EpaperKHI_21-11-6 by Pakistan Today

saturday, 6 November, 2021 I 30 rabi-ul-Awwal, 1443 I rs 15.00 I Vol XII No 128 I 12 Pages I karachi Edition

RepoRt finds election officials, police Responsible foR daska by-poll fiasco

iSlAmAbAd stAff report

report released on Friday by the Election Commission of Pakistan on the February by-poll in Daska’s NA75 constituency has concluded that election officials, police and the local administration failed to play their “designated role in the requisite manner and were found [to be] puppets in the hands of their unlawful masters” during the by-election. The controversial by-election was marred by violence, rigging and the disappearance of over 20 presiding officers (POs) and subsequently, a fact-finding inquiry was launched to probe into the irregularities. Subsequently, the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) had withheld the results of the February 19 by-poll and ordered reelection in the entire constituency after suspicion that the results may have been falsified. The order was later upheld by the Supreme Court. A by-poll was held in the constituency in April, with PML-N’s Syeda Nosheen Iftikhar winning the contest by securing 110,075 votes against Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf’s Ali Asjad Malhi, who had bagged 93,433. According to the inquiry report, it seemed that “a constant observatory force drove or

goaded” presiding officers, who failed to perform their duties during the by-poll. The report — submitted by Punjab Joint Election Commissioner Saeed Gul to the Election Commission of Pakistan secretary — said the statement given by the 20 POs who were “forcefully taken to some unknown places invoked the point that … facts were being concealed by the POs”. It noted that while the said POs blamed police for the irregularities reported during the by-poll, “their statements can never justify their negligence and maladministration”. “In fact, their manipulated replies in the investigation of [them] being taken to unknown places and any interaction or forceful approach by someone further aired the suspicion that they were vindicated or backed up by someone,” the report says. It further stated that senior assistant presiding officers (SAPOs) also supported this suspicion. “Statement of SAPOs exposed that one PO willingly took the tamper evident bag with him in a shopping bag.” The report stated: “Circumstantial evidence, written statements of some POs, SAPOs, most of the drivers and very few of the police personnel and CDR data from the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority clearly prove that aforesaid POs, under

coRonaviRus in

pakistan

some planned scheme, left their respective polling stations in private vehicles and reached Sialkot by staying first at Qila Kalar Wala Police Station/ Satra Police Station, office of the DSP, Pasrur and Mundeke etc. around after nearly 08:30pm.” “They remained at some unknown building situated at Shahabpura/Ugoke Road near Zohra Hospital [in Sialkot] for more than seven hours and after that they were transported in the police security to [the] office of the RO at Jaisarwala,” it said. “Before reaching their destination, all the POs were shifted in police vans from a Toyota Hiace.” It was also noted in the inquiry report that very few POs had managed to send the results of their respective polling stations through WhatsApp or submit original results. Moreover, the inquiry revealed that Daska Deputy Education Officer Farkhanda Yasmeen had held a meeting with POs at her house, where the latter were instructed to “favour the government in the said byelection, allow the voters to cast their votes on copies of NIC (national identity card), act upon the guidelines received from [her] during polling and not to bother about the law and order situation if [it] turned untoward”. “These disclosed facts convincingly take us to the point that [the] mishap in the byelection not just involves the negligence or maladministration of the POs. It was a preplanned scam that could not be possible without the reinforcement from their controlling departments while they also paved the path for other persons’ involvement in this wicked game,” the report said. The inquiry also found that 17 POs had requested an exemption from by-election duties. When the requests were scrutinised, “it was surprisingly revealed that handwriting on all TCS (Tranzum Courier Service) envelopes [containing the requests] was same that created further doubts”. Later, TCS confirmed that the requests were sent on the same day from three different TCS centres in Sialkot, which meant “that those requests were managed by someone sitting in Sialkot who deliberately acted to hamper the by-election process and managed to induct his/their own blueeyed ones”, the report said.

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Govt has asked banned TTP to lay down arms, surrender: say Taliban sources PESHAWAR Agencies

The PTI-led government has asked the banned Tehreek-eTaliban Pakistan (TTP) to lay down their arms and surrender, sources within the Afghan Taliban informed media on Friday. According to the sources, Afghan Taliban commander Sirajuddin Haqqani is playing a key role in ceasefire talks and is working to make negotiations between the PTI-led government and the banned outfit a success. Per the sources, chief of the banned TTP Mufti Noor Wali is leading the talks from the group’s side. The banned outfit has maintained that it would be “too early to” lay down arms and has demanded the government release their members from prison. The government has not reacted to the demands of the banned outfit yet, the Afghan Taliban sources said, adding that negotiations could be successful if strong guarantors are

ADB to provide $0.3m to Pakistan to phase out coal plants

CONFIRMED CASES:

1,275,673

NEW CASES:

515

RECOVERED:

471,205

440,788

KPK:

BALOCHISTAN:

178,427 AJK/GB: 34,491/10,392

33,307 ISLAMABAD:

107,063

Uplift of marginalised segments of society govt’s top priority: PM

STORY ON PAGE 02

NA-133 by-polls: Election Tribunal rejects appeals of disqualified PTI candidates

1,224,425 28,507 PUNJAB:

more inside

PM Khan defends hike in Petroleum products prices yet again

DEATHS:

SINDH:

CONTINUED ON PAGE 03

STORY ON BACK PAGE

LAST UPDATED AT 9:49 AM ON NOVEMBER 5, 2021

DAY'S DEATH TOLL:

provided and the outfit’s conditions are accepted. They added that while some factions of the banned TTP are in favour of holding talks with the Pakistani government, others are still taking a hardline approach. PAkIsTAN IN TAlks wITh TTP fAcTIoNs for DIsArMAMENT: PM IMrAN khAN It should be recalled that last month, Prime Minister Imran Khan had admitted that his government was in disarmament talks with some factions of the banned TTP as Pakistan sought stability in the country in the backdrop of a fast-evolving situation in Afghanistan. PM Imran Khan, speaking to TRT World’s Ali Mustafa in Islamabad, said: “I think some of the Pakistani Taliban groups actually want to talk to our government. You know, for some peace, for some reconciliation.” When asked to confirm whether Pakistan is actually in talks with the TTP, the premier had clarified to say that talks are ongoing “with some of them”.

The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has announced the grant of $300,000 to Pakistan to undertake pre-feasibility study for early retirement of coal and fossil fuel plants under the Energy Transition Mechanism, a news outlet reported on Friday. According to the report, the bank announced the funds for Pakistan at COP26 summit in Glasgow. “We have a clear climate direction now. By 2030 we aim to shift to 60 percent renewable energy and 30 percent electric vehicles and completely ban imported coal. We are opting for nature-based solutions with our Recharge Pak-

istan, Protected Areas Initiative, and 10 Billion Tree Tsunami Programme. It’s a nature positive pathway,” explained Special Assistant to Prime Minister on Climate Change Malik Amin Aslam. The bank is providing such assistance to four Asian countries namely Pakistan, Vietnam, Indonesia and the Philippines. The bank has also assisted the government in the development of the Alternative and Renewable Energy Policy 2021, which reinforced the government’s commitment to achieve a renewable energy capacity of 30 percent by 2030. news desk

STORY ON BACK PAGE

Proper economic plan, political will to regain lost economic glory: Shaukat Tarin STORY ON PAGE 03

Saturday, 6 November, 2021 | KARACHI

NEWS

PM Khan defends hiKe in PetroleuM Products Prices, yet again

StAff REpORt

rIME Minister Imran Khan on Friday claimed that there was uproar in India as well over high petrol prices and Pakistan still had the cheapest petrol prices in the region. “In India today, there is uproar as well [over petrol prices] and the petrol price per litre is rs150 while it is rs200 in Bangladesh. [On the other hand] it is the lowest in Pakistan at rs146,” the premier said, while addressing a public gathering in Attock after laying the foundation stone of a Maternal and Child Hospital. He said that among the oil-importing countries, Pakistan had the lowest prices for petrol and diesel. The prime minister explained this was possible because the government had reduced its taxes and levies. The premier said that inflation had

occurred globally due to the Covid-19 pandemic causing various issues such as supply shortages, trade closure, lockdowns, reduced buying and selling. “The biggest [impact] of what happened was that the oil price first decreased and now in the last three months it has doubled […] when oil becomes expensive then everything becomes expensive.” Subsequently, freight costs also increased which caused prices of Pakistan’s imports to rise as well such as oil, pulses, ghee (cooking oil) and palm oil, the prime minister said. “When there was inflation in the whole world, then obviously Pakistan is in this same world and not in the heavens so we also had to be affected. As a result, we fully tried and are still trying to protect our people from this inflation.” The prime minister’s comments come the same day as the government increased the PoL prices by up to rs8.14 per litre with immediate

FTO inaugurates facilitation at Islamabad Int’l Airport PASSENGERS WOULD NOW BE ABLE TO AVAIL ALL TAX RELATED SERVICES, GET ISSUES RESOLVED WITHIN AIRPORT ISLAMABAD Staff RepoRt

The office of the Federal Tax Ombudsman has taken another initiative to facilitate taxpayers and overseas Pakistanis by establishing a facilitation desk at the International Airport Islamabad on directives by Prime Minister Imran Khan. A handout issued by the department in this regard states that the FTO facilitation booth was inaugurated by the Federal Tax ombudsman and Collector Customs Islamabad Junaid Jalil Khan in a ceremony held at airport on Friday.

With the establishment of a facilitation desk, passengers would now be able to avail all tax related services and get their issues resolved within the premises of Islamabad International Airport instead of visiting various offices of Pakistan Customs. Addressing the inaugural ceremony, the FTO shared plans for controlling administration issues and improving tax revenue. Collector Customs Islamabad Junaid Jalil Khan appreciated the role of Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) for providing enhanced facilities to all departments by establishing facilitation desks of various organisations in its premises.

effect to ensure the revival of the International Monetary Fund programme. The increase followed despite the prime minister’s rejection on Saturday of a proposal by the Oil and Gas regulatory Authority to increase petroleum prices and a decision to keep them unchanged for the next fortnight. Last month, the government had earned the ire of its political rivals after it hiked the price of petrol by rs10.49 per litre on Oct 16. In his address today, the prime minister also commented on the hike in the price of sugar, saying it had “suddenly” reached rs140 per kilogramme because three sugar mills in Sindh had been closed. “When those three mills closed in Sindh, sugar [price] went up to rs140. I had the reason investigated and it was found out that sugar mills here started hoarding. “It was found out that since July, sugar mills had taken a stay order against [the relevant] law which is why our government

couldn’t do anything. Then it was found out that the Competition Commission had imposed a fine of rs40 billion because they (the mills) had colluded to raise prices, but there was a stay order on that too,” he said. Noting that the mills had also taken a stay order against the Federal Board of revenue levy, the premier directed officials to “immediately vacate this stay order”, saying it was injustice with the people. “Ask them today to take action on this; it is very easy for sugar mills to stop supply together and then prices increase and they make billions. “When anyone takes steps against them then they take stay orders. So I will request for full proceedings against them,” he added. Hospital projects: In the beginning, Prime Minister Imran congratulated Punjab Chief Minister Usman Buzdar and Health Minister Dr Yasmin rashid over the mother

and child hospital project. He said the country’s far-flung areas especially needed such facilities, regretting that Pakistan was among the countries where a large number of women died during pregnancy. “A country which cannot provide treatment to women during pregnancy, it is shameful for us,” he said, adding that the government was setting up five mother and child hospitals which would be completed in 1-2 years.

Highest ever bid received during bidding for Markhor trophy hunting NEwS DESk Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s Wildlife Department has conducted bidding for Markhor trophy hunting. According to the department’s press release, bidders from Pakistan and Turkey participated in the bidding process. The highest bid of $160,250 was offered by M/S Mehran Safari for a single Markhor to be hunted at Toshi-I area of district Chitral. It is the highest rate ever offered in the history of Markhor trophy hunting, added the press release. The second highest bid of $155,100 was offered by M/S Shikar Safari for a single Markhor to be hunted at Toshi-II area of Chitral. Similarly, the third highest bid of $135,150 was offered by M/S Shikar Safari for a single Markhor to be hunted at Keigah, Kohistan. Whereas, the fourth highest bid of $125,100 was offered by M/S Shikar Safari for a single Markhor to be hunted at Gehrait, Chitral. Eighty percent of the proceeds from

the trophy hunting programme are distributed among the local communities and funds are transferred to their bank

accounts for community development and wildlife conservation activities in the respective villages.

Nine Chinese companies mull long-term uplift projects in Pakistan LAHORE Staff RepoRt

As many as nine Chinese companies are considering long-term development projects in Pakistan as a result of interaction between both sides at the recently concluded three-day Pakistan Industrial Expo 2021. According to a statement, the Chinese and Pakistani companies have reached intended cooperation agreements (ICA), worth $34 million, in various sectors including construction, engineering, manufacturing and technology transfer during the expo. Encouraged from the results, organiser Everest International Expo, has also set up a “permanent display centre” in Lahore to showcase Chinese products for physical inspection by the local industry representatives before further negotiations. More than 100 Chinese companies participated in the 5th Pakistan Industrial Expo 2021 through both physical and online mode of participation. Constructors Association of Pakistan (CAP) chairman Kamal Nasir Khan praised the organisers for arranging such an event in the prevailing circumstances, which would create a win-win situation both for Chinese and Pakistani businessmen. He showed keen interest in the

construction machinery placed in the exhibition and said the Pakistani construction and real estate industry needs

modern machinery, which can help bring down the cost, as well as ensure longer life of buildings.

Saturday, 6 November, 2021 | KARACHI

ProPer economic Plan, PoliTical will To reGain losT economic Glory: shauKaT Tarin KaRaCHi

Staff RepoRt

DVISOR to Prime Minister on Finance and Revenue Shoukat Tarin Friday said comprehensive economic plan and political will was pivotal in order to regain country’s lost economic glory. He stated this while addressing as a chief guest at 18th Annual Excellence Award ceremony of Chartered Financial Analysts (CFA) Society at a local hotel. He said almost all economic indicators were showing positive growth. Shaukat Tarin said when the PTI government came into power there was large current account deficit and devalued rupee. The government entered into a tough

to both sectors with prime focus on IT industry and its related exports. Besides, the government also was going to give subsidies to energy sector for its uplifting. Advisor to PM also shed light on economic crisis caused by the improper plannings and no execution of policies of previous governments.

