Thursday, 17 June, 2021 I 6 Dhul-Qadah, 1442 I Rs 15.00 I Vol XI No 347 I 12 Pages I Islamabad Edition
OppOsitiOn parties cOmes clOser fOllOwing mOre na budget sessiOn chaOs g
SHeHbAz'S SPeeCH CuT SHOrT by SLOgANeerINg FrOM TreASury beNCHeS
ISLAMABAD staff report
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eCurrINg chaos in National Assembly’s budget session has brought opposition parties closer, Pakistan Today has learnt. According to sources, Pakistan Muslim LeagueNawaz President Shehbaz Sharif met Pakistan People’s Party Chairman bilawal bhutto-zardari on Wednesday. The meeting was arranged by Leader of the Opposition in the Senate yousaf raza gillani. During the meeting they decided to move a no-confidence motion jointly against NA Speaker Asad Qaiser after two days of ruckus in the lower house of the parliament. They said that Tuesday’s proceedings in the
pakistan
CONFIRMED CASES:
944,065
LAST UPDATED AT 9:09 AM ON JUNE 16, 2021
NEW CASES:
46
1,038
RECOVERED:
DEATHS:
882,332 21,828 SINDH:
PUNJAB:
329,279
344,379
KP:
BALOCHISTAN:
136,313 AJK/GB: 19,822/5,734
26,331 ISLAMABAD:
82,207
SeveN MPS bArreD FrOM PArLIAMeNT AFTer buDgeT SeSSION ruCKuS
NA marked the “darkest day for democracy in Pakistan’s history,” according to the sources. “The speaker has failed to fulfil his constitutional, legal, democratic, and parliamentary responsibilities […] he is the protector of every parliament member, but [he has failed in his duties] and is not qualified to hold office any more,” the sources quoted the opposition leaders as saying this. In this regard, the joint opposition leaders also agreed to form a committee that would be tasked with tabling the motion. However, the names of its members are under deliberation. They demanded that a parliamentary committee be established with equal representation — from treasury and opposition benches — to probe the ruckus that had transpired in parliament. The joint opposition also
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rejected the NA speaker’s decision to ban seven members of the lower house who used foul language in Tuesday’s session. earlier, seven members of the lower house, including three from the ruling Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf, will not be able to access parliament after throwing budget document and expletives at each other during a session, Speaker Asad Qaiser said on Wednesday. The house took on the appearance of a battleground on Tuesday as an ugly scuffle broke out opposition and treasury MPs clashed during the post-budget address of the opposition leader. video clips shared on social media showed Assistant to Prime Minister on Capital Development Authority Affairs Ali Nawaz Awan shouting expletives at an opposition MP and tossing a book at his rival, who hurled it back at him. In a tweet announcing the development, Speaker Qaiser regretted the “unparliamentary” and “inappropriate” behaviour of the MPs. The parliamentarians include Ali gohar Khan, Chaudhary Hamid Hameed and Sheikh rohail Asghar from Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz; Faheem Khan, Abdul Majeed Khan, Ali Nawaz Awan from the ruling party and Syed Agha rafiullah from the PPP. They have been told not to enter the precinct of the House until further orders.
CONTINUED ON PAGE 05
PM approves speaker’s move to seek PPP’s support to run business smoothly STORY ON PAGE 03
Premier directs police to take action against whoever breaks the law g
IMrAN SAyS eveN IF He FLOuTS THe LAW, THe POLICe SHOuLD ArreST HIM
Directing the police to take action against anyone who breaks the law, Prime Minister Imran Khan on Wednesday said that “there are no holy cows” and “even if Imran Khan flouts the law, arrest him” but “if you fail to do so, I will take action against you”. According to Dawn, Prime Minister Imran, while addressing the inauguration ceremony of the eagle Squad unit of Islamabad Police, said that the police should deal with the powerful people with an “iron fist” and empathise with the poor, as according to him, “jailing small fish isn’t law enforcement”. A day earlier, the Interior Ministry had said in a statement that the new eagle Squad unit of Islamabad Police comprised 100 motorcycles and was established with the cost of rs300million. The squad will patrol in the capital on the state-of-theart two-wheelers. In his inauguration speech today, the premier insisted upon the police that
Government rules out coronavirus vaccine shortage in country ISLAMABAD staff report
A day after major cities reported shortages of coronavirus vaccines, prompting the federal government to release 150,000 reserved doses to meet the growing demand, Minister of State for National Health Services Dr Faisal Sultan on Wednesday said the shortage is limited to busy vaccination centres and is only temporary. In Lahore, the shortage of jabs forced the authorities to close down two vaccination centres while some others in the rest of the province may face closure, a local publication reported citing people familiar with the situation. The publication further reported that only a day’s stock of the coronavirus vaccine is left in Punjab, impelling the authorities to close down the camp established at the Lahore Press Club and the Pakistan Kidney and Liver Institute. Today, Dr Sultan, while addressing a press conference, said the shortage had been reported only at some busy vaccination centres. Officials, he assured, were working on ensuring the supply of additional shots
taking action against illegal practices lead to supremacy of the law. “Whenever powerful people break the law; you should deal them with full force,” he told the cops. The prime minister said that the police had the responsibility of law enforcement, “and in countries where police perform well, it leads to peace and prosperity.” The premier lamented that Pakistan couldn’t progress for the past years because of dual laws — one for the poor and one for the rich. He also called upon the police department to adopt latest technology to upgrade their workflows and make the most of it. He said a country generated more revenue when its law and order was stable and the investment milieu remained safe in its wake. “The capital is home to foreign embassies and missions, and when the environment is safe and secure, it has a big effect on visitors, and this leads to prosperity in the country,” he said. News Desk
more inside
FM writes to UN about disturbing reports from IOK STORY ON PAGE 03
SC rejects Centre’s request to halt demolition drive along Karachi drains
STORY ON PAGE 02 and the situation is expected to improve after June 20. “There are more than 2,000 vaccination centres in the country […] the number of visitors varies. So there may be a shortage of vaccines at some points,” he said. The Ministry of National Health Services was in touch with the provinces and efforts were being made to overcome the shortages by diverting supplies, the minister said. He said the government has more than two million doses of the coronavirus vaccine in its stock, but acknowledged that it is critical and complex to manage the stock properly. About 2.2 million people
have been fully vaccinated against the contagious disease, and more than 3.7 million have received at least one dose, he said, citing data. He also clarified that it was not harmful if the second dose was delayed beyond the studied duration of four weeks. “Approximately eight million doses have been administered. Pakistan is among the top 30 countries of the world in terms of vaccine doses administered.” The government launched a nationwide vaccination drive, starting with older people and frontline healthcare workers, in March.
CONTINUED ON PAGE 05
Israel strikes Hamas sites in Gaza in first attack since May fighting STORY ON BACK PAGE
Putin and biden agree at geneva summit to return respective ambassadors STORY ON BACK PAGE
02
Thursday, 17 June, 2021
ISLAMABAD
NEWS
SC rejeCtS Centre’S requeSt to halt demolition drive along KaraChi drainS KArACHi
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Staff RePoRt
HE Supreme Court on Wednesday sought alternate housing arrangements for people residing along Gujjar and Orangi drains and affected by the antiencroachment campaign while rejecting a request of the federal government to halt
the drive. During a hearing at the court’s Karachi Registry, the bench sought alternate accommodation for the affectees of the drive. “How does the Sindh government plan to settle the affectees [of the drive],” the court asked. The metropolis, the court observed, has been ruined through an “organised
conspiracy”, declaring that district revenue collectors had become ministers in Sindh. During the proceedings, Attorney General Khalid Jawed Khan said that a human catastrophe is feared as about 40,000 people would be displaced owing to the demolition at both the drains. “We request you to halt the demolition drive until the next hearing of the case or at
least stop it for the next week,” Khan said, adding that leased housing units should not be demolished until alternate accommodation is arranged. Khan further offered to sit with the National Disaster Management Authority and Sindh chief minister to sort out the issues on an urgent basis. However, the court rejected the request and directed the authorities to continue with
the drive against encroachments. Earlier on Tuesday, the Supreme Court released a written order in the encroachment case, directing the authorities to compensate the affectees. The bench, headed by Chief Justice Gulzar Ahmed, directed the authorities to complete the expansion work of the drains and annulled all stay orders against it. The NDMA and Sindh government should continue their work, the court directed, while further directing the authorities to compensate the affectees in accordance of the law. The court also directed to recover the land of Kidney Hill within two days. “Illegal construction should be demolished from the amenity plot and be converted into a park,” the court ruled.
Sindh govt decides on PTI MPA holds fake dates for class 9, 11 exams degree, LHC told KArACHi inp Sindh government has decided to take exams for classes 9 and 11 in the province during a meeting headed by Education Minister Saeed Ghani on Wednesday. During a steering committee meeting of the education department, the provincial authorities mulled over the dates for holding exams of classes 9 and 11. It was agreed to hold exams for class 9 after matric examinations in July – immediately after the grade 10 exams – while papers for class 11 would be held after intermediate exams in August. It was decided to hold papers for elective subjects as per the decision of the National Command and Operation Centre.
LAHore The meeting also announced to issue results for classes matric and intermediate 45 days after the examinations while results for 9 and 11 would be announced later. It was decided to take practical exams in the matric and intermediate classes after theory papers and schools and colleges will hold practical exams within their premises. Students who fail to clear examinations will be given passing marks in elective subjects and further marking of compulsory subjects would be made as per the numbers obtained in elective papers. “Exams would be held for only optional subjects,” according to Ghani. “Examinations from grade one to eight will be held in schools which can announce the dates on their own.”
“If any student fails in optional subjects then he or she would be given passing marks and marks of compulsory subjects will be given on the basis of marks attained in optional subjects. Practical examination will be held in students’ respective schools and colleges and can be conducted after theory papers,” the provincial minister added. On June 10, Sindh Education Minister Saeed Ghani announced dates for matric and intermediate papers for all boards across the province. According to a schedule issued by the Government of Sindh College Education Department, the intermediate exams will begin from July 26 across the province. Similarly, the matriculation exams will begin on July 5. Grade 9 and 11 examinations would be taken after the HSC-II examinations and assessment.
INP
The University of the Punjab on Wednesday declared that Bilal Asghar Warraich — a member of the provincial assembly of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf from Toba Tek Singh — holds a bogus Bachelor of Arts degree. In May, Justice Ayesha A Malik sought the university’s record about syndicate decision of quashing his BA degree on a writ petition filed by a voter of his constituency. According to a five-page report, which the university submitted to the high court, the disciplinary committee after examining the degree found it fake. The report further said that the lawmaker tricked the university by providing false information to it. The report also discloses that as per a report of the Faisalabad Board of Intermediate and Secondary Education, not only his graduation degree, but his intermediate degree is also bogus as he was not issued the result card in 1995 as he claims. The report notes that MPA Warraich had submitted a copy of the result card which showed that he had passed the intermediate exams in 1995. “But when the document was scrutinised, it was found out that it was actually the result card of supplementary exams conducted in 1996,” the report said, and added: “Appearing in graduation exams on the basis of a fake intermediate degree is against the rules and regulations.” The report further tells that despite the fact that the disciplinary committee summoned Warraich eight times to explain his position, he failed to appear.
Law minister assures Senate FBR provision will be toned down Monitoring report Law Minister Barrister Farogh Nasim assured the Senate that the provision would be toned down regarding the Federal Board of Revenue being granted “fundamental and sweeping powers” to make arrests and prosecute taxpayers over concealment of income, The News reported Wednesday. According to the proposed changes, all officers of Inland Revenue, starting from the assistant commissioner, could arrest a taxpayer accused of a tax offence without even filing a complaint before a special judge. Thus, a concept of pre-trial arrest and detention is being introduced to the income tax law for the first time. The only requirement for arresting a taxpayer is that the officer effecting the arrest ‘believes’ that the taxpayer has committed an offence that can be prosecuted under the law. Even the prior filing of a complaint before the special judge will not be required. However, the Senate Standing Committee on Finance has rejected the proposed powers of the FBR officers for arresting and prosecution of taxpayers on suspicion of concealment of income. The Opposition members termed the proposed powers of the FBR officers as ‘draconian’ and made it clear that they would not grant approval in the Parliament. The question arises why the FBR proposed more sweeping powers when the Income Tax Ordinance, 2001 already has provisions for prosecution. Tax experts say that the Income Tax Ordinance 2001 includes a complete chapter containing provisions for the prosecution of a wide range of offences ranging from the concealment of income to non-filing of returns and statements. Punishments for these offences include imprisonment for periods extending from one year to seven years and fines up to Rs5 million. These punishments are in addition to any other liability imposed on the defaulter under the ordinance, including the recovery of the evaded tax, imposition of penalty, and default surcharge. The procedure required for prosecuting
and awarding punishment to the defaulter includes filing a case before a special judge appointed by the federal government. Only a person, who is or has been a sessions judge, can be appointed a special judge for the purposes of trying income tax offences. The Commissioner of Income Tax can file a complaint before the special judge who will conduct the proceedings under the Code of Criminal Procedure 1898. Appeal against the order of the special judge lies with the High Court. The defaulter can be arrested and imprisoned only after completion of the trial by the special judge resulting in the award of punishment. According to the proposed law, the officer initiating the arrest will intimate the special judge about the arrest and produce the arrested person before the special judge or a judicial magistrate within 24 hours of the arrest and the special judge may order detention for an unspecified period or accept a request for bail. The special judge, on the request of the arresting officer, may also remand the arrested person in the custody of the arresting officer for a period of 14 days for the purpose of conducting an inquiry. The provision of remand in the custody of the inquiry officer is self-contradictory because the arrest is supposed to be affected if the arresting officer has material evidence in possession that the person being arrested has committed an offence leading to prosecution. Another provision of the proposed law proving that the powers to arrest will be used without any evidence is that if after arrest and inquiry the officer is of the opinion that there is not sufficient evidence or reasonable ground for suspicion against such person, they shall release then upon the execution of a bond, and shall direct such person to appear if so required, before the special judge and request the special judge for the discharge of such person. The proposed law totally disregards the normal procedure for assessment of tax under the Income Tax law and attempts to introduce a parallel system of inquiry and determination of liability but fails to specify whether these dual systems will operate
independently or one will follow the other. It has to be kept in mind that a similar system of arrest is available under the Sales Tax and Federal Excise laws as the nature and scheme of these laws are entirely different from Income Tax and such powers can be justified for the administration of these taxes. But even in the case of sales tax, the courts have not approved these coercive powers without prior quantification and adjudication of the tax liability under the normal procedure. However, while attempting to acquire similar powers under the Income Tax Laws FBR seems to have ignored these judgments of the courts as well. The explanation of the proposed powers to arrest and detain that are completely alien to the scheme of income tax law as in force for the last 100 years since the promulgation of the Income Tax Act of 1922 is sufficient to show the draconian nature of the proposed law. There is ample possibility of misuse of these powers to harass the taxpayers leading to corrupt practices. It is not understandable as to why the finance minister who himself has acknowledged and expressed concern over the harassment of taxpayers by the FBR wants to arm the same officers with such oppressive and arbitrary powers that will take harassment to an altogether unprecedented level. The finance minister intended to use this budget and the finance bill to stimulate economic recovery and growth but giving such crushing powers to the FBR will totally destroy the confidence of businessmen and common taxpayers. Regarding the proposed ordinance, the law minister agreed in principle that it would be inappropriate to arrest a person prior to adjudication and said that provisions to this effect in the income tax, sales tax and customs laws would be reviewed, according to a report by Dawn. The issue was raised in the house by PPP parliamentary leader in the Senate Sherry Rehman who termed provision 203-A against the fundamental rights. “The powers to arrest given to tax officers appear to be a
mini-martial law,” she said. The PPP leader said that the matter was also discussed in the meeting of the Senate Finance Revenue and Economic Affairs Committee which unanimously rejected it and called for removing the provision from the finance bill. She said the meeting was told that the same provision was there in the Customs Act. The issue was raised in the Senate by PPP leader Sherry Rehman Leader of the Opposition in the Senate Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani also sought an assurance from the government that no such step would be taken through the back door. Former Senate chairman Mian Raza Rabbani referred to the inclusion of the word ‘retail’ in the definition of smuggling under the Customs Act and warned that it would open Pandora’s box. He said that tax officers would be able to carry out raids at small retail outlets and that would open another door for corruption in the country. Senator Azam Nazir Tarar of the PMLN also touched upon the issue while taking part in the budget discussion and stressed that arrests in fiscal offences took place after adjudication. He said that if the provision was allowed to stay as it was, the people accused of concealing their income would be put behind bars without being given the right of hearing. He also criticised the government for imposing 15 per cent sales tax on milk and yogurt and increasing the prices of a number of other essential commodities, including sugar, wheat flour and ghee, and said the budget offered nothing positive for the poor and middle class. Law Minister Nasim disagreed with the opposition’s stance that the budget was antipeople. “If it is so, why chambers of commerce across the country are praising the budget? With due respect, it is not so,” he remarked. He also rejected as baseless the charges of fudging figures and imposing anti-people taxes and offered a live debate between economic teams of the opposition parties and the government on the budget with facts and figures. “It is not a challenge, it is a request,” he said.
