E-Paper PDF 20 September (KHI)

CMYK

Friday, 20 September, 2019 I 20 Muharram-ul-Haram, 1441 I Rs 17.00 I Vol X No 80 I 16 Pages I Karachi Edition

Government, opp trade barbs in na g

oPP lEAdErs ProtEst ovEr NoN-IssUANCE of dEtAINEd MPs’ ProdUCtIoN ordErs

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PPP MNA sAys EvEN MIlItAry dICtAtor MUshArrAf’s govt dIdN’t dEtAIN thAt MANy lAwMAKErs

Over 50 opposition leaders stage a symbolic protest outside Parliament House against non-issuance of production orders for various incarcerated politicians.

ISLAMABAD

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staff report

he lawmakers attending the National Assembly (NA) on Thursday almost came to blows after NA Deputy Speaker Qasim Suri – who was presiding the session in the absence of Asad Qaiser —denied Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) leader Ahsan Iqbal permission to speak in the house.

The outraged lawmakers from the treasury and opposition gathered in front of the speaker’s dais and hurled accusations at each other as ruckus marred the remaining proceedings of the house.

It is not surprising that the house had to be prorogued due to commotion, as ever since the incumbent government took reins, the house has witnessed such incident multiple times.

A usual reason for the opposition lawmakers’ protest is the speaker’s refusal to issue production orders for the detained lawmakers and the treasury members’ counter protests.

As the lawmakers protested on Thursday, Suri, strongly responded to the matter, saying: “The house is not for you all to deliver speeches

and go home.” earlier in the day, Minister for Communications Murad Saeed lashed out at the opposition leaders over their alleged corruption.

“The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) is an independent institution and functioning as per its law,” Murad said responding to the protests by the lawmakers against the arrest of Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) stalwart Khursheed Shah.

The PTI leader stated that the chairman of the bureau was appointed by the Pakistan Muslim LeagueNawaz (PML-N) government in consultation with the PPP. Distancing his government from the arrests being made in the name of accountability, he said it was the PMLN and PPP that booked cases against each other’s leadership.

The minister said that instead of making hue and cry on the arrest of their leaders, the opposition parties should “raise the voice for the rights of Kashmiris”.

Saeed said that it was the first time that hindutva face of India has been unmasked by Pakistan at the international level. he said the world today has been supporting Pakistan’s stance on the Kashmir dispute.

OPP MEMBERS PROTEST ‘SHAM ACCOUNTABILITY’: earlier, a group of over 50 opposition leaders staged a “symbolic” protest outside the Parliament house on Thursday to protest the non-issuance of production orders for various incarcerated politicians.

The protest, which was held ahead of a National Assembly session, had Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) leaders Khawaja Asif, Ayaz Sadiq, Murtaza Javed Abbasi, Rana Tanveer, Marriyum Aurangzeb as well as Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) lawmakers Naveed Qamar, Shazia Marri and Shahida Rehmani in attendance.

The protest camp included pictures of arrested leaders, including PPP Co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari, former premier Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, PML-N leaders Khawaja Saad Rafique and Rana Sanaullah.

Posters calling for the release of former premier Nawaz Sharif and his daughter Maryam Nawaz were also held up.

It may be noted here that the opposition lawmakers had also demanded production orders for the detained lawmakers during President Arif Alvi’s “constitutionally mandated” address to the parliament.

They, however, had failed to demand production orders for independent lawmakers for tribal districts, Ali Wazir and Mohsin Dawar, who obtained bail on Wednesday and are yet to be released.

CONTINUED ON PAGE 02

NAb gets twoday transit remand of Khursheed shah STORY ON PAGE 03

Dozens killed as Kabul, Taliban step up attacks g

50 AfghANs KIllEd IN Us-bACKEd droNE strIKE ANd tAlIbAN boMbINg

STORY ON BACK PAGE

Imran meets Saudi royals to discuss Kashmir lockdown g

PM AssUrEs sAUdIs of sUPPort AftEr droNE strIKEs oN sAUdI oIl INstAllAtIoNs STORY ON BACK PAGE

UN chief calls for Indo-Pak dialogue to resolve Kashmir crisis STORY ON BACK PAGE

Govt yet to finalise legislation for media tribunals, says Firdous STORY ON PAGE 02

CPNE calls for joint struggle against proposed media tribunals STORY ON PAGE 02

Zardari, Talpur to be indicted in fake accounts case on Oct 4 STORY ON PAGE 02

SBP committed to ‘home-grown’ economic reforms, IMF told

Iran warns against war as US and Saudi weigh response to oil attack STORY ON BACK PAGE

STORY ON PAGE 12

Current account deficit dips 55pc in two months STORY ON PAGE 11

CMYK Friday, 20 September, 2019

02 NEWS IHC restores Mushtaq Sukhera as federal tax ombudsman iSLamaBad

Govt yet to fiNAliSe leGiSlAtioN for MediA tribuNAlS: firdouS

STAFF REPORT

Islamabad High Court (IHC) Chief Justice Athar Manullah on Thursday directed the government to restore Mushtaq Ahmad Sukhera on the post of Federal Tax Ombudsman (FTO). The Law Ministry removed Sukhera from the post by de-notifying his appointment on June 14.

A notification issued by the ministry had said: “In pursuance of President Secretariat (Public) U.O. No 5 (106)/L&J/Dir (Coord-V)/2019 dated June 03, 2019, Ministry of Law and Justice Notification of even number dated August 31, 2018, regarding the appointment of Mushtaq Ahmed Sukhera (retired PSP/BS-22) as the Federal Tax Ombudsman is hereby withdrawn ab initio.” Informed sources had said that, then serving as Inspector General of Police (IGP), Sukhera’s involvement in the incident in Lahore’s Model Town, in which over a dozen people were killed, led to his removal from the position. Sukhera challenged his dismissal before the IHC. He assailed the notification of June 12 that informed him about the withdrawal of the notification of his appointment against the post of FTO in August last year.

Government, Opp trade barbs in NA Continued from page 01 Speaking to the media persons, Asif said that the opposition leaders were protesting because of the approach of National Assembly Speaker Asad Qaiser and the non-issuance of production orders for various leaders. “The rights of assembly members were being denied,” he said.

“Our protest is symbolic,” the former foreign minister said. “Yesterday [Wednesday] while a National Assembly session was underway, Khursheed Shah was arrested and Qaiser was unaware of this,” Asif lamented. However, media reports said that National Assembly Deputy Speaker Qasim Suri had earlier informed the parliament that NAB had taken the House Speaker into confidence over the arrest. PPP leader Syed Naveed Qamar said that the government has made a record after arresting Khursheed Shah, adding that political leaders were never arrested “in such big numbers even in former president Musharraf’s era”. Earlier, PML-N spokesperson Marriyum Aurangzeb had announced that the protest was being staged to express solidarity with arrested opposition politicians, as well to oppose the “selected” prime minister’s “dictatorial” approach and media restrictions.

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STAFF REPORT

PECIAL Assistant to the Prime Minister on Information Dr Firdous Ashiq Awan on Thursday said the government has not yet arrived at a final draft for legislation concerning the creation of controversial media tribunals.

While addressing the Parliamentary Reporters Association (PRA), Dr Awan said cabinet members had earlier expressed reservations and told Prime Minister Imran Khan that they were being “mistreated” by the media and had inquired about what could be done to compel the media to “act responsibly”.

She acknowledged that “consultations” in this regard had taken place but the government had not made any final

PM’S AIDE SAYS ‘GOVT WANTS TO FORM A MECHANISM FOR MEDIA THAT UPHOLDS PRINCIPLES LAID OUT IN CONSTITUTION’ drafts for a regulatory mechanism.

“The government wants that that a mechanism be formed that is independent of the government and upholds the principles laid out in the Constitution.

But [we want to do this while] sitting with the media, in partnership with them; to determine some process about which direction we want to take this country in.”

Briefing the media on Tuesday, Dr Awan had said that “media tribunals” would be formed through the passage of a bill by parliament. She had at the time conceded that the government had not taken all stakeholders — including media persons, owners of media houses and media bodies —

into confidence on this move.

Dr Awan clarified that no decision will be taken without consulting stakeholders.

“There will be various proposals and drafts that will be presented to you,” she said, addressing the media.

“You are the stakeholders. It can never happen that we impose this on you without discussing it with the stakeholders.”

The final draft will be presented before the media after the premier returns from his engagements abroad, Dr Awan said.

The prime minister’s special assistant noted that some individuals in the media had already started speculating

CPNE calls for joint struggle against proposed media tribunals KaraCHi STAFF REPORT

The Council of Pakistan Newspaper Editors’ (CPNE) standing committee unanimously rejected the proposal of establishment of media tribunals and warned the government to refrain from introducing such “dictatorial and black laws”.

This was observed during Thursday’s meeting and subsequent dialogue held on media tribunals at CPNE’s Karachi secretariat, which was attended by senior editors from all over Pakistan and the representatives of political parties.

The standing committee observed that any attempt to curb media would not be accepted and extreme action would be taken and government would be responsible for it. “CPNE will issue detailed handout on Friday regarding future strategy,” said the statement.

CPNE meeting resolved that all stakeholders, including All Pakistan Newspapers Society (APNS), Pakistan Broadcasters Association (PBA), Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists (PFUJ) and others, would be consulted and, joint struggle would be launched against “discriminatory” media tribunals.

CPNE President Arif Nizami said

that discriminatory tribunals were not acceptable in any way as such an idea is contrary to the fundamentals of media freedom as well as democracy.

“Such attempts will be considered attacks on media freedom and a part of continued efforts to curb press freedom, which will be resisted,” he further added.

He said that the media industry was enthusiastic that a prime minister who had come through political process would definitely take steps for media freedom but unfortunately their expectations did not come true.

“We got media freedom after a long struggle and many sacrifices, so it could not be compromised any way,” Nizami observed. He told the meeting that all stakeholders, including APNS, PBA, PFUJ, would be contacted for the cause of media freedom and he was confident that discriminatory idea of media tribunals would be taken back by the government.

Sindh Minister for Women Development Syeda Shehla Raza said that Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) Chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari had already rejected media courts, therefore, everyone should remind the prime minister that such acts were against media freedom as “he always understands things at a later stage”.

She said that PPP would oppose

such move in parliament because PPP believes in democracy and free press. Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Member of Sindh Assembly Jamal Siddiqui observed that PTI believed in democracy and media freedom and they would continue supporting free press.

He said that if there were weaknesses in proposed media tribunals then CPNE should share their recommendations and those would be incorporated but “at some point we need some regulations”.

Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) Sindh President Shah Muhammad Shah, in his hard words, remarked that the present government was worse than martial laws and its civilian like dictatorship.

He said that PML-N would stand for media freedom and would oppose media tribunals at all forums, including the parliament.

CPNE Secretary General Dr Jabbar Khattak said that discriminatory laws should be challenged at all forums and CPNE would ally with all stakeholders for the elimination of media tribunals.

He said that there will be no compromise on media freedom and members of parliament should fulfil their duty to oppose such discriminatory laws.

that the tribunal has been formed and the draft is about to be announced.

She clarified that the government had “two or three [policy] options” and that all stakeholders would be consulted on the matter.

“Things that are forcefully imposed cannot be sustained,” Dr Awan said.

During her address, the premier’s special assistant also urged the media to act responsibly when it comes to matters of national interest.

Following, the government’s announcement to set up media tribunals, various political leaders and rights bodies had criticised the move.

The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) on Wednesday said it was “deeply concerned” over the government’s announcement to set up the tribunals, fearing they would be used to suppress free speech and set curbs on media freedoms.

Shehbaz discusses Azadi March with Nawaz in jail Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) President Shehbaz Sharif on Thursday met his elder brother and party supremo Nawaz Sharif at Kot Lakhpat Jail and discussed opposition’s upcoming Azadi March among other matters. Reportedly, both PML-N leaders discussed Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) leader Khursheed Shah’s arrest and the rape and murder of children in Kasur. They also discussed the ongoing cases against their family. Shehbaz also briefed the former premier about opposition’s strategy for the upcoming Azadi March. He told Nawaz that while Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman is persistent on holding the sit-in in October, his party had advised him to hold it in November because Fazl’s politics would fail if he could not gather enough people for the sit-in. Responding to Shehbaz’s comments, Nawaz remarked that the incumbent government is obsessed with arresting opposition leaders but they would get nothing out of it even if they arrested every single opposition politician.

“Despite putting politicians in jail, the government has failed miserably,” he said.

Nawaz said that the incumbent government has halted the projects started by their government and because of this people are being bothered. “The current Punjab government is doing nothing compared to what you did in Punjab,” he told Shehbaz while praising his performance as the former Punjab chief minister. NEWS DESK

Zardari, Talpur to be indicted in fake accounts case on Oct 4 iSLamaBad STAFF REPORT

An accountability court on Thursday fixed October 4 to indict former president Asif Ali Zardari and his sister Faryal Talpur in the money laundering and fake accounts case.

The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) presented Zardari in Judge Muhammad Bashir’s court, however, Talpur could not be presented in the hearing due to a session in the Sindh Assembly.

Condemning the arrest of Pakistan Peoples Party’s senior leader Khursheed Shah on Wednesday, Zardari said the government can arrest whoever they want.

“We don’t even need the production orders,” he said.

Pakistan Peoples Party senior leadership, Omni Group’s Anwar Majeed and his son Abdul Ghani Majeed, former Pakistan Stock Exchange chairperson Hussain Lawai, Summit Bank Senior Vice-President Taha Raza are

CMYK

among those being investigated in cases related to the fake accounts scandal.

The case was transferred to Islamabad after a Karachi banking court accepted the NAB transfer request filed following the SC judgment forwarding the joint investigation team (JIT) report to the bureau with directions to investigate and file references.

Zardari remained in NAB remand till August 16 when the accountability court sent him to judicial remand after NAB pros-

ecutor Muzaffar Abbasi apprised the court of new developments in the case.

