Punjab allocates Rs2.024bn for traceable agri, livestock products 24-02-2012

Punjab government has planned to expand suppliers’ base of traceable agricultural and livestock products from the existing level of 20 to 250 in 2012, for which an incentive package of Rs2.024 billion has been allocated.This was stated by Minister for Agriculture, Punjab, Malik Ahmed Ali Aulakh while addressing a post-International Green Week (IGW) briefing about success stories, the lessons learnt and the way forward for prospects of exports of agriculture and livestock products from Pakistan, here at Agriculture House, on Thursday.Traceable...

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Australian inquest considers dingo-baby mystery 24-02-2012

A coroner on Friday opened the fourth inquest into the most notorious and bitter legal drama in Australia's history: the 1980 death of a 9-week-old baby whose parents say a dingo took her from a tent in the Australian Outback.Azaria Chamberlain's mother, Lindy, was convicted and later cleared of murdering her and has always maintained that a wild dog took the baby. She and her ex-husband, Michael Chamberlain, are hoping fresh evidence about dingo attacks on children will convince Northern Territory Coroner Elizabeth Morris and end relentless...

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Friends of Syria' to Assad: Immediate cease-fire or face new punishment 24-02-2012

The United States, Europe and Arab countries were set Friday to back a proposal for Syria's president to step aside and allow in humanitarian assistance to end a brutal crackdown against opponents.American, European and Arab officials are meeting in a major international "Friends of Syria" conference in Tunisia to work out the details for their 72-hour ultimatum end the violence and allow in aid, which will be backed by as yet unspecified punishments.A draft of the conference's final declaration also states that the Syrian National Council, an...

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Baloch leaders demand end to Army operations

Baloch nationalist leaders have set stiff conditions, including stopping military operations and barring secret agencies any role in their turbulent province, to open dialogue with the Pakistan government that has extended an olive branch to them. Reacting to amnesty offer made by the Interior Minister Rahman Malik to Baloch leaders in exile, Jamhoori Watan Party leader Shahzain Bugti, a grandson of Akbar Khan Bugti, who was killed in a military operation in 2006, set eight conditions for talks with the authorities. Besides halt to military...

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Children of Taliban or Generation of Taliban

Dan Edge and Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy Filmmaker Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy investigates how the war on terror is creating a generation of child terrorists in her homeland – children prepared to kill both inside and outside Pakistan. With the recent attack in Lahore on the Sri Lankan cricket team, last year’s massive suicide bombing in Islamabad and assault on Mumbai, Pakistan’s radical Islamists are bringing violence to the major cities of Pakistan and beyond. Sharmeen travels across Pakistan to investigate how the far the Taliban has infiltrated her...

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Al-Shifa trying to expand eye camp network

Al-Shifa Trust Eye Hospital has decided to expand the network of free eye camps at union council level in far-flung areas of the country to minimise the challenge of blindness under its outreach eye care programme. The announcement was made at a conference held to mark the first death anniversary of great humanitarian icon and founding president of Al-Shifa Trust Eye Hospitals, Lt Gen (r) Jahan Dad Khan, on Monday. Al-Shifa Trust Eye Hospital President Lt Gen (r) Hamid Javed said that though Jahan Dad Khan left a year ago, his selfless work for...

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US can strengthen ties through cultural exchange

Talking about various US-Pak initiatives, US Consul General in Lahore Nina Maria Fite said that the consulate had introduced special programmes for promotion of cultural activities as well as preservation of historic sites in Lahore as well as Punjab under the US Ambassador’s Fund for Cultural Preservation.She also expressed the wish of fostering relations between the two strategic partners through close people-to-people contacts.Talking to APP on Sunday, she said, “With the melting of snow on the advent of spring season in Pakistan, the frost...

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Demystifying the village-naming hierarchy 2012

Aizaz Cheema, one of the recent fast bowlers to represent Pakistan, hails from a village called “75-B.” Curious name? Dawn.com decided to dig out the history and tradition behind naming villages in Punjab. Historically, there are several reasons behind naming a place in Punjab, but penning history or tracing out its anthropological roots in culture is a subject less entertained in this part of the world. While tracking down roots or reasons behind a village name, two major classifications can be drawn: “before” and “after,” i.e. before or after...

