Ep01august2013

STAFF REPORTER

KARACHI—Pakistan’s ChiefElection CommissionerFakhruddin G Ebrahim re-signed from his post onWednesday, a week after theSupreme Court ordered thecommission to hold presiden-tial polls ahead of its originalschedule.

“I was appointed througha consultative process by thelast Parliament. My constitu-

tional term ends in 2017. How-ever, in my humble opinion, thenewly elected members of Par-liament should have the oppor-tunity to forge new consensus andchoose a new Chief ElectionCommissioner.

This will also allow the nextChief Election Commissionersufficient time and opportunityto prepare and lead the ElectionCommission for the generalelections of 2018,” said the let-ter which has been submitted to

the president for approval. Thepresidential spokesman con-firmed receipt of the letter.

Ebrahim’s resignationcomes after the Election Com-mission and the Supreme Courtcame under fire from lawmak-ers during a session of the Na-tional Assembly and the Senate,with some members demandingthat the chief election commis-sioner resign from his post.

Presidential elections wereoriginally scheduled by the Elec-

tion Commission to be held onAugust 6, and the commissionhad earlier rejected a govern-ment request to change the dateof the poll. However, two dayslater the Supreme Court orderedthe commission to hold elec-tions on July 30 as sought by thefederal government in a petitionfiled in the court.

The CEC was displeasedby the Supreme Court’s deci-sion, and saw it as “an encroach-

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CEC Fakhruddin G Ebrahim resignsContinued on Page 6

SHARAFAT KAZMI

ISLAMABAD—Council of Com-mon Interests (CCI), inWednesday’s meeting chaired byPrime Minister MuhammadNawaz Sharif, approved the Na-tional Power Policy with consen-sus of all provinces.

It was attended by Mr.Muhammad Shahbaz Sharif, CMPunjab, Syed Qaim Ali Shah,

CM Sindh, Mr Pervez Khattak,CM KPK and Dr. Abdul MalikBaloch, CM Balochistan.

The Prime Minister con-gratulated members of CCI for

consensus approval of the powerpolicy. While addressing themeeting, the Prime Minister saidthat it was the policy of his gov-

ernment to arrive at consensusdecisions, a fact which, he said,was eminent from the approvalof the current power policy. “Werespect the mandate of all theprovincial governments andwould support them in their en-deavors initiated for the welfareof the people”, added the PrimeMinister.

The Prime Minister said thatthe country was passing through

CCI stamps Power PolicyStresses provinces to share successes with each other

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ISLAMABAD—Following adeadly attack on Dera IsmailKhan main prison leaving sixpolice personnel dead and doz-ens terrorists escaped, intelli-gence agencies warned that fed-eral capital of terrorism- could be

the next target of terrorists.Local media quoting security

officials Wednesday disused thatIslamabad’s international airport,farm house of former militarydictator Pervez Musharraf andAdiala Jail in Rawalpindi.

Security arrangements havebeen tightened in order to avertany act of terrorism at BenazirBhutto International Airport inIslamabad, after intelligence re-port. Intelligence agencies

Islamabad can be next target of terrorists

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THOUGH the drama ofthe DI Khan jail break isover, yet it has left behind

a number of questions if theugly episode took place due to

intelligence failure, security laps,and lethargy on part of the lawenforcers or was a conspiracy.All these questions need seriousconsiderations by those at thehelm of affairs both in the pro-vincial as well the federal gov-ernment and needs to be an-

swered promptly. A group ofaround 100 Taliban militantsarmed with highly sophisticatedweapons and travelling in sev-eral vehicles ambushed the Cen-tral jail DI Khan on the night

3 holidays forEid announcedSTAFF REPORTER

ISLAMABAD—The FederalGovernment of Pakistan hasannounced Eid-ul-Fitr holidaysstarting from August 8 to 10.

The Ministry of Interiormade the announcement to thiseffect in a statement issuedWednesday. In accordance withthe lunar month of Shawwal,this year the holy month ofRamadan is likely to have 29days and will conclude onAugust 8. Government officeswill reopen on Monday, August12. According to notification,Thursday, August 8, Friday,August 9, & Saturday, August10 would be public holidays inconnection with Eid-ul-Fitr.

DIK jailbreak: Intelligence failure,security laps or a conspiracy?

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CommentsTariq Saeed

STAFF REPORTER

ISLAMABAD—The SupremeCourt on Wednesday issued acontempt of court notice toChairman Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf Imran Khan and summonedhim to appear before the court onAugust 2.

The Supreme Court, in thenotice issued to PTI chief, hassaid that Imran Khan apparentlyhad tried to incite hatred againstthe apex court in one of his inter-actions with the media.

A three-judge Bench of theSupreme Court, headed by ChiefJustice Iftikhar MuhammadChaudhry, will hear the case onFriday. “Prima facie, it seems that

he (Imran Khan) has started a de-liberate campaign to scandalize

SC issues contemptnotice to Imran

PTI to strongly resistif bye-polls rigged,

warns ImranIS L A M A B A D —Pakis tanTehrik-e-Insaaf, Chairman,Imran Khan has warned thathis party will not accept theresults if the sitting rulers at-tempted to rig the bye-elec-tions of national and provin-

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STAFF REPORTER

ISLAMABAD—US Secretary ofState Senator John Kerry arrived

here Wednesday night on a three-day visit to discuss issues rang-

ing from bilateral relations to re-gional situation.

Senator Kerry was recievedby Director General Foreign Of-

fice (America) Dr Sohail, Chief

Kerry arrives to discussdrones, Afghanistan

PM mulls visit with COAS, DG ISI

RAWALPINDI: US Secretary of State John Kerry beingreceived by DG Foreign Office, Dr Sohail upon his arrivalat Nur Khan Airbase.

a critical phase and demandedgreater unity and disciplineamong all of us. Talking aboutthe no-confidence motion inAJK, the Prime Minister said,“We have to set principles of gov-ernance in our country. The no-confidence motion in AJK wasnot supported by PML-N due toour principled stand for stabiliz-

Dar screws agri-tax evadersALI SYED

ISLAMABAD—No one knowsthat the sitting government hasinitiated a landmark step in thebudget 2013-14 for increasingthe number of tax payers in agri-culture and for this all credit goesto Ishaq Dar Finance Minister ofthe country.

The unscrupulous elements,who usually manage to escape

from the taxes in the capital say-ing that their in-come comesfrom agricul-ture sector,have beenasked to firstget the certifi-cate from therespective pro-vincial govern-

ments that their income comes

from agriculture sector, other-wise themselves to taxation in thefederal territory.

The sane decision of the Fi-nance Minister has landed theunscrupulous elements into deeptrouble as they are left with nooption but to contribute towardsstrengthening of the country bygiving taxes either in federal ter-ritory or in their respective prov-inces. They have been told in Continued on Page 6

clear words that they enjoy noescape any more.

The agriculture income tax isthe provincial subject and the fed-eral government is not liable toget this tax in the federal capital.But the clever people of affluentclass avoid the taxes by showingtheir income as from agriculturesector. The sane move of the fi-nance minister will prompt them

POL pricesincrease up toRs4.99/litreOBSERVER REPORT

ISLAMABAD—The prices of pe-troleum products have beenraised by up to Rs4.99 per litrefrom today.

According to Ministry of Fi-nance, with an increase of Rs2.73the retail price of petrol has now

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Ch Sarwarappointed

Punjab GovernorSTAFF REPORTER

ISLAMABAD—President Asif AliZardari Wednesday appointedMohammad Sarwar as Governorof Punjab Province, on the ad-vice of the Prime Minister. ThePresident has signed the commis-sion of appointment in respect ofMohammad Sarwar as GovernorPunjab.

Spokesperson to the Presi-dent Senator Farhatullah Babarsaid that in terms of article 101(1)of the Constitution, Governor ofa province is appointed by thePresident on the advice of thePrime Minister.

Picture on Back Page

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Nawaz to payhomage to Father

of the Nation todayAMANULLAH KHAN

KARACHI—Prime MinisterNawaz Sharif accompanied byFederal Finance Minister Sena-tor Ishaq Dar and other seniormembers of the cabinet will bevisiting mazar of Quaid-i-Azam,the father of the national tomor-row August 1, it is learnt.

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ISLAMABAD—Decision ofPakistan Railways to reducefares of trains has increasednumber of passengers andsucceeded to generate morerevenue. An official of PRsaid that after the announce-ment of cut in fare, the num-ber of passengers usingtrains has gone up by 10 percent just within three days.

Railways on July 27 hadannounced 57 per cent re-duction in fares of railwaysin order to draw more pas-sengers which had fallenbadly in the past. To a ques-tion, he said PR had decidedto enforce six-day working

week to improve overall func-tioning of the department. Hesaid two weekly offs werehampering rapid resuscita-tion process of railways andrepairing of locomotives, roll-ing stock and railway trackhad slowed down.

To a question, he said PRwould run four special Eidtrains to facilitate the masses.The first Eid train will oper-ate between Karachi andPeshawar via Multan,Sahiwal and Raiwind and thistrain will leave Karachi at 11a.m on August 6 and will ar-rive at Peshawar Cantt at 9:30the next day.

STAFF REPORTER

ISLAMABAD—Former Speakerof the National Assembly ofPakistan Dr. Fehmida MirzaMNA met with Lord SpeakerBaroness D’Souza in Londonand briefed her about thesmooth democratic transitionin Pakistan. She also apprisedher about the successful workof the Women ParliamentaryCaucus in empoweringwomen in Pakistan. Dr. Mirzahoped for the continuation ofthe women caucus dialoguebetween Pakistan and the UK,the next round of which isplanned to be held in Londonthis year, says a report receivedfrom London.

In addition, she apprisedBaroness D’Souza about herrole as Patron of Pink RibbonCampaign for Breast Cancer inPakistan and invited Britishsupport for mobile mammo-gram service in Pakistan. Bar-oness D’Souza fondly remem-bered her visit to Pakistan ear-lier this year when she attendedthe workshop with Pakistani

women parliamentarians. Sheappreciated the work done byWomen’s Parliamentary Cau-cus in Pakistan for empower-ing women. She was impressedby the Benazir Income SupportProgram and the Micro-Fi-nance Scheme, which was agreat source of economic em-powerment for women.

With regards to the sec-ond round of dialogue be-tween the women parliamen-tarians of both the countries,Baroness D’Souza proposedthe idea of inviting womenparliamentarians from regionalcountries bordering Pakistan,so that the positive experienceof Pakistani women parliamen-tarians could be shared with alarger audience.

Dr. Mirza appreciated theidea of inviting women parlia-mentarians from regional coun-tries bordering Pakistan. Dr.Mirza thanked BaronessD’Souza for her continuedsupport and hoped that thesecond round of dialogue be-tween the women parliamen-tarians would be a success.

Naval Chief visitsPeace Ark; 800patients treated

onboard shipKARACHI—Chinese hospitalship ‘Peace Ark’ has started itsmedical services to the Paki-stani patients. Chief of theNaval Staff AdmiralMohammad Asif Sandila alsovisited the ship along withother dignitaries. Upon his ar-rival onboard the Naval chiefwas received by the missioncommander Shen Hao and thecommanding officer of theship. The Naval Chief visiteddifferent departments of thehospital and was also briefedon ‘Mission Harmony’.

More than 800 patientshave been treated by the medi-cal teams of Chinese Navyhospital ship ‘Peace Ark’, inwhich around 500 patients weretreated onboard and almost 300cases on matters of surgical,orthopedic, dental and gyne-cology problems were reportedat the medical camp establishedat PNS Shifa. Civil and Militarydignitaries from Pakistan, Dip-lomatic missions and Chinesedignitaries at Karachi also vis-ited the ship.—Online

USC starts supplycheap flour to

consumersPESHAWAR—Utility StoresCorporation (USC) has startedsupply of cheap flour to all 95utility stores of the provincialmetropolis, said a press releaseissued here on Wednesday.According to Zakaullah Khan,an official of USC, the corpo-ration has started supply offlour to the stores to providecheap flour to the people.

The flour is provided fromMohmand Flour Mills, KohatRoad, Peshawar and 3200bags are being supplied to allutility stores of the district ondaily basis. He said that as thecompare to market rate of Rs800/- per bag, the flour mill con-cerned is supply it at the rateof Rs 730/- per bag, whosesubsidized price at utility storeis Rs 630/- per bag.—APP

Second train will leaveKarachi for Lahore via Multanand Faisalabad at 11 a.m onAugust 7 and it will reach itsdestination at 11:50 a.m nextday. Third Eid special has beenscheduled from Quetta forRawalpindi via Multan andLahore and it will leave Quettaat 12 noon on August 6 andwill reach its destination at 8p.m on August 7.

The fourth Eid specialtrain will be operated be-tween Peshawar and Lahoreon August 8 which will leavePeshawar at 12 noon and ar-rive at Lahore at 9:10 p.m onthe same day.—APP

Pakistan Railways reducesfare to increase revenue

Fehmida Mirza meets Lord Speaker

D’Souza lauds Pak MPswomen empowering work

Protestors stormKohat grid stationPESHAWAR—The angry pro-testors on Wednesday stormeda grid station in Kohat districtand broke its main door, pro-testing against long hours loadshedding and demandedWapda and PESCO to immedi-ate end the unscheduled loadshedding in the district.

The local residents, whowere protesting against theload shedding, attacked agrid station on Pindi Roadand damaged the main doorof the station. They said thelong hours of power outagesespecially Sehr and Iftari dur-ing the holy month ofRamazan is un-justice andunfair with people and de-manded of ending the unan-nounced load sheddingforthwith.—APP

KARACHI: Mission Commander of Chinese Navy Hospital Ship Peace Ark receiving Naval Chief Admiral AsifSandila onboard ship.

KP electorates fedup with PTI’scatchy slogans

P E S H AWA R — P r o v i n c i a lspokesman, ANP KhyberPakhtunkhwa, Malik GhulamMustafa Wednesday claimedthat electorates had fed upof the catchy slogans of PTIand in by-election theywould vote for their candi-date. He expressed theseviews while addressing aparty meeting.

The meeting was also at-tended by president, ANP CityDistrict, Peshawar, KamranSiddiq, general secretary SartajKhan, president PK-2, SaidNazir Baghi and deputy gen-eral secretary SaidMohammad. The meeting pre-pared schedule for electioncampaign and decided to ini-tiate the drive from provincialassembly level.—APP

Rivers Indus,Chenab, Kabul,

Swat in low floodISLAMABAD—The FederalFlood Commission (FFC)on Wednesday said thatthe r iver Indus at GudduBarrage and the r iverChenab at KhankiHeadworks were flowing inlow flood with rising trend.According to daily FFC re-port, all other main riversJhelum, Ravi and Sutlejwere running normal.

The river Kabul was flow-ing in medium flood inWarsak-Nowshera reachwhile the river Swat was atlow flood stage at CharsaddaRoad Bridge. The actual riverflows and reservoir eleva-tions indicates that Tarbelaand Mangla Dams are at el-evations of 1531.00 feet and1209.40 feet respectively,which are 19.00 feet and 32.60feet below their respectiveMaximum Conservation Lev-els of 1550.00 feet and1242.00 feet. The combinedlive storage position ofTarbela, Chashma.—APP

ISLAMABAD—The ElectionCommission of Pakistan(ECP) has activated its over20-member Local BodiesElection Wing (LBEW) forfinalising preparations of theensuing local bodies elec-tions. According to an ECPofficial, the Local BodiesElection Wing will maintainclose coordination with theprovincial administrations.

The Supreme Court hasalready issued directives to allthe provincial governmentsto complete necessary paperwork by August 15 and holdelections by mid September.Additional Advocate GeneralSindh informed the court thatlegislation is underway tohold the local bodies electionand the provincial govern-ment would be ready to holdelection till September 15.

A three-member bench ofthe apex court headed byChief Justice IftikharMuhammad Chaudhry was

hearing a case regardingprivileges and perks of ChiefMinister Sindh and SpeakerSindh Assembly. AdditionalAdvocate General Sindh in-formed the court that Advo-cate General Sindh was bybusy in legislation regardinglocal bodies election. TheChief Justice remarked thatthe provincial governemntsare bound to hold local bod-ies election till September 15.

AAG Sindh said thatSindh government would beready to hold local bodieselection till September 15.The case was adjourned forindefinite time. Meanwhile,the National Commission onthe Status of Women(NCSW) Wednesday urgedthe government to ensure atleast 33 percent reservedseats for women along withrepresentation on farmers,workers and non-Muslimseats and allowing them tocontest on general seats in

local bodies. The Commis-sion, in a meeting here, alsorecommended principles tobe adopted by all the politi-cal parties in provincial as-semblies for women’s mean-ingful representation.

The NCSW said that thelocal bodies elections shouldbe held on party basis. Stepsshould be taken to hold localbodies elections in FATA andwomen should be given ad-equate representation. Thecouncilors should be treatedequally regardless of theirelection on reserved or gen-eral seats. The reserved seatsshould be on the basis ofjoint electorate. The womencouncillor should be paidtravelling and daily allow-ance for participating in themeeting of local body assem-blies or any other (official)meeting. Sufficient funds forexecuting developmentprojects should be allocatedin UC.—APP

Legislation underway to hold Sindh Local Bodies polls

PESHAWAR—As nearly ninedays left in Eid-ul-Fitr, theshopping of traditionalbangles and henna is pick-ing up momentum in theprovincial capital as rush ofbuyers is being witnessedthese days at these stalls inshopping centres and mar-kets especially during night.The distribution of banglesand henna as gifts amongthe girls on Eids is an oldtradition of the sub-conti-nent and great rush of buy-ers especially of girls arebeing seen in the Henna andBangles stalls in the lucra-tive market of Peshawar.

Therefore, many shop-keepers have set upcolourful stalls in the mainmarkets like Jinnah Street,Deans Trade Centre, Gora

Bazaar in cantonment, MeenaBazaar and others importantlocations in Peshawar offer-ing different kinds of hennabesides, cosmetics, earrings,gleaming bangles, embroi-dered clothes, jewellery, hand-bags, shoes and colourfuldresses.

The shopkeepers sellingdaily goods and book sellershave also set up additionalstalls of bangles and hennainside their shops keeping inview the girls attraction to-wards these Eid items. MeenaGul, a young girl, who wasbusy shopping in the DeansTrade Market here Wednes-day said she came here fromNowshera to buy banglesand henna for herself, rela-tives and friends. “I havebought 12 sets of bangles and

henna and will use it duringEid days,” she said.

“Buying shimmering glassbangles matched with the fer-vent colours of Eid dresses andadorning hands and feet withhenna being essential featuresof Eid festivities multiply ourjoys” she remarked. “This isthe cheapest way of takingalong your friends and rela-tives as one can buy a full setof bangles and henna for lessthan Rs 200,” she said.

Aleena, 22, who camealong with his father for shop-ping at Gora bazaar told APPthat shopping of bangles andhenna always doubles her joyon Eid. She said that she hasbought bangles and clothsand will come on Chand Raatto decorate her hands withhenna. She said the henna tat-

toos are also available in mar-kets and are easy to paste onhands and feet and can be re-moved easily, adding theyoung girls admired hennatattoos associated with cel-ebrations of Eid specifically.

However, she was nothappy over the shootingprices of the imported items.The prices of the Eid SpecialOffers items are higher thanthe previous years and arebeyond the purchasing ca-pacity of the middle and sala-ried class, she remarked. “TheEid shopping fever is gradu-ally picking up in Peshawaras majority of buyers are com-ing for shopping while sev-eral will probably visit onChand Raat,” Haris Khan, ashopkeeper at Shafi Bazaartold APP.—APP

Bangles, henna attract girls as Eid shopping picks up momentum

ECP activates local bodies wing

KARACHI: Activists of ISO burning US and Israeli flagsduring a protest procession, which was brought forth byShiites in connection with the martyrdem anniversary ofHazrat Ali (RA) on 21st Ramazan.

FAISALABAD—The Univer-sity of Agriculture FaisalabadCommunity College basedon American education sys-tem has formally started In-termediate (pre agriculture),distance learning postgradu-ate programmes and associ-ate degrees programmes. Inthis regard, UAF Vice Chan-cellor Prof Dr Iqrar AhmadKhan visited the college andinspected the newly estab-lished lab, library and lecturetheaters.

He said under the Ameri-can education system, if astudent did not succeed ingetting admission to degreeprograms, he was given ad-mission to associate pro-grams to refurbish their skillsin their chosen field. He saidthe community collegewould be made a model forthe other universities.

He said the pass-out FSc(pre agriculture) students cantake admission to differentfirst degree programs includ-ing BSc Honors (AgricultureSciences), Doctor of Veteri-nary Sciences (DVM), BScAgri Engineering, BSc FoodEngineering, BSc EnergySystem Engineering, BSc

Animal Husbandry, BScFood Science and technol-ogy, BSc Environmental Sci-ences, BSc Micro Biologyand BSc Agri Economics.

He said under the dis-tance learning Master pro-grams MSc/MA Mathemat-ics, Sociology, Economics,English, M.Com, M.Ed, andEducation are being offeredfor which a process of admis-sions has been started. Hewas of the view that the dis-tance learning programmeswould help students to con-tinue their studies who can-not take regular admissionbecause of their jobs andother factors. The associatedegree program includesEducation; Farm Manage-ment; and Feed Technology.

He also directed staff mem-bers to take all out efforts tosharpen skills of students withthe use of modern teachingmethods by providing themstate-of-the-art facilities. DeanFaculty of Sciences Prof DrMunir A Sheikh, Principal DrKhalil-ur-Rehman, Registrar ChMuhammad Hussain, Control-ler of Examination ShafqatIqbal, Treasure Umer Saeed, POPRP Prof Dr Jalal Arif .—APP

UAF community collegeoffers various programmes

IIRO to startmega welfare

projectsISLAMABAD—Regional Di-rector International IslamicRelief Organization (IIRO) ofSaudi Arabia Dr. AbdaMuhammad Ateen has saidthat IIRO would start megawelfare projects after Eid-ul-Fitr in Pakistan. He stated thisat Iftar dinner arranged byIIRO, attended by people fromvarious walks of life the otherday. Dr. Abda Ateen said thatIIRO Secretary General Dr.Ehsan Saleh Tayyab will visitPakistan after Eid and inaugu-rate the relief projects.

He said that IIRO will ex-tend and upgrade the orphanhouses in Mansehra andIslamabad. He said work inprogress on the constructionof 100 mosques and 100 wellsin various parts of the coun-try, adding that it will be com-pleted soon. He said thatwelfare projects are the toppriority of IIRO SecretaryGeneral, adding that peopleof Saudi Arabia consider Pa-kistan their second home. Hesaid that welfare projects arenot for any favour but this isour duty.—APP

ISLAMABAD: PTI Chairman Imran Khan, with PTI candidate Asad Umar, speaking toparty workers at an Iftar.

Relief to faithfulsISLAMABAD—Federal Minister for Re-ligious Affairs Sardar MuhammadYousaf on Wednesday said that Paki-stan Muslim League Nawaz, govern-ment is working on new Hajj policy toprovide relief to faithful. He said thatthe government is making plan to re-duce the Hajj fares for the next year sothat the people who are intending to goSaudi Arabia to perform Hajj could availbetter facilities besides reduce fares.

