Measures finalized for restoration of Chiltan Express

SIBI :  Measures have been firmed up for reintroducing Chiltan Express Train suspended for three years.
Highly placed sources said under these arrangements train would be started from September 15. It was suspended following death of Benazir Bhutto and burning of trains and railway stations by terrorists three year ago as due to dearth of engines and coaches Railways had stopped several trains including Chiltan train. Quetta Express was later restored by Chiltan train was not restored.
After coming into power people had pinned hopes in PML-N Government to resolve their problems including cheap travelling by train.
People have welcome government decision to restore Chiltan Express and demanded of government to restore other trains such as Night coach, Abasin Express and Mehran Express to provide people of cheap means of travelling.
Government was suffering lakhs of Rupees losses due to closure of Sibi-Harnai section and necessary steps are very much needed to make up such losses.

Syria crisis

Dozens of Conservative MPs refused to support the Prime Minister and sided with Labour in opposing a Government motion which supported the principle of military intervention. The motion backing the use of force "if necessary" was rejected by 285 votes to 272, a majority of 13 votes.

It is the first time that a British Government has been blocked from executing a military deployment and highlights the deep mistrust of official intelligence in the wake of the Iraq war.

^{Prime Minister David Cameron and Labour party leader Ed Miliband speak during the debate on Syria}

Within minutes of the embarrassing defeat, the Prime Minister said that he understood that there was not support for British action against Syria and indicated he would abandon any such plans. The decision came just hours after Britain had sent fighter jets to the region.

Mr Cameron had hoped to join America in launching cruise missile strikes against the Syrian regime as soon as this weekend after Assad was accused of deploying chemical weapons in a suburb of Damascus last week.

The Prime Minister had played a leading role in persuading President Obama of the need for action against Syria – with Britain tabling a draft United Nations resolution – and the Parliamentary vote may also undermine Mr Cameron’s international reputation.

“I strongly believe in the need for a tough response to the use of chemical weapons but I also believe in respecting the will of this House of Commons,” Mr Cameron said tonight.

“It is clear to me that the British Parliament, reflecting the views of the British people, does not want to see British military action. I get that and the Government will act accordingly.”

Philip Hammond, the Defence Secretary, said that the Parliamentary vote would be welcomed by the Syrian regime.

“I am disappointed,” he said. “We do believe that the use of chemical weapons in this way needs a clear and strong response.”

“There is a deep well of suspicion about military involvement in the middle east stemming largely from the experiences of Iraq.”

“I don’t think it is anything to do with the Prime Minister, I think it is to do with the legacy of experience."

It is the first time since the 1956 Suez crisis that an opposition has failed to support Government plans for a deployment of the armed forces.

The Coalition’s motion – which had already been watered down earlier in the week to allow for another Parliamentary vote before Britain took part in direct military action – was defeated by a majority of 13 votes.

In a night of febrile scenes in the Commons, senior Cabinet ministers openly accused those opposing the motion of giving “succour” to the Assad regime. Michael Gove, the Education Secretary, allegedly shouted at Conservative rebels who he described as a “disgrace”.

Labour demanded an official inquiry into the activities of the Prime Minister’s main spin doctor.

The Parliamentary vote may trigger a leadership crisis for Mr Cameron as Conservative MPs openly criticised the Prime Minister’s decision to recall Parliament and force a vote. He was accused of a massive miscalculation with Sir Gerald Howarth, a former defence minister, describing the Prime Minister’s actions as “rushed” and “cavalier”.

There were shouts of “resign” from the Labour benches as the results of the Parliamentary vote were read out by John Bercow, the Commons Speaker.

Mr Cameron has spent much of the week personally stressing the need for military action against the Assad regime. In his speech to Parliament today, the Prime Minister had insisted that Britain has a duty to “do the right thing” and intervene in the “humanitarian catastrophe” unfolding in Syria.

However, he also admitted that the intelligence assessment did not provide “100 percent” certainty of the evidence against the regime.

The Prime Minister told an emergency sitting of Parliament that the country should not be “paralysed” over its response to international crises in the wake of mistakes made in the run-up to the Iraq war.

He had implored MPs to “force themselves” to watch harrowing videos of small children suffering following a chemical weapons attack in Damascus last week which killed hundreds of ordinary Syrians.

