Ep29july2013

RAWALPINDI: Mother of Pakistani soldier Asam Iqbal, Rifat Bibi and his father Zafar Iqbal mourn over death of theirson during his funeral prayer in village Chawarian. Asam was martyred by the firing of Indian troops near Line of Controlin Kashmir.

NEW DELHI—The compositedialogue between Pakistan andIndia are likely to resume fromAugust 27.

Indian media claimed thatdates, schedule for resumptionof composite dialogue was for-warded to India by Pakistan, todiscourse such ongoing issueslike Wuller Barrage, possibly

followed by Sir Creek issue inSeptember, and foreign-secre-tary level talks in October.

The stalled composite dia-logue process is all set to restartnext month with Islamabad pro-posing dates for water secretarylevel talks meant to address theWullar Barrage issue and NewDelhi “actively considering it”.

Pakistan, in fact, has also pro-posed a meeting between thetwo foreign secretaries but, asdiplomatic sources confirmed,only after talks over water andSir Creek issues are held.

The dialogue process withPakistan was thrown off thetrack by the January ceasefire

Pak-India dialoguefrom August 27

Islamabad proposals for Wullar Barrage, SirCreek under consideration

LIAQAT TOOR

STUNG by military intervention itself in 1999, thePML (N) has decided in

principle to oppose all extra-constitutional interventions forresolution of disputes anywherein the world.

The latest crystal clearstance taken by the governmenton toppling of elected govern-ment of President MuhammadMorsi in Egypt is well thoughtpolicy discussed at differentlevels including Cabinet meet-

ing where the issue of militaryintervention in Egypt was dis-cussed threadbare.

Setting aside all expedien-cies and diplomatic wrangling,the Government has come upwith a bold stand on Egyptiansituation where military inter-vention has put the country in astate of chaos and instability.

This is a paradigm shift inpolicy on diplomatic front aspreviously Pakistan always tookan extra- guarded stand on suchsituations, particularly when itcomes to a Muslim country in

Middle East, diplomatic sourcessaid.

This new stance is observedwith curiosity by the diplomaticcircles in Islamabad as this po-sition is quite opposite to that ofimportant countries in theMiddle East which have an-nounced a huge aid for the mili-tary government in Egypt.

A PML (N) source said thegovernment has taken this standaccording to the popular senti-ments of the people at home. Forthis change, a factor of Jamaat-e- Islami which has launched a

series of protests in support ofPresident Morsi can not beruled out, another source said.A Foreign Office press releasesaid “having itself sufferedfrom repeated extra-constitu-tional interventions, Pakistan isopposed to military interven-tions for resolution of disputesin any country.”

Meanwhile, the tragic kill-ings of Morsi supporters onSaturday have further pushedthis important Islamic countryin the Middle East to a state ofanarchy.

New stance on diplomatic front

Govt to oppose militaryintervention anywhere in world

SALIM AHMED

LAHORE—Punjab Chief Min-ister Muhammad ShahbazSharif has said that every hurdlecan be surmounted with courageand determination and no effortwill be spared to steer the coun-try out of crises and put it on theroad to progress and prosperity.He said that measures are beingtaken on war footing to resolveenergy crisis. He said that workhas been started expeditiouslywith the cooperation of China onthe projects of low-cost power

generation through alternativeresources and the problem ofload-shedding will be resolvedfor coming up to the expecta-tions of the masses.

He expressed these viewswhile talking to assembly mem-bers belonging to various dis-tricts here today. Those who metthe Chief Minister includedJunaid Anwar, Syed WaseemAkhtar, Rai Mansab Ali Khan,Chaudhary Shamshad Ali Khan,Sheikah Alla-ud-Din andKanwal Nuaman. Talking to theelected representatives, the

Chief Minister said that besidesgap in the demand and supplyof electricity, theft of gas andpower is also a serious issue. Hesaid that some influential per-sons are involved in electricitytheft but they will be made anexample as they are committinga crime against the nation.

He said that on the instruc-tions of Prime MinisterMuhammad Nawaz Sharif, theelements involved in the theft ofelectricity and gas are beingdealt with sternly and a crack-

Electricity, gas thievesdeserve no mercy: Shahbaz

Continued on Page 6Nawaz, Shahbazdiscuss presidential

electionLAHORE—Punjab Chief Min-ister Shahbaz Sharif met PrimeMinister Nawaz Sharif here onSunday and discussed strategyfor presidential elections inPunjab Assembly. They decidedto convene a provincial parlia-mentary party meeting today(Monday) which would be ad-dressed by PML-N presidentialcandidate Mamnoon Hussain.

The chief minister alsobriefed the prime ministerabout the proposed documentsfor local government electionsin the province. The prime min-ister asked the chief minister todevise a local government sys-tem which devolves maximumpowers at the grass root level,resolve problems of the peopleand ensure prosperity. On thisoccasion, the prime minister ex-pressed satisfaction over thecampaign against electricityand gas theft in Punjab andasked the chief minister tospeed up the campaign againstpower thieves. —INP

Karzai to visitPakistan soon:

SpokesmanKABUL—Afghan PresidentHamid Karzai will visit Pakistansoon to hold talks with Pakistanileaders on issues of commoninterest and regional signifi-cance.

Afghan Foreign MinistrySpokesman Janan Mosazai toldreporters in Kabul Sunday thatHamid Karzai will conduct thevisit at the invitation extendedby Pakistan last week.

He says Afghanistan hopesthat the government of PrimeMinister Nawaz Sharif will opena new page in bilateral relationsbetween the two countries.

Relations between Afghani-stan and Pakistan have beentense and Kabul has in the pastcharged that Islamabad has sup-

Continued on Page 6

Continued on Page 6

Senate, NAmeet today

ISLAMABAD—Acting PresidentNayyar Hussain Bokhari hassummoned the sessions of theNational Assembly and Senatetoday (Monday) for the presi-dential election.

The acting president hassummoned the sessions of theNational Assembly and the Sen-ate to meet separately today(Monday) at 04:00pm in theParliament House, Islamabad.On Saturday, the Election Com-mission of Pakistan (ECP) is-sued a final list of the presiden-

Continued on Page 6

ISLAMABAD—The federal gov-ernment has decided to issue aworking paper before the AllParties Conference (APC) ex-pected to be called after the Eidin order to devise a strategy forholding meaningful consulta-tions over the grave challengesbeing faced by the country.

According to reports, thefresh spate of terror attacks hastroubled the newly electedPML-N government and itswants to devise a national policyto counter terrorism as soon aspossible. Prime Minister NawazSharif has tasked Interior Min-ister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khanto contact various political par-ties for devising a nationalpolicy on countering terrorismand necessary legislation, ifneeded.

Chaudhry Nisar has startedhis consultative meetings andheld his first meeting with theJamaat-e-Islami chief MunawarHasan to devise a plan for mean-ingful talks with the Taliban.Several political parties haveasked the government to providethem the working paper aheadof the APC in order to make theconsultations meaningful. Thegovernment has accepted thisdemand of the political parties.

The government intends tohold a closed-door meeting im-mediately after the Eid to makea comprehensive plan to counterterror. The interior minister willhold further meetings with dif-ferent political parties in thecoming days.

Meanwhile, it has been

Working paper to beissued before APC

Continued on Page 6

Zardari toattend RohaniinaugurationLONDON—President Asif AliZardari left Britain Sunday forDubai after having medicalcheck-ups at London’s topprivate clinics. PresidentZardari will stay in Duabi for aday or two and will then fly toIslamabad from where he willthen reach Tehran to attendinauguration of the newIranian President HassanRohani. The Iranian ForeignMinistry has confirmed thatPresidents Hamid Karzai andAsif Ali Zardari have alreadyaccepted the invitation alongwith other heads of states likeLebanese President, MichelSuleiman, and the SyrianPrime Minister Wael Nader al-

Continued on Page 6

PESHAWAR—Pakistani intelli-gence officials on Sunday sidthat a US drone strike has killedfive people in the tribal regionnear the Afghan border. Theysay two missiles hit the Shawalarea of North Waziristan Sun-

day evening when the men werecrossing on foot into Pakistaniterritory from Afghanistan.

They said the men have notbeen identified. NorthWaziristan is home to a mix ofPakistani, Afghan and al-Qaida-

linked foreign militants.The US drone program is

a source of extreme tension be-tween the two countries. Paki-stan charges that the dronestrikes are a violation of its sov-ereignty.—AP

US drone strike kills 5 in N Waziristan

Continued on Page 6

STAFF REPORTER

LAHORE—Chief of the Paki-stan Tehrik-e-Insaf Imran Khansaid on Sunday that his partywould have boycotted the up-coming presidential election,had the party candidate, Justice

(retd) Wajihuddin Ahmad, notrequested for the PTI’s partici-pation in the presidential race.

Khan said he agreed withthe stance of the PakistanPeople’s Party but his party wasparticipating in the presidentialelections under protest. Address-ing a press conference here af-ter attending a party meeting, thePTI chief reiterated his stancethat a closed-door session be-tween himself, Prime MinisterNawaz Sharif and the Armychief should precede a publicforum such as the APC to curbmilitancy and address the over-all law and order and securitysituation in the country.

Khan said that he would notparticpate in an APC if the closed-door session was not held prior toitMoreover the PTI chief alsoclaimed that arrangements for rig-ging of the local body elections

were taking place on the samescale as the rigging that took placeduring May 11 general electionsthis yearHe also indicated full-fledged protests would be stagedon the roads and streets in orderto save democracy.

PTI wanted to boycottpresidential polls: Imran

‘Fall from liftersaved me fromassassination’

LONDON/LAHORE—Paki-stan Tehreek-e-Insaaf Chair-man Imran Khan has disclosedthat terrorists had a plan to killhim the next day of his Lahorerally, adding that his fall froma lifter actually saved his life.

In an article published byContinued on Page 6

ASHRAF ANSARI

ISLAMABAD—An anti-terror-ism strategy is under consider-ation of the government to over-come the menaces of militancy,extremism and terrorism of allhues and forms, informedsources said.

The proposed 4Ts strategyenvisages tracing of the ele-ments, trailing coordinationamong the intelligence agencies,

tackling the extremists or terror-ists by taking action and seek-ing conviction as well as trans-forming of roles of religiousscholars, mosques and seminar-ies in line with true teachings ofIslam.

The experts believe thatthere is a need to formulate com-prehensive and coordinatedcounter terrorism and counterinsurgency strategies as terror-ism and insurgency form exis-

tential threat to Pakistan’s secu-rity. The proposed 4Ts strategyis aimed at overcoming thisthreat.

The sources said a NationalCounter Terrorism Force(NCTF) has been proposed to beestablished with intelligence andlaw enforcement powers. It willbe headed by the prime minis-ter. It will collect informationand strike at the roots of terror-

Government may adopt4Ts anti-terrorism strategy

Trace, Trail, Tackle, Transform key elements; NationalCounter Terrorism Force to spearhead campaign

PML-N delegation‚Sherpao discusspresidential electionsSTAFF REPORTER

ISLAMABAD—A delegation ofPML (N) called on theChairman Qaumi Wattan PartyAftab Ahmad Khan Sherpao inIslamabad on Sunday anddiscussed with him presiden-tial elections.

Those who attended themeeting included FinanceMinister Ishaq Dar‚ Ministerfor Information Pervaiz Rashidand Zafar Iqbal Jeghra.

Continued on Page 6

ISLAMABAD—Senior leader ofPakistan Peoples’ Party MianRaza Rabbani has said that PPPand its allied partners would notparticipate in the session of theparliament on 30th July, on theeve of presidential elections af-ter boycott. He was talking toonline on Sunday. He said thatit would have been better, if theentire opposition would hadbeen agreed on joint candidate,but PPP pays respect to the de-cision of PTI. Responding aquery about giving vote to Jus-tice (R)Wajihudin, he said thatit would be out of question tovote for anyone, when once PPPhas announced the boycott fromthe presidential polls.

“When we are not takingpart in the election, then why wewould vote for any candidate”,Rabbani added.

Meanwhile, Sindh Ministerfor Information, SharjeelMemon Sunday said all the

members of Pakistan People’sParty (PPP) would boycott theproceedings of Sindh Assemblysession on July 30, during whichpolling will be conducted forpresidential election.

In a statement issued hereSunday, Sharjeel Memon said thePrime Minister Nawaz Sharif re-quires services of people who canbe operated through a remote con-trol. “The remote control ofAiwan-e-Sadr (PresidentialHouse) will be in the hands ofNawaz Sharif,” he added. NawazSharif, he continued, needs a manfor the President’s slot who ratherthan having a political visionshould just be a ‘yes man’.“Mamnoon Hussain (the PML-Ncandidate for the office of presi-dent) will prove to be anotherpresident like Rafiq Tarar,” headded—Online

PPP not to sit in parliamenton July 30: Rabbani

Khurshid lashes outat PML-N over

alliance with MQMISLAMABAD—Leader of theOpposition in the NationalAsse, Syed Khurshid AhmedShah has said that members ofPakistan People’s Party wouldnot attend sessions of the pro-vincial assemblies and the par-liament on the day of presi-dential election.

Talking to media the Op-position Leader said that hisparty will explain the reason

KP Govt leads in imposing health, education emergency

Man injured in acid attack

Four cops injured asmiscreants target police van

PESHAWAR—At least fourpolicemen were injured in gre-nade attack by unknown mili-tants on a police van in thejurisdiction of police stationYakatut, Hashtnagari areahere on Sunday.

According to police con-trol, some unknown militantsattacked a police mobile vannear Superior Science Collegefor Boys, Nishtarabad Bridgein Hashtnagari.

Four policemen were in-jured in the attack includingan ASI and were rushed to theLady Reading Hospital formedical treatment.

Doctor on duty in LadyReading Hospital said that thepolicemen were slightly in-jured and were treated imme-diately. They were out of dan-ger, he added.

Soon after the blast, thesecurity forces rushed to theblast site and cordoned off thearea. The security forces also

started search operation. Themobile police van was badlydamaged as it caught fire af-ter the blast. Mansehra: Po-lice nabbed a most wantedproclaimed offender here onSunday, who had allegedlykilled three real brothers in thejurisdiction of City Police Sta-tion.

Muzaffargarh: A man wasinjured when unknown cul-prits hurled acid at him whilesleeping on Saturday night.According to details, the in-cident took place in Beet MirHazaar village ofMuzaffargarh, where four un-known people threw acid atLiaquat, 25, while he wassleeping in the yard of hishome and fled the scene. As aresult of acid attack majorbody parts of the victim wasburnt and he was rushed toNishtar Hospital. Accordingto doctors his condition wasserious.—INP

PESHAWAR—The KhyberPakhtunkhwa Senior Minis-ter, Sirajul Haq has said thathis govt has imposed healthand education emergencyearlier than Punjab andhinted at introducing newinterest free loan with initialfund of Rs 2 billion.

He vowed this govt cameat helm of affairs with agendaof change and would thusprovide relief to the poor byrestoring supremacy of lawand merit in the province.

He was talking to delega-tion of elite of Lakki Marwatled by Maulana Malik MirShah and Azizullah Marwat,District Amir and Naib Amirof JI respectively who calledon him. The Senior Ministeron a complaint of abduction

of a local contractor for ran-som, his allegedly shifting intoDIK limits and non-recoveryfor last one month, orderedDPO Dera to take immediatesteps in this regard.

Sirajul Haq assured thatlaw and order situation in allthe districts including LakkiMarwat would be improved.Similarly dras-tic changes inservice delivery of health,education, water supply, ag-riculture, communication andall other sectors would bebrought about to improve lifestandard of the masses con-siderably. Three guidelineprinciples have been fixed viza viz poverty elimination,maxi-mum provision of civicfacilities to the al-ready de-prived citizens and bringing

backward districts at par withdeveloped parts of the prov-ince. Industrialization and jobcreations were among top pri-orities of the govt.

New interest free loanscheme with initial fund ofRs.2bn was being introducedwhile Rs.1 billion allocated foryouth of 12 most backwarddistricts to provide them smallloans for business.

Similarly Rs 500 millionhas been set aside to provideRs 2000 monthly allow-anceto unemployed youth havingmas-ters’ degree. Rs 120 mil-lion allocated for promotingindustry and business activi-ties among youth.

A first ever-comprehen-sive Youth pol-icy was alsobeing evolved. Youth Centers

would be established at Divi-sional Head-quarters with al-location of Rs 1b each to pro-vide business and profes-sional guid-ance and creationfacilities to the young whileRs 100 million each would alsobe provided for sports equip-ment etc there.

Senior Minister reiteratedthat wastage of govt re-sources would be stopped. Acut of 50% has been imposedon Governor and CM housesand secretariats. Foreigntreatment and purchase ofnew vehicles have beenbanned for govt VIPs and offi-cials. No free stay would beallowed at govt rest houses,guesthouses and dak bunga-lows and all would have topay ac-cordingly. KP rev-

enue authority (KPRA) is be-ing established, as first stepfor tax reforms under FinanceBill to control domestic tax-ing on services and it wouldbe another milestone towardsprovincial autonomy. Waiverof property tax on industrialunits is being extended for 5years to lay founda-tion forindustrialization in KP.

Energy emergency hasbeen imposed in the province.He in this regard strongly ap-pealed the federal, Punjab,Sindh and Baluchistan govtsas well as overseas Pakistanisto generously invest and helpKP govt in cheap power gen-eration to overcome electric-ity load shedding and pro-mote economic growth in thecountry.—APPHYDERABAD: Sindh Minister for Education Nisar Khuhro addressing a press confer-

ence at Circuit House.

Peshawar: A police official standing near the damaged police vehicle as unknown per-sons attacked the van in Wazir Bagh area.

SIALKOT—Federal Ministerfor Water and Power KhawajaMuhammad Asif has said thatthe government was strivingto ensure uninterrupted sup-ply of electricity to all the do-mestic consumers during thecoming Eid Days across thecountry. He made this assur-ance while addressing the par-ticipants of an Iftar Dinnerhosted in his honour at Govt.Allama Iqbal Memorial Teach-ing Hospital Sialkot.

Various MNAs andMPAs , traders, industrialistsand exporters were alsopresent on this occasion.Khawaja Asif inaugurated thenewly established ShehbazBlock for students of Govt.Kh. Safdar medical CollegeSialkot and vowed to makePakistan a power load shed-ding free country within astipulate period of comingthree years, saying that thePML-N government has takenthe burning issue of energycrisis as a challenge and gov-ernment was moving towardsright direction and goal of get-

Energy crisis to soon becomeagonic story of past: Asif

ting rid of the, what he said,

unbearable load shedding ofelectricity.

40 held for power theft, illegal connections

Alliance withPTI only at

provincial levelPESHAWAR—Qaumi WatanParty (QWP) chief AftabSherpao Sunday said hisparty’s alliance with PakistanTehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) wasonly at provincial level and itwas yet to decide over presi-dential candidate.

Addressing a press con-ference on Sunday, former in-terior minister, Aftab AhmadKhan Sherpao said that theprime minister hasn’t yet vis-ited Peshawar.

Shepao said KhyberPukhtunkhaw being the larg-est power producer was un-fortunately plagued by maxi-mum of load-shedding in thecountry.

As regards upcomingpresidential election, he saidthat the talks with PakistanMuslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) and Pakistan Tahreek-e-Insaf (PTI) were in progressand a decision has yet to betaken by his party.—NNI

Dasti to supportPML-N

presidentialcandidate

MULTAN—Independent Na-tional Assembly mem-ber,Jamshed Dasti will supportPakistan Muslim League-Nawaz’s (PML-N) presiden-tial candidate MamnoonHussain in the August 30presidential elections as aresult of an understandingbetween Dasti and the PML-N.

In return, the PML-N willprovide a clear win forJamshed Dasti’s brother inthe NA-177 by-elections bywithdrawing its candidatefrom the constituency.

Jamshed Dasti had previ-ously also voted from PML-N’s Nawaz Sharif in the primeminister elec-tions.—INP

Barrister SultanMahmood to

join PTISTAFF REPORTER

MUZAFFARABAD—A jiltedformer Prime Minister AJKBarrister Sultan Mahmoodhas decided to join PTI, afterhis failure in no-trust motionagainst AJK PM, mainly over‘PML-N’s infidelity’.

The promised support of33 parliamentarians in his no-trust motion against AJK’sPM never materialized for theunlucky Barrister , as only twoof them turned up at no-trustmotion , while only 10 turnedup to accompany Barrister toHigh Court for filing writ peti-tion’ with whereabouts of re-maining 23 , remainedshrouded in mystery.

Hence after this failure,which also entailed loss of PPPmembership, Barrister SultanMahmood is said to have helda telephonic conversationwith PTI’s Shah MahmoodQurieshi and others; makinghis final decision to join PTI,alongwith his friends.

Amended draftRight to

Informationto be tabled inKP assembly

PESHAWAR—Spokesman ofthe Government of KhyberPakhtunkhwa has disclosedthat the draft Right to Infor-mation (RTI) law which wasearlier presented before theProvincial Cabinet on July 10,2013 has been significantlyamended to ensure maximumrelief and access to govern-ment record to the public.

In view of the commit-ment of the provincial gov-ernment and the urgency ofthe time, the amended draftwill soon be presented to theGovernor for promulgationas an ordinance while it willalso be moved in the Provin-cial Assembly within thestipulated 90 days so that isenacted as an Act.

About the weaknessesof the draft law, as reportedin a section of the press, thespokesman said that nodoubt the earlier draft didnot serve the purpose prop-erly but the present versionprovided for public ac-cesses to maximum informa-tion and contained veryminimum denials.

The present draft/ver-sion of the Law has beenshared with a number of na-tional and international hu-man rights/civil society or-ganizations and their inputsincluded due to which it, thepresent version will grabhighest ranking at the inter-national level.—Online

Faisalabad toxicliquor deaths toll

mounts to 23FAISALABAD—Death tolldue to consuming poison-ous liquor has mounted to 23as three more affected peopleexpired in hospital on Sun-day.

It should be mentionedthat since last week dozensof people who consumed lo-cally prepared toxic liquor inWarispura area of Faisalabadhave been affected.—INP

ISLAMABAD—BalochistanChief Minister Dr AbdulMalik has said that the fed-eral and provincial govern-ments are on same page onresolving the issues being

faced by the province, suchas terrorism, target killings,missing persons and law &order situation.

Talking to media the ChiefMinister said the provincialgovernment was responsibleto maintain peace and tran-quility in the province whilethe Federal Government hadassured to provide every kindof assistance for the purpose.

Replying to a question,

Federal, provincial govts on samepage about Balochistan issues: CM

he claimed that after his as-suming the office, the num-ber of target killings andmissing persons had de-creased in the province.

It was his top priority tobring the disgruntled peopleto the negotiating table forrestoring peace in the prov-ince, he added.

He said the Balochistangovernment had pre-senteda development budget and itincreased the educationalbudget from four to 24 percent.

Dr. Abdul Malik said that18th constitutional amend-ment was a big change andhis becoming chief ministerwas a great shift in the poli-tics of the country. Effectivesecurity measures for Eidshop-pers:Security has beenbeefed up in and around themain markets and shoppingmalls in the provincial capi-tal as shopping for Eid-ul-Fitar gains momentum.

A Quetta police officertold APP here Sunday thatpolice officials in plainclothes had also been de-ployed besides in-creasingpolice patrolling in the ba-zaars to protect women and

children coming for eid shop-ping.

“The security has beenstrengthened manifold fol-lowing increasing threats bythe miscreants to hit shop-ping points in the city”, hesaid.

He assured that the po-lice department in col-laboration with other law en-forcement agencies had pre-pared an effective securityplan for the provincial capi-tal during holy month ofRamadan.

“Under the plan the lawenforcement agencies keeppatrolling the city round theclock besides increasing thedeployment of officials at allimportant points”, he added.Meanwhile, it is also reportedthat unidentified gunmensnatched a motorcycle froma a trader in Bhag area of theKachhi district.

Levies force said here onSunday that a trader whobelong to Hindu communitynamely Babo Ram was onway home on his motorbikewhen armed robbers inter-cepted him and took away hisbike on gunpoint.

