Construction on world's tallest statue to begin in India

AHMEDABAD: Construction was set to begin in India on Thursday for the world's tallest statue, which will stand twice the size of the Statue of Liberty and be made out of melted-down metal and farming equipment.

The tribute to Sadar Patel, the first home minister of independent India who was nicknamed "Iron Man", is set to rise 182 metres (600 feet) from a rocky river island in western Gujarat state.

Once completed it will be the world's biggest, more than four times higher than the statue of Christ the Redeemer in Rio de Janeiro.

Opposition leader Narendra Modi, the prime ministerial candidate for the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), was to lay the foundation stone on Thursday, Patel's birthday.

He has called on farmers to donate a piece of iron for the "Statue of Unity" which will stand atop a huge stone plinth.

"I want iron pieces from your villages," Modi said in June as he launched the project at an agricultural summit. "But we do not want any piece of iron, we want pieces of iron from tools which a farmer has used in farming."

A collection drive by state officials covering nearly 700,000 villages across the country will begin after Modi lays the foundation stone in Kevadia, about 170 kilometres (105 miles) from Gujarat's biggest city Ahmedabad.

The total cost of the project is estimated at 25 billion rupees ($300 million) and will be funded with public funds and private donations, state officials say.

The collected metal will be melted down and used in the statue, which is being built by Turner Construction, the company behind the world's tallest building, the Burj Khalifa in Dubai.

The memorial has strong political undertones as it honours an independence hero who spent his life in the Congress party, Modi's main rival in national elections due by May next year.

In what is already a highly personal campaign, Modi suggested earlier this week that Patel, who is from Gujarat, would have made a better leader than India's first prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru.

This was a provocative dig at India's modern-day Gandhi political dynasty, led by Congress chief Sonia and her son Rahul, who are descended through Nehru.

The family has ruled for most of India's post-independence history. (AFP)

Asian shares slip, Fed outlook fuels taper rumours

HONG KONG: Asian markets slipped Thursday after the US Federal Reserve kept its stimulus programme unchanged but gave a rosier than expected summary of the economy which fuelled expectations it will start winding it down soon.

While the central bank's decision to keep the $85 billion-a-month scheme in place was widely expected, the upbeat outlook provided strong support for the dollar.

Tokyo shed 1.20 percent, or 174.41 points, to end at 14,327.94, Sydney eased 0.10 percent, or 5.4 points, to 5,425.5 and Seoul tumbled 1.43 percent, or 29.49 points, to 2,030.09.

In afternoon trade Hong Kong was up 0.55 percent while Shanghai was 0.67 percent off.

After a closely watched two-day policy meeting, the Fed said Wednesday it would hold steady on its bond-buying programme as it awaits further signs the US economy is strong enough to stand on its own feet.

Policymakers made no reference to the potential impact of October's government shutdown and did not hint at future plans for the stimulus.

However, analysts noted the bank did not downgrade its outlook from earlier statements, and some suggested it could begin to reel in the scheme as early as December.

"While maintaining that the economy continued to expand at a moderate pace and that housing may have slowed slightly, overall the Fed noted that downside risks have diminished," said Omer Esiner, chief market analyst at Commonwealth Foreign Exchange.

The commentary was "slightly more optimistic than expected" and "not as doveish as many had expected", Esiner added.

Investors have been keeping a close eye on the Fed's plans for the stimulus since May, when it indicated it might begin cutting down its bond purchases, sending global markets tumbling.

Tapering had been expected by the end of this year but a weak set of data -- including soft jobs growth -- and October's two-week government shutdown had made that highly unlikely.

However, the latest comments have sparked talk of such a move before January.

The dollar advanced in New York on expectations there will be less cash washing around the financial system, although it retreated slightly in early Asian trade.

The greenback bought 98.33 yen Thursday, compared with 98.52 yen in New York but well up from 98.14 yen earlier Wednesday in Tokyo.

The yen gained a measure of support from the Bank of Japan's decision to delay expanding its own stimulus programme.

The euro bought $1.3695 and 134.66 yen Thursday, against $1.3738 and 135.35 yen.

On Wall Street the three main indexes retreated on the Fed news, with the Dow and S&P also hit by profit-taking after hitting record highs in the previous session.

