Wednesday, 24 November, 2021 I 18 Rabi-us-Sani, 1443 I Rs 15.00 I Vol XII No 146 I 12 Pages I Islamabad Edition
PM inaugurates FBr’s track & trace systeM For sugar sector g
FBR to suBmit pRoposal FoR expanding scope oF suRveillance system to otheR key sectoRs including BeveRages, petRoleum, phaRmaceuticals and steel
ISLAMABAD Staff RepoRt
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Rime minister imran khan on tuesday unveiled the Federal Board of Revenue’s (FBR) track & trace system for the sugar sector. addressing the gathering on the occasion, the prime minister called the rollout of the track & trace system (tts) a watershed event in the development of pakistan’s economy and hoped that it would lead to much-needed economic prosperity in times to come. “it is an integrated, technology-based solution that shall ensure accurate reporting of production volumes through realtime monitoring of manufacturing by the affixation of tax stamps, improving quality control and thus, ensure increased rev-
enue collection,” he added. the pm said that at the time of assuming office, the government had inherited a dismal economic situation, and was confronted with multiple challenges. “our revenue collection system was one of the weakest in the world, with a chronically low tax-to-gdp ratio. We were unable to effectively mobilise our own resources for the well-being of the people,” he recalled. however, he said that the present government was committed to bringing about change and putting pakistan on the path of self-sufficiency wherein the role of FBR could not be stressed enough. “one of our immediate priorities was to figure out how to improve monitoring mechanisms and increase revenue collection,” he added. the pm said that the present govern-
coronavirus in
Pakistan
CONFIRMED CASES:
1,282,510
LAST UPDATED AT 9:38 AM ON NOVEMBER 23, 2021
DAY'S DEATH TOLL:
NEW CASES:
5
315
RECOVERED:
DEATHS:
1,238,980 28,668 SINDH:
PUNJAB:
474,407
442,556
KPK:
BALOCHISTAN:
179,644 AJK/GB:
33,453 ISLAMABAD:
34,536/10,408
107,506
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pti govt BReaks nexus oF tax evadeRs, vested inteRests and maFias, says khan
ment was the first one to break the nexus of tax evaders, vested interests and mafias. “We have not been afraid of taking difficult decisions nor shied away from plugging loopholes by enacting legislation that restricts corrupt practices and ensures transparency and fairness,” he continued. he lamented that corrupt elements resisted the government’s efforts to improve regulatory oversight of the economy despite knowing that without sound economic practices and enhanced revenue collection, the government would not be able to allocate funds for human development, infrastructural improvement, health, and the education sector. he said that one of the central tenets of the present government’s economic policy had been to bring about increased digitisation and automation of the entire tax apparatus as a way to reduce opportunities for graft, coercion and theft. “the track and trace system will serve as a central pillar of this policy and shall revolutionise tax collection across pakistan,” he added. concluding his speech, he appreciated the FBR chairman and the tax watchdog’s team for continuously achieving the assigned budgetary targets and expressed optimism that FBR will be able to collect Rs6 trillion by the end of the current financial year (Fy22). speaking on the occasion, advisor to the pm on Finance & Revenue shaukat tarin commended the pakistan sugar mills association (psma) for extending wholehearted cooperation for making the intervention possible. “all 78 sugar mills have signed tri-partite agreements with FBR at karachi, lahore and islamabad,” he informed.
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Questions have been raised on judiciary after allegations from within: Fazl ISLAMABAD Staff RepoRt
pakistan democratic movement (pdm) president maulana Fazlur Rehman said tuesday that the judiciary’s integrity had come into question after recent allegations “from within”. the Jui-F chief, speaking to the media, was referring to the recent affidavit submitted by former gilgitBaltistan chief justice Rana shamim and an audio clip that allegedly features the voice of ex-chief justice of pakistan saqib nisar. Fazl was speaking to the media after a pdm meeting, saying that the “conspiracies” that took place against former prime minister nawaz sharif, his party and leaders of other political parties, were in reality conspiracies against the country and its democracy. “We respect the courts but are also hurt,” he said, referring to the Rana shamim affidavit and the alleged Justice (retd) saqib nisar audio clip. the Jui-F leader said that the recent controversies had raised questions on the freedom and independence of the judiciary. “With a heavy heart, we think that they [judiciary] will have to regain their status through their character,” he added. the pdm leader said that these conspiracies were the main reason
Bloodbath in PSX continues as 796 more points shed KARACHI tLtp
the pakistan stock exchange (psx) witnessed a bloodbath for the second consecutive day on tuesday, with the benchmark kse-100 index shedding another 796.48 points (-1.74 percent) to close at 44,948.52 points. overall, the market shed around 1,540 points during the last two sessions, mainly due to lack of triggers and rollover week. the market opened on a positive note and gained around 170 points during the first 10 minutes of the session; however, later a massive profit taking activity gripped the market that continued for the rest of the session. the kse-100 index moved in a range of 1,034.46 points, showing an intraday high of 45,915.61 points and a low of 44,881.15 points. among other indices, the kse all share index shed 496.97 points (-1.59 percent) to close at 30,812.18 points, while all share islamic index shed 431.61 points (-1.94 percent) to close at 21,870.04 points. a total of 366 companies traded shares in the stock exchange, out of them shares of 53 closed up, shares of 300
why pakistan was facing an economic crisis today. Fazl said that the pdm will hold its next meeting on december 6 where the opposition alliance will take “final and important decisions.” the Jui-F chief said the entire nation was demanding an independent election commission. “it is totally unacceptable to clip the ecp’s wings,” he said, adding that the constitution already lays down the powers of the commission. Fazl lashed out at the “fake government”, saying that it had promised the government one 10 million jobs but had “stolen” over 5 million so far from the people. he said that the joint opposition will play a role in guaranteeing that overseas pakistanis “have representation in the parliament”, warning them not to get caught up in the government’s “lies”. speaking about the electronic voting machines (evms), he said the government wanted to hold elections when the world had rejected the same process. “We reject this pre-poll rigging,” he said, referring to the government’s move to pass laws relating to the voting machines. taking aim at the government’s economic policies, Fazl said it had made the state Bank a “branch of the imF”.
more inside
CCP to resume inquiry in cooking oil, ghee sector STORY ON BACK PAGE
pm urges world to support afghanistan to avoid humanitarian crisis STORY ON PAGE 02 closed down while shares of 13 companies remained unchanged. out of 91 traded companies in the kse-100 index, 10 closed up, 80 closed down and one remained unchanged. the overall market volumes increased by 2.71 million to 264.61 million. total volumes traded for the kse-100 index decreased by 9.87 million to 110.56 million shares. the number of total trades increased by 9,432 to 118,711, while the value traded decreased by Rs1.21 billion to Rs9.73 billion. overall market capitalisation decreased by Rs124.43 billion. among scrips, tRg topped
the volumes with 19.63 million shares, followed by Wtl (17.17 million) and Byco (13.76 million). stocks that contributed significantly to the volumes include tRg, Wtl, Byco, gtech, and hascol, which formed around 29 percent of total volumes. the sectors taking the index toward south were technology & communication with 178 points, cement with 145 points, commercial banks with 94 points, oil & gas exploration companies with 64 points and oil & gas marketing companies with 44 points.
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Rupee continues to gain ground against US dollar STORY ON BACK PAGE
khan orders strategy to protect cities from air pollution STORY ON PAGE 03
02
Wednesday, 24 November, 2021 | ISLAMABAD
NEWS
PM Urges world to sUPPort AfghANistAN to helP Avoid hUMANitAriAN crisis ISLAMABAD
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Staff RepoRt
RIME Minister Imran Khan urged the international community to fulfil its collective responsibility to avoid a humanitarian crisis confronting the people of Afghanistan. “The world owed its support to ensure that they (people of Afghanistan) can live in a peaceful and stable
Pakistan denounces arrest of Khurram Parvez ISLAMABAD Staff RepoRt
Pakistan Tuesday strongly condemned the arrest of human rights activist Khuram Parvez in Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK). “Arbitrary arrests of human rights activists on orchestrated charges by Indian occupation forces is clear evidence of New Delhi’s state-terrorism and trampling of fundamental human rights in IIOJK,” said an official statement issued here by Ministry of Foreign Affairs. “The reprehensible unwarranted searches by Indian National Investigation Agency (NIA) at the offices and residence of Mr. Khuram Parvez, have also been condemned by international human rights activists and organizations,” the statement said. “The world is aware that it has become increasingly difficult for human rights organizations and activists to continue their work in India and IIOJK due to incessant witch hunt by the Hindutva driven RSS-BJP combine over unfounded and motivated allegations,” the statement added. Amnesty International had to shut all its operations in India in September 2020 when its bank accounts were frozen by India in an act of reprisal because of their independent reporting on IIOJK. “The UN human rights machinery, independent NGOs and global media have regularly reported on and expressed concerns over increasing intimidation, harassment and reprisal attacks by Indian occupation forces against Kashmiri human rights defenders, journalists and civil society actors since 5 August 2019,” the statement added. “We call on the international community to hold India accountable for continued clamp down against human rights organizations and activists for undertaking their duty to expose gross and systematic human rights violations of Kashmiris in IIOJK, and the minorities, especially Muslims, in India,” the statement concluded.
UN criticises ‘disturbing’ arrest of rights activist in occupied Kashmir
SRINAGAR ReuteRS
Rights groups including the United Nations have criticised the arrest of a prominent activist in Indianoccupied Kashmir on trumped-up terror funding charges. Khurram Parvez was arrested late on Monday by India’s federal National Investigation Agency (NIA), an Indian official briefed on the situation told Reuters. His residence and office were searched and a mobile phone, laptop and books seized, he added. A spokesperson for the NIA confirmed Parvez’s arrest on Tuesday. He is being held under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, which allows for the detention of up to six months without trial. His lawyer, Parvez Imroz, could not immediately be reached for comment. Mary Lawlor, the UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights Defenders, called Parvez’s arrest “disturbing”. “He’s not a terrorist, he’s a human rights defender,” she said in a tweet. Parvez, one of Kashmir’s best-known activists, is head of Jammu Kashmir Coalition of Civil Society, a group of rights organisations working in the region. He was arrested and detained on similar charges in 2016, after being prevented from boarding a flight to attend a UN human rights forum in Geneva. He was eventually released without being convicted of any crime. The Muslim-majority Kashmir region has been the source of decades of tensions between nuclear-armed neighbours Pakistan and India. Both countries claim the Himalayan territory in full but rule it in part, and have fought two wars against each other there. India has long faced allegations of gross rights abuses in the occupied portion of the territory. It tightly controls access to Kashmir for foreign observers, including the UN.
environment after years of constant conflict,” Khan said while chairing a meeting of the Apex Committee of Afghanistan Inter-Ministerial Coordination Cell in Islamabad. During the meeting, Khan ordered the immediate shipment of in-kind humanitarian assistance worth Rs5 billion (around $29 million) to Afghanistan, which will comprise food commodities including wheat, emergency medical supplies, winter shelters
and other supplies. He also directed concerned authorities to revive bus service between Pakistan’s Peshawar and Afghanistan’s Jalalabad city to facilitate travellers on both sides. Khan instructed all ministries to facilitate Afghans to the maximum. He also approved inprinciple tariff and sales tax reduction on key Afghan exports to Pakistan.
Police register case against lawyers for assaulting woman in court NEWS DESk Police have registered a case against a group of people, including some lawyers, for assaulting a woman within the premises of a court in Karachi, a news outlet reported on Tuesday. According to the report, the incident took place on Monday when Laila Parveen and her brother were assaulted for lodging a complaint against her exhusband Ali Hasnain. The police added various provisions, including assault, embezzlement, threatening with deadly weapons and rioting, in the FIR after the plaintiff nominated more than half a dozen persons, including her ex-husband and other unknown individuals. Parveen, in her statement before the police, said that she had married to Ali Hasnain five years ago and
gotten divorced on June 11 this year, adding that her exhusband had taken a loan of Rs 6.5 million from her
brother Mushtaq Iqbal Khan, and had later returned the loan in the form of a cheque. “The cheque from my ex-husband had bounced, following which my brother had registered a case against him at a police station in the SITE area,” she stated, adding that her ex-husband was arrested by the police on November 21. However, on November 22, during the hearing at a court in Malir, Ali Husnain’s lawyers, Saeed Shehzad and Nasrullah, allegedly showed her pistols and threatened to kill her, besides pressurising her to withdraw the case, she said, adding: “Upon my refusal, Saeed Shehzad, Nasrullah, Akbar, Muhammad Ali, Atif, Mir Mukhtiar and Junaid along with 20 to 25 other unknown persons, beat me and my brother Mushtaq Iqbal, grabbed me by the hair and dragged me”.
In shock move, India announces bill to ban cryptocurrencies NEW DELHI aGencieS
India’s government will introduce a bill to ban private cryptocurrencies and create a framework for a central bank-backed digital money, its parliament said in a shock announcement late Tuesday. The proposed bill “seeks to prohibit all private cryptocurrencies in India”, the Lok Sabha said, and comes after Prime Minister Narendra Modi warned last week that Bitcoin presents a risk to younger generations and could “spoil our youth” if it ends up “in the wrong hands”. It is the latest such move by a major emerging economy, after China declared all cryptocurrency transactions illegal in September. India’s crypto market has boomed since the country’s Supreme Court overturned a previous ban in April last year, growing more than 600 per cent over the past year according to research by Chainalysis. Between 15 and 100 million people in Asia’s thirdlargest economy are estimated to own cryptocurrencies, with total holdings in the billions of dollars. Their investments will now face an uncertain future. India’s central bank announced in June that it is working to introduce its own digital currency by the end of the year, while warning it has “serious concerns” about private cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin, Ethereum and others.
The bill, to come before the new legislative session, will allow for some exceptions to promote cryptocurrency technology, according to the parliament’s bulletin of upcoming business, but no further details about the proposed legislation were released. The market price of Bitcoin appeared unaffected and was up 1.67pc in Tuesday’s trade. But the phrasing of the proposed bill sent alarm bells ringing among local traders and enthusiasts. “The wording has created a panic,” Kashif Raza, founder of crypto-education platform Bitinning, said, adding that the industry expected the government to take a more favourable view after recent consultations with the industry. “Obviously there will be a shutter-down on the industry,” he added. “The industry will die in its natural way. Intellectual capital will move away, investors will face losses.” Under scrUtiny: Cryptocurrencies have been under scrutiny by Indian regulators since first entering the local market in 2013. A surge in fraudulent crypto transactions following the Modi government’s demonetisation of nearly all banknotes in 2016 led to the country’s central bank banning crypto transactions in April 2018. The Supreme Court lifted the ban two years later and investments have surged in the time since. Indians have been bombarded in recent months
with advertisements for CoinSwitchKuber, CoinDCX and other home-grown crypto exchanges across television channels, online streaming services and social media. These platforms spent more than 500 million rupees ($6.7 million) on advertising spots during the recently concluded T20 World Cup, research by TAM Sports showed, with viewers subjected to an average of 51 cryptocurrency advertisements per match. Analysts say regulation would be central to addressing security risks, with crypto exchanges increasingly targeted by cyber criminals as virtual currency prices soar.
Pakistan signs MoU with China for pest free export of onion ISLAMABAD Ghulam abbaS
Pakistan has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with China to ensure pest free export of onions for facilitating export of horticulture product, onions to neighboring countries. In this regard, a signing ceremony of the Protocol for Inspection and Quarantine Requirements for export of onion from Pakistan to China was held between the General Administration of Customs China (GACC) of China and the Ministry of National Food Security and Research (MNFSR) of Pakistan here on Tuesday. The agreement was signed by Federal Minister for National Food Security & Research Syed Fakhar Imam and Ambassador of China in Pakistan Nong Rong. It was reaffirmed that such initiatives would further strengthen friendship ties between both the countries. Such trade related MoU would bring the people of both the countries closer together. During the event Fakhar Imam said that the agricultural sector is indispensable to the country’s economic growth, food security, employment generation and poverty alleviation particularly for the rural population. The minister said that the present government has been giving high priority to the growth of the agriculture sector on a sustainable basis and is implementing the most appropriate policies to achieve the desired outcomes.
