Ep25jan2015

Some invite Martial Law asin past................................................Export of wheat reflects Pakpotential................................................Obama starts speaking Indianlanguage

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AMANULLAH KHAN

KARACHI—The State Bank of Pakistan hasdecided to reduce the policy rate by 100 basispoints from 9.5 percent to 8.5percent effective from 26th Janu-ary 2015 bringing interest rate 7-8 year low in the country.

This was announced by theGovernor SBP, Mr. AshrafMahmood Wathra while unveil-ing the Monetary Policy State-ment (MPS) for the next twomonths at a press conference heldat SBP head office, Karachi. Thedecision was taken during a meet-ing of the Central Board of Di-rectors of SBP held under hischairmanship in Karachi today.

Wathra said that some of thekey macroeconomic indicatorshad improved further since the last MonetaryPolicy decision of November 2014. “CPI infla-tion and its expectations continue to follow adownward trajectory. In the last two months ofNovember and December 2014, trade deficit hasdeclined, though ithas increased inH1-FY15 whencompared to H1-FY14. Moreover,considerable foreign exchange inflows have con-tributed in maintaining an upward trajectory inforeign exchange reserves.”

According to Governor SBP, containmentof fiscal deficit thus far is also encouraging andbodes well for the credibility of consistent and

SBP slashes policyrate to 8.5 percentWathra points to improvement in economic indicators

coherent policies of the government and for thecontinuation of official and private capital in-flows. With these positive developments, firsthalf of the current fiscal year ended on a better

macroeconomic outlook for theremaining months of FY15.

Wathra termed the declinein inflation broad based sinceboth food and non-food inflationwere declining. The decelerationin the former is mainly the resultof better supply conditions, whilethe latter is explained by a com-bination of factors includingplummeting international oilprice as well as decline in otherglobal commodity prices; laggedimpact of earlier conservativemonetary policy stance and mod-erating aggregate demand; andstable exchange rate, he added.

He told the audience that the SBP has re-vised downwards its forecast range for averageCPI inflation to 4.5 – 5.5 percent for FY15, wellbelow the annual target of 8 percent.

Referring to international oil price decrease,Mr. Wathra said that through its expected favor-

able impact ontrade balance, itcontributed in im-proving the exter-

nal sector outlook in recent months. In additionto this, successful completion of fourth and fifthreview under IMF’s EFF and issuance of Inter-national Sukuk have also contributed to improve-ment in overall balance of payment position. “In

Interest rate at 7-8-year low

Continued on Page 7

STAFF REPORTER

ISLAMABAD—Finance Minis-ter Ishaq Dar said Saturday thatthe government is willing toform the proposed judicialcommission to probe allega-tions of rigging in the May2013 elections, adding that itwill be formed within the ambitof the Constitution.

The minister was address-ing a news conference alongwith Federal Minister for Infor-mation Technology AnushaRehman in the federal capital.

The finance minister saidhe had written another letterand sent an e-mail as well tothe PTI negotiating team con-taining new definition of the

scope of thework of theproposed ju-dicial com-mission toprobe allega-tions of rig-ging in the2013 generalelections.

Dar said the remainingpoints can be sorted out and thejudicial commission can beformed without any delay. Hesaid it is time to sort out the is-sues as a lot of time had alreadybeen consumed.

The PTI had since longbeen demanding that a judicialcommission with special pow-

JC issue can be resolvedin 30 minutes: Dar

Khan wants word ‘conspiracy’ removed

STAFF REPORTER

I S L A M A B A D — P a k i s t a nTehreek-e-Insaf ChairmanImran Khan on Saturday pre-dicted general elections mightbe held this year if the proposedjudicial commission into pollrigging takes up the cases pend-ing in election tribunals.

Khan while talking to me-dia, upon his return from SaudiArabia, took an exception to thegovernment, former Chief Jus-tice Iftikhar MuhammadChaudhry and former SupremeCourt judge Khalilur RehmanRamday for alleged fraud in the2013 election.

“We will prove that IftikharChaudhry and Ramday con-

trolled re-turning offic-ers,” Khanclaimed.

He wenton to say thatformer CJPC h a u d h r ycommit tedt r e a s o n

against democracy and shouldbe tried under Article Six of theconstitution.

Imran Khan said he waswaiting for Iftikhar Chaurdhryto face him in the court.“Iftikhar Chaudhry is a traitorto democracy, I will prove thisin the court.”

“Iftikhar Chaurdhry and

Will go to assemblies ifJC clears election: ImranI’m waiting to face Iftikhar Ch in court

Continued on Page 7 Continued on Page 7

WASHINGTON—United States PresidentBarack Obama will travel to Saudi Arabia onTuesday to meet with new King Salman to payrespects after the death of King Abdullah, theWhite House said on Saturday.

Obama is scheduled to arrivein New Delhi on Sunday wherehe will meet with Indian PrimeMinister Narendra Modi and at-tend the Republic Day parade.

He will cut short his trip,missing a planned tour of the TajMahal, to travel to Saudi Arabia,the White House said.

The White House had origi-nally planned that US Vice Presi-dent Joe Biden would lead a del-egation to Saudi Arabia, but nowthat Obama will travel to Riyadh,Biden will remain in Washington.

Hundreds of cleaners hadbeen hired to spruce up the whitemarbled mausoleum in prepara-tion for Obama’s arrival.

Obama will be accompanied by a delega-tion of seven top officials as well as his wife,Michelle, the White House confirmed.

“The President is very much looking for-ward to this visit. It is a genuine honour to beinvited as the guest for Republic Day” and

Obama “is looking forward to see the festivitiesassociated with Republic Day firsthand,” hispress secretary Josh Earnest said on Friday.

With this trip being Obama’s second duringhis time in office, he will be hav-ing a series of meetings with po-litical leaders in India including onewith Indian Prime MinisterNarendra Modi, Earnest toldreporters.After the refueling of AirForce One in Germany, Obama isdue to touch down at Delhi Inter-national Airport at 10am on Janu-ary 25.Quoting Obama, Earnestsaid he “certainly enjoyed the con-versation” that he had with Modiwhen the Indian leader visitedWashington in September.

“I think he does see an op-portunity to build a strong work-ing relationship not just betweenour two countries, but between thetwo leaders who do share sort of acommon sense of purpose and vi-

tality,” he said.On his arrival, Obama will be accorded a cer-

emonial welcome around noon at the RashtrapatiBhawan by President Pranab Mukherjee and Modi

Obama cuts short Indiavisit to meet King Salman

Continued on Page 7

No clearevidence ofrigging in

NA-122: JudgeLAHORE—Judge MalikGhulam Hussain of InquiryCommission (IC) has presentedreport to Election Tribunal(ET) on alleged polls riggingin NA-122. The judge whilerecording statement before ETon the occasion of filing of in-quiry report said Saturday thatno clear evidence on rigging inthis constituency had come tofore and benefit of flawspointed out in inquiry commit-tee can not be given to any onecandidate.

He said in his statementthat tremendous amount ofnegligence and slackness wasdemonstrated during polling inNA-122. As per law it is man-datory that back side of ballotpapers and counter foils shouldbear stamp and signatures ofpolling staff but they lacked it.The ballot papers which did notcarry stamp were rejected andthe ballot papers numbering300132 which are havingcounterfoils can be taken as rig-ging. Upon it the judge toldnothing in the report or ver-bally if the rigging has takenplace.

ET is entitled to accept orreject these 30132 counterfoils.Counsels for National Assem-bly (NA) speaker Ayyaz Sadiqand Imran conducted crossquestioning on the statementof IC judge Malik GhulamHussain. Counsels for NAspeaker asked from IC judgerigging at what scale has come

Continued on Page 7

Understandingkey to Christian,Muslimrelations: PopeVATICAN CITY—PopeFrancis says the most effectiveantidote to violence amongChristians and Muslims islearning about each other andthen accepting differences.

Francis also told partici-pants Saturday of a meetingpromoted by the PontificalInstitute of Arab and IslamistStudies that only by carefullylistening can interreligiousdialogue make progress.

He said “patience andhumility” are essential fordeepened Islamic-Christiandialogue while merelysuperficial dialogue will onlyyield “stereotypes andpreconceptions.”

Francis added: “The mosteffective antidote to everyform of violence is educationabout discovering andaccepting difference asrichness and fertileness.”

He did not mention of thedeadly jihadi attacks insupposed defense of Islam thismonth in France, but said“more than ever one feels theneed” for such education.—Agencies

Continued on Page 7

Raheel leavesfor two-dayChina visitSTAFF REPORTER

ISLAMABAD—Chief of ArmyStaff General Raheel Sharifleft for a two-day visit toChina on Saturday, an Inter-Services Public Relationsstatement said.

Gen Raheel would meetChina’s political and militaryleadership to discuss issuespertaining to security anddefence cooperation betweenthe two countries.

The army chief wouldapprise Chinese leadership ofsuccesses achieved in

Continued on Page 7

PM ordersprovision of

funds for NAPimplementationISLAMABAD—Prime MinisterNawaz Sharif chaired a highlevel meeting on Saturday onhis return from Saudi Arabia todiscuss among other priorities,the implementation of the Na-tional Action Plan. PM Nawazduring the meeting orderedfunds to be arranged to meet theneeds of implementation of theNational Action Plan.

According to reports, the re-quest of former president General(retd) Pervez Musharraf to travelto Saudi Arabia as well as remov-ing his name from the Exit Con-trol List (ECL) also came underdiscussion. The meeting at the PMHouse was attended by FinanceMinister Ishaq Dar, Interior Min-ister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan,Punjab Chief Minister ShahbazSharif, and other officials.—INP

Tens of thousandsprotest in Yemen

SANAA—Tens of thousands ofYemenis marched in protest onSaturday against Shiite rebelswho hold the capital, amid apower vacuum in a country thatis home to what Washingtondescribes as al-Qaida’s mostdangerous offshoot.

Some 20,000 hit the streetsof the capital, Sanaa, wheredemonstrators converged onthe house of President AbedRabbo Mansour Hadi, who re-signed Thursday along with hisCabinet. It was the largest pro-test since the rebels, known asHouthis, swept into the capitalin September.

Protesters carried bannersand chanted slogans denounc-ing the rebels and demandingthe restoration of the president.Scuffles involving knives andbatons broke out in one in-stance in Sanaa when the rebels

tried to block one procession,leaving two demonstrators andone Houthi injured.

“Houthi aggressors, out ofthe capital,” went one chant,and “Hadi, Hadi, return. Yourpeople are awake,” said an-other. One slogan accused theHouthis, who adhere to a sectof Shiism, of being clients ofmostly Shiite Iran, while an-other said they were colludingwith Hadi’s predecessor, long-time autocrat Ali AbdullahSaleh.

Security officials whospoke on condition of anonym-ity because they were not au-thorized to brief reporters, saidtens of thousands also demon-strated in the cities of Taiz, Ibband Dhamar with similar de-mands.

In Dhamar, protesters

Continued on Page 7

KIEV—Pro-Russian rebelslaunched an offensive againstthe strategic port of Mariupolin eastern Ukraine on Saturday,prompting the European

Rebels attack key port,Ukraine says at least 30 dead

Union’s foreign policy chief towarn of a further “grave dete-rioration” in EU-Russian rela-tions.

Mariupol’s city administra-

tion said the rebels had killedat least 30 people and injured83 others in the offensive byfiring rockets from long-range

KARACHI: Chief of the Naval Staff Admiral Muhammad Zaka Ullah conferring degree upon a student in 26th PNECConvocation at Bahria Auditorium Karachi.

BAHAWALPUR: Teachers and student of a local school lighting candle and offeringdua on the chelum of APS School Peshawar.

HYDERABAD: Activists of HWAB stage a protest againstblasphemous sketches published by a magazine in France.

Armed forces leading from frontto eliminate terrorism: Naval Chief

GHS Kamokenamed after

Umair ShaheedHigh School

MALIK ABDUL QAYYUM

GUJRANWALA—Name of Gov-ernment High School No 1Kamoke has been changed asGovernment Umair ShaheedHigh School, Kamoke, in rec-ognition of sacrifice renderedby late Muhammad Umair sonof Muhmmad Arshad in ArmyPublic School, Peshawar.

KARACHI—The Naval ChiefAdmiral MuhammadZakaullah has said that Pa-kistan remains an activestakeholder in war on terrorand in this volatile scenarioArmed Forces have beenleading from the front toeliminate terrorism in all itskinds and manifestations.

He was addressing theGraduates of the 26th Con-vocation of Pakistan NavyEngineering College, a con-stituent college of NationalUniversity of Science andTechnology (NUST), washeld at Bahria Auditoriumhere Saturday. He awardeddegrees to 237 graduates in

various disciplines of engi-neering.

Chief of the Naval Staffsaid that Pakistan Navy be-ing a technology–intensiveforce, has always pursuedhigher education to groomits officers in all depart-ments and has convertedPN Engineering College into

a hub of higher educationwith the consistent support,encouragement and coop-eration of NUST. The NavalChief said that PakistanNavy is committed to groomits officers and men at parwith regional and interna-tional navies through par-ticipation in international

exercises, training at foreignmilitary institutions and par-ticipation in various interna-tional forums. AdmiralZakaullah urged the stu-dents to harness full poten-tial to serve motherland andprove themselves as re-sponsible and resourcefulcitizen.

“While entering intoprofessional l i fe , I canimagine that multifacetedchallenges are waiting andthis Inst i tut ion expectsyou to uphold its reputa-tion with excellence in pro-fessional knowledge andskills. You have to gain ex-pertise and to develop re-search capacity to becomea much needed engineer-ing professional”, He said.The naval chief advisedthe students to upholdnational ideology, be thecustodians of ideologicalfrontiers of the countryand st ick to basic prin-ciples of ‘Unity, Faith andDiscipline’. He appreci-ated the NUST-PNEC col-laborat ive efforts andcommitments for strength-ening R & D culture in thecountry and flying of Na-tional Flag at internationalarena.

The graduates in-cluded 74 Pakistan Navyofficers, 10 Officers fromRoyal Saudi Naval Forcesand 153 NUST civilian stu-

dents who were awarded‘Bachelor’s of Engineering’(BE) degrees in the disci-pline of Mechanical Engi-neering, Electrical Engi-neering, Electronic Engi-neering and Industrial &Manufacturing Engineer-ing. Earlier in his welcomeaddress, Commandant Pa-kistan Navy EngineeringCollege Commodore ZahidIqbal highlighted that Pa-kistan Navy EngineeringCollege has attained a highmantle of excellence andapart from teaching BE De-gree courses in various dis-ciplines, the College is alsoconducting Ms and PhDPrograms in a range of en-gineering fields. He ap-prised that currently 34 stu-dents are undergoing PhDprogram at the college.

The Commandanthighlighted that our stu-dents are representing Pa-kistan at national and in-ternational arenas, and es-pecially winning the tro-phies in internationalsports competi t ions heldin Philippines, Cyprus andUK accords prideful dis-tinction to our Institution.The Ceremony was alsoattended by Rector NUST,Commander Karachi, se-nior naval officers and par-ents and relatives of thegraduating students.—INP

SA R G O D H A—The policeon Saturday claimed tohave arrested thirteen drugdealers including a womanand seized narcotics andweapons from their pos-session.

Police said that duringthe on-going drive againstcriminals, teams of differentpolice stations raided attheir respective areas andarrested thirteen accusedwith recovering 3792 gramHeroin, 2125 gram hashish,102 bottles of liquor and 1pistol 30 bore and 1 Rifle 44bore along with number ofbullets from them.

Police have registeredcases against the accusedand sent them to jail for fur-ther investigation.

Faisalabad: Policeclaimed to have arrested analleged robber after an en-counter, in the jurisdictionof Gulberg police station.

13 arrested,narcotics seized

MULTAN: Ombudswoman Prof Dr Mira Phailbus awarding certificates to volunteers working to create awarenessabout Harassment Law especially framed for women at work place in order to offer them sense of security.

MULTAN—Punjab Ombudsperson Dr MiraPhailbus has urged the working women tolodg complaints immediately on offensivebehavior to herself or members of inquirycommittee, if they do not wish to make for-mal complaint at the time. She was address-ing a seminar on ‘Protection against Harass-ment of Women at Workplace Act, 2010’ atMultan Arts Council here Saturday.

It was organized by Women in Strugglefor Empowerment (WISE), a non-governmen-tal organization, aiming to create awarenesson protection of women at workplace. Shesaid, the code of conduct of the above lawhad set minimum standards of behavior re-garding protection of women, however it willnot bar a woman to secure their protectionfrom their employers through negotiation.

Earlier Bushra Khalid, Executive Di-rector WISW speaking on the occasionsaid, they had been carrying out aware-ness campaign in al l 36 distr icts ofPunjab regarding the benefits of the law.

*****

Women urged to lodgecomplaints to Ombudsperson

Some nine students of BZU DG Khancampus climbed on a water tank in the var-sity to register their protest for delay inissuing result cards here on Friday night.The protesting students had been await-ing for their result cards of MSc ComputerSciences for a long, said a source at theBZU. The students protested by climbing onthe water tank which is located at the back-side of Female Hostel, Maryam Hall, he added.The students remained at the tank for aboutan hour to record their protest.

When contacted, Director Distance Learn-ing Dr Ishaque Fani said they went to pro-testing students for negotiation and ensuredthat they would be provided cards within aday. He informed that the result was not pre-pared so far and students demand was out ofplace.Dr fani, however, said that on Saturday,they would be provided with their result cards.Police and Rescue 1122 were also called for todeal with any untoward issue if arised, hesaid.—APP

STAFF REPORTER

PESHAWAR—The Chief Minister KhyberPakhtunkhwa Pervez Khattak on Saturdaymorning contacted the Saudi Arabian Am-bassador in Islamabad and expressed heart-felt grief on demise of King Abdullah byterming it a irreparable loss of Muslim world.He in his condolence message said Paki-stan lost a great well wisher and paid glow-ing tributes to Khadim Harmian Sharifainon his unforgettable role for wellbeing ofMuslim Ummah, love with Pakistan andhelping us in every critical juncture.

Pervez Khattak said the people and govtof Khyber Pakhtunkhwa are deeply

Pak lost a great well-wishershocked on death of King Abdullah andthey equally share this grief with Saudibrethren who are having religious and spiri-tual attachment with their sacred land,people and rulers. He also condoled andexpressed solidarity with the new Saudiking Salman Bin Abdul Aziz in wake of suchmoments of mourning. He welcomed KingSalman’s message about unity of Ummah.He while felicitating King Salman on be-coming Khadim Harmian Sharifain andPrince Muqarin Bin Abdul Aziz as crown-prince of Saudi Arabia expressed goodwishes for their success and hoped thatPak-Saudi relations would further grow andstrengthen in their regime.

According to police, 2outlaws were on their loot-ing spree near ABC Bridgeon late Friday night when apatrolling police vanreached on the spot.

The police encircled theoutlaws and asked them tosurrender but they openedindiscriminate fire on thepolice.

The police also returnedfire in defence and duringthis encounter, one of therobbers received seriousbullet injuries and fell ontothe ground whereas his ac-complice managed to es-cape.

The police took the in-jured robber into custodyand shifted him to the Al-lied Hospital. He has yet tobe identified.

A special police teamhas also been formed to ar-rest the escaped robber.—APP

Police fail totrace outculprits

STAFF REPORTER

ISLAMABAD—Chak ShahzadPolice fails to trace out cul-prits involved in attack onFashion Model, HaroonRahthore son of formerPrime Minister of Azad Kash-mir Mumtaz Rathore.

According to details, Fash-ion Model Haroon Rahorewas receiving some obnox-ious calls since long past. Dur-ing travelling on January 17,2015 some unknown personsattacked on Haroon Rahore inthe jurisdiction of ChakShahzad Police StationIslamabad. A case was regis-tered at Chak Shahzad Po-lice Station on January 18,2015 but till filing of this re-port police failed to arrest theculprits involved in attach.Civil society representativesdemanded immediate arrestof the attackers involved.

Collective effortsvital to eradicate

corruptionKARACHI—The DirectorGeneral of National Ac-countability Bureau (NAB-Sindh) Col(r) Naeem Sirajhas said that we all have towork together for the eradi-cation of the menace of cor-rugation from the society.This he said while address-ing a seminar; Freedom ofInformation and WhistleBlower Protection”organised by TransparencyInternational Pakistan in col-laboration with National Ac-countability Bureau, at ahotel here on Saturday.

He said that we have setup a hotline and email for re-ceiving complaints againstcorruption and names ofthose who give informationwill be keep confidential. Hegave a summary of NAB’sawareness and preventionprogramme. He said that NABhas reached out to school,youth and the general public,where it stressed on subjectssuch as ethics, morality be-cause it is better to preventcorruption than to later pros-ecute the perpetrators.

Chairman TransparencyInternational Pakistan(TI)Sohail Muzzaffar, TI Paki-stan Advisor Syed AdilGilani, Executive DirectorCPDI Amer Ejaz, TI PakistanProgramme CoordinatorMaryam Javaid, Justice (R)Haziqul Khairi, Justice (R)Ghous Muhammad andother also addressed theseminar.—APP

AgricultureExtension

Services beingrevamped

SIALKOT—All necessary ar-rangements have been final-ized for launching a project ofrevamping of agriculture exten-sion services aimed at track-ing it on modern lines costingRs 113.655 million across thePunjab.

Under the present setup,agriculture extension is con-fronted with multifarious chal-lenges like capacity of the ex-tension workers, diversifica-tion, intensification, value ad-dition and land fragmentation.Under the circumstances, theuse of ICT has been consid-ered appropriate to improve ex-tension services in Punjab.

Official sources told APPhere Saturday that the objec-tive of the project was to im-prove the Extension DeliverySystem through introductionof innovation techniques ofinformation and communica-tion technologies (ICT).

The specific objectives ofthe project are to set up an Ag-riculture Extension ICT hub toincrease the reach of farmerstowards modern package oftechnology for exploration andintegration of ICT resourceslike SMS, website and call cen-tres to facilitate farmersthrough this Agriculture Exten-sion ICT hub and to establisha dedicated system of moni-toring of agriculture extensionworkers.—APP

ABDUL KHALIQ QURESHI

ABBOTTABAD—A numberof religious parties took outprotest rally with extremeanger criticizing heinousbased methodology againstpublication of blasphemouscaricatures by a magazine ofFrance.

Likewise, the rallies werecarried out from all over the re-maining five districts of HazaraDivision, in which the protest-ors had bitterly condemnedby such a highly objectionableact saying that the Muslim fra-ternity will sacrifice their liveseven on the basis of insult ofthe last Prophet of IslamHazrat Muhammad (PBUH),but cannot allow any personto publish their Prophet’ssketches.

The protesters haveunanimously demanded of thegovernment to take actionagainst those they had com-mitted such an offence to in-sult their last prophet of Islam

Protest rally againstblasphemous caricatures

on whom teachings they arefollowing by keeping their ce-mented faith with letter andspirit. They also demandedthat the organization of Islamiccooperation (OIC) and UnitedNations should play their rolein taking action against thoseinvolved in the blasphemoussketches publication, with aview that such particular seg-ment of violators should bepunished in the light of inter-national statutory law so thatno one could dare to commitsuch a heinous offence any-more in the future.

The protesters said that noone is allowed to publish blas-phemous sketches etc againstany sect or religion, but suchstep was taken by the viola-tors just to injure Muslimsheart to irritate them to comeon roadside and protestagainst anti-Islamic elementswhich is not allowed entirelyby the international norms ofdecency together with the rel-evant constitutional values.

Prolonged powercuts paralyses

daily lifeSHAFFAAT MALIK

TALAGANG—The unan-nounced prolonged powercuts in Talagang and sur-rounding areas have paraly-sed the daily life activities in-cluding trade and business.On an average, the load shed-ding takes place for twelve tofourteen hours a day. There isshortage of water in severalareas due to the load shed-ding which has resulted in af-fecting the day to day life ac-tivities. Worst affected are thestudents who are doing theirpreparations for the upcom-ing examinations.

On the other hand Suigas outage has added totheir miseries. Most affectedare the housewives becauselow pressure is always ob-served on cooking times.Residents said that that theyhave never faced situationlike that before.

HYDERABAD: People stand in queue outside the office of a cell phone company, showingtheir identity cards for verification of their mobile phone SIMS through bio-metric system.

PESHAWAR: Residents of Palosh hold a demonstration in support of their demands.

MULTAN: A security guard checking the minor students at school gate as security was beefed up in the city!

Teachers needto reformeducation

LARKANA—Provincial Sec-retary Education and Lit-eracy Department DrFazalullah Pechuho on Fri-day evening said that theteachers’ organisationsshould play their role forbringing reforms and impart-ing quality education.

This he said while talk-ing to mediamen at LarkanaPress Club.

Dr Pechuho said thatkeeping in view public con-cerns after the Peshawar car-nage, the concerned depart-ment would implement thestandard operating proce-dures (SOPs) for the securityof schoolchildren.

He said “Without helpfrom the parents and schoolsadministration, it would be im-possible to manage the secu-rity of all the schools.”

The Secretary educationagreed that there were re-source constraints when itcame to security arrange-ments as most schools in ru-ral Sindh did not haveboundary walls. He saidCCTV and boundary wallswill be ensured at all govern-ment and private schools forsecurity and avoidance ofsuch incidents.

Dr Fazalullah Pechuhoinformed that high techmonitoring system will beestablished in five districtsof Sindh including Larkana,Shaheed Benazirabad,Sukkur and others to ad-dress the issues relating toeducation. Besides, CallCenters are being set up infive districts of Sindh to re-dress and monitor the com-plaints.—APP

QUETTA—Law enforcement agencies de-tained three suspected militants from Harnaidistrict some 165 kilometer off here on Sat-urday.

According to LEAs sources, the LEAsteams raided a house in the area acting on atip-off and taken three suspected militantsfrom there. LEAs also recovered a cache ofweapons from the possession of arrestedmilitants.

The detained militants have beenshifted to some unknown location for in-terrogation, the source added. Identity ofarrested militants could not be ascertained.

Multan: Police on Saturday claimed tohave arrested 67 criminals including 33 pro-claimed offenders (POs) during a crackdownacross the district.

According to police, the police teamsconducted raids at various locations andarrested 33 POs who were wanted by po-

LEAs detain suspectmilitants

lice in different cases of dacoity, robberyand others and other crimes.

Police also arrested 16 drug peddlers,six gamblers, a illicit weapon holder besidesrecovering 76 liter liquor, 1359 gram hash-ish, stake money Rs 1800 and a revolverfrom them.

Separate cases have been registeredagainst the accused. Khanewal: Police ar-rested four criminals of a gang and also re-covered items.

According to DPO Jahanzaib Nazeer, aspecial police team was constituted whicharrested Falak Sher (ringleader) Noubahar,Tasawer Hussain and Laal from Hafiz TownMakhdoompur Road.

The police recovered a tractor-trolleyloaded with cotton, a car, one klashinkove,ariffle, a gun, a carbine and hundreds ofrounds.Separate cases have been registeredagainst the accused.—APP

KHANPUR—The Federal InvestigationAgency (FIA) claimed to have arrested aCNG station owner for stealing gas, caus-ing loss worth hundreds of thousands ofrupees to SNGPL.

According to investigation officer FIAMultan, a team of FIA had raided a CNGstation near Fatehpur Kamal some times agoand detected gas theft. The team had regis-tered a case against CNG station ownersKamran Farid and Dr Muhammad Mansha.

Taking action against the owners, theFIA team arrested Dr Muhammad Manshawhile Kamran Farid is still at large.

Further, investigation is underway.Lasbella: Lasbella police rounded up three

CNG station owner heldfor stealing gas

dacoits and seized weapons, motorcyclesfrom their possession here in industrial townHub on Saturday.

District Police Officer Basheer AhmedBrohi told APP that working on a tip-off apolice team headed by SHO Hub signaledto stop the dacoits riding on motorcycles.â•œThe dacoits opened fire at police teaminstead of complying with the signal tostop and tried to run awayâ••, the DPOadded.

However, the police team followed thedacoits and busted all three dacoits. Weap-ons and motorcycles were also seized.Identity of the arrested docoits was notdisclosed due to certain reasons. —APP

SIALKOT—Federal Minister for Planning andDevelopment Ahsan Iqbal on Saturday said thePML-N government was making all out effortsto raise the living standards of the people byensuring provision of basic facilities to themasses.

Addressing the participants of a ceremonyafter inaugurating the regional passport officein Narowal, he stressed the need of adoptingdemocratic behaviours for becoming a civilizednation.

He said the government was committed toeliminate terrorism from the country while com-prehensive steps have been taken in this re-gard.

He said that armed forces of the countrywere fully capable to weed out terrorism, add-

PML-N making efforts to raiseliving standard of people: Ahsan

ing that no one would be allowed to use land ofPakistan for terrorism.

Earlier, addressing a meeting, the ministersaid that construction of Sports City project ofRs 2.7 billion was in progress which would pro-mote indoor and outdoor games and sports ac-tivities in Narowal.

He said that all political parties should getunited by shunning their political differencesin larger national interest which would help incrushing terrorism, ensuring political and eco-nomic stability.

MPA Khwaja Waseem, Sialkot DCO NajafIqbal, PML-N Narowal president Malik Tariqand others were also present on this occasion.

Later, the minister also visited under con-struction Sports City project at Narowal. Ear-

lier, leader of Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz(PML-N) Senator Chaudhry Jaffar Iqbal said thegovernment was heading in right direction as anumber of positive things had happened dur-ing a short period of time.

Talking to a news channel, he said the eco-nomic activity had increased while foreign re-serves, GDP and industrial production had alsobeen raised.

Jaffar Iqbal said the government of PML-Nwanted to take all the political parties alongover national issues so that democracy couldbe strengthened.

Responding to a question, he mentionedthat the number of killings and drone attackshad reduced after the incumbent governmenttook reigns of the country.—APP

SARGODHA—Federal Parliamentary Secre-tary for Information and BroadcastingMohsin Shahnawaz Ranjha has said thatthe opportunists are politicizing the petrolcrises for gaining some specific purpose.

Talking to media here Saturday he saidthat the crises has been resolved afterintervetion of the Prime MinisterMuhammad Nawaz Sharif.

He advised the politicians for giving upthe politics of opportunism and joinedhands with the government for the progressand prosperity of the people.

Ranjha further said the government hadalways supported the positive journalism andthere were no restrictions on media. Mean-while, All Pakistan Petroleum Dealers Asso-ciation said that 5.7 mn liters of petrol has

Opportunists politicisingpetrol crises: Ranjha

been disbursed to fuel stations across Punjabduring the last three days and another 1.8 mnliters will be dispersed by tonight. Accordingto sources, the situation for commuters in allcities including Lahore in the province hasnot become any better as the fuel crisis en-tered its eighth day today.

However, according to the PetroleumDealers Association, the state of affairs is im-proving and the chaos at stations was onlydue to mismanagement of the pumps and hadnothing to do with the supply. The associa-tion further said that all fuel stations havebeen directed to meet the demands of the com-muters with the provided supply of petrol, aswell as all stations should stop providingpetrol to customers with bottles and canis-ters in order to avoid queues.—APP

19 kanals landallocated to

FWMCFAISALABAD—As many as19 Kanals of land has beenallocated for the workshopof Faisalabad Waste Man-agement Company (FWMC)near City Terminal.

