clean andmake them more covetable.

The approach adopted by the currentgovernment towards education is verypassive. The federal government hasclaimed itself devoid of any responsibil-ity after the passing of 18th amendmentwhile the provincial governments havealso not been able to lay down any planfor a consistent organisation of educa-tion system in the respective provinces.The creation of parallel school systems isnot the solution to the problems. Thegovernment needs to realise that the pur-pose of literacy will not be served withoutcreating better employment opportuni-ties for the youngsters and promotingtechnical education sector in the country.The progress and prosperity of Pakistandepends on its youth.

Both the federal and provincial gov-ernments in Pakistan have proved to bewrong on many issues. The recognitionof right to education was a brave step buta lot is yet to be done to move forward.The approach needs to change and thedemocratic set up of this country mustrealise the fact that a strong primary ed-ucation system will mean a stronger andprosperous nation in the years to come.

The writer can be reached [email protected]

Our flawed primary education system

By Adeel Amjad

First, the basics


Comment 11


Part of a plan to desatibilisePakistan, maybe

The polio murders foreign terrorists,many questions

Was the attack onPeshawar airport conducted bythe Pakistani Taliban? If oneaccepts what TTP’s said-to-beshadow-spokesman ehsanullahehsan claimed while callingsenior Peshawar-basedjournalist Saleem Safi ontelephone that the audaciousattack was the TTP’s credit,then question arises whetherthe TTP has in its fold foreignfighters from Central Asia andelsewhere? As far as TTP’s so-called ‘movement’ isconcerned, there had been noreports so far, and it is noteven believable that foreignfighters have joined thebelieved-to-be Pakistan-specific Tehrik-e-Taliban. If so,are the foreign fightersremnants of al-Qaeda? Itmeans the claims of USofficials are true that al-Qaeda’s back has been broken.If its fighters have beenaccepted by TTP, then there ishell of ideological differencebetween Al-Qaeda’s Takfirisand TTP’s Deobandi cult. “Theheretics are liable to be killedtill the evil is eliminated.Killing them is obligatory” isthe Takfiri point of view, notthat of the TTP.

The hand-written letterfound on Musa’b’s body, theterrorist from Dagestan(Russia) leads us to believe thatthe attackers have no link withTTP. First of all, to leave anidentity or mark or a hand-written piece is not at all atactic of terrorists, or even apossibility. The tattoos showingspecific marks, the letterleading to certain conclusionscan be an attempt that maymislead our investigators. Whythe letter was in Urdu if theyknew that their faces would berecognised as Uzbek, and thetattoos would prove thatforeigners were involved? Truethat they might have beenliving in the tribal area for solong that they were able to readand write Urdu, but this all isnot as easy to understand.There is a lot of ambiguity. Thismay continue to persist.

But the most importantquestion is what would havehappened if the terrorists hadsucceeded in their designs.While one can figure out

security lapses – as DG ISPR,Maj-Gen Asim Saleem Bajwasaid that this incident leads usto learn lessons – one mustalso recognise the timely roleand action by our securityforces, airport security forceand police who failed theterrorists’ designs that couldhave led to disastroussituation. Whereas there aneed to review the security, itis imperative that thoroughinvestigation be made into theincident to reach the exactconclusion, which wouldcertainly help in thwartingterrorists’ designs in future.

ESCHMALL SARDARPeshawar

Innocence ofMuslims - Part II

Reportedly, Part II of thepreposterous movie “Innocenceof Muslims” has been uploadedon the YouTube. It is producedby Imran Farhat, a Spanishnational of Pakistani origin, incollaboration with famous USpastor Terry Jones. earlier on,Terry Jones had worked for thepromotion of the part I of thisblasphemous film that wasdirected and produced by SamBacile, a real-estate developerfrom California. For thepurpose he had collected about$5 million from about 100Jewish donors. Source offunding for part II is stillundisclosed.

“Innocence of Muslims”,back in September 2011, hadcreated mayhem in the Muslimworld. Muslims around theglobe got infuriated and tookto streets to register theiranger. Though thedemonstrations were held inalmost every Muslim country,these were most intense inegypt, Libya and Pakistan. InPakistan, fifteen individualslost their lives in thedemonstrations.

The Pakistan governmenthad banned YouTube in thecountry to register its protestand to stop furtherproliferation of profanematerial. That was a step in theright direction. It preventedthe possibility of viewing andpropagating blasphemousmaterial that could incitemasses. It also shows thatGoogle as an institution isoblivious of the sentiments of

the Muslims and in fact isbecoming a tool in the hands ofthose who want to infuriateMuslim Ummah again. Thegovernment should continuewith the ban and must launch astrong protest with theconcerned quarters todiscourage such proceeds infuture.

A CONCERNED CITIZENIslamabad

Talk showsWatching TV talk shows

lately has become a mentaltorture for the viewers. Once itused to be a good pastime towatch talk shows after 8PM onvarious channels. But nowthere appears to be no code ofconduct and the anchorpersons also do not have anycontrol over the discussion. Attimes, all the panel membersspeak simultaneously and itbecomes free for all battle ofwords. The sight is mostobnoxious to the viewers. It isnot known what is the criteriaof calling members on thepanel. We see the same faces ofpolitical leaders and the so-called specialists. Some of theparty leaders who are in powerin the centre, or in theprovinces, who defend theirparty doings, make mockery ofthemselves as nothing is goingright in the country.

I suggest to NePRA thatthey should lay down a code ofconduct where in no oneshould be allowed to docharacter assassination ofanybody and no foul languagebe allowed. The anchor personshould ensure that only one ata time should speak and othersshould give their point of viewon their turn. The heads ofpolitical parties shouldnominate only the electedrepresentatives and avoidsending lady parliamentarianswho are only nominated on thereserved seats. Performance ofsome them is revolting anddisgusting. The anchor personsare also advised to invite acommon man or a man fromthe street also who is the mosthard-hit person in the poorgovernance of the presentsetup. The affectee of anylegislation or a policy is acommon man but he is neverseen on these talk shows.MUHAMMAD AZHAR KHWAJA

Karachi

Editor’s mailSend your letters to: Letters to

Editor, Pakistan Today, 4-Shaarey

Fatima Jinnah, Lahore, Pakistan.

Fax: +92-42-36298302.

E-mail: [email protected].

Letters should be addressed to

Pakistan Today exclusively.

Respect of the court“I do not want the sanctity of the

court to be violated and I do not want topursue the path of confrontation.” Thisstatement by MQM's leader AltafHussain is a pleasant sign in thepolitical sky of Pakistan. This statementshould not be taken merely as acollection of words, but this is and itshould be the outlook of every matureand seasoned politician. Only fertilenations can have such ideas about theirjudiciary and legal system. It is the dutyof all the politicians, the lawyers, thearmed forces and the citizens ofPakistan to follow the suit of thecivilised nations of the world in thisrespect.

The Islamic civilisation which hadits profound and established legalsystem was also based on such goldenprinciples. This is the major factorbehind the progress of the civilisednations of today, and this is the secret of the uniqueness of the saidIslamic civilisation. Because thesocieties in which the judges and theteachers enjoy respect, prestige andhonour, make progress by leaps andbounds.

SULEMAN MANSHALahore

Polio vaccination driveSix women have been martyred in

just two days for carrying the noblecause of saving the children of Pakistanfrom the malady of polio. It’s adilemma in Pakistan that whenever avulnerable class of society becomesvictimisation of extra-judicial killings,the respective provincial and federalgovernments become more responsive by promptly declaringaward of compensation to theaggrieved families. I wonder why thesame money which becomesimmediately available fromgovernment exchequer forcompensation purposes is notexpended beforehand on improvingsecurity of these vulnerable classes.

SYEDA SAIMA SHABBIRIslamabad

Aseries of attacks on anti-polio vaccinators withseveral killed and injured has led to a halt in the UNand WHO-backed drive to eradicate polio from

Pakistan. Pakistan is one of the very few countries in theworld where polio still exists as a threat to children. Tillthese attacks, the resistance to the vaccinations waslimited to remote and backward areas of the country,mostly in the north and west where ignorance led tosuspicions about motives. In the rest of the country, poliohad almost been eradicated. The new violence putsthousands of children at risk besides badly eroding thealready tarnished image of the country in the world.

The pattern of attacks is eerily similar. Motorcycleriding armed men carrying out carefully targeted killings ofthe mostly female vaccinators and their drivers in selectedareas, so far confined to the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa andKarachi areas, though at least one attack has been reportedin Lahore. This attack pattern is similar to the sectarianattacks that have been taking place in Balochistan andKarachi areas. The victims are soft targets – the footsoldiers of the well-funded and organised campaign toeliminate polio. Those carrying out the attacks are obviouslydoing so as part of an orchestrated and planned strategywith a definite objective. These are not random killings.

The motive could be to bring the foreign fundedcampaign to a halt just because it is foreign funded. This doesnot make sense because there are other foreign fundedprojects that are not threatened so far. There could beobjections to the vaccination on religious grounds by peoplewho have their own interpretation of religion but no suchviews have surfaced. Like the sectarian attacks, these killingscould be aimed at destabilising the country, destroying itsimage as a country and projecting the helplessness of thegovernment against those with radical views and their ownagendas. If true, this would make these killings part of theoverall process of destabilising Pakistan and link these to theother violence in the country, including kidnappings forransom. The immediate impact has been to bring thecampaign to a halt and this goes against the country on manycounts, especially because it makes Pakistan look like acountry that does not have the capacity to sustain fundedprojects. This has far reaching implications. Therefore, ananswer has to be found to make sure that the campaignrestarts and continues. This means confronting and defeatingthe threat – something that has not been done so far.

Pakistan is in the unenviable position of being acountry in which the cracks and fissures that are keptlatent through effective governance have widened to nearuncontrollable proportions. Besides tearing the fabric ofsociety apart, these have become exploitable vulnerabilitiesblurring the line between internal and external threats.Internal security, of which human security is aninseparable part, must be accorded the highest priority inour risk assessment and response options.