Pakistan, with around 138 thousand ha and 1.8 million tons of onion production, stands at 6th and 9th position respectively in terms of onion area and production. Moreover, Pakistan contributes 2.1 per cent in world onion area and 1.9pc in its world production. The minister stated that Pakistan has been exporting rice, mango and citrus to China after complying with
phytosanitary import requirements of China. The instant Protocol would also create awareness about quarantine and phytosanitary compliance among Pakistan onion producers. Nong Rong anticipated that the Protocol would open new ways for more Pakistani products to reach Chinese markets. He further said that China and Pakistan are complementary to each other. “China is already supporting Pakistan in foot and mouth disease control, chili, potato, beef and mutton production while CPEC would further result in cementing these trade ties,” he added. It may be mentioned here that work on development quarantine and Phytosanitary procedures for export of Pakistani onions to China was initiated by Department of Plant Protection (DPP), Ministry of National Food Security & Research (MNFSR) was initiated during January, 2019. The National Plant Protection Organisations of both the countries conducted Pest Risk Analysis (PRA) and the technical negotiations resulted in the form of Protocol during April 2021. Under this Protocol, the DPP would conduct pest survey, implement Integrated Pest Management (IPM) targeting quarantine pests of concern to China during the growing season of onion by adopting internationally recognised phytosanitary inspection methods and ensure pest free export of onion to China. Moreover, the processing companies that intend to export onions from Pakistan to China shall be registered and recommended by DPP after approval through audit for further registration with GACC.
Wednesday, 24 November, 2021 | ISLAMABAD
KHAN ordErS StrAtEgY to ProtECt CItIES froM AIr PoLLUtIoN ISLAMABAD
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app
RIME Minister Imran Khan Tuesday directed his administration to devise a comprehensive strategy within the shortest time possible to protect the cities from rising air pollution levels. The directive came as Lahore, the bustling metropolis of nearly 11 million people, ranked among the worst cities in the world for air pollution — a mixture of low-grade diesel fumes, smoke from seasonal crop burn off, and colder winter temperatures coalescing into stagnant clouds. Over the past weeks, in what has become a dreaded seasonal occurrence, Lahore has suffered pollution levels many times higher than the levels deemed healthy by the World Health
Organisation (WHO) and a thick brown smog settled over the city. “A sustainable environment
IHC extends interim bail of Zardari in New York apartment case
protection plan is need of the hour to fight pollution, especially in major cities,” Khan said while chairing a meeting
convened to discuss ways to counter pollution and its consequences. The prime minister directed the concerned departments to devise a strategy in coordination with the provincial governments to save the metropolises from pollution at the earliest. “In line with our manifesto, clean and pollution-free Pakistan is our top priority, and long term measures should be taken to deal with the climate changerelated issues,” he said. A statement from the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) said: “We [the government] are focused on maximising green cover of our cities through a massive plantation [drive].” The meeting was attended by Minister for Information Fawad Chaudhry, Minister of State for Climate Malik Amin Aslam and senior officials. Punjab Chief Secretary Kamran Ali Afzal, Relief Commissioner Babar Hayat Tarar also joined via video link.
ECP moves to facilitate use of EVMs, voting rights of Overseas Pakistanis
ISLAMABAD
ISLAMABAD
Staff report
agenCieS
A bench of the Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Tuesday extended the interim bail of former president Asif Ali Zardari in a National Accountability Bureau (NAB) case involving an apartment in an upscale New York neighbourhood purportedly owned by him. The court earlier heard the pre-arrest bail request of Zardari and ordered an extension in the bail period. The bench adjourned further hearing of the case until December 14 and ordered NAB to submit its written response in the next hearing. Zardari first secured pre-arrest bail in the case in July. The watchdog had issued a notice, along with a questionnaire, to the former president on June 15, seeking details of the apartment in Belaire Condominiums — a high-rise condominium apartment building in Manhattan — located at 524 East 72nd Street. In the petition submitted in July, he insisted that the notice is “baseless and the allegations made therein are based on malafide intentions so as to malign” him. He has repeatedly denied owning the apartment. “I had sold out it the same year I purchased it,” the sources quoted him as saying. In December 2018, the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf filed an application before the Election Commission of Pakistan in Karachi seeking Zardari’s disqualification for “concealing” the apartment. In a complaint, a PTI MP from Karachi, Khurram Sher Zaman, alleged Zardari owned the apartment but had not declared it in his nomination for the 2018 general elections in which he returned to the National Assembly. “Because of this act of his, Asif Ali Zardari under the Constitution of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan and Rules of the Election Commission of Pakistan, […] as per the past precedent, should be disqualified from holding public office under Article 62 (1)(f), as in my opinion, he ceases to be truthful and sagacious,” the application stated.
In a major change in attitude, the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) Tuesday moved towards implementing the recently passed electoral reforms law to help use Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs). The ECP formed three committees to calculate the expenditure of electronic voting machines (EVMs) and amend the existing rules and regulations for using them in line with a law enacted by a joint sitting of parliament. The first body is EVMs and Overseas Voting Technical Committee and is tasked to oversee the use of EVMs and voting of overseas Pakistanis will be headed by the ECP secretary. The committee’s mandate will be to make recommendations on technologies in the electoral process and to identify international best practices. It will report on the voting procedure for overseas Pakistanis. The second committee on the expenditure on EVMs, headed by the ECP additional secretary (admin), will present to the commission a report on the fund that would be spent on the machines and e-voting system. The body will also run the pilot testing of the machines and the mechanism for their use. The committee will make recommendations on the project’s implementation, budget requirements, and storage of machines. Its recommendations will be communicated to the government so that safe storage could be arranged on a short- and long-term basis. The ECP said it had proposed a location in Islamabad’s H-11/4 to the planning commission
where the storage area could be arranged. A third committee, headed by the commission’s director general of law, has been set up to make suggestions and recommendations for amendments to the existing laws and rules. On November 17, the government had succeeded in having 33 bills bulldozed from the joint sitting of parliament despite facing resistance from the opposition. They included the bill on EVMs and evoting for overseas Pakistanis. On Thursday, the ECP had appeared uncertain whether or not the EVMs could be used in the coming general elections. During a meeting of the National Assembly Standing Committee on Law and Justice the ECP secretary was bombarded with questions regarding the use of EVMs. During the meeting, chaired by Riaz Fatyana, treasury lawmakers had insisted on the use of the EVMs, while the opposition members supported the ECP’s point of view. The members had raised questions as to how the people of Balochistan would use EVMs to cast their votes in areas where there was no internet. They also asked where EVMs would be kept. Some members even posed the question to the ECP as to who would be blamed for any possible tampering with votes afterwards. The ECP secretary had told the committee that there were challenges in the use of EVMs, adding that it would be premature to say whether the machines could be used in the next general election. He told the lawmakers that the ECP was working on the concerns regarding Balochistan.
NEWS
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Imran wins prestigious UAE sports honour NewS DeSk Prime Minister Imran Khan has won the Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Creative Sports Award, Gulf News reported. A former cricket legend, Khan has been given the award for his contribution to sports, including leading the cricket team to win the 1992 Cricket World Cpb. He was declared International Sports Personality. The ceremony to announce the winners of the 11th edition of the MBR Creative Sports Award — the largest such award in terms of prize money and categories, and the first dedicated to creativity in sports — was held on Monday in Dubai. Dubai Sports Council chief Sheikh Mansoor bin Mohammed were among those who attended the event.
SC upholds PML-N MPA’s disqualification over bogus degree ISLAMABAD Staff report
The Supreme Court on Tuesday dismissed an appeal of Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) MPA Kashif Mahmood challenging his disqualification by the Islamabad High Court (IHC) for holding a bogus degree. The high court had on January 2020 disqualified Mahmood, a member of the House from PP-241 Bahawalnagar-V, for holding a bogus degree of the Bachelor of Business Administration (BBA) from AlKhair University in Kashmir. The university had informed the high court during the course of proceedings that Mahmood “has neither been [a] student of Al-Khair University Bhimber nor graduated in the course of Bachelor of Business Administration”. “The university has thoroughly checked the academic record of Mr Kashif Mahmood, son of Khalid Mahmood, from admission, registration, examination and accounts branches, whether he is supposed to be [a] student of this university in the discipline of Bachelor of Business Administration or otherwise.” The original petition filed against the former lawmaker in 2019 claimed that he had submitted a fake degree to the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) to participate in the 2018 general election. It said he also concealed the facts from the ECP as he did not mention his disqualification in 2013 in the affidavit submitted along with the nomination form. In the last general elections, Mahmood had secured 48,543 votes to defeat his opponent from the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf who received 44,184 votes.
‘Pure fantasy’: Pakistan says India honoured captured pilot to ‘hide embarrassment’ ISLAMABAD Staff CorreSpondent
The award of a military honour to Abhinandan Varthaman, the Indian pilot captured in February 2019 when the two nuclear-armed nations came close to war, has caused amusement in Pakistan with the Foreign Office terming it “a classic case of […] fabrications and pure fantasy to appease [the] domestic audience and hide the embarrassment”. Varthaman was captured after his intruding MiG-21 jet was shot down by a fighter during an aerial clash. His plane crashed on the Pakistan side of the Line of Control (LoC) — de facto border that separates the two sides of the Kashmir region. Attacked by a group of villagers, the pilot was rescued by military personnel and handed back to his country days later in a bid aimed at scaling back a confrontation that had prompted world powers to urge restraint. On Monday, India honoured Varthaman with Vir Chakra — its third-highest wartime military honour — in a ceremony attended by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Defence Minister Rajnath Singh. The most striking feature of the event was the announcement by New Delhi that the pilot was being decorated for shooting down an F-16 fighter of Pakistan during an aerial combat that displayed his “exceptional air combat acumen and knowledge of the enemy’s tactics”, The Print reported.
Rejecting the “entirely baseless” claim, Pakistan noted the entire episode was designed to “hide the embarrassment”. “International experts and US officials have already confirmed that no Pakistani F-16 was shot down on the day, after taking stock of Pakistani F-16 aircraft,” it recalled. Months following the skirmish, Foreign Policy magazine had contradicted the Indian claim of shooting down the jet, confirming in April — citing US military officials — that Islamabad’s F-16 jets have all been accounted for. Despite the report, “India’s insistence on propagating a lie that has been thoroughly exposed is ludicrous and nonsensical”, the Foreign Office said. “Granting military honours for imaginary feats of gallantry is contrary to every norm of military conduct. By giving such award, also as an after thought, India has only made a mockery of itself.” The statement also “reminded” India that in a “daring daylight action, two Indian aircraft were shot down by Pakistan Air Force on 27 February 2019″. “One of the Indian Mig-21 Bison aircraft fell down in Azad Jammu and Kashmir. The pilot who ejected was captured by Pakistan and later released as a goodwill gesture. His return to India was [a] testimony of Pakistan’s desire for peace despite India’s hostility and ill-conceived aggressive action. Another Indian aircraft SU 30 shot down by Pakistan Air Force fell on the other side of LOC. On the same day, in panic, Indian military shot down its own MI 17
helicopter near Srinagar which [was] initially denied [but] accepted later on. Indian Air Force was completely outplayed on the day.” It further said the “farcical story” of the Indian government possesses “no credibility whatsoever before the international community”.
Islamabad also reiterated that on its part, Pakistan “stands as ready and resolute to thwart any hostile designs as it was in February 2019″. India, it said, would do well to learn a lesson from its botched attempt to violate Pakistan’s sovereignty and refrain from any misadventure in future.
Wednesday, 24 November, 2021 | ISLAMABAD
04 NEWS
Kamyab PaKistan Program to Prove a milestone in uPlifting lower strata of society: tarin ISLAMABAD
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StAff report
DvISER to the Prime Minister on Finance and Revenue Shaukat Tarin has said that the Kamyab Pakistan Program will prove to be a milestone in uplifting the lower strata of the society. He stated this while chairing a Steering Committee meeting of KPP at the Fi-
nance Division. Chairman NPHDA, Chairman NTC, President Bank of Punjab, Secretary Finance and senior officers attended the meeting. A detailed presentation was given to the Adviser on the progress of the Kamyab Pakistan Program. It was informed that the program has been launched successfully and applications for the award of loan are being received through SMS from all over the
country. The loans will be disbursed after fulfilment of requirements to the deserving applicants for the uplift of living standards of the underprivileged people of the country. Small loans for businesses, farmers and the construction of houses are included under the program. Adviser to the Prime Minister on Finance and Revenue Shaukat Tarin stressed that all stakeholders should rise to the occasion, gear themselves up for the task and
take part in a new nation-building activity under the umbrella of the Kamyab Pakistan Programme. In his concluding remarks, the Adviser stated that the Kamyab Pakistan Program will prove to be a milestone in uplifting the lower strata of the society. The participants of the meeting assured the Adviser of their full cooperation and participation in making the program successful.
Govt focused to enhance investment in export industry: Prime Minister COMPREHENSIVE SYSTEM LAUNCHED TO REVIEW PROGRESS OF PROJECTS UNDER CPEC AND TO EXPEDITE DEVELOPMENT WORK ISLAMABAD MiAn ABrAr
Prime Minister Imran Khan has said that the government is taking steps on priority basis to increase economic activity in the country. Chairing a review meeting of the prime minister’s priority sectors on Tuesday, the prime minister said that the government is focused on enhancing investments in the export industry for creating em-
ployment opportunities. The prime minister said that all government institutions are working together to provide a conducive environment for investors. The meeting was given a detailed briefing on the progress of phase-II of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC). It was informed that work on gas and electricity supply in Rashakai, Dhabeji, Allama Iqbal and Bostan Special Economic Zones is in full swing.
Electricity and gas are mainly available for the construction of industries, while the rest of the required electricity and gas will be supplied with further development of industries. The meeting was also informed that a comprehensive system has been launched to review the progress of projects under CPEC and to expedite the development work. In addition, steps are being taken to increase investment in SEZs by identifying export industries. The meeting was attended by Federal Ministers Asad Umar, Hamad Azhar, Advisers Shaukat Fayyaz Tarin, Moeed Yousuf, Special Assistant Dr Shahbaz Gill, Chairman CPEC Khalid Mansoor, Chairman Board of Investment Azfar Ahsan and relevant senior officers.
Pakistan wants economic partnerships, investment from US: Moeed ISLAMABAD StAff report
chaudhry shujaat Hussain’s health is improving, says farrukh Khan mna ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Muslim League-Q (PML-Q) Women’s Wing President Mrs Farrukh Khan has said that the health of former premier Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain is now improving and soon he would be among his loved ones. Mrs Farrukh Khan MNA spoke to the Women’s Wing leaders after visiting the party chief at the hospital. Mrs Farrukh Khan said that Chaudhry Shujaat is a seasoned, visionary and patriotic Pakistani politician. She said that she had visited Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain where she also met his daughter. She said that according to doctors, Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain’s condition is improving. “Inshallah he will be fully recovered soon and will be among us all,” she added. Farrukh Khan wished good luck to Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain and prayed for his speedy recovery. Meanwhile, PML-Q leaders Fauzia Naz, Qamar Aftab, Lubna Qureshi, Amna Khanum, Bushra Firdous, Nazli Shujaat and others also wished good luck to party leader Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain and prayed that Allah grant him a speedy recovery. StAff report
National Security Advisor Dr Moeed Yusuf has urged the international community to devise a system to ensure provision of assistance to Afghans before winter. The advisor was talking to a sixmember US delegation headed by Congressman Gregory Meeks. He expressed deep concern over the deteriorating humanitarian situation in Afghanistan as nearly sixty percent of the Afghan population may face ex-
treme level of hunger. He said that Afghanistan’s financial and banking system is in disarray. Dr Moeed Yusuf said Pakistan, under the leadership of Prime Minister Imran Khan, has undergone a transformation and shifted its priorities from geopolitics to geo-economics. He said Pakistan is focused to leverage its geo-economic position by partnering with the world under the economic security model. He said that Pakistan wants economic partnerships and investment from the United States. Theadvisor said that US companies
doing successful business in Pakistan is in the best interest of both the countries. “The world needs to devise an effective system by which assistance can reach Afghan men, women and children before the severity of winter hits,” he said. He further said, “Financial and banking system in Afghanistan is in disarray. The problem must be resolved quickly to avert the collapse of the system in the country.” The officials agreed to move in a positive direction in all areas of mutual interest.
