Pakistan fashion week begins under shadow of Taliban

KARACHI: Pakistan’s fashion week was to kick off with an opulent opening ceremony on Wednesday Nov 4, 2009, against a backdrop of militant violence and security fears that delayed the event and kept away foreign glitterati.

Models will sashay down catwalks for four days, flaunting the latest creations by local designers in the nuclear-armed Muslim nation, where most women cover up and observe varying degrees of Islamic dress.

‘Our fashion week starts today and will continue till Saturday,’ said Tehmina Khaled, spokeswoman of Fashion Pakistan, which organises the event.

‘The situation was so painful in the country that we postponed it for three weeks,’ she told AFP, referring to a spate of deadly attacks blamed on Taliban militants in which more than 340 people died in October and November.

Extremism has plagued Pakistan for years. The latest surge in violence has been blamed on militants avenging the US killing of Pakistani Taliban leader Baitullah Mehsud and a Pakistani offensive in the northwest.

Fashion Week organisers, however, were determined that the show must go on in Pakistan’s financial capital Karachi, where the luxury Marriott Hotel is hosting the launch under stringent security.

‘We have been maintaining strict security measures in the area but have intensified them for this event,’ police official Ahsan Zulfiqar told AFP.

The fashion event – originally scheduled for October – planned to introduce designers and models from abroad, but the fragile security situation has left organisers counting on local talent.

‘We have 32 designers from across the country who will participate in the event,’ Khaled said. ‘There is no designer or model coming from abroad due to security reasons.’

Karachi is the cosmopolitan hub of Pakistan, complete with glitzy shopping malls and a thriving cafe culture. But it has not escaped the shadow of Taliban violence, militant cells are believed to operate in the city of 14 million, where the profits from crime and kidnappings allegedly bankroll the insurgency in the northwest.–AFP.

Govt moves to resolve yarn crisis

KARACHI: After wheat, sugar, gas and power shortages, the country is now facing shortage of yarn, a basic raw material for value-added textile sector, and there is an increase in cotton yarn prices.

Minister for textile industry Rana Farooq Khan on Wednesday convened a meeting of stakeholders, including value-added sector and spinners to resolve the issue.

Sources told Dawn that the spinners took a stiff stand and were of the view that since they have suffered losses during the last three years and have also faced bank defaults, they would not like to miss an opportunity which may help reduce their accumulated liabilities.

Despite efforts by the minister and the secretary of textile, Dr Waqar Masood, both the sides continued to stick to their stand.

They were keen to see that a mechanism is evolved under which export contracts of garments, hosiery, towels, bed-wear and other value-added textiles are not disturbed and are honoured in the world market.

Initially textile sector representatives sought ban on export of cotton and cotton yarn. However, owing to stiff stand taken by the representatives of spinners, they showed some flexibility and were ready to evolve a mechanism which could ensure availability of cotton yarn to domestic industry and exporters, sources said.

Cotton economy for the last 10 years had been operating on the basis of market forces after the then commerce minister, Razak Dawood, allowed duty-free import and export of textile raw material.

A number of suggestions were floated by the value-added sector, including imposition of duty on export on cotton and cotton yarn to those countries which compete with them in the world market.

Other proposals were of fixing ceiling on exports at the level of previous year or giving refinance on local sale of course yarn under 32 counts.

Similarly, it was also suggested that spinners should also be given refinance on export of fine yarn.

However, all these suggestions were turned down by spinners and as a result the meeting remained inconclusive.

Looking at the situation, the sources said the minister was left with no choice but to come up with some administrative measures.

He informed the participants of the meeting that approval would be sought from the Cabinet in Friday’s meeting to take legal action against hoarders and profiteers of cotton yarn.

Halal food going mainstream in Europe: Nestle

THE HAGUE: The business of selling food that is halal, or acceptable to Muslims, is set to grow rapidly in Europe in coming years as more supermarket chains target the sector, a Nestle executive said on Tuesday.

Frits van Dijk, executive vice president at the world’s biggest food group, told Reuters on the sidelines of the World Halal Forum in The Hague he expected the halal food business in Europe to grow by 20 to 25 per cent within the next decade.

The total European halal food market is currently valued at about $66 billion, including meat, fresh food and packed food, while the global market is worth about $634 billion.

‘We are starting to see that these products are not just in speciality shops but are also starting to get into the mainstream of modern retailers,’ said Van Dijk, pointing to Britain’s Tesco and France’s Carrefour, which stock halal goods.

The halal industry is based on a belief that Muslims should eat food and use goods such as cosmetics that are ‘halalan toyibban,’ which means permissible and wholesome.

Milk powder, cooking aids, seasoning and sauces are among the most popular halal products in Europe at the moment, while Nestle has recently started selling a range of meat-based and frozen food halal products in France, Van Dijk said.

Nestle is the world’s leading manufacturer of halal food, selling about 5.3 billion Swiss francs ($5.23 billion) worth of halal food in 2008, about five per cent of its annual revenue.

Its established halal food markets include Malaysia, Indonesia, Turkey and Middle Eastern countries, while France, Britain and Germany are emerging as its key halal markets in Europe.

‘Twenty per cent of the world’s population is going to be Muslim one day and they have expectations, they have needs,’ said Van Dijk.

‘If they want to be confident that what they eat and drink is in line with their beliefs, then a company likes ours has to make an extra effort to try and meet those needs.’

About 85 of Nestle’s 456 factories globally are now halal-certified but Van Dijk said different interpretations of halal standards around the world were a challenge for the industry.

Muslim jurists do not always agree on what is halal. Islam prohibits the consumption of pork and prescribes how animals must be slaughtered, but there has been debate on the acceptability of non-alcoholic beer, collagen and vinegar.

The Organisation of the Islamic Conference (OIC) is working on a single standard to be applied in its 57 member countries, a move that would boost the industry, although politics and varied interpretations may complicate the task. —Reuters

Learn from Karim Khan’s notes

URDU and Hindi have been the most disruptive languages for South Asia. Urdu, for completely spurious reasons, was declared the national language of Pakistan. Hindi was wrongly but aggressively foisted as the main language of a Unitarian Indian state.

The conception of Urdu as a linguistic attribute of South Asian Muslims — the reason for its embrace by Pakistan — would be laughable had it not led to a tragic denouement for the country. The creation of Bangladesh questioned the axiom.

Several linguistic groups within Pakistan and many more Muslim clusters in India mock the primacy accorded to Urdu because of a communally enforced error. Likewise, none except a section of the mostly upper caste elite in India speaks Hindi. They condescend to assert that Maithili, Bhojpuri, Awadhi, Brajbhasha, etc are dialects of Hindi.

The fact is that a speaker of one can’t understand the other. Let Mr Lal Kishan Advani summarise the Bhojpuri news telecast on the Mahua TV channel. He would pine for visitors from Pakistan’s Sindh province to give him some badly needed comfort.

(The late K.R. Malkani, another rightwing ideologue from Sindh, believed in the waning ideology of Hindi, Hindu, Hindustan. He asked me to write an Urdu verse, which he liked and wanted to publish in his party organ. I scribbled the lines in Devnaagri, the common script for Hindi, which he confessed he couldn’t read. So I dictated the verse in Urdu for an ardent advocate of Hindi!)

It has been strongly suggested that Hindi and Urdu are in fact the same language with different scripts. There is no evidence to support the suggestion. Moreover, the way they have evolved belies the claim. One has become Persianised, the other Sanskritised.

Asankhya kirti rashmiya’n vikirn divya daah si, saput matra bhumi ke ruko na shur saahasi! How many members of the Indian parliament or even the ultra-patriotic NRIs can absorb Jai Shankar Prasad’s exhortation to nation-building?

Loo’n waam bakhte khufta se ik khwaab e khushwale, lekin ye khauf hai ki kahaa’n se adaa karoo’n! How many popularly elected members in Pakistan’s National Assembly can explain Ghalib’s sorrow at his inability to dream dreams? It’s difficult.

The imposition of any culture on another group has parallels with the Taliban. The Taliban believe, for example, that their shalwar kurtawith a turban is a divine dress code. Arab, Malayaali and Indonesian Muslims among others would strongly disagree. The entire controversy in Pakistan about the sari is rooted in ethnic and religious bigotry. Indian bigots harass women who wear jeans and lipstick.

Similarly, imposing a language is an expression of cultural zealotry. In India, Maharashtra was created as a linguistic state like Gujarat and several other South Indian provinces. Migrant workers in Mumbai though speak their respective languages. Hindi-Urdu cinema has enabled millions to understand the language. These may include Tamil, Punjabi, Gujarati, etc.

Members of Raj Thackeray’s Marathi-chauvinist party attacked Maharashtra assembly member Abu Azmi for taking his legislator’s oath in Hindi. (It was probably in Urdu though.) The constitution of India allows elected legislators to address their state assembly in Hindi and English, which are flaunted as national languages. But the fact is that Hindi (in Azmi’s case, Urdu) is essentially an imposition through a constitutional fiat and doesn’t have a popular sanctity outside the artificial arrangement.

In any case Marathi is by far the richer language than Hindi. Marathi theatre and literature, its natya sangeet, bhaav geet or koli geet of the fisher folk have few challengers and Hindi is not one of them. Also, be it classical Hindustani music or folk nautanki theatre, their language is Brajbhasha or Awadhi, not Hindi. Little remains of Hindi if we delete Kabir, Surdas, Raskhan, Meera, Tulsidas, Rahim and so on.

They wrote in languages which are today called dialects. This sounds like nonsense. Ghuturun chalat renu tanu mandit mukh dadhi lape kiye. Is this Hindi? If so, how many so-called Hindi-speakers will know the meaning?

The great blind poet Surdas just described those lines Lord Krishna’s childhood. The language was ornate Brajbhasha, spoken around Mathura. Would Surdas understand the following description by Tulsidas of Lord Ram’s childhood in chaste Awadhi? Kilaki kilaki uthat dhaaya. Girat bhoomi latapataay. Dhaay maat gode lete, Dasharath kee raniya. D.V.Paluskar made this verse about toddler Ram and his doting mother quite popular, but it is not in Hindi. It is in Awadhi, a language that a Hindi-knower can understand with great difficulty, if at all.

Abu Azmi deliberately spoke in Hindi/Urdu because it would help him polarise his Mumbai constituency comprising migrant workers from Bihar and Uttar Pradesh. In doing so he was poking an unpredictable beast in the eye. He dare not try the stunt in Tamil Nadu or any other linguistically sensitive state.

Mr Azmi should realise that Marathi is not just a rich language. In fact, because of the sway that Maratha power held over vast tracts of India, it is best equipped to be the national language, any day a better idea than All India Radio-style Hindi.

