Ep06august2013

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LIAQAT TOOR

ISLAMABAD—A big haul upaverted rocket attacks fromMargalla hills on highly sensi-tive government installationsincluding President House,Prime Minister House, Head-quarters of Navy and Air forceand diplomatic Enclave in thefederal capital.

However, threat of spo-radic incidents of terror still ex-

ists, sources in security agenciesrevealed. It was further said ter-rorists also planned to use hillsbehind Quaid-e-Azam Univer-sity to fire rockets on sensitiveinstallations. Significant arrestshave been made.

A credible intelligence inputsent tremors in the rank and file

of security agencies that terror-ists have planned attacks fromMargalla hills posing a very se-rious threat of great magnitudeto the government seat. Red alertwas sounded and contingents ofServices including police forcetook control of Margalla hills andround-the clock vigil was in place

not only on the hills but on en-try-exit points, inter-sections,under construction buildings,ghettoes, and Bara Kahu and Af-ghan dwellings.

All suspected places weresearched thoroughly and the taskwas given to SHOs to round upsuspects in their respective ar-

eas. The law enforcementagencies have already takenover Benazir International Air-port and Adiala jail while se-curity in red zone of Islamabadhas been beefed up.

According to a securityagency source, Islamabad is thehot target for terrorists todestabilise and demoralise thenew government and its secu-rity forces. For quite some-

Margalla hills secured

Big haul-up averted attack of great magnitude on IslamabadSSP confirms possible attack on PAF HQ

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LAHORE: Chief Justice of Lahore High Court Justice Umar Atta Bandial administering oath tothe newly-elected Punjab Governor Chaudhry Muhammad Sarwar during a ceremony held atGovernor House. Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif was also present on the occasion.

KARACHI—Fourteen peoplewere reported injured in an ex-plosion that took place inside abogie of the Karachi-boundShalimar Express near Toba TekSingh district on Monday.

Three of the injured were incritical condition.

Mohammad Hussain, medi-cal superintendent in main TobaTek Singh hospital told newsagency AFP that a child, agedtwo and a half years, had suc-cumbed to his injuries in hospi-tal. Shehzad Asif, district policechief confirmed the death.

The train, which had begunits journey from Lahore, was

crossing a railway stationaround 1 pm when the explosiontook place inside a bogie in itseconomy class.

Following the blast, the trainwas brought to a halt and rescueteams shifted the injured to hos-pitals in Faisalabad and TobaTek Singh where emergencywas imposed as soon as news ofthe explosion came.

Police and Pakistan Rail-ways personnel arrived at thescene to inspect the area and in-vestigate the incident.

The explosion damaged theroof of the carriage but notforced the train off the rails, sug-

gesting a relatively low-intensityblast.

On the other hand, the Inte-rior Ministry has claimed thatrailway authorities had beenalerted with intelligence pertain-ing to a possible terrorist threat.The authorities had also been di-rected to increase security oftrains in light of the information.

Speaking to media represen-tatives in Lahore, Federal Rail-ways Minister Khawaja SaadRafique said the management ofShalimar Express had receivedcalls pertaining to extortion andthat Inspector General Punjab

Blast hits ShalimarExpress, toddler killed3 of fourteen injured in critical condition

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STAFF REPORTER

ISLAMABAD—The price of elec-tricity for commercial, industrialand Azad Jammu and Kashmirhas been raised. The price hikewill be applicable immediately

According to the Water andPower Ministry, per unit cost forcommercial peak hours havebeen raised from Rs14.70 toRs18 per unit.

For usage of up to 20 kilo-watts during peak hours, per unitcost has been increased to Rs16.

According to the Water andPower Ministry, industries usingup to 40 kilowatts will now becharged Rs15 per unit.

Per unit cost for industrialconsumers in the evening hasbeen raised to Rs18. The offpeak per unit cost for industrieshas been raised from Rs8 toRs13. For industries receiving500 KV, the price has beenraised to Rs14 per unit. Mean-while, per unit cost for AzadJammu and Kashmir has been

High power tariffhike for commercial,

industrial unitsPervaiz: Subsidy of Rs 7 per unit

for consumers using 200 units

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ISLAMABAD—Justice AnwarZahir Jamali has remarked free-dom of any citizen can not becurbed beyond law and consti-tution and if the freedom of anyone has to be suppressed thenlegal avenue will have to bepursued.

He gave these remarkswhile presiding over a 2-mem-ber bench of Supreme Court(SC) during the course of hear-ing of missing persons case hereMonday.

The court was told duringthe hearing of missing person

Mudassar Iqbal case that SPLahore, Shahzad Nadim Bokhariwho had requested for includingUNHCR representative in theinvestigation of the case has beentransferred to FIA, therefore, theprocess of the investigation hasstalled.

UNHC representative hadsent report to police that UN rep-resentative working for recoveryof missing persons had spottedmissing person Mudassar Iqbalin the custody of intelligenceagencies. Efforts were made tocontact the representative and he

instead of extending any coop-eration had meted out insultingtreatment to SP Shahzad NadimBokhari. Upon it court had issuednotice to UN representative.

Additional Advocate Gen-eral (AAG) presented this reportbefore 2-member bench of SCheaded by Justice Anwar ZahirJamali.

The court directed SP to con-tact UN representative withintwo weeks and present reportbefore it.

Justice Azmat remarked “missing persons cases are of

highly serious nature. Govern-ment will have to do some thingin this connection.

At the inception of hearingpolice presented report beforethe court. The petition of KaramElahi was also heard.

AAG Tariq Khokhar toldthe court that investigation intothe case was assigned to ses-sions judge Chakwal. He is onleave and the report can comeafter Eid ul Fitr.

The hearing of Omar Zadaand Omar Bakht case was ad-

Missing persons case

Freedom of any citizen can’t be curbed: SC

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Difficult to holdLB elections in

September: ECPOBSERVER REPORT

ISLAMABAD—In a session pre-sided by the Secretary ElectionCommission of Pakistan IshtiaqAhmad on Monday, it was de-cided that holding local bodieselections by September will notbe possible.

The session in Islamabadwas called to discuss the possi-bility of holding local bodieselections by the deadline givenby the Supreme Court earlier inJuly. However, it was decidedthat since the provincial govern-ments hadn’t completed their le-gal formalities it would takelonger for the ECP to hold theelections.

The Commission said that itwould require 90 days to arrangelocal bodies elections after theprovinces complete their legalformalities. Chief Justice IftikharMuhammad Chaudhry had ear-

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Turkey ex-armychief jailed for lifeover conspiracy

SILIVRI, TURKEY—A Turkishcourt on Monday sentenced aformer military commander tolife in prison and dozens of oth-ers including opposition mem-bers of parliament to long termsfor plotting against the govern-ment, in a case that has exposeddeep divisions in the country.

Retired military chief of staffGeneral Ilker Basbug was sen-tenced to life for his role in the“Ergenekon” conspiracy to over-throw the government of Prime

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ISLAMABAD—The death tollfrom heavy rains which causedflash floods and collapsed houseshas risen to more than 58 duringlast three days.

The member of the NationalDisaster Management Authority,Brig. Kamran Zia on Mondaysaid that at least 12 deaths werein tribal region, 8 in KhyberPakhtunkhwa province, and threein Azad Kashmir region. He saidat least 12 people died across

Death toll from heavy rains 58Punjab, as many as 10 inBaluchistan, and 8 in Sindh.

He said flooding was espe-cially critical in Karachi becauseof faulty drainage system. Mean-while, Rescue and relief activi-ties are continuing in rain andflood hit areas in all the four prov-inces on the special instructionsof the Prime Minister.

Pakistan Army‚ Navy andlocal administration have accel-erated their emergency relief op-

erations in rain-affected areas ofKarachi including Amroha Soci-ety, Saadi Town, Sunlay Cottagesand adjoining areas.

A body of 12-year-old youthwas found from Lyari nullah nearMeeran Naaka whereas two uni-dentified bodies were found fromMalir Nadi in Manzoor Colonyarea of Mehmoodabad.

Pakistan Navy has set up re-lief camps in Jalbani Town and

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Ban Ki-moonarrives on Aug 13ISLAMABAD—United Nations(UN) secretary general (SG)Ban Ki Moon will pay his 2-day visit to Pakistan on August13 and will talk with Pakistaniauthorities about promotion ofeducation in the country.

As per media reports, UNSG Ban Ki Moon along with19 members team will visitPakistan from 13 to 15 ofAugust, during visit the teamwill hold meetings withpresident Asif Ali Zardari,Prime Minister (PM) NawazSharif and officials of foreign

Threat stays

US extendsembassies closureWASHINGTON—The UnitedStates extended embassyclosures by a week in theMiddle East and Africa as aprecaution on Sunday after anal Qaeda threat that U.S.lawmakers said was the mostserious in years.

The State Department said19 U.S. embassies andconsulates would be closedthrough Saturday “out of anabundance of caution” and thata number of them would havebeen closed anyway for most ofthe week due to the Eidcelebration at the end of theMuslim holy month of

Syrian rebelsseize heartlandvillagesBEIRUT—Syrian rebels battledgovernment troops in thecoastal province of Latakia forthe second straight dayMonday, making advances inone of President BasharAssad’s strongholds, activistssaid.

The Britain-based SyrianObservatory for Human Rightssaid rebels took control of four

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PM, OppositionLeader to hold keymeeting after Eid

STAFF REPORTER

ISLAMABAD—Prime MinisterNawaz Sharif is expected to holda key meeting with OppositionLeader in the National AssemblyKhursheed Shah after Eid-ul-Fitr.

According to sources, theappointments of National Ac-countability Bureau Chairmanand Chief Election Commis-sioner will be discussed duringthe meeting.

The opposition leader hadput up the names of Justice (retd)Rana Bhagwandas and Justice(retd) Sardar Raza Khan whilethe government proposed thenames of Justice (retd) RehmatJaffery and Hassan Zaheer for theoffice of NAB chairman.

Sarwar sworn-inas 35th Punjab

GovernorEducation emergency

need of the hour

SALIM AHMED

L A H O R E — C h a u d h r yMuhammad Sarwar was swornin as the 35th Governor ofPunjab in a ceremony held at theGovernor’s House here Monday.Chief Justice of the Lahore HighCourt, Justice Umar AtaBandial, administered the oathof office to Sarwar.

The oath taking ceremonywas attended by Punjab ChiefMinister Muhammad ShahbazSharif, Speaker Punjab Assem-bly Rana Muhammad IqbalKhan, Provincial Law MinisterRana Sanaullah Khan, ProvincialEducation Minister RanaMashood Ahmed Khan, PML-Nleaders including SenatorMushahidullah Khan, PunjabChief Secretary Javed Aslam,

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Mobile servicewon’t be

suspended duringEid prayers: Nisar

STAFF REPORTER

ISLAMABAD—Federal InteriorMinister, Chaudhry Nisar AliKhan said on Monday that mo-bile phone services would not besuspended during Eid-ul-Fitrprayers.

Nisar while addressing ameeting of senior police officialsdirected Inspector General Po-lice, Islamabad, to improve thesecurity situation in the federalcapital. He said the Federal Po-lice will be equipped with latest

TDAP chief sackedover alleged fundsmisappropriation

STAFF REPORTER

ISLAMABAD—Prime MinisterNawaz Sharif on Monday or-dered that the Chief Executive ofTrade Development Authority ofPakistan Abid Javed Akbar Alibe sacked.

He also referred the case in-volving the misappropriation ofRs1.27 billion to the Federal In-vestigation Agency.

Prime Minister directed theFIA to initiate criminal proceed-ings against the officials involvedin the misappropriation of funds.

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Container driverinjured in attackMASTUNG—A containerdriver was injured when itcame under an attack nearLuck pass area of Mastungdistrict on Monday. Accord-ing to Levies force, theQuetta-bound containercoming from Karachi was onits way when unknownarmed motorcyclist inter-cepted. They opened fire onit and fled from the scene.

As a result, the containerdriver sustained woundsand was rushed to nearbyhospital.The container waspartially damaged. Leviesforce registered a case andcordoned off the entire areato trace out suspects.

Meanwhile a helper oftrailer was injured in an incidentof firing in Mangocher areaKalat district on Monday. Ac-cording to Levies force, thetrailer was on way to Quettafrom Karachi when unidentifiedgunmen on motorbike openedfire on it.

As a result, the cleaner oftrailer suffered bulletswounds and was rushed tonearby hospital for medicalaid. The victim identity couldnot be ascertained so far. Lev-ies force registered a case andstarted investigation.—APP

Public asked to sendcomplaints to

Information Dept Cell

PESHAWAR—A Spokesmanof Information and CultureDepartment KhyberPakthunkhwa here Mondayappealed to general publicto send their written com-plaints to its grievances cellrelated to this department forimmediate redressal.

Consequent upon theestablishment of ComplaintCell in the KhyberPakhtunkhwa Information,Public Relations and Cul-ture Department and notifi-cation of appointing a focalperson for the cell, theSpokesman said it has beenobserved that a number ofcomplaints have been re-ceived and are receiving onthe mobile phone of the fo-cal person concerned,which in many cases relatedto issue of unprecedentedload-shedding or elimina-tion of corruption irrespec-tive of the fact that the com-plaints relate to this depart-ment or otherwise.—APP

PDAB presidentcondoleswith CM

QUETTA—President Paki-stan Dental AssociationBalochistan (PDAB), DrMujeeb-ur-Rehman Balochhas expressed grief over thedemise of Naseer Ahmed,brother of Chief MinisterBalochistan Dr Abdul MalikBaloch. In a statement is-sued here on Monday, DrMjeebur Rehaman and otherofficer bearers of PDAB in-cluding Dr Hamal NaseerBaloch expressed sympa-thies with the bereaved fam-ily members.—APP

Pesco for safetymeasures to avoid

electrocutionsPESHAWAR—PESCO authori-ties have asked the custom-ers to adopt all precautionarymeasures to avoid electrocu-tion and electric shocks es-pecially in flood affected ar-eas of Khyber Pukhtunkhwa.In a statement here Mondaya spokesman for the Pescosaid that by adopting safetymeasures we could save pre-cious human lives and prop-erty. The Pesco advised cus-tomers of the flood affectedareas not to touch electricpoles or fallen wires, immedi-ately inform Pesco ComplaintCentre or Crisis ManagementCell Peshawar at phone num-ber 091-9212010.

Safety measures are toproperly “earthen” of electri-cal appliances and replace ortape all worn out wires andnot to touch electrical appli-ances cables with wet hands.Public is also asked to becareful.—APP

QUETTA—The future of millionsof school going children inBalochistan has been jeopar-dized due to gender disparity,bad governance and lack ofquality education. Gender dis-parity is gaining an alarming in-dicator in Balochistan, as out oftotal enrolled children in schoolsaged between 1 to 16 in urbanareas, 30 percent are girls and inthe rural areas their percentageis 26. “Out of over 12,000schools in 32 districts ofBalochistan, there are only 3,400schools for female students,”said UNECO Balochistan chiefQaisar Khan Jamali.

A recent survey report bygovernment and non-govern-mental organizations has re-vealed that some 0.59 millionchildren of school going agein Balochistan have never at-tended any school and 44%children of both sexes (60%girls) are not enrolled in

schools. He said that genderdisparity, besides issues ofgovernance, access and qual-ity were a stumbling block inBalochistan to achievebenchmark of the educationsector. Contrary to the im-pression that Balochistan is atypical tribal society wheregirls are barred from attend-ing schools, the ground reali-ties are altogether otherwise.

The children, both boysand girls of many tribal chief-tains and tribal notables, areenrolled in renowned institu-tions across the country. Lead-ing Baloch and Pashtun par-ties such as Chief Minister DrAbdul Malik led National Partyand Pakhtunkhwa Mili AwamiParty (PKMPA) are the firmsupporters of education, par-ticularly for girls.

PKMPA having strongroots in the Pashtun tribal so-ciety, held several rallies in the

past, encouraging girls educa-tion and remained critic of thepolicies of previous govern-ment for not giving due atten-tion to the girls’ education.“The only way to steerBalochistan out of the currentcrises is better access andprovision of quality educationto our youth,” said the MPA-elect from Dera Bugti where thechildren enrollment in primaryschools is the lowest, i.e., 27.5percent with minimum ratio ofgirls students enrollment.

He said that it is the re-sponsibility of the incumbentgovernment to ensure qualityeducation and remove genderdisparity by providing equalopportunities to both boysand girls. The recent surveyreport released by the Idara-e-Taleem-o-Aghahi (ITA) hasraised a question mark on thequality of education being im-parted in the province.—APP

ISLAMABAD—The FederalFlood Commission (FFC) onMonday said that the riverIndus was flowing in mediumflood at Kalabagh and low floodat Tarbela, Chashma, Taunsaand Guddu Barrage. Accord-ing to daily FFC report, the riverRavi was also flowing in lowflood at Shahdra while the riverKabul was in medium floodstage at Warsak-Nowsherareach. The river Swat was alsorunning in low flood atCharsadda Road Bridge.

Other main rivers Jhelum,Chenab and Sutlej were flow-ing normal. The actual riverflows and reservoir elevations

indicates that Tarbela andMangla Dams are at elevationsof 1536.00 feet and 1212.30 feetrespectively, which are 14.00feet and 29.70 feet below theirrespective Maximum Conser-vation Levels of 1550.00 feetand 1242.00 feet. The combinedlive storage position of Tarbela,Chashma and Mangla reser-voirs is 11.082 MAF as com-pared to last year’s 5.729 MAF.

According to Flood Fore-casting Division (FFD),Lahore, yesterday’s troughof Westerly Wave overnorthern parts of the coun-try today lies over Kashmirand adjoining areas.—APP

First Eid specialtrain to

leave todayISLAMABAD—The first Eidspecial train from Karachi toPeshawar via Multan,Sahiwal and Raiwind willleave on Tuesday at 11 am.According to schedule is-sued by the PR, the train willleave Karachi at 11 am andwill reach at Peshawar Canttat 9:30 on August 7. Reser-vations for seats had alreadybeen made by passengershaving desired to celebrateEid with their beloved ones.Pakistan Railways would runfour special trains on occa-sion of Eid-ul-Fitr to facili-tate masses to reach theirhometown to celebrate Eid.

Second train will leaveKarachi for Lahore viaMultan and Faisalabad at 11am on August 7 and it willreach its destination at 11:50am next day. Third Eid spe-cial has been scheduled fromQuetta for Rawalpindi viaMultan and Lahore and it willleave Quetta at 12 noon onAugust 6 and will reach itsdestination at 8 p.m on Au-gust 7. The fourth Eid spe-cial train will be operated be-tween Peshawar and Lahoreon August 8 which will leavePeshawar at 12 noon.—APP

Rivers Indus, Ravi,Kabul, Swat inmedium, flood

Gender disparity in educationjeopardizes girls’ future

SALAHUDDIN HAIDER

UNLIKE HillaryClinton’s maiden visitto Pakistan as Secre-

tary of Statesoon after therevival ofd e m o c r a t i -cally electedgovernmentin 2008, thetwo-day so-journ toIslamabad byJohn Kerry last week, waswithout fanfare, more of aformal, routine-like visit butfrom discussion point of view,was a productive one. Expec-tations could have beenhigh, especially whenviewed in the backdrop ofdemands in electioneeringfrom Imran Khan and NawazSharif against drone attacksin Pakistan.

But when it comes tobrass tacks, optics invari-ably take a realistic turn.That exactly happened intalks with Sartaj Aziz or withPrime Minister, both in, one

on one meetings, and in fulldress negotiations. Paki-stan, ready with facts andfigures did present its view-point forcefully. The Secre-tary of State too, thoughcautious, preferred guardedwords to explain hiscountry’s policy on the sub-ject. His restraint was under-standable.

Kerry or Clinton, or forthat matter, any visiting dig-nitary, would like to end hisor her visit on a goodwillnote. No point in vitiating theatmosphere. That would bedeath for dialogue. Policyperceptions have to bestressed or highlighted inproper, methodical way,which both sides did, and didit wonderfully well whichraises hopes for the future.The most positive outcomeof these talks was the unre-served acceptance for re-sumption within six monthsof strategic dialogue, sus-pended since the US helicop-ters attack on the Pakistaniborder outpost of Salalah inNovember 2011. This was a

major breakthrough. Americareiterated its keenness to re-main Pakistan’s partner inprogress. US assistance hasbeen forthcoming in vitalsectors like energy, educa-tion, health, and in improv-ing the infra-structure.

Bhasha or the GomalZam dam projects, capableof irrigation and power pro-duction, social sector de-velopments like updating orbuilding new schools andhospitals, especially forpoorer segments of the so-ciety, is clear as broad day-light. Elevated targets of $11 billions for bilateral tradewas set, which again, was asolid evidence of desire ofthe both the countries tobuild relations on sounderlines. Ties betweenIslamabad and Washing-ton, allies since soon afterPakistan’s creation in 1947,remain firm, despite differ-

ences, sanctions etc. How-ever in the rapidly chang-ing world, each country hasto review its policy fromtime to time to safeguard itsvital national interests. Noneed to be sensitive. Real-ism ought to be acknowl-edged and given practicalshape.

If Pakistan moved to-wards China for assistancein mega projects likeGwadar port, building ofstrategic highways fromKashgar to Gwadar, andupdating our cities withmodern means of communi-cation like underground rail-ways, and inter-linking ma-jor cities with motorways, ithas chosen its ways onmerit. Likewise, layingdown of Pak-Iran gas pipe-line to feed our energy-hun-gry industrial sector,should not raise eye browsin United States. Pakistan is

within its sovereign rightsto benefit from resources inthe neighbourhood. Petro-leum Minister ShahidKhaqan Abbasi is likely tovisit Iran for finalizing de-tails like prices, logistic etc.Iran has already committed5 million US dollars to con-struct the pipeline on thePakistan side for gas sup-ply to become reality. Thefact that Islamabad submit-ted a non-paper on the sub-ject to Secretary Kerry,showed the former’s deter-mination to pursue an inde-pendent line, and pick whatis best for itself.

The drones continue tobe a stumbling bloc, but donot, in any way, affect, muchless damage, the vast can-vass of relationship. Suchdifferences are normal indiplomatic parlance. PrimeMinister Nawaz Sharif doesappear confident of resolv-

ing the issue to the satis-faction of both sides. Presi-dent Obama wishes to con-tinue these pilotless planesas a weapon of considerableeffectiveness in combatingterrorism. But figurespresent different percep-tions. True, some of the keyleaders of Al-Qaeda, the ter-rorism godfathers, spittingfire and destruction, worldover, were eliminated bythese attacks, but so far in8 years, these aircraft killedjust 47 Al-Qaeda members,bringing death and devas-tation to thousands of in-nocent people in mountain-ous northern Pakistan how-ever.

These attacks, have alsobeen counter productive inthe sense that they gener-ated more sympathy forTaliban in tribal belts ofNorth and SouthWaziristan. What was dis-

turbing was a somewhathurried rebuttal from theState Department of JohnKerry’a remarks that droneissue will be over in sixmonths.

The US governmentstatement made it clear thatno time frame for that canbe given. This was indeeddisappointing for most Pa-kistanis, ordinary or in offi-cial positions. Why nothave a deeper and coolerreflection of a plan to useweapons of assassinationwhich many consider to beillegal in nature and whichcompromises Pakistan’ssovereignty?

Why such a strong re-action from Washington?Nawaz Sharif has to visitNew York for the UN gen-eral assembly session com-ing September, and wouldobviously meet the USPresident. He has alreadyaccepted invitation to be inAmerica. Hopefully thingswould be sorted out at thatlevel.

Irritants in relationship

do seem strong in nature,but critics of Pak-US tiesmust also not lose sight ofthe fact that high level con-tacts, invariably, prove ben-eficial, and may well bringpositive results in this casealso. After all goodwill inbilateral ties, have been onfirm footing and there is noreason why these cannot besolidified further. Viewed inthis backdrop, the visit doesappear to be a productiveone, although its fuller im-pact can only be judgedwith the passage of time.

Pakistan has also soughtpermission to import nuclearfacilities from the world, likethe one allowed to India. USresponse is awaited, butIslamabad is fully justifiedin expecting a non discrimi-natory treatment. If India isa huge market for USA, Pa-kistan is its natural and oldally, and will need Americanassistance for its growthand development. CanWhite House, Pentagon orthe State Department, shuteyes to that?

Kerry’s visit needs closer scrutiny

RAJANPUR—Chief MinisterShahbaz Sharif on Mondayannounced Rs 50 million for

flood affected people of thedistrict after taking an aerialview of the areas hit byfloods. The chief minister’svisit came a day after flood-ing in Kaha Sultan andChachar hill torrents trig-gered by rains over theSuleman Mountain Rangesdisconnected road access to20 to 22 villages of Rajanpurdistrict besides inundatingcrops and rural settlements.

“The Punjab govern-ment will not leave the af-fected people alone in thishour of trouble,” the CM

pledged while talking to floodhit people, their elected rep-resentatives and media per-

sons at a relief camp inFazalpur. “The flooding is adisaster and extending allkind of help and assistanceto the communities in troubleis our prime responsibility,”he added. He said the pro-vincial government believedin serving the flood hit peoplewithout any discrimination.

He ordered the districtadministration and officials ofall departments to participatewholeheartedly in flood reliefand rehabilitation activities.The negligent will face sternaction, he warned. He ordered

the DG Khan commissioner,the DCO and the RajanpurDPO to set up relief camps to

cover maximum number of af-fected people. He lauded thearmy for transporting foodpackets arranged by the pro-vincial government to the af-fected families by helicoptersto areas which had become in-accessible after damage tolink roads.

The chief minister alsotravelled by road to meetflood hit people near Hajipur.He talked to many affectedpeople who informed the CMabout their problems.Shahbaz Sharif sympathizedwith them and promised all

Shahbaz announcesRs50m for flood affectees

DERA GHAZI KHAN: Chief Minister of Punjab Shahbaz Sharif talking to media persons during his visit to floodaffected areas.

FAISALABAD: A youngster purchasing national flag as the nation has started prepara-tions to celebrate the Independence Day in a befitting manner.

possible assistance.Earlier, the CM reached

Fareed Airbase by a special

plane and took an aerial viewof the flood hit areas includ-ing Hajipur, Bakharpur,Miranpur, Tibbi Lundaan andLal Garh by a helicopter be-fore he landed at the Fazalpurrelief camp where he was re-ceived by Acting SpeakerPunjab Assembly Sardar SherAli Gorchani, MNA Dr HafeezUr Rahman Dareshak, MPASardar Atif Khan Mazari, com-missioner DG Khan ChaudhryMuhammad Amin, DCORajanpur Ghazi Amanullahand DPO Rajanpur EhsanManzoor.—NNI

Lawyers acrossBalochistan

boycott courtsQUETTA—Lawyers fraternityacross Balochistan provinceobserved a province-wideboycott of courts on Mondayto register their protestagainst the appointment ofadditional judges in theBalochistan High Court(BHC) and against what theycalled “the unsuitable atti-tude” of members of the judi-ciary.

