Thursday, 14 January, 2021 I 29 Jumada Al-Awwal, 1442 I Rs 15.00 I Vol XI No 196 I 12 Pages I Karachi Edition
Broadsheet's money laundering revelation 'tip of iceBerg': pm imran
ISLAMABAD
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sTAFF RePORT
day after the government announced a ministerial probe into the claims of money laundering on a massive scale made by the chief of a United Kingdom-based asset recovery firm, Prime Minister Imran on Wednesday termed the revelations as "tip of the iceberg". Broadsheet LLC, registered in the Isle of Man, was hired in 2000 by the government of President Pervez Musharraf to track down foreign assets acquired by the country's political elite, including the Sharif family, through alleged ill-gotten wealth. Last week, an interview of nowdefunct firm's chief executive officer (CEO) Kaveh Moussavi accusing deposed prime minister Nawaz Sharif of
approaching him through a frontman with a bribe to drop the probe into his foreign assets made a splash in the media. In a series of tweets, Prime Minister Imran said that the same elite had earlier been exposed by the 2016 Panama Papers. "Now Broadsheet revelations have again exposed the massive scale of our ruling elites corruption & money laundering," he said and added: "These elites cannot hide behind the 'victimisation' card on these international revelations". The premier noted that the revelations exposed what he had been saying in his "24-year fight against corruption" which he said was "the biggest threat to the country's progress". "These elites come to power & plunder the country. They do money laundering to stash their ill-gotten gains
abroad, safe from domestic prosecution. Then they use their political clout to get NROs." he said. "That is how they kept their plundered wealth safe." Imran further noted that as a consequence [of this plunder of public coffers], the nation suffered. "Not only is the nation's wealth stolen by the elites, taxpayer money, paid for recovering this wealth, is wasted because of NROs. These revelations [are the] tip of the iceberg," he said, demanding "complete transparency from Broadsheet on our elites' money laundering and on who stopped investigations". The tweets come days after Moussavi, during an interview with a UK-based web channel of a Pakistan national, claimed of being in possession of evidence of money laundering by some other Pakistan nationals while accusing Sharif of exerting influence on the accountability process. During a press conference Tuesday, Minister for Information and Broadcast Senator Shibli Faraz said that Moussavi's claims had validated Prime Minister Imran's longstanding belief of previous “corrupt” rulers looting the country. Faraz further said that the government hoped to share the committee’s findings into the claims with the public soon. The committee, he said, would look into how the country’s wealth was looted, as well as whether a cousin of Sharif [Anjum Dar] had tried to get the assets recovery firm to stop its probe into his accounts. “We don’t deal with crooks,” the information minister quoted Moussavi as saying. He also reiterated Moussavi’s claim that a list of 200 names had been given to the firm for investigation, but it was subsequently slashed without explanation.
COAS assures justice to families of Mach massacre victims Chief of Army Staff (COAS) General Qamar Javed Bajwa on Wednesday met the families of the victims of Mach massacre and said that the perpetrators of the killings “shall be brought to justice”. On January 3, 11 miners belonging to the Shia Hazara community were brutally massacred in the Mach coalfield area. Armed assailants had entered their residential compound early in the morning where they were sleeping, and blindfolded and trussed them up before executing them. The attack was later claimed by militant Islamic State (IS) group. Relatives and residents started a protest against the killings on the same day, arranging the miners’ coffins on the Western Bypass on the outskirts of Quetta and refusing to bury them in a symbolic gesture until the prime minister’s visit and assurance of protection. The protests later spread to other parts of the country, including Peshawar, Lahore and Karachi, where demonstrators blocked several important roads, disrupting traffic. After a deadlock lasting for nearly a week, talks succeeded between the protesters and the government, leading to the end of the protests and burial of the miners on Saturday. During the day-long visit, the chief of army staff was given a detailed security briefing at the Southern Command headquarters and interacted with a large gathering of the Hazara
community, an Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) statement said. The army chief was apprised during the briefing about the prevailing security challenges in the province and the measures taken to deal with them, including border management along the Pak- Afghan and Pak-Iran borders. Gen Bajwa spent time with the bereaved families of the Mach incident’s victims and shared their grief. He “assured them that perpetrators of this heinous incident shall be brought to justice and blood of the martyrs will not go waste”, the military’s media wing said. Later, while addressing the garrison officers, the COAS appreciated their preparedness and efforts for ensuring peace and stability in Balochistan “despite difficulties of terrain and distances involved”. “Balochistan is in sharp focus of our enemies due to its strategic potential,” Gen Bajwa was quoted as saying on the occasion. He said that Balochistan was the future of Pakistan and progress and prosperity of the province was linked to progress of the country. “The disruptive efforts by hostile forces won’t be allowed to succeed,” the army chief emphasised, saying the security, stability and prosperity of Balochistan will be ensured “to the hilt”. Earlier, on arrival in Quetta, Gen Bajwa was received by Commander Southern Command Lt Gen Sarfraz Ali. news desk
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Thursday, 14 January, 2021
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Premier voWs justice to Family oF usama satti INQUIRY REPORT REVEALS SATTI WAS DELIBERATELY SHOT FROM ALL DIRECTIONS ISLAMABAD
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RIME Minister Imran Khan on Wednesday vowed to the family of Usama Satti that the slain student would be provided with swift justice. The premier expressed deep sorrow over the tragic incident and assured the father of the deceased of full justice, said the Prime Minister's Office (PMO). It is pertinent to mention that the Islamabad additional deputy commissioner carried out a judicial inquiry into the killing, which revealed that the student had been "shot from all directions and his death was not a mere accident". According to the report, Satti had been shot by different officers from multiple directions, indicated a premeditated intent to kill him. Moreover, the news of
his demise had been "deliberately hidden from his family for four hours" in an attempt to hide the homicide. The shell casing from the incident were recovered after 72 hours, and the officers did not take pictures of the crime scene, the report said. The officers who had later reached the scene attempt to tamper with the evidence, it added. The report also clarified that the Satti had not been involved in any sort of criminal activities. "The officers tried to turn the incident into a dacoity case and kept senior officials in the dark," the report revealed, adding that "Rescue 1122 personnel trying to reach the site of the incident were repeatedly provided with the wrong location details." Satti, 21, was killed on January 2 after police opened fire at his vehicle for not stopping despite repeated signals and a long car pursuit. The shots, police said, were instead received by
ATC EXTENDS REMAND OF POLICEMEN IN ISLAMABAD YOUTH MURDER CASE Nadeem who died on the spot. Earlier, an anti-terrorism court (ATC) in Islamabad on Wednesday extended the physical remand of the five Counter-Terrorism Department (CTD) officials in connection with the extra-judicial murder of a young man. The day after Satti's demise, a judicial magistrate in Islamabad approved a three-day physical remand of the policemen. The accused were presented before the court as ATC judge Raja Jawad Abbas resumed the hearing. The investigation officer in the case sought to extend the remand period by five days. He sought custody of the suspects to record their statement under Section 364 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC). Accepting his request, the court granted a five-day extension in the remand. During the hearing, the judge asked the IO about the progress thus far made in the investigation, to which the
Federal govt, PDM finalise respective strategies for January 19 rally
latter replied that the accused have confessed to the crime. He quoted the accused as saying that an innocent man "lost his life because of their fault". The case was registered under section 7 of the AntiTerrorism Act, 1997, and sections 302, 148, and 149 of the Pakistan Penal Code (PPC). In the first information report (FIR), lodged on the complaint of the victim’s father, Nadeem Satti, it was claimed the youth was killed after “proper planning” which was an act of terrorism. Nadeem said that his son had a quarrel with officials of Islamabad police a day earlier following which they had threatened him with dire consequences. On January 2, at around 2:00 am, Nadeem had gone to drop his friend in H-11. When he was returning, the police officials intercepted his car, the FIR said, adding that they then fired at him from all sides, which resulted in his death.
Killers of cop on polio duty arrested: KP police chief PESHAWAR STAFF REPORT
ISLAMABAD
PM IMRAN DIRECTS INTERIOR MINISTER TO ALLOW PDM RALLIES IN RED ZONE
MIAN ABRAR
The federal government and the opposition alliance of Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) have started to finalise their respective preparations for the upcoming rally of the alliance outside the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) at Constitution Avenue. It merits mentioning that the PDM had announced that it would hold a rally outside the ECP to pressurise the ECP for an early decision on the foreign funding case of the ruling Pakistan Tehreek-eInsaf (PTI) on January 19. PDM has also announced it will protest in front of National Accountability Bureau (NAB) office in reaction to the anti-graft body having summoned PDM President Maulana Fazlur Rehman in an
TASKS RASHEED TO ENSURE MADRASSA STUDENTS DON’T ATTEND RALLY assets beyond income case. Sources in the opposition informed Pakistan Today that the three major parties of the PDM – the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) and Jamiat Ulemae-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) – have so far failed to formulate a strategy to gather their workers outside the ECP. The sources said that, in the current situation, the PDM will not be able to hold any major power show outside the ECP and may therein provide the government with an opportunity to criticise the
'We will not accept the supremacy of institutions in the country,' says Fazl NEWS DESK Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam (JUI-F) Chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman on Wednesday said that the goal of the opposition is to bring about the rule of the public and the "supremacy of the Constitution in the country”. While addressing a Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) gathering in Loralai, Balochistan, the JUI-F chief said: "Now, we will not accept the supremacy of institutions in the country, now there will be a rule of the public.” The PDM president claimed that the public was exhausted by the incumbent government constantly blaming others and calling the members of other parties as "thieves". “This government has doomed the economy. The poor are unable to afford edible items. They have lost their power of purchasing. Mothers are selling their children in the market. Parents are unable to feed their children and are throwing them into canals,” Fazl added. “We reject this rigged government. Our fight is for the independence of the parliament, implementation of the law, and restoration of democracy in Pakistan," he maintained, claiming that all opposition parties and the public were on one page through the platform of the PDM. These claims of unity come one day after another JUI-F leader left the Fazl-led party. Former forest minister Ibrar Hussain Talon had announced during a public meeting in Khatain Da Galla area that he had parted ways with the JUI-F, and had said that he would face the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) in the upcoming elections. “I quit the JUI-F in front of you all and proudly announce that I will face the PML-N candidates in the upcoming elections anywhere in Mansehra district,” he had said. The former minister had said that the JUI-F along with the PMLN was working against the ‘national interest’ and he could not be part of such a party.
opposition. On the other hand, the federal government decided to allow the PDM to protest in front of the Election Commission. The premier, while chairing a high-level meeting on law and order situation, said that PDM should be allowed to protest in front of the Election Commission and no obstacle should be put in its way. PM Imran also directed the interior minister to provide fool-proof security to the protesters. He further said that no one should be allowed to create law and order situation
in the Red Zone. During the meeting, PM Imran also tasked Interior Minister Sheikh Rasheed Ahmed with ensuring that the madrassa students are not able to attend the PDM meeting. After receiving instructions from the premier in this regard, the interior minister has convened an important meeting with senior clerics to develop a strategy and fulfil the task. The meeting with religious scholars will be held on Thursday, the sources said. Moreover, the meeting will also take the scholars into confidence regarding the government's priorities.
Technical working groups constituted for development plan in GB ISLAMABAD GHULAM ABBAS
The federal government and government of Gilgit-Baltistan (GB) have constituted joint technical working groups on Wednesday for the speedy implementation of proposed development projects in GB. The technical working groups would comprise relevant chiefs from the Ministry of Planning, Development & Special Initiatives (PD&SI) and GB officers. The committee, headed by GB Chief Minister Khalid Khurshid, would monitor the preparation and implementation of the development plan. This was decided during an inaugural meeting for preparation of an integrated plan for development of GB, which was jointly chaired by Federal Minister for Planning, Development & Special Initiatives Asad Umar and CM Khurshid. Deputy chairman planning commission, the planning Secretary, GB chief secretary and other senior officials attended the meeting. According to one of the officials, the development needs of GB have been neglected for a long time. He said that the federal government and GB administration would work together for the aforementioned integrated development plan. He also directed the relevant departments to work together to identify potential projects in the
public sector, as well as potential public-private partnerships. The GB CM said that the initiative taken by Asad is the first of its kind for GB and it would greatly benefit the people of the area. He further said that all the potential sectors should be included in this development package and it should be ensured that all projects are completed on time. Planning Secretary Mathar Niaz Rana presented the overarching mandate of the development plan as well as a lost of prioritised projects. The secretary stated that the Ministry of Planning had already finalised the Karachi Transformation Plan (KTP) and had integrated a development plan for Southern Balochistan under the directions of Prime Minister Imran Khan. The GB development plan will be a continuation of the same process, he said, adding that the priority areas being considered fall in all sectors, including clean energy, infrastructure, tourism, hospitals management, and gems & minerals. Moreover, other priority sectors which are being looked at include small industry manufacturing, private sector development, commerce and border markets, e-commerce, dry ports, nursing, social welfare, poverty alleviation, women & youth development, education, agriculture livestock & fisheries, and IT & telecommunications.
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) police chief Dr Sanaullah Abbasi on Wednesday said the police have arrested the killers of the policeman gunned down in Karak district of the province a day earlier. Constable Junaidullah Khan was on security duty with a polio vaccination team in the remote town of Latumbar when attackers riding a motorbike opened fire on them. As a result, Khan was killed on the spot. A local police official, speaking on condition of anonymity said the attack took place at 10:10 am. “Our constable Junaidullah was on polio security duty […] in the area of Latumbar. The attackers came on motorcycles and opened fire on him, and the polio vaccination team was in the van,” said the official. No one else was hurt in the attack, and the vaccination drive continues in the area. Abbasi said that immediately after the incident, he contacted a deputy inspector general (DIG) of police to trace the attackers. KP will soon become a polio-free province, Abbasi vowed and said all security arrangements have been made to conduct the campaign in a peaceful manner. The first nationwide polio vaccination drive of the year began on Monday to immunise some 40 million children under the age of five against the crippling disease with a focus on high-risk cities including Karachi and Quetta. The five-day campaign involves 285,000 health workers who while observing coronavirus-related standard operating procedures (SOPs) are going door-to-door to vaccinate children. According to a statement, during the drive, the trained polio frontline workers will reach every child with essential polio vaccine while adhering to strict health guidelines such as wearing a mask, using hand sanitiser, and maintaining the minimum distance advised during the campaign. Pakistan is one of the two polio-endemic countries in the world along with Afghanistan. The country is facing a challenging situation in polio eradication with the upsurge in the number of polio cases. In 2020, 83 polio cases were reported across the country, including 24 from Balochistan, 22 each from KP and Sindh, and 14 from Punjab. The government’s efforts to rid the country of polio have lately suffered setbacks due to attacks on vaccinators and police personnel guarding them. The deadly violence is also cited as a factor for the upsurge in new cases that had dropped to only 12 cases in 2018. Strict security measures had been taken for the campaign and personnel of Balochistan Levies force, police and Frontier Corps (FC) would move with all teams of vaccinations. In traditionally conservative parts of the country, many see the vaccine as a Western-led conspiracy to sterilise children. To deal with the situation, religious scholars, tribal elders and other people who have influence in their areas would motivate parents to get their children vaccinated.
