E-paper PakistanToday 2nd May,2012

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Pakistan falls to SriLanka in massive loss

Mr PM, please avoid foreigntrips, lavish lifestyle!

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Lahore edition saturday, 2 June, 2012 rajab 11, 1433rs 15.00 Vol ii no 336 22 pages

Uneven tax net holesout the big boys

annual Budget 2012-13

election budget aims to woo votersg Govt tables subsidy-ridden deficit budget with total outlay of Rs 2.96 trillion

ISLAMABADRana QaiSaR

THe Pakistan People’s Party (PPP)-led coalition government on Fridayachieved a rare milestone as Fi-nance Minister Dr Abdul HafeezShaikh presented its fifth Rs 2.96trillion subsidy-ridden election-year

deficit federal budget for the fiscal 2012-13, havinga 20 percent ad hoc relief in pay and pensions ofgovernment servants and incentives for the con-struction and pharmaceutical industries, whilepromising to bring down inflation to a single digit.

The finance minister – who faced a hostileopposition as Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan-led leg-islators of Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz(PML-N) created the worst rumpus witnessed inthe National Assembly since 2008 – made a rel-atively short budget speech and did not give the

details of the government’s economic vision forthe next fiscal – half of which, even if the PPPgovernment succeeds to complete its tenure,would not be its responsibility with general elec-tions early next year and a caretaker governmentto be in place three months before that.

Compared to 2011-12’s 5.5 percent, the nextyear’s consolidated fiscal deficit has been esti-mated at 4.7 percent of the GDP, which does notinclude Rs 391 billion debt consolidation thatequals 1.9 percent of the GDP.

The government will provide Rs 208.5 billionas subsidies to various sectors.Vulnerable groups: The finance minis-ter announced an increase of Rs 20 billion in theallocation for the Benazir Income Support Pro-gramme (BISP) from Rs 50 billion in the currentyear to Rs 70 billion for the next fiscal, besidesallocating Rs 10 billion for export developmentfund. He said targeted subsidy would be given to

low income group on essential food items. BISPcard holders will be entitled to a 10 percent dis-count at Utility Stores. Similarly, the financeminister said, the prices at the utility stores willbe 17 percent less than in market. To provide im-mediate relief to the common man, 2,000 moreutility stores would be opened across the country,he said. To create job opportunities for the edu-cated youth, the government plans to provide80,000 internships to the master’s and bache-lor’s degree holders at a cost of Rs 9.5 billion.

For the socio-economic growth of Balochis-tan and Gilgit-Baltistan, the government will paythe tuition fees of the students from these areasstudying in top universities of the country. Thiswill cost the government Rs 500 million perannum.

PML-N lawmakers turnNA into boxing ring

ISLAMABADStaff RepoRt

Opposition lawmakers hijacked the Pakistan People’s Party-led coalition government’s unveiling of the fifth budget onFriday, trading punches during angry scuffles in parliament.As Finance Minister Abdul Hafeez Shaikh began his budgetspeech, 25 to 30 PML-N parliamentarians surrounded him aswell as Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani and filled thespace between Shaikh’s podium and the NA speaker’s dais,heckling and shouting. To avert an attack on the prime minis-ter and the finance minister, PPP lawmakers Imtiaz SafdarWarraich, Begum Nasim Akhtar Chaudhry, Javed Iqbal War-raich, Jamshed Dasti and Nauman Islam Sheikh formed ahuman shield and kept pushing the angry PML-N parliamen-tarians away. The repeated warnings by the NA speaker ask-ing parliamentarians to observe rules and regulations fell on

Revenue

Direct Taxes

Indirect Taxes

non-tax Revenue

Property and Enterprise

Civil Admin & Other Functions

Misc Receipts

Gross Revenue: 3,233,907

Less Provincial Share: 1,458,924

Net Revenue: 1,774,982

Rs 932,000 (28.82%)

1,571,575 (48.60%)

178,773 (5.53%)

354,175 (10.95%)

197,384 (6.10%)

(Rs in millions)

expendituRes

General Public Service

Defence Affairs & Services

Public Order & Safety

Economic Affairs

Environment Protection

Housing & Community Amenities

Health Affairs & Services

Recreation, Culture & Religion

Education Affairs & Services

Social Protection

Development Expenditure

TOTAl: 3,202,941

1,876,839 (59%)

545,386 (17%)

70,157 (2%)

53,642 (2%)

736 (0.023%)

1,855 (0.058%)

7,845 (0.245%)

6,267 (0.196%)

47,874 (1.495%)

1,340 (0.042%)

591,000 (18.452%)

(Rs in millions)

more on budget 2012-13 | pages 02, 03, 21 & 28

Continued on page 04


Layout 22 pages_Layout 1 6/2/2012 3:42 AM Page 1

02Saturday, 2 June, 2012

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Shahbaz shifts office to minar-e-pakistan in protest against power outages na speaker’s ruling on pm’s eligibility matter ‘decisive’: pbc

ISLAMABADSHaiQ HuSSain

PAKISTAN on Friday in-creased its defence budgetfor the fiscal year 2012-13by around 10 percent toRs 545 billion.

The budget documents pre-sented in the National Assemblyby Finance Minister Dr AbdulHafeez Sheikh said a sum of Rs545 billion had been allocatedfor defence services, as com-pared to Rs 495 billion providedfor the sector in the outgoing fis-cal year.

The revised or actual expendi-ture on defence sector during fiscalyear 2011-12 was Rs 510.179 billion,around Rs 15 billion more than the origi-nal allocation of Rs 495 billion.

The proposed allocation in fiscal 2012-13 for defence sector is equal to 18.4 per-cent of the federal budget of Rs 2,960billion.

Traditionally, Pakistan has made allo-cations for its defence sector to maintainconventional parity with India, but for thelast few years, the rise in budgetary spend-ing for this sector is made also due to hugeexpenses made by the country on coun-terterrorism efforts, with Islamabad being

a ni m p o r -

tant state in the US-led global war on ter-rorism.

Owing to the financial crunch that iscurrently faced by the country, some quar-ters have been demanding cuts in the de-fence expenditure and the 10 percentincrease is likely to be criticized by manyin the coming days.

But military authorities say the rise indefence expenditure was nominal whencompared with rising inflation.

According to a diplomatic source,the Pakistan-US ongoing row over

NATO supply reopening and theholding back of Coalition SupportFund (CSF) for Islamabad byWashington is likely to impactthe Pakistan’s defence budgetand it is a matter of worry andconcern for policy makers.

The United States has topay around $1.1 billion to Pak-istan against CSF and the coun-

try’s economic managers havealready included the CSF reim-

bursements in the next budget.Nonetheless, diplomatic circles

also expect a settlement of Pakistan-USrow in the coming few days and they be-

lieve that both states would be able to ironout their differences on conflicting matterssoon.

“Talks are underway between Islam-abad and Washington on the reopening ofblocked NATO supplies and the release ofCSF dues and they are being held on a pos-itive note, hence some breakthrough inthis regard is expected in the next fewdays. Hopefully any serious impact on thebudget spending would be avoided,” saidthe source, seeking anonymity.

Defence budgetup by 10 percentto Rs 545 billion

ISLAMABADtayyab HuSSain

Keeping in view the worsening energy crisis,the PPP-led collation government has allo-cated a total of Rs 192.612 billion for the en-ergy sector in the Public Sector DevelopmentProgramme (PSDP) for the year 2012-13.

According to the budget documents is-sued on Friday, Rs 47,192.279 million havebeen earmarked for the water sector, Rs145,152 million have been specified for powersector while Rs 268.086 million have beenkept for Petroleum and Natural ResourcesDivision.rs 47,192.279m for waTer secTor:According to the PSDP document, Rs47,192.279 million have been earmarked forthe water sector for the year 2012-13 for 78ongoing and new projects. The governmenthas specified Rs 6,000 million for raising of

Mangla Dam, Rs 2,400 million each for Kac-chi Canal (Phase-1) and extension of RightBank Outfall Drain, Rs 2,000 million forRainee Canal (Phase-1), Rs 500 million forKurrum Tangi Dam and Rs 2,000 millionhave been kept for Nai Gaj Dam in the PSDPfor 2012-13. Another Rs 700 million havebeen earmarked for the construction of 100small dams in Balochistan, Rs 300 million forSatpara Dam, Rs 1,500 million for NaulongStorage Dam, Rs 1,800 million for GomalZam Dam, Rs 1,590 million for constructionof small storage dams in Sindh, and Rs 2,000million for Darwat Dam.rs 145,152m for power secTor:Rs 145,152 million have been earmarked forthe ongoing and new projects in the powersector. Of the total allocation, Rs 63,982 mil-lion have been specified for 24 hydel projects,Rs 81,155 million for 82 projects of the na-tional transmission and Despatch Company

(NDTC) and Rs 15 million foreNeRCON.

For hydel projects,Rs 6,030 million havebeen allocated for theconstruction of Di-amer Basha Damproject Lot 1 to 5(4500 MW), Rs7,785 million forthe construction ofDiamer BashaDam project landacquisition, Rs26,806 million forNeelum-Jhelum Hy-dropower project, Rs 7,187million for Tarbela fourth exten-sion hydel project, Rs 3,859 million forDubir Khawar Hydro Power project, Rs 2,173million for Allai Khawar Hyrdro Power proj-

ect, Rs 1,032 million for JinnahHydro Power project and Rs

6,195 million have been al-located for Golan Gol

Hydro Power project.Moreover, the govern-ment has earmarkedRs 12,460 millionfor 747 MW (CCPP)Guddu, Rs 2,000million for 425 NW

combined CycleNandipur Power

plant, Rs 10,500 mil-lion for 525 MW Com-

bined Cycle Power Plant atChicho Ki Malian, Rs 1,142

million for transmission arrange-ments for power dispersal of Ghazi Barotha

and Rs 15 million for the National AwarenessCampaign on energy and environment Pro-

tection.rs 268.086 million for peTro-leum and naTural resources:The government has allocated a meager Rs268.086 million for the Petroleum and Nat-ural Resources under the Public Sector De-velopment Programme (PSDP) for Year2012-13. Of the total allocation, Rs 200 mil-lion have been earmarked for completion ofPetroleum House in the federal capital. ThePetroleum House will be completed with anestimated cost of Rs 452.44 million whereasRs 32.68 million and Rs 34.49 million havebeen earmarked for upgrading andstrengthening Geo Sciences Advance Re-search Laboratories and Accelerated Geo-logical Mapping and Geochemicalexploration of the Out-crop area of Pak-istan. Funds have also been allocated underthe programme for review/upgrading of theNational Mineral Policy.

RS 192.612 billion eaRmaRked foR ailing eneRgy SectoR

KARACHI: Men watch on TV

the budget speech of

Federal Finance Minister

Abdul Hafeez Sheikh and

the rumpus by opposition

lawmakers on Friday. INP



Newscommentthe budget:

articles on Page 12-13

And the fifth one at that!

arif nizami says:Incumbents and contenders: Who will come out on in the electoral game?

white lies:

foreign newS

Story on Page 16

artS & entertainment

Story on Page 15

SPortS

Story on Page 18

uS to expand asia role without permanent bases: panetta beyonce returns to the silver screen in animated film

Nawaz Sharif had a press photo-op recently, playing cricket. He really loves thegame and was really good at it too. Could have even gone pro. One wonders ifthe world would have been a better place if he had.

icc decides to keep duckworth lewis and dRS

ISLAMABADkaSHif abbaSi

The Federal Government has proposed an amount ofRs 47.8 billion in the budget for fiscal year 2012-13 foreducation affairs and services.

For fiscal year 2012-13, an amount of Rs 4670 mil-lion has been proposed for Pre-Primary and Primaryeducation Affairs Service and an amount of Rs 5,699million has been earmarked for Secondary education

Affairs and Services. According to the budget document,Rs 35,675 million has been allocated for Tertiary edu-cation Affairs and Services, Rs 53 million for Social Wel-fare and Special education Division and an amount ofRs 135 million has been allocated for Subsidiary Servicesto education. In addition to this, an amount of Rs 963million has been fixed for administration and Rs 679million has been earmarked for education Services.HealTH affairs and serVices: Anamount of Rs 7.8 billion has been proposed in

budget estimates 2012-13 for Health Affairs andServices. According to budget documents, Rs 132million has been allocated for Medical Products Ap-pliance and equipment, Rs 6609 million has beenallocated for Hospital Services and Rs 259 millionhas been fixed for Health Administration.public order and safeTy affairs:Under the head of Public Order and Safety Affairs, anamount of Rs 70,1157 million has been provided in thebudget 2012-13 as compared with Rs 59,609 million

in the previous budget. In 2012-13 proposed budget amajor chunk of Rs 64,794 million from public orderand safety affairs has been earmarked for Police.Whereas, Rs 2,915 million has been allocated for LawCourts, Rs 123 million has been earmarked for FireProtection and Rs 27 million has been allocated forPrison Administration and Operation. In addition tothis, in Public Order and Safety Affairs, Rs 25 millionhas been fixed for R&D Public and Safety and Rs 2,273million has been allocated for Administration of Pub-lic Order.social proTecTion: According to budget doc-uments, Rs 1,340 million has been allocated for So-cial Protection. This amount is higher by Rs 176million than the last year budget; however, it is lowerthan the revised estimates 2011-12 budget. For socialprotection Rs 982 million has been allocated for ad-ministration and Rs 358 million has been allocatedfor others projects.

ISLAMABADapp

The Annual Development Plan prepared by the governmentfor the next fiscal year envisages 4.3% GDP growth rate withcontributions from agriculture, manufacturing and servicesof 4.1%, 4.4% and 4.6%, respectively.

The ADP released on Friday has forecast investment toimprove from 12.5% of the GDP to 13.1% with fixed invest-ment to increase to 11.5% from present 10.9% while nationalsavings are expected to rise to 11.2% in next fiscal from pre-vious 10.8%. The government will expedite ongoing restruc-turing work to make an impact on budget 2012-13 andun-targeted subsidies will be phased out on fast track.

The size of national outlay is Rs 873 billion (3.7% of GDP)higher by 19.6% than the budget allocation of Rs 873 billionof last year. Out of national development outlay, federal pro-gram is Rs 360 billion inclusive of eRRA. The provincial pro-gram is Rs 513 billion. In the federal PSDP, highest allocationis provided to energy sector (Rs 184 billion), followed byroads (Rs 59 billion) and water (Rs 48 billion).

The government will release more resources for the pri-vate sector by lowering its financial needs. The SBP Amend-ment Act of 2012 and a fiscal adjustment to lower fiscal deficitwill help to limit financing needs of the government.

The target of CPI inflation is set at 9.5% for 2012-13against expected inflation of 11% for 2011-12. The govern-ment’s efforts for fiscal stringency, rational monetary policyand vigilance on supply constraints are some of the underly-ing assumptions for this inflation forecast.

Under the sectoral programs, an amount of Rs 15 billionhas been allocated in PSDP for the projects of higher educa-tion with focusing on new projects like Benazir Bhutto Med-

ical University Larkana, Abdul Wali Khan University Pe-shawar, University of Gujrat, National Textile UniversityFaisalabad, University at Swat, National defence UniversityIslamabad, Pakistan Institute of Fashion and Design Lahoreand Peoples University of Medical and Health Sciences forWomen Nawabshah (Shaheed Benazirabad).

Moreover an amount of Rs 2.9 million has been allocatedfor the projects of Ministry of Science and Technology whilefunds worth Rs 2.9 billion have been allocated to five projectsof Ministry of Professional and Technical Training.

An allocation of Rs 409 million for 2012-13 has been madefor various research organizations attached to Ministry of Na-tional Food Security and Research while an amount of Rs twobillion has been allocated to manufacturing sector includingRs 806 million, Rs one billion and Rs 145 million for the Min-istries of Industries, Production and Textile respectively. Apartfrom ongoing projects of geological and geophysical mappingexercise, focus would be on putting in use the vast coal reservesin the country for gasification and power production. The ADPenvisages to enhancing the present 23,718 MW power produc-tion capacity to 24,822 MW by the end of June next year. Anallocation of Rs 192 billion has been made for the energy sectorfor 2012-13 against the expected utilization of Rs 147 billion.Furthermore, Rs 38.2 billion has been earmarked for irrigationprojects like small, medium and check dams with Rs three bil-lion for lining of canals while an amount of Rs 150 million hasbeen allocated for capacity building of environment and cli-mate related institutions. Pro-poor budgetary expenditures areexpected to increase to Rs 1615 billion; 8% of GDP; allocationof Rs 4.4 billion has been made in federal PSDP for expansionand development of basic and college education in provinces,Rs 14.3 billion have been allocated for preventive and curativeprograms in the health sector.

adp enviSageS4.3% gdp gRowtH

ISLAMABADapp

The government has allocated Rs 22,877 million for37 development projects of the Pakistan Railwaysin the Public Sector Development Programme(PSDP) 2012-13.

According to budgetary documents re-leased on Friday, Rs 2,000 million have beenallocated for procurement/manufacture of 50De locomotives, Rs 5,739 forprocurement/manufacture of 202 new designpassenger carriage (revised) (China), Rs 2,500million for replacement of old and obsolete sig-nal gear from Lodhran Khanewal-ShahdaraBagh mainline section, Rs 1,000 million for reha-bilitation of 27 diesel electric locomotives, Rs 1,000million for special repair of 150 locomotives, Rs 1,041million for the replacement of metal sleepers and trackrenewal on Lodhran-Shahdara section, and Rs 8,000 mil-lion for replacement of three brake down/rescue cranes andprocurement of five sets of relief train equipment.rs 325m allocaTed for porTs and sHipping:

The government has earmarked Rs325 million for the Ports and

Shipping Division in thePublic Sector Develop-

ment Programme(PSDP) 2012-13. Ac-cording to budgetarydocument releasedon Friday, Rs 200million have beenallocated for theconstruction ofeastaby expressway

to link Gwadar Portwith the national road

network and Rs 125million allocated for

stock assistant survey pro-gramme in eeZ of Pakistan

through charting of fisheries re-search vessel and capacity building of

marine fisheries department.

Rs 22,877m allocated for Railways

islamabad: The government hasallocated a total of Rs 1,087.825 millionunder Access to Justice Programme in thePublic Sector Development Programme(PSDP), and Rs 112.175 million for projects inthe Supreme Court in the annual budget for2012-13. According to details, Rs 200 millionhave been allocated for the provincialprogramme under Access to JusticeProgramme Islamabad, while Rs 827.825million have been reserved for the federalprogramme under Access to JusticeProgramme Islamabad. Rs 60 million havebeen allocated for technical assistance to theAccess to Justice Programme. Overall, Rs26.374 million have been allocated for

furnishing the Supreme Court building, andRs 85.801 million for the construction ofSupreme Court of Pakistan, Islamabad.rs 126m for Human rigHTsdiVision: An amount of Rs 126 millionhas been allocated for 13 schemes of HumanRights Division Projects in the Public SectorDevelopment Programme (PSDP) for thefiscal year 2012-13. According to thebudgetary documents released on Friday, ofthe total allocation Rs 30 million have beenallocated for the construction of WorkingWomen Hostels in Sector G-6/2 and G-7/3 ofIslamabad and Rs 8 million each for theestablishment of Women Centre Lahore andWomen Centre Dera Ghazi Khan. online

Rs 1,087.825m for justice, Rs 112.175 for SC

education and health get Rs 55.6 billiong public order and Safety gets Rs 70 billion allocation



News

Income Tax Measures: The fi-nance minister announced toenhance the income tax exemp-tion limit to Rs 400,000, re-duce tax on business turnoverfrom 1 percent to 0.5 percent,enhance withholding tax ceilingfor cash withdrawal from banksfrom Rs 25,000 to Rs 50,000,abolish federal excise duty on10 items, reduce federal exciseduty on cement from Rs 750 toRs 500 per metric ton.

He said 18 raw materials,nine components being usedfor text books and stationerywould be exempted from cus-toms duty, besides reducingcustoms duty from 10 percentto five percent on 88 raw mate-rials of pharmaceutical indus-try.

The finance minister alsoannounced to reduce the taxslabs to five only and said a tax-payer with an income of Rs35,000 per month previouslypaying Rs 10,500 would nowonly pay Rs 1,000 as tax.

Under the present schemeof taxation, he said, if an em-

ployee obtained a loan from theemployer at a concessional rate,it was taxed at 13 percent.

“In order to facilitate suchemployees, it is proposed thatsuch loans up to Rs 500,000will be exempted from incometax and loans above this limitwould be taxed at the maxi-mum rate of 10 percent,” hesaid. As a relief measure to pen-sioners, the finance ministersaid amount received from ap-proved income payment plansor annuity plans invested fromany balance of voluntary pen-sion schemes upon retirementwould be exempted from tax ifinvested for a period of 10 years.

He said the governmentwanted to phase out the pre-sumptive tax regime (PTR) inthree years and decided to re-duce the rates of tax from fivepercent to three percent forcommercial importers, from 1percent to 0.5 percent for ex-porters and from 3.5 percent to2.5 percent for suppliers to givethem the incentive to opt out ofthe PTR.

To encourage the capital

markets, exemption on profitand gains of a venture capitalcompany and fund has been ex-tended up to the year 2024. Topromote investment in securi-ties and insurance, the financeminister said the limit of invest-ment as a proportion of taxableincome was being increasedfrom 15 percent to 20 percentand from Rs 500,000 to Rs 1million, which ever was lower.

The required retention pe-riod of shares would be reducedfrom three years to two years.sales Tax: The financeminister said the governmenthad decided to bring all GSTrates above 16 percent down to16 percent to avoid multiplicityand decrease the burden on theconsumers. He said the currentsales tax of the steel sector, fixedin 2008, was at the rate of Rs 6per unit of electricity consumedand it would now be increasedto Rs 8 per unit to harmonize itwith the current market prices.He said smuggling of goodscaused injury to the local indus-try, and discouraged legal im-ports.

“High rates of duties andtaxes on these goods provide in-centive for under-invoicing. It isbeing proposed that sales tax onblack tea be reduced from 16percent to five percent to en-courage legal import of tea,” headded.federal Tax: To bringprices down and give incentivesto the private sector, the financeminister said the governmentintended to phase out Federalexcise Duty (FeD) in the nexttwo years. To ensure this, theFeD was abolished on 15 itemslast year and the rates werebrought down on many more.

“The government intendsto further eliminate FeD on ad-ditional 10 items including baselube oil, lubricating oils, filterrods, and skin care products,”Shaikh said.