Complying with the call toboycott, lawyers stayed awayfrom proceedings in the HighCourt and lower courts as aresult of which hundreds ofcases stood pending through-out the province. It should bementioned here that duringlast week, the Judicial Commis-sion of Pakistan (JCP).—INP

MUZAFFARABAD—A launch-ing ceremony for teachermapping and projectionmodel was organized byUSAID in collaboration withAJK government on Mon-day in Muzaffaraabd. Theinitiative aims atmainstreaming the data col-lection methodologies andbringing them up to date withmodern data collection soft-ware tools to generate betterand crispy information forrelevant institutions. “Withthe increasing number ofschools, enrollment andteachers, such informationcan no longer be maintainedusing only traditional tech-niques’ stated Sadiq Dar sec-retary education for Kashmir.

He said “An authenticdata record is a vital tool usedto develop an education plan-ning document. It is encour-aging that the EducationManagement InformationSystem (EMIS) department,AJK has recently upgradedits data collection and pro-cessing facilities and skills.The teacher mapping exer-

Teacher mapping,projection modellaunched in AJK

cise provides details of teach-ers and their qualifications atdistrict and provincial levels.Something we have beenlacking in the past. With dis-trict wise information avail-able, the district managersshould be able to better planfuture recruitment and infra-structure needs. This initia-tive will also facilitate provin-cial authorities in planningand monitoring educationalactivities in the province”.

“A large number of stafffrom districts of AJK weretrained in data collectiontechniques during theteacher mapping exercise. Ialso recommend that all dis-trict managers learn how tooperate the software used byEMIS for data processing andprojections. This will keepthem updated about basicfacts and figures pertainingto their area of supervision. Iappreciate the hard workingof the EMIS staff and hopethat data collected during theteacher mapping exercise willbe regularly updated.”SadiqDar added.—INP

Working groupStaff Reporter

PE S H AWA R—The Government ofKhyber Pakhtunkhwa has constituteda Working Group for Information andCulture to take measures for bringingabout positive changes in the Work-ing of Information and Culture Depart-ment as deemed necessary. The Work-ing Group will comprise PervezKhattak, Chief Minister as Chairmanwhile Secretary Information and Cul-ture as Member Secretary, Additional

Secretary Information and Culture Deptt: as Member/Focal Person, Shaukat Ali Yousafzai Minister Health,Mehmood Khan Minister Culture, Arif Yousaf MPA,Mossarrat Qadeem, Paiman, Islamabad, Director Infor-mation, Director Culture, Abasin Yousafzai, Head ofPashto Deptt: Islamia College University of Peshawar,Omer Khan, Coordinator Governance Support Project,P&D Department Peshawar, Ismail Khan, Daily Dawn,Ms. Bushra Farrukh, Women Writers Forum Peshawarand Rahimullah Yousafzai Daily News will be membersof the Working Group. Terms and Reference for theWorking Group would be as under: To guide the depart-ment in preparing a communication strategy so that thereform agenda of the new provincial government is ef-fectively projected/implemented, to finalize the estab-lishment of a media cell in the Chief Minister’s Secre-tariat Peshawar for projecting the positive image of thenew government and to regulate information on socialnetwork, print and electronic media, to review the cur-rent advertisement policy of the Information departmentand suggest changes therein if deemed necessary, toadvise the department on how best to utilize the twoFM Radios of the provincial government i .e.Pakhtunkhwa Radio (FM 92:2) Peshawar andPakhtunkhwa Radio Mardan for publicity of the provin-cial government, to suggest measures for welfare of jour-nalist community of the province and to ensure free-dom of media, to suggest measures for strengtheningthe Directorate of Information so that it can effectivelyrespond to emerging challenges in the field of commu-nication, to suggest measures for preservation.

Nullah choking probeHYDERABAD—Divisional Commis-sioner Hyderabad Jamal Mustafa Syedhas said that Sindh Chief Minister SyedQaim Ali Shah has ordered an inquiryinto the alleged deliberate chocking ofLiaquat Colony Nullah in Hyderabaddue to dumping of bags as well majorpower outages in the rain aftermath.Talking to the official media here theCommissioner said that some 50 bagswere found choking the Nullah in

Liaquat Colony which resultantly led to flooding in thewhole locality. “The Liaquat Colony Nullah was foundchocked and at least 50 bags have been taken out from theNullah so far but still there is a problem in disposal ofwater,” he said. Similarly, he added, the failure of HyderabadElectric Supply Company (HESCO) also created hindrancesin the disposal of rain water from the urban areas in thewhole division. According to him, the two issues would beunder investigation to ascertain the causes and to fix re-sponsibilities on the concerned persons. The Commissionerexpressed hope that the rain water would be cleared fromall the areas withing 24 hours. Talking about the displace-ment of people in Thatta district, the Commissioner in-formed that four relief camps have been set up inJungshahi taluka where the hill torrents flooded 15 vil-lages. He said that almost 1000 affected people have beensheltered in those camps. “The district administration hasprovided tents, food, drinking water and even generatorsat the camps,” he said. He further said that rain emergencyhas been imposed in whole of Hyderabad Division and theleaves of officers and staff, especially those belonging tothe civic agencies, health and other concerned departmentshave been cancelled.—APP

Preventive stepsPESHAWAR—The Provincial Police Of-ficer Ihsan Ghani has directed policehigh ups to take effective measuresfor prevention of aerial firing on theoccasion of “Chand Raat” and Eid-ul-Fitre. These directives were issued toall DIGs and DPOs throughout theprovince in a special circular releasedfrom CPO here Monday. In the circu-lar the IGP reminded that our religionteaches us peace, brotherhood and

tranquility whereas aerial firing is an un-Islamic and ille-gal act. It has further been informed in the circular thatindiscriminate aerial firing not only pose serious threatto precious human lives but also creates fear and panicamongst the peaceful citizen and directed the police highups to adopt concrete measures and put an effectivehalt to the menace of aerial firing. They were remindedin the circular that protection of life, honour and prop-erty was the prime responsibility of police force andthey should play their due professional role for preven-tion of aerial firing on “Chand Raat” and Eid-ul-Fitre.They have also been directed to launch vigorous cam-paign against aerial firing and hold meetings with localelders and social organizations and sensitize the peopleabout the negative impact of aerial firing. It has beenwarned in the circular that if any complaint receivedabout a single aerial firing from any part of the provincethe concerned SDPOs and SHOs would be strictly takento task. —APP

Experts urged pool to resourcesISLAMABAD—Minister of State for In-formation and Technology Mrs.Anusha Rehman Khan Monday urgedthe Pakistani information technologyexperts working in different countriesto pool their resources for their home-land and help the government in es-tablishing a Technology Park for thepromotion of information technology.She was addressing the launchingceremony of “Startup Cup”, an initia-

tive for encouraging new entrepreneurs to launch theirbusiness. The minister said the government had takenthe task of promoting information technology very seri-ously and expedited the work of the Ministry of Infor-mation and Technology which was kept pending due tovarious bureaucratic bottlenecks. She said the govern-ment had allocated the land for establishing the Tech-nology Park so that the information technology expertscould find a place to excel their abilities and the countrycould be able to export expertise of information tech-nology in a big way. She said E-Government had beenlaunched initially at the Prime Minister Office, Planningand Development, National Assembly and some otherselected departments, which would be expanded to allthe departments to ensure transparency in their affairs.Referring to Rs 6 billion Research and DevelopmentFund, she said the fund would be utilised for major de-velopment in Information Technology for the benefit ofthe country. The minister said Prime Minister NawazSharif.—APP

QUETTA—Provincial Disas-ter Management Authority(PDMA) on Monday re-leased Rs 08 million to theDeputy Commissioners ofeach eight affected districtsof Balochistan. Talking toAPP, Director General,PDMA Khalid Baloch onMonday said relief activitiesin the flood-battered areas arebeing carried out on war foot-ings. “Rs 08 million has beenreleased to the deputy com-missioners of Naseerabad,Jaffarabad, Jhal Magsi,Kech, Sibi, Loralai, Quetta,Khuzdar to ensure promptresponse to the catastrophewhich has left thousands ofpeople homeless,” he stated.

The Director General

while referring latest reportsreaching from affected areassaid floods caused by torren-tial rains has killed 13 peopleso far in parts of the provinceleaving dozens others injured.“The rains is still pouring andhampering the rescue effortsof the government, he saidadding, however food con-signments through Notal wasbeing dispatched to theGandawa, Jhal Magsi andother affected regions.

Khalid noted that fourhelicopters carrying threetons of food has left for No-tal while four trucks carryinghundreds of food packetshave also left Quetta for No-tal relief headquarter. He saidaround 900 food packets

from Sibi, 900 fromNaseerabad and 400 fromJaffarabad were also dis-patched to Notal.

Replying a query he saidheavy rains followed byflashflood inundated severalvillages in Jhal Magsi districtcreating hurdles for reliefteams to reach rain-victims.However, efforts are afoot torestore the Notal-Gandawaroad and ensure easy out-reach to the affected people.About assistance to the ca-lamity hit people in suburbsof Quetta, he said 20 tentswere provided to the peoplein the affected area. He fur-ther said PDMA has askedthe World Health Organiza-tion (WHO) to assist govern-

ment in provision of medi-cines to the affectees.

Referring to Jaffarabad,Bolan and Sibi districts, he saidrelief activities in rain hit areasof these district are continuingand situation there is undercontrol. Earlier, sources in thedistrict administration saidSaturday’s evening heavydownpour played havoc in JhalMagsi district causing collapseof several mud houses besidessubmerging several villages inGandhawa, Khari, Putri andQazi Ismaeel areas.

Deputy CommissionerTurbat Abdul Hameed said sixpeople including four womenhad been swept away in Sorablake in the outskirts of Turbattown.—APP

PDMA releases Rs 08m for eightflood-hit districts of Balochistan

SUKKUR—Following an in-telligence alert, the securityhas been beefed up aroundSukkur central prison tocounter Dera-Ismael-Khan-jailbreak like attack. Accord-ing to SSP Sukkur IrfanBaloch, hundreds of addi-tional police mobilized fromother parts of the district in-cluding commandos havebeen deployed inside andaround Sukkur Central Jail.

The SSP said dozens ofpolice mobiles and somearmoured vehicles have also

been deployed. They addedthat prison authorities havejoined forces with intelli-gence agencies to ensure thattight security was maintainedaround the prison. SindhMinister for Prisons,Manzoor Hussain Wasan,had already warned that jailsin the province were underthreat.

The Minister had saidthat terrorists belonging tooutlawed outfits were impris-oned in the Sukkur centraljails as well.

The District Administra-tion on the directives of Pro-vincial Government has es-tablished several checkposts at entry and existpoints of the of the districtto ward off the possibility ofany security threat and ter-ror incident especially afterthe massive jail break.These check posts havebeen jointly manned by thepolice and Rangers wherethorough search of the pas-sengers and ordinary peoplewas conducted.—APP

Hundreds of cops including commandosdeployed around Sukkur Central Jail

PESHAWAR—Federal Minis-ter for Defence Production,Rana Tanvir Hussein hereMonday said that federalgovernment would soon re-lease funds for the establish-ment of Early Flood WarningSystem in KhyberPakhtunkhwa to avoid possi-bility of any natural calamitiesin future. The federal ministerexpressed these views whiletaking to media men at ChiefSecretary Office after visitingthe flood affected areasPeshawar on the special di-rectives of Prime MinisterMohammad Nawaz Sharif.

While appreciating thelocal administration and Pro-vincial Disaster ManagementAuthority (PDMA) for theirtimely action and better ser-vices to minimize the humanloss due to heavy rains andfloods, the federal ministersaid he will take up the issueof up-gradation of EarlyWarning System at Chitraland Cherat and early releaseof required funds of 750 mil-lion rupees with the primeminister.

He assured the federalgovernment will extend itsfull cooperation to the

Federal govt fund KPflood warning system

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Gov-ernment in relief and repa-triation activities of thepeople affected by torrentialrain and flash flood. He saidhe will submit strong recom-mendations regarding therequirements of the provin-cial government and will alsotalk to other organizationsconcerned for providing re-lief to people.

Federal Minister for De-fence Production said thatflood and heavy rains hadplayed havoc in the prov-inces and Karach and thatPrime Minister has ex-pressed deep concern onthe loss of human lives andproperties in floods and haddirected federal ministers forvisiting the provinces to as-sess the damages ongrounds.

As per Prime Minister’sdirection, he said maximum fi-nancial assistance would beprovided to the provinces inthe rehabilitation of the floodaffectees. He said encroach-ment in embankments of riv-ers and water streams causedflash floods and subsequentdevastation. He said the pro-vincial government.—APP

ISLAMABAD—Pakistan Me-teorological Department(PMD) on Monday forecastrain and thundershower forscattered places of upperPunjab, Hazara Division andKashmir during the next 24hours. The places includingIslamabad, Rawalpindi,Gujranwala, Lahore, Sargodhaand Faisalabad divisionswould receive rain with thun-dershower in Upper Punjab.

The met office also indi-cated chances of rain andthundershower for isolatedplaces of Quetta, Zhob,Kalat, Nasirabad, Peshawar,Kohat, Bannu, D.I.Khan,D.G.Khan, Bahawalpur,Multan divisions and Gilgit-Baltistan during next 24hours. According to the syn-optic situation, a well markedseasonal low lies over south-eastern Afghanistan and ad-joining areas of northBalochistan. Moderate mon-soonal currents from ArabianSea are penetrating into up-per and central parts of thecountry.

The highest maximum tem-peratures recorded during thelast 24 hours were Dalbandin41C and Sargodha and Shorkot40 C. The maximum tempera-tures of the other cities wereIslamabad 36 C , Lahore 36 C ,

Karachi 37, Peshawar 38, Quetta31, Murree 24 andMuzaffarabad 36. The chiefamounts of rainfall during last24 hours were Khuzdar 41 mm,Sialkot 17, Lasbella 15, Chillas14, Quetta 12, Chirat 4, Dir 3,Lahore, Rawalakot, Badin 02and Malamjabba and ShaheedBenazirabad 01mm.

The Meteorological De-

partment on Monday predi-cated rain for Hazara and DeraGhazi Khan divisions duringnext 24 hours that wouldhopefully bring the existingtemperature down. Accord-ing to Spokesman of MetOffice here, isolated rain withthunderstorm is expected inHazara, DG Khan and Kash-mir, Northeast Punjab andKalat divisions due to sea-sonal low lies over east Iranand adjoining areas ofBalochistan whereas mon-soonal currents from Arabiansea are also penetrating inupper and central parts of thecountry.—APP

More monsoonrains predicted

Man injured inroad mishap

NUSHKI—A man was injuredwhen a speedy vehicle hithim on National Highwaynear Nushki district on Mon-day. According to police,Abdul Majeed was on wayto Kishangi area on his mo-torcycle as a vehicle hit himdue to over speeding.

As a result, he receivedwounds and was rushed tonearby hospital where thevictim was referred to theQuetta based hospital in viewof his critical condition. Afterthe incident, police arrested adriver of vehicle.—APP

BASHIR AHMAD RAHMANI

HAFIZABAD—Allama IqbalOpen University has beenpractically striving for “Edu-cation for All” in accordancewith the Islamic traditionsand to eliminate illiteracy inthe country, Dr. AneesAhmad Regional DirectorAIOU Gujranwala Regionsaid here. While addressinginaugural session of 12-daytraining workshop for B.Edmale and female Tutors andSupervisors here, Dr. Aneessaid that the University wasalso not receiving fee frompoor and deserving students.He further said that at present14,000 male and female stu-

dents were being impartedtraining and education.

****The local administration

has adopted the policy of “allis well” but the condition pre-vailing in the so-called SastaRamazan Bazar is not satisfac-tory and all the essential com-modities were being sold inthe Bazar at costlier rates thanavailable outside the bazar.The brand articles which wasbeing sold at quite lower pricein the bazar are now not avail-able at cheaper rate. Evenpopular brand of beveragesare in short supply.

****A teenager of Hafizabad wasdrowned in the Jhang Branch

Canal near Bhoon Kalan Bridgetoday. According to his par-ents, 17-year-old Ali alongwithhis friends went to the canal tobeat the heat of sun and whileswimming Ali was drowned.However, Rescue-1122 have re-covered the dead body aftertwo hours frantic efforts.

****The villagers of Burj Bhianwho were hit by the erosionby flood water of Chenab werefacing further danger due torise in the discharge of waterat Qadirabad. They said thatdozens of their houses weredamaged or destroyed due tothe erosion but the adminis-tration has not yet providedany protection or assistance.

Condition in Ramazan SastaBazaar not satisfactory

MULTAN: A large number of people busy in shopping in Cantt Bazaar for the prepara-tion of Eidul Fitr.

FAISALABAD: A large number of men and women standing in queues to get new currency notes ahead of Eid-ul-Fitr.

QUETTA: Disables FC personnel protesting a favour of their demands outsideBalochistan High Court building.

MIRPUR—Right from the veryadvent of the Holy month ofRamazan, profiteers andhoarders were fleecing theconsumers, through the arti-ficial price hike, by over-charging the prices of thecommodities of daily use,especially edibles, againstthe rates fixed by the localauthorities. And at the sametime, the localauthorities, in-stead of taking stringentmeasures to overcome theartificially-created dearnesson the part of the profiteersand hoarders of the com-modities of daily life, assertedthat they had establishedspecial Ramazan bazaars invarious parts of all AJK dis-tricts including the capitalcity of Muzaffarabad as well

Profiteers and hoardersfleecing consumers, through

as the divisional headquar-ters of Mirpur and Rawalakotin the state to deliver theedibles to the consumers atsubsidised rates

The shopkeepers, in-volved in overcharging therates of the edibles, werecharging the excessive costof the items including veg-etables, fruit, soft drinks,milk, Yogurt, mutton, beef,chicken, bread, eggs, of theirown choice as against therates fixed by the DistrictPrice Control Committee“The District Price ControlCommittee have totallyfailed in getting maintainedthe prices of the commodi-ties of daily use”, saidAttique ul Amin Khan, an en-trepreneur, the head of a

lower-middle class familycomprising six.

“The prices of almost alledible items have gone outof reach of the commonman”, said Bashir Ahmed, aConstable in local IT depart-ment. We can’t think abouttaking meat even in a singlemeal, said Kashmiri who wasmuch worried about passingthe Holy month of Ramazanin a comfortable manner. Atthe same time, AJK authori-ties asserted that they hadestablished special RamazanBazars in various major cit-ies under the spirit to ensurethe required supply ofedibles to the general con-sumers at subsidized ratesduring the Holy month ofRamazan.—APP

Don’t let Fazldestabilise PTI in KPTHE strategy of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif to accept mandate of

all political parties has widely been appreciated by every segmentof the society but JUI-F’s Maulana Fazlur Rehman seems to be in

a mad rush to destabilize and topple the KPK Government of PTI. And itwas, perhaps, in this backdrop that Imran Khan has come out with asomewhat belated idea of suing Maulana for dubbing him (Imran) asagent of Jews during election campaign, to put him on the mat.

The charge that Imran Khan is agent of Jews or for that matter anyother power, is naturally unacceptable and amounts to mud-slinging ofthe worst order. Politics apart, one must not go to such an extent andpoliticians including, of course, Imran Khan should be extra-careful inthe selection of words. But it is quite evident that Maulana FazlurRehman, who is a heavyweight player in the political arena, is becom-ing rather impatient to dislodge PTI Government from KPK. First, hecame out with the idea of denying the majority party the right to formGovernment in the province by dashing to Raiwind even before NawazSharif assumed power to offer a formula for the formation of the pro-vincial Government without PTI. Credit goes to PML-N leader whodid not buy the plan and instead gave free hand to PTI to form theGovernment. Now that the PTI is in power in KPK and is pursuing itsagenda, Maulana, on almost every alternative day, churns out a state-ment to suggest that PTI has miserably failed to govern the provinceand therefore, needs to be shown the way out. In the first place, it isridiculous to say so soon that PTI Government in KP, PPP’s in Sindhand PML-N’s at the Centre have failed to deliver as they are in powerjust for a few weeks. If this much period is enough to demonstratecapabilities of governance then why JUI-F could not stabilize the prov-ince during its long innings spanning over years in KPK. Maulana shouldalso learn to adjust himself with the new culture of accommodation,tolerance and democratic spirit that is being promoted in Pakistan andthe latest example was big no of MNS to support the move to topple theAJK Government. Of course, Maulana has a vested interest to have abigger share of pie in KPK and his ambitions about Balochistan arealso understandable but this doesn’t mean to trample rights and oppor-tunities of others. We are sure Mian Nawaz Sharif would continue to‘disappoint’ Maulana in the context of unprincipled power game.

Dear readers! Weare in a state of war

FOLLOWING reports that the national capital has been infested withterrorists and criminals of all sorts, Islamabad has been put under

thick security cover with deployment of joint teams of police and armedforces to guard against any untoward incident. Up to 30 such teams com-prising Air Force, Navy and Police commandos have been sent to MargallaHills for combing the mountains following threats from terrorist outfitsto Parliament House as well as Air and Naval Complexes.

The arrangements are timely and may help avert terrorist attacksespecially during coming Eid but the fact that terrorists have reachedthe Federal Capital and are in a position to pose threat to targets oftheir choice is hair-raising. Already, there were reports that terroristsmay hit Benazir Bhutto International Airport and Adyala Jail wheresecurity has been beefed up and now the canvass of the threat hasexpanded dangerously causing panic and scare among residents ofthe capital. This seems to be undeclared war against Pakistan by itsenemies and each and every citizen will have to play his or her part tofoil designs of our enemies. The preventive measures taken by theconcerned organizations notwithstanding, the fact remains that it isbeyond the capacity of the police or any other agency or institution toensure hundred percent security and therefore, we will have to beextra-vigilant to counter the greater conspiracy against the country.

China builds strategicport in Sri Lanka

CHINA has taken a major initiative to secure its maritime supply routesby building a massive port terminal in Colombo with an investment

of $ 500 million. The port inaugurated on Monday is located mid way onthe lucrative east-west sea route and has facilities on a par with otherregional modern ports like Singapore and Dubai.

It is yet another manifestation that China builds relations with othercountries on the basis of genuine economic cooperation by extendinghelp in concrete projects that lead to the uplift of a country. On the otherhand the much-hyped assistance by the West is cosmetic in nature andthat too with lot of conditionalities and never delivered in full in time asdifferent objections are raised to keep the recipient country under influ-ence. Thus there is a marked difference between the development assis-tance extended by China and the West. It was the biggest investment inSri Lanka’s harbours, as the nation seeks to upgrade its infrastructurewith Chinese help. The terminal, built and operated by China MerchantsHoldings International Co will handle 2.4 million containers a year andboost Colombo’s capacity by almost half, according to the Sri LankaPorts Authority. The new terminal made economic sense for China aswell to tap into the growing South Asian container cargo and gave Beijinga foothold along a strategic sea route. At the same time Sri Lanka willderive multiple benefits in the shape of earnings and security from threatsemanating from the sea routes. There is a message for Pakistan alsothat it should further deepen and prioritise economic and strategic rela-tions with the great neighbour. In this perspective the visit of PrimeMinister Nawaz Sharif to China was in the right direction and we hopethat the decisions reached in Beijing would be implemented in the mini-mum possible time to help put economy back on track.

Balochistan CM’s resolve

Salt water andabsence wash awaylove.

The alertsirens

A series of jailbreaks that apparently seemed to havelittle in common has now

led to the biggest threat in the re-gion. A number of European coun-tries have taken the US State De-partment warning seriously andshut down their missions as wellacross the capitals in the MiddleEast. Washington, in an unprec-edented move, had already shut itsembassies and consulates in 21 cit-ies across the region for a day onSunday. Not much is known at thispoint of time whether the closurewill continue or not. Nonetheless,Yemen’s capital, Sana’a, that seemsto be in the eye of storm is likely towitness an indefinite closure, asvarious Western countries havecalled upon their citizens and dip-lomatic staff to evacuate fearing amajor terrorist attack.

Two factors have led to themissions’ closure and a globaltravel warning: One; escape ofhardened criminals related to AlQaeda and the like from Iraq’s AbuGhraib, Taji jails and Pakistan’sDera Ismail Khan, and similar in-stances in Libya, Yemen and sixmore countries. Two; the US au-thorities reportedly intercepted AlQaeda messages, which it claimedwere between senior fugitive fig-ures talking about a plot against anembassy. Likewise, the Interpolhas also issued a separate globalsecurity alert, citing jail breakslinked to Al Qaeda, and advisedWesterners to be extra vigil. Thisnosedive in the security graph hasled to serious repercussions andalso impacted countries that wereconsidered to be safe havens forforeigners. This sudden closure ofconsular activity has created prob-lems for a large number of peoplewho had their scheduled interviewsat these missions, and had emer-gent travel itineraries’.

At the same time, it is incum-bent upon the world leaders to bringin necessary pressure on all the jail-broke countries, and account for thedreaded elements. A masterly man-hunt is needed to net the abscondersand that won’t be possible until andunless a ruthless operation is car-ried out on their hideouts. Effec-tive and foolproof intelligence is amust to operate against these out-laws, and precision could be the keyto success. The geopolitical situa-tion is too precarious to abandonthe ground and go in isolation. It’stime for the US and its allies in theregion to fight back and nip the ter-ror in the bud.—Khaleej Times

*****

Indianconsulate attackin Afghanistan

deplorable

The pointless horror of terrorattacks was made shockinglyclear by this week’s suicide

attack on the Indian consulate inJalalabad. As it turned out, the as-sault would have been much moredestructive if it was not for the ef-fective action taken by Afghan po-licemen in foiling the plans of thethree carloads of terrorists. Thanksto their prompt action, the would-be attackers were unable to com-plete their mission, but 12 peoplewere killed when they detonatedthe explosives they were carryingclose to a mosque where childrenwere attending religion classes.

Eight children and 12 adultswere killed, including three attack-ers as well as some of the defend-ing Afghan security forces. All theIndians in the consulate were safe,and the Indian Foreign Officepraised the actions of the “valiantAfghan police personnel”.

No organisation has yetclaimed responsibility for thisshocking attack, and even the pro-Pakistan Afghan Taliban said thegroup “did not have any operationplanned.” However, the Indian For-eign Office has pointed out that theattack has “once again highlightedthat the main threat toAfghanistan’s security and stabil-ity stems from terrorism and theterror machine that continues tooperate from beyond its borders”.The actions of deluded people whoare prepared to kill innocent civil-ians and children in pursuit of theirpolitical aims are wrong. The crimi-nals behind these pointless murdersshould face the full force of thelaw.—Gulf News

MEDIA WATCH

—Proverb

Last week, Chief MinisterBalochistan Dr AbdulMaalik Baloch, a nationalist,

progressive and moderate person,announced to hold dialogue with allmilitant groups operating in the res-tive province of Pakistan. He radi-ated an aura of optimism that hisefforts for restoring Baloch pride byensuring socio-economic justicewould meet with success. Speakingin the Balochistan Assembly overworsening law and order in the prov-ince on last Monday, Dr Baloch saida high powered committee compris-ing members of the assembly wouldbe formed to hold dialogue with allmilitant groups operating inBalochistan. “Formal negotiationswould be initiated soon after Eid-ul-Fitar,” he announced in the house.He said his government has resettledfamily members of Late NawabAkbar Bugti in Dera Bugti. Thechief minister strongly condemnedkillings of coast guards personneland brother of Zahoor Buledi also.This goes to prove that he is a bal-anced and well-intentioned person.