Thursday, 14 January, 2021
NEWS
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PAkistAn-turkey-AzerbAijAn resolve to Promote cooPerAtion After second trilAterAl meet ISLAMABAD
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AKISTAN, Turkey and Azerbaijan, in the second trilateral meeting between the countries on Wednesday, expressed determination to continue cooperation to promote peace, stability, and development in the region. Addressing at a joint press conference of the foreign ministers of the three countries after concluding the second trilateral meeting of the forum in Islamabad, Shah Mahmood Qureshi said that Pakistan enjoys cordial and brotherly relations with Turkey and Azerbaijan. He said that a host of topics, including trade, investment, security, connectivity, and strategic cooperation, came under discussion during the meeting. The FM added that the trilateral meeting also discussed global and regional security environment, crimes against Muslim minority in various countries, the challenges of
growing Islamophobia and Covid-19 pandemic. “We want to enhance [our] linkages through parliamentary exchanges, enhanced media interaction and collaboration between our think tanks, artists and tourists,” Qureshi said. Qureshi told media persons that the foreign ministers exchanged views on enhancing cooperation in the field of energy, environment and people to people contacts. He added that a special emphasis was placed on increasing parliamentary and media exchanges among the three countries for better understanding and harmony. On the occasion, Qureshi thanked his Turkish and Azerbaijan counterparts for their support on the Kashmir dispute. He explained that, during the meeting, the gross human rights violations in the Indian Occupied Kashmir (IOK), the prolonged military siege in occupied Kashmir and India’s unilateral actions to change demography of the area were also discussed. Talking about Nagorno-Karabakh issue, the foreign
minister called for resolution of this dispute peacefully. He said that Pakistan believes that all regional and global issues should be resolved through peaceful means and in light of the relevant international laws. Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said that Pakistan has unique space in the hearts of the people of Turkey. He maintained that both countries support each other through difficult times. The Turkish FM told the media that the current trade volume between the two countries is $800 million, stating that this is far below than the real potential of the two countries. This volume needs to be enhanced, he said. He further said that over 100 Turkish companies are currently working in Pakistan in diverse fields. We are encouraging more companies to come and invest in Pakistan, he added. He informed the media that both countries are cooperating in the sector of defence production. Cavusoglu extended his country’s full support to the
PM calls for robust economic partnership between Pakistan and Turkey ISLAMABAD STAFF REPORT
Reaffirming the exceptional nature of Pakistan-Turkey political relationship, Prime Minister Imran Khan has stressed the importance of transforming it into a robust economic partnership. The prime minister was talking to Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu, who called on him on Wednesday. During the meeting, Pakistan-Turkey bilateral relations and regional and international issues were discussed. The shared resolve on both sides to further upgrade trade, investment, defence, educational and cultural cooperation was reaffirmed. He emphasised the importance of working to combat Islamophobia and promote better understanding of the reverence Muslims have for Holy Prophet (Peace Be Upon Him). The prime minister thanked Turkey for its steadfast support on the Jammu & Kashmir dispute and highlighted the detrimental Indian actions posing a threat to peace and security. In the regional context, he underscored the importance
Alvi confers HilAl-i-PAkistAn on turkisH foreign minister ISLAMABAD STAFF REPORT
President Dr Arif Alvi Wednesday conferred Hilal-i-Pakistan (Crescent of Pakistan), the country’s second-highest civil award, on Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu in recognition of his services for international peace and security and strengthening of bilateral ties. The ceremony was held at President House, Islamabad, Radio Pakistan reported. Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi, Minister for Information and Broadcast Senator Shibli Faraz, diplomats and senior officials were in attendance. Reading out the citation, Cabinet Division Secretary Ahmed Nawaz Sukhera recounted the services of the top Turkish diplomat for enriching the bilateral ties. He further said, in his capacity as Turkish foreign minister, Cavusoglu had taken various initiatives to promote durable peace and security. Moreover, he also played a vital role in strengthening brotherly ties between Islamabad and Ankara and its transformation into a strategic partnership. After the investiture, Cavusoglu also introduced two renowned Turkish actors including Nurettin Sönmez, known for his role as Bamsi Beyrek in Ertugrul and Ayberk Pekcan, who played Artuk Bey. Pakistan attached to a peaceful solution of the conflict in Afghanistan. In this regard, he highlighted Pakistan’s positive contribution to the Afghan peace process
At un, Pakistan calls for outlawing 'violent nationalist' rss ISLAMABAD STAFF REPORT
In an action plan laid out before the United Nations Security Council (UNSC), Pakistan called for the proscribing of hyper-nationalist groups including Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) — the parent body of India's hardline ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) — posing "a clear [...] danger to regional and international peace and security". Addressing the 15-member Security Council on Tuesday, Islamabad's permanent ambassador to the UN Munir Akram suggested to outlaw "violent extremist supremacist groups" like other terrorist outfits. “Such violent racist and extremist terrorism will inevitably breed counter-violence and validate the dystopian narrative of terrorist organisations such as ISIS/Daesh and Al-Qaeda," Akram said. Referring to Hindutva, the ideology of militant Hindu nationalism, followed by Indian prime minister Narendra Modi and his BJP, Akram warned the hardline idealogy threatened India's 200million strong Muslim population. Akram further called for immediate steps to curb the rise of violent nationalism, proposing the following measures: calling on states to designate acts of violent nationalist groups, including white supremacists and other racially and ethnically motivated groups, as terrorism, just as the world has done in case of Al-Qaeda/ISIS and their affiliated groups. He also suggested initiating immediate domestic actions to prevent the propagation of their violent ideologies, recruitment to and financing of these groups in addition to requesting the secretary general, António Guterres, to present a plan of action to confront and defeat nationalist groups' extremist ideologies and actions. The proposal also called for the expansion of the mandate of the 1267 Sanctions Committee to include nationalist terrorist groups like the RSS. Akram also called upon the body to "address certain neglected manifestations of terrorism, one of which is the phenomenon of ‘state terrorism’", citing the situation in occupied Kashmir where Indian forces "are perpetrating war crimes, crimes against
and the imperative for all Afghan stakeholders to work for bringing down violence leading to ceasefire and securing an inclusive and broad-based political
settlement. It was agreed to maintain highlevel exchanges and further build Pakistan-Turkey strategic relationship to the mutual benefit of the two countries and peoples. Earlier, Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi met with his Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu in Islamabad and the two discussed the rise of Islamophobia, a statement from the Foreign Office (FO) said. They stressed for joint efforts to protect the Islamic values. FM Qureshi also apprised his Turkish counterpart about the prevailing situation in Indian Occupied Kashmir (IOK). He thanked Turkey for its unwavering support to Pakistan on Kashmir dispute. On the occasion, Cavusoglu remarked that Pakistan is like a second home for the people of Turkey. They also spoke about matters of mutual interests in order to further strengthen the bilateral relations between the two countries. Qureshi and his Turkish counterpart agreed upon the need for a prompt implementation of the Pakistan-Turkey Strategic Economic Framework (PTEF),
people of IOK and called for resolution of the Kashmir dispute in accordance with the relevant United Nation Security Council (UNSC) resolutions. “We express our full support with Kashmiri brothers in the face of worsening human rights situation and demographic change especially during the last two years,” the Turkish foreign minister said. Azerbaijan’s Foreign Minister Jeyhun Bayramov also condemned terrorism and rejected Islamophobia. He expressed the resolve to continue the cooperation and development regional peace. He also thanked Pakistan and Turkey for extending their full support during the second war for the liberation of Nagorno-Karabakh. “They raised their voices in the international arena to restore justice and we highly appreciate this principled position by Turkey and Pakistan,” he said. Islamabad Declaration was signed on the conclusion of the second round of trilateral meeting of the foreign ministers of the three countries.
55 more die of covid-19; 13,053 health workers infected so far ISLAMABAD: The coronavirus pandemic claimed 55 more lives during the last twentyfour hours in the country, said the National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC) on Wednesday. According to the NCOC, as many as 2,123 new cases of the coronavirus were reported over the previous 24 hours after 39,450 samples were tested. The total number of confirmed Covid-19 cases in the country has soared to 508,824 with addition of the fresh infections while the countrywide death toll jumped to 10,772. There are a total of 33,102 active cases, out of which 2,366 have been termed critical. The number of patients recovered from the disease stands at 464,950. Punjab recorded the maximum number of deaths on Tuesday. According to Punjab's healthcare department, the province recorded 509 new cases of coronavirus on Tuesday and 24 more fatalities. The fresh cases have taken the province's tally for confirmed cases to 146,525, whereas the death toll now stands at 4,323. As many as 130,912 people have recovered from the virus in Punjab. Since the Covid-19 outbreak began last year in February, Sindh has reported a total of 228,949 infections, Punjab 146,525, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) 62,018, Balochistan 18,467, Islamabad 39,462, Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) 8,521, and Gilgit-Baltistan (GB) 4,882. TLTP
Moody's maintains stable outlook for Pakistan banks NEWS DESK Rating agency Moody’s said on Wednesday the Pakistani government’s credit profile was stable on the back of reforms and policy effectiveness, adding that the country’s banking system reflected banks’ solid funding and liquidity, although a challenging operating environment would weigh on asset quality and profitability. Moody’s published its outlook on the Pakistan Banking System titled, “Banking System Outlook – Pakistan: Stable outlook balances loan book and profitability pressure against stable funding and a resilient sovereign.” “Despite a difficult environment, the government’s credit profile is stable due to ongoing reforms and
increasing policy effectiveness – a positive for the banks given their outsized holdings of Pakistani government debt link their credit profiles to that of the government,” said Constantinos Kypreos, a Moody’s Senior Vice President. “Deposit-based funding and good liquidity buffers also remain strengths, while the probability of government support in a crisis is high, even if its ability to do so is limited by fiscal challenges.” The report said restrictions in place to contain the spread of the coronavirus would keep economic activity below pre-outbreak levels but the Pakistani economy was expected to return to modest growth of 1.5pc in fiscal 2021. “Government and central bank policy responses and structural reforms will soften the pandemic’s impact but not fully offset it,” the report
said. “In this environment, we expect private-sector lending to grow modestly, by 5pc-7pc, over the calendar year.” Nonperforming loans (NPLs) would rise from a sector-wide level of 9.9pc of gross loans at September 2020 as the economic slowdown took a toll on borrowers’ repayment capabilities, the report said. Banks’ foreign operations, exportoriented industries and companies that depend on government payments and subsidies would be hit hardest. Loan repayment holidays and other support measures would contain the deterioration, but not eliminate the risks entirely. Banks’ heavy exposure to government bonds would also continue to link banks’ credit profiles with the fiscal strength of the government.
SHC issues contempt notices to chief secretary, others in Daniel Pearl case KARACHI STAFF REPORT
The Sindh High Court (SHC) on Wednesday served contempt notices to the provincial chief and home secretaries in a petition seeking to initiate contempt proceedings against the officials for blocking the release of four suspects in the Daniel Pearl murder case despite a court order. In April 2020, the high court overturned the murder conviction of principal suspect Ahmed Omer Saeed Sheikh while acquitting Fahad Naseem, Salman Saqib and Sheikh Adil. However, following the court verdict, the Sindh government placed them under 90-day detention under the Maintenance of Public Order. Subsequently, on July 1, a fresh
notification under the Anti-Terrorism Act, 1997, was issued to extend their detention by three months and later, in October, their confinement was extended for yet another 90 days. In December, the high court set aside the provincial government's detention orders and ordered it to immediately release the suspects. However, after the government failed to comply with the court order, a contempt petition was filed against the chief secretary Mumtaz Shah, and officials of the provincial and jail authorities. During the hearing on Wednesday, Central Prison Karachi superintendent Hassan Sehto and the special secretary of the home department were present. The court expressed displeasure over the absence of chief
and home secretaries. "Don't they know contempt proceedings against them are in progress in the court," the bench questioned. The court adjourned the hearing and ordered the nominated officials to appear before the court in the next hearing on January 20. Pearl, 38, the South Asia bureau chief for The Wall Street Journal, was abducted on January 23, 2002, in Karachi and beheaded the next month, reportedly by Al-Qaeda. Sheikh had been convicted of helping lure Pearl to a meeting in Karachi in which he was kidnapped. Prior to his kidnapping, the journalist had been investigating the link between reportedly Pakistanbased militants and Richard Reid, the
notorious “Shoe Bomber” who attempted to blow up a flight from Paris to Miami with explosives hidden in his shoes. In July 2002, following the hearings, an anti-terrorism court (ATC) in Hyderabad had sentenced to death Sheikh and life term to other coaccused. However, all four convicts had moved the SHC in 2002 challenging their convictions. In his autobiography, In the Line of Fire: A Memoir, former president Pervaiz Musharraf had claimed that Sheikh, a British national and a student at the London School of Economics (reports suggest he did not graduate), was hired by MI6 to engage in “jihadi operations”, adding that “at some point, he probably became a rogue or a double agent”.
Thursday, 14 January, 2021
04 News Pakistan in talks with Chinese firm CanSino for Covid-19 vaccine ISLAMABAD TLTP
Pakistan's Ambassador to China Moin Ul Haque on Wednesday informed Chinese firm CanSino Biologics Inc that Pakistan will be approaching the concerned regulatory authorities to put measures for obtaining compliance with the coronavirus vaccine made by the pharmaceutical company. The ambassador gave the assurance during a visit to the headquarters of Tianjin-based firm, said a press statement. During the visit, Haque met with the company's top management, including its CEO Yu Xuefeng. The two sides expressed satisfaction at the stage-III clinical trials of CanSino’s Covid-19 vaccine in Pakistan with local partner AJM Pharma. The officials agreed that as the trials are nearing completion, relevant measures for regulatory compliance in line with the laws and regulations of Pakistan would be brought regarding the vaccine. The meeting was also attended by the firm’s Senior Vice President Pierre Armand Morgon via video link from Lausanne, Switzerland.
Prime accused of Daesh funding case arrested
Lahore PoLiCe LaunCh oPeration, arreSt moSt-wanteD CriminaLS LAHORE
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SHAHAB OMER
HE Lahore Police have launched a massive crackdown on the most-wanted criminals and abettors in murder, attempted murder, robbery and other cases, Pakistan Today learnt on Wednesday. According to details, a large number of illegal weapons have also been recovered during the raids carried out by the police to nab the wanted fugitives. Speaking to media, Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Investigation Abdul Ghaffar Qaisrani told that several accused persons of terrorism and serious crimes have been arrested, besides recovery of 59 guns, including three Kalashnikovs, and hundreds of bullets from the accused persons. “A total of 97 accused persons, including Iqbal Ilyas Bali, Amir Fateh Tipu, Muassab Tipu, Ramzan Butt, Allah Ditta, Ilyas Hira, Ilyas Gujjar, Rafiq, Hasnain, Waris, Ejaz Ibrahim and Rana Mudassir, were arrested,”Qaisrani said. “This was the first operation of the Lahore Police. Such operations against criminals will continue on a
daily basis. The siege will also be tightened against those who provide shelter to the most-wanted criminals. The police will eradicate ‘Kalashnikov culture’ across the city as there is no place for thugs in the city. People with old enmities should have only one security guard. Criminals, extortionists and their abettors will be brought to their logical conclusion.” The police also faced reaction over the operation from some people as after the raid on Malik Amir Khokhar's residence in Johar Town, some local traders protested against the police and alleged that the police officials are raiding the houses of dignitaries without any evidence. Strong reaction was also seen during the raid on the house of PML-N MPA Sohail Shaukat Butt, who later informed the media that the police opened fire in the air, smashed CCTV cameras and damaged some valuables under the guise of searching his house. “I have never seen such terrorism by the police and the state. The police raided on my house last night and arrested my cook, chefs and six other servants. The force also entered in my uncle's house, broke down the door and opened fire inside the house. Then they came back and shot at my house. I called the Capital City Police
Officer and said that I am an elected representative and my house is surrounded by the police. But he did not respond despite assurance on the telephone,” he said. Talking about the operation, PML-N leader Khawaja Imran Nazir said that the police should not take action against political activists under the guise of capturing land mafias and thugs. According to sources, a complete list of all the notorious criminals in Lahore has been prepared by the police. “Earlier, a similar list was also prepared and action was taken against some influential personalities, but the personalities could not be gripped by the police. However, arrests of some personalities are now expected within a fortnight,” they said. Earlier, Inspector General of Police (IGP) Inam Ghani had issued instructions to the Lahore Police to eradicate thugs, land grabbing mafia and anti-social elements from the society on priority basis. “The new leadership of the Lahore Police should take steps under a comprehensive strategy to eradicate serious as well as street crimes while monitoring and inspection to further improve the service delivery process should be given particular attention. Patrolling plans of Dolphin, Peru and other forces should be made more effective,” he had directed.
NAB files reference against Mandviwalla in case of land allotments ISLAMABAD TLTP
KARACHI TLTP
The Counter Terrorism Department (CTD) on Wednesday arrested the main accused in a case of funding to banned terrorist group Daesh. The suspect was identified as Umar bin Khalid, who had been a student of an engineering university in Karachi. The sources in CTD said, “Further investigations are underway to arrest his three accomplices, Junaid, Zia and Awais.” “Umar was earlier detained from Tariq Road in 2020 due to illegal funding. He was released on personal surety due to want of evidence,” they added. “Two mobile phones recovered from Umar were sent for forensic tests. The forensic report of the cell phones provided key evidence against the accused and his accomplices. Therefore, a case was filed against the accused after the forensic report. The accused were in contact with some terrorists in Syria and Pakistan and they were funding the terrorist network from various sources,” they further said.
Father commits suicide after killing two daughters LAHORE TLTP
A man committed suicide after killing his two differently-abled daughters in Raj Garh area on Wednesday. Zia stabbed his daughters to death and severely injured himself. The daughters were identified as Sadia (38) and Aqsa (30). According to the police, the daughters died on the spot, while the man was rushed to the hospital. However, he succumbed to his injuries on the way to the hospital. The police launched an investigation to ascertain the reasons behind this horrific incident. In another brutal incident last week, the father of a man’s second wife along with four accomplices allegedly set fire to his two daughters inside their residence located in Basti Kot Lashari near Chok Karamdad Qureshi, resulting in the death of both minors. The sources said Hafiz Abdul Majeed had solemnised a second marriage with Fida’s daughter Mehwish. Enraged by the union, Fida along with his companions poured petrol on the two toddlers, born out of the man’s first wedlock, and burned them alive inside their residence.
The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) on Wednesday filed a reference against Senate Deputy Chairman Saleem Mandviwalla in a case regarding allotment of illegal lands. The anti-graft watchdog in its reference accused Mandviwalla of facilitating Ejaz Haroon in selling government plots to Omni Group’s Abdul Ghani Majeed. The NAB nominated Mandviwalla, Nadeem Mandviwalla, Ejaz Haroon, Abdul Ghani Majeed and Tariq Mahmood as the accused. According to the reference, Haroon had received huge sums of money from fake accounts in exchange for the plots. He had prepared backdated files of the plots and sold them Abdul Ghani with the assistance of Mandviwala. The NAB alleged that Mandviwalla and Ejaz received Rs140 million through fake accounts. From his share, Mandviwalla bought a plot in the name of a frontman before selling it and buying shares in the name of another frontman. Mandviwalla and Nadeem bought shares in Mangla View Company in the name of Tariq Mahmood. Meanwhile, a meeting of the NAB Executive Board approved the filing of a reference against former Sindh minister Jam Khan Shoro, inquiries against several Sindh government officials, including Owais Muzaffar Tappi and Sohail Anwar Sial, and two other references. In one reference, Jam Khan and several government officials are accused of illegally occupying and using government land in Jamshoro and Qasimabad, causing
a loss of around Rs5 billion to the national exchequer. In another reference, Board of Investment Deputy Director Adil Karim and some other government officials are accused of misusing their powers and causing a loss of Rs417.409 million to the national exchequer. The meeting also closed an inquiry pertaining to the
procurement of MI-171E helicopter for the Balochistan government due to lack of evidence against the procurement committee and others. The meeting at headquarters was chaired by NAB Chairman Justice (R) Javed Iqbal and attended by Deputy Chairman Hussain Asghar and other senior officers.