^{Bodies of people said killed by nerve gas in the Ghouta region this week (Reuters)}

However, in a major blow to his authority, senior Conservative MPs spent the day standing up during the eight-hour Parliamentary debate to criticise the Government's plans to intervene in the Syrian crisis. Among those blocking the plans were David Davis, the former shadow Home Secretary, and former ministers.

Nick de Bois, Secretary of the Tory 1922 Committee, voted against the Government. He said it was an “extremely difficult decision”.

Ed Miliband refused to support the Government’s Parliamentary motion saying that he was, as yet, not fully convinced of the case against the Assad regime. The decision sparked an angry backlash from Downing Street who accused the Labour leader of “giving succour” to the Syrian dictator. This was strongly denied by senior Labour sources who said that the behaviour of Mr Cameron’s aides was “frankly insulting”.

Other developments today in the Syrian crisis saw:

• The publication of a British intelligence briefing which concluded that it was “highly likely” that the Assad regime was responsible for last week’s chemical weapons attack which killed more than 300 civilians.

• The release of the Attorney General’s legal advice which ruled that British could legally participate in military strikes against Syria to protect innocent civilians from further atrocities.

• The White House privately briefing senior figures in the US Senate and Congress on secret intelligence on the Assad regime which could pave the way for American action against Syria this weekend.

• President Assad pledge that Syria would “defend itself in the face of any aggression”.

The experience of the Iraq war was repeatedly raised by MPs during the debate – with several former Labour Cabinet ministers speaking and describing the “scars” of the mistakes made by the Blair administration.

“I am very clear about the fact that we have to learn the lessons of Iraq,” the Labour leader said. “Of course we have got to learn those lessons and one of the most important lessons was indeed about respect for the United Nations.”

He added: “I do not rule out supporting the Prime Minister but I believe he has to make a better case than he did today.”

During the course of the debate, a succession of senior Conservative and Labour MPs also made speeches expressing doubt over the wisdom of British action against Syria.

David Davis, the former shadow home secretary said that the intelligence “might just be wrong”.

Mr Davis said that chemical weapons were used either by Assad’s regime, by a rogue regime military unit, or by rebels “with the direct aim of dragging the West into the war”.

Jack Straw, the former foreign secretary, said “We all know - I have the scars about this - how easy it is to get into military action and how difficult it is to get out of it.”.

In a parallel debate in the House of Lords, Lord Hurd, the former foreign secretary, said: “I cannot for the life of me see how dropping some bombs or firing some missiles in the general direction of Syria, with targets probably some way removed from the actual weapons we’ve been criticising, I can’t see how that action is going to lessen the suffering of Syrian people.

“I think it’s likely to increase and expand the civil war in Syria, not likely to bring it to an end.”

The Archbishop of Canterbury spoke of his fears that Christians in Syria would be targeted in the wake of any strike.

However, other senior Parliamentarians offered backing for the Prime Minister. Sir Malcolm Rifkind, the head of the Intelligence and Security committee, said: “At this very moment, the Assad regime in Damascus are watching very carefully as to whether they will get away with what they have done.”

“If they get away with what they have done, if there is no significant international response of any kind, then we can be absolutely certain that the forces within Damascus will be successful in saying we must continue to use these whenever there is a military rationale for doing so.

“There is no guarantee that a military strike against military targets will work, but there is every certainty that if we don’t make that effort to punish and deter, then these actions will indeed continue.”

Lord Ashdown, the former Liberal Democrat leader, said: “We are, I think, living under the shadow, sadly, of Iraq. But this is not Iraq. We are not putting boots on the ground, we are not invading, we are not seeking to govern somebody else’s country and, above all, this is not George W Bush, this is Barack Obama.

“And you only need to look at this American president and what he has done to see how nervous, how hesitant, how cautious he is about action.”

Tonight, American reports suggested that President Obama was now drawing up plans to intervene in Syria without international assistance.

