Gorbachev urges US pullout from Afghanistan

WASHINGTON, Nov 8: Former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev on Sunday advised the United States against sending additional troops to Afghanistan, instead urging renewed diplomacy and ultimately a complete withdrawal of US forces.

“I think that what’s needed is not additional forces,” Gorbachev told CNN, adding that “withdrawal from Afghanistan should be the goal.” Gorbachev, the Soviet Union’s last leader, who governed from 1985 until its break-up in 1991, presided over the pullout of Soviet troops from Afghanistan.

Although the Soviet occupation in Afghanistan has been viewed by many historians as a defeat for Soviet imperialism, Gorbachev urged the United States to follow his country’s model, as Washington mulls the way forward in violence-ridden Afghanistan.

He told CNN that Washington should focus on “dialogue” in Afghanistan to bring to an end “the long suffering of that people.” The Soviet leader said that his government also mulled increasing troops during its occupation of Afghanistan, but ultimately decided against it.

“This is something we discussed too, years ago. But we decided not to do it. I think that our experience deserves attention,” Gorbachev said.

Instead, he said, “we decided to emphasise the domestic developments in Afghanistan, national reconciliation,” Gorbachev told CNN.—AFP

FBR agrees to revise e-filing system

KARACHI: The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) has agreed to revise its sales tax returns e-filing system, which has led to declaration of around 10,000 taxpayer companies as ‘Risky’ and ‘In-active’ and created serious problems for these companies to operate.

During a meeting with the members of Karachi Chamber of Commerce and Industry (KCCI) here on Saturday, FBR Member Domestic Operations Mohammad Ramazan Bhatti agreed to the demand of KCCI leadership that FBR’s existing sales tax collection automation system needed to be revisited and made as trade promoter instead of trouble creator for the business people who filed their returns electronically.

The scheme, which is the part of the FBR’s automation drive, would remain suspended till January 1, 2010, when it is overhauled with detailed consultation with stakeholders/business community.

The chamber constituted a 12-member committee headed its former president Haroon Farooki to sort the problem with the FBR. —APP

Oil refining capacity to reach 713,506 bpd

ISLAMABAD: Crude oil refining capacity in the country would reach 713,506 barrels from the existing 248,506 barrels a day after the establishment of three more refineries, the National Assembly was informed here on Saturday.

The three new refineries, to be established in the country, are Khalifa Coastal Refinery, with a production capacity of 250,000 bpd, Bosicor Oil Pakistan Ltd with a capacity of 115,000 bpd and Trans-Asia Refinery with 100,000 barrels.

Trans Asia Refinery would be established at Port Qasim while the other two refineries would be established in Balochistan.

Pakistan plans to establish oil and gas nucleus at Khalifa point in Hub.

The ministry of petroleum and natural resources has also decided to establish a floating terminal at Khalifa point, where large oil tankers could anchor for loading or offloading oil.

Responding to the question by Malik Shakir Awan, the minister for petroleum and natural resources, Syed Naveed Qamar, said that the seven refineries operating in the country have the capacity to refine 248,506 barrels crude oil per day.

This includes Pak-Arab Refinery Ltd 100,000 bpd, National Refinery Ltd 62,050 bpd, Pakistan refinery Ltd 47,110 bpd, Attock refinery Ltd 42,000 bpd, Bosicor Refinery Ltd 30,000 bpd, Dhodak refinery Ltd 2,500 bpd and Enar Petrotech Services ltd 2,646 bpd. The incentives given by the government to attract investment in the mid-stream petroleum sectors include linking of Singapore mean FOB spot price parity formula for the new refineries.

The refineries are free to sell their products to any oil marketing company and they are even allowed to establish their own OMC.

Besides no prior permission was required for setting up of new refinery, and the government has granted 20 years tax holiday to any large refinery with a minimum of 100,000 bpd capacity at the coastal belt of Balochistan.

Bangladesh hit by sharp fall in exports

DHAKA: Bangladesh exports plunged by around 12 per cent in the first quarter of the fiscal year as a delayed impact of the global recession routed the country’s garment sector, the government said Monday.

Officials described the drop as a ‘major upset’ for the country’s key economic lever, and industry leaders said the fall was the worst quarterly decline in a decade.

Figures released by the government’s Export Promotion Bureau (EPB) showed the country exported merchandise worth 3.87 billion dollars between July and September, down 11.66 per cent from the same period last year.

September exports declined by around 28 per cent from a year earlier, the steepest year-on-year drop in six years.

Garment shipments, which account for 80 per cent of the country’s annual exports, declined by around 10 per cent year-on-year, as orders from Western retailers declined due to the global meltdown, EPB head Shahab Ullah said.

‘We did well in the year ending June despite the first bout of the recession, but it’s a major upset in the first quarter and it happened due to one of the worst performances of the garment sector,’ Ullah said.

He predicted the garment industry would show an upturn as Western countries recovered from the recession.

Fazlul Haque, head of Bangladesh Knitwear Manufacturers and Exporters Association which represents 1,300 factories, called the drop ‘the worst in a decade,’ and called for the government to step in and help.

Last month a big garment factory was closed down due to the recession, leading to violent protests by some 15,000 workers that left two people dead and 100 injured.

Bangladesh garment exports grew 15.5 per cent to 12.3 billion dollars in the 2008-9 fiscal year, which ended on June 30, helped by low prices that undercut rivals such as China, India and Vietnam.

The garment trade accounts for 40 per cent of industrial jobs in Bangladesh where close to 40 per cent of its 144 million people live below the poverty line. —AFP

Dubai to pay debts and continue development: ruler

DUBAI: Dubai will pay its massive debts and will go ahead with its ambitious development projects, the emirate’s ruler Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum told an economic conference on Monday.

The economic crisis ‘will not deter Dubai’s ambitions of implementing its development plans and will not divert it from its leading position and will not (keep) it from playing its role in the arena of the international economy,’Sheikh Mohammed said.

Unlike the United Arab Emirates’ capital Abu Dhabi, Dubai has no significant oil resources, and has been hard-hit by the economic crisis, with property prices plunging by 50 per cent from their peak.

A study issued by Standard and Poor’s last month estimated that state-related companies in Dubai are due to repay nearly 50 billion dollars in debt — 70 per cent of the Gulf emirate’s estimated GDP — within the next three years.

To meet the obligations of its companies, Dubai is issuing treasury bonds worth 20 billion dollars, half of them subscribed to by the Central Bank of the UAE.

Sheikh Mohammed expressed confidence that the second part of Dubai’s bond programme will be ‘highly received by subscribers’ and said the resulting money ‘would be directed to settle Dubai financial obligations in the coming years.’

Some 400 real estate projects in the UAE, valued at around 300 billion dollars, were reportedly frozen due to the crisis. Local real estate giant Emaar announced losses of 350 million dollars for the second quarter of 2009.

Among the many grandiose projects that were shelved by government-linked companies was a 95-billion-dollar development of a new district within Dubai.

However, the government has pressed on with infrastructure projects, including the construction of the Dubai Metro which opened in September.

Sheikh Mohammed said Dubai’s success is due to more than just real estate, which was not ‘the sole driver of our development.’

He also emphasised the unity of the UAE, of which he is prime minister, saying that ‘Dubai is (an) inseparable part of the UAE federation.’

‘Dubai and Abu Dhabi are one, and what Dubai has is for Abu Dhabi and vice versa,’ Sheikh Mohammed said. ‘(This) is also true for the rest of the seven emirates forming the Federation.’

Sheikh Mohammed said he believes the worst of the global economic crisis is over. He added that ‘as the global economy stabilizes, Dubai today is well-placed to exploit its inherent strength and its key strategic location to start new rounds in its march towards excellence.’ —AFP

Saudi Arabia to give $380mn loan to Pakistan

ISLAMABAD: Saudi Arabia has announced that it will provide $380 million loan to Pakistan.

According to a private TV news channel, the agreement between the Economic Affairs Division and a Saudi Fund will be signed on Tuesday.

From the $380 million loan, the amount of $200 million will be spent to cover the budget deficit whereas $100 million will be spent on the purchase of urea for the upcoming crops.

The remaining $80 million will be spent on the Neelum-Jhelum Hydro Power Project. Although the amount allocated for the hydro power project is moderate, the money will facilitate further donor funding.—APP

Businessmen urge Hillary to fulfill promises

LAHORE: The business community in Pakistan called upon the US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to give practical shape to her announcements made during her three-day visit to Pakistan for providing direct access to Pakistani products in US markets.

Founder Chairman Pak-US Business Council and VP Saarc Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Pakistan Chapter Iftikhar Ali Malik talking to APP here said that Hillary Clinton during her visit to Lahore and Islamabad made announcements to help stabilise Pakistan’s economy by providing special concessions, direct market access including long term investments in Pakistan in different sectors and other incentives.

‘Pakistan is an emerging market rich with opportunities for American investment, while the US is already an important trading partner’ he said. He said that US Chamber of Commerce and US-Pak Business Council can also play vital role by holding direct one-on-one interaction with traders, importers and exporters of both countries for sustainable economic growth coupled with promotion of trade on fast track.

He said there is vast scope for US private sector investors in every sector, particularly in the agriculture, power and IT sectors, adding that the US Chamber of Commerce (USCC) can play a pivotal role in promoting bilateral trade relations.

He said that if the US is sincere with Pakistan in its fight against terror, then it must lift all economic restrictions and allow free flow of trade at zero duty by fully facilitating the private sector. He said that since her departure, not even a single action had so far been taken or reported from the US about practical measures in this regard.

