e-paper pakistantoday 24th July, 2012

tuesday, 24 July, 2012 Ramadan 4, 1433Rs 15.00 Vol iii no 29 19 pages

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Free, fair, transparentpolls my last mission:

Fakhruddin G Ebrahim

Pakistan rubbishestabloid’s Olympic visascam claims

islamabad — peshawar edition

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g Justice Chaudhry saysno ‘blanket immunity’under Article 248

g SC rejects federation’splea for full court formation

ISLAMABAD taYYaB HUssaIN

CHIEf Justice of Pakistan(CJP) Iftikhar MuhammedChaudhry on Monday saidthe court’s powers could notbe curtailed with any step of

the parliament while rejecting the feder-ation’s plea for formation of full court tohear the petitions against the recentlypassed contempt of court law, and di-rected the petitioners to complete theirarguments by today (Tuesday).

But a remark made by Chief JusticeIftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry mighthave jolted the Presidency that said thatunder Article 248 of the constitution, noone enjoyed “blanket cover of immunity”and the immunity was only restricted tothe official business.

A five-judge bench of the SupremeCourt comprising Justice Chaudhry, Jus-tice Shakirullah Jan, Justice Khilji ArifHussain, Justice Jawad S Khawaja andJustice Tassaduq Hussain Jillani heard thepetitions challenging amendments to thecontempt law. The federation was beingrepresented by Justice (r) Abdul ShakoorParacha. Paracha submitted that the noticeissued to him said of only 16 petitions;however, he has just come to know that 26petitions were pending before the courtover the issue. Hence, a full court shouldhear the case instead of five-judge bench.He also requested that due to its signifi-cance, the case should be heard by the full

court and that the federation should begiven a time of one to two weeks over thepetitions against the contempt law.

Responding to Paracha’s request, thechief justice said that the court had al-ready given ample time to the federation,adding that the issue was significant anda decision over it was important.

Moreover, Attorney General Irfan

Qadir requested the court for a period oftwo weeks. He said that a case such as theone against the contempt of court law hadnot been heard in the country’s history.

Justice Iftikhar said that a case of sim-ilar nature had been heard in the court in1996 by a four-judge bench headed byMian Ajmal Abbasi, the then chief justiceof the Supreme Court. The attorney gen-

eral read out the 1996 bench’s ruling andsaid that contempt of court laws have beenevolving in several parts of the world. Alsoduring the hearing, counsel for petitionerBaz Muhammad Kakar argued that the ju-diciary’s independence was guaranteed inthe preamble to the constitution.

Parliament cannot curtailjudiciary’s powers: CJP

Punjab IG’scompetenceon the line

ISLAMABADapp

The Supreme Court (SC) on Mondaydirected the federal and provincialgovernments to take appropriate actionagainst the Punjab inspector generalpolice, the DIG and other police officersinvolved in the investigation of the murderof a woman from Khanewal within threedays. A three-member SC bench, headed byChief Justice Iftikhar MuhammadChaudhry, resumed hearing into a suomotu case on the stoning of a woman todeath in Khanewal. Expressingdissatisfaction over the Punjab Policereport on the murder of the mother of five,the chief justice observed that the IG and

g Baloch militants claim responsibility forblast outside Chinese consulate in Karachi g Warn China to stop ‘exploiting Balochresources with Pakistan’s help’

KARACHIstaff report

At least three people wereinjured in a high-intensitybomb blast outside theChinese Consulate in oldClifton area of Karachi onMonday, officials said.Police said a bomb was fittedto a motorcycle that damagedseveral vehicles andmotorcycles outside theconsulate as it went off.Police, Rangers and Rescueteams rushed to the area andcordoned off the blast site.Area superintendent of policesaid a Rangers official wasamong the three peopleinjured in the blast. The blasttook place in a high securityzone are where a couple ofconsulates are located.The SP said the blast tookplace at the backside of theconsulate and an inquiry hadbeen ordered into theincident. Meanwhile, thebanned group Lashkar-e-Balochistan has claimedresponsibility for the attack onthe Chinese Consulate.Talking to private mediaoutlet through satellitetelephone from an

unidentified location, aspokesperson for the groupsaid the attack was a warningmessage for China toimmediately evacuateBalochistan and stop fleecingthe resources of Balochistanwith the support of Pakistan.He said China and otherinternational powers weresigning agreements withPakistan to plunder theresources of Balochistan,which were against the will ofBaloch people and they wouldnot accept any suchagreement and wouldcontinue resistance in future.Cautioning foreigners busy inexploring resources inBalochistan, the Lashkar-e-Balochistan spokesman saidthey would attack installationssetup by international powers,including China, inBalochistan. During a searchoperation in the surroundingarea later, authorities andrescue teams recoveredanother suspected motorcycleclose to the consulate that hadalso been fitted with a bomb.Officials said anotherpotential tragedy had beenavoided by recovering thebomb in time.

Continued on page 04Continued on page 04

Prime minister’s wordshave no effect, outages continue

ISB 24-07-2012_Layout 1 7/24/2012 12:40 AM Page 1

02tuesday, 24 July, 2012

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pHC orders safe accommodation for afghan couple olympics of sexism?

KARACHIaaMIr MajeeD

THOSE who call themselvesloyalists of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) have startedweighing options to join otherparties to carry on their political

journey, Pakistan Today learnt onMonday.In Sindh, the PTI has been divided intotwo groups after undemocratic decisionsof influential new comers, who allegedlyoccupied central and provincialleaderships within the party.The ancestors, who call themselvesloyalists of Imran Khan and PTI, havestarted approaching other political partiesafter one-sided, unjustified andundemocratic decisions by Imran.Interestingly, these were the companionsof Imran who led the foundation of thePTI some 17 years back, but they got fed-up with the party leadership over theremoval of some old PTI colleagues toappease new comers. On the other hand,common workers have also returned toother political parties from where theyonce started their political career. Theonly reason behind the disintegration ofthe PTI in Sindh is undemocratic decisionof the central and provincial leadership toappease new comers, party insiders said.Many day-one companions of Imran wereeither removed from PTI ranks or left theparty due to the stronghold of the newcomers, who the affected PTI workers call “opportunists”.Dr Hassan Raza was the PTI Sindhgeneral secretary and was removed fromhis post for violating party rules andpolicies.Dr Raza was sidelined from his offices forissuing statements in the press.Interestingly, Dr Arif Alvi also violatedpolicy and issued anti-Pakistan MuslimLeague-Nawaz statements in the press,but he escaped all party actions.Dr Raza narrated his story as under: “DrArif Alvi, PTI secretary general, hasissued a statement in a television talkshow that PML-N chief Nawaz Sharif andPunjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharifwere responsible for firing on ‘SindhMohabbat Rally’ and killing of over dozenpeople in Karachi. At that very time, I wassitting in another TV channel show andwhen the anchorperson asked me if Iagreed with Alvi’s claims, I said ‘no’.”“After a few days, I have been informed

that I was removed from the post of PTISindh general secretary. I haven’treceived any show cause notice from thePTI leadership, but Dr Alvi told me that Iwas removed from the party overviolation of policy. After a few days, I wasinformed by one of my companions in thePTI that my basic membership had alsobeen cancelled. I neither got any showcause notice for removal from the postnor did I receive any letter of cancellationof my basic membership.”“Imran Khan claims that PTI is ademocratic party but I was removed frommy office undemocratically. We servedday and night for preparation of the PTIconstitution but the new comers do notfeel any hesitation in violating partyrules.”“Per the PTI constitution, if any partyworker violates rules and regulation,he/she is served a show cause notice andif the respondent fails to clarify hisposition then he/she could be removedfrom his office. Then he/she is issuedwith a notice to elucidate to save his basicmembership and he/she again fail tojustify his position, then his membershipcould be cancelled. I gave precious 17years to the PTI and have now joinedPakistan Muslim League-functional(PML-f) to carry on my political journey.My suspension from office and basicmembership is unjustified and if PTI chiefImran Khan fails to provide me justice,how he can provide justice to 180 millionpeople of Pakistan,” he questioned.Another affected PTI leader, ex-JointSecretary PTI Karachi Division KamranMinhas told Pakistan Today that he wasremoved from office for holding a pressconference over Lyari operation.“I was the Joint Secretary of PTI KarachiDivision and I was removed from myoffice for raising voice against silence ofPTI over Lyari issue. I belong to Lyariand during operation in the town, Icalled central leadership to raise voiceagainst suspension of power, gas andwater as PTI has its vote bank in thetroubled town, but the central leadershipfailed to respond. Then the provincialleadership has decided to hold pressconference against Lyari operation andin that press briefing we demanded ofthe government to stop operation inLyari. PTI Sectary General in interviewto a TV channel claimed that PML-N isbehind causalities during SindhMohabbat Rally of Awami Tehreek.”

KARACHIaftaB CHaNNa

Owing to the ongoing energy crisis, par-ticularly that of the compressed naturalgas, it seems the long-pending multibil-lion rupee Benazir Bhutto TransportProgramme of 1,000 environment-friendly CNG buses will not materialisein the tenure of this government.

In year 2006-07, the federal gov-ernment had announced this importantproject at a cost of Rs 2.5 billion that in-creased manifold. However, it was de-layed following lack of interest on thepart of the Sindh government. Underthe said project, some 500 CNG buseswere to be introduced in Karachi byfebruary 2008 while at least 1,000buses were to be introduced in the en-tire province. Among them, 600 buseswere to ply on different intercity routesof the metropolitan, 100 on theKarachi-Sukkur route, 100 on Karachi-Hyderabad, and 50 each on the

Karachi-Larkana, Khairpur-Be-nazirabad and Mirpurkhas routes,sources told Pakistan Today.

Sources said following the attitudeof the authorities and the political hus-tle-bustle, the financier of the project,the Asian Development Bank, pulledout. Besides, the Centre also refused toprovide the promised subsidy of Rs700,000 per vehicle, citing “financialcrunch” as the reason. They said theSindh Transport Department had for-warded two requests to the Centre toprovide funding for the project. How-ever, the federal authorities showed re-luctance, citing “financial crisis” as thereason because the project would costRs 5 billion, they added.

The sources said had the transportprogramme materialised timely, thou-sands of skilled and unskilled youthswould have been employed. TheKarachi Metropolitan Corporation(KMC) had also recently completed allgroundwork to initiate the long-de-

layed, multi-billion project but the PPP-led government seemed reluctant toprovide the promised funds in themidst of the ongoing financial crunchas well as the recent energy crisis.

They said KMC AdministratorMuhammad Hussain Syed recentlywrote to the Environment Ministry di-rector general, apprising him that theproject was ready to kick off.

furthermore, the sources said thefederal government had informed theSindh government that the projectcould not be started because of a short-age of funds and the worst energy crisisin the country.

The government is instead mullingover removing CNG cylinders installedin the buses and vans to avoid furthercrisis, they added. During his visit toKarachi, President Asif Ali Zardari hadapproved three mega projects, includ-ing the CNG bus project for Karachi,which would be launched and overseenby the city government.

PTI Sindh loyalistsweighing options to join other partiesg ‘Undemocratic’ decisions to appease influential new comersleave old timers disappointed, in search for new political avenues

PPP govt unlikely to provide1,000 CNG buses to Sindh

IsLaMaBaD: Youths bathe in a stream near

rawal Dam on the third day of ramadan on

Monday. online



NewseditorialNo isolation, please

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Is the peace process fading out?

Dr faisal Bari says;Our labour market: The efficiency and equity factors

syed Hassan Belal Zaidi says;Morality plays: The problem with morality is that it is subjective. If we come up with a yardstickfor what is moral and what isn’t, TV channels would have a hard time selling us such garbage

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a tribute to ghazal maestro Mehdi Hassan Workers remit history afridi, gayle sign to australian Big Bash team

Load sheddingmaking life hell for Swatis

SWAT HarooN sIraj

Unending load shedding continues topester the people of Swat during the holymonth of Ramadan. Power remainedabsent for five hours at the time of Sehriand then again before Iftar sinceRamadan began. Not only this, there wasno electricity at the time of Tarawiheither.Widespread electricity outages aremaking the lives of the locals difficult. Asthe intensity of the heat increases, so doesload shedding and there is no one to go tofor help. When Pakistan Today contactedlocal MPA and Minister for forestryWajid Ali Khan, he said he condemnedexcessive load shedding in Swat and hadcontacted the WAPDA chief executive andfederal water and petroleum minister inthis regard. “We demanded theauthorities give Swat the sameimportance they give Islamabad withregards to load shedding and asked themto provide us a proper scheduled,” Khansaid. When contacted Swat AC PirAlamzeb for his stance on theunprecedented load shedding, he said, “Idon’t know about the load shedding issue.Please contact WAPDA XEN… he willprovide you better information.” Whenan executive-level officer of WAPDA hasthis kind of attitude towards the problemsof the people, where will the already-stressed masses go for the redressal oftheir grievances? But then the Swat ACwas right when he said he did not knowanything about load shedding. How wouldhe when his house and office are suppliedelectricity uninterrupted round the clock.

ISLAMABADageNCIes

THE government has again goneback on its promises to the nationregarding end to load shedding in

the holy month of Ramadan, PakistanTehreek-e-Insaaf Chairman Imran Khansaid on Monday.

In a statement issued by the PTI,Imran said the government had claimedit would control load shedding and rising

prices during the holy month, but theyhad been unable to do so.

“Load shedding has returned tohaunt the people and rising prices of es-sential commodities has also added totheir misery. In fact, electricity, CNG andpetroleum prices have all been raised dur-ing this month. The reason for this mas-sive load shedding is corruption, poorgovernance, bad planning and the peoplehave had to endure the consequent in-competence of these rulers,” Imran said.

The PTI chief said the electricity problemwas to some extent self created, addingthat the circular debt could have been re-duced had the present governmentswitched to coal from furnace oil. Headded that a subsidy of over one trillionrupees had been paid, electricity tariff hadbeen doubled but no solutions had beenfound to the electricity crisis.

Imran said the energy crisis had beencreated due to the present prime minis-ter’s rental power scam of loot and plun-

der. “It is because of corruption that anyand every plan proposed by this govern-ment to solve the energy crisis has neverbeen implemented. Zardari as well as thePML-N leadership have one purpose andthat was not to resolve the problem butto look for business opportunities,” thePTI chief said.

Imran added that if the power situ-ation remained unresolved, the rulingelite should be ready to face the wrathof the people.

Govt didn’t honour Ramadan promises: Imran

Govt to introducelocal governmentsystem in FATA

ISLAMABADapp

The government has decided to introducethe local government system in the federallyAdministered Tribal Areas. According to aprivate news channel, the ordinance isexpected to be announced on August 14.During the democratic period, local bodies’election could not be held in any province.But the federal government has decided tointroduce the local bodies’ system in fATA.

lawyers boycottcourts to protestcontempt law

ISLAMABAD oNLINe

Lawyers protested against the newcontempt of court law by boycotting courtproceedings across the country on Monday.Media reports said lawyers boycotted courtproceedings in all major cities, includingLahore, Karachi, Peshawar, faisalabad,Quetta, Multan, Sukkur, Gujranwala andMianwali to protest changes to thecontempt law. The lawyers lamented thatthe bill was passed to provide protection toa few people, adding that the new contemptof court bill had undermined the freedomof judiciary. The lawyers said the legalfraternity and the masses had rejected thebill. The lawyers said those harping on thetune of democracy, including the president,prime minister and the forces behind theissue of missing Pakistanis’ were the realelements responsible for recent tiradeagainst the judiciary. “The present saga isto undermine the independent judiciaryand judges,” they added.

Railways restores10 trains

ISLAMABADapp

Pakistan Railways (PR) on Mondayrestored 10 of 22 suspended passengertrains. After acquiring additional engines,the cash-strapped Railways department islikely to restore 12 more passenger trains ithad suspended owing to lack of resources.Trains traveling from Lahore to Jaranwala,Lahore to Shorkot and four nonstopLahore to faisalabad trains have beenrestored, officials said. Quoting sources, PRwas also planning to operate oil trains totransport furnace oil to IPPs.



News

afghan soldiershoots twoUS troops KABUL: An Afghan armysoldier turned his gun on hisNATO colleagues Monday in-juring two US troops, officialssaid, just a day after a local po-liceman killed three foreigntrainers in a similar attack.The incident in the northernprovince of faryab is the latestin a series of so-called “green-on-blue” attacks involvingmembers of the Afghan na-tional security forces targetingtheir NATO allies. “An Afghanarmy soldier opened fire onUS soldiers inside a militarybase... and injured two US sol-diers. The attacker was killedin return fire,” faryab’s deputyprovincial governor AbdulSatar Barez told AfP. NATO’sUS-led International SecurityAssistance force, to whichmost of the 130,000 Westerntroops in Afghanistan are at-tached, confirmed the incidentbut refused to give informa-tion on casualties. AFP

BAgHDADafp

Awave of attacks acrossIraq on Monday killed107 people in the

country’s deadliest day inmore than two years after alQaeda warned it wouldmount new attacks andsought to retake territory.

Officials said at least 214people were wounded in 27different attacks launched in18 cities, shattering a relativecalm which had held in thelead-up to the start on Satur-day of the holy Muslim fast-ing month of Ramadan.

In Monday’s deadliest at-tack — a string of roadsidebombs and a car bomb fol-lowed by a suicide attack tar-geting emergency respondersin the town of Taji — at least42 people were killed and 40wounded, according to twomedical officials.

“I heard explosions in thedistance so I left my houseand I saw a car outside,” said40-year-old Taji resident AbuMohammed, who added thatpolice inspectors concludedthe vehicle was a car bomb.

“We asked the neigh-bours to leave their houses,but when they were leaving,the bomb went off.”

Abu Mohammed said hewitnessed the deaths of anelderly woman carrying anewborn baby and of the po-liceman who had first con-cluded the car was packedwith explosives.

An AfP reporter at thescene said a row of houseswere completely destroyed,and residents were rummag-ing through the rubble insearch of victims and their be-longings. In Baghdad, mean-while, a car bomb outside agovernment office responsiblefor producing identity papersin the Shiite bastion of SadrCity killed at least 12 peopleand wounded 22 others, secu-rity and medical officials said.

“This attack is a terriblecrime against humanity, be-cause they did it during Ra-madan, while people arefasting,” said one elderly wit-ness who declined to be iden-tified. An AfP journalist saideight nearby cars were badlyburned and many of the vic-tims of the 9:30 am (0630GMT) attack could not beidentified because their paperswere inside the offices thatwere targeted. Two other ex-plosions in the Baghdad neigh-bourhoods of Husseiniyah andYarmuk killed at least four peo-ple and left 24 others wounded,

while a car bomb in the town ofTarmiyah, just north of Bagh-dad, hurt nine people, officialssaid. Checkpoint shootings andbomb blasts in restive ethni-cally-mixed Diyala provincekilled 11 people and left 40 oth-ers wounded, security officialsand doctor Ahmed Ibrahimfrom the main hospital inprovincial capital Baquba said.

Insurgents also launchedattacks on a military base nearthe town of Dhuluiyah, killingat least 15 Iraqi soldiers andleaving two others wounded,according to two security offi-cials. Two other attacks in thesame province — a shooting ata checkpoint and a car bombnear a Shiite mosque — leftthree people dead and sixwounded, officials said.