By Robert Winnett, 

Political Editor

Posted by :

Education Under Attack

New report shows alarming funding gaps for education in conflict-affected countries

There are now fewer than 1000 days to go until the end date for the Millennium Development Goals.  In all the debates about post-2015 frameworks and how best to define learning it is easy to lose sight (by some distance!) of the fact that the world is on track to miss the key education goal: Getting all children in primary school.This is a joint blog post by Will Paxton and Elin Martinez

Today Malala Yousafzai – the Pakistani schoolgirl shot by the Taliban just for wanting to learn – celebrates her 16^th birthday by occupying the United Nations building and making her first speech. Remembering her story, Will Paxton and Elin Martinez present some key findings from a new Save the Children report on education in conflict-affected countries.     

Recent years have seen a slowdown in progress – the overall number of primary- aged children out of school was 57 million in 2011, just 4 million below the number in 2008.

In a new report, Attacks on Education: the impact of conflict and grave violations on children’s futures released by Save the Children today we focus on one of the reasons progress has been slow: the particular difficulty to get children in school in conflict affected countries. The report has been inspired by the experience and bravery of Malala Yousafzai, who today is leading an occupation of the UN to draw attention to the global education crisis.

No progress on education in conflict affected countries?

In partnership with UNESCO’s Global Monitoring Report (GMR) team, Save the Children looked at the number of children out of school in countries affected by conflict.  This is the most comprehensive assessment of these numbers since the GMR’s own report The Hidden Crisis: Armed conflict and education.  The key findings in thenew data released today are:

• In 2011, there were 28.5 million primary school-aged children out of school in conflict-affected countries: a small increase on the 2008 number, which was 28 million.

• The proportion of out-of-school children in conflict affected countries has increased significantly – from 42% in 2008 to 50% in 2011.

• When lower secondary school-aged children are included, nearly 50 million children are out of school in conflict-affected countries.

• For both primary and secondary school, girls are disproportionately more likely to be out of school than boys: 55% of the 28.5 million are girls.

As always there are some health warnings with this kind of data – for example, as conflicts emerge and deepen, such as in Syria, it takes some time for the data to catch up.  It is also possible that the underlying problem in some contexts is less conflict and more state fragility.

But in many cases conflict is patently the cause of children being kept out of school.  In our report we highlight what appears to be a growing trend towards schools, teachers and pupils being the target of attacks.

In 2012 alone more than 3,600 attacks on education were recorded by the United Nations, a dramatic increase on the number recorded in 2011.

These ranged from pupils being attacked, just as was the case with Malala, to schools being bombed or teachers being singled out.

Both the ‘education challenge’ in conflict- affected countries and the apparent trend towards increased targeting of education have important policy implications.

Focusing on conflict affected countries and humanitarian aid

One implication is the relatively well established argument that development aid should be more targeted at conflict affected countries.  Donors like the UK Department for International Development (DfID) are leading the way on this, with 30% of its development budget being allocated to conflict-affected fragile states by 2014. And the Global Partnership for Education is also continuing to shift its focus to such countries, including by providing flexible disbursements during a crisis.

But other donors are laggards. Worryingly, previous key donors, like the Netherlands, have backed away from education and other donors have not stepped up to cover this gap.  As a recent OECD report shows, the lack of funding available to conflict-affected fragile states is having serious knock-on effects on investment in basic services.

On humanitarian aid the picture is not positive either.  The chart below shows the recent trend in the percentage of humanitarian aid which is allocated to education – in short it was and remains a ‘Cinderella service’ in the humanitarian world.

Source: New research from the Education For All Global Monitoring Report.
See http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0022/002216/221668E.pdf

As part of the new analysis that the GMR team carried out for Save the Children we also assessed the funding shortfall in 2012 – that is the gap between assessed need and the level of funding provided.  This figure was a shocking $221 million. No one is denying that basic needs like shelter and food are priorities in humanitarian contexts.  But surely there is something wrong when education, with its potential to provide a hub for delivering other services and given the costs of disrupting a child’s education, is allocated a mere 1.4% of humanitarian aid.

Looking ahead to 2015

In 2015, Malala will be celebrating her 18^th birthday.  What better present to her than to have made sufficient progress on ensuring all children are receiving a quality education, particularly in the most challenging environments for children. This will require concerted action on many fronts, but critical will be a continued and improved focus on countries struggling with the effects of conflict.

