N snaps all contact with Gilani as premier

By: Abrar Saeed | April 29, 2012 | The Nation

ISLAMABAD - Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) has decided that the Leader of Opposition in the National Assembly would not engage himself in any sort of consultation with Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani, since “the latter was a convicted person and no more a legitimate chief executive of the country”.
Sources in the party informed The Nation that Leader of Opposition Ch Nisar Ali Khan was in the process of consultation with Leader of the House Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani on the appointment of the new Chief Election Commissioner, but the party leadership decided after the April 26 conviction of the Prime Minister to halt the process till a new chief executive is installed by the ruling coalition.
The party leadership, after the conviction of Prime Minister Gilani, held a detailed discussion in Lahore wherein it was also decided that the Punjab Government would no more accord protocol of Chief Executive to Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani and would also move all appropriate forums to stop him from functioning as the Chief Executive of the country.
Sources said that the party would also consider bringing “a reference” against Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani in the National Assembly in the light of the Supreme Court of Pakistan verdict and the date and time of submitting “the reference” to the Speaker National Assembly would be decided in the Monday meeting of the party at the Punjab House, Islamabad.
The final decision of the party's future course of action, both within and outside the Parliament, would be decided in the Monday meeting of the party as by the time the party leadership would also have taken into confidence the other political stakeholders in the Parliament.
Sources said that Ch Nisar Ali Khan also took into confidence both Mian Nawaz Sharif and Mian Shahbaz Sharif about his telephonic contacts with heads of various political parties including JUI-F chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman, PPP-S chief Aftab Ahmad Khan Sherpao, PML-Likeminded chief Saleem Saifullah Khan and some other nationalist leaders who do not have representation in the Parliament.
Sources said Ch Nisar Ali Khan would be meeting Maulana Fazlur Rehman ahead of the party meeting on Monday as the PML-N wanted to evolve a consensus on the opposition’s strategy in the National Assembly when it would resume its session Monday evening.PML-N chief Nawaz Sharif declared open war against PPP the other day when he said that Gilani would have to step down or face a long march.

This news was published in print paper. Access complete paper of this day.

NewsPak

• NewsPak

Watch http://News-Pak.com for Latest News, Bricking News, Online TV channels, Bollywood News, Fashion News, Mack up Tips, Songs, Movies, and much more. Dear visitor please note that we are not broadcasting any channel only we are providing channel links from other Sites. The content of the channels are controlled by respective owners only. 

Click Here!

‘Senseless women’ minting money in the name of bill: JUI-F

By  Correspondent

Published: April 8, 2012

Activists dismiss accusations of hidden agenda as party vehemently puts its foot down.

ISLAMABAD:  Announcing a countrywide strike against the tabling of Domestic Violence Bill, Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) demanded legal action against NGOs, and female NGO workers in particular, supporting the bill.

The JUI-F, which has already declared its opposition to the passage of the bill in its current form, said it would fight its passage ‘tooth and nail.’ The group had earlier warned NGOs to stop supporting a bill which represents ‘western culture.’
“We will not let these senseless women, who depend on American dollars, work against the constitution and the Islamic shariah,” said statement issued by JUI-F Islamabad media coordinator Jamshid Abbasi. “Minting dollars in the name of women rights, (women) representatives of these NGOs are earning a bad name for Islam,” the statement said.
NGOs dismiss ‘agenda’
In response to the statement, leading human rights activist, Dr Farzana Bari, said that the allegations were completely baseless. She said that protection of women from domestic violence was the right and demand of every Pakistani woman. The bill, she said, was drafted by the country’s lawmakers in standing committees represented by all political parties including the JUI-F.
Earlier on Friday, opposing protest rallies took place outside parliament. Rights activists chanted slogans in favour of the passage of the bill, while religious activists raised slogans opposing it.
Human rights activist and filmmaker, Samar Minallah, said the protest was against the language and insensitivity shown by JUI-F Chief in parliament when the bill was introduced on April 4, 2012.
“It was a protest against a particular mindset. A mindset that tends to trivialise and politicise all women rights issues,” she told The Express Tribune.
Published in The Express Tribune, April 8^th, 2012.

Click Here!

Pakistan's president visits India amid warming ties

By Harmeet Shah Singh

April 8, 2012 , (CNN)

New Delhi (CNN) -- President Asif Ali Zardari of Pakistan visits India on Sunday -- the first by a Pakistani head of state in seven years amid thawing relations between the two nuclear-armed archrivals.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh of India will host a lunch in honor of Zardari in New Delhi before the Pakistani leader travels to the shrine of a revered Sufi saint at Ajmer in Rajasthan state, officials said.

