Pakistan make four changes for ‘must-win’ Test

LONDON: Yasir Hameed is set to win his first Test cap in three years in one of four changes to the side as Pakistan look to bounce back in their series against England here at The Oval.

The tourists are 2-0 down in a four-Test campaign heading into the third match – a “must-win” encounter according to Pakistan captain Salman Butt – starting at The Oval here on Wednesday.

Hameed, a 32-year-old top-order batsman, played the last of his 23 Tests against India in Bangalore in 2007.

But with Pakistan struggling for runs – they have been dismissed for record low scores against England of 80 and 72 in crushing defeats at Trent Bridge and Edgbaston respectively – he has been recalled.

Also set for a return to Test action is senior batsman and former captain Mohammad Yousuf, who averages 70 against England.

Third in Pakistan’s all-time list of Test run-scorers, Yousuf was initially omitted from the squad having been handed an indefinite ban by the Pakistan Cricket Board after captaining the side on their winless tour of Australia concluded earlier this year.

He was recalled ahead of the Edgbaston Test but was not selected after only arriving in England the day before the match.

Struggling batsmen Umar Amin and Shoaib Malik are set to make way for Hameed and Yousuf.

Pakistan’s other two changes are injury-enforced with Kamran Akmal back in the side after Zulqarnain Haider, who made a gutsy 80 on debut at Edgbaston, was ruled out with a fractured finger suffered in the second Test.

That match also saw seamer Umar Gul sustain a series-ending hamstring injury and his place is now set to be taken by the uncapped Wahab Riaz.

“It’s a must-win situation for us,” Butt told AFP on Tuesday. “We have made four changes in an attempt to win this Test and give ourselves a chance to square the series.”

Hameed’s inclusion will mean the XI at The Oval is not entirely made up of players from one province, Punjab, which would have been a first in Pakistan’s Test history as he hails from Khyber-Pakhtunkwa.

Pakistan have not played a home match since an armed attack on Sri Lanka’s team bus in Lahore in March last year effectively made the country a no-go area for international cricket.

And opening batsman Butt said this has to be remembered when trying to assess the state of a largely novice side who were thrashed by 354 runs in the first Test and lost the second by nine wickets after coming into the England series on the back of a win over Australia in Leeds.

“Anyone who has played international cricket will know that most sides gather most of their averages and best performances playing at home in their own conditions,” Butt said.

“It is an advantage Pakistan has not got any longer and everyone should have this in their mind when they talk about a Pakistan team not performing.

“This is the only team in the world who are always playing away from home in foreign conditions.”

England and Wales Cricket Board chairman Giles Clarke, who also chairs the ICC’s Pakistan Task Team, has said there are plans to send a World XI to play Pakistan “in due course”.

“It would be wonderful to have any kind of international cricket take place in Pakistan,” Butt said in response to Clarke’s proposal.

“People in Pakistan are cricket lovers and they have their heroes not only from Pakistan but from around the world. They love watching them so if that could happen it would be great for Pakistan cricket.” —AFP

Russia hosts Karzai, Zardari for Afghan summit

SOCHI, Russia: Russia on Wednesday hosts Pakistan's embattled President Asif Ali Zardari and Afghan leader Hamid Karzai for a regional summit expected to focus on security in Afghanistan.

The Pakistan leader is expected to fly in to the Black Sea resort of Sochi for only a few hours after he was heavily criticised at home for his handling of the devastating floods that have caused a massive humanitarian crisis.

A key aspect of the meeting will be a rare bilateral encounter between Zardari and Karzai, whose country has consistently accused Pakistan's powerful intelligence agency of supporting Taliban insurgents.

Pakistan has reacted furiously to the allegations, particularly after Karzai declared in July that “this war is in the sanctuaries, funding centres and training places of terrorism which are outside Afghanistan.”

Russia, still haunted by the Soviet Union's war in Afghanistan which cost over 13,000 Soviet lives, has kept a wary distance from the troubles of NATO forces in the country.

Moscow had made clear it has no plans to send troops to Afghanistan but like several other ex-Soviet states has allowed NATO states to use its airspace for the transit of equipment.

But the summit also allows Russian President Dmitry Medvedev the chance to show his country is engaging in a major international issue at a time when it is seeking to improve its profile on the world stage.

Also taking part will be Tajikistan President Emomali Rakhmon, whose country borders Afghanistan.