The Dow fell 0.39 percent and the S&P 500 declined 0.49 percent, while the Nasdaq lost 0.55 percent.

In oil trade New York's main contract, West Texas Intermediate for December delivery, slipped 30 cents to $96.47 in afternoon Asian trade. Brent North Sea crude for December dropped 33 cents to $109.53.

Gold rose to $1,336.40 at 0610 GMT compared with $1,350.42 on Wednesday.

In other markets:

Taipei fell 0.18 percent, or 15.00 points, to 8,450.06.

Chunghwa Telecom rose 0.21 percent to Tw$94.6 while Hon Hai fell 0.67 percent to Tw$74.5.

Wellington rose 0.86 percent, or 41.75 points, to 4,909.73. (AFP)

Abdul Qadir to run for PCB chairman’s post

LAHORE: Former Test cricketer and an accomplished leg spinner of his times, Abdul Qadir has announced that he will contest the election for the post of Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) chairman.

He said that no one can understand and run cricket affairs like a cricketer can.

Interior Ministry provides different answers to same terrorism question

ISLAMABAD: The Interior Ministry provided different replies to a similar question asked by two senators regarding acts of terrorism since June 2013 during Wednesday’s session.

Senators Talha Mahmood and Zahid Khan asked how many terror attacks had taken place since June 2013 and the number of people who had lost their lives or been injured in these incidents.

The reply given to Senator Zahid Khan stated that 413 terror incidents had taken place since June 2013 in which 358 people were killed.

Meanwhile, the reply received by Senator Talha Mehmood stated that 636 incidents of terrorism had taken place in which 779 people were killed.

Smartwatches abound. But who really wants one?

NEW YORK: If consumer electronics companies are to be believed, someone on your holiday shopping list is just dying for a wristwatch that displays message alerts and weather updates.

Samsung and Sony have devices out for the holidays. Qualcomm has one coming. Apple is believed to be making one, and a new report says Google is developing one, too.

Why the big push for computerized watches? It's not coming from consumers, says Jonathan Gaw, a research manager at IDC. Rather, it's a product in search of a market _and an expensive one at that.

``We've had smartwatches for a while, and while the capabilities and technology have gotten better, this is still not something that people are clamoring for,'' Gaw says. ``The idea that it would ramp up for the holidays was always kind of a stretch.''

That hasn't stopped gadget makers from trying. Companies are under pressure to create a new source of buzz now that consumers are no longer wowed by the latest smartphones and tablet computers. Many people already have those devices, and the new ones out this year are evolutionary rather than revolutionary.

Gaw says many gadget makers see an opportunity to jump in with a smartwatch, before a behemoth like Apple is able get its rumored iWatch ready.

Last month, Samsung Electronics Co. started selling the $300 Galaxy Gear in the U.S. It works with selected Samsung smartphones to display email and text alerts. There's a camera on the strap for low-resolution photos and a speakerphone on the watch to make calls while leaving your phone in the pocket. You can install apps for additional functionality, such as tracking fitness activities and playing games, though there are only a handful of apps available for now.

Sony Corp.'s SmartWatch 2 is cheaper, at $200. Unlike the Gear, it works with a variety of Android phones, not just Sony's. But it doesn't let you make phone calls directly through the wristwatch. You can answer calls using the watch, but you need a Bluetooth wireless headset linked to the phone if you don't want to hold it to your ear.

Qualcomm Inc., meanwhile, plans to start selling Toq before the holidays. It, too, will work with several Android devices.

Another smartwatch getting attention is the Pebble, which comes from a startup that raised more than $10 million through the fundraising site Kickstarter. It notifies you of incoming calls, texts and emails.

Apple isn't likely to release its iWatch before next year, given that no mention was made of it at the company's product showcase last week.

As for Google, The Wall Street Journal cited unnamed people familiar with the matter on Tuesday in reporting that the Internet search company is in late-stage development on a smartwatch which could be ready for mass production within months.

Samsung and Sony executives say they've designed their watches to give people ready access to information they would normally check on their phones, reducing the need to constantly pull out the phones.

Only Qualcomm seems to be acknowledging that there's no real consumer demand for smartwatches yet. The company says it's trying to showcase what's possible, so other manufacturers will take the concept and build better products _ using Qualcomm's display technology and other components.