NICVD responds to allegations levelled by PTI’s Haleem Adil KARACHI PR
The National Institute of Cardiovascular Diseases (NICVD) in Sukkur on Wednesday refuted the allegations of corruption levelled by Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) leader Haleem Adil Sheikh, saying the accusations were made for "political interests". Adil had levelled the allegations during a press conference on Tuesday. The NICVD spokesperson said, “Adil, who cited details from a report of the auditor general, has failed to acknowledge that the report just contains observations and the irregularities outlined in it are not yet proved. The auditor general also issues reports on such observations to government departments.”
“How could be corruption rampant in an institution, which had provided medicals services to over 2.3 million people for free during the past year,” the spokesperson questioned. The spokesperson further said that the hospital was not providing free treatment in the past. But from 2017, it has been providing free treatment to heart patients and state-of-the-art cardiology facilities 24 hours a day. “Every year millions of patients benefit from this expensive treatment of heart disease. Costly operations are made free of cost and expensive life-saving devices are also used during treatment. After shifting of control from the federation to the province, the Sindh government has paid close attention to the NICVD, as it is a heart hospital and important institution to save human
life,” the spokesperson added. "All the allegations against the NICVD and its Director Prof Nadeem Qamar are false. The director was appointed after the fulfilment of all legal requirements. No one's salary in NICVD is six million, and there is no truth in such allegations. The amount of salaries, discussed about by Adil, are not for one but for the employees of total 28 hospitals of NICVD.” “All the staff, including the director, are performing their duties 24 hours a day in this dangerous situation of Covid-19 and providing uninterrupted modern heart treatment to the people of the country in all the 28 centres. The opposition in Sindh should not target the NICVD just to put down the provincial government," the spokesperson concluded.
Afghan leader Khalili lauds Pakistan's role in peace process ISLAMABAD TLTP
Afghanistan’s Hezb-e-Wahadat-e Islami leader Ustad Karim Khalili has appreciated Pakistan's positive and constructive role in the peace process of the war-torn country. Speaking at a consultation titled “Public Talk”, organised by the Institute of Strategic Studies Islamabad, Khalili said that Pakistan has played a pivotal role and helped to achieve peace in Afghanistan. He acknowl-
edged Pakistan’s efforts in the first round of the peace process as well as the ongoing talks in Doha and hoped that with this current momentum, the relationship would reach new horizons. He said that the goal is to win the Pakistan government’s support for peace that can address regional issues and benefit all our international friends. Such a matter requires a good and precise mechanism, which responds well to all of Afghanistan’s domestic diversity as well as expectations of the in-
ternational community. The Afghan political leader added that peace in Afghanistan will create a situation that will benefit all countries, especially the neighbours. Peace is a multi-dimensional phenomenon, which has multi-faceted effects in different dimensions of human social life and societies. “When we talk about peace, in addition to the political dimension, we must also consider its cultural, economic and social dimensions. We are living in an in-
terconnected world with a vast network of global issues, where war and peace are no exception. When a peace agreement upholds human rights’ values such as women’s rights, minority rights, non-discrimination and many other issues, all nations and peoples of the world are motivated to support it. Conversely, if these global standards are not taken into account, such peace will not go anywhere and conflicts will continue,” Khalili said. “In Afghanistan, the peace discourse has
become a serious issue, especially given that peace in Afghanistan is complex, multidimensional, with internal and international consequences. Thus, the people of Afghanistan need cooperation and joint efforts from all countries, especially the region.” Pakistan’s Special Representative for Afghanistan Ambassador Mohammad Sadiq, the members of the diplomatic corps in Islamabad, academics, civil society members, and former and current diplomats were also present on the occasion.
Thursday, 14 January, 2021
NEWS
E-biDDinG to tAkE country towArDs moDErnity: Pm ISLAMABAD
P
STAFF REPORT
RIME Minister Imran Khan said on Wednesday that the ebidding and e-billing system will take the country towards modernity and digitalisation. He was addressing the inaugural ceremony of the E-bidding, E-billing and GIS Mapping System of the National Highway Authority (NHA), which aims to ensure transparency in the process of award of contracts. “E-bidding will reduce human interaction in awarding contracts of various projects and will eliminate corruption and bribery from the country,” he said.
Fawad for training students as per future market needs ISLAMABAD TLTP
Science and Technology Minister Chaudhary Fawad Hussain has stressed the need for training university students as per the requirement of future job market. Addressing a ceremony on Wednesday, the federal minister said that the future of any country is attached with universities, as they have an important role in bringing change. “We are moving towards electric vehicles; therefore, modern training techniques must be taught to people to excel in this field,” he stated. “We will have to focus on our human resource development and create opportunities of progress.” Separately, Fawad Chaudhry announced that a memorandum has been signed between Pakistan Sports Board and Pakistan Science Foundation, following which ‘e-sports’ will get an official sports status. “If you are interested in video games, get ready as new opportunities are waiting for you,” he wrote on Twitter. In November last year, Fawad Chaudhry had announced a special programme of animation and video games to encourage young people to be part of the multi-billion dollar gaming industry.
‘Abu Dhabi Group to invest another $500m in Pakistan’ NEWS DESK UAE’s Culture, Youth and Social Development Minister Sheikh Nahayan bin Mubarak Al Nahayan has said that the Abu Dhabi Group would further their investments in Pakistan by launching a new project worth $500 million in the near future. Sheikh Nahayan said this during a meeting with Parliamentary Committee on Kashmir Chairman Shehryar Khan Afridi in Abu Dhabi on Wednesday. The meeting mainly focused on further enhancing bilateral relationship between the two states. "UAE and Pakistan are tied in decades of brotherly ties; overseas Pakistanis living in the UAE have provided further impetus to the historical and friendly ties between the two countires," said Sheikh Nahayan Bin Mubarak. "Services of Pakistanis based in the UAE helped the UAE develop into a modern country." Afridi on the occasion raised the issues faced by the overseas Pakistanis in the UAE and requested the minister to play a role in resolving the issues through personal intervention. Sheikh Nahayan appreciated Afridi's efforts in activating youth of Pakistan on the issue of Indian Illegally occupied Jammu and Kashmir, saying it is need of the hour. "I extend my good wishes to Prime Minister of Pakistan Imran Khan for all his future endeavours," he added.
IMRAN KHAN VOWS TO DIGITISE FBR BY JULY; DIRECTS OFFICIALS TO BRING FOOD PRICES DOWN “We can never make progress if bribery and corruption continue in the country.” The prime minister expressed resolve to digitise the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) by July this year. “We can ensure more tax collection by introducing automation and digitization in the FBR,” he added. The premier said that other ministries will also be encouraged to move towards e-governance so that utmost transparency can be ensured. Talking about the Broadsheet contro-
versy, the PM said the whole system of the country becomes corrupt when the ruler himself is involved in corrupt practices. Earlier, Communications and Postal Services Minister Murad Saeed said that the NHA has started an e-bidding system that will make the bidding process transparent, efficient and easy. “NHA is endeavoring to undertake road building projects on public-private partnership (PPP) basis,” he added. Separately, Prime Minister Imran
man suspected of terror funding arrested KARACHI Khan on Wednesday directed the authorities concerned to take all possible measures to bring down the prices of essential items across the country. Presiding over a meeting of the Pakistan Tehreek-eInsaf (PTI) spokespersons, Imran Khan directed to take immediate steps to import sugar, adding that the government has taken some important decisions with regard to sugar and power. The meeting discussed various topics,including inflation, Broadsheet case scam and Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM). Industries and Production Minister Hammad Azhar, Science and Technology Minister Fawad Chaudhry and Human Rights Minister Shireen Mazari had briefed the meeting on the above.
Edible oil prices likely to increase amid supply constraints ISLAMABAD GHULAM ABBAS
The prices of edible oil, another largely consumed kitchen item, are likely to increase due to shortage of supply from importing countries. According to Pakistan Vanaspati Manufacturers Association (PVMA), a sharp increase in the demand of Malaysian and Singaporean palm oil has caused a jump in international prices of the commodity, which would ultimately impact Pakistan, as the country meets 90pc of its edible oil requirements through imports. In order to avoid a further increase in the price of vegetable oil and ghee, the association has suggested the government to revisit its duty structure on import of edible oil. PVMA Chairman Sheikh Abdul Waheed feared that in case the government avoids immediate intervention, the price of the largely consumed kitchen item may go up significantly in the next couple of months, especially during the holy month of Ramzan.
According to sources, a meeting is expected to be held in coming days between Industries and Production Minister Hamamd Azhar and the PVMA to devise a strategy for a short-term solution to the issue. The PVMA on Wednesday forwarded a presentation to the Ministry of Industries, highlighting duties and taxes on palm oil at the Singapore market rate of $1,020 per tonne (as on January 13). "An amount of Rs7,692 per tonne is being charged as fixed customs duty, besides additional customs duty of 2pc, Pakistan Oilseed Development Board (PODB) cess of Rs50, federal excise duty at 17pc and withholding tax at two per cent." The association also gave details regarding cost of other expenditures, including freight charges, insurance charges, port charges, warehouse surcharges etc. "We have informed the authorities that the next palm oil harvest in Malaysia and Indonesia will be in March and April; therefore, palm and palmolein oil supplies will improve after mid-March," the PVMA chairman
said, adding that currently there was extreme shortage of palm oil because of Covid-19 and political crises between Malaysia and India during 2020. It may be noted that the Malaysian support to the Pakistani stance over Kashmir in late 2019 led to a massive decline in palm oil purchases by India in 2020. At the same time, severe threats of Covid-19 had reduced the harvesting of palm fruit during the year. After India taking a backfoot, the Chinese companies entered the palm oil processing market. However, India later resumed purchases from Malaysia and as demand was high from all sides, there was not stock left there. According to PVMA, the prices of refined, bleached and deodorised (RBD) palm oil issued from Singapore was $787 per tonne at the start of 2020, which dropped to $512 per tonne during the first week of May 2020. "But with supplies running short and demand remaining high, the rate jumped to $750 in the first week of November 2020 and then to $1,050 per tonne last week," it added.
FBR invites income tax proposals for Budget 2021-22 ISLAMABAD TLTP
The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) on Wednesday invited income tax proposals for budget 2021/2022 and asked stakeholders to submit the same by February 15, 2021. The FBR has asked tax offices, including large taxpayers offices (LTOs), medium tax offices (MTOs), corporate tax offices (CTOs) and regional tax offices (RTOs), as well as traders and industrialists that the proposals should focus on broadening the tax base for a wide participation in revenue generation efforts. The FBR advised that suggestions should be communi-
cated in following policy areas: broadening of tax base; taxation of real income on progressive basis; phasing out of tax concessions and exemptions; removal of tax distortions and anomalies; facilitation of taxpayers and ease of doing business; and promotion of equity in taxation by introducing measures where incidence of tax is higher on affluent classes. The stakeholders have also been asked to provide proposals in a prescribed formation that should include relevant sections/clauses or rules where amendment is sought. The proposals related to any section of Income Tax Ordinance, 2001, or any rule to Income Tax Rules, 2002, should be presented along with rationale and revenue impact.
Ministry of IT to implement national helpline NEWS DESK The federal government has directed the Ministry of Information Technology to set up a national helpline to provide emergency assistance to citizens across the country in phases. The four-digit helpline will be set up by IT and telecom experts under the purview of the aforementioned ministry. The IT ministry will convene a committee for this purpose, which will include representatives from the federal, provincial and other agencies. "People can call on the helpline number from anywhere," Federal Minister for Information Technology Aminul Haq told a local news outlet. "From home, a public place, road, train, highway or any other place in any area in case of emergency," he added. The helpline should be connected with all federal, provincial agencies, police, law enforcement, hospitals, rescue and other relief and emergency services so that the citizen can link with the needed services. Some of the branches included in the helpline will be se-
05
curity agencies, hospitals, fire brigade stations, relief agencies, bomb disposal squads, ambulance services, rescue agencies and other essential support service agencies. Haq said that the main desk of the helpline would have the numbers of officers and personnel of all concerned agencies. The entire system of this helpline will be computerised. The helpline line will be launched in the federal capital, and it soon would extend to Karachi, Lahore, Quetta and Peshawar. In the second phase it would move onto the nationwide level, the minister said. The pilot phase of the helpline will be introduced in the next four months, Express Tribune reported. According to the reports, Ministry of IT is setting up the helpline to facilitate the people, in line with the vision of Prime Minister Imran Khan. Earlier this week, Punjab Highway Patrolling Police in the Faisalabad jurisdiction had asked motorists to call at the existing 1124 helpline for help in case of any emergency during fog on national highways, showcasing a scenario in which a national, centralised helpline would be useful.
STAFF REPORT
The counter-terrorism department (CTD) of Sindh police on Wednesday arrested a man on charges of funding the so-called Islamic State (IS) militant group. Umar bin Khalid, a reported student of an engineering university in Karachi, was arrested in connection with a terror funding case, a statement said. According to CTD officials, further investigation was underway to arrest three accomplices. In 2020, Khalid was arrested from the Tariq Road neighbourhood on charges of terrorism funding. However, he was later released for want of the evidence. “Two mobile phones were recovered from his possession and sent for forensic test,” the officials said. “Digital forensic report of the cell phones provided key evidence against the accused and his accomplices,” they added. “A case was filed against the accused after the forensic report.” “The accused were in contact with terrorists in Syria and Pakistan and were funding the terrorist network from various sources.”
shah's bail in illegal land allotment case extended KARACHI STAFF REPORT
The Sindh High Court (SHC) on Wednesday extended the interim bail of former Sindh chief minister Syed Qaim Ali Shah till February 25 in a case pertaining to illegal allotment of land in Kandhkot. During the hearing, a National Accountability Bureau (NAB) prosecutor told the court that an interim reference has been filed against the accused in an accountability court in Sukkur. However, Shah's name was not included in the interim reference, he added. The prosecutor said that a supplementary reference will be filed against Shah by the anti-corruption watchdog. According to the prosecutor, the government released Rs110 million funds to the petitioner prior to the decision of the hearing. The anti-graft watchdog expressed suspicions over the release of funds amid trial. He said that the funds were dispatched to the officers of revenue and other concerned departments who are already facing graft investigation. The prosecutor added that statements of Qaim Ali Shah and other accused have been recorded by the institution. Later, the court extended the interim bail of ex-CM Sindh till February 25 and adjourned the hearing. The former chief minister is also facing charges of massive corruption in the Roshan Sindh project initiated by the government for the installation of solar streetlights across the province.
sHc issues notices on petition against acid sale KARACHI INP
The Sindh High Court (SHC) on Wednesday issued notices to the provincial chief secretary, home secretary and other respondents on a petition against the sale of acid. A two-judge bench, headed by Justice Muhammad Ali Mazhar, took up the petition of an acid attack survivor, Ahmar Iqbal. The petitioner said that acid is being sold openly across the province in violation of relevant laws and pleaded with the court to issue directives for the respondents to suspend the open sale of the chemical. “Acid is also used for washing clothes and washroom,” Justice Mazhar remarked. At this, the petitioner’s counsel said that they want a ban on the sale of the acid that burns the human body. The court noted this was a provincial matter and asked the advocate general, Sindh to look into the matter.
Punjab govt arrests middlemen, others hampering sugar trade LAHORE APP
As many as 71 middlemen involved in the illegal purchase of sugar have been arrested across Punjab, while 266 illegal weighing machines have been sealed, whereas 164 cases have been registered and fines worth Rs320,000 have been issued to the culprits. This was revealed in a special meeting presided over by Punjab Senior Minister Abdul Aleem Khan on Wednesday. The meeting was convened to review issues of sugarcane growers. Punjab Chief Secretary Jawad Rafique Malik lamented that middlemen exploited farmers through purchasing sugarcane at half price, adding that the government would protect the rights of farmers at all costs.