A spokesman of theFWMC told here Saturdaythat the construction of shedsat new workshop site wouldstart within next few daysbesides provision of othermachinery and gadgets forthe repair of defective ve-hicles of the company.

At present the FWMCvehicles have a capacity to lift4569 tons waste from the citywhereas new containers,compactors and other machin-ery are also being purchasedto enhance the waste liftingcapacity, he added.—APP

Anti-measlesdrive fromMonday

FAISALABAD—The twelve-day Anti measles driverwould start in Faisalabaddistrict from Monday Janu-ary 26.

A spokesman of healthdepartment told APP here onSaturday that as many astwo million children from theage of six months to 10 yearwould be administered anti-measles vaccine.

In this connection, allarrangements have beencompleted to kick off the antimeasles campaign whichwould remain continue up toFeb 6.

A micro plan has alsobeen evolved and neces-sary training has also beenimparted to the vaccina-tors and other staff of thecampaign to achieve i ts100 percent target , headded. Vaccination driveagainst measles from Jan26

Rahim Yar Khan: A 15-day anti-measles drive isstarting from January 26 toFebruary 9, 2015, underwhich 1,296,070 childrenunder ten years of agewould be vaccinated in thedistrict.

Addressing the seminarheld at Sheikh Zayed Medi-cal College RY Khan, EDOHealth Dr Hassan Khan saidthat 741 teams have beenconstituted, of them 600 areoutreach and 141 are staticwhich would vaccinate chil-dren to save them frommeasles virus.

He said that measles wasa fatal disease which couldbe prevented by taking pre-cautionary measures.—APP

Iran handsover 27

deportees toPakistan

CH A G H I—Iranian secu-rity forces handed over 27Pakistani nationals toLevies force on Pak-Iranborder in Taftan area ofChaghi district on Satur-day.

According to Leviesforce, these Pakistaniworkers were appre-hended by Iranian secu-ri ty forces because theywere living there withoutvalid traveling documents.

The Levies force saidthat these deporteeswould be handed over toFederal Invest igationAgency (FIA) for furtherinterrogation. —APP

PESHAWAR—Parliamentary leader of ANPSardar Hussain Babak Saturday castigatedparties trumpeting rigging in the electionssaying, the PTI wanted to pollute the atmo-sphere of harmony and unity createdagainst terrorism in the country.

It is time to make sincere efforts forachieving success in the ongoing battleagainst terrorism, therefore, the PTI shouldavoid indulging on matters of petty natureas it was against the interest of the country.

PTI wants to damagenational harmony on

terror: ANP“The nation would not forgive us if we

diverted our attention from this core issueby engaging in secondary matters. The PTI,he said was doing all this under a conspiracyagainst the country,” he added.

The sacrifices in the war against terror-ism would not go waste, he said adding,the entire nation was eagerly waiting forthe results of the national solidarity devel-oped against terrorism and the NationalAction Plan.—APP

LAHORE—Punjab Minister for TourismRana Mashhood has said the governmentwas focusing on tourism sector for its pro-motion in the province.

Addressing the ceremony here on Satur-day to acknowledge the efforts and services ofall the stakeholders of Cholistan Jeep Rallystarted in 2005, he said that time would comesoon when drivers from all over the world wouldtake part in this event. He said that work wasbeing carried out on tourism bus service inLahore and it would be started soon, addingthat the project of chair lift and cable car inMurree was in launching state as the work inthis regard was completed. He said the sup-port of people has great importance for turningthe dreams into reality, adding that the peopleof Cholistan contributed a lot in makingCholistan Jeep Rally a successful event.

Later, talking to media he said that all facili-ties would be ensured at the venue of the 10thCholistan Jeep Rally while people would alsobe able to watch cricket matches on screensover there. To a question, he said that peoplecould see the details of the packages and busservice on the website regarding the event.

Punjab Secretary for Youth Affairs, Sports

Govt focusing on tourismArchaeology and Tourism Muhammad KhanKhichi said that 10th Cholistan Jeep Rally wasa big event in terms of winter tourism in SouthPunjab. Punjab chief minister Inspection teamChairman Irfan Ali said that the aim behind theevent was to highlight the potential tourism ofthe country. Tourism Development Corpora-tion of Punjab (TDCP) Managing DirectorAhmer Malik said that 10th Cholistan JeepRally schedule has been announced and theevent would be held from February 13 to 15 inCholistan desert. He added the route of therally has been finalised and this year the rallydistance would be of about 230 KM while morethan 90 drivers would take part in it.

MD said that the event would enable theopportunity to the local artists to highlight theculture of their area whereas Cholistan Fort wasa big historical asset and TDCP wanted to con-serve it for the coming generations with thesupport of people.TDCP thanked Pak Army,Rangers, Punjab police, Bahawalpur city dis-trict government, Nawab Salahuddin and thesponsors of the event for always extendingtheir cooperation in arranging the event.

Awards and souvenirs were also distrib-uted among the stakeholders.—APP

ISLAMABAD—The Met of-fice has forecast partlycloudy weather withchances of fog in the morn-ing for the plain areas ofcountry during next 24hours.

Meanwhile, the QuettaMet Office has forecast adry and cold weather for theprovincial capital on Sun-day. While, the Karachi Me-teorological DepartmentSaturday forecast dryweather with cool night andhazy morning for Karachiduring the next 24 hours.

According to the Met.Office the minimum tempera-ture in the city is expected toremain between 12 and 14degrees centigrade. Mainly

Partly cloudyweather likely

cold/very cold and dryweather is likely to prevail inthe Sindh and Balochistanregion the maximum tempera-ture is likely between 8 to 12

Centigrade and the minimumis expected between -02 to -01 Centigrade.

On Saturday, the maxi-mum temperature 25 Centi-grade was recorded inLasbela and the minimumtemperature -04 Centigradewas recorded in Kalat.—APP

PPP, PML-Qto collaboratein Senate pollsLAHORE—Pakistan People’sParty (PPP) and PakistanMuslim League-Quaid (PML-Q) are likely to collaborateand support each other in theupcoming Senate elections.Chaudhry brothers andManzoor Wattoo are to meetin this regard on Monday.

According to the re-ports , PPP and PML-Qhave established contactsto formulate joint strategyfor the Senate elections.PPP’s delegate headed byManzoor Wattoo will meetChaudhry ShujaatHussain on Monday inLahore. Both the part ieswill review options as toact as an al l iance in theupcoming elections.—INP

Some invite MartialLaw as in past

IT is not altogether strange that two former Chief Ministers of Sindh –Arbab Ghulam Raheem and Liaquat Jatoi – have favoured MartialLaw over, what they described, so-called democracy. Speaking on Fri-

day, they endorsed demand of MQM in this regard, which prompted Pro-vincial Information Minister Sharjeel Memon to retort that those who wantto derail democracy are actually supporters of dictatorship.

Though all of them were speaking strictly within the context of Provin-cial politics with opposition leaders castigating performance of the SindhGovernment and the Information Minister defending the ruling party but ex-pression of preference for Martial Law is indicative of the deep-rooted mal-aise that is afflicting our politics and political parties. This is because these arenot isolated statements as some other leaders too have been expressing disen-chantment with the on-going democracy. The inclination to invite army orsupport Martial Law and that too for the sake of petty personal or politicalgains shows that commitment to democracy has not yet taken roots in Paki-stan. In the past too, on different occasions, different politicians and partieseither openly invited Martial Law or pushed things to such an extent thatimposition of Martial Law became inevitable. Everyone knows the role ofAir Marshall (retired) Asghar Khan who miserably failed in politics but in-vited Army both verbally and through a formal letter to intervene. Some otherpoliticians and political parties also extended tacit or open support to inter-ventions by creating enabling environment for Generals to take over and flour-ish politically during dictatorships. This tendency is highly deplorable and itis because of such elements that democracy has not yet taken roots in thecountry despite gaining independence about 67 years back through a politicaland democratic struggle. The party in power might not be delivering as perexpectations but the answer is more democracy and not dictatorship. We would,therefore, urge politicians to shun tendencies to harm democracy and insteadwork for strengthening of democratic institutions, norms and values. At thesame time, we would also urge Federal and Provincial Governments to im-prove their performance so that benefits of democracy reach to the commonman as this can be the only means to avert such demands once for all.

Export of wheatreflects Pak potential

THE Economic Coordination Committee of the Cabinet (ECC) on Friday approved export of 1.2 million tonnes of wheat out of the surplus

stocks available in Punjab and Sindh. Punjab would get an export quota of800,000 tonnes and Sindh 400,000 tonnes of wheat and they would also getsubsidy of $55 and $45 respectively for the purpose.

The decision would surely satisfy Sindh that has been criticizing theFederal Government’s earlier decision about import of wheat when surplusstocks were available in the Province. Allocation of eight hundred thousandmetric tonnes of wheat quoted to Punjab for export also indicates availabil-ity of adequate surplus in the Province. Export of wheat has many dimen-sions and connotations. It shows real potential of Pakistan to grow suffi-cient quantities of food items not only for domestic consumption but alsofor export. Disposal of surplus wheat stocks through exports would encour-age growers to grow more wheat provided they get at least the procurementprice announced by the Government. But above all, it is a morale boostingdevelopment as it comes in the wake of an otherwise depressing environ-ment. Pakistan is passing through a critical phase due to security and terror-ism related issues as well as shortages of electricity, gas and oil. Morale ofthe people was sagging but the report that the country has adequate surplusof wheat stocks to export would surely lift spirits up. Our agriculture sectorcan perform miraculously provided farmers are encouraged, easy and cheaperavailability of inputs is ensured, quality seed is introduced and modern cul-tivation practices are adopted. According to Food and AgricultureOrganisation of the UN, Pakistan has the potential to increase its wheatproduction from about 20 to 23 million tonnes to 32 million tonnes annu-ally from the area currently cultivated. Apart from measures to introducebest practices and to increase per acre yield, there is also need to haveproper grain storage, grading and marketing. Same is the case with othercrops besides milk production in which the country stands at number five inthe world’s most milk producing states. Pakistan also has hard working andquality manpower to excel in almost every sector but for that to happen wewill have to improve law and order and re-arrange our priorities.

Obama starts speakingIndian language

AS he arrives in India for a three day visit, his second in six years, USPresident Barak Obama has started speaking Indian language to charm

his hosts. In an interview with an Indian Magazine, he said that terrorists’safe havens within Pakistan were not acceptable and those behind theMumbai attack must face justice.

Uttering words that may sound more pleasing to the Indians, Obama saidforging deeper ties between their two nations has been a key part of his for-eign policy since he took over office and they can advance shared securityand prosperity in the Asia-Pacific. There should be no doubt that Obama isvisiting India to deepen strategic relations giving them a new depth in view ofchanging global scenario but other countries should not be made target ofcriticism. Pakistan had been ally of the United States since its creation in1947 and now in the war against terrorism. The Pentagon and state depart-ment heads have been praising this cooperation and even Obama himselfacknowledged it earlier. While the US has withdrawn most of its forces fromAfghanistan, Pakistan is still engaged in war against terrorism and OperationZarb-e-Azb is proof of that. Not only that Pakistan has banned Haqqani net-work and Jamaat ud Dawa (JuD) but the US State Department spokespersonsaid they have no confirmation of that which means skepticism about theactions of Pakistan. Anyhow, whatever President Obama said about India andPakistan, is part of his policy to gain some long term benefits. But we mayemphasise that Modi led govt is not as simple as the Americans think that itwould be pleased by such statements and New Delhi would certainly be ex-pecting some concessions from Washington in return for big deal and we mayquote Russian ambassador to New Delhi who recently said, “India is a richfiancé with many bridegrooms”. Therefore, we would say that culture of hurtingPakistan’s sensitivity should be avoided for sake of short term gains.

Media should behave maturely

KingAbdullah: A

toweringArab leader

THE Custodian of the TwoHoly Mosques, KingAbdullah bin Abdulaziz Al

Saud, of Saudi Arabia, who passedaway on Friday morning, was a tow-ering leader who dedicated his lifeto serving his people and the king-dom and led the Arab nation at oneof most crucial junctures of history.

As the President, His HighnessShaikh Khalifa bin Zayed AlNahyan, observed, King Abdullahwas one of the most notable leadersof the Arab and Muslim nations, whogenerously gave a lot to his peopleand sincerely defended their cause.Praising the late King for dedicatinghimself to the service of his peopleand the nation and bolstering cohe-sion of the Arab nation, ShaikhKhalifa expressed confidence thatKing Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saudand Crown Prince Muqrin binAbdulaziz Al Saud would continue“his blessed march serving thecauses of the nation and advance theArab joint action.”

The nearly decade-long rule ofKing Abdullah, 90, coincided witha phase when the Arab nation facedseveral challenges, especially inthe aftermath of the 9/11 attacksin the US. America and many otherdeveloped nations were involvedin deadly combats with militantsin Afghanistan and Iraq and theMiddle East has been on the boilfor much of the 21st century. TheIranian nuclear crisis, aggressive-ness and violence of Israel, whichcontinued with its expansionism inPalestine, the so-called ArabSpring movements in severalcountries which dislodged long-es-tablished regimes and near civilwar conditions in Egypt, Libya,Syria and Iraq had made region oneof the most volatile places on earth.King Abdullah, known for his mod-eration and wisdom, led the Arabnation through these difficult times,interacting closely with other Gulfrulers, cajoling America and Euro-pean nations to rein in Israel and alsoinitiating a tough line against terror-ists in the region.

But as the Daesh began un-leashing a reign of terror in Syriaand Iraq, King Abdullah was quickto condemn its actions. In a mes-sage to the leaders of delegationsfrom Islamic nations, who were inthe kingdom to perform Haj, KingAbdullah said: “Extremism, whichhas generated terrorism, behoves usto combine our efforts to fight it anddefeat it because it has nothing todo with Islam.” Extremism, accord-ing to him, was perverse, whichcould only be remedied by eradi-cating it. “And we are engaged ineradicating it unwaveringly andwith determination,” declared KingAbdullah. He also urged the lead-ers and religious scholars from Is-lamic world to ensure that youngpeople were protected from extrem-ist ideas, and to prevent Islam frombeing hijacked by militants.

He also joined in the Ameri-can-led coalition, which con-ducted air strike against the Daeshheld positions in Syria. “Theirgoal is to sow discord amongMuslims,” he noted. “We will notallow a handful of terrorists, us-ing Islam for personal aims, to ter-rify Muslims or undermine ourcountry and its inhabitants. We arecontinuing, with God’s help, toface and tackle this scourge.”

At a time when the MiddleEast was experiencing an upsurgein militancy and governments inmany countries were beingtoppled, King Abdullah was aforce of moderation, who believedin initiating gradual changes. Hestrived to bring about unity in theArab world and extended his handof friendship to the western world.Just a few months ago, for in-stance, he hosted an extraordinarymeeting in Riyadh, where ArabGulf rulers were invited for an ini-tiative to strengthen the Gulf Co-operation Council. As AmericanPresident Barack Obama said in astatement after the passing of theKing: “As our countries workedtogether to confront many chal-lenges, I always valued KingAbdullah’s perspective and appre-ciated our genuine and warmfriendship. As a leader, he was al-ways candid and had the courageof his convictions.”

The cautious reformer andleader among Arab and Islamic na-tions was much loved by all. A forceof moderation, King Abdullah willbe remembered for reshaping theKingdom and for his steadfast com-mitment to peace. —Khaleej Times

MEDIA WATCH

IN the ongoing era, by bringingthe bloody wars against terrorism in our bedrooms, the elec-

tronic media has power to make itdifficult for terrorists to continue thesame at the cost of their own peopleand Armed forces. So, terrorism andmedia are interrelated. After the 9/11 tragedy, American President,Congress, public and media becameone to fight a different war againstterrorists. Even, US changed its lawsto institute stringent measures tocurb terrorism. Behaving with re-sponsibility and showing matureapproach, their media played a keyrole in condemning the acts of ter-rorists, and thus, discouraged terror-ism in every possible way.

In case of Pakistan’s war againstterrorism, the country is passingthrough exceptionally unusual cir-cumstances and the situation afterthe Peshawar school attack war-ranted bold and firm decisions todeal the menace of terrorism, espe-cially the threat of the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) and itsbanned affiliated groups.

In this regard, the government,encouraged by the resolve of publicopinion has responded prudently, andlifted the moratorium on death pen-alty awarded to the criminals accord-ing to law. Taking note of the deli-cate moment, on January 2, this year,political and military leaders agreedon a draft of legislative measureswhich paved the way for establish-ment of special military trial courts.It was unanimously agreed that the

The myth of separation of powers

PAKISTAN’S democracy isweak and every time there isa disaster in the country, the

institutions are not trusted and ev-erything is piled up on the PM’sdesk. Of late there have been defi-nite difficulties that have made thelife of the PM rather on the difficultside. If two or three are to decidethen the reason for the existence ofthis democracy is neither feasiblenor relevant. Why are we like this?Our legacy is like this. Can’t wechange this legacy? Sure we can butwho will try and do it. We now haveredundant Ministries where person-nel are parked and they draw heavysalaries without doing a days workin a year. Then some Ministries haverecruited agents of other countriesfor they are not citizens of Pakistanbut seem to enjoy jobs here and havenot made any contribution of anykind - parasites that have sucked theresources of this country.

They have no retirement age.Age of retirement is a very signifi-cant matter in developing countries.They allow space to others to comein - not exactly fresh blood but defi-nitely different blood and one thatcan make a significant difference bybringing in alternatives in policy in-terventions. There are howeversome assumptions that I have madeand that is that the incoming person-nel will be knowledge personified.They do not follow the political sys-tems themselves are responsible forthe current malaise in bureaucracy.Knowledge is not part of theiragenda. Are we a copy cat country?Are we a piggy back one? Are we

The last strawbreaks thecanel’s back.

pushing our thoughts so thatwe can be a nation apart? Whydo we not understand that theworld questions us on everyoccasion; the case of Paki-stanis being systematicallyhanded over to other nations.

Why cannot we try them ourselvesand have a panel of internationaljudges to try them and to see whetherthese people have committed anycrime. And yet for the others we al-low them to commit any crime hereand then we allow them to go back totheir own country belittling us on oursoil. You choose what we are. Allcome to dictate to us. Why do we fol-low their dictates?

Above all why are we so reck-less in our behaviour that we thinkthat we can get out of any thing with-out much trouble? That is the men-tality of a criminal. Why have na-tions developed the concept of goodgovernance based on the separationof executive, legislature and judi-ciary? This concept of the ‘separa-tion of powers’ was to guarantee in-dependence to all the institutions in-volved so that the moderation, se-curity and liberty might be ensured.This theory stands vindicated by his-tory and the creation of peace inEurope that defied any such abilityfor they had been at war for centu-ries. In fact the theory balanced thepowers between these institutionsdespite a conflict of interest that thehumans may have had especiallywhen they are in power.

Who will ensure that the sepa-rations of powers are balanced in Pa-kistan? Will the legislature decideupon it when it may not be properlyequipped to handle such situations?For the British this was done by noother than Montesquieu the Frenchphilosopher. I can’t speak for theother developing countries but Pa-kistan certainly has this issue and

problem and it is not going to be re-solved unless the political systemholds itself at arms length to bringin these reforms. Who will allowsuch a challenge for here the politi-cal system is not a professional call-ing but intermingled with assetbuilding, business and trade. Theassets with the Election Commissionwould be proof enough of what hasbeen stated above. The Constitutionof the United States specifically talksof separation of powers. The Fed-eration holds itself together by thepowers of the state in favour of theunion; in other words, it is bottomup rather than top down in whichcase it is Confederation. The insti-tutions thus work under two differ-ent situations and reveal a differentworking culture. The Confederationdoes not bother about Provinces andmanages by taking centralized deci-sion making. In such a systemIslamabad becomes important. Asthe PML-N governments haveproved. Military has to take powerto the central authority for there’s isa different kind of work and the cen-tralized power ensures that when thestakes are high there is no confusion.The enemy has to be taken care off.

What then is required of thepowers that assume much more thanwhat is within their purview? Thisconfusion is not only in division ofpowers but also in the implementa-tion especially in law and order situ-ations. There are many argumentspossible against this system but gen-erally in modern democracies thisworks well. Despite two years of theincumbent regime we have not beenable to see local council elections.The French have their trained bu-reaucracy at the Ecole Nationalwhile we have done away with anysuch education in service institutionsnot in public interest but due per-sonal desires. If the local Council

20 points enunciated in the AllParties Conference (APC)Resolution of December 24,2014 shall be acted upon ex-peditiously—the bill as 21st

Constitutional Amendmenthas been enforced after its

approval from the Parliament. U n -fortunately, the glorification of terror-ists by some irresponsible mediahouses helps in motivating the inno-cent youth. They are referred to asmilitants or extremists instead of ter-rorists. These media houses offer timeand space to terrorists in the print andelectronic media to appease them andwin their sympathies.

Recently, even after the 20-pointNational Action Plan was announced,and the distinction between the ‘good’and ‘bad’ Taliban was removed, somemedia houses showed scenes inwhich a hero-like welcome was be-ing accorded to a senior commanderof a banned outfit, as he was beingbrought to the courts from his placeof detention. Thus, the media, with-out perhaps knowing what it is do-ing, has been playing a significantlymore lethal role than the automaticweapons in the hands of these terror-ists or their suicide jackets, in win-ning the hearts and minds of our mis-guided youth. Besides, extremistpeople like the Lal Masjid cleric weregiven undue space by the media.

However, let us take the exampleof the Karachi Airport operationagainst the terrorists. In this respect,the electronic media recklessly failedto demonstrate maturity in live cov-erage of the operation. Certain infor-mation including move of own ech-elons, different steps, used by ownforces, supervision of operation by aparticular tier of command, arrival ofhigher officials and reports submit-ted to Army’s high command etc.

were required to be strongly cen-sored, as the same information wasalso made available to the terroriststhrough live coverage.

As regards Pakistan, it is openlystated that terrorists are not invincible,and that they can be eliminatedthrough power of the state, coupledwith collective efforts of various en-tities of the country, particularly me-dia. For the purpose, contents of me-dia reports must be properly moni-tored and strongly evaluated prior tobroadcast. Media must follow a codeof conduct and journalistic ethics, asenvisaged by the profession of jour-nalism and in accordance with thenational interests. The official or self-control mechanism, related to the waragainst terrorism is essential for thePakistani media, especially for the TVchannels. Media must project thatstate is more powerful than the mis-led bands of terrorist outfits.

In this context, the electronic me-dia should not buy the panic-riddenmessages of the terrorists, and it shouldindicate that terrorists are weak; there-fore, they undertake heinous missionsstealthily. Media must exploit theirvulnerabilities by projecting their frag-ile worth. Especially, our media mustbe fully controlled in order to conductsuccessful counter-terror operations,and should be used as a support ele-ment of the state. It should not be al-lowed to conduct selective coverageof events such as showing mutilatedbodies, severely injured people, de-struction of property and brutallysmashed scenes of surrounding.

Live coverage of operation shouldnot be permitted. Besides, in crisis situ-ation, lives are at risk. In this connec-tion, media should not disclose namesof victims, vital locations, securityforces etc. It is also duty of media tocreate and maintain sense of hope

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elections were not to be held whydismiss the administrative struc-ture, why give a bad name withoutbringing in a different system.Naqvi and co. suggested cosmeticname changes. That is not going tohelp, for substantially nothing wasdone. The myth can be worked toimplementation levels. The suspi-cion and hate factors are importanthurdles in the systematic develop-ment of local governance. The fi-nancial system will never beshared by the Provincial and Na-tional Assembly members. It’s likethe tiger tasting human blood.They use these resources for theirpersonal benefits. Ask the mediafor they have the entire take onthis. The sons-in-law in this coun-try cannot be denied.

The tragedy is that we havepoorly equipped personnel in thepolitical system. The alarm bellsstart ringing the minute they observethe development of the threatwhether that is true or not. The sys-tem does not cater to reason and re-sponsible use factors. This will con-tinue and for its removal there is noshort cut. The attitudes required forthis kind of predictive behaviour arenon-existent in this country.

Where is the cure? It’s longdrawn for when social systems getperverted the walk back is long andarduous. The entire edifice of socialdevelopment will have to be dis-mantled. All those institutions thatare to be reformed will have to un-dergo serious changes. But do wehave the grey matter in the govern-ment that will do this. There is muchto do and we have eminent peoplein this country that can take placeof idiots that have greatness thrustupon them. What are we giving tohistory? Lies, deception?— The writer is a retired FederalSecretary.

— Proverb

among domestic audience, espe-cially when the operation is stillgoing on. In this connection, it isbetter that during counter-terrorismoperations, media must be fully con-trolled and kept out, rather the me-dia should voluntarily avoid to jumpin the on-going operation. This willhelp all tiers of command to main-tain their effectiveness against theterrorists, and achieve their objec-tives. Now, Pakistan’s ArmedForces have almost defeated the ter-rorists, particularly of the TTP byclearing the areas of NorthWaziristan Agency by military op-eration Zarb-e-Azb. The operationwhich has been extended to othertribal areas needs support of the na-tion, especially of the media whichmust encourage our Armed forcesagainst these zealots.

Media anchors and commen-tators must point out that Islam con-siders killing one innocent personequal to murdering the entire hu-manity, while Jihad is a sacred ob-ligation, but its real spirit needs tobe understood clearly, as killinginnocent women and children is notJihad. They should also indicatethat by playing in the hands of anti-Pakistan foreign countries, espe-cially Indian secret agency RAW,the TTP and its banned affiliatedgroups are defaming Islam.

It is now time for our media tostop using any slant by glorifyingterrorism for advancing their busi-ness interest, and it must treat eachterror story on merit. While dis-playing responsibility and behav-ing maturely, media must know thatin this war on terror, there is noother side. There is only one sideand that is our side.—The writer is Lahore-basedpolitical analyst.

Dr Zafar AltafEmail:[email protected]

Sajjad ShaukatEmail: [email protected]

Voice of the PeopleWorld Cup

hexpyGHAZANFAR ALI KHAN

Our bowling line-up always runsinto some kind of trouble wheneverthe World Cup is around the corner.In 2007, Shoaib Akhtar andMuhammad Asif were out for fail-ing to clear the dope test. In 2011,Muhammad Amir and MuhammadAsif were mired in the spot fixingcontroversy. And now in 2015,Saeed Ajmal and MuhammadHafeez got suspension orders fortheir illegal bowling actions.

When will the PCB wake up tohave a backup of players? It shouldget all its players to take the dopetest to make sure that no player willface the spectre of the World Cupban. This will also save us from themandatory two years ban in case theICC discovers it later.—Karachi

Private schoolsSIDRA TALHA

The humiliation that students gothrough, in private schools, for notpaying tuition fee on time is worthwriting. If the due date is over andthe payment is not made by the par-ents, due to some reason, the schoolmanagement starts treating childrenlike culprits. Students who are feedefaulters are punished for their par-ents’ financial constraints.

The names of non-payers are an-nounced in front of the whole classto embarrass them. Sometimes stu-dents are not allowed to attend theclass and are deprived of other fa-cilities like library. As penalty, feeoffenders are made to stand, thewhole day, outside the class and aregiven lecture by respected teachersthat how irresponsible such parentsare who don’t deposit dues timely.In a nutshell, the disciplined theschool, the harsher are the actionsagainst late fee submission. Look-ing at the situation, I request theEducation Ministry to make a policyfor private schools regarding theirfee structure and conduct.—Karachi

Enter thePseudo saviour

FARRUKH AZIZ ANSARI

Before readers begin having ants intheir pants with curiosity about theprominent role, marked achieve-ments, and unflagging endeavoursof our super duper saviour for reli-gion, for politics, for democracy,(democracy in whatever form per-sists thanks to him), for society, forholding Pakistan protected fromwesternization, Americanizationand modernization and for what not,our great pseudo saviour merits abrief and subtle description of hissubtle yet very many features andfaces. Dubbing him as a multi-headed monster would be no hyper-bole, as admired above, he performsmultifarious roles.

His Majesty is said to have in-herited a political organizationwherein he tames, trains and spawnshis forces. The orbit of that organi-zation spans politics, government,religion, society, external affairs, etc.Religiously, the multi functionalparty he is alleged to have inher-ited to spearhead, is authority or inother words, bastion of a particu-lar school of thought. As for gov-ernment, he is someone indispens-able to it, no matter whatever re-gime, that is, Democratic or dicta-torial it may be. Even for peopleacross Pakistani borders, his ser-vices and efforts merit credit. Foryears, our pseudo saviour has beenholding a situation to fight for anoble cause of liberation of a sup-pressed Muslim community to helpit get out of clutches of enemy,ironically to the dislike and oppo-sition of his majesty’s majesty: theauthority on his authority.

Hold on, the catchword alwayson his lips, that he might have in-herited from the heroes and freedomfighters of Pakistan Movement, is“in the best interests of nation.....wehave decided to part with....” . Thisis so because our great saviour’severy policy and all doings are al-ways interest oriented, not his per-sonal interest, rather interest of eachand every mortal in Pakistan.

The buffs, devotees and cronieshaving selfsame subtle dual and per-nicious character, have grown andare fast growing in every length andbreadth of the country, with the sameappearance, mindset, outlook, andbuttery at times but mostly tart lan-guage, always railing “western con-spiracy, western conspiracy, west-ern conspiracy” for anything goingwrong even when they are deniedspecial luxuries or concessions orpermits or chairmanship of a certainCommittee or a certain Ministry. hiscommunity of mini saviours, pseudonotwithstanding, headed by our

Thar drought needs focusZUHAIB ALI LASHARI

Provincial government allocated 13 billion for the developmentof the Sindh Health Department, for the critical drought situa-

tion in Thar. But unfortunately the authorities failed to distributethe allocated funds for the rehabilitation of people. While on theother hand government report showed that 311 children died inlast month. But the actual casualties statistics by private sourcesare higher than projected by government report. While the reasonbehind the death was pre-term, low birth weight, pneumonia, de-livery of babies through traditional birth pattern and the diarrheaare the major causes. However, the official statistics says that themajority among them were newly born. Another unfortunate factis that, the majority of the doctors and paramedics are ghost. Sothe Sindh government, is requested to take quick and strict steps,against ghost doctors and paramedic. Leave all other activities andfocus on Thar drought.— Islamabad

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View From Abroad

Where is the humane spirit of our faith?

OF all the angry speeches,sound bites and opinionpieces that the Charlie Hebdo

massacre generated, the best onecame from an unexpected quarter —Pope Francis. In the face of the West’schorus defending unlimited freedomand free speech, Pope Francis mus-tered the courage to argue that therewere limits to this freedom, especiallywhen it insults or ridicules someone’sfaith and beliefs. By way of example,he referred to Alberto Gasparri, whoorganizes papal trips and was stand-ing by his side aboard the papal planewhen he spoke. “If my goodfriend Dr. Gasparri says a curse wordagainst my mother, he can expect apunch,” Francis said, throwing a pre-tend punch his way.