In a September briefing with The Associated Press, Samsung executives said the company has a history of taking risks. The company notes that people were skeptical about its Note phones with big screens, too, but now several other manufacturers are making Android phones with bigger and bigger screens.

UN confirms polio outbreak in Syria

GENEVA: The UN health agency on Tuesday confirmed an outbreak of polio in war-torn Syria, which had been free of the crippling disease since 1999, and said it feared it would spread.

Oliver Rosenbauer, spokesman for the World Health Organization's anti-polio division, told reporters that laboratory tests had confirmed the presence of the disease in 10 out of 22 suspected cases reported in children almost two weeks ago.

All 22 children were stricken with acute flaccid paralysis, which is the symptom of a number of different diseases, including polio.

"In 10 of those cases, they've isolated wild polio virus type one," Rosenbauer said.

"The other 12 are still being investigated," he added, saying test results were expected in coming days.

Thanks to a global drive against polio, the virus is now endemic in just three countries: Afghanistan, Pakistan and Nigeria.

That has raised speculation that foreign jihadists battling President Bashar al-Assad could have brought the virus to Syria.

WHO officials declined to comment on that speculation.

But US officials said Washington was "extremely concerned by the outbreak of polio, especially in view of the decline of medical services in the humanitarian crisis in Syria."

State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki urged all sides "to allow access for polio and other needed vaccinations and other humanitarian assistance to those in need in Syria."

Rosenbauer stressed that even if polio is endemic only in three countries currently, the virus could have arrived from elsewhere.

For example, there is currently an outbreak in the Horn of Africa.

"Anybody can carry the virus, and that's the big danger as well, that it can go very, very widely," Rosenbauer told AFP.

"This is the problem with this disease: unless you eradicate it from the remaining endemic areas you are going to run the risk of seeing polio re-emerge in polio-free ones," he said, noting that outbreaks occur "time and again" around the globe.

"Countries with complex emergencies like Syria or Somalia are particularly at risk because the health systems deteriorate and immunisation levels deteriorate," he added.

The Syrian cases were clustered in the northeastern Deir Al Zour province, and all affected children are under the age of two.

"There are no additional 'hot' cases that we know of. Of course disease surveillance is now ongoing across Syria and neighbouring countries as well, to look for other acute flaccid paralysis cases," said Rosenbauer.

"We consider a single case an outbreak because you have to assume that others are infected by the disease who are not showing symptoms... By the time you find one case, the horse is out of the barn," he added.

An analysis of the genetic code of the virus is underway to try to track its source, and the result should be known by next week, Rosenbauer said.

Last week aid agencies and Syrian health authorities stepped up efforts to vaccinate 2.4 million children against polio, as well as measles, mumps and rubella.

Before the conflict began in 2011, around 95 percent of all Syrian children were vaccinated against polio.

The United Nations says that 500,000 children there have not been vaccinated against polio in the past two years.

Rosenbauer said that all the children who have caught the virus in Deir Al Zour appeared to have never been vaccinated against polio, or had not received a full course of the vaccine.

Outside Syria, vaccination campaigns which had been planned in refugee camps will have to be broadened to head off the risk of a wider outbreak, he said.

"Ideally you want to target all children under the age of five across the region," said Rosenbauer.

An estimated 115,000 people have been killed in Syria and millions driven from their homes since a brutal crackdown on peaceful pro-democracy protests in March 2011 escalated into civil war.

Of the more than two million Syrians who have fled abroad, most are in neighbouring Lebanon, Jordan, Turkey and Iraq.

Ponting 'offended' as Taylor wades into Clarke feud

SYDNEY: Former Australian captain Ricky Ponting on Wednesday said he was "offended" after Mark Taylor blasted his feud with Michael Clarke, saying it should have stayed in the dressing room.

Current skipper Clarke was reportedly furious when he learned ex-captain Ponting's autobiography, released last week, contained concerns about his then-deputy's attitude.

The book also offers an unfavourable appraisal of Clarke's ill-fated relationship with bikini model Lara Bingle, which ended in 2010 when he flew back from a tour of New Zealand to sort out his private life.

Clarke bristled at a press conference on Tuesday when asked for his reaction to Ponting's comments.