‘In prevailing scenario worldwide especially in this region with reference to the war against terror, we needed much more support and package of incentives from United States to boost our economy as Pakistan has suffered overall loss of $1.6 trillion including $65 billion to its economic sector in the aftermath of 9/11 debacle and turmoil in Afghanistan,’ said Iftikhar.

He said that more than three million Afghan refugees were camped here, which was a tremendous economic burden on the country.

He said that in the prevailing scenario, the US must provide immediate direct market access to Pakistani products on zero rate duty to help stabilise the country’s economy instead of any grant or aid.

‘The US should buy products from industrial zones in Pakistan and help strengthen the existing industrial network with the provision of modern infrastructure,’ said Iftikhar.

He observed that due to the unrest and turmoil in Afghanistan, a major chunk of Pakistan’s food stock was smuggled to the neighboring country which ultimately leads to acute food grain scarcity within Pakistan.—APP

When farmers lose

A BUMPER crop is always a problem — for the farmers, that is. They never know how to dispose of it gainfully. In an open market, a good crop means that farmers have more to sell than the traders can, or want, to buy. This results in farmers selling their produce at rates that do not even recover their cost of production thereby increasing the volume of the debts they have to incur to buy inputs like fertilisers, fuel and pesticides. The more they produce the more they get under debt because a bigger crop means a bigger loss for them. With the bumper rice crop now being harvested across Punjab, farmers in the province are paying the price for productivity all over again. Rice is selling in the open market at 60 per cent of its support price.

The standard solution in Pakistan to such problems is always some kind of government intervention. In this case, the official efforts consist of setting up 50 rice procurement centres mostly in central Punjab. But working through the Pakistan Agriculture Storage and Supplies Corporation, this mechanism is too insignificant and too inefficient to have a pro-farmer impact on market prices. It can reach only a tiny fraction of the millions of farmers in the province and is so prone to corruption and political interference that it seldom, if at all, can help the hapless and not-so-well-connected. With a procurement target of only one million tons, its impact on prices will at best be small.

The irony is that the market price for rice will recover in the coming months because of less than expected global output of the commodity this season. This means urban consumers will still pay a high price for the same rice that farmers have just sold at throwaway rates. Clearly, the market for agricultural produce is in such a shambles that it benefits few at the cost of many. A long overdue and thorough overhaul of agricultural marketing is the only thing that can deliver in such a situation — not the half-hearted measures the government is undertaking these days.

Around 30,000 more troops being considered

WASHINGTON: US President Barack Obama is wrapping up deliberations on war strategy in Afghanistan and is considering final Pentagon options that include sending about 30,000 more troops, officials said on Saturday.

A deployment of that size would be less than the 40,000-troop increase recommended by Gen Stanley McChrystal, the commander of US and Nato forces in Afghanistan, but more than many of Obama’s Democratic allies may support.

Record combat deaths have eroded US public support for the war, and a decision to expand troop levels could become a political liability for the president ahead of congressional elections next year.

Currently, there are about 67,000 US troops and 40,000 allied forces in Afghanistan.

Under one of the final Pentagon options presented to the White House, three additional combat brigades would be deployed and a division headquarters set up near Kandahar in southern Afghanistan, as part of a 30,000-troop increase.

US officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Mr Obama had settled on a troop increase but has yet to make up his mind about its size.

Brigades generally include 3,500 to 4,000 troops, though they can swell to over 5,000 troops if other units are attached. Marine brigades can be larger.

Mr Obama, who will visit Asia from Nov 12-19, is expected to announce his decision within a few weeks, possibly after Afghan President Hamid Karzai’s inauguration. Mr Karzai was re-elected in a controversial poll tainted by fraud.

The timing may hinge on the extent to which Mr Karzai embraces US and European calls for a pact under which his government would commit to taking concrete steps to fight corruption and improve governance, including the delivery of public services.

Washington believes a successful counter-insurgency strategy against the Taliban hinges in large part on winning Afghan public support for the government in Kabul.

But Admiral Mike Mullen, chairman of the US military’s Joint Chiefs of Staff, said earlier this week that the re-elected president’s legitimacy among the Afghan people was ‘at best, in question right now and, at worst, doesn’t exist.’

Options on table

Senior Obama administration officials have stepped up consultations with key allies, laying the ground for an announcement on strategy and troop levels.

In his confidential troop request, Gen McChrystal said 40,000 additional troops were needed to help secure Afghan population centres and to give Nato some additional resources to take on Taliban and Al Qaeda fighters in outlying areas.

Another option, deemed more risky by Gen McChrystal, calls for between 10,000 and 15,000 more troops, which would enable the commander to focus on securing population centres but provide few additional resources to broaden the anti-Taliban campaign.

A third option – to send an additional 80,000 troops to mount a more robust counter-insurgency campaign against the Taliban across the country – was widely seen as a non-starter from the onset of the White House review.

Support for continuing a counter-insurgency strategy with a greater focus on protecting major Afghan population centres has been growing within the Obama administration.

Counter-insurgency advocates include Defence Secretary Robert Gates and military leaders, including Gen McChrystal. Officials said this strategy could be combined with a stepped up counter-terrorism campaign, advocated by Vice President Joe Biden, using unmanned aerial drones and special operations forces to combat Taliban and Al Qaeda fighters in the Afghan countryside and near the border with Pakistan. — Reuters.

‘Sharpshooter’ brings down suspected suicide bomber

ISLAMABAD: Police shot dead a suspected suicide bomber who ran towards a checkpoint on the outer ring of the city on Sunday night.

Police said a double-cabin 4×4 vehicle had dropped off the man who charged towards the checkpoint near Saddam Chowk on the Margalla Road near the intersection of Sectors E-11 and F-11. He was shouting Allah-o-Akbar and appeared to be wearing a suicide jacket.

Police believed he was a suicide bomber whose handlers wanted him to hit a ‘soft target’ after failing to take him to their real target in the capital.

An eyewitness said he had seen the man’s bullet-riddled body lying on the road.

While police claimed to have killed a terrorist who might have been brought to the city for a major attack, they acknowledged that the double cabin 4X4 vehicle which had two other occupants managed to escape despite the presence of a police squad at the checkpost.

Deputy Inspector General of Police (operation) Bani Amin told this correspondent that the black vehicle with tinted glasses had come to Sadam Chowk on the exit lane of Margalla Road at around 10pm from F-10.

The man got down from the vehicle and rushed towards the checkpost at the entry lane of Margalla Raod. The vehicle moved towards Golra.

A policeman fired a burst with his submachine gun hitting the man in the head and face.

The DIG said the man died on the spot. Luckily, he added, the bullets damaged his brain and he did not get time to detonate the explosives in the jacket he was wearing.

He said that the man appeared to be an Afghan in his mid-20s. He received six bullets in his head and face, he added.

The DIG said that the jacket carrying over eight kilograms of explosives stacked with bullets and pellets.

He said that the capital was on high alert on Sunday because of reports about serious threats.

The reports, he said, indicated that the terrorists might attack in capital and a double-cabin vehicle could be used for the purpose.

The DIG said that seven police personnel had been deployed at the checkpost and the terrorist tried to attack them after having failed to enter the main city.

The DIG said that a suicide bomber wearing an explosive jacket was bound to detonate it; failing to reach the prime target, he would go for a soft target.

IG Islamabad Kaleem Imam told Dawn News that the man had been taken out by a sharpshooter.

But knowledgeable circles here have raised some questions about the police claim.

At most of the checkpoints in Islamabad at least one policeman is armed with an AK-47 automatic rifle, but hardly anyone has seen a ‘sharpshooter’ at any of the posts.

No winner or loser on NRO, says Gilani

LAHORE: Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani has said the issue of the 17th Amendment would be resolved in accordance with the Charter of Democracy.

Talking to reporters at the residence of PPP central executive committee member Aslam Gill on Sunday, he said the government had decided to table the NRO in parliament in accordance with a Supreme Court order. But it was withdrawn in view of the opinion of political parties. ‘This is not a matter of winning or losing but part of the government’s policy of reconciliation in the larger national interest.’

Mr Gilani asserted that there would be no compromise on national interests, security and the nuclear programme.

He said the PPP had rendered more sacrifices than any other political party for the restoration of judiciary and it was Benazir Bhutto who had launched the movement for the purpose.

The prime minister said that after becoming prime minister, his first orders were for the release of judges.

On the Kerry-Lugar Act, he said it was a law of the United States, not of Pakistan. ‘The most we can do is to refuse to accept aid under it.’

He said Pakistan needed IMF assistance because the country ‘is in a state of war and it needs help to resolve its economic issues’.

He said the government had accepted an MQM proposal that a two-member committee be set up on the NRO.

He said the government was preparing to present a constitutional package on Balochistan to address issues of the province, adding that consultations would be held with all political parties on the matter.

The prime minister said he had invited Mian Nawaz Sharif to discuss the Balochistan issue. — APP

No deal with US on security of N-arsenal: FO

ISLAMABAD: The Foreign Office has said that Pakistan will never allow ‘any country to have direct or indirect access to its nuclear and strategic facilities’.

‘No talks have ever taken place on the issue of the security of Pakistan’s nuclear arsenal with US officials,’ a spokesman said in a statement issued on Sunday in response to assertions made in an article in The New Yorker magazine.

He said the author, American journalist Seymour Hersh, had quoted ‘anonymous and unverifiable sources’ for his assertions and article, ‘Defending the arsenal – In an unstable Pakistan can nuclear warheads be kept safe’, amounted to ‘nothing more than a concoction to tarnish the image of Pakistan and create misgivings among its people’.