The minister asked the opposition to point out figures it alleged had been fudged and the taxes it believed were anti-people and said a correction would not be possible with general accusations. Observing that inflation was a complex issue, he expressed the hope that with the steps underway, a visible change would be there over the next six months. About allegations of political victimisation of opponents, he said that many of the cases being faced by some opposition leaders had been registered before the PTI came into power. He said that NAB, FIA and anti-corruption departments were independent bodies, adding that the cases were adjudicated upon by the judiciary which was also independent. Referring to a letter written by the FIA to Leader of the Opposition in the National Assembly Shehbaz Sharif, seeking certain details, the law minister said the government had nothing to do with it. As many as six bills already passed by the National Assembly, including two bills seeking amendments to the Elections Act, were introduced in the house and referred to the Senate’s standing committees concerned. The bills included Elections (Amend¬m¬ent) Bill, 2021; Elections (Second Amen¬¬¬dment) Bill, 2021; and a bill to effectually tackle the pervading instances of rape and sexual abuse in respect of women and children through changes in the substantive law. The Criminal Law (Amendment) Bill, 2021, the Regulation of Generation, Transmission and Distribution of Electric Power (Amendment) Bill, 2021, as passed by the National Assembly, will be taken into consideration. Barrister Ali Zafar of the PTI, while taking part in the budget discussion, though praised the budget saying this had a new economic agenda for Pakistan, yet found faults with some of the proposals. He pointed out that in the budget there was a proposal for price control mechanism to be put back in place. He said: “I would suggest reconsideration. This has never worked in the past and it will not work in future also.”
Thursday, 17 June, 2021
ISLAMABAD
NEWS
03
PM aPPRoveS SPeakeR’S Move To Seek PPP’S SuPPoRT To RuN BuSINeSS SMooThLy ISLAMABAD
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MIaN abrar
N a major political move, Prime Minister Imran Khan Wednesday approved a proposal of National Assembly Speaker Asad Qaisar to contact Pakistan People’s Party Chairman Bilawal Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari and win his support to ensure smooth business in the National Assembly. Sources in the NA told Pakistan Today requesting not being identified that the decision was taken in wake of past few days of hooliganism during the budget session in the National Assembly. They said that at a special meeting held at the NA, Qaiser suggested to Prime Minister Imran that PPP chairman should be contacted to seek his support
to amend the rules of business of the lower house to ensure smooth functioning of the NA. The sources said that the prime minister supported the proposal of the speaker of the NA and told the speaker that it was his prerogative to contact the parliamentary leaders. After the support of the prime minister, Qaiser contacted PPP leader Bilawal and discussed the situation in the NA. The sources said that the premier directed Speaker Qaisar to start working on amending rules for the conduct of business in the lower house to ensure tolerance and discipline in the house. According to sources, after the commotion in the NA, Prime Minister Imran visited the lower house and started consultations to introduce a culture of
tolerance in politics. The sources said that Speaker Qaiser was specially invited to the
meeting while senior leaders of ruling Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf and allied parties
FM writes to UN about disturbing reports from IOK SAYS INDIA MUST CREATE ENVIRONMENT FOR RESULT-ORIENTED TALKS WITH PAKISTAN ISLAMABAD tLtp
Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi has addressed a letter to the president of the United Nations Security Council and the United Nations secretary general to apprise them of Pakistan’s grave concern on reports indicating that India may impose further illegal and unilateral measures in the Indian Occupied Kashmir, including division, bifurcation and additional demographic changes in the occupied territory. A press statement issued on Wednesday said that the foreign minister in his letter has drawn attention to India’s continued military siege of IOK, which has continued for over twenty-two months, to suppress the Kashmiris’
legitimate demands through a massive campaign of repression including gross and systematic violations of human rights. The foreign minister has recalled that, since India’s illegal and unilateral actions of 5 August 2019, Indian occupation forces have killed, tortured, arbitrarily arrested and detained hundreds of Kashmiris, and put almost the entire Kashmiri leadership behind bars. Highlighting India’s design to undermine the exercise of the inalienable right to self-determination of the Kashmiri people by changing the demographic structure of IIOJK through the issuance of fake domicile certificates and other measures, the foreign minister underscored that “all the unilateral and
illegal actions taken by India in IIOJK since 1951, including the measures initiated on and after 5 August 2019, and any additional unilateral changes that India may introduce in the future, are violations of international law including the Security Council Resolutions and the 4th Geneva Convention, and ipso facto null and void.” Stressing that the people of IOK have vociferously rejected the illegal measures imposed by India, the foreign minister called upon the Security Council to fulfil its responsibility to ensure full implementation of its resolutions on the Jammu and Kashmir dispute. He has also urged the Security Council to call upon India to end its campaign of repression in IOK and reverse all its
illegal actions, including those initiated on and after 5 August 2019, and to cease and desist from imposing any additional unilateral changes in the occupied territory. The foreign minister’s letter has also affirmed that Pakistan desires peaceful relations with all its neighbours, including India. Noting that a just settlement of the Jammu and Kashmir dispute in accordance with relevant UN Security Council resolutions and the wishes of the Kashmiri people is essential for durable peace and stability in South Asia, the foreign minister has emphasised that the onus is on India to create an enabling environment for result-oriented engagement with Pakistan. The letter was handed over to the president of the Security Council by Pakistan’s Permanent Representative to the UN in New York.
attended the meeting. On this occasion, the prime minister decided to introduce new rules and regulations in the House. According to sources, speaking at the meeting, Prime Minister Imran said that new rules should be formulated for ensuring a conducive environment in the parliament and smooth functioning of the parliamentary business. The sources said that in any case of a conflict, discipline should be ensured in the National Assembly. “Sadly, everyone has the right to protest, but the tradition of rioting must end,” the sources quoted the prime minister. Earlier, PM Imran held a meeting with Speaker Qaiser and discussed the political situation in the country and issues of mutual interest. Qaiser briefed the premier about the incident in the lower house.
Top judge chides ‘most corrupt’ SRB KARACHI INp
Chief Justice Gulzar Ahmed said on Wednesday chided the Sindh Revenue Board for being the “most corrupt” institution. A bench of the apex court, headed by the chief justice, was hearing a petition pertaining to the digitisation of land record in the province. During the hearing, Justice Ijazul Ahsan asked the board officials why land records have not been completely computerised as yet. “You had asked for two months [to accomplish the task] but decades have been passed,” he said. A senior member of the body informed the bench that the land record of the entire province had been computerised except for Thatta. “The last time the Sindh Revenue Board had sought two months was in 2018,” Justice Ahsan recalled. “Why the revenue body is unable to computerise Thatta’s land record?” the court questioned, wondering that three years have passed but the record had not been digitised yet. Justice Ahmed remarked that disputes involving thousands of acres of lands are arising. He came down hard on the SRB for unregistered land instances. “What century do we live in?” he said, saying that unregistered land is being used to make dirty profits.
Foreign funding case: PTI seeks finance record of PML-N, PPP ISLAMABAD INp
Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf has filed a petition with the Election Commission of Pakistan seeking details of the bank accounts of Pakistan Peoples Party and the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz in connection with the foreign funding case against it. The request was made by Minister of State for Information and Broadcast Farrukh Habib. Recalling how Akbar S Babar was permitted to review the documents submitted by PTI in the case, Habib sought permission to review bank accounts of the PPP and the PML-N. “We want to review the record on Akbar Babar pattern,” the minister said in his request. Last November, the ECP had launched an investigation against the PPP and the PML-N over claims of foreign funding. Earlier, PTI had submitted a new application to the ECP to seek expediting scrutiny process against PML-N and PPP in the case. Habib submitted an application to ECP for conducting daily hearings of foreign funding case against the PML-N and PPP. The case has been dragging on for more than six years without reaching a final judgement. It pertains to allegations that the PTI has taken funds from dubious, prohibited and illegal sources which, if proven, can lead to severe consequences for the ruling party.
LAHORE: Citizens at the Greater Iqbal Park in the provincial capital. ONLINE
Family of Canada attack victims thanks Pakistan government for support ISLAMABAD MONItOrINg rEpOrt
Family members of Pakistani-origin victims of the deadly truck attack in London city of Ontario have expressed their gratitude to the government of Pakistan for their support at testing times. Four members of the Afzaal family — a man and his wife, their teenage daughter and his mother — were out
for a walk in London city of Ontario on June 6 when a 20-year-old truck driver struck them on purpose, according to authorities. The Afzaals’ nine-year-old daughter survived the attack in their neighbourhood in the city of London, around 200 kilometres southwest of Toronto, but was seriously injured. Prime Minister Imran Khan called the attack a deliberate act of terrorism targeting Muslims that
“reveals the growing Islamophobia in western countries”. The family, in a press statement issued Tuesday, said that they were humbled by the support it received “during this very difficult time”. “We are grateful to those who paid their respects to our loved ones in the days following the horrific event that took place on June 6th and to those who attended this Saturday’s funeral service,” the statement read. “The light in this very dark time had been seeing
people from across Canada and around the world united to condemn racism and hate. This has been a great comfort to us all. “Today, new terror charges were laid against the man who struck down the family.” The family also thanked Canada Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, MP and New Democratic Party Leader Jagmeet Singh, Ontario Prime Minister Doug Ford and the people who supported the family following the incident.
Thursday, 17 June, 2021
04 NEWS
ISLAMABAD
Kashmiris’ involvement in indo-PaK talKs necessary to resolve disPute: masood
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NEWS DESK
ErMINg the situation in the Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK) as alarming, the Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) President Sardar Masood Khan has said that India and Pakistan cannot resolve the Kashmir issue without active participation of Kashmiris in the dialogue process. “The people of Kashmir have immensely suffered due to unresolved Kashmir issue and they must be involved in finding a solution to the problems in the region,” Masood emphasised. He made these remarks while speaking at the launching ceremony of a book titled "Qissa Nisf Sadi Ka" (tale of half century) authored by ghulam Nabi Nowsheri, a leader of Jamaat Islami IIOJK. “The talks held between Pakistan and India on various occasions since 1949 failed to yield results because Kashmiris
were not part of the process. Now in the changed scenario, Kashmiri representatives must also be seated on the negotia-
tions table in Islamabad and Delhi to find a viable solution to the Kashmir issue," he asserted.
The AJK president said that the situation of occupied Jammu and Kashmir is highly frightening because Kashmiris are being deprived of their lands, business, and employment, rendering them dispossessed on their own territory. He went on to say that it is high time that all stakeholders revisit their strategy and adopt a practicable course of action for the freedom of Kashmir. Khan cautioned that the entire Kashmiri nation is being exterminated in occupied territory and they are haplessly looking to the people of AJK and Pakistan to force India to end human rights abuses and grant the right of self-determination as promised by the UN Security Council resolutions and committed by the Indian leadership. "The Kashmiri people are part of our heart and soul, and Kashmir is the natural part of the state of Pakistan," he said and noted that the Kashmiri people are fighting a war for the completion of Pakistan, and they have sacrificed more than half-million
ecP terms pleas for re-polling in na-249 non-maintainable
Afghanistan-Pakistan Track-II Bilateral Dialogue held in Islamabad ISLAMABAD PR
The South-Asian region is transiting through critical times laced with ardent hope for peace to return to Afghanistan. Simultaneously, there is lurking fear for more violence in the aftermath of the withdrawal of the US and NATO forces from the country. It is in such times that sane and pragmatic voices should speak with an open, dispassionate and candid mind to set forth their take on the ongoing developments and how best to ad-
dress the challenges. In this backdrop, a Track-II platform was provided for these voices to speak regarding a number of issues which are integral to the cause of bringing peace and development in Afghanistan and throughout the region. The first round of the AfghanistanPakistan Track-II Dialogue was held in Islamabad on June 14-15. The dialogue was organised by the regional Peace Institute (rPI). Delegates from Afghanistan, Doha and Pakistan comprising representation from a variety of back-
lives in this war since 1947. President Khan warned, “We must realise if the Kashmiri people lose their war in IIOJK, it would put in danger the security and integrity of Pakistan and Azad Kashmir. We need to rise up with a renewed resolve to raise the voice of the oppressed Kashmiri people on every forum of the world because terrorists in the Indian Army uniform are engaged in disintegrating Kashmir, eliminating the Kashmiri people, and rooting out every sign and symbol of Islamic culture in the state.” Paying great tributes to Jamaat Islami for its role and sacrifices in the freedom movement of Kashmir, the AJK president said that Kashmiri nation would never forget the golden chapter of the party’s role in the liberation struggle. He maintained that the chief of Jamaat Islami Pakistan Sirajul Haq is a true Pakistani, who established his credentials as an honest leader and has always supported the Kashmiri people and Kashmir cause.
grounds participated in the dialogue. They included, from Afghanistan, Sayed Hamed gailani, Mirwais Yasini, Dr ghairat Bahir, former ambassadors to Pakistan Dr Hazrat Omar Zakhilwal and Janan Mosazai, cleric Abdul Salam Abid, journalist Said Lotfullah Najafizada, Hassina Syed, Sahraa Karimi and Hasiba Efat. From Pakistan, ambassadors riaz Mohammad Khan, Jalil Abbas Jilani, Aziz Ahmed Khan, Ayaz Wazir, Mohammad Sadiq, Fauzia Nasreen, riffat Masood and Tasnim Aslam, former foreign minister and parliamentarian Hina rabbani Khar, parliamentarians Andleeb Abbas, Shandana gulzar Khan and Nafisa Khattak, activist Sarwar Bari, economists Abid Suleri and Vaqar Ahmed, Javed Hasan, journalists Saleem Safi, Tahir Khan and Hasan Khan. From Doha, Fawzia Koofi, Fatema gailani, Habiba Sorabi and Sharifa Zurmati joined via Zoom. Held under the umbrella theme of “Stepping into the future - Peace, partnership, progress”, four working sessions were held to discuss critical challenges including “The dynamics of peace process - Hopes and impediments”, “The centrality of women’s role in the future of Afghanistan – Inclusivity for societal growth and sustainability”, “Post-withdrawal paradigm – Forging economic partnerships for sustainable progress” and “Parliamentary cooperation - Strengthening democracy and cementing bilateral relations”.