One can infer from determina-tion expressed by Dr Maalik that hiselected government in Balochistanwould restore peace and maintainlaw and order, while people ofBalochistan also expect a goodchange in the government policywith a middle class person like theCM. People of Balochistan at largeappreciate the role of Armed Forces

Aqua bomb against Pakistan

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Sunday Magazine

Sadia Zahid MalikEditor

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

Water wars is a phrase used,across the world, to describe increased competi-

tion for water resources, due todrought, climate change, or increas-ing populations; controversies overand reduced access due toprivatization of water services; orthe role of these tensions in lead-ing to physical conflicts, within oramong nations. Experts say itwould be the era… in which riv-ers, lakes and aquifers become na-tional security assets to be foughtover, or controlled through surro-gate armies and client states.

Pakistan has become the victimof Indian hydrological warfare to ar-rogate its rivers. The constructionof Uri Todiam dam on river Poonchand Kishan Ganga dam on riverNeelum, two tributaries of riverJhelum, are about to hit its finalstage. Many other small hydelprojects had also been accom-plished while paper work has beenon track for construction of fivemore dams; most of them are to beerected on the Pakistani rivers. Thepace of work on several of theseprojects prognosticate their comple-tion imminently so that very instantIndia will be in a position to closedown both of these rivers upon itswill. Consequently the closure ofthese rivers would play havoc withPakistan’s agriculture and industry.Furthermore the inhabitants of theseareas inside Pakistan will have tospar the drinking water paucity. De-struction of water resources and offorest catchments and aquifers is aform of terrorism. Denying peopleaccess to water by disrupting natu-

for the uplift ofBalochistan, and ac-knowledge their un-precedented sacrificesmade in the line of duty.Unfortunately somemedia anchors, ana-lysts, panelists andwriters are still high-lighting negative

themes that that run counter tothe sincere efforts of provincialgovernment, create a sense ofconflict and promote the cause ofmilitants and separatists. Suchmedia analysts are more damag-ing than the real criminals. In fact,enormous media power enablesthem to build misperceptions inthe minds of domestic and for-eign audience that all is not wellin Balochistan. And strong cen-tre syndrome had hurt their pride.Obviously angry Baloch leadershave their grievances, which needto be addressed, but it is incor-rect to say that state of anarchicdisorder prevails in Balochistan.

A great majority of the people ofBalochistan is patriotic Pakistanis, andthey cannot be alienated from vitaldecision-making process as related toPakistan as well as the province ofBalochistan. The establishment ofdemocratic government after May 11elections is a good step forward, andthere is hope to resolve all issues facedby the province. Of course,Balochistan was neglected during Brit-ish Raj and also by various govern-ments after creation of Pakistan. Onehas to acknowledge that centre hadmade blunders by creating One Unit,and strong centre syndrome had hurtthe pride of Baloch people. But nowthere is a dire need to restore the samefor peace in Balochistan because it isa precondition for the progress and de-velopment of the province. Empow-

ering Baloch leaders to manage theaffairs of their own province will helpremove the cobwebs of misunder-standing. It has to be mentionedthat peace, progress and welfareof the people of Balochistan willhelp make Pakistan strong andgreat.

Media should expose the blacksheep among them, who exaggeratein their reports and analyses that thesituation in Balochistan is dismal.Newly elected government inBalochistan is progressing well, asthe number of violent incidents in-cluding target killing, kidnapping forransom, terrorist attacks and missingpersons have reduced. The govern-ment is showing its firm resolve tobring all parties including disgruntledelements and separatists to the nego-tiating table to bring peace and tran-quility in Balochistan. One has toappreciate the encouraging trends ofpresent provincial government inBalochistan, especially their decisionof 4% increase in allocation for edu-cation in the budget. The province isbeing governed by its own electedrepresentatives who will strive tobring peace, address the grievancesof disgruntled leaders, end militancy.Last but not the least, the role ofArmed Forces in the developmentprogram of Balochistan is commend-able and deserves appreciation.

Dissident Baloch sardars havebeen demanding that army should bewithdrawn from Balochistan to per-petuate their system of exploitation.They want to keep the Baloch com-moners illiterate so that they couldcontinue their hold over enslavedhumanity. Balochistan is a provincewith enormous resources, and otherbig powers and some countries of theregion have rivaling eyes on thoseresources. That point besides, when-ever efforts were made by the gov-

ernment for building infrastruc-ture for roads, educational insti-tutions and healthcare system inthe past, there was resistancefrom some of the sardars whotook to the mountains, and thecivilian government had to de-ploy military. It is indisputablefact that without peace, there couldbe no investment or development.During the last ten years, army hasbeen on the forefront in the effortsto bring peace, stability and tranquil-ity in Balochistan with the objectiveof development of the province. Un-fortunately, Baloch youth, the jewelof human being, bubbling with enor-mous talent, vitality and energy, hasbeen living suppressed in the cap-tivity of the sardars.

However, whenever he got thechance he turned out an acknowl-edged doctor, engineer, lawyer, civilservant, diplomat and general ofsterling quality. Various govern-ments in the past, whether militaryor elected had appeased and molly-coddled illusive sardars, chieftainsand local wielders who have beenriding a rough shod over Balochcommoners, particularly youth. Bil-lions of rupees were poured into theprovincial treasury from the centrebut one would not see any worth-while project with first-class educa-tional facilities in diverse fields anddisciplines for the commoner Balochyouth, but those sums landed intothe pockets of tribal sardars. Let alland sundry know that for the state’sraw deal, the common Baloch youthwas very disgruntled, very angry andin a very nasty mood. It is he whoneeds to be cajoled, pacified and ap-peased, not the scions of sardarsworking on aliens’ agendas. Investin him to be a proud Pakistani. Givehim opportunities to grow and flour-ish. In it lies the real key to theBalochistan problems. Everythingelse is mere ruse.—The writer is Lahore-basedsenior journalist.

ral water distribution and rivers isalso terrorism. In the ecological con-text of water wars, terrorists are notjust those hiding in the caves of Af-ghanistan but those who have beendepriving them of their right.

India has also commenced thebuilding of major dam at Kargil onriver Sindh and it has disbursed $200billion for this purpose. The Indianwater belligerence started when de-spite signing the 1960 Indus WatersTreaty, it invited a bid for the devel-opment of a barrage namely TulbulNavigational Project in 1985. Thebarrage was to be constructed on theRiver Jhelum, below the Wullar Lakenear Sopore, 25 km north of Srinagar.For Pakistan , the geo-strategic sig-nificance of the site lies in the factthat its protectorate endows Indiawith the means to browbeat Pakistan. A dam on that site has the prospec-tive to devastate the intact system ofthe triple canal project within Paki-stan namely, the Upper Jhelum Ca-nal , Upper Chenab Canal and theLower Bari Doab Canal.

Pakistan also terms the construc-tion of Wullar barrage is in violationof the Indus Water Treaty (IWT). Italso maintains that the constructionof this major Barrage will also con-vert the resulting natural lake into aman-made storage with a capacity of0.324 million acre feet (MAF) andadversely affect the flow of waterinto the country. The scenario forPakistan gets grimmer with furtherconstruction of 12 dams on tributar-ies of river Indus (Sindh). India wasusing water of Indus River througha tunnel since long, which alsoamounts to major water aggression.After this, the Indian governmentbrushed aside five main objectionsraised by Pakistan related to the con-struction of the Baglihar Dam andcommenced construction work.

The construction of this contro-versial project violated not only theIndus Water Treaty but robbed Pa-kistan of its precious Chenab water.New Delhi also opposed any alter-ation in the design as recommendedby its neighbor. Pakistanis believethat the height of the dam at 470 feetis disproportionate and will create areservoir in excess of the power gen-eration needs.This new reservoir po-tentially could block the flow of theriver for a period of 26-28 days dur-ing the low season (January-Febru-ary). It is also contended that a dropof 7,000 cubic feet per second perday in the river’s flow to Pakistanwill come to pass during this period.The Baglihar Dam together with DulHasti and other dams can plainly di-minish the flow of Chenab duringthe vital Rabi crop-sowing season(January and February). The driedcrop could spell a disaster toPakistan’s agricultural economy. Ithas feared that India might also bediverting water to some canals nearAkhnor in Kashmir and storing thewater in the Salal Dam in Jammu.

Now with this continuity of anaggression, the looming water warswith India arrived a stride nigherto comme il faut a bloodcurdlingactuality after latest Indian designon engaging new 60 hydroelectricpower projects on the Chenab riverbasin. The reality is that Pakistanis on the verge of being water vul-nerable. This scarceness is kickingthe bucket to the country’s agrar-ian yield, and so it has very ratio-nality to be disquieted about India’spurposes. According to the condi-tions set in the Indus Water Treaty,Pakistan was committed dominanceover the Indus, Chenab and Jhelumrivers but India was countenancedto apply them for irrigation andelectricity propagation, as long as

it never divest Pakistan of its le-gitimate partake. Concerning thatIndia has so soon profaned theconditions of the treaty through itsformer power generation projectsis based more on well researchedand established facts. India willsoon reach the stage where it hasenough dams as mentioned above,to gravely strike our water provi-sion. And why shouldn’t it chooseto bring forth so while necessi-tated in any conflict is flared up?The political and environmentalimplications of the water situationare no longer the same as they werein 1960 when the Indus WaterTreaty was signed, but there seemseven less willingness to negotiateand compromise, especially fromthe Indian side. Without a bit of ma-turity India is treating this upcom-ing disaster in the same way as itdo the vexing issue of Kashmir.

If India desires to be friendlywith us why would it plan to erectdams which could upshot in Paki-stan to get wasteland and overranwith dearths? Why would it long forto be friendship and serve individu-als and groups which want to discerpPakistan? We should be wary of In-dia, particularly, when it does con-genial propositions towards us, forthat is the time when India is pav-ing the way to impair our pursuits.Still hanging on with all its seculargrandiloquence, India’s highly reli-giously slanted inside should not beneglected. Camouflaging its face itdirely wants trade and peace fromus but try to backstab us by cuttingour water supplies let us to think.Our newly emerged political lead-ership is dying to rendezvous theenemy in the disguise of friend. Willthey beware of India when it is atits best behaviour with us? Our his-tory demands us to do so.

Mohammad JamilEmail: [email protected]

News & ViewsNews & ViewsNews & ViewsNews & ViewsNews & Views

Khurram Ali KhanEmail:[email protected]

Voice of the PeopleRamadan madegrand tamasha!

M A BUTT

This is first time in the history ofPakistan that Holy Month ofRamadan has been turned more to-wards commercial, with lot of funand entertainment. In fact this holymonth of Ramadan is primarily toseek Almighty Allah’s forgiveness,mercy and peace and bring us allcloser to Him and each other. Thismonth provides us opportunity tohelp poor through increased charity,Muslims develop feelings of gener-osity and good will towards others.That’s why Prophet Muhammad(SAWS) (PBUH) said” A man’swealth is never diminished in char-ity”. But there is fundamental prin-ciple involved in helping needy; ithas to be a quiet affair so that needyperson is not offended. The way weare helping poor through TV chan-nels is certainly not a dignified way

This Ramadan has turned manysingers in to religious scholars andthey are attracting lot of crowd thatprimarily flocks around to get giftsranging from car to a suit piecelength for gents and ladies. Secondlyquestion answers are also very in-teresting at times people enthrall theaudience with stupid answers. Theway the Ramadan is being con-ducted does not fit in our culture.This is a month where every part ofthe body must be restrained. Thetongue must be refrained from backbiting and gossip. The eyes mustrestrain themselves from looking atunlawful things. The hand must nottouch or take anything that does notbelong to it or obscene words

This month teaches us to besimple, spending most of the timein reciting Holy Quran with reneweddedication. Amazingly Ramadanhas simply become over years mostconsumption season, while in theoryMuslims should be consuming lessfoods as they are fasting, but practi-cally the story is different. The mar-keting companies and advertisingagencies have been the leading forcetowards effectively labelingRamadan’s high season for lavishspending. Does Ramadan teach usto wear most costly dresses withglittering ornaments? Wearing de-signer suits and invite audienceequally dressed up in expensive andfancy dresses giving an impressionas if it is a fashion show or theyhave come to attend some mar-riage? The way the gifts are thrownon the audience is against normaletiquettes. The main purpose ofdishing out gifts is to help the needyand poor. But the beneficiaries inmost of the cases tell totally differ-ent story when we find most of themin most expensive dresses.

Sanctity of Holy month mustreflect the teachings of our ProphetMuhammad (PBUH) but that is al-together missing. How can you com-bine religious activity with enter-tainment? How ridiculous it is to asksome one to sing a song in religiousgathering. We have forgotten Is-lamic culture and values that wasproud heritage of Muslims. It is forPEMRA to regulate laws as freedomof press is giving wrong message toour younger generation. In nut shellthis Ramadan can be named as Cor-porate Ramadan- GlamorousRamadan, that has established manynew records. The ulema’s participat-ing should have refused to be partyto such shows where Ramadan sehriand Iftar transmission has beenturned in to grand tamasha—Karachi

No one bothersMUHAMMAD DAHEEM

The Merchant of Venice is a beauti-ful play by Shakespeare. It is a trag-edy. There is a flaw in one of themost important characters in thisplay. Portia, the heroine of the play,first plays the role of a lawyer, thentakes the seat of the judge and an-nounces punishment. Shakespearewas a great dramatist. Even then hecould not justify the two roles of acharacter simultaneously. This sceneis known as a flaw in the play. None-theless, in Pakistan, people play sev-eral roles at the same time and noone bothers, no one criticizes.—Lahore

Dealing withillicit trade

SANIA EHSAN

This refers to news item publishedin different sections of national me-dia regarding plan to deal with illicittrade in the country. I totally agreethat Pakistan needs to take a moreproactive stance against the issue anddevise an action plan accordingly. Ibelieve Pakistan, as a nation, needsto come together and combat theproblem of illicit trade and no singleagency acting along can accomplishthe task. The proposition of a jointtask force partly addresses this con-

Rains ravage SindhHASHIM ABRO

Indeed, rains bring little relief to energy sector in Pakistan andalso some relief to those areas in the country such as Thar Desert

and other areas in Sindh province where drought was in the mak-ing and life and limb, livestock, flora and fauna was at stake. Manyparts of Sindh province have been ravaged by heavy rains. Severalpeople are feared dead, thousands have become homeless and hun-dreds have become stranded in deep rainwater and now “inlandflooding” caused by the canals, water channels and water courses.It is reported that neither Federal nor provincial aid is flowing tothe rain-ravaged areas of Sindh province. If the provincial govern-ment machinery is inactive, insensitive, inept and incompetent, then,the relevant federal government organizations should not leave therain victims in the lurch, they should launch their rescue efforts tosave lives, livestock, properties and standing crops in the worst —rain Sindh province.—Islamabad

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—Editor

Presidential polls will change little for Pakistan

After days of political wrangling and controversies,Mamnoon Hussain, the in-

cumbent of Pakistan’s ruling party ledby Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, hasbeen overwhelmingly voted as thenew president-elect. He would be re-placing Asif Zardari, who will bestepping down from power after com-pleting his five-year term.

The presidential elections wit-nessed plenty of drama as severalpolitical parties, including the mainopposition Pakistan People’s Party(PPP), boycotted the process over achange in election schedule. After aSupreme Court ruling, the electionswere held one week in advance from

the earlier announced dates. The op-position parties lodged a strong pro-test that the move did not allow themenough time to muster political sup-port and a decision was taken with-out taking all stakeholders onboard.

So will the new president-electhave a huge impact on the country’spolitical scene and help it rise fromdark times? The simple answer is,not really. In Pakistan, the presidentlargely holds a ceremonial post ofhead of state. The president, who isnon-partisan, represents the federa-tion and is tasked with ensuring pro-vincial harmony so that the countrystands united against problems on allfronts. The figurehead status is a farcry from the era of former presidentPervez Musharraf, when he enjoyedextensive powers and influence overthe country’s governance.

The new president was chosenfrom the province of Sindh, a tradi-tional stronghold of the PPP. The rul-ing party has claimed that the nomi-nation was made carefully to givesmaller provinces representation atthe federal level. If this rationale isaccepted, then it may have been moreappropriate to choose a representa-tive from the volatile regions of ei-ther Balochistan or KhyberPakhtoonkhwa. These provinceshave suffered the brunt of terrorismand weak economic activity, and apresident from either of the two re-gions would have helped to developcloser links with the federation.

With limited powers, it would beunfair to expect too much fromHussain. The real onus for Pakistan’sdevelopment and progress lies withthe government led by Prime Minis-

Views From Abroad

Presidential polls’ date a non-issue

Building a heated controversyaround Presidential election isan exercise in futility besides

being an unreasonable attempt on thepart of intriguers to entangle the na-tion in unnecessary debates. Already,the nation is fed up with such contro-versies and debates that are spun withunique, rather odd, interpretations ofprevailing political scenario in thecountry. Take, for example, the con-troversy gratuitously created withreference to the recently held presi-dential election in which the PML-Nnominee, Mamnoon Hussain, se-cured majority votes from all the pro-vincial assemblies, National Assem-bly and Senate.

As regards the objection raisedtime and again by some Oppositionparties and leaders that the date pre-viously fixed for presidential elec-tion should not have been advancedby the apex court, it is nothing but amove to divert the public attentionfrom the actual issues. The impres-sion being given is as if the presi-dential candidates nominated byPPP and PTI respectively, namelySenator Raza Rabbani and Justice (retired) Wajihud Din, would havewon the election had the originaldate of August 6 not been changedby the Supreme Court. It is just likeliving in a fool’s paradise. PML-N

was in a very comfortable positionfrom day one i.e from the day itcame into power in the 2013 gen-eral elections that reinforced theparty’s numerical strength in the na-tional and provincial legislatures toa great extent. In Punjab, PML-N gotmore than two-third majority and inother provinces too except for Sindh,the party was able to win consider-able leverage enabling it to forge al-liances and bag greater number ofvotes for its presidential candidate.

In Sindh, the PML-N leadershiptook the initiative with a good senseof timing and with a good sense ofaccommodation for other politiciansand parties. This move of PML-Nwas reciprocated befittingly byMQM leadership under its chief AltafHussain’s instructions. It worked wellthus taking the PML-N out of mo-rass that could have come its way hadit failed to woo the MQM leadership.But that doesn’t mean that PML-Ndepended a lot on MQM support. Asa matter of fact, given its majority inthe overall parliamentary structureand overall provincial assemblies, itcould have succeeded in getting itspresidential candidate elected evenwithout MQM support. But PML-Nchief and Prime Minister, MianNawaz Sharif, played the cards withdexterity that not only brought somevotes from Sindh in favour of Presi-dent-elect Mamnoon Hussain butalso lessened the severity of PML-N’s old estrangement with MQM.This two-pronged move has laid the

foundation of a yet stronger PML-Nin future Sindh politics.

Certainly, there is no justificationin raising so much of hue and cry overthe advancement of presidential elec-tion schedule from August 6 to July30. The change in the schedule wasdecided at no other forum but thehighest platform of justice, the Su-preme Court that announces verdictsin the best national interest andstrictly in accordance with the Con-stitution and law of the land. It is nowvery much on record, as also reportedin one of the prominent dailies of thecountry on Sunday that the SupremeCourt passed the order for change ofpresidential election schedule afterthe Election Commission of Pakistanhad submitted before the court that itwould have no objection to thechange of schedule and that it wouldimplement the SC order announcedin this case in letter and spirit.

Now, one of the prominent mostnewspapers of the country has alsoreported that the ECP submissionmade before the SC in this regardenjoyed the concurrence of the out-going CEC, Justice ( retired )Fakhruddin G Ebrahim. Another im-portant point merits attention here andthat is the coincidence of the previ-ously fixed date of August 6 with 27thof Ramazan, the night when major-ity of Muslims are engaged in reli-gious ceremonies. And, as stated bythe government, a large number oftheir parliamentarians performAitekaf during the last 10 days of the

Cultural penetration in Pakistan

Socialists agree that historicalbackground and national character play a key in moulding

the behaviour pattern of a country’speople, while customs and beliefsalso influence the thoughts of indi-viduals. But electronic media of therival countries have accelerated theprocess in formulating the opinionof persons against each other. Inthese terms, as part of psychologi-cal warfare, besides supporting sub-versive acts in our country, India hasstarted cultural penetration in Paki-stan through dramas and films whichare making handful of loyalviewership because there is no anyofficial resistance or prohibitinglaws in our country in this respect.

As a matter of fact, governmentissued licenses to different channelswith a view to earning revenue, andin the process showed utter disregardto the core values of our culture. So,the job of media invaders has beenfacilitated by some of us by encour-aging projection of Indian films, anddramas. Shameless interest groupsare promoting foreign movies anddramas just to protect their monetarybenefits and welcome outer invasionwith open arms. Meanwhile, thecivil society has resisted this prac-

tice through their meagervoice, but those enjoying po-litical, social and economicinfluence favoured stormingattack of external media in-struments which have powerand the ability to kill without

firing any bullet. In such situation,any uncertain and cynic grain of mis-trust injected through Indian mediawill never allow us to strengthen ourreal values and beliefs as Muslims.Therefore, the hostile elements, asIndian TV channels also target uswith their cartoons and animatedcaricatures. The aim is to capturePakistan’s loyal audience of the fu-ture and injecting them with dis-senting thought to challenge theteachings and traditions of Islamicculture. The hostile propagandaagainst our customs and beliefsadvances at a gradual pace, start-ing with a positive thought and sup-porting a just event. But, it containsdeeply entrenched acrimony to cre-ate sense of suspicion amongst ouryouth who are passing through aformative stage of development andare at the initial phase of understand-ing their religious beliefs, culturalnorms and core values.

While, Indian films and dramasare now openly shown by Pakistan’scable networks, Indian commercialsare also being displayed on our chan-nels, projecting Indian products andconsumer goods. In such phenom-enon, people, especially the youthand female audience are likely to pre-

fer brand of Indian products andgoods. On the other side, New Delhidoes not allow telecast of Pakistanidramas and movies on Indian soil. Inthis context, New Delhi has adoptedvery strict policy of restricting Paki-stani channels, being broadcasted inIndia. In August 2009, Indian daily,“The Asian Age” disclosed that theIndian government banned PakistaniTV channels in its country and it wasalso planning to establish high-fre-quency transmitters and towers in thebordering areas to stop transmissionof Pakistani programmes.

But Indian rulers’ decision wastaken as a preventive move to keepthe new generation ignorant aboutother side of the coin—from Paki-stani media, while continuing Indianpropaganda against Pakistan. In thisconnection, particularly, Indianfilms, dramas and special-showswhich display dances and songs in-cluding cartoons and caricatures arefull of obscenity and vulgarity. Thesesorts of entertainment seen by ouryoungsters and teenagers are nega-tively influencing their minds, as be-ing immature; they are becomingmore prone to Indian media’s pro-paganda campaign. It is regrettablethat owing to the absence of a clear-cut media policy, some renownedprivate TV channels of Pakistan arealso following suit, and presentdance competition shows in imita-tion of Indian programmes by dis-playing, as if dance is a part of ourculture. There is also a misconcep-

tion among the supporters of Indianchannels in our country that boththe neighbouring countries share acommon culture. Pakistan’s view-ers must know that in one of hisspeeches, while explaining separateculture of Muslims, Quaid-e-Azamsaid, “We are a nation with our owndistinctive culture and civilization,language and literature, art and ar-chitecture, names and nomencla-ture, sense of values and propor-tion, legal laws and moral code,customs and calendar, history andtradition, aptitudes and ambitions;in short, we have our own distinc-tive outlook on life and of life.”There are number of countrieswhich allow access of their citizensto the government-controlledInternet only. In order to protect thenation particularly the youth, theconcerned authorities must take im-mediate note of Indian cultural pen-etration in Pakistan, against our tra-ditions, and values. In this respect,first of all, the right option is thatban should be placed on obsceneand vulgar films and dramas fromacross the neighbouring country.

And, there is need to promoteour own culture by helping our TVchannels and film industry makingthem lucrative so that Pakistani tal-ent could divert their energies inserving their own audience. OncePakistani artists and audience aresatisfied with local means of enter-tainment, they will not depend onIndian channels.

fasting month during which periodthe presidential election date wasfixed previously by the ECP.

It would have been in the fit-ness of things and, moreover, itwould have added to national har-mony and integration had the Op-position parties opted to respectthe Ramazan 27 date and the last10 days of Aitkaaf. Besides that,the Opposition should have andshould still avoid ‘opposition forthe sake of opposition’ withoutany reason or rhyme particularlywhen they have no case to makeout. These detractors should keepin mind just one thing that PML-N’s presidential candidate,Mamnoon Hussain, could not bedefeated by the candidates of PPPor PTI even if the election wouldhave been held on the previouslyECP-fixed date of August 6.

It won’t be out of place to men-tion in these lines the one-time state-ment of PPP leader Senator AitzazAhsan in which he is on record tohave stated that whenever the partyis facing some troublesome situa-tion, Senators Aitzaz and SenatorRaza Rabbani are made to confront“dirty eggs and tomatoes” meaningthereby bearing the brunt for theparty cadre, rank and file. And it isalso in the notice of all and sundryas to what kind of remarks aboutSenator Rabbani the party top lead-ership once passed. According to aninsider, such remarks couldn’t bereproduced in a civilized company.

Muhammad Waqaster Nawaz Sharif. The ruling partyshould have ensured that the elec-tions remained uncontroversial andcreated a level playing field for allthe stakeholders to participate in thedemocratic process. According tosome critics, the only reasonMamnoon was chosen for the jobwas his strong loyalty with theSharif’s. The leadership reposedtrust in him to strengthen its grip onpower and avoid any confrontationon other political fronts. His nomi-nation also raised eyebrows as helacks political credentials to fostercloser ties between the federationand provinces. By sidelining merit,the ability of Pakistan’s newly-elected government to overcomesome of the gravest threats faced bythe country has also come underquestion.—Courtesy: Arab News.

S Rahman Email:[email protected]

Sajjad ShaukatEmail: [email protected]

Even though tragedy hasstruck on the mountainouspilgrimage centres, still these

hills and mountains are unique: I re-member the Himalayas, peak afterpeak after peak, like old sages ofwisdom, grouped together, not con-cerned with petty problems below,quiet and solid and reassuring. “Itsokay,” they seemed to say without

looking in my direction, “there’snothing to worry about that can’t behandled higher up!”