Spearhead Analyses are collaborative efforts and notattributable to a single individual


12

Amjad Khan to aidMalala's school with hisfilm's earnings

AMJAD khan, who is making a film onMalala Yousafzai, has decided to donatethe first day collections of the film to her

school. "I'm making this film because I wanted todo something for Malala and women like her. Irealised making a film on her is a way of showingrespect, but it isn't really helping her. That's whenI thought about this. either it will be the first day'sworld box-office collections, or `25 lakh,whichever is higher," said Amjad. nEwS DESK

Miley and dog Floyd take atrip to Philadelphia

SOnaKshi Miley Cyrus may be across thecountry from her Los angeles home in chillyPhiladelphia this week, but she got to bring

a close family member along for the trip – herminiature alaskan husky, Floyd. On tuesday, the20-year-old bundled up in a ridiculously large blackscarf as she and furry Floyd took a stroll through apark in the City of Brotherly Love, where Miley iscurrently shooting the flick “Paranoia.” Cyrus musthave picked up her pooch an early Christmas gift,since the next day she tweeted a photo of the pupgnawing on a plush toy, writing “Floyd still hasn’tlet go of his favorite ball.” the former “hannahMontana” star has probably been hugging Floydand her other three canines – Bulldog Ziggy, Rot-tweiler-Beagle mix happy, and her latest addition,Pit bull mix Mary Jane – especially close lately sinceshe sadly lost her 2-year-old Yorkie mix Lila earlierthis week. "For everyone asking... i have neverbeen so hurt in my life. My heart has never been sobroken. nEwS DESK

Miss Universe 2012crowned

Beauties from 89 countries strutted theirstuff Wednesday night in pursuit of theMiss universe crown, but only one woman

would earn the coveted title. in the end a panel often celebrity judges, including Cee Lo Green andu.s. Olympic gold medalist Kerri Walsh Jennings,appointed Miss usa Olivia Culpo the winner. the20-year-old Rhode island native beat out MissBrazil (Gabriela Markus) Miss Philippines (Janinetugonon), Miss Mexico (irene sofía esserQuintero), and Miss australia (Renae ayris) for thedistinction. Culpo follows in the footsteps of Missangola, Leila Lopes, who earned the crown in2011. the two-hour show was broadcast live fromLas Vegas with musical acts One Direction andtrain lending their talents to the annualextravaganza. neWs Desk


She’s been awarded Golden Globes and emmys, but Claire Danesreceived her best accolade on December 17 when she became amother. The “Homeland” star’s rep has confirmed to Peoplemagazine that she gave birth to son Cyrus Michael ChristopherDancy, but did not provide any more details. Danes’ decision toremain mum on the specifics is not surprising since she and

husband Hugh Dancy hadn’t said much about their little bundle of joy,which she announced in July. But we do know baby Cyrus seems to havearrived a little bit early – or Danes was just throwing us off. InSeptember, the 33-year-old told Anderson Cooper on his “Anderson”daytime talk show that she was due "beginning of next year." At the time,she also revealed that she and Dancy knew the baby’s sex, but felt it was“important” to keep it to themselves. When Cooper asked what kind ofmom she would be, the actress responded honestly, “I hope a good one,”adding, “We’re going to love this person, I know that.” And if Danesdidn’t already have enough to celebrate, little Cyrus made his entranceinto the world just a day after the explosive (and highly-rated) finale ofhis mother’s hit show, “Homeland.” neWs Desk

Zero Dark Thirty is military terminology forhalf past midnight, the time at which thepivotal raid to capture Osama bin Laden wasscheduled by the CIA. There’s no more perfecttitle for a film this year, because it manages tosuggest a witching hour, a veil of deadlysecrecy, and a pinpoint-honed logisticaloperation all at once. Straightaway, Kathryn Bigelow’s movie -afollow-up of sorts to The Hurt Locker, whichwon Oscars for her and this film’sscreenwriter, Mark Boal-is ready to think onits feet, and puts paid to some impressivelysilly pre-release rumours that it’s out to“glorify” torture as a method of intelligence-gathering. There are many ways in whichmovies can glorify things, through cameraangles, sound, performance, editing, andpretty much the whole arsenal at a director’sdisposal, but Bigelow shuns the lot, and ifyou’re able to come away from theinterrogation scenes feeling that a gloriousgoal has in any way been scored, you mightneed your head examined. There’s no doubt that Boal’s research into thedecade-long manhunt takes this film intosome morally difficult places, but he’sprincipally relaying the facts about whattechniques were used -water-boarding amongthem-in the actual, exhausting andlabyrinthine search for bin Laden’swhereabouts. At no point does the movieinsist that these were the only possible tools,or that any one piece of information wassingle-handedly vital. Boal is right to say thathis script has been tossed around, sightunseen, as a political “chew toy”, partlybecause of military co-operation in shapingthe narrative, but the Department of Defensehad no vetting privilege, and Bigelow isruthlessly determined to bring the horror ofthese sequences home. As such, the first hour of the picture is dour,procedural and necessary. It has to convey thestalled efforts of analysts Maya (Jessica

Chastain) and Dan (Jason Clarke),among many others, to penetrate thespider-web of misinformation keepingthe al-Qaeda figurehead at large. Notunlike David Fincher’s Zodiac, whichtook us through the life-sapping andthwarted efforts of police andjournalists in trying to apprehend aserial killer, the focus here is onlegwork and its frustrations: thehuman cost of this grim job is aspalpable as the determination Mayafinds to keep pushing ahead with it. Unlike Zodiac, we know that there’sactually an end in sight, but it oftenseems a million miles away, and that’srather the point. Chastain begins todominate the picture at the halfwaystage, and grabs her chances withsomething like ferocity — what thecharacter decides to sacrifice, in theprocess of following every lead andstaking her career on the hunches shecomes to trust, is having any other life atall. She shows us the buried tragedy ofthis, and other losses. The maleensemble around her keeps throwing upwelcome surprises, whether we’re talkingabout long-useful supporting players(Harold Perrineau, for instance), orpotent newcomers (Reda Kateb), oractors mainly familiar from comedy(Chris Pratt, Mark Duplass) making asolid mark. Still, it’s particularly specialto see the perennially underutilisedJennifer ehle on board, doing brilliant,substantial work as an initially testy CIAcolleague whose friendship Maya earns.She’s every bit Chastain’s equal, and thefilm’s secret treasure. Finally, we’re athalf past midnight, and Bigelow stridesintently into the endgame, asking hercomposer, Alexandre Desplat, to goadthe mission into life with his expertscore. COurTESy THE TELEGrAPH


RoCk staR DeatHs:stuDy sHoWs soLoaCts at HigHeRRisk tHan BanDsRock `n' roll will never die – but it's ahazardous occupation. A new study confirmsthat rock and pop musicians die prematurelymore often than the general population, andan early death is twice as likely for solomusicians as for members ofbands. Researchers fromLiverpool John MooresUniversity studied 1,489 rockand pop stars who becamefamous between 1956 and2009 and found theysuffered "higher levels ofmortality thandemographically matchedindividuals in the generalpopulation." American starsare more likely to dieprematurely than Britishones. Lead researcher MarkBellis speculates that couldbe because bandsprovide peer supportat stressful times. Theresearch waspublished Thursday inonline journal BMJOpen. NEWS dESk

13


Ben AFFleCKDROPS OUT OF KRISTenSTewART MOVIeDays after Kristen Stewartconfirmed that she will beappearing in the film"Focus," Ben Affleck isreportedly dropping out ofit. According to Variety,Affleck will not appear inthe film because "while theactor very much wanted todo the film, the timing justcouldn't be worked out."earlier this month, Stewartspoke with HuffPostentertainment andconfirmed rumors that shewould star in "Focus." "It's acomedy," she told HuffPost."I'm really excited about it.We start shooting in April."Affleck was originally onboard to play Stewart's loveinterest, filming"passionate" kissing scenes,and appearing post-coital inbed with the actress.Stewart was cast as "aninexperienced con artist"who learns the trade, andbecomes romanticallyinvolved with the veteranAffleck, according toDeadline. "Focus," whichdoesn't have a release dateyet, is due out from WarnerBros. The film is directedand written by GlennFicarra and JohnRequa ("Crazy, Stupid,Love"). NEWS dESk

PARIS Hilton lives quite the life — shopping, mingling at redcarpet soirees, and partying at the most exclusive clubs —and it seems like every week she’s taking yet anotherluxurious vacation. This week she was at it again when thehotel heiress and her boyfriend, 21-year-old model River

Viiperi, got to spend part of the holiday season skiing, snowmobiling,and indulging in the good life while visiting the upscale resort town ofAspen, Colorado. Hilton, 31, was more than happy to share everymoment of what she expected to be "a romantic and magical time" withher Twitter followers. "Just had a relaxing deep tissue massage," shewrote Tuesday. "Now in bed with @RiverViiperi cuddling by the firewatching Home Alone. Love Christmas movies." The perfumerwas very affectionate when referring to her boyfriend ofthree months, calling him her "handsome love," "babylove," and that old classic "love." expect Hilton and Viiperi to exchange somelovely gifts this Christmas (if that trip doesn'tcount as one!), since the former reality star isknown for her extravagant tastes. Formerboyfriend Cy Waits bought her a a whiteLexus LFA, valued at $375,000, in February2011, and last November, she treated herselfto an early Christmas gift when shepurchased a $300,000 red 2012 CaliforniaSpyder Ferrari. Perhaps Viiperi will presenthis girlfriend with another pricey ride to addto her collection! NEWS dESk

PARIS HIlTOn’S‘ROMAnTIC AnDMAGICAl’ CHRISTMASVACATIOn In ASPen

Ram Leelashoot disruptedover workers’non-payment

The shooting of Sanjay LeelaBhansali's Ram Leela was disruptedbriefly on Sunday evening, aftermembers of the Federation ofWestern India Cine employees(FWICe) landed up on the set withcomplaints of non-payment ofworkers' dues. Prem Singh Thakurfrom FWICe's vigilance departmentsaid, "Payment has been pending forlong. I had to go to the set as manyworkers had been complainingabout it. They don't file complaintsfearing they would lose their jobs.even their conveyancereimbursement was pending forsome time." He adds, "I switched off

the lights to get the producers'attention. Mr Bhansali asked mewhat the problem was. Iintroduced myself and told himabout the issue. He immediately

calledas his production assistantand asked him to clear the dues."When we contacted Bhansali, hesaid, "There is no payment issue.The person who told you this islying and has vested interests.You can come and check foryourself." And while Bhansalimay have been in denial, hisoffice has given in writing toFWICe that all pendingpayments would be cleared in

a week. NEWS dESk

Justin Bieber might have found a replacement for his longtimegirlfriend Selena Gomez – the Victoria's Secret model he wasspotted with last month! After the 18-year-old Bieber andGomez, 20, ended their relationship of two years in earlyNovember, there was speculation that they'd eventually getback together, especially after Bieber was seen leaving Gomez'sNYC hotel, and Gomez was seen sneaking into Bieber's trailerat the American Music Awards after the breakup. However, anew report says that the Biebs has once again been spendingtime with Hungarian beauty Palvin, 19. Bieber and Palvin werephotographed together at the taping of the Victoria's SecretFashion Show in NYC on November 7, where he performedand she walked the runway. She posted a pic of herself and the

singer backstage, and the next day they went on a groupouting to see Broadway's "The Lion King." Now a source

has revealed to Life & Style that Bieber and Palvin saweach other again when he was in Miami for the Y100Jingle Ball on December 8. "Justin and Barbara were

together in Miami," a friend of Bieber tells the magazine. "Theyaren't being bashful about hanging out and getting closer." Thereport is bad news for fans rooting for a Bieber and Gomezreunion, especially since Gomez reportedly called it quits withBieber due to trust issues. Still, they do both appear to beheartbroken over the split. Bieber posted a tweet on Tuesdaythat could be interpreted as a message to Gomez. "Be a king,treat a woman like a queen," he wrote, along with a photo of thecrown tattoo on his chest. Meanwhile, Gomez had a "sadlunch with a female friend" on Monday at an L.A. Hooters, arestaurant she and Bieber frequently visitedtogether, after she reportedly splitwith the “Boyfriend”singer yet again overthe weekend,according toHollywood Life.NEWS dESk

