Wednesday, November 21, 2012

4Pakistani.com

4Pakistani.com

Rationalising prices: Govt mulls increasing Qadirpur field wellhead price

Posted: 21 Nov 2012 12:44 PM PST



ISLAMABAD: 

The Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) is to consider a plan to raise the wellhead price of the Qadirpur gas field, a move which will put an additional multi-billion rupee burden on gas consumers in the country.

In a summary moved to the ECC, to be considered in its next meeting, the petroleum ministry has proposed an increase of $ 0.44 per mmbtu in the gas wellhead price. The current wellhead price is $ 2.56 per mmbtu. The Qadirpur gas field started operations in 1994, and the field is expected to be depleted by 2017.

"The total impact of the raise in the wellhead price has been worked out to be Rs200 billion, which will be borne by gas consumers till 2017," sources said.

Sources familiar with the development said that the move will give birth to controversy; and that exploration companies operating under the Petroleum Policy, 2001, will demand a revisit of their Gas Price Agreement (GPA) with the government in order to raise prices from the existing $ 2.86 per million British thermal unit (mmbtu).

According to the GPA concerning the Qadirpur gas field, the discount rate used to calculate the wellhead price is linked with High Sulphur Fuel Oil (HSFO) price, with an upper cap of $ 200 per ton. This formula was also approved by the ECC. However, sources said that petroleum ministry officials at that time included clause (1-b) in the GPA without the approval of the ECC, in order to bind the government to re-negotiate the price after ten years.

Sources said that the GPA has no reference as to how discounts are to be calculated if the price of HSFO goes above $ 200 per ton. As the price of HSFO is currently over $ 400 per ton, private shareholders of the Qadirpur gas field have been pressing the government to re-negotiate the gas price. The present government has been working to renegotiate the deal since 2009, but the raise in the wellhead price has not been approved in the past due to the potential of controversy attached with such a move.

When contacted, Petroleum Secretary Dr Waqar Masood said that the price raise would be applicable on future gas production, and its impact would be nominal. He also claimed that the clause pertaining to the re-negotiation of gas price was present in the summary approved by the ECC at that point in time. He said that a price of $ 6 per mmbtu was being offered under the new petroleum policy, and that the price of the Qadirpur field would still be lower than this price.

Qadirpur is the country's fourth-largest gas field, with 3.6 trillion cubic feet (tfc) of recoverable gas reserves. Its daily production ranges between 600-700 million cubic feet gas per day (mmcfd). The field is three-quarters owned by the Oil and Gas Development Company (OGDC), while Kirthar Pakistan possesses 8.5%, Pakistan Petroleum 7%, PKPEL 4.75% and PKPEL-2 holds a 4.75% stake in the field.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 21st, 2012.

Israel agrees to truce in Gaza Strip, blockade to continue

Posted: 21 Nov 2012 11:43 AM PST



JERUSALEM: Israel on Wednesday agreed to a truce in the Gaza Strip, but announced that it will not lift its blockade of the Palestinian territory, Israeli sources said, declining to give further details of any deal.

Shortly before, a Palestinian official with knowledge of Egyptian mediation between the two sides told Reuters that there was a ceasefire agreement to end eight days of fighting in Gaza that has killed more than 140 Palestinians and five Israelis.

Israel’s Channel Two television said a ceasefire would be announced in Cairo later in the evening by US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

Egypt's foreign minister also confirmed the ceasefire, adding that the ceasefire will go into effect on 7 pm (GMT).

The Israeli prime minister has also confirmed that a ceasefire agreement has been reached.

Urbanisation in Pakistan and its consequences

Posted: 21 Nov 2012 10:40 AM PST



Driving into Islamabad during rush hours a couple of days ago, I realised yet again how crowded the capital city had become and very different from how it was even a decade ago. Over the years, Islamabad, which was considered to lie "half an hour's drive outside Pakistan", has now become part of it. It would be unreal to think that Islamabad would remain frozen in time with a smaller population, less congestion and other idyllic conditions. With increasing violence in the country, especially in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and the Tribal Areas, people have shifted to other parts of the country including the capital city. Furthermore, one shouldn't forget the fact that Pakistan has one of the highest population growth rates in the world. This means greater pressure on all urban centres including Islamabad.