Overseas Pakistanis stage protest outside ECP, demand right to vote ISLAMABAD StAff report
A protest demonstration was organised by overseas Pakistanis on Monday outside the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) headquarters to give them their right to vote. The protest, organized by Pakistan Overseas Forum, was participated by dozens of overseas Pakistan in front of ECP. The protestors were holding banners and placards.
Talking to newsmen, Chairman of Overseas Commission Forum, Shahid Ranjha said that they were protesting for their basic right to the vote as the ECP has failed to provide them the right to vote. He appealed to the chief election commissioner to implement the legislation of the joint parliament. Ranjha said that overseas Pakistanis will never forget the contribution of Prime Minister Imran Khan in ensuring their right to vote.
PKLI starts liver transplantation for kids LAHORE StAff report
The Pakistan Kidney & Liver Institute (PKLI) has started transplantation of children while liver transplantation of four children has also been successfully done, Pakistan Today learnt. According to details, the Provincial Health Minister Dr. Yasmeen Rashid also met the children who underwent liver transplant at PKLI here on Tuesday and inquired about their well-being and gave them gifts. However, PKLI Dean Prof. Dr. Faisal Saud, Director Hospital Dr. Zain Zia and parents of the children were also present on the occasion. Meanwhile, speaking to the media the
minister said that she was happy to see the successful transplantation of all four children and she also congratulated the management of PKLI on this achievement. “PKLI has so far performed 215 successful kidney transplants and 121 successful liver transplants. Similarly, 43 machines are working here for dialysis patients while the number of these machines is being increased to 60. During the last 2 years, PKLI has provided dialysis facilities to 52,961 people and 9 modular theaters have been set up. There is a capacity of 135 beds for patients and this number of beds is being increased to 476″. The treatment is being provided free of cost to all the patients who cannot afford the expenses of transplant and patients who
can afford the expenses are also being charged much less, she added. “PKLI has a total project cost of about
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RS 24 billion and a letter has been written to the concerned agency for its certification. The day will come when PKLI will also
KP to complete three major hydel power projects by June 2022 PESHAWAR Aziz Buneri
The Pakhtunkhwa Energy Development Organisation (PEDO) has said that three important hydel power projects having a total capacity of 62.8 megawatt are scheduled to be completed by June next year. These projects – 10.2 MW Jabori, 11.2 MW Karora and 40.8 MW Koto Hydro Power Project – will be completed at a cost of Rs3798 million, Rs4620 million and Rs13998 million respectively and are expected to generate annual revenue of Rs2.73 billion cumulatively. The PEDO informed chief Minister Mahmood Khan during the meeting on power projects in the province that work on other four projects – 84 MW Mataltan Hydro Power Project, 69 MW Lavi, 10 MW Chapri Charkhel and 6.5 MW Barando Hydro Power Project – would be completed at a cost of Rs22000 million, Rs20087 million, Rs4378 million and Rs 4195 million respectively. The CM was also apprised of hydro power projects being executed through foreign aid including the 300 MW Balakot Hydropower project,88 MW Gabral Kalam and 157 MW Madain Hydropower project which would be completed at estimated cost of Rs85 Billion, Rs. 39 Billion and Rs. 82 Billion respectively. PEDO officials said that a total of 328 feasible projects were identified out of which 281 Mini Micro Hydropower projects have been completed so far and second phase of the project is underway. The PEDO officials said that Project Management Consultants have been hired for the construction of 317 Micro Hydropower projects on streams in Malakand and Hazara Divisions, and 43 Micro Hydropower Projects on Canals in other parts of the province. Similarly, solarization of 2956 mosques have been completed so far whereas solarization of remaining mosques would also be completed by June next year at an estimated cost of Rs2.4 Million. Addressing the meeting, the chief minister directed concerned officials to clear all the matters related to acquisition of land for Balakot and Kalam Hydropower Projects within a month. He directed the authorities of Energy Department to complete all arrangements for the ground breaking of Balakot Hydropower Project by the end of next month. Prime Minister Imran Khan is expected to perform m the ground breaking of the project. The chief minister urged to provide job opportunities to local youth at the dam construction sites.
have bone marrow transplants. The Punjab Chief Minister Sardar Usman Buzdar is building the best hospital near Arfa Karim Tower and a regular Infectious Diseases Department will be set up in this hospital. All physicians in government hospitals also complete training on infectious diseases,” she informed. Speaking about the Covid-19 vaccine, the minister informed that more than 14 million people have been vaccinated against Covid-19 in Punjab during the Reach Every Door vaccination Campaign. “Similarly, the target of Measles and Rubella Prevention Campaign in Punjab is also being achieved successfully. In Punjab, the measles and rubella prevention campaign will continue till November 27. The Punjab Health Department is taking steps to control smog. Smokeladen vehicles are a major cause of smog in Lahore.
Wednesday, 24 November, 2021 | ISLAMABAD
NEWS
corporate corner Orla Collins appointed global president of aCCa
GOvt takinG StEPS On PriOritY BaSiS tO EnHanCE ECOnOmiC aCtivitY: Pm iSLamaBad
P KARACHI: The president of the world’s leading professional accountancy body, ACCA (the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants) is announced as Orla Collins. Orla, who lives and works in Dublin, takes on the role for 2021 / 22 assuming the chain of office from last year’s president Mark Millar. She is the first woman president from Ireland in ACCA’s 118-year history and ACCA’s fifth woman president. Orla joined ACCA in 1997 and has been a Council member since 2012. As president, Orla will be the figurehead and leader for ACCA’s 233,000 members and 536,000 future members in 178 countries. Orla brings a wealth of experience to the role, which will run alongside her full-time job as deputy managing director of Aberdeen Standard Investments Ireland. Orla said: ‘I’m honoured to be ACCA’s global president and want to thank Mark for his dedication over 2020 / 21. For my presidential term, I’ll focus on opportunity and the value of the global accountancy profession. I want to celebrate all that ACCA offers as a professional body to its members, future members and its wider community.’ Orla holds an MSc in strategic management (first class honours), is a member of the Institute of Bankers, a licentiate of the Association of Compliance Officers in Ireland and a qualified financial advisor. Orla was confirmed in her new role at the annual Council meeting after ACCA’s AGM on the 18 November. Joseph Owolabi, from Melbourne, Australia, was appointed deputy president and Ronnie Patton, a senior lecturer at Ulster University, became vice president. Pr
Pakistan's most Extensive Cardiometabolic Study for the Healthy Young Population
APP
RIME Minister Imran Khan on Tuesday said that the government was taking steps on a priority basis to enhance economic activity in the country, with a focus on increasing investments in the export industry for creating employment opportunities. “All government institutions are working together to provide a conducive environment for investors,” he said, adding that the government was also taking steps to speed up work on the China
Pakistan Economic Corridor’s (CPEC) second phase. The prime minister was chairing a review meeting of the PM’s Priority Sectors during which a detailed briefing was given on the progress of CPEC Phase-II. The meeting was attended by federal ministers Asad Umar, Hamad Azhar, advisers Shaukat Fayyaz Tarin, Moeed Yousuf, Special Assistant to PM Dr Shahbaz Gill, CPEC Chairman Khalid Mansoor, Board of Investment (BOI) Chairman Azfar Ahsan and relevant senior officers. The meeting was informed that work on gas and electricity supply in
Rashakai, Dhabeji, Allama Iqbal and Bostan Special Economic Zones (SEZs) was in full swing. The meeting was informed that the CPEC Authority has proposed a Plug and Play Model under which all the requirements of investors will be met through a single-window operation to ensure speedy construction of industries in the above mentioned SEZs. At the same time, the Board of Investment (BOI) is working to soon launch a portal for providing investors with information related to construction of industries, approvals from various institutions and other ancillary
PM inaugurates FBR’s track & trace system for sugar sector continued from page 01 About the tract and trace system, he said FBR’s officials will verify the validity of the stamps through various forensic instruments while citizens too will be able to check the same and report fake stamps through a mobile app. He further assured the premier that through the introduction of technology in the tax system, FBR will be able to broaden the tax base and that efforts were already afoot to collaborate with NADRA for
using artificial intelligence (AI) and mathematical modelling to ascertain the potential tax return filers. He informed the audience that FBR had collected reliable information about 15 million individuals who were earning taxable incomes but not filing returns. These potential filers will soon be mobilised to discharge their national obligation by becoming taxpayers. Moreover, FBR Chairman Muhammad Ashfaq Ahmed opined that the present government had taken “a very bold step
and provided FBR with strong support to implement the track and trace system not just in the tobacco sector as previously planned, but had added more sectors like sugar, cement and fertilisers to the plan”. He also informed the audience that FBR intends to expand the scope of the track and trace system to other key sectors including beverages, petroleum, pharmaceuticals and steel. “A proposal in this regard will be submitted to the prime minister for his approval soon,” he added.
KP govt, industrialists to make joint efforts to overcome environmental pollution peSHaWar Aziz Buneri
The provincial government of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) and industrialists have unanimously agreed to make joint efforts to overcome the increasing environmental pollution issue. The agreement was reached during a meeting between Industrialists Association Peshawar (IAP) President Malik Imran Ishaq and Special Assistant to Chief Minister (SACM)
KARACHI: Getz Pharma Pvt. Ltd.,in partnership withTabba Heart Institute, announced the launch of Pakistan Study of Premature Coronary Atherosclerosis in Young Adults (PAK- SEHAT) Cardiovascular diseases continue to have a significant impact across the world among different populations. To address the issue of the rising health burden of ASCVD in Pakistan, Getz Pharma Pvt. Ltd and Tabba Heart Institute (THI) formally launched PAK-SEHAT- Pakistan Study of Premature Coronary Atherosclerosis in Young Adults, a nationwide study conducted through Pakistan's first state of art mobile lab. PAK SEHAT project is the largest, first-of-its-kind, longitudinal cohort study on Atherosclerotic Risk Assessment in Pakistani Population. This 10-year joint venture of Getz Pharma &THI (PAK SEHAT) will help determine risk factors for coronary heart disease so that early detection can be done and disease can be prevented rather than treated. Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is one of the leading causes of mortality worldwide, causing approximately 32% of annual deaths. The risk of cholesterol-associated CVD varies among different ethnicities; however, the risk is four fold in the South Asian (SA) Population compared to other races. Furthermore, almost 75% of all CVD deaths are in low and middle-income countries (LMIC), where there are finite health resources and a multitude of healthseeking barriers. The state of heart diseases in Pakistan also reflects a concerning picture. According to the World Health Organization data published in 2018, coronary heart disease deaths in Pakistan reached 20% of total deaths, and Pakistan ranks 18 in cardiac mortality in the global ranking. Moreover, the numbers of potential CVD risk factors, including hypertension and diabetes, are also alarming in Pakistan, with 50% hypertension and 17.1% diabetes in the adult population. There is a drastic shift in CVD occurrence in young ages in the SA population, as evidenced by the groundbreaking INTERHEART study suggesting 10.6% of SA participants presented with a heart attack at <40 years of age. Therefore, this study primarily envisions screening the Pakistani individuals at a younger age to prevent increasing CVD burden in the future. Pr
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on Commerce and Industry Abdul Karim Khan here on Tuesday. The meeting comprehensively deliberated upon reports presented by senior officials of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Economic Zones Development and Management Company (KPEZDMC) and Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Participants of the meeting suggested a number of proposals to tackle the increasing environmental pollution by latest technology and means, which were largely
agreed upon. The meeting decided that KPEZDMC would hire a technical consultant within seven working days who would visit every chipboard industry to consult and prescribe a standardised low cost and high efficiency system for controlling pollution to meet the national environmental standards. It was also agreed that a sub-committee would be constituted to examine EPA’s articles on plastic bags.
Second Pak-Africa trade moot begins at Lagos The second Pakistan-Africa Trade Development Conference (PATDC) begun at Lagos on Tuesday to cater for the Western part of Africa. The conference is part of Ministry of Commerce’s Look Africa Policy. As per a report by The Business Recorder, Advisor to Prime Minister on Commerce and Investment, Abdul Razak Dawood, is leading the Pakistan delegation comprising businessmen and officials. More than 113 leading Pakistani companies are participating in the exhibition from textiles, cosmetics,
leather, food, pharmaceuticals, tractors, electrical appliances, fans, cable, steel, surgical, paint, chemicals, IT, sports etc. Buyers from 15 countries of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), Economic Community of West African States (ECWAS), including Nigeria, Niger, Senegal, Ghana, Togo, Ivory Coast, Gambia, Guinea have been invited to the moot. It may be mentioned here that the first PATDC was held at Nairobi, Kenya, to cater for East African countries. MoniToring rePorT
SECP amends rules to facilitate SMEs, startups iSLamaBad TLTP
The Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP) has introduced amendments in the Companies (Further Issue of Shares) Regulations, 2020, to address the impediments being faced by the corporate sector, particularly startups and small companies, in raising equity through conventional modes. According to a statement issued on Tuesday, key changes include permission to convert one class of shares into another,
issuance of shares with differential rights without the approval of the commission, and specification of mechanism for valuation of non-cash assets. As per the law, the companies can have more than one kind of shares, conferring varying rights of dividend, voting and participation depending upon the needs of its capital providers. The requirement of prior approval of the SECP has now been abolished. This measure will considerably help reduce administrative burden and will also contribute towards the growth of the corporate world by removing a layer of regulatory approval.
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information. Further, a comprehensive system has been launched to review the progress of projects under CPEC and to expedite development work. In addition, steps were being taken to increase investment in SEZs by identifying export industries. In the agriculture sector, not only work on corporate farming was in full swing, but also agreements were being made to increase the sector’s exports. The prime minister directed the authorities concerned to complete all work related to CPEC Phase-II within the stipulated time.
Bloodbath in PSX continues as 796 more points shed continued from page 01 The most points taken off the index were by SYS which stripped the index of 89 points followed by TRG with 80 points, LUCK with 37 points, MEBL with 37 points and OGDC with 30 points. The sectors taking the index toward north were tobacco with 3 points, insurance with 2 points and leasing companies with 1 points. The most points added to the index were by BAHL which contributed 14 points followed by EFUG with six points, and FML, MCB and MUREB with three points each.
Oil slips on plans to tap emergency crude reserves meLBourne Agencies
Oil prices fell on Tuesday, reversing gains in the previous session, on growing talk the United States, Japan and India will release crude reserves to tame prices despite the threat of demand faltering as COVID-19 cases flare up in Europe. The United States is expected to announce a loan of crude oil from its emergency stockpile on Tuesday as part of a plan it hashed out with major Asian energy consumers to lower energy prices, a Biden administration source familiar with the situation said. US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures fell 58 cents, or 0.8%, to $76.17 a barrel at 0423 GMT. Brent crude futures fell 42 cents, or 0.5%, to $79.28 a barrel.
06-07 Comments - 24th November 2021_Layout 1 11/23/2021 11:14 PM Page 1
Wednesday, 24 November, 2021
06 COMMENT
India, AUKUS and the QUAD
A new challenge for the PTI government In a few months the whole country will be in the grip of LG elections
Where does India fit in?
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Jubeda Chowdhury
O ruling party in Pakistan wants to share resources and powers with the local governments. attempts are made to delay the local government elections as long as possible. This leads the Supreme Court and the Election Commission of Pakistan to intervene to fulfill a constitutional requirement. Local governments completed their tenure in Balochistan in 2019 but a fresh election has continued to be delayed on one pretext or another. The Election Commission of Pakistan on Tuesday gave one month to the government of Balochistan to complete the process for holding the elections. in Sindh the elected local governments were dissolved in august 2020 after completing their lawful term. The ECP has issued a final deadline of two weeks to the Sindh government to provide prerequisites for holding local government elections in the province. attempts by the ruling PTi to wish away the local body polls in the two provinces ruled by it have been foiled. What worries the ruling party is that a defeat in these elections is likely to be considered a verdict against the PTi which could influence the forthcoming general elections. This explains why the KP government has filed an appeal in the Supreme Court challenging the Peshawar High Court’s decision to hold LB polls in the province on party-basis. it is curious that despite winning a majority in the recent aJK and Gilgt-Baltistan polls and claims of being ahead of other competitors in Cantonment Boards polls, the PTi should be afraid of losing the elections in its stronghold if they are fought on party basis. Soon after assuming power in Punjab the PTi government had prematurely dissolved the local bodies’ structure. The Supreme Court, however, restored the bodies. Meanwhile the Punjab government has been told to hold LB elections in the province in the first quarter of next year. The directives have mobilised Punjab CM Usman Buzdar. not that he did anything exta to improve law and order in Lahore or implement the agreed measures to bring down pollution. instead he spent eight hours with important Mnas and MPas, assuring each one of resolving their problems.