Zardari's visit Sunday, a private trip, comes in the wake of Pakistan's recent promise to grant India "most favored nation" trading status.

The South Asian neighbors have fought three wars, two of them over the Himalayan territory of Kashmir, since the 1947 partition of the subcontinent into Islamic Pakistan and Hindu-majority, secular India after independence from Britain.

Last year, both nations pledged not to let their fragile peace process unravel again over the range of thorny issues that put them at odds.

After meeting her Indian counterpart in New Delhi in July, the Pakistani foreign minister, Hina Rabbani Khar, said she believed that "it is the desire and commitment of both the governments to make it an uninterrupted and uninterruptable process."

Their meeting came barely two weeks after three deadly explosions ripped through Mumbai, killing 27 people. The attack revived painful memories of the 2008 terrorist siege in Mumbai, for which India blamed Pakistani-based extremists. Pakistan was quick to condemn the 2011 bombings of Mumbai while New Delhi was careful not to point the finger at Islamabad.

In 2004, the nations agreed to negotiations that cover eight issues, including Kashmir, terrorism and Pakistan's concerns over river dams on the Indian side of the border, which it sees as a threat to its water supplies.

Since then, successive governments have held talks in an effort to end the historical acrimony.

Singh and Zardari hailed results from the dialogue in September 2008 as the countries completed four rounds of diplomatic meetings.

But engagements were suspended two months later in November 2008 after the terrorist assault on Mumbai, which left more than 160 people dead.

Over the past two years, India and Pakistan have held a series of high-level meetings in their bid to put their peace dialogue back on track, a process considered crucial to regional stability ahead of the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan.

In 2011, New Delhi and Islamabad agreed to resume talks.

"It's a win-win situation when Pakistan and India are engaging in dialogue, are talking to each other, and are building better cooperation," Mark Toner, a deputy spokesperson for the U.S. State Department, said Thursday regarding Zardari's upcoming India visit.

Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani of Pakistan, who met Singh on the margins of a nuclear security summit in Seoul, South Korea, last month, also invited the Indian leader to his country.

"Zardari has chosen a visit to Ajmer as a reason to be in New Delhi," Sanjaya Baru, Singh's former media adviser, wrote in a column for the Indian Express on Friday.

Baru suggested Singh "could choose a visit to his place of birth, the village Gah, as a good reason to go to Lahore, and maybe even Islamabad."

Singh was born in Gah during British rule over the subcontinent. Today, the village is part of the Pakistani province of Punjab.

Gen. Pervez Musharraf was the last Pakistani president to visit India, in 2005, upon invitation by Singh to watch a cricket match between the two countries.

"Nothing need come out of such visits. No joint statement, no agreements, no final solution. But each such visit and the ensuing dialogue will make it easier for both governments to walk down the road that Singh and Musharraf defined," Baru wrote.

Other observers also said the Sunday lunch meeting between the Indian and Pakistani leaders was encouraging.

"The lunch being hosted by the prime minister for a Pakistani president on a private visit is a welcome step," said Uday Bhaskar, a strategic analyst. "These gestures are in the long-term interest of India and that of the region."

What Manmohan Singh should tell Zardari today

Click Here!

What Manmohan Singh should tell Zardari today

by Aakar Patel  , 8Th April 2012, Fristpost.India,

What should Manmohan Singh tell Asif Zardari about Hafiz Saeed when he meets him today?
He should say that the US move to squeeze Pakistan by putting a bounty on Saeed must be used to its advantage by Pakistan.
Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani says this is an internal issue for Pakistan. Arresting, prosecuting or simply containing Saeed does not concern the United States because Pakistan is equipped to deal with its citizen.
The question is: Has it succeeded? The answer is no. An editorial in the Daily Times explained why. Writing about the “November 2008 Mumbai bloodbath in which 166 people, including six American citizens, were killed”, the newspaper says about Saeed: “His subsequent arrest and trial however, yielded an acquittal from the Lahore High Court for lack of evidence. It is evident that our courts’ hands are tied if no credible evidence or witnesses are available. The former may be difficult to obtain given that our sleuths are not renowned for competence and also because people of Hafiz Saeed’s ilk have powerful protectors and friends in the intelligence community, which sees them as ‘strategic assets’. The latter are usually too frightened, or frightened off by open threats from organisations wedded to extremist jihad.”

