Ep18nov2014

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Don’t inject violence intosit-ins................................................Karachi N-power plants shouldnot be derailed................................................Ayan real face of Pakistan

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AMANULLAH KHAN

KARACHI—KSE-100 resumed the bullishrally again with a handsome gain of 358 pointsas the brisk trading activity took the index to anew height of 31702 points at the close ofMonday’s trading.

It is believed that the policyeasing by the State Bank ofPakistan can act as yet anothercatalyst for further rerating ofthe market. Furthermore, ratecut will likely crystallise inves-tors focus on high leveragedcompanies.

It may be recalled that theindex extended its correctivemove by forming a lower lowand closing in red in the last

trading session which was essentially impor-tant to keep up the high moment which helpedthe market to resume its bullish run post cor-rection which is now on the path of bullishmomentum which is likely to continue during

KSE-100 bullish rallygains 358 points

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Today’s issue of PakistanObserver carries one PageSpecial Report on 44 NationalDay of The Sultanate of Omanat Page-13.

OUR CORRESPONDENT

UMERKOT—Unrelenting drought-like conditions has seen thedeaths of eight malnourished infants in Tharparkar district onMonday whereas one infant died in Civil Hospital Umerkot.

In the past 24 hours, a total of 14 people have died inTharparkar.

The latest number of reported deaths has taken the cumula-tive figure to 81 in the past 45 days in Tharparkar whereas 61infants have died over a span of three months in Umerkot.

In a recently released report by the District Health Depart-ment in Umerkot, 85 people have died in Umerkot out of which61 are said to be infants. The death toll in 2014 is reported as 470.

The deaths represent those areas where journalists are ableto gain access. However, deaths of scores of infants, who havedied in villages and private clinics, cannot be reported.

Tharparkar is spread over 22,000 square kilometers, with apopulation of about 1.5 million people. At an average, every thirdyear is a drought year. The region faces famine at least onceevery decade.

More than 80 per cent of the people’s livelihood is depen-dent on rain-fed agriculture and livestock. In fact, livestock, fullyor partially, contributes to the economy of every household inthe district.

At least 35 children in Dhali are suffering from pneu-monia and apathy of the administration has added to themisery. Dozens of villages in Chachro and Dhali remained de-void of wheat whereas hundreds of wells have dried up whereasinhibitants of Mubarak Rind are deprived of water for the past

8 more infantsdie in droughthit Tharparkar35 children suffering from

pneumonia in Dhali Army reliefoperation going on in various areas

HYDERABAD: A Tharparkar mother looks after her child admitted in Civil Hospital on Monday.—NNI photo

Ton-up Lathamanchors NZin 2nd TestDUBAI—Opener TomLatham scored his second

successive hundred toguide New Zealand to243-3 on the openingday of the second Testagainst Pakistan inDubai on Monday. The 22-year-old

followed his 103 in the firstTest with another confidentunbeaten 137 to help his teamcash into the early advantageof winning the toss andopting to bat on a flat andgrass-less Dubai stadiumpitch.—AFP

Details on Sports Page

Student injuredin Bannu

school blastOUR CORRESPONDENT

BANNU—A grenade blast atthe main gate of GovernmentSchool No.1 in Bannu on Mon-day, left one student injured.

The police say that the blastoccurred when the detonator ofa hand grenade, which wasbrought to school by a student

PR advisesImran to

face courtsISLAMABAD—Federal Infor-mation Minister, PervaizRashid, criti-cized PTIchief ImranKhan, sayingthat it wouldbe better forhim to fighthis case in thecourt, ratherin media andpublic meetings.

The minister warned ImranKhan, saying that he would

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STAFF REPORTER

ISLAMABAD—At a time when many countriesare offering financial incentives to promote theuse of clean energy, Pakistan has imposed a 32.5per cent tax on the import of solar panels, a movelikely to hit demand for solar energy.

Officials say the tax was imposed to encour-age local manufacturing of solar panels but thecountry’s Alternative Energy DevelopmentBoard (AEDB), a public organisation, has rec-ommended the government remove it as it ishampering efforts to expand the use of solarenergy and get power to off-grid areas of thecountry.

Asjad Imtiaz Ali, chief executive officer atAEDB, called the tax, which came into effect inJuly, an “inadvertent mistake” by the govern-ment - one he hopes will soon be rectified.

“The taxes are unfair and bound to hamper

the promotion of solar energy,” said Ali, whopredicted they will lead to a 35 per cent increasein the cost of solar panels in Pakistan.

Currently, two Pakistani manufacturers ofsolar panels, Akhter Solar Ltd. and Tesla SolarLtd., meet about 5 percent of the total demandfor photovoltaic panels in the country, Ali said.The rest of the demand is met by imports, hesaid.

But scaling up demand for local solar prod-ucts will depend on ensuring their quality, Alisaid.

For the protection of consumers, the AEDBhas recommended the government to put in placestandards to ensure that all solar panels sold inthe country have a guaranteed lifespan of at least20 to 25 years.

If local manufacturers meet those standards,the government could then provide incentives

Tax on panels import tohit solar energy demand

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STAFF REPORTER

ISLAMABAD—Pakistan onMonday conducted a success-ful test launch of intermediaterange Hatf IV(Shaheen I-A)ballistic missilewhich is capable of carryingnuclear and conventional war-heads to a range of 900kilometres, a statement fromthe Inter-Services Public Rela-tions said.

‘Shaheen I-A’ missile is anupgraded version of the‘Shaheen-I’ with a longer rangeand is estimated to have a pay-load capacity of 1,000 kilo-

Pak test-fires nuke capableHatf IV ballistic missile

grams.The missile’s impact point

was in the Arabian Sea.The launch was witnessed

by Chief of Naval Staff Admi-ral MuhammadZakaullah, Di-rector General

Strategic Plans Division Lieu-tenant General ZubairMahmood Hayat, CommanderArmy Strategic Forces Com-mand Lieutenant GeneralObaid Ullah Khan, senior of-ficers from the strategic forcesand scientists and engineers ofstrategic organisations.

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Picture on Back Page

Catch me if youcan: Qadri tells

Nawaz govtLONDON—Dr Tahirul Qadri,patron of Pakistan AwamiTehreek (PAT), said Mondaythat the Nawaz government cannot dare to arrest him.

Talking to media here,Qadri said that he is ready tobe arrested 100 times but thegovernment can not dare to doso. He said no power on earthcould stop him from returningto Pakistan. The controversialcleric again dismissed the no-tion he had travelled abroad asa result of a deal with the gov-ernment. “Is declaring me aproclaimed offender part of thedeal?,” he questioned and

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SYDNEY—Chinese PresidentXi Jinping on Monday vowedalways to use peaceful meansin pursuit of Beijing’s goals,including in maritime disputes,just days after US PresidentBarack Obama warned of thedangers of outright conflict inAsia.

Addressing the Australianparliament in an honour be-stowed only on one other Chi-nese leader, Hu Jintao in 2003,Xi said: “China remainsunshakeable in its resolve topursue peaceful development.”

“Neither turbulence nor

China will never useforce to achieve its goals: Xi

war serves the fundamental in-terests of the Chinese people.”

“There’s only one trend intoday’s world, that is, the trendof peace and development andwin/win cooperation,” headded in a candid address inwhich he also reminisced aboutkangaroos and koala encoun-ters during previous visits toAustralia.

The Chinese presidentevoked history to make thepoint that no one ever benefitedfrom conflict, after Obama atthe weekend G20 summit in

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Indian soldieropens fire outside

CM Srinagar houseSRINAGAR—Indian soldier ofBorder Security Force postedoutside the residence of puppetchief minister of occupiedKashmir Omar Abdullahopened unprovoked fire onMonday morning causingpanic in Srinagar.

Residents at Gupkar roadwhere Abdullah lives said theywere woken up by the gun-shots. “It was not a single shot.We heard firing and though itwas a militant attack”, said oneof them.

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One dead asKenya policeraid mosquesNAIROBI—One man waskilled Monday as Kenyansecurity forces raidedmosques in the port city ofMombasa searching forweapons and radicalsupporters of Somalia’s Al-Qaeda affiliated Shebabmilitants, police said.

Security forces began theoperation in the early hours ofMonday morning, targetingthe Masjid Musa and Sakinamosques in Mombasa.

“We had information thatthe group has been planningan attack, and that is why theraid was conducted,”

Two held forplastering ISstickers in LahoreMUZAFFAR ALI

LAHORE—Police arrestedtwo suspects Monday forplastering Islamic Statestickers on walls in variouslocalities. Earlier onNovember 3, stickers bearingthe IS flag were foundplastered on walls in Lahore’sCanal road, Nawab Town andsome other areas.

According to police, theplastering of stickers was anattempt to disrupt peacefulMuharram processions.Following the emergence ofIS stickers on walls, CapitalCity Police Officer Lahoreconstituted a special team forthe arrest of those involved insuch activities.

Two suspects werearrested from Lahore’s

Kisan Ittehadcalls offprotest

SALIM AHMED

LAHORE—A delegation of of-fice-bearers of Kisan Ittehadled by Khalid Khokhar metPunjab Chief MinisterMuhammad Shahbaz Sharifhere today and announced tocall off their protest.

Talking to the delegation,Shahbaz Sharif assured that allnecessary steps will be takenfor the uplift of agriculture sec-tor and resolving genuine prob-lems of farmers. He said thatthe subsidy rate will continueon agri tube-well for the facili-

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OBSERVER REPORT

RAWALPINDI—The army says10 more militants in Bara tehsilof restive Khyber tribal regionhave surrendered to securityforces along with their weap-ons and ammunition.

In a short statement to me-dia on Monday, the military’spublic relations wing said 350militants have so far surren-dered to security forces sincethe start of Operation Khyber-

1 last month. The total numberincludes more than 20 key mili-tant commanders, said the state-ment.

On Friday, 39 militants be-longing to Lashkar-i-Islam sur-rendered to security forces – thelargest group of militants togive up arms since the launch-ing of the intelligence-basedoperation.

The military launched the

10 more militants surrenderin Khyber Agency

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Kashmir disputeto be resolved in

‘just and fair’manner: Basit

NEW DELHI—Pakistan HighCommissioner to India, AbdulBasit has said the Kashmir dis-pute should be resolved in a‘just and fair’ manner throughdialogue, The Hindu websitereported.

Basit made the remarks onSunday while speaking to themedia at Hyderabad PressClub. He said that relations be-tween Pakistan and Indiashould not be held hostage dueto Kashmir.

“India-Pakistan relationsare very important and also verycomplex at the same time,” hesaid. He regretted cancellationof talks between the two coun-tries and expressed hope that ef-forts to ‘break the ice’ wouldyield results.

“As a diplomat, I am try-ing to strengthen the ties and Ihope during my tenure in Indiathings will move ahead,” theHindu reported Basit as saying.

The high commissionersaid he wanted Pakistan andIndia to come together to tackleserious issues like terrorism,human trafficking, organisedcrime, and climate change.

India called off foreign sec-retary-level bilateral talks withPakistan in August followingcriticism of Abdul Basit’smeeting with Hurriyat leaderShabir Shah. The two countrieshad scheduled talks betweentheir foreign secretaries for Au-gust 25.

Basit hoped the India-Pa-kistan cricket series would berevived next year. Recently, thePakistan Cricket Board Chair-man Shahryar Khan visited In-

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Security situationmain hurdle inexecution ofKCR project

MIAN ARSHAD

ISLAMABAD—Security relatedissues are hindering the execu-tion of longstanding public wel-fare project Karachi CircularRailway. Pakistan’s first suchpublic system, KCR, beganregular passenger service in1969 but was shutdown in 1999due to gross mismanagement.

“However, we hope thatconstruction of the project willbegin soon” a high officer atJapanese embassy told Paki-stan Observer here on Mondayon anonymity condition, say-ing that Japanese companies

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M A KAISERIMAM

LONDON—Former president and Co-chairmanPakistan People’s Party (PPP), Asif Ali ZardariMonday said his party was pursuing the policyof Benazir Bhutto.

Addressing a press conference here, AsifZardari said his party respects the laws of Brit-ain and accepts the decision of not allowing itto hold a rally in Birmingham due to securityreasons.

He said when he was president of Pakistanhe had told the world leaders on more than oneoccasion that ‘we are losing the war against ter-rorism’ but the warning fell on deaf ears. “Theactual war is with a terrorist mindset,” he added.

Asif Zardari said his party was concernedover the next elections in the Indian-held Kash-mir.

“We want better relations with ourneighbours including India,” he said, adding hehad tried to reason with India for resolving thelong standing issues including those of Sir Creek

PPP pursuing BB’s policy: ZardariDoors open for MQM, blames Imran for using foul language

and Siachin but ‘India didn’tbudge from its position’.

Asif Zardari said PPPChairman Bilawal BhuttoZardari only expressed hisown opinion and MuttahidaQaumi Movement (MQM)should not react angrily to it.

“If MQM wishes to meetme, it knows my address in

London. Our doors are open for MQM,” he saidin reply to a question.

To another question, Asif Zardari termed thelanguage used by Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI)Chairman, Imran Khan, as inappropriate. “Noone can use such language for their political op-ponents,” he added.

He said whatever Imran Khan says reflectshis personality and mindset.

The PPP Co-Chairman said his party doesnot support Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif butthe democratic set-up. “We want the incumbentParliament to complete its term,” he added.

ZUBAIR QURESHI

ISLAMABAD—Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf onMonday decided to go ahead with their sched-uled rallies in Larkana and Islamabad in anycase. Party’s core committee also agreed to in-vite other parties to join rallies.

PTI vice chairman Shah Mehmood Qureshisaid, “PTI doesn’t need NOC from administra-tion in order to hold a rally in Larkana.”

According to the details, PTI’s core com-mittee session took place under headship of partychairman Imran Khan in Islamabad. Finalizingarrangements for Islamabad and Larkana rallieswas the main agenda of the meeting.

PTI rallies in Islamabad,Larkana at all costs

Following the meeting, Shah MehmoodQureshi, talking to the media, alleged that thegovernment has planned obstacles in PTI rallyscheduled for November 30.

He said the attack on the PTV building willbe proven as a ‘drama’ staged by the govern-ment itself.

PTI core committee decided to talk and co-operate with the leaders willing to join PTI. Theparty also decided to invite the allied partiesSunni Ittehad Council, Majlis WahdatulMuslimeen and Pakistan Awami Tehreek to joinPTI’s planned rally.

ISPR: Haqqaninetwork

thing of pastWASHINGTON—Pakistanhas ruled out any discrimi-nation in its ongoing opera-tion against militants in

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India opensfiring, oneinjured along LoCSTAFF REPORTER

RAWALPINDI—Indian forcesonce again resorted to firingalong the Line of Control inNeiza Peer Sector of districtHeveli of Azad Kashmir onMonday, injuring a residentof Akhori village.

Deputy commissionerHaveli said a civilian,Ghulam Muhammad, wasinjured in the firing.

Pakistani troops effec-tively responded to Indianfiring.

Earlier, on November 15,the Indian army had resortedto firing near the Charwasector of the internationalborder. No casualties werereported.

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MATIARI—Commissioner Hyderabaddivision Asif Hyder Shah has asked thedistrict administration of Matiari tocomplete the development projectswithout delay so that people can ben-efit from them at the earliest.

According to a press release issuedby Sindh Information Department hereon Monday, the Commissioner chaireda meeting with the officials of the con-cerned departments at latif Hall. Shahobserved that despite the investmentof huge sums of money on the devel-opment scheme, the negligence andlack of interest was affecting the work.

“This attitude will not be tolerated,”he warned the officials adding that duetto the delay the projects had no utilityfor the public.

Deputy Commissioner FayyazHussain Abbassi briefed the commis-sioner that a total of 145 projects underthe Annual Development Plan 2014-15and 276 under District DevelopmentProgram had been approved. As many

as 154 of these schemes had been com-pleted while the remaining would becompleted within the stipulated time,he added.

He further informed that the con-struction of Public School Bhit Shah,District Headquarters hospital Matiari,Sports Stadium Hala, Sufi University inBhit Shah were in the process ofcompletion. The DC told that 172 casesof polio drops rejection had also beensorted out.

The commissioner was also in-formed that various schemes fundedby the MNA and MPAs had also beencompelted.

The DC further informed that 46schemes under the President’s devel-opment Package were completed lastyear while another 151 schemes werestarted in the ongoing financial year outof which 104 had been completed.

In view of the complaints of short-age of irrigation water, the Commis-sioner directed the DC to activate the

District Abadgar Board for better coor-dination of the farmers with te govern-ment.

The Commissioner also asked thedistrict administration to take actionagainst big landlords involved in watertheft. After taking briefing from the as-sistant commissioners, the Commis-sioner asked them to improve the taxcollection system from their respectivetehsils.

Shah also issued a show cause no-tice to the Mukhtiarkar of Hala tehsil toexplain discrepancies in the Revenuerecord. The officials of the Public HealthEngineering informed the Commis-sioner that Rs 137 million were beingspent on a drainage project in Matiari.

The Commissioner was also givena detailed briefing about the perfor-mance, tax collection, income and dif-ferent development works being car-ried out by the town committees. Later,the Commissioner visited several partsof the district.—APP

Commissioner for early completionof development projects

Three membersof family killedin road accident

D.I KHAN—Three membersof a family were killed onMonday and two others sus-tained serious injuries in aroad mishap near districtJhang.

The family was returningD.I.Khan after attending aspiritual gathering “TabhlighiIjtima” in Raiwind Lahorewhen their car rammed into atruck coming from oppositedirection, family sources said.The deceased were identifiedas wife, sister-in-law andnephew of Ch. Riaz while theinjured were Ch. Riaz and hissister’s husband.

The injured were rushedto Jinnah Hospital Lahore fornecessary medical treatmentwhile dead bodies were sentto native town here.—APP

FAISALABAD—The Univer-sity of AgricultureFaisalabad has set up a‘wellness club’ comprisingof Nutrition Clinics; andYoga Therapy Centre in or-der to address the issue ofmalnutrition through aware-ness and clinical aspects tothe people.

The club established bythe National Institute ofFood Sciences and Technol-ogy (NIFSAT) in collabora-tion with School of NutritionLahore was inaugurated byUAF Vice Chancellor Prof DrIqrar Ahmad Khan alongwith MNA Rana Afzal, hereon Monday.

Registrar MuhammadHusain, Treasurer UmerSaeed, Controller Dr AbdulWahid; Deans Prof Dr IqbalZafar, Dr Allah Buksh, ProfDr Muhammad Javaid, ProfDr Muhammad Sarwar; mem-bers of visiting team of Se-nior Management Courseand others were present onthe occasion.

They also inaugurated

the Food Club set up at theNifsat.

The Vice Chancellor saidmore than 40 percent of chil-dren are malnourished andaround 60 percent of womenare anaemic, adding malnu-trition is the one of the big-gest challenges for the coun-try.

He was of the view thatthe changing lifestyle andeating habits are causingmany diseases includingheart, diabetics, obesity andothers.

He suggested the usageof the balanced diet keepingin view its nutritional valueand making the physical ac-tivities like exercise, walk orsport as the routine matter.He said that the UAF haslaunched the BS programmein Human Nutrition and Di-etetics in order to prepare themanpower.He said that com-bination of vegetables, grains,meat and fruit is important. Thepeople should avoid excessiveusage of oil, salt and sugar indiet, he suggested.—APP

UAF establishes‘wellness club’

IRFAN ALIGI

KARACHI—Pakistan People’s Party(PPP) members national assembly(MNA) Nawab Yousuf Talpur, MirMunawwar Talpur, Ejaz Jakhrani, MirShabbir Ali Bijarani while expressingsatisfaction on Sindh government’sefforts on Tharparkar said a deliber-ate move was being launched againstpeople’s elected government and inthis regard, certain sections had for apurpose focused on Tharparkar withunnecessary magnification. PPP wasbeing a pro-masses political party thathad its deep roots among the massesacross the country had for many timesin past faced such trials and wouldsoon foil the conspiracies beinghatched against the party.

The PPP MNAs said a few fromthe national media were making allthey could to magnify the Tharparkarscenario with unnecessary additionsto the stories they had so far carriedwhile ignoring the anomalies of themasses in other provinces where crimerate was higher than the Sindh prov-ince and the health care system wasperforming in high spirits. Even thecrucial war against the terrorist, theOperation Zarb-e Azb’ was also notgiven top priority because theywanted to keep the rating meter high.

The torture on the internally dis-placed persons (IDP) and their arrest

Tharparkar situation

Trial of PPP-led Sindh Govtpart of conspiracy: PPP MNAs

only for demanding food to eat was ahighly condemnable act of the provin-cial government of KhyberPakhtoonkhawa and it was the demandof the national spirit that the mediacoverage of the patron party of thegovernment of KPK, the PakistanTehreek-e Insaf should be completelyboycotted, they deplored.

They said Sindh government hadso far spent billions on the welfare,relief and rehabilitation of the inhabit-ants of Tharparkar and had so dis-pensed 50, 000 wheat bags among theinhabitants of Tharparkar during past8 months and each of the Basic healthunits was working properly in all unioncouncils of the district.

The PPP MNAs said the childmortality rate in the country was 65deaths from 1000 children while in dis-trict, the rate was just 45 to 50 deaths.Three hundred and twenty-five re-verse osmosis water filtration plants(ROWFP) would be functional in thedistrict by Dec 27 this current yearwhile further 400 ROWFPs would beinstalled by May 2015 with which theissue of access to potable water wouldbe resolved.

They said the rate of death per1000 children in Tharparkar was com-paratively less than the rate of deathat the national level as death inTharparkar were just 45 to 50 while therate at national level was 65 per 1000

children.PPP had installed 70 ROWFPs in

recent past, which were being shiftedto solar energy and 5 such ROWFPshad already been converted on solarenergy. Around 100-acre could bemade fertile for agri-produce with theuse of soil water through pumps be-ing installed in Tharparkar.

On the other hand, federal govern-ment had started a .Clean Water forAll’ programme in 2005 under which6035 ROWFPs had to be installedacross Pakistan and a sum of Rs.4 bil-lion was earmarked, which was thricerevised and the cost of the projectreached Rs. 16 billion. However, yet,all the RO plants under federalgovernment’s aegis were lying dead,the PPP MNAs said.They informed that under the publicprivate partnership programme, BHUSwere fully functional in all 50 UCs ofTharparkar while Taluka and DistrictHospitals were being upgraded andfurther 20 doctors were posted inTharparkar due to which death tollespecially of infants and children inTharparkar had saliently declined. Inaddition, PPP-led Sindh governmenthad launched the vocational trainingprogramme for the youth ofTharparkar. In this regard, the Mono-technical College in Mithi was beingupgraded for which Sindh governmenthad already released Rs100 million.

ISLAMABAD—Jirga held under Awami Na-tional Party (ANP) has demanded that In-ternally Displaced Persons ( IDPs) issuebe not sacrificed at the altar of politics asthis is not the issue of one province but itis issue of the entire country and nation. Ajirga was held under ANP chief Asfand YarWali Khan here Monday. Maulana Fazl urRehman of JUI-F, Siraj ul Haq Amir Jamaat-e- Islami (JI), Aftab Ahmad Khan Sherpao,Mehmood Khan Achakzai and ANP seniorleader Iftikhar Hussain and others attendedthe jirga.

Addressing the joint press conferenceconvened after jirga, Maulana Fazl said jirgahas considered what are the difficultiesbeing faced by IDPs and how can their prob-lems be resolved. In this grand tribal jirgawhich has been convened here future strat-egy will be evolved to highlight the prob-lems facing the IDPs. To a question thatIDPs issue is provincial government or fed-eral government issue, he said JI Amir cangive the reply to this question better as heis ally of provincial government. Replyingto another question he said issue ofaffectees of operation is purely humanitar-ian issue and it should not be sacrificed atthe alter of politics. Provincial government

is name of unity of federation. Province isneither a separate unit or concept of a sepa-rate state.

Every one will have to realize one’s re-sponsibilities in every matter and collec-tive policies will have to be evolved, heunderlined. To a question on previousgrand jirga he said the tribesmen had de-manded in that grand jirga that peace beensured in their area, educational facilitiesbe provided and blood shed be brought toend. They should be allowed to decideabout their political future, he added. Sirajul Haq said “ it has been decided in today’sjirga that we will discuss this issue be-yond party interests. IDPs issue is not onlyissue of provincial or federal governmentbut the responsibility in this respect restswith 180 million people that they shouldplay their role to address the problems be-ing confronted by IDPs. Asfand Yar Walisaid media should raise IDPs issue and itshould hold itself accountable too that howmuch time is given to this crucial issue ofIDPs in 24 hours. Mehmood Khan Achakzaisaid government should focus on the prob-lems facing the affectees of operation andcompensate for the loss being caused tothem forthwith.—Online

IDPs issue be not sacrificed ataltar of politics: ANP Jirga

STAFF REPORTER

ISLAMABAD—Kashmir is the oldest issue oninternational level but nothing has been donefor its resolution. India is violating the inter-national laws and Kashmiris are facing dis-crimination, custodial killings, torture, andrapes. These views were expressed by speak-ers at a seminar on “Elections & HumanRights Abuses - Case Study of Indian HeldKashmir” organised by Muslim Institute atNational Library.

Highlighting the Kashmir issue they saidthat Kashmir issue was not highlighted oninternational level as compared to other is-sues because India is not giving access toneutral media and organizations to visit Kash-

mir and cover the ground realities of humanright abuses.

In the seminar, Chairman Muslim Insti-tute Sahibzada Sultan Ahmad Ali, ConvenerTehreek-e-Hurriyat Jammu & Kashmir Mr.Ghulam Muhammad Safi, Former AdditionalSecretary for Foreign Affairs, Amb. (R)Munawar Saeed Bhatti, Ambassador (R)Aslam Rizvi, Expert on Kashmir Dr. MarjanLucas from Netherlands and HoD I.R Dept.National Defence University (NDU)Islamabad, Dr. Muhammad Khan and Dr AttiaInayatullah participated in the seminar. Speak-ers said, India was using force against un-armed innocent Kashmiris and is using bulletand ballot to crush the voices of Kashmirisfor their right of self-determination.

India not giving access toneutral media to visit held Kashmir

MANSEHRA: Guard of Honour being presented to Shaheed Major Wasif Ali Shah, during his funeral, who wasmartyred in operation Zarb-e-Azab.

BAHAWALPUR: Makhdoom Ahmed Mehmood, former Governor Punjab addressing apress conference.

QUETTA: Activists of PTI Committee hold a protest in favour of their demands.

Four upliftschemes approved

SALIM AHMED

LAHORE—The Punjab gov-ernment approved four de-velopment schemes of vari-ous development sectorswith an estimated cost of Rs.7386.199 million.

These schemes were ap-proved in the 24th meetingof Provincial DevelopmentWorking Party of current fis-cal year 2014-15 presidedover by the Punjab Planningand Development BoardChairman, Muhammad IrfanElahi, says P&D Spokesman.

Provincial Secretary P&DWaseem Ajmal Chaudhary,members of the Planning &Development Board, Provin-cial Secretaries concernedand other senior representa-tives of the relevant Provin-cial Departments also at-tended the meeting.

According to Spokes-man for P&DD, the approveddevelopment schemes in-cluded: scheme of Informa-tion and Culture Sector titledDevelopment of Park andCompletion of Basements forCar Parking at DoongiGround, M.M. Alam Road,Lahore (Revised) at the costof Rs. 235.834 million, Twoschemes of Road SectorWidening / Improvement ofPattoki to Kanganpur Roadlength=54.10 kms in DistrictKasur (Revised) at the costof Rs. 983.285 million, Wid-ening / Improvement of roadfrom Harnoli to WanBhachran to Musa Khel0.00 km to 49.13 kmlength=49.13 km in DistrictMianwali (Revised) at thecost of Rs. 545.729 millionand One Scheme of Irriga-tion Sector Channelizationof Deg Nullah at the cost ofRs. 5621.351 million.

Moot on colonialand post-colonial

PunjabSTAFF REPORTER

LAHORE—A two-day inter-national conference on “Co-lonial and post-colonialPunjab” Monday began atthe Government CollegeUniversity, Lahore under theauspices of the university’sHistory Department andHigher Education Commis-sion. Eminent social scien-tist Dr Muhammad Waseemchaired the inaugural ses-sion of the conference com-prised of six technical ses-sions on ‘ideologies andeducation’, ‘politics and re-ligion’, ‘socio-economicmarginalization’, ‘new per-spective in historicalmethod’, ‘identity formationin colonial/post-colonialPunjab’ and ‘Art, Cultureand Society’.

Addressing the partici-pants of the conference, ViceChancellor Prof DrMuhammad Khaleeq-ur-Rahman said history wasvery a vital subject as it wasa mirror through which theycould see their past, analyzetheir present and plan for aprosperous future. How-ever, he said, that “our his-tory says that we don’t learnfrom our mistakes and keepon repeating them.” The VCalso said that all academicdepartments of GCU wereholding international con-ferences in connection withthe university’s 150 yearscelebrations, adding thatproceedings of these con-ferences would be publishedas per the best internationalstandards and would be for-warded to the abstractingagencies.

GCU History Depart-ment Chairman DrMuhammad Ibrahim saidthat the key concept of theconference was to under-stand economic, politicaland social consequences ofcolonial administration inPunjab and impacts of colo-nial institutions in post-co-lonial Punjab.

Turkishdelegation

visits UVASMUZAFFAR ALI

LAHORE—A Turkish del-egation visited the Univer-sity of Veterinary and Ani-mal Sciences UVAS Lahoreand called on Vice-Chan-cellor Prof Dr Talat NaseerPasha here on Monday anddiscussed on progressivecontrol of foot-and-mouthdisease and developmentof breeding improvementand vaccine production inlivestock sector and re-lated sectors.

The Turkish delegationcomprised on Mr Prof DrVeli Gulyazi Director of Foot& Mouth Disease (FMD)Institute Turkey while DrMuhammad Afzal ProjectCo-coordinator Progres-sive control FMD, Dr SanaUllah Bhatti AdditionalSecretary Livestock andDairy Development Depart-ment Punjab, Dr KhushiMuhammad, Dr MasoodRabbani and many officialspresent on the occasion.