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ORLd geopolitics has changed rapidly from West toEast, and the asia-Pacific region has become more important to the USa. The region is now considered the engine of the world economy. Major asian countries are emerging as good actors in the global economic and political arena. The importance of asia has increased a lot in the last decade. The three major geopolitical players and military powers of the world - the USa, China, and Russia - are trapped in a triangular relationship that is very complex. Will it be like two friends finishing the third one together? The USa is in conflict with China and Russia. China and Russia, on the other hand, have been strategic partners; The USa is strengthening naTO’s opposition to Russia, as well as strengthening ties with asia-Pacific nations through the UKaUS agreement and the Quad Security dialogue. Beijing and Moscow have begun to jointly set up an informal forum to oppose the USa and its allies. Beijing and Moscow conducted the first joint patrol using warships in the western part of the Pacific Ocean from 17 to 23 October. Russia’s defense Ministry said in a statement that the joint patrols were aimed at displaying the state flags of Russia and China, maintaining peace and stability in the asia-Pacific region, and safeguarding the maritime economic activities of both countries. This patrol also seeks to understand what Japan and other states have to say. although Chinese and Russian warships did not violate international law. Chinese state TV has broadcast how close they came to Japanese territory. it has sent a message not only to Japan and Washington but also to the countries of aUKUS and Quad. Russia is a strong and reliable partner of China in the western Pacific. This year, the USa has stepped up spying activities in the South China Sea, and a joint anti-submarine operation by China and Russia has caught everyone’s attention. The US nuclear submarine crashed on October 2 at the bottom of the South China Sea. Three officers, including the commander of the submarine, were fired. China says submarines have been sent there 11 times in the past year. The USa has the world’s largest number of submarines, 68, all of which are nuclear-powered. if america wants to conduct a strategic blockade; China and Russia could break the US strategic blockade and military blockade by consolidating their positions and consolidating their powers. it seems that they have adopted that goal.
Costs of the deal The IMF package will resume, but only if the govt implements tough preconditions
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HE staff-level agreement on a resumption of the $6 billion Extended Structural adjustment Facility has been reached, paving the way for the iMF’s Executive Board to give its approval next month, but only if certain preconditions are met. interestingly enough, the toughest will probably be the amendment to the State Bank of Pakistan act, which the iMF insists must be passed by Parliament, not by a presidential ordinance. How the government intends to get parliamentary approval for that in such a brief time, is not known, especially considering the uproar from the Opposition over another amendment, passed in the recent joint session of Parliament, because someone thought it was the demanded amendment. The government is also preparing to withdraw sales tax exemptions, because the iMF has given a new revenue target, with austerity measures planned, including a major cut in the Public Sector development Programme. More hurtful of all will be a Rs 4 per month increase in the Petroleum Levy, for five months. This electricity tariff will also go up to a level which will be determined by the circular debt. PM’s Finance adviser Shaukat Tarin hinted that part of the reason for the present situation was his predecessor, dr Hafeez Sheikh, who had started the process. The attempt to make do without the iMF has clearly stalled, with the present slew of measures starting off with an interest rate hike. The government was already facing inflationary pressures brought on by the initial iMF preconditions, and it seems that the new measures, while they will probably avert the financial collapse staring the country in the face, will almost inevitably bring a fresh wave of inflation. The increase in fuel and electricity prices will not only mean that the cost of production for the local market will go up, but exports will also be negatively impacted. The PTi seems to have been right to rail against the iMF when it campaigned, but once in office, it too succumbed to the need to do its bidding.
Even cricket is used for disinformation MuhaMMad ali alvi
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ndia has always tried to tarnish Pakistan’s image internationally, be it by false flag operations or disinformation campaigns. and in doing so, it has made a mockery of itself by its unwarranted, outrageous and unaccredited actions. Let us start with a false flag operation in 1971. india launched a false flag operation on January 30th, 1971 by staging the hijack of a Fokker plane. its purpose was to lengthen the flight distance between East Pakistan (now Bangladesh) and West Pakistan which was achieved by banning over-flights of its territory. The distance increased to three times the original distance which created a further divide between the two wings. and, to disseminate disinformation about Pakistan’s alleged role in Kashmir. in 1999, an indian plane was hijacked to Kandahar and Pakistan was blamed for it. The indian national Security advisor ajit doval blamed Pakistan and its intelligence service for providing intelligence to the hijackers. it was rather an attempt to malign Pakistan without any proof. in 2000, the Chattisinghpora massacre, just before the then US president Bill Clinton’s visit to india, was staged that killed 35 innocent Sikhs in anantnag, indian-Occupied Kashmir. its purpose was to communalize the Kashmir dispute and blame Pakistan for sponsoring terrorism in Kashmir. Similarly, the indian Parliament, Mumbai, Uri, and Pathankot attacks were controversial and staged to serve different purposes and to portray Pakistan as a state sponsoring terrorism. in 2019, india staged another false flag operation. This time its purpose was to provide BJP with a base to secure a majority in upcoming elections. and to spread disinformation about Pakistan’s alleged link and support to the Kashmiri resistance. That it was staged was further confirmed by leaked Whatsapp chats of arnab Goswami. in 2020, a Brussels-based independent non-profit organisation, EU disinfo Lab, that “ focused on tackling sophisticated disinformation campaigns targeting
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Umar Aziz
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Indian toxic disinformation campaigns
Dedicated to the legacy of late Hameed Nizami
Editor Aziz-ud-Din Ahmad
in order to maintain its strategic interests, China must bring its navy into the deep sea. The PLa will practice combat capabilities in deep water. aUKUS has been formed to challenge strategic competitors such as China and Russia, and arrangements have been made to send australia to the front line. However, australia does not have the opportunity to fight on the front line with Russia. Russia will take this opportunity. Taiwan, on the other hand, will attack China as soon as it lays its hands on the cocoon; it seems so. The Quad and aUKUS alliance do not seem to be able to bring China-Russia in the bag in any way. if war breaks out, north Korea will rush to China’s aid. Perhaps its first target will be the islands of northwestern Japan and areas such as Guam in the USa. and given the UK’s defense spending, it looks like they will be struggling to deploy naval forces for a long time. The days of relying too much on France are over. in the aUKUS deal, Macron called Morrison of australia a “liar” and a “traitor”. The Cold War between China and the USa is now raging on multiple fronts, in the South China Sea, in afghanistan, in Central asia, in parts of the Middle East, in Eastern Europe, in africa, and in the Pacific. But it seems that the hot front of this Cold War is between india and China. in the meantime, more than 1000 sq km of indian land have been lost, which are unlikely to be regained. in Ladakh, india does not have much of a response to China, let alone in Sikkim or arunachal Pradesh. Scholars do not see the closure of dozens of Chinese applications and restrictions on Chinese companies as the right steps to recover real land and prevent the deaths of uniformed soldiers. There is a lot of talk in the media and in the indian Parliament about this. What can india do now? it could be a good option if india dares to hold on to the Malacca Strait. This route supplies Chinese oil. By creating significant barrier on these trade routes, india can introduce war tactics. Will india do it? The result was a flurry of invitations to China. it is nonsense to say what a terrible form Chinese sea aggression will take. Meanwhile, the Pentagon has been forced to recognize that China’s fleet and navy are the best in the world. China is also aware of the risks involved in the Malacca route. China has already begun to look for alternatives; any other route to the indian Ocean for trade and oil supply lines. There are currently two options available; the first is through CPEC, it will be China’s most convenient access route to the indian Ocean; The second is the Thai Canal, across the Kra isthmus in Thailand, the narrowest point on the Malay Peninsula, which will open the second sea route from China to the indian Ocean. This Thai canal, or Kra isthmus canal, will allow the Chinese navy to quickly move ships between its newly built South China Sea bases in the South China Sea and
the indian Ocean. The Malacca Strait will cover more than 700 miles across Malaysia, and China is paying Thailand up to 30 billion to build the canal. Once these two paths are implemented, China will be able to completely break the backbone of the indo-Pacific dream of shrinking its Belt and Road initiative in the region. Earlier, the concept of ‘indo-Pacific’, built on india’s commitment to deal with China in the region, was launched in 2018. in particular, on May 30, 2018, US Secretary of defense Jim Mattis announced that the Pentagon’s Pacific Command would be renamed the “indo-Pacific Command,” which would give india a greater role in the Pacific theater to control and resist China. This was a significant policy change for Washington. analysts have shown that delhi has assured the Pentagon that it would act as a weight on China in the Pacific theater and destabilize China’s economic interests in the region- especially the CPEC project. no one knew how much india would be able to keep its promises. Could it really serve as a counterweight to China? Can it help the USa “control” China and its growing power? However, nothing happened in 18 months. While China is infiltrating through the border of indian-occupied Ladakh, claiming important vantage points of Pangong Lake and Galvan Valley, there has been no real resistance from india. Once, when india tried to put pressure, it lost 20 troops, but did not get back an inch of land. according to various indian reports, the Chinese entered Ladakh without any resistance from the indian army and refused to discuss the return of territory. Encouraged by Chinese actions, nepal claims territory within the indian border, while nagaland and the eastern regions also speak out against the indian Union. Bangladesh has signed a pledge with China to join the BRi. Sri Lanka has leased the port of Colombo to China. China has provided strategic support to Myanmar. iran has signed a long-term strategic agreement with China. The Taliban are in talks with China in an effort to rebuild afghanistan. in Sikkim, too, Chinese border pressure has increased. Gwadar in Pakistan and Chabahar in iran have continued their activities without any resistance. in this situation, further consideration should be given to the position of the whole indo-Pacific concept. The media has raised the question, what advantage can india give to the Chinese in the Pacific if they cannot reclaim even their own claimed territory from China? if its forces cannot confront the Chinese military in Ladakh, can india really send warships to the South China Sea or be confident of disrupting the CPEC route? The USa and its allies do not want the “myth” of a powerful Western alliance to be destroyed or brought down by any country. But they also need to understand india is not in the Pacific. Thus, increasing the joint strength of the Quad and indo-Pacific Rim may not go far, and the position of the countries concerned may change.
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the EU” published a report “indian Chronicles”. The report unearthed disinformation campaigns of india orchestrated to “discredit Pakistan internationally” and to “influence decision-making at the UnHRC and the European Parliament”. Talking about the extent and capacity of the 15year disinformation campaign, the executive director of the EU disinfo Lab said “it is the largest network we have exposed”. The campaign was run by SG (Shrivastava group) and was spread over 110 countries. it involved 750+ fake social media outlets and 10 Un-accredited nGOs. The purpose of the campaign was to discredit, criticize and malign Pakistan internationally, disseminate disinformation against Pakistan and lobby for indian interests. Here, it is important to mention that ani, india’s largest wire service, was involved in the proliferation of fake news against Pakistan. according to reports, there were 13 instances when ani re-published information originally shared on EU Chronicles- a fake news site of the Shrivastava group. This alarming and eyeopening report did not prevent indian print and electronic media from disseminating disinformation against Pakistan. at a time when the world needed unbiased and fact-based reporting during the recent afghan crisis, indian media resorted to its old tactics and circulated disinformation against PakistanFor example, Republic TV reported that Pakistan invaded Panjshir Valley. Similarly, Times now navbharat and Zee Hindustan aired fake footage and claimed that Pakistan had bombed Panjshir. However, a fact-checking website “Boom” found indian claims misleading as the footage aired by the indian media outlets was from a video game. But, with ever-rising social media and ever-expanding number of social media users, the threat has increased manifold. The most recent example is of a disinformation storm artificially created on social media by social media users in india soon after Pakistan lost the semi-final to australia in the T20 Wold Cup. as soon as the match ended, social media users started spreading fake news. it is noteworthy to mention that the campaign was started by indian journalists, news anchors, news websites and other highly followed persons. an attempt was made to create an atmosphere of hate by spreading disinformation that a cricketer in Pak-
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istan was targeted because of his sect. This information was wrong to an extent that the cricketer did not even belong to the sect with which he was associated. Here, it is relevant to mention that an indian Muslim cricketer was abused mercilessly and trolled on social media when india lost to Pakistan on 24th October. He was abused, called a traitor and asked to go to Pakistan. To compensate for what they did, they tried to replicate this in Pakistan by a sophisticated and preplanned disinformation campaign. The disinformation campaign was an attempt to spread hate and malign Pakistan’s image and discredit it for not being fair with its factions. These disinformation campaigns are directed by the government and amplified by journalists, news anchors, film stars and those with a huge fan following. When the shot is fired, the common users are expected to do the rest. in the most recent context, some analysts believe that these disinformation campaigns on social media should not worry Pakistan as it exposes indian media. But Pakistan should be aware of the fact that it is a multi-ethnic, multicultural, and multi-sect state. and these disinformation campaigns can trigger reactions as ordinary social media users can fall prey to these disinformation campaigns. The fire should be met with fire, not in its method or way but its intensity and capacity. Pakistan must adopt a three-pronged strategy to deal with these disinformation campaigns. Government, media and social media users must collaborate and do their bit. Government should highlight and inform the world that indian claims of Pakistan being behind the Kashmiri resistance are as fake as these media and social media disinformation campaigns. it should demystify the world about indian hegemonic designs in Kashmir and its nefarious agenda in neighbouring countries. it might not impact indian allies who preferred to remain silent even on an eye-opening EU disinfo Lab report, either because of its market potential or because of economic relations, but it will attract those in search of truth. Media on the other hand should help in the dissemination of the right information and in pointing out fake news designed to create conflict. The public using social media should be aware of these disinformation agendas and must not fall for them. The writer is freelance columnist
Email: editorial@pakistantoday.com.pk
06-07 Comments - 24th November 2021_Layout 1 11/23/2021 11:15 PM Page 2
Wednesday, 24 November, 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
Effects of self medication
‘Who watches the watchers?’ SarMad Sattar “O you who have believed, be persistently standing firm in justice, witness for Allah, even if it be against yourselves or parents and relatives. Whether one is rich or poor, Allah is more worthy of both.” [Quran, 4: 135]
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satirical query posed by the Roman poet philosopher Juvenal; Quis custodiet Ipsos custodes? (Who will guard the guards) resonates with the judicial appointment procedure as enshrined under the Constitution. Under the constitutional scheme, article 175a empowers the creation of a Judicial Commission for the appointment of judges to the honourable Supreme Court, High Courts, and the Federal Shariat Court. More so, article 175a (3) empowers the President, being the head of state, to appoint the senior most judge of the Supreme Court. Bef6re the 18th amendment, the honourable Chief Justice of Pakistan recommended a panel of judges to the President, who would then determine the suitability of each recommendation. Sooner but later, the system of check and balances took a toll in the Judges’ Case, wherein the Court held that the recommendations of the Chief Justice would ordinarily be binding on the President unless the President departed from it subject to justiciable reasons. in order to restore the equilibrium in the independence of judiciary, the Parliament passed the 18th amendment in 2010, which envisaged a two pronged process for appointment of judges under the constitutional realm. The first stage was the creation of a Judicial Commission, presided by the Chief Justice of Pakistan and other senior judges from Supreme Court, High Courts, and members of the bar. On the same lines, the Judicial Commission was to nominate judges for each vacancy. Pursuant thereto, the nominations of the commission were then forwarded to the Parliamentary Committee, for confirmation. The Parliamentary Commission comprised of eight (08) members in to, four (04) members from the national assembly and four (04) members from the Senate. as such, the decisions of Parliamentary Committee are executive in nature, having bearing on the independence of judiciary and the principle of separation of powers between different organs of the State. Studying the methods and processes by which certain foreign countries handle the appointment of judges will provide us with valuable insight and perhaps even an alternative to the model we use. AmericA: The appointment process of federal judges and justices in the USa seems to be, at first sight, a very political process. all federal judges are appointed, not elected. They are nominated by the President and must be confirmed by the US Senate through a majority vote. Following confirmation, the President finally makes the decision to commission the judges to their position for a life term. There is no formal method for the selection of candidates for judicial positions in the USa. But in practice, there are a wide range of safeguards to promote the appointment of qualified judges and justices. in practice, members of the Senate play an important role in selecting candidates for their circuit courts and district courts by forming selection committees. amongst prominent lawyers, state or federal judges or law professors are selected. The department of Justice then reviews the legal qualifications of the
candidates. The american Bar association (aBa) advises on the qualifications of candidates. and the Senate Judiciary Committee extensively examines the qualifications and background of candidates. Of utmost importance in this process is the tradition or legal culture of making selections based on objective criteria. although politicians make the decisions, impartiality and the procedure of checks and balances form an important feature of the appointment process of judges. The decision of the Senate holds a decisive value, as they can decide to block nominations. in a significant number of European countries, the executive or legislative branches play an important and decisive role in the appointment of judges. in a significant number of European countries the executive or legislative branches play an important and decisive role in the appointment of judges. These are mostly old democracies in Europe, in which the government, sometimes in liaison with Parliament, formally decides on the appointment of judges. But in these countries, there is a tradition or legal culture not to make appointments based on political criteria, but rather on objective criteria, primarily on merit. Frequently courts or other judicial bodies in these countries make decisive recommendations for judicial appointments. in many European countries a judicial council plays an important role. GermAny: in Germany there is no Council for the Judiciary. Federal judges in Germany are appointed by the Federal President, after being elected. The judges are elected for life by the Judges Election Committee consisting of 16 ministers of the sub-states and 16 members elected by the German Parliament. The committee constituted for the same, examines the qualifications of the candidates and makes a proposal for appointment thereon. The German appointment process does not exclude potential political influence. nevertheless, there are important guarantees to ensure objectivity. There are checks and balances in the composition of the Judges Election Committee, and effective judicial control (appeal procedure). Perhaps, most importantly, there is a legal culture in Germany which respects the independence of judges. United KinGdom: in the UK, judges are appointed. There is a statutory criterion for judicial qualifications. a judicial appointments committee, consisting of 15 members, is responsible for the selection of candidates. The Ministry of Justice selects 12 members deemed eligible and qualified to be elected, whereby three members are selected from the judiciary by a judicial council. The Lord Chancellor, a member of the government, has the authority to appoint judges. He may reject selected candidate deemed unsuitable. Certain senior appointments are made by the Queen on the advice of the Lord Chancellor or the Prime Minister. FrAnce: in France, judges are recruited through competition or on the basis of special qualifications. They are appointed by the President. a judicial service commission makes proposals, which is composed of 12 judicial members and eight additional members, of whom two are nominated by the President, and two each by the Presidents of the national assembly and Senate, one by the bar association and one by the Council of State. BelGiUm: in Belgium, judges are appointed following a judicial training programme or directly to a career post, by the Crown for an indefinite period until retirement on the basis of a