Consequently, he was moved to Adiala Jail. Talpur, on the other hand, was shifted from Islamabad’s Polyclinic Hospital to Adiala jail at midnight on August 12.

On August 19, the defence counsel lamented to the court that their clients were ill-treated in jail. Latif Khosa said the former president was suffering from a number of health issues that could pose a threat to his life.

CMYK Friday, 20 September, 2019

NEWS SC seeks reply over closure of 'Patwarkhanas' from centre, provinces ISLAMABAD APP

The Supreme Court (SC) Thursday issued notices to federal and all four provincial advocate generals and sought replies on review petitions regarding closure of Patwari offices (Patwarkhana) from city areas. A three-member bench of the apex court, headed by Justice Umar Ata Bandial comprising Justice Faisal Arab and Justice Ijaz Ul Ahsan, heard the review petitions. During the course of proceedings, the court direct all provincial advocate generals to file a response keeping in mind their provincial law. Justice Ijaz Ul Ahsan said property holders in urban areas needed legal protection. The counsel for the petitioner said after the Supreme Court verdict, Patwari did not give land ownership certificates. A person could not register his property at a Revenue Office unless he had a land ownership certificate. Justice Ijaz Ul Ahsan observed that Patwari demands one million for land ownership certificates. Therefore, the court gave verdict to remove Patwarkhanas from urban areas, he added. He said the court ordered the sale and purchase of the land through a registered sale deed. Justice Umar Ata Bandial said Patwari system should be modernized as it was a corrupt system and Patwaris were looting the masses in urban areas of the country including federal capital. He said mostly corruption cases in the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) were related to Patwaris. Later, hearing of the case was adjourned for one month.

HRCP slams KP govt’s ‘Aid of Civil Power’ ordinance ISLAMABAD STAFF REPORT

The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) was appalled to learn that the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (KP) government has promulgated an ordinance that extends certain powers of the armed forces that were applicable to erstwhile the erstwhile FATA (Federally Administered Tribal Areas) and PATA (Provincially Administered Tribal Areas) under the 2011 regulations ‘in aid of civil power’ to the entire province. The HRCP is gravely concerned that serious violations of human rights may be given legal cover under this ordinance. The merger of FATA with KP was intended to provide FATA’s residents with basic rights and access to justice.

Ironically, the ordinance may now compromise the rights of citizens across the entire province. HRCP’s recent fact-finding report reveals a strong trust deficit between the state and citizens of KP – the local communities that HRCP consulted are already wary of what shape law enforcement and access to justice will take. They have already voiced concerns to HRCP over the fairness of the recent elections amid the continued presence of the armed forces, and are unhappy with the lack of transparency surrounding the Kharqamar incident. The promulgated ordinance does nothing to allay these fears.

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NAB gets two-dAy trANsit remANd of Khursheed shAh ISLAMABAD

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STAFF REPORT

N accountability court on Thursday granted the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) two-day transit remand of Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) leader Khursheed Shah, a day after he was arrested for allegedly owning assets beyond means.

An anti-graft team presented the former leader of the opposition before Accountability Judge Muhammad Bashir amid high security and requested a three-day-long transit remand of Shah to transfer him to Sukkur.

To which, the judge asked about the utility of three days. The NAB prosecutor said that the bureau couldn’t send the accused to Sukkur on the

BUREAU TO PRODUCE PPP LAWMAKER IN SUKKUR ACCOUNTABILITY COURT ON SEPT 21 same day. Upon which, the judge granted the accountability bureau only two-day remand of Shah.

He will be produced before an accountability court in Sukkur on September 21.

A day earlier, the bureau arrested Shah hours after he had excused himself from appearing before a NAB Sukkur team investigating an illegal assets charge against him.

The PPP central leader was summoned by the anti-corruption watchdog for interrogation after the opening of an inquiry against him for owning assets beyond his means of

income; including hotels, petrol pumps, and houses registered in the names of his alleged frontmen.

Shah had informed NAB Sukkur chapter of his unavailability through a letter, stating that he would be attending the NA session and asked NAB officials to provide another date for his appearance after the conclusion of the NA session.

The anti-corruption watchdog, which began the investigation on Aug 7, has also unearthed more than 105 accounts that led to the PPP senior leader.

“Shah has opened as many as 105 banks accounts under his and

India involved in Balochistan unrest, says Jumma Khan Marri GENEVA INP

Overseas Pakistani Baloch Unity Chairman Dr Jumma Khan Marri has said that most of the terrorism and unrest in Balochistan has been created by Indian proxies.

“Pakistan has captured a serving Indian Naval commander who has confessed to New Delhi’s involvement in espionage and sabotage activities in Pakistan, especially in Balochistan,” the Blaoch leader said in his speech at a session of the United Nation Human Rights Council in Geneva.

“Thousands of innocent people

have been killed in Pakistan due to India’s terrorist networks which use Afghanistan as a base for launching attacks,” he said.

Dr Jumma said security situation in Balochistan has improved in the recent months due to matchless efforts and sacrifices by the armed forces of Pakistan. He said the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) is a true game changer for Pakistan which will not only stimulate overall economy but also help provide job opportunities to the Baloch people.

The Baloch leader said all allegations of human rights violations against Pakistan are baseless.

“Those only intend at diverting the world attention from Indian atrocities and crimes against humanity in the occupied valley of Kashmir,” he maintained.

“We urge the world community to move to stop India from oppressive military aggression against innocent Kashmiris in the occupied valley,” he demanded.

The Baloch leader called upon India to stop its proxies working in Balochistan. “We also urge India to resolve all disputes with Pakistan through dialogue and implement UN resolutions on Kashmir to bring peace and stability to the region,” he concluded.

PTM's Gulalai Ismail escapes to US, seeks asylum

family members’ names in Karachi, Sukkur and other cities,” the NAB sources said.

Further, properties were made in Sukkur, Rohri and Karachi, according to document acquired by the accountability watchdog and it also reveals that Glamour Bungalow, Junejo Flour Mills, Mukesh Flour Mills including 83 other properties were made under Shah’s frontman, Pehlaj Rai. More 11 properties were registered under his another frontman Lado Mall and 10 properties were made under name of Hussain Soomro, another frontman of the PPP leader whereas a person namely Umar Jan also played a vital role for Shah.

A house and a bombproof car, being used by the PPP leader, are also registered under his name.

Khursheed falls sick in NAB’s custody ISLAMABAD: Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) leader Syed Khursheed Shah’s health condition deteriorated on Thursday in the custody of the National Accountability Bureau. Khursheed Shah, who was arrested a day earlier by NAB in a case pertaining to acquiring assets beyond means of income, was shifted to the Poly Clinic. Meanwhile, the NAB officials have barred PPP senior leaders, Aitzaz Ahsan among them, from meeting the detained politician amid protests by the visitors.

They also questioned NAB’s authority to stop lawmakers from meeting the PPP stalwart. Earlier speaking to media, Shah said, he doesn’t own ‘an inch extra’ to the properties he has declared. The PPP senior leader urged the chief justice to take notice of the arrests under the NAB. INP

China decides to open visa office in Peshawar

protected her as she moved from house to house, city to city, through countless police checkpoints, always wearing a veil over her face, her eyes barely visible.”

Her asylum request is supported

by US Senator Charles Schumer, who said he would do everything to get the activist political asylum in the country. “It is clear that her life would be in danger if she were to return to Pakistan.”

She has launched a research and advocacy group called Voices for Peace and Democracy aimed at protecting women in the conflict-hit zones of the world. “She is also thinking of law school,” reported NYT. NEWS DESK

ISLAMABAD: China has decided to open visa office in Peshawar to further boost economic relations with Pakistan. Chinese Ambassador to Pakistan Yao Jing said this while talking to media during his visit to China Window in Peshawar on Thursday.

Yao Jing said the first Small Economic Zone of CPEC in Rashakai will be operational this year which will help in poverty alleviation. Answering a question, the Chinese ambassador said Kashmir is an international dispute and any unilateral action to change its special status is not acceptable. He stressed the need for resolving the Kashmir dispute through peaceful dialogue for maintaining regional peace and stability. The ambassador was briefed about the various galleries of the cultural center including literature and photo galleries, CPEC and Pak-China friendship wall. STAFF REPORT

Student architects to help build 5m cheap homes in Pakistan

Fawad Chaudhry hopes PM Imran will treat him as 'deputy PM'

ISLAMABAD AGENCIES

An ambitious plan to build five million affordable homes within five years in Pakistan will tap student architects and use local materials and new technologies to keep costs low, a senior government official said on Thursday.

Prime Minister Imran Khan has committed to build four million homes in rural and urban areas, and one million homes in peri-urban areas over the next five years.

It is the biggest government-backed housing program ever attempted, and will meet half of Pakistan’s needs, said Zaigham Rizvi, chairman of the federal task force on housing.

“Affordable housing is not just an issue in poor countries; it is an issue in nearly every country,” Rizvi said on the sidelines of a housing

Pakistani human rights activist and leader of Pashtun Tahaffuz Movement (PTM) Gulalai Ismail, who was wanted by law enforcement agencies for her alleged involvement in ‘anti-state activities’, has sought asylum in the United States after she managed to escape to New York last month, New York Times reported on Thursday.

“She is now staying with her sister in Brooklyn and has applied for political asylum in the United States,” the report added.

Gulalai didn’t reveal how she escaped the country.

“I didn’t fly out of any airport,” she commented on her journey.

“I can’t tell you anymore,”

forum in Bangkok.

“But the promise of ‘housing for all’ is usually nothing more than a political slogan, and rarely implemented because of a lack of will or because the institutional framework is lacking,” he said.

By 2030, more than half of Pakistan’s projected 250 million citizens are expected to live in cities, compared to 36% now, according to the United Nations.

About a quarter of the country’s population currently lives below the poverty line, according to the Asian Development Bank.

Authorities in Pakistan are developing more than two dozen pilot villages in Punjab, the nation’s most populous province, using common lands — wasteland or grazing land — and unused public lands, Rizvi said.

The homes are designed by student

she said in an interview this week. “My exit story will put many lives at risk.”

She has been accused of treason, though human rights defenders said that the allegations were bogus and that she was being targeted for highlighting abuses allegedly committed by Pakistani military.

Security services were searching for her in every corner of the country, raiding her friends’ houses and closing in on her family, Gulalai said.

According to the report, “Gulalai is still worried about her parents back home and the underground network that secretly

architects who will use technology and local materials to keep costs low, while taking into account cultural and geographical needs.

“We want to engage the youth in solving the nation’s problems. In the village, they are not used to high-rise buildings, so they will be at most onestory buildings,” he told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.

“Similarly, most homes keep cattle, so there will be a common area to keep them,” said Rizvi, a former consultant to the World Bank and the UN’s housing agency, UN-HABITAT. It is hoped the pilot projects will be scaled up once deemed a success, he said, adding that several local and foreign firms are keen to build the low-cost homes.

The government will tailor financing schemes for people who want to become homeowners but may not have

CMYK

bank accounts or have only a seasonal income, he added.

Globally, about 1.6 billion people live in inadequate housing, with most living in slums and informal settlements in cities, according to UN estimates.

The rapid growth of cities in Pakistan is expected to accelerate the conversion of farmland into built-up land.

Earlier this year, Prime Minister Khan banned the use of farmland for new housing, in a bid to stop cities encroaching on agricultural areas.

Housing had traditionally not been a part of urban planning, which had led to a piecemeal approach, said Rizvi.

“With increasing urbanization and migration, housing has to be a critical part of urban planning.

Otherwise we risk neglecting the needs of millions of vulnerable people,” he said.

Minister for Science and Technology Fawad Chaudhry has expressed the desire to become deputy prime minister. Addressing a seminar in Karachi the other day, Fawad said the only difference between Pakistan, China, Korea, Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia is technology. He remarked that in these countries, the minister for science and technology is known as deputy prime minister. “May our prime minister pay attention to this side but notice has not been taken so far,” he said, as the entire hall echoed with laughter and clapping. Fawad said that one of the biggest reasons that Pakistan had failed to achieve economic prosperity was that the country seriously lagged behind in technological development. “Instead of building modern universities, which would promote scientific learning, people in Pakistan are busy investing in madrassas,” he said. “We missed the chances of MIT and Harvard.

We cannot make up for the loss by selling tomatoes and potatoes in future.” NEWS DESK

Friday, 20 September 2019

04 KARACHI

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PoliCe Arrest two stuDeNts iN NiMritA ChANDANi DeAth CAse

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ARKANA police on Thursday reported progress in investigations regarding the mysterious death of Nimrita Chandani, a final-year medical student in Larkana, who died of apparent suicide at her university hostel on Monday.

Larkana Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Masood Bangash told the media that two students, identified as Mehran Abro and Ali Shan, were taken into custody after data traced from the deceased student’s cell phone showed that both boys were in close contact with her.

According to police officials, a host of pictures and other material, including exam passes, were also found from Nimrita’s hostel room whereas her laptop is still being analysed for possible clues.

Earlier this week, Nimrita Kumari was found dead with injury marks on her neck in her hostel room of the Bibi Aseefa Dental College in Larkana, leading to protests in several parts of the province.

Her family suspected Kumari was murdered, while a post mortem report failed to come up with any conclusive findings. The university authorities had initially termed the death suicide.

The Sindh government had on Wednesday requested the Larkana sessions court to con-

duct a judicial probe into the student’s death after pressure from civil society members across the province.

Meanwhile, members of the Hindu community, civil society and political parties have also demanded the formation of a joint investigation

team to hold a probe into Nimrita’s death.

Protesters held rallies in Larkana yesterday and marched towards the press club and raised slogans against the dental college administration and demanded justice. Demonstrations were held in Karachi too.

SHC adjourns hearing of Durrani’s illegal assets case till Sept 24 COURT APPROVES PRE-ARREST BAIL OF SINDH MINISTER AWAIS QADIR KARACHI STAFF REPORT

The Sindh High Court (SHC) on Thursday heard the reference against Sindh Assembly Speaker Agha Siraj Durrani pertaining to the assets beyond means and adjourned it until September 24.