“It is planned that special attention is given to the issue of regulating the situation in Afghanistan, the fight against terrorist and narcotic threats, economic reconstruction and the development of Afghanistan and the region,” the Kremlin said in a statement ahead of the meeting.

The meeting is the second such four-way meeting of the heads of state, the first taking place in the Tajik capital Dushanbe in July 2009.

Medvedev's foreign policy advisor Sergei Prikhodko said ahead of the meeting that Russia would be interested in delivering helicopters to Afghanistan.

“The question of the delivery of Russian helicopters will be discussed, if it is raised by the Afghan side,” he added, the Interfax news agency said, adding that Afghanistan required 100 additional choppers.

Kremlin sources told the agency that such a move could put Russia in direct competition with NATO states also interested in the contract but the whole issue of financing also had to be addressed.

Zardari had originally been planning a two-day visit to Russia but the situation with the floods means his visit has been cut to a few hours and he will not even attend lunch, officials in Islamabad have said.

Moscow is not usually seen as a close ally of Islamabad, not least because of its historically close relationship to Pakistan's traditional foe India. – AFP

China media rap 'aggressive' Pentagon report

BEIJING: China's state media on Wednesday criticised a Pentagon report on Beijing's expanding military capabilities as unprofessional and aggressive, saying US demands for transparency were unrealistic.

In the report released Monday, the US Defence Department said China's military build-up in the Taiwan Strait had “continued unabated” despite better ties with the China-friendly government in Taipei, in power since 2008.

The Pentagon said Beijing was ramping up investment in a range of areas including nuclear weapons, long-range missiles, submarines, aircraft carriers and cyber warfare.

China's foreign and defence ministries have so far unusually refrained from reacting to the report, but the state-run media carried a barrage of comments from experts.

“The report is not exactly professional. It uses ambiguous terms without solid proof,” Ni Feng, a researcher at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, told the China Daily.

Zheng Yongmian, director of the East Asian Institute at the National University of Singapore, told the Global Times that the report had an “overly aggressive tone”, though other experts said the rhetoric had “softened”.

Military ties between the United States and China were suspended by Beijing months ago after Washington agreed on a 6.4-billion-dollar arms package with Taiwan that included helicopters, missile defences and mine-sweepers.

China considers Taiwan, where the mainland's defeated nationalists fled in 1949 at the end of a bloody civil war, to be part of its territory awaiting reunification, by force if necessary.

Meng Xiangqing, a professor at the National Defence University, told the Global Times: “The interfering nature of the report remains unchanged. It will surely draw discontent from China over its exaggeration of its military power.”On calls for China to improve its military transparency, with the Pentagon saying billions of dollars are spent but not included in the publicly released budget, experts said Beijing could never meet Washington's standards.

“Anyone who understands basic international politics knows there is no absolute transparency, especially between non-allies,” Shi Yinhong, a scholar on international relations at Renmin University, told the China Daily. – AFP

Karzai must fight graft or lose support: Sen Kerry

KABUL, Afghanistan: US Sen. John Kerry told the president of Afghanistan that his efforts to battle corruption were crucial if he wants to retain the support of US taxpayers at a time when more American troops are dying in the war.

Kerry's two meetings with President Hamid Karzai on Tuesday came at a time when US lawmakers are increasingly doubtful that the military effort can succeed without a serious campaign against bribery and graft that have eroded the Afghan people's trust in their government.

''I think that in the next days, the government of Afghanistan's response to anti-corruption efforts are a key test of its ability to regain the confidence of the people and provide the kind of governance that the American people are prepared to support with hard-earned tax dollars and with most importantly, with the treasure of our country _ the lives of young American men and women,'' Kerry told reporters.

''If we have knowledge of things that we know are happening and the (Afghan) government doesn't respond to it, it's going to be very, very difficult for us to look American families in the eye and say, 'Hey, that's something worth dying for.'''

Last October when Kerry was in Kabul, he played an instrumental role in persuading Karzai to accept a run-off vote after a fraud-plagued presidential election. This trip comes just days after the arrest of one of Karzai's top advisers, Mohammad Zia Salehi, for allegedly accepting a car in exchange for his help in exerting pressure on Afghan officials to ease off in another corruption case.

US officials see Salehi's arrest as a test case of Karzai's willingness to fight corruption and are waiting to see if the president will impose restraints on corruption probes being conducted by the Major Crimes Task Force and the Sensitive Investigative Unit, which are mentored by US and British law enforcement officials.

