NAB court issues summons to Sharif brothers

The summon-notices were issued by Rawalpindi’s accountability court on Wednesday. An accountability court in Rawalpindi summoned the records from the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) over three alleged corruption references against Sharif brothers. The three references include the alleged corruption cases of Hudaibia paper mills, Ittefaq Foundry and Raiwind farm. The court also issued summon-notices to PML-N leaders Shahbaz Sharif and Nawaz Sharif for July 28. The petition to open corruption references against the Sharif brothers was filed by the Chairman NAB Fasih Bukhari in the court of administrative judge Chaudhry Abdul Razzaq.

Bomb kills 12 Shiites in Pakistan

http://www.usatoday.com

A minibus carrying Shiite Muslims hit a roadside bomb in northwestern Pakistan on Wednesday, killing 12 of them in the country's latest apparent sectarian attack. The incident took place shortly after the victims left Spai, a predominantly Shiite village in the Orakzai tribal area, said local government official Jamil Khan. They were headed for the nearby district of Kohat, he said. Pakistan is a majority Sunni Muslim state, and most Sunnis and Shiites live peacefully together. But the country has a long history of sectarian attacks by extremists on both sides. Attacks by Sunni militants on Shiites have been on the rise over the last year, especially in southwestern Baluchistan province. The Sunni-Shiite schism over the true heir to Islam's Prophet Muhammad dates back to the seventh century.

Pakistan: Politics and polio

HERE’S a suggestion for Pakistani politicians. For just a couple of days, forget the usual political rhetoric. Take a break from bashing each other or America, railing against a clash of institutions, or making predictions about political developments over the next few months. Instead, focus on a problem that is of real and immediate relevance to ordinary Pakistanis: the serious threats to the campaign for the eradication of polio. Tuesday’s shooting in Karachi of a UN doctor working on polio immunisation followed the refusal over the last couple of days of the Taliban and some tribal leaders to allow polio vaccinations in parts of Fata, where the problem is most acute. If the immunisation campaign that ends today is extended by a few days, and if all major political parties focus on the issue, with the JI, the JUI and the PTI joining hands with the PML-N and the ruling coalition, there is a decent chance that something will give. This will not do away with opposition to polio vaccination overnight. But it should give health workers, local officials and supportive clerics more ammunition to negotiate with those who are resisting, and it might encourage parents to take risks to get their children immunised. At the very least it will demonstrate that our politicians are concerned with more than just politics. The mistrust of polio immunisation should not be dismissed as being entirely ignorant or unjustified. Dr Shakeel Afridi and the CIA did no favours to the project when they used a fake vaccination programme to try to track down Osama bin Laden. Other elements of the US-Pakistan relationship, particularly drone attacks, are being positioned as reasons to block the state-run campaign. None of this is helped by long-held suspicions among some communities that polio vaccination is un-Islamic or designed to weaken Muslims. In this scenario, what is needed is high-profile messaging that can counter deeply ingrained perceptions. Given the threat to the lives of campaign workers, the problem is also one of the state’s failure to protect them and, in Fata, of it no longer having control of chunks of territory. But the containment of polio cannot wait for better policing or the restoration of the state’s writ in the tribal areas. In the immediate term, what could help is rhetoric that approves of vaccination and positions the issue as one that should not be held hostage to politics and American policies. But it will go unnoticed as long as it isn’t coming from the top of the food chain. At this point, it is worth giving persuasion from the highest levels a try.

US Congress approves Bill against Haqqani network

US has been considering formally designating Haqqani network as a foreign terrorist organization.

Congress is stepping up the pressure on the Obama administration to slap the terrorist label on the Haqqani network, a militant group responsible for plotting and launching attacks from Pakistan against U.S.-led forces in Afghanistan. By voice vote Tuesday, the Republican-controlled House of Representatives approved a bill that would require the secretary of state to report to Congress on whether the Haqqani network meets the criteria to be designated a foreign terrorist organization and if not, to explain why. The report is due within 30 days of the president signing the measure. The administration has sanctioned top individuals of the Haqqani network, but it is still reviewing whether to label the entire organization. That delay has frustrated members of Congress. Republican Rep. Mike Rogers, chairman of the Intelligence Committee, added an amendment to the bill stating that it was the sense of Congress that the Haqqani network meets the definition of a terrorist organization and they should be designated as one. "The Obama administration has been considering formally designating the Haqqani network as a foreign terrorist organization under U.S. law but has yet to act," said Republican Rep. Tim Griffin during a brief House debate. Last week, the State Department defended its effort. "We ve been very aggressive about sanctioning their top individuals, and we ve seen that as the most effective way to go about this. But the review is ongoing, and is actively ongoing," department spokesman Patrick Ventrell told reporters. The measure now heads to the Senate, which approved a similar bill sponsored by Republican Sen. Richard Burr last December. The Haqqani network, largely operating in eastern Afghanistan and northwestern Pakistan, is affiliated with both the Taliban and al-Qaida. U.S. officials say it represents one of the biggest threats to Afghanistan stability because it is believed to use Pakistan as a rear base for attacks on American and coalition troops in Afghanistan. The House vote comes just weeks after the United States and Pakistan ended a rancorous seven-month standoff with Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton apologizing to Pakistan for the killing of 24 Pakistani troops last fall and in return securing the reopening of critical NATO supply lines into Afghanistan. Throughout the uneasy relationship between the United States and Pakistan, American officials have pressed Islamabad to crack down on the extremist Haqqani network. The bill states that "nothing in this act may be construed to infringe upon the sovereignty of Pakistan to combat militant or terrorist groups operating inside its boundaries." In May, the Republican and Democratic leaders of the House and Senate Intelligence committees wrote to Clinton asking her to act immediately in labeling the Haqqani network a terrorist group. The four leaders said that based on meetings with U.S. and Afghan officials in Afghanistan, "it was clear that the Haqqani network continues to launch sensational and indiscriminate attacks against U.S. interests in Afghanistan and the group poses a continuing threat to innocent men, women and children in the region." The four noted that it had been six months since the State Department had undertaken its "final formal review" of the Haqqani network. "The Haqqanis have continued to attack U.S. troops and the U.S. embassy in Kabul during that period," the lawmakers said. The letter also noted that the Obama administration may have been reluctant to act while Marc Grossman, the special representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan, was trying to negotiate a reconciliation agreement with the Taliban that may have included or affected the Haqqani network. Last year, the top U.S. military officer accused Pakistan s powerful intelligence agency of backing extremists in planning and executing the assault on the U.S. Embassy in Afghanistan and a truck bomb attack that wounded 77 American soldiers. In his last congressional testimony before retirement, Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, insisted that the Haqqani insurgent network "acts as a veritable arm" of Pakistan s Inter-Services Intelligence agency. The House also passed a bill that would strengthen economic and security ties between the United States and Israel. The bipartisan legislation, which was approved by voice vote, would reaffirm the U.S. commitment to Israel and American support for the Mideast ally s right to self-defense. The bill would extend current loan guarantees to Israel that expire later this year and authorizes the transfer of obsolete or surplus defense material from the United States to Israel. The bill reiterates U.S. support for a negotiated two-state solution to resolve the conflict between the Israelis and Palestinians.

US set to lose 2 million jobs

http://rt.com//blockquote> The Pentagon will see massive cuts over the next decade to adjust the ever-expanding US deficit. A new study reveals, however, that the immediate impact of those adjustments could cost 2 million Americans their jobs in the next year alone. The Aerospace Industries Association released the findings of a report on Tuesday that suggest that the automatic cuts in federal spending slated to kick in on January 2 have the potential of being far more damaging than imagined. The author of the report, Dr. Stephen Fuller of George Mason University and Chmura Economics and Analytics, suggests that while the Obama administration-endorsed sequestration goes about as scheduled, more than 2 million Americans will see their jobs eradicated in just 2013. "If they are allowed to occur as currently scheduled, the long-term consequences will permanently alter the course of the U.S. economy's performance, changing its competitive position in the global economy," the report warns. The expected cuts are touted as a necessary means to adjust the country’s growing deficit by way of decreasing Defense Department spending. This latest analysis reveals, however, that it isn’t just those with direct ties to the Pentagon who will be jobless. While the future of the Aerospace Industries Association — a trade group with close ties with the Pentagon — is obviously at stake, Dr. Fuller’s report says that it will be more than just military men and women made jobless by the cuts. In addition to lay offs coming to defense contractors and others with close DoD ties, the study suggests that as many as 600,000 federal workers will lose their jobs. Dr. Fuller adds that the automatic cuts, if triggered next year, could cause the US to see it’s gross domestic product drop by $215 billion in 2013, in turn plummeting consumer confidence and perhaps paving the way for years of irreversible damage. As the Associated Press reports, however, the federal government has not outlined specifics of the sequestration plan, suggesting that there is indeed some degree of uncertainty in the AIA released report. Later this week, the US House of Representatives is expected to vote on a measure that, if passed, could force President Barack Obama to put forth specific details about where the cuts will occur. "The federal agencies haven't said what they would cut back," Dr. Fuller tells the AP. "They don't have too many choices because most of their budget is payroll, where the Defense Department has more choices because most of its budget isn't payroll."