Down south I have visited the vir-gin hills of Yercaud. The friendly taxidriver took us to all the points andfinally we rested at the House OfPeace. Coonoor on the Niligiri hill-side was also equally beautiful thougha bit crowded.

I remember the spread of colourin the parks and gardens and alsolovely evenings at the Coonoor Clubwhere we stayed. Yercaud andCoonoor were with my dear friendShree and his wife Geeta and if wetwo writers could have had a better

setting to loosen creative juices therecouldn’t have been better location.

Kodaikanal was divine and hadan aura of mystery in the sudden ap-pearance of old colonial bungalowand tiny church through mist and fog.Johnson my taxi driver took mehigher and higher to colder and morelush green places where view of lakebelow was bewitching.

Closer home for me has been thehills of Mahabaleshwar andMatheran. Once upon a time it was ayearly trek up to Matheran. Weclimbed in the middle of monsoonand sang and drank and climbed andenjoyed the physical exertion. I doubt

Treacherous, yet relaxing Mountains..!I’d be able to do it now with mypair of eternally stiff legs andequally aging muscles, though Iwouldn’t mind a try.Mahabaleshwar has always beenour favourite family holiday haunt,one because I drive right up to ho-tel or bungalow and second becauseits not too long a drive.

Our country has a charm thatneeds no visit to the outside world,though there’s one place outside thatI must tell you about. It was a smallstream flowing in Innsbruck in themountains of Austria, close to where‘The Sound of Music’ was shot.—Email:[email protected]

cern as it calls for collaboration be-tween multiple agencies such as Cus-toms, Police and Inland Revenue.However, this should not stop thereand other players, such as the privatesector, civil society and even the com-mon man, should take some responsi-bility to curb illicit trade.

I must emphasize that the ideasof inter-agency collaboration, mobilecourts and reward schemes are likelyto improve the performance of LawEnforcement Agencies and wouldhelp them take effective measuresagainst tax evaders. These effortsshould also be supported by privatesector organizations which can bemore responsible and diligent in pay-ing taxes and duties to the govern-ment. Tax evasion does not only hurtthe government, but also creates anun-level playing field for the lawabiding, tax paying corporations,which are undermined by duty-evaded products, competing withtheir brands. These companies there-fore should be more vocal and workclosely with the government in iden-tifying such criminal elements in thesociety and eradicating them.

Civil society can also pitch inthrough awareness programs and pro-viding support to improve the over-all governance regime. At the end,however, it would all fall upon thecitizens to act more responsibly andsay no to duty evaded and smuggledproducts. They have to realize that itis their purchase behavior which sup-ports the black market for such prod-ucts and promotes such criminal ac-tivities. The above mentioned multi-dimensional approach along with aneffective action plan by the govern-ment can help the country in over-coming illicit trade in cigarettes andin other industries, thus generatingmuch more revenue for the govern-ment. Such measures can help Paki-stan in becoming more fiscally inde-pendent and come out of the debt trap.—Lahore

Will CDA heed?KHALID IDREES

The devastation that yesterday’s rainin Karachi has thus far caused, whichthe electronic media is continuallycovering with all the hype that it de-serves, should serve as an eye openerfor CDA which, over the years, hasallowed encroachments in the nullahsand natural water courses located inIslamabad. What is more, its residentshave been using these nullahs andwater courses as convenient places todump solid waste, sewage and indus-trial effluents. As a consequence ofthese activities the drainage capacityof these nullahs and natural watercourses has been severely restrictedand the natural drainage system of thecity has been adversely affected.Islamabad has thus become suscep-tible to flooding should heavy rainsof the order that fell in Karachi yes-terday also occur here.

During last couple of years erraticweather patterns have become sort ofa norm in many parts of the world.This scenario demands that civicagencies in all cities of Pakistanshould gird themselves up to copewith all kinds of eventualities thatheavy rains might cause. In this spaceI would draw attention of CDA to theurgent need for cleaning and dredg-ing of nullahs and natural watercourses that meander throughIslamabad Capital Territory (ICT).This is CDA’s inescapable respon-sibility and one hopes that its man-agement would discharge this effi-ciently. A rain related crisis may bein store for Islamabad because MetDepartment has already forecastmore than normal rains during thecoming September.

Now CDA mandarins might tryto avoid doing what is required tobe done citing lack of funds in its bud-get. I apprehend this because manyreports have recently appeared inmedia drawing attention to poor li-quidity position of CDA. But thisshould not deter it to shy away fromcleaning and dredging of nullahs andnatural water courses in ICT becausedischarging this responsibility doesnot require large amount of funds. Itonly requires CDA to prioritize itsactivities in accordance with the de-mands of an imminent situation. Inshort it requires sifting the essentialfrom the peripheral or what falls in

the category of cosmetics and focus-ing on the former.

Nullahs and natural water coursesin Islamabad can be cleaned anddredged by CDA by employing itshuge manpower and simpleearthmoving machinery. As for thecost involved in undertaking this op-eration I suggest that CDA could de-fer for the time being its plans for “beautifying “ Islamabad by way ofplacing large size flower pots along-side main roads, putting ornate de-signs on the walls of underpasses,manicuring the medians of main Av-enues, laying pedestrian pathwaysmade of interlocking bricks and somany other “cosmetics oriented “projects. The funds thus saved couldbe utilized to pay for the expenditurerequired for cleaning of nullahs andnatural water courses.

Through this space I urge theCDA to take immediate acton todredge the nullahs in Islamabad. Thisis critical not only for smooth func-tioning of the natural drainage of thecity in the event of heavy rains thatmight arrive but would also makeIslamabad more beautiful for nullahscleared of rubbish would redound tocity’s overall beauty. I sincerely hopethat CDA will pay heed to what hasbeen stated above.—Islamabad

Cases ofGoonda GardiRAJA GHAZANFAR ALI

Today I have heard one most un-pleasant and shameful news on TVchannel that a ten year old younggirl of a poor family of Multan hasbeen raped by six goonda type per-sons of sourceful politicians. It isnot a new incident which happenedin Multan. Many such incidentshave happened in Multan in thepast. No any such incidents used tohappen and women were being re-spected in during British rule inIndo-Pakistan subcontinent.

If we research all the past newspapers from 1971 up to Till now, thenthe complete details of such unpleas-ant news of goonda gardi will beavailable in these past newspapers.What is most astonishing is that thereare more than 50 lady MNAs sittingin the National Assembly but theyhave never tried to protect the rightsof the women. The most surprisingfact is that such goonda gardi inci-dents are happening in this Islamiccountry of Pakistan. Pakistan Gov-ernment bears the responsibility tostop such cruelty types incidents andcrush all the GOONDA elementstypes persons in Pakistan.—Rawalpindi

Electric shockTARIQ HUSSAIN

At the recently held Council of Com-mon Interests meeting, the govern-ment came up with yet another bril-liant, anti-people idea: eliminate thesubsidy on electricity. I wonder whatmakes the government think thatwhat it spends is its own money.Isn’t it the taxpayers’ money? Isn’tit meant to be spent on the people toalleviate the sufferings that they havebeen experiencing for the past somany years?

The energy policies of succes-sive governments have made a bigmess of this vital sector. The allegedkickbacks and commissions in somemega projects, and the induction ofIPPs and RPPs, have made electric-ity a precious and rare commoditybeyond the reach of ordinary citi-zens. The government should revisitits policy of eliminating subsidy onelectricity. The hard-pressed peopleof this country deserve a breatherand the government is duty-boundto provide this relief to them.—Via email

times, the twin cities ofIslamabad and Rawalpindi havebeen witnessing growing inci-dents of serious nature includingkidnappings for ransom, moneyextortions, Bhatta chits in mar-kets and posh areas and landgrabbing.

Back ground interviews bythis scribe have revealed thatthese incidents are not isolatedcrimes but dangerous elementsaiming at destablising Pakistanare behind them. Kidnapping andmoney extortions have beencommitted by Jehadi elements.

Another source in the secu-rity agencies said, terrorists arewell trained in electronic gadgets.They use face book tool to fur-ther their designs and communi-cation. Unauthorised satellitetelephones smuggled from UAEare also in their use, difficult forthe security agencies to catchhold of their owners.

A former intelligence officeron condition of anonymity said,intelligence agencies are not theenforcement agencies. Due tolack of coordination among in-telligence bodies and enforce-ment agencies, terrorists contin-ued their action for three hoursin D I Khan jail and comfortablytook away prisoners. Thereshould be a centralised anti-ter-rorism body to react quickly tocounter terror threat.

The United States, India,Russia and Israel have alreadydeployed such rapid anti-terrorforce successfully.

Meanwhile, the recently in-ducted Senior Superintendent ofPolice (SSP) Operations DrRizwan has confirmed there wareintelligence alerts regarding a pos-sible terrorist attack on PAF Head-quarters. The city has been putunder high alert to counter terrorthreat ahead of Eid-ul-Fitr, he said.

Big haul-upaverted attack

of greatmagnitude

From Page 1

Police had been informed in thisregard. He added that 14 peoplehad been injured in the explo-sion and three of the woundedwere in critical condition.Rafique moreover said an inves-tigation had been launched intothe attack, calling it “an act ofterrorism.”—Agencies

Blast hitsFrom Page 1

Gadap Town areas. Sindh Rang-ers has also set up a relief campin Lasi Goth to provide relief tothe rain-hit affectees.

ISPR reported that armytroops have rescued over threehundred trapped persons in therain-hit areas of Karachi and pro-vided urgent rations support tothem. On the other hand, Punjabgovernment has dispatched 94trucks carrying essential com-modities to the flood affectedareas of Rajanpur and DeraGhazi Khan.

In Khyber Pakhtunkhwa‚ theProvincial Disaster ManagementAuthority has taken measures tocontrol the situation and compen-sate the affected people. It has dis-patched consignments of reliefgoods containing tents‚ blanketsand big cans of clean drinkingwater to the flood-hit areas ofChitral‚ Tank and Dera IsmailKhan. In Balochistan‚ the Pro-vincial Disaster ManagementAuthority has stepped up reliefactivities in flood hit areas of theprovince and dispatched severalconsignments of relief goods forflood victims in Jhal Mgsi‚ Bolanand Jaffarabad districts.

Balochistan Chief MinisterDr. Abdul Malik Baloch has saidthe government will make all outefforts for well being of rain vic-tims in the province.—INP

Death tollFrom Page 1

journed for two weeks. InMudassar Iqbal missing personcase court was told that SPLahore City was directed to in-vestigate the matter but he hasbeen transferred to FIA. New SPtold that he had assumed the ad-ditional charge on August, 2.

Additional Advocate Gen-eral Punjab told summons wereissued to UN representative andhe would return on August, 11.Shahzad Nadim Bokhari is nowworking in FIA. Report will befurnished within ten days.

In Mulazim Hussain missingperson case, Tariq Khokhar toldthe court that District and Ses-sions Judge was to file report butthe same has not been received

so far. Mother of missing per-son appeared and burst into tearssaying “where should we go”.

Justice Azmat remarked “weare working beyond what the lawallows us.

Amna Masood Janjua toldthat Gul Faqir had gone missingfrom Mohmand Agency and heis in detention center now. State-ment of Muhammad Ayyaz is onthe record.

The court directed AAG tosee the list of the persons whoare kept in detention center. Itwill be decided after obtainingthe information where Gul Faqiris. Zulfiqar Khalid Maloka saidmissing person Niaz Ali is in de-tention center and is in Mohmand

Agency. His photograph is alsoavailable with reference to it.

The court issued notice toDAG and incharge of detentioncenter. The court also heard thepetition of Akhundzada.

Tariq Khokhar told the courtthat interim report in this case hasbeen presented.

Justice Azmat inquired if thisreport has to be kept secret or not.You are law officer. Tell the courtdecisions are not being taken.Why it is being done so. Gov-ernment should do some thing inthis connection.

Tariq Khokhar told the courtthat 90 missing persons havebeen detected. Headway has beenmade in this respect. —Online

Freedom of any citizenFrom Page 1

lier said on July 18 that all pro-vincial governments must holdLB elections no later than Sep-tember.

The Supreme Court benchhad underlined that the LB pollsare important in maintaining acontact between people and thegovernment.

Difficult to holdLB elections in

September: ECPFrom Page 1

Minister Tayyip Erdogan.Announcing verdicts on the

nearly 300 defendants in the case,the judges also sentenced threeserving parliamentarians fromthe opposition RepublicanPeople’s Party (CHP) to between12 and 35 years in prison.

Earlier, security forces firedtear gas in fields around the court-house in the Silivri jail complex,west of Istanbul, as defendants’supporters gathered to protestagainst the five-year trial, a land-mark case in the decade-longbattle between Erdogan and thesecularist establishment.

Prosecutors say an allegednetwork of secular arch-national-ists, code-named Ergenekon, pur-sued extra-judicial killings andbombings in order to trigger amilitary coup, an example of theanti-democratic forces whichErdogan says his Islamist-rootedAK Party has fought to stamp out.

Critics, including the mainopposition party, have said thecharges are trumped up, aimed atstifling opposition and taming thesecularist establishment whichhas long dominated Turkey. Theysay the judiciary has been sub-ject to political influence in hear-ing the case.

“This is Erdogan’s trial, it ishis theatre,” Umut Oran, a par-liamentarian with the oppositionCHP party, told Reuters.

“In the 21st century for acountry that wants to become afull member of the EuropeanUnion, this obvious political trialhas no legal basis,” he said at thecourthouse.

Erdogan has denied interfer-ing in the legal process, stress-ing the judiciary’s independence.But he has criticised the prosecu-tors handling the case and ex-pressed disquiet at the length oftime defendants have been heldin custody.

With main access roads shutand protesters’ buses preventedfrom reaching the area, hundreds

of the defendants’ supporters at-tempted to cross fields to reachthe court and prison complex, butpolice with riot shields blockedtheir advance.

“The day will come when theAKP will pay the price,” somechanted on the approach road toSilivri, where hundreds of riotpolice and gendarmes, a para-military force responsible for ru-ral security, were on duty.

Among the 275 defendantsaccused in the case are militaryofficers, politicians, academicsand journalists. They deny thecharges. Twenty-one of the de-fendants were acquitted as thecourt continued to announce in-dividual verdicts.

Basbug criticised the courton his Twitter account on Sun-day, saying the public would notaccept the punishment of inno-cent people.

“The ‘court’ will announceits verdict in an atmosphere thatwas not even seen in times ofmartial law, with even familiesbeing banned from coming,” hewrote.

The threat of a coup is notfar-fetched: the secularist mili-tary staged three coups in Tur-key between 1960 and 1980 andpushed the first Islamist-led gov-ernment out of office in 1997.

But Erdogan has chippedaway at the army’s influencesince his AK Party came to powerin 2002, including in the courtswith the Ergenekon case and theseparate “Sledgehammer”plot.—Reuters

Turkey ex-armyFrom Page 1

ministries.It will be veryimportant visit of Un SG and itis also being assumed that Paki-stani authorities will also informBan Ki Moon about recent floodhavocs. UN is showing specialinterest and attention on MalalaFund and Women education inPakistan that is why Ban KiMoon is going to visit Paki-stan.—Online

Ban Ki-moonFrom Page 1

dential address said, the peopleof Pakistan should realize the factthat there is no sectarian conflictin the country because the fol-lowers of various schools ofthought share common beliefs.“If there are differences overminor issues, they do not providecause for confrontation”.

He said, enemies of Pakistanand Islam are out to shed bloodin garb of Islam. He called uponthe Muslims in Pakistan as wellas in other countries to defeat thedesigns of the enemies.

Dr. Asif Luqman Qazi , VicePresident , Milli Yakjehti Coun-cil said there is a close relation-ship between Pakistan and Al-Quds Al-Sharif .

Pakistan was achieved as aresult of great sacrifices of theMuslims of South Asia on thebasis of their right to self deter-mination. On the other hand thePalestinians are engaged in he-

roic struggle to achieve this fun-damental human right. He saidthe Palestinian issue is not con-fined to the people of Palestinealone, it is the issue of the wholeMuslim world as it involves Al-Quds Al-Sharif. He said the 27thof Ramadan is a day when weshould take account of anyprogress we have made towardsachieving the basic purpose ofPakistan’s creation.

Sahibzada Sultan AhmedAli, Secretary Tanzim-ul-Arifin, in his speech said , Quid-i-Azamand Allama Iqbal were in theforefront to highlight the impor-tance of the Palestinian issue inthe 1930s when there were plansto uproot the Palestinian peopleand create a Jewish state. “Paki-stan has always upheld the causeof the Palestinian people”. Hesaid the Muslim countries shouldcoordinate efforts to resolve theSyrian issue so that there is no

spill- over effect in the otherMuslim countries.

The Cultural Counselor ofIranian Embassy in Islamabad ,Dr. Taqi in his speech drew a par-allel between Pakistan and Israel.He said Pakistan came into be-ing on the basis of human rightswhile Israel was created by vio-lating human rights of the Pales-tinians. He believed that the en-emies of the Muslims did notwant Pakistan to become a suc-cess story, they are boosting Is-rael to prove its veracity.

He said the Muslim countriesshould help each other by shar-ing their natural resources so thatthey gain strength and are ableto resist the enemy designs. Hecited the example of Iran in thisrespect who is to provide naturalgas to Pakistan to meet its energyneeds. Prominent intellectual,Agha Murtaza Poya also ad-dressed the seminar.

Speakers call for unity among MuslimsFrom Back Page

Terrorists mayFrom Back Page

behind the killings and that theattackers were not Sunnis. “Theyare foreign-funded, foreign-trained agents of the enemy,” heemphatically said.

Mr. Malik expressed regretsthat the incumbent Government,which has taken some laudablenation-building initiatives, wasrather slow on tackling the men-ace of terrorism. He warned thatterrorists who were earlier be-lieved to be 60 kilometres awayfrom Margallah have alreadycome to this side of the Hills andeven then the Government wasnot taking corrective measures.

He urged for immediate talkswith what were believed to be“good Taliban” as one of the so-lutions. If the US and Afghani-stan were entering into co-exist-ence arrangement with theTaliban, why Pakistan was lag-ging behind, he questioned

judges of the LHC, lawyers, rep-resentatives of the armed forcesand civil bureaucracy, journalists,and members of the civil society.US Consul General in LahoreNina Maria Fite, a large numberof foreigners and family mem-bers of the Punjab Governor in-cluding Anas Sarwar, Member ofthe British Parliament (MP), at-tended the ceremony

After taking oath, PunjabGovernor Chaudhry MuhammadSarwar said that he has brokendecades-long relationship withBritain for serving the peoplehere. “I have come to Pakistanwith a heavy heart, leaving be-hind a companionship of 35 yearsin England but my heart beats forPakistan”, he said.

Sarwar expressed his pledgeto work for alleviation of poverty,welfare of the masses and provi-sion of health and education ashe had done back in UK asMember of the British Parlia-ment (MP) from 1997-2010,taking pride in the fact that thewas the first Muslim/Pakistaniwho took oath on the holy Quranin the 1000 years old history ofthe British Parliament. He saidthe country was faced with the

challenges of poverty, unemploy-ment, low literacy, inadequatehealth facilities, load-sheddingand terrorism, he said adding thata collective effort was needed totake it out of this quagmire. Hesaid that education emergency inthe province was the need of thehour to eradicate poverty, andexpressed resolve that the gov-ernment would send 1 millionchildren to school in order toovercome poverty.

He said that he would makeuse of his international connec-tions to spread education in thecountry. He said that terrorismand absence of rule of law in thecountry are the main reasons be-hind poor foreign investments inthe country. However, he ex-pressed the hope that the armedforces, intelligence agencies andthe masses would defeat the ter-rorist mind-set in the country.

Regarding the developmentagenda, he said it was to be de-cided by Prime MinisterMuhammad Nawaz Sharif, say-ing that rescuing the countryfrom all crises was the agenda ofthe PML-N.

Sarwar also expressed hisgratitude to the Prime Minister

Muhammad Nawaz Sharif forreposing confidence in him.”I amindebted to Nawaz Sharif for al-lowing me to join the caravanworking for the solidarity, integ-rity and prosperity of Pakistan”,he said. He said that NawazSharif felt the pain of the fellowcountrymen and he alwayswanted to do something for themeven during the forced exilewhen he sat thousands of milesaway in a foreign land. He alsothanked Punjab Chief MinisterMuhammad Shahbaz Sharif forhis support.

The Governor said that hewould play his due role to en-hance the image of Pakistan andemploy all international experi-ence and connections to woo for-eign investors in the country.

He said that he would ensurethe protection of the minoritiesin the light of the thoughts ofAllama Iqbal and sayings of theQuaid-e-Azam Muhammad AliJinnah.

Punjab Governor said that hewould take all political forcesalong without discrimination,adding that the Governor’sHouse belonged to the people ofthe Punjab.

Sarwar sworn-in as Punjab GovernorFrom Page 1

weapons. The IGP Islamabadwas also directed to reduce theduty hours of policemen andprovide facilities to them.

The Minister ordered to im-prove the monitoring of checkposts in Islamabad and to closeunnecessary check posts. A re-port from the IGP was also sum-moned over the rapid growth ofslums in the federal capital.

The overall security situa-tion of Islamabad was discussedin the meeting and the FederalMinister passed instructions toimprove the security ofIslamabad.

The Minister said that thepolice should be vigilant at all

times and formulate a coherentsecurity plan with an emphasison effective communication be-tween all vantage points.

He said that Ministry of In-terior would take all possiblesteps to equip Islamabad policewith modern weapons and byproviding the required logisticsupport and funds.

An establishment of a Cen-tral Command System for hav-ing an integrated communica-tion is very crucial for active po-licing of Islamabad he added.

The Minister directed the IGIslamabad that it shall be prior-ity under his supervision. TheMinister also directed the IG to

come up with a concrete strat-egy to deal with mushroomingof Kachi Abbadis in Bari Imamnear Diplomatic Enclave and inI-11 and G-12 Sectors.

The Minister passed specialinstructions regarding overallsecurity of Islamabad on the oc-casion of Eid ul Fitr.

He added that mobilephones would not be switchedoff during Eid prayers and se-curity would be improved bymeans of effective policing.

In meeting the Minister in-structed the DIG Traffic to im-prove the traffic system ofIslamabad by scientific meansrather than the old methods.

Mobile service won’t be suspendedFrom Page 1

MEDINA: Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif coming out of Masjid-e-Nabvi after offering prayer.

The officials implicated inthe case includes former Secre-tary TDAP Abdul Kabir Qazi andDirector General FacilitationAbdul Karim Daud Pota.

He also ordered that a spe-cial audit be carried out of TDAPaccounts over the last two years.

TDAP chief sackedFrom Page 1

Ramadan.The United States initially

closed 21 U.S. diplomatic postsfor the day on Sunday. Some ofthose will reopen on Monday,including Kabul, Baghdad andAlgiers.

Four new diplomatic posts -in Madagascar, Burundi, Rwandaand Mauritius - were added to theclosure list for the week. U.S.embassies close due to securitythreatPlay video.” U.S. embas-sies close due to security threat

Last week, the State Depart-ment issued a worldwide travelalert warning Americans that alQaeda may be planning attacksin August, particularly in theMiddle East and North Africa.—Reuters

US extendsFrom Page 1

raised to Rs12.22 per unit.Minister for Information and

Broadcasting Pervaiz Rashid hassaid on Monday the governmentwill give subsidy of six to sevenrupees on every unit and Rs.170bln for the electricity consumersusing two hundred units permonth. In an interview with Ra-dio Pakistan, he said it has beendecided to end the difference be-tween the cost and sale of elec-tricity. Currently electricity isbeing generated at the rate of fif-teen rupees and sold at eight ru-pees per unit, he added.

He said the decision has beentaken by government to withdrawthis subsidy but this facility willcontinue for the consumers us-

High power tariff hikeFrom Page 1

ing up to two hundred units. TheMinister said efforts are beingmade to produce cheap electric-ity. The process has been startedto install new coal fired powerplants and convert the furnacefired power plants to coal. Com-missioning of coal relatedprojects will help bring down theprices of electricity. Similarly,hesaid the government is focusingon hydel sources but completionof these projects will take six toseven years time.

Pervaiz Rashid said thatfriendly countries includingChina have assured to help Paki-stan cope with the energy crisis.

He stated that China hasagreed to establish four coal fired

power plants having capacity ofsix hundred megawatt each atGaddani,the coastal area ofBalochistan.

The Minister said electricitygeneration has reached recordlevel of 16000 megawatt due tothe steps of the present govern-ment. He said 12000 to 13000megawatt electricity was beingproduced when the PML (N)took the power and we have in-creased the generation to record16000 megawatt. Replying to thequestion about Khunjerab-Kashgar economic corridor,hesaid the Chinese experts will visitPakistan soon after Eid-ul-Fitr tomake further headway on this im-portant project.

villages in mountainous terrainnear the Mediterranean sea. Likemuch of Latakia province, theywere populated by Alawites,members of the Shiite offshootsect to which Assad’s family be-longs. Syria’s conflict has takenon an increasingly sectarian tonein the last year, pitting predomi-nantly Sunni Muslim rebelsagainst the Alawite-dominatedregime.

The Britain-based SyrianObservatory for Human Rightssaid rebels attacked governmentoutposts in the Jabal al-Akradhills on Sunday. The group,which relies on reports from ac-tivists, said at least 32 govern-ment troops and militiamen andat least 19 rebels, including for-eign fighters, died in Sunday’sfighting.

Much of Latakia has beenunder the firm control of Assad’sforces since the beginning of theconflict more than two years ago,but some areas including theJabal al-Akrad are close to rebel-held areas and have seen fight-ing. It was a rare success for therebels on the battlefield in recentweeks. Assad’s forces have beenon the offensive since taking thecentral town of Qusair in June.

Syria main’s opposition blochailed the rebel advance, and saidthe Syrian military had used thecaptured territory to attack rebel-held civilian areas. TheObservatory’s chief Rami Abdul-Rahman said civilians in the fourvillages fled. There were no im-mediate reports of civilian casu-alties in the fighting.—Reuters

Syrian rebelsFrom Page 1

BIPIN DANI

OBSERVER

CORRESPONDENT

MUMBAI—The world willbe able to watch BillyBowden’s dramatic signal-ling styles on field again.The 50-year-old NewZealand umpire, who wasrecently demoted from theInternational CricketCouncil’s panel of eliteumpires, is likely to takefield against India in thehome series in NewZealand.

This was revealed byRodger McHarg, the Na-tional Umpiring Manager,New Zealand Cricket

Billy Bowden likely to return,may officiate in ODI’s against

India in New Zealand(NZC).

Speaking exclusivelyover telephone on Mondaymorning, he said, “I can ad-vise you that Billy Bowdenwill very likely be involvedumpiring with New ZealandCricket during our summer–commencing from late Oc-tober”.

“He will have every op-portunity to umpire in ourdomestic competitions andmay well be involved in ourhome series with WestIndies and India during De-cember , January & Febru-ary”.

As decided by the ICC,one home umpire takes fieldin ODIs’.