"Ricky said that did he? Well, Ricky has my number," he said.

Ponting reportedly responded that Clarke "won't read anything in the book that he wouldn't have known about himself or how I felt about it around the team".

Taylor, who was captain from 1994 to 1999 and is now a Cricket Australia director, said the players' differences should have stayed behind closed doors.

"The disappointing thing for me was that this wasn't left in the change-room and it wasn't sorted out in the change-room," he told commercial radio late Tuesday.

"Look, to me it takes two to tango -- I reckon Michael Clarke probably could have done more to appease the situation, and from what I've seen and read and heard in recent times, there's no doubt Ricky Ponting could have done more as well."

Ponting said he was offended by the accusation that he had broken the sanctity of the Australian team change room, claiming the events were already public knowledge.

"I've just given my side of it," he told a breakfast function in Perth, Australian Associated Press reported, adding that he had contacted Clarke on Tuesday and they had made up.

"I was actually really offended that Mark would come out and say that I would break what happens in the sanctuary in the change room. That's not me.

"I'm not out doing things like this to sell books," he added.

"Australian cricket is dear for me. It's been my life for 20-odd years."

Taylor said Ponting, who assumed the captaincy in 2003 from Steve Waugh, was entitled to write his book "but I'm a little sick of hearing all of it".

"I've heard all these things before. And they've happened in sides that I've played in where certain characters came in and they were different. Every change-room, no matter how good the team is going, have those differences in characters."

Taylor also wrote an autobiography but said he left out certain thoughts in the interests of the national team.

"I don't think the public needs to hear everything that goes on no matter how close a team is or how close you think all the individuals are at various times," he said.

"There are certain bust-ups at various times and they should be handled straight away, handled properly with adult conversations, and then you should move on."

In his book, Ponting, who retired from international cricket in December 2012, suggested Clarke was not a team man.

"It never worried me if a bloke didn't want a drink in the dressing room," wrote Ponting, himself a reformed boozer.

"But I did wonder about blokes who didn't see the value in sticking around for a chat and a laugh and a post-mortem on the day's play."

Bus catches fire in Andhra Pradesh, 44 dead

BANGALORE: At least 44 bus passengers were feared killed when its fuel tank caught fire in a road mishap near Palem village in the district in the early hours of Wednesday, police said.

The police said the incident occurred around 5.10am when the Hyderabad-bound private bus from Bangalore hit against a culvert, damaging its diesel tank which caught fire and the vehicle got engulfed in the blaze.

The bus, carrying 49 passengers, started from Bangalore at 11pm on Tuesday night.

The driver along with cleaner and five other passengers managed to escape, police said quoting eyewitnesses.

"It seems the bus was travelling at a high speed when its fuel tank hit the roadside culvert and caught fire. There are some causalities feared as the entire bus has been gutted," a senior police officer.

They are ascertaining the exact number of casualties, he added.

Kothakota police were further investigating the case and senior police officers have rushed to the spot.

NSA head terms spying European allies media reports false

WASHINGTON: U.S. National Security Agency Director General Keith Alexander on Tuesday told lawmakers that the recent media reports about the agency's spying on European allies are "completely false."

Top U.S. intelligence officials testified before the U.S. Congress, the first of its kind following recent media disclosures about U.S. spying on European allies, including millions of citizens in France and Spain and Germany Chancellor Angela Merkel.

"The assertions by reporters in France, Spain, Italy that NSA collected tens of millions of phone calls are completely false," said Alexander at a House Intelligence Committee hearing.

The NSA chief said such data in question came from foreign intelligence agencies and was usually gathered outside Europe.

"This is not information that we collected on European citizens, " he said, adding that the European media has misinterpreted the classified documents leaked by former U.S. defense contractor Edward Snowden.

Instead, the information represented information that the U.S. and its NATO allies have collected "in defense of our countries," he said.

Speaking at the same hearing, U.S. Director of National Intelligence James Clapper said the NSA and the U.S. intelligence community do not spy indiscriminately on citizens of any country.

"We do not spy on anyone except for valid foreign intelligence purposes," he added.

The top intelligence official also warned Congress not to overreact to the media disclosures and thus undermine counter-terrorism programs.