The PM should say the US move to squeeze Pakistan by putting a bounty on Saeed must be used to its advantage by Pakistan. AP Photo

There is another reason for Gilani to consider doing more on Saeed. It can be argued that the LeT’s attacks on India damaged Pakistan more than they did India. After the attack on Parliament in 2001, India mobilised for war. President Musharraf was pressured to ban LeT and Jaish e Muhammad. Little benefit accrued to Pakistan from the event except a devaluation of assets.  After the attack in Mumbai, the United Nations Security Council (under GA 9527, modifying resolution 1822) accepted India’s and the United States’ case that Hafiz Saeed and Zaki ur Rehman Lakhvi were responsible and they were put under sanctions. The world stopped accepting Pakistan’s deniability.
As strategy, such attacks are more fulfilling emotionally than effective. The idea that India has been slapped by 10 men who kept its economic centre under siege for three days is satisfying to those who hate India. But other than killing some Indian women, children and men, this did not achieve much. Of course, it is valid to assume that the LeT saw value, including for propaganda, but the attack did not move it towards its goal. LeT’s goal is to free Kashmir from Hindu rule and have the crescent of Islam hoisted again at the Red Fort.
I would say the attack made the goal more difficult because it is LeT that was squeezed after it, not India.
The benefit such assets bring Pakistan is little compared to the cost. Their actions are not effective for three reasons:
First, India’s economy has escaped the orbit of South Asia’s low growth curse. LeT’s bloodiest attack could not change that. Second, Indians have a cultural ability (which Pakistanis also share) to absorb trauma. Traumatic events are episodic and put behind us more easily than by the West. Third, such attacks have failed to provoke communal rioting because there is a consensus that it is Pakistan that does it.
On Pakistan’s side, allowing space to LeT has led to other problems. Saeed is the moving force behind Difaa e Pakistan. This group has made the Parliament’s delicate job of repairing relations with the United States more difficult. There is a side to the Difaa e Pakistan which is not about Hindus, Christians and Jews, but threatens Pakistan’s own communities.
For this reason Gilani is right about Saeed being an internal issue, but only if he sees it in terms of both sovereignty and as a problem.
The truth is that even if the US put the bounty to please Manmohan Singh, and I believe it did, the beneficiary will be Pakistan. If they cannot successfully prosecute Saeed, Gilani and Zardari should use this opportunity to convince the army to shut LeT down.

UBC researchers find new substance that could impact perfume industry

Click Here!

UBC researchers find new substance that could impact perfume industry

April 6, 2012. 3:45 pm • Section: Live@5, Opinion

A team of researchers at the University of British Columbia have identified a gene in balsam fir trees that produces a fixative very similar to a mixture of seashells, fish bones and sticky inner-stomach substance that sperm whales regurgitate.
The compound is a key ingredient in high-end scents and the find could have a big impact on the perfume, fashion and advertising industries.
The promotional possibilities are endless…how about: “Synthetic Whale Vomit presents The Real Housewives of Vancouver”?

BELLS BEACH RIP CURL PRO SURFING FINAL
Kelly Slater vs Mick Fanning
Good Friday in Victoria, Australia…

مجید نظامی پاکستان کی نظریاتی سرحدوں کے تحفظ میں مثالی کردار اداکررہے ہیں، ان کی شخصیت ملک و قوم کے لئے اثاثہ ہے۔ وزیراعظم یوسف رضاگیلانی

Click Here!

 

مجید نظامی پاکستان کی نظریاتی سرحدوں کے تحفظ میں مثالی کردار اداکررہے ہیں، ان کی شخصیت ملک و قوم کے لئے اثاثہ ہے۔ وزیراعظم یوسف رضاگیلانی

   