PESHAWAR—Minister ofState for Health Services,Regulations and Coordina-tion, Saira Afzal Tarar saidMonday security issues inKhyber Pakhtunkhwa andFata could not deter the de-termination of the govern-ment in the fight against po-lio and the time was not foraway when Pakistan willachieve a polio free status.

Talking to media personsafter presiding over a high-level meeting on polio eradi-cation programmes ofKhyber Pakhtunkhwa andFata here at the Office ofChief Secretary KP, the StateMinister said 90 percent po-lio cases were reported fromthose areas of KP and Fatawhere there was a problem ofsecurity.

“The security situation inKP and Fata could not becompared with other areas ofPakistan. However, togetherwe can make a big differ-ence,” she remarked. Sairasaid Government was wellaware of the security prob-lems in KP and Fata and thatsecurity issues raised duringthis meeting would be raisedbefore PM’s special cabinetcommittee on polio eradica-tion. She urged PTI ChiefImran Khan to come forwardand lead polio vaccinationcampaigns in his provincewhere his party is in power,adding Imran Khan activeparticipation would createawareness among peopleagainst this crippling dis-

Security issues not to deter Govtdetermination to fight polio

PESHAWAR: Minister of State for National Health Services Regulations and Coordination, Saira Afzal Tararflanked by Chief Secretary KP Amjad Ali Khan and PM Focal Person Aysha Raza Farooq addressing a high levelmeeting regarding Polio at Civil Secretariat.

ease.She said although Seht

Ka Insaf programme re-mained effective but one timeintervention to get rid of po-lio was not enough, sayingcontinuous immunization arenecessary to raise immunitylevel of children. She saidspecial campaigns would belaunched in about 160 high

risks union councils of KPwith an assistance of provin-cial government and deprivedchildren, IDPs kids would betrack down for vaccination.She said it has been notedthat 99% polio cases werereported in children belowtwo years of age.

She said KP Governmentand Fata administration pre-

sented a solid plan againstpolio that would producegood results after implemen-tation.

Saira Afzal Tarar saidChief Secretary KP has as-sured to take strict disciplin-ary action against officialsfound guilty in negligence ofduty during polio vaccinationcampaigns while the Deputy

Commissioners would betransferred for not meetingtheir targets. It would bemandatory for the top hierar-chy of Health Departmentand the district administra-tion to monitor and supervisepolio campaigns on groundsto enhance efficiency of thefield staff besides motivategeneral public. —APP

‘Academics playvital role in

country’s progress’MULTAN—An academic ofErfurt University of Ger-many, Dr Hussnain Bukharion Monday said thatprogress and revolution ofany country depends onconcepts on its academia.

Addressing a seminarorganized by ZakarianPhilosophical Society ofPhilosophy department ofBahauddin Zakariya Uni-versity here, Dr HussnainBukhari said that the pur-pose of the seminar wasto examine the new pref-erences of media in Paki-stan and its impact on thesociety.—APP

ISLAMABAD—Member OperationsNational Highway Authority ArshadMahmood Chaudhary has said thattechnical modality of the New Karachi-Lahore Motorway (KLM) has been fi-nalized and Prime Minister of PakistanMuhammad Nawaz Sharif will soonperform its ground breaking. He saidthat a total of Rs. 117.624 and Rs. 24.744million rupees have been allocated forexpansion and repair and maintenancerespectively for NHA’s road networkthis year, whereas the Government in-tends not only to upgrade the existingnetwork but it also intends to timelycomplete the National Trade Corridorand Pak-China Trade Corridor under acomprehensive strategy.The MemberOperation said “The Prime Minister’sdevelopment vision envisages revolu-tionary changes in the communicationssector therefore; work on these megaprojects is going to start immediately”.

Technical modality of KLM project finalizedHe expressed these views in his

address while chairing NHA’s Stake-holders’ Consultative Conference or-ganized by NHA in Karachi,said a pressrelease issued Monday. On this occa-sion, NHA’s General Manager SindSouth Sami-ur-Rehman, GM SindNorth Shabeer Ali Shah, GMBaluchistan South Mushtaq AhmadKubdani, GM Baluchistan North NoorHasan, GM Punjab South Hafiz AhmadBakhsh Eman, Director RAMD Ikram-us-Saqlain Haider among others, werealso present.

The conference was also ad-dressed by representatives of GoodsTransport Associations, CNG Asso-ciations, Petrol Pump Associations,Bus Owners Associations, Car CarrierAssociations, civil society and cham-ber of commerce. Member Operationsfurther said that Pakistan aims to pro-vide a trade corridor to countries of the

region so that its ties with all countriesof the region, including the CentralAsian States, are strengthened.

Arshad Mahmood Chaudhary saidthat one of the objectives of NHA is topromote inter-provincial and regionalharmony by facilitating rapid economicdevelopment and it has spent Rs. 50billions during the current fiscal yearto achieve its targets whereas Rs. 17billions have been spent on repair andmaintenance of the existing roads, headded.

The Member Operations addedthat due to NHA’s improved road net-work, the time taken from one end ofthe country to the other has minimizedfrom 72 hours to 36 hours whereasmarked improvement has been wit-nessed in tourism and transport sec-tors of the country, and considerableamounts have also been allocated forhighway safety on motorways.—APP

STAFF REPORTER

KARACHI—The APNS expresses its dismayover the consistent indifference of the SindhGovernment to clear the dues of APNS mem-bers despite various pledges and assurancesby the high officials not less than the ChiefMinister and the Information Minister ofSindh.

Syed Qaim Ali Shah, the Chief Minister,Sindh had assured the APNS delegation ledby the APNS President, Mr. Hameed Haroonthat the old outstanding dues of over 40crores will be paid in 04 tranche of Rs.10crores each but despite various remindersand subsequent assurances, the paymenthas not yet been made.

The meeting of the APNS Sindh Com-mittee noted that the APNS requests to theChief Minister, Minister for Information andthe Secretary Information remain unattendedand the issue has lingered on resulting inaccumulation of dues of over Rs.450 million.

This situation has caused acute finan-cial crunch to the newspaper industry in theprovince hence, there is no option left to the

APNS but to take action against the SindhGovernment as per rules of Society.

Mr. Sharjeel Inam Memon and the Sec-retary Information in a meeting on August16, 2014 had also assured the APNS thatthe current dues of member publications forthe period January 01, 2014 to August 31,2014 will be cleared shortly. It was also as-sured that a minimum quantum for eachmember publication will be allocated so thatthey may meet their bare minimum require-ments.

The APNS Sindh Provincial Committeenoted that none of the above assurancesand promises have been honored.

The APNS, therefore, request the SindhGovernment to make payments of thetranche of Rs.10 crores against old out-standing dues and the dues of Rs.15 croresrelating to the current year advertising byNovember 30, 2014 positively as well as fixa minimum quantum for the newspapers,failing which, the APNS would have nooption but to suspend the advertisementsof the Sindh Government in member publi-cations on the expiry of the above date.

APNS criticizes Sindh Govtfor non-payment of dues

PESHAWAR—A special three-day polio cam-paign to immunise around 127,000 childrenin the Khyber Agency was launched onMonday. The new campaign will be carriedout by 2,400 teams of health-workers,guarded by 3,000 security personnel. Thelaunch, however, has been delayed inTehsil of Bara, one of the most high riskareas due to security reasons.

Health workers in Landikotal have alsorefused to participate in the drive as theyhad not been paid for their efforts in thelast 10 campaigns. Khyber Agency has thehighest number of reported polio cases af-ter the restive North Waziristan Agency.According to data, of the 96 per cent, resi-dents of North Waziristan Agency’s Wazirtribe accounted for 34 per cent of the cases.

Earlier, in September, the KhyberPakhtunkhwa province had reported 25polio cases for the year with at least fivetraced back to Fata. Fata, which has neverbeen able to vaccinate its targeted popula-tion of around nine million since the global

polio eradication initiative began in Paki-stan in the mid 1990s, has become a realchallenge for the government and UN agen-cies, which are finding it extremely hard toaddress the issue of reaching unvaccinatedchildren and tackle vaccination refusalcases.

The World Health Organisation (WHO)has said that Pakistan is responsible fornearly 80 per cent of polio cases reportedglobally. “The situation is primarily due toa lack of access to children for vaccination,largely owing to a continuing ban onimmunisation imposed by militants in theNorth and South Waziristan, and insecu-rity and killing of polio workers in the field,”said a recent progress report. “Pakistan re-mains the greatest single risk to the achieve-ment of global polio eradication.

Issues involving children’s access toimmunisation and safety of vaccinatorsmust be resolved to ensure that theprogramme can be completed,” said thereport.—INP

Three-day polio campaignlaunched in Khyber Agency

Jhelum firing:FIR registered

against N-Leaguelocal leader

JHELUM—Police on Mondayregistered a case againstChaudhry Nadeem Khadim, aformer MPA of ruling PML-N,for his alleged involvement inSunday’s incident of firing onPakistan Awami Tehreek work-ers in Jhelum town of Punjab.Ten PTI workers sustainedbullet injuries when a proces-sion of the party was fired uponin Gharmala village of Jhelum,close to the party’s large pub-lic gathering at Syed ZamirHussain Jaffery Stadium. Po-lice, on Sunday, claimed tohave arrested three personsallegedly involved in the at-tack.

Both PML-N and PTIblamed each other for incite-ment of violence and attack.Chaudhry Nadeem, whilespeaking to Samaa yesterday,said that his guards firedshots after some PTI workersattacked his residence locatedin the village. On the otherhand, PTI leader IjazChaudhry claimed that the at-tack was carried out by PML-N supporters to prevent PTIworkers from participating inthe public gathering. Today,police said Chaudhry Nadeemand TMO Chaudhry Rashidhave been nominated in theFIR, lodged in Sadar policestation, for their involvementin the incident.—Online

QUETTA—Malnutrition is a global issue af-fecting a vast majority of the population,mostly inhabitants of the continents of Af-rica and Asia. It is widely acknowledged to beaddressed promptly and seriously by theagencies working for the betterment of hu-man lives across the globe.

Pakistan, despite having blessed withabundant natural resources and assisted bygeographical condition, is unfortunatelyamong world’s leading malnutrition countriesthat are home to 90 per cent of undernour-ished people.

The poverty, across the globe, alone isthe major contributor to ever increasing num-ber of malnourished but law and order, illit-eracy, food insecurity, sub-standard food and,the most prominent, bad or poor governancehave added more to the fury in the country,especially in the province of Balochistan.

The World Health Organization (WHO)has already declared emergency in the prov-

ince as the number of undernourished womenand children as compared to other parts ofthe country is increasing day by day whichnow stands above 52.5 % against 44 % atnational level. Woes and worries associatedwith problem are increasing woman and in-fant death rates, underweight new born ba-bies and putting this marginalized group vul-nerable to different diseases.

Since 10 out of 20 food insecure districtsof the country belong to Balochistan, the ef-forts of the UN agencies, local governmentand other NGOs could not achieve as muchto bring significant change in the nutritionalstatus of the province.

Dr Abid Panezai, Health Specialist atBalochistan Nutrition Cell, admitting fail-ure and terming it accessibility problemsaid the health teams could hardly cover10 percent of the targeted malnourishedchildren and women in only five districtsout of nine.—APP

Good governance critical to addressmalnutrition in Balochistan

ISLAMABAD: President Mamnoon Hussain administering oath of office to MajorGeneral (Retd) Niaz Muhammad Khan Khattak as Chairman Federal Public ServiceCommission at Aiwn-e-Sadr.

FAISALABAD: Activists of Pakistan Awami Tehreek hold a demonstration in supportof their demands.

ISLAMABAD—The met officeon Monday forecast coldand dry weather in mostparts of the country includ-ing federal capital during thenext 24 hours.

Mainly cold and dryweather is expected in Punjab,Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Sindh,Balochistan, Kashmir andGilgit-Baltistan.

However, Skardu with -6to -4 degree centigrade,Hunza, Kalat and Quetta -4to -2, Gilgit -3 to -1, andChitral -2 to 0 would be thecoldest areas during the next24 hours.

According to synoptic

Cold, dry weather toprevail across country

STAFF REPORTER

MURREE—A special awareness walk washeld on Monday under the joint auspicesof Rawalpindi Waste Management Com-pany and Albayrak Solid Waste Companyregarding cleanliness and Solid WasteManagement in Murree which was startedfrom Pindi Point side on the Mall Murreeand concluded at GPO chowk. AssistantCommissioner Murree Tahir Farooq, MDRawalpindi Waste Management Company(RWMC) Irfan Qureshi, and Country Headof Albayrak Solid Waste Company in Paki-stan Bunyamin Karaja led the walk, whichwas also participated by local public repre-sentatives, PML (N) workers, citizens andlarge number of girl & boy students. On

this occasion, officers of Tehsil Adminis-tration, senior executives of both compa-nies and participants of the walk pratcticallytook part in cleanliness campaign with aview to highlight that everyone in the soci-ety should play its role for maintainingcleanliness in cities and in the area aroundtheir homes.

AC Murree Tahir Farooq on the con-clusion of the walk addressing to the par-ticipants said that Rawalpindi Waste Man-agement Company has outsourced work ofcleanliness and Solid Waste Managementin Murree and Rawalpindi to Albayrak , aTurkish Company. He added that AlbayrakCompany would handle and execute workof cleanliness and Solid Waste Manage-ment in cities of Murree and Rawalpindi for

Cleanliness awareness walk held

situation, continental air isprevailing over most parts ofthe country. The Multan

Met office has forecast dryweather for the city and itssuburbs during the next 24hours. On Monday, maxi-mum and minimum tempera-tures were recorded as 28.2C and 10.8 degree centigraderespectively.—APP

ERRA completesrain harvesting

systemsin AJK, KP

ISLAMABAD—EarthquakeReconstruction and Reha-bilitation Authority (ERRA)has successfully completed40,000 rain harvestingschemes in hilly areas ofAzad Jammu and Kashmirand Khyber Pakhtunkhwawith cost of Rs 550 million.Project Director Syed ZaheerHussa in Gardeizi on Mon-day submitted projectcompletion details in aweekly progress meetingchaired by Deputy ChairmanERRA Maj Gen Azeem Asifat ERRA headquarters.

Sharing the details in themeeting Syed ZaheerGardeizi said that October 8,2005 earthquake not onlykilled thousands of peoplebut also damaged houses,infrastructure including 4700water supply schemes, saida press release.

He said that ERRA waterand sanitation directorate re-constructed and rehabili-tated all damaged water andsanitation schemes well intime benefiting more than 2.7million people of hilly areasof AJK and KhyberPakhtunkhwa earthquake af-fected areas. He said that rainwater harvesting project wascompleted in 20 union coun-cils of earthquake affecteddistricts and successfully in-stalled 40,000 systems at vul-nerable houses and publicbuildings.

The prime objective wasto lessen miseries of thewomen folk whose precioustime consumed for fetchingwater from the meadowwhich was also injurious fortheir health, he added.

He informed the meetingthat first ever roof top rainwater harvesting projectsin public sector of Pakistanhas not only improved thelivelihood but also theirhealth. —APP

KP to construct356 small,

medium hydelpower stations

P E S H A W A R — K h y b e rPakhtunkhwa Minister forEnergy and Power,Mohammad Atif Khan Mon-day told the house that pro-vincial government wouldconstruct 356 small and me-dium power stations to pro-vide electricity to the far-flungareas of the province.

He was responding to thequestion of the SardarAurangzeb Nalotha of PML-N regarding the constructionof small dams to meet the en-ergy shortage in KhyberPakhtunkhwa.

The provincial ministersaid that these micro-powerstations would be establishedon the run of the river and itscapacity would be up to 35megawatt. He said the provin-cial government is making ef-forts to establish these powerhouses in the areas not linkedwith the national grid.

After the completion ofthe projects, it would behanded over to the commu-nity of the areas concerned.He said that the electricitygenerated from these projectswould be supplied to thepeople free of charges.—APP

Don’t injectviolence into sit-ins

IF speeches of PTI leader Imran Khan and his partners in agitationare taken as a cue then November 30 sit-in in front of the ParliamentHouse in Islamabad is going to be a violent event, obviously aimed

at getting dead bodies to do politics over them. This is highly suicidaltendency, which could not only harm the country and the system butalso inflict fatal blows to the sponsors of the violence as well and theirdream for coming into power through whatever means, might not evermaterialize.

We have been repeatedly pointing out in these columns that protestsand agitation is right of every citizen and group of people but thesemust be within the bounds of the law and the Constitution. Initially, thelong march and sit-ins of both PTI and PAT were violent and therefore,they did not receive sympathy or support of the masses. However, theircause to reform the system reverberated throughout the length andbreadth of the country when they adopted decent and permissible meansfor the purpose. This was amply reflected by the overwhelming responsethat PTI received during its public meetings in different parts of thecountry. But regrettably, speeches at these meetings were rhetoric, ven-omous, mere accusations and above all an incitement to violence. ImranKhan himself is on record having said that if his demands are not metby November 30 then the sit-in would not remain peaceful. His col-league Sheikh Rashid, who is speaking language these days that is mu-sic to Khan, went a step further during his speech at Nankana Sahibwhere he asked people to indulge in arson and killing to end rule ofPML-N. He used almost similar words in inciting people to violenceduring his speech in Jhelum. Analysts believe that utterances and threatsof these leaders are a clear reflection of their frustration and they aredoing so either to get them arrested or give a violent turn to the anti-government movement to achieve their designs. Imran Khan must knowthat he has achieved much by creating necessary awareness amongmasses but the gains could be lost if he pursues the agenda set byjokers of politics. The system might not be perfect, the Governmentmight not be delivering but the answer lies in allowing the system tofunction and not causing its collapse. There is absolutely no guaran-tee that you would give people the kind of system you are promisingto them as you have same if not the worst lot around you.

Karachi N-power plantsshould not be derailed

THE work on two vitally important nuclear power plants in Karachihas effectively been stalled by some vested interests through judicial

intervention. The Government was committed to pursue construction ofK-2 and K-3 nuclear power plants with a capacity of 2200 MW and signedagreements with China for the purpose but this anti-nuclear lobby hasbecome active to thwart these projects on different excuses.

Incidentally, these are the same people who opposed Pakistan’s nuclearprogramme ever since its inception but the country continued its journeyon the path of self-defence through nuclear deterrence and succeeded inachieving status of nuclear power that has helped prevent major crises inthe region in the past. Pakistan has now embarked upon a multi-prongedstrategy to ensure energy security that is so crucial for economic develop-ment and in turn political sovereignty. Pakistan Atomic Energy Commis-sion (PAEC) deserves appreciation that in the face of highly discrimina-tory attitude adopted by the Western world, which is not only not willingto provide sensitive technology to Pakistan but is also not ready to giveadmission to Pakistani students in nuclear related fields, it has movedahead to safeguard core interests of the country. One must acknowledgethe wholehearted support being extended by our all-weather friend Chinathat is cooperating in peaceful uses of nuclear technology despite ob-jections by anti-Pakistan lobbies. The most encouraging aspect of thedeal with China is that it would provide about 80% financing for twonuclear power plants in Karachi which means completion of the projectunhindered and without any delays that are generally caused by finan-cial constraints and technological hiccups. Pakistan’s power crisis hastwo dimensions – crippling shortages and rising cost of generation –and experts believe the solution lies in energy mix. PAEC plans to add40,000 MW to the national grid through installation of 32 nuclear powerplants and K-2 and K-3 are vital components of the plan. We would,therefore, urge the Government to get all hurdles removed so that workon these projects proceeds without further delay.

Ayan real faceof Pakistan

AYAN Qureshi, 6, became the world’s youngest Microsoft CertifiedProfessional after passing the exam when he was just five years old.

A report by BBC says the test cleared by him is usually taken by peoplewho want to become IT technicians.

Ayan is the latest addition to the proud record that the country hasbecause of excellence achieved by young students in different fields in-cluding latest and emerging technologies as well as educational career.Earlier, Arfa Karim (late) earned the distinction by completing the courseat the age of nine and was given President’s Pride of Performance. BabarIqbal did the same while Ibrahim Shahid set the new world of securing 23A’s in O level. Ibrahim’s Achievement is a Record in Cambridge’s 800years history. Twelve year old Irtiza Haider became world’s youngestCisco Certified Network Associate. Apart from these, we all know thefame that has been earned by Malala, who was recently awarded NobelPeace Prize for her services and contribution in the field of education. Allthese are bright faces of Pakistan and need to be projected as such. In fact,these and similar other young children are the real face of the country andnot the terrorists whose activities are brining bad name to the country dueto negative projection in the world media. Pakistan has a sizeable youngpopulation, which is often referred to as demographic dividend and wehope the Government would take concrete steps to channelize their tal-ent and energy for a promising future of the country.

Pak-Afghan relations

Kabul-Islamabad

thaw

THE debut visit of AfghanPresident Ashraf Ghani hascome at a time when

Islamabad is on the verge of seal-ing its successes on its westernfrontiers against the militants.While Ghani’s predecessor HamidKarzai nursed reservations againstPakistan and doubted its sincerityin fighting the United States-ledwar on terrorism, without doingenough on his own, this high-pro-file interaction is likely to go a longway in not only redefining bilat-eral priorities for both the coun-tries but also for the region.

The good point is that Ghanireportedly refrained from stirringany controversy, and receptivelyacknowledged the stride that thePakistan Army had made in elimi-nating the hideouts of Al Qaeda,Taliban and the like. Islamabad, atthe same time, demanded of theAfghan authorities to act againstabsconders who take refuge andindulge in terror activities from theother side of the Durand Line. Itremains to be seen what impact thebriefing and debriefing sessionswill have on the policy preferencesof Kabul and Islamabad in an erawhen the coalition forces are on thelast leg of their exit schedule, andthe US forces stationed in Afghani-stan will be of ceremonial impor-tance. The need of the hour forPakistan and Afghanistan is to endthe culture of blame game. Ghani,after years of mistrust that hiscountry bred against Pakistanwhich itself is a victim of terror-ism, has a rare opportunity to opena new vista of geo-strategic coop-eration. It’s high time Afghanistanstopped seeing Pakistan from thelens of other stakeholders in theregion and strikes a chord that ge-nerically upholds fraternity. Thethaw that Ghani has introduced isa good omen to begin with.— Khlaeej Times

*****

Regionalefforts keyto fighting

terror

THE region is in a war ofideas. And extremist ideashave become the key com-

modity in this war, which is de-stroying the region and threaten-ing the disintegration of countries.The spread of social media toolshas made it easy for terror mer-chants to recruit the young andseek finance. Therefore, the list ofterror groups issued by the UAEis an important milestone in thefight against terrorism and attempt-ing to put out the fires ragingacross our Arab region. The UAEhas always projected an exampleof the prosperous, moderate andinnovation-driven state that shouldbe followed by other countries inthe developing world. Its successstory should be imitated by othercountries that have instead en-gaged in policies that lead to ei-ther violent uprising or civil wars.

Today, the UAE is spellingout exactly the remedy to regionalills. Terrorism must be foughthard and terror groups must bestopped. The UAE anti-terror list,which designates 85 groups asterrorist, shows the seriousness ofthe country in fighting this eviland an attempt to tell other coun-tries to join the just fight againstwarmongers and terror merchants.The UAE cannot do it alone.Other countries have to step in andshoulder their share of responsi-bility in stopping these terroristgroups from further waging ideo-logical wars and sucking in ouryouth into the inferno. The Westhas a responsibility too. Groupsthat operate in western countries,exploiting the relaxed rules muststop the influx of money and re-cruits to radical groups fightingin Syria, Iraq, Libya and otherhotspots. UAE made it very clearit will not tolerate such activityon its soil or by its citizens. Othercountries, especially in the GulfCooperation Council (GCC) mustdo the same. Because it is futilefor one country to ban a group,designated by the internationalcommunity as terrorist, while thesame group is supported by oth-ers. — Gulf News

MEDIA WATCH

WHEN one head of a statemeets his counterpart during official visit, they ex-

change pleasantries regardless of thedifferences between their countries,which could be called diplomaticniceties. During two-day visit toPakistan, Afghan President AshrafGhani’s gestures to forget about thepast acrimonies and to have robustties between the two countries ap-pear to be reflective of his sinceredesire to move forward. On Fridayhis first day of the visit, PresidentAshraf Ghani’s trip to the militaryheadquarters in Rawalpindi alongwith his high-ranking delegationcomprising high-ranking generalsand other senior Afghan securityofficials was significant. He laudedPakistan’s sacrifices in ‘war on ter-ror’ and laid a floral wreath at theMartyrs Monument. He expressedhis government’s interest in “bolster-ing security and defence ties withPakistan, including cooperation intraining and border management”.He in fact struck a positive note atthe start of his visit.

One should not expect that allissues will be resolved with just onevisit by Afghan president, and civiland military leaderships of both thecountries have to enter into seriousnegotiations. The moot point is whatPakistan wants from Afghanistanand what Afghanistan expects fromPakistan. However, the goodwillgestures from Afghan presidentwould promote the prospects ofpeace in Afghanistan, Pakistan andin the region at large. There is nodoubt that Pakistan wants to see

Pakistan, India deserve peace

ALTHOUGH India and Pakistan are never tired of blaming and counter-blaming

each other as yet none of the condi-tions exist for a real rapprochementbetween them. Despite the NawazSharif government’s assurances thatit is willing to seek an agreementwith Prime Minister NarendraModi, as it did under the last BJPgovernment of Atal BehariVajpayee, there is lack of consen-sus between civilian and military inPakistan while dealing with manyissues, including India.

Military is no longer politicallyomnipotent and has developed manysome reservations in the last fiveyears. Ex-President Musharraf’strial on a litany of charges, includ-ing ‘treason’, bringing some mili-tary generals in courts, amendmentsin the Constitution, serious energyand economic issues, insurgency inFATA, displacement of internal refu-gees, vibrant role of social and elec-tronic media have left little appetitefor the military to rule in Pakistan.The relative unity of the mainstreampolitical parties limits the latter’scapacity to manipulate politics as ofyore. This opens some space for thegovernment to maneuver, includingrelations with India: Nawaz Sharifcan still initiate rapprochement withIndia provided it does not lead to theabandonment of any of Pakistan’straditional claims or encroachmenton military domain. On the Indianside, the Modi government does not

What comes fromthe heart, goes tothe heart.

consider Pakistan a foreign policypriority. India would benefit frombetter relations with Pakistan but itseconomic future is now seen in the“Look East policy.” Yet all previ-ous attempts to ignore Pakistanended up with resumption of terror-ist attacks — a situation that Indiawants to avoid, not least because apossible escalation to even a lim-ited conventional conflict wouldimpede its program of economic re-form and modernization.

The ongoing India-Pakistan bor-der skirmishes are neither going to befirst nor the last in the ongoing Indo-Pakistan tangle. Eventually, they shallfizzle out but these mini-crises per-petuate mutual distrust and prevent theCBM gains achieved, if any, over theyears. The near-normal ambience at-tained is again vitiated by heating upof borders. These negative develop-ments add grist to mills of hardlinersin military, business, bureaucracy,clergy and media on both sides whosevested interest is in keeping politicaldisputes festering and alive.

It is hoped India and Pakistan will“agree to disagree” on major issuesas China and Japan are doing on trade,investment and business —minus is-sues of borders and territories. Butthis analogy is may stretched as bothIndia and Pakistan are nuclear-armed,with trade and investments meagerand public opinion hostage to pow-erful lobbies.

India nourishes overweening am-bitions to graduate into higher coun-cils of world powers from presentmajor power status. Its ambition is tomatch China in East Asia. The Modileadership buoyed by internationalsuccess has whipped up nationalist

sentiments for forthcoming Novem-ber 25 state elections in Jammu andKashmir (J&K). Already, the BJP hasswept the polls in Maharashtra andHaryana state elections, erstwhileCongress strongholds.

The prevailing deep alienationand post-1990 generation in Kashmircannot be appeased with administra-tive measures of abrogation of Article370 and granting J&K autonomousstatus. Besides, should India’s rela-tions with immediate neighbors suchas Pakistan remain troubled this willaffect its socio-economic rise as en-visaged in the BJP election manifesto.Needless to say, both India and Paki-stan are plagued with scourge of over-population, poverty, disease, mili-tancy and terrorism, poor education,environmental hazards, nuclearweapons, disaster management, andregional non-connectivity.

Pakistan, on its part, has to sharethe blame, too, to a great extent forits poor governance, lack of state writ,support of favored militant groupsand pursuing flawed ‘strategic depth’policies in Afghanistan. The recentsit-ins have already enfeebled himand some predict his government maynot complete its term. Should therebe mid-term elections in 2015 or acaretaker government or MuslimLeague (N) become part of new coa-lition the military will again call theshots and India will have to deal withthe new strongly backed dispensationby the military.

Given Indian commitment tobusiness, investment the present bor-der scenario should be equally wor-rying for it too. The 2 NovemberWagah border post attack by terror-ist outfits causing more than 55 dead

peace in Afghanistan andhas in the recent pasttaken measures to ensurethat Pakistan’s soil is notused for terror attacks inAfghanistan. However,Pakistan also expectsthat Afghan soil is notused by the TTP leadersensconced in Kunar and

Nooristan to attack on Pakistan’smilitary posts. Former Afghan presi-dent Hamid Karzai often alleged thatPakistan was supporting Haqqaninetwork for attacks in Afghanistanto appease India.

Even after Pakistan launchedmilitary operation Zarb-e-Azb anddestroyed the infrastructure and net-work of all militant organizationsindiscriminatrely, Karzai continuedwith his acerbic remarks against Pa-kistan. Now with Ashraf Ghani at thehelm, both countries can work forpeace and progress, and his visit couldprove as a prelude to new and im-proved Afghanistan-Pakistan ties.Afghan President Dr. Ashraf Ghaniarrived at Prime Minister NawazSharif’s official residence on Satur-day morning to commence talks withthe premier in a bid to remove thetrust deficit and strengthen ties be-tween the two countries. AshrafGhani vowed to open a new chapterin ties, which would not be affectedby the acrimonious past. He acknowl-edged sacrifices by Pakistan whilefighting terrorism, a common threatto Pakistan and Afghanistan. Presi-dent Ashraf Ghani who earlierworked with the World Bank, waselected as the President of Afghani-stan in September 2014.

Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif inhis meeting with Ashraf Ghani un-derlined Pakistan’s commitment tocomprehensively upgrade coopera-tion in all fields including border se-curity and defence, Afghanistan’s re-construction and rehabilitation, ca-pacity building, parliamentary ex-changes and cultural educational port

links. Both the leaders are eager tobuild a robust economic partnershipwhich they aim to achieve throughexpansion of trade. President Ghanitermed the partnership between Af-ghanistan and Pakistan as an impor-tant pillar of Afghan’s foreign policy.He expressed gratitude to Pakistan forovercoming 13 years of obstacles inthree days. On Friday he sought tomove his country away from a ‘re-lationship of suspicion’ with Paki-stan towards one based on ‘mutualeconomic dependence’ aimed at re-building ties between the two neigh-bors fraught by mutual distrust andcross-border tensions.

Of course, there were some irri-tants vis-a-vis all governments in Af-ghanistan did not accept the DurandLine, although the United Nationsrecognized it as the border betweenPakistan and Afghanistan. Secondly,Northern Alliance was against Paki-stan for having recognized the Talibangovernment. Thirdly, leaders ofNorthern Alliance were suspiciousthat Pakistan was behind the murderof Ahmed Shah Massoud of Panjshervalley who was leader of AbdullahAbdullah. According to internationalmedia’s reports, he was killed by twoterrorists belonging to Al Qaeda whounder the guise of reporters went tointerview him two days before attackon twin-tower and Pentagon on 9/11.Ahmed Shah had a grouse that Paki-stan had patronized Hikmatyar Khanand others while distributing armsand ammunition supplied by the USduring Afghan jihad, and sidelined hisgroup. In fact, the US had also keptMassoud and his resistance at arm’slength, perhaps because they werereceiving weapons from Iran.

Anyhow, President Ashraf Ghaniis trying to mend the fences with Pa-kistan. Siegfried O. Wolf, a senior re-search fellow and lecturer in Interna-tional and Comparative Politics at theUniversity of Heidelberg’s SouthAsia Institute, in an interview said:“President Ghani can outline a

roadmap for new Afghan-Pakistanrelations but for that he will needthe support of the Pakistani securityestablishment”. It appears thatthings are working well. In a tweetby ISPR Director General MajorGeneal Asim Bajwa in a tweetstated: “On his arrival in Pakistan,President Ashraf Ghani first of allvisited army headquarters and wasaccorded warm welcome by COASRaheel Sharif, who said that the se-curity of the two countries was ‘in-extricably linked’ with each other”.It is true that relations between Pa-kistan and Afghanistan have beenuneasy rather tense under variousshades of Afghan governments, butduring Hamid Karzai’s long tenure,relations touched the lowest ebb.

His administration had been ac-cusing Pakistan’s ISI of helping theTaliban and other Afghan insurgentgroups to continue the war in Af-ghanistan, the charges Islamabadrejected. However, Pakistan rightlyblames Afghan authorities for hav-ing allowed anti-Pakistan militantsto establish sanctuaries on the Af-ghan side of the border and launchdeadly attacks against Pakistanimilitary outposts. But PresidentAshraf Ghani’s vision is obviousfrom the fact that instead of high-lighting the differences, his wordsand body language give hope forbetter bilateral relations betweenAfghanistan and Pakistan. AshrafGhani had hinted that to promotetrade and Pakistan should allow In-dia land transit route to Afghanistan,his country would allow Pakistan touse route to Central Asian states. Heshould understand Pakistan’s posi-tion that by allowing India land tran-sit route to reach Afghanistan andCentral Asian states, Pakistan wouldlose the leverage, which can forceIndia to resolve disputes with Paki-stan. And there should be no link-age between the two transit routes.—The writer is Lahore-basedsenior journalist.

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and injuring many is most likely aretaliatory strike to the ongoing mili-tary operations in North Waziristanand meant to stall Indo-Pak tradeand ignite hostilities between thetwo countries. This would not affecttrade as it is an internal issue of ter-rorism and trade with India is a sepa-rate matter and will continue aftersome disruption.

Pakistan has to put its house inorder first and foremost before nor-mal relations with neighbours suchas India, Afghanistan and Iran getnormalized. While Pakistan needs toconsensus in civil-military, media,politics and let the evolutionary pro-cess take course, India needs to showstrategic patience and restraint.

It is hoped that the “terribletwins” of Partition [India and Paki-stan] soon politically mature andtheir leadership and realize that asresponsible nuclear powers it is im-portant not only to defuse tensionsbut also vigorously strive for durableregional peace and development.This is imperative for welfare of thepeople or else South Asia will con-tinue to languish in poverty, violenceand even inadvertently slide intomajor conflict. Can political will,some catastrophic event or epiphanyshake the two out of their compla-cency and torpor? Uptil now wars,recurring crises, daunting problemshave not induced any sober normal-ization. For, India and Pakistan des-perately deserve peace and develop-ment for their teeming millions andan early escape from the viciouscycle of distrust and animosity.— The writer is AdviserInternational Relationsprogramme, Comsats, Islamabad.

Mohammad JamilEmail: [email protected]

News & ViewsNews & ViewsNews & ViewsNews & ViewsNews & Views

Dr Maqsudul Hasan NuriEmail:[email protected]

Voice of the People

Sound ofsilent revivalMOHAMMAD FAYYAZ

I want to clear some misperceptionsabout the credentials of the volun-teers who leave their homes andfamilies for the cause of Islam andtravel to far off countries to project,propagate and highlight the massageof Allah Almighty revealed to theholy Prophet (SAW) for guidanceand salvation of the human beings,particularly the ‘Believers’.

These volunteers, commonlyknown as ‘Tableegis’ bear all kindof hardships during their tableegimissions; but certain elements insociety or the media, because of theirmisunderstanding or unfounded bi-ases allege that some terrorists orrogue elements manage to creep intothe foreign-bound teams of Tableegimissions and indulge in terrorist ac-tivities abroad, thus bringing a badname to Islam and Pakistan. I begto disagree with this contention; andlet me clear it in the beginning thatby ‘Tableegh’ or ‘Tableeghi’ wemean the preaching, reformationmovement working in the marakizof Raiwind at Lahore, andNizamuddin in India. Second, theviewpoint that terrorists in the cur-rent tableeghi work travel abroad,and ‘allegedly’ get ‘involved in ter-ror incidents in some Europeancountries’ is totally absurd.

It is very difficult in the move-ment for any wrong-doer to do so.A tableeghi for a foreign tour is rec-ommended (and what is called‘Tafaqqud’ in the Tableeghi jargonand registers) by the knownTableeghi fellows to a localTableeghi Markaz, which onwardsrecommends him to Raiwind for aforeign tour. It is very difficult,rather impossible, for a stranger togo out with other tableeghis for anywrongdoing. Third, it is wrong tosay that most of the Tableeghis areeither from Pakistan MuslimLeague (N) and Tahreek e Insaf.People from all walks of life - po-litical, apolitical – opt voluntarilyto spend time in Tableegh. It is anunfortunate phenomenon that wecontroversialize everything and donor spare even the non-partisan re-ligious concerns of the Faith, whichneed to be taken more seriously andwith greater responsibility.—Charsadda

Thank you,China

GHULAM SHABIR

China is a time-tested exceptionalfriend of ours for being the onlyneighbour with whom we have goodrelations. Unfortunately, we wereforced by the world powers to be-come the hub of international ter-rorist activities for them which havenot only embittered our ties with al-most all the surrounding countriesbut also resulted in the mass mur-der of about 50 thousand of our in-nocent citizens over the last one de-cade. Despite feeling the heat of thisturmoil in its own Xinjiang prov-ince, China has not taken it as a per-sonal insult but has condoned ourslackness in this regard. We must getout of this mess forthwith and getrid of the foreign intriguers pushingus into this quagmire.

After all, we have a militaryand civil espionage apparatus thatis equaled by few countries of theworld. If they can’t eradicate thefocus of this nefarious activitythen the only conclusion anyonecan draw is that they have soldtheir soul to the foreign powers.Even a poor college professor cantell how and by whom those ter-rorist networks are being operated.We must try to resolve our territo-rial disputes on the pattern of Chi-nese policy model of using diplo-matic and economic means totackle such disputes. Clandestineoperations nowadays backfirewithout fail and with full forcecausing immense damage to theoperative country. We should be

Yogurt of the brain!KISMAT KHAN ZIMRI

Non-serious and careless attitude of Sindh Government towards deaths in famine-hit Tharparkarbecomes history. Everyday children are dying due to malnutrition, hunger and diseases in Sindhbut it puts no effect on ‘stone hearts’ sitting in Sindh Assembly. National and International media

has focused on Tharparkar deaths. Everyone will tell you what’s going on with the children there, exceptthe Members of the Sindh Assembly, who are indulging in irresponsible comments like, ‘Dimagh kidahi’, to waste time in hours. It seems they have signed a contract of ‘five years’ to make fun of theirvoters, for example, when poor babies need food, Sindh Assembly members discuss to enjoy sea foods ontaxes of the citizens. When there is warning of cyclone ‘Neelofer’, and some member stand and talkabout Neelofer, the speaker will say, ‘who is Neelofer...? Yes, he is true because in any disaster this rulingclass remains safe, only the poor have to offer sacrifices of their lives and property. Now imagine, howcan they feel the real pain of grieved families who are losing their loved ones each day because of negli-gence of the government. This elite ruling class needs just one ignorable comment for wasting time of theHouse but they will never look at the miseries of the Tharparkar people. No one takes responsibility buteveryone just needs the ruling chair. This laughing and cheerful Assembly must be declared somethingother for its so far performance but please don’t call it the House for Public representatives becausewhen people are dying due to hunger, target killings and diseases, they are just concerned about seapicnics and protocols, on the money of these dying unfortunate people. People have not elected them formaking their fun, consuming their taxes. What these lawmakers are doing, may be termed as,’ yogurt ofthe brain...’. Yes, It’s truly, ‘dimagh ki dahi’.—Islamabad

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View From Abroad

How to solve Syrian crisis

THERE is no real consensus onhow to resolve the Syrian conflict, but there is one regarding

the urgent need to. It has become animperative to stop the fanatical jihadisin their tracks before they become anunstoppable global menace. What weare seeing now is the US – the mosteffective actor and power broker in theMiddle East – pursuing a limited con-tainment strategy against the mostnoxious of the jihadist groups – IslamicState – in both Iraq and Syria.

In addition to almost daily sor-ties against Isis, the US has now ex-panded the military campaign of itslargely token coalition in Syria to tar-get other jihadist factions like Jabhatal-Nusra and Ahrar al-Sham – thevery same groups considered indis-pensable allies by the local “moder-ate rebels” that the coalition had un-til recently been backing againstAssad’s forces, but now seems tohave given up on entirely. A new strat-egy that seems to have very littlechance at success is being hastily for-mulated. The aim is to build a proxy

rebel army from scratch to take onthe jihadis, recruiting from thesprawling refugee camps that housemillions of displaced Syrians inneighbouring countries. It is unclearhow the US will go about convinc-ing Syrians brutalised and displacedby their regime to turn their attentionaway from battling it to focus insteadon fighting groups that they considerbrothers in arms.

The Americans either have to em-ploy some extraordinary powers ofpersuasion, or otherwise end up withlittle more than a limited and medio-cre mercenary force motivated bymoney and lacking any real convic-tion. A force like that would standlittle chance against the more numer-ous and better motivated fanaticaljihadis, let alone a cornered regimeviciously fighting tooth and nail forits very survival.

The regional allies of the US havemeanwhile been pumping hundredsof millions of dollars of weapons andmoney into some very dubious Syr-ian rebel groups for the past three-and-a-half years – a lot of which, weare now learning, has ended up in thehands of the very extremists that nowpose such a threat to regional stabil-

ity and global security.This might have finally con-

vinced them to cut off funding andcease the covert facilitation that al-lowed thousands of foreign fighters,including well-known battle-hard-ened jihadis, to stream into Syria viaTurkey by the bus load. It has not yetconvinced them, however, to ear-nestly push for a comprehensive endto a conflict now seriously spinningout of control.

For their part, the main backersof the Assad regime – Iran and Russia– believe it can ultimately triumphmilitarily, and eventually regain con-trol of much of the territory it lost dur-ing three years of insurgency; in es-sence turning back the clock to pre-conflict times when it had absolutepower. They too are motivated by theirown narrow interests and not what isbest for Syria or its people. In Iran’scase it is the sectarian-inspired strugglefor influence over the Middle East witharch rivals the Saudi-lead Gulf. Rus-sia, meanwhile, is motivated by itsown strategy to counter what it viewsas Nato expansion into its formerspheres of influence.

What is required to properly re-solve the Syrian conflict is for the

Edward Dark

With the angels..!

THIS happened at a funeralof a dear old aunt of minewho had well lived her

four score years and ten: As thecoffin was being lowered into thegrave one of her little nephewseager to see how deep they wereburying her, peeped into the holeand nearly slipped in. Most of uscouldn’t help smiling but burstinto suppressed giggles as weheard a cousin saying in low un-dertone, “Ssssh this is a gravematter..!” At the last moment a

minister was asked to preach a ser-mon for another minister who hadsuddenly fallen ill.

Realising he had forgotten to askif the deceased was a man or woman,he frantically tried to catch a mourn-ers eye. Finally succeeding, he fur-tively pointed to the casket and whis-pered, “Brother or sister?”“Cousin!” came the faint reply.

At another funeral, again of anold lady I watched her eighty- yearold husband suddenly lurch forwardto the open grave. Thinking he wasgoing to throw himself in with grief Irushed forward and put my armaround to comfort him, but needn’thave worried as he looked in and said,“Those grave diggers are cheating,

it’s not six feet deep!”A doctor was once asked if he be-

lieved the dead would return someday, “If they do,” he replied, “I wouldchange my job in a hurry!” Anotherdoctor I believe who was walkingthrough his local churchyard one daysaw the gravedigger having a rest anddrinking from a bottle.

“Hey you!” shouted the eminentsurgeon, “how dare you laze aboutand drink alcohol in here? Get on withyour job or I’ll complain to the vicar!”“You’ll complain to the vicar?” askedthe gravedigger.

“Yes,” said the doctor, “Whyever not?” “I should have thoughtyou’ll be the last person to com-plain considering all your blunders

I’ve had to cover up!” I didn’tknow gravediggers have such wittill I heard about a visitor whowent to a cemetery and asked,“Are you the regulargravedigger?” “No ma’am,” hereplied, “I’m just fillin’ in!”

An incident that happened lastmonth surfaces: My dog Pluto diedand I carried his body downstairsto put in the ambulance that wouldtake it for cremation. As I walkedback upstairs empty handed griev-ing for my do, my niece all of sixyears ran up to me and whispered,“Don’t feel sad uncle, Pluto hasgone to be with the angels!” I smilethrough my tears..!—Email:[email protected]

major powers backing both regimeand opposition camps to fundamen-tally change their long-held, self-in-terested policies and engage inmeaningful talks that will see realconcessions and compromisesmade. The outcome would ideallybe some form of transitional power-sharing between those elements ofthe regime and opposition accept-able to the majority of Syrians andcapable of effectively addressingtheir grievances. This transitionalauthority would then be in a uniqueposition to take on and eventuallydefeat extremism in Syria, with thehelp and support of the wider inter-national community.

The time has come for the worldto get serious about resolving thisconflict: if not for the sake of the hap-less Syrian people, then at least forthe sake of global security and sta-bility. In the meantime, pragmatismdictates that they should be stronglypushing for a de-escalation and freez-ing of the conflict, creating conditionsin which localised ceasefires canhold, and an environment both con-ducive to this peace process and hos-tile to those against it.— Courtesy: The Guardian

Life in Thar

THAR, Payas Aur Pani (Thar,Thirst and Water) is the latest book authored by Dr. Asif

Mahmood Jah who is the founderof Customs Health Care Society,Lahore. The book contains heart-rending short stories and is notonly a travelogue but also a shorthistory of culture, living style andhumane service with dignity in thedeserts and drought hit areas ofThar. Dr. Asif Mahmood Jah is amedical physician, real historian,a writer who has synthesised facts

with great precision for writing anew history of humanitarianism inThar.

The team of doctors, selflessworkers and volunteers served thehumanity in distress in the desertsof Thar without any discrimination.The members of the Society pro-vided edibles, medicines, water, cashand all sorts of relief goods to thepoor and needy inhabitants of Thar.They repaired old wells and con-structed new 50 wells with the re-sult that Muslims and Non-Muslims

of the area proclaim their serviceswith fervour and zeal. The mischiefdone by the drought and deaths ofinnocent souls touched the innermost chord of the author’s heart andhe immediately made it mandatoryon himself to snatch some time outof his onerous officials responsibili-ties and provide all possible succourto the drought stricken populationwhich his limited resources couldmuster. Battling against hostileweather conditions, his organizedteams made a number of trips to theaffected areas.

In this respect, Dr. Asif Jahwrites in the book, “Since the firstweek of March uptil today, we arepresent in the valley of Mehranfully equipped with the gadgets ofCustoms Health Care Societyready to serve the affected peopleof drought and quench their thirstby digging of new wells. We havevisited every nook and corner ofthe drought hit areas and estab-lished medical camps in almostevery Goth of Thar and distributedrelief goods of all sorts. Werealised the depth of poverty where

people have nothing to eat and noclean drinking water.”

Initially, the author’s descrip-tion captures the sighs and tearsand hopes and fears of the unfor-tunate victims of drought and theirlongings for life and water withpoignant realism in the aftermathof the tragedy. The second sectionof the book describes the accountof heavy rains and floods strikingthe inhabitants of the areas ofSindh two years ago. It also de-scribes the rescue, rehabilitationand relief efforts of CustomsHealth Care Society during theyear 2012. The third section of thebook includes the articles pub-lished in the newspapers during theearly period when the news ofdeaths of children due to malnu-trition and shortage of food spreadacross the country.

Dr. Asif Mahmood Jah’s bookis interspersed with a large numberof pictorial illustrations of the vis-ited locations. The compilationwhich spreads over 310 pages ishard bound with a tasteful dustcover of symbolic significance.

highly thankful to the People’s Re-public of China for offering us gen-erous help in our first and foremostelectricity shortage problem. Also ithas promised us construction of ourroads and motorways. Now it is en-tirely up to our government and ourpowerful institutions to fully recip-rocate Chinese gesture of benevo-lence. At same time our governmentshould not neglect the needs of oursmaller cities while drawing up de-velopment schemes for the big cit-ies, otherwise that would mean alopsided policy that would provecounter productive in the long run.

For instance, the people ofMuzaffargarh city have beenclamouring for completion of itshalf-finished job of extending itssouthern bypass road up toShershah bridge, due to whichheavy trucks and trailers continueto infiltrate the thickly populatedsouthern part of the city. Anotherproblem is the need to relocate tothe roadside the high-tensionMEPCO wires passing over ChahChashma locality houses posing alethal threat to the residents. Onehopes that the Government of Pa-kistan will try to attend to suchsmaller city problems along withundertaking the mega projects.—Muzaffargarh

Winning streakIFTIKHAR MIRZA

Ian Botham once said,” To me, itdoesn’t matter how good you are.Sport is all about playing and com-peting. Whatever you do in cricketand in sport, enjoy it, be positiveand try to win.” At the same timecricket is a funny game. Now-a-days it is funnier for teams playingwith Pakistan in United Arab Emir-ates. The humiliating defeats in T-20 and one day series against Aus-tralia fired back for Pakistan and itacted as a morale booster for greencaps. Pakistan after inflicting his-toric defeat on Australia, continuedits winning streak against NewZealand. The tons of runs scored byPakistanis on UAE’s soil not onlyupdated record books but alsobrought joy and happiness to thestressed audience back home.

Pakistan came out with flyingcolours in the first Test match againstNew Zealand. The massive win by238 runs speaks volumes of out-standing performance of our play-ers. Runs are oozing from Pak bats,rattling decades old records swiftly.It is hoped, that our team will remainfirm in all formats of game. Winningis a good habit and going along withit is also good. Kudos to Pakistancricket team.—Islamabad

PIA’s imagebuilding

MUKHTAR AHMED

As reported in the press, PIA has in-vited bids from Public Relations firmsto improve image of the Airline. AnAirline that is nose diving, needs dras-tic cuts in their day to day expensesinstead of wasting money on improv-ing image. If at all the managementis interested to improve its image, itshould concentrate on operationalmatters, ensure timely arrivals anddepartures of flights with good cus-tomer care and better facilities at allairports of the country.

PIA has a full fledged departmentlooking after PIA PR affairs and theirperformance has been extremelygood. But in recent past this PR de-partment was victim of political in-terference when a seasoned officer ofPR was replaced by a crony who isignorant about basics of PR. It is pri-marily to bring him in limelight butat what cost?

Ever since the PIA has come un-der Aviation Division, the thingshave gone from bad to worse. In-stead of revamping PIA, it has beenturned in to employment heaven forretired armed forces officers. PIArecently hired 6 officials in bid tominimise losses on senior appoint-ment, without any requirement caus-

Pak-India stand-off and terrorism

THE emergence of terrorismsince 9/11 has added a newdimension to bilateral rela-

tions which requires both the statesto change the traditional approach.Traditionally, both the states havebeen, directly or indirectly militar-ily engaged, using proxies againsteach other. India alleges Pakistanfor using militants in Jammu andKashmir which the later denies bydefining militancy in Kashmir asa freedom struggle. Reciprocally,Pakistan alleges India for its sup-port to Baloch nationalists andmilitants in the Tribal areas whichthe former during the prime min-ister level meeting at Sharm-el-Sheikh in 2009, had exchanged.Using proxies is a Cold war phe-nomenon the context of which iscomprehensible that it had neverbeen the source of direct confron-tation between the former SovietUnion and the West.

However, the cold war proxywarfare is different from that ofIndo-Pak sub-continent. During thecold war, contrary to Indo-Pakproxies were not used on eachother’s territory. Here, the direct

engagement of proxies has beencoupled with the states definitionsof freedom fighters versus terror-ists. After the 9/11, links of theproxies with terrorist organizationsignored inadvertently or intention-ally, poses a challenge to India andPakistan to uncouple the questionof terrorism from the interstate stra-tegic rivalry.

As a consequence, terrorist’sacts since 2001 have caused seri-ous provocations and exchanges ofnuclear threats. In 2001-2002, af-ter the Indian parliament was at-tacked by terrorists, both sides ofthe border witnessed huge militarymobilization. A frenzy environmentwas created with flurry of argu-ments that both the states might gointo nuclear war. Thanks to theAmerican intervention andMusharraf’s speech denouncing theassociated terrorists moved both thestates to step down. The allegationsagainst each other in Mambai at-tacks and the Samjotha Expresswere the same. In the latter casePakistanis were killed allegedly bythe Hindu terrorist organization inwhich Pakistan responded with dip-lomatic pressure on India to bringto justice the culprits of the trag-edy. In the former case India usedboth military and diplomatic pres-sure but the result was the same;

step down for the time being andwait till another tragedy with a fol-low up escalations.

No workable or agreeable so-lutions have been yet made to man-age bilateral relations. Proposals fortalks and confidence building mea-sures are numerous but none ofthem mentions the separation ofmilitary confrontation from the is-sue of terrorism. Conversely, boththe states ask each other to aban-don the support of terrorist organi-zations against each other. Thisshows that both the states have theirax to grind but they are unaware ofthe dangerous trends set out by thecoupling of the question of Terror-ism and military confrontation es-pecially when both the states arebusy in cross bordered fire.

The recent cross border fire fol-lowed by harsh statement showsthat the relations are vulnerable todangerous level of escalations. Itwill be more alarming if the terror-ist attacks happen in the midst ofsuch cross firing. There are evi-dences that India was determinedto launch conventional offensive in2001-2002 stand-off while Pakistanwas prone to use nuclear weaponsin case India had attacked. Theother dimension of the relations isthat after the Operation Parakramthe military on both the sides have

developed strategic doctrineswhich will be used during terror-ist incidents. The Indian Cold StartDoctrines and the tactical nuclearweapons of both India and Paki-stan underscore that the policycircles view terrorism from strate-gic lenses.

In order to avoid untoward ca-tastrophes and gain stability, boththe states will have to change theirtraditional approach towards bilat-eral relations. It requires both thestates to abandon proxy warfareand treat terrorism as atransnational problem. Severaltimes, the Joint Anti-TerrorismMechanism (JATM) meetings havetaken place between India and Pa-kistan but no workable solution hasbeen recorded to any terrorist in-cident. Both the states had diver-gent views regarding the status ofKashmir.

Pakistan stressed that theKashmir issue should not be in-cluded in JATM while India main-tained that it shall be included as a“cross border issue.” The onus ofresponsibility lies upon India toshow flexibility on Kashmir issueand treat it as a separate issue. Us-ing terrorist incidents as a policytool only aggravates the hostilities.—The writer is an independentresearch analyst.

Name of the book : Thar, Payas Aur PaniAuthor : Dr. Asif Mahmood JahReviewed by : Sajjad ShaukatPublisher : Ilm-o-Irfan Publishers, Alhamd

Market, 4-Urdu Bazar, LahorePages : 310Price : Rs 450\-

Ifrah WaqarEmail:[email protected]

ing extra burden to PIA to the tuneof Rs. 61.8 Million per annum butno one bothered. Prime Ministershould have taken notice of suchglaring irregularities and extrava-gance in PIA that is otherwise nosediving. This is unique method ofminimizing losses in PIA and it de-serves appreciation and nationalaward to Special Assistant to PM onAviation as Pakistan is the first coun-try in the world to introduce suchtechniques to improve the image ofnational flag carrier.

The question arises why spend ahuge amount of money on buildingthe image of PIA? Why not removethe inefficient people and allow pro-fessionals to handle the situation in-stead of side lining them. There is noneed to hire the services of so-calledimage builder and waste the publicmoney. The Supreme Court shouldtake suo motto notice as to how vari-ous organizations fix salaries runninginto millions of rupees without anyauthority. This government is bentupon finding ways and means tosquander the country’s assets. Politi-cal intervention has played havoc anddisfigured this institution to such anextent that it is becoming difficultnow to find a buyer.— Karachi

Ghost of deathtowards Thar

RIMSHA AHMAD

60 year old issues of Thar cannot beresolved over night; less than normalrainfall leading to famine-like situa-tion gives way to death of livestockand deaths of children. Where wasthe government especially when thiswas not an unusual occurrence? Thedrought has killed 154 children lessthan five years of age by now as re-ported by the Sindhi media. Droughtin the desert’s remote areas of Paki-stan is natural but the death of peopleis not. It is due to lack of facilitiesand irresponsibility of people who areappointed to selected posts that havelost the lives of innocent childrenwithin a few months.

However, if we look at the situ-ation, many questions will arise, ifthe deaths are not because of mal-nutrition then what do the weakbodies of children reflect? If, in-deed, the deaths are due to diseasethen why there were not enoughfacilities available for the victimsto save their lives. In a countrywhere millions of rupees are spenton mega festivals arranged by theruling party and the leaders go onofficial tours to other countries,they openly admit that they have nomoney to transport vitally neededfood rations. If, indeed, everythingis ‘common’ for our leaders thenwhy are they needed at their jobs?

The drought did not just happensuddenly. These people have beenfacing such difficulties for months.The weak bodies of their wives areunable to feed their children becauseof which their children are dying dueto different diseases. Since indepen-dence, these people have been liv-ing in difficulty. It is only now whenthe situation has become so severeand media highlighted the problem,the government has announced aidfor them. It is our humble request toour political leaders to please cre-ate a solid strategy to save the livesof these poor people. Attentionmust be paid to save their liveli-hoods on which their lives depend,especially for children. These poli-cies should be on a long term ba-sis, not for temporary relief.—Karachi

AKI PERITZ AND TARA MALLAR

IT’S easy to get depressed about theMiddle East these days. The bloodshedcontinues unabated in Syria. Islamic State

advances across Iraq, sacking towns andslaughtering innocents. Millions are refugees.Syrian President Bashar al-Assad seems wellensconced in Damascus, on track to outlastingPresident Barack Obama in office.

But what also makes Middle Eastern poli-tics so perplexing — or infuriating, depend-ing on your perspective — is that events canchange on a dime. Or dinar, if you prefer.

Despite what’s in the movies, intelligenceagencies don’t have a crystal ball and can’tpredict the future. Intelligence is more an artthan a science. As Defense Secretary ChuckHagel noted in September, “The fact is youall know intelligence doesn’t come wrappedin a package with a bow. It’s a mosaic of manypictures of many factors.”

When assessing events on the ground —particularly in dynamic situations like Iraqand Syria — it is devilishly difficult to deter-mine if and when a game-changing event willoccur. “Unforeseeable” game-changers are,well, “unforeseeable.” Part of the intelligencechallenge is trying to prepare for all possible

Seven unlikely events in the fight againstIslamic State, and their likely outcomes

scenarios and making assessments about whatthe future might hold We’ve identified five blackswans — high-impact but low-probabilityevents that could alter the course of the con-flict. Will any of them occur? Nobody knows.But if any does happen, all bets are off as to thenext chapter in Iraq and Syria.

Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadiis killed or dies: All men are mortal, and theworld is a dangerous place. Abu Bakr has a listof enemies a mile long who would love to seehim depart the scene. Would his death changethe course of the war?

Less than one might initially think. Top ter-rorists — and the people surrounding them —generally have succession plans. For example,the United States and Iraq have killed the lastthree leaders of Islamic State’s earlier iterationsover the years, yet the organization was able toregenerate its leadership quickly.

If Abu Bakr is bumped off, Islamic Statestill has a consultative council that will be ableto install a new leader without too much effort.And the war and Islamic State will grind on.

