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[Caesar]

http://jang.com.pk/thenews/


Anti-Pakistan demo in NY fizzles out

NEW YORK: A demonstration planned by some groups hostile to Pakistan on violence against women drew a poor response from activists as no more than two dozen people including Indians turned up. The demonstration failed to attract people while inside the Roosevelt Hotel, President Pervez Musharraf strongly projected steps taken by Pakistan
for women empowerment, stressing that the country must not be singled out for the global malaise of violence against women.

[Caesar]

http://jang.com.pk/thenews/

Advani for improving ties with Pakistan

ISLAMABAD: Indian opposition leader L K Advani has criticised Manmohan government and said that he was the weakest prime minister in the Indian history. He was speaking at the National convention of the BJP started in Chennai. According to BBC it was for the first time in the history of the BJP when the speech of the BJP’s president had a major part about Pakistan. While referring to his visit to Pakistan, Advani said that moderation was increasing in Pakistan. He said that all out efforts should be made by India to improve relations with Pakistan.

[Caesar]

http://jang.com.pk/thenews/


Natwar to visit Pakistan soon, says Kasuri

ISLAMABAD: Indian Foreign Minister Natwar Singh is expected to visit Pakistan on Oct 3 at the special invitation of his Pakistani counterpart Khrusheed Mehmood Kasuri. The meeting with Natwar Singh would be positive and fruitful, Khrusheed Mehmood said while talking in a PTV programme. He said bilateral issues including core issue of Kashmir would also be discussed in his meeting with the Indian counterpart. He said Kashmir issue should be resolved according to the aspirations of the Kashmiris. There would be no peace and harmony in the region without resolving disputes particularly Kashmir issue, he said. He added that dialogue between the two countries would pave a way for resolving issues and bringing congenial atmosphere in the region.

[Caesar]

http://jang.com.pk/thenews/

It’s back to the old trickle-down theory yet again

By Kaleem Omar

KARACHI: The trickle-down theory of economic development is one of those perennials that keeps turning up like a bad penny. And, sure enough, it’s turned up yet again, this time courtesy of Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz’s interview with a private television channel broadcast on Thursday night. Waxing eloquent about how well the economy has done over the last five years, Mr Aziz said the trickle-down theory was "beginning to work" and the incidence of poverty was coming down.

But nothing is ever as simple as it first seems. That’s why it is said that when all is said and done, there’s usually more said than done. Take literacy, for instance. We, in Pakistan, have been hearing successive governments telling us for years that full literacy is around the corner, or, if not around the corner, around the next corner anyway.

The reality on the ground, however, suggests that that corner is still very far away, with the literacy rate currently at around 50 per cent, according to government figures. How many more years will have to go by before every Pakistani knows how to read and write?

Of course, merely knowing how to read and write is not enough. For economic progress, people also have to be taught a whole bunch of other things, in technical disciplines as well as in the humanities. This may be a truism, but what are we doing about it? The answer is, not a great deal.

In recent years the private sector has got into education in a fairly big way, both at the school level and at the level of higher education. Many private universities have sprung up, with more due to come on-line over the next few years. All this is to the good, of course. The problem, however, is that private educational institutions are beyond the means of the vast majority of Pakistanis.

So what’s the answer? More polytechnics, for one thing. Not one or two here and there, but hundreds and hundreds of them all across the country, charging low fees and offering two-year diploma courses in a wide range of technical disciplines and skills. We need educated technicians and factory workers much more than we need liberal arts graduates. Only an educated industrial workforce can give us higher productivity in our factories. A study carried out a few years ago found that the productivity of the average Japanese female factory worker was four times higher than the productivity of the average Pakistani male factory worker.

Another problem that needs to be urgently addressed by the federal and provincial governments is improvement in the quality of education imparted by state-run schools. Thousands of schools in the rural areas have a dire shortage of good teachers and teaching materials. Many primary schools have no teachers at all, and are schools only in name. Buildings don’t make a school, teachers do. But where are these teachers going to come from when they are paid a pittance? Teachers’ salaries need to be substantially raised, to at least bring them at par with what a truck driver or a carpenter earns. Why should a person become a teacher when he can earn more money as a truck driver?