Billy Bowden’s recall isalso under consideration(by the ICC) as pressuremounts on limited optionof having present neutralumpires officiating in theongoing Ashes series.

The 50-year-oldBowden, who stood in 75Tests and 181 one-dayinternationals from 2000,but was demoted in Junethis year.

At present, onlyKumar Dharmasena (SriLanka), Tony Hill (NewZeland), Marais Erasmus(South Africa) and AleemDar (Pakistan) are avail-able as neutral umpires forthe Ashes.

OLD TRAFFORD: Michael Clarke shares a few words with Ian Bell as the players leave the field for rain, England v Australia, 3rd Investec Test.

SANA JAMAL

ISLAMABAD—Until recentlyschool only meant booksand homework for the kidsof an open-air school in F-6/3 Islamabad. But now theyhave discovered a new andexciting way of learningthrough sport and play.“This is the first time I amplaying football, learninggame rules and enjoying itmore than the lessons inbooks” 14-year-old FarhatAbbas explained excitedly.

The week-long free sum-mer camp for neglected kidswas held at Ayub ParkSchool, managed by MasterMohammad Ayub for the last28 years, where over 260 kidsare studying for free. Mas-ter Ayub told this scribe thatit was for the time an organi-zation has arranged a playactivity in his school. “I canimagine how important it isfor kids with little or no re-sources to remain engage insome kind of physical activ-ity.”

Underprivileged kids get a sporting opportunityThe initiative was intro-

duced by the Right to Play(RTP) in collaboration withSports Development Founda-tion (SDF) to provide childrenwith disadvantaged back-grounds an opportunity tolearn diverse sports withqualified coaches. Throughsport and play methodology,the organizations aim to in-culcate basic life skills andovercome the challenges oftheir environments.

“Football is a great wayto develop child’s confidence,

ISLAMABAD: A child shows off his football skills to his colleagues at a summer camp.

and teach him about toler-ance, coordination and teamspirit” tells Humayun Khan,the coach, who was sur-prised at the tremendous po-tential of the child who can-not afford to buy sports kit.“The shy kids soon came outof their shells, asking ques-tions, eager to learn and playmore.” Humayun was mar-velled at confidence of littleSaalar, 8, who learned amaz-ingly. Salaar whispered thathis parents never encour-aged him to play.

Alongside sports, thesessions of drawing andstorytelling were also part ofthe summer camp. At the endof every activity, there was adiscussion facilitated by thecoach in which the childrenare taught to reflect on whatthey learnt in playground canbe applied in life too. “Thisis the time when they learnto connect playing field les-sons to everyday life” ex-plains Ali Khayam, Right toPlay’s communications coor-dinator. The methodologyadopted by organizationaims to instill life skills suchas cooperation, resilience,confidence, hope, team-work, conflict resolutionand tolerance among chil-dren.

In modern societies,sports are now consideredan integral part ofchildren’s basic educationas it is essential for theirphysical, emotional and in-tellectual development.

The United Nationsrecognizes play as theright of every child thatplay is not a luxury; it is atool for education andhealth. Sadly in Pakistan,sport and play activitiesare absent in many schoolsand are hardly encouragedby most people let aloneless privileged ones. Theinitiative taken at SummerCamp can help increaseconfidence in students anddevelop leadership quali-ties and a positive attitude.

MANCHESTER United King-dom—Australia declared ontheir overnight 172 for sevento leave England needing 332to win the third Ashes Testat Old Trafford on Monday’sfifth and final day.

Australia, 2-0 down in thefive-match series, had to winthis match to stand anychance of regaining theAshes.

But, as happened whenplay was cut short by a com-bination of bad light and rainon Sunday, the weather wasagainst Michael Clarke’s men.

Heavy overnight andearly morning rain saw thescheduled start of Monday’splay delayed by 30 minutesuntil 11.30am local time

Australia declare as rainagain threatens third Test

(1030GMT).Australia captain Clarke,

who cut short his second in-nings on 30 not out after mak-ing a superb 187 in the firstinnings of this match, wasfurious when the umpirestook the players off the fieldfor bad light on Sunday be-fore rain prevented any pros-pect of a resumption.

Although the floodlightswere on, umpires MaraisErasmus and Tony Hill de-cided conditions were toodangerous for play to con-tinue when England captainAlastair Cook refused tobowl spin from both ends.

Cook was criticised forwhat were widely interpretedas England’s time-wastingtactics in the field, withAustralia’s David Warnersaying he risked a ban fromthe International CricketCouncil for the team’s slowover-rate.

Clarke had a prolongedconversation with Erasmusas he and batting partnerRyan Harris stayed in themiddle while England walkedoff.

Eventually, the Austra-lians trudged off the field.

“The umpires have con-trol over that now. Theydeemed it dangerous and wejust had to come off and re-spect their decision,” saidWarner, who earlier on Sun-day made 41 opening the in-nings.

“Obviously Michael wasa little bit annoyed with thatbut he felt it (the light) didn’tchange in that last half anhour. The umpires seemed tosay it did.”

As for Cook’s approachin the field, Warner said: “Weknew the bowlers were go-ing to take their time. Thedecisions they reviewed offme were a massive time-waster.

“The captain suffers fromthat. He’ll miss a game if he’stime-wasting or if the oversaren’t bowled in the time al-located. That will come backto bite them (England) on thebum.”

England would have torewrite the record books ifthey were to win this matchas the most any side havemade to win in the fourth in-nings of an Old Trafford Testis their own 294 for fouragainst New Zealand in 2008.

But, given a draw in thismatch would see England re-tain the Ashes, the main fo-cus for the home side was onavoiding defeat.

Coming into this match,Australia had lost six succes-sive Tests—their worst runof results since 1984.

They had been lost sevenstraight Tests between 1885-88, a run that included theonly time Australia have beenwhitewashed in the Ashes—a 3-0 defeat in England in1886.—AFP

Australia 1st innings: 527England 1st innings: 368Australia 2nd innings:172England 2nd innings:Cook lbw b Harris ........... 0JE Root not out ............. 13Trott c Haddin b Harris 11Pietersen b Siddle ........... 8IR Bell not out ................. 4Extras: (w 1) ...................... 1Total: (3 wickets) ........... 37Bowling: ........... O-M-R-WRJ Harris ............... 7-3-13-2Starc ........................ 4-2-6-0SR Watson ............. 2-2-0-0Lyon ........................ 3-0-8-0Siddle ................... 3.3-0-8-1Clarke ...................... 1-0-2-0

SCOREBOARD

ISLAMABAD—Former cap-tain and pace bowler WasimAkram has said that Paki-stan is not playing enoughTest cricket which is essen-tial to boost a team’s confi-dence.

Talking to private newschannel, former bowlinggreat said that national teamwould not be able to com-pete with other countries inthis genre of cricket if theydo not get to play moretests .

Wasim said that the Paki-stan Cricket Board (PCB)needs to address this issueand make it one of their priori-ties as Pakistan is simply notplaying enough Test cricket.

Wasim Akram furthersaid that PCB should orga-nize more Under-19 tours in

Pakistan need to play moreTest cricket: Wasim Akram

order to explore young andraw talent for future cricket.

He said Pakistancoaches and those on thefringes of selection, mustgive full attention to work

with the U19 boys.He added that a strong

national team is alwaysbacked by the strong do-mestic cricket system as itcan be observed in coun-tries like Australia.

“Australia has one ofthe best domestic cricketsystem in the world andthat is why departure of anygreat team mate does noteffect the team performanceas another young blood isalways ready to grab theplace”, Wasim said.

Talking about the 2015World Cup, Wasim Akramsaid that from the Pakistaniperspective the planninghas to start right now toachieve a strong footing inthe international tourna-ment.—APP

Athletics: Bolt‘ready’ to regainworld 100m titleMOSCOW—Jamaican sprintstar Usain Bolt has declaredhimself “ready” in his bid todefend his 200m crown and re-claim the title in the blue-riband100m at next week’s World Ath-letics Championships.

Bolt, who was talking ata sponsors’ event at GorkyPark on Sunday, now goesstraight into training for theAugust 10-18 champs at theLuzhniki Stadium.

“Of course it’s very im-portant (to win back thetitle),” the 26-year-old Boltsaid of the 100m crown helost to injured teammateYohan Blake when he false-started in Daegu, South Ko-rea, in 2011.

That failure has been theone blip on Bolt’s impressiveresume that includes Olym-pic gold in the 100m, 200mand 4x100m relay events inBeijing and London, and fiveworld titles.—AFP

KARACHI—Former skipperZaheer Abbas believed thatby providing more opportu-nities to young guns on theZimbabwe tour it can benefitPakistan team in preparingthe team for the future.

“Tour to Zimbabwe isgreat grooming, nurturingground for the youngsters,”he said in an interview onMonday.

He said it was nice to seethat youngsters like HarrisSohail, Ahmed Shehzad,Umar Amin, Asad Ali,Hammad Azam were triedalongwith veteran left armspinner Zulfiqar Babar.

“The inclusion of young-sters in ODIs and Twenty20International against theWest Indies was encourag-ing

Preparing youngsters forZimbabwe trip can

benefit Pakistan: ZaheerHe said in the past a num-

ber of youngsters were in-cluded but went and cameback without playing on di-sastrous South African tourand in the Champions Tro-phy.

Zaheer Abbas titled“Asian Bradman” for his pro-lific scoring said compared toother teams. Zimbabwe is norvery strong team and young-sters can be given confi-dence by giving the young-sters exposure against them.

He said Asad Shafiq istechnically very good bats-man and should be given fullrun to boost his confidenceso was other case of otheryoung players.

Zaheer Abbas favouredinducting a specialist wicket-keeper in the team instead ofputting additional responsi-bility on Umar Akmal.

He avoided giving the

names of the players to berested but added it was jobof the selection committee.

He complimented UmarAkmal for his fighting showin West Indies but said heshould be more responsiblein his shot selection.

However said Pakistanteam also needed some se-niors and Misbah-ul-Haqshould be retained as thecaptain for the Zimbabwetour. He said look at the In-dians by providing regularexposure, they have tacti-cally build their team and theygot a big pool of players intheir back-up line.

Zaheer Abbas said Paki-stan team got hectic seasonahead of them with full se-ries against South Africa andSri Lanka in United ArabEmirates coming months andthat will greater opportunityto build the team.—APP

Football: Fabregaswill stay at

Barcelona: PiqueBANGKOK—Cesc Fabregaswill resist overtures fromManchester United to stay athis “dream” club Barcelona,his teammate and close friendGerard Pique said Monday.

The English PremierLeague champions have sofar failed with two bids forFabregas, who has emergedas their main summer transfertarget as new boss DavidMoyes seeks to inject a cre-ative force into his midfield.

But Pique, a close confi-dante of the midfield maestrosince their time at Barcelona’sacclaimed La Masia academy,said Fabregas was determinedto stay in Catalonia and fightfor a starting place at the clubhe left as a 16-year-old.

“He wants to stay inBarcelona because it’s alwaysbeen his dream (to play forBarca),” Pique said.

“I’m confident he will stayon. He’s a good player, he willalways have offers becauseof his talent, but he is feelingquite calm right now,” thetowering 26-year-old de-fender told reporters in Thai-land at the start of Barca’swhistlestop Asia tour.

His comments echo thoseof Barcelona sporting direc-tor Andoni Zubizarreta, whotold Spanish media Mondaythat Manchester United haveabandoned their interest inthe playmaker.

Fabregas, who was metwith garlands as he arrived inBangkok with his teammates,has failed to nail down a start-ing position in Barca’s star-studded midfield.—AFP

KARACHI—Port Qasim Au-thority (PQA) set upTuesday’s title clash in the3rd DHA City Corporate T20Cup with Umar Cricket Clubafter winning their semi-fi-nals in enthralling fashion onthe last ball at Moin KhanAcademy Ground Sundaynight.

In a nerve-wracking firstsemi-final, PQA defeated de-

PQA, Umar CC in Corporate T20Cup final after last-ball wins

fending champions StateBank of Pakistan (SBP)thanks to Muhammad Sami’ssparkling 56 off 36-ball withfour sixes and brace ofboundaries. Shahzaib Hasanhoisted pair of sixes and onefour in his 34.

Left arm pacer UsmanKhan was the pick of SBPbowling attack taking fourwickets for 23 runs.—APP

Meeting to reviewflood situationISLAMABAD —Prime Minister(PM) Nawaz Sharif will pre-side over a high level meetinghere today to review floodsituation in the country on hisreturn from his private visit toSaudi Arabia. PM is likely toundertake visit of flood hit ar-eas. He had flown to SaudiArabia along with his familymembers to perform Umrah onhis own expenses. Duringmeeting between PM and KingAbdullah Bin Abdul Aziz boththe countries agreed on bol-stering cooperation in diversefields including economic sec-tor. Saudi Authorities held outassurance to PM to sort out theproblems facing Pakistani ex-patriates working in SaudiArabia.—Online

KKH opens fortrafficGILGIT —Karakoram High-way has been opened for ve-hicular traffic between Gilgitand Rawalpindi. The highwaywas blocked at three pointsfrom Tatta Pani to Chilas dueto land sliding last night. Fron-tier Works Organization madestrenuous efforts to clear theroad.—Online

Members ofCommittee on ECISLAMABAD—Leader of theopposition in National Assem-bly Khursheed Shah has sentmembers names for Parliamen-tary Committee on ElectionCommission (EC) from oppo-sition side. Sources told Onlinethat these names includeYousuf Talpur, Ayaz Somro,Shehryar Afridi and FarooqSattar. Chaudhry Shujaat namewill be given from senate. Withthe constitution of committee,work for appointment of chiefelection commissioner willstart. —Online

Russian C-in-Ccalls on

Gen. KayaniR A W A L P I N D I — C - i n - CRussia,Col Gen.Vladimir V.Chirkin called on Chief OfArmy Staff General AshfaqParvez Kayani at GHQ here onMonday. The two discussedmatters of mutual interest with

emphasis on improving defencecooperation between Russia andPakistan especially Army toArmy relations. Overall secu-rity situation in the region wasalso deliberated, said an ISPRpress release.General Chirkin also attended awreath laying ceremony atShuhada Monument and waspresented a guard of honour bya smartly turned out contingentof Pakistan Army.—APP

Quraish Purpasses away

KARACHI—Quraish Pur, a re-nowned scholar, Urdu writer/nov-elist, columnist and media expertdied of protracted illness in

Karachi onMonday. Thefamily sourceshave confirmedthat Quraish Purdied after hiscondition dete-riorated today.

He hadbeen admitted

in a private hospital. Quraish Purbecame a household namethroughout the country during the1970s when he hosted ‘Kasauti’,one of the country’s longest-run-ning and most popular televisionquiz shows. Along with his col-leagues on the show - ObaidullahBaig, Iftikhar Arif and later GhaziSalahuddin - Quraish Pur was re-nowned for extraordinary knowl-edge of history, literature, geog-raphy and the sciences. —INP

KABUL—Flash floods causedby unusually heavy rain acrossAfghanistan and Pakistankilled more than 160 peopleand stranded villagers in re-mote areas without shelter,food or power in one of SouthAsia’s worst natural disastersthis year, officials said onMonday.

Mountainous Afghanistanwas the worst hit, with 61people killed and about 500traditional mud-brick homeswashed away in more than adozen villages in Sarobi, a ru-ral district less than an hourfrom the national capital,Kabul, officials said.

In the remote eastern Af-ghan province of Nuristan atleast 60 homes were destroyed

across three districts, said pro-vincial spokesmanMohammad Yusufi. No onewas killed.

Authorities were unable toget aid to some badly affectedvillages by land as roads in thearea are controlled by theTaliban, Yusufi added.

“We have asked the na-tional government for help ashave an overwhelming numberof locals asking for assistance,but this is a Taliban-riddenarea,” Yusufi said.

At least 24 people were alsokilled in two other eastern bor-der provinces, Khost andNangarhar, local officials said.More than fifty homes and shopswere destroyed and thousands ofacres of farmland flooded.—AP

61 dead in Afghanflash floods

TEHRAN: President Asif Ali Zardari and former President of Iran Mahmood Ahmadinejadshaking hands before formal meeting.

Turkish PM, OICSG felicitate

President electISLAMABAD—Turkish PrimeMinister Recep Tayyip Erdoganand Secretary General of the OICEkmeleddin Ihsanoglu, Monday,felicitated President electMamnoon Husssain his electionas ceremonial head of Pakistan.Intheir separate message of felici-tations they hoped that Pakistanwould further have more cordialrelations with Islamic world andinternational community underthe wise leadership of President-elect.

“On the occasion of beingelected as the President of thebrotherly country Pakistan, I amgreatly pleased to extend my mostheartfelt congratulations to youand the people of Pakistan onbehalf of myself, my Nation andthe Turkish Government” saidErdogan. He further added thathe wholeheartedly believed thatPakistan would resolutely con-tinue progressing towards pros-perous and peaceful future underhis wise leadership.—Online

TEHRAN—Secretary of Iran’sSupreme National Security Coun-cil (SNSC) Saeed Jalili andAfghanistan’s National SecurityAdvisor Rangin Dadfar Spantain a meeting in Tehran inked astrategic cooperation agreementbetween the two neighboringcountries.

During the meeting on Sun-day night, Jalili stressed the deepand friendly relations betweenIran and Afghanistan, and saidendorsement of the documentwill strengthen and expand mu-tual strategic cooperation in dif-ferent arenas. “Preparing andimplementing the document willbe a bright step in the history ofthe relations between the twocountries,” he added.

Spanta, for his part, said en-dorsement of the agreement her-alds enhancement of ties be-tween the two countries in dif-ferent fields to the strategiclevel, stressing that its imple-

mentation would serve the inter-ests of both the Iranian and Af-ghan nations.

In relevant remarks on Sun-day afternoon, Iran’s PresidentHassan Rouhani and his Afghancounterpart Hamid Karzaistressed the need for the expan-sion of bilateral ties between twofriendly countries in all fields.Iran and Afghanistan have lotsof commonalties and potentialswhich must be used to maximizebilateral ties between two neigh-boring nations, the new Iranianpresident said.

He added that the Persian-speaking countries of Iran, Af-ghanistan and Tajikistan can ex-pand comprehensive coopera-tion among them more than everbefore.

Karzai, for his part, ex-pressed the hope for broadeningmutual cooperation betweenTehran and Kabul during the newIranian administration.— INP

Iran, Afghanistan signstrategic cooperation pact

CAIRO—International envoysvisited a high-ranking member ofEgypt’s Muslim Brotherhood injail on Monday, the state newsagency reported, to press a bid todefuse the crisis ignited by Presi-dent Mohamed Mursi’s downfall.

The envoys met deputyBrotherhood leader Khairat El-Shater just after midnight, havingreceived permission from theprosecutor general to visit him atTora prison, south of Cairo, thestate news agency MENA re-ported. The report citing “an in-formed source” contradicted anearlier government denial of a visitby officials from the UnitedStates, European Union, UnitedArab Emirates and Qatar.

MENA gave no further de-tails. Earlier, the Doha-based AlJazeera news channel reported themeeting had taken place. The re-

ports could not be independentlyconfirmed. Shater is deputy leaderof the group that propelled Mursito office last year in Egypt’s firstdemocratic presidential election.Seen as the Brotherhood’s politi-cal strategist, he was arrested af-ter Mursi’s downfall on chargesof inciting violence.

The international mediationeffort is helping to contain thebloody conflict between Mursi’sIslamist backers and the interimgovernment installed by the mili-tary that overthrew him on July 3,following mass protests againsthis rule.The army-backed gov-ernment said on Sunday it wouldgive mediation a chance butwarned that time was limited.

Thousands of Mursi support-ers remain camped out in twoCairo sit-ins, which the govern-ment has declared a threat to na-

tional security and pledged to dis-perse. Al Masry Al Youm, a pri-vately owned newspaper, saidShater was visited by a delegationincluding U.S. Deputy Secretaryof State William Burns and Euro-pean Union envoy BernadinoLeon. Shater told the envoys hewould only hold talks with themin the presence of Mursi becausehe was “the legitimate president”,the newspaper reported on itswebsite, citing a senior securitysource. The diplomats were ac-companied by members of thearmed forces during the visit,which the report said was focusedon ways to end the sit-ins.

The authorities say the Broth-erhood has incited violence, accusingit of engaging in terrorism - a chargethe movement denies as it grappleswith one of the toughest momentsin its 85-year history.—Reuters

Int’l envoys active toend Egypt crisis

OBSERVER REPORT

ISLAMABAD—Speakers at aseminar on Pakistan Indepen-dence Day and Al-Quds Al-Sharif here Monday called forpromoting unity among theMuslims of the world as wellas close coordination among theMuslim countries to overcomethe current challenges faced bythem.

They pointed out that Pa-kistan came into being on the27th of Holy Ramadan , the lastFriday of the month and it wasa clear indication of its Islamicmoorings. They said there waspressing need to promote Is-lamic values in the country aswas the desire of the founder ofPakistan , Quaid-i-AzamMohammad Ali Jinnah and vi-sionary Allama MohammadIqbal.

The speakers also high-lighted the importance of the

current struggle for the libera-tion of Al-Quds Al-Sharif fromthe Israeli occupation.

The seminar was organizedby Milli Yakjehti Council.

Allama Syed Sajid AliNaqvi , acting president MilliYakjehti Council in his presi

Milli Yakjehti Council seminar

Speakers call for unity among Muslims to overcome challenges

Rohani namestop reformist

his deputyTEHRAN, IRAN — Iran’s newpresident has appointed a promi-nent reformist as his top deputy,on Monday, his most prominentpick as he tries to fill out a gov-ernment balanced between thereformists who helped secure hiselection and the conservativeswho still have tremendous influ-ence in the running of the coun-try. Hasan Rohani named EshaqJahangiri, a former industry andmines minister, as First Vice Presi-dent, the broadcast said.—Reuters

Four powertransmission

towers blastedin Balochistan

QUETTA—Unidentified mis-creants blasted four powertransmission towers in differentareas of Balochistan on Mon-day.

According to police, the ex-plosions took place at transmis-sion lines between Sibi andMacch districts.

The blasts and damages tothe pylons led to shortage of100 MW of electricity whichwas to be supplied to parts ofthe southwestern province. Theshortfall led to an increase inthe duration of load-shedding in15 districts of the province.

A spokesman for the QuettaElectricity Supply Company(QESCO) said repair work onthe towers would be initiatedonce the company received se-curity clearance in this regard.

Two weeks back in similarblasts, seventeen districts of theprovince remained cut off fromthe transmission line.

No one claimed responsi-bility for the attack.Impoverished Balochistan,which borders Iran and Af-ghanistan, has been wracked byan insurgency waged by ethnicBaloch tribes seeking more po-litical rights and a greater shareof profits from the region’snatural resources.

Hundreds of people havedied in violence rippingthrough the province since theinsurgency flared in late 2004.

The region has also beenhit by attacks blamed onTaliban militants, althoughsabotage of gas pipelines andpower transmission lines are atrademark of separatist mili-tants.—INP

Witnesses presentgraft proof in

front of TauqirISLAMABAD—National Ac-countability Bureau (NAB) in-vestigators into Ogra scambrought face to face formerChairman OGRA Tauqir Sadiqand witnesses, and the latterspresented proof of the former’scorruption in front of him.

Sources said that theproofs given by the witnessesbelonging to Sui Gas Companysent Tauqir Sadiq in a state ofshock who preferred to remainsilent instead of confrontingthem.—INP

STAFF REPORT

P E S H A W A R — K h y b e r -Pakhtunkhwa Chief MinisterPervez Khattak alleged on Mon-day that Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) chief FazlurRehman was trying to spreadmisconceptions about PakistanTehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) ChairmanImran Khan.

Talking to the press inNowshera, Khattak said, “ImranKhan is working hard to restore

peace in the region and to endforeign influence.”

Khattak said that by callingImran a Jewish agent, Rehmanwas trying to instigate theTaliban against PTI so that it willmake peace talks between themdifficult.

“Fazlur Rehman wants tur-moil and militancy to prevailin the region,” said Khattak,adding that it was up to thenation to decide who is theJewish agent.

Fazl not letting PTI negotiatewith Taliban: Khattak

ISLAMABAD—Chairman Nazriya Pakistan Council Trust Zahid Malik speaking on theoccasion of Al-Quds Day and Independence of Pakistan Day. Also seen in the picture areSaqib Akbar, Taqi Sadiqi, Asif Luqman Qazi, Allama Syed Sajid Ali Naqvi, SahibzadaSultan Ahmed Ali and Agha Murtaza Poya. —Po photo by Sultan Bashir

Zahid Malikobjects to Poya’s

anti-Saudi remarks STAFF REPORTER

ISLAMABAD—At a gathering ofAl-Quds Day, organized by MilliYekjehti Council, presided overby Allama Sajid Naqvi emotion-ally charged Mr Murtaza Poya,passed at loud pitch some sweep-ing remarks against the ruling Al-Saud family of Kingdom of SaudiArabia to which Mr Zahid Malik,Editor-in-Chief Pakistan Ob-server protested and objectedwhen he addressed the gathering.

Mr Malik said Mr Poya hadright to voice his views but hischoice of words and tone andtenor were totally undesirable.However, Mr Malik appealed tothe media not to report MrPoya’s remarks.

ASHRAF ANSARI

ISLAMABAD—Mr. ZahidMalik, Editor-in-Chief, Paki-stan Observer, has said that hehas reasons to believe that ter-rorists, determined to makePakistan cave in from inside,may launch attacks in somemajor cities of Pakistan withfocus on Lahore.

Addressing a big gatheringorganized by Millli YakjehtiCouncil in connection with In-ternational Quds Day Mr.Malik, who is also Chairman ofthe Nazriya Pakistan Council,

Terrorists may launch attacksin Punjab, warns Zahid Malik

Islamabad, said that an unde-clared war has been wagedagainst Pakistan and foreign-funded attempts were beingmade to divide Pakistan hori-zontally as well as vertically.Citing incidents of killing ofmembers of Hazara communityin Quetta and some Shias inKarachi, he saluted the leader-ship of the Shia communitywhich had not reacted, as ex-pected by the enemy, andshowed remarkable restraintbecause they knew the intent

Continued on Page 6

Continued on Page 6

Explosives-ladenrickshaw seizedStaff ReporterQUETTA—Police on Mondayfoiled a terror bid by seizingan explosives-laden auto rick-shaw and defusing it. DeputyInspector General operationsQuetta told media that an autorickshaw had been parked nearpetrol pump in Hazar Gunjiarea near Western bypass. Hefurther said that police patrol-ling team found a suspiciousrickshaw and informed theBomb Disposal Squad (BDS)that confirmed upon checkingthe presence of explosives inthe vehicle connected to a re-mote control.