Islamic State destroys a vital piece of infra-structure: An imminent Islamic State takeoverof Mosul Dam — which, if destroyed, couldsend a 65-foot wave of water into Mosul as wellas submerge much of Baghdad, according to the

Wall Street Journal — was the catalyst thatbrought the United States into the current con-flict. With massive destruction comes massivechaos. Thousands would lose their lives, andthe economic destruction in the wave’s wakewould be immense.

Yet it’s doubtful that Islamic State woulddo this. Since Baghdad is the crown jewel, it’sbetter to take it rather than raze it. The jihadistgroup is also well aware that oil refineries likeBaiji are tremendous sources of revenue, so itwould not be in their interest to destroy it.Though you never know.

Islamic State captures or kills numerousU.S. troops: American Special OperationsForces are highly skilled and thoroughly pre-pared for their missions, but even in the mostcarefully planned operations failures occur andunanticipated problems can arise. If a SpecialOperations Forces raid were to go wrong, orthere’s a betrayal by an “ally,” the Americanpublic would undoubtedly support the presidentif he decided on some type of action in response.

It’s not unreasonable to think this country mighteven demand action. We saw how Islamic State’sbrutality on Sinjar Mountain and its beheading oftwo journalists mobilized American public opinionto support lethal action in Iraq and Syria.

A major terrorist attack in Europe or the

United States is traced to Islamic State or alQaeda’s Syrian wing: A mass-casualty terror-ist attack in Europe or the United States wouldundoubtedly alter public opinion and U.S.policy, prompting deeper involvement in Syriaor Iraq. A strike on a transportation hub, gov-ernment building or tourist location in theUnited States or Europe could be viewed as adirect act of war, dramatically escalating sup-port for expanded actions in Iraq and Syria. Itwould even lower the war-weary political re-luctance to sharply increasing airstrikes againstthe militants as well as putting U.S. or NATO“boots on the ground”– at least for a while.

A big attack in Europe or North Americamight even cause that country to invoke Ar-ticle V of the North Atlantic Treaty Organiza-tion pact — calling on member nations to actin collective self-defense. This means that anever-reluctant Turkey, which has the second-largest land force in NATO after the UnitedStates, might have to commit troops to Syriaand Iraq to fulfill its treaty obligations.

That said, this would have to be a fairlydramatic implosion to seriously alter the situ-ation on the ground. Low-level rifts and fis-sures are not unlikely and could simply resultin new branches of the group.

—Courtesy: Reuters

A pro-Russian separatist watches as a crane carries wreckage of the downed Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 at the site of the plane crash near the villageof Hrabove (Grabovo) in Donetsk region, eastern Ukraine.

Part of Britishparliament

evacuated due tosuspicious packageLONDON—The part of theBritish parliament housingthe offices of many lawmak-ers was briefly evacuated onMonday due to a suspiciouspackage before staff were al-lowed to re-enter the build-ing.

A spokeswoman forLondon’s Metropolitan Policesaid Portcullis House, an officebuilding opposite the Houses ofParliament and aboveWestminster underground sta-tion, was evacuated while po-lice investigated.

Police on the scene said thestation had also been closed,and police motorbikes could beseen blocking cars and mem-bers of the public from enter-ing the road.

Britain’s security threatlevel was raised to its second-highest level in August due torisks posed by Islamic Statefighters returning from Iraq andSyria. Security analysts say for-eign fighters in Iraq and Syrianow number in the thou-sands.—Reuters

BRUSSELS—European Union govern-ments may agree to impose personalsanctions on more Russian-backedrebels on Monday in response to a sepa-ratist vote in eastern Ukraine, but areunlikely to discuss new steps againstRussia itself until mid-December, offi-cials said.

EU foreign ministers discussed howto respond to the Nov. 2 separatist elec-tion, which they say has no legal basis,as well as ways to launch reforms inUkraine and engage Russia in finding asolution to the conflict.

“We will discuss what will be thebest option today to react to the so-called elections on November 2, which

EU set to target Ukraine separatistsbut Russia sanctions may wait

we all said were illegal and illegitimateand might require some reaction fromthe European Union’s side,” EU foreignpolicy chief Federica Mogherini told re-porters on arrival for the talks.

Ministers are expected to agree toadd more Russian-backed separatists toa list of people banned from enteringthe European Union and those whoseEU assets are frozen.

But ministers remain divided on theneed for tougher economic sanctions onRussia, despite NATO’s assertions - deniedby Moscow - that Russia has sent tanksand troops to eastern Ukraine in recent days.

EU countries such as the Balticstates, Britain, Poland and Sweden have

consistently pushed for tougher sanc-tions while countries such as Austria,Greece and Cyprus are reluctant.

Czech Foreign Minister LubomirZaoralek said his country was ready tosupport sanctions on people but neweconomic sanctions against Russia wereonly likely to be discussed by Europeanleaders at their next summit on Decem-ber 18 and 19.

Polish Foreign Minister GrzegorzSchetyna said the EU should start prepa-rations now so leaders could quicklytake tough sanctions on Russia if Mos-cow acted aggressively in Ukraine.

In a sign of the strained relationsbetween Moscow and the 28-nation EU,

Russia said several of its diplomats hadbeen expelled from Poland and that anumber of Polish diplomats had beenordered to leave Russia in response.

An international rights group saidon Monday Russia should investigateincreasing accusations of human rightsabuses against Ukrainian activists andMuslim Tatars in the newly annexedterritory of Crimea.

“In the past eight months, the defacto authorities in Crimea have limitedfree expression, restricted peaceful as-sembly, and intimidated and harassedthose who have opposed Russia’s actionsin Crimea,” Human Rights Watch saidin a 37-page report.—Reuters

ABDULATEEF AL-MULHIM

DURING the past 10 years, the Saudi government initiated many mega projects to modernize the civic infrastructure. Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King

Abdullah personally launched many development projects invarious spheres of life like new hospitals, highways, universi-ties, railroad tracks, sports stadiums, oil and gas projects etc.

At a time when many of the neighboring countries arerocked by economic uncertainties and facing unrest and in-stability, Saudi Arabia continues to prosper and the authori-ties are continuously introducing various social and economicreforms for the benefit of the country and the people.

However, the delays in the completion of several projectsand the quality of the end product irks many a Saudi. Vari-ous uplift projects are behind schedule and those completedafter inordinate delays lack the quality we used to witnessduring the country’s early phases of development boom.Many people wonder why the projects in the past were fin-ished on time and were of better quality. With advent ofnew technologies, this is a very valid question and presentsa disturbing scenario.

Unlike many countries, there is no dearth of funds for thoseprojects. Had there been any fund-related issue, these delaysor lack of quality would have been understood. This situationreminds many Saudis of the first wave of South Koreans enter-ing the Kingdom to work on various development projects. Wehave pleasant memories of the highly disciplined andhardworking South Korean work force. People in Riyadh stillremember the so-called temporary overpasses to ease Riyadhcongestions, which were built in a rush because of the direneed to regulate traffic.

Interestingly, those bridges are still in a much bettershape than those constructed later and at higher budgets.Saudis still remember the South Koreans who came duringthe 1970s at a time when their country was amid economicand political uncertainties and many of the workers werevery poor and simply needed work to support their familiesback home.

Many of them left the Kingdom not only with moremoney in their pockets but also with great experience theyhad gained while working on various uplift projects usingthen latest technology. The industrial city in Jubail and manyother similar projects in parts of the Kingdom are testimonyto their hard work.

South Korea has emerged as one of the most advanced in-dustrial countries with the most skilled work force in the world.Just a few days ago a high-profile Saudi delegation visited SouthKorea and some Saudi papers reported that the Saudis wantedthe South Koreans to come back to the Kingdom and help pushbuilding the unfinished projects.

It is true that there are South Koreans in the Kingdom butapparently we are going to see more of them. Now, however,the South Korean work force is not as cheap as it used to bebecause of their skills and work ethic. Despite this factor, itis very important to bring skilled South Korean work forceand expose the young Saudis to the work habits of the SouthKoreans because sooner or later, they will leave again and weshould benefit from their ways of doing things.

This is why it is all the more important for Saudi andforeign companies working on mega projects in the Kingdomto hire young Saudis and have them work side-by-side withthe South Koreans. The current economic boom is guaran-teed to last and we have to take advantage of every asset wehave. There is a lot to learn from South Korea, which lackedmany natural resources and assets but succeeded in beatingall the odds and emerged as an economic miracle.

—Courtesy: Arab News

S. Koreans arecoming to town

RIYADH—GCC leaders held an emergencysummit in Riyadh late Sunday to resolve therift between three GCC countries and Qatarahead of a scheduled annual summit in Dohanext month.

Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques KingAbdullah chaired the summit attended byBahrain’s King Hamad bin Isa Al-Khalifa, Ku-waiti ruler Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmed Al-Sabahand UAE Deputy Premier Sheikh Mohammedbin Rashid Al-Maktoum.

Qatari Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani also attended the talks and his delegationincluded Prime Minister and Interior MinisterSheikh Abdullah bin Nasser bin Khalifa and For-eign Minister Khaled Al-Atiyyah.

“At the beginning of the summit, KingAbdullah welcomed the four GCC leaders,” theSaudi Press Agency said, adding that they dis-cussed a number of issues that concern SaudiArabia and other GCC countries.

Prince Muqrin, deputy crown prince,Prince Bandar bin Sultan, secretary-generalof National Security Council, Prince Khaledbin Bandar, chief of intelligence.

Prince Miteb bin Abdullah, minister of theNational Guard, and Interior Minister PrinceMohammed bin Naif attended the talks.

Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates(UAE) and Bahrain withdrew their ambassadorsfrom fellow GCC member Qatar in March, ac-cusing it of undermining their domestic security

Emergency talks aim toend Qatar-GCC row

through its support for the Muslim Brotherhood.Qatar’s Sheikh Tamim on Tuesday invited

his fellow GCC rulers to Doha for the summit,but diplomats have said some of them wantedto move it elsewhere.“There will be a meeting this evening. I hope theywill reach a compromise on this dispute, that willenable the annual meeting to go forward,” a GCCofficial told Reuters before the summit.

The UAE and Saudi Arabia have both listedthe Muslim Brotherhood as a terrorist organiza-tion. Kuwait has attempted to mediate betweenits fellow GCC members.

Qatar was scheduled to host a meeting ofthe GCC Ministerial Council last week to dis-cuss the agenda for the annual summit but waspostponed without giving any reason.

Kuwait’s Sheikh Sabah was mediating be-tween Qatar and the three other member statesover the past weeks. Qatar’s Sheikh Tamim onTuesday invited his fellow GCC rulers to Dohafor the summit, but diplomats have said someof them wanted to move it elsewhere.

A Kuwaiti official, who requested ano-nymity, said the mediation helped in resolv-ing most outstanding issues.“Sheikh Sabah’s mediation resulted in con-firming the holding of the annual summit inDoha as per schedule, The official said, add-ing that the Kuwaiti emir was instrumentalin narrowing the differences between the fourmember states.—AN

OMAHA (Nebraska)—A sur-geon from Sierra Leone beingtreated for Ebola in a Nebraskahospital on Saturday was criti-cally ill after being airliftedback from Africa, medical of-ficials said.

Dr. Martin Salia, 44, a per-manent US resident, caught thedisease while working as a sur-geon in a Freetown hospital,according to his family.

Doctors at the Nebraskahospital said his condition wasextremely critical. He had beenstable enough to take a flightfrom West Africa to Omaha butwas too sick to walk off theplane, medical officials said.

“We will do everythinghumanly possible to help himfight this disease,” Dr. PhilSmith, medical director of theBiocontainment Unit at Ne-braska Medical Center, said ina statement.

This is an hour-by-hoursituation.” Upon arrival Saliawas transferred to a waitingambulance in an isolation unitcalled an ISOPOD, a deviceused in the transportation of apotentially infectious patient, a

Sierra Leone doctor withEbola extremely critical

hospital official said.Salia is the third patient to

be treated for Ebola in thehospital’s Biocontainment Unitsince the virus broke out inWest Africa earlier this year.

He was chief medical of-ficer at the United MethodistChurch’s Kissy Hospital whenhe was confirmed on Tuesdayto have contracted Ebola.

His evacuation was at therequest of his wife, a US citi-zen who lives in Maryland, theUS State Department said in astatement.

The current outbreak ofEbola is the worst on record.According to the latest figuresfrom the World Health Orga-nization, it has killed at least5,177 people.

Most of the victims havebeen in Sierra Leone, Liberiaand Guinea, where alreadyweak health care systems havebeen overrun. Some 570 localhealth workers have been in-fected, with 324 dying.

Salia would be the 10thknown case of Ebola in theUnited States. All but one casewas treated successfully.—AN

WESLEY PRUDEN

USUALLY lives up to its reputation as a place where timestands still when all people in all the other places want tomove, if not at warp speed, faster than Congress will. The

Democrats, still as addled as the famous duck hit on the head bythe farmer’s wife with a long-handled wooden spoon, are stilltrying to get through the famous five stages of grief: denial, an-ger, bargaining, depression and acceptance. They’re still stuckon denial. How could such a thing happen when we’re so wise,so good, so compassionate, so sincere?

These are the stages of grief that Elisabeth Kubler-Ross, thelate and eminent Swiss psychiatrist who pioneered near-deathstudies, came up with in her book “On Death and Dying,” whichwas written to help women facing new lives as widows. But thecategories can be applied accurately as well to life in Washing-ton, where losers usually regard defeat and going back to Peoriaas something considerably worse than death. Losing is doomwrit large when applied to whole political parties.

Nancy Pelosi, who dreams the impossible dream of watch-ing the Democrats take back the House of Representatives in thelifetime of nearly everybody now alive on Capitol Hill, is splash-ing about, struggling piteously, drowning in denial. “I do notbelieve what happened the other night is a wave,” she said a fullweek after the wave washed away Democrats in Congress inwholesale numbers. “I do not believe what happened the othernight is a wave of approval for the Republicans. I wish themcongratulations, they won the election, but there was no wave ofapproval for anybody. There was an ebbing, an ebb tide, for us.”That was some tide, some ebb.

President Obama feels no responsibility for the remarkableDemocratic losses. Nothing has changed. Everyone likes his medi-cine; he just needs to freshen up the label. He’s moving full speedahead with his immigration “reform,” to admit millions of illegalsto permanent residence, with citizenship and full voting rights soonafterward. He said some things after the full extent of Democraticmisery became known — he knows words, after all, if not neces-sarily what some of them actually mean — that sounded concilia-tory. He’s eager to work with Congress, he applauds how democ-racy works, he wants to make the last two years of his presidencyas productive as possible, blah, blah, blah. But these words werefollowed by others that make it clear that conciliation is for sis-sies, and a man must have his confrontations.

“Congress will pass some bills that I cannot sign,” he saidat a press conference on the miserable morning after. “I’m prettysure I’ll take some actions that some in Congress will not like.”He sounded like a man who can’t wait. The president clearlydoesn’t want advice to the contrary, or to channel previous presi-dents who had to come to terms with unpleasant reality and workthrough the five stages of grief to the ultimate, full acceptance.

Thomas “Mack” McLarty, an international trade consultantwho was chief of staff in Bill Clinton’s first term, offered somegood Arkansas horse sense to the president the other day in an op-ed essay in The Wall Street Journal. Maybe somebody at the WhiteHouse could slip into the Oval Office to put a copy on his desk.

The last two years of a second term can be among the mosteventful, he wrote a few days before November. “PresidentReagan negotiated an arms deal with the Soviet Union. Presi-dent Clinton led a war in Kosovo and sealed a trade pact withChina. President George W. Bush authorized the ‘surge’ in Iraqand unprecedented steps to combat a global financial meltdown.

—Courtesy: Washington Times[Wesley Pruden is editor emeritus of The Washington Times]

Democrats workingthrough the five stagesof grief, still in denial

Palestiniandriver found

hanged inJerusalem busJERUSALEM—A Palestinianbus driver was found hangedinside his vehicle on Monday,an incident Israeli police de-scribed as a suicide but whichthe driver’s family said theybelieved was an attack.

The incident quicklytouched off Palestinian stone-throwing protests and a generalstrike in some large Palestin-ian suburbs of Jerusalem, pour-ing more fuel on tensionsstoked over the past few weeksby a dispute over Jerusalem’sholiest site.

The bus driver, Youssef al-Ramouni, 32, was found deadat the start of the route he wassupposed to have driven late onSunday, in an area of Jerusa-lem close to Jewish settlementsand Palestinian neighborhoods.

Israeli police said the evi-dence suggested Ramouni hadcommitted suicide. But rumorsquickly spread in the Palestin-ian media that he had beenkilled by Jewish assailants, stir-ring tension and violence.

In Abu Dis, a Palestiniantown on the outskirts of Jerusa-lem, shops closed after news ofRamouni’s death and maskedyoungsters blocked roads withdumpsters. Dozens of youthsthrew stones at Israeli soldiers,who fired tear gas.

“The bus driver committedsuicide, there is no other indi-cation other than it was a sui-cide case,” police spokesmanMicky Rosenfeld said.

Ramouni’s brother Louy toldReuters there was no way thatYoussef, the father of two youngchildren, would have killed him-self. “I saw the body last night andI saw bruises and marks that hewas beaten up,” he said.

“There were marks of fin-gers on the body and also onhis back there was a bruise asif he was hit by a hard object.”

Israeli police said an autopsywould be conducted. Ramouni’sfamily requested a Palestinianpathologist be present but it wasunclear whether this would be al-lowed..—Reuters

Mombasa police chief GeoffreyMayek said. “We have arrestedseveral of them, including six no-torious ones,” he added. Policesaid one man was killed but gaveno details as to how he died, withthe operation still ongoing.

Several Islamic preachershave been shot dead inMombasa in recent years in al-leged extra-judicial killings bysecurity forces and powerstruggles between rival Muslimfactions. Churches have alsobeen attacked.—AFP

One deadFrom Page 1

to help them boost their production, as sucha move would help generate employmentand promote local alternate energy solu-tions, he said.

Currently, however, “the governmentshould not impose any tax on the importof solar equipment until local productionreaches a level of 70 to 80 percent” ofmarket share, Ali suggested.

The new tax has already hit solar panelimport businesses in Pakistan.

Nauman Khan, one panel importer andchief executive officer of Grace Solar Pa-kistan, said the government move has puthis million-dollar-a-year business at stake.

“We’ll definitely pass on the taxes toour customers,” he said. The higher costmay stop some people from turning to so-lar power, he predicted.

Pakistani businessmen import solarequipment from the United States, Ger-many, Japan, Britain and China, amongother countries, they said.

Some solar importers said they arestruggling to get already arrived consign-ments cleared from the port in Karachiwithout paying the new imposed taxes.

Khan said he has 65 containers of so-

lar panels marooned at the port, with thegovernment not ready to grant an exemp-tion even on equipment ordered before thenew levy came in.

“This is not our issue alone,” he said.“Rather, the imports are actually helping thegovernment to bridge its power shortfall.”

Pakistan has suffered serious powershortages, particularly during summer pe-riods of high demand. Currently, thecountry’s rural areas face blackouts of over11 hours a day while urban areas suffer upto eight hours of daily power cuts, offi-cials said.

The new tax comes after the govern-ment of President Pervaiz Musharraf in2006 announced tax breaks for the renew-able energy sector as part of a drive to sup-ply off-grid parts of Pakistan with solarenergy.

According to a 2011 report publishedby the International Energy Agency, 38percent of Pakistan’s population lacks ac-cess to electricity.

Qamar-uz-Zaman, an expert on cli-mate change with Lead Pakistan, a non-profit organisation in Islamabad, urged thegovernment to review its decision to tax

solar imports, calling solar energy an easyway to overcome the country’s powershortages.

The taxes will hurt farmers the mostas they are quickly turning to solar energyto operate their tube wells, he said. If thecountry promotes uptake of clean energy,he said, it should be able to access inter-national climate financing to help supporta clean energy transition.

“The local industry produces low-standard products and it cannot meet thedemand as well (as imports),” he said. Heurged the government to subsidise im-ports of solar panels, rather than taxingthem.

Hamid Gulraiz, the general managerof Akhter Solar Limited, admitted his com-pany cannot yet meet the local demand forsolar panels. But he said he could expandproduction if orders come to his companyrather than to importers.

“If the government retains the taxeson the import (of solar equipment), busi-nessmen will automatically start setting uptheir manufacturing plants in Pakistan,” hesaid. He urged the government not to bowto pressure from importers.

Tax on panelsFrom Page 1

added he would continue to visit Europe, North America andother countries as part of his international commitments relatingto Minhajul Quran and his party. Qadri dismissed the allegationsthat his party organized an attack on the parliament and state-runPakistan Television headquarters in Islamabad. Instead, he al-leged, these attacks were planned by the government itself.

Referring to Model Town tragedy, Qadri said that his party hasrejected the joint investigative team constituted by the Punjab gov-ernment. Qadri again appealed to the army chief to intervene toprovide justice to the victims. He urged Chief of Army Staff Gen-eral Raheel Sharif to use his influence to get a free, fair and impar-tial investigation team appointed to probe the Model Town incident.

Qadri said that it is not the first time that the army hasbeen called to investigate a killing, noting that over the kill-ing of four sessions and civil judges, who were murdered in-side the Sialkot jail, the chief justice of the Lahore High Courthad requested the Pakistan Army to help appoint an impartialinvestigation team to investigate the killings. —Online

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ral Muhammad Zakaullah congratulated the sci-entists and engineers for their dedication, pro-fessionalism and commitment towards achiev-ing Pakistan’s full spectrum credible minimumdeterrence capability.

Shaheen I-A with its highly accurate andindigenously developed guidance system isamongst the most accurate missile systems.

The naval chief reiterated Pakistan’s desirefor peaceful co-existence in the region. He ap-preciated the professional attributes of all con-cerned towards accomplishment of the sacred

mission.Admiral Zakaullah showed his confidence

over the armed forces’ capability to safeguardthe country against any aggression.

The successful test launch was also appre-ciated by President Mamnoon Hussain andPrime Minister Nawaz Sharif who congratulatedthe participating troops and the scientists andengineers.

On November 13, Pakistan had conducteda successful training launch of intermediaterange Shaheen II (Hatf-VI) ballistic missile.

Pakistan test-firesFrom Page 1

the week.The initial target of the in-

dex is its recent all time highof 31,855 formed last weekwhich hopefully seems withinreach with influx of investmentfrom Chinese companies in theeconomic corridor and powerunits besides an impetus pro-vided by the central bank witha cut of 50 bps in its policy ratefor next two months.

The market volume inyesterday’s session rose to 276million share while the volumeleaders of the day were includ-ing Jahangir Siddiqi Co.,Maple Leaf Cement and Paki-stan Electron. Over 19 millionshares were trading in JahangirSiddiq Co, which was closedat Rs.14.71, Maple Leaf Ce-ment also touched 19 millionshares trade at a closing rate ofRs33.73 and 13 million sharestraded in Pakistan Electron atthe closing rate of Rs.30.75.

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soon be in hot waters over hisanti-government campaign.“Khan must stay away from theculture of terrorism,” said Rashidwhile speaking to media per-sons, a day after the PTI chief’swarning to the government fora ‘decisive’ battle on Nov 30in Islamabad.

He said that Khan must facethe court rather than fighting hiscase in the media. The Ministersaid the court has declared thePTI chief proclaimed offenderand he should present himself inthe court. He said Imran Khanshould stay away from promot-ing the culture of violence.

On Friday, Islamabad’s Anti-Terrorism Court declared Khanand PAT chief Dr. Tahir-ul-Qadrias proclaimed offenders in a caseof violence by supporters of boththe parties in the federal capital’sRed Zone.

Responding to the remarksof the minister, Dr. Arif Alvi, oneof the central leaders of PTI,termed the statements as ‘mad-ness’. “It seems the governmentis afraid of our Nov 30 plan. Thegovernment is itself inviting re-bellion by victimizing politi-cians. Pervaiz Rashid’s statementis mere madness,” he said.—Online

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China will never useFrom Page 1

security team immediately overpowered thejawan and handed him over to police.

Meanwhile Abdullah tweeted he is safeand that he has “full faith in his security”.“Not withstanding today’s incident with theBSF jawan stationed at my residence inSrinagar today I have full confidence in mysecurity team,” Abdullah wrote on Twitter.Police did not comment on the issue further,but sources said the jawan seemed mentally

“stressed”.A National Conference leader who did not

want to be named said the chief minister wasin Nubra and not at his residence when the fir-ing took place. He said the jawan posted onthe barracks near the CM’s residence fired 12gunshots. “It seemed he had some psychiatricproblem, no one was injured though. The CMis safe, he is in Nubra campaigning,” the leadersaid.—Online

Indian soldierFrom Page 1

tating farmers in the province. He said that hun-dred percent payment of dues to the sugar-cane farmers by the sugar mills will be en-sured within seven days. The Chief Ministersaid that the price of seed for wheat crop willalso be reduced for the farmers and cultiva-tors will get relief through this farmer-friendlydecision.

He said that the prices of rice and cottonwill be stabilized through purchase by the gov-ernment. He disclosed that a 2-day agri-con-ference will be held in December. ShahbazSharif said that agriculture is the backbone ofthe economy and the government will protectinterests of the farmers at all costs. He saidthat national economy can be strengthenedthrough promotion of agriculture and if farmerwill be prosperous, then country will progress.

He said that besides government, it is alsoresponsibility of the farmers to present prac-ticable suggestions for increasing agricultureproduction. The Chief Minister assured thedelegation that federal government will be ap-proached for resolving those matters whichrelate to it.

He directed to constitute a committee forresolving problems of farmers and added thatthis committee should consider all aspects and

Kisan Ittehad calls off protestFrom Page 1

submit practicable solution of the matters withinnext few days. He said that no negligence withregard to hundred percent payments of dues tothe farmers by sugar mills will be tolerated.

Shahbaz Sharif said that farmers shouldcome forward for the development and upliftof agriculture in the province and he is readyto provide all out resources for the promotionof agriculture. He said that farmers shouldpresent concrete and practicable proposals forthe development of agriculture sector in theconference to be held in December. Office-bearers of Kisan Ittehad thanked Chief Min-ister Muhammad Shahbaz Sharif for takingpersonal interest in resolution of their prob-lems and said that the Chief Minister has wontheir hearts by proposing solid steps regard-ing resolution of their problems.

They assured to increase agriculture pro-duction according to the vision of ShahbazSharif. No doubt, Shahbaz Sharif has provedto be a farmer-friendly Chief Minister byshowing interest in resolution of problems offarmers, they added. Provincial Minister Dr.Farrukh Javed, Mian Yawar Zaman, SpecialAssistant Arshad Jut, MPA Rana Sanaullah,concerned secretaries and other senior offi-cials were present on the occasion.

Brisbane again stressed thatBeijing must be a responsibleactor on the world stage.

China is locked in disputeswith four Southeast Asian coun-tries over lonely outcrops in theSouth China Sea, and with Ja-pan over another set of islets.

“A review of history showsthat countries that attempted topursue development with forceinvariably failed,” Xi saidthrough a translator. “This iswhat history teaches us. Chinais dedicated to upholdingpeace. Peace is precious andneeds to be protected.”

But he added: “We mustalways be on high alert againstthe factors that may deprive us

of peace.”The leaders of the US, Aus-

tralia and Japan on Sundaycalled for the peaceful settle-ment of the maritime disputes.The day before, Obama hadwarned of “disputes over terri-tory — remote islands androcky shoals — that threaten tospiral into confrontation”. Xisaid he was open to dialogue.

“It is China’s longstandingposition to address peacefullyits disputes with countriesconcerned and territorial sov-ereignty and maritime inter-ests through dialogue and con-sultation,” he said.

“China has settled landboundary issues with 12 out of

its 14 neighbours throughfriendly consultation. And wewill continue to work in thisdirection,” added Xi.

“The Chinese governmentis ready to enhance dialogueand cooperation with relevantcountries to maintain freedomof navigation and the safety ofmaritime routes, and ensure amaritime border of peace,tranquility and cooperation.”

Xi made the comments ashe sealed a long-awaited freetrade agreement with Austra-lia — a country that has longprofited from China’s vora-cious demand for its naturalresources — after nearly a de-cade of talks.—AFP

dia and reached an agreementwith the BCCI to play sixmatches up to 2022.—KMS

Kashmir disputeFrom Page 1

offensive on October 16 withair strikes against LI hideoutsin the areas of Tirah and Baracontrolled by militant com-mander Mangal Bagh.

The outlawed Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (Tariq Afridigroup) also controls severalparts of Tirah valley, but theoutfit joined hands with LIchief Mangal Bagh after he in-vited all outlawed militantgroups to come to Bara andfight against security forces fol-lowing the launch of the mili-tary operation.

10 moremilitants

From Page 1

in class nine, exploded in hisbag. The student has been ar-rested and is being interrogatedby the Station House officer(SHO) at the City Police Sta-tion.

The SHO said that the stu-dent has been taken into cus-tody for interrogation andmedical treatment as well.

He further said that thefamily of the boy will also beinterrogated to investigatewhether he had brought thehand grenade with an intentionto carry out criminal activity orother reasons.

Student injuredFrom Page 1

five days.People have started to evacuate far flung

areas whereas locals of the area hold the feu-dal lords and political intervention responsiblefor halting the acquisition of wheat to the poorand affected people.

According to Inter-Services Public Rela-tions, army’s relief operation is ongoing inDhani, Chachru, Khansar, Mithi and Dali.

The army has established at least 33 cen-ters to provide the food to the affected peopleand have distributed at least 150 ton rationamong thousands of affected families.

The army has also set up at least 29 medi-cal camps where as many as 18491 patientswere treated in the affected areas.

The prolonged drought conditions haveforced different community groups, especiallythose who maintain small landholdings andfamily livestock, to migrate to neighbouringareas in search of livelihood.

Sindh Chief Minister Syed Qaim Ali Shah

8 more infants die indrought hit Tharparkar

From Page 1

The core committee de-cided to take the matter to thecourt if the government placesobstacles in the way of party’splanned rally.