NEWS DESK On the grounds of maintainability, the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) on Wednesday dismissed identical applications, seeking re-polling in Karachi’s National Assembly constituency NA-249. Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) and Pak Sarzameen Party (PSP) candidates had moved the petitions in the ECP, alleging rigging in the NA-249 by-elections held on April 29.They had pleaded with the ECP to declare the by-poll void and hold fresh by-election in the constituency. The ECP, however, dismissed the petitions as non-maintainable and asked the petitioners to invoke the proper forum jurisdiction, which is election tribunal for remedy. On April 29, Pakistan People’s Party’s Abdul Qadir Mandokhail had won the election by securing 15,656 votes. Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz’s Miftah Ismail was the runner-up with 14,747 votes. Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan’s Mufti Nazeer Kamalvi had clinched third position with 11,125 votes, followed by Mustafa Kamal of the PSP, who had bagged 9,227 votes. Last month, the Election Commission of Pakistan had conducted recounting of votes cast at the 276 polling stations of the NA-249 constituency, in which Mandokhail had again emerged as winner. The recounting of votes was ordered on Miftah Ismail’s plea. When the vote recount had begun, the PML-N, PTI, PSP and MQM-P parties had boycotted it over non-provision of Form 45 and 46.
CCI Pakistan officials meet PM, announce $50m investment for production plant LAhorE PR
A delegation of CocaCola Beverages Pakistan Limited (CCI Pakistan) and its general Manager Ahmet Kursad Ertin met with Prime Minister of Pakistan Imran Khan and announced an investment of USD 50 million for a greenfield project the company plans to set up in Haripur district of Khyber
Pakhtunkhwa (KP). This will be CCI’s 7th production facility in the country. Construction of this new state-of-the art plant site is scheduled for completion by the first quarter of 2022. It will mainly cater to the beverage needs of northern Pakistan. During the meeting, Ahmet Kursad Ertin presented the company as a leading member of Pak-
istan-Turkey Business Council and one of the largest private Turkish investors in Pakistan, which is paving the way for other Turkish investors. According to the delegation, the proposed project will not only bring major investment to the region but also create direct and indirect employment opportunities and revenue generation for the government as well as for third party suppliers, vendors and distributors.
Thursday, 17 June, 2021
ISLAMABAD
NEWS
NA Approves fiNANciAl iNsTiTuTioNs AmeNdmeNT bill To improve smes fiNANciNg ISLAMABAD
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STAFF REPORT
he National Assembly has approved a legal amendment to increase access of small and medium enterprises to loans and make transactions secure for financial institutions in a bid to order to improve Pakistan’s ranking on World Bank (WB) ease of Doing Business Index (eDBI). The bill, which was passed in the recent session of the assembly, will now be tabled at the upper house for its final approval. This will provide a legal framework for creation and enforcement of security interest on movable assets with a view to enhance SMes access to finance through use of their movable assets – receivables, intellectual prop-
erty, inventory, negotiable instruments, agricultural produce, petroleum or minerals, motor vehicles – as security for loans. With around 40 per cent share in GDP, SMes have access to less than 10 per cent of private sector credit, according to the central bank’s data. The country ranks 119 on the World Bank’s indicator of ‘getting the credit’. The law also provided for establishment of a secured transaction registry (STR) for registration of charges created by unincorporated entities – individuals, sole proprietorships, partnerships – on their movable assets. SeCP launched STR in April last The scope of the law was extended to allow extension of security interests to future assets, products and replacements of original assets and absolute assignment of receivable.
It allows general description of debts and obligations in collateral agreements, permitts that all types of debts and obligations could be secured between parties and allows absolute priority to secured creditors over government and labor claims, in case of default in insolvency or outside insolvency. “To ensure efficient administration of the STR by the SeCP, some powers of the federal government – appointment of the registrar, operationalisation of the registry and ancillary matters have been assigned to the SeCP,” said the document. “This structure of the registry will help to move towards unification of registries and their legal framework in line with doing business methodology and international best practices leading to further improvement in ease of doing business ranking in future.”
Moreover, the security interests will be regulated on the basis of their function, not their form, traditional terminology for security interests to comply with international best practices on secured transactions laws and World Bank’s requirements. Perfection of security interests may be achieved by registration in all types of security interests on movable property. however, in some cases e.g. possession of tangible movable property or right on funds credited in deposit account perfection may also be achieved through possession or control respectively. earlier perfection by registration was not available for all types of security interests. Allows super-priority to acquire security rights i.e. security right of financier of an asset, if registered under the Act, shall have priority over another secured creditor.
Opposition parties comes closer following more NA budget session chaos contInueD froM pAge 01 The aforementioned MPs were found to have “violated” the rules of the parliament despite the “repeated direction” of the speaker. “Therefore, I order for withdrawal of aforesaid Members from the precincts of the National Assembly immediately. These members are required not to enter into the precincts of the Parliament house till further orders,” the statement issued by Qaiser’s office said. The punishment was meted out after a meeting between Qaiser and Prime Minister Imran Khan the former informed the latter about the incident as well as the latest political situation. PPP, PML-N ASSURE QIASER OF ‘PLEASENT’ ENVIRONMENT: Meanwhile, Qaiser also telephoned Sharif and PPP chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari and exchanged views on keeping the environment in the house “pleasant” during the budget sessions, according to a statement by the National Assembly Secretariat. During the call, Qaiser said the ruckus was “sadden-
ing”, stressing that keeping the environment pleasant was the joint responsibility of the treasury and the opposition. he urged the parliamentary leaders of all parties to play their role in this regard, the statement said. Shehbaz and Bilawal agreed with the speaker and assured him of cooperation in keeping the parliament’s environment peaceful, the statement announced. SHEHBAZ NOT ALLOWED TO SPEAK: On Wednesday, surrounded by sergeants, Shehbaz tried to deliver his speech amid sloganeering from the treasury benches but was cut short. Meanwhile, Qaiser repeatedly called on the parliamentarians to be seated, but eventually adjourned the session after an object was thrown at the speaker’s dais. he ordered for whoever had thrown the object to be escorted from the house and said he would take action against the individual responsible. “I will not conduct this house until both the government and the opposition [settle their matters],” said Qaiser before walking out, adjourning the session till tomorrow.
Shehbaz, during his speech, condemned Monday’s incident and said it was Qaiser’s duty to maintain the sanctity of the house and run it in accordance with the law. “I want to inform that it was the decision of our party and the opposition that if the opposition’s speeches were peacefully listened to then we would reciprocate and listen to the leader of the house’s speech,” he said, adding that Qaiser had failed to keep the treasury members in check over the last two days. “I am saddened by your helplessness,” he said, alleging that the behaviour of treasury members had been sanctioned by Prime Minister Imran Khan himself. Speaking about the incident, Federal Minister for Planning, Development and Special Initiatives Asad Umar claimed in a tweet that the opposition had “attacked” within minutes of the session’s start. he added that PTI lawmaker Muhammad Akram Cheema was also injured by a bottle thrown at him. “Worried by the economic improvement and popular budget, the opposition wants to run away from discussion on the budget in the house by engaging in confrontation.”
PTI demands apology from PML-N after ruckus in NA session Members of the National Assembly from the ruling party have demanded an apology from Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz lawmakers on Wednesday due to the ruckus created in the lower house the previous day. Minister of State for Information and Broadcasting Farrukh habib, without naming anyone, also condemned the lawmakers for disrespecting women. expressing similar views, Parliamentary Secretary for Law Maleeka Bokhari – who was struck in the eye during the session – said yesterday’s incident in the NA had raised concerns among women and girls in Pakistan. “They are witness to how a parliamentarian … who is the parliamentary secretary for law and legislates for the protection of their rights, even she was attacked in this august house (NA), which itself was desecrated,” she said during a joint press conference in Islamabad today alongside Minister of State for Climate Change Zartaj Gul and other Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf lawmakers. “We will [fight back] with arguments substantiated with facts and logic,” she asserted. “This is what our leader has taught us — that the women of Pakistan can present their stance with grace while representing 50 percent of the country’s population [in parliament].” She added that while she was pained and disappointed at what had transpired in the lower house of parliament, she was not surprised. Bokhari recalled that it was the same party that had attacked the Supreme Court, unarmed women in Model Town, disrespected former premier Benazir Bhutto and had been subjecting PTI’s women lawmakers to ridicule. “Is this how we want to run this parliament?” she asked. “Your [PML-N’s] oppressive behaviour was ex-
posed yesterday. You crossed all limits.” Bokhari went on to say that the PML-N and Pakistan People’s Party had been in power in the country for decades and now that a third party was in the government with a different stance, it was intolerable for the PML-N. “It is not just you who is a part of this democracy. We are a part of it as well. Our stance and words hold value as well.” She urged PML-N members to listen to others’ stance with patience and tolerance, adding that treasury bench members also had the right to speak. Saying that women did not feel safe in Pakistan, Bokhari urged the leadership of political parties to sit together and address the issue in the NA session scheduled for Wednesday and said the previous days incident was “shameful”. “Draw the line so that no woman, inside and outside parliament, has to face humiliation in the future.” At the outset of the press conference, Gul also said that PML-N lawmakers misbehaved and attacked women in parliament on the instructions of Nawaz. She added that it had been a tradition in the PML-N to award high posts to members who misbehaved with women. She particularly named Ali Gohar Baloch of the PML-N, further claiming that the party’s misbehaviour stemmed from their frustration over no women members from the PML-N being capable enough of contesting even the elections for councillors. Besides, the minister said the opposition not being able to find any faults in the budget added to their frustration. Gul went on to say that the PML-N could not toler-
ate the presence of the PTI and women in mainstream politics and that it had turned into a party of “dacoits” and hooligans”. “But we, women, and the people of Pakistan will not put up with this [behaviour].” The minister called for the suspension of PML-N lawmakers who misbehaved with women in parliament the previous day and demanded an apology. She pointed out that if women would continue to face verbal and physical attacks, abuse and character assassination, no respectable woman would want to be a part of parliament. “Do not close the doors of politics for the coming generations,” she appealed. Women’s Parliamentary Caucus Secretary Munaza hassan also termed the misbehaviour with women in parliament “shameful” and “embarrassing”. “Targeting and attacking women is shameful,” she said, adding that she condemned such behaviour and that all women must be respected whether they were from the opposition of treasury benches. She, too, urged the leadership of political parties to sit together and address the issue. Moreover, Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on Political Communication Dr Shahbaz Gill Wednesday strongly condemned the PML-N lawmaker’s remarks on the culture of Punjab province. In a reaction video over PML-N MNA Sheikh Rohale Asghar’s remarks that “using abusive language is the culture of Punjab”, he said such people were using abusive language against their political opponents only for political gains. nEwS dESk
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government rules out coronavirus vaccine shortage in country contInueD froM pAge 01 The drive began with a focus on the oldest people in the community, generally over the age of 80, and worked its way down. Battling a third peak of the virus, the health Department began the campaign with Chinese Sinopharm and CanSino jabs. Private hospitals in major cities are using the Russian Sputnik-V vaccine that has been imported by a local pharmaceutical company. Initially, the government had to deal with vaccination hesitancy and a shortage of vaccine supplies and had limited shots to people aged 30 or over. But with purchases from China and allocations from the World health Organisation and the GAVI Vaccine Alliance, the government has now secured more than 18 million doses and is keen to get them out into the population. The health authorities have administered 11.7 million vaccine doses with supplies from three Chinese companies — Sinopharm, Sinovac and CanSinbio — and the Oxford-AstraZeneca and Pfizer-BioNTech shots. People are not well-informed about the importance of inoculation against the coronavirus, and many remain deeply worried about the side effects experienced by a lot of people who get the shot. The authorities have done a poor job explaining that some symptoms are generally considered a sign that the vaccine is working. But, as is the case around the globe, the phenomenon of fake news has also contributed to widespread hesitancy, with social media and messaging services being the primary perpetrators of misinformation. Meanwhile, the government portal confirmed 1,038 new Covid-19 cases in the last 24 hours, the National Command and Operation Centre said. The NCOC, a department leading the national campaign against the pandemic, said that the total caseload has risen to 944,065, including 882,332 recoveries. There are 39,905 active cases under treatment across the country, including 2,490 in critical condition. According to the NCOC, the disease killed 46 people on Tuesday, raising the overall death toll to 21,828. Punjab continued to be the worsthit region with 344,379 infections and 10,567 deaths caused by the pandemic, followed by Sindh which reported 329,279 infected people and 5,273 deaths.
iT sector has potential to boost country’s exports upto $5bn by 2023: president Alvi ISLAMABAD APP
President Dr. Arif Alvi said that the IT sector of the country is growing fast and it has the potential toboost IT exports upto $5 billion by 2023. he said that the IT sector had the great potential but unfortunately this vital field had been ignored in the past. The present government was focusing on development of the IT sector by establishing Special Technology Zones and giving tax concessions to IT companies that would greatly contribute to the economic development of the country, he added. he expressed these views while addressing at the 1st Lahore Chamber of Commerce and Industry IT Awards ceremony at Aiwan-e-Sadr.The president said that Pakistan was progressing in every field and was shifting its focus from geo-strategic to geo-economic hub that would significantly help in economic prosperity of the country. he underscored the need for training the IT graduates and youth of the country in IT skills so as to meet the country’s IT requirements. The [resident highlighted that the developed world was making strides in the field of IT and Pakistan also needed to adopt emerging technologies for its economic growth. While praising the successful policy of the government with regard to containing COVID-19 pandemic, the [resident said that the government exercised its intellect and made wise decisions based on data and human compassion which led to successfully containing the pandemic. he also lauded the cooperation of Ulema from all schools of thought who extended wholehearted support to the government’s policy against the pandemic.
Steel sector warns govt of Rs50bn annual loss over scrapping FED in tribal areas ISLAMABAD GHULAM ABBAS
Pakistan’s steel industry has strongly protested moving the sector from the FeD to GST sales tax regime and warns the PTI government that this will have disastrous consequences for the industry and economy. “The government will have to bear a revenue decrease of Rs50 billion per annum as loss on sales tax by this move. There has been no stake-holder consultation by the government and there remains no incentive to remain in the tax net after such a brash move by the government.” Through a letter sent to the Senate
Standing Committee on Finance, the local steel industry has informed that while steel units in the FATA and PATA areas enjoyed various tax incentives, the entire thought behind levying FeD in GST mode on the steel industry was to ensure that output sales tax would be levied on units located in the areas. This was a necessity because the government is unable to restrict the tax exempt goods within the area, creating unfair competition, price distortion and undercutting of the formal and documented industry players. As such, there was massive abuse of the law that allowed large quantities of tax-exempt goods to creep into markets across the country. The industry raised hue and cry over such
foul practice and the FBR responded over the past 12 months to tighten administrative control and restrict the abuse of law to enable a level playing field in the industry. With tightening administrative control, the steel sector in FATA/PATA moved their political muscle to get an outright exemption of sales tax by removing the entire sector from the FeD mode in the recent budget announcement on June 11, 2021. All stakeholders including the PTI government, FBR and industry know that the government does not have the capacity to restrict tax exempt goods to the tribal areas as per law. In essence, by removing the steel sector from FeD mode, the PTI government is creating an imbalance
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in the sector that will allow undocumented players to flourish at the expense of those that are paying full taxes, complying with quality standards and working towards enabling the Naya Pakistan housing Scheme, infrastructure and housing projects. “The current installed capacity in FATA has almost reached 1 million tons per annum whereas the consumption cannot be more than 180,000 tons per annum as per the population (approximately 5 Million) and national per capita consumption (35 Kgs) of the area. This clearly shows that many units have been set up to illegally use the tax incentive and provide tax free finished goods outside the tribal areas.”