A two-member bench of the SHC, headed by Chief Justice Ahmed Ali M. Shaikh, heard the reference and at the outset of the hearing, he questioned from a National Accountability Bureau (NAB) officer that did NAB send call-up notice to Durrani before arresting him?

On which, the NAB prosecutor informed the bench that Durrani was given call-up notice by the bureau. The NAB also submitted copies of answer, provided by Durrani, to the bench.

However, Durrani’s counsel submitted with the bench that allegations on which his client was given call-up notice by NAB were not mentioned in the reference. On which, chief justice replied it is obvious that further points may be added in investigation as it goes forward.

Amira Raza Naqvi, the counsel of Durrani, submitted with the bench that allegations of assets beyond mean sources against his client were false.

He said allegation of buying vehicles and other property are not proved.

Chief justice asked where is investigation of-

SEEKS COMMENTS ON PLEA AGAINST VARSITIES ACT 2018

ficer of the case? NAB prosecutor replied that he was busy in another court proceeding.

The court, later, adjourned the hearing till 24 September due to absence of investigation officer of the case and directed him to ensure appearance on next hearing.

AWAIS QADIR’S PRE-ARREST BAIL APPROVED: SHC granted pre-arrest bail to Sindh Transport Minister Syed Awais Qadir Shah and directed him to cooperate with National Accountability Bureau (NAB) in investigation.

A SHC bench approved the bail before arrest of the minister till October 16 and directed him to deposit a bond of Rs0.5 million as security deposit for bail. The petition was moved by Shah, fearing his expected arrest.

The court also directed Awais Qadir Shah to expand cooperation to the NAB in the investigation.

The minister in his plea said that the NAB has launched an inquiry against Syed Khursheed Shah and the NAB has also launched an investigation against him and his family members. “The NAB authorities have written a letter to Chief Commissioner RTV Sukkur about my assets,” Awais Qadir Shah told the court. NAB has not issued any call up notice to him but he fears his possible arrest, minister said.

Shah consented to extend cooperation in NAB’s inquiry and denied having any secret assets

KMDC faculty not paid salaries for four months KARACHI STAFF REPORT

The staff Karachi Medical and Dental College (KMDC) on Thursday staged a protest demonstration and boycotted educational activities demanding early release of their salaries and allowances. The faculty members of KMDC have not received their salaries of last four months while employees from grade-1 to grade 17 have been deprived their salaries for one and half month. The faculty members including assistant professors, professors and associate professors have been deprived been of salaries since May 2019. They are also deprived of their arrears and increments. The faculty members also continued boycott of OPDs at Abbasi Shaheed Hospital (ASH), KMDC Dental Hospital and educational activities on the 3rd consecutive day. They vowed to continue protest and boycott of OPDs till release of their pending salaries. Karachi Metropolitan Corporation’s Senior Director Medical Services Dr Salma Kausar, while talking to PPI, said a summery has been moved to Chief Minister Sindh for release of fund to pay the salaries to KMDC staff. She hoped that issue would be resolved within a couple of days.

or property. According to reports, the NAB had also sought details of properties of Syed Awais Qadir Shah and his brother Syed Junaid Qadir Shah from concerned government authorities.

VARSITIES ACT 2018: SHC also heard the constitutional petition of Pasban Democratic Party (PDP) Chairman Altaf Shakoor against the University Act 2018 and sought comments from the provincial government.

As per details, a double-bench of SHC comprising Justice Muhammad Ali Mazhar and Justice Agha Faisal heard the constitutional petition.

During the hearing the government lawyer maintained that he had not received the copy of the constitutional petition of Pasban, so time may be granted to him. On this the PDP lawyer Irfan Aziz Advocate submitted before the court the receiving copy of the Pasban petition duly deposited with the office of the government lawyer with their receipt seal.

The government lawyer further maintained that the petitioner should have made the Sindh University Board as respondent.

However, Justice Muhammad Ali Mazhar remarked the law was not enacted by the Sindh University Board. The honorable court then directed the government lawyer to submit their reply by October 15 and adjourned the hearing to October 15, 2019.

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Fumigation finally ordered as dengue spreads in city KARACHI STAFF REPORT

LARKANA STAFF REPORT

MONDAY

The government after dragging feet for a long time finally decided to launch a massive fumigation drive after the dengue virus deepened its roots in the megacity. In this regard a Commissioner Office release said here Thursday that Commission Iftikhar Shallwani has taken notice of the reports showing that 275 dengue fever cases have been reported during the current month in Karachi. He has ordered launching massive awareness campaign for prevention of disease and timely treatment of patients. He also directed the deputy commissioners and other concerned officials to initiate an effective program to fight dengue fever in the city. In a meeting with commissioner Karachi in chair the measures adopted for prevention and control of dengue fever were reviewed. Program Manager for Prevention and Control Program for Dengue Dr. Mahmood Iqbal Memon told that during the 19 days of the current month 275 dengue cases are reported from Karachi. Most affected districts included district Central, district South and district East where the number of reported cases is 68, 65 and 59, respectively.It was decided that a comprehensive fumigation program would be carried from Monday. All the deputy commissioners would monitor the fumigation program to ensure all streets, residential areas and roads are properly sprayed.

Policeman martyred, two robbers dead in encounter KARACHI INP

One policeman was martyred and two dacoits were gunned down in a police encounter near Eidgah Ground in Karachi’s Nazimabad neighborhood on Thursday.

According to details, the dacoits were snatching bike from a citizen when police reached there. On the arrival of police, the dacoits opened fire on them resulting in the martyrdom of a constable, Zeeshan. The dacoits were killed in the exchange of fire.

NAB raids former KMC official’s home KARACHI STAFF REPORT

The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) on Thursday raided the residence of former Parks & Horticulture director general Liaquat Ali in connection with the fake accounts case. According to the anticorruption watchdog, files of 20 plots worth billions of rupees, eight luxury vehicles, latest weapons, gold jewelry, and foreign currency have been seized from Ali’s home. The information consisted of eight pages, and the accused had identified the belongings himself.

It merits a mention here that Ali is a prime suspect in Bagh Ibne Qasim illegal allotments scam.

Thar identified as Vulture Safe Zone in Pakistan ISLAMKOT STAFF REPORT

While a massive decline in vulture populations have been witnessed across Pakistan over the years, Tharparkar has been identified as a major sanctuary for these scavenging birds, as revealed in a pre-monsoon survey undertaken by IUCN (International Union for Conservation of Nature).

IUCN in collaboration with Sindh Wildlife Department, the Zoological Survey of Pakistan, and Baanhn Beli with the financial support of Sindh Engro Coal Mining Company (SECMC) carried out the survey, as part of an ongoing vulture conservation project.

The survey’s geographic scope however covered the entire Sindh province. Tharparkar, however, was the only place in Sindh where significant numbers of vultures were spotted whereas Khirthar National Park has been identified as one of the new potential sites for vulture population. Based on the survey and literature review, it can be assumed that Garano wetland, created some 50 kilometres away from Thar coal mines site, is emerged as the most populated habitat of vultures in Pakistan.

Vultures are specialized scavengers that have adapted in unique ways to consume dead animals.

With this trait they provide significant ecosystem services, that include keeping the environment clean and reducing disease transmission risks.

The pre-monsoon reconnaissance survey was carried out by a diverse team of six including IUCN experts, independent consultants, ornithologist, veterinarian, and field ecologists.

The survey reported spotting of over 450 White-backed, Long-billed, Red-headed, and Egyptian vultures in Tharparkar and a much

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smaller number in the Kirthar Range. In Tharparkar, Gorano wetland at Thar coal mines site was found to have the potential for attracting bird populations since there a significant number of 425 vultures of White-backed, Red-headed, and Egyptian species spotted during this survey.

The survey recommends creation of vulture safe zones in areas where there are existing vulture populations in Sindh. This includes Tharparkar, Khirthar National Park, and the Gorakh hill areas.

Friday, 20 Septmber, 2019

NEWS

Pakistan Navy ready to respond to any misadventure by the enemy: naval chief ISLAMABAD: Naval Chief Admiral Zafar Mahmood Abbasi said that Pakistan Navy is fully capable and prepared to respond to any misadventure by the enemy. He was addressing the concluding ceremony of Pakistan Navy’s war exercises “Shamsheer-eBehr and Tarseel-e-Behr” in Karachi on Thursday. The Naval Chief said the political environment in the region has become much complicated after India’s illegal annexation of occupied Kashmir. He said India’s jingoistic attitude has posed a serious threat to peace in the region. He said war exercises carry a special significance in the improvement of operational preparedness. Admiral Zafar Mahmood Abbasi expressed satisfaction over the successful holding of war games and the proposals. He thanked the Army, Air Force and representatives of other ministries for fully participating in the exercises. STAFF REPORT

FIA seeks more time in Imran Farooq murder case ISLAMABAD: The Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) Thursday sought more time from an anti-terrorism court (ATC) for producing more evidences in the case pertaining to murder of Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) leader Imran Farooq.

The hearing was resumed by the ATC-II judge Shahrukh Arjumand. At the outset of the hearing, the FIA prosecutor Khawaja Imtiaz informed that the decision was still pending in the IHC over the matter. Islamabad High Court (IHC) in a stay order had stopped the ATC from further proceedings into the Imran Farooq murder case till the decision. APP

Country-wide Climate March on Friday People from across the country will march on Friday to demand the government take emergency measures to curb climate degradation. The climate march is expected to be held in 26 cities which include Lahore, Karachi, Islamabad, Gilgit, Multan, Sukkur among others. The objective of the march is to force the government into revising its climate which many believe is the need of the hour. Climate march has been organised by environment activists and will take place in almost every major city in the world. The march will be non-political – with political and sloganeering banned by the organisers. The march is scheduled to begin from Sept 20 and will continue till Sept 27. NEWS DESK

Kasur child rapes: We are all responsible!

LAHORE

K

FIDA HUSSNAIN

ASUR—BULLEY Shah’s once-famous town, is now the country’s notorious melting pot of frequent incidents of child sexual abuse-cum-murders due to the criminal negligence of the Punjab government, police and local community, in-depth interviews of professionals conducted by Pakistan Today revealed.

The area is in the spotlight for the third time following the rapes and murders of three minor boys whose bodies were discovered on Sept 17. One of the bodies was identified as eight-year-old Faizan while the remains of the other two are believed to be of Ali Hussnain and Suleman Akram.

Police sources said that four children aged between eight and 12 years had been missing since June. According to the details, Faizan had gone missing on Monday, six-year-old Muhammad Imran went missing on June 3, whereas nineyear-old Ali Hussnain and eight-year-old Suleman Akram went missing on August 8 and August 17, respectively.

Sahil, a local NGO working for child rights, says that over 1,304 children have been sexually assaulted in the entire country within the first six months of the current year with Punjab province taking the top spot with 652 children sexually abused in various districts.

It may be mentioned here that Arif Nawaz Khan, the incumbent Punjab inspector general of police (IGP), was Addl IG Operations when the largest child abuse scandal involving 280 victims took place in Kasur district in 2015.

Talking to Pakistan Today, Punjab Additional IGP Operations Inam Ghani said that a collective effort was needed

AGENCIES

Pakistan on Thursday said the country is making vital peaceful use of nuclear technology for the country’s socio-economic development.

Islamabad is organizing a side event during the ongoing 63th General Conference of the International Atomic Energy Agency in Vienna, Austria and has an exhibition stall on “Atoms for sustainable development” to showcase the work it has done in the peaceful use of nuclear science and technology, said Pakistan’s Foreign Ministry in a statement.

The Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission (PAEC) is running 18 hospitals in the country where they provide facilities in nuclear medicine to nearly one million patients annually.

“Pakistan continues to utilize the enormous potential of nuclear

1,304 CHILDREN WERE SEXUALLY ABUSED ACROSS PAKISTAN BETWEEN JAN-JUNE 2019, PUNJAB TOPS LIST WITH 652 CASES to ensure the prevention of abduction, sexual abuse and murder of children as it is not the sole responsibility of the police department.

When asked why Kasur’s pedophilia problem had grown over time instead of being curbed, Ghani replied that sexual exploitation of children at this rate was a worldwide phenomenon whereas Kasur had simply become a household name because the reported incidents are seen as a continuity of the 2015 incidents and particularly the Zainab rape case.

“Kasur comes in the limelight owing to previous notoriety otherwise even developed countries face this problem,” Ghani insisted.

The senior police officer was of the opinion that the problem exists in every district of the province at the same scale and that Kasur was simply under the spotlight because of public and social media hype. However, the police officer failed to answer why the district reported the highest number of rape and murder incidents as compared to the rest of the country.

“I don’t have any data regarding this exactly but the problem is everywhere.

The Kasur incidents are nothing more than hype,” said Ghani, who has also been appointed as the focal person of the police department.

‘POLICE HAS NO DNA RECORD’: To a question on whether the police had any DNA record of previously held suspects in connection with the Zainab rape

case and if they would match the recently collected evidence with previous data, Ghani revealed that the law enforcement department was devoid of such a facility.

“Of course, the samples would be matched but the police does not have its own DNA bank. Although one should be established, and in fact, NADRA can do it by managing the data of citizens and mentioning it on ID cards,” he said, adding that the other way DNA could be matched with a criminal record is with data available online.

When asked about the role of police and how child sexual abuse could be prevented and restrained in Kasur as well as other areas, Ghani stated that the solution lay within combined effort by the government as well as civil society. “Parents, civil society workers, teachers; everybody needs to take some responsibility,” he added. Dr Tahira Rubab, a consultant psychiatrist, said the recent incidents of child abuse in Kasur district are evidence that everyone, including the government, civil society and parents do not take this issue seriously.

“They heard Zainab’s killer was hanged in jail and were pacified. It should have been done publically. It would have sent the psychopaths and pedophiles a message and remained in everyone’s mind,” Dr Tahira said.

She alleged that Kasur had turned into a go-to pornography hub after videos of children being sexually ex-

ploited were recovered from the area time and again.

