Saraikistan News

BIGAMY SIMULTANEOUSLY
MULTAN,Oct 17th:Azhar Haideri Awan(22) son of a stage artist Kaswar Haideri who is living in two room home of 60 yards in congested walled city of Multan married to two girls on Sunday simultaneously.He is the only brother of nine sisters.Rasm-e-Henna was offerred to both brides at a time on Saturday night.He was married to his maternal cousin Humera Qasim (28) and Rooman Aslam(21)at a time with the consent of their parents.His father Kaswar Haideri said," I have saved my family from disintegration by do so,"Humera Qasim and Roomana told newsmen that they had set an unique precedence of sharing the husband and it was an astonishing and baffling news for our society where woman slaughters her husband or second wife for saving her matrimonial life and home.They said that it would be a good experiment for them.Roomana who is a graduate said Humera is her cousin and a close friend and we live together since childhood anbd He would not give her any opportunity to complain of my ill-attitude and behaviour.Razia Sultana said ," Iam giving the hand of her only daughter Humera to brother's son Azhar," Azhar's nine sisters are very happy on the arrival of two brides of their only brother.Azhar Haideri said that he was earning Rs.30,000 to 35,000 per month and he had qualified a course of "Tibb"from National Council for Tibb after Secondary level education.Kaswar Haider said that he had promised to his sister for accepting the hand of her daughter for his son when he was only 5 year old.Later his real brother Qasim Haideri forced her to accept the hand of his daughter which not possible. Consequently,he decided to accept both girls to save my family from disintegration.This marriage is a voice of the town and it was being discussed in every home these days.Mufti Hidayat ullah Pasroori, a religious scholar said,"There is no restriction for two or four marriages at a time in Islam," However Islam never allows injustice with anyone of them.The groom would have to deal with them judiciously.TV channels and newspaper gave undue coverage to this event.

FARMERS
MULTAN,Oct 17th: President of Anjuman Kashtkaran Punjab Peerzada Abdul Ali Zakir Usmani has suggested the government as well as the central bank to devise such a policy for the banks that they enter into a sort of partnership with the small farmers of flood-hit areas so that they could be able to stand on their feet again. “To make the recovery possible in those areas, the banks should finance the cultivation of crops instead of providing them loans on mark-up”, he said, adding that the partnership would be a win-win situation for the both the parties, as the money would be divided into half between them after the harvest.He said that the deteriorated condition of the growers of flood-devastated regions couldn’t be brought back with just a limited amount of loans. While the cash-stricken government is unable to finance the poor farmers on large level, so, one option is left, i.e., the commercial as well as the investment banks should come forward to finance the agricultural sector through a partnership formula. “It is very profitable investment and if banks do this they would forget to invest in industry which always get their loans written off, he added while talking to newsmen here on Sunday. He said the banks could deploy a team to check the crop condition and ensure recovery. According to the partnership formula, banks will provide expanses of water, seeds, fertilizers and insecticides to the growers. In this way growers will not get worried about paying back their loans to the banks. In this way the small farmers will not suffer the loan burden, he said, and added the banks will make more profit and show more interest to invest in next crop.He said that Rs 10,000 to Rs 12,000 is usually spent for wheat cultivation and in affected areas the expenses will increase by maximum Rs 3,000, hence, the total expense will be up to Rs 15,000.If support price is Rs 1,000 per maund the production will be 40 to 45 maund and hence total crop will earn on average Rs40,000-45,000 per acre. Wile banks total expenditure is Rs 15,000 and it will get Rs 20,000, translating into profit of Rs 5,000 per acre in five to six months along with original payment.Hence the growers will earn around Rs 40,000-45,000, which can be divided among the two partners. In this way bank will earn Rs 12,000 to Rs 15,000 per acre.Peerzada Zakir Usmani of the view that Pepsi has been in agreement with the farmers for a long time for cultivation of potato on partnership formula. Similarly Rafhan International also invests on partnership formula and provides them quality seed and all agri inputs, why doesn’t bank do this, they raised question.Usmani said that SBP has launched Rs 500 million canola cultivation scheme in 17 flood-hit districts according to it, the banks would issue loans on three per cent markup which means the bank will earn just Rs 450 per acre if it give Rs 1,5000 per acre to farmers. And if crop is damaged and farmers get defaulted the recovery would be impossible.