“The government must understand that the major beneficiaries of such incentives are industrialists from outside FATA/PATA that have moved their industries to these tax-exempt areas in partnership with a few locals. Most of the labor is also from other provinces rather than up-skilling the local population. There is very little trickle-down effect that justifies such tax exemptions.” All major steel associations are appealing, cautioning and warning the PTI government to keep the steel industry in the FeD mode to ensure maximum revenue generation, job creation, and fair competition within the industry.
Thursday, 17 June, 2021
06 COMMENT
Keeping businessmen out of politics
Putting the system at stake
Zia brought rent-seekers into politics
Pandemonium in NA and confrontation with ECP
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He role played by various actors in the desecration of the national assembly on Wednesday was caught by the camera’s eye, the obscenities recorded by the sound system and everything broadcast both by mainstream and social media. The way the ministers who came straight from the Cabinet meeting encouraged fellow Mnas to initiate the unseemly melee provides a clue about the direction from where the orders came. The bad name that the ruling party earned will remain a source of embarrassment to it for a long time. if the aggressive behaviour was meant to silence the Leader of the Opposition, it proved to be counterproductive as Shahbaz Sharif continued to deliver his speech for four successive days instead of finishing in one. The government should have instead entered into an agreement with the opposition aimed at facilitating both sides in expressing their views without being disturbed. even now the government needs to approach the opposition with a proposal of the sort. The government maintains that it wants to introduce electoral reforms in order to put an end to the common complaints about election malpractices. in order to be widely acceptable the reforms should have been thoroughly debated in house committees and then in the national assembly and Senate. What the government did instead was to pass 21 laws, including those related to electoral reforms, in one go without discussion. With the opposition rejecting the reforms, any elections held under the proposed rules would remain controversial. no ordinary law passed by the national assembly can take away, or hand over to any other body, the powers given to the election Commission of pakistan under article 219. The government wants to hand over some of the important powers of the independent eCp to naDRa which, being a government body, can be easily manipulated by the ruling party to win the elections. The eCp has objected to 28 out of the total 62 amendments proposed by the government. The Commission holds that electronic voting machines cannot be introduced without first determining whether they are capable of conducting free and fair elections, can operate in conditions of hot weather, loadshedding etc and can ensure the accuracy, secrecy and transparency of elections. The government needs to heed the eCp’s advice.
Dr FariD a Malik
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Y father was a businessman and so was my grandfather. The family principles being: indulge only in business, do not seek employment; finances must be interest-free; success comes through honest hard work. Fortunately most family members did well in life, first in Ludhiana and then Lahore and abroad. khawaja Brothers were the leading importers of watches in india. after partition they shifted to Lahore and re-established themselves in the new land. The first Martial Law in 1958 squeezed the space for honest upright businessmen. after an uphill battle for an upright existence, my old man decided to wrap up his business in 1975. He advised his three sons to seek opportunities elsewhere as the environment was not conducive for fair business practices, as favouritism and nepotism had taken over. Despite all the challenges, only one fourth-generation link continues to produce wall clocks in the country, and the khawajas of Ludhiana continue to live by their guiding principles of honesty and integrity with four generations of taxpayers. When the first usurper decided to celebrate his Decade of progress in October 1968, street protests started all over the country. karachi, the first capital of pakistan, was always against the ‘ Toadistan ‘ that emerged after ayub khan’s misrule had divided the nation into have and have-nots. Student protests started there, followed by other major cities.
Relying on the FBR
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He increase in the punitive powers of the inland Revenue might seem to be an administrative measure aimed to broaden the base, but it may well have the opposite effect. The Finance Bill now allows taxation officials to have a taxpayer arrested if he or she thinks there has been an offence. The official can then detain that person on remand. This gives taxation officials power to detain anyone at will. Considering how the government’s use of naB, which has similar powers of arrest and detention, has attracted adverse comments from the Supreme Court, empowering taxation officials might merely prove a means of enabling the government to persecute political rivals. The way that Supreme Court judge Mr Justice Qazi Faez issa and his wife were targeted by the FBR, until the Supreme Court’s recent decision in a review petition, shows that its services are being favoured. if the FBR got more teeth, it might end up being used against the regime’s opponents. Whether or not it is so used, it will provide another excuse to businessmen anxious to avoid the tax net. instead of widening the tax net, it may lead to its narrowing or virtual stagnation, as individuals do their best to get out of the tax net. going by past experience, taxation officials will find ways to use these newly granted powers to enrich themselves. Since the collection record set this year could only have been achieved by giving up some of the perks of the job, the new powers seem designed for taxation officials to make up past losses. it also opens up the prospect of an attempt to imitate Saudi arabia, where a large number of officials were arrested, and kept at a hotel until they coughed up money. Such laws, giving any department arbitrary powers of detention are not in accordance with the rule of law. The government is likely to find the new powers challenged in the courts, which already have been taking a dim view of the power of the executive to use laws meant for offenders harming all of society to persecute political opponents.
A nation of immigrants must be careful
Washington Watch
S
Arif Nizami Editor Joint Editor
Umar Aziz Executive Editor
Lahore – Ph: 042-36300938, 042-36375965
Dr JaMes J Zogby
peaking at the 100th anniversary of the Tulsa race massacre in which White mobs ravaged a prosperous Black neighbourhood killing as many as 300 Black americans, president Joseph Biden observed, “We can’t just choose to learn what we want to know and not what we should know. We should know the good, the bad, the everything.” The president was addressing the effort by some Republicans who are passing laws designed to eliminate lessons about the role racism has played in shaping our history and our institutions. They want students to learn only a mythic and rosy portrait of american history. This picture simply doesn’t match reality. it also doesn’t allow us to learn lessons from our legacy of racism. The point Mr. Biden was making is important and can be applied to another area of our history– the way we have dealt with immigration and immigrants. June is immigrant Heritage Month, a time to reflect on our american story. it is a complicated one that deserves to be understood with “the good, the bad, the everything,” because it is full of contradictions that must be acknowledged and lessons that are still begging to be learned. On the one hand there is the Statue of Liberty
Dedicated to the legacy of the late Hameed Nizami
Managing Editor
The writer is ex-Chairman, Pakistan Science Foundation. He can be contacted at: fmaliks@hotmail.com.
The two sides of the USA’s story
New powers for FBR may hurt taxes
Yousaf Nizami Aziz-ud-Din Ahmad
Dr Mahbub-ul-Haq came up with a figure of 22 families that had managed to control the wealth of the nation. empire building had replaced nation building. Common good had become uncommon. The mighty khan had to step down in March 1969, paving way for the first free and fair elections in 1970. Mujib and Bhutto both won big on an anti-establishment platform. Following his Socialist agenda, Bhutto nationalized industries and banks. Most business empires were dismembered. after the fall of the Bhutto regime, a new breed of businessmen were introduced into politics. Through the Chaudhrys of gujrat, ayub khan had experimented with this approach, but it was limited in scope. To counter the progressive appeal of Bhutto’s party, Zia brought rent-seeking individuals into the corridors of power which has resulted in disastrous consequences. Conflict of interest which was once closely watched was now totally relaxed to favour the favourites. While in the ayub Model business and politics remained largely separate, but in the Zia Model they were combined and let loose on the nation to exploit its resources for individual good. a new concept emerged, Khana (Skimming) aur Lagana (Spending ). in return for loyalty, skimming of public resources became a norm. Fearing democratic or public backlash like the 1970s, manipulative mechanisms were introduced to steal the mandate. Through the islami Jhumoori ittehad (iJi), Mian Muhammad nawaz Sharif and his team were launched at the federal level after the dismissal of the Benazir government in 1990. The province of punjab had already been in their control since 1985, and now the entire country was handed over to them. Currently there is a big debate on the realignment of the Rawalpindi Ring Road, and earlier a similar exercise was carried out in the construction of the Lahore Ring Road. To avoid scrutiny, the entire record was burnt. The Chakri Loop on the M-2 Motorway is another big disaster. it has not only increased the distance between Lahore and islamabad by over 100 km, but the road gradient poses a serious safety challenge to heavy transport that has to climb the Salt Range. M-2 has to be realigned to get rid of this loop which has been imposed on the entire travelling public to favour friends at the cost of the nation. Business is driven by profit and opportunity, while politics demands service to the public. When businessmen enter the corridors of power the lure of making quick money becomes unavoidable. While Bhutto’s
party still has selfless comrades in its fold, the pML(n) has none as generating wealth through political power is considered appropriate. a few years back i presented a paper at a Clean energy Conference in istanbul in which it was revealed that if global warming continues, half of the world’s species would perish by the end of the century. On my way back, when i arrived at the airport, my friend, a prominent businessman of Lahore, was there together with his business friend, a prominent pML(n) Mna from Lahore. Taking advantage of his presence, i requested the Mna to plead with his leadership to shun the coal-fired power plant in the agricultural heartland of Sahiwal. He showed no interest in my pleading, and on his lack of response, my friend calmly said, “ as their commission is already set, they will not listen to any logic “. interestingly the Mna just smiled and presented no counter argument as it was considered kosher by him. Today the Sahiwal coal-fired plant is an environmental disaster which must be relocated to save the city. after their long stints in power, their influence runs very deep, and the list of beneficiaries is long. There is finally a talk about a Truth and Reconciliation Commission on the lines of South africa, but it is not clear that these tainted businessmen would be willing to part with their usurped wealth, There the crimes were committed under apartheid Laws based on racism, and those who pleaded guilty were excused others were prosecuted under the law. Financial corruption is a more complex issue, as it is very difficult for a businessman to part with his wealth. it is for this reason that less than one percent pay income tax in the land of the pure. even prominent political businessmen shamelessly pay very little income tax while they continue to hold assets running into billions. Weeding out these bounty hunters is an uphill task, but it must be undertaken to protect the assets of the nation both current and future. an effective audit of pre- and post-1985 family assets is the way forward to separate those who served and the ones who plundered. Such a tight sieve would discourage entry of future businessmen into the political arena. it will also help in the neutralization and then strengthening of institutions. politics will then be reserved for those who desire to serve and build their legacy instead of empires and estates, as has been the case in the last 40 years in the islamic Republic of pakistan. Business and politics cannot go together, the writing is on the wall.
I
Karachi – Ph: 021-35381208-9
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with her beckoning words: “give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, the wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me, i lift my lamp beside the golden door.” Millions of individuals from every corner of the globe have responded to this invitation, coming to this country seeking refuge and opportunity. and for many communities, despite facing initial hardships, their american story has been a remarkable one of acceptance and transformation that deserves to be recognized. as Jesse Jackson is fond of saying, america is a patchwork quilt of many hues. Look at the people who make us a nation. Look at our culture. Can one even speak about american food, style, fashion, humor, music, without seeing the profound impact of italian, irish, Scottish, French, Chinese, Jewish, Black, Latino, arab, and so many other influences? and yet, so many of these same groups were scorned and had to struggle in the face of discrimination, only to leave their indelible mark on defining what america is and who we are as a people. at the same time, we must acknowledge the dark side to our story. The very idea of america was conceived with two original sins: genocide and slavery. From the time the first immigrant/settlers arrived on our shores until the early part of the last century, we engaged in the theft of land from and the brutal extermination of indigenous peoples. and, for centuries, the largest portion of the USa’s wealth was derived from the fruits of slave labor. The continuing legacy of racism has led to further tragic distortions in our economy. Unlike europe, where new immigrants form the underclass, in america immigrants come to a country with a preexisting underclass giving them an advantage in economic and social mobility. But forms of racism and discrimination have also exacted a toll on each new wave of immigrants. in
Islamabad – Ph: 051-2204545
every age, we witnessed oftentimes violent movements of bigots who sought to define the USa as theirs alone. and so, in turn, irish, italian, Jewish, eastern european, Chinese, Japanese, and others have experienced discrimination, racial stereotyping, and exclusion. it is important to acknowledge this so that we understand that the contemporary experience of Latino, asian, african, and arab immigrants have predicates in our history. at an immigration Month celebration in Congress a decade ago, the members of Congress who spoke before me proudly noted that we are a nation of immigrants and appropriately decried bigotry against and efforts to exclude some groups of new immigrants. each, in turn, denounced these behaviours as “not our values” and “not in keeping with our history as a welcoming nation.” When it was my turn to speak, i took issue with some of these comments. Yes, i noted, we are a nation of immigrants. and yes, generations have been inspired by the welcoming poem inscribed on the Lady in the Harbour. But, i reminded them, we are also the nation that, in addition to our deplorable treatment of Blacks and native americans, also witnessed “irish need not apply”; passed the “asian exclusion act”; stole the properties of and interned Japanese americans; lynched italian americans; and persecuted Jews as socialists and subversives. This too is our history, and we must own it. Both sides of our story, the good and the bad, are true and both must be recognized. if we fail to acknowledge the dark side and the lessons we must learn from it, then we are vulnerable to repeating its sins again. at the same time, if we fail to acknowledge the good side, then we may succumb to despair and not realize that we can, as we have in every age, risen to challenge bigotry and set a new place at the welcoming table of america for those seeking refuge and opportunity.
Both sides of our story, the good and the bad, are true and both must be recognized. If we fail to acknowledge the dark side and the lessons we must learn from it, then we are vulnerable to repeating its sins again.