''I'm not going to stand up and defend for one instant a policy that is based on supporting a corrupt government _ if that's what it wound up being,'' Kerry said. ''But that's the test right now, that's why I'm here. I think President Karzai and his government need to understand that there is no patience for endless support for something that doesn't meet higher standards with respect to governance.''

Kerry said he believes Karzai knows the American public is tiring of the nearly nine-year-old war that has claimed the lives of more than 1,200 US service men and women. He knows that Republicans and Democrats alike are anxious about what is happening and not happening in Afghanistan, Kerry said.

At a recent hearing of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, which Kerry chairs, the panel's ranking Republican, Richard Lugar of Indiana, said there was a ''lack of clarity'' about US war goals. And Richard Holbrooke, the Obama administration's special envoy for Afghanistan and Pakistan, said that while there were ''significant elements of movement forward in many areas,'' he does not yet see a ''definitive turning point in either direction.''

At his first meeting with Karzai on Tuesday, Kerry said the Afghan president noted issues he wants the US to address, including reducing the American footprint in the nation and refraining from setting up programs or institutions that should be handled by the Afghan government. More urgently, Karzai expressed concern about Pakistan's involvement in Afghanistan, Kerry said.

A statement released by the Afghans said Karzai recently sent a letter to President Barack Obama saying the war strategy needed to be reviewed. Without mentioning neighboring Pakistan, Karzai wrote that there needs to be more focus on the ''roots and sanctuaries'' of terrorism outside Afghanistan instead of only fighting the war in Afghan homes and villages.

Kerry said the US shared Karzai's concerns about insurgents who direct attacks from across the border in Pakistan.

''Look, we are still dismantling and/or fighting threats, or thwarting them, that have come from the same people that attacked us in 2001,'' Kerry said. ''And we still know that they're out there _ some of them here, most of them in western Pakistan, to the best of our knowledge, some in the Arabian Peninsula and in Africa _ and they continue to threaten. And you just can't take that lightly. So that's where we are.''

Karzai has become increasingly vigorous in exerting his authority in affairs of his nation.

Just as Kerry was arriving, the Afghan government surprised the US by ordering tens of thousands of private security contractors to cease operations in Afghanistan by the end of the year. The US and its allies rely heavily on security companies to guard supply convoys, installations and development projects.

But complaints have mounted that the firms are poorly regulated, reckless and effectively operate outside local law. – AP

US has no doubt about govt’s credibility: ambassador

ISLAMABAD: US Ambassador to Pakistan Anne Patterson claimed on Tuesday that Washington had no doubts about the credibility of Pakistan government.

“We have confidence in government’s ability to deliver,” the ambassador told reporters at the embassy.

The US has committed $76 million for flood-affected people and its total assistance, in cash and kind, amounts to $87 million. Nothing worthwhile, however, has been given bilaterally to the government.

She said the US would funnel its assistance through a variety of mechanisms including the government and local and international NGOs.

She spoke about recent projects for which Islamabad has received cash assistance. The ambassador asked the government to improve its tax collection.

“The tax collection should increase, there are a lot of wealthy people who do not give sufficient taxes, they should contribute”.

Some sectors in the country have been saying that international aid is not being given directly to the government because of reservations about transparency in its utilisation.

These fears have emanated from reported misuse of international assistance after the massive earthquake which hit northern parts of the country in 2005.

Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi hit out at the media the other day for continuously reporting on the issue of transparency and expressed fears that the criticism could hurt world’s confidence in the government.

Ms Patterson said it was too early to gauge the full magnitude of the disaster.

She also downplayed reports that extremist groups were winning over the victims through their relief efforts, while the international efforts remained inadequate and slow.

“To be blunt, I think these stories about extremist organisations being the only players out there are greatly exaggerated,” the ambassador said.

Saudis seek help to track down fugitives

KARACHI: The Saudi government has sought Pakistan’s help in tracking down its 28 most wanted citizens who it says pose a threat to its security.

The Saudi government has sent a letter to the interior ministry which contains photographs and information about the people, including their last known destination.

According to the letter, the last destination of three of the 28 fugitives was Pakistan.

The ministry had circulated the letter to the provincial home departments, asking them if any of the men was in their custody or if they had information about their presence.

The three Saudi nationals who were last said to be in Pakistan are: Turki Hadi Saad-ul-Atifi-al-Attaili, Abdullah Omar Saeh-al-Qarshi and Fawaz Aliz-Jaman-al-Masoodi-al-Qaibi.