“It’s normal. You cannot pro-voke. You cannot insult the faith ofothers. You cannot make fun of thefaith of others.” The leader of 1.2billion Catholics said it was an “ab-erration” to kill in the name of Godand said religion can never be usedto justify violence. But he said therewas a limit to free speech when itconcerned offending someone’s re-ligious beliefs. “There are so manypeople who speak badly about reli-gions or other religions, who makefun of them, who make a game outof the religions of others. They areprovocateurs. And what happens tothem is what would happen to Dr.Gasparri if he says a curse wordagainst my mother. There is a limit.”

The Pope also joined four promi-nent French imams in issuing a jointdeclaration that denounced the attacksbut also urged the media to treat reli-gions with respect, disappointingmany Western liberals and closet fa-natics whose concept of freedom be-

gins and ends with testing the limitsof Muslim tolerance. In the relativelyshort period of time since he took overas the leader of the Christendom,Francis has gone out of his way towin hearts and minds and not just ofhis flock. This is what leadership isall about, I guess. This is what menof faith should and ought to do —showing the way, making peace andoffering hope and a healing touch.And what a refreshing change thisPope offers after his staid, rather dullpredecessor. This is perhaps becauseof the fact that he is first non-Euro-pean Pope in 1,300 years, remarkablefor a faith that was born in the East!

Francis comes from Argentina, anation with a long history of Westerncolonialism and subjugation. So un-like the cold and distant Europeans,this Pope has no qualms in showinghis human side and warmth from timeto time. Like when during a visit toBethlehem, the birthplace of Christ,he stopped over to pray at the mon-strous, ugly Wall that Israel has builtto imprison Palestinians in their ownland. An emotional pontiff touchedthe Separation wall and silentlyprayed, glancing at the graffiti thatvoices Palestinian defiance and re-solve for freedom. When he visitedJerusalem and the Western Wall, theholiest site in Judaism, he was seenwarmly hugging two old friends –Rabbi Abraham Skorka and a Mus-lim leader Omar Abboud. During avisit to the Yad Vashem Memorial tovictims of the Holocaust, he met halfa dozen survivors of the Nazi geno-cide, fervently kissing their hands.

As Tim Stanley notes in the Tele-graph: “This is a cleric who is pre-pared to talk frankly and humanelyabout issues of injustice. His simplic-ity appeals, too. Often, the Pope isseen boarding a plane carrying hisown bag. But when talking to thepress mid-flight, he displays a rug-

ged kind of faith that, again, citizensof the developing world would ap-preciate more than “cosmopolitan”Europeans. “He decried the killingsin Paris, but noted that when peoplelove God like a father, they take a riskwhen they insult Him. For perhapsthe first time, many western liberalswere disappointed with Francis — forquestioning the wisdom of blas-phemy. But those who truly want tounderstand how Muslims feel aboutProphet Muhammad (PBUH) couldlearn a lot from what he had to say.”

His emphasis is not upon liturgi-cal richness but, happily, uponstraightforward themes of love andcompassion that resonate widely. Inthe Philippines, street children askedhim why God allowed suffering.When one girl broke down in tears,the Pope told her crying cleansed thesoul and asked why so few womenhad been invited to speak. No won-der this pontiff evokes strong emo-tions wherever he goes. In Manila,some six million people turned up forcommunion. It was perhaps the big-gest papal Mass in history. Stanleyalso suggests that it was Pope Franciswho played a critical role in bridgingthe impossible, decades-old gulf be-tween the United States and Cuba,earning generous praise from Presi-dent Barack Obama.

The pontiff also earned himselfsilent gratitude of Muslims around theworld when he defended theProphet’s honor with a conviction thatno Muslim scholar or leader has man-aged to. Which reminds me — whydo we not see Muslim scholars andreligious leaders reach out to theworld with such love, warmth andkindness? Especially when Islam isbeing increasingly monopolized by alunatic fringe that distorts and twistsits humane teachings and commitsevery sin imaginable in the name ofall that is holy. We never tire of claim-

A feather for the baby..!

T’was the habit of Mr Sparrow to always build his nestwith straw from the stable.

“You clever man!” chirped MrsSparrow happily, “While all demother birds go roun’ searchin’ forstraw you jes’ sort of walk into datstable and grab a beakfull to buildour house!” And now that MrsSparrow was expecting again, hewalked into the stable then shookhis head. “There’s human’s in destable!” he chirped with disbelief.

“The innkeeper turned themout!” mooed the cow. “Said therewas no room in the inn!” said the

sheep. “Told them to use the mangerif they wanted!” “Because thewoman’s jes’ going to deliver!” saidthe cow who knew much about suchmatters. “Mrs Sparrow is also jesgoing to deliver!” said Mr Sparrowproudly. He picked up a beakfull ofstraw, then nearly dropped it as heheard the sound of a new born child.

“There’s a baby born in thatstable!” said Mr Sparrow to his missuswhile he neatly laid out the straw forhis new house. “I know!” said MrsSparrow. “Whatcha mean you know?”said Mr Sparrow crossly, “You didn’tcome with me to dat stable m’dear?”“I heard de baby cry!”

“You did?” “I never heard a lil’baby cry like that! It was not like itbe scared to leave its mama’s womb!It cry like it want to be born!”

Mr Sparrow stared at his wifethoughtfully. He wondered howwomen knew things like this morethan most men, “The innkeeper didn’thave room for them in the inn!” hesaid sort of worried. “That baby’scome to make room in heaven forpeople like dat innkeeper!” said MrsSparrow thoughtfully. “How youknow this woman?”

“I bin’ staring at that star outside!I bin’ listen’ to them shepherdstalkin’! That child is a special babyhusband!” “Whatcha doin’ with thestraw I jus’ brought?” asked Mr Spar-row suddenly. “Take it back husband,put it round the baby in manger! Ican’t take the straw meant for de HolyChild!” Mr Sparrow started backwith his beakfull of straw. “Husbandtake dis’ feather o’ mine! Put it where

it’ll warm the baby!” Mr Sparrowclimbed onto the crib and laid thefeather on the little child. Themother of the babe watched andsmiled. She reached forward andtouched the sparrow. “I put yourfeather on the lil’ babe like yousaid!” said Mr Sparrow. “I hope itkeeps him warm! Pity about the inn-keeper though! It’s to save men likehim the babes’ come down!”

Mr Sparrow stared at his wifethoughtfully. He felt glad with whatMrs Sparrow had done for the baby,but wondered sadly why people thebabe had come down for didn’t haveroom for him. “I don’t understanddem human fellers!” he chirped ashe went to gather straw to buildanother nest for Mrs Sparrow.—Email:[email protected]

Security vis-a-vis political system

THE petrol crisis is not yet overand the blame game is still onwhen the Prime Minister is dis-

cussing who is to be blamed for thedisaster? So far he has been reluctantto do much and just suspended somebureaucrats. But the people are ask-ing for political heads to roll. One canimagine how the hearings of thePrime Minister with the Cabinet col-leagues involved are going: eachMinister trying to save his head ex-plaining how he was innocent in thecrisis and somebody else was to beblamed. And maybe there is sometruth in it and the petrol crisis is justanother sign for the crumbling of thestate institutions including the bu-reaucratic structure of the Ministriesand OGRA, the petrol importers, dis-tributors and so on.

A special role in the drama, theFinance Ministry seems to haveplayed because a statement was givensaying that Finance Ministry hasnothing to do with oil import. Per-haps Prime Minister doesn’t remem-ber that circular debt is the brainchildof Finance Ministry to decamp thestate revenue through their favouritesand PSO is one of the beneficiariesof circular debt. Why and how oil im-port and its transportation plan waschanged to syphon off state revenues?It is established practice in Interna-tional trade that the supplier makesan offer on C&F or FOB basis; whydid the Pakistani government inductthe PNSC as coordinator for the pro-curement of oil? PNSC has no fleetof vessels to transport oil; then whywas the PNSC given a middleman’srole in procurement of oil? To ma-nipulate its landed cost? A Masterstroke in this episode is the creation

of a two member inquiry com-mittee who don’t have anyknowledge about the import ofoil. One member is alreadyworking as advisor to Ministerwhile the other member is Achartered accountant, who pre-

viously might not have audited anyoil company balance sheet. Oil im-port is the subject of DG (Oil), whoworks according to an oil import plan.There are always two plans: one long-term plan for six month and a short-term plan for one or two months.How did the shortage in supply oc-cur? This is what needs to be probedwhen International oil prices are al-most 50% down. But this is not all.There is an acute shortage of gas fordomestic consumers, who are facinglong hours closure. Furthermore, whoallowed CNG stations to start sale ofgas to public sector?

It is not one person or two to beblamed in all this mess. The system isrun down to such a degree that theslightest irregularity upsetting it is re-sulting in a crisis that is worsened bypeople who are either incompetent andpanicked or who are corrupt and try-ing to get some monetary gain out ofthe situation. A recent study has al-ready pointed to the fact that the bu-reaucratic system needs a completeoverhaul because the standards havebeen eroding to an extent that alreadyrecruited new entrees are of low qual-ity and in joining a corrupt system theyhave to adjust to it or be thrown out.Each boss in the system makes surethat nobody is better educated, brighterthan him and that creates a rot thatdown the road has destroyed any signof merit or excellence. We havereached a point where merit is ratheran obstacle than a recommendation forany job, not only a bureaucratic one.The same is true for politicians: Whatthey need is not knowledge or meritbut obedience and loyalty for makinga career. This has brought us to wherewe are: close to the collapse of the state

structure due to our timid leaders. Andthis is not only internally dangerous.Pakistan finds itself in a critical situa-tion with regard to our national secu-rity. Inner peace of the country is en-dangered by militant outfits that thestate had no other method to fight thana full-fledged army operation whichamounts to civil war. While this op-eration is successful militarily, it needsto be propped up with civilian effortsof reconstructing the destroyed townsand villages, of resettling the IDPs andof establishing good governance.

Given the situation in which thestate is, it is hardly capable of achiev-ing this; which will again underminenational security in the regions thatremain un-rehabilitated. We havetrouble in Balochistan that is endan-gering the Province and its remain-ing part of the country. The fact that‘hidden hands’ are multiplying theproblems; there is no consolation andno excuse at all. At any timeBalochistan can blow up, as the suc-cessive rulers in power had neglectedthe development works to bringBalochistan at par with other Prov-inces. Afghanistan is another prob-lem though it seems miraculously tobe on a way of betterment after boththe new Afghan government and Pa-kistan are cooperating and trying toovercome the longstanding problemsbetween the two neighbours.

But the most dangerous situationis the one at our eastern border. Withthe new Indian government imple-menting an aggressive anti-Pakistanpolicy that has resulted in multipleborder clashes, attempts to solve theKashmir problem in an ‘Indian way’and heightened anti-Pakistan activi-ties on international levels. An innerweakness inside Pakistan is playinginto the hands of unruly neighbourswho have full blessings from UnitedStates whose President is arriving ona 3 day tour to also witness the Re-public Day parade in Dehli. Pakistanneeds to revamp its foreign policy in

Aijaz Zaka Syed

the light of these factors emergingto create hegemony of India inAsia. While the Pakistan army cando and is doing its part in securingour country, there is a civilian partto it which is as important as themilitary one. For survival of Paki-stan we need a functioning politi-cal system, otherwise the outsidedangers will be supported by therot inside the country.

The current situation is not ofrecent origin; it has been there fordecades. The current governmenthas been contributing to the crisisof the political system not only forthe last one year but another twotimes in the past. PPP and PML(N)both have been running down whatshould have been a democracy inPakistan by feudal politics, nepo-tism, corruption and complete lackof understanding of what the na-tional interest of Pakistan requires.This kind of political system thatrequires a majority of people whoare well educated, merit-orientedand putting national interest overand above their personal interestclearly doesn’t suit this societythat is feudal in thinking, corruptin its approach and interested inpersonal gain. What we need iscrucial reforms of the system forwhich no political party has thepower, even not PTI that has beenadmitting ‘electables’ into theirrows that later will make the partyunable to perform.

Many people think that anIslamisation is the answer. But isthis really an option? Look at thestate of affair among our mullahsand so-called ulema. They are partof society; would they be able todefine what shariah is? Pakistan isat the crossroads again and there isa dire need for change and for thatwe need a courageous honest andpatriotic government.—The writer is Karachi-basedsenior columnist.

ing that Islam stands for peace, sal-vation and universal brotherhood.How many of our leaders, scholarsand imams demonstrate this withtheir actions or even in their speechesthough, reaching out to the worldwith the liberal, universal messageof the faith?

Why do we not see Muslimscholars talk more about the kind-ness, generosity and humanity of theProphet (peace be upon him)that heshowed to the worst of his adversar-ies? Or his (peace be upon him)emphasis on kindness to women andchildren and his Last Sermon thatcelebrates the equality and onenessof humanity like nothing else does?

Instead of offering guidance andleadership to the faithful in thesemost trying times and in confront-ing challenges such as extremismand ignorance, our scholars spendmuch of their time obsessing overfrivolous, non-issues. From issuingfatwas on Indian tennis star SaniaMirza’s sartorial choices to con-demning social media such as twit-ter as ‘the source of all evil,’ our pri-orities and propensity to scout for theirrelevant and absurd never cease toamaze me. It is as if we inhabit adifferent planet altogether.

We seem to have lost ourselvesin the literal world of dogma, leav-ing somewhere behind the soul andspirit of a generous, powerful faith.We see technology and innovationthat the rest of the world hungrilylaps up as a challenge. We fearchange. We are afraid of women whodrive and work. We even fear harm-less schoolgirls. I know there is noconcept of clergy or a global reli-gious leader in Islam. But the faith-ful can certainly do with some lead-ership and much-needed guidanceright now. It is time to rediscoverthe spirit of the faith.— Courtesy: Arab News

great pseudo saviour, also possessesand mostly blows up a deadly explo-sive devise, more fatal, more sophis-ticated, less arduous and less costlythan hydro and nuclear atomic bomb.

The great saviours bombard any-one at their discretion cunningly andstrategically. Unlike the nuclearweapons, this explosive device isused to slander one, assassinate one,ruin one’s standing, blemish one’scharacter and assault one’s years longreputation by making one into a de-mon or a Pakistani into anti Pakistanior a Muslim into ‘Kafir’ and proxyor agent of Westerners and by pro-jecting one favourably orunfavourably, depending all on thesaviours, the pseudo saviours.

Another notable trait of our greatbut pseudo saviour is his bonhomie,accommodative pliability and adapt-ability to adjust his ideological ethosand principled policies to conciliatewith every type of ruler of times, frommilitary dictatorial regime ofGen.Musharraf, Petty-coat govern-ment of Ms Benazir Bhutto, to themost honest- transparent and account-ability and Islam oriented govern-ments of Zardari and Sharifs.

Our pseudo saviour is ‘saviour’because first, religiously he asserts tobe the guardian of our faith. Second,he claims to be shielding us againstdictatorship. Third, politically so-cially and economically, he lays claimof being our benefactor.

Our pseudo Supremo is alsounique for his parting ways withgovernments at the eleventh hour “inthe best interest of nation and coun-try”. How unlucky we the noodlesof “Islamic Republic of Pakistan”appear to be to have this super duperpseudo saviour and his team of minisaviours because we do not deservethem, nor do they deserve us. Theyact “in the best interests of nation”,but we don’t. They keep us awayfrom indecency springing up fromthe westernization, but we don’t.They put in unwavering effort for“Islamic socio-economic justice”but we don’t. They speak only of us,we don’t. They are good for nothingfor us but this column isn’t.—Rawalpindi

FM’s conspiracytheory fails

JAVAID BASHIR

The fuel crisis seems to be over.Some miracle has happened. Thegovernment can now breathe easily.All the blame game theories havealso evaporated with the petrol’sdelivery by the oil companies. PSOand OGRA have been blamed by thegovernment. PSO claimed that theshortage occurred due to LC’s de-fault. I think the payments were notmade on time and they did not sup-ply the petrol.

The crisis, beyond ant doubt, oc-curred due to the inefficiency of theMinisters for Finance, Petroleumand Water & Power.The FinanceMinister’s ‘conspiracy theory’ hasbeen thrown out of the window bythis new development. A bad work-man quarrels with his tools, the sameway Finance Minister failed to fore-see and plan ahead as convener ofthe ECC and made others a scape-goat. All the three Ministers mustadmit their failure with grace.—Via email

The unrecognizedwonder

SAFIA, MARYAM & A ALI,

Technically and simply speaking the‘lines’ would be described as theconnection between two points. Dra-matically, lines would be a dot outfor a walk. But what really is a line?How often do we see them in thereal world? A conducted survey bya team of students of Bachelors ofArchitecture, proved that a laymanwould say that a building is madeup of lines.

I would have been one of thembut just a single semester has thank-fully taught me to respect and rec-ognize lines for what they reallyare. It has taught me that anotherargument can be made. Buildingsand every other structure isn’t madeup of lines. Nothing in the 3-dimen-

sional world is made from lines.They are, in fact, the product oflines. Lines are the feature of the2-dimensional world. Blue-printsare made in black and white, fromcarbon and paper. Every step of theformation of a structure comes to-gether from lines. Once that is done,the structure evolves. Lines thoughabsent from the 3-dimensionalworld, are very much able to createa 3-dimensional effect in the 2-di-mensional world itself.

Lines are the unrecognized won-der of not just the Architectural, butthe entire world. It’s heart wrench-ing to see that the very thing thatgives shape to our world and nar-rates unlimited stories of the humanrace itself and more, goes unrecog-nized so casually. We have seen theway lines create a realistic effect onpaper and how the realistic worldcarries an illusion of them. One cango as far as to say, that our world isthe much resembling baby of lines.Only that the mother dies in childbirth. To conclude it all, I think linesmust be given the respect and rec-ognition they rightly deserve.—Via email

Trust andconfidence

HASHIM ABRO

It does not augur well for any soci-ety or even any state, if the peoplehate their own government and itsorganizations as we witness and ex-perience the situation in Pakistantoday where there are crisis aftercrisis. From the situation, it appearsthat the people of Pakistan have losttheir trust and confidence, not onlyin their leadership, but also in manygovernmental organizations, withthe exception of a few.—Islamabad

SPSCpoliticisation

ENGR. ARSALAN THAHIM

When honest person resigns, it is ei-ther he is forced to resign, or aver-sion to do its duty as a blind man.This all happened recently in Sindhwhen a truthful, honest, upright andtrustworthy man - the chairman ofSindh Public Service Commission,Cheif justice(Rtd) Agha Rafiquekhan, retreated from the battle of vi-cious political circle of Sindh gov-ernment. He decided to quit his po-sition by giving nod of ‘he is no moreinterested in holding this position’.

Under His chairmanship, the lastmonth SPSC conducted screeningtest to sort out deserving candidatesfor further appearing in secondphase of combined competitive ex-amination 2013. The test was wellorganised and arranged better thanthe FPSC, conducted simultaneouslyin Karachi, Hyderabad and Sukkur.It was beyond any doubt to point thefingers on SPSC transparency. Thecandidates realised that this timethey would better get their right onbasis of the merit.

But resignation of its chairmantook out the earth under the feet ofthe students that their wings areonce again plucked by the Sindhgovernment, with the departure ofa delivering chairman SPSC. We,the people of Sindh request theChief Justice of Pakistan and PrimeNawaz Sharif to reverse the deci-sion of Agha Rafique’s resignation.He should be allowed as an inde-pendent person to perform his duty.Otherwise, deserving candidates ofSindh will continue to be deprivedof their rights.—Shikarpur

Ali Ashraf KhanEmail:[email protected]

IVAN SUKHOV

THE tragedy in Gyumri, Armenia, whereRussian soldier Valery Permyakov is suspected to have killed a family of seven,

once again demonstrates the sad state ofRussia’s relations with countries that it consid-ers part of its “sphere of influence.” Moscow’shigh-profile Eurasian integration initiatives —designed to recall, if not partially restore —the past power and scale of the Soviet Union,only thinly veil the failure of Russia’s foreignpolicy in its relations with the countries of the“near abroad.”

Only the peculiar thinking of post-Sovietofficials can explain the silence of the Russianand Armenian authorities in the first few daysafter the killings. Armenian officials haveavoided making any comments in an effort toprevent more problems in their relations withRussia, and because they would look ridicu-lous for allowing Russian law enforcementagencies to control the investigation into a crimecommitted entirely on Armenian territory.

That would place the country’s sovereigntyin question in the minds of ordinary Armenians.Silence is therefore the only option the Arme-nian authorities have for minimizing the nega-tive public fallout. As for the Russian leader-ship, it was obvious that the Kremlin wantedto refrain from commenting until they had aclear picture of what happened. “What if weexpress our condolences,” they apparently rea-soned, “and thereby assume some of the blamefor these events?’’

‘’And worse, what if it turns out that the

Russia Is Left Out in the Cold by Its Neighborsvictims — including the 6-month-old baby whoinitially survived but later died from his mul-tiple knife wounds — were provocateurs plantedby scheming outside forces intent on spoilingRussia’s relations with Armenia and casting thecontingent of Russian forces in the worst pos-sible light?’’

What happened in Gyumri raises manyquestions, and it is even possible that a foreignagency might decide to investigate this act ofmass murder. But the silence of the officialsfrom both countries after the horrific deaths ofseven people — even though they might haveoffered some form of explanation — indicatesthat relations between Armenia and Russia arenot exactly those of close and fraternal allies.

Judging from its reaction to the killings,Yerevan feels an uncomfortable dependence onRussia, and Moscow clearly does not feel con-fident enough in its relations with Armenia tobreak out of its habitual “besieged fortress”mentality and take positive action.

After Russia’s annexation of Crimea and thewar in eastern Ukraine, few outside Russia willbelieve the findings of FSB investigators or theRussian Investigative Committee — whetherthey conclude that foreign interests had a handin the murders or that Permyakov is innocent.

The overall trend is that Russia is losing itscredibility and influence in the former Sovietrepublics — and this is exactly what Kremlinofficials are trying not to exacerbate.

But as is often the case when a situation hasalready spun out of control, the very actionsintended to ease the problem only make it worse— in this case, the authorities’ decision to main-

tain silence until all of the facts are clear.However, the events of 2014 were not the

turning point, when it suddenly became clearthat Russia has problems with its neighbors,including those whom it had always consideredfaithful allies. There was the earlier Russia-Georgia War in 2008, when Moscow showedeveryone that it no longer considered the 1991borders inviolable.

The short period of calm and constructiverelations with the Baltic states in the early 1990simmediately gave way to tensions when thequestion of withdrawing the Russian militaryarose. Moscow used the alleged inequality ofthe Russian minorities in Estonia and Latvia asa convenient pretext for the expression of na-tionalist sentiment in the country.

Those tensions peaked in 2007 when theTallinn authorities decided to move a Soviet warmemorial out of the city center. That happenedafter all three Baltic states had already joinedthe European Union and NATO. This is some-thing the Kremlin might have avoided if it haddeveloped relations with Vilnius, Riga andTallinn on the foundation laid in 1990-91 byformer President Boris Yeltsin, who sympa-thized with their desire for independence fromthe Soviet Union.

Belarus — one of Russia’s most depend-able allies throughout the years of integrationschemes — suffered considerably from Russia’sban on European food imports and Russian at-tempts to unilaterally influence Belarussianpolitical decisions. The price for such policiesis clearly reflected in Belarus’ refusal to recog-nize the independence of Abkhazia and South

Ossetia, and in the position of Belarus in rela-tion to the Ukrainian crisis. Meanwhile, theWest is increasingly considering Belarus as acountry that suddenly seems to be much closerto the West, and to European integration, thanseemed possible only a short time ago.

Against the backdrop of events inUkraine, it is difficult to imagine thatMoldova, where Moscow supports the “fro-zen” conflict over the self-proclaimed repub-lic of Transdnestr, would suddenly do anabout-face and become pro-Russia. It isequally strange to expect that simply electinga new president in Georgia in 2013 wouldconvince that country’s people to accept theloss of Abkhazia and South Ossetia and aban-don its policy of European integration.

And with regard to Armenia andAzerbaijan, Russia seems to have forgottenabout the exciting games of the early 1990swhen Moscow, after the decline of the SovietUnion, practically took the side of Yerevan overthe conflict in Nagorno-Karabakh.

Having jettisoned the Soviet Union,emerged as its successor and finally concludedthat reviving the empire was not a bad plan,Russia tried for 20 years to hold both coun-tries on a leash. However, it failed to noticethat Armenia, half blocked in its development,was “growing thinner,” and that Azerbaijan was“gaining weight” through greater independenceand ambition.

—Courtgesy: Moscow Times.[Ivan Sukhov is a journalist who has cov-

ered conflicts in Russia and the CIS for thepast 15 years]

YEMEN: A Houthi Shiite fighter chants slogans during a demonstration to show support for his comrades in Sanaa.

MOHAMMED FAHAD AL-HARTHI

SAUDI Arabia has proven to the world that it has stronginstitutional structures that can ensure a smooth transitionof power, guaranteeing stability in a region beset by con-

flict. This was the news the world was waiting for because thiscountry plays a critical role on the global stage, as one of theplanet’s major oil suppliers and home to the two holy mosques.

Many people are probably unaware that the handing over ofpower in Saudi Arabia is based on regulations, norms and tradi-tions that have protected the country over the years from chaos.

There are well-established traditions of respect, collabora-tion and obedience to the king inside the royal family. KingAbdullah’s order to establish the Allegiance Council in 2006 wasone of the most important decisions in the history of the country.The council consists of King Abdul Aziz’s sons and grandsons,who formalize the succession process.

The world lost an important Saudi leader who gained inter-national respect as a wise man of values and morals. He gainedmuch appreciation for saving the region from war, with hisprojects supporting peace and dialogue. The latest was his his-toric role last year in saving the Gulf Cooperation Council fromcomplete collapse.

Our new leader, King Salman, is a natural statesman havingproven his worth from the time he took over the Riyadh gover-norate. It was only natural that many consider him the “personaladviser of the kings of Saudi Arabia” because he was so close tothe previous kings. With a deep understanding and knowledgeof the world, the king has gained international trust and respect.

He is also known for being extremely loyal. People will neverforget how he stood by his brothers King Fahd, King Abdullahand Crown Prince Sultan when they were ill, visiting them everyday before they passed away.

King Salman has a deep appreciation of the importance ofempowering the Saudi ruling house. He asked the family’s Alle-giance Council to pay allegiance to Prince Muqrin as crown princeand appointed him as the deputy premier.

It was no surprise that Prince Muqrin, who was the deputycrown prince, was chosen for these new positions. As the youngestliving son of King Abdul Aziz, Prince Muqrin is a military manwho served as a pilot in the air force and has held a series ofleadership positions including as governor of both Hail andMadinah. His successes showed his eligibility for these posts.

The king also chose Interior Minister Muhammad bin Naifas the new deputy crown prince and second deputy premier. Whilea majority of the council supported the king’s decisions, his callreflects much respect and commitment to abide by regulations.Prince Muhammad is the first prince of the second generation tohold such a position.

has shown the foresight of King Salman. He has gone fur-ther by appointing Prince Mohammed bin Salman as presidentof the royal court and the minister of defense.

Prince Mohammed has worked closely with his father as aspecial adviser since he was appointed as governor of Riyadhand minister of defense. The prince accompanied his father onforeign trips, and internal and external meetings, which gavehim much-needed expertise and experience.

King Salman’s vision and quick decisions have been metwith relief on the streets in Saudi Arabia. It builds on a 300-year-old institution that prizes continuity and prioritizes the state’sconnection with citizens.

Saudi Arabia has once again proved that it can rise up to thechallenge of achieving stability and focusing on developmentwhile countries surrounding it are mired in conflict and terror.This is why the country is so respected across the globe.

—Courtesy: Arab News[Mohammed Fahad Al-Harthi is Editor-in-Chief of the Arab

News]

Smooth powertransition witnessed

ALLAN PHILPS

TWO years ago, Ryan Crocker, former US ambassador toIraq and Afghanistan, declared that Bashar Al Assad wouldhave to be part of Syria’s future or the country would be

taken over by jihadists. Last year, Lakhdar Brahimi, the formerUnited Nations and Arab League special envoy, said that Mr AlAssad “has to be part of the discussion and the change that isneeded”. These statements must have been uncomfortable lis-tening for Barack Obama, who had declared in 2011 that Mr AlAssad had to “step aside”. With the Syrian conflict about to en-ter its fifth year, Washington has recognised that he is not goingto quit the scene within any reasonable time frame, and if he did,Damascus would probably fall into the hands of ISIL.

Formally, the White House still wants him out. But it hasaccepted a Russian peace proposal that calls for talks betweenthe Assad regime and the rebels. This replaces the failedGeneva process, which was an attempt to negotiate a transi-tion of power from the regime to the rebels. John Kerry, USsecretary of state, said it was time for the Syrian president tochange his policies to prevent Syria being overwhelmed byterrorist forces. A more forthright reason for accepting theRussian proposal has come from the French foreign minister,Laurent Fabius. He said a political solution would have toinclude some elements of the regime “because we don’t wantto see the pillars of the state fall apart” as happened in Iraqafter the US invasion.

The prospect of these talks taking place are dim. But thediplomatic move confirms the clear shift in emphasis of USforeign policy away from removing the Assad regime to stop-ping the ISIL advance. Since ISIL began chopping off theheads of Americans, the priority has been the terrorist threatposed by jihadists. For the so-called moderate opposition, theFree Syrian Army, it proves that US promises of support for amarch on Damascus are empty. Mr Obama’s reluctance toprovide the Free Syrian Army with advanced weapons is asource of tension with US allies, not least Saudi Arabia, whichsees the Assad regime as an Iranian pawn that should be re-moved.

Frustration with America is increased by the Arab countries’understanding that ISIL did not appear from nowhere but waspart of a diversionary tactic by the Assad regime to underminethe credibility of its opponents. The regime released jihadistsfrom Syrian jails, and they were able to make common causewith Iraqi militants who profited from America’s departure fromIraq on a timetable set by US electoral considerations. The re-gime has now won that trick, with some unwitting help from theAmericans.

It is all the more galling that Mr Obama appears to beoffering a helping hand to Iran’s ally just as the Iranianeconomy is in free fall due to sanctions and the low oil price.Clearly the prospect of a nuclear deal with Iran is at the topof Mr Obama’s priorities, and for that he needs to keep theRussians on side.

This week Russian defence officials, with their arms indus-try under western sanctions over the Ukraine crisis, have beenfloating the idea of reviving a suspended sale to Iran of an ad-vanced air defence system. If this deal went ahead it would changethe military balance between Iran and its enemies and deliver asevere blow to Mr Obama’s credibility in handling the Iran dos-sier. The relationship with Russia must be repaired.

It is no surprise that Washington has different priorities fromits regional allies. That has always been the case. The real ques-tion is whether the Syrian rebels ever had a chance to prevailover the army. American arming of the rebels would have beenmet with a Russian response of doing the same to the regime’sforces, leading to an even bloodier stalemate.

—Courtesy: The National

Assad will be partof Syria’s future

HAIKOU—China’s initiativeto build the Silk Road eco-nomic belt and the 21st centurymaritime Silk Road has re-ceived interest from more than50 countries, an official saidSaturday. He Yafei, deputy head of theoverseas Chinese affairs officeof the State Council, made theremarks at a conference in thesouthern-most island provinceof Hainan. Along the belt and road aremany developing countrieswith a combined population of4.4 billion and an annual eco-nomic output of 2.2 trillionU.S. dollars. Given comple-mentary industrial structures,the economic belt has stronggrowth potentials, He said.

