Issuu

Monday, 12 April, 2021 I 28 Shaban, 1442 I Rs 40.00 I Vol XI No 284 I 48 Pages I Islamabad Edition

Pakistan records highest daily covid-19 deaths since last June g

CONfIrMeD COvID-19 CASeS SUrGe PAST 721,000 g ChINeSe OffICIAL SAyS TheIr vACCINeS INDICATe LOwer effICACy islamabad

staff report

S Pakistan is struggling to contain the third wave of Covid19, the country reported 5,050 new Covid-19 cases over the last 24 hours, bringing the total number of confirmed cases to 721,018, the National Command and Operation Center (NCOC) said on Sunday. Sindh has been the worst hit with 268,750 cases followed by Punjab where 248,438 people have been tested positive, the NCOC said in a statement. A total of 114 people died across the country during the last 24 hours, raising the death toll to 15,443, the official statement said, adding that 4,143 patients are being treated in hospitals across the country. The government launched the vaccination for the general public in March, starting with older people. It is currently offering free doses to frontline healthcare workers and people over the age of 50, but the drive has thus far been slow. The authorities are also grappling with a high degree of vaccination hesitancy among the people, even among

health workers. CHINA SAYS SHOTS’ EFFECTIVENESS LOW: The government has so far relied on donations and purchases from China. however, in a rare admission of the weakness of its vaccines, a top Chinese disease control official said that their effectiveness is low and the government is considering mixing them to give them a boost. Chinese vaccines “don’t have very high protection rates,” said the director of the China Centers for Disease Control (CCDC), Gao fu, at a conference Saturday in the southwestern city of Chengdu. Beijing has distributed hundreds of millions of doses in other countries, including Pakistan. “It’s now under formal consideration whether we should use different vaccines from different technical lines for the immunisation process,” Gao said. The effectiveness rate of a coronavirus vaccine from Sinovac, a Chinese developer that produced the CanSino vaccine, at preventing symptomatic infections has been found to be as low as 50.4 per cent by researchers in Brazil. By comparison, the vaccine made by

Pfizer has been reported to be 97 per cent effective. Beijing has yet to approve any foreign vaccines for use in China, where the coronavirus emerged in late 2019. MESSAGES AND MEASURES TO CURTAIL PANDEMIC: Urging the people to strictly follow standard operating procedures to stop the spread of the virus, Prime Minister Imran Khan has said on more than one occasion that the third wave

of Covid-19 is extremely dangerous in comparison to the previous two waves. “we have so far been protecting our people. we are not imposing a complete lockdown or closing our factories. we are only imposing minor restrictions so that this wave does not spread rapidly. But if this spreads, it will have a very negative impact and we will be forced to take steps,” he said in a recent interactive session with the public.

PPP decides to continue with PDM without resigning from assemblies g

PPP NOT TO ALLOw PML-N, JUI-f TO hIJACK OPPOSITION ALLIANCe

GILLANI’S Offer TO reSIGN AS SeNATe OPPOSITION LeADer reJeCTeD

KaRaCHi MIaN aBrar

Central executive Committee (CeC), the top decision-making body of the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) on Sunday decided to continue its association with the opposition alliance, Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM), and said that it would neither part ways with the opposition alliance nor it would tender resignations from the assemblies. well-informed sources in the PPP told Pakistan Today that the CeC jointly chaired by Asif Ali Zardari and Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari at Bilawal house decided that rather than parting ways from the PDM, the party

would expose those who wanted to break the PDM. “As a mainstream opposition

party, the PPP will not allow the PMLN and JUI-f to hijack the PDM. The PPP is part and parcel of the PDM,

and it would remain in control of the opposition alliance. why allow the PML-N and JUI-f while the PPP is the main force of the PDM,” the sources said and added that if the PPP is out of the PDM, negative forces would hijack the opposition alliance. According to sources, Zardari attended the CeC meeting via videolink due to his ailment. The meeting discussed the PDM's proposal for resignations from the assemblies, as well as future opposition strategies. According to sources, the CeC also discussed the show-cause notice issued by the PDM and Bilawal read out the notice issued by Shahid Khaqan Abbasi.

CONTINUED ON PAGE 05

HBL PSL 6 to resume on June 1

islamabad staff report

The PCB will outsource the management of its bio-security protocols to an international firm when the sixth season of the PSL resumes in June. The dates for the resumption have now been finalised, with the league

restarting on June 1 and the final scheduled for June 20. Twenty matches remain, with all of them to be played in Karachi. The season was curtailed last month after an outbreak of Covid-19 among a number of players made its continuation untenable. That came after a number of incidents

raised questions about the security and implementation of the protocols put in place for the tournament; those were protocols that were in turn devised and put in place by the board’s medical panel. Dr Sohail Saleem, the head of that panel, is being released after his resignation, which he had submitted in the wake of the curtailment, was accepted. An independent two-person fact-finding commission has since compiled a report and made a series of recommendations that the PCB’s board of governors discussed in detail in a meeting on Saturday. The board of governors (BoG) “expressed their disappointment at the failures that were highlighted in the report and advised remedial actions needed to be taken”, a PCB release said. “The BoG endorsed all recommendations of the fact-finding panel, including robust and stringent imple-

mentation of the protocols, as well as maintaining a zero-tolerance approach towards all those who breach the Covid-19 SOPs, which are put in place for safeguarding the health and safety of all participants,” it said. The PCB is now close to appointing an international firm that, the release said, “specialises in providing Covid-safe technology solutions, biosecure monitoring & management, as well as response and reaction to positive tests”. A mandatory seven-day quarantine period will be in place for all players and staff that will begin from May 22. Teams will have three days of training before the season resumes on June 1 with the Lahore Qalandars taking on the Islamabad United. All matches will be played at the National Stadium, with two match days of double-headers.

CONTINUED ON PAGE 05

To counter the deadly third wave, the authorities have recently taken several measures by banning all kinds of both indoor and outdoor mass gatherings, closing educational institutions in some areas of the country, and suspending inter-provincial transport two days a week from April 10 to 25. Minister for Planning and Development Asad Umar, who also heads the NCOC, said last week that increased restrictions, broader lockdowns and strong enforcement of standard operating procedures (SOPs) have started showing their effect. The rising trend of positivity rate has been flattened, but the number of critical patients and mortality will stay at high levels for some time due to the momentum of last two weeks, he had said. Meanwhile, the vaccination campaign is in full swing, with authorities urging eligible citizens to get themselves vaccinated against the disease. So far, more than 1 million people have been vaccinated, and the total number of people who have registered themselves for vaccination is now over 2 million, according to data.

CONTINUED ON PAGE 05

coronavirus in

Pakistan

CONFIRMED CASES:

721,018 LAST UPDATED AT 8:17 AM ON APRIL 11, 2021

DAY'S DEATH TOLL:

NEW CASES:

114

5,050

RECOVERED:

DEATHS:

631,700 15,443 SINDH:

PUNJAB:

268,750

248,438

KP:

BALOCHISTAN:

98,301

20,241

AJK/GB:

ISLAMABAD:

14,461/5,127 in today’s issue

65,700

attention Some readers have complained that they are not getting the magazine with their newspaper copy. Please call or WhatsApp us at the following number to register a complaint. Contact: 0307-7338168 irfan.farooq@pakistantoday.com.pk

Monday, 12 April, 2021

ISLAMABAD

NEWS

ChurCh leader demandS fair Probe inTo blaSPhemy Charge againST faiSalabad nurSeS LAHORE

Staff RepoRt

senior church leader has expressed concern over the arrest of two Christian nurses on blasphemy accusation in Faisalabad and demanded their immediate release after a fair investigation into the charge. In a press statement, National Council of Churches in Pakistan President Bishop Azad Marshall said that the arrest of staff nurse Maryam Lal and third-year nursing student Newsh Arooj for alleged blasphemy was the second such case against Christian health workers in three months. Muslim coworkers at the Civil Hospital Faisalabad on Friday accused Lal and Arooj of committing blasphemy by removing and desecrating a sticker that

BISHOP MARSHALL URGES GOVT TO ACT AGAINST MISUSE OF BLASPHEMY LAW, PUNISH FALSE ACCUSERS contained verses from the Holy Quran. The allegations quickly spread around the building and provoked scores of staffers to stage a demonstration to demand legal action against their Christian colleagues. An enraged mob, largely activists of a religious party from a nearby locality, later also joined the crowd. An angry protester assaulted Maryam with a knife and injured her before police arrived at the facility to take both the women into “protective custody” and get them out of the hospital building. According to Lal’s statement to the police, she had been asked to clean up the

Job portal set up to connect seekers, employers ISLAMABAD: The government has set up a virtual job portal to facilitate the youth in exploring employment opportunities both domestic and international. The initiative aims to connect the job seekers with local and foreign employers through the platform — National Employment Exchange Tool — National Vocational and Technical Training Commission (NAVTTC) Executive Director Nasir Khan told APP. It will also enable both the applicants and employers to interact with each other, he added. Khan said at the forum, the youth could find featured and available jobs matching their skills, whereas the employers could also find the potential candidates meeting their requirements. He further said the portal was built as an easy-to-use platform, where job seeker could build their profile on modern styles that would eventually help them attract employers both in the public and private sectors. He said a job seeker could select a number of sets from built-in skills using Artificial Intelligence-based matching features or search engines, adding the portal also allowed both the employers and the job seekers to share information with other social media platforms. To a query, he said so far more than 100 companies and government wings have registered on the portal, while the number of job seekers was in thousands. Khan said that NAVTTC would gradually expand the portal operations, expressing a hope that the number of registered employers and youth would go up in the future. app

cupboard of the hospital’s female head nurse, who is Muslim. Lal said that while doing the job, she removed the sticker and gave it to the head nurse before finishing the night shift along with the other accused Christian colleague and returning home. Lal said the next morning the head nurse in the presence of other Muslim staffers accused her of desecrating the holy inscription. “According to our information, the two women were implicated in a false case by a co-worker who bore a grudge against them,” the senior church leader said, lamenting that instead of

investigating the charge, the police had succumbed to the pressure of a mob and registered a case against the two nurses. “The blatant abuse of the law has imperiled the lives of all Pakistanis irrespective of their faiths,” Bishop Marshall said. “While Christians and other minorities are more vulnerable, Muslims themselves are also targeted with fake allegations. Mere allegations are enough to destroy the lives of the accused and their families.” Calling for equally harsh punishment for false accusers, Marshall said that blasphemy allegations must be promptly and thoroughly investigated by an independent and impartial authority. “The law should be amended so that the FIRs [First Information Reports] in all blasphemy cases are registered only after permission from the concerned

Hearing of Justice Isa’s review petition to resume on Tuesday ISLAMABAD Staff RepoRt

The Supreme Court (SC) will take up on Tuesday a request of Justice Qazi Faez Isa in the presidential reference against him that seeks a review of the majority verdict on the reference. In June last, the apex court quashed the reference which accused the judge of being in possession of multiple undeclared properties in the United Kingdom in the name of his wife, Sarina Isa, and children,

terming it “invalid”. Seven of the 10 judges on the bench had also ordered the Inland Revenue Department (IRD) and the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) to seek explanations from Sarina and her children on the nature and source of funding for the said properties and submit a report to the registrar of the Supreme Court. Isa — along with other petitioners including Sarina, Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA), Sindh High Court Bar Association (SHCBA) — seeks a review and expunging of seven paragraphs, ranging from 3 to 11.

Fawad may become the information minister once again NEWS DESK Federal Minister for Science and Technology Fawad Chaudhry, who was the first information minister of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government, is set to get the high-profile portfolio back, it emerged on Sunday. Speaking on a TV programme, incumbent Information Minister Shibli Faraz said that was not aware of whether or not he would be included in the cabinet himself but expressed his belief that Fawad would be effective as the information minister. Reportedly, Prime Minister Imran Khan has directed

the federal minister to take the charge of the Information Ministry. It was earlier reported that the prime minister is expected to announce a cabinet reshuffle, potentially replacing several ministers and picking up some new faces as he is reportedly not happy with some key ministers’ performance and has already conveyed that only those would stay in the cabinet who can deliver. Earlier last month, Faraz had said that discussions were underway as to whose portfolio should be replaced with whom and why. “Performance is the parameter,” he said, adding that potential was the other factor.

Govt taking bold steps to ensure rule of law: PM ISLAMABAD Staff RepoRt

Prime Minister Imran Khan has said that the government is taking bold steps to ensure rule of law in the country. Talking to Principal Jamia Rahimia Karachi, Mufti

Rahim, on Sunday, the prime minister said that only an equal law system for all citizens and a punishment and retribution system in all offices can improve the system. The premier said that ensuring writ of the government and elimination of the system that facilitates the corrupt elements are on the top priorities of the government.

The meeting discussed the vision of Riasat-e-Madina during the meeting. They also discussed increasing foreign investment due to business-friendly policies of the government. Sindh Governor Imran Ismail, Leader of opposition in Sindh Assembly Haleem Adil Sheikh and others also present in the meeting.

government before the courts can take cognizance of them,” he added. The bishop said that the government continually claims that it intends to curb misuse of the laws but has yet to make any concerted efforts. “This lawlessness and miscarriage of justice is instilling fear and insecurity in our community and I urge the government to address this issue on priority,” he said. No one in Pakistan has been executed for blasphemy so far, but jails are filling up with those sentenced to death. False accusations are common and often motivated by personal vendettas or religious hatred. The highly inflammatory accusations have the potential to spark mob lynchings, vigilante murders, and mass protests. A Senate Special Committee on Human Rights and the Islamabad High Court in 2018 recommended that those making false blasphemy accusations be given the same punishments as those for blasphemy convictions, but the government dismissed the recommendation. The recommendation also stated that anyone registering a blasphemy case at a police station must bring two witnesses. While punishment for blasphemy ranges from several years in prison to death in Pakistan, a person making a false accusation faces potential punishment of only six months in prison or a fine of Rs1,000. Successive governments have acknowledged that the blasphemy laws are blatantly misused, but little effort has been made to stop the abuses.

SC to take up PPP leader’s bail request on Thursday ISLAMABAD INp

The Supreme Court (SC) will take up the bail request of Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) leader and former National Assembly (NA) opposition leader Syed Khursheed Shah for hearing on Thursday. A three-member bench — presided over by Justice Mushir Alam and comprising Justice Yahya Afridi and Justice Qazi Muhammad Amin Ahmed — will hear the requests filed by Shah and his son Syed Farukh Ahmed Shah. The court, while fixing the petition for hearing, sent notice to National Accountability Bureau (NAB). Shah, along with 18 of his close relatives and associates, has been facing charges of having accumulated assets beyond means in a mega-corruption reference filed by the dirty money watchdog. He was arrested in September 2019 and since then has been under police custody though he was admitted to the National Institute of Cardiovascular Diseases (NICVD), Sukkur, a few days later for treatment. He was nominated as an “accused No.1” in Reference No.17/2019 along with 17 others and the “petitioner/accused in connivance with other suspects accumulated assets beyond their known sources” to the tune of Rs 1.229 billion which were disproportionate to their known sources of income. The NAB had also approached the Supreme Court against the decision to grant bail to Shah’s son-in-law, daughter, and other members of the family.