“I fear that there are people who are doing it with a business point of view now. The place is a full-fledged pornography centre,” she added while recalling the couple that was arrested over charges of sexually abusing 137 children in Rawalpindi a few months ago.

“They sexually abused girls and recorded the humiliating videos. The question is why? The answer is: for the international black market,” Dr Tahira further added.

However, the psychiatrist too could not point towards the reason why and how Kasur has become hell for children and heaven for rapists and murderers.

“Most psychopaths and pedophiles are people who were sexually abused or involved in such heinous acts in their own childhood,” she said, suggesting that the origins of the problem may go back a long time ago.

Iftikhar Mubarak, a civil society member, said that he personally attended meetings held by the government and also took part in a number of sessions but it was like putting energy into a black hole. “The government did not implement any of the policies and plans it had made after the injustice that Zainab Ansari suffered,” he said.

“Child policy is lacking not only in Punjab but also in other provinces but it is also true that prevention of child sexual abuse is the whole society’s responsibility. It is a fact that the police failed; however, everybody, especially parents and teachers should work on it together,” the concerned citizen said.

“This subject must be added to school curriculum to make children aware of sexual abuse and molestation,” he concluded.

PA passes bill for alternate dispute resolution centres LAHORE SHAHAB OMER

The Punjab Assembly on Thursday passed without any amendments the bill for alternate dispute resolution centers (ADRs) according to which cases which are under the hearing of civil and criminal courts can be shifted to ADRs with the consensus of both parties.

The session was started after a delay of two hours from its scheduled time of 3PM with Speaker Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi in the chair. As many as four ordinances The University of Mianwali Ordinance, The Punjab Public-Private Partnership Ordinance, The Punjab Medical Teaching Institutions (Reforms) Ordinance and The Punjab Probation and Parole Service Ordinance were presented before the House.

During the session, Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) Parliamentary Leader Syed Hassan Murtaza also raised the issue re-

Pakistan touts using atoms for sustainable development ISLAMABAD

05

technology for the social-economic development of the country and in order to realize the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs),” said the statement “Nuclear technology applications are being used in diverse areas of electricity generation, health, agriculture, hydrology, industry, environment and basic sciences.”

Pakistan assured the International Atomic Energy Agency that Islamabad stands ready to further strengthen their partnership including contributing to its efforts to build capacity in other countries.

Such partnerships are part of Pakistan’s science diplomacy initiative, which envisages international cooperation in science, technology, and innovation for socio-economic development and achieving the UN goals, the statement concluded.

garding the unavailability of cancer medicine and demanded the registration of a First Information Report (FIR) against Health Minister Dr Yasmeen Rashid upon which the speaker directed the provincial minister to investigate the matter.

Hassan Murtza said, “It is very unfortunate that the cancer patients are left with no option except to protest at Charing Cross due to non-availability of medicines and four patients have died due to the criminal negligence of the government. Imran Khan became the prime minister only by the rhetoric of establishing a cancer hospital but now his own government is not providing medicines to the cancer patients.”

He further said that the ministers of ruling Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) used to claim in the past when they were in the opposition that if they cannot find the killer of anyone then the ruler of the country should be held responsible.“Will the government launch an FIR now

ANF seizes 421kg of narcotics in countrywide operations

against Dr Yasmin Rashid,” he asked.

The health minister said that there was a five-year contract with the company in past in which 3,300 cancer patients were given medicines of over Rs6 billion. “The company stopped the supply of the medicines merely to put pressure as the government had ordered a third party audit of the company that has a monopoly in the country,” she said.

Dr Yasmin said that the health department has written a letter to the said company and it has now assured the government that the medicines will be supplied to the patients. Speaker Elahi asked the health minister to hold an inquiry to ascertain the deaths of four patients due to non-availability of medicine. “You must keep ample stock of medicine in hand at any cost for the patients,” the speaker said and directed the minister to take funds from the chief minister to get medicines in time. PPP’s Hassan Murtaza also raised objections on the inquiry

under the supervision of health minister as he said that how can a person hold inquiry against themselves.

Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz’s (PML-N) Rana Mashhood said that the government had failed miserably in controlling dengue fever and providing medicines to cancer patients. “People are dying due to dengue and cancer but the government is doing nothing,” he said.

He once again demanded production orders for Leader of the Opposition Hamza Shehbaz as he said that the he must be allowed to come in the House for raising the issues of the masses.

The opposition demanded production orders for Hamza from speaker as MPAs chanted slogans “Speaker sahab qadam barhao…hum tumharay sath hein”. They were also carrying the large portraits and pictures of Hamza in the House. The speaker assured them that he will talk to the chief minister to resolve this matter.

24 Pakistanis deported from Turkey reach country

ISLAMABAD INP

The Anti-Narcotics Force (ANF) on Thursday seized 421Kg narcotics and arrested 18 culprits, including three women, in various operations across the country. Through a statement, ANF said that eight vehicles have also been taken into custody which were being used for drug smuggling. The seized narcotics are valued at Rs653 million in the international market. Seized drugs comprised of 374 kg hashish, 26.6 kg opium, 10.6 kg heroin, 435 wine bottles and 112 beer tins. It said that multiple cases have been registered at respective ANF police stations and further investigations are underway.

CMYK

ISLAMABAD: The 24 illegal Pakistani immigrants, who were deported by Turkey, landed at Islamabad airport on Thursday.

The deportees arrived in Islamabad through a Turkish Airlines flight and were handed over the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) for clearance. Turkey had also deported 51 illegal immigrants belonging to Pakistan in August.

According to FIA, 29 persons were

permitted to go to their homes, whereas, the remaining nationals were shifted to anti-human smuggling cell for further investigation.

Earlier on Aug 22, 18 Pakistanis had been brought to Islamabad through a private airline’s aircraft after being deported from Germany. Germany deported more than two dozens of illegal immigrants of Pakistan origin and handed them over to the authorities. STAFF REPORT

Friday, 20 September, 2019

06 WORLD VIEW

Well done, Kannan

Modi TruMp Tango ‘Howdy, Modi’ event could be a milestone towards enmeshing Indian and US interests

I AM ALSO DEEPLY MOVED BY THE REASONS YOU HAVE GIVEN FOR THE DEPARTURE YOU HAVE MADE. “ARTICLE 370 OR ITS ABROGATION IS NOT THE ISSUE, BUT DENYING CITIZENS THEIR RIGHT TO RESPOND TO IT IS THE MAIN ISSUE.” HOW RIGHT YOU ARE

Times of india In a big moment for India-US relations, President Donald Trump has decided to join Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s diaspora outreach event called ‘Howdy, Modi!’ in Houston, Texas. Trump also plans to address the 50,000-strong gathering along with Modi. This is a big win for Indian diplomacy. Coming at a time when Pakistan has tried to internationalise the Kashmir issue, Trump’s presence in Houston signals that Washington is in New Delhi’s corner. It also puts to rest the confusion over Trump’s previous statements on mediating in the Kashmir dispute. The Modi-Trump meet on the sidelines of the recent G7 summit in Biarritz appears to have put the mediation talk to rest.

What’s in it for Trump, who’s famously transactional? One factor is the IndianAmerican community which has become increasingly influential in US politics.

Aiming for re-election next year, Trump could be eyeing this vote bank as insurance against any erosion in his core Republican vote base. Although 62% of Indian-Americans identify themselves as Democrats, Trump may be trying to woo them by showcasing relations with India. But those relations have developed some rough edges that need to be smoothed.

It is the differences on India-US trade that have been most disconcerting. Trump has railed against the bilateral trade deficit, ended India’s preferential trade status under the Generalized System of Preference programme, and even dragged New Delhi to WTO for alleged violation of global trade rules. But to make India-US ties durable and irreversible, these trade issues need to be sorted out. In this regard, it is welcome that New Delhi is working with Washington to address the latter’s concerns over price control on medical equipment such as stents and knee implants, apart from looking at ways to lower duties on American technology equipment and some farm products.

In fact, all of these issues should be settled as part of a grand trade deal with the US. India shouldn’t be shy of this as the two countries have complementary economies and similar values. Both back a rules-based order and share much synergy on the strategic front. This is in contrast to China’s aims with Belt and Road or RCEP. In that sense, in the evolving geopolitical order India and the US are natural partners.

Modi and Trump together at Houston should actualise this vision.

Week Mani Shankar aiyar

Dear Kannan Gopinathan, We have not met but I hope to rectify that shortly. Welcome to the small club of civil servants who have taken voluntary retirement. I think we should unanimously elect you and Shah Faesal as copresidents of our club, for both of you have resigned on principle—to uphold the highest values of our democracy— while most of the rest of us did so for more mundane reasons.

You, I understand, are 33. I was 34 when the Emergency was declared. I hated the Emergency. Yet, I did not have the courage to put in my papers. When I eventually took the step of leaving the service, it was because I enjoyed the patronage of a prime minister who had the largest majority in the history of our parliamentary democracy. Yours is a leap into the dark. I salute you. It takes much more than ordinary courage and conviction to make that leap.

I am also deeply moved by the reasons you have given for the departure you have made. “Article 370 or its abrogation is not the issue, but denying citizens their right to respond to it is the main issue.”

How right you are.

As you say, “They could welcome the move or protest it, that is their right”.

Narendra Modi-Amit Shah claim they have done this to bring joy and opportunity to the Kashmiris who have been crushed under the heel of Article 370. If that is so evident to Modi-Shah, then surely it should be evident also to the victims. The people should have been out on the streets with garlands and sweets, thanking the duo for their liberation. Why should their hosannas be drowned in the ominous silence that lies like a blanket over the valley? Why rush in 50,000 additional security forces if, as the Governor Satya Pal Malik says, 50,000 gorgeous government jobs are in the offing? Why are these millions upon millions of sullen Kashmiris looking the gift horse in the mouth?

Article 370 was the Kashmiris’ one hope that their state’s compact with the Indian Union could yet secure them “the sky” as their “limit” for the autonomy they had been promised by former prime minister P.V. Narasimha Rao. That hope is now extinguished. They are being offered “development” in exchange for their acquiescence, thirty pieces of silver in return for being downgraded to a Union territory.

As you, Kannan, have rightly underlined, whether what Parliament did on Au-

gust 5 was in accord with our Constitution is for the Supreme Court to determine. But why convert an entire state into a prison without one word of consultation with any of its inhabitants? If it is to “save lives”, as officially stated, why not co-opt the people whose lives are being “saved”? If the ModiShah-Malik assessment is right, instead of incarcerating the populace, they should be let free to carry Ajit Doval on their shoulders and shower encomiums on their triumvirate of saviours. Portraits of Modi, Shah and Malik should bedeck the valley.

Mosques should blare forth their praises from every loudspeaker. The faces of mothers, wives and sisters should be wreathed in smiles. The visage of brides and fiancées should be bathed in happiness. Children should be out playing in their new clothes.

Fireworks should light up the night sky. A New Indian-Held Kashmir for a New India!

Why then this bruising shutdown?

At least one man—you, Kannan Gopinath—has forced these questions to the forefront. You deserve the nation’s gratitude. I am a decade more than twice your age. Please accept my blessings.

Yours in humble tribute, Mani Shankar Aiyar.

Aiyar is a former Union minister and social commentator.

have spread across the Valley. In some cases, gunmen have attacked traders who did not follow the shutdown.

CYCLE SPOKES FOR NEEDLES: In the Shia-dominated Zadibal area of downtown Srinagar, the Hussaini Relief Committee, a volunteer organisation, has been hard at work the last few weeks.

Founded in 1972, the committee usually holds medical camps before religious festivals and occasions. Traditionally, they are busiest on Ashura, the 10th day of Muharram, the month of mourning for Shia Muslims. The day is usually marked by self-flagellation rituals.

This year, Ashura was observed on September 10. Like every year, the committee had arranged a medical and blood donation camp that day. “The medical camp is presided over by volunteer doctors and people from other walks of life,” said a volunteer who did not want to be identified. “From immediate medical care to mourners to ensuring water for those taking part in processions, our team of 300 volunteers tries to help everyone.”

This year, volunteers at the camp had to deal with a different sort of injury. On September 7, Indian Held Kashmir government had banned all Muharram processions, even minor ones. According to residents of Zadibal, when mourners tried to defy the restrictions, they were showered with pellets.

“Muharram processions in Indian Held Kashmir have been banned for decades,” said the volunteer., “But this year, the government didn’t even allow small processions within the interiors of our locality. Instead, they fired pellets on a peaceful procession.”

According to volunteers at the Hussaini Relief Committee, more than 100 patients with pellet injuries turned up at the Zadibal camp on September 10. This included women and aged people, they said. “This never happened even at the height of the militancy in the 1990s,” said the volunteer.

With resources stretched at the Zadibal camp this year, even volunteers with no medical training had to pitch in. “When there was a huge rush of injured, we panicked,” said one volunteer. “Our volunteer doctors were doing their best to give med-

ical attention to the injured but we were totally outnumbered. It was then that I brought the steel spoke of a cycle wheel and beat one side into a point. After that, I heated up the pointed end with a cigarette lighter to sterilise it. I used it to take out pellets from more than a dozen injured.”

According to him, the injured were scared to go to hospitals because all exits from Zadibal were sealed by the police and CRPF. “If they got hold of an injured person, the police and CRPF personnel would have beaten them up,” he claimed.

A MEDICAL WARNING: While many see no option but to get their wounds treated by amateur pellet removers, doctors in Indian Held Kashmir warn of the dangers of such treatments – from skin damage to infections to the damage of vital organs.

“Usually, we don’t take out pellets from a patient’s body if he has been hit in the back and legs,” said a senior surgeon at the Shri Maharaja Hari Singh Hospital in Srinagar. “Because that means we have to make as many incisions as there are pellets in the patient’s body. Our priority is to monitor the patient if he’s been hit by pellets around vital organs like the kidneys, intestines or liver. If the pellets have perforated deep into the skin, we monitor the patient to check that they are not affecting the functioning of these vital organs.”