60% of Saudi citizens live below poverty line

Despite being world’s biggest crude exporter, sixty percent of the people in Saudi Arabia live below the country’s poverty line, a Saudi newspaper reported.

In an article published by the Okaz daily, Saudi journalist, Khaled al-Harbi wrote that while Saudi Arabia earns 1,500 billion riyals (around 400 billion dollars) a year, the average salary of an ordinary Saudi citizen should not be 1,500 riyals (around 400 dollars). According to official figures released by Consultative Assembly of Saudi Arabia (Shura), about 22 percent of Saudi citizens - at least 3 million citizens - live below the poverty line. Activists in Saudi Arabia have repeatedly criticized Riyadh for spending vast sums on buying arms from the West and not helping the millions living in poverty. In 2010, Riyadh purchased over 60 billion dollars worth of weapons from the United States, which Washington lauded as the largest arms deal in history. Saudi Arabia is the world's biggest oil exporter, with the black gold accounting for 90 percent of the country's exports.

Canada’s Afghan aid legacy under fire

Is Canada’s aid legacy in Afghanistan’s Kandahar province living up to the high hopes it raised? Not to hear some longsuffering residents tell it. They complain that key projects in the Taliban insurgency’s heartland haven’t made the material difference in their lives that they had been led to expect. People worry that the flow of water from the partly restored Dahla Dam and its irrigation canals may dry up over the summer, and they point to decrepit school buildings, the Star’s Paul Watson found on a recent tour. His series of reports in the Saturday and Sunday papers raise questions about the long-term sustainability of high-profile “signature” Canadian aid projects into which Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s government has sunk $70 million or more. And chillingly, Watson writes in today’s paper that despite Canadian efforts to help shore up the justice system, some Afghans are so disillusioned with official corruption that they are turning back to tribal courts and even to the Taliban for redress. Granted, the Kandahar projects are merely part of Canada’s broader $2 billion aid program in Afghanistan over the past decade. That aid is credited with helping to reduce water losses in the Dahla system and with boosting key crop yields, with sending 8 million children including millions of girls to school and with vaccinating more than a million against polio, among other major gains. Looking ahead, Ottawa intends to provide $227 million more through 2017 for mother and child health care, schooling and human rights. But as Watson discovered, the silt-choked Dahla Dam reservoir and its irrigation system still need major work. Some of the 52 schools we built or renovated show signs of shoddy construction. And the legal system remains weak despite our push to train judges and lawyers. It’s too early to take the view that we have “moved on.” Nothing is easy in Afghanistan. The insurgency plus corruption and waste have dogged projects, limiting the hoped-for benefits in terms of local development, security and stability. Afghanistan is a harsh aid environment, and gains can soon be reversed. But even so, Canada ought to acknowledge residual ownership for “signature” projects that have yet to fully deliver. Rather than declare mission accomplished, Ottawa should face up to the problems and pool funds with our American and other allies to help the Afghans finish what we have begun. There’s still plenty to do.

From Kabul to Istanbul: The rickshaw circus

A Canadian man and his German girlfriend are braving the Taliban to take a rickshaw on one of the world’s most dangerous road trips to bring the circus to children in Afghanistan, Iran and Pakistan. Adnan Khan, 41, and his anthropologist sweetheart have embarked on the punishing 8,000-kilometre trip to Istanbul that demands a police escort and hoisting the rickshaw onto trucks to navigate the trickiest stages. Their purpose is twofold: raise money for a charity that uses circus training to lift the spirits of children in war-torn Afghanistan and to spread those circus skills along the way, to brighten the lives of refugees and orphans. Adnan left Kabul by road on July 11 as 25-year-old Annika Schmeding flew to Islamabad, after eight months in the Afghan capital, to prepare the way. Accompanied by Afghan police, Adnan drove to the eastern town of Jalalabad, then onto the border with Pakistan’s tribal belt. Washington considers the tribal belt the global headquarters of al Qaeda, and a den of Taliban and other militants plotting attacks in Afghanistan and against the West. It has not seen Western tourists in years. Nor does the three-wheel rickshaw, painted yellow, green and white with a jazzy “Rickshaw Circus” on the side, and sporting a brass clown horn, go unnoticed in terrain synonymous with kidnapping, suicide bombings and ambushes. “I finally got the rickshaw to the Pakistani side. It took hours. It was quite funny. A policeman told me ‘I haven’t seen a carnet de passage (the document needed for tourists to cross the border) in years,’” Adnan told AFP by telephone on Monday. His next task was speeding the rickshaw to Pakistan’s northwestern city of Peshawar, where Osama bin Laden kept a house during the 1980s war against Soviet troops in Afghanistan, and onto the capital Islamabad. “The local tribal police force is going to have a guard travel with me,” he said, adding that he would be rushing to make Tuesday’s first show. The trip has been months in the planning. Khan and Schmeding expect to spend two months winding their way through Pakistan, Iran and Turkey — averaging 300 kilometres a day in six hours — in temperatures that can reach 50 degrees Celsius. The couple are determined to raise as much money as possible for the Afghan Mobile Mini Circus for Children (MMCC), which was recently forced to close a school in the western city of Herat and sack staff because of a shortage of funds. “We realised that MMCC is very good at running their programmes, but not really good in terms of publicity. So we wanted people to know that there’s been an actual social circus running in Afghanistan for about 10 years,” said Khan. The journalist, who lives in Istanbul but has been coming to Afghanistan regularly for the past 10 years, spoke as girls sang, juggled tennis balls and skittles, and boys danced around the rickshaw and jumped high into the sky. Organisers say the circus encourages concentration, discipline and stimulates intellectual development. “When they learn how to juggle and they go on stage, they get so much more self-confidence. They learn to express themselves. They learn how to trust, to share,” said Schmeding. Since 2002, the charity says it has reached more than two million children in a country where singing, dancing and cultural shows were banned by the Taliban regime, which was brought down in the 2001 US-led invasion. Besides children, the MMCC also puts on shows for grown ups designed to raise public awareness of basic hygiene, malaria and anti-personnel mines. “One thing is the educational message in it. Another one is to have the children being entertained,” said David Mason, the founder and co-director of MMCC. “In Afghanistan, entertainment has another mission. It’s therapy, collective therapy,” he added. Since 1979, Afghanistan has been largely at war. The 1980s saw the mujahideen fight to evict Soviet troops, then came civil war between 1992 and 1996, until the Taliban took power and the 9/11 attacks prompted the American invasion in 2001. Since then, a deadly Taliban insurgency has grown with each passing year, killing more than 3,000 civilians in 2011, according to the United Nations, which is a record. In Pakistan and in Iran, the rickshaw circus will stop every three days in a large town, where they will work with children in orphanages, hospitals and refugee camps. “It will be nice to raise some money for MMCC as they desperately need it. But the awareness is more important,” said Khan.

Benazir Bhutto: SC constitutes larger bench

DunyaTv

The Supreme Court has constituted five members larger bench to look into the matter. The Supreme Court on Tuesday heard a case regarding registration of second FIR in Benazir Bhutto murder case.The apex court has decided to constitute a five member larger bench to look into the matter.Hearing of the case has been adjourned for indefinite period of time.

Karachi: UN polio vaccination doctor attacked near Sorabh Goth

Gunmen opened fire on a UN vehicle in Karachi Tuesday, wounding a driver and a foreign doctor working on a polio immunization campaign, officials said. Local police said two young Afghan men opened fire on the vehicle in the Soharb Goth neighborhood of eastern Karachi. “A foreigner was wounded critically while his driver sustained superficial wounds,” senior police official Shahid Hayat told AFP. Police said the foreign doctor had been traveling to a polio vaccination camp, when the vehicle was attacked. “One of our drivers and one of our staff were hurt, but currently they are both stable,” an official from the United Nations’ World Health Organization (WHO) told AFP from Islamabad. Pakistan kicked off a three-day polio vaccination campaign on Monday.