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Web: www.pakistantoday.com.pk
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The writer is President of the Arab American Institute
Email: editorial@pakistantoday.com.pk
Thursday, 17 June, 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
Skilled man power
Pakistan a promoter of peace Pakistan has suffered the most
MuhaMMaD ZahiD riFat
P
akiSTan is a peace loving country, strictly believing in and pursuing a policy of peaceful co-existence with all countries, particularly the neighbours, and thus is committed to have friendly cordial relations with all and enmity towards none. pakistan’s commitment to peace in the region and also to the world over, is also manifested through its major contributions to the Un peace Missions’ efforts in strife and wartorn countries in different parts of the globe. afghanistan is an important immediate neighbour, having its borders in the east and south with pakistan and being landlocked, uses the sea route via pakistan. afghanistan has been suffering from war since the 1970s. after the brutalities of the civil war, foreign invasion of the Soviet Union in 1979 and the USa in 2001 following the 9/11 terrorist attacks in new York have resulted in destruction everywhere in afghanistan and killed thousands of innocent afghans. great powers obviously came to afghanistan one after the other apparently to crush the roots of religious extremism, drug trafficking, terrorism and smuggling. Somehow, pakistan did not enjoy cordial relations with its western neighbour afghanistan. pakistan has suffered the most due to wars and instability in afghanistan and has lost billions of dollars and thousands of people including men, women and children besides armed forces and security agencies personnel over the years in the War on Terror started by the USa. pakistan is supporting the ongoing peace process in afghanistan and making sincere, dedicated and committed efforts in convincing all stakeholders to sit at the table, talk and resolve differences and issues, and trying to ensure stability in the country. as a result of persistent efforts of pakistan at all levels the Taliban and the USa signed a peace deal in Doha on 29 February 2020 to end the longest war in the history of the USa. pakistan has played a positive and constructive role in bringing the Taliban to the negotiation table with the USa. This important contribution of pakistan is being appreciated by
all stakeholders, particularly the US top leadership and also the world at large, who are keeping their fingers crossed and praying that things keep moving in the right direction and the desired objectives of peace in war torn afghanistan are achieved as early as possible. US president Joe Biden has already announced a withdrawal of troops stationed in afghanistan from May and that the withdrawal process would be completed by September 11, 2021—the 9/11 of the 2001 terrorist attacks had started the longest war and on 9/11 of 2021, the withdrawal of foreign troops from afghanistan will mark its culmination . prime Minister imran khan and Chief of army Staff gen Qamar Javed Bajwa have time and time been advocating, supporting and stressing on an afghan-led and afghan-owned peace process. Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi, while addressing the 9th Heart of asia –istanbul process sometime back, had stated, “no other nation could claim to have such immutable bonds with afghanistan and thus be more desirous of peace in afghanistan than pakistan”. While appreciating pakistan’s positive contributions towards the afghan peace process, there have been hostile remarks and voices raised occasionally by the US leadership. Former US president Donald Trump had been continuously blaming pakistan for directly and indirectly supporting terrorist organizations. prime Minister imran khan had responded very hard by emphatically saying the USa could not blame pakistan for its failure in afghanistan, as deapite the help of over 100,000 naTO soldiers, over 250,000 afghan soldiers and the spending of over $1 trillion, the USa could not win the war in afghanistan. general Bajwa also hit hard against the allegation by emphatically stating that pakistan has done a lot to bring peace in afghanistan, and had suffered due to the afghan war more than any other country. it is needless to point out that a peaceful afghanistan is very important for bringing stability in the region. pakistan is the neighbour most affected BY the long duration of the afghan war which is neither in favour of the whole region nor the world powers at large. peace in afghanistan can promote the transit trade through Central asia, while the great Chinese great gamechangers in the region, the China-pakistan economic Corridor (CpeC) and the One Belt One Road initiative provide the facility to Beijing, islamabad, kabul and Central asia Republics of an easing of transit trade, but
it will only happen if peace returns to afghanistan. pakistan has played its vital role in bringing the Taliban to the negotiation table for signing a peace accord and also been stressing on the afghan government and the USa to keep an eye on the spoilers to ensure things keep moving forward as the dialogue is the only meaningful solution to end the war in afghanistan. india has its interests at stake in afghanistan, and a stable afghan-pakistan border is against them. pakistan is genuinely worried about indian influence in afghanistan, and has pointed out RaW’s involvement in pakistan a number of times, but the afghan government has not been giving any positive response. and, it is also worth mentioning here that pakistan has been hosting the largest number of afghan refugees for decades together who had fled afghanistan in the wake of the invasion by the Soviet Union. The Un High Commissioner for Refugees has time and again praised pakistan for playing host to such a large number of afghan refugees for such a long period. pakistan is still hosting more than three million afghan refugees. if peace returns to afghanistan, pakistan will obviously be the biggest beneficiary as peace and stability in afghanistan will greatly contribute towards overall peace and stability not only in pakistan but also the region all over. pakistan has been continuously, and still is, playing a positive and constructive role for bringing stability to afghanistan. it is a matter of record that pakistan has tried a number of times to establish cordial relations with afghanistan but there has been no positive response from its western neighbour. it is high time that peace is given a chance in afghanistan through an afghan-led and afghan-owned solution, a peace for which the afghan elite has made great sacrifices for the two decades as the war hit the people of afghanistan. a one-man show cannot be suitable for durable peace in afghanistan. There is a lot more that can be written about afghanistan, which has 34 provinces and more than 400 districts, and is known as the graveyards of empires. The Soviet Union had disintegrated following its invasion of afghanistan and now the USa is currently facing down internal fissures, and cultural and economic divides of its own. But all this awaits some other time to be dilated on.
It is high time that peace is given a chance in Afghanistan through an Afghan-led and Afghanowned solution, a peace for which the Afghan elite has made great sacrifices for the two decades as the war hit the people of Afghanistan. A one-man show cannot be suitable for durable peace in Afghanistan
The writer can zahidriffat@gmail.com.
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pRiMe Minister imran khan on Tuesday stressing on the importance of vocational training and skilled manpower in socio-economic development directed the federal and provincial institutions to formulate and present a joint comprehensive strategy. He said that one of the numerous factors behind economic development of neighborly China was their special focus on skilled manpower. The prime minister was presiding over a meeting regarding inter-provincial cooperation for skilled education. He further said that with no dearth of capabilities in pakistani manpower, there was a need to improve their capabilities and provide opportunities of proving the country’s mettle at international level through timely measures. Federal Minister Shafqat Mehmood, provincial Ministers Raja Yasir Humayun, kamran Bangash, Special assistant to Chief Minister punjab Sardar Tanvir ilyas, Chief executive Officer (CeO) national information Technology Board (niTB) Shabahat ali Shah Chairman national Vocational and Technical Training Commission (naVTTC) Syed Javed Hussain, Chairman Technical education and Vocational Training authority (TeVTa) ali Salman Siddiqui, Chairman Special Technology Zones authority (STZa) amir Hashmi, Sajjad Burki, atif khan and officers concerned were in attendance. The meeting was briefed about the strategy for training the pakistani skilled people as per international standards. it was told that in order to tackle the challenges faced by pakistani manpower at international level, a comprehensive strategy would be formulated in cooperation with the federal and provincial institutions. The meeting was told that neglecting the sector in the past resulted in unemployment and decrease in workers’ remittances, instead of transforming the youth into a skilled manpower. The prime minister was told that TeVTa, for the first time in last 10 years, got a development budget of Rs. 10 billion during the present government, which enabled the institution to increase its training capacity from 90,000 to 200,000 and further 50,000 through online training system. it was told that TeVTa, keeping in view the international consumption, was moving towards preparing a new lot of skilled manpower through Competency Based Training and assessment (CBTS) system, which would be able to get employment in special sectors in any country. Sohail ali Khan iSlamabad
Wall chalking THROUgH the column of your esteemed newspaper. i would like to draw the attention of authorities to the following problem. i would like to complain about wall chalking an illegal utilisation of private property. it’s a tool most often used by the local companies for advertisment as it’s the cheapest way to promote their business political parties and false saint are largely involved in this disgusting act. Move over people also do this to express their rebellious thoughts just for the sake of joy and cheer obviously beauty of the country nothings to them. all this is really dreadful and disappionting and should be controlled. i hope the matter would get the kind attention of concerned authorities soon. HASAn noor UmEr AnSArI. KArACHI
Sea intrusion kHHaROCHHan, a settlement along the arabian Sea Coast in the indus Delta area near Thatta, is on the verge of disappearance due to sea intrusion. Sea intrusion has already submerged the Sokhi Bunder and khharochhan is also very much on the path to meet the same destiny khharochhan, a settlement along the arabian Sea coast in the delta area of River indus near Thatta gives a deserted look today, but once was the busiest town of the coastal belt. it had Sokhi Bunder at one end and keti Bunder at the other. But the construction of dams and barrages on the indus River and inadequate discharge of river water gave way to sea intrusion submerging the Sokhi Bunder, the remnants of which can still be found under the seawater approximately six kilometers away from keti Bunder.khharochhan is very much on the path to meet the same destiny as the population of the town is shrinking with every passing day. The erosion of agricultural lands has caused the migration of people to the urban areas of the district, while the well-off families have migrated to other parts of the province to make their future secure. Lack of basic amenities like water supply for drinking purpose and reducing resources of livelihood further added to their miseries and compelled them to leave their ancestral abodes. khharochhan, which covers an area of 778 sq. km and has a status of taluka (tehsil), while there is also a union council with the same name headquartered at Baghan. The khharochhan union council has 41 revenue villages (Dehs) and 4385 households according to 2011 statistics of Sindh government. a report by WWF-pakistan says that natural resource pressures have resulted from insufficient water flow downstream kotri and at least 117,823 ha of land was lost due to sea erosion, of which 81% fell in the category of ‘totally eroded by the sea’ covering 21 Dehs (cluster of villages) out of a total of 41 Dehs in kharo Chan, according to Sindh government’s 2004 data. a study carried out by this scribe revealed that the population of the area has radically decreased from 70,000 to 5000 while around 3.10 million acres of land have been pocketed by sea over the past two decades. acute water scarcity during June and July further dents the economic state of the local growers and they keep raising their voice for the due share of river water during the particular season every year. according to residents, Reverse Osmosis plant (RO plants) were installed by the government but became defunct after some time due to improper maintenance. They said that owing to inadequate supply of water downstream they were facing this dilemma and khharochhan was on the verge of outright erosion. They feared if sea intrusion continued as it has been, the days are not far away when khharochhan would become part of the history only. as per international laws and historically, Sindh, being the lower riparian, has prime right on indus waters. in the 1950s and ’60s the indus delta was green and fertile owing to sufficient water discharges but now the reduced and often no water flow in the river has destroyed a vast area of agricultural land. Kamran KhamiSo Khawaja Sujawal
Thursday, 17 June, 2021
08 WORLD VIEW
What shockInG data on IndIa’s covId second Wave deaths really reveals WILL THE MODI GOVERNMENT COME CLEAN WITH THE ENTIRE DATA ON WHAT IS CLEARLY THE BIGGEST PUBLIC HEALTH SCANDAL OF THIS CENTURY?
J
yoGendra yadav
UST how many indians have died in the second wave of Covid? What would be the eventual toll of the pandemic? This is not idle, morbid, curiosity. The true numbers have momentous humanitarian, public health, economic and political implications. i have been asking this question for the past few weeks. This was triggered by personal experiences, not very different from what most indians have gone through recently. in the past two months, i have lost my mentor, another colleague, a batch-mate, several teachers, many comrades in the movement and just too many persons i knew and knew of. i have attended more memorial meetings than i remember in a long time. My own small village in Haryana has lost 19 lives in less than two months. That is what set me thinking: just how big is the scale of this tragedy? i started following media reports and expert analyses besides conducting my own word-of-mouth survey. everything pointed to a big scandal. But how big? That
was unclear. Last week was a breakthrough. now, it is clear that we are looking at the biggest death toll caused by any single disaster or epidemic in the last century. it is also clear that the central and nearly all the state governments are sitting over and concealing the numbers. experts have a clear sense of the scale of this disaster by now, but they are perhaps waiting for more verifiable evidence before they can publish their estimates. Hence my effort to offer a tentative estimate. WHY THE NEW DATA MATTERS: Let us begin with the latest data bomb. Last week, data journalist S. Rukmini published in Scroll the entire data set on the number of deaths in Madhya Pradesh and Andhra Pradesh (and partly on Tamil nadu) as recorded in the official Civil Registration System (CRS). So, now we have month-bymonth break up of the number of deaths officially recorded in these states for each district and smaller units. This data enables us to begin answering the big question. So far, we have seen shameful images of packed crematoria and dead bodies floating in the Ganga, shocking stories of suppression and distortion of Covid deaths in some cities, data on the huge death toll in select villages. But these anecdotal evidence did not allow us to project the big picture. We have also had attempts by The economist, The new York Times and academic institutions to offer estimates of the total death toll. But these were clear under-estimates because all of them took the government’s of-
ficial infection and fatality figures as their starting point. Rukmini’s data-expose takes us beyond these limitations. First of all, the data set is big and covers the entire states of Andhra Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh. Besides, it allows us to pursue the right approach. instead of wasting time on meaningless official statistics on the number of persons infected, cured, or dead from Covid, this approach focuses on the number of “excess deaths”. The simple question is: how many excess deaths, over and above the normal number, have we seen during this period? not all of these “excess” deaths may be due to Covid. As we know, burden on hospitals and shortage of oxygen has caused some additional deaths unrelated to Covid. Yet, it is reasonable to interpret the spike in deaths as caused by the pandemic. Most importantly, this information is from the most authentic data set, the government’s official register of births and deaths or the CRS. The data set is not perfect. Many deaths are reported after a month or even after a year. And in many states, a significant number of deaths are never reported and recorded in the CRS. But fortunately, we have good official estimates of how big this error is in each state, thanks to the Sample Registration System (SRS), another official arm of india’s robust statistical system. We know that while AP records 100 per cent of its deaths in CRS, the figure is just 78.8 per cent in MP. We can adjust for these deficits in the data. THE REAL NUMBERS: now let us look at why this data is so shocking. Madhya
What is Putin’s mindset ahead of his meeting with Biden?
CarNegie MosCow CeNtre
I
dmiTry Trenin
n anticipation of the meeting between presidents vladimir Putin and Joe Biden in Geneva, the Kremlin is not looking for a reset, or even a détente. nor is there any prospect of a grand bargain of the kind that some Russians thought potentially doable at the start of the Donald Trump presidency. There are no illusions in Moscow: adversarial relations with Washington are here to stay. Russian unilateral concessions are also out of the question in the face of consolidated U.S. power and Washington’s closer coordination with allies. in principle, President Putin would be open to some sort of strategic compromise with the United States, but he must know that President Biden and the U.S. political class as a whole are not interested in that, to put it mildly. nor does Putin need the meeting as proof of him being on an equal footing with Biden. From the Kremlin’s perspective, Russia’s international status does not rest on the fact of holding periodic one-on-one meetings with an American president, but rather on the ability to reliably deter U.S. military power and on being resilient to mounting U.S. economic, financial, and political pressure in the form of various restrictions. That said, Moscow has set itself several tasks for the Geneva meeting: above all, to explain to Joe Biden in no uncertain terms where Russia’s red lines lie. These include inviting Ukraine to join nATO, deploying
U.S. military forces and bases—particularly inF-range missiles—in Ukraine, condoning Kyiv’s attempts to recover Donbas or Crimea by force, seeking to prize Belarus away from Russia, and so on. in addition to that, Putin will engage with Biden on the modalities of a structured dialogue on strategic stability, potentially leading to negotiations on a new U.S.-Russian arms control accord. it might also be good to mutually lift restrictions on Russian and U.S. diplomatic representations in each other’s country, to include the return of Russian diplomatic property seized by Washington. in Moscow’s view, a dialogue on cybersecurity issues with the United States would make sense. However, no Russian apology with regard to its alleged interference in U.S. elections should be expected. Putin is certainly not looking for a shouting match with Biden in Geneva. He does not have to prove to his audience at home that he can stand his ground and push back against Biden’s rhetoric. Putin will listen, of course, to what Biden has to say, but no discussion of Russian domestic politics will ensue. Rather, Putin will probably be interested in assessing where Biden’s real concerns lie; where the sensitive areas may be in which mutual restraint, rather than unattainable compromise arrangements, may be the best way forward for now; and how the United States might act and respond under different scenarios. The focus of the conversation will be solely on international issues, both bilateral and global. The importance of vladimir Putin’s meeting with Joe Biden should not be exaggerated. Putin did not seek out the meeting. When offered one by Biden, Putin did not rush to accept Biden’s invitation, but took time to consider it. To Putin, Biden’s invitation was never a reward: as the leader of a great power and one of the two nuclear superpowers, he finds it normal to transact business with his U.S. counterpart. Putin’s recent messages to the wider world are less about what he can do together with the American president, and more about what Russia can do alone—and, if need be, against the wishes of the U.S. government. Trenin is the director of the Carnegie Moscow Center.