07 April 2012 , Waqt News,

نوائے وقت گروپ کے ایڈیٹر انچیف مجیدنظامی کی ادارت کے پچاس برس مکمل ہونے پراپنے تہنیتی پیغام میں وزیراعظم یوسف رضاگیلانی کا کہنا تھا کہ مجید نظامی نے صحافت کے میدان میں اہم سنگ میل عبورکرلیاہے، اور ان کی خدمات کا اعتراف لیاقت علی خان نے بھی کیاتھا۔ انہوں نے کہا کہ مجید نظامی پاکستان کی نظریاتی سرحدوں کے تحفظ میں مثالی کردار ادار کررہے ہیں جس کی بدولت ان کو لائف ٹائم اچیومنٹ ایوارڈ، نشان امتیاز، ستارہ پاکستان اور ستارہ امتیاز جیسے اعزازت ملے۔ وزیراعظم کا کہنا تھا کہ مجید نظامی نے فکراقبال اورقائداعظم کی حیات وخدمات کومشعل راہ بناتے ہوئے قوم کی رہنمائی کا مشن جاری رکھا ہوا ہے ۔ وزیراعظم نے کہا کہ مجید نظامی نے ہمیشہ آمریت کے تکلیف دہ ادوارمیں کلمہ حق کہنے کی روش جاری رکھی ہے۔ یوسف رضاگیلانی کا کہنا تھا کہ اہم قومی معاملات میں نوائے وقت کی خدمات گراں قدر ہیں اورمجید نظامی کی شخصیت ملک و قوم کے لئے ایک اثاثہ ہے۔وزیراعلٰی بلوچستان نواب محمد اسلم رئیسانی نے اپنے پیغام میں کہا کہ جمہوریت کی بحالی اور استحکام کے لئے مجید نظامی کی خدمات قابل ستائش ہیں۔ انہوں نے کہا کہ مجید نظامی کی مثبت تنقید حکومتوں کے لئے درست راہ متعین کرتی ہے۔ اسلم رئیسانی کا کہنا تھا کہ مجید نظامی کی پچاس سالہ خدمات صحافت کے میدان میں ایک روشن باب کی حیثیت رکھتی ہیں، بلوچستان کے گورنر بلوچستان نواب ذوالفقار مگسی کا کہنا تھا کہ صحافت کے فروغ کے لئے مجید نظامی کی خدمات کو ہمیشہ یاد رکھا جائےگا۔ نواب ذوالفقار مگسی کا کہنا تھا کہ نواجون نسل مجید نظامی کی شخصیت، زندگی اور کردار سے رہنمائی حاصل کریں اور ان کے نقش قدم پر چلتے ہوئے ملکی تعمیر و ترقی کے لئے کام کریں۔

زرداری نےجوکچھ میرے والدکےبارے میں کہا وہ انتہائی افسوس ناک ہے۔ پیپلزپارٹی نے چارسال میں ملک کوتباہ کردیا.میاں نوازشریف

   

07 April 2012, Waqt News

پشاور میں مسلم لیگ ہم خیال کے رہنما امیرمقام کی ساتھیوں سمیت مسلم لیگ ن میں شمولیت کے موقع پر مسلم لیگ ن کے صدرمیاں نواز شریف نے کہا کہ وہ امیر مقام اور ان کے ساتھیوں کو خوش آمدید کہتے ہیں۔ نوازشریف نے حکومت کو تنقید کا نشانہ بناتے ہوئے کہا کہ حکومت کی کارکردگی صفر سے بھی کم ہے لوڈ شیڈنگ انتہا کو پہنچ گئی ہے اسکے خلاف احتجاج جائز ہے۔ نوازشریف کا کہنا تھا کہ زرداری نے انکے والد کے بارے میں جو کچھ کہا وہ انتہائی افسوسناک ہے، انکے والد کا انتقال جلاوطنی کے دوران ہوا اور اللہ کے گھر لاکھوں کے ہجوم نے جنازے میں شرکت کی، جدہ ائیرپورٹ پر والد صاحب کی میت کو جہاز میں رکھا لیکن مشرف نے ہم میں سے کسی کو پاکستان آنے نہیں دیا اس وقت انکی کیا حالت تھی صرف وہ ہی جانتے ہیں، نوازشریف نے کہا کہ صدر کے اتنا کچھ کہنے کے باجود وہ زرداری کے والد کی بخشش کیلئے ہمیشہ دعاگو رہیں گے۔
انہوں نے کہا کہ اگرہماری حکومت کو چلنے دیا جاتا تو دہشتگردی اور بیروزگاری نہ ہوتی۔ ہم بھارت کو بجلی دینے کے بارے میں سوچ رہے تھے لیکن آج بھارت ہمیں بجلی کی پیشکش کررہا ہے۔

Click Here!