IMF program with many conditions which initially led to slowing down the economy. Then came the COVID-19 pandemic which also damaged our economy to some extent. However, he said, Prime Minister Imran Khan’s visionary idea to impose smart lockdown which was recognized globally saved the country from further economic crisis. Shoukat Tarin said PM concurrently invested in agriculture, housing, industrial and exports sectors. All those areas which promoted employment in the country and resulted in 3.94 growth last year. He said the government to strengthen industry and exports the government gave incentives

Pakistan embassy receives Amb Masood Khan’s nomination papers WaSHington MonitoRing RepoRt

The Pakistan Embassy in Washington has received nomination papers for Sardar Masood Khan, the country’s new envoy for the US. Masood Khan will replace the current ambassador, Asad Majeed Khan, who will now return to Islamabad for his next assignment. The embassy is expected to submit the papers, known as the agrément, to the US State Department by Monday. An agrément, in diplomatic parlance, is an

agreement between states to receive and facilitate members of a diplomatic mission. The State Department usually takes about a month to approve an agrément, which is then returned to Islamabad for further processing. The nominated ambassador also holds a series of meetings with senior members of the government, starting with the president, before he leaves the country. The entire process takes two to three months. A new ambassador starts working from the day he arrives in Washington, but his formal designation begins from the day he submits his credentials to the

Report finds election oﬃcials, police responsible for Daska by-poll fiasco Continued fRom page 01 “In light of the afore-described facts, it can be conclusively determined that the activities of POs were suspicious, they became puppets in the hands of their controlling authority and even the replies submitted by them in response to the allegations of this maligned act were completely stereotyped and deceptive,” it concluded. “Hence, the role of presiding officers carries an obvious proportion in the whole conspiracy that [made] the by-election a dead duck.” PoliCe’s role: With respect to the role of police, the report stated that the statements of POs, SAPOs, naib qasids, drivers and police personnel revealed that relevant station house officers and sub-sector incharges did not perform their duties in the requisite manner. In fact, “they played their … role in manipulating the whole by-election process,” it said. On the election day, the report added, police personnel kept on moving within their jurisdiction and often entered the premises of the polling stations and met polling staff, though it was not their ambit. Hence, “they committed a breach of their

designated duty,” the report concluded. “Instead of taking care of polling staff and arranging their safe transport to [the] office of the RO (returning officer) in time, they kept their eyes close[d] and became the part of illegal transportation of POs to some suspicious place at Sialkot or elsewhere.” According to the report, policemen’s official vehicles “remained involved transporting or escorting some of [the] missing POs to some undesired places from where they, in a form of a convoy, went to [the] office of the Pasrur DSP and then to Sialkot”. “The DSP Daska was constantly in touch with them and he called every in-charge from his mobile, landline and also directed them through wireless calls but they paid no heed to his calls […] After the close of [the] poll, either they went to their police stations or their homes for rest and they were least interested in the [recovery of] 20 missing POs from their jurisdiction.” About the RO and the district returning officer, the report said both of them also failed to play their designated roles “with due responsibility and dedication”. “They shifted their due responsibilities on the shoulders of staff to perform various election-related tasks,” it said. The report added that illegal activities

Jokhio murder case: PPP MPA remanded in police custody for three days Staff RepoRt A local court in Karachi sent on Friday PPP lawmaker from Sindh Jam Awais Khan Jokhio on a three-day remand to police, hours after he surrendered to law enforcers in a case pertaining to a man’s murder at his farmhouse in Thatta earlier this week. Nazim Sajawal Jokhio’s tortured body was found at the Jam House, said to be PPP MPA Jam Awais’ farmhouse in Malir’s Jam Goth, at around 2:30pm on Wednesday, according to Memon Goth Station House Officer (SHO) Khalid Abbasi. The victim’s brother, Afzal Jokhio, had accused MPA Awais and MNA Jam Abdul Karim of being involved in his brother’s murder. Early on Thursday morning, Memon Goth police had registered a case against the MPA and others on charges of killing the 27-year-old victim after he tried to prevent the lawmaker’s guests from hunting houbara bustard in Thatta district.

The FIR was registered on the complaint of the victim’s brother. Later in the day, relatives as well as members of the Jokhio community had initially staged a sit-in with the body on main National Highway near Ghaghar Phatak. Afterwards, they buried the victim at a nearby graveyard and resumed the sit-in which continued late into the evening. Leaders from different political parties and activists had also joined the demonstration, including PML-N leader Qadir Kalmati, PTI leader Dr Masroor Siyal, PML-F lawmaker Nusrat Abbasi, Sindh United Party leader Zain Shah and former MNA Hakeem Baloch. “Our protest will continue till the cruel waderas (landlords) are arrested,” said Afzal, the victim’s brother. Late on Thursday night, the MPA arrived at the Memon Goth Police Station and surrendered himself to the police, according to Malir SSP Irfan Bahadur. Committee formed: Meanwhile, Deputy Inspector General of East Zone, Saqib Ismail Memon,

US president. This may take weeks or even months, depending on the US president’s schedule. The White House usually accommodates several ambassadors in one ceremony. Masood Khan, who was AJK’s 27th president from Aug 25, 2016, to Aug. 25, 2021, is a retired diplomat. He twice served as Pakistan’s permanent representative to the United Nations in Geneva and New York and as ambassador to China. After retirement, he headed the Institute of Strategic Studies in Islamabad before returning to his native AJK as president.

“were going on under their nose but neither they were aware of that nor they took any notice of it despite their vast experience”. It further highlighted the role of the education department in the disappearance of the POs and that of education department officers in “jeopardising the fair, free and transparent by-election”. reCommeNdatioNs: It was recommended in the report that SAPOs be made bound to remain with POs from the time of collecting election material from the RO’s office a day before the election and till the time of returning the material at the office after the election. The report said that ROs may also maintain a log of vehicles used for transporting POs, as well as details such as the number of persons travelling in each vehicle and their time of arrival and departure. And “a tracking chip in the form of a disposable bracelet bearing a unique number may be provided to PO, so as to know about his/her location and to avoid such incidents in future,” it added. In relevance to this particular case, the rechecking of the polling record of some of the POs and SAPOs was also recommended. It was recommended in the report the RO and DRO may not be posted at any administrative post and kept away from activities pertaining to elections. It has been further suggested that standard operating procedures be devised so as to ensure that only naib qasids were deputed with POs at polling stations and no private person was engaged for the said purpose.

has constituted an eight-member team headed by SSP Bahadur to probe the case. The team head has been asked to share the progress report with the DIG East office on daily basis until the completion of the investigation. Cm assures justiCe: Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah on Friday met the family of the deceased at his residence in Malir and expressed condolence. The chief minister assured that the family will get justice in the case. He said he had asked the police to facilitate the deceased’s family in getting the FIR registered as per their wish. Nazim jokhio killed for filmiNg a video: Haleem Separately, Leader of the Opposition in the Sindh Assembly, Haleem Adil Sheikh, said Nazim was killed by landlords, while another MPA set up his own court in Qambar-Shahdadkot to assert his influence on the poor. He said the authorities were unwilling to conduct a post-mortem on Nazim’s body, adding, “We learnt about it, and we approached the police station to get the case registered and autopsy was also conducted afterwards.” Sheikh claimed that PPP leaders in Sindh considered themselves above the law, saying such a mindset needed to be done away with. “Nazim Jokhio and others were punished for making a video,” he alleged.

NEWS

Karachi private school’s registration suspended after hidden cameras found in washrooms KaRaCHi Staff RepoRt

The Sindh Education Department on Friday suspended the registration of a private school and asked its administration to furnish a show-cause notice after hidden cameras were found in its washroom, Geo News reported Friday. According to a notification issued by the education department, the hidden CCTV cameras were stealthily installed in the men’s washroom as well as a female washroom common to both teachers and students. Videos of women were being made with the hidden cameras, officials from the Sindh education department confirmed, adding that several women had lodged a complaint with the education department regarding the cameras. After that, a team of education department officials had visited the school on Wednesday to verify the information. They found hidden cameras from the washroom during their visit, the officials confirmed, adding that a vigilance team has submitted a report on the hidden cameras to the education department for further investigation. On the other hand, the school administration has maintained that the cameras were installed in the washrooms for “monitoring purposes”. According to the notification of the education department, the registration of the school will remain suspended until the completion of the investigation.

Govt has asked banned TTP to lay down arms, surrender: say Taliban sources Continued fRom page 01 He had said that the Afghan Taliban are “helping”, in the sense that the talks are taking place in Afghanistan. The premier had said that these talks, for disarmament, if successful, will lead to the government “forgiving” them, “and then they [will] become normal citizens”. Stressing that he does expect some sort of deal to emerge with the TTP, he said: “I do not believe in military solutions. I am anti-military solutions. So, I always believe that you know, as a politician, political dialogue is the way forward, which I always believed was the case in Afghanistan with the US.” The premier had noted he always believed that a non-military solution was the only way forward for Afghanistan — and he has reiterated it time and again on national, international forums. The premier’s announcement was met with stiff resistance and outrage by the Opposition. TTP announce suspension of hostilities in South Waziristan Early last month, a cessation in hostilities between the TTP, Pakistan fighters in South Waziristan, and the army was announced by the outlawed group in a statement. Our leaders have asked all fighters to observe a ceasefire from today to October 20, the TTP statement said. The TTP said that their leaders are engaged in some “secret talks”, without elaborating any further.

Saturday, 6 November, 2021 | KARACHI

04 NEWS

ECC postponEs plan to imposE hEalth tax on tobaCCo, bEvEragEs iSLAMABAD

MEETING ALLOWS POWER TARIFF INCREASE

sHAHzAD PArACHA

HE Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) of Cabinet on Thursday postponed the plan to impose a Rs10 health tax on a pack of cigarettes and Rs1 per 250 ml of sugarsweetened beverages. Sources said that the ECC meeting was held under the chair of Minister for Economic Affairs Omer Ayub. As per details, the Ministry of Health proposed the ECC to introduce a federal health contribution bill, 2021, to consolidate the law relating to the imposition, collection of the tax on the sale and consumption of certain goods which are harmful to society

and individuals. However, the proposal was deferred on the recommendation of the Technical Advisory Committee. Fources said that FBR had pressed for the imposition of the tax, informing that additional revenue on account of increase in FED on cigarettes and carbonated, sugarsweetened beverages during the financial year 2019-20 (FY20) totaled Rs33 billion while the law division advised that the tax can be introduced as an ordinary bill or be promulgated through an ordinance before tabling the bill in the parliament. It is pertinent to note here that Non-

pia achieves perfect safety ratings from saFa

Communicable Diseases (NCDs), including heart diseases, stroke, cancer, diabetes and chronic lung diseases are collectively responsible for almost 68 per cent of deaths in Pakistan. Similarly, NCDs cause 51pc of total diseases mostly in the youth of the country. Furthermore, Pakistan is obligated to achieve the targets set in the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) under which it has to reduce one-third of premature mortality due to NCDs by 2030. Raising taxes on tobacco and other harmful products have long been a dependable and significant revenue source in many

countries. More recently, considerable attention has been paid to the way in which such taxes may also be used to attain public health objectives by reducing the consumption of products with adverse health and social impacts. Moreover, explicitly earmarking excise taxes on tobacco and other such products to finance public health expenditures will make increasing such taxes politically acceptable and provide the funding needed to increase expenditures, especially for the poor. Meanwhile, the meeting also allowed the recovery of over Rs17 billion from electricity consumers for the period when the country had been struck hard by Covid-19. Instead of fuel cost adjustment (FCA),

the money will now be recovered through quarterly price adjustments. “On another summary moved by the Power Division regarding decision of the authority in matter of fuel charges adjustment for the months of November 2019 to June 2020, the ECC, after due deliberation, recommended that the federal government may issue guidelines to Nepra and also require it to reconsider its decision dated 07 August, 2020 to allow recovery of pending FCA as prior year adjustment in rebasing decision which are under process at Nepra,” said the economic affairs ministry. The Power Division had proposed that either the government should pick Rs13 billion subsidy or allow increase in prices.

Govt jacks up petrol price by Rs8.03 per litre MOnitORing REPORt

PR kArACHi

Pakistan’s national flag carrier PIA, on Friday achieved perfect safety ratings from European Air Safety Watchdog, SAFA. With zero index, it means that PIA is now ranked among the best airlines in the world which have safest operating records. In what could be considered as a dream almost three years ago, now changed into reality under the leadership of CEO PIA, Air Marshal Arshad Malik, PIA has achieved a perfect safety ratings from European Air Safety Watchdog, SAFA. SAFA or Safety Audit for Foreign-Origin Aircraft conducts periodic and surprise checks for all the non-European Airlines at different airports across the world. Sharing his views on the achieving Zero index Safety ratings, Chief Executive Officer PIA, Air Marshal Arshad Malik thanked Almighty Allah for his blessings and congratulated PIA team for their sincere efforts working tirelessly to achieve highest ever safety ratings. He said that now after the restructuring of PIA’s Safety Department more stringent in-house safety checks are undertaken on all its international flights. He further said that PIA has offered professional support to the regulatory authority in Pakistan as well, aiding them to clear the ICAO Audit in November of this year, paving the way for resumption of flights to west.

sbp forex reserves rise $53m to $17.2bn RESERVES HELD BY COMMERCIAL BANKS STAND AT $6.726BN. nEWS DESk Foreign exchange reserves held by the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) rose 0.3 per cent on a weekly basis up by $53 million to $17,199.6 million as of October 29. According to a press release issued on Thursday, foreign reserves of the State Bank of Pakistan increased by $53 million to $17.199 billion during the week ended on October 29. Overall liquid foreign currency reserves held by the country, including net reserves held by banks other than the SBP, stood at $23,925.9 million. Net reserves held by banks amounted to $6,726.3 million.

The Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority (OGRA) has announced a new increase in prices of POL products across the country applicable from Friday. According to a notification in this regard, the petrol (MS) price has been increased by Rs8.03 per litre, which would now sell at Rs145.82 per litre. Similarly, High Speed Diesel (HSD) has been increased by Rs8.14 per litre, which would now sell at Rs142.62. The Kerosene Oil

PETROL MOVES UP TO RS145.82 PER LITRE AFTER THE INCREASE would now sell for Rs116.53 per litre after an increase of Rs6.27 per litre. The LDO (Light Diesel Oil) would now cost Rs114.07 following an increase of Rs 5.72 per litre. “On November 1, 2021, the Prime Minister had not agreed with the proposals worked out by OGRA and Finance Division and directed to maintain the prices as notified on October 16, 2021,” read the

statement issued by the government. It, however, added that maintaining the October 16, 2021 petroleum prices had some underlying concerns, for example cash flow issues due to the short recovery of the cost. “It is important to note that in the previous petroleum prices, already a significant relief was provided to the consumers,” the ministry of finance said.

“The government is cognizant of its responsibility to provide maximum relief to the consumers. This has dented the petroleum levy budget of Rs152.5 billion during July-September 2021 as compared to Rs20 billion realised only. “Foregoing in view, prices of petroleum prices have been increased partially as compared to the prices being worked out by OGRA.”

Engro leads dialogue to promote sustainability in construction sector at Dubai Expo 2020 LAHORE

ENGRO, KSBL SIGN MOU TO ESTABLISH CIRCULAR PLASTICS INSTITUTE IN PAKISTAN

news Desk

Engro Polymer and Chemicals on Friday hosted a dialogue on climate change, construction materials and technologies of the future, building inclusive communities, and the circular economy to celebrate the rural and urban development week at the Dubai Expo 2020. The thematic forum featured leading architects, developers, and construction sector specialists, including Arshad Shahid Abdulla Principal & Founding Partner Shahid Abdulla, Irretec Country Manager Abid Bukhari, Paragon Constructors CEO Babar Siddiqui, Ali Arshad Associates Principal Architect Ali Naqvi and Interwood Director Sales and Marketing Ali Farooq. Engro Corporation and Dawood Hercules Corporation Chairman Hussain Dawood, who was present on the occasion, appreciated Pakistan Pavilion in showcasing the incredible strength of the country. Held in partnership with the Pakistan Pavilion, the event focused on encouraging the private sector, governments and the civil society to share knowledge, collaborate and reimagine the future of cities, whilst being cognizant of the cultural context in Pakistan. The speakers highlighted that the global pandemic has accelerated a transition towards sustainability to create a lasting impact in communities. The panel recognised the need for sourcing alternative materials, becoming energy-efficient, harnessing knowledge from indigenous communities and combining them with new technologies to influence design, architecture, and construction, to pave the way for resilient smart cities of the future. Speaking on the occasion, Engro Polymer and

Chemicals CEO Jahangir Piracha said, “Engro’s emphasis on adopting a sustainability-centric and future-ready approach is reflected by this event that has brought together global experts and changemakers to deliberate on the future of construction in Pakistan.” He said that the group’s recent projects to make production processes more standardised, resource-efficient, and circular plastics initiatives reinforce its commitment to a sustainable end-to-end operation.

Moreover, the event also marked the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between Engro Polymer & Chemicals and Karachi School of Business and Leadership (KSBL) to establish a Circular Plastics Institute in Pakistan. This first-of-its-kind academic collaboration will aim to develop an action-oriented and data-driven roadmap for a path towards a zero plastic waste future in Pakistan.

