HomeWe say welcome to all the students who are preparing to appear in future competitive examinations. We have realized that there should be a platform where we can share knowledge as much as possible for the General Knowledge papers. Knowledge will be shared here from the prestigious news papers of the country to assist the students in preparation for the Current Affairs and Pakistan Affairs papers. I hope that this platform will help you as much as possible. Moreover this platform is a great source of study for the students who are doing work/jobs...

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Editoral-Development of human resource By Anwar Syed

EYOND the coal fields of Sindh and mineral wealth in Balochistan, ours is a country of shortages. Its most precious resource is said to be its population of over 170 million people.They are endowed with all kinds of talent, some of which is already at work, but much of it is hidden, like diamonds underground, waiting to be taken out, cleaned, cut and polished. In other words, these people have to be educated and kept in good health. The requisites of health are not complicated, but we have to figure out what kind of education they are to have....

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Editoral-Taliban switch tactics By Richard Norton-Taylor

RITISH marines deployed in Sangin in southern Afghanistan, where British troops have suffered a high rate of casualties in recent weeks, are facing a growing threat from long-range rifle fire as Taliban fighters change their tactics. Brig George Norton, deputy commander of British and US forces in Helmand province, said that the marines will be reinforced by a contingent guarding the nearby Kajaki dam. The unit will be replaced by US troops. More than 800 British troops are based in Sangin, a strategic crossroads in central Helmand where four marines...

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Editoral-Capital self-rule-Dawn Editorial

There is a valid reason why the federal government should heed calls, as those made by participants in a seminar held in the capital recently, to introduce the local government system in Islamabad. For a decade now, since political power was devolved to the grass roots in the country, the over one million citizens of Islamabad have been denied their right to a similar system. They could not vote in the first and second LG elections. Denying them this right again will have a negative impact on citizens’ lives in terms of service delivery, particularly...

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Editoral-Unacceptable infighting-Dawn Editorial

Pakistan is listed as a water-stressed country and is fast approaching the scarcity threshold. A substantial portion of the problem lies in irrational use in the field of agriculture, the demands of a burgeoning population and the near absence of integrated water management. As such the water shortage in the country is partly a crisis of our own creation. Of late, however, an already dire situation seems to have been rendered even more critical by the construction of Baglihar Dam in Indian-administered Kashmir in apparent violation of the Indus...

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Editoral-Afghan puzzle-Dawn Editorial

Admiral Mike Mullen travels to Afghanistan and Pakistan; generals Kayani and Pasha are headed towards Kabul — in the midst of the flurry of high-level visits in the region, the strategic incoherence seems to keep growing. Afghanistan is an odd puzzle at the moment. While the American troops on the ground are armed with a COIN strategy, the policymakers in the US are questioning the wisdom of the strategy in the first place and troops on the ground in Afghanistan are chafing against the restrictions that COIN imposes in terms of militarily engaging...

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Editoral-Rival claims to Nile waters By Xan Rice

FOR a decade nine states in the Nile basin have been negotiating on how best to share and protect the river in a time of changing climates, environmental threats and exploding populations. Now, with an agreement put on the table, talks have broken down in acrimony. On one side are the seven states that supply virtually all the Nile’s flow. On the other are Egypt and Sudan, whose desert climates make the Nile’s water their lifeblood. “This is serious,” said Henriette Ndombe, executive director of the intergovernmental Nile Basin Initiative, established...

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Editoral-Environmental fiction By Syed Rizwan Mahboob

IT was some time in July 1992 when heavy rains poured for nearly 40 hours flooding upper Punjab. Spillways had to be opened to save dams as massive quantities of water roared through the rivers. As the torrential rains ended, a survey by the forest department identified 17 fresh landslides in Murree tehsil. Contrary to environmental fiction, 14 of these landslides occurred in areas which had good forest cover. An explanation was needed — which came after a three-week scouting period in Murree and Kotli Sattian. The feature that was common to these...

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Editoral-Travesty of fake degrees By Q. Isa Daudpota

IT was in 2003 that I interviewed two persons (one with a Bachelor’s degree and the other with a doctorate) for a faculty position at a new university in Lahore. The unusual names of the universities prompted me to check them on the Internet and my suspicions were vindicated. The person with the doctorate claimed that he had flown over to London from Canada to do some required practical computer work for six weeks at the American University in London. An Internet search quickly led me to look at its connections in Pakistan. Looking deeper led to...

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Editoral-Lost territory By Hajrah Mumtaz

GIVEN that Pakistan presents not only a daunting but even an actively hostile environment for the arts, one is thankful that the people who employ culture to beat back obscurantism are soldiering on. In a country where bombings and targeted attacks are now the norm, which is a frontline state against the war on terror and fighting a hydra-headed insurgency within its borders, it would perhaps seem unlikely that cultural activities of various sorts continue to exist. In Lahore, Karachi and Islamabad, the scene at first glance appears alive and kicking,...

