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اسلام اباد: Leader of the Opposition in National Assembly Chaudhry Nisar Ali said Monday that Javed Hashmi’s politics was not limited to PML-N tickets or ranks only, claiming he was also financially supported by Nawaz Sharif and his party.

In a statement from Islamabad, Opposition Leader Ali questioned how a man, who was defeated by 58, 000 votes in his home constituency, could challenge anyone.

He said that Hashmi’s presence in the assembly since 1993 had been due to Nawaz Sharif.

He said that PTI should speak truth before the nation instead of brining about a sham tsunami.

Khan alleged that Imran Khan had not given a single penny as tax over the last 35 years.

The PTI chief said that Imran Khan and his rental party had not said anything about the NATO supply. SAMAA

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أبوت: A 14-year-old student took his life over ill-treatment of teachers and hostel life in Abbottabad on Monday.

Abdul Mubin, student of Grade VII, returned home on weekend from hostel of International Public School and College and committed suicide later in the night.

Before taking his life, he wrote a letter to his parents, expressing his frustration over hostel life and treatment of teachers in the school.

The student complained that he was penalized for speaking Urdu in the class.

He also requested his parents not to send his sisters to hostel.

The deceased was laid to rest in his native village after funeral prayers.

Speaking to reporters, student’s father said cruel school teachers had killed his son.

He called upon Chief Justice of Pakistan to take action against the school teachers. SAMAA

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كراتشي: The CNG Dealers Association has rejected today the possible hike in price and threatened to go on a countrywide strike, SAMAA reported on Monday.

Leaders of the CNG Dealers Association said during their address in a news conference at Karachi Press Club this day that the government intends to eliminate CNG to flourish LPG in the country.

“Apart from LPG’s high cost in foreign exchange, CNG is cheaper; it is atmosphere friendly and easily available in the country,” they added, saying further price hike will damage the industry badly and lacs of people will face job threat.

In order to destroy the CNG industry completely, supply has been increased to different urea manufacturers while despite ban arrangements have been finalized on ministers’ approval for issuance of 70 more licenses for CNG stations, said Abdul Sami, the Chairman of CNG Dealers Association.

“If CNG price increase will be decided in the upcoming budget then the court will be moved against that and a countrywide strike will be called,” added the leaders of CNG dealers. SAMAA

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KOHISTAN: Four women and two boys were sentenced to death by a jirga (جمعية) over group dance at a wedding ceremony in Kohistan, SAMAA reported on Monday.

Two boys managed to flee the area.

According to reports, four women and two boys had danced together at a wedding ceremony in Sirtay Village of Kohistan two months ago. On this, villagers held a jirga, which awarded death sentence for all four women and two boys.

All four women, two of them married, had been locked in one room.

According to Hazara Commissioner Khalid Umarzai, eight elders of the villages assured the police that these women would not be harmed.

He said a police team has reached the village to probe the issue. SAMAA

دبي: The Qatar-based satellite network Al Jazeera said 19 people were killed, including 13 الأطفال, on Monday in a fire at an upscale mall in the Qatari capital.

NOTTINGHAM: England beat West Indies by nine wickets to win the second Test with more than a day to spare at Trent Bridge here on Monday and take an unbeatable 2-0 lead in the three-match series.

Set 108 for victory on the fourth day, England finished on 111 for one.

England captain Andrew Strauss, who made 141 in the first innings to follow his hundred in the five-wicket first Test win at Lord’s, was out for 45 when he chipped part-time spinner Marlon Samuels to short extra-cover with his side just 19 runs short of victory.

But fellow left-hander Alastair Cook (43 not out) and Jonathan Trott (17 not out) completed the win.

في وقت سابق, Samuels made لم يخرجng 76 not out, top-scoring for the tourists for the second time in the match after his first innings 117.

لكن, he merely delayed the inevitable and this loss extended West Indies’ winless run in England to 16 Tests, مع 14 defeats and two draws.

West Indies were all out for 165 in their second innings shortly after lunch.

Tim Bresnan took four wickets for 37 runs in 17 overs for a Test-best match haul of eight for 141, while James Anderson was close behind his fellow paceman with a second innings return of four for 43 in 20.1 overs.

This victory meant Bresnan had been on the winning side in all his 13 Tests.

Considering West Indies resumed on their overnight 61 لمدة ستة, their second innings total represented a considerable recovery.

Samuels started the day on 13 not out with West Indies captain Darren Sammy, who made a maiden Test hundred in his side’s first innings 370, nought not out.

They started positively, with Samuels clipping Bresnan for a legside boundary while Sammy drove him through extra-cover for four.