The spokesman said Pakistan’s strategic assets were ‘completely safe and secure’.

‘The multi-layered custodial controls which have been developed indigenously are as foolproof and effective as in any other nuclear weapons state.

‘Pakistan, therefore, does not require any foreign assistance in this regard,’ he said.

The spokesman said the United States had repeatedly expressed its confidence in Pakistan’s ‘custodial controls’ and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton had recently ‘denied any US concerns in this regard’.

He said Seymour Hersh was known for his anti-Pakistan bias and for writing ‘sensational stories premised in far-fetched and imaginary scenarios. His latest article is no exception and is, therefore, strongly rejected.’

Meanwhile, US Ambassador in Islamabad Anne Patterson said that ‘the United States has no intention to seize Pakistani nuclear weapons or material’.

‘The US has confidence in Pakistan’s ability to protect its nuclear programmes and materials,’ she said.

Anwar Iqbal adds from Washington:

Despite rejection of the report by US and Pakistani officials as speculative and ‘incorrect’, journalist Hersh stands by his story.

In the latest issue of The New Yorker magazine, Mr Hersh describes two possibilities for a possible nuclear crisis in Pakistan: the Taliban and Al Qaeda militants seize the government and the weapons or a coup by rogue and extremist elements within the army.

Mr Hersh, however, concedes that the US national-security council and the CIA have denied that there were any agreements in place.

But Mr Hersh claims that his own investigations show that the Obama administration ‘has been negotiating highly sensitive understandings with the Pakistani military’.

The understanding would ‘allow specially trained American units to provide added security for the Pakistani arsenal in case of a crisis’, he adds.

At the same time, the US would also provide funds to the Pakistani military to equip and train Pakistani soldiers and to improve their housing and facilities.

Mr Hersh notes that in June, the US Congress approved a $400 million request for the Pakistan Counter-insurgency Capability Fund, providing immediate assistance to the Pakistan Army for equipment, training, and ‘renovation and construction’.

The ongoing consultation on nuclear security between Washington and Islamabad intensified after the announcement in March of President Obama’s so-called Af-Pak policy, which called upon the Pakistan Army to take more aggressive action against Taliban enclaves inside Pakistan.

‘I was told that the understandings on nuclear cooperation benefited from the increasingly close relationship between Admiral Michael Mullen, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and General Kayani, his counterpart,’ Mr Hersh writes.

‘Although the CIA and the Departments of Defence, State, and Energy have also been involved, all three departments declined to comment for this article. The national security council and the CIA denied that there were any agreements in place.’

The report, however, concedes that the Pakistani nuclear warheads and their triggers are stored separately from each other, and from their delivery devices, which reduces the threat of a militant takeover.

The arrangement serves as a safeguard in case of a quickly escalating confrontation with India but also makes the weapons vulnerable during shipment and reassembly, the report adds.

A former US senior intelligence official told Mr Hersh that a team that had trained for years to remove or dismantle parts of the Pakistani arsenal had now been augmented by a unit of the Joint Special Operations Command, the elite counter-terrorism group.

‘The Pakistanis gave us a virtual look at the number of warheads, some of their locations, and their command-and-control system,’ the former senior intelligence official told Mr Hersh.

‘We saw their target list and their mobilisation plans. We got their security plans, so we could augment them in case of a breach of security,’ he said. ‘We’re there to help the Pakistanis, but we’re also there to extend our own axis of security to their nuclear stockpile.’

The report notes that high-level cooperation between Islamabad and Washington on the Pakistani nuclear arsenal began at least eight years ago.

The detailed American planning even includes an estimate of how many nuclear triggers could be placed inside a C-17 cargo plane and where the triggers could be sequestered, the report adds.

‘US OBSESSION’:

But Mr Hersh acknowledges that when he discussed the issue with President Asif Ali Zardari, he spoke with derision about ‘America’s obsession’ with Pakistan’s nuclear arsenal.

‘We give comfort to each other, and the comfort level is good, because everybody respects everybody’s integrity,’ Mr Hersh quotes President Asif Ali Zardari as telling him in an interview about the security relationship with Washington.

‘Our army officers are not crazy, like the Taliban,’ Mr Zardari went on to say. ‘A mutiny would never happen in Pakistan. It’s a fear being spread by the few who seek to scare the many.’

The report also mentions that former president Pervez Musharraf has acknowledged that his government had given US non-proliferation experts insight into the command and control of the Pakistani arsenal and its on-site safety and security procedures. The report notes that Pakistan has been a nuclear power for two decades, and has an estimated eighty to a hundred warheads, scattered in facilities around the country.

Mr Hersh notes that Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was asked after the GHQ attack if she believed Pakistan’s nuclear arsenals were safe, and she said: ‘We have confidence in the Pakistani government and the military’s control over nuclear weapons.’ She added that despite the attacks by the Taliban, ‘we see no evidence that they are going to take over the state’.

The report then moves to President Barack Obama’s April 29th news conference where he was asked whether he could reassure the American people that Pakistan’s nuclear arsenal could be kept away from terrorists. Mr Obama said he was ‘gravely concerned’ about the fragility of the civilian government in Islamabad. ‘Their biggest threat right now comes internally,’ Mr Obama said. ‘We have huge… national-security interests in making sure that Pakistan is stable and that you don’t end up having a nuclear-armed militant state.’ The US, he said, could ‘make sure that Pakistan’s nuclear arsenal is secure.’

The questioner, Chuck Todd of NBC, began asking whether the American military could, if necessary, move in and secure Pakistan’s bombs. Mr Obama did not let Mr Todd finish. ‘I’m not going to engage in hypotheticals of that sort,’ he said.

El Salvador floods, mudslides kill 124, 60 missing

VERAPAZ: Mud and boulders loosened by heavy rains swept down a volcano and partly buried a small town Sunday, swallowing up homes as flooding and landslides across El Salvador killed at least 124 people, authorities said.

Hundreds of soldiers, police and residents dug through rock and debris in Verapaz looking for another 60 people missing from the mudslide, which struck before dawn Sunday while residents were still in their beds.

Matias Mendoza, 26, was at home with his wife Claudia and their year-old son, Franklin, when the earth began moving.

‘It was about two in the morning when the rain started coming down harder, and the earth started shaking,’ Mendoza recalled. ‘I warned my wife and grabbed my son, and all of a sudden we heard a sound. The next thing I knew I was lying among parts of the walls of my house.’

‘A few minutes later, I found my wife and my son in the middle of the rubble, and, thank God, we’re alive,’ said Mendoza, who suffered cuts on his cheek that emergency workers stitched up.

Almost 7,000 people saw their homes damaged by landslides or cut off by floodwaters following three days of downpours from a low-pressure system indirectly related to Hurricane Ida, which brushed Mexico’s Cancun resort on Sunday before steaming into the Gulf of Mexico.

President Mauricio Funes declared a national emergency and said he would work with the United Nations to evaluate the extent of the damage.

‘The images that we have seen today are of a devastated country,’ Funes said. He called the damages incalculable.

El Salvador’s Civil Protection agency raised the death toll by to 124 late Sunday, with another 60 people missing. It didn’t break down the deaths by location, but under the previous toll, officials had listed 61 deaths in San Salvador, 23 in San Vicente province, including 10 in Verapaz, and seven other fatalities spread across the country. Red Cross spokesman Carlos Lopez Mendoza said 60 people were missing in Verapaz.

Some of the worst damage was in Verapaz, where mudslides covered cars and boulders two yards wide blocked streets.

The rain loosened a flow of mud and rocks that descended from the nearby Chichontepec volcano and buried homes and streets in Verapaz, a town of about 3,000 located 30 miles east of San Salvador, the capital.

‘It was terrible. The rocks came down on top of the houses and split them in two, and split the pavement,’ recalled Manuel Melendez, 61, who lived a few doors down from Mendoza. Both their homes were destroyed Sunday morning.

‘I heard people screaming all around,’ Melendez said.

Amid a persistent drizzle, rescuers dug frantically for survivors with shovels and even their bare hands. But the search was made difficult by collapsed walls, boulders and downed power lines that blocked heavy machinery.

‘What happened in Verapaz was something terrible,’ said Interior Minister Humberto Centeno, who flew over the city Sunday to survey the damage. ‘It is a real tragedy there.’

San Vicente Gov. Manuel Castellanos said workers were struggling to clear roadways and power and water service had been knocked out. At least 300 houses were flooded when a river in Verapaz overflowed its banks, Lopez Mendoza said.

Hurricane Ida’s presence in the western Caribbean may have played a role in drawing a Pacific low-pressure system toward El Salvador, causing the rains, said Dave Roberts, a Navy hurricane specialist at the US National Hurricane Center in Miami.

He added, however, that ‘if there were deaths associated with this rainfall amount in El Salvador, I would not link it to Ida.’— AP

Army consolidates gains in Waziristan

ISLAMABAD: Twenty Taliban insurgents have been killed as military tried to consolidate gains in its offensive against militants in South Waziristan, the army said on Sunday.

Pakistan launched a punishing air and ground offensive in the region bordering Afghanistan on October 17, with 30,000 troops backed by fighter jets and helicopter gunships laying siege to Taliban bolt-holes.

‘In the last 24 hours, 20 terrorists have been killed and eight soldiers, including an officer were injured,’ the military said in its daily statement.

The military provides the only regular information coming from the frontlines. None of the details can be verified because communication lines are down and journalists and aid workers barred from the area.

Three militants were killed in gunfights as troops recovered a cache of arms and ammunition in the town of Sararogha, a former Taliban stronghold.