Talking to media he said that the government is also takingsteps to meet the growing demand in the energy sector. Hesaid that PML-N government had adopted a comprehen-sive strategy for controlling gas and electricity theft, add-ing that strict action would be taken against the elementsfound involved in this heinous activity. Replying to a ques-tion about terrorism, he said like Punjab, the other prov-inces should take measures to maintain peace and tran-quility in their areas. Earlier, he said that no laxity in pro-viding comfort to the Hujjaj would be tolerated and strictaction would be taken against the responsible. Referringto his visit of Saudi Arabia, he said the visit was success-ful and he discussed providing more facilities to PakistaniHujjaj. The Saudi authorities have agreed to provide properspace to Pakistani Hujjaj at old Minna. More over theMakatib of Pakistani Hujjaj would be nearer to railway sta-tions. The approval to establish a medical camp for Paki-stani pilgrims has been accorded by the Saudi Authorities.Government was trying to ensure cheaper hajj and from Rs25,000 to Rs 35000 would be refunded to the governmentscheme pilgrims. He admitted that the buildings hired forHujjaj a bit far away from Haram Sharif however the pil-grims would be provided efficient transport services. Forfour to six hujjaj there is one wash room. He congratulatedthe nation for celebrating Ramazan moon across the coun-try at same day. He hoped that the Eid-ul-Fitr would becelebrated across the country same day.—APP

Tributes to Madar-i-MillatISLAMABAD—Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf(PTI) Women’s Wing President andMNA Munazza Hassan Wednesdaypaid tribute to Madar-i- Millat MohtarmaFatima Jinnah for setting an example forthe women that how to dedicate them-selves to the cause of Pakistan to makeit a great nation. During her meeting witha delegation of PTI women leaders hereon the eve of Fatima Jinnah Day beingcommemorated on her 120th birth anni-

versary, PTI Women Wing President, Munazza Hassanurged women of the country to follow the footprints of MsJinnah, stating that the Madar-i-Millat had led from thefront struggling for democratic order in the country againstthe then dictator General Ayub Khan. “On behalf of all thePTI members, especially the women, I want to express ad-miration for Madar-i-Millat Fatima Jinnah who showed thewomen how to dedicate themselves to the cause of Paki-stan in order to make it a great nation,” said MunazzaHassan. She said that the sacrifices rendered by FatimaJinnah, her total and selfless devotion to the cause of Pa-kistan was and remains a source of inspiration and guid-ance for all of us. “Equally, her dedication to the dream ofa democratic Pakistan which led her to bravely and force-fully confront the Ayub dictatorship is a lesson for all ofus in resoluteness and fearlessness,” she added. “As wecommemorate her Day, we should resolve to follow theinspirational path set by her so that we can work towardsthe vision Quaid-i-Azam and Madar-i-Millat had for Paki-stan,” concluded the PTI leader.—APP

Sheikh Rashid blasts govt behaviourISLAMABAD—Chief of Awami MuslimLeague (AML) Sheikh Rashid Ahmad hasalleged that government has got stoppedbroadcasting of his inter-view at a TVchannel to punish him for not castingvotes in presidential polls. In his exclu-sive talks with Online Wednesday he saidhis special in-terview with a private TVchannel anchor person encompassingpresidential polls and prevailing situationof the country was re-corded and it was

to be broad cast on Tuesday evening. Nawaz governmentforcibly got stopped broadcasting of his inter-view, he saidadding this way the government on one side punished himfor not casting ballot in presi-dential elections and on theother side trampled the right to freedom of expression. Hesaid it was the first time after Musharraf regime that a demo-cratic government has repeated dictato-rial history by sup-pressing freedom of expression by dint of power . Ends/OnlineIt was reported earlier that Awami Muslim League (AML)President and MNA Sheikh Rasheed Ahmed ex-tended sup-port to Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf’s (PTI) presidential candi-date Justice (retd) Wajiuddin Ah-med for the presidential elec-tions. Rasheed, though, could not contain his surprise atPTI’s decision to field a candidate and said that he was un-able to understand why PTI chief Im-ran Khan had decidedcontest the presidential elections after the al-leged riggingsduring the May 11 general elections. “I am observing theswiftly changing political situation in the country and willhold a meeting with Imran to convince him to boycott thepresi-dential elections. The decision will only be taken after Ihave cast my vote in the presidential election” he said. Refer-ring to the election symbol of the ruling Pakistan Muslim League– Nawaz (PML-N), Rasheed said that the ‘Tiger’ has disfiguredthe face of democracy by smashing its paws.—APP

Indian Army grabbing 300 kanals landISLAMABAD—In occupied Kashmir theveteran Hurriyet leader, Syed Ali Gilanihas expressed deep concern over the re-ports that Indian Army is conducting asurvey for occupying 300 Kanals ofKahcharai land in Tangmarg Manglora,Lolapora, Hard Bani and Takiya Batpora.Syed Ali Gilani in a statement in Srinagarsaid the puppet administration has be-trayed the people by telling them thatthe land was being surveyed for the pro-

posed Agriculture University, Kashmir Media Service re-ported. “However the administration is now hesitating tocome up with explanation and fails to say whether the landis being used for University or as a military camp,” he said.According to his spokesman, a deputation comprising el-ders from the said villages apprised the veteran leader aboutthe land issue and said they were cheated by the adminis-tration. They said that Tehsildar and DC obtained their sig-natures on a blank paper saying that the proposed Univer-sity would provide jobs to their wards. “The administrationremained silent for two years and now the army personnelhave started the survey of the said Kahchari land and it isestablished that they plan to set up a permanent militarycamp on the Kahcharai land,” the spokesman added. APPJammu and Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) ChairmanMohammad Yasin Malik has said that July 31 signifies anepoch- making event in the resistance history of Jammu andKashmir. Yasin Malik was addressing a convention of Frontworkers at Maqbool Manzil in Srinagar, which was held inconnection with the Silver Jubilee of resistance phase of thefreedom movement that started on July 31, 1988 with someblasts at Lal Chowk in the city.—APP

HESCO to providepower connection in

24 hoursHYDERABAD—The manage-ment of Hyderabad ElectricSupply Company (HESCO)has established specialcounters in its all OperationDivision Office to discour-age power theft and for pro-viding electricity connectionto consumers within 24hours.

The HESCO spokesmaninformed here on Wednes-day that a massive joint cam-paign of unearthing the ille-gal connection is being car-ried out by FIA and HESCOwith registration of an FIRand further action.—APP

Senior doctorkidnapped

Q U E T T A — U n k n o w narmed men kidnapped a se-nior doctor, Assistant Prof.Dr Muhammad Ahmed ofthe Bolan Medical Collegehospital from Airport road,here on Wednesday.

Police sources said thathe was on his way whenunidentified armed men in-tercepted his vehicle ongunpoint and took himaway to unknown destina-tion.

“Four armed kidnappersforced the doctor to boardtheir vehicle near ShaikManda area on Airport roadand took him away to un-known destination,” policesaid. The police have regis-tered a case.—APP

PESHAWAR—An expert fromWorld Health OrganizationAli visited Habib Physio-therapy Complex, Peshawarand examined polio affectedchildren for possible correc-tive surgeries. A number ofpatients were present thereand unfortunately, the casesbeyond the age of 20 to 25had developed permanentdeformities leading to per-manent disabilities whereinsurgery was not possible.

These patients were ei-ther wheel chair ridden or oncrutches. The complicationsof polio are atrophy, wast-ing of muscles, deformity,

contractures and shorteningof limbs. Due to lack ofawareness, the parents ofsuch children could not man-age exercise regime under thesupervision of a physio-therapist which leads to per-manent disabilities.

If the above three men-t ioned complicat ions areprevented through physio-therapy and proper exer-cise, would leave better re-sults with a small surgery,one can have normal life.The Habib PhysiotherapyComplex offers free phys-iotherapy for such childrenif they are brought at early

stage, the above men-tioned complications maybe avoided. Habib Physio-therapy is in coordinationwith other organizationslike World Health Organi-zation, the corrective sur-geries and art if icial sup-ports could be providedfree of cost, here free sur-geries are done by WorldHealth Organization.

Some patients as men-tioned above are chronic innature, with permanent dis-abilities needs vocationaltraining and self-employmentfor which the assistance is tobe sought.—APP

SHAFFAAT MALIK

TALAGANG—The authoritiesconcerned have yet to takeany action against butcherswho are selling unhygienicmeat in Talagang. Local ad-ministration has fixed theprices of different commodi-ties, but no solid mechanism,to check the quality of meat,has been put into affect.

Most of the butchers havebeen selling the meat of un-healthy animals. They hangthe patches of beef and meaton the door of their shopsearly in the morning and itgoes highly septic being thetarget of flies and mosquitoeswhich continue to hover over

it the whole day long. Thenasty practice has been goingunabated and still remains un-checked due to which thepeople are suffering from sev-eral fatal diseases.

The residents told thiscorrespondent that thebutchers were often foundslaughtering animals in theirhouses or around theirshops instead of slaughter-ing them in local slaughterhouses. Local and socialcircles have demanded seri-ous actions against culprits.

*****There are quite a few

sports stadiums in TalagangTehsil but unfortunately theseare in horrible condition due

to non supervision. Hundredsand thousands of people canbe entertained through thesestadiums.

These stadiums are notunder any department that’swhy these are not properlylooked after. Social and localcircles have demanded thatthese sports facilities shouldbe given under Tehsil Munici-pal Administration’s supervi-sion so that people of thesevillages can get full advan-tage from these facilities. Thepeople say that they havebeen demanding this for longtime but authorities are notgiving much attention to thisissue as they are busy in theirso-called political interests.

PESHAWAR—Provincial Min-ister for Communication andWorks Yousuf AyubWednesday visitedPeshawar Central Jail and ex-amined the constructionprojects. General ManagerNESPAK Asif Khan accom-panied the minister andbriefed him regarding the de-signs of the buildings andalso hurdles in execution ofcertain construction works.

The Minister directed theofficials concerned to expe-

dite the construction workand ensure quality of workas well as completion of theseprojects within stipulatedtime period. Meanwhile, thesecurity of Peshawar CentralJail and other jails in the prov-ince was beefed up in thewake of terrorist attack onDera Central Jail. Thestrength of security officialshave been multiplied.

Lahore: Punjab MinisterRana Sanaullah on Wednes-day severely criticised

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa gov-ernment over its failure toavert attack on central jail inDeral Ismail Khan. Talking tomedia outside Punjab As-sembly, in the aftermath of theDI Khan jail break, PakistanMuslim League-Nawaz(PML-N) leader RanaSanaullah called for KhyberPakhtunkhwa Chief MinisterPervaiz Khattak’s resigna-tion.

He ridiculed PervezKhattak, terming him as “thin

wrestler.” adding that Paki-stan Tehreek-e-Insaaf (PTI)chief Imran Khan must giveanswer to the nation and ac-cept the fact that PTI is notgood enough to rule theprovince. Criticising the fail-ure of concerned authoritiesin this prison break,Sanaullah said PakistanTehreek-e-Insaf chairmanImran Khan should tell thepeople of Pakistan who is re-sponsible for the attack andhow will the provincial gov-

ernment compensate thedamages.

The minister said intelli-gence agencies had warnedabout the attack a day ear-lier. Slamming K-P CM formaking severity claims yettaking advantage of all theofficial facilities, the PML-Nleader said Khattak shouldavoid making such tall, emptyclaims and focus on his work.He added that the jail breakhas caused disappointmentto the people.—INP

Minister for expeditingconstruction projects in Peshawar jail

KP CM should resign after DI Khan jail attack: Sanaullah

No action against butchersselling unhygienic meat

WHO rep visits HPC toexamine polio affected children

BAHAWALPUR—Minister ofState for Education Trainingand Standards in Higher Edu-cation Muhammad BaligurRehman on Wednesday saidthe government was in theprocess of consultation withprovinces to introduce uni-form system of education inthe country. Talking to APP,he said the government wouldprovide free education to thedeserving students of lessdeveloped areas.

He said the governmenthad also announced to pro-vide free education at higherlevel to the students ofBahawalpur, Multan, DeraGhazi Khan Divisions and

remote areas of Sindh andBalochistan. The scope ofFederal Board will be ex-panded throughout the coun-try and a regional office ofFederal Board for SouthernPunjab will soon be set up inBahawalpur, he added.

The Minister said Re-gional Office of Higher Edu-cation Commission inBahawalpur will help in pro-moting higher education inthe area. He said the PML-Ngovernment was fully commit-ted to resolving the problemsof people. He said that trans-fer of power in a democraticmanner was a positive signand development.—APP

Govt consultingprovinces for uniformed

education policy

HYDERABAD: Residents of village Wasoo Kolhi hold a demonstration in support oftheir demands.

GUL HAMAAD FAROOQI

CHITRAL—Due to low volt-age and unscheduled loadshedding in different parts ofChitral town the ConsumerCourt arrested 3 Pesco(Peshawar Electricity SupplyCompany) officers in the pre-mises of Court territory andsent to Jail. According toAdditional Session JudgeChitral M. Jamal Khan law-yers of Chitral including QaziSajjad Ahmad, Alam Zeb,Raza Ali, Nizam Mustafa,Sajidullah and MuhammadAzeem Baig advocates sub-mitted an application beforethe Consumer Judge at Dis-trict and session judge courtChitral with a plea that theypay utility bill like other partsof the country but Pesco be-have them step mother.

Due to low voltage so

many home appliances dam-aged as well as Pesco staffexercising 12 to 36 hours con-tinue load shedding in differ-ent parts of Chitral Townarea. Despite the fact thatDrosh Tehsil has its ownSheshi power house ofSHYDO, Ayun valley is elec-trifying by an private con-tractor hydro power station,Sub division Mastuj andsome parts of sub divisionChitral is being supply elec-tricity from Reshun hydropower house of SHYDO.Similarly Singor has ownpower house of 1 Megawattby Wapda and 8 megawattpower is being generating atupper parts of Chitral by anon government organiza-tion through micro hydropower stations.

As well as main transmis-sion line has been carried to

Chitral from national Grid sta-tion Dir via Lawari top itsvoltage is very low andmostly out of order. Evenpeople deprived from elec-tricity in this holy month ofRamzan and diesel generatorswere also not operated.Sheshi and Reshun powerhoused has some sparepower but Pesco staff reluc-tant to utilize them becauseof difference in their rates.The lawyers told this scribethat a huge number of staffhas been employed at Pescooperation and local grid sta-tion but they not perform theirduty honestly. Pesco staffwas disconnecting links oftransformers of different ar-eas and connect them after12 to 24 and sometime 36hours only to save them-selves from duty andhardworking.

Low voltage, unscheduled load shedding;Three Pesco officers sent to jail

QUETTA: FC personnel patrolling on the roads to avoid any untoward situation in the city.

FAISALABAD: Activists of All Pakistan Clerks Association hold a demonstration foracceptance of their demands.

I S L A M A B A D — M o n s o o nrains will continue in differ-ent parts of the country dur-ing the next few days, ac-cording to the Pakistan Me-teorological Department(PMD). The synoptic situa-tions says that a well markedseasonal low was lying overnorthwest Balochistan andadjoining areas. Monsoonalcurrents from the Arabian Seawere penetrating into mostparts of the country. Rain andthundershower is likely inscattered places of Kashmirand Hazara division and atisolated places of UpperKhyber Pakhtunkhwa andNortheast Punjab during thenext 24 hours.

The places includingMalakand, Peshawar,

Rain to continuefor next few days

Rawalpindi, Gujranwala,Lahore, Bannu, D.I. Khan,Zhob and Kalat divisions arelikely to recieve rain andthundershower. The maxi-mum temperatures recorded

during the last 24 hours wereIslamabad 38 C, Lahore 36 C,Karachi 32 C, Peshawar 32 C,Quetta 40 C, Skardu 38 C,Murree 24 C, Muzzafarabad33 C, Gilgit 42 C, Faisalabad40 C, Multan 38 andHyderabad 34 C.—APP

Havoc DIKescapees can causeSOMEWHAT fuller details are now available of what and how ex

actly it happened in DI Khan where dozens of heavily armed Talibanfighters freed nearly 250 prisoners, including hardcore ones, dur-

ing a sophisticated overnight assault on the central jail, which also left 13people dead. The attackers were in large number; well-trained, used po-lice uniform and had apparently right connections and information aboutthe jail, its inmates and what was the opportune time to mount the attack.Taliban have claimed that some 150 including 60 suicide bombers camein over one dozen vehicles, took part in the operation and freed about 300prisoners.

A blame game has begun and scapegoats are being found to shiftthe responsibility on others of the gory episode that is sheer shame forour intelligence and administrative/security apparatus. KPK Chief Min-ister Pervez Khattak is trying to hide negligence and inefficiency of hisforce by terming the incident as intelligence failure despite the factthat, according to reports, there were intelligence warnings about suchthreats and a meeting of police and army units concerned was heldprior to the attack. What justification he has to offer for the lapse thatout of 200 guards just 70 were on duty at the time of attack and many ofthem too fled to save their own lives leaving even their weapons be-hind that were taken away by Taliban as bounty. The arrangements thatexisted to guard the jail and prevent such attacks were appalling andinnocent people will have to pay the price as it is understood that thosewho escaped would carry out attacks and suicide bombings with re-newed commitment. They have the potential to cause havoc to the lawand order and life of the citizens and the situation becomes all the morecomplicated when one considers the state of preparedness of our intel-ligence and security apparatus. The fact that policemen, who have beenemployed for the sole duty of ensuring security of life and property,themselves ran away from the scene is also reflective of the level ofcommitment to the duty and calls for thorough review of the recruit-ment criteria and the process. As existing laws are either not sufficientor suffer from lacunae and the routine judiciary system has miserablyfailed to ensure speedy trial of those who commit heinous crimes, thereis need to take steps to rectify the situation on war footing.

Working six days a weekAS there was almost no governance in the country during the last five

years, institutions, organizations and entities have been pushed tothe brink of virtual collapse. The entire system seems to be caving in dueto worst kind of mismanagement and corruption that we witnessed dur-ing PPP era.

It was all the more intriguing that those at the helm of affairs didnot bother to take corrective measures and instead took ill-advisedsteps that accentuated the process of deterioration in almost everywalk of life. One such measure was introduction of two weekly holi-days on the pretext of conserving energy despite the fact that suchapproaches in the past proved to be exercise in futility. The PunjabGovernment, which had been workaholic under its Chief Minister,declined to oblige the Federal Government on this account but re-grettably the caretaker Government of the province joined the federalbandwagon of shirkers. One expected that the Government of PrimeMinister Nawaz Sharif, who himself works overtime, would reintro-duce the six-day week but so far the issue has unfortunately not at-tracted his attention. However, one must pay compliments to Rail-ways Minister Khwaja Saad Rafiq who has taken the right step ofabolishing two weekly holidays in the department as part of the re-forms to put the railway back on track. In fact, two-day weekend is aluxury afforded by developed countries who have surplus productiv-ity and not for countries like Pakistan who have to travel a long wayto accelerate growth and achieve prosperity. We, therefore, hope thatthe Prime Minister would appreciate the step taken by his cabinetcolleague and take a decision to apply it across the board.

Some MPs followtheir conscience

AFTER his election as President, Mamnoon Hussain is receiving congratulations from every nook and corner of the country and he rightly

deserves so. However what is particularly interesting and note worthy isthe emerging contour in our democratic polity, leaving aside the contro-versy over holding of early elections after the court verdict.

The PTI candidate Wajihuddin Ahmed got extra votes in Sindh andBalochistan Assemblies than expected with the strength of his party. Itmeans that some of the MPs on appeals of the Presidential candidateand Imran Khan, voted in accordance to their conscience by floutingtheir parties directives. In established democracies, MPs give their in-puts and vote according to their conscience setting aside their partyconsiderations. One hears about it more frequently in the United Stateswhere the Democrats and Republicans vote on merit and it is not takenas violation of party discipline. However in many liberal democracies,particularly those that follow the parliamentary system of government,the elected members of a legislature who belong to a political party areusually required by that party to vote in accordance with the party lineon important occasions or significant legislation, or face censure orexpulsion from the party. According to reports Mr Wajihuddin Ahmedgot one extra vote each in Sindh and Balochistan Assemblies thatmade his polling agents overjoyed despite losing the elections. Thisdevelopment re-establishes that conscience sometime reigns supremeover the discipline and requirements of all sorts. We hope that withthe passage of time, MPs would enjoy greater freedom of expressionand that would further strengthen the roots of democracy.

Divided Muslim Ummah

All things cancorrupt pervertedminds.

EU’s Egyptconcern

The interest of the international community to brokeran understanding between

the ruling military and the agitat-ing opposition on the streets is awelcome development. The Euro-pean Union’s efforts in this regardare outstanding. EU’s ForeignPolicy Chief Catherine Ashton,who for long had been campaign-ing for a plausible way out of thecrisis and had also met Army ChiefGeneral Abdel Fateh Al Sisi and In-terim President Mahmoud Adli, hasreportedly had a one-on-one discus-sion with detained presidentMohammed Mursi.

The ice has been broken andwill come as a great consolation,at least, for the Muslim Brother-hood supporters who wanted theirousted leader to be heard. Ashton,after meeting Mursi at an undis-closed location, said that he is welland enjoys access to newspapersand follwed developments. Thoughit is not known as to what transpiredbetween the two and whether anyreconciliation strategy was dis-cussed, it goes without saying thatit will go a long way in scalingdown tension on Tahrir Square,which had seen uninterrupted pro-tests for the last two weeks. Thedeaths has only hardened themilitary’s stance and it has warnedpolitical protesters from both sidesof the divide to either abandon theircampaign or risk the army’s directintervention.

With Ashton having metMursi, and international demandsfor his immediate release getting ashot in the arm, it is now time forboth the interim administration andthe opposition parties to sit downfor a dialogue over the future of thecountry and evolve a way out. Thefact is that Ashton’s visit to Cairo,where she had been camping for thelast several days, has come closeon the heels of another high-pow-ered diplomatic sojourn launchedby European diplomats. Earlier,Washington too had sent in its spe-cial envoy, Deputy Secretary ofState William Burns, to Cairo hop-ing that dialogue with both the gov-ernment and the opposition wouldhelp overcome the standoff in theNorthern African Arab country.

It is pertinent to note that notonly the US and Europe but alsomany of the regional and Asiancountries, including Turkey, arepressing for a scaling down of ten-sion. They are, indeed, right in be-lieving that until and unless a fullyinclusive transition is brokered,socio-political issues would be farfrom settled. —Khaleej Times

*****

Palestine-Israeltalks offerfalse hope

The latest round of Palestinian-Israeli peace talks aredoomed to fail. The two sides

have agreed to meet for at least ninemonths, but waiting this long be-fore ending the talks will be a wasteof time, effort and money by allsides involved. A right-wing Israeligovernment is being forcibly ca-joled into the talks by the US,which is concerned about its secu-rity interests in the increasinglyvolatile region, but has no coher-ent Middle East strategy. Palestin-ian President Mahmoud Abbasfaces opposition to the talks fromwithin the Palestinian LiberationOrganisation; while Hamas, whichcontrols Gaza, has also rejectedthem. Without Hamas and Gaza,there can be no settlement.

The appointment of former USambassador to Israel, Martin Indyk,as a special envoy to the talks is ablunder. Indyk is too close to Is-rael to be to a fair and independentarbiter and his appointment is a slapon the face for the Palestinians. Ifthe US had a sober, considered ap-proach to resolving the central con-flict in the Middle East, it wouldhave found a credible alternative.There has also been no sign that anycompromise has been reached onthe substantial issues that have sty-mied peace talks so far — most im-portantly the borders of a Palestin-ian state. Israel has continued itsland grab through the expansion ofits colonies and building of the se-curity fence. It is hard to believethat these talks are nothing morethan an effort by America and Is-rael to buy time until stability re-turns to the region. —Gulf News

MEDIA WATCH

—OvidRoman poet

The unholy practice of Muslims fighting among eachother is in vogue in many

Muslim countries. Tunisia, Egypt,Jordan, Algeria, Bahrain, Yemen,Saudi Arabia and Kuwait had gotinfected by the Arab Spring in 2011,possibly triggered by CIA andMosad. As a result, there were re-gime changes in Tunisia, Egypt andYemen. Despite the change in re-gimes, infighting in the three coun-tries is still continuing.

The Afghans had collectivelyfought the Soviet forces in 1980s butstarted fighting among each otherafter the Soviets departed in Febru-ary 1989. Cleavage between Pashtunand non-Pashtun Afghans accentu-ated once Taliban seized power in1996. The country progressed welldespite the sanctions and most of thesocietal vices were effectivelypurged because of application ofShariah. Northern Alliance readilyjoined hands with the US to fightthe ruling Taliban in October 2001.After bloodying Afghanistan forover 12 years, the occupiers are nowmollycoddling the outcast Taliban tohold peace talks. The US would quitAfghanistan in December 2014, butthe war-torn country would remainin turmoil. Afghans will continue tofight among each other for a verylong time and its spillover effectswould fall upon Pakistan.

Both Iraq and Iran were eco-nomically drained and militarily en-feebled in 8-year futile war insti-gated by the US. Despite the longwar with Iran, First Gulf War in 1991and prolonged harsh sanctions, Iraqretained its military and economicpower under Saddam Hussein. Weknow how the US faked WMD caseand made it into a pretext to destroyIraq in 2003. Iraqi Shias and Kurds

Gwadar Port: Growing beyond

HURMAT GROUP OF PUBLICATIONSZahid Malik

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Sunday Magazine

Sadia Zahid MalikEditor

Ph: 2852027-8, Ext: 116Email: [email protected]

Even in times as challengingas these, abundant opportunities still exist for growth.

It is the country’s responsibility toexplore and properly exploit theseopportunities to the full — by ex-panding into new markets, findingnew ways to innovate rapid ad-vancements of economic structuresand taking new approaches to dis-cover and refine local talent. SincePakistan is also currently faced withtrade deficits and a flailingeconomy, it is a real hour need tointegrate the economy with globalmarkets via new and expanded eco-nomic engagements.

Pakistan is blessed with a seacoastline of approximately 1100km, stretching to the West andSoutheast axis. Over 36,000 shipstransit through Pakistan’s zone ofinfluence each year. Pakistan’s to-tal annual trade is about 38 mil-lion tons, of which approx 95%takes place via the Arabian Sea.Karachi port handles 68%,whereas Port Qasim takes care of32% of all sea-borne trade. Theprojected rise in total trade by theyear 2015 is 91 million tons, whichwill increase shipping activity phe-nomenally at existing ports. In fact,economicdependence of Pakistanon sea routes for trade and com-merce is of cardinal importance forthe country’s economic survival.Against this backdrop, Gwadarport meets the envisioned targets

in Iraq were instigated by theUS and UK to fight Sunni re-gime led by Saddam. GenMcChrystal pitched Sunnisagainst al-Qaeda in crucialbattles of Ambar and Fallujahin 2006-07 and then fomented

sectarian war. The occupation forcesafter taking control over oil exitedfrom Iraq in December 2009 but leftthe country in chaos. Although Shiasare now ruling Iraq, but sectarian warwhich peaked in 2007-08 continue tofester and smolder. The Sunnis feel-ing sidelined and deceived havejoined al-Qaeda and are striking Shiasto bring down Nurul Maliki’s gov-ernment. Sunnis and Shias are wan-tonly drawing blood of each othergiving an extremely perilous dimen-sion to sectarian war. 2013 is prov-ing to be a deadly year in which 1000people lost their lives in May alone.

Libyans in exile and those whohad defected from Libyan Army andPolice together with handful of dis-gruntled elements formed the rebelgroup to topple Muammar Qaddafiregime. They were supported by threeworld powers, US, France and UK aswell as al-Qaeda starting February2011. Excessive air power of NATOtogether with depleted uranium wasused to defeat government forces.Besides some Arab countries, Sudanhad also extended support to Libyanrebels for the reason that Qaddafi hadsupported Sudanese rebels in 2008.

Qaddafi had provided free elec-tricity to all, provided loans withoutinterest, awarded $50,000 to the new-lyweds, provided free education andmedical care to all, gave free of costland, equipment, seed, livestock andhouse to Libyans who took up farm-ing, made available a car on 50%government subsidized price to abuyer, fixed price of petrol at $0.4 perlitre, sent a portion of Libyan oil saledirectly to the bank accounts of allLibyans and gave handsome salaries.Libya had become a model Islamicwelfare state under Qaddafi. He wasbrutally murdered by the US basedneo-con Zionists to capture Libyan

oil to save sinking US economy andto enslave Libyans. The country isnow webbed in chaos and sooner thanlater there will be bloody civil war.