Police: Fifth suspect arrested in Mumbai gang rape case

Police: Fifth suspect arrested in Mumbai gang rape case

Mumbai, India (CNN) -- Indian police arrested a fifth suspect Sunday in the alleged gang rape of a female photographer, authorities said, in a case that has renewed outrage over safety of women in the nation.

Soon after the sexual assault Thursday, police chief Satyapal Singh said they were searching for five suspects.

The alleged rape of the 23-year-old woman in the financial hub of Mumbai is the latest shocking sexual assault to make headlines in the South Asian nation.

The photographer and a male colleague were on assignment in the area for a print publication when some men approached them, according to Mumbai police commissioner Satypal Singh.

"I pleaded with them to let us go, but they shouted at me and threatened me," the woman said. She and her colleague were taken further inside the mill complex.According to the woman, he refused to let her talk to his boss, instead leading them away. Then, somewhere near the exit, one of the accused pointed at the photojournalist's colleague, saying he was responsible for a killing a few days ago.

There, they offered their camera and phone, begging to be let go. Instead, "they tied my friend's hands with (a) belt" as two others joined the group, the woman said.

"Three people stayed with my friend, and the two took me behind a wall," she added.

That's where the attack allegedly occurred. The victim said her mother called her phone multiple times, before one of the men switched it off. The woman said she was threatened with, among other things, sharp pieces of a broken beer bottle.

Police have since released sketches of all five suspects.

The victim was in stable condition at a local hospital.

The attack shocked Mumbai residents, who consider their city safer than the capital, New Delhi.

According to the National Crime Records Bureau, 221 rape cases were reported in Mumbai in 2012.

Sexual harassment in India: 'The story you never wanted to hear'

But figures provided by the government show that there has been a rape reported to police every day in Mumbai between January and March. The average number of reported rapes in a month in 2013 in the city rose to 30.33, from 19.25 in 2012.

Delhi Police said the number of reported rapes in the capital had jumped from 179 for the first 3½ months of last year to 463 for the same period this year.

A rise in the number of rapes reported does not necessarily mean that more are being committed. It may be that recent high-profile cases have encouraged women to come forward with complaints.

The case mirrors the December gang rape and death of a 23-year-old university student in the Indian capital.

The victim later died at a hospital in Singapore, sparking an outcry that quickly grew to include widespread concerns about women's safety and inequalities, triggering demonstrations in various cities.

In response, the nation's lawmakers have introduced tougher laws and punishments for sexual crimes and harassment. Despite such action, frequent episodes of sexual violence are reported in India.

Across India, 24,923 cases of rape were reported last year, according to the National Crime Records Bureau.

India grapples with rape and sexual violence

Afghanistan's Karzai in Pakistan for key talks on Taliban

President Karzai wants Pakistan to support the stalled Afghan peace process

Continue reading the main stor

Afghan President Hamid Karzai is due to meet Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif in Islamabad for talks on restarting a peace process with the Taliban.

The BBC's Karen Allen in Kabul says Mr Karzai will be pressing Mr Sharif to release senior Taliban prisoners.

The insurgents refuse to talk with Mr Karzai, dismissing him as a US puppet.

Afghanistan also believes Taliban safe havens in Pakistan are the main cause of increased violence in the country.

Elements of Pakistan's intelligence service have long been accused of backing the Afghan Taliban and giving them refuge on Pakistani soil - something Islamabad strongly denies.

It will be President Karzai's first meeting with Mr Sharif, who took office after winning elections in June.

"The first item with Pakistan will be the peace negotiations," Mr Karzai told a news conference before leaving Kabul.

He praised Mr Sharif for having "all the right intentions for stability and peace", but conceded that previous visits to Pakistan had not succeeded in improving security in Afghanistan.

"I'm hopeful, but not sure, I will only go with hopes, and wish they materialise," he said.

Top of Mr Karzai's demands are the release of high-profile Taliban prisoners held in Pakistan in the hope that this will help jump-start direct talks with insurgents, our correspondent says.

Both leaders know that economic fortunes on either side of the border depend on more stability, she adds.

Meanwhile Pakistan will be looking for more trading opportunities and strategic supply routes through Afghanistan.

Mr Karzai was said to be furious when the Taliban opened a liaison office in Qatar in June. He insists that his government should take a central role in any peace talks.