Swann floats England into contention

By AFP

Published: April 7, 2012

0097333194530 On a wearing pitch, Swann took four wickets in the second-innings to dent Sri Lanka’s hopes and give his side a great chance of levelling the two-match series. PHOTO: AFP

COLOMBO:  Off-spinner Graeme Swann grabbed four wickets to leave a rejuvenated England on the brink of a series-levelling win in the second and final Test against Sri Lanka.

The hosts, trailing by 185 runs in the first-innings, ended the fourth day’s play on 218 for six in their second knock, a lead of 33 on a wearing pitch. Mahela Jayawardene stood in England’s way with an unbeaten 55, showing the form that has already fetched him two centuries in the series, including one in the first-innings.
England who lost the first Test and need a win to retain their number-one ranking, will return for the final day’s play looking to polish off the rest of the Sri Lankan batting quickly.
Prior eyes under-150 target
England wicket-keeper Matt Prior said that his side will look to minimise the target.
“Hopefully we’ll be chasing less than 150,” said Prior. “But we know we’ve got the ability in the dressing room to chase down anything. But first and foremost we have to take the four wickets.”
Prior said it was more important to make it 1-1 in the series than think about the rankings.
“Every bloke wants to be part of the best team in the world and we want to prove we’re  the best. We want to win because we want to win every Test we play, not because it counts in our rankings.”
Dilshan still optimistic
Tillakaratne Dilshan, meanwhile, refused to write off his team’s chances.
“If we bat out the first session, there’s  a good chance we may win it,” said Dilshan. “If we can set a target of 150, we believe we can win. It’s not an easy pitch to bat on. It has turn and bounce and we have some very good spinners in our side.”
Swann does the trick
The tourists were hoping for a swift closure when Swann grabbed the key wickets of Dilshan and Kumar Sangakkara in the post-lunch session. But Thilan Samaraweera (47) and Jayawardene kept the England attack at bay.
Published in The Express Tribune, April 7^th, 2012.

Click Here!

Analysis: How Byco’s new refinery might change the industry

By Farooq Tirmizi

Published: April 7, 2012

The group imported a refinery that was owned by Chevron in Milford Haven, UK. The entire refinery was taken apart and moved to Byco’s 600-acre site in Hub, Balochistan where it has since been re-assembled. It took almost two years – from 2007 to 2009 – just to move the refinery and another three years to reassemble it. PHOTO COURTESY: BYCO

KARACHI:  By global standards, Byco’s new refinery is not technologically very advanced. In fact, it is not even new, having first been set up in the United Kingdom in 1967. But it represents an important step forward for the country’s refining sector, and Byco’s competitors are likely to have noticed.

Byco Petroleum currently operates the smallest refinery in the country, which has a capacity of processing about 36,200 barrels per day. Its parent group, however, plans to expand the refining operations by adding about capacity for about 120,000 barrels per day.
To do this, the group imported a refinery that was owned by Chevron in Milford Haven, UK. The entire refinery was taken apart and moved to Byco’s 600-acre site in Hub, Balochistan where it has since been re-assembled and re-calibrated to operate in the Pakistani environment. It took almost two years – from 2007 to 2009 – just to move the refinery and another three years to reassemble it.
Byco’s main sponsors – the Abbasi family and the Dubai-based private equity firm Abraaj Capital – have thus far invested $750 million into the refinery project. “We will begin commissioning in the third quarter of 2012 and will begin commercial production from October,” said Muhammad Akram Paracha, the head of refining operations at Byco.
Yet it is not the size of the refinery that is impressive. After all, the Khalifa Refinery being built not much further down the Balochistan coast will be even bigger, with a capacity of about 250,000 barrels per day. What distinguishes this refinery is its ability to process crude oil beyond a level that is currently possible in Pakistan.
Tucked away in the massive refinery complex at Hub is a small segment called the isomerisation unit, the first of its kind in Pakistan and the pride and joy of the company’s engineers. This unit will allow the refinery to convert 12,500 barrels per day of naphtha into motor gasoline, commonly known as petrol. That may not sound significant, but in the world of refining, it is big news.
A majority of the product produced by most refineries in Pakistan yield negative margins, meaning that they sell for below the price of the crude oil that went into making them. Furnace oil, liquefied petroleum gas and naphtha yield either negative margins or at best flat margins. Refineries make their money off diesel fuel and petrol, and even there, the margins are quite narrow, often in the single digits.
Taken together, petrol and diesel constitute about 50% of the refinery’s production. If, however, a refinery is able to add the roughly 8% of its production that is naphtha and yields negative returns into petrol – which yields positive returns – the refinery will significantly boost its profitability.
Byco’s refinery may be old, but it is the only one in Pakistan that will have the capacity to do so, boosting the company’s returns significantly.
Other refineries are also trying to boost their processing capabilities. Pak-Arab Refinery Company, currently the owner of Pakistan’s largest refinery company, wants to begin producing asphalt out of furnace oil, which yields higher margins.
So why are investors not happy?
Despite plans of becoming the largest refinery in the country, most investors appear unimpressed with Byco. The reason: the new refinery will not be owned by the publicly-listed Byco Petroleum, but rather its unlisted parent company, Byco Oil Pakistan.
“Investors are not interested because it [the new refinery] is not going to be part of the listed company,” said Fawad Khan, a research analyst at KASB Securities. “There could be synergies going forward, but the retail investor will get not benefit for now.”
Published in The Express Tribune, April 7^th, 2012.