He said in order to boostconstruction activity and gener-ate jobs, last year the FeD oncement was reduced from Rs750 PMT to Rs 500 PMT.

This year it was being fur-ther reduced from Rs 500 PMTto Rs 400 PMT, he said.

ElEction budgEtContinued from page 1

only Khursheed Shah and DrFirdous Ashiq Awan whourged Gilani during the cabi-net meeting to ensure a sig-nificant raise in salaries ofthe government employeeskeeping in view the skyrock-eting inflation in the country.

The source said the gov-ernment’s finance team hadput forth two proposals in thecabinet and it had proposed10 percent raise in salaries of

the government employees.“When pressed by KhursheedShah for further hike in thesalary raise, finance ministersaid that inflation had hiked11.3 percent during the lastyear and the governmentmay give same raise in thebudget,” said the source.

He said Shah said infla-tion had actually risen of 30-35 percent and urged theprime minister not to go bythe figures mentioned by the

Finance Ministry.“It was Firdous Awan who

said the prime minister shouldnot to go by the recipe proposedby ‘babus’ of the Finance Min-istry and must allow a significantraise in the salaries. Referring tothe minimum wage announcedby the federal government of Rs8,000, the minister said nobodycould make a household budgetin Rs 8,000 and it reflected thatthe ‘babus’ did not understandthe problems of the common

man,” the source said. Thesource added that it was noneother than the prime ministerwho then announced a 20 per-cent raise in salaries of govern-ment employees and said an 11percent raise would be peanuts.“The prime minister said he hadgiven 50 percent raise in year2010, and then gave 15 percentraise in 2011 and was now an-nouncing 20 percent increasekeeping in view the current infla-tion,” the source added.

mr Pm, please avoid foreign trips, lavish lifestyle!Continued from page 28

PESHAWARStaff RepoRt

TH e elderbrother of DrShakil Afridion Friday filedan appeal be-

fore Peshawar Commis-sioner Tariq Jamil againstthe 33-year imprisonmenthanded down to the CIA-recruited medic by a Khy-ber Agency tribal court.

Jamil Afridi said in hisappeal that the allegationsagainst his brother were“false, concocted and with-out foundation”.

Dr Afridi was arrestedafter last year’s raid by USspecial forces on al Qaedachief Osama bin Laden inAbbottabad. He ran a fake

polio vaccination cam-paign to obtain DNA sam-ples from bin Laden’sfamily members to verifyhis presence.

Initially he was handeddown the sentence oncharges of treason, but adetailed verdict later saidthe medic had links withthe banned Lashkar-e-Islam group headed bymilitant commander Man-gal Bagh.

The appeal against as-sistant political agent’sverdict was filed by agroup of lawyers on behalfof Jamil Afridi. Thelawyers included Samiul-lah Afridi, Ijaz Mohmand,Qamar Nameed Afridi,Sartaj Ahmad and RazaKhan Safi.

The appeal said that DrAfridi had “no association”with Lashkar-e-Islam, andthat the conviction shouldbe dismissed because hehad no opportunity of de-fence or fair trial. The ap-peal added that theconvicted doctor was kid-napped by Lashkar-e-Islam in 2008 and orderedto pay Rs 1 million.

According to the ver-dict, Afridi paid Rs 2 mil-lion to the militant outfitand helped provide med-ical assistance to militantcommanders in Khyber.The militants have deniedany links to Afridi, sayingthey fined him for over-charging patients, andhave threatened to killhim.

Dr Afridi’s brotherfiles appeal against33-year sentence

The bench was also irked bythe absence of Attorney Gen-eral Irfan Qadir and DefenceSecretary Nargis Sethi.

Raja Irshad, a counsel forsecret agencies, told the benchthat the FC IG could not ap-pear before the apex court ashe was on a visit to Iran.

The CJ, however, did notbuy the excuse and directedthe counsel to ensure the IG’spresence in court today (Satur-day).

He said the three peoplehad been picked up while thecase was being heard and bod-ies of another three, who werenamed in the case, had beenrecovered.

Justice Khilji said nobodycould be awarded a license to

kill anyone.“We sympathize with mar-

tyrs of Gayari Sector, however,it does not empower anyone totake the law into their ownhands,” Justice Khilji said.

Balochistan Chief MinisterNawab Aslam Raisani, whowas also present in the court,told the bench that a murdercase had been registered intothe killing of three missingpeople.

The chief justice saidBalochistan was a part of Pak-istan, lamenting that Balochis-tan Home Minister ZafarullahZehri “just stays in Islam-abad”.

The CJ took a jab at thegovernment again, sayingpeace conferences onBalochistan would not lead toany solution.

SC demands clearroadmap onBalochistan chaos

Continued from page 28

talk what youcan walk, chinatells Pakistan

“China wants Pakistan to havea balanced approach in itsdealings with the US,” said atop Pakistani official familiarwith the high-leveldiscussions. The official,however, did not elaborate ifthe “balanced approach”meant Islamabad should stopasking for an unconditionalapology for the Salala strike.China has serious differenceswith the US on many issues,but the two countries also hadmany areas of convergence,the official said. “And that’swhat they expect from us ... tobuild our relationship wherewe have points of convergencewith Americans,” the officialsaid. He said Beijing hadencouraged Islamabad to sortout its differences with theUS, including the stalledsupplies to foreign forces inAfghanistan.

Continued from page 28

deaf ears as the enragedPML-N members contin-ued chanting slogansagainst the president, theprime minister and thegovernment. “end loadshedding,” they cried.“This government is steal-ing electricity”, “the cor-rupt rulers should quit”,“let the poor live”, “respectthe constitution” and “peo-ple want electricity, waterand gas”, they shouted.The opposition was seenvisibly divided as other op-position parties such as theJUI-F, and the PPP-Sher-pao were not seen activelyparticipating in the rum-pus. In the absence oftheir party chief FazlurRahman, the JUI-F parlia-mentarians remainedseated and kept watchingthe ugly scene unfold infront of them. Some mem-ber from both the sidestried to defuse the situa-

tion when PML-N legisla-tors Shakeel Awan, HanifAbbasi, Shahid KhaqanAbbasi, Capt (r) Safdar,Sohail Zia Butt and PPP’slegislators Javed IqbalWariach, and Rai MujtabaKharal started tradingpunches. The efforts, how-ever, remained unsuccess-ful and yet another scufflestarted between PPP’sJamshaid Dasti and PML-Ns’ Umar Sohail Zia Buttwhich was defused withthe timely intervention ofInterior Minister RehmanMalik and some member ofthe PML-N. Women parlia-mentarians, PPP’s FirdousAshiq Awan and PML-N’sAnusha Rehman also ex-changed harsh words. Theirverbal brawl lasted almost20 minutes.

Later, rejecting thefederal budget 2012-13,Leader of the Oppositionin the NA Nisar Ali Khan,who did not attend budget

session, told reporters atthe Parliament House thatthe government had “lostits senses like a lost gam-bler”.

“The sloganeering ofthe PML-N parliamentari-ans in the House was thereflection of the senti-ments of the people of thecountry… today masses arefacing inflation, terrorismand outages of power butthe rulers are not listeningto their cries of pain,” hesaid.

Ahsan Iqbal told re-porters that the rulers hadended the masses’ desire tolive. “The government’sbudget score is minuszero… the economy hascollapsed in the last fiveyears,” he claimed. JUI-Fleader Attaur Rehmancalled the budget a replicaof the past four budgets,adding that nothing newhad been mentioned in thebudget document.

Opposition protestsContinued from page 1



News

ISLAMABADSHaiQ HuSSain

THe lack of clarity in gov-ernment’s policy over ShakilAfridi, a doctor imprisonedfor 33 years by a local courtin Khyber agency, is costing

Pakistan dearly, as its diplomatic mis-sions in Washington, London, Bonn,Paris, Moscow and other importantworld capitals are in an utter state ofconfusion over how to explain the coun-try’s position over the vital issue andface the diplomatic onslaught by theUnited States, which is now more thanangry over the “harsh” sentence given toCIA operative after Islamabad’s refusalto restore NATO supplies.

A few days ago, when a court of po-litical administration in the Khyberagency awarded 33 years of imprison-ment to Dr Afridi, the officials in thetribal area said that he was sentencedfor working as an agent for the CIA totrack down al Qaeda chief Osama binLaden.

A local official even cited the rele-vant clauses of FCR in the defence of thispunishment announced for the physi-

cian, who was held for carrying out afake polio vaccination campaign in Ab-bottabad, where bin Laden was hiding,to have his or his family’s blood samples.

However, two days ago, some mediareports suggested that Afridi wasawarded sentence for supporting a mili-tant outfit in Khyber Agency, Lashkar-e-Islam, which is headed by Mangal BaghAfridi, the top militant commander inthat region. There has been no officialdenial of these reports so far, whichleaves one believe in their authenticity.

This confusion and lack of clarity inthe government’s policy over Afridi’s im-prisonment has been criticised within thecountry as well, but diplomatically it hascreated an imbroglio for the Pakistanidiplomatic missions abroad, who are find-ing it more than difficult to explain to theforeign governments what was the coun-try’s exact position on the issue and theyare completely at a receiving end.

The US was deeply annoyed overwhat it believes a “harsh” sentenceawarded to Afridi, saying that he hadcommitted no crime by helping CIA infinding the al Qaeda chief, as Bin Ladenwas responsible for a number of acts ofsabotage in Pakistan too, but now it has

increased its pressure on Islamabad forthe release of detained doctor seeing achance in Pakistan’s vague stance on thereal reason of his imprisonment.

The Obama administration is inclose contact with Pakistani authoritiesover Dr Afridi’s matter and it wants thegovernment to come out clearly in itsstance over the important matter, and inthis regard US Secretary of State HillaryClinton herself is said to be in closetouch with the Pakistani leadership.

“It’s not only in Washington thatPakistani diplomatic missions are facingserious challenge over Dr Afridi but alsoacross the world and especially in im-portant capitals like London, Paris,Moscow and Bonn, the country’s diplo-mats are in serious trouble over thisvital issue. They too have asked Islam-abad to send them clear instructionsover what should be their stance and po-sition,” said a diplomat requestinganonymity.

He said the vague policy over Afridiwas costing Pakistan dearly as it has be-come very difficult to plead the coun-try’s case over the issue in differentworld capitals, most of whom were al-ready siding with Washington over the

blocking of NATO supplies.Dr Afridi, who was initially ignored

as a small pawn in the CIA’s large gameto reach and take out bin Laden has nowassumed great importance after the USstarted exerting all out pressure on Is-lamabad for his release from the prisonin the aftermath of the sentenceawarded to him.

The CIA is said to have offeredAfridi to move him out of Pakistan soonafter the killing of bin Laden in May 2,2011, secret raid by US special forcesbut he asked for the transfer and reloca-tion of his whole family, which delayedin his own departure and finally he wasarrested by a spy agency’s personnel onMay 23 last year.

To some observers, the govern-ment’s fresh stance that Afridi was triedfor his links to a militant organisationand not for working for CIA is meant toleave space for some deal with the USover the fate of detained physician butthe diplomatic circles here believe thatirrespective of the real motive of thepolicy makers in Islamabad, thereshould be a clear position on this vitalissue as its cost in diplomatic terms isproving too high to bear.

Pakistani diplomats abroad find it hard

to explain govt’s stance on Dr Afridi

WASHINGTON Special coRReSpondent

US Congressman Dennis Kucinich, aDemocrat from Ohio, on Thursdaycalled for accountability and trans-parency in the use of drone warfareagainst suspected militants in foreigncountries including Pakistan.

The lawmaker is seeking supportof his colleagues in demanding fromPresident Obama the legal justifica-tion for drone attacks on suspectedmilitants, Kucinich’s office said.

According to his office, the Con-gressman has been stressing that thedrone attacks undermine the morals,values and the strategic goals of theUnited States.

“Congressman Kucinich is cur-rently inviting his colleagues to joinhim in writing to President Obama torequest “the targeting criteria for ‘sig-nature’ strikes (drone strikes wherethe identity of the person killed is un-known); mechanisms used by the CIA

and JSOC to ensure that such killingsare legal; the nature of the follow-upthat is conducted when civilians arekilled or injured; and the mechanismsthat ensure civilian casualty numbersare collected, tracked and analyzed.”

The letter, endorsed by AmnestyInternational, has already been signedby nine members of Congress, a state-ment said.

Over the years, the Obama admin-istration officials have been defendingdrone strikes against al-Qaeda-linkedmilitants as part of counterterrorismefforts but a series of articles in theAmerican and international mediahave recently questioned the moraland legal basis for such strikes, whichalso kill innocent civilians.

Kucinich took the issue to theHouse of Representative and arguedanswers to his questions on the droneissue have not been satisfactory.

“Drone strikes are killing militantsnow identified as males of fightingage. What are the rules? Trust us.

What are the legal justifications?Trust us. Haven’t 350 innocent civil-ians been killed? Trust us, we’re told.

“No transparency, no accountabil-ity and until now, no Congress. TheConstitution requires Congress toweigh in and demand information andlegal justification for drone strikes,”he said. “That is what my letter to theAdministration seeks.

“Drone strikes absent a Constitu-tional basis sanctions the wholesaleslaughter of innocents.

“One nation’s drones over anothernation’s air space is an act of war.

“With 50 nations exploring the de-velopment of drones, a $100 billionbusiness, we cannot permit this na-tion to further incite ‘perpetual warfor perpetual peace,” he said.

According to the statement,Kucinich has opposed the use of com-bat drones against suspected terror-ists abroad since the first knownattack in 2004.

In February 2006 he asked the Di-

rector of the Central IntelligenceAgency to suspend the use of Predatordrones citing the “high toll in inno-cent civilian life.” In the 111th Con-gress, he sponsored a bill to prohibitthe extrajudicial killing of U.S. citi-zens abroad in response to revelationsthat the Administration included U.S.citizens on its targeted killing list.

“When Congress passed the 2001Authorization for Use of MilitaryForce, it did not authorize endless waragainst countries we are not at warwith. These drone strikes are beingconducted in the name of our nationalsecurity and yet Congress and theAmerican people have not been pro-vided with the legal justification forsuch strikes. The use of drones mustbe subject to the same legal constrainsand oversight as any other weapon.

“These attacks undermine themorals, values and the strategic goalsof the United States. The fact that theyare conducted with complete impunityand with no accountability threatens

to set a dangerous precedent thatcould unravel the very laws and inter-national standards the U.S. helped tocreate. even the most ardent sup-porter of the current President shouldconsider the precedent created bygranting the President the power tocircumvent the Fifth Amendment tothe United States Constitution,” saidKucinich.

The Bureau of Investigative Jour-nalism estimates that at least 2,292people have been killed by U.S. dronestrikes in Pakistan since 2004. TheBureau estimates that of that number,over 350 are civilians. A July 2009Brookings Institution report statedten civilians die for every one sus-pected militant from U.S. dronestrikes.

Yet another study by the NewAmerican Foundation concluded thatout of 114 drone attacks in Pakistan,at least 32% of those killed by thestrikes were civilians, Kucinich’s of-fice said.

Democratic lawmaker demands legal justification for drone attacks

US sounds

hopeful on

nato routes

revivalWASHINGTON

Special coRReSpondent

Indicating some degree of progress inthe continued negotiations withPakistan over the revival of theblocked NATO supply routes, theUnited States has expressed hope forthe resolution of the issue soon.The comments by a State Departmentspokesman on the issue came amidmedia reports that a senior Pentagonofficial would be visiting Islamabadnext week to take part in bilateralnegotiations underway on the issue.“We do remain engaged with Pakistanon reopening these ground lines ofcommunication. We want to – wethink that opening them wouldobviously be an importantdemonstration of Pakistan’scommitment to the international effortto ensure a prosperous, peacefulAfghanistan. So we’re workingdiligently trying to make progress,”State Department Deputy SpokesmanMark Toner said.Islamabad’s blockade of the routes sixmonths ago has made Washington andits NATO allies to depend on a costlyand much longer NorthernDistribution Network that fetchessupplies into landlocked Afghanistanvia Russia and Central Asiancountries.Pakistan’s closure of the routes wasprompted by a November 26, 2011 USwarplane attacks on its military postsalong the Afghan border in whichAfghanistan-based forces killed 24Pakistani soldiers.Asked about a timeline on weeks-oldnegotiations on reopening theoverland Pakistani routes, thespokesman said, “I mean, we certainlyhope to reach a resolution very soon.”Toner also hinted that aside fromcounterterrorism cooperation,Washington was discussing a range ofother issues of interest to Islamabad,including the areas where Pakistansought American cooperation fordevelopment. “We’re continuing tomeet in Islamabad to talk over theseissues as we are discussing a broadrange of issues with Pakistan. Butyou’re right. It’s slow going, but we’remaking progress,” he remarked.The spokesman referred to a briefmeeting between US President BarackObama and President Asif Ali Zardarion the sidelines of a NATO summit inChicago last week and saidWashington wants Pakistan to be a“stable, prosperous democracy that’shelping its neighbors also becomestable democracies”.kaRacHi: a printing press worker waits for electricity as prolonged outages continued across the country on friday. INP



News

ISLAMABADapp

MeMBeRS of the Pak-istan Bar Council (PBC)have said the questionof Prime MinisterYousaf Raza Gilani’s el-

igibility has been settled once for all afterthe National Assembly speaker’s rulingin the case.

A PBC delegation, led by Vice Chair-man Akhtar Hussain, called on the primeminister on Friday and said those whowere crying foul were wasting their timeas that attitude was detrimental to thecause of democracy and the constitutionof the country.

They said the legal fraternity was ofthe view that the constitution was abun-dantly clear on the subject, which interalia, states that the proceedings of parlia-ment cannot be questioned in any courtof law.

They said the speaker, being the cus-todian of the House, had the constitu-tional obligation to protect and safeguardthe dignity of the House and the mem-bers of parliament. They strongly sup-ported the trichotomy of power andunderscored the need for functioning ofall the constitutional institutions ie theexecutive, the legislature and the judici-ary, within their domains as enshrined inthe constitution.

They were of the view that a clash ofinstitutions would render the nascentdemocratic system vulnerable, for whichthe people of Pakistan had rendered nu-merous sacrifices during dictatorship.

The PBC members thanked theprime minister for sending the PPP lead-ers to represent the party in the confer-ence on Balochistan held under theauspices of the SCBA in Islamabad onMay 26.

They spoke highly of Senator RazaRabbani who delivered a speech and pre-

sented pragmatic recommendations forthe solution of the problems facing theprovince.

They called upon the prime ministerto give due consideration to the resolu-tion of the SCBA’s conference while ad-dressing the problems of Balochistan.

They lauded prime minister’s sincereefforts backed by the political commit-ment to address the grievances ofBalochistan when he presided over ahigh-powered meeting on Balochistan.

The delegation expressed concernsover the delay in appointment of a chiefelection commissioner. They said the of-fice of the CeC was of paramount impor-tance for holding free, fair and impartialelections in the country.

The delegation also discussed withthe prime minister the problems facingthe legal fraternity. They stressed theneed for amendments in the Legal Prac-titioners Bar Council Act 1973 inter aliafor harmonising elections of the bar

councils and regular grants-in-aid in theannual budget per Section 57 of the act.

Gilani also directed the authoritiesconcerned to include a grant-in-aid forthe Pakistan Bar Council in the federalbudget 2012-13 and directed the provin-cial governments to provide such grantsto the provincial bar councils in their re-spective budgets.

The prime minister announced agrant of Rs 100 million for establishmentof a benevolent fund scheme for lawyers.

He also committed Rs 0.5 millioneach for two ailing lawyers who were suf-fering from cancer.

The delegation included AhsanBhoon, Syed Qalb-e-Hassan, AzamNazeer Tarar and Ramzan Chaudhry.

Law Minister Farooq Naik, SpecialAssistant to Prime Minister ChaudhryFawad Hussain, Adviser to Prime Minis-ter on Human Rights Mustafa NawazKhokar, and Attorney General IrfanQadir were also present.

NA speaker’s ruling on PM’seligibility matter ‘decisive’: PBCg Delegation calls on Pm, says speaker has constitutional obligation to protect dignity of house, members of parliament

GUJRANWALAStaff RepoRt

A large number of Christians demon-strated in front of the RPO office onFriday against the land mafia al-legedly controlled by Christian politi-cians of the Pakistan MuslimLeague-Nawaz (PML-N).

The demonstrators alleged thatSenator Kamran Micheal and MPAKhalil Sandhu of the PML-N were pa-tronizing the land mafia across Punjabwho had been illegally occupyingChristian property.

Talking to Pakistan Today, NasirMasih, a demonstrator said, “The landmafia led by Kamran Michael andKhalil Sindhu has illegally occupiedour property and are now involving usin fake cases in a bid to silence us.”

He appealed to the Punjab chiefminister to cancel their membershipas they were earning a bad name forthe party.

christians protest against ‘Pml-n land mafia’

game ‘angry imran’

wins praises for

developers NEWS DESK

The developers of political satire game,‘Angry Imran’, are enjoying the praisesthat their brainchild has garnered so far.Social media and blogs are already abuzzwith the game that is based on satiricalshow of political personalities of Pakistanand was developed by Muneeb Ali,Ameed Ansari, Hina Zafar and WaqasArif. The mainstream media has alsojumped on to the bandwagon, showeringit with both negative and positivefeedback. Muneeb Ali said that theiryoung startup, namely Brain Freeze,developed the game as a part-time projectand did not expect any monetary gains.“We were four friends, based out ofIslamabad, involved in different ventureswhich were later combined under theumbrella of Creatrixe. It’s a fresh startup,the name comes from Latin meaning‘creative’. essentially it’s a merger oftechnology, innovation and usability allunder one banner. Brain Freeze is one ofCreatrixe’s brand which specializes inAndroid games and iOS applicationdevelopment”. Muneeb said he game wasresult of a request from friends, whosuggested Brain Freeze develop an AngryBird like game to have Imran Khan asAngry Birds. “We are not, in any way,associated with the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf or with any other political party forthat matter. This game was developedjust as a part time project and that’s it”.After gaining positive reviews on “AngryImran”, Brain Freeze is considering toenhance the functionality of game whichis currently released in beta version.imran To address ‘THe wesT’on July 1: Pakistan Tehreek-e-InsafChairman Imran Khan will deliver hisvision and the future foreign policy ofPakistan in his address to “The West”on July 1 at Dag Hammarskjold Plaza,United Nations building, 47 Street & 1stAvenue, New York, titled “Giving Peacea Chance”. PTI USA will be arranging apublic rally from 12 noon to 7pm onJuly 1 in which leaders of PTI wouldgive the future vision of Pakistan toPakistani Diaspora.

