Pakistan Will Rule The Cricket World?

LONDON: Pakistan have succeeded in reaching the semi-finals of the World Twenty20 Cup 2009 as they won two of the three games in the Super Eights stage. After losing to Sri Lanka, they defeated New Zealand and Ireland to book their place in the semi-finals.

Pakistan captain Younus Khan believes that Pakistan will be crowned World Twenty20 champions. He says that they now have the right mixture of experience and youth to see them through.

Pakistan were runners-up to their bitter rivals India at the 2007 World Twenty20 tournament. This time, cricket lovers cannot see them contest again for the title as Indians have been knocked out of the tournament after being defeated by the West Indies and England in their Super Eights matches.

Punjab Industries Slam Gas Rationing Schedule

LAHORE: Gas rationing in Punjab has created panic in almost all the industrial sectors of the province with pharmaceutical sector fearing shortage of essential drugs, textile entrepreneurs expressing inability to execute export orders and steel product manufacturers warn of abnormal increase in construction cost, industrialists said on Tuesday.

The Sui Northern Gas Pipelines Limited (SNGPL) informed industries in Punjab that there would be no gas supplies to the textile sector for two days a week and for all other industries thrice a week. While industries in other three provinces have been insulated from sharing gas shortages due to stay orders given by their respective high courts, the entire burden of gas shortage in the country has fallen on Punjab.

Other provinces have constitutional right to first use of their natural resource under the constitution, while Punjab does not produce any gas.

Industrialists appealed the government that in the period of acute gas shortage the productive sectors should be given top priority because millions of jobs are linked to sustained production in the industries.

Atif’s Facebook Page has Highest Daily Growth

KARACHI: An unofficial but most popular Facebook blog named “All Facebook“, lists Atif Aslam’s official fan page on the top in a list of fan pages with highest daily growth.

The page now also has over a million fans which is a milestone that has never been achieved by any other Pakistani celebrity.

Atif’s Facebook management reacted in following words: We are very excited to announce that this page, the official page of Atif Aslam on Facebook has been named the “No. 1″ fan page on Facebook based on “Daily Growth”. A website that manages all the statistics of Facebook released its latest scoreboard and our page has been named the number 1 page on the entire Facebook based on daily growth.

Saudi King Expresses Support for Mubarak

 DUBAI: Saudi King Abdullah has expressed support for Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak in the face of massive protests, the official Saudi Press Agency (SPA) said on Saturday.

It said King Abdullah phoned Mubarak after days of massive anti-government protests in which demonstrators called for the Egyptian president to step down.

"No Arab or Muslim can tolerate any meddling in the security and stability of Arab and Muslim Egypt by those who infiltrated the people in the name of freedom of expression, exploiting it to inject their destructive hatred," SPA quoted King Abdullah as saying.

"As they condemn this, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and its people and government declares it stands with all its resources with the government of Egypt and its people," the agency added.

Regional powerhouse Saudi Arabia is the world's largest oil exporter and the birthplace of Islam. Both Saudi Arabia and Egypt are key regional allies of the United States.

The agency said Mubarak assured the elderly king that everything was under control in Egypt.

King Abdullah is recovering from surgery in the United States after a blood clot complicated a slipped disc.

US Calls for Immediate Release of Davis

 ISLAMABAD: The United States on Saturday called for immediate release of the US citizen Raymond Davis, allegedly involved in killing of two local citizens in Lahore, saying he was being nlawfully detained by authorities, according to US embassy in Islamabad.

"When detained, the US diplomat identified himself to police as a diplomat and repeatedly requested immunity under the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations," it said in a statement.

It added, "Local police and senior authorities failed to observe their legal obligation to verify his status with either the US consulate general in Lahore or the US embassy in Islamabad".

PCB Set to Retain Afridi as Skipper for World Cup

 

 KARACHI: Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) chairman Ijaz Butt, in all likelihood, will announce Shahid Afridi as the captain of the Pakistan team for the upcoming World Cup although some players are backing Misbah-ul Haq as the leader.

According to sources, Butt has decided to now stick with Afridi as captain although there is still a divided opinion about the fact that some consider Misbah to be a better choice.

The scales seemed to have heavily tilted in favour of Afridi after the dashing batsman smashed 65 off only 25 deliveries during Pakistan's series levelling win against New Zealand on Saturday.

"Butt has come to the conclusion after discussing the captaincy issue with the team management and others that it would be unwise to change the captain at such a stage and since Afridi has been the ODI captain since late 2009," a source indicated.

He said the board would most likely end the captaincy debate by announcing the captain in next 24 hours.

There was plenty of debate in the cricketing circles after the PCB announced the World Cup squad of 15 players last month but did not name the captain.

Many former players consider Afridi to be too temperamental to be given the responsibility of captaining in the World Cup and others warning against changing the captain at such a late stage.

Former Pakistan captain, Shoaib Malik has also added his voice to the captaincy debate supporting Afridi.

"I don't think it is a good move to change the captain now. Since Afridi has been leading the team for the last year, it makes no sense to change him now," Malik said. "Changing captains frequently has already damaged the team in the past."

Farzana Becomes Faizan After Surgery

RAHIMYAR KHAN: In what has come as a startling story, Farzana, a female aged 18, turned into a male after undergoing a surgery and became Faizan Ali, Geo News reported Monday.

According to details, 18-year old Farzana who is a student of Zahir Pir Madressa, got sick and taken to Shaikh Zaid Hospital where she underwent a minor operation. Later, she had some medical tests done on her which showed positive signs of gender change from female to male.Farzana is now on her way to become Faizan Ali after a final surgery to be carried out on Tuesday.Munir Ahmed, the father of Faizan Ali, earlier had two daughters and three sons. He is now happy to have become father of four sons after one of his two daughters became a male.