President Obama urges crowd at UW-Madison to remain fired up, vote

President Barack Obama urged students to focus on this fall's elections Tuesday in his fourth visit to Wisconsin in three months as he tries to keep the governor's office and a U.S. Senate seat in Democratic hands.

Addressing an overflow crowd that police estimated to be 26,500, Obama recalled his victories in Wisconsin in the presidential primary and general election in 2008. Then he prodded Democrats to vote in the fall, saying the "stakes could not be higher."

"I need you fired up, Badgers. We need you to stay fired up. Because there's an election on Nov. 2 that's going to say a lot about the future," Obama said on Library Mall in the heart of the University of Wisconsin-Madison campus.

Before the event, Obama made a surprise visit to Madison's LaFollette High School, where he told football players the Green Bay Packers lost Monday to his hometown Chicago Bears because of mental mistakes and turnovers. He also visited with the girls' tennis and volleyball teams.

Democrats said the large and vocal turnout at the rally showed there is no enthusiasm gap between them and Republicans. But state Republican Party Chairman Reince Priebus said Democrats this year are sluggish while Republicans are "bursting at the seams with volunteers."

"Our energy is coming from the ground up, and they're trying to manufacture energy from the top down, with Obama," Priebus told reporters on a conference call.

Obama entreated the crowd not to let Republican predictions about Democratic apathy come true. "We can't sit this one out," he said.

His visit marked the first time a sitting president had come to the UW-Madison campus since 1950, when President Harry S. Truman spoke at the Field House.

Obama - as a candidate - was last on campus in February 2008, when he rallied voters at the Kohl Center just before winning the state's Democratic primary.

Tuesday's visit, organized by the Democratic National Committee, was part of his effort to protect Democrats who face tough odds across the country. He plans at least three more major rallies around the country before the elections, in Philadelphia, Ohio and Las Vegas.

Before Tuesday's rally, he held a DNC fund-raiser at a downtown Madison hotel that was expected to raise $250,000 for the party, according to the DNC.

At the rally, Obama said if Republicans return to power, they will pursue the same policies that sent the U.S. into the worst recession since the Great Depression. He said he's fought recalcitrant Republicans to pass health care reform, rein in Wall Street excesses and make other changes that he argued help ordinary Americans.

"I refuse to go back to the days when insurance companies could drop you or deny you coverage just because you're sick," he said. "I refuse to go back to the days when credit card companies can jack up your rates without reason."

Both Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett, the Democrat running for governor, and U.S. Sen. Russ Feingold appeared with Obama. Feingold skipped Obama's Labor Day stop in Milwaukee and was expected to miss Tuesday's event because the Senate was in session earlier in the day.

Obama has shown his interest in those Wisconsin races with his frequent visits to the state. He held a fund-raiser for Barrett last month, and Vice President Joe Biden is hosting an Oct. 7 fund-raiser for Barrett in Madison. In addition, first lady Michelle Obama will help raise money for Feingold Oct. 13 in Milwaukee.

According to UW-Madison police, Obama drew 26,500 people - 17,200 at the event, and the remainder in overflow areas. Police said they determined the crowd size because they know the capacity of Library Mall and the surrounding area. The line to get into the event was over a mile long at one point, police said.
Dems seen in trouble

Milwaukee County Executive Scott Walker, the Republican running against Barrett, has said Obama's visits to the state are a sign Democrats are worried about keeping the governor's office. Democratic Gov. Jim Doyle decided last year not to seek a third term. Doyle did not appear with Obama Tuesday because he is in China to promote Wisconsin businesses.

Walker, who campaigned on campus Saturday, used Obama's visit to repeat his opposition to a high-speed train line from Milwaukee to Madison. Obama's administration this year awarded Wisconsin $810 million for the project.

Walker has promised to stop it because he says the state can't afford the $8 million a year to operate it. Barrett argues that would mean Wisconsin would have to give up the grant and pay back any money spent on the line, while Walker says he would lobby Congress to let Wisconsin keep the money for its roads and bridges.

"The people of Wisconsin can't afford President Obama's train or his choice for governor," Walker said in a statement. "After eight years of Jim Doyle, we've had enough of the high taxes, job losses and out-of-control spending."

Walker has led Barrett in recent polls, just as Oshkosh businessman Ron Johnson has shown an advantage over Feingold.