JUi-f leader’s son

killed in QuettaQUETTA

nni

Former provincial minister’s son andJamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl leader was shotdead in Quetta on Friday. Police claimed tohave arrested two who were suspected ofbeing involved in the killing. They said theincident took place on Spini road when thetwo armed men opened fire, killing the sonof the former minister and injuring another.The arrested were shifted to an undisclosedlocation for interrogation. The motivebehind the killing was yet to be ascertained.

GENEVAnni

Any foreign intervention inBalochistan, including from Pak-istan and the US, is unacceptable,Baloch fugitive leader Bra-hamdagh Bugti said on Friday.

Referring to the recently-heldBalochistan Conference in Islam-abad in an interview with BBCUrdu, Brahamdagh said time forarranging talks and conferences onthe Balochistan issue had lapsed.The Baloch leader, who has ap-plied for political asylum with theassurance that he would not sup-port armed insurgency, said “ifanybody wants to talk, recognisingBalochistan, doors are open for ne-gotiations”. To a query, he said sev-eral Baloch leaders had agreed onan independent Balochistan but

there was no consensus amongthem. However, he said it was notnecessary that there should beunity among the Baloch on theissue, adding that goal could alsobe achieved without it.

He said main reason behindthe division between the Balochleaders was the Pakistan Army andthe ISI.

Brahamdagh said an inde-pendent Balochistan would onlyinclude Baloch populated areas,adding that Pashtoon majorityareas would not be part of it.

He conceded that “right now,there is no solid support for ouraim but lobbying goes on in theUS, the UK and Russia”.

Brahamdagh claimed that theresolution by US lawmaker DanaRohrabacher was not aimed atputting pressure on Islamabad.

US, Pakistan intervention in Balochistan

unacceptable: Brahamdagh

kaRacHi: a petrol pump worker installs the new prices of petroleum products at a petrol pump on friday. ONLINE


Saturday, 2 June, 2012

Pml-n not seriousabout ending loadshedding: Zaheer

LAHOREStaff RepoRt

Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid-e-Azam Punjab GeneralSecretary Ch Zaheer-ud-Din Khan has said if Punjab’srulers seriously wanted to end electricity load shedding,they would not have opposed the formula given by Ch Shu-jat Hussain.Addressing a press conference at the Muslim League Houseon Friday, Zaheer-ud-Din Khan who is also a PML leader inthe Provincial Assembly said the PML-N had been an ally ofthe PPP for three and half years but was unaware of theelectricity crisis. He said the forces opposed to the construc-tion of the Kalabagh Dam are also responsible for the elec-tricity load shedding in the province and in the country.Replying to questions, Khan said the PML-N does not haveany intention to hold the local body elections and that thelegislation card is being played only to delay the imple-mentation of the Supreme Court’s orders to hold the localbody polls.He said his party had joined the federal government to re-solve the problems of the people and that they were not anally in electricity load sheddingThe PML-Q leader said the Punjab government had used theRs 2, 000 billion budget in four years but that there were nosigns of development work anywhere in the province. Khan said the rulers had suspended the Sasti Roti Schemeand the Food Support Programme themselves because ofcorruption, adding that the fate of the laptops, Ashiana andYellow Cab Schemes would not be any different.In reply to a question, Zaheer-ud-Din stated that if the peo-ple joining the PML-N had consulted Ch Akhtar Rasool be-fore doing so, they would not have given the matter anotherthought.PML-Q leaders Mian Muhammad Munir, Lahore PresidentYousuf Ahad Malik, Haji Imdad Hussain, Rehana Jamil andShaikh Umar Hayat jointly contradicted the news abouttheir joining the PML-N and reiterated their confidence inthe leadership of Ch Shujat Hussain and Ch Parvez elahi.Yousuf Malik said 48 cases had been instituted against himonly because he was the PML-Q Lahore president. Provincial Information Secretary Muhammad AkramChaudhry, Punjab Additional General Secretary Nasir Mah-mud Gill and Youth Wing Central Secretary General SyedBilal Mustafa Sheerazi were among those present at thepress conference.

LAHOREagencieS

THe Punjab government shiftedits camp office to the Minar-e-Pakistan on Friday to expresssolidarity with public againstthe chronic power outages. Pun-

jab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif addressedthe media from his newly crafted camp of-fice setup in protest against unannouncedand unscheduled load shedding in theprovince,

The CM said President Asif Ali Zardariand convicted Prime Minister Syed YusufRaza Gilani will have to be made account-able for debts amounting to Rs 400 billion.He stated that he will go to every village andcity of the country to rid the people of thepower outages as well as ‘Ali Baba and theForty Thieves’, who, he said, had pushedPakistan into darkness. Sharif said hecould not relax until as the people had beendeprived of their sleep due to the unendingelectricity outages.

He announced that he has built his officeat the ‘Minar-e-Pakistan’ and that the nextcabinet session will be held here. Sharifstated if the circular debt was countered, thepower crisis would end.

He stated that the government had ru-ined the economy and industry in Pakistan.Water is a scarce resource for the generalmasses and that water was not even avail-able for executing ‘Wuzu’ before offeringprayers in mosques.

He declared that they will bring back the

money compromised under the NRO in Swissbanks. Sharif added that they will return the700 megawatt electricity which falls underthe share of Punjab to allow the province tohelp settle the issue of the power crisis.

He said the decisions taken during theenergy conference had been violated, as thePM had promised electricity outages on anequal basis throughout the country, but thatpoor governance on the part of the rulerswas compounding the power crisis.

He said the federal government wasbeing unjust with Punjab, adding that if cor-ruption ended and the money looted fromPakistan was brought back to the country,the load shedding crisis could be ended.

Disregarding security protocol, ChiefMinister Shahbaz reached the camp office

and presided over a meeting of the Waterand Sanitation Agency (WASA).

WASA officials briefed the CM at thecamp, regarding the shortage of water. Theofficials told the CM that they got generatorson rent for two to three hours to overcomethe water shortage issue but the generatorswill be needed for more time daily due to theprolonged load shedding. The CM issued di-rections to WASA to get generators for 24hours to solve the problem.

The meeting was attended by LahoreCommissioner, DCO, WASA MD and mem-bers of the Punjab Assembly.

No generator or UPS was installed at thecamp office, while all the participants, in-cluding the chief minister, were seen wear-ing black ribbons.

laHore : Pakistan People’s PartyPunjab President Imtiaz SafdarWaraich congratulated the federal gov-ernment on Friday for presenting a bal-anced and people friendly budgetduring difficult political circumstances.

He said Pakistan was facing severalproblems, including the energy crisisdue to the rapidly increasing demandfor electricity, oil and gas. He statedthat the reduction of several duties andtaxes in the budget for 2012-2013 willfacilitate the masses and that the pricesof utilities and items of daily use willcome down as a result. He said the gov-ernment has emphasised on the energysector and a huge amount has been al-located for several projects related toenergy. Warraich added that the in-crease in the limit of the taxableamount will be good news for the tax-

payers. He termed the government em-ployees as silent and positive tax con-tributors, adding that the increase intheir salaries and pensions was highlyappreciated. He thanked all the coali-

tion partners of the government fortheir cooperation in preparing such abalanced budget. He hoped that thebudget will be helpful in decreasing theproblems of the people. app

Justice Bandial sworn in as lhc cJ

laHore: Punjab Governor Sardar Latif Khan Khosaadministered the oath to Justice Umer Ata Bandial asthe chief justice of the Lahore High Court (LHC) in aceremony at the Governor’s House on Friday. PunjabChief Minister Shahbaz Sharif, Provincial Law Minis-ter Rana Sanaullah Khan, Sardar Zulfiqar Khosa, Sen-ators Aitzaz Ahsan, Pervaiz Rasheed, Punjab ChiefSecretary Nasir Mehmood Khosa, representativesfrom the armed forces, judges of the LHC and lawyersfrom the Supreme Court and the Punjab bars attendedthe ceremony. app

warraich congratulates federal govton presenting ‘balanced budget’

Shahbaz shifts office to Minar-e-Pakistan in protest against power outagesg ‘Pm, president accountable for $400b circular debt’


low

high

270cSUnDay monDay tUeSDay44°c i 27°c 43°c i 28°c 42°c i 29°c

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city Directory

reScUe 1122

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motorway Police 130

Police 15

goVernor’S hoUSe 99200081-7

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fatmiD 35210834-8

iSlamic alliance 37588649/37535435

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waPDa 111-000-118

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PUnJaB UniVerSity 99231257KinnairD college 99203781-4QUeen mary college 36362942goVt. college UniVerSity 111-000-010Umt 35212801-10lUmS 35608000Uet 36288666lcwU 99203072SUPerior college 111-000-078

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YogA And MEditAtion clASSES

Date: aPril 01 to DecemBer 30, 2012VenUe: faiZ ghar, lahore

a unique blend of yoga, meditation, neuro-linguisticProgramming, Sufism & more.achieve self-insight, mind-body harmony & betterhealth.

yoga master Shamshad haider

dAncE FActoRY - lAdiES

Date: march 19 to aUgUSt 29, 2012VenUe: the KnowleDge factory (tKf)

Sunny

weather UPDateS

44°c


Lahore

100 gHAZAlS oF MAulAnA RuMi

hast-o-neest centre for traditional art & cultureinvites you to its monthly Saturday Sitting withJanab ahmed Javed Sahib(Director, iqbal academy Pakistan)on 100 ghazals of maulana rumi3:30 to 5:00 pm, last Saturday of every month

Date: march 31 to DecemBer 29, 2012 VenUe: haSt-o-neeSt centre, lahore

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laHoRe: Jammat-ud-dawa members clash with Jammat-e-islami members during a protest against the likely opening of nato supply routes. MURTAZA ALI

LAHOREStaff RepoRt

THe Punjab government has madeadequate arrangements and is wellprepared to combat any outbreak ofdengue in the coming season. Thehealth and other government de-

partments are well equipped to face anydengue-related challenge.

These views were expressed by Sri Lankanexperts at the King edward Medical Universitywhile addressing a press conference at the endof their four-day visit to Lahore.

Chief Minister’s Special Assistant forHealth Khawaja Salman Rafique, Health Secre-tary Capt (r) Arif Nadeem, KeMU Vice-Chan-cellor Prof Dr Asad Aslam Khan, PunjabHealth DG Dr NisarCheema, members ofthe Sri Lankan dele-gation, Mayo Hospi-tal MS Dr Zahid Pervaiz, CM’s DengueResearch Cell In charge Prof Wasim Akram,Prof Muhammad Ali of the Services Hospitaland other senior officers were also present onthis occasion.

While addressing the press conference,Dr Tissera of the Sri Lankan delegation,congratulated the Punjab governmentand the people of the province onachieving tremendous successagainst the disease in a veryshort span of time and forevolving a compre-hensive system whichwill help in checkingthe dengue virus in the coming days.

While responding to a question, he said the

NS-I test is one of the diagnostic methods usedfor dengue. However, it is on the discretion ofclinicians to decide about it. He dispelled the im-pression that the previous dengue epidemic inLahore was a part of a biological war.

He stated that since the mortality rate for

dengue isfar less than

the other dis-eases like

malaria or tuber-culoses, the dengue

epidemic was not afrom of biological war.

Health SecretaryCapt Arif Nadeembriefed the media re-garding the arrange-ments made by thePunjab government.He said the health de-partment and the provincial government have

evolved a system for indoor and outdoor denguesurveillance right from the union council level todistrict and province level.

He added that a report in this connectionis being collected from every district on a dailybasis. Moreover, the data of dengue patientsfrom every hospital is also being collected anddisplayed at dashboards for disease surveil-lance.

Nadeem said the training of doctors, para-medics and supporting staff has also been com-pleted and that the arrangements for sprayingand fogging, including the availability of foggers,chemicals and medi-

cines in sufficientquantity has alsobeen ensured.

Dr Akram said re-search has been started on

dengue in IPH andthe chemicals used

during fumigation arebeing tested. Moreover,

Talapia fish have also beenreleased in open ponds andlakes.

While commenting on thePunjab government’s performance, Dr Paba

said the government and health departmentare very well prepared and are now in a po-sition to face any dengue-related chal-lenge.

Meanwhile, the KeMU also launched a bookon dengue titled ‘Hum Aur Dengue’ which hasbeen written by Dr Sobia Iqtidar of KeMU. Thebook also contains the views of other medical ex-perts and preventive measures against dengue.

Prof Aslam said the book can be obtainedfrom the university free of cost.

punjab govt fully equipped to handle dengue outbreak, say sri lankan expertsg health dept evolves indoor and outdoor dengue surveillance system



Lahore

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spaRC calls for

legislation to end

violence against children

LAHOREStaff RepoRt

The responsibility for theincreasing incidents ofviolence against childrenrests on the failure of thestate and calls for thecivil society to takeunited efforts to bring itto an end. This was stated by Soci-ety for the Protection ofthe Rights of the Child(SPARC) Regional Man-ager Sajjad Cheema in apress statement issued atthe end of weeklong ac-tivism to tackle violenceagainst children. Protection of the Rightsof the Child ProgrammeOfficer Sobia John saidincidents of kidnappingfor ransom, early mar-riages, murders and sex-ual abuse are taking theirtoll in Punjab. Accordingto the data compiled byProtection of the Rightsof the Child, during thefirst five months of 2012,122 cases of child rights’violations were observed,out of which 40 were in-cidents of child sexualabuse, 14 were murdercases, while 22 werecases of kidnapping. 14children faced corporalpunishment, six children

were given in early mar-riages and 13 deaths oc-curred due to medicalnegligence from Januaryto May. She stated that these vio-lations also include childabuse, panchayat deci-sions, juvenile delin-quency, death due tonegligence, trafficking,suicide, health issues.Sajjad Cheema said theimproper implementa-tion of the law was one ofthe major reasons for therising crime rate againstchildren in the country,adding that until the gov-ernment made serious ef-forts, such incidents willcontinue to take place. Cheema said children arethe most vulnerable vic-tims of violent behav-iour. He hoped that collectiveand collaborative effortswill compel the govern-ment to fulfill its inter-national obligationregarding the United Na-tions Conventions on therights of the child. He said civil society or-ganisations like SAHIL,Godh and Pachaan alsoplayed an important roleand raised their voicesfor the protection ofchildren.

‘ePD stresses ongreen economyfor industrial development’

LAHOREapp

Adviser to Punjab CM Mansha Button Friday said that people could keepthe environment clean simply byadopting the teachings of the HolyProphet (PBUH).He was addressing a seminar organ-ised by the environment ProtectionDepartment (ePD) Punjab on Worldenvironment Day, theme for whichthis year is ‘Green economy’.Mansha said simple life provided so-lutions to our environment problems.“Our industries are emitting smokedetrimental to human life. We shouldadopt environment-friendly measuresto keep our atmosphere clean,” headded.environment Protection DepartmentSecreatry Saeed Wahla said naturecould fulfill our needs but not ourgreed. “Green economy means thinking outof the box and leaving behind thenorm of business as usual. Greeneconomy can only begin with devis-ing green policies by the governmentfor the business sector,” he added.

woman among twogunned down overdomestic issues

LAHOREnni

Two people were shot to death overdomestic disputes on Friday, policesaid.According to detail, Saba, 18, a resi-dent of Gulistan Colony, was shot todeath by her brother, Umar, over herfailure to cook and serve him his foodon time. The accused later fled thescene.The police took custody of the bodyand sent it for a post mortem.In another incident, 40-year-old Ab-dullah was gunned down by hisyounger brother, Jafar, following anargument. The police apprehended theaccused. The police registered the cases of theincidents and started investigations. firs againsT sHeesHa cafes:The district administration Fridaylodged FIRs against six Sheesha cafesin various areas of the provincial capi-tal and also seized 48 hookahs.DCO office sources said that duringthe last 24 hours, monitoring teamslodged FIRs against Hot Box Gulberg,Jazz cafe, Gulshan Ravi, Yari cafe,Gulshan Ravi, Pizza Point, ModelTown, Sifari Lounge, Faisal Town andBoogie Lounge, Gulshan Ravi.

LAHOREStaff RepoRt

THe Pakistan Water andPower Development Au-thority (WAPDA), in apress release issued on Fri-day, said fire broke out in

the jungle in the vicinity of the TarbelaDam, at about 9 pm Thursday night.

Although the fire started awayfrom the switchyard and the powerstation, the operation to control andextinguish the fire was immediatelystarted by the WAPDA fire fightersplaced at the project.

In addition, fire brigades of otherinstitutions and areas also reached thesite to participate in the operation. Asa result of the concerted efforts of theseteams, the fire was completely con-trolled and extinguished later thatsame night.

As a precautionary measure, theTarbela Power Station and the trans-mission lines had to be closed by theoperational staff. However, the powerstation and the transmission lines weremade operational by 2 am after the fire

in the bushes and trees was extin-guished. All the units of the TarbelaPower Station are operating since thenand contributing to the national grid asusual.

Meanwhile, WAPDA thanked thefire fighters of the Special ServicesGroup, Army Aviation, Topi Canton-ment Board, Naushera CantonmentBoard, Pakistan Locomotive Company

Risalpur, Gaddon Amazai Industrialestate, Haripur, Abbottabad, Swabi,Mardan, Takht Bahai, Naushera andRescue 1122 Peshawar for their timelyassistance.

It is worth mentioning here thatWAPDA had developed paths in thethick forest around Tarbela Dam,which greatly helped in the quickmovement of the fire fighters.

Tarbela power stationoperational after fire

laHoRe: tnS beaconhouse students from reception to grade 8, presented the annual performing arts extravaganza on friday.

the concert featured musical performances, dances and a play. STAFF PhOTO

FILE PhOTO


10 Saturday, 2 June, 2012Lahore

laHoRe: children work at an embroidery shop ahead of the international children Rights day. ONLINE

us envoy says public diplomacy can bolster us-pakistan relationsLAHORE

Staff RepoRt

Newly appointed US Public Diplomacyand Public Affairs Under Secretary TaraSonenshine spent the day in Lahore meet-ing with leaders from the civil society.This was her first visit to Pakistan, onlyher second country visited, after China,since she assumed her position. UnderSecretary Sonenshine’s goal was to betterunderstand how public diplomacy canbolster US-Pakistan relations and build asustainable future for the generations tocome. The secretary’s delegation con-sisted of US Public Diplomacy South andCentral Asia Deputy Assistant SecretaryJim Moore, US Consul General Nina Fiteand US Mission Strategic CommunicationDirector Tom Miller.

Speaking to students from various uni-

versities at Kinnaird College, the undersecretary spoke about the role of publicdiplomacy in Pakistan in building bridgesbetween the people of both countries. Shehighlighted the fact that as citizens of theglobe, we all face a combination of sharedchallenges and opportunities. She dis-cussed how US public diplomacy empow-ers, engages, and supports citizens aroundthe world. Using Pakistan as a specific ex-ample of US public diplomacy efforts, shementioned programmes like the Fulbrightscholarship, english language courses forunderprivileged students, university link-ages, and cultural exchanges such as visitsby jazz musicians to Lahore.

Following her remarks, Under Secre-tary Sonenshine interacted with the stu-dents at Kinnaird College during a livelyquestion and answer session.

Sonenshine also paid her respects to

Lahore’s great cultural history. She visitedthe mid-18th century Sunehri Mosque,which is being restored under the Ambas-sador’s Fund for Cultural Preservationwith a $67,500 US government grant. Ho-nouring Pakistan’s foundation, she alsovisited the historic Minar-e Pakistan andrecorded her impressions in the visitor’sbook. Sonenshine also participated in a USexchange alumni community service proj-ect at the SOS Village, where she joined theyouth exchange programme participants inrepainting the children’s home’s play-ground. She also met with a cross-sectionof civil society at various events throughouther visit, including leaders in media, thearts, and education.

Later in the day, she participated in agroup discussion with US-funded afterschool english language programme grad-uates from across the Punjab.

intense heat

cuts number of

visitors to zooLAHORE

app

The recent surge in the temperaturehas decreased the number of visitors tothe Lahore zoo besides putting the ani-mals in misery. The administration, however, claimedto have made sufficient arrangementsto protect the animals from the heat. Faizan, a visitor, said, “The animalsare feeling the effects of the severeheat and are seen resting near iceblocks. People from other cities visitthe zoo with their children during thesummer holidays, but the rise in thetemperatures has lessened the numberof visitors.” Lahore Zoo Deputy Director MudassarHassan said the number of visitors haddecreased by more than 60 percent,however, the zoo management hadarranged room coolers and ice blocksto cool down the animals. “Fruits, in-cluding melons, watermelons andpeaches are also being given to the ani-mals,” he added.He said, “We have tried our best toprovide every kind of facility to the an-imals.” In response to a query, he saidno animal had died so far despite thehot weather.

LAHOREStaff RepoRt

The number of scholarshipsawarded to students by the GovernmentCollege University Lahore endowmentFund Trust (GCU eFT) has increased to20 as Bank Al-Habib donated one mil-lion rupees to the fund on Friday.

The perpetual scholarship to benamed after the bank will be given to aGCU student every year on merit. Thescholarship will cover the university feeas well as the hostel expenses of the ben-eficiary. Bank Al-Habib General Man-ager handed over the cheque for onemillion to GCU Vice Chancellor Prof DrMuhammad Khaleeq-ur-Rahman.

GCU eFT executive CommitteeSecretary Dr Khalid Manzoor Butt said:“This is the second scholarship donatedby Bank Al-Habib and it has pledged todonate a scholarship every year.”

The trust secretary said that GCUeFT has received 38 scholarships up tillnow which include 20 golden and 18sliver scholarships. The sliver scholar-ship is initiated with a donation of Rs0.5 million and covers the university feeof the beneficiary.

Prof Khaleeq-ur-Rahman expressedgratitude his on the donation andstressed that other banks should alsocome forward and support education.

GCU wins National Urdu Declama-tion Contest: The Government CollegeUniversity Debating Society has wonthe National Urdu Declamation Contest

organised by the FCC University. 30 ed-ucational institutions from all over Pak-istan took part in the declamationcontest. GC’s Zahid Ali was awarded theBest Speaker prize and won both therounds. GCU Vice Chancellor Prof. Dr.Muhammad Khaleeq-ur-Rahman con-gratulated Zahid Ali on his win.