Picture on Page-3

4 killed in KarachiviolenceKARACHI—Four persons werekilled in different area of Karachiincluding a middle-aged man,who was slaughtered in Baldia onMonday. In Sohrab Goth at superHighway near Jamali Goth petrolPump, one man namely ShahAlam (32) son of Omer Gul wasshot dead by some unidentifiedarmed assailants.—Agencies

Scientists to cook world’sfirst in-vitro beef burger

ISLAMABAD: An illuminated view of Faisal Masjid decorated with colourful lights to mark the Mehfil-e-Shabeena.

A corner of west London will see culinary and scientific history madeon Monday when scientists cook and

serve up the world’s first lab-grown beefburger. The in-vitro burger, cultured fromcattle stem cells, the firstexample of what its creatorsays could provide an an-swer to global food short-ages and help combat cli-mate change, will be fried ina pan and tasted by two vol-unteers.

The burger is the resultof years of research byDutch scientist Mark Post,a vascular biologist at theUniversity of Maastricht,who is working to showhow meat grown in petridishes might one day be atrue alternative to meatfrom livestock. The meat inthe burger has been made byknitting together around20,000 strands of proteinthat has been cultured from cattle stem cellsin Post’s lab.

The tissue is grown by placing the cellsin a ring, like a donut, around a hub ofnutrient gel, Post explained. To prepare theburger, scientists combined the culturedbeef with other ingredients normally usedin burgers, such as salt, breadcrumbs andegg powder. Red beet juice and saffronhave been added to bring out its naturalcolors.

“Our burger is made from muscle cellstaken from a cow. We haven’t altered them inany way,” Post said in a statement on Friday.“For it to succeed it has to look, feel and hope-

fully taste like the real thing.” Success, inPost’s view, would mean not just a tastyburger, but also the prospect of finding asustainable, ethical and environmentallyfriendly alternative to meat production. Ac-

cording to a 2006 report by theU.N. Food and AgricultureOrganization (FAO), industri-alized agriculture contributeson a “massive scale” to cli-mate change, air pollution,land degradation, energy use,deforestation and biodiversitydecline.

The report, entitledLivestock’s Long Shadow,said the meat industry contrib-utes about 18 percent of glo-bal greenhouse-gas emissionsand this proportion is ex-pected to grow as consumersin fast-developing countriessuch as China and India eatmore meat. According to theWorld Health Organization(WHO), annual meat produc-

tion is projected to rise to 376 million met-ric tons by 2030 from 218 million metric tonsin 1997-1999, and demand from a growingworld population is expected to rise beyondthat.

Post cites FAO figures suggesting de-mand for meat is expected to increase bymore than two-thirds by 2050. Animal wel-fare campaigners applauded the arrival ofcultured meat and predicted a great futurefor it. “In vitro technology will spell the endof lorries full of cows and chickens, abat-toirs and factory farming,” the People forthe Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA)campaign group said in a statement.

ISLAMABAD: Ambassador of UAE Essa Abdullah M Basha Al Noaimi hosted an IftarDinner to celebrate and share blessings of the Holy Month of Ramazan. Also seen in thepicture are Sartaj Aziz, Prime Minister’s Advisor on National Security and Foreign Affairs,Prime Minister’s Special Assistant Tariq Fatemi, Haji Adeel of ANP, Jalil Abbas Jilani, For-eign Secretary, Chairman HEC Dr. Javaid Laghari, Ambassadors of Argentina, Palestine,Egypt, Mauritius, Yemen, Morocco and others.—PO photo by Sultan Bashir

AUGUST 14

Pakistan National Councilof the Arts culturalprogrammes titled “Coloursof Pakistan” on 14th August,2013 at 7:30 p.m at PNCAAuditorium, Islamabad.Renowned artists from allover the Pakistan will per-form.

ISLAMABAD—Justice AzmatSaeed Sheikh has remarked thatgiving directives for cleanlinessof nullahs is not mandate of Su-preme Court. He gave these re-marks during the course ofhearing of destruction of indus-trial waste in Karak. A two-member bench of the SC heardthe case.

SC sought report fromKhyber Pakhtunkhwa govern-

ment with reference to non de-struction of industrial waste andspreading of environment pol-lution.

Justice Azmat Saeed Sheikhremarked environmental pollu-tion is not the issue of KP onlybut it is issue of the entire coun-try. Justice Azmat Saeed Sheikhobserved that governmentshould present report on destruc-tion of industrial waste and gas

factory waste in Kark.Additional Advocate Gen-

eral KPK told the court that in-dustrial waste is destroyed inproper way due to which envi-ronmental pollution does notspread. Peshawar High Courthad taken up this issue and thesame report was submitted be-fore high court. Governmentwould present proposal withintwo weeks.—Online

Directives for cleanlinessof nullahs not SC domain

R A W A L P I N D I — T h eRawalpindi City Traffic Police(CTP) have chalked out a com-prehensive plan for Chand Raatand Eid-ul-Fitr. Under the traf-fic plan, enhanced number oftraffic wardens will be de-ployed in main city areas tocontrol mess on Chand Raatand during Eid-ul-fitr prayers.

A control room has beenset up at Traffic Police Head-quarters to monitor the situa-tion. Chief Traffic Officer(CTO) Superintendent PoliceSyed Ishtiaq Hussain Shah, ina statement, said that all outefforts would be made to con-trol traffic on city roads, espe-cially on Chand Raat. He saidthat one-wheelers would bedealt in accordance with thelaw.

Traffic wardens have beendirected to impound motor-cycles of one-wheelers in re-spective police stations, besidesregistration of cases againstthem, he added.

He urged the citizens par-ticularly parents that they shouldcome forward and play their roleto curb the activity as one wheel-ing, rash and negligent drivingare the main causes for fatal ac-cidents. All the traffic officersand wardens have also been di-rected to remain present at theirduty points so that no traffic jamcould be witnessed, he added.

Ishtiaq Shah told that all outefforts are being made byRawalpindi Traffic Police to facili-tate the road users so that they couldget uninterrupted traffic flow andreach at their destination within

shortest possible time. He said inview of the security of the citi-zens, special traffic arrangementshave been made. Parking of ve-hicles near Mosques, ImamBargahs and other religiousplaces is not allowed.

Under the plan, traffic po-lice officers have been directedto keep a vigilant eye on suspi-cious vehicles. Strict action inaccordance with the law has alsobeen ordered against vehicleshaving tinted glasses or movingin the city without numberplates, he added. The CTO saidtraffic wardens have also beendirected to work with dedicationand commitment and ensure thetraffic flow so that traffic messparticularly on congested roadscould be averted and the citizenscould be provided.—APP

CTP chalk out traffic plan for Chand Raat, Eid-ul-Fitr

RAWALPINDI: Chief Traffic Officer Superintendent Police Syed Ishtiaq Hussain Shah brief-ing traffic wardens and inspectors on traffic arrangements.

All PakistanMashaikh

conference todaySTAFF REPORTER

ISLAMABAD—As part of Inde-pendence Day celebrations anall Pakistan Mashaikh-i-Uzzamconference will be held today at4pm at the Aiwan-i-Quaid (F-9,Park, Islamabad). The NazriyaPakistan Council Trust (NPCT)has organized this conference.

Federal Minister for Reli-gious Affairs, Sardar MuhammadYousuf, will preside over the con-ference. The conference will beattended by over 300 prominentreligious scholars.

The subject chosen for theconference is “The Role ofMashaikh Uzzam in Solidarityof Pakistan”. The Ulema willexpress their views on the inter-nal and external dangers con-fronting Pakistan and offer sug-gestions to address the issue.

Mareer Chowkbridge launching

delayed againRAWALPINDI—Date of shiftingthe steel bridge under MareerChowk expansion project hasbeen passed again despite oflaunching the bridge.

Staff working on project hasgone on Eid vacations and not asingle machine has been left onthe site. On July 22, during thevisit of Director GeneralRawalpindi Development Au-thority and former MNA ShakeelAwan, it was told that under con-struction bridge would be shiftedto Mareer Chowk on Ramzan 22.It was said that during vacationsof Eid, bridge would be launchedand upto August 15 constructionwork on one part of bridge willbe completed. But none of workhas been completed according toplan yet. DG RDA was contactedin this regard be didn’t attendedtelephone.—Online

AJK Presidenthosts Iftar dinner

HAMEED SHAHEEN

ISLAMABAD—Haji SardarMuhammad Yaqub Khan, presi-dent of Azad Jammu and Kash-mir hosted an Iftar dinner in theKashmir House here Mondaynight. Senior politicians,Islamabad press corps, citizens,and members of civil societyparticipated.

Prominent attendees wereFederal Kashmir Affairs Minis-ter Mr Birjees Tahir, SpeakerAJK assembly Sardar GhulamSadiq Khan, ex-presidents Gen-eral (Rtd) Mohammad AnwarKhan and Raja ZulkarnainKhan, ex-premiers SardarAttique Ahmed Khan, BaristerSultan Mahmood Chaudhry,Raja Farooq Haider Khan, AJKMinisters, legislators andmshaikh of Kashmir.

An all-participation get-to-gether reflected an internal unityof the leaders and people. Poli-ticians had a free and frank dis-cussions over national topicsincluding Kashmir tangle in afriendly atmosphere.

SC directs 19departments to

file repliesISLAMABAD—Supreme Court(SC) has warned 19 govern-ment departments which haverefused to get audited their ac-counts to file their replieswithin two weeks other wiseexparte proceedings will beinitiated against them and noexcuse will be accepted.

A 2-member bench of SCheaded by Justice Anwar ZahirJamali issued this order on Mon-day during the course of hear-ing of case pertaining to refusalby 19 government departmentsin connection with audit of theiraccounts by auditor general.

During the hearing, AuditorGeneral report was also pre-sented in the court. The hearingof the case was adjourned fortwo weeks. —Online

CNG stationsto remain

opened on EidISLAMABAD—The Ministry ofPetroleum and Natural Re-sources on Monday decided tokeep open Compressed NaturalGas Stations during Eid holidaysin larger public interest.

The ministry has issued di-rectives to supply gas to CNGsector on all Eid days. However,the final schedule will be issuedwithin next two days.

Meanwhile, the Ministry ofWater and Power also decidedto provide uninterrupted supplyof electricity to all the consum-ers during Eid holidays.

The ministry has also issueddirectives to NTDC in this re-gard. However, sources dis-closed that ministry was in-formed that it was difficult toprovide electricity throughoutEid holidays after which a policyto exempt the first day fromloadshedding was being formu-lated.

According to a statement is-sued by the Ministry of Interior,government offices will remainclosed from August 8 due to Eid-ul-Fitr holidays and will reopenon Monday, August 12.—INP

CDA to set up freemedical camp for

pollen allergyISLAMABAD—On the directionsof Chairman Capital Develop-ment Authority, Nadeem HassanAsif, Health Services Directorateof the authority will establish freemedical camp for Pollen Allergypatients dwelling in the munici-pal limits of Islamabad. CDA hasasked patients suffering from pol-len allergy to enlist their particu-lars at these camp offices so thattheir free and timely medicalcheckup could be conducted.

These camp offices are beingestablished in different sectors andlocalities of Islamabad which in-clude Health Services Directorate,Street no. 58, Sector F-11/4, In-quiry Office Markaz G-10,Gulshan Market, Sector G-7/3,Flat No.5/B, Block 1, Sector I-8/1, CDA colony, Sector I-10/1,CDA colony, Simly Dam, ThandiRui Wali Galli near GovernmentHigh School, Bahara Kahu andHouse No 181-D adjacent to theTotal Petrol Pump, Satellite Town.

Residents of the FederalCapital can also contact HealthServices Directorate on number051-9267580 for any informa-tion / assistance.—INP

Wife of TahirHanfi laid to restISLAMABAD—Wife of TahirHanfi, Director General (Re-search) National Assembly whodied early in the morning waslaid to rest here on Monday.

She had been sufferingfrom cancer. Her Namaz-e-Janaza was attended by a largenumber of people including of-ficers and staff of the NationalAssembly and Senate, journal-ists, family members, relativesand friends. She was buried inthe H-8 graveyard.—INP

ISLAMABAD—Islamabad policeon Monday launched crackdownagainst wine sellers in the city andarrested notorious liquor seller and11 other persons during variousraids besides recovery of hugequantity of wine and stolen itemsfrom them, a police spokesmansaid. SSP Muhammad Rizwan di-rected all police officials for ef-fective crackdown against winesellers in the city and ensure theirarrest. He said that such activitiesare intolerable and those involvedin such crime could not be spared.

Following his directions,special teams were constitutedunder supervision of ASPRizwan Gondal including SHO

Kohsar police station HakimKhan and others. These teamsraided at various houses in sec-tor F-6, F-7/1 and F-7/3 and ar-rested notorious wine sellerMalik Tariq. The other nabbedinclude: Jaan Muhammad,Usman, Sabir, Javed Masih,Liaqat Ali and Shahid Sharif.Police teams also recovered 131bottles of whiskey and wine dur-ing these raids. Further investiga-tion is underway from the nabbedpersons. Meanwhile ASI TariqRauf from Shahzad Town policestation arrested three accusednamely Shafqat, Ghulam Ishaq,Aurangzeb and recovered stolenmotorbike from them. —INP

Notorious wine-seller arrested

131 wine bottles, 168cans of beer recovered

IS L A M A B A D—Islamabad,which is claimed to be the only‘well-planed’ city of the coun-try, where the Capital Develop-ment Authority (CDA) is re-sponsible to ensure the obser-vance of rules and regulations,but the chaos created in somecommercial areas of the federalcapital including G-8 Markazand Karachi Company by the carshowrooms owners presents theugly picture.

No doubt huge spaces wereleft in the commercial areas forparking lots while planning andbuilding the city but the park-ing spaces have now been turnedinto car showrooms by the own-

ers, while the CDA is playingthe role of silent spectator forreasons best known to the civicauthority officials. These en-croachments have been a sourceof serious resentment by the citi-zens but the land mafia is sopowerful and well connectedthat no one can dare raise theirvoice against their high handed-ness.

Shoppers at Karachi Com-pany and G-8 Markaz, whiletalking to INP, said that theyhave to park their cars on theroadsides away from the shopsat the mercy of car lifters.

Wondering why the officialsof directorate of the civic author-

ity were not taking any actionagainst the encroachers, they saidthat it is impossible that the CDAhigher officials do not knowabout the violation of the rulesand regulations. They alleged thatthe car showroom owners werefilling the pockets of CDA offi-cials for not taking action againstthe encroachments in G-8Markaz and Karachi Company.Asghar Ali, a student who cameto Karachi Company on motor-cycle to buy a book, talking toINP, said that he parked his mo-torbike in the parking lot wheremany cars were parked and wentinto the shop to purchase thebook.—INP

Encroachers turn parkinglots into car showrooms

ISLAMABAD—With Eid-ul-Fitar is just around the corner,huge multitude of people havethronged the bus stops and ter-minals in twin cities ofRawalpindi and Islamabad tograb seats in public and privatevehicles to return to their home-towns to celebrate the religiousevent with their family mem-bers.

Like previous years, thetransporters have sharpenedtheir axes to mint extra moneyfrom the passengers by over-charging and overloading. The

transporters have unilaterallyincrease fares of all inter-cityroutes on the pretext of receiv-ing Eidi and started stuffing 60to 100 passengers in vehicleshaving 44 seats.

Passengers talking to INP atFaizabad, Pirwadhai, MandiMorr, Pir Wadhai Morr andMotorway Morr, said that thetransporters are charging in-flated rates almost double of theoriginal fares while the con-cerned authority are playing therole of silent spectators. Theysaid that persons who are going

back to their hometowns withtheir families are suffering themost as the transporters fill thevehicles with men who keepfelling on the ladies during thejourney.

Irshad Ahmed, a passengerat Pir Wadhai said that the trans-porters were not booking tick-ets in advance just to mint extramoney from the passengers byspreading panic among themwhen they reach the bus termi-nals. He said that he has to rustlethrough huge crowd to get theticket on double rate. —INP

Transporter risking passengers’lives to mint extra money

Briefs

Today’s workersunderstand the prin-

ciple that the only truejob security comes

from satisfied custom-ers.

— Noel M Tichy

ISLAMABAD: Minister of State for Information Technology, Anusha Rahman during ameeting with CEO, PTCL along with senior officials of Ministry.

STAFF REPORTER

LAHORE—The Small and Me-dium Enterprises DevelopmentAuthority (Smeda) is going tojoin hands for the first time withthe Trade Development Author-ity Pakistan (TDAP) at the plat-form of Expo Pakistan beingheld from 26th to 29th Septem-ber 2013 at Karachi Expo Cen-tre. This is the biggest trade fairin Pakistan, showcasing the larg-est collection of Pakistan’s ex-port merchandise and servicesfor domestic as well as interna-tional buyers.

Smeda will have a dedicatedpavilion for SMEs from differ-ent trade and manufacturing sec-tors at Expo Pakistan. The event

Smeda, TDAP to cooperatefor Expo Pakistan

would provide SMEs a uniqueopportunity to showcase theirproducts parallel to the LargeScale Manufacturers. It is hopedthat the event would pave wayfor regular participation ofSMEs in this event of nationalimportance in future.TDAP andSmeda are premium agencies ofthe Government of Pakistan forbusiness promotion and support.The two organizations have col-laborated to strengthen mutualcoordination for extending mar-keting support to SMEs. One ofthese initiatives is Expo Pakistanthat is expected to be followedup by continued collaborationsbetween the two organizationsin future.

TDAP has a vast pool of

expertise and resources, inher-ited from its predecessor; theExport Promotion Bureau(EPB). As successor of EPB, themanagement of TDAP hasbrought in a much wider visionfor the organization focusing oninternational trade developmentinstead of export promotiononly. Smeda on the other hand,has an all encompassing man-date for growth and develop-ment of SMEs across the coun-try. With its experience and in-sight in the SME sector, theyoung history of Smeda is en-riched with hallmark initiativesfor development of the SMEsector bringing both short andlong term benefits to the privatesector.

AMANULLAH KHAN

KARACHI—HBL has joinedthe PCI Security StandardsCouncil as a new Participat-ing Organisation, to achieveand improve payment datasecurity worldwide throughthe ongoing development ofthe PCI Security Standards,including the Payment CardIndustry Data Security Stan-dard (PCI DSS), PIN Trans-action Security (PTS) require-ments and the Payment Appli-cation Data Security Standard(PA-DSS).

HBL to improve payment data security worldwideEndorsed by American Ex-

press, Discover Financial Ser-vices, JCB International,MasterCard Worldwide and VisaInc., the PCI Security Standardsrequire merchants and serviceproviders that store, process ortransmit customer payment carddata to adhere to information se-curity controls and processesthat ensure data protection. Toenhance payment data securityglobally while embracing newtechnologies as they are devel-oped, the Council relies on in-volvement of those across thepayments processing chain,

from merchants and service pro-viders to payment device manu-facturers and software develop-ers, financial institutions andprocessors.

As a ParticipatingOrganisation, HBL adds itsvoice to the standards settingprocess and will receive pre-views of drafts of standards andsupporting materials in order toprovide feedback to shape theirfinal versions, as well as engagea growing community of morethan 700 organisations united toimprove payment security.

HBL will also have the op-

portunity to recommend newinitiatives for consideration tothe PCI Security StandardsCouncil, participate in exclu-sive webinars and question andanswer sessions with Councilrepresentatives, and reviewand discuss new versions ofthe PCI Security Standardswhile sharing cross-sector ex-periences and best practices atthe annual Community Meet-ings.

“In an era of increasinglysophisticated attacks on sys-tems, adhering to the PCI DSSrepresents an entity’s best pro-

tection against network secu-rity threats and data breaches,”said Bob Russo, General Man-ager of the PCI Security Stan-dards Council. “By joining asa Participating Organisation,HBL demonstrates they areplaying an active part in miti-gating the threats and improv-ing the security of the paymentchain globally by driving thesecurity standards to higherlevels of adoption andstrength.”

“HBL attaches high priorityto information security and con-siders its strength. We are proud

to be the first bank to have be-come a participating memberorganisation in Pakistan andare moving forward towardsachieving international secu-rity standards in all aspects ofour business,” said MudassirKhan, Chief Information Of-ficer HBL. HBL is the first fi-nancial institution in Pakistanto be accepted as the Partici-pating Organisation Memberand Inamullah Siddiqui, ChiefInformation Security OfficerHBL, has been certified as thefirst Internal Security Assessor(ISA) in Pakistan.

STAFF REPORTER

ISLAMABAD—Federal Ministerfor Petroleum and Natural Re-sources Mr Shahid KhaqanAbbasi has said that gas priceswill have to be increased other-wise it would face the same fateas was happening with thepower sector. In an interview,the Petroleum Minister said thegovernment is considering toincrease the price of gas.

He said it was also in theknowledge of the governmentthat SNGPL and SSGPL wereinvolved in theft of gas and thatwas why heads of fourteen com-panies were being removed andtheir board of directors beingdissolved. The Minister made it

Khaqan hints at increasein gas pricesclear that the Ministry would notrun the gas companies but boardof directors would be respon-sible to run their affairs.

Shahid Khaqan Abbasi dis-closed that gas worth Rs 28 toRs 30 billion was being stolenevery year from the system.These include technical andtransmission losses. He saidwhile arrangements are beingmade to control the technicaland transmission losses, anacross the board operation is inprogress throughout the countryagainst those involved in theftof gas.

He said arrangements havebeen finalized to import1500mmcfdl CNG by the end of2014 to overcome gas shortage.

He said three projects are at handfor the import of LNG. He saidif this quantity of gas was avail-able by the end of next year,there would be no need to windup the LNG sector. Asked aboutthe LNG Cartel and increase inthe prices of the commodity, theMinister said a draft for the newLPG policy has been sent toOgra to control unchecked profitbeing earned by the LGP sector.

He clarified that so far noagreement has been reachedwith Qatar for the import ofLNG and its price. He said theQatari government has askedPakistan to first build the termi-nal. He said tender for the build-ing of LNG terminal would bereleased next week. He said con-

tract would be awarded to thecompany which has the facilityof jetty so that it could deliverthe gas through shipyard. Heexpressed the confidence thatLNG import would start withinsix to nine months after theaward of the contract.

Shahid Khaqan Abbasi saidthe agreement with Qatar wouldbe for ten years for the deliveryof 1.4 million tons LNG. He saidhad the previous governmentspaid attention to energy crisis,the country would have saved $500 million to $ 700 million an-nually. Now when the countryis facing gas shortage, severalprojects are in hand for the im-port and exploration of new gasreserves.

KARACHI: Muhammad Haroon Agar, President of the Karachi Chamber of Commerce &Industry is seen presenting Chamber’s Crest to Ms. Saira Aslam, Sterling Currency Ex-change Ltd., United Kingdom.

AMANULLAH KHAN

KARACHI—Karachi Chamberof Commerce & Industry’sPresident Muhammad HaroonAgar has stated that the trustdeficit between the friendlycountries and Pakistan can bebridged while introducing in-stitutional arbitration mecha-nisms between the Chambersof Commerce in Pakistan andtheir international counter-parts.

Exchanging views withImran Khan, Solicitor fromLewis Hymanson Small Solici-tors, Manchester, during hisvisit to KCCI, Haroon Agarasserted upon the importance of

Institutional arbitrationto remove trust deficit

arbitration and mediation in thecommercial and trade disputes.He said that the arbitration isconsidered an effective andrapid mean in solving problemsand finding solution for anyarising dispute between thetrade partners. The role of ar-bitrators and solicitors is alsoimperative in this connection tofor resolving disagreement orconflict occurred between thecommercial concerns. This re-ality of the arbitration consti-tutes the backbone of the busi-ness and trade fields. He saidthat in the developed countriesthe role of solicitors is unsur-passed while in Pakistan wehave several internal issues due

to which the judiciary processis very cumbersome.

Imran Khan, Solicitor fromLewis Hymanson Small Solici-tors, Manchester said the solici-tors in U.K. render their servicesto the business community andto give an introduction about hisfirm. He briefed that the firm of-fers services as full service com-mercial law firm with nationaland international reach and ourclient portfolio includes SME’s,entrepreneurs and private clients.

In addition, we have a na-tional reputation for our workwithin the commercial legal ex-pense market and are a leadingplayer in police and regulatorywork.

STAFF REPORTER

ISLAMABAD—Burj Bank Lim-ited conducted a ration distribu-

tion activity in collaborationwith Alamgir Welfare Interna-

Burj Bank distributes rationtional Trust whereby 100 rationpackets were distributed to theunderprivileged members of thesociety.

The recipients of these ra-tion packs were welcomed in a

comfortable setting & a peace-ful distribution was conducted.The ration packets containedhousehold consumables as perthe monthly requirement of anaverage family & included flour,ghee, sugar, tea, rice, grampulse, dal moong, dal masoor,gram flour, chickpea, mutton &clothing for children.

The senior officials presentat the occasion included Chair-man, Mr. Chaudary NisarAhmed & Mr. Shakeel Dehelvifrom Alamgir Welfare Interna-tional Trust whereas Mr. UmerFareed, Mr. Anil Charakla, Mr.Naushad Kamil and Mufti SyedZahid Siraj represented BurjBank Limited. The volunteersfrom both organizations playedan instrumental role in the pack-aging and distribution of the ra-tion packets.

KMP calls forfree of cost

power supplyto agri sector

STAFF REPORTER

R AWA L P I N D I — N a t i o n a lKissan Movement Punjab(KMP) president Maj (Retd)Habib ur Rehman Meo hascalled for providing free of costelectricity to agricultural sectorbeing back bone of the nationaleconomy.

In a statement issued here hesaid Pakistan is agro basedeconomy and 80 percent of itsarea is agro land but it is pitythat we are still facing acuteshortage of milk, meat and foodproducts.

The prices of food ,dairyproducts and fruits and veg-etables have spiraled out of thereach of the poor people due tounprecedented levies, costlierelectricity and unprecedentedhike in prices of fertilizers andmachinery, he stated.

He called upon the govern-ment to provide electricity freeof cost to agricultural sector be-sides providing subsidy on fer-tilizers and waiving of duties onimports of machinery for agri-culture purpose for 10 years.

The agriculture sector beaccorded the status of industryand all the facilities being pro-vided to industrial sector be al-lowed to agro sector to scale upand optimize agriculture produc-tion to meet the needs of peopleof the country.

STAFF REPORTER

ISLAMABAD—Minister of Statefor Information TechnologyMrs. Anusha Rehman Khan onMonday said efforts were beingmade to develop a software forpurging unwanted material fromthe internet so that the youtubecould be opened.

Talking to newsmen here,Anusha said a team of expertswas working round the clock toblock the sites containing blas-phemous material and over 2700such sites had alreday been

Efforts being made toopen youtube: Anusha

blocked.She said the youtube was

closed in Pakistan on the ordersof Supreme Court because itcontained blasphemous mate-rial. The decision in this regardwas taken by the Inter-Ministe-rial Committee, which was be-ing given technical assistance bythe Ministry of Information andTechnology for the resumptionof the site, she added.

Replying to a question, shesaid it was very difficult as ev-ery site containing blasphemousmaterial has to be closed manu-

ally. A software needed to bedeveloped for automatically de-tecting and blocking suchwebsites having blasphemousmaterial.