Polio campaign troubles imperil 350,000 Pakistan children

Pakistan on Monday postponed a polio immunisation campaign in parts of its tribal belt, jeopardising the health of more than 350,000 children after the Taliban banned inoculations. Local Taliban and Pakistani warlord Hafiz Gul Bahadur, whose followers are fighting Western troops in Afghanistan, banned the vaccinations in the northwestern region of Waziristan to protest against US drone attacks. They have condemned the immunisation campaign, which began nationwide on Monday, as a cover for espionage. Pakistani doctor Shakeel Afridi was jailed for 33 years in May after helping the CIA find Osama bin Laden using a hepatitis vaccination programme as cover. Fighting between government troops and local warlord Mangal Bagh also made it difficult to innoculate all children in Khyber district, officials said. "The campaign has been postponed in North and South Waziristan and Bara (district) of Khyber," Mazhar Nisar, in charge of the polio monitoring cell at the prime minister's secretariat, told AFP. Officials in Miranshah, the main town of North Waziristan, said a meeting of tribal elders to discuss immunisation had been postponed due to a military curfew. In Khyber, administration official Irfanullah Wazir told AFP that the target was to vaccinate 200,163 children, but conceded the campaign would be affected in parts of Bara and the Tirah valley, where 111,556 children need the drops. "We will make every effort to reach the maximum children in those areas, with the help of security forces and lashkars (pro-government tribal militias)," Wazir said. Fawad Khan, director of health services in the tribal belt, told AFP last week that at least 160,000 children in North Waziristan and 80,000 in South Waziristan would be affected if polio drops are not administered. Pakistan says 34 million children under five will be targeted in the three-day polio immunisation campaign from Monday to Wednesday. The prime minister's office said 22 vaccination points had been established on the Afghan-Pakistani border, but expected that a "substantial proportion" of children in Bara, South and North Waziristan would not be accessed. The Lancet medical journal has said vaccination problems led last year to Pakistan's highest number of polio cases in a decade, 198, compared to 144 in 2010. Polio remains endemic only in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Nigeria. The highly infectious disease affects mainly the under-fives and can cause paralysis in a matter of hours. Some cases can be fatal.

ANNEXED AFGHAN TERRITORIES BE MERGED WITH FATA

Some political leaders had been raising the controversy of annexed territories of Afghanistan by the British colonial rulers for which Baloch should not be blamed as they had no hand in keeping the territories of Afghanistan with Balochistan. Rather General Yahya Khan should be blamed for not merging the annexed territories of Afghanistan with nearby FATA or Waziristan. Neither Baloch had claimed on the annexed territories of Afghanistan, nor they are interested in the resources of that territory for any reason. It is a fact that Baloch nationalists never fought for Parliamentary seats in northern Balochistan, mainly in former Afghan territories, allowing the Pakthuns to retain their seats in the assemblies. On the contrary, the Pakhtuns are a serious economic burden on Balochistan as they are exploiting our resources and taking tens of billions of rupees every month on the pretext of development funds and administrative expenditure. For the past half a century, the Mulla had monopolized the development spending and keeping the portfolio of Planning and Development for the disadvantage of Baloch areas, to be precisely specific. Billions and billions are being spent on constituencies of Mullas and at the cost of the Baloch people and their rich resources. It must be stopped by merging the annexed territories of Afghanistan with FATA till such time both Pakistan and Afghanistan settle all their outstanding issues and disputes, including territorial disputes. All the Government servants, including doctors, engineers, judges of the superior courts and others should be asked to report to the FATA Secretariat to serve their Pakhtuns sparing Balochs. It is a good decision that the National Assembly is forming a commission demarcating the boundaries of the new provinces, including Seraiki Province, and the same commission should be asked to re-demarcate the former Afghan territories and merge it with FATA if the local residents were reluctant to remain with KPK for economic and social reasons. The same commission should re-demarcate the boundaries of existing provinces merging Dera Ghazi Khan, Dera Ismail Khan, whole of Jacobabad District and its surrounding historical Baloch territories with Balochistan and merging the Annexed Afghan territories with FATA. The Commission should be asked to create natural and national provinces by re-demarcating the provincial boundaries on ethnic, cultural and linguistic basis and to the satisfaction of Baloch and Seraiki people. It is regrettable that some vested interests in the pay of the security establishment are trying to create differences between the Balochs and Pakhtuns in Balochistan. Off and on they raise non-issues at the behest of their masters as they had no scope in politics as Mullas had been recruited permanently to serve the establishment in Balochistan, if not in KPK. The JUI is well entrenched in Balochistan politics as it is getting billions of funds to invest in their respective constituencies ousting PMAP and others. PMAP and ANP is no match to power and influence of the JUI in the present context. Generally, people are not taking the politics of PMAP seriously as it never addressed the serious issues and resorted to slogan mongering using catchy slogans for the lumpen elements in some cities. Long ago, it deviated from serious politics and failed to address serious political and constitutional issues. Second rank PMAP leadership is totally blank unable to understand the political, social, economic and other issues of the masses. It was due to the brain drain as most seasoned political workers preferred to go on sideline if they had not changed their loyalties. They created a vacuum in the ranks of party workers and depending on people who lack basic knowledge about the area, politics, economics and social issues. That is why, no individual is authorized to issue a statement and their views are dispatched to the newspaper offices through a centralized Press release issued from the Central Party office. Even journalists are barred from covering their meetings asking them to print what the Party office provide them material through a Press release. It is the level of confidence on the provincial leadership, not to speak of the district leadership.

Pakistan: Moody's downgrade: big surprise?

Downgrading of Pakistan's foreign and local currency bond ratings by one notch to Caa1 from B3 by Moody's Investors Service last week may not be surprising for those who have been watching the recent developments in country's economy closely. As is usually the case, the fresh assessment was claimed to be made on the basis of deterioration of certain key macroeconomic variables including worsening of country's balance of payments (BoP) position over the past year, the looming large repayments due to the International Monetary Fund, dwindling foreign exchange reserves and the institutional weaknesses stemming from political instability and constrained government finances. The main driver of Moody's one notch downgrade of the country's bond rating was the increasing strain on its external sector position as a result of a rising trade deficit and a decline in capital inflows. Weak government finances, structural inflationary pressures and domestic political uncertainties were also adding to Pakistan's vulnerabilities and other risks, thereby compounding the downward pressures on sovereign creditworthiness. In order to justify its action to downgrade Pakistan's credit rating, Moody's Service depended largely on the previous year's (2011-12) data which indicated several deteriorating trends in all the key areas of the economy. As part of the new rating action, Moody's has also revised Pakistan's foreign currency country ceiling to B3 from B1, foreign currency deposit ceiling to Caa2 from B3, and local currency bond and deposit ceilings to B1 from Baa2 and Ba2 respectively. The considerable change in the local currency ceilings reflect a downward assessment of Institutional Strength to "Very Low" from 'Low' in the assessment of sovereign risk. It needs to be remembered that Moody's is one of the three largest credit rating agencies in the world and the downgrade of Pakistan's foreign and local currency bond ratings from B3 to Caa1 - equal to the lowest rating Pakistan had ever gotten, cannot be easily dismissed and would have a considerable negative impact on the economy. Although, Pakistan's debt had generally been classified as "junk" but the position, in terms of ratings, was never as bad as declared in its latest report. Moody's highest-ever rating for Pakistan was B1 from November 2006 to May 2008 which was downgraded to B3, shortly before IMF rescue package for Pakistan came into effect. The rating agency had also downgraded Pakistan from B2 to B3 on the very day that Pakistan had conducted five nuclear weapon tests on May 28, 1998. Pakistan's downgrading to the new level of Caa1 shows that Moody's is now highly pessimistic about the prospects of the country's economy, particularly about its external sector. The present rating, in fact, is so poor that the country's debt rating has to go up seven notches in order to reach the lowest level of investment grade. Needless to say, that such an inferior rating by a highly reputed agency could be very harmful for the economy. In particular, foreign investors would avoid the country, external borrowings would be highly expensive and it would be more difficult for domestic banks to open LCs for imports. If the situation worsens further, foreign banks could demand cash for trade transactions which would be costly in financial terms and, in a way, humiliating for the country. All of this could have a negative impact on exchange rate, inflation, growth rate, employment and poverty level, etc. While Moody's has declared its new assessment, it could be plausibly argued that its action to downgrade our rating was rather hasty and ill-conceived. It is certainly a bit of a surprise that rating downgrade has been announced at a time when oil prices in the international market have dropped significantly, relations with the US have improved somewhat, exports to the EU countries could increase under the new policy regime, and home remittances are rising consistently. All these factors would have a positive impact on the external sector and reduce the risk of insolvency in the near future. Although, political tensions in the country are still high but unanimous agreement on the new Chief Election Commissioner suggests that the key players would prefer the system's continuity and shun direct confrontation. It also needs to be mentioned that Standard & Poor's has not changed Pakistan's credit rating so far and maintained its stable outlook. However, all of this does not mean that the country's economy is out of the woods. The government has already defaulted in its domestic sovereign obligations to the IPPs and could face problems in the foreign debt repayments in the next couple of years due mainly to the huge amount of principal and interest due for payment to the IMF. Whatever the future of the economy, authorities of the country, in our view, instead of disputing or worrying too much about the justification of Moody's latest move, need to concentrate wholeheartedly on reducing the vulnerabilities of economy through a bold reform process. If such a route is adopted, not only would our economy improve, the Moody's and others would also be forced to reassess Pakistan ratings.