Ji calls for shaking US hold in the region

LAHOREinp

Ameer Jamaat-e-Islami Syed Mu-nawar Hasan on Friday stressed uponthe rulers to get out of the US slaveryand ensure its exit from the regionbefore they lost the support of Chinaand Russia as well.Addressing the Friday congregationat Mansoora, he said that the govern-ment was trying to restore NATO sup-plies by keeping the nation in thedark; a policy which he said wouldhave disastrous consequences. How-ever, he said the nation would notallow resumption of NATO suppliesin any case.He also suggested the formation of aregional bloc comprising China, Iran,Turkey and Pakistan to restore peace.

two-stroke rickshaws causeecocide

LAHOREapp

Two-stroke motorcycles and rick-shaws are the most inefficient vehi-cles in complete burning of the fueland contribute most to emission ofair pollutants in the environment, ex-perts say.The major pollutant from a two-stroke engine is carbon monoxide(CO).Its presence in the environmentcauses a number of respiratory dis-eases and other illnesses.None of the locally assembled rick-shaws meet the standards fixed byPakistan Standards Quality ControlAuthority for smoke emission.An environment Protection Depart-ment official said that about 35,000two-stroke rickshaws and motorcy-cles ply Lahore roads.

GCU receives Rs 1mgrant for scholarships

laHoRe: a handicraft maker works during

a power cut at the lohari gate. STAFF PhOTO


Editor’s mail 11Saturday, 2 June, 2012

law and orderWhen the world talks about Pakistan,

the name that comes on the top of thediscussion is that of Karachi city. Thelargest commercial and financial centreof the country, where millions of peopleengage in business activities every day,and which generates a major part of totalnational income. Karachi is no doubt abig attraction for tourists from all overthe world.

But the sad part of this story is thenegligence on the part of the govern-ment. The situation of Karachi cannoteven be compared to any part of theworld where the whole city is filled withgoons, dacoits, bhatta khors and everykind of crime related groups backed byall political parties and working underthese parties. They are everywhere in thecity and no one seems to be able to stopthem.

A citizen of Karachi cannot talk onmobile outside his home, can’t safelyreach home with cash from bank. To con-tinue business, they have to pay bhatta.Women in Karachi can’t go outside wear-ing gold. The whole wedding halls werelooted by dacoits openly. They do what-ever they want; they shutdown all busi-nesses any time without any reason. Ifresisted, they kill you.

I request the government and the au-thorities to take some serious steps re-garding this issue.

TAHIR NAEEMKarachi

an award for edhiI suggest that Abdul Sattar edhi, an

internationally renowned social worker,must be given a special award for savingthe lives of thousands of innocent peopleof Lyari recently who remained undersiege completely for eight days due to anill-planned police operation that washeaded by a SSP, CID, Chaudhry Aslam,despite him having a criminal record.Strangely, the said police officer was dec-orated with the prestigious presidentialaward before the start of Lyari operation.

As a result of operation, the people ofLyari were deprived of basic facilities likefood, water, gas, electricity, medicinesetc. They were not allowed even to comeout from their homes for medical treat-ment and even pregnant ladies were notallowed to go to maternity homes asthere was no interval in the operation.This was the worst operation of its kindwhere innocent people in thousandsnumber were targeted for nothing. evensome social organisations that broughtfood for the residents to serve thestranded people were not allowed toenter into the area.

Nonetheless, it was Mr edhi whowarned PPP-MQM coalition Sindh gov-ernment that if the siege continued anyfurther, thousands of innocent peoplewould die and he had no sufficientcoffins to bury dead bodies in large num-ber.

The PPP government that launchedthe Lyari operation on the demand of anethnic group, had detained Mr edhiwhereas his highly efficient ambulanceservice was also stopped from operatingin Lyari as pointed out by Mr edhi to themedia.

If people like edhi were not presentin our society, the coalition governmentin Sindh would have killed thousands ofinnocent people under the guise of theso-called policy of “reconciliation”.

MOHAMMAD KHAN SIALKarachi

Swat thanks UaeIt is with great pleasure and joy that I

write today. For the first time in my life Iwitnessed my prayers answered. I wouldlike to thank the editor of PakistanToday for publishing my letter and forbeing a voice for those who are seldomheard.

My letter that was issued in yourdaily on the 20th of May was a cry forhope and soon after that Sheikh Khalifabin Zayed Al Nahyan Bridge was inaugu-rated and the whole of Kabal rejoicedand celebrated. The first bridge to bebuilt after the floods is a sight for soreeyes.

A magnificent structure crossing overthe river Swat is not just a prayer an-swered but also a jewel added to thebeauty of Swat. The presence of highlevel diplomats at the inaugurationshowed us their commitment towardsbringing back the lost glory of Swat andreassured the people of the help of ourbrethren nation UAe.

The monument that has been builtbeside the bridge has become a symbol ofbrotherhood for the people of UAe andSwat and we treasure this gift given tous.

The children going to the schoolsbuilt by UAe, the commuters using thebridge, the houses drinking the water areall a testament of this growing andrevered friendship. We thank His High-ness Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed AlNahyan, Pakistan Army and UAe Pak-istan Assistance Program (UAe PAP) formaking our dreams come true.

AMJAD RAHIM KHANKabal, Swat

exams in hot summersThe annual examinations are held in

sizzling summer every year. They shouldinstead be held during moderate season.The combination of electricity shortfalland a burning summer during exams is agrave problem that the postgraduate stu-dents are facing these days.

Final examinations of Punjab Uni-versity are being held in the month ofJune and July. Students are unable tostudy because of 14 to 16 hours of load-shedding even in major cities, like La-hore, where the temperature remainsabove 45 C these days.

The government has already turnedits back on the citizens who are sur-rounded by myriads of problems. In spiteof protests made by citizens, the govern-ment has failed to solve the electricityissue and there seems no end to it. Insuch situation who will care about the fu-ture of the students – the future of Pak-istan? educational boards anduniversities should rationally considerthat we live in a country where summeris extremely hot and power outages are abitter reality.

NADIA EHSANLahore

the dronesCIA drone has become a household

name with us and in Yemen. In bothMuslim countries, the mighty super-power is chasing so-called the terrorists.Drone is a favourite weapon of the USbecause it is pilotless; therefore, there isno chance of loss of life that upsets theAmericans.

Good Americans are happy-go-luckypeople, least bothered about their mili-tary, air force and CIA killing innocentpeople living in their own countriesthousands of miles apart, as long as nobody bags arrive back home. DeadAmericans and Brits reaching homecause a huge uproar unlike us whereother than the VIPs, human life is cheap.

every day there’s a drone attack, in-nocent people die, and nothing at thelevel of ‘popularly elected government’stirs. The other day, when a group offriends discussed drone attacks andtheir ramifications, someone came upwith a novel idea.

He suggested calling Americans andBrits, drones. That’s how much weshould care for them as they care for us.I remember our english teacher inschool used to call casual and carelessboys as ‘useless drones’. None of us thenrealised that some of our innocent com-patriots someday would fall prey todrones.

MAJ (retd) SURKHAB RAJAChakwal

Pml(n)’s ‘party-crashing’It is unfortunate that the PML(N)

government in Punjab decided to holdlocal government elections on a non-party basis after deferring the election onone pretext or the other till the SupremeCourt had to intervene and tell theprovincial government that they were vi-olating the constitution by doing so. Itseems like our present lot of politiciansdo not want to share power at the grassroot level although they never get tired ofpreaching the virtues of democracy andempowerment of the people.

The Chief Minister of Punjab hasbeen running the largest province of thecountry with 62% population single-handedly with the civil bureaucracy at hisbeck and call without giving ordinarypeople a chance to share power with therulers. It seems like our politicians con-

sider themselves superior to all and thatit is only they that have the real wisdomto be the real rulers. This is a major rea-son why democracy and new politiciansin Pakistan have not been able to make asignificant mark.

Holding party-based elections willcontribute to nourishing ideology-basedpolitics and affect future political leader-ship. The majority of current politicianshave no knowledge and experience ofpeople's problems because they neverstarted their politics from the grass rootlevel. This is one reason why instead ofmaking laws that benefit the people, theyare doing the work that should be the jobof a local body representative: makingroads, schools, healthy units, gas supplyprojects etc.

It is imperative to strengthen democ-

racy in the local body representativeswith administrative power whereas fi-nancial power should be established atthe district and union council level sothat the councils can look after the civicdevelopment projects of the area. If therewere empowered local governments inplace, law and order situation would nothave deteriorated as much as they haveand much more development workswould take place.

Without people's participation, nocountry can make real progress. Cur-rently, the PML(N) is afraid of PTI's pop-ularity in Punjab and to avoid anembarrassing defeat in the local bodieselection, it is adopting the non-partybasis polls when it is a known fact thatthe 1985 non-party elections of NationalAssembly not only introduced horse trad-

ing in the polity but had a long term im-pact by training politicians to have no re-morse for switching loyalties in theirpursuit for power.

I believe that ideology-based politicsis largely non-existent. Our politiciansare primarily interested in seeking politi-cal power to rule the country instead ofserving the country and people's inter-ests. The people of Pakistan are yearningfor a change due to the failure of politicalparties to solve the issues faced by thecountry and the problems faced by thepeople. It is unfortunate that the lives ofcommon Pakistanis are becoming in-creasingly miserable as people are com-mitting suicides and selling their childrendue to hunger and poverty.

S T HUSSAINLahore

The Washington Post recently published an article that con-tended that the energy crisis is probably a bigger threat to Pak-istan than terrorism. While terrorists do pose a seriousexistential and ideological threat, this contention is not that farfrom the truth. The energy crisis is not just angering the popu-lace but pushing our economy to the brink. It was recently re-ported in your paper that many industries have shifted to

Bangladesh because of power outages. The PM infamouslyasked, “Who is stopping them?” The answer it seems is actuallynobody. If this trend continues and this flight of capital is notstopped, this energy crisis will be the death of industry and eco-nomic activity in Pakistan which is in itself an existential threat.

ALI IRFANLahore

Send your letters to: Letters to Editor, Pakistan Today, 4-Shaarey Fatima Jinnah, Lahore, Pakistan. Fax: +92-42-36298302. E-mail: [email protected]. Letters should be addressed to Pakistan Today exclusively.

long live parochialismHistory will always remember PM Gi-

lani for his services in preserving andstrengthening the feudal structure in theSeraiki belt and interior Sindh, where thegolden rule is to keep haris, tenants,labourers and disciples of pirs in perpet-ual torment, slavery, illiteracy, hunger,unemployment and pain so that they cannever pose a threat to feudal traditions ofthis region.

The biggest threat that was everposed to the feudal system was by Zul-fikar Ali Bhutto whose policies rekindledawakening and hope amongst the toilingpoor of this country. PM Gilani has donethe exact opposite. During his term of of-fice which started in 2008, this govern-ment led by the gaddi nasheen fromMultan ensured that no credible collegesand schools imparting quality educationare set up in their areas of influence andwhatever infrastructure that existed forprimary health and education is used forany purpose other than education ormedical services.

A literate poor man becomes a threatto this system when he challenges thefeudal lord and doesn’t let him exploit hisfamily. Thus to prevent this eventualityfrom panning out, the Sindh Governmentnot only stopped the construction of theBenazir Flying Academy at Nawabshahbut also prevented construction of cam-puses such as Danish schools in interiorSindh where poor Sindhis could enrolltheir children.

Ghost schools were deemed to be abetter alternative because they allow po-litically well-connected contractors tomake profits and can serve as deras ofwaderas and dakus while ensuring thatno real education is imparted. After all,

what purpose does education serve inthis system? A system where people whobarely passed high school are consideredfit to head OGDC, PIA, CAA, PSO, PSM,KPT, NILC, Banks etc.

The Gilani government also takes thecake for doing away with such trivial andburdensome things like honesty and con-scientiousness by successfully embarkingon a mission to fleece Hajis and Umrahpilgrims, ephedrine scam, RPP scandaletc. To sum it up, the local proverb bestdescribes their feats: “Badnaam hongetau kia naam na hoga” (Loosely trans-lated: even a bad reputation is after all areputation)

SYED JAWAID HUSSAINMultan

environmental crimesI still vividly remember the definition

of a word “environment’ which one of myprofessors, Professor Dr (Late) Muham-mad Ibrahim Pathan, of the Chemicaland environmental engineering Depart-ment in the famous Mehran engineeringUniversity, Jamshoro, taught us in hismaiden lecture some 20 years ago.

The definition was as follows. The en-vironment is the combination and inter-action of all the physical factors thatconstitute the surroundings of humanbeings, including land, water, the atmos-phere, sound, odour, taste, climate andother life such as animals and plants. Theenvironment also covers social and cul-tural factors, both in the natural and builtenvironment.

When I reflect on the prevalent envi-ronment in Pakistan today, I can saywithout any hemming and hawing thatPakistan is one of those countries whereenvironmental crime is becoming in-

creasingly organized in nature and can beseen. Indeed, ours is a country where allsorts of environmental crimes are com-mitted by all and sundry. Look at therampant burning of forests, both organ-ized and natural forests, in the moun-tains in the vicinity of Islamabad duringsummer season which has become pre-dominant feature. Look at also the chop-ping of precious trees along banks ofvarious canals and highways. There aremany other such examples.

These myopic, money-crazy enemiesof the environment need to be awardedexemplary punishments for their crimesagainst the environment which is, in fact,a crime against life itself includingmankind, plants and animals. Similarly,those who aid and abet such culprits tocommit such environmental crimes maybe also awarded rigorous punishment.The courts, in particular, the environ-mental tribunals and the civil societymust come forward to save the environ-ment and save the life on this planet.

HASHIM ABROIslamabad

no military solution?A few days ago, the Indian delegate,

Mani Shankar, said that there can be nomilitary solution to the Kashmir conflict.I would very much like to ask him a sim-ple question:

If we are to believe what he says, thenwhat are 7 lac Indian armypersonnel/para military forces doing inIndian-occupied Kashmir? Not to men-tion, why then are draconian laws likethe AFSPA implemented in the occupiedregion?

M SARMAD ALAMGIR Lahore

capital flight


Comment12Saturday, 2 June, 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

for the first time, a fifth budget

the budget

What does one mean by the term election-year budget?Around the world, it is meant to imply some populistmeasures in public spending and taxation. In our haplessrepublic, however, every year is an election year budget as

far as the taxation bit is concerned. Populist pundits would be chimingin agreement about how the bigwig feudals just won’t let any taxationlegislation get through but that is absolutely incorrect. All sectors, alldemographics in the country, have an abject aversion to paying taxes.

To give this government its due, they did try to spice things up onthe tax front. They have been trying every year to pass throughlegislation reforming the GST. This year, they aren’t even going to try.

Because it is election year? Not entirely true. This is anotherpopularly held misconception which the punditry here copy-pastesfrom the west. The nation’s tax code exempts the poor from incometax. At present, any individual earning less than Rs. 33,000 per monthdoesn’t have to pay any income tax at all. They still have to pay GST,yes. But there is no GST on items that make up the bulk of the poor’sbudgets. The meek have far from inherited the earth but they do havethe lion’s share of the number of votes cast. In our country, therefore,direct taxes shouldn’t be as big an election issue as we are led tobelieve.

The reformed GST would have calibrated the nation’s indirect taxschemes with the records for direct, income taxation. It would have,through a devilishly clever system of sticks and carrots, made it moredifficult (it’s never impossible) for businesses and individuals to cheaton their taxes.

Before moving forwards, it would be interesting to note how thelegislation was scuttled. See, across the world, the left-of-centre partiespropose higher taxes. The right-of-centre, big business parties proposecutting them. Both are legitimate points of view. In Pakistan, whereasthe left-of-centre parties like the PPP and ANP fall in that model, theparties of the bazaar (the Muslim Leagues and the MQM) have taken acurious line. They aren’t advocating lowering the tax rate but areopposing a difficult to cheat taxation system. That is an illegitimatepoint of view to take. It is an affront to the concept of a supposedlyvigilant media that those opposing the reform of the GST haven’t beenhounded incessantly.

To the government’s credit, it made an unprecedented increase inrevenue collection (around 25 percent) the last fiscal all whileremaining in the unreformed tax structure by swooping in on leaks.This year, they have also attempted to simplify the tax code by reducingthe number of progressive slabs.

That doesn’t mean it the government has done all it could havedone on the taxation front. Agriculture tax is a glaring issue. But thefederal government cannot tax agriculture, Dr Hafeez Shaikh will pointout. True, but the party that runs two provincial governments and is ajunior coalition partner in a third cannot avoid this accusation. Theindustrialists and traders oppose income tax reforms and the feudalsabhor agriculture taxes. Both sides have to get over themselves there.

Moving on to another trend that we have to change. The stark lackof debate on the budget allocation to the armed forces, which saw a fatRs 20 billion increase this year. There is enough of an impetus in publicdiscourse against government expenditures to force the prime ministerto shift out of the PM secretariat, as the finance minister announced inhis speech, but not a peep about the vast military expenditure. Ideally,military hardware expenditures should also undergo the same scrutinyby the audits and accounts service as the one the irrigation departmentis subjected to. But, perhaps, questioning the surfeit of military golf-courses could be a good enough start?

Not taking away anything from the jawaans in our armed forces buteven the most casual of analyses would testify that the real struggle inthe war on terror is being borne by civil armed forces like the police. Asthe Americans realised in Iraq and continue to find in Afghanistan, thearmy’s job is relatively easy; the police’s isn’t. The government shouldsplurge on the ministry of interior and incentivise the provinces tospend on the police.

Power crisis: There isn’t enough fiscal space to undertake the vastmaintenance work our grid needs to cut down on transmission losses.And throwing money at the circular debt problem would have beenirresponsible, given how it would ratchet up yet again. Unless there areSROs and mini-budgets in the works for later on. Therefore, expect theloadshedding to continue this fiscal year despite whatever thegovernment is to spend on building capacity. No quick fix for thisproblem, specially on this government’s inept watch.

At the end of the day, one should realise that the budget isoverrated when looked at as a complete picture of what the governmentis doing, financially. There are many other variables involved, like themonetary policy, international trade patterns, natural calamities andlaw and order.

A vacuous media leads the public to believe the federal andprovincial budgets are documents that somehow fix tightly how muchhaircuts and shoes cost. That is a ridiculous notion.

Tailpiece: the opposition’s behaviour was deplorable. There is muchto criticise in the government financial policies. By frothing at themouth and undertaking Neanderthal behaviour, the opposition gavethe impression it had nothing, really, to say. Why is the opposition soeasy on the government?

Incumbents and contendersthe ppp’s political savvy might not be enough

whitelieSBy ess aich

Fo r m e rprime min-ister Mian

Nawaz Sharif hada press photo-oprecently, playingcricket.

He reallyloves the gameand was reallygood at it too. Ifthe bowler be-longed to his po-litical party. Andthe fielders. Andthe umpire.

This is a pointthat has beenspread out a lotbut the formerpremier has beeninsisting, with aremarkable con-sistency, that he isreally good at thegame. Could haveeven gone pro.

One wondersif the world wouldhave been a betterplace if he had.

By presenting the fifth consecu-tive budget in the parliament,the PPP-led coalition has got-ten some sort of a feather inits cap. The fact that it has

lasted longer than any political govern-ment in Pakistan is an achievement in it-self.

Prime Minister Gilani has orches-trated quite a few deft political manoeu-vres in order to keep his head above thewater. The threat of imminent disqualifi-cation in the light of the Supreme Court’sconvicting him for contempt was a majorhurdle. Few thought that Gilani wouldsurvive this potentially fatal blow.

A stage was being set for the primeminister’s imminent disqualification. Noone had anticipated that the speaker ofthe National Assembly, Fahmida Mirza,would not be content with merely playingthe role of a ‘post office’ and would decidethe matter in the prime minister’s favourinstead of referring it to the electionCommission.

The apex court was certain that theprime minister would appeal its verdictagainst him. efforts to constitute a largerbench were redoubled so that the matterof Gilani’s disqualification was disposedof in record time.

Initially, the Chief Justice of Pakistandecided to co-opt an acting judge and twoad hoc judges in the apex court in orderto constitute a larger bench to hear Gi-lani’s appeal. Later, in light of the stiff op-position from the lawyers’ professionalbodies, the Chief Justice of the LahoreHigh Court, Justice Azmat Saeed, wasmoved to the Supreme Court.

The hype had built up so much that itwas predicted that Chief Justice IftikharChaudhry would not proceed to Londonto receive his “International Juristsaward 2012” from the InternationalCouncil of Jurists (not to be confusedwith ICJ, the prestigious InternationalCommission of Jurists).The government,however, surprised everyone by deciding

not to appeal (based on sound legal ad-vice). The Chief Justice proceedednonetheless to receive the award.

The prime minister himself had de-cided to go to Britain yet again to attendthe Queen’s diamond jubilee celebrationsearly June but he cancelled. Similarly, theCOAS was also due to attend the Shangri-La moot in Singapore under the auspicesof International Institute of StrategicStudies (IISS) but he also decided to stayin the country.

Despite being in such a setting drip-ping with anticipation and apprehen-sions, the prime minister has survived yetagain. With elections to be announced bythe end of the year, the focus will inex-orably shift from the question of Gilani’sremoval to the appointment of an inde-pendent election commissioner andevolving a consensus on the formation ofa caretaker government later this year.General elections must be held beforeFebruary next year when the tenure of thepresent assemblies expires.

The Turkish Prime Minister Tayyiperdogan’s recent visit to Islamabad hassomehow taken the sting out of thePML(N)’s agitation to oust Gilani. Ac-cording to informed circles in the federalcapital, erdogan played a mediatory rolebetween the Sharifs and Gilani.

Whatever the amount of truth inthese reports, the focus of the opposition,both the PTI and PML(N), has shiftedfrom directly questioning Gilani’s legiti-macy to challenging the National Assem-bly speaker’s ruling in the apex court.

Despite the fact a lot of heat is beinggenerated through their vitriolic criticismof each other, it cannot be denied that alot is common between the PML(N) andthe PPP. The PML(N) rules sixty percentof the country, the Punjab, while the PPPrules at the centre. Both parties havebenefited from incumbency and the noto-rious spoils system. Thanks to the twen-tieth amendment, the provinces have alot more cash to spend. And Punjab beingthe largest province is a major benefici-ary. Hence, the reluctance of the PML(N)to resign their seats in the wake of the ‘GoGilani, Go’ movement.

Similarly, the PPP - despite takingcredit for consensus politics and institu-tion building - has little to show for itselfin terms of governance or improving thelot of the common man any better underits rule (or, more appropriately, misrule).