Levies force registered a

RAWALPINDI: Alkhidmat Foundation officials distributing Rashan among the deserving people during Ramazan-ul-Mubarak.

I S L A M A B A D — R e l i g i o u sscholars have advised thefaithfuls to pay Sadqa-e-Fitr(Fitrana) to the poor beforeEid-ul-Fitr so that those inneed of money can also cel-ebrate the festival.

The most deservingpeople for Sadqa-e-Fitr areclose relatives followed byneighbours and the poor.Mufti Shafique Ahmed, in astatement on Sun-day, saidit was obligatory for the Mus-lims to pay Fitrana.

“Fitrana can be given toclose relatives and the needy.It is not necessary to tellthem that it is an amount ofFitrana,” he added.

Explaining Fitrana, hesaid it must be paid before

Faithfuls asked to paysadqa-e-fitr before Eid

‘Eid prayer’, one or two daysbefore Eid usu-ally so that thepoor could enjoy the Eid.

Head of a family shouldpay the Fitrana on be-half ofall those under his care, suchas his wife and chil-dren, headded. He said according toHadith-Bukhari, the Prophet(PBUH) said: “Whoevergives it before the Eid prayer,it is accepted Zakaah(Fitrana) , and whoever givesit after the prayer, it is a kindof charity”.

According to the marketprice of 2.25 kilograms offlour, the amount for Fitranahas been calculated at Rs100. The faithfuls, who wantto pay Fitrana equal to theprice of barley, Khajoor

(dates) and Kishmish shouldpay Rs 200, Rs 1,120 and Rs2,200 per head respec-tively.

Lahore SMSs and theInternet has promoted E-card culture and sloweddown the industry of tradi-tional Eid cards. E-mail wasa blow to the Eid card, SMSsigned its death warrants,people from various walksof life told APP on Sun-day.

Due to the low sale ofEid cards, hundreds ofshopkeepers have changedtheir profession as all elec-tronic means of commu-nication are cheaper andtime saving so the generalpublic is not interested invisiting markets to pur-chase Eid cards.—APP

SIALKOT—The GujranwalaElectric Supply Company(GEPCO) has accelerated theoperation against powerthieves as 40 persons werearrested during the operationon Sunday.

The GEPCO officialshave been alert after FederalMinister Khawaja Asif’s di-

rectives for strict actionagainst elements involved inpower theft and ensuringsmooth supply duringRamazan especially at sehr,iftar and tarveeh timings.

The power distributioncompany conducts raids inSialkot, Pasrur, Daska andvarious adjoining areas dur-

ing which hundreds of ille-gal electricity connectionsand direct lines were de-tached besides arresting 40persons. Cases have beenregistered against the ac-cused at concerned policestations under power theftsection and investigationswere in progress.—INP

He said that there was thehand of the electricity thievesbehind the anti power outagesprotest being conducted bythe people in various parts ofthe country. KhawajaMuhammad Asif revealed thatthe PML-N government wasmaking hectic efforts to over-come energy crisis. He saidthat the government has alsodeveloped an effective mecha-nism to over come the menaceof theft of the electricity acrossthe country by taking the prov-inces into confidence over thiscrucial issue.

The theft of electricity

would not be tolerated andpeople indulged in this prac-tice would be dealt with ironhands, he warned. KhawajaMuhammad Asif said thatonly the PML-N has the capa-bility to get the nation rid ofprolonged and unbearable en-ergy crisis.

He claimed that the PML-N government has achievedall the targets set for till now toovercome the menace of en-ergy crisis and the governmentwas rapidly moving ahead to-wards its right direction andgoal to end the power loadshedding.—APP

PML-N has strong bonds with massesISLAMABAD—Minister of State for In-formation Technology and Telecommu-nication Anusha Rehman on Sundaysaid that his party had strong bonds oflove with the masses. Anusha Rehamn,in a statement, said the Pakistan Mus-lim League-Nawaz (PML-N) govern-ment would give soft loans to the youthto start their own businesses. The min-ister said he PML-N under the leader-ship of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif

would bring the country out of the crises. Earlier, chairinga meeting to deliberate on the Cyber Crimes Bill and CyberSpace Security here, she said the ministry should issuepolicy directives for the enforcement of type approval ofhandsets. The minister further directed all concerned thatthe Federal Board of Revenue as well as the Ministry ofFinance must also be taken on board for its enforcement.She also directed the ministry officials concerned to makesure that the Draft Cyber Crimes Law should be providedto those who could not attend the meeting for their feed-back. She also directed that Draft Bill should also be placedon the ministry’s website for comments. The issue of Secur-ing Cyber Space was also discussed. The minister urgedthe participants to come up with valuable suggestions withintwo weeks on Cyber Space Security. Meanwhile, FederalMinister for National Food Security and Research, SikandarBosan Sunday said that self-sufficiency in food and devel-opment of agriculture sector was priority of the govern-ment. Talking to APP, he said that the PML-N governmentwould provide all kinds of assistance to the farmers to achievethe goal of national food security. The minister said that hisMinistry would be reorganized and reactivated to ensuresustainable agri-sector development.—INP

PPP urged not to boycott Presidential pollsISLAMABAD—PML-N senior leaderSenator Iqbal Zafar Jhagra said opposi-tion should not boycott the election forthe stability of democracy in the coun-try. Talking to Radio Pakistan he addedthat his party has no concerns over theboycott of the oppo-sition. Regardingthe Supreme Court judgment, Jhagrasaid that this is the time to performUmrah which is religious responsibilityand Supreme Court has changed the

date of presidential election in view of the religious valuesin the country. He further said that it would be better ifPPP does not boycott the election. Federal Minister forInter-Provincial Coordination Riaz Hussain Peerzada hassaid that Pakistan Peo-ples Party’s (PPP) boycott of presi-dential elections is only political gimmickry because nosuch cam-paign is required for polls. Details said that in aninterview he rejected this excuse of PPP that they have notbeen given suffi-cient time for the campaigning of presi-dential polls and welcomed the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf’s(PTI) decision of participating in elections. He said thatPTI has honored the democratic traditions by its decision.On the other side, Pakistan Muslim League (PML-N) cen-tral leader Siddiqul-Farooq has said that PML (N) is themajority party in parliament and accord-ing to constitu-tion president will be from the major-ity department. In aninterview to media persons he said that PML (N) believes inthe continuity of democratic system and it has never adoptedthe policy of political vic-timization and political confronta-tion. “There is no moral of constitution reason behind thePPP’s boycott of presidential polls and poll will be held ontime according to constitution”, he con-cluded. Ends/OnlinePolitical Analyst Amir Zia has said that every one knew theresult of presidential election even if PPP did not boycott,because PML-N has absolute ma-jority. —APP

GCUF to develop anti dengue vaccineFAISALABAD—Government CollegeUniversity Faisalabad (GCUF) ViceChancellor Professor Dr Zakir Hussainsaid the GCUF scientists would developanti dengue vaccine. Addressing aseminar on dengue here, he said thePunjab government had taken hallmarksteps to control the dengue viruswithin a few years whereas many coun-tries took years to cope with the situa-tion. He stressed upon social mobili-zation through awareness among the

masses about the issue as the GCUF was taking all tan-gible steps in this regard. He called for avoiding accu-mulated water, proper disposal of garbage, wrapping allunused plastic tyres, regularly change water in contain-ers, use mosquito repellents to avoid mosquito bite, keephome, keep localities clean and remove stag-nant water.Dean Faculty of Science and Technology Prof Dr NaureenAziz Qureshi said that the GCUF had constituted manycommittee to create awareness. A number of seminarsand walks were arranged here to observe Anti DengueDay. The main walk was arranged under the aegis of theCity District Government in which MNAs RanaMuhammad Afzal Khan, Haji Muhammad Akram Ansari,MPA Begum Najma Afzal, Haji Khalid Saeed, DCO Na-jam Ahmed Shah, CPO Abdur Razzaq Cheema, DirectorHealth Services Jawed Omer, DO Health Dr MuhammadNawaz, MD Wasa Syed Zahid Aziz, MD PHA AshiqHussain Dogar and others participated. The walk startedfrom Red Crescent Hospital Chowk and culminated atDO Health’s office after passing through various cityroads. The participants were carrying banners and plac-ards inscribed with slogans against dengue and precau-tionary measures to avoid it. MNA Rana MuhammadAfzal said the objective of the Anti-Dengue Day was tosensitize people about dengue and added that it was asocial issue which could be overcome with an active co-operation and assistance of the community.—APP

Scottishscholarships forPakistani women

ISLAMABAD—The Scottishgovernment has announcedscholarships for youngwomen in Pakistan.

This scholarship schemeaims at helping women fromdisadvantaged backgroundsto study at the master levelin Pakistan Universities, saida press here on Sunday.

The British Council Paki-stan will administer thescheme and coordinate withthe selected scholars. ThePakistan Scottish Scholar-ship Scheme will facilitateaward-holders with tuitionfee for master courses,univer-sity hostel costs, sub-sistence to the award-holderand travel to and from hometo university, three times in ayear.

Young women can availthis scholarship oppor-tunity by applying for a mas-ter degree at any Higher Edu-cation Commissionrecognised university of Pa-kistan in one areas sustain-able Energy, Food Se-curityand Agriculture and Educa-tion.

HAFIZABAD: Women and children protesting against the shortage of water.

HYDERABAD: People buying shoes at Bacha Khan Chowk in connection with thepreparations for the upcoming Edul Fitr.

HYDERABAD: Children of the employees of Sui Gas studying during the protest demonstration.

STAFF REPORTER

I S L A M A B A D — K h y b e rPakhtunkhwa Chief MinisterPervez Khattak has said thatwork has already started ona plan to gen-erate 900MWelectricity to overcome en-ergy crisis in the province.Talking to media , he said weintend to generate 2000 MWelectricity through competi-tive bids to be published inthe newspapers advertise-ments very soon.

Investors includingOverseas Pakistanis can in-vest in the scheme of gener-ating electricity in KhyberPakhtunkhwa, he added.

He said restoration ofpeace in tribal areas was theresponsibility of the federal

Govt to overcome energycrisis in province: Khattak

government; adding that abroad-based national policyshould be framed in consul-tations with all political par-ties in the coun-try.

He said Prime Ministershould convene all party con-ference and create a consen-sus over finalization of a na-tional security policy.

Provincial government onits part, he said, was using allits resources to mobilize itsintelligence agencies,strengthen the police and theparamilitary forces for check-ing possible militant infiltra-tions from tribal areas and en-sure peace and security inKhyber Pakhtunkhwa.

The KP govt has expe-dited implementation on itsbudget announcement about

declaring energy emergencyto overcome the crippling loadshedding and power crises.Owing to such efforts, the 2hydel power houses ofMachai and Ranolia wouldstart functioning in nextcouple of weeks producing 20MW electricity. Similarly workon 4 major power stations with457 MW capacity has alsobeen started including 150 mwSharmai, 144 mw shahshkai,132 mw Shogosan and 31 mwkotto hudel projects.

It is decided to contact thefederal govt at ministerial levelto obtain the ceremonial ap-proval due to delay in this re-gard. Survey for 200 mw ther-mal power house near the gasreservoirs of Kohat and Karakis also under way.

FAISALABAD—State Minis-ter for Water and Power AbidSher Ali has warned blacksheep to mend their waysotherwise they would betransferred to the far-flungareas. He was addressing apublic gathering on his ar-rival at his hometown aftertaking over the oath of StateMinis-ter. He was accordeda rousing welcome by thePML-N workers and localelite.

He said that PML-N gov-ernment was committed toend load shedding and in thisconnection crackdown hasalready been started againstthe power pilferers. Hetermed power pilferers as na-tional enemies who wereplaying with the national in-terests.

He said that he had iden-tified the black sheep presentwithin the folds of variousdistribution companies andthose would not be spared.

‘Black sheep’ to betransferred to remote

areas: Abid SherHe said that we have

identified 6 major black sheepof Sukkur Electric SupplyCompany and they have al-ready been transferred toBalochistan.

He said that he wouldhave a meeting with SindhChief Minister Qaim Ali Shahover this issue and requesthim to initiate a crackdownagainst power pilferers ofthis province. He said that hewould also provide the chiefminister a list of power pilfer-ers for proceeding againstthem. He said that Prime Min-ister Muhammad NawazSharif will soon announce4000 megawatts electricityprojects which would helpovercome load shedding.He stated that Pakistan wouldstart getting LNG from Qatarfrom January 2014. This willhelp government to providemuch needed gas to the in-dustrial sector from 15 to 20days in a month.—APP

ISLAMABAD—The Meteoro-logical department has pre-dicted mainly hot and humidweather in most parts of thecountry. However rain-thun-derstorm is expected at iso-lated places of southeasternSindh, Northeast Punjab,Hazara divisions and Kash-mir.

The Flood Warning Cen-tre, Lahore has said scat-teredthunderstorm/rain is expectedover Southern Punjab andSouthern Sindh. Isolatedthunder-storm/rain is likely tooccur over Makran, Kalat,Zhob, Bannu, Kohat,Peshawar, Mardan,Malakand, Hazara divisions,Northern Waziristan, North-ern Sindh, Islamabad, North-ern Punjab, Kashmir andGilgit Baltishtan.

Partly cloudy weather

Partly cloudy with chancesof rain weather forcast

with chances of rain has beenforecast for Monday in themetropolis, said a weather re-port here on Sunday. Accord-ing to the weather report is-

sued by Paki-stan Meteoro-logical Department, the maxi-mum tempera-ture is expectedto remain in the range of 32 to34 degree celsius. Rain/ thun-dershower is likely to occurat isolated places in Sindhand Kalat divisions ofBalochistan. Hot and humidweather is expected else-where in the region.—APP

CM urged to take notice of irregularitiesin Kahuta Road construction

ISLAMABAD—The residentsof Model Town (Humak), arural area of the Federal Capi-tal, have appealed to PunjabChief Minister Shahbaz Sharifto take notice of alleged ir-regularities in the construc-tion of road from Swan to KakBridge.

They expressed concernsover poor quality and inordi-nate delay in the completionof the road.

The Punjab Chief Minis-ter allocated a special fund ofRs 440 million for the con-struction of the road last yearafter a long tussle between theCapital Development Author-

ity (CDA) and the provincialgovernment.

They said the recentmonsoon rains have ex-posedthe material used by the con-tractor as cracks have devel-oped in various portions ofthe road.

Zaheer, lawyer and a resi-dent of the area, told APP thatthe contractor started work onthe road around six monthsago, which was to be com-pleted in three months.

He said it was the hallmarkof Punjab govern-ment to com-plete underpasses and flyoverbridges in 90 days record timebut on the contrary the Kahuta

road contractor had not metthe deadline while compromis-ing on the quality. MuhammadAfzal, another resident, al-leged that the contractor wasgiven a free hand as the con-struction work was not beingmonitored by the authoritiesconcerned.

He said a large numberof vehicles remained stuckup on the the road due tothe poor strategy of the plan-ners to divert the traffic ormake alternate arrangementsfor heavy vehicles attachedwith the factories situated inthe Kahuta Industrial Tri-angle area.—APP

SARGODHA—Dozens ofcattles were killed and hun-dreds others affected of mys-terious viral diseases caus-ing million of rupees lossesto the breeders. Affecteesexpress anguish over the roleof livestock department. Itshould be mentioned thatepidemics gripped the cattleheads in Sargodha districtweeks earlier the monsoonset in. Earlier it hit specificareas but later spread acrossthe district due to lack of vac-cination and negligence of

Viral diseases hit hardcattle in Sargodha

livestock department.Dozens of animals includ-

ing buffaloes, cows, goatsand sheep have died of viraldiseases and hundreds oth-ers affected. It was fearedthat the toll may rise furtheras no immediate arrange-ments have been made toovercome the situation. It isworth mentioning here thatdistrict health officer slot islying vacant due to whichveterinary hospitals and dis-pensaries are in worse con-dition.—APP

Substandardinjection: 2patients lose

eyesightMULTAN—Two patients outof 13 admitted to the Eye Wardof Nishtar Hospital afterallegedlly given substandarinjection (dexamethason) atthe district headquarters hos-pital, Layyah, have lost eye-sight completely.

Dr Imran Yawar, eye spe-cialist at Nishtar Hospital, toldAPP on Sunday that 13 pa-tients including four men andnine women were admitted toNishtar Hospital from theLayyah hospital in criticalcondition.

He added the patientsunderwent surgery after col-lection of specimens and 11patients were stable while twopatients had lost their eye-sight completely as they wereaffected badly.

Amongst the stable pa-tients, three patients wouldrecover 100 percent becausethey are young and hadenough immunity to fight thedisease. The other patientswill also recover but with weakeyesight, he added.

About the reasons behindthe incident, he said a healthdepartment team was investi-gating it. He, however, addedthat the patients suffered dueto allegedly substandard in-jection.—APP

LAHORE—The PunjabGovernment is all set to re-instate the local govern-ment system in the provinceas per the apex court’s in-junction to complete legalpreparations regarding lo-cal bodies election by Au-gust 15.

As a first step, thePunjab Government on Fri-day (July 26) laid the PunjabLocal Government Bill 2013in the Punjab Assembly,which was referred to a Spe-cial Committee, comprising12 members from differentpolitical parties, for reviewand report within a week.

The Punjab Local Gov-ernment (PLG) Bill 2013 hasthe following features:

* The constitutionalterm of the local government

Features of Punjab Local Government Billbodies will be 4 years. * Ex-cept for Lahore, Union Coun-cils and District councils willbe set up in rural areas. *Metropolitan Corporationswill operate in the urban ar-eas while Lahore District willalso set up Municipal Corpo-ration and Municipal commit-tees.

* The head of a local gov-ernment body in the urbanareas will be called ‘MAYOR’while in the rural areas‘CHAIRMAN’ will head thelocal government.

* Deputy Commissioner(DC) office will be restoredand the District Coordination(DCO) offices will stand re-moved under the local gov-ernment Bill 2013 while themagisterial system will be re-stored in some modified

form. * The Chief Minister maysuspend a Mayor or ChairmanDistrict Council on corruptioncharges as per the recommen-dations of Local MunicipalCommission which will haverepresentation of the opposi-tion as well.

* Provincial Finance Min-ister will monitor the financialaffairs of the local govern-ments as Chairperson of theProvincial Finance Council(PFC) while Minister for Lo-cal government will serve asthe co-chairman.

* No person convicted bya court of law could contestthe local government election.

* The Local Governmentswill be subject to audit (Noaudit could be held into cor-ruption in previous local gov-ernment system ). The audit

will be conducted by the Au-ditor General or the third partyaudit. * The grant in place ofoctroi tax and district tax willbe other than the grant underthe Provincial Finance Com-mission Award. * The coun-cillors will be elected on non-party basis while voters in therural areas could elect any so-cial worker.

* As per the constitution,no convict could contest localgovernment election at least 5years after completion of hispunishment inflicted onhim\her by a court of law.

* No new system is beingintroduced in the local govern-ment bill 2013 is being intro-duced while people will begoverned by the existing lawsregarding corruption.

* The Deputy Commis-

sioners will have limited pow-ers under the new local gov-ernment system while the roleof the bureaucracy has beenminimised. * Except for theUnion Councils, any localgovernment could appoint alocal authority for thefulfilment of local duties un-der it with the prior approvalof the provincial government.* The local government willperform under the provincialgovernment structure.

* The Provincial govern-ment could issue instruc-tions to the local govern-ments on the recommenda-tions of the Local govern-ment Commission while thePunjab Local GovernmentCommission (PLGC) will beheaded by Minister for Lo-cal Government.—APP

MULTAN—Directorate Dis-tance Learning Programme ofBahauddin Zakariya Univer-sity (BZU) will equip its ex-isting campus with modernfacilities to improve effi-ciency of students of week-end classes, initially at a costof Rs 250 million.

Director Distance Learn-ing Programme BZU DrIshaaq Faani while talking toAPP said that they had de-cided to upgrade the campusby providing various facili-ties including centrally air-conditioned building on so-lar energy system, modernlab, fitness centre, CCTVcamera, ceiling of the wholebuilding, thumbing systemfor showing presence ofteachers as well as studentsin classes, 10 video class

BZU’s distance learning programmerooms, latest clinical labora-tory and other facilities tobring the campus of interna-tional standard.

Dr Faani informed thatthey had floated tenders forpartition of room and estab-lishment of modern li-brary.He informed that Rs 30 mil-lion had been earmarked forthe library.

He added that talks withCanadian and German com-panies were in progress forthe projects.

Director Distance Learn-ing Programme Ishaaq Faaniinformed that 8,000 studentswere acquiring education un-der the popular programme.He mentioned that qualityeducation was being imparted66 disciplines in distancelearning programme.—APP

India provocativelymartyrs Pak soldier

ONCE again India carried out an unprovoked firing in Nezapir sectorof Rawla-kot near the LOC on Saturday killing one soldier andseriously injuring another. The martyred Jawan was buried in tears

with full military honours and with people praising his valour and ex-pressing determination that Pakistan cannot be cowed down by such actsof aggression.

It was not the first incident of this nature since the ceasefire wasreached. India had been repeatedly violating the LOC ceasefire particu-larly since the beginning of this year in which several Pakistani soldiershave been martyred. In order to hide its aggressive posture, New Delhihad been blaming Pakistan to shift the responsibility. At this point oftime when Pakistan is deep in the mist of ad-dressing host of problems,New Delhi unfortunately appears to be taking adven-turous approachwhich should be a worrying situation for Pakistan. Of course India isalready implementing a well orchestrated and deeply conceived strat-egy to continue bleeding and destabilizing Pakistan through acts ofterrorism in Ba-lochistan, Karachi and FATA, the provocations alongthe LOC and international borders mean trying to test the capacity ofPakistan army as well. One thing is for certain that the Pakistan armedforces with the full backing of people are fully prepared to deal withthe machinations of the enemy and there should be no doubt about it inany one’s mind. However in the perspective of these Indian conspira-cies and no positive response to several positive overtures from Islama-bad, we wonder that some of our leaders day in and day out are makingstate-ments for improving relations with New Delhi which look veryodd as they give the impression that Pakistan was very impatient andwould go to any extent to normalize ties. Of course no one is opposed togood neighbourly relations but India should also respond in the samespirit to enable the two sides to move ahead.

More Muslim bloodspills on Cairo roads

IN just one day more than 70 people were killed and many more injuredin pro-test against the ouster of elected President Morsi. The protests

by his support-ers, particularly the Muslim Brotherhood members arenot subsiding and in re-action, the Egyptian Army Chief called for counterprotests to give backing to the action that he initiated by overthrowingthe President.

These protests mean pitching the Egyptian people against each otherand thus have all the dangers of spilling of more blood of Muslims onroads in Cairo and other cities. The Saturday indiscriminate firing at theprotestors indicates that the Egyptian army appears to be determined tocrush the rising wave of support for ousted President Muhammad Morsi,as his removal has caused anguish in the length and breadth of the coun-try. In the face of disturbing situation, as a friendly country, Pakistantook a principled stance urging immediate release of Mr Morsi and ask-ing all sides to address the legal and constitutional issues in an inclusiveand peaceful manner to enable the country to successfully restore thedemocratic institutions as early as possible. Turkish Prime Minister TayyipEr-dogan, also harshly criticised the European Union and others for fail-ing to con-demn strongly enough the killing of dozens in Cairo on Satur-day. Erdogan, rightly accused the EU of double standards for question-ing the use of police teargas in Turkey but not the shooting deaths ofprotesters in Cairo. We believe the stance of Pakistan and Turkey wasbased on principle because Mr Morsi was an elected leader and the man-date of the masses must be respected in all circumstances. The spillingof blood on Cairo roads would pose more dangers to already deeply di-vided country. The grand imam of Al-Azhar while condemning the deathof dozens of Mursi supporters called for an investigation into the inci-dent. The authorities in Egypt must realize that the gathered masses willnot last long because the crisis is more dangerous than what is regardedas competing demonstrations. The protests should be seen as a prelude tofurther unrest and we hope that wisdom would dawn on the authorities topacify the situation through peaceful means as the country is the seat ofoldest civilization and has to play a major role in the Middle East.