KP petrol pump owners, dealers postpone strike till Nov 20 PESHAWAR Aziz Buneri

Petrol pump owners and dealers in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) have deferred their strike after the government’s assurance of demands being accepted; however, they have warned of going on an indefinite strike from November 20 if the commitment is not fulfilled. Speaking a news conference at Peshawar Press Club on Friday, Sarhad Petroleum and Cartage Dealers Association (SPCDA) Chairman Abdul Majid Khan informed that All Pakistan Petroleum Dealers Association (APPDA) delegation led by its chairman Abdul Sami Khan met with Federal Minister Hammad Azhar, secretary Petroleum, high officials of OGRA and others, during which

DEALERS DEMAND 6PC INCREASE IN PROFIT MARGINS they had been assured of a revision of profit margins within next ten days. Flanked by the other members of the association, Majid Khan said that the central association will send a summary to petroleum division within next three days. He said that they had been demanding an increase in the profit margin for the last three years but the government had ignored them, adding that doing business with increasing expenditures is not only difficult, but impossible. The association chairman expressed fear that 80 per cent petrol pumps will be closed if the government didn’t increase margin up to 6 per cent, which would create massive unem-

ployment and affect poor families. He said the increase in profit margin is essential owing to increasing price hikes, collection of multiple taxes, increase in staff salaries and other expenditures. Majid Khan informed that the current profit margin is Rs3.91 per litre, and after paying various taxes and expenditures profit comes down to almost zero. Similarly, he said the electricity tariff is gradually increasing while frequent power loadshedding has also made it difficult to smooth operation in petrol pumps so they have been forced to use generators to facilitate buyers that has also contributed to increase in their expense.

CMYK

To a question, he replied that more than 1,500 petrol pumps have been established across Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, which are fac-

ing various problems to operational issues. He said doing business in three different shifts is as difficult as jehad.

Saturday, 6 November, 2021 | kArAChi

Rupee unchAnged AgAInST uS dollAR

HE rupee remained unchanged against the US dollar, closing just above the 170 level in the interbank market on Friday. As per the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP), the PKR remained at 170.01 against the USD. The rupee ended its six-day appreciation run on Thursday. The rupee had been on an uptrend since Pakistan received funds worth $3 billion from Saudi Arabia last week and had gained around Rs5.30 against the greenback during the period between October 27 and November 3. On October 26, the rupee had dropped to its lowest level, closing over the 175 level for the first time. Media reports have claimed that the rupee will remain in the consolidation phase as with the revival of the IMF programme, Pakistan will also get loans from World Bank and the Asian Development Bank (ADB). monitorinG report

India vs Scotland: Rahul blitz keeps India alive with crushing win over Scotland DUBAI

Oil gains around 1pc after OPEC+ holds line on supply TOKYO AGencies

news desk

KL Rahul’s 50 off 19 balls helped India stay alive in the Twenty20 World Cup with an eight-wicket thrashing of Scotland inside seven overs on Friday. Ravindra Jadeja and Mohammed Shami took three wickets each to help bowl out Scotland for 85 in 17.4 overs after India put the opposition into bat in the Super 12 contest in Dubai. Rahul and Rohit Sharma, who hit 30, then took the Scotland bowling apart as India raced to their target in 6.3 overs to radically improve their run-rate. They still need to win their last game against Namibia on Monday and depend on the result of Sunday’s New Zealand-Afghanistan match to have any chance of making the final four. Rahul smashed six fours and three sixes in his batting blitz as he raised the fifty in 18 balls before getting out to Mark Watt. Sharma fell lbw to Brad Wheal who ended the 70-run opening stand. Suryakumar Yadav hit the winning six with skipper Virat Kohli, on his 33rd birthday, relishing the huge win at the other end. Pace spearhead Jasprit Bumrah bowled Scotland captain Kyle Coetzer afer the batsman’s seven-ball struggle at the crease. It was a maiden wicket for Bumrah. George Munsey counter-attacked as he smashed Ravichandran Ashwin for three successive boundaries but Shami cut short the opener’s stay on 24. Jadeja came on to bowl after the first six overs of powerplay and made an instant impact with twin strikes to send back Richie Berrington, bowled without scoring a run, and Matthew Cross trapped lbw for two. With Scotland’s top four back in the dugout at 29, Calum MacLeod and Michael Leask put up some resistence during a 29-run stand. Jadeja broke through with his left-arm spin as he sent back Leask lbw for 21 and Ashwin got Chris Greaves for one. MacLeod, who made 16, and Mark Watt also attempted to bring some respect to the total but Shami returned to pick up two wickets in one over and Bumrah wrapped up the innings in 17.4 overs. Earlier Friday, New Zealand stayed on course for the semi-finals with a 52-run win over Namibia. Group 2 leaders Pakistan have already made sure of a semi-final place with four wins in four games.

Oil prices rose around 1% on Friday, staging a partial recovery after OPEC+ producers rebuffed a US call to raise supply and instead maintained plans for a gradual return of output halted by the pandemic. Brent crude rose 72 cents or 0.9% to $81.26 a barrel by around 0452 GMT, after falling nearly 2% on Thursday. US oil gained 78 cents or 1.0% to $79.59 a barrel, having declined 2.5% in the previous session. The OPEC+ group of major producers agreed on Thursday to stick to their plan to raise oil output by 400,000 barrels per day (bpd) from December, ignoring calls from US President Joe Biden for

extra output to cool rising prices. “This was an easy and quick OPEC+ meeting on output,” said OANDA senior market analyst Edward Moya, adding “at no point did OPEC+ consider changing their output strategy, which was completely the message they had.” OPEC+, which groups the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and other large producers including Russia, has been restricting supply after the coronavirus pandemic led to an evaporation of demand. Oil prices recently touched seven-year highs, but fell earlier this week on a US stocks buildup and signs that high prices may encourage more supply elsewhere. Brent is on track for a nearly 4% decline this week, the second

straight week the contract has fallen. US oil is heading for a decline this week of nearly 5%. But with US retail gasoline prices not far off $4 a gallon, considered a pressure point for American drivers, the onus is on the White House after Biden on Saturday urged major G20 energy producers with spare capacity to boost output. The White House said Washington would consider a full range of tools at its disposal to guarantee access to affordable energy after OPEC+’s meeting. “We can only guess at this point, but I’d imagine this will involve releasing the US strategic reserves,” said a Singapore-based energy trader. “I don’t feel this is playing out well for the Biden administration.”

KP petrol pump owners, dealers postpone strike till Nov 20 PESHAWAR Aziz Buneri

bers of the association, Majid Khan said that the central association will send a summary to petroleum division within next three days. He said that they had been demanding an increase in the profit margin for the last three years but the government had ignored them, adding that doing business with increasing expenditures is not only difficult, but impossible. The association chairman expressed fear that 80 per cent petrol pumps will be closed if the government didn’t increase margin up to 6 per cent, which would create massive unemployment and affect poor families. He said the increase in profit margin is essential owing to increasing price hikes, collection of multiple taxes, increase in staff salaries and other expenditures. Majid Khan informed that the current profit margin is Rs3.91 per litre, and after paying various taxes and expenditures profit

comes down to almost zero. Similarly, he said the electricity tariff is gradually increasing while frequent power loadshedding has also made it difficult to smooth operation in petrol pumps so they have been forced to use generators to facilitate buyers that has also contributed to increase in their expense. To a question, he replied that more than 1,500 petrol pumps have been established across Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, which are facing various problems to operational issues. He said doing business in three different shifts is as difficult as jehad. The association chairman made it clear that if the government didn’t increase profit margin at 6 per cent as per commitment, the owners and dealers would be compelled to go on strike from November 20, which will continue till the acceptance of demands.

NewS

corporate corner eFu life recognised by MAp

KARACHI: EFU Life Assurance Ltd., the leading private sector life insurance provider in the country, has been honored with ‘Certificate of Excellence’ at the 36th Corporate Excellence Awards 2021 by Management Association of Pakistan (MAP) in the Life Insurance Sector. The award was received by Mohammad Ali, Deputy Managing Director, EFU Life Assurance Ltd. EFU Life has been recognized for demonstrating exemplary standards in management practices for the ninth consecutive time. The award reflects the Company’s performance and continuous progress in areas of Strategic Planning, Leadership, Social Responsibility, Corporate Governance, Customer & Market Focus, Human Resource, Operations and Information Management. The Corporate Excellence Award was instituted by MAP in 1982 with the sole aim to recognize and honor companies showing outstanding performance and demonstrating progress and enlightened management practices. pr

Australia postpones its first-ever Afghanistan Test match Australia on Friday postponed its first-ever cricket Test against Afghanistan, after the country’s ruling Taliban regime effectively banned women from playing the sport. Australia’s cricketing authorities said that after consultation with “relevant stakeholders”, they decided the men’s Test, to be played in Hobart this month, would not go ahead as planned. After the Taliban ousted Afghanistan’s elected government in August, senior leaders said Afghan women would no longer play cricket or any other sport. Under the regime’s hardline reading of Islamic law, women are also barred from going to school and from most other public roles. Senior Australian cricketers had indicated they would like to see the Test cancelled if the de facto ban on women’s cricket remained in place. But Australia’s white-ball captain Aaron Finch backed Afghanistan cricket to thrive and said the Test would likely be rescheduled soon. “It would have been a great Test match but I think they still have that in the schedule at some point down the track,” Finch told reporters ahead of his team’s crucial match against West Indies at the Twenty20 World Cup. “It is really important for world cricket that we have seen, particularly in the shortest formats of the game, how important and how big an impact the Afghan team has had on world cricket. “So hopefully that can get back up and running as soon as possible.” Afghanistan’s men are currently playing in the T20 World Cup, offering fans in the conflictplagued country brief respite from woes at home, notching victories against Namibia and Scotland. But Kabul has been warned it faces an international ban if it fails to field a side at the upcoming women’s World Cup in New Zealand. ‘It’s dIsappoIntIng’: In a statement, Cricket Australia said it was “committed to support growing the game for women and men in Afghanistan and around the world”. “Given the present uncertainty, [Cricket Australia] felt it necessary to postpone the Test match until a later time when the situation is clearer.” Afghan players are expected to be allowed to play in the upcoming Big Bash League season in Australia. Cricket Australia said it looked forward to “hosting both the Afghanistan women’s and men’s team in the not too distant future”, but pointedly did not set a new date for the fixtures. Afp

MoC, SBP review imports as trade deficit and CAD widen ISLAMABAD GhulAm ABBAs

As the country’s trade and current account deficits (CAD) widen due to increasing imports, the Ministry of Commerce has started reviewing overall imports in collaboration with State Bank of Pakistan (SBP). According to official sources, a meeting in this regard was held at the ministry on Friday to discuss imports during the current financial year (FY22) and their impact on trade and CAD. The meeting which was chaired by Ad-

visor to the Prime Minister on Commerce and Investment, Abdul Razak Dawood, was also attended by officials from the ministry and SBP. It was informed that the concerned ministry was keeping a close eye on imports so that timely interventions can be made. Insiders claim that the ministry, after consultation with other stakeholders, may take measures to curb imports due to their adverse impact on the country’s reserves and causing devaluation of the local currency. However, the ministry’s officials claim that imports of non-energy items were decreasing.

It was also informed that during the period Jul-Oct 2021 (4MFY22), imports increased by 64 per cent to $ 24.99 million as compared to $15.19 billion during the corresponding period last fiscal. In absolute terms, the net increase in imports over the period under review totals $9.801 billion. A detailed analysis revealed that around 40 per cent of this increase was in investment-driven imports including raw material and intermediate goods. Officials claimed that the increase in these imports was a good thing as it indicates that industrial activity in the country was picking up.

CMYK

“The increase in the import of capital goods, including machinery, was indicative of industrial expansion, upgradation, and setting up of new industries. In the long run, these imports are very important for economic growth and job creation,” the meeting was told. About the remaining 60 per cent of imports, it was informed that they mainly consist of 34 per cent energy petroleum, coal & gas, 11 per cent vaccines, 8 per cent food, 2 per cent consumer goods and 5 per cent all others. These imports are mostly inelastic in nature. MoC officials also claimed that Pakistan’s

non-energy import bill has decreased by 12.5 per cent in October 2021, a decrease of $624 million, compared to September 2021. They further informed that in terms of month-on-month (MoM) growth, non-energy imports have been on the decline during 4MFY22. “This is a welcome trend which bodes well for the trade deficit and the CAD,” they said. Sources say that keeping in view the current account situation and the flight of dollars, the concerned ministries and institutions have been directed to take measures to curb imports of non-essential imports.

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Bridging Industry-Academia Gap through Work Placement

NAB recoveries Nowhere to be found

T is a sad irony that the country’s top accountability watchdog, the National Accountability Bureau (NAB), may soon need to investigate a case against itself. Appearing before a parliamentary committee, the Finance Ministry clarified that it hadn’t a clue where the Rs 816 billion, that NAB claimed it has recovered over the course of its 16-year existence, was parked. What is more, Finance Ministry officials stated that during the same period they had received only Rs 6.45 billion from NAB as non-tax revenue, but ‘could not ask’ the latter why it had not deposited the remaining amount in government accounts or where it was deposited currently. It is very likely, rather expected, that a satisfactory explanation is provided by NAB as to how such an exorbitant amount of money that should have landed in state coffers, has remained missing for so long. One possibility is that the funds have mistakenly been credited toa single or various official accounts for all these years and to correct the discrepancy, merely need to be transferred to the relevant Finance Ministry accounts. If that is the case then a significant financial cost has been incurred by the state as it was denied access to funds that could have been much more prudently utilized. Another possibility is that the NAB has significantly overstated its recovery amount, which would further damage its already fledgling reputation as a beacon of purity out to rid the country of financial malfeasance. unless brushed under the rug, as matters such as these somehow are more often than not, it seems unlikely that there is a digestible, simple account of how this mess came to be. going by its operations in recent years; the loose definition of actionable evidence and ‘loss to the exchequer’ that the NAB uses to harass and incarcerate politicians and bureaucrats, had some other public sector enterprise been involved in such a scandal, multiple investigations would have been opened and arrests made by now. That the matter has been immediately sent to the Auditor general Pakistan (AgP) for a special audit is a welcome step. however, one thing the entire episode reveals is that the NAB law is a fundamentally flawed, one that allows the institution to operate as it sees fit with impunity. In the absence of a law that is rational and fair, NAB will remain unaccountable.

The industry-academia gap leads to young engineers not getting jobs Mubashir husain rehMani

he interview panel of a renowned company is taking interviews for candidates in multiple locations including Islamabad, Lahore, and Karachi. Tens of candidates (fresh graduates) vigorously appeared in the interview, but none of them were selected. The interview panel finally decided to avoid hiring fresh graduates and instead gave preference to experienced candidates. This dismal situation is normal for fresh graduates in Pakistan. While some students may find their place in companies, for many this is unexpected and results in disappointment. The undergraduate curriculum of universities in Pakistan comprises state-of-the-art subjects, focusing on recent technologies and develops the skill set. Moreover, state-of-the-art pedagogical material for assessment is used (at least in theory). Foreigntrained PhD faculty is teaching these courses and above all, the higher education Commission (heC) ensures the curriculum is revised time and again through National Curriculum Revision Committees (NCRCs). On top of it, accreditation bodies such as the Pakistan engineering Council (PeC) and the Accreditation Board for engineering and Technology (ABeT) also play a pivotal role and ensure quality within the programmes offered. They do so by maintaining teacher-student ratio, resource provisioning, and a systematic check and balance system prevailing in undergraduate programmes in universities. The question is what’s wrong with the undergraduate curriculum of Pakistani universities? Are these universities intellectually barren? Why can fresh graduates not be appointed by the top-notch companies? One reason could be the industry-academia gap, and work placement is inevitable to bridge this gap. Work placement is four months training of students

The PM’s subsidy has been cancelled out

hILe the Prime Minister was careful to come on national television and address the nation to announced what he characterized as the biggest welfare package in history, the petrol price hike that came to the very next day was quietly rolled out, as if the PM did not know about it. This attempt at disingenuousness fooled no one, but it was still a disappointment. The PM had hinted at what was going to happen in his address when he warned the nation that there were petrol prices increases ahead. however, no one expected the unseemly haste with which that particular promise was implemented. The government’s reticence about the hike being the highest in the country’s history, and the increase being more than the petrol rate itself in living memory, is also noticeable. That reticence may be understandable, but it does not take away from the effect that the fuel price hike will have on the very items that are to be subsidized. The subsidy is supposed to be given on the price of the items, and if the items’ prices go up, they are bound to because of greater transport costs, the government will end up paying higher amounts to subsidize the same amounts of goods. The effects of price hike on electricity tariffs will be added to the costs of diesel as an agricultural input. The effect will occur on the wheat crop, which is being planted. The argument proffered by the government is that fuel is more expensive in other countries of the region. That has led the pricing mechanism to be examined, with the Lahore high Court demanding that it be presented to it. The government appears to be still working on meeting IMF demands, even though the subsidy offered is anathema to it. Still, the increase that OgRA demanded, and which the PM contemptuously rejected, has come to pass, and that too not at the fortnightly review but in its middle third. World prices are headed upwards, but such sudden movements give the impression of a government out of control.