Sunni rebels and assorted militiasin Syria aided by foreign powers arefighting Bashar al-Assad’s Shia re-gime. While USA, western world,Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Qatar andHamas are supporting the rebels, Rus-sia, China, Iran and Hezbollah are sup-porting Bashar. Irked by Assad’s defi-ance and failure of the rebels to topplehim, Obama has now openly declaredhis intention to arm Syrian rebels. Allout efforts are in hand to repeat thestory of Libya in Syria where so far100,000 people have died. But forMoscow and Beijing’s stand essen-tially because of their economic stakes,by now a regime change might havetaken place. Syrians seemingly uncon-cerned with Libyan tragedy have notlearnt any lesson and are madly fight-ing among each other since the startof 2011.Notwithstanding Syria’s de-mographic imbalance wherein 11%Shia Alawides are ruling, fact is thatAssad dynasty leading Baathist Partyturned Syria into a strong country andis only country left in Arab world thatstands up to Israel’s bullying. Syriaaligned with Hezbollah in Lebanon,Hamas in Gaza & Iran had emergedas a formidable challenge to Israeldesiring unchallenged monopoly inME. This grouping has been crackedup by embroiling Syria in deadly sec-tarian war, isolating and corneringIran, impelling two allies Hezbollah& Hamas to become opponents inSyrian war on sectarian basis.

Islamic government under popu-list President Muhammad Morsi wasestablished for the first time in Egypton June 30, 2012 and Muslim Broth-erhood (MB) renamed as Justice &Freedom Party. His experiment ofoperating Islamic system within theprecincts of secular state structuredidn’t appease the indignant liber-als who wanted consensus constitu-tion ignoring the fact that it was ap-proved by 63.8% votes. Restrictionof powers of judiciary and removal

of senior military brass by Morsiangered both the judiciary and theArmy. When the secular-liberals as-sembled at Tahrir square in largenumbers on June 30, 2013 and de-manded resignation of Morsi andre-elections, the Army consideredit a God given opportunity to ex-ploit their charged sentiments. Withundue haste it sacked the Presidenton 3 July, held the Constitution inabeyance, dissolved Islamic domi-nated Upper House of Parliamentand appointed chief justice of su-preme constitutional court AdlyMansoor as interim president.While several countries condemnedthe military coup, the US didn’t do.

Liberals euphoria may not lastfor long since they are in minorityand MB is the most organized andstrongest political party in Egyptwith considerable street power. Lib-erals neither have the capacity toconfront them politically or physi-cally in the streets nor the ability toform a long lasting stable govern-ment. Unless the Army acts pru-dently and resolves the matter ami-cably, the crisis is likely to balloonup into a bloody civil war with hor-rendous consequences for the coun-try as well as the region.

Noose around Iran’s neck wasgradually tightened to force it toabandon its nuclear program. WhilePakistan was pressured to cancelIran-Pakistan gas pipeline project,the Arab world was frightened thatIran has ambitions to export Shiasminto Arab states. Iran was repeat-edly threatened by USA and Israelthat its nuclear sites will be de-stroyed. All these draconian mea-sures brought severe strains onIran’s economy and added to thehardships of the people. It thus be-came easier to defeat the populistleader Ahmadinejad and get Re-formist Hassan Rowhani electedas President with a thin majorityof 51% in June 2013 election. TheUS led Western world is quite ex-cited about the change and is feel-ing much relaxed.

of its economic viability, which canfurther be ensured through the de-velopment of its infrastructure andassuring and increasing its connec-tivity with the hinterland.

Gwadar is an important port inthis context, with tremendous eco-nomic spin offs, situated at the cuspof the Strait of Hormuz and the Gulfof Oman, from where almost 80 per-cent oil of world trade flows. Besidesits geo-strategic importance, the portmay serve as a cornerstone of eco-nomic development for Pakistan andBalochistan, and has the potential toentirely change the dynamics of in-ter and intra regional states and thefortune of its people. The port servesas the mother port at the junction oftraditional ancient sea routes, oppo-site the Strait of Hormuz and canserve as the best alternative to thePersian Gulf ports for accommodat-ing large ships and oil tankers. Thiswould also lead to increasing accessand control of the transit trade ofCentral Asian states as well as thefacilitation of transshipment betweendifferent regions.

The deep-sea port at Gwadar isvisualized as a regional capital hub,serving commercial traffic to andfrom Central Asian Republics(CARs), Afghanistan, the MiddleEast, the Gulf, Xinjiang, Iran, andSouth East Asia. The Gulf countriesare more dependent on imports fromaround the world, all except for oil.At present, Gulf is on the focal plateof the world due to increasing insta-bility in region, especially after theArab Spring. Specifically, impend-ing conflict between Iran and the

West which may, at any moment, re-sult in a blockade of Gulf by the Westand the US. In this case Gwadarwould become even more importantas it would be the only choice left forthese states. The unique geographi-cal location of Gwadar port providesgreater opportunities to our neighborsin the Gulf for capitalizing on tradefrom China and the CARs.

According to one estimate,CARs possess up to 250 billion bar-rels of petroleum and as well as largegas reserves. As the fossil fuel re-serves elsewhere are rapidly beingdepleted, growing economic powersare now focusing on this region. Anumber of dream pipeline projectsare already at various stages of de-velopment, including one that wouldpass through Afghanistan and Paki-stan to reach warm waters throughGwadar. It provides an economicalroute for the flow of Central Asia’snatural resources to the world alongwith easy access to the growing con-sumer markets of Asia. Unfortu-nately, India has many apprehen-sions regarding this port, in whichthe foremost is that Pakistan wouldhave greater control of more of theworld’s energy circulation and In-dian tankers will be excluded.

Beside this, sour relations be-tween Iran and the US and Westerncountries provides enough reasons forthe international community to opt forGwadar rather than another port inthe Persian region. Due to these fac-tors Gwadar is going to be the homeof major shipping competitors as itis the most efficient route to IndianOcean for world markets. Therefore,

keeping in mind the importance ofSea Line of communications(SLOCs) for provision of uninter-rupted oil supply, Gwadar portwould provide a much-needed al-ternate for Karachi/ Qasim ports. Assoon as Gwadar goes operational,the establishment of special eco-nomic zones, free trade zones, andExport Processing Zones (EPZ) willattract foreign investment creatinga rapid socio-economic uplift forBalochistan and will be witnessedvia the change in the living stan-dards of people dwelling in thebackward areas of Balochistan.

Furthermore, the unique and at-tractive landscape of Gwadar hasimmense potential to attract nationaland international tourists. The mudhillocks, the God gifted landscapelooks as if engraved by an artist. Theturquoise sea water with goldensand beaches facing south is unpar-alleled. Today, the major super pow-ers are focusing on the Middle Eastand Asia with the primary concernof protecting economic interests inthe form of free flow of oil from theGulf region, as well as tapping thenatural resources of the CentralAsian Republics. Gwadar holds animportant key to Pakistan’s socio-economic prosperity particularly forthe Baloch people, by ending an eraof deprivation, and encouragingthem to work for regional progressand prosperity. However, Pakistanneeds to adopt a balanced approachto ensuring stability, security andcooperation rather than conflict andconfrontation with its neighbors, aswell as the international community.

Asif Haroon RajaEmail: [email protected]

Adeela Khan

Voice of the People

Time to wake upMUKHTAR AHMED BUTT

The militants are getting strongerday by day. Our law enforcementagencies are under constant attackby militants in every nook and cor-ner of the country inflicting heavycasualties on our soldiers guardingcountry’s frontier. The attack on ISIHQ in Sukkur and deadly attack inParachanar on Friday that killed 45and injured 75 innocent peopleshould be an eye opener for the gov-ernment. We are not there to issuestatements condoling with the fami-lies or announcing some sort ofcompensation for the bereaved fami-lies but to stop such incidents asthese can not substitute human livesand sufferings of the families.

On Saturday armed man at-tacked check post manned by CoastGuards on Pakistan- Iran border kill-ing 10 soldiers besides injuring four.One prominent thing that stands outis that most of the check posts arelocated at isolated places with hardly10 to 15 personnel strength that al-ways out match the attackers whoare in much greater strength armedwith heavy weapons, mortars, rock-ets. The unfortunate part is that noreinforcement can reach when theyare being attacked and militants getaway easily or suffer just few casu-alties. In fact Pakistan state is underattack. If that be the case, whatshould be our priority?

How long you will continue fac-ing attacks on army, FC, levies andpolice. Non-stop ever increasing at-tacks by militants are certainly low-ering the moral of the forces that issomething we should be worried. Itis very strange that we continue fol-lowing out dated SOP’s of manningcheck posts thus allowing free handto militants to attack our soldiers.As an immediate temporary precau-tion all check posts entry points mustbe heavily mined keeping sufficientdistance from the check posts andposts should be strong enough towithstand rocket launcher attacksthat would give them time to callfor reinforcement.

It is so sad that we are busy in“Joor Toor” and not pushed to takea decision on militant’s issue. So farthe government has not convenedthe APC on this vital issue of terror-ism and only politicking is going on.Time is running fast if we do not actand only keep reacting things shallgo completely out of control thusendangering and threatening theexistence of state. Time to wake up!—Via email

A shameful actRAJA GHAZANFAR ALI KHAN

I have just heard on a private TVchannel that most cruel dacoits ofPunjab have looted two Chinesepersons at Lahore city. It is shame-ful that such type of incident hap-pened with our most respected for-eigners guests in this Islamic coun-try of Pakistan. This incident hasdefamed the good position of Pa-kistan. It is not first incident butbefore this, many such shamefulincidents have occurred.

We need to set up a special andindependent department of CriminalDetection of highly educated psy-chologists and Scotland trained ex-pert persons with full power for de-tecting and arresting all the criminalspersons, their parents and backingpersons and imprison such criminalin far away Iseland (Kalapani Jail) inorder to eliminate all crimes from hisIslamic country of Pakistan. I hopethat our Prime Minister of Pakistanwill take a serious views of this inci-dent and will establish this most de-partment for crushing all the crimi-nal persons of Pakistan because with-out it, we can not restore peace andorder in Pakistan.—Rawalpindi

Potable waterproblemHASHIM ABRO

It is, indeed, one of the key respon-sibilities of the government to pro-vide essential amenities such as po-table water to people. But unfortu-nately, a huge percentage of the

The time to actM NAEEM QURESHI

The condition of transport and traffic in the city of Karachi is particularly disturbing. Traffic jamsare a common sight in the city, and the traffic officials seem helpless to do anything. And the condi-

tion only seems to worsen, with every passing day. Citizens, from the common man to the governmentVIPs, openly flout traffic rules with blatant disregard for road safety. Patience while driving has becomea thing of the past, as the common man and VIP alike clamor to overtake other vehicles in their bid to getto their destinations early. A common but disturbing sight is that of drivers driving on the wrong side ofthe road, in open violation of traffic regulations. The traffic police force of the city seems to be grosslyunderstaffed to handle the situation, as we see important centers of traffic without a single official tocontrol them. Why is that the financial epicenter of the nation is deprived of an efficient traffic manage-ment system, how can a city that contributes a bulk of the government revenue be ignored in such amanner? Politics aside, there is a genuine need for a better system for regulation of traffic in Karachi,whose citizens continue to suffer every day the workings of a defunct traffic system. The provincialgovernment should recognize the essential rights of citizens who have been clamoring for change for along time. The time to act is now.—Via email

READERS

Email:[email protected]

are requested to typetheir letters legibly withdouble spacing and only onone side of the paper.

—Editor

World must act to end Israeli occupation

The biggest obstacle to a settlement between Israelis and Palestinians today can be summed

up very simply: Israel’s unwillingnessto work for peace. It is benefiting ma-terially and financially from its oc-cupation of Palestinian territories, andit’s getting away with it because im-portant parts of the international com-munity are allowing Israel to operateabove international law.

There is, therefore, no balance ofpower that could lead to peace. Is-rael is too strong and the Palestiniansare too weak. For example, Palestin-ians can’t stop Israel from buildingsettlements in the West Bank — a partof the occupied Palestinian territories.

Israeli policy toward the Pales-tinians has long been based on dis-crimination. The political product ofIsrael’s occupation — the longest inmodern history — has been a de factosystem of apartheid. The economicproduct has been control of agricul-tural land, water, and important sec-tors of the economy.

There is a certain climate ofopinion that entertains the terriblenotion that Palestinian statehood isimpossible, and that the Palestin-

ians must therefore accept theBantustan system that now existsin the West Bank and live under asystem of discrimination. This istotally unacceptable. The best wayto deal with the conflict is to end theIsraeli occupation, allowing Palestin-ians to have a true state — not justclusters of Bantustans — within the1967 borders, and giving full citizen-ship to Palestinians who live in Is-rael. Another way is for Israel to say,“We won’t allow a Palestinian state,”and accept the one-state solution,whereby Israelis and Palestinianswould live together in one mergedpolitical entity where everyone hasequal rights. The world has to under-stand that the possibility of a two-statesolution is vanishing because ofIsrael’s policy of intransigence. If Is-rael wants a two-state solution, how-ever, it has to remove its settlementson the West Bank.

We in the Palestinian NationalInitiative, a political party and move-ment I helped found in 2002, want atwo-state solution immediately, with-out settlements, without discrimina-tion, and with a real state based on1967 borders. If that’s not going tohappen, then the only alternative isthe aforementioned one-state solu-tion. For us, the next 10 years will bea struggle very similar to the one

Martin Luther King Jr. faced in theUnited States and Nelson Mandelafaced in South Africa — fightingagainst a system of apartheid anddemanding our rights.

Of course, the Palestinians haveto get their own political house in or-der, as well. The Palestinian politicalsystem has for decades been under-mined by nepotism and clientelism –political support given in return forfavors. That traditional way of doingthings has weakened the system fromwithin because it has opened the doorto corruption and internal divisions.

We believe Palestinians need amodern political system based on plu-ralism, democratic participation, andrefusal to allow any kind of one-partyrule. Following the 2005–2006 Pal-estinian elections, we ended up hav-ing two one-party systems (Hamas inGaza and Fatah in the West Bank)rather than a pluralistic one.

We want a system with separa-tion of powers, a strong judiciary, andthe complete depoliticization of thesecurity apparatus. We believe thatevery party has the right to run, andthat every party has the right to gov-ern as long as the people elected it,but that no party has the right to apolitical monopoly. In other words,we want a properly functioning de-mocracy. Another important issue is

Views From Abroad

Mustafa Barghouti

populace, especially children, elderlymen and women, have no access toclean water, in spite of the huge fundsbeing expended yearly by govern-ment and INGOs on water supply.

In Sindh, the people are beingforced to drink contaminated water,both, in the urban and rural areas suchas Sukkur, Hyderabad etc. whichcauses various diseases and endan-gers their lives. Corruption and mis-management are great threats to wa-ter supply in the province.

It is undeniably true that Sindh’sshort-term and long-term waterproblems, both, for drinking and ag-ricultural purposes, are solvable. Thefact that they are not is because, asShakespeare said: “The fault, dearBrutus, is not in our stars, But in our-selves, that we are underlings.”However, the Sindhi people mustponder over the above-mentionedShakespearean wisdom so as to getsustainable solution to their chronicwater and other problems in theprovince and for this they need toelect genuine leadership not fake andfraud leadership.—Islamabad

Water terrorismCHANHEZI SANDHU

Pakistan faced a lot of problems afteremerging on the map of the world;water problem was one of them. Atreaty was signed between Pak-Indiawith help of World Bank and somecountries in 1960. According to thistreaty, River Chenab was given to Pak.India will not have right to stop itswater and build any dam on this river.I deeply regret to say, India has startedpreparations to build another dam onriver Chenab which will be five timeslarger than the Baglihar dam. TheIndus water commission in Pakistanhas not even submitted an objectionagainst the project. Media reports saidIndia had issued tenders in connectionwith the construction of the rattle damon river Chenab, located in theKishtawar area of Indian occupiedKashmir. The dam, which is plannedto be constructed in four years, wouldhave the capacity to store one millionacre water and produce 850 megawattsof electricity.

According to reports, Indus wa-ter Treaty commissioner Mirza AsifBaig said Pakistan had already ob-jected to India’s project which wasan open violation of the IWT pact1960. He said the construction of thisdam would severely affect the flowof water in River Chenab. It is outof question, Pakistan’s agricultureand industry is retrogressing day byday due to lack of water and elec-tricity but our government is notlooking serious about this violationby India. Our government should goto international court to get its rightby stopping the construction of thedam. Pakistan can overcome elec-tricity and water crises with waterof Chenab effectively. Pakistan needto take this violation seriously andstrike in UNO. India will have tostop such other dams.—Islamabad

Pak-India dialogueTAREK FATAH

Time frame yes, but more of attitude.Your editorial “Set the time frame fordialogue” has rightly welcomed re-sumption of talks on 27 August be-tween India and Pakistan the twonuclear armed powers. It is true thatMian Nawaz Sharif even before tak-ing over as PM had wished good rela-tions with India and it was in that spirithe invited Indian Prime Minister ManMohan Singh to visit Pakistan.

Relations between India and Pa-kistan have been strained by a num-ber of political issues like Kashmirdispute on which we fought threemajor wars and the bloody war of1971 saw dismemberment of Paki-stan by India to create Bangladesh.Pakistan has always been in the forefront to establish good relations andour sincerity can be seen we hadSimla summit, The Agra summit andthe Lahore summit when Indian PMVajpay visited Pakistan on the invi-tation of Mian Nawaz Sharif in 1999.

Our conflict has wide range of is-sues on the top of the list is Kashmirissue, Wuller Barrage, Siachin conflict,Sir creek, water dispute. As we ap-proach towards some settlement the

social justice, and our initiative putsa lot of effort into supportingwomen’s rights, as well as helpinggroups that are marginalized in so-ciety, such as people with disabili-ties and the poor. Many people inthe region still find it difficult to un-derstand the concepts we are talk-ing about, mainly because they areused to the old way of doing things.And it’s frustrating to see externalforces that claim to support democ-racy and modernization backingthose who practice nepotism and usefavors to buy political support.

That does not mean that thereis no hope for Palestinians. It’s stillpossible for Palestinians to get theirhouse in order. The world is start-ing to recognize that the occupationmust come to an end, and that Is-rael must follow international law.Ultimately, it’s not just up to Israe-lis and Palestinians to make surethat this happens, but also the restof the world as well.The writer is a member of the Pal-estinian Legislative Council, thelegislature of the Palestinian Na-tional Authority. In 2002, he co-founded the Palestinian NationalInitiative, a political party andmovement that advocates for Pal-estinian human rights.—Courtesy: Arab News

Towards gender sensitive policing

Pakistan is in dire need of a police reform in order to improvethe human security net within

the society. The reform will provideto the transition from a colonial stylepolice force to democratic policingby strengthening the Pakistan’sPolice’s ability to contribute to a saferand more secure environment basedon respect for the rule of law, humanrights and equitable access to justicewith a specific focus on the poor anddisadvantaged, women and children.

Gender Sensitive Policing, isworking towards “Promoting therights of women and children to befree of fear through improved repre-sentation of women at all levels andthe provision of equitable and sensi-tive policing and victim support ser-vices. To achieve this, it is importantto increase the participation ofwomen in Pakistani police at allranks, with increased gender aware-ness and improved victim support

services. It is widely acknowl-edged that women are under-represented in law enforcementin Pakistan. Increased represen-tation of women in the Paki-stani Police is critical to sus-tain reform. For example, the

retention and effective deployment ofwomen police is linked to thesustainability of the crime preventionand community policing outcomes,as more female investigating officer’swill likely encourage more womento assist the police with investigationsand prosecutions.

All support to this outcome willbe consistent with Pakistan’s Policepolicies and regulations. It is impor-tant that Pakistan police must derivea Strategy to increase the number ofwomen police and use them moreeffectively and support an action planto ensure the progressive deploymentof women police officers around thecountry. This includes a comprehen-sive plan to actively recruit womenat all levels, for instance through ad-vocacy programmes, awareness cre-ation in the community & universi-ties, or advertisement published in thenewspapers so that more women aremotivated to take on this challeng-

ing career. As such, Gender Respon-sive Policing Project, a combinedventure of National Police Bureau(NPB) and GIZ funded by the Ger-man foreign office has undertakenspecial initiatives in different divi-sions of the country to attract womenfrom different socio-economicgroups to join the police.

The program has also focused onincreasing the quality and quantity offemale leadership within the policedepartment. It has taken on differentinitiatives, one of which was the for-mation of a network among thewomen police. In July 2012, WomenPolice Network (WPN) commencedits activities. It is important to men-tion that involvement of policewomen in the UN mission has cre-ated an optimistic image of policewomen of Pakistan. It has shown thatpolice women can carry out suchmissions under difficult circum-stances. Police women from Pakistanare actively participating in UN peacemissions, and are playing a major rolein making a level playing field forother educated women of Pakistanwho want to join police as a profes-sion. It shows the leadership role ofpolice women has amplified.

hawks intervene and both countries areback to square one. The fact is that wehave been through this process a hun-dred times over past 65 years and haveshown greater flexibility and spirit ofaccommodation. No one can forgetthe sincere efforts of Gen Musharrafwho started dialogue with India andwas inventor of two key words com-posite dialogue and confidence build-ing measures and in the larger inter-est of both countries he allowed uni-lateral concessions to India but re-ceived cold shoulder

The proposed talks are not goingto be productive because India isheading in to elections next year andManmohan Singh is not going tomake any commitment. The only pluspoint will be that PM Mian NawazSharif would get credit at least agree-ing India to hold talks. Latest disclo-sure by an officer of Indian interiorministry that Indian government her-self stage managed/orchestered theattack on Parliament in 2001 andMumbai carnage in 2008 and shift-ing the blame to Pakistan simply re-flects the mind set of India. The aimwas to legislate anti terrorism laws(POTA) empowering the securityagencies to arrest, detain, kill loot andrape and yet go free. Indian mediaand political mindset successfullybuilt misperceptions about Pakistan/ ISI after attack on Parliament andMumbai attacks.

Orchestrating concocted storiesto suit their ill designs has been anold Indian tactics and after every in-cident Pakistan has also witnessedmedia / diplomatic tail twisting. Ownmedia must expose fabricated storiescoined by Indian media with fullforce. It is absolutely right that aftergood start we end up at starting pointas concluded in the editorial. We mayhave another hundreds of such rounduntil and unless India changes herattitude towards Pakistani issuescomposite dialogue shall remaincounter productive. Now the start hasto be taken by India and not Pakistan,it always takes two to clap.—Toronto

Corruptionin SindhHASHIM ABRO

It is an open secret that the menaceof corruption is endemic in Pakistanisociety but it is the worst in my homeprovince because, more or less, alldepartments are weak; strict enforce-ment of the Rule of law has not beena prime concern of the past succes-sive rulers and even that of thepresent rulers; political patronage isthe norm; the independence and pro-fessionalism of the public and pri-vate sectors have been eroded; andmedia and civil society lacks themeans to hold the perpetrators toaccount in the province.

It is noticed that the prevalenceof bribery amongst provincial gov-ernment officials, embezzlement ofpublic funds, kickbacks in public pro-curement has weakened the Sindhisociety, ruined the lives, and impededthe overall development in the prov-ince. The curse of corruption has re-sulted in the deviation of funds in-tended for development and it hasundermined government’s ability toprovide basic services and it has alsoundermined the rule of law, feedinginequality and injustice, discouragedthe foreign investment, and furtherimpeded development.

It indisputably true that the gov-ernment actions are not enough tocombat the menace of corruption inSindh province but the combined ef-forts of all and sundry in all spheresof society are vital to tackle the prob-lem with increased vigor. Effectivelyaddressing corruption in Pakistan, inparticular, Sindh province must be-come a development imperative asPakistani nation cannot bear the costsof corruption.—Islamabad

US owe nuclear deal to Pakistan

According to the US-GlobalLeadership Project over 80percent of Pakistanis do not

like American policies regarding Pa-kistan. Majority considers the US-policies as dubious and that the USbiased towards India at the cost ofPakistan’s security interests. In such ascenario, Indo-US nuclear deal andtheir strategic partnership only rein-forces perceptions against the US Pa-kistanis consider that the U.S. led at-tack on Afghanistan had serious fall-outs and the entire fabric of Pakistanisociety has been badly affected. TheIndo-US nuclear deal is country-spe-cific and violates all non-proliferationnorms. It is considered that access topeaceful uses of nuclear energy is theright of every state and Pakistan is noexception. Offering of a nuclear dealto overcome energy requirements inPakistan will be a best support. A civilnuclear deal will serve as a best toolin reinstating reputable relations be-

tween two countries. Contemplatingabout the future Afghan scenario, Pa-kistan will be the key player and theU.S. cannot afford to ignore it. It isexpected that the US will preservesome presence after NATO with-drawal from Afghanistan. If the USdoes not improve relations with Paki-stan, the possibility of stabilizing theregion would continue to diminish. Adeal in civil nuclear technology willencourage Pakistan to safeguard theU.S. interests and other returns fromsuch a deal are obvious to pick.

If solving Pakistan’s power cri-sis should be a priority in Washing-ton, then electricity starved popula-tion will be obliged to the U.S. Asthe deal would offer technology andfuel for energy generation then itcould be the carrot essential for Pa-kistan to secure US strategic interests.Likewise, such deal will come underIAEA aegis and the transparency willensue. The foremost motive forPakistan’s pursuit for civil nuclearcovenant with the US is to overcomedisparity which will be created byIndo-US 123 agreement. Therefore,when the U.S. signed nuclear pact

with India, Pakistan had indicated toWashington that deal would have se-rious fallout on deterrence stabilityin South Asia. To stabilise South Asia,the U.S. should offer the same nucleardeal to Pakistan. Especially, if the dealcomes with the assurance thatPakistan’s existing nuclear facilitieswill remain intact and unmonitored.This Pak-US nuclear agreement willalso facilitate US in the long run toavert the next regional war, whichmay well be over the water that Pa-kistan so desperately relies on forelectricity generation.