PML-N turned into petition league

Dawn.com

Senior Advisor to the Prime Minister on Interior Rehman Malik on Monday said that PML-N had turned into ‘Petition League’ and fulfilled all its desires through petitions. Addressing the public meeting after inaugurating passport office, he said that the government of Shahbaz Sharif was running on stay orders for the last four and a half years. He said that Pakistan People’s Party believed in the ballot and not the bullet. He hoped that general election would be held on time. Quoting the statement of Nawaz Sharif, he said that the PML-N chief had said that it would be rebellion to contest elections under the patronage of Pervez Musharraf, but still contested the elections under his (Musharraf’s) patronage. “It is a matter of astonishment that no FIR had so far been registered against Pervez Musharraf in Punjab,” he observed. “I salute to Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani who served the poor people and rendered valuable services in his respective area,” he added.

Nawaz should stop politicising judiciary

All Pakistan Muslim League Central Information Secretary Aasia Ishaq has said that Nawaz Sharif should stop politicising the judiciary as it will harm the country.According to the APML statement issued here on Monday, she said Nawaz Sharif and his party was spreading an impression that the country’s judiciary was functioning on his directions.“It is a time for an independent judiciary to take notice of the situation so that any political actor and producer cannot damage the image of the court,” she added.Aasia further said that Nawaz Sharif always preferred his family and personal interests and never worked for the betterment and development of the country.Moreover, All Pakistan Muslim League Central Vice President Sardar Ghulam Mustafa Khaskheli has said that everybody knows that foreign elements are behind the incidents of target killing in Quetta and Karachi but the question is that what the government is doing to root them out. According to an APML press release issued here on Monday, Sardar Ghulam Mustafa Khaskheli said frequent incidents of terrorism in Quetta and Karachi show the grim picture that state machinery and rulers were not serious to save the country from the clutches of terrorism. The writ of the government and rule of law has become a dream long lost. Target killers have plagued the society and the masses have been left at the mercy of criminals, he added.Target killing can be eliminated by taking indiscriminate action and shedding religio-political compromises, he added that elements involve in the killing of people should be taken to the task.Sardar Ghulam Mustafa Khaskheli said there was a rule of law prevailed during the Pervez Musharraf era, business community had no sense of insecurity which resulted in flourishing of industrialisation and investment, booming of economy and provision of employment to large number of people and strengthening of the country.Security forces took stringent action wherever the extremists and terrorists tried to challenge the writ of the government during Gen Pervez Musharraf’s rule and eliminated them but the present government is not utilising its full force, he added.

Swat summer festival comes to an end

The Express Tribune

Amid fireworks and cheers, the five-day Swat Summer Festival concluded in Kalam on Monday.

After another round of festivities and sports activities including tent-pegging, horse dances, gymnastics, acrobatics, karate display and horse, motorbike, boat and jeep races, Peshawar Corps Commander Lieutenant General Khalid Rabbani distributed prizes and souvenirs amongst the participants who secured top positions. “The success of the festival is proven by the huge number of tourists it attracted from across the country,” said Gen Rabbani, adding that it also a reminder that peace has been restored in Swat valley. “I invite tourists from the entire world to visit Swat without any hesitation and enjoy the spectacular and serene environment of the valley,” he said. He promised that another festival on the same pattern will also be organised next year. “At first, we were hesitant to come to Swat as we had heard many horror stories, but after we arrived, we realised that those were just stories. The valley is peaceful and the people are very hospitable,” Zubair Zahid, a tourist from Islamabad told The Express Tribune. He said that police officials can be seen deputed at every tourist spot, which provides a sense of security. Though the festival had officially ended, thousands of people could still be seen thronging the various tourist resorts in Swat. “The cool breeze on our cheeks and the spectacular sceneries you only see in pictures, everything is perfect here,” said Ayesha Anam, an eighth-grader from Karachi, as she sat on a charpoi along Swat River. With the staggering influx of tourists, local hoteliers and salespersons are having a field day. Seven-year-old Javed, who sells boiled eggs after school hours, said he has been earning around Rs200 to 300 every day since the festival started. “I hope the people keep coming,” he said.

Obama 'Won't Be Apologizing' for Bain Attacks on Romney

http://news.yahoo.com

Republicans continue to call on President Obama and his campaign to give an apology for questioning Mitt Romney's role at Bain Capital. They won't be getting one. "No, we won't be apologizing," the president said in an interview aired today. "Sometimes these games are played during political campaigns. Understand what the issues are here: Mr Romney claims he's Mr. Fix-it for the economy because of his business experience, so I think voters entirely legitimately want to know what is exactly his business experience."

One-on-one with President Obama: wavy.com

Speaking to NBC's Richmond, Va., affiliate station, WAVY-TV, Obama invoked a past White House occupant in an argument he has used for days on the campaign trail. "Harry Truman said 'the buck stops with me,' and I think understandably people are going to be interested in are you in fact responsible for this company you say is one of your primary calling cards for your wanting to be President," he said. On Thursday an Obama campaign manager upped the ante on Romney's final days at Bain Capital by suggesting the Republican candidate had either lied to the public or misrepresented "his position at Bain to the SEC, which is a felony," by saying he had left the company in 1999. Romney gave five network interviews to defend himself, stating the Obama campaign had gone "out of control."

One-on-one with President Obama: wavy.com

That spokeswoman doubled down on the attack today by stating there was no point in "arguing the semantics" of whether he was officially active at the firm during the time. "If you're signing an SEC document with your own signature that you're the president, C.E.O., chairman of the board and 100 percent owner of a company, in what world are you living in that you're not in charge?" Stephanie Cutter said on CBS. On ABC's "This Week," former White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel put it another way: "As president of the United States you can't have a sign on your desk that says, 'Gone fishing,'" the Chicago mayor said. Emanuel and Cutter had come to represent the Democratic side in the row at the heart of the issue: Whether Romney could be held responsible for layoffs and outsourcing at Bain properties after he supposedly left to manage the U.S. Olympic Committee. On the other side of the table: Romney adviser Kevin Madden. "The reason there is a document in 2002 that had his signature is, during that transition from 1999 to 2002 where there was transfer of ownership to the new partners of Bain, that there was a duty to sign those documents," Madden said. "Even a bipartisan commission indicated Governor Romney left Bain in 1999." It is a fact that Romney remained at the company until at least 2002, according to SEC filings obtained by the Boston Globe. But some independent fact checking organizations have criticized the reporting of Romney's role at the time, stating there was no evidence to say he took part in any decision-making processes. Republicans have seized on those articles, demanding an apology from the Obama campaign. Madden repeated the call, but Cutter maintained it was out of the question. "Instead of whining about what the Obama campaign is saying, just put the facts out there and let people decide, rather than trying to hide them," she said. Cutter and Emanuel both referenced Romney's refusal to release any tax returns dating before 2010, which would shed light onto the nature of overseas holdings the candidate possessed. "You've learned in just one year about the Caymans, about the Bahamas, about Luxembourg, and about Switzerland, all where his tax and different accounts are," Emanuel said. "His tax - his tax filing looks more like the Olympic Village than it does like a middle-class family." Madden said Romney had "gone above and beyond" financial disclosure laws required of candidates, releasing "hundreds and hundreds of pages of financial disclosures with the FEC." On CNN, another Romney surrogate, Ed Gillepsie, said the candidate's departure for the Olympics was originally planned as a "leave of absence." "He ended up not going back at all and retired retroactively to February of 1999 as a result," Gillepsie said. The statement has set the liberal blogosphere ablaze, "Ed Gillepsie" and "#retroactively" holding positions in the top 10 U.S. Twitter trends as of press time.

