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Wednesday, 8 March, 2023 I 15 Shaban, 1444 Oil industry seeks increase in credit limits
NA body recommends approval of Trademark (Amendment) Bill, 2023 Story on Back Page
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Rs 15.00 | Vol XIII No 249 I 08 Pages I Islamabad Edition
Imran’s politics worthless without ‘establishment’s crutches’: Kh Asif Story on Back Page
Those involved in ‘illegal conviction’ of Nawaz met their fate: Maryam Nawaz Story on Back Page
Parliamentarian’s ‘anoTher relief’: ihC suspends Tax Directory 2020 imran’s arresT warranTs Till mar 13 to be published g
court directs pti chief to appear Khan has missed three hearings in before district and sessions islamabad court due to injuries he court in toshaKhana case got during assassination attempt g
ISLAMABAD
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Staff RepoRt
he islamabad high court (ihc) on tuesday suspended till march 13 the non-bailable arrest warrants issued against pti chairman imran Khan by a district and sessions court in the toshakhana reference. ihc chief justice aamer farooq announced the verdict after it was reserved earlier in the day. the court also directed the pti chief to appear before the district and sessions court on march 13. the 70-year-old ex-premier, who has been recovering from a gunshot injury from an assassination attempt in Wazirabad last year, has thrice skipped indictment hearings in an islamabad sessions court in the case. he is accused of concealing, in his assets declarations, details of the gifts he retained from the toshakhana — a repository where presents handed to government officials from foreign officials are kept. in a petition filed in the ihc today, imran prayed that the sessions court’s feb 28 and march 6 orders be set aside so that he could have a “fair opportunity” to appear in court and
defend himself. ihc chief justice aamer farooq, who is hearing the case, had given Khan’s legal team 30 minutes to inform the court about when the former prime minister will appear before them. Khan has missed three indictment hearings in an islamabad sessions court, as he continues to recover from an assassination attempt in Wazirabad last year. the case centres on a government department known as toshakhana — which during the mughal era referred to the treasure
houses kept by the subcontinent’s princely rulers to store and display gifts lavished on them. government officials must declare all gifts to the cabinet division, but are allowed to keep those below a certain value. more expensive items must go to toshakhana under the administrative control of the cabinet division, but in some cases, the recipient can buy them back at around 50 percent of their value — a discount Khan raised from 20 percent while in office. the ruling coalition of the pak-
Pakistan improves risk score on global anti-money laundering index ISLAMABAD MuhaMMad Raafay Khan
the basel anti-money laundering (aml) index, a leading independent ranking of money laundering and terrorist financing (ml/tf) risks around the world, has acknowledged the progress made by pakistan by slightly lowering the risk score of the country. “pakistan’s overall money laundering and terrorist financing risk score in the earlier basel aml index was 6.16. this places it in the medium-risk category compared to other global jurisdictions. in the latest update of the expert edition, which is updated quarterly with the latest data, the risk score is slightly lower at 6.11,” said the basel aml index briefing on pakistan. pakistan achieved the fol-
lowing scores in the latest fatf assessments: 3% for effectiveness and 72% for technical compliance based on the basel aml index methodology and calculations; pakistan’s score on the fatf indicator alone is 7.38 – a high risk compared to the global average. pakistan was first added on the financial action task force’s (fatf) grey list from 2012–2015. it was included on the grey list again in june 2018 as its deficiencies in some technical areas were considered a serious threat to the global financial system. these deficiencies covered many areas: legal, financial, regulatory, investigations, prosecutions, judicial and the non-governmental sector. the decision to add pakistan to the grey list was taken before the results of its mutual
evaluation report (mer) were published. the mer was published in october 2019 and revealed poor performance in both effectiveness (3%) and in technical compliance (39%). during the last four years, pakistan has had two action plans to address these deficiencies, comprising in total 34 points. 27 points were included in the 2018 action plan and 7 points were added in 2021. the action plans were sweeping and included requirements to improve almost all areas of money laundering and terrorist financing (ml/tf) compliance and effectiveness, including a specific focus on tf risks. pakistan also had to maintain a database of terrorists and terror groups operating on its territory and the actions taken against them.