‘Pak-Italy Friendship bridge’ inaugurated to facilitate isolated families of Chitral ISLAMABAD MIaN abRaR

A suspension bridge was inaugurated in Khairabad District, Chitral, on Sunday to help solve the problems of rural isolation that has been affecting the community especially during the time of heavy rainfall. Due to adverse conditions and limited mobility, residents were deprived of crucial socio-economic opportunities. The bridge has been constructed in partnership with Pakistan Poverty Alleviation Fund (PPAF) and Sarhad Rural Support Programme (SRSP) under the Programme for Poverty Reduction (PPR) by Italian Agency for Development Cooperation (AICS) Pakistan. Khairabad comprises five sub-villages – Khaiabad Khas, Thok Jal, Dhap, Junali, Camp – while there are three more connected villages of Kol, Wardhap and

Wardhap Payeen. More than 450 households of Khairabad, Kol, Camp, Wardhap Payeen will directly benefit from this development. Khairabad Village in Union Council Drosh 1 has close to 450 households, however, after recent flash floods, the community’s connection to main centres was cut off. With the construction of the Jeepable bridge to the village, accessibility has been massively improved for the residents. AICS Director Emanuela Benini was immensely pleased that the infrastructure has been given the name ‘Pak-Italy Friendship bridge’. She said, “AICS aspires to lay the stone for a strong developmental network in Pakistan and this bridge is the first step towards it. The bridge will enable the local community to have better access to health and educational facilities just like other communities in the district.” PPAF Infrastructure Group Head Shams

Badruddin said, “Such developmental projects would allow the local community to have easier access to health and educational facilities in the District Chitral and this can lead to better socioeconomic conditions in the region.” Lower Chitral Deputy Commissioner (DC) Hassan Abid appreciated the Italian government, PPAF and SRSP for supporting the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) government in the development of the district. He said, “Communication-related infrastructure plays the most critical role in the development of any area and thus, this newly built bridge could prove to radically transform the lives of the local residents.” Construction of the bridge was the top priority of the village organization in Khairabad. Even the nearest bridge was 4 kilometres away thus it was cumbersome for the villagers to access it. Through PPR’s

timely intervention of Rs17.6 million, hundreds of people will now be able to

commute with ease and strive towards a better life.

monday, 12 april, 2021

islamabad

news

A comPlete lockdown likely to Be imPosed in lAhore LAHORE

ShAhAb omeR

HE Punjab government has started considering imposing a complete lockdown in the provincial capital and will present recommendations in this regard to the National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC), Pakistan Today has learnt. A high-level meeting was held at the Chief Minister’s House, under the chairmanship of Punjab Health Minister Dr Yasmeen Rashid on the direction of Chief Minister Punjab Usman Buzdar. Minister for Commerce and Industries Mian Aslam Iqbal, Punjab Chief Secretary Jawad Rafique Malik, Home Additional Chief Secretary Momin Agha, Department of Specialised Healthcare and Medical Education (SH&ME) Secretary Nabeel Awan, Primary and Secondary Healthcare Department (P&SHD) Secretary Sara Aslam, and Auqaaf secretary were also present in the meeting. Other participants of the meeting were Lahore Commissioner Captain (r) Usman

PROVINCIAL GOVERNMENT TO PRESENT ITS RECOMMENDATIONS IN NCOC MEETING Younis, Lahore Capital City Police Officer (CCPO) Ghulam Mahmood Dogar, Additional Inspector General (IG) Sahibzada Shehzad Sultan, higher education secretary and other officials, including all commissioners and regional police officers (RPOs), who participated through video-link. During the meeting, Dr Yasmin reviewed the latest coronavirus situation in the province whereas the SH&ME and P&SHD secretaries presented a detailed report on the matter. All the commissioners presented a report on the implementation of Covid-19 standard operating procedures (SOPs) across the province and the concerned authorities presented various suggestions and recommendations for the prevention of coronavirus. During the meeting, future strategies for the cities most affected by the coronavirus,

4.1 magnitude earthquake jolts Bhag BHAG: An earthquake of 4.1 magnitude with a depth of 40 kilometers jolted the Bhag area of Balochistan on Sunday, according to Pakistan Meteorological Department, Islamabad. The epicentre of the earthquake was reported to be some 40 kilometres southwest of Bhag. However, no casualty was reported. PPI

Police say wanted militant killed in shootout MULTAN: Counterterrorism police killed one of the most wanted militants in a shootout in Rawalpindi, a police official said Sunday. Officer Kashif Hussain said three of the militant’s accomplices escaped during the exchange of fire, leaving their weapons at the scene: two pistols, an assault rifle, and ammunition. He identified the slain militant only as Niaz and said he also uses the alias Zeeshan. Hussain said Niaz was active with Tahreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) in Punjab in the Hazro area of the district of Attock. He said Niaz was also in league with proscribed militant organisation Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (LeJ). Hussain said Niaz was wanted in connection with a number of attacks in the region that killed more than two dozen citizens and security officials. There was a $40,000 bounty on his head. According to Hussain, Niaz was involved in planning a 2015 suicide attack that killed the former Punjab home minister Shuja Khanzada, a high-ranking police officer, and others. Hussain said the counterterrorism department received intelligence that four militants on two motorcycles planned to attack secret service officers so checkpoints were set up on the road linking Attock with Rawalpindi. Late on Saturday, the targets were spotted approaching the Kheri Murat checkpoint. Hussain said they were asked to stop but instead the motorcyclists opened fire in an attempt to escape. StAff RePoRt

Policeman among three held in harassment case KARACHI: Police on Sunday arrested three more suspects, including a cop, on the complaint of blackmailing and harassment of a woman who committed suicide in Shadman Town neighbourhood. Karachi Central Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Ghulam Murtaza Tabasam said that the suspects include a police constable and two civilians. He said that mobile phones seized from their possession will be sent to the cybercrime wing of the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) for forensic examination. The suspects had deleted all the relevant data from their cellphones, Tabasam added. The 41-year-old woman had ended her life last week by committing suicide. The case was registered against six men while three of them were arrested shortly afterward. According to the police case lodged on a complaint of the deceased’s brother, the woman committed suicide because “she was fed up with the ‘blackmailing, harassment and threats’ of the suspects”. On Saturday, a court handed over the custody of the three men to police on two-day physical remand. INP

working hours of vaccination centres during Ramadan and implementation of standard operating procedures (SOPs) in mosques were reviewed. Sources in the Punjab government informed Pakistan Today that the provincial government was concerned about the apparently uncontrollable spread of the disease in the city. According to details, it was decided in the cabinet committee meeting that in the first phase, a complete lockdown would be imposed in all the cities where the rate of positive cases of coronavirus is more than 15 per cent. Similarly, in the second phase, decisions will be taken to implement lockdown in cities with a rate of more than 10 per cent. It was also learnt in the meeting that the rate of positive cases of Covid-19 in Lahore has now reached 19 per cent. Moreover, in Faisalabad and Sargodha it

is 17 per cent while in Rawalpindi and Rahim Yar Khan it is up to 15 per cent. Other dangerous cities include Gujranwala, Multan, Bahawalpur and Vehari where the positive cases of coronavirus are more than 10 per cent, sources said. Sources further added that the Punjab government would present all these recommendations at the NCOC meeting, which will be held on Monday. Moreover, the government wanted the district administration of each city to be consulted and given full decision-making power to control the situation. However, the cabinet committee agreed to keep medical stores, petrol pumps, hospitals, grocery stores, dairy shops, tandoors and Ramadan Bazaars open during the lockdown. The health minister said that due to the rapid increase in the number of coronavirus patients across the province, the rate of positive cases of coronavirus in Punjab has increased alarmingly. “Steps are being taken to immediately increase the number of ventilators and beds in government hospitals in Punjab. Outdoor

of four specialities have been closed in government teaching hospitals of seven districts. In Punjab, all the tools are being used to fight the coronavirus,” the minister said. Furthermore, health department officials informed Pakistan Today that the ventilators of government hospitals in the province have been filled up to 88 per cent while the oxygen beds of hospitals have admitted up to 67 per cent of its capacity for patients. “Similarly, a total of 1186 patients are being treated in public and private hospitals of the provincial capital and 234 critical patients of Covid-19 are on ventilators while 295 patients are undergoing treatment in the intensive care unit,” an official informed. Officials added that as many as 657 patients were admitted on oxygen and 766 patients were being treated in government hospitals whereas 420 patients admitted to private hospitals. Mayo Hospital has the highest number of 280 patients under treatment where 75 patients are on ventilators. A total of 57 patients are being treated at Services Hospital and 63 at Jinnah Hospital.

PTI’s Ajsad Malhi concedes defeat, congratulates Nosheen on by-poll win DASKA INP

Ruling Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf’s (PTI) candidate who lost Saturday’s byelection in a nail-biting contest in NA-75 Daska, has accepted his defeat and congratulated his winning rival Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz’s (PML-N) Nosheen Iftikhar. In a video message posted on his Twitter account on Sunday, Malhi said, “I thank the people of Daska who have participated and contested this election with me for so long. Congratulations to Nosheen Iftikhar who won.” Malhi also congratulated the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) which conducted a clean and transparent

election. In the video message, he thanked his party, voters and supporters who stood with him in thick and thin and fought the huge battle against the mafia. “We will come back with a thumping majority,” he vowed and wooed his voters asking them not to worry as per the Prime Minister Imran Khan’s directives. “I especially want to thank the ECP. You have conducted the elections in the peak of Covid-19 and with great efforts you managed this elections.” Malhi said that “let all take a break and then come back to the much-needed work to bring a change”. He said that he is ready to sacrifice his life for the country. Malhi vowed he would remain among his voters, supporters and party

men irrespective of the election results. According to unofficial result of all 360 polling stations compiled by the returning officer, PML-N’s Syeda Nosheen Iftikhar won the contest by securing 110,075 votes against PTI’s Ali Asjad Malhi who bagged 93,433, while Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan’s (TLP) Khalil Sandhu received 8,268 votes. The polling that started at 8 am continued till 5 pm without any break. 360 polling stations were setup for the 494,000 registered voters in the constituency. Out of which, 47 polling stations were declared sensitive by the ECP. To deal with any untoward situation, Rangers and police were deployed in the constituency with Pakistan Army soldiers on standby.

RHC to meet on Tuesday for Ramadan moon sighting ISLAMABAD APP

The Central Ruet-e-Hilal Committee will hold an unprecedented meeting in Peshawar on April 13 (Tuesday) for the sighting of the Ramadan moon as it is likely to be joined by Mufti Shahabuddin Popalzai for the first time. RHC chief Maulana Abdul Khabir Azad told a press conference on Wednesday that Mufti Popalzai, who headed the unofficial moon-sighting body at the historic Qasim Ali Khan Mosque in Peshawar, would extend full cooperation to the central one. He said that the meeting would be held in Peshawar to develop consensus about the start of Ramadan across the country the same day and ensure that no one complains about the sighting of the moon. The start of the holy month is determined by the lunar calendar that, unlike the Gregorian calendar, follows a 29- or 30-day cycle determined by the cycle of the moon. This will be the first Ramadan moon sighting under the new chairman — Azad who is also Khateeb of Badshahi Masjid in Lahore — who was

appointed by the government in December last, in place of Mufti Muneebur Rehman who was removed following a 23-year stint. Azad said in January that he would try his best to bring harmony in observing Ramadan and celebrating Eid in the country in the years to come. “The entire nation will observe unified Ramadan fasting and Eidul Fitr,” he had said. The meeting of the Zonal Ruet-e-Hilal Committee Islamabad will be held at the Ministry of Religious Affairs at Pakistan Secretariat. The meetings of provincial, district, and zonal committees will be held at their respective provincial and district headquarters. Subsequently, the chairman will announce the decision of moon sighting or otherwise on the basis of information received. According to the Ministry of Science and Technology and Meteorological Department, the chances of sighting the moon of Ramadan will be bright in Islamabad, Lahore, Peshawar, and Karachi on Tuesday evening. Thereby, Ramadan will most likely begin on Wednesday.

imran fulfilled promise of transparent elections: Firdous

LAHORE INP

Special Assistant to Punjab Chief Minister on Information Dr. Firdous Ashiq Awan on Sunday said Prime Minister Imran Khan has fulfilled his promise of holding fair and transparent elections.

In a statement, Awan said victory and defeat in the elections were part and parcel of politics. However, the reservations expressed by the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government on the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) were still intact, she added. Her remarks came after PML-N candidate Syeda Nosheen Iftikhar won the by-election in the NA-75 constituency of Daska by securing 111,220 votes against PTI hopeful Ali Asjad Malhi’s 92,019 votes. The polling that started at 8:00 am continued until 5:00 pm without any pause. 360 polling stations were set up for the 494,000 registered voters in the constituency. Out of which, 47 polling stations were declared sensitive by the ECP. To deal with any untoward situation, Rangers and police were deployed in the constituency with troops on standby.

After the results came out, Federal Minister for Science and Technology Fawad Chaudhry on Sunday said that PTI has to improve its party’s system. While responding to the results of NA-75 by-election, the minister took to social-networking website and posted that in Daska, PML-N didn’t win but PTI faced defeat. “I have raised the reasons behind PTI’s rout in NA-75 with leadership,” he added. Fawad said that there is no ideology of former prime minister Nawaz Sharif and PML-N. Accepting Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) Chairman Bilawal Bhutto and PML-N Vice President Maryam Nawaz as leaders is a slap in the face of democracy, he went on to write.

JOURNALIST WASIM ALAM SHOT DEAD IN KARAK KARAK: Unidentified gunmen shot dead a local journalist and fled the scene, police said on Sunday. The incident took place in Metha Khel area of Karak where unknown culprits sprayed bullets journalist Wasim Alam killing him on the spot. The attackers fled the scene of crime and the journalist’s body was shifted to District Headquarter (DHQ) Hospital Karak for postmortem. The family of the deceased said that they did not have enmity with anyone. The police, after registering a case against unknown culprits, started the investigation. INP

Five shortlisted for NADRA chairman post ISLAMABAD: Five people have been shortlisted for the post of National Database and Registration Authority (NADRA) chairman, reports citing sources said on Sunday. They further said the Ministry of Interior has forwarded the names of Tariq Malik, Usman Mobeen, and Sohail Munir to the cabinet for approval. Later, the summary sent to the cabinet by a selection committee included two more individuals — Sarfraz Khurshid and Masood Raza. A former NADRA chairman, Munir is working for United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in the capacity of Chief Technical Advisor (CTA). Mobeen and Malik too had served the body as chairmen. INP

monday, 12 April, 2021

islAmABAd

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Sweet SomethingS City Notes M A NiAzi

OW that Prime Minister Imran Khan has had the time, he is getting used to the idea of Hammad Azhar as finance minister. Hammad has not yet been awarded the title of Waseem Akram Soyem, but it is only a matter of time. Speaking of Waseem, how goes Waseem Akram Sani? Yes, Usman Buzdar. Now one can only imagine the ‘feast of reason and flow of soul’, as Alexander Pope once put it, when that trio gets together. Of course, to complete the atmosphere, it would only need that distinguished geoeconomist, who lectured the country’s business community some months back, General

Qamar Javed Bajwa. Or do they still need Shaukat Tarin? He is not related to Jahangir Tareen, the sugar baron, and the face of the sugar lobby, which is supposed to be all powerful. Something has gone wrong somewhere. Imran has said that last year’s sugar crisis was the result of mafias conspiring against his government. The mafias managed, it seems, to get him to decide on exporting sugar, which is why there was the shortage which led to the price hike. Wait. Did Dr Hafeez Shaikh not carry the can for inflation? So, why are the cases against Tareen being ramped up? Is the public supposed to forgive PM Imran the price of medicine, electricity and fuel (which have all gone up, none of which saw Tareen have anything to do with them) because of any action that is being taken against Tareen? Tareen should realise that the problem is

not that he made money, but that he made PM Imran look bad. Even if you think that he likes grinding the faces of the poor, you cannot help feeling some sympathy for him, considering the violence with which he has been thrown under the bus. Somebody noted that Imran has been used to throwing people under the bus. Like when he abandoned his cousin Majid Khan and ended his career, even though he had played a key role in making him the captain. Well, it seems that Tareen is doing all sorts of things, like getting MNAs and MPAs to go along with him to the appearances he is having to make in various courts because of the various charges being slapped on him. Are these MNAs and MPAs he has given rides in his airplane? The airplane is supposed to have been key in his position in the party, and the influence he had over Imran. Though appar-

ently it was not just the airplane, but his willingness to act as Imran’s ATM. He had made his entry as Shehbaz Sharif’s adviser on agriculture, but he is not supposed to have given him any plane rides, or acted as his ATM. He is supposed to have been approached by the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP). Why? Does Asif Ali Zardari feel he needs a plane ride? Or does Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari need an ATM? But at the same time, it must be frustrating to be one of those determining who Tareen will give a plane ride to, and never getting a ride yourself. And Tareen has always been on the right side of you-know-who. You-know-who will be one circumlocution after the new Section 500A of the PPC is passed, in which you cannot criticise a certain institution (note how careful I am being even before passage). One thing

I saw on the internet said that the new law meant you could not let Askari Cement bags lie on the ground but would have to pick them up and put them in a high place. But of course, you cannot believe everything you see on the internet. One thing that is not on the internet is that Prince Philip has died. He missed turning 100, and he also missed his 74th wedding anniversary. He had a peculiar connection to Pakistan, with the engagement announced in July 1947, before he got married in November, his father-in-law was no longer Emperor of India, but Philip went ahead. He has been outed as the royal who wanted to know the colour of his greatgrandson Archie, born to Prince Harry and his mixed-race wife, Meghan Merkel. Well, I do not really blame him. After all, Harry is the grandson resembling him the most, so he would obviously be concerned whether his genes were being passed on. Footnote to these notes: The Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) won the Daska by-election. Buzdar might refuse to do the honorable thing, but he should before he is thrown under the bus.

woman axed to death by SonS for ‘honour’ SANGAR: In a shocking incident of so-called honour killing, a 45-year-old mother was killed by her two sons over her alleged relationship with a neighbor in Sanghar District on Sunday. Dela Magsi was accused of having developed an illicit relationship with her neighbor AlBachaio Magsi. The incident occurred in Majnoon Magsi village within the limits of Nawabad Police Station near Jam Nawaz Ali taluka of Sanghar district in Sindh. Dela Magsi's two sons axed their mother and the neighbour to death. iNP

JournaliSt waSim alam Shot dead in KaraK KARAK: Unidentified gunmen shot dead a local journalist and fled the scene, police said on Sunday. The incident took place in Metha Khel area of Karak where unknown culprits sprayed bullets journalist Wasim Alam killing him on the spot. The attackers fled the scene of crime and the journalist’s body was shifted to District Headquarter (DHQ) Hospital Karak for postmortem. The family of the deceased said that they did not have enmity with anyone. The police, after registering a case against unknown culprits, started the investigation. iNP

LAHORE: Citizens queue to purchase subsidised sugar at Ramadan Bazaar in Shadman. zUBAiR MeHFooz

PM directs reopening of 155,000 public complaints on Citizen Portal Prime Minister Imran Khan has directed to reopen 1,55,000 public complaints on Pakistan Citizen Portal. A Prime Minister Office statement on Sunday said that PM Imran has instructed that complaints of dissatisfied citizens during the period of July to December last year should be reopened. The premier said that resolving public issues is the top priority of the government and any negligence for redressal of grievances will not be tolerated. For review of complaints, contact of the concerned citizen and opinion of the competent officer has been made mandatory. In the first phase, complaints related to property disputes, law and order and human rights will be reopened. NeWs DesK

Father of three children who died mysteriously accuses wife of killing them KARACHI: The father of the three children who mysteriously died in Karachi’s Gulistan-e-Jauhar blamed his wife for the incident on Sunday. Three children were pronounced dead at a private hospital in the city after eating a poisonous substance. The police have not conducted a post-mortem because the family did not grant permission for it. The cause of death has not been ascertained yet. Meanwhile, the children’s father Imran, who works in Lahore reached Karachi after getting information of the incident, accused his wife Noreen of killing their children, as she was living in Karachi due to differences with him. Imran said that he was sending the money to Noreen to fulfill every need of the children and her, but a few days back, she telephoned and threatened to teach him a lesson, he alleged. The man has vowed to initiate legal proceedings against his wife. iNP

Around 3 dozen lockers broken open in Karachi bank heist KARACHI iNP

Four suspected robbers broke open around three dozen lockers at a branch of a private bank near Karachi’s Sakhi Hassan area on Saturday night and made off with valuables worth millions of rupees. The robbers entered the bank at around 9 pm and left early Sunday morning at 5 am, Senior Superintendent of Police (SPP) Central Malik Murtaza said. During their 8-hour

stay inside the branch, they broke open 34 lockers, he added. A security guard of the bank went out to have dinner with his friend, the police officer said. When he returned after having dinner and opened the bank’s door, the suspects standing nearby forced their way into it along with him and held him and other guards hostage, he said. He added that the way the robbers committed the heist shows that they had prior inside information.

