sunday, 25 december, 2022 i 1 Jamadi us sani, 1444 i rs 15.00 | vol Xiii no 176 i 12 Pages i Karachi edition
Imran says couldn’t cleanse country of corruptIon due to Bajwa-ppp deal g
says ‘regiMe chaNge’ MeaNt to hurt Pti but iNstead eNded uP boostiNg Party’s PoPuLarity
LAHORE
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staff report
orMer prime minister and Pti chairman imran Khan on saturday alleged that former army chief gen (retd) Qamar Javed bajwa had a “deal” in place with PPP chief asif Zardari and sindh chief Minister Murad ali shah, citing it as the reason why corruption could not be rooted out during his government. speaking to journalists at his Zaman Park residence in Lahore, imran Khan termed the alleged deal as the reason why accountability of the corrupt could not reach a logical conclusion. Khan claimed that initially, gen (retd) bajwa did not oppose his anti-corruption drive to hold culprits accountable “but
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says PML-N, PPP did Not have aNy receiPt of foreigN fuNdiNg they received
eventually asked me to focus on the economy and to move away from accountability”. imran said that when the Pti was in power, the National accountability bureau (Nab) was under gen (r) bajwa’s control. “there is no rule of law. only the powerful rule this country,” he asserted. “We found out during the last year of my government’s tenure that gen bajwa does not want accountability to take place,” imran alleged, adding that he would’ve “cleansed” the entire country of corruption had he had an “appropriate” army chief in place. the former prime minister said that the “regime change operation” was supposed to hurt the Pti but it instead ended up boosting the party’s popularity. “gen bajwa kept thinking that the [sur-
prise] rise of Pti will soon be over but that did not happen.” imran alleged that the election commission of Pakistan (ecP) was under the control of the establishment too. responding to a question pertaining to the prohibited foreign funding case, imran said the PPP and PML-N did not have any receipt of the foreign funding received by them whereas Pti has data of 40,000 donors. “supreme court directed the foreign funding cases of all the political parties should be heard together,” he recalled, adding it did not happen. talking about the prevailing political situation, the former PM said that he would not tarnish the trust of the public for the sake of power. “i will not strike any deal to form a government again,” asserted Khan. imran predicted that general elections will take place around March-april, adding that his party’s MNas will visit the National assembly on Monday to confirm their resignations. he said that the Pti is entering into an alliance with Pakistan Muslim League-Q (PML-Q) because they have supported the Pti. Mass Mobilization drive: Pti issues schedule of rallies till Jan 16: Pakistan tehreek-e-insaf (Pti) on saturday issued a well-planned schedule of its new round of public rallies in various parts of the country in connection with mass mobilization campaign. according to the detail, Pti would start holding rallies from Multan, Lahore, faisalabad and rawalpindi on december 25 and last rally of this round would be held in sargodha on January 16. Pti local leadership and public at large would participate in the rallies across.
fbr hikes number of automotive parts protected by additional customs duty g
More iteMs added to sro iN bid to sPur LocaLiZatioN pROfit REpORt Daniyal ahmaD
the federal board of revenue (fbr) passed statutory regulatory orders (sro) 2242(i)/2022 on december 12th to expand the list of automotive parts outlined in sro 693 (i)/2006 upon which additional customs duties are levied. the decision is in compliance with the current overarching governing framework of Pakistan’s automotive industry; auto industry development and export Policy (aideP 2021-26) which stipulates that the aforementioned sro 693 be updated twice a year, to promote the local assembly of automotive parts in Pakistan. sro as mentioned earlier stands for statutory regulatory orders which covers all kinds of government regulations carried out by fbr and different ministries through delegated powers. these include sros in the health sector, in taxes, in commerce, in energy, in the auto sector, among others. sro 693, alongside sros 655 and 656 form the policy framework that Pakistan adopted after moving from its deletion Program/compulsory Localization Policy to the tariff based system in 2006 as part of its World trade organisation membership. the aforementioned sros cumulatively comprise the overarching mechanism for levying duties upon automotive imported parts. Parts not listed in sro 693 are ineffect exempt from additional cus-
toms duties. the fbr’s decision to expand the list means that, henceforth, these parts will have a higher incidence of total duties levied upon them. “the items included in sro 693, if imported, attract a higher rate of customs duty. this becomes an advantage for the companies to localize those parts as localization becomes more feasible” says asim ayaz, general Manager (Policy) at the engineering development board. a total of 23 headings in Pakistan’s customs codes have been amended for the regulatory changes. twenty headings falling under appendix i have been amended with the remaining three falling under appendix ii. the increased duties aim to encourage automotive companies to localise their value chains by driving up the costs that they incur from importing the parts. the aideP envisions automotive companies would aim to circumvent higher costs by relying on local suppliers, and thereby spur the manufacturing of that particular part within Pakistan. “the recent legislation is a move in the right direction, as it tilts towards higher localization. the Pakistan association of auto Parts & accessories Manufacturers (PaaPaM) has played a key role in convincing authorities to promote the local manufacture of a higher number of auto parts, through technology transfer with the support of parent companies of local car assemblers,” says Munir bana, chairman, PaaPaM.