This is not to deny that Raj Thackeray and his uncle Bal Thackeray represent India’s fascist tendencies. Their politics is based on spewing hatred of the ‘other’, be it Muslims or migrant workers from Bihar. At one time the Shiv Sena, which they had led together, spread hatred of Brahmins, South Indians and Christians among others.

The Congress party set up the group in the 1960s to crush Mumbai’s powerful trade unions with lumpen street power. Indeed, leaders like Bal Thackeray and Narendra Modi are used by India’s big corporates and multinational companies to split industrial workers communally, which then impairs their bargaining power. Like Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale in Punjab, shored up by the Congress as a foil to the Akalis, the Shiv Sena may have become a veritable Frankenstein’s monster.

Abu Azmi’s needlessly provocative antics might fetch him extra votes or perhaps a seat in parliament. But it could seriously harm the fragile cultural bouquet of Mumbai. If he likes, there is another way of claiming popularity, not only in Mumbai but anywhere in India.

Let’s call it Abdul Karim Khan’s way. Like Azmi, Khan Sahib was a devout Muslim migrant who came to the Marathi-speaking court of Baroda as a musician from Kirana in Punjab.

Karim Khan expounded a style of singing which is embraced today by hundreds of talented Maharashtrian singers. Not only that, he composed and sang songs for Marathi theatre in Marathi language, which he learnt with considerable diligence. When he went to meet Carnatic musicians in South India, he picked up something from there too. The legendary Balasaraswathi’s mother taught him to sing Raag Kharaharpriya. There’s a moving record of it still available.

Mr Azmi should try to take a leaf from the notes of Ustad Abdul Karim Khan. This Hindi-Urdu chauvinism is just that. Eject it.

The writer is Dawn’s correspondent in Delhi.

jawednaqvi@gmail.com

Thirty years on, Mecca mosque siege reverberates

RIYADH: Thirty years ago, as tens of thousands of hajj pilgrims were completing dawn prayers inside Mecca, gunshots pierced the sanctity of the Grand Mosque.

To mark a new century on the Islamic calendar, a group of millennialist zealots, who claimed to have with them the new redeemer — the mahdi — seized Islam’s holiest site.

The November 20, 1979 takeover of the Grand Mosque by Juhayman al-Oteibi and his 400-plus fundamentalists, and the subsequent unholy, bloody military assault to dislodge them, stunned Muslims worldwide and rocked the Saudi monarchy to its foundation.

While Oteibi and 67 fellow militants were ultimately caught and beheaded, and the mahdi was shot dead in the battle, the incident continues to reverberate through Saudi society and the world, say historians.

‘It is painfully clear: the countdown to September 11, to the terrorist bombings in London and Madrid, and to the grisly Islamic violence ravaging Afghanistan and Iraq all began on that warm November morning,’ wrote Yaroslav Trofimov, author of the most complete account of the uprising, ‘The Siege of Mecca’.

The hajj had just finished when Oteibi and his band smuggled hundreds of assault weapons into the mosque at the centre of Mecca.

Angered at what they saw was Saudi society’s plunge into immorality, with Muslims embracing ‘Western’ entertainment like cinema, television and sports, and Muslim women taking jobs, Oteibi’s act was to herald a new age of purism.

His army took over every corner of the massive walled mosque, locking shut the normally welcoming gates, sending machine-gun armed snipers into the seven minarets, and taking hostage hundreds of the faithful.

Quickly shooting dead two guards who resisted, they denounced Saudi Arabia’s leading clerics as corrupt and the ruling Al-Saud family as illegitimate.

Snipers picked off arriving policemen and soldiers and it would take two weeks and a massive Saudi army effort, that began with shelling the mosque and ended up with hand-to-hand fighting, to regain control.

The soldiers were backed by a small team of French commandos, led by the now infamous Lieutenant Paul Barril, and endorsed by a fatwa extracted the highest clerics that it was permissible to shoot the militants inside the sanctum.

The official death toll was 127 soldiers, 117 militants, and an unknown number of civilians. Trofimov cites independent observers in reporting a toll of ‘well over 1,000 lives.’

For most of the three million pilgrims massing in Mecca in the coming week for the hajj, Oteibi’s takeover of the Grand Mosque is likely a vague memory.

Many details — including whether the non-Muslim French commandos were allowed
inside Mecca — remain secret.

But 30 years later, the intense security around Mecca, a sharp turn toward more conservative behaviour in Saudi society, and the very present Al-Qaeda threat, attest to lasting effects of the 1979 siege.

Sparked by Oteibi’s complaints, Saudi religious leaders now ban movie theatres, and public concerts of all but traditional music are unknown.

Women cannot drive or attend soccer matches, and the religious police try to enforce a stringent dress code for them: all-black shroud-like abayas, with all but the eyes covered.

Robert Lacey, whose new book ‘Inside the Kingdom’ traces Saudi history from the Mecca siege to the present, said there is no proven direct link between Oteibi and Al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden.

‘The link between Juhayman and bin Laden is that they are clearly in the Salafi tradition,’ he told AFP, referring to the arch-conservative Islamic movement.

‘Their messianic style — from their long, Salafi beards to their quarrel with the House of Saud — stem from the same violent and rejectionist reading of traditional Islam,’ he said.

‘We can now see that Juhayman’s revolt helped shift Saudi society in the conservative and reactionary direction that has only been seriously contested in the last few years.’

Trofimov drew a closer parallel, saying that in many ways Oteibi’s multinational army of zealous Islamic fighters ‘was a precursor to Al-Qaeda itself.’

By the 1990s, when bin Laden turned against the Saudi rulers, ‘he started to repeat almost word for word Juhayman’s repudiations of the royal family,’ Trofimov wrote.

And indeed, several Oteibi acolytes joined Al-Qaeda after their release from Saudi prisons, he said.

Similar tensions remain in Saudi society. Progressives are pressing for theatres; a women’s soccer team plays — though not publicly — in Jeddah; and clerics are battling what they see as licentious television shows broadcast by satellite from abroad.

Meanwhile a resurgent Al-Qaeda branch in Yemen attacks King Abdullah’s reforms as abandoning ‘true’ Islam. In August a Qaeda operative tried but failed to kill a top security official, Prince Mohammmed bin Nayef, with a suicide bomb.

In October Qaeda plots to attack unknown targets in the kingdom were interrupted, with hundreds of weapons, explosives and suicide vests discovered and dozens of suspects captured.

Clerics cringe as ‘2012′ causes storm in Indonesia

JAKARTA: Hollywood’s latest doomsday offering ‘2012′ has caused a storm in Indonesia, with conservative clerics condemning it Thursday as a ‘provocation against Islam.’

Screenings have been sold out across the capital Jakarta following the film’s success in North America, where it beat Disney’s ‘A Christmas Carol’ to top the box office honours last weekend.

It looks likely to repeat its success in Indonesia, the Southeast Asian archipelago with the world’s biggest Muslim population, judging by the queues at cinemas in its opening days this week.

But while most viewers said they had enjoyed the film’s apocalyptic vision of life after December 21, 2012, when the fulfilment of a Mayan prophecy sees the Earth engulfed by catastrophe, senior clerics were deeply troubled.

The country’s top Islamic body, the National Council of Ulema (MUI), is divided over whether or not to issue a fatwa or religious edict against the film. One local branch has already done so, to little apparent effect.

‘The controversial things about the film are, first, in Islam doomsday should not be visualised or predicted, it’s the secret of God,’ council chairman Amidhan told AFP.

‘For the common people, the portrayal of doomsday in this film could distort their faith – that’s what I’m worried about.’

He also complained that the film showed mosques being destroyed but not churches, despite sequences depicting the Vatican collapsing and Rio de Janeiro’s monumental Christ the Redeemer statue crumbling to pieces.

‘The film shows that everything including Kaaba (Islam holiest shrine) and mosques were devastated except for churches. The film is a provocation against Islam,’ Amidhan said.

‘The Indonesian film censorship body should have cut part of the scene on the devastation of mosques or the Kaaba because it hurts the Muslim people.’

But few people who emerged from a packed matinee showing in Jakarta on Thursday shared the clerics’ worries.

‘It’s actually a beautiful film. The MUI branch is wrong about issuing a fatwa as the movie actually has increased my faith and not the other way around,’ insurance broker Ian Ramelan, 49, said.

‘I’m a Muslim, my faith in Allah is stronger after watching this flick,’ he added, urging the clerics to worry more about rampant corruption in Indonesia than about Hollywood’s apocalyptic Christmas blockbuster.

University student Rafi Gamal, 22, said he understood that some people might think the film controversial ‘because men were able to predict doomsday and thus played the role of God.’

‘But then again it’s just another natural disaster movie in which there are some survivors in the end. The end of the world means that there’ll be no survivors,’ he said.

Junior high school student Steven Benedictto, 14, said the film had a positive message.

‘I disagree with the MUI that people should not watch this movie. It has a beautiful message that we all should repent and industries should reduce their sinful activities, such as deforestation,’ he said.

Female squash player from Waziristan defies the odds

KARACHI: Top Pakistani squash players Aamir Atlas Khan and Maria Toor have been nominated for Professional Squash Association Young Player of the Year and Women’s International Squash Players Association (WISPA) Young Player of the Year, respectively, by the World Squash Federation.

Both Aamir and Maria belong to the North West Frontier Province, home also to Pakistan squash legends Jahangir and Jansher Khan, where they train amidst constant threats from the Taliban. While it has been a comparatively easy ride for Aamir, by virtue of being a male in a part of the country where residents adhere to strict Islamic law, for the 19-year-old Maria it has been a journey of immense courage and perseverance.

Growing up in South Waziristan, Maria was a very different girl, often getting into brawls with boys and generally being very dominating, some very unusual traits for women in NWFP. She was equally lucky to have an open-minded father who noticed his daughter’s sporting talent and ability and did not want it to go to waste.

‘I didn’t want her talent to go to waste,’ Shams-ul-Qayum Wazir said in an interview to CNN. ‘If I would’ve kept her in the village, all she could do was housekeeping,’ he added satisfied with his decision to pack up from South Waziristan and move to Peshawar in late 1999.

Upon her move to Peshawar, Maria was immediately inducted into the Hashim Khan Complex, named after the first great player to emerge from a Pakistani dynasty of squash players which dominated the international game for decades.

It was in Peshawar where her father really began to realise the true potential his daughter had. Representing Warsak High School in Peshawar, Maria became the youngest ever winner of the National Women’s Squash Championship toppling top seed Muqaddas Ashraf of Punjab in straight sets in the final at Karachi Club squash court in 2004. She was 13 at the time and while the cash prize of Rs. 8,500 and a crystal trophy felt good, it was really the satisfaction of being better than everyone that was to accelerate Maria’s drive. She quickly swatted through her competition winning an Under-15 tournament and then at 15 winning the Under-19 Hashim Khan National junior championship in 2005.