This is not just a lament about Islamabad but on the lack of urban planning in Pakistan in general. In fact, the story of Islamabad is about the mess that we find all over the country. Some commentators say that Pakistan's urban growth rate is one of the fastest in South Asia and should hence be considered a symbol of progress and modernity. However, I recently found out that technically, Pakistan has no urban centre. This is because the definition of what constituted an urban centre was scrapped after the 1998 census. Demographers now believe that a new definition, which is yet to be agreed upon, may help in the next census but not help in future comparison as the definition would have changed since 1998. Seemingly, there is a committee of demographers that has met huddled together to thrash out a definition. The debate must be opened up as it directly pertains to the future of people living in the existing or future urban centres.

Apparently, the definition used in 1998 was very basic. A place with 5,000 or more people was to be categorised as an urban centre. Perhaps, the philosophy behind this was that once such a category was slapped on a place, the development of essential social and economic infrastructure would follow. But it is obvious that such a thing did not happen at all in many cases. Because of a lack of planning, even existing infrastructure began to collapse under growing population pressure. For instance, in Islamabad, the two main hospitals cannot cater to the city's burgeoning numbers. Another example relates to the absence of parking in the city. Walking through the F-8 Markaz is a nightmare because a cellular company, which has set up its head office there, has not provided parking and so the vehicles of its employees clog the entire area and even make it a security hazard for pedestrians.

One could certainly go on and on about specific problems but there are some issues worth our attention as far as urbanisation is concerned.

First, thrilled by the idea of urbanisation as an imagined indicator of progress we have stopped thinking about our dire need to stop population growth. Even the existing youth bulge, which is considered a potential source of strength, could become a bane if not properly trained and educated.

Second, there is no planning for urbanisation — most of the cities have developed randomly with no proper planning for the kind of infrastructure growth that would make a centre of population feel like an urban centre. There is an absence of health and educational facilities especially in the intermediate and small cities, which then means a correspondingly significant propensity for people living there to migrate to the large urban centres.

Third, most large and intermediate cities seem to be undergoing vertical or horizontal growth, eating into the rural areas or agricultural land that lies in their hinterland. According to one estimate, over 60,000 acres of agricultural land have been eaten up by urban sprawl. There are some for whom the reduction of rural space is not an issue and they cite it as an example of progress, which it is certainly not, mainly because growth of what looks like urban centres without a parallel shift in economic patterns does not necessarily indicate progress.

Fourth, the increase in urbanisation is not necessarily accompanied by a conversion of mercantile capital to industrial capital. In fact, the horizontal expansion of cities is a case of an increase in mercantile capital and this is indicated in the booming real estate industry. Cities are not developed around economic activity like industries but have grown out of and around bazaars and a bazaar culture which in itself means mercantilism. The only other viable economic activity seems to be real estate that has attracted owners of agricultural land around cities to convert their land into housing schemes or to sell it for this purpose. This is not even viable capital since in the absence of sustainable economic activity, people tend to waste the accumulated capital very rapidly by spending it in consumerism. More important, such housing schemes have not managed to solve the shortage of houses. Pakistan has a shortage of about five million houses and the housing schemes that one sees are meant for the middle or upper-middle classes and do not cater to those from the lower or lower-middle classes.

Fifth, there is nothing that can serve as a melting pot as far as the increasing class divide is concerned. Normally, it is a public transport system which tends to bring people together. Karachi used to have a well-functioning tram system for public transport but it was scrapped years ago and was not replaced with anything else. Lahore has just started a metrobus project that will connect some parts of the city. However, there is an utter lack of planning for a public transport system that would also be fairly safe for all. Such a system would help in melting down the huge class divide that exists in every Pakistani city.

Finally, urban planning must also address the problem that would eventually occur due to the various kinds of natural divisions that include class, ethnic, sectarian and other differentiations. Right now, Karachi seems to be the only cosmopolitan city suffering from violence due to these internal divisions, which have been compounded by the burden of an increasing population. However, most of the other major cities, mostly in Punjab, have at least two visible dividing layers: ethnic and class. As these other cities expand so will their problems, including those that result in violence. Hence, now is the time to think deeply about urbanisation and its consequences.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 22nd, 2012.