A Fox News poll released Tuesday showed Walker with 49% and Barrett with 45%. That was within the poll's margin of error of plus or minus 4 percentage points. The poll of 1,000 likely voters was conducted Saturday.

The poll showed a tighter race than ones last week, such as a CNN/Time poll that showed Walker with a 53%-42% advantage.

Tuesday's Fox News poll showed Johnson leading Feingold 52% to 44%, in line with the CNN-Time poll. Obama had a 41% approval rating in the Fox News poll, consistent with recent national polls.

Obama dismissed his sagging approval ratings.

"You didn't elect me to look at the polls. You elected me to do what was right," he said.

The day was sunny as thousands of students and others lined up to see Obama and the opening musical acts, singer-songwriter Ben Harper and The National. As students filled Library Mall - and others sought higher seats on Bascom Hill - the sky turned cloudy and the weather became chilly before Obama went on stage at 6 p.m.

Nineteen-year-old Edie Bjerstedt of Hudson said she came to hear the president speak ahead of the first election in which she'll vote. Bjerstedt said she hadn't tuned in to the Wisconsin races yet and hadn't thrown her support behind a single party but was open to hearing the president's take on the election.

"I would say definitely what he has to say will influence my decision," she said.

Josh Havelka, 20, of Waukesha said he voted for Obama in 2008 but had cooled toward the president since then, particularly because of the health care reform law.

"I voted for him in 2008, but I don't think I'll vote for him again," Havelka said of Obama, but added he is considering voting for Feingold.

Kim’s son moves closer to power in N Korea

North Korea has given official roles in the ruling Workers’ Party to the third son of Kim Jong-il, the country’s ailing dictator, effectively guaranteeing his position as heir apparent.

Kim Jong-eun’s appointments in the party on Wednesday come the day after he was made a four-star general in the military..The Kim family runs North Korea by divide and rule, playing the military off against the party, so it was important that the younger Kim received roles in both camps.

Pashto recommended to be taught as compulsory subject

Pashto recommended to be taught as compulsory subject
A cabinet committee on Tuesday finalised its recommendations under which Pashto would be introduced as compulsory subject in 17 districts. The recommendations would be placed before the provincial assembly for legislation after approval by the provincial cabinet.
“As per recommendations of the committee, Pashto will be included as compulsory subject in 17 districts from Class-I to XII, while in the remaining seven districts mother tongue will be included as compulsory subject in the curriculum,” said a communiquÈ issued after the meeting.
Besides Minister for Information and Public Relations Mian Iftikhar Hussain, the meeting was also attended by Secretary Administration Hifzur Rahman and officials of the Primary and Elementary and Higher Education and Textbook Board Peshawar.
It was decided that Pashto as compulsory subject would be introduced in 17 districts including Swat, Swabi, Buner, Dir Upper, Dir Lower, Mardan, Charsadda, Shangla, Malakand, Nowshera, Hangu, Lakki Marwat, Karak, Bannu, Tank, Kohat and Battagram. It was also decided that mother tongues would be introduced in the remaining seven districts in class 6 from the next academic year 2011-12.
Pashto and other mother tongues will be included as compulsory subject in class 7 from 2012-13, in class 8 from 2013-14, in class 9 2014-15, in class 10 from 2015-16, in 1st year from 2016-17 and in 2 year 2017-18.
Besides nine districts i.e. Swat, Swabi, Buner, Dir Upper and Lower, Mardan, Charsadda, Shangla and Malakand of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa where Pashto is already being taught as compulsory subject since 1984 in classes one to five, it will also be introduced as compulsory subject in another eight districts including Nowshera, Hangu, Lakki Marwat, Karak, Bannu, Tank, Kohat and Battagram from the next academic year 2011-12. The other mother tongues will be included as compulsory subject in the remaining seven districts from the next academic year 2011-12 in classes one to five.
The meeting also decided to look into the bifurcation of Peshawar district into urban and rural areas. In urban areas, the relevant mother tongue and in rural areas Pashto will be introduced as compulsory subject.
The chairman of the committee, Mian Iftikahr Hussain, directed the authorities of the Education Department and Textbook Board Peshawar to focus on the early preparation of curricula of Pashto as well as the other mother tongues and finalise timelines for preparation of curriculum, contents and script so that the students don’t face difficulties in this connection. He added that the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government will follow the Education Policy 2009 in letter and spirit and curricula of mathematics and science subjects will be in English.