Education is not a boon conferred by the state; it is the fundamental right of every citizen. The state has a duty to educate the people – not just a privileged few but all the people. That the state has failed in this duty in Pakistan should by now be evident even to the mandarins that inhabit the corridors of power.

Successive governments, for their part, have said that they lack the resources to make the kind of massive investment in education that is needed. This argument doesn’t wash. If money can be found to give the bloated government bureaucracy periodic salary increases (such as the 15 per cent raise given in this year’s budget), money can surely also be found to pay teachers higher salaries and to invest in other areas of education. Or are we to take it that section officers pushing files in government offices are more important than teachers charged with educating the country’s youth?

Experience enables one to recognise a mistake when one makes it again. That’s why it is said that one learns from one’s mistakes. We, in this country, however, seem to have stood this adage on its head. Here, experience has come to be regarded as something that causes us to make new mistakes instead of old ones. It is high time we got out of this kind of negative thinking and got down to setting things right. The problem, said Marx, is not to understand the world but to change it.

Herman’s Law says a good scapegoat is almost as good as a solution. We have scapegoats aplenty in this country, but where are the solutions? I’ll tell you one thing: we’re not going to find the solutions in Washington, or in the IMF, or in the World Bank, or in conferences on poverty held in the Bahamas or other swanky watering holes; nor are we going to find the solutions in prescriptions handed down by trickle-down-theory economists. We have to look to ourselves, to our own experience, for solutions. That doesn’t mean reinventing the wheel, but it does mean making our own wheels and setting our own course.

The trickle-down theory of economic development favoured by some western economists and their local surrogates doesn’t work; it never has. Take the case of Mangla Dam, for instance. Before the dam was built in the late 1960s, the nearby small town of Dina was an impoverished community with hardly any civic infrastructure or employment opportunities. More than 360 million dollars were spent on building Mangla Dam, yet Dina – only six miles from the dam site – saw hardly any change as a result of all that money being spent. Before the dam was built, there were only two lathe-machine shops in Dina; after the dam was built, there were still only two lathe-machine shops in Dina.

Or take the more recent example of the naval base built in Ormara on the Balochistan coast. When construction of the base began in the mid-1990s, the village of Ormara was one of the poorest communities in the country. Four billion rupees of spending later (the cost of the base), the village of Ormara is still as poor as it was. Nothing, for its inhabitants, has changed – not the backbreaking nature of their daily toil to eke out a living, not the harsh quality of their life, nothing.

The inhabitants of Ormara village still get electricity for only two hours a day, and often not even for that long. WAPDA says its generator at Ormara is too old to be run for a longer period. So why can’t a new generator be installed? Nobody in WAPDA seems to have the answer to this question, though it would only take a 500 KW diesel-fired generator (costing no more than two or three million rupees) to provide electricity to the village’s small population round the clock. The naval base at Ormara has its own generators, of course, and plenty of electricity. Why can’t the people of Ormara village be supplied with electricity from the navy’s generators? It wouldn’t cost the navy much, but it would make a world of difference to the villagers.

We can’t solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them. The adage, "You have to know what you want to do before you can do it," contains the definition of both strategy and organisation – knowing what to do and knowing how to do it. Strategy is the plan for future survival. Organisation is the current arrangement for day-to-day application. A good strategy with poor organisation is a thoroughbred horse without a rider, trainer, stable, or track. In principle, strategy precedes organisation and the two are closely related; in practice often they are not.

In the industrial context, organisation always lags behind strategy. Because of the assumption that you have to know what it is you want to do before you can know how to do it, all organisations based on the industrial model are created for businesses that either no longer exist or are in the process of going out of existence. The inherent weakness of this model is that no organisation can ever be in sync with time, or totally appropriate for carrying out its mission or purpose.

What applies to organisations also applies, in a wider sense, to nations, especially developing nations. Most developing nations can do no better than catch up with the present, and there is even a catch-22 to catching up. When they get there, there isn’t there anymore, so to speak.

