Matric Science result announced

KARACHI: The Board of Secondary Education Karachi (BSEK) has announced the result of the Secondary School Certificate (SSC) Part II (Class X) Science Group annual examination-2009 on Wednesday.

Around 70 percent candidates have passed the examination with the top three positions bagged by the students of the private schools.

In the SSC Part II Science Group exams 116243 students had got them enrolled while 115722 appeared in the examinations, which were successfully passed by 81000 students.

Sobia Asghar, a student of the Pro-Grammar Secondary School bagged the first position, Shahzaib Khan of S.M. Public School Gulistan-e-Jauhar and Komal Wakeel of Little Folks School jointly bagged the second position, while Ashhar Qadri, a girl from BMB School Frere Road, won the third position.

Cyber attacks may have come from Britain: SKorea

SEOUL (AFP) -

A Vietnamese computer security firm believes Britain was the likely origin of last week’s cyber attacks that crippled major US and South Korean websites, Seoul officials said.

The Korea Communications Commission said the information came from Vietnamese firm Bach Khoa Internetwork Security. Vietnam is part of a regional grouping known as the Asia Pacific Computer Emergency Response Team.

“The (British) server appears to have controlled compromised handler servers” which spread viruses, said Park Cheol-Soon, a network protection team leader of the government-run communications commission.

“However, it needs more investigation to confirm whether this server was the final attacker server or not,” he told AFP.

Seoul’s National Intelligence Service earlier said North Korea was a prime suspect in the attacks, which briefly crippled major government and commercial websites in the United States and South Korea.

Park said the apparent discovery of a master server in Britain did not mean North Korea could not be held responsible. “It does not either bolster or undermine claims that someone has done the attacks,” he said.

The “distributed denial of service” attacks involved sending multiple requests for website access from tens of thousands of “zombie” computers so the sites became overloaded.

The computers that were used to send the flood of requests had been infected with a virus that allowed attackers to control them anonymously.

The Korea Communications Commission said 166,000 “zombie” computers in 74 countries were believed used.

The intelligence service Monday downgraded its alert against the cyber attacks, saying they were “fizzling out” and most targeted sites had normal traffic restored.

North Korea has staged a nuclear test and numerous missile launches in recent weeks, raising regional tensions. But a cyber attack, if confirmed, would be a new tactic.

Hong Min-Pyo, president of security solution provider Shiftworks, told AFP Wednesday it was technically impossible to trace who initiated the attacks.

Shiftworks has also tracked down a server in New Jersey that was believed to have been spreading the so-called malware, he said.

“DDos attacks are designed to hide the attackers,” Hong told AFP

Can Google Learn from Microsoft’s Mistakes?

Google’s indication (hardly an announcement) that they’re getting into the OS business comes as no surprise. It’s already got Android. It’s got Web-based apps that are now (finally) out of beta. It’s got the right vision, IMHO, for mobility. They have the potential at the very least to put a thumbtack on Microsoft’s chair, if not actually kick them in the butt.

And that’s because MS thinks that an operating system is a destination rather than simply a facility to abstract hardware and network services into metaphors that programmers and end-users alike can deal with. The two key directions for mobility — netbooks (or at least lighter clients, which includes handhelds) and Web services — really don’t require MS’s vision of bloated, complex, buggy, slow, inefficient, unreliable, and expensive operating systems. Because they’ve been competing in the PC, rather than the Web-centric, era, Microsoft has only two options to address this opportunity — Windows Mobile, which I still think is doomed for reasons of cost, and Windows 7, which would need several passes through the shrink-o-tron to work here, leaving it much less than Microsoft’s vision (and, in fact, business and financial requirement) of OS as destination.

Google may, however, be making the same mistakes as Microsoft has continually made via a strategy of OS diversity. As with Vista, there are way too many versions of Windows 7; I’d have to buy Ultimate at an absurdly high price just to get file encryption. As you might guess, I’m not looking forward to giving Microsoft another nickel; I will, of course, buy a new PC with W7 on it to do testing projects for Network World, but this PC will otherwise not be used for production around here. I’ve had it with Microsoft’s vision and implementation of the operating system, which is to use bloat to thwart competition, change to the user interface to add to OpEx and TCO via increased training and support costs, and refusal (or outright inability) to address fundamental architectural issues that leave their operating systems insecure, unreliable, and a burden on IT and users alike. I can’t wait for all those XP users out there thinking they can upgrade to W7, and then discovering that (a) they need to do a clean install, and (b) they need W7 Pro for backwards compatibility to XP. Wow! At least Microsoft is being upfront is saying that W7 is “best experienced on a new PC”.

Chrome OS, on the other hand, has a lot going for it. According to Google’s blog, it’s open-source, lightweight, fast (and quick-booting), simple, secure, and Web-centric. It will run on X86 and ARM processors. It’s in fact targeted at netbooks, which have become, much to my dismay, largely Windows (XP Home)-centric to this point. But, as I noted above, W7 won’t run on netbooks unless those netbooks add significant memory and storage (and likely processor performance), and thus cost. Again, MS has no real position here – a major strategic blunder on their part, perhaps stemming from the arrogance that accrues when one otherwise has the computer industry by the boy parts. Such, however, as I’ve said many times, cannot last.

But by introducing yet another OS, Google may wind up in a position similar to MS. Why, pray tell, not just use Android here? Apple’s on the right path here in using substantially the same OS on everything from desktops to handhelds. You can bet that LINUX will have no problem in making this unified vision a reality as well. That’s why I remain so bullish on LINUX as the basis for future mobile clients – it’s small enough to fit, robust enough to provide a great platform for apps, and the price remains unbeatable. Why not, then, just add Google functionality, whatever that is, to, say Ubuntu?

Let’s, however, give Google the benefit of the doubt for the moment. While I remain suspicious of their motives (they are, after all, an advertising, not software, company), Chrome OS may nonetheless turn out to be a formidable competitor and of great value to mobile users over time.