motivated request by the High Council of Justice. The construction of a judicial council was established in 2000, partly because of the politicization of the appointment process. Other than initial recruitment, appointments to judicial positions are still regarded as primarily the result of an ability to cultivate networks and the right contacts, rather than the result of merit. netherlAnds: Judges in the netherlands are appointed by the King. There is a training programme and selection process by an independent judicial selection committee. They do have a judicial council in the netherlands, but it does not have a decisive role in the appointment process. This judicial council is not independent, and members are not elected by the judges. Judges are appointed for life by royal decree. in the netherlands, judges are appointed on the basis of objective criteria on the recommendation of the courts. These recommendations are decisive. Yet there are no strong safeguards against political influence. in most European countries, constitutional safeguards against political influence on judicial appointments are relatively weak. Most important is the development of a legal culture which respects judicial independence. From a constitutional perspective, i think three principles are important for the judicial appointment process. The first is judicial independence. Judges must be neutral, independent and impartial. Courts being independent institutions are not political institutions. This means that appointments of judges that are primarily due to political motivations should be out of question. Judges have to be appointed on the basis of specific qualifications for judicial office. Thud, courts, judicial councils or judicial advisory committees must play an important role. Second is the principle of democracy. in most countries the executive and legislative branches are involved in judicial appointments. in Germany, there is a strong focus on this constitutional principle. So, there must be some construction of democratic control or supervision in Parliament. a judiciary without any democratic control, as a state within the state, is unacceptable. Third are checks and balances. To prevent the concentration of government powers concerning the appointment of judges, it is important to divide these powers between the executive, legislative and judicial branches. a system of shared power promotes the prevention of abuses of power by one branch. a collaborative system is in many ways the most appropriate method. The ideal system is one that allows judges to be independent and not to worry about the repercussions their decisions might have on their careers. at the same time the ideal system needs to provide a level of accountability which would allow for recourse should judges overexert their power. any system that relies too heavily on one branch of government, is self-appointing, or allows the citizenry to elect judges, tarnishes the purity of the judiciary. We need an appointment process that is open and transparent while adhering to objective criteria not only in accord with the court and political institutions but also with the general public itself. The role of a well-functioning judiciary is one that aids in the protections of human and property rights while enforcing the legal frameworks that support optimal market function. a well-functioning judiciary is one that has the capacity to work in a just and impartial manner. it should therefore be as independent as possible with specifically defined scope and authority to interpret law. The writer is a lawyer based in Lahore.
SELF-MEdiCaTiOn can lead to serious consequences such as delay in diagnosis of illness, drug resistance, development of co-morbidities and in some cases of death. if the self- diagnosis is wrong then the miss diagnosis can result in improper health care, including wrong treatments and lack of care for serious conditions. One of the greatest dangers of self diagnosis in psychological syndromes is that you may miss a medical disease. Some drug interactions can make the drug you take less effective. The freedom to buy pharmaceutical drugs that have not been prescribed by registered health practitioners is raising serious concerns in Pakistan. Unlike developed countries where the management of medicines is under effective regulations and over-the-counter medicines are well categorised, in Pakistan buying almost any type of medicine without prescription is easy. Many alarming outcomes like resistance, addiction, withdrawal effects, adverse drug interactions, and hypersensitivities are common due to self-medication and the availability to buy over-the-counter medicines in bulk. Clinics and pharmacies run by unauthorised medical practitioners are among the major causes of medication errors in the country. in the most populous province of Punjab, there were reportedly 70 000–80 000 unqualified quacks involved in illegal medical practice. The economically compromised fraction of the general population prefers to visit quacks who do not charge them with a consultation fee. Some people rely on steroids in the form of unlabelled and unregulated medicinal preparations, provided by fake herbalists, homeopaths, and socalled traditional healers. in most cases, this behaviour leads to misdiagnosis, serious medication errors, and spread of infections. according to WHO, 10 million people could die each year by 2050 in the absence of effective control measures against drug resistance. about 0·5 million people, including women and children, die each year due to medication errors in Pakistan. The emergence of extensively drug-resistant typhoid should be considered a warning of pushing back the world to the pre-antibiotic era due to overuse of antibiotics. Similarly, the unnecessary and irrational use of antibiotics in selflimiting viral infections is causing antibiotic resistance, especially in children.4 during dengue virus outbreaks, patients could be at risk of developing serious complications due to the self-medication of nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs and aspirin, which are normally used at home for general fever and pain management, especially in rural areas. The Pakistani Government has shut down 22 913 quackery outlets in the province of Punjab5 and has decided in 2019 to regulate the sale of antibiotics in the federal capital, islamabad.6 However, the imposition of regulations regarding medicines of concern should be extended across the country. Over-the-counter medicines should be categorised uniformly across the country to minimise the unnecessary use of drugs. all unprofessional quacks practising without appropriate authorisation must be addressed stringently through governmental interventions and control policies. Principally, improving the general public’s awareness of the potential risks associated with self-medication and the differentiation between certified medical practitioners and quacks should be considered priorities. it must be noted that some combinations of drugs can be dangerous. Self medication is a human behaviour in which an individual uses a substance or any exogenous influence to self admister treatment for physical. Mahikan khalid Shal
Incineration of waste in our society, heaps of waste material can be seen in every corner, but there is no well-thought-out plan to take advantage of it. incineration is a waste treatment process that involves the combustion of organic substances contained in waste materials. incineration of waste materials converts the waste into ash, flue gas and heat. in some cases, the heat that is generated by incineration can be used to produce electric power. indeed, incineration with energy recovery is one of several waste-to-energy technologies, such as gasification, pyrolysis, and anaerobic digestion. as a matter of fact, incineration has manifold benefits to provide. it treats certain waste types in niche areas, for example, clinical wastes and certain hazardous wastes where pathogens and toxins can be destroyed by high temperatures. There are numerous examples like chemical multiproduct plants with diverse toxic or very toxic wastewater streams. Waste combustion is particularly popular in the countries–Japan, Singapore, and the netherlands where land is a scarce resource. among them, Singapore and Sweden also benefit from it. above all, a number of European countries rely heavily on incineration for handling municipal waste, particularly Luxembourg, Germany and France. it is an undisputed fact that incineration decreases the quantity of waste by 95 per cent and there comes a reduction in the solid quantity of original waste by 80%85%. That is why countries do not have rely on landfills. By means of this process, waste can be efficiently managed by burning up to 90 per cent of the total waste generated. Most importantly, countries like Pakistan which are abundant in waste materials can produce heat and power. Since energy costs are skyrocketing day by day, it is advisable that steams turbines can best be used to generate power. Currently, Europe and Japan have integrated incinerators into modern hearting systems. Relating to this, Sweden fulfils 8 % of heating needs with the help of incinerators. Beyond a doubt, solid waste incinerators are more environmentally friendly; on the other hand, coal-fired power plants prove disastrous for the environment. By way of incinerators, pollutants are trapped as they possess filters. in addition to these advantages of incineration, it saves on transportation of waste, provides better control over odour and noise, prevents the production of Methane Gas, eliminates harmful germs and chemicals at very high temperatures. it is adaptable to any weather, ensures effective metal recycling and is based on a computerised monitoring system. Given all these benefits from untapped waste material, we have not been able to make the best use of waste that is uselessly spread out all over our country, putting precious human life in danger. So, it is the need of the hour to obtain the benefits of incineration now. aBdUl QadEER SEElRO laRkana
Wednesday, 24 November, 2021
08 WORLD VIEW
There Is No easy esCape from The global debT Trap NO MATTER WHAT HAPPENS TO NEAR-TERM INFLATION AND GROWTH, THE WORLD IS TOO INDEBTED FOR RATES TO RISE MUCH HIGHER
Financial timEs
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ne of the big mysteries in the global economy is why, though inflation is making a strong comeback, long-term interest rates have barely budged in recent months. So far analysts have explained this odd market behaviour as a symptom of the pandemic, driven by fear of another surge in cases, or massive central bank asset purchases, or — above all — a belief that the current inflation spike is temporary. none of these explanations hold up well in light of recent data, but there is an explanation that does: the world is in a debt trap. Over the past four decades, total debt more than tripled to 350 per cent of global gross domestic product. As central banks dropped interest rates to their recent lows,
easy money flowing into stocks, bonds and other assets helped boost the scale of global markets from the same size as global GDP to four times larger. now the bond market may be sensing that the debt-soaked and asset-inflated global economy is so sensitive to rate increases that any significant rise is just not sustainable. Surely, if all the standard explanations are falling apart then something deeper must be going on. Despite the rising Covid caseload, fear of its economic impact has given way to the assumption that vaccines and new cures will turn Covid into a normal part of life, like the flu. Global data show consumers are back out shopping and going to restaurants at near pre-pandemic levels. At the crisis peak, the US Federal Reserve was buying 41 per cent of all new Treasury issues, but long-term yields stayed close to record lows even after the Fed and other central banks started signalling in early autumn their plans to wind down their purchases. Moreover, central banks are buying
bonds of all durations, so why are rates now rising only for shorter-term bonds? This is where the inflation scenarios come in — either that the current spike will pass as pandemic-induced supply shortages ease, or that the world is entering an era like the 1970s, with inflation becoming embedded in the system and people’s psyches. evidence is mounting that inflation is not as “transitory” as central banks have been insisting. Attention is focused on headline inflation, which hit a three-decade record of more than 6 per cent in the US last month. But core inflation measures — which exclude volatile prices such as food and energy, and serve as a better indicator of long-term trends — have spiked worldwide and are currently above 4 per cent in the US. Wages face long-term upward pressure as well: there are now more than six job openings for every unemployed American, a two-decade high. earlier this year, there was reason to hope that a rise in productivity might endure, restraining inflation in the long run, but it has
Iran's nuclear choices and ours ProjEct syndicatE
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eGOTIATIOnS between Iran and the United States on Iran’s nuclear activities are set to resume on november 29. But while many will welcome this development, they should bear in mind that the talks are unlikely to succeed. And even if they do, any agreement will not resolve Iran’s push for regional primacy – or for nuclear weapons. First, some history. In 2015, Iran and the US, along with China, France, Germany, Russia, the european Union, and the United Kingdom, entered into the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), an agreement that reduced Iran’s stockpile of uranium, the level to which it could enrich its uranium, and the number of centrifuges it could operate. extensive international inspections were put in place. Iran pledged never to develop nuclear weapons. experts estimated that these arrangements meant Iran would need up to a year to produce nuclear weapons if it chose to do so and that inspectors would likely catch it in the process. Most of the constraints central to the 2015 accord, however, included “sunset” provisions, meaning they expire over a 10-15-year period. Once those restrictions disappeared, Iran would need considerably less time to develop a full-fledged nuclear-weapons program. Still, billions of dollars of Iranian funds were unfrozen following the signing of the JCPOA, and Iran was given considerable relief from extensive economic sanctions. Iran chose to comply with the JCPOA. nevertheless, three years later, in 2018, under President Donald Trump, the US unilaterally exited the accord, which Trump described as “horrible” and “one of the worst and most one-sided transactions.” He then imposed a new set of draconian sanctions. Shortly thereafter, Iran moved to keep international inspectors at a distance and steadily edged closer to being in a position to produce nuclear weapons. There is strong evidence that it has enriched sufficient uranium to near the level one or more weapons would require. Under President Joe Biden, the US has expressed its desire to re-enter the pact (negotiated while Biden was vice president) and has urged Iran to do the same. With a new president of its own (ebrahim Raisi) in place, Iran has declared its readiness to do so, but only if the Trump-era sanctions are first rescinded. If the negotiations lead both sides back into the JCPOA, it would buy close to a decade of limits on Iran’s nuclear program in exchange for lifting many but not all of the economic sanctions. But there are problems with this scenario. First, lifting sanctions would make it easier for Iran to acquire financial resources that would allow it to do more of what it is already doing to undermine stability in Yemen, Syria, Iraq, Lebanon, Gaza, and elsewhere in the region. Such activity was not restrained by the 2015 accord. Second, there is no reason to believe that Iran would ever sign on to a “longer, stronger” nuclear deal (a JCPOA 2.0) that places more severe con-
straints on its nuclear program for a longer period. nor is there reason to believe that Iran a decade hence will be fundamentally different in its political makeup or in what it seeks. This brings us to another flaw with reviving the JCPOA: Iran could re-enter the 2015 agreement and, while complying with it, accelerate production of ballistic missiles (not covered by the pact) and, after 2030, dramatically expand its stockpile of enriched uranium. In addition, Iran could carry out relevant weapons development in hidden locations that would build on what it has learned in the last few years – activity that could augment the quality and quantity of any nuclear weapons should it decide to pursue them. The question is not if, but when, we reach this juncture: in months if the negotiations fail, or in less than a decade if they succeed. An Iran allowed to field nuclear weapons or get close to such a point (becoming a threshold nuclearweapons country) would likely be even more aggressive in its efforts to shape the region in its image. At the same time, an Iran with nuclear weapons or the capacity to produce them in days or weeks could prompt one or more of its neighbors – most likely Saudi Arabia, egypt, or Turkey – to follow suit. It would put a conflict-riven region on a hair trigger. The alternative is to replace formal diplomacy with something less formal. Call it tacit diplomacy or arms control without agreements. The US and other concerned governments (including Israel) would communicate to Iran the limits to their tolerance regarding its nuclear capacity. If Iran were to cross these quantitative or qualitative red lines, it would pay a substantial price. In addition to increased sanctions, it could expect cyber as well as conventional military attacks on nuclear facilities and possibly targets of economic and military value. This course also would not be without risks and costs. There is no guarantee that such attacks would succeed, given that Iran could and would go to great lengths to protect important elements of its nuclear program and reconstitute them if necessary. And Iran would also have the option to retaliate with a range of instruments and against targets of its own choosing throughout the region and the world. All of this implies difficult choices for the US. Biden and his successors might have to consider participating in or condoning attacks on Iran. They might also need to pledge that the US would retaliate against any Iranian threat or use of nuclear weapons, much as the US does for its allies in europe and Asia against Russia and China. Both Trump and Biden made clear their desire to reduce American military involvement in the Middle east. Because of Iran, making good on this aim looks increasingly unlikely. Richard Haass, President of the Council on Foreign Relations, previously served as Director of Policy Planning for the US State Department (2001-2003), and was President George W. Bush's special envoy to northern Ireland and Coordinator for the Future of Afghanistan. He is the author, most recently, of The World: A Brief Introduction (Penguin Press, 2020).
faded. Surveys show people working from home are putting in longer hours to generate the same level of output. Global bond markets are starting to price in expectations that higher inflation and growth will force central banks to raise short-term rates, starting next year. In fact, surging short-term rates are putting the world’s government bond markets on track for their worst year of returns since 1949. Yet the yield on 10-year government bonds is now well below the rate of inflation in every developed country. The market is likely intuiting that, no matter what happens in the near term to inflation and growth, in the long term interest rates can’t move higher because the world is far too indebted. As financial markets and total debts grow as a share of GDP, they become increasingly fragile. Asset prices and the cost of servicing the debt grow more sensitive to rate rises, and now represent a double threat to the global economy. In past tightening cycles, major central banks typically increased
rates by about 400 to 700 basis points. now, much milder tightening could tip many countries into economic trouble. The number of countries in which total debt amounts to more than 300 per cent of GDP has risen over the past two decades from a half dozen to two dozen, including the US. An aggressive rate rise could also deflate elevated asset prices, which is usually deflationary for the economy as well. Those vulnerabilities would explain why the market appears so focused on the “policy error” scenario, in which central banks are forced to raise rates sharply, tripping the economy and eventually pushing rates back down. In effect, the world is stuck in a debt trap, which suggests that while the refusal of long-term rates to rise significantly is new and unexpected, it may also be entirely rational. The writer, Morgan Stanley Investment Management’s chief global strategist, is author of ‘The Ten Rules of Successful Nations.’