Strategy is always focused on the future, but it is rooted in the present, or even in the past, if nations are inefficient. How, then, can we, as a developing nation, implement our strategic plan with actions that are appropriate to the present-future rather than ones that are catching up with the past-present? That, for us in Pakistan, today, is the central question, as indeed it is for developing countries around the world.

[Caesar]

http://www.dawn.com/...09/17/nat11.htm

Slowly dying dams supply unsafe water


By Our Staff Reporter

ISLAMABAD, Sept 16: Water quality of the Simly, Rawal and Khanpur dams is being degraded by various kinds of pollutants being discharged into the drinking water reservoirs meant for the twin cities of Rawalpindi and Islamabad, Dawn has learnt.

A year-long monitoring of the water carried out by the Pakistan Environmental Protection Agency (Pak-EPA) from April 2004 to February 2005 found that the dams were increasingly becoming ‘Eutrophic’.

An environmentalist at the agency explained to Dawn that the slow aging process during which a lake or estuary evolves into a bog or marsh and eventually disappears is called eutrophication.

During eutrophication, the lake becomes so rich in nutritive compounds, specially nitrogen and phosphorus, that algae and other microscopic plant life become superabundant, thereby choking the lake and causing it to eventually dry up.

Eutrophication is accelerated by discharges of nutrients in the form of sewage, detergents and fertilizers into the ecosystem.

In response to a question, the environmentalists said, greenish look of water means eutrophication.

It enhances plant growth, often called an “algal bloom” reduces dissolved oxygen in the water when dead plant material decomposes and can cause other organisms to die.

Nutrients can come from many sources, such as fertilizers applied to agricultural fields, suburban lawns, deposition of nitrogen from the atmosphere, erosion of soil containing nutrients, sewage treatment plant discharges and human and animal wastes.

With the increased eutrophication, the level of dissolved oxygen (DO), an important component of drinking water is decreasing in these dams, the report revealed.

Water with a low concentration of dissolved oxygen is called ‘hypoxic’. The EPA official said constructions without proper sewerage system in the catchment areas of these water reservoirs were the major source of water contamination.

In the case of Rawal Lake, unabated construction is going on upstream both for residential and commercial purposes, which, he warned, would be a continuous source of water pollution. “This is something very serious and if not controlled immediately will have far reaching health impacts on the end-users”, he said.

Over the last few years, real estate business is in full swing and people are heavily investing in this sector under the direct supervision of government machinery. The mandatory environmental impact assessment (EIA) is required under the Pakistan Environmental Protection Act, 1997, for all such projects, but unfortunately nobody bothers about it, the source said.

“Everytime we come to know about such housing schemes, we ask them to get mandatory environmental clearance. However, hardly anybody responds,” the agency official said. Utilization of septic tanks was one of the solutions at individual level to neutralise the pollutants. Establishment of treatment filter plants was also recommended, he said.

[Caesar]

http://www.khaleejti...on=subcontinent

Pakistan rules out trade with Israel
(DPA)

16 September 2005


ISLAMABAD - Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz on Friday ruled out the possibility of any trade ties with Israel before the resolution of the lingering crisis in the Middle East and formation of an independent Palestinian state.


“At present there is no possibility of starting trade with Israel and there is no such policy under consideration,” he told reporters in Islamabad.

Aziz said Pakistan would recognise Israel only after the creation of the Palestinian state with al-Quds (Jerusalem) as its capital.

The two countries, which do not have diplomatic ties, made their first open contact early this month when their foreign ministers met in the Turkish city of Istanbul on September 1.

The meeting triggered speculation in Pakistan that the move was a precursor to recognising the Jewish state whose very creation had been opposed by the Muslim country.

President General Pervez Musharraf defended the contact with Israel as a goodwill gesture following Israel’s pullout from Gaza.

Aziz said there was no harm in engaging Israel if the “cause of Palestine” was to be benefited.

“Pakistan’s stance on the Middle-Eastern crisis is in line with the position of the 57-member Organization of Islamic Conference (OIC),” he added.

Aziz’s comments came hours ahead of President Musharraf’s scheduled address to American Jewish community in New York. The Pakistani leader said he would use the opportunity to promote the Palestinian cause.