There are two eccentric objec-tions to offer a nuclear deal to Paki-stan. First, the Taliban could take overPakistan’s nuclear material and sec-ond, past proliferation denunciationsof the country. By these standards,Pakistan also didn’t deserve U.S.military assistance to contest theTaliban. But international relationsdon’t work on the principle of treat-ing countries on such standards. In-ternational relations work on theagenda of interests and confidencebuilding measures. Consequently USmust illustrate certain confidence on

her vanguard ally Pakistan in waron terror. Furthermore confidencebuilding measurements and trust arecentral pillars of non-proliferationefforts led by United States. Mainimpediment for international non-proliferation regimes is trust deficitamong the countries and discrimi-natory Indo-US nuclear deal willenforce such trust deficit.

In the Indian case, the flourish-ing India’s economy gave the UnitedStates an exceptional opening toachieve economic and diplomaticadvantages. These benefits com-pelled US to bargain a civil nucleardeal with India. On the other handin the Pakistani case US have pre-cise crucial advantages in the realmof geostrategic interests. ThereforeUnited States should offer Pakistana civilian nuclear deal as a way toprotect relationship, relentlesslytested during last decade, as well asto secure long-term interests withregard to containing militancy andatomic safety. By concluding a civilnuclear deal with Pakistan US govtwill gain greater knowledge ofPakistan’s nuclear safety & security.

This morning at church, Iheard the preacher say, thatwhen we pray we need to lis-

ten to God’s answer: A father talksabout the night he over heard hislittle daughter praying, “God, nowwhat can I do for you?” The fatherwas baffled, “and how do you ex-pect God to tell you what hewants?” he asked.

“By listening quietly,” said thelittle girl. “And I suppose he speaksto you in a booming voice?” “No,”said the little girl. “He speaks in

whispers and gentle nudges. My jobis to listen carefully. Sometimes Hemakes me look out of the window.”“What do you see there?” “I see ourmaid sobbing. So I just go down andput my hand round her. Sometimeshe speaks through my books.”

“Your books?” “He gives me athought to follow. My job is to lis-ten.” Late one evening a professor satat his desk working on the next day’slectures. He shuffled through thepapers and mail placed there by hishousekeeper. He began to throw themin the wastebasket when one maga-zine—not even addressed to him butdelivered to his office by mistake—caught his attention. It fell open toan article titled “The Needs of theCongo Mission.”

The professor began reading it

idly, but then he was consumed bythese words: “The need is great here.We have no one to work the northernprovince of Gabon in the centralCongo. And it is my prayer as I writethis article that God will lay His handon one—one on whom, already, theMaster’s eyes have been cast—thathe or she shall be called to this placeto help us.”

The professor closed the maga-zine and wrote in his diary: “Mysearch is over.” He gave himself togo to the Congo. The professor’sname was Albert Schweitzer. Thatlittle article, hidden in a periodical in-tended for someone else, was placedby accident in Schweitzer’s mailbox.By chance his housekeeper put themagazine on the professor’s desk. Bychance he noticed the title, which

Listening to his voice..!seemed to leap out at him. Dr.Schweitzer became one of the greatfigures this century in humanitar-ian work nearly unmatched in hu-man history. What do you think?Was it chance? No, God. WhatAlbert Schweitzer did was to startsearching, then he kept his ears opento God’s voice. It came through amagazine that was not even ad-dressed to him..! There are so manyof us who wait for God to speak tous in booming tones, whereas hiswhispering in our ears goes un-heard. Listen for those whispers.

It may come through a paintingor a telephone call; a wrong num-ber. It may come through a blindman trying to cross the road, or acat up a tree. Start listening..!—Email:[email protected]

Hasan EhtishamEmail:[email protected]

Police women have been chal-lenging the stereotypes aboutwomen’s ability and demonstratedthat they can deal with crimes andother tasks. The establishment ofWomen Police Network has helpedthe police women to share theirproblems and suggestions with theircolleagues properly. Women PoliceNetwork meets with women policeto identify their needs and help themto build the capacity of the womenpolice so that they can providewomen friendly services to thecommunity. Women Police Net-work is creating awareness amongthe women police about the rolesand responsibilities of women po-lice. The network has also takenspecial measures to create profes-sionalism of women police, andthey have done work to promotegender sensitive policing in Paki-stan. Creating gender sensitivityamong the police is a challengingtask. Gender is a social and culturalconstruction; therefore it will taketime to make all the police person-nel gender sensitive. Both long-term and short term activities/programmes are needed to motivateand persuade them.

M Uzair NiaziEmail:[email protected]

CEC Fakhruddin G EbrahimFrom Page 1warned for expected attacks by

terrorists, security measures havebeen increased by the airport au-thorizes after receiving signalsfrom intelligence departments.

Police patrolling has beenincreased within the premises ofthe airport while special com-mandoes has also been deployedfor rapid action in case of anymishap. Intelligence report saidthat farm house of former Presi-dent and army chief in ChakShahzad, suburb area ofIslamabad, could also be targetof terrorists where PervezMusharraf has been staying ashouse arrest in various cases.

Security of farm house wasalso being tightened after newthreats as Musharraf had beenremained top on Taliban and Al-Qaeda’s target list in past.

Islamabad’s adjoin cityRawalpindi’s main prison, AdialaJail is also on target of terroristswhere high profile members ofTTP are detained. Intelligence re-port feared Dera Ismail Khan andBannu like attacks on Adiala Jail,one of largest prison of the coun-try and house of dangerous in-mates. According to report, terror-ists have been freely using mobilephone in coalesce with jail staffwho is facilitating criminals inreturn to alleged financial benefits.

“A warden’s mobile has beendetected using 250 SIMS in theinvestigation”, the report said.

The report has recommendedre-directing mobile phone signaltowers so that signals could notspread over jail. At least Rs. 5million is required to install mo-bile phone jammer, it further said.

The provincial governmentof Punjab has deputed elite com-mandos on all jails of the prov-ince following threats of attackfrom terrorists.—Online

IslamabadFrom Page 1

between Monday and Tuesdaybroke into the premises settingfree around 250 inmates includ-ing 30 high profile prisoners aswell as five female detainees.

The DI Khan central prisonthat is more than a hundred yearsold, houses around 5,000 prison-ers with around 250 of them areTaliban militants and members ofbanned sectarian groups such asLashker-e-Jhangvi (LeJ).

While the security forcesclaim the militants took full ad-vantage of the dark and actedpromptly before the law enforc-ers could understand what wasgoing around, a number of fac-tors points fingers at none elsebut those who could to pre-emptsuch happenings as well as thosewho were to effectively respondto them.

The residents of DI KhanCity said they heard some sixtyto 100 powerful explosions onMonday around 11.30 in thenight as the militants used handgrenades, rockets as well as sui-cide the bombers for the missionwhich they accomplished with-out much difficulty.

The commissioner DI KhanMushtaq Jadoon confirmed that243 prisoners managed to fleeclaiming that the security forcesduring the search operation rear-rested 14 prisoners adding themilitants broke open the cells andfreed 253 prisoners, including 25“dangerous terrorists,”. He saidthe gunmen also took over anearby house and hospital, hold-ing the residents hostage as theyfired on the police from the roof-tops and laid ambushes for rein-forcements. The police alsoclaimed to have arrested 42 moreprisoners on Wednesday.

The security forces said mili-tants had planted dozens of ex-plosive devices in the jail whichwere later defused. The bloodydrama however, ended after fourhours on Tuesday morning leav-ing 14 people dead that includedsix policemen, equal number ofprisoners and two civilians. In-definite curfew was clamped onD I Khan City.

While the Tehreek-e-Talibansources it took them one monthto plan the ‘ mission’ that castthem above 10 million rupees theconcerned quarters including thesensitive agencies as well as thelaw enforcers failed to anticipatethough they had received cred-ible information about the attack.

A commander of theTehreek-e-Taliban (TTP) AdnanRashid is said to have told a pri-vate TV channel that the Opera-tion titled Merg-e-Najaat wasaccomplished with the help ofmost sophisticated weapons andadvanced gadgets including thenight vision lenses. Besides eigh-teen special commandos, he said,were also tasked to facilitate thesuccessful completion of the mis-

ment into the domain of the ECPby the apex court mandated un-der the constitution,” an officialof the commission had toldnewsmen.

According to the report,Ebrahim had written a note de-claring the court’s decision anattack on the independence of theECP, and wanted his fellowmembers to endorse it and holdthe election according to theoriginal schedule.

However, he was unable toget the support of three of the fouravailable members.

Both the Supreme Court andthe Election Commission hadcame under opposition fire inparliament on Monday for a per-ceived wrong done in cuttingshort the schedule for presiden-tial election due on Tuesday, withsome upper house members de-manding that Chief JusticeIftikhar Mohammad Chaudhryand Chief Election Commis-

sioner Fakhruddin G. Ebrahimshould resign. In simultaneousone-day sessions of the NationalAssembly and Senate, the PPP,which had boycotted the contro-versial election and withdrawnthe candidature of Senator RazaRabbani, its nominee for thecountry’s top, but figurehead,office, led the attack on both po-litical and legal grounds againstwhat some leading figures of themain opposition party called a“tyrannical” violation of the con-stitution and rigging.

Lawmakers of the PPP andsome smaller allied parties, whowore black armbands as a markof protest against the SupremeCourt’s July 26 order for the elec-tion commission to advance thepolling date to July 30 from Au-gust 6, walked out of the NationalAssembly after speeches by twoopposition figures and a minis-ter, but stayed on in the Senatebefore both the houses were pro-

rogued after about two hours ofsitting.

In the lower house PPP par-liamentary leader Amin Fahimmounted a low-pitched attackthere, mainly targeting the PML-N for going to the SupremeCourt to get the election sched-ule abridged on some controver-sial religious grounds and athree-judge bench for doing justthat in single hearing withouthearing other parties, but heseemed soft on the election com-mission, accusing it only ofshowing weakness.

But the fireworks were moreresounding in the Senate, wherean opening lambaste by SenatorRabbani was followed by strongassault by opposition leaderAitzaz Ahsan against what hesaw as illegal and unconstitu-tional orders of the judiciary anddemands for the chief justice andthe chief election commissionerto resign from their office.

sion that was aimed at setting freeeight comrades including sixfrom Quetta. He said besides oth-ers two important commandersfrom Parachinar and six from DIKhan were also got released fromthe jail scores of Taliban mili-tants escaped from the jail whoreached the safe places in theSouth Waziristan agency.

The DI Khan central prisonthat is more than a hundred yearsold, housed around 5,000 prison-ers with around 250 of them wereTaliban militants and members ofbanned sectarian groups such asLashker-e-Jhangvi (LeJ).

However, while 240 prison-ers including 30 dangerous pris-oners and important militantcommanders who made goodtheir escape on Monday, are stillat large, all the quarters includ-ing the federal government, theprovincial government ofKhyber Pukhtunkhwa, sensitiveagencies as well as the law en-forcers instead of making seri-ous efforts to re-arrest the pris-oners are only resorting to blamegame and striving to put theonus on each other.

While the intelligence agen-cies, in an attempt to absolvethemselves of their responsibili-ties, said they had already in-formed the KP government andother concerned quarters a fewdays back during a meeting inIslamabad that militants may at-tempt to D I Khan jail break, theJail authorities and the law en-forcers in D I Khan came up witha lame excuse that they were notexpecting immediate attack onthe D I Khan prison from the ter-rorists. Likewise the Police forceand other law enforcers in D IKhan, as the residents and the eyewitness said, could not reach thesite for hours and even when themen in uniform reached the spotthey preferred to observe the situ-ation from distance.

Similarly, the same com-plaint was echoed from the ChiefMinister Khyber PukhtunkhwaPervez Khattak who said he sawthe involvement of a “big hand”in the DI khan jail break askingas to how could the militantsreach the prison in the presenceof Naakas at every few hundredyards. “It was a failure on partof the intelligence agencies” .Said the CM who also ordered aprobe into the jailbreak, vowingto take stern action against thosefound negligent. The joint inquirycommittee that he constituted toprobe the incident was asked tosubmit the report within 15 days.The committee will compriseSenior Member Board of Rev-enue (SMBR) Waqar Ayub, Spe-cial Secretary Home DepartmentSyed Alamgir Shah, AdditionalInspector General Police (SpecialBranch) Akhtar Ali Shah andrepresentative of Pakistan Army(Headquarters 11 Corps).

The CM said if there wassome intelligence report withregard to the attack on the D IKhan jail, it should have beenbrought into his notice. He alsosaid if the Prison department hadreceived any threats in this regardthose were not brought into hisnotice not did the federalgovernment share anyintelligence reports with him.

The Federal governmentspokesman on the other handheld the KP government respon-sible for the DI Khan jail breaksaying all the information wereshared with the them but theycould not anticipate.

Though the provincial gov-ernment suspended one SP , aDSP and 27 cops of the Eliteforce for showing negligenceduring the whole episode, the lawenforcers especially the Policeforce cannot be given a clean chitas it has mercilessly failed toshoulder its responsibilities effec-tively. Unfortunately, the Policeforce has deviated from its primetask of protecting the life , honourand property of the masses andinstead a big majority of the forceis engaged with the protocol du-ties and only protecting theVVIPs and the VIPs.

Hence KhyberPukhtunkhwa, where PTI ledcollation government is ruling,like other parts of the country isno exception. The party leaderImran Khan’s major pledge to doaway with the VIP culture ifcame to power, is yet to be mate-rialized as the VVIP culture pre-vails in the province. The bigguns are escorted by the heavycontingents of the police, theytravel in full protocol and majorcity roads are closed as usual andas before.

In fact this was not first inci-dent of its kind. The Taliban mili-tants had staged the similar dramalast year in April when then brokeinto Bannu jail in April 2012 set-ting free more than three hundredprisoners. Those who escaped atthe time included Adnan Rashid,convicted for his involvement inthe attack on the then militarydictator General PervezMusharraf.

The Deputy Inspector Gen-eral (DIG) Police, Commissionerand Deputy CommissionerBannu, IG Prisons and Superin-tendent Bannu Prison were sus-pended over the Bannu jailbreak.

Ironically , we are not in thehabit of learning from the pastmistakes otherwise the Bannuincident alone should have beenenough to open the eyes of all theconcerned had appropriate mea-sures been adopted, a foolproofsecurity arrangements made andan effective strategy chalked outfor the jails specially those hous-ing dangerous and high profiledetainees, the D I episode wouldnot have repeated.

DIK jailbreak: Intelligence failureFrom Page 1

ing the provincial governments”,conveyed the Prime minister.

The Premier stressed theneed of learning from eachother’s experiences and exper-tise. Each province should shareits success with other provincesso that it can be replicated. “Wecan overcome our shortcomingsand improve our governancethrough sharing and workingclosely with each other”, addedthe Premier. Later, the report oftechnical committee on powerpolicy was presented before CCIwhich unanimously approved theNational Power Policy with fewadditions. The committee reporthad incorporated SindhGovernment’s demand for devel-oping Coal and Wind Corridorswith the facilitation of FederalGovernment.

The technical committee alsoproposed Integrated UtilityCourts for dealing with electric-ity and gas thefts and rationaliz-ing the penalties for such crimesin light of principles of jurispru-

dence. Both the proposals wereapproved by CCI and made partof National Power Policy. Themeeting also discussed the trans-mission and distribution difficul-ties faced by the provinces ofKhyber Pakhtunkhwa andBalochsitan. The Prime Ministerassured that the Federal Govern-ment is ready to provide adequatefunding and assistance for effec-tive distribution of electricity tothese provinces.

The meeting also discussedEnergy Efficiency and Conserva-tion measures. The Prime Min-ister said that conservation ofenergy needs homogeneousimplementation by all provincesso that steps taken to conserveenergy have a balanced effect onthe entire country.

While mentioning the vastopportunities of Hydel Powerproduction in his province, CMKP, said that huge investmentopportunities are available in theprovince and his government hasalready started two Run-of-the-

CCI stamps Power PolicyFrom Page 1

River projects in DistrictKohistan. He asked for the Fed-eral Government’s assistance tofurther explore such opportuni-ties. The Prime Minister assuredCM KPK of the fullest supportof the Federal Government andasked him for identification ofmore such projects for optimumutilization of the Hydel re-sources. Chief Minister Sindhsaid that Wind Resource in thecoastal region of Sindh needs tobe explored to provide cheapelectricity and will suffice theenergy needs of the province.

CM Balochistan stressedupon the need for provision ofelectricity to Balochistan fromUch-2 Project to cater for thepower needs of the province.

Among others Pir SyedSadaruddin Shah Rashidi, Min-ister for Overseas Pakistani andHRD, Lt Gen (R) Abdul QadiBaloch, Minister for SAFRONand Sardar Muhammad Yousaf,Minister for Religious Affairsattended the meeting.

to get certification from the pro-vincial government showing thattheir income is based on agricul-ture, and thus they will have togive tax in their provinces and ifthey do not get the certificate,then they would have to give thetax in federal capital on theground that their income is notbased on agriculture.

This step would not only in-crease the number of tax payersboth in federal capital andprovinces.According to the offi-cial at Ministry of Finance, thereis a huge potential of collectingthe taxes of Rs 70 billion justfrom agriculture sector, but in lastyear the total tax of just Rs 1 bil-lion has been collected that in-clude Rs 700 million fromPunjab and just Rs 30 millionfrom Sindh.

He said that there are manybusiness tycoons who have man-aged to get the huge agricultureholdings and they are found leastinterested in sowing crops there.They just use holding for show-ing that they have agricultureland and use the said holdingsto aviod the huge taxes sayingthat their income is based on ag-riculture. The tax on agricultureis nominal in the provinces.

The official said that duringthe current financial year, themighty businessmen having thehuge agriculture holdings whoshow that they have agricultureincome only, would be regis-tered in the provinces and nextyear the Punjab governmentwould at least increase the agri-culture income tax to a reason-able level.

The unscrupulous elements,who would be registered inPunjab would be left with nopotion but to give the increasedtax on agriculture income in nextfinancial year and it will givemammoth impetus to the revenuegeneration mobilization drive ofthe sitting government.

Dar screwsFrom Page 1

the Court and bring judges intohatred, ridicule or contempt.Thus, his above acts call for ac-tion for contempt of court underArticle 204 of the Constitutionread with section 3 of the Con-tempt of Court Ordinance, 2003.

Therefore, notice be issuedto him to appear on 2.8.2013 andexplain as to why proceedings asenvisaged by above provisions ofthe Constitution and law be notinitiated against him. Notice bealso issued to the learned Attor-ney General for Pakistan,” saidthe notice.

On July 26, while speakingwith media representatives out-side the Parliament House inIslamabad, Imran Khan had saidthat his party had taken an activepart in the movement to restoredeposed judges of the higher ju-diciary during former militaryruler Gen (retd) PervezMusharraf’s regime. However,he alleged that the May 11 pollswere badly rigged despite beingsupervised by the judiciary andthe Election Commission.

Pakistan’s Attorney GeneralMunir A. Malik has also beensummoned to appear before thebench with related records onFriday.

Meanwhile, PTI’s seniorleader Shafqat Mehmood hassaid the party will not seek a par-don and defend their case law-fully. Further, Imran Khan hascalled a meeting of his legal ex-perts today.

SC issuesFrom Page 1

cial assemblies scheduled to beheld on August 22.

He was addressing an Iftarparty arranged by Dr. ShehzadWaseem, the Advisor to PTIChairman on Foreign PoliticalParties, in his honour at his farmhouse.

Referring to the disqualifica-tion of his party’s candidate AylaMalik from NA-71, he said thatthrough a calculated attempt theirleaders are being kept away fromcontesting the bye-elections.However, they would win thegame with massive public sup-port demonstrated during the lastgeneral election, he maintained.

Besides Imran Khan, theIftar party was attended by Presi-dent Awami Muslim League Sh.Rashid Ahmed, PTI Vice Chair-man Shah Mehmood Qureshi,President Makhdoom JavedHashmi, MNA Dr. ShireenMazari, Ghulam Sarwar Khan,Shafqat Mehmood, Fozia Kasuri,Ayisha Gulalai, Shehryar Afridi,Saifullah Khan Niazi, Naeem ulHaq, Sardar Azhar Tariq and alarge number of other partymembers. PTI Chairman appre-ciated the effective role playedby the party leader Dr. ShehzadWaseem in running the electioncampaign of Javed Hashmi forthe NA-48 constituency and se-curing the big victory for himon May 11.— INP

PTI to stronglyFrom Page 1

of Protocol Zaheer Ahmed Janjuaand other senior officials of theForeign Ministry. US Ambassa-dor Richard Olson was alsopresent.

During his stay in Pakistan,the US Secretary of State wouldhold meeting with Prime Minis-ter Nawaz Sharif to discuss bi-lateral issues.

Earlier, Prime MinisterNawaz Sharif on Wednesdaypresided over a high-level meet-ing, attended by Chief of ArmyStaff and DG Inter-Services In-telligence (ISI) which discussedand finalized points for discus-sion with US Secretary of StateJohn Kerry.

There was exchange ofviews and consultations onrecent incidents of terrorismbesides Pak-Afghan relationsand situation at the borders. Themeeting was attended byInterior Minister Nisar AliKhan, Advisor to PM on ForeignAffairs Sartaj Aziz, SpecialAssistant to PM, Tariq Fatimiand CM Punjab Shahbaz Sharif.Meanwhile, one-on-one meetingbetween Army Chief GeneralAshfaq Pervaiz Kayani and PMNawaz was also held.

The two leaders decided toraise the issue of drone attackwith the US as per the govern-ment policy. New priorities ofPakistan relations with the USwere also chalked out in themeeting. During the meeting, thearmy chief apprised the primeminister of his recommendationson issues of strategic importance.

The two decided thatPakistan’s civil and military lead-ership should take integrated andunified stance during its dialoguewith the US.

Kerry arrivesFrom Page 1

An extensive visit toGaddani Beach where one of thebiggest ship break Yard is locatedis also included in his short visitto Karachi.

He is also supposed a repre-sentative meeting with the lead-ers of the business community todiscuss his economic agenda totake the business community intoconfidence for implementation ofthe economic strategy chalkedout by the new set up.

The business community aswell as other stakeholders con-tributing significantly to theeconomy of the country are ea-ger to discuss issues confrontedto the economy specially the en-ergy shortage and high cost ofenergy which is one of the majorissues posing serious threat to theexports of the country.

Nawaz to payhomage to Father

From Page 1

STAFF REPORTER

PESHAWAR—The Governmentof Khyber Pakhtunkhwa hascommissioned an enquiry toprobe into the incident of attackon Central Prison DI Khan bythe militants and resultant es-cape of 253 prisoners betweenthe night of 29th /30th July2013. The following committeehas been constituted for the pur-pose: Waqar Ayub, Senior Mem-ber Board of Revenue, KhyberPakhtunkhwa-Chairman and

KP forms probe committeeSyed Alamgir Shah, SpecialSecretary Home and Tribal Af-fairs Deptt: KhyberPakhtunkhwa, Syed Akhtar AliShah, Additional IG (SpecialBranch), Khyber Pakhtunkhwaand Representative of the HQ 11Corps Peshawar as members.

Terms of Reference of theInquiry Committee are to un-earth the facts leading to the in-cident and fix responsibility.What Action, if any, were initi-ated by field formations of allconcerned in light of the threatsreceived to Home Deptt: KP on28th and 29th of July 2013?

Whether a joint security re-view of the prisons was under-taken in respect of specificthreats and what decisions weretaken to improve security of theprison? Whether follow up ac-tion at the district and divisionallevel was timely and up to themark? To fix responsibility (ies)for each of all of the above incase of violation of any law/rules/SOPs/directives. To fix re-sponsibility for acts of omissionand commission, if any. Thecommittee should come up to

with comprehensive and plau-sible recommendations to en-sure safety of the prisons in theKhyber Pakhtunkhwa in thebackdrop of D.I.Khan Jail inci-dent. The Committee shall com-plete the Inquiry within 15 daysand submit its report. Home andTribal Affairs Department shallprovide secretarial support to thecommittee, says a notificationissued by Home and Tribal Af-fairs Department, Governmentof Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

On the other hand in thebackdrop of the incident of attackby the militants on Central PrisonD.I.Khan on 29th /30th July2013, escape of 253 prisoners andkilling of police personnel/civil-ians, the Government of KhyberPakhtunkhwa has suspendedGhulam Rabbai, Deputy Super-intendent-cum-Superintendent,Central Prison D.I.Khan BS-17with immediate effect.Binyamin, Deputy Superinten-dent BS-17, Incharge Borstal In-stitute, Bannu has been posted asDeputy Superintendent-cum-Su-perintendent Central Prison,D.I.Khan till further orders.

BEIRUT—Syrian governmenttroops launched an assaultWednesday to regain control ofa northern village that was thesite of an alleged chemicalweapons attack earlier this year,activists said.

The push on Khan al-Assal,a village on the southwestern out-skirts of the embattled city ofAleppo comes just over a weekafter it was captured by therebels.

The capture was a rare suc-cess for the rebels on the battle-field as opposition forces re-cently suffered two major set-backs during a wide-ranginggovernment offensive in central

Syria. In June, President BasharAssad’s army recaptured thestrategic town of Qusair near theLebanese border and earlier thisweek, government troops tookcontrol of a district in the cityof Homs that has been the op-position stronghold since thebeginning of the conflict, nowin its third year.

The Britain-based SyrianObservatory for Human Rightssaid 150 soldiers were killed af-ter Khan al-Assal fell to therebels. The Observatory said thearmy on Wednesday attackedrebel positions outside the vil-lage, after first bringing in rein-forcements to the area.—AP

Syrian Sisyphus

Govt launches Alepposuburb assault

TOKYO—The US DefenceDepartment’s chief weaponsbuyer, Frank Kendall, will onThursday meet officials in To-kyo overseeing Japan’s defensecontractors, his first visit withindustry regulators reviewingthe pacifist nation’s decades-oldban on overseas arms sales.