She scaled through the national rankings, Dunlop racquet in hand with an almost Muhammad Ali-like confidence, often calling her self the world’s best squash player in some of her post-match press conferences. It was this self belief and great form that finally brought her to the world stage when she joined the WISPA in 2006. She was immediately at ease on the international circuit as well, reaching the semi-final stage of the 2nd WISPA International Women’s Squash Championship at the POF Jahangir Khan Complex in Islamabad.

In early August 2007 she was given the Salaam Pakistan Award by the President of Pakistan, alongside tennis player Aisam Ul Haq Qureshi and footballer Muhammad Essa.

The year 2009 saw her win her first international tournament when she beat the same opponent she had defeated as a 13-year-old. Muqaddas Ashraf once again succumbed to Maria’s power and agility losing the Chief of Army Staff International squash tournament.

Winning an award at this year’s World Squash Awards being held the RAC Club in London is something Maria is looking forward to but her main objective is to carry on the great legacy left behind by the Khans and to put Pakistan’s name back at the top on the world stage.

For her father her achievements have already shown the true spirit of people of Waziristan, a far cry from what is has become today.

How do you solve a problem like Meera?

How do you, indeed? Meera does the rounds via SMS jokes about her English. Meera helps a damp squib sink to the bottom of the Indian box office. Meera’s alleged husband turns up demanding his house and crores back. Meera predicts she’ll be linked to Musharraf and Clinton next (you wish, M). Meera is the opposite of Humayun Saeed, says Mahesh Bhatt with tongue in cheek. And most recently, Meera interviews photographer Tapu Javeri in her very own talk show.

If, after seeing that clip, you cringed and wrote ‘Not funny,’ or ‘Not her language’ under the link on Facebook, this blog is for you. And if you hooted and laughed, read ahead anyway.

When was the last time you heard about the woman actually doing what she originally became famous for? Remember Meera the actress? No? That’s because last time you saw her she was a wannabe talk show host. As the maybe-been-to-school Meera tried to interview Javeri (of all people) in English (of all languages) one really began to wonder whether she was dropped on her head as a baby.

And before you say she was set up, let’s pause for a moment and accept that some producer hatched the plan with a few friends, laughed about it with his colleagues, and then gave Meera a call in the morning. How cruel. But only if she had been kidnapped, dragged by the hair to the studio, and shown a gun. My point is, Meera did the show willingly, in that slinky black dress with immaculate makeup and a camera in the room. She spent hours there knowing, better than us, that she didn’t know the language. You and I wouldn’t plunge ourselves headlong into a made-for-Filipino-audiences talk show in Tagalog. At least not before some solid language lessons.

The fact is, despite her shenanigans, Meera remains important. Her importance is the same as the importance of the village idiot in a, well, village. She completes the landscape. And for everyone going out on a limb to defend her by citing her ‘lacks’ (of education, background, upbringing) the moment has arrived, post-talk show clip, to just drop it. Stop feeling some elitist guilt about her ‘lacks.’ Delete that ‘Not funny’ that you wrote on Facebook, hold your stomach, throw your head back, and truly laugh for a change. There are very, very few moments that make us laugh in this country, so cherish one when it is provided.

Despite the illiteracy and tastelessness that rules the roost in what’s left of Lollywood, few of its divas make such obvious public blunders with such ridiculous regularity. Time was when Reema would roll out memorised English at award shows to sniggers from all the angrezi-medium types. But Reems has been earning our admiration (because English earns that sort of thing here) as she speaks the language nearly flawlessly, if a little formally, today. The woman has used her time and money wisely to get what she wants.

Saima, another Lollywood mainstay, once admitted in a TV interview that she had never been to school. But really, do you care when you see her light up the silver screen when you watch a Pakistani flick for a laugh and find out that you really can’t laugh at her skills? And Resham who is just too busy wowing us with her metamorphoses in TV play after TV play, and who just doesn’t have the time to worry about English or her lack of it. And their scandals? If ever they leak out, these actresses handle them in a manner that is usually informed by the knowledge that they are public figures. These same actresses, with all their ‘lacks,’ handle it better than Paris Hilton, who incidentally had access to the best education, a privileged background in the most privileged country in the world, and an upbringing by educated, if not sensible, parents as well as a host of educated nannies.

It is not Meera’s circumstances, as the Meera-bachao brigade have put forward, but a politically incorrect ‘lack of intelligence.’ And hence, everything.

This is not a rant against Meera. It is about accepting that she, like Hilton, is missing a couple of million grey cells. More importantly, this is about accepting that when her next big scandal explodes, We, the people, will watch it again in all its trashy glory. It’s also about accepting that a lot of people will laugh. She’s a celebrity for goodness sake. And celebrities who put themselves out there do so knowing that people can and do laugh. Even Meera, as she stumbles over all English in the YouTube clip, has the foresight to remark that ‘mera record lagay ga.’

Hilton, Raakhi Sawant, and Malika Sherawat. Since the world turned into a global village, around the world, pop culture’s been cultivating celebrities to fulfill the role traditionally played by the courtjester.

For all her ‘lacks,’ Meera is an adult who has had the exposure reserved for the top one percent of this country. She scores extra points on exposure, because she has actually risen from nothing. It’s not her deprivations which have made her stupid. It’s her wickedly brilliant luck and drive that have made her famous. And still the learning curve flatlines. Does she love the attention? Doesn’t Paris Hilton?

So please don’t cry for ‘poor little Meera.’ She’s not a babe in the wild, wild woods. She’s certainly not the proverbial deer in the headlights (even though she looks as pretty as one sometimes). She’s not a bechari. To think that makes us patronising and sorely lacking in humour.

She is, on the other hand, our Paris Hilton. Our Malika Sherawat. Our very own village idiot. Which brings us back to the original question, how do you solve a problem like Meera? And the answer to that is a firm: ‘You don’t.’

Shahrezad Samiuddin is a freelance writer who doesn’t think enough attention is paid to the frivolous, even though it is all around us.

Peshawar’s hospital staff face war-like situation

PESHAWAR: Doctors and nurses battle round the clock to save lives in Pakistan’s war against the Taliban, threatened with death and struggling to treat horrific injuries at a colonial-era hospital.

‘We’re under severe psychological pressure. How long will we get bodies of men, women and children, severed limbs, severed heads?’ said Sajida Nasreen, catching her breath on duty at the main hospital in the northwest city of Peshawar.

‘A dead 11-year-old was brought in, drenched in blood but his shoes shining with polish. His father came, lifted the child onto his lap, kissed him and said: ‘I sent you to school, not to die’.

‘For the first time in my career, I wept bitterly,’ said the nurse, who at 53 thought she had seen everything until Al-Qaeda-linked attacks got worse and worse, killing 2,540 people in Pakistan over 29 months.

‘Those responsible should see the situation in the hospital to understand what these blasts do,’ she added.

Lady Reading Hospital, or LRH as it is known among the 2.5 million residents of Peshawar, was founded in 1924 when Lord Reading was viceroy of India and is now one of Pakistan’s largest teaching hospitals.

On a visit to the area, his wife fell off a horse and suffered an injury, only to find proper treatment was unavailable locally. In England, she collected donations from British philanthropists and set up a hospital that ultimately took her name.

But the romance of its beginnings has vanished under the carnage witnessed in Peshawar and the surrounding North West Frontier Province (NWFP) where Taliban bombings and military offensives have been concentrated.

‘We have dealt with 49 blasts… 2,200 injured and 576 bodies in bombings,’ Doctor Ataullah Arif, surgeon in charge of the emergency ward, told AFP.

Tactics are changing. Bombings of crowded markets are beginning to maximise civilian casualties. Attacks on the army, police and paramilitary to avenge the government’s alliance in the US-led ‘war on terror’ are becoming more brazen.

‘Victims are pouring in almost daily now. We start our day with prayers that may Allah spare us from tragedy,’ said Arif.

‘We have been working under severe stress over the past two months. I can’t explain the situation in words.

‘Very often there are bodies and blood, as rows of stretchers start flowing amid shouts and screams,’ he said.

The 1,543 beds are woefully inadequate and the hospital is struggling to overcome dire shortages to build a 500-bed emergency ward.

‘In an emergency, sometimes we put two wounded on one bed and people with lesser injuries are treated on the floor or in wheelchairs,’ said Arif.

There are fears that a suicide bomber could strike the hospital, a soft target.

There are eight gates into the 30-acre compound guarded by just seven policemen, Arif says.

‘Our staff are constantly in danger. They are under severe threat from militants.We have received calls from militants, warning the staff ‘you are treating those who are our target. We will not spare you.’’

LRH chief executive, Doctor Abdul Hameed Afridi, says shortage of space is so acute that the basement was converted into a mortuary last year.

‘We face great difficulty in coping with the situation. We badly need funds, equipment and trained staff. In such a big hospital, we have just one CT scan machine and no MRI facility,’ said Afridi.

‘We need life saving drugs. LRH bears the pressure not only from NWFP but from Afghanistan. When there is a big disaster in Afghanistan casualties are also sent to Peshawar,’ he said.

Aged 25, Bibi Zakia is one of LRH’s younger nurses but has grown old quickly in the face of horror.

‘It is a human crisis. It’s a huge burden. We have to treat not only the victims, but also take care of their relatives,’ she said.

‘We are tired but I’m proud to be a nurse and I think I’m better than millions of others because I’m serving humanity.’But even hardened nurses sometimes find it difficult to cope with the magnitude of the suffering.

One particular occasion was a car bomb on October 28 that killed 118 people in Peshawar’s Meena market, frequented by women and children, in the deadliest militant attack in Pakistan for two years.

‘I remember two charred bodies of children. They looked like roast chickens. It was horrible. I couldn’t control myself. Pain and anguish filled my body and I screamed and I shouted: what was their crime?’

Power tariff relief for agricultural consumers

ISLAMABAD: The government suspended on Wednesday a notification under which power distribution companies charged around 80,000 tube-wells at the rate of Rs6.75 per unit instead of the normal Rs4 per unit applicable to agricultural consumers.

Water and Power Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf said at a press conference that the distribution companies of Pakistan Electric Power Company had issued bills to 80,000 agricultural consumers at Rs6.75 per unit because they had not installed time-of-day (TOD) meters before the deadline set by Nepra.

However, the decision was withdrawn on prime minister’s instructions in view of the hardship being faced by farmers at a time when paddy cultivation was in progress.