"We must remain mindful of the potential impact of over- correcting the authorization of the intelligence community," he said.

American allies in Europe have been in an uproar over the media reports that U.S. intelligence agencies have monitored the communications of Merkel and tens of millions of phone calls in France and Spain.

U.S. Senate Intelligence Committee Chairwoman Dianne Feinstein, one of the defenders of the U.S. intelligence surveillance programs, announced that the panel will initiate "a major review" into all U.S. intelligence programs.

Dr Zubair finds Urdu to be best medium of communication

DALLAS: The first ever Urdu poet of Arab dissent Dr. Zubair Farooq Al Arashi, who is also a musician and a writer, has said that he tried Arabic and English to be his medium of expression but since he was acquainted with Urdu he found Urdu to be the best medium of communication and that is why he use Urdu for poetry.

Talking to Geo and The News correspondent, Zubair Farooq who is from UAE and currently on his visit of Dallas, said that for the last 30 years he is saying poems in Urdu and now he is in love with this language.

He said “even in my dreams I express myself in Urdu.”

Dr. Zubair said that his fascination with Urdu poetry touches the level of madness. He said that he has written film scripts, composed musical production and recorded his own songs.

He said that he has written more than one thousand ghazals in last thirty years and thirteen volumes of his ghazals are published. He has also collected all thirteen volumes into one book which he has named "Sard Mausam ki Dhoop" (Sunlight in winter).

Responding to a question he said that he went to Dao Medical College from 1971 to 1978 for his medical school where he earned an MBBS degree. He learned Urdu there and adopted the language as his medium of expression.

Talking about his family background, he said his mother was from Arab but his father was from Yemen, though, Arabic was spoken language at his home. He said that he married five times in which four are still intact from which he has fifteen children. He said that one of his wives is from Lahore.

Dr. Zubair He said that he is linked with the profession of medicine. He said that he is still writing and a new collection of his work will be published soon.

Talking of his US tour he said that he felt glad to see that Urdu language is so loved in here, as whenever he visit US, he sees people who came from thousands of miles still love the language and traditions of their origin.

Suspected suicide bomber killed in Hyderabad explosion

HYDERABAD: A suspected suicide bomber was killed in an explosion at Hyderabad Market Liberty chowk on Tuesday.

Police said the suspect might be a suicide bomber and detonated his explosive vest in the market.

Meanwhile, a man was injured in a cracker attack at Hyder chowk. The cracker was hurled by unidentified motorcyclists.

LEAs foil bid to smuggle more than 10 KG heroin

LAHORE: Law Enforcement Agencies (LEAs) have foiled a bid to smuggle more than 10 kilograms of high quality heroin at Lahore Airport.

According to Anti Narcotics Force (ANF) sources, a vehicle carrying footballs was checked at Lahore airport. The 45 boxes of footballs were packed with more than 10 kilograms of high quality heroin.

The sources said that the seized heroin was brought from Faisalabad which was planned to be smuggled to African countries.

The agent with the car, Faisal, was also arrested, the sources added.

Congressional briefing: Victim family urges end to drone warfare

WASHINGTON: A Pakistani elementary school teacher, whose mother was killed in a US drone strike last year, Tuesday urged the United States to end unmanned operations and help bring peace to the tribal areas through cooperative efforts with Pakistan.

Rafiq ur Rehman made the plea in a joint Congressional briefing, where his children nine-year-old daughter Nabila Rehman, and 13-year-old Zubair Rehman, who were both injured by the drone strike, also recounted their emotional experiences.

The family has traveled to Washington on the invitation of Congressman Alan Grayson, a Democrat from Florida, to provide their accounts of the attack that killed Rafiq's 67-year-old mother, Momina Bibi in North Waziristan, a year ago.

Nobody has been able to explain why this drone hit his home, Rehman told the hearing, also attended by other members of Congress. His mother, Rafiq ur Rehman said, was the binding force for the family and life has not been the same for the family since her death.

He said in North Waziristan, people live under fear of drones. "Drones are not the answer" to the problems, he said, speaking through an interpreter. Justice must be delivered to those who have suffered as a result of drone attacks, the school teacher said.