But Bresnan had Sammy lbw — his fourth leg before wicket of the innings — for 25.

Sammy reviewed the decision and replays showed the ball, which hit him on the back leg, would have just clipped the top of the stumps.

As Aleem Dar had already given Sammy out, the Pakistani umpire’s call was upheld and West Indies were now 110 for seven after their two best batsmen of the match had only added 49 this time around.

Kemar Roach struck several fours before he was lbw to Anderson for 14, although England had to review umpire Asad Rauf’s original not out decision.

Sفيuels, on 58, survived a sharp chance to Cook at short leg off the bowling of off-spinner Graeme Swann, who did dismiss Shane Shillingford for nought.

But Swann then conceded 16 in an over to Samuels, who drove him for a four and a six in successive deliveries before, two balls later, lofting him for a huge straight six.

Anderson wrapped up the innings when he had No 11 Ravi Rampaul caught in the slips by Bresnan, with Samuels unbeaten after facing 160 balls with two sixes and nine fours.

The third Test at Edgbaston starts on June 7. وكالات

BEIRUT: Violence raged on Monday across Syria, where at least 36 الناس, most of them regime forces, were reported killed as clashes erupted in several restive provinces, monitors said.

The deadly violence came even as UN-Arab League envoy Kofi Annan arrived in Damascus to try to salvage a battered ceasefire, a day after monitors reported 90 people killed in Syria, more than a third of them in the central city of Hama.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said clashes raged in several provinces on Monday, including Idlib in the northwest and Daraa in the south, where the uprising against the regime first erupted more than 14 months ago.

Five civilians were among those killed on Monday, including a 14-year-old boy who was shot dead by a sniper in Hama’s Al-Faria neighbourhood, the Britain-based Observatory said.

Another two civilians, including an old man, were shot dead inside their home in Nawa, in southern Daraa, by regime forces, the watchdog added.

Three rebel fighters and a member of the pro-regime shabiha militia were also killed by gunfire on Monday.

But the military had the heaviest death toll with at least 21 regular army soldiers killed in separate fighting, the Observatory said.

Eight troops died in clashes in Damascus province while seven others were killed elsewhere in the province when their vehicle was targeted near Tal Mneen, site of a mass funeral for a civilian killed on Sunday.

Three other soldiers were killed when their vehicle was hit by a blast on the road to Aleppo airport road, the Observatory said. Another three were killed in Dael, in Daraa.

In eastern Deir Ezzor, four civilians were shot dead by regime forces, the watchdog added.

Also on Monday regime forces deployed heavily on the outskirts of Houla, central Syria, where at least 108 civilians were massacred on Friday and Saturday, the Observatory said, adding that “the sound of gunfire was heard.”

Regime troops also raided a neighbourhood of Hama, site of intense clashes and shelling on Sunday evening.

Violence killed nearly 90 people on Sunday, 34 of them in random shelling of Hama city by troops retaliating for losses suffered in clashes with rebels, the watchdog said.

A video posted on YouTube by an unidentified activist in Hama showed a house destroyed by what the man described as “arbitrary” shelling, with massive holes in the wall, electricity cables hanging from the ceiling, and charred furniture.

“Where are Bashar’s reforms, O Arabs?” cried the man in the video, referring to a reform process announced by President Bashar al-Assad last year.

“O Muslims, we are getting killed, and you are silent. Our children are getting shot in the chest … God curse you, Bashar.”

Demonstrators took to the streets in towns and villages across the country on Monday, to protest against the killings in Houla and Hama, activists said.

Crowds of children protested in two Idlib towns, while hundreds took to the streets of Jabal al-Zawiya, also in Idlib.

“Resist, resist!” chanted some of the protesters. “The UN is killing us,” read a poster held up by a demonstrator, according to amateur videos posted on YouTube by activists.

More than 280 unarmed military observers are in Syria to monitor a cessation of hostilities that started officially on April 12 but lurches closer to collapse each day.

And Damascus shopowners staged an “unprecedented” strike in Al-Hariqa market, near the historic Hamidiyeh market, also to protest the killings, said the Observatory.

أكثر من 13,000 people have been killed in Syria since an anti-regime revolt broke out in March 2011, according to the Observatory. وكالات

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روالبندي: رئيس أركان الجيش (شهادات توثيق البرامج), General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani visited Kharian, today, to attend the concluding session of the Central Command War Games.

وفقا لخدمات العلاقات العامة المشتركة (ISPR) بيان صحفي, these war games are being conducted as part of Azm-e-Nau series exercises.

The Central Command War Games comprised multiple planning and conduct sessions over the last month, which were attended by senior Army and PAF officers.