Thursday, 14 January, 2021
06 COMMENT
Twisting politicians’ arms
Doha talks Accommodation required to fulfil mutual expectations
T
Asking for money trails is not arm-twisting
He Afghan government wants an end to the ongoing bloodshed in the country. The Afghan Taliban want a dominant role in the administration after the departure of the foreign troops. Pakistan wants a friendly administration in Kabul that puts an end to terrorist attacks from its territory. The USA wants to ensure that after the withdrawal of troops, Afghanistan does not become a source of terrorist threats. The latest intra-Afghan peace talks are moving at a snail’s pace. With the Afghan government prioritizing a ceasefire and the Taliban a political arrangement, agreement on an agenda is likely to take time. With Pakistan having a long history of relations with the Afghan Taliban, Islamabad is expected to play a key role in the resolution of the Afghan imbroglio. Pakistan has already helped bring the Taliban back to the negotiating table and later nudging the religious militia to resume the talks on time in the wake of the two-week-long break. Pakistan is now being required to reconcile the conflicting priorities of the Afghan government and the Taliban. As a signal to the Afghan Taliban both Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi and Prime Minister Imran Khan have made it known that they support “an inclusive, broad-based and comprehensive” political solution of the 19-year-old conflict rather than a return to the era of Mullah Omar. The Taliban must realize that no country in the world would support a government that denies human rights and harbours terrorist networks. Pakistan too has its own priorities. While ensuring peace and stability in the neighbouring country, Islamabad also wants to reduce India’s influence in Afghanistan as New Delhi continues to use its proxies to launch terrorist attacks inside Pakistan. The task is not easy as over the years India has considerably expanded its economic presence in Afghanistan, while it has traditionally suited Afghan governments to play one big neigbour against the other. Pakistan has taken up the issue not only with the Afghan government but also with major Afghan figures invited by it from time to time, Abbas Khalili being the latest. It rightfully expects the Afghan political parties to ensure that their territory is not used as a launching pad against Pakistan, or for that matter against any other country. Accommodating one another is the only way to ensure peace, stability and prosperity for Afghanistan.
Dr FariD a malik
A
rM-TWISTING of politicians was started by the first dictator in October 1958 which should now stop for all times to come. Ayub Khan’s elected Bodies Disqualification Ordinance (eBDO) knocked out several honest political players from the arena. Those who did not surrender to the will of the usurper were punished. Hussain Shaheed Suharwardy, the exPrime Minster and the most able and popular leader of the eastern Wing, challenged his disqualification. Through his brilliant legal acumen, he avoided conviction but decided to go into self-exile. A few years later he was found dead under mysterious circumstances in a Beirut Hotel. His Awami League was taken over by ordinary workers like Sheikh Mujibur-rehman who later became Bangla Bandu, the father of Bangladesh. While the four dictators twisted arms of upright politicians, they produced several twisted political leaders who continue to dominate and pollute the poitical arena of the Islamic republic of Pakistan. To ensure a continuous supply of ‘Twisted Politicans’ (TPs), a production line was established at 33 Davis road called the Muslim League House. The facility has lived up to its design, and has turned out to be the ‘Freemasons Lodge of Democracy’. The Chaudhrys of Gujrat, Sharifs of Lahore, Khawajas of Sialkot and Lahore, Tareens of Multan, Dastagirs of Gujranwala, Qureshis of Multan, Wattoos of
Cabinet irresponsibility PM doesn’t seem in charge of his Cabinet
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rIMe MINISTer Imran Khan told his ministers to do two things: to improve their performance, and to resign if they did not agree with the performance of the government. These two things are supposed to be basic factors: the ministers must perform if they are to retain their jobs, and they must observe the principle of Cabinet responsibility. That the PM must say them during a Cabinet meeting indicates that he himself may not be able to enforce the requisite discipline. It should be remembered that he would not be able to fire the MNAs in his Cabinet because of the thinness of his majority in Parliament, or even because they have been nominated by one of his coalition components and thus are not his to name or dismiss. At the same time, the way this nugget of information was leaked indicates that he himself is not observing the prime minister’s role in maintaining Cabinet responsibility: refraining from criticism. After all, if the prime minister does not like how a minister is doing, he is free to dismiss him or her. Or is he? It would seem that some of the people on his team, particularly among those who have not been elected MNAs, have been named because they are nominees of certain institutions whose good side Mr Khan wants to stay on. Mr Khan’s sentiments have reportedly originated in response to criticism of his handling of the Hazara issue, which was less than deft. However, he should remember that attempts must not be made to inhibit free discussion in Cabinet, especially since there have been no attempts, apparently, to make public such criticism. Cabinet responsibility should not be taken to mean personal loyalty, important component of the former as the latter might be. They say a lazy workman blames his tools. Mr Khan must avoid this. However, having forgiven such outbursts in the past, Mr Khan risked them being repeated. Mr Khan must remember that relying so much on unelected advisers and special assistants would be ill-advised as they do not face re-election from constituencies and hence do not face pressure to perform. Mr Khan’s warning may be dismissed by ministers who think it comes from his wanting to seem to be addressing the problem of non-performance, even as he shirks taking the necessary action.
It’s a matter of the first Qibla Dr Tamoor azam
E
very country has an ideological narrative like India’s current mantra of “Hindutva” or “Akhand Baharat”, Marxism in China’s ideology, Israel’s “re-establishing the 2,000year-old Jewish State” and Pakistan’s slogan based on ideological narrative, “Pakistan Ka Matlab Kia…La IIaha Illallah” (The meaning of Pakistan is….there is no God but Allah). With this slogan, Pakistan came into being with its more than 90% percent Muslim population in 1947, but the nation disintegrated into two in just 24 years due to the mishandling and misapplication of its ideological narrative. Unfortunately, Pakistan’s scholars have other explanations for the bloodiest tragedy in 1971. While on the contrary, Jews from the suburbs of New york City, Paris, Warsaw, and so on have been migrating to the barren and infertile lands of Palestine (now Israel) since the 1920s. Why is it? Is it meant to fulfill the philosophy of “Greater Israel” and welcome the Jewish “Messiah” to rule the world, deemed “Anti-Christ” by the Muslims and Christians? It is perhaps not surprising that the then Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and head of the Ministry of Health yaakov Litzman (a member of the conservative Gur Hasidic Jew community) had a news conference in March 2020 where they said, “We are praying and hoping that the Messiah will arrive and redeem us from all the troubles of the world.” Their bizarre statements have never been mocked, but when Muslim clerics and scholars talk about the return of Jesus and “Mehdi”, liberals within the Muslim community poke fun at tem. Whether someone would call it a conspiracy theory or anti-Semitic propaganda, WW1, and WW2 were exclusive wars orchestrated to establish Israel. After the denial of the Ottomans to grant land to Jews in Palestine, WW1 was concocted to disintegrate the Muslim Ottoman empire into more than 30 states. While WW2 designed to engage the Muslim world in chaos and hunger on one side, and on the other, it gained the sympathies of europeans by disseminating disinformation about the Holocaust to establish a Jewish state in Palestine.
Arif Nizami Editor Umar Aziz
Asher John
Joint Editor
Executive Editor
Deputy Editor
Lahore – Ph: 042-36300938, 042-36375965
Dr Farid A Malik is ex-Chairman, Pakistan Science Foundation. He can be contacted at: fmaliks@hotmail.com.
Should Pakistan recognize Israel?
Dedicated to the legacy of the late Hameed Nizami
Aziz-ud-Din Ahmad
Okara, the list goes on, were all launched from here. In Lahore there is a special term used for ruffians; “Kan Tuttay” (a category of wrestlers with broken or twisted ear lobes- KT ). Ayub Khan ruled through these TPs till he was forced out of power in March 1969. The first free and fair election that followed in 1970 resulted in cleaning the mess created by the usurper through these KTs. During the Ayub era, the courts did provide some relief to the upright dissenters like Malik Ghulam Jilani, father of the late Asma Jehangir, and Habib Jalib, the poet whose poetry exposed the rulers. When no one could stand up to the might of the dictator, Madar-i-Millat Mohtrama Fatima Jinnah took him on in the presidential elections held in early 1965. A campaign was launced against her from the Muslim League House by the TPs and KTs of the usurper. She was declared a traitor. Arms were twisted of those politicians who stood by her. Sardar Shaukat Hayat Khan, one of the founding fathers of Pakistan, was a leading figure of her campaign. He was disgraced and cornered, and as a result he decided to quit politics. His son Sikander Hayat and his nephew the legendry Tariq Ali Khan then started a movement against the unchallenged, authoritative rule of the first dictator. There was so much armtwisting that Tariq Ali had to flee the country to pursue his socialist ideas. He now resides in London. Sikander Hayat was brutally manhandled by the Police while leading demosnstrations against the decade of Ayub’s misrule. Finally the era of exploitation came to an end, and the self-proclaimed Field Marshal had to step down. The period of democracy was brief ( 1971 to 1977. During this democratic era the ‘Freemasons Lodge of Democarcy ‘ remained deserted. As elected Prime Minister Zufiqar Ali Bhutto (ZAB) kept his election promise and shut down the Freemasons Lodge located at 90 Shahrae Quaid-e-Azam, but the one on Davis road remained to hijack the democratic order. First it was the Majlis-e-Shaura in 1981 headed by Khawaja Safdar of Sialkot, father of Khawaja Asif, and then the partyless elections of 1985 that brought back the ‘ Devils of Democracy’ into the corridors of power to restart the era of exploitation and suppression of the masses. Those who opposed were tortured in the dungeons of the Lahore Fort. It was arm-twisting at its peak that dislodged the entire progressive movement in the country. Most Comrades either left the country in disgust or joined NGOs to survive while the TPs and KTs had a field day.
Can untwisting of the twisted politicians be termed as arm-twisting? Dossiers are full of their misdeeds. When their corruption is pointed out to them, they term it arm-twisting. Those who have held public offices are fully accountable for their wealth. Immoveable assets cannot be hidden, without money trails they are rendered defenceless. In the USA it is widely believed that property owners are sitting ducks, answerable and vulnerable at all times. They have to come clean by presenting their authentic paper work, as was done by Mr Suharwardy in his defence. Till today there are no charges of corrupt practices against Bhutto or any of his cabinet members. There was a time in the land of the pure when ministers resigned when it was reported that they had misused official telephones or transport. Massive corruption has taken place in the last 40 years. There has to be an account of the plunder of the nation’s meagre resources. exploiting weaknesses of law or using delaying tactics through expensive lawyers is not the way of the pure. The lawyer of Shahbaz Sharif in the money laundering case did not appear at one recent hearing, resulting in inordinate delay. The same strategy has been adopted by rana Sanaullah in the narcotics case against him. Khawaja Asif got off the hook from the Supreme Court on the grounds that there is no law against conflict of interest in the country. Asif Ali Zardari, after ruining Bhutto’s party, now uses similar a similar strategy to prolong the cases against him. Those who are a byproduct of arm-twisting should not complain about it as the mystery of corruption has to unfold. Business as usual cannot continue through generations of ‘Twisted Politicians’. Unfolding and untwisting is the only way forward to end the ‘Zia Dark Ages’ and the corrupted human resource left behind. The honest and the upright politicians have nothing to fear as their arms are strong and cannot be easily twisted. By visiting the Bhutto shrines at Ghari Khuda Buksh, Maryam Nawaz has tried to cleanse herself of her past sins against democracy and its crusaders, but considering the Zardari mind, I am hoping against hope that Bilawal does return the disgrace by showing up at Zia’s deserted grave in Islamabad. We live in very interesting times, it seems self-interest have outperformed the Bhutto ideology around which the first real national political party was launched in 1967 at Lahore by the Quaid-e-Awam.
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Now, the Jewish mega project of this century is lief. First, in the Quran(10: 85-86) it says: “The fol“Greater Israel.” This project cannot be completed lowers of Moses (AS) told him that we are Muslims until different battles have been staged in many parts and believe in the oneness of GOD.” According to the of the world. The unrest in the Middle east, the esca- verses of the Quran 2000 years ago Muslims were livlating standoff between China and India, the ratchet- ing in the land of Palestine, not Jews. If Quranic eviing up tensions between the US and Iran, the dence is not worthwhile for Muslims, then Muslims Turkish-Greece dispute over the Aegean, the US-Is- should allow Jews to capture Madina as 1400 years rael-India nexus vis-à-vis China and Pakistan, and the ago this holy city was also part of Jewish land. Instead, the questions should be changing Arab leaders’ poliraised and asked the internacies herald the signs of wars. tional community that why This scenario likely to the land of Palestine was ocadd fuel to the fire of hostilPakistanis cannot turn a cupied by Jews and called it ity between India and PakIsrael in 1948? What would istan. Former US President blind eye to the words Muslims do if the Jews build richard Nixon said in an interview in 1992 that “Alof our founding father, Quaid- the Third Temple of Solomon by destroying the though nuclear powers have e-Azam Mohammad Ali Al-Aqsa Mosque? never fought in any war, the At present, Israel is facrift between India and PakJinnah, who said, “Israel ing no threat from the Arab istan on the Kashmir issue is an unlawful state; created world, but it believes that could give impetus to a first Pakistan can be a potential nuclear war between them.” by usurping land of threat. And that’s why the Looking from the distance first Prime Minister of Israel like a gigantic arch, there Palestinian Muslims.” and one of its founding faseems to be a continuous thers, David Ben Gurion, loop of wars in the future. said in his speech after winThe state of Israel has ning a war against five Arab been a hot topic in Pakistan in recent years. Many people question why Pakistan states in 1967 that “Pakistan is a threat to our exisdoes not recognize Israel as several Arab countries tence and danger to the Zionist movement?” Despite have established diplomatic relations, and many are this bitter reality, there is no doubt that Pakistan is an in the queue to recognize the Jewish state. If Pales- antidote to this “cancer” Israel. That’s why false retinians get their basic human rights, then why should- ports circulated in the media that Pakistani officials n’t Pakistan recognize Israel? These questions are want to normalize relations with Israel. Pakistanis cannot turn a blind eye to the words of our founding being raised without reference to context. Both of these questions have straightforward an- father, Quaid Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah, who said, swers. it is not the issue of Arab neighbouring coun- “Israel is an unlawful state; created by usurping land tries or Palestinians to recognize the State of Israel, of Palestinian Muslims.” In response to the Israeli rather it’s about the third holiest land of Muslims, the delegation when they demanded to recognize Israel, Al-Aqsa Mosque (first Qibla) after Makkah and Mad- Pakistan’s first prime minister Liaqat Ali Khan said: ina. Second, if it’s a matter of basic human rights, “Our souls are not for sale.” Let me get the final then Pakistan should recognize Kashmir as a part of words from the Quran (5: 82) on the debate of recogIndia if India gives basic human rights to Kashmiris. nizing Israel, “you will certainly find Jews and idolThe arguments put forth by the Jews are, according aters as the greatest enemies of the Muslims.” to their religious beliefs mentioned in the Torah or The writer is a Research Analyst at Kunming Talmud that 2000 years ago, Palestine was the land of the Jews, so it is their fundamental right to bring University of Science and Technology, China and can be reached at Email: tamoorazam@hotmail.com this land back to the Jews. There are two logical counterarguments to this be- Mobile No. +8615559837189
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Thursday, 14 January, 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
Brutal murder USAMA Nadeem Satti, a 21 years old student, was killed by police forces while he was returning to home, near G-10 Srinagar Highway Islamabad. According to the police report, suspiciously police pursued Usama’s vehicle when he didn’t stop his car. Instead of firing at tyers they fired 22 bullets on his car unfortunately seventeen of them hit him and took out the soul from the body at the time. After that, the police adjudged that he was killed innocently which is the statement used after every occurrence. Government should take strict actions against murderers because this is not the first incident but several happened before. How long will we endure these butcherings? Meraj GhulaM BallniGwar
Industry 4.0
Self-determination: Collective peoples’ right Self-determination is an old concept
Dr. Ghulam Nabi Fai “United Nations support for the right to selfdetermination— while slower than it was at its historic peak in the 20th century— remains both a source of pride for the Organization and a crucial pillar of its work going forward,”– António Guterres, Secretary General of the United Nations.21 February 2020. “I encourage this committee (Special Committee on Decolonization” to ensure the selfdetermination of all colonial countries and peoples is implemented in accordance with the Charter of the United Nations,”– Ambassador Volkan Bozkir, President, the United Nations General Assembly, 14 October 2020.