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FIA, PTA cannot screen ‘bad’ e-messages

LAHORE: Though the federal government has announced punishment for sending indecent, provocative and ‘ill-motivated’ messages through e-mail and SMS, neither the Pakistan Telecommun-ication Authority nor the Federal Investigation Agency has a system to screen such communication in bulk.

However, the FIA will only launch investigation on receiving such complaints. ‘We can have a system to detect culprits in such cases on receiving complaints but there has been no mechanism to screen millions of e-mails or SMS,’ FIA Director (Punjab) Azam Joya told Dawn on Monday.

‘Some 22 cases and 48 inquiries are under way relating to unauthorised use of computers and, threatening and indecent emails in Punjab,’ he said, adding this year the agency had also disposed of 48 such probes.

PTA chairman Dr Muhammad Yasin said the authority had nothing to do with detecting objectionable SMS. ‘It is exclusive domain of FIA,’ he clarified.

‘In the absence of any mechanism to screen millions of emails and SMS, the government apparently wants to merely warn those who have launched propaganda against its top functionaries,’ observes representative of a cell phone company.

The FIA will book a culprit in such cases under Prevention of Electronic Crimes Ordinance. Under this law a violator faces imprisonment up to 14 years, besides confiscation of his or her property.

The ordinance was promulgated in Dec 2007. Interestingly, the Prevention of Electronic Crimes Tribunals, which were to be established in Islamabad, Lahore and Karachi to deal with the cases exclusively related to the cyber crimes, have yet to see light of the day.

‘In the absence of the anti-cyber crimes tribunals, the related cases are being sent to district and sessions courts,’ Mr Joya said.

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Illegal gateway exchanges unearthed

LAHORE: The Federal Investigation Agency in collaboration with the National Response Centre for Cyber Crimes has unearthed a network of illegal international gateway exchanges and arrested seven people in this regard.

According to an official, the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority had filed a complaint with the FIA that a network of illegal international gateway exchanges was operating in Lahore. ‘Such exchanges have inflicted a loss worth Rs78 million to the national exchequer during the last two months. Some people had obtained GSM SIMs in bulk from different mobile franchises for using them in network of illegal international gateway exchanges,’ the official said.

An FIA and NRC team raided three illegal gateway exchanges and arrested their owners – Dr. Khalid Ahmed Khan, Humayun Munir, Ahmed Ali, Affan Ahmed Khan, Nadeem Iqbal, Muhammad Naeem and Mansoor Ahmed.

FIA Punjab director Azam Joya said the international or overseas calls were converted into VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol), and by using Internet medium the calls were transmitted to Pakistan where the illegal gateway exchanges containing mobile SIMs/IMSIs were installed.

‘It appeared to recipients that calls were coming from local mobile telephone numbers as the original overseas telephone numbers were masked. Some individuals/firms in foreign countries are also engaged in selling overseas calls/cards at flouted rates and were making payments to these foreign nationals into their bank accounts abroad, as their shares to run the illegal business in Pakistan,’ he said.

As many as 587 SIMs of Warid Telecom had been obtained in the name of Dr. Khalid Ahmed Khan and following firms – Agro Avian, Allied Poultry Feeds, Millat Feeds Limited, Shalimar Feeds and Vivas – were also to his name.

The accused bought these SIMs through his nephew named Humayun Munir Khan, who was employed in Warid Telecom. As many as 388 SIMs of Warid Telecom were issued only from Warid Franchise namely ‘Al-Noor Communications’, Wahdat Road, Lahore, owned by Ali Ahmed.

On the identification of Humanyun Munir Khan and Ali Ahmed, two illegal gateway exchanges were detected in Gulberg and Johar Town in an Internet Service Provider Office.

A joint raid of the PTA and the PTCL authorities was carried at Web Concepts in Johar Town owned by Bilal Anwar. Analysis of the seized computer machines data revealed that the five SIMs numbers out of 141 mentioned in the complaint of PTA had been identified from the data

PTA operations general-manager Yawar Yasin and Lahore director Kamran Khan Gandapor had a meeting with Joiya to discuss the modalities of the crackdown against illegal exchanges.

Microsoft takes on Google as Office moves to Web

BOSTON: Microsoft Corp will release three versions of its dominant Office software that users can access over the Web, catching up with products that rival Google Inc launched three years ago, Reuters reported.

The news helped send shares in the world’s largest software maker up to 2.7 per cent by midday, more than double the gain in the Nasdaq Composite Index.

It is the latest salvo in an intensifying war between Microsoft and Google. Google announced plans last week to challenge Windows with a free operating system.

Microsoft introduced a new search engine, Bing, last month.

‘Microsoft is finally making the conversion through the Web-based world. First, we saw that through Bing. Now we are seeing that through Office,’ said Jefferies & Co analyst Katherine Egbert.

Microsoft will offer for free to consumers Web-based versions of its Office suite of programs, including a word processor, spreadsheet, presentation software and a note-taking program.

Microsoft will also host one Internet business version of Office at its own data centers, charging companies a yet-to- be-announced fee. Companies with premium service contracts will have the choice of running a second Web-based version from their own data centers at no extra cost.

The company hopes to make money by using the free software to lead users to its ad-supported websites, including Bing.

Analysts have said that Bing’s early signs of success suggest Microsoft may be rounding the corner in efforts to turn around its money-losing Internet division.

Still, a free version of Office could hurt sales of Microsoft’s top-selling and most profitable unit. One of Office’s most popular titles is a home version that sells for $150. It includes the four programs that Microsoft will give away.

‘Microsoft is in a tough spot. Their competition isn’t just undercutting them. They are giving away the competitive product,’ said Sheri McLeish, an analyst with Forrester Research.

The Office division rang up operating profit of $9.3 billion on sales of $14.3 billion in the first three quarters of the software maker’s current fiscal year.

McLeish expects Microsoft to overtake Google in the market as the hundreds of millions of people who use Office flock to try out the Internet version.

Microsoft will release the web offerings when it starts selling Office 2010, it next major release of the product, sometime in the first half of next year. Its current version came out in January 2007.