Nine bomb blasts, some ofthem minutes apart, mean-while killed seven people andwounded 29 in Kirkuk cityand the eponymous province’stowns of Dibis and Tuz Khur-matu. Three different attacks— a car bomb, a roadside blastand a shooting — in the mainnorthern city of Mosul and thenearby town of Baaj left ninepeople dead and sevenwounded, according to Iraqiarmy first Lieutenant WaadMohammed and police Lieu-tenant Mohammed al-Juburi.

Punjab IG’scompetence

other investigation officersdid not deserve to occupysuch important positionsmeant for protection of thefundamental rights andsecurity of the citizens. “Thefederal and provincialgovernments should lookinto the matter and examinewhether such police officersshould continue to work onthese posts or not,” the courtsaid. “It is duty of theexecutive to move againstthose who are failing toprotect the fundamentalrights of the people,” the CJPobserved. Earlier, IG HajiHabibur Rehman presentedthe report before the benchthat was rejected by the CJP,who said the police had nottaken prompt action againstthe killers. Punjab AdvocateGeneral Ashtar Osafrequested the court to giveanther chance to the police tocarry a fresh probe into thecase. The bench, however,denied the request. The courtalso directed the IG and theDPO to provide securitycover to the victim’s familybefore disposing of the casefor further action.

ISLAMABADapp

The country’s first independ-ent chief election commis-sioner was sworn into officeon Monday, as he reiteratedto hold the upcoming generalelection in a free, fair, impar-tial and transparent manner.

“It is my last mission.May Allah grant me successin my mission,” fakhruddinG Ebrahim commented dur-ing a brief talk with reportersafter taking oath as the CEC.

Chief Justice of PakistanIftikhar MuhammadChaudhry administered theoath at a ceremony held at theSupreme Court building. “Ithas been my dream to presenta prosperous and democraticPakistan to our new genera-tion,” the new commissionersaid. “We have only one pointagenda and that is public jus-tice through free, fair, trans-parent and impartial electionsso that no one should ever beable to raise finger on its im-partiality and all employees ofthe ECP should work toachieve that goal.”

He said, “It is a challenge.

Either we take it as a missionor forget it. But this success isimperative for the whole na-tion. It is my last wish. Weneed to do it and it will bedone.”

fakhruddin said allarrangements were at handand the ECP was ready forgeneral election.

“But the decision to holdthe election has to come fromthe government. The ECP isprepared for polls as stated bymy predecessor. But, underthe constitution, the decisionhas to be made by the PM andthe government,” he said.

The CEC said his state-ment about early election washis personal view. “Now I ama public property. Whenever Iam given a task, I have per-formed well. I have a goodteam at Election Commissionand things will be better.”

When asked about thereservations of the parlia-mentarians about new code ofconduct, the CEC said, “I havenot seen it yet. Why are you ina hurry? You need not worry.”But, at the same time he saidthe ECP was bound by the de-cisions of the Supreme Court.

Upon which, Justice Jilanisaid that contempt of courtlaws were an extension of theconcept of rule of law. Hemoreover said that as long assystem of justice prevailed,laws pertaining to contemptof court would continue toexist. The chief justice saidthat only constitutionallyvalid changes could be madein the law regarding con-tempt of court.

The chief justice furthersaid no act by the parliament

can slash the jurisdiction ofthe judiciary, elaborating thatsome measures mentioned in1973 Constitution were ex-empted from the definition ofcontempt of court. However,this exemption was abolishedwith the 18th Amendment, headded. Subsequently, thecourt directed the petitionersto conclude their argumentsby Tuesday and adjournedthe hearing. The contempt ofcourt law had been hurriedlypassed by the ruling govern-ment in a bid to protect theincumbent prime minister

from facing the same fate ashis predecessor.

The law exempts “holdersof public office” from the mis-chief of contempt in “exerciseof powers and performance offunctions” and allows for sus-pension of a sentence duringthe pendency of an appeal.The main opposition party inthe National Assembly, thePML-N, had objected to thepassage of the law saying itwas not sent to relevantstanding committees for de-liberations.The peTiTions: In all,

there are 26 petitions againstthe act and one of the peti-tioners, Baz MuhammadKakar, contends that Section3(i) of the new act curtailedthe power and jurisdiction ofthe court under Article204(2) of the constitution topunish ‘any person’ whoabused, interfered with or ob-structed the process of thecourt in any way or disobeyedany order of the court.

It also violated Article 25which guaranteed equal pro-tection of the laws, he said. Apetition filed on behalf of the

Save Judiciary Movement byAdvocate Hashmat Habibpleads that the law should bestruck down because it goesagainst the Quran and Sun-nah and that the Contempt ofCourt Ordinance of 2003 berestored.

Justice Jawad S Khawajaremarked that all petitionersin 26 petitions have re-quested the court to set asidethe Contempt of Court Act2012 except the plea of Pak-istan Bar Council.

Justice Tassaduq Jillaniremarked that he was con-

cerned about the administra-tion of justice, adding, “If ourjudgements are not regarded,how would the administra-tion of justice be possible?”During proceedings, the chiefjustice remarked that thecontempt of court law couldonly be changed within thelimits of article 204 of theconstitution. PetitionersIkram Chaudhry, M Zafar,Mahmood Akhtar Naqvi alsocompleted their argumentswith regard to the amend-ments to the contempt ofcourt law.

ISLAMABADoNLINe

Dr Arsalan Iftikhar, SalmanAhmed (son-in-law of MalikRiaz) and his business partnerAhmed Khalil on Monday ex-cused themselves from appear-ing before a joint investigationteam (JIT) of National Ac-countability Bureau (NAB).

The five-member JIT isheaded by NAB’s financialCrime Wing Director GeneralKosar Iqbal Malik.

NAB had issued notices tothe Islamabad inspector gen-eral police (IGP) and PunjabIGP to ensure the presence ofthe three men involved in theDr Arsalan saga on Monday

without failure. However, allthree parties failed to show up.Arsalan had excused from ap-pearing before the JIT for hav-ing reservations over AttorneyGeneral Irfan Qadir and theNAB investigation team. In hisearlier petition, Arsalan hadsaid that the “attorney generalhas misinterpreted the court’sverdict and the team formedby the NAB is illegal”.

According to NABspokesperson, Salman Ahmedhad said in a fax message sentfrom the UK that he was re-ceiving life threats and it wasnot possible for him to travelto Pakistan for the case.Salman, however, agreed torecord his statement from

abroad. Ahmed Khalil in hisletter informed the JIT that hewas undergoing medical treat-ment at a hospital in Germany.In view of the absence, noticeunder Section 19 was onceagain issued for ArsalanIftikhar to appear before theJIT on July 26. The notice wasalso been issued to Dr faqirHussain, the Supreme Courtregistrar, for a personal ap-pearance on Jul 25.

Riaz, the real estate tycoon,has already recorded his state-ment before the NAB JIT inwhich he made a number ofcrucial disclosures. NAB hadalso decided to contact authori-ties in Britain and the UnitedArab Emirates to obtain all re-

lated documents of the case, in-cluding payments made throughcredit cards. Meanwhile, Dr Ar-salan on Monday said he hadnot received a notice from NABto appear before the JIT.

Talking to a private TVchannel, Arsalan said he waswaiting for the notice, addingthat he did not have faith inthe investigation team andwould also inform them ofthis. On the other hand, In-terior Adviser Rehman Malikhas submitted an applicationwith the SC to become partyin the Arsalan Iftikhar re-view case. The petition wassubmitted by the advocateon record on behalf ofRehman Malik.

Parliament cannot curtail judiciary’s powers: CJP

Continued fRom page 01

Continued fRom page 01

MonIToRIng DeSK

Scores of fresh artilleryrounds fired from Pakistanhit parts of easternAfghanistan on Sunday nightand Monday, a local officialsaid, according to the Wash-ington Post.

The shelling comes a dayafter Kabul warned Islamabadthat any further cross-bordershelling could significantlydamage ties between the twohistorically uneasy neighbors.There were no casualties fromthe overnight barrage thatmostly hit the Dangam districtof eastern Kunar province.Earlier in the weekend, fourcivilians were killed in shellingthere, said Wasifullah Wasifi,

a spokesman for Kunar’s gov-ernor. In western Afghanistan,a gunman in an Afghan secu-rity forces uniform on Sundayshot and killed three civiliancontractors working with theUS-led NATO coalition.

five coalition troops werekilled by roadside bombs dur-ing the weekend in otherparts of the country. KunarPolice Chief Ewaz Moham-mad Naziri said 1,960 shells,mostly artillery rounds, hadhit various districts of theprovince in recent months.Pakistan denies that accusa-tion. It comes a few days afterPrime Minister Raja PervezAshraf met Afghan PresidentHamid Karzai in Kabul to dis-cuss joint efforts for persuad-

ing Taliban insurgents inAfghanistan to join peacetalks and end the cross-bor-der shelling. On Sunday,deputy Afghan foreign minis-ter Jawed Ludin met Pak-istan’s ambassador to Kabuland issued a warning.

“Any continuation ofsuch reported shellingagainst Afghan villages couldhave a significant negativeimpact on bilateral rela-tions,” Ludin told Ambassa-dor Mohammad Sadiq, theforeign ministry reported.The two sides agreed to holda senior-level meeting of mil-itary officials soon to discussthe shelling and improvemilitary coordination alongthe border region.

107 killed in Iraq’sdeadliest day in 2 yrs

3 main accused in Arsalansaga fail to turn up before nAB

Kabul alleges more cross-bordershelling from Pakistan

Free, fair polls mylast mission: new CeC

QUsaYr: a wounded syrian girl flashing the victory sign on Monday. syrian troops were locked in fighting with armed rebels in

parts of Damascus and aleppo, as arab nations offered president Bashar al-assad a ‘safe exit’ if he gave up power. AFP

Dear DeparteDmother of online news network

editor afzal bajwa passed away

in lahore after protracted ill-

ness on Sunday. She was laid to

rest in her ancestral graveyard in

Sheikhupura. She is survived by

her husband Ghulam Hassan

bajwa, three sons, arshad bajwa

advocate, afzal bajwa and dr

aslam bajwa and daughter

farkhanda Yasmeen. Pakistan

today editor arif nizami has of-

fered his condolences to the be-

reaved family.


tuesday, 24 July, 2012

05

PeSHAWARsHaMIM sHaHID

ACCEPTING the plea fortheir safety and protection,the Peshawar High Courton Monday directed policeto providing respectable,

safe and protective conditions to anAfghan couple until the next date ofhearing, while directing police to estab-lish contacts with Afghan Consulatethrough the foreign Office.

The court also ordered quashing thefIR registered against the couple, Hai-wad and Maryam, lodged at Mirpur po-lice station, Abbottabad.

The couple reportedly reached Ab-bottabad a month ago and an fIR wasregistered by police against them on areport by Mohammad Ishaq, brother ofMaryam.

Prior to the announcement, the Pe-shawar High Court bench of Chief Jus-tice Dost Mohammad Khan and JusticeShah Jehan Akhunzada ordered actionunder section 54 of CrPC against Ishaq,brother of Maryam for possessing a fakeregistration card, which according tohim was provided by Badhabher police.

In accordance with court directives,Ishaq was arrested from the court roomand shifted to East Cantonment policeStation.

The couple was produced in court byAbbottabad police on Monday.

The two recorded their statement,

narrating the tale of their love marriage,while Ishaq, brother of Maryam, in-formed the court that Maryam was al-ready married to Abdul Rehman whohad been left paralyzed by a stroke. Healso produced a four-year-old girl, Sana,in the court, who he said was the daugh-ter of Maryam.

However, the couple rejected Ishaq’s

claims, pleading for protection as therewas serious threat to their life both inAfghanistan and Pakistan.

After hearing statements of bothsides, the court set aside the allegationsof Ishaq and said the claim of Maryam’smarriage could not be established andordered Cantt SP Shabir for providing aprotective house for the accommodation

of the couple.Police assured to arrange a safe and

suitable accommodation for the couple.The court also directed the police to es-tablish contact with Peshawar-basedAfghan Consul General for shifting thecouple to Afghanistan.

The court adjourned hearing untilJuly 31.

PHC orders safe accommodationfor Afghan coupleg rules contention of maryam’s prior marriage cannot be establishedg directs police to contact afghan consul general for couple’s repatriation to afghanistan

neW DeLHIafp

The head of one of the most importantMuslim shrines in India has complainedabout Bollywood stars misusing the siteto pray for their “sinful” films to be com-mercially successful.

Zainul Abedin Ali Khan, who leadsthe organisation in charge of the Ajmershrine in Rajasthan, said that celebritypilgrims were appealing for movies thatoften featured immoral subjects that in-sulted Islam.

“Many film stars come here with (a)CD or DVD of their work and offer itwhile praying for the success of the filmor serial, whatever it is, which is ab-

solutely against the Islamic law,” Khantold reporters in Ajmer on Sunday.

“They are using the holy place, aprime centre of religious belief, for purelycommercial purposes and for degradingmoral values among people,” the PressTrust of India news agency quoted him assaying.

The shrine to sufi saint Muin-ud-dinChishti, who died in Ajmer in the 13thcentury, is one of south Asia’s most im-portant pilgrimage sites, attracting mil-lions of Muslim and non-Muslimdevotees from around the world everyyear.

Khan did not name any stars, butglamorous actresses Katrina Kaif and Ka-reena Kapoor, veteran leading man

Amitabh Bachchan and heartthrob ShahRukh Khan are among many Bollywoodpersonalities to have visited in the past.

“Most of the films today are full of ob-scenity, double meaning words and ex-pressions,” Khan explained. “It is hatefuland sinful.

“I strongly condemn and object to thevisit of film actors, actresses, directorsand producers to the dargah (shrine) toseek blessings for such things which aretaboo.” Khan also complained that an un-named male singer-composer visited theshrine wearing a burqa and that a leadingactress offered prayers while dressed in askirt.

“This is to attract attention and it ishighly objectionable,” he said.

indian film stars accused of misusing Dargah Ajmer Sharif

QUetta: a shopkeeper pours perfume into small bottles at his shop on Monday. the sale of locally made Itr or perfume rises

during ramadan. inP

Freedom of mediaand democracy‘inseparable’: PM

ISLAMABADapp

Prime Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf onMonday said the democraticgovernment was a staunch supporter ofthe freedom of media and had scrappedthe draconian laws introduced in thepast to curb it. He expressed theseviews during a presentation given tohim by the Ministry of Information andBroadcasting at the Prime Minister’sHouse here. The briefing was attendedby Minister for Information andBroadcasting Qamar Zaman Kaira, theinformation secretary and heads ofattached departments of the ministry.The prime minister said the freedom ofthe media and democracy wereinseparable, adding that thegovernment would ensure free debate,which was critical for the evolution of apluralistic society. He directed state-owned media to give enhanced coverageto all political parties including theopposition, both in news and currentaffairs programmes. Ashraf praisedPakistan Television (PTV) for reachingout to maximum number of people inthe country as a terrestrial channel,which was disseminating news to itsviewers with responsibility. The successof PTV Sports Channel merited specialappreciation during the presentation.He directed the authorities to overcomeshortage of DSNG (Digital SatelliteNews Gathering) vehicles on emergencybasis. He said in the competitive worldof media, it was important to equip thestate television channel with the latesttechnology to ensure live coverage ofimportant events. He hoped that itwould enable the official television tofocus on the issues of the people in ruralareas. He directed the Ministry ofInformation and Broadcasting to takeimmediate steps for making the mediauniversity functional to impartadvanced training to workingjournalists. He asked the media headsof Information Ministry to focus onprojecting achievements of thegovernment in various fields.

Rehman Malikdeclared electedunopposedto Senate

KARACHIapp

Senior Adviser to Prime Minister onInternal Affairs Rehman Malik hasbeen elected unopposed to the Senatein by-election on Monday.This was announced by the Sindhelection commissioner and returningoffice for the Senate by-election 2012,Sono Khan Baloch.A statement said a seat reserved fortechnocrats including clerics fromSindh, had fallen vacant due toresignation of Malik and nominationpapers were filed only by him.Subsequent upon scrutiny ofnomination papers, the SindhElection Commission declared Malik,a PPP candidate, as returneduncontested to the Senate seat fromSindh under Section 18(1) of theSenate (Election) Act 1975, it wasfurther stated.



sEhEr

iFtar 07:05

Fiqah-E-hanFi Fiqah-E-jaFria

03:39 sEhEr

iFtar 07:15

03:29

ISLAMABADNNI

nATIONAL DisasterManagement Authority(NDMA) Chairman DrZafar Qadir on Mondaytold the Senate Standing

Committee on Climate Change thatdue to improper utilisation of aid forthe earthquake 2005 and floods2010, the flood-affected people of2011 did not get much aid from theinternational community.

Dr Zafar Qadir further briefed thecommittee which met here with DrSaeeda Iqbal in the chair that the 2005earthquake and 2010 flood victims werenot properly given the aid receivedthrough the international relief agenciesand this was the reason why the flood vic-tims had not received any aid.

He said the NDMA asked the Sindhand Punjab governments to allocate Rs5 billion each and KhyberPakhtunkhwa and Balochistan to allo-

cate Rs 3 billion each. But KP had allo-cated more than the required fundsand Sindh and Punjab allocated lessthan the required funds.

He said the Metrological Departmentof Pakistan had predicted 5 to 15 percentmore rains than normal. “29.2 millionpeople can be affected this year by floodsand we need 486,666 tents, but we haveonly 61,465 at present. Similarly, we need973,333 blankets, but we have only

198,096,”he said.

T h echairman saidNDMA office in Is-lamabad only has134 staff members while the Asia Dis-aster Management had trained 300people. He said that Economic AffairsDivision directly dealt with interna-tional donors and international relieforganisations.

He said the provincial disastersmanagement (PDMAs) have given reg-ulation of international organisationsworking in disaster areas and they alsohad the authority to look after the af-fairs in their relevant provinces. Sena-tor Rubina Khalid suggested formationof a volunteer wing.

NDMA chairman said PDMA hadasked for the creation of Disaster Re-

sponse force and only Punjab hadmade it. He said after the flood of 2010and 2011 a lot of material that wasstored in the stores was destroyed.“We had suggested a code of conductfor building to the CDA and it is so se-cure that if the intensity of the earth-quake was over 8, the buildings wouldnot have crashed. But the CDA is yet toimplement the code,” he said, addingthat there was no code of conduct forbuilding in the rural areas.

He said Left Bank Out for Drain(LBOD) had been constructed without adesign or a plan and that had created dis-aster situation for people in coastal areas,especially Badin.

INTERNATIONAL AID KNOCKED BUT ONCEg ndma chairman says misuse of earthquake, flood

funds led to drying up of international aidg from 4 provinces, only Punjab has taken steps

to deal with possible floods this year

29.2 million people

can be affected this

year by floods and we

need 486,666 tents, but we have

only 61,465 at present. Similarly,

we need 973,333 blankets, but

we have only 198,096.”