The project can provide energy to the whole region Pathik hasan

u R K M e N I S TA N-A F g h A N I S TA NPAKISTAN-INDIA gas pipeline is a regional connectivity project for supplying gas to fulfill the public demand from Turkmenistan to India’s Fazilka (Punjab). It is a great regional initiative proposed by the ADB and taken by four regional countries. The TAPI pipeline seems a bridge between South Asia and Central Asia. We know Central Asia is a huge source of natural gas. Pakistan and India need the gas. The project aims to monetise Turkmenistan’s gas reserves and supply them to neighbouring countries to promote the use of natural gas and improve energy security. The regional connectivity gas pipeline will supply natural gas from Turkmenistan through Afghanistan into Pakistan and then to India. Construction on the project in Turkmenistan iwas naugurated on 13 December 2015, work on the Afghan section began in February 2018, and work on the Pakistani section was planned to commence in December 2018. The TAPI pipeline project was launched in 2016. The TAPI pipeline is expected to carry 33 billion cubic meters of natural gas per year. The 1,814-kilometer gas pipeline stretches from galkinesh, the world’s second-largest gas field, to the Indian city of Fazilka, near the Pakistan border. Work on the TAPI project in Afghanistan began in February 2016. 617 km of the pipeline was planned to pass through Afghanistan. But due to the internal situation, security in Afghanistan and IndiaPakistan tensions, the connectivity project wasn’t implemented. There was speculation whether the connectivity project would be completed finally at all. The Taliban’s takeover of Kabul on August 15 increased the speculation. Now the speculation is over. The region is going to see the implementation of the connectivity project that may bring prosperity for the region. Work on Afghanistan’s part of the TAPI gas pipeline project from Turkmenistan to Afghanistan and India via Pakistan is about to begin soon. Afghanistan’s acting foreign minister, Amir Khan Muttaki, has said that work on Afghanistan’s part of the project would resume soon. he made the remarks at a news conference after a meeting with Turkmen Foreign Minister Rashid Meredov in Kabul on October 31. The countries in the region should play a sincere role in cooperation in trade, economic cooperation,

Dedicated to the legacy of late Hameed Nizami

Arif Nizami (Late) Founding Editor

Yousaf Nizami M. A. Niazi

Umar Aziz

Joint Editor

Executive Editor

Lahore – Ph: 042-36300938, 042-36375965

The writer teaches Computer Science at Munster Technological University (MTU), Ireland. He tweets @MRehmani

Resumption of work of TAPI pipeline brings new hope for region

Petrol bomb

Editor Aziz-ud-Din Ahmad

in companies or industry, which gives the students confidence and enables them to understand the needs of the industry. Though the trend of work placement is increasing among students during their undergraduate studies (in summer vacations), but there is a dire need to include work placement as an integral part of the undergraduate curriculum. When we look at the four years undergraduate curriculum of any engineering university, we can say that undergraduate students normally take 40 courses in the four years engineering programme, that is, roughly five courses each semester. In the starting semesters, fundamental courses are taught, and as students progress towards higher semesters, more specialized courses are taught to them. however, during their course of studies, they don’t get enough understanding of the needs of the industry. In the final year, students are required to undertake a final year project (FYP) which lasts for two semesters. however, there is no requirement to associate your FYP to any industry. Similarly, students are not required to do any work placement. In fact, work placements are not a part of the curriculum of undergraduate studies. In contrast, if we look at the curriculum of undergraduate studies in developed countries, work placement is mostly mandatory for students. Much has been written on advantages of work placement, but we highlight a few apparent ones. With work placement, students get some remuneration. This will give confidence to the students that they have started earning even during their undergraduate studies and may help students to achieve financial self-sustainability and autonomy. Additionally, work placement will help them to map what they have learned during their first three years of undergraduate studies to the actual problems faced and how to use their knowledge in a practical scenario. After returning from work placement, students see the world in a different manner. When taking new courses in thor last semesters, they will take more interest and try to relate what they will learn to the ac-

tual problems, that is, the applications of that subject or course to the real-life problems. Students will also be able to make their contacts in the companies or organizations in the industry. This will then help them to secure jobs after finishing their studies. This work placement will introduce the students to the real implementation of tools and techniques they learn in industry. This will also enable them to understand about industry and help in developing problem-solving skills. It will also help them to meet deadlines and organize themselves and work as team members. It will enhance their written and communication skills. From the perspective of industry, it will also benefit from these work placements both in regional socio-economical development and to solve the problems they are facing. More precisely, first, if industry solves the same problem by hiring any individual they may have to pay higher wages than to these work placement students. Second, in some start-ups, it is not feasible to hire at anm early stage dedicated employee to solve the problem they are facing. Thus, this four-month work placement can help them to alleviate such problems quickly and with less cost. Third, work placement will enable industry to train students well in advance so that once they finish their studies; they are ready to start directly on the assigned job. Finally, work placement will reduce the gap between industry and academia and thus help regional growth and promote local talent. In the context of Pakistan, there is a need to design undergraduate programmes specifically catering to the needs of industry, and work placement is one such need. This could be realised by an industry-academia liaison committee which investigates the needs of industry and provides input during the curriculum revision. The reputation of Pakistani universities will be sullied if such actions will not take place. Students may take elective courses if they are not interested in pursuing work placement but this should be discouraged. however, in exceptional circumstances, if a student still wants to take electives, then those courses somehow should enable students to get a similar experience of work placement. Such courses may include entrepreneurship, a project, and any other related modules that develop the same skill set in students.

Karachi – Ph: 021-35381208-9

energy, counter-terrorism, disaster management, infrastructure and education for multilateral benefit. The TAPI gas pipeline and the CASA-1000 power transmission project would increase cooperation amongst the regional countries. Muttaki said the two sides discussed strengthening political ties and economic ties during the Turkmen foreign minister’s visit. “Important issues like TAPI, rail connectivity and electricity have been discussed,” he said. We have discussed strengthening the projects that have already started. The Afghan blockade of the ambitious and multimillion-dollar gas pipeline between Turkmenistan, Afghanistan, Pakistan and India (TAPI) has been removed. The pipeline is expected to reduce South Asia’s energy shortages. The planned pipeline is 1,814 km long. It was to start supplying gas from Turkmenistan’s largest gas field in 2020. There were security concerns as the pipeline passed through war-torn Afghanistan. Turkmen gas will go to India and Pakistan through Afghanistan. Turkmenistan will export 33 billion cubic meters of gas every year. The President of Turkmenistan said that this gas pipeline is important politically for the Central Asian countries. The pipeline was in question because of India’s relationship with Pakistan. But the Indian foreign secretary described the pipeline as a new chapter in cooperation between the four countries. Pakistan is very interested to complete the project. Afghanistan, Pakistan and India would benefit from the gas pipeline connectivity project. Afghanistan’s interim government has already given the green signal to complete the project. Basically, this gas project would fulfill the demand of energy, electricity and gas in Afghanistan, Pakistan including India. The project was expected to create 20000 new employment opportunities. Implementation would mean Afghanistan alone got $1 billion as transit fee and royalty. Pakistan will be the main customer of Turkmen

Islamabad – Ph: 051-2204545

gas. Pakistan has long suffered from energy shortages that affect families and businesses alike. Load shedding is a very common term in Pakistan now. That is why the supply of gas and electricity has become an integral part of the election manifestos of political parties. The project will bring clean fuel to the growing economies of India It will provide energy-hungry India gas to run its power plants. TAPI’s uninterrupted gas flow will be extremely important for India’s energy sector. There is an energy and gas crisis in Afghanistan, Pakistan and India. TAPI has the potential to solve their energy woes. The pipeline is expected to facilitate a unique level of trade and cooperation across the region, as well as support peace and security between the four countries. More than 1.5 billion people in Afghanistan, Pakistan and India are expected to benefit from the long-term energy security provided by the project. Also, the project is expected to increase Turkmenistan’s revenue through gas sales. Afghanistan and Pakistan will also benefit from transit fees. Although the Taliban’s takeover of Kabul has changed the geopolitics in the region, there are some issues where all regional countries can work together for ensuring mutual interests in the region. Although India was an active stakeholder in this project, now India’s position in this regard is not clear. But India should remain in this project for its own interest. There might be some bilateral problems iwith Pakistan, but that is not the issue. All regional states including India and Pakistan can work closely in the sector of trade and connectivity for ensuring the common greater interest. If this gas project can be extended to Bangladesh, Nepal, Bhutan in the near future, and all regional actors would benefit from the connectivity project. It is true that resumption of the TAPI pipeline project in Afghanistan brings new hope for the whole region.

Although the Taliban’s takeover of Kabul has changed the geopolitics in the region, there are some issues where all regional countries can work together for ensuring mutual interests in the region. Although India was an active stakeholder in this project, now India’s position in this regard is not clear.

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The writer can be pathikhasan1141@gmail.com

Email: editorial@pakistantoday.com.pk

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Lack of communication skills in our society

AUKUS: A dangerous military alliance AUKUS will make Bangladesh need nuclear subs hafizur talukdar

uKuS is named after Australia, the united Kingdom, and the uSA. On 16 September 2021, AuKuS was declared. It is a historic security and military alliance for the Pacific. The alliance will provide Australia with defense technology, including nuclear submarines and powerful missile management. The alliance members will also exchange defense intelligence between them. Cyber space, artificial intelligence, quantum technology, safe navigation strategies, joint military offices, and various military operations will be conducted from the same platform. This military alliance is basically to deal with the influence of China. Last month, the uSA and earlier Australia and the united Kingdom withdrew troops from Afghanistan, focusing on the Indo-Pacific and China. The uSA believes that having nuclear-powered ships could quickly pave the way for the development of atomic bombs. That is why it provided nuclear propulsion technology to the British ally. Nuclear-powered submarines will prepare Australia to enter the nuclear power club. If there is a war with China, it will be a nuclear war. how many days and at what time the nuclear sub will reach Canberra has been kept secret. however, it is thought that it will take a decade to supply the full 12, at least eight, nuclear-powered subs. As a result of this agreement, Australia has canceled the $90 billion submarine agreement with France. France was the first to lose to the uSA’s AuKuS diplomacy. France has lost much of its status as a global power. The fall of Paris has been expected since the placing of the French Army under uS command in NATO’s Integrated Command in 2009. France is not just a european metropolis; It is a constellation of regions around the world after the uSA, making it the second largest maritime domain in the world. The Indo-Pacific and adjoining regions are home to 1.6 million French citizens. That is to say, France is a power in the Indo-Pacific region. The decision by Australia to cancel its agreement with France to supply submarines and to get the kind of nuclear-powered submarines used by the Americans and British instead, is a rude blow to the French. The decision was officially announced to France just hours before it was made public, when there was no time at hand. Therefore, the deal of these three countries is being called a betrayal. According to Kevin Rudd, former Prime Minister of Australia and now President of the Asia Society and one of the world’s leading experts on the Anglophone world, China Observer, a nuclear or conventional submarine has a lifespan of 30 years. The life of a nuclear power reactor in a submarine is the same. Thus, Australia will not need to develop nuclear power generation separately for submarines. The Australians will get 12 submarines. But no technology will be transferred outside of training on how these submarines can be maintained, or Australians will not have the freedom to operate these submarines of their choice. In other words, Australian submarines will only support the uS Navy, not be an independent military force. The Kiwis are happy that they

will use the card as a bargaining chip when negotiating with China, a major trading partner. The uS trump card is that Taiwan could be bloody at any time to get China in the bag. China says AuKuS is another sinister move by the uSA aimed at a military confrontation in the South China Sea. Since 2015, the Chinese military has been training to occupy Taiwan’s presidential palace, and they have built a replica. The day after the announcement, China formally applied to join the Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP), the successor to President Obama’s proposed Trans-Pacific Partnership. As it turns out, Beijing is proposing economic exchanges, and Washington is proposing war. Influenced by the ideology of the nonaligned movement, ASeAN did not respond, but Indonesia has already expressed frustration. ASeAN wants to create a huge free trade area, which includes China. NATO is also silent. It had ambitions to expand into the Indo-Pacific region, and NATO understands that it will not be part of any game. New Zealand declared its adherence to the policy of nuclear disarmament. As a result, nuclear-armed ships have been refused entry to its ports. The AuKuS deal brings the issue of Indo-Pacific strategic security back to the forefront and has also affected the balance of power in South Asia between nuclear rivals Pakistan and India. Analysts are describing AuKuS as a “new Cold War” between the uSA and China. If Australia is equipped with nuclear weapons, India will also argue in favor of getting more nuclear subs and other nuclear weapons. Indian Defense Minister Rajnath Singh has hinted that New Delhi may change its “no-first use of nuclear weapons” policy. Such a change in Indian policy could similarly force China to change its policy of not using nuclear weapon first. And in South Asia, a new wave of nuclear weapons competition may begin. uS-Indian cooperation on sensitive defense technology could upset the balance of strategic power in South Asia. If Modi’s BJP retaliates by increasing its own naval nuclear capability, Islamabad will not sit still on the nuclear strategic chessboard of maritime security to strengthen its alliance with China. We have seen that the major powers are operating nuclear warships in the Indian Ocean in clear disregard of the 1968 NPT, the uNSC Resolution 255 and the uNSCR 984 Nuclear Security Assurance. Therefore, without going into any alliance, Bangladesh needs to acquire nuclear subs for its maritime, island and offshore security. India has been very careless about nuclear energy. In Jharkhand, Tamil Nadu and Nagpur, and state-sponsored nuclear smuggling and uranium theft have easily led to the smuggling and sale to terrorists on the black market. This is a serious concern for the international community. Carelessness can lead to many catastrophes.

India has now embarked on a hegemonic ‘maritime brinkmanship’ in South Asia. Rapid military modernization and the acquisition of naval technology have increased the threat level of Pakistan. uS anti-China security concerns are conducive to India’s foreign policy. There is no doubt that Delhi will now further strengthen its naval alliance with Washington. That is why Islamabad may be motivated to make an awkward deal to resist India. To maintain peace in the Indian Ocean and the Arabian Sea, Pakistan has already expressed its desire to further enhance its naval capabilities through modern warfare management (CMS), long-range patrol jets, unmanned warplanes, sophisticated weapons, satellites and surveillance systems. This arms race could make the security situation in the Subcontinent more unstable and complicated. France has accused its allies of double standards for scrapping its multimillion-dollar deal with Australia. The French foreign minister said the relationship had given rise to a “serious crisis”. It is quite clear that the nuclear submarines are targeting China. Will Australia’s nuclear submarines protect the country from a major defense threat from tiny Pacific states, or will it make it more dangerous? That is now another matter of reckoning. The AuKuS debate raises a number of other issues, such as the possibility that even close allies could be ditched if trade contacts are endangered. The French defense industry could have achieved a lucrative deal if the Australians had taken the lead. France will never forget this. There are many historical reasons for this. As the Western bloc opens up new fronts in the Indo-Pacific region, China will also step up its preparations. Withdrawing troops from Afghanistan and Iraq, the world thought, had quenched the uS hunger for global military courage. The sudden action and betrayal of France proves the idea futile. Washington is preparing for a long-term military confrontation with China. To keep China under pressure politically and militarily, the vast sea area will be controlled by Quad + (united States and united Kingdom, as well as Australia, India and Japan). It seems that Washington is preparing for a war in a decade or two. But Beijing may not give anti-China forces time on the Taiwan question. Meanwhile, China has accused AuKuS of having a “cold war mentality”. North Korea says the deal for a nuclear submarine will spark a regional arms race. Malaysia says the deal is a “catalyst for a nuclear arms race.” unfortunately, after the failed military operations in the Middle east and Central Asia, it seems that the Western bloc wants to test the depth and edge of the waters of east Asia and the Pacific Rim. Barack Obama wanted to take the ‘pivot to Asia’ policy forward, which is being brought back. Once the spark of a nuclear sub is heated in the ocean water, it may not be possible to control that arms race.