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لاهور: Pakistan suffered a humiliating defeat (4-0) from South Korea in a match of Azlan Shah Hockey Tournament in IPOH, ماليزيا, today (Monday).

It was a forgettable day for the Green Shirts, which wasted several solid chances of scoring goals.

Famed penalty corner specialist and skipper Sohail Abbas also failed to capitalize on four penalty corners, Pakistan got in the match. He failed to convert any of these opportunities into

باريس: Roger Federer’s bid for a record 17th major tennis title began with another landmark on Monday, when he won his 233rd match at a grand slam event, equalling the achievement of Jimmy Connors.

Federer beat German Tobias Kamke 6-2 7-5 6-3 in the first round of the French Open and can surpass American Connors’s professional-era record by continuing his progress here.

Women’s world number one Victoria Azarenka was lucky to advance after being five points away from defeat against Italian Alberta Brianti in their first-round match, but turned the tables to scrape through 6-7 6-4 6-2.

Federer, و 2009 champion at Roland Garros and runner-up four times to Rafa Nadal, hit some wayward shots against the 78th-ranked Kamke but was happy to get through in straight sets.

“They are never easy, those first rounds,” the Swiss world number three told a news conference. “I missed a few too many shots but I was in the lead so I could afford to do those.”

Asked about matching Connors’s record, Federer said he had not been aware of it before the match.

“But I’m very happy, because Jimmy Connors was a huge champion, still is, so it’s a great pleasure,” he added.

“That (record) is a big one, because (it means) longevity. I have been so successful for such a long time and to already tie that record, (at) 30 years old is pretty incredible, so I’m very happy.”

Federer will now meet Romania’s Adrian Ungur who beat Argentine David Nalbandian 6-3 5-7 6-4 7-5.

Australian Open champion Azarenka, who would have been the first top-seeded woman to lose in the opening round, hit 60 unforced errors in her two hours 16 minutes on Philippe Chatrier court.

“I think that says it all,” the Belarussian said. “Bad days happen.”

She was happy, though, that a shoulder injury which forced her to pull out of the Italian Open nearly two weeks ago had healed.

“It’s much better, the pain went away,” she said. “But I didn’t have much time to prepare.”

Defending champion Li Na raced through her opening match, thrashing Romanian Sorana Cirstea 6-2 6-1 في 58 minutes.

Li, who became the first player from an Asian nation to win a grand slam singles title here last year, said she was still smarting from her narrow defeat by Maria Sharapova in the Italian Open final eight days ago.

“The final in Rome still killing me. After the final I told everyone ‘don’t talk to me about tennis (for) like three days’,” she said.

Fifteenth seed Dominika Cibulkova was also swift in beating French wildcard Kristina Mladenovic 6-2 6-1 and will play American Vania King in the second round.

Men’s world number one Novak Djovokic, who wants the French Open title to complete a sweep of the grand slams, was playing Potito Starace of Italy on Monday, while defending champion Nadal will join the fray on Tuesday. وكالات

واشنطن: NATO forces still have a fight on their hands in Afghanistan, where the Taliban has displayed resilience although its fighters have not regained territory they lost during the decade-long war, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said on Sunday.

Panetta said plans for foreign troops to hand over security responsibilities to Afghan forces starting in mid-2013 were on track and necessary to ensure that the Taliban, which governed Afghanistan before the U.S.-led invasion, is kept at bay.

الامريكية. President Barack Obama, who ordered a surge of U.S. troops in Afghanistan in 2009, has outlined plans to withdraw foreign combat forces from there by the end of 2014 and to take on a supportive role for the Afghan army.

Afghanistan security forced have grown to around 330,000 but still lack capabilities in intelligence, air power and logistics. في نفس الوقت, a spate of attacks against foreign troops this year by Afghans in military uniforms have raised questions about their loyalty to the government and whether some are under the influence of the Taliban.

“The world needs to know that we still have a fight on our hands,” Panetta told ABC’s “This Week” برنامج. “We’re still dealing with the Taliban. Although they’ve been weakened, they are resilient.”

The defense secretary said the Taliban has been unable to conduct any kind of organized attack to reclaim territory lost to NATO and Afghan forces, مضيفا: “We’ve seen levels of violence going down. We’ve seen an Afghan army that is much more capable at providing security.”

The White House, looking toward the November presidential election, is keen to dispel notions that Obama is rushing for the exits in Afghanistan, at a time when public support for the war is plummeting.

The broad concern, لكن, is that the Taliban is staying out of harm’s way and will resurface quickly once the bulk of foreign troops have left.