95 %Pakistanis see themselves in trouble

Ninety five per cent Pakistanis believe they are in financial trouble and blame their government for the same, says a US survey. About 10 per cent blame banks and financial institutions, 32 per cent blame the world’s biggest scapegoat, the United States, while two per cent also blame the European Union. A large minority, 33 per cent, blame themselves for the situation they are in. The survey, by Washington’s Pew Research Institute, shows that 70 per cent Pakistanis in 2008 believed they were in “good personal economic situation.” It reduced to 51 per cent 2012, a 19 per cent decline in four years. In 2008, 41 per cent Pakistanis believed their country was in a “good national economic situation.” It reduced to nine per cent in 2012, registering 32 per cent decline in four years. Despite the problems they are facing, most Pakistanis continue to believe that they are better off in free market economy. In 2002, 50 per cent Pakistan believed in the free market, 60 per cent in 2007, 65 per cent in 2009, 64 per cent in 2010, and 48 per cent in 2012. But the figures do show a 12 per cent decline in their trust in the free market. In 2002, 49 per cent had little satisfaction with the country’s economic direction, which reduced to 29 per cent in 2003 but improved to 54 per cent in 2004. In 2005, it reduced to 57 per cent, and in 2006 to 35 per cent. It slightly improved to 39 per cent in 2007 but reduced to 25 per cent in 2008. The biggest fall came in 2009 when the Pakistanis’ confidence in their economic direction reduced to just nine per cent. In 2010, it improved to 14 per cent but again fell to six per cent in 2011 and improved to 12 per cent in 2012. Pakistanis who see their national economic condition as good have been reduced from 59 to nine per cent in less than five years. In 2002, 49 per cent said they had confidence in their national economic condition. In 2007 it improved to 59 per cent, but in 2008, it reduced to 41 per cent, in 2009 to 22 per cent, in 2010 to 18, in 2011 to 12. And in 2012 it hit the rock bottom with only nine per cent saying they see their national economic condition as good. Only 26 per cent Pakistanis believe the situation will improve. Twenty-three per cent say it will remain the same while 43 per cent say it will worsen. Only nine per cent Pakistani say their personal economic condition is better than the country’s. Asked how were they doing now compared to five years ago, 23 per cent Pakistanis said they were financially better off, 17 per cent said they were about the same and 57 per cent said they were worse off. Asked how was their standard of living as compared to their parents at the same age, 38 per cent said better, 16 per cent said about the same and 42 per cent said it was worse. Despite the hardships they face, an overwhelming number of Pakistanis, 81 per cent, believe hard work is the key to success. Only15 per cent say it is not.

Pakistan: TERRORIST ATTACK ON POLITICAL PROCESS

After long, the Awami National Party made an attempt to strengthen the on-going political process by organizing a public meeting in Kuchlak to mobilize public opinion ahead of the election process. Since it was a democratic party and got the right to approach the people to win over their support for its political programme. Enemies of the democratic forces and democratic polity obstructed this political process by attacking the public meeting with a time device killing nine people and injuring 22 others, including the Provincial ANP President and his wife, also a known political activist. A least known militant outfit claiming to be Lashkar Mujahideen-i-Islam had carried out the bomb attack killing and wounding score of political workers and activists. ANP had been the victim of terrorism in KPK and a serious suicide attack was made on party President only for not being a fanatic or not believing in fascist ideology. A strong section of Pakistani establishment hates the politics of liberalism, Baloch, Pakhtun and Sindhi nationalism, or Pakistani nationalism or patriotism and support the fascists and fanatic elements who are given a free hand to hold huge public rallies, public meetings in any part of Pakistan. The DPC meetings and rallies in all parts of Pakistan are a proved that the establishment is still supporting Jihadi elements and allowing Tsunami Khan to hold meetings and rallies anywhere in Pakistan as their politics suits the establishment and opposed to PPP, ANP and PML-N. All those political forces not supporting the Afghan Jihad are subject to terrorist attacks. It is the clear message conveyed to the political forces by bombing the ANP meeting. We believe that the bomb attack on the ANP public meeting is nothing but a terrorist attack on the political process in Balochistan and elsewhere disallowing the liberal and nationalist forces to play their destined role in Balochistan. On the contrary, religious, fanatics and obscurantist elements are allowed to do politics, retain their national and provincial assembly seats for more than a decade and others are not allowed to contact their own political constituents as it was disapproved by the establishment for strategic reasons. Such a policy will harm Pakistan, not benefit the country, it is our considered opinion and there must be a change in state policy by allowing the political forces to take the driving seat in the Pakistani administration and sending all the anti-democratic forces to take the back seat. Let’s politicians or men from representative democracy rule this country. The public servants merely should obey the orders from elected representatives governing Pakistan.

Pakistan:Power generation by provinces, private sector

According to a Business Recorder exclusive report, the federal government is considering ending the constitutional restriction of not allowing provinces and private sector to generate more than 50 MW without federal approval with the objective of enhancing generation capacity. This, according to informed sources, is being labeled as an out of the box solution to the ongoing crippling energy problem in the country. It is evident that this out of the box solution has not been well thought out at all. While granted that the provinces and the private sector should be allowed to produce electricity without a maximum limit but the power is to be distributed through the national grid which is under the control of the federal government. In other words work is required to draft agreements, after discussions with all stakeholders required to ensure the success of such a proposal. In the absence of such a policy this proposal is not so much an out of the box as out of the realm of possibility in the near future solution. Be that as it may, assuming that a draft is agreed the critical question is whether this alone would be able to resolve the crisis? The third-party audit on rental power projects undertaken by the Asian Development Bank concluded that the major problem with the energy sector is not one of generation, though total capacity generation was acknowledged to be lower than demand. However, it was argued that the shortfall should not have resulted in more than a couple of hours of loadshedding per day, but that of inability to operate at capacity. And this is due to the massive rise of circular debt premised on a 70 to 80 percent monthly utility bills collections with the federal and provincial governments the main defaulters, followed by influential private individuals as well as Federally Administered Tribal Areas. Circular debt thus continues to compromise the liquidity in the power sector thereby disabling Pakistan State Oil (PSO) from paying for the needed fuel imports. At present, five Independent Power Producers are in court seeking their due amounts from federal government entities. Additionally, massive distribution and transmission losses as well as theft of electricity also add to the woes of this sector. The power sector also complains that the price set for electricity is way below the cost of producing electricity - a cost that is rising commensurate with the rise in fuel in the international marketplace. Additionally, our energy mix is steadily tilting in favour of thermal generation (as a percentage of total energy produced) over other cheaper sources of fuel resulting in cost of production of electricity rising at a fast clip. Given this background the multilaterals led by the World Bank proposed a set of power sector reforms considered critical to resolving the energy crisis in 2008 under the Stand-By Arrangement with the International Monetary Fund, that Pakistan's government agreed to in writing in its Letter of Intent. The reforms included eliminating subsidies notably inter-disco tariff differential that is in effect a subsidy to the poorly performing discos, a conditionality that a political government, as expected, has been unable to meet. Ensuring 100 percent collections of utility bills could have been implemented but the government seems to have shied away from implementing this as well. The Sindh government as the single largest defaulter owes in excess of 50 billion rupees and federal minister Khurshid Shah who hails from Sindh was charged with the responsibility to discuss the issue with the Sindh Chief Minister. However, a meeting between the two has yet to take place on the matter. Distribution and transmission losses due to old equipment or deliberate theft in which the linesmen are complicit have also not been dealt with proactively with many in the power sector complaining that when they proceed to disconnect defaulters they are ruthlessly beaten up and no protection provided to them. Thus the power issue is serious but a large part can be dealt with through ensuring that the circular debt is eliminated through improved policing and discussions with large defaulters.