Unfortunately, after the failed military operations in the Middle East and Central Asia, it seems that the Western bloc wants to test the depth and edge of the waters of East Asia and the Pacific Rim.

The writer is freelance columnist

CONveYINg our idea or thought to others is called communication. The essential skill in our life is communication skills. From childhood, it is needed for everyone to convey information. As a teacher, it requires communication skills to convey your ideas or thoughts to a student. Communication skills are divided into two categories, verbal and non-verbal. verbal communication involves your talking power, writing skills and conveying style and non-verbal communication involves your body language your eye contact and your dressing Sometimes when you have an idea in your mind, often it gets failed to convey to others due to a lack of communication skills. It is necessary from student life to professional life. It should be mandatory to polish yourself with these skills. Nowadays there are a lot of youtube clips that can help us to enhance our skills, but the best method for people is to practice in front of a mirror. Skills aren’t acquired by reading, but they are acquired from practice. In our school, students are taught different unnecessary subjects, but the students don’t get in touch with such essential skills. Now let’s talk about universities. Communication skills are taught, but it’s always treated as a subject. Students read only to pass the subject. The teachers don’t involve participating students in different activities by giving tasks to the students. The teacher only writes on the whiteboard and the student writes in his/her notebook. Teachers and students must be able to treat communication skills as compulsory skills. This subject should be taught by the teacher in a way that teaches students how to talk and treat different people with words and body language. MOHSIN JAMALI BAdIN

Pakistan and Poverty MOST developing countries are faced with high levels of poverty, which has given rise to hunger, diseases and social conflicts. It has hindered people’s pursuit of a better lifestyle and prospects. China, which comprises one-fifth of the world’s population, has emerged victorious in the battle against poverty. The people’s republic was able to resolve the historic problem of poverty that had caused it many problems previously. China went beyond the textbook theories for eradicating poverty, and now it can provide new perceptions and formulas to fight against poverty at global level. In the process of eradicating poverty, China also met the agendas of the united Nations Sustainable Development goals 10 years ahead of its schedule. In the last eight years, China’s 98.99 million rural population living below the poverty line have all been lifted out of poverty. The formula in China’s victory against poverty is the path of positive dialectical thinking and improving the whole mechanism of the pro-poor market. China turned the burden of poverty into a source of potential and used the human and natural resources in rural areas for the purpose of prosperity, development and poverty alleviation. Working on local natural resources helped China develop various small businesses in impoverished areas, subsequently boosting local economic growth and providing opportunities for employment. China’s main approach towards the eradication of poverty is to maintain the goal of national common prosperity by establishing a pro-poor market in which all the sectors work collaboratively. China has allocated sufficient resources to eliminate poverty — nearly 1.6 billion yuan were allocated in each fiscal year. Many countries including Pakistan can follow the Chinese experience to alleviate poverty. China, based on its own experience and theoretical ideas in poverty alleviation, is giving back to the human cause of ending poverty and providing a new example for other countries and regions. MuJEEB-ur-rAHMAN KArAcHI

Women under Taliban rule AFghANISTAN, a war-torn country, had been a ground of historic enmity that started in 1979 and continues till today. The inimical relations between the Taliban and the uS resulted in the decimation of the people of Afghanistan. however, the departure of the forces has resulted in adverse consequences for the people of Afghanistan. every individual especially women is terrified of the atrocious Taliban forces who are governing the country with might. In this particular situation, the future of women seems bleak under the callous rule of the Taliban that neglects their fundamental rights. Moreover, Afghani women believe that the Taliban regime of 1996 has been revived which would act as an obstruction for women in terms of their stability, liberation, freedom of marriage, higher education, employment and political career. While articulating to The guardian News, a young Kabul resident, who requested to be anonymous, depicted the chaotic scenario of the very first day of Taliban rule. Besides, she induced an alarming situation for the women in Afghanistan. One of the spokeswomen told her to wear a chador (burqa) since the Taliban forces had captured Kabul. She breathlessly started running towards the vehicle that dropped her several minutes earlier. however, the driver of the transport prohibited her from getting inside the vehicle as he did not want to jeopardize his life by transporting a woman. This reveals the extreme level of their biased behaviour with women which needs not to be practised any longer since women are actively taking part in every walk of life around the globe; in some cases, they are outdoing men also. The collapse of the Afghan government has wreaked havoc in the country. especially, Afghan women feel abandoned and sceptical of Taliban concerning their behaviour with women and consider Taliban governance as a red flag to their prosperity. In this regard, I staunchly believe that the Taliban rule will not allow women to lead a genial life as it can be observed that there is a significant mismatch between the practices and commitments applied by the Taliban. It is high time the Taliban realized the significance of women and the need for their contribution in various fields for the uplift of the war-torn country. MEHAK JAMALI HydErABAd.

Saturday, 6 November, 2021

08 WORLD VIEW

How TwiTTer’s liberAl policy on porn Allows indiAn MusliM woMen To be HArAssed A PLETHORA OF HANDLES PROMOTING OBSCENE CONTENT SHOWCASING MUSLIM WOMEN AS SUBMISSIVE TO HINDU MEN THRIVES ON THE PLATFORM

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PoojA ChAuDhuRi

N July, dozens of Indian Muslim women found their pictures displayed as “deals of the day” on an app that went by the name “Sulli deals”. the app conducted mock auctions of these women to Hindu men. “there was no real sale of any kind – the purpose of the app was just to degrade and humiliate,” reported bbC. Such perverse use of social media for targeted harassment isn’t new. this kind of harassment is also frequently witnessed on twitter. there were accounts that took responsibility for “Sulli deals”. there are also accounts that regularly share pornographic content targeting Indian Muslim women. Most social media sites ban pornographic content but not twitter. the microblogging website is more accepting of porn. twitter policy states that users cannot post adult content in live video, profile, header or banner images created for lists. but pornography and other forms of consensually produced adult content can be posted within tweets “provided that this media is marked as sensitive”. despite this guideline, unmarked pornographic content flourishes on twitter. While the platform is used by porn performers to build their brands, twitter’s inability to distinguish acceptable adult content from nonconsensual objectification is hurting India’s Muslim community. a plethora of handles promoting pornographic content showcasing Muslim women as submissive to Hindu men thrives on the

platform. the language they use is filthy, to put it mildly. In a post, a handle has shared two pictures of women in hijab – one of them naked and the other offering namaz – and the caption gives a violent description of how Muslim women secretly want “Sanghi” men to have rough, forceful intercourse with them. this author reported the above twitter handle while writing this story. the handle was suspended for violating twitter’s norms. another post reported by the author made a reference to the demolition of the babri Masjid and how Muslim women want Hindu men to “demolish” them in the same way. It was also suspended by twitter. there are also tweets that purport to show Muslim women having sex with men identified as members of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh. the tweets show men “painted saffron” with the word “RSS” imprinted on them. but these are too offensive to be added to the report. Some of the tweets portray Muslim women as wanting to have sex with members of bharatiya Janata Party and bajrang dal. the tweets that were unreported by this author remain on the platform. TWITTER’S POLICY ON ‘NON-CONSENSUAL’ CONTENT: twitter does not give a specific option of reporting oppressive pornographic content. these tweets can be reported under “targeted harassment”. However, twitter does give the option of reporting “non-consensual” nudity. “We put the people who use our service first at every step, and have made progress when it comes to making twitter a safer place,” wrote a twitter spokesperson in an email response to questions about the steps taken to tackle the problem of the vulgar representation of Muslim women through pornographic content. the spokesperson explained: “While we welcome people to express themselves freely on twitter, we have policies in place to specifically address abuse and harassment, non-consensual nudity and hateful

conduct. We take action on accounts that engage in behaviors that violate twitter rules in line with our range of enforcement options. Under our non-consensual nudity policy, we prohibit posting or sharing intimate photos or videos of someone without their consent and is a severe violation of their privacy and the twitter rules.” How does twitter differentiate between consensual and non-consensual porn? the website’s non-consensual nudity policy allows users to report content that appears to have been taken or shared without a person’s consent. the type of content reportable by anyone is below. For other types of content twitter says: “We may need to hear directly from the individual(s) featured (or an authorised representative, such as a lawyer) to ensure that we have sufficient context before taking any enforcement action.” twitter’s policy appears to put the burden on users to report violations. the problems with this policy became clear last year, when a photograph of a seminaked woman was shared on twitter with a caption claiming that it was of a Jamia Millia Islamia student named Ladeeda Farzana. this author wrote a fact-check article about it for alt News. during the course of the reporting, the photograph was found to be of a woman who was herself a victim of revenge porn. Her ex-boyfriend had published intimate pictures and videos on pornographic websites. One of them had been picked up to target Farzana. a tweet carrying the image was reported to twitter by this author but it was not taken down by the platform. this may be because the tweet was not directly reported by the affected person. In 2017, US television personality Rob Kardashian shared nude photos of his exgirlfriend, seemingly without her permission, and the pictures remained on twitter for 30 minutes before they were taken down. It is unclear whether twitter had stepped in or

Kardashian himself had removed the photos. What we do know is that twitter did not suspend Kardashian’s account. Given twitter’s inadequate reaction to purported revenge porn in the West, it is no wonder pictures of the woman used to target Farzana are available on the Indian twitter ecosystem even more than a year after they were posted. In another egregious instance, a pornographic video was shared last year to target the women at of Shaheen bagh protesting the Citizenship amendment act. this too is yet to be taken down by twitter. However, the platform claims that it has taken steps to contain non-consensual nudity. twitter’s spokesperson wrote in the email response, “as per the latest twitter transparency Center update between July-december 2020, we took enforcement action on 27,087 accounts containing non-consensual nudity, an increase of 194% from the prior reporting period. From July to december 2020, we also saw the largest increase in the number of accounts actioned under this policy.” the spokesperson added: “Further, we have launched a number of initiatives, like more precise machine learning, to better detect and take action on content that violates our abuse and harassment policy. as a result, globally there was a 142% increase in accounts actioned, compared to the previous reporting period; 964,459 in total. there was also a 77% increase in the number of accounts actioned for violations of our hateful conduct policy during this reporting period globally.” BIAS AGAINST NON-ENGLISH LANGUAGES: a bigger problem is revealed when consensual content is shared with distorted context. For instance, a suggestive video of a married couple from trinidad and tobago working out in a gym went viral in India with “love jihad”. Captions in Hindi suggested that the gym had been started by Muslim man to trap Hindu women into en-

The heated debate over America’s nuke policy “NO FIRST USE” IS NO SIMPLE MATTER

Slate

FRED KAPLAN

debate is raging behind closed doors in the biden administration over whether to declare that the U.S. will never be the first country to use nuclear weapons in a conflict—that the “sole purpose” of such weapons is to deter, and retaliate against, a nuclear attack by another country. to most people, the news may seem puzzling: Isn’t this U.S. policy already—if an enemy nukes us, we’ll nuke the enemy? In fact, it is not U.S. policy. Our war plans and our relations with key allies have long been premised on the pledge, and the rehearsed possibility, that we will use nuclear weapons first—not in a surprise attack but in response to conventional aggression against an ally or to a large-scale chemical, biological, or cyber attack that can’t be halted without resorting to nukes. Some of biden’s midlevel aides are known to favor a “sole purpose” policy. biden himself, as vice president, endorsed the view in a speech (vetted by President barack Obama) 11 days before the end of their second term: Given our non-nuclear capabilities and the nature of today’s threats, it’s hard to envision a plausible scenario in which the first use of nuclear weapons by the United States would be necessary or make sense. President Obama and I are confident

we can deter—and defend ourselves, and our allies, against—non-nuclear threats through other means … [t]he president and I strongly believe … that deterring—and, if necessary, retaliating against—a nuclear attack should be the sole purpose of the U.S. nuclear arsenal. Obama had been set to declare such a policy in the first year of his presidency, but he was dissuaded from doing so. It is likely that biden will ultimately be dissuaded as well. to understand why this is a knottier issue than it seems at first glance, we must take a look at history. In the early phases of the atomic age, in the 1940s and ’50s, our policy was to fire off nuclear weapons in response to any Soviet or Chinese aggression against the U.S. or its allies. President dwight eisenhower called this policy “massive retaliation.” Ike was horrified by the bomb’s destructiveness, but he also thought that any conflict with the USSR or Red China would escalate to a nuclear conflict and so, therefore, the only wise policy was to deter them from starting a conflict by threatening them with obliteration if they did so. besides, the U.S. had no large army to stop a Communist invasion in europe or asia, and eisenhower—a penny pincher— didn’t want to spend the billions of dollars required to raise such an army. So nukes were seen as the only way out. However, in the early 1960s, the Soviets started fielding their own nuclear missiles and bombers capable of striking the U.S. as a result, “massive retaliation” lost credibility. If the Soviets invaded West Germany or occupied West berlin, would an american president really clobber Russia with nukes if Russia could clobber us back? both britain, our main ally at the time, and France, our most skeptical one, had their doubts and so built their own small nuclear arsenals—an independent deterrent that didn’t rely on an american president’s willingness to sacri-

fice New York for Paris or Washington for London. President John F. Kennedy and his secretary of defense, Robert McNamara, started to deal with the dilemma by strengthening conventional defenses in europe and by devising “limited nuclear options,” so that, if a nuclear response were warranted, the U.S. could deliver one without blowing up Soviet or Chinese cities—and thus spurring the enemy to blow up our cities. However, the Vietnam War diverted resources away from a european buildup, and the generals at Strategic air Command (SaC), which controlled the nuclear arsenal, skirted the orders to develop small-scale nuclear options. and so, throughout most of the Cold War, the United States continued to base thousands of tactical nuclear weapons throughout europe and asia, as well as thousands more in the missile silos, submarines, and bombers stationed at home. Not until the late 1970s did the U.S. and NatO deploy a serious conventional defense force in europe, and not until the late 1980s did SaC (soon renamed Strategic Command) truly weave small-scale options into the nuclear war plans. However, america’s ultimate security pledge—that we will respond to a non-nuclear attack on key allies as an attack on our own homeland, with nuclear weapons if necessary—remained, and still remains, a centerpiece of U.S. foreign policy. It’s called “extended deterrence” or the “nuclear umbrella,” and no president has retracted the extension or folded up the umbrella. during the 1986 summit in Reykjavik, when word got out that Presidents Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev were on the verge of agreeing to eliminate all of their nuclear weapons, the biggest cries of anxiety and protest came from the leaders of Germany and Japan. they were relieved when the deal fell apart. In his first months as president, barack Obama led a review of nuclear policy, in-