He said such consumers would now be charged at normal rate of Rs4 per unit, but appealed to them to immediately install time-of-day meters and avoid using tube-wells between 7 and 11pm.

The minister said there were 201,000 tube-wells under the Pepco system. About 120,000 consumers were using time-of-day meters and hence charged at Rs3.42 per unit, except for the 7-11 pm period when they are charged at Rs4 per unit.

Around 80,000 consumers have not installed TOD meters and they were charged at Rs6.75 per unit during the current month.

Responding to a question, the minister said that the inter-corporate circular debt of about Rs100bn was still outstanding, although the government had taken over about Rs300 billion through a holding company.

He said the cost of electricity service stood at Rs8.21 per unit but consumers were currently being charged at Rs5.40 per unit which was causing in an annual fiscal gap of about Rs150 billion.

This issue was being addressed through a combination of measures — increase in electricity tariff under agreement with international lenders, injection of public money as subsidy and efficiency improvement.

Mr Ashraf said that mud-slinging against rental power projects had affected their implementation schedule, but some of them with a capacity of about 800 megawatts would start producing electricity in December.

Pakistan urged not to fear Indo-US ties

WASHINGTON: The United States assured Pakistan on Wednesday that it had nothing to fear from growing US-India relations because Washington also valued its ties with Islamabad.

At a briefing in Washington, Assistant Secretary of State for South Asian Affairs Robert Blake also addressed India’s concern over a joint US-China statement issued in Beijing on Tuesday which recognised China’s role in improving India-Pakistan relations. The statement also urged China to help prevent Pakistan or Afghanistan from becoming a base for terrorism.

While insisting that the United States wanted India and Pakistan to resolve their differences bilaterally, the US official acknowledged that Washington would like to get China’s views on both ‘Indo-Pak relations and on Afghanistan and solicit their advice on both as we do of India’s’.

Mr Blake noted that China had considerable ‘equities’ in Afghanistan and could play an important role in stabilising that country as well.

Asked how should Islamabad view Mr Singh’s forthcoming visit to the US during which the two countries are expected to announce initiatives aimed at recognising India as an emerging world power, the US official said: ‘I don’t think Islamabad should in any way feel threatened by the steps we are taking to improve our relations with India. We value our relationships with both India and Pakistan.’

At a specially arranged briefing for South Asian journalists at Washington’s Foreign Press Centre on Mr Singh’s visit, Mr Blake noted that Pakistan had moved away some troops from the Indian border to combat militants on the western border but said there was ‘room for more’.

Although Mr Blake praised Pakistan’s efforts to combat the extremists, particularly in Swat and South Waziristan, he urged Pakistani authorities to complete their investigations against the suspects of the Mumbai terror attacks and punish those responsible.

Mr Blake noted that Lashkar-e-Taiba chief Hafiz Saeed was already sanctioned by both India and Pakistan and urged Islamabad to take action against him.

He said that Pakistan clearly intended to tackle these violent terrorists and had already made ‘a lot of progress’ but urged Pakistan to ensure that its territory was not used for cross-border attacks against India or others.

Mr Blake said that while the United States appreciated Pakistan’s efforts to fight extremists, it hoped that Islamabad would also take action against those who were considered a threat to India and the US.

Pakistan, he said, should also expand its operations beyond Swat and South Waziristan and go to other areas as well.

Responding to a question about Pakistan’s concerns over India’s role in Afghanistan, Mr Blake said the United States welcomed the role New Delhi was playing in stabilising Afghanistan and hoped that India would continue to play a positive role in the war-ravaged country.

Mr Singh arrives in Washington on Nov 22 on a two-day state visit although he will spend five days in the US capital.

Hamid Karzai sworn in as Afghan president

KABUL: Newly-inaugurated Afghan President Hamid Karzai pledged on Thursday to tackle corruption and said his country’s security forces should be ready to take over responsibility of unstable areas in three years.

Karzai also called for a ‘loya jirga’, a traditional grand assembly, which under Afghanistan’s constitution can take precedence over all government institutions including the presidency itself.

Karzai’s inauguration came against the backdrop of a rising Taliban insurgency, doubts over his legitimacy after an election tainted by fraud, and complaints his government is riddled with corruption and mismanagement.

‘Afghanistan wants to lead operations in non-secure areas in the next three years,’ Karzai said. Corruption, he said, is a ‘very dangerous issue, we must strongly pursue it’.

‘Ministers must be competent, professional and in service to the nation,’ Karzai said as hundreds of Afghan and foreign dignitaries watched.

Karzai’s swearing-in came as he faced renewed criticism from Washington over corruption.

Hillary Clinton, in her first visit to Afghanistan as US secretary of state, said Washington would support the new government but expected serious results in combating corruption and building an ‘accountable, transparent government’.

‘Well, we are asking that they follow through on much of what they have previously said, including putting together a credible anti-corruption governmental entity,’ Clinton told reporters en route to Kabul.

‘They’ve done some work on that, but in our view, not nearly enough to demonstrate a seriousness of purpose to tackle corruption,’ she said.

Kabul announced the creation this week of a major crimes task force and anti-graft unit.

A decision by US President Barack Obama on whether to send tens of thousands of extra troops to combat the Taliban partly depends on whether he can trust Karzai to press ahead seriously with reforms.

President Asif Ali Zardari, the most prominent foreign leader at the ceremony, watched Karzai’s inauguration with foreign ministers from Britain, France and Turkey.

Security lockdown

Kabul’s streets were deserted early on Thursday with armoured vehicles blocking off major roads. Security officers were even stopping people from walking on the streets.
The government has declared Thursday a holiday and reporters were barred from attending the swearing-in ceremony.

‘They should all go to hell … What’s happened in the last five years? It will just be the same again,’ said Mohammed Shah, as he struggled to make his way back home.

Obama’s deliberations on whether to dispatch up to 40,000 more troops to fight an increasingly unpopular war proceed as death tolls mount. He said on Wednesday he sought to bring the conflict to an end before he leaves office.

General Stanley McChrystal, the top US and Nato commander in Afghanistan, wants tens of thousands of additional troops, warning that without them, the war will probably be lost.

A UN-backed probe found that nearly a third of votes for Karzai in the August 20 election were fake.

While Karzai had been expected to win anyway, the extent of the fraud in his favour severely damaged his credibility at home and among Western and other nations with troops fighting to support his government.

He has since faced tough pressure from Western leaders to clamp down on widespread corruption and replace former guerrilla leaders and cronies with able technocrats in his new government.

Karzai was installed by the United States and its Afghan allies in 2001. He won a full term in the country’s first democratic presidential election in 2004.

Pakistani Taliban warn against army offensive

WANA: The Pakistani Taliban once again warned against the government’s offensive against them and reiterated that they would fight the Pakistan army until their demands were accepted.

Speaking exclusively to DawnNews, the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) spokesman Azam Tariq said the Pakistani Taliban would continue their action against the present government until it stops following America’s dictation.

Tariq said the Mujahideen were fighting against the army in the areas where the military operation was being carried out.

Responding to queries in which the TTP was blamed for terrorist attacks across the country, the spokesman said the Taliban were not involved in these activities and neither did Shariat-i-Mohammadi allowed them to do so.

Tariq said intelligence agencies, Blackwater and the present government were involved in widespread terrorism. ‘The government is doing this for political purposes and to bring a bad name to the TTP,’ he added.

Tariq revealed that the Taliban only target government installations and people who are against them. Schools, universities, public places and markets that were targeted in the past few months were not done so by the Taliban, Tariq said.

NFC to hold next meeting in Lahore: Tarin

KARACHI: The National Finance Commission on Thursday arrived a decision in principle to base the NFC award on a multiple criteria which would include revenue, backwardness, population and inwards population density besides contribution from the provinces and federation to create a fund to compensate NWFP for losses of war against terror.

The Commission had a marathon session on Thursday held under the chairmanship of Federal Finance Minister Senator Shaukat Tarin and ended with the decision to hold the next meeting in Lahore on December 9 and 10.

The Chief Ministers of the four provinces also participated this important meeting.

Later, Shaukat Tarin told press briefing that in the Lahore meeting the NFC will calculate the weightages of various factors suggested by the provinces and said even in terms of percentages, the provinces would get more.

‘There is good progress made on horizontal distribution and we would complete the work on vertical distribution also in Lahore meeting’.

Shaukat Tarin, who was flanked by Punjab Finance Minister Tanveer Kaira, Balochistan Finance Minister Dr Asim Kurd, Senator Adil representing NWFP as technical expert, Dr. Kaiser Bengali (Sindh), said the participants discussed in detail the horizontal distribution of divisible pool and in case of any loss the same would be compensated under vertical distribution formula.

Tarin said positions of the provinces on horizontal distribution are very strong which need more work and refining.

He said there was consensus between the provinces and the Federation that NWFP be compensated for the losses in war against terror and it was decided that a fund would be created before horizontal distribution of the resources.

Hence, Federal Government would contribute more in the fund by cutting its expenses, he added.

Referrring to revenue based distribution criteria, Shaukat Tarin informed that two grounds i.e. revenue collection and revenue generation came up for discussion and both the positions were very valid.

‘We would collect data in this regard to reach a practical formula’, he stated.

He said in the Lahore meeting the horizontal distribution will be finalised which was left open for adjustment, if needed.

The Federal Finance Minister said the Federation would be trying to cut its expenses and divert more resources to the provinces.

It would also increase its revenue including enhanced tax-GDP ratio, set at 13.9 per centage, within next 6 years. This year the target is 10.6 per cent, he added.

‘We would have to enlarge the ‘cake’ for big share from divisible pool to all stakeholders,’ he remarked adding that for this purpose ‘we have to adopt various techiques and stratagies’.

Replying a question Shaukat Tareen explained that as far as VAT or GST was concerned, only one of them would be levied at one time with provincial tax going to provinces and Federation’s tax to federation.

In Conclusion the Finance Minister had all praise for the Provinces for showing flexibility and particularly the Punjab which showed magnanimity. ‘All the provinces made compromises on many things,’ he said.

Safe drinking water

How does one explain the CDWA project’s failure to take off when the link between potable water and human health is clear even to the meanest intelligence? When the Rs15bn Clean Drinking Water for All scheme was launched in 2005 it envisaged the installation of 6,626 filtration plants all over the country by Dec 2007. Although it was periodically reported that work was in progress and some plants had been set up, the project was not completed on time.

As is the wont among our policymakers, a new government ushered in a new water policy that was announced in Sept 2009. This speaks of providing clean drinking water to everyone in Pakistan by 2025. Is this another pipe dream? Work on the CDWA project was initiated some years ago but we have not been told how much has been spent and where. Now there are media reports of existing plants falling into disuse. CDWA was to be a joint venture between the federal government as the financier and the district, tehsil and town governments providing land, labour and electricity. The provincial government was to be the executor. Now we have them indulging in a blame game to escape responsibility.