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eLF-DeTerMINATION leapt into common diplomatic parlance in the 20th century with President Woodrow Wilson’s so-called “Fourteen Points.” They included a right to self-determination for all peoples. But on close examination and application, the concept seemed to approach meaninglessness. The critical deficiency was the failure to provide earmarks for identifying the universe of peoples who enjoyed the right. And the earmarks are far from intuitively obvious. Is it common language, culture, art, history, ethnicity, religion, folklore, or education? Nothing in the Wilsonian self-determination principle offered even a clue to an answer. At the Paris Peace Conference, the Irish pleaded with President Wilson to insist that the British recognize their right to self-determination. The Irish enjoyed a common language, heritage, ethnicity, history, and had universally celebrated the 1916 easter uprising and its dead martyrs. President Wilson, however, nixed the idea. He had larger aims in mind at versailles, such as the ‘League of Nations’ and an ‘International Court of Justice’, which demanded British support. After a virtual civil war, the Irish gained self-determination in 1921, but sans the six counties of Northern Ireland which were predominantly but far from exclusively Protestant. The Peace Conference also gave birth to yugoslavia, composed of Serbs, Croats, Slovenes, Bosnians, Montenegrins, Macedonians, and Albanians. But there was no clear reason why selfdetermination did not justify seven nations instead of one. Indeed, post-Tito yugoslavia quickly fractured into seven nations. Czechoslovakia was another child of the Peace Conference, although Czechs and Slovaks were akin to oil and water. In 1992, they went their separate self-determination ways, and split into two discrete nations. Self- determination has been developed in
philosophic thought and practice for several centuries. It is an idea that has caused people throughout the world to shed the chains of oppressive governments at great risk. Self-determination, despite its ambiguities, has blossomed into a pivotal element in international relations. It has proven the key to resolving long festering disputes. exemplary have been Namibia, east Timor, Bosnia, eritrea. Kosovo, Montenegro and Southern Sudan. In each case, self-determination was fueled by oppressive rule, whether foreign or otherwise. They also derived strength from international law and resolutions of the United Nations Security Council. Although the idea of self-determination defies euclidean exactness, it enjoys universal support. Self-determination is celebrated in the United Nations Charter, in the International Covenant on Civil and Political rights (ICCPr) , and in the United Nations General Assembly resolutions. Article I of the UN Charter enshrines as a major purpose the development of friendly relations among nations based on respect for the “principle of equal rights and self-determination of peoples.” UN General Assembly resolution 1514 (1960) declares the self-determination from colonial rule or foreign domination. In modern international law, self-determination is considered a collective “peoples” right.” It is generally defined as a people’s right not only to preserve its language, cultural heritage and social traditions, but also to act in a politically autonomous manner and— if the people so decide— to become independent when conditions are such that its rights would otherwise be restricted. The following criteria generally favour a right to self-determination claimed by a people, but they are far from conclusive: n A common language and history, which tends to unify through shared customs, experiences, and stories; n A common race or ethnicity, which tends to avoid the intractableness of racial and ethnic bigotries and demeaning stereotyping; n A common culture, which tends to unify through shared values, celebrations, remembrances, heroes, arts, and literature; n A common religion, which tends to avoid clashes over ideas and practices that are highly combustible; n A common suffering or persecution under a prevailing dispensation; and, n A common willingness to endure hardships and to fight for self-determination, which are good barometers of the strength of public sentiment behind discrete nationhood. With these yardsticks in mind, let us turn to Kashmir. One of over 560 princely states during the British raj. It was ruled non-democratically by a Maharaja, subject to British control over defense and foreign affairs. Within Kashmir’s boundaries lived Muslims, Pandits (or Hindus), Sikhs, and Buddhists, but a commanding majority, 80 percent, were Muslim. It was the Islam of the Holy Prophet and the Quran teaching that forbidding coercion in matters of religion. The four religious groups in Kashmir thus lived in common neighborhoods, forged common friendships, shared in one another’s celebrations and joys, and generally avoided religion as a point of contention, unlike in so many other places. British paramountcy ended on 15 August 1947. Only three princely states had desisted from choosing accession to either India or Pakistan: Kashmir, Hyderabad, and Junagadh.
Under international law, all became independent on August 15. But where did sovereignty then lie? In the people of the new states, or in the nondemocratically selected rulers? The Prime Minister of India, Jawaharlal Nehru, subscribed to these sentiments. He declared that in cases where the religion of a princely ruler was at variance with the religious creed of the majority, then the views of the latter must prevail on all matters of sovereignty. And Nehru did not limit himself to rhetoric. It was reinforced by bayonets. In Hyderabad, the Muslim ruler had opted for independence despite presiding over a predominantly Hindu population. Nehru dispatched India’s military to insure that the will of the Hindus– accession to India– was honoured. Ditto for Junagadh where a Muslim ruler had chosen accession to Pakistan for his largely Hindu population. Kashmir was a corollary case of Hyderabad and Junagadh. The majority Muslim population had been persecuted by a Maharaja for decades prior to 15 August 1947: discriminatory laws, state control of mosques, backbreaking taxation, deficient educational facilities, prohibitions on arms of self-defense, the death penalty for slaughtering cows, and brutal suppression of peaceful political dissent. An indigenous revolt was in full swing and about to toppling the Maharaja when statehood arrived. Under the “Nehru” doctrine, sovereignty over Kashmir instantly devolved on the people, and not the tyrannical Maharaja. But Nehru cynically and opportunistically violated his own doctrine. He schemed to forge an instrument of accession to India signed by the Maharaja, and then dispatched Indian troops to Kashmir to prop up his collapsing regime. Of course, under Nehru’s own theory of sovereignty, the Maharaja lacked authority either to sign the forged accession document or to request Indian military intervention. Nehru apparently felt initial guilt over his villainy, and raced to the UN clamouring for a self-determination plebiscite in Kashmir conducted by the UN in a free and unintimidating atmosphere. But he forgot te proverb, “Be careful what you wish for, because you may get what you ask.” The Security Council, with the express approval of both India and Pakistan, adopted twin resolutions on 13 August 1948 and 5 January 1949 mandating a self-determination plebiscite in Kashmir after its demilitarization. Nehru was soon deceived of his delusion over Indian popularity in Kashmir. When he recognized that Kashmiris would never vote for India, the idea of a plebiscite was jettisoned. India contrived excuse after excuse for refusing to cooperate in holding the plebiscite. Then, in the 1950s, Nehru dropped all pretense of complying with the Security Council’s mandates by unilaterally proclaiming that Kashmir had fallen into India’s orbit. Nothing much has changed since then on the self-determination front. India has been insolently defying the Security Council’s plebiscite resolutions for more than 73 years. But the UN continues to list Kashmir as a disputed territory. UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres said on 8 August 2019, that “the position of the United Nations on this region is governed by the Charter of the United Nations and applicable Security Council resolutions.” Kashmir is too important to international peace, security and human rights to be left to either the ignorance of Indian Home Minister Amit Shah or the fanatical and whimsical ambition of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The writer is Secretary General, Washington-based World Kashmir Awareness Forum, and can be reached at gnfai2003@yahoo.com
TODAy technology brings anything with ease. There have been technological advances aplenty. As a result, industrial changes have started taking shape. On top of it all, Cyber Physical System-CPS- deserves special attention as CPS is crucial to Industry 4.o. In fact, computer-based algorithms control the whole Cyber Physical System. The whole idea behind the CPS and Industry 4.o has been just simple and as interesting. In fact, a network of interconnected machines create and share information digitally. A plethora of equipment, both physical and software, are well intertwined paving the way for the CPS. The Cyber Physical System has been declared a crucial research area by the forum called National Science Foundation- NSF based in the US. The NSF has conducted so many workshops on CPS so far. For instance, the specially designed robots have been trained to take care of tomato plants at Massachusetts Institute of Technology-MIT. Technically, it is the sensor node fitted into the plants and wireless network that do the magic here. By the way, communication exchanged through this system helps create rapport between the plants and robots without human intervention. Quite surprisingly, the english syllabus had even covered such revolutionary methods as mass production during my early college days in my native places like Korkai, Tiruchendur, Tuticorin and Tirunelveli in Tamil Nadu in the late 1990s. By the way, the so-called Innovation 4.o is part of digitization, meaning digitising the manufacturing processes. As a result of this, the factories will become much more productive optimising the operations, thereby improving business at the end of the day. Last but not least, it is also high time to safeguard human resources and keep the human touch intact in industry. P Senthil Saravana Durai MuMBai
Smog fallout IT is known in this week the air quality in Lahore reached hazardous levels while during November it was recorded as approaching a shocking high of AQ1500.The situation is neither new nor unexpected for several years and now the month of December has brought. Besides chilly weather a suffocating blanket of smoke and pollutants that effects not only everyday life movement, but also has a debilitating effect on the public health. Also it is report that in Lahore hospitals the allergies and respiratory illnesses are increase. Other health problems such as smokers cough have become more pronounced and prevalent than before. By inhaling pollutant laden air expectant in low income areas and damaging the health and also the unborn bodies. The global alliance on health and pollution estimated air pollution related deaths in Pakistan to be around 128,500 in 2019. It is ranking third highest among the ten countries with worst air quality and Lahore stood six the among top ten cities with air quality. The authorities need to address this issue immediately before it gets out of hand. Mahikan Sarwar lahore
Importance of B.ED and M.ED ACCOrDING to the education Minister Sindh, there are more than 37000 vacant positions in schools throughout the Sindh and Sindh Government is going to fill in all the positions step by step through third party IBA Testing Service. In this connection, IBA has displayed test papers of JeST and PST on its website and Sindh Government has also issued a notification regarding test syllabus. According to the education Minister, the requirement of B.eD and M.eD has been removed this time so that maximum candidates may participate in the test. In 2018, IBA conducted a commissioned level test for the recruitment of JeSTs and eCTs with B.ed and M.ed requirements, hardly 25% of candidates qualified the test. But it can easily be said that all the qualified candidates were competitive and talented ones who are now teaching in different schools with great enthusiasm and zeal. removing the condition of B.ed and M.ed for teaching will cause anxiety and stress among those candidates who are connected with the teaching field and are preparing for the upcoming tests. B.ed is a technical degree like other jobs. If we apply for a dispenser, we are required to take a dispensary course, a doctor can not apply if he/she doesnt have an MBBS degree, a lawyer can not apply untill he/she gets LLB degree. every technical job requires a technical degree or a technical course. B.ed and M.ed is also a kind of technical degree for teaching. In this course, many teaching methods are taught fom KG class to Secondary level. School and classroom management, lesson planning, school assembly, time table record keeping, administrative matters, each and every thing related to school and teaching is taught. Before becoming a teacher, one has to be familiar with all these terms. Though the quality of service delivery of teaching B.ed and M.ed course institutes may vary but for teaching in school, the requirement of B.ed and M.ed should be applied. The education system of Sindh is already fail due to lack of qualified and trained teaching staff. This is the time for Sindh Government to rethink over its decision. Keeping on view the sensitivity of this issue as this is the matter of future of our children. ali Gul leGhari huSSainaBaD
Thursday, 14 January, 2021
08 WORLD VIEW
AmericA is the new centre of globAl instAbility FOLLOWING THE STORMING OF THE US CAPITOL, PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP IS DESPERATE FOR AN EXIT RAMP THAT WILL PRESERVE BOTH HIS FRAGILE EGO AND HIS FUTURE POLITICAL INFLUENCE. UNFORTUNATELY, THAT CONUNDRUM LEAVES HIM WITH FEW OPTIONS OTHER THAN TO FOMENT EVEN MORE CHAOS BOTH AT HOME AND ABROAD Project Syndicate
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NOURIEL ROUBINI
hether the storming of the US Capitol was an attempted coup, an insurrection, or an assault on democracy is merely a question of semantics. What matters is that the violence was aimed at derailing a legitimate transition of power for the benefit and at the behest of a dangerous madman. President Donald trump, who has never hidden his dictatorial aspirations, should now be removed from power, barred from public office, and prosecuted for high crimes. After all, the events of January 6 may have been shocking, but they were not surprising. I and many other commentators had long warned that the 2020 election would bring civil unrest, violence, and attempts by trump to remain in power illegally. Beyond his election-related crimes, trump is also guilty of a reckless disregard for public health. he and his administration bear much of the blame for the massive COVID-19 death toll in the United States, which accounts for only 4% of the global population but 20% of all coronavirus deaths.
Once a beacon of democracy, rule of law, and good governance, the US now looks like a banana republic that is incapable of controlling either a contagious disease – despite spending more on health care per capita than any other country – or mobs incited by a wannabe dictator. Authoritarian leaders around the world are now laughing at the US and scoffing at American critiques of others’ political misrule. As if the damage done to US soft po wer over the past four years was not immense enough, trump’s failed insurrection has undermined America’s standing even more. Worse, although President-elect Joe Biden will be inaugurated in about a week, that is plenty of time for trump to create more mayhem. right-wing militias and white supremacists are already planning more acts of protest, violence, and racial warfare in cities across the US. And strategic rivals such as russia, China, Iran, and North Korea will be looking to exploit the chaos by sowing disinformation or launching cyber-attacks, including potentially against critical US infrastructure. At the same time, a desperate trump may try to “wag the dog” by ordering a strike – perhaps with a tactical nuclear warhead – on Iran’s main nuclear facility in
Natanz, on the grounds that it is being used to enrich uranium. Far from this being out of the question, the trump administration has already held drills with stealth bombers and fighter jets – loaded, for the first time, with tactical nuclear weapons – to signal to Iran that its air defenses are no defense at all. No wonder Speaker of the house Nancy Pelosi felt the need to reach out to the chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff to discuss steps to prevent a nuclear strike by the Dr. Strangelove in the White house. Whereas an unwarranted order to launch a nuclear attack on a target with a large civilian population would be rejected by the military as obviously “illegal,” an attack on a military target in a non-populated area might not be, even if it would have dire geopolitical consequences. Moreover, trump knows that both Saudi Arabia and Israel would tacitly support an attack on Iran (indeed, the US may avail itself of Saudi logistical and ground support to carry one out, given the shorter range of nuclear-armed fighter jets). the prospect of an attack on Iran may give Vice President Mike Pence the pretext he needs to invoke the 25th Amendment and remove trump from power. But even if this were to happen, it would not necessarily be a win for democracy and the rule of law.
trump could – and likely would – be pardoned by Pence (as richard Nixon was by Gerald Ford), allowing him to run for president again in 2024 or be a kingmaker in that election, given that he now controls the republican party and its base. removing trump with the promise of a pardon may be a Faustian deal that Pence strikes with trump. Because the self-pardon that trump has been considering might not pass constitutional muster, it is reasonable to assume that he will be groping around for other creative outs. he cannot simply resign and allow Pence to issue a pardon, because that would make him look like a “loser” who accepted defeat (the worst insult in trump’s egomaniacal lexicon). But if the president were to order an attack on Iran and then become a (pardoned) martyr, he could both preserve his base and avoid accountability. By the same token, trump cannot risk being impeached (again), because that would open up the possibility of his being disqualified from holding office in the future. By this reasoning, he has every incentive to go out with a bang and on his own terms. If this all sounds like the final days of Nero “fiddling while rome burned,” that’s because it is. the decay of the American empire appears to be hastening rapidly. Given how politically, socially, and economically
divided the US is, four years of sound leadership under Biden will not be enough to reverse the damage that has been done. Most likely, the republicans will do everything they can to sabotage the new administration, as they did with former President Barack Obama. even before the election, US national-security agencies were warning that domestic right-wing terrorism and violence would remain the primary home-grown threat to the US. With Biden in office, this risk will be higher still. For the last four years, heavily armed white-supremacist militias have been kept relatively at bay by dint of the fact that they had an ally in the White house. But once trump is gone, the groups whom he has instructed to “stand back and stand by” will not simply accept Democratic control of the presidency and Congress. trump, operating from Mar-a-Lago, will continue to incite the mob with more lies, conspiracy theories, and falsehoods about a stolen election. the US will thus most likely be the world’s new epicenter of political and geopolitical instability in the months and years ahead. America’s allies will need to hedge their bets against a future return of trumpism, and strategic rivals will continue to try to destabilize the US through asymmetric warfare. the world is in for a long, ugly, bumpy ride. Nouriel Roubini, Professor of Economics at New York University's Stern School of Business and Chairman of Roubini Macro Associates, was Senior Economist for International Affairs in the White House’s Council of Economic Advisers during the Clinton Administration. He has worked for the International Monetary Fund, the US Federal Reserve, and the World Bank. His website is NourielRoubini.com, and he is the host of NourielToday.com.
Examining Mir Taqi Mir’s life through his incomparable poetry THE LETTER ADVISED KHANE ARZU TO TREAT MIR “LIKE A SNAKE IN THE GRASS; DO NOT SHOW HIM ANY COURTESY; IN FACT, IT WOULD BE GOOD TO HAVE HIM KILLED”. KHANE ARZU DID MANY THINGS TO HARM MIR
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eFOre he died, Mir’s father sent for Mir and his stepbrother, hafiz Muhammad hasan, who was not very friendly towards Mir. the father gave hafiz three hundred books telling him that as a fakir he had no other possession. But then he turned his face towards Mir and told him, “Son, I owe three hundred rupees to the people in the market. You have to pay this debt.” Mir asked him, “how will I do that? I have no money.” his father replied, “Do not worry. God will take care.” A messenger came a few hours later carrying five hundred rupees from one of Sayyid’s disciples. the debt was paid, and the remaining funds were used by Mir to give his father a decent funeral. Putting his younger brother, Muhammad razi, in charge of the family, Mir made his first trip to Delhi and luckily received an allowance of one rupee a day from a nawab who was one of his father’s admirers. But that arrangement did not last long because Nadir Shah invaded and pillaged Delhi in 1739. thousands were killed in the course of one night. In the morning, Nadir’s warrior chief appeared and read a verse that all men in Delhi worth killing had been killed. this carnage changed the fate of almost all nawabs and nobles overnight. Mir went to Agra, but he was disappointed to find that the people who had professed care for his father and the family turned away. Mir was left with no option but to return to Delhi. It was on this trip that he sought refuge in the home of Sirajuddin Ali Khane Arzu, a learned scholar of Dilli who was highly respected by writers of the time. Khane Arzu was the maternal uncle of his stepbrother hafiz. Initially, he was friendly towards Mir, but after receiving a letter from hafiz, his attitude changed overnight. the letter advised Khane Arzu to treat Mir “like a
snake in the grass; do not show him any courtesy; in fact, it would be good to have him killed”. Khane Arzu did many things to harm Mir. he wrote in Zikr-e Mir, “If I am asked to write about Khane Arzu’s enmity in detail, it would require a separate volume.” But what was Mir hiding? What did his stepbrother write privately, which turned Khane Arzu against Mir overnight? Why did he have to leave his house? What Mir concealed in Zikr-e Mir, he revealed in two short masnavis (poems), after he had moved to the safety of Lucknow, which is quite revealing. It was around that time that Mir started to have a very strange experience. From his early childhood, Mir was in the habit of looking at the moon at night when he was alone – a habit reinforced by one of his mother-like caretakers. Following his rift with Khane Arzu, Mir moved to a small room where he lived alone. At night, when he looked at the moon, he began to perceive a lovely feminine figure inside it. With time, the figure became lovelier; it appeared more like a fairy or a houri than an ordinary human being. Mir developed symptoms of madness. People felt unsafe in his company. this madness reached a point when people around him started to think about placing him in confinement, chained, and left alone to die. the wife of one of his father’s disciples saw the miserable condition in which Mir lived. Out of compassion, she spent a great deal of money on his treatment. he took a few months to recover. the madness vanished, his ravings stopped, his brain gradually started to work again, he was able to sleep, and once again, he started to write poetry. Why did this madness start? What was the trigger? two of Mir’s masnavis provide hints that while Mir was about eighteen years old, he fell in love with a girl. She was married, but because she was part of the family, she did not observe purdah from him. this love affair caused a great deal of suffering to both lovers. Mir did not talk about it in his book Zikr-e Mir or to anyone. repressing it ripped his heart apart, and he carried with him all his life the wound of unrequited love and whatever psychological effect the madness left behind. We see the imprint of this tragic affair in all his poetic work. What a surprise that you have come to visit me today in my home, but I don’t know what I can offer you. I want to hold you in my arms and express my love for a long time. I was reduced to dust and ruined. I was trampled underfoot and my being was destroyed. how else I could have endured
the hardships that my love gave me! Faced with utter desperation, I have become indifferent to things. I wish I knew how to confront her haughtiness a little bit, then I would bow before her a hundred times. I am a mendicant and my worth is no more than a pile of dust. I come and sit here if it is your pleasure. If your dignity is hurt in such situations, feel free to tell me so. every leaf in the garden knows my state of mind. Who should I tell my condition, O rose, if not the greenery of this garden? Mir is the one who comes to meet me, but what can I tell him about my pain? even if he hears a little bit of what I have to say, he will broadcast my tale of love in some detail. Love is in the earth and the sky. All four directions are full of love.