The initial treatment must be followed by a course of antibiotics, he continued. “Since pellets are foreign objects, antibiotics become essential,” the surgeon said. “Normally, we avoid taking out every pellet from the body because the presence of these iron particles inside the skin is not dangerous.”

Human rights activists in Indian Held Kashmir point out that cutting off the injured from proper medical aid amounts to a violation of international humanitarian laws outlined in the Geneva Conventions.

Every injured person, even if he is a member of an armed group, has the right to medical aid “without any adverse distinction founded on sex, race, nationality, religion, political opinions, or any other similar criteria,” says Article 12 of the 1949 Geneva Conventions. India was among the countries which ratified the conventions.

Meet the amateur pellet doctors of Srinagar who treat protestors too scared to go to hospital THEIR SURGICAL TOOLS INCLUDE BLADES, DETTOL-SOAKED COTTON WOOL AND CYCLE SPOKES scroll Safwat Zargar

Ahmad, who lives in Srinagar’s Anchar locality, talks about pellet injuries with the air of an experienced surgeon. “When pellets enter your body, you feel like everything inside you is burning,” said the 23-year-old, who did not want to reveal his full name. “The pellets are very hot when they are fired. They are very dangerous if they hit a person in the eyes or if they hit your body from a short distance. But if they hit your back or legs from a long distance, you can manage with basic first aid.”

Ahmad is not a doctor, not even a medical student. He studies commerce.

But over the past few weeks, he has emerged as one of the many pellet experts in Anchar. Metal pellets, fired from shotguns, are commonly used by security forces to quell civilian protests in Indian Held Kashmir.

Anchar, part of the larger Soura area in Srinagar, has been a hub of protest since August 5. That was when the Centre scrapped special status for Indian Held Kashmir under Article 370, split the state into two Union Territories and removed Article 35A, which empowered the state government to define “state subjects” and grant them specific rights.

Earlier this month, Asrar Ahmed Khan, a Class 11 student from Buchpora, an area bordering Soura, died of pellet injuries – although the local police insist he was hit by a stone. There have been several more injuries, which went unreported or unrecorded. In many cases, injured youth stayed away from hospitals for fear of arrest. According to local wisdom, police officers dressed as civilians have been deployed at hospitals to identify and arrest boys who took part in protests.

Cut off from hospitals, localities in Srinagar have devised their own ways of treating injuries.

‘WAR HAD BROKEN OUT’: Anchar has seen protests after congregational prayers every Friday since special status was scrapped. The first of these Friday protests took place on August 9, when a procession emerging from Anchar made its way towards Srinagar’s downtown

area. They were stopped midway, in Zoonimar, a locality on the outskirts of downtown.

“On August 9, at least 18 people were injured when forces shelled our procession near Zoonimar,” said another homegrown pellet remover, who did not want to be named. “They were immediately rushed to SKIMS. However, we got all of them home the same evening because we were sure that police will come looking for them.”

SKIMS, or the the Sheri-Kashmir Institute of Medical Sciences, is one of the top hospitals in the Indian Held Kashmir Valley. It is also in Soura, just half a kilometre away from Anchar.

The bigger emergency would come two weeks later. After August 9, residents of Anchar had dug up roads and barricaded their locality to prevent security forces from entering. For days, they had been kept at bay, prevented from carrying out night raids and arrests.

But on August 23, it seemed they would finally enter Anchar. Indian Held Kashmir Police forces and men from the Central Reserve Police Force had been deployed at the five barricaded entry points, residents recalled.

“It looked like war had broken out that day,” said Ahmad. “After prayers, clashes broke out across Anchar and boys tossed stones at the police and CRPF over the barricades. More than 200 were injured, including women, children and elderly people. A few boys took pellets in their eyes.”

The injured were gathered in a large hall in the local Jenaab Sahib shrine and treated there, Ahmad said. “The situation was worrying and some local boys managed to get a team of doctors to help us,” he said. “They were from health department. While they treated some serious cases, local boys like us managed less severe injuries. Except for a few boys who were injured in the eyes, nobody went to the hospital.”

A photojournalist who had taken videos of the hall on August 23 said he saw people lying in rows, small groups attending to each patient.

‘BLADES AND DETTOL’: The pellet removers of Anchar have developed their

own techniques to treat patients. Their surgical tools are rudimentary – blades and Dettol-soaked cotton.

“There are two ways to squeeze out a pellet from a human body,” said the pellet remover who did not want to be named.

“If it’s closer to the upper layer of skin, one can just squeeze it out by pressing down on the skin at two ends of the wound. If a pellet has penetrated deep into the skin, we first use our fingertips to locate it. Then, we use a blade to cut open the skin near that spot and pull it out.

After that, we wash the wound with Dettol-soaked cotton and that’s it. Remember, all of this happens without any local anesthesia. And it takes a lot of time.”

Since August 5, local residents say, more than 300 injured people have been treated this way. The pellet removers have had some practice in earlier seasons of protest. In 2016, for instance, hundreds were injured by pellets after the killing of Hizbul Mujahideen commander Burhan Wani triggered mass protests. “During the 2016 Burhan Wani uprising I treated 15 to 16 boys on my own,” said Ahmad.

Some of his friends also became skilled pellet removers that year, he said.

With the fear of arrest keeping people away from hospitals, residents of Anchar have come to depend on homegrown remedies for common ailments as well.

“From typhoid to a cough, we treat everyone on our own,” said one elderly resident of Anchar. “The maximum healthcare we are able to get inside Anchar are from local compounders and pharmacists.

Nobody dares to leave Anchar.”

Residents allege the local police make no difference between protestors and civilians going about their daily lives.

On September 14, women from Anchar held a demonstration outside the Soura police station. They were protesting against the alleged detention of a young woman. According to local residents, she had gone to buy medicines from Soura’s main market when she was arrested.

A police official at the Soura police station said the woman had been asking fruit vendors in Soura main market to shut shop but denied that she had been arrested. Calls for a civil shutdown to protest against the August 5 decisions

Friday, 20 September, 2019

FOREIGN NEWS 07

FrAncE sAys HoUtHI clAIM oF sAUdI AttAck lAcks crEdIbIlIty PARIS

F

AGENCIES

rANcE on Thursday appeared to dismiss claims by Yemeni Houthi rebels that they were behind an attack on Saudi oil facilities, and said Paris would renew efforts to defuse tensions between the U.S. and Iran at next week’s U.N. General Assembly.

France has been scrambling with its European partners to ease tensions between Washington and Tehran for months, but last weekend’s attack has jeopardized those efforts, diplomats have said. The Trump administration and Saudi Arabia have pointed the finger at Iran for the Sept. 14 raids, which hit the world’s biggest crude oil processing facility and initially knocked out half of Saudi output.

Yemen’s Iran-aligned Houthi movement has claimed responsibility for the attack. Iran, which supports the Houthi group, has denied any involve-

ment in the attacks.

“The Houthis … announced that they launched this attack. That lacks credibility,” French foreign minister Jean-Yves Le Drian, told c News television, adding that at this stage Paris would not draw conclusions that Iran

was behind it.

“There is an international investigation, let’s wait for its results. I don’t have a specific opinion before these results.” He said the Saudi investigation would be fast.

France’s Armed Forces Ministry

spokeswoman said seven of its experts in explosives, surface-to-air defenses and missile trajectory had been sent to Saudi Arabia to help make an independent assessment of the attack.

France, which has a naval base in neighboring Abu Dhabi, had the Jean Bart warship operating in the area at the time of the attack.

“It is an act of war. When missiles hit another country it is an act of war, but we have to go back to the principle of de-escalation,” Le Drian said.

He said France would continue its efforts to defuse the crisis at next week’s U.N. General Assembly. French President Emmanuel Macron was scheduled to meet Iran’s President Hassan rouhani and Trump, he said. Iran has said the Iranian leader has yet to receive a visa for the trip.

“Iran must return (fully) to the nuclear deal. It is a requirement. It needs the economic benefits of the accord, but we must also discuss the rest,” Le Drian said, referring to regional security.

Netanyahu 'surprised and disappointed'

by Gantz rebuff, says open to talks JERUSALEM AGENCIES

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu voiced disappointment at his election challenger’s rejection on Thursday of his offer to discuss forming an Israeli unity government but said he remained opened to talks.

“I was surprised and disappointed by the fact that, as of now, Benny Gantz still refuses my call to meet,” Netanyahu said on Twitter. “Gantz, my offer that the two of us meet stands. It’s what the public expects of us.

Earlier, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called on his main rival, former general Benny Gantz, to join him in a broad, governing coalition after Israel’s election ended with no clear winner. A spokeswoman for Gantz, leader of the centrist Blue and White party, had no immediate response to the sur-

prise offer from Netanyahu, head of the right-wing Likud party.

The change of strategy reflected Netanyahu’s weakened position after he failed again in Tuesday’s election, which followed an inconclusive ballot in April, to secure a parliamentary majority. “During the election campaign, I called for the establishment of a rightwing government but to my regret, the election results show that this is impossible,” Netanyahu said.

“Benny, we must set up a broad unity government, as soon as today. The nation expects us, both of us, to demonstrate responsibility and that we pursue cooperation.” On Wednesday, Gantz said he hoped for a “good, desirable unity government”. But he has also ruled out forming one with a Netanyahu-led Likud, citing looming corruption charges against the prime minister. Netanyahu denies any wrongdoing.

UAE says joining global maritime security coalition DUBAI: The United Arab Emirates is joining an international maritime mission to protect commercial shipping in the Strait of Hormuz and other areas, state news agency WAM said on Thursday. The operation area for the International Maritime Security construct covers the Strait of Hormuz, Bab al-Mandab, the Sea of Oman and the Arabian Gulf, WAM said. Saudi Arabia said on Wednesday it would join the same coalition.

Several oil tankers have been attacked in Gulf waters this year. Washington and riyadh have blamed Iran for the explosive blasts, a charge Tehran denies. AGENCIES

Malaysia, Indonesia shut thousands of schools over forest fires haze KUALA LUMPUR: Thousands of schools were shuttered across Malaysia and Indonesia Thursday, affecting at least 1.7 million pupils, officials said, as toxic haze from rampant forest fires sent air quality plummeting. Nearly 2,500 schools were ordered to shut their doors in Malaysia — including nearly 300 in the smog-hit capital Kuala Lumpur — over soaring health concerns sparked by toxic haze from out-ofcontrol blazes in Indonesia’s Sumatra and Borneo islands. Indonesia said hundreds of schools in hard-hit riau province on Sumatra would also be shut Thursday, with 800 closed in one district alone, while about 1,300 were shut in its central Kalimantan province on Borneo. The closures affected at least 1.7 million students in Malaysia. It was not clear how many pupils were forced to stay home in neighbouring Indonesia.

Jakarta is deploying thousands of security forces and water-bombing aircraft to tackle the blazes, mostly started by illegal fires set to clear land for plantations. The fires belch smog across Southeast Asia annually, but this year’s are the worst since 2015 and have added to concerns about wildfire outbreaks worldwide exacerbating global warming. AGENCIES

Trump calls new border wall a 'world-class security system' WASHINGTON AGENCIES

President Donald Trump signed his name on Wednesday on a newly constructed section of the US-Mexico border wall, calling it a “world-class security system” that will be virtually impenetrable.

Trump toured a section of the border wall in San Diego’s Otay Mesa area. It was a return trip for the president, who travelled there in March 2018 to see border wall prototypes that authorities later destroyed to make way for 14 miles (22.4 kilometres) of steel, concrete-filled bollards currently under construction.

Before construction began, the border in San Diego was protected by an initial layer of sheet metal that was easily blowtorched and a second, more formidable layer that could be compromised with powerful, battery-operated saws.

“It was like a sheet metal and people would just knock it over like just routinely,” Trump said, referring to the initial layer that was replaced. He stood with construction workers and top customs and Border Protection, Army corps of Engineers and homeland security officials.

Mark Morgan, acting commissioner of US customs and Border Protection, defended the project, dismissing critics who call it the “president’s vanity wall”.

“I’m here to tell you that’s false,” he said, telling reporters that Trump reached out to border experts to find out what they needed. “You listened to the agents,” he told Trump. Trump highlighted features of the wall, which he said have been studied

by three other countries. He said the wall absorbs heat “You can fry an egg on that wall”. The concrete goes deep into the ground to prevent tunnelling. And agents can see through it to spot possible threats on the Mexican side of the border, he said.

“When the wall is built, it will be virtually impossible to come over illegally, and then we’re able to take border control and put them at points of entry,” Trump said. He heaped praise on the Mexican government, especially for sending tens of thousands of troops to its northern and southern borders to help slow the flow of migrants headed toward the United States.

He said President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador “has been great”. “We’re all thrilled,” Trump said. “You know Mexico has never done anything to impede people from pouring into our country and now they’re doing just the opposite. They’ve really been incredible.”

The president revelled in details of construction, saying Border Patrol and military officials persuaded him to adopt more expensive designs. He said he dropped a preference for solid concrete, instead opting for concrete-filled steel bollards that allow agents to see through to Mexico to spot assailants throwing rocks or other projectiles. He agreed to go along with barriers that are 30 feet high and double-layered in heavily travelled areas. “It’s the rolls-royce version,” Trump said.

When Trump asked Army corps Lt Gen Todd Semonite to explain how technology embedded in the wall alerts agents to illegal activity, he was told, “Sir, there could be some merit in not discussing it”.

Semonite offered new details on the pace of construction that underscored how quickly the administration plans to move.

It has built 66 miles (106 kilometres) so far, has 251 miles (403 kilometres) in various stages of construction at 17 sites and contracts for 163 miles (262 kilometres) planned in the next 90 days, the general said. Additional land on private property is expected to take more time. crews are installing 270 panels a day, each one with eight bollards.

Trump, whose construction targets have shifted, said he expects to build up to about 550 miles (885 kilometres) of

wall along the 1,954-mile (3,126-kilometer) border and said the administration will pause at about 400 miles (643 kilometres) to assess what more is needed.