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Multan cricket run by petrol pump owner

Multan: From fighting for titles to fighting of survival, Multan’s cricket is experiencing an unprecedented slump and, with an interim committee headed by a bus-terminal owner, faces a tough ask on and off the field.In the 2006-07 season, Multan won the Silver League title — and a promotion to the top tier of first-class cricket, the grade-II under-23 crown and the U15 event. Now, they have lost eight of their nine matches to sit bottom of Division-II. In the domestic Twenty20 event, Multan were eliminated after finishing third in their four-team...

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LHC seeks reply from Punjab govt. on medicine purchase policy

Justice Umar Ata Bandial of the Lahore High Court (LHC), while hearing petitions against deaths from spurious drugs provided by the Punjab Institute of Cardiology (PIC) on Monday, directed the provincial government to inform until February 22 about the steps it was taking to change its policy concerning purchase of medicines.Condemning the deaths from fake drugs, the judge observed, “The court being the guardian of basic human rights would not let anyone play with the lives of the masses.”He also ordered the investigation team probing into the...

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Indian exporters hopeful to end indirect trade

India and Pakistan, which are moving forward to enhance trade ties through the present move started by two countries, are required to at least end the indirect trade to reduce the high freight cost.Since both countries are importing goods via a third station, the freight cost could have been reduced drastically if the same were allowed to be traded directly, thereby, reducing the price of imported goods. This was expressed by leading Indian exporters here at Lahore Expo Centre on Monday. The representatives of at least 100 companies were attending...

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Fata Cultural Festival in Pakistan February

Fata Cultural Festival in Pakistan Februa...

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Ijaz fails to appear before Pakistan commission on memo

From Rezaul H Laskar Islamabad, Feb 9 (PTI) American businessman Mansoor Ijaz today failed to avail a final opportunity to depose before a Pakistani judicial commission investigating the memo scandal, with his lawyer saying that he was prepared to record his statement at the Pakistani mission in London. The Supreme Court-appointed commission observed that Ijaz had made a U-turn on the issue of coming to Pakistan to depose despite all sorts of assurances given by the government about his security. During a hearing last month, the commission had...

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Gas from Iran in Pakistan

Iran has not just built its own portion of the gas pipeline from the gas fields to the Pakistani border, but it has also offered to build the Pakistani portion, from the Pakistani border, to the main distribution point, from where it can be piped across the country. This offer was made by visiting Iranian Vice-President on international affairs Ali Saeedlou in his meetings with the President and PM’s Finance Adviser Hafeez Sheikh, and should be accepted by Pakistan immediately. The US has persuaded India to withdraw from the project, but...

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Bloodletting underway in Syria, as rebels falter

It's a bloodletting in Syria. Civilians are facing tanks. There's every indication the dictatorship is moving to crush, once and for all, the eleven-month-old rebellion against the 40-year dictatorship of the Assad family.Homs, a city of 1.7 million people, which is a little bit more than Philadelphia, is under siege by tanks and artillery for the fifth day in a row. Scenes like this are playing out in several Syrian cities and towns tonight.Syria matters because of its neighborhood. It borders both Israel and Iraq. While the government there...

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Authorities probe 911 response to Josh Powell's home

Authorities have launched an investigation into how dispatchers handled 911 calls from those seeking help before Josh Powell killed his sons and himself in his Washington home. Critics have said it took too long for dispatchers to grasp the danger of the situation and alert police. "We will investigate all aspects of this incident, and if there is a need to refine our processes, (as we do continually) we will do so," said Tom Orr, director of the Law Enforcement Support Agency, which operates the 911 call center. " If there is a need to investigate...

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Police raid in the day Show

It is a reality, crime show that exposes dens of underground criminal activity.Watch RAID, only on Pakistan Ti...

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