Kasab execution: TTP ‘shocked’, LeT says will ‘inspire’ more attacks

Posted: 21 Nov 2012 09:41 AM PST



ISLAMABAD: The Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) expressed shock over the execution of Ajmal Kasab on Wednesday, the lone surviving gunman of the Mumbai attacks, and the Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) said he was a hero and would "inspire" more attacks.

“He was a hero and will inspire other fighters to follow his path,” the commander of Lashkar-e-Taiba told Reuters by telephone from an undisclosed location.

The Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan expressed shock over India’s execution of the lone survivor of an attack that killed 166 people in a rampage through the financial capital Mumbai in 2008.

“There is no doubt that it’s very shocking news and a big loss that a Muslim has been hanged on Indian soil,” Taliban spokesman Ahsanullah Ahsan told Reuters.

The sole surviving gunman from the 2008 Mumbai attacks was executed on Wednesday, nearly four years after 166 people were killed in a three-day rampage through India's financial capital.

Pakistan-born Mohammed Kasab was hanged at Yerwada jail in Pune in the western state of Maharashtra after President Pranab Mukherjee rejected his pleas for mercy earlier this month.

He was sentenced to death in May 2010 after he was found guilty of a string of charges, including waging war against India, murder and terrorist acts.

Two blasts near imambargah leave Karachi reeling

Posted: 21 Nov 2012 08:38 AM PST



KARACHI: At least four people were killed and eleven sustained injuries in twin blasts that occurred in Orangi Town, Karachi, Express News reported on Wednesday. 

The second blast took place right next to the gate of an imambargah, while the first one occurred 50 feet away from the place.

Some media and emergency rescue personnel were injured in the second blast along with security personnel.

Police and Rangers pushed back the large crowd and media persons after the second blast erupted. They completely cordoned off the area and said the place will not be declared cleared until the Bomb Disposal Squad completely sweeps all the shops.

The BDS said ball bearings were not used in the second blast and it was not as powerful as the first blast.

Security officials expressed fear that more explosives could be planted in the area.

Express News correspondent Nadeem Khan reported that BDS officials were busy collecting evidence from the first blast site and were not scanning the area for other bombs.

SSP SIU Raja Umar Khattab said the police were investigating the first blast when the second bomb went off. He said it cannot be confirmed if the first blast was a suicide attack or not. He, however, said explosives for the second blast were planted in a cement block.

DIG West Javed Odho said the first blast was carried out by a suicide bomber and killed a rickshaw driver and injured seven others.

Odho said the police force is working across the city and the assigned deployments will remain in their locations.

Sindh Information Minister Sharjeel Memon, while speaking to Express News, said the government wants to prevent terrorists from reaching their targets and so far the criminals have failed to achieve their goals.

He said three to four big attacks were planned but the security forces foiled the plans because of timely intelligence.

Memon added that army will be on high alert for Karachi, Hyderabad and Khairpur on Muharran 9 and 10.

First blast 

DIG West Odho said there was no congregation held at the imambargah when the first blast took place.

He told The Express Tribune that the first blast occurred in a rickshaw.

However, Express News correspondent Khan reported that the attack was carried out by a suicide bomber riding a motorcycle.

The reporter added that the motorcyclist crashed into a rickshaw and detonated the explosives.

Bomb Disposal Squad reached the spot to determine the nature of the first blast.

Rescue officials shifted dead and injured to local hospitals, while police cordoned off the area after the first blast.

According to initial details, the injured have ball bearings ripped into their bodies, while several body parts have been brought to the hospital as well. One of the injured is in critical condition and has been taken to operation theatre.

On November 18, two people were killed and more than a dozen sustained injuries in an explosion near an imambargah in Abbas Town, Karachi.

The explosives were planted on a motorcycle.

This is a developing story and will be updated accordingly. 

Muharram: Govt mulls suspension of cellular services, motorcycle riding in Balochistan

Posted: 21 Nov 2012 07:36 AM PST



QUETTA: Suspension of cellular services and riding motorcycles on the  7th, 9th and 10th of Muharram in Balochistan is being considered, Express News quoted sources as saying on Wednesday.

According to the Home Department of Balochistan, this step will be taken in view of security concerns and that the suspension will take place in eight districts of the province, including Quetta, which were declared sensitive.

Earlier, the Balochistan government announced that it had finalised security arrangements for mourning processions on 7th, 9th and 10th of Muharram.