Trump said cost concerns led him to put aside his preference to paint the wall black, which absorbs heat. He said the wall was “a good, strong rust colour” and could be painted later.

Trump is riding a string of wins on the wall and on immigration in general.

Arrests on the Mexican border arrests plunged in August, well beyond the usual summer dip, from a 13-year high reached in May. Arrests are still relatively high,

topping 50,000 in 10 of the last 11 months, compared with only eight months over the previous decade.

Last week, the Supreme court gave Trump a green light to deny asylum to anyone who passes through another country on the way to the US border with Mexico without having first sought protection in the third country. The Pentagon recently diverted $3.6 billion from 127 military construction projects to build 175 miles (280 kilometres) of barriers on the border. Trump had promised during the 2016 presidential campaign that Mexico would pay for the wall.

Friday, 20 September, 2019

08 COMMENT

Palestine and Kashmir together again

Sensible decisions Pak-Afghan trade, US-Taliban talks and no jihad export

Netanyahu’s Jordan Valley pledge echoes Modi’s on Kashmir

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T was a sensible step to open 24/7 trade services across the Torkham border. A number of factors have reduced trade with Afghanistan from $2.6 billion in 2010-11, to $1.4 billion in 2018-19. This, despite Afghanistan being the only country with which Pakistan enjoyed a trade surplus. Frequent closure of the border by Pakistan on account of terror attacks has been an important factor in the trade shrinkage This has harmed the country economically while it has increased Afghanistan’s reliance on India and Iran. hopefully Prime Minister Imran Khan will ensure that actions of the sort do not take place.

One would readily agree with Mr Khan that peace in Afghanistan is in Pakistan’s own interest, as he said during his address there. he has also underlined the need for resumption of the suspended talks between the uS and Afghan Talban. As Pakistan had worked hard to bring the two sides together, the PM promised to take up the issue with uS President Donald Trump.

Mr Khan promised to present the Kashmir case in the ubited Nations general Assembly ‘like no one ever did before’. One will have to till September27 wait to pass a judgment on his performance. Despite pressures from certain countries he still calls the BJP a party of the extremists and racists who are unwilling to allow religious, linguistic or cultural minorities to maintain their identities.

The PM needs to be reminded that the Kashmiris’ struggle climaxed when Article 370 was still in force. ever since Sheikh Abdullah reached an understanding with Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, successive governments in IOK bartered away most of the region’s special rights for personal gains. The Kashmiris now want nothing short of an exercise of the right of self-determination under uN supervision.

Mr Khan is spot on when he says those in Pakistan wanting to go and fight in occupied Valley will do great injustice to Kashmiris and harm Pakistan as this will provide the Modi government a pretext to blame Pakistan for infiltrating terrorists. The PM needs however to rein in his KP CM who advocated jihad in Kashmir in a number of speeches delivered last month promising not only to ‘conquer’ IOK but also start marching towards Delhi if directed by the PM.

Child murders in Chunian The police shows how unreformed it is

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he murder of three little boys after they were criminally assaulted, and their bodies being found only after, and by passers-by, traumatised the people of Chunian enough for them to launch a violent protest on Wednesday. The only reaction of the government was to suspend the local DSP and ShO, even though the events had shown a massive failure of the administration at virtually all levels. even now, it should be recognised, the killer or killers are still at large. The police seems engaged in an internal blame game rather than on the manhunt it needs to catch the gang.

One of the more tragic aspects seems to be that the district, Kasur, was the scene of two of the most highprofile sex crime cases in the country in recent years. Only a year ago, the rape-cum-murder of little Zainab, led to a massive manhunt involving hundreds of policemen and the forensic resources of the entire province, and led to the apprehension of the killer, who was then tried and executed. Just before that, a child pornography ring had been nabbed, though there have been no convictions. Such traumatic events should have led to a smooth and practised institutional response. Instead, it seems that the more basic institutional responses, those of the Punjab police, were made. For example, the little boys had been disappearing one after the other from July, but the local police seems to have done what the police does in cases of disappearance: ignore the matter. This appears of a piece with what has emerged after the autopsy of Salahuddin Ayyubi, the mentally challenged man whose antics while trashing a Faisalabad ATM went viral, and who died in the custody of the Rahim Yar Khan police. The autopsy showed that he had been severely beaten before death.

The Punjab government in the Zainab case may have had many faults, but at least it showed it was concerned.

The air of unconcern in Lahore shows that either the PTI has given up on trying to reform the police, or is almost blindingly insensitive in thinking that a difference has been made. Not one child has been murdered this time, but three.

The Punjab government must know that the police would take more care with this case if it showed more concern.

Dedicated to the legacy of the late Hameed Nizami

Arif Nizami Editor Aziz-ud-Din Ahmad

Umar Aziz

Asher John

Joint Editor

Executive Editor

Deputy Editor

Lahore – Ph: 042-36300938, 042-36375965

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at Penpoint

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M a nIaZI

he consequences of the past are now unfolding, as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, engaged like Indian counterpart Narendra Modi in an electoral battle, has pledged to annex the Jordan Valley to Israel. That land is about 60 percent of the West Bank conquered by Israel in the 1967 War, and is subject to uN resolutions.

Kashmir too is a disputed territory, and the BJP, during the recent election campaign, had also committed to ending its special status.

If Netanyahu retains office, which is not certain, he will fulfil this promise, just as he fulfilled an earlier promise to annex the golan heights, also conquered in 1967, but from Syria, as opposed to Jordan, from which the present territory is being taken. his supporters see within the same context the uSA’s recognition of an undivided Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, and the shifting of its embassy there. That move had long been proposed, and long opposed on the ground that it would outrage sentiment in the Muslim world, and cause widespread rioting. When it did take place, no rioting happened, though it did result in an OIC summit which produced a routine resolution of condemnation. The golan heights annexation produced even less of a reaction, and it can be seen that the present proposed annexation has hardly received any notice.

Those Pakistanis offended by the recent lionising of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi by gulf potentates, including civil awards by Bahrain and the uAe, should find some comfort in the latest development, for it represents a comeuppance for the Arabs, almost as if a divine force was showing them the consequences of ignoring the Kashmir issue.

Within the Arab world, the Palestinians are a little like the Kashmiris are in Pakistani. In Pakistan, there are two sets of Kashmiris: state subjects or citizens of AJK, and ethnic Kashmiris, who had been settled in the Punjab from the 19th century onwards. Mian Nawaz Sharif is an ethnic Kashmiri, and his ancestors migrated to Lahore from Kashmir via Amritsar, a route which swelled greatly at Partition, when the large

Kashmiri community of Amritsar moved to Pakistan. While a lot of Kashmiris have a Partition experience in their personal or familial memory, all Palestinians have some refugee experience. It must be noted that Kashmiris have two types of migration, both at Partition: either from India (mostly east Punjab) or from the princely state.

Very often, better educated, Palestinians were employed to run the states of nouveau riche Bedouins. however, a very common Arab experience is to have found out about An-Nakba (the Catastrophe, when Jewish armed gangs engaged in ethnic cleansing of Palestine in 1948 on their way to creating Israel) from someone one knows as a neighbour, a classmate, a colleague. The relation can even be closer: the Queen of Jordan, the wife of King Abdullah II, is a Palestinian.

Thus an interesting correspondence emerges.

Both Palestine and Kashmir are Muslim causes which have received a fresh impetus in 2019 after originating in 1948, but while the former is an Arab cause, the latter is Ajami. The Ajamis have not abandoned the Palestinians in the way the Arabs have abandoned the Kashmiris. Indeed, the Arabs have apparently abandoned the Palestinians too, just as much as Pakistan is seen as hanging back for the Kashmiris. The firmest backers of the Palestinians are the Iranians, Ajamis, who are backing a number of Shia militias in the Arab world, thus replacing the ArabAjami divide with a sectarian one.

Pakistanis are told to place their reliance on the international community as manifested in the uN, and further that the reason why that international community is not paying much attention to the suffering of the Kashmiris is because Pakistan is economically weak, while India is a market of a billion people.

If so, Pakistan will probably never be able to compete with India, because it can never be more than a fifth of India’s size as a market, and India will probably always get more foreign investment. The Arab countries joined other OPeC members in exerting the economic weapon, when they quadrupled the price of oil in 1973. however, it did not help the Palestinians.

One of Israel’s advantages has been uS backing. India now has that same backing. Pakistan had long relied on its uS alliance, which saw it getting involved in Afghanistan twice, but

Controlling Dengue The disease is lethal, but can be beaten Dr.Zeeshan Khan

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eNgue has evolved as a global lifethreatening public health concern, affecting around 2.5 billion people in over 100 countries. The number of cases reported by members states.increased from 2.2 million in 2010 to over 3.34 million in 2016. Although the full global burden of the disease is uncertain, the initiation of activities to record all dengue cases partly explains the sharp increase in the cases reported.

Since 2010, Pakistan has had a dengue epidemic with 16,580 confirmed cases and 257 deaths in Lahore and nearly 5000 cases and 60 deaths in the rest of the country. The three provinces facing the epidemic are Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Punjab and Sindh.

Dengue is a mosquito-borne viral infection. It causes flu-like illness, and occasionally develops into a potentially lethal complication called severe dengue. About half of the world’s population is now at risk. Dengue is found in tropical and subtropical climates worldwide, mostly in urban and semi-urban areas. Dengue virus is transmitted by female mosquitoes mainly of the species Aedes aegypti and, to a lesser extent, Aedes albopictus.

This mosquito also transmits chikungunya, yellow fever and zika. Dengue is widespread with local variations in risk influenced by rainfall, temperature and unplanned rapid urbanization. Despite government efforts, especially in Punjab, the high cost of prevention has limited the ability of Pakistan to control epidemics.

According to a recent report, overall 1,499 persons are confirmed with dengue infection so far. It may be noted here that the district magistrate had imposed Section 144 to deal with the outbreak in Islamabad on September 12, which seems useless. The district magistrate warned that any violation of the section would entail legal action. under Section 144, tyre shop owners will not be allowed to put tyres in front of their shops and citizens will have to take precau-

Karachi – Ph: 021-35381208-9

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tionary measures while watering plants to prevent the spread.

The primary preventative measure is the control of mosquito populations, because transmission requires mosquitoes as vectors. One practical and recommended environmental management strategy is to eliminate unnecessary container habitats that collect water (such as plastic jars, bottles, cans, tires, and buckets) in which Aedes aegypti can lay their eggs. This strategy is called source reduction. When container habitats are removed and water storage containers are covered with a fine mesh to prevent mosquitoes from getting inside them, mosquitoes have fewer opportunities to lay eggs and cannot develop through their aquatic life stages.

Source reduction can be effective when performed regularly, especially when members of a community are mobilized and educated about vector control. environmental management initiatives can also include major changes in a community, such as installing water systems with direct connections to residences and replacing wells and other water-storage containers, which can be mosquito-breeding habitats. Smaller-scale environmental changes can also be effective. For example, mosquito populations can be reduced when all members of a community clear blocked gutters and street drains and keep their yards free of containers with standing water. Any open containers should be emptied and cleaned each week to eliminate mosquito eggs and larvae. These efforts can reduce the number of mosquitoes living in an area. Active monitoring and surveillance of vectors should be carried out to determine effectiveness of control interventions.

Community-based approaches must go hand in hand with educational initiatives that teach people about mosquito vectors and the risks of having mosquito-breeding habitats near their homes. educational initiatives can encourage people to take an active role in participating in source reduction. Communities that understand the need to make behavioral changes are the most effective in controlling dengue. In addition, peo-

Islamabad – Ph: 051-2204545

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Web: www.pakistantoday.com.pk

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even that has now dissolved. Pakistan’s fallback position is China. however, it should not be forgotten that China has large enough a trade with India to make the economic argument in the favour of India, not Pakistan.

The Palestinian issue is seen as one for the whole Arab world, but actually it does not cover North Africa. Similarly, the Kashmir issue is not an Ajami issue, but merely a Pakistani one. Both are essentially national issues, and for them to blame other nations is not fair. Several peninsular Arab regimes think the uSA guarantees their survival, and have grown colder to Palestine because they believe that will bring them closer to Israel, and thus to the uSA. however, if these issues are seen as Islamic issues, the dimension changes, and both become much larger. At present, the OIC has held a special session for Palestine, but took no action. Together, the OIC represents a market about the same size as India’s, added to which it not only has immense hydrocarbon wealth but also huge solar power potential. however, at present it represents nothing but a failure of the multilateral approach.

It is also possible to discern other crises which would be helped by Muslim unity: The Rohingya are being driven of their homes by Myanmar, there is an increasing uighur problem in China, and then there is the issue of Iraqis and Syrians.

The possibility of unification is remote to the extent that it is not on any politicians’ agenda. however, while Muslim unity was once an ideal, pressures on the Muslim world might now make it a compulsion. The politics is surprisingly simple. One of the strongest foreign policy goals of Pakistanis is to liberate Kashmir. That is unachievable within the context of current Pakistani statehood. One of the strongest goals of Arabs is to ensure Palestinian liberation. That too is proving impossible to achieve. If the need to achieve these goals leads to an alliance, or even a merger, who will be to blame? It might seem odd to speak of such a possibility while Arabs and Iranians are accusing each other of fomenting war in the Persian gulf, but the crises demanding it were not made by the regimes doing the fomenting.

M.A. Niazi is a member of the staff.

ple can reduce the risk of mosquitoes entering their homes by using window and door screens or by keeping their doors and windows closed and using air conditioning to keep their homes cool. Aedes aegypti typically bite people during the day, so wearing long pants and long-sleeved shirts can reduce mosquito bites when spending time outdoors. In addition, mosquito repellents can be applied to exposed skin and clothing to lower the risk of mosquito bites. The Centers for Disease Control recommends mosquito repellents that contain DeeT, picaridin, lemon eucalyptus oil, or IR3535 as the active ingredient. Sleeping under a mosquito net can also provide protection from being bitten, particularly in areas where people rest in the afternoon or in houses with infants. Other different methods also can be used to control dengue; like traps including ovitrap, with other chemical and biological controls.