Soan farmers go forown power generation

THE most critical problem in Pakistan today is shortage of energy anddifferent options are being considered and applied by the government

and enterprising people to get out of the crisis. The solution of this prob-lem lies in utilizing al-ternative sources of energy including coal, solar,wind and hydel to the maxi-mum and an example was set by the PunjabGovernment on Saturday by sign-ing an MoU with a Chinese companyfor the generation of 2400MW from coal.

But what was more encouraging and must serve as a role model forothers is the initiative by enterprising farmers of Soan, the most beautifulValley in Khushab district, who went for local resources to generateelectricity. They have set up solar power panels to operate tube wellsand cattle dung gas to run the diesel pumps. Both the technologies havereduced their dependence on electricity and diesel and the gas is com-bustible for domestic usage too. The example set by the farmers ofSoan Valey need to be emulated by people in other areas by ac-tivelyadopting to the changing condition and applying innovative ideas. Wewould suggest that the government too should make the Soan valleyproject as a role model, support farmers across the country to learnfrom the successful ex-perience by extending small loans on concessionalinterest rate as that would bring down the power shortfall to some extentin comparatively short period of time.

Appointing new Army Chief

Saying is onething, and doinganother.

Scoreskilled in

CairoDespite warning from Army

chief General Abdel FattahAl Sisi, Egypt seems to be

bracing itself for the biggest show-down in history. Independent re-ports say that more than 100 peoplelost their lives in a daylong protestat the hands of security forces andopponents of former presidentMohammed Mursi. This is quitedespicable, and could snowball intomany more episodes in days andweeks to come.

The Muslim Brotherhood wasout to protest against the dismissalof its government earlier thismonth, and had not adhered to cau-tions. General Sisi, in a timely brief,had warned that continued clashesbetween pro-and-anti Brotherhoodsupporters might give the militarya mandate for intervention. Thoughthe army is at the helm of affairs,the good point is it hasn’t taken onthe role of fighting pitched battledwith the opposition elements on theTahrir Square. What is happeningin Cairo and elsewhere is swift po-litical reaction to statements andpolicies of pro-and anti-govern-ment supporters. Thousands of pro-government men are also rallyingat the Tahrir and it is quite obviousthat they would rub shoulders andclash with Mursi men out there.

A glance at the crisis in Egyptreveals that it has no political solu-tion in sight. The response that hascome from the military so far is oneof maintaining the status quo afterhaving lent support to the interimadministration of PresidentMansour Adli. If peace and sanc-tity has to settle in Egypt, the Mus-lim Brotherhood has to come for-ward in political essence and makea point. This culture of protests andstandoff at the landmark Revolu-tion Square will help neither theopposition nor the government.According to rough estimates, thou-sands have lost their lives in Cairosince the uprising began againstformer president Hosni Mubarak,and unfortunately it had led to moredestabilisation than what was Egyptunder the iron fist rule of the dicta-tor. To bring things under control,someone has to take an initiative.The fact that the military is eager totransfer power to an elected dispen-sation is quite promising. But thatcan only happen if the panel of ex-perts that has been named to draft aconstitution is provided with a level-playing field and the new law of theland is written and adopted in con-sensus. Without that Egypt’s gov-ernance pendulum would continueto swing between insecurity andchaos. It’s time for political parties,especially the Brotherhood, to seereason in dialogue and forcefullypresent its point of view before theconstituent panel. Killings and law-lessness, nonetheless, have to cometo an end. — Khaleej Times

*****

Westernpharmaplayers

The increasing Chinese demand for pharmaceuticaldrugs is a boon and a curse.

While the requirement could notcome at a better time for westernmanufacturers, who have seen aslump in sales, thanks to patent ex-pirations in the US and price con-trols in Europe, the procedure ofsupply in what is a huge market,has revealed illegal payments be-ing made through travel agents todoctors, hospitals and governmentofficials to help spur sales.

Blue-chip companies likeMerck and GlaxoSmithKline, toname but a few, find themselves un-der the spotlight as the authentic-ity of their operations is being ex-amined by Chinese authorities. Thelesson is simple: western compa-nies will have to try and find a finebalance against their Chinese coun-terparts as they attempt to do busi-ness there. Beijing has signalled itsintention of promoting the domes-tic drug industry into direct com-petition with the world’s top manu-facturers. This is to combat a grow-ing need among the middle classfor western manufactured drugsand endorse the government’s newhealth programme under which in-surance coverage will be providedto millions. Companies must acceptthe government’s populist policiesat the risk of sullying their brand’sinternational image. — Gulf News

MEDIA WATCH

—Proverb

In the context of Golf the mostfavorite game of our general officers, the appointment of COAS

in the army is like the ‘Kevlar driver’in the golf bag. All other clubs arealso good enough. They may evenbe used for some drives, chippingand putting. But it is the long drivein the fairway – the most importanttee off, without which all golfersknow everything, falls apart. TheCOAS thus must be selected basedon his capability to execute that longstraight drive that brings the ballclosest to the pin. For if he lacks theprofessional competence to do thatthan like General Musharraff he mayexecute the wrong drive and thusland the ball not on the fairway butin the rough. The ball must stay thecourse. That in essence is the respon-sibility of the COAS.

But for now would it be senior-ity, merit, professional competence orloyalty? It could be any factor but onething is certain – when it comes toappointing the COAS in Pakistan itis never ‘business as usual’. The notso essential but relatively importantelement that is propelling almost allanalysts to seriously consider andmake a forecast about the appoint-ment of the next COAS is PrimeMinister Nawaz Sharif’s pre-electionstatement. Giving an interview to anIndian news channel on May 6th hesaid, ‘I don’t think he (GeneralKayani) will ask for any further ex-tension or he will be interested in anyfurther extension. I will go by thebook; I will go by the merit. Who soever is senior most, will have to oc-

Counter-terrorism: Models for Pakistan

HURMAT GROUP OF PUBLICATIONSZahid Malik

President & Editor-in-ChiefPh: 051-2256006

Faisal Zahid MalikEditor

Ph: 021-32631102

Gauhar Zahid MalikExecutive Editor

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IslamabadPh Exchange: 051-2852027

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LahoreKhalid ButtResident Editor

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Sunday Magazine

Sadia Zahid MalikEditor

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

Generally, the term terrorismmeans the use of violence orviolent means by individual

(s) or a group. The counter terror-ism thus means the actions or meth-ods used by a community or a coun-try to stop the activities of people,who use violence to achieve theirpolitical or any connected ends/aims. Counter terrorism may alsobe defined as the political or mili-tary activities, designed to preventor thwart terrorism.

Pakistan is facing a dilemma ofcountering terrorism since last overa decade. Besides some separatistgroups in Balochistan, the home-grown terrorist group, the Tehrik-a-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) is themain terrorist network operatingagainst the state of Pakistan and itspeople. A strong desire is presentamong the ruling circle both at Fed-eral level and those formed Gov-ernment in KPK to talk to TTP forbringing peace in Pakistan.

Unfortunately, there appears nobreakthrough in this wishful policyof dialogue between Governmentand TTP. The primary hurdle is thepessimistic mind-set of the TTP, thegroup has reflected over years. Dia-logue with the TTP remains noneproductive or even none-starter, asthe group challenges the writ ofstate. This is surprising that, in pre-vious three agreements, the stategave some sort of recognition to thepresence of TTP or this terroristoutfit (prior to 2007) and undergonea brief dialogue process. On its part,the terrorist group continues chal-lenging the state, except for the du-ration of its ill-organized period.

cupy… the nextone, the next inline.’ Going by thebook the PrimeMinister can tech-nically appointany general officer

regardless of his position ‘in line’. Yetif merit is the factor by which thePrime Minister should go than the lineactually does not matter.

The ‘next in line’, which in thiscase is Lt General Haroon Aslam isposted as Chief of Logistic Staff arelatively unimportant post fromwhere traditionally no Officer hasbeen elevated to the post of COAS.Had he been the choice candidate ofGeneral Kayani he would not be oc-cupying the post he is currently oc-cupying. Appointments, postings andtransfers of general officers are thesole prerogative of the COAS. In theirposting and appointments it is not theseniority of the general officers thatis counted but the professional com-petence to do the job. Thus a systemof merit already runs in the army andthe next in line to be promoted is al-ways the CGS.

The General Officer occupyingthe post of CGS is actually consideredas Army Chief’s choice for his replace-ment. Presently Lt General RashidMehmood is occupying the post. Ide-ally this should be the merit that thePrime Minister should also follow. Thelast time Prime Minister Nawaz Sharifmade a choice he did not considermerit as a factor for selection. Gen-eral Jehangir Karamat had alreadyposted General Ali Kuli Khan as CGSthus communicating his choice of thenext COAS on merit. But loyalty waspreferred and given more value as thedetermining tool for the selection ofthe coveted post of the COAS andGeneral Musharraff was selected andpromoted. Had the choice been made

on merit we may have prevented our-selves from witnessing yet anothermilitary dictator’s rule.

If anything the post 9/11 environ-ment and the complex battle field ithas thrust upon us merits that themilitary leader selected for the postof COAS must be able to bring aboutdecisive effects. All generals are ableand trained to maintain and lead a pro-

fessional army. But when it comes tofighting internally against an enemynetwork spread along the length andbreadth of our country we need amilitary commander who carries apedigree of routing out militancy.Belonging to Tank, Waziristan LtGeneral Tariq Khan the present CorpsCommander of Mangla Corps to his

credit has the distinction of being theonly officer among the aspirants forthe coveted post to have led opera-tions as a General Officer in the mili-tant strong holds on Pak-Afghanistanborder. Swat, Buner, Dir, SouthWaziristan, Bajur and many otherplaces are all filled with the storiesof how the myth of militants in thearea was broken and how the armysucceeded in establishing controlunder the leadership of the general.When it comes to experience in fight-ing war on terror and understandingthe ever changing military dynam-ics on our western border than Gen-eral Tariq seems to be the man.

In the context of civil-militaryrelations, traditionally ‘loss of con-trol over military’ is the fear thatguides civilian authority in select-ing the man to lead the all powerfularmy. Our past history reflects howseniority, professional competenceand merit were relegated as essen-tial factors and loyalty is seen as thefactor that supersedes all. This mustchange now. The merit of appoint-ment must be considered before ap-pointing the COAS. It is throughpostings on these appointments thatthe COAS maintains his establishedmerit in the army.

Lastly, the Prime Minister woulddo well to decide and announce theappointment of COAS. This wouldput to rest the unnecessary mediaspeculations and also allow the des-ignated chief enough time to makepreparations for the long haul ahead.Transition in Afghanistan and themilitary challenges that this transitionmay pose on our western border isone of the biggest challenge that thenew chief will face on assumption ofhis duties.—The writer, a research scholar,is doing PhD in civil-military rela-tions from KU.

Two broad models are presentfor ending the terrorism from Paki-stan. The first is the elimination ofthe terrorist group(s) to the last man,the way Sri Lankan Government didagainst the LTTE. This protractedinsurgency of the LTTE cost lives ofthousands of innocent people besides,social, political and economic disrup-tion of Sri Lanka in over twenty-fiveyears, from 1983 to 2009, once LTTEChief Mr Prabhakaran was killed.Except reservations of Tamil popula-tion which suffered the most, gener-ally, there is peace in Sri Lanka. Paki-stan Army and Government has sup-ported this South Asian island coun-try, whereas, the terrorist group LTTEwas fully supported by powerfulneighbor of Sri Lanka, the India. Itis worth mentioning that most of in-surgencies and terrorist networks inSouth Asian countries are financedand supported militarily by thisSouth Asian giant, India.

Another model is the process ofdialogue, the peaceful way of settlingthe disputes. In the history, many in-surgencies have been resolvedthrough the dialogue among the op-posing parties. The most recent ex-ample is the political and negotiatedsettlement of the Northern Ireland in1998. IRA fought a protracted waragainst UK. The British Governmenthad announced huge bounties on theheads of IRA members. During thedialogue, same members were nego-tiating with the British Governmentand Her Majesty for the resolutionof Northern Ireland. Now, there is apeace and prosperity in Northern Ire-land. The most important aspect ofthe three models (including TTP) is:the LTTE was representing an eth-nic group, the Tamils having Indianorigin, who wanted their separateidentity viz-a-vis the majority Sin-halese in Sri Lanka. In the case of

IRA, it was fighting for the right ofNorthern Ireland, having the popularsupport of the people. In the case ofTTP, they neither represent any eth-nic group or any defined religious en-tity. They have no roots among thelocal populace. Rather, the peoplehate them even in their areas of forcedinfluence. It is the fear which peoplehave from the barbarian act.

Besides, above two recent mod-els, there are successful models ofcountering the terrorism and insur-gencies in various parts of the world.Some of these include; the Philippines(1899-1902), El Salvador (1980-1992), Malaysia (1948-1960) andGuatemala (1963-1993). All thesemodels offer insight as to overall suc-cess. The conflicts in Vietnam (1959-1972) and Algeria (1954-1962) offergreat examples of military operationalsuccesses that were ultimatelythwarted by a disconnected overallstrategy. Additionally, the operationsin Columbia (1963-present) and Iraq(2005-present) offer current, real-time counterinsurgency measures thatare having significant positive effects.

All of these counterinsurgency ef-forts have a significant amount of re-search and lessons readily available foranalysis. Every insurgency has its owndynamics. While no counter-terrorismsituation is the same and there is noprescribed template for success, it isbeneficial to look at successful mea-sures from past counterinsurgency op-erations and determine their applica-bility to Pakistan’s current situation.A compilation of the lessons learnt,their analysis and applicability as astarting point we can reach over to fourconclusions; (1) First, for a successfulcounter-terrorism strategy, the utmostimportance has to be given to the se-curity of the civilian populace and cul-tivation of a positive relationship withthe local people. Providing security

Muhammad Ali EhsanEmail: [email protected]

The last timePM Nawaz Sharifmade a choice hedid not consider

merit as a factor forselection. All

generals are ableand trained to

maintain and lead aprofessional army.But when it comes

to fightinginternally against an

enemy networkspread along the

length and breadthof our country we

need a militarycommander who

carries a pedigree ofrouting outmilitancy.

and establishing trust with the localpopulace enables all othercounterinsurgency actions. (2) suc-cessful counterinsurgencies takemeasures to deny the insurgents op-erating space. This includes logisticslines as well as territory to operatefrom. (3) successful counter-terror-ism strategy simultaneously embarkon socio-political development totake advantage of security gains.Projects like infrastructure, healthand education significantly improvethe populations association with stateidentity. (4) and the most importantlong term, successful counter-terror-ism measure is to develop a “wholeof government” integrated strategyto establish strategic stability throughaddressing root causes/grievances ofthe insurgency.

There is no defined counter-ter-rorism strategy being practiced inPakistan. Indeed, it is the responsi-bility of the political Governmentto formulate a counter-terrorismstrategy for implementation by thesecurity forces. In the absence of anysuch a strategy, there remained am-biguity, as what to do. Would themilitary operation provides the finalsolution or the negotiation and dia-logue is the alternative way forward.In case of military operations, thesecurity forces would clear an areafrom the terrorists, but, what aboutits sustainability; the ultimate hold-ing by the political and civil admin-istration. The examples are there inthe cases of Swat and SWA. Let ushave a well-debated and practicalcounter-terrorism strategy at statelevel to combat the TTP. Indecisive-ness at state level would allow TTPmore manoeuvring space and en-hanced strength, may be difficult tobe overpowered in the days to come.The writer is Islamabad-based IRanalyst.

Dr Muhammad Khan Email: [email protected]

Voice of the People

We areafter ISI?

MUKHTAR AHMED

Your editorial “Who is after ISI” isa timely wake up call for the gov-ernment to immediately formulatenational security policy to combatterrorism and decide what line ofaction is to be taken against TTPtalks or no talks. There is no thirdoption. The attack on ISI HQ inSukkur is national failure, the onewho are supposed to warn the gov-ernment are unable to protect them-selves.

Attack on ISI HQ located in redzone of Sukkur has exposed our vul-nerabilities and weaknesses. Re-peated attacks on key military instal-lations should be a matter of deepconcern. We all know that militantshave the ability to attack any mili-tary installation at any time anywhere, therefore it requires high alertround the clock. How come that anexplosive laden vehicle could enterunchecked in red zone area andcause damage. It is true you can notcontrol a person who is on a suicidemission but who stops us in takingproper security measures. Such op-erations are not planned over night;these are rehearsed for days beforeexecution. This is a massive intelli-gence failure

Unfortunately once again blamegame has started and the issue is be-ing politicized and being attributedto police negligence, that should al-ways be avoided. There is no set so-lution to control these attacks, nei-ther APC is the solution. The onlysolution is 100 percent check of ve-hicles including flag cars, peoplemoving in uniforms and ambulancesetc. Who is after ISI? We haveknown enemies like RAW, CIA, lo-cal insurgents their active participa-tion in such like attacks can not beruled out but top of the list is certainanchors that keep yelling on ISI andarmy at regular intervals withoutrealizing the damage being causedat the cost of rating. We have to drawa line what is good in the nationalinterest and its institution especiallythe premier institution of the coun-try that enjoys great reputation inmost advanced countries of theworld.

Our media and political and de-fense analysts must understand thatby openly showing no confidencein our own army would add to inse-curity of people and state. Armedforces are fighting war on differentfronts, three fourth of the army isdeployed on borders and giving sac-rifices to save the country and fu-ture of our new generation. Criticiz-ing own army and ISI ultimately willlower the moral of the force and thatwould result in weakening the stateand that is what the enemy wants.Nation stands united behind thearmed forces and would not allowanybody to harm them—Via email

*****KHAN MEHRAN MENGAL

The July 24 attack on ISI offices inSukkur indicates frustration on partof the terrorists as well as criminals.It also speaks of our premier intelli-gence agency’s performance andprogress that poses threat to terror-ists. But at the same time it showshow vulnerable it becomes when itgets exposed to dangers. It alsomeans that ‘intelligence’ network onthe terrorists’ side is more activethan our own apparatus; surely theyhave backing from adversary appa-ratuses. Sukkur jail is used to homedreaded prisoners and the movingof terrorists to Sukkur must havebeen kept top secret.

It is unfortunate that the attack-ers were able to break into sensitiveinformation. Such a movement ofterrorists or criminals cannot bemade without the help of local po-lice and particularly the jail staff thatis prone to bribes and intimidations.It seems that terrorists after blastswanted to invade the ISI office butthey failed to do so. Were they re-ally terrorists? Locals say that intel-ligence agencies are operatingagainst dacoits as the dacoits in in-

Corruption in varsities HASHIM ABRO

Corruption is pervasive in Pakistani society. Nowadays everyday business in Pakistan is openlycorrupt but here I have to focus on educational institutions, in particular, the public sector univer-

sities where there is taking place the grooming of our students who are considered the future leaders.Corruption is so pervasive in Pakistani society that all anti-corruption institutions and mechanism havebecome ineffective to combat or minimize it. Recently, I had the opportunity to conduct a research abouta few leading public sector universities, both, in the federal and provincial capitals and have logicallyconcluded that corruption in all forms and manifestations such as laziness and sleaziness amongst aca-demic and other universities employees, I mean corruption of time and professionalism, sex for gradeand above all financial corruption, interalia, is at work in those varsities. Had the fight against corrup-tion or anti-corruption initiatives been on the right track, then, the Project Directors ( PDs) and Printingand Publications Officers, among others, would not have become millionaires in a brief span of time oreven after their retirement from the University job? I strongly believe that instilling strong values againstcorruption in university administrative and academic staff and students coupled with rigorous penaltyfor corrupt elements such as PDs, Printing and Publications Officers, has the potential of changingPakistan for years to come. Is there anyone in the present government to take strict action against thecrooks and corrupt to the core Project Directors, Printing and Publications Officers and others in ourvarsities across Pakistan?—Islamabad

READERS

Email:[email protected]

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

—Editor

Arab spring is being stifled

The grotesque murders of ordinary Egyptians by their ownmilitary says everything about

the non-progress of the Arab spring.Just a year since democratic electionswere meant to herald an era of free-dom and stability in the third largestcountry by population in Africa, weare witnessing nothing less than rou-tine street slaughter.

Those killed and wounded by au-tomatic gunfire in Cairo were tryingto show their support for MohammedMorsi, the elected president oustedby the army. Men with guns – andthe inclination to use them againstunarmed civilians – are now control-ling a city that was once a focal pointof hope and optimism.

Just as images of a packed, jubi-lant Tahrir Square came to symbolisethe fleeting glories of the Arab spring,so world leaders such as BarackObama endlessly pledged to stop dic-tators “killing their own people”. Re-member how readily David Cameronsent RAF jets to help bomb Gaddafiout of Libya? The “protection of ci-vilian lives” was always the numberone justification for the use of suchlethal force, just as it was for the westeventually coming out in favour ofrevolutions all over the Middle Eastand North Africa.

Now, those same western lead-ers remain largely silent about the ex-cesses of an army that was alwaysthe main power base of Egyptian des-pot Hosni Mubarak. No matter whichway you look at it, the military’s sup-pression of Morsi’s Muslim Brother-hood administration was a classic

coup d’etat. Those who try to justifythis triumph of military power areinevitably those who believe thatmartial force is the desired defaultposition of any Arab country.

The Egyptian army will deny us-ing live ammunition to quell protests(are they suggesting that the demon-strators were shooting themselves?),while politicians such as the foreignsecretary, William Hague, come outwith platitudes about being opposedto “the use of force”. But there is noclear condemnation from the interna-tional community of political changebeing delivered at gunpoint.

This comes as demonstrationsproliferate in Tunisia following anumber of political assassinations.There is even talk of a country oncerenowned for its almost blood-freejasmine revolution now descendinginto barbarism. The killing of secu-lar opposition leader MohamedBrahmi on Thursday in Tunis followsthe murder of his colleague ChokriBelaid earlier this year. At least oneperson was killed in anti-governmentprotests, and a bomb exploded in apolice car soon afterwards.

Libya is the scene of daily kill-ings, with the government there un-able to control the armed gangs com-peting for power and influence.Abdelsalam al-Mismari, a prominentlawyer involved in the toppling ofGaddafi, and two security officialswere shot dead in Benghazi, “thecradle” of the Libyan revolution onFriday. Mismari had become an out-spoken critic of the gunmen, alongwith thousands of others who see nohope of democracy flourishing whilethey effectively control the streets.Many of those who took part in theearly pro-democracy gatherings in

Syria in 2011 are among the 100,000plus fatal casualties of the country’scivil war. Hundreds of thousandsmore have been wounded, impris-oned or forced to flee. Predictably, itis the well-equipped and highly mo-tived Syrian army, rather than anyform of democracy, which providesPresident Bashar al-Assad with hisbest chance of lengthening his ten-ure of office.

Such savage reality leaves the ini-tial aspirations of those who startedthe Arab spring looking rather dismal.Ideals such as equality betweenclasses and sexes, efficient and juststate institutions, a reduction in pov-erty, the fair administration of justiceand education for all come to noth-ing when a nation cannot even pro-tect its citizens from its own soldiersor the armed militias who have takentheir place.

In terms of economic and socialchange, and against the backgroundof the violence, there is little evi-dence of a change for the good inthe lives of millions of Arabs sincethe 2011 insurrections. On the con-trary, in-fighting between myriadopposing groups, including secular-ists and Islamists, has held back re-form, while endemic societal prob-lems such as dangerous transportsystems and widespread illiteracyhave been ignored.

Poverty has increased signifi-cantly, with 40% of Egypt’s popula-tion earning less than the equivalentof £2 a day, the official United Na-tions poverty line. The cost of livingis spiralling, along with unemploy-ment, in all other post-Arab springcountries. The number of joblessyouths is multiplying in particular,creating a vast class of people who

Views From Abroad

Nabila Ramdani

terior Sindh are well armed, well or-ganized and often have a back-upfrom across the border. It is a wellknown fact that dacoits of this areaare in touch with foreign agencies thatuse them to transfer arms and ammu-nition and that’s why the ISI or otheragencies are always in hot pursuitagainst the docoit-terrorists in the in-terior Sindh.