Can Japan’s economy recover under Kishida? SUCCESSIVE LDP ADMINISTRATIONS HAVE CALLED FOR STRUCTURAL REFORM. KISHIDA IS THE FIRST PRIME MINISTER TO NOT USE THE WORD ‘REFORM’ AT ALL IN HIS OPENING SPEECH IN THE DIET
East asia Forum
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Naohiro Yashiro
apan’s new Prime Minister Fumio Kishida won his first election on 31 October 2021 by achieving a majority of seats in Japan’s lower house. In early October, Kishida had just won his Liberal Democratic Party’s (LDP) leadership vote, competing with Taro Kono. Kono was the minister of regulatory reform in the former Yoshihide Suga cabinet and appealed to younger voters as an expected reformer of the stagnated economy. By contrast, the 64-year old Kishida is a symbol of stability for the vested-interest supporters of the LDP. He is likely to heavily depend on the bureaucrats who have confidence in managing the economy, following the tradition of former prime minister Shinzo Abe. Kishida accuses previous LDP leaders of being neo-liberalist and depending too much on market competition, while watching income disparity increase. He emphasises income distribution for the benefit of the middle-income class, rather than the low-income class. He intends to achieve it through tax incentive measures for corporate firms, contrary to the supply-side approach of increasing productivity through the regulatory reform of agriculture, communication and service industries. Kishida has developed an idea he calls a ‘new kind of capitalism’, which provides the theoretical framework that guides his policy. Though its content is unclear, this new capitalism is likely to emphasise income distribution rather than profit-seeking. But this is not a good strategy given that Japanese companies are suffering from low profits and excessive elderly employment. Kishida is likely to focus on populist issues, depending on fiscal measures rather than tax increases to finance the substantial current budget deficit. The only exception is a policy for raising the tax on financial assets. It was an essential measure to gain support for Kishida’s income distribution policy, as those with financial assets are the primary beneficiaries of Abenomics. Still, he quickly withdrew the measure
for fear of its negative impact on the stock market. In short, despite being the LDP leader, Kishida’s economic policy stance resembles that of the leftist opposition parties. He is claiming that he will deliver cash benefits of 100,000 yen for all children under 18 years old, excluding the top 10 per cent household income group, which is criticised even by LDP supporters for not targeting those who really need the benefits. Kishida’s policy stance is far from appropriate given Japan’s current economic and fiscal situation. Japan’s GDP has not grown since it peaked at US$5.5 trillion in 1995. In 2020, it sank to US$5 trillion. The decline is contrary to steady GDP increases in the United States and China. The net financial debt-to-GDP ratio in Japan increased from 34 per cent to 177 per cent during the same period. Long-run economic stagnation in Japan cannot be blamed on a lack of fiscal policy measures. With no growth in GDP, it is no wonder that Japanese wages have not increased. Poor wage growth can also partly be attributed to the lower production level of goods and services. Though Abenomics did see share prices and firms’ profits grow due to the lower value of the yen, which was induced by the Abe administration’s expansionary monetary policy. Thanks to the softer yen, foreign tourists in Japan increased to the historically high level of 32 million in 2019 just before the COVID-19 crisis. This is contrary to what happened in the 1980s when Japanese tourists could be found in every major city in the world enjoying the benefits of a strong yen. Kishida is urging for further fiscal expansion amounting to 30 trillion yen to overcome the COVID-19 recession, but potential private consumption demand has been accumulating, waiting for the end of the pandemic. Under this new type of recession, stimulating fiscal policy measures is like stepping on the accelerator and brake simultaneously. Tax incentive measures for raising wages are not appropriate at all. With a rapidly ageing population, the unemployment rate was just 2.4 per cent in 2019, close to the full employment experienced right before the COVID-19 crisis. An important question is why Japanese wages have not increased despite the tightening labour market situation. One explanation is a lack of productivity increase in the Japanese economy. Successive LDP administrations have called for structural reform. Kishida is the first prime minister to not use the word ‘reform’ at all in his opening speech in the Diet. Kishida’s populist policy stance will likely continue until the upper house election takes place in July 2022. Of course, not all Japanese people are satisfied with Kishida’s shift to a more left-leaning economic policy stance. An increasing number of seats went to the conservative opposition Japan Innovation Party in the recent election, meaning it now occupies the third most powerful position in the lower house. It is a slight glimmer of hope for the future of Japanese politics. Naohiro Yashiro is Vice President and Professor at Showa Women’s University.
Wednesday, 24 November, 2021 | ISLAMABAD
NEWS corporate corner Delay in diagnosis can result in long term disability
PRESIDENT ALVI INAUGURATES COUNTRy'S FIRST EVER NATIONAL CyBER SECURITy ACADEMy ISLAMABAD
D LAHORE: An awareness seminar to highlight the importance of early diagnosis and treatment of arthritis was conducted at the Governor house Punjab, with joint collaboration of Arthritis Care Foundation and Scotmann Pharmaceuticals here in Lahore on Sunday 21 November. The seminar was chaired by the honorable Governor of Punjab Chaudry Muhammad Sarwar, with awareness sessions conducted by chairperson Arthritis Care Foundation, Prof. Nighat Mir Ahmed, Co-chairperson Prof. Sumaira Farman Raja and Co-chairperson and General Secretary, Prof. Muhammad Ahmed Saeed and Dr. Saira E. A. Khan. According to a research done by the Arthritis Care Foundation with funding by World Health Organization, approximately 1 out of every 4th person is suffering from some kind of inflammatory joint disease. If not diagnosed early, these conditions can result in long-term disability, like Systemic Lupus Erythematosus. State of the art department of Rheumatology with international standards and equipment has been initiated at the Central Park Teaching Hospital, served by highly skilled and qualified specialists and staff. Central Park Teaching Hospital also provides free treatment services for deserving patients with the support of Arthritis Care Foundation. The seminar highlighted the role of Vitamin D, diet and exercise for healthy bones and joints, arthritis in children, young and elderly and the common causes of backpain. Pr
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r Arif Alvi, President Islamic republic of Pakistan, inaugurated country's first ever National Cyber Security Academy at the opening ceremony of International Conference on Cyber Warfare & Security 2021 (ICCWS 2021) at PAF Complex, Isamabad. Air Chief Marshal Zaheer Ahmed Baber Sidhu, Chief of the Air Staff, Pakistan Air Force received President Alvi at the conference venue. The event was also attended by Air Marshal (retd) Javaid Ahmed, Vice Chancellor Air University and Air Vice Marshal Abbas Ghumman, Director General C4I PAF along with civil-military and foreign dignitaries. While addressing the ceremony, President Dr Arif Alvi declared Cyber Security as a global threat having implications on National Security of the country. The President appreciated industry-academia collaboration, where PAF worked closely with the Air Uni-
versity and HEC in establishing country’s first ever Cyber Security Academy. Terming it as a historic occasion, the President called for pursuit of excellence in Cyber domain. Chief of the Air Staff’s vision on evolving Cyber domain has defined PAF’s role in contributing to Cyber Security objectives under National Cyber Security Policy 2021. PAF has worked closely with academia to strengthen
Hr talent and r&D efforts in the Cyber domain. Through effective industry-academia linkages supported by comprehensive r&D setups, PAF would transform into an effective, ubiquitous and highly responsive Cyber Force. Speaking at the occasion, Air Vice Marshal Abbas Ghumman, Director General C4I PAF, highlighted PAF’s contributions in establishment of
Mobilink Microfinance Bank and Daraz partner in an industry-first linkage to Empower Women Entrepreneurs ISLAMABAD: Pakistan's largest digital bank, Mobilink Microfinance Bank Limited (MMBL) has partnered with Daraz, Pakistan’s leading online marketplace to facilitate MMBL borrowers specifically women entrepreneurs, by enabling them to become sellers on Daraz. Through this collaboration, MMBL and Daraz will provide adequate opportunities to promote Small and Medium Size Enterprises (SMEs), more so now as the e-commerce platform is going through an all-time boom via the 11.11 sale. Both the organizations are firmly committed to promoting women's financial inclusion through the provision of enabling digital financial ecosystem that contributes directly towards empowering this underserved, yet influential segment, which comprises almost half of the country's population. MMBL's flagship program, Women Inspirational Network (WIN) and Daraz's Ibtida would together provide an incredible boost to our joint mission of upskilling women entrepreneurs and provide them easy access to digitally equipped growth opportunities. Pr
MD SNGPL visits Multan Regional Office LAHORE: Chief Information Commissioner Mohammad Azam gives award to consultant A Q Zeeshan during an event organised by the Lahore Tax Bar Association. Jameel Akhtar Baig was also present on the occasion. Pr
ANF seizes 2285.04 kg drugs valuing US$ 168.539 million in 33 operations, arrests 30 persons including 2 women & 2 afghan national involved in drug trafficking and impounded 15 vehicles ISLAMABAD: ANF has seized 2285.04 Kg narcotics valuing US$ 168.539 Million internationally and arrested 30 culprits including 2 women & 2 Afghan Nationals and impounded 15 vehicles while conducting 33 counternarcotics strikes throughout the country. The seized drugs comprised 113.88 Kg Heroin, 2076.85 Kg Hashish, 79.85 Kg Opium, 10 Kg Amphetamine, 4.25 Kg Methamphetamine (Ice), 1210 x Valium Tablets ( 0.210 Kg). ANF Balochistan recovered 652 Kg drugs in 1 operation. The seized drugs comprised 652 Kg Hashish. ANF Punjab recovered 10.885 Kg drugs in 2 operations while arrested 3 accused. The seized drugs comprised 10.885 Kg Heroin. ANF KPK recovered 315.83 Kg drugs in 14 operations while arrested10 accused including 1 woman & 2 Afghan National and seized 4 x vehicles. The seized drugs comprised 63.88 Kg Heroin, 226.95 Kg Hashish, 15 Kg Opium and 10 Kg Methamphetamine (Ice). ANF Sindh recovered 1146.03 Kg drugs in 7 operations while arrested 5 accused and seized 3 x vehicles. The seized drugs comprised 0.270 Kg Heroin, 1128.05 Kg Hashish, 13.500 Kg Opium, 4 Kg Methamphetamine (Ice) and 1210 x Valium Tablets (0.210 Kg). ANF North, recovered 160.295 Kg drugs in 9 operations and arrested 12 accused including 1 woman and seized 8 x vehicles. The seized drugs comprised 38.845 Kg Heroin, 69.850 Kg Hashish, 51.35 Kg Opium and 0.250 Kg Methamphetamine (Ice). All cases have been registered at respective ANF Police Stations under CNS Act 1997 and further investigations are under process. Pr
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MULTAN: Managing Director SNGPL Ali .J. Hamdani accompanied by Senior Management visited Multan Regional Office. The Managing Director was briefed regarding operational activities, sub area offices, complaint centers and UFG control activities. General Manager briefed the Managing Director about achievements of the region which included the reduction of UFG losses and replacement of corroded network. Managing Director visited different sections of the Regional office and interacted with the officers and staff members. Pr
ENGRO Pakistan National Volleyball Championship 2021 Sponsors Press Conference at Sports Hall, Punjab Sports Complex, Opposite Gaddafi Stadium, Lahore. The Press Conference Participants are as follows: 1. Mr. CH Muhammad Yaqoob, Chairman Volleyball Federation Pakistan 2. Mr.CH Iftikhar President Volleyball Federation Pakistan 3. Mr. Rao Omar Hashim Khan Group Director Trans Group 4. Mr. Moied Javed CEO Trans Production & Technologies Speaking on the Occasion, Mr. CH Muhammad Yaqoob, Chairman Volleyball Federation Pakistan said we warmly welcome the all main sponsors of the event and thank Trans Group/TPT & Blitz for supporting & promoting the game of volleyball to the next level by putting up this Mega event in the history of Pakistan Volleyball. We can assure that the present sponsors and the future sponsors of volleyball will be very happy in their partnership with Pakistan Volleyball Federation as Volleyball is a very popular sport in every nook and corner of the country. Volleyball being one of the three largest sports of the world including football and basketball has 220 countries affiliated with International Volleyball Federation. Pakistan has a very respectable level in International Volleyball as in the U23 Men and in Senior Men Volleyball. We have very good talent right now and InshaAllah in the next three year not only Pakistan will be on the victory stand in Asia but also in a high position in World Championship, World League and even in Olympics. We would want partnership in the shape of sponsors from the corporate sectors in taking Pakistan Volleyball to highest position. Mr. Ch Iftikhar, President Volleyball Federation Pakistan, said that I am Extremely Excited to hold the National Volleyball Championship 2021. All the Department and Province 16 Teams are participating in the tournament it will be a tough Contest best of the best victorious. I am Confident this tournament increase engagement & Interest among youth of Pakistan. I am Thankful Engro Pakistan & TG/TPT of their supports to Organizing this National Volleyball Championship 2021. Pr
Cyber Security Academy and successful conduct of the ICCWS along with Cyber Security Industry Exhibition. Air Vice Marshal Abbas also highlighted PAF’s plan to establish its own Cyber Command supported by a Cyber Technology Park and Cyber Center of Excellence under National Aerospace Science and Technology Park (NASTP). Air Marshal (retd) Javaid Ahmed, Vice Chancellor Air University on the occasion expressed that overall objective of the Cyber Security Academy was to produce trained Cyber experts for government, industry, public and private sector organizations to address emerging Cyber Security threats. After inauguration of Cyber Academy, President Arif Alvi along with Air Chief Marshal Zaheer Ahmed Baber Sidhu, Chief of the Air Staff, Pakistan Air Force visited Cyber Security Industry Exhibition at conference’s venue. Chief of the Air Staff briefed the President regarding various initiatives being pursued by PAF in collaboration with local and foreign technology experts.