The PPP can draw vicarious pleasureout of the PML(N)’s obvious discomfortat Imran Khan’s phenomenal showing inthe Punjab. But the PPP’s own prospectsin the largest province are nothing lessthan dismal. Thus it would make sense tohave a modicum of understanding with

the PML(N) against a common enemy-Imran Khan.

Instead of delivering on governance,the PPP has resorted to populist gim-micks like carving out new provinces inPunjab. The president will be sending areference to the National Assemblyspeaker calling for a constitution of acommission comprising of six senatorsand six members of the National Assem-bly for creation of two new provinces,Multan and Bahawalpur. This cynicalmove to initiate the process of amend-ments in the constitution in order to cre-ate new provinces is nothing more thanan election ploy.

The budget presented by the financeminister - amidst virtual pandemoniumin the house courtesy the opposition’spuerile tactics - was more of an electionstatement setting out very ambitious tar-gets. But judging by the economic Surveyreleased on Thursday and the GovernorState Bank’s recent interview to a USnewspaper stating that printing notes andtaking loans were running the govern-ment, the prospects for economic im-provement remain dim and it is obviousthat these target will not be met and thatthey are merely pandering to the voters.

Despite missing all fiscal targets, DrHafeez Sheikh has claimed that economicrevival is around the corner. He has takensolace from the fact that the GDP growthrate in the current financial year has beenthe highest in the four-year tenure of thegovernment. It was 3.7 percent againstthe targeted 4.2 per cent.

Admittedly, the international eco-nomic environment is not conducive tohigh growth rates. even across the bor-der, the Indian economy has perceptiblyslowed down, anticipating a growth rateof 5.5 percent.

But this is scant solace fro the prover-bial common man suffering under theyoke of perennial power outages, increas-ing inflation and unemployment. With ayawning gap between limited resourcesand ever increasing expectations, it is amonumental challenge for any incum-bent to deliver. Hence most sitting gov-ernments in Pakistan lose elections.

The PPP would obviously like to bethe exception to the rule. Of course, ifbeing politically savvy were the sole crite-ria for success, the PPP would win handsdown.

But with an extremely critical andfree media not willing to give it anybrownie points on governance and trans-parency coupled with a belligerent oppo-sition smelling blood, it will an uphilltask.

The writer is Editor, Pakistan Today

By Arif Nizami

For feedback, comments, suggestions and, most importantly, tips, contact us at [email protected]

Ad o u b l ewhammy fora senior Gu-

jrat politician. First,the hope that hemight become theprime minister if theincumbent were dis-qualified seems tohave been quashed.Then, his clout atthe national airlinewas reduced againstthat of the MD.

Though he hasbeen given the moreprestigious portfolioof water and powerto compensate, theperks at the previ-ous portfolio werefar, far better.

The decisionabout the PIA andanother one regard-ing the chief of an-other public sectorenterprise report-edly came at the re-quest of the armychief.


Comment 13Saturday, 2 June, 2012

The briefing by QamarZaman Kaira at the endof the high level meet-

ing on Balochistan is more re-markable for what it leavesout than what it states. We aretold that the army wants a po-litical solution to the Balochis-tan lawlessness How comethere was no word aboutbringing the killers of AkbarBugti to book, release of thepeople picked up by the agen-cies, end to forced disappear-ances and dumping of thedead bodies bearing signs oftorture? There is nothingabout ending the ethniccleansing of the Hazara com-munity and no measures torein in the ISI and MI.

Instead of removing thehighly unpopular FrontierCorps (FC) to the borders, themeeting has done the oppo-site. The task of stopping thesmuggling of narcotics hasbeen withdrawn and the over50,000 strong force has beenassigned the full-time duty ofcontrolling the civilian areas.During the last many years ofFC’s presence in the province,its performance has beenmarked by criminal negli-gence and a cynical disregardfor the law.

The force has simplyfailed to protect the Hazaracommunity and the religiousminorities including Hindus.Hazaras have been butcheredduring terrorist attacks ontheir processions while theircommunity leaders and com-mon members have beenhunted down like partridges.Several wealthy members ofthe Hindu community havebeen kidnapped for ransom.Hardly a sectarian terrorist isever caught or killed and ifthis ever happens, it is by

sheer mistake. There is awidespread perception in theprovince that the sectarianterrorists enjoy the protectionof those who matter.

The FC has been accusedof involvement in abductions.As CJ Iftikhar Chaudhry ob-served during a hearing in thesecond week of May, “Primafacie, there is sufficient evi-dence against the FC of ab-ducting missing persons.” Healso reportedly remarked thatthe FC was involved in morethan 80 per cent of the forceddisappearances in theprovince. To shift its controlto the chief minister who hasnot been able to control evenhis own cabinet makes nosense. The force needs to bewithdrawn in toto from thepopulated areas of Balochis-tan.

What does Kaira meanwhen he says that the FC hasbeen placed under the controlof the chief minister? The FChas maintained all along thatit was working under the civil-ian government. This is whatthe present IG FC Maj GenObaidullah Khatak told Geoon February 18 this year.Asked by host Salim Safi re-garding who had mandatedthe peacekeeping role to theforce, pat came the answer,“Balochistan government.”“We receive orders from thechief minister and carry themout.”

We have been told thatthe COAS is convinced thatBalochistan is a political issueand the military option cannotbe a lasting solution. One hasyet to see any indication of achange of heart in the army.Gen Kayani continues tomaintain that not a singlesolider of the army is involvedin any military operation inthe province. Human memorybeing selective, he chooses toforget that the FC is led byhigh ranking army officersthat include a major generaland a brigadier at the top andseveral colonels, majors andcaptains leading various unitsof the force. The matters ofpolicy are decided entirely bythe star studded FC high com-mand and operations led byactive service officers. Thus,

the issue of whether it is thearmy or the FC conducting theoperations in Balochistan isno more than a matter of se-mantics for the common man.

There was no word inKaira’s briefing about reiningin the ISI and MI despite theSupreme Court having raisedthe issue at several occasions,the latest on May 23. The CJtold Khushnood Lashari thatpeople were pointing fingersat law enforcement agencieslike the Inter-Services Intelli-gence (ISI), Military Intelli-gence (MI) and FrontierCorps (FC) for abduction ofpeople and extra judicialkillings. It is widely knownthat the ISI and MI are ofteninvolved in kidnappings notonly in Balochistan but inother places of the countryalso, the case of the 11 Adialajail missing inmates being oneexample among many. Tobring peace to Balochistan,there is a need to make the ISIand MI accountable to the lawof the land.

That the committee to ini-tiate talks with the nationalistparties is yet to be nominatedindicates the lack of a sense ofurgency in the government.The high level meeting wasconvened only after wide-spread public protests overBalochistan being treated likeanother east Pakistan and theSupreme Court warning of theimposition of the state ofemergency in Balochistan.This shows that the govern-ment is in fact reacting to thesituation instead of being re-ally convinced of its para-mount importance. Manybelieve that if the move hadbeen made three years backsome five hundred lives couldhave been saved. The federalgovernment is moving muchmore seriously on the divisionof Punjab, with cut off datesand all that, than on resolvingthe issue of Balochistan. Onewonders under the circum-stances whether the high levelmeeting on Balochistan wasan election gimmick or a seri-ous move.

The writer is a former ac-ademic and a political ana-lyst.

The sentencing of Dr Shakil Afridi to 33 yearsin jail initially for his alleged cooperationwith the CIA in undertaking a fake vaccina-

tion campaign to collect DNA samples of Osamabin Laden’s family leading to his ultimate elimi-nation was subjected to widespread criticism onvarious counts. The fundamental objections weretwo-pronged: that he was tried far away from thescene of the alleged crime in the FATA under thenotorious Frontier Crimes Regulation (FCR) by acouncil of elders headed by the Assistant PoliticalAgent and that he was not given the right to en-gage a lawyer to defend himself.

Four charges were framed against him: con-spiracy to wage war against Pakistan or deprivingit of its sovereignty (10 years under section 121 A),concealing existence of a plan to wage war againstPakistan (10 years under section 123), condemna-tion of the creation of the state and advocacy ofabolition of its sovereignty (10 years under sec-tion 123 A) and assaulting president, governor,etc. with intention to compel or restrain the exer-cise of any lawful power (3 years under section124).

Appearing in a couple of television pro-grammes, this scribe pointed out the glaringanomalies between the contents of the chargesheet and the nature of the actual crime, but mymore learned colleagues didn’t find anythingwrong there and also defended the severity of thepunishment asserting that treason, indeed, hadbeen committed. Much to the angst of these

servile minds, the government hasnow clarified that the punishmentwas, in fact, meted out to Dr Afridi forcolluding with the banned Lashkar-e-Islam (LI) and its chief Mengal Bagh(since denied by the outfit). It has alsobeen revealed that the four-membertribal court did not entertain the evi-dence relating to Dr Afridi’s involve-ment with the CIA leading to the raidin Abbottabad citing lack of jurisdic-tion as the main reason and recom-mended that he be produced before arelevant court for further proceedingsunder the law. This, therefore, leavesopen the prospect of him being triedagain for having committed treason.

externally, in addition to criticismof the severity of the punishment andthe manner in which it was handeddown, the US government has re-sponded by clamping a cut-down onaid to Pakistan to the tune of $1 mil-lion for every year of the imprison-ment awarded to Dr. Afridi. In otherwords, the aid would stand reduced bya wobbling margin of $33 millionevery year.

While no one would have ap-proved the disproportionate nature ofthe US response, this quick somer-sault on the reasons why Dr Afridi wassentenced so heavily is indicative ofthe extreme vulnerability of the gov-

ernment that is under assault on various fronts. Ifail to understand that the entire media, bothelectronic and print, was so grotesquely wrong inreporting the enormity and reasons for the sen-tencing. And if they were right the first timearound, I fail to understand why the governmenthad to retract and earn the dubiousness of addingthe title of fickleness to the original ones of hasteand recklessness.

Pakistan was wrong in following the coursethat it did while the US was wrong in respondingthe way it did. If Pakistan believed that Dr Afridihad cooperated illegally with the CIA, adverselyimpacting its sovereign interests, it should havepursued the case against him in an open andtransparent manner under normal law whichwould have carried credibility and acceptance.The hideous nature of the FCR and the swiftnesswith which the sentence was proclaimed withoutas much as giving the convict a right to defendhimself is indicative of a pre-meditated resolve toinflict the punishment. It should also have beenviewed in the larger ambit of the US-Pakistan re-lations carrying severe implications for the latterin the future both in terms of its economic impactand the mounting drive to alienate it from the in-ternational community. The fact that, while Pak-istan is desperately engaged in a fence-mendingexercise with the US on the quiet, its refusal tostop flaunting a bravado approach in public is ex-tremely damaging in the context of both mitigat-ing immediate results and counter-productivelong-term dividends. Pakistan and the US have towork together closely for reducing and, ulti-mately, bridging the vast trust deficit that markstheir relations at this critical juncture. Dr Afridi’sconviction could have waited and the US responseneeded a more deliberate evaluation.

There is also the need to look into the FCR ur-gently and bring it in line with the demands andrequirements of civilised international law whichis practised in the rest of Pakistan. Treating a re-gion any differently from the way the rest of thecountry is treated creates an anomaly that is dif-ficult either to explain or sustain. Pakistan needsone law. The FCR must be abolished forthwithand this part of the country should be treated asany other part without any discrimination.

This step is also desirable in terms of makingthe area more sensitive to the contemporaryneeds of co-existence. The world is one large ex-panse where everyone is literally exposed toeveryone else. We are all under a huge micro-scope and every act of ours is being registered onsome screen somewhere. There is no escape. Wehave to come good on both our intentions and ourdelivery. We have to devise a system that is con-ducive to generating internal harmony and for usto operate as a viable and credible regional andinternational player. Dependent that we are onexternal support, we cannot afford to be os-tracised.

The writer is a political analyst and a memberof the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf. He can bereached at [email protected]

of some natural and plenty of self-created conflictsan election gimmick or a serious move?

The Balochistan meeting Increasingly vulnerable

candid cornerBy Raoof Hasan

By Aziz-ud-Din Ahmad


14 Saturday, 2 June, 2012

mumbai: author laurenweisberger is working on anew novel, ‘revenge wearsPrada: the Devil returns’, asequel to her blockbuster firstattempt, to be published inapril 2013. it's been nine yearssince weisberger's first effort,'the Devil wears Prada' madeits way to the top of the best-seller lists detailing theruthless goings-on at 'runway'magazine, particularly betweeneditor miranda Priestly andaspiring journalist andrea"andy" Sachs. weisberger, aformer real-life assistant to'Vogue' editor-in-chief annawintour, then saw the booksashay to hollywood, where itbecame a 2006 film starringmeryl Streep, anne hathawayand Stanley tucci. according toentertainment weekly, thestory picks up eight years laterin 'revenge', with andy editinga bridal magazine called 'thePlunge' along with emily, heronetime 'runway' nemesis, theDaily telegraph reported. what'smore, andy is planning her ownwedding to a handsome mediafigure. agencieS

LOS ANGELESagencieS

Pop star Rihanna seems to have adopteda ‘who cares’ attitude because she hasrealised she can’t please everyone all thetime. The 24-year-old recently createdcontroversy by recording with ex-boyfriend Chris Brown and reportedlysmoking marijuana. “Who wants to bebashed every day of their lives? That’s notfun. Today, I could eat an apple, and 10people like it and one will not. The nextday I could do shots and five people willlike it and five won’t,” contactmusic.comquoted Rihanna as saying. “What’simportant is, you never know. You can’tdo it for the reaction because it’s nevergoing to be the same. I learned to livemy life with the blinders on. At one pointit was so bad, it became numb for me.It was a scary place to be,” she added.

Rihanna ignores naysayers, lives life on her own terms

mumbai: he is the current heartthrob of theindustry while his father rocked the Bollywoodscene with his effervescence in the 1980s. andif the audience in Singapore gets lucky, thefather-son duo of rishi and ranbir Kapoormight share the stage at the forthcominginternational indian film academy (iifa) awardsnight. asked if they plan to perform together,ranbir chose to answer diplomatically at apress conference. "he (rishi) has beenassociated with the iifa award ceremony. i willbe performing. may be looking at me. i don'tknow," ranbir said. while the duo is yet to beseen together in a film, the two have earlierfeatured in a tV commercial. ranbir says hewill enthral his fans in Singapore by performing

on hits like ‘Sadda haq’ and ‘tai tai phish’, aswell as one surprise. the flamboyant actorrarely performs at award functions, but the factthat ace dancer Prabhu Deva waschoreographing his iifa act drew him. "it is notthat i don't perform. i did not have theconfidence to come on stage and perform.this time Prabhu Deva is choreographing and ilove his choreography. So i wanted to perform.Prabhu is a dancing star not only of india, butof the world. he is better than michaelJackson," ranbir said. the iifa weekend andawards ceremony is to be held June 7-9. theawards night will also see performances bySonakshi Sinha, Bipasha Basu, Shahid Kapoorand Priyanka chopra. agencieS

Rishi, Ranbir to perform together at IIFA?

mumbai: one of the most keenly awaited films, which has also been in thedoldrums for the longest time – ‘2 States’, based on chetan Bhagat's novel by the samename, will finally see the light of day. Sajid nadiadwala and Karan Johar will now startwork on their ambitious film, with imran in the lead. a source revealed, "Sajid had boughtthe rights of the film a couple of years back. it was to be directed by Vishal Bhardwaj,with Shah rukh Khan playing the lead. however, talks fizzled out. after that, Karanstepped in as the co-producer and ranbir Kapoor agreed to topline it. But Kapoor'sinvolvement didn't work out and the project was put on the backburner." it was onlyrecently that everything fell in place with imran being roped in. "imran is the new star onthe block and with a slew of hits to his credit, he is as bankable as any other top star.Karan was keen to have imran on board. the actor takes his time to commit to any film.

But he loved thescript of ‘2States’ andgave his nodto the film,which isexpected tostart early nextyear." ‘2 States’is a love storyof a Southindian girl anda Punjabi boyand the rollercoaster ridethat they go onbefore finallytying the knot.agencieS

‘2 States’ takes off with Imran

BeVerly hillS: eva longoria attendsthe premiere of ‘for greater glory’. AFP

BeiJing: mary J Blige and forest whitaker arrive on thered carpet for the fashion show by giorgio armani. AFP

PariS: actors Diane Kruger (l) and Joshua Jackson attend a match duringthe french open tennis tournament at the roland garros stadium. REUTERS

BeVerly hillS: eduardoVerastegui, star of the film‘for greater glory’ arrives forthe film's premiere. REUTERS

lonDon: michael fassbender arrives on the red carpetto attend the world premiere of the film 'Prometheus'. AFP

lonDon: guy Pearce arrives on the red carpet toattend the world premiere of the film 'Prometheus'. AFP

TEL AVIVReuteRS

P OP superstar Madonnakicked off a new world tourwishing peace on the Mid-dle east even as she show-cased grim dance routines

depicting violence and bloody gunmenamong her more colourful numbers.Madonna, 53, mixed hit songs overthree decades in music with tunes fromher recent album, ‘MDNA’, before apacked audience, and she took a sly digat younger diva, Lady Gaga. ‘She’s notme!’ Madonna belted out at the end of‘express Yourself’, which she had re-worked to include a sampling of LadyGaga’s recent ‘Born This Way’. Thatsong from Lady Gaga, who emerged onthe pop music scene about four yearsago and has enjoyed a huge following,was noted by many fans and critics asbeing very similar to Madonna’s late1980s dance club smash. Since Gaga,26, released ‘Born This Way’, there has

been speculation that a generationalchallenge was in the works and come-dians have poked fun at any imaginedrivalry between the two women. De-spite occasional light-hearted touchessuch as a baton-twirling routine incheerleader formation and a psyche-delic homage to Indian philosophy,the dominant mood at the concertseemed more grim with a stageshrouded in black and red and cos-tumes that often appeared ominous.‘Like a Virgin’, a dance tune thathelped propel Madonna to stardom asrisqué pop ingénue in the 1980s, wasperformed as a mournful cabaret withviolin accompaniment. The exertionsnever sapped her confident singing,though she did become somewhatbreathless during remarks to the audi-ence. “I chose to start my world tour inIsrael for a very specific and importantreason. As you know, the Middle eastand all the conflicts that have been oc-curring here for thousands of years -they have to stop,” she said to cheers.

Kicking off tour, Madonna shows

she’s no lady (Gaga)

IN LIMELIGHT


Justin Bieber suffers

concussion during Paris concertparis: Justin Bieber is now in stablecondition having suffering a concussionafter he reportedly ran into a glass wallduring a concert in Paris. Bieber, 18, hadbeen performing in Paris when he walkedoff stage in between songs and hit theglass, according to TMZ, who spoke withthe pop star. Bieber then returned to thestage and finished his set, the site reports.The ‘Baby’ singer then returned to hisdressing room, where he tells TMZ that hepassed out for about 15 seconds. Doctorsreportedly said that Bieber suffered a con-cussion, but will be fine. He later postedon Twitter: “i will see u again Glass. I willhave my revenge. BIeBeR vsGLASS. MGM LAS VeGAS2013. lol. #GottaLaugh-AtYourself,” he tweeted.Bieber, who made head-lines earlier this week for atussle with a paparazzo,had a similar run-in with a glassrevolving doorin 2010. Con-troversy sur-rounded hisfree concertin Oslo,where policer e p o r t e d l ythreatened astate ofe m e r g e n c yand appealedto the singerfor help in con-trolling his fol-lowers. agencieS

L os angeles: Beyonce will lend her voice to the animatedfilm ‘epic’ alongside Colin Farrell, ‘Hunger Games’ heartthrobJosh Hutcherson and ‘Les Miserables’ starlet AmandaSeyfried. ‘epic’ is a 3-D CGI adventure flick from the peoplewho brought you ‘Ice Age’ and ‘Rio’. It will tell the story of a

teenage girl who finds herself magically transported into a secretworld, where she must band together with a rag-tag team of charac-ters to save their world-and the real world. Beyonce will voice thecharacter of Queen Tara, while Johnny Knoxville, Aziz Ansari, rapperPitbull, ‘Saturday Night Live’ star Jason Sudeikis and Aerosmithfrontman Steven Tyler will also lend their voices to the cast. Thisis the first movie project for Beyonce since the birth of herdaughter, Blue Ivy Carter, in January. The superstar singer re-cently returned to the stage, when she performed for the firsttime since giving birth at the new Revel casino and resortin New Jersey. Beyonce is also attached to star in a remakeof ‘A Star Is Born’, directed by Clint eastwood. agencieS

15

‘Bourne Legacy’: ‘Jason Bourne was the tip of the iceberg’ los angeles: Jason Bourne is backin ‘The Bourne Legacy’. Well, almost.The full trailer for the upcoming‘Bourne’ series spin-off-with JeremyRenner replacing star Matt Damon, butnot playing the title agent-has arrived,and it features a photo of Jason Bourne.‘The Bourne Legacy’ focuses on AaronCross (Renner), a genetically-alteredagent on the run from the people whomade him into a heartless killer. Alongthe way he picks up a scientist (RachelWeisz), who may or may not hold thekey to his salvation. Starring thoseaforementioned Oscar nominees (andin the case of Weisz, Oscar winner),‘The Bourne Legacy’ features OscarIsaac, Joan Allen, David Strathairn,Scott Glenn and Albert Finney. TonyGilroy-who wrote the first three‘Bourne’ films-directs. ‘The BourneLegacy’ is out on August 3. agencieS

Teri Meri Kahani to have sets of three time eras

mumbai: Production designer muneeshSappel has said the sets he has created ofdifferent eras for Kunal Kohli's upcoming film‘teri meri Kahani’ are authentic and built upafter a lot of research. at the same time,Sappel wants audience to relate to the storyinstead of focussing on the sets. "we didextensive research and travelled for sixmonths across places where the story isbased," Sappel said. Kohli's ‘teri meri Kahaani’,featuring Shahid Kapoor and Priyanka chopra,depicts three eras of love stories set in 1910,1960 and 2012. "we had to create all thethree eras and ensure that they lookauthentic. the 1910 era will have Punjab, the1960 story is set in mumbai and 2012 inengland. we have been authentic. creatingthese eras was in a way difficult but the use

of Vfx made it a bit easier. it really helpedus," he said. in ‘teri meri Kahani’, the firststory is set in lahore in 1910 where Priyankaplays a Punjabi girl - aradhana, in love with amuslim boy Javed, played by Shahid. in the1960 story, Shahid plays a struggling musicdirector - govind and Priyanka is a famousactress rukhsar and they once again fall inlove in mumbai. in 2012, the couple falls inlove again as radha and Krish in england."creating a 1910 era Punjab was in a way easylike we have had a temple, mosque, market, asmall village, brick houses etc. in 1960(mumbai), we have shown trams, chawl, guesthouses, old studios and old cinema houses.creating mumbai took more time. in 2012 onewould see modern times with ancient styleof architecture," Sappel said. agencieS

'Devil Wears Prada' sequel coming in 2013

NEWS DESK

A voice over, an evil warden, aninnocent prisoner, a daring escapethrough a sewer. No, it’s not ‘TheShawshank Redemption’. It’s ‘SnowWhite and the Huntsman’, the new takeon the classic Brothers Grimm fairy tale.While this movie’s Snow White, in asense, mirrors the Disney version-she ispure of heart-that’s where thecomparison ends and the gritty, violentfun begins. We see Show White as ayoung girl, whose father marries anotherworldly, stunning woman namedRavenna (Charlize Theron). Bad move-she kills him and, with the help of herbrother Finn (Sam Spruell), Ravennasacks the kingdom and locks theprincess in a tower to rot. Instead, theprincess grows up to be a very lovely,albeit filthy, Kristen Stewart with hairdyed black, lips ‘red as blood’ and skinas white as Cullen’s. Then comes themirror that tells Ravenna that SnowWhite is the only threat to her goal totop the Maxim Hot 100-or be the fairestof them all -Ravenna doesn’t take itwell, vowing to rip out Snow White’sheart, ‘Indiana Jones and the Temple ofDoom’-style. Plans are thwarted whenSnow White escapes into the darkforest. That’s when the Huntsmancomes in, played by hunky ChrisHemsworth. Here, he’s a ragingalcoholic, who the Queen sends tocapture Snow White. It doesn’t take longfor the Huntsman to find Snow Whitebut he soon becomes her ally, turningon the Queen with the help of the sevendwarves, brilliantly played by the likesof Ian McShane, Bob Hoskins and NickFrost. The rest of the story is not aspredictable as you might think. Snow

White and the Huntsman is a wake-upcall to any critic who’s taken issue withKristen Stewart’s work in the ‘Twilight’franchise. Stewart is exceptional asSnow White, proving she really is one ofHollywood’s best young actresses.Hemsworth, in a considerably lessshowy role than that of Thor, is armedwith an impressive range and sensitivitythat seems instinctual. In other words,the guy’s a natural. As for Theron?Wow! Is it possible for an actress be soevil and yet so vulnerable at the sametime? We should hate Ravenna because,well, she sucks, but in Theron’s hands,the character truly shines. ‘Snow Whiteand the Huntsman’ does drag in a fewplaces. Nitpicking aside, though, it’s aviolent yet gorgeous tale that thoroughlysatisfies. Rating: Three out of five stars.