There can be the added elementof local police not fully cooperatingand coordinating with the ISI to nabthe dacoits. It is reported that attack-ers were in police uniforms, and thepolice commissioner’s office wasalso on the hit. It is also reported thatdacoits have been providing logisti-cal support for transfer of arms andammunition to Balochistan. There-fore, it seems evident that inside-po-lice job is the reason of such an au-dacious attack.

Hats off for those silent protec-tors who have laid down their livesfor this nation and prayers for thosewho are injured. The problem is weare often unable to present their actsof courage before public because wenever come to know. The solution liesin reshaping the strategies and rein-venting the policies. Learning lessonsfrom such experiences should lead tofurther consolidating ISI’s own ca-pacity without relying on outer ele-ments.

Secondly there has to be aware-ness on national level. If there is In-dian hand involved or that of anyother country, why should it be keptsecret and why not expose it throughvibrant media? For long India hasbeen claimed to be of supportingBaloch separatists. For long we havebeen in effort to produce evidencesof Indian involvement in the insur-gency. Why not such incidents leadus to do that and expose to world sin-ister designs of the enemies?—Jamshoro

Privatisation andPTCL properties

M A BUTT

Your editorial “Privatization andPTCL properties”( July 26) veryrightly points out that the basic con-cept of privatization is to get rid ofthe loss incurring entities but thisprinciple was grossly violated byPrivatization Commission duringprivatisation of PTCL. The govern-ment track record on privatization hasbeen very poor in the past. The los-ing enterprises are still with us andmoney making assets were privatizedat throw away price without any jus-tification. Most of the units have re-sulted in the transfer of assets with-out getting the price in full.

PTCL privatization took place onJune 18, 2005 when 26 percent shareswere sold in bidding to Etisalat at Rs117 per share. They were supposedto deposit 90 percent remainingamount of 2.25 billion dollars by 8thAugust 2005 to take over the man-agement of PTCL. What happenedafter this deal is history. In fact whenthey defaulted the contract shouldhave been cancelled and bid moneyconfiscated but Gen Musharraf andShaukat Aziz intervened and thePTCL was handed over on April 12,2006 a strategic asset of Pakistan thatwas earning huge profit to pay backremaining amount in 5 years thus in-troducing a unique phenomenon inthis country” Pay as you earn”

The point to understand is howcould government handover admin-istrative control of costly asset likePTCL to a party holding 26 percentshares (12% held with public) whenthe government holding is 62 %. Thisis a major flaw in the sale of PTCLand can not be justified as you requireminimum 51% shares to have admin-istrative control.

Since take over of PTCL theirperformance has been very poor, pre-viously it took a day or so to rectifythe fault now the period has swelledover to weeks and months. Their re-liance is on massive advertisementsattracting people to avail facility ofdifferent packages and sale of valueadded services.

Meanwhile, PTCL’s service con-tinues to plumb new depths. Networkmaintenance and operation, as wellas customer care, have suffered se-verely. Hundreds of thousands of con-

are as angry and resentful as they areenergetic and resourceful.

It was these young people whocreated the Arab spring, using newcommunications technology to ex-press their grievances. One of thereasons they were initially so suc-cessful in Tunisia and Egypt was thatthey were largely given the freedomto demonstrate by their uniformedcountrymen. Popular dissent in theform of organised demonstrationswas seen as an acceptable alterna-tive to more radical forms of pro-tests, up to and including terrorism.

The Arab spring was by nomeans a total failure, because it al-lowed these demonstrations to flour-ish into a democratic movement thataired the problems of the Arab worldon the global stage, but its progressis now being stifled by those whosolely believe in government by di-rect orders.

A consequence of the 2011 revo-lutions was the rise of Islam as anorganised political force. Move-ments such as the Muslim Brother-hood were able to use vast popularnetworks largely based on localcommunity centres and mosques tomobilise electoral support. In mostcases, other parties cannot hope tocompete, but that is no reason foranti-democratic groups such as themilitary to murder and imprison sup-porters of the Muslim Brotherhood.

Nobody pretended that the Arabspring would provide a quick fix tothe massive problems inherent inArab societies, but if military forcecontinues to remain the ultimate ar-biter of which government is “al-lowed” to rule, then the killings willcarry on unabated.— Courtesy: The Guardian

Post-2014 challenges for Pakistan

Three important questions arelinked with the departure ofU.S. troops from Afghanistan

in 2014: the future shape of Afghani-stan; the spillover of the Kabul’s in-ternal dynamics to regional politics,peace and stability with specific ref-erence to Pakistan; and, the responseof international community.

Unfolding the pot-2014 sce-nario, the realist pundits make cer-tain circumstantial assumptions. TheU.S. withdrawal plan includes leav-ing a sizeable force in Afghanistanand handing over the Afghan secu-rity responsibility to Afghan Na-tional Security Force (ANSF). Threeelements are crucially associatedwith the success of the strategy: thecapacity and transparency of Afghangovernment; capabilities of ANSF;and, the Taliban factor.

Unfortunately, all the three fac-tors raise serious concerns aboutfuture of Afghan domestic environ-ment as well its spill over to Paki-stan. After the fall of Taliban regimein 2001, the U.S. failed to form abroad-based Afghan governmentwhich had been a long-stalled U.Ndesire. The Karzai government, de-spite full support from internationalcommunity, has remained weak andrampant with corruption. Severalfaction leaders – representing Af-ghan ethnic and regional powerstructure – have already begun toplan for the 2014. And generallyAfghan masses rely on such infor-mal powerbrokers – rather than thegovernment – to protect them withthe possible conflicts with Talibanafter 2014.

Hence, in the absence of inter-national security mission, there islikely to be a vacuum in Afghani-stan power structure inviting Talibanto fill the gaps. Of course, ANSF isthere to check Taliban adventure!

The ANSF is a blend of threeprinciple components: Afghan Na-tional Army, Afghan National AirForce and Afghan National Police.The effectiveness, professionalismand state of its readiness to assumethe ensuing security responsibilitiesare questionable as it suffers fromboth quality and quantity imbal-ances. Apart from suffering fromcritical deficiencies in equipmentand weaponry, there are numerousshortcomings in their training. Fur-thermore, drug abuse, desertion, andviolence remain persistent chal-lenges within police, whereas thearmy faces serious issues of ethnicfactionalism.

Above all, Taliban are a realityin Afghanistan. Ever since theirouster from power in 2001, Talibanhave proved resilient, enjoyed po-litical and psychological support inthe south and been running parallelgovernment structure – undermin-ing U.S. supported Karzai govern-ment. Since 2010, both the U.S. andAfghan officials have been pursu-ing talks with Taliban for a negoti-ated settlement to the Afghanistanconflict. But prospects for such asettlement have always remaineduncertain.

The recent episode of stalledDoha process has caused exaspera-tion in both Washington and Kabul.The complete failure of incorporat-ing Taliban in peace process couldspark turmoil rather than stitch up agenuine, peaceful transition ofpower – essential for the safecompletion of the 2014 militarydrawdown.

The prevailing and perceivedfuture Afghan scenario encompasspotential disastrous long-term con-sequences for Pakistan. Despite un-precedented sacrifices in WOT, theinternational community still con-siders Pakistan as part of the prob-lem rather than its solution. The U.S.strongly believes that Taliban andAl-Qaida have their sanctuaries situ-ated inside Pakistan which is a core

reason of instability in Afghanistan.Pakistan and the U.S. have been

fighting WOT as disenchanted allies.The tangent approaches which boththe nations have been following dur-ing the war, corroborate their diverg-ing interests and variant recipes forAfghan solution.

The prevailing acrimonycoupled with perceived post-2014Afghan scenario is likely to evenwiden the gulf in Pak-U.S. futurerelations – posing several pragmaticchallenges to the newly electeddemocratic government in Pakistan.Realists sense that the overall situ-ation: firstly, may isolate Pakistaninternationally on the pretext of ex-porting terrorism from Pakistanisoil – especially North Waziristan;secondly, increase intensity of sig-nature drone attacks in FATA; and,thirdly, further exacerbate the inter-nal law and order situation with inPakistan.

Above all one cannot ignore In-dian factor in Afghanistan asmother of all challenges fromPakistan’s perspective. Indian in-volvement in Afghanistan is a truereflection of Kautiliyan philosophythat regards neighbours as enemiesand an enemy’s immediateneighbour as a friend. Due to itsgeo-strategic proximity and a po-tential threat to Pakistan on itsWestern border, Afghanistan is avital component in the Indian re-gional policy. Pakistan, conversely,visualizes Indian influence in Af-ghanistan as part of its double en-velopment movement, and a sourceof fueling unrest in FATA, KPK andBaluchistan.

India has already establishedover one dozen consulates in Af-ghanistan and invested heavily –nearly $2 billion in 2012 only – toestablish its hold in Kabul. It’s nei-ther out of sheer love with the poorAfghanistan masses nor to facilitatethe U.S. in achieving a clean breakin 2014, but to meet its own strate-gic objectives.

Come with me to any fair, feteor circus, Where d’you thinkthe kids are? They are all

round the man selling cotton candyor as the Americans call it; candyfloss. The pink candy floss, whichballoons out all around a little stick,delights them. They cry, throw tan-trums, cajole and plead with parentsfor the pink candy. The parents givein, fully knowing that with first bitethe child is going to wonder whereall the floss disappeared .

A man took his wife and chil-dren to an amusement park. By theend of the day his children were

tired and hungry: That’s when theysaw the candy floss man and criedfor some. The father told his childrenthat he would get them some real foodin a few minutes, but the childrenwouldn’t hear of it. The candy flosslooked huge and appetizing and defi-nitely filling. So he decided to teachthem a lesson. The children got thecandy floss they begged for, but weretold there would be no meal for some-time. They agreed.

They bit into the cotton candyand found there was nothing to it. Fi-nally they handed it back to their dadand said “Dad it’s not real! They werehungry and angry at being cheated.They learnt that day that cotton candypromises, something it can’t deliver.We’ve all been through the same ex-perience haven’t we? As childrenwe’ve also crowded round the cottoncandy man, absolutely enamoured by

the beautiful snow like candy sprout-ing temptingly from stick.

What’s surprising is that we’restill chasing that candy. Its just thatthe candy floss now comes in differ-ent textures. There is a deep hungerwithin all of us for this flimsy, pieceof vanishing candy. Sigmund Freudbelieved that people are hungry forlove. Karl Jung insisted that we cravesecurity. Alfred Adler maintained thatsignificance is what we are after.

Love , security , significance..!When we are young, we spend ouryouth searching for the ideal mate.We believe that life will be one ofpure bliss, once the right choice ismade. We find the one we love, wed-ding bells ring and our hungry teethsink disappointed, into candy floss.Then we crave security. Money,house or career. We work from morn-ing to evening, convert ourselves into

Chasing cotton candy..!workaholics, believing large house,a huge bank balance or lucrativejob will give a lasting sense of se-curity. We attain what we seek andfloss melts in our still insecuremouths. Or, we seek recognition.We strive to become chairman ofclub or housing secretary. We scanour names in newspaper and hopeto get into page three.

We do, and suddenly its all justcotton candy.

God says “I am the bread oflife.!” and if you want the deepesthunger of your life satisfied, go toHim. It’s stupid and useless mov-ing from one candy floss seller toanother, buying his coloured mer-chandise of cars and houses andbeauty queens. Start satisfying your-self with solid food offered fromabove. It satisfies and how..!”—Email:[email protected]

Pakistan’s decision makers andits think tank need to respond tothe emerging multi-directional andmulti dimensional intrigues /threats to its security. It’s better tocomplete the homework today thanresorting to firefighting tomorrow.

The holding of All PartiesConference (APC) is a step in theright direction so as to bring allstakeholders on one page. A fur-ther delay would only reinforce thechaotic theory and help our foes.However, the decisions takenshould not prove to be paperworkonly – as was the fate of previousAPCs – rather, the practical mani-festation as its hallmark.

Formulation of long-awaitedNational Security Strategy – en-compassing all the facets of na-tional security – is recommendedto be the top government priority.A two-point agenda can serve ascornerstone of our national securitypolicy: one, denial of our soil toboth internal as well external ele-ments for exporting violence; two,denial an access to our soil to for-eign forces causing violence andinstability within country.

Instituting a National SecurityCommand Authority may be evalu-ated as it would help in accomplish-ing concentration of resources andeconomy of efforts – both key prin-ciples of war.

Nations do face challenges –it’s part of nation making recipe –but only those nations survive andexcel whose leadership takes timelyand right decisions. While address-ing the first constituent assembly onAugust, 11, 1947, the father of thenation – Quaid-e-AzamMuhammah Ali Jinnah – ex-pounded his vision of making Pa-kistan a proud and prosperous na-tion. We can do that – even today –by forgetting the past, burying thehatchet and taking decision to thebest national interest of our coun-try.—The writer is NDU scholar.

Arshad MahmoodEmail: [email protected]

nections have been lost as a result andmany are non-functional. As a result,getting your telephone line repairedis a dream.It is almost certain that ifPTCL was given the necessary au-tonomy and told to take a route simi-lar to other state-owned corporationssuch as SingTel, Etisalat or TelekomMalaysia, it would have become aregional giant by acquiring licensesin South Asian, African and Middle-Eastern countries. Etisalat main eyewas focused on real estate of PTCLlying in every nook and corner of thecountry. And not customer care.

It is not question of payment ofremaining $ 800 million but how toreverse the decision. It is worth whileto mention that while hearing peti-tion on privatization of PTCL lodgedby the union in 2009, the Chief Jus-tice termed privatization of PTCL asa large scale scandal and observedthat buyer was given concessionswhile it breeched the agreement.

The transferred properties andawaiting transfer is all illegal as it isagainst the national interest. It wason account of friendship of past rul-ers with the UAE government in tak-ing this fateful decision. The CJshould save this costly asset and stopfurther transfer of properties toEtisalat like decision taken in the caseof Pakistan Steel. Your editorial shallnow certainly put caution on sellerthe Government of Pakistan andbuyer to be most transparent and onlythose enterprises are privatized thatare incurring huge losses.—Karachi

PM’shousing plan

A PAKISTANI

Ex-Prime Minister Mr. Yousuf RazaGillani once announced to give onemillion houses to the Pakistanis. Thisannouncement was repeated on vari-ous occasions, but delivery of thesame was not asked by anybody.

Now Government of NawazSharrif, through budget statement ofFinance Minister Ishaq Dar, has alsoannounced providing 1,000 coloniesof 500 units, totaling half a millionhouses, to the people. It is not knownif this present announcement is drivenby any economic consideration, or bythe desire to match the rhetoric ofPPPP government.

But anyway, some activities andrattling can be experienced in somegovernment quarters, particularlythrough reawakening of long dormantNational Housing Authority,ramblings for revamping of almostdead National Housing Policy 2001,and some ministries activities to getsome pieces together to bring thepresent government’s desire on theground. But all the works look likehogwash, beating about the bushes,and like doing something to look busyonly! It also looks as if there is a short-age of acclaimed persons in the coun-try to make deliverable housing planfor the government.

There is, however, a Pakistanigentlemen working in housing sec-tor with the World Bank has createda name and position for him in theissues related to housing finance fromthe shore of Pacific in the east to sideof Atlantic in west (his name is Mr.Zaigham Mahmood Rizvi, in caseanybody in Pakistan government iswilling to find him out and benefitfrom his knowledge and experience).

If the Nawaz Government en-gaged this gentleman and formed anempowered task force under him,then the desire of the government toprovide affordable housing to com-mon man of the country may be trulymaterialized. The only question is,whether the Government really wantsto do something in housing sector,and thus provide the much desiredboost to the national economy or not.—Karachi

tial candidates. According to thefinal list, the Pakistan MuslimLeague-Nawaz (PML-N) candi-date Mamnoon Hussain and Pa-kistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI)candidate Justice (Retd)Wajhiuddin are on the run for thecoveted slot. Earlier, the Paki-stan People’s Party (PPP) an-nounced to boycott the presiden-tial election scheduled to be heldon July 30th.

The Awami National Party(ANP), Pakistan MuslimLeague-Quaid (PML-Q) andBNP-Awami have also an-nounced boycott of the presiden-tial election in support of thePPP. The nomination papers of19 candidates have been re-jected. —INP

Senate, NAFrom Page 1

learnt that the military leader-ship has sent its recommenda-tions for the new national secu-rity policy to the government.

In its recommendations, themilitary leadership has urged theneed for making the new nationalsecurity policy broad based.

It has been suggested thatshort and long term planningshould be done for implementa-tion of this policy and no impor-tant aspect should be left out.

Sources said one of the mainreasons behind delay in forma-tion of the national securitypolicy was that all the stakehold-ers are still not unanimous on theline of action. Sources said thegovernment has been asked totake some difficult and hard de-cisions for implementation ofthe security policy. —INP

Working paperFrom Page 1

ported the Taliban in its fightagainst the government.

The senior Pakistani officialswho delivered the invitation saidthen that Islamabad is seeking tomend frayed ties. —NNI

Karzai to visitFrom Page 1

LAHORE: Residents of Ashyana Road Atari Saroba staging a demonstration against dysfunctional sewerage system intheir area.

violations which led to killingsof both Indian and Pakistani sol-diers.

The water talks that were tobe held in late January were thefirst casualty of the impasse thatfollowed. India decided to post-pone the talks saying that itswater resources secretary wasretiring and instead proposedthat the dialogue be held inMarch.

The postponement camedays after the then Pakistanicommerce minister MakhdoomFahim called off his visit to In-dia. “There are some proposalsfrom Pakistan for the resump-tion of dialogue and dates arebeing worked out through dip-lomatic channels,” an Indiangovernment source was quotedby the Times of India.

Diplomatic sources said Pa-kistan has sent a list of dates toIndia for all government-leveldialogues which are to be heldin Islamabad. Pakistan wants the

water talks to be held in the lastweek of August and Sir Creekin mid-September. It has alsosaid that foreign secretariescould meet in October to takestock of the overall situation. Ithas suggested that PMManmohan Singh could visitPakistan around the same timeto further bolster the peace pro-cess.

Indian government sourcessaid there is no questioning ofnot responding favourably to theproposals by Islamabad as Indiahas already agreed to a meetingbetween PM Manmohan Singhand his counterpart NawazSharif on the sidelines of UNGAin New York late September.

Nawaz Sharif’s special ad-visor on foreign affairs SartazAziz had proposed in a meetingwith foreign minister SalmanKhurshid that the two PMs meetin New York to fast track theCBMs and composite dialogueprocess. Speaking after Aziz,

Khurshid had said India waslooking forward to meetingsbetween the various joint work-ing groups in July itself.

The list of dates for talks isyet another initiative byIslamabad to put the peace pro-cess firmly back on track afterthe victory of Sharif in the re-cent general elections. Sharifmaintained throughout his elec-tion campaign that he wanted torepair ties with India.

While he insisted after tak-ing over that Singh keep his longstanding promise to visit Paki-stan, Sharif accommodated hiscounterpart’s reluctance to gothere by proposing that the twomeet in New York for the timebeing.

The Pakistani PM thenwent ahead and appointedformer Pakistan foreign secre-tary Shaharyar Khan as hisspecial envoy for reviving thetrack II dialogue process withIndia.—Agencies

Pak-India dialogueFrom Page 1

down has been launched on gasand electricity thieves in Punjab.He said that no leniency will beshown to such black sheep. Hesaid that clear instructions havebeen issued to administrativemachinery to disregard everypressure in the action against gasand power thieves. The ChiefMinister said that those who arecausing a loss of billions of ru-pees to the country in the exist-ing energy crisis deserve nosympathy and that is why the bigfish involved in the pilferage ofgas and power are being broughtto justice. He said that in addi-tion to factory owners involvedin this crime, action is also be-ing taken against corrupt gov-ernment officers. He said thatassembly members should playa leading role in the drive againstelectricity and gas thieves.

The Chief Minister furthersaid that essential items as wellas fruits and vegetables are be-ing provided to the masses at aconcessionary rate at 350

Ramazan bazaars set up in theprovince under Ramazan pack-age and instructions have beenissued to district and divisionaladministrative officers to ensuresupply of quality food items tothe masses at the fixed rates inRamazan bazaars. ShahbazSharif also directed assemblymembers to visit Ramazan ba-zaars in their respective areas tosupervise the steps taken for theprovision of essential commodi-ties to the masses at cheaper rate.He said that Ramazan is a sacredmonth and provision of maxi-mum facilities to the fastingpeople is the best form of wor-ship. Referring to South Punjabthe Chief Minister said that a sumof 93 billion rupees has been al-located in the current budget forvarious development projects inthis region. Similarly, he said,PML-N government has allo-cated more funds than the ratioof population of South Punjab forthe development of this area.

He said that missing facili-

ties will be provided in allschools of South Punjab duringthe current year. He said that thepriorities announced in the bud-get of the new fiscal year re-flect the manifesto of PML-Nand the vision of Punjab gov-ernment.

The Chief Minister directedassembly members to maintaina close contact with the peoplefor resolving their problems onpriority basis. He said that theconfidence reposed by themasses in PML-N leadershipdemands that the elected repre-sentatives should spare no effortin the service of the people. Hesaid that Allah Almighty hasgiven an opportunity of publicservice to present leadership andelected representatives shouldtry their best in this regard forsuccess in this world and theworld hereafter. Assemblymembers informed the ChiefMinister about developmentschemes and public welfareprojects in their respective areas.

Electricity, gas thievesFrom Page 1

for decision to boycott the presi-dential election on July 29 dur-ing the assembly session.

Lashing out at Prime Minis-ter Nawaz Sharif, the oppositionleader said that he had used tocall Muttahida Quami Movement(MQM) a terrorist party but to-day have joined hands with them.

Earlier, Khurshid Shah hadcalled for resignation of theChief Election Commissionerand all four members of theElection Commission of Paki-stan (ECP) for “failing to pro-tect their independence”.

In a media interview, the PPPleader said his party would raisethe issue of the “partiality” alleg-edly shown by the ECP in the

lead-up to the presidential electionduring sessions of the NationalAssembly and Senate on Monday.The opposition members wouldlodge a protest in the two housesthrough points of order.

“The chief election com-missioner, along with all the fourmembers, should immediatelyresign,” said Shah, who washead of the parliamentary com-mittee that had approved theappointments of retired justiceFakhruddin G. Ebrahim as theCEC and the other ECP mem-bers.

“In my speech in the assem-bly (on Monday), I will con-gratulate Mian Sahab (PMNawaz Sharif) for joining hands

with the MQM and remind himabout a resolution which thePML-N had moved in an all-party conference in Londonterming the MQM a terroristparty,” he said.

On the other hand, PML-Nsenator Jafar Iqbal has said thatthe country is passing through acritical time of its history and theprime minister wanted to be intouch with all the political par-ties for the presidential election.

He said that alliance withMQM was for the promotion ofpolitical culture in the country.He said that PML-N neededvotes in the presidential electionthat is why it entered an alliancewith MQM. —NNI

Khurshid lashes outFrom Page 1

a British newspaper, ImranKhan wrote, “it is an irony, then,that a serious assassination at-tempt was prevented only by anaccident – and the fact that Ispent the closing days of the Pa-kistan election campaign in ahospital bed. The fall that nearlykilled me quite possibly savedmy life.”

Khan sustained serious in-juries on his head and back af-ter falling from a lifter duringclimbing up the stage installedfor an election rally in Lahoreon May 7.

The PTI chief said he wasalso among the terrorist hit-list,adding that the then InteriorMinister Rehman Malik toldhimself that the terrorists had aplan to assassin him the otherday. “The authorities had al-ready warned me that my lifewas at risk, and I had been giventhe highest level of police secu-rity.”