Musharraf also had what the Pakistani officials described as a ”chance encounter” with Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon on Thursday at a reception on the margins of the United Nations General Assembly.

The Pakistani leader, for the first time, shook hands with Sharon and introduced his wife to him in a “brief exchange of pleasantries”.

[Caesar]

http://www.theaustra...5E23109,00.html

Rape a money-maker: Musharraf
by Sami Zubeiri in Islamabad
September 16, 2005
POLITICIANS and rights groups have condemned President Pervez Musharraf for saying in a US newspaper that rape had become a "money-making concern".

Mr Musharraf reportedly said some Pakistanis believed rape was a ticket to escape the country.

"It was shocking to read that General Musharraf had publicly aired his low opinion of women...," opposition MP Sherry Rehman said about Mr Musharraf's comments in an interview with the Washington Post this week.

"This is very frivolous way of looking at rape cases in the country," human rights activist Kamila Hyat said.

Mr Musharraf made the comments after being asked about the high-profile case of Mukhtaran Mai, who was gang raped on the orders of a tribal council in 2002 as punishment for her brother's alleged love affair with a woman from another tribe.

Her treatment by the Pakistani Government, which tried to bar her from addressing US rights groups about her ordeal, earned the conservative Islamic country international wrath.

"You must understand the environment in Pakistan," Mr Musharraf said to the Washington Post.

"This has become a money-making concern. A lot of people say if you want to go abroad and get a visa for Canada or citizenship and be a millionaire, get yourself raped," he said.

Mr Musharraf, a general who seized power in 1999, later said he had been quoting someone else, Pakistani media reported.

But "it is true that the issue is used to defame Pakistan," the Dawn daily quoted him as telling reporters in New York.

Mr Musharraf banned Ms Mai, 33, from addressing US rights groups reportedly because he thought it would give Pakistan bad publicity. He later lifted the ban under pressure from Washington.

Ms Mai won worldwide acclaim for her pursuit of justice in June when Pakistan's Supreme Court ordered the rearrest of 13 men linked to her case and suspended their acquittals by lower courts.

Mr Musharraf, in the US for a UN summit, told the Washington Post rape was a "curse" that was "everywhere in the world" and Pakistan should not be singled out.

Ms Rehman, from the opposition Pakistan People's Party, agreed but said "it is horrifying for a military general to be voicing this kind of spontaneous sentiment."

"All Pakistanis must have lowered their heads in shame to be represented by such views at the United Nations forum," she said.

Activists said only 32-year-old doctor Shazia Khalid had left the country after her rape in January and this was apparently on the request of the Government.

"We understand that the Government asked her to do so (leave)," Ms Hyat, from a private human rights commission, said.

Ms Hyat said at least 800 rapes and gang rapes were recorded in Pakistan last year, but this was believed to be a fraction of the number taking place. There are no government figures for rape.

The doctor left the country under mysterious circumstances, with some media reports saying the government asked her to go to hush up the case as it involved a military official.

She said in an interview in February she had chosen to leave as it was not possible for her to be accepted by society after her name and rape became public.

Women's rights activist Shehnaz Bukhari said organisations dealing with rape in Pakistan did not want women to leave the country.

"Doctor Shazia was sent abroad by the Government itself, while we insist that criminals be tried and victims are provided justice in their country," Ms Bukhari, head of the Pakistan Progressive Women's Association, said.

[Caesar]

http://www.arabnews....&category=World

Musharraf Defends Recent Gestures Toward Israel
Mariam Fam, Associated Press

CAIRO, 18 September 2005 — Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf defended his country’s recent gestures toward Israel, which have angered some hard-liners, saying the moves were designed to support the Palestinians and pressure Israel into realizing their rights.

“We want to strengthen the Palestinian cause and support it. We want to try to influence Israel to establish a Palestinian state,” he said in an interview published yesterday in the Arabic-language Asharq Al-Awsat newspaper. “We won’t have a role to play if we don’t deal with them. But if we talk then we can at least ... exert pressure and use our clout.”