With huge forex reservesand more frequent uses of the

China Silk Road plandraws interest from over

50 countries: officialyuan in trade settlement, Chinacould offer low-cost financingto the countries which partici-pate in the drive, he said. The countries should seekconsensus on cooperation andstep up cooperation in fieldslike infrastructure, tourism,energy and finance, he said. China’s initiative gives newimpetus to regional integrationand offers rare growth oppor-tunities for businesses, saidOng Chong Yi, minister coun-selor at the Malaysian Embassyin China. The belt and road initiativewas put forward by PresidentXi Jinping during his overseasvisits in 2013. The programreminds people of the ancientSilk Road that set a paradigmfor interaction among na-tions.—Xinhua

Xi stressesadherence todialectical

materialismBEIJING—Chinese PresidentXi Jinping has stressed dialec-tical materialism as a way todeepen reform. Xi, general sec-retary of the Communist Partyof China (CPC) Central Com-mittee, made the remarks whilepresiding over a meeting at-tended by members of the Po-litical Bureau of the CPC Cen-tral Committee on Friday.

Xi recalled that in 2013, thebureau convened for a meetingon historical materialism, andsaid “studying dialectical ma-terialism and historical materi-alism will help CPC membersget better understanding ofMarxist philosophy.” Xi reit-erated that China will remainat the primary stage of social-ism for a long time to come.

Through 30 years of reformand opening up, China hasmade historic breakthroughs inproductivity.—Xinhua

CAIRO: Egypt’s Court accepted Saturday to hear anappeal of 545 persons in Minya sentenced to death orlife in prison.

CAIRO—An Egyptian courtordered a retrial for 37 MuslimBrotherhood members sen-tenced to death and 115 otherssentenced to life in a mass triallast year, judicial sources saidon Saturday.

The 152 were initially sen-tenced last March at a trial ofmore than 500 defendants,some tried in absentia. The pro-ceedings lasted only a few daysand were widely criticized byWestern governments and hu-man rights groups.

They will face a retrial forcarrying out attacks duringclashes that erupted in thesouthern province of Minyaafter the forced dispersal of twoMuslim Brotherhood protestcamps in Cairo on August 14,2013, when hundreds werekilled.

The Brotherhood was pro-

37 Brotherhoodmembers to be retrialed

testing at the removal of Presi-dent Mohamed Mursi after hewas ousted by the military fol-lowing mass protests againsthis rule.

The original trial last year

in Minya also saw 377 sen-tenced in absentia. Those sen-tenced in absentia automati-cally receive retrials when theyturn themselves in, accordingto Egyptian law.—Reuters

Ukrainian servicemen stand guard on a street near the burning building after a shelling bypro-Russian rebels of a residential sector in Mariupol, eastern Ukraine.

KIEV—Fifteen people werekilled in shelling in the eastUkrainian port city of Mariupolon Saturday, Ukraine’s interiorministry said, an attack Kievblamed on separatist rebels andthe Russian military. A witnessdescribed the shelling toReuters as enough to knock thepaint off his house. The deathsfollow the separatists’ rejectionof more peace talks and asfighting surged to its most in-tense in months.

The United Nations said onFriday 262 had been killed inthe previous nine days. Gov-ernment-held Mariupol, on theSea of Azov, lies on a coastalroute from the Russian borderto Crimea, which was annexedby Russia from Ukraine lastMarch.

The city council said rock-ets fired by rebels from long-range GRAD missile systemsstruck a multi-story buildingand caused fires to break out.Oleksander Turchynov, secre-

15 killed in Ukraine rebels shellingtary of Ukraine’s national de-fense council, described theincident as “another bloodycrime against humanity com-mitted by the Russian militaryand the bands of terrorists un-der their complete control,” inan online statement.

The attack started in theearly morning, 76-year-oldpensioner Leonid Vasilenko,who lives in the eastern suburbsof Mariupol, said by telephone.“The walls were shaking, thewindow frames were shaking,paint started to crumble off thehouse. I hid in the basement.What else can you do? I tookthe dog and the cat. In the base-ment you could hear the earthtremble,” he said. The interiorministry said 15 people hadbeen killed and 76 injured.

Separatists denied respon-sibility for the attack, newsagency Interfax reported. De-spite international calls for aceasefire, rebel leaderAlexander Zakharchenko

vowed on Friday his forceswould push on with a new of-fensive, as the UN said the con-

flict, which began in eastUkraine more than nine monthsago, was now in its “most

deadly period” since a peacedeal was agreed last Septem-ber.—Reuters

SAN’A—The United States hashalted some counter-terrorismoperations against al Qaeda mili-tants in Yemen following a take-over of the country by Iran-backed Houthi rebels, U.S. offi-cials said on Friday. The collapseof the U.S.-backed governmentof Yemen on Thursday has leftAmerica’s counter-terrorismcampaign “paralyzed”, two U.S.security officials said, dealing amajor setback to Washington’sfight against al Qaeda in the Ara-bian Peninsula (AQAP), a potentwing of the militant network.

Three U.S. officials saidthe halt in operations includeddrone strikes, at least tempo-rarily, following the abrupt res-ignation of the president, primeminister and cabinet amidmounting fears the Arabworld’s poorest country wasveering toward civil war.

The U.S. move under-scores another setback forPresident Barack Obama’sMiddle East policy and raisesdoubts about a counter-terror-ism strategy that has relied ondrone warfare and often shakyforeign partners to avoid send-ing large U.S. ground forces tobattle militant threats far fromAmerican shores.

Many U.S. personnel workwith Yemeni forces at the south-ern al-Annad airbase, an intel-ligence post for monitoring theYemeni affiliate of al Qaeda, orAQAP, which claimed respon-sibility for attacks this month inParis that killed 17 people.Other U.S. officials, speaking toReuters on condition of ano-nymity, said the situation on theground was fluid and describedthe halt as a temporary measureto assess chaotic conditions onthe ground.

White House press secre-tary Josh Earnest said the UnitedStates wanted to continue itsclose counter-terrorism coop-eration with Yemen and wascommitted to pursuing its strat-egy there. “I don’t have anypolicy changes to announce atthis point,” he told reporters.The United States has killeddozens of suspected AQAPfighters and leaders with dronestrikes and officials fear that thegrowing chaos in the countrywill give the group more spaceto plan and launch attacks onWestern targets.—Reuters

US halts counter-terrorism measures

to light in NA-122. Judge saidthat he has recorded statementthat rigging has not been seenbut negligence and malprac-tices of the staff have been seenwhich have been identified inreport. Counsel for Imran Khanasked from IC judge during thecourse of cross questioningcommission did what on nonmatching of different colorsballot papers and series ofcounterfoils with original seriesand absence of stamp and sig-natures on the backside of bal-lot papers. IC judge said thishas to be decided by ET thatthey reject counterfoils likeballot papers or not. ET judgeadjourned the hearing of thecase till January, 31.—Online

No clear evidenceFrom Page 1

ers be formulated through a presiden-tial ordinance which if finds out thatrigging was committed in selected num-ber of constituencies, the governmentshould go home followed by fresh elec-tions.

SIshaq Dar on Saturday said that thejudicial commission to probe allegedelectoral rigging can be formed in halfan hour if Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insafchairman Imran Khan wishes, addingthat the government wants the commis-sion to determine whether the riggingtook place as organized conspiracy ornot.

Dar said that Imran Khan wants theword ‘conspiracy’ removed from theagreement draft. He offered PTI lawmak-ers to come back to the assemblies.

He said the government’s conscienceis clear and that Imran Khan also needs to‘widen’ his heart.

Federal minister said that PTI chair-man should not waste nation’s time, add-ing that the commission can be formedwithin half an hour if he truly wants. Hesaid the government is willing to acceptall demands within the bounds of law andconstitution.

Ishaq Dar alleged that the break in dia-logue was because of Imran Khan’s state-ments, adding that Khan deems the elec-tions transparent only if the outcome is inhis favour.

He said it was agreed with PTI thatthe commission will be formed only as perthe new constitution.

Federal minister said that the commis-sion will only rule in ‘yes’ and ‘no’ but, healleged, PTI wants several answers to fur-ther complicate the issue.

He said that the review of five pointsabout the electoral reforms has been com-pleted and that the government’s con-

science is clear. He urged PTI lawmakersto return to the assemblies.

Responding to a question regarding the21st Amendment, Dar said that the inter-pretation of the

Dar also took into account the forma-tion of a judicial commission, as requestedby the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf to inves-tigate into their rigging allgeations.

In regard to the formation of the judi-cial commission, Dar said he had writtena letter and sent an email to the PTI, whichhe will make available to the media.

“The letter contains a new defini-tion of the scope of the work of the pro-posed judicial commission to probe therigging allegations,” the finance min-ister said.

“A new draft was sent to PTI onJanuary 20, as per the suggestions of theparty during the latest round of talks,”he said.

JC issue can be resolvedFrom Page 1

Justice (retd) Ramday controlled the re-turning officers ... both of them shouldbe tried under Article 6,” the PTI chiefsaid.

Speaking on the former chiefjustice’s Rs20 billion libel notice,Imran said he was waiting for IftikharChaurdhry to face him in the court.

“How did it happen that PML-Ngrabbed 6.8 million votes in 2008 elec-tions and in 2013 they ended up withmore than 15 million votes,” questionedthe PTI chief, alleging that this hap-pened because of the rigging carried outby returning officers under the super-vision of Iftikhar Chaudhry.

This is not the first time Imran lev-elled allegations against Chaudhry andRamday. In August last year, the PTIchief had named Iftikhar Chaudhry,Khalilur Rehman Ramday, former care-taker chief minister of Punjab NajamSethi and officials of the Election Com-mission of Pakistan as having played arole in rigging the 2013 polls.

Khan once again ruled out the pos-sibility of PTI’s return to National andprovincial assemblies and warned thatany member who violates party policywill be ousted from the PTI.

“We will go to assemblies if the ju-dicial commission declares the electionlegitimate,” Imran Khan said, addingthat the probe commission would notbe able to do anything if it is establishedon the basis of the N-league draft. Hesaid the PML-N was scared of the judi-cial commission.

“We will put our and PML-N’sdrafts in front of public to compare. Ifthe government has not rigged the elec-tion then what are they afraid of? If weagree to PML-N’s draft then there willbe no real accountability”, he said.

Khan further added that a big elec-tion fraud has been disclosed in NA-122 after one and a half year. He saidthat Returning Officers were behind allthe rigging. He claimed that IftikharChaudhary also addressed the ap-

pointed ROs before election. He saidthat Aitzaz Ahsan and Asif Zardari havealso spoken about the role of ROs inalleged rigging.

“Additional Chief Secretaries ofPunjab printed thousands of ballet pa-pers in last three days and we have itsproof that is why PML-N is afraid ofJudicial Commission”, said ImranKhan.

He said that if someone blamesthem for r igging in KhyberPakhtunkhwa, they will open each andevery constituency because, he said,they are not afraid like government. Hefurther said that had the Judicial Com-mission made a decision, they wouldhave gone to assemblies but now theydon’t have any intension to do so.

“We will take part only in Senateelection in KP. We are giving last warn-ing to the government to make judicialcommission otherwise we have thestreet power and we can put the coun-try to halt”, said Khan.

Will go to assembliesFrom Page 1

effect, these developments have been instrumen-tal in improving sentiments in the foreign exchangemarket and have supported SBP in its reserve build-ing efforts,” he added.

With IMF program on track and expected pro-ceeds from privatization and official flows, the netSBP reserves are projected to increase further.“However, non realization of planned privatizationproceeds and lack of private inflows could poserisks in achieving a sustainable BoP position.”

Wathra said that fiscal deficit was containeddespite substantial increase in interest paymentsin Q1-FY15 and government borrowing from SBPremained below the agreed targets. As governmentmanaged to contain expenditures related to PSEs,it increased the development spending comparedto last year. However, growth in FBR revenue col-lection moderated due to downward adjustment inpetroleum prices and slowdown in large-scalemanufacturing. Going forward, overall expendi-tures could increase due to higher security relatedexpenditures. This along with expected shortfallin FBR revenues may make meeting the fiscaldeficit target challenging.

According to Governor SBP, the credit to pri-vate sector uptake during H1-FY15 is lower thanthe level witnessed during the same period last year.

“This slowdown in credit growth could be attrib-uted to both demand and supply side issues suchas weak corporate profitability of major industriestill September 2014, shift in government borrow-ings away from SBP to commercial banks amidslower deposit growth, challenging security situa-tion, falling commodity prices, and continued en-ergy/gas shortages for the industry. However, themomentum of credit off-take is likely to pick upwith the realization of the lagged impact of No-vember 2014 policy rate cut.”Wathra informed theaudience that the interbank market remained tightalmost throughout H1-FY15, despite the cut inpolicy rate, adding that, in Q2-FY15, while pres-sures in FX market eased substantially, govern-ment shifted its borrowing from SBP to the com-mercial banks. “The continued decline in inflationretained scheduled banks’ appetite for investmentin long-term securities in the Q2-FY15 as the ex-pectation of further cut in interest rate strength-ened. Going forward, the realization of expectedexternal inflows is likely to reduce the budgetaryborrowing requirements from scheduled banks andimprove liquidity conditions in money market.”

SBP slashes policyFrom Page 1

Raheel leavesFrom Page 1

Earlier, the bench held in camera proceedingswherein respondents stated that the security withreference to all educational institutions, public andprivate, has been put in place in terms of Notifi-cations issued for the purpose. They explainedthat District Security Public Committees havebeen set up to carry out audits for all educationalinstitutions in all the Districts of Punjab. Theyfurther explained that an awareness campaign willbe launched, which will enable parents to par-ticipate in the security issues of their respectiveinstitutions. They further stated that progress re-ports are taken on regular basis up to the level ofthe Chief Minister, Punjab.

Later, the Petitioner was allowed to par-ticipate in the proceedings. The main concernof the Petitioner is that the government is re-sponsible for the security of the children in alleducational institutions. Petitioner stressed thatschools should remain closed until the govern-ment is satisfied that its directives have beenproperly complied with by all educational in-stitutions. To this, the Secretary Schools statedthat the monitoring teams are visiting all insti-tutions.

The bench adjourned the hearing and soughtfurther report in the matter before the next dateof hearing, February 9.—APP

LHC issues sixFrom Back Page

followed by a visit to MahatmaGandhi’s memorial where hewill participate in a tree plantingevent. Obama will then joinModi for a restricted workinglunch at the Hyderabad Houseand participate in a “walk andtalk” with the PM around2.45pm, the White House said.

The two leaders will thenhave an expanded delegation-level meeting, which is expectedto last for about an hour afterwhich, they will jointly addressthe press.On January 26, Obamawill participate in the ‘RepublicDay’ celebration as the chief guestalong with the First Lady. Theywill then attend a reception withIndia’s president at his residence.

Obama cuts shortFrom Page 1

Operation Zarb-i-Azb, duringwhich the network of EastTurkestan Islamic Movement— a militant organisationfounded by Uighurs in WesternChina — has also been destroyed.

Pakistan and China enjoyclose military and defence tiesand both countries often take partin joint military and air exercises.

Before his departure on Janu-ary 27, the US president will givean address at the Siri Fort Audi-torium. Obama was scheduled togo to India’s famed monument tolove with First Lady Michelle

Obama on Tuesday, at the end ofa three-day visit to thecountry.Hundreds of cleaners hadbeen hired to spruce up the whitemarbled mausoleum in prepara-tion for their arrival.—Reuters

Tens of thousandsFrom Page 1

formed a human chain, de-manding the “restoration of thestate.” Many across the coun-try described the Houthi powergrab as a “coup.” The Houthis,who say they are fighting cor-ruption, said in a statement Fri-day night that they would workto bring about a smooth, demo-cratic transfer of power afterthe resignations.

The Houthis, who cap-tured several cities as theydrove south from their north-ern strongholds last summer,seek greater representation ingovernment ministries and ona committee to rewrite thecountry’s constitution. Theynow face mounting pressuresand internal divisions how-ever, and there have beensigns they do not want to rulethe country outright andwould prefer that Hadi remainas a figurehead president.

Ali al-Bukhaiti, a prominentmember of the group’s politicalarm, resigned Friday over whathe described as a dangerous po-litical polarization that could turnregional and secular and eventu-ally break up the country. He of-fered to work as a mediator be-tween the groups. The nationalparliament meets Sunday to con-sider Hadi’s resignation.—AP

Rebels attackFrom Page 1

GRAD missile systems.The city of 500,000 on the

Sea of Azov is vital for easternUkraine’s steel and grain ex-ports and also straddles thecoastal route from the Russianborder to Crimea, the BlackSea peninsula in southernUkraine seized by Russia lastMarch.

President PetroPoroshenko, pledging to pro-tect Ukrainian territory, said hewould convene an emergencymeeting of his country’s secu-rity council on Sunday.

“Today an offensive waslaunched on Mariupol. Thiswill be the best possible monu-ment to all our dead,” Russia’sRIA news agency quoted rebelleader AlexanderZakharchenko as saying at amemorial ceremony in theseparatist-held city of Donetsk.

He said the separatists alsoplanned to encircle Debaltseve,a town north-east of Donetsk,in the next few days, Interfaxnews agency quoted him assaying.

Eastern Ukraine has seenan escalation of fighting in re-cent days that Russian Presi-dent Vladimir Putin has blamedon Kiev. The rebels have ruledout more peace talks.

Poroshenko responded an-grily to the fighting in Mariupol,a city the rebels tried to capturelast autumn before a fragileceasefire was agreed in easternUkraine. Kiev fears the rebelswant to build a land bridge fromRussia to Crimea.—Reuters

TTP commanderarrested in

HarnaiSTAFF REPORTER

QUETTA—Security forces ar-rested three suspected mili-tants, including a Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan commander,in Harnai district on Saturday.An intelligence officer, whodeclined to be named told me-dia that security forces con-ducted a raid in Harnai and ar-rested the three.

He said the forces acted onan intelligence report in rela-tion to the presence of TTPmilitants in the area. Securityforces also recovered arms andammunition from the posses-sion of militants.“Initially, themilitants resisted,” he said,adding that later more person-nel were called to arrest themen.

Security forces havelaunched a crackdown againstmilitants operating in north-ern Balochistan and otherparts of the province in thewake of the deadly Talibanassault on Peshawar’s ArmyPublic School on Dec 16,which left 150 people, includ-ing more than 130 schoolchil-dren dead.

Thirty-four die in BD vote protest violenceDHAKA—At least 34 peopledied in Bangladesh and scoreshave been injured, most ofthem in firebomb attacks, amidrising political unrest fuelled bya stand-off between PrimeMinister Sheikh Hasina and themain opposition leader.

The renewed political tur-moil could cause a delay inshipments by the country’s$24-billion garment industry,already under pressure after astring of fatal accidents.

Begum Khaleda Zia,whose opposition BangladeshNationalist Party boycotted theelection on Jan 5 last year, has

demanded that Hasina and hergovernment step down for anew vote under a caretaker ad-ministration.

Hasina has refused, in-stead tightening her grip by ar-resting key opposition leadersand clamping down on criti-cal media as anti-governmentprotests spread. The violencehas worsened sharply since Jan5, the first anniversary of thevote.

Police said at least 25 peoplehave died in arson attacks, in-cluding two on Friday. Eightmore were killed in clashes withpolice, and one died followinginjuries from a crude bomb blast,they added.

At least 50 people were in-

jured, some critically, after op-position activists firebombedseveral vehicles in the capital,Dhaka, and surrounding districts,police and witnesses said.

In Dhaka, at least 29 peoplesuffered burns after attackershurled petrol bombs at a bus,police said.

“Nine are in critical condi-tion,” said Mohammad SajjatKhandakar, a doctor at DhakaMedical College Hospital, whichhas been struggling to deal withgrowing numbers of the injured.

More than 7,000 oppositionactivists have been detained sincethe anniversary, Industry Minis-ter Amir Hossain Amu, the headof a government law and orderpanel, has said.—AFP

Oil crisiscreated byspecificmafiaLONDON—Former Interior ministerSenator Rehman Malik hassaid that the petroleumcrisis was created by acertain mafia to sell Iranianoil. Talking to media inLondon the Senatordeclared the petrol crisisas a conspiracy againstthe government and that ajudicial commission shouldbe formed to probe thematter. He said that SaudiArab and other friendlycountries had requested todeclare legal the stepstaken by PervaizMusharaf, and the formerCOAS should have beenallowed to attend theSaudi King’s funeral. Hefurther said that thecurrent governmentshould complete theirterm and the People’sParty were wronglyaccused of being a friendlyopposition. —Online

Gates seesmiracle toolsfor AIDSby 2030DAVOS—Twonew tools to fight AIDSshould be available by2030 in the form of avaccine and new intensedrug treatments, endingmost cases of a diseasethat has killed millions inthe past 30 years, BillGates said. The Microsoftfounder, whose philan-thropic foundation haspoured millions of dollarsinto medical research, toldthe World EconomicForum in Davos the “twomiracles” were withinreach in the coming years.“We’re pretty optimistic inthis 15-year period we willget those two new tools,”Gates told a session lateon Friday.—Reuters

Pakistan tofightterrorismtill its endNEW DELHI—Pakistan High Commis-sioner Abdul Basit onSaturday said that Pakistanwould continue fightingterrorism till the time it is‘completely eliminated’. Hiscomments came afterPresident Obama, who willarrive in New Delhi onJanuary 25 to take part inthis year’s Republic Daycelebrations, warnedPakistan that terrorists’ safehavens within the countrywere not acceptable.“Pakistan will continuefighting terrorism till thetime it is completelyeliminated. We do haveissues with India but we arecontinually trying our bestto strengthen good relations,Basit told ANI.—INP

ISLAMABAD: Governor Gilgit Baltistan Pir Karam Ali Shah administering oath to the caretaker ministers of Gilgit-Baltistan, at Gilgit-Baltistan House.

WASHINGTON—Defense SecretaryChuck Hagel has ordered the first groupof about 100 U.S. troops to head to theMiddle East in the next few days to es-tablish training sites for Syrian opposi-tion fighters battling Islamic State mili-tants, the Pentagon said on Friday.

Admiral John Kirby, the Pentagonpress secretary, said the troops, mostlyspecial operations forces, were autho-rized last week and would begin arriv-ing in countries outside Syria in the com-ing days, with a subsequent wave ofseveral hundred military trainers follow-ing in the weeks thereafter.

The U.S. focus in the campaignagainst Islamic State has been mainlyon Iraq, with the exception of a largenumber of air strikes to support Kurdishfighters trying to prevent the takeoverof the Syrian town of Kobani near the

First US troops head to Middle East to train Syrian oppositionMosul strikes are start of new efforts against Islamic State

Turkish border.Kirby said on Friday that Kurdish

forces now control about 70 percent ofKobani, which was seen a few monthsago as being near collapse, with muchof it in the hands of Islamic State.

He said the advanced element ofU.S. forces headed to establish trainingsites amounted to fewer than 100 troops.“They’re going to ... take a look at what’sthere and prepare for further deploy-ments,” Kirby said.

Turkey, Qatar and Saudi Arabia haveoffered to host sites where U.S. forcescould train members of the Syrian op-position to fight Islamic State and pro-vide security in their home communi-ties. Kirby did not say where exactly thefirst training sites were located.

The U.S. military has said it is plan-ning to send more than 400 troops for

the training mission and several hun-dred support forces for a total of about1,000 or more. Kirby said last week thatseveral hundred foreign military troopswere also expected to act as trainers,including forces from the host countries.

He said on Friday that active recruit-ment of Syrian trainees had not started,although U.S. military officials havebeen discussing the matter with Syriangroups.

Kirby said Major General MichaelNagata, the special forces chief tappedto handle the training mission, has had“very productive” meetings with Syr-ian opposition leaders. “But it didn’tlead to specific people signing up yet,”Kirby added.

U.S. officials have said if the currentmomentum continues, training couldbegin in the spring, with the first train-

ees returning to Syria at year’s end. Of-ficials plan to train 5,000 Syrian fightersa year for three years.

Meanwhile, an uptick in airstrikes innorthern Iraq this past week marks thebeginning of a broader effort to disruptIslamic State supply lines ahead of anexpected operation later this year to takeback the city from militants, U.S. mili-tary officials said Friday.

Coalition airstrikes have pounded atleast two dozen locations aroundMosul, destroying dozens of vehicles,buildings, fighting positions and insur-gent units. The airstrikes, said one se-nior military official, are the start of anew phase, and military leaders arewatching to see how Islamic State mili-tants respond as their supply and com-munications lines dry up. The officialwas not authorized to discuss the op-

erations publicly so spoke on conditionof anonymity.

Training for the moderate Syrianrebels has also begun to move forward.Kirby said Friday that an advance teamof fewer than 100 U.S. troops will soonhead to training sites in Saudi Arabia,Turkey and Qatar to begin site surveysand other preparations for the Syrianrebel training.

Preliminary discussions with Syrianrebel groups have started, but actualvetting of individual fighters for the train-ing hasn’t begun yet. Kirby said militaryleaders are optimistic that they will havean adequate pool of rebel fighters, add-ing that they will be vetted periodicallythroughout the process to insure theyare working with the right people. Therecruiting process is expected to takethree to five months.—AP

LAHORE—A Lahore HighCourt division bench has is-sued six guidelines regard-ing security of educationalinstitutions in the Provinceand sought strict compliancein the matter.

The division bench com-prising Justice SyedMansoor Ali Shah and Jus-tice Ayesha A. Malik passedthe orders on a petition filedby an advocate ZainSakandar agitating securityconcern in schools.

In an order issued hereon Saturday, the benchasked the government toensure compliance by allpublic and private institu-tions of security directives.In this regard, update of themonitoring teams should beplaced before the Court onthe next date of hearing, thebench added.

The bench directed thatall educational institutions,who want to take additionalsecurity measures, could ap-proach the DCO for assis-tance, which would be pro-vided according to the avail-able resources.

District Security AuditCommittees, who are respon-sible for improving the exist-ing security arrangements ineducational institutions,should hold regular meetingswith the school administra-tion so as to remain up todate, the bench ordered.

“In the event that anyperson has any concern, orcomplaint with regard to the

LHC issues sixguidelines in schools

security casesecurity arrangements, theymay approach the DCO ofthe concerned districtthrough a written applica-tion. In this regard, the DCOshould develop a mecha-nism to hear the concern, orcomplaint of the parents andthe schools” the benchadded.

The bench further askedgovernment to launch pub-lic awareness campaignthrough different modes inorder to sensitize public onsecurity issues pertaining toeducational institutions.

The bench observedthat Secretary, School Edu-cation categorically statedthat the cost on improvementof security measures as di-rected by the government toall public and private institu-tions could not be passed onto the students in their billsand will be borne by the in-stitutions themselves. In thisregard, if there is a com-plaint, it may be forwardedto the respective DCO ofthat district, who shouldimmediately bring it to thenotice of the District Secu-rity Audit Committee to takenecessary action, the benchadded.

Earlier, the bench held incamera proceedings whereinrespondents stated that thesecurity with reference to alleducational institutions,public and private, has beenput in place in terms of Noti-fications issued for the pur-pose. —APP

DAVOS—Russian Deputy Prime MinisterIgor Shuvalov, speaking at the World Eco-nomic Forum in Davos, on Friday warnedthe West against trying to topple PresidentVladimir Putin and said that Russians areready to sacrifice their wealth in Putin’s sup-port.

Russia has for the past year been slid-ing into recession amid a slump in its en-ergy export prices as well as Western sanc-tions against Moscow’s role in the conflictin Ukraine that has claimed more than 5,000lives. Questions have been raised in Rus-sia and abroad whether the price that ordi-nary Russians are having to pay for theannexation of Crimea is too high.

Shuvalov, who is believed to be one ofthe richest men in the government, said thatwhat he considers the West’s attempts tooust Putin will only unite the nation fur-ther.

“When a Russian feels any foreign pres-sure, he will never give up his leader,”

Russians will ‘eat less’for Putin: Deputy PM

Shuvalov said. “Never. We will survive anyhardship in the country — eat less food,use less electricity.”

Shuvalov’s comments triggered pithyremarks on Russia social media includingan opposition activist who posted photosof Shuvalov’s Moscow, London and Aus-tria homes to illustrate where the deputyprime minister would experience the hard-ships he described. At the samepanel in Davos, Putin’s long-time ally andformer Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin saidthat Putin clearly thinks that Russia’s for-eign policy interests at this point are worththe price the nation pays in higher inflationand the collapse of the Russian ruble.

Shuvalov, who worked with Kudrinuntil he resigned from the government in2011, defended Russia’s foreign policybut warned that Russia is “going into alonger crisis” compared with 2008, whenit was battered for about two years bythe global crisis.—AP

STAFF REPORTER

ISLAMABAD—Advisor to Prime Ministeron Foreign Affairs Sartaj Aziz on Satur-day said that Indian Foreign MinisterSushma Sooraj issued a statement aboutIndia’s desire to good relations with Pa-kistan only to please United States presi-dent Barack Obama.

Talking to media, Aziz said that India’srole in the region is not hidden from any-one, adding that Pakistan doesn’t feel theneed to officially respond immediately.

He said the dialogue process can onlybe resumed from where it was left off.

Shushma stressed improved ties withPak only to please Obama: Sartaj

Sartaj Aziz said that Pakistan is desir-ous of dialogue and good relations but,he said, it has to be based on something.

He said dialogue process can only beadvanced by talking on basic issues andthat Pakistan never avoided negotiationsunlike India.

Aziz said that India has always influ-enced the dialogue process and askedUS to play its role in resolution of basicissues .

Earlier, Indian FM had said that Indiais desirous of new era of relations withneighbouring countries includingBangladesh and Pakistan.

Gaspipelineblown up

in JaffarabadSTAFF REPORTER

QUETTA—Miscreants onSaturday blew up an 18-inch gas pipeline inBalochistan’s Jaffarabaddistrict, however, no casu-alties were reported.

Police sources told me-dia that militants plantedexplosive material close tothe gas pipeline in Dera Al-lah Yar which went off witha loud bang.

The pipeline was serv-ing as an alternate gassupply route for Quettaand other parts of thenorthern and centralBalochistan.

Police reached the spotand initiated a probe intothe incident.

Fire fighters and gascompany staff were alsocalled in to fix the damage.

There was no claim ofresponsibility, but policesuspect that Baloch sepa-ratist groups could be be-hind the attack.

This incident comes aday after miscreants blewup two gas piplelines inBalochistan’s Naseerabadand Sohbat Pur districts.

Sabotage of gas pipe-lines is a characteristic tac-tic of tribal militants whichis frequently witnessed inBalochistan.

However, the provincealso suffers from attackscarried out by Taliban mili-tants.

RA M A L L A H—Thousandsof Palestinians rallied in theoccupied West Bank on Sat-urday to protest against thepublication of cartoons de-picting the ProphetMohammad in French satiri-cal weekly Charlie Hebdo.