PPP/MEDIA
MULTAN,Oct 17th: Syed Ahmed Mujtaba Gilani MPA,younger brother of Prime Minister, Khawaja Rizwan Alam, Media coordinator to PM for South Punjab, Khurshid Ahmed Khan City President, Syed Nazim Hussain Shah MPA on Sunday lashed out at a particular media group for allegedly maligning the government and its involvement in character assassination of the party’s top leadership.Speaking at a news conference here today they said that This media group was a defaulter of Rs.6 billion and it had evaded taxes of billions of rupees. To hide its wrongdoings and corruption,it had launched a propaganda campaign against the government during the last one year. They particularly mentioned the name of a private media group allegedly involved in anti-government propaganda and character assassination of the party’s top leadership Asif Ali Zardari since he became the president and other office holders.They said ,"we have decided not to take part in any programme of this group nor respond to its questions," They said that this particular media group was doing the economic massacre of its workers by showing them employees of another private agency to escape from the implementation on wage board award.It was pressurising the Government for issuance of its dummy newspapers like "Pakistan times"Sharing details with the media, they levelled serious allegations of partiality, indecency,and violating the norms of freedom of expression.They said that thousands of news stories against the government were published and aired during the last one year.They said the TV channel of the particular group telecasted as many as 616 programmes out of which 605 were anti-President Asif Zardari while only four were against Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz chief Nawaz Sharif.They named editor, reporters, columnists and anchorpersons of the same media group for publishing news and telecasting TV programmes and also gave details of the news stories, columns, articles published and programmes telecasted against the government.They also lashed out at the PML-N officer bearers for using derogatory language about Asif Zardari and Bhutto family.
PPP DEMO
MULTAN, Oct 17th:The women provincial assembly members and a large number of activists of Pakistan People’s Party’s ladies wing Saturday staged a demonstration outside the Karachi Press Club against the management of a private TV channel for character assassination of their leaders.Adviser to Sindh Chief Minister for Information Sharmila Farooqi, MPAs Kulsoom Chandio, Rasheeda Panhwar, Rukhsana Shah and others led the protest, as women carrying placards chanted slogans against the management.Talking to the media, they said the channel’s management has launched a false propaganda against the PPP-led government and are targeting the PPP leaders.They said the government is working for strengthening democracy and development of the country but a section of media does not want to see the people’s party in government.
If the channel does not stop character assassination of our leaders, we would start a hunger strike in front of its office, they added.After the protest, the protestors marched towards the channel’s office at the II Chundrigar Road, where they continued the protest and demanded for stopping false propaganda against the PPP and its leaders.“The PPP stands for democratic values and norms, and knows the importance of democracy and firmly believes in the freedom of press,” said the information adviser, after the protest.She deplored the elements and section of press criticising President Asif Ali Zardari and condemned the media trial launched by a section of media against the PPP co-chairman.“Zardari is not only an elected head but the Supreme Commander of the forces as well, therefore, the country’s prestige and honour should be kept in mind before writing or publishing anything against him,” she added.Farooqi said the PPP can also issue advertisements against the nondemocratic elements bent upon destroying the democratic system in the country but we consider Pakistan and its image above everything.
This is our country and for strengthening Pakistan and democracy, our leaders have sacrificed their lives but our party will not indulge in such activities, she added.Earlier, Federal Haj Minster and PPP Women Wing Sindh President Shagufta Jumani condemned those involved in malicious campaign against PPP and stated that the whole drama was being staged with the objective of sabotaging democracy for which the PPP has sacrificed their lives.“It is a misconception of some TV anchors and of a section of press that through a negative campaign launched by them, they will be able to remove democratically elected president and the PPP government,” she said.“They must remember that people and elected parliament members have both reposed confidence in the president. We will complete the tenure and no one should have any doubts about that,” she exclaimed.
WATER
MULTAN: National Project Director Pakistan Council of Research in Water Resources Dr Abdul Hameed has said that 35% population of the country do not have access to safe drinking water. He was addressing a seminar held here on Saturday.
Dr Abdul Hameed said that 4.5m acre feet water was becoming polluted every year in the country due to various reasons. He said that over 6000 samples of drinking water were obtained from scattered places and tested in special labs out of them 4800 samples were found contaminated as different organic and chemical element were present in these samples.
Dust particles, bacteria, iron sulphate, sodium chloride and "Sankhia" also found in the water samples, he added. He said that the polluted water put dangerous affects on health and disturb stomach, kidneys and create bone related diseases. He also deplored that sewage water and industrial waste were also being mixed in rivers and canals, which was polluting over 4.5m acre feet water every year. Water pollution is also damaging crops, he added.
USA
MULTAN,Oct 17th: The United Nations top official on the right to food called for wholesale changes in farming methods to safeguard the environment and ensure everyone has enough to eat.
Olivier De Schutter, the UN special rapporteur on the right to food, said in a statement to mark World Food Day that there is currently “little to rejoice about,” and “worse may still be ahead.”
“Current agricultural developments are ... threatening the ability for our children’s children to feed themselves,” he said. “A fundamental shift is urgently required if we want to celebrate World Food Day next year.”
De Schutter said the emphasis on chemical fertilisers and a greater mechanisation of production was “far distant from the professed commitment to fight climate change and to support small-scale, family agriculture.” In addition, “giving priority to approaches that increase reliance on fossil fuels is agriculture committing suicide,” he said. “Agriculture is already directly responsible for 14 percent of man-made greenhouse gas emissions — and up to one third if we include the carbon dioxide produced by deforestation for the expansion of cultivation or pastures.
“As a result of climate change, the yields in certain regions of sub-Saharan Africa are expected to fall by 50 percent by 2020 in comparison to 2000 levels. And growing frequency and intensity of floods and droughts contribute to volatility in agricultural markets.” De Schutter said that pursuing the current approach would be “a recipe for disaster.” Instead there should be a global promotion of low-carbon farming, he said, adding that “agriculture must become central to mitigating the effects of climate change rather than a large part of the problem.” “Low-technology, sustainable techniques may be better suited to the needs of the cash-strapped farmers working in the most difficult environments,” De Schutter said.“They represent a huge, still largely untapped potential to meet the needs and to increase the incomes of the poorest farmers.”
Climate change and agricultural development must be thought of together, instead of being dealt with in isolation from one another, De Schutter urged.
“To do so, we need to resist the short-termism of markets and elections. Development of longer-term strategies through inclusive and participatory processes could and should clearly identify measures needed, a clear time line, and allocation of responsibilities for action.”
“What today seems revolutionary will be achievable if it is part of a long-term, democratically developed plan, one that will allow us to develop carbon-neutral agriculture and to pursue everyone’s enjoyment of the right to food through sustainable food production systems.”
The 30th celebration of World Food Day on Saturday has the slogan: “United against hunger.”
The main issues in focus are rapidly increasing demand for food commodities and changing climates that affect abilities to produce food.