“They had brought a gas cutter and two cylinders along with them,” SSP Malik Murtaza said, adding that further investigation is underway. The robbers also took away the bank’s digital video recorder (DVR). Meanwhile, the police have taken two security guards into custody and are interrogating them. This is a second bank heist in the port city in less than a month. On March 17, four armed men had plundered a branch of a bank at the New Karachi’s Do-Minute Chowrangi.

Six die, child inJured aS car fallS into ditch in aJK KOTLI: At least six people died and one child got injured after a car plunged into a ditch in Azad Jammu and Kashmir’s (AJK) Kotli area on Sunday morning. Rescue sources said that the bodies were shifted to the Kotli District headquarters (DHQ) Hospital. The injured child was shifted to the hospital for medical treatment, they added. The car was going from Nakyal to Kotli when it met an accident. Rescue officials said that the deceased include the driver of the vehicle and five members of a family. Earlier in December, at least five people died and 10 others sustained injuries when the passenger jeep they were travelling in fell into a gorge in Abbottabad. According to the deputy superintendent of the police (DSP), 14 women and a driver were travelling in the ill-fated jeep near Harnokarla. Upon getting the information, rescue teams reached the spot and initiated relief work. The bodies and the injured were shifted to Benazir Shaheed Hospital. tLtP

10 new buses inducted in BRT Peshawar’s fleet NEWS DESK 10 new buses which had arrived from China were inducted in fleet of the Peshawar Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) service on Sunday. The spokesperson of BRT Peshawar said, “10 new buses have been inducted into the fleet of BRT service in Peshawar for mass commuting.” The new buses will be operated at more routes, the

spokesperson added. He further said that the more busses for Peshawar BRT are on their way from China. Prime Minister Imran Khan on August 13, 2021, inaugurated the flagship BRT project of the ruling Pakistan Tehreek-eInsaf’s (PTI) in the province. The BRT has a 27.5-kilometre-long main corridor track with 31 stations, besides seven feeder routes of a total of 62

kilometres with 146 stops to facilitate hundreds of thousands of passengers every day. In October 2017, work on the bus project was launched by the then-chief minister, Pervez Khattak, who set a six-month deadline for its completion at a cost of Rs49 billion. However, the project suffered delays due to the frequent design changes and other issues, pushing up the project cost.

Monday, 12 April, 2021

ISLAMABAD

NEWS

HBL PSL 6 to resume on June 1 continued from page 01 REVISED SCHEDULE: All matches at National Stadium, Karachi. Evening matches will start at 8pm local time; in case of double-headers, the first match will begin at 5pm local while the second match will start at 10pm. 1 June: Lahore Qalandars vs Islamabad United (N) 2 June: Multan Sultans vs Karachi Kings (N) 3 June: Islamabad United vs Quetta Gladiators (N) 4 June: Peshawar Zalmi vs Lahore Qalandars (N) 5 June: Islamabad United vs Karachi Kings (D); Multan Sultans vs Quetta Gladiators (N) 6 June: Peshawar Zalmi vs Karachi Kings (N) 7 June: Quetta Gladiators vs Lahore Qalandars (N) 8 June: Multan Sultans vs Peshawar Zalmi (N) 9 June: Islamabad United vs Lahore Qalandars (N) 10 June: Quetta Gladiators vs Karachi Kings (N) 11 June: Multan Sultans vs Islamabad United (N) 12 June: Quetta Gladiators vs Peshawar Zalmi (D); Karachi Kings vs Lahore Qalandars (N) 13 June: Islamabad United vs Peshawar Zalmi (N) 14 June: Multan Sultans vs Lahore Qalandars (N) 16 June: Qualifier (1 vs 2) (N) 17 June: Eliminator 1 (3 vs 4) (N) 18 June: Eliminator 2 (loser Qualifier vs winner Eliminator 1) (N) 20 June: Final (N)

Pakistan records highest daily Covid-19 deaths since last June continued from page 01 Government officials and health experts believe that the variant of Covid-19 initially discovered in Britain has been behind the surge in the number of infections in the country. “The new variant seemed to be more contagious and deadly, and the only way we can control it is to shut all kinds of activities that may play role in the spread of the disease,” Ejaz Ahmad Khan, an infectious disease specialist at the Shifa International Hospital in Islamabad, told Xinhua. He said that the government is trying hard to control the situation, but the cooperation of the people is also very important. “Solely the government cannot take control of this fatal disease without our help.” With additional input from The Associated Press, Xinhua

Exchange companies deposit $2.8bn in banks in 9MFY21 Foreign currency dealers in the open market have deposited more than $2.8 billion in banks during the first nine months of the current fiscal year (9MFY21) indicating the deposits could touch an all-time high figure of $4bn by the end of FY21. According to a local media report, inflows of foreign exchange from both the open market and banking channels have increased significantly during the current fiscal year, with the total reserves of the country touching $20.68bn — the highest since July 2017. The report quoted currency dealers saying that higher forex deposits in banks are because of a very low consumption in the domestic market. Dealers said they are selling over 90 per cent dollars to banks. Currency dealers do not see higher consumption of foreign currencies in the domestic market since the pandemic has blocked international travel, including religious pilgrimage, and impacted the plans of students enrolled in foreign universities. The dollar was traded at a price of Rs152.80 — a two-year low — in the inter-bank market on Friday. MONITORING REPORT

'GHuLaM KHan routE to BooSt PaK-aFGHan tradE' peSHaWar

AZIZ BUNERI

ELCOMING the opening of the Ghulam Khan route for transit trade in the North Waziristan tribal district, traders of Pakistan and Afghanistan hoped that it

will help boost the dwindling trade volume between the two countries. They said that trade volume between Pakistan and Afghanistan has been declining for the last several years mainly due to hurdles on Pak-Afghan crossing points and policies of both countries. Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) Frontier Customs Agents Association (FCAA)

President, Zia-ul-Haq Sarhadi, praised the government's move to open the Ghulam Khan border for Afghan transit trade, saying that it will give a forward push to bilateral trade. “Over the last couple of years, trade volume has fallen from less than $2.5 billion to less than $1 billion,” Sarhadi added. He said that the distance through the

third most important border crossing point between Pakistan and Afghanistan, from Karachi and Gwadar to Kabul, will be reduced by about 400km which would significantly reduce transportation costs. More than 20,000 locals from North Waziristan will also get direct and indirect jobs due to the opening of the border.

China’s antitrust regulator bulking up as crackdown on behemoths widens BeiJing/Hong Kong AGENCIES

China’s competition watchdog is adding staff and other resources as it ramps up efforts to crack down on anticompetitive behaviour, especially among the country’s powerful companies, people with knowledge of the matter told Reuters. Beijing’s plan to bulk up the State Administration for Market Regulation (SAMR) comes as China revamps its competition law with proposed amendments including a sharp increase in fines and expanded criteria for judging a company’s control of a market. On Saturday, the watchdog slapped a record $2.75 billion fine on Alibaba after an antimonopoly probe found the e-commerce giant had abused its dominant market position for several years. The fine underscores the challenges ahead for companies, including global firms with operations in China, mainly in a tech sector that thrived during years of relatively laissez-faire market regulation. It also mirrors the increasing activism of U.S. and European antitrust authorities in recent years. The Beijing-headquartered agency plans to expand its antitrust workforce by around 20 to 30 staff, up from about 40 now, two people with direct knowledge of the matter said. The watchdog also plans to delegate case reviewing power to its local bureaux and source additional manpower from other government bodies and agencies to handle cases that require extensive investigation, four other people said. Budgets allocated for antimonopoly investigations, daily operations and research projects will also be increased, said three of the people cited above and one more person with knowledge of the matter. The people declined to be named as they were not authorised to speak to the media. The SAMR did not immediately respond to Reuters request for comment. “An increase in staffing as well as in the quality of the bureau’s law enforcement capabilities is a must for

an antitrust push,” said Liu Xu, a researcher at the National Strategy Institute of Tsinghua University. “Otherwise regulators won’t be able to handle multiple cases at one time, and the public will question how transparent the investigation process would be,” said Liu, a long-time advocate for antitrust enforcement. GROWING SCRUTINY: The SAMR’s antitrust bureau was established in early 2018 after two other government departments were merged into it to form a single authority to police monopolistic activities. The bureau has also been armed with new and more stringent laws in the past few months. SAMR’s enhanced powers come as Chinese President Xi Jinping weighed in last month on the need to “strengthen antitrust powers” to rein in behemoths that play a dominant role in the country’s consumer sector. “They didn’t feel they had the mandate to do it but now they do. And they are happy about that,” said a legal source close to SAMR, referring to the need to regulate the internet companies, which, he said, were seen as “a bit above the law.” With growing scrutiny, executives of major internet firms are now required to make routine reports to the antitrust bureau for merger deals or of practices that

could fall foul of antimonopoly rules, one of the sources said. Reeling from the workload, the SAMR has started to expand its presence in more cities such as Hangzhou and Shenzhen on a trial basis, instead of handling the cases all in Beijing, to delegate case reviewing power to local bureaux, two of the sources said. It has also started outsourcing more research work, covering areas including economic and industry analysis, to scholars and its own consultancy committee to speed up cases in progress, one of the sources said. For now, however, the investor focus is on who among the home-grown technology champions will be the next target of the Chinese antitrust watchdog. “Other tech companies would be wise to assume they may be receiving the same level of scrutiny and penalty,” said Fred Hu, chairman of private equity firm Primavera Group, referring to the fine imposed on Alibaba. “The heavy fine on one of the country’s dominant tech leaders also sends a strong message to the broader tech sector that the Chinese regulators, like their European counterparts, are serious about cracking down on Big Tech.”

PPP decides to continue with PDM without resigning from assemblies continued from page 01 “Bilawal tore up the show cause notice and threw it in a trash bin. The participants applauded when Bilawal tore the notice. Bilawal said that politics is for sake of honour and nothing more than honor. Bilawal said that the PPP joined PDM on the basis of equality. There is no way to dictate us. We are not accountable to anyone in the PDM,” the sources said. The sources said that in a bid to mend cracks in the ranks of the PDM, PPP senior leader Yousaf Raza

Gillani offered to resign as the leader of the opposition in the Senate. However, sources said, the CEC rejected his resignation offer. The meeting’s participant told the former prime minister that the entire party stood by him. Gillani said that he was ready to tender resignation as Senate opposition leader right now if the party allows him. He maintained that the other opposition parties should avoid levelling baseless allegations on his party. Sources said that the meeting also discussed the im-

pact of the ruling Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) and International Monetary Fund (IMF) deal on the economy and the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) Ordinance. The CEC meeting discussed Pakistan Tehreek-eInsaf’s (PTI's) “confusing policy” on Kashmir. Sindh Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah also briefed the meeting on the recent meeting of the Council of Common Interests (CCI). “Murad Ali Shah said that we will fight the case of the people in the Council of Common Interests tomorrow as per the policy given by the participants of the PPP CEC,” a source said.

S Korean battery makers agree $1.8bn settlement, aiding Biden's EV push WaSHington/SeouL AGENCIES

South Korean battery makers LG Energy Solution and SK Innovation Co agreed on Sunday to settle disputes over electric-vehicle (EV) battery technology, avoiding a potential setback for U.S. EV ambitions. The settlement after marathon talks by affiliates of two of South Korea’s biggest conglomerates was announced just hours before a Sunday night deadline for President Joe Biden’s administration to decide whether to take the rare step of reversing a U.S. International Trade Commission decision (ITC).In a statement, Biden called the settlement “a win for American workers and the American auto industry.... We need a strong, diversified and resilient U.S.-based electric ve-

hicle battery supply chain”. The core dispute had threatened the EV plans of Ford Motor Co and Volkswagen AG, as well as a Georgia plant that is key to the growing industry. The resolution is also a win for Biden, who has made boosting EVs and U.S. battery production a top priority. The global auto industry is racing to develop EVs, and Biden has proposed spending $174 billion to hike their sales and expand charging infrastructure. SK Innovation agreed to pay LG Energy Solution, a wholly owned subsidiary of LG Chem Ltd, 2 trillion won ($1.8 billion) - 500 billion won each this year and next, and royalties for at least six years. “We expect our payment plan will not be financially burdensome,” an SK Innovation official told Reuters. The companies agreed to drop all litiga-

tion in the United States and South Korea and not to raise further lawsuits against each other for 10 years. “The two companies now can coexist in the global market and compete in good faith,” LG Energy Solution said in a statement. SK said it would invest actively both in South Korea and abroad now that uncertainties for its EV battery business in the United States have been cleared up. The U.S. Office of U.S. Trade Representative had faced a Sunday night deadline on whether to take the rare step of reversing a U.S. International Trade Commission decision unless the companies had agreed a deal. The Biden administration, Volkswagen and Ford had been pushing the Korean companies to settle. DEMOCRATIC, REPUBLICAN LOBBYING FROM GEORGIA: Trade Repre-

cmYK

sentative Katherine Tai was personally involved in the settlement discussions, urging the companies to come to a resolution, the sources said. “I congratulate both companies for working through their significant differences to resolve this dispute, which builds confidence in their reliability and responsibility as suppliers to the U.S. auto industry,” Tai said in a statement after LG and SK announced the settlement. “We are pleased the two battery suppliers at the center of this recent trade dispute have come together and solved their differences,” Volkswagen said in a statement on Sunday. “We are pleased that SK Innovation and LG Energy Solution have settled their differences,” Ford said in a statement. BITTER DISPUTE: In the bitter two-year dispute, LG lost to SK in a bid for VW or-

ders, then accused SK of stealing trade secrets by poaching nearly 80 of its employees. LG filed a complaint against SK in 2019, and both sides hired numerous lawyers and consultants to make their case to the Biden administration. The ITC in February sided with LG after the company accused SK of misappropriating trade secrets related to EV battery technology. It issued a 10-year-import ban but allowed SK to import components for batteries for Ford’s EV F-150 program for four years, and VW’s North American EVs for two years. In March, SK vowed to walk away from the $2.6 billion Georgia battery plant, which is under construction, if the ITC decision was not overturned. LG said in March it could handle the battery needs of automakers if SK abandoned the Georgia plant.

Monday, 12 April, 2021

06 COMMENT

Global fiscal health

Daska by-election

The ECP managed to conduct a clean election

pparently, the winner of the Daska by-election in NA 175 was the PMl(N) candidate, but the real winner was the election Commission of Pakistan eCP). The PMl(N)’s Nausheen iftikhar has the satisfaction of serving out her late father’s term as an MNA, and of positioning herself for the next general election. The PMl(N) would view the by-election victory, by the large margin of 21,000 votes, as a vindication of the PDM experiment, and as evidence that the break-up of the alliance had not produced a corresponding wave in favour of the government. however, the eCP must account itself the greatest winner, for it has shown successfully that if a poll seems tainted, it will go for a re-poll, even if it has to take on the government of the day. its readiness to engage in the legal battle that ensued when it ordered the re-poll, showed that it was determined to ensure the fairness of the poll. it thus showed that it was not willing to tolerate the kind of tactics that seemed to be on display in the original poll last month, when a number of polling station presiding officers went missing for a prolonged period of time. The eCP re-polled the whole constituency, not just the doubtful polling stations, perhaps because it felt even the results reported by presiding officers who did not go missing could not be trusted. it is noteworthy that the re-polling was not marred by the kind of abuses that marred the original polling last month. There were show-cause notices issued to various persons, such as a PMl(N) MPA and a PMl(Q) leader. it is to be hoped that the eCP will not be distracted by its more recent success into ignoring the violation that led it to hold the re-polling. Those were ugly doings, barefaced attempts to manipulate the results, and the eCP must not tolerate any such attempts. There is enough doubt already about the result of elections, and it is up to the eCP to restore the trust in the system that is essential to obtaining the willing consent of the governed to the government. it cannot afford to rest on its laurels, and must look forward to the freedom, fairness and transparency of all byelections it conducts between now and the next general election, as well as its next major challenge, which will be local body elections, which are being delayed only because the 2017 census results are to be notified.