Simultaneous demon-strations were held in thecities of Ramallah andHebron less than threeweeks after Islamist gunmenshot dead 12 people in theParis office of CharlieHebdo, which has repeat-edly featured cartoons ofthe Prophet Mohammad.

The magazine returnedto the newsstands the fol-lowing week with a cartoonof the prophet on its frontpage.

“France is the mother ofterrorism. America is themother of terrorism,” theprotesters chanted. Theycarried black-and-white

banners which read “Thereis only one God andMohammad (PBUH) is Hismessenger.”

The protests were calledby the Islamist Tahrir Party,which advocates the estab-lishment of an Islamic Ca-liphate in Muslim countries.

“We have taken to thestreets in order to demandMuslim armies act the wayFrance and the West de-serve in response to the re-peated offences against theProphet, peace be uponhim,” said Baher Saleh, amember of the party.

In the wake of the Pariskillings, the Western-backed Palestinian presi-dent, Mahmoud Abbas,marched in Paris alongsidedozens of world leaders, in-cluding Israeli Prime Minis-ter Benjamin Netanyahu, ata memorial rally for thedead.—Reuters

Palestinians protestCharlie Hebdo cartoon

Libya’s Ansaral-Shariachief dead

BENGHAZI—The head ofLibya’s Ansar al-Shariajihadist group, whose fate hasbeen a mystery since fight-ing in October, was mortallywounded then, Islamistwebsites and an army officersaid Saturday.

Mohamed al-Zehawi“was killed in Benina clashesnear the Benghazi airport,southeast of the city,” the Is-lamist militias February 17Martyrs and Rafallah al-Sahati Brigades said onFacebook. A source at theshura council of Benghazirebels also confirmed hisdeath to AFP saying “Zehawiwas killed in the Beninaclashes on October 11.

“He was buried in Sirte(west of the city) after effortsto save his live failed becausehe had received a direct hit inthe chest and was sufferingfrom diabetes,” the sourceadded.

An army officer, who didnot wish to be named, saidthe military learned ofZehawi’s death from an“Ansar al-Sharia militant whowas made prisoner and whoconfirmed the news.”

Islamist websites havealso posted pictures alleg-edly showing Zehawi deadand another one purportedof him in a shroud. Zehawi’sfate has been a mystery sinceOctober clashes betweenpro-government forces andIslamist militias in the east-ern city of Benghazi killeddozens.—AFP

RESEARCHERS say they have discovered how thyroid hormone affects bloodvessels to determine body temperature,

potentially explaining why people who havedisorders of the thyroid gland have higher sen-sitivity to environmental temperature. An over-active thyroid (hyperthy-roidism) can cause a personto feel too hot, while an un-deractive thyroid (hypothy-roidism) can cause a personto feel too cold.

The researchers fromthe Karolinska Institutet inSweden said that previousstudies have attributed thisto how thyroid hormone af-fects the metabolism withincells. The thyroid produceshormones that are able toinfluence how much theblood vessels dilate. In turn,this affects how much heatcan escape the body. For thestudy, published in the Pro-ceedings of the NationalAcademy of Sciences, theresearchers studied mice with a mutated thy-roid hormone receptor (receptor-mediated hy-pothyroidism). This particular mutation onlyaffects one type of hormone receptor calledTRalpha 1.

According to the researchers, TRalpha 1is only expressed in certain tissues, and themutation makes the tissue unresponsive to thy-roid hormone, particularly in the central ner-vous system, bone and all muscle types. Dr.Amy Warner, researcher at the Department ofCell and Molecular Biology at the KarolinskaInstitutet, told Medical News Today:

“This makes it easier to study certain as-pects of thyroid dysfunction, while others re-

main normal. It’s well known that thyroidhormone drives up basal metabolic rate, byaffecting how quickly cells metabolize, andhypothyroidism should therefore show theopposite.” Previous studies have shown thatmice with this defect had an overactive me-

tabolism, caused by the energyneeded to generate heat frombrown fat.

“When our supposedly hy-pothyroid mice showed an in-crease in metabolism and wereburning energy through activat-ing their brown fat, we wereconfused by this paradox andwanted to find out why thisoccurred,” Dr. Warner added.The researchers took infraredimages of the mice, which re-vealed that they were losing asignificant amount of heatthrough their tails. This showedthat the mutated thyroid hor-mone receptor meant the micewere unable to sufficientlyregulate the constriction of theirblood vessels.

“Mice with a non-functioning TRalpha 1receptor cannot properly regulate their bodytemperature, and this is due to impaired con-trol of their blood vessels, in areas where theyare used for temperature regulation, such asthe tail.” “Shown through infrared imaging,at room temperature, the tail blood vessels donot constrict properly, and too much heat islost. The mice cannot defend their body tem-perature correctly, and therefore need to gen-erate heat from their brown fat to keep warm.Activation of brown fat requires an increasein energy demands to maintain, hence whythese mice have a higher metabolism, despitebeing hypothyroid.”

How body temperature isaffected by thyroid hormone

RAZA UR REHMAN

ISLAMABAD—The funeral prayer inabsentia for Custodian of Two HolyMosques King Abdullah bin Abdul Azizwas offered here at Faisal Mosque onSaturday.

Saudi King Abdullah passed awayon Friday at age of 90.

The funeral prayer organized by In-ternational Islamic Universi tyIslamabad (IIUI), was led by FederalMinister for Religious Affairs and In-

STAFF REPORTER

ISLAMABAD—For general publicand Urdu-knowing readers the goodnews is Khushwant Singh’s master-piece, biography of Ranjeet Singhhas been translated into Urdu. Theoriginal title ‘Ranjeet Singh: Maha-raja of Punjab’ has been translatedinto Urdu as ‘Ranjeet Singh: Punjabka Maharaja’. Pakistan Observer’sstaff reporter Zubair Qureshi has ren-dered the translation which has beenappreciated by note scholars andwriters of the country. Among theminclude Chairman of Al-Hamra ArtsCouncil Lahore and noted columnistAtta-ul-Haq Qasmi, Chairperson ofthe IIU Urdu Department (WomenCampus) Prof Najeeba Arif,, writerand critic Prof Dr Tauseef Tabassumand poet Tariq Naeem.

The book divided into 21 chap-ters (with a separate chapter on ref-erences/glossary) gives details ofRanjeet Singh’s early life, his rise topower and fame, his conquests ofLahore, Peshawar, Nowshera,Multan, Kashmir, Amritsar, Jhang,Attock and Kasur, his political anddiplomatic acumen and above all hislove for horses and women.

In the foreword of the book,Qureshi writes Ranjeet Singh (1780-

1839) can rightly be called son of thesoil (born in Gujranwala) as he notonly succeeded in blocking military

advances from Afghanistan side butalso kept the British at arm’s lengthand generated fear and caution intheir hearts about rising Punjabi na-tionalism. It is surprising RanjeetSingh endeared people of all castesand religions and recruited Hindus,

Muslims, Christians in his army.More surprisingly, a large number ofthe French and European generalstravelled all the way to become partof the Khalsa Army, he notes.“Through translation of the book, Ihave come to know Europeans’ crazefor Lahore and its charms.

Lahore has mesmerized theworld and continues to do so eventoday,” he said. By translatingKhushwant Singh Ji’s book, I havetried to tell my countrymen about thecontribution of the Sikhs in the de-velopment of this region, he added.In the foreword, he writes, “Today,one can trace the signs of Sikh Ar-chitecture, Sikh civilizations andSikh culture sprawled across the ter-rains of Punjab and KhyberPakhtunkhwa.”

In critically appreciating thebook, Najeeba Arif Chairperson ofthe Urdu Department IIU (WomenCampus) writes, “Through transla-tion of the book, Zubair Qureshi hasrevealed many facts related to theland of Punjab which so far were hid-den from us. One may differ withKhushwant Singh’s views but at thesame while reading the book thereare instances when one is compelledto review one’s opinion about certainthings, incidents and happenings.

Zubair Qureshi has translatedKhushwant Singh’s book excellentlyand has shown that he is for build-ing bridges instead of raising walls.”

Atta-ul-Haq Qasmi also com-mends the effort by the journalistsaying, “The book can serve as anhistoric document to understandLahore and its surroundings in thedays of Sikh Raj. Zubair Qureshi’stranslation is a good addition in thecategory of such books.”

Talking to Pakistan Observer,Qureshi said as he started readingKhushwant Singh’s original book, hecould not help transferring it intoUrdu. I have shown the book to emi-nent scholars and they have appreci-ated my efforts.

To a question, he said Mr ZahidMalik Editor-in-Chief of PakistanObserver is the first whom he pre-sented the book after publication.“Our Editor-in-Chief’s personality isa constant source of inspiration forus.

To me, particularly, Mr Malik hasbeen very kind and has always en-couraged me in such creat iveendeavours, he said. The bookthough costs Rs500 yet can be avail-able on 30 percent discount (Rs350)by personally contacting me on0334-5235406, said he.

PO staff reporter translatesRanjeet Singh’s biography

Ambassador of Thailand Tomwit Jarnson, Defence Military Attache Col Prasert Muadjienga and others cutting the cakeduring a ceremony to celebrate Royal Thai Armed Forces Day at a local hotel.

King Abdullah’s funeral prayer inabsentia offered at Faisal Mosque

Federal Minister for Religious Affairs Sardar Muhammad Yousaf leading in absentia funeral prayer of SaudiKing Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz at Faisal Masjid. Special Assistant to PM Sartaj Aziz, Acting Ambassador of SaudiArabia Jasim Al Khalidi, Editor in Chief Pakistan Observer Zahid Malik and Ambassadors of different countriesare seen in the picture.—PO photo by Sultan Bashir

ter-faith Harmony Sardar MuhammadYousaf.

Advisor to the Prime Minister onForeign Affairs Sartaj Aziz, Saudi Am-bassador to Pakistan Jassim M AlKhalidi, Cultural Attach‚ Dr. Haza Al-Ghamdi, Head Maktab tu DawahMuhammad Saad bin Al- Doussri, dip-lomats of various Islamic countries,former Senate Chairman MianMuhammad Soomro, Editor in ChiefPakistan Observer Zahid Malik, ActingPresident IIUI Dr. Mohammad Bashir

Khan, Vice President IIUI, deans, di-rectors, university teachers and employ-ees, and people belonging to differentwalks of life participated in the prayer.

Talking to journalists on the occa-sion, Sardar Muhammad Yousaf saidthe death of King Abdullah was an ir-reparable loss to the Muslim Ummah.

The Pakistani nation, he said, stoodwith the King’s family and Saudi na-tion in this hour of grief. He said theexisting strong Pak-Saudi relationswould further grow in future.

ZUBAIR QURESHI

ISLAMABAD—The Islamabad High Court(IHC) is taking up appeal against death sentenceto Salman Taseer’s murderer Mumtaz Qadri nextweek on January 27. Mumtaz Qadri the Punjabelite force constable had assassinated formerGovernor Punjab Salman Taseer on January 4,2011 in Islamabad’s Kohsar Market for thegovernor’s alleged blasphemous remarks. Hewas awarded death sentence by an anti-terror-ism court on Oct 1, 2011 on two counts undersection 302 PPC and 7 ATA. Qadri had con-fessed in the that he had killed Punjab governorSalman Taseer for his ‘blasphemous’ statements.

However the sentence was challenged in theIslamabad High Court and the IHC had stayedhis conviction on October 11.

Former Chief Justice Lahore High CourtKhwaja Muhammad Sharif had filed the appealin the Islamabad High Court against Qadri’s con-viction. Hearing appeal against Qadri’s convic-tion, the IHC bench comprising the then ChiefJustice IHC Iqbal Hameed-ur-Rehman and Jus-tice Mohammad Anwar Khan Kasi had issued anotice to the state (prosecution) and ordered thattill a decision on the plea the execution on thedeath sentence be stayed.

On January 27, a division bench compris-ing Justice Noor-ul-Haq N Qureshi and JusticeShaukat Aziz Siddiqui will hear the appealagainst Qadri’s conviction.

Khawaja Muhammad Sharif is leading thepanel of lawyers defending Mumtaz Qadri. It issome three years and three months after the staygranted to Qadri that IHC is hearing his appeal.

IHC to take up MumtazQadri’s cases on 27th

CITY REPORTER

IS L A M A B A D—Inspector General ,Islamabad Police, Tahir Alam KhanSaturday urged the media to go hand inhand with Islamabad Police in its cam-paign against all types of crimes espe-cially the menace of terrorism. Address-ing at a luncheon reception hosted inhonor of mediapersons at the Headquar-ters of Islamabad Police, he said thatthe media could play a very importantrole in the efforts to eliminate crimesfrom the society as well as root out ter-rorism and extremism from the coun-try.

He acknowledged the role and sup-port of media during the tragic incidents

occurred in Islamabad Capital Territory(ICT). The IG, Islamabad Police sug-gested the media not to glorify terror-ists and their activities instead educateand guide the general public while re-porting terror incidents. Tahir Alamsaid that the country was passingthrough a critical phase of its historyand the nation was fighting a waragainst terrorism. Therefore, both po-lice and media should understand theirresponsibilities and extend support toeach other to completely eliminatecrimes from the society.

He said that police would welcomeany criticism on its performance butmedia should also take version of po-lice while reporting incidents of crimes

in the federal capital.The IG Islamabad Police announced

that Assistant Inspector General PoliceOperation, Islamabad, Sultan AzamTemuri (PSP) would perform as a liai-son officer between media and policeand would be available to respond toqueries of mediapersons.

Tahir Alam said that now mediashould feel free to contact a responsibleofficer for any query regarding any in-cident in ICT jurisdiction. A large num-ber of journalists belonging to print andelectronic media besides different ranksof police officials attended the recep-tion. Police band and police musicalgroup enthralled the audience with theirfamous melodies.

Police Chief urges media to join handsfor countering terrorism

ISLAMABAD —The Peace & Culture organizationarranged a literary ceremony named “Poets forKashmir.” The ceremony was participated by fa-mous poets, civil society members, journalists andpeople from other walks of life. A poetic sympo-sium (Mushaira) was also conducted, said a pressrelease. Chairperson Peace & Culture Organizationand wife of Kashmiri Hurriat Leader Yasin Malik,Mushaal Hussein Mullick also presented her En-glish poem and some verses from famous Kashmiripoet Agha Shahid Ali’s poetry.

Vice Chairperson PCO Rehana Mullick andSecretary General Sabien Hussein Mullick also at-

tended the event.Anjum Khaliq, Professor Maqsud Jaffari,

Javed Ahmed, Junaid Azar, Farkhanda Shamim,Asghar Abid, Ali Yasir, Ali Qaswar, Wafa Chishtiand Ali Akbar Abbas were among the participants.They presented their lyrics and depicted occupiedKashmir problems, culture, feelings, hope in animpressive way and collected warm applause frompoets and participants. Incumbent situation ofoccupied Kashmir was also discussed and a reso-lution passed unanimously, demanding the worldand United Nations to perform their roles to getrid of Indian oppression.—APP

Literary seminar on‘Poets for Kashmir’

Anti-encroachmentcampaign

ISLAMABAD—EnforcementDirectorate of the Capital De-velopment Authority (CDA)continues with its anti-en-croachment campaign indis-criminately and with full zeal.

Teams of Enforcement Di-rectorate during anti-encroach-ment operations in Markaz G-11, Markaz G-9, near PIMShospital and Margalla Narialarea of Bari Imam confiscatedtwo (02) trucks of encroachedmaterial and also demolishedtwo illegally constructedboundary walls on CDA land.

During joint operations indifferent areas of Islamabad,teams of Enforcement Director-ate along with Islamabad Capi-tal Administration (ICT) andIslamabad Police, confiscatedeleven (11) trucks of encroachedmaterial. These all operationswere carried out with mutualconsultation and cooperation oftrader unions.—APP

06:25 01:3004:00

07:15

Zohr

Asr

Isha

Fajar

Meghrab at Sunset

Brothers in Islamestablish regularprayers & charity

January 25Meelad-e-Mustafa

ANNUAL Meelad-e-Mustafa (SAWW) & HaqBahoo (RA) Conference tobe presided over byJ a n a s h e e n - e - S u l t a n - u l -Faqr Hadrat SultanMuhammad Ali Sab, Patronin chief Islahi Jammat waAalmi Tanzeem ul Arifeenof Darbar-e-Alia HadratSultan Bahoo (RA) will beheld on January 25 from12:00 pm to 3:00 pm atJinnah Convention Centre.

January 28Reference

CONDOLENCE Referencefor Prof. Zahida Qaziorganised by Fellowship ofFederal Government Femalefaculty (R) to be held atIslamabad Club on Jan. 28 at4 p.m. Professor Qaiserah MAlvi to preside.

January 29Report launch

REPORT launch androundtable discussion “Po-lice, Politics and the peopleof Pakistan” to be held onThursday, January 26 at01:00 pm at Shamadan-3 Hall,Hotel Serena Hotel.

People gather at the site after an explosion in a house at New Gulzar-e-Quaid due to gas leakage. A view of ongoing Metro bus project in front of Presidency.

PNHA organizesfree medical

camp for CTPRAWALPINDI—Pakistan Na-tional Heart Association(PNHA) on Saturday orga-nized a free medical check upcamp for Wardens of CityTraffic Police (CTP)Rawalpindi here at RaceCourse Traffic Headquar-ters.

A team of renowneddoctors including Dr. ImtiazChaudhary and Dr. KhalidAnsari checked up the se-nior and junior traffic war-dens while free medicineswere also provided to thepatients.

Several medical tests in-cluding hepatitis A, B andother check ups were con-ducted in the camp.—APP

Security forPolio campaign

ISLAMABAD—Fool proofsecurity arrangementswould be made for poliocampaign starting from Feb1 in the capital and its sur-rounding areas. In this re-gard Health ministry hassought more security guardsfor accompanying polioworkers during their duty.

In the polio campaigncommencing from 1st Feb-ruary 6 million kids underthe age of 5 will be adminis-tered polio drops.—Online

RAWALPINDI—At least two members of afamily were killed and three others badlyinjured in a gas explosion in Gulzar-e- Quaidhere on Saturday.

According to the police, the blasttook place due to a gas leakage from thekitchen of the house and left as many astwo persons dead and three others

Two family members die inRawalpindi gas explosion

badly scorched. The injured were shiftedto the burn centre of Pakistan Institu-tion of Medical Sciences (PIMS) hospi-tal.

Windows and other items were alsodamaged in the explosion. Moreover, po-lice sources revealed that the house washaving illegal connection of gas.—INP

RAZA UR REHMAN

ISLAMABAD—Terming the Anti-terror-ism Act, 1997, as very powerful law tocombat the menace of terrorism in all itsforms and manifestations, Mr. JusticeQazi Faez Isa, Judge of the SupremeCourt of Pakistan, has urged the keyplayers of administration of Criminal Jus-tice System to read and examine thisspecial law meticulously for its effectiveapplication so as to bring the perpetra-tors of terrorist acts to justice.

He expressed these views in the cer-tificate awarding ceremony at the con-clusion of a week-long National Train-ing of Trainers Workshop for Judges,Prosecutors and Investigators on theGlobal Legal Framework against Terror-

ism and Relevant Criminal Measures atthe Federal Judicial Academy, Islamabadon Saturday. He said, “Anti-terrorismAct, 1997 is a special law and it providessuch tools to Judges of Anti-terrorismCourts, Prosecutors and Investigatorswhich are not available with the ordi-nary players of justice system. Thosespecial tools are often overlooked by thejudges, prosecutors and investigators.All of you are required to apply thosespecial tools to effectively check theperpetrators of terrorist acts who haveput peace at stake.”

Justice Faez Isa said that ATA Lawwas loud and clear that the media shouldnot propagate the ideas of the bannedorganizations but the question was howmany Judges of the Anti-terrorism

Courts have had applied the relevantsection available in this special law. Stop-ping of the propagation of particular ex-tremist/terrorist ideas was very impor-tant to combat the terrorism in the coun-try.

“The laws, the Constitution, are thewill of the people and those need to berespected. Judges only interpret thelaws,” he observed. The Judge also illu-minated the learned participants withverses from the glorious Quran, particu-larly, from Surah Mai’da, and Surah Nisa,regarding the sanctity of human life inIslam, unequivocal condemnation andpainful punishment for terrorism andsuicide bombing but it was unfortunatethat nowadays terrorism was associatedwith the religion of Islam whose even

greeting to each other what we say “As-Salaam-o- Alaikum,” has the meaning“Peace be unto you” and its reply whatwe say “ Wa Alaikum-o- Salam” carriesthe meaning “ Peace also be unto you”.

This powerful message of our reli-gion Islam has been corrupted. He saidthat intellectual terrorism was more dan-gerous because what was sown, thesame was being reaped. Speaking onthe occasion, UNODC Representative,Mr. Cesar Guedes said that the scourgeof terrorism continued to pose threat toglobal peace; it has caused a colossalloss to different countries and also un-dermined the socioeconomic develop-ment. Elimination of terrorism and build-ing of peace was essential for a peacefulworld and socioeconomic development

in it. Mr. Guedes expressed his unflinch-ing commitment to strengthen partner-ship with the FJA with more such likequality capacity- building programmesin the future.Presenting his welcome speech and anoverview of this unique workshop com-prising judges, prosecutors and inves-tigators, Dr. Faqir Hussain, DG of theAcademy spoke at length about theRight to a fair trial, Due Process of Law,Procedural Safeguards in Cases of Ar-rest and Detention, Fundamental HumanRights, International law, UN Conven-tions, legal instruments, etc. He said thatthe main purpose behind all interna-tional laws and domestic laws was dis-pensation of justice in accordance withthe due process of law.

ATA, 1997 very powerful law to combat terrorism

UNODC representative says terrorismcontinues to pose threat to global peace

Youngsters one wheeling one bicycle at a busy road which may cause any mishap.

STAFF REPORTER

RAWALPINDI—City Traffic Police (CTP)Rawalpindi have launched a specialdrive under which the traffic rules vio-lators particularly those found usingmobile phones while driving will be is-sued challan slips. The drivers onwrong parking and creating hurdles intraffic flow on city roads would also befined and issued challan slips.

Under the drive, city traffic policewould take strict action in accordancewith the law against the violators andspecial checking would be conductedin this regard. The drive has beenlaunched aimed at ensuring safe driv-ing on the city roads and to make thejourney more safe and secure.

Drive against use of mobile phoneswhile driving, wrong parking

City Traffic Officer (CTO) Senior Su-perintendent Police (SSP) ShoaibKhurram Janbaz told that wrong park-ing of vehicles on city roads createstrouble for other road users. The rulesare meant for the safety of drivers andpassengers, he added. He said, trafficrules must be observed on roads asthese are for the safety of the driversand other road users as well. He saidthe use of mobile phone while drivingis dangerous which must be avoided.

The CTO informed that specialcampaigns were launched in the pastby the traffic police to educate roadusers especially motorists about obser-vance of traffic rules which are for theirown safety. He asked the drivers to fol-low traffic rules which make the jour-

ney on roads more safe and secure. Hesaid surveys revealed that most of thetraffic accidents on roads occur due tothe negligence on part of the drivers.

Shoaib Khurram said the city traf-fic police have launched the drive forthe safety and protection of the citi-zens. Efforts are being made to per-suade the road users in the trafficmanagement and an awareness cam-paign is also being run for obser-vance of traffic rules, he said stress-ing strict observance of traffic rulesas only through this way, safe andsecure journey on the roads could beensured. He said, the vehicles and mo-torcycles on roads without properdocuments would be impounded inthe respective police stations.

ISLAMABAD—A firing case at nurse inPakistan Institute of Medical Sciences(PIMS) took a new turn as it was foundthat she attempted to commit suicide af-ter the boy she wanted to tie the knotwith got married to some other girl, po-l ice said. According to police, PIMSnurse, identified as Zubia (16), shot her-self and she is currently under treatment

in Intensive Care Unit (ICU) of PIMS.Police said that they have recovered

Zubia’s pistol and a bullet. They have alsocollected data of her mobile phone. PIMSspokesman said that Zubia was critically in-jured after she received bullet wounds neardoctors’ cafeteria. She was immediately rushedto hospital, he added. She has not yet recordedher statement before the police.—INP

PIMS nurse attemptssuicide: police

STAFF REPORTER

ISLAMABAD—A three-day regional di-rectors’ conference of Allama IqbalOpen University (AIOU) began hereSaturday to adopt ways and means forqualitative improvement in theuniversity’s overall system, particularlyenhancing its role as a research-basedorganization. It is also aimed atstrengthening regional campuses’ rolein providing best possible services tothe students and to ensure quality edu-cation.

Some 44 regional directors (Rds) ofthe university are participating in themoot. Addressing the opening session,Vice-Chancellor Prof Dr Shahid Siddiquihighlighted four areas of priorities setby him, including promotion of researchculture, professional development, re-

vision of text-books and strengthen-ing students’ support system. He saidprofessional development was being at-tached high priority forthe capacity-building of the employees, enablingthem to deliver the best.

Underlying the importance of stu-dents’ support system, he said it wasthe backbone in distance educationsystem. Keeping in view the priorityareas, he said the university had un-dertaken a series of activities, includ-ing skill-based lecture series, distin-guished lecture series, book and au-thor series, research colloquium, aware-ness and advocacy series, and mediadialogue. Dr Siddiqui hoped that theregional campuses could lay specialfocus on maximum utilization of theavailable technology for meeting the re-quirements of distance education.

They should also work hard for thedevelopment of knowledge, skills andattitude to bring about qualitative im-provement in the university’s working,he added. In order to promote self-learning and providing support to re-search work, he said the university’slibrary had been switched over to au-tomation system. Besides this, on-cam-pus training-courses for faculty andnon- faculty employees were inprogress to enable the workforce toprovide unparalleled and error-free ser-vices to the students, he added.

He said a process was underway tolaunch a new students friendly websiteof the university. The first ever-issueof quarterly newsletter would be pub-lished from this month to reconstructand rebuild the university’s imageamong the people, home and abroad.

AIOU regional directors’ conference begins

STAFF REPORTER

ISLAMABAD —Enforcement Directorate of theCapital Development Authority (CDA) duringanti-encroachment operations in Markaz G-11,Markaz G-9, near PIMS hospital and MargallaNarial area of Bari Imam confiscated two (02)trucks of encroached material and also demol-ished two illegally constructed boundary wallson CDA land.

During joint operations in different areasof Islamabad, teams of Enforcement Director-ate along with Islamabad Capital Administra-tion (ICT) and Islamabad Police, confiscatedeleven (11) trucks of encroached material.These all operations were carried out withmutual consultation and cooperation of traderunions.

Traders community have also been askednot to allow any encroachments in front of

their shops and in verandas as these encroach-ments not only cause inconvenience to gen-eral public visiting these markets but also af-fect the business activities.

Teams of Enforcement Directorate, duringother joint operations demolished illegally con-structed rooms in Sector G-13 and MuslimColony. Staff of Enforcement also carried outoperations in Siniarri, Margalla Narial Area ofBari Imam and near Tarnol along the G.T Roadand demolished illegally constructed walls onCDA land. During an anti-encroachment op-eration in sector D-12, staff of EnforcementDirectorate also demolished an illegally con-structed kiosk. Member Administration andEstate, Amer Ali Ahmed has directed the En-forcement Directorate to continue the anti-en-croachment operations on daily basis withoutany fear or favour till the complete eliminationof encroachments from Islamabad.

CDA demolishes encroachmentsin G-11, G-9, Bari Imam areas

RAWALPINDI—Rawalpindi Police on Saturdayarrested 12 lawbreakers, including a drunkardand seized 1945 grams charras, 19 liter wine, a30-bore pistol with four rounds, a 12-bore riflewith three rounds and LPG refilling gadgets fromthe possession of the accused.

According to a Rawalpindi police spokesman,Banni police held Malik Israr for having 515 gramscharras while Mukhtar was sent behind the barsfor possessing 520 grams charras. Wah Cantt po-lice netted Zulfiqar with 550 grams charras.

Sadiqabad police booked Ghalib on recoveryof five liter wine. Westridge police recovered 10liter wine from an accused namely Mahar. Taxila

police held Habib Noor with four liter wine.Meanwhile, Gungmandi police arrested a

drunkard namely Ibrahim as he was allegedly un-der the influence of alcohol. Other accused werebooked with drugs, liquor and illegal weapons.

Meanwhile, police on Saturday conducteda special search operation in Khottha Kalanand its adjoining areas in the jurisdiction ofMorgah police station. Heavy contingentsof police commandos, Special Branch person-nel, Elite Force, Muhafiz Squad and ladiespolice took part in the search operation heldon the directive of City Police Officer (CPO)Rawalpindi Humayun Bashir Tararin.—APP

Police launches operationagainst outlaws

Agha Syed Hassan Al-Mosavi, President Anjaman-e-Shari Shia, Jammu and Kashmir called on Maulana Fazal-ur-Rehman, Chairman Special Commit-tee of the National Assembly on Kashmir in Islamabad.

ISLAMABAD: Amir JUI-AJK Maulana Saeed Yousaf meeting AJK Prime Minister Ch.Abdul Majeed here on Saturday.

MEHMOOD UR RASHID

IT WAS the beginning of 1990 that myPandit friend left the town. Just a yearlater, in the beginning of the year 1991,

I left the town. My friend, as part of acommunity with a distinct religious iden-tity, and political tradition, left his nativetown because he thought his communitymight become the target of a new condi-tion that was emerging in Kashmir; a con-dition that was represented by the armedresistance and mass protests from theKashmiri Muslims against the Indian con-trol of Kashmir.

This, the Muslims of Kashmir consid-ered, and do consider, as FreedomStruggle. Of course, my Pandit friend willhave a different description for the condi-tion that emerged in 1990s. And he has aright to understand it his own way, andexpress it accordingly. As long as the ex-pression of difference doesn’t bring dis-grace to the atmosphere, one can deliber-

A Tale of Two Displacementsate on the most thorny issues.

I left, because my family thought thatwe might become the target of the Indianarmy that had days before cordoned offthe entire town, searched the houses, ar-rested some dozens of people randomly;tortured them. My father was in no wayassociated with any militant organistion.This is only to state a matter-of-fact, andnever meant to dissociate from thepeople’s resistance which was owned bya religious and political community –Kashmiri Muslims – of which me and myfamily is a part.

My father was not even a member ofany political party. The reason we had toleave was that my father was known forhis ideological orientation and was asso-ciated with an organisation that was partof a Muslim Revivalist spectrum, thoughapolitical. He had to leave because all suchelements were thought of as being par-ticipants, and producers, of the Post 1990situation.

My family’s migration from thehometown was not a singular incident.Hundreds of families, if not thousands,had to leave the native locations, in thesubsequent years, as the repression of theIndian armed forces grew. The Kashmirof 1990s is a witness to the worst kind ofhomelessness and dispossession, whenpeople were forced to leave their homesand hearths just because they were, orwere seen, as part of the Kashmir’s Free-dom Struggle.

In the heydays of counter-insurgencylarge number of families left their nativeplaces without even knowing where tosettle down finally. The world will cometo know about that phase of state repres-sion in Kashmir only later when our gen-eration will start telling its stories.