Syria crisis: UN chief Ban Ki-moon condemns attacks

 

7 April 2012

Syria crisis: UN chief Ban Ki-moon condemns attacks

Activists and witnesses say there has been an intensification of violence in recent days

Continue reading the main story

The head of the UN, Ban Ki-moon, has condemned the Syrian government for fresh military assaults despite agreeing to a deal to end the violence.

Mr Ban said the 10 April ceasefire deadline was "not an excuse for continued killing" by forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad.
Activists say at least 100 people have been killed over the past two days as troops intensified operations.
Earlier, Turkey said it may need UN help after a surge in refugee arrivals.
After speaking to Mr Ban, Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said the rate of refugees had doubled since Mr Assad agreed to implementing the UN-Arab League plan.
The six-point peace plan, mediated by envoy and former UN chief Kofi Annan, envisages cessation of armed violence by all parties from 10 April, with a full ceasefire on 12 April.

However, the Syrian opposition, the US and many regional countries have expressed scepticism that Syria is committed to the plan.

In Friday's statement, Mr Ban said the recent attacks on civilians "violate" the UN's demands and demanded the government halt military operations.
Mr Ban "deplores the assault by the Syrian authorities against innocent civilians, including women and children, despite the commitments by the Government of Syria to cease all use of heavy weapons in population centers," it said.
"The 10 April timeline to fulfill the Government's implementation of its (ceasefire) commitments, as endorsed by the Security Council, is not an excuse for continued killing," it said.
Earlier, Turkey said that if the influx of refugees continued at the current rate, it would need international assistance. More than 2,800 Syrians have crossed over the border in 36 hours, with the total now near 24,000, Mr Davutoglu said.
Many of the refugees have reported intense bombardment by government forces.

Continue reading the main story 

 

On Friday, activists said violence was continuing across the country.

The BBC's Jim Muir in Beirut says that in Homs and some other areas the approach of the deadline to halt all violence seems to have brought an escalation rather than a reduction.
He says activists are accusing the government of trying to complete its crackdown come what may; but government officials say it is the rebel fighters who are exploiting the impending withdrawal of the military from towns and cities.
A UN team is currently in Damascus to negotiate the possibility of deploying UN monitors to oversee any ceasefire.
Mr Annan has said that if the truce is successful a small mobile UN monitoring mission of some 200-250 observers could be brought into Syria.
The UN estimates more than 9,000 people have died in the year-long uprising against the rule of President Assad.

Poker face?: Nawaz unruffled

By  Correspondent

Published: April 7, 2012

“I am not commenting on the ‘taking away shine’ [comment by the president],” says PML-N chief Nawaz Sharif. PHOTO: Express

PESHAWAR:  In retaliation to the president’s continued tirades against him, Nawaz Sharif played it cool on Friday – and refused to take the bait.