It is time the various tiers of government sorted out this issue. They should realise that the UN Human Rights Council is on its way to recognising access to safe drinking water as a basic human right of people. Millennium Development Goal # 7 also sets the target of reducing by half the proportion of people without sustainable access to safe drinking water. Leaving aside altruistic reasons, there is a down-to-earth pragmatic compulsion to provide safe water to people. Pakistan spends Rs30bn on healthcare for people who suffer from waterborne diseases. A fraction of that spent on safe drinking water projects would save a lot of money and human suffering.

Can’t get sugar? Try sweets in your tea

KARACHI: As Pakistanis face an acute shortage of sugar, some families have found an easily available alternative to sweeten their tea: instead of a spoonful of sugar, they dissolve sweets in their tea.

Shaikh Kashif, an embroiderer for a boutique in Karachi, said his favourite was a Cadbury Eclair.

‘We can’t live without tea so we had to do something,’ said Kashif, 27, from his small workshop in an upmarket city neighbourhood.

‘It just costs a rupee per candy and is easier to get these days than sugar,’ he said.

Pakistan is facing a shortage of more than 1 million tonnes of sugar largely because of a poor crop of sugarcane.

Supplies have been particularly scarce since last month when surging prices led to a Supreme Court order to millers to sell sugar at 40 rupees/kg, compared with the then-market price of about 46 rupees/kg.

Government attempts to implement the court decision have led to confusion, sparking even higher market prices.

Authorities are trying to get cheap supplies out to shoppers but sugar has almost disappeared at main retail markets in Karachi.

Where it is available, it sells for as much as 70 rupees a kg.

That’s not a problem for Kashif who said the sweets he put in his tea gave it a chocolaty taste.

‘Some in my family didn’t like that so they’re using a local candy which melts easily when you put it in a hot cup of tea,’ he said. ‘We had to think of something to replace sugar and it’s worked for us.’

Suicide attack in Peshawar leaves at least 19 dead

PESHAWAR: At least 19 people were killed and 50 wounded when a suicide bomber struck the district judicial complex on Thursday morning, city administration officials and doctors said.

‘The bomber was on foot and tried to get into the Judicial Complex through its main entry gate. He blew himself up, when he was stopped,’ deputy coordination officer, Peshawar, Sahibzada Mohammad Anis said.

A doctor at the city’s main Lady Reading Hospital put the death toll at seventeen. Amongst those killed were the three policemen who tried to stop the bomber from getting in, Anis said.

The doctor said that six of those wounded were in critical condition.

‘We are looking after them,’ director of the casualty ward, Dr. Shiraz Qayyum said.

The limbs of the bombers and those in close vicinity were scattered all around. Cars and three-wheeler rickshaws parked alongside the outer boundary wall on the main Fakhr-i-Alam road were badly damaged in the blast.

The complex comprises district civil and criminal courts and government departments.

Security has been high at the complex frequented by thousands of people besides lawyers, judicial staff and government employees.

Police said they had intelligence of a possible attack on the complex. The four-storey judicial complex is located just across the sprawling residence of Corps Commander, Peshawar and the now-shut down luxury Pearl Continental Hotel, Peshawar, also hit by suicide bombing in June last that killed 11 people and wounded another 50.

‘I was climbing down the stairs in the complex, when shrapnel from the blast flew just over my head. I was shaken by the blast,’ a court employee said.

‘One of my colleagues was taken to the hospital and now we hear that he has died,’ Shuja’t Ali Khan said.

Peshawar, the capital of the North-West Frontier Province, has borne the major brunt of terrorist attacks since the deadly bombing in a busy shopping area on October 28 that left 121 people dead.

Chief Minister NWFP, Ameer Haider Khan vowed to continue the fight against terrorism but warned that Thursday’s bombing would not be the last one.

‘This is not going to be the last bombing,’ Mr. Hoti warned.

A senior minister in his cabinet said the government would not succumb to pressure from militants’ bombings and would not negotiate with them.

‘We will not negotiate with these animals,’ Bashir Ahmad Bilour said.

A total of 185 people have died in terrorist attacks since then including the latest bombing at the Judicial Complex.

US forces under strain: Mullen

WASHINGTON: Top US military officer Admiral Mike Mullen said on Tuesday that US forces were under strain from fighting wars in Afghanistan and Iraq but were not at a “tipping point.”

The mental fitness of American troops has come under intense scrutiny after a shooting rampage at Fort Hood by an army psychiatrist this month and amid a rise in suicides and depression.

Suicides in the US Army are on track to reach a new high this year.

With 140 suspected cases reported among active duty soldiers since the start of 2009, the number of suicides was already at last year’s level, the army’s vice chief of staff, General Peter Chiarelli, told reporters on Tuesday.

But Mullen told a gathering of top business executives that he stood by a previous comment that the military was not at a breaking point despite two protracted wars.

“I still even subsequent to that don’t think we’re near a tipping point but,” he said at the event sponsored by the Wall Street Journal, adding, “I would not want to understate the seriousness of the stress issue for individuals and for families.”

As chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Mullen said “the health of the force” was one of his top priorities and that he also had been impressed with the resilience displayed by many soldiers and families.

Malik challenges Fazlullah presence in Afghanistan

ISLAMABAD: Federal Interior Minister Rehman Malik said Afghanistan should hand Taliban militant leader Fazlullah to Pakistan, if he is there, Geo News reported Wednesday.

He said he challenges the presence of Fazlullah in Afghanistan.

Rehman Malik said the extremists use Afghan area Kunar to enter Pakistan, adding Afghan SIMs are being used in Pakistan which is being investigated.

City Council demands KESC Al-Buraj names be put on ECL

KARACHI: The worsening sugar crisis in Karachi echoed in the City Council here on Wednesday and members demanded to tell public who is being benefited by granting huge subsidy by the state on sugar from taxpayers’ money.

The session of City Council, CDGK was held with Naib City Nazim Nasreen Jalil in chair here on Wednesday. Asif Siddiqui said despite of government announcement the sugar is not being sold on Rs40 per kg. He said the smuggling of sugar is going on while the government is claiming that billions of rupees were being given as subsidy on sugar.

He asked who is being benefited from this subsidy because common man is still deprived of sugar.

Taking part in debate, Meher-u-Nisa said two bonuses were approved for the staff who worked during budget session in Council Secretariat and Naib Nazim Secretariat; however, no payment was made to the staff.

Abdul Majeed said freezing Union councils’ funds before Eid-ul-Azha could be a conspiracy against the system. He said the banks were sent letters for freezing accounts of union councils. He also presented a copy of such letter. He asked that the name of Al-Buraj administration of KESC should be put on exit control list, unless the KESC clears its position of load shedding. He said KESC is carrying out load-shedding even in winter to maximize its profits.

Imran Baghpati said the work of collecting offal might be disturbed due to halting of funds. He said cut in funds of local government would cause major problems. He said no letter was sent to any bank by the local governments for freezing UC accounts.

Jumman Darwan said the encroachers should be removed on the grabbed land of Gutter Baghicha so that law and order situation could be saved from further deterioration in the area. He said conspiracies are being hatching for creating ethnical riots.

Masood Mehmood said officers colony named Owais Qarni Society was established in Baldia Uzma in Gutter Baghicha, adding, former Local Bodies Minister and Present Speaker Sindh Assembly gave leasing documents.

Gold price goes Rs37,000/tola

KARACHI: The gold price once again surged to a record highs at Rs37,000 per tola as a repercussion of increase in the prices of gold, Geo News reported Wednesday.

The gold was seen touching the highest at $1150 with an addition of ten dollars to the gold price in the international market.

All Sindh Sarraf Jewelers Association President Haroon Rashid Chand said the gold price went up to Rs31,714 up Rs729/10 grams; while, tola price also soared up to Rs37,000 with an addition of Rs850.

Haroon Rashid Chand further said the local investors are also taking interest in gold; however, the sale at retailer level conspicuously dwindled.

Obama admits delay in closing Guantanamo

WASHINGTON: President Barack Obama admitted for the first time on Wednesday that the United States would miss the January 2010 deadline he set for closing the “war on terror” prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

The US leader also said Americans should not be “fearful” of the prospect that five men accused of masterminding the September 11, 2001 attacks will go on trial in New York City, a notion that has sparked vocal domestic opposition.

“Guantanamo — we had a specific deadline that was missed,” Obama told US-based NBC television, in one of a flurry of interviews he gave in Beijing as his Asia tour winds down.

Obama had vowed during his first week in office in January this year that he would close Guantanamo within a year of taking office, saying that the prison camp does not adhere to US standards on human and civil rights.

The White House has said however that it will continue to push for the facility’s closure, and is moving to repatriate some detainees who have been cleared for release while seeking countries willing to provide asylum to others.

“I think this notion that somehow we have to be fearful, that these terrorists possess some special powers that prevent us from presenting evidence against them, locking them up and exacting swift justice, I think that has been a fundamental mistake,” he told CNN, according to early excerpts of its interview.

The US leader told NBC television that he did not anticipate serious negative fallout from the coming capital punishment trial in New York of professed 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed.

“I don’t think it would be offensive at all when he’s convicted and when the death penalty is applied to him,” Obama told NBC, expressing “confidence” in the government’s case.

“What I’m absolutely clear about is that I have complete confidence in the American people and in our legal traditions, and the prosecutors, tough prosecutors, from New York who specialize in terrorism.”

Attorney General Eric Holder announced last week that five men accused of plotting the attacks, including Mohammed, would be moved from Guantanamo Bay to New York for prosecution.

The five terror suspects face trial at a courthouse just steps from Ground Zero, where thousands lost their lives after hijacked airliners were flown into the two World Trade Center towers.

Holder’s announcement, made while Obama visits Asia, prompted furious reactions from a number of victims’ families and outrage among Republican lawmakers.

Republican Senator John McCain, Obama’s former election rival, warned the decision sent “a mixed message about America’s resolve in the fight against terrorism.

“We are at war, and we must bring terrorists to justice in a manner consistent with the horrific acts of war they have committed,” he said.

A poll on Tuesday showed that almost two-thirds of Americans disagree with the Obama’s decision.

Sixty-four percent of those surveyed said Mohammed should be tried in a military court, while only 34 percent agreed with Obama that the civilian judicial system was the best way forward, the CNN poll said.

Seventy-eight percent of those polled said they thought he should be executed if found guilty, and a quarter of those said they did not normally support capital punishment.