The software maker unveiled an early release on Monday at a conference for business partners in New Orleans. It will be distributed to tens of thousands of testers.

Company spokeswoman Janice Kapner said the free Web version will provide ‘a very rich experience’ and probably have more functionality than Google.

Office 2010 is among a wave of upgrades to Microsoft programs planned over the next year. A new version of its ubiquitous Windows operating system is coming out in October and a new version of its widely used email server is also in the works.

Microsoft shares rose 2.7 per cent to $23, while the Nasdaq was up 1.2 per cent at 1777.50.

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Mangrove planters aspire to break world record

KARACHI: The Sindh forest department and the federal environment ministry are all set to make July 15 a memorable day in the history of Pakistan by engaging about 300 planters in planting about 450,000 propagules of mangroves on a barren island near Keti Bandar, Thatta.

The eco-friendly mangrove planting activity is aimed at setting a new world record, with Pakistani authorities hoping to beat the record set by India earlier this year, when 447,874 saplings were planted in a 24 hour period.

The Secretary of Sindh’s Forest and Wildlife department, Mushtaq Memon, told Dawn that relevant preparations for the ‘gala event’ had been finalised for July 15, when 300 planters belonging to the community living in the Keti Bandar area would begin planting mangroves with the sunrise and would continue till the sunset, in the presence of a number of government dignitaries, members of civil society and the media, folk performers, singers and residents of the coastal belt.

He said that the proposed planting of mangroves on an area of roughly 750 acres was significant in the context of the devastating South Asian tsunami.

‘As part of the ongoing national year of the environment, we had planned to break an earlier record for the planting of 348,493 trees by Mexico on August 29-30, 2008, but quite recently we had to change the target as India created a new Guinness World Record of tree planting in June 2009,’ he added.

As many as 300 troops of the 21 Jat Regiment had planted 447,874 saplings in a cycle of 24 hours on June 12 and 13 at Shrigram Reserve Forest, Dhubri, Assam, which won India a world record in tree planting.

‘Since we do not need to dig a pit for the planting of the species of tree we have chosen, under a new formula set by the Guinness Book of World Records, we must avail only natural daylight, and not use artificial lights,’ Mr Memon said, adding that planters would likely begin work at 6am and finish by 8.30pm.

The secretary said that during the process of selection various potential sites were considered, but finally from the large swathe of coastline from Karachi to Sir Creek, Keti Bandar was chosen.

The selected site, consisting of mudflats, was suitable for planting mangroves (Rhizophora mucronata), and was chosen on the basis of suitability for rearing and growing mangrove trees, he added, saying that a highly supportive community would also be available to maintain the plantation in the later stage.

A publicity and media campaign is already in progress under the federal environment ministry with the support of the National Bank of Pakistan.

Mr Memon, giving details of planned events, said that about 160 media men from Karachi and other parts of the province and country were expected to cover the planting event, while the chief minister and the governor of Sindh and a few ministers had also been invited to witness the day’s proceedings at Keti Bandar.

Favorable weather conditions have been forecast, while high tide is expected from 1pm to 4pm and as such workers would have enough time to start planting in the low-lying areas and get out of the high tide line safely, he added.

The event will be supervised by designated observers and witnesses from the Guinness Book of World Records.

The event, besides winning an esteemed position in the record book, is aimed at involving the nearby population in eco-conservation and income generation.

At some later stage, when the mangroves gain in strength, a number of the people will be entrusted with the job of monitoring the forest on payments, the secretary said.

It is learnt that the propagules in question are about 18-inch-long, while planters will plant almost half of the whole.

The 300 planters will be divided into 15 groups of 20 planters each and each group will be supervised by one forest manager and will be facilitated by other designated persons, who will not participate in the planting.

In Sindh, mangroves of the Indus delta exist in Thatta, Badin and Karachi districts. The presently found species are known as Avicennia marina, Rhizophora mucronata, Aegiceras corniculatum and Ceriops tagal, which covered a total area of 607,344 hectares owned by the Sindh forest department, the Sindh Board of Revenue, the Port Qasim Authority, the Karachi Port Trust and others.

Experts feel that while oil spills and the cutting of mangroves for firewood have led to a decline in the numbers of mangrove trees, the current exercise will aid not only in increasing those numbers, but also in raising awareness about conservation and rehabilitation of forests.

Fresh offensive launched in Buner

BUNER: Security forces launched a fresh offensive in the first headquarters of militants in the scenic valley of Gokand in Buner district on Tuesday.

Sources said helicopter gunships shelled militants’ hideouts in the mountainous areas of Koz Gokand, Bar Gokand, Batonai and Qadroo Sar.

The district administration and police officials said the objective of the military operation was to eliminate the beleaguered militants.

They said the forces used artillery to attack militants’ positions.

Local people said that militants were still present in the area, mostly in the mountains along the border between Shangla and Swat.

Pakistan hopeful of dialogue resumption with India

SHARM EL SHEIKH: Pakistan and India appeared to be heading towards re-engagement as a crucial meeting between their foreign secretaries got under way in this Egyptian Red Sea resort on Tuesday night. However, it was unclear if the meeting would lead to full resumption of the Composite Dialogue.

‘The leadership of Pakistan is prepared to extend the hand of friendship to India for opening a new chapter in our relations,’ Foreign Secretary Salman Bashir told his Indian counterpart Shiv Shankar Menon at the start of the talks on sidelines of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) summit.

As the talks continued, a highly-placed source said that the Indian side, despite its stiff position of discussing only terrorism, appeared keen on re-engagement. The talks would set the baseline for the meeting between Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Prime Minister Gilani on Thursday.

These meetings are being held in accordance with an agreement between Prime Minister Singh and President Asif Ali Zardari during their interaction at the SCO summit in Yektarinburg, Russia, last month.

Pakistan has been intensely pushing for resumption of the Composite Dialogue as key to resolving all issues that had strained relations between the two countries.

India suspended the dialogue in the aftermath of the Mumbai terrorist strikes carried out by Lashkar-e-Taiba.