Apparently rewarding Israel for its withdrawal from Gaza, Pakistan’s foreign minister met his Israeli counterpart in Turkey on Sept. 1, the first formal high-level contact between the two countries. On Wednesday, Musharraf and Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon shook hands at a reception just before the start a the United Nations summit.

But Musharraf downplayed the greeting, saying it “had no political implications.”

He also said he had informed Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas beforehand of the foreign ministers’ meeting in Turkey.

He said the gestures “do not mean that recognizing Israel will happen unless we are certain that a Palestinian state is being established. This is the pressure we want to exert.”

In another interview, Musharraf told Al-Hayat newspaper: “We will not establish diplomatic relations with Israel until after the formation of the Palestinian state. An exception could be made if we feel on the ground that a state is being established.”

But some doubt such an assurance and have met Pakistan’s recent moves with fury, especially since it has previously taken a harder line against Israel than some Arab countries. Musharraf said he refuses to be cowed by such criticism.

“I’m not a man who fears opposition,” he told Asharq Al-Awsat.

On an issue closer to home, Musharraf told the newspaper that Pakistan was worried about military cooperation between Israel and India, but said: “We have many ways to strike a balance and guarantee our own deterrence strategy.”

Asked why efforts to capture terror mastermind Osama Bin Laden have failed thus far, Musharraf pointed to a shortage of forces, a rugged terrain and a lack of intelligence information on his whereabouts.

“If someone is hiding in a cave and is moving from one place to another, then it’s not the fault of the army or the security apparatus that he hasn’t been tracked down,” he said. “When we have intelligence information indicating the area where this man is, then moving will be easy.”

Musharraf had previously said Al-Qaeda leaders were probably hiding on either side of Pakistan’s rugged border with Afghanistan but are isolated and unable to order terror attacks. He added, however, that the terror network and its figures remain symbolic motivators.

‘US Can’t Just Pack Up and Leave Iraq’

Earlier on Friday Musharraf said the world should stop dwelling on the consequences of the US war in Iraq and move on to resolving problems like Kashmir and the Palestinian conflict.

“It has happened, so why talk about it. It is done and finished. Let’s forget it. We need to figure out what needs to be done now,” Musharraf told students at Columbia University in New York, where is he attending a UN summit.

Responding to a student’s question about Iraq, he said the 2003 invasion had made the world more complicated but added that for US forces to now leave was “easier said than done.”

“You just can’t pack up and go. You need to have a strategy of how to pack up and go,” he said. “It will take time. But I think the Palestinian dispute and the Kashmir dispute are ripe for solution today.”

[Caesar]

http://www.tehrantim...005&Cat=9&Num=9

No U.S. pressure on pipeline with Iran: Pakistan envoy


NEW YORK (IANS) —There is no U.S. pressure on Pakistan regarding the tri-nation gas pipeline project with Iran and India, Islamabad's UN envoy has said. Pakistan's permanent representative at the UN Munir Akram said the Iran-Pakistan-India project would be completed soon, reports Online news agency.

Addressing a news conference here Friday, Akram said Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf had held a 45-minute meeting with Iranian President Mahmud Ahmadinejad during which both leaders discussed matters of bilateral interest.

Akram said Musharraf also met the prime minister of Iraq Ibrahim al-Jafari and offered to provide training to Iraqi Police.

Talking about the reforms of the United Nations, Akram said Pakistan had a clear stance over the reforms and agreed on the peaceful settlement of all issues.

Answering a question, the envoy said Pakistan had its reservations over the UN document. He said Pakistan wanted an increase in non-permanent members in the Security Council but not increase in permanent members.

And for this reason, Pakistan has opposed the G4 - India, Brazil, Germany and Japan - resolution for an expanded Security Council to accommodate them as permanent members

[Caesar]

http://jang.com.pk/t...5/sports/s3.htm

England consider picking spinners for tour of Pakistan

LONDON: England’s selectors will have to find at least one extra spinner as they ponder their squads for the Test and one-day series in Pakistan this winter. England need to find back-up for Ashley Giles in the Subcontinent.