Meanwhile, reiterating hisstance about party’s upcomingrallies, Imran Khan said that hewould go ahead with the plannedrally in Larkana no matter whatformer president Asif Ali Zardaridoes. Imran Khan alleged thatnot only a former lawmaker ofthe PML-N fired at the PTI rallyin Jhelum, but a TMO was alsobusy firing shots at the PTIworkers.

Addressing his workersand followers at the PTI sit-incamp, Imran Khan stronglycondemned the Sunday’s at-tack on PTI rally in Jhelum. Hesaid that Nawaz Sharif and AsifAli Zardari say that they havejoined hands for the sake ofdemocracy and questioned that

PTI rallies in IslamabadFrom Page 1 brushed aside last week the allegations of

slackness, negligence and incompetence of hisgovernment in meeting the challenge of theTharparkar drought and said it had realisedthe situation in November and started takingmeasures to meet the situation.

The chief minister, who was winding upthe discussion on a motion regarding the situ-ation in Thar, said there was little substancein reports of deaths of children in the districtdue to drought.

He asked if the deaths were caused by thefamine, why only infants and not a single childof 10 years or above had died from hunger.“There is no proof of a single death from hun-ger,” he said.

An inquiry report over the mismanage-ment of the recent drought situation inTharparkar district had also revealed the in-ternal rifts and lack of coordination within thedifferent tiers of the Pakistan People’s Partyand the provincial government.

in democracy do the people fireat political opponents for voic-ing slogans.

He said that the PMLN af-filiates fired at the PTI work-ers for raising the slogan ‘GoNawaz Go’, adding, “I wouldnot mind if the PML-N work-ers chant Go Imran Go”.

The PTI chairman said that‘Go Nawaz Go’ is a slogan, nota derogatory remark for whichhis party workers were sub-jected to such oppression bythe workers of the ruling party.

Khan also said that regis-tering fake FIRs against politi-cal opponents is an old habitof the premier Nawaz Sharif,yet the PTI-led provincial gov-ernment did not register asingle case against PML-N or

PPP in Khyber Pakhtunkha,not to talk of fake cases.

He also said, “Who willserve justice to us, the judiciaryor the election tribunals, whichwere to resolve the cases withinfour months, but it is beingnearly 18 months that we areawaiting justice”.

He said if the system of thecountry does not provide jus-tice, we have the constitutionalright to take to streets for thispurpose and protest against it.

Bashing the InformationMinister Pervaiz Rashid, ImranKhan said that he alleged meof having ties with terrorists,but the people must know it isthe PML-N which patronizesbanned outfits, which in returnsupport it in all its misdeeds.

were willing to construct thisproject but different hindranceshad checked progress in thisregard.

In August 2012, the offi-cial said that Japan Interna-tional Cooperation Agency(JICA) agreed to a $2.5 billionloan to the Karachi UrbanTransport Corporation, whichwould oversee the rebuildingprocess. The plans call for up-grades and rebuilding of the 50kilometer long intra-city circu-lar line which will operate 24trains facilitating 700,000 com-muters, making 3-minute stopsat 23 stations.

The official said thatproject of KCR was under con-sultations and its approval de-pended on socio-economicsituation of Pakistan while se-curity situation in Karachi wasalso matter of grave concern forJapanese government and de-

Security situationFrom Page 1

pended on both the federal andprovincial governments to pro-vide conducive conditions forthe execution of the project.Moreover, the official told thatanother main hurdle in theimplementation of the projectwas displacement of some4,563 houses which fall in theway of railway line.

North Waziristan with a mili-tary spokesman stressing thatthe Afghan Haqqani networkhaving a sanctuary on the Pa-kistani side of the Afghan bor-der is a thing of the past.

“We’re against terrorists,we didn’t care about their hu-man color. This include all na-tionalities and all groups,” Ma-jor General Asim Bajwa said.

In interviews with Voice ofAmerica’s Urdu and Pashto ser-vices, Director General ISPRAsim Bajwa said the Zarb-e-Azboffensive has eliminated hun-dreds of terrorists and the Paki-stani forces are now engaged inclearing peripheral areas of thetribal territory as well. “TheHaqqani network is history now.This is a thing of the past.”

When asked about safe ha-vens of the Tehreek-e-TalibanPakistan commanders includ-ing Mullah Fazalullah in Af-ghanistan, Bajwa said Pakistaniand Afghan leaders regularlydiscuss these issues. He saidPakistan shared the informationwith Kabul about the TTP mili-tant leaders operating from theAfghan soil in the past but noaction was taken.

The issue over TTP sanc-tuaries on the Afghan soil mayalso feature in wide ranging se-curity talks between Americanmilitary leaders and GeneralRaheel Sharif who is the firstPakistani army chief to visit theUnited States since 2010.

Gen Asim Bajwa told thebroadcast service that notimeline has been set for con-clusion of the military opera-tion in Waziristan that startedin June this year and is pro-gressing as planned.

According to the DG ISPRmore than 1200 militants havebeen killed and Pakistani forceshave suffered around 200 ca-sualties combined from actionsin North Waziristan and otherparts of the tribal areas.

ISPR: HaqqaninetworkFrom Page 1

Russia expelsFrom Back Page

“But sanctions in themselves arenot an objective. They can be aninstrument if they come togetherwith other measures,” she said.

These included pushingUkraine to adopt reforms andcarrying on dialogue with Rus-sia, said Mogherini, the formerItalian foreign minister whoseappointment to the EU job wasopposed by eastern states thatsaw her as too soft on Moscow.The sanctions to be discussedMonday would most likely belimited to adding individuals tothe list of those already hit withtravel bans and asset freezes,rather than wider economicmeasures, ministers said.—AFP

MOSCOW—Russia expelledseveral Polish diplomats forspying on Monday, deepen-ing the worst East-West cri-sis since the Cold War as theEU eyed fresh sanctionsagainst Moscow over theviolence in Ukraine.

Fresh bloodshed inUkraine between pro-Kremlinrebels and Kiev’s forces addedto the tensions after RussianPresident Vladimir Putin left aG20 summit in Brisbane earlyamid criticism from westernleaders.

Work resumed meanwhileto remove the debris of Ma-laysia Airlines flight MH17from eastern Ukraine, pavingthe way for its return to theNetherlands four months af-ter it was downed, allegedlyby the rebels using a Russianmissile.

Moscow said Monday ithad expelled a number of Pol-ish diplomats for conduct “in-compatible with their status”,diplomatic jargon for espio-nage, adding that Warsawhad earlier expelled Russiandiplomats on the samegrounds. Poland — whichhas been one of the most

Colombiahalts peacetalks aftergeneralkidnappedBOGOTA, Colombia—Amassive search operationwas under way Mondayfor a Colombian armygeneral whose surprisecapture by leftist rebelsprompted President JuanManuel Santos to suspendtwo-year-old peace talks.Colombian media reportedit’s the first time in a half-century of fighting that theguerrillas have taken anarmy general captive.—AP

US speedingup training ofIraqi forcesFORT IRWIN,Calif —Defense Secretary ChuckHagel said Sunday that theU.S. military is acceleratingits efforts to train andadvise Iraqi forces fightingIslamic State militants. —AP

UNDISCLOSED PLACE: Pakistan conducted a success-ful test launch of Intermediate Range Shaheen-I A (HatfIV) Ballistic Missile. The successful launch was aimedat re-validating various technical parameters of theweapon system.

Russia expels Polish diplomatsas EU set for new Ukraine curbs

hawkish of the 28 EuropeanUnion states in its stanceagainst Russia’s role inUkraine — confirmedMoscow’s move was a “sym-

metric response”. In Brussels,EU foreign ministers met todiscuss hitting Russia withfresh sanctions, most likelytargeting individuals linked to

the violence in Ukraine, inwhich around 4,100 people havedied.

New EU foreign affairschief Federica Mogherinisaid sanctions would be dis-cussed “for sure” in re-sponse to violations of aSeptember peace deal inUkraine and discredited elec-tions held by separatists in No-vember.

JERUSALEM—Israel hasblocked Norwegian doctorMads Gilbert from enteringthe country and thereby ac-cessing the Gaza Strip, butdenied Monday it had im-posed a lifelong ban on theoutspoken medic.

“He has been bannedfrom entering Israel,” foreignministry spokesman PaulHirschson told AFP, cat-egorically denying reportsGilbert had been blockedfrom entering Gaza.

Access to the Gaza Strip,which has been under an Is-raeli blockade since 2006, ispossible only through theErez crossing from Israel, orthe Rafah terminal on theEgyptian border.

But Rafah has beenblocked by Cairo since adeadly suicide bombing inthe northern Sinai on Octo-ber 24, leaving Erez as theonly point of entry to the Pal-estinian territory.

News of the ban was firstreported last week by Norwe-gian media which said Israelhad barred Gilbert from Gazafor life.

The outspoken traumaspecialist — who has workedin the Palestinian territoriesfor three decades — accusedIsraeli authorities of back-tracking Monday, followingcalls from Norway to recon-sider the ban.

“They have a little troubleexplaining if I’m banned fromGaza or Israel,” he told AFP,adding that he was allowedinto Israel in October but de-nied entry to Gaza by Israelisoldiers and later informedthat the ban was “infinite”.

“They keep changing ex-planations all the time, so I

Israel barsNorwegian doctor,but denies life ban

think they are fairlypressurised by the reactionfrom the Norwegian govern-ment and from the interna-tional outcry over denyingentry to a medical doctor justbecause he’s criticising Is-rael.”

Gilbert was one of twodozen European doctors whosigned a letter published inleading medical journal TheLancet in July, several weeksinto a deadly 50-day confron-tation between Israel andHamas militants in the tinycoastal strip.

The war, which ended onAugust 26, claimed the livesof around 2,200 Palestiniansand 73 people on the Israeliside. The letter in The Lancetdescribed Israel’s Gaza cam-paign as a “crime against hu-manity”.

Last week an Israeli for-eign ministry spokesman saidGilbert was a “Jekyll andHyde” character who useshis medical status to attackthe Jewish state.

Gilbert replied that Israelwas trying to cover up theeffects of its ongoing block-ade of Gaza and to stifle criti-cism. “I am a medical doctorwho speaks up about theconditions of the Palestinianpeople which is my duty as adoctor,” he said.

“This is not about me,they don’t want the world tosee what’s going on. If theyfeel threatened or attacked bythe facts on the ground -- thenumbers of killed and injuredcivilians, the lack of water andsupplies due to the siege, thebombing of hospitals andambulances — then changethat, don’t kill the messen-ger,” he said. —AFP

OBSERVER REPORT

DOHA—Air Chief MarshalTahir Rafique Butt, Chief ofthe Air Staff, Pakistan AirForce who is on an officialvisit of Qatar, called onAbdullah bin Nasser binKhalifa Al Thani, Prime Min-ister of Qatar on Monday.Both the dignitaries re-mained together for sometimes and discussed matterspertaining to regional secu-rity issues and emphasizedthe strengthening of coop-eration for the self relianceand building up of the Mus-lim Ummah. They reiteratedtheir resolve in taking theexisting brotherly relationsto newer heights. The AirChief assured full coopera-tion in various areas of stra-tegic importance betweenthe two countries in generaland the two Air Forces inparticular.

Earlier, Air Chief Mar-shal, Tahir Rafique Butt, vis-ited Qatar Emiri Air ForceHeadquarters. On his ar-rival, a smartly turned outcontingent of Qatar Emiri AirForce presented the Guardof Honour. He was intro-duced to the Principle StaffOfficers of Qatar Emirit AirForce. The Air Chief also metwith Brigadier GeneralMubarak Mohammed AlKumait Al Khayarin, Com-mander Qatar Emiri AirForce, in his office. Both thedignitaries remained to-gether for some time and dis-cussed matters of profes-sional interest. Matters re-

Air Chief calls on Qatar’sPM, air force commander

lated to training and opera-tions were also discussedduring the meeting.

Car bombingsin Baghdad

kill 14BAGHDAD—A pair of carbombs targeted busy com-mercial areas in the Iraqi capi-tal on Monday, killing at least14 people and wounding 31,officials said.

In the first attack, a cardetonated on a commercialstreet in the Meshtal neigh-borhood in eastern Baghdad,killing at least eight peopleand wounding 15, police offi-cials said.

The second car bombingtook place in Baghdad’s west-ern Amiriya district, also hit-ting a commercial street andkilling at least six people andwounding 16 there.

Hospital officials con-firmed the casualties. Allspoke on the condition ofanonymity because theywere not authorized to talk tomedia. The Iraqi capital isseeing near-daily attacks butnothing compared to the ram-page in northern and west-ern Iraq by the Islamic Stategroup.—AP

Continued on Page 7

Earlier story on Page 6

PEOPLE in non-metro cities wereslightly more informed and aware thanpeople in metro cities about the cor-

rect measures of diabetes.New Delhi - Over 50 per cent of diabe-

tes patients in India are atthe risk of developingheart diseases, while 63 percent are at risk of gettingmicro vascular complica-tions, a study revealedWednesday. Many othersare under enhanced risk ofdeveloping eye problems,especially retinopathy,said the study “LifespanD-Myth 2014”.

The study was con-ducted to map people’sperceptions along withbehaviour-related out-comes of diabetes manage-ment. It also brings to lightpoor diabetes managementamong Indians, which itlinks to ignorance andprevalence of myths.

“Eighty per cent of diabetics in Indiahave higher cardio metabolic scores while50 per cent are ignorant about the fact thatdiabetes could lead to heart disease,” saidthe report by Lifespan, a healthcare com-pany dedicated to the management of dia-betes and cardio metabolic disorders.

The study was conducted among 5,065Indians in 16 cities on a one-to-one basis.

It also showed that 60 per cent of dia-betics in India suffer from autonomic ner-vous system dysfunction and 69 per centwere clueless that diabetes can also affecttheir sexual life.

“The study’s findings are unique interms of the insights it provides onpeople’s perceptions about diabetes andits effects on morbidity and mortality.Considering the huge burden of diabe-

tes on the country, the find-ings should help us lay outa road map to ensure its pre-vention and management,”Lifespan Wellness groupMD and CEO Ashok Jainsaid in a statement. Accord-ing to the report, 29 per centof diabetics use honey andjaggery during diabetes and41 per cent believed thesewere actually good forpeople suffering from diabe-tes. “Also 33 per cent regu-larly consume juices, whichhave high glycaemic index(not good for diabetes), withnearly one out of two peopleconsidering all fruit juiceswere good for diabetes,” thereport said. The report also

said that though it was well establishedthat bitter gourd (karela) and fenugreek(methi) cannot treat diabetes, 40 per centbelieve that eating them can cure diabe-tes.

Another 27 per cent were found tobe taking these alone to deal with dia-betes. “Eighty per cent of diabetics inIndia have higher cardio metabolicscores while 50 per cent are ignorantabout the fact that diabetes could leadto heart disease,” said the report byLifespan, a healthcare company dedi-cated to the management of diabetesand cardio metabolic disorders.

Over 50 per cent diabeticsmay develop heart diseases

Belgium Ambassador to Pakistan Peter Claes along with RGM Marriott Hotels Paki-stan Hartmut Noack during a press conference regarding Belgium Food Festival.

LIAQAT TOOR

ISLAMABAD—President MamnoonHussain on Monday urged MuslimUmmah to work for advancing uni-versal modern science and techni-cal education in their respectivecountries for human resource de-velopment and to excel in world af-fairs.

President with Ambassadors

Urges Ummah to work forhuman resource development

He said that Muslim countrieswere endowed with rich natural re-sources which could be best utilizedby a skilled human force for the ben-efit of people of Muslim countries.

The President said this during alunch hosted by International Is-lamic University (IIU) in the honorof ambassadors of Islamic countriesin Pakistan here at Aiwan-e-Sadr.

He appreciated the educationalcontributions of IIU in advancingthe Ummah’s ideological, moral, in-tellectual and economic develop-ment in accordance with the valuesand norms of Islam.

The President also lauded therole of the University in impartingquality education not only in thevaried Islamic subjects but also in

the modern disciplines.Minister of State for Education

and Professional Training,Baleegh-ur-Rehman, Ambassadorsof Islamic countries, Members ofthe Board of Trustees and Boardof Governors, International IslamicUniversity, and senior officials ofthe President Secretariat were alsopresent on the occasion.

President Mamnoon Hussain addressing the Ambassadors of Muslim countries at Aiwan-e-Sadr.

ZUBAIR QURESHI

ISLAMABAD—IslamabadHigh Court on Mondaywhile hearing a petition byone Irshad Ullah Khan is-sued notices to SecretaryForeign Affairs and Paki-stani Ambassador inUnited States of Americaand called for comments/reply within 15 days.

The petitionerthrough his counsel Bar-

rister Afzal Hussain hasfiled a writ petition seekingdirections for the federalgovernment to officiallytake up the matter of “dis-criminatory and degrading”treatment meted out to thePakistani citizens includingthe petitioner by the USgovernment, WashingtonDC and the US Embassy inPakistan.

Justice Noor-ul-Haq NQureshi of the IHC issued

notices to the respondentsseeking their reply to thepetitioner’s charges. Thepetitioner’s counsel Barris-ter Hussain while arguingsubmitted the financial in-stitutions of the US werediscriminating against thePakistani accountholdersand his client was one ofthe victims of this treat-ment.

According to details,the petitioner opened a cur-

rent account with the HSBCBank in Washington DC in2010. He was an accountholder of Premier WorldMaster Card with the HSBCBank in Washington DC,USA. In 2011, he receivedfirst notice suggested bythe bank officials he shouldclose down the account. Onhis refusal the bank sent anumber of notices until2013 when he received an‘unlawful’ notice of cancel-

lation of accounts from theHSBC Bank WashingtonDC, USA. The petitionerand his wife, said BarristerAfzal Hussain, had thricesubmitted all the docu-ments explaining their fi-nancial status, source ofearning and businessesworld over, which was re-quired by the bank in USA,however, still their ac-counts were closed onlybecause the petitioner was

a Pakistani citizen.The bank officials vide

emails had suggested whythe petitioner was maintain-ing a bank account in USA.The petitioner vide letterdated Oct 3, 2014 to the Sec-retary Foreign Affairs hadhighlighted this matter inthe national/public interestand according to his law-yer, the intention of the pe-titioner was to protectlarger national interest in-

cluding the protection ofthe human and fundamen-tal rights of the PakistaniCitizens.

The financial institu-tions of the United Statesof America have created anunwarranted situation thatare also in violation of thehuman rights guaranteedunder “The Universal Dec-laration Of Human Rights,1948” passed by the UnitedNations and such discrimi-

natory and degrading ac-tions were also violativeof the fundamental rightsof the Pakistani citizens.

The Single Bench ofJustice Noor-ul-HaqQureshi issued notice toSecretary Foreign Affairsand Pakistani Ambassa-dor in United States ofAmerica and called forcomments/reply within 15days and thereafter dateto be fixed by the Office.

Pakistani accountholder moves IHC against US bank

Court directs Foreign Secretary, Pak envoy to submit reply

MIAN ARSHAD

ISLAMABAD—Ambassador of BelgiumPeter Claes, Monday said that both Pa-kistan and Belgium were rich in taste offood and Pakistani restaurants spread allover Belgium were great attraction forBelgian people.

While speaking at the inaugurationceremony of two-day Belgian Food Fes-tival here, Peter Claes said that his coun-try had specialty in culinary taste, there-fore, with the aim of message of love andcare, Belgian embassy had organizaedthe food festival.

Earl ier speaking on the occasionRGM Marriott Hotels Pakistan, HartmutNoack added that Marriott Hotel in col-laboration with the Royal Embassy ofBelgium would organize a 2-day BelgianFood Festival on November 18-19.

ZUBAIR QURESHI

ISLAMABAD—Pakistan InterfaithLeague (PIL) held a Press Conferenceon Monday, November 17, 2014 at alocal hotel in Islamabad to demand aspeedy trial of the Kot Radha Kishanincident. The brothers and sister-in-law of the unfortunate couple werealso present at the Press Conference.

Chairman PIL, Sajid Ishaq, stronglycondemned the brutal killing in KotRadha Kishan when a Christian couple,Sajjad and Shama, were molested,physically assaulted, humiliated andthen burnt alive in a brick kiln on base-less blasphemy charges. Sajid Ishaqdemanded of the Chief Justice of Paki-stan to take a suo moto action in thiscase so that a speedy trial of the inci-dent may be carried out and an exem-plary punishment may be awarded tothe culprits of the murder incident.

He also demanded strict punish-ment for the people who committedmurder and arson in the name of reli-

Kot Radha Kishan tragic incident

Relatives, Christian communitydemand speedy trial of accused

Parveen, wife Iqbal Mashi, relatives of Christian couple burned to death in Kot Radha Kishan weeping during a pressconference.

gion. Chairman of the PIL added thatif the perpetrators of previous inci-dents of religious extremism such asGojra, Kasur, Joseph Colony andRimsha Masih were held accountable,no one would have dared to commitsuch a crime again.

This is a Test case for the Govern-ment as the Government itself is thecomplainant in this case. The FIRagainst the perpetrators was registeredby the Government itself that clearlystated that a false case was fabricatedagainst the unfortunate couple.

The fair and just trial and judgmentwould be a clear indication to the reli-gious minorities of the seriousness onpart of the Government to provideequal rights, justice and protection asprofessed by them on many occa-sions. Chairman Sajid Ishaq demandedthe formation of a Judicial Commis-sion. He also called for the formationof a Joint Inquiry Committee whichshould include Justice (R) KaziWaheed Siddiqui, who was the former

Justice of the Federal Shariat Court anda Christian religious cleric so that thefindings may be made transparent.

Executive Director I-LAP, NaziaAnsari said the heinous murder of theChristian couple by burning themalive showed level of intolerance inthe Islamic State of Pakistan. She saidthat it was imperative for the Govern-ment to take serious steps in bringingthe culprits of this incident to task asthey had not only murdered three hu-man beings but had used religion andthe Blasphemy Law as a guise to settletheir personal scores.

The brothers of the victim Sajjadsaid the government had offered themland and money as compensation forthe murders of their brother, sister-in-law and their unborn child howeverthey were speculative as to what theirtrue intensions were in this regard.They said that they wanted justice anin-depth investigation into the inci-dent and trial and punishment of theculprits.

He said that everyone was invited totake a culinary trip to Belgium with re-nowned Chef Matthias Vanacker.

Using high quality ingredients andcutting edge culinary techniques ChefMatthias Vanacker will create an inno-vative yet delicious menu varying fromlighter options to the wonderfully indul-gent .

“The result will be an intriguing jour-ney into discovering the highlights ofBelgian cuisine .Furthermore to create awinning combination with excellent foodrenowned saxophonist, John Snauwaert,from Belgium will also be performing atthe food festival- great news for jazz lov-ers.

So come and experience a bite of Bel-gian Food Culture at the Belgian Foodand Music Festival. Official carrier forthe event is Qatar Airways” he added.

Two-day Belgian Food Festival

Belgian envoy laudsPakistani food taste

Woman allegesNAB of kidnapping

her husbandCITY REPORTER

IS L A M A B A D—IslamabadHigh Court has beenmoved by a petitioner whois seeking recovery of herhusband from NationalAccountability Bureau(NAB). The petitionerNabeela Tahir in her peti-tion has alleged that aNAB investigation officer(IO) kidnapped her hus-band from Jinnah SuperIslamabad a few days back(Nov 11).

Nabeela’s husbandTahir Mehmood Abbasi is alocal businessman. In herpetition, Nabeela sought le-gal action against the NABIO Mohammad Tariq.

She has stated in herwrit petition that on No-vember 11, 2014, she, herhusband and their daugh-ter, was at Jinnah Supermarket for shopping. Afterthey were returning home aToyota van carrying some12 unknown persons forc-ibly stopped their car andabducted her husbandwithout identifying them-selves.

When the petitioner andher daughter tried to stopthe persons, they also man-handled both of them, shehas alleged. The petitionerlodged an FIR against thealleged abductors withKohsar police station.

06:05 01:3004:00

07:00

Zohr

Asr

Isha

Fajar

Meghrab at Sunset

Brothers in Islamestablish regularprayers & charity

November 18-19

A two day InternationalConference on “Major Pow-ers’ Interests in IndianOcean: Challenges and Op-tions for Pakistan” will beheld in Serene HotelIslamabad on November 18-19, 2014. The conference willstart at 09:00 am. It has beenorganized by IPRI andHannas Seidel Foundation.

****

SIKANDAR Hayt BosanFederal Minister for Minis-try of National Food Secu-rity and Research (MNFSR)is going to be Chief Guest atthe closing session of Inter-national Agri Trade Confer-ence (Fruits and Vegetablesof Pakistan-2014, organizedby the Islamabad Chamberof small Trades and Indus-tries on 18.11.2014, at 1400hrs, Islamabad Club,Islamabad.

****

Minister of State for NationalServices, Regulations & Co-ordination Mrs. Saira AfzalTarar Will be Chief GuestSAARC HAVEERU Environ-mental awareness Festival inIslamabad College for Girls,F-6/2, dated 18.11.2017 at11:30 a.m.

November 19

FEDERAL Public ServiceCommission will hold Part-A Written Test for the postof Interpreter (BS-17) atthree centres/stations viz;Islamabad on 19.11.2014(Candidates of Lahore Cen-tre have been called atIslamabad.

November 20

A discussion on “EconomicScorecard and fiscal year2013-14 and Economic Re-view for the first quarter2014-15” will be held at Paki-stan Academy of Sciences,3 Constitution Avenue, G5/2 on November 20, 2: 30 p.m.

Ambassador of Greece Petros Mavroides and Jahangir Khan Sherpao President Institute of Architects giving shieldsto the participants during an exhibition of” Doxiadis and Islamabad”, here at a local hotel. Constantinos Doxiadis isthe Greek architect who designed city of Islamabad.—PO photo by Sultan Bashir

Ambassador of Japan Hiroshi Inomata and UNICEF Country representative Aangela Kearney exchanging notes aftersigning grant agreement for polio campaign in Pakistan in the Ministry of National Health Services Regulations andCoordination.

Residents gathered to get drinking water from a filtration plant.

STAFF REPORTER

ISLAMABAD—For the eradication of polioin Pakistan, Government of Japan, JapanInternational Cooperation Agency (JICA)and United Nations Children’s Fund(UNICEF) signed agreements Monday tomake sure children are vaccinated in Paki-stan, one of the last polio virus strongholdsin the world. The US $5.4 million (562 millionJapanese Yen) worth grant will contributeto supporting UNICEF’s commitment to-wards polio eradication effort during theperiod December 2014-November 2015.

Japan’s donation will make it possiblefor UNICEF to procure 15 million doses ofthe Oral Polio Vaccine (OPV) for mop-upcampaigns, 1.3 million doses of the Inacti-vated Polio Vaccine (IPV) for children in highrisk areas of the Federally AdministeredTribal Areas (FATA) and Karachi, 100 solarice-lined refrigerators (ILRs) for districts ofKhyber Pakhtunkhwa (KPK) and FATA,backup generators and temperature moni-toring systems for strengthening the coldchain at Federal, KPK, Balochistan andFATA vaccine stores.

The grant will also strengthen the vac-cine management through provision of coldchain and logistic personnel at Federal,FATA and four provinces.

Hiroshi Inomata, Ambassador of Japanto Pakistan reaffirmed Japan’s commitmentto help Pakistan to get rid of this prevent-able disease.

He recalled that the Government of Ja-pan has supported the Polio Eradication

Japan contributes $5.4m to bolster polioeradication in Pakistan through 2015

Initiative in Pakistan since 1996. Japan’s as-sistance amounts to approximately USD149million (JPY 15.5 billion, Rs. 15.2 billion).

Given a large increase in the number ofpolio cases this year, Ambassador Inomatacalled on the Government of Pakistan and itspartners to redouble their efforts to addressthe existing complex challenge in the fightagainst polio.

He welcomed the commitment of the Gov-ernment of Pakistan shown in the National TaskForce Meeting chaired by Prime MinisterNawaz Sharif on 5 November. He reiteratedJapan’s commitment to working together untilthe day of its complete eradication.

Mitsuyoshi Kawasaki, Chief Representa-tive of Japan International CooperationAgency (JICA) Pakistan, emphasized urgentneeds of fully organized service delivery sys-tem of immunization programme.

“This grant addresses urgent needs ofcurrent polio situation in Pakistan and willenable children to acquire rapid immunizationamong children influx from FATA who havehad zero dose since June 2012 and childrenwho hardly get immunity with OPV. Provisionof ILRs and human resource for vaccine man-agement will contribute to make immunizationactivities further effective. We are hopeful thatthis grant will serve as a drive for the finalphase of Pakistan’s fight against polio virus”.

Angela Kearney, UNICEF Representativein Pakistan added “this latest contribution bythe Government of Japan comes at a criticaltime when the number of children paralyzedby polio and the risk of transmission to othercountries is the highest in a decade”.

STAFF REPORTER

ISLAMABAD—National Highways &Motorway Police barred hundreds of dif-ferent types of unfit vehicles from runningon highways and motorways. TheMotorway Police has started vigorous cam-paign against the unfit vehicles and 1734motor vehicles in total were barred fromentering highways and motorways.

As per details Motorway Zone(Peshawar – Lahore) restricted entry of 393unfit vehicles.

Whereas, on national highways start-ing form Peshawar to Lahore, Lahore toRahim Yar Khan and Rahim Yar Khan to

Karachi 119, 1149 and 67 unfit vehicles werebarred from running, respectively.In con-tinuation of the campaign, 06 unfit vehicleswere restricted to enter Murree – Islamabaddual carriageway.

The Inspector General, Zulfiqar AhamdCheema said “action against unfit vehicleswill continue and unfit vehicles will not beallowed to play on highways andmotorways in any case.”Inspector Generalwarned against unauthorized modificationof transport vehicles. These kinds of ve-hicles would not be allowed to enter high-ways and motorways, he added. The I.GZulfiqar Cheema said “we are committed tosafe precious lives of commuters”.