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Afghan delegation due in Pakistan, says Khawaja Asif ISLAMABAD Staff RepoRt
defence minister Khawaja asif on tuesday said an afghan delegation was expected in pakistan soon in continuation of talks related to various issues including regional security and counter-terrorism measures. the minister’s statement comes more than a week after a high-level pakistani delegation, led by asif, visited Kabul to meet with officials of the afghan interim government to discuss a variety of issues from security to bilateral cooperation. the two sides had specifically discussed the growing threat of terrorism in the region, particularly from the banned militant groups tehreek-i-taliban pakistan (ttp) and islamic state Khorasan province (isKp), in the high-level talks. “pakistan and afghanistan are neighbours and
should have cordial relations. the islamic emirate of afghanistan wants expansion of commercial and economic relations with pakistan as such relations are in the interest of both countries,” the official statement from afghanistan had said on february 22. afghanistan’s acting deputy prime minister mullah baradar had noted that political and security issues should not affect trade and economic matters between the two countries and be kept separate from political and security problems. addressing a press talk in islamabad today, asif emphasised that the afghan territory must not be used by terrorists, especially in light of the agreement signed in doha. “We asked them to honour the accord and they agreed to our request,” the minister added.
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Ramazan package: PM announces free flour for underprivileged ISLAMABAD: in a bid to provide relief to the poor, prime minister (pm) shehbaz sharif on tuesday announced a special ramazan package providing free flour to ‘underprivileged masses’. according to a statement, the package was approved at a meeting chaired by pm shehbaz sharif in lahore. caretaker chief minister punjab mohsin raza naqvi, the secretary food and other senior officials attended the meeting. chief secretary punjab Zahid akhtar Zaman and finance secretary mujahid sherdil briefed the prime minister about the ramazan package. the package is first of its kind aimed at facilitating the poor population. speaking on the occasion, the prime minister said after its launch in punjab, the federal government would extend cooperation to provinces to replicate the programme. the premier directed the authorities concerned to complete the comprehensive strategy for the supply of free flour to poor families as soon as possible. Staff RepoRt
istan democratic movement (pdm) parties has for months alleged Khan and his wife, bushra maneka, received lavish gifts worth millions during trips abroad. they included luxury watches, jewellery, designer handbags and perfumes. Khan was expected to be indicted on february 28, but his lawyer requested an exemption from the hearing, as he was scheduled to appear in several other courts. following two deferred indictments, the judge issued arrest warrants and adjourned the hearing until march 7. at the outset of the hearing, imran’s lawyers — ali bukhari and Qaiser imam — urged the court to cancel the pti chief’s arrest warrants. however, the court remarked that the warrants were not issued for arrests but to frame charges against imran in the toshakhana case. “You appear in court for the framing of charges and then request for an exemption,” justice farooq said. “the law is the same for everyone. What can the court do? “the court has to adopt a legal procedure,” he stressed, saying that imran had to appear in the sessions court today but he did not.
after Dar’s nod profIt report
despite the passage of two months, the federal board of revenue (fbr) is still waiting for finance minister ishaq dar’s approval to launch the parliamentarian’s tax directory. profit learnt that the federal cabinet had directed the bureau to finalise the matter earlier in january whereas the fbr has not made any progress in this regard as it continues to wait for a green signal from the finance minister before launching the tax directory, a process it claims will take no more than three days once approved. to recall, the fbr in january 2022 had launched the parliamentarian’s tax directory of 2019 and the department has yet to public details of parliamentarians of 2020, 2021 and 2022. the fbr first published a parliamentarian’s tax directory in tax year 2013. since then, it has proved to be an integral part in the board’s attempts at showcasing transparency in tax governance. the tax directory provides tax details of all members of the senate, national assembly (na) and the provincial assemblies. the directory includes the name, cnic, constituency, normal income, presumptive income, agricultural income, income tax paid, and the share of tax paid by association of persons (aops) which the taxpayer has listed. discrepancies in the tax records of parliamentarians has led to various political campaigns in the past. associated with the tax directory 2020, are important cases, including the toshakhana reference against the pti leader imran Khan.