JUSTIn BIeBeR SPOTTeD AGAIn wITHVICTORIA’S SeCReT MODel

Did a real-life vigilate serial killerinspire the Dexter Morgan character onShowtime's hit serial killer thriller"Dexter"? AskMen.com is exploring atheory that ex-Miami cop ManuelPardo, who was convicted on ninecounts of murder and put to death bythe state of Florida last week, couldhave been the basis for the protagonistof Jeff Lindsay's "Darkly DreamingDexter" novels that grew intoShowtime's "Dexter." There are somevague similarities between Pardo andMichael C. Hall's serial-killer-of-serial-killers. Pardo was a Miami policeofficer; Dexter is a forensic blood spatter analyst who works for theMiami Metro police department. Pardo went on a three-week robberyand murder spree in 1986, killing six men and three women. Hetargeted drug-dealers, and in his final letter before his execution,called himself "a soldier" who was in a "war was against men who weretrafficing (sic) in narcotics and no one else!" Dexter has spent sevenseasons going after bad guys who fell through the cracks of thecriminal justice system, though crossed a line and broke his "code" inSeason 7. AskMen.come spoke to French serial killer expert StephaneBourgoin, who analyzed the similarities in the killers' rituals, andnoted that Jeff Lindsay was living in Miami during Pardo's murderspree and subsequent trial, which made front-page headlines. NEWS dESk

The Real 'Dexter': DidManuel Pardo inspireshowtime serial killer?


THeY say it won't happen, at least nottoday (Friday), but in the event theMayan prophecy of the end of the worldis right, scientists have foretold a raft ofbloody and catastrophic fates for us all.

Dark comets, famine, super-volcanoes, cata-strophic climate change, and a plague of cancersare just some of the ends that could fulfill theprophecy. Astrophysicist Professor Jocelyn BellBurnell, who discovered pulsars, believes the mostlikely disaster that could pencil Doomsday intoFriday's diary is a black comet. Such an end wouldmatch that of the dinosaurs who after walking theplanet for about 165 million years - homo sapienshas been around for a mere 200,000 years - werekilled off by a 10km asteroid or comet thatslammed into the planet.

Professor Bell Burnell believes if the world aswe know it is to end on December 21 it would haveto be a dark comet that strikes. Dark comets havelittle of the ice and snow that most comets have,and a lot more dust which makes it much moredifficult to spot them as they speed through Space.

'Comets normally are big, dusty snowballs. Adark comet has not much snow and a lot of dust.They are much harder to get a handle on,' shesaid. The collision itself, except for those near thepoint of impact, would be unlikely to be fatal tothe world's population but it would throw up somuch dust into the atmosphere that billions ofpeople could expect a slow death.

Huge quantities of dust would bring on an

'eternal winter' in which the sun would be ob-scured and crops around the world would fail,leading to mass famine. Dr Dave Rothery, a volca-nologist at the Open University, foretells a similarend but he thinks the death-bringing dust wouldbe put into the atmosphere by a supervolcano.

More than 240 cubic miles of molten rock anddebris are blasted into the sky by super-volcanoes.

Much of it would remain in the atmosphere asvolcanic dust which would, just as with a massiveasteroid or comet, block out the sun and causefamine. 'It would put so much ash and sulphurdioxide into the atmosphere that photosynthesismay break down," he warned.

A similar, albeit less devastating, even tookplace in 1816 when a volcano in Indonesia eruptedand put so much dust into the atmosphere that itbecame known as 'the year of no summer'.

Other scientists asked by The Times what cat-aclysms could bring on the end of the world onFriday, in line with what many people believe isforetold by the ancient Mayan prophecy, includedBryan Lovell, a former president of the GeologicalSociety. His favourite Doomsday scenario was avast escape of methane caused by an undersealandslide. Methane is a greenhouse gas but it isabout 20 times more powerful in warming theworld than is carbon dioxide.

Dr Lovell said a huge release of sub-seamethane deposits would accelerate man-made cli-mate change and lead to 'catastrophic climatechange not too many Fridays from now'.

But it is not just scientists who are putting for-ward theories as to how the world will end andthey range from the unlikely to the fantastical.

Among the favourites is that a rogue planet,Nibiru, which has long been inhabiting the farreaches of the solar system, beyond even Pluto, isnow on a collision course with earth.

Scientists have dismissed the theory as ridicu-lous not just because no one has ever managed todetect it in the outer reaches of the solar systembut because if such a large object was heading thisway it would have been spotted by now

Scepticism on the part of experts, however,has done little to diminish the determination ofthousands of people to find a safe haven from dis-aster. In France the authorities have had to barNew Age followers from travelling to Bugarach, atiny village home to fewer than 200 people, andthe 'mystical mountain' where it is located.

Doomsday fanatics have identified Bugarachas a place of safety on the grounds that aliens livehidden within the mountain and are waiting forthe end of the world when they will rescue hu-mans in the area. 'I have issued an order barringanyone from climbing the mountain. And thosetrying to get into the village will be stopped andasked what their business is,' said Regional pre-fect eric Freysselinard.

The village and the mountain will only be re-opened to outsiders two days after the end of theworld is scheduled to have taken place. TheDoomsday prophecy is based on an ancient calen-dar from the Mayan civilisation that was based inwhat is now Guatemala in in Central America.

The calendar lasts for more than 5,000 yearsbut comes to an end on Friday, which hasprompted fears it forecasts the end of the world.

Other favourite Doomsday scenarios includea vast solar storm which will flare out from theSun and engulf the earth.

An alternative doom-laden theory is that arogue black hole will swallow up the earth, or thata quirk of galactic alignments will trigger a disas-trous reversal of the earth's magnetic field.

Vivienne Parry, a former presenter of Tomor-row's World, suggested a cancer that starts infoxes but can be transmitted to humans. Dogs, shesuggested, would cease to be man's best friendand instead become man's worst enemy becausethe cancer would be transmitted through them.

Foxes would bite the dogs, transmitting thecancer to them, and they would bite their humanowners. She said that were all dogs to be de-stroyed as soon as people realised they were pass-ing on an untreatable cancer the end of the worldfor humans could be postponed.

But she suspects man's love of his canine com-panions would seal his fate because putting downevery dog would be too much to ask. nEwS DESK

Fighting may have shaped the evolutionof the human hand, according to a newstudy by a US team. The University ofUtah researchers used instruments tomeasure the forces and accelerationwhen martial artists hit a punch bag.They found that the structure of the fistprovides support that increases the abil-ity of the knuckles to transmit “punch-ing” force. Details have been publishedin the Journal of experimental Biology.“We asked the question: ‘can you strikeharder with a fist than with an openpalm?’,” co-author David Carrier toldBBC News. “We were surprised becausethe fist strikes were not more forcefulthan the strikes with the palm. In termsof the work on the bag there is really nodifference.” Of course, the surface that

strikes the target with a fist is smaller,so there is more stress from a fist strike.“The force per area is higher in a fiststrike and that is what causes localisedtissue damage,” said Prof Carrier.“There is a performance advantage inthat regard. But the real focus of thestudy was whether the proportions ofthe human hand allow buttressing (sup-port).” The team found that making aclenched fist did indeed provide protec-tive buttressing for the delicate bones ofthe hand. Making a fist increased thestiffness of the second meta-carpo-pha-langeal, or MCP, joint (these joints arethe knuckles visible when the hand isclenched as a fist) by a factor of four. Italso doubled the ability of the proximalphalanges (the bones of the fingers that

articulate with the MCP joints) to trans-mit a punching force. In their paper,Prof Carrier and Michael H Morganfrom the University of Utah’s school ofmedicine, point out that the humanhand has also been shaped by the needfor manual dexterity. But they say thata number of different hand proportionsare compatible with an enhanced abilityto manipulate objects. “There may,however, be only one set of skeletal pro-portions that allows the hand to func-tion both as a mechanism for precisemanipulation and as a club for striking,”the researchers write. “Ultimately, theevolutionary significance of the humanhand may lie in its remarkable ability toserve two seemingly incompatible, butintrinsically human, functions.” Ourclosest relatives, chimpanzees andbonobos do not generally form fists,and the researchers think they are un-able to: when a chimp curls up its fin-gers it forms a doughnut shape. ProfCarrier commented: “The question forme is ‘why wasn’t this discussed 30, 40years ago.’ As far as I know it isn’t in theliterature.” Asked whether the idea thataggression may have played a key rolein shaping the human body might pre-viously have been unpalatable to re-searchers, Prof Carrier explained: “Ithink we’re more in that situation nowthan we were in the past. “I think thereis a lot of resistance, maybe more soamong academics than people in gen-eral - resistance to the idea that, at somelevel humans are by nature aggressiveanimals. I actually think that attitude,and the people who have tried to makethe case that we don’t have a nature -those people have not served us well. “Ithink we would be better off if we facedthe reality that we have these strongemotions and sometimes they prime usto behave in violent ways. I think if weacknowledged that we’d be better ableto prevent violence in future.” nEwS DESK

14Infotainment


How will it all end on Doomsday 2012?