Steps being taken successfully to protect rights of consumers to eradicate corruption in IESCO; Dr. Muhammad Amjad Khan, CEO IESCO ISLAMABAD: IESCO Chief Executive Dr Muhammad Amjad Khan said that steps taken for protection of consumer rights and eradication of corruption in IESCO are being carried out successfully. IESCO is pursuing a policy of zero tolerance towards corruption. The IESCO Chief has requested the esteemed customers to make demand notices and other payments only in the respective authorized banks and if any IESCO officer / employee demands money in return for any government work, report it to IESCO Head Office Islamabad Officers of the special unit Naveed Iqbal (Deputy Manager Commercial) on phone number 051-9252430, Sajid Hassan Ansari (Deputy Manager Commercial) on phone number 051-9253097. In addition, any kind of corruption in IESCO can be reported / pointed out by the Chief Executive Complaints and Monitoring Cell, IESCO Head Office, Islamabad on Phone No: 051-9252933 or the IESCO Chief's email address at ceo@iesco.com.pk. Pr
Training workshop to address increasing challenges of climate change held ISLAMABAD: The experts at the two-day workshop launched the Monitoring and Evaluation RISQ IT Platform and training for adaptation tracking in Pakistan. The two-day workshop was organized by the Global Change Impact Study Centre (GCISC) in collaboration with CITEPA, ACTERA and OiEau with the support of GIZ Pakistan. While addressing the participants in open session, Arif Goheer, Head of Agriculture and Coordination at GCISC highlighted the importance and need of robust M&E adaptation tracking to track adaptation actions of Pakistan and report to UNFCC accordingly as per the commitments made in the newly submitted National Determined Contributions (NDC). He thanked GIZ Pakistan for its financial and technical support through CITEPA in supporting Ministry of Climate Change and GCISC in developing such crucial platform and building the related capacities of national and sub-national actors through interactive training workshops. He also briefed the participants on how Pakistan is committed to build its resilience to growing climate change challenges. Further, he highlighted the importance of agriculture being selected as pilot sector for this RISQ IT platform with preparing guidelines and roadmap for future adaptation actions. Baptiste Chatre, Climate Change Coordinator at GIZ Pakistan shed light on the GIZ cooperation with MoCC and GCISC in building this integrated M&E platform in monitoring and reporting its progresses on adaptation actions and to get require support from international funding channels to deal with climate change issues. He particularly thanked MoCC and Arif Goheer from GCISC for their continuous collaboration in leading the development of this M&E adaptation system with CITEPA. Baptiste also informed the participants about GIZ forthcoming “Strengthening Climate Adaptation and Resilience (SAR) project to be implemented in Pakistan with particular focus on climate risk assessments and integration of climate change into policy and planning processes including further strengthening M&E adaptation while developing the capacity of relevant stakeholders across Pakistan. Pr
Wednesday, 24 November, 2021 | ISLAMABAD
10 FOREIGN NEWS
KaShmir’S vaniShing newSpaper archiveS SRINAGAR
Former South Korean military dictator chun Doo-hwan dies at 90 SEOUL ReuteRs
Former South Korean President Chun Doo-hwan, whose iron-fisted rule of the country following a 1979 military coup sparked massive democracy protests, died on Tuesday at the age of 90, his former press aide said. A former military commander, Chun presided over the 1980 Gwangju army massacre of pro-democracy demonstrators, a crime for which he was later convicted and received a commuted death sentence. Chun passed away at his Seoul home early in the morning and his body was moved to a hospital for a funeral later in the day. He was suffering from multiple myeloma, a blood cancer which was in remission, and his health had deteriorated recently, his former press secretary Min Chung-ki told reporters. President Moon Jae-in’s office offered condolences to Chun’s family but expressed regret over his failure to reveal the truth and provide apologies. It had no plan to send flowers or an official to his funeral home, Moon’s spokeswoman said. Chun’s death came about a month after coup co-conspirator and succeeding President Roh Tae-woo, who played a crucial but controversial role in the country’s troubled transition to democracy, died at age 88.
afghans ‘marry off’ baby girls for dowries as starvation looms
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AAkAsh hAssAn
N a long-troubled region of India, articles critical of the national government are being erased from the websites of local news outlets. Journalists believe that pressure from New Delhi is to blame On a summer day, at his home in Srinagar, journalist Hilal Mir was sitting with his laptop, researching an article. He was looking for a news story that he had written for the local newspaper Kashmir Reader back in 2016, but multiple Google searches failed to turn up the report. Mir went directly to the paper’s website and typed the headline in its search field. A message saying “No results found” popped up on the page. He then looked for his own author page, but it, too, had disappeared. In 2014, Mir was hired as the editor of the Kashmir Reader and had held the position until 2018, so was puzzled to find four years’ worth of his written work missing from the website. Growing increasingly curious, he looked for the author pages of former colleagues, but could not find them, either. Then, searching for the bylines of people who continue to work for the paper, he discovered that, while their latest articles were available, nothing dated back further than October 2019. He began to wonder whether it was a glitch in the system, or something more sinister. It turns out that Mir, 46, is just one of dozens of reporters in Kashmir whose work has disappeared from the websites of local newspapers. Many reporters and editors now tell stories of publications deliberately erasing their work or removing it from public display, following what they believe to be mounting pressure from the Indian government to limit coverage critical of its actions in the territory.
Kashmir is a disputed Himalayan region nestled between India, Pakistan and China. While both India and Pakistan have claimed the territory in full since Partition in 1947, all three countries hold portions of it. The major part, however, is under Indian administration, as the union territories of Jammu & Kashmir and Ladakh. A popular rebellion against New Delhi’s rule has been underway for the past 74 years, during which time India and Pakistan have fought three wars of ownership. Among the longdiscussed options for Kashmir’s future, merging with Pakistan and independence are the two most popular choices with people who live there, both of which the Indian government continues to resist vehemently. For visiting journalists, Kashmir, surrounded by snow-covered mountains and filled with scenic lakes, has long provided a story of loss, pain and dangerously escalating tensions between hawkish nuclear powers. Local reporters like Mir, however, have spent years documenting the struggles of daily life there, from ground zero and with unmatched depth. Their work forms a vital record of wide-ranging human rights violations linked to the Indian armed forces, in-
AFP Economic sanctions are causing massive suffering in crisis-wracked Afghanistan, a top Red Cross official said on Monday, describing the situation as “infuriating”. “I am livid,” Dominik Stillhart, operations director at the International Committee of the Red Cross, said in a statement at the end of a six-day visit to Afghanistan. “Pictures viewed from afar of bone-thin children rightly elicit gasps of horror,” he said, adding though that “when you’re standing in the paediatric ward in Kandahar’s largest hospital, looking into the empty eyes of hungry children and the anguished faces of desperate parents, the situation is absolutely infuriating.” “It’s so infuriating because this suffering is man-
made.” The United Nations has warned that around 22 million Afghans or more than half the country will face an “acute” food shortage in the winter months due to the combined effects of drought caused by global warming and an economic crisis aggravated by the Taliban takeover in August. The financial crunch was aggravated after Washington froze about $10 billion of assets held in its reserve for Kabul and deteriorated further after the World Bank and International Monetary Fund halted Afghanistan’s access to funding. Stillhardt warned that the economic sanctions “meant to punish those in power in Kabul are instead freezing millions of people across Afghanistan out of the basics they need to survive”. “The international community is turning its back as
At least 45 people killed in bus blaze in Bulgaria SOFIA AFP
At least 45 people, including a dozen minors, were killed after a bus caught fire south of the Bulgarian capital early Tuesday morning, officials said. A cause has yet to be determined but officials believe a fire broke out on board and the bus crashed into guardrails. There were no other vehicles involved in the accident, which occurred around 2:00 am (2400 GMT) on a highway about 40 kilometres (26 miles) from Sofia, near the village of Bosnek. “Of the victims […] 12 in total were under the age of 18,” national police chief Stanimir Stanev said. He told bTV television that 45 of the 52 people on the bus were killed. Nikolay Nikolov, head of the Fire Safety and Civil Protection department at the interior ministry, told public broadcaster BNT that “seven passengers survived”. They were taken to a hospital in the capital with serious burns, he added. According to bTV, the bus was travelling from Turkey’s main city of Istan-
The article was originally published in Coda.
Red Cross says Afghanistan sanctions behind ‘infuriating’ suffering
REUTERS Jobless and engulfed in debt, Afghan brick kiln worker Fazal said the country’s imploding economy had left him with a stark choice — marry off his young daughters or risk the family starving to death. Last month, he received a $3,000 dowry payment after handing over his 13 and 15-year-old daughters to men more than twice their age. If the money runs out, he may have to marry off his seven-year-old, he said. “I had no other way to feed my family and pay off my debt. What else could I have done?” he told the Thomson Reuters Foundation from the Afghan capital, Kabul. “I desperately hope I won’t have to marry off my youngest daughter.” Child marriage has increased in tandem with soaring poverty since the Taliban seized power 100 days ago on August 15, with reports of destitute parents even promising baby girls for future marriage in exchange for dowries, women’s rights activists said. They predicted the rate of child marriage — which was prevalent even before the Taliban’s return — could nearly double in the coming months. “It paralysed [my] heart hearing these stories … It’s not a marriage. It’s child rape,” said prominent Afghan women’s rights campaigner Wazhma Frogh. She said she was hearing of cases every day — often involving girls under 10 years of age, although it was not clear if young girls would be forced to have sex before reaching puberty. UN children’s agency Unicef said there were credible reports of families offering daughters as young as 20-days old for future marriage in return for a dowry. Crippled by drought and economic collapse, Afghanistan is set to become the world’s worst humanitarian crisis, according to UN agencies.
cluding rape, torture and the killing and disappearance of hundreds of political activists and civilians — one that many believe the government is attempting to to expunge. Rising Kashmir is one of the region’s most popular English-language dailies. Established in 2008, its office is located, along with most other Srinagar-based publications, in the crimson-painted government apartments of the city’s press enclave. According to Riz — a former editor, who asked to be referred to under a pseudonym, citing security concerns — one winter afternoon in 2019, an office manager at the paper demanded login details for its website and social media accounts from technical staff. The next day, the IT manager complained to Riz about the “unprofessional manner” in which the website had been tampered with. Riz was astonished to find that all of his previous articles had disappeared. That evening, as staff filled the newsroom for the next day’s edition, Riz and a number of his colleagues took up the issue with the paper’s editor-in-chief, Hafiz Ayaz Gani. “He told us that we were updating from our old website to a new one, which would be more interactive and user-friendly,” Riz recalled. He and his colleagues were relieved to be told that all of the deleted pieces would be back online in a few days. The website was, indeed, updated. Boasting a fresh masthead design and font, its homepage had a whole new look. But, according to Sub, another Rising Kashmir staffer, “weeks passed, and then months, but the missing data did not get updated.” “We reached out to technical staff,” Sub said. “The answer was worrying: ‘I can’t do anything. Ask the boss.’”
bul to Skopje in North Macedonia. North Macedonian Prime Minister Zoran Zaev said the victims were probably fellow Macedonians. “We don’t know if all the victims are from North Macedonia, but we assume so because the bus is registered in the
country,” he said in an interview with Nova TV. But police chief Stanev said while the two drivers of the bus were Macedonian, the passengers were Albanian. “Initial information shows that 52 people were travelling in the bus, includ-
ing two drivers with Macedonian nationality and 50 passengers with Albanian nationality,” he said. Bulgaria’s interim Prime Minister Stefan Yanev and Interior Minister Boyko Rashkov rushed to the site of the crash Tuesday morning, while local media said that the North Macedonian and Albanian premiers were also on their way. “It’s a terrifying picture in there. I haven’t seen anything like that before,” Rashkov told journalists at the site. “Nobody can say for certain how many are there and who they were. The bodies are badly burned and have to be identified one by one,” he added. Bulgaria has a history of deadly bus accidents. 17 Bulgarian tourists died in 2018 when their bus skidded on a wet road and overturned. A total of 628 people died in road accidents in 2019 and 463 in 2020 in the country of 6.9 million people, according to official data. The accidents were often attributed to poor road conditions, outdated cars and speeding.
the country teeters on the precipice of man-made catastrophe.” He cautioned that “sanctions on banking services are sending the economy into free-fall and holding up bilateral aid.” Stillhardt pointed out that municipal workers, including teachers and health staff, had not been paid in months. “They have no money to buy food; their children go hungry, get dangerously thin, and then die.” The Taliban authorities said on Saturday they had begun paying government employees, but said it would take time. But Stillhardt warned the situation was dire, amid surging levels of malnutrition. “This is a serious food crisis even before the worst of winter sets in.” Even as needs continue to soar, ICRC warned that desperately needed funding to humanitarian organisations has been jeopardised as a number of countries, suppliers and banks are fearful of running afoul of UN Security Council resolutions. “The ICRC is calling for a clear carve-out for impartial humanitarian organisations engaged in exclusively humanitarian activities,” Stillhardt said. “It is in everyone’s interest to see humanitarian activities operating smoothly in Afghanistan.” The ICRC itself is stepping up its assistance to Afghanistan. Among other things, Stillhardt said the organisation had on Monday begun supporting 18 regional and provincial hospitals and some 5,100 staff who work there. It would cover all costs and medical supplies for the next six months, ensuring they can keep running and conducting around half a million medical consultations each month.
US warship transits Taiwan Strait after Biden-Xi summit TAIPEI AFP
A US warship sailed through the strait separating Taiwan and China on Tuesday, the navy said, the first such passage since leaders from the two rival superpowers held a video summit. The passage through the Taiwan Strait by the Arleigh Burke-class guided missile destroyer USS Milius was a routine transit, the US Seventh Fleet said. The voyage, the 11th declared freedom of navigation exercise of the year, “demonstrates the US commitment to a free and open Indo-Pacific,” it said in a statement. The latest transit came after US President Joe Biden and China’s Xi Jinping traded strong warnings on the future of Taiwan at a virtual summit earlier this month. Chinese state media reported after the summit that Xi cautioned Biden that encouraging Taiwanese independence would be “playing with fire”. US warships periodically conduct exercises in the strait, often triggering angry responses from Beijing, which claims Taiwan and surrounding waters as its own territory. The US and many other countries view the route as international waters open to all.
Wednesday, 24 November, 2021 | ISLAMABAD
ICC ConfIDent all teams wIll travel to PakIstan for 2025 ChamPIons troPhy: ChaIrman
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AgeNcies
NDIA’S participation in the 2025 Champions Trophy in Pakistan is a “challenging” issue for the International Cricket Council but the world governing body said it is confident all teams will travel to the country for the tournament. International sides have largely steered clear of Pakistan since a terrorist attack on the Sri Lanka team bus in Lahore in 2009 that killed six policemen and two civilians. The 50-over tournament will be the first ICC event hosted by Pakistan since it shared the 1996 World Cup with India and Sri Lanka and last week’s announcement came as a big boost after England and New Zealand pulled out of tours there in September.
Asked if the ICC was confident teams would travel to Pakistan, chairman Greg Barclay told reporters on Monday: “From what we can see, absolutely. “We wouldn’t have awarded the event if we didn’t think Pakistan was capable of hosting it. “I’m sure, as with all countries, they will put together appropriate security plans to deliver the event. We’re comfortable and confident it will go ahead.” There were fears the decisions by New Zealand and England would again dampen the prospects of international cricket in Pakistan but Australia confirmed this month they would tour next year for the first time since 1998. The prospects of India travelling to Pakistan for the first time since the 2008 Asia Cup remain unclear, however.
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Anurag Thakur, India’s sports minister and former cricket board chief, told reporters last week security was the main concern and that the government would make the call when the time comes. India hosted Pakistan in a bilateral series in 2013 but the bitter neighbours rarely meet outside global tournaments these days. Pakistan played in India at the 2011 World Cup as well as the T20 World Cup in 2016. “We know it’s a challenging issue,” Barclay said. “From my point of view, I can’t control geo-political forces. “I just hope cricket can be a force to help improve relations between countries. One of the great things sports can do is to help bring nations together. If we can do something in a small way to contribute to that, that’s fantastic.”