CHaIrMaNndma

ISLAMABADoNLINe

Senate StandingCommittee on De-

fence and Defence Pro-duction Chairman

Mushahid Hussain SayedMonday said the su-

premacy of the Parliamentcannot be ensured by words

alone, but through per-f o r m a n c e

and leadership with new ideas, issues andinitiatives. He expressed these views whilepresiding over a meeting of the SenateStanding Committee on Defence and De-fence Production convened in connectionwith launching of new website of the com-mittee and presentation of its first reportat the Parliament House.

The Senate Defence Committee is thefirst committee of the parliament to haveits own website and to have produced a re-port within six weeks of its formation.

Senate Chairman Syed Nayyer Hus-sain Bokhari was the chief guest on the oc-

casion. Senator Mushahid, in hisopening remarks, said that

the defence committeewould establish new

parliamentary tradi-tions and wouldseek guidancefrom all the stake-holders, includ-ing defence andsecurity institu-tions, thinktanks, mediaand others to

f o r m u l a t esolid recom-m e n d a -tions tof u r t h e r

strengthen the defence of the country. He apprised the Senate chairman of

the 2012 Work Plan and other initiatives ofthe committee, adding that a defence pol-icy strategy document would be preparedannually to give specific proposals on howto promote harmony between the Khakiand Mufti, and to redefine some of thebasic premises of national defence strategyin light of new challenges and emergingground realities. He also said that therewould be regular defence briefings for re-porters and the report of the committeewould be presented bi-monthly. Speakingon the occasion, Senate Chairman SyedNayyer Hussain Bokhari said that in thechanged parliamentary scenario afterrestoration of democracy in the country,the Senate has redefined its role as per thebest parliamentary traditions and norms.The upper house is now playing a laudablerole in nurturing the frail sapling ofdemocracy, being a guardian of provincialrights, equality and national solidarity.

Bukhari said that the Senate StandingCommittee on Defence and Defence Pro-duction holds the unique distinction ofbeing the first committee that presented itsreport within weeks of its formation andalso launched an effective website. TheSenate is pleased to welcome this initiativebecause these reports and the websitepresent a positive perspective on Pak-

istan’s resilient democracy and vibrantparliament, the chairman added.

He remarked that the current commit-tee consists of eminent and towering polit-ical heavyweights, including both leadersof the house ad the opposition as well asdeputy chairman of the Senate. Top sixleading political parties have representa-tion in the committee, he said. He hopedthat under the professional and dynamicchairmanship of Senator Mushahid Hus-sain Sayed, the defence committee wouldplay a significant role as per its mandateand vision of the members.

Regarding other key initiatives, theSenate chairman observed that formationof Defence Reporters’ forum and its ownwebsite were also highly commendable forproviding a mechanism to make its pro-ceedings transparent and enhance its pub-lic outreach in line with the modernconcept of a progressive, open and ac-countable parliament. In order to ensuretransparency and accountability, he said, agreater media access to the committeemeetings, has also been ensured.

The members of the committee termedit a good beginning. They commended ef-forts of Senator Mushahid Hussain Sayedand expressed the hope that the committeewould proactively engage in such a dis-course which would help in formulatingrecommendations on new footings.

Prove supremacy of parliamentthrough performance: Mushahid g Senate body on defence and defence production launches website

Eat, drink at apublic place atyour own risk

ISLAMABADapp

Eating, drinking and smoking at publicplaces during fasting hours in the holymonth of Ramadan have been prohibited toensure sanctity of the month. The Ministryof Religious Affairs has drawn attention ofpeople to the Ehtram-e-Ramadan Ordinance1981 which prohibits eating and serving ofeatables at public places and prescribes clo-sure timing of cinema houses, theatres andother establishments for observing duesanctity of the holy month of Ramadan. Inaccordance with the provisions of Ehteram-e-Ramzan Ordinan0ce, 1981 and the rulesframed under it, all the provincial govern-ments and the authorities concerned in theprovince will ensure strict implementationof the ordinance. According to the ordi-nance, no person who is under an obligationto fast, shall eat, drink or smoke at publicplaces during fasting hours. Under the ordi-nance, all cinema houses, theaters and simi-lar establishments or institutions shallremain closed during the month of Ra-madan from the sunset to the expiration ofthree hours thereafter. If the proprietor,manager, servant or other person in chargeof a cinema house, theatre or similar estab-lishment or institution contravenes the pro-visions, he will be punishable withimprisonment for a term which may extendto six months, or with a fine which may ex-tend to Rs 500 or with both. Section four ofthe ordinance says that exemptions shallapply in respect of a canteen or kitchenmaintained at a hospital for serving food topatients, a restaurant or canteen within thepremises of a railway station, airport, sea-port or bus stand or in a train or aircraft, akitchen or dining car of a train or a kitchenor canteen meant for children on the prem-ises of a primary school.



Islamabad

RAWALPInDIstaff report

Water shortage persists in some parts of Chaklala andRawalpindi Cantonment Board during the holy monthof Ramadan while majority of the areas could not beprovided water on daily basis.

Moreover, water supply could not be pro-

vided to several new localities where supply lineswere laid down a year ago. The residents of theseareas are facing problems have to bring waterfrom far-off places as water consumption in-creases many times during summer.

They said that they had paid connection feesand six-month advance bill, but due to slacknessof the authorities concerned they had failed to

ensure provision of water supply.On the other hand, Tench Bhatta, People’s Colony,

Dhoke Seydian, Westridge, Peshawar Road No 4 to 5,Mareer Hassan and Janhd Chachi were also not sup-plied water, causing inconvenience and problems forthe dwellers of the localities.

When contacted, Engineer Attique Chaudhry ofRCB said that water situation had improved and onlyone complaint was received on Sunday, adding thatconsumers were also provided water through tankersin accordance with the need.

g one-week course for

25 law officers begins

ISLAMABADapp

WITHOUT justice no onecan even visualise tohave peace and tran-quility in the societyand without which the

foundations of very strong empires areshaken and a welfare state becomesmerely a dream.

Saif-ur-Rehman, director general,

Human Rights Cell, Supreme Court ofPakistan, expressed these views in theinaugural ceremony of a one-week re-fresher course on role of law officers for25 law officers from all over Pakistan,including Azad Jammu and Kashmirand Gilgit-Baltistan, here at the federalJudicial Academy ( fJA) on Monday.

He said: “The holy verses in SurahRehman make it clear that even thisuniverse is existing on ‘Meezan’ whichis ‘Adl’, a synonym of justice in Islam,

certainly in the same perspective it waslaid down in the preamble of the con-stitution of Islamic Republic of Pak-istan that the principles of democracy,freedom, equality, tolerance and socialjustice, as enunciated by Islam, shall befully observed.”

He said: “It is contained in Article37 of the Constitution that the stateshall ensure inexpensive and expedi-tious justice. If imparting inexpensiveand expeditious justice to citizens is the

duty of the state, it becomes an inalien-able and absolute right of the citizens toclaim and receive it. No institution ororganisation can accomplish the de-sired goals unless its members workwith missionary spirit; follow the causewith commitment; march towards thedestination with dedication and teamand spirit, and each member is fullyconversant with the object of the mis-sion, its pros and cons; and gains theknack to overcome odds and achieves

excellence to always remain in controland command of the situation.”

Regarding the role of prosecutors,he said; “Prosecutors are the law offi-cers who represent the state on behalfof the government in criminal casesand have very vital role in expeditiousdisposal of cases and effective dispen-sation of justice. In fact, they remainin full command and control of casesso far as their professional aspect isconcerned.”

Hashim Abro, a spokesman for thefJA said that the 25 law officers, includ-ing district public prosecutors, deputypublic prosecutors, assistant public pros-ecutors are undergoing this one-weektraining here at the academy.

nO PEaCE WithOut justiCE

g manY areaS witHoUt water even dUrinG ramadan

ISLAMABADapp

The steps to control grey telephony are bearingfruits and resulting in increase of legal interna-tional incoming traffic from 500 million min-utes to 1.35 billion minutes per month.

The illegal or grey call termination is con-tinuously witnessing declining side which hasbecome possible due to the numerous stepstaken by Pakistan Telecommunication Au-thority (PTA), including installation of inter-national traffic monitoring system, raids andrate revision of international traffic termina-tion.

An official source, while giving details ofboth technical and regulatory measuresadopted to control the said practice, said as perprovision of de-regulation policy, PTA reviewsthe Approved Settlement Rate (ASR) at whichlicensed operators obtain traffic from foreigncarriers.

He said high ASR is considered to be mainincentive for grey trafficking and the authorityhas steadily decreased ASR and APC rate overthe period to control grey traffic.

Currently, the rate is 6.25 US cents perminute i.e. 1.25 cent APC and 5 cent LDI’s sharewhich does not provide much incentive, headded.

Under the regulatory and technical steps,PTA deployed a system for monitoring and rec-onciliation of international telephone trafficwith the funding of LDI operators. The systemhas been operational since 2009.

The official said it monitors Internet Proto-cols (IPs) and automatically blocks any unau-thorised IP carrying voice traffic. It alsogenerates reports of any setup with irregulartraffic patterns, which is shared with fIA forraid action.

He said for the last three years, PTA hasidentified more than 150 illegal operators or se-tups and carried out 45 joint raids in collabora-tion with the federal Investigation Agency(fIA) throughout the country.

The authority, he said, also issued showcause notices to the licensed operators involvedin illegal business and subsequently imposedfine of Rs 955 million to seven operators. Cur-rently, the fIA is prosecuting the accused in thecourt of law, the official said.

ISLAMABADapp

Pakistan Railways has outsourced three trains andwould soon outsource additional trains to controllosses and improve its performance.Shalimar, Rohi and Hazara Express have been out-sourced while a new business express was alsolaunched as a joint venture with the private sectorto faci l i tate the passengers. According to Pakistan Railways, i t has adoptedmeasures and is making efforts to recover out-standing amount due from other departments andcompanies. It introduced new signaling system onthe network to minimize detentions and save fuel .The other step was reaching out to the private sec-tor to uti l ise idle capacity in the Railway systemthrough track access policy.The strategy of rai lway administration is to repairand maintain existing locomotives and procure-ment of new locomotives and in this regard, ef-forts are being made to get suff icient funds fromthe government for rehabil i tation of required lo-comotives, rol l ing stock and purchase of spareparts and fuel etc. On the operating side, the ini-t iative of ECO train was taken to capital isethrough establishing international l inkages whilenew agreement with Pakistan State Oil was madefor uninterrupted supply of fuel .

Barbers startexploitingcitizens too

ISLAMABADoNLINe

In addition to the rise in prices of edi-bles with the start of Ramadan, barbersof the twin cities have also increasedcharges for their services. The barbers are charging more than thedue amount for haircuts and trimmingbeard in spite of the fact that there hasbeen no prominent increase in theprices of blades, scissors or other toolsbeing used by them. No doubt, the barbers are participat-ing in the rat race for gathering maxi-mum profits prior to the Eid festival.Such state of affairs has aroused con-cerns among the public while theprice control committees have be-come silent spectators.

CDA to startMetro BusService soon

ISLAMABADoNLINe

The Capital Development Authority(CDA) is starting a new bus service toprovide some kind of relief to the down-trodden masses of the capital.The CDA has allocated Rs 400 mil-lion for the said project from the fis-cal year budget. According to the CDA, the Metro BusService will travel from Islamabad toadjoining areas with optimum facili-ties for male and female passengers.The Metro Bus Service will be highlyhelpful for the office-going as well aselderly people, women and students.It must be mentioned here that theMetro Bus Service is a modern sys-tem of public transport equippedwith the facilities of the 21st century,through which rapid, quality and af-fordable traveling facilities will beavailable to the people.

PimS’ acs notworking!

ISLAMABADINp

The air-conditioning system at the lead-ing hospital of the federal capital, Pak-istan Institute of Medical Sciences(PIMS), has gone out of order for thelast four days causing severe problemsto patient and attendants.The hospital sources said that the air-conditioning system of PIMS has notbeen working as a result of which thepatients of complex surgeries could notbe provided the requisite temperature.Doctors said the required temperaturewas extremely necessary for some oper-ated patients otherwise injures can fur-ther deteriorate.On the other hand, the PIMS adminis-tration was of the opinion to that the ACmachinery at the hospital has becomeobsolete and could not be revamped forlack of funds.

Pta levy rs 955m in fine tocontrol grey telephony

PR decides to outsourcetrains to keep things going


08 tuesday, 24 July, 2012

Islamabad

low

High

tUeSdaY wedneSdaY tHUrSdaY29°c i 22°c 32°c i 26°c 35°c i 26 °c

PraYer timinGSfajr Sunrise zuhr asr maghrib isha

03:37 05:13 12:14 15:58 19:14 20:51

citY directorY

Police emerGencY 15

ambUlance 115

reScUe 1122

Hilal-e-aHmer 9250488

edHi foUndation 2827844

bomb diSPoSal 9270698

fire briGade centre 16

civil defence 9262830

emerGencY HelP

HoSPitalS

blood bank

PimS blood bank 9261272

PolY clinic blood bank 9209123

comPlaint

waPda 111-000-118

SUi GaS 1199

railwaYS

citY Station (enqUirY) 117

reServation 9273614

railwaY Police 1333

airPort

fliGHt enqUirY 114

Pia reServation 111-786-786

colleGeS / UniverSitieS

international iSlamic UniverSitY 9260765

baHria UniverSitY 9260002

nUml 9257677

qUaid-e-azam UniverSitY 90642098

arid aGricUltUre UniverSitY 9290151

fJwU 9273235

riPHa international UniverSitY 111510510

nca rawalPindi 5770423

PUnJab law colleGe 4421347

maHroof int 2222920

PimS 9261170

PolY clinic 9218300

cda 9221334

SHifa international 4603666

ali 4444435

diStrict HqS 5556311-14

UltraSonic clinic 2824862

HolY familY 9290319

IT'S SuMMER AGAIN!

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date: JUlY 07 to 21, 2012venUe: iSlamabad airPort

AL AHRAM rIHaM aDIL

RAMADAN, the holymonth, is justaround the cornerand many peoplefear putting on

weight as a result of eating itsdelicious dishes and sweets.fortunately, many experts saythat people can actually loseweight during Ramadan, usingthe holy month as a way ofturning their lives around andstarting a better, healthier wayof life.

There is a saying regardingthe three big Cs: choices,chances and changes. Youshould make a choice to take achance, or your life will neverchange. However, how can Ra-madan be the chance to changeyour lifestyle? To what extentcan one benefit from the monthto lose weight? In fact, in addi-tion to the obvious spiritualbenefits of Ramadan, manypeople can feel physically andphysiologically better at thesame time too.

Ramadan arrives this yearin the middle of summer, andas a result it may seem strangeto be exercising or fasting dur-ing the long, hot summer days.However, “an hour before Iftar[breakfast] is the best time toexercise,” gastroenterologistMuhammad Adil.

Exercising during this timeforces the body to burn storedfats, he said, considered a hardtarget during normal days. As aresult, for people who want tolose weight and decrease theirbody fat, Ramadan is a goldenopportunity that should not be

wasted.Adil recommends walking

for 45 minutes before Iftar. “Toavoid exposure to dehydration,especially in summer, drinkingwater is a must, which is whyheavy exercise is not advisableat this time when the bodylacks water,” he added.

for people who feel they arelow in energy during fasting, orhave headaches, weakness ordizziness, they can work out forthree hours after Iftar. The wayin which exercise can beteamed up with fasting clearly

depends on a person’s age,health and eating habits. “Tomake a success of your dietingprogramme, exercising forthree hours after Iftar is theperfect time. This is becauseyour body naturally burns thefood immediately after you eat.Therefore, when you exercisethree hours later, your body isburning further fat,” Adil said.

He added that fasting fromsunrise to sunset can restoreyouth and rejuvenate the bio-logical functions.

“I am not exaggerating

when I say that every organ inour body rests and benefitsfrom fasting, but only if you eatfood in moderation,” Adil said.He recommends breaking thefast with a glass of milk, or twoor three dates with yoghurt in-stead of milk or soup, and thenwaiting another hour beforeeating a main dish.

“I would advise people tostart with a big plate of salad.Then they can eat proteins andvegetables,” he added.

for Sehri, Adil says that yo-ghurt and a boiled egg orcheese with salad is more thanenough. It is very important toincrease the intake of fluids be-tween Iftar and Sehri. “Water isthe number one recommendedfluid, and you can drink allkinds of hot drinks, as long asthey are sugar free, in order toavoid getting dehydrated dur-ing fasting.”

After a few days, your stom-ach will get used to this smallamount of food. If you also ex-ercise during the times Adilrecommends, then you shouldbe able to lose weight by theend of the month, reshapingyour body as a result and de-creasing body fat.

“After that, you will be ableto continue this new lifestyle,”Adel adds.

According to Wajeh Mah-mood, a personal fitness in-structor, exercising an hourbefore Iftar can have real bene-fits for the body because theblood at this time is sent to themuscles due to the empty stom-ach. “Building muscles in-creases the body’s metabolicrate, which is very helpful inlosing weight,” he added.

g Ramadan is the ideal time to lose weight and start a healthy lifestyle

SOME ADVICE TO HELP YOUACHIEVE A HEALTHY LIFESTYLEAND MAKE USE OF RAMADAN ASA CATALYST FOR POSITIVECHANGE:

Do’sn Drink as many sugar-free

liquids as possible, and increase

water intake between Iftar and

Sehri. Drinking water helps your

body to increase its metabolism,

and without water losing weight is

hard to do.n Perform light exercises and

eat a balanced diet.n Exercise either an hour be-

fore Iftar, or three hours after you

eat.n Break your fast with soup,

dates or juice and then wait for

an hour before you eat a main

dish. Small amounts of food are

preferable.n Have a light Sehri, such as

a boiled egg, yoghurt, some fruit,

vegetables or food with fibre,

such as breakfast cereal.

Don’tsn Never sleep immediately

after you eat. Some people wake

up before sunrise to have Sehri,

as they think this will help them

not to feel hungry the next day.

Not eating before you sleep can

also decrease digestive problems.n Don’t eat spicy, greasy, or

fried food or sweets. Instead, eat

vegetables and salad together

with protein and a small amount

of carbohydrates as your main in-

take for Iftar.n Don’t exercise right after

you eat. You should take a three-

hour break after eating and be-

fore exercising.n Don’t work out heavily be-

fore Iftar, as the level of blood

glucose is usually below normal

during fasting.n Don’t consume large

amounts of caffeinated drinks like

coke, coffee and tea. n Don’t eat highly salted food.

This will help you avoid becoming

thirsty and prevent your body tis-

sues from storing excessive water.

Reduce the amount of salt you

use in cooking gradually, building

up to a salt-free diet over time.



Foreign News

DoHAafp

ARAB officials meeting inDoha have approved an in-ternational probe intoYasser Arafat’s death, aftera report said he may have

been poisoned, senior Palestinian offi-cial Saeb Erakat said.

Palestinian president MahmudAbbas “proposed forming an interna-tional investigative commission... onthe martyrdom of (former) presidentArafat” at a meeting of the ArabLeague’s Peace Initiative Committee inDoha on Sunday night, he said.

The committee has approved theproposal and Arab League chief Nabil

al-Arabi will follow up on this matterand “create a complete criminal, polit-ical and legal file.”