“Have you ever heard the word ‘victory’ come through the lips of this president, because we’re always talking about withdrawal, withdrawal, withdrawal,” Senator John McCain, ranking member of the Foreign Relations Committee and the Republican candidate for president in 2008 who lost to Obama, told Fox News Sunday.

“The Taliban believes we are leaving” after Obama’s announcements of a withdrawal schedule, McCain said.

“The president has overridden the recommendation of his military commanders who he has put in their positions, and the president has increased the risk every time.”

Panetta said there continues to be concerns about the Taliban operating from safe havens in Pakistan. He said U.S. relations with Pakistan were “complicated”.

“This has been one of the most complicated relationships that we’ve had, working with Pakistan. You know, we have to continue to work at it. It is important. This is a country that has – that has nuclear weapons,” Panetta said.

“So our responsibility here is to keep pushing them to understand how important it is for them to work with us to try to deal with the common threats we both face,” Panetta added.

Panetta said it was “so disturbing” that the Pakistani government sentenced a doctor to 33 years in prison on treason charges for helping the CIA track down al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden.

الدكتور. Shakil Afridi “was not working against Pakistan. He was working against al Qaeda. And I hope that ultimately Pakistan understands that,” وقال. “Because what they have done here, I think, you know, does not help in the effort to try to re-establish a relationship between the United States and Pakistan.” وكالات

بيشاور: The brother of a doctor jailed in Pakistan for helping the CIA hunt for Osama bin Laden called on the country’s top judge Monday to intervene directly to allow a swift appeal.

Shakeel Afridi was found guilty of treason in a secretive tribal court last week and sentenced to 33 years in jail, but his family say the appeal process is being held up because the authorities have yet to release a copy of the conviction.

“I appeal on the chief justice to provide us security and help us exercise our right of appeal,” Jamil Afridi, Shakeel’s elder brother, told a news conference in the northwestern city of Peshawar.

The 50-year-old teacher told AFP that Afridi, who stood trial in Khyber tribal district and is in jail in Peshawar, was innocent, loyal and not a traitor.

“My brother is not a traitor, he is a patriot. The sentence is one sided. We will file an appeal against this illegal verdict.”

He accused the tribal administration of not releasing the court order.

“They are neither giving us the copy of the order needed to file an appeal, nor have they allowed us to meet Afridi in jail,” he said.

The former government surgeon ran a fake vaccination programme designed to collect bin Laden family DNA from the compound in the town of Abbottabad, where the Al-Qaeda leader was shot dead in a US raid in May 2011.

After his sentencing, a furious Senate Appropriations Committee voted to cut US aid to Pakistan by a symbolic $33 مليون — $1 million for each year of jail time.

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said the sentence was “unjust and unwarranted”, saying Afridi was “instrumental in taking down one of the world’s most-wanted murderers”.

On Thursday, jail officials told AFP that Afridi was weak, depressed and suffering from a bad stomach. He had been examined twice by doctors and prescribed medicine, they said.

But local government spokesman insisted Monday that the prisoner’s health was “alright”. وكالات

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KURRAM AGENCY: Three people were killed and six more, including two women, were wounded when gunmen opened fire a passenger coach in tribal Kurram region on Monday.

The attack took place in Charkhel area of Lower Kurram Agency.

According to reports, the ill-fated coach was passing from Charkhel when militants opened indiscriminate fire.

Three passengers died on the spot while six others were wounded. Those injured in the ambush were shifted to CMH Hospital, where two are said to be unstable.

According to political administration, 20 passengers were aboard the bus, which was traveling from Parachinar to Peshawar. SAMAA

اسلام اباد: The Karachi Stock Exchange closed up on Monday, with buying in the cement and fertiliser sectors helping the market close above 14,000 points, dealers said.

The KSE’s benchmark 100-share index ended 0.76 percent, أو 106.4نقاطts, ارتفاع في 14,031.51 points on volume of 119.69 مليون سهم, compared with Friday’s close of 13,925.06.

“Led by institutional buying in cement and fertiliser stocks, the market rallied to close above the 14,000-points mark,” said Samar Iqbal, a dealer at Topline Securities.

Fatima Fertilizer closed 2.94 percent higher at 24.85 Pakistani rupees, Fauji Fertilizer ended 2.15 percent higher at 112.5 rupees, and Fauji Fertilizer Bin Qasim rose 3.95 percent to 41.6 rupees.

In the cement sector, D.G. Khan Cement closed 2.29 percent higher at 43.75 rupees, and Attock Cement ended 1.88 percent higher at 79.5 rupees.

The Pakistani rupee extended its recent sequence of marking record lows versus the U.S. دولار, closing on Monday at 92.14/19 إلى الدولار, مقارنة مع 91.70/75 on Friday.