Review: ‘Snow White and the Huntsman’

lonDon: noomi rapace arrives onthe red carpet to attend the world

premiere of the film 'Prometheus'. AFP

Beyonce returns to the silver screen in animated film

De Niro, Stallone in talks for 'Grudge Match'los angeles: Actors Robert DeNiro and Sylvester Stallone are offi-cially in talks to star in boxing movie‘Grudge Match’. The pair are the hotfavourites of director Peter Segal andare currently in negotiation, reports fe-malefirst.co.uk. "Stallone and De Niroare expected to come on board as they'reboth fans of the director and have bothsent themselves up in comedies in re-cent years," said a source. The comedy,which was first announced in 2010, willsee the pair go head-to-head in the ul-timate boxing face-off. Doug ellin, cre-ator of popular TV series ‘entourage’,has been chosen by Warner Bros towrite the script. The movie is expectedto begin filming next year. agencieS

Movie Review: ‘Rowdy Rathore’ is too rowdy! ‘rowDy rathore’ was supposed to be akshay’s comeback film as an action star. yes,

the action is there and in huge dollops. But, it somehow lacks the punch of Khiladi Kumar.‘rowdy rathore’ from the first frame is garishly loud. Prabhu Deva borrows heavily from

the original and forgets that akshay Kumar’s style is somewhat different. the local mafiaof Devgarh, Bhaiji (nasser) and his men believe that they have killed the righteous cop ofthe area, Vikram Singh rathore, in full public view. things take a turn tricky for them whennews of rathore being alive starts doing the rounds. Bhaiji sends his thugs to mumbaiwhere rathore is said to be living with his daughter. meanwhile Shiva, a small timeconman, decides to leave his ‘profession’ for his love’s (Sonakshi) sake. things seem rosyfor the two till rathore’s daughter mistakes Shiva as her father and starts living with him.confusion ensues further when Devgarh goonsmistake Shiva for rathore and are hell-bent onkilling him. the premise of the film may be good,but most of the scenes lack logic. the violence isgory and in some places cringe-worthy. akshaytries, tries hard, to fit into a genre which is at themoment a formula for success. But the man getslost in the slow pace of the film. Just when youstart giving up on the film, Kumar gives you somehope with his funny antics and witty dialogues inthe later part of the second half. Sonakshi failsto make any sort of mark in her second outingafter a fabulous debut in ‘Dabangg’. not her fault,considering the story gives her very little scopeto do anything other than show her somewhatflabby waist and dance boisterously to the tunesof Sajid-wajid. Prabhu Deva fails to take the filmanywhere. watch it for akshay if you must. Butdon’t expect his usual antics, they are clearly notthere. ratings: two cheers for only akshay Kumar.

he tries. newS deSk



16 Foreign News

DAMASCUSafp

The UN human rights chief said on Fri-day that the killing of 108 civilians bypro-government forces in Syria lastweek might constitute a “crime againsthumanity” as reports emerged of a newslaughter.

Syrian activists threatened a “vol-cano of rage” over the killings near thecentral town of Houla, in which 49 ofthe victims were children, as a deadlineset by rebel fighters passed for the au-thorities to respect a UN-backed truce.

Scores of protests erupted aroundthe country in response to the activists’call, as hundreds of mourners took to

the streets of the central town of Qusayrfor a mass funeral for the 12 workerswhom activists said were summarily ex-ecuted by government troops on theirway home from their factory on Thurs-day. Activists said security forcesopened fire on demonstrators in Doumain the Damascus suburbs, in the mainnorthern city Aleppo, and in Daraa,south of the capital, birthplace of the 15-month uprising against the governmentof President Bashar al-Assad.

“These acts may amount to crimesagainst humanity and other interna-tional crimes,” Pillay told a special ses-sion of the Human Rights Council inGeneva, referring to the alleged role ofthe Syrian military and pro-government

militia in the killing near Houla.The Human Rights Council was

meeting to discuss the massacre thattriggered global horror and outrage, anddebate a call for an independent inquiryinto events. Syria and the entire regionare in danger if a full-fledged conflicterupts in the country, Pillay said in astatement read to diplomats.

The High Commissioner for HumanRights called on the international com-munity to throw its weight behind thesix-point peace plan brokered by UN-Arab League envoy Kofi Annan.

“Otherwise, the situation in Syriamight descend into a full-fledged con-flict and the future of the country, aswell as the region as a whole could be in

grave danger,” she said.Annan’s peace blueprint was sup-

posed to begin with a ceasefire fromApril 12 but the truce has been violateddaily with another 13 people killed onFriday after 64 died on Thursday, ac-cording to a human rights watchdog.

The 12 workers killed on Thursdaywere on their way home from a fertiliserfactory outside Qusayr, a town south ofHoula, also in the flashpoint centralprovince of Homs, activists said.

“The workers were on a bus whenthey were forced to stop at a checkpointon the outskirts of Qusayr,” said SalimKabbani of the Local CoordinationCommittees, which organises protestson the ground.

Sudan teen sentenced

to stoning death: hrwKHARTOUM

afp

A young Sudanese woman convicted ofadultery has been sentenced to death bystoning, an international rights group says,in a rare case under Sudan’s Islamistregime. New York-based Human RightsWatch said the case of Intisar Sharif Abdal-lah “presents numerous grave violations ofdomestic and international law”.In a statement late Thursday it said Abdal-lah, who is believed to be under the age of18, was sentenced by a judge in the Khar-toum area in April and is being held inprison with her baby. Another watchdog,Amnesty International, gave her age as 20and said she was sentenced on May 13.The case has received almost no coveragein Sudanese media.Abdallah was sentenced under a penal codeprovision which calls for execution by ston-ing for married adulterers, while unmarriedculprits are whipped, Human Rights Watchsaid. It added that Sudan is one of onlyseven countries that have death by stoningas a punishment. “Sudanese judges have sentenced severalwomen to death by stoning in recent years,but courts have overturned all the sen-tences on appeal,” an HRW statement said.“The vast majority of adultery cases andstoning sentences have been imposed onwomen, pointing to the disproportionateand unequal application of this law.”

Syria killings may be ‘crime against humanity’: UN

ABOARD A MILITARY AIRCRAFTafp

THe United States plansto bolster its militarypresence in the Asia-Pa-cific region through al-liances instead of new

permanent bases, Defense Secre-tary Leon Panetta said.

A new strategy focused on Asiawill bring more troops to the regionover the next decade and high-techweapons designed to project Ameri-can power, Panetta told reporters lateThursday on his way to a securitysummit in Singapore.

But the Pentagon’s plan to expandthe US military footprint in SoutheastAsia and beyond will be carried out incollaboration with allies and partnerswithout the construction of new per-manent outposts, he said.

“We’re implementing a very newstrategy in this region. We’re mov-ing away from the Cold War strategywhere you build permanent basesand, you know, just basically im-pose our power on the region,”Panetta said.

Instead of setting up largebases, US military forces — includ-ing naval ships, aircraft and troops

— will deploy on temporary assign-ments for joint exercises, trainingand operations, with partner coun-tries granting access to ports, airfields and other facilities.

“We’re moving towards a very in-novative and creative relationship inwhich we develop these rotational de-ployments,” he said, speaking aboarda US military aircraft.

With Washington grappling withbudget pressures, the approach car-ries a lower price tag than permanentbases and generates less political op-position in partner countries.

Panetta held up as an examplethe planned deployment of up to2,500 Marines in northern Australiaunder a new agreement.

The US defense chief said he dis-cussed how to carry out the Asiastrategy during a visit Thursday toHawaii, where he met with the headof US Pacific Command, AdmiralSamuel Locklear, who overseesforces across the region.

“We are testing that approach inAustralia. We’re working on develop-ing the same kind of approach in thePhilippines and elsewhere,” he said.

The Pentagon chief spoke at theoutset of a tour of Asia in which hesaid he will seek “to define the new

defense strategy for the region.”“We have a strong presence now

in the Pacific but we’ll continue tostrengthen that presence over thenext five to ten years,” he said.

“When you look at the propor-tion of forces that we have in theworld, I think it’s fair to say ahigher percentage, a higher propor-tion of those forces is going to windup in the Pacific.”

Recognizing the economic impor-tance of the western Pacific and theIndian Ocean, President BarackObama announced the shift towardsAsia in January, a move seen as acounterweight to China’s growingeconomic and military might. US“power projection” in the Pacificwould be enhanced by investments in“new technologies,” Panetta said.

Concerned over China’s anti-ship missiles and cyber warfare ca-pabilities, the Pentagon is buildingsophisticated fighters, bombers,warships and missile defenses de-signed to preserve the US military’sreach in the Pacific.

But Panetta insisted that Wash-ington’s new emphasis on Asia wasnot aimed at checking Beijing’s influ-ence, saying: “This is not about con-tainment of China.”

US to expand Asia role withoutpermanent bases: Panetta

Bangladesh passes

nuclear energy

regulatory billDHAKA

afp

Bangladesh’s parliament has passed its firstnuclear energy regulatory bill as the coun-try prepares to build an atomic power plantnext year using Russian technology, an offi-cial said. Last November, the power-starved nation signed a deal with Russianstate-owned nuclear agency Rosatom tobuild a plant which will have two 1,000megawatt reactors at a cost of up to $2 bil-lion each. The parliament passed the legis-lation late on Thursday as “it is essential forthe smooth running of the nuclear powerplant”, head of the Bangladesh Atomic en-ergy Commission A.S.M Firoz told AFP.The bill will now be approved by PresidentZillur Rahman and become law, removingthe last regulatory hurdle to allow the con-struction of the nuclear power plant to goahead. The law makes the operators of theplant liable in the case of an accident andcreates a new atomic watchdog, Firoz said.Bangladesh has selected the northwesterntown of Rooppur for the nuclear plant.

Deaths of 14

Kazakh guards ‘act

of terror’: presidentASTANA

afp

The mystery deaths of 14 Kazakh border-guards and a huntsman in a fire at a moun-tainous border post near China appears tohave been an “act of terror”, President Nur-sultan Nazarbayev said on Friday.The fifteen bodies were found Thursday inthe burned-out wreckage of the Argkanker-gen border control post in the Tian Shanmountain range outside Kazakhstan’sbiggest city Almaty, the national securitycouncil said.It said that the bodies of two more guardswere found, raising an earlier toll of 13.“I believe this to have been an act of terror.Likely it happened as a result of internalconflicts. But it is too early to talk aboutthis,” Nazarbayev told security chiefs in thecapital Astana. “When such incidents takeplace in peace time it requires very thor-ough investigation,” he added, in com-ments released by the presidency.He gave no further indication over who hethought was behind the act or what “inter-nal conflicts” he was referring to. It is alsonot clear what the huntsman was doing atthe border post.

mubarak egypt

trial verdict to

be aired liveCAIRO

afp

egyptian state television will broadcastlive the verdict and sentencing on Satur-day of ex-president Hosni Mubarak, hissons and security chiefs in a murder andcorruption trial, official media reported.State television will charge foreign mediabetween $7,000 and $10,000 to buy thecoverage, the official MeNA news agencyquoted the head the of the state’s egypt-ian Radio and Television Union, Tharwatal-Mekki, as saying. The first severalhearings the trial, which started in Au-gust,were broadcast live, but chief judgeAhmed Rifaat then ordered cameras outbefore witnesses began to take the stand.Mubarak and his security chiefs arecharged with murder over the killings ofprotesters during the 18-day revolt thatoverthrew him on February 11, 2011.He shares corruption charges with hissons Alaa and Gamal.The trial is taking place in the policeacademy that was once named afterMubarak on Cairo’s outskirts.In the opening hearing, dramaticallyaired live to millions in egypt and abroad,Mubarak made his first public appearancesince his ouster arriving on a stretcher.A camera zoomed in on him as he fid-geted with his nose but mostly lay pronewhile his two sons Alaa and Gamal triedto obscure him from view.

caiRo: egyptians raise their shoes in a sign of rejection of presidential runoff candidate ahmed Shafiq, an ex-prime minister under the ousted regime of

Hosni mubarak, during a protest on friday. AFP


Foreign News 17Saturday, 2 June, 2012

Key thai parliament

debate postponed

amid protestBANGKOK

afp

Thai “Yellow” protesters blocked parlia-ment on Friday, forcing a debate on dis-puted reconciliation plans to be shelvedamid signs of rising tensions in the bit-terly divided nation.Proposals aimed at healing the rifts thathave seen Thailand shaken repeatedlyby bloody civil unrest since a coup in2006, have provoked fury among oppo-sition MPs who fear they will open thedoor for the return of ousted premierThaksin Shinawatra.Lawmakers were twice unable to enterthe building, with around two thousandultra-royalist, anti-Thaksin “YellowShirts” and their affiliates massing out-side for a third day running.The debate was postponed until nextWednesday at the earliest, according toa spokesman for the ruling Puea Thaiparty. “The parliament meeting will beprobably either on June 6 or 7. We willhave to wait for the House speaker toinform us,” said Pormpong Nopparit.The Yellows had warned they would tryto enter parliament in an effort to dis-rupt any vote on the bill — a threat thatcarries weight from a group that havehelped topple three governments ofThaksin and his allies.Protest organisers called on their sup-porters to go home late Friday afterthree days of rallying.

BERLINafp

RUSSIAN President VladimirPutin warned Friday thatSyria could be on the brinkof a civil war but underlinedhis opposition to military

intervention to stop the bloodshed.“You cannot do anything by force,”

he told reporters in Berlin, after he andGerman Chancellor Angela Merkelstressed after talks that they sought a“political solution” to the crisis.

As pressure on Moscow mounted todrop its resistance to tougher UN actionon Syria, Putin said the deadly striferisked tearing the country in two.

“Today we are seeing emerging ele-ments of civil war,” he told reporters. “Itis extremely dangerous.”But he hit backat suggestions Moscow was supplyingarms for use in Syria, saying his countrydid not deliver weapons to be deployedin civil conflicts.

“As far as arms supplies are con-cerned, Russia does not supply theweapons that could be used in a civilconflict,” he said.

The president, on his first trip to theWest since returning to the Kremlin fora third term, insisted his country was notsiding with President Bashar al-Assad’sregime against the opposition. “We aresupporting neither side from which thedanger of civil war is coming,” he said.And he stressed that a negotiated solu-tion was the only answer to the crisis.

“This is what we talked about withthe German chancellor — to find a polit-ical solution to these problems. Can it bedone or not? On the whole, I believe it ispossible,” he said.

“It requires certain professionalismand patience. You cannot do anything byforce and expect an immediate effect. Alot of people are involved in the conflictwith various interests.

“There is a need to find a conver-gence of these interests and have themsit down at a negotiating table. That’sthe direction we are going to work in.”

Merkel agreed that political talkswere the only way out of the turmoil.

“We both made clear that we arepushing for a political solution, that theAnnan plan can be a starting point butthat everything must be done in the

United Nations Security Council to im-plement this plan,” Merkel said, refer-ring to the peace plan put forward by UNspecial envoy Kofi Annan.

“We were agreed that everycountry — I said this for Germany —must do everything to prevent a civilwar and prevent more people suffer-ing,” the chancellor added. Putinsaid Moscow was interested in keep-ing open the lines of communicationto Damascus, regional players andthe UN Security Council.

“It goes without saying that we willbe in touch with President Assad and theSyrian leadership,” he said.

“We will of course hold dialoguewith our partners, first and foremost atthe UN Security Council, with Germany,other countries interested in settling theconflict. “We will be in touch with re-gional powerhouses, with Arab stateswhich are getting involved in the conflictone way or another,” he said.

Putin was to meet new French Pres-ident Francois Hollande in Paris laterFriday. Hollande has evoked the possi-bility of military intervention in Syria ifgiven a UN Security Council mandate.

BANGKOKafp

Democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi onFriday urged “healthy scepticism” overMyanmar’s dramatic reforms, sayingonly the rule of law can cement recentpolitical progress and foster clean invest-ment. Speaking at a gathering of worldbusiness leaders in Bangkok, she alsowarned China and the United Statesagainst turning Myanmar into a “battlingground” as they vie for influence over thestrategically important nation.

On her first major international en-gagement after more than two decades ofisolation, the Nobel laureate dampened

what she called “reckless optimism” overdemocratic measures taken under re-formist president Thein Sein.

Appealing to delegates to “thinkdeeply” about the wider good of Myan-mar, she said hope in her country’s fu-ture since the end of five decades ofauthoritarian rule last year should betempered by caution. “A little bit ofhealthy scepticism is in order,” she toldthe packed auditorium.

In practical terms, Myanmarneeded the “rule of law” more than an-ticipated investment legislation, SuuKyi said, as the country tries to embeddemocratic reforms, lift millions out ofpoverty and defuse the “timebomb” of

high youth unemployment.Companies are hungrily eyeing re-

source-rich Myanmar after politicalreforms were rewarded by the easingof some international sanctions.

But Suu Kyi expressed fears a floodof investment — and internationalcompetition for a foothold in the na-tion — could deepen graft and servethe country’s elite.

“We do not want investment to meanmore possibilities for corruption,” the1991 Nobel Peace Prize laureate said.

“We do not want investment to meangreater inequality. And we do not wantinvestment to mean greater privilegesfor those already privileged.”

Resource-rich but poor Myanmarhas a history of engagement with Bei-jing, but Washington has recently soughtcloser ties with the quasi-civilian govern-ment, easing some sanctions to rewardthe end of military rule.

“I’m always very concerned whenBurma is seen as a battling ground forthe United States and China,” she toldreporters in a press conference follow-ing her forum address, using Myan-mar’s former name.

“It should not be so, it should bean area of harmony for those two bigcountries,” she said, adding thatMyanmar and China had been “goodneighbours” for many years.

obama ‘regrets’

erroneous ‘Polish

death camp’: letterWARSAW

afp

US President Barack Obama has ex-pressed “regret” at what he called hisinadvertent use of the erroneous term“Polish death camp”, in a personal let-ter to his Polish counterpart made pub-lic Friday. “I regret the error and agreethat this moment is an opportunity toensure that this and future generationsknow the truth,” Obama wrote to Pol-ish President Bronislaw Komorowski inthe letter dated May 31. Obama onTuesday labeled a World War II NaziGerman facility used to process Jewsfor extermination a “Polish deathcamp.” The White House later said thepresident misspoke and expressed “re-gret”. Polish leaders termed the error“hurtful” and said it required morethan a mere expression of regret.