With dry, dusty surfaces likely to be prepared, Ashley Giles will need back-up but — as usual — there are few contenders really pressing their case.

Gareth Batty is the regular understudy, and will probably be named in the one-day squad. But for the Tests, the selectors may go somewhere else, because Batty is rarely a match-winner with the ball for his county Worcestershire.

Shaun Udal has had probably his best season ever at Hampshire, with 35 wickets costing just 18.14 apiece. The only thing against picking him is his age. The selectors would be understandably reluctant to pick a 36-year-old.

But then again a certain person the same age as him has more than 600 Test wickets to his name — and is still out-bowling his peers. Udal is also a decent batsman, on a par with Giles, so would be able to bat above the likes of Steve Harmison and Matthew Hoggard.

Jason Brown is a possible selection. He has a decent bag of 44 wickets this season in the County Championship, though there is one rider when considering him. More than half those wickets will have come at Wantage Road, however, which can occasionally provide excellent conditions for spinners.

But on the other hand, if you want to find a wicket to resemble Lahore in November, then Wantage Road in August is pretty close to the mark.

Lancashire’s Gary Keedy, the most consistent slow bowler in the County Championship for the past three seasons, has been injured since the end of July. His coach Mike Watkinson says the player will be fit "in a couple of weeks" — so after the season finishes.

Other areas of selection are less complicated. Ian Bell, despite his poor run of form against Australia, will be retained and Robert Key is likely to be picked as the back-up batsman.

That leaves Middlesex pair Ed Joyce and Owais Shah scrambling for spots in the one-day squad at best.

The selection of James Anderson in the squad for The Oval provides a strong clue that he is in line for more Test action, leaving Jon Lewis primed for the one-day series instead.

Occasionally on tours of this nature, teams do not pick a reserve wicket-keeper. But Geraint Jones has been in shaky form with the gloves so Chris Read will be more than just a passenger.

Meanwhile, Paul Collingwood, who will provide back-up to Andrew Flintoff in the Test picture, remains a vital part of the one-day squad.

Possible Test squad: Trescothick, Strauss, Vaughan, Bell, Key, Pietersen, Flintoff, Collingwood, G Jones, Read, Giles, Hoggard, Harmison, S Jones, Anderson, Udal.

Possible one-day squad: Trescothick, Strauss, Vaughan, Shah, Solanki, Pietersen, Flintoff, Collingwood, G Jones, Read, Giles, Harmison, S Jones, Gough, Lewis, Batty.

[Caesar]

http://jang.com.pk/t.../main/main1.htm

Musharraf backs women’s struggle against violence

Offers safe return to Dr Shazia; assails NGOs pursuing

vested interests; defends contact with Israel

By Muhammad Saleh Zaafir

NEW YORK: President Pervez Musharraf on Saturday said he fully supported women in their struggle against violence and gender inequality.

Addressing a jam-packed gathering of Pakistani-American women at the Roosevelt hotel here, the president said violence against women was an abhorrent and condemnable act and was condemned by him and the society. He, however, said violence against women was not a malaise of an individual country but a global phenomenon but this never went out of those countries.

Adviser to the Prime Minister on Women Welfare Nilofar Bakhtiar, Ambassador to the US Jehangir Karamat, renowned woman scholar Dr Riffat Hassan, chief of Pakistan's mission in Washington Muhammad Sadiq Khan and others also spoke on the occasion.

The president regretted that Pakistan was being singled out as if it was the only country where violence against women was taking place. He said those doing so had vested interests and a political agenda.

He said there was a need to move in a sincere manner to address the menace of violence against women.

Musharraf said Islam fully protects women's rights but our cultural norms are the hurdle. At the same time he stressed to shift focus from individual cases to collective grief of women.

The president said, "We have to improve the capacity and quality of women to raise their level".

He said the government during the last six years had done more for the emancipation of women than what had been done in 52 years. He said the government was totally committed to emancipation of women, bringing them in the mainstream of national development and ensuring them their rights.

The president said the government was alive to the issues of violence against women and gender inequality and referred to measures already taken for the empowerment of women.

They (women) have been empowered politically by ensuring their representation in elected institutions from the grossroots level to parliament, he said.