Pakistan: A beleaguered government

EDITORIAL:Daily Times

Prime Minister (PM) Raja Pervez Ashraf delivered a sobering message while inaugurating the Khan Khawar Hydropower Project in Bisham the other day. The PM pointed to the anomaly in our history that military dictators had remained in power for ten years at a time but no one stopped them from their unconstitutional actions, while the present elected government has been unnecessarily targeted. He asked the opposition parties to come forward for holding free, fair and transparent elections, this being the only process through which politicians could come to power. No effort should be made to destabilise the government, the PM argued, as there was a crying need for collective efforts to steer the country out of crisis. That is why, the PM continued, a consensus Chief Election Commissioner has been appointed because “we do not want any hanky panky in the polling process”. He then went on to discuss the energy crisis, arguing that increased hydropower generation promised the best solution for the country’s energy deficit. He reminded his audience that late prime minister Benazir Bhutto was criticised when she initiated the Independent Power Producers (IPPs) concept in her second term, a policy that clearly has proved its worth with the passage of time and prevented an even worse energy crisis by now. Apart from the Neelum-Jehlum, Dober, Kohala and Dasu hydropower projects, the government has also started work on Thar coal, the PM revealed. It must be conceded that the past four and a half years of an elected PPP-led coalition government have been some of the toughest for any elected government in our history. Not only has the government been under pressure if not siege from the cast of usual suspects, including the military and an overly assertive judiciary, the opposition has blown hot and cold in terms of cooperation with, and also stubborn resistance to, the present dispensation. The challenges faced by any government taking over after the traumatic assassination of Benazir Bhutto and the depredations left behind as a legacy by the Musharraf dictatorship would have tested the most resolute of political leaderships. The PM referred to the constant predictions of the fall of the government every other day, prognoses that were proved wrong over time. While this offers temptation to the government to play the ‘victim card’, and there may be weight in that contention, ultimately any government’s tenure is judged on the basis of its performance and delivery. While there is dissatisfaction on that count in the public, particularly over energy, the thrust of the right wing opposition inside and outside parliament has focused almost exclusively on the alleged corruption of the government and its leaders. No substantive evidence has been produced to back up this barrage of accusations, the public being primed by the media and opposition to believe the worst about this government and offer it no slack. Corruption is a red herring since no one can claim the moral high ground across the board in our present polity. Therefore the focus on corruption almost exclusively, is unlikely to yield any positive outcome, except for retaliatory accusations against each other, reducing the credibility of the political class as a whole with no solution. Arguably, those desirous of rooting out corruption from our system, if they are not indulging n mere point scoring and are sincere, should realise that only continuity of the democratic system can offer any hope of improvement of a cancer that has afflicted the sinews of state and society in every nook and cranny. Only persisting with democracy offers hope of betterment, cleansing of these Augean stables of corruption, and evolving in the direction of a better leadership. The speculation about an August 14 announcement of early elections in November, provided it carries the consensus of the parties across the board, may be a welcome relief from the present state of tension and crisis. Given Maulana Fazlur Rehman’s warning that the disqualification of another PM may derail democracy, perhaps sit is time for the Supreme Court to stay its hand and leave the fate of this government in the hands of the people through the ballot box.

Pakistan: Bannu old city police station attacked

Unknown armed men have attacked the old city police station in Bannu Monday morning, Geo News reported. According to police, miscreants have attacked the old city police station with hand grenades and firing while five gunmen have also entered the police station building. The area is of high importance as the investigating officers and their offices are situated in the same area. Police have cordoned off the area and Army help has been sought. Firing continued until the last report was filed.

Obama Campaign Continues Attacks on Romney

President Obama barnstormed through this swing state on Saturday as his campaign relentlessly hammered at Mitt Romney’s business record, releasing a mocking new ad that shows Mr. Romney singing “America the Beautiful” as it accuses his former firm of shipping American jobs overseas. Mr. Obama, speaking first to a drenched crowd during a downpour in the Richmond suburb of Glen Allen, and then at Centreville High School in Fairfax County, accused Mr. Romney of investing in “companies that have been called pioneers in outsourcing.” He ignored Mr. Romney’s demands for an apology about the campaign’s tone, which the Republican candidate had called for in interviews on Friday. “My opponent and his allies in Congress, they believe in top-down economics,” Mr. Obama said. “If you cut through all the stuff, what they are really saying is tax cuts for the wealthy, roll back regulations. That is essentially their plan.” The president’s campaign has spent more than a week harping on Mr. Romney’s personal wealth and calling on him to disclose information about his personal finances by releasing more years of his tax returns. It has also raised questions about Mr. Romney’s offshore investments and accounts. The new ad reminds viewers of those issues as it shows a clip of Mr. Romney singing at a campaign event in Florida this year. It says Mr. Romney shipped jobs to Mexico, China and India — accusations that Mr. Romney’s campaign vehemently denies. And it says Mr. Romney had “millions” in a Swiss bank account and “tax havens” in Bermuda and the Cayman Islands. “Mitt Romney’s not the solution,” the ad states. “He’s the problem.” On Saturday, the Republican campaign repeated Mr. Romney’s angry comments about what it said are untrue allegations surrounding Mr. Romney’s personal finances. “As the failures of his presidency become more evident, Barack Obama has resorted to the tactics of a typical politician: dishonest and totally unsubstantiated attacks meant to distract from his own record by smearing the reputation of his opponent,” said Amanda Hennenberg, a Romney campaign spokeswoman. Mr. Romney’s campaign has repeatedly defended the offshore accounts, saying that he paid all the taxes legally required. On Friday, Mr. Romney again refused to release multiple years of his tax returns. He has released a return for 2010, and an estimate for 2011. He characterized the Obama campaign’s allegations as “reckless” and “absurd.” But if Mr. Romney’s campaign hoped that his rival’s campaign would back off its aggressive tone, they were disappointed. Traveling with the president on Air Force One, Mr. Obama’s top aides went out of their way Saturday morning to highlight their continued attacks. In addition to the television ad, Mr. Obama’s campaign released a Web video compilation of attacks that Mr. Romney has made in the past. The point, aides said, is that Mr. Romney is equally responsible for the campaign’s tone. “Mitt Romney, I just want to remind you, is the same candidate who questioned whether the president understood America, questioned whether he understood freedom,” said Jen Psaki, a spokeswoman for the Obama campaign. “He spends a lot of time attacking.” The video, titled “Asking for Apologies While Launching Attacks,” shows Mr. Romney raising the issue of Mr. Obama’s ties to the Rev. Jeremiah A. Wright Jr. and shows him accusing the president of “appeasement” in his foreign policy. “This president spends a lot of time apologizing for America,” the video shows Mr. Romney saying. “He should be apologizing to America.” The video concludes by saying: “Mitt Romney. He sure asks for a lot of apologies. When he’s not busy launching attacks.” . Throughout most of his speech on Saturday, his second day in Virginia, Mr. Obama avoided the down-and-dirty political combat that has consumed much of the campaign coverage. “Even though the crisis put us through some very tough times, the American people are tougher,” Mr. Obama said. “Folks may have gotten knocked down some, but they got back up.” But the second half of Mr. Obama’s stump speech is tougher. He accused Republicans of giving tax breaks to companies that send work overseas. And he quoted Mr. Romney as “saying let Detroit go bankrupt,” the headline on an article he wrote in The New York Times arguing for a managed bankruptcy for the auto industry. He concluded with a fiery defense of his health care bill. “The Supreme Court has spoken. It is the law of the land. We are going to implement it,” he said. “It was the right thing to do. We’re not going backwards, we are going forward.”

Arabs read an average of 6 pages a year, study reveals

AL ARABIYA NEWS

There are some readers for whom obtaining a first edition copy of their favorite book or author is of great import and this is evidenced by people standing in long lines to get their hands on new books. While this may be a common site in the West, many believe this is not the case in the Arab world. There is a common perception too about the number of Arabs that frequent libraries. That number mirrors the nature of a reading culture and can be used to evaluate reading habits among its generations. Earlier this year, a debate on how to foster reading habits among Arab youth was prompted after the Arab Thought Foundation’s Fikr released its fourth annual cultural development report in January, saying that the average Arab child reads “six minutes” a year in comparison to 12,000 minutes its Western counterpart spends. It also reported that an Arab individual on average reads a quarter of a page a year compared to the 11 books read by an American and seven books by a British person. “If we adopt the minimum average time that youth is on the Internet, that gives us 365 hours a year, and if we compare that with the average time an individual Arab spends reading, which is six minutes a year, then the difference between the two becomes clear, and the importance of the Internet in youths’ lives becomes apparent,” the report said. Soon after these statistics were released, both skeptical and furious debates took place on social media forums like Twitter, with people highlighting the number of challenges facing their society. Some comments suggested more active usage of e-books to encourage reading habits among the youth at a university level. Others attributed the decline in reading to inappropriate educational environments across the Arab region and families rarely visiting public libraries together. Family trips to libraries are considered rare across the Arab world. Hind Saud, a student tweeted that TV has become the focal gathering point for families. “We never had a chance to read or discuss a book together as a family.” Ghader al-Shehabi, a medical student at Riyadh College of dentistry told Al Arabiya that her reading habits only developed after attending university. “We are required to do in-depth research and I’m enjoying it. We used to rely on one text book at school but the more you read, the better you become. I encourage everyone to bring change to their lives by reading.” Another survey on reading habits in the Middle East in April 2011 made for a depressing read. Only one in five read on a regular basis and among those under 25 ─ nearly 65 per cent of the 3,667 questioned by Yahoo! Maktoob Research ─ about one in three seldom or never read a book for pleasure. The survey’s results shows similar reading habits across countries. In an Arab League table of readers by nations, the United Arab Emirates placed fifth behind Bahrain, Egypt, Morocco and Iraq. In the UAE, just 22 per cent of people described themselves as regular readers. A general lack of educational opportunities in poor Arab countries can also add to these facts. Research for the Arab League region estimates that about 100 million people ─ almost one in three - struggle to read and write. A 2011 UNESCO report found that in the UAE, one in 10 people is illiterate. Other factors to consider in the decline of reading can be attributed to people shunning the Arabic language in favor of English. Noura Farouq, a teacher based in the UAE, told The National in April that she has seen a decline in appreciation of Arabic in her 20 year career. “Students do not see the importance of learning their mother tongue. Their parents put a lot of emphasis on English as they think it will further their careers, so they tend to develop an indifferent attitude towards Arabic.” Despite the benefits of implementing an English language teaching curricula in elementary schools, it has created a language of culturally deprived children. Most of these children are not linked to the narrative perspective of their mother tongue novels, which have created a parallel gap between them and the book. Bringing children to the habit of choosing their favorite novels, adding to develop reading sessions, or a frequent individual reading classes at schools propose a reading support techniques for young generations.