She said the youtube wouldbe opened when the all the ob-jectional and blasphemous ma-terial would be deleted from allthe sites.

The minister said googlewas also not cooperating withPakistan in this regard. She,however, said no timeline couldbe given for the reopening ofyoutube.

STAFF REPORTER

KARACHI—Pakistan is amongthe developing countries wherehealth insurance penetration isone of the lowest, even if com-pared with its peer countries.The reasons for this dismal land-scape may be due to a variety offactors such as less developedhealth and hospitals infrastruc-ture, low disposable incomesand a severe lack of awareness.

One of the effective ways toaccess healthcare facilities bysuch a large population isthrough health insurance, whichnot only endeavours to providequality care but also attempts tominimize the government’s ex-penditure on healthcare by trans-ferring the risks to insurancesector.

In its quest to promotehealth insurance in the country,the Securities and ExchangeCommission of Pakistan(SECP), after detailed delibera-tions with the stakeholders, hasproposed the draft regulationsfor Third Party Administrators(TPA) for supporting the healthinsurance business. Conceptu-

SECP issues draft regulationsfor third party administrators

ally, a TPA is a business unitwhich processes medical insur-ance claims on behalf of insur-ers, often regarded as‘outsourcing’ where certaintasks and administration activi-ties can be performed in a muchefficient and low-cost manner,thus resulting in the overall prof-itability of the business withimproved customer services.The emergence of TPA in Paki-stan, like many other compa-rable countries, is expected toplay an important role in devel-oping the health insurance mar-ket and ensuring better servicesto insurance policyholders.

In order to elicit the publicopinion and comments, the SECPhas issued the draft TPA Regula-tions, 2013, which are also avail-able on its website. At the publica-tion of these draft regulations,Mohammed Asif Arif, Commis-sioner, Insurance, said that theemergence of TPAs in Pakistan isexpected to play an important rolein the health insurance market byensuring better services to policy-holders as the presence of TPAs isexpected to result in addressing thecost.

Linde Pakistanappoints new

Chief ExecutiveSTAFF REPORTER

KARACHI—The Board of Di-rectors of Linde Pakistan Lim-ited (formerly known as BOCPakistan Limited), a member ofThe Linde Group, today an-nounced that MuhammadAshraf Bawany has been ap-pointed as Chief Executive and

Managing Director of the com-pany with effect from 2 August2013, succeeding Yousuf HusainMirza who has left the companyto pursue other opportunities.

Bawany is currently theDeputy Managing Director andChief Financial Officer, and hasworked in the company fornearly 28 years, holding variousleadership roles.

Chairman of the Board ofDirectors of Linde Pakistan, MrMunnawar Hamid, said, “TheBoard is pleased to appointMuhammad Ashraf Bawany asChief Executive of the company,given his extensive experienceand strong track record built overhis long and successful career.We are confident that Ashraf willbe able to further advance LindePakistan along its profitablegrowth path.”

Bawany said, “I am honouredto be appointed as Chief Execu-tive, and am excited about themany opportunities and prospectsto grow our business across thecountry. I look forward to leadingand working with the Linde Paki-stan team to continue deliveringinnovative and high-quality solu-tions to our customers safely andsustainably.”

ISE indexwitnesses

bearish trendSTAFF REPORTER

ISLAMABAD—The IslamabadStock Exchange witnessed bear-ish trend on Monday as the ISE-10 index was decreased by 34.28points and closed at 4,294.20points.

A total of 142,000 shareswere traded, which were up by128,500 points when it com-pared with previous day’s trad-ing of 13,500 shares. Out of135 companies, share prices of27 companies recorded in-crease and the share prices of108 companies registered de-crease where as no companyremained stable in today’strading.

The share price of SiemensPakistan Engineering increasedby Rs. 49.95, while that of Ab-bot Laboratories decreased byRs. 15.20 per share.

PQ shipping activityKARACHI—Three shipscarrying containers andchemical were berthed atQasim International Contain-ers Terminal and Engro VopakTerminal respectively onSunday. Meanwhile four moreships carrying containers,cement, furnace oil andchemical also arrived at outeranchorage of Port Qasimduring last 24 hours. Berthoccupancy was 55% at thePort on Monday where a totalsix ships namely Maersk PittsBurg, Alliance Faur Fax,Beacom-SW, Elini D, BungaKantandua and Sea Glory arecurrently occupying berths toload/offload containers, wheat,urea, chemical and furnace oilrespectively during last 24hours. A cargo volume of33125 tonnes comprising29429 tonnes imports and3696 tonnes exports inclusiveof containerized cargo carriedin 441 containers (TEUs) washandled at the Port during last24 hours.—APP

KESC raises powertariffStaff ReporterKARACHI—Karachi ElectricSupply Company (KESC) hasraised power tariff by 38 paisaper unit under fuel adjustmentcharges. Sources said KarachiElectric Supply Companyincreased power tariff afterNational Electric PowerRegulatory Authority (Nepra)issued notification of fueladjustment for February. TheKarachiites will receiveincreased bill in August. Theconsumers, utilising theelectricity up to 50 units areexempted from this hike.

Wheat import dealsStaff ReporterKARACHI—Traders havefinalised deals for import ofsome 0.5 million tons of wheat,as the domestic market isfacing shortage of the commod-ity and world prices are onlower side. First wheatconsignment, imported by flourmillers, is likely to reach justafter Eid. “Some 30,000 to32,000 tons of wheat hasbooked at $290 per ton and isbeing imported from Russia tomeet the domestic demand,”they added. The country hadmissed its wheat productiontarget by 3-4 percent this yearand it produced about 23.2million tons of wheat during2013 against the target of 25million tons set by the federalgovernment. The shortfall inthe wheat production hasresulted in higher commodityprice in the domestic marketand wheat grain price hasreached Rs 3,560 per 100-kilogram bag up from Rs 2,800per bag in local market. Thedomestic wheat grain price areeven higher than the worldmarket as well as wheat supportprice of Rs 3,000 per 100-kgbag announced by thegovernment to provide a betterprice to the farmers. Amidanticipated wheat shortage, thetraders and millers have startedimport of wheat from worldmarket to avoid any wheatcrisis in the local market andmake sure cheap flour productsin the country. Presently,Russian wheat is available at$280-290 per ton in the worldmarket and imported commod-ity will cost Rs 3,300 to Rs3,350 per 100-kg bag comparedto Rs 3,560 per 100-kg bag oflocally produced wheat.Sources said that Pakistanitraders and millers were incontact with foreign buyers andclosely monitoring the worldwheat market. Pakistani tradersprefer import of Russian andUkraine wheat instead ofAustralian as Russian andUkraine’s commodity prices arelower in the world market,compared to Australian wheat.

Gold Tezab 45257.00Silver Tezabi 694.28

Gold Tezabi (24-Ct) 44750.00Gold 22 Ct 40910.00SilverTezabi 688.00Silver Thobi 629.00

USA 101.70 101.50

UK 153.76 153.46

EURO 134.36 134.09

Canada 98.26 96.06

Switzerland 108.54 108.33

Australia 90.50 90.32

Sweden 15.41 15.38

Japan 1.0223 1.0203

Norway 17.10 17.06

Singapore 79.75 79.59

Denmark 18.02 17.99

Omani Riyal 256.00 253.00

Saudi Arabia 27.12 27.06

Hong Kong 13.11 13.09

Kuwait 357.66 356.95

Malaysia 31.26 31.20

Newzeland 80.33 80.17

Qatar 27.93 27.87

UAE 27.69 27.63

KR WON 0.0904 0.0902

Thailand 3.240 3.234`

LSE downsby 130.65

pointsSTAFF REPORTER

LAHORE—Bearish trendprevailed in Lahore StockExchange on Monday as itshed 130.65 points, follow-ing the LSE-25 index openedwith 4987.18 and closed at4856.53 points.

The market’s overallsituation, however, corre-spond to an upward trend asit remained at 4.212 millionshares to close against pre-vious turnover of 3.036 mil-lion shares, showing an up-ward move of 1.176 millionshares. While, out of the to-tal 88 active scrips only 6moved up, 39 remined equalwith 43 shed values.

Dawood Hercules Cor-poration, Koh-i-Noor SugarMills Limited and KASBBank Limited were majorgainers of the day by record-ing increase in their per sharevalue by Rs 2.27, Re 1.00and Re 0.02 respectively.

Pakistan State Oil Com-pany Limited, Attock Refin-ery Limited and Exide Paki-stan Limited lost their pershare value by Rs 16.25, Rs13.04 and Rs 13.04 respec-tively.

The Volume Leader ofthe day included The Bankof Punjab Limited with792,500 shares, Lafarge Pa-kistan Cement Limited with727,500 shares and FaujiCement Company Limitedwith 623,000 shares.

Oil prices edgehigher on upbeat

Chineseeconomic data

SINGAPORE—Oil pricesturned higher in Asian tradeMonday on upbeat economicdata from China but concernsabout weak jobs growth inthe United States cappedgains, analysts said.

New York’s main con-tract, West Texas Intermedi-ate for delivery in Septem-ber, gained 30 cents to$107.24 a barrel in afternoontrade, and Brent North Seacrude for September rose 25cents to $109.20.

Banking giant HSBCsaid Monday its purchasingmanagers’ index (PMI) forthe services industry in Chinastood at 51.3 in July, un-changed from June.

A reading above 50 in-dicates growth, while any-thing below signals contrac-tion. China’s official non-manufacturing PMI, releasedover the weekend, came in at54.1 in July, from 53.9 in theprevious month.

“The HSBC purchasingmanagers’ index for the servicesindustry in China remains in anexpansionary region, and thishas provided support for crudeprices,” Lee Chen Hoay, invest-ment analyst at Phillip Futuresin Singapore, told AFP. Priceshowever remained under pres-sure over concerns about de-mand in the United States aftera lacklustre US jobs report lastweek.—APP

KARACHI—Follow-ing were the bullionrates in major citiesyesterday.

KARACHI:

MULTAN:

Currency Selling Buying

Bullion Rates

RS PER 10 GRAMS

STAFF REPORTER

LAHORE—For the second con-secutive year, Etihad Airways,the national airline of the UnitedArab Emirates, has supportedthe participation of a group of10 Pakistani students in the In-ternational Youth Forum thattook place from 21 to 28 July atLake Seliger in Russia.

More than 1000 students fromover 60 countries took part in theforum which is organized annuallyby the Russian Federal Agency onYouth Affairs. The forum aims toprovide an intercultural platformfor the promotion of personal anddemocratic liberties and recogni-

Etihad Airways support 10 Pakistanistudents in Int’l Youth Forum

tion of cultural diversity.Topics discussed included

empowerment, leadership, team-work and team building and em-bracing diversity. Participantsalso got the chance to examinesome of the main trends in glo-bal business, science, culture andmass media as well as discusssolutions to global challengessuch as poverty, social conflictand environmental issues.

Amer Khan, Etihad Air-ways’ Area General Manager inPakistan, said: “ At the cross-roads between east and west,Etihad Airways is well placed topromote cross cultural exchangeand understanding between

people and nations.“Supporting and encourag-

ing young people to take part inthis initiative is an ideal way topromote cultural dialogue andawareness. We are delighted tosupport this initiative for the sec-ond year in a row and look for-ward to seeing the positive out-comes and learnings the studentswill bring back with them.”

Namreen Akhter, one of the30 Pakistani students attendingthe forum, said: “ I am honouredto be attending this internationalforum and to have been nomi-nated, along with three otherPakistani students, as media spe-cialists and youth speakers.

STAFF REPORTER

ISLAMABAD—Over 1.555motorcycles were manufac-tured during the first elevenmonths of the fiscal year2012-13, showing increase of2.87 percent against the out-put of the corresponding pe-riod of last year.

On year-on-year basis,the production of motorcyclesincreased by 4.77 percent inMay 2013 when compared tothe production of May 2012,Pakistan Bureau of Statistics(PBS) reported.

According to breakup

figures, the total production ofmotorcycles during July-May(2012-13) was recorded at1,555,502 units against the pro-duction of 1,512,104 units re-corded during July-May (2011-12).

On the other hand, the pro-duction of motorcycles in-creased from 142,262 units inMay 2012 to 149,001 units inMay 2013, the data revealed.

On the other hand, the pro-duction of jeeps and cars de-creased by 21.53 percent to108,986 units in July-May 2012-13 against the production of138,883 units recorded during

July-May 2011-12. The production of jeeps and

cars in May 2013 was recordedat 12,966 units against the pro-duction of 14,179 units duringMay 2012, showing negativegrowth of 8.55 percent.

Similarly, the production ofLight Commercial Vehicles(LCVs) decreased from 18,959units in first eleven months ofFY2011-12 to 12,908 units inFY2012- 13, showing negativegrowth of 31.92 percent.

On year-on-year basis, theproduction of LCVs decreasedby 32.82 percent to 1,277 unitsin May 2013 against the produc-

tion of 1,901 units in May 2012,

according to the PBS data.

It is pertinent to mention

here that the country’s overall

NAB seals NFC,TCP godowns inKarachi, Kasur

ISLAMABAD—National Ac-countability Bureau (NAB), tak-ing notice on complaints of sup-plying under-weight bags ofurea, has conducted raids inKarachi and Kasur and sealedtwo NFC and TCP godowns/warehouses.

According to reports, theraids were conducted on the ba-sis of a complaint received byNAB Rawalpindi against offi-cials of National Finance Cor-poration (NFC) and TradingCorporation of Pakistan (TCP),accusing the officials of supply-ing under-weight bags of urea.

With the assistance of localpolice, NAB raided NFCgodown in Kasur and found thecomplaint to be factual. Subse-quently, NAB team fromKarachi also raided the TCPwarehouse in Lyari, Karachi andalso discovered urea bags whichwere under-weight. BothGodowns/warehouses havebeen sealed.

An inquiry has been orderedto ascertain the magnitude of thescam, the extent of losses causedto the state, and identify officialsinvolved in it.—INP STAFF REPORTER

ISLAMABAD—MuhammadRiaz Khan has assumed thecharge of MD/CEO OGDCL asper notification issued by Min-istry of Petroleum & NaturalResources here today. He hasvast experience of more than 30years in the field of Exploration& Production Sector.

Muhammad Riaz Khan wasthe Executive Director (Joint Ven-tures) in Oil & Gas DevelopmentCompany Limited (OGDCL). Hegraduated from University of En-gineering & Technology UET,Lahore in Petroleum & Gas En-gineering Department. He has adiversified and rich experience ofE&P sector specially in leader-ship/managerial skills, petroleumengineering, Joint Venture, En-hanced Oil Recovery (EOR) &Improved Oil Recovery (IOR)projects and has supervised execu-tion of several critical oil & gasfield development projects. He

Riaz Khan appointedacting MD OGDCL

has attended extensive advancecourses onManagement,P r o d u c t i o n ,Project Devel-opment and Pe-troleum eco-nomics from,USA, Canadaand OxfordUK. He is Di-

rector on the Board of Mari GasCompany Ltd and has also servedas Director on Pirkoh Gas Com-pany Limited (PGCL) Board. Hehas authored/co-authored and pre-sented several technical papers.He is an active member of PEC,PIP and SPE (USA).

After taking the charge Mr.Muhammad Riaz Khan said thatOGDCL being national oil com-pany is more responsible towardscompletion of its developmentprojects and exploration targets setby the Ministry of Petroleum &Natural Resources to play a posi-tive role in the national economy.STAFF REPORTER

ISLAMABAD—Pakistan Tele-communications Company Lim-ited (PTCL) has concluded itsExperia Summer Program 2013.The program offered an exten-sive six week long learning anddevelopment opportunity to thestudents of top Pakistani univer-sities from LUMS, IBA, NUSTand GIKI.

Apart from comprehensiveorientation sessions, guest lec-ture series by seasoned PTCL

Experia internship programmeconcludes on a high note

officials and coaching sessions,the program also featured vari-ous exciting team projects andcompetitions.

Syed Mazhar Hussain,PTCL Senior Executive VicePresident (SEVP) HR re-marked at the concluding cer-emony, “The Experia Intern-ship Program has contributedtowards the growth and devel-opment of these talented stu-dents, and has proved to be atwo-way contribution be-tween PTCL and the young

minds”.“Initiatives like these play a

vital role in development of theyouth and PTCL is proud to playits role in providing this healthyplatform to the future leaders ofthe country” added MazharHussain.

During the internship, theparticipating students were ex-posed to various functions of thecompany including Commer-cial, Finance, HR and Technicalfunctions which will further en-rich their experience.

TARIQ KHATTAK

ISLAMABAD—Early monsoonand commencement ofRamadan in the second week ofJuly, impacted cement con-sumption adversely in the firstmonth of the new fiscal year2013-14, as cement dispatchesoverall, reduced by 7.84 per-cent.

A spokesman of All Paki-stan Cement ManufacturersAssociation (APCMA) saidthat the lower consumptioncould also be the outcome ofhigher taxes imposed in thebudget and increase in trans-portation charges due to strictcompliance of axle load re-strictions on the cement carri-ers. He said that these in-creases coincided with the ad-vent of the holy month ofRamadan when pace of con-

Higher taxes, rainyseason hits cement sales

struction declines.Local sales, he added, re-

corded major decline of 10.43percent while exports reducedby 0.75 percent. The total ce-ment despatches in the first

month of this fiscal stood at2.595 million tons againstdespatch of 2.816 million tonsin July 2012.

The local sales amountedto 1.846 mill ion tons ofwhich, 1.506 million tonswere despatched by mills lo-cated in the Northern regionand 0.339 million tons from

the South. The industry dur-ing the corresponding monthof last year despatched 2.060million tons of cement.

The total exports in July2013 amounted to 0.749 milliontons against 0.755 million tonsin July 2012. Exports from theNorth declined from 0.615 mil-lion tons in July 2012 to 0.525million tons in the first monthof this fiscal.

The exports from Southhowever, registered healthy in-crease from 0.139 million tonsin July last year to 0.224 mil-lion tons in the same month ofthis fiscal.

The spokesman expressedhope that sales would pick up inthe coming months. He, how-ever, urged the government toresolve the problem of hightransportation cost to the indus-try.

AMANULLAH KHAN

KARACHI—Bank Alfalah hasbeen ranked amongst the top mer-chant acquiring companies in theMiddle East and Africa regions forthe year 2012, gaining the no.11spot this year by rising from no.12in 2011. The 22 largest acquirersin this region collectively pro-cessed $113.51 billion in spend-ing volume from 1.47 billiontransactions, according to the re-cently released, The Nilson Re-port, a leading publication cover-ing payment systems worldwide,

A key milestone for BankAlfalah was touching the Rs39.2billion volume mark in 2012,which is the highest ever that the

Bank Alfalah amongst topmerchant acquirers in ME

industry has witnessed. The Bankrecorded 15% growth in volumeand 14% growth in transactionswhen compared to 2011 figures.Bank Alfalah’s market share interms of volume grew to 46% in2012, from 44% in 2011.

The Group Head of BankAlfalah’s Consumer Finance,Khurram Hussain said, “This isa huge honor for the Bank andwe are humbled at achieving aranking amongst the leading mer-chant acquirers in the MiddleEast and Africa region. BankAlfalah is currently the largestacquirer of plastics in the coun-try – with our widespread net-work of POS terminals nation-wide, we hope to continue devel-

oping a payments ecosystem thatcreates transacting conveniencefor our customers and reach newheights of service quality, accessand convenience.”

The Nilson Report is a lead-ing publication covering paymentsystems worldwide for the last 42years. It can be accessed at http://www.nilsonreport.com

Bank Alfalah was establishedin Pakistan in 1992 and is ownedand operated by the Abu DhabiGroup. The Bank operatesthrough a network of 471branches across 163 cities in Pa-kistan and has presence in Af-ghanistan, Bangladesh, a whole-sale banking unit in Bahrain anda representative office in the UAE.

STAFF REPORTER

LAHORE—The Lahore StockExchange (LSE) seeks to addanother achievement to its bas-ket of leads by holding the insti-tutional investors on a round tableconference scheduled to be heldon 23rd August.

The conference will be chairedby Dr. Salman Shah – ChairmanLahore Stock Exchange engagingthe sponsors of the institutional in-vestors and the brokers of the Ex-change. The round table meetingis being held to attract and promotethe participation of the institutionalinvestors at the Lahore Stock Ex-change.

The conference aims to in-crease the involvement of the in-stitutional investors with LSEand the brokers by discussing andhearing the comments from therepresentatives of the institu-tional investors. The feedbackprovided by the participants shallassist The Lahore Stock Ex-change to construct a roadmapfor the effective service delivery

LSE to hold roundtableconference on August 23

by the LSE to its bulk Investors.Considering that the LSE has

already managed to have the in-troduction of the institutionaldelivery settlement (IDS) mecha-nism on the Broker to Broker(b2b) trades, the LSE brokersnow stand ready to offer theirintermediary services to the in-stitutional investors without anytime or price disadvantages. Fur-thermore, with the risk manage-ment by National Clearing Com-pany of Pakistan Limited(NCCPL) having being made asan integral part of the b2b trades,LSE brokers now have the capac-ity to ensure trade completionwithout any added risk to the in-stitutional investors.

It may be mentioned thatLSE prides itself for being anexchange for the retail investorssince inception in 1971. LSE, hasto its distinct credit that it hasbeen a pioneer in introducing aculture of investment not only inthe city of Lahore but also inother major cities of Punjab,namely Faisalabad and Sialkot.

A Facebookphone in

12 months?NEW YORK—All CNBC’sFast Money pros could talkabout was Facebook’s earningsreport, just months after its mostanticipated IPO in memory.Largely they were focused on afew metrics.

In the report, the companysaid its operating margin wasnegative 63 percent during thesecond quarter and that capitalexpenditures had increased 213percent from a year ago to hit$413 million. “That’s reallyweak,” noted trader JoeTerranova, chief market strate-gist for Virtus.

In the after market,Facebook shares plunged to anall-time low.

But around $24, Terranovaas well as trader Mike Murphy,founder and managing partner atRosecliff Capital, both recom-mend buying.

If you have a short-termtime horizon, Murphy thinkshistory sides with the bulls. “Thelast time shares traded down to25 they bounced back to 32 inonly a week or two,” he said.—Newswire

PPMA hails govtfor issuing new

drug manufacturinglicences

STAFF REPORTER

KARACHI—Pakistan Pharma-ceutical Manufacturers Associa-tion (PPMA) has appreciated theGovernment decision to issuefresh licenses, to different phar-maceutical companies, for pro-duction of new drugs.

Khawaja Javed, ExecutiveDirector of PPMA in a state-ment said steps taken by Min-istry of National Health Regu-lation Services, viz a viz issu-ance of 47 new licenses, was inthe largest interest of thecountry’s pharmaceutical andhealthcare industry.

“Manufacturing of newdrugs would lead to investmentsand employment opportunities,”he said. Khawaja Javed said thatPPMA had for long been de-manding for formation of a druglicensing board, however, wasignored by the previous govern-ment leading to stagnant growthin the industry.

This also caused disappoint-ment among investors, said thePPMA Executive Director. Heregretted that despite immenseimportance of pharmaceuticalindustry in the national growthof any country this was not ex-tended needed attention in thelocal context.

“It was again at the costof lives and health of people,said PPMA official. He men-tioned there were 25,000pharmaceutical manufactur-ing companies in India, while500 such institutions in Paki-stan, 22 of which are of for-eign origin.

STAFF CORRESPONDENT

LAHORE—The governmentshould announce sugar policybefore start of crushing season,preparing a complete and per-manent mechanism for sugarexport by fixing a limit.PSMA Punjab chairman RiazQadir Butt said the govern-ment should devise proper ex-port policy in order to facili-tate the industry and the grow-ers.

He opposed the supportprice of sugarcane as it isagainst free market economy,and it is implemented nowherein the world. The price of sug-arcane should be fixed on de-mand and supply mechanismas sugar rate in fixed by mar-ket forces. He said that if gov-ernment continues to announcecane support price than it

Millers demand sugar policyshould also intervene to stabi-lize sugar prices to avoidlosses faced by the millers, heargued.

If prices fall from a fixedlimit, the government shouldpurchase stock to support theindustry, he suggested.

Sugar mills, under the law,are bound to crush all cane pro-duced by the growers but gov-ernment does not care for themills when they face over-pro-duction, he lamented.

PSMA Punjab chairmanRiaz Qadir Butt said exportingsugar would help not only off-loading the surplus sugar butalso help earn precious foreignexchange for the country. Re-plying to a question, he saidthat presently sugar mills arerunning at 60 to 70 per cent oftheir capacity as sugarcane isshort.

The PSMA Punjab chair-man expressed the hope that thenew government to announce acomplete and permanent mecha-nism for sugar export by fixinga limit.

“We hope after assumingcharge the newly-elected gov-ernment will make sincere ef-forts to resolve economic chal-lenges faced by the country,bring economic reforms, resolveenergy crisis and maintain lawand order,” he said.

He expressed his hope thatbeing a businessman and a ma-tured politician Nawaz Sharifand his team would take imme-diate and proactive measures tousher country’s economy ontrack of development by findingpermanent solutions to the coreissues like energy, unemploy-ment, inflation and poverty al-leviation.

Plan of KP’sthree potential

sectorsSTAFF REPORTER

PESHAWAR—Provincial chief,Small and Medium EnterpriseDevelopment Authority(Smeda), Javed Iqbal Khattak,is working on the preparation offive-year development plan forthree potential sectors of min-eral, horticulture and tourism ofthe province.

He said that the develop-ment plan is being prepared inconsultations with the stake-holders and would be sharedwith the provincial government.

He said that in mineral sec-tor, the authority is focusing onfour different minerals includ-ing marble, chromites, gypsumand coal. On the other hand, hesaid the authority is also increas-ing focus on educated youth,particularly the graduate of vo-cational institutions to refinetheir ideas and take them to-wards commercialization andconvert it into a proper form ofbusiness.

In this connection, he saidthe authority would cooperatewith provincial government toextend financial assistance to theupcoming cohort of the profes-sional educational institutionsand provide opportunity for thepeople in beginning new busi-nesses.

Furthermore, the provincialchief Smeda said the authoritywill also extend cooperation toprovincial government in initi-ating measures aimed at accel-erating economic developmentof the province and mobilise in-vestment and generate employ-ment opportunities for thepeople of the region.

In horticulture sector, hesaid they will work for bringingimprovement in the post har-vesting mechanism and will pro-pose measures for minimisingthe wastage promote value-ad-dition and increase production.

Over 1.555m motorcycles produced in 11 monthsISLAMABAD: Syed Mazhar Hussain, PTCL SEVP, HR and Furqan Qureshi, SEVP Com-mercial at the concluding ceremony of PTCL Experia Summer Program 2013

ISLAMABAD: Seerat Asghar, Secretary Ministry of National Food Security and Research presiding over a meeting ofRADP Project Steering Committee at PARC headquarters. Dr Iftikhar Ahmad, Chairman PARC and others also present.