There is no specific treatment for dengue fever. For severe dengue, medical care by physicians and nurses experienced with the effects and progression of the disease can save lives – decreasing mortality rates from more than 20 percent to less than one percent. Maintenance of the patient’s body fluid volume is critical to severe dengue care. Careful clinical detection and management of dengue patients can significantly reduce mortality rates from severe dengue.

Vaccination should be considered as part of an integrated dengue prevention and control strategy.

There is an ongoing need to adhere to other disease preventive measures such as well-executed and sustained vector control. Individuals, whether vaccinated or not, must seek prompt medical care if dengue-like symptoms occur. The recent outbreak can more easily be tackled by getting back to the professionals who controlled dengue well during former CM Punjab Shahbaz Sharif’s era on war footing.

One of the major issues is the lack of management skills which is adding insult to injury.

Additionally, the government must provide training on clinical management, diagnosis and vector control at the regional level with some of its collaborating centres, and formulate evidencebased strategies and policies. Moreover, new tools, including insecticide products and application technologies, must be developed.

Dr.Zeeshan Khan tweets @DrZeeshanKhanA1 and can be reached at dr.zeeshan.alias.ghazikhan@gmail.com

Email: editorial@pakistantoday.com.pk

Friday, 20 September, 2019

COMMENT 09 Editor’s mail

Send your letters to: Letters to Editor, Pakistan Today, 4-Shaarey Fatima Jinnah, Lahore, Pakistan.

E-mail: letters@pakistantoday.com.pk Letters should be addressed to Pakistan Today exclusively

Sindh’s education challenge

Hindutva’s next target— the Gyanvapi Mosque The RSS is trying to make it another Babri Mosque

sultan MehMooD halI

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he rule of hindutva led by Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) Parcharak (activist) Narendra Modi now feels emboldened to destroy more historic ancient mosques in India, claiming them to be original temple sites. On 6 December 1992, hindu nationalists led by RSS stalwarts like Advani, Modi et al demolished the Babri Mosque, resulting in communal riots leading to over 2000 deaths. Much has been written about the Ram Janmabhoomi, literally translated, “Rama’s birthplace”, the name given to the site that many hindus believe to be the birthplace of Rama, the seventh avatar of the hindu deity Vishnu, ,and also a mythical character from the epic Ramayana, which states that the location of Rama’s birthplace is on the banks of the Sarayu river in the city of Ayodhya. Little evidence was supplied by the hindu extremists, apart from planted ones. Nevertheless, the Babri Mosque was razed to the ground under this plea.

RSS parcharaks have prepared a list of thousands of mosques in India, which are targeted to be torn down and replaced by hindu temples. Prominent in the list after the Babri Mosque are: the gyanvapi Mosque in Varanasi, uttar Pradesh (uP); The Shahi eidgah Mosque in Mathura, also in uP; the Jamia Masjid at Patan gujarat; the Kamal Maula Mosque in Madhya Pradesh; the Adina Mosque at Pandua, West Bengal; Jamia Masjid at Ahmadabad; Bijamandal Mosque at Vidisha, Madhya Pradesh and the Quawwatal-Islam Mosque at Mehrauli.

At the moment,the gyanvapi Mosque in Varanasi, needs immediate attention because it is in hindutva’s cross hairs. On the eve of filing nomination papers for Lok Sabha 2019 from Varanasi (Kashi), uP, Narendra Modi had announced the construction of “Kashi Vish-

wanath temple or Vishwanath Dham” at a cost mosque”. In 1936, after disputes with the of Rs 600 crores. Kashi is a sacred site of hin- hindu residents of the area, Muslims filed a dus, situated on the embankments of River suit in civil court in then Benares (now ganges, attributed to the hindu deity Shiva, Varanasi). In 1937, the court allowed the generally symbolized by “Shiv Ling”. The Muslims to offer prayers and celebrate the project aims at clearing an area of around Urs of the Sufi saint buried in the courtyard 45,000 square meters with dedicated 50 feet- of the mosque.

In 1991, the PV Narasimha Rao governwide pathways. Being Modi’s constituency, the project is receiving extraordinary attention ment passed “the Places of Worship (Special of the uP government under its hindutva ex- Provisions) Act”, which states that all religious sites would be maintained as they were tremist Chief Minister Yogi Aditya Nath.

Interestingly, while fulfilling Modi’s elec- on 15 August 1947. Despite this law, in 1991, toral promise and stepping up clearing activi- RSS activist Somnath Vyas filed a case in a ties, uP authorities have destroyed many old Varanasi civil court demanding that the buildings and temples too. So far, around mosque site be handed over to the Kashi Vishwanath temple.

45,000 square feet of As the work for the land surrounding the corridor has accelerated, temple has been cleared has the frequency of but 300 homes have been Modi’s Kashi Vishwanath so incidents related to the demolished, displacing gyanvapi mosque. Not 600 families in the corridor has provided long after the Allahabad process. Many local resiHindu extremist groups a high court issued its stay, dents have complained of on 25 October 2018, a forced vacation of their golden opportunity to government contractor residences. The ire of local hindu priests too demolish the mosque in demolished the Chhattadwar Chabutra, the boundhas been ignited who pursuance of their ary wall on the north side have gone to the extent of the mosque site. The expressing their rage at heinous agenda to further of incident caused flare-up the destruction of their among the local resitemples and even dared Hindutva’s aim of dents. Muslims from the to allege that both “Modi establishing a Hindu area gathered, and and Aditya Nath” are protested the administraproving worse than Rashtra (state) where tion’s decision, stating Mughal emperor Aurangzeb, who is alleged minorities and lower caste that it would endanger the mosque. to have been harsh on the Meanwhile, the corrihindus.

Hindus are trampled by dor project, ongoing demSwami Avimuktesh“superior” Brahmins, and olition of structures waran, the head of the Sri surrounding the mosque Vidya Math, Varanasi Hindutva prevails site and posed dangers to and one of the disciples the mosque, have also of Shankaracharya Swaprompted the state govroopanand Saraswathi, ernment to increase the sehas been among the more vociferous opponents of the project. he main- curity. Since the demolition of the Babri Masjid tains that over 15 to 20 temples and numerous in 1992, the area (Varanasi) has been also witidols, which existed since ancient times, have nessing heightened hindu-Muslim tension, been destroyed. Varanasi residents also claim which may erupt on the gyanvapi mosque like that the corridor is being built by crushing the the Babri Mosque. Modi’s Kashi Vishwanath corridor has provided hindu extremist groups a soul of Kashi.

Coming back to the issue of the gyanvapi golden opportunity to demolish the mosque in Mosque, which has been marked for demoli- pursuance of their heinous agenda to further tion, is a centuries-old mosque which is adja- hindutva’s aim of establishing a hindu Rashtra cent to Modi’s Kashi Vishwanath temple (state) where minorities and lower caste hindus project. Reportedly, some hindu extremist ac- are trampled by “superior” Brahmins, and hintivists tried to repeat the subterfuge executed dutva prevails. The world conscience remains at Babri Mosque by attempting to bury an idol oblivious, to the plight of Muslims and other Inof a bull (Nandi) to claim that the mosque was dian minorities but we must expose the ugly visconstructed on a hindu site, however, they age of hindutva. were caught red handed and the issue was Sultan Mehmood Hali is a retired Group hushed up.

Much like the history of the Babri Masjid Captain and author of the book Defence & site, hindu groups have been continuously Diplomacy. Currently he is a columnist, claiming rights to the land of “the gyanvapi analyst and TV talk show host.

eDuCATION is one of the fundamental rights of every citizen. It is meant to be the strength of any nation but in Sindh, it is, however, totally perished. The residents of Sindh have always been confronting the deprivation of quality education.

A survey conducted and visited the government schools in Sindh. The team got shocked with the results they experienced. The reporter with the camera man were clearly showing the dismal state of education in the province. When teachers were asked questions, they were pretending and declaring the fault is of government and somewhat other individuals. Students were being captured with the ineligibility of reading and writing. Reading is far cry, they were not even able to write their own names. An 8th standard student, when the reporter asked him to write “hum Pakistani hain”, he could not write. In another school, a boy was asked to read the written word “Cat”, he could read.

Similarly, moving to another school, when a girl student shown diagram of “Volcano”, she could not bring it in imagination and asking back that does it exist?

The status of education is not hidden. This is why and how every country is moving forward with economic and strategic stability and we are about 200 years behind in case of education.

The rich would go to private schools but where do the poor go? This is as if the government has forgotten the responsibility.

The provincial government must act to ensure quality education. A personal advice, there is nothing bad in seeking guidance how Punjab and KP are developing.

ASiF MURAD UMRANi Karachi

Ministers performance PeRIODICALLY when the federal cabinet meets, it is reported in the media that at the very outset Prime Minister Imran Khan reviews performance of the federal ministers and questions about what they are doing by and large in their respective assigned portfolios.

But nothing more than this is reported in the media about the federal ministers who are doing good work and those who are snubbed by the prime minister for not delivering and showing positive results. every other day questions are being raised in the newspapers about the education Ministry and the minister is criticised for not doing any good work to promote education sector in line with the modern times requirements and needs.

The Minister of education hails from Lahore and is also the minister of National history and Literary heritage Division under whose purview falls the National Art gallery/ Pakistan National Council of the Arts (PNCA) which is responsible for promotion of culture, art, music, film and theatre in the country. he has reportedly not visited the National Art gallery /PNCA so far to acquaint himself with their working which is a sad reflection of his lack of interest in art and culture.

There are, however, reports of his being interested in inducting his 77 years old lady cousin at the helm of affairs of the PNCA. The minister’s performance on the whole leaves much to be desired though his working is not reportedly questioned in the federal cabinet meetings as if he is the blue-eyed boy of the prime minister. Ministers are not supposed to be masters of their portfolios but they should at least be knowing ABC about education, art and culture or the assigned portfolios, please. Thanks.

ASMAAR BiLAL Lahore

Country in shambles IT is very painful to see the country sail on a sinking ship. every segment / department of the government is deficient in its performance. The judges instead of disponing justice seem more focused on stricture against their colleagues and giving expert opinions on things they have a clue about.

The lawyers instead of sincerely fighting the cases of their clients are busy locking up judges in their chambers and flexing their muscle, acting like goons. The police are busy serving the politicians and powerful to please them to gain personal career related favours than protecting the lives and property of ordinary citizens. The government as a whole is busy in marginalising the opposition and taking personal vendetta than making laws for betterment of people. Opposition is busy using regional and ethnic cards to push back the government than pressuring it to make laws.

The economy of the country is under blight stars but the govt and oppositions members change barbs instead of creating unity. Peoples problems are not on the agenda of government or the opposition. Seventy-two years have passed and we as nation learnt nothing from our past mistakes and still follow the path of destruction.

Our politicians ought to realise that without one’s own country there can neither be government nor opposition. unfortunately, after loss of Mr Jinnah, and to some extent Mr Liaquat Ali Khan and Mr Bhutto, there is scarcity of true leaders who can foresee shadow of coming events and take measures to avert any unpleasant event to happen rather than start chest thumping after it has happened.

RAJA SHAFAATULLAH islamabad

Friday, 20 September, 2019

10 FOREIGN NEWS

bE FlExIblE, crEAtIvE And wE wIll too, Uk brExIt MInIstEr UrgEs EU MADRID

b

AGENCIES

rITAIN’S Brexit minister on Thursday urged the European Union to show flexibility and creativity in striking a deal, although he stuck to his country’s position that the contentious Irish backstop arrangement must go.

Stephen Barclay was speaking in Madrid just six weeks before the date on which Prime Minister Boris Johnson has vowed to take Britain out of the European Union. Britain wants a deal to guide its relationship with its biggest trading partner after it leaves the bloc, but would leave without one if both sides cannot

agree in the next 42 days, Barclay said.

“The prize of a deal should focus the minds of both sides on this need for creativity and flexibility,” he said.

“So let’s work creatively to secure a deal, a deal the UK is committed to get in, a deal without a backstop … a deal which will pass both the UK parliament and the European parliament.”

He listed issues with the Irish arrangement – an insurance policy to keep open the border on the island – which made it impossible to accept, including the difficulty of guaranteeing it would be temporary.

Barclay said Britain was ready to share “relevant texts” in negotiation, but was in no rush to comply with EU re-

quests for specific written proposals to formalize an alternative.

“Why risk crystallizing an undesirable result this November when both sides can work together until December 2020?” he asked. “We risk being trapped in a zero-sum game and that will lead to zero-sum outcomes.”

Barclay is due to meet Spain’s acting foreign minister and newly appointed European foreign policy chief Josep Borrell, as well as members of the British community in Spain.

More than 300,000 Britons are registered as living in Spain, and many more have migrated without registering.

Business ties between the two countries would also be complicated by a

messy departure. Barclay said international groups like British Airways and Iberia airlines operator IAG did not want uncertainty “dragging out”.

Britain is ready to continue discussions about its territory of Gibraltar on Spain’s southern coast, which some 10,000 Spaniards enter every day, Barclay said, adding conversation on the matter so far had been “constructive and pragmatic”. The conservative government would abide by a ruling from Britain’s top judicial body, the Supreme court, on Johnson’s decision to suspend parliament for five weeks, he said.

The court is hearing legal arguments over whether Johnson acted lawfully and may decide as soon as Friday.

Barclay said he will meet EU Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier on Friday.

“Whilst we seek a deal, we recognize we may not be able to agree a deal and in that instance we will leave with no deal,” he said.

'A dumb thing to do': Trudeau Melting snowcaps spell water trouble for world’s highest capital apologises for brownface

OTTAWA AGENCIES

canadian leader Justin Trudeau’s campaign was hit on Wednesday by the publication of a yearbook photo showing him in brownface makeup at a 2001 costume party.

The prime minister apologised and said: “It was a dumb thing to do.” Time magazine posted the photo, which it says was published in the yearbook from the West Point Grey Academy, a private school in British columbia where Trudeau worked as a teacher before entering politics. It depicts the then 29-yearold Trudeau wearing a turban and robe, with dark makeup on his hands, face and neck.