NH&MP barred unfit vehiclesfrom running on motorways

STAFF REPORTER

ISLAMABAD—Chairman of Metro Bus Ser-vice Project Implementation Committee andformer Member of National AssemblyMuhammad Hanif Abbasi has insisted thecontractors of Rawalpindi Islamabad MetroBus Project to complete the project withinstipulated time.

He was chairing a meeting to review theprogress of Package I, Islamabad PackageIII, Islamabad Package IV, Islamabad Pack-age V Islamabad and Bus Depot of MetroBus Project.

Capt (r) Zahid Saeed, Commissioner

Rawalpindi Division, Former MPA ZiaullahShah, Chief Engineer RDA MuhammadSaeed Akhtar, Director Engineering RDAAsghar Warraich, Project ManagerNESPAK Danish Raza and other relevantofficers and contractors of the above pack-ages attended the meeting.

Hanif Abbasi also directed contrac-tors to remove extra material from theproject site so as to provide relief to thegeneral public. The contractors assuredto complete the ongoing work in time. Itwas decided in the meeting that Centau-rus Fly-over would be completed on De-cember 10. —APP

Metro Bus Project to becompleted within stipulated time

ISLAMABAD—The Capital Development Au-thority (CDA) had acquired complete land of720 Kanals for the Islamabad Model Prisonwhich would have a capacity for 2,000, prison-ers. Talking to APP Asim Ali a senior official ofCDA also informed that CDA besides thathanded over the land to ICT administrationafter acquisition which stated constructionwork on it.

Ali said that Pakistan Public Works De-partment (Pak-PWD) had constructed bound-ary wall of the prison at Rs130 million in thisregard.

He said that about five days ago “Out ofthe total 720 kanal only 90 kanal land was leftto be acquired by the CDA which was attainedcompletely. Official said almost all cases relat-ing to succession and possession were final-ized adding that sporadic cases may left till thetime being. While explaining the delay in ac-quiring land he respond that the civic bodywants to clear the succession cases first be-fore dealing with the owners, so it took time toresolve. He further said that CDA had paidaround 666.6 million to the landowners to ac-quire the land for this model jail.—APP

Acquisition of land forIslamabad jail completed

Five lawbreakersrounded up

RAWALPINDI—The police inits continued drive againstanti-social elements have ar-rested five lawbreakers, be-sides recovering 11 bottles ofliquor, four liter wine, one pis-tol 30 bore with three rounds,one pistol 32 bore with tworounds and a kalashnikov withfive rounds from the posses-sion of the arrested accused.

According toRawalpindi police spokes-person, the Gungmandi po-lice held Nadar Khan for hav-ing 11 bottles of liquor.Bunni police netted FaisalHameed and recovered fourliter wine.—APP

ISLAMABAD—The PakistanTehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) CentralSecretary InformationShireen Mazari said on Mon-day that backing militants isnot the PTI’s culture. Ad-dressing a press conferencehere, she said Minister Infor-mation Pervez Rashid mighthave forgotten that chairmanPTI Imran Khan backed op-eration Zarb-e-Azb.

She said Imran Khancondemned the attack onPTV and that PTI does notbelieve in politics of vandal-ism. She said the warrantsagainst PTI leaders are noth-ing more than mockery. Sheaccused the Pakistan Mus-lim League Nawaz (PML-N)workers for attacking PTI’srally in Jehlum on Sunday.

She informed that one ofthe injured workers died as aresult of firing, the case forwhich would be lodgedagainst Chief MinisterPunjab Shahbaz Sharif. ThePTI leader berated the PML-N to have introduced theculture of attacking state in-stitutions and Pervez Rashid

Backing militants is not PTI’sculture: Shireen Mazari

Central Information Secretary PTI Dr Shireen Mazari addressing a press conference.

ISLAMABAD—Veteran educationistsand intellectuals on Monday appreci-ated the federal government’s decisionfor revising curriculum up to the highersecondary school level by setting upNational Curriculum Council (NCC) intwo months.

The curriculum up to the higher sec-ondary school level would be launchedin Islamabad and all provinces after cre-ation of the National Curriculum Coun-cil (NCC). Veteran educationist, poetand critic Professor Dr Fakhar ul HaqNoori told APP that the NCC will helpto develop minimum curriculum that en-sures minimum national standards inall subjects and emphasises on nationalideology and societal needs.

Dr Fakhar ul Haq Noori said thatwhile developing the new curriculumfor schools and colleges, the NCC un-der guidance from IPEMC should keep

in view the Islamic and national ideol-ogy by including chapters conformingwith present day needs like environ-ment, awareness against corruptionand energy saving. Planning and de-velopment senior official Dr MehmoodKhalid Qamar told APP that the NCC,which would directly work under theInter-Provincial Education MinistersConference (IPEMC), will decide theminimum standards for curriculum in-cluding chapters on national heroes etcwhile the provinces would be free toadd their local heroes to the curricu-lum.

National Book Foundation(NBF)Managing Director Dr Inam ul HaqJaved said that NCC would develop thenational curriculum framework andwould help boost research on curricu-lum, teachers’ training and assessment.

“The NCC will revise uniform mini-

mum quality standards in curriculum,”he said.

He said the development of curricu-lum will provide for more room for de-veloping the capacity among studentsfor self-directed learning, spirit of in-quiry, critical thinking, problem-solving,team-work and analytic thinking. It ispertinent to mention here that the deci-sion to create the NCC was taken bythe Inter-Provincial Education Minis-ters’ Conference earlier this year. Mean-while the NCC would consist of threemembers each from all provinces andalso from Azad Jammu and Kashmir,Gilgit-Baltistan and Fata. The membersmay consist of concerned SecretaryEducation, Director Bureau of Curricu-lum and Chairman Textbook Board. Allprovinces except from the Sindh prov-ince have nominated their members forthe council.—APP

Govt decision to revise curriculum lauded

must remember that the PML-N attacked Supreme Court.She further clarified that thePTI is not responsible forAwami Muslim League(AML) chief Sheikh RasheedAhmad’s diction and de-

meanor.She said the government

has lost its equilibrium.“None of our leaders is in thehiding neither do they havearmed guards; police can ar-rest them anytime. We have

no clue which media person-nel were bestowed withmoney, names should be dis-closed,” she added. Mazaristated that they do not sup-port any act of harassmentagainst reporters.—INP

Chief Minister Gilgit-Baltistan Syed Mehdi Shah called on Federal Minister for Kashmir Affairs and Gilgit-Baltistan ChMuhammad Barjees Tahir in Islamabad.

SRINAGAR: APHC leaders and activists protesting against detention and house ar-rest of Hurriyet leaders.

AB. QAYOOM KHAN

THE people of Jammu & Kashmir are notgoverned by the constitution of India whichcame into effect on 26th January 1950. The

constitution gave Indian citizens other thanJammu & Kashmir the power to govern them-selves on all subjects through a parliamentarydemocracy. However in view of the special cir-cumstances in which this state was placed then,with respect to Jammu & Kashmir state a ‘tem-porary’ special constitutional arrangements wasevolved and provided in Article 370 of Constitu-tion of India, which limited the powers of Indianparliament to make laws on those matters in theunion list and the concurrent list which, in con-sultation with the Government of the state, aredeclared by the President to correspond to mat-ters specified in the Instrument of Accession gov-erning the Accession of the State to the dominionof India as the matters with respect to which thedominion legislature may make laws for the State.

The relationship of Jammu & Kashmir withIndian Union is based on the ‘Conditional Instru-ment of Accession’ signed by the Maharaja on26th of Oct. 1947. In accordance with the term ofAccession, subject to confirmation through ‘plebi-

Is November 17 Kashmir’s Own Republic Day?scite’, the State agreed to be a part of Union ofIndia, allowing it to make laws for this state onlywith respect to Defence, External Affairs and Com-munication. The Accession also vide clause 7 madeit categorically clear that “Nothing in this instru-ment shall be deemed to commit mean any waytoo acceptance of any future constitution of Indiaor to fetter any discretion to enter into arrange-ments with Govt of India under any such futureconstitution”.

Thus at the time of Accession Jammu & Kash-mir was the only state to declare its intention tohave its own constitution, to be drafted by its ownConstituent Assembly. Thus the arrangements in-volved the division of sovereignty and beyond thepowers transferred by it to the union, the State en-joyed complete residuary sovereignty. The termsof Accession of our State with Union of India weremaintained till the Constituent Assembly of Indiawas charged with tasks of framing a constitution.Earlier to this, the political leadership of Kashmirand Government of India had agreed that ‘in viewof the special problems arising in respect of thisstate and the fact that the Government of India haveassured its people that they would themselves fi-nally determine their political future’, hence till‘right of self determination’ is exercised by the

people of the state a ‘temporary special position’should be accorded to Jammu & Kashmir in thefuture constitution so that a limited field of theUnion over the State is ensured.

Four representatives were nominated from theJammu & Kashmir State to the Constituent Assem-bly of India. The representatives participated in thedeliberations of the Constituent Assembly of Indiaat the time when the bulk of the Indian Constitu-tion had already been adopted. It was at this stagethat the constitutional position of the State wasdetermined in the Constitution of India. The repre-sentative of Jammu & Kashmir State reiterated theirview that ‘our association with India should bebased on the terms of the Instrument of Accession.’It was made clear that, other than the subjects enu-merated in the Instrument of Accession, the Au-tonomy of the state with regards all other subjectsoutside the ambit of the Instrument of Accessionshould be preserved.

With this background, on 17th of November1956, when constituent assembly of J & K adopteda separate constitution, Jammu & Kashmir State,‘for a temporary period of time’ attained a semi-republican character with a separate constitution,a separate Flag and Citizenship, Independent Judi-ciary with Sadr - e - Riyasat as head of the State,

and executive with Council of Ministers headedby the Prime Minister. The constitution gave the‘state subjects’ of Jammu & Kashmir, the power togovern themselves on all subjects other than De-fence, External Affairs and communication. The J& K constitution creates authorities, called consti-tutional authorities who function and act under theconstitution of the state of Jammu & Kashmir. TheArticle 25 of the Constitution creates the office ofthe State designated as Governor. Article 31 pre-scribed the oath or affirmation to be subscribed bythe Governor. Article 35 provides for Council ofMinisters with Chief Minister as the head.

Article 36 provides for appointment of Minis-ter. Article 40 provides for the oath of administeredto the Minister in accordance with the Vth Scheduleof the Constitution. Article 42 provides for appoint-ment of the Advocate General. Article 46 providesfor creation of the Legislatures. Similarly Article 57provides for position of the Speaker / DeputySpeaker in the Legislative Assembly and Article 61provides for Chairman and Deputy Chairman of theLegislative Council. Article 93 provides for creationof High Court consisting of Chief Justice and twoor more other Judges. Article 95 provides for theappointment of a Judge of the High Court.

Article 97 provides the oath to which a Judge

of the High Court is required to subscribe beforehe/she enters upon his/her office. Article 128 pro-vides for creation of Public Service Commission.The Article 144 of the Constitution provides for StateFlag. It reads as follows: “The Flag of the State shallrectangular in shape and Red in colour with threeequidistant white vertical strips of equal width nextto the staff and white plough in the middle withhandle facing the strips. The ratio of the length ofthe flag to its width shall be 3 : 2”.

This is how the J & K state has attained a semirepublican character with dual sovereignty. Thepeople of Jammu & Kashmir are only partly sover-eign with respect to Indian Constitution and hoistingof tricolour National flag in J & K on 26th Januaryhas relevance only with respect to three subjects i.e,Defence, External Affairs and Communication.

However the people of Jammu & Kashmir aresovereign on all other subjects because of constitu-tion of Jammu & Kashmir. It is surprising that whythe state Govt./ all the Constitutional authorities donot celebrate 17th Nov as the Republic Day of theState of Jammu & Kashmir, when it adopted theconstitution of State / Constitution became enforce-able by hoisting of state flag with dignity and honour.With respect to the flag of Jammu & Kashmir.

—Courtesy: Greater Kashmir

SRINAGAR—The veteran Hurriyet leader,Syed Ali Gilani has reiterated his call forelection boycott saying that the Kashmiriscan only get rid of slavery and state terror-ism by resisting every suppressive moveunleashed by India.

Syed Ali Gilani while distributing chequesamong the flood affectees at his residence inSrinagar criticized the Indian authorities forjumping into the election fray instead of tak-ing steps for rehabilitation of the victims.

The illegally detained senior Hurriyet

People urged to resist India’s suppressionCrackdown operation underway in IOK

leader, Shabbir Ahmad Shah in a statementfrom jail said that India and its puppet ad-ministration had launched a crackdown op-eration against Hurriyet leaders, activistsand youth ahead of the election drama.

The JKLF-R Chief Patron, BarristerAbdul Majeed Tramboo in a statementmaintained that the elections were noth-ing but an exercise in futility.

Hurriyet leaders including ZamurdaHabib, Mir Shahid Saleem, the Jammu andKashmir Peoples Freedom League,

On the other hand, unidentifed gun-men barged into the residence of one ci-vilian identifed as Ghulam Mohi-ud-DinDar and shot him to death at Awantiporaarea of Pulwama district.

Meanwhile, the Kashmir Council ofAustralia held a protest demonstration inSydney against Indian Prime MinisterNarendra Modi’s visit on the occasion of G20summit. The protesters called upon Modi toresolve the dispute over Jammu and Kash-mir through dialogue with Pakistan.—KD

SRINAGAR—In occupied Kashmir, the Chair-person of Kashmir Tehreek-e-Khawateen,Zamruda Habib has expressed serious concernover the continued arrest spree by Indian troopsand termed it illegal and unjust.

Zamruda Habib meeting the families of il-legally detained people expressed solidarity withthem She said that Kashmir had been convertedinto a police state as the innocent people espe-cially the youth were being harassed.

She said that the undemocratic behaviourof the authorities would not be tolerated. Shesaid and the detainees would not be left alone.She also reiterated the Kashmiris resolve oftaking the liberation movement to its logical

Zamruda concerned aboutHurriyet leaders’ arrest

conclusion.Zamruda Habib also called upon the people

to completely boycott the sham polls and gavea message to India and the world communitythat the people of Kashmir had no interest withthe formation of regimes in the territory.

Meanwhile, Jammu and Kashmir Demo-cratic Political Movement in a statement rejectedany solution to the Kashmir dispute without theparticipation of the Kashmiris in the process.DPM General Secretary, Advocate MuhammadShafi Reshi said that by dubbing Kashmir asbilateral issue India wants to sabotage the his-torically disputed status of Jammu and Kash-mir.—KMS

SRINAGAR—In occupied Kashmir, illegallydetained Chairman of Democratic FreedomParty, Shabbir Ahmad Shah has denounced thearbitrary crackdown on Hurriyet leaders andactivists by Indian police.

Shabbir Ahmad Shah in a statement issuedin Srinagar said that the police had started raid-ing the houses of various leaders and activistsof the party and warned police to stop such ar-bitrary arrest spree and release the arrested per-sons forthwith.

He said that the authorities, by starting suchcrackdown, have proved that they could not facethe pro-freedom people at political level andwanted to proclaim their so-called victory bysuppressing political opponents by the dint offorce.

Terming the recent statements on AFSPA by

Shabbir denounces crackdownon Hurriyet leaders

pro-India political parties opportunism, ShabbirAhmad Shah said: “Making noise over AFSPAat the time of elections is aimed at misleadingthe people and to fill their vote banks while asthe reality is that they all pro-India partieswanted the status-quo of the black law.”

He said Omar Abdullah during his tenurehas promised to repeal this black law “Now, he(Omar) and his like-minded politicians are blam-ing each other for their failure to repeal the law,”he added.

Reiterating his election boycott appeal,Shabbir Shah said that people should realize thatthose elements whose hands were dipped withthe blood of Kashmiri youth could never be theirrepresentatives. “Voting for them is treason withthe mission of martyrs who laid their preciouslives for Kashmir cause, he maintained.—KMS

JAMMU—The Jammu Kashmir Peoples’ Move-ment (JKPM), an APHC constituent, describ-ing the recent remarks of the puppet Chief Min-ister Omar Abdullah as nothing more than anelection stunt, has said that Omar Abdullah andhis party have never been sincere in repealingthe draconian law Armed Forces Special Pow-ers Act (AFSPA) from the territory.

APHC leader and JKPM leader, Mir ShahidSaleem while addressing a party meeting atJammu said that more than six years ago it wasthe same Omar Abdullah who launched his elec-tion campaign with the promise that he wouldmake the act go within a few weeks of his partycoming to power.

However, he added, six years have passed

JKPM terms Abdullah’sremarks mere election stunt

the act is still there and the NC led regime onthe contrary has crossed all the limits of oppres-sion and suppression in the territory.

The JKPM leader said with the OmarAbdullah taking the reins of power Kashmir wit-nessed an unprecedented increase in the humanrights violations including fake-encounters, cus-todial killings, rapes and massacres.

He said the worst cases of rights violationsincluding the 120 killings of innocent youngstersin 2010 and rape and murder of Asiya and Neloferin Shopian also took place under the regime ofOmar Abdullah. Mir Shahid Saleem said thechief minister either remained a silent spectatoror kept issuing controversial statements in de-fense of the perpetrators.—KW

SRINAGAR—The Jammu and Kashmir PeoplesFreedom League (JKPFL) has condemned thecontinued arrest of party leaders and activistsand described it as frustration of the authorities.

The party spokesman in a statement issuedin Srinagar said that Indian police had starteda crackdown against the Hurriuyet leaders andactivists to prevent them from anti-poll cam-

JKPFL condemns arrestof party leaders, activists

paign in the territory.He deplored that police had shifted party’s Gen-

eral Secretary, Ghulam Ahmad Parray and other lead-ers including Khurshid Ahmad Showkat AhmadHajam and Manzoor Ahmad to to Kupwara centraljail, adding that such cheap tactics could not sup-press the liberation movement and poll boycott cam-paign in the territory would continue.—KD

Tihar Jail refusesinfo on Guru’s

executionNEW DELHI—The records ofMuhammad Afzal Guru’shanging are unlikely to bemade public soon as NewDelhi’s Tihar prison has de-cided to challenge before theDelhi High Court the CentralInformation Commission(CIC) order to disclose thedocuments.

The communication in thisregard has been sent to Aligarh-based Right To Information(RTI) applicant, Paras NathSingh, by Director General ofPrisons at Tihar.

“It is informed that PrisonDepartment is going to file anappeal before the High Courtof Delhi against the decision ofCIC,” Sunil Kumar, Law Of-ficer (Prisons) said.

Information CommissionerSridhar Acharyulu had directedthe Tihar authorities to makepublic specific records related tothe execution of Guru on Sep-tember 26. The Commissionerhad given 10 days to the authori-ties to comply with the order.

According to the legal po-sition, Tihar authorities shouldhave either procured a stayfrom the High Court through awrit petition or provided theinformation—KD

JKSMdistributes relief

goods amongflood-hit peopleSRINAGAR—In occupiedKashmir, a delegation of the ofJammu and Kashmir SalvationMovement (JKSM), today, vis-ited Kawoosa Narbaland anddistributed blankets, firepots(kangries) and warm clothingamong flood-hit victim families.

The members of the delega-tion on the occasion pledged tocontinue the relief work despiteall odds. They warned the pup-pet administration for their in-human approach and said thatrecent arrest spree unleashed bythe authorities badly hamperedthe relief work.

They also condemned thecontinued detention of Hurriyetleaders and sought interventionof international human rightsorganizations. They said thatIndian forces had converted thevalley into a garrison by de-ploying lakhs of troopers anddetaining Hurriyet freedomleaders and youth of the terri-tory.—KMS

RAO ATTIQUE

MIRPUR—AJK’s premier state-run MirpurUniversity of Science & Technology (MUST)entered the ranks of the top world-class varsi-ties after it clinched the highest ‘W’ rating sta-tus, awarded by the Higher Education Commis-sion of Pakistan (HEC), by jumping from thelowest ‘Z’ ranking status through securing 87.5marks from the previous 31.4 marks followinga revolutionary progress, the varsity attained,through the delivery of quality education of sci-ence, technology and arts, by fully qualifyingthe criteria set by the H.E.C.

Indication to this effect was given by ViceChancellor of Mirpur University of Science &Technology Prof. Dr. Habib ur Rehman (Sitara-e-Imtiaz), while speaking as chief guest at the cer-tificate-distribution ceremony at the concludingsession of 10-day Teachers Training Workshoptitled.

Cascading of 22nd Master Trainers FacultyProfessional Development Programme”, hosted byDepartment of Electrical Power Engineering at themain campus of the varsity here yesterday.

MUST attains highest‘W’ rating status

The Vice Chancellor gave away certificatesto all 27 participants of the workshop, besidesawarding shields to Dean of Engineering Dr. RiazMughal, Chairman Electrical Power Engineer-ing Department Prof. Shabir Mirza, ChairmanElectrical Engineering Department Prof. MirzaWaris Jiraal and others. The host of the ceremonypresented memorial shield to the chief guest.

Highlighting the salient features of theworking the coordinator of the work-shopEngr. Mirza Jabaar Baig said that the eventwas managed with the coordination and dueassistance of the Higher Education Commis-sion to enhance the professional capacitybuilding of the academic staff of various fac-ulties of the MUST to enable them to pro-duce the quality future architects of the na-tion through the best of their abilities andskills.

Besides senior academicians from MUST,seasoned facilitators from various prominentvarsities from various parts of the country, de-livered lectures in the workshop to make theaudience acquainted of the latest methods ofteaching and training.

Caged dissentleaders come upwith unique poll

boycott campaignSRINAGAR—The resistancecamp in Jammu and Kashmirdespite being detained and putunder house arrest has come upwith a ‘unique’ idea of propa-gating the election boycott.Various resistance groups havecreated short video clips andcirculated them on social net-working sites and applicationsincluding Facebook andWhatsapp.

A short video clip of fourminutes of duration has gone vi-ral on social networking siteswith the video messages of AllParties Hurriyat Conferencechairmen Syed Ali Geelani,Mirwaiz Umar Farooq andDukhtaran-e-Milat chief AsiyaAndrabi. The video message be-ing sent on Whatsapp and sharedon Facebook and Twitter asks thepeople here to boycott the com-ing assembly elections.

It also shows Geelani ad-dressing the gathering viaphone wherein he asks youthnot to undermine the missionof the ‘martyrs’. Mirwaiz isseen posing for the camera withthe appeal that polls must beboycotted by the people here‘en-masse’.

The video starts with thesong-eulogizing the people ofKashmir. It then shifts towardsthe lecture given by Geelaniwho in his message asks youthto boycott elections. It alsoshows the senior resistanceleader reciting the poetry ofAlama Iqbal in front of thecamera. “My appeal to theyouth in particular is that thesacrifices rendered by thepeople must be safeguardedand hence in no way shouldvote during elections.”

Mirwaiz in a video clip saidthat the people must understandtheir role vis-à-vis the ongoingmovement and that people havesacrificed their livers for a causeand elections cannot be the sub-stitute to the right to self deter-mination. “We appeal people toboycott the coming polls so thatwe could prove our solidaritywith those who have sacrificedtheir today for our tomorrow,”clip showing Mirwaiz said.

Asiya Andrabi also casti-gates the state authorities forthe conduction of the polls,saying that the utmost prior-ity of the people of Jammu andKashmir must be to boycottthe elections.

The clip marks the re-en-try of Syed Ali Geelani saying,“One point program- Electionboycott Shahar-o-Gham.” Theclip is followed by AsiyaAndrabi and Mirwaiz UmarFarooq, saying ‘Boycott Boy-cott election boycott’

The video clip ends withthe video of Syed Ali Geelaniat Kulgam wherein anti-pollslogans are raised. Later theclip also shows JKLF chiefMohammad Yasin Malik rais-ing slogans of election boycottduring a rally.—KD

SYDNEY—A group of protesters in Sydney hascalled on Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modito end conflict over the disputed territory ofJammu and Kashmir.

Outside New South Wales Parliament theprotesters, from the Kashmir Council of Aus-tralia, said Mr Modi had his priorities wrong.

“We want a peaceful settlement of the dis-pute so that both nations, India and Pakistan,can progress,” the council’s founder MumtazMian said.

Sydney protesters urge Modito end conflict in Kashmir

The mountainous region of Kashmir, hometo about 14 million people, has been dividedbetween India and Pakistan since the countrieswon their independence from Britain in 1947.

Mian also urged NSW Premier Mike Bairdto raise the issue of poverty with the Indianleader, saying Mr Modi should be investing ineducation and health, not nuclear weapons orspace exploration. “He’s promoting a space racenow, sending rockets to the moon and other plan-ets,” Mr Mian said.—KW

Briefs

A successful eco-nomic develop-

ment strategy mustfocus on improving

the skills of thearea’s workforce,reducing the costof doing businessand making avail-

able the resourcesbusiness needs to

compete andthrive in today’sglobal economy.

—Rod Blagojevich

ISLAMABAD: Ashraf Mahmood Wathra, Governor SBP, presenting a memento toFinance Minister, Ishaq Dar at the inaugural session of International Conference onBranchless Banking.

ISLAMABAD: A vendor displaying dry fruit and nuts to attract the customers at his shop.

ISLAMABAD: Minister of State for IT & Telecommunications, Ms Anusha Rahmanchairing 28th Board of Directors meeting.

STAFF REPORTER

ISLAMABAD—Federal Minister for Fi-nance Mohammad Ishaq Dar on Mon-day said that the draft bill for control-ling cyber crime and terrorism fund-ing was in final stage and would bepresented to parliament for approvalin next couple of months. “The ap-proval of the bill would help boostsecurity for mobile and internet bank-ing and also help in controlling fund-ing for terrorist activities”, he added.

The Minister was addressing at In-ternational Branchless Banking Confer-ence on Innovations in Digital Financefor Financial Inclusion held here byState Bank of Pakistan in collaborationwith UK Department for InternationalDevelopment (DFID). He said the gov-ernment was fully supportive of transi-tion from traditional banking system tothe digitised system of banking. “Letme assure you that the governmentwould provide full support in financialinclusion”, he said adding the launch of3-G and 4-G technology was pendingfor last 4-5 years but launch of the latesttechnology could become possible onlydue to the strong commitment shownby the present government.

Ishaq Dar said through auction ahefty amount of Rs 121 billion wasgenerated while two licenses were still

Draft bill ready for monitoringmobile, internet banking: Dar

with the government which would belaunched soon. He said the launch oflatest technology will revolutionizeour daily routine life in different sec-tors like e-commerce, e-shopping,health and education. Dar said con-certed efforts are needed to drivebranchless banking usage throughmobile wallet payments, digitised G2Ppayments, and improved range of digi-tal financial services available for us-age via branchless banking.

He said that he would like to bepersonally involved in steering thisinitiative through the newly createdNational Financial Inclusion Councilto assign the much needed priority tothis issue. “The Council will drawmembership from important stakehold-ers including relevant governmentministries, departments, financial andtelecom regulators and industry to setand monitor activities and nationaltargets for digital financial inclusion”,he added. The Finance Minister saidthis initiative would help in achievingthe medium-term targets set by theGovernment, especially those relatedto GDP, investment-to-GDP ratio andsavings-to-GDP ratio.

Earlier, in his welcome address,Governor SBP, Ashraf MahmoodWathra said that said that having ac-cess to simple financial products can

have a real, positive impact on people’slives. The Governor SBP said due tothe Bank’s efforts, Pakistan was nowone of the largest branchless bankingmarket in the world. He said the aver-age monthly transactions have reached22 million valuing Rs 125 billion whereasnumber of branchless banking ac-counts have significantly grown andcumulatively reached to 4.7 million.

However, he said usage of M-Wal-lets has not grown in tandem with thegrowth in accounts as over-the-counter transaction constitutes 82percent of the total. He said the com-bined agent network of all providershas increased to 186,000 however thenumber of unique agents is estimatedto be 80.000. He said the average sizeof branchless banking transactions isRs 5,600 which indicates that usingtechnology “we are reaching out tothe poor and low income groups.

“Because of this performance, ourbranchless banking policy initiativesand business models have won glo-bal recognition”, he added. Address-ing the conference Chairman PakistanTelecommunication (PTA), Dr. SyedIsmail Shah said that after successfulauction of 3-G and 4-G spectrum, theAuthority was striving hard to intro-duce 5-G application to revolutionizethe telecom sector.

ISE stays bullishISLAMABAD—TheIslamabad Stock Ex-change (ISE) Mondaywitnessed a bullish trendas the ISE-10 Index wasup by 13.82 points toclose at 4,158.68 points. Atotal of 32,700 shareswere traded, whichshowed a positive growth30,000 shares whencompared to previousday’s trading of 2,700shares. Out of 169companies, share pricesof 101-recorded increasewhile those of 68companies decreased.The share price of MurreeBrewery increased byRs52.50 while that ofAkzonobal Pakistandecreased by Rs22.90 pershare. The Bank ofPunjab, Fauji Cement,mapleleaf Cement andNishat Mills remained thetop trading company with10,000, 5,000, 5,000 and5,000 shares respec-tively.—APP

Rs 40,000 prize bonddraw on Dec 1FAISALABAD—The 60thdraw of prize bondsdenomination of Rs 40,000will be held in Karachi onDecember 1, 2014.According to a spokes-man of the NationalSavings, the lucky winnerof first prize will get Rs 75million while three prizesof Rs 25 million will go tothree lucky winners ofsecond position. Similarly,third prize of Rs 500,000will be awarded each to1696 lucky winners, headded.—APP

Conversion ratesKARACHI—The follow-ing rates will be appli-cable for conversion intorupees of ForeignCurrency Deposits,Dollar Bearer Certificates,Foreign Currency BearerCertificates, Special U.S.Dollar Bonds and profitsthereon by all banks andfor providing ForwardCover on ForeignCurrency Deposits(excluding F.E- 25deposits) by the StateBank on November 18,2014. The rates are U.S.Dollar 102.2066, JapaneseYen 0.8812, PoundSterling 159.7796 andEuro 127.6765.—APP

Four ships berth atPort QasimKARACHI—Four shipsC.V K Phoenix, M.T SCDong Hai, M.T GoldenAmbrosia and M.T AL-Mahboobah carryingcontainers, palm oil andchemicals were arrangedberthing at QasimInternational ContainerTerminal, Liquid CargoTerminal, Multi Purposeand Engro Vopak Terminalrespectively at Port Qasimon Sunday. Meanwhileanother containers shipalso arrived at outeranchorage of Port Qasimduring last 24 hours. Berthoccupancy was managedat the port at 50% onSunday, where sevenships namely ships C.V KPhoenix, M.V Ikan Prang,M.V Sea Luck- II, M.VHagmersindi, M.T SC DonHai, M.T Golden Ambrosiaand M.T Al Mahboobahare currently occupyingPQA berths to load/offloadcontainers, cement, palmoil. —APP

ISLAMABAD—Pakistan’s Ambassador atLarge and Prime Minister’s Special EnvoyJaved Malik on Monday met with His High-ness Sheikh Ahmed Bin Saeed Al Maktoum,Chairman of Emirates Airline Group andkey member of the Royal family if Dubai.During the meeting various initiatives tofurther expand the business, trade andcommerce relations between both coun-tries came under discussion. While Am-bassador Javed Malik highlighted thebusiness friendly policies being introducedby the government led by Prime MinisterNawaz Sharif which are designed to pavethe way for creating remarkable opportu-nities for our business, trade and invest-ment in Pakistan, according to press re-lease issued.