US man murders

roommate, eats

heart, brainWASHINGTON

afp

A US college student has told policehe killed his roommate, cut up thebody and ate part of the victim’sbrain and his whole heart, US mediareports said Thursday. AlexanderKinyua of Baltimore, Maryland, wasarrested on Tuesday after policesearched his house following thediscovery by his brother of the vic-tim’s head and hands, the BaltimoreSun reported. Kinyua, a 21-year-oldstudent at Morgan State University,confessed on Thursday to murder-ing and dismembering his room-mate, Kujoe Bonsafo Agyei-Kodie,and then eating parts of his brainfollowed by his entire heart, the Sunsaid. The motive was unclear, butKinyua was charged with first-de-gree murder on Wednesday.

iran fm has ‘high

hopes’ for moscow

nuclear talksTEHRAN

afp

Iranian Foreign Minister Ali AkbarSalehi on Friday expressed “high hopes”that a new round of nuclear talks inMoscow this month will succeed ifworld powers come with a “positive” ap-proach. Speaking during a visit to NewDelhi, the foreign minister acknowl-edged that Iran and the P5+1 group willface “difficult negotiations” at the June18-19 talks in Moscow, the official Iran-ian news agency IRNA reported.But Salehi said the Islamic republic re-mains optimistic saying the “direction”of the talks so far has been good.“In any case it is difficult negotiationsand both parties should act and acceler-ate this process in a way so this casebears fruit as soon as possible satisfyingboth parties,” Salehi told IRNA in NewDelhi. “The direction (of the talks) iscorrect and given this we have highhopes on the negotiations success,” headded. Iran and the P5+1, which com-prise the five permanent members ofthe UN Security Council plus Germany,have previously met in April in Istanbuland again in May in Baghdad.“We hope that in the Moscow meetingthe other party enters the talks with apositive approach,” Salehi said.At the May 23-24 talks in Baghdad thenegotiations exposed a gulf between thetwo sides’ positions that looked almostunbridgeable, and nearly caused thetalks to collapse.

kafR Qaddum: a palestinian protester hurls a stone at israeli soldiers during a demonstration against the expropriation of palestinian land by israel on friday. . AFP

Suu Kyi urges ‘healthy scepticism’ over Myanmar reform

Putin warns of civil war in Syria, rules out intervention



Page 21

Kuznetsova upsets formbook,Sharapova blasts away morita

LONDONReuteRS

THe ICC Cricket Committee hasdecided to keep the controver-sial Duckworth Lewis methodfor calculating one-day targets

when weather intervenes while makingminor changes in other areas of the game,the sport's governing body said on Friday.The committee considered a proposal byV.Jayadevan for a new way of working outrun chases for reduced overs matches at atwo-day meeting at Lord's this week.

"The committee unanimously agreedthat there was no evidence of any signifi-cant flaws in the D/L method nor did thecommittee believe that any improvementscould be offered by the VJD method.Therefore the committee decided to con-tinue with D/L," the ICC said in a state-ment. Duckworth Lewis has long beencriticised because of its complex mathe-

matics. The technology behind the Deci-sion Review System has also been queriedin some quarters but the ICC committeefully backed the idea. "The committeenoted the improvements in DRS tech-nology and that DRS has almost to-tally eradicated player-dissent.This is an extremely beneficial sideeffect of the DRS," David Richard-son, ICC general manager - cricket,said. "We have always said that DRSwas there to assist the umpires in get-ting more decisions correct anderadicating theobvious mis-takes. The statis-tics demonstratethat it has beeneffective in thatobjective. Thecommittee re-affirmed this as the aim."day/nigHT TesTs: They recom-mended trialling day/night tests and the

proposal will go forward for considerationby representatives of the game's leadingcountries during meetings at the ICC's an-nual conference in Kuala Lumpur from

June 24-28. "The committeeagreed that it was importantto maintain the impetus withregard to day/night testcricket and recommended

that should the competingcountries in a bi-lateral seriesagree that they wish to trial

day/night test cricket then this re-q u e s tshould bea c c o m m o -dated," theICC said.The recom-

mendat ionwas made after receiving reports on trialsthat have already taken place at first-classlevel and spectator feedback. The commit-

tee also heard that a prototype sensor hasbeen developed that can be worn duringmatches and would indicate whether ornot the bowler's elbow is being straight-ened during the delivery swing. Otherchanges which were recommended in-cluded an increase in the number of per-mitted short pitched deliveries from oneto two per over in one-day cricket.

Powerplays should also be restricted tothe first 10 overs plus one five-over battingpowerplay to be completed by the 40thover. In a non-powerplay over, only fourfielders ought to be allowed outside the 30yard circle. With regards to test cricket, thecommittee suggested that drinks shouldnot be brought on to the field other than atthe official drinks breaks as well as urgingteams not to waste time at referrals. Thecommittee also asked for more consulta-tions on switch hitting and confirmed pre-vious ICC plans for a 16-team WorldTwenty20 every two years from 2014.

ICC decides to keepDuckworth Lewis and DRS

internationalfixtures inengland in 2013

LONDONafp

The england and Wales Cricket Boardconfirmed Friday the schedule for toursnext year by New Zealand and an Ashesseries at home to Australia, as well asthe outline programme for the 2013Champions Trophy in england:tHe ScHeduleS aRe aS followS: new Zealand touR itineRaRymay 04-06 v Derbyshire, Derbymay 09-12 v england lions, leicestermay 16-20 v englanD, firSt teSt, lord'smay 24-28 v englanD, SeconD teSt, headingleymay 31 v englanD, firSt oDi, lord'sJune 02 v englanD, SeconD oDi, SouthamptonJune 05 v englanD, thirD oDi, trent BridgeJune 22 v Kent, t20 warm-up, canterburyJune 25 v englanD, first t20 international, ovalJune 27 v englanD, Second t20 international, ovalnB. t20 tour match at canterbury on 22 June can-celled if nZl in final of icc champions trophy.icc cHampionS tRopHyJune 06-17: icc champions trophy group StagesJune 19-20: icc champions trophy Semi-finalsJune 23: icc champions trophy final, edgbastonauStRalia touR itineRaRyJune 26-29 v Somerset, tauntonJuly 02-05 v worcestershire, worcesterJuly 10-14 v englanD, firSt teSt, trent Bridge July 18-22 v englanD, SeconD teSt, lord'sJuly 26-28 v Sussex, hoveaugust 01-05 v englanD, thirD teSt, old traffordaugust 09-13 v englanD, foUrth teSt, chester-le-Streetaugust 16-17 v northamptonshire, northamptonaugust 21-25 v englanD, fifth teSt, ovalaugust 29 v englanD, firSt t20, Southamptonaugust 31 v englanD, SeconD t20, chester-le-StreetSeptember 03 v Scotland, edinburghSeptember 06 v englanD, firSt oDi, headingleySeptember 08 v englanD, SeconD oDi, old traffordSeptember 11 v englanD, thirD oDi, edgbaston)September 14 v englanD, foUrth oDi, cardiffSeptember 16 v englanD, fifth oDi, Southamptonadditional england fixtuReSeptember 03: irelanD v englanD, oDi, Dublin.

Pakistan launchnew jersey

LAHOREStaff RepoRt

The Pakistan team will appear in new jerseyfrom the first T20 match against Sri Lanka onFriday. The new kit, which is approved by theInternational Cricket Council (ICC), will beused by the Pakistan team during the currenttour of Sri Lanka. The kit is believed to havedesigned by a Pakistani student. Pakistan willtry to build on their impressive record overthe past year when they take the field duringthe full tour of Sri Lanka starting on Friday.The Pakistanis have come a long way sincethe spot-fixing scandal in england in 2010led to unprecedented jail terms for Test cap-tain Salman Butt and premier fast bowlersMohammad Asif and Mohammad Aamer.The visitors to the island nation have wonseven of their last nine Test matches, includ-ing a 3-0 whitewash of top-ranked englandin the United Arab emirates earlier this year.Their record in limited-overs cricket has beenequally impressive, winning 16 of their last 22one-day games, topped by the Asia Cup titletriumph in Bangladesh in March.

LAHOREStaff RepoRt

Unfazed by the selectors snub for the tourof Sri Lanka, Pakistan's former captain Mo-hammad Yousuf said he is physically andmentally prepared for a comeback to inter-national cricket even at the shortest notice.

The 37-year-old veteran, who wasoverlooked when the national squad forthe Sri Lanka tour was announced, in-sisted that his passion to play for Pak-istan had not receded despite thedisappointment of not being selected inthe last one and a half year. "Physically,

I'm in good shape and mentally also I'min great shape. I'm ready, able and will-ing to play for Pakistan any time the se-lectors want to call on me," Yousuf toldthe pakpassion website.

"The desire to play for Pakistan hasnever receded and recently in Lahore Igave a fitness test at the National CricketAcademy which I passed with flyingcolours. I'm confident that if I am givenanother opportunity by the selectors Iwould not let them down," he added.Yousuf, who is in the United Kingdom ona private visit and is also playing for theLashings World XI, said he was willing to

compete in the coming domestic season toprove his fitness and form to the selectors.

"This time around I will be playing do-mestic cricket. My plans are to feature inall of the tournaments in Pakistan, theQaid-e-Azam Trophy, the National One-Day Cup and any Twenty20 tournamentsthat are organised by the Pakistan CricketBoard," he said. "Playing in these compe-titions is going to be essential to my hope-ful return to the Pakistan team andplaying in these tournaments is in myplans," he said. Yousuf has scored a totalof 17,000 international runs with a total of39 centuries and averages 52 in Tests.

Ready, able, willing to play for Pak anytime: Yousuf

LONDONafp

Trent Bridge will stage next year's first Ashes Test,the england and Wales Cricket Board (eCB) an-nounced Friday as it released a packedschedule of international cricket in eng-land for 2013. The home of Notting-hamshire, Trent Bridge staged its firstinternational match -- also between eng-land and Australia -- in 1899 and is re-garded as one of the most scenic Testgrounds in england. Australia, looking toregain the Ashes from england, starttheir tour with two four-day fixtures,against Somerset and Worcestershire,before the opening Test in Nottinghamon July 10. The series then continues atLord's, which has traditionally staged thesecond Ashes Test of an english summer,with the second of two back-to-back Testsstarting on July 18. Australia then have atour game against Sussex at Hove beforetwo more back-to-back Tests.

These will be at Old Trafford, the venuefor the third Test as it was in 2005 when eng-land won an Ashes series for the first time in 19years, and Chester-le-Street, the home of north-east county Durham, which will be staging its firstengland-Australia Test match, starting onAugust 9. Australia play a two-day tourmatch at Northampton before the se-ries concludes at The Oval, in southLondon, where england have wrappedup victory in their last two homeAshes campaigns in 2005 and2009. There is no place in theAshes calendar for a Test atHeadingley, the headquartersof Yorkshire and one of eng-land's oldest international ven-

ues, but the Leeds ground will stage one of two Testagainst New Zealand in May with the other at Lord's. Inbetween the tours by New Zealand and Australia, eng-

land will host the 2013 Champions Trophy, a 'mini'World Cup where the top eight sides in 50-over

cricket will be on show. Matches in thatcompetition are due to take place at TheOval, Cardiff and edgbaston, the Birming-ham headquarters of Warwickshire, which

will be without a Test next year.For Kevin Pietersen, who announced

his retirement from limited overs inter-nationals on Thursday, his england sea-son is set to end on August 25.

But the likes of Stuart Broad, involvedin all three formats, could have to keepgoing to September 16 when england faceAustralia in the fifth one-day interna-tional in Southampton -- four days later

than the final international fixture in eng-land this year. September will also see eng-

land travel to Malahide, near Dublin, for aone-day international against Ireland.

england hold the Ashes after a 3-1 win ina five-match series in Australia in 2010/11 and

eCB chief executive David Collier said Friday:"The prospect of england defending the Ashes onhome soil, the world's top eight teams competing

in the ICC Champions Trophy, and a full pro-gramme of 50-Over and T20 International

cricket will provide rich pickings forcricket fans next summer.

"Last season's international pro-gramme attracted a record aggregate at-

tendance of more than 850,000spectators and we would urge all

fans to purchase their interna-tional tickets early for 2013 toavoid missing out on whatpromises to be a memorablesummer."

indonesia avoidrelegation with winover PakistanlaHore: Indonesia on Friday avoidedrelegation with win over Pakistan in theHSBC Asian 5 Nations (HSBC A5N) Divi-sion III. In the III 3rd/4th place match,which was a re-match of the same oppo-nents in 2011, Indonesia held Pakistan onto win a tight match, 13-7. Indonesiawinger Askar scored the only points of thefirst half with a try in the 12th minute leav-ing the score 5-0 at the half.In a stop-startmatch marred by a high penalty countagainst both teams, it was fitting that thefirst points of the second half camethrough a penalty. Indonesian scrumhalfArundale was on target, giving Indonesiaan 8-0 lead. With the game still in the bal-ance, it was up to Indonesian flankerDaniel Nugroho, in his first tournament asteam captain, to take the reigns. He did sowith aplomb, crashing over for a vital try inthe 65th minute to pull Indonesia furtherahead 13-0. Pakistan threw everything intotheir attack but never really threatened thescoreline. Staff RepoRt

new sporting facilitiesopen at rewaz gardenslaHore: The Parks Horticulture Au-thority and Sports Board Punjab as part ofChief Minister Mian Shahbaz Sharif's gov-ernment’s plan of developing 100 groundsin the city has upgraded yet another twoparks into a proper sporting facility for thelocals of the area in the Rewaz Gardens,near Lower Mall. Mian Nawaz Sharif,President Pakistan Muslim League,viosited both the parks and formally inau-gurated the sports facilities for public use.The Punjab government developed theHafeez Park and Tanveer Park at RewazGarden area into a proper sports and fit-ness centres having an open gymnasium,jogging track and badminton courts. Be-sides, the parks also have a playing zonefor the children while benches for agedpeople to rest. Deputy Speaker PA RanaMashhood Ahmad Khan also visited thepark’s gym, badminton court, joggingtrack and playing zoon at Rewaz Gardenalong with Mian Nawaz. DG Sports &Youth Usman Anwar, commissioner La-hore, DG PHA, Maher Ishtiaq MPA andseveral other government officials andPMLN workers were also present on theoccasion. The Parks and Horticulture Au-thority developed the facility at both theparks on the directives of the chief minis-ter and its supervision and maintenancewill also be done by the PHA. Staff RepoRt

Trent Bridge tostage Ashes opener


Sports 19Saturday, 2 June, 2012

SURIYAWEWAagencieS

sRI Lanka threw their wicketsaway through reckless shots,conceded 17 runs throughwides and about 10 through

misfields, but thanks to the JosephianMafia - a moniker Thisara Perera andAngelo Mathews have earned from theschool they shared - still won by a whop-ping 37 runs. It was an unremarkablenight of cricket with most of the wicketsowing neither to the bowling nor thepitch, but many will argue it's a trait thatcan be attributed to Twenty cricket ingeneral because of the devaluation of awicket.

Perera and Mathews, though, stoodout. Perera first scored a two-a-ball 32to give Sri Lanka a fighting chance from89 for 7. Mathews then bowled a testingspell of outswing for eight runs and twowickets. The two came together whenPerera flew at third man to catch ShoaibMalik off the bowling of Mathews. Per-era and Mathews were the highlight ofthe night, which featured a lot of inex-plicable cricket otherwise.

earlier, Sohail Tanvir grabbed threebig wickets as Pakistan restricted SriLanka to 132-7.

The left-arm paceman jolted SriLanka's top order when he dismissedskipper Mahela Jayawardene,Tillakaratne Dilshan and Kumar San-gakkara in his opening three overs to re-

duce the hosts to 31-3.Tanvir finished with 3-12 off four

tight overs, his best performance inTwenty20 internationals. He was su-perbly backed by off-spinner SaeedAjmal, who bagged two wickets for 20runs. Thisara Perera top-scored with a16-ball 32 not out in Sri Lanka's below-par batting display, helping his teammake 43 runs off the last 22 balls.

Lahiru Thirimanne, making his T20debut, was the other main scorer with a25-ball 30.

Sri Lanka made a poor start afterelecting to bat, losing four wickets in theopening eight overs with just 39 on theboard.

Tanvir struck with his third deliverywhen he had Jayawardene caught byShoaib Malik in the covers and then hadDilshan caught by Umar Gul at fine-legin his next over.

Sangakkara (19) hit three successivefours off paceman Mohammad Sami be-fore he inside-edged a Tanvir deliveryonto his stumps.

Pakistan fall to Perera,Mathews in massive loss

Punjab taekwondoelects new officials

LAHOREStaff RepoRt

The Punjab Taekwondo Association onFriday elected its new office-bearers forthe next term of four years.Mushtaq Ahmad, Muhammad Babar andch. Adnan khawar were unanimouslyelected as president, secretary generaland treasurer respectively.The general council meeting of the asso-ciation was at PSB Coaching Centreunder the chairmanship of MushtaqAhmed besides others items the electionswere held in which representatives of 29affiliated district took part. tHe office-beaReRS: President mushtaq ahmed, Senior Vice President malikakhtar awan (Vehari), Vice President Sheikh Saleem(Sahiwal), Saif-ur-rehman (Bakkar), madam Prof. mar-riym ( rawalpindi), Secretary general muhammad Babar,associate Secretary Dr. azhar-ul-haq (faisalabad),mureed hussain (D.g.Khan), miss mehwish (Pakpattan),treasurer ch. adnan Khawar (lahore). executive mem-bers munir haider (gujranwala), latif Kawish (Bahawal-nagar), muhammad ikram (Sarghdha), raees-ur-rehman(lahore), rashid Butt (gujrat), Dr. arif Siddique (okara),Dr. ansar hayat Baig (Khushab), raja Shahbaz (Jehlam),tariq ali (Bahawalpur), muhammad Jhangir (rajanpur),ezaat Khan (attock), asif nadar (Khanawal)

wahdat eagletsdown golden Star

LAHOREStaff RepoRt

Wahdat ealets has won the match of 2ndphase of LCCA super cricket leagueagainst Golden star by 101 runs played atWahdat Colony ground on Friday.ScoReS: wahdat eaglets 229 in 38 overs. haris nazar38, Zaheer Siddiq 32, rohail hassan bhati 76, Qaiserashraf 22. Kamran 2/26, asif 3/25, m hafeez 2/30,nadeem 1/48, Sohail 1/28. golden star 128 in 26 overs.Zulfiqar 15, azeem 15. Sohail 15, asif 47(no). ZaheerSiddiq 2/26, hanan Bashir 2/24, Qaiser ashraf 2/18, mali Shah 2/36, ali tipu sultan 2/8.

Swimming camp LAHORE

Staff RepoRt

The Pakistan Sports Board is beginningSummer Swimming Training Camp dur-ing summer vacations for youth andchildren both girls and boys of the agegroup 5-12 years and 13 & above underthe supervision of qualified coaches toengage the youth in healthy activities.This will also help to mark young talentwhich by grooming will become shin-ning swimmers. Swimming camp isbeing started during 1st week of June,2012. Coaching will be provided to thechildren by qualified coaches.

DUBLINafp

One bad hole for Tiger Woods and LukeDonald and two by Rory McIlroy left thestars well off the pace of leader ScottStallings after Thursday's opening round ofthe $6.2 million US PGA Memorial.

Stallings birdied three of the last fourholes to stand on six-under par 66 after 18holes, one stroke ahead of fellow AmericansSpencer Levin and erik Compton and threeclear of the rest of the star-studded field. Atthe Muirfield Village layout designed by JackNicklaus, Woods shared 11th on 70 with agroup that included Australian Adam Scottand three-time major winner ernie els. "Itcertainly could have been a lot lower, but I'mpleased with the way I hit the golf ball,"Woods said. "I didn't do anything great andI didn't do anything poorly. It was just a solidround." World No. 1 Donald of england andMcIlroy, the Northern Ireland prodigy whowill defend his US Open title in two weeks atThe Olympic Course in San Francisco, wereanother stroke adrift in a group on 71.

"It wasn't the start that I wanted to getoff to, being 4-over through three holes,"McIlroy said. "But I hung in there well andproud of myself for the way I just foughtback. To finish the round under par was areally good effort." Stallings answered abogey at the second with birdies at the par-3 fourth and par-5 fifth plus an eagle at thepar-5 seventh. After a birdie at the par-5 11th

and a bogey at the par-3 12th, Stallingsbirdied the par-5 15th, par-3 16th and par-418th to surge to the top of the leaderboard.

"I was happy to get a good round underpar," Stallings said. "I haven't had a roundunder par since Saturday at Augusta. It hasbeen a long time. Been really struggling withmy game. It has been interesting to say the

least. "I'll go out tomorrow and try to do thesame. We've got a long way to go."

That fact eases the worries for Woods,the 14-time major champion whose victoryin March at Bay Hill snapped a 17-monthwin drought. "I didn't do anything poorly. Iwas just very consistent," Woods said. "Overthe next three days, hopefully I can play as

well as I did today." Woods, who began onthe 10th tee, birdied the 15th and 17th beforetaking a double bogey at the 18th. Hebounced back with birdies on the frontnine's two par-5 holes but the damage wasdone. "I haven't played the par-5s particu-larly well the last few tournaments," Woodssaid. "I feel very pleased with the way I hit

the golf ball all day and it was nice to actuallyplay the par-5s under par for a change."McIlroy, who also began on the back nine,went from bunker to water with an awkwardstance at the par-3 12th on his way to aquadruple bogey 7 and even after pullingback strokes with birdies at 14 and 15 gaveone back with a bogey at the 17th.

Tiger, McIlroy stumble while Stallings leads Memorial

laHore: Promising footballers of La-hore will show their skill when eighthModel Town Football Academy(MTFA) Football summer camp2012 for Boys and Girls will com-mence on 4th June at MTFAGround, Model Town. “As afootballer, the best I can do foryouth in Pakistan is to givethem a platform where they canlearn how to play and make aliving out of it” said MTFA Pres-ident Mian Rizwan Ali. The 45-day camp will be concluded onJuly 19. The morning session ofBoys, having age 6 to 16 years, willbe held five days a week from Mondayto Friday. The timing will be 6:00 to 7:15

Am. The four day a week evening sessionfrom Monday to Friday, will be from

Monday to Wednesday 5:30PM to6:45 PM and Thursday to Friday

6:30 to 7:30 PM. MTFA hadlaunched their women wing lastyear and met with enormoussuccess with female footballersare joining the Academy regu-larly. The Girls summer footballcamp U-16 female footballerwill consume four days a week

in evening session only. It willbe arranged from 5:30 to 6:30

PM on Thursday to Sunday. “It isgood opportunity for our girls to

become fine footballers”, said MTFAPresident Mian Rizwan Ali. Staff RepoRt

8th MTFA Football Camp from 4th

SUriyawewa: Sri lankan cricketer lasith malinga (r) celebrates with his teammates afterhe dismissed Umar akmal (2l) during the first twenty20 match. AFP

Pakistan totake part in 3rdBeach games

LAHOREStaff RepoRt

A 28-member Pakistani contingent in-cluding four officials will participate in the3rd Asian Beach Games, Haiyang, Chinafrom June 16-22. The players will showtheir muscles in the events of handball,kabaddi and sailing. Handball team com-prises 10 players and two officials. Thekabaddi team formation is of six playersand two officials, while sailing team con-stitutes of three players and one official.