India has been emphasising that it wanted to see the prosecution of those accused of involvement in the attacks and has expressed deep reservations on the release of Hafiz Saeed.

Pakistan took a number of confidence-building measures ahead of the Sharm El Sheikh talks, including filing of an appeal against the release of the Jamaat-ud-Dawah chief, who is accused by India of masterminding the Mumbai attacks, and filling of judge’s vacancy in the Rawalpindi Anti-Terrorist Court that is to prosecute five other accused of the terrorist strike. Pakistan also formally updated India on the progress it was making in the case.

Diplomatic sources say that even if the Sharm El Sheikh talks do not result in full resumption of the peace talks, the two countries may agree to a roadmap for future engagement.

Foreign Secretary Salman Bashir told Dawn before the start of the talks that Pakistan was not unmindful of the impediments, but had the will to constructively engage with India for resolving all outstanding issues.

He urged India to reciprocate Pakistan’s gesture for normalisation of ties. ‘Instead of remaining stuck in the past and confined to recrimination, we hope India would join Pakistan in developing trajectory of meetings. We have to look to future.’

Mr Bashir insisted that the way forward lay in ‘serious, sustained and pragmatic cooperation’.

Negating the notion that Pakistan was being too apologetic to India, he said: ‘Equality, mutual respect and mutual interest would be the basis of any interaction with India.’

Hinting that Pakistan would strongly resist any attempt by India to recast the structured Composite Dialogue, Mr Bashir said the format was already established.

‘It is hoped India would agree to resumption of dialogue, where we could pick up on all eight segments.’

The foreign secretary rejected Indian accusation that Pakistan was slowly progressing in the prosecution of the Mumbai attacks accused.

‘India says it wants to see visible and credible action, but it should realise that no country other than Pakistan has taken visible and strong action against terrorism – a fact acknowledged by the international community as a whole.’

SC orders equal benefits for transvestites

ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court has ordered that transvestites, being equal citizens of Pakistan, should also benefit from the federal and provincial governments’ financial support schemes such as the Benazir Income Support Programme (BISP).

‘They are citizens of Pakistan and enjoy the same protection guaranteed under Article four (rights of individuals to be dealt with in accordance of law) and Article nine (security of person) of the Constitution,’ ruled a three-member bench comprising Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, Justice Muhammad Sair Ali and Justice Jawwad S Khawaja on Tuesday.

The bench had taken up the petition seeking establishment of a commission to emancipate effeminate men ostracised by the society for no fault of theirs.

Islamic jurist Dr Mohammad Aslam Khaki, who researched on the conditions of the ignominious merrymakers and discovered them to be the most oppressed and deprived segment of the society and subjected to humiliation and molestation, had filed the petition for the welfare of the transvestites left by the society to live by begging, dancing and prostitution.

Parents give their hermaphrodite children into the care of gurus (leaders of transvestites) at a very tender age who abuse them instead of providing them the opportunity to get education.

Dr Khaki took up their cause after police raided and arrested several transvestites in Taxila recently, pleading before the court that being a welfare state it was the responsibility of the government to look after this community. He told the court that Shoaib Mansoor who produced a blockbuster film ‘Khuda ka Liya’ was also planning to come up with another movie to highlight the miserable lives of the these people.

During the proceedings, Roop and Shazia along with their community representatives appeared before the court to narrate harrowing details of abuse they receive from the society, police and gangsters mainly because of their weak financial conditions, especially when their fathers and brothers did not accept them as family members.

‘My appearance before the court today may cost me my life,’ Shazia feared, saying already she was receiving threats from different quarters. ‘Once I was implicated in a false case and subjected to immense sexual torture by the police in their custody,’ she alleged.

The court asked the federal as well as the provincial governments to help them overcome their financial difficulties by supporting them from programmes like the BISP and Baitul Mal or provincial support programmes so that they could adopt a respectable livelihood.

The court also asked the petitioner to negotiate with the non-governmental organisations working in social sectors to devise some welfare programmes for the transvestites.

The provincial social welfare departments were also asked to come up with suggestions for the uplift of these people to reduce their miseries and difficulties.

To protect them from thugs or goons, the apex court ordered the law-enforcers to provide security to these people so that that their rights were not violated. The court also asked senior police officials to take action against delinquent police officers who harass the transvestites.

The court directed the provincial social welfare departments to complete the survey and registration of transvestites to save them from the life of shame.

Both the petitioner and transvestites present in the court said they were compelled to lead an immoral life by offering themselves for dancing or prostitution and they were also required to pay handsome amount to self-styled gurus or to the police.

‘We are not accepted anywhere in the society and degraded and humiliated everywhere,’ the transvestites said.

The bench remarked that being Muslims as well as human beings, parents of such gender-confused children should look after them without discrimination but, it lamented, they throw them on roads to suffer throughout their lives.

The court also expressed surprise that one of the computerised national identity card of the eunuch bears a photograph of a female but in the gender column, she was recognised as male.

The court adjourned the proceedings till third week of August.

Fears of Swat Valley spillover in Tajikistan

TAVILDARA, Tajikistan: A secretive military operation has raised fears that militants fleeing Pakistan and Afghanistan may be slipping into Tajikistan, threatening a fragile peace in the ex-Soviet state.

Since May, Tajik security forces have set up a tight security cordon and engaged in gunbattles with armed groups in an area close to the Afghan border.

Officials call it a counter-narcotics operation, but diplomats and residents at the foot of the soaring Pamir Mountains fear the government has been battling insurgents, possibly fighters linked to the Taliban.

‘We know that something has happened, that most probably it involves the people who have been mentioned, and that it is probably a spillover from the Swat Valley operations,’ a senior western diplomat told AFP on condition of anonymity.

Fighting between Taliban militants and the Pakistan army in Pakistan’s Swat Valley had already raised concerns that militants with ethnic ties to ex-Soviet Central Asia could seek refuge inside Tajikistan.