Pashto recommended to be taught as compulsory subject

A cabinet committee on Tuesday finalised its recommendations under which Pashto would be introduced as compulsory subject in 17 districts. The recommendations would be placed before the provincial assembly for legislation after approval by the provincial cabinet.
“As per recommendations of the committee, Pashto will be included as compulsory subject in 17 districts from Class-I to XII, while in the remaining seven districts mother tongue will be included as compulsory subject in the curriculum,” said a communiquÈ issued after the meeting.
Besides Minister for Information and Public Relations Mian Iftikhar Hussain, the meeting was also attended by Secretary Administration Hifzur Rahman and officials of the Primary and Elementary and Higher Education and Textbook Board Peshawar.
It was decided that Pashto as compulsory subject would be introduced in 17 districts including Swat, Swabi, Buner, Dir Upper, Dir Lower, Mardan, Charsadda, Shangla, Malakand, Nowshera, Hangu, Lakki Marwat, Karak, Bannu, Tank, Kohat and Battagram. It was also decided that mother tongues would be introduced in the remaining seven districts in class 6 from the next academic year 2011-12.
Pashto and other mother tongues will be included as compulsory subject in class 7 from 2012-13, in class 8 from 2013-14, in class 9 2014-15, in class 10 from 2015-16, in 1st year from 2016-17 and in 2 year 2017-18.
Besides nine districts i.e. Swat, Swabi, Buner, Dir Upper and Lower, Mardan, Charsadda, Shangla and Malakand of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa where Pashto is already being taught as compulsory subject since 1984 in classes one to five, it will also be introduced as compulsory subject in another eight districts including Nowshera, Hangu, Lakki Marwat, Karak, Bannu, Tank, Kohat and Battagram from the next academic year 2011-12. The other mother tongues will be included as compulsory subject in the remaining seven districts from the next academic year 2011-12 in classes one to five.
The meeting also decided to look into the bifurcation of Peshawar district into urban and rural areas. In urban areas, the relevant mother tongue and in rural areas Pashto will be introduced as compulsory subject.
The chairman of the committee, Mian Iftikahr Hussain, directed the authorities of the Education Department and Textbook Board Peshawar to focus on the early preparation of curricula of Pashto as well as the other mother tongues and finalise timelines for preparation of curriculum, contents and script so that the students don’t face difficulties in this connection. He added that the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government will follow the Education Policy 2009 in letter and spirit and curricula of mathematics and science subjects will be in English.

Hamid Karzai's emotional speech

Generals in Pakistan Push for Shake-Up of Government

New York Times


The Pakistani military, angered by the inept handling of the country’s devastating floods and alarmed by a collapse of the economy, is pushing for a shake-up of the elected government, and in the longer term, even the removal of President Asif Ali Zardari and his top lieutenants.

The military, preoccupied by a war against militants and reluctant to assume direct responsibility for the economic crisis, has made clear it is not eager to take over the government, as it has many times before, military officials and politicians said.

But the government’s performance since the floods, which have left 20 million people homeless and the nation dependent on handouts from skeptical foreign donors, has laid bare the deep underlying tensions between military and civilian leaders.

American officials, too, say it has left them increasingly disillusioned with Mr. Zardari, a deeply unpopular president who was elected two and a half years ago on a wave of sympathy after the assassination of his wife, former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto.

In a meeting on Monday that was played on the front page of Pakistan’s newspapers, the army chief, Gen. Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, confronted the president and his prime minister, Yousaf Raza Gilani, over incompetence and corruption in the government.

According to the press and Pakistani officials familiar with the conversation, the general demanded that they dismiss at least some ministers in the oversized 60-member cabinet, many of whom face corruption charges.

The civilian government has so far resisted the general’s demand. But the meeting was widely interpreted by the Pakistani news media, which has grown increasingly hostile to the president, as a rebuke to the civilian politicians and as having pushed the government to the brink.

After the meeting, the president’s office issued a statement, approved by all the men, saying they had agreed “to protect the democratic process and to resolve all issues in accordance with the constitution.”

A Pakistani official close to the president who was familiar with the conversation but did not want to be identified, said, “The president made it clear that he would not leave, come what may.”

“Sanity had prevailed,” the official added.

Since the floods, the government has defended its handling of the crisis, arguing that any government would have been overwhelmed by its scale.