Sir, I am a humble servant, i’shq for me is no different than god. Visible and invisible, first and last, below and above – there is nothing else except i’shq. Light and darkness, hidden and manifest – i’shq embraces everything. On one side Gabriel comes, on the other he brings the Book. On one side love is hidden in the hearts, on the other it is manifest and seen by all. earth, wind, water, and fire. they are all complete in themselves. Love above all is the love of the beloved. Now, how can we say what is love? Mir says he is not caught up in the commotion of love! I can’t control myself. Not my fault actually because I’m a new victim of love. When man felt empowered, he could not control his ego. Next thing, he made the skies bow to the earth. the moon, the sun, clouds, and the wind. they are all deeply in love, and they wander madly struck with awe. I am amazed watching him how he behaves. egocentric, self-absorbed, and domineering. humble Mir, lost in the love of god, is no more than a handful of dust, Who infused him with greatness? Do remember carefully what I have to say. You won’t hear such talk again. If you hear someone recite like this, you will be overwhelmed and wonderstruck by the sheer ecstasy of my words. You will make much effort and you will try many ways to say in this style. You will seek the company of learned folks to read and learn my form of expression. When you will not be satisfied with your exchanges with friends, the fire of grief will overpower you. Your body will burn and you will scorch and roast too in this fire. Mir’s verse is so charged with fire that it would fill your inner self with marks that are dark and deep. Showing your pale countenance, you will wander in the city and its lanes but will not find the roses of your choice. Excerpted from The Hidden Garden: Mir Taqi Mir by Gopi Chand Narang, translated from the Urdu by Surinder Deol.
Thursday, 14 January, 2021
BUSINESS 09
corporate corner FFC's IT division achieves PCI DSS certification KARACHI: Fauji Fertilizer Company (FFC) reached another milestone when its Corporate IT Data Centre attained Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI-DSS) v3.2.1 certification for FFC Cloud Hosting Services. The certification assures compliance to globally accepted information security standards of highest order. The PCI-DSS certification is required by financial institutions and fintechs to have necessary confidence while choosing a cloud hosting provider. FFC cloud services achieved the certification after rigorous evaluation by M/s Compliance Wing Pvt Ltd. FFC already holds ISO 27001:2013 certification regarding its Information Security Management System (ISMS) for the last 5 years, which in itself is a testament of FFC’s resolve to ensure confidentiality, integrity and availability of its Cloud Based services to all clients. PRESS RElEASE
ISLAMABAD: Islamabad Marriott Hotel General Manager Maurizio Romani receives Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu along with a high level Turkish delegation, including Ertugrul’s leading stars Nurettin Sönmez (Bamsi) and Ayberk Pekcan (Artuk Bey). PR
‘CCP’S jurISDICTIon’: CeMenT ManuFaCTurerS ChaLLenge LhC verDICT In SuPreMe CourT ISLAMABAD
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STAFF REPORT
EMENT manufacturers on Wednesday filed pleas in Supreme Court assailing Lahore High Court (LHC) verdict that had dismissed petitions of almost all industries challenging the establishment of the Competition Commission of Pakistan (CCP) and the competence of the parliament to enact a law on the subject of competition. Challenging the verdict that a threemember bench of Justices Ayesha A Malik, Shahid Jamil Khan and Sajid Mahmood Sethi had announced on October 26 last year, DG Khan Cement Limited and others urged the apex court to set aside the LHC verdict in the matter while granting them stay order against the commission's actions. The appellants claimed that the LHC has erred in failing to uphold their right to a free and fair trial under Article
AZIZ BUNERI
Ministers hail LSM growth amid pandemic Planning and Development Minister Asad Umar said on Wednesday that industrial growth of the country was clearly accelerating as it witnessed "excellent results during the month of November last year". In a tweet, Asad Umar termed the growth in large scale manufacturing (LSM) during November 2020 as "excellent news" for the economy. He noted the average LSM growth during July-November FY21 was up 7.4pc, while in the month of November 2020, it was recorded at 14.5pc. "The growth in November LSM was the highest for any month during the last 12 years," he added. Meanwhile, Economic Affairs Minister Makhdoom Khusro Bakhtiar has said that Pakistan’s economic performance was remarkable in the context of the second wave of Covid-19 and persistent growth contraction worldwide. "While the global economy shrank 4.3pc due to the pandemic, Pakistan’s large scale manufacturing witnessed a growth of 14.5pc in November 2020 as compared to November 2019," Khusro Bakhtiar said in a statement issued on Wednesday. NEWS DESK
They further requested the apex court to decide a question of law whether the LHC has erred in failing to appreciate the substantial devolution of powers from the federation to
KP records up to 30pc increase in food prices within week PESHAWAR
PESHAWAR: Bank of Khyber (BoK) successfully went live with the next generation Core Banking Temenos Transact, Digital Banking Infinity Platform, Financial Crime Mitigation and Analytics. The implementation was carried out by Temenos implementation partner National Data Consultant (NdcTech). PR
10-A of the Constitution by unreasonably and arbitrarily refusing the request of adjournment by the petitioner’s counsel in light of the Covid-19 pandemic and domestic ban on air travel.
The prices of essential commodities including sugar, rice, ghee and pulses in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) have risen by 10 to 30 per cent over the past week, while many commodities in utility stores have gone missing after sudden hike in prices. At present, the rate of sugar in the province stood at Rs105 per kg, whereas despite the provincial government’s increase in wheat quota for flour mills, price of a 20kg flour bag has exceeded Rs1,350. After a rise in food prices in the general market, people of Peshawar flocked to utility stores only to find out that ghee, cooking oil, dry milk, soap, red pepper, salt, spices, beverages, toothpaste, and even shoe polish were being sold at rates similar
to the rest of the city. Meanwhile, citizens complained that there is no effective mechanism on behalf of the district administration to keep a check markets and provide relief to the masses against the artificial increase of grocery prices. KP Flour Mills Association Chairman Naeem Butt told Profit that the province requires 12,000 tonnes of flour or wheat on a daily basis, however, the provincial government has fixed a quota of 7,000 tonnes per day, while the remaining 5,000 tonnes is being supplied from Punjab. Butt added that provincial flour mills have been issued a list of selected dealers from the deputy commissioner’s office according to which all mills are to supply them with flour and wheat as per the subsidised price list. “Nobody can increase wheat or flour prices arbitrarily. There
is no increase in the prices of local flour at the provincial level; however, the prices of fine flour, which is being supplied from Punjab, has increased in the local market,” he explained. Speaking to Profit, Adviser to Chief Minister on Information, Kamran Bangash, said that the provincial government has issued strict instructions to district administrations to take effective action against hoarding. He said that demand for wheat in KP is high while its production is low, which is why the province is dependent on Punjab. “To meet the demand of 4.3 million tonnes per annum, the provincial government has assured that 1.2 million tonnes would be procured from the Pakistan Agricultural Storage and Services Corporation (Passco), while the commodity would be imported as well,” he added.
PTCL’s services licence renewed for 25 years ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Telecommunications Authority (PTA) has renewed the integrated telecom services licence of Pakistan Telecommunication Company Limited (PTCL) for the next 25 years. In a statement issued on Wednesday, PTCL & Ufone Group Chief Regulatory Officer Naveed Khalid Butt said, "We are happy to announce the news of our licence renewal for the next 25 years with PTA. PTCL, being the national carrier, has always re-
mained dedicated in its efforts to provide connectivity to the people and organisations across Pakistan." He said that the company has gone through massive transformation since its inception and is now focused to keep Pakistan digitally connected to better serve its customers, partners and stakeholders. With the renewal of its licence, PTCL is geared up to take the challenge of taking Pakistan to the next level of growth and progress, he added. STAFF REPORT
the provinces via the 18th amendment to the constitution and thereby arrived at a conclusion which is diametrically opposite to what the intention was of the legislature in enacting the said amendment? The appellants further urged the top court to decide whether the LHC has erred in disregarding the deliberate deletion of the entry relating to legislation in respect of monopolies and competition in the Federal Legislative List (FLL) of the 1973 Constitution. They submitted that there was no entry in the FLL which allowed parliament to enact law on the subject of competition, adding that the parliament did not have the power to make laws on matters which were not enumerated in the FLL as the residue power was vested with the provinces after the 18th Constitution Amendment. They submitted the FLL did not contain any entry on the subject of competition or monopolies or in any manner with reference to antitrust restrictions.
MARKET DAILY Stocks breach 46,000 level on soaring activity ISLAMABAD STAFF REPORT
The Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) witnessed another day of high investor participation, as volumes remained above 800 million for the second consecutive session, helping the benchmark index to breach the 46,000 level for the first time since April 2018. On the economic front, Pakistan's large scale manufacturing industries (LSMI) recorded an increase of 7.41pc during Jul-Nov FY21 compared to the same period of last year. The LSMI output increased 14.46pc in Nov 2020 when compared with Nov 2019, and 1.35pc when compared with October 2020. Meanwhile, according to a tweet shared by Adviser to Prime Minister on Commerce Abdul Razak Dawood, exports of home textiles increased 16pc, readymade garments 25pc and tents/canvas 57pc during Jul-Dec 2020 compared to last year. The benchmark KSE-100 remained in the green throughout the session, recording its intraday high at 46,314.15 after gaining 392.11 points. It settled higher by 169.92 points at 46,091.96. A total of 208 scrips managed to accumulate gains; 164 closed lower; while the value of 173 remained unchanged. The overall market volumes appreciated further from 825.8 million shares in the previous session to 845.3 million shares (+2pc). Average trading value surged by 27pc, from $131.8 million to $167.5 million. KElectric Ltd (KEL -5.11pc), Pakistan International Bulk Terminal Ltd (PIBTL +3.13pc) and Power Cement Ltd (POWER +7.93pc) led the volume chart, exchanging 110.62 million, 79.64 million and 45.13 million shares, respectively. The benchmark index rallied mainly on the back of technology & communications (76.31 points) and cement (+71.63 points) sectors, with Systems Ltd (SYS +6.70pc) and TRG Pakistan Ltd (TRG +2.68pc), Pioneer Cement Ltd (PIOC +7.49pc), Maple Leaf Cement Factory Ltd (MLCF +2.10pc) and Lucky Cement Ltd (LUCK +0.48pc) contributing the most.
Kuaishou Technology launches creator academy in Pakistan KARACHI BABAR KHAN JAVED
Kuaishou Technology has launched a creator academy in Pakistan for SnackVideo. As reported first by this scribe over a week ago, the internet media services company initiated plans to recruit teams around its influencer marketing, virtual gifting, eCommerce, and advertising revenue divisions. According to a prospectus submitted to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, Kuaishou Technology has the copyrights for the software of SnackVideo since the 11th of September 2019 and has the copyrights for the SnackVideo logo design as of the 17th of August 2020. According to Sensor Tower, the Snack Video app went from the top 350 to the top 15 Android apps on the Google Play Store for Pakistan in the “Video Players & Editors” category during October 2020. By mid-November 2020, SnackVideo was ranked among the top five most downloaded Android apps on the Google Play Store for Pakistan in the “Video Players & Editors” category, falling to the top 15 by
SHORT-VIDEO INDUSTRY PIONEER OFFERING MONETARY REWARDS AS PLOY TO ATTRACT NEW USERS mid-December. As of the 12th January 2021, Sensor Tower ranks SnackVideo in first position, making it the most downloaded Android app on the Google Play Store for Pakistan in the “Video Players & Editors” category. Without filtering for the “Video Players & Editors” category, Sensor Tower analytics show that SnackVideo has been among the top ten most downloaded Android apps on the Google Play Store for Pakistan for nearly a week to date. Capitalising on its growth, Kuaishou Technology has initiated a creators academy for Pakistan offering one million rupees to new users when they download the app, shoot a video in any theme, and publish the video with the #SnackActingStar hashtag. It is unclear how the company plans to distribute the promised funds, though the company told Profit that the
maximum payout will be 300,000 rupees ($1,875) while the top ten new creators will have a chance of being named creators on the SnackVideo platform. The company claims to have signed on more than twenty key opinion leaders (KOLs) in Pakistan, the bulk of whom found fame and fortune through TikTok. These KOLs include Jannat Mirza, Alishbah Anjum, Hoor Mahaveera, Areeka haq, and Sehar Hayyat. The creator academy in Pakistan was initiated just as the Bigo Awards Gala 2021 was announced, featuring three creators from Pakistan. As predicted by Profit, social media apps that want to acquire social media content creators (SMCCs) in Pakistan will need to guarantee recurring monetary rewards for cross-posting content and offer larger payoffs for exclusively publishing on one platform. In a bid to grow the SMCC ecosystem,
CMYK
the apps would need to either work with an influencer marketing trade body or a multichannel network (MCN) to create a training academy for aspiring SMCCs, just as how the government of South Korea manufactures Kpop stars. In the global influencer marketing ecosystem, MCNs offer SMCCs assistance in areas such as content programming, crosspromotion, partner management, digital rights management, monetization and sales. In the absence of an influencer marketing trade body or an MCN, Kuaishou Technology has initiated its own and expects the 20 KOLs brought in to behave as mentors and instructors to aspiring SMCCs on the shortform video-sharing mobile app. According to a prospectus submitted to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, Kuaishou Technology has over 300 million daily active users (DAU) and over 770 million monthly active users (MAU), growing at 65pv year on year. The company claims that the average time a user spends on the app is 85 minutes while the app has generated $6 billion in revenue in 2019, growing 50pc year on
year in 2020. According to iResearch, for the six months ended 30th June 2020, Kuaishou Technology is the largest live streaming platform by gross billings from virtual gifting, the second largest short video platform by average DAUs, and the second largest live streaming e-commerce platform by gross merchandise value (GMV). Across all short-video apps, the company has a multi-faceted monetization model for its SMCCs, including virtual gifting akin to Reddit Coins. When users made purchases directly or through third party platforms, the app facilitated the exchange of nearly $15 billion in GMV during the first half of 2020 while the in-app advertising business comprised nearly $1.1 billion in revenue. The app allows users to play online games within the app through a collaboration with its investor Tencent and make in-game purchases, while also allowing all types of app users to upload content in the form of classes or lessons which other users purchase, with Kuaishou Technology taking an undisclosed amount of.
Thursday, 14 January, 2021
10 FOREIGN NEWS
IndoneSIa confIdent on fIndIng Second ‘black box’ of craShed plane JAKARTA
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AGENCIES
ndonesian divers believe they are close to finding the cockpit voice recorder of a Sriwijaya Air jet that plunged into the sea shortly after takeoff with 62 people onboard. Divers retrieved the plane’s flight data recorder (FDR) from the seabed on Tuesday and officials said they had also found the beacon that was attached to the cockpit voice recorder (CVR). “God willing, we will find it today,”
said Navy official Wahyudin Arif, referring to the cockpit voice recorder. He told Kompas TV on Wednesday divers would comb a very narrow area of the seabed for the voice recorder, adding that divers found the first black box by shifting debris on the seabed piece by piece and he suspected the same process would be needed to find the other recorder. Military chief Hadi Tjahjanto said on Tuesday he had “high confidence” of finding the recorder soon. The Boeing 737-500 jet crashed into the Java Sea on Saturday four minutes
after takeoff from Jakarta’s main airport, killing all onboard. Investigators will rely heavily on the two black boxes to determine the cause of the crash. Indonesia’s National Transportation Safety Committee (KNKT) expects to download the FDR data within two to five days. The FDR contains about 25 hours of data on eight tracks and the CVR has 30 minutes of conversation, according to the final report on a similar model of a Boeing 737 which crashed in 2008.