Pradesh used to record around 34,000 deaths in May every year. This year it has gone beyond 1,64,000! That is more than 1.3 lakh excess deaths in one state in one single month. Remember, the official figure for Covid deaths in the entire country since March last year is just 3.8 lakhs. in Andhra Pradesh, the numbers jumped from an average of 27,000 to over 1,30,000. in both states, the number of deaths reported is 4.8 times the normal figure. The reported numbers need to be finetuned to take into account the expected delays in reporting for both states and non-reporting of some cases in MP. So, in both the states, the final estimated number of deaths would be a little over five times (5.02 in MP and 5.14 in AP) the normal death toll. But that is only for the peak month of May. The data for both the states gives us the numbers for the four months of build-up to the peak. From January to April, the average death toll in MP was 1.4 times the normal. now let us use this information to project the numbers for the entire country. We take an average of MP and AP and assume that it holds for the rest of the country. That is a big assumption, but not a very risky one. it so happens that both these states are not among the worst or the best states in the country when it comes to spread of Covid and the official reported death rate. if anything, they have reported fewer number of cases and deaths since 1 April, compared to the national average. So we assume here that the death toll in india would have been 5.08 times higher in
May this year than the normal monthly count of 6.08 lakhs. That gives us an estimate of 30.9 lakhs, of which 24.8 lakhs are excess deaths, for May. We assume that the graph for the month of January to April would have been similar to MP in the rest of the country, accounting for 0.4 times additional deaths than normal. We also assume that the four months of decline from the peak, from June to September, would also have a similar curve as from January to April. This assumption holds even if the peak in some part of the country was not in May but in April or June. Using this method, we estimate nearly 10 lakh deaths on either side of the peak. Add all this up and you have a rough estimate of excess deaths, largely Covid deaths, for the entire country for all nine months of the expected duration of the second wave: 44.3 lakhs. There is nothing final about this number. More data from other states would tell us whether the national average is higher or lower than these two states. More sophisticated modelling will improve the rough estimates offered here. But one thing is sure: we are not talking thousands or single-digit lakhs but millions of deaths. We are looking at more deaths than the numbers recorded in any epidemic or any disaster in india, including the Bengal famine, in the last 100 years, since the Spanish Flu of 1919-20. The pity is that all this information is sitting on the computers of the home ministry in Delhi that controls the CRS and the SRS. Will the narendra Modi government stop issuing silly denials and come clean with the entire data on what is clearly the biggest public health scandal of this century? Yogendra Yadav is the national president of Swaraj India.
A pointless US-Russia summit?
NatioNal iNterest
G
Ted Galen CarpenTer
iven the ugly state of U.S.Russian relations, expectations for meaningful, substantive results from President Biden’s summit with vladimir Putin are more modest than they usually are for such events. even so, they still may still be too optimistic. Both leaders do have an incentive not to let the talks blow up entirely and end with mutual expressions of vitriol. However, the most likely outcome is a vapid communique referring to “constructive discussions” and “a candid but cordial exchange of views on a range of important issues.” Such diplomatic fluff will not, and cannot, conceal the deepening and dangerous deterioration in bilateral relations. Washington has an ever-expanding list of grievances against Moscow, with alleged interference in the internal political affairs of the United States and other democracies being at the top of the list, and accusations of cyber-attacks moving up fast. But U.S. leaders remain blind to their own provocations. The typical U.S. negotiating strategy in dealing with adversaries is to present a laundry list of grievances and demand concessions that amount to outright surrender regarding every point. Conversely, any U.S. concessions offered range from meager to nonexistent. it is the essence of capitulation diplomacy, and it captures accurately Washington’s dealings with Russia throughout the post-Cold War era. if Biden truly wants to salvage the summit and produce worthwhile results, a totally different approach is essential. An important initial step would be to acknowledge that some actions that Wash-
ington and its nATO allies have taken were tone-deaf and gratuitously provocative with respect to Russia’s core interests. The decision to expand nATO, the most powerful military alliance in history, to Russia’s western border by incorporating the three Baltic republics fits that description. Stationing U.S. forces in some of nATO’s new east european members constitutes an additional provocation, and conducting an incessant series of nATO military exercises (i.e., war games) on Russia’s doorstep, both in the Baltics and the Black Sea, reflects both arrogance and recklessness. U.S. withdrawal from the intermediate nuclear Forces (inF) Treaty and the Open Skies agreement certainly did not ease tensions with Russia. The list of provocations goes on. even as U.S. leaders complain about the Kremlin’s meddling in the politics of democratic nations, they refuse to admit that Washington meddled shamelessly in late 2013 and early 2014 to help demonstrators unseat Ukraine’s elected, proRussian government. Currently, Washington openly sides with Russian opposition leader Alexei navalny in his political struggles against Putin and with protestors seeking to oust Kremlin ally Alexander Lukashenko in Belarus. Unfortunately, the United States and nATO appear poised to adopt an even more confrontational posture. The communique from the just-completed nATO summit bluntly refers to Russia as a “threat”—in marked contrast to the references to China as merely posing “challenges.” Western Russophobia remains intense and unyielding. Being realistic about U.S. demands and showing a willingness to make meaningful concessions would create a pathway for a successful summit and perhaps even a breakthrough in Washington’s relations with Russia. Pressing Putin to take action against cyber-hacking gangs based in Russia is entirely reasonable and achievable. insisting that Russia return Crimea to Ukraine is an obvious nonstarter. U.S. leaders may have reason to be annoyed about Russian interference in America’s political affairs, but they must be much more specific about what constitutes unacceptable “interference.” Most serious nations (including the United States and its closest allies) engage in robust public relations
and propaganda campaigns, so singling out Russia for outrage and retribution because of such activities is both hypocritical and pointless. imposing economic sanctions in response, as the United States continues to do, is even worse. Greater realism about making demands is crucial, but so is creating a list of appealing concessions. it would be nearly impossible for the United States to undo the initial folly of expanding nATO’s membership instead of giving that Cold War institutional dinosaur a well-earned retirement when the Soviet Union dissolved. But Biden could take the position that nATO’s doors are now closed and that the United States will veto any effort to bring either Ukraine or Georgia into the Alliance. The prospect of Ukraine’s membership in nATO and Western forces stationed on Ukrainian soil is especially likely to cross a bright red line as far as Russia is concerned. Moscow’s reaction likely would be similar to the U.S. response if another great power, say China, wanted to include Canada or Mexico in a military alliance that it dominated. Other proffered concessions could include reopening negotiations for a U.S. return to both the inF treaty and the Open Skies agreement. Such moves would benefit America’s best interests in any case, as well as reduce troubling military tensions in europe, so Washington would be especially wise to propose that step. Another key concession would be to end U.S. deployments of military forces in eastern europe and to dramatically reduce the scope, proximity, and frequency of nATO military exercises near Russia’s borders. it then would be reasonable to press Putin to withdraw some of his own forces that are currently stationed near the borders of Alliance members. Unfortunately, it is unlikely that Biden will take any of these steps, much less all of them. instead, we will probably witness a vacuous, somewhat chilly summit and count ourselves lucky if the meeting doesn’t produce an even deeper freeze in bilateral relations. Without substantial, beneficial changes, though, the United States and Russia will continue to drift toward a dangerous, potentially catastrophic, confrontation. Ted Galen Carpenter is a senior fellow in security studies at the Cato Institute.
Thursday, 17 June, 2021
BUSINESS 09
ISLAMABAD
ECC aPProvES IMPort oF 3MMt wHEat
corporate corner
KARACHI: Savyour Commercial Growth & Strategic Alliances Head Usman Butt, Savyour Co-Founder and CPO Saad Gadit, Savyour CEO Umair Gadit, Daraz Chief Marketing Officer Muhammad Ammar Hassan and Daraz Manager Partnerships and Affiliates Moazzam Faruqui. PR
Its galaxy week on Samsung’s online shop! KARACHI: It’s Galaxy Week on the Samsung Online Shop! Here are the bundles for this Galaxy Week: With the Galaxy A72 and A52 you get a Galaxy SmartTag which can help you track your device if you’ve forgotten it and with the Galaxy A32 you get a battery pack, which can help you charge your phone on the go. You can get Galaxy Buds Live for that premium wireless audio experience with the Galaxy S21+ and the Galaxy S21 Ultra along with an adapter and Galaxy Buds plus and an adapter with the Galaxy S21 5G. With the Galaxy S20 FE you get a free Galaxy Fit2, which can help you achieve your fitness goals, and with the Galaxy Note 20 Ultra you get a wireless charger, through which you can charge your phone wirelessly. When purchasing devices from Samsung’s Online Shop, customers will also get 70 per cent off on screen replacements for one year, the option to pay via Cash or Card along with free delivery nationwide.Samsung Galaxy Week bundle offers are available for a limited time only exclusively on the online shop. Visit shop.samsung.com/pk for more details. PRESS RElEASE
Pay for Your Honda Car Instantly with HBL Mobile! KARACHI: HBL now enables its customers to pay for their Honda cars directly using HBL Mobile! The bank is at the forefront of digitalizing financial services in Pakistan through its technology driven initiatives. Digital payments adoption, especially through mobile apps and wallets have been growing at a very fast pace across Pakistan. Honda Atlas Cars Pakistan Limited aspires to expand the horizons to provide customer convenience through its numerous products, which can now be realized through digital payments directly from HBL Mobile. “Enabling car purchases through HBL Mobile without the need to visit the bank branch will thus prove to be a milestone for the customers looking to invest in their future with a new purchase” said Mr. Amir Nazir, General Manager- Sales & Marketing, Honda Atlas Cars Limited. Commenting on this partnership, Aamir Irshad, Head Corporate, Commercial & Investment Banking - HBL, said: “HBL and Honda take great pride in facilitating customers with convenience, security and reliability by enabling them to use digital channels to make these payments” PRESS RElEASE
Pakistan-IMF talks over sixth economic review remain inconclusive Pakistan and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) held inconclusive talks over a sixth review of the $6 billion loan programme. According to a local media report, Finance Minister Shaukat Tarin confirmed that the talks with the Fund over the sixth economic review remained inconclusive. However, he said the government cannot put burden on the poor, adding talks with the IMF would continue. Tarin said the Fund would again review Pakistan’s economic performance in September. It is noteworthy that the next tranche of funding as part of the $6 billion loan programme has been delayed. In March, Pakistan received $498.7 million as a third tranche of the $6 billion extended fund facility from the Fund. Out of the $6 billion, the IMF has so far disbursed $2 billion in three tranches. MONITORING REPORT
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HE Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) of the Cabinet on Wednesday gave its approval for the import of 3MMT wheat in addition to deciding to provide additional wheat to the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) province. The meeting of ECC was held under the chair of Minister for Finance and Revenue Shaukat Tarin. According to details, 500,000 MT of wheat was approved for the KP province from PASSCO's stock during the crop year 2021-22. All charges, including incidental charges, will be borne by the KP food department. The province will also be given 500,000MT imported wheat to meet the provincial requirement. Similarly, the ECC also approved Rs1.370 billion TSGs for the Finance Division to provide wheat subsidy to the government of Gilgit Baltistan (GB). Furthermore, the meeting approved $17.3 million for PIA-IL for the payment of recurring and one-off liabilities in respect of Roosevelt Hotel New York, USA. The meeting directed that the finance and privatisation commission consult with each other and propose a strategy in a month’s time for deciding the future of the asset.
MEETING APPROVES OPERATIONAL LOSSES ON GASOLINE TRANSPORT THROUGH WOP, MFM PIPELINES VIA IFEM During the meeting, the policy relating to foreign funding to non-governmental organizations (NGOs) also came under discussion and it was later approved after deliberations. It may be recalled that in December 2020, Prime Minister (PM) Imran Khan had ordered action against foreign-funded NGOs defaming Pakistan within the next 48-hours. Under the new policy approval process, registration will be completed within 60 days through online submission, doing away with manual processing and eliminating long delays. The new policy seeks to expand space for credible organisations to play an effective role in the country's socioeconomic development while deterring NGOs with dubious credentials. The ECC also approved the summary of the Ministry of Energy's Petroleum Division for allowing operational losses up to a maximum of 0.5 per cent for gasoline
Citi Pharma IPO oversubscribed by two times COMPANY RAISES 2.32BN IN BOOK BUILDING KArAchI STAFF REPORT
The book-building process of Citi Pharma’s Initial Public Offer (IPO) has concluded with an oversubscription of two times, according to Topline Securities, advisor and book runner of the issue. According to details, the IPO received an overwhelming response from institutional investors and high-net worth individuals as the strike price clocked in at Rs32 per share, 14.3 per cent higher than the floor price of Rs28. The company has raised Rs2.32 billion in total, making it the second pharma sector IPO in 23 years,
and the single largest IPO of 2021 till date. Several brokerages had had issued almost unanimous calls to subscribe, which resulted in investor demand amounting to Rs4 billion against the IPO’s book-building size of Rs2 billion. Investors who bid at Rs32 will get approximately 10pc of their bid quantity. The general public will subscribe to the remaining 18.1 million shares, 25pc of the total offer size, on June 23 and June 24, at the strike price of Rs32. Citi Pharma plans to become first fully integrated listed pharmaceutical company in Pakistan, serving from raw material consumers to end medicine consumers. Citi Pharma has achieved a revenue growth from Rs1,016 million in FY16 to Rs3,528 million in FY20, showcasing a 36.2pc CAGR in five years. The company recorded Rs4,015 million in sales during 9MFY21 already surpassing last year’s sales.
Covid debt restructuring push not advanced enough, IMF chief cautions LONDON AGENCIES
Efforts to restructure unsustainable debt burdens in some of world’s poorest countries has not made enough progress, the head of the International Monetary Fund Kristalina Georgieva said on Wednesday. Speaking on webcast, the IMF’s managing director said some progress was being made in Chad, which along with Ethiopia and Zambia has become a test case for a global debt relief plan known as the “Common Framework”, more was needed. “I’m pleased to say that we
are seeing progress on Chad. I hope we would be successful to bring these cases to fruition so that other countries – because it is not only these three countries that are in a difficult situation – step forward early.” A cornerstone of the Common Framework is that private sector banks and investment funds match G-20 governments in agreeing to either writeoff or postpone repayments on money they have lent to strained lowincome countries in the past. The fact only three countries have utilised the programme so far reflects governments’ worries, however, that the process of de-
faulting would lock them out of international borrowing markets for an indefinite period of time. “In a highly diversified environment with so many different private creditors and other creditors, I must admit, we are not where we should be,” Georgieva said of the lack of take up for the debt relief plan. “We have to continue to work relentlessly, hopefully building from the DSSI (Debt Service Suspension Initiative) to the Common Framework to a much more prudent approach to debt restructuring, and at the Fund this is a top-of-mind priority.”
transportation through WOP and MFM pipelines via Inland Freight Equalisation Margin (IFEM). The same will be adjusted against actual based on physical inventory of pipelines to be undertaken periodically. The actual rate will be determined by OGRA based on actual losses and excess margin would be brought before ECC. Similarly, an amount of Rs32.097 million as well as Rs1.6 billion for the Ministry of Industries and Production to meet the expenditure and clear SNGPL's bill for the month of May, 2021. The forum also approved Rs274.161 million for the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting to meet the shortage of budget of PTV Multan, AJK, English News Channel and APPC; Rs570 million for the Ministry of Interior for security enhancement at the Pakistan-Afghan border, and Rs56.341 million for the Ministry of Maritime Affairs for its various miscellaneous expenditure. Besides, the ECC also approved Rs145 million for the Pakistan Nuclear Regulatory Authority (PNRA) to meet various employee related expenses, Rs2.467 billion for the Revenue Division, Rs834 million for the Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission (PAEC) to meet employee related expenditures, and Rs49 billion for Karachi Coastal Power Project Unit 1 and Unit 2 as requested by PAEC.
EDB objects over proposed tax exemptions for refineries ISLAMABAD STAFF REPORT
The Engineering Development Board (EDB) of the Ministry of Industries & Production (MoI&P) has expressed disagreement over a proposal of the Petroleum Division to grant exemption from taxes on import of equipment or material without any precondition for new and existing refineries. Expressing differences over a proposal of the proposed refining policy 2021, EDB asked the ministry to delete or substitute the clause which asked for an exemption from taxes on imports of any equipment or material without any precondition certification from the EDB, for both new and existing refineries. The EDB said this clause places the local industry at disadvantage. It suggested that instead, refineries should actively engage local manufacturers for the supply of equipment. According to EDB, the setting up or upgradation of refineries provides an opportunity for the local equipment manufacturers to participate in the process and generating local employment opportunities while saving valuable foreign exchange as well. Local manufacturers are already deprived of participation in EPC contracts, mega projects and those set up in SEZs being unable to compete against concessionary imports allowed to such projects. Earlier, the Petroleum Division had asked Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority (OGRA), Federal Board of Revenue (FBR), Board of Investment (BoI) and secretaries of concerned departments to furnish comments on the proposed new oil refining policy within 15 days for onward submission to the Cabinet Division. It is pertinent to mention here that the new policy aims to provide the enabling framework that will lead to complete deregulation of the sector in due course. Currently, Pakistan’s oil refining capacity is about 20 million tonnes per annum. About 60pc of the country’s requirements of diesel and 30 per cent of petrol are met by local refineries. The rest is imported as refined products. Four out of five refineries operating in Pakistan are using mostly old technology, while the fifth, PARCO, is now more than two decades old.