The under secretary of de-fense for acquisitions, technol-ogy and logistics will meet offi-cials at the Ministry of EconomyTrade and Industry, a spokesmanfor the U.S. military said. Hewill also visit the foreign affairsand defense ministries.

The three ministries are to-gether considering guidelines onwhat weapons, and to whom,Japanese defense contractorscould sell arms. Almost half-cen-tury-old export restrictions haveisolated Japan’s defense contrac-tors, keeping the industry small,fractured and cost heavy.

The U.S. military, for ex-ample, uses Panasonic Corp’srugged laptop computers toguide drones, but buys themthrough a third-party vendor.

Kendall’s visit to the Minis-try of Economy Trade and Indus-try, which regulates exports,could help the U.S. Defense De-partment build deeper ties withindustry officials who will playa key role in formulating rulechanges that may allow compa-nies such as Mitsubishi Heavy In-dustries, the maker of the WorldWar Two-era Zero fighter, andKawasaki Heavy Industries Ltd,which builds submarines, be-come suppliers to the UnitedStates. “We see the possibility of

joint development as a majorstep,” Tatsuhiko Nojima, execu-tive vice president at MitsubishiHeavy told a news briefing inTokyo to announce thecompany’s results for the quar-ter that ended on June 30.

“This represents a big busi-ness chance.” Kendall, who wasappointed by President BarackObama in October 2011, wantsto visit the ministry because itregulates Japan’s defense indus-try, said an official at the minis-try, who declined to be identi-fied. The meet-and-greet mayinclude discussion of the exportrestrictions, he said.

Japan’s government on Fri-day published a policy paper, itslatest step away from the con-straints of its pacifist constitutionand part of Prime Minister ShinzoAbe’s review of defense posturein the face of perceived threatsfrom China and North Korea.

In it, the government said itwould “aggressively promotejoint international developmentproduction with the UnitedStates, Britain and other coun-tries”. Doing so could help itbeef up its military by letting de-fense-equipment makers expandproduction and lower coststhrough greater scale withouthaving to raise spending. TheUnited States too could benefitfrom lower costs by widening itssupply chain. Japan’s defensespending has stayed at around 1percent of gross domestic prod-uct for decades, but rising main-tenance costs cut its procurementbudget by a third over the past20 years. —Reuters

Weaponizing Asian heartlands

US explores in’tel armsproduction with Japan

reached Rs104.50 per litre.The new prices will ad-

versely impact the poor massesas transport, which are unable toget CNG because of gas short-age in the country, will chargemore in the wake of this mam-moth raise.

The ministry also increasedper litre prices of diesel, keroseneoil, and light diesel oil (LD) byRs3, Rs4.99, and Rs3.95 respec-tively.

The new per litre price ofdiesel has jumped to Rs109.76from a previous Rs106.76, kero-sene oil Rs101.28 from Rs96.29,and petrol Rs104.50 fromRs101.77.

Ministry of Finance also saidthat Oil and Gas Regulatory Au-thority had suggested a raise ofat least Rs4 in the price of diesel.

POL pricesFrom Page 1

KABUL—Violence against civil-ians has risen by almost a quarterin Afghanistan as internationalforces hand security to Afghans,the United Nations said in a re-port on Wednesday, with insur-gents striking in areas wheretroops have already left.

The report, presented by theHuman Rights Director for theU.N. in Afghanistan, said thenumber of dead and injured civil-ians had increased by 23 percentin the first six months of 2013,compared to the same period lastyear. Women and children are in-creasingly the victims of the 12-year-old war, the report said, not-

ing a 30 percent leap in the num-ber of children killed. The totalcivilian death toll stood at morethan 1,300, with 2,533 reportedinjuries. Mounting casualties arereinforcing fears aboutAfghanistan’s ability to tackle theTaliban insurgency on its own,after most foreign troops leavenext year. The Afghan army facesone of the highest desertion ratesin the world and a chronic lack oflogistical and medical support.

“The stepped-up transition ofsecurity responsibilities from in-ternational military forces to Af-ghan forces and closure of inter-national forces’ bases was met

with increased attacks by anti-government elements...,”Georgette Gagnon said in present-ing the report. The intensified at-tacks occurred “mainly at check-points, on strategic highways, insome areas that had beentransitioned and in districts bor-dering neighboring countries”.Figures released in 2012 showeda decline in civilian deaths com-pared to the previous year.

The U.N. report said bombs,or improvised explosive devices(IEDs), remained the single great-est killer, claiming 53 percentmore victims than last year, mostof them children.—AP

Post-withdrawal presage?

Violence against civiliansrises in Afghanistan: UN

Zou Shiming of China fights against Mexico’s Jesus Ortega during their Flyweight Bout at the Cotai Arena inVenetian Macao in Macau.

BIPIN DANI

OBSERVER

CORRESPONDENT

MUMBAI—Former En-gland wicket-keeper BobTaylor had never interactedwith Indian umpireHanumantha Rao, who, at83, died in Bangalore ear-lier this week.

“I am sad to hear thisnews”, he said over tele-phone.

In the Golden JubileeTest, in Bombay in 1979-80,the umpire HanumanthaRao had declared Bob Tay-lor out caught at the wicket(by Syed Kirmani) off thebowling of Kapil Dev. Butthe no. 7 batsman wasasked to continue becauseIndia captain GRVishwwanath, realizing that

Umpire Rao had courage to changehis decision, says Bob Taylor

the ball had not touched thebat, requested the umpire tochange the decision.

“It was a good gestureon the part of the umpirealso. It requires a lot of cour-age to change the decision.Yes, there was no DRS andno latest technology inthose days and umpiresrarely used to change theverdict and Rao had thatcourage”, he added.

Contrary to the belief,there was no protest from myend”, he stressed. “Only wehad discussions with KapilDev, Kirmani and Bothamwho was a non-striker at thewicket in the middle of thepitch. I was asked by them towait and not return to thepavilion. I am not sure whatVishy had communicated tothe umpire. Possibly, he may

have withdrawn the appealand that is how I survived”,he further added.

“I kept my head downand didn’t speak to Rao. Iwas standing near squareleg position. I neither triedto influence the umpire (tochange the decision)”.

“Many players don’tkeep contacts with the um-pires except at drinks inter-vals. It would mean cheat-ing otherwise”.

“I feel very sorry for hisfamily”.

Bob Taylor did inquireabout Rao’s age at the timeof his death. When in-formed that he was nearly amonth away for his 84thbirthday celebrations,signed off saying, “Oh,then it was a long inning. Iam 72”.

Chatthavictorious in

Tenpin BowlingISLAMABAD—MuhammadHussain Chattha won in themen’s single category of the4th Islamabad PremierLeague (IPL) Tenpin BowlingChampionship in LeagueChampionship 2013 playedhere at Mega zone Bowlingclub, F9 Park.

Hussain Chattha scored11009 points and won a cashprize of Rs 10,000 with a tro-phy. Muhammad Atta withtotal score of 10466 got 2ndposition plus a cash prize ofRs 5,000 and trophy. ZafarIqbal with score of 10422stood 3rd and earned a tro-phy with a cash prize of Rs3000.—APP

MANCHESTER (United King-dom)—England are optimis-tic Kevin Pietersen will be fitto play in the third Ashes Testagainst Australia atManchester’s Old Traffordground starting Thursday.

Pietersen suffered a leftcalf injury during England’scrushing 347-run win in thesecond Test at Lord’s, whichput the Ashes-holders 2-0 upin the five-match series withthree to play.

Since then the 33-year-oldPietersen, arguably England’smost talented batsman, hasundergone an intensiveprogramme to regain full fit-ness.

And while no final deci-sion has yet been made onwhether he will be in the thirdTest side, England captainAlastair Cook was upbeatabout his chances whenspeaking to reporters at OldTrafford on Wednesday.

“(He is) pretty good. He’scome through training thepast two days and done ev-

erything that’s been asked ofhim,” Cook said.

“Clearly we have to makea decision tomorrow (Thurs-day) morning just in case hepulls up different to that, butwe’ll see and we’re prettyhopeful.

“We don’t know quitehow he’ll pull up from today’s(Wednesday’s) training, buthe’s worked incredibly hardwith the medical team over thelast week to get himself right,so fingers crossed he has.”

South Africa-bornPietersen batted for 15 min-utes on Wednesday as badweather saw England train inOld Trafford’s indoor nets.

He did go outside brieflyfor a trio of 30-yard shuttleruns on a damp outfield, butsoon returned indoors withlittle to suggest he’d beenhampered by his calf problem.

In a bid to further test hisfitness, Pietersen had earliertaken the unusual step whilebatting in a net of sometimessetting off and running af-

ter playing a shot as he triedto replicate match condi-tions.

Former England captainPietersen has missed most ofthe side’s matches since aknee injury forced his earlyexit from the tour of NewZealand in March.

He was sidelined from allcricket until making a superbunbeaten 177 for Surrey in aCounty Championship matchin June.

Pietersen was recalled byEngland for their washed outTwenty20 match against NewZealand at The Oval, his Sur-rey home ground, on June 27.

He then played inEngland’s 14-run first Testwin over Australia at TrentBridge where he made scoresof 14 and 64.

Although he’s scored7,584 runs in 96 Tests, includ-ing 22 hundreds, at an impres-sive average of nearly 50,Pietersen managed just sevenruns in total across two in-nings at Lord’s.—AFP

ISLAMABAD—A three-mem-ber Pakistani team reachedhere after their triumphantclimb to 7,546 metre highMuztagh Ata peak in Chinanamed as Pakistan-ChinaFriendship Expedition 2013aiming to promote friendshipbetween both the mountain-eering countries.

A three-member expeditionparticipated in the FriendshipExpedition that comprisedskilled climbers includingRehmatullah, Dr Naveed Iqbaland Ahmed Mujtaba.

In a press conference or-ganized here at Pakistan Sports

Complex on Wednesday Lt Col(R) Manzoor Hussain, Presi-dent Alpine Club of Pakistan(ACP) and all members con-gratulated the Pakistani teamon their successful climb at MtMuztagh Ata.

President ACP praisedtheir dogged determination,strength and climbing skillsand congratulated the team onattaining laid down objectivesof the expedition.

He also thanked the Chi-nese side for their support inlaunching this expedition.

Pak-China expedition wasorganized by Chinese Moun-

taineering Association (CMA)and ACP after the recent sadincident at the Nanga Parbatbase camp where 10 foreignmountaineers including twoChinese were killed.

“The Pak-China expeditionwas kept aiming to honor theChinese mountaineers and theChinese Mountaineering As-sociation (CMA) on behalf ofthe Pakistani mountaineeringcommunity,” he said.

The president said theACP and CMA decided to ini-tiate this joint Pak-China expe-dition to ascend MuzhtaghAta.—APP

BARCELONA (Catalonia)—US teenager Katie Ledeckyset a new world record inwinning the women’s1500m freestyle title at theswimming world champion-ships with Denmark’s LotteFri is second and NewZealand’s Lauren Boylethird.

The 16-year-old, whowas neck-and-neck with Friisfor most of the race, but ac-celerated away in the final100m, clocked a new worldrecord of 15mins 36.53secs,knocking just under six sec-onds off the previous markset in 2009.

All of the top three fin-ished faster than the previ-ous best time of 15mins42.54secs set by JessicaHardy of the USA.

Friis, the 2011 worldchampion over the mile dis-tance, finished 2.35 secondsback to set the Europeanrecord with Boyle at 8.18secs,a new Oceania record.—AFP

Swimming: Ledecky sets 1500mrecord, wins world gold

SPAIN: Katie Ledecky of the United States celebrates af-ter winning the gold medal in Women’s 1500m freestylefinal at the FINA Swimming World Championships.

CGF extendsdeadline for

hockey team’sparticipation

LAHORE—The Pakistan Olym-pic Association (POA) of ArifHasan has been able to getanother two weeks for submis-sion of expression of interestregarding Pakistan hockeyteam’s participation in the 20thCommonwealth Games sched-uled to be held in Glasgow nextyear.

The POA has informed thePakistan Hockey Federation(PHF) that last date for sub-mission of expression of inter-est to the CommonwealthGames Federations (CGF) waslast Monday (July 29), but ithad managed to get it ex-tended till Aug 16.

However, the PHF, whichdoes not accept Arif Hasan as

POA president and depends onthe government for financialresources with regard to send-ing national teams anywhere inthe world, is reluctant to takeany independent decision inthis matter. Hence, it had madecontact with the governmentwhich recognises POA parallelbody led by Akram Sahi. ButSahi’s POA has no affiliationwith the International OlympicAssociation (IOC), making par-ticipation of the hockey teamin the Commonwealth Gamesquestionable.

“The CGF has informedthat they will issue a formalinvitation which shall be re-ceived by the POA by Aug 2,with the deadline for the PHFto finally make up its mindwhether it wanted to partici-pate being Aug 16.”—APP

Pak-China Expedition tofoster friendship: ACP

England upbeat overPietersen fitness

Gradovich beatsMunoz to keep

IBF titleMACAU (China)—EvgenyGradovich retained his IBFfeatherweight title after de-feating Argentina’s MauricioMunoz by a unanimous de-cision.

The 26-year-old Russianimproved his record to 17-0.On the same bill, Mexico’sJuan Francisco Estrada alsomade a successful defense ofhis WBO-WBA flyweighttitles, defeating MilanMelindo by a unanimous de-cision.

Estrada handed Melindohis first defeat in 29 fights,knocking the Filipino downin the 11th round with astraight right hook. Two-timeOlympic gold medalist ZouShiming of China dominatedteenager Jesus Ortega ofMexico to win his secondprofessional fight by a unani-mous decision.—AP

NEW DELHI—An Indiancourt ruled Tuesday a probeordered by the country’scricket chiefs into a bettingscandal was illegal, causingfurther trouble for crickethead N. Srinivasan, reportssaid.

The Bombay High Court,which retains Mumbai’sformer name, ruled a panel setup to probe the betting scan-dal in the Indian PremierLeague (IPL) competitionwas “illegal” and “unconsti-tutional”.

The ruling comes justtwo days after the panel’sreport, leaked to the media,found no wrongdoing by se-nior cricket officials or IPLowners over the scandal.

Tuesday’s court rulingcould derail the return ofSrinivasan, who steppedaside temporarily as presi-dent of the Board of Con-trol for Cricket in India(BCCI) on June 2, after hisson-in-law was arrested,and later released on bail,over alleged links to illegalbookmakers.

KARACHI—Mercurial all-rounder Shahid Afridi wastargeting 400 wickets aftercompleting a unique feat ofhitting 400 sixes in One-DayInternationals.

“I am happy that I hadcompleted 400 sixes and nowI am looking forward to com-plete 400 wickets in ODIs” hetold reporters at Quaid-e-Azam International Airporton arrival after beating WestIndies in ODI and twoTwenty20 International se-ries on Tuesday.

A small group of ShahidAfridi, Hammad Azam andUmer Amin returned home.

Captain Misbah-ul-Haq,Muhammad Hafeez, UmerAkmal, Ahmed Shehzad andsome players have stayedback in West Indies to fea-ture in Caribbean PremierLeague to represent Islandsin the event.

He said it was satisfyingthat he performed well andlooking forward to bring morehonor and glory to the coun-try. He thanked his fan hugeclub for supporting.

He praised all his team-mates for bringing successto Pakistan in both brands ofcricket.

Shahid Afridi said Paki-stan team badly needed a winwhich achieved against WestIndies.

“It was good to see thateach and every member of theteam performed”, 33-year-oldveteran of 359 ODIs, said.During the tour Afridi be-come the first all-rounder tocomplete 7000 runs and 350wickets.

Indian court says BCCIprobe panel ‘illegal’

Son-in-law GurunathMeiyappan is one of theowners of IPL franchiseChennai Super Kings, a teambought by Srinivasan’s IndiaCements conglomerate when

the league was launched in2008.

The BCCI appointed thepanel of two retired HighCourt judges in June to con-duct an internal probe. Theinvestigation was separatefrom probes being carried out

by the Delhi and Mumbaipolice into the IPL scandal,with charges expected to befiled shortly.

A petition was lodged inthe High Court against theBCCI-ordered probe, whichcricket chiefs said last monthwould aim to clean up thesport in India.

“We find that the mannerin which BCCI has consti-tuted a panel under its ownrules is illegal and unconsti-tutional,” NDTV quoted thecourt’s order as saying.

Amit Naik, a lawyer forthe petitioner, told NDTVthat it was now “up to theBCCI to see what is to bedone next”.

A BCCI source declinedto comment until lawyers hadstudied the order. The BCCIcould still appeal to a highercourt.

The BCCI’s interim chiefJagmohan Dalmiya was dueto place the report, which hasyet to be released publicly,before the IPL’s governingcouncil in New Delhi on Fri-day.

The scandal in themoney-spinning IPL, aTwenty20 tournament thatsees top international starsplay alongside domesticplayers, has shaken fans’faith in India’s most popularsport.

Police have questionedRaj Kundra, husband ofBollywood actor ShilpaShetty and co-owner of theRajasthan Royals franchise,which had three players ar-rested for alleged spot-fixingin the IPL.

A BCCI source had toldAFP on Monday that theprobe had clearedSrinivasan’s India Cements,Rajasthan Royals,Meiyappan and Kundra ofspot-fixing allegations.

“There is nothing in thereport to implicate thesepeople,” the source said oncondition of anonymity.

“I don’t think we can, orhave the right, to stopSrinivasan from coming backas president now,” thehighly-placed sourcesaid.— AFP

Afridi targeting 400wickets after 400 sixes

Shahid Afridi called forinclusion of young players innext month’s tour of Zimba-bwe. But at the same timeadded that senior playersshould not be neglected.

Responding to a ques-tion about not playing in theCaribbean Premier League,he said he did not received a

big offer so opted not to playin the inaugural competitionT20 competition in WestIndies.

At the airport team play-ers were received by formerPakistan captain Wasim Bariand Manager National Sta-dium on behalf of Pakistancricket board.—APP

Waqas excels asOmar CC liftsDr.Shah Night

Trophy titleK A R A C H I — A w e s o m eMuhammad Waqas blasted ahurricane 85 to play pivotalrole as Omer Cricket Clubclinched the the 18thDr.M.A.Shah Night TrophyT20 Cricket Tournament instyle with a thumping ninewicket victory overA.O.Clinic in the final atAsghar Ali Shah Stadium onTuesday night

Opener Waqas beltedseven sixes and as many fourand Zain Abbas hit an un-beaten 44 as Omar CC chas-ing a modest victory target135 in the 16th over for theloss of just one wicket.

Zain, who cracked threefours and two sixes in hisunbeaten 44 gave their teama flying start of 129 runs toseal the fate of the match.

Batting first, A.O.Clinicscored 134 after losing fourwickets.

Fazal Subhan scored afine 53 with the aid of twosixes and three boundaries.

At the presentation cer-emony, CommissionerKarachi Shoaib AhmedSiddiqui who was the ChiefGuest distributed the Prizes.

Omer CC Captain AdnanKaleem received winningTrophy and cash purse of Rs500000 and loosing captainAyaz Tasawar collected run-ners-up trophy with Rs250000 cash purse.

Chief Organizer Dr.JunaidAli Shah, former PakistanCaptain Islahuddin Siddiqui,Tournament Director NusratFaheem and other officialswere also present on the oc-casion.

Ayaz Tasawar named theman of the turnament,Tayyab Riaz got best bats-man award and MuhammadSami was declared the bestbowler of the tourna-ment.—APP

Assets/liabilitiesstatementsISLAMABAD—The ElectionCommission of Pakistan hasasked Members of the Parlia-ment and Provincial Assembliesto submit to the Election Com-mission by 30th September,2013, yearly Statements of As-sets and Liabilities of their own,their spouses and dependents.This is a mandatory requirementunder Section 42A of the Rep-resentation of the People Act,1976 and Section 25A of theSenate (Elections) Act, 1975,says a press release of ECP onWednesday. —Online

NATO containerset ablazeQUETTA—Unidentified mili-tants opened fire and later setablaze a NATO container hereon Wednesday but no humanloss was reported. According todetails, two miscreants riding amotorcycle opened indiscrimi-nate fire at a Karachi boundNATO container coming fromChaman, the Pak-Afghan bor-dering area, in Chottu locality ofMastung district. The driverMuhammad Anwar and cleanerremained safe in the fire. —INP

DUBAI—Al Qaeda leader Aymanal-Zawahri slammed U.S. treat-ment of hunger striking inmatesat Guantanamo Bay and said thegroup would spare no effort to freethem, according to an audio re-cording posted on the Internet onWednesday.

Zawahri also said Shi’iteHezbollah’s intervention in theconflict in Syria was an attemptto promote Iranian hegemonyover the country.

“The (hunger) strike by ourbrothers at Guantanamo unmasksthe true ugly face of (the UnitedStates of) America,” Zawahri saidin an audio recording posted onan Islamist website and whoseauthenticity could not be verified.

“We pledge to God that wewill spare no effort to free all ourprisoners, on top of whom areOmar Abdel Rahman, AafiaSiddiqui, Khaled SheikhMohammed and every oppressedMuslim everywhere ...,” he added,referring to prominent Islamistmilitants held by the UnitedStates. He did not elaborate onwhat al Qaeda intended to do, butmilitants have in the past kid-napped Westerners and sought totrade them for jailed comrades. Al

Qaeda has also claimed responsi-bility for simultaneous raids ontwo Iraqi prisons last week inwhich they said more than 500inmates had been set free. And inPakistan, Taliban broke 250 pris-oners out of a jail on Tuesday.

Some 166 men, most ofwhom were rounded up incounter-terrorism operations sincethe September 11, 2001 attacks onthe United States, are currentlybeing held at a U.S. military base

in Guantanamo Bay in Cuba.Many have been on hunger

strike to protest their indefinitedetention, with some being force-fed. Zawahri also denouncedWashington’s use of drone strikestargeting Islamists, saying it wasa sign of the defeat of U.S. cam-paigns in Afghanistan, Pakistan andYemen. Drone strikes have beenwidely criticized by rights groupswho say the strikes often miss theirtargets and hit civilians. —Reuters

Al-Qaeda to free Gitmoinmates: Zawahri

Letting PTI to formgovernment in KP

was a mistake: FazlISLAMABAD—Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam - Fazl (JUI-F) chiefMaulana Fazlur Rehman said onWednesday that it was a mistaketo have let Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) form government inKhyber-Pakhtunkhwa. In a tele-phonic conversation with PrimeMinister Nawaz Sharif, JUI-Fchief said that criminals andmilitants were roaming freewhile the common people wererestricted to their homes. —INP

2 Rangers injuredin Manghopir

bomb blastSTAFF REPORTER

KARACHI—Terrorists continuedchallenging the writ of the statethrough unchecked sabotage ac-tivities in the metropolis. Theperpetrators had acceleratedtheir activities for the sabotageagainst the law enforcementagencies especially Rangers.

On Wednesday, the terror-ists had attacked a Rangerspicket stationed in Manghopirarea, which the terrorists hadalready turned into a No GoArea and despite many attempts;the law enforcement agenciescould not clear the area.

Subsequent to the terroristattack through a planted explo-sive device, 2 Rangers person-nel and 2 cops sustained inju-ries and were taken to hospitalfor urgent medical assistance.

HAMEED SHAHEEN

ISLAMABAD—The current phaseof the mighty ongoing Kashmirstruggle had ignited on July 31,1988 when two Kashmir youthwere clutched by the occupationforces.

This event was, in fact, adirect challenge to the honourand strength of Kashmiri youthforce. The youth took it that waywhen they threw themselveshead-on into the ongoing phaseof Kashmir struggle.

This phase is spread acrossquarter of a century - 25 years,from July 31, 1988 to July 31,2013. Kashmiri freedom fight-ers are a steel when they alightto a field of sacrifice.

This phase is characterizedby the fact that it made onceagain the dispute over Jammu

ISLAMABAD—Munir Qureshi,chairman of the Employees’ OldAge Benefit Institution (EOBI),informed the Supreme CourtWednesday that corrupt elementsin the institution were under in-vestigation and that the auditorgeneral had been instructed toconduct a special audit.

A three-member of the apexcourt, headed by Chief JusticeIftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry,heard the case pertaining to cor-ruption in the EOBI.

The apex court had taken asuo motu notice of the EOBI scamover reports that the institution hadcaused a loss of Rs 40 billion tothe national exchequer by invest-ing huge amounts in private sec-tor projects without approval of

its board of trustees (BoT).During the hearing, Qureshi

informed the court that formerchairman of EOBI, Zafar IqbalGondal, was inducted in the insti-tution on deputation basis just likehim.

He added that EOBI was re-ceiving contributions from 3.4million registered workers,whereas the institution was pay-ing out Rs 1 billion monthly aspension for 400, 000 workers.

Qureshi said that formerchairman had even suspended thepre-audit system, which was nowrestored.

Defence Housing Authoritylawyer Irfan Qadir said salaries ofits workers could not be prepareddue to the freezing of the DHA

bank accounts. Chief JusticeIftikhar Chaudhry asked Qadir asto how much money he had de-posited in the court, upon whichhe replied that 2.6 billion rupeeshad been submitted so far. Headded that Eid was approachingsoon and the workers’ salarieswould have to be prepared.

The court asked Qadir to sub-mit in writing the request for pay-ment of workers’ salaries and ad-journed the hearing till tomorrow. Online adds Supreme Court(SC) has sought details of 96thBoard of Trustee meeting ofEmployees Old Age Benefit In-stitution (EOBI) within 24hours that court be informed onwhat conditions the investmentwas made. —Online

EOBI scam case: Pre-audit systemrestored, chairman informs SC

Current Kashmir struggleignited on July 31, 1988

and Kashmir an internationalconcern. That is the reason thatfrom UN Secretary General BanKi-moon to United States ofAmerica to Peoples’ Republic ofChina, United Kingdom, SaudiArabia as nation-wise urgedHindustan to settle Kashmirdispute with Pakistan vianegotiations. This mode isacceptable even to the directdispute party - the people ofJammu and Kashmir. Almostentire gamut of Kashmiri leadersfrom AJK and IHK agree to thispattern but insist that in the vitalprocess of Pakistan-HindustanKashmir negotiations, the repsof Kashmiris must be associatedaround the table of talks.