US President Barack Obama has sent thousands more US troops to Afghanistan in a bid to defeat the Taliban and al-Qaeda. And that is not necessarily good news for Tajikistan, which went through a civil war after the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union as militant groups like the Islamist Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU) flourished.

Groups like the IMU — designated a terrorist organisation by Washington — were pushed into Afghanistan after a 1997 peace deal ended the civil war. But in recent weeks, signs have appeared suggesting that the militants are back.

The nearby town of Kunduz in northern Afghanistan, after years of relative stability following the 2001 US-led invasion, has seen a surge of violence believed to be Taliban fuelled.

And the Tajik government said on Saturday that it detained five ethnic Chechen Russians who were selling drugs to fund militants in Afghanistan and Pakistan — a rare admission of the presence of foreign fighters.

A senior US official, speaking on condition of anonymity during a recent visit to Central Asia, told AFP that Washington was closely monitoring the outflow of militants since the beginning of the Swat operations.

‘I think we are seeing, looking globally, that al-Qaeda is relocating its forces into the rest of the world,’ he said.

Tajikistan, the poorest of the ex-Soviet republics, shares a long and mostly unguarded border with Afghanistan, making its rugged mountains a logical gateway into Central Asia and beyond.

‘We don’t need anyone to help us fight’

During a recent visit to the Rasht Valley, long a stronghold of Tajikistan’s Islamist opposition, government checkpoints maintained a chokehold over long stretches of punishing mountain roads leading into the area.

In the regional capital, Garm, local Islamist fighters loyal to Tajik warlord Mirzokhoja Akhmadov waited outside a hotel, staring ominously from their Russian-made four wheel drive van.

Before bundling into the vehicle for the drive to Akhmadov’s compound, one of his lieutenants pointed toward the mountains that ended in neighbouring Kyrgyzstan.

‘There is a pass here that they can easily pass through,’ said the lieutenant, who asked not to be named because he did not have the permission of his commander.

‘It may already be happening,’ he added.

Dressed in traditional robes and with a flowing white beard, his commander, Akhmadov, confirmed there had been several months of heavy fighting.

But he denied that fighters were coming from Afghanistan, saying that the government was battling local militants angered by pitiful conditions and state repression.

‘We don’t need anyone to come in from outside to help us fight,’ said Akhmadov, a feared commander from the 1990s civil war.

Many fear that Tajikistan’s militants could be bolstered by the global financial crisis, if Tajik labourers return frustrated and penniless from mothballed construction sites in Russia and Kazakhstan.

Officials from Tajikistan’s western-funded Drug Control Agency (DCA) said operations in the Rasht Valley were part of an annual anti-drug operation called Poppy-2009.

Tajikistan is a main route for drugs smuggled out of Afghanistan, the world’s largest heroin producer.

‘This is a routine annual anti-drug operation, and is not connected with anything else in any way,’ DCA director General Rustam Nazarov told AFP.

However locals say the government has refused to explain the operations, leading many to forge conclusions based on their own experiences.

In mid-May, a neighbour turned up at the ramshackle home of a village elder in a remote mountain hamlet not far from the garrison town of Tavildara.

The elder, who asked not to be identified for fear of government reprisal, said the neighbour had ferried foreigners — possibly Chechens — in his taxi from the capital Dushanbe to an isolated village nearby.

‘All they had with them were suitcases filled with bread and sweets,’ he related from their conversation.

‘And they tried to pay with euros and Russian rubles. They didn’t have any local money at all. What can we do with rubles and euros? People here don’t even know what the exchange rate is.’ — AFP

Return of IDPs to Swat, Buner gathers pace

MARDAN / SWABI: Another 589 displaced families went back to their hometowns in Swat and Buner districts on Tuesday under the government’s repatriation plan.

Some 379 families left for Barikot, in Swat, and 106 for Buner on the second day of the first phase of the plan.

Families living with host families in Mardan had also started returning to their villages, Mardan Commissioner Khalid Khan Umarzai said. A total of 104 families left camps in Swabi district.

Officials said the process was going smoothly and the displaced people reached their homes safely.

However, mismanagement and non-availability of transport marred the return of the IDPs from Swabi.

Sources said that about 600 families from the Shah Mansoor camp and 100 families from the Chota Lahor camp were ready to leave, but the camp management could not arrange transport.

The head of the Special Support Group, Lt-Gen Nadeem Ahmed, who was present at the Jalala IDPs camp, said that Swat had been cleared of militants.

Commissioner Umarzai, who supervised the return of IDPs from the Sheikh Shehzad camp, said that in the first phase 485 displaced families from Swat and Buner districts had been sent back, adding that complete security had been provided to the returning families.

Asad Ali, in charge of the Shah Mansoor camp in Swabi, said that 64 families comprising 280 people had left the camp in 12 buses and four trucks.

The departure of IDPs from the Shah Mansoor camp was delayed for six hours and elders and children kept waiting in the scorching heat for want of transport.

The situation in the Chota Lahor camp was more serious. The camp management failed to finalise arrangements. According to an official, the record of IDPs was lost during a demonstration and attack on the office of the camp in charge.

The displaced people were eager to see their home towns again.

Ibrar Khan, 25, from Barikot said: ‘I am really delighted to go back to my village. The people and the government helped us a lot. But despite all that life was not less than hell for us because we had never experienced such heat before.’

Forty-year-old Fida Hussain said: ‘I am very thankful to the local people for their hospitality. The government has tried its level best to provide us facilities and food.’

Twelve-year-old Ayyan said: ‘When I reach home, I will see my toys. I was in the camp but I always missed them. My heart was there. I am very happy to return home.’

Three killed in continued Karachi target killings

KARACHI: A 57-year-old councillor of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement was shot dead in an attack near his home in Ramaswami on Tuesday, police and witnesses said.

They said the victim, Sirajuddin, son of Nizamuddin, a general councillor of UC-6, Saddar Town, was standing at a shop on Hakim Qazi Yaseen Road, near Hoti Market, in the remit of the Nabi Bux police when at around 5.30pm three gunmen on two motorcycles sprayed him with bullets.