“I had been told I was num-ber one on the terrorist hit-list,although who the terroristswould be was anybody’s guess.There are perhaps 25 militantgroups which now call them-selves ‘Taliban’ and any one ofthem could have been hired bymy political opponents,” headded. Imran also termed theMay 11 elections as the mostrigged election in Pakistan’s his-tory. —NNI

Fall from lifterFrom Page 1

ism and extremism. Regularpolice will continue to do itsroutine crime control work butit will also cooperate withNCTF.

There is also a proposal toestablish a National Counter In-surgency Force (NCIF) to re-place armed forces deployed inthe insurgency hit areas.

Pakistan is faced with gravechallenges of extremism and ter-rorism. There is general consen-sus in Pakistan that the real dan-ger to its security stems fromthese challenges, not from out-side. More than 48,000 peoplehave died in terrorism relatedincidents in a few recent years.

Govt may adoptFrom Page 1

Halqi. President Zardari stayedin London for almost two weekson a strictly “private visit” anddid not hold political meetings.During his stay he has no con-tact with MQM chief AltafHussain.

President Zardari spent ofhis time with his children andstayed in London throughout.He went for medical check-ups,accompanied by Dr Asim andthe presidential staff accompa-nying him. He also met RehmanMalik once while the former in-terior minister was in London.Pakistan’s High Commissionerto the UK Wajid Shamsul Hasanremained with President Zardarifor most of the time.— NNI

Zardari to attendFrom Page 1

LAHORE: Youngsters climb tree and jump into canal to get some relief from hot weatherdespite ban on bathing in the canal.

STAFF REPORTER

LAHORE—The MetropolitanCorporation Lahore (MCL) willbe divided into 9 zones and eachzone will be headed by a DeputyMayor under the new Local Gov-ernment system.

According to the new PunjabLocal Government (PLG) Bill2013 put in the Punjab Assem-bly last week, Metropolitan Cor-porations will be elected in theurban areas with Union Councilsand District Councils in the ruralareas while the consolidated ur-ban areas falling under the ad-ministrative control of LahoreDistrict will have Municipal Cor-porations and Municipal commit-tees.

The Metropolitan Corpora-tion Lahore (MCL) will elect amayor and 9 deputy mayors inthe 9 zones of Lahore whileLahore district areas will haveMunicipal Corporations ratherthan the union councils/districtcouncils.

The MCL will comprise 200members elected on the basis of

Metropolitan CorporationLahore to have 9 zones

single ward, 9 deputy mayors, 25women members elected indi-rectly on reserved seats, 10worker members and 10 minor-ity members.

A consolidated urban areaswith a population of over 5 lakhwill have a municipal corporationand it will consist of maximumof 150 members elected on thebasis of single-ward, deputymayors, mayors, and indirectlyelected members on reservedseats.

The Municipal Corporationswith a population of over 20lakh will have four zones and 4deputy mayors; with a popula-tion of over 10 lakh the munici-pal corporation will have 3zones and 3 deputy mayors andmunicipal corporations withpopulation of 5 lakh and abovewill have a two zones and 2deputy mayors.

The mayors and deputy may-ors in the Metropolitan Corpora-tion Lahore and Municipal Cor-porations will be indirectlyelected by the members.

Similarly, a consolidated ur-

ban area with a population be-tween 50,000 and 500,000 willbe a municipal committee and itwill have maximum 50 memberselected on the basis of single-ward, vice-chairman, chairmanand indirectly elected memberson the reserved seats.

Chairmen and vice-chairmenof the district councils and mu-nicipal committees will be indi-rectly elected by the members oftheir respective local govern-ments through election.

The Mayor, Deputy Mayor,Chairman or vice-chairman maycontest election for some otherpolitical office after resignation.

The Punjab Local Govern-ment (PLG) Bill 2013 has thefollowing features:

*The constitutional term ofthe local government bodies willbe 4 years. *Except for Lahore,Union Councils and Districtcouncils will be set up in ruralareas. *Metropolitan Corpora-tions will operate in the urbanareas while Lahore District willalso set up Municipal Corpora-tion and Municipal committees.

LAHORE—Lahore police hasfinalized foolproof security ar-rangements for the central pro-cession in connection with themartyrdom of Hazrat Ali (AS)on 21st Ramazan.

DIG Operations Tahir Raihas said police had made a com-prehensive security plan for thepurpose and directions were alsobeen issued to all divisional SPs.

Under the plan 5000 policeofficials would be deployed atthe central procession in connec-tion with Shahdat of HazratImam Ali (AS) which would betaken out from inside MochiGate on Wednesday and termi-nate at Karbala Ghamay Shah

5,000 policemen to performduty on Youm-e-Ali

the same evening after passingits traditional routes. Rescue1122, fire-brigade, ambulancesand bomb disposal squadswould remain on high alertalong the procession routes.

The DIG Operations said bar-riers would be set up at four placeson the route of the processionwhere every participant would bechecked for security purposes. Hesaid police would remain in con-tact with the founder in-charge ofthe central procession who wouldupdate police officials on the pro-cession. Meanwhile, the PunjabAuqaf Department has finalizedsecurity for Shabeena mahafilsand Aiteqaf at Data Darbar

Mosque, Badshahi Mosque andWazir Ali Khan Mosque.

A spokesman the of Auqafdepartment said that 51 Huffazhad been selected for MahafilShabeena out of which 24Huffaz will participate inMahafil-e-Shabeena at DataDarbar Mosque, 24 at BadshahiMosque and three at Wazir AliKhan Mosque. Similarly, 2,600applications were received fromall over the province.

The desirous of Aiteqaf willbe allowed only after completescrutiny and provision of thedistrict ID card. Best arrange-ments have been made for Sehrand Iftar for them.—APP

LAHORE—About 600 out of1,000 patients, who visit theemergency department ofPunjab Institute of Cardiology(PIC) every day, have no heartproblem.

This was informed by theHead of Punjab Institute ofCardiology (PIC) and re-nowned cardiologist Prof BilalZakriya in an exclusive inter-view with APP here on Sun-

‘60pc patients visit PIChaving no heart problem’

day.He said after ECG and

blood test of a patient at theemergency department of thePIC, it emerges the patient hasno cardiac ailment. Most pa-tients reach PIC in case of painin the chest. First the patentshould contact a nearby hos-pital and then be referred toPIC to avoid extra burden, headded.

Responding to a question,he said that cousin marriagewas causing high incidence ofcongenital heart diseases in in-fants in the country as around40,000 children are born withcardiac diseases annually.

To another question, Prof.Bilal said that men had higherincidences of cornorary heartailments but women were alsonot far behind.—APP

16 POs, absconderarrested

LAHORE—Investigation andCIA Police claimed to havearrested 16 proclaimed of-fenders and absconders in-volved in a number of terror-ism and abduction for ransomincident. DIG InvestigationZulfiqar Hameed constituteddifferent teams of investiga-t ion and CIA and givenspeical target to arrest the POsdirected them to arrest thecriminals.

The police teams conductedraids at various places fall in thejurisdiction of police stationsinluding Tibi City, Joher Town,Hanjerwal, Ichhra, Nishar Clony,Gulshan Ravi and Shalimar andarrested the POs including onelady.

The oulaws were identifiedas Ghani ur Rehman, Kramran,Farooq, Najma Bibi, Pervez,Zeshan, Zafar, Ramazan andNaeem.

Police also submitted 29challans of different cases incourts registered in various po-lice stations of the city from 2006to May 2013.—APP

SMS, Internethit Eid card

industryLAHORE—SMSs and the Internethas promoted E-card culture andslowed down the industry of tradi-tional Eid cards. E-mail was a blowto the Eid card, SMS signed itsdeath warrants, people from vari-ous walks of life told APP on Sun-day. Due to the low sale of Eidcards, hundreds of shopkeepershave changed their profession asall electronic means of communi-cation are cheaper and time sav-ing so the general public is not in-terested in visiting markets to pur-chase Eid cards. Most shopkeep-ers in Anarkali, Urdu Bazaar andShah Alam Market claimed thatthere was a significant reductionin Eid card sales that had gone be-low 80 per cent as compared tothe last few years.

Talking to APP, shopkeepersof Anarkali said that the Eid cardindustry was confronting a hugedownfall in the last few years.They said SMS packages andprice hike of basic commoditieswere the main cause of the nomi-nal sale of Eid cards. “It takes al-most Rs 150 to send a simplegreeting card. The trend of send-ing Eid cards has almost come toan end now,” a shopkeeper atAnarkali commented.—APP

ST VINCENT: Shahid Afridi pulls the ball for a big six during West Indies vs Pakistan 1st T20I match.

Diving: Qiu Boretains 10m

platform titleBARCELONA—Chinese diverQiu Bo made amends for thedisappointment of missingout on Olympic gold last yearto retain his world title in themen’s 10m platform final onSunday.

Qiu, 20, produced a nearflawless display to finishwell clear on 581 points withAmerican Olympic cham-pion David Boudia in secondon 517.40 points andGermany’s Sascha Kleinback in third with 508.55points.—AFP

Humair Masihwins talent

hunt cycle raceLAHORE—Humair Masihstruck stamina and speed to winthe ten kilometre cycle race hereon Sunday.Punjab Cycling As-sociation organised the eventto tape new cycling talent andit was the first event of theprogramme in this regard.

Hamair clocked 15 minutesand 23 seconds to cover thedistance on a hot and humidday, heading his way to finishline with a visible lead, display-ing superb technique and force.

President, Lahore DivisionCycling Association, KhalidMahmood was the chief gueston the occasion and flagged offthe riders near DPS schoolmodel town.

Behind Humair wasShamoon Masih and SunnyAhmed took the third place.Shakeel Ahmed, ShahzadaButt, Nazakat Ali, MuhammadBabar, Arif Anayat and MusaRaza acted as judges of therace which terminated at thesame point after goingthrough some parts of thearea. Secretary, PCA, FarrukhWazir announced that similarevents will be organised regu-larly not only in Lahore but inother parts of the province tomotivate the youth to take upcycling as a sport.—APP

Nain excels as Pakstorms in ICC

Women’s World T20qualifiers semis

KARACHI—Nain Abidislammed an quick-fire un-beaten 38 to play an instru-ment role as Pakistan stormedinto the semi-final in ICCWomen’s World T20 Qualifi-ers a with a 20 runs victoryover the Netherlands atMerrion Cricket Club Ground,Dublin on Saturday.

Now in Tuesday’s semi-final Pakistan will clash hostIreland and Sri Lanka will takeon the Netherlands in the sec-ond pre-final same day.

In a rain delayed match,inserted to bat first, Pakistanrecovered from dismal start toscore 72 for the loss of fourwickets in their nine overs.Nain Abidi and Bismah Maroofrescued the team after JavariaKhan went for duck andJavaria Rauf for one. Nain hitan attacking 27-ball 38 not outlaced with three fours andBisbah slammed two bound-aries in his 17-ball 25. Theyadded 60-run for the thirdwicket.

The Netherlands in replycould muster 52 for the loss offive wickets in their nine overs.Dutch team began their inningsslowly, Pakistan keeping themwell below the required run-rate.Opener Helmien Rambaldo top-scored with 15, and Nether-lands could only manage threeboundaries throughout the in-nings and, ultimately, their fail-ure to accelerate the scoringmeant they could only put up52 in their nine overs.

Summarized scores: Paki-stan 72-4 in 9 overs (Nain Abidi38 not out, Bismah Maroof 25,Mariska Kornet 2-8)

Netherlands 72-5 in 9overs (HW Rambaldo 15,M.Veringmeier 12, T van deGun 11).—APP

LONDON—Kevin Pietersenwas included in a 14-man squadfor next week’s third Ashes Testagainst Australia at Old Trafforddespite concerns over his calfinjury, the England and WalesCricket Board (ECB) an-nounced Sunday. Star bats-man Pietersen will be given timeto prove his fitness for thematch, which starts at theManchester venue on Thurs-day, with Nottinghamshire’sJames Taylor added to thesquad as cover.

England have also alteredtheir bowling options bybringing in Monty Panesar asa second spinner and recall-ing fast bowler Chris Tremlettin place of seamers StevenFinn and Graham Onions.

Pietersen, who has beensidelined for much of thisyear, suffered his latest fit-ness setback in England’scrushing 347-run second Testwin at Lord’s last week andcould not field in the secondinnings. Taylor alwayslooked the most likely candi-date to be called up as coverafter the ECB sought specialdispensation for the diminu-tive batsman to guest for Sus-sex in their ongoing tour

Pietersen in as Englandrecall trio to Ashes squad

match against Australia atHove. The 23-year-old Tay-lor responded by making anunbeaten 64 on Saturday’ssecond day of three. Taylorplayed two Tests againstSouth Africa last year butdidn’t make the Englandsquad for the tours of Indiaand New Zealand, falling be-hind the likes of Nick Comptonand Joe Root in the Englandpecking order. However, hehas been in good first-classform this season, scoring 824runs in 15 County Champion-

ship appearances, includingan unbeaten double centuryagainst Sussex in June.“Kevin Pietersen is continu-ing his recovery from a calfstrain and he will be assessedby the medical team closer tothe start of the Test and wehave therefore included anextra batsman in James Tay-lor who has been in good formfor Nottinghamshire this sea-son,” said England nationalselector Geoff Miller in a state-ment announcing the squad.

“Including an additionalspinner in Monty Panesar whohas plenty of international ex-perience provides (captain)Alastair Cook and (coach)Andy Flower with a numberof options,” former Englandoff-spinner Miller added. Vic-tory at Old Trafford would seeEngland, currently 2-0 up withthree to play, clinch the seriesand retain the Ashes.

England squad: AlastairCook (capt), Joe Root,Jonathan Trott, KevinPietersen, Ian Bell, JonnyBairstow, Matt Prior (wkt), TimBresnan, Stuart Broad, GraemeSwann, James Anderson,James Taylor, Chris Tremlett,Monty Panesar.—AFP

West Indies innings:Charles b Hafeez ............. 1Gayle lbw b Hafeez ......... 5Samuels c & b ZulfiqarBabar ............................... 25Simmons b Zulfiqar Babar 6Bravo b Zulfiqar Babar . 25Pollard not out ............... 49Sammy b Irfan ................ 30Narine run out ................. 0Extras: (b 2, lb 3, w 6) .... 11Total: (7 wickets) ......... 152Fall of wickets: 1-2, 2-13, 3-33, 4-42, 5-98, 6-151, 7-152Bowling: ........... O-M-R-WHafeez ..................... 2-0-4-2Irfan ....................... 3-0-39-1Zulfiqar ................. 4-0-23-3Saeed .................... 4-0-23-0Afridi ..................... 4-0-24-0Junaid ................... 3-0-34-0Pakistan innings:Nasir b Gabriel ................. 6

SCOREBOARDAhmed Shehzadb Badree ........................... 3Hafeez c Gabriel b Narine13Umar Amin st Charlesb Samuels ....................... 47Umar Akmal run out ........ 9Hammad b Gabriel ......... 10Afridi c Bravo b Gabriel 46Zulfiqar Babar not out .. 13Saeed Ajmal run out ....... 0Junaid Khan not out ....... 0Extras: (lb 2, w 9) ........... 11Total: (8 wickets) ......... 158Fall of wickets: 1-7, 2-10, 3-45, 4-77, 5-86, 6-116, 7-145,8-152Bowling: ........... O-M-R-WST Gabriel ............. 4-0-44-3S Badree ............... 3-0-27-1SP Narine .............. 4-0-24-1TL Best ................. 4-0-24-0Samuels ................ 4-0-33-1Sammy .................... 1-0-4-0

K I N G S T O W N — Z u l f i q a rBabar completed a dream de-but by striking the final ballof the match for six to givePakistan a two-wicket victoryover the West Indies in thefirst Twenty 20 internationalat the Arnos Vale StadiumSaturday.

Having taken three wick-ets for 23 runs with his left-arm spinners in helping torestrict the world championsto 152 for seven, the 34-year-old newcomer then made thewinning hit off MarlonSamuels with the scores levelto hand the home side theirfirst defeat in this form of the

Afridi, Babar heroics sealthrilling win for Pakistan

game since they lifted theworld title last October in SriLanka.

Pakistan have the chanceto displace the West Indiesin second spot in the inter-national rankings with a winin the second and final matchat the same venue on Sun-day.

Shahid Afridi, who be-came the first player to hit400 sixes in an internationalcareer during his innings,was named man of thematch for his 46 off 27 balls,but even he conceded thatZulfiqar was the man of themoment.

West Indies were rockedonto the back foot at 42 forfour after choosing to batfirst, Pakistan captainMohammad Hafeez takingthe critical wickets of open-ers Johnson Charles andChris Gayle, before Zulfiqarmade an immediate impact bybowling Lendl Simmons inhis first over.

He then added the scalpsof Samuels and DwayneBravo, but not before Bravoand Kieron Pollard put on 56for the fifth wicket.

“I was really happy to seethe desire to win from theplayers, especially the new-comers in the side,” said arelieved Hafeez.

“It was always going tobe tough to get a target likethat on this pitch, but I wasreally impressed with theway Umar Amin played andthen Shahid Afridi brought ithome.”

Kieron Pollard, returningto something like his bestform after an atrocious run inthe preceding one-day se-ries, finished unbeaten on 49for the West Indies but wasover-shadowed by skipperDarren Sammy who smashed30 off just 14 balls and domi-nated a 53-run sixth-wicketstand.

Such was the extent of thecarnage that 54 runs came offthe final four overs to givethe West Indies a fightingchance.

Like the West Indies, Pa-kistan also got off to a poor

start before another new-comer, Umar Amin, markedhis first T20 internationalwith a polished 47, the high-est score by a Pakistani ondebut.

However wickets werefalling around him until Afridicame to the crease and rodehis luck in typical flamboy-ant to tilt the balancePakistan’s way.

Sammy engaged in somepeculiar tactics in the criticalfinal stage of the match.

Apart from choosing notto bowl himself, despite hisone over earlier costing justfour runs, he persisted withthe expensive ShannonGabriel for the penultimateover.

The fast bowler claimedthe wicket of Afridi but againproved costly, spraying anadditional three wides downthe leg-side to ease Pakistantowards their target.

“We should have beenable to defend that total,”said Sammy.

“We gave away too manyruns early on and could havefielded a lot better. I thoughtGabriel with his extra pacewould have made the differ-ence at the death but it didn’twork out that way.”

Simmons ran out SaeedAjmal with the scores level,but West Indies hopes ofpulling off a tie, as they didin the ODI a week earlier in StLucia, were ended byZulfiqar’s heave back overthe bowler’s head.—AFP

ATLANTA: Top-seeded John Isner hits back at seventh-seeded Lleyton Hewitt to reachthe Atlanta Open final.

BARCELONA, Catalonia: China’s pool star Sun Yang reacts after winning Sunday’s 400m men’s freestyle final at theworld swimming championships.

BARCELONA (Catalonia)—China’s pool star Sun Yangthrew down a marker forSunday’s 400m men’s freestylefinal at the world swimmingchampionships with the Olym-pic champion fastest in themorning’s heats.

The 21-year-old Sunclocked 3mins 44.67secs inBarcelona with Canada’sRyan Cochrane, who finishedsecond to the Chinese at boththe 2012 Olympics and 2011Shanghai world champion-ships, second fastest in 3mins

45.74.Teenager Katie Ledecky,

the 800m freestyle Olympicchampion, was the fastest intoSunday night’s 400m women’sfinal as the American swam4mins 03.05—a second fasterthan her nearest rival.

Ledecky has a punishingschedule in Barcelona, includ-ing the 400, 800 and 1500mfreestyles, after winning thetrio of events at the USA’sOlympic trials.

“I’ve put in the work inpreparation this year, so I am

ready for it,” said the 16-year-old. France’s Olympic cham-pion Camille Muffat finishedsixth fastest, leaving some-thing in reserve.

“I expected the heats be-fore mine to be faster, Iwatched each one, so I knewnot to go too fast,” saidMuffat. “This evening will beanother race.”

The USA men’s relay team,the Olympic silver medalists,threw down a strong marker inthe 4x100m heats ahead of theevening’s final.—AFP

ATLANTA (Georgia)—Topseed John Isner fired 21 acesSaturday and advanced tothe ATP Atlanta Open finalby defeating Australian sev-enth seed Lleyton Hewitt 6-4, 4-6, 7-6 (7/5).

Isner, a two-time Atlantarunner-up seeking his sev-enth career ATP crown, willplay for the title of the$546,930 hardcourt eventSunday against the winner ofa later semi-final between fel-low American Ryan Harrisonand South African secondseed Kevin Anderson.

Former world number oneHewitt, who lost the Newportfinal two weeks ago toFrenchman Nicolas Mahut,was a narrow loser in his firsttour hard court semi-final

Isner outlasts Hewitt toreach Atlanta final

since 2009. The 32-year-oldfrom Adelaide sought his29th career ATP title and hisfirst since 2010.

Hewitt, who fell to 4-2 all-time against Isner, had ralliedfrom one set down to win theirtwo prior meetings, this pastMarch in the second roundat Indian Wells and earlierthis month in a Newport semi-final.

In the third set, Isnerwent down triple break pointin the seventh game but res-cued them all with servicewinners and held.

Hewitt forced anotherbreak point in the ninth gamebut Isner saved it with aserve and volley winner andheld for a 5-4 edge on the wayto the tie-breaker.

Isner, with the ATP’smost tie-breaker wins thisyear at 23-6 and wins inboth prior t ie-breakersagainst Hewitt , openedwith a 140-mph ace andripped a forehand winnerfor a 2-0 lead.

Hewitt fell and Isner hitan easy backhand for a 3-0advantage but the Aussie,who entered 5-5 in tie-breaksthis year, swatted a cross-court forehand winner butthen netted a forehand tohand Isner a 4-1 lead.

Hewitt fought back tolevel at 4-4 when Isner net-ted a backhand volley. TheAmerican answered with hisfinal ace only to have Hewittrespond with a forehand vol-ley winner for 5-5.—AFP

Swimming: China’s Sun blazesto world 400m free final

LONDON—British troops havecarried out a major operation inAfghanistan in an area whichhas seen some of the fiercestbattles of the war, the Ministryof Defence has said. About 80British soldiers travelled toSangin to fight Taliban insur-gents with the Afghan NationalArmy (ANA), just months be-fore it takes full control of se-curity in the country.

The latest mission, whichwas kept secret until after it wascompleted earlier this week, re-quired the special permission ofdefence secretary PhilipHammond because of a govern-ment push to transfer combatoperations to the ANA, The Sun-day Times reported. In recentmonths the British ArmedForces have instead been focus-ing on mentoring the AfghanNational Army in preparationfor their withdrawal from thecountry next year.

The MoD said specialistadvisers from the Brigade Ad-visory Group, made up of the4th Battalion The Rifles, pro-vided support to the UK-mentored 3/215 Brigade for theeight-day mission. It said theinvolvement of British troopswas “in line” with their currentadvisory role. “In support of theAfghan forces who now havethe security lead across the

country, UK personnel do onoccasion operate outside theusual UK area of operations incentral Helmand in an advisorycapacity,” the Ministry of De-fence said in a statement.

“These out-of-area opera-tions have been a long-standingelement of the UK mission inAfghanistan and are completelyin line with our current role ofproviding training, advice andassistance to the Afghan Na-tional Security Forces.” Thestatement added that Sangin “re-mains a challenging area” andit is now for the Afghan forcesto deal with insurgents. During

the operation, a number of in-surgents were detained andkilled, more than 30 Improvisedexplosive devices were foundand destroyed and two vehicleswere seized along with ammu-nition and weapons.