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Editoral-Lost territory By Hajrah Mumtaz

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Editoral-Lost territory By Hajrah Mumtaz

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Interim govt in Kyrgyzstan moves to legitimise rule

OSH (Kyrgyzstan), June 27: Kyrgyzstan on Sunday voted in favour of a new constitution, its interim leader announced, in a referendum marked by a mass turnout held just two weeks after ethnic clashes killed hundreds. The constitution establishes a parliamentary democracy in Kyrgyzstan and its adoption was crucial for legitimising the new authorities who took power after the popular April uprising that toppled former president Kurmanbek Bakiyev. The interim government pressed ahead with the vote despite horrific clashes between minority Uzbeks and...

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‘Tectonic rift’ in relations between US, Israel: reports

JERUSALEM, June 27: Relations between the US and Israel have undergone a huge shift amounting to what Israel’s ambassador to Washington has termed “a genuine tectonic rift”, according to media reports. Briefing officials at the foreign ministry last week, Ambassador Michael Oren described the state of ties between Israel and its closest ally as worse than a crisis, something akin to that of two continents drifting apart. According to one diplomat quoted by the Haaretz daily on Sunday, Oren used bleak terms to explain the changes taking place under...

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G20 looking for deal on cutting deficits by 2013

TORONTO, June 27: G20 leaders on Sunday closed in on a deal to slash national deficits within three years, aiming to narrow divisions among world powers on how best to nurture a fragile global economic recovery. The heads of the world’s major industrialised powers agreed to what they dubbed “growth-friendly deficit reduction” proposals, to be applied on a country-by-country basis, bowing to concerns from emerging nations. Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper told his G20 counterparts there was a “tightrope that we must walk to sustain recovery,”...

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Missing people not in US custody, says minister

SLAMABAD: Interior Minister Rehman Malik said on Sunday the government was clueless about missing people, but claimed that the US had no role in their disappearance. “I can assure you that missing persons are not in Americans’ custody,” the minister was quoted as saying by relatives of some of the missing people who had met him at the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) headquarters on his invitation. Mr Malik said he had no information regarding the whereabouts of the missing people and announced Rs5 million reward for information about them, especially...

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Talks with Taliban should begin soon: UK army chief

LONDON, June 27: Britain’s army chief said on Sunday that talks with the Taliban should begin “pretty soon” as part of the exit strategy for international forces in Afghanistan, adding that this was his “private view”. “If you look at any counter-insurgency campaign throughout history there’s always been a point at which you start to negotiate with each other, probably through proxies in the first instance, and I don’t know when that will happen,” General David Richards, chief of the general staff, told BBC radio. Stressing it was “purely a private...

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Kidnapped FC colonel, two others freed

KARACHI, June 27: A lieutenant-colonel of Frontier Corps and two other men kidnapped from the Super Highway early last month were freed by the Anti-Violent Crime Cell (AVCC) of police and the Citizens-Police Liaison Committee (CPLC) which launched a joint operation on Sunday. Addressing a press conference at Governor’s House, CPLC chief Ahmed Chinoy said one of the suspected kidnappers had been killed and two others arrested during a raid on a farmhouse in Sakran early in the morning. He said the hostages had been kept at different places over...

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F-16s can be used against any adversary: PAF chief

SHAHBAZ AIR BASE (Jacobabad): The Chief of the Air Staff, Air Chief Marshal Rao Qamar Suleman, has said there is no restriction on the use of newly-acquired F-16 combat aircraft against any adversary. “Our mission is to maintain peace in the region with honour, but if the primary effort fails we will use all our assets, including these aircraft, to defend our country against any internal or external threats,” he said. The air chief was talking to reporters at the newly upgraded Shahbaz Air Base on Sunday after a ceremony held to mark the formal...

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FROM THE PAPER > FRONT PAGE

WASHINGTON: CIA Director Leon Panetta said on Sunday he was aware of Pakistan’s efforts to help negotiate a deal between the Haqqani network and the Afghan government but did not see a real desire among the militants to seek reconciliation. Earlier in the day, Al Jazeera television reported that Afghan President Hamid Karzai had held face-to-face talks with Sirajuddin Haqqani, leader of a major anti-government faction. But official sources told Dawn in Islamabad on Sunday that there had been no meeting between President Karzai and Mr Haqqani. The...

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Refineries and OMCs to fix monthly prices

ISLAMABAD: While protecting the guaranteed tariff for movement of diesel through pipeline, the petroleum ministry has decided to allow refineries and oil marketing companies to fix monthly prices of petroleum products despite opposition to the move by the Planning Commission, Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority (Ogra) and members of an experts’ committee. According to a fresh summary, the ministry has also decided to allow refineries to charge 7.5 per cent deemed duty on locally produced diesel and kerosene, similar to the customs duty permissible...

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