The international communitytoo buy this pattern. Pakistan fightson the forefront of ideological warof Jammu and Kashmir.

ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Muhammad Nawaz Sharif in a meeting with Provincial Chief Ministers on Wednesday.

27 new measlescases surfacedLAHORE—Twenty-seven newcases of measles were reportedduring the last 24 hours as thenumber of cases in Punjab inthe last seven months hasreached 22,971.According tohealth department officials, atleast 192 deaths have been re-ported so far while most deathsoccurred in Lahore,Gujranwala, Rajanpur, RahimYar Khan, Kasur andSialkot.—APP

A BABY who received antiretroviraltherapy within 30 hours of birth hasbeen cured, researchers from Johns

Hopkins Children’s Center, the University ofMississippi Medical Center and the Univer-sity of Massachusetts Medi-cal School reported at the20th Conference onRetroviruses and Opportu-nistic Infections (CROI) inAtlanta, Georgia, USA.Treating an HIV+ infant (orone with suspected HIV in-fection) in such a way sosoon after birth is not com-mon.

A functional cure meansthere is a lack of detectableviral replication in the ab-sence of ongoing retroviraltherapy. The patient, now2½ years old, has not beenon any HIV medications andhas no sign of functioningvirus.

This is the first case ofa “functional cure” in an HIV-positive infant,the researchers announced. They say theirfinding could help pave the way towards theelimination of HIV infection in children.

Lead author, Deborah Persaud, M.D., avirologist at Johns Hopkins Children’s Cen-ter, and Katherine Luzuriaga, M.D., an im-munologist at the University of MassachusettsMedical School, headed a team of laboratoryscientists. Hannah Gay, M.D., a pediatric HIVspecialist at the University of MississippiMedical Center administered the treatment tothe infant.Prompt administration of ART prob-ably led to the baby’s cure

After receiving aggressive antiretroviral

therapy (ART) within thirty hours of beingborn, the infant underwent remission of HIVinfection. The team believe that the promptadministration of ART probably led to thebaby’s cure by stopping the formation of

difficult-to-treat viral reser-voirs - dormant cells which areresponsible for reigniting theinfection in the majority ofHIV patients soon after theystop therapy.

“Prompt antiviral therapyin newborns that begins withindays of exposure may helpinfants clear the virus andachieve long-term remissionwithout lifelong treatment bypreventing such viral hideoutsfrom forming in the firstplace.”

The authors believe this isexactly what happened to theinfant they described in theirreport. The infant, who is now“functionally cured” - hasachieved and maintained long-

term viral remission without lifelong treat-ment and standard clinical tests found noevidence of HIV replication in the blood.

Dr. Deborah Persaud of Johns Hopkins’Children’s Center. Dr. Deborah Persaud, avirologist at the Johns Hopkins’ Children’sCenter, administered the treatment. Imagefrom: Johns Hopkins Medicine.What is thedifference between a functional cure and asterilizing cure? A sterilizing cure occurs whenall viral traces are completely eradicated fromthe body. A functional cure means that theviral presence is so minimal that it cannot bedetected by standard clinical tests, but maybe discernible by ultrasensitive methods.

Doctors cure baby bornwith HIV for first time

Dean of Diplomatic Corps Rodolfo Martin Saravia, High Commissioner of Maldives Aishath Shehnaz Adam, Director General East Asia Pacific RiffatMasood and other Ambassadors and High Commissioners at a farewell reception hosted by Mr Rodolfo Martin Saravia in the honor of the outgoing HighCommissioner of Maldives, at the Embassy of Argentine, Islamabad.—PO photo by Sultan Bashir

Young children who cannot afford to pay school fee are being taught by a philanthropist atan open air school in F-6, Islamabad.

Continues

ALLAMA Iqbal Open Uni-versity (AIOU) has openedits admissions for the Se-mester Autumn, 2013 fromMatric to MA/M.Sc levelprogrammes in differentdisciplines.

ASHRAF ANSARI

ISLAMABAD—The ambassa-dor of the Kingdom of Mo-rocco and Mrs. MustaphaSalahdine hosted a receptionto celebrate the 14th anniver-sary of the enthronement ofKing Mohammad VI of Mo-rocco.

A large number of guestsincluding ambassadors andother diplomats as well asprominent people belongingto various segments of soci-ety attended the reception.The industr ies’ ministerGhulam Murtaza Khan Jatoiwas the chief guest on the oc-casion who joined the ambas-sador of Morocco and otherguests in cutting of the cer-emonial cake.

The reception began withthe playing of national an-thems of Pakistan and Mo-rocco. The Moroccan ambas-sador who recently came fromRabat to take up ambassado-rial assignment in Islamabad,freely mixed with guests andpleasantly exchanged viewswith them.

He said, his country holdsPakistan in high esteem forseveral reasons. First and theforemost reason was that Pa-kistan played significant role

in the United Nations for theliberation of Morocco.

The other reasons for cor-dial relations between the twocountries relate to common

faith, Islam and shared cul-tural values. He said, Moroccowants to have still closer rela-tions with Pakistan. “We wantto promote and strengthen co-

operation between the twocountries in various fieldswith stress on trade and eco-nomic links”. The volume ofbilateral trade between Paki-

stan and Morocco has in-creased to $400 million butit needs to be increased sub-stantially.

Morocco is exporting toPakistan phosphate and fer-tilizers. It imports from Pa-kistan textiles as well assports and surgical goods.

Morocco has achievedvisible progress in the eco-nomic and social fields un-der the dynamic leadershipof King Mohammad VI. TheKingdom has signed Free

Trade Agreement with USAwhich has opened new av-enues for the Kingdom andits people. Free Trade Agree-ments with European Unionand Turkey have also greatlybenefi ted Moroccaneconomy.

There is vast scope forjoint ventures between theentrepreneurs of Pakistanand Morocco in several in-dustrial areas.

Pakistan can boost itstrade with Morocco by ex-porting non-traditional prod-ucts like fruits and veg-etables.

People of Morocco celebrateEnthronement of King Mohammad VI

Chief Guest Federal Minister for Industries and Production Ghulam Murtaza Khan Jatoi,Ambassador of Kingdom of Morocco Mustapha Salahdine, Governor Gilgit-Baltistan PriKaram Shah, PML (N) Leader Tariq Azeem, Dean of Diplomatic Corps Martin J Saravia,Ambassador of Yemen Abdo Ali Abdul Rahman Al-Shawafi, Ambassador of BahrainMohamed Ebrahim Mohamed, Hon. Consul General of Morocco Mirza Ishtiaq Baig, Am-bassador of Egypt Said Hindam and Editor-in-Chief Pakistan Observer Zahid Malik cut-ting the cake on the occasion of the Fourteenth Anniversary of the Enthronement of KingMohammad VI, at a local hotel.—PO photo by Sultan Bashir

STAFF REPORTER

ISLAMABAD—Dean of Diplo-matic corps, AmbassadorRodolfo Martin Saravia hosted areception at the embassy of Ar-gentine to bid farewell to HighCommissioner Dr. AishathShehnaz Adam of the Republicof Maldives in Islamabad, whowas to leave for home after com-pleting her four year tenure inPakistan.

A large number of ambassa-dors and senior diplomats at-tended the reception. Ms. RiffatMasood, Director General (SouthAsia & SAARC) was the chiefguest on the occasion.

In his address, AmbassadorRodolfo Martin Saravia paid richtributes to Maldives High Com-missioner Dr. Aishath ShehnazAdam for her commitment to herdiplomatic assignment in Paki-stan and her pleasant personality.He said, she always worked topromote friendly relations be-tween Pakistan and her country.She also worked to promote goodwill among all the countries rep-resented in Pakistan. He said, thehigh commissioner is a prominenteducationist and reputed math-

Farewell reception

Pak, Maldives to enhance tiesematician of her country. At thesame time she has proved to bea person of great diplomatictalent.High Commissioner Dr.Aishath Shehnaz Adam in herspeech thanked AmbassadorRodolfo Martin Saravia for ar-ranging a warm farewell in herhonour. She also thanked theambassadors and other diplo-mats who joined the dean of dip-lomatic corps in bidding her fare-well.

The outgoing high commis-sioner of Maldives said, she en-joyed her stay in Pakistan andshe was always impressed by thehospitality of the Pakistanipeople as well as the curtsey andcooperation of the Pakistan gov-ernment. She said Pakistan andMaldives enjoy cordial relationsand the two countries are deter-mined to strengthen their bilat-eral cooperation. Ms. RiffatMasood, Director General(South Asia & SAARC) repre-senting foreign office said, theoutgoing high commissioner ofMaldives greatly contributed topromoting friendly and coopera-tive relations between Pakistanand her country. She was allpraise for Dr. Aishath Shehnaz

Adam for her brilliance in herdiplomatic pursuits. RiffatMasood said, Pakistan greatlyvalues its relations with Maldivesand Islamabad would continuemaking efforts to further promoterelations between the two coun-tries.

Dean of Diplomatic CorpsAmbassador Rodolfo MartinSaravia of Argentine took the op-portunity of introducing new am-bassadors of Denmark and SouthKorea as well as the new highcommissioner of India. Ambassa-dor Jong Hwan Song of Republicof Korea, Ambassador JesperMoller Sorensen of Denmark andHigh Commissioner T. C. A.Raghavan of India recently tookup ambassadorial assignments inIslamabad. The dean of diplo-matic corps welcomed the newambassadors of Korea and Den-mark as well as the high commis-sioner of India. He assured thenew ambassadors of all coopera-tion to them by the diplomaticcorps in Islamabad. He expressedhis confidence that the new am-bassadors would find their stay inIslamabad very comfortable andproductive for their countries aswell the host country.

Martyrdomanniversary of

Hazrat Ali(AS) observed

ISLAMABAD—The martyr-dom day of Amir-ul-Momineen Hazrat Ali IbneAbi Talib (AS) was observedon Wednesday with reli-gious spirit, devotion and re-spect.

Mourning processionswas taken out while Ulema, re-ligious scholars and Zakireenhighlighted the life and teach-ings of the Fourth Caliph atMajalis-e-Aza and gathering atmosques and Imambargahs.

Various seminars and con-ferences were held in the twincities of Rawalpindi andIslamabad, where the speakersshed light on the life andachievements of Hazrat Ali(AS).

Addressing a processionhere, Chairman Ulema BoardAllama Ghafran Sialvi said aman could lead a successfullife by acting upon the teach-ings of the Holy Prophet(PBUH).

The sayings of Hazrat Ali(AS) guide the people how tolead their life in accordancewith the teachings and theSunnah of the Holy Prophet(PBUH), he added.

He said the resolution ofproblems being confronted bythe Muslim world could beby resolved by acting onthe teachings of Hazrat Ali(AS).

He said Hazrat Ali (AS)played an exemplary role incementing the foundationsof the Islam and confrontedits enemies till his martyr-dom.—APP

Orders issuedfor jamming

mobile servicein Adiala Jail

R AWA L P I N D I —Commis -sioner Rawalpindi DivisionKhalid Masood Chaudhry hasdirected Additional DistrictCollector General (ADCG)Chaudhry Muhammad AliRandhawa to take steps forjamming mobile phone servicein Adiala Jail.

Step has been taken on per-sistent complaints about grow-ing tendency of use of mobilephone among the prisoners ofjail.

ADCG has directed Assis-tant Commissioner SadarRawalpindi Zahid Sohail to con-vene the meeting of jail admin-istration and mobile companiesand evolve strategy to jam mo-bile service.

It has been learnt that mo-bile companies’ towers havebeen installed close to jail build-ing and efforts will be made tojam mobile service inside jailfrom these towers.

If such efforts don’t suc-ceed then measures will betaken to remove mobiletower.—Online

ISLAMABAD—Females of everyage are busy in Eid preparationswith the occasion drawing near, astwin cities of Islamabad andRawalpindi markets are bustlingwith female buyers.Shopping

Women ahead in Eid preparationsmalls in twin cities are illuminated,bangles are displayed, whilejewellery and henna are special at-tractions for the female buyers.

Women and girls mostly starttheir shopping almost two weeks

before Eid, as they have to pre-pare dresses, buy jewellery andother accessories to satiate theiraesthetics and welcome the reli-gious festival with colours and tra-ditional enthusiasm.—APP

Briefs

Creative minds havealways been known

to survive any kind ofbad training.—Anna Freud

ISLAMABAD: Federal Minister for National Food Security and Research Sikandar Hayat Khan Bosan in a meetingwith representatives of pesticides association.

STAFF REPORTER

KARACHI—The branch-less banking in the coun-try grew by 14 percent dur-ing first quarter of calendaryear (CY-2013- January-March) and by the end ofthe quarter, BranchlessBanking (BB) accountshave reached 2.4 million.According to SBP’s latestBranchless Banking News-letter, branchless banking

deposits have grown by 32percent and reached Rs 1.4billion.

A State Bank of Pakistan(SBP) statement here onWednesday said that thegrowth is mainly attributedto level ‘0’ and level ‘3’ ac-counts which grew by 33%and 56% respectively.

The total volume andvalue of transactions pro-cessed during the quarter hasjumped by 16% to 41.1 mil-

lion and by 13% to Rs 171billion respectively. Thisgrowth in transactions islargely attributable to earlyBB players (Easypaisa andOmni). The average size oftransaction is Rs 4,150 whilethe average number of dailytransactions has increasedto 457,000 from 392,433.

The fast growing net-work of BB agents hasreached to 64,716 as of Mar31, 2013 from 41,567 as on

Dec 31, 2012 registering anincrease of 56 percent. Thisgrowth in agents’ network islargely owed to new players(Mobicash and Timepey).

According to the News-letter, domestic fund trans-fers through OTC (P2P) re-mains the dominant categorywith 59 percent share in valueand 36 percent in number oftransactions performed bythe customers. Growth in m-wallets has been driven by

G2P accounts as 75 percentof the total 295,138 ac-counts registered during thequarter belong to G2Pbeneficiaries.G2P welfarepayments worth of Rs 5.5billion have been disbursedthrough BB channels dur-ing the quarter. Moreover,Rs 346 million have alsobeen disbursed to Employ-ees’ Old-Age BenefitInstitution’s pensionersthrough agents.

Branchless banking accounts grow by 14pc

HAMEED SHAHEEN

ISLAMABAD—The cement ex-ports from the country wit-nessed increase of 15.81 per-cent during fiscal year 2012-13against the same period of lastyear. The cement exports wererecorded at US$ 577.878 millionwhereas during July-June 2011-12, the exports remained$498.844 million.

On month on month basis,the cement exports also in-creased by 2.49 percent anddecreased by 4.16 percent inJune 2013 when compared withthe exports in June 2012 andMay 2013. According to datareleased by Pakistan Bureau ofStatistics (PBS), the exports inJune 2013 were recorded at$53.338 million where as in June2012 and May 2013 the valueof exports remained $52.043 and$55.655 million.

Meanwhile, the Jewellary

exports from the country haswitnessed increase of 28.54percent during fiscal year 2012-13 against the same period oflast year. The Jewellary exportsduring the period under reviewwere recorded at US$ 1.17 bil-lion while during last year, theexports stood at US$ 916.43million. The Gems exports in-creased by 15.79 percent whichstood at $4.575 million duringJuly-June 2012-13 against theexports of $3.951 million duringJuly-June (2011-12).

Similarly exports of furni-ture, handicrafts and molassesalso witnessed increase of 9.44percent, 607.08 percent and333.16 percent respectively.The furniture exports duringthe year 2012-13 remained$7.062 million against exportsof $6.453 million during sameperiod of last year.

The exports of handicraftsduring the corresponding pe-

riod under review stood at$1.697 million whereas duringlast year the handicrafts exportsstood at $0.24 million. The mo-lasses exports increased from$6.411 million in July-June(2011-12) to $27.77 million dur-ing same period of current year.

On month on month basis,the jewellary exports of thecountry decreased by 90.68%and increased by 18.9 percentduring June 2013 when com-pared to June 2012 and May2013 respectively. The jewellaryexports, decreased from $19.249million in June 2012 to $19.061million in June 2013.

The Gems exports duringthe month increased by 18.33percent and 36.21 percent whencompared to June 2012 andMay 2013 respectively. Thegems exports increased from$0.48 million in June 2012 and0.417 million in May 2013 to0.568 million in June 2013.

Cement exports go up by15.81pc in FY 12-13

Pak ambassadormeets ChairmanNEC CorpISLAMABAD—AmbassadorFarukh Amil along withEconomic team of thePakistan embassy visitedNEC Corporation and heldmeeting with Chairman ofthe Board Kaoru Yano, andsenior staff members of theCorporation here onWednesday. The NECCorporation has beenworking in Pakistan since1963 focusing on telecom-munication system. NECintends to offer moresolutions to Pakistan, bothin public and private sectorsin the fields of energy andsecurity. The Chairmancongratulated on smoothdemocratic transition inPakistan. He hoped thepresent PML-Ngovernment’s businessfriendly policies will helpboost foreign investment inPakistan. The Ambassadorproposed the Chairman thatthe Corporation may impartinternships for youngPakistani software engi-neers. The Ambassadorinvited NEC to attend theExpo 2013 in Karachi inSeptember.—APP

Conversion ratesKARACHI—The followingrates will be applicable forconversion into rupees ofForeign Currency Deposits,Dollar Bearer Certificates,Foreign Currency BearerCertificates, Special U.S.Dollar Bonds and profitsthereon by all banks and forproviding Forward Coveron Foreign CurrencyDeposits (excluding F.E. 25deposits) by the State Bankon August 01, 2013. Therates are U.S. Dollar Rs101.8067,Japanese Yen Rs1.0428, Pound Sterling Rs154.9192 and Euro Rs135.2196.—APP

Taiwan’s AUOswings back to profitTAIPEI—Taiwanese flat-panel maker AU OptronicsCorp said Wednesday itreturned to profit in the threemonths to June, endinglosses for 10 consecutivequarters, due to strongdemand for high-priced TVscreens. Net profit wasTw$3.98 billion ($131 million)on revenue of Tw$112.3billion, the company said in astatement. It recorded a lossof Tw$12.71 billion a yearearlier. “Looking back on thesecond quarter, both AUO’soperating profit and netprofit made significantimprovements and came backto profitability,” the companysaid. Like its major SouthKorean competitor Samsung,AU Optronics has made aseries of investments inChina, including a three-billion-dollar plan to build aflat-panel plant in the easterncity of Kunshan.—AFP

Nintendo swingsback to profitTOKYO—Japan’s Nintendosaid Wednesday it hadswung to a profit of $88million in the three monthsto June as a weakening yenhelped its overseas results.The net profit of 8.62 billionyen reversed a loss of 17.23billion yen a year earlier. Themaker of the Wii gamesconsole kept its forecastunchanged at a 55 billionyen profit for the fiscal full-year to March. But it saidsales in the three months toJune fell 3.8 percent on-yearto 81.55 billion yen asdemand for its new Wii Uconsole came in belowexpectations. A sharp declinein the value of the Japanesecurrency since late last yearhas helped results forJapanese exporters.—AFP

TARIQ KHATTAK

ISLAMABAD—Palm oil im-ports into the country wit-nessed negative growth of17.35 percent during the fis-cal year 2012-13 against thetrade of corresponding pe-riod of last year. The palm oilimports into the country dur-ing July-June (2012-13) wererecorded at $1.962 billionagainst the imports of $2.374billion recorded during July-June (2011-12), according tothe data of Pakistan Bureauof Statistics (PBS).

In terms of quantity, the

palm oil imports increasedslightly by 2.61 percent dur-ing the period under reviewby going up from 2,108,727metric tons during FY2011-12to 2,163,805 metric tons dur-ing FY 2012-13.

Meanwhile, on year-on-year basis, the palm oil im-ports during June 2013 de-creased by 47.56 percent inJune 2013 when compared tothe trade of June 2012. Thepalm oil imports in June 2013were recorded at $127.511million against the imports of$243.178 million in June 2012.

On month-on-month ba-sis, the palm oil imports inJune 2013 increased by 5.58percent when compared tothe imports of $135.046 mil-lion in May 2013. On the otherhand, the soyabean oil im-ports into the country in-creased by 44.83 percent dur-ing FY 2012-13. The

soyabean oil imports wererecorded at $74.466 million in2012-13 against the importsof $51.417 million in 2011-12,the data revealed.

On year-on-year basis,the imports of soyabean oildecreased by 95.16 percentduring June 2013 when com-pared to the trade of June2011, the data revealed. Thesoyabean oil imports in June2013 were recorded at $0.446million against the imports of9.214 million during June2012. On month-on-monthbasis, the imports ofsoyabean oil decreased by 97percent in June 2013 whencompared to the imports of$15.339 million recorded dur-ing May 2013. The overallfood imports into the coun-try during the FY2012-13 wit-nessed fall of 16.14 percentwhen compared to the corre-sponding year.

Palm oil imports fall 17.35pcin FY2012-13, 95pc in June

LIAQAT TOOR

ISLAMABAD—Upbeat withPak-Brazil agreement to grant5-year multiple visa to busi-nessmen to each other’s coun-try, Alfredo Leoni, Ambassa-dor of Brazil to Pakistan saidthis step will pave way to in-crease trade volume to mani-fold. Addressing a press con-ference here on Wednesday,he said it will be a first stepwhile more steps are in thepipeline to open more avenuesfor their respective business-men. The issue of lowering tar-iff which is connected to othercountries of South Americawill also be tackled for the ben-efit of both the countries, hesaid.

He said the present officialPak-Brazil trade volume is hov-ering around $ 285 million whichis much less than Brazil shareswith other regional countriesincluding India and Sri Lanka.He said both countries havepotential to touch new heights

if businessmen are facilitated atevery step, he said. The Am-bassador, who has been tryingto strike agreement with Paki-stan on liberalization of visaregime met success on Tues-day when both countries ex-changed notes on granting 5-year multiple entry visa to busi-nessmen.

The Ambassador said boththe countries are moving for-ward in all fields of human ac-tivities. The new step will proveto be a gate- way as Pakistanibusinessmen will also be ableto go to other neighbouringcountries of Brazil to explorebusiness activities. Brazil is the6th largest economy of theworld and it is the largest com-mercial partner of Pakistan inLatin America. Pakistan’s ex-ports to Brazil increased bymore than 100% from the year2009 to 2012 from 44 million USdollars to 92 million US dollarsin 2012. Major Brazilian exportsto Pakistan include cotton, fuelpumps, plastic, iron and steel,

tobacco, pulp, among others,while majorPakistani exports toBrazil include textile items, sur-gical items, Soccer balls, mani-cure instruments etc.

Alfredo Leoni said the po-tential markets for the bilateraltrade include poultry meat; ag-ricultural machinery; orangejuice; tea, mate and spices; cof-fee derived products; autoparts; textiles and garments;leather goods; marble and gran-ites; sports gear; fans andwood handicraft. Brazil andPakistan can work together indifferent areas, through joint-ventures and joint-research,such as biotechnology, phar-maceuticals, poultry produc-tion, telecommunications andbioenergy.

Brazil is a very importantdestination for investments,being one of the countries thatattracted more foreign directinvestment in the last decade.Not only Brazilian industrialsector is booming, but also theprivate equity, telecommunica-

tions, tourism, civil construc-tion and biotechnology sec-tors are offering great revenuesfor investors. Pakistanis couldalso be a part of this move-ment, and profit from the Bra-zilian Development, he said.Referring to other activities ofhis embassy during the nextsix months, AmbassadorLeoni said a Gastronomy Fes-tival will take place in a localhotel from September 21 to 24.The launching of a space atthe library of Quaid-i-AzamUniversity, with more than 300books about Brazil, in October;and a photo exhibition aboutIslam in Brazil, portrayingsome aspects of the life of Bra-zilian Muslims, in Novemberwill help the people of both thecountries to understand eachother.To a question, he said Brazil canshare experience with Pakistanin the field of hydro power pro-duction. Both the countrieshave supported each other ininternational forums.

Pakistan-Brazil liberalisation of visa regime

Bilateral trade volume totouch new heights: Leoni

ISLAMABAD: Federal Minister for IT and Telecom Ms. Anusha Rehman with Zong’sCFO Feng Tuixian and officials from MOITT, PTA and telecom industry during an Iftardinner.

LSE down by5.81 points

LAHORE—Bearish trendprevailed in Lahore StockExchange on Wednesday asit shed 5.81 points, followingthe LSE-25 index openedwith 5048.01 and closed at5042.20 points. The market’soverall situation, however,did not correspond to an up-ward trend as it remained at2.018 million shares to closeagainst previous turnover of2.899million shares, showinga downward move of 881,000shares. While, out of the to-tal 105 active scrips 18 movedup, 56 remined equal with 31shed values.

MARI Petroleum Com-pany, Habib Bank Limitedand Attock Refinery Limitedwere major gainers of the dayby recording increase in theirper share value by Rs 9.62,Rs 3.90 and Rs 2.10 respec-tively.

Exide Pakistan Limited,Engro Corporation Limitedand Engro Foods Limitedlost their per share value byRs 13.14, Rs 2.73 and Rs 1.10respectively.

The Volume Leader of theday included Lafarge Paki-stan Cement Limited with399,500 shares, Pakistan Tele-communication CompanyLimited with 312,000 sharesand Byco Petroleum Pakistanwith 267,000 shares.—APP

ISLAMABAD: Ambassador of Brazil to Pakistan, Alfredo Leoni, announced in a PressConference on Wednesday, the confirmation of the granting of 5-year multiple entryVisa for Pakistani businesspeople going for business in Brazil.

SALIM AHMED

LAHORE—Board of Directorsof Sindh Engro Coal Mining Co(A Joint Venture between Gov-ernment of Sindh and EngroCorporation) met under theChairmanship of Mr. Zubair A.Motiwala to discuss quarterlyperformance of the companyand other matters.