There were no British cau-salities but a number of ANAsoldiers were killed, The Sun-day Times added. Speakingafter the operation, BrigadierRupert Jones, CommanderTask Force Helmand, said: “Ithas been a very impressivedemonstration of what the Af-ghan National Army can becapable of.” —INP

British troops return to Sanginon request from Afghan army

JI to boycottby-pollsLAHORE—Jamaat-e-Islamihas decided to boycott the by-elections in Islamabad andPunjab. Jamaat-e-Islamiclaims administrative officershave been changed inIslamabad ahead of elections‚hence the elections will not befree and fair. The party said thatit will withdraw the nominationpapers of its candidate for NA-48‚ Islamabad. The partyblamed that the administrativeofficers have been changed inIslamabad ahead of election. Itsaid in such a situation theelections will not be free andfair.— NNI

3 dacoits killed inpolice encounterLAHORE—At least three al-leged dacoits were killed in en-counter with police in Gawahavillage near Lahore on Sunday.According to police sources,four dacoits were fleeing aftercommitting a robbery when theycame face to face with a policeparty near Ring Road in Gawahavillage. The dacoits opened fireat the police party. Police re-turned the fire and as a resultthree dacoits were killed whilethe fourth managed to escapefrom the scene. Police haveshifted the bodies of the dacoitsto dead house.— INP

RIO DE JANEIRO —PopeFrancis wrapped up a historictrip to his home continent Sun-day with a Mass on Copacabanabeach that drew a reported 3million people, who cheered thefirst Latin American pope in aremarkable response to his mes-sage that the Catholic Churchmust shake itself up and get outinto the streets to find the faith-ful.

Nearly the entire 4 kilome-ter (2.5 mile) crescent ofCopacabana s broad beach over-flowed with people, some ofthem taking an early morningdip in the Atlantic and otherstossing t-shirts, flags and soccerjerseys into the pontiff s open-sided car as he drove by.

Francis worked the crowd,kissing babies, taking a sip ofmate tea handed up to him and

catching gifts on the fly.Even the normally stern-

faced Vatican bodyguards letsmiles slip as they jogged along-side his car, caught up in theenthusiasm of the crowd.

Many of the crowd hadspent the night on the beach, anall-night slumber party to endWorld Youth Day that had a fes-tive Latin air, with pilgrimswrapped in flags and sleepingbags to ward off the cold.

They danced, prayed andsang and stood in long lines infront of the armadas of portablebathrooms along the beachfront.

“We were dying of cold butit was worth it,” said LucreciaGrillera, an 18-year-old fromCordoba, Argentina, whereFrancis lived for a time beforebecoming pope. “It was a tiringday, but it was a great experi-

Mass on Copacabana beachdrew 3 million people

‘PPP to opposeprivatization of major

state enterprises’ISLAMABAD—Former FinanceMinister Saleem H Mandviwalahas said the PPP would opposethe privatization of PIA, Rail-ways, Steel Mills, Pakistan StateOil and other such importantstate enterprises. Talking to INPhere on Sunday, the former Fi-nance Minister said had thePML-N supported the PPP gov-ernment in the National Assem-bly, it would not have to facesuch a huge tax deficit today.

He said the PPP would op-pose downsizing of state enter-prises in the name ofprivatization. He said the stateinstitutions have gone intolosses not because of recruit-ments but corruption. —INP

Militant attacktemporarily cuts

Railway linkQUETTA—Militants on Sundayblew up a portion of railwaytracks in Quetta, temporarilyshutting down the railway-linkbetween the province and the restof the country.

Fayyaz Sumbal, the DeputyInspector General Police saidunknown militants had plantedexplosive materials close to rail-way track in Musa Colony areaof Quetta’s Sariab road, whichdetonated causing damage to aportion of the track.

However, there was no hu-man loss. Train service betweenBalochistan and other parts of thecountry was suspended after theexplosion. Bomb disposal squadand other security personnelreached the blast site and con-ducted a thorough sweeping ofthe track.

KP requestsCentre to take Dr.Afridi in custody

< P E S H A W A R — K h y b e rPakhtoonkhwa government hassent a formal request to the Fed-eral government asking it to takeover the custody of Dr ShakilAfridi who is presently atPeshawar Central Jail and facesthreats from militants.

Provincial Minister forPrison, Malik Qasim told mediaon Sunday that the KPK govern-ment expects a positive responsefrom the Centre. He made it clearthat there are no restrictions onmeeting of Dr Shakil with his fam-ily members. The KPK govern-ment is understood to be stress-ing to the Federal government thatShakil Afridi faces an imminentthreat from Taliban who are highlyannoyed with him for his role inlocating Osama Bin Laden.—INP

LONDON—A British man hasset a record after he lived with-out a heart for two years - sur-viving with the help of an ex-ternal blood pump. MatthewGreen, 42, a married pharma-ceutical consultant with a seven-year-old son, received a donorheart early last month havinglived for two years with an ex-ternal blood pump after the re-moval of his own fatally dis-eased organ.

The heart transplant wascarried out at Papworth Hospi-tal in Cambridgeshire. Greenremains in hospital but doctorsare hopeful he will be able to

return home soon, ‘The SundayTimes’ reported. “I feel incred-ibly lucky that I have been givena third lease of life as a result ofmy heart transplant,” saidGreen.

In July 2011, both mainchambers of Green’s heartfailed as a result of an unusualform of the condition cardiomy-opathy that causes the electricalimpulses controlling the heart togo out of rhythm. He underwentan experimental procedure atPapworth to remove the diseasedorgan altogether, and instead con-nect his blood vessels to an ex-ternal pump. —INP

Man with no heart survivesfor record two years

ISLAMABAD—Federal Informa-tion Minister Pervaiz Rashid hassaid that the nationalist partiesare not annoyed with PML(N)after making contact withMQM.

While talking to Online onSunday he said that PML(N)only requested MQM to castvote in Mamnoon’s favour , itdid not offer any ministry tothem . Tomorrow Nationalistparties would require theMQM’s vote for their primeminister.

He said that PPP knows theconsequences of presidentialelections and it would be verydifficult for them to digest these

results so they boycotted thepolls.

Back In 2007, when a uni-formed president was contestingelections ,PPP took part in thepresidential polls , now whathappened to them that they de-cided to themselves away fromthe presidential polls. The boy-cott would leave a bad sign onthe democratic face of PPP.

“No one is angry with theruling party PML(N). PrimeMinister is in touch with allthe coalition partners .It is aroutine matter that politicalparties meet each other. Wemet MQM regarding presi-dential elections .—Online

Pervaiz denies rift with nationalistsover contacting MQM

Strategic dialogue to be restoredduring Kerry’s visit: FO

ISLAMABAD—Pakistan and theUnited States will try to agreeon restoring strategic dialogueduring the forthcoming visit ofSecretary of State John Kerry toIslamabad.

This was stated by ForeignOffice spokesman Aizaz AhmedChaudhry in an interview withRadio Pakistan. He said that

strategic dialogue between thetwo countries was suspendedafter attack on Salala checkpointin November 2011 in which 24Pakistani soldiers weremartyred. The spokesman saidfive working groups were en-gaged in talks on various aspectsof Pakistan-US relations understrategic dialogue.

The Salala attack also led tosuspension of the dialogue pro-cess.

He said these groups willresume talks if agreed duringJohn Kerry’s visit to Pakistan.To a question’ he said Afghanreconciliation process would beone of the key subjects of JohnKerry’s visit. —APP

FIA arrest hostelowner for gas theftPESHAWAR—Federal Investi-gation Agency (FIA) has ar-rested owner of a hostel onWarsik Road for his involve-ment in theft of gas. FIA direc-tor Inam ghani told media thatthey had received report of gastheft by a hostel. Following thisthey carried out a raid and arrestedits owner Ehsanullah in additionto disconnecting all the illegal gasconnections. It was the first raidof FIA against gas thieves inKhyber Pakhtunkhwa. —INP

PESHAWAR—Groups ofTaliban fighters are spilling outof the tribal belt in northwest-ern Pakistan into the region’slargest city, Peshawar, wherethey are increasingly showingtheir presence through a cam-paign of intimidation and vio-lence, according to residents,the police and city officials.While Taliban violence has de-clined across KhyberPakhtunkhwa this year, officialssay, rates have increased inPeshawar, where militants havestepped up attacks aimed at thepolice, extortion demands, sec-tarian killings and kidnappings.For all that, the militants do notpose an immediate threat to theoverall control of the city, andthe police say they have foiledmany potential attacks. But theincreased Taliban presence doessignal a further advance for the

militants, who have also becomea more muscular presence thisyear in Karachi, the country’smost populous city. Theirstrength has also bolstered abroader wave of sectarian vio-lence in the northwest, the NewYork Times reported. On Satur-day, the toll from a double bombattack conducted on Fridayagainst minority Shiites inParachinar climbed to 57 deadand at least 167 wounded, the au-thorities said. Militants have at-tacked inside Peshawar, a city ofan estimated four million people,once a day, on average, for thepast five months, according toprovincial government statistics.That accounts for about half ofthe militant episodes acrossKhyber Pakhtunkhwa.

“It’s like Ricky Ponting play-ing cricket,” said a senior secu-rity official in Peshawar, refer-

ring to a former Australian crick-eter known for his prolific scor-ing ability, and speaking on thecustomary condition of anonym-ity. The violence is partly a prod-uct of military success. The Pa-kistani Army has been battlingTaliban militants in the moun-tains of the adjoining Khybertribal agency in recent months.A smaller security operation isunder way in Darra Adamkhel.The fiercest fighting is takingplace in the Tirah Valley ofKhyber Agency, along the Af-ghan border, where the militaryis arrayed against Mangal Bagh.Helicopter gunships and artilleryattacked militant hide-outs inKhyber as part of an intense,weeklong military assault thatended Thursday. Tribal authori-ties in Khyber said they found thebodies of 20 militants in one vil-lage alone. But the back draft of

those battles is being felt in thesuburbs of Peshawar, where ner-vous residents have reportedsightings of militants who travelaround on motorcycles, frequentrestaurants late at night andpreach in local mosques. AbdulHaleem, a building contractor,said he received a surprise lec-ture on violence during morningprayers at his local mosque re-cently. “A man stood up and,without the permission of theimam, started preaching aboutthe importance of jihad and itsrewards in the hereafter,” Mr.Haleem said during an interviewat his house in Hayatabad, thecity’s wealthiest suburb.

“Later we found out that hewas a militant commander fromKhyber,” he said. Several policeofficers, all speaking on the con-dition of anonymity, blamed theambivalent attitude of the newly

elected provincial government,led by Imran Khan, a formercricket star, for declining morale.Imran Khan’s Tehreek-e-Insaf fa-vors talks with the Taliban overfighting, and his officials fre-quently frame militant violenceas a reaction to American dronestrikes in the tribal belt. “Whatwe need is a pat on the back, notdaily derision,” one senior offi-cial said.

“If Khan says this is not ourwar, then what does he think weare doing here sacrificing ourlives?” Murad Saeed, a memberof Parliament from Imran Khan’sparty, rejected accusations that hisparty was soft on militancy. “Weonly say that the use of force hasbeen futile against militancy, andnow we should give a chance to apolitical solution,” Saeed said ina telephone interview.

He said Pakistan’s govern-

ment first needed to address “thefactors that spur our own peopleto carry out violent acts.” Someof the violence in Peshawar thisyear has targeted members of theShiite minority, and doctors inparticular. In January, Dr. ShahNawaz Ali, an eye specialist atLady Reading Hospital, was shotdead outside his clinic, and an-other doctor in Peshawar, Dr. RiazHussain Shah, a gastroenterolo-gist, was killed. Wealthy business-men have faced extortion de-mands. The owner of a truck trans-port company living in Hayatabadsaid a militant demand for about$100,000 came to him in the formof a letter thrown at his doorstep.The next day a Taliban com-mander phoned him. “He warnedme not to inform the police,” saidthe businessman, who spoke onthe condition of anonymity forsafety reasons. “I have no option

but to meet their demand.” Theprovincial police chief, IhsanGhani, acknowledged that thesituation was grave, but he in-sisted that it was under control.“There is a clear and present dan-ger,” Ghani said in an interview.But, he added, police intelligencehad quietly disrupted several ter-rorist plots, and the authoritieshad arrested many militants. Theturmoil comes against the back-drop of a broader political stasisin Pakistan. The prospect ofpeace talks with the Taliban inneighboring Afghanistan hasevoked mixed reactions amongPakistani politicians. Some, likeImran Khan, view such talks asa necessary first step out of a vio-lent regional quagmire, a movethat would at once bring peaceto Afghanistan and remove thejustification that spursPakistan’s militants.— INP

Taliban gain foothold in Peshawar: NYTJI appeals Ban kiMoonLAHORE—The General Secre-tary of Jamaat e Islami, LiaqatBaloch, has impressed upon theUN Secretary General, Ban KiMoon, to take serious notice of thee mail sent to the United Nationsby over ten million Kashmiris forthe grant of right to self-determi-nation to them. In a statement hereon Sunday, he said that India hadbeen occupying Kashmir unlaw-fully for the last 65 years and theUN and other international bod-ies and human rights associationswere fully aware of its crimesagainst humanity in Kashmir andits repeated failure to honour itsword. —Online

PPPP committeemeets todayI S L A M A B A D — P a k i s t a nPeoples Party Parliamentarianhas called the meeting of itsparliamentary committee today(Monday) in which strategywill be evolved about the presi-dential elections. —Online

Catholic pilgrims crowd Copacabana beach in Rio de Janeiro.

ence.”The Vatican said more than

3 million people were on handfor the Mass, based on informa-tion from World Youth Day or-ganizers and local authorities.

That was far higher than the1 million at the last World YouthDay vigil in Madrid in 2011 orthe 650,000 at Toronto s 2002vigil.

Many of those at the vigilhad tears in their eyes as theylistened to Francis call forthem to not be “part-timeChristians” and to build uptheir church like his namesake,St. Francis of Assisi, wascalled to do.

“Jesus offers us somethingbigger than the World Cup!”Francis said, drawing cheersfrom the crowd in this soccer-mad nation.” —AP

Printing/dispatchof ballot papers

completedISLAMABAD—Election Com-mission of Pakistan (ECP) hascompleted printing of ballot pa-pers for presidential electionsbeing held on July 30.

ECP sources said dispatchof ballot papers for presidentialelections has been completed inSindh and Balochistan.

Moreover, the Electioncommission of Pakistan has is-sued instructions for the voters(lawmakers) regarding the poll-ing day, which ask the voters notto carry mobile phones into theParliament and the provincialassemblies that have been de-clared polling stations for thepresidential election.—INP

A STUDY of the evolution of our teethover the last 7,500 years shows thathumans today have less diverse oral

bacteria than historic populations, which sci-entists believe have contributed to chronic oraldiseases in post-industriallifestyles.

The researchers, fromthe University of Adelaide’sAustralian Centre for An-cient DNA (ACAD), theUniversity of Aberdeen(Dept of Archeology), Scot-land, and the WellcomeTrust Sanger Institute, Cam-bridge, England, publishedtheir study in Nature Genet-ics.

The authors say thatanalyzing the DNA of cal-cified bacteria on the teethof humans throughout mod-ern and ancient history “hasshed light on the health con-sequences of the evolvingdiet and behavior from theStone Age to modern day”.

The scientists explained that there werenegative changes in oral bacteria as our dietsaltered when we moved from being hunter-gatherers to farmers. Further changes wereobserved when humans started manufactur-ing food during the Industrial Revolution.

Study leader Professor Alan Cooper,ACAD Director, said, “This is the first recordof how our evolution over the last 7500 yearshas impacted the bacteria we carry with us,and the important health consequences.”

The introduction of processed sugar mayhave completely changed the composition oforal bacteria in humans.

“Oral bacteria in modern man are mark-edly less diverse than historic populationsand this is thought to contribute to chronicoral and other disease in post-industriallifestyles.”

The scientists extractedDNA from calcified dentalplaque (tartar) from 34 prehis-toric human skeletons fromnorthern Europe. They exam-ined the changes in the natureof oral bacteria that were firstpresent in prehistoric hunter-gatherers, through to theBronze Age when farmingbecame established, then toMedieval times and finally tothe Industrial Revolution andlater.

Dr Christina Adler, leadauthor, who was a PhD stu-dent at the University ofAdelaide during the study,said “Genetic analysis ofplaque can create a powerfulnew record of dietary impacts,

health changes and oral pathogen genomicevolution, deep into the past.” Dr. Adler nowworks at the University of Sydney.

“The composition of oral bacteriachanged markedly with the introduction offarming, and again around 150 years ago.With the introduction of processed sugar andflour in the Industrial Revolution, we cansee a dramatically decreased diversity in ouroral bacteria, allowing domination by car-ies-causing strains. The modern mouth ba-sically exists in a permanent disease state.”

Professor Cooper has been working withProfessor Keith Dobney from the Univer-sity of Aberdeen on this for the last 17 years.

Modern diet is rottingour teeth

Vendors busy in preparing different food items at a Rawalpindi market. Many people like to buy food for Sehri from markets instead of cooking at home.

As Eid shopping is getting momentum in Federal Capital girls are most interested in buy-ing bangles.

CITY REPORTER

ISLAMABAD—Pakistani stu-dents have yet again provedtheir mettle at the internationallevel with their superlativeperformance at the 45th Inter-national Chemistry Olympiad2013 (IChO2013), held inMoscow, Russia. The teamcomprised of four studentsand their participation at theInternational ChemistryOlympiad was sponsored bythe Higher Education Com-mission (HEC).

The team secured threebronze medals, with whichPakistan recorded its best per-formance since 2005 when itfirst took part in the competi-tion. Pakistani students werecompeting with the best stu-

Pakistani students shine at Chemistry Olympiad, Moscowdents from other countries, andin spite of stiff competition, theydid well.

A total of 291 of the bright-est students from 77 countriesparticipated in the Olympiad.Ms. Huda Zahid of Beaconhouse School Faisalabad,Muhammad Zain Raza of CitySchool Islamabad and Mr.Muhammad Khan of LahoreGrammar School, Lahore se-cured bronze medals. Comment-ing on this achievement, Chair-person HEC Dr. Javaid R.Laghari has congratulated to allthe medalists and their proudparents for winning laurels toPakistan.

He remarked that FinallyPakistan’s education sector isbeginning to shine globally, firstat the World Economic Forum at

Davos, then with QS Rankings,and now the Science Olympiad.He assured that HEC wouldcontinue to support such initia-tives in future as well.

The International Chemis-try Olympiad is a unique com-petition to discover, encourageand Challenge gifted young stu-dents all over the world. Con-ducted since 1968, the IChOboosts the level of chemistryeducation in the participatingcountries. It helps developfriendly relations between theyoung people from differentcountries.

Under joint workingmechanism between HigherEducation Commission (HEC)and Pakistan Institute of Engi-neering and Applied Sciences(PIEAS) Islamabad, selectionLadies enjoying bath in a stream in Federal Capital to get relief from hot weather.

process of Pakistan Olympiadsteams commences in Septembereach year with posting an an-nouncement on STEM CareersProgramme, HEC website, pub-lishing advertisement in majornational dailies and sending in-troductory packages to about4000 colleges throughout thecountry.

This is followed by a screen-ing test, usually held on the firstor second Sunday of the NewYear in the major cities all overthe country. Every year morethan 6000 student who musthave scored a minimum of 70% or more marks in their SSCor O-level exams take part in thecontest.

Fifty of the top scorers ineach subject of NSTC are se-lected on the basis of their per-

July 30

THE Allama Iqbal OpenUniversity (AIOU) willcontinue to perform its nor-mal working during the 10-day ‘Semester Break Holi-days’ starting from TuesdayJuly 30.

formance in the ScreeningTest. Further grooming andscreening through a series oftraining camps at the home in-stitutes of each subject leads tothe selection of a 4 ? 6 mem-ber student teams for theOlympiads.

The annual InternationalOlympiads provide pre-univer-sity science students fromaround the world an opportu-nity to compete in solving chal-lenging theoretical and experi-mental science problems thatonly the most talented youth oftheir age can answer. Most ofthe Pakistani students invari-ably get scholarship for theirhigher studies in leading uni-versities of the world such asHarvard, MIT, Princeton,Stanford, Caltech and Oxford.

CITY REPORTER

ISLAMABAD—Speakers at an ininternational conference on Pal-estine have asserted that Pales-tine is a legitimate and justcourse for all Muslims who willliberate the sacred land occupiedby Zionists.

The international conferenceon “Palestine: Manifestation ofMuslim Ummah’s Unity,” washeld under the aegis of PalestineFoundation of Pakistan at a lo-cal hotel here.

Sardar Mohammad Ateeq,former Prime Minister of AzadKashmir, PMLN’s senator ZafarAli Shah, PPP’s MNA ImranZafar Leghari, Asad Umer ofPakistan Tehrik-e-Insaf, AllamaRaja Nasir Abbas Jafari ofMajlis-e-Wahdat-e-Muslimeen,General (Rtd) Amjad Shoaib,former minister J Salik, intellec-tual Dr Qandeel Abbas and SabirKarbalai of Palestine Foundationof Pakistan spoke at the confer-

Palestine is just cause forall Muslims: Speakers

ence.The speakers lashed out at

United Nations for its failure issorting out the longstandingPalestine Issue. They said thatthe UN was an outdated orga-nization that needs to bescrapped.

They said that non-repre-sentative monarchies in theArab Muslim countries weretrying to cover up the heinouscrimes against humanity of Pal-estinians. They urged the Mus-lims rulers to play leading rolefor liberation of Palestine in-stead of lip service that servedthe interests of Zionist Israeliregime.

They expressed concernthat around 6 million Palestin-ians have been made to spendlives as refugees. They de-manded that practical steps betaken immediately to ensure re-turn of these refugees to theirhomeland Palestine.

They demanded that Pales-

tinian prisoners should also befreed without any delay. Theywelcomed the PLO memberMohammad Zazeh’s statementthat Oslo Accord was made un-der compulsion facts remainthat PLO doesn’t recognize Is-rael as legitimate state.

They said that Pakistan alsofell victims to the Zionists plotsand terrorism because Pakistannever recognized Israel as a le-gitimate state. They emphasizedthat Palestine is a legitimatestate and world powers have torecognize this very fact.

They condemned the con-spiracies of enemies of Islam inPakistan, Afghanistan, Syria,Iraq and other countries. Theysaid that terrorists who massa-cre Muslims are agents of glo-bal imperialist powers and theirally Zionism.They maintainedthat Muslims across the worldhave to join hands to counter thenefarious designs of the enemiesof Islam and Muslims.

CITY REPORTER

ISLAMABAD—Ameer, Jamaat eIslami (JI) Islamabad Chapter,Mian Muhammad Aslam hasstrongly condemned the killingof more than 300 citizens be-sides injuries to over 8000people due to firing by the Egyp-tian army and miscreants on thesupporters of ousted presidentDr Muhammad Morsi in Cairo.

Addressing protestors herein front of the National PressClub on Sunday, he said that theEgyptian people were holdingpeaceful demonstration for therestoration of democratic orderas was their legal right and thefiring on them was condem-nable.

He said the killing was the

Killing of Egyptian PresidentMorsi’s supporters protested

outcome of Gen. Sisi’s call forrallies in his support to give himmandate to crush the opponents.

He said the army firing onDr Morsi’s supporters was notthe first such incident as therehad been such incidents in thepast in which dozens of peoplehad been martyred.

Aslam said that the westerngovernments as well as thechampions of democracy andhuman rights were conspicu-ously silent on the bloodshed inEgypt.

The question was whetherthe Muslims did not have theright to live in a democratic setup.

He also warned Gen. Sisiand his courtier to learn a les-son from the fate of their fore-

runners, as a series of Pharaohhad met a terrible end in Egyptand now it was Gen Sisi’s turn.

He said the Egyptian peoplehad freed themselves from mili-tary dictatorship spread over 64years after huge sacrifices andthey won’t allow any one to de-prive them of their democraticrights.

The JI leader also calledupon the Pakistan governmentto play its effective role at theinternational level for the resto-ration of democracy in Egyptand stopping blood letting there.

He also appealed to the Pa-kistani people and political lead-ers in the country to raise astrong voice against the blood-shed in Egypt and reject themilitary dictator there.

Saudi embassyholds Iftar

Party at IIUIISLAMABAD—Kingdom ofSaudi Arabia Embassy arrangedIfrar Party at hostel five of In-ternational Islamic UniversityIslamabad under the project ofMaktaba Tu Dawah IslamabadCentre.