Large Scale Manufacturing(LSM) has registered positivegrowth of 4.17 percent duringthe first eleven months of thefiscal year 2012-13 over thecorresponding period of thelast financial year.

On year-on-year basis,the LSM grew by 2.65 percentduring the month of May 2013when compared to the samemonth of last year, accordingto the data. The Quantum In-dex Numbers (QIN) of LSMstood at 117.55 points duringJuly-May (2012-13) against112.85 points during July-May (2011-12).

KARACHI: Chief Minister Syed Qaim Ali Shah with Consul General of Russian Federa-tion Mr. Oleg N. Avdeev at CM House.—PO Photo by Sultan Chaki

Scientists to cook world’sfirst in-vitro beef burger

A corner of west London was to seeculinary and scientific history madeon Monday when scientists cook and

serve up the world’s first lab-grown beefburger. The in-vitro burger, cultured fromcattle stem cells, the firstexample of what its creatorsays could provide an an-swer to global food short-ages and help combat cli-mate change, will be fried ina pan and tasted by two vol-unteers.

The burger is the resultof years of research byDutch scientist Mark Post,a vascular biologist at theUniversity of Maastricht,who is working to show howmeat grown in petri dishesmight one day be a true al-ternative to meat from live-stock. The meat in theburger has been made byknitting together around20,000 strands of proteinthat has been cultured fromcattle stem cells in Post’s lab.

The tissue is grown by placing the cellsin a ring, like a donut, around a hub of nu-trient gel, Post explained. To prepare theburger, scientists combined the cultured beefwith other ingredients normally used inburgers, such as salt, breadcrumbs and eggpowder. Red beet juice and saffron havebeen added to bring out its natural colors.

“Our burger is made from muscle cellstaken from a cow. We haven’t altered themin any way,” Post said in a statement on Fri-day. “For it to succeed it has to look, feeland hopefully taste like the real thing.” Suc-

cess, in Post’s view, would mean not just atasty burger, but also the prospect of finding asustainable, ethical and environmentallyfriendly alternative to meat production. Ac-cording to a 2006 report by the U.N. Food and

Agriculture Organization(FAO), industrialized agricul-ture contributes on a “massivescale” to climate change, airpollution, land degradation,energy use, deforestation andbiodiversity decline.

The report, entitledLivestock’s Long Shadow,said the meat industry contrib-utes about 18 percent of glo-bal greenhouse-gas emissionsand this proportion is expectedto grow as consumers in fast-developing countries such asChina and India eat more meat.According to the World HealthOrganization (WHO), annualmeat production is projected torise to 376 million metric tonsby 2030 from 218 million met-ric tons in 1997-1999, and de-

mand from a growing world population is ex-pected to rise beyond that.

Post cites FAO figures suggesting de-mand for meat is expected to increase bymore than two-thirds by 2050. Animal wel-fare campaigners applauded the arrival ofcultured meat and predicted a great futurefor it. “In vitro technology will spell the endof lorries full of cows and chickens, abat-toirs and factory farming,” the People forthe Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA)campaign group said in a statement. “It willreduce carbon emissions, conserve waterand make the food supply safer.”

KARACHI: Motorists move in the flood water on Korangi road after flood in Malir Nadi.

KARACHI: Ladies busy in purchasing artificial jewellery at Zamzama for the preparationof upcoming Eidul Fitr.—PO photo

KARACHI: PM’s Special Representative and Minister of State Khurram Dastgir Khanbeing briefed about recent rainfall by Chief Secretary Muhammad Ejaz Chaudhry.

STAFF REPORTER

KARACHI—While the reliefagencies of the government,Jawans of the Army and Navy,Pakistan People’s Party Parlia-mentarian (PPP) workers, civilsociety volunteers are busy inproviding relief to the rain ef-fected people it is very impor-tant to identify the real causesof the flooding that hit Karachiduring the Saturday rains, TajHaider, General Secretary, PPPPSindh has said in a press state-ment issued Monday. If we donot identify causes and take re-medial measures now this ca-lamity will hit us again, he

Taj Haider discloses causesof damages in heavy rains

added.He said that the rains were

of course heavy, but the stormwater which was quicklydrained out from other areas re-mained standing in many partsof District Central. Similarly,hill torrents played havoc inMalir District, something whichhas never happened before, al-though, Karachi and the Kirtharhave experienced heavier rainsin the past.

District Central has a steepgradient, with the hills on oneside and Gujro Nalah and Lyariat the other end. It has a veryefficient and large size stormwater drains systems, he said.

Was it that like Hyderabadsome of the drains were delib-erately blocked near their endpoints, he questioned.

He was of the opinion thatthe faulty design of Lyari ex-pressway which has narroweddown the water passage and thenon-removal of silt from theLyari bed would raise the waterlevel in the river. Was it that thenumerous drains emptyingthemselves in Lyari experiencedback flows due to the risingwater levels in Lyari.

Haider claimed that the hilltorrents have flowed down in theold waterways. They have nevercome towards Saadi Town.

KARACHI—Minister of StateKhurrum Dastagir on Mondaycalled on Chief Minister ofSindh, Syed Qaim Ali Shah, atthe CM House here.

On the occasion they dis-cussed the situation arising outof the heavy rains.

The Minister informed thathe has come here to visit the rainaffected areas on the directivesof Prime Minister MuhammadNawaz Sharif.

Sindh Chief Minister in-formed Khurrum Dastagir thattwo days ago there were heavy

Khurram Dastgir calls on CMrains in Karachi, Thatta, Ghotki,Larkana, Shikarpur andJacobabad.

He was of the view that theprovincial government had al-ready taken measures regardingthe monsoon and because ofthese the situation remained un-der control inspite of heavyrains.

Qaim Ali Shah said that thelocal administrations undertookrescue and relief measurespromptly.

He said that on Sunday heheld a meeting of the officials

of Disaster Management Au-thority and a video conferencewith commissioners and deputycommissioners in the provinceand sought a detailed report andaccording to this the overall situ-ation is under control.

The Chief Minister said thatthe staff of the Irrigation Depart-ment is monitoring the protec-tive bunds.

Khurrum Dastagir informedthe Chief Minister that today healong with Sindh Chief Secre-tary visited various rain affectedareas of Karachi.

Thousands stuck in hours-long massivetraffic gridlocks; women, minors faint

MQM lambastsgovt over lack ofrain preventive

measuresSTAFF REPORTE

KARACHI—The MuttahidaQaumi Movement’s (MQM)Coordination Committee mem-ber Syed Haider Abbas Rizvilambasted the Sindh provincialgovernment for its utter failureregarding preemptive and pre-cautionary measures for pre-venting the people of the cityfrom the havoc that waswreaked from torrential rains onSaturday to Sunday.

Rizvi asked the Sindh pro-vincial government to explainwhy it failed to take precau-tionary measures for prevent-ing the civilian populationfrom the natural calamity dur-ing rains while the governmenthad already said it had infor-mation about the heavy rainsconverting into a flood-likesituation. the damages doneduring the heavy rains in SaadiTown and Saadat-e ImrohaColony were located in areasdown the natural ground leveldue to which the civilian popu-lation of those two areas hadgrossly suffered from the un-wanted damages. The govern-ment had either to constructheavy storm water drains toaccommodate storm water orconstruct a small dam so as toprevent the storm water fromentering the houses of the poor.

He was talking to the news-men on the occasion of his visitof the Khidmat-e Khalq Foun-dation (KKF) relief and rehabili-tation camps being establishedin rain-affected areas of the cityincluding Safoora Goth, Saadat-e Imroha Colony and SaadiTown Monday.

MQM Coordination Com-mittee members Wasay Jaiil andAhmed Saleem Siddiqui werewith Rizvi.

He said that the machinerythat was available to the munici-pal bodies of the city were keptparked at garages because thefunds for procuring fuel forthose vehicles were not madeavailable.

Rehman Malikrejects MQM’s

demandSTAFF REPORTER

KARACHI—Senator AbdulRehman Malik has said thatthere existed no law in thecountry to appoint SenatorSyed Mustafa Kamal, who wasonce the Mayor of the city, asinterim Mayor of Karachi. Theappointment of the city wasonly lawful through electionsfor the local bodies.

He was taking to the news-men at the Jinnah InternationalAirport Karachi Monday. TheSenator Malik had arrived atthe city to discuss party mat-ters with the leaders of the Pa-kistan People’s Party Parlia-mentarian.

The Senator Malik saidthat the country was passingthrough difficult times and nosingle political party was ableto resolve the crises and dealwith the challenges alone.

Henceforth, it was need ofthe hour that all the demo-crat ic forces should stayunited for the sake ofcountry’s progress and pros-perity.

Rehman Malik said that hewished the Muttahida QaumiMovement should join thePPPP-led Sindh provincialgovernment and if they(MQM) would chose to sit onthe treasury benches in theSindh provincial assembly,nothing could be more betterthan that act of the later.

Two extortionistsamong four

suspects heldKARACHI—Police on Mondaymorning have claimed to arrestfour suspects, including two ex-tortionists, from different partsof Karachi. According to details,police conducted a raid in Paki-stan Bazar in Orangi Town areaand arrested two extortionistsMusa Khan and Musa Bahar.

DSP Faisal Noor Informedthat arms were also recoveredfrom them. Police have also ar-rested a gang war accused, Adil,after and encounter near Askari-4 at Rashid Minhas Road. Po-lice have also arrested an ac-cused involved in robbery afteran alleged encounter nearNazimabad area.—Online

IRFAN ALIGI

KARACHI—Thousands ofpeople were compelled to breaktheir fast on Monday but alsothere were thousands that did nothave even a single sip of waterto break their fasts. Those fastkeepers were the people of theport city, Karachi, who werestuck in massive traffic gridlocksalmost across the city.

The traffic controlling au-thority, the Traffic police wasmissing from the scenes of traf-

fic gridlocks. The stuck-uppeople had for at least 4 hoursstayed on streets. fuel in personalcars and vehicles had exhaustedand due to closure of CNG sta-tions as per government’s orders,they were pushed in a devastat-ing situation that was not lessthan a nightmare. There weremany, who fainted due to smokeand suffocation.

The situation was prevalentfor two consecutive days, the cityhas been facing worst trafficgridlocks on major avenues and

arteries. The traffic police was inmajority missing from roads asthey were deployed on routes ofVVIP movement of the minister.

The citizens in their privatevehicles and passengers in pub-lic transport were in miserablesituation as the prolonged trafficgridlocks starting from 3 PMtill8 PM inflicted them with mentaland psychological agony. The ar-eas worst affected were Saddarregal Chowk, Saddar Empressmarket, Juna Market, PakistanChowk, Lee Market, Numaish,

Soldier Bazar, Jama Cloth Mar-ket, Liaquatabad, Nazimabad,Shaheed-e Millat Road, JailChowrangi, Civic centre, GulBai, Sher Shah, Paposh Nagar,Shahra-e Pakistan, Shahra-e Iraq,Shahra-e Faisal, Akhtar Colonyand Rizvia Society.

The apparent cause of trafficgridlocks at such a vast scale wasdue to bad performance by thetraffic police, encroachment ofpavements by the shopkeepersand take-away stalls, take-awaystalls and push carts.

STAFF REPORTER

KARACHI—Over 20 millionpeople of the city, irrespectiveto the residents oof the plannedresidential colonies or the resi-dents of spatial settlements havebeen exposed to serious threatsof getting inflicted with gastricand skin disorders due to intakeof highly contaminated potablewater being supplied untreatedby the Karachi Water and Sew-erage Board (KW&SB).

The sand particles and hueof the potable water looks as ifintermingled with sewage water.

Despite the claims that the

MD KW&SB refuses to acceptfailure of civic operations in rains

KW&SB managing Directorhad made to have been sup-ply-ing potable water to the peopleof the city after treatment withalumen, the sources inside theboard claimed that even the ad-mixture of chlorine was notmaintained and the treatment ofpotable water with sheeralumen was a mystery as theboard was re-sponsible for wa-ter supply amounting to 650million gallons to the people ofthe city.

the sources privy to the in-ternal matters also claimed thatonly a certain quantity of thealumen was added to the po-

table water being supplied tothe people of the city, which didnot reach to the consumers.

They suggested that theboard rather than making at-tempts for face-saving shouldpay heed to the real mechanismof supplying the fully filteredpotable water so that the con-sumers should stay safe fromacquiring variety of gastric andskin disorders.

They said that the boardshould ensure adding thealumen to the potable water notat tye COD filter plant but at thelocal pumping stations locatedin different parts of the city.

Scientists to cook world’sfirst in-vitro beef burger

LAHORE: Ladies selecting jewellery in connection with upcoming Eid at Anarkali Bazaar.

A CORNER of west London was tosee culinary and scientific historymade on Monday when scientists

cook and serve up the world’s first lab-grown beef burger. The in-vitro burger,cultured from cattle stem cells, the firstexample of what its creatorsays could provide ananswer to global foodshortages and help com-bat climate change, will befried in a pan and tastedby two volunteers.

The burger is the re-sult of years of researchby Dutch scientist MarkPost, a vascular biologistat the University ofMaastricht, who is work-ing to show how meatgrown in petri dishesmight one day be a truealternative to meat fromlivestock. The meat in theburger has been made byknitting together around20,000 strands of proteinthat has been cultured from cattle stemcells in Post’s lab.

The tissue is grown by placing thecells in a ring, like a donut, around ahub of nutrient gel, Post explained. Toprepare the burger, scientists com-bined the cultured beef with other in-gredients normally used in burgers,such as sal t , breadcrumbs and eggpowder. Red beet juice and saffronhave been added to bring out its natu-ral colors.

“Our burger is made from muscle cellstaken from a cow. We haven’t altered themin any way,” Post said in a statement on

Friday. “For it to succeed it has to look,feel and hopefully taste like the realthing.”

Success, in Post’s view, would meannot just a tasty burger, but also the pros-pect of finding a sustainable, ethical and

environmentally friendlyalternative to meat produc-tion. According to a 2006report by the U.N. Foodand Agriculture Organiza-tion (FAO), industrializedagriculture contributes ona “massive scale” to climatechange, air pollution, landdegradation, energy use,deforestation andbiodiversity decline.

The report, entitledLivestock’s LongShadow, said the meat in-dustry contributes about18 percent of globalgreenhouse-gas emis-sions and this proportionis expected to grow asconsumers in fast-devel-

oping countries such as China andIndia eat more meat.

According to the World Health Or-ganization (WHO), annual meat produc-tion is projected to rise to 376 millionmetric tons by 2030 from 218 millionmetric tons in 1997-1999, and demandfrom a growing world population is ex-pected to rise beyond that.

Post cites FAO figures suggestingdemand for meat is expected to increaseby more than two-thirds by 2050. Ani-mal welfare campaigners applauded thearrival of cultured meat and predicted agreat future for it.

LAHORE: Residents of Joseph Colony holding a demonstration in support of theirdemands.

LAHORE: A person washing his clothes at the bank of Ravi River.

MUZAFFAR ALI

LAHORE—The Director Gen-eral, Punjab Emergency Ser-vice (Rescue 1122) Dr. RizwanNaseer while addressingbatch of Pakistan Army Medi-cal Corps on Monday atEmergency Services Acad-emy said that an effectivesystem of emergency medicalcare has been established inPakistan and now we areworking for changing mindsof community.

Addressing the PakistanArmy personnel, he said 50Ambulances were availablein Lahore but we lacked sys-tem and trained staff there-fore basic right of emergencycare was not provided to thevictims.

He said shifting from ac-cident site to hospital formedical treatment was lastoption and this was the onlyoption before establishmentof Punjab Emergency Servicein Pakistan, he added. He in-formed the Army personnelthat there was no trained per-son to respond during blastat Marriot Hotel, and othersensitive installations. Even

Effective system of emergencymedical care set up: Rizwan

the Medical Students wereuntrained to provide BasicTrauma Life Support to vic-tims, he stated. DG RescuePunjab said that we are suc-cessful only because wehave established an effectivesystem of emergency careduring disasters andmanmade or natural calami-ties.

He said that an emer-gency service is comprisedof trained staff and modernequipment for provision offirst aid and patients shiftingfrom accident site to hospi-tal.

Dr. Rizwan Naseer furthersaid that Punjab EmergencyService has introduced sev-eral innovations in emer-gency system including or-ganized utilization of avail-able resources during disas-ter, proper deployment andusage of equipment in natu-ral calamities. He also hopedthat they would go back andestablish such effective emer-gency management systemin Defence Housing Author-ity and cantonments.

The Pakistan Army Medi-cal Corps personnel who

were trained by Rescue 1122at Emergency Services Acad-emy included: CaptainMuhammad Rashid, CaptainRuksana and Hawaldarsnamely Saeed AhmaedSaeed, Khurshid Ahmad, TajWali, Noor Amin, SuhailNazeer, Abid Ali, MuhammadSharafat, Altaf Hussain Hali,Khurram Shahzad, andSepoys Imran Zia Gujjar,Khalid Ali Shah, MuhammadKhalid, Shoaib Aslam,Nafees Ahmad andMuhammad Ijaz.

Captain Rashid while ap-preciating the emergencymanagement system saidthey have learned practicalskills of patients shifting,first aid and fire fighting.Similarly, Captain Ruksanasaid, “We have learned effec-tive skills of pre-hospitalemergency medical systemand we shall implement theseskills while discharging ourduties in Pakistan Army”.The rest of army personnelsaid Rescue 1122 was provid-ing emergency services with-out any discrimination andmost of the beneficiaries werecommon men.

SALIM AHMED

LAHORE—Allied Bank Lim-ited (ABL) has donatedRs.one million to the LahoreBusinessmen Associationfor Rehabilitation of Dis-abled (LABARD).

Group Chief of Commer-cial & Retail Banking of Al-lied Bank KhawajaMuhammad Almas handedover the cheque to theLABARD President & MNAMuhammad Pervez Malik ata ceremony held here at theLahore Chamber of Com-merce & Industry. GroupHead Business of the Com-mercial & Retail BankingGroup Tahir Yaqoob Bhatti,LCCI President FarooqIftikhar, LABARD SecretaryGeneral Saeed Khan, Infor-mation Secretary AhmerMalik, Abbas Khan and LCCIEC member Nasir Saeed alsospoke on the occasion.

Speaking on the occa-sion, Khawaja Almas saidthat Commercial & Retail

ABL donates Rs 1m to LABARDBanking Group will continueto work with the LABARD inorder to make the less privi-leged class of the society asactive members. He said thegrant to LABARD is a con-tinuation of Commercial &Retail Banking Group initia-tives in Pakistan to supportthe cause of education.

“We are committed to im-proving the quality of life inthe communities where we dobusiness and have realignedour community investment pri-orities to be reflective of andresponsive to the global andlocal nature of our business.We are committed towardsLABARD’s initiative and willwork with the management tocomplete this project”

In his address, theLABARD President MNAPervaiz Malik said that thedonation would helpLABARD further extend thescope of its services. He saidthat presently, the LABARDis not only establishingcamps in various parts of the

City for the registration ofdisabled persons but is alsofocusing on building the con-fidence of the people who aresuffering due to some dis-ability so that they could beable to face all challengesboldly. Pervaiz Malik saidthat the LABARD Qarz-eHasna scheme had alsogiven encouraging resultsand a large number of dis-abled persons are runningtheir small businesses suc-cessfully. The LABARDPresident said that theLahore Businessmen Asso-ciation for Disabled personshas extended training tothousands of disabled per-sons so far and it has decidedto extend the scope of thesetrainings in coming days.

LABARD Secretary Gen-eral Saeed Khan said that thegovernment should patron-ize all LABARD-like institu-tions so that the stigma ofdisability could be removedfrom the face of Pakistanisociety.

STAFF REPORTER

LAHORE—Chief Justice ofLahore High Court has di-rected Distr ict and Ses-sions Judge, Lahore tosend report about the sub-mission of challan by po-l ice before the relevantcourt within three days sothat the invest igationcould be concluded trans-parently.

LHC Complaint Cell hadtaken notice of a news pub-

LHC directs to submit challanfor acid attack on girl

lished in a section of pressthat a 16-year-old girl suf-fered burns in an acid at-tack in Cavalry Ground.

The D&SJ has submit-ted in his report that thecase was registered againsttwo unknown persons onthe complaint of the fatherof victim, Khalid Nazir Butt.

But so far the complain-ant , his witness and thevictim are unable to nomi-nate or identify any culprit.

However, investigation

officer has been directed tocollect all evidence, locatethe accused persons, con-clude the invest igationfair ly and honestly andsubmit challan before therelevant court at the earli-es t .

Complaint Cells has di-rected D&SJ Lahore to en-sure compliance of the or-ders of Hon’ble Chief Jus-tice regarding submissionof challan in letter spiri twithin three days.

STAFF REPORTER

LAHORE—The Senior VicePresident PML-N trade wingAbuzar Ghaffari has declaredapproval of National EnergyPolicy and various Chinesecompanies’ investment inPakistan energy sector asgood omen for the economyof the country.

He expressed these viewswhile addressing an Iftarparty which was attended byKhawaja Athar, ZahidRashid, Sheikh Raza,Toufique Umar, AltafHussain Gohar, SheikhNaseer, Kashif HussainGohar, Qamar-uz-ZamanBabar, Mian Sajjad, AslamGujjar, Rasheed Dar, TallatButt, Mohammad Shabbir,

China investment in energysector good omen for Pakistan

Tahir Khalil, Laique Akhtar,Yaqoob Butt, Malik Yousaf,Khawaja Kashif, Aziz-ud-Din, Haji Naeem and manyothers here yesterday at hisoffice.

Abuzar Ghaffari furthersaid that Council of CommonInterest (CCI) has approvedenergy policy for the next fiveyears because of viable plan-ning and enthusiastic effortsof PM Nawaz Sharif andPunjab Chief Minister MianShahbaz Sharif.

He was of the view thatthis act of governmentwould help energy sector toovercome energy crisis, hesaid adding that China’svarious companies pledg-ing to invest in energy sec-tor has infused a new spirit

in the ailing economy ofPakistan. These measuresof Nawaz-led governmentwould fetch more ForeignDirect Investment (FDI) inthe country and ultimatelyfurther spur business ac-tivities in the coming days,he added.

He said that thoughstern measures of govern-ment against power pilferersis a good omen but hike inPOL and power prices wouldcause further sky-rocketingof inflation in the countryand empty-pocketed masseswould have to bear moreburden while business ac-tivities would further ham-per due to this hike in POLand electricity prices, headded.

Securitytightened

across PunjabLAHORE—The Minister forEnvironment Protection andChairman of Police ReformsCommittee, Col. R. ShujaKhanzada has said that, all se-curity arrangements have beencompleted to cope with anyunpleasant situation on theoccasion of Eid-ul-Fitr.

He disclosed this whilepresiding over a meeting heldto review the security arrange-ments on Eid-Ul-Fitar here onMonday.

Seven to eight thousandsecurity officials have beendeputed to maintain law andorder situation in the provinceto avert any untoward inci-dents.

The Minister said that in-telligence reports regardingterrorism threats on “ChaandRaat” and Eid Day have beenreceived and to deal with thesethreats, security has beentightened across the Punjab.

He said that Police checkposts have also been estab-lished on the entrance and exitpoints of the Lahore.

The Minister further saidthat, in the light of intelligencereports police patrolling hasbeen increased and close cir-cuit cameras have been in-stalled on sensitive points ofall districts of the province.

Col R. Shuja Khanzadasaid that foolproof securitymeasures have been adoptedfor security in mosques andEid Gaahs.

The Minister informed thatCC TV cameras and walkthrough gates will also be in-stalled on Eid Day and no onewill be allowed to enter with-out thorough checking.—Online

Security plan forData Darbar

finalizedLAHORE—District administra-tion has finalized security planfor the shrine of Hazrat DataGunj Bukhsh (RA) during thelast week of Ramazan and Eid-ul-Fitr.

Police and shrine adminis-tration have been directed toensure foolproof security atentry, exit points and inside theshrine.

All the volunteers of vol-unteer organizations, contrac-tors of construction and main-tenance and all labourerswould be permitted to enter thepremises of shrine after clear-ance from the Special Branch.

Commissioner LahoreDivision, Imdad Ullah BosalMonday issued directionsto the Lahore Police andDarbar administration to fa-cilitate the visitors maxi-mum but without compro-mising on the physicalsearch and other securityarrangements. He said thatparking was an issue andthat would be put beforehigh ups and parkingshould be allowed after se-curity search. Physicalsearch, CCTV monitoringand use of metal detectorscould play a key role, hemaintained.—APP

Food items sentfor flood-hit

peopleLAHORE—Director GeneralProvincial Disaster Manage-ment Authority Cap (retd)Muhammad Asif has saidthat, on the directions ofChief Minister PunjabMuhammad Shahbaz Sharif,15 more trucks of essentialdaily use items have beensent to Rajanpurand andDera Ghazi Khan.

The daily use items in-cluded 3,709 tents, 150 bagsof rice of 50kg. 959 cartonsof dates and ten thousandbottles of mineral water havebeen sent to Rajanpurwhereas 805 tents, one thou-sand food hampers and 959cartons of dates have beendispatched to Dera GhaziKhan for flood-strickenpeople.

He said that governmentwill continue to help theflood-affectees till their reha-bilitation.—APP

412 pilferers ofgas, electricity

arrestedLAHORE—Special task forceto curb gas and electricitytheft in Lahore division gotarrested 412 stealers includ-ing 378 of Lesco and 34 ofSNGPL after detecting anumber of electricity and gastheft at commercial, industrialand domestic level.

As many as 193 stealersof electricity and 30 of sui gasare still at large after lodgingFIRs against them.

This was stated in a brief-ing to Commissioner LahoreDivision, Imdad Ullah Bosalduring a meeting here at hisoffice Monday. Chief Execu-tive Officer LESCOMuhammad Arshad, ChiefEngineer SNGPL M. Arshad,DIG Operations Rai Tahir, SPCity Jahanzed Khan, DCOLahore Naseem Sadiq, DCOSheikhupura Ali Jan Khan,DCO Kasur Syed Javed Iqbal,Law Affair Prosecution De-part Muhammad Mumtaz alsoattended the meeting.—APP

Notice issued on pleaagainst medical

colleges feeLAHORE—A division benchof the Lahore High CourtMonday issued notice to thefederal government, Punjabgovernment, Pakistan Medi-cal & Dental Council(PMDC) and University ofHealth Sciences on a petitionagainst receiving extra ex-penses other then fee by pri-vate medical colleges fromstudents.

Justice Nasir SaeedSheikh and Justice ShahidWaheed issued notice on anapplication filed by JudicialActivism panel, a public in-terest litigation firm, in apending matter.

Earlier, the petitioner’scounsel arguing before thecourt submitted that pri-vate medical colleges werereceiving Rs 600,000 eachfrom a student as yearlyfee.

He said that Rs 114,800were being received extra asexpenses other than the feewhich was unjust, as perchallan form received. Hepleaded the court to stay thereceiving of extra expensesother than the fee.—APP