Earlier this month an investigationby the Qatar-based Al-Jazeera newschannel found elevated levels of theradioactive substance polonium onsome of Arafat’s belongings, revivingsuspicions that the veteran leader mayhave been poisoned. “We want thecommission to be of high credibility,”said Erakat, adding that it might needa “resolution from the UN SecurityCouncil.” The Institute for RadiationPhysics in Switzerland, which analysedbiological samples taken from Arafat’spersonal effects, found “an abnormalquantity” of polonium on his effects,Al-Jazeera said.

Abbas and Arafat’s widow, Suha,have reportedly already given theirconsent for samples to be taken fromhis remains, which are buried in amausoleum in the West Bank city ofRamallah. Last week, Suha Arafat’slawyer said that she will launch legalaction in france over the claims.

Arafat’s nephew Nasser al-Qidwahas accused Israel of poisoning theveteran leader and called for those re-sponsible to be held accountable.

Polonium is a highly toxic sub-stance which is rarely found outsidemilitary and scientific circles, and wasused to kill former Russian spy turnedKremlin critic Alexander Litvinenko,who died in 2006 shortly after drink-ing tea laced with the poison.

Arabs back globalprobe overArafat poison claim

Top Indian female revolutionary dies aged 97neW DeLhi: Top Indian female revolutionary LakshmiSehgal, who fought Allied forces during World War II, died onMonday following a heart attack, a doctor said. She was 97.Sehgal, who fought against Britain and its allies in an all-femaleregiment organised by Indian radical Subhash Chandra Bose,was hospitalised last Thursday after suffering a heart attack inthe northern city of Kanpur. The mother of two daughtersslipped into a coma following a brain haemorrhage and was incritical condition until she died, a hospital doctor said. “She wasput on ventilator support but due to her advanced age shesuccumbed to multiple organ failure,” Kanpur Medical Centrehospital chief V.K. Johri told AfP by telephone. Born onOctober 24, 1914, to a lawyer in the southern Indian cityChennai, then known as Madras, Sehgal studied medicine andpractised as a gynaecologist before travelling to Singapore in1940. After three years in Singapore she met fiery nationalistBose, who famously broke ranks with Indian independencechampion Mahatma Gandhi over his non-violent approach tocombating British rule on the sub-continent. Bose, revered as ahero by many, enlisted Sehgal into his Indian National Armywhere she fought in a female regiment named after 18th-centuryHindu warrior queen Laxmibai. Sehgal was arrested in 1945 atthe end of World War II as she retreated from the jungles ofMyanmar towards India’s northeastern city of Imphal. Therevolutionary, known as “Captain Sehgal” by her supporters,was held under house arrest for several months in Myanmarand was then brought to Kolkata and freed, according to one ofher daughters, Subhashini Ali. “In terms of progressive femalerevolutionaries, Sehgal was number one because she also had avision for social change and wanted equity in the Indiansociety,” said historian R. Gopinath from New Delhi’s JamiaMillia Islamia University. “Sehgal and Bose were alsoinstrumental in waging an armed opposition to the British,which was the first systematic opposition to colonial rule afterthe (anti-British) revolt of 1857 in India,” Gopinath told AfP. afp

CAIRoafp

Egypt on Monday began to re-lease detainees held by the mil-itary following a decree lastweek by President MohamedMorsi, security officials toldAfP.

“Prison authorities havebegun releasing the detainees,”an official told AfP.

Morsi, who was sworn inlast month as Egypt’s firstelected civilian president, onThursday issued an order topardon 572 people convicted bymilitary tribunals.

Their release comes on apublic holiday marking the1952 military coup d’etat thatultimately led to the overthrowof the monarchy in Egypt.

The Egyptian president hadordered the formation of a com-mittee to review the cases ofcivilians tried by the military.

A total of 11,879 Egyptians

have been detained by the mili-tary since last year’s uprisingthat toppled Hosni Mubarak,according to figures issued bythe committee. Of these, 9,714have since been released. Ac-tivists and international rightsgroups have repeatedly calledfor the end to military trials ofcivilians which they say do notmeet the requirements of inde-pendence and impartiality.

“International law is crys-tal-clear on this: no civilian, re-gardless of the crime, should betried by a military court,” SarahLeah Whitson, Middle East andNorth Africa director at HumanRights Watch, said last week.

She urged Morsi to take a“principled human rightsstance and pardon all civiliansconvicted by military tri-bunals.” Morsi was sworn in onJune 30, taking over from amilitary council which oversawthe transition from Mubarak’srule.

egypt releases detainees

held by military after

Morsi decree

Anger inBeijing asrecord rainskill at least 37

BeIJIngafp

Beijing residents expressed fury onMonday after the worst rains to hitthe Chinese capital in more than 60years left at least 37 people dead,with at least another seven stillmissing.Many said lives could have beensaved and some of the worstdevastation avoided if a betterwarning system had been in place,and criticised the city’s antiquatedwater infrastructure.“If the drainage system had beengood, if the warning system had beenput in place in a timely manner, ifpeople had been told to stay home,would so many people have lost theircherished lives?” read one posting,under the name Bijiexiang.By Monday morning, there werenearly nine million comments on theSina Weibo microblog alone.In the worst-hit district of fangshan,on the mountainous southwesternoutskirts of China’s sprawling capital,residents described how roadsflooded in minutes, submergingvehicles and destroying houses.fangshan farmer Wang Ping, 56, wasstill looking for his 30-year-old sonon a lake shore after finding hissmashed up car, and complained thatthe government was doing nothing tohelp.“My son called around nine o’clock onSaturday evening and he said he wassurrounded by water, so I went tosearch for him,” Wang told AfP, inbetween shouting out his name.“The government isn’t doing anythingto help me find my son.”At least 25 people drowned inSaturday’s rains, the heaviest in thecapital since records began in 1951.Six died in housing collapses, fivewere electrocuted and one person wasstruck by lighting. The same stormleft another 17 people dead and 21missing in the neighbouring provinceof Hebei, the China News Servicesaid. The rains and flooding caused10 billion yuan-worth ($1.6 billion) ofdamage in Beijing, while nearly66,000 people had to be evacuatedfrom their homes, state media said,citing the city government.

Saudi court releasesfive female qaedasuspectsRiYADh: A Saudi court hasreleased five women whoallegedly had links with Al-Qaeda, an official said Monday,but implied that the move wasunrelated to demands made bycaptors holding a Saudi diplomatin Yemen. “five women held onsecurity charges have beenreleased based on judicial ordersin two different cases,” interiorministry spokesman Mansur al-Turki told AfP. The courtordered the release of two of thewomen “one month ago becausethey were pregnant and close totheir due dates,” Turki said,adding they remained on trial outof custody. “Three others werereleased on bail early this weekpending trial.” On March 28, Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsulaabducted Abdullah al-Khalidi,Saudi Arabia’s deputy consul inYemen’s main southern city ofAden, in a bid to secure therelease of female prisoners andcollect a ransom. Khalidi hadrepeatedly made appeals to SaudiKing Abdullah to secure hisrelease by agreeing to thedemands of his captors. afp

MaNILa: policemen hit an anti-government protester with wooden sticks during a demonstration against the state of the

nation address (soNa) of philippine president Benigno aquino on Monday. AFP

25,000 fleesectarian clashes innortheast India

gUWAHATIafp

About 25,000 villagers have fled theirhomes in northeast India during clashesbetween Bodo tribal groups and Muslimsettlers in which 15 people have beenkilled, police said Monday. Soldiers werealso out in force in the restive state ofAssam in an effort to quell further violencethat has led to many villagers moving tonearby government shelters to avoid thefighting over land rights. “Clashes thatbroke out on friday night have so farclaimed the lives of 15 people and about 12(were) injured,” S.N. Singh, Assaminspector general of police, told AfP bytelephone. “The situation is tense andhence tight security measures are beingtaken to instil confidence and restorenormal life in the area. About 25,000people have gone to government-runshelters.” The fighting, the latest outbreakof violence over long-running territorialdisputes between the Bodo and Muslimsettlers, erupted in western regions ofAssam close to the borders with Bhutanand Bangladesh.

Somalia’s Shebabexecutes three CIA,MI6 ‘spies’

MogADISHUafp

Somalia’s Al-Qaeda linked Shebabinsurgents have executed three membersfor “spying” for Western intelligenceagencies, officials said Monday. Two of themen were accused of having in Januaryattached a satellite tracker device to a carused by Al-Qaeda operatives, which waslater struck by a missile, killing two. “Thethree defendants were found guilty ofspying...one of them worked for the Britishintelligence agency MI6 and the two otherswere spying for the CIA,” said SheikhAbdalla Al-Haq, the Shebab’s chief judge.The three men, aged between 25 and 30according to witnesses, were shot by firingsquad in a public execution in the porttown of Merka late Sunday. “All of themconfessed to the charges against them, andthe punishment is death,” Al-Haq said.“One of them was shouting when theydropped him off and after the judge readthe verdict, they were blindfolded andshot,” said Abidaziz Moalim, a witness.


Comment10tuesday, 24 July, 2012

Arif NizamiEditor

Lahore – Ph: 042-36298305-10 Fax: 042-36298302Karachi – Ph: 021-34330811-3 Fax: 021-34330900Islamabad – Ph: 051-2287414-6 Fax: 051-2287417

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

Dedicated to the legacy of the late Hameed Nizami

Is the peace process fading out?

no isolation, please

Social peace and economic development in Pakistan areto a considerable extent dependant on goodneighbourly relations with the countries in the region,particularly India. There are of course problems left

unresolved by history. The differences have to be settledpeacefully and step by step, taking up the least intractablematters first and leaving the more complicated ones to thecoming generations. Meanwhile, there is a need to concentrateon normalising the ties, encouraging trade, economiccooperation and people to people ties so that mutualdependencies thus created help in the resolution of core issues.

Initially there seemed to be enthusiasm about talks. Zardari’svisit to India in April was billed by both sides as satisfactory.Soon after Gen Kayani while on a visit to Siachin emphasised theneed for peaceful coexistence between the two neighbours. Asthe meetings started, obstacles emerged from both sides,particularly from the interior ministries and the defenceestablishments of the two countries. When the time came forputting signature to the already agreed liberalised visa regimesRehman Malik maintained that the pact would be concluded atthe “political level.” Last week, India-Pakistan trade talks weredeferred till September, again on Pakistan’s request. We are toldthat strategic reservations stand in the way of the import ofpetroleum products in bulk from India. On its part India hasbeen reluctant to soften its position on Siachin and Sir Creek. Ithas also yet to remove the non tariff barriers. Meanwhile, theaggressive no-touch tango by border guards from both sidescontinues at the flag lowering ceremony at Wagah.

Pakistan’s establishment relates agreement on trade andeconomic ties to progress over ‘other issues’ like water disputes,Sir Creek, Siachen and Jammu and Kashmir. The Indianestablishment demands punishment for those responsible forMumbai attacks as a precondition for improvement in ties. Theestablishments on both sides seem to have lost interest in theprogress of talks. Under the circumstances, there is little hopeof the meeting between the foreign ministers of the twocountries scheduled for September making any headway. Thereis also little likelihood of Prime Minister Manmohan Singhvisiting Pakistan in the absence of ‘tangible results’. Withrelations with the US continuing to be tense and disagreementswith Afghanistan over cross border attacks taking an ugly turnPakistan is liable to become both isolated and vulnerable.

My father is not a mangiven to outrage. At theage of 65, just a few

months older than the country it-self, he leads a retired, unassum-ing life. He likes his tea withoutsugar, one-ball-foursomes on thegolf course and enjoys primetimetalk shows to the fullest. Afteryears of watching his favourite an-chors and politicians get beaten toa pulp on live TV, he is a channelsurfer par excellence. So imaginemy surprise when last night, overiftar, dad comes down from hisroom in a huff and starts ventinglike a man who has seen too manycorrupt officers promoted aheadof those who rightfully deservedthe reward.

The cause of his chagrin?Those happy-go-lucky talk showhosts now masquerading asRamzan experts. Messrs Liaquat,Masood, Maya, Sanam and (if theseths see it fit to let her show air)Veena. The point of having suchwell-recognised and highly (sic!)respected TV personalities hostingsehr and iftar shows, ostensibly, is

to build a personal connection be-tween the channels and their view-ers. This is why Aamir Liaquat,that most revered of televange-lists, is hosting a Neelam Ghar-esque quiz show as part of hisRamzan transmission. It is remi-niscent of the legendary show notbecause Mr Liaquat bears any re-semblance to the great Tariq Aziz,but because the amount of adver-tiser branding in every givenframe of said show was matchedonly by the genius of NeelamGhar.

Victims of the recent violencethat has wracked Karachi are alsoinvited to the (and I use the adjec-tive loosely) good doctor’s show.Once there, they are treated likeWasu was in Shehzad Roy’s lastmusic video i.e., pushed to thebackground while Herr Doktortakes centre-stage and asks themillion dollar question, “Who isresponsible for these tragicdeaths?” The answer is almost al-ways a unanimous chorus of “thegovernment of the day”. fortu-nately for the purposes of the

monologue that is to follow, norepresentatives of the governmentor the law-enforcement agenciesare on hand to refute, rebut or ex-plain the allegations levelledagainst them. This is possible be-cause Dr Liaquat does not pretendto be a journalist and is actuallymerely doing a public service byinterfering in the realm of journal-ism by allowing anyone and every-one to share the screen with him.

The icing on the cake is evensweeter. As the time to make orbreak one’s fast nears, the spirit ofNigella Lawson enters Dr Liaquatand he becomes possessed by thedjinn of fine cuisine. The culinaryexperience is so thorough and soconvincing that one is forced tosoil themselves with drool in an-ticipation of the feast that is tocome. And it’s not like the gooddoctor will eat all that yummyfood himself. In fact, he has scoresof ‘ordinary people’ (read friendsof the production staff) who aremore than willing to share a das-tarkhwan and the Geo TV screenwith the makhan-monger of yes-

teryear.Sanam Baloch, the Lux Style

Award-winning star of SAMAATV’s morning show and MayaKhan’s replacement, has also bro-ken out her black mourning dressand can be seen strutting her stuffon set in full make-up as she talksto wailing widows and other mar-ginalised peoples, all the while,maintaining her impeccablehairdo and making sure that hercrocodile tears do not mess withher mascara.

The terrific (read terrible)twosome of Dr Shahid Masoodand Maya Khan are back to theirold tricks and making Ramzan in-tolerable for all sane people onARY News. While the old timerfrom the ‘End of Times’ is beinghis usually self, the dater-haterMaya has donned the mantlewhich, up until now, was only thedomain of the Roman Catholicchurch. Papal pardons used to bea thing of ridicule, but now Mayais handing out pardons to all andsundry who confess their sins. Thesaucier your sin, the greater the

value of the pardon. Of course, youhave to be shameless enough toown up to said sins on nationaltelevision. Otherwise, it just does-n’t work.

The problem with morality isthat it is subjective. If only wecould come up with some sort ofobjective yardstick for what passesoff as moral and what is decidedlyimmoral, TV channels would havea hard time selling us the garbagethat they are currently airing inthe name of Ramzan. After all, thegood people over at the ExpressMedia Group pulled Veena Malik’sshow due to a furore over whethersuch a sinner can be allowed tohost a show which calls upon peo-ple to cast out their demons.Maybe it’s time other took a leafout of their books and sent allthese nauseating talk show charla-tans to Sahir Lodhi’s show for agood old-fashioned exorcism. Myfather will be pleased.

Follow @mightyobvious onTwitter for more incoherence in160 characters or less

the problem with morality is that it is subjective. If we come up with a yardstick for what is moral and what isn’t,tV channels would have a hard time selling us such garbage

Morality plays

our labour marketthe efficiency and equity factors

Quite a few journalist friendsmention, almost casually,and far too often, that theyor some fellow journalists,often full time employees of spected media houses,

have not been paid their salaries for thelast three months or salary payments arethree to four months behind. Sometimesthese things are reported in some of thepapers too, but often not. Since the newsis about reporters of news, it does notmake it to the papers often.

Timely salary payment is not theonly issue that is reported. Employeesget fired suddenly, sometimes groups ofthem, and often without any notice anddue process. There are usually no sever-ance payments made. All of this in an in-dustry that has grown significantly inthe last couple of decades and wheremost organisations are fairly large andcannot be considered informal organisa-tions by any stretch of imagination.

Till some years back, when competi-tion was less severe in the sector, manymedia groups even had formal but oftenunwritten agreements that they wouldnot try to woo each other’s employees.These anticompetitive practices are ille-gal in almost all labour market domainsbut they survived for decades in Pak-istan. It has only been the pressure ofexpansion that has made such agree-ments less effective.

Where are labour laws in all this?Where are the regulators and courts whoshould be looking into protecting the in-terests of the weak and providing fairnessand justice to all? few such issues makeit to any formal fora and even fewer aredecided and hardly any ever see imple-mentation: the Wage Board saga is a goodexample of how this process goes on.

The problems with labour marketsare not just present in the media sector,

they are ubiquitous. Many factory own-ers hire labour on daily basis, on paper,so that they do not have to register theseworkers for various benefits that work-ers should get. Others hire labour on re-newable contracts, against permanentjobs, while making sure that the lengthof the renewable contract remains lessthan the limit stipulated by law afterwhich the job has to be turned in to apermanent post. Still others insist ongetting signatures of hired labour onplain sheets so that they can write resig-nation letters on behalf of the employeesany time they think the employee hasbecome a ‘troublemaker’ or is notneeded and needs to be fired.

But this is just the tip of the iceberg.Over time the influence of privatisationand liberalisation has almost become allpowerful and all pervasive and it isthought that anything that attempts atshaping markets is wrong and should bediscouraged. Labour rights have taken abad hit in this era. Collective action is in-creasingly becoming harder to organiseand it is looked at with disapproval.Labour unions have lost a lot of theirpower and efficacy to speak on behalf oflabour and they are often looked upon,by all other players, with certain amountof contempt. Provincial governments, inthe name of facilitating private business,have weakened labour legislations nu-merous times. for example, PunjabLabour Department does not make sur-prise inspections anymore where ran-dom inspections can be an excellentmeans of assessing if enterprises areabusing labour laws. And even labourcourts have been fairly inactive or hos-tile over the last couple of decades. De-spite all the retrenchment and upheavalin the labour markets, the courts havemostly been going with the trend.

Even unions from the public sector,traditionally considered to be the mostorganised and powerful in the country,have been unable to do much against thetrends. Many of them have been on thestreets agitating, but the results, forthem, have usually not been easy toachieve. Most recently we even saw theyoung doctors, traditionally not thoughtof as workers needing unions for facili-tating bargaining for their rights, in-dulging in industrial action across thePunjab. Apart from the misery and trou-ble that it caused patients and theirloved ones, it is unclear what either sideto the dispute was able to achieve.

A lot of large companies have started

using vendors for outsourcing the moreroutine labour intensive functions.There are companies that provide jani-torial services, garderning services,guards, physical infrastructure mainte-nance teams and so on. The primarycompany is thus no longer the employerof the workers that vendor companieshire even though they work on site at theprimary company. The primary com-pany feels that since these people areemployed by vendors all labour law re-sponsibilities should be borne by thevendors. But most of the vendors tend tobe smaller and more informal compa-nies. They are also less visible to the law.So, a lot of them tend not to live up tothe requirements of labour laws.