What happened to Kashmiri Panditsis tragic. They have a right to live in Kash-mir, as part of Kashmir. We must go aheadand accept that Kashmiri Pandits have aright to live in Kashmir upholding their

political position, and safeguarding theiremotional landscape. For this they can’tbe blamed. If they want Kashmir to be apart of India, be that. If they rejoice andcelebrate when India beats Pakistan in thecricket ground, why anger.

Similarly Kashmiri Muslims have aright to live in Kashmir, upholding theirpolitical positions, and nurturing theiremotional landscape. Why oppress themif they question the existing political struc-tures. Even if there wasn’t a UN Resolu-tions, people have a right to question theexisting political schemes. The collapseof Nation and State into each other hasbecome a perpetual and established sourceof terror. It’s this demonic face of Na-tion-State, and our parochial outlook to-wards politics, that has ruined our inter-communal relations.

In this fiendish construct of Nation-State we - Kashmir Pandits and KashmirMuslims – inevitably come in each other’sway. Hence enemy images, and conse-

quent disruption. The reason why myfriend continues to live in Jammu, and myfather, despite his intense longing to goback, was finally laid to rest away fromhis place of birth and identity.

We are the victims of a same situa-tion. Our tragedy is that we look for thesource of the problem in each other, whenit’s outside both of us. Looking from here,may be we discover ways to approach ourproblem jointly, rather than blame eachother for our respective sufferings. If fora while we transcend anger, emotion, po-litical affiliation, and material interest, wewill suddenly cease seeing the other as aninevitable enemy. But this needs an ex-tra-ordinary courage.

The point that I want make is this: theright way to understand the problem ofKashmiri Pandits is not to formulate thequestion as who made them leave Kash-mir, but what made them leave Kashmir.And in the similar vein the Muslim fami-lies that ended up leaving their native vil-

lages and towns should focus on what, andleave behind who. Fixing the blame mo-mentarily gives relief to an aggrieved soul,but it deepens the fixation to past.

Understanding What is futuristic, andit opens up new horizons of possible. Weonly linger in anguish if we permanentlyhang ourselves to the the question of whodid it to me. And just think what doesthis question lead to. If we finally fix theblame, it means we sharpen the sword tochop some more heads. That is wellsettled in the logic of hunting down theculprit.

Tailpiece: I wish I and my friend againmeet at Totakhshah Saebun Waeder – thehillock in Bijbehara - and talk about ourexperiences, without scoring points overeach other. And with a longing to think to-gether for Kashmir, to secure its politicaland human rights. That hillock, our hang-out in the town, is best suited for this inter-action. The worst are the TV studios.

—Courtesy: Greater Kashmir

JAMMU—Asserting that Peoples Demo-cratic Party would not sell its mandatefor the sake of power, party patron MuftiMuhammad Sayeed Saturday said thatthe interests of state and its people alonewill guide the party in its bid to form astable and representative government inJammu and Kashmir.

Addressing the electoral college ofthe party that had met here today to electPDP president, Mufti said that the partywas in informal negotiation withBhartiya Janta Party and dependingupon the areas of convergence a coali-tion would be formed on the basis ofCommon Minimum Programme. “Weare in track two negotiations with BJP.We may differ in our vision and priori-ties but an attempt is being made to finda common ground so as to evolve con-sensus on all issues to carry forward thepeace process and political and eco-nomic agenda”, he said.

Reiterating that assuming powerwas never his priority he said, “Our al-liance with any political party will bebased on principals and policies. I as-sure you and the people of Jammu andKashmir that I will never sell my man-date and will not compromise on thebasic, issues on which the people havereposed trust on PDP, just for the sakeof power”.

He said that after some consensusevolves during the “informal talks”, theparty will depute its senior party lead-ers for holding structured dialogue withBJP. “We will have to agree on basicissues and move forward for transform-ing Jammu and Kashmir into politicallystable and economically developed statefor which peace is the pre requisite”,he said adding that Common MinimumProgramme will form the basics of gov-ernance in Jammu and Kashmir forwhich negotiations were on with BJP.

He said that decisive but fracturedmandate has thrown up one of the big-

JK state’s interest paramountin govt formation: Mufti

gest challenge for his party but “PDPwill take up the challenge only if I feelthat by entering into an alliance I willbe in a position to connect people of allthe regions and work for the welfare ofentire state”.

“We have the necessary materialand capacity in the form of our leadersand policy makers to take up the chal-lenge and do what people have votedus for. Our administration is best in theentire country and we are confident thatwe will achieve the distinction to givea stable, accountable and representativegovernment”.

his stand that peace was the pre-req-uisite for economic viability in Jammuand Kashmir, Mufti said that Govern-ment of India will have to address Kash-mir issue by holding meaningful dia-logue. “We have time and again reiter-ated that neighbourer can not bechanged and it was the time when wemust engage Pakistan in negotiations soto ensure peace in the sub-continent.

“We do not want to dictate termsas it is under the ambit of PrimeMinister’s power to decide on the for-eign policy matters. However, it is alsoclear that any hostility between Indiaand Pakistan has a direct impact onJammu and Kashmir and its people. Wewant that peace should prevail on theborders and within in the state. We wantto bridge the gap between the twoneighbouring countries for ensuringpeace in the region”.

He said that Narendera Modi hadmade the right beginning by invitingPM of Pakistan Nawaz Sharief for hisinauguration but unfortunately this posi-tive initiative was stalled soon after bycalling off the talks between the foreignsecretaries of the two countries.

Mufti said that country’s leadershiphas to responde and respect the faithreposed by the people of Jammu andKashmir in democratic process. The

best way to do that, he said, is to re-move the impression that Jammu andKashmir is being governed by militarylaw. This, he said, is a source of em-bracement for our country even at thenational level and the continues use ofspecial powers for security forces com-promises the dignity and personal lib-erty of the common people who musthave the same benefit and rights as en-joyed by any citizen in the country.

Calling for revocation of ArmedForces Special Powers Act in timebound manner, Mufti said that the re-quirement of such special powers to theforces no more exist in view of the dras-tic decline in militancy. When such lawsgive adverse impression why should wehave them”, he said adding that PDPwas clear on the issue that it does notwant just an assurance for the sake ofassurance on this subject but a properplan to see that the law is repealed atthe earliest.

He said that the Kashmiri youthwere facing problems in pursuing theirstudies outside the state. “The youthhave become a particular victim of trustdeficit between the state and rest of thecountry”, he said adding that his aimwas to restore the dignity of citizens ofJammu and Kashmir whose loyalty tothe country is suspected and who arerequired to prove their patriotism inevery matter including finding a job,getting a passport or finding a residenceoutside the state. “It is the blot on thefair name of our country that even after70 years of independence Kashmirieshave to prove their credentials and trustworthiness”, he said adding that PDPwant to relive the people of this embar-rassment.

The PDP patron further said that hisparty will insist for the returning ofNHPC run power projects, especiallyDul Hasti and Salal, to Jammu andKashmir as per the recommendations

of Rangrajan Committee. “The state ofJammu and Kashmir has suffered dueto the Indus Water Treaty as the inter-est of state were not taken care of whensuch agreement was entered into”, hesaid adding that rivers being one of thebiggest resources of state will have tobe utilized for the welfare of Jammu andKashmir and its people.

Mufti further sought strengtheningof cross-LoC trade and travel in thecoming days. LoC travel was envi-sioned to be a facility to everyone want-ing to visit each other’s country and notto remain confined to the divided fami-lies. He said that travel across the LoCafter 2005 has helped in removing manymisconceptions about our state, its de-velopment and the right enjoyed by thepeople in the state among those whocome from other side of the LoC.

Jammu and Kashmir, he said, hasto be developed as a showcase of thecountry and we should not shy in al-lowing the people to come and feel thedifference.

“Similarly, the trade that wasstarted on Uri-Muzaffarabad andPoonch-Rawlakote route has to growbeyond its barter character and it needto be institutionalized by providingbanking facilities so that people of allthe regions of state benefit from freetrade”. He said that PDP remains com-mitted for opening of other routs aswell. The PDP patron further spoke atlength about the party’s plan to put acurb on corruption and ensure transpar-ency and accountability in the govern-ment sector.

One of the objectives of the newgovernment, he said, must be to meetthe growing challenge of unemploy-ment. “We have best skilled and edu-cated youth who are second to none. Wejust need to channelize their energy andcapabilities for which immediate mea-sures need to be taken”, he said.—KW

SR I N A G A R —Militant outf i t HizbulMujhadeen has said that the ‘hollowness’ ofIndian democracy stood exposed as in thename of BJP, Hindu fanatic organizationslike Hindu Vishwa Parishad and RSS havebeen directly ruling India.

Quoting Syed Salauddin, United JihadCouncil spokesperson Syed Sadaqat Hussainsaid that Hizb Chief while appealing to thepeople of Jammu and Kashmir to observeJanuary 26 as ‘black day’, said that not onlyMuslims and Christians are forced to em-brace Hinduism but the VHP Chief PraveenTogadia has categorically claimed that incoming few years whole population of Indiawill be Hindhudized.

“Since 1947, Indian troopers havemartyred thousands of Kashmiri people whodemanded right to self-determination and the

Salahuddin calls forshutdown on Jan 26

process is going on. India has been using allthe tactics to suppress the freedom movementin Kashmir. It has been resorting to extra-custodial killings and random arrests of in-nocent youth,” Salahuddin said.

He said that Indian Prime Minister ishatching a conspiracy to settle West Paki-stan Hindu refugees to change the demo-graphic character of Jammu and Kashmir.“India has no justification in celebrating itsRepublic Day in Kashmir when it has ter-rorized the people and abused basic humanrights,” he said.

He appealed people to observe a com-plete shutdown on January 26 and give a loudand clear message to International commu-nity that they are against Indian occupationand will continue their struggle till it is nottaken to its logical conclusion.—KW

NEW DELHI—Renowned Muslim cleric andpresident ‘All India Muslim MajlisMashawrat’, (AIMMM) Dr Zafarul IslamKhan while justifying the strike observed bypeople of Kashmir on Friday criticized theFrench satirical weekly for publishing newcaricatures depicting Islam’s ProphetMuhammad (PBUH) in its first issue after thekillings.

He denounced the new caricatures’ as in-solence, ignorance and foolishness and said thatFreedom of speech must not become a hate-speech and it is not an offense to the others.He said that no sane person, regardless of doc-trine, religion or faith, accepts his beliefs be-ing ridiculed.

“The decision to print more caricatures ofProphet Muhammad (PBUH) is an unneces-sary provocation and sign of disrespect thatwould create a backlash. The journalists work-ing at Charlie Hebdo invited death and destruc-tion to themselves as they offend the religious

AIMMM: Muslims haveright to protect their values

MIRPUR: Mrs Tina Hameed Dar Director Portal Education Consultants Lahore is manag-ing Teachers Training Workshop here on Jan. 24,2015.

JAMMU—To end the dead-lock over government forma-tion in Jammu and Kashmir,the BharatiyaJanata Partyand the Peoples DemocraticParty have decided to beginthe structured dialogue to go-over the controversial issuesand formulate a CommonMinimum Programme(CMP) for the new govern-ment, sources told GreaterKashmir.

The PDP panel, on theother hand, would includeparty’s two MPs and three se-nior leaders, the sources dis-closed. According to sources,both the parties will nomi-nate five members each forthe structured dialogue

PDP, BJP 10-member teamto discuss govt formation

aimed at settling the conten-tious issues like Article 370,revocation of Armed ForcesSpecial Powers Act (AFSPA)and talks with Pakistan andseparat ist leadership ofKashmir.

The BJP is l ikely tonominate Union MinistersArunJaitley and DrJaitnderSingh and senior leadersRam Madhav, Jugal KishoreSharma and Nirmal Singh tothe five member panel. ThePDP panel, on the other hand,would include party’s twoMPs and three senior leaders,the sources disclosed.

Jammu and Kashmir isunder Governer’s Rule sinceJanuary 8.—GK

SRINAGAR—The Chairmanof Democratic Freedom Party(DFP), Shabbir Ahmad Shahhas urged the US President,Barack Obama, to pressurizeIndia to resolve the Kashmirdispute for ensuring durablepeace in the region.ShabbirAhmad Shah in a statementissued in Srinagar comment-ing on the forthcoming visitof the US President to India,reminded him of his promiseduring presidential electioncampaign that he’ll play rolein resolving the Kashmir dis-pute very soon.

He termed India’s arro-gance and stubbornness as

Obama should stress on India tosettle Kashmir dispute: Shabbir

impediment in establishingpeace in South Asia. He saidthat Pakistan as a prime partyto Kashmir dispute was al-ways advocating settlementof the dispute but India nevershowed sincerity.

“We hope the US Presi-dent, by keeping in view theaspirations of the people ofKashmir, would urge the gov-ernment of India to settle thedispute and fulfill his prom-ise in this regard,” he added.

Shabbir Shah also ex-pressed serious concern overthe escalating border tensionbetween Pakistan and Indiaand said that the loss of ci-

vilians in frontier areas couldonly be saved if the Kashmirdispute was settled in accor-dance with the aspirations ofthe Kashmiri people.

Meanwhile, criticizingauthorities over harassinggeneral public in view of In-dian Republic Day, the partyspokesman said that by sub-jecting people to severe hu-miliation through frequentfrisking it had become clearthat despite its military mightIndia was not able to wintrust of the Kashmiris whowere still demanding free-dom from its forcible occu-pation.—KW

sentiments of billions of Muslims across theglobe by publishing blasphemous caricaturesof Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) in past,” DrZafarul Islam Khan told CNS adding that West-ern rulers are the open enemies of Islam thatenjoy the patronage of United States ofAmerica.

The renowned Islamic scholar said that suchcartoons “fuel feelings of hatred and resentmentamong people” and publishing them “showscontempt” for Muslim feelings. the publicationof new satirical images of Muhammad “amountsto declaring war on all Muslims.” He denouncedthe new caricatures’ as insolence, ignorance andfoolishness and said that Freedom of speechmust not become a hate-speech and it is not anoffense to the others.

He said that every Muslim has right toprotest and send a clear message to the en-emies of Islam that Muslims are alive andcapable to respond to their foolish and insaneacts.—KW

I worry that busi-ness leaders are

more interested inmaterial gain thanthey are in having

the patience tobuild up a strong

organization, and astrong organiza-tion starts withcaring for their

people.

—John Wooden

KARACHI—Pakistan Pharmaceutical Manufacturers As-sociation (PPMA) has told that 61 percent of top 28 sell-ing brands are cheaper in Pakistan as compared to Indiaand even Bangladesh. Prices constraints have erodedprofitability and discouraged investment in capacity; whilepharma companies have seen low declining profitabilityleading to lack of investment in FDA certified plants.

Government should focus on four major initiatives todevelop pharmaceutical sector. Pricing should be reformedand rationalized to support public health and industryperformance, and incentives be offered to invest in FDA-quality plants to gain access to largest export markets.Contract manufacturing should be allowed without limi-tation and government should set high and uniform qual-ity bar, and enforce it. This was urged by Chairman PPMASaeed Allahwala and others while addressing a press con-ference. PPMA other officials including were also presenton this occasion.

Chairman PPMA Saeed Allahwala said that there ismisconception about pharma industry that it is earninghuge profits and is a lavish industry, which is not true at

61pc of 28 brands cheaper in Pakistan compared to neighbouring states: PPMAall. “Some people claim that drugs in Pakistan are costlyas compared to India but in fact, 61 percent of 28 topselling pharmaceutical brands are cheaper here than Indiaand even Bangladesh. Only 39 percent of these top sell-ing brands are a bit costly than India, which is not a bigissue, he added.

During press conference, he showed comparative slidesthrough multimedia presentation of all these 28 top sellingbrands with their prices in Pakistani rupees to support hisarguments. Pharma industry is in dire need of raising medi-cines prices to be saved from more losses. After the seizingof medicines prices in 2001, the cost of production & utilityservices, transport and other expenses has now risen by300% but ironically the government has done nothing toaddress this grave situation. Since 2001 to 2013, cost ofgeneral items is increased by 467 percent, fuel and lighting53, transportation and communication 90, non-food items63, groceries like aata (flour) 338, sugar 155, petrol 230, freshmilk 538 and chicken price is increased by 316 percent.Now, owing to this situation, how can this industry survivewithout price rationalization, he asked.

Referring to Pakistan Business Development Plan andNational Trade Corridor Sector Strategy report launchedby Planning Commission of Pakistan, he told that pharmacompanies have seen low declining profitability leadingto lack of investment in FDA certified plants. There are 90FDA certified plants in India while Italy has 40, China 22,Taiwan 10, Bangladesh 4, Jordan has 3 such plants butunfortunately Pakistan has not a single plant, which iscertified by FDA. Since 2006 to 2008, profitability per-centage of Glaxo Smith Kline is decreased from 22 to 14,Abbott Laboratories Pakistan 23 to 6, Wyeth PakistanLimited 20 to 10 which depicts the actual picture of busi-ness environment. There is a global ratio of pharmaceuti-cal profitability of less than 30 percent, which can only bedreamed by us, he lamented.

Due to pricing issues, availability of essential drugsin Pakistan is becoming a grave issue. Percentage of avail-ability of essential drugs is 65 in public and 95 in privatesector in Tunitia, 50% in public and 90% in private inSudan, 28% in public and 80% in private in Jordan, 18% inpublic and 5% in private sector in Kuwait, 8% in public

and 73% in private in Yemen while this is just 4 percent inpublic and 25 percent in private sector of Pakistan whichis very shameful, he shared.

He said that about 100 pharmaceutical factories hadbeen closed during 15 years and it was feared that morewould face closure. “Five lacs people are directly linkedto this industry. The delay in the price raise will causefurther shortage of medicines in the market and ultimatelysale of substandard and smuggled medicines will get aboost, which will endanger the health of millions of pa-tients in the country.”

In the estimation of Policy Board, Drug Control Au-thority, it was stated that there should be raise of 97 per-cent in the medicines of pharmaceutical industry. The 15interim raise was approved by the government in 2013,which too was withdrawn. In Drug Pricing Policy, the gov-ernment had mentioned to seize the prices of medicinesby November 2013. PPMA asked Prime Minister, FinanceMinister and Health Ministers to play their due role inending crippling crisis hitting pharmaceutical industryhard and save it from heavy losses.

ISLAMABAD—Rice exports from the coun-try during first two quarters of current fi-nancial year witnessed 3.46 percent growthas compared to the corresponding periodof last year. During the period from July-December, 2014 about 1,781,401 metric tonsof rice worth $976.784 million exported ascompared to 1,709,883 metric tons valuing$944.077 million exported in same period oflast financial year.

According the latest figures releasedby Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS), ex-ports of basmati rice recorded 2.63 percentincrease as about 260,481 metric tons ofbasmati rice worth $302.265 million ex-ported as compared to the 269,272 metrictons valuing $294.517 million of same pe-riod last year. Meanwhile, the exports ofrice other then basmati also grew by 3.84

Rice exports post 3.46pcgrowth in first two quarters

per Percent and reached at 1,520,920 met-ric tons costing $674.519 million whichstood at 1,440,611 metric tons valuing$649.560 million during same period lastyear. However, the data reveled that ex-ports of fruit and vegetables from thecountry during the period under reviewremained on down track as their exportswitnessed 3.29 percent and 25.23 percentdecrease respectively.

From July-December, country was man-aged to export 256,146 metric tons of fruitworth $189.136 million, which was recordedat 345,791 metric tons valuing $204.875 mil-lion of corresponding period of last year.Vegetables exports was recorded at 167,648metric tons during the period under reviewas compared to the 244,365 metric tons ofsame period last year, the data added.—APP

ISLAMABAD: Finance Minister Senator Muhammad Ishaq Dar and MoS InformationTechnology Ms. Anusha Rehman addressing a press conference.

FAISALABAD: A farmer busy in spraying wheat crop.SALIM AHMED

LAHORE—Section 140 of Income Tax Ordi-nance 2001 in creating mistrust between thebanks and the business community. Therefore,it should be immediately withdrawn, said theLCCI President Ijaz A. Mumtaz. He said thatgiving powers to the FBR officials to attach/freeze bank account of business entities, whilecases are pending in appeals, would create anenvironment of mutual mistrust among thebusiness fraternity and the commercial banks.

“The FBR move would not only give anegative message to the local investors butwould also give discourage the much-needed foreign investment”, Ijaz A. Mumtazadded. LCCI president said that attaching/freezing of bank accounts of business enti-ties would also bring additional hardshipfor the businessmen who were already bat-tling for survival in the presence of energycrisis and high input cost of doing busi-ness. The LCCI President Ijaz A. Mumtazurged the Federal Finance Minister IshaqDar to immediately stop the FBR from thispractice that is pushing the tax payers tothe wall besides denting the reputation of abusiness-friendly government.

He said that attachment of the bank ac-counts should be the last option but the

LCCI decries morepowers to FBR officials

RTOs/LTUs are wasting no time in takingpunitive action to meet the revenue targets.He said that the Federal Board of Revenuewas constituted to facilitate the business-men but it is presently doing the other wayround through. The LCCI President saidthat the FBR should focus on controllingunder-invoicing and curbing the menace ofsmuggling besides expanding tax net but itis playing arm-twisting by instituting casesfor recovery of outstanding dues and at-taching bank accounts.

Ijaz A. Mumtaz said that it is unfortunatethat the FBR is not releasing what it owes tothe business community but creatingtroubles for the businessmen for the recov-ery of its outstanding dues just to meet therevenue targets and for the sake of show ofperformance. According to FBR’s own docu-ments, the total amount of refund in the year2013-14 has reached the staggering amountof Rs.104 billion which is 16.4% higher thanthe previous year figure of Rs.93.6 billion.

He said that as many as 36000 refundcases are pending with the Federal Board ofRevenue. There are companies which couldnot get cleared their refund cases even afterthe lapse of 14 years. The LCCI Presidentsaid that there should be a level-playing fieldin this regard.

FAISALABAD—Pakistan Yarn MerchantsAssociation has demanded imposition of15% regulatory duty on imports of cottonyarn from India. PYMA Zonel ChairmanMuhammad Akram Pasha and Zonal ViceChairman Adnan Zahid Butt talking to news-men here Saturday stated that during the sixmonths of year 2014 July to December totalquantity of Yarn Imported from India wasrupees 15.8 billions while in the same periodof preceding year the total import was ru-pees 4.2 billions. Thus within six months theimport of Indian yarn quadrupled, impact-ing negatively on the local market.

They said India was trying to sabotagethe Pakistani Yarn Market and Spinningsector by dumping heavily subsidized yarnexports from that country. They explainedthat Indian Government was giving vari-ous incentives and subsidies to its Export-ers enabling them to dump their cotton yarnin Pakistani Markets. The imports of cot-ton yarn from India were thus destroyingthe textile sectors of Pakistan. Substantiat-ing their arguments they said that Textilewas back bone of Pakistani Economy whichwas earning more than 50% of total For-eign Exchange for the Country. Further morehuge number of textile industries and valueadded chain were connected with the spin-

PYMA demands 15pcregularity duty on cottonyarn import from India

ning sectors and yarn market.There fore if the imported Indian cotton

yarn is allowed to enter in Pakistani Marketthen not only the Textile Sectors but alsothe value added chain of Industry wouldbe completely destroyed and millions ofworkers and allied supply chain would berendered jobless. They said that the Gov-ernment was imposing regulatory and anti-duping duties on imports of chemicals, andother items from various Countries. Simi-larly regulatory duty @ 15% should be im-posed on import of cotton yarn from India.This would not only protect the local mar-ket the yarn business the value added in-dustry chain and allied business suppliersbut would also enable the Pakistani Export-ers to earn much needed Foreign Exchangefor the Country.

They drew the attention of the Govern-ment that this demand was being raised byvarious business and industry circles overthe last many months but the Governmenthas not so far taken any concrete action inthis matter. They said that the Governmentshould take cognizance of the matter andimmediately imposed 15% regulatory dutyon import of cotton yarn from India to savethe business industry and export of theCountry.—INP

Profiteers finedKARACHI—The divisionaland district administrationKarachi has challaned 59shopkeepers and fine ofRs. 1,04,500/- wereimposed for overchargingand violating officiallyapproved price lists.According to a pressrelease , during crack-down, the administrationfined 25 milk sellers, 18grocers, four fruits sellers,eleven chicken sellers anda vegetables seller. Theaction against profiteerswere taken in the areasincluding Saddar, AramBagh, Civil Line, Garden,Baldia, Jamshed Quarters,Gulzar Hijri, Liaquat Abad,Gulberg, Nazimabad, NorthNazimabad, Orangi, ModelColony, Landhi, MuradMemon Goth, Shah Faisal,New Karachi and otherareas. CommissionerKarachi Shoaib AhmedSiddiqui has said that theoperation against profi-teers will continue till thesale of essential items isnot ensured according toofficially approved pricelist.—APP

Textile ministrylaunches onlinebusiness portalSIALKOT—The Ministryof Textile Industry haslaunched its first evertextile sector specificbusiness portal in thecountry. Official sourcestold APP on Saturdaythat the purpose of thissite was to enhancebusiness network, locallyand globally for membersof Pakistan HosieryManufacturers Associa-tion (PHMA). Users canregister themselvesonline, fill their profile,show case their productsand get buying queries. Itis more than a website; itis e-commerce solutionfor stakeholders.—APP

US stocks fall,ending 4-day streakNEW YORK—US stocksclosed mostly lower Fridayending a four-day winningstreak, as the sheen cameoff the European CentralBank’s stimulus an-nouncement and profittaking set in. But theNasdaq held up for a gain,its mostly tech stockspulled up in part by coffeechain Starbucks, whichadded 6.5 percent onquarterly earnings thatmatched expectations andthe announcement of anew president and chiefoperating officer.—AFP

STAFF REPORTER

KARACHI—In order to further its mandateof protecting retail investors, raising aware-ness about savings and investment, finan-cial markets and products, and building in-vestor confidence, the Securities and Ex-change Commission of Pakistan (SECP) hasstarted another round of investor aware-ness seminars in collaboration with marketprofessionals and associations.

These seminars are part of the overallinvestor education program, which is aimedat enhancing financial literacy and provid-ing easy access to financial instrumentsthrough setting up of capital market hubs

SECP organizing seminars forinvestor awareness

across major cities of Pakistan. The semi-nars are designed to enlighten the partici-pants about capital markets, mutual andpension funds as investment/savings ve-hicles and initiatives taken by the SECP tosafeguard investor interests.

The first seminar of the series was heldon Saturday, January 24, in Karachi in col-laboration with the CDC on the premises ofthe Institute of Cost and Management Ac-countants of Pakistan. The seminar at-tracted a substantial audience, and turnedout to be a great success with engagingpresentations and highly interactive Q&Asession. The next seminar is scheduled forThursday, January 29, in Lahore.

MIAN ARSHAD

ISLAMABAD—In a bid to make the Pa-kistan Railways economically viableproject and to convert it from loosingto a profit earning organization, thegovernment has been increasing an-nual Public Sector Development Pro-gram (PSDP) allocations significantlyfor railways in last five years.“Around 133% increase in the PSDPhas been made for Pakistan Railwaysin last five years” a well placed sourceat Finance Ministry told this scribehereon Saturday.

Amount of the SPDP allocationsfor the fiscal year 20009-10 was12,681.200 million and with seven percent increase this amount was raisedto Rs 13,629.600 million in the fiscal

Pak Railways gets 133pcsteady increases in PSDPs

year 2010-11” the source added say-ing that more ten percent increasewas given in the PSDP allocations forPakistan Railways in very next fiscalyear 2011-12 and figure of allocationwas raised to15, 000.000 million. Simi-larly, the source said that in the fiscalyear 2012-13 a significant increase of53% was given in the PSDP alloca-tions and figure touched the amountof Rs 22,877.277 million while 35%increase was made in the allocationsin next fiscal year 2013-14 whichraised the amount to Rs 30,964.894million.

“In the current fiscal year 2014-15annual budget an increase of 28% wasannounced and amount of PSDP allo-cation soured to Rs39,566.000 million”the source said adding that in the re-

sponse to the government’s inten-tions the Pakistan Railways took sev-eral measures to expedite the timelycompletion of all under constructionprojects. The source said that Paki-stan Railways improved PSDP formu-lation by engaging all stakeholders inthe process, making realistic cost es-timates of the new projects and allo-cating more funds to 80% ongoingprojects.

“Judicious allocation and releasesof funds based on six-point criteriathat the projects should have beenapproved by the competent forum aswell as only those projects, which weredue for completion in current Finan-cial Year” the source added sayingdescribing few of other conditions ofthe said criteria.

Qaim urges fedgovt to export

0.5m-ton wheatSTAFF REPORTER

KA R A C H I —Sindh ChiefMinister Syed Qaim AliShah has urged the federalgovernment to lift 500,000tons of wheat from Sindhfor export and wave of thecondition of $4500 sub-sidy on each ton.

This he said while talkingto Opposition Leader in theNational Assembly SyedKhursheed Ahmed Shah, whocalled on him at CM HouseSaturday. He said that the fed-eral government was lifting800,000 tons of wheat ofPunjab for export and 400,000tons of Sindh. “This is not fairand an injustice to Sindh,” headded. Opposition LeaderSyed Khursheed Shah told theCM that he had taken up theSindh’s case with Federal Fi-nance Minister Ishaq Dar.

“Now I would talk to himagain and convince him to lift100,000 ton of more wheatfrom Sindh. I’m sure he wouldoblige,” he assured the CM.The CM Syed Qaim Ali saidthat new procurement seasonwas approaching fast.

Gold priceunder

correctionKARACHI—The yellow metalprice in international anddomestic markets remainedunder correction on dull trad-ing while general buyers re-mained busy making deals tomake some gains on lowerprices, traders said.

Gold closed at $1,288 anounce with no change anounce comparing to previ-ous day price while domes-tic bullion price also wit-nessed correction. Gold intola term down by Rs 415 andstayed at Rs 48,685 per tolawhile in grammage value,gold down by Rs 356 to closeat Rs 41,784 per ten gramsrespectively, dealers said.

The gold price remainedunder the hands of leadingtraders as they along withgold hedgers remained busyin manipulating trade andbuyers with less liquidity re-mained cautious for makingany sizeable deal in anticipa-tion of further downward ad-justment in price.—Agencies

Oracle launchesnext-generation

engineeredsystems

STAFF REPORTER

KARACHI—Oracle haslaunched a new systemthat can dramatically re-duce cost, risk, installa-tion, management time,and give customers theability to easily reduce in-frastructure complexity byas much as 70 percent. TheVirtual Compute Appli-ance X5, Oracle FS1 SeriesFlash Storage System, andsixth-generation OracleExadata Database Ma-chine X5, deploys appli-cations 7 times faster, andcut capital expendituresby as much as 50 percent.

Oracle’s integratedappliances are simple touse and ready for produc-tion deployment out of thebox. Oracle experts inte-grate, optimize, automate,test, patch, and supportthe full software and hard-ware stack, significantlylowering customer costs.More than 10,000 unitshave shipped to date asOracle customers acrossthe globe adopt Oracleengineered systems andappliances to simplifytheir IT infrastructures,speed application deploy-ments, and increase datacenter productivity.