The Board was informedthat by adapting a phased ap-proach, the Company plans tobuild a 600 MW Power Plant in3.5 years and expanding it to1200 MW, yielding a power tariffof approximately 8 US cents /kWh. At ultimate capacity of asingle mine, SECMC will be ableto produce 3600 MW in lessthan 10 years at a power tariffbelow 6 US cents /kWh –cheaper than any other con-ventional fuel including hydro-based power. Board was furtherinformed that SECMC has mo-bilized its site team and com-pleted the demarcation and sur-

vey work for acquiring the re-quired land to start miningworks. Company has met sev-eral international and local fi-nancial institutions and inves-tors who have expressed astrong interest in financing theproject. The board membersappreciated the efforts of theCompany to move the projectin the right direction.

Chairman advised theCompany Management tocomplete all the formalities in-cluding Coal and Power Tariffapprovals and expedite theirefforts on achieving financialclose enabling start of mineconstruction within foreseeablefuture. Board expressed its sat-isfaction and appreciated therole of Government of Sindh onthe progress made on all the In-frastructure projects includingRoad network rehabilitation,Effluent Disposal Scheme,Fresh Water Supply Schemeand Construction of IslamkotAirport.

Thar Coal key to Pakistan’senergy security

STAFF REPORTER

ISLAMABAD—Speaker Na-tional Assembly Sardar AyazSadiq Wednesday urged theinvestors of Qatar to take ad-vantage of up-coming businessopportunities in Pakistan andinvest in various sectors espe-cially the energy and manufac-turing sectors. He said thisduring a meeting with SayyarAbdul Rehman Moawada, Am-bassador of Qatar who calledon him in Parliament House.

Talking to the Qatari Am-bassador, Speaker NationalAssembly said that Pakistan

cherishes its historic brotherlyrelations with Qatar and wantsthem to be taken up to newheights through parliamentarycooperation between legisla-tures of both the countries. TheSpeaker said that parliamentarydiplomacy was an excellentway of bringing two nationsmore closer which were alreadytied in eternal religious and his-toric bonds. He said that Pak-Qatar friendship group in Na-tional Assembly of Pakistan willbe activated soon. He sug-gested for early establishmentof Qatar-Pak friendship inQatari National Assembly.

NA Speaker urges Qatar to investin energy, manufacturing sectors

New currencynotes in great

demandMULTAN—Currency notesdenomination of Rs 10 are ingreat demand as eight or ninedays are left for Eidul Fitr andpeople prefer to give Eidi totheir children with new notesfor their pleasure.

Large number of “so-called currency traders” es-pecially women of sur-rounding areas of StateBank of Pakistan can be wit-nessed hunting customersto offer them Rs 10, 20, 50and 100 packets with aprofit ranging from Rs 60 toRs 100.

“After a struggle of 3hours, I managed to get 5packets of Rs 10 new cur-rency notes against myCNIC. I will give these to acustomer with a profit of Rs500 only.

I will charge Rs 1500 forcurrency notes of Rs 1,000.After all, we have to buyclothes, shoes and otherthings for our kids beforeEidul Fitr,” said Liaqat Ali, afresh currency traders whiletalking to APP here onWednesday.

Manzooran, anothercurrency traders having 5wads denomination of Rs 10packets in her hands said, “I’m charging Rs 100 foreach packet of Rs 10 newnotes. I got it from the bankqueuing for a long time. Idaily get 5 wads.”—APP

Gold Tezab 45171.00Silver Tezabi 702.85

Gold Tezabi (24-Ct)44900.00Gold 22 Ct 41050.00SilverTezabi 688.00Silver Thobi 630.00

USA 101.70 101.50

UK 154.86 154.56

Euro 134.83 134.57

Canada 98.74 98.54

Switzerland 109.38 109.16

Australia 91.84 91.65

Sweden 15.52 15.49

Japan 1.0365 1.0344

Norway 17.14 17.11

Singapore 79.89 79.74

Denmark 18.09 18.05

Saudi Arabia 27.12 27.06

Hong Kong 13.11 13.09

Kuwait 357.66 356.95

Malaysia 31.32 31.25

New Zealand 81.11 80.95

Qatar 27.93 27.87

UAE 27.69 27.63

KR. WON 0.0909 0.0907

Thailand 3.246 3.239

ICCI for harnessingbiomass

potential to copewith energy crisis

STAFF REPORTER

IS L A M A B A D—Pakistanpossesses tremendouspotential for generatingrenewable energy frombiomass and governmentshould give special focusto harnessing this cheapenergy source for powergeneration which is avail-able in plenty in the coun-try, said Zafar Bakhtawari,President, IslamabadChamber of Commerce &Industry (ICCI). He saidmany countries includingUSA, Germany, China, In-dia, Brazil and Japan areexploiting biomass for en-ergy production but Paki-stan has so far ignoredthis important cheap andabundant energy re-source despite facingacute energy crisis.

He said the country’sexcessive reliance on fur-nace oil for power genera-tion is the main cause ofthe prevailing energy cri-sis which has already cre-ated multiple problems foreconomy including clo-sure of business & indus-try, loss of jobs, loweringof exports and overall eco-nomic stagnation.

He called upon thegovernment to give spe-cial incentives to inves-tors for bringing latest bioenergy technologies inthe country in order to tapthe unharnessed poten-tial of biomass resources.

Zafar Bakhtawari saidbiomass energy can beused as a short-term strat-egy, requiring as low timeas 18-24 months as beingan agrarian country, Paki-stan has numeroussources of biomass likeagricultural residues, ani-mal waste, municipal solidwaste and industrialwaste. He said accord-ingly to some study re-ports, if 50 per cent of thebiomass potential is uti-lized for power genera-tion, it can easily replacemore than 30 per cent ofthe total power generatedfrom expensive importedfurnace oil.

Exploiting biomass forenergy would also bringadditional income to thefarmers and create morebusiness opportunitiesfor traders who will buybiomass raw material fromthe farmers, process it andsell it to power operators.It will also increase lot ofemployment in the ruralareas. He said initiallygovernment should installa chain of small biomass-based power plants rang-ing from 15MW to 50MWin areas where the biom-ass is available in plenty.

It will save the trans-portation costs and reduceline losses. As a secondoption, government can gofor micro power plants ofenhanced capacity basedon gasifier and biogasplants using agriculturalbiomass and animal wasteas the feedstock.

ISLAMABAD: US ambassador Richard Oslon talking to the Chairman BOI MohammadZubair.

AMANULLAH KHAN

KARACHI —Trade and In-dustry has whole heartedlywelcome the win ofMamnoon Hussasn in thepresidential elections whichis reassuring for return ofpeace in the commercial hubof Pakistan.

Siraj Kassam Teli, Chair-man Businessmen Group andFormer President KarachiChamber of Commerce & In-dustry (KCCI), Tahir Khaliq,Muhammad ZubairMotiwala, Haroon Farooki,Anjum Nisar, Vice ChairmenBusinessmen Group &Former Presidents KCCI,Muhammad Haroon Agar,President KCCI, ShamimFirpo, Senior Vice President,Nasir Mehmood, Vice Presi-dent and Managing Commit-tee Members of KCCI con-gratulate Mamnoon Hussainon winning the election of the

President of the Islamic Re-public of Pakistan.

We hope after assum-ing charge the newlyelected President will makesincere efforts for Inter-Provincial Harmony andplay his role to bring peacein Karachi city and addressi ts burning issues andproblems.

We believe he will do jus-tice with his new responsi-bility as he is an honest andsincere person belonging tothe business community ofKarachi and has formerlyrendered his services asPresident KCCI and Gover-nor of Sindh. ManmoonHussain, as BMGian, FormerPresident KCCI, FormerGovernor of Sindh and nowelecting as the President ofIslamic Republic of Pakistanhas brought pride to theBusiness Community ofKarachi and the Karachiites.

Trade, industryfelicitate Mamnoon

STAFF REPORTER

ISLAMABAD—Pakistan Tele-communications CompanyLimited’s IP Operations par-ticipated in the recently held18th International DigitalMultimedia and Entertain-ment Technology Exhibitionand Conference inSingapore.

Ather A. Baig, PTCL se-nior engineer (IP OperationsCore) and an expert in IP tech-nologies represented thecompany at the conferenceand participated in the paneldiscussion on “How Canconnected TV Bring NewMoney to the TV Industry”.Mr. Baig briefed the audi-ence about the landmarklaunch and growth of PTCL’sSmartTV, Broadband ser-vices, and next generationIPTV services like OTT inPakistan.

Mr. Ather also gave apresentation during an OTTworkshop on “Emerging VsDeveloped Regions – Busi-ness Models to Monetize

Content” at the conference.The Multimedia confer-

ence is an annual platformwhich focuses on deliveringgrowth in an evolving eco-system and enhancing thecustomer experience for theconnected consumer. It aimsto transform future Broad-band and media strategiesthrough dialogue and expe-rience sharing. The forumwas attended by more than16,000 visitors from aroundthe world including interna-tionally recognized industryexperts & transformationalplayers. Besides PTCL,world’s leading and promi-nent organizations partici-pated in this internationalevent.

PTCL is the Pakistan’ssingle largest Broadband ser-vice provider with more than95% market share. PTCL isalso the pioneer in IPTV ser-vices in Pakistan under thebrand ‘Smart TV’ which hasits own digital head-endbundled with PTCL DSLBroadband Pakistan.

PTCL participates in int’ldigital media conference

STAFF REPORTER

KARACHI—Euronet Pakistan,a subsidiary of Euronet World-wide Inc., and NIB Bank Lim-ited, signed a landmark agree-ment to provide outsourcedservices for EMV Debit, Pre-paid Card Hosting & Manage-ment and Gateway Services forboth MasterCard & VISA. Theagreement was signed at a cer-emony held at the NIB Bank’shead office in Karachi.

NIB Bank is the largestforeign bank in Pakistan interms of its branch network.The Bank’s resolve is to pro-vide world-class financialproducts and services to thebanking population of Paki-stan. Euronet Pakistan’selaborate service offeringswill perfectly complement theaggressive growth strategyof NIB Bank and will ensurethat NIB Bank delivers on itsstrategic intent to be a highperformance bank.

“NIB Bank is fast ce-menting its position as theprovider of the most innova-tive financial products andservices in the country.Euronet Pakistan shares ourpassion for innovation. In a

short span of time EuronetPakistan has become themarket leader in terms of in-novation, compliance, ser-vice quality and delivery,”stated Khurram Agha, ChiefInformation Officer, NIBBank. “We have confidencein Euronet Pakistan’s capa-bilities and we signed themup after careful deliberationsand discussions with all theplayers of the local market.We hope that with EuronetPakistan at our side we canachieve greater flexibility andreliability while being scal-able in our electronic bank-ing programs.”

“We are delighted by thestart of this strategic partner-ship. We are confident thatwe can meet the expectationsof NIB Bank and providethem with a perfect blend oflocal and global expertise tofast track their modernizationprocess. Our service levelsare the best in the countryand we hope that with thisstrategic partnership bothNIB Bank and Euronet canmutually benefit for years tocome,” stated Shahid Latif,Managing Director ofEuronet Pakistan.

NIB Bank signs with EuronetPak for Card Management

ISLAMABAD—The All Paki-stan CNG Association(APCNGA) has underlinedthe need for the governmentto take solid measures forannouncing a long-termpolicy regarding Com-pressed Natural Gas (CNG)to build the confidenceamong stakeholders. Talk-ing to APP, the association’ssupreme council chairmanGhiyas Abdullah Parachasaid thousands of investors,businessmen and workerswere attached with CNG sec-

tor and news to shutdownCNG stations circulated timeand again that creates con-fusion.

“If government an-nounces a ten years policyregarding this sector all thestakeholders would be ableto work with peace of mindafter knowing that how longthey go along with CNG busi-ness”, he observed.

He was also of the viewthe government should in-clude CNG operators in theprocess of LNG import or help

us to import it to settle theenergy crisis. He also ex-pressed optimism the gov-ernment would resolve alloutstanding issues of theCNG sector in order to extendrelief to consumers.

He said the assurance inthis regard was given in ameeting held recently on thedirectives of Chief MinisterPunjab Shahbaz Sharif. Themeeting was chaired byMNA Pervaiz Malik, whichwas attended by Minister forEnergy Ch. Sher Ali, Secre-

tary Energy, Chairman Plan-ning and Development andother officials while the CNGassociation was representedby Ghiyas Abdullah Paracha,Abid Hayat, Captain (retd)Shuja, Fayaz Gillani, AnjumNiaz and Ashar Haleem.

He said Government ofPunjab assured resolution ofall the outstanding problemsof the CNG industry includ-ing inequitable distributionof gas, misuse of natural gasthrough violation of laws. Hesaid, MNA Pervaiz Malik as-

sured all out support to therepresentatives of the CNGsector saying that govern-ment will not allow anyoneto hurt any business and thatit would provide level play-ing field to all.

During the meeting, theleaders of the CNG sectorpointed towards elementsinvolved in theft, misuse andunauthorized use of naturalgas. They said that thosewho want to generate elec-tricity through gas shouldhave separate meters for it.

Ghiyas Paracha said thatCNG sector is being de-stroyed due to unjust gasdistribution, extended loadshedding and violation ofrules and regulations by dif-ferent departments. He saidthat gas sale agreementshave openly been violatedknowing that CNG industryhas no alternative. He saidthat situation is horrible inPunjab where owners of2200 CNG filling stations areat the brink of destruc-tion.—APP

ISE-10 indexwitness

bullish trendI S L A M A B A D —IslamabadStock Exchange witnessedbullish trend here onWednesday as the ISE-10 in-dex was up by 22.66 pointsand close at 4,376.05 pointsin today’s trading. A total of35,000 shares were traded,which were down by 31,000points when it comparedwith previous day’s tradingof 66,000 shares.

Out of 137 companies,share prices of 58 companiesrecorded increase and theshare prices of 79 companiesregistered decrease where asno company remained stablein today’s trading. The shareprice of Siemens Pakistan in-creased by Rs. 45.30, whilethat of Treet Corporation de-creased by Rs. 12.05 pershare.

Fauji Cement, Fauji Ce-ment PTCL and Bank ofPunjab remained the top trad-ing companies inWednesday’s trading with15,000, 10,000, 5,000 and 5,000shares respectively.—APP

Emirates resumesservices to Libya

STAFF REPORTER

ISLAMABAD—Emirates will re-start passenger flights to Tri-poli from 1st September 2013,illustrating Libya ’s importancein Emirates’ global network andthe airline’s commitment to thecountry. Emirates’ three-weekly flights to Tripoli ,served by a Boeing 777-200ERin a 3-class configuration, willmake a quick stop in Maltaevery Sunday, Tuesday, andThursday. Under the newschedule, Emirates’ flightEK745 will leave Dubai at0930hrs arriving in Malta at1325hrs. The service will de-part Malta 1445hrs arriving inTripoli at 1555hrs. The returnflight will leave Tripoli Inter-national Airport at 1725hrs andwill land in Dubai at 0100 hrs.

“The re-introduction ofour flights to Tripoli is a fur-ther boost to north Africa,coming after the launch ofEmirates’ daily service toAlgiers from 1st March 2013,”said Jean Luc Grillet, EmiratesSenior Vice President Com-mercial Operations for Africa.

FPCCI appreciatesexport ban on live

animalsSTAFF REPORTER

KARACHI—Mr. ZubairAhmed Malik, President ofthe Federation of PakistanChambers of Commerce andIndustry (FPCCI), Mr. S.M.Muneer, President of the In-dia Pakistan Chambers ofCommerce and Industry(IPCCI) and former PresidentFPCCI and Mr. Gulzar Firoz,Vice President of FPCCI havewelcomed and appreciated thedecision of the Economic Co-ordination Committee (ECC)of the Cabinet to put ban onthe export of live animals witheffect from October 1, 2013.

In a statement releasedtoday, they said that this banhad been longstanding de-mand of the Pakistan TannersAssociation (PTA) andFPCCI had fully supportedthis demand in the best in-terest of the country. Theysaid that by putting this banon the export of live animals,not only the tanneries will getraw material, but it will alsoease the availability of meat,milk and other by-productsfrom livestock such as hides,bones, blood and tallow tomany downstream industries.

Govt asked to make long-term CNG policy for investors confidence

ISLAMABAD—The PakistanPoultry Association (PPA)on Wednesday said that theincrease in the prices of poul-try production had beencaused by power shortageand the trend has started toreverse now. “The upwardtrend in the prices of poultryproduction like chicken andeggs is due to shortage ofelectricity across the coun-try, as the poultry farmers hadstopped farming leading tolow supply and high demandof poultry production.”

This was stated byShahid Iqbal Sheikh, a formermember of Central ExecutiveCommittee (CEC) of PPA hereWednesday.

Talking to APP he said

that due to power shortagethe poultry farmers operatedtheir farms on diesel, besidesdue to severe hot tempera-tures a number of chickenshad also died, so the farmersstopped production. Theprices of chicken in Punjabhad increased to Rs 190 perkilogram, which has comedown to Rs 140 per kilogramnow, he said.

“Now the electricity situ-ation has improved acrossthe country and the poultryfarmers have restarted pro-duction so the prices will alsocome further down”, he re-marked. He denied that dueto Ramazan prices of chickenand eggs had been in-creased.—APP

Power shortage increasespoultry prices

ISLAMABAD: Federal Minister for Water and Power Khawaja Muhammad Asif ad-dressing a press conference regarding the energy policy.

SHARAFAT KAZMI

ISLAMABAD—Federal Minis-ter for Water and PowerKhawaja Muhammad Asifhere on Wednesday an-nounced that the govern-ment would rationalize tarifffor domestic consumers fromOctober 1 and for commercialand industrial consumersfrom August 1. While unveil-ing the new power policy ata press conference, the Min-ister said new tariff for theconsumers would be con-veyed within days.

The Minister said therewould be no change in ratefor first 200 units used bydomestic consumers as aneffort has been made not toput more burden on thepoor. He said change in tar-iff was unavoidable as if it

was not done it would haveled to accumulation of circu-lar debt of Rs 600-700 billiononce again. The Ministersaid due to government ef-forts, record 16170 mega-watts power was generatedon Tuesday and on average15000 megawatts powergeneration would be main-tained. Now 5900 megawattswere being produced fromhydel sources and 7900megawatts were producedby Independent Power Pro-ducers (IPPs), he informed.

He said there was cleardecrease in loadshedding inthe month of Ramazan andnow it was at level of 8-9hours to 12-13 hours at dif-ferent places as demandpeaked at 18000 megawattsin July with 1/3 of it con-sumed by air conditioners.

“When our governmenttook office, the shortage wasat 5000 megawatts and nowit has reduced to 3000 mega-watts.” Talking about thenew energy policy, he saidthe main thrust was tochange the energy mix in thenext three to five years byproducing more affordablepower from hydel and alter-native sources and keep tar-iff at a certain level.

He said in the last 20years, more power was pro-duced with oil and hydelpower generation was ig-nored and now Pakistan is“number one in producingpower from oil”. The Minis-ter said that steps were un-der consideration to regulatethe use of electricity in mar-kets and business centers inevening.

“The waste of electricityis getting out of control as itis used for illumination ofbuildings and for lightingstreets.” He said 1100 mega-watts could be saved byearly closure of markets inevenings while 700-800megawatts would be savedwith use of six million im-ported energy savers, whichwould arrive by September.About rioting in Bannu,Khawaja Asif said two feed-ers in Kaki and Mandan wereshut down as power lossesdue to theft reached 93 per-cent and 92 percent in thesetwo areas.

The power for these twofeeders would not be re-stored if those stealing powerdo not clear their arrears andagree to pay future bills, theMinister added.

Power tariff to be rationalized fordomestic, commercial consumers

STAFF REPORTER

ISLAMABAD—The US am-bassador, Richard Oslon andChairman BOI, MohammadZubair Wednesday dis-cussed the way forward forsigning the Bilateral Invest-ment Treaty (BIT) that hasbeen pending since 2004. TheUS Ambassador called onthe BoI Chairman and dis-cussed various issues thathave remained pending dur-ing the tenure of last govern-ment.

“US and Pakistanstarted negotiating BIT in2004 and after nine yearsthe matter is yet to be ad-dressed on serious note,’Oslon said while speakingon the occasion. He said,the US government alwaysdesires to help Pakistan toget over the issues relatedto economic state of

Pak, US mull signing BIT $13.9b overseasremittances in FY

2012-13STAFF REPORTER

ISLAMABAD—Overseas Paki-stanis sent home a record$13.920 billion in the previ-ous fiscal year (July 2012-June 2013), showing a growthof $733.64 million comparedwith $13.187 billion a yearearlier.

Remittances from SaudiArabia, UAE, USA, UK, GulfCooperation Council (GCC)countries (including Bahrain,Kuwait, Qatar and Oman) andEU countries amounted to$4.105 billion, $2.750 billion,$2.186 billion, $1.946 billion,$1.608 billion and $357.37 mil-lion respectively, accordingto data released by the StateBank of Pakistan. Remit-tances from Norway, Switzer-land, Australia, Canada, Ja-pan and other countries inJuly-June 2012-13 were$967.79 million against$935.36 million in the previ-ous fiscal year (July-June2011-12).

PPMA wants activeDRAP with

permanent chiefSTAFF REPORTER

KARACHI—The PakistanPharmaceutical Manufactur-ers Association (PPMA) hassought re-activation of DrugRegulatory Authority of Pa-kistan (DRAP) headed by apermanent chief. JawaidAkhai, Chairman PakistanPharmaceutical Manufactur-ers Association (PPMA) onWednesday said DRAP hasbeen turned into a dormantbody with wide range of se-vere implications on the phar-maceutical sector.

Most prominent is declinein country’s export of medi-cine and other pharmaceuti-cal related goods to its glo-bal markets.

“Export orders worth mil-lions of dollars of pharma-ceutical industry are stuckdue to inactive DRAP,” hesaid. The current situation atDRAP, Akhai said was hin-dering its day-to-day func-tions resulting in delays inexports.

The PPMA Chairman saidcountry’s pharmaceutical in-dustry is also facing hardshipsin delivering affordable and lifesaving drugs to patients whichhas resulted in a shortage. Healleged that there had been nomeeting of the registrationboard, licensing board, or pric-ing committee for past manymonths and consequently16,000 products are stuck atvarious levels in DRAP. He al-leged that instead of facilitat-ing local pharmaceutical com-panies to increase their ex-ports, DRAP is bent on takingdecisions which are detrimen-tal to investors in the pharma-ceutical sector.

Shippingactivity at PQ

KARACHI—Three ships car-rying containers and edibleoil were berthed at Qasim In-ternational Containers Termi-nal and Liquid Cargo Termi-nal respectively on Tuesday,30th July.

Meanwhile four moreships carrying containers,diesel oil and edible oil alsoarrived at outer anchorage ofPort Qasim during last 24hours.

Berth occupancy was85% at the Port on Wednes-day where a total nineships namely NystedMaersk, Sealand Michigan,Deira, Orient Singapore,Beacom-SW, Elini D, BungaMelatisatu, Donga Peneusand M.T Quetta are cur-rently occupying berths toload/offload containers,cement, wheat, urea, chemi-cal, edible oil respectivelyduring last 24 hours.

A cargo volume of136293 tonnes comprising102525 tonnes imports and33768 tonnes exports inclu-sive of containerized cargocarried in 3058 containers(TEUs) was handled at thePort during last 24 hours.—APP

growth with rising prosper-ity and full employment tothe people of Pakistan.Oslon said that the US-Pa-kistan bilateral relations arevery strong and Americaalways values the politicaland diplomatic support ofPakistan in the matters ofhigh priorities.

The US Ambassadoremphasized to organizeroad shows in the US topromote the new invest-ment policy and specialeconomic zones of Paki-s t an .

He said that suchshows can be arranged allover US to support thegovernment to achieve thetargets of energy policy. Inthis regard, he added, theAmerican business coun-cils and other forums mayactively be involved to at-tract more US investment to

the country.BOI Chief assured the

US Ambassador that thegovernment was committedto sign the BIT without fur-ther delays and he may con-clude the BIT before longwith the mutual consent ofthe major stakeholders.Talking about the restructur-ing of BOI, Chairman BOIapprised the Ambassadorthat USAID is providingtechnical and financial sup-port to BOI for improvementin procedures and organiza-tional structure. He men-tioned that BOI will soon bemade ‘one stop shop’ for theinvestors because invest-ment is the key element toimprove the Pakistan’seconomy. He stated that Pa-kistan needs to achieve thetarget of 20 % for investmentto GDP ratio which is pres-ently around 13 %.

KARACHI: Bomb disposal squad personnel inspecting the site after a blast on the mainroad of Manghopir.

KARACHI: Participants of central procession of Youm-e-Shahadat Hazrat Ali (AS), passing through M A Jinnah road. The procession, taken out fromNishtar Park, was led by Abu Turab, on Wednesday.

Doctors cure baby bornwith HIV for first timeA BABY who received antiretroviral

therapy within 30 hours of birth hasbeen cured, researchers from Johns

Hopkins Children’s Center, the Universityof Mississippi Medical Center and the Uni-versity of MassachusettsMedical School reported atthe 20th Conference onRetroviruses and Opportu-nistic Infections (CROI) inAtlanta, Georgia, USA.Treating an HIV+ infant (orone with suspected HIV in-fection) in such a way sosoon after birth is not com-mon.

A functional cure meansthere is a lack of detectableviral replication in the ab-sence of ongoing retroviraltherapy. The patient, now2½ years old, has not beenon any HIV medications andhas no sign of functioningvirus.

This is the first case ofa “functional cure” in anHIV-positive infant, the researchers an-nounced. They say their finding could helppave the way towards the elimination of HIVinfection in children.