The Deputy Ambassador ofSaudi Arabia to Pakistan Jasimul Khalidi, Director Maktaba TuDawah Islamabad Centre AbuSaad Mohamed Bin Saad Al-Doussri, Acting President IIUIDr. Mumtaz Ahmad were chiefguests at Iftar party.

Provost IIUI hostels (male)Dr. Abdi Masood, Deans andDirector also attended the Iftarparty. The Iftar party arrangedfor more than two thousands stu-dents.—NNI

Draw for E-12,D-12 plotsCITY REPORTER

ISLAMABAD—The Capital De-velopment Authority (CDA) hasdecided to sell available residen-tial plots in E-12 and D-12 sec-tors by holding a draw.

The decision was taken inmeeting of CDA presided by itschairman, Nadeem Hassan Asif.The civic authority is expectinga revenue generation upto Rs14billion.

In Sector D-12, 92 plots ofsize 40x80 and 31 plots of 500square yard are available forsale, while in E-12, 350 plots of60x90, 50x90 and 40x80 areavailable for sale.

The affectees of the SectorE-12 will be paid Rs300 persquare foot as compensation toget the possession of the landand claims in this regard wouldbe accepted till September 15.All the claims would be for-warded to allotment scrutinycommittee and the committeewould send its recommenda-tions in this connection to theCDA board.

Sasta Bazaarsfail to

provide reliefRAWA L P I N D I—”RamazanSasta Bazaars” have failed toprovide relief to the citizens hereas the prices of daily use itemhave no visible difference ascompared to the open marketrates.

The Rawal Town adminis-tration had set up six ‘SastaRamazan’ Bazaars at LiaquatBagh, Murree Road near NawazSharif Park, Haideri Chowk,Sadiqabad, Committee Chowkand Awan Market Khiaban-e-SirSyed.

Total 19 Ramazan Bazaarswere established in DistrictRawalpindi out of which eightBazaars were set up inRawalpindi City and Cantonmentareas of Rawalpindi .—APP

CITY REPORTER

RAWALPINDI—Eid shopping isgaining momentum as great rushof people is being witnessed invarious markets and bazaars ofthe city.As the Eid festival iscoming nearer, a large number offemale and children are throng-ing busy markets and commercialplazas of the city to purchase re-quired items for Eid-ul-Fitr.

Nowadays, particularly fe-males and children are busy inbuying bangles, Eid cards, henna,clothes, cosmetics and other itemsfor the festival. Everyone try tocelebrate Eid-ul-Fitr, one of thebiggest religious festivals cel-ebrated after Ramadan with zealand fervor and maximum ar-

Eid shopping gains momentumrangements are made in thisregard.With the Eid festivalcoming nearer, eager shoppersare roaming various markets andtry to purchase best items andgifts either for themselves or fortheir family members, friend andrelatives.

For the traders, it is the besttime to make money. They arevery optimist as the shoppers’presence is increasing day by dayand reaches on its peak on“Chand Raat”.

Nowadays, the shoppers areseen very busy with buyingclothes, foot wears and otheritems at various rage of price fortheir family members. Somepeople were found a little bit dis-appointed with the price hike as

they could not purchase items oftheir choice due to financial con-straints and limited budget.

Meanwhile, police claimedto have made foolproof securityarrangements for the protectionof the people at various shoppingcentres, markets and publicplaces. To ensure security of fe-male, lady police have also beendeployed in various busy shop-ping malls at Saddar Bazaar, RajaBazaar, Moti Bazaar and otherbusy markets of the city.

According to police securityplan, Law enforcers have beendeployed in plain clothes at vari-ous sensitive areas and close cir-cuit cameras are working in dif-ferent busy bazaars, parks andother public places.

Business is never sohealthy as when, like achicken, it must do a

certain amount ofscratching around for

what it gets.

— Henry Ford

STAFF REPORTER

ISLAMABAD—The Punjab gov-ernment has assured resolutionof all the outstanding problemsof the CNG industry, includinginequitable distribution of gasand misuse of natural gasthrough violation of laws.

The assurance was given ina meeting held on the directivesof Punjab Chief MinisterShahbaz Sharif. The meetingwas chaired by MNA PervaizMalik, which was attended byMinister for Energy Ch. SherAli, Secretary Energy, ChairmanPlanning and Development andother officials, said a press re-lease.

The All Pakistan CNG As-sociation (APCNGA) was rep-resented by Ghiyas AbdullahParacha, Abid Hayat, Captain(retd) Shuja, Fayaz Gillani,Anjum Niaz and Ashar Haleem.

Punjab assures resolutionof CNG sector’s problems

On the occasion, PervaizMalik assured all out support tothe representatives of the CNGsector, saying that the government

would not allow anyone to hurtany business and that it would pro-vide a level playing field to all.

During the meeting, the lead-ers of the CNG sector pointedtowards elements involved intheft, misuse and unauthorizeduse of natural gas. They said thatthose who want to generate elec-

tricity through gas should haveseparate meters for it.

Ghiyas Paracha alleged thatCNG sector was being de-stroyed due to unjust gas distri-bution, extended powerloadshedding and violation ofrules and regulations by differ-ent departments.

He said that gas sale agree-ments had openly been violated.He said in Punjab owners of2200 CNG filling stations wereat the brink of destruction.

Paracha said that transportauthorities had been harassingtwo million vehicle owners, in-cluding 800,000 public transportvehicles on one pretext or theother which should be stopped.

Demanding announcementof 10-year CNG policy, he saidthe government should includeCNG operators in the process ofLNG import or help them to im-port it to settle the energy crisis.

LAHORE: Federal Minister for Railways Khawaja Saad Rafique chairing a high level meeting at Railways Headquarters.

ANKARA—Mayor of IstanbulDr. Kadir Topbash in a meetingwith Ambassador of Pakistan inTurkey Mr. Muhammad HaroonShaukat assured full support forinitiating further developmentand investment projects espe-cially in energy, low cost hous-ing, infrastructure and munici-pal services.

The Mayor said thatIstanbul Metropolitan Munici-pality extended full support insuccessfully completing projectssuch as Lahore Metrobus andLahore solid waste managementto the satisfaction of the Paki-stani authorities. Ambassador

Turkish investment in Pakistan’senergy, municipal services assured

Haroon Shaukat thanked Mayor

Topbash and said the people ofPakistan appreciate theseprojects which could serve as thebasis for initiating more projectsin other cities.

“We consider Turkey as amodel country and look for-ward to rapidly enhancing eco-nomic and commercialcooperaton with Turkey,” saidthe Ambassador. The PakistaniEnvoy said Turkish investorsand businessmen should comeforward and invest inPakistan’s energy sector givena huge gap between demandand supply.

Pakistan’s energy sector in-cluding hydel, solar and windenergy offers immense invest-ment opportunities and high re-turns on investment, headded.—INP

KABUL—Afghanistan’s exportactivities through the ChabaharPort in southeastern Iran offi-cially began on Saturday.

The port serves as alterna-tive to the Pakistan’s KarachiPort where export activitieswere constantly interruptedby political restrictions andhigh storage cost, accordingto Afghan officials. “But itdoesn’t mean an end to ex-ports via the Wagah borderbetween Pakistan and India.However, the Chabahar op-

Afghanistan begins to exportproducts directly to India

tion is more economical andprofitable for Afghanistan,”Abdul Qadeer Mustafa,spokesman to the Export Pro-motion Agency of Afghani-stan (EPAA) said.

The Port of Chabahar is aseaport in Chahbahar in south-eastern Iran. Its location lies onthe border of Indian Ocean andOman Sea. It is the only Iranianport with direct access to ocean.Afghanistan will be able to ex-port its products directly to In-dia, Kazakhstan, Gulf and Eu-

ropean states in an efficient man-ner through the port.

According to Mr. Mustafa,this would be Afghanistan’s firsttime in its history to directly dis-patch products to India. India’sinterest in Chabahar came afterChina had expressed interest intaking the Gwadar port in Paki-stan. It is located 72 km west ofGwadar port. In a trilateral meet-ing last year, India, Afghanistanand Iran discussed ways to expandtrade and economic ties among thethree countries starting.—INP

China top powergroup step in

Pakistan marketBEIJING—China XD Group,one of the country’s top electri-cal machinery manufacturersentered major regional marketsincluding Pakistan with its topproducts, said a media reporthere.

The group produced seven ofits 500 kV, 2000,000 KVA single-phase auto transformers forPakistan’s State Grid, reportsChina Daily. XD, formerly the Xian Electrical Machinery Manu-facturing Co, was established in1959, in Xi an, the capital ofShaanxi province. By the end ofthis June, it had produced 18 ofits 750 kV reactors for India’sState Grid, with all of the equip-ments meeting IEC standards, thenewspaper said.—APP

Keyal KhwarProject to add

Rs3.5b tonational kittySTAFF REPORTER

ISLAMABAD—The constructionof Rs 109.322 million KeyalKhwar Hydropower Project willgenerate 122MW power andbenefit the national economy byRs 3.5 billion per annum.

According to the Water andpower Development Authoritydocuments, upon completion,the Keyal Khwar HydropowerProject will contribute 426 mil-lion units of low cost electricity

to the national grid.The project is located at

Keyal Khawar, in Dasu district,Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. Accord-ing to the documents, theproject carries a capacity of 122MW and annual energy of426GWh.

Germany granted 77 millioneuros for the project under theloan agreement and 20 millioneuros under a supplementaryloan agreement.

STAFF REPORTER

ISLAMABAD—Federal Ministerfor National Food Security andResearch, Sikandar Bosan Sun-day said that self-sufficiency infood and development of agri-culture sector was priority of thegovernment.

Talking to media, he saidthat the PML-N governmentwould provide all kinds of as-sistance to the farmers toachieve the goal of national foodsecurity.

The minister said that hisMinistry would be reorganizedand reactivated to ensure sus-tainable agri-sector develop-

Bosan: Govt will provideall assistance to farmers

ment.Replying to a question, the

Minister said that he representthe farming community of coun-try and will try to convey theagriculture research results atthe door steps of the farmers topromote and develop the sectorand further enhance the agri-production in the country.

Replying to another ques-tion, he said that steps would betaken for the development andwelfare of the farmers addingthat a proper mechanism wouldbe evolved to enhance per acrecrop output by introducing newvarieties of seed and modernmethods of cultivation.

STAFF REPORTER

ISLAMABAD—Pakistan Coun-cil of Renewable Energy Tech-nology (PCRET), has startedawareness campaign to installbiogas plants in rural areas ofRawalpindi and Islamabad.

According to details, in thewake of growing need of fuelgas, PCRET has kicked offawareness campaign in rural ar-eas where farmers have three tofour cows or buffalos to installbiogas plants in their houses tofulfil domestic demand.

Official sources said the de-partment would provide sub-sidy and technical support forbiogas plant. Besides, Pakistan

Campaign launched to raiseawareness regarding biogas plants

science club is also promotingbiogas plant installation in thecountry. PSC has publishedmany articles and biogas plantconstruction and video tutori-als, President PSC Abdul Rauftold media.

He said a home biogas plantsaves 32litres of kerosene oil or2.5 tonnes of wood annually,thus lessening environmentalpollution, adding use of biogasat home can help prevent lungand kidney problems.

Besides, more than 2,800domestic biogas plants had al-ready been installed in differentcities during last four years, of-ficial said.

Around 553 plants had

been installed in Jhang, 481 inFaisalabad, 343 in Toba TekSingh, 186 in Khushab, 153 inChiniot, 151 in Sahiwal, 79 inSheikhupura, 66 in NankanaSahib, 40 in Pakpattan, 38 inGujranwala and 19 in Okara.

He said the plants were be-ing installed in various sizes in-cluding 4, 6, 8, 10 and 15 cubicfeet which were sufficient forcooking three meals a day for a4 to 14- member family threetimes a day.

The cost of these plants var-ied from Rs.48,000 andRs.87,000, official said, addingquality control centres had beenset up in each district to ensureefficient operation.

STAFF REPORTER

ISLAMABAD—The Citibankhas offered its expertise and ser-vices to the government forfloating sovereign bonds andraising capital from internationalmarket.

This was offered by a del-egation of Citibank comprising,Samad Sirohey, Head of DebtCapital Markets for Middle Eastand CEO East Islamic Bank,Razwan Shaikh, Head of LoanSyndication, Nadeem Lodhi,CCO Citi Pakistan, Amir A.Khan Corporate Head CitibankPakistan and Salman Mian, VP,Islamabad during meeting with

Citibank offers expertise forfloating sovereign bonds

Finance Minister Ishaq Dar.According to Citibank team

Pakistan’s election results werewell received by credit marketswhich can be gauged from thefact that the borrowing yieldsor its Eurobonds fell by minustwo percent immediately afterthe assumption of new govern-ment.

Nadeem Lodhi, CCO CitiPakistan said that they wereready to work with the new gov-ernment to help devise productsfor raising credits from interna-tional market.

While talking to the delega-tion, Senator Ishaq Dar said thatthe initiatives taken by govern-

ment which include budgetarymeasures, programme with IMFstaff and settling the circulardebt have received good re-sponse.

Various international banksand financial institutions haveapproached government of Pa-kistan to extend their support inthe efforts of the new govern-ment to revive the economy andrepair the structural imbal-ances.

The minister said that he isconfident that the governmentwould be able to overcome thechallenges facing the economyonce the measures taken by itstart showing results.

Siemens bossto go after

poor resultsBERLIN—German engineeringgiant Siemens announced late Sat-urday that chief executive PeterLoescher was to be fired after fail-ing to get the company back ontrack. In a brief statement, the com-pany said it would “decide on theearly departure of the President andCEO” and the appointment of hisreplacement at a meeting Wednes-day. The company is due to reportits third-quarter results next Thurs-day. Loescher, 55, has led the com-pany since 2007, but his pendingdeparture comes just a few daysafter the surprise announcement ofa profit warning.—APP

India looks to supportrupeeNEW DELHI—India’sstruggling economy is cryingout for interest rate cuts tospur growth but with the rupeeon the ropes monetary easingis out of the question at nextweek’s central bank meeting,analysts say. From being aninvestor hot-spot, Asia’s third-largest economy has been hitby capital flight even as it hasbeen taking bold fresh steps toopen its state-dominatedeconomy to outsiders. “Thelast thing the Reserve Bankwould want to see is rupeedepreciation get out of hand,”said Credit Suisse economistRobert Prior-Wandesforde,ruling out a reduction inbenchmark rates at Tuesday’scentral bank policy meeting.Weak growth, a ballooningcurrent account deficit, andstalled reforms amid a slew ofgraft scandals that haveparalysed the political processhave combined to take theshine off India. —APP

Suzuki Motor to buildnew plant in IndonesiaTOKYO—Suzuki Motorplans to invest a total of 100billion yen in Indonesia asJapanese automakers increasetheir presence in Asia,reports said Sunday. Thesmall-car maker has decidedto spend 60 billion yen ($610million) to build a newassembly plant in Indonesia,according to the Nikkeinewspaper and other media.It will come on top of a 40-billion-yen investmentmainly to build a new engineplant just outside theIndonesian capital Jakarta,which Suzuki announced lastyear, the Nikkei said. Withthe combined 100-billion-yeninvestment, Suzuki plans tocreate a comprehensivesystem to produce passengervehicles, from lightweight,fuel-efficient engines to finalassembly.—APP

WASHINGTON—As many aformer factory worker can at-test, US companies have in-vested so heavily in technol-ogy that some plants nowpractically run themselves.

So it is rather odd that of-ficial data suggests Americanbusinesses for decades havebeen growing less aggressiveat investing in their opera-tions.

This apparent contradic-tion helps illustrate a rethink-ing under way on how to mea-sure economic output, a dis-cussion that is leading to anoverhaul of government datathis week that will show theUS economy is a bit larger

than previously thought.The idea is that while com-

panies might be spending less oftheir income on tangible thingslike buildings and equipment,they appear to be spending morethan ever on ideas, such as theengineering research behind anautomated factory.

Private spending on re-search and development hasroughly doubled as a share ofinvestment in the last 50 years.The thing is, it doesn’t actuallycount as investment, soAmerica’s output of cancerdrugs adds to economic growthbut the research to develop themdoes not.

This will change on

Wednesday when the Com-merce Department releases de-cades of revised data that willinclude R&D as a category ofinvestment. Under the newframework, R&D added about$300 billion to GDP in 2010.

“It’s gotten to be an evenbigger part of the economy, soit’s incumbent on us to incorpo-rate it,” Steven Landefeld, direc-tor of the department’s Bureauof Economic Analysis, said inan interview.

Money spent creating en-during artistic products likemovies and books will also nowcount as investment. Adding upthe full revisions will add nearly3 percent to the size of

America’s economy, the BEAsays.

This could give the impres-sion of the government wavinga magic wand to make theeconomy look larger. However,the United States will not bealone in adopting the new meth-odology.

Government statisticalagencies from around the worldagreed to new standards formeasuring economic growth aspart of a 2008 agreement at theUnited Nations. The EuropeanUnion will start counting re-search and development as in-vestment in 2014.

Also, some prominent re-searchers say the BEA if any-

thing is low-balling the spend-ing in the knowledge-basedeconomy, which has increasedin parallel to the rapid advancein information technology.

Economists Charles Hultenof the University of Marylandand Carol Corrado at the Con-ference Board have put numberson a more expansive list of in-tangible investments, includingbrand-building, employee train-ing and spending by companiesto make their operations moreefficient.

Their tallies, which aremeant to be preliminary, take astab at quantifying investmentsin innovation and would add $1trillion to the economy’s size,

Hulten said.The extra output would add

only a few tenths of a point tothe US annual economic growthrate. But if the estimates are ac-curate, they might take the edgeoff a worrisome trend in whichAmerica’s total stock of privatefixed assets has grown at everslower rates for much of the last50 years.

Hulten and Corrado havefound, for example, that invest-ments in the knowledgeeconomy appear to be risingsteadily, offsetting a decline inspending on tangible assets.

At the very least, businessesare still trying hard to improvetheir productivity. “It bolsters

the case for optimism about thefuture of the US economy,” saidHulten.

One way to see the in-creased role of innovation in theeconomy is through the broadchanges in the workforce.

“Data analyst” has becomea relatively common profession,while companies spend morethan ever on managers, presum-ably because they come up withideas to improve efficiency.About 16 percent of current jobsare management positions, upfrom around 10 percent in thelate 1960s.

Landefeld said the BEAwould like to measure more ofthe knowledge economy, but

points out that it has taken de-cades to accumulate enoughdata to reliably gauge R&Dspending.

The last big addition to theBEA’s investment accountingwas in 1999, when it classifiedsoftware as an investment.

Someday, the agency mightexpand the R&D category be-yond science and engineering toinclude product design, whichwould include, for example,Apple’s spending to make theiPhone look cool. It also makessense to think of spending onbusiness consultants as an in-vestment, as the aim of thespending is usually to improveprofitability.—Agencies

Intangible investments cast US economy in brighter light

NEW YORK—JP MorganChase & Co is exiting physicalcommodities trading, the banksaid in a statement on Friday, asWall Street’s role in the tradingof raw materials comes underintense political and regulatorypressure.

Wall Street’s biggest banksaid an “internal review” hadconcluded it should pursue “stra-tegic alternatives” for its physi-cal commodities operations,which includes assets like itsHenry Bath metals warehousingsubsidiary and a vast globalteam trading everything fromAfrican crude to Canadian natu-ral gas.

JP Morgan to quit physicalcommodities trade

The firm will explore “asale, spin-off or strategic part-nership” for its physical arm, thestatement said. It said the bankremained “fully committed” toits traditional financial commod-ity business, including tradingderivatives and its activities inprecious metals.

The bank’s announcementfollows a week of unprec-edented scrutiny of Wall Street’scommodity operations, after theUS.

Federal Reserve said lastFriday it was reviewing a land-mark 2003 decision that allowedcommercial banks to trade inphysical markets to “comple-

ment” their financial activity.The move also comes as

chief executive Jamie Dimonstrives to put the bank back oncourse after a series of costlytrading moves and regulatoryrun-ins, including a potential$410 million (Dh1.5 billion)settlement over alleged powermarket manipulation.

The decision is a sharp re-versal for the bank that hadpushed aggressively into thesector since 2008, when it firstacquired a host of physical trad-ing assets and expertise throughits acquisition of Bear Stearnsduring the financial crisis.—Agencies

Banking expertrules readyDUBAI—The UAE BanksFederation has successfullylaid down the regulations forthe appointment of legalbanking experts, movingforward with its implementa-tion in collaboration with theUEA Central Bank, Ministryof Justice and other judicialauthorities. In a statementissued on Saturday, thefederation said its effortshave yielded signing threememorandums of understand-ing on regulations ofappointing legal bankingexperts in UAE. AbdulAzizAbdullah Al Ghurair,chairman of UAE BanksFederation, said that thebanks are keen to keep upwith latest global develop-ments and applying bestinternational practices toimprove the bankingindustry.—Agencies

KARACHI: Director General Parks and Horticulture, KMC, Ubaid Mushtaq examin-ing the construction work during his visit to Gulshan-e-Iqbal Park.

KARACHI: Customers busy in buying different items from stalls at Eid Bachat Bazar.

Modern diet is rotting our teethA STUDY of the evolution of our

teeth over the last 7,500 yearsshows that humans today have

less diverse oral bacteria than historicpopulations, which scientists believehave contributed to chronic oral dis-eases in post-industrial lifestyles.

The researchers, from the Univer-sity of Adelaide’s Australian Centre forAncient DNA (ACAD),the University of Aber-deen (Dept of Archeol-ogy), Scotland, and theWellcome Trust SangerInstitute, Cambridge, En-gland, published theirstudy in Nature Genetics.

The authors say thatanalyzing the DNA of cal-cified bacteria on theteeth of humans through-out modern and ancienthistory “has shed light onthe health consequencesof the evolving diet andbehavior from the StoneAge to modern day”.

The scientists ex-plained that there werenegative changes in oral bacteria as ourdiets altered when we moved from be-ing hunter-gatherers to farmers. Furtherchanges were observed when humansstarted manufacturing food during theIndustrial Revolution.

Study leader Professor Alan Coo-per, ACAD Director, said, “This is thefirst record of how our evolution overthe last 7500 years has impacted thebacteria we carry with us, and the im-portant health consequences.”

The introduction of processedsugar may have completely changed the

composition of oral bacteria in humans.“Oral bacteria in modern man are

markedly less diverse than historicpopulations and this is thought to con-tribute to chronic oral and other diseasein post-industrial lifestyles.”

The scientists extracted DNA fromcalcified dental plaque (tartar) from 34prehistoric human skeletons from

northern Europe. Theyexamined the changes inthe nature of oral bacte-ria that were first presentin prehistoric hunter-gatherers, through to theBronze Age when farm-ing became established,then to Medieval timesand finally to the Indus-trial Revolution andlater.

Dr Christina Adler,lead author, who was aPhD student at the Uni-versity of Adelaide duringthe study, said “Geneticanalysis of plaque cancreate a powerful newrecord of dietary impacts,

health changes and oral pathogen ge-nomic evolution, deep into the past.”Dr. Adler now works at the Universityof Sydney.

“The composition of oral bacteriachanged markedly with the introductionof farming, and again around 150 yearsago. With the introduction of processedsugar and flour in the Industrial Revo-lution, we can see a dramatically de-creased diversity in our oral bacteria,allowing domination by caries-causingstrains. The modern mouth basicallyexists in a permanent disease state.”

STAFF REPORTER

KARACHI—The contrac-tors of charged parking sitesrampant across the nookand cranny of the city hadbeen making hat while theSun shines with the patron-age of officers of the KarachiMetropolitan Corporation’s(KMC) Local Tax and recov-ery department. the menaceof overcharging from thecommuters was uncheckedat charged parking sites lo-cated in Clifton area espe-cially in the close vicinity ofAbdullah Shah Ghazi shrineand Bagh-e Ibn-e Qasim inClifton.