The army said troops had ‘consolidated’ positions there.

Another 12 militants were killed and eight soldiers injured in a battle near Kaniguram village –which the army says they have captured—while five more rebels were killed in fighting elsewhere in the region.

The tribal belt has been dubbed by Washington the most dangerous place in the world because of an abundance of Al Qaeda and Taliban fighters.

The army claims to have stormed a number of key Taliban strongholds including Sararogha, Makin and Kaniguram.

They say nearly 480 militants and 42 soldiers have been killed since the offensive began.

The long-awaited assault on South Waziristan came after a spring offensive in the northwestern Swat valley and Malakand.

In July, the government declared the Swat offensive a success but sporadic outbreaks of violence continue.

The South Waziristan offensive has displaced more than 250,000 people and the United Nations has urged Pakistan to ensure safety and security of civilians during the operation. — AFP

Eight militants, six troops die in ongoing combat: ISPR

PESHAWAR: Militant attacks killed six troops in Pakistan’s tribal belt, where soldiers backed by warplanes and helicopter gunships are pressing a major anti-Taliban offensive, officials said Monday.

The first attack, late Sunday, left four soldiers dead in Makeen, one of the battlefields where ground troops are pressing an operation against the homegrown Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) network into a fourth week.

Military officials said initially that the soldiers died in an improvised explosive device (IED) attack — of the type deployed by the Taliban to such deadly effect against US and Nato troops across the border in Afghanistan.

But the army press office later issued a statement saying militants fired rockets at a security checkpost, killing the four soldiers and wounding one other.

Eight militants were killed in the ongoing fighting, the statement said.

(DawnNews adds: The army media wing also says that security forces have consolidated and strengthened their positions around Jandola-Sararogha axis.

They have also demolished hideout of terrorist commander Mumtaz Burki in at Bangal Khel area

On Razmak- Makeen Axis, forces also cleared Tauda China Khola area and established a check post near Makeen).

Further to the north in the lawless tribal belt, a roadside bomb killed two paramilitary soldiers in Bajaur district, officials said.

The soldiers were travelling at the time in a vehicle to take up duty at the strategic Mullahsaid Top checkpoint, 40 kilometres northeast of Khar, the main town of Bajaur.

‘Two soldiers were killed and one injured in an IED attack,’ tribal administration official Abdul Hameed Khan told AFP.

Paramilitary and intelligence officials confirmed Monday’s incident and toll.

Officials say the Taliban have stepped up attacks in Bajaur to deflect attention away from South Waziristan, where around 30,000 Pakistani troops are pressing their most ambitious offensive to date against the TTP.

Makeen is one of the most notorious Taliban-held towns in South Waziristan and close to where former TTP chief Baitullah Mehsud had a house, which the military said Friday had been demolished.

The military says around 480 militants and 46 soldiers have been killed since the offensive began, but security officials and analysts say that many Islamist rebels have simply fled rather than staying to fight.

The military provides the only regular information coming from the frontlines. None of the details can be verified because communication lines are down and journalists and aid workers barred from the area. —AFP

Three killed in Peshawar suicide attack

PESHAWAR: A suicide bomber killed three people on Monday in the second attack in Peshawar in 24 hours as militants stepped up efforts to avenge a major offensive against the Taliban.

Police said the bomber got out of a rickshaw and detonated his explosives at a police checkpoint on the outer ring road of the northwestern metropolis, which runs into the Al-Qaeda and Taliban-infested tribal badlands.

Pakistan, which has suffered a wave of bombings since July 2007, has been rocked by a spike in bloodshed killing more than 350 people since last month and forcing troops onto the offensive in the tribal belt.

‘Three people were killed, including a police official. Two others were civilians,’ city police chief Liaquat Ali Khan told reporters.

‘The bomber was wearing a suicide vest filled with about six kilograms of explosives,’ he added.

The blast destroyed two private vehicles and left the rickshaw a mangled wreck, also damaging a police van at the small checkpoint where police erected barricades to search cars, an AFP reporter said, adding blood was splattered over the scene.

Suicide attacks and bombings frequently strike the sprawling city of 2.5 million people. In the deadliest attack in Pakistan in two years, a massive car bomb killed 118 people in a Peshawar market on October 28.

Doctor Zafar Iqbal at the city’s main government-run Lady Reading Hospital said four bodies, including that of the bomber, were brought to the morgue.

‘We received four bodies, one police official and two civilians. The fourth body was that of the suicide attacker. It was unrecognisable,’ he told AFP.

The attack came 24 hours after a suicide strike in a crowded cattle market in Peshawar.

The death toll from that incident rose to 14 on Monday.

The Taliban claimed responsibility for that attack, saying it was avenging Mayor Abdul Malik’s efforts to raise a militia to fight militants after he cut formerly close links to the Taliban movement in 2008.

The United States has put Pakistan on the frontline of its war against Al-Qaeda, increasingly disturbed by deteriorating security in the country where suicide attacks and bombings have killed more than 2,450 people in 28 months.

There was no claim of responsibility for Monday’s bombing but Pakistan’s security forces have been in the crosshairs of brazen Taliban attacks since unleashing a major ground and air offensive in South Waziristan on October 17.

Late Sunday, police shot dead a would-be suicide bomber who approached a checkpoint in the heavily guarded and leafy capital Islamabad, officials said.

Police said the man came from South Waziristan, where the home-grown Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) movement has carved out bastions and where the military has claimed a string of successes in its latest anti-Taliban campaign.

Pakistan’s military and civilian government have blamed recent attacks in cities on TTP militants avenging both the military offensive and the killing of their leader Baitullah Mehsud in a US missile attack in August.

Around 30,000 troops are pressing a three-pronged offensive against TTP hideouts in South Waziristan, part of the tribal belt on the Afghan border.

Backed up by fighter jets and helicopter gunships, the area is a closed military zone and details are impossible to confirm independently.

Pakistan’s military Sunday said that 20 insurgents had been killed in South Waziristan in 24 hours as troops tried to consolidate gains made over three weeks, taking the total insurgent death toll to 478.

Death toll from Sunday’s Peshawar blast rises to 15

PESHAWAR: The death toll from a weekend suicide attack in a crowded cattle bazaar in Peshawar has risen to 15, officials said on Monday.

The suicide bomber struck Sunday as people gathered to buy animals in the northwestern city of Peshawar. The dead included a former Taliban supporter turned anti-militant Mayor Abdul Malik, police said.

The death toll rose overnight to 14 and another man died Monday afternoon, local administration chief Sahibzada Anis told AFP.

Doctor Zafar Iqbal at the local Lady Reading Hospital confirmed the deaths.

Another 16 injured people were in hospital – five in a serious condition, he added.

Hospital officials said two children were among the dead.

The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack, saying it was avenging Malik’s efforts to raise a militia to fight Islamist rebels.

Pakistan is waging a military offensive against homegrown Taliban umbrella movement Tehreek-e-Taliban in their mountain hideouts in South Waziristan.

Militants have carried out a wave of suicide attacks and bombings across Pakistan, killing more than 2,450 people since July 2007.

A suicide attack on Monday, again in Peshawar, has left three people dead.—AFP

How safe is our meat? Article on Meat

Last week’s photograph in an English daily of three workers – without proper sanitised apparel and ungloved hands – struggling with a bovine carcass lying on the bloodied floor of the twin cities’ only municipal abattoir at Sihala speaks volumes about the adherence – or rather non-adherence – to hygiene principles in the slaughterhouse.

According to the Food and Agricultural Organisation, one of the principles of hygienic bovine slaughtering is the lifting of carcasses off the floor – usually mechanically – at the earliest possible stage, preferably beginning with the bleeding.

Important issues of food safety and consumer protection have thus been raised by the above and other recent reports about conditions at slaughterhouses – both recognised and unrecognised ones – in the vicinity of Islamabad.

Moreover, other reports about the alleged sale of diseased and culled animals in butcher shops in and around the city have not helped to build public confidence about the quality of the meat they are buying and eating.

These reports are not surprising as the shortcomings in our meat trade – including the absence of stringent inspection of animals and clearance by veterinarians before slaughtering, lack of proper slaughtering and by-product handling facilities and problems of bacterial contamination – are well documented.

According to a 2006 consultancy study commissioned by the Planning and Development Division in connection with a new livestock development policy, not only are sick or parasite-infested animals sometimes slaughtered for meat-selling, animals are also slaughtered in places frequently polluted with blood, intestinal contents and dirty effluents, and are not protected against insects and germs.

The study said that the meat produced under such conditions loses its keeping quality and can become a source of bacterial infection and food poisoning, particularly in summer months.

Blame for the shortcomings in the meat trade have been attributed to the low priority which was accorded to this sector by policy makers in the past as well as to the lack of regulation in this sector (with the exception of meat prices which are fixed by municipal corporations in the urban markets).

According to FAO, as well as to the above consultancy study, resistance by meat traders or butchers in changing their traditional practices of meat production in the country have played a major role in hindering technical and hygienic improvements in the sector – much to the detriment of food safety and consumer protection.

Many of our slaughterhouses are still sticking to the old, inefficient and unhygienic ‘booth’ or ‘batch’ slaughter system. The latter allows for the simultaneous slaughtering of a certain number of animals in ‘booths’ or ‘batches’, whereas FAO recommendations on the design and equipment for small- to medium-sized abattoirs regard the use of the line-slaughter system as the ideal abattoir operation.

According to the 2006 consultancy study, Sihala slaughterhouse was the first modern industrial abattoir in Pakistan completed in 1969. It has a slaughtering capacity of 600 sheep and goats and 60 cattle per shift and it is fully equipped with chill rooms, by-products processing units and ancillary services.