The operations of Emirates Airline inPakistan was also discussed including vari-ous ideas relating to further expansion thescope of aviation business in Pakistan.While paying tribute to the warm, cordial

Javed Malik meets chairmanEmirates Airline Group

and long standing relationship betweenPakistan and United Arab Emirates, Ambas-sador Javed Malik appreciated the Presi-dent Sheikh Khalifa Bin Zayed Al Nahyanand Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed BinRashid Al Maktoum for their ongoing sup-port, admiration and affection for Pakistanand its people.

His Highness Sheikh Ahmed Bin SaeedAl Maktoum while welcoming AmbassadorJaved Malik expressed his admiration for Pa-kistan and its people and said that the foun-dation of our historic bilateral that were laidby HH Sheikh Zayed Bin Sultan Al Nahyanand HH Highness Sheikh Rashid Bin SaeedAl Maktoum have been growing steadily overthe years and there is still a lot of scope tofurther expand them. He appreciated the roleof over a million Pakistanis who live, workand do business in UAE and expressed hisconfidence that the people of both countrieswill continue their cooperation in every fieldin order to further expand our relations.—APP

STAFF REPORTER

ABBOTTABAD—Zonal chief Zarai TaraqiatiBank Limited (ZTBL) Muhammad SajidKhan said here on Monday that ZTBL hasestablished two model agriculture villagesin district Mansehra. While, talking to me-dia in his office he said that ZTBL is notonly providing loan facility to all areas ofagriculture for these model villages but alsoproviding the expert opinion to the farmersregarding new technologies, new seeds,

ZTBL sets up model villagesin Mansehra

pesticides and herbicides.He further said that they have just

completed a new bank building inAbbottabad which is fully equipped withall modern facilities. Talking about theloaning facilities for different sectors ar-eas of agriculture, Muhammad Sajid Khansaid that ZTBL offers loan facilities fortractors, pesticides, herbicides, poultry,seeds and fertilizers. He said that recov-ery rate of the loan from Hazara zone is 90percent which is remarkable.

SALIM AHMED

LAHORE—Russian Ambassador Alexey YurivichDedov has said that Pakistani businessmenshould explore untapped Russian market as Pa-kistani products can get right place in that mar-ket for being of good quality. He was speaking atthe Lahore Chamber of Commerce & Industry hereon Monday. LCCI President Ijaz A. Mumtaz pre-sented the address of welcome while Senior VicePresident Mian Nauman Kabir, Vice PresidentSyed Mahmood Ghaznavi, Executive CommitteeMembers, Russian Consul General in KarachiOleg Avdeev and Honorary Consul of Russia inLahore Habib Ahmed also spoke on the occa-sion.

Russian Ambassador said that both the coun-tries should take sector specific measures to en-hance the mutual trade that does not reflect theexisting potential. Russian Ambassador ex-pressed the optimism that both Pakistan andRussian businessmen could enter into joint ven-

Pak businessmen urged to explore untapped Russian marketstures to benefit each other in their respectivebusinesses and could take to level of bilateraltrade to new heights with a little sector specificeffort. He said that the Russia has a lot to offer toPakistani business community while Pakistanibusinessmen could learn a lot from Russians forthe technological upgradation of their industrialunits.

Speaking on the occasion, the LCCI Presi-dent Ijaz A. Mumtaz said that Pakistanis aregrateful to Russian Federation for helping Pa-kistan establish a mega steel mill at Karachi,which has played a crucial role in the develop-ment of the country. Today, this steel mill isthe biggest source of steel products cateringto the demand of the country and value addi-tion for related products. But since then nomajor initiative has been taken by Russian Fed-eration. The LCCI President said that both thecountries need to warm up their relations formutual benefit of people and to play an over-whelming role in international arena on a sus-

tainable basis.He said that Pakistan’s share in total for-

eign trade of Russia is very insignificant whiletrade balance is also in the favor of Russia. Hesaid that though bilateral trade between thetwo countries was increasing gradually but itwas not sat isfactory and there was a lot ofscope to enhance mutual trade volume. He saidthat Russian Federation is a market of greatimportance for Pakistan with massive popula-tion together with neighboring countries.

He said that Pakistan could export textile,garments, rice, leather, sports goods, surgicalequipments and pharmaceutical to the RussianMarket while Russia can enhance export ofpower equipment, steel, urea, chemicals etc toPakistan. He said that oil and gas sector in Pa-kistan offers great opportunit ies to Russiawhich has the requisite experience and tech-nology in this field. He said that Russia couldevaluate the possibilities of collaboration withPakistan for mining of marble and granite as

well.He said the private sector of Pakistan could

definitely take the lead in exporting varioustypes of consumer goods to Russia and in re-turn Pakistan could supply all types of textilegoods, leather & leather products, surgicalgoods, sports goods, agro-based products &food items, fresh fruits & vegetables, fish &fish preparations, carpets & rugs, pharmaceu-tical products etc.

He said that Russia could also help in intro-ducing Pakistani products in the areas of itsinfluence. He said that the profiles of Pakistaniand Russian economies suggest brighterchances for joint ventures in sectors like foodprocessing, oil, gas & mineral exploration, en-ergy, engineering (heavy & light), transportequipments, automobiles, tractors, harvesters,machine tools, cement, fertilizers, industrialchemicals, plastic & rubber products, home ap-pliances etc. where Russian are the advancestage of development.

ISLAMABAD—Korean EximBank has agreed to financeestablishment of first technol-ogy park in federal capital forwhich work on feasibilitystudy will be started in Janu-ary next year. “The establish-ment of technology park inIslamabad is our priority and Iam pleased to share Exim BankKorea has agreed to financethe project,” Minister of Statefor Information Technology,Anusha Rahman said. Shewas chairing 28th meeting ofBoard of Directors of PakistanSoftware Export Board (PSEB)here on Monday which wasattended by Secretary IT,Azmat Ali Ranjha, ManagingDirector, PSEB, AsimShehryar, Chairman P@sha,Dr. Shoaib and representa-tives from Ministry of Financeand Trade Development Au-thority of Pakistan.

“We have to enhancelevel of interaction betweengovernment and indigenousIT companies,” she said anddirected PSEB to establish an“interactive communicationportal” to ensure an effectiveliaison with more than 1100 ITcompanies, which are alreadyregistered with PSEB. The MDPSEB apprised the board re-garding his recent official visitto the Unite States where hehad an opportunity to meetwith leading US based IT com-

Korean Bank agrees tofinance Technology Park

panies i.e Microsoft & oraclewhich are keen to expand theirbusinesses and invest in rap-idly thriving IT sector in Paki-stan. He also sought theBoard’s approval to partici-pate in forthcoming interna-tional IT events and to leadthe delegation in IT exhibi-tions/seminar scheduled to beheld in China.

The Board reviewed sta-tus of the IT companies andsoftware houses, currentlyregistered with PSEB, statusof their respective interna-tional certifications and wayforward to further increasePakistan’s software export toglobal market. AnushaRehman also directed PSEBfor early settlement of landissues to acquire allocatedland for establishment oftechnology parks in Lahoreand Karachi respectively.Anusha Rahman said thatwe have already granted ap-proval for establishment of a“tech-city to promote IT andtelecom in Pakistan and wewill give space to young en-trepreneurs for establishingstart ups. Keeping in view ofgrowing demand of youngIT graduates, the Ministerdirected PSEB to double thenumber of internships pro-vided by PSEB so that maxi-mum youngsters could beaccommodated.—APP

LSE gains1.41 pointsSTATT REPORTER

LAHORE—Lahore StockExchange on Monday wit-nessed bullish trend bygaining 1.41 points as theLSE-25 Index opened with5334.71 and closed at5336.12 points. Themarket’s overall situationalso correspond to an up-ward trend as it remained at2.025 million shares toclose against previousturnover of 595,200 shares,showing an upward moveof 1.429 million shares.

While, out of the total102 active scrips, 23moved up, 63 remainedequal with 16 shed values.Mari Petroleum CompanyLimited, Akzo Nobel Paki-stan Limited and TreetCorporation Limited weremajor gainers of the dayby recording increase intheir per share value by Rs28.73, Rs 9.27 and Rs 6.25respectively.

Honda Atlas Cars (Pak)Limited, Millat Tractors Lim-ited and Muhammad FarooqTextile Mills Limited losttheir per share value by Rs9.45, Rs 8.34 and Re 0.70 re-spectively. The VolumeLeader of the day includedThe Bank of Punjab Limitedwith 771,500 shares, K-Elec-tric Limited with 745,000share and Lafarge PakistanCement with 179,000 shares.

KASB Securitiesassures business

as usualSTATT REPORTER

LAHORE—Since the imposi-tion of a six month moratoriumon KASB Bank Limited (KBL)by the Federal Governmentand the State Bank of Pakistan(SBP), KASB Securities Lim-ited (KSL), which is the lead-ing securities firm, is workingwith all stakeholders to allowrelaxation to KSL, as a deposi-tor of KBL, from the SBP noti-fication in the larger interestsof Pakistan’s capital markets.KSL has assured its domesticand international clients thatbusiness will continue asusual and their funds andshares lying with KSL are com-pletely safe. KSL uses KBL formajority of its banking ar-rangements, including dailyclearing through the NationalClearing Company of PakistanLimited (NCCPL) for all trans-actions executed on theKarachi Stock Exchange (KSE)through KSL. The SBP notifi-cation is not an action againstKSL; it simply affects every in-dividual and institution thathas a bank account with KBL.

KSL is the leading securi-ties firms having offices in 10cities across Pakistan and ca-tering to over 22,000 retail / in-stitutional domestic & interna-tional clients. KSL is Bank ofAmerica Merrill Lynch’s exclu-sive partner in Pakistan since1994. It is the market leader inthe domestic equities market,with market share of more than15% of all trades executed onthe KSE over the last 5 years.Its market share is more than20% of all foreign trades ex-ecuted. KSL has beenawarded Asia Money’s ‘BestEquities House in Pakistan forthe period 1990-2013. This isin addition to numerous do-mestic, international awardsand recognitions in brokerage,research & investment bank-ing that KSK has receivedover the years.

Kinnow exportlikely to

increase to$500m by 2017

S A R G O D H A —Direc torCitrus Research InstituteAltaf Ur Rehman saidthat Pakistani exporterswere struggling hard toincrease the export ofKinnow to $500 milliontill 2017. Director citrusinstitution while talkingto Kinnow exporters onMonday said that guid-ance would be taken fromTechnical AssistanceProgramme of EuropeanUnion trade system forenhancing exports, add-ing that during the cur-rent export season localKinnow is very good inall respects, especiallywith reference to tasteand quality.

He said that due toendeavours of Citrus Re-search Institution thelandowners and cultiva-tors have shown keen in-terest in the productionof seedless Kinnow. Hesaid that in near futurethe exchange reserves ofPakistan would be in-creased by the seedlessproduction of Kinnow.Citrus Research Institu-tion was playing its roleto provide plants of seed-less Kinnow to cultiva-tors and landowners andhoped these effortswould help in increasingexports, he main-tained.—APP

Textile industryexemption fromload shedding

hailedFAISALABAD—PakistanYarn Merchants Asso-ciation (PYMA) CentralChairman M Akram Pa-sha has hailed the ex-emption of Textile Indus-try from electricity loadshedding and demandedsimilar exemption fromgas load shedding. Talk-ing to media personshere on Monday, he saidthe Finance MinisterIshaaq Dar’s announce-ment of exemption of Tex-tile Industry from Elec-tricity Load Sheddingwas a timely step and inthe right direction. TheIndustry and Yarn Deal-ers welcome this posi-tive action, he added.

This will not onlyhelp the Industry to re-vive and increased itsproductivity but alsohelp maintain theworker ’s job as well asboost the exports of tex-tile of the Country, headded.

He pointed out thatduring the first threemonths of the currentfiscal the exports haveregistered a decline of5.25% which is persistingin the months of Octoberand November andadded that according toestimates they has beena short fall of Dollar 1.2billion till now in exportsof Textiles.

There was dire needof stemming this decline.This exemption and con-tinuous supply of energywill enable the Industryto achieve export targetultimately contributingto world’s progress andstrengthened of indus-try, trade, business andnational economy, headded.—APP

Currency Selling Buying

USA 101.60 101.40

UK 159.68 159.37

Euro 127.54 127.29

Canada 90.09 89.91

Switzerland 106.15 105.95

Australia 89.25 89.07

Sweden 13.79 13.76

Japan 0.8771 0.8753

Norway 15.09 15.06

Singapore 78.42 78.26

Denmark 17.14 17.10

Saudi Arabia 27.08 27.02

Hong Kong 13.10 13.08

Kuwait 349.23 348.54

Malaysia 30.38 30.32

Newzealand 80.88 80.72

Qatar 27.90 27.85

UAE 27.66 27.61

Kr Won 0.0927 0.0926

Thailand 3.099 3.092

Daily opening& closing ratesPMEX Index 2,757Total Volume (Lots): 22,792Traded Value (Rs): 4,657,868,331

Commodity -------------------- Price Quotation --------------- Open ---------- CloseCRUDE OIL ------------------- $ Per Barrel --------------------- 74.62 ---------- 75.92SILVER ------------------------- $ Per Ounce -------------------- 15.588 --------- 16.293GOLD --------------------------- $ Per Ounce -------------------- 1,161.1 -------- 1,189.3GOLD --------------------------- Rs Per 10 gms ------------------ 38,103 --------- 39,220MTOLAGOLD --------------- Rs Per Tola --------------------- 45,711 --------- 46,874GOLD --------------------------- Rs Per Tola --------------------- 45,711 --------- 46,874RICEIRRI6 --------------------- Rs Per 100 kg ------------------- 3,274 ---------- 3,273PALMOLEIN ----------------- Rs Per Maund ----------------- 3,884 ---------- 3,783SUGAR ------------------------- Rs Per kg ------------------------ 48.69 ---------- 48.68ICOTTON --------------------- US Cents per pound --------- 59.88 ---------- 59.97WHEAT ------------------------ Rs Per 100 kg ------------------- 3,431 ---------- 3,430

The total value traded was PKR 4.66 billion as compared to PKR 3.94 billion reportedon last business day, an increase of 18 percent. Number of lots traded was 22,792.PMEX Commodity Index increased by 0.46 percent and closed at 2,757. Major busi-ness was contributed by crude oil amounting to PKR 2.82 billion, this was followed bygold (PKR 1.68 billion) and silver (PKR 146 million.

ISLAMABAD: Ambassador of Denmark, Jesper Moller Sorenson addressing duringInternational Food Conference.

Noman Azhar, Head of Financial Servic Ufone and Mohammed Waseem, GM SayyedEngineers Ltd signing MoU. Upaisa has entered into an MoU for employees’ salaries totransfer through Upaisa accounts.

KARACHI: Secretary Works and Services Sindh, Qazi Shahid Pervez briefs ADBofficials and Media persons regarding the ongoing projects funded by Asian Develop-ment Bank in the province.

PESHAWAR: President KPCCI, Fawad Ishaq presenting souvenir to head of NationalManagement College of Lahore in chamber hall.

CANBERRA—China and Australia Monday sealed a majorfree trade agreement, as Chinese President Xi Jinping madea rare address to parliament in Canberra. The deal, the resultof a decade of talks, will open up markets worth billions ofdollars, Canberra says. It will give Australian dairy farmers,winemakers and other sectors tariff-free access to the hugeChinese market within a few years. Meanwhile, China isseeking greater access for its investment projects. Xi is on astate visit to Australia following the G20 summit. In his speechto parliament, he vowed China would pursue peaceful de-velopment with Australia and other nations.

Ministers from China and Australia signed a Declara-tion of Intent on Monday, however the agreement will besigned in 2015 after the draft is translated and legally re-viewed, a statement said. Australian Prime Minister TonyAbbott described the deal as the first China had concluded“with a substantial economy, with a major economy; andit’s the most comprehensive agreement that China has con-cluded with anyone”. The big winners are seen to beAustralia’s dairy and beef industries which will see tariffsremoved. Parliamentary Secretary Josh Frydenberg said theagreement meant that “up to 95% of our exports over timewill enter the Chinese market tariff-free”. In the past two

Australia, China seal major free trade deal

STAFF REPORTER

LAHORE—Pakistan is still lagging farbehind in the region with regards toprotecting marine life, environmentand human health from the dangers ofplastic bags. Marine life’s very impor-tant role in echo system is in dangerdue to plastic garbage being thrownin the sea in huge quantities on dailybasis. Plastic products are very harm-ful for marine life and a big number ofturtles, fish, sea birds have died in pastmany years due to marine pollution,’said Syed Nofil Hussain Shah, whoruns an NGO Be-Zubaan.

It is worth adding here that with 15percent growth annually in productionof plastic bags, the estimated use ofplastic bags in the country by 2015would be up to 112 billion. ‘Many re-gional countries like India, Bangladesh,Bhutan, and China have been far moreactive than Pakistan as they have over-come this environmental challenge,’added Nofil. At a time when develop-

ISLAMABAD—Ufone, one of Pakistan’s toptelecom operators’, providing unique ser-vices to the corporate world and its cus-tomers has entered into an agreement withSayyed Engineers Limited (SEL)– the manu-facturer of the famous Piano & Tempo sta-tionery brands through its financial ser-vices brand, UPaisa, through which theemployees’ salaries would be transferreddigitally to their UPaisa accounts.

UPaisa has launched a corporate webportal through which all corporate custom-ers like Sayyed Engineers would be able totransfer the employees’ salaries to theirUPaisa mobile wallets or their CNIC’s. Inaddition to that, the corporate client wouldalso be able to avail other UPaisa servicessuch as utility bill payments, Ufone post-paid bill payment, prepaid recharge alongwith transferring funds to other accounts

MIAN ARSHAD

ISLAMABAD—The National AssemblyStanding Committee on Petroleum &Natural Resources (P&NR), Monday, 1stLNG Terminal would be operational inthe 1st quarter of 2015. While respond-ing to a question put forth by a Commit-tee Member, Secretary P&NR told thecommittee that was Prime Minister’sOffice half given go ahead signal for thecompletion of half completed projectsof Gas, pending in the Constituenciesof Parliamentarians. Committee met herewith Ch. Bilal Ahmad Virk in the chairand was told that OGRA had alreadygiven approval in this respect.

It was revealed by the Manage-ment of SSGCL that the HonoruableSupreme Court of Pakistan had de-

First LNG terminal would beoperational by 2015

clared the Implementation Agreement(IA) dated 12th August 2003 betweenSui Southern Gas Company Limitedand M/s JJVL, as “null and void”; videits judgment dated 04 December, 2013.Consequent to the said Judgment, anopinion was solicited from Company’sLegal Advisor, on guidance/implica-tions of the Judgment. In view of thesame, it was suggested that, till a per-manent mechanism for the operationof the plant (to ensure continuoussupply of LPG to end consumers) isput in place; the Parties may enter intoan arrangement of their own, basedon commercial consideration, subjectto the approval of respective Boards.

In the event if such mechanism isnot reached upon, SSGC should ap-proach the Committee – formed by the

Hon’able Court in the said Judgment,for resolution; and whereas, if themechanism is agreed upon between theParties it should be brought to the no-tice of the Committee, for informationand compliance of the Judgment. TheSSGC Management and the Board, bothare looking into the options in this re-gard, Sr. Official of SSGCL further told.The meeting was also attended by MalikIhtebar Khan, Syed Muhammad SaqlainBukhari, Mian Tariq Mehmood, RanaMuhammad Ishaq Khan, Mr. RasheedAhmed Khan, Chaudhry Khalid JavaidWarraich, Mr. Nawab Ali Wassan, Mr.Nasir Khan Khattak, Mr. AbdulWaseem, Mr. Sajid Ahmed & Pir BuxJunejo, MNAs; and Officers of Minis-try of Petroleum & NR, PARCO, SSGCL,GSP and PPL.

STAFF REPORTER

ISLAMABAD—Danish Ambassador JesperMoller Sorensen on Monday said that theglobal food supply was going from surplusto shortage as the world population is grow-ing each day. “Therefore, Globalization infood trade will continue as more food will beimported, and exports will increase” he saidwhile speaking at the International FoodConference here on Monday. Sharing theDanish experience with agriculture and food,he said that Denmark, like Pakistan, was acountry with a long agriculture tradition.“Even today, agriculture and farming is oneof the most important reasons as to whyDenmark still ranks as one of the world’smost prosperous countries. Export of foodand agriculture products accounts for 24percent of Denmark’s total export to the restof the world”, said Ambassador Sorensen.

According to the Ambassador, Denmark’s

Ambassador highlights Danishexperiences in agriculture

success is based on a coherent and efficientgovernment system that includes political re-sponsibility, an independent scientific risk as-sessment, efficient control systems and themandatory requirement of all necessary legis-lation, rules and standards being in place. “In2050, the world’s population will be around 9billion, which is 2 billion more than today. Butas consumers’ habits and preferences changein favor of more animal products, we will eatlike 12 billion people. That is almost double theamount of food today”.

Ambassador Sorensen also said that hesees significant opportunity for more co-operation between Denmark and Pakistan.He informed the participants that his Em-bassy has started to reach out to the busi-ness community back home in Denmark, andthat one major agriculture consultancy com-pany participated in the first-ever Danishbusiness delegation, which visited Pakistanlast month.

Ufone, SEL sign MoU for UPaisawith complete management of their core andbranchless banking account Expressing hisviews regarding this new achievement, Mr.Noman Azhar, Head of Mobile FinancialServices at Ufone said, “Our financial divi-sion, UPaisa,is succeeding in creating cash-less environments by providing unique andefficient solutions to corporate and regularcustomers. Eliminating cash related secu-rity risks and handling costs ensures com-plete peace of mind for all.”

On this auspicious occasion, MuhammedWaseem, GM Sayyed Engineers Limited said,“We are delighted to be entering into an agree-ment with Ufone for our company now feelsmore empowered. The spot account openingand debit card issuance, facility without wait-ing will save the employees a lot of time. Wehope this is going to be a huge success forboth parties.”—PR

Plastic bags playing havoc with marinelife, environment, human health

decades, trade between Australia and China has grown sub-stantially, with China now Australia’s largest two-way trad-ing partner, according to the Australian Department of For-eign Affairs and Trade. In 2013, trade between the two coun-tries was worth A$150bn. The government has said the dealcould add A$20bn to that figure, however the full details ofthe benefits are yet to be released. This is the third FTAsigned by Canberra this year, following similar agreementswith South Korea and Japan, as Australia looks to increaseits exports of food and agricultural products to feed Asia’sgrowing middle class.

However, Australia failed to get a reduction in tariffs onkey commodities such as rice, wheat, cotton and sugar.China was not able to get Australia to change its practise ofscrutiny by the foreign investment review board on all in-vestment by state-owned enterprises, which make up mostof Chinese investments. The deal is not without its critics.Last week, Senator Bill Heffernan, a senior member ofAustralia’s Liberal Party, warned that China’s refusal to floatits currency could give it a big advantage over Australia. Inhis comments to parliament, Mr Xi said the agreement would“create a high-level platform and provide better institutionalarrangements for our economic co-operation”.—Online

ing countries have devised strategiesagainst the use of plastic bags, headded, the same is burgeoning in Paki-stan despite the fact that all relevantauthorities have raised their voicesagainst this issue that is severely en-dangering the fertility of the land anddestroys maritime environment.

It is pertinent to mention that WPPbags are neither environment friendlynor biodegradable. Recycling of WPPbags is not possible as cancerous di-oxins are released in the process.Moreover, the raw material for WPP(being polypropylene granules) is de-rived from oil which itself is becomingscarce. In Pakistan more than 8,000manufacturing units of plastic bagsspread across the country mostly situ-ated in Lahore, Karachi and Peshawarthat continue to supply plastic bagsto shopkeepers of various goods.

‘It is also very difficult to disposethis material anywhere or even to seton fire; it pollutes air and finds itsway in the water reservoirs. Sewer-

age lines also get choked with plas-tic bags as those are non biodegrad-able contaminating the environmentthus becoming the abode of ailments,’he added. Nofil said that paper bagsare environment-friendly and if prop-erly taken care of they can be reusedover and over again. ‘Sack Kraft Pa-per is globally recognized as an envi-ronmentally friendly packaging ma-terial and is derived from sustainableforests,’ he added.

China has reportedly put a ban onthe usage of plastic bags by imposingfine of around $1500 that discouragedits usage. Moreover, owing to strictChinese limit on ultra-thin plastic bagssignificantly reduced bag-related pol-lution nationwide during the past year.The country avoided the use of 40billion bags, according to governmentestimates. Similarly, Bangladesh afterthe flood and devastation of drainagesystem due to plastic bags has placedrestrictions on manufacturing and useof plastic bags.

DFID, GatesFoundation to

set up DFSUnit

STAFF REPORTER

ISLAMABAD—The UKGovernment’s Departmentfor International Develop-ment (DFID) signed a Memo-randum of Understanding(MoU) with the Bill andMelinda Gates Foundation toset up a Digital Financial Ser-vices (DFS) Unit in Pakistanhere on Monday. The MoUwas signed at the Interna-tional Branchless BankingConference 2014 organizedby the State Bank of Pakistan.DFID and the Gates Founda-tion stressed their commit-ment to increasing access toaffordable and safe digital fi-nancial services for excludedgroups and small and mediumenterprises in Pakistan. TheGates Foundation will pro-vide $16m over the next threeyears for the DFS Unit.

The DFS Unit will be setup within Karandaaz Paki-stan, a Special Purpose Ve-hicle (SPV) set up by DFIDto strengthen themicrofinance industry, entre-preneurship and small busi-ness development in Paki-stan by working with exist-ing institutions and throughinnovative financial prod-ucts. DFID’s support toKarandaaz will help createsustainable digital financeinstitutions in Pakistan fo-cusing on improving accessto finance for individuals andenterprises, job creation andraising incomes of the poor.

DUBAI: Shan Masood celebrates after taking a smart catch to dismiss Ross Taylor during Pakistan vs New Zealand,2nd Test’s 1st day Monday.

Bipin DaniOBSERVER CORRESPONDENT

MUMBAI—The Supreme Court on Mon-day has released the part of the JusticeMudgal IPL Probe Committee and identi-fied Individual No. 1 as GurunathMeiyappan, Individual no. 11 as RajKundra, Individual No. 12 as SunderRaman and Individual No. 13 as N.Srinivasan.

The report on the allegations of bet-ting and spot-match fixing in the IndianPremier League (IPL) in Season VI havebeen numbered for 13 individuals, the iden-tity of others are kept confidential.

According to the highly placedsources, the Individual no. 3 is Suresh

N. Srinivasan’s name in Mudgal panel forNOT taking action against Suresh Raina

Raina.No, no evidence of betting or fixing

has been found against the Indian bats-man. It also could not be proved whetherit was a honey-trap when the girl was spot-ted in his room during India’s tour of SriLanka in 2010.

However, N. Srinivasan, who was asecretary then, didn’t take action againsthim for violating the Players Code ofConduct. Srinivasan, along with fourother BCCI officials, was aware of theincident and therefore is named in thereport.

According to the sources, ShashankManohar, the BCCI president then, in-structed the people who knew about theincident to warn Suresh Raina.

LHAMBURG: Ukrainian WBA, WBO, IBO and IBF heavyweight boxing world cham-pion Vladimir Klitschko lands a punch during his title fight against challenger Bul-garian heavyweight boxer Kubrat Pulev.

DUBAI—For the second Test running,young Tom Latham provided the long,patient batting effort New Zealandwanted from the top order. Pakistan’sfour-man attack, in the absence of theinjured Mohammad Hafeez, perseveredthrough the day but Latham was solid incombating the challenges of reverseswing and spin. At 22, he became theyoungest non-Asian opener to make twoTest hundreds in Asia, and also the thirdNew Zealand opener to do so after BertSutcliffe and Glenn Turner.

Brendon McCullum was keen on bat-ting first in Dubai, having seen Pakistanrack up 450-plus totals in the first inningsin their three successive previous Testwins in the UAE. Misbah-ul-Haq finallylost the toss, and McCullum had what hewanted on a largely benign batting sur-face.

New Zealand lost two of the threewickets to soft dismissals. McCullumpulled Ehsan Adil straight to deepmidwicket close to lunch after a strongopening partnership, and Ross Taylor

2nd Test: Solid Latham centuryleads New Zealand effort

pushed Yasir Shah straight to silly point.At the stroke of tea, Kane Williamsonpushed cautiously inside the line to aZulfiqar Babar delivery that pitchedmiddle and hit off.

It was Latham who battled throughthe day till bad light ended play threeovers short. He was certain of whether togo forward or back against the spinners,and sure of where his off stump wasagainst the fast bowlers. He drove su-perbly down the ground and through themidwicket, and used the sweep liberally,especially against the left-arm spinnerBabar.