Cop stops traffic withbrilliant dance moves

PROVIDENCE, R.I.: Ah, Christmas inRhode Island. exquisitely decoratedmansions in Newport. A red nose on the

giant termite that sits atop a Providenceexterminator’s building. And a traffic cop, doing disco and salsa moves in the middle of rush-hour traffic.Officer Tony Lepore is as much a holiday traditionas anything else in the state that issued the first jailsentence for speeding 108 years ago. Since 1984,he has entertained drivers, pedestrians andgawkers with dance moves in downtownProvidence – all while directing traffic.“He is a Rhode Island landmark, more or less. He’san icon, he’s like a little mini celebrity,” saysMichelle Peterson, of Warwick. She’s an emergencymedical technician and the mother of three boyswho was introduced to the “dancing cop” years agoby her partner in their ambulance. This year, shetook her boys to see Lepore, 65, perform and gothim to pose for pictures with them.“It feels good to see him out here; it definitelybrings the holiday spirit. I think people come outhere just to see him and I think it brings somepeople to shop so they can see him.”The routine, Lepore says, was born in the month ofMay of the boredom and aggravation that officerstypically experience while directing rushing driversand jaywalking pedestrians. He was inspired byclassic “Candid Camera” television footage he sawa day earlier that showed police officers elsewheredirecting traffic with flair.“I didn’t know if my bosses were going to like it,so a lot of times if I saw a boss come down, I’d bedoing my fancy stuff, then I’d go back and do itthe old-fashioned way so I don’t get caught,”Lepore says.His secret didn’t last long. City residents begancalling the police station and raving about Lepore’smoves. A few days later, The Providence Journal,the state’s largest newspaper, came out with a storyon the sensation.The positive publicity encouraged officials toendorse the dancing cop, who continued toperform until he left the job in 1988, when he wentinto business with his brother with a food andvending service. nEwS DESK

Beauty queen causespower outage

SARAH J. Richardson has a smile that couldlight up a town — a service the town reallycould have used after cops say she

drunkenly crashed her car into a light pole, leavinghundreds of homes and businesses in the dark. Thereigning Miss Las Cruces, N.M. was arrested onSunday and charged with aggravated DWI,according to KVLA. The 22-year-old allegedlycrashed her PT Cruiser into a light pole, which fellover, hitting a nearby traffic light on Sunday night.The crash left around 1,700 nearby businesses andhomes in the dark after the power was knockedout. The lights were back on by Monday. The MissNew Mexico and Miss America organizations arelooking through contracts and policies to see what,if anything, will happen to Richardson’s title. “Weare taking this very, very seriously,” Miss LasCruces executive Director Aleiha Direnzo toldKFOX. “We usually don’t anticipate something likethis coming up so we’re very surprised andsaddened.” The Associated Press reportsthat Richardson posted bond and was releasedafter being jailed for about an hour. nEwS DESK

Google sellsMotorolaHome for$2.35bnGoogle has agreed to sell theset-top box business of itssubsidiary Motorola for$2.35bn (£1.45bn).The deal to sell MotorolaHome has been agreed withUS firm Arris, in whichGoogle will take a 15.7%stake.Google had been widelyexpected to sell thebusiness, which it bought inMay this year as part of its$12.5bn takeover ofMotorola.Since then it has focused onrevamping Motorola’s loss-making mobile handsetbusiness.Arris currently makesequipment used by cabletelevision companies.British company Pace hadappeared in the running tobuy the set-top boxbusiness, but said it hadfailed to reach a deal withGoogle. nEwS DESK

Fighting may have shapedevolution of human hand



LAHORESTAFF REPORT

PAKISTAN T-20 cricket cap-tain, Mohammad Hafeez hassaid the team management willdecide a combination of open-

ers during the two T20 matches in thetour of India on December 25 and 28.

“I cannot say who will be opening theinnings, there are four to five optionsahead of the team management whichwill be deciding a best combination tosustain the pressure of innings opening,”he told reporters here on Thursday aftera specialized training session meant forT20 training at the Gadaffi stadium.

He said it is the responsibility of theteam management to come up with amatch winning combination keeping inview the might of their opponents.

To a question he said opener AhmedShahzad who is a contender in the open-ing pair, has made his place in the T20squad after displaying good stint ofform in the domestic premier event ofthe shortest version of the game. Hafeezsaid every match, no matter, it is being

played against a weaker orstronger opponent has itsown pressure and playingIndia brings in a lot of pres-sure but efforts would bemade to put an impressiveshow to defy Indian challenge.“Hard work and higherdisplay of commit-ment on part ofplayers will bethe key to suc-cess againstIndia and I amconfident thatwe will givingtough time toIndia,” he saidadding: “one thingis very clear thatwe have a de-fined role forevery player sothat he shouldgive his one hun-dred percent to en-hance teamsperformance.” Hafeez

called upon the bowlers to support acespinner Saeed Ajmal in bowling to sharethe responsibility. “There is no doubtthat Saeed is a match winning bowlerbut there are other bowlers as well who

should endorse his efforts with an ex-hibition of quality cricket which will

be the need of the hour in T20games,” he asserted. Pak T2O cap-

tain termed Pak-India team bal-anced and said undermining

the strength of India aftertheir test series loss to eng-

land is not a fairthought. “Test

and T20g a m e s

are al-t o -getherdiffer-

ent for-mats of the

game andtheir require-

ments are alsodifferent and we

will be there to

prove that our side is a best combina-tion of talented cricketers”.

To a question, Hafeez said ShoaibMalik has joined T20 preparations afterarriving back home from abroad. “He hadgone abroad with the permission of teammanagement and his presence will be agood source of inspiration for players be-cause he is an experienced player.”

Answering a question he describedformer captain and now batting consult-ant of the team, Inzama ul Haq’s attach-ment with the team ‘a blessing’ and saidhis presence during the camp was verybeneficial in terms of amending battingflaws of the batsmen. “He is a very experi-enced batsman and he contributed valu-able efforts to improve the batting skills ofthe players and I Am confident that he isfully capable of further strengthening ourbattling by imparting his experience to thebatsmen”, said Hafeez. He said the prac-tice matches are of greater significance asthey are helping the players to get back tothe form and to get much needed battingpractice ahead of a tough series in India .He urged the players to take India a toughopponent to beat in their own grounds.

Team management todecide openers: Hafeez

Tom Moody namedHyderabad’s IPL coach

NEWSDESK

Tom Moody, the former Sri Lanka coachand Australia allrounder, has been ap-pointed coach of the Hyderabad IPLfranchise, which was bought over by theSun TV network in October. Former na-tional selection chief Kris Srikkanth willbe its mentor and VVS Laxman its men-tor-ambassador.The team's logo was also unveiled at aceremony in Hyderabad, held two daysafter the franchise was christened Hyder-abad Sunrisers. While both Moody andSrikkanth, the Chennai Super Kingsbrand ambassador for the first three IPLseasons, were in attendance, Laxmanskipped it due to the death of a close rel-ative."This is a proud moment for us as we un-veil our new name and logo and we aresure that the team will be successful inthe forthcoming season of IPL 2013,"Moody said. "We are keenly looking for-ward to it and our game will stand testi-mony to the competition we will give toother teams."Moody has plenty of coaching experi-ence. He was in charge of the Sri Lankannational team for two years culminatingin their run to the World Cup final in2007, and also oversaw Kings XI Punjabin the first two seasons of the IPL. Hehas also had coaching stints at Worces-tershire and his home state of WesternAustralia. Moody worked closely withSangakkara, who is expected to lead Sun-risers in the next IPL season, during histime at Sri Lanka and Kings XI.

Injured Southeeruled out of Testsin South africa

WILLINGTONAGEnCIES

Tim Southee, the New Zealand fastbowler, has been ruled out of the Testseries in South Africa because of athumb injury. He needs surgery for aruptured ligament and is likely to besidelined for six-eight weeks.Southee sustained the injury while divingin the field during a Plunket Shieldmatch between Northern Districts andWellington at Karori Park. He scored 156off 130 balls and took seven wickets inNorthern Districts' six-wicket win."He landed heavily on his thumb whilefielding, with scans indicating the liga-ment has fully ruptured and retracted,"New Zealand physio Paul Close said."After consultation with NZC medicalstaff and a hand specialist it was de-cided the best course of action is for himto have surgery. "He will commence re-habilitation immediately following theprocedure, with a view to him returningto cricket during the home summer. Theprocedure is likely to keep him out ofthe game for 6-8 weeks."

Pollard among nineoverseas withdrawalsfrom BPL auction

NEWSDESK

Nine foreign cricketers, including WestIndies' Kieron Pollard, have withdrawnfrom the Bangladesh Premier Leagueplayer auction that will be held today inDhaka. The BPL governing council,however, has also added two overseasplayers to the auction - West Indianbatsman Marlon Samuels, and SriLankan opener Tillakaratne Dilshan.Pollard played for Dhaka Gladiators, last season'schampions, and this year he was in the golden cate-gory, which has a salary between $75,000 and$150,000. england batsman Michael Lumb, who was incategory a, also pulled out. The other players to with-draw were Craig ervine (zimbabwe), Cameron Mer-chant (new zealand), James Taylor and ed Young(england), Michael Smith (South africa), fawad alam(Pakistan) and Chesney Hughes (west Indies).

NEWSDESK

As he set about the task of throttling back UsmanKhawaja from Twenty20 to Test matches, Australia'sbatting coach Stuart Law spoke of his desire to return tothe nation's batsmen the sort of collective "ruthlessstreak" that limited him to one Test in a career that ulti-mately reaped more than 27,000 first-class runs.

Law had the help of Ryan Harris, recuperating fromshoulder surgery, plus Ben Cutting and Nathan Hauritzto bowl to Khawaja at Allan Border Field, while time wasalso reserved for the Pro-Batter technology that allowedthe left-hander to face up to a bowling machine synchro-nised with video footage of Sri Lanka's pacemen andspinners. He defended Cricket Australia's decision to pullKhawaja and the rest of the Test squad out of the BBL,and spoke with the passion of an unfulfilled internationalbatting talent of the opportunities afforded to batsmenby the retirement of Ricky Ponting, who he debuted within Perth in 1995.

"We're trying to get a ruthless streak back into ourbatters that we had going through domestic cricket 20-25 years ago," Law said. "If we can get that back whereplayers aren't just scoring 60s and expecting the nextstep to happen, but they're scoring 100s, 150s and doingit consistently, not just once or twice but three, fourtimes, that will put their names up in lights. "What an

opportunity now? Ricky Ponting, one of Australia'sgreatest has retired, you've got an opportunity to takeover his position - you'd cut your own leg off to have thatopportunity, and you want to be doing everything youpossibly can to get it. I know Big Bash is a big part of theAustralian cricket calendar now, but we're in the middleof a Test series. "We just got beaten by South Africa,we've gone 1-0 up, we want to put everything into win-ning this next Test match so we can take a series. That'sour whole objective. If that means sacrificing a few play-

ers who don't play in the Big Bash, there's more gamesafter this Test series to be involved in and surely we'reall for the greater good of Australian cricket - the Testteam is the No. 1 team to play for."

Khawaja's time in Brisbane is geared more towardsgetting his batting rhythms and routines more right forTests, after last summer's disastrous India series forShaun Marsh, who came back into the national team viathe BBL. Marsh made an audacious 99 for the PerthScorchers in Melbourne, then cobbled a measly 17 runsin six innings against MS Dhoni's team, a contributionso meagre that it has probably ended his Test career. Lawnoted that if anything Khawaja's international shortcom-ings so far have been more as a fielder, runner and ath-lete than as a batsman, but that he would benefit fromdeliberate time to adjust.