Mark Zuckerberg's own Facebook timeline hacked by Palestinian researcher

This Jan. 3, 2011, file photo shows Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg smiling in San Francisco.

shadow.art and photography

If you want to let Facebook know that there is a security bug that allows anyone to post on your Timeline, then demonstrating it on Mark Zuckerberg's Timeline seems like a surefire way to get the social network's attention.

That's exactly what Palestinian security researcher and hacker Khalil Shreateh did. Shreateh figured out that by entering in some website URLs, grabbing one's Facebook ID and doing some other non-obvious copying and pasting, he could post something on a non-friend's Facebook Timeline.

Shreateh first reported the bug to Facebook's White Hat Security team, which responded to his initial report by saying, "this is not a bug." That's when Shreateh decided to try it out on Facebook CEO Zuckerberg's Timeline.

WHAT TO KNOW

• Security researcher hacked into Mark Zuckerberg's Facebook to demonstrate a security hole
• Facebook has since fixed the bug

"First sorry for breaking your privacy and post to your wall," Shreateh wrote on Zuckerberg's Timeline. "I has no other choice to make after all the reports I sent to Facebook team."

Facebook Might Be Making You Sad

The Timeline is a collection of users' personal photos, stories and experiences.

Facebook patched the security hole Thursday and clarified that the original tip was not ignored, but that there simply wasn't enough information provided.

"We should have asked for additional repro [reproduction] instructions after his initial report," Facebook software engineer Matt Jones wrote on Hacker News, a forum for the security community. "Unfortunately, all he submitted was a link to the post he'd already made … Had he included the video initially, we would have caught this much more quickly."

Shreateh has since posted a YouTube video showing exactly how he was able to post something on a non-friend's Timeline.

Jones also suggested that Shreateh's English was hard to understand, but clarified that Facebook gets hundreds of reports and that some of the "best reports come from people whose English isn't great."

With its White Hat program, Facebook allows security researchers to report security vulnerabilities and receive a monetary reward for reporting certain security bugs. Shreateh, however, was not paid for finding this vulnerability because he violated the White Hat Terms of Service by demonstrating the exploit by using the accounts of real people without their permission.

On the other hand, can you really put a price on hacking into Mark Zuckerberg's Timeline?

Quddusi Sahab Ki Bewah

Quddusi Sahab Ki Bewah
Genre	Family Drama Comedy
Written by	Fasi Bari Khan
Directed by	Mazhar Moin
Creative director(s)	Nauman Qamar
Starring	Hina Dilpazeer Shehnaz Pervaiz Shabbir Jan Uroosa Siddiqui Badar Khalil Waqar Hussain Mirza Shahi Maqsood Bhai Ubaida Ansari
Country of origin	Pakistan
Original language(s)	Urdu
No. of episodes	71 as of 2nd Jun 2013
Production
Producer(s)	ECrew Entertainment
Location(s)	Pakistan
Running time	56-60 min.
Broadcast
Original channel	ARY Digital
Original run	2012 – present

Quddusi Sahab Ki Bewah is a comedy drama which premiered in 2012 on ARY Digital The drama series became a hit just after its telecast due to a unique storyline, authentic humor and most importantly due to Hina Dilpazeer's acting and her portrayal of multiple roles and characters which have became an instant hit. It is the follow up Television series of successful telefims written by Fasih Bari Khan and directed by Mazhar Moin such as 'Shakoor Sahab',Saray Ghat Ki Farzana, Bawli Bitiya, Pichaal Periyan, Ronak Jahan Ka Nafsiyati Gharaana and Burns Road Ki Niloufer

Plot

It is a story of two families living in upper and lower stories of a house. The householder Aleem-ud-Din lives upstairs with his family consisting of his wife Nunhi, a divorced daughter Bhunarya, a son Maqsood and daughter-in-law Rooh Afzaa. While Abdul Qudussi's widow, Shakooran live downstairs as tenant with her three daughters Khajusta Jahan, Badraka Jahan Shagufta Jahan and a son Abdul Wudood Ahmad. Aqeela bhabhi is also a major character who is a neighbor and a good friend of Shakooran. Both the families later on are shifted to a new house which is owned by Shakooran, when Shagufta Jahan is married to Aleem-ud-Din. Aqeela is kicked out of her own house by her sons and lives with Shakooran, who makes her do all the housework.