cluding the question of “no first use.” (My 2020 book, the bomb, details this review and similar reviews throughout the nuclear age.) In National Security Council meetings, he expressed doubts that any american president would ever use nuclear weapons first. the line between use and nonuse was bright and bold; the taboo against crossing that line was very intense; and besides, U.S. conventional defenses were now strong enough that nukes weren’t necessary to deter or beat back a conventional invasion. However, during those internal debates, defense Secretary Robert Gates raised three points. First, a shift in policy would frighten and alienate our allies, making them doubt our broad security commitments, and possibly compel them to build their own nuclear arsenals, which could spark new regional nuclear arms races. Second, the U.S. might someday face a large-scale biological attack; we stopped building bioweapons long ago, and so a nuclear response might be appropriate. In any case, saying that we wouldn’t respond with nuclear weapons might tempt an adversary to use, or threaten to use, bioweapons. Gates’ arguments did not dissuade Obama from believing that no president would actually use nuclear weapons first or that the “sole purpose” of nuclear weapons was to deter and respond to a nuclear attack. but the arguments did persuade him not to declare that belief as official U.S. policy. However, Obama did not want anyone—citizens, officials, officers, allies, or adversaries—to believe that the U.S. regarded nuclear weapons as legitimate responses to a broad range of threats. For one thing, he was very worried about nuclear proliferation and thought that, if the U.S. declared nukes to be legitimate weapons, other countries— currently refraining from going nuclear— might take the plunge. So he formulated a compromise: His Nuclear Posture Review, published in april 2010, declared that “the fundamental purpose” of nuclear weapons was to deter, and retaliate against, a nuclear attack. (“Fundamental” seemed firmer than “principal” but

tering romantic relationships with him so that he could later force them to convert to Islam. How will twitter, assuming that it intends to, take down such posts when the video does not violate its norms? It is the caption that’s objectionable. besides, harmful content shared in non-english languages does not seem to undergo equal scrutiny. In 2019, twitter expanded its hateful conduct policy to prohibit language that dehumanises people on the basis of race, ethnicity, or national origin. Some of the words given as examples are cockroaches, leeches, maggots. but what about objectionable language in Hindi? there are several posts that use offensive words for Muslim women. they have not been flagged. Pornographic handles also routinely post pictures of prominent Muslim women – dancer Nora Fatehi, show business personality Sana Khan and Member of Parliament Nusrat Jahan – with obscene captions. While feminists have long argued that the power dynamics in porn augment societal misogyny, this particular brand of pornography is arguably more problematic. India’s minority Muslim community is marginalised, discriminated against and demonised. twitter posts of this kind show how Muslim women are not only attacked for their faith but also for their gender identity. the imagery claiming that Muslim women want to have violent sex with men who demolished the babri Masjid is a perverse glorification of the violence and subjugation of their community. twitter has not acted against many such accounts because the handles have either not been reported by users or detected by the platform. While twitter does not ban nudity, it does need better policies to identify porn that is used as a tool to further the oppression of Muslim women. Pooja Chaudhuri is a Senior Editor at Alt News. more flexible than “sole.”) the document also said that the U.S. would not use nuclear weapons first against countries that a) did not possess nuclear weapons and b) were compliant with the Nuclear Non-Proliferation treaty. the idea was that such a pledge might deter some countries from developing nuclear weapons—but would leave first-use as an option against adversaries that had nuclear weapons (Russia, China, and, at the time, potentially North Korea or Iran). My guess is, ultimately, biden—whose aides are currently debating and drafting his own Nuclear Posture Review—will strike a similar compromise. First, he was present during Obama’s NSC debates; he saw how it evolved and how it was settled. Second, he has already begun to hint at a middle ground. even during the 2020 presidential campaign, candidate biden’s website reiterated his support for “sole purpose,” but added, “as president, he will work to put that belief into practice in consultation with our allies and military.” (emphasis added.) Whoever wrote that passage knew—and biden certainly knew, and knows—that “our allies and military” won’t go along with it. More recently, just last week, after biden’s sidebar meeting with French President emmanuel Macron at the G-20 summit in Rome, the two leaders released a joint statement that included this passage: “the fundamental purpose of NatO’s nuclear capability is to preserve peace, prevent coercion, and deter aggression.” this is key: they didn’t say the fundamental purpose was to “deter nuclear aggression,” but simply to “deter aggression.” Saying that another “fundamental purpose” is to “preserve peace” and “prevent coercion” also goes far beyond the goal of simply deterring and retaliating against a nuclear attack. biden’s Nuclear Posture Review will probably retreat from some of the more extreme statements in President donald trump’s 2018 review, for instance: “U.S. forces will strengthen their ability to integrate nuclear and non-nuclear military policy and operations”—thus blurring a distinction that had previously been boldly clear. However, nuclear weapons have always been central to U.S. policy, and, despite biden’s personal skepticism, this is not likely to change under his watch.

Saturday, 6 November, 2021 | KARACHI

NEWS

corporate corner Chairman nHA holds E-Kacheri

FPSC to ConDUCt SCREEninG tEStS PRioR to CSS ComPEtitivE ExAm 2022

t Islamabad: As per directive of Prime Minister of Pakistan Mr. Imran Khan on reaching out to the public through holding Khuli Kachehris by organizations under the Federal Government, Chairman National Highway Authority Capt ® Muhammad Khurram Agha held EKachehri today at headoffice of the Authority through NHA official Facebook Page and answered to the questions raised by the people all over the country and issued on spot directions to undertake steps for earlier solution of public complaints. In his opening remarks, Chairman National Highway Authority Capt ® Muhammad Khurram Agha gave a detailed description of Authority’s ongoing and future plans and received public proposals on them. He also informed people regarding responsibilities and working scope of NHA. He also answered to complaints about toll plazas, construction, maintenance, rehabilitation and dualisation of roads schemes throughout the country. He said, Sukkur-Hyderabad motorway project will be undertaken on Public Private Partnership (PPP) basis and last date for bid submission is November 18, 2021. NHA is endeavoring to start work on this project at the earliest. Giving answer to a question he said, NHA has completed its work on Chitral-Shandur Road. He said, construction on Hakla-D.I.Khan motorway is in last stage and it will be opened to traffic after inauguration. He said, a Mosque will also be built in Rest Area of Hazara Motorway (E-35). On public complaints he directed to send NHA teams to delayed projects to set the matter right. Speaking about afforestation, Chairman National Highway Authority Capt ® Muhammad Khurram Agha said, saplings are being planted along mega projects across the country. Presently construction work on 16 projects has been started in Balochistan including Nokundi-Mahskhel project. Maintenance work of N-5 at Saqidabad will be started soon. He further informed, work on Hoshab-Awaran Road (M-8) has also been started while work on Awaran-Naal Project will be started soon. Likewise work on Dera Murad Jamali has also been started. PC-I for Tarnol-Fateh Jang road has been forwarded to Planning Commission. Construction activity will be started on Quetta-Karachi road project by next month, he hoped. pr

Future Pak-US Relations Depends on Greater Economic Cooperation & Good Governance: CASS Seminar

HE Federal Public Service Commission (FPSC) will conduct the Screening Tests prior to the CSS Competitive Examination in 2022. Document available with Pakistan Today stated that the cabinet in its last meeting gave the approval to FPSC’s recommendation to conduct a Screening Test of 200 marks prior to the CSS competitive examination with effect from CSS2022. The screening test would consist of 200 marks which include 20 marks of Islamic Studies, 20 marks Urdu, 50 English, 60 General abilities and 50 general knowledge. The Establishment Division apprised the Cabinet that the FPSC held CSS Competitive Examination annually for recruitment to posts in BS-17 in twelve (12) Occupational Groups/Services, mandated under Section 7 of FPSC Ordinance, 1977. FPSC had observed that from 1998-2019, on average, the number of applicants increased by 10% annually and for the years 2020 & 2021, a surge of 69 % was seen as compared to previous years. This had resulted in a decline in passing percentage and an increase in processing time. Document states that FPSC was directed to revisit the CSS CE system through studying international best practices and incorporating views of various stakeholders in line with the Cabinet Committee on Institutional Reforms (CCIR) decision. Subsequently, FPSC in its study stated that the

screening/preliminary tests were held in SAARC passing threshold of the Screening Test had been countries to filter candidates for main exams. The capped at 33% which would enable most of the canScreening Test will reduce the processing time for didates belonging from all areas of Pakistan to qualify for the proposed Screening Test. CSS CE from 20 months to 12 months. In support of the proposal, FPSC also conducted Document states that the Cabinet in its meeting held on 10.12.2019 also considered this matter, a statistical analysis of the past five years and it was wherein the proposal for introduction of a screening evident from the said analysis that most of the candidates including Balochistan and Sindh (R) had scored test prior to the written exam was not approved. The Cabinet Members of view that SAT/GRE at least 33% marks in compulsory subjects in the type tests could be a disadvantage for candidates written part of the examination. This data further supfrom underdeveloped countries while the Legal ten- ported the idea of holding a Screening Test prior to ability, as well as belated announcement, was unfair written CSS examination. In addition to the above, Sindh Public Service to candidates. Moreover, some of the members apprehended Commission (SPSC) and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Pubthat this would be disadvantageous to the candidates lic Service Commission (KPSC) also held a screenfrom backward areas besides doubling the expendi- ing test in order to sift the serious candidates prior to written examination of Provincial Management Servture for them. The FPSC had addressed the above observations ice (PMS). Therefore, the idea of FPSC to introduce of the Cabinet by taking the steps such as the pro- a Screening Tests prior to the written examination of posed format of Screening Test mainly consisting of CSS was justified. Shahzad paracha compulsory subjects of CSS examination and it does not have any similarity to SAT/GRE format. FPSC intended to hold the Screening Test well before the announcement of the CSS CE-2022 examination, therefore, the question of legal tenability and Fauji Fertilizer Company (FFC) held Extraordinary unfairness to candidates would not General Meeting on November 05th, 2021 while arise, it informed the cabinet. establishing a quorum of 56.81 percent with In addition, FPSC shared that the

Customs oﬃcials accused of Boostin injection smuggling ISLAMABAD Shahzad paracha

The customs officials deputed at the Islamabad airport are accused of Boostin injection smuggling. Sources have told Pakistan Today that a number of complaints have been lodged against the officials at the Pakistan Citizen’s Portal with regard to the smuggling of Boostin Injection and other artificial milk-producing injections into Pakistan. The complaints revealed that the smuggling of Boostin injection continues with the connivance of customs officials namely Farrukh Gondal, Shahid Zafar and Fakhar Iqbal. Smugglers import these life hazarding injections from Brazil, South Korea and South Africa and the smugglers manage to take out

the illegal items with the connivance of the said officials, the complaint alleged. The complaints further state that superintendent customs also reported this matter to Collector Customs Islamabad but he did not take any action against the said officials. The above-mentioned officials also force their colleagues performing duties at the airport to clear the illegal goods and if someone does not obey their instructions then they get them transferred the staff to any other place by using their influence. The sources said that Customs officials also make passengers flee if the smuggling attempt fails so that no FIR can be registered against them. The scribe approached Collector Customs Islamabad Junaid Jalil as FBR headquarter sent the complaint to him for further action but no reply was received till the filing of the story.

Punjab Govt providing subsidy facility and incentives to farmers, says Agriculture Minister LAHORE Pakistan needs to put its own house in order, gradually reduce dependence on major powers and negotiate more astutely in order to protect its national interests in a changing world order. This was stated by leading diplomats, former senior military officers and eminent intellectuals at the National Seminar on ‘The Future of Pak-US Relations: Challenges & Opportunities” organized by the Centre for Aerospace & Security Studies (CASS) in Islamabad. Eminent speakers included former Foreign Minister Ambassador Inam-ul-Haq, former Foreign Secretary and Director CASS Ambassador Jalil Abbas Jilani, former Federal Minister for Information and Broadcasting and Senator Javed Jabbar, Director CASS for Economic Affairs and National Development Dr Usman W. Chohan and Air Vice Marshal Shahzad Aslam Chaudhry (Retd), senior defence and security analyst. The eminar was chaired by President CASS Air Marshal Farhat Hussain Khan (Retd), while Syed Muhammad Ali, Director Nuclear & Strategic Affairs at the Centre delivered the welcome remarks and moderated the event. Ambassador Inam-ul-Haq, while analyzing the emerging geopolitical dynamics & options for Pakistan, stated that Pakistan’s options, amidst accelerating SinoUS strategic competition, depend upon its ability to set its own house in order, by building its economy and improving its governance. He warned that Pakistan would come under pressure from both sides. He also advised that Pakistan should avoid dvocating Afghan Taliban’s case in the world and argued that they have successfully negotiated with the United States in Doha and are capable of doing their diplomacy so Pakistan should let them do it themselves. pr

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Government of Punjab is providing subsidy facility and incentives to farmers under the National Plan to Increase Wheat Production per Acre to achieve 22 million metric tonnes of wheat production this year. This was stated by Minister for Agriculture, Punjab Syed Hussain Jahanian Gardezi while addressing the participants of a seminar organized for raising awareness of wheat farmers in Sargodha district. The Agriculture Minister said that Present Government under the vision of Prime Minister Imran Khan and leadership of Punjab Chief Minister Sardar Usman Khan Bazdar is taking steps to address the shortage of agricultural commodities and ensure food security at National level. “Under Prime Minister Agriculture Emergency Program, wheat production per acre at a cost of Rs 12.59 billion is being implemented and under this program, exhibition plots, seminars and Farmers’ Day are being organized to introduce modern production technology among the farmers. In addition, during the financial year 2021-22, under this scheme, other agricultural inputs including modern agricultural machinery worth over Rs. 1 billion are also being provided at 50% subsidy for the promotion of mechanized cultivation of wheat,” he said. The Minister further emphasized that

farmers should use the recommendations of the Department of Agriculture, fertilizers and certified seeds to get higher yields of wheat so that the yield will achieve higher than last year. Wheat cultivation should be completed preferably from 1st November to 10th December. On the occasion, Punjab Agriculture Minister Syed Hussain Jahanian Gardezi distributed Kisan cards among the farmers and said that a revolutionary program of issuance of “kisan card” has been launched through which all subsidies in the form of cash transfer are directly transferred to the farmers’ account. So far more than 584,000 farmers have registered themselves to get the kisan card. On this occasion, the provincial agriculture minister appealed to the farmers to complete the registration of the farmer card as soon as possible so that the government, by transferring the subsidy directly to their account and the farmers can buy agricultural inputs in a timely manner so that the production targets of important crops can be ensured by getting the subsidy in a timely manner. Director General Agriculture (Extension) Dr. Muhammad Anjum, Director Agricultural Information Muhammad Rafiq Akhtar, Faiz Muhammad Kundi Director Sargodha Division, Dr. Ishtiaq Ahmed, Khusro Nadir Gilani, Asif Ali and Deputy Director Agricultural Information Naveed Ismat Kahlon besides local Agriculture Department officials. Farmers and media representatives, a large number of participants attended.