Still, it is clear that General Kayani, head of the country’s most powerful institution, and the one that has taken the lead in the flood crisis, has ratcheted up the pressure on the government.

Having secured an exceptional three-year extension in his post from Mr. Zardari in July, General Kayani appears determined to prevent the economy from bankruptcy. Military officers in the main cities have been talking openly and expansively about their contempt for the Zardari government and what they term the economic calamity, an unusual candor, reporters and politicians said.

“The gross economic mismanagement by the government is at the heart of it,” said Rifaat Hussain, a professor of international relations at Islamabad University and a confidant of the military. “And there is the rising public disaffection with the Pakistani Peoples Party under Zardari and Gilani.”

As the military demands the overhaul, the Supreme Court is also pushing the government on the issue of corruption by threatening to remove the president’s immunity from prosecution, a move that would expose him to charges of corruption in an old money-laundering case in Switzerland.

The government has defied the court’s demand to write a letter to the Swiss government requesting a reopening of the case against Mr. Zardari, who served 11 years in prison in Pakistan on unproved corruption charges. On Monday, the court granted an extension of two weeks for the government to reconsider its position.

Much of the rising disdain for the government has to do with the perception among the media and the public of the callous and inept handling of the floods by the nation’s wealthy ruling class.

Mr. Gilani drew public ire for appearing at an ersatz camp for flood victims set up just for television cameras. It also did not help that newspapers reported that scores of cartons from the London luxury store Harrods had arrived at his residence in Lahore at the height of the flooding.

Mr. Zardari, meanwhile, was vilified for visiting his chateau in France as torrents of water wiped out millions of villagers in his home province, Sindh.

In his most recent visit to Pakistan, Richard C. Holbrooke, the American special representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan, said the international community could not be expected to provide all the billions of dollars needed to repair the flood damage, a warning interpreted here as a rebuke of the civilian government and its mismanagement.

But Washington, not unlike Pakistan’s military, is caught, American officials say, because there is no appetite for a return of military rule. Nor is there desire to see the opposition politician and former prime minister, Nawaz Sharif, resume power.

Mr. Sharif, who has also faced corruption charges during his career, is considered by Washington to be too close to some of Pakistan’s militant groups, whose members vote in Punjab, the Sharif electoral base.

As the head of the of the main opposition party, the Pakistan Muslim League-N, Mr. Sharif is not ready to come to the fore in any case, his aides say, because he does not want to be associated with the paralysis of the current government.

Of mounting concern to the Obama administration is the potential for serious unrest if the economy unspools further: inflation by some predictions will reach 25 percent in the coming period. The price of sugar has tripled, and the cost of flour has doubled since the Zardari government came to power.

In particular, Washington wants the government to raise taxes on the wealthy landed and commercial class, a shortcoming that has become especially galling as Pakistan’s dependence on foreign donors rises.

Pakistan’s revenues from taxes are among the lowest in the world: only 2 million Pakistanis of a population of 170 million pay income tax, according to estimates by the United States.

A report in a leading newspaper, The News, said Monday that Mr. Gilani and 25 of his ministers, including the finance minister, Hafiz Shaikh, did not pay income taxes at all, according to sworn affidavits by the ministers to the Election Commission of Pakistan.

The alarm about the economy was first sounded by Mr. Shaikh, a former officer of the World Bank, who told a meeting of political and military leaders last month that the government had enough money to pay only two months’ salaries. The economy was “teetering on the brink” before the floods but was now heading for the “abyss,” Mr. Shaikh was quoted as saying.

The military officers who attended were astounded, Mr. Hussain and others informed of the meeting said, and have pressed the government for changes, politicians and diplomats said.

As the military maneuvers for change, it is not immune from criticism. Defense spending is budgeted at 13.6 percent of total expenditures in 2011, in line with past yearly expenditures even as the civilian population suffers.

The defense budget remains beyond public scrutiny, a fact that increasingly irks the public.

“Do we even know how much it costs taxpayers each year to make possible the office, the home, the car fleets, attendants, guest houses and other amenities that are enjoyed by the army chief or even a corps commander?” asked Babar Sattar, a lawyer who often writes about corruption.

The secret war in Pakistan

EDITORIAL:

www.washingtontimes.com

Lyndon Johnson's "secret war in Laos" long has been a touchstone for liberal indignation over America's history of covert conflicts. Leftist critics, however, have been remarkably silent over the growing secret war in Pakistan. This war should escalate.