But Obama said he believed the decision was the right one.

“You know, I said to the attorney general, ‘Make a decision based on the law,’” he said. “I also have great confidence in our… courts, the courts that have tried hundreds of terrorist suspects who are imprisoned right now in the United States.”

Holder also announced Friday that five detainees had been designated for trial before military tribunals, though he did not specify where the tribunals would be convened.

Provinces to get more than 50% share in NFC: Tarin

KARACHI: The members of National Finance Commission (NFC) Wednesday considered vertical aspects of resource distribution concluding that provinces would get more than 50 percent of resources, however absolute figures are expected to be announced on Thursday.

During a press briefing after the NFC meeting at a local hotel here, Federal Finance Minister Shaukat Tarin assured that federal government would cut its expenditure in order to provide more resources to the provinces.

The Finance Minister was of the view that the issue needs a new direction. This time, he said, complete visible shift would be observed, as resources would go from federation to provinces.

He informed that representatives of all provinces have given their viewpoints in this regard and they would further consult with the Chief Ministers of their respective provinces before reaching the final decision.

Tarin maintained that government’s priority is to facilitate people. “We want to empower provinces, because people live there,” he said adding all provinces would get their constitutional rights in the NFC award.

He mentioned that federal government is dependent upon the provinces for revenue generation. He said the coming NFC Award will be a historic decision, he added.

“The issue has not been resolved properly for 19 years, but this time all provinces are showing flexibility and a democratic decision will be taken which will stay for five years,” the Minister remarked.

He further said that President alone had taken the decision in previous government, but this time all the provinces are on board.

“It would not be the failure if the dialogue extends,” he said.

To a question, Punjab Finance Minister Tanvir Ashraf Kaira said that the province was ready to discuss different criteria for resource distribution.

The members will discussed horizontal aspects of resource distribution on Thursday.

Sindh Chief and Finance Minister Syed Qaim Ali Shah, Finance Minister NWFP Muhammad Hummayun Khan, Balochistan Finance Minister Muhammad Asim Kurd and other representatives of provincial and federal governments were also present.

Eidul Adha on Nov 28

ISLAMABAD: The central Ruet-e-Hilal Committee said that nation will celebrate Eidul Adha on November 28 in the country, Geo News reported Wednesday.

Also, the zonal committee in the federal capital had already announced the sighting of moon, saying the first of Zul-Hajja will fall on Thursday (November 19) i.e. tomorrow.

The Eidul Adha in 1430 of Hijra year will fall on November 28.

The Zul-Hajja moon has been sighted in various cities of Punjab.

Meantime, the Met Department said the moon appeared at 1744pm and will remain visible till 1818.

Chairman of Ruet-e-Hilal Committee Mufti Muneeb-ur-Rehman also said the witnesses regarding the moon sighting have been received from various parts of the country.

After the meeting of central Ruet Committee, the Committee members raised their hands in praying to Allah. (Last updated at 1805)

Pakistani cueist continues winning streak in World championship

HYDERABAD: Pakistani cueist Mohammad Sajjad sailed into knock out round in World Snooker Championship underway in Indian city of Hyderabad Deccan after defeating India’s Graesh.In a one sided match, Sajjad beat Graesh by 4-0 and booked the berth in knock out round of the event. Sajjad’s victory score was 17-50, 56-67, 9-79 and 0-94.

Rich kids slum it out in Indian reality show

MUMBAI: Trading their Blackberries for scrubbing brushes and their mansions for huts, a group of wealthy youth are gluing Indians to their TV screens in a country struggling to bridge the gap between poverty and prosperity.

Sunny Sara, 28, a nighclub owner in Mumbai, was one of the participants in a new and popular reality TV show called ‘The Big Switch’ which involves rich contestants residing in a slum for one month to help slum dwellers.

‘There was no running water, no air conditioning, none of the amenities I was used to. I missed by Blackberry and my bikes,’ Sara said. ‘It was a life-changing experience.’

More than a third of India’s population survives on less than one dollar a day, according to a 2007 United Nations report, while the number of dollar millionaires rose almost 23 per cent in the same year, the fastest pace in the world.

The show went on air late last month, almost a year after Danny Boyle’s Oscar-winning film ‘Slumdog Millionaire’ showed the world what it was like to be poor in Mumbai, where more than half its 18 million residents live in slums or on the streets.

‘Most of India’s television audience is in the middle class,’ said Zarina Mehta of UTV Bindass, which airs The Big Switch.

‘When you bring in people from the richest strata and put them with the poorest of the poor, it makes for great television,’ Mehta added.

‘Our show is also about hope and the fact that you can work your way out of that poverty.’

The show involves 10 rich contestants paired with 10 slum dwellers. The groups have to work on tasks such as shining shoes at railway stations and selling wares at traffic signals, jobs the poor often have to do.

Points are given for each task and the onus is on the rich contestants to win the cash prize of 1 million rupees ($21,600), which would go towards fulfilling the dreams of their partner.

The show, which ends in the last week of January, was shot in a slum in Mumbai’s suburbs where fishermen live, and contestants, who also included an actor and a former Miss India, had to live in a one-room hut with their partner.

Sara’s partner on the show is Abhishek Kushwah, a 22-year-old who grew up in Dharavi, Asia’s biggest slum.

‘Me and Sunny are similar in our thinking, but we come from such different backgrounds,’ Kushwah said.

‘Yet, he did all he could to help me towards my goal of going to catering school. This show could be my ticket to a good life.’

For Sara, there were some experiences that were not so good.

‘The smell of rotting fish was unbearable. There was a lot of filth and dirt,’ he said.

Reality TV and game shows have proved to be huge hits with Indian audiences. From Indian versions of ‘Who Wants to Be A Millonaire’ to ‘American Idol’ and ‘Big Brother’, they all air on primetime.

Thousands in Asia disappointed by meteor showers

NEW DELHI: Thousands of stargazers across Asia stayed awake overnight to catch a glimpse of what was advertised as an intense Leonid meteor shower, but the show fizzled rather than sizzled for many because of cloudy conditions.

One group of about 30 amateur Indian astronomers saw the meteors light up the sky at the Siriska wildlife sanctuary, about 95 miles (150 kilometers) south of New Delhi – counting 78 during a four-hour period.

‘There was no moon in the sky, which is good for observation,’ said Yogeshwar Kanu Aggarwal, a member of the Space Science Popularization Association of Communications and Educators.

‘We could see flashes of light for almost 10 seconds.’

Leonid meteors are bits of debris from the Comet Tempel-Tuttle and were named after the constellation Leo, from which they appear to originate. NASA scientists had projected there would be up to 300 raining down every hour, compared to a typical night when there are about eight an hour.

Night owls in Manila, however, were left staring at the lights of passing airplanes because of cloudy conditions.

More than 1,000 Thais who camped out in a parking lot on the outskirts of Bangkok had better luck, spotting 52 over several hours.

‘The sky was clear and there were many meteors around 4 am,’ said Suranand Supawannakij, director of the Science Center for Education in Rangsit, about 25 miles (40 kilometers) north of Bangkok.

‘They came from many directions. I am always excited seeing a meteor shower.’

The Leonid meteors travel at 156,000 miles (251,000 kilometers) per hour. They consist mostly of dust and ice, and evaporate long before they reach the ground, so ‘you can go outside and watch the Leonid meteor shower without worrying about getting whacked on the head,’ said scientist Bill Cooke of NASA’s Meteoroid Environment Office.

When a Leonid meteor storm was first observed in 1833, Cooke said it must have seemed like something out of the apocalyptic saga ‘2012.’ More than 30,000 meteors an hour rained down on an unsuspecting public, sparking panic and fears of the end of the world, he said.

‘They were seeing 10 meteors per second all over the sky,’ he said.

‘You read newspaper accounts and robbers were returning what they stole because they wanted to be right with God. People were praying in churches, in their yards.’

This time around, the meteor shower was greeted with the oohs and ahhs that one hears at fireworks displays rather than screeches of fear.

‘I’ve seen meteors before but this was different,’ said Akradech Lekkla, a 39-year-old taxi driver who joined several whiskey-drinking Thais in Ayutthaya, about 30 miles (50 kilometers) from Bangkok.

‘It looked like it was raining meteors,’ he said. ‘They came in so quick that if you didn’t pay attention you missed them.’

In India, a cloudy sky disappointed thousands of stargazers in Agra, home of the Taj Mahal. Pawan Sharma, a 36-year-old photographer, could only spot meteors, one of them big enough to be seen streaking across the sky in a window between the clouds.

‘It was a momentary thing. It was so disappointing,’ he said.

In Nepal, cloud and fog cover over much of the Himalayan nation blocked views of the meteors.

Jayanta Acharya, astronomy professor at Katmandu’s Tribhuwan University, said he woke up early to view the meteor shower from the rooftop of his house.

‘It was a big event for us and we are all disappointed to have missed it,’ Acharya said.

Laddah, Sararogha cleared; street fighting in Makin

LADDAH: The mud-compound, which had a part of its outer wall blown up by artillery fire, was used as an Al Qaeda training facility until recently.

Jihadi literature and guerilla training manuals, mostly in Arabic, lay in a heap amidst a huge pile of weapons left by the insurgents after security forces captured Laddah, a key militant stronghold in South Waziristan.

Army officials said on Tuesday that the place was used for militant as well as ideological training. ‘We have intercepted communications revealing the presence of a large number of foreign fighters in the area, mostly Arabs and Uzbeks,’ Brig Farrukh Jamal said.

The compound sits next to a sprawling fort, built by the British in 1932, which has been destroyed in the battle for the town which raged for several days.

The town looked deserted as its entire population of 10,000 has fled, leaving all their belongings. Many of the houses have been destroyed in intense shelling.

The devastation was worse in Sararogha, another major town in the region which was described by the army as the nerve-centre of the Taliban. Heaps of mud bricks and twisted iron were all that was left of the town after the forces seized it.

Soldiers took positions on the rubble of Sararogha fort, destroyed by the Taliban in an attack last year. There was not a single civilian to be seen in the devastated town, some 30km from Laddah.

‘We faced tough resistance from the insurgents, most of them Arabs and Uzbeks,’ said Brig Mohammed Shafiq whose forces captured Sararogha last week.

They had built long tunnels in the mountains from where it was very difficult to dislodge them, he said.

A ramshackle students’ hostel building was turned into insurgent headquarters. One of the rooms whose roof was blown up by a mortar shell was used as Taliban’s ‘Sharia court’.

A bloodstained shirt was strung from a pedestal fan. ‘No one should question the ruling of the Islamic court,’ read a directive issued by the Taliban high command.