Lead author, Deborah Persaud, M.D., avirologist at Johns Hopkins Children’s Cen-ter, and Katherine Luzuriaga, M.D., an im-munologist at the University of Massachu-setts Medical School, headed a team of labo-ratory scientists. Hannah Gay, M.D., a pe-diatric HIV specialist at the University ofMississippi Medical Center administered thetreatment to the infant.

Prompt administration of ART probably

led to the baby’s cureAfter receiving aggressive antiretroviral

therapy (ART) within thirty hours of beingborn, the infant underwent remission of HIVinfection. The team believe that the prompt

administration of ART prob-ably led to the baby’s cureby stopping the formation ofdifficult-to-treat viral reser-voirs - dormant cells whichare responsible for reignitingthe infection in the majorityof HIV patients soon afterthey stop therapy.

“Prompt antiviraltherapy in newborns thatbegins within days of expo-sure may help infants clearthe virus and achieve long-term remission without life-long treatment by preventingsuch viral hideouts fromforming in the first place.”

The authors believe thisis exactly what happened tothe infant they described intheir report. The infant, who

is now “functionally cured” - has achievedand maintained long-term viral remissionwithout lifelong treatment and standard clini-cal tests found no evidence of HIV replica-tion in the blood.

Dr. Deborah Persaud of Johns Hopkins’Children’s Center. Dr. Deborah Persaud, avirologist at the Johns Hopkins’ Children’sCenter, administered the treatment. Imagefrom: Johns Hopkins Medicine.

What is the difference between a func-tional cure and a sterilizing cure? A steriliz-ing cure occurs when all viral traces are com-pletely eradicated from the body.

KARACHI: Dr. Qasim Pirzada, former vice chancellor, Karachi University drawing luckynames in Aaj School, Kal Dunya prizes.—PO photo by Sultan Chaki

STAFF REPORTER

KARACHI—Peace activistsfrom Pakistan, preparing to cel-ebrate the Independence Day onAugust 14-15, 2013 at Sindh-Rajhisthan border to makeSouth Asia a nuclear free andpeaceful region.

They were speaking at a fol-low-up meeting to finalise thearrangements of IndependenceDay celebrations at Khokharpar-Monbao border, organizedjointly by Pakistan Institute ofLabour Education and Research(PILER), Peoples SAARC Pa-kistan Process and PakistanPeace Coalition and attended by

Peace activists to celebrate IndependenceDay at Sindh-Rajhisthan border

representatives of more than adozen leading civil society orga-nizations and rights groups atPILER Center here.

They extended support to thepeople’s celebrations, which alsoincluded cultural activities on boththe sides of border to promotepeace, as it is the need of peopleliving either side of the restrictedboundary.

Dr Teepu Sultan, President ofPPC Sindh; Zulfiqar Shah, JointDirector of PILER; youth activ-ists Naghma Shaikh; Arbab AbdulMalik from Umerkot; Asad Buttand Syed Shamsuddin of HRCP;Saeed Baloch of PakistanFisherfolk Forum (PFF) Senior

journalists Muqtida Mansoor,A.B. Areesar, Ishaq Soomro andothers spoke on the occasion.

The peace activists of bothIndia and Pakistan under the ban-ner of Peoples SAARC haveshown willingness to celebrate theIndependence Days along Sindh-Rajasthan border (Khokhrapar-Monabao). Large groups of peaceactivists, parliamentarians, civilsociety representatives, writersand media persons will participatein the event at Khokhrapar inUmerkot district. Khokhrapar rail-way station is about 68-km awayfrom Umerkot city and about 377km from Karachi. The identifiedplace is a playground of Govern-

ment High School, which has acapacity to accommodate around40,000 people.

The meeting was informedthat 15-room school building canbe used as accommodation for theguests if they want to stay over-night during the festival.

Pakistan peace activists dis-cussed the possibilities of bring-ing a wide range of people anddecided to design a variety of cul-tural activities along the bordermost probably at the Railwaysroute Khokhrapar on the occasionof Independence Day. In this re-gard, the peace activists fromSindh and Rajasthan may meet atthe convenient point to exchange

greetings. Zulfiqar Shah, givingbackground of the peace initia-tives said every year such cel-ebrations are regularly held atWagah-Attari border in Punjabby Pakistan and Indian peaceactivists. This year they havesuggested to organise similarcelebrations at the borders alongRajasthan and Sindh as well.

Arbab Abdul Malik a writerand peace activist from Umerkotsaid some people were of theopinion that Gadro village at thezero point of Pak-India bordercould be a better place to cel-ebrate the independence daywhere people from Pakistan sidemay see themselves.

STAFF REPORTER

KARACHI—Karachi Waterand Sewerage Board(KW&SB) Managing Director(MD) Misbahuddin Farid dur-ing the visit to Orangi Townmet Members of National andProvincial Assembly to discussdifferent water supply relatedissues in Orangi Town.

Managing Director alsoconducted a detailed visit ofWater Supply facilities inOrangi Town with Chief En-gineer Bulk and Distributionand other officers.

The MD while taking strictnotice of water shortage ex-pressed his displeasure and di-rected that shortage in all ar-eas must be eliminated imme-diately and a proper strategymust be formulated to ensurethat residents of Orangi townget fair supply.

Any complaints during lastAshra of Ramadan would notbe tolerated.

MD KW&SB for improvement inwater supply system in remote areas

Managing Director tooknotice of leakages from valvesand pumps at different pump-ing stations and directed thatall leakages must be stoppedto ensure that water is notwasted.

He also expressed his con-cerns over cleanliness ofPumping Stations. ManagingDirecto visits Banaras Pump-ing Station, Pathan ColonyPumping Station, Disco Pump-ing Station, Al-Hira PumpingStation, Bewa Colony Pump-ing Station and German SchoolPumping Station.

During his visit he directedthat record of generators runby diesel must be maintainedat all pumping stations as wellas in the register maintained atpumping station using diesel.He directed Chief Engineers toensure coordination betweenBulk and Distribution depart-ments to ensure just and fairdistribution of water across thecity.

Managing Director saidthat load shedding hours mustbe kept in mind when formu-lating supply schedule.

Managing Directo saidthat Pumping Station capac-ity must be increased. Sched-ule of bulk water supply mustalso be formulated and supplyto all areas must be ensured.

Karachi Water and Sewer-age Board, Managing Direc-tor said that supply to all ar-eas during Ramazan must beensured especially in the tailend areas. Managing Directodirected officers to fulfil theirduties with honesty.

Field officers and staffmust not keep themselves tothe offices and not only visittheir concerned areas but alsocoordinate with Members ofNational and Provincial As-semblies for their guidance.

Complaints received fromMPAs, MNAs and citizensmust be resolved immediatelyon priority basis.

Politicalreconciliationmajor cause of

lawlessnessSTAFF REPORTER

KARACHI—Due to the politi-cal reconciliation, the people ofthe city are being held hostagein the hands of extortionists andterrorists. This was stated byJamaat-e Islami (JI) KarachiChief Muhammad HussainMahenti while addressing anIftar party, organised by JI ShahFaisal at Pasban Chowk, No.4.

JI Karachi Chief said that thetargeted killings of the innocentpeople are being continued in theHoly sacred month of Ramzan,adding that the poverty, inflation,unemployment, corruption are onthe rise, however; the presentgovernment is busy in point scor-ing. “If the government takes se-rious steps towards restoration oflaw and order, then the peacecould be restored in the city”, headded. JI Karachi Chief appealedthe people to join hands with JIleadership to establish corrup-tion-free society, where Islamicrules could be imposed.

KARACHI—Commissioner ofKarachi, Shoaib AhmadSiddiqui on Wednesday said thecity administration was commit-ted to promote “Consumers’Rights Concept” in the cosmo-politan city of the country.

Chairing a meeting to re-view the ongoing operationagainst profiteers and other un-scrupulous elements engaged indeceiving public under one orthe other pretext, he said equalefforts are underway towardsactive involvement of citizens inthe campaign.

“Realizing the seriousness ofthe government, people too are

City administration to promoteconsumer rights concept

now witnessed demanding offi-cial price list and its absolutecompliance by the shopkeepers,”said the commissioner.

He said good governanceand implementation of rules andregulation was the responsibil-ity of the administration underthe supervision of the govern-ment.

Shoaib was highly apprecia-tive of the media for its supportto the public cause and said thecampaign against profiteers willnot be kept limited to Ramazanbut shall be turned into a roundthe year activity. He on the oc-casion also shared the details of

action taken against retailersfound indulged in fleecingmasses by disbursing fake offi-cial price lists for different ed-ible and consumerable items inthe city.

He said with the coopera-tion of local police a strict vigilwas kept on suspected elementsand consequent to it a printingpress in Karimabad was raidedwhere bundles of fake pricelists were found. Three peoplewere arrested during the raidwhile fake seal of assistantcommissioners and price con-trollers were retrieved fromtheir possession—APP

Police FMRadio servicefrom Aug 1

KARACHI—The police FM ra-dio service which will com-mence on August 1, will air itsbroadcast in two shifts, said apolice spokesman here onWednesday.

He said that the DIG Traf-fic Karachi, Abdul KhaliqShaikh, in a report to InspectorGeneral of Police (IGP) Sindh,Shahid Nadeem Baloch, saidthat the listeners can tune in fre-quency 88.6.

They can apprise them-selves about the flow of traf-fic around any thoroughfares,markets, shopping centres etc.and about alternate routes incase of any traffic jams, headded.

Information regarding thetraffic rules would also be airedthrough this service.

The test transmission ofFM radio had already startedfrom the Central Police Office(CPO) Karachi, it was furtherstated.

From August 1 the regulartransmission of the FM radiowill be from 7 am to 11 pm intwo shifts.

DIG Traffic was of the viewthat the drivers would benefitfrom this service and that itwould also be beneficial towardsthe traffic management as wellas tackling the traffic prob-lems.—APP

KARACHI–The World Hepati-tis Day is an annual eventmarked with the aim to increasethe awareness and understand-ing of viral hepatitis.

It especially brings attentionto chronic viral hepatitis world-wide and stands in solidaritywith persons who have hepati-tis- B, C or D, forms of life-threatening liver disease, says astatement of the Patel Hospitalhere on Tuesday.

It said that the Patel Hospi-tal Karachi arranged a ‘FreeHepatitis Screening Camp’ onthe occasion of World HepatitisDay 2013 in collaboration withThe Health Foundation, memberof World Hepatitis Alliance.

It was aimed to raise publicawareness and influence realchange in disease preventionand access to testing and treat-ment.

Free Hepatitis screening campApproximately 400 people

including women and childrenbenefitted by this camp and werescreened for Hepatitis B and Cfor free. They were educatedthrough videos, posters and bro-chures offering general publicawareness regarding these silentkiller diseases, their controlthrough prevention, screening,vaccination and timely treat-ment.

The Medical Director, PatelHospital Dr. Mazhar Nizamsaid that according to WorldHealth Organisation (WHO),Pakistan is currently facing anepidemic of viral hepatitis inthe country. If left untreated andunmanaged, hepatitis B or Ccan lead to advanced liver scar-ring (cirrhosis) and other com-plications, including liver can-cer or liver failure.

It is important to halt the

death toll and improve the livesof people living with chronicviral hepatitis B and C.

He further added thatthrough better awareness, pre-vention, care, support and accessto treatment, Patel Hospital inalliance with other NGOs isaiming towards the ultimate goalto eradicate these diseases fromPakistan.

Head of Gastroenterologyand Hepatology Department,Patel Hospital, Dr. Saad KhalidNiaz, stated that viral hepatitisis increasing in the country at analarming rate and illiteracy, lackof basic health facilities, re-us-ing of used syringes, transfusionof unsafe blood, inappropriatesterilisation of surgical equip-ment, lack of appropriate hos-pital waste management systemare the culprits for the spread ofthese diseases.—APP

MQM announcescandidates forby-electionsSTAFF REPORTER

KARACHI—Muttahida QaumiMovement (MQM) had an-nounced candidates for contest-ing the by-elections on 3 na-tional assembly seats.

In this regard, Ali Arshadwould contest by-elections for theseat of national assembly on NA-254 (Korangi-Karachi), Dev Dason NA-235 (Sanghar) and DrDildar Khaskheli on NA-237(Thatta). For Sindh provincial as-sembly seats, the MQM candi-dates including Abdul RaufSiddiqui would contest the by-election on PS-103, MuhammadHussain on PS-95 (Orangi-Karachi) and Dr Zafar kamali onPS-64 (Mirpurkhas City) wouldcontest the by-elections.

Doctors cure baby bornwith HIV for first time

LAHORE: A large number of mourners attending a procession to mark the Yaum-e-Shahadat-e-Hazrat Ali (RA) thecousin and son-in-Law of Holy Prophet Mohammad (PBUH).

A BABY who received antiretroviraltherapy within 30 hours of birthhas been cured, researchers from

Johns Hopkins Children’s Center, theUniversity of Mississippi Medical Cen-ter and the University of MassachusettsMedical School reportedat the 20th Conference onRetroviruses and Oppor-tunistic Infections (CROI)in Atlanta, Georgia, USA.Treating an HIV+ infant(or one with suspectedHIV infection) in such away so soon after birth isnot common.

A functional curemeans there is a lack ofdetectable viral replica-tion in the absence of on-going retroviral therapy.The patient, now 2½years old, has not been onany HIV medications andhas no sign of function-ing virus.

This is the first caseof a “functional cure” in an HIV-positiveinfant, the researchers announced. Theysay their finding could help pave the waytowards the elimination of HIV infectionin children.

Lead author, Deborah Persaud, M.D.,a virologist at Johns Hopkins Children’sCenter, and Katherine Luzuriaga, M.D.,an immunologist at the University ofMassachusetts Medical School, headeda team of laboratory scientists. HannahGay, M.D., a pediatric HIV specialist atthe University of Mississippi MedicalCenter administered the treatment to theinfant.

Prompt administration of ART prob-ably led to the baby’s cure

After receiving aggressiveantiretroviral therapy (ART) within thirtyhours of being born, the infant under-went remission of HIV infection. The

team believe that theprompt administration ofART probably led to thebaby’s cure by stoppingthe formation of difficult-to-treat viral reservoirs -dormant cells which are re-sponsible for reigniting theinfection in the majority ofHIV patients soon afterthey stop therapy.

“Prompt antiviraltherapy in newborns thatbegins within days of ex-posure may help infantsclear the virus and achievelong-term remission with-out lifelong treatment bypreventing such viral hide-outs from forming in thefirst place.”

The authors believe this is exactlywhat happened to the infant they de-scribed in their report. The infant, whois now “functionally cured” - hasachieved and maintained long-term vi-ral remission without lifelong treatmentand standard clinical tests found noevidence of HIV replication in theblood.

Dr. Deborah Persaud of JohnsHopkins’ Children’s Center. Dr. DeborahPersaud, a virologist at the JohnsHopkins’ Children’s Center, adminis-tered the treatment. Image from: JohnsHopkins Medicine.

LAHORE: Punjab Chief Minister Muhammad Shahbaz Sharif meeting with a delega-tion of American Business Forum.

LAHORE: A lady vendor selling lemon at her roadside setup.

LAHORE—PML-N MPAHina Pervaiz Butt has said thePunjab Local Government(PLG) Bill 2013 has delegatedmore powers to union coun-cils which is a step forwardtowards transferring powerto the grass-root level as pervision of Punjab Chief Min-ister Muhamamd ShahbazSharif.

Treasury benches MPAHina Pervaiz Butt while start-ing debate on local govern-ment Bill 2013 in the PunjabAssembly with ActingSpeaker Sardar Sher AliGorchani in the chair hereWednesday said the elec-tion for grass-root level of-fices should be held on non-party basis so that peoplecould elect individuals witha track-record of social ser-vice while the election for theparliament should be partybased.

The PML-N MPA saidthere was need to strengthenarbitration system so that themasses did not have to re-sort to courts and police sta-tions. She said the PLG bill2001 encouraged corruption

Powers transferred at grassroot level in PLG bill: Hina

in the departments, addingthat local government bill ofa dictator divided the massesrather than empoweringthem.

The treasury benchersaid, under the 2001 bill,nazims, naib-nazims, tehisland town nazims were notcapable enough to fulfil theirresponsibilities under the lo-cal governmmnt bill 2001 andthe absolute power cor-rupted all those absolutely.

Hina Butt said the newbill had been based on thevision to transfare power atthe grass-root level and thecredit goes to the visionaryleadership of Chief MinisterShahbaz Sharif and thehardwork of Minister for Lo-cal Government RanaSanaullah Khan.

Opposition Member fromPTI Raheela Anwar saiddream of a public welfare gov-ernment determined to re-solve people’s problemsthrough a local governmentsystem after the dictatorialregime of Pervaiz Musharrafcould not be realized.

The MPA said the PML-

N had made a solemn com-mitment in the Charter of De-mocracy (CoD) to hold LGelection on party basis. Shesaid non-party LG electionwill augment a new era ofcorruption in the province.

MPA Rana MuhamamdAfzal said the ward-systemshould be abolished in thenew bill as the ward systemgive birth to groupingamongst the masses. He saidnumber of seats for womenshould be enhanced in thenew bill. Ch Ashraf AliAnsari said the delimitationof the union councils shouldbe based on the number ofvoters rathet than populationin the area.

The treasury Benchesminority member, TariqMasih, said the LG electionshould be held on non-partybasis, adding that the minori-ties should be allowed tohave their own “Panchayatsystem” in order to resolvetheir issues as per traditionsof their community.

Ch Muhammad AshrafWarraich said the number ofmembers in union councils

27 new measlescases surfaced

L A H O R E —Twenty-sevennew cases of measles werereported during the last 24hours as the number ofcases in Punjab in the lastseven months has reached22,971.

According to health de-partment officials, at least192 deaths have been re-ported so far while mostdeaths occurred in Lahore,Gujranwala, Rajanpur,Rahim Yar Khan, Kasur andSialkot.

During the last 24 hours,around 27 cases of measleswere reported from Punjab,including only or two fromthe city hospitals onWednesday.

Officials appealed to par-ents to get their children uptofive years of age vaccinatedagainst meassles withoutany delay and cooperatewith vaccinating teams.

Meanwhile, EPI FocalPerson Dr Younas said therecent drive in five high riskdistricts of Punjab receivedgood response frompeople.—APPLahore museum’s

renovationcompletes

LAHORE—The renovationwork of Lahore museum hasalmost been completed.

Punjab government hadallocated Rs 20 million for therenovation of the museum,said museum sources hereWednesday.

The Main Gallery, GeneralGallery and Islamic Galleryhave been completely reno-vated with tiles and woodenwork.

However, the museumremained opened for visitorsduring renovation work,sources added. —APP

LAHORE—Vice chairman ofPeace Committee for Inter-faith Harmony PunjabZaheer Ahmad Butt hasstressed the need for pay-ing focus on education , im-parting and imposing edu-cation emergency in thecountry.

Talking to APP here onWednesday, he said thatNations make progress onthe basis of high literacyrate, unfortunately the situ-ation in Pakistan is quite dif-ferent.

Call to imposeeducational emergency

He also demanded uni-form education system inthe country. Appreciatingthe Danish school system,he said that public sectorschools must be convertedinto Danish schools so thatequal quality educationcould be provided to thechildren of all segments ofsociety.

Zaheer said literacy ratein Sri Lanka, Maldives andBangladesh was higherthan the literacy rate in Pa-kistan, for which it was need

of the hour to contemplateover this issue.

He said that fee struc-ture for all private and pub-lic schools should be moni-tored and controlled by thegovernment.

He hoped the PML-Ngovernment would takesteps to raise literacy ratein the country on emer-gency basis.

He said the better lit-eracy rate could also behelpful in reducing terrorismand extremism.—APP

LAHORE—Head of PunjabInstitute of Cardiology (PIC)Prof. Bilal Zikryia has saidthat men are still at highernumber of cardiac ailmentsbut women fastly catchingup heart disorders in thecountry.

In an exclusive interviewwith APP here on Wednes-day, he said that that cousinmarriage was causing highincidence of congenital heartdiseases among infants inthe country as around 40,000children are born with cardiacdiseases annually.

To a question, Prof.Bilalsaid that men had higher in-cidences of cornorary ail-ments but women were alsonot far behind.

Responding to anotherquestion about the burden ofpatients at PIC, he informedthat about 600 out of 1,000

patients, who visit the emer-gency department of PunjabInstitute of Cardiology (PIC)every day, have no heartproblem, after ECG and bloodtest of a patient at the emer-gency department of the PIC,it emerges the patient has nocardiac ailment. Most pa-tients reach PIC in case ofpain in the chest. First thepatients should contactanearby hospital and then bereferred to PIC to avoid extraburden, he added.

To a question, he said thataround 2000 patients includ-ing new and old visited itsOPDs every day and 1500received medicines free ofcost. He suggested the gov-ernment focus on preventivecardiology instead of tertiaryhealthcare to overcome thedisease burden in the coun-try.—APP

Cardiac ailment amongwomen spreading rapidly

should be increased to sevenor nine.

Dr Nosheen Hamid saidbureaucracy had beenstrengthened in the new LGsystem which was not agood omen for the resolutionof people’s problems. Shesaid election should be heldon party basis as the non-party election had noagenda.

MPA Ahsan Riaz Fatianasaid almost local governmentsystems were introducedduring the dictatorial eras andthese must be criticised, add-ing that there was no prob-lem in adopting good thingsfrom these LG systems.

MPAs Arif Abbasi,Mehmood ul Hassan, RanaMuhammad Arshad and oth-ers took part in the discus-sion on the local governmentbill 2013.

Acting Speaker SardarSher Ali Gorchani adjournedthe session till Thursday at10:00am.—APP

LAHORE—Punjab Law Min-ister Rana Sanaulla has said‘guard of honour’ to outgo-ing president will be an im-portant event in democratichistory of Pakistan when apresident leaving the officeafter completing his consti-tutional term and another onewould be starting his term.

Presence of both thepresidents at that occasionwould be good for democ-racy and people of Pakistan,he said responding to aquestion outside the PunjabAssembly here on Wednes-day.

The guard of honour wasfor the constitutional posi-tion of the president who was

Guard of honour to presidentbeauty of democracy: Sana

a symbol of the federation,he said.

The law minister, to an-other question, said thePML-N did not considerPervez Musharraf as a con-stitutional president.

“Had he been a demo-cratic and constitutionalpresident no one couldraise objection on the guardof honour for him”, headded.

Rana Sanaullah criticisedthe Khyber Pakhtunkhwagovernment over its failure toavert attack on Central Jail inDera Ismail Khan.

He said not only the KPKchief minister should resignbut Pakistan Tahreek-e-Insaf

(PTI) Chief Imran Khan alsoowed an explanation to thenation.

The minister said intelli-gence agencies had warnedabout the attack a day ear-lier.

To another query, he saidhis party respected mendateof the Muttahida QaumiMovement (MQM), how-ever, neither any offer of giv-ing Sindh governorship tothem was made nor any dealwith them was talked.

He said no decision relat-ing to the Sindh governorhad yet been made andadded that peace in Karachiwould bring about peace inSindh and Pakistan.—APP

Youth internshipbeing started

LAHORE—Youth InternshipProgramme is being initiated incollaboration with private sec-tor for providing job opportu-nities to educated youth sothat degree holders could maketheir future bright by gettingtraining in various institutions.

Punjab Minister for Indus-tries Ch. Muhammad Shafiquestated this, while presidingover a meeting held regardingChief Minister’s Youth Intern-ship Programme here Wednes-day. He said degree holdersand students studying in vari-ous educational institutionswould be provided internshipin government as well as pri-vate institutions and a stipendwould also be given to them.Chaudhry Shafique said thatinternship would be providedto the students only on hun-dred percent merit basis andinternship stipend would alsobe increased gradually.—APP

Social Welfaredeptt starts dengue

awareness driveLAHORE—The Punjab SocialWelfare department in its Ur-ban Community Project hasstarted door-to-door dengueawareness campaign in col-laboration with Azad WelfareSociety and Enrich WelfareSociety on Wednesday.

A spokesperson of thedepartment said the aim of theproject was to create aware-ness among the people aboutthe hazards of dengue in themoonsoon season. He addedworkers of the both NGOs andofficers participated in thecampaign as volunteers andthe drive had covered 50houses the first day.—APP

People urged toget computerized

licenseLAHORE—Chief Traffic Of-ficer Lahore Sohail Chuadhryon Wednesday urged peopleto change their manual driv-ing license and get comput-erized driving license as earlyas possible.

Separate booths havebeen set up for women, se-nior citizens and others tofacilitate them. A facility ofphoto copy, medical certifi-cate, file and driving ticketsare being provided to peopleat CTO’s Office.

For this purpose, peoplealongwith ID card, two photoand issued manual licensemay come licensing officenear district courts, the CTOadded.—APP

Acting governorinaugurates

LTC new busMUZAFFAR ALI

LAHORE—Lahore TransportCompany in collaborationwith Foton Busco Companywill ply new air conditionedCNG buses of internationalstandard from Thokar NiazBaig to Phool Nagar.

In accordance with pub-lic private partnership theprivate transport operatorwould ensure the qualitystandard on the route allo-cated for the buses.

“The government led byPakistan Muslim LeagueNawaz always paid heed on thepublic welfare projects and inour previous five years of gov-ernment in Punjab under theleadership of Mian MuhammadShahbaz Sharif, we completedthese projects within timeframework. This bus servicewould provide state of the artservice to the residents of PhoolNagar and will also impart ben-efit to the commuters of theadjacent areas,” this was statedby the acting Governor PunjabRana Muhammad Iqbal whileinaugurating the new bus ser-vice near Phool Nagar. On thisoccasion CEO LTC KhawajaHaider Latif, COO Omer Pirzada,Col ® Rizwan Foton Buscocompany and other senior offi-cials were also present.

The total length of thisroute would be 50 Km having22 stops, while the minimumfare for the passengers on thisroute would be 18 rupees.Moreover Rana MuhammadIqbal also appreciated the vari-ous measures by the LTC forbringing improvement in thetransport culture.