However, plans to operate the then new plant were opposed by butchers who refused to deliver their stock to the abattoir authority for slaughter and dressing, says the study.
Now local butchers are only using part of the premises, slaughtering under their own arrangements.

The study reveals that similar improved municipal slaughtering facilities established later in Karachi and Quetta met with a similar fate.

The argument that mechanical slaughter of animals does not conform to halal laws and is therefore unIslamic does not quite hold water. Countries like Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Brunei, etc., have established modern mechanised abattoirs producing halal meat for local consumption as well as for the fast growing global halal meat market.

In fact, the world’s biggest slaughterhouse is a state-of-the-art facility in Mina, Saudi Arabia. It is able to slaughter 200,000 sheep a day utilising some 10,000 workers working in two 12-hour shifts.

If the hundreds of small meat traders and butchers in Pakistan are wary about modern state-of-the-art abattoirs and meat processing plants, could the real reason be because of fears that some of them wouldn’t be able to compete and survive under a system which is usually associated with corporate or bulk production?

This may explain why butchers here – backed by powerful established interests in the meat trade, including associations/unions – prefer the traditional ‘batch’ slaughtering system because the latter allows them to control and identify their own animals, which is difficult to do in the modern line-slaughter system.

All this begs the question: is it right or ethical for public health to be compromised because changing and improving slaughtering and meat production practices might eliminate some stakeholders from the market?

New Zealand clinch series despite Aamir, Ajmal heroics

ABU DHABI: New Zealand survived Mohammad Aamir’s explosive half-century to clinch the series against Pakistan with a narrow seven-run victory in the third one-day international here on Monday.

Aamir, 17, hit an unbeaten 73 for his maiden half-century —the highest score by a number ten batsman in a one-day international —to bring Pakistan, chasing 212, close to an unexpected victory after they were 101-9.

Pakistan were bowled out for 204, giving New Zealand a sensational 2-1 victory in the three-match series. Pakistan won the first match by 138 runs on Tuesday before New Zealand levelled the series with a 64-run win on Friday.

Aamir and Ajmal added a Pakistan record of 103 for tenth wicket but, needing eight off the last over bowled by Jacob Oram, Ajmal holed out for a career-best 33 to end a sensational match.

The previous highest one-day score for a number ten batsman was 56 not out, made by Zimbabwe’s Douglas Marillier against India at New Delhi in 2002.

When Ajmal joined Aamir Pakistan needed a mammoth-looking 112 runs in 16.5 overs, but Aamir set the tempo for an unexpected win by hitting Daniel Vettori for three sixes in one over.

Slowly and gradually, he and Ajmal approached the target, beating the previous tenth wicket partnership record by Pakistan in all one-day of 72 by Abdul Razzaq and Waqar Younis against South Africa at Durban in 1998.

Aamir, who hit seven boundaries and three sixes during his 81-ball knock, improved on his previous highest score of 24 made against Sri Lanka earlier this year.

In the end New Zealand kept their nerves and did not spoil the early good work by bowlers which saw Pakistan slump from 47- to 101-9.

Earlier, off-spinner Ajmal took a career-best 4-33 to raise hopes of a Pakistan win but Salman Butt (25), Khalid Latif (19), Umer Akmal (12) and Shoaib Malik (11) threw away wickets.

Pakistan got off to a solid 47-run start before Vettori triggered a slump, trapping Latif leg-before in the ninth over. That started the slump.

Captain Younus Khan continued his wretched form, edging Shane Bond to slips after making just three. In the previous over, Younus misjudged a single which resulted in Butt’s run out.

Umer Akmal (12), Malik (11), Afridi (five) and Akmal (four) played reckless shots as Pakistan slumped badly.

Earlier Brendon McCullum, who scored a brilliant hundred on Friday, stood out once again with an aggressive 78-ball 76 which included three sixes and six boundaries.

New Zealand were well on course for a big score but once McCullum got out, caught and bowled by Shoaib Malik, Pakistani spinners led by Ajmal sparked a middle-order collapse to take last seven wickets for 47 runs.

New Zealand had raced to 72 by the 12th over, with McCullum reaching his fifty off just 47 balls.

It was paceman Umar Gul who provided the breakthrough, removing opener Aaron Redmond caught off Aamir for 21. This was Gul’s 100th wicket in 67 one-day internationals.

Ajmal then came into his own, removing Martin Guptill (eight), Ross Taylor (44), Daniel Vettori (15) and Jacob Oram (two) to improve on his best one-day figures of 2-16 against the West Indies at Johannesburg in September this year.

Ross Taylor, who failed to score in the first two matches, helped McCullum add 50 for the third wicket before Ajmal trapped him leg-before.

Both teams now move to Dubai where they play two Twenty20 matches on November 12 and 13.—AFP

No one allowed to make state within state: Zardari

ISLMABAD: President Asif Ali Zardari has made it clear that government writ will be ensured in Swat and tribal areas at any cost and no one will be allowed to establish state within state.
President Asif Zardari said this while presiding over a high level meeting held in Aiwan-e-Sadr to review law and order situation in Swat and tribal areas and pace of development projects.
Besides advisor to prime minister on interior, Rehman A Malik, interior secretary Syed Kamal Shah, members of parliament, provincial ministers and senior officials of law enforcement agencies also attended the meeting.
Well placed sources told Online that President Zardari said development process in Swat areas would be accelerated and full cooperation would be extended to provincial government in this respect. Members of parliament from Swat, ministers and members of provincial assemblies would be taken on board on this matter, he added.
Regarding dialogue with the local Taliban, he said they would have to lay down their arms and no pressure would be accepted in this connection. Incidents including attacks on security forces and kidnapping were not tolerable to government, he underlined.
Grand Jirga would soon be held on Swat situation, he said adding that protection to life and property of the people would be ensured.
The country would not be allowed to be destabilized and it would be made terror free state, he asserted.
Legislators from Swat demanded Zardari to bring an end to the ongoing operation so that the local population could live their lives peacefully.
Kamal Shah briefed the participants about security forces operation in Swat, peace dialogue and law and order situation.

Umpire Raza returns to cricket after Lahore attack

ABU DHABI: Umpire Ahsan Raza, who was criticially injured during the attacks on the Sri Lankan team on March 3, returned to international cricket in the third one-day between Pakistan and New Zealand here on Monday.

‘I am thrilled and exited to no end,’ Raza told AFP. ‘Today I am alive, and making a return to international cricket is very sensational for me and makes my belief in the Almighty stronger.’

The 35-year-old, who will be the reserve umpire in the match here, had to undergo surgery to repair a collapsed right lung and a damaged liver after being shot when terrorists attacked the Sri Lankan team in Lahore.

Raza remained in the intensive care unit for 26 days and needed two-dozen bottles of blood to survive.

‘It was a miracle that I survived, because of the prayers of my wife, my daughters and my people. Doctors are surprised that I am now fit to stand in international cricket,’ said Raza, who returned to first-class cricket two months ago.

Raza, a former wicket-keeper batsman who played 21 first-class matches before taking up umpiring, said every blast in Pakistan reminds him of the March attacks.

‘I often wake up late in the night because of the March 3 nightmares and every time there is a blast in Pakistan I remember those attacks of Lahore because every terror attack looks the same.

‘Every time I hear of the attacks I pray that my country gets rid of such incidents because every walk of life has been disturbed, including my lovely game of cricket.’

Raza said it was his will power and support from colleagues that helped him survive.

‘I was in the hospital for so long, but it was my will power and support from people like Aleem Dar (declared world’s best umpire last month) that I am here at this ground and aiming for further progress.’

Raza hopes he graduates as field umpire when international cricket returns to Pakistan.

‘It’s my wish that when I make my debut as field umpire it’s on a ground in Pakistan, we badly need international cricket to return to our country because everyone loves the game.’

After the attacks, the International Cricket Council stripped Pakistan of its share of World Cup 2011 matches. Even before the attacks teams were reluctant to tour Pakistan over security fears.

‘Things will improve and my country will host matches very soon.’

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Australia clinch one-day series in India

GUWAHATI: Left-arm seamer Doug Bollinger grabbed five for 35 to set up Australia’s six-wicket victory over India in the sixth one-dayer on Sunday for an unassailable 4-2 lead in the seven-match series.

New ball bowler Bollinger dismissed Sachin Tendulkar (10) and Yuvraj Singh (6) off successive overs in his opening spell before claiming Mahendra Dhoni (24), Harbhajan Singh (zero) and Ravindra Jadeja for 57 to bowl out India for 170.

All-rounders Jadeja and Praveen Kumar (54 not out) struck fifties and shared in a 74-run stand for the eighth wicket to lift the hosts, who were tottering at 27 for five after choosing to bat first on a two-paced pitch.

In-form Shane Watson struck 49 but the world champions suffered a mini collapse when off-spinner Harbhajan Singh took the wickets of Watson and Ricky Ponting (25) in quick succession.

Michael Hussey (35 not out) put on 53 for the fourth wicket with Cameron White (25) and 29 with Adam Voges (23 not out) to guide the team to victory in 41.5 overs.

The last match will be played in Mumbai on Wednesday.— Reuters

Operation in Malakand, Waziristan is no solution

ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani conceded during a debate in the National Assembly on Saturday that the military operation in Malakand or South Waziristan was no lasting solution and the government was taking measures to bring stability to the region.

However, the prime minister refrained from responding to a lawmaker’s criticism of Interior Minister Rehman Malik, whom legislators blamed for the nation’s deepening sense of insecurity.