SRi lanka:m. Jayawardene c malik b tanvir 2t. dilshan c gul b tanvir 5k. Sangakkara b tanvir 19d. chandimal b Sami 10a. mathews b ajmal 9l. thirimanne c gul b ajmal 30k. lokuarachchi run out 11t. perera not out 32n. kulasekera not out 6extras (b1, lb3, w4) 8total (for seven wickets; 20 overs) 132fall of wickets: 1-2 (Jayawardene), 2-11 (dilshan), 3-31(Sangakkara), 4-39 (chandimal), 5-65 (mathews), 6-89(lokuarachchi), 7-89 (thirimanne).bowling: tanvir 4-0-12-3 (w1), gul 4-0-43-0 (w3), Sami 2-0-22-1, afridi 2-0-9-0, Hafeez 4-0-22-0, ajmal 4-0-20-2.pakiStan: mohammad Hafeez c dilshan b kulasekara 0ahmed Shehzad b Senanayake 36Shakeel ansar c dilshan b kulasekara 0khalid latif c †Sangakkara b mathews 3Shoaib malik c perera b mathews 9umar akmal c kulasekara b malinga 12Shahid afridi c lokuarachchi b Senanayake 1Sohail tanvir run out (dilshan/†Sangakkara) 1umar gul c thirimanne b malinga 5mohammad Sami not out 4Saeed ajmal c †Sangakkara b perera 5extras: (lb 2, w 17) 19total: (all out; 17.4 overs) 95fall of wickets: 1-0 (mohammad Hafeez, 0.1 ov), 2-0 (Shakeelansar, 0.2 ov), 3-12 (khalid latif, 3.6 ov),4-46 (Shoaib malik,9.2 ov), 5-68 (umar akmal, 12.2 ov), 6-70 (Shahid afridi, 13.1ov), 7-71 (Sohail tanvir, 13.3 ov),8-85 (ahmed Shehzad, 15.2ov), 9-87 (umar gul, 16.2 ov), 10-95 (Saeed ajmal, 17.4 ov)bowling kmdn kulasekara 3-0-13-2, Sl malinga 3-0-12-2, ad mathews4-1-8-2, nltc perera 2.4-0-23-1, kS lokuarachchi 2-0-17-0,SmSm Senanayake 3-0-20-2.Result: Sri lanka won by 37 runsman of the match: nltc perera (Sri lanka)toss: Sri lankaumpires: asoka de Silva (SRi) and Ranmore martinesz (SRi)tv umpire: Ruchira palliyaguruge (SRi)match referee: chris broad (eng)

ScoReboaRd


Sports20Saturday, 2 June, 2012

ROME: Jamaica's Usain

Bolt (C) competes to win

the Men's 100 Metre

event during the Diamond

League athletics meet. AFP

ROMAafp

WORLD record holder UsainBolt stormed to the fastesttime of the year in winning the

100m at the Diamond League meetinghere on Thursday. Olympic championBolt ran 9.76sec, beating the time he setearlier this month in Kingston by sixhundredths of a second.

Compatriot and former world recordholder Asafa Powell was second in9.91sec with French european championChristophe Lemaitre an impressive thirdin a high quality field in 10.04sec.

World bronze medallist Kim Collinsof St Kitts & Nevis was fourth in10.05sec. The win, and more impor-tantly the time, made up for Bolt's slug-gish performance in Ostrava last weekwhere he ran his slowest time in threeyears, 10.04sec. Although he said Tues-day he wasn't bothered by that run, itclearly had got to him. Asked if he washappy to have put that run behind him,Bolt was categoric. "Yes, it's a slight re-lief, I knew i could do it," he told BBC3.

"I've not been sleeping very well sinceI arrived in europe so I made sure I've beengoing to bed earlier. "I'm feeling good now,I'm coming back. "People expect me to dowell, I expect it of myself also. I came here

tonight not to prove to the world anythingbut to show I've still got it." Bolt did nothave the best start but Lemaitre inside him

in lane three was the slowest out of theblocks. As the race picked up into its middlepart Bolt and Powell were starting to ease

clear but the fastest man of all time's longlegs saw him stride out in front and therewas no doubt who the winner would be.

hurdles hoopla,sprint starstop Pre field

EUGENEafp

A star-studded men's 110-meter hurdleslineup and US sprint stars Justin Gatlinand Allyson Felix top a deep talent pool setto compete at the 38th Prefontaine Classictrack meet on Saturday. The DiamondLeague gathering will be staged at the sitewhere the US Olympic Track and Field Tri-als are set to begin on June 22, with a hostof top global stars coming to test the bestof the Americans at Hayward Field.Athens 2004 Olympic champion LiuXiang of China sparks a 110 hurdlesshowdown with reigning world outdoorchampion Jason Richardson, reigningworld indoor champion Aries Merritt andAmerican record holder David Oliver.World record-holder and reigningOlympic champion Dayron Robles ofCuba was to have competed but theCuban track federation said that hewould not compete "after a recent analy-sis of preparations for the OlympicGames." Gatlin, the 2004 Olympic 100mchampion who served a four-year dopingban and began a comeback in 2010, cap-tured the world indoor 60m crown lastMarch and won the Diamond League100m opener at Doha in 9.87 seconds.It was the 30-year-old American's fastestoutdoor opener since he began pro sprint-ing at age 19. Gatlin will be tested in the100 by Walter Dix, the world outdoor 100and 200 runner-up, and Jamaicans NestaCarter and Nick Ashmeade. Dix and fellowAmerican Wallace Spearmon, who ownsthe second fastest time in the world thisyear, will be favored in the 200.Reigning Diamond League 100m and200m champion Carmelita Jeter will jointhree-time world outdoor champion Felixin the women's 200. Reigning Olympicchampion and season leader LaShawnMerritt and 2004 Olympic champion Je-remy Wariner will be joined in a 400-meterbattle by reigning world champion KiraniJames, an 18-year-old from Grenada.Two-time Olympic 400m hurdles cham-pion Angelo Taylor and Oscar Pistorius,the "Blade Runner" from South Africa try-ing to secure a berth at the LondonOlympics, will also be in the 400. World400m indoor champion Sanya Richards-Ross will face reigning world outdoorchampion Amantle Montsho of Botswanaand 2012 world-leader Novlene Williams-Mills of Jamaica in the women's 400.Reigning world champion Christian Tay-lor and reigning world indoor championWill Claye will be tested by Britain'sPhillip Idowu in the triple jump.

hooker upbeatas olympics loom

SYDNEYafp

Australia's Olympic champion SteveHooker said he was encouraged by fin-ishing sixth in his latest pole vaultcompetition at the Rome DiamondLeague meet, reports said Friday. Inhis second international competitionsince returning from a bout of the run-way "yips" that forced him out of theAustralian domestic season, HookerThursday cleared 5.42 metres, 58 cen-timetres short of his personal outdoorbest. Frenchman Renaud Lavilleniedemonstrated how far Hooker needs toprogress before next month's LondonOlympics, clearing 5.82m. "I've comehere and I've done some good training.The body is feeling good and I'm work-ing with the physio over here," Hookertold the Athletics Australia website. "Ihad a really good warm-up. everythingwent according to plan up until 5.60mwhere I had that stop on the first at-tempt, which probably cost me."Hooker said he would be working onfurther improvement for his next com-petition in Munich on June 5. rome: Kazakhstan's olga rypakova performs to win the women's triple Jump event during the Diamond league athletics meeting. AFP

Bolt scorches to fastest time of the year

rome: Usain Bolt may have won in the fastest time this yearand set a new meeting record at the Diamond League in Romebut he is still expecting coach Glen Mills to explain what hedid wrong. While he could understandably be upset with his10.04sec run in Ostrava last week despite winning, it seemedas if everything had clicked into place in the eternal City. Theworld record holder ran 9.76sec, lowering his own season'sbest by six hundredths of a second and beating Tyson Gay'smeet record by just 0.01sec. His start was reasonable and oncehe got into his stride he was a class apart, striding clear of atalented field. Asafa Powell, the former world record holder,was second in 9.91sec with european champion ChristopheLemaitre third in 10.04sec. But now Bolt believes he needs togo back to the drawing board. "Overall it was a good race, lasttime I came here it was without a lot of races, but this time theexecution was good," he said. "I'm happy but I'm just going togo home and call my coach so he can explain to me what I didwrong, what I did right and I'll look forward to the next race."The Olympic champion was a little terse when asked for theumpteenth time about his poor run in Ostrava. "I've expainedto you guys that everyone has a bad race every now and again,I just have to go back to the drawing board. "I couldn't sleep

in Ostrava but here I made sure I went to bed early. "I do eatfast food but I do try to get a lot of pasta in, as you get olderyou have to watch your diet." As for his start he wasn't entirelysatisfied, despite Lemaitre next to him coming out the blocksfar slower. "That's always the biggest point of my race, I thinkit's all about consistency. The rest comes together if you get agood start." However, there was no doubt that Bolt feels he ison the right track in terms of his Olympic preparation. "Ithink I'm getting there, it wasn't the perfect race, it had flawsbut I just have to continue working on what's necessary."While Bolt was at best satisfied, Powell was quite upset. Hesaid he'd had problems at the start, which explained why hebriefly started running in former world champion KimCollins's lane. "I didn't hear set and I didn't hear go, I justcame out the starting blocks with Kim Collins, that's all,"said Powell. "I didn't get out the starting blocks like I should,I didn't start properly, I was all over the track and the lastpart of the race I let everything get the best of me and sloweddown. "I expect a better race (in Oslo), I'll go there to exe-cute and I hope all goes well and I run a lot better. "My train-ing is going very well, I'm very upset about this race, not thatI lost but that I didn't get to execute as I wanted to. afp

bolt wants coach to explainwhere he went wrong


Sports 21Saturday, 2 June, 2012

waTch IT LIve

TEN SPORTSSecond T20: Pakistanv Sri Lanka06:30PM

Kuznetsova upsetsformbook, Mariablasts away Morita

PariS: russia's maria Sharapova hits a return to Japan's ayumi morita during theirwomen's singles 2nd round tennis match of the french open. AFP

teen Stephenskeeps UShopes alive

PARISafp

Teenager Sloane Stephens kept the Starsand Stripes flying at the French Open onFriday with a 6-3, 6-2 third round winover Mathilde Johansson of France. TheFlorida youngster was one of just threeAmericans to make it into the third roundalong with Christina McHale and Uzbek-istan-born Varvara Lepchenko, followingthe early exits of Serena and VenusWilliams. The situation is worse amongthe US men with John Isner's defeat lateThursday meaning that none of theireight starters made it into the thirdround. For 19-year-old Stephens it wasthe first time she has reached the last 16of a Grand Slam tournament in four ap-pearances, ensuring she will continue herrise up the world rankings. She brokeearly against Johansson in the third gameand moved out into a 5-2 lead before asloppy game when serving for the set al-lowed the home player some respite. Butshe broke again in the following game totake the set and, after a closely-foughtstart to the second set, she moved 3-1 upwith a break in the fourth game. Thatwas all the American needed as shepowered away to a place in the fourthround. Next up for Stephens, the onlyteenager to make it into the third round,will be the winner of the match oppos-ing 2010 runner-up Samantha Stosur ofAustralia and Nadia Petrova of Russia.

PariS: russia's Svetlana Kuznetsova's armis displayed as she plays against Poland'sagnieszka radwanska during their singlesmatch of the french open. AFP

PARISafp

US hopes at the French Open were extinguishedon Thursday as marathon man John Isner wasonce again involved in an epic duel, the fourthlongest in Grand Slam history, which this timehe lost. The giant Isner found himself as the lastAmerican standing out of eight starters after

qualifier Jesse Levine had earlier gone down 6-4, 7-5, 6-2 to Milos Raonic of Canada. But afterwhat turned out to be, at five hours 41 minutes,the second longest match in French Open his-tory and the fourth longest in Grand Slam his-tory, Isner lost 6-7 (2/7), 6-4, 6-4, 3-6, 18-16 toFrench wildcard Paul-Henri Mathieu.

Mathieu finally entered the third round byconverting his seventh match point, Isner hit-ting a forehand wide. The American hit 41 aces,but had 98 unforced errors. Ironically it wasagainst another Frenchman, Nicolas Mahut,that Isner played the longest match in history atWimbledon in 2010 when he took 11 hours andfive minutes, spread over three days, to win 6-4,3-6, 6-7 (7/9), 7-6 (7/3), 70-68. At no point,Isner insisted did his mind travel back nearlytwo years ago to the match with Mahut whichhas gone down in the annals of sporting historyas one of the greatest athletic contests of all time.

tokyoites will get behind2020 bid, says governor

TOKYOafp

Tokyo's governor said Friday he was confident thathis city and country will eventually rally behind thecapital's campaign to host the 2020 SummerOlympics, despite low public support at present. "It isunfortunate that the rate of support from Tokyo citi-zens is low although the bid is gathering momentum,"Shintaro Ishihara told reporters. "But this may becharacteristic of the Japanese people."The International Olympic Committee last weekchose Tokyo, Madrid and Istanbul as final candidatesto host the 2020 Games by eliminating Doha andBaku. But an IOC technical report showed the rate oflocal public support for the bid was 47 percent inTokyo against 73 for Istanbul and 78 for Madrid.Lack of public enthusiasm for hosting the Olympicswas also one of Tokyo's weaknesses three years agowhen it lost to Rio de Janeiro in the bid for the 2016Summer Games. When Tokyo hosted the Olympicsfor the first time in 1964, Ishihara said, "everybodyreally worked with a sense of unity.""The Japanese people are more used to extravagancenow than in 1964 and they may be so conceited thatthey take everything for granted," the 79-year-oldnovelist-turned-politician added. "But I am con-vinced that expectations about the Olympics will defi-nitely rise as things move forward." He cited theexample of the 2002 World Cup finals which Japanco-hosted with South Korea. "The whole nation reallydid cheer for the Japanese team as one." The IOC willvote to choose the 2020 host city in Buenos Aires inSeptember next year. "If, in Buenos Aires, we win theright to host the Olympics, I am convinced the Japan-ese people will unite as one in a very short period oftime to bring about a perfect Olympics."

Isner loses marathon inParis as US hopes crushed

PARISafp

F ORMeR champion Svet-lana Kuznetsova made amockery of the seedings byoutclassing third seed Ag-

nieszka Radwanska of Poland 6-1, 6-2 in the third round of theFrench Open on Friday.

Radwanska was the highestseed to fall in the tournament sofar as she had no answer to theall-court game of Kuznetsova,who won at Roland Garros in2009, five years after she won theUS Open, her only other GrandSlam title. Since then, the Russ-

ian has had a torrid time with in-juries and loss of form, whileRadwanska has smoothly madethe transfer out of the juniorranks and up the WTA rankings,winning three tournaments thisyear already.

But all that was cast aside asthe Russian moved smoothly intoa 5-0 lead under cool, overcastconditions on Philippe Chatriercentre court before Radwanskamanaged to open her account.

After pocketing the first seton serve in the following game,Kuznetsova jumped out into a 3-0 lead in the second before thePole took two games in a row.



22

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

ISLAMABADtayyab HuSSain

DURING the federal cabinetmeeting held at the Parlia-ment House on Friday, PrimeMinister Yousaf Raza Gilaniwas left mum after facing a

rare criticism from his cabinet ministerwhen MQM’s Babar Ghauri advised thePM to shun lavish spending and ratheradopt austerity measures to curtail thebudget deficit.

A source present in the cabinet meet-ing said when the PM asked how expensescould be curtailed, the MQM leader saidthere was a need for the government tocontrol its spending to plug the budgetdeficit and the PM should set precedencein this regard.

“All foreign trips, stay in five-star ho-tels by delegates accompanying the primeminister abroad and holding of lavish cer-emonies in the name of launching projectsin various ministries should be bannedforthwith,” the source quoted Ghauri astelling the prime minister.

The source also quoted Ghauri as say-ing that the PM should also not spend fur-ther on the Prime Minister’s House and theamount should be allocated to some otheruseful project. “However, it was ReligiousAffairs Minister Syed Khursheed Shah whoresponded to the objections made byGhauri, saying it was necessary for thechief executive of the country to visitfriendly nations for lobbying in national in-terest and sell his plan to the world com-munity,” the source added. The source saidShah, however, proposed the PM not topush for his plan to turn the PM’s Houseinto a state-of-the-art institution. “Shahsaid that this might be done through aproper and well-conceived project and dueto the sensitive location of the PM House,it could not be turned into an institutionfor the public,” the source added.

The source said Shah also quoted theclaim made by Punjab Chief MinisterShahbaz Sharif about turning the CM’sHouse into a women’s university.

“Though the CM Punjab had claimedto turn 7-Club Road Lahore into a womenuniversity, there are around seven more

CM Houses, as all buildings from 1-ClubRoad to 8-Club Road are being used byShahbaz Sharif,” Shah said.

The source said though the prime min-ister did not respond to the objection made

by Ghauri, he told the meeting that he wasdetermined to make a state-of-the-art in-stitute of the PM’s House, as around 61acres of land was available inside thepremises near Barri Imam’s shrine.

salary raise: The source said toughthe politicians made tall claims about theircommitment to the salaried class, it was

ISLAMABADameR Sial

The federal government has earmarked Rs208.595 billion in subsidies for the next fiscalyear against last year’s allocation of Rs166.448 billion, showing an increase of 25.32percent. The announcement was made duringthe unveiling of the annual budget 2012-13.The revised subsidies for the current fiscalyear stand at Rs 512.292 billion due to an in-crease in the power sector subsidy.

The subsidy for WAPDA and PePCO iskept at Rs 134.970 billion in the next fiscalyear as compared to the budgetary target of Rs122.700 billion for the current fiscal year.

The inter-DISCO differential subsidy isearmarked at Rs 120 billion for the next fiscalyear as compared to the current year’s budg-etary target of Rs 50 billion.

The other major subsidy announced forthe general public is Rs 6 billion subsidythrough the Utility Stores Corporation. It willinclude a Ramzan Package of Rs 2 billion. Thegovernment has also allocated Rs 4 billion forsale of sugar through the USC.

The government has also announced a Rs

10 million subsidy for the Trading Corporationof Pakistan. The TCP has spent Rs 16.952 bil-lion on the sugar operation in 2011-12, thebudget documents said.

The government has announced Rs 5.148billion in subsidy for PASSCO for wheat oper-ation and wheat reserved stock in 2012-13.Last year, the amount stood at Rs 4.074 bil-lion. For the next fiscal year, the governmenthas announced a Rs 1.148 billion subsidy forwheat operation which was Rs 4.171 billionlast year. For the wheat reserved stock, thegovernment has announced Rs 4 billion.

The government also announced Rs12.150 billion in subsidy for others. Last yearit was Rs 9.086 billion.

For Fauji Fertilizer Bin Qasim Ltd in thiscategory, the government announced Rs 3.4billion, for Oil Refineries and OMCs, the sub-sidy announced was Rs 7.700 billion againstlast year’s subsidy of Rs 7.921 billion. For thesale of wheat in FATA, the federal governmentannounced Rs 270 million for 2012-13 whilelast year the allocation was Rs 255 million.

The government also announced Rs 775million for the sale of wheat in Gilgit-Baltistan, and Rs 5 million for the sale of Salt.

ISLAMABAD/LAHOREagencieS

Though the government claims that thepower shortfall has come down to5,800MW after electricity generationresumed from Tarbela on Friday, therewas no practical evidence of the en-hanced power supply, as angry protestsraged on and load shedding durationremained the same across the country.

At least 15 hours of load sheddingwas reported in urban areas, while therural ones spent up to 22 hours of theday without electricity.

The scorching June heat was nomatch for anger boiling inside enragedcitizens, who staged violent protestsagainst the government in Faisalabad,Multan, Dera Ghazi Khan, Thatta andseveral other cities.

Citizens and traders of Faisalabadobserved a complete shutter-downstrike on Friday against prolongedpower cuts. Business activities re-mained suspended while security forcesremained on high alert to prevent anyuntoward occurrence.

The police booked 253 people inseveral cases of looting, shooting and

rampaging during violent protests.In Peshawar, the vehicle of Senior

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Minister BashirBilour was attacked by an angry mobduring a protest against load shedding.Clashes erupted between the demon-strators and police following the attack,however, the minister escaped unhurt.

Protesters in other cities burnt effi-gies of government officials andblocked roads by setting tyres on fire.

Citizens of Dera Ghazi Khanprotested at Gadai Road, while those inSheikhupura blocked the Lahore Roadby burning tyres.

ISLAMABADonline

Though China publicly backed the Pakistani stance over itscontinued tension with the US, Beijing sent a private mes-sage to Islamabad to avoid taking “extreme positions” in itsrelationship with Washington.Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi’s recent trip to thecountry was focused at talking sense into Pakistani civiland military leaders, according to Khaleej Times. The vitaloutcome of the visit was China’s remarks that the worldmust recognise Pakistan’s “huge sacrifices” in the war onterror and back its efforts to safeguard its “sovereignty, ter-ritorial integrity and dignity”. The carefully crafted state-ment was aimed straight at the US, which has begunquestioning Pakistan’s stance in the fight against terrorism.But away from the public diplomacy, the Chinese foreignminister conveyed “a word of wisdom” to Pakistani leader-ship on how to deal with the US. Beijing wants an end tothe lingering stalemate between Pakistan and the US.

Sc demands clear roadmapfor Balochistan peace

ISLAMABADagencieS

The Supreme Court of Pakistan on Friday came downhard on the government vis-à-vis Balochistan unrestwhile issuing an interim order in the case, demanding thegovernment present a clear version of its plans to restoreorder to the province. Chief Justice Iftikhar MuhammadChaudhry, Justice Jawwad S Khawaja and Justice KhiljiArif Hussain directed the PM’s principle secretary to meetthe president and convene a meeting of the defence andinterior secretaries and inform the court how the govern-ment planned to restore order in the restive province.Building on its warning of imposing emergency in theprovince to control the spiraling tension, the SC said ithad showed restrain and been patient regarding apply-ing Article 6 in the case. The SC also directed that casesof missing persons should be registered against the in-spector general of Frontier Corps, expressing displeas-ure with his absence from the court.

Mr PM, please avoid foreign trips, lavish lifestyle!g mQm minister criticises Pm for his exorbitant foreign

trips, extravagant ceremonies g gilani determined to

turn Pm house into ‘state-of-the-art institution’

Rs 208.5b subsidyplanned for FY13

No let up in outages, protests rage ong Faisalabad shuts down in protest against outages

Talk what you can walk,China tells Pakistan

iSlamabad: prime minister yousaf Raza gilani signs the 2012-13 budget documents on friday.


Continued on page 04 Continued on page 04

faiSalabad: businesses were closed in the city on friday in

protest against prolonged electricity load shedding. ONLINE


E-paper PakistanToday 2nd May,2012

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