The officers of theKMC’s department con-cerned had turned a blindeye to the thuggery. Withthe patronage of officers,the contractors had beencharging parking fee fromthe commuters twice asdouble.

Pakistan Observer had ina survey observed that thestaff of the contractorscharged extra sum of moneyfrom the commuters. Despiteexemption for working jour-nalists and Police, the staffdeployed at the parkingsites not only refused themparticularly the journalistsbut used abusive and foullanguage and did not allowthem to park their motor-cycles and cars. the KMC’sdepartment concerned alsodid not respond to their com-plaints and advised the jour-nalists to pay for the park-ing of their vehicles inSerena Towers in NorthKarachi, Hyderi Market inNorth Nazimabad, Rainbowcentre in Saddar, Jheel park

Parking operators minting millionswith support of KMC officers

in Tariq Road and Clifton.It was also learned that

the operators of chargedparking sites in different ar-eas of the city especially inClifton, Tariq Road,Gulshan-e Iqbal, which car-ried lack of transparency inthe process of auctioning ofthe parking sites weregrossly involved in fraudu-lent over-charging from thecommuters.

The largest site is theBeach Park in Clifton withinthe precincts of district mu-

nicipal corporation South isthe prime charged parkingsite under the KMC’s aegisand it was observed that thecontractor of that parkingsite had a deal with theKMC’s department con-cerned for which they hadbeen given a free hand toestablish their monopolyand over charge from the ig-norant commuters.The op-erators of a parking site lo-cated close to Hyderi Mar-ket were overcharging fromthe commuters.

IRFAN ALIGI

KARACHI—The disparity inPakistan Customs valuationregarding prices and of im-ported items of stationeryhad not only squeezed thebuying powers of the par-ents of the students, esca-lated the budget of offices inboth public and private sec-tors but also created an im-pediment in keeping the flowof the items of stationery inlocal markets.

The irrational determina-tion of valuation of items ofstationery was formulated incomplete ignorance of thefactual situation and thosethat created and implementedthe valuation of items of sta-tionery perhaps did not carry

Disparity in Customs valuationhurting education sector

the technical know-how ashow to determine the pricesof the variety of items.

The officials of PakistanCustoms had failed to see thedifferences in sizes, shapesand raw material used initems of stationery and dueto that flawed valuation, thedifference of prices hadreached to an abnormal scale.A half-sized pencil is set tobe for higher prices while alarge-sized pencil is forcheaper rates.

The situation had al-lowed the prices to reach atlevel, which the students andoffice-users were unable topurchase and use and thistrend of abnormal pricingmechanism would equallyaffect the government’s ef-

forts for the promotion ofstandard education at a re-duced cost.

On the other hand, the lo-cal importuned of items of sta-tionery had also voiced theirdeep concern and had de-manded the Pakistan Customsto review the irrationality anddisparity in their valuationprocess so that the studentsand the sellers of items of sta-tionery could easily afford thecost of items of stationary.

When contacted, someimporters of items of statio-nery said that the PakistanCustoms through their rulingunder section 25-A No. 339dated Jun 16, 2011 had im-posed prices of items of sta-tionery in total contrast to theground realities.

STAFF REPORTER

KARACHI—Karachi Waterand Sewerage Board(KW&SB) Managing Direc-tor (MD) Misbahuddin Faridwhile expressing his concernover unannounced decreasein water supply quota fromWater and Power Distribu-tion Authority said that it wasnot fair to the citizens ofKarachi to cut the supply ofwater during the month ofRamadan while the demandhad already increased. Hesaid that Karachi received 100million gallons of water sup-ply daily and KW&SB sup-plied it to North Karachi,Baldia Town, Sher Shah and

WAPDA lambasted forcutting water supply

adjoining areas.WAPDA was currently

supplying 85 million gallonsof water daily causing watershortage in North Karachi,Baldia and other denselypopulated areas, he said add-ing that due to Ramadan de-mand has already increasedand it would further increaseduring last Ashra of Ramadanwhen people not only ob-serve Aitekaf and citizensneed more water for abolitionand other prayers in housesand in mosques, however weare facing troubles due in thecurrent situation.

He also requested ElectedNational and Provincial repre-sentatives to take notice of the

situation and notify WAPDAon supply to Karachi fromHub Dam so that the supplywas restored to 100 million gal-lons. He said that KW&SB hadnotified Project Director HubDam about the problem sev-eral times but 100 million gal-lon supply had not been re-stored yet.

He said that if the quotawas not restored within fewdays areas getting supplyfrom North East KarachiPumping Station could facesevere water shortage. Citi-zens were also facing troubleduring the holy month ofRamadan. He hoped thatWAPDA would restore 100MGD supply soon.

KARACHI: Participants cover their eyes to make Guinness World record as 200 per-sons staged a demonstration to show solidarity with the world on the eve of WorldHepatitis Day at Sindh Institute of Urology and Transplantation. Justice (Retd) BhagwanDas, Director SIUT Prof Adeeb-ul-Hassan Razvi and Dr Saeed Hameed were also presenton the occasion.

STAFF REPORTER

KA R A C H I—There areabout 15 million peoplesuffering from hepatitis Band C in Pakistan. Theprevalence of hepatitis Cis around 4.8 percent andthat of hepatitis B is nearlyaround 2.5 percent in Pa-kistan. A comprehensiveeffort by the Governmentis urgently required if weare to prevent millions ofnew infections and shock-ing death toll.

This was stated byProf. Adeeb Ul HassanRizvi, Director of sindh In-stitute of Urology andTransplantation (SIUT)while addressing seminarheld to commemorate theWorld Hepatitis Day atthe SIUT.

On the occasion, DrZaigham Abbass, Depart-ment of Gastroenterology,

1 million die in Asia Pacific from viral hepatitisSIUT gave a presentationon the mode of spread of vi-ral hepatitis.

Viral hepatitis refers togroup of diseases causedby infection from one of thefive viruses – Hepatitis A,B, C, D, E. Hepatitis A and Eare spread by oral fecalroute while B and C arespread by blood. The usualmode of transmission ofhepatitis B and C in Paki-stanis is high rate of gettingtreatment by injections anddrips. The equipments arenot properly sterilized andreuse of syringes by quakesis also a major issue.

Justice (R) RanaBhagwan Das was guest ofhonor while Faisal Edhi (ofEDHI foundation) also ad-dressed this occasion.They stressed on the needto involve the communityby raising awareness, pro-moting partnership and mo-

bilizing resources.DrSaeed Hamid from

Department of MedicineAga Khan University said

that although there are vac-cines for Hepatitis B and a

new treatment for chronicHepatitis C is also availablethat would save millions oflife but, none of thesewould matter, if governmentfailed to tackle viral hepati-tis in more comprehensiveway.

“The government ofSindh is making effort todeal with this problem byimplementing Hepatitiscontrol Program ” stated byDr Ayaz Ali Memon, ProjectManager of Hepatitis Pre-vention and control pro-gram Sindh.

The theme of WorldHepatitis Day was “see noevil, hear no evil, speak noevil”. The message impartedfrom the theme is that hepa-titis is being ignored aroundthe world and there is needfor change.

On th is occas ion DrFar ina Hanif , SIUT ex-plained the theme of World

Hepatitis Day see no evil,hear no evi l , speak noevil.

She said “it refers tothose who deal with theproblem by refusing to ac-knowledge them.

This theme was chosenfor world record to high-light that around the world,hepatitis is being ignored.

SIUT participated in anattempt to break the worldrecord. Around 200 peoplegathered on DFMC rooftop and joined the globaleffort to spread the hepa-titis awareness by per-forming the see no evil,hear no evil, speak no evilact.

The event was startedby the recitation of HolyQuran by Dr Nasir HassanLuck, SIUT who also mod-erated the event. Theevent was led by Dr SyedMujahid Hassan.

DHA Karachiundertakingregistrationcampaign

KARACHI–The DefenceHousing Authority (DHA)Karachi is undertaking a twoweeks’ registration campaignfrom July 29 to record thedetails of all the houses andcommercial units located inthe Housing Authority.

A DHA official said onSunday that the registrationprocess is meant to maintaina data base to help in improv-ing the overall security envi-ronment in the area. He fur-ther stated that the housingand commercial units in DHAwill be registered alongwiththe essential details of theirowners and occupants includ-ing the information of the ser-vants and employees work-ing/ residing in these units.Foreign consulates located inthe area will only be requiredto furnish details of the localemployees working there.

The DHA official pointedout that a large number ofteams have been constitutedfor this purpose..—APP

Youm-e-Alisecurity plan

finalisedKARACHI—The securityplan has been finalised forthe mourning processionsand majalis which would beorganised in different areasin the city to observe Youm-e-Ali (R.A) on Ramazan 21(corresponding with July 31).

Besides Rapid ResponseForce, police commandos,officials of Specialised Unitof Police, additional deploy-ment of policemen will alsobe made on the day.

This was stated in a re-port regarding security ar-rangements for last 10 daysof Ramazan-ul-Mubarak,specially on Youm-e-Ali.

The report has been sub-mitted to Inspector Generalof Sindh Police, ShahidNadeem Baloch, said a state-ment on Sunday.—APP

Wilderness basedyouth leadershipmoot in October

KARACHI–The first wildernessbased youth leadership confer-ence would be conducted inOctober this year at theMushpuri Peak in Nathiagali.

The organisers said hereon Sunday that the mootwould be held under the aus-pices of the Youth Impact - anot-for-profit youth develop-ment organisation engaged inwilderness based trainingsessions.They further statedthat the four-day conferencetitled “Markhor 2013” will beheld from October 3 to 6.

The pioneering youthleadership conference in wil-derness aims to bring highpotential youth of Pakistantogether and inculcate a spiritof social leadership.–APP

Modern diet is rotting our teeth

LAHORE: Youngsters climb tree and jump into canal to get some relief from hot weather despite ban on bathing inthe canal.

A STUDY of the evolution of ourteeth over the last 7,500 yearsshows that humans today have less

diverse oral bacteria than historic popula-tions, which scientists believe have con-tributed to chronic oral diseases in post-industrial lifestyles.

The researchers, from the University ofAdelaide’s Australian Centre for AncientDNA (ACAD), the University of Aberdeen(Dept of Archeology),Scotland, and theWellcome Trust Sanger In-stitute, Cambridge, En-gland, published theirstudy in Nature Genetics.

The authors say thatanalyzing the DNA of cal-cified bacteria on the teethof humans throughoutmodern and ancient history“has shed light on thehealth consequences ofthe evolving diet and be-havior from the Stone Ageto modern day”.

The scientists ex-plained that there werenegative changes in oralbacteria as our diets alteredwhen we moved from be-ing hunter-gatherers to farmers. Furtherchanges were observed when humansstarted manufacturing food during the In-dustrial Revolution.

Study leader Professor Alan Cooper,ACAD Director, said, “This is the firstrecord of how our evolution over the last7500 years has impacted the bacteria wecarry with us, and the important health con-sequences.”

The introduction of processed sugarmay have completely changed the compo-sition of oral bacteria in humans.

“Oral bacteria in modern man are mark-edly less diverse than historic populations

and this is thought to contribute to chronicoral and other disease in post-industriallifestyles.”

The scientists extracted DNA fromcalcified dental plaque (tartar) from 34 pre-historic human skeletons from northernEurope. They examined the changes in thenature of oral bacteria that were firstpresent in prehistoric hunter-gatherers,through to the Bronze Age when farming

became established, then toMedieval times and finallyto the Industrial Revolutionand later.

Dr Christina Adler, leadauthor, who was a PhD stu-dent at the University ofAdelaide during the study,said “Genetic analysis ofplaque can create a power-ful new record of dietary im-pacts, health changes andoral pathogen genomic evo-lution, deep into the past.”Dr. Adler now works at theUniversity of Sydney.

“The composition oforal bacteria changed mark-edly with the introduction offarming, and again around150 years ago. With the in-

troduction of processed sugar and flourin the Industrial Revolution, we can see adramatically decreased diversity in our oralbacteria, allowing domination by caries-causing strains. The modern mouth basi-cally exists in a permanent disease state.”

Professor Cooper has been workingwith Professor Keith Dobney from theUniversity of Aberdeen on this for the last17 years. Professor Dobney said “I hadshown tartar deposits commonly foundon ancient teeth were dense masses ofsolid calcified bacteria and food, butcouldn’t identify the species of bacteria.Ancient DNA was the obvious answer.”

LAHORE: A vendor selling fresh dates, a major item for Iftari at his roadside setup.

LAHORE: Residents of Ashyana Road Atari Saroba staging a demonstration againstdysfunctional sewerage system in their area.

LAHORE—Lahore police hasfinalized foolproof securityarrangements for the centralprocession in connectionwith the martyrdom of HazratAli (AS) on 21st Ramazan.

DIG Operations Tahir Raihas said police had made acomprehensive security planfor the purpose and direc-tions were also been issuedto all divisional SPs.

Under the plan 5000 po-lice officials would be de-ployed at the central proces-sion in connection withShahdat of Hazrat Imam Ali(AS) which would be takenout from inside Mochi Gateon Wednesday and termi-nate at Karbala Ghamay Shahthe same evening after pass-ing its traditional routes.Rescue 1122, fire-brigade,ambulances and bomb dis-

5,000 policemen to performduty on Youm-e-Ali

posal squads would remainon high alert along the pro-cession routes.

The DIG Operations saidbarriers would be set up at fourplaces on the route of the pro-cession where every partici-pant would be checked for se-curity purposes. He said po-lice would remain in contactwith the founder in-charge ofthe central procession whowould update police officialson the procession.

Meanwhile, the PunjabAuqaf Department has final-ized security for Shabeenamahafils and Aiteqaf at DataDarbar Mosque, BadshahiMosque and Wazir Ali KhanMosque.

A spokesman the ofAuqaf department said that51 Huffaz had been selectedfor Mahafil Shabeena out of

which 24 Huffaz will partici-pate in Mahafil-e-Shabeenaat Data Darbar Mosque, 24at Badshahi Mosque andthree at Wazir Ali KhanMosque. Similarly, 2,600 ap-plications were received fromall over the province.

The desirous of Aiteqafwill be allowed only aftercomplete scrutiny and provi-sion of the district ID card.Best arrangements have beenmade for Sehr and Iftar forthem. Alert security staff hadbeen deputed at Data DarbarMosque, Badshahi Mosqueand Wazir Ali Khan Mosquewhile a heavy contingent ofpolice will also be deployed.

Walkthrough gates havebeen installed at entry pointswhile metal detectors wouldalso be used, the spokesmanadded.—APP

LAHORE—About 600 out of1,000 patients, who visit theemergency department ofPunjab Institute of Cardiol-ogy (PIC) every day, haveno heart problem.

This was informed bythe Head of Punjab Insti-tute of Cardiology (PIC) andrenowned cardiologist ProfBilal Zakriya in an exclusiveinterview with APP here onSunday.

He said after ECG andblood test of a patient at theemergency department ofthe PIC, it emerges the pa-

‘60pc patients visit PIChaving no heart problem’

tient has no cardiac ailment.Most patients reach PIC incase of pain in the chest.First the patent shouldcontact a nearby hospitaland then be referred to PICto avoid extra burden, headded.

Responding to a ques-tion, he said that cousin mar-riage was causing high inci-dence of congenital heartdiseases in infants in thecountry as around 40,000children are born with car-diac diseases annually.

To another question,

Prof. Bilal said that men hadhigher incidences ofcornorary heart ailmentsbut women were also notfar behind.

To a question, he saidthat around 2000 patientsincluding new and old vis-ited its OPDs every day and1500 received medicinesfree.

He suggested the gov-ernment focus on preven-tive cardiology instead oftertiary healthcare to over-come the disease burden inthe country.—APP

LAHORE—City administra-tion has declared at least240 shabby buildings lo-cated in Walled City areadangerous and restrainedpeople from residing insuch houses to avoid anyuntoward incident duringMonsoon season.

On the direct ions ofCity administrat ion, theTown Municipal Adminis-trat ion of Ravi Townformed special teams com-prising Building Inspec-tors and civil engineers toinspect such buildings lo-cated in Walled City areaand take action.

TMA issued notices tothe residents and directedthem to demolish or repairthe building according to

240 shabby buildingsdeclared dangerous

i ts condit ion and anystructure which was de-clared unsafe by TMA forresidence must be demol-ished.

City Distr ict Govern-ment Lahore (CDGL) hasset a policy in this regardwhich was conveyed to theTMAs to avoid anyundesdireable incident ofbuilding collapse due torains in Monsoon.

Town Municipal Ad-ministrator Ravi TownZubair Ahmad Wattoo talk-ing to APP stated that af-ter issuing notices to theowners of buildings, spe-cial teams started workingon inspection of such ar-eas where the dilapidatedhouses were detected and

added that no one wouldbe relaxed in this regard. Hesaid that if the Punjab gov-ernment would give anygrant to the owners of thehouses for repair it wouldbe transferred to them oth-erwise people must takethe responsibility on theirown shoulders.

He said, in case TMAhas to initiate demolishingoperat ion against shabbybuildings on emergencygrounds to save humanlives the whole expenseswould be born the ownersof the shabby buildings.

TMO said that al l theconcerned staff of townwas put on high alert in thisregard during Monsoon.—APP

SMS, Internethit Eid card

industryLAHORE—SMSs and theInternet has promoted E-cardculture and slowed down theindustry of traditional Eidcards. E-mail was a blow tothe Eid card, SMS signed itsdeath warrants, people fromvarious walks of life told APPon Sunday.

Due to the low sale of Eidcards, hundreds of shop-keepers have changed theirprofession as all electronicmeans of communication arecheaper and time saving sothe general public is not in-terested in visiting markets topurchase Eid cards.

Most shopkeepers inAnarkali, Urdu Bazaar andShah Alam Market claimedthat there was a significantreduction in Eid card salesthat had gone below 80 percent as compared to the lastfew years.

Talking to APP, shop-keepers of Anarkali said thatthe Eid card industry wasconfronting a huge downfallin the last few years. Theysaid SMS packages and pricehike of basic commoditieswere the main cause of thenominal sale of Eid cards. “Ittakes almost Rs 150 to senda simple greeting card.

The trend of sending Eidcards has almost come to anend now,” a shopkeeper atAnarkali commented.

Another shopkeeper ofShah Alam Market said heopened his stall daily from10 am to 12 am but his salesof Eid cards was less thanRs1,000.—APP

STAFF REPORTER

LAHORE—The MetropolitanCorporation Lahore (MCL)will be divided into 9 zonesand each zone will be headedby a Deputy Mayor under thenew Local Government sys-tem.

According to the newPunjab Local Government(PLG) Bill 2013 put in thePunjab Assembly last week,Metropolitan Corporationswill be elected in the urbanareas with Union Councilsand District Councils in therural areas while the consoli-dated urban areas falling un-der the administrative controlof Lahore District will haveMunicipal Corporations andMunicipal committees.

The Metropolitan Corpo-ration Lahore (MCL) will electa mayor and 9 deputy mayorsin the 9 zones of Lahore whileLahore district areas will haveMunicipal Corporationsrather than the union coun-cils/district councils.

The MCL will comprise200 members elected on thebasis of single ward, 9 deputy

Metropolitan CorporationLahore to have 9 zones

mayors, 25 women memberselected indirectly on reservedseats, 10 worker members and10 minority members.

A consolidated urban ar-eas with a population of over5 lakh will have a municipalcorporation and it will consistof maximum of 150 memberselected on the basis of single-ward, deputy mayors, mayors,and indirectly elected mem-bers on reserved seats.

The Municipal Corpora-tions with a population ofover 20 lakh will have fourzones and 4 deputy mayors;with a population of over 10lakh the municipal corpora-tion will have 3 zones and 3deputy mayors and munici-pal corporations with popu-lation of 5 lakh and above willhave a two zones and 2deputy mayors.

The mayors and deputymayors in the MetropolitanCorporation Lahore and Mu-nicipal Corporations will beindirectly elected by the mem-bers.

Similarly, a consolidatedurban area with a populationbetween 50,000 and 500,000

will be a municipal committeeand it will have maximum 50members elected on the basisof single-ward, vice-chairman,chairman and indirectlyelected members on the re-served seats.

Chairmen and vice-chair-men of the district councilsand municipal committees willbe indirectly elected by themembers of their respectivelocal governments throughelection.

The Mayor, DeputyMayor, Chairman or vice-chairman may contest elec-tion for some other politicaloffice after resignation.

The Punjab Local Govern-ment (PLG) Bill 2013 has thefollowing features:

*The constitutional termof the local government bod-ies will be 4 years.

*Except for Lahore, UnionCouncils and District councilswill be set up in rural areas.

*Metropolitan Corpora-tions will operate in the ur-ban areas while Lahore Dis-trict will also set up Munici-pal Corporation and Munici-pal committees.

27 new casesof measlesreported

LAHORE—With 27 newcases reported during the last24 hours, the number ofmeasles cases in Punjab dur-ing the last six and halfmonths has reached to22,912.

According to health de-partment officials, at least 192deaths have been reportedso far while mostly deathsoccured in Lahore,Gujranwala, Rajanpur, RahimYar Khan, Kasur and Sialkot.

During the last 24 hours,around 27 cases of measleswere reported from Punjab,including only three from cityhospitals on Sunday.

The officials have ap-pealed to parents to get theirchildren upto five years ofage vaccinated againstmeassles without delay andcooperate with vaccinatingteams. Meanwhile,a focalperson of the EPI Dr.Younaswhile talking to APP said thatrecent drive in five high riskdistricts of Punjab got goodresponse and people con-tacted the vaccination pointsto vaccinate their childrenagainst measles.—APP

16 POs, absconderarrested

LAHORE—Investigation andCIA Police claimed to havearrested 16 proclaimed of-fenders and absconders in-volved in a number of terror-ism and abduction for ran-som incident. DIG Investiga-tion Zulfiqar Hameed consti-tuted different teams of in-vestigation and CIA andgiven speical target to arrestthe POs directed them to ar-rest the criminals.

The police teams con-ducted raids at various placesfall in the jurisdiction of policestations inluding Tibi City,Joher Town, Hanjerwal, Ichhra,Nishar Clony, Gulshan Raviand Shalimar and arrested thePOs including one lady.

The oulaws were identi-fied as Ghani ur Rehman,Kramran, Farooq, Najma Bibi,Pervez, Zeshan, Zafar,Ramazan and Naeem.

Police also submitted 29challans of different cases incourts registered in variouspolice stations of the city from2006 to May 2013.—APP

Four EidSpecial trains

LAHORE—Pakistan Rail-ways has issued schedule offour Eid special trains to fa-cilitate passengers.

According to the sched-ule released on Sunday, thefirst Eid special train will runbetween Karachi andPeshawar via Multan,Sahiwal and Raiwind and thistrain will leave Karachi at 11a.m on August 6 and will ar-rive at Peshawar Cantt at 9:30on next day.

Second train will leaveKarachi for Lahore viaMultan and Faisalabad at 11a.m on August 7 and it willreach at its destination at11:50 a.m on next day. An-other Eid special has beenscheduled from Quetta forRawalpindi via Multan andLahore and it will leave Quettaat 12 noon on August 6 andwill reach at its destinationat 8 p.m on August 7.

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

One-wheeleryouth killed,three injured

LAHORE—A youth waskilled and three others in-cluding a child were injuredas a result of accident causedby one wheeling here onSunday.

According to police, agroup of youngsters com-prising 10 guys were doingone wheeling in Townshiparea of Lahore when motor-cyclists struck another mo-torcycle carrying a couple

As result of accident fourpeople including one-wheeler,a couple and their five-year-old son sustained wounds.

The injured were shiftedto hospital where Adeel Nisar,28, succumbed to his woundsas his head hit the footpathwhile according to hospitalsources condition of otherinjured people was stable.

It should be mentionedthat one wheeling is commonduring Ramazan after sehrand iftar timings as most ofthe roads are empty. Theyoungsters taking the advan-tage of the situation do one-wheeling and often becomevictim of mishap while tryingto lead companions.—INP