The unprecedented briefing by survivors of drone hits took place amid international calls for greater transparency. Washington has defended its drone campaign, saying the counterterrorism actions are the least harmful and effective against militants.

If he has the opportunity to meet President Obama, he will ask him to "find a peaceful end to the war in my country, and end these drones," Rehman said at the briefing.

Rehman said he has seen people living peacefully in the United States and wants a similar peaceful environment in North Waziristan and dreams that his children would be able to complete their education and help rebuild Pakistan.

"We can achieve peace through education," he said. The United States and Pakistan should work together to resolve the problem, he said.

A preview from the upcoming Brave New Films documentary Unmanned: America's Drone Wars was shown at the briefing, moderated by Robert Greenwald, the documentary's director.

The lawmakers, attending the briefing, expressed their profound regrets over what had happened to the family and noted that the briefing highlighted the importance of transparency and conversation on the costs and benefits of the drone operations.

Human Rights Charity Reprieve Staff Attorney Jennifer Gibson called for bringing the drone war out of the shadows, stressing transparency.

Congressman Alan Grayson said the American drone policy was not just wrong. It is "dead wrong." He also stated, "No other country in the world does this. Certainly, Russia has their enemies, but you don't see the Russians sending drones to other countries. At this point, sending military forces to other countries is very unusual if you're talking about any other country other than the United States."

"The problem here is that people sitting here in this city in Washington, DC, are making life and death decisions over specific individuals in Pakistan and Yemen and elsewhere," added Grayson.

Rock legends The Who to stage 'last big tour' in 2015

LOS ANGELES: British rock legends The Who are to stage their "last big tour" the year after next, frontman Roger Daltrey said in comments published Tuesday, citing their advancing years.

But he told Rolling Stone magazine that the band, whose members are approaching their 70s, will continue to make music after that "until we drop."

The massive 2015 world tour "will be the last big tour," said Daltrey, while adding: "We aren't finishing after that. We intend to go on doing music until we drop.

"But we have to be realistic about our age. The touring is incredibly grinding on the body and we have to draw a line in the sand somewhere. This will be the last old-fashioned, big tour," he said.

The band -- led by 69-year-old Daltrey and rotary-armed guitarist Pete Townshend, 68 -- have spent the last year or two staging their rock opera "Quadrophenia" at shows in Europe and America.

But next year's swansong tour will focus on their hits -- including classics like "Baba O'Riley," "See Me, Feel Me" and "My Generation," with which they closed last year's London Olympic Games.

"People don't want new stuff .. Most people that want to come to a show want to hear what they grew up with. Let's not kid ourselves. We will always sell more tickets if we play the hits. That's a fact. The economics of the road, obviously, demand that you sell a lot of tickets," he said.

In 2014 they might work on a new album, he said. But after the 2015 tour they will slow down, and maybe consider single-location residency style concerts.

"Maybe that means sitting down in a theater for a couple of weeks," he says. "That means you travel to once place, but you're stationed there. You aren't touring.

"It's the touring, the schlepping, that kills you. The music is a joy. The two hours on stage every night is a joy, even though it's incredibly strenuous.

The schlepping and changing hotels every day, that can become incredibly hard work."

The Who are among a dwindling band of rock icons who came of age in the 1960s and are sill performing, including the Rolling Stones and Bob Dylan. Lou Reed, godfather of punk, died at the weekend aged 71.

Assad sacks vice premier over foreign meetings

DAMASCUS: Syrian President Bashar al-Assad sacked his vice premier on Tuesday, saying the official had been absent without leave and carried out unauthorised meetings abroad, the official SANA news agency said.

The move follows media reports that Vice Premier Qadri Jamil had met with the US pointman for Syria Robert Ford on Saturday to discuss proposed Geneva peace talks.

Pakistan chairman suspended then reinstated

ISLAMABAD: The legal tussle rocking the Pakistan Cricket Board took another dramatic twist Tuesday as the interim chairman was suspended by a court order, only to be reinstated two hours later.

A judge at Islamabad High Court suspended Najam Sethi for not obeying a legal order to elect a permanent chairman for the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) by October 18.

It was the second time in five months that the game's chief administrator in Pakistan had been thrown out on a legal challenge.

But, just two hours later, an appeals bench at the same court granted a stay order on the ruling until November 4, following an application from the PCB legal team.