“The pressure we saw last week on the rupee because of increased import payments was sustained on Monday, but we expect the pressure to reduce tomorrow,” said currency trader Abdul Basit.

Overnight rates in the money market ended marginally lower at 10.75 percent, down froفي المئةy’s close of 11 percent, as a result of a slight increase in liquidity in the interbank market. وكالات

لندن: British leaders are forced to court powerful press barons such as Rupert Murdoch or risk savage media attacks which render them unable to govern effectively, former Prime Minister Tony Blair told an inquiry on Monday.

Interrupted by a heckler who accused him of being a war criminal for supporting the U.S. invasion of Iraq, Blair paused briefly before continuing to justify his ties to Murdoch with whom he said he developed a close friendship.

Blair cast himself as a politician facing the choice between being torn apart by what he once described as the media’s “feral beasts” and getting his policies implemented.

But Blair, whose reputation for obsessive media management brought him so close to Murdoch that the tycoon could joke about flirting, said he became increasingly concerned about the unhealthy relationship between the media and politicians.

“With any of these big media groups, you fall out with them and you watch out, because it is literally relentless and unremitting once that happens,” Blair, looking tanned and smart in a navy suit and white shirt, told the Leveson inquiry.

“My view is that that is what creates this situation in which these media people get a power in the system that is unhealthy and which I felt, throughout my time, uncomfortable with. I took the strategic decision to manage this and not confront it but the power of it is indisputable.”

Blair is the most senior politician to date to appear before Leveson, an inquiry that has tarnished the British elite by showing the collusion between senior politicians, media tycoons and police.

“If you fall out with the controlling element of the Daily Mail, you are then going to be subject to a huge and sustained attack,” said Blair, who governed Britain from 1997 إلى 2007 after rebranding the Labour Party.

“Managing these forces was a major part of what you had to do and was difficult,” said Blair.

MURDOCH

The inquiry has so far focused on the conduct of the media and the close ties between Murdoch’s empire and serving ministers, helping the opposition Labour Party leader Ed Miliband consolidate his position with attacks on the current British Prime Minister David Cameron.

But the grilling of Blair, who was renowned for trying to control the media by “spinning” news to gain the most favourable coverage, could undermine Miliband’s attempt to portray Labour under his leadership as a party above courting media tycoons.

“I did not change our positions on core policy issues at all. On the other hand, managing these forces was a major part of what you had to do and was difficult,” Blair said.

“In articles we wrote for the Sun, for example, you stressed the bit of your policy that was going to appeal, but I didn’t change the policy,” he said.

Sometimes using Murdoch’s his first name, Blair said his friendship with Murdoch developed after leaving office in 2007, though he said it was clear that Murdoch called the shots in his media empire, not his newspaper editors.

Blair mentioned his decision, after stepping down as prime minister, to become a godfather to Murdoch’s daughter Grace at a ceremony on the banks of the river Jordan.

“Blair led the way in having no shame about courting Murdoch,” said Ivor Gaber, professor of political journalism at City university. “He set the style and the standard and if you regard Cameron as the ‘heir to Blair’ then it’s not exactly surprising that he followed suit.”

Murdoch told the inquiry last month that he had never asked a prime minister for anything.

FLIRTING

Blair set the tone for his relationship with Britain’s press when, before his first election victory in 1997, he flew to Australia in 1995 to speak before a gathering of Murdoch’s executives who had previously used their British tabloids to vilify his Labour Party predecessors.

The decision, mocked by rivals as an act of homage to the all-powerful media boss, infuriated much of his left-of-centre party who saw the Australian-born tycoon as a right-winger who had helped to keep them out of power for years.

“People would be horrified,” Blair said later in his autobiography. “On the other hand … not to go was to say carry on and do your worst, and we knew their worst was very bad indeed.”

“The country’s most powerful newspaper proprietor, whose publications have hitherto been rancorous in their opposition to the Labour Party, invites us into the lion’s den. You go, don’t you?”

Blair’s speech to Murdoch executives received a standing ovation and Murdoch indicated for the first time that he could be willing to switch the allegiance of his newspapers to the Labour Party.

“If our flirtation is ever consummated Tony then I suspect we will end up making love like porcupines, very, very carefully,” he told him.

With the backing of Murdoch’s top-selling Sun tabloid, Blair swept to power in 1997 and again in 2001 و 2005. But with an ever increasing reputation for public relations “spin”, he started to face questions over his sincerity.

Much of that came to a head when Blair and then U.S. President George W. Bush agreed to invade Iraq, going against the public opinion in Britain. وكالات