The chief of the principal opposition party, the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), seemed to take the moral high road in his brief interaction with the media in Peshawar, saying: “I am not commenting on the ‘taking away shine’ [comment by the president]”. About being called a ‘refugee’ by the president, he said that such statements will further polarise nation and should be avoided.
The most surprising statement by President Asif Ali Zardari on Thursday, regarding the number of people present for the funeral of Nawaz’s father, was met by an equally surprising response by the PML-N chief.
He recalled that, when the president’s father was ill in London, he had gone to enquire about his health – and added that he still prays for his salvation.
Nawaz did say that the incumbent government’s performance was ‘below zero’.
Another party of the opposition, the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam–Fazal (JUI-F), however, was more vocal in its response.
Maulana Fazlur Rehman said that the president had politically lowered himself by issuing derogatory statements regarding the funeral of Sharif’s father.
He advised the PML-N not to respond to the remarks, and said that it now appeared that the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP)’s politics was not that of reconciliation.
Punjab law minister
While Nawaz remained silent, the PML-N’s other senior leaders responded in kind to the president. Punjab Law Minister Rana Sanaullah said that the statements of President Zardari are a proof of his ‘mental bankruptcy’. He added that one can hardly believe that the head of a state can use such words in a speech. He said that President Zardari owes his ‘shine’ to the looted wealth.
In a statement, Rana Sanaullah said that President Zardari can visit Punjab to his heart’s content but the people of this province will show him his true level of popularity here.
Published in The Express Tribune, April 7^th, 2012.

Laptop scheme a scam? 

Salahudin safdar , 

Tuesday, 3 Apr 2012 

 

LAHORE - As the laptop distribution continues on various campuses of Lahore, the beneficiaries of this scheme flock the IT markets for laptop related services including operating system changes and software installations.
The walls and notice boards in educational campuses are flooded with the advertisements like “Install Windows on your laptop”, “Get MS Office and Windows Media Player”. The laptops are given with Linux-based operating system Ubuntu installed on it. Even the operating systems installed have upgraded versions available easily but the laptops came by default with Ubuntu 10.10 version while currently Ubuntu 12.04 is being used. However unfamiliarity of students with Linux-based OS has created a hoax amongst them and they are shifting to Microsoft Operating Systems Windows 7 or XP. Educational campuses surveys disclose that the rate of Windows installation is varied across institutes and ranges between Rs 150 and Rs 500. Similarly, in IT markets, the price for similar services varies from Rs 200 to Rs 500, while licensed versions of Windows 7 Professional installation costs some Rs 12,000 to Rs 13,000 per laptop.
Contrary to these genuine softwares, their pirated versions are easily available on a Rs 50 DVD. Students usually cannot afford that much prices while at the same time they fear the pirated versions may harm their laptops that is why they prefer to get the windows installed from IT experts.
A Pakistan Today survey showed mostly people advertising their services use these pirated versions and are earning quite a good bit of money out of it.
Yumna Munir, a student of Hailey College of Commerce, said that she had got Windows installed by a person who had placed an ad on her college’s notice board for Rs 500. The advertiser fooled the young lady by claiming that he had installed the genuine Windows 7 on her laptop that she recently got through the Punjab Chief Minister’s Free Laptop Scheme. An advertisement near M.A.O College reads “Get Windows 7 or XP for Rs 500 with full drivers and softwares on Shahbaz Sharif’s Laptops”. The advertisement states the service would be provided at door step.
Following the package details, there were written two cell phone numbers to contact for hiring the service. IT gurus point out that the Punjab government smartly tried to comply with the intellectual property rights by offering free laptops with pre-installed Linux-based open source operating system, Ubuntu. But the government should understand that in Pakistan IT growth is based on Microsoft led products, like Windows and Office applications, they maintained. Commenting on the Chief Minister Laptop scheme hardware, IT wizards indicate that though the machine processor is relatively based on new technology, it is slower than the latest iSeries processors. They point out that Dell Inspiron, the laptop given to students, is equipped with Intel Pentium B950 dual-core processor, which is designed for entry-level machines. Though, it is based on Sandy Bridge architecture, but many of the features, like Turbo Boost for the CPU part, Hyper Threading, AES, Virtualization (VT-x and VT-d), Trusted Execution or Intel Quick Sync, are deactivated.
A simple web search on Google also presents a similar picture about the laptops.
A processor benchmarking website (cpubenchmark.net) reveals that the processor installed in the Dell Inspiron n4050 is the most sluggish processor available in the market. The benchmark chart topper common CPUs indicates that the processor these laptops hhave in them, Intel Pentium B950 2.10GHz, is slower from most common processors, Corei5-2400, Core i7870, AMD Phenom II X6, Corei7-2630QM, Corei7 950, Core i7 960, Core i5-2500K, Core i7-2670!M, Core i7-2600 and Core i7-2600K.

Shakalaka Boom Boom EPISODE 1 PART 2/2

Gilani has played his innings

By: Special Report | March 16, 2012 |The Nation

ISLAMABAD - Federal Religious Affairs Minister Khursheed Shah has maintained whether court punishes Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani or not, he has played his innings.
He was talking to journalists at a function held in connection with Lithuania’s national day.
To a question about speculations that he (Khursheed Shah) may be the next PM if Gilani is convicted in contempt of court case, the minister said: All of our 179 members are eligible of becoming the prime minister.