Tuesday's drama was the latest round in a saga that has plunged the administration of the game, followed fanatically by millions in Pakistan, into turmoil since May.

Sethi was appointed in June after the Islamabad High Court threw out the then-chairman Zaka Ashraf over what it called the "dubious" process by which he was elected.

On Tuesday, the court suspended Sethi following a petition from a cricket official in Punjab province complaining he had ignored a court order to hold an election for the chairmanship by October 18.

"Sethi, by not holding elections, has disobeyed the court's order and he is suspended and all the matters relating to the board will be handled by PCB secretary," the court said.

Justice Munir Shaikh, a former Supreme Court judge, was named chairman of the election committee and was ordered to hold a vote for chairman by the last week of November.

But, soon afterwards, a two-judge appeals bench agreed to hold the order over until Monday, when the court will look at the matter again, PCB legal adviser Taffazul Rizvi told AFP.

Sethi took to Twitter to welcome the order.

"Isbd High Court Two Member Bench has granted STAY against Single Bench Orders. I remain Chairman PCB," Sethi tweeted.

The legal drama began after the International Cricket Council (ICC), the world governing body, demanded measures to end political interference in the sport.

The appointment of the PCB chairman has traditionally been in the gift of the Pakistani president in his role as patron of the board, and the practice was seen as highly politicised.

To follow ICC rules, Ashraf -- who had been appointed by then-president Asif Ali Zardari -- stood successfully for election to the job, but was struck down following a legal challenge which argued that the process had been flawed.

Former fast bowling star Waqar Younis last week called for a swift end to the legal wrangling, which he said was damaging cricket in Pakistan. (AFP)

Rubel claims hat-trick as Bangladesh crush New Zealand

DHAKA: Rubel Hossain claimed six wickets including a hat-trick as Bangladesh crushed New Zealand by 43 runs Tuesday in the first one-day international, leading 1-0 in the three-match series.

Rubel finished with 6-26, helping the hosts to dismiss New Zealand for 162 runs after the visitors were set a revised target of 206 runs in 33 overs in the rain-hit match at the Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium in Dhaka.

New Zealand were 82-3 in 20 overs, replying to Bangladesh's 265 all out, when rain halted the game for nearly two hours.

Needing 124 off 78 balls on resumption, Corey Anderson hit some lusty blows before Rubel turned the table with his hat-trick.

Rubel bowled Anderson, who scored 46 off 31 balls including three fours and fours sixes, before taking the wicket of Brendan McCullum and James Neesham to complete the hat-trick in his third over.

New Zealand skipper McCullum was caught by substitute fielder Shamsur Rahman while Neesham flicked a catch to wicketkeeper Mushfiqur Rahim on the leg side as Rubel became the third Bangladeshi to claim a hat-trick in a one-day international (ODI).

Rubel took the wicket of Ross Taylor before rain later added Nathan McCullum and Grant Elliot (71) to his tally, equalling the record of Mashrafe Mortaza for the best ever ODI bowling for Bangladesh.

Mashrafe, who claimed 6-26 against Kenya at Nairobi in 2006, took the catch of Elliot, the last man out for New Zealand.

The visitors conceded a defeat as Kane Williamson was unable to bat for a thumb injury.

Earlier, Mushfiqur and Naeem Islam hit half-centuries to set up Bangladesh's total after New Zealand captain McCullum won the toss and elected to field.

The pair added 154 for the fourth wicket to rescue the home side from a perilous 25-3.

Skipper Mushfiqur hit a solid 90 off 98 balls with eight fours and two sixes before he fell to Neesham.

Naeem struggled initially, taking 17 balls to get off the mark, but soon grew in confidence to hit a career-best 84 off 113 balls.

Naeem, who was picked in the starting line-up after Bangladesh were forced to leave out ailing all-rounder Shakib Al Hasan, smashed 12 fours in his fourth one-day half-century.

Tim Southee ended Naeem's innings when he forced an edge to the wicket-keeper.

Neesham and Southee were the pick of New Zealand bowlers, sharing seven wickets between them as Bangladesh lost their last five wickets for 33 runs.

Neesham claimed a career-best 4-42, while Southee returned with 3-34. (AFP)