A part of the building was also used for training suicide bombers. ‘Many of the suicide bombers involved in the recent attacks in Pakistani cities were trained here,’ said Brig Shafiq.

Military officials said they had captured most towns once under rebel control in a key district along the Afghan border.

More than 30,000 troops, backed by air force jets, launched the massive operation in South Waziristan on Oct 17, vowing to crush Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan which was blamed for most of the suicide bombings that have killed hundreds of people in recent months.

The capture of the two major towns has cleared the way for the forces to advance towards Makin, the hometown of slain Taliban leader Baitullah Mehsud.

‘Our forces have already entered Makin and are engaged in street fighting,’ said Brig Jamal.

The military officials said the first part of the offensive, aimed at seizing control of the region once ruled by Taliban, would be over by the end of the current month — before a harsh winter sets in.

More than 500 militants have been killed in the fighting so far and 70 soldiers have lost their lives, Maj-Gen Athar Abbas, the chief military spokesman, said.

Maj-Gen Abbas told reporters escorted by the army into South Waziristan that forces had captured most of the population centres and disrupted the militants’ food supply line.

‘The myth has been broken that this was a graveyard for empires and it would be a graveyard for the army,’ Maj-Gen Abbas said. ‘Major towns and population centres have been secured.’

The military said there were around 10,000 militant fighters in the area. Most of them, including the top commander, are believed to have fled to other tribal areas, raising fears of a long-drawn guerilla war.

Azam Tariq, a spokesman for the Taliban, in a video message on a militant website has denied the military’s claim, saying the insurgents had suffered much less casualties.

He also vowed to continue a guerilla war targeting security installations in major cities.

Although he had denied that the Taliban were responsible for a recent suicide bombing in a Peshawar market that killed more than 120 people, security officials said communication intercepted by intelligence agencies showed their involvement in attacks on civilians.

‘It is a part of their propaganda tactics to deny killing innocent people,’ an official said.

There are also strong concerns about maintaining the hold on the extremely treacherous terrain because of the collapse of civilian administration. The other major challenge being faced by the government is rehabilitation and reconstruction.

More than 300,000 people have left their homes and taken refuge in areas outside the conflict zone.

Analysts and officials said most of them had lost everything in the fighting and a massive effort would be needed to help them restart their lives.

Gilani says he enjoys all powers of chief executive

DERA ISMAIL KHAN: Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani said on Tuesday he had all powers of the chief executive of the country and President Asif Ali Zardari had already offered to surrender powers vested in him under Article 58(2)b of the Constitution.

However, he said he needed no powers to dissolve assemblies. In reply to question about his lack of powers to appoint services chiefs, he said in a lighter mood: ‘I would like to get them.’

The prime minister was addressing a news conference at the Dera Sports Stadium after visiting a distribution centre set up for the displaced people of South Waziristan.

Asked why he, as the chief executive, and the president, as the supreme commander, had not visited the frontline to boost morale of the armed forces, Mr Gilani said he visited wherever he was asked to, recalling his visit to Swat.

But he did not explain why President Zardari had so far not visited any of the areas cleared by the military.

The prime minister expressed satisfaction over the military operation in South Waziristan and said its objectives would be achieved ahead of schedule.

He said that a large number of underground bunkers and dens of Arab, Chechen and Tajik militants had been destroyed or captured by the army and terrorists were now on the run.

The prime minister, accompanied by NWFP Governor Owais Ahmed Ghani and federal ministers Qamar Zaman Kaira, Babar Awan, Rehman Malik and Farzana Raja, visited various sections of the distribution centre.

He also addressed a small gathering of Mehsud tribesmen and workers of his Pakistan People’s Party.

Terrorism stemmed from poverty and illiteracy and the government was working on health, education, job creation and other basic facilities in tribal areas, Mr Gilani added.

He said that an international trust fund for development in the NWFP, Fata and Balochistan had been set up. It would also help in early disbursement of funds for development and rehabilitation of Malakand and Swat.

He said that funds would also be provided for water and sewerage projects in D.I. Khan and Tank.

ECC raises sugar supply to Utility Stores Corp.

ISLAMABAD: The Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) of the cabinet has allowed sale of sugar through utility stores at Rs38 per kg.

At a meeting presided over by Finance Minister Shaukat Tarin on Tuesday, the ECC decided to augment supply to the Utility Stores Corporation from imported sugar and stocks held by the Trading Corporation in view of its shortage across the country.

The allocated quota of sugar for the USC was inadequate to meet the demand. While the government had fixed a price of Rs40, sugar was being sold in the market at Rs60 to Rs70 per kg.

Under a formula prepared by the committee, Balochistan, Islamabad and Gilgit-Baltistan will get 4,000 tons of imported sugar in addition to the existing supply of 1,354 tons, enhancing the total supply to 5,354 tons.

The USC in the NWFP will get 13,000 tons from TCP stocks in addition to the existing supply of 7,024 tons, raising the total supply to 20,024 tons.

In Sindh, the USC will receive 10,000 tons of imported sugar to increase the supply from 4,241 tons to 14,241 tons.

Punjab will get 27,000 tons of imported and 2,000 tons of locally-produced sugar to increase the supply from 678 tons to 29,678 tons.

An official statement said the additional supply will be sold loose and in packets through the country-wide network of 5,700 USC outlets over the next month on a first come, first served basis with a restriction of 2kgs per person.

The committee decided that the difference in the sale price at the USC and the supply price of the TCP and incidental and handling charges would be borne by the federal government.

It asked the industries ministry to urge the Punjab and Sindh governments to ensure availability of sugar in markets. While discussing the natural gas load management programme for winter, the ECC decided to divert gas from the Karachi Electric Supply Company (KESC) to the Sui Northern Gas Pipelines (SNGPL) system.

It decided that the Sui Southern Gas Company (SSGC) would divert an additional 50MMcfd from the Sawan field to the SNGPL during the season. The supply to the KESC will drop from 190 to 140 MMcfd.

The KESC will get fuel from the Pakistan State Oil (PSO) to make up for the reduction in gas supply.

The ECC formed a committee for reviving the Risalpur Export Processing Zone.

Another committee headed by the finance secretary was set up to settle the issue of electricity dues of the federal and provincial governments.

The Islamabad Electric Supply Company has issued final notices to a large number of ministries and government institutions, including the presidency, to clear the dues.

The ministry of water and power briefed the ECC on steps taken by the National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (Nepra) to regulate the KESC.

During a briefing on the economic situation, the committee was informed that the monthly core inflation had decreased from 11.9 per cent in September to 11 per cent in October.

PPP missed parliamentary cover for NRO in 2007

ISLAMABAD: A hasty decision taken in 2007 about the National Reconciliation Ordinance is now causing serious political damage and posing threats of litigations to the top leadership of the Pakistan People’s Party.

Sources privy to secret meetings held between senior leaders of the PPP and the then ruling PML-Q told Dawn that the People’s Party itself had opposed the idea of moving a national reconciliation ‘bill’ in parliament.

At a meeting organised by the ISI on September 25, 2007, the two sides worked out a basic framework for further discussions.

Minutes of a number of NRO-related meetings reveal that senior PPP leaders Makhdoom Amin Fahim and Raja Pervez Ashraf rejected the idea of taking the matter to parliament.

According to the minutes, prepared by the organisers, the PPP leadership wanted a quick action on the matter to get quick results.

They argued that promulgation of an ordinance would speed up the process of national reconciliation and help to reach a deal between President General Pervez Musharraf and PPP Chairperson Benazir Bhutto.

The PPP leadership had apprehensions that if the matter was referred to parliament it would not only cause unacceptable delays but incur unnecessary criticism from opposition groups like the PML-N.

Interestingly, the fears turned into reality when the government of Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani planned to get the NRO approved by the National Assembly last month.

The reaction from opposition groups, especially the PML-N, was so strong that it forced the PPP to drop its plan.

The minutes of the meetings also reveal that in the course of discussion, the PPP leadership insisted on lifting the ban on a person becoming prime minister for a third term. But later it gave up the demand.

PPP’s Information Secretary Fauzia Wahab did not contradict reports about her party’s 2007 position on the NRO.

But she observed that the PPP would still be under the pressure even if there had been a legislation on national reconciliation.

PML-Q President Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain, who represented his party in those meetings, claims that most of his suggestions were not included in the final draft of the NRO.

He told Dawn that he had proposed some punitive action against candidates trying to exploit religion for political gains or fan sectarian or ethnic feelings.

The PML-Q, he said, had also demanded tough action against candidates maligning the armed forces, judiciary and the Election Commission.

‘None of these positive suggestions was included in the final draft of the NRO. President Musharraf ignored me, while he accepted most of the demands of the People’s Party,’ Chaudhry Shujaat asserted.

UN commission met Musharraf last month

NEW YORK: The chairman of the UN commission of inquiry into the assassination of Benazir Bhutto, Heraldo Munoz, secretly met former president Gen (retd) Pervez Musharraf late last month.

The spokesman for Gen Musharraf, Dr Nasim Ashraf, told Dawn the meeting took place in Philadelphia on Oct 27.

About the meeting, Mr Musharraf released a brief statement on Tuesday night that said: ‘While I met the team, I strongly oppose any international probe into Pakistan’s domestic affairs.’

Mr Munoz, who is in Spain, has also confirmed the meeting. However, his office in New York declined to divulge any information about his whereabouts and only said he was out of the country.

Mr Munoz has said he will now seek a meeting with chief of the PML-N Nawaz Sharif.

Meanwhile, ahead of his meeting with Gen Musharraf Mr Munoz assured the former president in an email that his commission was not ‘investigative in nature’.

‘Its mandate is limited to determining the facts and circumstances of the assassination and, as such, it evidently does not have any competence to establish criminal responsibilities.

‘Ours would not be an ‘interrogation’ of Mr Musharraf, but a conversation as we have had with many Pakistani authorities of the executive, political party leaders, members of the legislative power, policemen, etc.

‘We interview individuals —on a voluntary basis —who can help us better understand the aforesaid situation.’

In the message Mr Munoz added that his team had met President Asif Ali Zardari and members of his cabinet, including Interior Minister Rehman Malik, Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi and Commerce Minister Amin Faheem. Senior members of the PML-Q had also met them.

Pakistan can deal with local, Afghan militants: US

WASHINGTON: The United States believes that Pakistan has the capability of dealing with the militants operating within its border and also with those who may come from Afghanistan.

At a briefing at the US State Department, spokesman Ian Kelly, however, acknowledged that the fight against the militants could not be won by military means alone.

The United States, he said, was willing to provide Pakistan with the resources Islamabad needed to wean away the affected populations from the militants.

That’s why, he said, the United States was providing economic assistance to Pakistan and was also helping reconstruction projects in the NWFP.