Oil rises as demand outlook improves, US inventories fall TOKYO AGENCIES
Oil prices gained on Wednesday, with Brent rising for a fifth consecutive session as sentiment rose on the back of falling inventories and a recovery in demand after the pandemic. Brent crude was up 47 cents, or 0.6%, at $74.46 a barrel by 0700 GMT, the highest since April 2019. US crude gained 42 cents, or 0.6%, to
$72.54 a barrel, the highest since October 2018. "Even non-energy traders are placing bets that oil prices will continue to rise," said Edward Moya, senior market analyst at OANDA. "Everyone is turning overly bullish with crude prices. The crude demand outlook is very robust as recoveries across the US, Europe and Asia, will have demand return to pre-COVID levels in the second half of next
year," Moya said. US oil inventories dropped by 8.5 million barrels in the week ended June 11, according to two market sources, citing American Petroleum Institute figures on Tuesday. Crude stocks were expected to have fallen for a fourth week in a row, dropping by about 3.3 million barrels last week, according to analysts polled by Reuters. Official government data is due out Wednesday.
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Executives from major oil traders said on Tuesday they expected prices to remain above $70 a barrel and demand to return to pre-pandemic levels in the second half of 2022. Vitol Chief Executive Russell Hardy said oil was likely to trade in a range between $70 and $80 a barrel for the rest of 2021 on the expectation that the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and its allies, known as OPEC+, would retain output restraints.
Even the return of Iranian exports if the United States rejoins a nuclear agreement and lifts sanctions on Tehran was unlikely to change the bullish picture, he said. "Iranian floating storage has been rising since the start of the year and the timing and the scale of the return will likely impact the OPEC+ tapering process," RBC Capital Markets said, referring to the gradual removal of production constraints by the producer group.
Thursday, 17 June, 2021
10 fOreIgn newS
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IsraelI naTIonalIsTs march In easT Jerusalem, raIsIng TensIons wITh PalesTInIans JeRUsaleM
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HOUSANDS of Israeli far-right nationalists marched in a flagwaving procession through East Jerusalem on Tuesday, an event that reignited tensions with Palestinians and posed an early challenge to Israel’s new government. Last month, Israeli-Palestinian confrontations in contested Jerusalem helped trigger 11 days of cross-border fighting between Israel and Gaza’s ruling Hamas group. On Tuesday, Israeli police in riot gear and on horseback cordoned off areas leading to the walled Old City’s flashpoint Damascus Gate, clearing the area to Palestinians before the marchers arrived. Dancing and singing “the people of Israel live”, the crowd of mostly religious Jews, many carrying blue and white Israeli
flags, filled the plaza in front of the gate, usually a popular social gathering spot for Palestinians. “Take a good look at our flag. Live and suffer,” one marcher, a megaphone in one hand and a cigar in the other, shouted in Hebrew at Palestinian merchants on the other side of police barriers erected on an East Jerusalem street. Israel, which occupied East Jerusalem in a 1967 war and later annexed it in a move that has not won international recognition, regards the entire city as its capital. Palestinians want East Jerusalem to be the capital of a future state that would include the West Bank and Gaza. Sitting on a bench outside the police cordon, Khalil Mitwani, a 50-yearold Palestinian, said of the marchers: “They are making a big problem in Jerusalem. All the people here want peace – why make problems here?” Hamas had warned of renewed hostilities over the march, testing the mettle of
new Prime Minister Naftali Bennett’s administration of right-wing, centrist, leftwing and Arab parties and prompting Israel to beef up its deployment of the Iron Dome anti-missile system. But as the marchers began to disperse after nightfall in Jerusalem, there was no sign of rocket fire from Gaza. Several hours before the event started, however, Palestinians in Gaza launched incendiary balloons which the Israeli fire brigade said caused at least 20 blazes in fields in Israeli communities near the fenced border with the enclave. Such incidents had stopped with the ceasefire that ended last month’s hostilities, in which Gaza unleashed rocket barrages into Israel and Israel pounded the small, densely populated coastal enclave with air strikes. Israeli media reports said Bennett’s administration would order retaliation for the resumption of the balloon launches, though not necessarily immediately.
India’s famed Taj Mahal re-opens for tourists as Covid-19 curbs ease BengalURU
The South Asian country’s total Covid-19 caseload now stands at 29.63 million, while total fatalities
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are at 379,573, the data showed. India added 2,542 deaths overnight.
India’s iconic Taj Mahal re-opened to the public on Wednesday as the country, still reeling from a disastrous second wave of the pandemic, rushes to lift restrictions in a bid to revitalise its economy. The 17th-century Muslim monument, built by Mughal emperor Shah Jahan in the northern city of Agra, was closed in early April as India introduced strict lockdown measures in an effort to contain a surge in Covid-19 infections that is still killing thousands every day. Only 650 tourists will be allowed inside the premises of the Taj Mahal at any point of time, Prabhu Singh, the District Magistrate of Agra said. The white marble monument normally attracts 7 million to 8 million visitors annually or an average of over 20,000 people per day. The state of Uttar Pradesh, where Agra is located, reported 270 new infections overnight and 56 deaths. It is among India’s hardest states in terms of total Covid-19 cases. Other federally protected monuments, including New Delhi’s Red Fort and Qutub Minar, were also reopened to tourists on Wednesday, even as alarm bells ring in the world’s second-most populous country over a resurgence of crowds in major cities that threatens to fuel another spike in infections. Indian media reported traffic jams and a surge in tourists this week to the northern hill station of Shimla, famous for its picturesque views of snowcapped Himalayan peaks, further raising fears about the spread of the virus. India’s health ministry reported on Wednesday 62,224 new Covid-19 infections overnight, slightly higher than the previous day’s figures but still well below the May peak of over 400,000 daily infections.
India says Twitter knowingly not complying with local IT laws neW Delhi AP
One in three US election officials feels unsafe: survey Washington ReuteRs
One in three US election officials feels unsafe on the job and one in six reported being threatened because of their work, according to a survey published on Wednesday by New York University’s nonpartisan Brennan Centre for Justice. The results reflect a reckoning in the wake of the 2020 election in which the loser, former Republican President Donald Trump, spent months falsely alleging the contest was "rigged" against him. Those claims sparked threats and actual violence, such as the deadly US Capitol riots on January 6. A Reuters investigation published on Friday found that election workers and their families continue to face threats and intimidation months after Trump's loss in November to Democrat Joe Biden. The intimidation has been particularly severe in Georgia, where
Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger and other Republican election officials refuted Trump's stolen-election claims. Election officials' fears for their safety portend major staffing problems in future votes, the Brennan Centre said. “Large numbers of election officials have resigned in the past year, raising alarm bells. But the wave of departures could soon turn into a tsunami,” said a report produced jointly by the Brennan Centre and the Bipartisan Policy Centre, a centrist Washington think tank. The Brennan Centre surveyed 233 local election officials across the country between April 1 and 7. The survey had a 6.4 per cent margin of error, the centre said. Many election workers who were surveyed blamed social media for spreading falsehoods. About 54pc of election officials said social media made their work more dangerous and 78pc said it made it more difficult.
Those findings reflect a dangerous rise in disinformation, the report from the two research organisations said. Trump's false claims that voter fraud cost him the election spread quickly among supporters over social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter and other online forums. "This disinformation has indelibly changed the lives and careers of election officials," the report said, calling on technology and media companies to help slow the spread of disinformation. The two research centres urged the Department of Justice to create "an election threats taskforce" to work with federal, state, and local law enforcement to investigate threats against officials and poll workers. The report urged states to protect election employees' personal information and pay for security measures such as home intrusion detection systems. US Attorney General Merrick Garland acknowledged the ris-
ing threat to election workers in a speech on Friday. Garland, a Biden appointee, said his Justice Department will aggressively protect voting rights at a time when many Republican-led states are tightening election laws. "We have not been blind to the dramatic increase in menacing and violent threats against all manner of state and local election workers, ranging from the highest administrators to volunteer poll workers," he said. "Such threats undermine our electoral process and violate a myriad of federal laws." US elections are run by two kinds of workers — permanent staffers employed by officials such as secretaries of state, and large numbers of temporary workers brought in to manage polling places on election days. Those temporary workers are vital to the process — guiding voters, answering questions, verifying IDs — and they work long hours for low pay.
The standoff between the Indian government and Twitter escalated on Wednesday when the country’s technology minister accused the social media giant of deliberately not complying with local laws. Technology Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said Twitter has chosen “the path of deliberate defiance” when it comes to following new internet regulations that digital activists have said could curtail online speech and privacy in India. “If any foreign entity believes that they can portray itself as the flagbearer of free speech in India to excuse itself from complying with the law of the land, such attempts are misplaced,” Prasad said in a series of tweets. The Indian government has been at odds with major social media websites over a new set of sweeping regulations that give it more power to police online content. It requires companies to erase content that authorities deem unlawful, comply with government takedown orders, help with police investigations and identify the originators of “mischievous information”. Under the new laws, social media websites and tech companies will also have to remove content within 36 hours after an administrative or legal order is issued. Their employees can be held criminally liable for failing to comply with the government’s requests. Twitter said in a statement on Tuesday that it was making every effort to comply with the new regulations. The company said it had appointed an interim chief compliance officer in India, a requirement under the new regulations, and will soon notify India’s Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology. The new rules also require social media platforms to appoint what the government calls grievance officers to handle complaints from law enforcement agencies. Prasad, the IT minister, also accused Twitter of bias and said it was labelling some content as manipulated media, “only when it suits its likes and dislikes”. In May, leaders from Modi’s party tweeted parts of a document they said was created by the main opposition Congress Party to discredit the government’s handling of the pandemic. Some Congress leaders complained to Twitter, saying the document was forged. In response, Twitter marked some posts as “manipulated media”. Twitter rules apply “manipulated media” tags to posts that have been “deceptively altered or fabricated”. The new internet regulations, announced in February, are among many challenges social media companies face after Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government pushed back against criticism that its new rules restrict online speech. Modi’s government has sought for years to control social media and has often directed Twitter to take down tweets or accounts that appear critical of his party and its leaders, including his administration’s handling of the pandemic. Twitter has complied with most of those orders. The friction has intensified recently, with the government threatening social media companies with legal action and their employees with prison time if they refuse to comply with the takedown directives. Initially, Twitter expressed concern about what it called “the potential threat to freedom of expression” when the new rules came into effect late last month.
Thursday, 17 June, 2021
SPORTS 11
ISLAMABAD HBL PSL 2021
Multan SultanS thraSh Quetta GladiatorS by 110 runS
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ULTAN Sultans thrashed Quetta Gladiators by 110 runs in the HBL Pakistan Super League 2021’s 25th match in Abu Dhabi on Wednesday night. Imran Khan gave his team a good start as he took the important wickets of Jake Weatherald (19) and Cameron Delport (0) in the fourth over. In the sixth over, a mix up between Sarfaraz Ahmed and Usman Khan put Quetta three down. An over later, Zimbabwe's Blessing Muzarabani removed Azam Khan to push Quetta further down. Quetta thought they had hope till their
captain was standing at the crease but Sarfaraz was sent back to the pavilion in the ninth over when he was caught by Imran Tahir in Sohail Tanvir's over. Tahir was then asked to bowl the 10th over of the match. The South African delivered for his team, bowling a triple wicket maiden to shatter Quetta's dream of winning their second HBL PSL title. Tahir, in his over dismissed Mohammad Nawaz, Hassan Khan and Khurram Shahzad. And in the 12th, he took the wicket of Usman Shinwari to put Quetta nine down. In the next over, Shahnawaz Dahani took the final wicket and dismissed Gladiators for 73. The 73 runs made by Quetta was the second-lowest total in the PSL history. The Sultans won the match by 110
runs. Earlier, Multan Sultans had set a 184-run target for Quetta Gladiators. The Gladiators were able to get a much-needed breakthrough when Khurram Shahzad dismissed Sultans' skipper Mohammad Rizwan for 21 runs in the 9th over, while Zahir Khan got the second wicket of Sohaib Maqsood for five runs in the 10th over. Hassan Khan was able to get the key wicket of Shan Masood (73) in the 14th over, while Rilee Rossouw (2) was sent back to the pavilion by Mohammad Nawaz. However, despite the setbacks, the Sultans kept the scoreboard ticking, with some good shots from Johnson Charles (47) till Shahzad dismissed him in the 18th over. Before the start of the match, the Gladiators had won the toss and invited the Sul-
tans to bat first. SQUADS: MUltAn SUltAnS: Mohammad Rizwan (c), Asif Afridi, Hammad Azam, Imran Tahir, Imran Khan Snr, Johnson Charles, Khushdil Shah, Mohammad Umar, Blessing Muzarabani, Rahmanullah Gurbaz, Rilee Rossouw, Shahnawaz Dhani, Shan Masood, Sohaib Maqsood, Sohaibullah, Sohail Khan, Sohail Tanvir, Usman Qadir and Muhammad Waseem. QUettA GlADiAtorS: Sarfaraz Ahmed (c), Abdul Nasir, Arish Ali Khan, Azam Khan, Cameron Delport, Hassan Khan, Jack Wildermuth, Jake Weatherald, Khurram Shehzad, Mohammad Hasnain, Mohammad Nawaz, Naseem Shah, Saim Ayub, Usman Khan, Usman Shinwari, Zahid Mahmood and Zahir Khan.
Federer knocked out by Aliassime in second-round loss at Halle HALLE AFP
Roger Federer suffered a setback in his preparations for Wimbledon after crashing out of the second round of the ATP grass court tournament in Halle on Wednesday. Federer, who will bid to win a ninth title at Wimbledon which starts June 28, suffered a shock 4-6, 6-3, 6-2 defeat to 20-year-old Canadian Felix Auger Aliassime, who is almost half Federer’s age. “It’s amazing, for sure I didn’t expect this,” Auger Aliassime told Eurosport after beating one of his heroes at the first attempt on the ATP tour. “I wanted to win, but Roger Federer is my idol and it was a huge honour to play him.” Federer is exactly 19 years older than Auger Aliassime as the pair share the same birthday on August 8, while the Swiss ace turns 40 this year.
SAINT PETERSBURG AP
With a slick one-two and a beautiful curling shot, Aleksei Miranchuk finally gave Russia something to smile about at the European Championship. The left-footed playmaker produced the one moment of class in a chaotic game Wednesday to give Russia a 1-0 win over Finland and its first points at Euro 2020. The pessimism that followed the Russians’ 3-0 loss to Belgium in their opening Group B game was replaced by loud cheers and jubilant chants of “ROSS-I-YA” at the final whistle at Saint Petersburg Stadium. A loss would have left Russia with an extremely difficult task to qualify for the
“I always thought he would be gone by the time I joined the tour,” admitted the Canadian, who turned professional in 2017. “I was a little nervous when I realised I could win, but I was playing really well, almost perfect tennis.” Federer had pulled out of the fourth round of the French Open last week to give himself extra rest after two operations on his right knee in 2020 and a year of rehab. Halle is his traditional grass court warm-up event before playing at Wimbledon and he won the tournament played near Bielefeld for the tenth time in 2019. As the 2020 tournament was cancelled due to the Covid-19 pandemic, Federer was the defending champion in Halle. However, despite losing the first set, Auger Aliassime, ranked 21 in the world, showed no signs of being intimidated by Federer, who has won 20 Grand Slams. The Canadian blasted down 13 aces and earned 15 break points, of which he managed to covert just three.