The witnesses said that two of the assailants, who wore helmets, opened fire on the victim, the father of six daughters and two sons. They said the attackers rode away after their swift operation as people ran for shelter after the shooting.

Tension and panic gripped the locality, where shopkeepers pulled down their shutters and vehicular traffic disappeared from the streets.

The body was taken to the Civil Hospital Karachi for a post-mortem examination. The hospital’s medico-legal sources said the victim received seven bullets in his chest, abdomen and thighs. They said the councillor was shot from a very close range as all the bullets went through his body.

The area SHO, Inspector Waseem Ahmed, told Dawn that the attackers used TT and 9mm pistols in the attack. ‘We secured four spent bullet casings of 9mm pistol and one of TT pistol from the crime-scene,’ he added.

The Saddar Town nazim, Dilawar Khan, said the reports from the locality suggested that the culprits were seen prowling in the locality before they targeted the councillor.

The UC-6 nazim, Nasir Ajmairi, told Dawn that he along with the victim and others had had lunch in his office. ‘He called his daughter by his cellphone before he left the office at around 5.15pm,’ he added.

He said Siraj was standing at a confectioner’s shop when two of the three attackers on a motorcycle first fired a few shots in the air and then targeted the victim.

‘Siraj Bhai took cover behind a Hi-roof, parked near the confectionery, and the attackers, who did not alight from their motorbike, went after him and sprayed him with bullets,’ he added.

The UC nazim said that the funeral prayer of the victim would be held at Pakistan Masjid at Jamila Street, Ramaswami, after Zuhar prayers on Wednesday and he would be buried in the Mewa Shah graveyard.

The police said no case was registered till late in the night and that they were waiting for someone from the victim’s family to become a complainant in the case.

Double murder

Two friends were killed when as many unidentified attackers on a motorcycle opened fire on them at Swat Colony in Baldia Town in the remit of the Saeedabad police station.

The bodies were shifted to the Civil Hospital Karachi where the deceased were identified as Fawad Ahmed, 40, son of Abdul Latif, and Allah Nawaz, 45, son of Abdullah, both residents of Orangi Town.

The area SHO, Zahid Hussain Soomro, told Dawn that the victims were sitting at Raja Blocks and Cement Works when at around 4.30pm unidentified culprits opened fire, killing Fawad instantly and fatally wounding Allah Nawaz.

He said that Fawad had come to visit his maternal cousin, Iftikhar, who lived near the place of the incident.

The SHO said that the victims hailed from southern Punjab and the incident seemed to be motivated by a personal enmity.

The police registered a case (FIR 375/2009) against unidentified culprits under Sections 302 (premediated murder) and 34 (common intention) of the Pakistan Penal Code on the complaint of Fawad’s cousin.

Petroleum product prices to be reduced Aug 1: Asim

LAHORE: Adviser to the Prime Minister on Petroleum, Dr Asim Hussain, said on Tuesday that the prices of POL products would be reduced on the first of August because the government had adjusted the margins of oil marketing companies (OMCs) which had made huge profits in the past.

Speaking at the Lahore Chamber of Commerce and Industry, he said the Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority had been directed to make public oil companies’ formula to fix prices on Thursday.

He said the petroleum development levy was a fixed tax and it was far less than the amount levied in other countries.

Dr Hussain said the government had decided to open 90 petrol pumps across the country where ethanol blended petrol called E-10 gasoline would be sold. The fuel was not only cheaper but also environment-friendly, he added.

He said oil, gas and water crises could aggravate in the coming years because consumption was increasing fast.

He said industry was on the priority list for provision of gas, but line losses in Pakistan were eight to nine per cent of total consumption.

He said the government was working on short-, medium- and long-term solutions to overcome energy crisis and was expecting foreign investment of $10 to 15 billion in this sector during the next five years.

The adviser said that the country faced 650 mmcf gas shortage last year which was expected to go up to 800 to 850 mmcf with the setting up of 2,000 new CNG stations in Punjab and 450 in Sindh. The situation required serious efforts for energy preservation, he added.

In his address, LCCI President Mian Muzaffar Ali stressed the need for reducing the margin of OMCs.

He said the high price of petroleum products were adding to the cost of doing business and making products less competitive for the international market. The petroleum development levy was a huge burden on consumers because the general sales tax was already being collected on the sale of petroleum products, he added.

The LCCI chief called upon the adviser to open more blocks for exploration of oil, gas and other valuable minerals. The deal with Qatar for import of liquefied natural gas was very appreciable but there was need to expedite the matter, he added.

Talking to newsmen after a meeting with businessmen at the Governor’s House, Dr Hussain said the country was producing 3.9 billion cubic feet (bcf) of gas against a requirement of eight bcf.

He said the government had adopted a three-pronged strategy to tackle gas shortage. Under short-term measures, liquefied natural gas would be imported next year while liquefied petroleum gas projects were being installed.

The adviser said foreign companies would also be invited to invest in oil and gas exploration projects under a mid-term strategy while new projects to explore alternative energy sources would be initiated under a long-term policy.

To a question, Dr Asim said that a gas project with Iran would be completed within the next few years.

He said the Sui Northern Gas Pipelines had started a topographic survey for the Iran-Pakistan gas pipeline project and an area spread over 100 kilometres had been covered.

Rights, not charity

Last week the deputy attorney general told the Lahore High Court that the federal government had appointed 1,386 people with disabilities to various posts against the two per cent quota for them provided by the law.

Another 800 are to be recruited shortly in the same category. This move was widely lauded and rightly so. But the fact is that the rights of the disabled are not simply limited to job and education quotas as is generally made out to be the case.

In the absence of public awareness of the rights (endorsed by the UN) of this considerable segment — said to number 16 million — of the population of the country, the government has shown limited interest in the welfare of the disabled. Society has been equally indifferent and insensitive.

One just has to look around to understand how difficult it is for a person with a disability to lead a productive life in Pakistan. Only one law has been adopted to facilitate the disabled in the country so far and that too has not been observed faithfully by all. The Disabled Persons (Employment and Rehabilitation) Ordinance was enacted in 1981 making it compulsory for every organisation with a minimum of 100 employees to reserve at least one per cent of its jobs for people with disabilities or pay a fine to the Disabled Persons Fund.