Latham was at ease right from thestart. There was next to no swing or seamwith the new ball for the fast bowlers RahatAli and Adil, chosen ahead of ImranKhan, and the spinners Babar and Yasirwere introduced within the first hour.

McCullum too reined himself in un-less the ball was loose. Both fast bowlersdid not give too many full deliveries, andwhen they did, the openers drove themstraight. McCullum also walloped Rahat

for a big six overdeep midwicket.

Adil bowled atight line,targetting thestumps and bring-ing the odd one in.In the eighth over,McCullum droveAdil on the up, andthe ball fell justshort of mid-on.Pakistan reviewedfor leg-before twodeliveries lateragainst Latham,but the on-fieldumpire’s callstayed as the ballwas shown to beclipping middle.

Yasir beat theleft-hand Lathamwith straighterones outside offand testedMcCullum withlots of flight andsome turn.McCullum re-sponded by skip-ping out to loft astraight four, andalso stepped out tolaunch Babar forsix. Adil wasbrought backaround twentyminutes beforelunch, andMcCullum pulledhim for four off thelast ball of that over.

First ball of Adil’s next, McCullum pulledagain, and picked out the lone man onthe leg boundary to depart for 43 off 69.

Latham started sweeping often afterlunch, picking up boundaries off Babarthrough midwicket. With the circumspectWilliamson at the other end, scoringslowed down, although both batsmenwere not troubled much. Williamsonplayed safely, and it was only off his 58thdelivery that he picked up what was tobe his only boundary, that too when Adilstrayed down the leg side.

Rahat was brought back in the 48thover and right away, he found Latham’soutside edge with one that kicked away,but neither the keeper nor Younis Khanat slip reacted as it flew between them.Latham almost played on in Rahat’s nextover, and the fast bowler then beatWilliamson off successive deliveries leav-ing the batsman. But it was Babar whowas rewarded with Williamson’s wicketin the very next over.

Taylor struck a few pleasing coverdrives off the spinners, but he neverlooked really comfortable. He edged thespinners often past the close-in fielders,and Azhar Ali could not hold on to asharp chance at silly point off Babar.

In the same over, Latham had steppedout to loft for a straight six, and swept forfour more to move to 96. He reached hishundred with a push to midwicket in thenext over.

Eventually, Taylor’s approach ofreaching out with his hands to play thespin ended up in another push to sillypoint, and this time Shan Masood juggleda successful take.

This was a couple of overs beforethe second new ball was taken, andLatham was up for more endurance as hedid not hit a boundary for his last 43 de-liveries. The only real chance that Lathamoffered, on 103, had been put down byAzhar at gully off Adil, and Pakistanweren’t able to break the opener’s resis-tance on the day.—AFP

New Zealand 1st innings:Latham not out ....................... 137McCullum c Shan b Ehsan ..... 43Williamson b Zulfiqar .............. 32Taylor c Shan b Yasir Shah ..... 23Anderson not out ...................... 7Extras: (lb 1) ................................ 1Total: (3 wickets) .................... 243Fall of wickets: 1-77, 2-153, 3-226Bowling: ...................... O-M-R-WRahat Ali ........................ 20-2-46-0Ehsan Adil ..................... 17-4-47-1Zulfiqar Babar ............... 25-4-92-1Yasir Shah ..................... 22-3-51-1Azhar Ali ........................... 3-1-6-0

DUBAI: Tom Latham raises a second consecutive Testhundred against Pakistan in 2nd Test on Monday.

Bryan brotherswin fourth

doubles crownat Tour Finals

LONDON—Bob and MikeBryan won the ATP TourFinals doubles title for thefourth time as the Americanbrothers defeated IvanDodig and Marcelo Melo 6-7 (5/7), 6-2, 10/7 at London’sO2 Arena.

It was the top seededpair’s 10th title of 2014 andtheir 103rd overall.

The 16-time Grand Slamchampion twins, competingin their sixth Tour Finals fi-nal, have now won 10 titlesin a calender year four times.

“This is considered thefifth slam, with the top eightteams in the world,” MikeBryan said.

“To lose our first matchand bounce back, barelyqualify for the semi-finals,then win today, was a greatfeeling.”—AFP

Court panelclears India

chief of graftNEW DELHI—An investi-gation into scandals in theIndian Premier League hascleared Indian and worldcricket chiefNarayanaswami Srinivasanof corruption, the SupremeCourt heard on Monday.

“This individual was notinvolved in match-fixing ac-tivities. This individual wasnot involved in scuttling in-vestigations into match-fix-ing,” said a report by an in-vestigative panel released tothe court.

The panel, which wasappointed by the court lastyear to look into match-fix-ing and betting scandals inthe Indian Premier League(IPL), submitted its findingsearlier this month, but theywere only made public onMonday.

The panel honed in onSrinivasan and three othertop officials including hisson-in-law GurunathMeiyappan, who was theteam principal of the ChennaiSuper Kings franchise.

The finding paves theway for the return ofSrinivasan, considered thesport’s most powerful per-son, to the head of theBoard of Control for Cricketin India (BCCI).

The court had barredSrinivasan from carrying outhis duties as BCCI presidentuntil it delivered its final ver-dict, although it did not stophim from heading the Interna-tional Cricket Council.—AFP

PARIS—The Netherlands recorded a mo-rale-boosting win in qualifying for Euro 2016on Sunday while Italy saw their perfect startto the campaign ended by Croatia in aneventful encounter.

Guus Hiddink had indicated that hewould resign as coach of the Dutch if theyslipped up against Latvia to continue a stut-tering start to their bid to reach the finals inFrance.

However, the World Cup semi-finalistsrecorded their second win in four games inGroup A by thumping Latvia 6-0 inAmsterdam as the outstanding ArjenRobben and Klaas-Jan Huntelaar bothscored twice.

Captain Robin van Persie and JeffreyBruma were also on target to ensure thatHiddink — only appointed for a secondspell in charge of the Oranje in the summer— would not be going anywhere.

The only blotch on an otherwise fineevening for the Netherlands was the kneeinjury that forced Manchester Unitedmidfielder Daley Blind off in the first half,

Dutch earn resoundingwin as Italy held

although Hiddink’s side continue to trailgroup leaders the Czech Republic by sixpoints.

The Czechs made it four wins from fourgames as they ended Iceland’s 100 percentrecord by coming from behind to win 2-1 inPlzen.

The visitors had threatened anothergiant-killing when Ragnar Sigurdsson gavethem a ninth-minute lead, but PavelKaderabek equalised late in the first halfbefore an unfortunate Jon DadiBodvarsson own-goal decided the matchin the Czechs’ favour.

Meanwhile, in Istanbul, Turkey got theirfirst win of the campaign by beatingKazakhstan 3-1 as Burak Yilmaz scored twicefor Fatih Terim’s struggling side.

In Milan, Italy dropped their first pointsin Group H in a 1-1 draw with Croatia thatwas marred by crowd trouble.

The evening started well for theAzzurri as Antonio Candreva drilled hometo give them the lead 11 minutes in at theSan Siro.—AFP

AMSTERDAM: Latvia’s Arturs Zjuzins vies for the ball with Dutch player Arjen Robbenduring the Euro 2016 qualifying football match.

HAMBURG—World heavyweight championVladimir Klitschko knocked out Bulgarianchallenger Kubrat Pulev with a fierce left hookin the fifth round to retain his IBF title andend his opponent’s unbeaten record.

The 38-year-old Klitschko, who also holdsthe WBO, IBO and WBA titles, knockeddown the 33-year-old twice in the openinground as Pulev initially struggled to keep histaller opponent at a distance.

The Bulgarian, who had won his previ-ous 20 fights, was again floored in the thirdround when he was sent sprawling by a thun-dering left hook. He looked to be finding hisway back into the fight, landing a big rightthat rattled the Ukrainian but another giantleft hook finished the job in round five with a

Klitschko knocks outPulev to retain IBF crown

dazed Pulev staying down for the count.“I made my professional debut here 18

years ago and I love this city,” a beamingKlitschko, who has his base in the northernGerman city, said in a ringside interview.

“It was difficult to get that hook in. I kepttrying but he managed to stay away. I tried ita few times and at the end it worked.”

Klitschko has now improved his recordto 63 wins out of his 66 fights with 54 knock-outs. Pulev is 20-1.

“I feel good,” Pulev said, nursing an icepack on his quickly swelling right cheek. “Iam satisfied with my performance. Vladimir isa good opponent but I think he had a bit ofluck. “Now I want revenge and it will be dif-ferent result,” said the Bulgarian.—Agencies

IAAF set tounveil 2019

Worlds venuePARIS—One of Doha,Barcelona or Eugene, Or-egon will get the nod to hostthe 2019 Athletics WorldChampionships on Tues-day when the InternationalAssociation of AthleticsFederations (IAAF) meets inMonaco.

Doha are back for a freshbid having missed out toLondon for the 2017 edition,but did successfully stagethe 2006 Asian Games, albeitin the cooler month of De-cember.

Heat is a major factorin the furore surroundingQatar being awarded the2022 World Cup and capi-tal ci ty Doha proposestaging the world champi-onships in September orOctober rather than Au-gus t .

The Catalan capitalBarcelona was put on themap by staging the 1992Olympic Games and hassince staged the 2010 and2012 junior world athleticschampionships.

The Mediterranean Portwould not suffer the sameheat problem as Doha.

The fact that athleticssuperpower the UnitedStates has never hosted theevent would have to favourEugene’s bid.

The city is in the PacificNorthwest in the state ofOregon and is sometimesreferred to as Track TownUSA, because of its stronghistory of track and fieldevents.

The 2015 world champi-onships take place inBeijing from August 22-30,while the London 2017event is also scheduled forAugust.—AFP

PEOPLE in non-metro cities were slightlymore informed and aware than people inmetro cities about the correct measures

of diabetes.New Delhi - Over 50 per cent of diabetes

patients in India are at the riskof developing heart diseases,while 63 per cent are at risk ofgetting micro vascular compli-cations, a study revealedWednesday.

Many others are underenhanced risk of developingeye problems, especially ret-inopathy, said the study“Lifespan D-Myth 2014”.

The study was conductedto map people’s perceptionsalong with behaviour-relatedoutcomes of diabetes manage-ment. It also brings to lightpoor diabetes managementamong Indians, which it linksto ignorance and prevalence ofmyths.

“Eighty per cent of diabet-ics in India have higher cardio metabolic scoreswhile 50 per cent are ignorant about the factthat diabetes could lead to heart disease,” saidthe report by Lifespan, a healthcare companydedicated to the management of diabetes andcardio metabolic disorders. The study was con-ducted among 5,065 Indians in 16 cities on aone-to-one basis.

It also showed that 60 per cent of diabet-ics in India suffer from autonomic nervoussystem dysfunction and 69 per cent wereclueless that diabetes can also affect theirsexual life.

“The study’s findings are unique in termsof the insights it provides on people’s percep-

Over 50 per cent diabetics maydevelop heart diseases: Study

Children hold placards during traffic awareness walk organised by Karachi Traffic Police.

tions about diabetes and its effects on morbid-ity and mortality. Considering the huge bur-den of diabetes on the country, the findingsshould help us lay out a road map to ensure itsprevention and management,” Lifespan

Wellness group MD and CEOAshok Jain said in a state-ment.

According to the report,29 per cent of diabetics usehoney and jaggery during dia-betes and 41 per cent believedthese were actually good forpeople suffering from diabe-tes.

“Also 33 per cent regu-larly consume juices, whichhave high glycaemic index(not good for diabetes), withnearly one out of two peopleconsidering all fruit juiceswere good for diabetes,” thereport said.

The report also said thatthough it was well establishedthat bitter gourd (karela) and

fenugreek (methi) cannot treat diabetes, 40 percent believe that eating them can cure diabe-tes.

Another 27 per cent were found to be tak-ing these alone to deal with diabetes. “Eightyper cent of diabetics in India have higher cardiometabolic scores while 50 per cent are ignorantabout the fact that diabetes could lead to heartdisease,” said the report by Lifespan, ahealthcare company dedicated to the manage-ment of diabetes and cardio metabolic disorders.

“People in non-metro cities were slightlymore informed and aware than people in metrocities about the correct measures of diabetes,”the report said.

Peter Clear, Ambassador of Belgium in Pakistan speaking during inauguration of Belgian Food Festival at a localhotel.—PO photo by Sultan Chaki.

Malir Motorway Project draft plan being presented to NHA Chairman by Administra-tor DHA, Karachi

CITY REPORTER

KARACHI—DHA Karachi in Ministry of Com-munication, Pak Secretariat Islamabad, whichwas attended by Chairman NHA/SecretaryCommunication Mr Shahid Ashraf Tarar, Ad-ministrator DHA Kara-chi Brig Zubair Ahmedand other senior officials, arranged a detailedpresentation on “Malir Motorway Project”.

It was a follow-up meeting in pursuance ofPrime Minister’s principle approval of “MalirMotorway” announced at Governor House Karachion 10 July 2014 in the presence of senior politicaland military leadership. Malir Motorway whenrealized besides brining DHA City from DHAKarachi at a distance of 20 minutes will also pro-

Malir Motorway: goodnews for DHA Karachi

vide a shortest, secure and sustainable infrastruc-ture ensuring socio economic uplift of Karachi.This project will have the capacity to facilitate se-cure, efficient and quick movement of people,goods and services from Karachi Port and PortQasim to Super Highway (M-9).

Moreover, besides facilitating ports traffic, itwill also provide sustained relief to perpetual traf-fic congestion problems of some of the main roadsof Karachi. The motorway will act as strategic linkfor prompt movement of military troops in case ofemergency. Chairman NHA appreciated the effortsmade by DHA team and asked for additional in-formation for an early decision-making. Next pre-sentation by DHA on the project will be held inJanuary 2015 at NHA Head Office, Islamabad.

IRFAN ALIGI

KARACHI—A petition has been field inSindh High Court (SHC) against SindhMinister for information, archives andlocal government, Sharjeel InnamMemon. According to details, the peti-tioner, Rana Faiz Ul Hassan field a con-stitutional petition in the higher courtagainst the Minister in which the peti-tioner had alleged the Minister of al-leging the Judges of the judiciary forlacking the due courage for awarding

Petition for revoking SharjeelMemon’s eligibility filed in SHC

punishments to the culprits due to fear.The petitioner also quoted the Min-

ister as saying, ‘the law enforcementagencies while putting their lives injeopardy arrested hardened criminalsbut the Judges had released them on bailand that 95 percent cases were stillpending with the court.

He stated in his constitutional peti-tion that the Article 68 of the constitu-tion of Pakistan imposed restriction onanyone to pass any derogatory remarksor make statements against the Judiciary

but the Minister had stated the afore-mentioned on the floor of the Sindh As-sembly.

The petitioner apprised the highercourt about similar derogatory re-marks and statements against the Ju-diciary by the Minister in past. Hence-forth, action should be taken againstthe Minister in accordance to the Ar-ticles 2, 8, 9, 68 and 204 of the con-stitution of Pakistan.

He said the remarks and statementsmade by the Minister were similar to

the act of contempt to court and that hehad also insulted the sanctity of theAssembly, which brought a bad nameto the Judiciary.

He appealed to the SHC that besidestaking due action against the Minister,his membership of Sindh Assemblyshould also be declared void and ineli-gible for contesting elections in future.The petitioner had in his petition heldSindh Chief Minister, Speaker SindhAssembly and the Election Commissionof Pakistan as respondents.

STAFF REPORTER

KARACHI—Accu-Chek and the legend-ary Wasim Akram continued their effortsto raise awareness of Diabetes in Karachias they intensified their pursuit to edu-cate the masses about how to live betterand healthier by disciplining theirlifestyle. The message that was beingconveyed was that people can live anactive life with Diabetes if they keeptheir blood glucose level within normalrange by taking healthy diet, moderatephysical activity and regular medication.

As a part of their efforts revolvingaround the World Diabetes Day (WDD),the Accu-Chek team and Akram werepresent at Dolmen Mall, to spread aware-ness about maintaining healthy lifestyleto keep the diabetes in control. Address-ing the public at the event, Akram said:“I’ve accepted Diabetes like a challenge,

Accu-Chek, Wasim Akram takes anotherstep to promote healthy living with diabetes

and I have been fitter than ever before. AndI can proudly say I’m not controlled byDiabetes, rather I control Diabetes.’’

Akram has been suffering from Dia-betes since age of 29 and has become aglobal ambassador for the fight againstDiabetes. He joined hands with Accu-ChekPakistan as brand ambassador in 2001 andever since working relentlessly to raiseawareness and education of diabetes.

At the Accu-Chek activity area atDolmen Mall, a health check centre wasestablished where people got the opportu-nity of health consultations by doctors, andget tips on healthy physical activity fromrenowned expert Dr. Mubashira along witha dietician. They were also educated abouthow it is important to keep a check on theirblood glucose level To maintain healthylifestyle and avoid complications of dia-betes. Akram graced the event where hetalked to the public and the present media

about his pursuit against Diabetes.He said, “The key to fight against

Diabetes is to educate yourself, andabout how you can control and preventit. Getting Diabetes isn’t like the end ofthe world. With the right information androutine, one can easily keep it undercontrol and live a healthy life.”

The onset of this activity began witha warm welcome for Akram by the spec-tators and the Brand Managers of Accu-Chek, and later on Akram did the“WEAR THE BLUE CIRCLE PIN” cer-emony in support of diabetes awarenessby pinning up the WDD ring on threeyoung kids, while his Blue-pin waspinned by the company Country Head,Mr. Sohail A Malik. Pictures and conver-sations with Akram followed the talk ashe imparted his wisdom. On the occa-sion, Mr. Malik said, “Accu-Chek is syn-onym to premium quality sugar testing.

KARACHI—Speaker Sindh Assembly AghaSiraj Durrani of the Pakistan People’s Party(PPP) on Monday said they welcome PakistanTehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) chairman Imran Khan inLarkana and he is free to conduct political ral-lies. Talking to media persons here, referring to

We welcome Imran Khan in Larkana: Agha Sirajthe situation of Thar, he said reason of children’sdeath must be probed, adding that Sindh govern-ment has not failed.

Muhammad Hussain of the Muttahida QaumiMovement (MQM) said it is Imran Khan’s right toconduct rallies and the government must refrain from

creating any obstructions. The MQM has nothingto with attack on Water Board Employees, he added.Expressing grave concern over worse situation ofwater in the metropolis, he said Karachi only re-ceives 30 to 35% of water. He further said that con-spiracies are being hatched against the MQM.

58 arrested,arms

recoveredKARACHI—Rizvia police-dis-trict Central has arrested 58 ac-cused and recovered arms insuccessful actions taken againstcriminal elements in differentareas of its jurisdiction duringthe last 20 days.

The arrested accused in-clude three target killers, 18street criminals, nine extortion-ists and 15 nominated in othercrimes, said a statement onMonday. The Rizvia police ar-rested eight accused while onewas killed during five encoun-ters with criminals during thelast 20 days.—APP

KARACHI—The Institute of Business Admin-istration, Karachi launched three Post-Gradu-ate Diploma Courses in Healthcare Manage-ment, Supply Chain Management, and HumanResource Management a statement on Mondaysaid. Shoaib Ahmed Siddiqui, Commissioner,Karachi Division, was the chief guest. Designedto develop highly skilled practitioners with anin-depth understanding of strategic, tactical andoperational issues; each PGD is spread over aspan of 1 year, with 12 courses, a live projectand practicum.

These programs will help bridge the compe-tency gap in Pakistan and help enhance the pro-fessionalism of those involved in the industry. Thecurriculum design is based on several years of

IBA introduces 3 new PostGraduate Diploma programmes

research through various stakeholder surveys andfocus groups. Each program is devised to developcritical thinking among students and give thempractical application of knowledge.

The Dean and Director, Dr. Ishrat Husainaddressed the audience which included profes-sionals from the fields of Medicine, HumanResources. Explaining the success of the strate-gic plan of IBA. “In our strategic plan, we hadidentified 4 pillars for change management atIBA, academic excellence and quality, facultydevelopment, IT & physical infrastructure, andcommunity outreach. The Centre for ExecutiveEducation (CEE) and Center for Entrepreneur-ial Development (CED) are our arms for com-munity outreach”.—APP

PEOPLE in non-metro cities were slightlymore informed and aware than people inmetro cities about the correct measures

of diabetes.New Delhi - Over 50 per cent of diabetes

patients in India are at the riskof developing heart diseases,while 63 per cent are at risk ofgetting micro vascular compli-cations, a study revealedWednesday.

Many others are underenhanced risk of developingeye problems, especially ret-inopathy, said the study“Lifespan D-Myth 2014”.

The study was conductedto map people’s perceptionsalong with behaviour-relatedoutcomes of diabetes manage-ment. It also brings to lightpoor diabetes managementamong Indians, which it linksto ignorance and prevalence ofmyths.

“Eighty per cent of diabet-ics in India have higher cardio metabolic scoreswhile 50 per cent are ignorant about the factthat diabetes could lead to heart disease,” saidthe report by Lifespan, a healthcare companydedicated to the management of diabetes andcardio metabolic disorders. The study was con-ducted among 5,065 Indians in 16 cities on aone-to-one basis.

It also showed that 60 per cent of diabet-ics in India suffer from autonomic nervoussystem dysfunction and 69 per cent wereclueless that diabetes can also affect theirsexual life.

“The study’s findings are unique in termsof the insights it provides on people’s percep-

Over 50 per cent diabetics maydevelop heart diseases: Study

Motorists stuck in a traffic jam on the road outside Aiwan-e-Adal.

tions about diabetes and its effects on morbid-ity and mortality. Considering the huge bur-den of diabetes on the country, the findingsshould help us lay out a road map to ensure itsprevention and management,” Lifespan

Wellness group MD and CEOAshok Jain said in a state-ment.

According to the report,29 per cent of diabetics usehoney and jaggery during dia-betes and 41 per cent believedthese were actually good forpeople suffering from diabe-tes.

“Also 33 per cent regu-larly consume juices, whichhave high glycaemic index(not good for diabetes), withnearly one out of two peopleconsidering all fruit juiceswere good for diabetes,” thereport said.

The report also said thatthough it was well establishedthat bitter gourd (karela) and

fenugreek (methi) cannot treat diabetes, 40 percent believe that eating them can cure diabe-tes.

Another 27 per cent were found to be tak-ing these alone to deal with diabetes. “Eightyper cent of diabetics in India have higher cardiometabolic scores while 50 per cent are ignorantabout the fact that diabetes could lead to heartdisease,” said the report by Lifespan, ahealthcare company dedicated to the manage-ment of diabetes and cardio metabolic disorders.

“People in non-metro cities were slightlymore informed and aware than people in metrocities about the correct measures of diabetes,”the report said.

Lady health workers protesting for their rights.

MUZAFFAR ALI

LAHORE—Chief Executive Officer(CEO) British Council Pakistan Sir Mar-tin Davidson has said that Lahore Collegefor Women University (LCWU) is play-ing a very significant role in women em-powerment and British Council will con-tinue its full cooperation to strengthen theinstitution and its projects. He was address-ing here in LCWU in an event organizedby Directorate of Faculty Developmentand Internationalisation (DFDI) of LCWUto highlight the projects initiated by Ac-tive Citizen program(ACP).

He appreciated the efforts of LCWUin taking the lead in being one of the firstUniversities to launch the programme and

British Council to continue its support forLCWU educational projects: Sir Martin

took keen interest in the projects showcasedby the students. BC Country Director PeterUpton, Deputy Director, Antony Jones andDirector Punjab, Kevin McLaven attendedthe event. Dr. Sabiha Maansoor, Vice Chan-cellor LCWU, welcomed the guests and de-scribed the achievements the university se-cured in education and co curricular field.She thanked the BC for selecting LCWU asthe pioneering partner for the ACP .

VC highlighted the need to documentthe LCWU social action projects to be usedfor continuing research and to measuresustainability and impact within the widercommunity. The British Council’s ActiveCitizens Programme was piloted at LCWUas a mandatory course for undergraduate stu-dents in 2012 and has been running success-

fully at LCWU where over 1500 studentshave so far implemented an impressive135 community uplift social actionprojects under the supervision of 72 fac-ulty facilitators trained by the BritishCouncil.

The Higher Education Commission(HEC) in partnership with British Coun-cil launched this ACP university model ata national level last month. ACP studentsparticipated by showcasing the poster pre-sentation of the Social Action Projects onthe topics: To Aware and Educate, ChildAbuse, Save Our Smiles, Imagination intoForm, Pakistan Awareness Program, Fam-ily is life, Protect Life, Promoting readingculture among children, Lets wish, Rebuildhopes, You Smile, and Burn Prevention.

STAFF REPORTER

LAHORE—Provincial Minister for Excise &Taxation, Finance and Law Punjab MujtabaShuja-ur-Rehman has directed that problems ofthe common man especially requirements of stu-dents such as internet should be kept in viewwhile imposing new taxes. He said that revenueis generated for the execution of developmentprojects through taxes, however, present govern-ment has imposed tax only on elite and well-to-

Problems of common man be keptin view while imposing taxes: Shuja

STAFF REPORTER

LAHORE—Director General Provincial Disaster ManagementAuthority Ahmad Javed Qazi has said that on the instructionsof Chief Minister Punjab, the process of payment of Rs.10thousand each to the poor flood affected families as have losttheir means of livelihood is continuing under Rozgar SupportProgramme. He said that a huge amount of Rs.7.25 billion

Process of payment toflood-hit continuing: Qazi

do segments of the society.He said that government has implemented the

policy of computerization and e-technology in gov-ernmental affairs and it has yielded positive resultsin tax collection. He said that system of online pay-ment of taxes is also being implemented. He saidthat property tax has been increased after 14 yearsand this increase has been made only on big housesand affluent persons.

He expressed these views while presiding overa meeting of the committee on taxation on internet.

Commissioner Lahore Rashid MehmoodLangrial, Chairman Punjab Revenue AuthorityIftikhar Kutab, Secretary Finance MuhammadYousaf, Special Secretary Ahmad Raza Sarwarand other officials were also present. MujtabaShuja-ur-Rehman said that special attention hasbeen paid in the budget on education and healthsectors. He said that the budget allocated for edu-cation sector is 26.25 percent of the total budgetwhile that for health sector is 11.66 percent ofthe total government expenditure.

has so far been given to the flood-hit people in a transparentmanner.

He was presiding over a departmental meeting here today.Ahmad Javed Qazi said that 198627 flood affectees as have re-ceived financial assistance as compensation for losses to theircrops and houses have thanked Punjab government. He said thatflood affectees who suffered loss of crops have again startedcultivation of their land.

SALIM AHMED

LAHORE—Spokesman Punjab government andPakistan Muslim League-N leader Syed ZaeemHussain Qadri has said that Imran Khan has leftpolitical process after August 14 and now PTIhas become a fascist party after coming out ofmainstream of political parties. He said that con-tacting terrorists for completion of its fascistagenda on November 30 are making a planningof creating lawlessness. He said that the nationwill never tolerate further lies of Imran Khan.Zaeem Qadri said that nothing will happen onNovember 30 and government will maintain itswrit. He said that Imran Khan did not even sparesacred profession like journalism and levelledserious allegations against journalists and theentire nation strongly condemned it.

He expressed these views while addressinga press conference at Chief Minister’s office.Parliamentary Sector for Information and Cul-ture Rana Muhammad Arshad was also presenton the occasion.

Syed Zaeem Hussain Qadri said that afterAugust 14, PTI has adopted the path of fascist party

PTI has become a fascistparty, says PML-N leader

instead of a political party. He said that Imran Khandaily preaches fascism in public meetings and con-tainer. What kind of service Imran Khan is doingby adopting the policy of ransacks and hooligan-ism, he questioned. He said that Imran Khan shouldplay his due role for strengthening political anddemocratic system by becoming part of reformcommittee. Zaeem Qadri said that Imran Khanshould give account of expenses being spent in theuse of helicopter. He said that exchequer of KPKgovernment is being spent ruthlessly. He said thatImran Khan attacked the profession of journalismand people strongly condemned his allegations.Zaeem Qadri challenged Imran Khan that if heproved his allegation against even a single jour-nalist, he is ready to face every punishment. Hadhe not been leading terrorists, he asked. He saidthat why KPK government is reluctant in helpingIDPs. Zaeem Qadri said that IDPs have given sac-rifice of their life and property for Pakistani nationand they are our benefactors. He said that KPKgovernment could not start even a single publicwelfare project. He said that although, KPK gov-ernment announced to start metro bus by emulat-ing Punjab but still it could not prepare PC-I.

Punjab University VC Dr Mujahid Kamran with faculty members at inaugural session of5-Day Faculty Training Programme at MMG.

STAFF REPORTER

LAHORE—Punjab Chief MinisterMuhammad Shahbaz Sharif has saidthat all possible measures are beingtaken for maintaining law and orderin the province. He said that policeshould perform its duties efficientlyand spare no effort for protecting lifeand property of citizens.

He was presiding over a highlevel meeting to review law and or-

CM presides over meetingto reviews law and order

der situation, here Monday. TheChief Minister said that maintenanceof peace and law and order is the toppriority of the government and po-lice should perform its responsibili-ties in this regard with commitmentand efficiency. He directed that spe-cial attention should be paid to thesecurity of markets and bazaars.

He said that the law regardingshops and securities be strictlyimplemented and the action plan

evolved for this purpose should beenforced at any cost. He said thatmonitoring system for eradication ofcrime should be made more effective.He said that arrangements for pro-tection of life and property of citi-zens and maintenance of law and or-der should be reviewed on regularbasis.

The Chief Minister directed thatstrict monitoring of entry and exitpoints of the province should be en-

sured and the concerned departmentshould work with effective coordi-nation. He said that a watchful eyeshould be kept on suspects. He saidthat resources will continue to beprovided to police, however, it willhave to come up to the expectationsof the masses and play an effectiverole for rooting out crimes. Provin-cial Ministers, Assembly Membersand senior officers were present onthe occasion.