In one instance we found thatthough a primary company was payingthe minimum wage for each employeethey were getting from the contractor,for janitorial services, the vendor wasnot paying the stipulated amount assalary to its employees. Since the em-ployees were non-unionised and mostlynon-registered, they could do nothingabout this. They could either work at thesalary the vendor was offering or go lookfor another job. Given the market condi-tions for unskilled labour, most of themjust took what the vendor was paying. Inthis case the primary company, whenthey came to know of it, threatened tocancel the contract and were thus able tomake the contractor pay the stipulatedwages and arrears. But in most casesprimaries do not care and feel it is nottheir responsibility. Labour depart-ments are not very active or effective inthese situations either. And few suchcases, if any, make it to the courts.

Standard results of economic theorysuggest that any activity that has low re-turns will get low investments. If labouris so insecure, why should they invest intheir skills and/or education? But we area country that has a large and youngpopulation and deficits in the humancapital area. If we do not make ourlabour more effective, trained, efficientand motivated, how can we think of sus-tainable growth in the medium to longrun? Getting labour markets rightshould be a part of any growth revivalstrategy and/or thinking.

The writer is an Associate Professorof Economics at LUMS (currently onleave) and a Senior Advisor at OpenSociety Foundation (OSF). He can bereached at [email protected]

By Dr Faisal Bari

Mighty obviousBy Syed Hassan Belal Zaidi


Comment 11tuesday, 24 July, 2012

Given the state of the land of thepure where there is no water,electricity, gas, no law and order, andthe army gets caught in the crosshairsof snipers and militants, and fall likenine pins, the powers that be arepushing for bills, like the contemptbill and the proposed dual nationalitybill. Reports indicate that thecontempt bill has sailed through, anddual nationality has theparliamentarians, and the elite classwondering what all the fuss is about.

However, history tells us that in1951, The Pakistan Citizenship Actunderwent amendments because theoriginal Act appeared incomplete, sothe Pakistan Citizenship Rules 1952were introduced. In 1971 Pakistan andBangladesh separated and citizenshipneeded to be readdressed for thattime, and Kashmir an ongoingconflict, needed to be addressed in theAct as well. And amendments are stilltaking place.

Since independence, severalchanges in the Pakistani nationality lawhave come about because of the growthof expatriate Pakistani communities inthe Middle East, Europe and North

America. Dual citizenship was notpermitted under the 1951 law, but nowthe government of Pakistan recognizesand allows citizens to hold citizenshipof 16 countries which are, UK, Italy,france, Belgium, Iceland, Australia,New Zealand, Sweden, Ireland,Netherlands, Switzerland, Canada,Egypt, Jordan, Syria, and the land ofopportunity USA.

fast forward to the recent scenario;had a move not been made againstfarahnaz Isphani, media advisor toPresident Asif Ali Zardari and HusainHaqqani’s wife, as being a dual nationalof Pakistan and USA, and an MNA toboot, perhaps things might have beendifferent. But, then the news, that ourman for all seasons, Mr Rehman Malik,is also a dual national, in this case ofPakistan and UK was revealed, andwith all the stories he spun, he has notgiven up his British passport. Slowly allhell is breaking loose, with conspiracytheories making the round.

Article 63(1) (c) of ourConstitution, clearly disqualifies aperson from being elected and frombeing a member of the Parliament, if“he ceases to be a citizen of Pakistan

or acquires the citizenship of a foreignstate.” Disqualification on this groundis part of our 1973 Constitution. Theargument put forth is that one cannotwear two hats. You are either loyal tothe country of your origin, or to thecountry whose citizenship you haveacquired by swearing on the Bible toallegiance to the Queen, or the starspangled banner as the case maybe,and also take up arms in case of war.

Decades ago, Pakistan experiencedbrain drain, with our best bidding adieuto their families and moving to greenerpastures. They settled there, andremitted money back home. Some cameback, could not adjust, and went back.Some refer to the dual nationality,Pakistan-UK, as a soft stance on UK’spart, since monies; big monies are beingtransferred to its shores. And shouldthings turn dicey here they can easilyhigh tail it to the country whosepassport they have. Things couldn’t bebetter for the dual nationals; they havebutter on both sides of their bread andstill crave for more.

Those who belong to the upperclass, the elitist amongst us, say whynot. Those who are dual nationals have

their own agenda. They want to sit inthe Houses of Parliament, enjoy all thetrappings, and stash their ‘hard earnedmoney’ abroad. Here they don’t botherabout paying taxes, pull all the stringsthey can, and if they sneeze threetimes they zoom off to get themselveschecked. They lord it over us commoncitizens, not realizing that we are thebackbone of this country.

One argument between the lines isthat such persons, who are vying tobecome parliamentarians, and privyto various state secrets, should bepermitted to do so. The logic behindthis thought is that should such asituation arise with another country,these dual nationals would be a greathelp at the negotiating table.However, another notable writer fearsthat those parliamentarians/elitists,who support the dual nationality bill,would be responsible for placing thecountry under a de facto foreign rule.

The arguments to and for of thisidea are continuing in the print mediaand the electronic media. Who willwin is anybody’s guess.

PARVEEN TARIQUEIslamabad

Save karachiThe brutal killing incidents across the country,

particularly in the economic hub of our country,Karachi, are evident of the fact that we are playingin the hands of our enemies.

Though there is an impression of foreign handinvolvement in the violence, yet no one can deny thefact that we have been used as a tool for theseunfortunate incidents, which not only has crippledour economy but also exposed us to the world as tohow far away we are, from what our religion teachesus. One wonders for how long we have to pick up theblood soaked bodies of our old, young and children.Are not we pacing towards a total destruction?

I appeal to the political leadership and lawenforcement agencies to take action against targetkillers and save the Karachi.

SHER MUHAMMAD KHANMultan

the right to knowAccording to a recent study jointly carried out by

a Canada based centre for law and democracy andSpain based information centre, Pakistan is amongthe last 20 countries in the Global Right toInformation rating, ranking 72 out of a total of 90surveyed countries with India coming in at third place.

The freedom of Information Ordinance waspromulgated in Oct 2002 allowing citizens access topublic records held by any public office of thegovernment within 21 days of the request beingreceived.

The 18th amendment in 2010 to the

constitution, the article 19-A ensured the right toinformation as a fundamental right of the citizens. Itis unfortunate that the National Assembly still hasto pass the 2002 Ordinance as an Information Act.

Why do the people representatives not passpeople’s basic rights of information law when it canpass the contempt of court law in two days?

Why do the people’s representatives not wantcitizens to know what various governmentdepartments are doing for their welfare?

It has now been over a year that a commissionwas formed to carry out a probe into why Osama binLaden was living in a compound in Abbotabad formany years without the knowledge of intelligenceagencies and why the Americans were able to killhim the way they did. Who was responsible for thesecurity failures? Do the people of Pakistan who arepaying taxes for the functioning of the nationalinstitutions even have a right to know the truth?

S T HUSSAINLahore

bhatta culture in karachiRamazan, the month of boundless blessings and

happiness brings bhatta culture here in the cityinstead of the happiness and holiness that it alwaysbrought in the past. According to the media reportsand other sources, more than 20 businessmen havebeen kidnapped within two weeks.

These are the acts of the looters and actualterrorists of the country who do not even spare theordinary citizens during this sacred month ofRamzan.

They receive extortion money by threatening the

local businessmen through SMS and phone calls. Itis worth mentioning here that the parchi system isthe oldest one and the most effective one forextorting money from shopkeepers andbusinessmen.

It is really a matter of concern on the part ofauthorities as they have constantly been unable tobring an end to extortion, bhatta culture and parchisystem in the city. Karachi will not remain theeconomic hub of the country if the situation carrieson in the near future.

SYED HASSAM AHMEDKarachi

mr Pm, make kbd possibleOur Prime Minister is reported to have said that

politicians can make impossible possible. The acidtest for this claim is to resurrect Kalabagh dam fromthe burial ground. If he can make Kalabagh dampossible from an impossible situation, one wouldbelieve in the prime minister’s claim. Otherwise, itwould amount to a ring of smoke spoken in thin air.The PM is responsible for pushing the country into adark age of load shedding as bitter fruit of histenure as minister of water and power. It nowbehoves him to stand firm on his slogan ofpoliticians making impossible possible. If he candeliver on Kalabagh dam his party would be ensuredanother tenure. Otherwise, all the false promisesthat are made in bad faith would trounce PakistanPeoples Party in the next election.

DR MUHAMMAD YAQOOB BHATTILahore

Preparing the indian mindsI am writing this letter in reference

to an Indian TV talk show called StarTalk. In this show the InformationMinister was the guest and a few youngstudents were also present who werequestioning her. Although the questionseemed pre-prepared and voiced theopinion of the programme makers thefact that most Indian children wouldprefer war with us cannot be neglected.

One of the kids in audiencequestioned as to why Pakistan alwaysstarts the killings of innocent people.Why couldn’t Pakistan just play by therules? I beg to differ here. Anybody whosays that must not have their factsstraight for history shows very clearlythat India has always been the onepropagating against Pakistan and nomatter how hard Pakistan has triedIndia is the one who would hesitate ininitiating peace talk. Even on bordersPakistani soldiers have strict orders notto fire. It is the Indian soldiers whostart the fire and obviously Pakistanresponds back.

Another very noticeable thing is thatthe way young minds have beenpolluted with wrong facts. The guestanswering a question about peace talksand how Pakistanis themselves don’tfeel any hatred towards India said thatthe people may want peace but thepoliticians propagate against India on adomestic level and win elections bymaking speeches full of hatred for India.Again, dear sir, I’d like to correct her.Our politicians have a lot of other topicsto talk about. If not anything theirfavourite topic is America and not India.So they should come out of this illusionor fantasy that they are living in.

If the Indian students are so keen onwar with Pakistan than this shows thatthey have not been taught what going towar can do to their economy which theyhave built and ours also. Saying this,one should not perceive that Pakistanisare afraid of India. We never have beenand never will be. Besides we have muchless at stake than India does.

RAHAT ANWAAR ABBASIIslamabad

duelling about dual nationality

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Today exclusively.


12 tuesday, 24 July, 2012

Ekta Kapoor is looking foridentical twins

QuEEN of soaps Ekta Kapoor’s serials are never

lacking in drama. For her Colors’ show

Parichay, starring Samir Soni and Keerti

Nagpure, she has planned two terrific twists in the

tale. After a leap of five months, Keerti’s character,

Siddhi, will deliver twins in jail while veteran actor

Aruna Irani will make an entry in the show as part of

the supporting cast. To cast the perfect identical twins,

producer Ekta, along with the channel, has launched a

hunt for 10-year-old siblings to play the role of Siddhi’s

young sons. Ekta says, “We are doing an all-India

search, with our casting agents. And we are also

reaching out to people through ads on Colors. We are

looking for identical twins and it would be fun if we get

a pair of boys who are talented and want to act.”

Talking about the need for a leap in the drama series,

she says, “After a successful first stage of the show,

we are putting in all our efforts for the second stage of

Samir’s character Kunal and Siddhi’s story. NeWs Desk

anil Kapoor is going to Olympics

PRIME Minister Manmohan Singh and filmmaker

Karan Johar, who are reportedly the only two

personalities from India to be invited for the

soon-to-start London Olympics, will now have

company. News is that actor Anil Kapoor too has been

invited by Hollywood filmmaker Danny Boyle for the

opening ceremony of the big sporting event, to be held

on July 27. That's not all. The actor has also received

an invite from another dignitary for the same event.

"Apart from Danny, who has reportedly been

appointed the artistic director of the Olympic Games

opening ceremony, Anil has also been invited by steel

tycoon Lakshmi Mittal," says the source. Mittal is

among the many sponsors of this year's Olympics and

will be one of the torchbearers at the event. The actor

confirmed the news stating that he would be attending

the grand gala, saying, "Yes, I am attending the

opening ceremony of the London Olympics this

week."However, the exact details of the actor's trip to

London are yet to be finalised. Kapoor, who is currently

shooting for producer-director Sanjay Gupta's prequel,

Shootout At Wadala, has taken a few days off from the

filming schedule, so he can make time for the

headline-grabbing extravaganza. NeWs Desk

no question of dating ranbiragain: Deepika

sHE loves him as a co-star and friend, but

there’s just no chance, says Deepika

Padukone, of her ever getting back in a

relationship with Ranbir Kapoor. Riding high on the

success of her recent hit, Cocktail, a confident

Padukone, who broke up with Ranbir over allegations

of his infidelity, says, “We are back to being good

friends, but there is no question of us dating again. I

have a certain comfort level with Ranbir and there is

no awkwardness owing to our split. If I was not

comfortable with him, I wouldn’t have signed a film

opposite him,” she says, referring to filmmaker Ayan

Mukherji’s Yeh Jawani Hai Deewani, which stars the

two. But what about rumours of them spending a lot

of quality time bonding on the sets in Rajasthan and

Manali? “Yes, we spent time, but it’s only media that

projected as if we were ever alone. Ayan and the other

crew was always with us,” she says. Talking about her

red-hot ‘bikini’ scene in Cocktail that got the crowds

whistling like mad, the 26-year-old actor says, “For

me, it was just something that was in the script. I did

not look at it as an ‘Oh-my-God’ moment.” NeWs Desk

THE talk that the Batman trilogy is cursed has resurfacedagain following the Colorado massacre, where a gunman

dressed as the film villain 'The Joker' opened fire at apacked US movie theatre leaving at least 12 dead and

59 injured. The horrific cinema shooting spree isthe latest tragedy associated with the film after

the death of Heath Ledger, who played theJoker in The Dark Knight, according to the

Daily Mail. The Australian actor died inJanuary 2008 at the age of 28 from an

accidental overdose of prescriptiondrugs, six months before the film's

release. The filming of 'The DarkKnight' was marred by anothermisfortune - the death of New

Zealander Conway Wickliffe,News reported. The specialeffects technician was on a

camera truck filming a stunt whenit crashed into a tree in October

2007. On the set of the latestsequence, ' The Dark Knight

Rises', a stunt double forAnne Hathaway, who plays

Catwoman, reportedlycrashed into expensive

camera equipmentduring filming in

Pittsburgh. TheBatman "curse''"

also touched 'TheDark Knight's

leading starsMorgan

freeman andChristian

Bale.freeman,

who playedLucius foxin the film,

wasseriously

injured in acar accident

in Mississippi in August 2008. Thecrash left both freeman and his passenger Demaris

Meyer badly injured after the car flipped several timesand landed in a ditch. In the days after the accident,

freeman and his wife of 24 years announced they weredivorcing. His passenger, who was widely reported to have been his

mistress, denied she was romantically linked to him and sued theactor for negligence. The trilogy's bad luck also followed Christian

Bale, the star of the franchise. The famously volatile actor, who playsBatman, hit the headlines in July 2008 when he was arrested for

allegedly assaulting his mother and sister at the Dorchester Hotelshortly before the London''s premiere. NeWs Desk

Joshua Greene, the son of the

late photographer Milton

Greene, has revealed that his

babysitter was none other than the

most famous sex bomb in showbiz -

Marilyn Monroe. Joshua's father was

Monroe's one-time confidant and

business partner. "I have wonderful

childhood memories of being tickled,

having pillow fights," the new York

Post quoted Greene as saying.

"Marilyn Monroe was my babysitter,

and she gave me bubble baths!" he

said. he threw up his hands in mock

horror at the thought of being

bathed and diapered by the most

famous sex bomb in showbiz. "I was

lucky, what could I say?" Greene

said. the domesticity played out

during a little-known period in the

life of Monroe, who died 50 years

ago on aug. 6, when she lodged

with the Greene family in Weston,

Conn. It was a rural retreat where

she intermittently dodged the

limelight for more than two years.

Devastated by her divorce from Joe

DiMaggio and disillusioned by

hollywood, Monroe fled Los angeles

for the relative tranquility of the

East Coast. It was the winter of

1954-'55, and for weeks, nobody

knew about her hideout.

there were wild rumours that she

was having affairs with Frank

sinatra and Clark Gable. the press

was in a frenzy of speculation. But,

much to the chagrin of Monroe's

studio, 20th Century Fox, she had

simply transferred her business affairs

to new York City. her goal was to

reassess her career and seek

fulfillment as a serious actress by

enrolling at the actors studio in

Manhattan, run by Lee

strasburg. It took eight

months, but Milton Greene

helped forge an

agreement with Fox

that allowed Monroe

more freedom to take

opportunities and

control her image. the

duo founded their own

company, Marilyn Monroe

Productions, which paired

with Fox to make "Bus

stop" in 1956 and Warner

for "the Prince and the

showgirl" later that year.

But the machinations of the

film industry went way over

young Joshua's head. "I was too

young to have any realization of

who Marilyn was," Greene said.

"she was just a friend of the family -

safe, nurturing and playful. those

years were the happiest of her life

because she had the safe, family

environment," he said. according to

Joshua, the late screen icon treated

him like a favourite nephew. "It wasn't

about drugs or the negative things

which made her insecure. "My father

worked doubly hard to make her feel

more secure," he added. NeWs Desk

MOnrOE’s ‘nEPhEW’rECalls his ‘sExBOMB BaBysittEr’


13

Katie seeks ‘solace’ in ex-boyfriend’s arms

KATIE Holmes, who recently filed for divorce

from Tom Cruise, has been relying on her

"solid friend" and former flame Chris Klein for

support lately. Holmes and Klein were engaged be-

fore the actress got together with 'Top Gun' star.

"Chris has been a huge source of support. They've

stayed on good terms since they broke up and he's

one of Katie's few really solid friends," News quoted

an insider as telling Heat magazine. The 33-year-old

star and the 'American Pie' actor stayed in touch

after their break-up and she is said to feel indebted

to him following his recent help. "Because of Tom she

was really isolated. She only hung out with people

who Tom and the [Scientology] Church had pre-ap-

proved, so she hardly has any friends," the source

revealed. "Having Chris as a shoulder to cry on has

been a huge help for Katie. It wouldn't surprise any-

one if they became more than just friends," the in-

sider added," the insider added. NeWs Desk

a tribute to Ghazal maestro Mehdi hassan

BESIDES elites of Rawalpindi and Islamabad and

music lovers, many diplomats and celebrities

attended a musical evening at Pearl Continental

Hotel Rawalpindi held to pay tribute to Ghazal maestro

Mehdi Hassan. The program began with two dance

performances by famous classical dancer Shaista. This

segment was followed by Zafar Mhdi, Saleem Kiyani

and Saeed Mehdi. pr

Emma Watson in ‘50 shadesof Grey’ movie?

sHE went from beingan unknown entity toa headline maker

overnight. Now, AnitaAdvani, late actor RajeshKhanna’s live-in partner foreight years, says that herlegal notice was directed athim, not his family. “He (Khanna) shunned andabandoned me in his lastdays. After doing so muchfor him for 10 years, I couldnot take it lying down. Mylegal notice was to him,”says the 50-year-old.Hinting at his family’sinvolvement, she says, “Hisfamily treated me reallybadly and did not let me seehim. I’m not sure if theytook advantage of him beingso weak, but I can’tunderstand how a personcan be something one day

and then turn 180 degreesthe next,” she says.Admitting that she’scompletely shattered, shedenies allegations that shewants Khanna’s property,estimated to be worth Rs.