We just got beaten by South Africa, we've gone 1-0up, we want to put everything into winning this next Testmatch so we can take a series. That's our whole objective.Stuart Law, the Australia batting coach

"He's one of the better batsmen technically goingaround, he's very sound, [but] there's other things thesedays to playing cricket," Law said. "You've got to be ableto do more than one skill. If you're not bowling you'vegot to be able to field, and that was pointed out to Usmana while ago that he has to improve in certain areas, aswell as going back and scoring runs.

NEWSDESK

Wicketkeepers are like umpires: the lessyou notice them the better. Just as spec-tators recall an umpire's howlers and for-get the correct decisions, a wicketkeeperis remembered not for his catches, unlessthey are spectacular, but for his grassedopportunities or missed stumpings.Matthew Wade knows that over the pastfew weeks, he has been a little more con-spicuous than Australia would like - andnot just by virtue of unexpectedly bowl-ing an over of medium-pace in Hobart.

As Wade prepares for his first BoxingDay Test, he has tried to put behind hima pair of missed stumpings this summerthat have stuck in the minds of onlookers.In Adelaide, Wade gave Graeme Smith alife on 46 when he advanced to the spinof Michael Clarke, and Smith went on toscore 122. At Bellerive Oval, he deniedNathan Lyon a wicket when he couldn'tgrasp the ball cleanly while Nuwan Ku-lasekara was down the pitch. The Smith

chance was costly, the Kulasekara onenot so much. But they were both occa-sions when Wade couldn't hide from thespotlight that comes with Test cricket, es-pecially having been chosen over BradHaddin at the start of the summer. Wadesaid his primary challenge was to main-

tain concentration over the course of aTest match; unlike the other fielders, whocan get away with drifting off mentallyevery now and then, a wicketkeeper mustalways be switched on.

"I'm disappointed, I don't need toread what's printed or what's said in themedia for me to get disappointed orthinking about my glovework," Wadesaid at the MCG on Thursday. "You can'tmiss chances behind the stumps, it's assimple as that. I'm thankful that this [Ho-bart] one didn't cost us as much as whatit probably did in Adelaide. When I wakeup in the morning I've got to be lookingforward, if I'm looking back all the timeI'm not going to be improving at all andstuff like that is going to keep happening.

"It's probably concentration, that'sprobably what it comes down to. I've def-initely done enough technically, I doenough training. That's all I can go backto is finding a way to concentrate for alonger period of time and working on itat training."

Wade ‘disappointed’with missed chances

Law demands ‘ruthless streak’ from Khawaja, others


Sports 16


LAHORESTAFF REPORT

PAKISTAN Hockey Federationhas recommended the name ofOlympian Sohail Abbas forPresident’s Award for Pride of

Performance 2013. “He has played hockeyfor almost 18 years in the national team,which is a great honour and we have rec-ommended his name to recognize his mer-itorious services as a player for the causeof hockey,“ said Secretary, PHF, Moham-mad Asif Bajwa here on Thursday.

He scored 348 goals and maintaining‘world record’ for maximum goals in theworld hockey, out of which he scored 80goals in a single calendar year, which is an-other record in itself. He was declared thetop scorer in various Tournaments havingsurpassed the record of Paul Litjen ofNetherlands (267 goals). He was the topscorer in 8 international events and secondtop scorer in the Sydney Olympic Games. Inthe Athens Olympic Games, he was thehighest scorer. He captained Pakistanhockey team in the 33rdChampions Trophyand 30th Olympic Games/London. He wonGold Medal for Pakistan in the Asian Games2010. “The PHF is taking every measure toencourage players for their achievementsand recommending the name of Sohail is apart of our effort to give due recognition toan outstanding player,” he added.HIL tO StARt ON JAN. 14, DELHIfACES PUNJAB IN OPENER: Afterbeing delayed once, the inaugural HockeyIndia League will take off on January 14with Delhi Waveriders taking on Jaypee

Punjab Warriors in the opening clash ofthe event that will go on till February 10.The league will feature 34 matches in 28days and will be played in five franchiseecities -- Delhi, Jalandhar, Lucknow,Mumbai and Ranchi. The opening cere-mony will be held on January 14 at theMajor Dhyan Chand National Stadium inDelhi just before the first match in whichDelhi Waveriders will face Jaypee PunjabWarriors, featuring Australian hockeystar Jamie Dwyer.

Jalandhar will host the second matchat Surjit Singh Hockey Stadium where thehome team Jaypee Punjab Warriors willface Ranchi Rhinos January 16. On thesame day, Mumbai Magicians will laterplay their first match in New Delhi againstDelhi Waveriders. Uttar Pradesh Wizardswill commence their contest against JaypeePunjab Warriors in Jalandhar January 17.

Ranchi Rhinos’ Bisra Munda HockeyStadium will host its first match on Janu-ary 18 against Mumbai Magicians.

The first home match of Uttar PradeshWizards will be played on January 19against Delhi Waveriders at Guru GobindSingh Sports College in Lucknow.

Mumbaikars will watch their firsthome match at the Mumbai Hockey Asso-ciation Stadium on January 20 againstJaypee Punjab Warriors.

The Republic Day will see the clash oftitans when Delhi Waveriders will locktheir horns with Mumbai Magicians athome and Uttar Pradesh Wizards will tryto tame Ranchi Rhinos in Lucknow.

Matches at Delhi, Jalandhar, Mumbaiand Ranchi will be played under flood-lights while matches in Lucknow will beplayed during daytime. Play-off semifinalmatches will be played on February 9 withthe HIL final on February 10. The venuefor the semifinals and final is yet to be de-cided. All the matches will be live on StarSports. “We are very pleased to announcethe confirmed match schedule for the firstever Hockey India League, which will fea-ture many of the big hockey stars fromaround the world,” Hockey India Secre-tary General and HIL Chairman NarinderBatra said. “It will be a real treat to hockeyfans as they will see the toughest battlesamong the five teams. We are pretty surethat the HIL will become an unforgettablemoment for all players, sponsors andspectators,” he added.HOCKEy LEgEND NO MORE:LESLIE CLAUDIUS PASSES AWAy:India's triple Olympic gold medallist and

one of the legends of the game of hockey,Leslie Claudius passed away here todayafter a prolonged illness. Claudius wassuffering from cirrhosis of the liver andfrequently needed hospitalization in thepast couple of years.

He was 85-years-old and is survivedby wife and three sons. One of his sonsBrandon lives with him in Kolkata andthe other two sons live in Australia. In anillustrious career, Claudius had threeOlympic gold medals - London 1948,Helsinki 1952 and Melbourne 1956. AtRome in 1960, he led India to a silver-medal finish. Claudius was being treatedat the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) of a localhospital for abnormal fluid retention. "Infact his condition had got better yesterdayand doctors were hopeful of discharginghim. But today morning, it deteriorated,"Brandon told PTI. In past last 11 months,Claudius had been hospitalised four timesdue to ill-health.

Claudius was one of the five survivingmembers (Keshav Dutt, GrahanandanSingh, Jaswant Singh Rajput, and BalbirSingh Senior) of the 1948 squad that hadwon the gold in London when it hostedOlympics 64 years ago. One of the finestright-half and former captain, Claudiuswas also part of next three editions of thequadrennial extravaganza that won twogold and one silver, a record onlymatched by compatriot Udham Singh. In1978, Claudius met with tragedy as he losthis younger son Robert (Bobby) in a fatalroad accident. Bobby was considered verytalented and had also represented Indiain the Mexico World Cup in 1978.

LONDONAGEnCIES

Amir Khan is targeting April for his re-turn to the ring and hopes a rematchwith Danny Garcia can be made for laterin 2013. After back-to-back lossesagainst Lamont Peterson in December2011 and then Garcia in July, Khan con-cluded 2012 on a more positive note lastweekend with a 10th-round stoppagewin over Carlos Molina at the Los Ange-les Memorial Sports Arena.

And looking to the year ahead, theBolton fighter is planning for his nextbout to be in around four months' time,with another showdown with Garcia -who added Khan's WBA light-welter-weight title to his WBC belt when hebeat him - to come after that. Khan toldPress Association Sport: "The next fightis going to be around April time.

"That will give me a nice little break.Then I want to be back in the ring againand then trying for the rematch withDanny Garcia. "Next year should be avery good year for me. "In April I'mlooking at it being a fight in the 140lbs

division for a world title, and then atunifying it with the Garcia fight - if hegets through his fight with Zab Judah (inFebruary). "Boxing is a sport where onepunch can change a fight, but hopefullyhe wins that fight, I get through mine inApril and then maybe at the end of theyear it will be a good fight with him."

In what was the third defeat of hisprofessional career, Khan was knockedto the floor three times by Garcia en

route to a fourth-round stoppage in LasVegas. The 26-year-old has sinceswitched trainers from Freddie Roachto Virgil Hunter and he feels confidentmistakes he made against PhiladelphianGarcia - who has indicated his willing-ness to fight Khan again if a satisfactorydeal can be struck, but a reluctance forit to happen in england - would not berepeated in a rematch.

"I was beating him (Garcia) con-vincingly and then got caught with ashot - I think I was beating him moreeasily for the first two or three roundsthan I was Molina," Khan said. "I be-lieve in myself in that fight. I gotcaught by a shot I shouldn't have beencaught by.

"Maybe I was too confident, think-ing I was untouchable and that no-onecould hurt me. "But it is all about re-grouping myself and I will be backstronger now. "My new trainer is goingto help me a lot - I already see a changein my style. "We are not going to makethese mistakes again and we are notgoing to be giving opponents a chancenow." In terms of his next opponent,

Khan acknowledged there has been"talk" about him taking on California'sJosesito Lopez but hastened to add that"nothing has been finalised". He alsoconfirmed he had not suffered fracturesto his hands in the Molina fight.

He said: "My hands are fine. Ithought they might be fractured be-cause they were quite painful after thefight. "After the number of shots I threwon Carlos Molina, you could see I wasgoing to have injured hands, but it wasonly swelling. "There were no breakagesor anything, so that is good."

Further down the line, Khan is notruling out the possibility of again facingPeterson, who claimed his WBA andIBF light-welterweight crowns by con-troversially beating him on points inWashington. Peterson subsequentlyfailed a drugs test, with the WBA beltbeing returned to Khan, and the Britonis adamant the American must provehimself "100% clean" if they are to meetin the ring again. What certainly re-mains a goal for Khan is to fight FloydMayweather Jr, although he is keen toemphasise that it is a long-term aim.