Mr Gilani highlighted several steps his government had taken to normalise the situation in Malakand, saying that parliamentary leaders of all parties had been taken into confidence before launching the military operation in South Waziristan. ‘The nation is also united on combating terrorism to the finish.’ The prime minister said the government had taken good care of Malakand IDPs and was also providing assistance to the people who fled South Waziristan.

A sum of Rs8.5 billion had been set aside for Waziristan IDPs and every displaced family was being given Rs5,000. An amount of Rs 25,000 would be provided to each family on return home, he added.

The prime minister said the government had earmarked Rs50 billion in the current budget for rehabilitation of the Malakand IDPs and released Rs6 billion of the proposed Rs25 billion package for upgradation of security in the region.

Since Monday will be observed as a holiday on account of Allama Iqbal Day, the lower house was summoned on Saturday, a weekly dayoff.

The house wore a deserted look until the prime minister entered the house. Earlier, lawmakers delivered their speeches in the absence of ministers and officials of interior and foreign affairs ministries. No more than 25 lawmakers were present and the dismal attendance continued till the end of the proceedings.

Presiding officer Riaz Pirzada reminded the government twice during the debate about the absence of interior and foreign ministry officials who should have been there to take notes of important speeches.

Zafar Bhittani, a lawmaker from the tribal areas, urged the prime minister to pick any one of the 342 legislators in the assembly for the job of interior minister instead of ‘banking on a person who preferred to fly to Abu Dhabi for talks with the MQM’.

He alleged that the ‘notorious American organisation’ Blackwater was playing havoc with law and order in the country.

Mr Bhittani said the interior minister had not said a ‘single truth’ about the law and order.

Palwasha Behram Khan, of the PML-Q, said Pakistan should take a leading role in any future US policy for the region.

Humayun Saifullah Khan urged the government to avoid relating the war against terrorism to what he called ongoing ‘skirmishes’ because it was affecting the country’s image.

Sheikh Waqas Akram, of the PML-Q, said the government must engage militants in talks alongside the military campaign. He said the US had also expressed its willingness to enter into talks with the Taliban after its generals admitted that they were losing the war in Afghanistan.

He said the situation had become so grave that no multinational company was ready to invest in Pakistan. The government was doing nothing to establish its writ in southern Punjab where the Taliban were roaming around freely, the MNA alleged.

PAKISTAN MINT: Lawmakers expressed concern over the deteriorating condition of the building of Pakistan Mint, the oldest coin press, in Lahore.

Through a call-attention notice, Shakeel Khanam Rasheed, Begum Ishrat Ashraf, Naseer Bhutta and Dr Azra Fazal Pechuho called for setting up a house committee to examine
the situation.

Planning and Development Minister Makhdoom Shahabuddin said the government was aware of the situation and had allocated Rs10 million for upgradation of the building.

US House passes sweeping health care overhaul

WASHINGTON: The US House of Representatives late Saturday approved the broadest US health care overhaul in a half-century, handing President Barack Obama a major victory on his top domestic priority.

After hours of bitter debate and an appeal from Obama to ‘answer the call of history,’ lawmakers voted 220-215 for a 10-year, trillion-dollar plan to extend health coverage to some 36 million Americans who lack it now.

The chamber’s Democrats erupted in loud cheers and triumphant applause the moment the bill had the 218 votes needed for passage, about 11:07 pm (0407 GMT), a happy din that grew deafening when a gavel made it official.

The president had paid a rare visit to Congress to lobby for unity among his Democratic allies and reinforced it with a public speech, but 39 still joined 176 of the chamber’s Republicans in opposition to the proposal.

One Republican broke ranks, nominally fulfilling, in the barest terms, Obama’s vow to secure bipartisan support.

‘This is our moment to deliver. I urge members of congress to rise to this moment, answer the call of history and vote yes for health insurance reform for America,’ Obama said in the White House’s Rose Garden hours before the vote.

The fight to remake health care in the world’s richest country shifted to the US Senate, where its fate remained unclear amid a intra-party dispute among Democrats anchored on what role the US government should play.

Democratic Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, struggling to pull together the 60 votes needed to ensure passage, has hinted that the chamber may not act until next year.

That would put the issue front-and-center in the 2010 mid-term elections, when one third of the Senate, the entire House of Representatives, and many US governorships are up for grabs.

If, as expected, the two chambers pass rival versions of health care legislation, they will need to thrash out a compromise version and approve it in order to send it to Obama to sign into law.

Final House passage came after a flurry of votes, including a 240-194 vote to sharply tighten restrictions on government monies paying for abortions, seen as critical to cementing support from a group of anti-abortion Democrats.

The House then voted 176-258 to defeat the Republican alternative to the overall plan — with one lone Republican, Representative Timothy Johnson of Illinois, joining the Democrats in opposition.

The United States is the only industrialized democracy that does not ensure that all of its citizens have health care coverage, with an estimated 36 million Americans uninsured.

And Washington spends vastly more on health care — both per person and as a share of national income as measured by Gross Domestic Product — than other industrialized democracies, but with no meaningful edge in quality of care, according to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.

The bill would create a government-backed insurance plan, popularly known as a ‘public option,’ to compete with private firms and would end denial of coverage based on preexisting medical problems.

Under the White House-backed bill, Americans would have to buy insurance and most employers would have to offer coverage to their workers — though some small businesses would be exempt and the government would offer subsidies. —AFP

India PM invites world to invest in economy

NEW DELHI: India’s premier rolled out the welcome mat for foreign investors Sunday, promising to step up economic reforms to draw global funds and put the country on a high growth path.

Prime Minster Manmohan Singh, speaking to a blue-chip international economic summit, said policy would be guided by the desire to create ‘an investor friendly environment.’ India had attracted foreign direct investment of more than 120 billion dollars since 2001-02 but more was needed to develop its vast economy, he told a World Economic Forum meeting in New Delhi.

‘You are all welcome in our efforts,’ he told 600 delegates from around the world, adding that the government wanted to push through reforms to make the country more attractive for investment.

‘We need to strengthen our financial system in various ways to make sure it can provide what is needed for our development,’ he said, promising to open up insurance and other financial sectors more aggressively to generate funds.

Since winning a decisive re-election victory in May, the Congress-led government has been able to pursue reforms blocked in the last parliament by communist opposition.

He said the government was aiming for 6.5 per cent growth in this fiscal year to March 2010 despite the worst monsoon in nearly four decades that has hit agriculture, and he forecast ‘over seven per cent’ expansion next year.

‘I am happy India has been able to face the global economic downturn better than most other countries in the world,’ he said.

‘Our medium term objective is to achieve eight to nine per cent growth.’ Singh said ‘clearly the worst is behind’ the global economy but he added the path to sustained recovery ‘will be long and somewhat uncertain.’ This meant India would have to rely heavily on domestic demand to power its growth, he said.

Overhauling the country’s dilapidated infrastructure — roads, airports, ports and other services — would be key to keeping the economy on the recovery trail, he said.

He added it was vital to ensure growth was ‘inclusive’ and improved the lives of the estimated 40 per cent of the nearly 1.2 billion Indians who still live in extreme poverty.— AFP

Suicide bomb near Peshawar kills 10, wounds 30

PESHAWAR: At least 10 people have been killed and more than 30 others injured after a suicide attacker blew himself up in a local live stock market located in the Matani area of Peshawar, DawnNews reported.

According to the DCO Peshawar Sahibzada Anees, Union Council Nazim Adazai Abdul Malik was amongst the dead. Malik had been responsible for raising a militia against Taliban rebels.

He added that of the injured, nine were listed as being in critical condition.

Hospital officials say they have shifted at least 10 injured to the surgical ward while some of them are undergoing surgery in the operation theater.

Officials added that the rest of the injured are being admitted at the trauma room while have discharged six injured after initial treatment.— DawnNews

Waziristan offensive kills 20 Taliban: military

ISLAMABAD: Twenty Taliban insurgents have been killed as Pakistan’s military tries to consolidate gains in its offensive against the militants in the northwest tribal district, the army said Sunday.

Pakistan launched a punishing air and ground offensive into the region bordering Afghanistan on October 17, with 30,000 troops backed by fighter jets and helicopter gunships laying siege to Taliban bolt-holes.

‘In the last 24 hours, 20 terrorists have been killed and eight soldiers including an officer were injured,’ the military said in its daily statement.

The military provides the only regular information coming from the frontlines. None of the details can be verified because communication lines are down and journalists and aid workers barred from the area.

Three militants were killed in gunfights as troops recovered a cache of arms and ammunition in the town of Sararogha, a former Taliban stronghold. The army said troops had ‘consolidated’ positions there.

Another 12 militants were killed and eight soldiers injured in a battle near Kanigurram village, which the army says they have captured, while five more rebels were killed in fighting elsewhere in the region.

The tribal belt has been dubbed by Washington the most dangerous place in the world because of an abundance of Al-Qaeda and Taliban fighters.

The army claims to have stormed a number of key Taliban strongholds including Sararogha, Makeen and Kanigurram. They say nearly 480 militants and 42 soldiers have been killed since the offensive began. -AFP

US, Pakistan deny negotiations on nuke security

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan has strongly dismissed ‘The New Yorker’ magazine’s article over the safety of Pakistan’s nuclear assets.

The foreign office termed the assertions made in the article utterly misleading and totally baseless.

Expressing strong disapproval, the spokesman Abdul Basit alleged that the author of the article was biased against Pakistan.

The spokesman said the article quoted unverifiable sources and it was aimed at tarnishing the image of Pakistan. The Spokesman emphasised that Pakistan’s strategic assets were completely safe and secure.