200 crore. “I do not wantAashirwad (the name of hisbungalow). It was his dreamthat it be turned into amuseum, I also want that tohappen,” she says, and adds,“He and I were in a

relationship. I gave 10 yearsof my life to him and neverasked for anything. But now,when everyone turnedagainst me, I am devastated.I feel stripped.”It all started in June, shesays. “He would say that heis not feeling well. I didn’tknow what was happening.Dimple (Kapadia) suddenlydid not allow me to enter thehouse,” she says. “Even theday he was cremated, Akshaydid not let me climb on thetruck with his body. He said,‘Anitaji, yeh sirf family keliye hai.’ Where were they forthe last 10 years? Just byhaving a piece of paper, youdon’t become family. I havenurtured and loved him for10 years. Just because I don’thave a piece of paper, I amnot family?” NeWs Desk

Where was Khanna’s family forthe last ten years?: Anita Advani

Carly Rae Jepsen

SelenaGomezTaylor Swift

Chris Colfer

Justin Beiber

Lea Michelle

Joe Jonas

Demi Lovato

No Doubt

aCTRESS Emma Watson is in talks to take on

the role of Anastasia Steel in the movie

adaptation of “Fifty Shades Of Grey”. The

actress is the hot favourite to be chosen by producers

Mike De Luca and Dana Brunetti. The 22-year-old is

said to have the right looks for the part, combining a

degree of innocence with the acting skills to portray

the young graduate who gets swept into a world of

sado-masochistic sex with a kinky billionaire, Christian

Grey, reports showbizspy.com. Others in the frame to

play Anastasia are believed to be Elizabeth Olsen, Mila

Kunis and Kristen Stewart. NeWs Desk


Sports governing bodies from Japan and Australiaare under fire after complaints that male Olympicathletes flew business class to the London Games,while the women sat in the cheap seats.

Japan’s world champion women’s football teamtook exception to flying economy while their malecounterparts sat in business class on a flight to Eu-rope for the Olympics. The Japan football Associ-

ation said the men flew in business becausethey are professionals. The women’s teamwas assigned seats in premium economy forthe 13-hour flight to Paris while the nation’sunder-23 men’s team was up front on the

same flight. “It should have been the other wayaround,” 2011 fIfA women’s world player ofthe year Homare Sawa told Japanese mediaafter arriving in the french capital. “Even justin terms of age we are senior.” BasketballAustralia says it will review its travel policy fornational teams after complaints that the menflew business class to the Olympics whilemost of the women sat in premium economy.

The women’s team is by far the most success-

ful of the two, having won silver medals at the lastthree Olympics. The men, who will be led in Londonby San Antonio Spurs point guard Patty Mills, havenever won an Olympic medal. Today, the sport’s na-tional governing body said it would “review ourOlympic travel policy with the goal of ensuring thereis equity between travel arrangements for the men’sand women’s teams attending future Olympics.”The Opals’ most-famous player, though, was not ineconomy: Seattle WNBA star Lauren Jackson wasin first class because she is an “ambassador” withthe airline involved. And another WNBA player, LizCambage, paid to upgrade herself to business class.

In a statement, Basketball Australia acting chiefexecutive Scott Derwin said the “policy aroundbudgets for each national team gives the leadershipgroup of those teams some discretion over how theirfunds are spent - and that includes travel arrange-ments. “We should bear in mind that in fact, histor-ically, more funding has been directed towards theOpals. But the simple fact is when a policy results ingender inequality, it’s very clearly not the right pol-icy.” Incoming BA chief executive Kristina Keneally,a former state political leader of New South Wales,will start in her new role on August 4. She said fri-day she welcomed the travel policy review.

“In this day and age, there’s just no excuse formen’s and women’s sporting teams to be treateddifferently when they both compete at the sameworld-class level,” Ms Keneally said. “The dispar-ity is even more glaring when you consider thatour women’s basketball team is one of the best inthe world.” In London, Australian chef de missionNick Green said the Australian Olympic Commit-tee provides return economy airfares for all teammembers with the official airline sponsor.

“We’re comfortable for the sports to look aftertheir athletes,” Green said. “We give them the travelsubsidy to travel ... and the sports themselves deter-mine how they use that.” Other Australian Olympicteams also fly economy, but some organisations, likeSwimming Australia, give its athletes the option toupgrade to business class at their own expense. for-mer Australian women’s basketball captain RobynMaher said the Australian women’s team had repeat-edly asked Basketball Australia to justify the inequity.“Over the years it’s been a multitude of (reasonsgiven) - the men get better funding, so they’ve beenable to do it; the men are bigger so they need morespace,” she told the Sydney Morning Herald. “It’sbeen a bit of a sore spot, especially since the womenare much more successful.” CoUrtesY HUffINgtoN post


Infotainment

sEUNG Han Lee is a designer from SouthKorea, currently living in England. Ourattention was caught by his Magazine Rack

Chair, which was “inspired by the idea to combinea book case and a chair and make them onefunctional object“, as the artist explains. Rails ofstainless steel built into the chair act as individualhangers for various publications. Each magazinecan be easily grabbed, without having to get up.Han’s design may not look too comfortable, but theidea behind is creative and fun. Seen on Architizer,the Magazine Rack Chair can be a practical additionin the children’s room or the home office. And itwould certainly be appreciated in a waiting room,where time is much easier spent while reading agood newspaper. And with almost thirty to choosefrom, boredom is not an option. NeWs Desk

Officials worry for ‘Goatman’as hunting season begins

WILDLIfE officials in the US state of Utahare hunting a man spotted in themountains wearing a goat suit amid a

herd of real wild goats. Phil Douglass, of the Utahdivision of Wildlife Resources, said the person isdoing nothing illegal but he worries the so-called“goat man” is unaware of the dangers, as manyhunters will take to the mountains during shootingseason later this year. Sixty permits will be issued forgoat-hunting season in September above Ogden,north of Salt Lake City, where the costumed rambler,nicknamed “goat-man” was spotted. Douglass alsofeared the man may be unaware of the dangersposed by other wild goats. He told Associated Press“They may get agitated. They’re territorial. They are,after all, wild animals,” he said. “This person puts ona goat suit, he changes the game. A man hiking alongBen Lomond peak in the Wasatch range reportedseeing the goat man. Coty Creighton, 33 said he soonrealised there was something “creepy” about one goatthat was walking behind the rest of the herd. Douglasssays the hiker took blurry photographs and it wasclear they weren’t altered. CoUrtesY HUffINgtoN post

First portable laptopweighed 55 pounds

WHAT did the first commerciallyavailable portable computer havegoing for it? Well, it was super light at

a whopping 55 pounds. It also cost $19,975, morethan some cars do these days.First introduced: September, 1975, CpU: IBMproprietary, 1.9MHz, RAM: 16K, 64K max,Display: 5″ monochrome monitor 64 X 16 text,storage: Internal 200K tape (DC300), ports:tape / printer I/O port, os: APL and/or BASICA single integrated unit provided the keyboard, five-inch CRT display, tape drive, processor, severalhundred kilobytes of read only memory containingsystem software, and up to 64 KB of random accessmemory. It was the size of a small suitcase, weighedabout 55 lb (25 kg), and could be transported in anoptional carrying case, hence the “portable”designation. So it was the size of a small suitcase?Yeah, how’s that for portable? If you ever findyourself complaining about how clunky and big yourgadgets are, remember this guy lugging around the$20k “ultra portable” IBM 5100. NeWs Desk

D ID you know that the world iscollectively grumpy every morning?Or that Lady Gaga has more“monsters” following her onlinethan the population of Texas?

Microblogging site Twitter not only providesus with what people are thinking throughoutthe world at any point in time with its“Trending Topics,” but it also, when analyzed,clues us in on certain universal humanbehaviors and desires. We’ve rounded up a setof more recent studies and factoids providedby Twitter statistics over the last two years toget a snapshot of society today. The data alsodives into where tweets originate, and whatour discussions say about worldwide trends.

What we eat (and it’s not good)Unfortunately, humanity doesn’t eat so well,according to our tweets. The top two foodtopics last year were the McLobster and friedKool-Aid, with Guinness beer not too farbehind on the list. for 2012, we expect to seesomething about the Taco Bell’s Dorito Taco.

When humanity is collectively happy(or grumpy)A report from Cornell University found that, ingeneral, people are grumpy when they first rollout of bed, but they perk up by breakfast time.Throughout the afternoon our moods start toslump again, only to rise around quittin’ time (6p.m). Cornell researchers found these results byweighing positive verses negative tweets postedby more than 2 million people around theworld. Interestingly enough, no matter thelocation, humanity experienced similar risesand falls in mood throughout the day.

Where the chattiest people liveA 2012 study by the Oxford Internet Institutefound that out of 4.5 million Twitter posts, theU.S. created 30 percent of the world’s tweets,followed by Brazil with 22 percent. The UnitedKingdom and Indonesia tied for third placewith 6 percent each.

How much we love our celebrities Humanity adores its celebrities, and Twitter is

just one of many avenues available for stalkingpop stars. Lady Gaga has over 27 millionfollowers on Twitter, meaning that her clan of“little monsters” is larger than the entire stateof Texas. Justin Bieber isn’t too far behind,recently acquiring 25 million followers and adance of jubilee from Twitter employees.

Where we get our newsAccording to a 2012 Pew study, facebooktends to provide more news from friends andfamily, while Twitter is more likely to providejournalistic news. And even still, both socialmedia platforms provided less news thanoriginally hypothesized.

That older folks need connections tooThe University of Alabama surveyed nearly8,000 people in 2012, finding that participantsover the age of 50 who used Twitter (andfacebook) were one-third less likely to developsymptoms of depression than those not usingsocial media. So maybe it’s time to getgrandma a Twitter handle?

When popular culture is goingviral… even if it shouldn’t Throughout 2011, Rebecca Black’s hit (?)“friday” was themost-discussed songaround theTwittersphere. (Ourbets are on CarlyRae Jepsen’s“Call Me Maybe”for 2012!)“Thor” was alsothe mosttweetedabout film,and “PrettyLittle Liars”scored themost Twitterclout fortelevision. Within the last week, both“Batman” and “The Dark KnightRises” have been trending incities across the U.S.

How sports bring Tweeps togetherAccording to Mashable, we tweet heavilyduring sporting events. In the 2012 EuropeanChampionship for soccer, there were 15,358tweets sent per second, and during the lastminutes of the 2012 Super Bowl, 10,245 tweetswere sent per second. Some close runner-upevents were Tim Tebow’s overtime touchdownpass on Jan. 8, 2012, as well as two momentsfrom the 2012 fIfA Women’s World Cup.

That women are more social (andmaybe becoming more tech-Savvy)There are more women than men onfacebook, Twitter, and Pinterest, according toDigital flash NY, which also means you mightsee more women entering the tech field soon.“Increasingly the people who are using thesesocial media platforms are women,” said SarahLeary, co-founder of social networking siteNextDoor n an interview with HuffPost. “Soit’s not surprising that women are increasinglyplaying a larger role in leading thesecompanies or founding these companies.”

What topics send Tweeters into a tizzyHashtags signify Twitter’s popular topics,and throughout the last year there was plentyto tweet about. The most used hashtag of

2011 was #egypt,referring to that

country’srevolution thatoccurred duringthe Arab Spring.Charlie Sheenwas also havinghis highly-

mediatedmeltdown around

that time, pushingthat famous tag he

coined,#tigerblood, tosecond place.Ironic or wittyhashtags also

made the list, like#idontunderstandwhy and

#improudtosay. NeWs Desk

10 things Twitter taught us about humanity a cool new way to store magazines?

Olympics of Sexism?


tuesday, 24 july, 2012

Page 17

cibulkova stops bartolito win carlsbad crown

LAHoRestaff report

pAKISTAN'S former captainand now a senior official inthe PCB, Intikhab Alamhas been entrusted withthe job of convincing ex-

spinner Abdul Qadir to accept an assign-ment after he lost his cool over beinggiven a short contract extension.

Sources in the board said that Qadirwas upset with the PCB after he wasgiven a three-month extension on hiscoaching contract, which expired onJune 30.

"The board later tried to pacify thelegspinner by extending his contract toa year but he has refused to relent andreturn to duty," a source said.

Qadir, who took 236 Test and 132one-day wickets, was late last year ap-pointed as chief coordinator of clubcricket.

He was also given the job of coach-ing and recently supervised the na-tional skills trials throughout the

country with former teammates, Sar-fraz Nawaz and Ejaz Ahmed.

"Qadir became upset when helearnt that after his contract expired onJune 30, he was given only a three-

month extension. Later the board of-fered him a one-year deal but he is de-manding a three-year one as he saysthis is the period required for him torestructure club cricket, the source

said. Another a news agency thatquoted a source said that at one stageQadir was so upset he had even bargedinto the office of the PCB chairman,Zaka Ashraf and announced that hehad resigned from his job.

Qadir had also parted ways withthe board during the tenure of Ijaz Buttin 2009 when he worked as chief selec-tor.

"Intikhab has been trying to con-vince Qadir and accept the one-yearcontract but the latter has refused toeven come to the board headquarters atthe Gaddafi stadium."

Even Sarfraz is believed to havecomplained that he was being given araw deal by the board, which had ap-pointed him as a coach on the nationalacademy panel, besides asking him tosupervise the fast bowlers' camp.

"Sarfraz's complaint is that he isnot being provided proper security andfacilities during the national skills tri-als which resume after Ramazan andthat his pay should be enhanced," thesource added.

Intikhab entrusted withtask to convince Qadir

afridi, Gayle signto australian big bash team

LAHoRestaff report

Pakistani all-rounder Shahid Afridi andStar West Indian big-hitter Chris Gaylehave signed to play in Australia's domes-tic Twenty20 competition for the SydneyThunder, the team said Monday.Gayle is returning to the team where lastseason he smashed an unbeaten centuryoff 54 deliveries, including 11 sixes,against Adelaide and who finished thecompetition with an average of 42 for theThunder with 252 runs."After my experience last year, I alwayswanted to return," said the West Indianwho hit the most sixes in the Big BashLeague last season with 22."I love Sydney, so I cannot wait to getamongst the guys again."Afridi played in the inaugural BBL lastyear with the Melbourne Renegades, fin-ishing among the league's top 10 wicket-takers and posting a respectable averageof 23 with the bat. "I was approached bya few teams in the BBL and opted forSydney Thunder as I feel there is a realdrive and passion to be successful thistime around, and this is something Iwant to be part of," Afridi said. Theeight-team BBL begins on December 7.

JoHAnneSBURgafp

Surprise British Open championErnie Els had to settle for secondplace behind triple centurionHashim Amla on the front pagesof South African newspapersMonday.

"South Africa's day of cham-pions" read the headline acrossthe top of The New Age with pic-tures of Els holding the ClaretJug at Royal Lytham in north-west England and Amla acknowl-edging the crowd at The Oval inLondon.

"Els wins British Open; Pro-teas on verge of victory againstEngland" said the sub-headlineas the youngest Johannesburg-published daily devoted its frontpage to the sporting achieve-

ments.Els snatched a one-stroke vic-

tory over Australian Adam Scott,who imploded over the closingholes and bogeyed the last four asthe wind turned the links courseinto a treacherous test.

Amla became the first SouthAfrican to hit a triple ton, scoring311 not out as South Africa de-clared on 637-2 at tea on thefourth day and then took fourEngland wickets before the close.

A picture of fellow centurionJacques Kallis congratulatingAmla after his extraordindaryfeat dominated the front page ofThe Star above the headline"Mighty Hash lauded after feat".

"Hashim Amla is known asthe 'Mighty Hash' on socialmedia websites like Twitter, butyesterday he became the Incredi-

ble Hash when he scored the firsttriple century by a South Africa,"the newspaper said.

The Star's golf correspondentat Royal Lytham wrote: "It was,when measured up against 152years of Open Championship his-tory, one of the greatest come-backs ever."

"South African domination"was the bold headline across themain sport page of The Star andbeneath were pictures of aclenched-fisted Els after a birdieand Amla hitting out againstEngland.

Business Day pictured Amlacelebrating his feat, as did TheTimes below the headline"Hashim the Magnificent" whilethe Sowetan focused on the likelymove of national team capatainSteven Pienaar back to Everton

from Tottenham."Amla hits triple ton" was the

main Times sport-page headline,detailing Amla's tribute to bat-ting partners Graeme Smith andJacques Kallis for helping himbecome the first South African topass 300 runs in an innings.

"Big day for our Big Easy"was the headline above a BritishOpen report that began: "It tooka decade, but Ernie Els capturedhis fourth major and his secondBritish Open in dramatic fash-ion".

Completing a wonderfulweekend for South Africa was the30-17 away triumph of CoastalSharks over title holders Queens-land Reds of Australia in a Super15 play-off which earned them asemi-final showdown at WesternStormers.

Amla wins front-page battle with Els

LAHoRestaff report

Justifying the left-arm spinner, RazaHasan’s selection, Pakistan CricketBoard’s (PCB’s) chief selector, IqbalQasim, expressed that the youngster isequally good in comparison with AbdurRehman, and said that he has been pre-ferred because of his performances inthe domestic arena.

The 20-year-old has been a part ofthe national squad many times in thepast, without getting an opportunity toshowcase his skills at the highest levelof the game.

After an impressive performance inthe ICC Under-19 Cricket World Cup2010, held in New Zealand, the Sialkot-born cricketer replaced Danish Kaneriain Pakistan’s squad during the tour ofEngland in 2010.

Having performed consistently innational cricket, Hasan was picked for

the T20 portion of the Sri Lankan tourlast month, but failed to break into theplaying-11 once again.

However, PCB announced the 15-man team for the three-match T20 se-ries against Australia and the ICCWorld T20 2012, showing faith onRaza’s abilities once again, preferringhim over Abdur Rehman, the seasonedspinner. Qasim, while speaking to Pak-passion, expressed that the youngstermatches Abdur Rehman’s ability, al-though Raza is not experienced in inter-national cricket.

The former cricketer from Karachi,who himself was a left-arm spinner inhis playing days, admitted that he is ex-tremely impressed by the young crick-eter’s ability to handle pressuresituations. The chief selector said, “Thereason is that Raza Hasan is an equallygood bowler in this format. We haveseen him bowl in T20s in domesticcricket and he bowls very well and con-

trols his nerves. I have never seen himpanic when bowling even in the deathovers.” While talking about NasirJamshed’s comeback, Qasim expressedthat the left-handed opener has beendoing brilliantly in the first-class cricketand also did well in the Asia Cup 2012,so there was no question about his placein the team.

“Unfortunately he was not match-fit to play in that series, but now that heis fit again, I had to give him prefer-ence,” the chief selector added. “Lasttime he was selected it was based on hisdomestic performance and his perform-ance in the Asia Cup in Bangladesh. InT20s it is important to look at form.”

Tagged in: cricket, Sri LankaCricket, Raza Hasan, Cricket Update,cricket news. Test your Cricket knowl-edge by placing free betting on cricketmatches. Get most accurate Cricketbetting odds and picks for successfulbetting.