Cast and characters[edit source | editbeta]

Role	Portrayed by
Shakooran Begum	Hina Dilpazeer
Badraka Jahan
Mursaleen Mian (Hotel's owner in Murree)
Rooh Afza
Bangali Baji
Nazima Khatoon (Aleemuddin's sister)
Nazeer Khan
Tina Gul (Rooh Afza's mother)
Elaichi (Transgender)
Tamizini
Khajusta Jahan	Shehnaz Pervaiz
Shagufta Jahan	Uroosa Siddique
Maqsood	Maqsood Bhai
Wudood Ahmed	Waqar Hussain
Nunhi	Ubaida Ansari
Bhunarya	Hira Sheikh
Aqeela Bhabhi	Badar Khalil
Aleem-ud-Din Sahab	Mirza Shahi
Durdana	Asma Abbas
Farzana	Sajal Ali
Mawlawi Saheb	Irfan Khoosat
Farhat Arra	Sangeeta
Afifa	Sarah
Sidiqa	Minal Khan

Popularit

The drama series became heavily popular soon after its telecast and although unable to beat records of Humsafar,Zindagi Gulzar Hai and Aik Naee Cinderella,It was still able to beat Pakistani dramas such as Qaid-e-Tanhai, Mera Saaein 2, Thakan and Pakvilla in competition.Hina Dilpazeer's acting is praised very much and especially her variety of roles. Many people mistake her nomination at the 2012 Lux Style Awards for her multiple roles for Quddusi Sahab Ki Bewah, though she was actually nominated for drama serial Tum Ho Ke Chup.

Single man holding Islamabad hostage arrested

SLAMABAD (Online): After a deadly armed standoff of 5 hours Federal police captured the armed person alive along with his wife.
Leader of Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP), Zamurd Khan showed utmost courage and bravery when he tried to capture the armed person empty handed.
The person opened fire and a bullet passed very near to Zamurd Khan but quick response of snipers saved Zamurd’s life as snipers shoot four bullets in the feet of armed persons and arrested him.
The drama started here on constitution Avenue on Thursday when an armed person in a car along with his wife and two children opened fire on policemen, created turmoil and refused to surrender near Kalsoom plaza near.
The man, later identified as Sikander son of Muhammad Malik, armed with at least two assault rifles, an AK-47 and an SMG, started shooting near Jinnah Avenue, he was driving a black Toyota Corolla, RLD 1750 bearing a fake number plate.
The man fired several shots after which police and media arrived at the scene.
Talking to media, Sikandar said that he have adopted the right path and would not surrender, adding that he did not talk to any government official.
He demanded of the state to depose the present government, implementation of Islamic system and to hold elections under the Islamic system.
He belonged to Mohala Qazipura of Punjab’s Hafizabad area, the woman was his wife and her name was Kanwal and children named Abdullah and Farwa.
He is the youngest among five brothers and sisters, two brothers lived in Lahore while two in Dubai and he have another wife, Hania, in Dubai, media reported.
This man had also lived in Dubai for over 20 years. Few years back, he returned to country and settled in Hafizabad but his eldest son is in Dubai police.
According to media reports, one of the kids was injured evident from a bandage on his forehead.
The man has demanded presence of at least five senior police officials for further talks and negotiations with him. He has also revealed on the scene that he is doing it all for Islam and he demand of Islam in the country.
His wife, who has been shuttling between the police and her armed husband as a messenger, told the police that his husband would only negotiate with a high-ranking police official.
His neighbors in Hafizabad informed that Sikandar is a man of strange conduct and do not have good reputation in the locality.
Upon this SSP operation, Dr Rizwan walked over to the individual and tried to talk him into dropping his weapons.
The man has made some ambiguous demands in between the negotiations with SSP Dr. Rizwan through that woman.
The police and rangers cordoned off the area while four sharp shooters have been also placed in different directions to take action when get chance.
Despite repeated request from the police officials, the armed man has refused to surrender the weapons and him.
Interior Minister Ch. Nisar Ali Khan has directed Islamabad Police to make every effort to arrest the gunman alive.
He said no harm should be done to the woman and children.

ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) and Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) came down hard on the government for its failure to appropriately act amid Thursday's incident when a gunman challenged its writ.

Speaking outside the National Assembly, PTI senior leader Shah Mehmmod Qureshi and PPP leader Syed Naveed Qamar severally criticized the government.

Qureshi said that it seemed on Thursday a leaderless government was operating in the country. He said the assembly session was adjourned on the pretext of Friday prayer so that the opposition parties could not speak on yesterday’s episode.

He added that on the one hand the government said it would take the opposition on board while chalking out national security policy while on the other, it was not even ready to listen to the opposition.

Speaking on the occasion, PPP leader Naveed Qamar criticized Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan for his absence from the house.

He said that an armed man paralyzed the government and its failure prompted PPP leader Zamurud Khan to intervene.

To a question, the opposition leaders said that they were united on the matters related to national interest.

The standoff began in Islamabad around 5:30 pm on Thursday when police flagged down the car for a traffic violation in the central Jinnah Avenue neighbourhood -- less than a kilometre from the presidency and parliament buildings.

The armed man later, identified as Sikandar, then started firing into the air, forcing markets and shops in the area to close. Crowds of onlookers gathered at a distance, as TV anchors broadcasting the incident live on air queried how police checkpoints had failed to stop an armed man from driving into the sensitive area.

The standoff ended at 11:00 pm after Zamurud Khan, a leader of the opposition Pakistan Peoples Party who was acting as a negotiator, jumped on the gunman and tried to disarm him.

Sikandar broke free and fired at Khan, who was not injured. Police and paramilitary commandos then shot the gunman as he tried to flee, hauling him away as blood poured from his wounds. The children were unharmed.

Dicing with death for a moustache in Pakistan

PESHAWAR, Pakistan / Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa — Pakistani businessman Malik Amir Mohammad Khan Afridi has been kidnapped, threatened with death, forcibly displaced and lives apart from his family: all because of his enormous moustache.

Impeccably trimmed to 30 inches (76 centimetres), Afridi spends 30 minutes a day washing, combing, oiling and twirling his facial hair into two arches that reach to his forehead, defying gravity.

"People give me a lot of respect. It's my identity," said the 48-year-old grandfather in the northwestern city of Peshawar, when asked why he was prepared to risk everything for his whiskers.

"I feel happy. When it's ordinary, no one gives me any attention. I got used to all the attention and I like it a lot," he said.

For centuries, a luxuriant moustache has been a sign of virility and authority on the Indian sub-continent.

But in Pakistan, Islamist militants try to enforce religious doctrine that a moustache must be trimmed, if not shaved off.

So Afridi went from celebrity to prisoner of Lashkar-e-Islam, then a rival and now an ally of the Taliban in the tribal district of Khyber on the Afghan border.

First the group demanded protection money of $500 a month. When he refused, four gunmen turned up at his house in 2009.

He says they held him prisoner for a month in a cave and only released him when he cut it off.

"I was scared they would kill me, so that's why I sacrificed my moustache," he said.

He fled to relative safety in Peshawar. But he grew his facial hair back and in 2012 the threats started again: telephone calls from people threatening to slit his throat.

So he left the Taliban-hit northwest altogether, moving to the Punjabi city of Faisalabad and returning to Peshawar to visit his family only once or twice a month.

"I'm still scared," he says. "I'm in Peshawar to spend Ramadan with my family but most of the time I stay at home and tell people I'm in Faisalabad if they want to meet me," he says.

His only concession is the holy Muslim fasting month, when a free-standing moustache interferes with his daily ablutions and he keeps it smoothed across his face and tucked behind his ears.

It costs $150 a month to maintain -- more than a Pakistani teacher can earn -- although he gets a moustache bursary of $50 from the home district in the lawless tribal belt he was forced to flee.

The Khyber administration pays anything from $10 to $60 a month to men with particularly eye-catching moustaches as a symbolic gesture of appreciation for the bravery and virility traditionally associated with such facial hair.

Both tribesmen and members of the security forces can qualify for the sum, which is handed out at the discretion of the chief administrator.

Afridi has a hair dryer, bars of soap, shampoo, an alleged German oil from Dubai whose label he has ripped off so no one knows its alchemy, a mirror and an old bottle of homemade coconut oil.