Federer, who had said he needs ten games to prepare for Wimbledon, won the first set with ease, but struggled from there on. He soon started to labour in the second set as Auger Aliassime converted his fourth break point to go 4-2 up, then served out to level the match at one set all. It was one-way traffic in the deciding set as Auger Aliassime broke Federer to take a commanding 3-0 lead and eventually converted the first of his three match points. In the quarter-finals, the Canadian will play either German Jan-Lennard Struff, who knocked out top seed Daniil Medvedev in the first round, or American qualifier Marcos Giron. With Federer out, it means Germany’s Alexander Zverev and Russia’s Andrey Rublev are the only seeds left in the Halle draw. Auger Aliassime is hoping to win the first ATP title of his career in Halle after losing all of his last eight finals, including last week’s grass court tournament in Stuttgart.
Russia, France win in Euro 2020 knockout stage, given its last match is a trip to Denmark on Monday. Now Russia is tied on points with the Finns, who missed the chance to reach the last 16 with a game to spare with a second straight victory in their first major soccer tournament. Their first victory was 1-0 over Denmark in a match marked by Christian Eriksen’s collapse. It came as no surprise that Artem Dzyuba was involved in Miranchuk’s superbly taken goal, which wasn’t in keeping with the overall standard of a game. The big centre forward was the focal
point of all Russia’s attacks, though this one involved him using good footwork instead of his renowned aerial prowess. Miranchuk collected the ball on the edge of the area and slipped a short ball forward to Dzyuba, who laid it off deftly back to the playmaker. Miranchuk took one touch to cut inside Finland defender Daniel O’Shaughnessy and, with barely any back-lift, floated his shot beyond goalkeeper Lukas Hradecky and into the top corner. Finland coach Markku Kanerva had expressed his concern ahead of the game that his players might still be traumatized by the
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incident involving Eriksen on Saturday. Yet Finland, cheered on by about 4,000 fans who made the 200-kilometer (125-mile) journey from the Finnish border to St. Petersburg, was the better team in the early stages and had a headed goal by Joel Pohjanpalo ruled out by video review in the third minute. Russia was humiliated at times by Belgium in its opening group game but found Finland’s midfield — missing captain Tim Sparv — much easier to dominate, with Miranchuk and Aleksandr Golovin standing out. Russia defender Mario Fernandes was taken to the hospital with a suspected spinal
Peshawar Zalmi down Karachi Kings by 6 wickets ABU DHABI AGENCIES
There were dispiriting losses, humiliations, and whatever it was that happened to Karachi Kings on Tuesday night. A bowling performance of near perfect discipline by Peshawar Zalmi was followed up by a whirlwind 26-ball 63 from Hazratullah Zazai to conclude one of the more one-sided HBL PSL games in the league's history. Only Islamabad United have gunned down a target quicker, and even their ten-over chase against Quetta Gladiators earlier this week looked like it would be eclipsed comfortably. In the end, three late wickets slowed things down slightly, but it still meant Zalmi had coasted to the target with nine overs to spare. Karachi Kings' poor run since the resumption of the league continues, but the damage this defeat will inflict might reflect just as heavily in the minds as it will in the run-rate column. The squeeze began from the outset, with Wahab Riaz trapping Babar Azam in front off just the third delivery. Counter-intuitively, Azam's duck underlined his importance to the side; over the past few games, his role, and the rate at which he scores his runs, had come under forensic scrutiny. But with him out of the way, few Kings batsmen could stamp their authority on an innings regularly punctuated by the fall of wickets. Kings might have been hoisted by their own petard to some extent, playing as they were a batsmen light, meaning they had no fallback plan when four wickets fell inside seven overs. Imad Wasim hobbled along during an innings that never caught fire, managing just 19 off 31. It was Karachi's explayer Abrar Ahmed who was the pick for Zalmi in the end, taking three crucial middle-order wickets, denying the Kings a chance at pushing the score past 120. The 108 they finished with was their lowest in PSL history, and even that came about thanks to some lusty lower-order hitting from bowling allrounder Abbas Afridi. In the end, though, Zazai ensured it mattered not one jot. Zazai is set to become a T20 franchise darling over the years, but even so, the contempt with which he lay waste to experienced, wily Kings bowlers in his first PSL game was a sight to behold. Once Kamran Akmal was dismissed in the second over, Zazai decided he wouldn't let it scupper plans to wrap up the game in a hurry, and Amir was the unfortunate recipient at the end of his first offensive. The first six was a shade streaky, a top edge over third man, but there was nothing chancy about the three boundaries that followed in an over that leaked 21. It was followed up by an over from the other Aamer Yamin - which proved even costlier, two sixes and two fours from the Afghan seeing him hurtle along to a blitzkrieg half-century. The timing and power were both astonishing, a fearsome 97-metre swipe over square leg perhaps the shot of the night. The 50 would come in just 17 balls - a joint record and by then, the match had long been over as a contest. When legspinner Abrar was first introduced to the PSL by Karachi Kings in 2017, he looked a proper mystery spin bowler, one who might go on to become a valuable asset for his franchise. Opportunities were hard to come by and he was let go after a couple of seasons, but making his debut for Peshawar Zalmi, he showed his old side what they missed. Coming in when Imad Wasim's side were already hobbling after a difficult first ten overs, he kept the Kings on a leash in his first over, allowing just two runs. The 22-year old burst to life in the one that followed, though. He broke the budding partnership with a carrom ball Najibullah Zadran ended up holing out to long-off, before one that drifted back in put paid to Yamin's brief stint at the crease. With Wahab deciding to bowl him out consecutively, he would sign off by deceiving Waqas Maqsood with a googly, two balls after the batsman had smashed him for six. He would end his day with figures of 4-0-14-3, and they didn't flatter him in the slightest.
injury after landing on his back in a fall in the first half. Earlier, a Mats Hummels own goal was enough to hand France a 1-0 victory over Germany as the world champions made a winning start to their Euro 2020 campaign by controlling the game in Munich. Hummels turned the ball into his own net in the 20th minute, which ultimately decided the contest. France also saw Kylian Mbappe and Karim Benzema have secondhalf goals ruled offside, while Adrien Rabiot hit the post for Les Bleus. “It was a clash that could have been a semi-final or a final, so to take three points was important,” said France coach Didier Deschamps. “We played a big game against a very good German team, but we were up to the level and this victory does us good.”
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SRAELI aircraft struck Hamas sites in Gaza on Wednesday after incendiary balloons were launched from the Palestinian enclave in the first such attacks since the end of 11 days of cross-border fighting last month. The overnight airstrikes gave way to calm by morning, and there were no reports of casualties on either side. The flare-up, a first test for Israel’s new government, followed a march in East Jerusalem on Tuesday by Jewish nationalists that had drawn threats of action by
Hamas, the ruling group in Gaza. The Israeli military said its aircraft attacked Hamas armed compounds in Gaza City and the southern town of Khan Younis and was “ready for all scenarios, including renewed fighting in the face of continued terrorist acts emanating from Gaza”. The strikes, the military claimed, came in response to the launching of balloons laden with incendiary material, which the Israeli fire brigade reported caused 20 blazes in open fields in communities near the Gaza border. A Hamas spokesman, confirming the Israeli attacks, said Palestinians would continue to pursue their “brave resistance
and defend their rights and sacred sites” in Jerusalem. Hours earlier, thousands of flag-waving Israelis congregated around the Damascus Gate of Jerusalem’s Old City before heading to Judaism’s holy Western Wall, drawing Palestinian anger and condemnation. Israel, which occupied East Jerusalem in a 1967 war and later annexed it in a move that has not won international recognition, regards the entire city as its capital. Palestinians want East Jerusalem to be the capital of a future state that would include the West Bank and Gaza. Prior to Tuesday’s march, Israel beefed up its deployment of the Iron Dome anti-mis-
sile system in anticipation of possible rocket attacks from Gaza. But as the marchers began to disperse after nightfall in Jerusalem, there was no sign of rocket fire from the enclave. The procession was originally scheduled for May 10 as part of “Jerusalem Day” festivities that celebrate Israel’s capture of East Jerusalem. At the last minute, that march was diverted away from the Damascus Gate and the Old City’s Muslim Quarter, but the move was not enough to dissuade Hamas from firing rockets towards Jerusalem, attacks that set off last month’s round of fighting.
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Pakistan-Saudi Arabia flights to resume soon, says ambassador Pakistan’s Ambassador in Riyadh Lt Gen (r) Bilal Akbar said on Wednesday that PakistanSaudi Arab flights would resume soon to bring Pakistani workers back to the kingdom. He said the embassy is in contact with the Civil Aviation Authority for resumption of flights. The ambassador said applications of about 7,000 illegal Pakistani immigrants have been submitted to Saudi authorities for their repatriation. Once these people are cleared, more applications will be submitted, he added. Earlier on June 4, the Saudi Arabia’s human resources and social development ministry announced an exemption of several categories of employees in both public and private sectors from attending the workplace as part of precautions to limit the spread of Covid-19. According to the new exemptions, employees above 60 years and patients of chronic ailments including especially those having suffered a heart disorder at least once over the past year are allowed to claim remote-working relaxation. The list also includes patients of chronic pulmonary diseases, severe asthma, or hereditary immune deficiency including thalassaemia and sickle cell anaemia. Other categories to have been exempted from attending offices consist of patients of acquired immune deficiency, obesity, chronic diseases like diabetes of types 1 and 2 (who have been hospitalized at least once during the past six months) high blood pressure, chronic renal diseases and liver cirrhosis. NEWS DESK
Qureshi leaves for Turkey today to attend Antalya Diplomacy Forum ISLAMABAD: An eye-catching view of the federal capital. INP
Putin and Biden agree at Geneva summit to return respective ambassadors GENEVA REuTERS
US President Joe Biden and Russian President Vladimir Putin agreed at their first summit on Wednesday to return ambassadors to each other’s capitals after they were withdrawn earlier this year. The summit at the lakeside Villa La Grange in Geneva lasted less than four hours — far less than Biden’s advisers had said they expected. The scheduling of separate news conferences meant there was none of the joviality that accompanied a 2018 meeting between Putin and Biden’s predecessor, Donald Trump. Putin, who was first to brief reporters, said the meeting had been constructive, without hostility, and had showed the leaders’ desire to understand each other. He also said Russia and the United States shared a responsibility for nuclear stability, and would hold talks on possible changes to their recently extended New START arms limitation treaty.
Both sides had said in advance that they hoped for more stable and predictable relations, even though they were at odds over everything from arms control and cyberhacking to election interference and Ukraine. Putin and Biden shook hands on arrival before going inside, Biden flashed a ‘thumbs-up’ to reporters as he left the lakeside villa where the talks were held and got into his limousine. ‘A lot of issues’ “Mr President, I’d like to thank you for your initiative to meet today,” Putin said, sitting next to Biden, adding: “US and Russian relations have a lot of issues accumulated that require the highest-level meeting.” Biden said they would try to determine areas of cooperation and mutual interest. “It is always better to meet face-to-face.” The first round of talks — which included Biden, Putin, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov — lasted almost two hours, officials said. Talks resumed after a break at around 4pm (1400
GMT), with Moscow’s ambassador to the United States, Anatoly Antonov, who was recalled to Russia in March, among those present. That round ended at 5:05pm (1505 GMT). Relations between Moscow and Washington have been deteriorating for years, notably with Russia’s 2014 annexation of Crimea from Ukraine, its 2015 intervention in Syria and U.S. charges — denied by Moscow — of meddling in the 2016 election that brought Donald Trump to the White House. They sank further in March when Biden said he thought Putin was a “killer”, prompting Russia to recall Antonov to Washington for consultations. The United States recalled its ambassador in April. Trump’s summit with Putin in Helsinki included a meeting accompanied only by interpreters, but Biden and Putin had no solo talks. Standing beside Putin in Helsinki in 2018, Trump refused to blame him for meddling in the 2016 US election, casting doubt on the findings of his own intelligence agencies and sparking a storm of domestic criticism.
ISLAMABAD: Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi will leave for Ankara on Thursday for a three-day trip to participate in the Antalya Diplomacy Forum. "Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi will undertake an official visit to Turkey to participate in the Antalya Diplomacy Forum from 17-20 June 2021 at the invitation of Foreign Minister of Turkey Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu," said the Foreign Office. The FO said that Qureshi will participate in a panel discussion on "Regional Cooperation in Asia" along with other foreign ministers of the region during the conference. It added that the foreign minister will "highlight Pakistan’s vision for regional cooperation, economic development and connectivity". On the sidelines of the forum, Qureshi will hold bilateral talks with his counterparts and key regional and international partners. The FO said that the Antalya Diplomacy Forum will feature high-level participation of political leaders, diplomats, thinkers, and academia for discussion on important thematic and international issues. The theme of the forum is "Innovative Diplomacy: New Era, New Approaches". "Pakistan supports partnership in trade, connectivity and economic development, based on mutual trust and shared agenda, through regional collaboration and multilateral cooperation," said the FO. TLTP
Pakistan-origin Big Tech critic becomes head of top US trade body WASHINGTON REuTERS
Lina Khan, a Pakistan-origin American antitrust researcher focused on Big Tech’s immense market power, was sworn in on Tuesday as chair of the US Federal Trade Commission, a victory for progressives seeking a clampdown on tech firms who hold a hefty share of a growing sector of the economy. Hours earlier, the US Senate had confirmed Khan, with bipartisan support. She recently taught at Columbia Law School. Previously, as a staffer for the House Judiciary Committee’s antitrust panel, she helped write a massive report alleging abuses of market dominance by Amazon.com Inc, Apple Inc, Facebook Inc and Google parent Alphabet Inc. “We applaud President Biden and the Senate for recognising the urgent need to address runaway corporate power,” advocacy group Public Citizen said in a statement.
US Senator Elizabeth Warren tweeted that the administration’s selection of Khan was “tremendous news.” “With Chair Khan at the helm, we have a huge opportunity to make big, structural change by reviving antitrust enforcement and fighting monopolies that threaten our economy, our society, and our democracy,” Warren said in a separate statement. The Information Technology and Innovation Foundation, whose board includes representatives from tech companies, issued a statement warning that a “populist approach to antitrust” would “cause lasting self-inflicted damage that benefits foreign, less meritorious rivals.” The federal government and groups of states are pursuing various lawsuits and investigations into Big Tech companies. The FTC has sued Facebook and is investigating Amazon. The Justice Department has sued Google. Ahead of Khan’s appointment, Google and Amazon declined to comment and Apple
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
and Facebook did not respond to a request for comment. Biden previously selected fellow progressive and Big Tech critic Tim Wu to join the National Economic Council. In 2017, Khan wrote a highly regarded article, “Amazon’s Antitrust Paradox,” for the Yale Law Journal. It argued that the traditional antitrust focus on price was inadequate to identify antitrust harms done by Amazon. In addition to antitrust, the FTC investigates allegations of deceptive advertising. On that front, Khan will join an agency adapting to a unanimous Supreme Court ruling from April which said the agency could not use a particular part of its statute, 13(b), to demand consumers get restitution from deceptive companies but can only ask for an injunction. Congress is considering a legislative fix. Khan previously worked at the FTC as a legal adviser to Commissioner Rohit Chopra, Biden’s pick to be director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.