Saudi jail :2 killed as anti- and pro-govt. prisoners clash

Press TV

Clashes between pro- and anti-government inmates in a prison on the outskirts of Riyadh have killed two people. The confrontations reportedly erupted at the al-Hayer political prison on Saturday. The severity of the ensuring violence reportedly prompted authorities to send in security forces. On Friday, families of political prisoners held a rally to demand the release of the thousands of inmates held in the prison. The rally turned violent when security forces tried to disperse the protesters. At least ten women were arrested. Since February 2011, Saudi protesters have held numerous demonstrations in the Eastern Province, mainly in the Qatif region and the town of Awamiyah, calling for the release of all political prisoners, freedom of expression and assembly, and an end to widespread discrimination. The demonstrations turned into protests against the regime of the House of Saud, especially after November 2011 when Saudi security forces killed five protesters and injured many others in the province. The Saudi Interior Ministry issued a statement on March 5, 2011, prohibiting “all forms of demonstrations, marches or protests, and calls for them...” In June, Saudi King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz Al Saud ordered the country’s security forces to go on a state of high alert due to, what he called, a “turbulent situation” in the region.

Pakistan PM to announce polls roadmap on August 14

Prime Minister Raja Pervaiz Ashraf will announce the roadmap for the next general elections on August 14, a private TV channel reported on Sunday. According to Dawn News sources, the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) and Pakistan Muslim League- Nawaz (PML-N) held a meeting yesterday to discuss the upcoming general elections. The channel’s sources said that the general elections are expected in the first week of November, however, the prime minister will formally announce the road-map on August 14. Seven-member team of the PML-N, which included Chaudhry Nisar, Raja Zafar-ul-Haq, Khawaja Asif, Ishaq Dar and Pervez Rasheed, and five-member team of the PPP, which included Khursheed Shah, Aitzaz Ahsan, Raza Rabbani, Farhatullah Babar and Jehangir Badar attended the meeting, the channel’s sources said. It was agreed in the meeting that the prime minister, chief ministers, and other federal and state ministers in the caretaker setup will be residents of Pakistan. The caretaker prime minister will neither be from the PPP or the PML-N, nor one who has been a member or leader of any other political party, the sources added. Both the PML-N and the PPP, in consultation with other political parties, will also formulate code of conduct for the general election. The meeting also decided that NAB references will not be filed against any political leader till the next elections. The sources also said that the negotiations between the PML-N and the PPP on the care-taker setup were supported by a few ally countries who wanted politics of reconciliation in the country. Some media outlets reported that names two candidates are being discussed for the post of caretaker prime minister: Abdullah Hussain Haroon, currently Pakistan’s ambassador to the United Nations and Asma Jahangir, the former president of the Supreme Court Bar Association and former chairperson of the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan.

Karachi violence claims 18 lives in 24 hours

As the fresh wave of target killing is continued in the provincial metropolis, at least 18 people including political activists have been killed within 24 hours due to firing and other incidences of violence in Karachi. In the today’s violence incidents, two activists of PPP and PTI were killed in drive-by attacks in the city. First one was shot dead by some unidentified armed men in the New Karachi area, while a body of another activist was found in the Shirin Jinnah Colony. Two others, also belonging to a political party, were injured in Korangi Town. An activist of Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) was killed at Safora Goth within the limits of Gulistan-e-Jauhar Police Station. Police officials said the deceased identified as Shakeel aka Mamu, was sitting in front his house when two men riding on a motorcycle targeted him. He was taken to Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre where he succumbed to his injuries. Meanwhile, personnel of the Pakistan Navy succumbed to his injuries during treatment at JPMC. He was injured near Natha Khan Goth within Shah Faisal Colony police station on Saturday night. He was identified as Kamran Ali. Police officials said that the incident took place when a group of criminals opened fire at the police mobile near Natha Khan Goth in which a police head constable, namely Ghulam Raza was killed while a Navy personnel who was passing from there was injured. One person was shot to death in Malir whereas the body of one woman was recovered from Sohrab Goth. Two men were killed in the Baloch Para area of Orangi Town whereas a gagged and bound body was recovered from Memon Goth. Unknown assailants killed Jaman Shah and his wife in Khokarapar No 4 after forcibly entering their residence. In Orangi Town No 12, Syed Faisal Jamal, a Sindh High Court (SHC) employee, and Jamil Baloch of Baldia town were killed in separate incidents of firing. Two tortured bodies were recovered from ditches in the Aaso Goth area of Malir and al Asif Square in Sohrab Goth. A truck driver, Fatehullah in the Korangi Industrial Area and a man identified as Shiraz Memon were killed on Jamshed Road, both in incidents of firing. Police and rangers arrested one robber in a search operation in the Hazara Chowk area of Natha Khan and a wanted criminal, Dada Baskar, was arrested from the Bakra Peeri area of Lyari.

Nawaz must apologise over deal with dictator

Rehman Malik has said Nawaz Sharif should apologise to the nation for making a deal with Musharraf. Advisor to the PM on Interior Rehman Malik on Sunday said that PML-N President Nawaz Sharif should apologise to the nation for a making a deal with former dictator Pervez Musharraf. Talking to the journalists at Estate Guest House, he strongly criticised the PML-N leadership and its political hypocrisy. He said that Sharif Brothers should record their statements in the case of attack on the Supreme Court of Pakistan. They should abandon the politics of hypocrisy and petitions, and wait for the forthcoming elections. The PPP government would complete its tenure and moreover it would clean-sweep the upcoming elections as well, Malik claimed. Speaking about the law and order situation Malik said that the situation of law and order in Punjab was not satisfactory and government should be vigilant over the deteriorating law and order situation. He said Punjab government should take action against the banned outfits in the province. Malik said that external elements are always behind the deteriorating law and order situation in Karachi. To a question, he said that there was possibility of attacks in the holy month of Ramazan ul Mubarak; therefore, all law enforcing agencies should be vigilant and alert to avoid any untoward situation. “I always condemned and spoke against the drone attacks, therefore, the US Ambassador in Pakistan did not declare me as US supporter as he declared Imran Khan and Nawaz Sharif as the US supporters”, he said. “Dual nationality bill was not brought and drafted because of me, those who are saying this, are hatching conspiracy and propagating against me. That is why I resigned from my Senate seat.”

Unrest in eastern Saudi Arabia continues

A gunman was killed during an assault against a police station while four policemen were injured in a separate attack against their patrol in eastern Saudi Arabia, home to the Shiite majority, it was reported Saturday. "Four masked men entered with their motorcycles to the police station in al-Awamiya where one of them threw a Molotov cocktail while the others opened fire on the building," said the spokesman of the Ministry of Interior, Mansour al-Turki, who was quoted by the official SPA news agency. "The guards returned fire, killing one assailant while his companions were able to flee," he said. The attack, which occurred in the Shiite city of al-Awamiya, occurred Friday night, less than a week after the death of two Shiite demonstrators in clashes with police in the district of Qatif (east of the kingdom), following the arrest of a Shiite cleric, Sheikh Nimr Baqer Al-Nimr, known for his harsh criticism of the Sunni authorities. Mr. Turki warned that police would not tolerate "the rioters, especially those who are armed," and would act against those who support them. For their part, 37 Shiite clerics issued a statement in which they attributed the tensions in the east to "the policy of religious discrimination that the government and official religious authorities have implemented for decades." At the same time, they urged the youth to "stay away from violence" and "not respond to those trying to provoke you and drive you to violence to label your movement as a terrorist." They also called on the authorities to "release political activists (...) including Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr." In a separate statement released by SPA, the spokesman for the Interior Ministry said that on Friday night "two patrols of the security forces came under fire from gunmen on motorcycles in the city of Saihat ", noting four members of law enforcement were wounded. The eastern of Saudi Arabia, an oil-rich region where the majority of residents include two million Shiites, has been rocked by sporadic unrest since March 2011. The unrest turned violent from the fall of 2011, as nine people have been killed since. The demonstrators were protesting against the military assistance by Saudi Arabia to the ruling Sunni dynasty in Bahrain for the repression of Shiite demonstrations there. Saudi Shiites also feel discriminated and have been demanding equal treatment in employment and social benefits compared to the Sunni majority in the kingdom.