Ramiz Raja dissatisfied by PCB’s NHPC, may dismiss some coaches News Desk
Dubai cricket chief offers to host ‘sporting war’, bilateral cricket series between Pakistan, India News Desk Almost a month after the arch-rivals, Pakistan-India played an ICC T20 World Cup match at the Dubai International Cricket Stadium, the Cricket Council Chairman of Dubai, Abdul Rahman Falaknaz has offered to host Pakistan-India bilateral cricket series. As per the local media, Falaknaz stated that “The best thing would be to get India-Pakistan matches here. When Sharjah used to host India and Pakistan all those years ago, it was like a war. But it was a good war, it was a sporting war and it was fantastic” Owing to political tensions, Pakistan and India haven’t played bilateral cricket series since 2013, when the Green Shirts visited India to play three T20s and two One Day Internationals. “I remember [Bollywood actor] Raj Kapoor came once with his family. During the awards night, he took the mic and said, ‘How wonderful it is to have these India-Pakistan battles in Sharjah. Cricket brings people together, cricket has brought us together and let us remain this way,’” recalled the DCC chief. “So this is what we would like to do. If we can convince India to come and play here against Pakistan once a year or twice a year, it would be fantastic.” It is to note that the T20 World Cup was staged across three venues — Sharjah, Dubai and Abu Dhabi — in the UAE while some matches of the preliminary round matches were played in Oman. The DCC chief went on to express willingness to host more Indian Premier League (IPL) matches in future by stating that “In 2014, when they shifted the IPL to the UAE due to elections, we gave them a warm reception. It all depends on the BCCI to decide what they want to do” He went on to add that “We are very friendly with them,” he said, adding that the BCCI had seen “our potential in 2014 and more this year. In 2014, they played 20 matches. Out of the 20 matches, 19 were fully sold”. “So, I would invite BCCI to come and hold their IPL matches. Even if it is part of IPL to start here and finish in India or to start in India and finish in Dubai,” he concluded.
As per sources, Pakistan Cricket Board’s (PCB) Chairman Ramiz Raja is dissatisfied the board’s National High-Performance Centre (NHPC) and may restructure it by sacking several coaches and hiring new ones in their place on merit basis. Sources further revealed that Raja had also sought ex-NHPC head Grant Bradburn’s resignation. It is pertinent to note that earlier this year, the PCB announced the resignation of Bradburn by revealing that he had done so “to pursue further coaching opportunities”. The former New Zealand cricketer, who was Pakistan’s national fielding coach
from September 2018 to June 2020 and later promoted to the head of the NHPC, had stated that he had resigned to pursue other opportunities. Bradburn stated that “My wife Maree and three children have also sacrificed a lot in allowing me to serve Pakistan cricket” while adding that “COVID-19 regulations made it challenging for them to visit Pakistan and feel the warmth, love, and friendship this country offers. It is now time for me to prioritise family and move forward to the next coaching challenge” It is pertinent to note that fielding coach Atiq-uz-Zaman is in Manchester with his family for the past two months while bowling coach Mohammad Zahid has resigned and left for England as well.
Bangladesh call up uncapped duo for Pakistan Test DHAkA AFP
Bangladesh called up uncapped batsman Mahmudul Hasan and pace bowler Rejaur Rahman in their squad for the opening Test of a two-match series against Pakistan, starting on November 26 in Chittagong. Under-19 World Cup winner Mahmudul, 21, was handed a spot in the Test squad on the back of a promising start to his first-class career which includes back-toback hundreds in the last two rounds of the National Cricket League, said chief selector Minhajul Abedin. Minhajul said 22-year-old fast bowler Rejaur, who has represented the BCB High Performance and Emerging Teams, also got the call for his strong showing in first-class cricket, where he has taken 33 wickets in 10 matches. “It is still early days for him but Mahmudul has showed good temperament for the longer version. He is also an in-form batsman,” Minhajul said in a BCB state-
ment. “With injury concerns to Taskin (Ahmed) and Shoriful (Islam), we needed to keep our pace bowling options open and Raja (Rejaur) got the nod,” he added. All-rounder Shakib Al Hasan was also included in the squad but will have his fitness assessed following a hamstring injury before being considered for the first Test, Minhajul said. The second Test will start in Dhaka on December 4. “We will obviously have to wait to see if Shakib makes it for the first Test but these players have been the most consistent performers for us in Tests and their presence can make a difference.” Pakistan won the preceding three-match T20 series 3-0. Squad: Mominul Haque (captain), Shadman Islam, Saif Hasan, Najmul Hossain, Mushfiqur Rahim, Liton Das, Nurul Hasan Sohan, Mehidy Hasan Miraz, Nayeem Hasan, Taijul Islam, Ebadot Hossain Chowdhury, Abu Jayed Chowdhury, Yasir Ali, Mahmudul Hasan, Rejaur Rahman, Shakib Al Hasan (subject to fitness)
China urges ‘certain people’ to stop ‘malicious hyping’ of tennis star Peng shuai
ReuteRs China’s foreign ministry said on Tuesday that “certain people” should stop the “malicious hyping” and “politicisation” of the issue of tennis star Peng Shuai, as foreign governments and organisations continue to raise questions around her wellbeing. The whereabouts of Peng, a former doubles world number one, became a matter of international concern for nearly three weeks after she posted a message on social media alleging that China’s former Vice-Premier Zhang Gaoli had sexually assaulted her. She re-appeared over the weekend in Beijing and held a video call with International Olympic Committee (IOC) president Thomas Bach on Sunday but the Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) has said that this did not address or alleviate concerns about her wellbeing. Amnesty International’s China researcher Alkan Akad also told Reuters the video call did little to ease fears over Peng’s wellbeing and that the IOC was entering “dangerous waters”. “This is not a diplomatic matter,” Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian told a regular press briefing on Tuesday. “I believe everyone will have seen she has recently attended some public activities and also held a video call with IOC President Bach. I hope certain people will cease malicious hyping, let alone politicisation.”
Wednesday, 24 November, 2021
prayer tiMingS
NEWS
CCP To resuMe inquirY inTo CookinG oil, Ghee seCTor ISLAMABAD
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Staff report
HE Competition Commission of Pakistan (CCP) will resume its inquiry into the spike in prices of cooking oil and ghee in 2020 after the Supreme Court of Pakistan (SCP) suspended the Islamabad High Court’s (IHC) September 14 order for quashing the investigation. On July 30, 2020, the CCP, while taking notice of an unexplained increase in the retail prices of vegetable oil and ghee, had initiated an inquiry under Sec-
tion 37 (1) of the Competition Act, 2010, to ascertain prima facie violations of Section 3 and/or Section 4 of the Act in the edible oil and ghee industry. The increase in cooking and ghee oil prices was unusual as palm oil prices, the primary raw material in its manufacturing, had witnessed a downward trend internationally during January-May last year. As per details, the inquiry team had sought information and relevant data from the industry players. However, upon non-cooperation from some companies in sharing the data, the CCP passed a ‘call
Govt to conduct inquiry against senior bureaucrat into highly objectionable comments on social media
for information’ order under Section 36 of the Act in November. On November 18, One of the companies i.e. Dalda Foods obtained a stay order from the IHC against Section 36 order for providing information to the commission. Later, the Islamabad High Court ruled in favour of the petitioner. Therefore, the commission immediately filed a leave to appeal against the order before the SCP and the case was fixed for hearing on November 22, 2021. On Tuesday, the SCP granted leave to appeal to the CCP in order to consider various important legal questions which
had come up in relation to the impugned judgment. In the meantime, the apex court also suspended the operation of the judgment of the IHC till the final decision of CCP’s appeal. Accordingly, CCP shall resume its inquiry in relation to the cooking oil and ghee industry. It should be noted that on July 8, 2021, the CCP had carried out four search inspections in the offices of the Pakistan Vanaspati Manufacturers Association (PVMA) in Islamabad, Lahore and Karachi, and impounded several documents and computer-stored information to assist in its investigation.
Rupee continues to gain ground against US dollar The rupee on Tuesday continued to gain ground against the US dollar, gaining 47 paisas or 0.27 per cent, closing at 174.30 in the inter-bank market compared with the previous closing of 174.77. Earlier, in its monetary policy statement, the central bank had addressed the issue of currency depreciation. “The rupee has depreciated by a further 3.4pc since the last MPC meeting,” it said, adding that the US dollar also appreciated against most emerging market currencies since May as expectations of tapering by the US Federal Reserve have been brought forward. “However, the fall in the value of the rupee since May has been comparatively large. As other adjustment
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The Federal government has decided to conduct an inquiry against Senior Joint Secretary Hammad Shamimi into highly objectionable comments on a social media platform. Documents state that the Prime Minister in his capacity as ‘Authority’ is pleased to appoint DG, FIA Sanaullah Abbasi as Inquiry Officer to conduct inquiry proceedings against Senior JS, Cabinet Division Hammad Shamimi. Hamad Shamimi has made highly objectionable comments on a social media platform with regard to the PTI as well as the Taliban government. “One of the similarities between the PTI and the Taliban is that they have been thinking after coming into power, how to run the government, and the center of both’ hopes is Aabpara”. Document states that the above-mentioned comments are tantamount under misconduct civil Servants (Efficiency and Discipline) Rules, 2020. Under Rule 9(1)(c) of the Rules ibid, Section Officer (D.1), Establishment Division Islamabad, is appointed as Departmental Representative to perform the functions mentioned in Rule 15 of Civil Servants (Efficiency and Discipline) Rules, 2020. The inquiry shall be conducted in accordance with the provisions contained in Rule 10 read with Rule 12 of the Civil Servants (Efficiency and Discipline) Rules, 2020 and shall be completed within sixty (60) days from the date of issuance or within such extended period which the Authority may allow. The Inquiry Officer shall submit Inquiry Report to the Authority within seven (07) days of the completion of the inquiry with clear findings as to whether the charge or charges have been proved or not proved and with specific recommendations regarding exoneration or imposition of a minor or major penalty or penalties upon the accused officer.
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Foreign loans surge 18pc in 4MFY22 The government took $3.8 billion worth of new foreign loans in the first four months of the current fiscal, up 18 per cent, as it saw a further uptick in lending by the multilateral lenders once the International Monetary Fund (IMF) obstacle was crossed in a couple of months, The Express Tribune reported on Tuesday. As per details, the government obtained $3.8 billion in gross foreign loans during the July-October period of FY22, according to the Ministry of Economic Affairs. The borrowing was higher by $580 million, or 18pc, compared with the loans taken in the same period of last fiscal year. The $3.8 billion of foreign loans did not incforeign loans did not include the borrowing made through the Naya Pakistan Certificates lude the borrowing made through the Naya Pakistan Certificates at up to 7pc interest in dollar terms for only one year. Official statistics showed that bilateral lending to Pakistan almost dried up in the current fiscal year, standing at a mere $77.4 million so far for project financing. An amount of $866 million was received in foreign commercial loans during the first four months of current fiscal year. Monitoring report
Contrary to media claims, no TTP prisoner released so far ISLAMABAD
tools normalise, including interest rates and fiscal policy, pressures on
ISLAMABAD Staff report
Prime Minister Imran Khan approved the appointment of Senator Ayub Afridi as his advisor on Pakistan nationals living abroad on Tuesday hours after the latter submitted his resignation as a member of the Upper House of Parliament. The office was held by Zulfi Bukhari before he resigned in May over the allegations levelled against him in the Rawalpindi Ring Road project scandal. Reports citing sources claim Afridi stepped down to pave the way for the election of Minister for Finance Shaukat Tarin as a senator from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa on a general seat. Tarin was appointed Minister for Finance for a period of six months on April 17. He needed to be elected to the either House of Parliament in order to continue in his post for longer than the six-month period after his appointment. But that did not happen and, in October, he was, instead, appointed as adviser to the prime minister on finance and revenue. Tarin until now was the fourth adviser to the prime
the rupee should abate,” the central bank maintained. Monitoring report
minister after Mirza Shahzad Akbar, Abdul Razak Dawood and Babar Awan. The government had earlier planned to get Tarin elected from Punjab against the seat of Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) leader Ishaq Dar that has virtually remained vacant in his absence. Dar was elected in 2018 in absentia has not taken oath because of his selfexile in the United Kingdom since 2017. The first priority was to get Tarin elected on Dar’s seat, but a second plan was also in place to get a Senate seat vacated from KP for his election because of some legal uncertainties. The government feared that Tarin’s election on Dar’s seat could be challenged in courts and stayed. A cousin of estranged Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) leader Jahangir Tareen, Tarin also headed the finance division in the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) government, was the fourth finance minister appointed by Prime Minister Khan after Asad Umar, Abdul Hafeez Shaikh and Hammad Azhar had been given the portfolio. As an adviser to the prime minister, Tarin isn’t able to chair meetings of cabinet committees in view of an Islamabad High Court (IHC) judgement.
The banned Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) has said that the talks have not yet started and hence no TTP prisoner has been released as yet. The remarks came in the wake of media reports that the government had released over 100 TTP prisoners as a goodwill gesture in the wake of the ceasefire announced by the militant group. “Media reports about the release of 100 TTP’s prisoners are not true. However, the TTP fully honours the ceasefire agreement,” TTP spokesperson Mohammad Khorasani told media. “The negotiation teams have not yet sat on the table so reports about conditions and demands are premature,” Khorasani added. Meanwhile, security officials too denied the release of any TTP prisoners. “I can confirm that no one has been freed so far,” an official familiar with the negotiations process said. “Nothing so far,” another security official said summarily on the topic. Information Minister Fawad Chaudhry, when reached for comment, said he has contacted the “relevant people” and will revert soon. Earlier this month, Chaudhry had confirmed for the first time that a ceasefire had been reached with the TTP, saying that talks were under way “in line with the Constitution” and the ceasefire could be extended keeping in view the progress made in the talks. The same day, a statement issued by TTP spokesman Mohammad Khurasani had confirmed the temporary truce, adding that it would be effective for a month, from November 9 till December 9. The announcement had come a little over a month after Prime Minister Imran Khan had stated that the government was in talks with some TTP groups, seeking a reconciliation. “There are different groups which form the TTP and some of them want to talk to our government for peace. So, we are in talks with them. It’s a reconciliation process,” the premier had said during an interview with TRT World. Two days after the ceasefire agreement, however, National Security Adviser Moeed Yusuf had clarified that that no decision had been taken yet to grant amnesty to members of the TTP, emphasising that the state was “very clear and sensitive” on the issue. Responding to questions about the truce deal in an interview, the NSA had said the government was aware that agreements with the TTP in the past had not held, adding that at the present stage, talks were being held and the government would see if the TTP was serious.
Moscow says US rehearsed nuclear strike against Russia this month MOSCOW Russia’s defence minister on Tuesday accused US bombers of rehearsing a nuclear strike on Russia from two different directions earlier this month and complained that the planes had come within 20 km (12.4 miles) of the Russian border. The accusation comes at a time of high tension between Washington and Moscow over Ukraine, with US officials voicing concerns about a possible Russian attack on its southern neighbour – a suggestion the Kremlin has dismissed as false. Moscow has in turn accused the United States, NATO and Ukraine of provocative and irresponsible behaviour, pointing to US arms supplies to Ukraine, Ukraine’s use of Turkish strike drones against Russian-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine, and NATO military exercises close to its borders. Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu said that
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Afridi resigns from Senate to pave way for Tarin’s election
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Moscow had noted a significant increase in the activity by US strategic bombers which he said had carried out 30 flights close to Russia this month. That, he said, was 2.5 times more than the same period last year. Shoigu complained in particular of what he said was a simulated US nuclear strike against Russia earlier this month. “The defence minister underlined that during the US military exercises ‘Global Thunder’, 10 American strategic bombers rehearsed launching nuclear weapons against Russia from the western and eastern directions,” Shoigu was quoted as saying in a defence ministry statement. “The minimum proximity to our state border was 20 km.” Shoigu was quoted as saying that Russian air defence units had spotted and tracked the US strategic bombers and taken unspecified measures to avoid any incidents. Global Thunder, which this year put US nuclearcapable B-52 bombers through their paces, is the US
Strategic Command’s annual nuclear and command exercise designed to test and demonstrate the readiness of US nuclear capabilities. President Vladimir Putin referenced the apparent episode briefly last week, complaining of Western strategic bombers carrying “very serious weapons” close to Russia. He said the West was taking Moscow’s warnings not to cross its “red lines” too lightly. Shoigu made the comments in a video conference with Chinese Defence Minister Wei Fenghe. He said that US bomber flights close to Russia’s eastern borders were also a threat to China. “Against this backdrop, Russo-Chinese coordination is becoming a stabilising factor in world affairs,” said Shoigu. Russia and China agreed at the meeting to step up cooperation between their armed forces when it came to strategic military exercises and joint patrols, the defence ministry said.
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