The other most wanted men, who were last reported to be in Yemen, are: Ahmad Abdul Aziz Jasrabi, Ahmad Abdul Aziz-al-Sawai, Basim Muhammad, Basam Ibrahim, Band Sehal Shaban, Turki Saad Muhammad, Samir Swelam, Hussain Saleh Zafar-al-Behri, Saad Qabid, Gahliz Samir, Abdul Rehman Abdul Aziz, Abdul Salam Abdul Aziz, Abdul Aziz Muhammad Ahmad-al-Salmi, Abdullah Ahmad Moiz-al-Hasni, Abdullah Suleman, Abdullah Abdul Hadi, Abdullah Ali Muhammad Al-Swaid, Abdul Majid Faisal Muhammad-al-Jaberi, Faleh Shanan, Muttab Saeed Muhammad-al-Omeri, Mojab Muhammad Jamal-al-Attati, Hashim Muhammad Ibrahim-al-Hindi, Wafa Muhammad Mubarak-al-Jaberi and Walid Jerbu.

Proposed committee under attack in SC

ISLAMABAD: The yet to be formed eight-member parliamentary committee (PC), which is envisaged to allow parliament to play a role in the nomination of judges, came under fire in Court Room One on Tuesday.

Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry observed that a high court judge would be condemned forever if the committee disapproved his name for elevation to the Supreme Court, adding that the judiciary could not afford litigation on such issues.

The chief justice made the observation during the hearing of several petitions against the 18th Amendment.

He said if findings of the committee were justiciable then judiciary, being an important organ of the state, could not afford such litigation.

The observation was made when Advocate Shahid Hamid, representing the Punjab government and pleading in favour of the committee, argued that the committee would have to record sound reasons for refusing to confirm a nomination made by the judicial commission.

“What harm will it pose if PC makes a wrong decision and the same is referred to the court for adjudication,” the counsel said, adding that the exercise of power by the PC would remain a justiciable act as much as the exercise of similar power by the president or the prime minister under the previous system of appointment.

Justice Saqib Nisar came to the rescue of Mr Hamid and said that perhaps the counsel wanted to establish that the process of justiciability would be a check on the arbitrariness of the PC.

“The PC must record reasons for vetoing a recommendation which would be justiciable,” Justice Nisar said, adding that even though a strong judiciary had emerged today the old system of appointment of judges was non-transparent and marred with nepotism and favouritism.

But Justice Khalilur Rehman Ramday expressed doubts about the functioning of the PC and asked how could recommendations made by such a huge judicial commission with chief justice as its head and two senior-most judges as its members be subjected to scrutiny by the PC.

The bench also expressed the view that roles of the prime minister, the most important pillar in the parliamentary form of governance, as well as the chief justice, had been reduced under the new method of appointments.

“Thinking loud, do you think we are doing a service to the parliamentary system by rendering the office of the prime minister, who runs the entire show as the head of the government, a mere post office,” the chief justice asked.

The bench was also critical about the absence of any guiding principle for the functioning of the PC and said the amendment was also silent on the justiciability.

Justice Shakirullah Jan recalled that the Constitution was also silent on the justiciability factor in the now substituted method of the appointment of judges, rather the concept came through the 1996 Al-Jihad Trust case.

“The appointment has been made broad-based in view of past experiences,” Justice Shakirullah Jan observed, saying that the prime minister himself, being a member of the parliament, had delegated his powers to the PC.

The guidelines submitted by the Punjab government, Shahid Hamid replied, would ensure harmony between the functioning of the JC and the PC saying the PC was necessary to provide bipartisan support to the one elevated as a judge in the superior judiciary.

Earlier on the looming judicial crisis in Balochistan, Justice Asif Saeed Khosa observed that the Balochistan High Court was emptied not by others but by a decision of the Supreme Court, explaining that when constitutional functionaries functioned they were aware of many things but sometimes difficult decisions had to be taken in the interest of the system.

Had the earlier system of appointment of judges been absolutely fine, there would have been no need of the 1996 Al-Jihad Trust case, Justice Asif Khosa observed. He said there was definitely something wrong and the need was felt for rectifying it.

Justice Khosa, however, conceded that the personal choices or favouritism on the part of the chief justice was very minimal in the old system, rather the ruling parties of the day used to exert influence in such appointments.