PHF recommends Sohail forPride of Performance award

Amir eyes April return

LAHORESTAFF REPORT

A PCB source said that although a long list of requests hadbeen received by the three travel agencies desig-nated to handle the requests from Pakistaniswishing to travel to India for the matches,none had been processed due to non avail-ability of tickets. The Pakistan CricketBoard is still awaiting the 3000 ticketspromised to it by the BCCI for the much-anticipated Twenty20 and ODI series inIndia later this month. A PCB source saidthat although a long list of requests hadbeen received by the three travel agenciesdesignated to handle the requests from Pak-istanis wishing to travel to India for the matches,none had been processed due to non availability oftickets. "The process outlined by the Indian High Commis-sion is clear, the special visas will only be processed and is-sued if the applicants apply with tickets for the venues they

want to travel to," the source disclosed. "The problem facingthe PCB and the travel agencies is that since they haven'tgot the tickets as yet from the BCCI, they can't process any

of the requests." Another source said the BCCI had rec-ommended names of some hotels where the Pak-

istani visitors can stay during their visit to Indiabut even they are not yet complete. "The main

problem is that the PCB has only authorisedthese three travel agencies to deal with re-quests for the matches in India. And untilthey don't have the tickets, they can't doanything," he said. The source feared thatwith time running out, the requests may

have to be diverted to the last two ODIs par-ticularly the last one in Delhi. "The PCB will

only know how many tickets the BCCI has al-located for each venue when they get the tickets,"

the source said. The Pakistan team is due to leave forIndia on Saturday for the long-awaited series that will lasttill January 6. The source said the PCB was constantly re-minding the BCCI to send the tickets.

notts confirmCowan signing

NEWSDESK

ed Cowan, the Australia opener, has beenconfirmed as Nottinghamshire's overseassigning for the first half of the 2013 season.Cowan, who will likely feature in the Ashesagainst england later in the summer, will beavailable for seven rounds of the Champi-onship, as well as eight CB40 matches. Themove, first reported on eSPNcricinfo, willgive Cowan extra time to get used to battingin english conditions ahead of the Ashes.Notts will be his second county, after a stintwith Gloucestershire in 2012, and the 30-year-old has also played in england forScotland and Oxford MCCU. He currentlyaverages 34 in Test cricket after 11 matches,with one century. "I was very keen to playsome Division One cricket and I'm pleasedto have the opportunity to do that with Not-tinghamshire," Cowan said. "There are a lotof good players at the Club and Trent Bridgeis a great venue so I'm hoping to make agood contribution on and off the field." Not-tinghamshire, who finished fifth in DivisionOne in 2012, will look to recruit anotheroverseas player after Cowan's departure.Last season, Adam Voges filled the overseasrole, while David Hussey had previouslybeen linked with a return to the club. Notts'director of cricket, Mike Newell, said: "edhas an excellent record in Test cricket andthere was an opportunity to sign him for adecent period given that a lot of Australianplayers were set to spend time in englandon an A tour in preparation for the Ashes.Our priority was to find a player who we feltcould score a good volume of runs in fourday cricket but ed has a good one dayrecord as well and we're confident that hecan make a difference for us."

nzC to organiseformer captains’ meet

NEWSDESK

New Zealand Cricket (NZC) is organising ameeting of its former captains in the NewYear in order "to open better lines of com-munication" regarding the development ofthe sport in the country. The move cameafter several players had criticised the boardfor its handling of the captaincy issue, andfor not accepting their help in taking NewZealand forward."Former captains will be invited to attendthe meeting which is intended to be an an-nual event designed to provide quality inputfrom both the former captains and the play-ers who were part of their era in cricket,"NZC said in a statement. "Creating a vehiclefor former captains and players to directlycommunicate their ideas and observationsto NZC is complimented by the current con-stitutional review process that the board hascommitted to in the early part of next year."Martin Crowe, Dion Nash, Simon Doull,Craig McMillan and John Parker were someof the former New Zealand players who hadcriticised the board, saying it had turneddown their offers.

flintoff Ko’d byshoulder operation

NEWSDESK

Andrew Flintoff's fledgling boxing careeralready appears to be on the ropes due toa serious shoulder injury. Former crick-eter Flintoff, who made his debut as aprofessional boxer with an unimpressiveheavyweight victory over Richard Dawsonlast month, has a torn shoulder ligamentwhich will require surgery - casting doubton his prospects of a second career fight.However, the results of Flintoff's trainingfor his boxing career - which has left theformer england allrounder fitter, strongerand leaner - have raised the prospect ofthe 35-year-old coming out of retirementto return to cricket, once his rehabilita-tion is complete. "The injury to his shoul-der will be taken into account but at thisstage we are ruling nothing in and noth-ing out," said a spokesman for Flintoff. "Itis a nasty one but he has had a lot nastierduring his life. "We will just wait andsee and report back in the New Year andsee where we go. There are certainlyleads to chase." The shoulder injury ap-pears set to dash New Zealand batsmanJesse Ryder's hopes of facing Flintoff inan exhibition. Ryder won a charity boutearlier this year and had expressed in-terest in facing Flintoff in the ring.

Pakistan awaits ticketsfor cricket series in India


Half-time talk firedus up: Lampard

MADRIDAGEnCIES

Frank Lampard revealed a dressing-room discussion at half-time sparkedChelsea's revival as they came frombehind to beat Leeds 5-1 in the CapitalOne Cup quarter-finals. Chelsea hadtrailed to a Luciano Becchio strike butturned the match at elland Roadaround with goals from Juan Mata,Branislav Ivanovic, Victor Moses,eden Hazard and Fernando Torres."We upped it," said Lampard on SkySports News. "In the first half weweren't at our best, a bit slow with thetempo of the game and we gave aaway silly goal that allowed them toscore. "Once we upped it with a bit ofpace in our game you could see a bigdifference. "We had a word with our-selves at half-time." Chelsea flew backinto London from the Club World Cupon Monday, but the journey fromJapan did not appear to take any tollin the second half, especially onceMata equalised just a minute after therestart. Lampard said: "We didn'tmake the greatest preparation butthere's no excuse, we had to up it."The early goal gave us the impetus,we believed from then on and we did-n't think we could lose the game.

wladimir toface Povetkin

LONDONAGEnCIES

The WBA have ordered the manage-ment companies of Wladimir Klitschkoand Alexander Povetkin to open talksover a fight next year. Klitschko be-came the WBA "super" champion fol-lowing his victory over David Haye inJuly last year, while Povetkin is cur-rently classified as the "regular" cham-pion. The WBA declared ahead of theKlitschko v Haye bout that the victorshould fight the winner of Povetkin'sclash with Ruslan Chagaev last August.A timescale of 18 months was stipu-lated, and the WBA now want their twochampions to face off before 26 Febru-ary next year. Chris Meyer, managingdirector of Povetkin's representatives,Sauerland event, said: "We have afour-week period to negotiate terms onthe fight and will be in contact with theKlitschko management.

office bearersof SJaL elected

LAHORESTAFF REPORT

The election of nSports Journalists As-sociation of Lahore (SJAL) were heldhere on Thursday and Syed Ali Hashmiwas elected as President and AshrafChaudhry and Aftab Tabi as Secretaryand Treasurer for the next term of twoyears. The election meeting was chairedby senior journalist Sarfaraz Ahmadwhile former Secretary SJAL Asher Buttbriefed all the members of the bodyabout the amendments in the constitu-tion which were finalized with consen-sus. The elections were observed bySports Writers Association of Pakistan(SWAP) Vice President and representa-tive of Sports Board Punjab, Sohail Ali.Syed ali Hashmi of Samaa newswas elected as Pres-ident, ashraf Chaudhry of nawa-i-waqt as Secretary,aftab ahmad Tabi of news one as Treasurer for thetwo-year term while the other newly-elected mem-bers are Mona Rana of BBC urdu, M ali of DailyTimes (Senior vice Presidents), Shaikh Ijaz of waqtTv, Musa warraich of apna Tv, zulqarnain Shaikh ofaRY and Hafiz M Imran of waqt Tv (vice Presidents),afzaal Chaudhry of Daily Khabrein, abdul qayyum ofInsaaf (Joint Secretaries) and azhar Masood Khan ofThe nation Press Secretary. The executive committeecomprises Sohail ali (aPP), amir Raza Khan (City42),Shahid Shaikh (Daily Jung), Shahzad Malik (aRY), far-rukh ata Butt (Jahan-e-Pakistan), Mansoor ahmadKhan (frontier Post), Ghalib Bajwa (The news), asherButt (Pakistan Today), abdur Rauf Khan (nai Baat),fawad asghar (Daily Insaaf) and Hafiz Shahbaz (naiBaat). The house also announced the new electioncommissioners for the next term which includeMukhtar Bhatti (free Lancer), Sarfraz ahmad (Thenews) and Raza Hameed (Daily Dunya).

Sports17


LaHoRe: Pakistan cricketers play

during the second practice match at

the Gaddafi Stadium. MurTAzA ALI

MADRIDAGEnCIES

Cristiano Ronaldo will return to OldTrafford to face Manchester United afterReal Madrid were drawn against his oldside in the last 16 of the ChampionsLeague. It will also pit Jose Mourinhoagainst Sir Alex Ferguson in the mostmouthwatering tie of the first knock-out

round of eu-rope's top

club com-petition.The onlyo t h e r

e n g l i s hside, Ar-

senal willface last

s e a s o n ' sbeaten fi-

nalists Bay-ern Munich,while Celtic

will takeon Ital-

i a n

champions Juventus as they look for aplace in the quarter-finals.

In the other matches, Barcelona willtake on AC Milan, German championsBorussia Dortmund face ShakhtarDonetsk, Valencia play Paris St Germain,Porto tackle Spanish side Malaga andGalatasaray will come up against Schalke.

United have a slight advantage overReal in that as group winners they will getto play the second leg at home.

Arsenal and Celtic, who were grouprunners-up, will both play their secondlegs away. Cristiano Ronaldo scored 118goals in 292 appearances for United, butit was another Ronaldo - the Brazilianstriker - who took the honours when theclubs last faced each other in 2003, scor-ing a hat-trick at Old Trafford as Realwent through 6-5 on aggregate.

The clubs first met in the europeanCup in April 1957, when Real triumphed5-3 in the semi-final. Ronaldo's last matchfor United was in the Champions Leaguefinal defeat by Barcelona, after which hemoved to Madrid for a world record£80million transfer fee. Celtic boss NeilLennon called his side's draw against Ju-

ventus "a beauty" but very tough.Lennon said: "Well in terms of glam-

our it's a beauty. Juventus are one of thegreat traditional european teams. They'recurrent Italian champions and finishedthe group stage very strongly. So in termsof glamour it's great, in terms of qualifi-cation it is going to very tough, but itcould have been any of the other teamsand it would have been just as tough.

"We will take it as it comes, we'relooking forward to the games now and I'msure our supporters will be as well.

"We believe over two games anythingis possible. Juventus are littered withworld-class stars and have been very con-sistent over the last 18 months and havegot a great winning mentality, but so havewe. "To come through the group as im-pressively as we did, you just never knowwhere you'll be in a month or two's timein terms of fitness and form."