Saudi Arabia arrests 10 women protesters in Buraydah

PRESS TV

Saudi Arabia’s security forces have arrested at least 10 women protesters in the city of Buraydah amid ongoing anti-government rallies in the country. The women were detained during a protest in a mall in Buraydah, about 380 kilometers (236 miles) northwest of the capital, on Friday.

The detainees were family members of Saudi political prisoner Saleh al-Moteq. The protesters were calling for the release of political prisoners in the kingdom. Saudi Arabia has been the scene of demonstrations against Al Saud family since February 2011. Protesters demand the release of all political prisoners, freedom of expression and assembly, and an end to economic and religious discrimination against the eastern region. The demonstrations, however, have turned into calls for the downfall of the Al Saud regime. The calls were further fueled by the November 2011 killing of peaceful protesters in the Eastern Province. In March 2011, the Saudi Interior Ministry issued a statement prohibiting "all forms of demonstrations, marches or protests, and calls for them." The Human Rights Watch says the Saudi regime "routinely represses expression critical of the government."

Sorry brother Pakistan, your wheat’s bad quality

While citing reservations over Pakistani’s wheat quality, Iran has finally rebuffed to import one million tonnes wheat from Pakistan under a barter trade deal, said reliable sources. According to sources familiar with the development told that Iran has conveyed to Pakistani authorities that it can only buy wheat with zero per cent karnal bunt content while Pakistani wheat is of 3 per cent content which is not acceptable for Iran. “Iran has not officially conveyed Pakistani authorities so far about its refusal to import one million tonnes wheat under barter trade arrangements,” said an official working in Ministry of National Food Security and Research. “Ministry of National Food Security and Research has been regularly contacting the Iranian authorities to finalise the modalities for exporting one million tonnes of wheat to Iran,” said an official, adding that Pakistan has not received any response from Iranian side so far to complete the deal which was earlier agreed to be finalized till May 14, 2014. Finalisation of Pakistan and Iran barter trade deal had already been facing delay as Iranian authorities showed disinterest in importing wheat from Pakistan. Earlier the matter could not be resolved in meeting of the Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) of the Cabinet because Pakistan Agriculture Storage Supplies Corporation (PASSCO) wanted to export wheat at the price of $315 per tonne then the ECC had constituted a sub- committee under the chair of then Federal Minister for Water and Power Syed Naveed Qamar to resolve the issue. In the sub-committee meeting held on May 5, 2012 the committee was of the view that wheat should be exported according to the international price. But later, the committee agreed to export the wheat at the price of $275 per tonne. In the meeting of sub-committee Naveed Qamar had asked PASSCO to finalise the deal on the basis of talks held at Tehran between Pakistani and Iranian authorities in April this year. In the meeting it had been decided in principle that one million tonnes of surplus wheat from PASSCO stocks and rice will be exported to Iran on barter trade arrangement. At that time Iran has expressed its desire to import both the items from Pakistan and in exchange urea will be imported from there. Counsul general offers increasing trade to $ 10b Pak-Iran relations are deeply rooted in the history and heritage, common culture and shared traditions. Geographical proximity linking their security interests, gives added depth and meaning to bilateral ties stated by Federation of Pakistan Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FPCCI), President, Haji Fazal Kadir Khan Sherani while talking to visiting Iranian Consul General at Federation House Karachi. Iran, Consul General, Mr. Abbas Ali Abdollahi visited FPCCI to share bilateral relations between the two countries. Haji Fazal Kadir Khan Sherani said that Pakistan and Iran have always maintained a close cooperative relationship. Both countries are amongst the founding members of ECO & OIC, he said. “The Iranian Government has pledge $ 330 million through the Friends of Democratic Pakistan (FoDP) Initiative. Pakistan and Iran have implemented PTA in 2006; however, the current volume of bilateral trade between the two countries is not reflective of the true potentials of the two countries. Current volume of bilateral trade is US $ 265 million approximately during 2011. Pakistan’s exports to Iran during the same period are US $ 136 million while imports are $ 129 million. New items in present PTA should be included and increase extent of concession on some items already in the PTA. Both countries should enhance trade promotion activities under the existing Preferential Trade Agreement”, he said. Sherani also emphasized the harmonisation between the rules and regulations of the two countries required to determine the balanced strategies regarding trade cooperation. He further added that Iran-Pakistan Gas Pipeline between energy deficient Pakistan and energy rich Iran is a feasible and doable project. Visa for businessmen on the recommendation of Chambers should be issued immediately and also establishment of separate counters for business visa also proposed by the President FPCCI. Iran, Consul General, Mr. Abbas Ali Abdollahi said that Iran and Pakistan can increase trade up to 10 billion dollar.

Arabians pay heavy price for Arab Spring

Political transition in Syria is a Pandora’s Box, leading to far more losses than gains. This situation is not unique to Syria. Political transition in Arab states such as Yemen and Libya, where the transfer of power is determined by military force, is usually accompanied by enormous turmoil and tribulations. After a cost–benefit analysis of the Arab Spring, certain media outlets found that instead of truly improving the lives of the Arab people, the wave of uprisings for “freedom” resulted in immeasurable losses to the Arab world, including heavy casualties, economic losses, and humanitarian crisis. One of the main causes of such a result is the unique socio-political structure in the Arab world. The Arab people have strong tribal consciousness, and adopt a “concentric-circle model” of political identity. They are most loyal to their families, after that come their tribes, tribal unions, and finally countries. Such sectarianism and tribalism can easily lead to family politics and crony capitalism. Furthermore, the people in power are mostly hostile to and distrustful of other tribes and religious sects, and show no mercy in suppressing the revolts by other tribes or religious sects. It is because of this unique socio-political structure that normal political protests and transfer of power in certain Arab countries have quickly turned into deadly violence and repression.In some sense, Arab states and Third World countries face similar problems concerning political transition. It teaches us to strike a balance between reform and stability. On the one hand, the disorderly political transition in Syria, Yemen, Libya, and other Arab states and the heavy price they paid for it fully show the interdependence of stability and reform. Without social or political stability, even the best blueprint for reform would be just a piece of scrap paper. On the other hand, long-term stability can only be achieved through reform and development.

Self-immolating protester "tragedy": Israeli PM

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday characterized as "a personal tragedy" an incident in which a man set himself on fire at a social welfare protest in Tel Aviv the night before. Haifa resident Moshe Silman, 57, distributed copies of a suicide letter to people around him at the demonstration, before pouring flammable material on his body and setting himself ablaze. The event took place at a demonstration commemorating the one- year anniversary since social welfare and housing movement activists sparked a series of national protests, including tent cities scattered throughout the country. Silman is currently hospitalized in critical condition, suffering burns over 94 percent of his body, Tel Hashomer medical center officials said Sunday. "We are speaking of a great personal tragedy and I wish the victim a full recovery," Netanyahu said at a Likud party faction meeting at the Knesset (parliament). "I've guided the Housing and Welfare ministers to look into this matter," he said. Silman's friends and family told reporters that he had waged a failing struggle to economically survive, when he lost his ability to work after suffering a stroke several years ago. Associates charged that authorities did not provide appropriate housing and welfare assistance, adding that Silman was on the verge of becoming homeless. "The state of Israel has robbed me," Silman wrote, listing his economic woes as the reason for his attempted suicide. "Two Housing and Constructions (Ministry) committees rejected my pleas for assistance following my stroke. No one would help me, " his letter read, according to versions published in local media. Silman specifically blamed Netanyahu and Finance Minister Yuval Steinitz' economic policies for his dire situation. "They take from the poor and give to the rich. I don't intend to become homeless," he added. Moshe's nephew, Ofer, told the Ha'aretz daily on Sunday that it was not the first time his uncle tried to take his own life. "His medical situation was deteriorated and he wasn't able to work anymore, after working his entire life. Social Security made his life a living hell. He didn't get any of the assistance he deserved, they've pushed him over the edge," he added. Housing activist Ofer Barkan said "Moshe is an example of a citizen the country neglected, who fell through the cracks. The country is made for us but in fact serves a rich minority." "He was desperate. He had nothing else to do," said Barkan, who knew Silman. Housing protest co-founder Stav Shafir said Silman's act was a "sad incident," and a "sign of great distress. I was afraid that something like this was going to happen." "I wish Moshe all the best and hope we won't see any more victims like him any more," Shafir said. Social welfare protesters said they plan to hold demonstrations on Sunday evening, both in Jerusalem across from the prime minister's residence, as well as in Haifa, where activists said they will march his house to the city's main square.