Home Secretary Capt (retd) Hussain Durrani had said that over 5,000 policemen and 21 platoons of the paramilitary Frontier Corps (FC) would be deployed in the provincial capital alone.

Durrani had affirmed that in case the federal government directed the suspension of cellular services or imposed any other ban in Balochistan, then the provincial government would comply in letter and spirit.

The art of reading

Posted: 21 Nov 2012 06:40 AM PST



Finally being able to watch my childhood superheroes prance around the silver screen and pulverise super villains is quite an amazing feeling; one that combines wide-eyed wonder with misty-eyed nostalgia. Back in the days, when reading Marvel and DC comics was how children spent their study breaks, actually watching Thor wield the mighty Mjolnir, being able to see Hulk defeat the Abomination and hearing the Fantastic Four's Thing shout "Its clobbering time!" was not something I could have even remotely imagined. Kids today may not be able relate to the fact that television was once a novelty, that there were no computers or video games and that your voice had to travel through underground copper wire to reach the person on the other end of a, yes, land line telephone. Unbelievable but true, I assure you.

Ironically, though just about everything else has changed, the dictum that 'all good things are bad for children,' has survived the test of time and the advent of technology alike. Even then, the conventionally wise believed that reading comics adversely impacted language skills. Au contraire; while comics might have popularised the usage of slang, with me they were responsible for inculcating the habit of reading. Believe me, it was a better option than countless hours spent playing video games, which is not good either for the mind or the body.

An article promoting reading when hardly anybody reads is in itself a paradox. However, as the saying goes, when there is nothing, there is hope. Wikipedia defines literacy as the ability to read for knowledge, write coherently, and think critically about the written word. Avoiding the debate on knowledge and wisdom, there is no doubt that knowledge in any case precedes wisdom. Socrates first had knowledge to know, then the wisdom to accept that he knew nothing. And while knowledge can also be acquired through debate, reading remains the foremost way to acquire knowledge. Even then, it's not quite enough. How useful is a high literacy rate when all it means is that people are able to read and write, but are unable to think?

Nevertheless, the importance of reading can simply be gauged from the rate of advances made after the advent of the Gutenberg printing press. Minus the ability to accumulate and store knowledge in print, one can only imagine where the world might be today. The ancient practice of transmitting knowledge through word of mouth and relying upon human memory for its preservation, with all due respect to Simonides, was hardly reliable. At best, the retention of this knowledge over the intervening centuries, was mediocre and had a limited audience. Without books, Newton could hardly have stood on the shoulders of giants. As someone rightly said, reading is to writing what hearing is to speaking.

The objective today, however, is not to promote books; it is to focus on the importance of reading in general. Personally, reading from an LCD screen is tiring for the eyes and quite distracting. The advantage in reading a book is the inability to click and wander across virtual space every few seconds. Those afflicted with the nigh-incurable habit of reading on the throne, must also abhor Kindle and Nook. Of course, how the mind can fully function while one is sitting on the pot is another ageless mystery…one that shall not, at least, be resolved in these pages. Not today, anyway.

"The difference between what you are today and what you will be a year later will be the people you meet and the books you read". Apologies to the author for not giving due credit, since memory recall and Yahoo search have both failed to uncover his identity. The quote nonetheless remains a very perceptive observation. For the persistent cribber, please substitute books with the electronic device of choice.

Experience has confirmed the truism of this quote. The ability to store knowledge is irrelevant if it is never accessed. Reading feeds into knowledge which nurtures wisdom which, finally, is the key ingredient for the development of character. A friend, who loves to travel, had this brilliant insight (not that it had any practical impact on him): "no wonder the goras rule the world, anytime you see them at airports, trains or in the tube, they are reading books".  Arguably, the rise and fall of civilisations is directly associated with their patronisation of the arts and sciences.

 Great rulers were cognizant of the need to encourage immigrants in order to supplement the knowledge "hanging in the air" around the seat of power. Here I must make a somewhat serendipitous observation that, irrespective of other conjectures, the current negative attitude of the only super power towards immigrants is surely the beginning of its decline. The universal truth being, of course, that nothing in this world is permanent and everything has a downfall.

The Knowledge 'hanging in the air', in any land, is the consolidated experience, knowledge and wisdom of its inhabitants. People generally learn from observing and learning from others. Variety in what constitutes those 'others' is therefore desirable. This is the reason that cities, and not towns or villages, are the drivers of innovation and growth. Nonetheless, even in cities, productivity and innovation is directly proportionate to the receptiveness for fresh thoughts.