AC Milan sporting director UmbertoGandini told www.uefa.com: "Last sea-son we faced them twice (the group stageand quarter-finals), this time only oncefortunately. We are now used to playingin Catalonia. "We are improving and I'm

sure we will continue to do so until Feb-ruary. "We face a perfect machine even ifthey had more problems than usual thisseason in the group stage. Let's just hopewe will qualify this time around. "This isthe highest hurdle we could face but if wemanage to pass it we can go all the way."Barca coach Tito Vilanova was havingcancer treatment on his parotid gland onThursday before under-going six weeks ofchemotherapy.Gandini saidin support:"We are allvery close toTito Vilanovaand his familyand we wishhim all the bestfor his sur-gery. "Wehope hewill beon theb e n c hagainstus."

United to face Real in UCL

LONDONAGEnCIES

CRISTIANO Ronaldo will returnto Manchester United with nine-times winners Real Madrid in

the Champions League round of 16 andLionel Messi's Barcelona take on ACMilan. Bayern Munich, last season'sbeaten finalists, play Arsenal and Juven-tus take on surprise qualifiers Celtic.

Big-spending Paris St Germain will faceValencia. But the fate of the two Spanishgiants in Thursday's draw at UeFAheadquarters attracted most interestand both were pitted against clubs withdecades of european experience.

Real, the Spanish champions, havebeen disappointing in La Liga this sea-son and they finished second in theirChampions League group behindBorussia Dortmund. But Ronaldo willbe desperate for Real to rise to the occa-sion against the club at which he wonthe european Cup in 2008 and devel-oped into a world-class forward.

Real manager Jose Mourinho, onceof Chelsea, will also come up against hisold rival Alex Ferguson. "I'm sure it'sgoing to be a special game for him(Ronaldo)," said emilio Butragueno, RealMadrid's director of institutional rela-tions. "I think the fans will be very, veryhappy with this very attractive, thrillingtie. "It will be a great experience for every-body." Barcelona are now 2-1 favouritesto win the Champions League althoughthey could hardly have picked a club withmore experience of success in europe inseven-times winners AC Milan when thecompetition resumes in mid-February.Messi has scored 90 goals in 2012 and hasfired Barcelona to a nine-point lead in LaLiga while Milan are 14 points adrift ofJuventus in Serie A and finished secondbehind Malaga in their group.

ronaldo returnsto Man united inChampions League

LEEDSAGEnCIES

Chelsea brought a ray of light to a largelymiserable December when they reachedthe Capital One (League) Cup semi-finalsafter a 5-1 triumph at second tier LeedsUnited on Wednesday. The Londoners,dumped out of the Champions League asholders and beaten in the Club World Cupfinal already this month as dubious fansadjust to interim boss Rafa Benitez, wenta goal down before storming back to setup a last-four tie with Swansea City.

Leeds, rivals of Chelsea after a seriesof fractious games between the sides sincean infamous 1970 FA Cup final, wentahead on 37 minutes through LucianoBecchio after Chelsea defender DavidLuiz had again charged up field and lostthe ball. Chelsea, who had numerouschances in a rain-hit first half, struck backthrough Juan Mata just after the break

when his shot from the edge of the boxfollowing a fine move foxed the goal-keeper. Branislav Ivanovic headed in

Frank Lampard's corner at the near postto make it 2-1 on 64 minutes and forwardVictor Moses soon increased the leadwhen he fired in after a mazy run. edenHazard then latched on to David Luiz'slong pass before Fernando Torres com-pleted the scoring for a strong Chelsealineup, who host Villa in the PremierLeague on Sunday lying third.

Swansea, Villa and fourth tier Brad-ford City, who stunned Arsenal, had al-ready progressed to the last four last weekas they chase england's secondary knock-out trophy which provides a europaLeague berth. Chelsea are at home toSwansea in the first leg in the week start-ing January 7 while Bradford host Villa.The second legs take place in the weekcommencing January 21.

"The reaction in the second half wasfantastic, especially with travelling backfrom Japan (World Club Cup) and havingjet lag," Benitez told Sky Sports television.

Chelsea hit back to thumpLeeds in League Cup

farah hassurpassed thegreats: Salazar

LONDONAGEnCIES

Mo Farah's double gold at London 2012was the greatest distance runningachievement in history, according to hiscoach Alberto Salazar. The Briton claimedboth the 10,000 and 5,000 metres titlesat the Olympic Stadium. And Salazarreckons the level of competition at themoment means the 29-year-old's feateclipses those of Lasse Viren, who wonboth crowns in 1972 and 1976, and emilZatopek, who also won the marathon in along-distance treble in 1952. "I would saythat he did it against better competitionthan has ever been done before," Salazartold Radio 5 Live's 'Super Coaches' pro-gramme. "There is clearly no doubt. Iknow Viren did it twice, I know others didit before that, Zatopek and so forth, (but)distance running now is more competitiveby far than it ever has been before.


Singapore Cycling gets fitted outSINgAPORE: Fitskuul is an independent bike fit prac-tice and cycling knowledge broker and the company willnow work with the OCBC Singapore Pro Cycling Team asthey plan to compete in 25 races in 2013, including theTour de Langkawi in February. The OCBC Singapore ProCycling Team is in its second season and the team reliesheavily on external support from corporate partners.Among the bike fitting technology Fitskuul brings to thetable is Retul which uses infrared light emitting diodes(LeDs) to precisely track a rider's movement. Fromthere, dynamic real time data can be collected by the sys-tem to help Fitskuul optimize a rider's position. AGEnCIES

Sports 18


watch it LiveESPNSports Center07:30PM

NEW YORKAGEnCIES

Tiger Woods insists it is far too early tobe talking up any kind of rivalry betweenhimself and Rory McIlroy. McIlroy now

holds the title of undisputed worldnumber one after claiming four PGATour victories - including a major, the

PGA Championship - in 2012. Sucha position was long held by Woodsand with the American finding hisfeet once more with three wins ofhis own this year, the pair areoften said to have a burgeoning ri-

valry. However, Woods believes until the pairhave gone head to head in a major event, talksof any great rivalry are premature. "Rory McIl-roy had a wonderful year, and my hat is off tohim," Woods wrote on his official blog. "Hedeserved Player of the Year.

"Whether we develop a rivalry remains tobe seen. Let's just let it play out and see whereit takes us. We'll look at the results the nextfive or 10 years and see if it becomes a rivalryor not. "We'll have to win big events and playeach other down the stretch. That hasn't hap-pened yet. We've only played each other atHonda down the stretch. "We need a lot moreof those type of battles, but in bigger events."

fitness scare forSerena williams

NEW YORKAGEnCIES

Serena Williams has undergone surgeryon both big toes, raising question marksabout her fitness for next month's Aus-tralian Open. The American, who domi-nated the second half of the 2012 season,has withdrawn from a scheduled exhibi-tion match in Thailand at the end of thismonth following last week's "minor proce-

dure". A doctor's letter saidWilliams "was treated fora chronic foot disorderwhich involved minor

procedures on bothof her great toes."The Wimbledonand US Openchampion hadbeen due to faceVictoriaAzarenka inHua Hin onDecember 29

but that willnot now hap-pen. Li Na

has beendrafted in to re-

place her. Williams' nextscheduled appearance is

at the Brisbane Interna-tional, which begins on

December 30.The AustralianOpen, a tour-

namentWilliams has won

five times, beginson January 14.

oneasia Tour to hostqualifying school

FLORIDAAGEnCIES

The OneAsia golf circuit will hold a quali-fying school in California next month tocater for the growing number of Asiangolfers based on the U.S. west coast, thetour said on Wednesday. The final stageof the American Q-school would takeplace at the Industry Hills Golf Club atPacific Palms from Jan. 29 to Feb. 1, thetour said in a statement. There will alsobe a final stage school taking place inMalaysia the following week. "As we enterour fifth season, there has been phenom-enal interest in OneAsia from around theworld and we feel that holding one of ourQ-School tournaments in the UnitedStates will satisfy that demand," OneA-sia's Chairman and Commissioner SangY. Chun said in a statement. "With ourtournaments all offering a minimumpurse of around $1 million, it is hardlysurprising that interest in OneAsia hasspread outside the region. In just fouryears we have become a major golf brandwith international recognition." Chunsaid holding a qualifying tournament inCalifornia made sense as more Asia-Pa-cific players were going to college on theU.S. western seaboard. It also offers facil-ities generally unavailable in Korea andnorthern China during the winter.

Woods plays down McIlroy rivalry

MEBLURNEAGEnCIES

AUSTRALIAN Open organisers increasedprize money for the early losers at theopening grand slam of the season torecord levels on Thursday, a move which

is likely to quell player unrest and end talk of a strike.The Australian Open will now pay more prize moneyper round than any other tournament, with increasesalso coming in doubles and qualifying matches, butmixed doubles saw a money freeze.

The biggest increases were for first round losersin the men's and women's singles, who will now re-ceive A$27,600 ($29,000), representing a 32.7 per-cent boost from 2012, with those exiting in the secondround taking home $45,500, up 36.6 percent. Themove is likely to appease the players council, led by17-times grand slam champion Roger Federer, whohad been calling for more revenue from the four elitetournaments to be passed down to those hitting theshots. "Our motivation is to make a major contribu-tion toward helping ensure professional tennis playerscan make a decent living," Craig Tiley, the AustralianOpen tournament director, said in a statement.

"As we have said in the past, it is a real issue andneeds to be urgently addressed throughout the sport."In October, Tiley's team announced that the playerswould be vying for a share of a record A$30 millionfor the Jan. 14-27 event without giving the breakdownof how that money would be divided. Serbia's NovakDjokovic and Victoria Azarenka of Belarus pocketedA$2.3 million each for their singles successes and arepeat next month in Melbourne would give themA$2.43 million. While the multi millionaires at the topof the game will appreciate the extra rewards, theplayers scrambling to make the top 100 of the men'sand women's rankings and those who mainly competein doubles will be happier. At the 2012 event, Israelidoubles veterans Jonathan erlich and Andy Ramshared A$9,500 for their first-round loss to the Amer-ican Bryan brothers, offering little in the way of win-nings once expenses had been taken into account. Asimilar result next month will see the pair collectA$12,500. "That is why the biggest increases are in theearlier rounds, qualifying and doubles which in effectrewards a lot of the lower-ranked players for their

achievements which, by the way, should not be under-sold," "To just reach the main draw of a slam, a pro-fessional tennis player has to be among the top 100 inwhat is one of, if not the most, competitive profes-sional sport in the world," Tiley added.

"At the same time, we also still want tocontinue to recognise the incredible drawingpower and contribution of the top players."On Monday, the men's governing body, theATP, gave a lukewarm response to the U.S.Open increasing prize money for the 2013edition by $4 million to a record $29.5 million."The ATP remains committed to continuing dis-cussions on this issue, with the objective of ensur-ing that the players' share of the revenues at theU.S. Open truly reflects the value that they gener-ate for the event," the body said. Tiley said histeam had been in full discussion with the playersand tours before announcing their increases withmore likely to come "It is always a balance whichis why we undertook unprecedented consultationon this subject with the tours and players whohave been extremely supportive," Tiley said.