JK Wedding Entrance Dance

Lanvin Runway Show - Paris Fashion Week Spring 2012 PFW | FashionTV - FTV 

 

Armed and ready to play Tak Ball, a stunning game

 

Armed and ready to play Tak Ball, a stunning game 

 Published on Mar 6, 2012

1
i

L.A. Nightlight's Thomas Taylor runs with the ball to score a goal as Philadelphia Killawatts' players chase him with stun guns during an Ultimate Tak Ball (UTB) game in Bangkok on March 2, 2012. The rules are simple: throw a ball into the goal to score a point. But what makes this game unlike any other is that all the players are armed and ready with stun guns. -- PHOTO: REUTERS

 BANGKOK (REUTERS) - The rules are simple: throw a ball into the goal to score a point. But what makes this game unlike any other is that all the players are armed and ready with stun guns.
It's Ultimate Tak Ball, the brainchild of a few hardcore sports fanatics who say it is the sport of the future and are in Bangkok for an exhibition game.
Each game consists of three periods that last for 7 minutes each, with two teams of four players each. Any player in possession of the 60cm medicine ball is open to unlimited shocking by the players on the opposite team.
The stun guns pack 3 to 5 milliamps of electricity, which is only about 10 per cent of the power of the taser stun guns used by police. Fired on contact with an opponent, the guns produce a twitching feeling, according to players. 'It never gets better, you just get less afraid of the stun,' a smiling Mr Damien Ryan, 24, said during a break in a match in Bangkok. 'But it's one of the best feelings ever.

Client exodus to push BlackBerry fees down

 

 Research In Motion (RIM) will be forced to slash the fees it charges carriers for BlackBerry service this year, an analyst said on Monday as another United States government customer edged away from the service, cutting into a pillar of the struggling smartphone company's business model. -- PHOTO: AP



(REUTERS) - Research In Motion (RIM) will be forced to slash the fees it charges carriers for BlackBerry service this year, an analyst said on Monday as another United States (US) government customer edged away from the service, cutting into a pillar of the struggling smartphone company's business model.

RIM runs its own network infrastructure, enabling it to encrypt, compress and push data to BlackBerry phones via a cellular network. The Canadian company brought in almost US$1 billion (S$1.2 billion) from this high-margin service last quarter, one-fifth of its total sales.
But a second US government agency in as many months, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), said on Monday it would remove its BlackBerry servers in favour of a nimbler alternative that offers support for a wider variety of devices.
According to Northern Securities analyst Sameet Kanade, RIM - once the only option for secure mobile communication - has moved too slowly to counter the threat posed as companies and governments increasingly allow employees to use their own mobile devices for work. Meanwhile, carriers have soured on paying the BlackBerry service's fee, he said.

DonDon't Watch It If You Are Under 18.Very Dangerous Video

Business

  

 

LPG prices hit record high at Rs118,429 per ton

 

Sunday, March 04, 2012, Rabi-ul-Sani 10, 1433
Karachi—Local producers have raised price of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) by Rs5353 to a record high of Rs118,429 per ton in accordance with Saudi Aramco Contact Price. This was stated by the chairman of FPCCI Standing Committee on LPG and Pattern in Chief of All Pakistan LPG Distributors Association (APLDA) Abdul Hadi Khan here Saturday.
He said Saudi Armco Contract Price (CP) has surged to record high due to increase in prices of butane by $ 140 per ton while propane is up by $ 220 per ton.
Hadi pointed out that domestic price of LPG has been increased by Rs5 to Rs135-145 per kilo, 11.8 kilo cylinder by Rs66 to Rs1520-1580 and 45.4 kg cylinder by Rs243 to Rs5850-6075. Expressing serious concern over this rise, Hadi said that distributors will protest agaisnt this rise and said an emergency general body meeting of APLDA has been convened for next week to prepare a line of action against the government and local producers.
He said that 6000 distributors will hold protest rallies and block gas fields and refineries over this rise. He said LPG sale has declined by 49 to 50 percent due to high prices, further shrinking the business of more than 6000 LPG distributors in the country and their survival is in danger. He urged Petroleum Minister to reduce dependance on imported LPG and concentrate on enhancing local production.