In 1998 this quota was enhanced to two per cent. Even the initial move was not born out of any recognition of the legal responsibility of the state. It was on the personal initiative of Gen Ziaul Haq whose daughter was a ‘special’ child. It is widely acknowledged that the military dictator took a number of measures for people in a similar situation, such as increasing the budget of institutions working for the disabled. But lacking an understanding of the governance process he acted in an ad hoc manner without creating an institutional framework to provide comprehensive social security for the disabled. Strangely, human rights activists have not addressed this issue either. Even jobs and admission to educational institutions can be rendered meaningless if various challenges the disabled face in their day-to-day life are not met. For instance, how can a student on a wheelchair cope with life at a university where there are no ramps and other similar facilities?

Our universities do not even have disability units to facilitate the studies of those with hearing or visual impairments. Were universities to set up such units, they could arrange for the audio recording of books or scan literature to be read on computers with the help of programmes activated with sound.

In fact cases have been reported where people who suffer loss of vision have not been allowed the facility of an amanuensis because the examination authorities had not thought it fit to provide one. Whatever little bit is being done to facilitate people with disabilities is not institutionalised and one has to be grateful to NGOs which have taken it upon themselves to provide badly needed services. But these are limited.

While we have lagged behind, the world has addressed disability issues by formulating a legal framework to make every sector of life inclusive for the disabled. The UN adopted the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities in 2006.

After much pressure from disability rights advocates, the government proceeded to sign the UN convention in September 2008 but has yet to ratify it. The proof of the pudding is in the eating — in other words in the implementation of the convention. This may be a challenge for a society that is now driven more and more by greed, ambition and ruthlessness.

The convention was found to be necessary notwithstanding pre-existing human rights instruments because persons with disabilities were being marginalised. It lays down eight guiding principles. It is a different matter that all states refuse to be guided by them and society’s behaviour towards all its members is not ideal.

Given the present state of affairs that places even people who have no disability at a disadvantage because they are not on the right side of the social fence, should one find it strange that the disabled are neglected?

These guiding principles call for respecting the inherent dignity of the disabled including their right to make choices, non-discrimination, full participation and inclusion in society, equality of opportunity, accessibility, gender equality and respect for the evolving capacities of children with disabilities and their right to preserve their identities.

One may even feel that these demands are no extraordinary ones. That is true but when it comes to actually providing facilities to enable the disabled to use their full potential, it is so easy to sideline them. There is also the need for an attitudinal change which is not easy to bring about in a society that is hidebound in its perceptions. As the convention says, persons with disabilities must not be viewed as ‘objects’ of charity or medical treatment. They must be recognised as subjects with rights who are capable of making decisions and participating as full members of society.

One positive development to have taken place is that persons with disabilities, at least those with education and awareness, are asserting themselves. The convention itself is proof of this. What is needed is a paradigm shift vis-à-vis disability. The preamble puts it succinctly when it states that disability results from interaction between persons with impairments and attitudinal and environmental barriers that hinder their full and effective participation in society on an equal basis with others.

The disability rights movement has also picked up as technology has been put to good use by people with impairments to make a remarkable contribution in their area of work. As has been scientifically proved, the loss of a facility is invariably compensated for by the extraordinary development of other facilities. History abounds with examples of people who made it to the top in spite of their impairments. Remember Milton and Beethoven?

zubeidam@gmail.com

Pakistan seeks additional $4bn IMF loan

NEW YORK: Pakistan has requested about $4 billion in additional financing from the International Monetary Fund as ‘insurance’ against the economic crisis, said Finance Adviser Shaukat Tarin.

‘The world has not come out of recession … and maybe I just may need more dollars, so I might as well have more insurance,’ Tarin told investors at an event organized by the Asia Society in New York.

Pakistan signed a $7.6 billion loan deal with the IMF in November to avert a balance of payments crisis. The fund recently reviewed the country’s performance under the deal before releasing a third loan tranche of roughly $875 million.

Tarin said he had asked the IMF mission to review the loan deal after announcing the 2009-10 budget as some of the requests from the multilateral lender were already being addressed in the budget plan.

Pakistani officials met the mission in Turkey last week to discuss the performance and Tarin said the meeting was a success.

‘Everything went very well,’ Tarin said, adding that the IMF would issue a statement to that effect while presenting a proposal to the board which is to meet in August.

The IMF program has got off to a good start, according to Tarin, with inflation easing from a high of 25 per cent hit in October and the central bank’s reserves back above $8 billion after falling to $3.3 billion last November.

But analysts say the fight against Taliban militants in the country’s northwest as well as uncertainties created by the slump in global demand and domestic power shortages add to the challenge of pulling the economy out of what is likely to be an extended phase of sluggish activity.—Reuters

Troops kill six Taliban in Swat as displaced return

PESHAWAR: Troops have killed six militants in the Swat valley, where the government has started bussing home thousands of those displaced by a military offensive, officials said Wednesday.

Officials say the pace of returns to the northwest district has quickened in recent days although many civilians are fearful about security after two months of fierce fighting between government troops and Taliban militants.

‘Six militants were killed when troops retaliated and returned fire after a militant attack on an army checkpost in Kabal town on Tuesday night,’ a military official told AFP on condition of anonymity.

A senior police official in Swat confirmed the incident and said there were no army losses.

On Tuesday, the military reported killings in Swat for the first time in days, announcing that nine militants were shot dead in the last 24 hours.

Pakistan says more than 1,700 militants and around 160 security personnel were killed in operations to crush the Taliban in northwest districts since late April, but the death tolls are impossible to verify independently.

The army launched a massive offensive in late April in Buner and Lower Dir, before focusing the fight on militants in Swat, where the Taliban concentrated a two-year insurgency to enforce sharia law.