Australian Openprize money raisedto record levels

LONDONAGEnCIES

If they hoped Andy Murray would have aPied Piper effect after emerging as a grandslam champion, those who run British ten-nis have been sorely disappointed after fig-ures revealed the country's crumblingpublic courts are standing empty.

While world number three Murray'smagnificent year and the rise of two youngwomen into the top 50 has put a healthygloss on 2012, the Lawn Tennis Association(LTA), so often hounded for a perceivedfailure to grow the sport, is under fire again.

Sport england, the government bodywhich distributes money to grassrootssport, announced this week that the LTAwas in danger of having its funding dras-tically reduced unless participation levelsbegin to rise. "They need a stronger plan,they need the right skills to deliverit andthey need to have feedback so they knowwhat is working and change it fast if it'snot working," Sport england's chief exec-

utive Jennie Price said after announcingthe winners and losers in its 493 millionpounds handouts. The LTA, which also en-joys a considerable windfall from Wimble-don profits, received 24.5 million poundsfrom Sport england for the period 2009-13 but over the next four years the amountavailable to tennis will fall to 17.4 millionpounds. Of that figure 10.3 million poundsis being ring-fenced and will only be re-leased if the LTA shows it can capitalise onMurray's U.S. Open and Olympic tri-umphs by enticing the country's youth topick up a tennis racket during 2013.

Sport england figures said that thetotal number of people playing tennis for30 minutes each week had dropped 10 per-cent since 2008 despite the millions at thedisposal of the LTA through Wimbledonprofits and government funding.

While acknowledging the LTA's suc-cesses over the past year, Sport englandsaid it had to prove it was doing enough tocontinue growing the numbers swinging aracket. "The LTA has taken a while to grasp

that is a different market place now and youhave to build participation despite so muchcompetition out there. "You can't justshout, 'I am tennis, here's my product', the

sport has to start instead understandingwhat their customer wants. It has taken theLTA some time to understand this."

"For the first time we have created aspecific fund to reward success by (NationalGoverning Bodies) who prove they cangrow their sports. This is about backingwinners," she added. Murray's success overthe past five years has masked a lack ofdepth among British men with the next bestranked player being Jamie Baker down at246. France have 10 players inside the top100. even Murray's rise is often used as astick to beat the LTA as the Scot packed hisbags for Spain as a teenager in order tomaximise his talent rather than continuewith a British system mired in mediocrity.

Thanks to the rise of Heather Wat-son and Laura Robson, the women's out-look is brighter although a commonthread at many junior tournamentsaround the country is a noticeable lackof young girls competing. The LTA saidit would continue pushing the sport atgrassroots and elite level.

LTA told to cash in on Murray effect

NEW yORK: Another day, anotheraward for both Rory McIlroy andRoger Chapman. They have landedPlayer of the Year awards from theGolf Writers Association of Americaalong with women's world numberthree Stacy Lewis. The announcementcomes 24 hours after McIlroy won the european Tour Golferof the Year title and 53-year-old Chapman, surprise winnerof back-to-back majors on the US senior tour, was given hon-orary life membership of the european circuit. AGEnCIES

mcilroy wins writers’ gong


Published by Arif Nizami at Qandeel Printing Press, 4 Queens Road, Lahore. Editor: Arif Nizami friday, 21 December, 2012


CHIeF election Commissioner(CeC) Justice (r) Fakhruddin Gebrahim on Thursday said thetask of drawing up new con-

stituency boundaries in Karachi would becompleted in the light of Supreme Court’sorders despite reservations of the Mut-tahida Qaumi Movement.

On the other hand, MQM expressedserious concern over the move, saying thedelimitation was unfair, unconstitutionaland synonymous to pre-poll rigging.Talking to reporters on Thursday outsidethe eCP, MQM’s Farooq Sattar said de-limitation in Karachi was a conspiracy tostage a conflict between various commu-nities living in the metropolis.

“Why is Karachi being singled outfor delimitation? If it’s necessary for freeand fair elections, we demand new con-

stituencies across the country,” theMQM lawmaker said. “There is no needfor delimitation in Karachi alone,” headded. Sattar said that MQM had chal-lenged the delimitation process in thecity, adding that new census was neces-sary for delimitation. He said the movewould be worst for peace in the city.

He said the eCP was working on thedelimitation issue against the writtenstance and retracting from its stance dueto pressure. Meanwhile, Pakistan Mus-lim League-Nawaz leader Zafar IqbalJhagra said his party supported new de-limitation in Karachi.

Talking to reporters, Jhagra said thedevelopment would be beneficial for allcitizens of Karachi. He said all politicalparties must support and stand by theSupreme Court and eCP decision of newdelimitation in Karachi.

The PML-N leader said the processof new delimitation in Karachi should be

completed before the general electionsso that it could not be used as an excuseto delay the polls.

earlier, CeC ebrahim chaired a con-sultative eCP meeting that reviewed is-sues of dual nationalities, correction ofelectoral rolls as well as delimitation ofconstituencies in Karachi in light of SCjudgment.

In the meeting, representatives of 15political parties, including the PPP,PML-N, PML-Q, MQM, JI, SunniTehreek, JUI-F, JUP and PTI discussedvarious important administrative mat-ters pertaining to upcoming general elec-tion.

MQM’s Farooq Sattar gave vent toparty’s reservations over delimitationsbefore the eCP meeting.

In reply to MQM’s objections, CeCebrahim said measures were beingtaken for delimitation in Karachi as or-dered by the apex court.

LAHOREUMAIR AZIZ

Thousands of polio workers in Punjab,mostly women, are still working without po-lice escorts with a fresh attack on teams inMultan exposing the government’s “indiffer-ence” despite incidents of gruesome killingsof vaccinators in Sindh and KhyberPakhtunkhwa.

After attacks on polio teams in Karachi,Peshawar and Charsadda, Interior MinisterRehman Malik told reporters that the gov-ernment had given directions to polio teamsto get police security before heading out onvaccination drives, which the victims appar-ently had not followed.

On Thursday, two female polio workershad to rush for cover to save their lives whenunidentified men opened fire on them inShah Faisal Colony in Multan district.

Lady health workers (LHWs) Khalidaand Aasia remained unhurt in the inci-dent that occurred in Shah Rukn-e-Alampolice precincts.

Multan SSP Operations Gohar Nafeesconfirmed the incident, saying the attackerswould soon be arrested.

However, he said the incident could notbe linked to firing incidents targeting polioworkers in Karachi and parts of KhyberPakhtunkhwa that had resulted in killings ofpolio workers.

The three-day polio drive concluded onWednesday (December 19), however, thetwo LHWs went to the residence of AmeerKhan Pathan to vaccinate his kids againstpolio on Thursday, a day reserved to immu-nise left out children.

The SSP said there might be a possibilitythat LHWs were not targeted and it was anincident of aerial firing probably meant to

scare them away.Statements of the two workers were

being recorded for legal action against theaccused, he added.

Sources in the Health Department toldPakistan Today that a polio team working inSamanabad area of Lahore had receivedthreats on Wednesday, prompting the ‘demor-alised’ lady health workers (LHWs) to go on astrike but they were later lured back to work.

Unfortunately Pakistan, with 56 cases ofpolio so far, remains one of the three coun-tries in the world where this preventablevirus still occurs, the other two beingAfghanistan and Nigeria. India despite hav-ing a huge population, completely eradicatedthe virus last year.

International agencies have alreadywarned that if the country fails to curb polioby June next year, international embargowill follow. According to the district healthauthorities, in Lahore alone, around 6,000individuals, around half of them women, areparticipating in the drive. The governmenthas decided to have one female member ineach team and they mostly include LHWs,officials from the education, revenue andother government departments.

Lahore Health eDO Inamul Haq said thepolio teams, especially females, feel threat-ened after the killings. “The parents don’tfeel like sending their girls on the drive be-cause of the obvious threat, but we have mo-tivated them. The incidents of threat byunidentified men in Samanabad also tookplace, but threats and refusals cannot dimin-ish our resolve to eradicate polio,” he said.

Talking to Pakistan Today, Punjab gov-ernment spokesman Senator Pervaiz Rashidsaid, “We will give complete security to thepolio teams and the Multan assailants havealready been arrested,” he said.

ISLAMABADKASHIF AbbASI

In one way or the other, the suffering of mo-torists will expectedly come to an end today (Fri-day) when the Supreme Court (SC) announcesits judgment in the CNG price case after havingheard all stakeholders over the issue.

A two-member SC bench headed by Jus-tice Jawwad S Khwaja reserved its judge-ment on Thursday after hearing all parties.

earlier, the Supreme Court had orderedslashing of CNG prices by Rs 30 and orderedOGRA to ensure there was no change ofprices until the matter was decided.

Following the orders, CNG retailers anddealers went on an unofficial strike, severelyaffecting routine life of motorists. However,once the judgment is announced, likely today(Friday), CNG dealers will have to open sta-tions. The CNG associations, through theircounsels, on Thursday requested the court tofix the price of CNG at Rs 73 per kilogramme.However, Justice Khwaja said, “Fixing theprices is OGRA’s job … we will not intervenein the independence of OGRA.”

A letter has been received by the SCwherein it is stated that CNG owners are stillreaping profit, he added. The court observedthat five years had passed but CNG stationowners were yet to fulfil the conditions de-lineated in the licences, adding that OGRAshould have cancelled all such licences.

Abid Hassan Manto, appearing on behalfof Sui Northern Gas Pipeline Limited(SNGPL), argued that the company only sup-plied gas to consumers, while the govern-ment fixed its prices. Salman Akram Rajacontended that in 2003-04, a benchmarkwas set that by 2011-12 the companies wouldbring unaccounted for gas (UFG) theft to alevel of 4.5. He said the SNGPL and SSGPLhad independent boards.

“The successive governments have plun-dered these companies for extraneous rea-sons.” Raja asked should the companies beallowed to do politics and the people let bur-dened by increased gas prices.

Upon this, Justice Khwaja said: “every-body is working to take money out from peo-ples’ pockets.”

CEC vows to go ahead withdelimitation in Karachig MQM calls move unconstitutional, PML-N backs SC, ECP order

Thousands of polio workersstill without security cover g Two polio vaccinators shot at in Multan

but remain safe

SC to say final wordon CNG prices today


19


e-paper pakistantoday 21st December, 2012

Documents

controversial bill

wantthis bill

pmln clauses

pmln andmqm

spyingbill g pmln

privacy of citizens

zahid hamid

g civil liberty