Islamabad has always stood by the assertion that the indigenous multi-layered controls were as foolproof and effective as in any other nuclear weapons state.

Abdul Basit reiterates that Islamabad does not require and will not allow any foreign assistance in making the nuclear assets secure.

US Ambassador to Pakistan Anne Patterson has also termed the allegations about the security of Pakistan’s nuclear arsenal as completely false.

She says the United States has not been negotiating any understandings with the Pakistani military over the nuclear issue.

In a statement, Patterson said Washington has no intention to seize Pakistani nuclear weapons or material.

She said Pakistan is a key ally in the common effort to fight extremists and foster regional security.

Patterson vowed to cooperate on a wide range of security assistance initiatives, including significant efforts focused on strengthening counter insurgency capacities.

Punjab govt to increase sugar supply

ISLAMABAD: The Punjab Government has decided to double the sugar supply across the province and now the sugar quota has been uplifted from eighteen hundred to thirty-six hundred metric tones.

The directive has been issued by Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif during his meeting with Sugar mills association representatives in Murree.

It has also been decided that the Sugar mills association will provide one and two kilogram sugar bags in the Sunday bazaars at forty rupees per kilogram.

The Punjab Chief Minister also directed to take action against the sugar hoarders and directed that the next crushing season must start by fifteenth of November. -DawnNews

Pakistan beat Japan to qualify for hockey World Cup

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan booked a place in the final round of the next year’s hockey World Cup with a convincing 3-1 win over Japan in the final match of the qualifiers at Lille (France) on Sunday.

Penalty corner specialist Sohail Abbas scored twice off the short corner set-pieces on either side of the half time whistle to steer Pakistan team to victory.

Spearhead Abdul Haseem Khan opened the scoring for Pakistan four minutes after the start before Sohail Abbas came into action with a 24th minute conversion of a short corner.

Japan reduced the margin through Shibushi who found the target from a penalty corner in the 27th minute with Pakistan leading 2-1 at the halfway stage.

Sohail Abbas widened Pakistan’s lead with another successful strike in the second period of a fast-paced match.

Pakistan then missed a couple of sitters but their defence, particularly the goalkeeper, stood firm against the repeated Japanese attacks, according to reports available here.

With victory in the play-off match to decide the first position in this six-Nation qualifying tournament, Pakistan grabbed the lone qualifying spot for the final round of the hockey World Cup 2010 to be played at New Delhi (India) in February-March next year.

Pakistan, the four-times World Cup winners, will now join the nine other teams, with two places still up for grabs, which have already made it to the final round.

International Hockey Federation (FIH) will soon hold another two qualifying tournaments, one in New Zealand and the other in Argentina, to fill the vacant berths for the final round.

The final standings in the qualifying round at Lille were:1-Pakistan, 2-Japan, 3-Poland, 4-France, 5-Russia, 6-Italy.

Pakistan, which had to appear in the World Cup qualifiers for the first time ever, had beaten Japan 6-1 in the league, also defeating Italy, Russia, France before being beaten by Poland in the last league encounter.

Despite defeat by Poland, Pakistan topped the league points table, thus setting up a first-position duel against fellow Asians Japan. -APP

Police shoot suspected suicide bomber in Islamabad

ISLAMABAD: Police have shot dead a suspected suicide bomber after a failed attack in Islamabad on Sunday night, DawnNews reported.

Officials said that the bomber attempted to target a police check post when he was killed. Reports say that the targeted checkpost was between Sectors E-11 AND F-11 of Islamabad.

There were six police officials present at the checkpost, when the bomber made his failed attempt. A bomb disposal squad has defused the suicide jacket that the bomber was wearing, police officials said. -DawnNews

Internet set for change with non-English addresses

SEOUL: The Internet is set to undergo one of the biggest changes in its four-decade history with the expected approval this week of international domain names — or addresses — that can be written in languages other than English, an official said Monday.

The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, or ICANN — the non-profit group that oversees domain names — is holding a meeting this week in Seoul. Domain names are the monikers behind every Web site, e-mail address and Twitter post, such as .com and other suffixes.

One of the key issues to be taken up by ICANN’s board at this week’s gathering is whether to allow for the first time entire Internet addresses to be in scripts that are not based on Latin letters. That could potentially open up the Web to more people around the world as addresses could be in characters as diverse as Arabic, Korean, Japanese, Greek, Hindi and Cyrillic — in which Russian is written.

‘This is the biggest change technically to the Internet since it was invented 40 years ago,’ Peter Dengate Thrush, chairman of the ICANN board, told reporters, calling it a ‘fantastically complicated technical feature.’ He said he expects the board to grant approval on Friday, the conference’s final day.

The Internet’s roots are traced to experiments at a US university in 1969 but it wasn’t until the early 1990s that its use began expanding beyond academia and research institutions to the general public.

Rod Beckstrom, ICANN’s new president and CEO, said that if the change is approved, ICANN would begin accepting applications for non-English domain names and that the first entries into the system would likely come sometime in mid 2010.

Enabling the change, Thrush said, is the creation of a translation system that allows multiple scripts to be converted to the right address.

‘We’re confident that it works because we’ve been testing it now for a couple of years,’ he said. ‘And so we’re really ready to start rolling it out.’

Of the 1.6 billion Internet users worldwide, Beckstrom — a former chief of US cybersecurity — said that more than half use languages that have scripts based on alphabets other than Latin.

‘So this change is very much necessary for not only half the world’s Internet users today, but more than half of probably the future users as the use of the Internet continues to spread,’ he said.

Beckstrom, in earlier remarks to conference participants, recalled that many people had said just three to five years ago that using non-Latin scripts for domain names would be impossible to achieve.

‘But you the community and the policy groups and staff and board have worked through them, which is absolutely incredible,’ he said.

ICANN is headquartered in the United States in Marina del Rey, California.— AP

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WTA Tennis: Serena wins, Venus beaten on Day in Doha

DOHA: An exciting opening day of the Sony Ericsson Championships saw 6 of the 8 women in action, and as you would expect with the best of the best the matches were tight and intense.

Elena Dementieva produced the shock result in an exceptionally tight Maroon Group downing Venus Williams in a thrilling three setter, while the younger Williams Serena edged past French Open champion Svetlana Kuznetsova in two close sets.

The only relatively easy contest of the day was an in form Victoria Azarenka justifying her higher ranking, coasting through her match with Jelena Jankovic in straight sets.

With Venus Williams having beaten Dementieva in their last six meetings, it would have been easy to mistake today’s contest between the two players as one that Williams could easily bank on.

Having raced to a 6-3, 3-1 lead in the match, there seemed little reason for Williams to doubt the result would be any different. However, the Russian ace, now with the confidence of an Olympic Gold medal behind her, just refused to give in.

Despite serving 10 double faults in the second set, Dementieva hung in a tight second set taking advantage of both of her break opportunities to stay close in the contest.

As Williams’ first serve started to lose its consistency, Dementieva climbed all over a weak second and managed to steal the tiebreak 8-6.

The final set was all Dementieva, she served a lot better, landing 65% of her first serves and winning 12 of 15 points on them. She saved two break points and created seven of her own as Williams’ own serve deserted her.

Elena took two of her chances for a double break and notched up her first win in the Maroon Group 3-6, 7-6, 6-2.

The other marquee contest of the day featured second seed and Australian Open and Wimbledon champion Serena Williams and French Open champion Svetlana Kuznetsova.

The two heavy hitters slugged it out right from the start, with the Russian star twice going up an early break, but unable to hold on to pull out a meaningful lead.

The set finally found its way through to a tiebreak, where Williams jumped to a 3-1 lead only for Kuznetsova to rally back to win 5 of the next 6 points to claw ahead 6-4.

Williams saved both set points and rattled off four points in a row herself to wrap up the breaker 8-6.

Serena picked up the pace in the second, hammering 8 aces but failed to pull away till right at the end when she broke Kuznetsova to close out the match 7-6, 7-5.

Tomorrow Serena takes on Venus in the last match of the day, knowing that a win for her will almost guarantee a place in the last four, while a defeat for Venus all but knocks her out of the tournament.

In the first match of the tournament, Victoria Azarenka on debut at the Sony Ericsson Championships, took a huge step towards correcting her 0-3 head-to-head record against 8th seeded Serbian Jelena Jankovic producing a comprehensive straight sets win over the former world no.1.

Azarenka made just 15 unforced errors and took only 82 minutes to coast past an error prone Jankovic, in a rather forgettable match for the Serbian star.

Jelena will have little time to put this result behind her as she takes on world no.1 Dinara Safina in the second match tomorrow evening.

Up first on center court will once again be Victoria Azarenka, as she takes on another tournament debutant and US Open losing finalist Caroline Wozniacki in what should be a highly entertaining contest featuring by far the two brightest sparks on the WTA Tour.

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KSE-100 Index slides 64 points

KARACHI: The deadly bomb blast in Peshawar Wednesday forced the investors not to take fresh positions in the local equity market where the benchmark KSE-100 Index shed 64 points to close at 9,251.

The market started today’s trade with positive numbers but the bomb blast in Peshawar eroded the early hour gains and the Index closed at the current level.

The trade volume was recorded at 170 million shares.

Arif Habib Securities topped the list of volume leaders, gaining paisas 48 to close at Rs54.85.

The selling eroded 75 points from the KSE-30 Index which pegged at 9,754.

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Clinton calls on Zardari

ISLAMABAD: President Asif Ali Zardari on Wednesday said that the democracies of the world can help speed up the process of healing and development by helping democracy in Pakistan and rendering assistance in critical areas of social and economic development.