FFC Extraordinary General meeting

representation through Video Conferencing and proxies from individual shareholders as well as from all major equity holders which included Fauji Foundation, State Life Insurance Limited, Citi Bank, Deutsche Bank, Atlas and representatives from various other Corporate bodies and institutions. Brig Asrat Mahmood, SI(M) (Retd), Company Secretary FFC, opened the house. He apprised the shareholders of the special business to seek Shareholders’ approval notwithstanding the special resolution passed by the shareholders of the Company in the EGM held on July 27, 2021. The approval is accorded in terms of Section 199 of the Companies Act, 2017 to assign its rights, benefits and interests in respect of any investment made in the Foundation Wind Energy-I Limited and Foundation Wind Energy-II Limited by way of subordinated loan. The shareholders unanimously approved the proposed resolution. Chairman, Mr. Waqar Ahmed Malik and Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer FFC, Mr. Sarfaraz Ahmed Rehman graced the occasion and responded to various queries from shareholders and assured FFC’s commitment to achieve higher standards of performance and to provide sustained earnings to the valued shareholders despite the challenging circumstances. pr

Boards of intermediate & Secondary Examination recommended examination and assessment reforms by inter Board Committee of Chairmen On the directives of Federal Minister for Education & Professional Training Mr. Shafqat Mahmood, all the boards of intermediate and secondary education agreed that the examination and assessment pattern will be focused on conceptual learning. This agenda item for the improvement of examination system was placed in 170th Meeting of Inter Board Committee of Chairmen Forum in Islamabad which was attended by 49 members including 30 examination boards. It was agreed that all the examination boards will prepare Students Learning Outcome based question papers in future. The boards agreed to gradually move towards higher cognitive level questions with the weightage knowledge 30 percent, Understanding 50 percent and Application 20 percent. The Inter Board Committee of Chairmen Forum recommended various examination reforms and advised boards to discuss the implementation strategy at their concerned forums. The major recommendations included introducing automation of examination for improving efficiency and transparency, conducting curriculumbased examination, capacity building of examination staff & teachers to make assessment more valid & reliable, developing central items bank & rubrics to make assessment authentic, enhancing security system at the examination centers to curb cheating and other malpractices in examination, e-marking to make work smarter & faster, establishing research section in boards for analysis & future improvements. The forum appreciated the initiatives taken by Federal Board and Kohat Board for introducing various reforms & technology in the examination system to ensure transparency & reliability. Secretary Inter Board Committee of Chairmen Prof. Dr Ghulam Ali Mallah said that it was the vision of Federal Minister for Education & Professional Training Mr. Shafqat Mahmood to change the examination pattern that must be based on the concepts & understanding. He further said that these recommendations will play pivotal role to dent the old conventional system that is based on rote memorization. The reforms will help students to be problem-solvers. pr

Saturday, 6 November, 2021 | KARACHI

10 FOREIGN NEWS

China will steadfastly advanCe opening-up, says Chinese president Xi Jinping

NewS DeSk

RESIDENT Xi Jinping delivered a keynote speech (Full text) via video at the opening ceremony of the fourth China International Import Expo and the Hongqiao International Economic Forum on Thursday. Here are some highlights:

on china’s past China’s opening-up pledges made at 3rd CIIE basically implemented (Read more) China’s overall tariff level has dropped to 7.4 percent from 15.3 percent in 2001, lower than the 9.8 percent the country promised when entering WTO (Read more) China has provided the international

community with about 350 billion face masks, more than 4 billion protective garments, 6 billion test reagents and 1.6 billion doses of vaccines (Read more) on china’s future China will remain resolute in expanding high-level opening up, sharing development opportunities with the world and making economic globalization more open, inclu-

sive, balanced and beneficial for all China will steadfastly uphold true multilateralism (Read more) China to unswervingly share market opportunities with world China will steadfastly advance highlevel opening-up (Read more) China to unswervingly safeguard common interests of all countries China open to negotiations over industrial subsidy, SOE China to open more import promotion demo zones China to develop ‘Silk Road e-commerce’ (Read more) China to expand opening-up of telecom, medical sectors China to implement stress tests for high-

Thousands of US intelligence oﬃcers face sacking for refusing Covid vaccine NewS DeSk Thousands of intelligence officers risk being fired for failing to obey the US government’s vaccine mandate as some Republican lawmakers raise concerns about removing such employees from agencies vital to national security. Chris Stewart, a Republican from Utah and a member of the House Intelligence Committee, said that several intelligence agencies had at least 20% of their workforce unvaccinated as of late October. Some agencies in the 18-member intelligence community had as much as 40% of their workforce unvaccinated, Stewart said, citing information the administration has provided to the committee but not released publicly. He declined to identify the agencies because full information on vaccination rates was classified. While many people will likely still get vaccinated before the administration’s Nov. 22 deadline for civilian workers, resistance to the mandate could leave major agencies responsible for national security without some personnel. Intelligence officers are particularly hard to replace due to the highly specialised work they do and the difficulties of completing security clearance checks. The Office of the Director of National Intelligence declined several requests to provide figures for the intelligence community. The office also would not say what contingency plans are in place in case officers are taken off work due to not complying with the mandate. Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines

declined at a hearing last week to disclose what percentage of the workforce had been vaccinated, but said “we are not anticipating that it is going to be an issue for mission.” There are an estimated 100,000 employees in the intelligence community. The vaccination rates provided by Stewart are mostly higher than those of the general US population. About 70% of American adults are fully vaccinated and 80% have received at least one dose of a vaccine. Stewart called on the administration to approve more exemptions for people on medical, religious and other grounds, and delay any terminations of intelligence officers. “My question is what’s the impact on national security if we do that?” Stewart said. “You’re potentially firing thousands of people on the same day. And it’s not like you put an ad on Craigslist and have people apply by Thursday.” According to Reuters, Business groups, state attorneys general and religious organisations have promised swift court challenges to try to block the vaccine-and-testing mandate unveiled on Thursday by the Biden administration. President Biden had said that the country’s patience is growing thin with the 30% of Americans who are not fully vaccinated, and the rule is aimed at ensuring safe workplaces.

The vaccine requirement is being imposed through a rarely used process that has a history of being blocked by judges. What is the rule? Imposed by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), the rule requires all businesses with at least 100 employees to ensure they are vaccinated or submit to weekly testing and wearing a face covering. OSHA rules typically take seven years to develop. This rule is being issued through an emergency temporary standard (ETS), a process that allows OSHA to address a “grave danger” and is aimed at protecting against that hazard. Prior to an ETS issued in June that applied to healthcare settings, OSHA had issued nine emergency temporary standards since it was set up in 1971. Of those, six were challenged in court and only one survived unscathed: a standard issued in 1978 aimed at exposure to acrylonitrile, a chemical used in rubber manufacturing. Who opposes the rule and why? A group of 24 Republican attorneys general warned in September that they would go to court to fight what they said was an illegal mandate.

level opening-up in free trade zones

China supports equitable distribution of critical medical supplies globally.

They argued OSHA’s power to issue an emergency rule was limited to workplace hazards such as industrial chemicals, not a widely circulating virus. They also accused the Biden administration of usurping the power to regulate healthcare which has traditionally been left to states. Industry, religious and civil liberty groups have also said they plan to sue because they expect the rule to be a burden on businesses or amount to an unconstitutional power grab. What can opponents challenge? The most likely avenue of attack will focus on the argument that there is a grave danger. Opponents note that Covid-19 cases are declining from a recent wave in September and the country is getting closer to herd immunity. The National Retail Federation wrote to the Biden administration in October questioning whether OSHA should be issuing a rule to address a disease that is a greater danger outside the workplace than in. Courts have said OSHA must show there are no other means of addressing the grave danger. Trade groups have said mitigation efforts in lowrisk industries such as construction have reduced the threat from the pandemic. The ETS issued in June by OSHA that applied to healthcare settings could also be used against the agency. OSHA said then that it did not need a broader rule to apply across the economy. What have courts said in the past about ets? The 6th US Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the 1978 standard on acrylonitrile because a study showed exposure to the chemical led to higher cancer rates among South Carolina workers, according to a report by the Fisher Phillips law firm. Other emergency standards were struck down when OSHA failed to show a link to cancer from a targeted chemical or that the alleged hazard caused no more than headaches and fatigue, which a court found fell short of the grave danger threshold.

Overseas Pakistanis remit over US$ 2.4 billion through 250,000 RDAs ISLAMABAD APP

Overseas Pakistanis have so far remitted over US$ 2.4 billion through more than 250,000 Roshan Digital Accounts (RDAs) from 175 countries. Out of these, more than US$1.6 billion have been invested in Naya Pakistan Certificates (NPCs). This was stated by Consul General of Pakistan, Toronto (Canada), Abdul Hameed shared while speaking at a webinar arranged by the Consulate here in collaboration with Bank Al Habib, Pakistan for the promotion of RDAs, according to a press release issued by Pakistan Consulate in Toronto on Friday. The objective of the webinar was to create awareness among the Pakistani Diaspora in Canada about this great initiative by the present government, and introduction of the products, services and facilities being offered under this by various commercial banks in Pakistan. The Consul General of Pakistan in his welcome remarks terming the RDA initiative a huge success said that Overseas Pakistani have wholeheartedly welcomed this revolutionary step from the present government. Other speakers included Syed Irfan Ali, Managing Director, Deposit Protection Corporation, State Bank of Pakistan.

PID (I) 2924/21

saturday, 6 November, 2021 | KArACHI

Dr NaumaN Niaz offers apology over spat with shoaib akhtar

staff RepoRt

V anchor and former Pakistan Television host Dr Nauman Niaz has tendered an “unconditional apology” for his misconduct with Shoaib Akhtar in a live TV show a week ago, prompting the resignation of the former star pacer from the channel. The two were part of a panel for PTV Sports programme “Game On Hai” on Oct 27 along with guests the likes of West Indies batting legend Sir Vivian Richards, former England captain David Gower, former Pakistan women’s captain Sana Mir and former fast bowler Umar Gul. The panel was discussing the PakistanNew Zealand T20 World Cup match which Pakistan won by five wickets. During a discussion on the Pakistan squad, Akhtar had credited the Pakistan Super League’s Lahore Qalandars franchise for discovering

Shaheen Shah Afridi and Haris Rauf. Niaz took issue with Akhtar’s comments and said: “You are being a little rude so I don’t want to say this but if you’re being over-smart then you can go. I am saying this on air.” Once the show resumed after a break, Akhtar apologised to the guests on the panel and announced

former pakistan cricketer rana Naved-ul-hasan heard vaughan’s alleged racist comments: report staff RepoRt Former Pakistan cricketer Rana Naved-ulHasan has come forward to say he heard former England captain Michael Vaughan allegedly making racist comments. According to an ESPN report, the English cricketer made “insensitive comments to a group of Asian players at Yorkshire.” “There’s too many of you lot, we need to do something about it,” Vaughn had allegedly said in 2009 at Tent Bridge in the presence of Rana — who was Yorkshire’s overseas player — and Azeem Rafiq. Both the cricketers were among four players of Asian origin in the England club at that time. Vaughan had on Thursday admitted that he was named in the club’s report into Azeem’s allegations of racism at Yorkshire. “I completely and categorically deny that I ever said those words,” Vaughan said in a column in The Telegraph. “This hit me very hard. It was like being struck over the head with a brick. I have been involved in cricket for 30 years and never once been accused of any remotely similar incident or disciplinary offence as a player or commentator.” However, Rana insists that he heard the former England skipper make a racially insensitive statement, and said he was ready to provide evidence if required. The development comes 24 hours after Yorkshire batsman Gary Ballance said he regretted using racist language towards his former teammate, Rafiq. “It has been reported that I used a racial slur and, as I told the independent enquiry, I accept that I did so and I regret doing so,” Ballance said in a statement. “To be clear — I deeply regret some of the language I used in my younger years.” In a parallel development to have unfolded on Friday, the chairman of Yorkshire resigned, as the latest fallout from the racism row involving former player Rafiq plunged the English county cricket side into fresh chaos. Rafiq has accused Yorkshire of failing to deal adequately with his allegations of racism when he played for the club. In September, Yorkshire offered the 30-year-old Pakistan-born off-spinner “profound and unreserved apologies” in a report commissioned by the club. But last week Yorkshire said they would take no disciplinary action against any staff, unleashing a wave of criticism and prompting sponsors, including Nike, to turn their backs on the club. The crisis engulfing Yorkshire intensified when the England and Wales Cricket Board announced yesterday they were suspending the club from staging international matches as they branded the club’s handling of the Rafiq case “wholly unacceptable” and the matter “abhorrent”. Several sponsors have ended their partnerships with Yorkshire, with Nike saying that it has cancelled a four-year deal that was signed in March. “Nike will no longer be the kit supplier for Yorkshire CCC. We stand firmly against racism and discrimination of any kind,” Nike said in a statement reported by British media. Emerald Group Publishing, Yorkshire Tea, and Tetley Bitter, among other sponsors, have also said they will end their relationships with the club.

his resignation from PTV, saying that he could not continue with the programme because of “how I was treated on national television”. The incident soon became viral on social media with the two individuals becoming top trends on Twitter and videos of the confrontation circulating, which prompted Akhtar to issue a video message to

“clarify” the situation. Later, the PTV launched an inquiry into the spat and took Dr Niaz and Akhtar off-air until completion of the probe. In his tell-all interview a day ago with journalist Rauf Klasra on his YouTube channel, Dr Niaz candidly confessed to his “mistake” and said he rued whatever happened that day. The former host said the reaction to his outburst was justified, adding “I had no right. To err is human and for that, I apologise. Not only once, but a million times. Shoaib has been a rock star. Whatever happened on camera was unbecoming.” Dr Niaz said his father also told him to take responsibility because of the “mistake you have done”. Klasra recalled that Shoaib, in a recent interview, had said that an understanding had been reached during a break in the transmission that Dr Niaz will apologise but it didn’t hap-

sporTs 11 pen. The former PTV host responded: “Shoaib was contracted with us on the basis of exclusivity. People thought I was just a host but they don’t know that I also sign salaries of all employees including Shoaib. It was an overlapping [on my part] and again there is no justification for it.” He reiterated that Shoaib was a star at the show and “I was a host and the incident shouldn’t have happened in presence of international stars”. ContraCtual violations from shoaib: Elucidating more about Akhtar’s behaviour with the management and his alleged violations of the contract with the PTV days before the unfortunate episode, Dr Niaz narrated that Akhtar had recently sought a pay raise which was eventually settled in a meeting with the channel’s managing director. “Later on Oct 17, Shoaib was supposed to take part in the transmission, but he left for Dubai and participated in a show there with Harbhajan Singh. He then committed to come back for the PTV transmission a couple of days later but didn’t turn up.” Admitting that Akhtar is a “saleable brand” on screen, he clarified that Clause-5 of the former

bowler’s contract outright barred him from taking part in any other talk show. “However, he participated in other shows during this period”. ‘Ptv was being taken for granted’: Asked whether there was resentment deep down about Shoaib’s contractual violations, Dr Niaz said it was not about a personal grudge but a question of the channel’s reputation. “PTV was being taken for granted, which was bad,” he added. “These things were building up in my mind. Let me honestly say that a minor abrasion erupted in my cognitive mind that led to the incident which we all saw and it should not have happened.” He insisted he was offering an unconditional apology for the episode. “It was an inexcusable act.” He also underlined that Akhtar was not happy with the seating arrangement on the day and “then he did something which was irking but I will not divulge it”. He said he was also hurt by remarks of a satirist who labelled him as someone who looked like a “tasteless melon”. Earlier during the interview, Dr Niaz revealed that he knew Akhtar “since the time when nobody knew him,” saying that the star pacer was a man of many virtues and had a very good heart.

Yorkshire chairman Hutton resigns over handling of racism allegations News Desk Yorkshire chairman Roger Hutton has resigned in the fallout from former player Azeem Rafiq’s racism allegations against the English cricket club, citing an unwillingness by the club to accept the claims and a refusal to apologise. “Today I announce my resignation as chairman of Yorkshire County Cricket Club, with immediate effect,” Hutton said on Friday. “There has been a constant unwillingness from the executive members of the board and senior management at the club to apologise, and to accept that there was racism, and to look forward. For much of my time at the club, I experienced a culture that refuses to accept change or challenge.” Hutton joined the Yorkshire board in 2020, almost two years after Rafiq ended his second stint at Headingley, and says he has never met the player. On Thursday, Yorkshire was suspended from hosting international matches as punishment for its handling of the racism case that has shaken the sport. The England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) slammed the club for its “wholly unacceptable” response to the racism faced

by Rafiq. A number of Yorkshire’s sponsors have deserted the beleaguered club, and the ECB said the case “is causing serious damage to the reputation of the game”. “The ECB find this matter abhorrent and against the spirit of cricket and its values,” the governing body said in a statement. Yorkshire’s Headingley Stadium was scheduled to host England’s Test against New Zealand and a mens one-day international against South Africa in 2022, as well as an Ashes Test against Australia in 2023. But the ECB said the club is “suspended from hosting international or major matches until it has clearly demonstrated that it can meet the standards expected of an international venue.” Yorkshire said last month that it would not take any disciplinary action against any of its employees, players or executives despite a report that found that Rafiq, one of its former captains, was the victim of racial harassment and bullying. Rafiq, a former England under-19 captain, said in interviews last year that as a Muslim he was made to feel like an “outsider” during his time at Yorkshire from 2008-18 and that he was close to

taking his own life. A formal independent investigation was commissioned by Yorkshire into more than 40 allegations made by Rafiq, with seven of them upheld in a report released last month. On Wednesday, former England crick-

eter Gary Ballance admitted using a racial slur against Rafiq when they were teammates at Yorkshire, but said that “this was a situation where best friends said offensive things to each other which, outside of that context, would be considered wholly inappropriate.”