 Positively speaking, the information age might have eliminated the need for a physical conduit to transfer knowledge. However, since technology has yet to develop a chip which can directly be implanted in the human brain, there is still no short cut to reading.

Unfortunately, reading is a dying art, as if irrefutably evidenced by the scarcity of book stores. The critics will rightly point out that eBooks don't require physical outlets of sale, but a significant portion of the urban population don't own hand-held devices and simply downloading books does not guarantee that they will actually be read. More critically, the quality of debate on electronic fora and social media seems to confirm the conclusion that nobody reads. If a nation does not read, it will not gain knowledge and wisdom will remain at best an illusion; so how can it be expected to vote intelligently?

Having established the importance of reading by directly linking it with the nation's most passionate past time, there is still a need to destroy a few fallacies.

• First, reading fiction is not a waste of time. What is literature, if not the fiction of yesteryear? Reading the product of somebody's imagination invariable enhances one's own imagination. Don't believe me? Then just consider Albert Einstein who said "Imagination is more important than knowledge."

• An inability to perfectly retain knowledge is a common failing of the human brain, and given that the existence of a photographic memory is not scientifically evidenced, odds are you'll have to revisit what you've already read from time to time.  This is why French philosopher Roland Barthes said, "those who fail to re-read are obliged to read the same story everywhere." Also, as you yourself change, your interpretation of something you read years back will also change. Try it out if you don't believe me.

• Reading the first and last few pages of any given work does not provide the "gist of it". According to the hermeneutical circle (google it for yourself), in order to get the gist of the whole, getting the gist of the parts is essential and vice versa. Speed reading gets you nowhere and summaries prepared by others are only as good as the summary writers' own level of incompetence.

• Reading daily newspapers and weekly magazines is not enough either; in fact these also adversely impact the concentration span. Book reading, on the other hand, is pure extended pleasure. After having lost the habit of reading over the years, coming back to it was like scaling my own personal Mount Everest. The view from the literary heights was stupendous.

Perhaps someday a resourceful philanthropist might just be motivated to finance media programs focusing on book reviews or set up libraries or establish book clubs or even revive the Tea House culture amongst the elite. In the meantime, given that I'm neither wealthy nor a philanthropist, let's just keep trying.

Published in The Express Tribune, Sunday Magazine, November 18th, 2012.

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Police arrest 3 members of group involved in issuing SIMs illegally

Posted: 21 Nov 2012 05:34 AM PST



BAHAWALPUR: Police arrested three suspects on Wednesday belonging to a group allegedly involved in issuing SIMs on fake identities, Express News reported.

The Bahawalpur police conducted a raid in the city on a tip-off received from CCPO Quetta Mir Zubair, who had told him that the number used by the group involved in abducting Dr Saeed Khan for ransom was traced down to Ahmad Pur Sharkia area.

Upon the information, DPO Bahawalpur constituted an investigative team headed by SHO Bahawalpur Shafqat Ata, which arrested the suspects, identified as Imran, Ahmed and Zubair.

The police also recovered many stolen phones and SIMS which they said were issued illegally.

Earlier, the Pakistan Telecom Authority (PTA) had issued a notification to telecom operators that cellular service providers will not be allowed to sell new SIMs through franchises, customer service centres or retailers from November 30.

Service providers will also have to verify all unregistered SIMs by December 12. Unregistered ones will be blocked permanently using a 5% illegal SIMs per week formula, it adds.

PTA had also asked service providers to block the entire stock of SIMs available in the market so no SIMs can be purchased from outlets starting December 1.

Sources had said the interior ministry had issued some important directives to PTA regarding unregistered SIMs, which pose a great threat to national security.

Zulqarnain: Alexander or Cyrus?

Posted: 21 Nov 2012 04:33 AM PST



Sunday's column by Salman Rashid on Alexander as Zulqarnain/Cyrus has taught me a great deal as usual. But he has also triggered my own curiosity. Since this is a vague subject, I must assert that I do not claim to be right about anything.