In a meeting with US delegation, headed by US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton which called on President Asif Ali Zardari at Aiwan-e-Sadr, matters related to bilateral relations, strategic partnership, fight against militancy, mutual cooperation and assistance to Pakistan were also discussed.

Welcoming Ms. Clinton, the President said that her visit at a difficult time is a clear reflection of the deepening relationship between the two countries.

It is a “relationship based on respect for democracy and sovereignty” and is marked by our joint commitment to fight the forces of extremism ad militancy and a long term political and strategic partnership based on mutual interest, common values and shared goals, he added.

The President said that the government of Pakistan People’s Party has a clear vision and strategy.

“We are determined to root out militancy from our soil and purge our country of militants. We are pursuing policies of public-private partnership to promote investment. We are undertaking all possible efforts to meet the energy challenge head on,” President Zardari added.

He said social integration through reforms and poverty alleviation is the top most priority of the government.

The President said that Pakistan needed assistance for stabilizing its economy through investment promotion, overcoming the energy crisis, facilitation in getting market access, capacity building of civilian institutions and securing the needed investment in education and social sector as measures for long term fight against the militant mindset.

He also urged for the speedy delivery of equipment to fight insurgency.

Issues relating to peace in the region were also discussed in the meeting.

The President said that dialogue was the only way forward as the absence of dialogue created doubts and tensions.

US Secretary of State thanked the President for the warm welcome extended to her during her visit.

She said that US is looking for long-term sustained and multidimensional partnership with the democratic government and people of Pakistan.

She said the United States is committed to support the people of Pakistan at this critical hour and would extend all possible help to promote stability, strengthening of democratic institutions and help the people of Pakistan through investment in education and social sector.

Those who attended the meeting included among others Foreign Minister Makhdoom Shah Mehmood Qureshi, Interior Minister Rehman A. Malik, Finance Minister Shaukat Tarin, Information Minister Qamar-uz-Zaman Kaira, Secretary General Salman Faruqui and other senior officials.

US Ambassador in Islamabad Ms. Anne W. Patterson and Mr.Richard C. Holbrooke were also present during the meeting.

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Peshawar blast tally climbs to 105

PESHAWAR: The total death toll from Peshawar blast has mounted to 105 while rescue sources say that more people could still be buried under the debris. Over 150 people sustained injuries in the blast.

Hospital sources have confirmed that 160 were brought there, and a list of 136 of these injured has been made visible inside the hospital premises.

According to details, the powerful blast occurred at Peepal Mandi ripped near Meena Bazar, Peshawar. The explosion triggered fire in nearby shops while an old building came to ground with the heavy impact which also caused damage to other surrounding buildings.

Most of the buildings in the area had already been declared to be in poor condition.

AIG Bomb Disposal Unit Shafqatullah Malik said that explosives, weighing 150 kilograms, were planted in a vehicle.

DCO Peshawar Sahibzada Anees has confirmed 95 deaths in the tragic incident while the hospital sources confirmed 89 people dead, majority of them are women and children.

Condition of many injured is said to be serious and the toll is feared to rise further.

Senior NWFP Minister Bashir Ahmed Bilour reiterated the commitment to bringing the terrorists to justice.

President Asif Ali Zardari has expressed profound grief over the loss of innocent lives in Peshawar bomb blast, while denouncing the incident, Prime Minister (PM) Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani directed concerned officials to provide the injured with all the possible medical relief. NWFP Chief Minister (CM), Amir Hyder Khan Hoti has ordered inquiry of the blast.

Pakistan Muslim League-N (PML-N) Quaid Mian Nawaz Sharif, CM Punjab Shehbaz Sharif, Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) Quaid Altaf Hussain, Governor Punjab Salman Taseer, Federal Interior Minister Rehman Malik, Federal Minister for Information and Broadcasting, Qamar Zaman Kaira, NWFP CM Amir Hyder Hoti, Governor NWFP Owais Ahmed Ghani, CM Sindh Syed Qaim Ali Shah, Governor Sindh Dr Ishrat-ul-Ibad, CM Balochistan Aslam Raisani, Governor Balochistan Zulfiqar Magsi, Federal Ministers Farooq Sattar and Babar Ghauri, Amir Jamaat-e-Islami Syed Munawar Hassan and Qazi Husain Ahmed strongly condemned the blast.

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Former Test umpire Shepherd dead at 68

LONDON: Former Test match umpire and Gloucestershire cricketer David Shepherd has died from cancer at the age of 68, the Englishman’s former county announced Wednesday.

Shepherd, widely regarded as one of the best umpires of his generation, stood in 92 Tests and 172 one-day internationals, including three World Cup finals, between 1983-2005.

He was perhaps best known to cricket fans around the world for his superstitious habit of standing on one leg when the score reached ‘Nelson’, England’s supposedly ‘unlucky’ number of 111 or multiples such as 222.

‘I feel very saddened this has happened,’ Dickie Bird, who umpired many matches alongside his fellow Englishman, told Sky Sports.

‘He was a fine umpire, we spent many happy hours together. He was a great man and a tremendous man to umpire with. He was a good bloke, he’ll be sadly missed and he was a great friend.’ -AFP

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Dhoni on fire as India thrash Australia

NAGPUR: Skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni smashed a blistering century as India whipped injury-hit Australia by 99 runs on Wednesday to level their seven-match one-day series 1-1.

Dhoni hit 124 off 107 balls and Gautam Gambhir and Suresh Raina chipped in with half-centuries as India, sent in to bat, accumulated their highest one-day total against Australia —354-7 from 50 overs.

In reply, the world champions, who won the first match by four runs in Vadodara on Sunday, were bowled out for 255 in the day-night international, with left-hander Michael Hussey top-scoring with 53.

Indian seamer Praveen Kumar took two wickets in his first spell before young left-arm spinner Ravindra Jadeja polished off the middle order with figures of 3-35.

Some 40,000 home fans cheered lustily as Dhoni put on 119 for the fourth wicket with Gambhir (76) and a swashbuckling 136 from 93 balls for the fifth with Suresh Raina, who made 62.

‘This win was very special,’ said Dhoni, who was named man of the match. ‘We maintained a run-rate of over six an over when we batted and the bowlers gained in confidence.

‘It should be a very interesting series.’ Australian captain Ricky Ponting admitted the two teams will once again ‘start from scratch.’

‘The wicket was very good, but it was a hard run chase,’ he said. ‘Full credit to India, who outplayed us today.

‘We needed to get partnerships going but the loss of three quick wickets at the start made the job tougher. But I am sure we will bounce back.’

Enjoying perfect batting conditions at the Vidarbha Cricket Association stadium, the hosts plundered 108 runs in the final 10 overs, overtaking their previous best against Australia of 315 all out in Bangalore in 2001.

Dhoni reached his fifth one-day century by smashing Shane Watson for a straight six, and celebrated the landmark with another six off the next ball in the same area.

The aggressive Indian captain was one of three batsmen to be dismissed in the 50th over, but not before he had taken nine boundaries and three sixes off the truncated Australian attack.

The tourists, already without one-day regulars Michael Clarke, Brad Haddin and Nathan Bracken for the series, were further depleted by injuries to paceman Brett Lee and all-rounder James Hopes.

However, left-arm fast bowler Mitchell Johnson was declared fit from an ankle sprain and claimed the important wicket of Virender Sehwag in the 11th over, caught at mid-off attempting a big hit.

Sehwag smashed a typically robust 40 off 31 balls to give India the momentum after veteran batsman Sachin Tendulkar was removed by Peter Siddle in the fourth over.

For the second match in a row, two Indian umpires took charge in the middle after the International Cricket Council-appointed Mark Benson of England failed to recover from a viral infection.

The third match will be played in New Delhi on Saturday.

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Base of Pakistan cricket broadened: Iqbal

KARACHI: Chief selector Iqbal Qasim said on Tuesday that his committee has broadened the base of Pakistan cricket by choosing different combinations for Twenty20 games, One-day Internationals and Test matches.

‘It’s a new experience and format under two captains — Younis Khan and Shahid Afridi,’ Iqbal, a former Test left-arm spinner, said here. ‘The new selection [method] has expanded selection and created more opportunities for players.

‘The selection committee has taken various aspects into consideration while picking longer version [Test], shorter version [ODI] and Twenty20 teams,’ he pointed out over the three Pakistan squads named recently for the New Zealand series.

Iqbal negated the impression that the selectors have made wrong choices by picking the good one-day players for the Test matches.

‘Our main criterion for selection is the form of the players in domestic and nternational cricket,’ he stated.

He further said that the selectors have to take the viewpoints of Younis while finalising Test and ODI teams and consult Afridi for the Twenty20 squad. ‘It’s a ticklish position for us because both the captains have their own thinking and we have to satisfy both of them.’

Iqbal said they have picked three specialist openers —Imran Farhat, Salman Butt and Khalid Latif — for the ODI series against New Zealand.

He added that selection of the teams for the (New Zealand) series and performances of the players will carry them forward for the series against Australia.

He said Khalid Latif is also good for Test matches but has been inducted in ODI and Twenty20 squads and may get his chance in Tests in the future.

‘We’ll make adjustments according to the performance of the players with the passage of time,’ he added.

He rejected the notion that they have no say in the selection process and that they are dictated by captains and PCB officials in picking teams.

‘Besides taking various aspects into account we are also keeping an eye on the squad selection for the World Twenty20 in the West Indies where Pakistan will be defending their crown,’ Iqbal said.—APP

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