Then there are towels and a hair brush.

He massages the secret oil into his whiskers, twiddles and twirls them in front of the mirror and dries them to stand on end, before striding around a shopping mall, quickly attracting a crowd.

An opinion piece published in Pakistan's Daily Times newspaper last year drew parallels between power and a luxuriant moustache, although current Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, the only man in the country to win a third term in office, is clean shaven.

It also had a word of advice for elected leaders, who three times in the past have been deposed by military coups... led by the only three generals in the country with moustaches.

"Never appoint a moustachioed chief of the army staff or a chief justice if you wish to govern in peace," it warned.

Richard McCallum, the author of "Hair India - A Guide to the Bizarre Beards and Magnificent Moustaches of Hindustan," says moustaches are also popular in the Indian military and the police.

"Men with moustaches seem to be considered to command more respect, are considered more virile, more manly and a little bit older," he told AFP.

"When you get away from metro areas, India is still a patriarchal place. Men are men and the men like to show off and preen."

But Afridi's wife and 10 children are less keen.

"Sometimes my family tell me 'cut it, it would be better if you lived with us.' I can leave my family, I can leave Pakistan, but I can never cut my moustache again," he said.

So his dream is to find political asylum or represent Pakistan at an international competition, if only he can get a visa.

But he has a way to go. An Indian holds the record for the world's longest moustache at 4.29 metres (14 feet).

Ram Singh Chauhan has even appeared in Bollywood films and had a cameo in the 1983 James Bond film "Octopussy."

"I'm trying to move my family abroad. To America, Canada, Britain or even to Dubai but I need asylum," Afridi told AFP.

"I don't like smoking. I'm not fond of snuff, or drinking. This is the only choice in my life. I'd even sacrifice food, but not the moustache. It's my life. It's not part of my life. It is my life."

Poor parents sell son in Sheikuhpura

SHEIKHUPURA: Police have recovered a minor sold by his parents in Diska area of Sheikhupura, Geo News reported Monday.

Imran Ashraf, a resident of Nawankot, told Geo News that he had sold his son to a philanthropist to repay a loan.

He said that though the deal, brokered by her mother-in-law was agreed at Rs60, 000, only Rs10, 000 was given to him.

Ashraf said he decided to take his child back on the voice of his conscience. Geo News helped police to recover the child from Diska.

Pakistan Taliban fighter asks Malala to come home

A Taliban commander has written to Pakistani girl activist Malala Yousafzai, saying he regretted her shooting last year by militants and urging her to come home.

Yousafzai, now 16, was shot at close range by Taliban gunmen in October as she left school in Swat Valley in northwestern Pakistan. She was flown to Britain for treatment and has not returned since due to persistent Taliban threats against her.

On 12 July, she addressed the world in an electrifying speech at the United Nations in which she said the pen was mightier than the sword.

In a fiery, densely written letter packed with references to philosophers and politicians, commander Adnan Rasheed said he wished he could have told her to "refrain from anti-Taliban activities" to prevent the attack.

"My all emotions were brotherly for you because we belong to same Yousafzai tribe," he wrote in the English-language letter dated July 15 and confirmed as authentic by the Taliban.

"When you were attacked it was shocking for me. I wished it would never happened and I had advised you before."

"At the end I advise you to come back home," Rasheed wrote, adding that she should join a female Islamic school and "use your pen for Islam".

The Taliban claimed responsibility for the assassination attempt on Yousafzai. Two of her classmates were also wounded.

She was treated in Pakistan before the United Arab Emirates provided an air ambulance to fly her to Britain, where doctors mended parts of her skull with a titanium plate.

Rasheed, a former Pakistan Air Force officer once jailed for trying to assassinate General Pervez Musharraf, denied the Taliban had attacked her because of her campaign against Taliban efforts to deny girls education.

"Please mind that Taliban or Mujahideen are not against the education of any men or women or girl," he wrote in his letter, which reads like a lecture to Malala.

"Taliban believe that you were intentionally writing against them and running a smearing campaign to malign their efforts to establish Islamic system in Swat and your writings were provocative."

In the four-page letter, he goes on to accuse the West of imposing its standards on other nations and attacks figures including U.S. President Barack Obama and former U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, as well as the English and Jews.