Pakistan slams visa scam claimsisLAMABAD: Pakistani sports officialsMonday rubbished claims by a Britishnewspaper to have uncovered a visa scamthat could have allowed potential terroristsinto the Olympic Village. The Sun tabloidsaid it had busted a racket involving a politi-cian in the eastern city of Lahore that couldhave given access to the London Games aspart of the Pakistani contingent in returnfor a million rupees ($10,000). Pakistan'sOlympic chef de mission Aqil Shah dis-missed the Sun's claims. "These are baselessreports," Shah told AfP. "This is an attemptto malign Pakistan. Even if someone gets apassport he cannot enter the Olympic Vil-lage without an Olympic accreditationcard." The Sun said its undercover reporterwas offered the chance to go to theOlympics posing as an official member ofthe Pakistani contingent on a two-monthvisa. Pakistan's 39-strong delegation --minus Shah -- is already in London andconsists of 23 athletes and 16 officials. Shahjustified the number of officials. "Hockeyhas at least six officials which are under therules and then we have physicians andother coaches who are genuine members ofPakistan's contingent," said Shah. afp

Raza is as good asRehman, claims Qasim


Sports 16tuesday, 24 July, 2012

LonDonafp

sOUTH Africa on Mondaytook a one-nil lead in thethree-match series againstEngland, beating the hostsby an innings and 12 runs

and securing their first win at the Ovalafter a masterful display of top order bat-ting. Hashim Amla's unbeaten 311, ablysupported by 182 not out from veteranall-rounder Jacques Kallis and 131Graeme Smith took the Proteas to 637 for2 before they declared, setting England atarget of 252 to make them bat again.

But with the hosts resuming on 102for four, England were always facing anuphill battle to save the game and despitesome resistance from Ian Bell (55) andMatt Prior (40), saving the task ulti-mately proved impossible.

England, however, had managed tosurvive the first session virtually un-scathed, moving to 177 for five at lunch,with the only wicket to fall that of RaviBopara, who was bowled off an insideedge by Dale Steyn for 22 in the seventhover.

Steyn bowled an accurate spell at thestart of the day but his wicket came off ashort, wide ball, which Bopara tried topunch to the off side, only to get a thickinside edge which caused the ball to crashinto his stumps.

Bell was dropped by stand-in wicket-

keeper AB de Villiers off leg-spinnerImran Tahir when he was on 20, with DeVilliers failing to hold a thin edge inTahir's first over of the day, shortly be-fore the morning drinks break.

Bell and Bopara put on 50 for thefifth wicket and Bell found another usefulpartner in Matt Prior as the pair added 86

for the sixth wicket.Both batsmen were caught by Kallis -

- Prior off spinner Imran Tahir and Belloff Steyn after four-and-a-half hours atthe crease and 220 balls.

Steyn took three wickets in 16 deliv-eries with the second new ball, includingBell's, whom he had caught at second

slip, giving him five for 56 and sevenwickets in the match, as England couldonly manage 240 all out in their secondinnings.

Stuart Broad gloved a catch down theleg side in Steyn's next over. He was givennot out by umpire Asad Rauf but SouthAfrica successfully sought a television re-

view which showed the ball brushed hisglove.

Graeme Swann then tried to attackthe bowling and hit seven runs off nineballs before driving Steyn to cover.

Last man James Anderson wasdropped by a diving JP Duminy at pointoff Steyn before he had scored and de-layed the inevitable for more than half anhour before he was trapped leg beforewicket by Tahir.

The victory is South Africa's first in 11matches at the Oval and they had previ-ously lost all three Tests at the south Lon-don venue since returning tointernational cricket in 1991.

The last time the two teams met inEngland in 2008, South Africa edged thehosts 2-1 but England have been un-beaten at home since then, rising to num-ber one in the world rankings undercaptain Andrew Strauss and coach Andyflower.

South Africa, though, have not lost anaway series since they were beaten in SriLanka in 2006. They are currently rankedthird but will take the top place fromEngland if they win the series.

The win was only the fifth time ateam had won a Test match losing onlytwo wickets.

The previous occasion was by SouthAfrica against Bangladesh in Chittagongin 2002-03. All the other instances werewins by England, including one againstSouth Africa at Lord's in 1924.

S Africa rout England for first win at Oval

eNgLaND, first innings, 385 (Cook 115, prior 60, Morkel 4-72)

soUtH afrICa, first innings, 637-2 dec (amla 311 no, kallis 181

no, smith 131)

eNgLaND, second innings (overnight 102-4):

a. strauss c philander b Imran tahir 27

a. Cook c De Villiers b philander 0

j. trott c De Villiers b steyn 10

k. pietersen b Morkel 16

I. Bell c kallis b steyn 55

r. Bopara b steyn 22

M. prior c kallis b Imran tahir 40

t. Bresnan not out 20

s. Broad c De Villiers b steyn 0

g. swann c petersen b steyn 7

j. anderson lbw b Imran tahir 4

extras (b11, lb15, nb12, w1) 39

total (97 overs) 240

fall of wickets: 1-2 (Cook), 2-32 (trott), 3-57 (pietersen), 4-67

(strauss), 5-117 (Bopara), 6-203 (prior), 7-210 (Bell), 8-210

(Broad), 9-218 (swann)

Bowling: Morkel 16-0-41-1 (1nb, 1w), philander 19-6-29-1 (1nb),

steyn 21-6-56-5, Imran tahir 32-7-63-3 (6nb), kallis 7-1-22-0,

Duminy 2-1-3-0

result: south africa won by an innings and 12 runs

series: south africa lead the three-match series 1-0

toss: england

Umpires: steve Davis (aUs), asad rauf (pak)

tV umpire: kumar Dharmasena (srI)

Match referee: jeff Crowe (NZL)

remaining matches:

aug 2-6, second test, Leeds

aug 16-20, third test, Lord?s

sCoreBoarD

LAHoRestaff report

former Pakistan pacer Shoaib Akhtar hasdescribed his one-time new ball partner Mo-hammad Sami as a "mentally weak" bowlerwho is not adept at handling pressure.

"Sami is a mentally weak athlete and

he can't take pressure," Akhtar said.Akhtar turns his attention to Sami, a

few days after criticising the PakistanCricket Board.

"Efforts were made to make Moham-mad Sami into the 'Karachi Express'. Hewas constantly told that your competi-tion is with Shoaib Akhtar for a place inthe team," Akhtar said.

Akhtar, who retired from all forms ofcricket in acrimonious circumstancesduring the World Cup last year, wasasked about the performance of Samiand his experiences of playing alongsidehim.

Akhtar insisted that when he playedhis aim was always to try and get the op-position out in one spell.

"I was always aggressive and tryingto get wickets as that is the job of a fastbowler like me," he said.

The national selectors and the teammanagement have come under criticismfor retaining Sami in the T20 squad an-nounced for the coming Australia seriesand the T20 World Cup, after he failedto make an impact on the Sri Lanka tour.

Sami's selection was a debatable one,

with critics pointing to his abysmal Testrecord of 85 wickets in 36 matches at anaverage of 56.

His performances in ODIs and T20matches are better as he has captured121 wickets in 85 matches at an averageof 28 and 10 wickets at 14 in five T20games.

Pakistan's former captain, WaqarYounis, also had recently criticised theperformance of Sami in Sri Lanka, urg-ing the selectors to go for young bloodand to repose more confidence in some-one like Junaid Khan.

The selectors didn't pick Junaid inthe T20 squad with chief selector, IqbalQasim, making it clear that captain Mo-hammad Hafeez and coach, Dav What-more, had preferred to have Samiinstead of the youngstar.

"Sami has failed to learn from hispast experiences and despite making nu-merous comebacks, he is still a very ex-pensive bowler," Waqar had said.

Akhtar said that he always tried tobowl as fast as he could even if he had tobowl just 12 overs in a day.

The Rawalpindi Express observed

that in a bid to compete with him, Samialso tried to bowl fast all the time butcouldn't control his line and length.

"I played a lot with Sami and my ob-servation is he tried to compete hard andlost discipline in bowling. When webowled together we could put a lot ofpressure on the batsmen and in such cir-cumstances he bowled well," Akhtarsaid. The former pacer believed that luckalso plays a big role in any cricketer's ca-reer.

"Sami was an unlucky bowler as wellmany times straight forward catcheswere dropped off his bowling while insome instances umpires didn't give sim-ple decisions in his favor," he added.

But Akhtar believed that Sami, com-pared to him, Wasim Akram or WaqarYounis, was a mentally weak bowler.

"He has been playing for 11 years butif you tick him off once he loses focusand comes under pressure. He has theability and I wish he does well now butfor this he has to be assigned a role inthe team and pressure must be put onhim to perform as a frontline strikebowler," Akhtar said.

He noted that the Pakistan team hada lot of potential and should go onto thefield with the belief that it could bowlout any opposition in one session.

"But when you look at the presentside you can see they go onto the fieldconvinced that they will have to field forat least three to four sessions."

Sami is a mentally weak athlete, says Akhtar

islamabad premierleague bowlingchampionship

ISLAMABADapp

Islamabad Premier League tenpinbowling championship will beplayed from today, Tuesday in f/9park Islamabad under the aegis ofIslamabad bowling Association.In this championship only playersfrom Islamabad will participate andeach player will play 30 games andtop score will be declared winners.The event will continue for 10 daysand each player will play 3 gamesdaily.The winner holding 1st, 2nd and 3rdposition will be given cash prizesand medals, said.President Islamabad Tenpin Bowl-ing Association, Ijaz Ur Rehmansaid on Monday.“We organize this event everyRamzan and the main aim of hold-ing this event is to engage players inhigh quality game to make themready for national internationalevents,” he said.

Akmal set to get PCB contractLAHoRe

staff report

A PCB committee has recommended that wicket-keeper Kamran Akmal and Mohammad Sami be of-fered central contracts for the year 2012.

According to Cricinfo, PCB sources said thecommittee, headed by Intikhab Alam, had recom-mended that Akmal, fast bowlers Sami and Moham-mad Talha and a batsman should be offered centralcontracts. All these players were ignored when newcontracts were offered in May. The 21 players, whowere offered the contracts, signed them after a delayin June while 21 others were given retainers.

"A decision on offering central contracts to ad-ditional players will be taken when the Chairman ofthe Board Zaka Ashraf returns from abroad," onesource said. Ashraf is currently on vacations in theUnited States . Sami's exclusion had caused a bigdebate in Pakistani cricket circles in May as at thattime, he was recalled to the national team for thetour of Sri Lanka but ignored for contracts.

Kamran was recalled to the T20 side for thecoming series against Australia and the T20 WorldCup in Sri Lanka. The wicket-keeper batsman in thepast has been given category A contracts. The Boardpays a monthly retainer of 313,000 rupees to thecategory A players, 218,000 to the B category play-ers and 125,000 to the C category players.


Sports17tuesday, 24 July, 2012

transport woes hit london daysfrom Games

LonDonafp

Key rail links to London's Olympic Parksuffered major disruption on Monday,raising fresh concerns about the Britishcapital's creaking transport network justfour days before the Games.Traffic jams also built up on severalmain roads leading into London amidwork to prepare them to be special linkroutes to the Games, which begin on fri-day.During the Monday morning rush hourdelays hit two lines on the Undergroundsubway system, the Jubilee and CentralLines, while a key overground rail linkand the elevated Docklands light railwaysystem also had problems.All four lines go to Stratford, the stationin east London where the Olympic Parkis located and where hundreds of thou-sands of passengers will be disembark-ing in coming days."I think the Tube might struggle a bitduring the Games to be honest," saidSteve Claxton, 55, a passenger at Liver-pool Street rail station in central Lon-don, a key hub for lines heading to theOlympic Park."I've just flown in from Bangkok and thenetwork there seems a lot more effi-cient. They have a train called a SkyTrain from the airport to the centre andthere are no delays on it," Claxton said.A spokesman for Transport for London,the capital's public transport authority,said the capital had a "very robust trans-port network.""Things happen on the Underground butthere are always alternative optionsopen to passengers," the spokesmansaid.Drivers meanwhile faced delays of up totwo hours on three major roads intoLondon, including one, the A40, whichlinks the capital to England's secondbiggest city Birmingham where a num-ber of Olympics teams are staying.Special lanes for Olympic traffic have al-ready opened on the M4 motorwaywhich leads from London's HeathrowAirport, the gateway airport to theGames, and will open on Wednesday onother routes.

Hoy to carry british flag atGames opening

LonDonafp

Sir Chris Hoy will carry Britain's flag atthe opening ceremony of the OlympicGames on friday, the four-time Olympicchampion confirmed on Monday."I'm absolutely delighted and honouredto have been voted as the flag bearer forTeam GB," said the 36-year-old cyclist."To lead out your team at a homeOlympics is truly a once in a lifetime op-portunity and one that that I can't waitto experience in just a few days time." Hoy also carried the Union Jack at theclosing ceremony in Beijing four yearsago.The Scot is one of Britain's most suc-cessful Olympians, having won four goldmedals, including three at Beijing in2008.Brian Cookson, President of British Cy-cling, told the BBC: "It's absolutely fan-tastic news. Sir Chris is a brilliantathlete and a fantastic ambassador forthe sport of cycling. "Just when you think it can't get anybetter it does - it is the cherry on thecake for British Cycling after BradleyWiggins' success in the Tour de franceon Sunday. "Hoy is reaching his potential just at theright time in the sport and deserves thispivotal role at London 2012." Meanwhile London 2012 supremo Se-bastian Coe insisted it was not down tohim to select the person who wouldlight the torch at friday's ceremony,amidst reports he'd been pushing theclaims of fellow double Olympic goldmedallist Daley Thompson over thoseof multiple Games rowing championSteve Redgrave.

CARLSBADafp

DOMINIKA Cibulkovabeat top-seeded MarionBartoli 6-1, 7-5 Sundayto win the WTA Carlsbadcrown, warming up for

the London Olympics with her secondcareer title.

The second seed from Slovakianeeded 95 minutes to overcome her fa-tigued french opponent, whose sixthdouble fault of the contest gaveCibulkova three match points.

Cibulkova needed only one, fallingon her back in joy after converting it.

"Today I played well all through thematch," said Cibulkova, who added thetitle to the trophy she won in Moscowlast year. "In the past finals I was nerv-ous. This was the first one where I justwent for it -- everything went my way.

"I've changed my coach recently, andI'm more relaxed on the court. It's allworking out really well for me," addedthe 23-year-old, who will represent Slo-vakia at the London Games in both sin-gles and doubles.

Bartoli ran out of steam after a longweek on court that included a series ofthree-set matches as she struggled witha sore hip.

By the time they reached the final,world No. 10 Bartoli had spent a total offour more hours on court thanCibulkova.

Cibulkova, who is slated to rise oneplace to 13th in the world when the rank-ings are released on Monday, was play-ing in her second final of the season,

after losing in the title match inBarcelona.

The Slovak broke Bartoli three timesin the first set, Bartoli making it easierwith a double fault on set point.

Bartoli turned the tables with twoservice breaks for a 4-1 lead in the sec-ond, but the Slovak responded by win-ning four straight games.

"I fought for every ball and didn'tgive up on the important points," shesaid. "I really fought for it. My tactic wasto move her around, make her move and

go for my returns."Cibulkova broke Bartoli for a second

time in the set to knot the score at 4-4,winning 13 of 16 points during thatsurge.

Cibulkova then broke Bartoli onelast time to seal the match in which shewon six of the last seven games.

"I lost, but Dominika played a greatmatch," said Bartoli, who won't be play-ing at the Olympics due to a long-run-ning dispute with french tennis officialsover the continuing presence of her fa-ther, Walter, as her only coach.

"I wish her good luck at theOlympics," Bartoli said. "I fought hard inmy previous matches, today I just cameup a bit short."

Bartoli was playing her first daymatch after winning three tough ones atnight and said the change made a differ-ence to her game.

"Dominika played all her matchesduring the day, she was maybe moreused to it, especially in that first set.

"I played well to get the lead in thesecond, but from this point I started tofeel a bit tired and not moving so quicklyas I wanted. But she played very fast andextremely well, so she made me feel un-comfortable.

"I always want to win, so obviouslyI'm disappointed because I was not ableto do it.

"I really wanted to head back toEurope with a good week, a goodstrong week that I would be able tobuild on before Canada and Cincin-nati," added Bartoli, who will return tothe hard courts of North America atthose venues in August.

Cibulkova stops Bartolito win Carlsbad crown

argentina's monacobreaks into top 10pARis: Argentina's JuanMonaco has achieved a top-10ranking for the first time in hiscareer after defeating Ger-many's Tommy haas on sundayin the ATp clay-court event inhamburg to claim his third titleof the season.Monaco, 28, had previouslynever gone higher than 14th inthe ATp rankings. his risebumps nicolas Almagro fromthe top 10, to 12th.Roger Federer retained his claimon the world number one spotfor a 288th week, ahead of novakDjokovic and Rafael nadal.Rankings1. roger federer (sUI) 11075 pts

2. Novak Djokovic (srB) 11000

3. rafael Nadal (esp) 8905

4. andy Murray (gBr) 7460

5. David ferrer (esp) 5455

6. jo-Wilfried tsonga (fra) 5230

7. tomas Berdych (CZe) 4515

8. janko tipsarevic (srB) 3320

9. juan Martín Del potro (arg) 3180

10. juan Monaco (arg) 2695 (+4)

CARLsBAD, DominikaCibulkova of slovakia cele-brates after winning matchpoint against Marion Bartoliof France during the finalsof the Mercury insuranceopen AFp. afp

london: dale Steyn of South africa leads the team as they celebrate South africa winning the match by an

innings and 12 runs during day 5 of the first test match between england and South africa at the oval. AFP


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Sports 18

From Athensto London

20tH oLYMpIC gaMes IN 1984Venue: Los angles, United statesDates: july 28 to august 12,1984Numbers of sports: 23 (221 events)Numbers of Nations: 140Numbers of participant: 6829 (5263 men and 1566women)Youngest gold Medalist: simona pauca (romania) on14 years 317 days in gymnasticsoldest gold Medalist: William Buchan (United states)aged 49 years 91 days in Yachting

fINaL MeDaLs taLLY:CoUNtrY g s BUNIteD states 83 61 30roMaNIa 20 16 17West gerMaNY 17 19 23CHINa 15 8 9ItaLY 14 6 12CaNaDa 10 18 16japaN 10 8 14NeW ZeaLaND 8 1 2YUgosLaVIa 7 4 7soUtH korea 6 6 7great BrItaIN 5 11 21fraNCe 5 7 16HoLLaND 5 2 6aUstraLIa 4 8 12fINLaND 4 2 6sWeDeN 2 11 6MexICo 2 3 1MoroCCo 2 - -BraZIL 1 5 2spaIN 1 2 2BeLgIUM 1 1 2aUstrIa 1 1 1keNYa 1 - 2portUgaL 1 - 2pakIstaN 1 - -sWItZerLaND - 4 4DeNMark - 3 3jaMaICa - 1 2NorWaY - 1 2greeCe - 1 1NIgerIa - 1 1pUerto rICo - 1 1CoLoMBIa - 1 -egYpt - 1 -IreLaND - 1 -IVorY Coast - 1 -perU - 1 -sYrIa - 1 -tHaILaND - 1 -tUrkeY - - 3VeNeZUeLa - - 3aLgerIa - - 2CaMerooN - - 1DoMINICaN repUBLIC- - 1ICeLaND - - 1taIWaN - - 1ZaMBIa - - 1totaL 226 219 243

trIVIa:n with the olympics being held in the United States

only four years after the United States.- led boycottof the moscow Games, it was not surprising that theSoviet Union organised a revenge boycott in 1984.this time only 14 nations stayed away - but those na-tions accounted for 58% of the gold medals at the1976 olympics.

n despite the boycott, a record 140 nations took part.Good feelings prevailed to such an extent that at theopening ceremony the athletes broke ranks to join inspontaneous dancing, such celebration usually beingreserved for the closing ceremony.

n these Games was the first to attract widespreadsponsorship by private corporations.

n the television rights alone amounted to $287 millionin these Games, of which the maximum came fromthe abc network for United States rights.

n these Games attracted one of the largest tv audiencesin history. Some 2500 million watched the Games.

n romania was the only country from the Soviet blocto participate in these Games.

n Shooter Xu Haifeng won china’s first ever gold medal.n the attendances in theses Games, was the maximum

- nearly 5.7 million spectators watched the Games.n american carl lewis entered into the history books.