A team from the US National Transportation Safety Board will be traveling to Jakarta in the coming days to help with the investigation. The KNKT’s initial findings showed the plane’s engine was running when it hit the water, based on the damage seen on jet parts retrieved from the sea. Indonesia’s transport ministry said on Tuesday the plane, which was grounded during the early months of the coronavirus pandemic, had passed an airworthiness inspection on Dec. 14 and had returned to service shortly after.
57 killed in deadliest Israeli strikes on Syria in years: monitor Israeli raids targeting arms depots and military positions in eastern Syria killed 57 regime loyalists, in the deadliest such strikes since the start of the conflict, a monitor said on Wednesday. The Israeli air force carried out more than 18 strikes against multiple targets in an area stretching from the eastern town of Deir Ezzor to the Iraqi border, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said. At least 14 Syrian regime forces, 16 Iraqi militia fighters, and 11 Afghan members of the Fatimid Brigade were among those killed, the Britain-based monitoring group said. At least 37 others were wounded. Paramilitaries belonging to the Lebanese Hezbollah movement and the Fatimid Brigade operate in the region, the Observatory said. Days before the strikes, the Fatimid Brigade transported a consignment of Iranian-manufactured weapons to eastern Syria from neighbouring Iraq. They were stored in the region targeted on Wednesday, the monitor said. The Israeli military did not immediately comment. In June 2018, strikes on the same region had killed at least 55 pro-government fighters, including Iraqis as well as Syrians. The latest raids came hours after separate strikes near the Iraqi border killed at least 12 militia fighters on Tuesday. The Observatory said it could not identify the warplanes responsible for the earlier strikes. AGENCIES
Italy targets violent clan in biggest mafia trial in decades LAMEZIA TERME
US cancels UN envoy's trip to Taiwan, citing Biden transition
AGENCIES
One of Italy’s largest-ever mafia trials kicked off on Wednesday, with more than 320 suspected mobsters and their associates facing an array of charges, including extortion, drug trafficking and theft. The case targets the ‘Ndrangheta clan, which is based in Calabria, the toe of Italy’s boot, and is considered by prosecutors to be the most powerful mafia group in the country, easily eclipsing the more famous Cosa Nostra gang in Sicily. The trial is being held in a converted callcentre in the Calabrian city of Lamezia Terme, with defendants placed in metal cages and rows of desks set up for the hundreds of lawyers, prosecutors, journalists and spectators expected to attend. Many of the accused are white-collar workers, including lawyers, accountants, businesspeople, local politicians and policemen, who chief prosecutor Nicola Gratteri says willingly aided the ‘Ndrangheta in building its crime empire. Speaking to reporters as he entered the courthouse, Gratteri said the investigation had encouraged locals to speak out. “In the last two years we have seen a surge in lawsuits from oppressed entrepreneurs and citizens, victims of usury, people who for years have lived under the threats of the ‘Ndrangheta,” said the prosecutor, who has spent more than 30 years fighting the mob. The state will call on 913 witnesses and draw on 24,000 hours of intercepted conversations to support the myriad charges. Gratteri said he expected the trial would take a year to complete, with the court due to sit six days a week. Another 92 suspects have opted for a fast-track trial in the same case, with their hearings due to start later in January, while a much smaller group of defendants will stand trial in February over five murders -- including the killing of a mafia hitman who was shot dead because he was gay, prosecutors say. The last time Italy tried hundreds of alleged mafiosi simultaneously was in 1986 in Palermo in a case which represented a turning point in the fight against Cosa Nostra, marking the beginning of the group’s sharp decline. That trial had a huge impact because it targeted numerous mob families. The Calabrian trial focuses primarily on just one group -- the Mancuso clan from the province of Vibo Valentia -- leaving much of the ‘Ndrangheta’s top hierarchy untouched.
US executes first woman in nearly seven decades WASHINGTON AGENCIES
The US Supreme Court has cleared the way for the Justice Department to carry out the first execution of a female death-row inmate in almost seven decades. The rulings, handed down just after midnight on Wednesday, allow the federal Bureau of Prisons to proceed with the execution of Lisa Montgomery. The court lifted an injunction that had been put in place by the 8th US Circuit Court of Appeals that had temporarily halted Montgomery’s execution. It came hours after the Supreme Court also lifted a separate injunction by the US Circuit Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia. Montgomery is scheduled to be put to death at the federal prison complex in Terre Haute, Indiana. Her lawyers have argued she is not mentally competent and should not be executed. They say she suffered from years of physical and emotional abuse and is severely mentally ill. Montgomery was convicted of killing 23-year-old Bobbie Jo Stinnett in the northwest Missouri town of Skidmore in December 2004. She used a rope to strangle Stinnett, who was eight months pregnant, and then cut the baby girl from the womb with a kitchen knife, authorities said. Montgomery took the child with her and attempted to pass the girl off as her own, prosecutors said.
Indian farmers burn legislation in show of defiance GHAZIABAD AGENCIES
NEW YORK AGENCIES
The US State Department’s cancellation of all travel this week includes a planned visit to Taiwan by US Ambassador to the United Nations Kelly Craft, a State Department spokeswoman said on Tuesday. Craft had been due to visit Taiwan from Wednesday to Friday, prompting China, which claims the self-ruled island as its own, to warn that Washington was playing with fire. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said on Tuesday that all travel this week had been cancelled, including his own trip to Europe, as part of the transition to the incoming Biden administration. But European diplomats and other people familiar with the matter said Luxembourg’s foreign minister and top EU officials had declined to meet with him during his planned European trip. Beijing has been angered by stepped-up support for Taiwan from the Trump administration, including trips to Taipei by top US officials, further straining Sino-US ties. Pompeo on Saturday said he was lifting restrictions on contacts be-
tween US officials and their Taiwanese counterparts. Craft’s Taiwan trip appeared to be another part of an effort by Pompeo and President Donald Trump’s Republican administration to lock in a tough approach to China before Democratic President-elect Joe Biden takes office on January 20. Taiwan’s government expressed “understanding and respect” for the decision, but also regret. “The Ministry of Foreign Affairs regrets that the US Ambassador to the United Nations Kelly Craft cannot lead a delegation to visit Taiwan from January 13 to 15 as scheduled, but welcomes Ambassador Craft to visit at an appropriate time in the future,” it said in a statement. Craft is due to leave the role when Biden assumes the presidency next week. China, which had expressed its strong opposition to Craft’s trip, reiterated it was firmly opposed to any official exchanges between Taiwan and the United States. “China will continue to take all necessary steps to firmly defend its sovereignty and security interests,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian told reporters in Beijing.
Chinese fighter jets approached the island in August and September during the last two US visits - by Secretary of Health and Human Services Alex Azar and Under Secretary of State for Economic Growth, Energy, and the Environment Keith Krach, respectively. While the United States, like most countries, has no formal diplomatic ties with Taiwan, it is the island’s strongest international backer and arms supplier, being obliged to help provide Taiwan with the means to defend itself under the 1979 Taiwan Relations Act. Trump is a popular figure in Taiwan for his administration’s support of the island, and Taipei has moved to reassure its citizens that backing will not change despite the handover in Washington. Lo Chih-cheng, head of the ruling Democratic Progressive Party’s international department, said the State Department’s decision covered all official travel and was “not aimed at Taiwan”, pointing to their shared values of democracy and freedom. “We look forward to continuing to gain cross-party support from the United States on the existing solid foundation,” he said in a statement.
Indian farmers burnt copies of the government’s new agricultural laws on Wednesday, pressing on with their protest against the reforms despite a decision by the Supreme Court to postpone implementation while their grievances are heard. Tens of thousands of farmers have been camped on the outskirts of the capital, New Delhi, for almost two months, protesting against what they say are laws designed to benefit large private buyers at the expense of growers. The government led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi denies this, saying the legislation is required to reform an agricultural sector beset by waste. At several protest sites on Wednesday, farmers threw copies of the three new laws on bonfires lit for the Hindu Lohri mid-winter festival. “These laws are not in farmers’ interests,” said Gursevak Singh, 32, one of the protesters involved in the burning at a protest site in Ghaziabad, a satellite city of New Delhi. “We want the government to use their brains and repeal these laws.” Unrest among India’s estimated 150 million farmers represents one of the biggest challenges to Modi’s rule since his Bharatiya Janata Party won a second term in power in 2019. One of the BJP’s coalition partners resigned when the laws were first introduced in September, and the issue risks uniting India’s often-fractioned opposition. India’s Supreme Court on Tuesday ordered a temporary suspension of the laws while a four-member committee looks into the protesters’ grievances. But farm leaders have refused to cooperate with the committee and say they will intensify their protests, including around Republic Day celebrations in the capital later this month. “We expect to mobilise up to two million farmers across the country on January 26,” Kulwant Singh Sandhu, general secretary of Jamhuri Kisan Sabha, one of the main farm unions, said. Farmers have consistently called for the total repeal of the laws, though the government says there is “no question” of this happening. Eight rounds of talks have failed to break the deadlock. The two sides are next due to meet on Friday.
More than 80 civilians killed in new attacks in western Ethiopia, rights group says ADDIS ABABA AGENCIES
More than 80 civilians died in the latest attack in an area of western Ethiopia that has seen recurring grisly violence in recent months, the national human rights commission said Wednesday. "We've received information that over 80 civilians were killed on Tuesday in an area called Daletti" in Ethiopia's Benishangul-Gumuz region, Aaron Maasho, an advisor and spokesman for the Ethiopian Human Rights Commission (EHRC), said.
The village of Daletti is located in the Metekel area, where hundreds of civilians have been killed by assailants using guns, knives and other weapons in attacks going back to at least September. Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed has struggled to impose order in Metekel or explain what is driving the violence, despite visiting the area in December and empowering a command post to take charge of security there. There is no known link between the violence and military operations in Ethiopia's northernmost Tigray region, where Abiy sent
in troops in November to detain and disarm leaders of the dissident regional ruling party. Tuesday's attack in Metekel occurred between 5 and 7 am, with victims ranging in age from two to 45, Aaron said. The EHRC, a government-affiliated but independent body, is "still chasing further details about the perpetrators" and how the victims were killed, he said. Opposition politicians have described the violence in Metekel as ethnically motivated, alleging a targeted campaign by ethnic Gumuz militias against members of other ethnic groups in the area, including the
Amhara, Ethiopia's second-largest group. One survivor of Tuesday's attack, Ahmed Yimam, said Wednesday he had counted 82 bodies and said 22 people were injured. "The attack was carried out mostly using knives, although arrows and firearms were also used," he said. "I fear more attacks as the perpetrators aren't receiving punishment, and there is no functioning government at local and regional level," he said. On Monday, state-affiliated Fana Broadcasting Corporate reported that "relative
peace has been restored in Metekel" because of the government's response to the violence, but the EHRC's Aaron said Wednesday that more needed to be done. "These civilians have barely had a respite from such grim attacks for months. We once again call on federal and regional authorities to enhance their coordination when responding to such incidents to prevent the loss of life in BenishangulGumuz," he said. "We remind the authorities that the protection of civilians is the primary duty of the government."
Thursday, 14 January, 2021
PauL Pogba netS wInner aS MancheSter unIted beat burnLey to go toP oF the tabLe
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AUL Pogba said he is “always happy” when he is winning after scoring the only goal in a 1-0 victory at Burnley that took Manchester United top of the Premier League for the first time in three years on Tuesday. Despite continued speculation over his future, Pogba has played an increasingly important role in recent weeks to aid United’s first serious title challenge since legendary former manager Alex Ferguson retired in 2013. Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s men now lead defending champions Liverpool by three points ahead of a top-of-the-table clash between the two most successful sides in
English football history at Anfield on Sunday. “I’m always happy when I win,” said Pogba, who has been consistently linked with a move away from Old Trafford at the end of the season. “I’m happy we are playing well and happy we are at the top, but there is a long way to go and we have big games coming up.” United have now taken 29 from the last possible 33 points to recover from just two wins in their opening six games of the season. The signing of Bruno Fernandes shortly after Burnley won 2-0 at Old Trafford nearly a year ago in the last meeting between the sides has transformed United’s fortunes. And if Pogba can finally produce consistent displays worthy of the then world record fee United paid for the Frenchman in 2016, there is reason for Solskjaer to be-
lieve he can end the club’s eight-year wait for a league title. “I’ve always said Paul is a big, big player for us,” added Solskjaer. “He is a good character in the dressing room, he is always one the lads look to (because) he’s a world champion. We are seeing the best of Paul at the moment. He’s getting better and better every game.” The manner of victory against a Burnley side that had not lost at home since October also suggests United have the ability of champions to grind out a result when they need to. The first-half was dominated by controversy over a series of VAR reviews as both sides escaped without having a man sent-off for challenges by Luke Shaw and Robbie Brady, while United had a goal harshly ruled out for a slight push by Harry
Maguire when he powered home a header at the back post. The visitors upped the pressure in the second-half and got their reward 19 minutes from time when Pogba’s volley from Marcus Rashford’s cross deflected off Matt Lowton and through the legs of Nick Pope to head to Anfield leading Liverpool. “We couldn’t be going there at a better time to play them,” added Solskjaer. “We are in good shape, good form, hungry, these boys want to get better and that’s a test again.” Everton moved back into the top four and within four points of United as they overcame an injury crisis to beat Wolves 2-1 at Molineux. Carlo Ancelotti was forced to start without a recognised striker without Dominic Calvert-Lewin and Richarlison only fit enough for a place on the bench. The Toffees took an early lead when Alex Iwobi converted Lucas Digne’s cross but were pegged back when Ruben Neves levelled for Wolves. Michael Keane’s towering header won the game 13 minutes from time to bolster the Blues’ European ambitions. “We adapted really well to the characteristics of the players we had,” said Ancelotti. At the other end of the table, Sheffield United ended a 20-game winless league run as Billy Sharp’s penalty earned a 1-0 victory over 10-man Newcastle. The Blades still face an uphill task to haul themselves off the bottom of the table as they sit nine points adrift of safety. But Chris Wilder’s men ensured they will not set an unwanted record by going a full top-flight season without a win thanks to another night to forget for Newcastle. “It looked like we got our identity back,” said Wilder. “It was us with the handbrake off, going for it and playing well in and out of possession.” The Magpies could yet find themselves dragged into a relegation battle as they remain eight points above the drop zone in 15th, but have played two games more than Fulham in 18th.
SPORTS 11 IMran Khan beatS VIrat KohLI, other caPtaInS In Icc PoLL NEWS DESK Pakistan’s 1992 World Cup-winning captain and current Prime Minister Imran Khan on Wednesday won a Twitter poll started a day earlier by the International Cricket Council (ICC) about captains, whose game rose with leadership. Imran beat current India captain Virat Kohli, former South Africa captain AB de Villiers and current captain of Australia’s women team Meg Lanning. A total of 536,346 votes were cast in the poll with Imran securing 47.3 per cent of the votes. Kohli was second in the poll with 46.2 per cent of the votes while de Villiers and Lanning were ranked third and last with 6 and 0.5 per cent of the votes respectively. The ICC said that for these four players, the captaincy stood out for them and became a blessing for them. It said the players’ averages improved when they became leaders of their dressing room. “You decide which of these ‘pacesetters’ were the best among these geniuses!” said the ICC. The ICC tweets show that Kohli’s average shot up to 73.88 from 51.29 in ODIs when he took over the captaincy while de Villiers average shot up to 63.94 from 45.97 when he became his team’s captain. As a player, Imran had an average of 25.43 with the bat and 25.53 with the bowl in Tests. However, when he was captaining, his batting average was 52.34 and bowling average was 20.26.
Sabalenka clinches third straight title with Abu Dhabi win ABU DHABI AGENCIES
Belarusian Aryna Sabalenka made a strong start to her 2021 season with a comfortable 6-2 6-2 victory over Veronika Kudermetova of Russia to clinch the WTA 500 event in Abu Dhabi on Wednesday and extend her winning streak to 15 matches. After finishing 2020 with trophies at Ostrava and Linz, the strongly built Sabalenka started her new campaign in the same vein in Abu Dhabi and will rise three spots to a careerbest world number seven when the WTA rankings are up-
dated on Monday. “I am really proud of the fact that I was fighting no matter what,” the 22-year-old told reporters. “Some matches I did not feel my serve, some matches backhand, forehand. But I was like ‘just keep fighting’. That’s why I am really proud of and happy with this title.” It was the ninth title overall for the fourth-seeded Sabalenka, who now heads to Melbourne for the first Grand Slam of the year at the Australian Open next month. She will now head to Melbourne for a mandatory 14day quarantine before the warmup events start from January 31 ahead of the Australian Open. With her powerful groundstrokes and all-round game,
Sabalenka will be considered a dark horse at the Feb. 821 Grand Slam at Melbourne Park. “I will keep improving my game, keep working on some things,” Sabalenka said. “It is not about just staying in shape, there’s always something to work on and to improve. As soon as you stop working on improving your game, you will start losing.” Sabalenka broke her opponent’s serve six times during Wednesday’s final and was particularly pleased with her return game during the tournament. “My biggest dream is to win a Grand Slam. I think we all have the same dream, so nothing really special,” Sabalenka said with a smile.