Mushrraf said the National Commission on the Status of Women was focusing on violence against women. The government has established a national gender reform action programme and set up a fund for the advancement of rural women while special centres were set up to provide legal and medical aid to women. He said the media was free to raise women's issues in Pakistan.

Dispelling the impression that the Pakistan government forced Sui rape victim Dr Shazia Khalid to leave the country, President Musharraf asked her to return home. "Come back to Pakistan Dr Shazia. I assure you safe return and full protection," he announced.

The president emphatically denied remarks attributed to him by the Washington Post that "the best way to get asylum abroad was to project oneself as a rape victim".

"These are not my words, these are words of some one else," the president said, adding "I am not so silly or stupid to offer such remarks." "I was misquoted," he said.

The president also took serious exception to a question of a lady NGO worker during the question-answer session to highlight cases of violence against women abroad and vowed that he would fight against such elements with full use of force at his command as they were doing it for their vested interests.

"Such unpatriotic people are out to malign Pakistan, the government and me. They are getting monetary benefits for their irresponsible acts," the president said in a furious tone.

These people would not be allowed to single out Pakistan in this context as they must not wash their dirty linen abroad. It is no service to the country and the cause either.

The questioner, who is an activist of a foreign-funded NGO, while disagreeing with the president said cases of rape and violence against women should be projected outside Pakistan.

The president said Pakistan today is a country on the forward march where economy is improving, poverty is being reduced, unemployment is on the decline and advancement is being made in the social and cultural areas.

Agencies add: Separately, President Musharraf defended Pakistan’s recent gestures toward Israel, saying the moves were designed to support the Palestinians and pressure Israel into realising their rights.

"We want to strengthen the Palestinian cause and support it. We want to try to influence Israel to establish a Palestinian state," he said in an interview published on Saturday in the Arabic-language Asharq al-Awsat newspaper.

"We won't have a role to play if we don't deal with them. But if we talk then we can at least ... exert pressure and use our clout."

On Wednesday, Musharraf and Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon shook hands at a reception just before the start a the United Nations summit. But Musharraf downplayed the greeting, saying it "had no political implications".

He also said he had informed Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas beforehand of the foreign ministers' meeting in Turkey. He said the gestures "do not mean that recognizing Israel will happen unless we are certain that a Palestinian state is being established. This is the pressure we want to exert".

In another interview, Musharraf told Al Hayat newspaper: "We will not establish diplomatic relations with Israel until after the formation of the Palestinian state. An exception could be made if we feel on the ground that a state is being established."

But some doubt such an assurance and have met Pakistan's recent moves with fury, especially since it has previously taken a harder line against Israel than some Arab countries.

Musharraf said he refuses to be cowed by such criticism. "I'm not a man who fears opposition," he told Asharq al-Awsat.

On an issue closer to home, Musharraf told the newspaper that Pakistan was worried about military cooperation between Israel and India, but said: "We have many ways to strike a balance and guarantee our own deterrence strategy."

Asked why efforts to capture terror mastermind Osama bin Laden have failed thus far, Musharraf pointed to a shortage of forces, a rugged terrain and a lack of intelligence information on his whereabouts. "If someone is hiding in a cave and is moving from one place to another, then it's not the fault of the army or the security apparatus that he hasn't been tracked down," he said.

"When we have intelligence information indicating the area where this man is, then moving will be easy."

[Caesar]

http://jang.com.pk/t...business/b6.htm

USAID invests $65m in education, skills training

By our correspondent

KARACHI: The USAID Mission Director Lisa Chiles on Saturday emphasised the need of skills training for the industrial workers in Pakistan.

Addressing a certificate and employment letter distribution ceremony at the Sun Development Foundation (SDF), Lisa said that USAID would provide over $1.5 billion to Pakistan under USAID Programme in the next five years.

She informed that USAID is investing about $65 million annually in primary, secondary and higher education and vocational skills training, of which a significant part has gone to SDF.

Lisa Chiles emphasised on the importance of skilled and literate workers for ensuring that Pakistan remains competitive in the international market.