T20 World Cup: New Zealand boost semi-final hopes with Namibia win staff RepoRt New Zealand defeated Namibia by 52 runs on Friday to move closer to the T20 World Cup semi-finals. Glenn Phillips and Jimmy Neesham plundered 67 runs off the last four overs as New Zealand made 163-4 after being put into bat. In reply, Namibia were well set at 470 in the eighth over before they faded to 111-7. New Zealand have six points, two ahead of Afghanistan and four in front of India who must win both their remaining games, and improve their run rate, to have any chance of making the semi-finals. Pakistan have already booked their place in the last four from Group 2. Pre-tournament favourites India face Scotland in Dubai later Friday. “We knew what to expect here, it was a real scrap,” said New Zealand captain Kane Williamson. Phillips hit an undefeated 39 off 21 balls with one four and three sixes while

man-of-the-match Neesham made 35 from 23 deliveries with a boundary and two sixes. The Black Caps, who face fellow semi-final hopefuls Afghanistan on Sunday, were struggling at 96-4 off 16 overs after being put into bat by Namibia, the lowest-ranked team in the tournament. But Namibia lost their discipline with 21 coming off the 18th over bowled by

David Wiese and 18 taken from a wild 10ball final over from JJ Smit. Namibia had limited New Zealand to 62-2 at the halfway point after winning the toss and electing to field. One of the early wickets to fall was opener Martin Guptill who had smashed 93 in the 16-run win over Scotland last time out. Namibia saw openers Michael

van Lingen (25) and Stephan Baard (21) make a steady start, helping their team reach 56-3 at the midway point. But experienced seamers Tim Southee (2-15) and Trent Boult (2-20) applied the brakes as Namibia were only able to add 55 more runs off the last 10 overs. “Afghanistan are a really, really strong side,” added Williamson of their next opponents who are still in the hunt for a semifinal place. “They have done so well in this tournament and have got match-winners throughout their side. So we are looking forward to playing them.” Namibia have one win in the Super 12s courtesy of beating Scotland. They bring the curtain down on the group stage on Monday when they tackle India. “We did well for 15-16 overs in the middle today but the death overs didn’t go our way,” said captain Gerhard Erasmus. “We have got one more game to nail against India. “It was quite a tough pitch, 160 was a bit too much today.”

Saturday, 6 november, 2021

prayer TiminGs

newS

UPLIfT of mARGINALIsEd sEGmENTs of soCIETy GovT’s ToP PRIoRITy: Pm

RIME Minister Imran Khan on Friday said that the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government’s foremost priority is to uplift marginalised segments of the society and bring less developed areas at par with the developed region. Addressing the groundbreaking ceremony of state of the art mother and child hospital in Attock, he said that “if we succeed in this mission during our five-year tenure, it will be considered as a great success of the PTI government”. The prime minister said that every citizen of Punjab will have health card by March next year, while health insurance has been ensured in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. He said that the health system being introduced by the present government will attract investment from private sector. He said that the government will provide land to the private sector at cheap rates to construct hospitals in rural areas. He said that five mother and care hospitals are being constructed, and they will be completed within two years. The premier said that the govern-

ment is focused on long-term projects that will benefit the country’s economy. He said that exports are increasing and industry has flourished. He said that new projects are being launched, where overseas Pakistanis can invest. He said that these investment opportunities will help the country in wealth generation. Commenting on inflation and prices of petroleum products, the prime min-

ister said that among the oil-importing countries, Pakistan has the lowest prices for petrol and diesel. “In India today, there is uproar as well [over petrol prices] and the petrol price per litre is Rs150 while it is Rs200 in Bangladesh. [On the other hand] it is the lowest in Pakistan at Rs146,” he said. He said that inflation has become a global phenomenon due to Covid-19 pandemic, causing various issues such

as supply shortages, trade closure, lockdowns, reduced buying and selling. He said that to control inflation, the Ehsaas Roshan Programme is being implemented throughout the country, under which around 30 percent discount will be provided on flour, pulses and ghee for the poor people. The prime minister’s comments come the same day as the government increased petroleum prices by up to Rs8.14 per litre with immediate effect to ensure the revival of the International Monetary Fund programme. The increase followed despite the prime minister’s rejection on Saturday of a proposal by the Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority to increase petroleum prices and a decision to keep them unchanged for the next fortnight. Earlier during a meeting with the PTI leadership, he said that the government knows about the problems of people, caused by increasing inflation. He said that the government is bearing Rs450 billion loss by itself. We are fighting against mafias and other corrupt elements, he told. He further clarified that no compromise will be made on corruption. news Desk

Govt increases wheat support price to Rs1,950 per 40kg

Opposition lambasts PM Imran for petrol price hike

ISLAMABAD: Unlike assessments of wheat support price being increased by over Rs2,000 per 40kg, the government on Friday decided to increase the support price to Rs1,950 per 40 kg. Addressing a press conference in this regard, Minister of National Food Security and Research (MoNFS&R), Fakhar Imam, along with Information Minister Fawad Chaudhry, announced that to achieve self-sufficiency in wheat, the government has decided to increase the minimum support price for wheat to Rs1,950 compared to Rs1,800 last year. “We hope this will incentivise farmers to grow sufficient wheat to meet our national production target of 28.90 MT,” he said, adding “we also hope that availability of irrigation water and weather conditions will be conducive during Rabi season to achieve this target”. According to Imam, due to higher international prices of DAP fertiliser and shipping cost, the domestic price which is Rs7,300 per bag has also increased significantly but the price of urea which Rs1,850 per bag is stable and significantly lower than the international price of Rs5,400 per bag because the government provides a Rs126 billion annual subsidy for natural gas. “The government is working closely with fertiliser companies to ensure adequate availability of key fertilisers during this Rabi season. Moreover, the government has also provided over Rs16 billion for fertiliser, seed, pesticide, and agricultural loan markup subsidies. These timely initiatives have helped generate record production of many commodities,” he added. The food minister claimed that farmers have produced record crops this year. “Pakistan has achieved the highest ever production of wheat of 27.5MMT, 8.4MMT rice, 8.5MMT maize, 0.275 MMT mung beans, 2.3 MMT onions, and 5.7 MMT potatoes. Ghulam abbas

The opposition parties on Friday criticised Prime Minister Imran Khan and the Pakistan Tehreek-eInsaf (PTI) government for increasing the prices of petroleum products. In a notification issued on Thursday night, the government raised petroleum prices by up to Rs8.14 per litre with immediate effect. Reacting to the notification, Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) President Shehbaz Sharif said that the incumbent government has “surpassed all limits of incompetency, inefficiency and corruption”. “The government is about to increase inflation by raising the petroleum levy on the orders of IMF which is cruel. The government has also given in to the IMF’s conditions for increasing electricity tariff. The government has given the public an ‘inflation package’. The nation is asking: these are the good days they (PTI government) have brought?” The people are now praying to get rid of the PTI government, he claimed. “Government officers are

being changed because of incompetence but Imran Khan is [still] sitting on his seat after the biggest incompetence and corruption,” Shehbaz said, adding that it has been proved that the incumbent government can “only give takleef (trouble) to people instead of relief.” PML-N leader Hamza Shehbaz said that the premier is not worried about the problems of the nation. Talking to media, Hamza said that the PTI government has once again increased the prices of petroleum products without thinking about the survival of the masses. People are dying due to inflation but the ‘Bani Gala prince’ is not taking it seriously, he said. Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) leader Sherry Rehman rejected the recent increase in the prices of petroleum products. In a statement, she said that Prime Minister Imran Khan is deceiving the people by jacking up the prices in the name of relief. “Days after announcing a ‘relief package’, PTI govt drops another petrol bomb by hiking

petrol prices by a whopping Rs8.14/L. Petrol prices now stand at a record Rs145.8/L. First time in Pakistan’s history that prices of all the petroleum products are above Rs110/L,” she tweeted. PPP Senator Bahramand Khan Tangi chose to protest the increase in petrol prices by cycling to parliament from Parliament Lodges. “This selected and puppet prime minister has once again, in the darkness of the night, dropped a bomb of inflation and petrol on the public. I believe that this is a joke with the people and I appeal to the public of the entire country to come out.” Meanwhile, Special Assistant to Prime Minister on Political Communication Dr Shahbaz Gill said that the decision of increasing the petroleum prices was not a favorite one and that every aspect was analysed in this regard. In a statement, the special assistant told that petroleum prices across the world have also been increased. The government will have to take more loan if it reduces the prices, he added. news Desk

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NA-133 by-polls: Election Tribunal rejects appeals of disqualified PTI candidates LAHORE mian abrar

The appeals of PTI leader Jamshed Iqbal Cheema and his wife Mussarat Jamshed Cheema — who challenged the decision of a returning officer against their nomination papers for NA-133 by-election — were rejected by an Election Appellate Tribunal on Friday. The Election Appellate Tribunal, led by Justice Shahid Jameel Khan of the Lahore High Court (LHC), heard the appeals of the PTI candidates and announced the verdict. Lawyers representing the returning officers and other respondents appeared before the court and submitted their arguments, while Mobinuddin Qazi and Rana Shakoor represented Cheema and his wife. Cheema and his wife had challenged the decision of the Returning Officer who had rejected their nomination papers on the grounds that the proposer did not belong to the NA133 constituency of Lahore. The Election Appellate Tribunal upheld the decision of the returning officer, maintaining that their proposer had votes in NA-130, so they cannot become a proposer of NA-133 candidates. It is pertinent to mention here that PML-N leader Naseer Bhutta had challenged the nomination papers of Cheema and his wife on the same grounds. He had asked the Returning Officer to reject their nomination papers for violating the law. After hearing the arguments of both sides, the Returning Officer had rejected the nomination papers. Cheema and his wife had challenged the rejection in the Appellate Tribunal two days ago. Their counsels insisted that Jamshed Cheema’s nomination papers were in order as per the law and were rejected by the Returning Officer only on the grounds that his proposer was not from the NA-133 constituency. They insisted the proposer actually belonged to the same constituency as his identity card and domicile carry an address from the area, and the local union council chairman also verified this. However, the Election Appellate Tribunal, after hearing arguments from both sides, rejected the papers.

LHC summons Buzdar to ensure implementation of order The Lahore High Court (LHC) has summoned Punjab Chief Minister Sardar Usman Buzdar to appear in person on Monday in a case pertaining to the alleged publication of the Holy Quran by the Ahmadiyya community, a news outlet reported on Friday. According to the report, Justice Shujaat Ali Khan also summoned other parties related to the case for getting their comments in the matter as the police and Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) officials were shifting the burden on each other during the hearing. Justice Shujaat summoned the chief minister to ensure the implementation of the court’s previous order in the case, in which the court had passed 18 directions for the authorities concerned that include the availability of a standard copy of the Holy Quran along with its literal meaning at federal, provincial, district and tehsil levels duly approved by the respective Quran Boards to use it as a specimen to determine as to whether any subsequent publication qualifies the test of authenticity of the original text of Holy Quran and its literal meaning or not. Earlier, a petitioner namely Hassan Moavia had filed a petition claiming that the members of the minority community were not only publishing the Holy Quran with “distorted text and mutilated translation” but also sending its copies abroad. Now Hassan has once again approached the court, claiming that the authorities concerned are not implementing the court’s directives. news Desk

Fawad blames Sindh govt for hike in sugar, flour prices Federal Minister for Information and Broadcasting Fawad Chaudhry on Friday blamed the Sindh government for the increase in sugar and flour prices while also criticising the economic policies of previous governments. Addressing a press conference in Islamabad alongside Minister for National Food Security and Research Syed Fakhar Imam, he began by saying that the PTI government had to pay back the debts incurred by previous governments. He said the country was suffering as a result of the bad “economic policies” implemented by previous governments. “To those who tell us that we always blame previous governments, we can’t fix their [mismanagement] in three years,” the minister argued. He singled out the “horrible” economic policies of former finance minister Ishaq Dar and noted how former prime minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi and PML-N leader Miftah Ismail had also been vocal about their criticism of the same. “But now they are offering justifications.” Addressing Abbasi and Ismail, he called on the two PML-N leaders to develop “courage” and to clearly say that Dar’s poli-

cies had ruined the country’s economy. Talking about sugar prices, Chaudhry said that reports of a hike in prices were primarily coming from Karachi. “The cost of essential commodities in Karachi is extremely high,” he added. He noted that the price of a bag of wheat flour was Rs380 more in Karachi as compared to Punjab. Similarly, other essentials including sugar are also more expensive in Sindh, he said. “The Sindh government needs to clarify its position. First, they didn’t release wheat and now they are delaying cane crushing. What is their agenda, what do they want?” He said the difficulties being faced by the people of urban Sindh were a direct result of the provincial government’s policies. “As you can see there is lawlessness in the province […] there seems to be no trace of police officials and people are being murdered in broad daylight,” he said, referring to the alleged murder of a man at a PPP MPA’s farmhouse in Malir. “There seems to be the law of the jungle in Sindh.” The minister called on the media to highlight the sufferings of the people of interior Sindh and to pressurise the provincial gov-

ernment to carry out independent inquiries. He went on to say that the Sindh government was not releasing wheat which was causing prices to soar exponentially in the province, particularly in Karachi. He said the sugar crop in Sindh was the first to be cultivated, but the province was delaying crushing season. He further said the country’s total sugar production per day was 15,000 tonnes, of which 9,000 tonnes was used by industries and the remaining was for domestic use. According to Chaudhry, the government currently had 130,000 tonnes of sugar in its stocks which was sufficient for 22 days. In 15 days, he said, the crushing season would also begin in Punjab. “So the increase in sugar prices is due to [price manipulation],” he said, alleging that most of the sugar mills in Sindh belonged to former president Asif Ali Zardari, while those in Punjab came under the Sharif family. He told the presser that the private sector, which was in possession of 90,000 tonnes of sugar, was hoarding stocks. Dispelling the notion that the government was not taking action, the minister said the government had

fixed sugar prices at Rs90 per kilogramme. “Sugar mills had a profit of Rs16 at this price. But when we tried to get them to release the 90,000 tonnes of sugar, they took a stay order from the high court where the case is now pending.” He appealed to the judiciary to take notice of the “crisis situation” being caused by private sugar mills and to decide the cases so that the burden on the people could be eased. Talking about petrol prices, the minister said there was a global crisis. He said the government had steadily decreased local taxes on oil. “If we had continued with the same taxes, petrol would cost Rs180 per litre and the government would have earned Rs400 billion. But the government has lowered taxes and has earned Rs50 billion,” he said. He noted that international food and energy prices were the highest they had ever been. Chaudhry said some people pointed out that the per capita income was higher in India and Bangladesh. “That’s because it includes the income of the Tatas and the Ambanis,” he argued, talking about two of India’s richest business groups.

“There is more poverty in these countries and their situation is worse than ours,” he claimed. Turning to the recent relief package announced by Prime Minister Imran Khan, he said 130 million people would get a 30 per cent subsidy on flour, pulses and ghee. “For the middle class, we have also introduced the health card under which they can avail free healthcare up to Rs1 million.” He said that currently the people of Islamabad and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa could avail the scheme, while Punjab would soon follow suit. He called on the Sindh government to initiate this programme as well and provide relief to the people. He concluded by saying that the people of the country would “combat this difficult time” as they had always done in the past. “This difficult time will end soon.” ‘Sindh Govt responds’ In response to the information minister’s press conference, Sindh government spokesperson and Karachi Administrator Murtaza Wahab lashed out at the government for constantly blaming previous rulers. app

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