Developing countries are coming under pressure because of rising debt

Dr Omer JaveD

hile deep recession, and stimulus spending were one side of the coin during 2020 that saw the covid-19 pandemic unfolding, on the other side, intellectual property rights related to the covid-19 vaccine, increased the gap between rich and poor countries in terms of pace of economic recovery. Moreover, the lack of debt moratorium/relief from creditor countries, and weak multilateral support, all meant increasing fiscal deficits, and in turn a difficult public debt situation overall globally; especially burdensome for developing countries given their narrow tax base traditionally, and difficult balance of payments situation in general. in the April edition of the flagship ‘Fiscal Monitor’ report by international Monetary Fund (iMF), general government fiscal overall balance, fiscal deficit globally, which was hovering between 3 and 3.6 percent of global GDP during 2016-2019, virtually tripled to 10.8 percent in 2020; where the projection for 2021 stood at 9.2 percent. While the advanced countries with deep pockets could better manage their deficits, it has become a serious challenge for developing countries. in this regard, the Report pointed out that the fiscal deficit for emerging market economies stood at 9.8 percent of their GDP in 2020, while being projected to be 7.7 percent in 2021; indeed, a high level of fiscal deficit. An impact of ‘oil nationalism’, where oil producing countries, overall, drastically cut oil supply for many months now, could be seen in the likely impact of their quick recovery in terms of fiscal deficit situation at the back of increasing oil revenues, whereby as per the current Fiscal Monitor report the fiscal deficit of oil producing countries decreased from being 8.3

The circular debt menace The government does not inspire confidence

NeRGy SAPM Tabish Gauhar says that the government has a Debt Management Plan to tackle circular debt, and has predicted that without its implementation it will lead to circular debt doubling to Rs 4.6 trillion in the two years to 2023, from the present Rs 2.3 trillion. he also mentioned that the circular debt had been Rs 1.1 trillion when the PTi took office. he has mentioned as a consequence that tariffs would have to be hiked, clearly implying that the coming hike, of Rs 4.50 per unit, will only cover current debt stock, not future debt. Though he mentioned such steps as getting a longer tenure for Chinese iPP debt and reducing capacity payments, the real prongs of the Plan will be reduction in line losses by achieving efficiency in the distribution companies, from the existing 17.8 percent to 15.3 percent, as well as improving bill recovery from the current 90 percent to 95 percent by June 2023. how exactly this will be achieved, when the government has not done much in the first half of its tenure, has not been made clear. There are two problems: first, the Plan contains no new suggestions, only ideas which were around when the government took office; second, the Plan has been drafted with World Bank help, so as to get back on the iMF’s eFF, which means the government does not have ownership of it. This lack of commitment is the most worrisome, for it means that the government would probably be satisfied to let the problem fester. however, that it cannot do. it is likelier than not that the problem will blow up in its face in an election year. it can expect pressure from the countries where the iPPs attracted investment over the capacity payments, quite apart from continuing iMF pressure on this issue. Mr Gauhar has said that the Prime Minister does not want to raise tariffs any further. it is creditable that he does not, but this issue must be treated with the seriousness it deserves if it is not to destroy the nation’s entire economy.

Making American Hate again? Mass murder at the intersection of gender and race

Javaria Nisar

S the coronavirus rapidly spreads across the world, so do racism, hate crimes, and xenophobia. it is time to put a full stop to the perpetuation of Asian violence because now we are facing a pandemic of racism and hate. When former US President Donald Trump crossed out ‘corona’ and replaced it with ‘Chinese’ in his notes back in 2020, critics knew it would add fuel to the fire of racism, hate, and bigotry. Since then, Trump’s deliberate and ignorant remarks have led to an increase in racial segregation and hate crimes against the already marginalized Asian-American community amid the ongoing health crises. The tipping point finally came in the form of a deadly mass shooting in the metropolitan area of Atlanta on 16 March 2021. The shooting occurred at three different massage parlours where eight people were killed, six of whom were Asian women. Robert Aaron long, a 21-year-old white male, was captured as a suspect and is now charged with aggravated assault and eight counts of murder. This brazen shoot-

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percent in 2020, to being projected at almost half of this at 4.3 percent in 2021. hence, while the oil producing countries have nowhere near same economic stress, as faced by net oil importing countries like Pakistan, especially in terms of pressures in managing the balance of payments situation, still they overly concerned themselves with managing their own public finances, and not finding a somewhat middle ground, and supporting countries with little foreign exchange cushion, especially at a time when there were significant Covid-19 vaccine-related import payment needs. in the particular case of Pakistan, while the fiscal deficit was already high in 2019 at 9 percent, at the back of stimulus-related needs, in addition to large payments towards poor performing state-owned enterprises, and energy sector’s high circular debt needs over the years, it continued to remain high at 8 percent in 2020, while in 2021 it is projected to remain elevated at 7.1 percent. Such high fiscal deficits over years, is going to mount further pressure in terms of traditionally high debt repayment needs. According to the Fiscal Monitor report, Pakistan’s general government gross debt, which already stood at a high level of 85.6 percent of GDP in 2019, had further increased to 87.2 percent in 2020, while being projected at 87.7 percent and 83.3 percent in 2021, and 2022, respectively. Given the very modest economic growth rate projected for 2021, after being negative in 2020, tax numbers are likely to remain subdued, while it may make little sense to target the informal sector after the pandemic-related recession had immensely hit employment levels there. hence, a much improved multilateral spirit is needed to better internalize Pakistan’s stimulus spending needs, a very difficult fiscal deficit and debt repayments situation, and the need for better supporting the country in terms of debt relief/moratorium, and higher financial support with very accommodative conditionalities. Otherwise, it will remain much of a talk, for instance by iMF, which in its recent World economic Outlook (WeO) report asked countries to remain accommodative in terms of their fiscal and monetary policy stance. in the absence of such support, developing countries like Pakistan, would have little to contribute to global economic recovery, as the same WeO report highlights in terms of divergent growth scenario and the rising recovery gap between rich, advanced countries and the developing ones. Such support is also important to better enable developing countries make necessary health sector investments during the pandemic, and for following an effective vaccine purchase strategy. During the current iMF-World Bank spring meetings, greater urgency should be shown to hasten the process of likely release of enhanced SDR allocations, reportedly at $650 billion; given after more than a year into the pandemic, this support is long

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ing and mass murder have stirred terror and outrage within the Asian American community. Nationwide protests and rallies in support of Asian Americans are held to #stopasianhate and to end racism against all the marginalized minority groups in America. The motive behind this atrocity has not been confirmed as a hate crime yet, but the fear and terror among the Asian people is fathomable. An FBi report has confirmed 7314 cases of hate crimes in 2019 (highest recorded after 2008.) From insults to murder, the hate against the Asian community is on the rise which according to some critics can be connected to the rhetoric blaming of Asian people, especially the Chinese, for the covid-19 outbreak. however, Asian people have long been the target of hate and bigotry in the USA. This hostile environment is nothing new and is adding fuel to the existing racist and hegemonic ideas. it’s been more than 160 years since people of Asian descent came to the USA during the late 19th century in the era of the industrial Revolution. There was a high demand for low-wage jobs like railroad construction and mining which the immigrants from China started to fill. however, chants of ‘Asians immigrants stealing White Jobs’ started reverberating across the USA. Soon, the Californian Court in People v. hall enforced racism against Asian-Americans by ruling that no person of Asian Descent can file a case against Whites. This reinforced anti-Asian violence and discrimination. After these economic woes came the Chinese exclusion Act 1882 where Congress prodigiously banned Chinese immigration for 20 years and then extended it for 10 more years. Not so surprisingly, the ban remained for more than 60 years, ultimately getting repealed in 1943. The San Francisco Plague outbreak was like a prelude to the recent COViD-19 pandemic. During the former outbreak, the Asian people were blamed for it because the first victim in the stateside was a Chinese. however, it is said that the plague outbreak began with an Australian ship, but the Americans mistreated the people living in

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overdue. Moreover, the iMF has come up with an important suggestion, in the shape of countries applying a temporary wealth tax on the rich, and those that have performed very well during the pandemic in terms of earnings, so as to create an important source for generating finances, which can then be channelled towards meeting pandemic-related needs. The iMF in its Fiscal Monitor report suggested this tax as follows: ‘Advanced economies can increase progressivity of income taxation and increase reliance on inheritance/gift taxes and property taxation. COViD-19 recovery contributions and “excess” corporate profits taxes could be considered. Wealth taxes can also be considered if the previous measures are not enough. emerging market and developing economies should focus on strengthening tax capacity to finance more social spending.’ While the iMF suggests such a wealth tax in advanced countries, it makes sense that such a tax could also be planned for those in very high income brackets in developing countries. Pakistan, which is facing immense fiscal challenges, should also envisage levying such a tax on the wealthy, for the time duration of enhanced pandemic-related stimulus needs. larry elliott, who is the economic editor at The Guardian, in his recent article ‘iMF calls for wealth tax to help cover cost of Covid pandemic’ pointed out in this regard ‘Governments should consider levying higher taxes on the income or wealth of the rich to help pay for the enormous cost of tackling the Covid-19 pandemic, the international Monetary Fund has said. inequality had widened in the year since the virus first hit the global economy, the iMF said, and there was a case for the better off being asked to pay more on a temporary basis to meet crisis-related financial costs.’ Similarly, in a recent Financial Times article ‘iMF proposes ‘solidarity’ tax on pandemic winners and wealthy’ Chris Giles pointed out in this regard ‘high earners and companies that prospered in the coronavirus crisis should pay additional tax to show solidarity with those who were hit hardest by the pandemic, according to the iMF. A temporary tax would help to reduce social inequalities that have been exacerbated by the economic and health crisis of the past year, the fund said in its twice-yearly fiscal monitor on Wednesday. it would also reassure those worst affected that the fight against Covid-19 is a collective endeavour within societies. Vitor Gaspar, the iMF’s head of fiscal affairs, told the Financial Times that a symbolic rise in taxation from those who have prospered over the past year would strengthen social cohesion even if there was not a pressing need to repair the public finances.’ The writer holds PhD in Economics degree from the University of Barcelona, and previously worked at International Monetary Fund.Prior to this, he did MSc. in Economics from the University of York (United Kingdom), and worked at the Ministry of Economic Affairs & Statistics (Pakistan), among other places. He is author of Springer published book (2016) ‘The economic impact of International Monetary Fund programmes: institutional quality, macroeconomic stabilization and economic growth’.He tweets @omerjaved7

Chinatowns, caused property destruction, and sealed their homes forcibly. The racism and hate against Asian-Americans became more prominent in the USA when Japan bombed Pearl harbor and with the advent of World War ii. The already settled immigrants and Japanese Americans were forcefully sent to internment camps by the US government over suspicions and qualms that they might help or aid the enemy. The conditions in camps were life-threatening: extreme cold in winter and raging hot in summer. No spies or moles were found, and only the bigotry, prejudice, and racism of the USA‫ ژز‬became painfully transparent. Considering the legacy of racism handed to Americans, it comes as no surprise when a White officer from Cherokee County Sheriff’s Department named Jay Baker stated the motive of long for killing 8 people as having ‘a really bad day’. The sheer ignorance and absurdity of the statement have gathered widespread criticism from all over the world. The Captain is also accused of downplaying the horrendous actions of the White suspect long who according to Baker has claimed to have a ‘sex addiction’ and thus, it was ‘a temptation for him that he wanted to eliminate’. Calling the Asian women a ‘temptation’ has further highlighted the sad pattern of Asian women as being doubly oppressed, racially and sexually. According to STOP AAPi hATe, since March 2020, 3800 incidents of anti-Asian hate have been reported in which 68 percent of the victims are women. There is also a deep-rooted history of stereotyping Asian women even in pop culture as exotic objects of desire or as hypersexualized. This has led to fetishization and violence against them. Considering that six of the eight people killed in the brutal shooting in Atlanta were Asian-American women, it clearly illustrates how gender and race intersect here. The hopes of achieving the American dream and equal opportunities for every person, irrespective of race, gender or class, keep getting dashed in the wake of increasing hate crimes. The slogans and chants of love trumping hate seem like a utopian concept in the world where a so-called God-fearing White Christian male is presented as a fallen hero who had a really bad day and went on a shooting spree because that is what we all do while experiencing bad days, right? The writer can javnisar@yahoo.com

Email: editorial@pakistantoday.com.pk

reached

Monday, 12 April, 2021

COMMENT 07 Editor’s mail Send your letters to: Letters to Editor, Pakistan Today, 4-Shaarey Fatima Jinnah, Lahore, Pakistan. E-mail: letters@pakistantoday.com.pk Letters should be addressed to Pakistan Today exclusively

Important things in life liFe is full of troubles and discomfort if we are connected with social and political activities. We shall have no time to see nature and its beauty. We shall have no time to see dancing rose and chirping birds in the garden. We shall have no time to walk for ourselves. love will provide this and we shall be able to see chirping birds,dancing roses and shadows of trees . love is a condition in which we have no order. it may be for gender,books,other things. love is one the great giving of Allah in which we turn ourselves towards him or his creatures. love makes us thinkers,to think for nature. To think whom we love with. We shall be free of life’s hardships but the bitter truth is that we shall have no identity and shall be known from that person/thing whom we love but this is not in our control. We shall see him in every object of the universe and feel him in our surroundings. We shall listen to his voice everytime and find him with us. But these are all feelings . True love is for Allah and it will bring more comforts. it will give time to enjoy the beauty of nature more effectively rather then love of his creatures. The base of the emergence of the universe is love and its stability. MuhaMMad Shaban bhatti LahorE

Protect our world

Getting away with a extrajudicial execution Let alone punish him, the Indian government helped the killer escape

Dr Ghulam Nabi Fai

Ne of the darkest chapters of indian judicial partiality was left hanging half closed and banging in the wind when Major Avtar Singh, the killer of internationally known human rights activist and Chairman of Kashmir Commission of Jurists, Advocate Jalil Andrabi, was found dead after he killed his wife and two children, and finally himself, on 9 June 2012, in Selma, California. Avtar Singh, a fugitive from justice, who lived in the hot dry central California community, was clearly haunted by his past, a past that had seen the blood spilled of more than one man by his own hands. he had killed four others to hide the murder of Andrabi, and then he had killed his own family. in killing Jalil Andrabi, Avtar Singh certainly did not act on his own volition. he was only a major. his act was no doubt a response to orders from above and occurred in a longstanding climate of impunity that the indian Army enjoys in Kashmir. And Jalil Andrabi had become a hated, despised man by the Army, a man dangerous to the status quo of continued murder and torture that had been taking place in Kashmir’s jails, interrogation centres and detention facilities for many years. The real killers are still at large. The real killers are not just Aarmy officers but all those from the highest office in india on down through Parliament who had arranged his escape from Kashmir to Canada before he moved illegally to the USA, or looked the other way and refused to extradite him when California authorities notified india that they had their man. They are guilty of maintaining murderous policies, defending hideous acts that take place, encouraging even more grotesque behavior by the mere act of covering up what does occur, and failing to prosecute those who have used the law vindictively and without justifiable reason. Jalil Andrabi had been a friend of mine. his trip to Geneva in August 1995 shortly before his murder to attend the ‘47th session of the United Nations Sub-Commission on human Rights, was at my invitation, as were other international en-

gagements he had attended in Geneva, Washing- with his wife, the car was stopped, and he was ton, New york and elsewhere. On one such oc- taken into custody. Twenty days later, his dead casion, we had traveled by car together, along body was seen floating in the Jhelum River. he with my wife, to attend a national convention of had been shot, his hands were tied and his eyes islamic Society of North America (iSNA) that were gouged out. he had been tortured merciwas held between 1 and 4 September 1995 in lessly, an inhuman brutality which can never Columbus, Ohio, in order to talk and exchange properly be explained. here in Washington, State Department views intimately on various issues on which we shared an interest. it was on this trip that i gained spokesperson Nicholas Burns issued a statement a much deeper appreciation for Jalil Andrabi’s on 29 March 1996, condemning the killing of character. he was a man of deep compassion and Jalil Andrabi and called upon the government of vision, high intellect and deep judicial insight and india to conduct a full and transparent investihad been personally responsible for bringing gation into the circumstances surrounding Anmany human rights violations in Kashmir into drabi’s abduction and murder. Such a statement the light of day. Jalil was also issued by the spoke at the iSNA conUN human Rights vention which was atCommissioner Jose tended by more than It was the US State Ayala lasso condemn25,000 people. ing the murder and callDuring the United Department which in 1995 not ing for an impartial Nations Sub-Commisinvestigation. sion, Dr Nazir Gilani, only condemned the murder dePresident, Jammu and of Jalil Andrabi but asked for spiteUnfortunately this condemnation Kashmir human Rights Commission, hosted a an impartial investigation and at a global level, the government of india dinner in honor of Jalil had hoped the murderers not only did not punish Andrabi which was atthe perpetrator but did tended by many internawould be quickly not even arrest the main tional NGOs. Dr. Gilani culprit. When the played an important role apprehended and punished. Jammu & Kashmir to declare Jalil Andrabi Twenty-five years later, high Court found as a ‘UN Protected PerMajor Avtar Singh to be son’. The following justice has not been served. the person who killed year Dr Gilani organWe hope now that silence and Jalil Andrabi, it ordered ized a memorial for Jalil his arrest in 1997. The Andrabi on 1 April passivity of world powers will judge who did so was 1996 in Geneva to pay punished by immedirespect to his friend prick the conscience of the ately being transferred who fell victim to death Biden Administration and from Kashmir to india. under torture for a cause in addition, because inthat we all so dearly upmotivate it to end these dian army personnel held, and still do. crimes against humanity. have full immunity in During the ComKashmir, the governmission, Jalil Andrabi Their justice is awaited ment of india arranged made multiple intera passport despite the ventions, one on 7 Aucourt order for his argust 1995, under rest, and facilitated his agenda item 18, when he said, ”The atrocities, which are perpetrated exit from india to go to Canada, and then to the upon my people are not aberrations but rather in- USA, to save him from any legal proceedings. it is important to note that it was the US tegral components of a systematic policy. These atrocities are being perpetrated as a weapon of State Department which in 1995 not only condemned the murder of Jalil Andrabi but asked war in order to break the will of the people.” Advocate Jalil Andrabi knew firsthand the for an impartial investigation and had hoped the facts. he had been documenting the human murderers would be quickly apprehended and rights violations by taking information from the punished. Twenty-five years later, justice has not victim’s families and witnesses. in personal con- been served. We hope now that silence and pasversations he had told me how very difficult it sivity of world powers will prick the conscience was for lawyers to meet with the detainees and of the Biden Administration and motivate it to how much they were under pressure, and he had end these crimes against humanity. Their justice also told me that because of his political views is awaited. the indian Army had often harassed him. Dr. Ghulam Nabi Fai is the Secretary i wanted to invite Jalil Andrabi again in 1996 to attend the United Nations Commission General, World Kashmir Awareness Forum, in Geneva, but unfortunately in March of that Washington, D.C. He can be reached at: 1-202year, while he was returning home to Srinagar 607-6435 or gnfai2003@yahoo.com