Flower to replace Misbah after PSL, says Shoaib
NEWS DESK Former bowler Shoaib Akhtar on Wednesday claimed that the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) has decided to replace national team’s head coach Misbah-ul-Haq with former Zimbabwe cricketer Andy Flower. In a YouTube video, Shoaib said that Flower will take over after the conclusion of PSL 2021. “PCB has offered the job to Flower. He is not accepting it due to his coaching commitment with [PSL franchise] Multan Sultans. But once the PSL is over, he will take over,” Shoaib said. “The decision to sack Misbah has been taken. They are not giving him any chance,” he added. The fast bowler also criticised the cricketing body for appointing Misbah in the first place. “The PCB knowingly appoints average people so it could remove them in six months to avoid criticism. It is a mediocre organisation appointing mediocre players,” he further said.
Sri Lanka, England to clash in two-Test series with crucial World Championship points at stake COLOMBO AGENCIES
Ten months after aborting their tour of Sri Lanka as the pandemic advanced, England will finally play the first Test on Thursday (today) with the coronavirus still causing problems. Joe Root’s team, missing Ben Stokes and Jofra Archer, need a convincing win in the two-match series to keep alive their hopes of reaching the World Test Championship final. All-rounder Moeen Ali is also out of the two-Test series’ opener after testing positive for the coronavirus on arrival in the island on January 3. After England left Sri Lanka without playing a Test last March – and cut short a tour of South Africa in December over coronavirus fears – it has been an unsettling time
for the team. But the players, living in a bio-secure ‘bubble’ in Sri Lanka, have remained united throughout, according to wicketkeeper-batsman Jonny Bairstow. “Everyone’s together. That’s been a strength of the team, the unity. It’s been a real key throughout this whole period of Covid,” he said. Bairstow, who last played a five-day match in late 2019, is expected to return to the Test team in Galle. All-rounder Chris Woakes admitted that chances of him playing the first game remain “quite slim” after being a close contact of Moeen and isolating for seven days. “I was certainly hoping to force my way in and with no Stokesy here it emphasises that an all-rounder’s role which myself or Sam Curran could fill to balance the team a bit,” said the paceman and a right-hand bats-
man, who started training with the squad on Monday. Moeen’s intial 10-day quarantine was extended on Tuesday after he experienced mild symptoms and fatigue as England officials complied with the Sri Lankan government’s cautious approach when it comes to Covid-19 cases. In his absence, Dom Bess and Jack Leach will be the premier spin bowlers in the 18-member squad although, with spinners likely to play a big part in the series, England could also call on their travelling reserves Mason Crane, Matt Parkinson and Amar Virdi. “We can play plenty of spin if required,” England coach Chris Silverwood insisted. “They are all here, so they’re available. We travel with such a large group so should any eventuality come up we have it covered.” Moeen and Leach were key to the tour-
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ing England team that won 3-0 in Sri Lanka in 2018 and Silverwood said they have the muscle to beat the hosts on their home territory again. “It is difficult to win here. I read (Sri Lanka head coach) Mickey Arthur’s comments about our win in 2018 being in the back of their minds and wanting to get revenge for that,” said Silverwood. “Do I believe we can win? Of course, I always believe our team can beat anyone. To me it’s about the processes, the continual progression of the team.” Uncapped Essex batsman Dan Lawrence is set for an international debut with Silverwood saying the 23year-old is “ready” for it. England, currently fourth in the inaugural Test championship table led by Australia, need a series win in Sri Lanka to have a chance of making the final at Lord’s. Sri Lanka have just returned from a los-
ing 2-0 whitewash in South Africa and must find replacements for injured batsman Dhananjaya de Silva and paceman Kasun Rajitha. Wicketkeeper-batsman Niroshan Dickwella said their absence would be a blow, but that Sri Lanka still pose a threat. England are much weakened without Stokes and Archer, who were given permission to miss this part of a tour before the team heads to India. “I think it is going to be tough series,” said Dickwella. “Compared to the conditions in 2018 I think we have a better chance this time with no Archer, no Ben Stokes and a few other players,” said the wicketkeeperbatsman. “But we don’t take it easy. We just play our normal game.” The left-handed batsman added: “We do not underestimate the England side but I think we have a good chance of winning this series.”
Thursday, 14 January, 2021
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SeCreT balloT enCoUrageS Selling of voTeS, agP TellS SC
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TTORNeY General for Pakistan (AGP) Khalid Jawed Khan said in regard to the upcoming Senate elections that one method encourages selling of votes, while the other ensures transparency. The AGP stated that there had been at least 11 instances where the apex court had adhjucated on political matters and maintained that the government was only asking for an interoperation of Article 226 of the Constitution. This was said to a five-judge bench, headed by Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP)
Gulzar Ahmed, during the Supreme Court hearing on the presidential reference on holding open ballots during the upcoming elections. "The thrust of your arguments is [based] on morality but the issue is political," Justice Yahya Afrid said. The justice also wondered why the government did not approach the parliament itself to change the manner of the elections. Justice Ijaz-ul-Ahsan said that a Member of Provincial Assembly (MPA) should be able to stand up and face the consequences of his or her vote if they vote according to their conscience. He also asked whether deviating from one’s party line in the secret balloting method was dishonesty.
'He must go,' Pelosi says, as US House nears impeaching Trump for second time WASHINGTON: The US House of Representatives held an emotional debate on Wednesday ahead of a vote to impeach President Donald Trump, with the chamber’s top Democrat calling him a “clear and present danger,” while Republican Senate leaders weighed whether to launch a trial on Friday to consider removing him from office. With only a week remaining in Trump’s tumultuous four-year term, an immediate trial could allow the Senate to vote on whether to oust him before he leaves the White House and Democratic President-elect Joe Biden takes office on Jan. 20. The House vote is set to be held a week after a pro-Trump mob swarmed the U.S. Capitol shortly after the Republican president delivered an incendiary speech to thousands of supporters. Around 12:30 p.m. (1730 GMT), the House began debating a single article of impeachment formally charging Trump with inciting insurrection in a speech shortly before the riot. “We know that the president of the United States incited this insurrection, this armed rebellion against our common country,” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a Democrat, told her fellow lawmakers. “He must go. He is a clear and present danger to the nation that we all love.” The internal Senate discussions, according to a source familiar with the deliberations, took place as the Democratic-controlled House moved toward impeaching the president for his role in the Jan. 6 siege. The source said no final decision has been reached on the timing of Senate action. Trump’s supporters on Jan. 6 breached the building’s security, sent lawmakers fleeing and left five dead in their wake, including a police officer. The mob interrupted the formal certification of Biden’s victory in the Nov. 3 election. Pelosi said Trump has engaged in a “war on democracy,” and that the “insurrectionists” and “domestic terrorists” who stormed the Capitol were “sent here by the president.” AGENCIES
CoronavirUS in
PakiSTan
CONFIRMED CASES:
508,824
LAST UPDATED AT 8:12 AM ON JANUARY 13, 2021
DAY'S DEATH TOLL:
55
RECOVERED:
NEW CASES:
2,123 DEATHS:
464,950 10,772 SINDH:
PUNJAB:
228,949 146,525 KP:
BALOCHISTAN:
AJK/GB:
ISLAMABAD:
62,018
18,467
8,521/4,882 39,462
The AGP said in reply that MPAs were not able to give vote in Senate elections and were bound to follow their party's policy. In reply, Justice Ahsan said that free balloting was more suited to a secret ballot. The AGP maintained that the elections being held under the law could be challenged under the law, but elections being held under the Constitution cannot not be challenged under the Constitution. The hearing was adjourned until Thursday. On Monday, the Jamiat Ulema-e-IslamFazl (JUI-F) had requested the Supreme Court to declare the presidential reference filed by the incumbent government for an open ballot in the upcoming Senate elections
as non-maintainable. JUI-F’s lawyer, Kamran Murtaza, had submitted a reply on Monday to the apex court, wherein the reply had said that the reference filed by the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) “carries an inference, not in good faith, lacks jurisdiction and is meant to bypass the parliament, therefore, is liable to be declared as such”. It had pointed out that as a political party of the country, the JUI-F has a stake in both the sanctity of the elections as well as in the maintaining of the mandate of the Constitution. The reply had also stated: “The reference under the reply of paragraph 10 states that elections of the President of Pakistan are
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KABUL Afghan peace talks that resumed four days ago are effectively on hold, sources from both sides said on Wednesday, as negotiators wait for President-elect Joe Biden to signal whether he will stick to Donald Trump’s aggressive schedule to pull out troops. After a month-long break, some negotiators from both sides have yet to return to Doha, the Qatari capital that has served as venue for negotiations between the Afghan government and the insurgents to end decades of war. A diplomatic source in Kabul said expectations were low for progress before Biden takes office on January 20.
The sides “do not want to commit to anything before the 20th. They wanted to have the process going in the meantime because that was one of the requirements of the international community, so they have the process. But it is stagnant,” he said. In an agreement reached last year, Trump, who had long promised to end America’s longest war, signed the United States up to a full withdrawal in coming months. But that depends on the Taliban meeting security conditions which the Afghan government says have not been met. Biden and his advisors have so far given few clues as to their plans. “We are waiting for the new US administration and their policies towards Afghanistan to see whether they
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held “under” the Constitution, however, entry 41 in Part 1 of Fourth Schedule of the Constitution also provides for election of president. The elections Act 2017 does not state anywhere that it is enacted pursuant to Article 222 of the Constitution.” It had added that, “The conduct of the president also discussed when it filed a reference against an honourable judge of this august court, although the majority view held that malice could not be established behind the filing of reference, however, the reference was set aside.” The statement had stressed “the reference draws comparison to Senate elections with local government elections as this Honourable Court in Civil Appeals No. 760 & 765 of 2016 held that the Sindh government is competent to legislate law to hold elections either by show of hands or secret ballot. This comparison is deeply flawed as Article 140-A of Constitution provides that each province shall by law, establish a local government system and that the elections shall be held by election Commission of Pakistan (eCP)”.
Progress stalls in Afghan peace talks as sides await Biden AGENCIES
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would respect the peace accord,” a Taliban negotiator said on condition of anonymity as he was not authorised to speak publicly. “If they don’t honour their commitment of withdrawing their forces as promised...then we would need to make tough decisions by appointing hardliners to key positions on the ground.” After months of little progress, the sides finally agreed ground rules for talks late last year. The talks then broke up in December, in part to allow negotiators to return home for consultations with their leadership. The sides announced last week they would re-start talks on Saturday. But so far only limited meetings between smaller teams called ‘contact groups’
have taken place, three diplomatic and Afghan government sources said. Around four top members of the Taliban negotiating team were not yet in Qatar, the group’s spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said. He said this was due to logistical issues travelling from remote areas where they were visiting family. They would arrive in the next few days and the delay would not affect the talks, he said. Some Afghan government negotiators were also not yet in Doha. One, who has been receiving treatment for cancer, said she planned to travel there this week. Ashley Jackson, co-director of the Centre for the Study of Armed Groups at the Overseas Development Institute think tank, said one reason for the delay on the Taliban side could be that negotiators needed more time to confer with the group’s leaders. “It’s not yet fully clear why they are delayed, but with the growing speculation this can’t go on too much longer without some sort of explanation,” she said. The delayed return “reflects the existing lack of momentum”.
Removing the hooks of WhatsApp from our daily lives AKIF RASHID
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HeRe is no such thing as a free lunch, and with the concerning privacy changes to the world's most popular chatting service, people have started to scramble to find another medium to share their favourite memes and YouTube videos. Privacy certainly has become a bigger concern for the consumer. I had been watching a review by Unbox Therapy, wherein the content creator pointed out that iMessage, the Apple proprietary messaging service, did not strip away location data when sharing a photo, allowing the person on the other end to potentially track you. Clicking off the video, I was bombarded with messages about a change to WhatsApp's privacy policy, and how it might start harvesting data from users' phones. People wanted to leave WhatsApp, but there were not sure about where to go. More importantly, they were not sure about whether or not they could. The Facebook-owned messaging service, with over two billion users, had announced that it would start collecting meta-data of its users, including location data, Internet Protocol (IP) addresses, phone model, operating system (OS), battery level, signal strength, browser, mobile network, Internet service provider (ISP), language, time zone, and International Mobile equipment Identity (IMeI) numbers. WhatsApp has further stated that those who do not accept the new privacy policy by February 8, 2021, would have their accounts deleted. “Some businesses might be working with third-party service providers (which may include Facebook) to help manage their communications with their customers,” the company added. Coincidentally, this change in privacy policy came shortly after Apple mandated that all developers uploading their applications on the App Store must provide 'privacy labels' to make clear which data and permissions are being accessed by the application. This move resulted in backlash from Facebook, who
took out multiple full page newspaper ads against the policy. WhatsApp used to state: “Respect for your privacy is coded into our DNA. Since we started WhatsApp, we’ve aspired to build our Services with a set of strong privacy principles in mind”. However, users have been quick to point out that this line no longer exists in the new policy. As such, there is sufficient reason to consider another platform, but WhatsApp, like any social media app, is only as good as its user base. A teacher based in Lahore lamented that she could not actually remove WhatsApp from her phone because of all the work-related group chats. Another friend of mine, a model, said that while she might understand the concerns, she cannot deal with the headache of keeping up with two different chat apps. During these conversations, I got a WhatsApp message from my foodpanda deliveryman, asking me to send the location as he could not find my house. The concerns with WhatsApp were not limited to civilians. Regarding the data policy, Federal Minister for Science and Technology Chaudhry Fawad Hussain has said that the government was making efforts to introduce a strong data protection law to protect citizens' privacy. Similarly, the IT Ministry in a statement said that it is monitoring the current developments and clarifications provided by Facebook, TLTP reported. The ministry emphasised to all digital social media platforms, including WhatsApp, to adhere to privacy rights of citizens of Pakistan. In this regard, all such digital platforms need to strengthen their engagements with the government of Pakistan so that concerns of the general public and businesses can be well addressed by all means, said the statement. Amid the raised security concerns, Pakistan on Tuesday had announced it would develop its own messaging app, which would include all modern communication features such messages, voice calls and videos. These developments, however, ring with the same effectiveness and impact as the temporary ban the
government placed on TikTok, or the ban on YouTube from the mid-2010s. Pakistan has had a muddled history with privacy in the past. Privacy International (PI) submitted a stakeholder report in March 2017 wherein it highlighted that while Article 14(1) of the Constitution confirms that “[t]he dignity of man and, subject to law, the privacy of home, shall be inviolable", it also includes a wide-ranging exception to the primacy of fundamental rights. The provisions of Article 8 do not apply to any law relating to the ‘proper discharge’ of the duties of the Armed Forces or the police. The Prevention of electronic Crimes Act (PeCA) was passed by the National Assembly (NA) on August 11, 2016, and has since been scrutinised by Pakistani and international human rights organisations. One of the alternatives posited by the masses has been Telegram, which reported that it had gained 25 million new users within the past 72 hours. Moreover, Telegram had previously been banned due to its encryption protocol. Similarly, Telegram had been banned in Iran and Russia earlier as well, with the latter having been lifted only last year. No announcement had been made regarding the lifting of the ban, but in January last year, users reported that they could use the app without needing a VPN. However, the ban by Pakistan Telecommunication Company Ltd (PTCL) should not be taken as stamp of approval on Telegram's encryption protocol. Compared to Signal, Telegram is known and liked for its bells and whistles, such as a wide collection of stickers, cloud storage, true cross platform use. While Telegram founder Pavel Durov touts the privacy features of the app such as phone number visibility options, it is worth mentioning that the highest level of encryption is not activated by default. The default setting of the app utilises a client-to-server protocol, wherein the messages are stored in the cloud and the server even has access to a complete copy of all chats, according to researchers at German industry specialist website Heise Security.
The 'Secret Chats' feature on Telegram does offer end-to-end encryption (e2ee), and the self-destruct timer for messages can improve security as well, but both these settings are relatively hidden. Meanwhile, WhatsApp has e2ee activated for all individual and group chats as the default. While Signal is concerned the premier app for privacy, it has seen only about 100,000 users installing the messaging platform across the app stores of Apple and Google in the last two days, according to Sense Tower reports. The desire of more aesthetically pleasing or feature rich apps might explain why Telegram has seen a greater rise of users than Signal, in spite of the latter's high security. enterprise-level data provide Sensor Tower reported that new installs of WhatsApp fell 11 per cent in the first seven days of 2021 compared with the prior week, Amid backlash, the company clarified that neither WhatsApp nor Facebook could see the messages users sent to each other, and they could not hear the conversations over calls either. It is pertinent to mention that the e2ee utilised by WhatsApp was developed with Moxy Marlinspike’s Open Whisper Systems (OWS) to integrate the Signal encrypted messaging protocol, but it is a modified version of the protocol. While OWS is considered the gold standard by cryptology experts, WhatsApp has had data breach scandals. Private groups on WhatsApp are usually only accessible by those who have been sent an invite link by a moderator. However, these links were indexed by Google, making them discoverable by everyone and were shown in Google searches, reported Daily Sabah earlier this week. A similar issue was seen in February last year. It would be remiss not to mention that while WhatsApp might be asking for more metadata now, the kind that is asking for are already being accessed by applications such as Facebook and Instagram, and to users to access those apps on their phones, the changes in policy do not make a considerable difference in the data collected by Facebook Inc.
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