Between 2001 and 2008, U.S. operations in Pakistan were limited, owing mostly to Bush administration deference to then-Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf, who warned that stirring up the tribal areas would do more harm than good. This changed in the late summer of 2008, when Mr. Musharraf lost power and Asif Ali Zardari was elected president. The Bush administration expanded the frequency and intensity of drone attacks inside Pakistan, a policy the Obama administration has continued. In the last three weeks, 100 suspected militants have been killed in western Pakistan by American drone strikes.

The Obama administration also has continued to use the 3,000-man paramilitary Counterterrorist Pursuit Team, an elite force established in 2002 made up of Afghans but trained by the CIA in the United States. The paramilitaries reportedly conduct operations on both sides of the border. There have been limited International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) conventional operations inside Pakistan as well. Last weekend, NATO helicopter gunships crossed over the border into Pakistan in two separate raids, killing more than 70 insurgents. Pakistan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs protested the attacks, calling them "a clear violation and breach of the U.N. mandate, under which ISAF operates." Islamabad threatened, "in the absence of immediate corrective measures, Pakistan will be constrained to consider response options."

Pakistan's umbrage is mostly bluff. There is no love lost for the insurgents who operate along the border with Afghanistan, and many of the terrorists being taken out by U.S. drones are more active inside Pakistan than outside. The August 2009 drone strike that killed Pakistan Taliban leader and al Qaeda supporter Beitullah Mehsud may have been ordered in part because Mehsud was widely suspected to be behind the assassination of President Zardari's wife, Benazir Bhutto, in December 2007. Some of the CIA-operated drones wreaking havoc in the frontier areas are based inside Pakistan. This was reported in the U.S. press in 2008 and inadvertently confirmed by Sen. Dianne Feinstein, chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, during a public hearing in February 2009.

These operations would be impossible without the Pakistani government's complicity. Thus, while Islamabad issues public statements condemning U.S. operations inside Pakistan to maintain plausible deniability, the only "response options" the government seems to contemplate are more angry press releases. It helps that there is nary a peep emerging from Mr. Obama's antiwar supporters over these clandestine, quasi-legal operations.

According to Bob Woodward's new book, "Obama's Wars," the United States has developed a "retribution" plan to bomb 150 terrorist sites inside Pakistan should America be hit by another Sept. 11-style terrorist attack involving Pakistan-based terrorists. It's a mistake to wait for an attack on our homeland. If the plan is in place and the targets selected, why not attack them now? There may be limits to the scale of attacks Islamabad could safely ignore, but if America suffers a major terrorist attack on President Obama's watch that could have been pre-empted, he won't be able to count on the national unity Mr. Bush enjoyed nine years ago. Before Sept. 11, 2001, we weren't at war with terrorists; now we are. Since the secret of the war inside Pakistan is out, America needs to finish the job.

Cancer of terrorism is in Pakistan, Obama tells Zardari through his NSA

US President Barack Obama has reportedly told President Asif Ali Zardari through his National Security Adviser, retired Marine General James L. Jones, and CIA Director Leon Panetta that the cancer of terrorism is in Pakistan and emanating from that country.

"We're living on borrowed time. We consider the Times Square attempt a successful plot because neither the American nor the Pakistani intelligence agencies could intercept or stop it," the Washington Post quoted retired Marine General Jones as telling President Zardari.

Jones is further said to have conveyed to Zardari that the Obama administration will no longer tolerate safe havens for terrorists in Pakistan.

"We need to make clear to people that the cancer is in Pakistan," Obama declared during an Oval Office meeting on November 25, 2009, near the end of the strategy review, and added that the reason to create a secure, self-governing Afghanistan was "so the cancer (from Pakistan) doesn't spread there."

Jones and Panetta were in Pakistan to tell Zardari that Obama wanted four things to help prevent a terrorist attack on U.S. soil -- full intelligence sharing, more reliable cooperation on counter-terrorism, faster approval of visas for U.S. personnel traveling to Pakistan and, despite past refusals, access to airline passenger data.

Jones is said to have told Zardari during their conversation that should a future attempt be successful, Obama would be forced to do things that Pakistan would not like.

"No one will be able to stop the response and consequences. This is not a threat, just a statement of political fact," Jones is believed to have said.

Jones, however, did not give specifics about what he meant.

The Obama administration is believed to have a retribution plan, one of the most sensitive and secretive of all military contingencies.