OUR beautiful world has been going through numerous problems out there. For instance, climate crisis, climate migration and crop failure have been nagging the world and the human race for quite sometime. in the recent “one-on-one” on CNN, Bill Gates was seriously talking about the climate crisis across the globe and immediate steps needed to stop the problem escalating into a catastrophic form. On the other side, i had recently bumped into an informative yet heartrending article about the climate migration in the New york Times Magazine online. That serious article was shedding light on the climate migration caused by climate crisis and also talking about the people affected - called climate migrants/refugees. in particular, countries from Central America and latin America like Mexico and Guatemala have been facing issues like crop failure and climate refugees. Many reports have confirmed that such countries as Guatemala have been literally in the midst of those climate change-related issues despite being home to the vast green areas and natural vistas. One can say that the long-lasting political impasse and ineffective regimes have only added to the mass problems. Thinking of the crop failure due to the climate crisis, it is really high time to stop overlooking such serious issues and take steps to mitigate. The food we have been taking and the economic boom each country has been pining for are all interrelated. They have been the direct results from the robust agriculture activities. Despite various issues and possible challenges, the people in my native areas like Korkai, Tiruchendur, Tuticorin, Tirunelveli, Nagercoil and Kanyakumari in Tamil Nadu have been able to do their agricultural activities - because of reliable water sources and financial backup. Should we really want to protect our planet, then it is very crucial to save countries like Guatemala and their inhabitants from the clutches of climate crises. P SEnthiL Saravana durai MuMbai

Strict SOPs for students The education Minister has recently shared his tweet about the educational institutions . he said class one to eight should remain off and 9th to 12th will be allowed for strict SOPs. Since their exams appear soon. And the students are also suggested to follow SOPs due to Covid-19 active cases in Pakistan and should follow the given SOPs. Remember, this time students should follow all measures for Covid-19. i request the educational authorities of Pakistan to observe educational institutions this time and judge students performance in terms of safety measures. barkatuLLah turbat

Climate threat ThROUGh your esteemed newspaper, i would like to spread awareness regarding global warming. Throughout the world every country is going through a phenomenon of global warming. World health Organization (WhO), and Meteorological Departments and Scientific Research centers are every day conducting new surveys on global warming. According to them, global warming is more deadly than any war The most crucial effects of global warming are seen on peoples’ health, which will cause many skin diseases, and dehydration etc, which will also create health hazards throughout the globe. The depletion of Ozone layer is raising the temperature in all parts of the world, where glaciers are melting rapidly. This will cause floods in some areas while other areas will face scarcity of water. There will be no drinking water left for the future, there will be bad production of crops and acute shortage of food and grocery. There will be no more forests and animals will be affected badly.To control global warming, people should be made aware of it through campaigns and rallies. Consumption of fuel should be reduced to minimum. Road traffic in big cities should be reduced through car pools, and metro train is the best alternative. We should not cut trees, instead, we should plant more trees. i would like you to print this letter in your esteemed newspaper, so that, we can control global warming as soon as possible. hafSa MaLik karachi

Kuwait ties KUWAiTi Foreign Minister Dr Ahmed Naseer Al Sabah said that his country was committed to developing strong relations with Pakistan. however, he held a meeting with prime minister imran Khan and identified education, economy, trade and investment between two countries and tried to intensify cooperation with Pakistan. The two sides are right now delivering the third round of bilateral trade. We expect Pakistan would be very loyal to Kuwait in any types of occurrence. hope the countries maintain good relations in future. barkatuLLah turbat

Monday, 12 April, 2021

08 WORLD VIEW

MAking, BreAking A gloBAl cyBer order THE REPORT OF THE US SENATE COMMITTEE CHARGED WITH INVESTIGATING RUSSIAN INTERFERENCE IN THE 2016 ELECTIONS STATES IN ITS FINDINGS, “THE COMMITTEE HAS SEEN NO EVIDENCE THAT ANY VOTES WERE CHANGED OR ANY VOTING MACHINES WERE MANIPULATED”

russia maTTers

AnAtol lieven

AUL Kolbe is entirely correct in reminding us that there is a great deal we still do not know about the SolarWinds hack. Russian official responsibility does seem probable, but it is not absolutely proven. The strongest statement that the U.S. agencies concerned have come up with is that the hack was “likely Russian in origin.” Kolbe’s article and Erica Borghard’s response are also very valuable for their warning of the need to distinguish between cyber espionage and cyber sabotage or terrorism, as this crucial distinction has been blurred by the loose and lazy term “cyber attack,” as well as by the hysterical response to the SolarWinds hack by some U.S. politicians, with their very dangerous talk of an “act of war.” I would however like to point out in response to Borghard that Russia’s denial of responsibility is absolutely normal in espionage operations, even when these have been unquestionably revealed. In 2006, the British government denied Russian allegations of a British spying operation in Moscow using a device hidden in a fake rock, though after a few years a former British official admitted that the story was entirely true. The difference in the case of cyber operations is that (with all due allowance for freelances and double agents) conventional espionage has been the monopoly of states. On the internet, there are vastly more opportunities for independent actors, seeking personal gain or mere amusement. Most teenage hackers in the U.S. are not working for the CIA. Kolbe is right to say that, given the nature of the hack, strengthening U.S. cyber defenses is a much better response than offense or retaliation. As in response to previous successful espionage operations against the U.S., a

thorough review of practices and reforms of institutions are required. As after 9/11 (not that I wish to compare SolarWinds in any way to the criminality and the horror of that attack), a chaotic mixture of separate, overlapping and mutually antagonistic U.S. agencies must be pulled together into a coordinated and effective system. As usual, this also requires a redirection of funding. Much has been said by military figures and military experts about how Russia is far more likely to use various forms of cyber infiltration and destabilization against the U.S. and nATO than engage in a horribly risky direct military attack; yet the Pentagon budget does not yet remotely reflect this. Cybersecurity is still an orphan compared to programs like additional main battle tanks, which the Army says it does not need and for which there are very few conceivable uses. I feel that two other things should be added to Kolbe’s and Borghard’s remarks. The first is that a recognition of the need to make careful distinctions between different categories of cyber operations, and to shun the use of emotive and misleading language about “attacks,” should also be extended to the field of political influence via the internet. Using cyberspace to spread propaganda, influence political outcomes and reveal or invent damaging information is an extension of tactics that have been used in different ways for millennia—including by the U.S. Actually trying to rig U.S. elections by tampering with the count online would be completely different and vastly more serious. It would be cyber sabotage but more dangerous even than the sabotage of infrastructure because it would undermine the credibility and legitimacy of the entire U.S. democratic process. Any such operation should certainly be regarded as an “attack” and should prompt strong U.S. retaliation. Russia has certainly engaged in influence operations—though as calmer heads have pointed out, their impact appears tiny in proportion both to the immense mass of domestic U.S. political information and disinformation on the web and to the impact of revelations such as those of Edward Snowden. Russian intelligence did not however attempt to tamper with the vote itself. As the report of the U.S. Senate Committee charged with investigating Russian interference in the 2016 elections states in its

A new politicAl eArthquAke shAkes BrAzil

findings, “The Committee has seen no evidence that any votes were changed or any voting machines were manipulated.” It is also worth pointing out that in this report, as in many cases, the actual words of U.S. intelligence services were more tentative than the way they were reproduced by the media and politicians: “Dr. Samuel Liles, Acting Director of the Cyber Analysis Division within DHS’s [Department of Homeland Security’s] Office of Intelligence and Analysis (I&A), testified to the Committee on June 21, 2017, that ‘by late September, we determined that internet-connected election-related networks in 21 states were potentially targeted by Russian government cyber actors’” [italics mine]. This leads me to my final point: that to be effective in constraining behavior, limiting disputes and maintaining peace, international conventions do have to be, to a reasonable extent, held and shared in common—and that applies to the U.S. as well as its rivals. Few things have been more damaging to U.S. and European hopes of a “rules-based global order” than the perception that the U.S. both makes the rules and breaks them whenever it sees fit, including in cyberspace. U.S. audiences have a tendency to accept this, because of an instinctive belief that the defense and spread of democracy gives the U.S. rights that are denied to other states; but, of course, neither international traditions nor common sense allow any such assumption. States that see the U.S. behaving in a certain way—especially toward them—will most certainly behave in the same way themselves. This applies in the first instance to actual cyber sabotage by states. By far the most effective use of this to date has been the Stuxnet cyber operation, attributed to but denied by the U.S. and Israel, to damage Iran’s nuclear program. In the Iranian mind, this has been linked— not unreasonably—with the Israeli campaign (whether or not aided by U.S. intelligence we do not know) to assassinate Iranian nuclear scientists. According to the new York Times, the U.S. has also planted “malware” in Russia’s energy grid in a way that appears to exceed what Russia has yet done against the U.S.: “Since at least 2012, current and former officials say, the United States has put reconnaissance probes into the control systems of the

Anatol Lieven is a professor at Georgetown University in Qatar and a senior fellow of the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft in Washington D.C.

The Belfast Agreement is the best way out of this mess

The supreme court’s split 3-2 decision potentially paves the way for former President Lula to challenge President Bolsonaro in the 2022 Brazilian presidential election Global americans As Brazil spirals deeper into the epidemiological crisis caused by COVID-19, a new political dilemma has also arisen in the South American nation. Following President Jair Bolsonaro’s sudden and unexpected firing of Minister of Defense General Fernando Azevedo e Silva last Monday, the chiefs of the Brazilian army, navy, and air force all announced their resignations in response. According to the Folha de São Paulo newspaper, this marks the first time in history that the top commanders of all three branches of the Brazilian armed forces have resigned in unison. In recent months, tensions had erupted between the president and Azevedo e Silva—once close friends and political allies—as a result of President Bolsonaro’s persistent attempts to politicize the Brazilian military toward his own ends. Brazilian journalists have reported that Azevedo e Silva’s firing came after the general stood firm in insisting to the president that the loyalty of the military lies with the Brazilian constitution, rather than with President Bolsonaro himself. The mass exodus in the Ministry of Defense occurred only hours after President Bolsonaro’s close ally and Minister of Foreign Affairs Ernesto Araújo tendered his own resignation, stepping down amid intense criticism of his villainization of China and unequivocal embrace of the rhetoric and policies of former U.S. President Donald Trump. Elsewhere in the Brazilian political world—and adding to President Bolsonaro’s woes—Brazil’s supreme court “has ruled that the former judge Sergio Moro was biased in the way he oversaw former President Luiz Inácio ‘Lula’ da Silva’s corruption trial, providing vindication for the leftist leader who has long claimed political persecution.” The supreme court’s split 3-2 decision potentially paves the way for former President Lula to challenge President Bolsonaro in the 2022 Brazilian presidential election, setting up a possible electoral clash between two of the most polarizing figures in modern Brazilian political history. This week’s political turmoil has only been confounded by the alarming rates of COVID-19 infection and deaths in Brazil. The country is averaging 2,710 deaths per day due to COVID-19. Some experts predict that Brazil will reach 500,000 deaths by the summer and surpass the U.S. as the nation that has suffered the most COVID-19 deaths by the end of this year. The Brazilian health system has been struggling under enormous strain for the past several weeks, as hospital beds, oxygen tanks, and spaces in ICU units have become increasingly inaccessible for patients. Hopes for an imminent stabilization with respect to the country’s public health crisis have been further stymied by Brazil’s arduously slow vaccine rollout: less than two percent of the country’s general population reported to be fully vaccinated. Due to the lack of accessible vaccines in their own country, some Brazilians have resorted to crossing the border into Uruguay or French Guiana in an effort to secure their jab. Alarmingly, COVID-19 related deaths of young Brazilians (ages 30-59) have skyrocketed 317 percent since the beginning of the year, exposing the continued threat that the disease poses to all sectors of society and provoking major oxygen shortages nationwide.

Russian electric grid. But now the American strategy has shifted more toward offense, officials say, with the placement of potentially crippling malware inside the Russian system at a depth and with an aggressiveness that had never been tried before. It is intended partly as a warning, and partly to be poised to conduct cyberstrikes if a major conflict broke out between Washington and Moscow.” As a “deterrent” against genuine Russian attacks on the U.S., this may perhaps make sense. But this is precisely why we must be very clear indeed about what really constitutes an attack, and avoid loose and hysterical language on the subject. If the U.S. released such malware in response to a mere Russian cyber espionage operation, Russia would have every justification to turn to sabotage in its turn, creating a truly disastrous cycle of escalation. A degree of balance and objectivity is also required in the area of political operations on the net. The U.S. maintains an overt international propaganda apparatus that vastly exceeds in scope and effectiveness anything that Russia or China can manage. The U.S. calls it “public diplomacy” and sees this machine as dedicated to propagating freedom and democracy. While this is true in certain parts of the world, my Arab students here in Qatar are extremely cynical on this subject—understandably enough, given the past and present U.S. record of supporting ruthless dictatorships in the Middle East. Like Soviet intelligence, the FBI and CIA in the 1960s and 70s also used “black propaganda”—the planting of misinformation to damage rival states and hostile political forces—on a large scale. Though it is not clear how active U.S. intelligence is in this area today, the past has obviously left a legacy of suspicion. In an ideal world, all states would eschew these tactics. In the real world, they will have to live with each other’s behavior—irritated no doubt, but without overreacting. Cyberspace increases the opportunities for influence operations of all kind—but it does not change the basic equations involved.