Asked if the United States believed Pakistan had the capability to deal with the militants inside its borders and with those coming from Afghanistan, spokesman Kelly said: ‘I think we do. I think that we certainly have more confidence now than we did even a few months ago, before they did take some decisive action to deal with this problem within their own borders.’

But more importantly, the United States saw this as a partnership with Pakistan aimed at dealing with shared challenges and problems, the official said.

The United States believed that it’s in its national interest to continue this partnership with Pakistan, the spokesman added.

Spokesman Kelly also said that the Obama Administration had raised the issue of existing terrorist training camps inside Pakistan with the leadership of the country.

India had also been briefed on this issue, he added. ‘We have, of course, raised our concerns, and we have briefed the Pakistani authorities about some of the information that we have gained from some of these suspects that have now been indicted,’ he said, but did not divulge specific details.

The spokesman was asked if the United States had shared with Pakistan the information it received from some suspects arrested recently in Chicago. The suspects claimed that they had trained in terrorist camps inside Pakistan.

India hands over another Mumbai dossier to Pakistan

ISLAMABAD: India has handed Pakistan more information about the deadly Mumbai attacks ahead of the first anniversary of the carnage that killed 166 people, Islamabad said on Wednesday.

‘The dossier was handed over to our high commission in New Delhi by the Indian ministry of external affairs,’ Pakistan’s foreign ministry said.

India and Washington blamed the November 26-29 siege on Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) and the attacks stalled a fragile four-year peace process between the two south Asian rivals.

‘Arrangements have been made for the receipt of the dossier in Islamabad,’ Pakistan’s foreign ministry said.

The ministry gave no details on the contents of the file, which it said would be forwarded to the interior ministry ‘for examination’.

New Delhi has put pressure on Islamabad to speed up its investigations into those who carried out the attacks.

Pakistan has put on trial seven suspects accused by India of involvement in last year’s attacks, but Interior Minister Rehman Malik has repeatedly asked India to provide more information to bring the perpetrators to justice.

India had previously provided four dossiers to Islamabad with information relating to suspects and the logistics of how 10 heavily armed gunmen targeted luxury hotels, Mumbai’s main train station, a restaurant and a Jewish centre.

Those in custody in Pakistan include alleged mastermind Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi and alleged key LeT operative Zarar Shah.

India has put on trial Pakistan’s Mohammed Ajmal Kasab, the sole surviving gunman of the attacks, who made a dramatic confession. —AFP

NFC Award in final stage, says Tarin

KARACHI: Federal Finance Minister Shaukat Tarin has said that the NFC Award has reached the final stage and assured that the share of provinces will be increased beyond fifty percent in the vertical distribution of the National Finance Commission Award.

Addressing a press conference following the fifth meeting of the NFC board in Karachi, Tarin stressed that the federal government is committed to empowering the provinces.

When talks resume tomorrow, the horizontal distribution of funds among provinces will be discussed.

‘If we would take care of all the provinces, it will amount to taking care of their people,’ he said and added ‘if we would make the provinces stronger, it would mean strengthening the federation’.

He said that the NFC issue was never genuinely addressed and many issues were left unresolved when the award was given in haste by a non-representative government 19 years ago.

Some provinces, he pointed out, have described sales tax as a provincial right while one province had been asserting on gas development surcharge and yet another province demanded award on the basis of war against terrorism.—DawnNews/APP

Zil-Haj moon sighted, Eid-ul-Azha on Nov 28

KARACHI: The moon of the first month of the Islamic calendar, Zil-Haj has been sighted and Eid-ul-Azha will be celebrated in Pakistan on November 28, 2009.

This was announced by Chairman Central Ruet-e-Hilal Committee Pakistan, Mufti Munib-ur-Rehman, after chairing a meeting of the committee, held at the Met Office here on Wednesday.

He announced that the moon of Zil-Haj has been sighted and the 1st Zil- Hajj, 1430 AD, will fall on November 19, 2009 while the nation will celebrate Eid-ul-Azha on November 28 (Saturday).

Mufti Munib also said the witnesses regarding the moon sighting have been received from various parts of the country.

Among others, the members of Central Ruet-e-Hilal Committee including Allama Shabbir Ahmed Azhari, Mufti Muhammad Rafiq Hussani, members of the Zonal Ruet-e-Hilal Committee, Maulana Raza-al-Mustafa, Hafiz Muhammad Salfi, Mufti Syed Sabir Hussain, representatives of SUPARCO, Chief Meteorologist, Muhammad Riaz and other were also present.—APP

The burden of economic subsidies

ECONOMICALLY, subsidies are a burden on budgets. Politically, subsidies are advantageous because they win politicians quick public approbation. But the political interests of a few should not be allowed to take precedence over the damage subsidies do to the economy. Subsidies mostly benefit those who don’t deserve them. Only a fraction reaches the people who need

support. Also, they have undesirable social and environmental consequences. Many of us, for example, still remember that kitchen stoves were left burning throughout the day as gas in the ‘good old days’ was cheap. For that matter, not many of us turned off unneeded lights when power prices were only a fraction of what they are today. Although power conservation is not yet a national habit, the reduction in fuel and power price subsidies has made people more conscious of the need to cut costs at home.

Also, governments in economies like ours are forced to cut expenditure on socio-economic infrastructure to create fiscal space for inefficient spending on subsidies. This can lead to a balance-of-payments crisis as experienced last year due to the Musharraf government’s failure — for political gains — to pass on the rising global oil prices to consumers.

In spite of subsidies being inefficient, no government easily agrees to do away with subsidies due to political advantages. It is only when a government can no longer bear the expense of subsidies that it agrees to abolish them. The PPP government must be given credit for doing what it takes to reduce the burden of power subsidies on the budget, gradually though, in spite of this move’s political fallout. If it had not done so it might not have been able to get financial backing from multilateral lenders like the IMF, whose support is crucial to stabilising the sliding economy. The government has substantially reduced the size of subsidies and their burden on the federal budget. But a lot more still needs to be done as the government would still be spending Rs55bn on unproductive power subsidies — that would only benefit the affluent — this fiscal year despite the proposed 18 per cent increase in electricity rates between January and April next year. Imagine what the government could do with this money — for instance, it could provide educational and healthcare facilities in remote and underdeveloped areas. Or, it could simply put cash in the hands of those who require protection against the rising cost of living. Clearly, the government effort to abolish subsidies must be supported as these harm the economy and do little to provide relief to the common man.

India says needs no help to heal ties with Pakistan

NEW DELHI: India on Wednesday said it needs no external help to improve ties with neighbor Pakistan, in a testy response to a statement issued by the United States and China.

New Delhi is sensitive to what it perceives as any outside interference in its regional diplomacy, especially over Pakistan and the fate of the disputed Kashmir region.

The United States and China issued a joint statement after President Barack Obama met his Chinese counterpart Hu Jintao, which included a line of support for the improvement of India-Pakistan relations.

‘Government of India is committed to resolving all outstanding issues with Pakistan through a peaceful bilateral dialogue,’ an Indian Foreign Ministry statement said.

‘A third country role cannot be envisaged nor is it necessary.’

Ties between the South Asian rivals dived after last year’s Mumbai attacks, which India blamed on Pakistan-based militants and said were supported by some official agencies.

India has also kept a wary eye on China as an old dispute over an Indian border state has flared in recent months.

New Delhi also baulks at Chinese support for projects in Pakistan and a policy of issuing separate visas to Indian Kashmiris.—Reuters

An independent body?

THE Pakistan Medical and Dental Council’s plan – still under consideration – to work out a new admission policy and uniform fee structure for private and public-sector medical colleges should technically have been welcomed as a positive move. But medical education in Pakistan is in a poor state of health and cosmetic changes as envisaged will not improve matters.

The first factor is the credibility of the regulator itself. For the PMDC to take a strong position on controversial issues – admissions being linked to a candidate’s capacity to pay high fees and the fabulous fee structure of many medical colleges – it is important that the Council should be a truly independent body that can act on the merit of a case with no stakes in the matter except to represent the public interest. Can the PMDC claim to be such a body? Many of its 100- plus members are proprietors or have links with proprietors of private medical colleges. Under these circumstances, if the PMDC acts to ostensibly check the excesses of the private institutions how can one be certain that its motives are altruistic?

Even before any measure is taken to regulate admissions and fees, it is important to look into the issue of registration of private medical colleges. They have proliferated across the country and regretfully the PMDC’s role as the accrediting body is open to question. Many of the institutions that have received registration are said to lack the facilities and quality that would qualify them as medical colleges. According to a report nearly 40 per cent of the 88 medical colleges in Pakistan are in the private sector and quite a few do not deserve registration. But with the private sector so preponderantly represented in the PMDC this may not appear surprising.

Taliban declare guerrilla war in South Waziristan

MIRAMSHAH: The Taliban hit back Wednesday at claims that towns in their mountain bastion have fallen to Pakistan army control, vowing their guerrilla war would defeat troops waging a major assault.

‘We have not been defeated. We have voluntarily withdrawn into the mountains under a strategy that will trap the Pakistan army in the area,’ Taliban spokesman Azam Tariq told journalists taken blindfold to a mountain top.

Pakistan’s main umbrella Taliban faction, Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) arranged a news conference for journalists from the tribal belt a day after the military flew correspondents into South Waziristan to visit the battlefield.

An AFP reporter, who was among those taken to the mountain top, said the bearded Tariq sat on the open ground, without a rug or chairs.

Tariq, who is spokesman for TTP chief Hakimullah Mehsud, was flanked by two armed bodyguards. This was his first direct interaction with journalists since the military mounted the Waziristan offensive.

Journalists from North Waziristan were driven to the border with South Waziristan in broad daylight where they were blindfolded and transferred into waiting vehicles, said the AFP reporter.

They were then taken several kilometres into the rugged terrain where troops backed by fighter aircraft and attack helicopters were engaged in their heaviest to date anti-Taliban offensive.

Gunfire could be heard from the mountains while one military helicopter was also seen flying in the area.

‘Look —the firing is in Nawazkot of Makin town. But this is a futile exercise, the army will never succeed in seizing control of the area,’ Tariq said pointing to the helicopter.

‘The army claims they have captured most of the towns. This is wrong, in fact we have vacated old forts which we captured from them in previous clashes. The troops are trapped there and we will retake the area,’ he added.

The Taliban spokesman on Wednesday denied reports from tribesmen that the fighters had lost the sympathies of the local Mehsud tribe and spurned army claims of heavy Taliban casualties.

‘The Pakistan government was doing this only to appease the Americans,’ he added. But he vowed the Taliban will continue their jihad in Afghanistan until the withdrawal of US forces.