We all believe that there was once a good king called Zulqarnain whom Allah made powerful on earth. The Holy Quran says (18:83-94) he travelled to where the sun set in a muddy well, after which he went east where the sun rises. He then went north where he built a wall to protect the world against Yajuj-Majuj or Gog-Magog.

Zulqarnain means man with two horns. Although an old tradition says Moses had two horns, Muslims have largely identified him with Alexander the Great. In Rome, the statue of Moses has two horns.

Firdausi in his Shahnama immortalised Zulqarnain as the just king and conqueror. He 'owns' him by making him the grandson of Darius.

Abul Kalam Azad thought Zulqarnain was Alexander. Alexander as Iskandar has always been a popular name. His wall is known as sadd-e-Iskandari. Almost all great Persian poets wrote at least one masnavi about him.

Cyrus was the great Persian king who rescued the Jews from their exile in Babylon. The king with two horns is mentioned by Prophet Daniel. He wore the two horns to indicate his control of two countries: Pars and Medea.

Zulqarnain is also a Muslim name because the Holy Quran speaks well of him. It comes from the root 'qrn' meaning horn/ head.

Arab 'qrn' appears in Greek as 'kr' and in Latin as 'krn'. The origin of the word must be Syriac from where many words have radiated to the Semitic and Indo-European group of languages.

Greek 'kr' became 'sr' since Latin had no 'k' sound. So we have rhinoceros meaning horn on the nose. The mythical horse unicorn has one horn because corn here means horn. (Note the transformation of Latin corn into horn in English.)

Firdausi

In Persian and Urdu, 'sar' means head and in Urdu-Hindi, the same word is used to indicate top end ('sira'). Our name for south Punjab, Seraiki, comes from Sindhi 'siro' meaning top end. In English, cranium for skull has the same root. Christian name Cornelius means crowned.

The musical instrument horn was first fashioned out of a horn. Another name for it is cornet. The word for head in Urdu is 'sar' but in Latin the word for head/brain is cerebrum in which the root is 'cer'.

Alexander is also a curious word. The ander part in it means man and comes from 'aner' through a grammatical change andros. We know that 'nar' in Persian and Sanskrit means man.

From aner came andros. Name Andrew means manly. Alexander means he saves men. The saving sense is conveyed in alex, which is a negative of leg meaning to join. Root 'lg' appears in lex (law) and religion. Religion binds and the word 'ligature' means bound.

The 'lg' root is the same as in Urdu-Hindi 'lag' (join) and 'alag' (separate). Alexander separated men from harm and, therefore, was saviour of men. We believe that the Holy Quran, talking of a non-Muslim favourably, gave us the permission to admire all men of other creeds who are just and wise.

PS: The Greeks call themselves Hellenes. The eastern world knew them as Ionians — now in Turkey where Troy was located — and pronounced the word correctly as 'Yunani'. Helen means Greek woman. In India, Greeks were called Yavan from Ionian and Jaunpur and Junagarh are named after them.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 21st, 2012.

Child rights commission: Agree on a draft to put before CM says adviser

Posted: 21 Nov 2012 03:31 AM PST



LAHORE: 

Adviser to Chief Minister Begum Zakiya Shahnawaz on Tuesday directed all the departments concerned and civil society to finalise a draft of the proposed child rights commission within a week.

She said she would present it before the chief minister once ready. She instructed the Social Welfare Departments, Labour Department, Child Protection and Welfare Bureau to cooperate with civil society organisations to come up with the draft.

She issued the instructions at a consultation organised by Child Rights Movement (CRM) and Actionaid to mark the day.

A press release from the organisers said the consultation was organised to discuss how to improve the conditions for the children. They regretted that none of the political parties had observed the day.

PML-Q's Amna Ulfat and PML-N's Arifa Khalid attended the consultation.

The speakers stressed the need for an independent provincial commission on children's rights. They said the commission should have the power to investigate cases of abuse and violence against children and monitor the implementation of United Nation Child Rights Convention (UNCRC).

SPARC's Iftikhar Mubarik said in 2009 a UN report had recommended an "independent monitoring structure with a mandate to regularly evaluate progress in the implementation of the Convention." He said the government had to establish such a commission.

Imdad Naqvi from CMC  urged the government to expedite relevant legislation. He said the commission would promote and protect children's rights.

Civil society representatives and government officials agreed to complete more consultations to finalise the draft of the commission within a week.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 21st, 2012.
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