irish Times

Bertie Ahern

n the 23rd anniversary of the Belfast Agreement, the northern Ireland protocol dominates the political atmosphere in northern Ireland. It is a compromise born out of intense negotiations and political brinkmanship between the European Union and the UK, and it brings both challenges and opportunities. The means of meeting both are found within the agreement reached almost a generation ago – and in the protocol. The protocol itself was not designed to define identity, nor to appeal to one community over the other. It exists to protect the integrity of the European single market. It is imperfect, but it presents practical solutions that its detractors wish to ignore. Valuable opportunities presented by the protocol for the people of northern Ireland have been disregarded and it has instead become a lightning rod for division, paralysing politics and poisoning the atmosphere. Real politics on issues that can deliver for people are on hold. Infrastructural investment, hospital waiting lists and reform of the education system languish in a vacuum. History teaches that every vacuum is filled, and so violence is spiralling again. Protests propel young people back on to the streets, re-enacting a past that all political parties, and both governments, strived to ensure this generation would never see. Regrettably, a costly misstep by the EU was a catalyst for difficulty, but the problem now is compounded by unnecessary politicking, rather than peace-making. The EU’s move to activate article 16 was aimed at blocking the

use of northern Ireland as a back door to bring vaccines into Britain. This raised the alarm politically, with the Irish Government, the UK government, Sinn Féin, the SDLP, the DUP and other unionists all raising their concerns. Mistrust and division have resulted. Dialogue is the only solution. The combined potential within the Belfast Agreement and the northern Ireland protocol can provide a pathway to restoring peace and rebuilding trust. This is the only overarching framework for stability and reconciliation in northern Ireland and on the island of Ireland. It is the means to restore stability in communities and in politics that represent them. I urge northern Ireland’s leaders to read again the Belfast Agreement. It contains the practical solutions that I know will provide the framework and processes to lead us out of this hiatus and repair relationships. It has worked well in the past and is the basis for a better future. Despite the political problems throughout the Brexit negotiations, in January 2020, we saw one positive chink of light – the re-establishment of the northern Ireland Executive. It was, and is a demonstration that no matter how fraught the political landscape may be, there is a solid bedrock for democracy in northern Ireland and, provided it is nourished, it will flourish. That requires all three strands within the Belfast Agreement framework to be fully operational, not just in times of crisis but constantly. The northern Ireland Assembly and Executive, the north-South Ministerial Council (to develop co-operation between both parts of Ireland), the British-Irish Council (to promote the relationship between Ireland and Britain) collectively hold the key to resolving the unnecessary violence that we have witnessed in northern Ireland in recent weeks. To restore trust and repair relationships there are three initiatives that can be applied under these strands without much effort. Firstly, all political parties in northern Ireland must work together alongside their civic leaders and commit to speak as one voice. Unity with purpose is needed to quell the growing anger and to quiet the volatility that will invariably lead us back to an escalation of violence if left unchecked. They must collectively condemn the violence and create a pathway forward for all communities. Secondly, it is incumbent on both governments to act as brokers of peace and assert

their respective roles as custodians of the Belfast Agreement. After all, it is their responsibility to ensure that this agreement, which is underpinned by international law, prevails. An urgent meeting of the British-Irish governmental council should be arranged to provide the space for calm dialogue and creative problem-solving for the common good. Finally, since the 1990s enormously important relationships have been cultivated by ex-combatants and religious leaders on all sides behind the scenes. It is those relationships that have been successful in dealing with the complex difficulties of the marching seasons. Enduring partnerships have assiduously resolved tensions at a low level before they escalated to flashpoints. Mutual respect, trust and the respect of an alternative perspective for the greater good is what sustains these relationships. Community issues can be resolved from within. The northern Ireland Assembly, Executive and both governments must encourage and foster those relationships at every turn. It should not be forgotten that the protocol also provides important trading opportunities for northern Ireland. Politicians should work together to capitalise on a unique opportunity that allows northern Ireland-UK trade and direct access to the EU single market for local business. It is equally important that the processes provided for by the withdrawal agreement – the Specialised and Joint Committees – be utilised to establish clear milestones and work on what is possible, instead of focusing on what cannot be achieved. Committees provided for under the withdrawal agreement could also provide a place for problem-solving and building relationships. To his credit Minister for Foreign Affairs Simon Coveney has been endeavouring to find practical solutions to resolve problems; he will require the assistance of EU leaders and the British government if he is to succeed. The planned protests are disquieting. A generation not yet born 23 years ago, cannot become the one that allows us to slip back to violence. However fragile the fundamentals of our hard-won peace may seem, it is a foundation for the future. Solid foundations need to be set in stone. The Belfast Agreement is the basis for peaceful politics and mutual respect across these islands. Bertie Ahern was taoiseach from June 1997 until May 2008.

monday, 12 april, 2021

BuSineSS 09

iSlamaBad

CCP oPPoSeS fixinG SuGAr PriCe, feArS illeGAl movement of CommoDity ISLAMABAD

Sindh ranks first in highest average food price gap, Punjab last The federal capital emerged third after Balochistan and Sindh in terms of gap between actual prices of essential food items and rates fixed by the district administrations. The Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) ranks the provinces with Islamabad on a weekly basis. The exercise is aimed at highlighting issues of governance in controlling the prices. The average gap of 20.25 per cent was recorded in Islamabad between market prices of food items and the rates fixed by district administration, followed by 16.41pc in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and 15.28pc in Punjab. The average price gap in Sindh is 38.69pc followed by 33.28pc in Balochistan. MONITORING REPORT

Govt fixes nisab for zakat The government has fixed Nisab for Zakat deduction on bank accounts for the current lunar year at Rs80,933. According to a notification issued by the Administrator General Zakat (AGZ) for the lunar year 1441-42 Hijri, people having a minimum of Rs80,933 balance in savings, profit and loss sharing or similar bank accounts on the first day of Ramzan will be liable to pay 2.5 per cent zakat on the total balance. MONITORING REPORT

KP govt utilises mere 35pc of ADP funds as third quarter ends PESHAWAR STAFF REPORT

The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) government has managed to spend only 35 per cent of the annual development budget (ADP) fund during the first nine months of the current fiscal year (9MFY21). Documents show that the provincial government had allocated Rs148.571 billion for the province out of which the provincial government has spent Rs57.765 billion up till now. Similarly, the government had allocated Rs34.286 billion for tribal districts in the development programme of the current financial year but only Rs9.797 billion was spent, Rs49 billion was allocated under the Accelerated Implementation Programme (AIP) under the Tribal Decade Strategy (TDS) but the government spent only Rs14.418 billion. According to the third quarter report compiled by the Department of Planning and Development, Rs10.90 billion was spent on road construction, Rs6.31 billion on irrigation, Rs5.70 billion on health, Rs3.53 billion on primary and secondary education, Rs3.29 billion on higher education, Rs2.50 billion on agriculture, Rs 1.52 billion on forests, Rs930 million on law and justice, Rs337 million on transport, Rs85 million on social welfare, Rs70 million on finance, Rs64 million in welfare population, Rs22 million on science and information technology (IT), Rs0.1 million on rehabilitation and resettlement while zero amount was spent on the environment. Similarly, zero amount has been spent on food, science and IT, transport, urban development, justice and law, minerals, rehabilitation and resettlement under the AIP of the Tribal Decade Strategy (TDS).

GHULAM ABBAS

HE Competition Commission of Pakistan (CCP) has expressed reservations over the Punjab government’s decision to fix sugar price, warning that it would cause movement of sugar from Punjab to other provinces apart from having other consequences. The commission in its Policy Note, issued on Saturday, advised the government to deregulate the sugar industry to promote free trade mechanisms where price signals can be effectively conveyed to all stakeholders to attract investment, increase competitiveness, and reduce distortions in local supply. According to sources, the Policy Note was issued in the context of a circular issued by the provincial government for fixing the maximum retail price of sugar at Rs85 per kg. The CCP observed that since Punjab is the only province to set a rate ceiling, one immediate effect could be that sugar could move to other provinces where no price ceiling is in place and it can command a higher market price. The commission highlighted that the price control could also encourage hoarding by suppliers or impulsive buying by consumers, especially ahead of Ramzan, both of which will likely result in a shortage in the market and even higher prices for consumers. “The possibility of the political fallout of higher prices makes governments frequently resort to regulating prices, particularly in times of high inflation and shortages,” said the watchdog. However, it added that the promulgation of the Sugar (Supply-Chain Management) Order, 2021 by

COMMISSION WARNS OF HOARDING, ADVISES DEREGULATING SUGAR INDUSTRY the Punjab government to prevent hoarding of sugar by the mills is a step in the right direction. Due to various factors such as economies of scale, labour, equipment productivity and access to crop vary between different mills, it may not be possible for all the mills to produce sugar at the same cost and offer the same rate. Imposing the maximum retail price could mean that some mills, which must purchase sugarcane at the minimum support price, may not be able to break even. In this case, they would be under pressure to reduce the cost below government rate,” the note says. As per officials, the price of sugarcane is the major cost factor in production. Mills may be hesitant to buy sugarcane at the minimum support price (MSP) and pressurise farmers to sell sugarcane below the MSP, which could force farmers to shift from cultivating sugarcane to other crops; thus setting the stage for reduced domestic production and undesirable shortages in the market in future. As a result of this, the government may have to import sugar and pay the price in the shape of a rising import bill for a commodity for which sufficient land and infrastructure is available in the country. “If the market is deregulated, with free entry and exit, regulations and repeated interventions would not be needed,” the CCP said, adding that in an environment of open market competition, even mandatory

crushing laws would not be required. It added that most of the problems in the sugar sector stem from both over-regulation and lack of competition. The commission observed that the price fixing, particularly at the time of Ramzan, is also likely to benefit industrial consumers and perhaps, not the target poor population because industrial consumers make up for about 70pc of total consumption. For the end consumers, the prices may go up once such price fixing is lifted, the note stressed. The CCP has blamed policymakers for giving protection to the country’s sugar industry through tariffs and subsidies that have not allowed it to develop the necessary capability to compete in the international market for sugar by-products including ethanol which was in much higher demand compared to sugar itself. To tackle the issues, the commission suggested a more efficient agriculture policy, which would take all factors into consideration, including domestic exigencies as well as international reality and direction. “This will be in line with the federal government’s desire to achieve effective deregulation,” the note said. The CCP also recommended the provincial government to focus on R&D in yield and quality and to make technological improvements in the processes at the mills to make the manufacturing process more efficient and cost productive. Additionally, it recommended the Punjab government adopt a more efficient agriculture policy, which would take all factors into consideration, including domestic exigencies as well as international reality and direction. “Deregulation, removing subsidies and ensuring competition in the market are much better options than setting a price ceiling,” the Policy Note concluded.

China invites Pakistani firms to online trade fair ISLAMABAD APP

Minister Counsellor Embassy of China Xie Gouxiang has invited Pakistani companies to attend the Canton Fair and explore prospects for exporting their products around the world. The development came during an online meeting between the Chinese envoy and Islamabad Chamber of Commerce and Industry (ICCI) President Sardar Yasir Ilyas Khan wherein the latter was briefed about the details of the upcoming 129th China Import and Export Fair, which will be held online between April 15 to 24, due to Covid-19 pandemic. Gouxiang said the fair was a platform for win-win cooperation between different countries where businessmen from all over the world connected with each other, shared opportunities and pursued common development goals. To further help companies reduce

Pakistani companies in the Canton Fair would contribute significantly to promote economic and trade ties between China and Pakistan. Speaking on the occasion, Sardar Yasir Ilyas Khan, thanked Xie Gouxiang for providing comprehensive informa-

their production and operation costs, he said that the Canton Fair would continue to waive exhibitors’ fees, and not charge any fee to cross-border e-commerce platforms participating in synchronised activities either. He said that more participation of

Stone crusting industry calls oﬀ strike ISLAMABAD APP

The stone crushing industry called off its strike on Saturday after successful negotiations with Federal Minister for Finance Hammad Azhar, who directed the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) to resolve the industry’s tax related issues immediately. The finance minister issued these directives in a meeting with a delegation of senior members of Stone Crushing Associations (SCA), led by the Minister for Labour and Human Resource, Punjab Ansar Majeed Khan at the Finance Division. During the meeting, SCA members informed the finance minister about matters related to taxation, es-

pecially sales tax and requested to streamline the whole process by removing anomalies to facilitate the stone crushing industry across the board. Azhar directed the tax authority to hold consultative sessions with the representatives of the SCA and work out modalities for smooth enforcement of taxation benchmarks with sub-categories after evolving consensus among key stakeholders. He said the stone crushing is of fundamental importance as it was a source of building blocks for the construction and reiterated the government’s all-out support in promoting the construction industry, which he said triggered an impressive growth underpinning V-shape recovery amid the Covid-19 pandemic.

Bitcoin above $60,000 again on talk of reduced supply NEW YORK AGENCIES

Bitcoin rose above $60,000 to approach record highs on the weekend, breaking out of a two-week tight range and propelled by talk of constrained new supplies against evidence of wider adoption. The world’s biggest and best-known cryptocurrency hit $61,222.22 on Saturday, its highest in nearly a month. It was slightly lower at $59,907 at 0500 GMT on Sunday. Bitcoin (BTC) is up 116% from the year’s low of $27,734 on Jan. 4. It crossed the $60,000 mark for the first time on March 13, hitting a record $61,781.83 on Bitstamp

tion about the benefits of attending the online fair and assured that ICCI member companies would attend the event. He appreciated the signing of the second phase of the China-Pakistan Free Trade Agreement (CPFTA-II) and emphasised that China should provide enhanced market access to Pakistan products as imports from China stood at $12.7 billion and exports from Pakistan to China at $1.85 billion in 2019. Khan said that Pakistan was establishing many Special Economic Zones (SEZs) under CPEC and Chinese companies should transfer technology to set up JVs with Pakistani counterparts on a 50 per cent equity basis. “This would help the local industry to upgrade itself and achieve better growth,” he said. The ICCI president also discussed many other options for promoting bilateral trade and economic relations between Pakistan and China.

exchange, just after U.S. President Joe Biden signed his $1.9 trillion fiscal stimulus package into law. Justin d’Anethan, sales manager at digital asset company Diginex in Hong Kong, said investors had turned their attention to stock markets and other cryptocurrencies in the past couple of weeks, leaving Bitcoin idling in the upper 50thousand dollar levels. “That changed just yesterday when we pierced through 60K. With miners not selling recently minted coins, on-exchange reserves hitting multi-year lows and an incessant stream of corporates, funds, large and small investors piling into BTC, we

punched through,” he said. Bitcoin’s stunning gains this year have been driven by its mainstream acceptance as an investment and a means of payment, accompanied by the rush of retail cash into stocks, exchange-traded funds and other risky assets. It soared this year as major firms, such as BNY Mellon, asset manager BlackRock Inc, credit card giant Mastercard Inc, backed cryptocurrencies, while those such as Tesla Inc Square Inc and MicroStrategy Inc invested in bitcoin. Big U.S. banks such as Morgan Stanley are also seeking to offer wealth management clients access to bitcoin funds.

CMYK

Monday, 12 April, 2021

10 FOREIGN NEWS

ISLAMABAD

iran atomic agency says nUclear facility hit by act of 'terrorism' TEHRAN

Israel pledges to work wIth Us on Iran

AGENCIES

RAN'S atomic energy organisation said om Sunday that the Natanz nuclear facility was hit by a terrorist act, hours after it said an "accident" had caused a power failure there. The episode came a day after the Islamic Republic said that it had started up advanced uranium enrichment centrifuges at the site, in a breach of its commitments under a troubled 2015 deal with world powers. Ali Akbar Salehi, the head of the Iran Atomic Energy Organisation (IAEO), condemned a "futile" act, while urging the international community to "confront this anti-nuclear terrorism", in a statement carried by state television. The attack was carried out by "opponents of the country's industrial and political progress, who aim to prevent development of a thriving nuclear industry," he said, without specifying what country or entity might be behind the alleged sabotage. IAEO spokesman Behrouz Kamalvandi had earlier reported an accident at the enrich-

ment facility caused by a "power failure". No-one was injured and there was no radioactive release, the official Fars news agency reported, citing the spokesman. Kamalvandi said that there had been "an accident in part of the electrical circuit of the enrichment facility" at the Natanz complex near Tehran. "The causes of the accident are under investigation and more details will be released later," he added, before the later statement put out by the agency's chief. He did not say whether power was cut only in the enrichment facility or across other installations at the site. Malek Chariati, spokesman for the Iranian parliament's energy commission, took to Twitter to allege sabotage. "This incident, coming (the day after) National Nuclear Technology Day, as Iran endeavours to press the West into lifting sanctions, is strongly suspected to be sabotage or infiltration," Chariati said. Iran's President Hassan Rouhani had on Saturday inaugurated a cascade of cen-

21 miners trapped after Xinjiang coal mine accident: chinese media BEIJING

trifuges for enriching uranium and two test cascades at Natanz, in a ceremony broadcast by state television. An Israeli public broadcast journalist, Amichai Stein, said on Twitter "the assessment is that the fault" at Natanz is the "result of an Israeli cyber operation", without elaborating or providing evidence to corroborate his claim. Natanz, a facility earlier targeted by the Stuxnet computer virus, was largely built underground to withstand enemy airstrikes. It became a flashpoint for Western fears about Iran’s nuclear programme in 2002, when satellite photos showed Iran building its underground centrifuges facility at the site, some 200 kilometers (125 miles) south of the capital, Tehran. Natanz suffered a mysterious explosion at its advanced centrifuge assembly plant in July that authorities later described as sabotage. Iran now is rebuilding that facility deep inside a nearby mountain. Israel, Iran’s regional archenemy, has

Prince Charles pays tribute to 'my dear papa' Philip for devoted service WINDSOR AGENCIES

AGENCIES

Eight miners have been rescued and 21 remain trapped in a coal mine that flooded in northwest China’s Xinjiang region, Chinese state news agency Xinhua reported on Sunday, citing a local emergency department. A part of the mine flooded leading to power outages just after 6:00 pm on Saturday when 29 miners were working at the mine located in Xinjiang’s Hutubi county, the report said. In a separate report, state media outlet Global Times said 12 of the miners who remain trapped have been located in the mine as of Sunday and are expected to be rescued, while a further nine workers have not been located. Chinese mines are among the deadliest in the world. Ten gold miners were confirmed dead in January following an explosion in a mine in China’s coastal Shandong province. In December, 23 people were killed after being trapped in a mine in the southwestern city of Chongqing. Three months earlier, 16 people died in a separate coal mine in the same area. State media on Sunday said rescue efforts in the Xinjiang mine were ongoing.

china, russia undermine international myanmar response, eU's top diplomat says BRUSSELS AGENCIES