Last week, Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani unveiled plans to start sending home the nearly two million people displaced by the conflict and said the military had ‘eliminated’ the extremists.

Meeting the president

I did not intend to write on this subject because decades of public service have taught me the value of restraint when it come to publicly commenting on meetings with the head of state.

More so, when these are designed for, as stated by the president, ‘brainstorming and benefiting from the collective wisdom of former members of the bureaucracy’. However, last Sunday’s article ‘The advent of Asif Zardari’ by my friend and senior colleague Kunwar Idris — who was also invited to meet the president — has persuaded me to set aside this unwritten taboo.

The meeting was unusual. Never before had a head of state invited so many retired bureaucrats and asked them to speak their mind on national issues. The mere fact that several dozen retired bureaucrats, who could no longer influence decision-making, were invited to the presidency for a frank discussion showed that the incumbent valued good counsel.

Each former bureaucrat had served past governments in different capacities, acquiring expertise, perspective and knowledge from which any government could benefit. After all, there is no monopoly on the truth and wisdom that emerge from discussions among a large number of people. Each individual lays claim to a bit of the reality. The feeling that the president saw merit in drawing from this pool of knowledge was reassuring. A striking feature in President Zardari’s discourse was his emphasis on developing genuine consensus among different political forces and interest groups. Kunwar Idris has concluded that in his passion for consensus Zardari has ignored the ‘huge cost’ involved, and points to the jumbo-sized cabinets.

If I recall correctly Zardari himself sought to explain it by saying that not only had the population increased manifold since partition, the nature and multiplicity of problems too had grown over the years. It was no longer possible to run the state effectively with only seven ministers as was possible at the time of independence or with 13 ministers later in West Pakistan. Not the most convincing argument for jumbo-sized cabinets but the president had a point.
This, however, is not the most important issue on which to judge the president in a parliamentary democracy.

A meeting of a few hours is not long enough to pass judgment. But it does permit one to observe the compass. President Zardari seemed to be breaking new ground on certain critical national issues. His frank talk that evening, particularly about militancy, was most refreshing. He appeared desperately to be looking for solutions. A former senior bureaucrat said that the militants were not controlled because the civil bureaucracy had weakened over the years. The president was quick to dismiss this in a frank manner.

Zardari said he thought that the militants and extremists had emerged on the national scene not because the civil bureaucracy was weak. In fact, they had been deliberately created and nurtured with the help of the international community as an instrument of policy in the 1980s. He then went on to advise the former bureaucrats to be ‘truthful to ourselves and make a candid admission of the realities’. It was refreshing to hear him say that the terrorists of today were the heroes of yesteryears until 9/11. They then began to haunt us.

Although it is common knowledge that the militants were deliberately created the state has been in denial. Zardari has broken new ground in the fight against militancy by admitting that they were a product of deliberate policy.
It is true that while the threat from home-grown extremists and foreign militants grew the civil administration weakened. Mr Idris has a point in asserting that Musharraf’s seeking to change the system with the nazims and making them responsible for law and order as well had undermined the civil administration. But then it would not be fair to blame Zardari for what Musharraf did, particularly now that the provinces are seeking to reclaim their powers to make changes in the local government laws.

The president did not agree with the suggestion of holding fresh elections. But this should not be held against him. It is hard to appreciate fresh elections just because Musharraf has exited the scene or there’s tribal violence or because the nation had seen its worst judicial crisis. Not many in the country would want general elections within 18 months of the last one.

During dinner, the president spoke of harmony and was against the concentration of power in a few hands. We want to keep all the political forces together in a harmonious relationship, he said, adding that we were ‘at the brink’ and could not indulge in political games for personal gains. He said that he knew that if he concentrated too much power in his own hands it would last for too short a time. For power to be effectively used for long-lasting public good it must be diffused. He also appeared to appreciate the prime minister over the way he handled the difficulties of a coalition government. This was no small talk.

On balance Zardari appeared keen on a consensus, open to suggestion, interested in learning about different perspectives and willing to learn from past mistakes. He seemed almost impatient to break new ground in domains that have slipped out of the hands of the civilian leadership.

The point is not to assert that he is free of controversies. He has been mired in many since his marriage to Benazir Bhutto, especially when the latter became prime minister. He has been the butt of jokes and innuendos and the subject of some serious allegations. But then which public leader has not been accused of errors of omission and commission? The point is that as president a new aspect of Zardari is coming to light. He has been in the driving seat for less than a year and deserves to be given time before being judged in a hurry.

The writer is a former federal secretary.

Deadlock in secretary-level talks aimed at Pak-India dialogue

SHARM EL SHEIKH: The Pakistan-India foreign secretaries talks held overnight for resumption of Composite Dialogue have failed to produce any results.

Pakistan wanted full resumption of the eight-segment Composite Dialogue, but the 90 minutes parleys could not achieve any breakthrough despite some initial positive signals.

The talks were not only critical for future engagement between the two countries, but were also expected to set the baseline for the meeting between Indian Prime Minister Singh and Prime Minister Gilani.

Diplomatic analysts were measuring the success of the secretaries’ talks with respect to the forward movement on resumption of the stalled Composite Dialogue and the issuing of a joint statement after the prime ministers’ meeting. But, for the time being nothing is happening on either counts.

Mixed signals coming from Islamabad on the appeal in the Supreme Court against the release of Jamaatud Dawa chief Hafiz Saeed seem to have done the real damage.

The Pakistani side still appears to be optimistic and is encouraged by the fact that some sort of engagement is still continuing.

‘It is important that the foreign secretaries have met, and engagement of the political leadership is taking place,’ Foreign Secretary Salman Bashir told media after the talks. However, he cautioned that prolonged suspension of the peace talks was not in the interest of either country.

Later, talking to Dawn, Mr Bashir said patience and perseverance were important for success.

Diplomatic sources in Sharm el Sheikh, however, said all eyes are now set on the meeting between the two prime ministers, and some hopes are being expressed that the two South Asian leaders may rise to the occasion, and while setting aside some of the irritants, may agree to resume the stalled composite dialogue process.