According to the Washington Post, the plan calls for bombing about 150 identified terrorist camps in a brutal, punishing attack inside Pakistan.

According to the paper, Zardari is said to have responded by saying that the strategic partnership between Pakistan and United States should be drawing their governments closer rather than causing a division.

Zardari believes that he has already done a great deal to accommodate Washington at some political risk, even to the extent of allowing CIA drones to strike al-Qaeda and other terrorist camps in parts of Pakistan, prompting a public outcry about violations of Pakistani sovereignty.

Jones is believed to have responded by saying: "You can do something that costs you no money. It may be politically difficult, but it's the right thing to do if you really have the future of your country in mind. And, that is to reject all forms of terrorism as a viable instrument of national policy inside your borders."

Zardari said in his defense that Islamabad has rejected all forms of terrorism.

Jones and Panetta said that they had heard such declarations before, and added that whatever Pakistan was doing with the many terrorist groups operating inside its borders, it wasn't good or effective enough.

Panetta even went to the extent of pulling out a "link chart," developed from FBI interviews and other intelligence, that showed how the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan had assisted the Times Square bomber Faisal Shahzad.

This was a matter of solid intelligence, Panetta said, not speculation.

Jones and Panetta then turned to the disturbing intelligence about Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), the group behind the horrific 2008 Mumbai attacks that had killed 175, including six Americans.

Pakistani authorities are holding the commander of the Mumbai attacks, Jones said, but he is not being adequately interrogated and "he continues to direct LeT operations from his detention center." Intelligence shows that Lashkar-e-Taiba is threatening attacks in the United States and that the possibility "is rising each day."

Zardari didn't seem to get it.

"Mr. President," said Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi, who was also at the meeting, "This is what they are saying. . . . They're saying that if, in fact, there is a successful attack in the United States, they will take steps to deal with that here, and that we have a responsibility to now cooperate with the United States."

"If something like that happens," Zardari said defensively, "it doesn't mean that somehow we're suddenly bad people or something. We're still partners."

No, both Jones and Panetta said. There might be no way to save the strategic partnership. Underscoring Jones's point, Panetta said, "If that happens, all bets are off."

Afterward, the Americans met privately with Pakistan Army Chief General Ashfaq Kayani, who is said to be the most powerful figure in the country.

Jones told Kayani that the clock was starting now on Obama's four requests. Obama wanted a progress report in 30 days, he added.

General Kayani said he had other concerns and said that he would be the first to admit that he was and continues to be India-centric in his plans and strategy.

Panetta laid out a series of additional requests for CIA operations.

"We need to have that box. We need to be able to conduct our operations," Panetta said.ones and Panetta left the meetings with their Pakistan interlocutors feeling as though they had taken only baby steps.

Realizing that the war against terrorism is a "crazy kind of war," Panetta in a veiled threat said: "We can't do this without some boots on the ground. They could be Pakistani boots or they can be our boots, but we got to have some boots on the ground."

National Games start from Dec 25 in Peshawar

Provincial Minister for Sports Syed Aqil Shah has said that 31st National Games are scheduled to begin from December 25.
Despite recent destructions due to heavy floods in the province, the Provincial Government was ready to hold the 31st National Games in Peshawar, commence from December 25-31, he said while addressing a press conference.
Syed Aqil Shah, who also holds the portfolio of the President of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Olympic Association, said that the National Games were postponed twice due to the bad security situation in the province, but this time all was set to organise this major sports gala at all cost.
He said that as compared to previous months, today the security situation was much improved and they were hopeful that it would get better further. He questioned that could they give the security guarantee in other parts of the country, who wanted to shift the games from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. He said that Chief Minister would monitor the security of national games.
We were busy in finalising all the arrangements for the event, as the provincial government was keen to hold the games in befitting manner, he remarked saying there was no financial constraints as enough funds were sanctioned for holding this event.
Prior to this sports event, the National Games officials of Pakistan Olympic Association would be formally invited to visit Peshawar and assess the security arrangements, he informed. Regarding the meeting of the Olympic Association that was held before the press conference, he said that the Association awarded affiliation to boxing, basel ball, kabadi and weightlifting associations of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, while the hockey association would soon get the same status.
For the distribution of annual grants among various associations, a committee has been formed under the chairmanship of Secretary Informationb Azmat Hanif Orakzai, saying the committee, by October 1.