He matched the achievement of fellow countrymanJesse owens (berlin 1936), winning four gold medalsin the same events: 100m, 200m, 4x100m relay andlong jump.

n in the women’s 400m hurdles final, nawal el

moutawakel ran the race of her life, leading from start

to finish. She was the first woman from an islamic

nation to win an olympic medal and the first moroc-

can athlete of either sex to win a gold medal.n for his third olympics, daley thompson (Great britain)

faced Jurgen Hingsen (Germany) in the decathlon. it

was a close battle over the first seven events, but

then thompson pulled away with strong perform-

ances in the pole vault and the javelin throw. He won

his second consecutive gold medal.n Professionals were allowed to participate in the foot-

ball tournament - as long as they had not yet taken

part in the world cup. this led to a spirited final -

viewed by 101,799 spectators - in which france de-

feated brazil 2-0.

S. PeRveZ QAISeR

stats corner


once-discouragedels finds moreopen glory

LYThAM:Just a year ago,Ernie Els fig-ured his days ofwinning majorgolf titles wereover. He hadnot won amajor since2002 and hisresults even inlesser events

were sending discouraging signals. All ofthat only made his shocking victory onSunday at the British Open ever sweeter,four birdies on the back nine pushing himto a one-stroke victory over Adam Scott,who cost himself a major with bogeys onthe last four holes. "Last year, no, I thoughtI had no chance," Els said. "Last year wasreally a pretty big hole. But since the startof the year and especially the last month ortwo, I started seeing some better signs andstarted believing in that. "I was in a goodframe of mind. So for once it all came to-gether. "To come through all of that and sithere with the Claret Jug is crazy. It comesfrom a good attitude, being a bit more re-laxed and believing in yourself." afp

London braced forworld's greatest show

LonDonafp

sEVEN years in the making,costing £9.3 billion ($14.5billion) and featuring10,490 athletes, the Lon-don Olympics opens fri-

day with 302 gold medals to be wonand hard-fought reputations at stake.

The Olympic Stadium and AquaticsCentre in London's East End will hostBeijing super-heroes Usain Bolt andMichael Phelps, who tore up the his-tory books in 2008.

On the other side of the city, Rogerfederer, Novak Djokovic and SerenaWilliams will be the headline acts asWimbledon welcomes the heavyweighttennis talent.

In between, Horse Guards Parade,within walking distance of DowningStreet and the Houses of Parliament,hosts beach volleyball and WembleyStadium will stage the football final.

Even Lord's, the home of cricket,gets involved, opening its doors to theworld's best archers.

On the track, Bolt, a triple gold-medallist in Beijing in the 100m, 200mand 4x100m relay, faces a mouthwater-ing showdown with Jamaican team-mate Yohan Blake in the 100m final onAugust 5. Bolt holds the world recordof 9.58sec but Blake is the world cham-pion and the in-form sprinter this sea-son, getting the better of his seniorpartner in the Jamaican trials lastmonth. In the pool, Phelps, whoseeight golds in Beijing took his medaltally to 16, needs three more to surpassthe all-time record of 18 set by Sovietgymnast Larisa Latynina between 1956

and 1964."Obviously, we always want to do

our best and swim the fastest, they arethe main objectives," said Phelps, whowill compete in seven events.

Like Bolt, the 27-year-old Phelpsalso faces a national rival in the shapeof Ryan Lochte, a triple Olympic cham-pion, who can put a huge hole in hisrival's dreams when the two clash inthe 200m and 400m medleys.

Elsewhere in the pool, eyes willalso be on precocious Missy franklin,just 17 and also racing seven events,and Australian sensation James Mag-nussen.

Dubbed 'The Missile', Magnussenis the 100m freestyle world championand earlier this year swam that event'sfastest ever time without the aid of thenow-banned, drag-reducing 'supersuits'.

Other athletics stars include Russ-ian polevault queen Yelena Isinbayeva,Kenya's David Rudisha in the 800mand Ethiopia's Kenenisa Bekele, the5,000m and 10,000m champion inBeijing.

South Africa's Oscar Pistorius,known as 'Blade Runner' because heruns with carbon fibre prosthetic run-ning blades, will make history as thefirst double amputee athlete to com-pete at an Olympics.

At the velodrome, Bradley Wiggins,fresh from his historic Tour de francetriumph, will fire up home hopes.

Zara Phillips, the grand-daughterof Queen Elizabeth, adds a little royallustre to the equestrian at Greenwich.

federer, having won a record-equalling seventh Wimbledon title, re-turns to the All England Club in

south-west London looking to add sin-gles gold to the doubles he won withSwiss compatriot Stanislas Wawrinkafour years ago.

His rivals will be Djokovic andAndy Murray but there will be no de-fending champion Rafael Nadal, whopulled out to rest his ongoing kneeproblems.

The United States will be comfort-able favourites in the men's basketballwith a Dream Team boasting LeBronJames and Kobe Bryant but not the in-jured Dwyane Wade or Derrick Rose.

The build-up to the Games hasbeen relatively trouble-free, althoughorganisers had to summon 3,500troops for the showpiece after privatesecurity firm G4S admitted they could-n't provide a full contingent of guards.

Amid gripes about security andtransport, colourful London mayorBoris Johnson hit out at critics of theOlympics, saying the city was about tostage the greatest show on Earth.

"Oh come off it, everybody --enough whimpering," Johnson wrotein The Sun newspaper.

"Cut out the whingeing. And as foryou whingers, put a sock in it -- fast."

However, one subject the Britishenjoy discussing -- the weather -- con-tinues to be at the forefront.

After a wet and chilly summer,temperatures are expected to reach thehigh twenties by the time the Gamesofficially get underway with friday'sopening ceremony.

Before that, the first action willtake place in Wales on Wednesdaywhen the Great Britain women's foot-ball team tackle New Zealand atCardiff's Millennium Stadium.

London stars missing in actionLonDon

afp

With Rafael Nadal, Chris Bosh and Car-olina Kluft injured and David Beckhamand Ian Thorpe past their best, theOlympics have been hit by a raft of pull-outs. "It is one of the saddest days of mycareer," said Nadal, who was the goldmedallist in tennis singles at Beijing,after announcing his withdrawal fromthe Games. The Spanish world numberthree, the winner of 50 career titles, in-cluding 11 Grand Slam titles, needs torest his chronically suspect knees aheadof the US Open in New York next month.

His decision meant that he also hadto surrender the honour of carrying theSpanish flag at friday's opening cere-mony, a duty now to be assumed by bas-ketball star Pau Gasol.

The United States basketball teamwill remain heavy favourites for gold de-spite losing Derrick Rose, DwayneWade, Chris Bosh, Dwight Howard,LaMarcus Aldridge and ChaunceyBillups. Track and field has also lostCroatia's double world high jump cham-pion Blanka Vlasic who underwent anAchilles tendon operation in January.

Defending triple jump championNelson Evora of Portugal is also absentas is great french hope TeddyThamgho, the world indoor championin the discipline.

Sweden's three-time world hep-tathlon champion Carolina Kluft pulledout of the Olympics on Sunday after suf-fering a thigh injury.

Kluft, 29, had been hoping to takepart in the long jump but having pickedup the injury at a small regional meeting

in Kuortane, finland, she made her de-cision to skip the Games.

"I don't want to go to London withthis kind of preparations," she said.Kluft was Olympic heptathlon championat the 2004 Athens Games and took theworld title in 2003, 2005 and 2007.

LonDonafp

The London Olympics have not yetstarted but the three candidates stillin the race to host the 2020 SummerGames are gearing up to make an im-pression in the British capital.Tokyo, the only one of the three tohave previously hosted the Gamesback in 1964, Istanbul and Madridwill learn their fate in Buenos Aires onSeptember 13 next year when Interna-tional Olympic Committee membersvote.The trio survived the initial cut whenthe short-list was voted on by the IOCExecutive Board in Quebec City inMay -- Doha and Baku having beenvoted off -- and Tokyo remain the

frontrunners.There are no doubts about their abil-ity to host the showpiece, both in fi-nancial and infrastructure terms.But perhaps another more powerfulargument in their favour is that IOCmembers may be swayed into votingfor the Japanese bid after the quake-tsunami disaster which left about19,000 people dead or missing lastyear."It is a powerful argument, IOC mem-bers like a story and also are espe-cially keen on the legacy message," asource close to the IOC told AfP."What better legacy than to give themthe Games for 2020 which will have aknock on effect in their eyes in termsof restoring morale to the Japanesepeople.

2020 Games trio look to make impression in London

MADISonafp

Scott Stallings fired a final-round 68 onSunday to claim his second US PGATour title at the $3 million True SouthClassic.

Stallings, 27, finished the event witha 24-under par total of 264, a tourna-ment record at Annandale where heavyrain throughout the week wreaked havocwith the schedule but contributed to lowscores on the softened course.

Jason Bohn closed with a five-under67 to finish second on 266, two shotsahead of Billy Horschel who carded a 71

for 268.Stallings, whose rookie season last

year was highlighted by his victory in theGreenbrier Classic, had moved atop theleaderboard with back-to-back 64s in thesecond and third rounds -- finishing uphis third round on Sunday morningalong with much of the field before head-ing out for the final round.

Stallings led by two at the turn, butmade his only bogey of the day at 14,where he was right off the tee.

He bounced back with birdies at 16and 17. At 16 he landed his approachwithin three feet for a short birdie and

drained a 12-footer at 17."It made that tee shot on 18 a lot eas-

ier," Stallings said.Bohn birdied 18, but it wasn't

enough to catch Stallings, who cappedhis round with a short par putt.

"Obviously, it's a special week,"Stallings said. "Any time you win on thePGA Tour it's special. A lot of things andpeople went into winning this tourna-ment and I'm very thankful."

After his strong rookie season,Stallings has battled torn cartilage in hisribs and two herniated disks in his backthis year.

Stallings claims second career title at True South


tuesday, 24 July, 2012 19

Published by Arif Nizami at Plot # 7, Al-Baber Centre, F/8 Markaz, Islamabad. Editor: Arif Nizami

LAHoRestaff report

PAKISTAN’S sports officialshave denied British tabloidThe Sun’s claims to have un-covered a visa scam thatcould have allowed potential

terrorists into the Olympic Village, sayingthat the allegations related to some travelagency and had nothing to do with thesports organsitaions of the country.

Pakistan’s Interior MinisterRehman Malik has said that the 12 peo-ple allegedly involved in the visa scamat the country’s passport registrationauthority, NADRA, have been sus-pended and an investigation has beenlaunched into the allegations.

The Sun had claimed that DreamLand travel agency and Lahore-based

Abid Chodhry, a politician, were involvedin the scam which could have allowedanyone to travel with the Pakistani con-tingent as support staff if they paid a cer-tain amount of money. The Sun secretlyfilmed Chodhary while he explained theentire process to the investigator and toldhim that he could also get him into theopening ceremony. The tabloid alsoclaimed that its investigator obtained aPakistani passport with a false name.

All necessary documents, like pass-ports, travel documents, a visa for twomonths and a letter from the PakistanSports Board claiming that the personwas part of Pakistan’s Olympic supportstaff could all be arranged for aroundone million Pakistani rupees (7,000pounds), the tabloid reported. TheBritish and Pakistani authorities werenotified soon after the report was pub-

lished. The authorities in both countrieshave initiated investigation into the alle-gations. Pakistan’s Olympic chef de mis-sion Aqil Shah has dismissed Sun’sclaims. “These are baseless reports,”Shah said. “This is an attempt to malignPakistan. Even if someone gets a pass-port he cannot enter the Olympic Villagewithout an Olympic accreditation card.”

Pakistan’s 39-strong delegation —minus Shah — is already in London andconsists of 23 athletes and 16 officials.Shah justified the number of officials.“Hockey has at least six officials which areunder the rules and then we have physi-cians and other coaches who are genuinemembers of Pakistan’s contingent,” saidShah. Pakistan Olympic Association chiefArif Hasan was already in London anddiscussing the matter with the PakistanHigh Commission, said Shah.

ISLAMABADageNCIes

Despite Prime Minister Raja PervaizAshraf’s directives of ending unan-nounced load shedding during Ra-madan and ensuring power supplyduring Sehr and Iftar timings, peopleacross the country are awaiting respitefrom the hot and humid weather whileobserving long and hard fasts.

People in almost all major urbancenters of the country complained aboutthe difficulties they were facing as theholy month moves along, while house-wives lamented how they could not evenhad electrcity during preparation ofmeals at Sehr and Iftar times. The ongo-ing wave of load shedding is being attrib-uted to the breakdown of Chashmapower generation plant, which took awayabout 350MW from the national grid.Power Minister Ahmed Mukhtar onMonday claimed the repairs at the plant

would be completed by Monday night. Astatement issued by the Ministry forWater and Power said the restoration ofChashma power plant would add325MW of electricity to the system andwould help reduce the power shortage inthe country. Mukhtar said the demandof electricity had increased with increasein the intensity of heat.

As the citizens delve deeper into theMuslim holy month of fasting and reju-venated prayers, 12-14 hours of loadshedding in urban and 16-18 hours ofpower suspension in rural areas is onlyproving a test for their patience. How-ever, some of the people had enough ofpatience on Monday as they took to thestreets amid dehydrating humidity toregister, in some cases violent, protestsagainst prolonged unannounced loadshedding. In Multan, residents ofNawab Pur, a suburban area of the dis-trict protested against the three-daylong power outage in the area.

The residents said they had beendevoid of electricity since first of Ra-madan that had triggered a watershortage in the area. The demonstra-tors set tyres on fire and blocked roadsfor hours. Protests were also recordedin Gujranwala, Islamabad and MandiBahauddin against excessive loadshedding. Punjab Chief MinisterShahbaz Sharif told a PML-N delega-tion in Lahore that the people of Pun-jab were the main target of loadshedding due to which industrial andtrade activities had slowed down,while unemployment has increased inthe province manifolds. Residents ofIslamabad said unscheduled loadshedding had disturbed their routinelife with the start of the holy month ofRamadan. They said it was very diffi-cult for them to actively work in officesafter sleepless nights. The residentssaid it was a failure of the governmentto honor its commitments.

Syria threatens to use chemicalweapons if attacked

DAMASCUSafp

Syria admitted on Monday it possesseschemical weapons and warned it woulduse them if attacked by foreign powersthough not against its own people, asregime troops battled rebels in Damascusand Aleppo. The warning by foreign min-istry spokesman Jihad Makdissi comesamid growing international concern thatDamascus is preparing to deploy itschemical arsenal in the repression of a 16-month uprising against President Basharal-Assad. “Syria will not use any chemicalor other unconventional weapons againstits civilians, and will only use them in caseof external aggression,” Makdissi told amedia conference in Damascus. “Anystocks of chemical weapons that may ex-ist, will never, ever be used against theSyrian people,” he said, adding that in theevent of foreign attack, “the generals willbe deciding when and how we use them.”Makdissi’s comments come a day after theUnited States said it would “hold account-able” any Syrian official involved in therelease or use of the country’s chemicalweapons. Israel also said on Sunday it wasconcerned chemical weapons might landin the hands of the Lebanese Shiite militiaHezbollah. The spokesman also said Syriafirmly rejected a demand by the ArabLeague that Assad step down. “We aresorry that the Arab League has descendedto this level concerning a member state ofthis institution,” he said. “This decisiononly concerns the Syrian people, who arethe sole masters of the fate of their gov-ernments.” A meeting late Sunday inDoha of Arab League foreign ministersissued a statement calling on Assad to“renounce power,” promising that heand his family would be offered “a safeexit.” “There is agreement on the needfor the rapid resignation of PresidentBashar al-Assad,” Qatar’s Prime MinisterSheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al-Thani toldjournalists after the meeting wound upin the small hours of Monday. Makdissialso vowed that Syrian forces would soonregain control of several border poststhat rebel forces seized along the frontierwith Iraq and Turkey. The rebels “willnot hold onto them and they will be gonein a few days,” he said. sUMMARY exeCUTions: TheBritain-based watchdog said at least 23people were “summarily executed” byregime forces in Damascus. “Sixteen peo-ple, most of them younger than 30, weresummarily executed by shooting on Sun-day in Mazzeh,” Observatory chief RamiAbdel Rahman said. Seven others were ex-ecuted in a similar fashion in Barzeh. Itwas unclear whether the executions wereof civilians or rebels fighters. The heads oftwo of the victims had been crushed by ve-hicles, and one was shot through the eye,Abdel Rahman said.

US drone strike

kills six militants in

north waziristanMIRAnSHAH

afp

A US drone attack on Monday killed atleast six militants in a restivenorthwestern Pakistani tribal area,security officials said. The missiles strucka militant compound in the Shawal areaof the troubled North Waziristan tribaldistrict on the Afghan border. “US dronesfired missiles into a militant compound.At least six militants were killed,” asecurity official told AfP. The localintelligence officials confirmed the attackand casualties. The toll is likely to rise.The targetted compound was in DrayNashtar village, some 65 kilometres westof Miranshah, the main town of NorthWaziristan which is known as a hotbed ofTaliban militants. Local residents saidmilitants cordoned the area around thecompound and were taking out bodiesand wounded colleagues. “A fire eruptedin the compound after some four to sixmissiles hit it,” a local tribesman toldAfP, requesting anonymity as he feared militants.

BagHDaD: Iraqis collect their belongings amidst the

rubble of destroyed houses following a series of

bomb attacks in Iraq on Monday. at least 107 people

were killed in the attacks. AFP | SToRy PAGe 04

Pakistan rubbishes tabloid’sOlympic visa scam claimsg Sports officials say allegations are related to a travel agency andhave nothing to do with sports’ organisations

PM’s words have no effect, outages continueg No respite from unannounced load shedding g Protestingpeople turn violent in several cities


e-paper pakistantoday 24th July, 2012

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