The European Union’s top diplomat said on Sunday Russia and China were hampering a united international response to Myanmar’s military coup and that the EU could offer more economic incentives if democracy returns to the country. “It comes as no surprise that Russia and China are blocking the attempts of the U.N. Security Council, for example to impose an arms embargo,” EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said in a blog post. “Geopolitical competition in Myanmar will make it very difficult to find common ground,” said Borrell, who speaks on behalf of the 27 EU member states. “But we have a duty to try.” Security forces have killed more than 700 unarmed protesters, including 46 children, since the military seized power from the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi in a Feb. 1 coup, according to a tally by the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP) activist group. That included 82 people killed in the town of Bago, near Yangon, on Friday, which the AAPP called a “killing field”. “The world watches in horror, as the army uses violence against its own people,” Borrell said. China and Russia both have ties to Myanmar’s armed forces, as the first and second largest suppliers of weapons to the country, respectively. The U.N. Security Council last week called for the release of Suu Kyi and others detained by the military but stopped short of condemning the coup. The EU is preparing fresh sanctions on individuals and companies owned by the Myanmar military. The bloc in March agreed a first set of sanctions on 11 individuals linked to the coup, including the commander-in-chief of the military. While EU economic leverage in the country is relatively small, Borrell said the EU could offer to increase its economic ties with Myanmar if democracy is restored. That could include more trade and investments in sustainable development, he said.

been suspected of carrying out an attack there, as well as launching other assaults, as world powers now negotiate with Tehran in Vienna over its nuclear deal. Iran also blamed Israel for the killing of a scientist who began the country’s military nuclear program decades earlier. Israel has not claimed any of the attacks, though Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu repeatedly has described Iran as the major threat faced by his country in recent weeks. Natanz today hosts the country’s main uranium enrichment facility. In its long underground halls, centrifuges rapidly spin uranium hexafluoride gas to enrich uranium. On Saturday, Iran announced it had launched a chain of 164 IR-6 centrifuges at the plant. Officials also began testing the IR9 centrifuge, which they say will enrich uranium 50 times faster than Iran’s first-generation centrifuges, the IR-1. The nuclear deal limited Iran to using only IR-1s for enrichment. Since then-president Donald Trump’s withdrawal from the Iran nuclear deal in 2018, Tehran has abandoned all the limits of its uranium stockpile. It now enriches up to

20 per cent purity, a technical step away from weapons-grade levels of 90 per cent. Iran maintains its nuclear programme is for peaceful purposes, but fears about Tehran having the ability to make a bomb saw world powers reach the deal with the Islamic Republic in 2015. The deal lifted economic sanctions on Iran in exchange for it limiting its programme and allowing inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to keep a close watch on its work. On Tuesday, an Iranian cargo ship said to serve as a floating base for Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard forces off the coast of Yemen was struck by an explosion, likely from a limpet mine. Iran has blamed Israel for the blast. That attack escalated a long-running shadow war in Mideast waterways targeting shipping in the region. ISRAEL PLEDGES TO WORK WITH US ON IRAN: Israel’s defence minister pledged on Sunday to cooperate with the United States on Iran, voicing hope that Israeli security would be safeguarded under any renewed Iranian nuclear deal that Washington reaches. “Israel views the United States as a full partner across all operational theatres, not the least Iran,” Benny Gantz said after hosting visiting US Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin. “And we will work closely with our American allies to ensure that any new agreement with Iran will secure the vital interests of the world and the United States, prevent a dangerous arms race in our region and protect the State of Israel.”

Britain’s Prince Charles paid a personal tribute on Saturday to his “dear papa” Prince Philip, saying the royal family missed him enormously and that the 99year-old would have been amazed at the touching reaction across the world to his death. Philip, the husband of Britain’s Queen Elizabeth who had been at her side throughout her recordbreaking 69-year reign, died at Windsor Castle on Friday. “As you can imagine, my family and I miss my father enormously,” Charles, the couple’s eldest son and heir to the throne, said outside his Highgrove House home in west England. “My dear papa was a very special person who I think above all else would have been amazed by the reaction and the touching things that have been said about him and from that point of view we are, my family, deeply grateful for all that. It will sustain us in this particular loss and at this particularly sad time.” Buckingham Palace announced that the funeral for Philip would be held on April 17, and that the

queen’s grandson Prince Harry, who had become estranged from the family after moving to the United States with his wife Meghan, would attend. Meghan, who is pregnant with their second child, will not attend on doctor’s advice, the palace said. The palace said long-established plans for the funeral had to be redrawn and scaled down because of Covid-19 restrictions, but they remained very much in line with Philip’s wishes. Philip, who was officially known as the Duke of Edinburgh, will be given a ceremonial royal funeral, not a state funeral, as planned before the pandemic. But there will be no public processions, and it will be held entirely within the grounds of Windsor Castle and limited to 30 mourners. British Prime Minister Boris Johnson will not be among the guests in order to make space for as many family members as possible, his office said. FUNERAL AT WINDSOR: “The occasion will still celebrate and recognise the Duke’s life and his more than 70 years of service to the queen, the UK and the Commonwealth,” a palace spokesman said. The funeral, which will be broadcast on live television, will be held at the castle’s St George’s Chapel and will be preceded by a minute’s silence

across the country. Charles and other members of the royal family will walk behind a specially-modified Land Rover, which Philip helped design. At the conclusion of the service, Philip will be interred in the Royal Vault. Exact details of who will attending were not released, but among those present will be Harry, the Duke of Sussex, whose explosive interview with Oprah Winfrey alongside Meghan last month plunged the royal family into its greatest crisis in decades. During the interview, Meghan said her pleas for help while she felt suicidal were ignored and that one unnamed member of the family had asked how dark their unborn child’s skin might be. Harry also bemoaned his family’s reaction to their decision to step back from official duties and move to Los Angeles. “The Duke of Sussex is planning to attend,” the palace spokesman said. “The Duchess of Sussex has been advised by her physician not to travel. So the Duke will be attending.” Buckingham Palace stressed the service would be held in line with government coronavirus guidelines, meaning members of the royal family, including the queen, would be expected to wear a mask.

Jordan's king abdullah and estranged prince hamza make first joint appearance since rift AMMAN AGENCIES

Jordan’s King Abdullah and former crown prince and half-brother Prince Hamza made their first joint appearance since a rift shook the country, attending a ceremony on Sunday marking 100 years of independence. State media showed the monarch and other members of the royal family laying wreaths at the memorial to the unknown soldier and tombs of royalty in

the Raghdan palace in Amman. Hamza pledged allegiance to King Abdullah late on Monday following mediation by the royal family, two days after the military warned him over actions that it said were undermining Jordan’s security and stability. On Wednesday, King Jordan said sedition had been quashed and Hamza was “under my care” with his family at his palace. But Hamza’s absence after he appeared in a video on April 3 saying he had been ordered to stay at home had led to speculation

about his whereabouts. In announcing last week that the military had warned Hamza over his actions, the government said that Hamza had liaised with people linked to foreign parties seeking to destabilise Jordan and that he had been under investigation for some time. Hamza had been widely expected to have succeeded Abdullah as Jordan’s next king, until the monarch made Prince Hussein his heir instead in 2004, in line with family tradition.

South African variant can 'break through' Pfizer vaccine, Israeli study says AGENCIES The coronavirus variant discovered in South Africa can “break through” Pfizer/BioNTech’s Covid-19 vaccine to some extent, a real-world data study in Israel found, though its prevalence in the country is low and the research has not been peer reviewed. The study, released on Saturday, compared almost 400 people who had tested positive for COVID19, 14 days or more after they received one or two doses of the vaccine, against the same number of unvaccinated patients with the disease. It matched age and gender, among other characteristics. The South African variant, B.1.351, was found to make up about 1% of all the Covid-19 cases across all the people studied, according to the study by Tel Aviv University and Israel’s largest healthcare provider, Clalit. But among patients who had received two doses of the vaccine, the variant’s prevalence rate was eight times higher than those unvaccinated - 5.4% versus 0.7%. This suggests the vaccine is less effective against the South African variant, compared with the

original coronavirus and a variant first identified in Britain that has come to comprise nearly all Covid-19 cases in Israel, the researchers said. “We found a disproportionately higher rate of the South African variant among people vaccinated with a second dose, compared to the unvaccinated group. This means that the South African variant is able, to some extent, to break through the vaccine’s protection,” said Tel Aviv University’s Adi Stern. The researchers cautioned, though, that the study only had a small sample size of people infected with the South African variant because of its rarity in Israel. They also said the research was not intended to deduce overall vaccine effectiveness against any variant, since it only looked at people who had already tested positive for Covid-19, not at overall infection rates. Pfizer and BioNTech could not be immediately reached for comment outside business hours. The companies said on April 1 that their vaccine was around 91% effective at preventing Covid-19, citing updated trial data that included participants inoculated for up to six months.

In respect to the South African variant, they said that among a group of 800 study volunteers in South Africa, where B.1.351 is widespread, there were nine cases of Covid-19, all of which occurred among participants who got the placebo. Of those nine cases, six were among individuals infected with the South African variant. Some previous studies have indicated that the Pfizer/BioNTech shot was less potent against the B.1.351 variant than against other variants of the coronavirus, but still offered a robust defence. While the results of the study may cause concern, the low prevalence of the South African strain was encouraging, according to Stern. “Even if the South African variant does break through the vaccine’s protection, it has not spread widely through the population,” said Stern, adding that the British variant may be “blocking” the spread of the South African strain. Almost 53% of Israel’s 9.3 million population has received both Pfizer doses. Israel has largely reopened its economy in recent weeks while the pandemic appears to be receding, with infection rates, severe illness and hospitalizations dropping sharply.

Monday, 12 April, 2021

ISLAMABAD

DjOKOviC, NADAL BeGiN ROAD tO ROLAND GARROS iN MONte CARLO DYNAMIC DUO HAVEN’T PLAYED SINCE THE AUSTRALIAN OPEN IN FEBRUARY; SEEDED TO MEET IN THE FINAL OF THE FRENCH OPEN MONACO

AGENCIES

OVAK Djokovic and Rafael Nadal begin their clay court seasons in Monte Carlo this week, seeded to meet in the final which would likely be a dress rehearsal for another title showdown at Roland Garros in June. Djokovic and Nadal haven’t played since the delayed Australian Open in February where the world number one Serb claimed his ninth Melbourne title and 18th career major. He has also since surpassed Roger Federer’s record for weeks at number one and will start a 316th week on top of the world from Monday. Djokovic is a two-time champion in Monte Carlo but has not got beyond the quarter-finals since his most recent title in 2015. Nadal, who won a 13th Roland Garros title and record-equalling 20th Grand Slam by beating Djokovic in the Paris final

in October, is chasing a 12th triumph in Monte Carlo. There are concerns over the lingering back problem Nadal is carrying ahead of a gruelling clay court season which peaks at the French Open from May 30. Nadal has 71-5 record in Monte Carlo where he has fallen short of the quarter-finals just once — on his debut in 2003 as a 16-year-old. Since the Australian Open, Nadal has been replaced as world number two by Russia’s Daniil Medvedev. The Australian Open runner-up was the first player outside the ‘Big Four’ of Djokovic, Nadal, Roger Federer and Andy Murray to reach number two in the world since Australia’s Lleyton Hewitt in July 2005. However, he is wary of his chances on clay. His 10 career titles have all come on hard courts while he has never won a match at Roland Garros in four visits. “Maybe in 2050 I’ll manage to get past the first round at Roland Garros,” the mercurial Russian joked.

‘Outstanding’ Alexander-Arnold has nothing to prove to Southgate, says Klopp LONDON: Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp believes Trent Alexander-Arnold has nothing to prove to England boss Gareth Southgate after the right back rounded off a roller-coaster week with a stoppage-time winner against Aston Villa on Saturday. Alexander-Arnold curled home a stunning strike from the edge of the box for only his second goal of the season as Liverpool boosted their Champions League qualification hopes with a 2-1 Premier League win. The fullback has recently faced criticism for his form and was dropped from the England squad for last month’s World Cup qualifiers. The 22-year-old has since starred in last week’s victory against Arsenal before making a costly error in the midweek Champions League loss to Real Madrid. Yet Klopp said Alexander-Arnold deserves more space to mature as a footballer. “I don’t think he has to prove anything, to be honest,” Klopp told the BBC, with Southgate in attendance at Anfield to watch Alexander-Arnold’s matchwinning display. “You can play the best season of your life and the coach of the national team has to make decisions and we respect that. “The only thing Trent is doing is playing his best football. In the last 10 days, twice he’s played outstanding and now he scores a goal. The most important thing is we stop talking about it.” Liverpool midfielder James Milner also showered praise on Alexander-Arnold as the right back delivered a fitting response to his critics. “It says a lot about his character,” Milner said. “People forget how young he is. He’s been very fortunate in his career so far, so being left out of the England squad is probably one of his first disappointments. “But he’s got a massive goal at the end... we’re delighted for him.” AGENCIES

Missing from the Monte Carlo line-up is Roger Federer who last played in the Principality in 2016 and has never won the tournament. Federer, who will be 40 in August, only returned to the tour in Qatar in February after 13 months on the sidelines to recover from two knee surgeries. The veteran Swiss plans to make his 2021 clay court bow in Madrid in the first week of May. Also missing is world number four Dominic Thiem who, like Djokovic, Nadal and Federer, skipped the Miami Masters

recently as he was “not at 100%”. The two-time runner-up to Nadal at Roland Garros opted instead to stay in Austria to practice on clay. The 2020 Monte Carlo Masters was cancelled due to the coronavirus pandemic while this year’s event will be behind closed doors. Top seed Djokovic faces a tough start in Monte Carlo. After an opening round bye, he will face in-form teenager Jannik Sinner if the Italian gets past Spain’s Albert Ramos-Vinolas. Nadal and Medvedev are in the opposite half of the draw.

Milan survive Ibrahimovic sending oﬀ to stay in Champions League chase 39-YEAR-OLD SWEDE WAS GIVEN A STRAIGHT RED CARD FOR ARGUING WITH THE REFEREE AT THE STADIO ENNIO TARDINI MILAN AGENCIES

Zlatan Ibrahimovic set up two first-half goals before being sent off after an hour as 10-man AC Milan beat Parma 3-1 on Saturday to boost their Champions League hopes. The 39-year-old Swede was given a straight red card for arguing with the referee at the Stadio Ennio Tardini when his team were two goals ahead. Riccardo Gagliolo pulled one back for 19th-placed Parma minutes after Ibrahimovic’s sending off, but Milan held on despite some late scares, with substitute Rafael Leao scoring a third in injury time. Second-placed Milan closed the gap to leaders Inter, who host 18th-placed Cagliari on Sunday, to eight points. Stefano Pioli’s Milan are pushing for a return to the Champions League for the first time since the 20132014 season. Struggling defending champions Juventus are four points behind Milan in third before hosting Genoa on Sunday, when fourth-placed Atalanta, who are a further point adrift, play at Fiorentina. “It was important to win,” said Pioli. “Ibra told me he didn’t insult the referee. “He told me he had a discussion which lasted some time, but he hadn’t shown a lack of respect and absolutely did not insult him. “He told me the last thing he said to (referee Fabio) Maresca was: ‘So you don’t care what I say?’”.

Parma goalkeeper Luigi Sepe denied Franck Kessie early on before Ibrahimovic sent the ball through for Ante Rebic, who spun and blasted in the ninth-minute opener. Ibrahimovic then combined with Theo Hernandez and teed up Kessie to drill in the second just before the break. Milan goalkeeper Gianluigi Donnarumma did well to save an Andrea Conti header and Graziano Pelle’s follow-up five minutes into the second half. But Ibrahimovic was given his marching orders for a comment to the referee over a midfield incident in which he wasn’t involved. Gagliolo gave Parma a lifeline, beating Donnarumma, who made some crucial late saves before Leao added a third as Milan claimed a club record 13 away wins this campaign. Milan are set to be without Ibrahimovic for their next two games at home against Genoa and Sassuolo as Pioli’s men bid for a first win at the San Siro in over two months. Ibrahimovic, who won his 300th match in the top five European Leagues on Saturday, will return for the trip to top-four rivals Lazio on April 26. Before the match, club director Paolo Maldini confirmed that Ibrahimovic was close to renewing his contract for another season. The Swedish international, who turns 40 in October, has been credited with turning Milan into title contenders again since his return to the seven-time

European champions in January last year. “For Ibrahimovic there are only small details missing, we are very close to renewal,” Maldini said. Ibrahimovic, who helped Milan to their last Scudetto in 2011, is the club’s top scorer with 15 goals in 17 league games this term despite struggling with injury and illness. Contract talks with Donnarumma are less advanced. “It takes two to make a deal,” Maldini said of the 22-year-old Italy international. Pioli said after the game he was hoping to convince Donnarumma to commit to the club. “My advice to Donnarumma is to stay, because Milan is a top club in all respects. We are building something. “My players are not yet winners, but they are fighting to win again.” In the battle against relegation, Torino ended their four-match winless run with captain Andrea Belotti converting a penalty after an Tolgay Arslan foul in a 1-0 win over 12th-placed Udinese who fell to a third consecutive defeat. “The attitude must be what we saw both today and against Juve,” said Belotti, whose side held the champions 22 last weekend, and are now five points clear of the drop zone. Spezia, in 14th position, struck twice in three-minutes before the final whistle for a 3-2 win to deny basement club Crotone. Martin Erlic set up Giulio Maggiore to pull Spezia level after 89 minutes with the Croatian defender then nodding in an injury time winner.