“Our appliances andengineered systems de-liver the highest perfor-mance by a large marginat the lowest purchaseprice for the data centercore. They get the jobdone faster, more securelyand more reliably than anycompetitive offering avail-able today,” said ExecutiveChairman of the Board andCTO Larry Ellison. “Ourcustomers want their datacenters to be as simpleand as automated as pos-sible. With some ofOracle’s engineered sys-tems and appliances, youcan pay 50 percent less,but you have to be willingto take twice the perfor-mance,” he mentioned.

Govt to providelow-cost

machinery tofarmers

FAISALABAD—Punjab Ag-riculture Secretary RashidMehmood has said thatempowerment of small farm-ers with modern technol-ogy is imperative for in-creased productivity andpoverty alleviation in ruralareas. Chairing a meeting atthe University of Agricul-ture Faisalabad (UAF), hesaid that the governmentwas devising a mechanismto provide farm machineryat subsidised rates.

He said, “We will holdnegotiation with China,Japan, South Korea andother countries to provideefficient and low cost ma-chinery to our farmers.” Hesaid that harvesting ofcrops took 25 days aftermaturity time due to lackof mechanical support tosmall farmers. He urged theexperts to give properguidelines to the farmersabout increasing yield. Hesaid that steps were afootfor the development of theagriculture sector. Heurged the experts to deviseout-of-the-box plan to in-crease production.—APP

Currency Selling Buying

USA 100.60 100.40

UK 151.02 150.72

Euro 114.32 114.09

Canada 81.27 81.11

Switzerland 115.58 115.35

Australia 80.70 80.54

Sweden 12.24 12.21

Japan 0.8498 0.8481

Norway 13.17 13.14

Singapore 75.22 75.07

Denmark 15.36 15.33

Saudi Arabia 26.78 26.73

Hong Kong 12.98 12.95

Kuwait 340.72 340.04

Malaysia 27.98 27.93

Newzealand 75.60 75.45

Qatar 27.62 27.57

UAE 27.39 27.33

Kr Won 0.0928 0.0926

Thailand 3.084 3.078

PESHAWAR: A shopkeeper arranging dry fruits at his shop in a local market as de-mand of dry fruits increased during winter season.

LAHORE: Romanian Ambassador Emilian ION receiving chamber’s crest during hisvisit to LCCI.

KARACHI: Janan Mosazai, Ambassador of Afghanistan to Pakistan along with Shah AhmedSaeed, Counsel General & Nasir Mayar, Deputy Commercial Attache of Consulate Generalof Afghanistan in Karachi visited PAJCCI’s secretariat. Zubair Motiwala, Co-President,PAJCCI, Directors of PAJCCI Junaid Makda, AQ Khalil, Haji Maeedullah, Iftikhar AhmedVohra, President KCCI, Younus Bashir & Majyd Aziz also seen in picture.

KARACHI—Afghanistan’s Ambassador to Pakistan, JananMosazai here on Saturday said that Afghanistan govern-ment is ready to offer additional incentives and facilitationto Pakistani businessmen especially investors, which isreflected by the proposed exclusive special economic zonein North Afghanistan. This zone will serve as a strongbase for Pakistan to trade with Central Asian States be-sides capturing Afghanistan market.

“We are ready to offer land, electricity, water and otherutilities, low taxes and full security to Pakistani businesscommunity at this special zone. Besides, Pakistani busi-nessmen will be fully encouraged to do business and makeinvestment any where in Afghanistan,” the Ambassadorassured while speaking at a meeting with members ofKarachi Chamber of Commerce and Industry (KCCI) at theChamber.

The Ambassador was accompanied by his Consul Gen-eral in Karachi, Shah Ahmed Saeed and Commercial Con-sul, Nasir Maya. Prominent on KCCI side were its Presi-dent Iftikhar Ahmed Vohra, Senior Vice PresidentMuhammad Ibrahim Kassumbi, Vice President AghaShahab Ahmed, former presidents Majyed Aziz andA.Q.Khalil. Afghan Ambassador to Pakistan said that hisgovernment especially Afghan President Ashraf Ghani iskeen to strengthen economic cooperation withneighbouring Muslim country Pakistan including bilateraland transit trade along with increasing regional trade.

He said that significant progress was made on manyissues of mutual interest during Afghan President’s re-cent visit to Pakistan. An important document on bilateraltrade and investment was also singed during this visit.There are various attractive plans already on papers thatis, highways and railways network and air linkage betweenthe two countries. Peshawar-Kabul Motorway, andChamman-Qandahar railway track are the prominent ones.Serious efforts are required to give these a practical shape

Kabul ready to offer additionalincentives to Pak businessmen: Envoy

and this would be very beneficial for people of both thecountries, he said.

He also assured facilitation to Pakistani exporters insetting up warehouses in Afghanistan for selling theirgoods not only in Afghanistan but to Central Asia. Paki-stani investors can invest in Afghanistan in many sectorsespecially in agriculture, mining, education and construc-tion sectors, he said. He said Afghan government will ex-tend all cooperation to Pakistan in executing the plan ofbringing natural gas from Central Asia to Faisalabad.

“If gas from Central Asia comes in, your textile (indus-try) in Faisalabad will jump to its heights,” he added. Healso agreed to KCCI proposal that more delegations fromdifferent walks of life including businessmen should visiteach other’s country. Afghanistan and Pakistan are strate-gic partners and can jointly resolve their problems be-sides playing a very important role in the entire region. Wehave resources, which need to be duly exploited. “We arebound by ties of blood with many Pakistanis,” he remarked.

To KCCI President Iftikhar Ahmed Vohra’s invitation,the Ambassador assured that Afghan missions in Karachiand Islamabad would make their best efforts to convinceAfghan companies to exhibit their products at KCCI’s ‘MyKarachi : Oasis of Harmony’ exhibition, which is held here inMay for last nine years. He underlined the need for detailedanalysis of the situation and regional environment for peace,security and stability destined to bring economic integrityin both the countries. Both the countries are facing struc-tural changes along with water and power shortage andcalamity challenges. Prosperity and development of boththe countries is inter-dependent, he asserted. The AfghanConsul General and the Commercial Consul in Karachi alsoassured all support in strengthening relationship in bothcountries. President KCCI Iftikhar Ahmed Vohra and otherofficials of Karachi Chambers raised various queries whichwere replied by Afghan diplomats.—APP

FAISALABAD—Vocational skills arebeing promoted in collaboration withprivate sector to weed out poverty andunemployment from Pakistan, saidSyed Naseer Khan Managing Direc-tor Punjab Vocational Training Coun-cil (PVTC). During his visit to theFaisalabad Chamber of Commerce andIndustry (FCCI) here today, he dis-cussed various issues of mutual in-terest with FCCI President EngineerRizwan Ashraf. Equipping our HumanResource (HR) with market drivenskills was a challenge and will paveway for the enhanced employabilityof the skilled workers in addition toexporting them to the HR starved coun-tries.

He also discussed the issues re-lating to the quality of skilled workersviz-viz improvement in the syllabus ofexisting trades. He said that averagesalary of Pakistani worker in othercountries is only 900 Riyal where asSri Lankan are getting 1800 andPilipino 5000 for the same job onlybecause of their attitude and relation-ship with their employers. Similarly, theskilled HR is also imperative to im-prove the quality of our exportablesurplus in addition to increasing our

PVTC promoting training culture toeliminate poverty, unemployment

production; he said and added that itwill help us to fully harvest the fruitsof GSP Plus by increasing our exportsto the European countries.

He directed the officers of thePVTC to compile a comprehensive dataof VTI (Vocational Training Institutes)passed out students during last fiveyears with their trade wise placementor employability. It will help FCCI of-fice bearers to give their feed back,add new trades with improvement inthe syllabus of the existing trades.Engineer Rizwan Ashraf, PresidentFCCI said that our 50% population isconsisted of youth up to the agebracket of 30 years. With only invest-ment of six months to one year, wecould make them to earn respectablelivelihood. He pointed out somebottlenecks in achieving this cher-ished objective and said that onlymarket driven trades should be fo-cused with continuous updating of thesyllabus of the existing courses.

He said that industrial sector wasfacing problem in getting skilled work-ers for its various sections despite ofthe hectic efforts of the Punjab Voca-tional Training Council (PVTC) andTechnical Education and Vocational

Training Authority (TEVTA). He saidthat trained drivers and securityguards are also in great demand andPVTC should immediately take stepsto equip unemployed youth with ap-propriate skills for their immediateplacement. Continuing EngineerRizwan Ashraf said that Pakistaniworkers in other countries are remit-ting approximately 14 Billion Dollarsper annum. Most of them are un-skilled; he said and added that wecould easily double these remittancesby improving their skills and attitude.He said that there was still sufficientroom to export need base skilled work-ers to other countries.

This precious HR could also helpus in bridging gap between our im-port and export, he added. PresidentFCCI also stressed the need to focuson vocational training instead ofspending billions of rupees on tradi-tional education which was produc-ing non productive “Baboos”. Hewelcomed the assurance of SajidNaseer Khan to introduce new tradesand improving the syllabus of exist-ing courses and said that FCCI wasready to cooperate with PVTC in thisexercise.—INP

STAFF REPORTER

KARACHI—The industry has welcomed the100 basis points in discount rate an-nounced in Monetary Policy by the StateBank of Pakistan on Saturday. The Chair-man Lasbela Chamber of Commerce andIndustry (LCCI), Yakoob H Karim has saidthat after a long time, the Governor StateBank has made a wise decision to reduceinterest rate and brought the discount ratedown to 8.5 per cent.

He said that by virtue of this decisionthe industry may take some sigh of relief asreduction of one per cent interest woulddefinitely give some breathing space to thedying industry. He said that the industryhad asked the SBP to reduce 200 basispoints this time but even half of that reliefwould be highly welcomed by the businesscommunity particularly the industry.

Yakoob said that interest rate is an im-

Biz community hails cutin policy rate

portant input for the industrial sector andalways influences the cost of production.He said that industrial sector in Pakistan isstill uncompetitive as compared to the coun-tries like Japan, Sweden and Switzerland inthe international market where industry isbeing financed at 0% interest rates. He alsocited the examples of Austria, Belgium,Canada, France, Germany, Greece, HongKong, Italy, Malaysia, Singapore, Spain,Thailand, United Kingdom, United Statesand even India where interest rates are verylow.

He said that the State Bank of Pakistanhas to brought down the interest rates to 6per cent keeping in view the ground realitiesand strict competition in the internationalmarket. He said that it is now before all of usthat high markup rate is no more sustain-able. It has been causing a great harm toeconomy and would continue to do so un-less and until a realist approach is adopted.

ISLAMABAD—The Northern Regional Com-mittee (NRC) of the Institute of CharteredAccountants of Pakistan (ICAP) organizedthe 1st ever-interactive webinar on “Practi-cal Aspect of Corporate Governance” atICAP House, Islamabad. Chairman NRCSaifullah, commenced the program with briefopening remarks. He appreciated the effortsof all NRC members particularly M. A. Latifwho played a vital role in successfully initi-ating the E-Learning program.

This is a new initiative through whichICAP members can directly log on to the eventfrom their location without hassle of travel-ling to a specific venue, just by using a com-puter and an internet connection. The E-Learning facilitates hassle free learning and

ICAP NRC launches E-learning program

has potential of becoming a popular sourceof continuing professional development.

E- Learning Portal is unique and inno-vative learning experience to all ICAP mem-bers with many folds cost reduction in theirtrainings and professional development. Elearning is part of NRC long-term strategyto improve and introduce electronic meansfor continuing professional development ofour worthy members.

The speaker Muhammad Maqbool, VicePresident North, ICAP, gave a detailed pre-sentation covering history and backgroundof Corporate Governance, Pakistan code ofCorporate Governance for listed companies& public sector entities and practical toolsrelated to Corporate Governance.—PR

STAFF REPORTER

PESHAWAR—KP Chief Minister Pervez Khattak has saidthat his government is making endeavors to provide con-genial atmosphere to the investors and industrialists forthe industrial uplift of the province and addressing theirproblems on priority basis. He was talking to representa-tive delegations of Cherat Cement, Lucky Cement and otherindustrial units led by Salman Farooq, Usman Jhagra andHumayun Khan at CM House Peshawar.

The delegations apprised him of their certain problemsfaced by them. Pervez Khattak said the Government wasalso making sincere efforts to utilize the natural resourcesof the province to the optimum level on its developmentalongside the other available resources and on the wellbeing of the masses. “We are trying to give an attractivepackage and atmosphere to the investors for the promo-tion of investment in the province which also includestapping the hydel resources for generation of inexpensiveelectricity”, he added.

Chief Minister said as many as six new industrial zonesare being established at various parts of the province whereasall these industrial estates are also being handed over to theprivate sector in a bid to properly look after the interests of

KP govt facilitating investors,industrialists: Khattak

the industrialist community. He said unfortunately majorityof the population of KP was faced with poverty and unem-ployment and held the previous regimes for this neglect. Hetold that the KP government was also endeavoring for thecreation of a society where rich and poor were treated at parand every citizen was bound to go by rules and regulations.

The political interference in government departmentsand the tradition of red-tapism have been abolished andpursuing a policy wherein speedy development was en-sured, he added. Pervez Khattak assured the delegationthat their genuine problems would be addressed on prior-ity basis however at the same time he also directed them totake solid measures for halting emission of poisonouschemicals and smoke from their industrial units as it cre-ated health hazards in their respective areas. He told themthe use of scientific means could help control environ-mental pollution and promoting plantation.

The department of Environment, he said would cooper-ate with them in this noble cause, adding the KP governmentalso started billion tree tsunami program to increase a foresta-tion area and control environmental hazards. Similarly he said,in big cities like Peshawar, a comprehensive program hasbeen chalked out for scientific disposal of the municipal solidwaste in order to ensure clean and hygienic condition.

PTEA calls to saveexports decline

FAISALABAD—Pakistan Tex-tile Exporters Association(PTEA) has demanded thegovernment to take steps tosave the industrial exportsfrom decline on urgent basis.Expressing concern over dropof 6.38 percent in textile exportsin December 2014, despiteavailability of GSP Plus ben-efit, Sohail Pasha Chairmanand Rizwan Riaz Vice Chair-man PTEA said that unprec-edented energy shortage andlack of working capital werethe prime reasons behind thesubstantial drop in exports.They apprehended that ex-ports in coming months mightbe even worse as the textileindustry in Punjab has beendeprived of its basic fuel andworking capital and textile ex-ports witnessed 6.38 percentdecline in December.—APP

RAWALPINDI: President Rawalpindi Chamber of Commerce and Industry Syed AsadMashhadi with delegation of Goods Care Association at RCCI.

RAWALPINDI—National team captainOlympian Imran Mohammad andHammad Dar steered Army (seniors) toa splendid 6-3 win over Punjab on Sat-urday in a match of First Chief of theArmy Staff (COAS) Challenge HockeyCup here at the Army Hockey Stadium.

Pakistan Navy and Police also gotvictories by beating Army (Juniors) andPakistan Air Force (PAF), respectively.Navy beat Army (Juniors) 3-1 and Po-lice overwhelmed PAF 3-1.

The first match between Army andPunjab belonged to national team cap-tain Olympian Mohammed Imran, whowas instrumental in his team’s victory.He scored first two goals on penaltycorners in the 2nd and 13th minutes ofthe match. He was also a part of twobeautiful moves that produced evennumber of goals and also saved twocertain goals at the post. Both teamswere almost at par in the middle, how-ever, Army excelled in experience, tem-perament which enabled them to com-plete excellent finishing.

Hammad Dar also played a vital role

in Army’s victory making the secondhat-trick of the tournament. He scoredgoals in the 23rd, 40th and 60th min-utes. Abdul Jabbar was another con-tributor, who scored a goal in the 53rdminute.

Punjab comprising young playersfought hard and launched some excel-lent moves as well but they lacked inexperience. Sohail Anjam was thestriker, who also made the first hat-trickof the tournament scoring all field goalsin the 16th , 42nd and 53rdminutes.Haroon and Sohail supervisedthe match.

Pakistan Navy led by OlympianRashid Mehmood, had to press hardto earn a victory against Army’s sec-ond XI, the only junior team of the tour-nament, in the second match of the day.Both teams demonstrated aggressionin their game and they also exhibitedtheir dribbling, dodging and intercep-tion brilliantly. The juniors, however,faltered in their finishing. Their goal-keeper Mohammed Altaf again showedimmense resolute to save at least two

strong hits on the penalty corners.Though Ali Sher scored the first

goal from Navy in the 13th minute yetit was Asad Aziz who played brilliantlythroughout the match and played a vi-tal role in his team’s victory. He not onlysuccessfully converted two penaltycorners in the 17th and 52nd minutesbut also saved a certain goal standingnear the post. Army’s MohammedHaseeb scored the lone goal from histeam. Rana Sajid and Sohail supervisedthe match.

The last match between Police andPAF was full of thrill during which bothteams demonstrated aggressive movesagainst each other. They fought hardto keep control of the ball which keptrolling between the two halves. Policescored first in the 30th minute throughAtif Baig, who neatly netted the ballon a cross from Ayub.

They scored two more goals in thelast quart. Ayub successfully con-verted a penalty corner in the 46thminute and Hafiz Rizwan scored a fieldgoal in the 50th minute.—APP

COAS Challenge Hockey Cup

Imran, Hammad steer Army toa splendid win against Punjab

Imad’s 89 in vainas Zebras beatIslamabad in

President’s CupHYDERABAD—All-rounderImad Wasim made a defiant89 but that failed to saveIslamabad Leopards from anexciting one-run defeat atthe hands of Karachi Zebrasin President Gold Cup One-day Cricket Tournament atNiaz Stadium here.

Imad scored a fine 89 off105 balls with six boundariesbut chasing 272 for victory,Islamabad was restricted to270-8 in their 50 overs.

Islamabad needed 11runs in the final over withtwo wickets in hand. Butthey failed to reach the tar-get despite a an attackingunbeaten 38 from HamzaNadeem which included twofours and as many sixes af-ter facing 28 balls.

Earlier sent to bat first,Karachi Zebras collected 271all out in their 50 overs. Jun-ior International Saud Shakeelslammed nine fours in his 79after facing 90 balls.—APP

PESHAWAR—The 43rd edition of the Gov-ernor Khyber Pakhtunkhwa All-PakistanHockey Gold Cup Tournament under theaegis of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Hockey As-sociation will be played at picturesqueAbbottabad Hockey Stadium from May 17-27, 2015.

This was stated by Secretary KhyberPakhtunkhwa Hockey Association SyedZahir Shah soon after attending the Gen-eral Council Meeting held here at Lala AyubHockey Stadium on Saturday. He said VicePresident Pakistan Hockey Federation andChairman of KP Hockey AssociationMuhammad Saeed Khan chaired the meet-ing in the absence of President of the As-sociation Captain (Retd) Tariq Hayat, Ad-ditional Secretary SAFRON. The meeting,he said, was also attended by representa-tives from all the 13 districts.

While announcing the annual calendar,he said, two major tournaments – one is43rd Governor KP All-Pakistan Hazara GoldCup will be held in May this year while theChief Minister Khyber Pakhtunkhwa All-Pakistan Hockey Tournament will be heldin from November 5-15, 2015 here at LalaAyub Hockey Stadium.

He said the aim and objective of hold-ing the General Council is to finalize theannual calendar of activities besides con-stituting various committees for the smoothconduct of the forthcoming KP Under-16Inter-Region Male and Female HockeyChampionship to be played in connectionwith the Talent Hunt Program from Jan 29and KP Under-25 Inter-Region Male andFemale Hockey Championships scheduledfrom February 16, 2015.

He said the District Hockey Associa-tion have been directed to holding one eachUnder-16 Inter-Club and Under-25 Inter-Regional Hockey Championships from Feb-ruary 16, 2015.

In this connection, he said selectioncommittees have already constituted at allRegional Headquarters comprising Deraismail Khan, Bannu, Kohat, Mardan, Swat,Abbottabad and Peshawar besides consti-tuting a monitory committee headed byMuhammad Saeed Khan, Musadiq Hussain(Olympian) and National Selector, NaeemAkhtar, Yasir Islam and Zia-ur-RehmanBinori would thoroughly ensure selectionon merit.

He said as desired by Pakistan HockeyFederation, the selection would madepurely on performance basis. He saidManzoor Ahmad Sadat (Kohat), Wazir Zada(Bannu), Dr, Azam Khan (Mardan), HajiAbbas Khan (Swat), Nawaz Khan (Deraismail Khan), Naeem Akhtar Olympian(Hazara) and Musadique Hussain Olympic(Peshawar) nominated as Chairman of theselection committees, following will be themembers Asif Khan, Kamran Shah (Kohat),Ihsan Ullah, Razi Ullah and Noor Saeed(Bannu), Engr. Nawaz Khan, ShaheenYousaf, Dr. Liaqat and Bashir Khan(Mardan), Musa Khan, Nasim Ali,Muhammad Yousaf, Muhammad Ayub(Swat-Dir Upper, Dir Lower), Yasir Islam,Hidayat Ullah Khan, Zia Ur Rehman, MalikZahir and Tehsin Ullah (Peshawar),Luqman, Shah Nawaz, Razi Ullah (DeraIsmail Khan), Sardar Waseem, NasirMehmood, Tariq Munir, Haq Nawaz andMoazam Khan.—APP

Governor KP All-Pak HazaraGold Cup Hockey in May: Zahir

DOHA—Branden Grace fired a six underpar 66 in the final round of the CommercialBank Qatar Masters to post a nine undertotal on the Doha GolfCourse, and record his sixthcareer European Tour win,the second in the 2015 RaceTo Dubai season.

The 26 year-old SouthAfrican held off a hard-charging Marc Warren toadd a Mother of Pearl Tro-phy to his collection. War-ren finished one shot back.

Grace went three under inthe final three holes whichbegan with an eagle at thepar four 16th hole, andended with a phenomenalbirdie at the last hole. Theyoung South African wentbogey-free in the rare Satur-day finale’ and Warren’sdouble bogey at the eighthhole proved to be the differ-ence. The 33 year-old Scothit his approach to the 72ndhole from the same spot inthe 18th fairway, and missedthe birdie putt that wouldhave forced a playoff.

Branden Grace beat fel-low countryman, LouisOosthuizen by seven strokesto win the Alfred DunhillChampionship back in De-cember, which was the first2015 tournament that awarded Race ToDubai points.

After his win at the second stop on theEuropean Tours Desert Swing, Gracemoves into third place in the Race To Dubaistandings, behind Brits Danny Willett, andRoss Fischer.Lost in the excitement wasthe third place finish by Austrian, BerndWiesberger. Wiesberger had a share of the36-hole lead, but couldn’t overcome twoearly bogeys. The young Austrian cardeda four under par 68 in the finale’ and fin-ished at 17 under par, two shots back.

Twenty-two year-old Emiliano Grillostarted his day with a share of the lead,and hopes of wining his first EuropeanTour championship, but couldn’t makeenough birdies to keep pace with the lead-ers. The young Argentine carded a bogey-free, two under par 70 and couldn’t capi-talize on the great start.

The three best rounds of the day wereseven under par, 65’s posted by South Ko-rean, Byeong Hun An, Frenchman, Gre-

gory Bourdy, and Swede, Alex Noren. An,and Bourdy finished tied for fifth place withGrillo, and Noren finished solo ninth.

The world number two, HenrikStenson saved his week by posting a sixunder par 66 in the Saturday finish, andmoved up 26 spots on the leaderboard.After missing the cut in Abu Dhabi, thebig Swede got off to a slow start in Qatar,but looks to be ready for Dubai next week.

Stenson struggled to make the cut, andcouldn’t get out of the 70’s until Saturday.He finished tied for 13th place with a hostof players.

Defending champ, Sergio Garcia shotthree rounds of 69, but could not over-come the disaster that was Friday. Garciagot sideways on the back nine on MovingDay, and shot 42, which included twodouble bogeys, three bogeys, and threebirdies.

The Qatar Masters was entertaining,to say the least. With a rare, Wednesdaystart, and Saturday finish, it turned into ashootout that golf fans love to see. It pro-vided a finish with a lot of drama, to goalong with some great golf.—AFP

Golf: Grace lands eagle,wins Qatar Masters

BAHAWALPUR: A view of National Table Tennis Championship.

LAHORE: Provincial Minister Rana Mashhood addresses press conference regarding Cholistan Jeep Rally.

DERA ALLAH YAR: Youngsters playing cricket despite foggy weather in the city.

DOHA: Branden Grace of South Africa with the trophyafter winning the Commercial Bank Qatar Masters atDoha Golf Club on Saturday.

Khan eyes clash with old friend Pacquiao

CenturionRameez leads

Karachi Dolphinsto big win

KA R A C H I—InternationalRameez Raja banging a siz-zling hundred on cold day inthe President’s Gold Cup On-day Cricket Tournamentwhen they whipped strug-gling Rawalpindi Rams by 117runs at YBL Sports ComplexGround on Friday.

Opener Rameez belted 19boundaries and two sixes inhis 124 in 106 balls as KarachiDolphins piled up 327 all outin 49.3 overs. RawalpindiRams in reply was dismissedfor 210 in 44th over. NavedMalik hit a fighting 76 witheight fours and two sixes.

Pace duo of Mir Hamzaand Adeel Malik shared sixwickets between to causethe trouble in Rawalpindibatting. Summarized scores:Karachi Dolphins 327 all outin 49.3 overs (Rameez Raja124, Mir Hamza 49, Saad Ali23, Baber Hussain Agha 33,Hamza Sultan 3-56, BaberNaeem 2-58) RawalpindiRams 210 all out in 44.4 overs(Naved Malik 76, UsmanSaeed 40, Mir Hamza 3-38,Adeel Malik 3-45,ShahzaibAhmed Khan 2-36, FarazAhmed Khan 2-42).—APP

LONDON—British welterweight AmirKhan revealed a fight against MannyPacquiao could be on the cards after ameeting with his former sparring partneron Saturday.

Khan trained alongside Pacquiao forseveral years under his old mentorFreddie Roach and had previously main-tained they would never fight.

But, despite their warm relationship,both men are now open to a bout follow-ing their get-together at the FitzroyLodge boxing club in London.

“It was great seeing Manny again asit’s been a while since we last met up,”Khan said on Friday.

“He’s a good friend and we chattedabout the past when we were training to-gether, his visit to London and also a bitabout the future.

“Even though we have that friend-ship, if it makes sense then it’s a fightthat can certainly happen between us. Iwant to fight the biggest and best namesout there and Manny is definitely amongthem.

“Within the next few weeks, who I’mfighting should be a lot clearer. I want togive the fans the most exciting and en-tertaining fights in 2015 - so watch thisspace.”

Khan and Pacquiao have both spo-

ken recently of their wish to fight theworld’s top fighter, FloydMayweather, without actually secur-ing a shot with the American.

But in the meantime they could

meet each other in the ring after Khan,28, delivered arguably a career-bestperformance when he won a landslidedecision victory over American De-von Alexander in December.—AFP

It would beAustralia vs

NZ, says FlemingWELLINGTON—Exhibitingoptimism ahead of the up-coming World Cup, formerNew Zealand skipperStephen Fleming believesthat Black Caps and Austra-lia would make the final tocontest for the coveted tro-phy.

Fleming, who partici-pated in four World Cups,said New Zealand and Aus-tralia would make the finalto be held in Melbourne onMarch 29, adding thatSouth Africa would be closeand West Indies were thedark horse.

Pointing out the like ofKane Williamson, Ross Tay-lor, Brendon McCullum, andveteran spinner DanielVettori as the star players,Fleming further said that thebeauty of it was that hecould name three or fourplayers to watch out for andthat was why he was opti-mistic about the Cup.

The World Cup starts inAustralia and New Zealandon Feb 14.— Agencies

PHF bans Shafqatfor one match

RAWALPINDI—The PakistanHockey Federation (PHF) onSaturday imposed one-matchban on PIA’s forward ShafqatRasool for abusing umpires.

During PIA’s matchagainst the PAF, Shafqatsought a foul, however, um-pire paid no heed to it.

To this, he became furiousand used abusive and ag-gressive language against thesaid decision.

He was shown the yellowcard. “In today’s match wenoticed that he (Shafqat)openly challenged severaldecisions of umpires andused abusive languageagainst them.—Agencies

MELBOURNE—Fired-up top seed NovakDjokovic powered into the Australian Openfourth round on Saturday, joining sizzling fel-low world number one Serena Williams and in-

jury-free two-time winner Victoria Azarenka. TheSerb, whose chances of a fifth Australian crownhave vastly improved after Roger Federer’sshock exit on Friday, ground down tenaciousSpaniard Fernando Verdasco 7-6 (10/8), 6-3, 6-4.He said he was highly motivated and over thevirus that hampered his lead up to the season’sopening Grand Slam.

“Physically, I feel fit now and I’m alwaysmotivated to play well in Australia,” saidDjokovic. Williams, vying for a sixth Australiantitle and the first since 2010, was slow to get inthe groove against 26th-ranked Ukrainian ElinaSvitolina, going down 6-4 in the first set. Butshe shook off the cobwebs under the blazingsun on Rod Laver Arena to rattle through thenext two sets 6-2, 6-0. It keeps alive her quest toadd a 19th Grand Slam title, which would takeher to clear second on the all-time Open Era

Australian Open: Djokovicjoins sizzling Serena in last 16

MELBOURNE: Novak Djokovic of Serbia hits a return toSpain’s Fernando Verdasco during their singles match ofthe 2015 Australian Open on Saturday.

Agnieszka Radwanska during her Australian Open matchagainst Varvara Lepchenko in Melbourne on Saturday.

Grand Slam winners list. She currently has 18alongside Chris Evert and Martina Navratilovaand is four behind German great Steffi Graf’s 22.“When in doubt just start running as fast as

you can, that’s what Venus always toldme, that helped,” said Williams, whoseworld number one ranking is on the lineif she fails to win the tournament.

She added that her elder sister’s late-career renaissance was an inspiration.“She’s winning, she’s doing so well andI can do better. We always motivateeach other. I’m so proud of her and we’reso excited.” Venus rallied from behindto defeat Camila Giorgi of Italy 4-6, 7-6(7/3), 6-1 to make the second week of aGrand Slam for the first time sinceWimbledon 2011. Azarenka, the cham-pion in 2012 and 2013 who is unseededthis year after an injury-marred 2014,continued her impressivecomeback, downing Czech25th seed Barbora ZahlavovaStrycova.

“There are things that ob-viously I want to improve. Butit’s progress. It’s one stepcloser,” said the Belarussianafter her 6-4, 6-4 win. She nextplays last year’s beaten final-ist Dominika Cibulkova.Women’s fourth seed PetraKvitova was in action laterSaturday. Defending men’schampion Stan Wawrinka,who beat Rafael Nadal in thefinal last year, could meetDjokovic in the semi-finals

and stayed on track with a 6-4, 6-2, 6-4 victory over Finland’s JarkkoNieminen.

The Swiss, who was always incontrol, was pleased with hisprogress. “It’s been three really goodmatches, I think my game is there andI’m really happy to get throughagain,” said Wawrinka, who will nowmeet Spain’s Guillermo Garcia-Lopez.Eighth seed Canadian Milos Raonicalso went through, sweeping asideGermany’s Benjamin Becker instraight sets while Japan’s fifth seedKei Nishikori battled back from a setdown to oust American Steve Johnson.