The women garment workers, trained by SDF under Education Sector Reforms Assistance Programme (ESRA), a component of USAID, would add to the quality of Pakistani textile products.

She said that under ESRA programme focus would be on adult literacy and help people get skill and employment.

Lisa said that textile is a major industry in Pakistan and training of women workers is vital for the textile exporters competing with others to get the export orders.

She lauded the efforts of the SDF for imparting training to women workers of garment industry.

She expressed her pleasure over the fact that the first batch of women trainees have completed their training and have also received employment letters as well. Professional training is equally essential for all factory workers, as it creates proficiency, proper and risk free handling of equipments, teaches teamwork and helps become productive.

Speaking on the occasion, Consul General of USA in Karachi, Mary H Witt praised the women skilled workers who have graduated in the USAID sponsored skills-based industrial literacy programme. She said that it is encouraging that these women have come forward to play their due role in supporting their families and obtained training.

Earlier, the founder Chairman of SDF, Syed I Ghazi said that this programme was intended to impart adult literacy and skill training to 10,200 garment industry workers. The success of this project and the niche it has created in this labour intensive industry encouraged SDF to continue the project for another five years. SDF would work towards imparting skills and adult literacy to a further 40,000 workers in Karachi, Lahore and Islamabad, he said.

The Secretary Ministry of Textile Masood Alam Rizvi, Chief of ESRA Suzanne Olds, Textile Commissioner Muhammad Idrees, SEVP HBL, Zafar Aziz Usmani, Head of Public Affairs Department MCB, Kafil Burney, Chairman PRGMEA, Dawood Usman Jhakoora and former Chairman SITE Association of Industry Majyd Aziz were among present on the occasion.

[Jalal]

Ehsan first general to fly F-16 fighter jet

By Muhammad Saleh Zaafir

ISLAMABAD: Chairman Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee (JCSC) General Muhammad Ehsanul Haq Khan turned up to be the first four-star general of Pakistan Army who flew supersonic state-of-the-art multi-role fighter-bomber F-16 in action for one hour and seven minutes. "It was not a joy ride but a full-fledged action with all sorts of manoeuvrings," Squadron Leader Fayyaz told The News while giving account of the flight.

General Ehsanul Haq, while disregarding the advice not to fly the plane for age factor, flew the F-16 from an air force base marking the beginning of third phase of high-mark 2005 exercise of the Pakistan Air Force (PAF), underway these days.

The general who is in his late fifties, opted to fly the F-16 for an action despite an advice to the contrary. He flew the plane after 38 years. "It is my first experience after last flying the plane as a cadet. It was thrilling and in a way fascinating," he said.

He addressed a gathering of young officers immediately after landing and provided them fair amount of motivation. He spoke for an hour which reflected the fact that flying the plane had no adverse impact on his senses. To a query, General Ehsan said he was ready to command a submarine in action during the exercise of Pakistan Navy. He paid rich tributes to PAF for the high mark exercises.

[Caesar]

http://jang.com.pk/thenews/

Ramazan from tomorrow

PESHAWAR: Chairman Central Ruet-e-Hilal Committee Maulana Mufti Munibur Rehman has said that Ramazan moon has not been sighted in the country, therefore, the first of Ramazan will fall on October 6. The chairman made the announcement after a meeting of the committee held here at the Auqaf Plaza on Tuesday.

[Caesar]

http://jang.com.pk/thenews/

TAP gas pipeline still feasible: Karzai


PARIS: A long-delayed project for a natural gas pipeline from Turkmenistan through Afghanistan to Pakistan is still "a very real project and very feasible", Afghan President Hamid Karzai said on Tuesday. The $3.3 billion pipeline is designed to link the vast gas reserves of Turkmenistan with markets in Pakistan and India. But the only way to open the South Asian market to Turkmenistan’s reserves, the world’s third largest, is across Afghanistan. Karzai said strong economic growth in India and Pakistan kept energy demand there high. "The pipeline is a very real project," he told a conference at the French Institute of International relations. "Work is going on it. Certain facts have to emerge on the quantity of gas that will be available and the years in which it will be available," he said.