SPORTS 11 Guardiola says Leeds loss does not overshadow City achievements LONDON: Manchester City boss Pep Guardiola said his team’s 2-1 Premier League home defeat to 10-man Leeds United on Saturday will not cast a shadow over their superb season. League leaders City were left stunned when Leeds midfielder Stuart Dallas scored the winner late on to hand Guardiola’s side only their second defeat in 29 matches in all competitions this season. “What happens when you lose games is that you realise how difficult what we have done so far is. You realise how difficult it is to win 27 in 29 games,” Guardiola, whose side have 74 points from 32 matches, told reporters. City need 11 points to secure their third league title in four years. Guardiola said they would look to respond in their remaining matches. “The Premier League must still be won. We need points still because our opponents can win all their games,” Guardiola said. “Now we need to do it again... Three of the next four games are like finals, in the Champions League, FA Cup, League Cup. “We have incredible confidence in the guys. Defeat sometimes is necessary to understand how difficult what we have done is and what we have to do to move forward.” Guardiola, whose team carry a 2-1 lead into the second leg of their Champions League quarter-final with Borussia Dortmund on Wednesday, said City did not create enough chances for the forwards against Leeds. AGENCIES

Koeman furious with referee after Barca beaten by Real MADRID: Barcelona coach Ronald Koeman raged against the referee for not awarding them a penalty in their 2-1 defeat to Real Madrid in Saturday’s “Clasico”, which knocked them off course in La Liga’s threeway title race. The Catalans had two late penalty claims as they chased the game, with Martin Braithwaite going to ground both times after challenges from Ferland Mendy. “If you’re a Barcelona fan and you saw this game you’d be very annoyed with two of the referee’s decisions. It was a clear, clear penalty and then he only gave four minutes of stoppage time,” the Dutch coach told Spanish network Movistar. Koeman, who was also angry when his side were beaten 3-1 by Real last October with the help of a contentious penalty, ended his post-match interview early after asking the Movistar reporter his thoughts on the second challenge. “Once again we just have to accept it and shut up,” he added. Karim Benzema and Toni Kroos had put Real two goals up before halftime, with Oscar Mingueza netting for Barca on the hour mark. Lionel Messi hit the post from a corner in the first half while a shot from Barca substitute Ilaix Moriba came off the bar in the last minute of added time. In addition to venting his displeasure at referee Jesus Gil Manzano, Koeman admitted his side had made a poor start to the game. “In the first half, we didn’t play well in attack or defence. We were better in the second, and all I ask is that the referee makes the right decisions,” he added. Real coach Zinedine Zidane said it was unfair to say his side had only won because of the penalty call. “We should be very happy with our performance and you cannot say it was all down to the referee, we deserved the win,” he said. “If the referee says it wasn’t a penalty it’s because it wasn’t one. The important thing from our point of view is what we did on the pitch. We made an excellent start then suffered a bit because Barca are a great side but we had a lot of chances to score the third goal. In the end the win was well deserved.” AGENCIES

How table tennis changed the world, 50 years on SHANGHAI AGENCIES

It was 50 years ago but Zhang Xielin still remembers vividly how a shaggy-haired American table tennis player stepped onto the Chinese team’s bus, a chance encounter which would shape history. It was the world championships in Nagoya, Japan, and Glenn Cowan mistakenly hopped in with Zhang and his teammates — an awkward moment because the United States and China were then deeply at odds. “We were on the bus and were talking and laughing,” Zhang, now 80, told AFP. “But when we realised that an American had come onto the bus, we fell silent.”

The Chinese triple world champion Zhuang Zedong eventually came forward and famously broke the ice, giving Cowan a silk embroidery as a souvenir from China. They did not know it at the time, but it was the spark for China and the United States to begin normalising relations, in what became known as ‘ping-pong diplomacy’. Zhang, a doubles world champion and later China’s coach, recalled: “Mr. Zhuang understood that there was a difference between the American people and the American government, and that we should be nice to American people, so he took the initiative to chat with Glenn.” Photographers captured Zhuang and a 19-year-old Cowan shaking hands and smiling. “The newspaper came out the next day

and it seemed that China and the United States were about to have a relationship,” said Zhang. Days later, on April 10, 1971 the US team became the first Americans to step foot in China for nearly a quarter of a century when they were invited to play friendly matches in the country. The thaw saw President Richard Nixon visit China in February 1972, and a Chinese table tennis squad visit the US. In 1979 formal relations were established between the two countries. Yao Zhenxu played Cowan, who died in 2004, during the Americans’ ground-breaking trip. Yao still remembers the score, he won 21-12, 21-14, and says that Cowan thanked him afterwards for “a serious game”. The American team were vastly inferior

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to the Chinese, so the hosts sometimes let their visitors win points in the spirit of sportsmanship and goodwill. Now 74, Yao says that it was only afterwards that he realised that he had played a part in something historic. “Because of pingpong diplomacy we changed the world order, and the people of China and the United States started friendly exchanges,” he said. Yao appeared alongside Zhang in Shanghai on Saturday to mark 50 years of ping-pong diplomacy, with the city authorities hosting an event with speeches and friendly amateur matches. But the anniversary comes at a time when relations between Washington and Beijing have deteriorated markedly over a number of issues, notably trade, the fate of

China’s Uyghur minority and a clampdown in Hong Kong. In a recorded speech to mark the 50th anniversary, China’s ambassador in Washington, Cui Tiankai, accused some in the US of “ideological bias and zero-sum thinking”. But he and Chinese state media took a largely positive tone, with Xinhua news agency hailing ping-pong diplomacy’s “wonderful legacy”. Yao and Zhang hope that the spirit of 1971 can help shape future relations between the world’s top two economies for the better. “Everyone knows that the relationship between China and the United States is a bit tense nowadays,” said Yao. “We hope that we can agree to disagree and keep friendly relations. “Don’t be afraid of competition, we can compete peacefully.”

Monday, 12 April, 2021

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PM IMran extenDs ‘Meals on Wheels’ ProGraM to three More cItIes ISLAMABAD

STAFF REPORT

RIME Minister Imran Khan on Sunday launched the extension of the “Meals on Wheels” programme with an ambitious aim for ensuring that no one sleeps hungry across the country, with the addition of service to three more cities. A statement from the Prime Minister’s Office said that the premier had announced the extension of the programme before the arrival of the holy month of Ramadan. The prime minister’s programme was launched a month back by the PM in Islamabad and has now been extended to Lahore, Faisalabad and Peshawar. The programme is being run by Ehsaas, in collaboration with Saylani Welfare Trust and the donations of the philanthropists. “Now you can see it has been started in Peshawar, Lahore and Faisalabad. And this is the beginning — our idea is that we

want to spread a network of kitchens [and] meals on wheels across Pakistan and they will then cover all the areas where there is the most poverty and people sleep hungry,” said PM Imran while addressing a ceremony in the federal capital.

5 Kashmiri fighters killed, 2 Indian soldiers injured in IoK

Indian government forces killed five suspected fighters, including a teenager, in gunfights in Indian Occupied Kashmir (IOK), police said on Sunday. The back-to-back clashes began late on Saturday after troops cordoned off two villages in southern IoK’s Shopian and Bijbehara areas on intelligence that pro-independence Kashmiri fighters were hiding there, police said. Three fighters were killed and two soldiers wounded in Shopian, Inspector General Vijay Kumar told reporters, and said troops had recovered a rifle and a pistol from the site. One of the slain fighters was a teenage boy who, according to officials, had joined the ranks of pro-independence fighters a few days earlier. Kumar said several attempts were made to seek the trapped fighters’ surrender but they had refused. Indian forces killed two more Kashmiri fighters in the second clash in Bijbehara, Kumar said. At least 15 fighters, a policeman and an army soldier have been killed so far this month. In December last year, police in occupied Kashmir had charged a captain of the Indian army and his two accomplices for killing three local labourers and passing them as militants. In a charge sheet filed in a local court, police said the captain had staged a gunfight in South Kashmir on July 8, earlier the same year, to make it appear like a clash with militants. In a surprising decision in February, India and Pakistan had agreed to reaffirm their 2003 cease-fire accord along the de facto frontier dividing Kashmir between the two sides. However, a crackdown by Indian forces and attacks by proindependence Kashmiri fighters have continued inside the Indian-held portion. Both countries claim the divided territory in its entirety. Many Muslim Kashmiris support the rebel goal that the territory be united either under Pakistani rule or as an independent country. Tens of thousands of civilians, rebels and government forces have been killed in the conflict. AgEnciES

“Even though our situation is difficult— there is debt, little money is left to spend on the people — despite that, God’s order is to follow that path. This path is of rule of law and of humanity, that we take responsibility for our poor segment,” he added.

Calling on the public to partake in the project and donate to Meals on Wheels to aid the poor segments of society, he said it “perfect way to do so.” “You will receive our numbers and website — participate in any way you can. When the government and people join hands, this network will spread in entire Pakistan.” The event was attended virtually by Chief Ministers of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) Mahmood Khan and Punjab Usman Buzdar who inaugurated the free food service in their respective provinces. Daily wage earners, particularly the labourers would be the main beneficiaries. Currently, two custom-built Ehsaas food trucks are providing free cooked meals at different locations in Rawalpindi and Islamabad. The meals are cooked, stored and distributed from trucks’ kitchen. Each food truck can feed around 2,000 people daily and the service is provided seven days a week, 365 days a year, twice daily.

Pakistan looks forward to work with US in meeting global challenges: Akram

NEW YORK CITY STAFF REPORT

Pakistan Ambassador to United Nations Munir Akram has expressed hope that the UN under a new administration in the US will revive its engagement to enable the world community to effectively respond to global challenges including the coronavirus, climate change, terrorism, and promoting Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). “Everyone at the UN is very happy that America is back, and the new US administration has committed itself to participate actively in the UN, reviving multilateralism, and working with other member states to promote the goals and objectives of the UN Charter,” Akram said in a virtual seminar organised by US Army War College. Pakistan, he said, looks forward to cooperating with the US at the UN on all key issues. Based in Pennsylvania, the US Army War College educates and develops leaders for service at the strategic level while advancing knowledge in the global application of land power. Akram told the army officers participating in the seminar that the US move, over the last four years, to disengage itself from the UN had contributed to the diminution in the importance of the world body. In his presentation, the ambassador explained the key features and func-

tions of the United Nations and its affiliated organs in the maintenance of international peace and security, as well as Pakistan’s active role at the forum, especially in the peace-keeping operations. The United Nations, he said, has always been an important body for Pakistan since its dispute with India over occupied Jammu and Kashmir was referred to the Security Council in 1947. The 15-member Council pronounced itself on the dispute, calling for a plebiscite, under the UN auspices, to enable the people of Kashmir to determine their own future, and to decide whether they wish to join Pakistan or India, it was pointed out. United Nations Military Observer Group in India and Pakistan (UNMOGIP) has been stationed since 1948 to monitor the ceasefire agreement between the two neighbours. Pakistan has contributed over 200,000 peacekeepers in over 46 UN peacekeeping missions and promoted actively the role of peacekeeping for the preservation of international peace and security. At the present moment, Ambassador Akram said that Pakistan has a stake in a host of disputes pending before the United Nations. He said that Kashmir became a focus of attention when India abrogated its autonomy in August 2019 and divided the occupied region into two

union territories, prompting Pakistan to raise its voice against the illegal measures. “The situation between India and Pakistan in Kashmir remains a threat to international peace and security,” he observed. After frequent ceasefire violations by India along the Line of Control (LoC) in the disputed region, the ambassador said that the blazing guns have been silent following a renewed peace pledge and hoped that they would remain silent. On Afghanistan, he said, Pakistan had facilitated an agreement between Washington and the Taliban for an orderly and responsible withdrawal from Afghanistan, and for intra-Afghan negotiations to achieve a political settlement. On terrorism, Akram said, Pakistan had collaborated with the United States to destroy Al-Qaeda and related terrorist organisations and suffered over 80,000 casualties in the so-called war on terrorism. Pakistan succeeded against militant groups after military operations to clear its frontier territories of these organisations. “However,” he said, “we continue to face the problem of terrorism today, which is externally sponsored by our neighbour — India — from the ungoverned spaces in Afghanistan.” He recalled that this issue has been raised at the Security Council as well. On disarmament, Pakistan has been a reluctant nuclear weapons state. However, as India went ahead with its nuclear explosions, “we [too] were obliged to follow suit”. Pakistan, he said, has adhered to the principles of nuclear non-proliferation and sought mutual restraint regime with India to control the arms race between the two countries. “We have, as yet, not found a reciprocal positive response from our neighbour.” Ambassador Akram regretted that civilian nuclear cooperation has not been made available to Pakistan, while India was a beneficiary.

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PM invites Bill Gates for joint work against climate change ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Imran Khan has invited Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates to work together against the dangers of climate change. The prime minister, in a letter to Bill Gates, dated April 6, praised the latter’s book, ‘Avoiding a Climate Disaster’, for providing policy-oriented analyses on the critical issue of climate change challenges confronting the global community. He also informed Gates about the climate challenges being faced by Pakistan, saying that the country is on the front lines of the climate challenge, and is amongst the top countries “continuously impacted” by climate change over the past two decades. The premier, however, pointed out that Pakistan, at the same time, is a very low contributor to the issue, adding less than 1 per cent of the global greenhouse gas emissions. In addition, PM Imran said that being a developing country, Pakistan is seeking to achieve climate sensitive economic growth that can only be possible through international cooperation and partnership. The PM further briefed the American philanthropist about the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI)-led government’s pledge to offer climate solutions to the world, focusing on “nature-based solutions” towards a climate compatible trajectory of growth. He also wrote about how the growing climate impacts are forcing the world to adapt and invest towards establishing early warning systems, fast deployment of climate smart agriculture as well as enhancing the depleting and increasingly unpredictable freshwater resources. He urged the Microsoft co-founder to lend his assistance and resources to help Pakistan in matters related to global climate change. “Given your high interest in climate change, results-oriented dialogue and collaboration between our team of experts can mutually assist to advance our shared vision. This could include developing partnership towards access and deployment of the best available technologies for clean energy and electric vehicles as well as cooperating towards climate resilient agriculture,” PM Imran wrote. The premier concluded his letter by reaffirming Gates’ idea that the challenge of climate change is one that requires wide-scaled collaboration, trusted cooperation and a shared green vision for development across countries. A few weeks ago, Prime Minister Imran, in a letter penned to the Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, expressed his happiness over the Saudi initiatives “aimed at protecting nature and the planet” and offered Pakistan’s help in this regard. TLTP

Violin maestro Dilshad Khan passes away at Istanbul airport KARACHI: Renowned musician and violin maestro Ustad Dilshad Hussain Khan has passed away, his family confirmed on Sunday. He was en route to the United States from Pakistan when he suffered a severe heart attack at Istanbul airport, said his family. His family said that his body was being taken to the US where his funeral and burial will be announced, according to his family. Ustad Dilshad, along with his family, had been living in the US since 1996. He is a recipient of several awards, including the National Award and President Award. The maestro, who was a proud inheritor of the Delhi Gharana, recently visited Pakistan after nearly two decades. He won the hearts of millions of music lovers all around the world with his music featuring the fusion of classical eastern music with European music. Ustad Dilshad is the only Pakistani violinist who played his composition alongside his musician son Ustad Samar Hussain Khan at Capitol Hill, Washington DC. He is the only violinist in Pakistan to be honoured with the Lifetime Achievement Award in 2003 He started his career with Radio Pakistan in 1973 and had worked with many big names, including Mehdi Hassan, Noor Jahan, Abida Parveen, Farida Khanum, Mahnaz Begum. TLTP

Qureshi goes to Germany on two-day visit to enhance bilateral ties ISLAMABAD STAFF REPORT

Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi reached Berlin on Sunday with a delegation on a two-day official visit. Pakistani Ambassador to Germany Dr Muhammad Faisal and senior officials of the German Foreign Ministry received the foreign minister at the airport. Speaking at the Berlin Airport, the foreign minister said that he will hold meetings with the businessmen and community

leaders. He said that over 100,000 Pakistanis live in Germany and are playing a very positive role. Qureshi said that he wants to enhance cooperation in the field of economic diplomacy and exchange of technology for which he will hold talks with the Germen leadership. He said that he will also exchange views with his German Counterpart Heiko Maas on important regional and international issues; besides, meeting with the German Parliament President Wolfgang

Schäuble. Qureshi said that Pakistan wants to expand parliamentary relations with Germany and to further activate already existing friendship groups between the two countries. Earlier, speaking to reporters before his departure, the foreign minister said that during the visit, he will apprise the German leadership about the regional situation, Afghan peace dialogue and peace and security environment in South Asia. He also expressed confidence that his

visit will be "fruitful" for the country. In a statement on Saturday, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said that Qureshi is visiting the country on the invitation of his German counterpart. The visit, it said, is part of regular high-level exchanges between the two countries. Maas had visited Pakistan in March 2019. There, he will have delegation-level talks with Maas and the “entire gamut” of Pakistan-Germany relations will be reviewed and ways and means to further deepen bilateral cooperation in diverse

Published by Arif Nizami at Plot # 7, Al-Baber Centre, F/8 Markaz, Islamabad, for PT Print (Pvt) Limited. Ph: 051-2204545. Email: newsroom@pakistantoday.com.pk

fields will be discussed, the statement said. Pakistan and Germany have been collaborating closely on regional matters and at the multilateral fora, the statement added. Berlin is Islamabad’s largest trading partner in the European Union (EU), the statement observed, recalling that Germany is also home to more than 100,000 Pakistan nationals. The two countries are celebrating the 70th anniversary of diplomatic ties and planning to “undertake a number of activities in this context”.