It was a day to remember for the Williamsclan with the evergreen Venus setting up a

fourth round clash with dangerous PoleAgnieszka Radwanska. “That feels fantastic,especially when you have things happen inyour life which are out of your control,” saidVenus, a seven-time Grand Slam winner whohas had a long battle with the energy-sappingSjogren’s Syndrome. “I don’t want to leave itat that, I’ll try to keep going,” she added, clearlyenjoying the moment in front of an apprecia-tive crowd on Margaret Court Arena.Radwanska defeated American VarvaraLepchenko 6-0, 7-5 and has doled out adreaded 6-0 “bagel” to each of her three op-ponents at Melbourne Park.

She said she was looking forward to facingVenus, who she beat in the Montreal final lastyear. “I think playing her is always a great chal-lenge,” said Radwanska, who has made the quar-ter-finals or better in Melbourne on her last fourvisits. Serena will now play face Spain’s Garbine

Muguruza, who beat Switzerland’s TimeaBacsinszky 6-3, 4-6, 6-0. The 24th seed oustedSerena at the French Open last year.—APP

MADRID—European cham-pions Real Madrid havecompleted the signing ofBrazilian under-21 interna-tional midfielder Lucas Silvafrom Cruzeiro.

The deal cost LosBlancos a reported 14 mil-lion euros ($15.8 million,#10.5 million) with Silvaagreeing a five-and-a-halfyear deal at the SantiagoBernabeu.

“Real Madrid andCruzeiro have reached anagreement for the transferof Lucas Silva, who will betied to the club until June30, 2020,” said a statementon Madrid’s website.

Silva becomes Madrid’ssecond signing of the Janu-ary transfer window after16-year-old Norwegianwonderkid MartinOdegaard sealed his switchfrom Stromsgodset on Fri-day.

Silva shot to promi-nence as Cruzeiro claimed asecond consecutive Brazil-ian title in 2014.

His arrival is likely toprecipitate the departure ofAsier Illarramendi, who has

been linked with a 25 mil-lion euro switch to Ath-letic Bilbao.

Illarramendi wassigned for a staggering feeof 37 million euros afterhelping Spain to a secondconsecutive under-21 Eu-ropean championship in

2013.However, he has failed

to become a first-teamregular under CarloAncelotti, making justthree league starts this sea-son.—APP

Real Madrid snapup Brazilian

midfielder Silva

The Pakistan Cricket Board has presented its demands to theBangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) for

the scheduled tour of the green-shirts,which include 50 per cent revenue shar-ing and exchange tours of the Under-19and A teams.

The PCB’s govern-ing board is of the viewthat the tour would notgo ahead if the condi-tions were not met, ac-cording to a report onthe ESPNCricinfow e b s i t e(www.espncricinfo.com).

Bangladesh hasbacked out twice in thepast, in 2012 and 2013,from its commitment tosend their cricket teamon a tour to Pakistan andthe PCB is adamant thistime to have its terms and conditionsagreed to under a written and bindingagreement.

The PCB is yet to assure the BCB ofsending the Pakistan team for playing twoTests, three One Day Internationals and aT20 match scheduled between April 10and May 7 as per the International CricketCouncil’s Future Tours Programme (FTP).

The FTP is no more a central agree-ment between the ICC and its members.From this year onward, bilateral agree-ments between member nations andboards can decide individually whetherplaying each other is commercially viable

PCB sets conditions forBangladesh tour

or not.In April 2012 Bangladesh had con-

firmed that it would send its cricket teamto Pakistan for a series but backed offfrom the decision only a few days laterciting security concerns.

Following the cancella-tion of the tour PCB hadconveyed to itsBangladesh counterpartthat it will not permit anyPakistani to feature in the2013 edition of theBangladesh PremierLeague (BPL).

Bangladesh had onceagain agreed to send it teamto Pakistan and then backedoff from the statement later.

Pakistan Cricket Board(PCB) Chairman ShahryarKhan urged Bangladesh inOct 2014 to send ‘any’ team

to Pakistan seeking to bring back interna-tional matches which stood suspended fol-lowing the deadly attack on Sri Lanka’s teambus in 2009.The attacks also saw Pakistanstripped of its right to co-host last year’scricket World Cup in 2011.

No test playing nation has visited Pa-kistan since the 2009 attack. Only Af-ghanistan (2011) and Kenya (2014) havetoured Pakistan. Both the minnow teamshad played against the Pakistan A team.

The PCB has been forced to organiseits home matches at neutral venues,mainly in the United Arab Emirates.—Agencies

CHENNAI—Suspended Pakistan off-spin-ner Saeed Ajmal was on Saturday putthrough an official ICC bowling test at theapex cricket body’s accredited laboratoryhere under the supervision of two techni-cal experts from Dubai.

Apart from Ajmal, Bangladeshi right-armoff-break bowler Sohag Gazi, 23, also re-ported for testing today as per instructionsof the International Cricket Council.

The 38-year-old Ajmal, who was sus-pended from bowling in internationalcricket last September, will be missing theupcoming ICC Cricket World Cup becauseof suspension for illegal bowling action.

After the completion of the test, asource informed that 350 shots each of thetwo suspended bowlers were taken andframe by frame those would be analysed.

“350 shots of the two bowlers were takentoday,” the source revealed. The report isexpected within 10 days.

Meanwhile, confusion prevails over thefate of Ajmal — if he fails the official ICCtest there is talk that he won’t be able totake a retest for the next 12 months.

Recently another Pakistani suspendedoff-spinner Muhammad Hafeez undertookan unofficial test at the bowling centre here,

but he will probably go to Brisbane for hisofficial ICC test before the World Cup.

Hafeez was also suspended from bowl-ing in international cricket last Novemberafter failing the ICC test, but he is in thefinal World Cup squad as an opening bats-man.—Agencies

Saeed Ajmal undergoesbowling test in Chennai

CAMBRIDGE—Fourth-division outsidersCambridge United earned themselves amoney-spinning FA Cup fourth-round re-play at Old Trafford after holding PremierLeague giants Manchester United to a 0-0draw on Friday.

There were 76 places in the Englishleague system between the teams at kick-off, but League Two Cambridge held their

own against their illustrious visitors infront of 7,987 fans at their Abbey Stadiumhome.

The clearest chance of the game fell toUnited striker Radamel Falcao in the sec-ond half, but the on-loan Colombia super-star was denied by a fine save from Cam-bridge goalkeeper Chris Dunn.

“I am extremely proud of each and ev-eryone of my players,” said Cambridgehead coach Richard Money.

“We tried to make sure the game didn´tfaze them in the tunnel and to look at thebadge and go out work hard and see whathappens. We were confident we couldcompete. We´ll take the replay, of course.”

Fans of the club from the universitycity were left to plan a trip to the Theatreof Dreams, less than a year after they re-turned to the Football League followingnine years as a non-league outfit.

And while United´s dreams of a first

FA Cup success since 2004 remain alive,the extra fixture is a game that managerLouis van Gaal could do without. “Yes,of course it is frustrating,” said Van Gaal,whose side had won 2-0 at third-tierYeovil Town in round three. “We makethe same error as against Yeovil Town andagainst QPR. We did the same playingstyle more or less in the first half. Then I

have to be angry again. In the secondhalf we did much better, but OK, we arenot out of the cup. That is the most im-portant thing.”

Van Gaal´s curious eve-of-match ad-mission that watching United play in a 4-4-2 formation gave him a “twitchy ass”meant the visitors´ team-sheet wasawaited with more anticipation than usual.

They lined up with a back four and amidfield diamond, while Wayne Rooneywas absent from the squad amid reportsof a foot injury, but on a bitterly cold nightin eastern England, it was the home sidewho made the early running.

Right-winger Ryan Donaldson in par-ticular caught the eye, crossing for TomElliott to head over and seizing on a dan-gerous loose pass from Phil Jones, onlyfor his heavy touch to allow the Uniteddefender to clear.—AFP

Fourth division minnowshold Man U in FA Cup

CAMBRIDGE, United Kingdom: Robin van Persie came off the bench for ManchesterUnited but he was unable to help his team find a breakthrough.

SYDNEY—Japan’s shockAsian Cup quarter-finalexit has left their big-money

players dumbfounded andplunged the future of Mexi-can coach Javier Aguirreinto doubt.

The holders crashedout on penalties againstthe United Arab Emiratesafter superstars KeisukeHonda and Shinji Kagawamissed from the spot inFriday’s nail-biter inSydney as Aguirre paid theprice for not rotating hissquad in the group stages.

Kagawa, who has gonehorribly off the boil for Ja-pan since losing his placeat Manchester United last

season and returning toBorussia Dortmund, wasinconsolable after slam-

ming his kickagainst thepost, allowingthe UAE towin theshootout 5-4.

“ Imissed and welost — I’mdeeply sorry,”said thep l a y m a k e r ,who wastedseveral goodopportunitiesto win thegame, whichfinished 1-1after extratime, andwhose pro-longed spellin the dol-drums hasbeen a source

of concern for his Japanteam-mates.

“I can’t turn back time,”he shrugged. “Maybethere’s a reason why Imissed.”

Honda, who had scoredtwice from the spot in thegroup stages, struggled tofind an explanation.

“It’s a harsh reality,”said Japan’s blond cult hero,who blazed the team’s firstpenalty wildly over the bar.“It shows we were perhapsa bit naive in not being ableto cope with the pressure towin the tournament.—AFP

Japan coach’s futureunclear after Cup flop

L O N D O N — A n o t h e rwildcard has entered thepack of candidates challeng-ing Sepp Blatter for thepresidency of FIFA in May’selection—Mino Raiola, asoccer agent whose clientsinclude Mario Balotelli andZlatan Ibrahimovic.

The 47-year-old Dutch-man with Italian roots needsto prove five football asso-ciations support his bid andthat he has been active infootball for at least two ofthe last five years before thedeadline for submitting bids

expires at midnight next Fri-day, Jan. 29. “I’m gettingviolently sick when I thinkthat Blatter could be re-elected,” he is quoted assaying by the Daily Tele-graph.

Former FIFA deputy sec-retary general Jerome Cham-pagne of France and FIFA’sAsian vice-president PrinceAli Bin Al-Hussein of Jor-dan are considered the onlyserious contenders, al-though Champagne has ad-mitted he does not yet havefive nominations. —APP

Balotelli agent Raiolalatest to enter FIFA race

Baseball: ErnieBanks ‘Mr Cub’

dies at 83CHICAGO—Hall of Fame in-fielder Ernie Banks, whowas affectionately dubbed“Mr Cub” by the WrigleyField faithful, passed awayFriday.

He was 83. Banks, theCubs’ first-ever blackplayer, played shortstopand first base, and was a14-time all-star who playedfor Chicago from 1953-1971.

He was the NationalLeague’s Most ValuablePlayer in 1958 and 1959 andhe blasted 512 homers in 19seasons of Major LeagueBaseball before beingelected to the Hall of Famein 1977.

US President BarackObama and first LadyMichelle sent their condo-lences to Banks’s family,and to “every Chicagoanand baseball fan wholoved him.” —AFP

RESEARCHERS say they have discovered how thyroid hormone affects bloodvessels to determine body temperature,

potentially explaining why people who havedisorders of the thyroid gland have higher sen-sitivity to environmental tem-perature. An overactive thy-roid (hyperthyroidism) cancause a person to feel too hot,while an underactive thyroid(hypothyroidism) can cause aperson to feel too cold.

The researchers from theKarolinska Institutet in Swe-den said that previous studieshave attributed this to howthyroid hormone affects themetabolism within cells. Thethyroid produces hormonesthat are able to influence howmuch the blood vessels dilate.In turn, this affects how muchheat can escape the body. Forthe study, published in the Pro-ceedings of the National Acad-emy of Sciences, the research-ers studied mice with a mutated thyroid hor-mone receptor (receptor-mediated hypothy-roidism). This particular mutation only affectsone type of hormone receptor called TRalpha1.

According to the researchers, TRalpha 1is only expressed in certain tissues, and themutation makes the tissue unresponsive to thy-roid hormone, particularly in the central ner-vous system, bone and all muscle types. Dr.Amy Warner, researcher at the Department ofCell and Molecular Biology at the KarolinskaInstitutet, told Medical News Today:

“This makes it easier to study certain as-pects of thyroid dysfunction, while others re-

How body temperature isaffected by thyroid hormone

National Flag is flying at half mast due to mourning day announced by the government on the demise of Saudi King.

main normal. It’s well known that thyroid hor-mone drives up basal metabolic rate, by af-fecting how quickly cells metabolize, and hy-pothyroidism should therefore show the op-posite.” Previous studies have shown that mice

with this defect had an over-active metabolism, caused bythe energy needed to gener-ate heat from brown fat.

“When our supposedlyhypothyroid mice showed anincrease in metabolism andwere burning energy throughactivating their brown fat, wewere confused by this paradoxand wanted to find out whythis occurred,” Dr. Warneradded. The researchers tookinfrared images of the mice,which revealed that they werelosing a significant amount ofheat through their tails. Thisshowed that the mutated thy-roid hormone receptor meantthe mice were unable to suffi-ciently regulate the constric-

tion of their blood vessels.“Mice with a non-functioning TRalpha 1

receptor cannot properly regulate their bodytemperature, and this is due to impaired controlof their blood vessels, in areas where they areused for temperature regulation, such as the tail.”“Shown through infrared imaging, at room tem-perature, the tail blood vessels do not constrictproperly, and too much heat is lost. The micecannot defend their body temperature correctly,and therefore need to generate heat from theirbrown fat to keep warm. Activation of brownfat requires an increase in energy demands tomaintain, hence why these mice have a highermetabolism, despite being hypothyroid.”

Ghanwa Bhutto, Chairperson Pakistan Peoples Party (SB) addressing a press conferenceat 70 Clif.—PO photo

Pakistan People’s Party leader, MPA Sania Naz Baloch talks with prisoners during her visit at Central Jail.—PO photoby Sultan Chaki

IRFAN ALIGI

KARACHI—Sindh United Party (SUP) chiefSyed Jalal Mehmood Shah said the SUP believedthe military courts were a sheer expression of‘No Confidence’ on Pakistan’s Judicial Systemby the present government and hence the SUPhad rejected the establishment of military courts.He said the government had showed they didnot have confidence on country’s courts andhence they had moved forward for the estab-lishment of military courts, which were parallelto the existing Judicial System in the country.

He said the provincial government was re-sponsible for maintaining the law and order af-ter the passage of the 18th constitutional amend-ment but unfortunately the federal governmenthad not yet devolved necessary powers to theprovinces, which prevented the provinces to dealwith the menace of terrorism amicably.

He asked the federal government to provide

SUP rejects military courts sayingthese are parallel judicial system

necessary funds and technical support to the prov-inces so that they could take steps for the elimina-tion of terrorism. He said it was a known fact thatthe foreign and internal policies were prepared by aselective force and the SUP would demand the fed-eral government to take the provinces into confi-dence at the time of finalising the foreign and inter-nal affairs policies of the country. The SUP chiefalso lambasted Sindh government and said the pro-vincial government had utterly failed to resolvepeople’s grievances. The corruption had ruined allinstitutions at the province’s level while the badgovernance had led to heaping up the problems.

He said the corruption should be eliminated orelse it would ruin the entire province and the basicstructure of the provincial administration would beeliminated. The SUP chief claimed the former Presi-dent and Pakistan People’s Party Co-Chairman AsifAli Zardari had owned 16 sugar mills in Sindh prov-ince alone and hence the Sindh government wasdirectly responsible for the sugar cane crisis.

STAFF REPORTER

KARACHI—The Mary Adelaide Lep-rosy Centre (MALC) is working for theelimination of Leprosy, TB and Blind-ness from Pakistan besides communitydevelopments for the last 56 years. Sinceinception more than 56,500 leprosy pa-tients has been registered out of which98% of patients is treated free of cost in157 MALC Leprosy Centres situationthroughout Pakistan. About 300 to 400new cases are being registered at MALCevery year and its is estimated that thiswill continue for 2 decade.

A well-knitted network of 157 con-trol centres nationwide mostly in remoteareas is functioning in close collabora-tion with provincial governments and

World Leprosy Day, an opportunity torenew commitment for Leprosy free world

providing services to the patients and com-munities free of charge. There is need tocreate public awareness to minimize theburden of this disease, these views wereexpressed by seniors experts of MarieAdelaide Leprosy Centre (MALC) at aPress Briefing organized Saturday to com-memorate World Leprosy Day 2015 at itshead office, Karachi. Dr. Ruth Pfau,Founder Member of MALC, Mr. MervynLobu, Dr Mutahir Zia and Dr Ali Murtazaspoke on Leprosy situation in Pakistan.

Dr Ruth Pfau sharing her views on theoccasion informed that World Leprosy Daynot only symbolizes our feelings of togeth-erness and love without patients affectedby Leprosy but also provide an opportu-nity to all of us working for Leprosy tocome closer and renew our commitment

for a Leprosy free world. In 1996, Lep-rosy was controlled in Pakistan. Theprevalence of the disease reduced to theextent that the World Health Organiza-tion declared the disease to be undercontrol in Pakistan, one of the first coun-tries in EMRO Region to achieve thisgoal.

Leprosy elimination is successfullybeing achieved; however elimination is notthe end of Leprosy. There are many chal-lenges in terms of physical and social re-habilitation, which will go on even in thepost elimination phase. Achievement ofgradual elimination of leprosy was becauseof the concerted efforts by a team of com-mitted workers. She said leprosy elimina-tion does not mean that disease has beeneradicated from the country.

IRFAN ALIGI

KARACHI—Karachi city escaped inferno early Sat-urday morning after a few shopkeepers had calledKarachi Metropolitan Corporation’s Fire Depart-ment. The Fire Department had sent 10 fire extin-guishers to extinguish fire in a toys warehouse lo-cated on top floor of Yousuf Market in city’s largestwhole sale imported goods market, Chaanti Gali.

The fire tenders had reached the venue of fire

Chanti Gali Fire: Karachiescapes a major inferno

incident and after several hours got control over fire.Their efforts had prevented the fire to affect otherbuildings adjacent to the affected toys warehouse.

According to fire brigade spokesperson, the firebroke out at a godown and despite the fire fightershad reached the spot on time but the narrow laneshad obstructed their speedy and free movement dueto which the efforts for gaining control over the situ-ation had taken additional time.

A couple of dozens of people were present in-

side the warehouse at the time when the fire haderupted. However, they all had vacated the premisesafely.

Rescuers and Police had reached the venue ofincident to deal with any untoward situation but luck-ily no human casualty had occurred and the opera-tion was over successfully. As usual, the actual causeof fire eruption was not established but it wasdoubted that some sort of electric short-circuit couldbe the cause.

STAFF REPORTER

KARACHI—Karachi Commissioner ShoaibAhmed Siddiqui issued a notification of land al-lotment for Greater Water Project for Karachi, K-IV. The Commissioner had thus allocated 8255-acres for the project.

The K-IV Project Director Saleem Siddiqui,who was present when the Commissioner signedthe notification said the K-IV would take a startfrom the Keenjhar Lake and would pass through

Greater Bulk Water Project-K-IV

Commissioner issues landallocation notification

the North part of the lake alongside the JhampirRailway station where a 1000 feet wide passagewould be earmarked and it would drag towardDhabeji from Thatta district and would end at DehAllah Faiy.

He said the declaration was obtained in 6 monthsfrom the Sindh Board of Revenue, which had noantecedence. Speaking on the occasion, the Commis-sioner Siddiqui said the civil administration was com-plying with the directives of the provincial govern-ment for measures for resolution of public grievances

and in this regard would ensure full cooperationwith any authority.

He said the provincial government was ap-proached for the allocation of land for the GreaterBulk Water Project, which was immediately ap-proved and thus the required land was allocatedwithin shortest possible time.

He hoped the Karachi Water and SewerageBoard administration would initiate speedy workon the K-IV so that the acute water crisis in thecity should be resolved.

STAFF REPORTER

KARACHI—The Anti-Terrorist Court (ATC) in Karachi issueddeath warrants of two convicts, Ataullah alias Qasim andMuhammad Azam. The death warrants were issued after mercyappeals of the convicts were rejected from all forums especiallythe President of Pakistan. Both the convicts would be taken to

ATC issues deathwarrants of 2 convicts

the gallows and executed on Feb 3, 2014.The convicts were charged for murdering Dr Ali Raza in

Karachi in 2003. The prosecution proved the charges and thenthe ATC had awarded them the capital sentence after which theconvicts had filed their mercy appeals but were to no avail. Ear-lier, Sindh High Court had on application from the convicts sus-pended their execution on a date given earlier.

RESEARCHERS say they have discovered how thyroid hormone affects bloodvessels to determine body temperature,

potentially explaining why people who havedisorders of the thyroid gland have higher sen-sitivity to environmental tem-perature. An overactive thy-roid (hyperthyroidism) cancause a person to feel too hot,while an underactive thyroid(hypothyroidism) can cause aperson to feel too cold.

The researchers from theKarolinska Institutet in Swe-den said that previous studieshave attributed this to howthyroid hormone affects themetabolism within cells. Thethyroid produces hormonesthat are able to influence howmuch the blood vessels dilate.In turn, this affects how muchheat can escape the body. Forthe study, published in the Pro-ceedings of the National Acad-emy of Sciences, the research-ers studied mice with a mutated thyroid hor-mone receptor (receptor-mediated hypothy-roidism). This particular mutation only affectsone type of hormone receptor called TRalpha1.

According to the researchers, TRalpha 1is only expressed in certain tissues, and themutation makes the tissue unresponsive to thy-roid hormone, particularly in the central ner-vous system, bone and all muscle types. Dr.Amy Warner, researcher at the Department ofCell and Molecular Biology at the KarolinskaInstitutet, told Medical News Today:

“This makes it easier to study certain as-pects of thyroid dysfunction, while others re-

How body temperature isaffected by thyroid hormone

Students of Punjab Polytechnic College hold a demonstration against the blasphemous sketches, outside Lahore Press Club.

main normal. It’s well known that thyroid hor-mone drives up basal metabolic rate, by af-fecting how quickly cells metabolize, and hy-pothyroidism should therefore show the op-posite.” Previous studies have shown that mice

with this defect had an over-active metabolism, caused bythe energy needed to gener-ate heat from brown fat.

“When our supposedlyhypothyroid mice showed anincrease in metabolism andwere burning energy throughactivating their brown fat, wewere confused by this paradoxand wanted to find out whythis occurred,” Dr. Warneradded. The researchers tookinfrared images of the mice,which revealed that they werelosing a significant amount ofheat through their tails. Thisshowed that the mutated thy-roid hormone receptor meantthe mice were unable to suffi-ciently regulate the constric-

tion of their blood vessels.“Mice with a non-functioning TRalpha 1

receptor cannot properly regulate their bodytemperature, and this is due to impaired controlof their blood vessels, in areas where they areused for temperature regulation, such as the tail.”“Shown through infrared imaging, at room tem-perature, the tail blood vessels do not constrictproperly, and too much heat is lost. The micecannot defend their body temperature correctly,and therefore need to generate heat from theirbrown fat to keep warm. Activation of brownfat requires an increase in energy demands tomaintain, hence why these mice have a highermetabolism, despite being hypothyroid.”

Activists of Jamaat Ahl-e-Hadith offering funeral prayers in absentia of Saudi King Abdullahbin Abdul Aziz.

Member National Assembly Hamza Shahbaz Sharif visits residence of late Rai Mansab Ali Khan to condole his death withfamily members.

SALIM AHMED

LAHORE—PML-N central leaderHamza Shahbaz Sharif, MNA went tothe residence of late MNA RaiMansab Ali Khan Saturday and ex-pressed condolence with his familymembers and offered Fateha for thedeparted soul.

Federal Minister for Defense Pro-duction Rana Tanvir Ahmed Khan wasalso present on the occasion. Express-ing grief over the death of Rai Mansab

Hamza pays tributes tolate Rai Mansab Ali Khan

Ali with his daughter Shizrah MansabKharal and other family members, HamzaShahbaz paid tributes to the national ser-vices of Rai Mansab Ali as a politician.He said that Rai Mansab was an exampleof decency in politics.

He said that Rai Mansab Ali as a se-nior politician proved his metal in legisla-tive assemblies. He said that late RaiMansab Ali was a precious asset of Paki-stan Muslim League-N and party leader-ship highly valued him. He said that in thedeath of Rai Mansab Ali, country has de-

prived of a great political leader.On this occasion, Dr. Shizrah

Mansab Kharal, daughter of late RaiMansab Ali told that her father was agreat and kind man. He was electedmember parliament first time in 1962and played an important role in the poli-tics of Punjab province. Federal Minis-ter for Defense Production Rana TanvirAhmed Khan also paid tributes to theservices and role of Rai Mansab AliKhan in the parliamentary history of thecountry.

STAFF REPORTER

LAHORE—Punjab Chief Minister MuhammadShahbaz Sharif has said that the whole nation hasdecided to give a crushing defeat to the terrorists. Hesaid that terrorists have destroyed the peace of thecountry and caused loss to national economy. Hevowed that terrorists will find no place to hide and 18

Whole nation has decided togive a crushing defeat to terrorists

crore courageous people of Pakistan will foil theirnefarious designs. The Chief Minister said that thecountry will be made a haven of peace by winningthe war against terrorists.

He was talking to Assembly Members, here Sat-urday. The Chief Minister said that Pak Army throughits bold actions is wiping out the terrorists who areenemy of peace and humanity. He said that elimina-

tion of terrorists is essential for survival and stabilityof the country.

Shahbaz Sharif said that those shedding blood inworship places, institutions and streets of the countrydeserve no leniency. He reiterated that under the lead-ership of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, the countrywill be rid of terrorism, extremism, sectarianism andother problems.

LAHORE—DIG Operations Dr Haider Ashrafsaid that police removed 13 fund collectionboxes of different banned organizations from thearea of Civil Lines police station.

Talking to the mediamen here on Saturday,he said these fund collection boxes were set upon main polls at the Mall.

The DIG said that they would launch an

Fund collection boxesof banned

organizations removedoperation to remove all these fund collectionboxes in the city.

He said that all divisional SPs, DSPs andSHOs have been directed to ensure removal ofthese fund collection boxes, adding that thesefunds could be used in any terrorism activity.

He appreciated SP Civil Lines Imtiaz Sarwarand SHO Abid Rasheed for this campaign.—APP

LAHORE—The Punjab Emergency Service(Rescue 1122) provided services to 437 vic-tims of 564 accidents in the province duringlast 24 hours.

As many as 117 accidents were reportedin the city with 125 victims, 65 in Faisalabad

PES provides service to564 accidents’ victims

with 82 injured and 42 in Gujranwala with 44victims.

According to the data, 444 motorcycles, 56rickshaws, 68 cars, 25 vans, 11 buses, 23 trucksand 65 other vehicles and slow moving carts wereinvolved in the accidents.—APP

LAHORE—An election tribunal Saturdayadjourning hearing of NA-122 alleged rig-ging case till January 31 summoned wit-nesses of Speaker National Assembly SardarAyaz Sadiq for recording their statements.The election tribunal comprising Justice (R)Kazim Ali Malik passed the orders on anelection petition filed by PTI Chairman ImranKhan who had challenged the election ofSardar Ayaz Sadiq from NA-122 constitu-ency, Lahore.

During the course of Saturday’s proceed-

Tribunal summons Sadiq’switnesses in NA-122 case

ings, Retired sessions judge Ghulam HussainAwan who was appointed as local commis-sion for inspection of NA-122 record ap-peared before the tribunal and recorded hisstatement. At this stage, he was cross exam-ined by the counsels of Sardar Ayaz Sadiqand Imran Khan. After cross examination,the tribunal adjourning the hearing till Janu-ary 31 directed Sardar Ayaz Sadiq to presenthis witnesses on next date of hearing.

It is pertinent to mention that the com-mission had already submitted its inspection

report after audit of NA-122 record in pres-ence of Sardar Ayaz Sadiq and Imran Khanrepresentatives. Later, Sardar Ayaz Sadiq’scounsel Barrister Asjad Saeed told media thatthe commission had apprised the tribunal thatall valid votes were counted in presence ofparties’ representatives and no question wasraised by them on validity of votes.

To a question, Asjad said that the com-mission had told the tribunal that it foundless then 100 votes which had very minorcolour difference.—APP

SALIM AHMED

LAHORE—Advisor to Chief Minister Punjab onHealth Khawaja Salman Rafiq has said that the na-tion is facing challenges in shape of terrorism anddiseases. Terrorists are martyring our children andwe have fight against both to save our children fromterrorists as well as from diseases.

He urged upon the authorities of Health De-partment, lady health workers and vaccinators toconduct 12-day anti-measles campaign beingstarted from January 26 in Punjab with a nationalspirit for the future of Pakistani children duringwhich 28.5 million children from six months to tenyears of age will be inoculated.

He said this while addressing Provincial AntiMeasles Advocacy Conference at Awan-e-Iqbal,Saturday. Secretary Health Jawad Rafiq Malik,Director General Health Dr. Zahid Pervaiz, repre-sentatives of WHO, Billgates Foundation, promi-nent pediatrician Prof. Tariq Bhutta, Medical Di-rector Children Hospital Prof. Ahsan Waheed

Pakistan face challenges in shape ofterrorism and diseases: Kh. Salman

Rathore, officers of Health Department, EDO Health,Nurses and paramedics attended in large numbers.

During his speech, Kh. Salman Rafiq becameemotional. He said that our forefathers rendered nu-merous sacrifices for achieving Pakistan but the prom-ises made at that time could not be fulfilled and nowevery Pakistani is facing difficult situation. He saidthat after Pakistan movement, the journey for achiev-ing goals of the country is continuing. He said thatthe challenge of controlling diseases in Punjab willbe overcome at every cost.

He said that all challenges under the leadershipof Chief Minister Muhammad Shahbaz Sharif willbe faced courageously. Kh. Salman Rafiq said that in2013, anti measles campaign was launched in Punjabwith a sum of Rs.1.5 billion as a result of which, only89 cases of measles were reported in 2014 and nodeath was occurred. He said that the anti measlescampaign being launched from January 26 will con-tinue to February 9 and more than Rs. 2.70 billionwill be spent. He stressed upon the parents to extendcooperation to Health Department during anti measles

campaign and must get vaccinate their children. Kh.Salman Rafiq asked mediamen to continue theirsupport for spreading health message at doorstep.

Earlier, Parliamentary Secretary Health Kh. ImranNazeer said that on the defeat of cricket match fromIndia we become emotional and have desired to winmatch from India at every cost but India eliminated poliowhereas more than 300 polio cases have been reportedin our country. He said that we should take part in antipolio and measles campaign with a national spirit.

He stressed upon effective coverage of routineimmunization beside measles campaign. DirectorGeneral Health Dr. Zahid Pervaiz said that politi-cal leadership and professionals have gathered atone platform and expressed hope that the targets ofanti-measles campaign will certainly be achieved.Secretary Health Jawad Rafiq Malik said that ChiefMinister Punjab Muhammad Shahbaz Sharif andAdvisor Health Kh. Salman Rafiq are committedfor anti measles campaign and now it is responsi-bilities of health managers and health workers tomake this campaign a success.