Trudeau, who launched his reelection campaign exactly one week ago, said he should have known better. “I’m pissed off at myself, I’m disappointed in myself,” Trudeau told reporters travelling with him on his campaign plane.

The canadian prime minister is but the latest politician to face scrutiny over racially insensitive photos and actions from their younger days.

Earlier this year, Virginia Gov ralph Northam faced intense pressure to resign after a racist picture surfaced from his 1984 medical school yearbook page. He denied being in the picture but admitted wearing blackface as a young man while portraying Michael Jackson at a dance party in the 1980s. Since

then, Virginia Attorney General Mark Herring has acknowledged wearing blackface in college, and Alabama Gov Kay Ivey has publicly apologised for donning blackface during a college skit more than 50 years ago. None has resigned.

The photo of Trudeau was taken at the school’s annual dinner, which had an “Arabian Nights” theme that year, Trudeau said, adding that he was dressed as a character from “Aladdin”. The prime minister said it was not the first time he has painted his face; once, he said, he performed a version of Harry Belafonte’s “Banana Boat Song (Day-O)” during a talent show.

“I should have known better then but I didn’t, and I am deeply sorry for it,” Trudeau said. “I’m going to ask canadians to forgive me for what I did. I shouldn’t have done that. I take responsibility for it. It was a dumb thing to do.”

He said he has always been more enthusiastic about costumes than is “sometimes appropriate”.

“These are the situations I regret deeply,” Trudeau added.

The prime minister, who champions diversity and multiculturalism, said he didn’t consider it racist at the time but said society knows better now. The photo’s publication could spell more trouble for Trudeau, who polls say is facing a serious challenge from conservative leader Andrew Scheer.

Trudeau has been admired by liberals around the world for his pro-

gressive policies in the Trump era, with canada accepting more refugees than the United States. His Liberal government has also strongly advocated free trade and legalised cannabis nationwide.

But the 47-year-old son of late Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau was already vulnerable following one of the biggest scandals in canadian political history, which arose when Trudeau’s former attorney general said he improperly pressured her to halt the criminal prosecution of a company in Quebec. Trudeau has said he was standing up for jobs, but the scandal rocked the government and led to multiple resignations earlier this year, causing a drop in the leader’s poll ratings.

Following the release of the brownface photo, Trudeau said he would talk to his kids in the morning about taking responsibility.

His quick apology did not stem the criticism from political opponents, who took the prime minister to task for what they said was troubling behaviour. “It is insulting. Any time we hear examples of brownface or blackface it’s making a mockery of someone for what they live, for what their lived experiences are. I think he has to answer for it,” said Leftist New Democrat leader Jagmeet Singh, a Sikh who wears a turban and the first visible minority to lead a national party.

Scheer, the opposition conservative leader, said brownface was racist in 2001 and is racist in 2019.

“What canadians saw this evening was someone with a complete lack of judgement and integrity and someone who is not fit to govern this country,” Scheer said. robert Bothwell, a professor of canadian history and international relations at the University of Toronto, said he was “gobsmacked” at the development and wondered how it would land in Parliament.

“We’ll just have to see how the party reacts,” he said. “I’m very curious to know how Liberal members of Parliament that are black will react.” How the scandal will affect Trudeau’s campaign remains in question. Nelson Wiseman, a political science professor at the University of Toronto, said he didn’t think the photo’s release would cause people to vote differently.

Wiseman said race and blackface play a much bigger role in US politics than in canada.

“I don’t think this will swing the vote, although the story will get a lot of media play for a couple of days,” Wiseman said. “The Liberals may very well lose the election they almost certainly will not do as well as in 2015 but this is not the type of scandal that will drive voters to the conservatives.”

CMYK

LA PAZ AGENCIES

Water resources are running dry in the world’s highest-elevation capital due to the combined effect of the Andean glaciers melting, drought and mismanagement.

But instead of surrendering, the locals in Bolivia’s capital La Paz are finding new ways to tackle the changing climate.

The sky-high metropolitan area’s 2.7 million people have already been jolted by climate change: a severe drought that lasted for several months from 2016 into 2017 was Bolivia’s worst in 25 years, leading to water rationing and widespread protests in several cities. In a sign of possibly worse to come, the Andean snowcaps — which have been relied on to fill the city’s reservoirs — are disappearing at a rate that has alarmed scientists.

In a gray and misty Valle de las Flores district in the east of the city, people are beginning to adapt to disappearing water resources.

There, Juana and her colleague Maria wash clothes for a living at a municipal washhouse, which is fed by spring water.

Public wash-houses — where the water is free — are becoming more popular, as residents change their habits around water use, getting their laundry done and escaping rising water charges.

“It’s true that there are more people coming here than ever before,” since water started to become more scarce, said Juana, as the women scrubbed and wrung-out garments for a fee of 20 bolivianos, or around $3 per dozen items. In some neighborhoods, locals have become accustomed to storing rainwater in cisterns, ready for when the dry season comes.

The severe drought that lasted from November 2016 to February 2017 was blamed on the combined effects of the El Nino weather cycle, poor water management and climate change. Leftist President Evo Morales declared a “state of national emergency” and tens of thousands of people in La Paz faced imposed water rationing for the first time, while surrounding mountains that were once covered in snow turned brown and barren.

The measures were expanded to at least seven other cities, and in the countryside, farmers clashed with miners over the use of aquifers. As part of a contingency plan, Morales doubled down by embarking on a vast investment program in a bid to ensure future water supplies.

According to recent data from the national water company EPSAS, the government has spent $64.7 million (58.7 million euros) to construct four water reservoirs and supply systems from the lagoons of the surrounding Andean highlands.

The new systems will in part ease reliance on the Inkachaka, Ajunkota and Hampaturi dams that have until now supplied drinking water to around one-third of La Paz’s population. The drought had left the dams almost completely depleted, resembling open-cast mines, and they took months to recover ample water levels.

Patricia Urquieta, an urban planning specialist at the University Mayor de San Andres, says that despite the hardships it brought, the drought did not lead to an increased collective awareness of the need to manage water resources. Once water restrictions were lifted “this awareness of the need to preserve water fizzled out,” said Urquieta.

“There has beeen no public policy to raise awareness about water usage, even though reports show that La Paz could end up without water because of the decrease of water in the moutains,” she said.

UNEScO introduced an “Atlas on the retreat of Andean glaciers and the reduction of glacial waters” to map the effects of global warming in 2018. It said “global warming could cause the loss of 95 percent of the current permafrost in Bolivia by 2050, and 99 percent by 2099.”

A recent study published in the scientific journal Nature, citing analysis of satellite images, reported that “the Andean glaciers are among those that shrink the fastest”.

Between 2000 and 2018, the glaciers lost an average of 23 billion tonnes of ice a year, according to Nature “When the glaciers disappear, they will no longer be able to provide water during the dry season,” said Sebastien Hardy, who is studying the local glaciers for the French Institute for research and Development.

The chacaltaya glacier –- once the world’s highest ski resort — has already disappeared.

Scientists said the glacier started to melt in the mid-1980s. By 2009, it had vanished.

The Inkachaka dam, a few miles outside the La Paz, is currently more than half-full, fed by snowfalls during the austral winter.

But the year-round snowcaps on nearby mountains, visible as recently as 30 years ago, no longer exist.

Friday, 20 September, 2019

BUSINESS 11

Three-day ‘22nd Textile Asia’ exhibition commences today LAHORE STAFF REPORT

A three-day exhibition titled '22nd Textile Asia International Trade Fair' would commence from today (Friday) at the Lahore Expo Centre. The event has been organised by Pakistan-China Joint Chamber of Commerce and Industry (PCJCCI) in collaboration with the ECommerce Gateway Pakistan. EGP President Dr Khursheed Nizam, while addressing a review meeting at the PCJCCI on Thursday, said that the exhibition would lead the way in delivering the most exquisite opportunities to all participants. "The expo will highlight the buying and selling potential of textile & garment machinery, textile accessories, raw materials, dyes and chemicals, embroidery machines, power & air compressors and allied textile services," he added. "More than 550 international brands will display their products in over 500 booths and over 450 foreign delegates from 27 countries, including China, France, Austria, Czech Republic, Germany, Italy, Korea, Japan, Turkey, UK, USA will grace the auspicious event."

Speaking on the occasion, PCJCCI President Shah Faisal Afridi hoped that the international trade fair would act as a source of motivation for the local businesses and industries. "We will try to facilitate joint ventures between the international brand owners and local companies from Gujranwala, Lahore, Sialkot and Faisalabad, besides arranging training for engineers who manufacture spare parts for the textile sector," he added.

Milan Fashion Week to showcase GB, Chitral handicrafts ISLAMABAD

PAkisTAn likely To surPAss MAnGo exPorT TArGeT ISLAMABAD

P

GHULAM ABBAS

AKISTAN has exported over 115,000 metric tonnes of mangoes so far this season, earning over $80 million in foreign exchange in the process. According to figures shared by All Pakistan Fruit & Vegetable Exporters, Importers & Merchants Association (PFVA), this is the first time in four years that the country's mango export target of 100,000 metric tonnes has been met.

"The export of mango will continue till mid of October and we expect the total export volume to exceed the 130,000-tonne mark," mango exporters said.

According to PFVA Patron-in-Chief Waheed Ahmed, Pakistani mango managed to get a better price in the international market due to its high standard coupled with an aggressive marketing strategy.

"Valuable foreign exchange worth $80 million

FBR officials told to up their game FIELD FORMATIONS ASKED TO TAKE ADMINISTRATIVE MEASURES SO THAT THE GAP BETWEEN REAL SALES TAX COLLECTION AND ITS TRUE POTENTIAL COULD BE BRIDGED ISLAMABAD

STAFF REPORT

SHAHZAD PARACHA

Impressed by the embroidery and design that is native to the women of the rural mountainous areas of Chitral, Kalash Gilgit and Baltistan, a leading Italian designer, Stella Jean, has decided to incorporate their craft in her spring/summer 2020 collection at Milan Fashion Week, which would commence from tomorrow (Saturday).

"The Ministry of Commerce, in collaboration with Stella Jean and United Nations Industrial Development Organisation (UNIDO), has launched an initiative to empower the women of Chitral, Gilgit, Hunza and Kalash," said Commerce Secretary Sardar Ahmad Nawaz Sukhera in a statement issued on Thursday. "Through this initiative, Stella Jean has incorporated the embroidered items by 'Chitral Women's Handicrafts Centre', an NGO run by Karishma Ali of the 'Fortune Magazine Under 30 Fame' as well as 'Karigar', a women empowerment initiative in Gilgit-Baltistan by the 'Aga Khan Development Network'." The commerce secretary said that the spring/summer 2020 collection would be showcased at the Milan Fashion Week, which is "the most important annual international fashion event". He said that the projection of Pakistan's textile products on the world stage would create great awareness and market access for the women working in the mountainous areas of the country. "This exemplary human cooperation has made possible the creation of a virtual 'laboratory of nations' wherein traditional artisan skills of Pakistan have joined forces with those of Italy," he remarked.

"Despite thousands of miles of distance, dozens of women have worked together with the common goal of caring and preserving an endangered global culture heritage." He said in order to compliment the above endeavour and provide Pakistan fashion industry with a platform, Stella Jean has invited some of the top Pakistani fashion models to join international models on the runway to showcase her collection. Sukhera and Ambassador of Pakistan in Italy Nadeem Riaz will be present at the event to meet with the leaders of the fashion/textile industry of Italy.

has been generated so far through the export of mangoes. Compared to the last year, there has been a substantial increase both in volume and revenue this year. The production of mango was 1.3 million tonnes and export volume stood at 85,000 tonnes last year, while the production of mango during the current year was 1.5 million tonnes," he informed.

Apart from marketing, Waheed said, one of the key factors attributing an increase in mango exports is the duration of mango season which spans from June through September. This duration is an off-season period in various mango-producing countries of the world, providing an added advantage to the Pakistani mango, he added.

He said despite climatic challenges, the price of mango remained stable at Rs75 – Rs85 per kg on farm level while the exporters & management of PFVA kept their attention well focused on the quality of mango & packaging standards.

The export of mango has also enhanced due to the extra attention paid to the conventional markets of UAE, Iran & Afghanistan, Europe

The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) has directed its field formations to follow a list of administrative measures so that the gap between real sales tax/federal excise collection and its true potential could be bridged.

A copy of letter available with Pakistan Today stated that the sales tax and federal excise duty have a significant share in domestic revenue collection and that there appears to be a big gap between actual collection and its true potential.

“In order to bridge that gap, numerous amendments have been made in Sales Tax Act, 1990 and Federal Excise Act, 2005 through Finance Act 2019, and now, administrative measures are required to strengthen and implement the policy corrections,” the letter read.

The FBR chairman has directed all its field formations to take immediate action on non-filers of July and August 2019, especially where the registered persons have filed their sales tax returns for the tax periods of May and June, 2019.

Furthermore, the letter stated that there is a need to monitor registered persons

paying sales lax under the Eighth Schedule of the Sales Tax Act, 1990, especially in those cases where registered persons are supplying at reduced rate.

The letter reads that the registered persons dealing in Third Schedule items be specifically monitored to ensure that sales tax is being paid on the ‘retail price’.

It has also been directed that printing of ‘retail prices’ has to be ensured and price lists of all such products have to be obtained from the manufacturers/ importers falling in Third Schedule to compare with the printed prices of products supplied in markets.

Moreover it has been directed that timely filing of Sales Tax/Federal Excise Returns, along with all the Annexure be ensured.

The letter also states that suppliers who are just filers to remain on ATL be monitored. Field formations to activate working on these suppliers as majority of them are null filers or nil filers.

Field offices have been directed to conduct investigative audits of cases that show negative value addition or high Input-Output ratio, continuous carry forward, and low output tax for the purpose of tax evasion.

and the UK. According to horticulture exporters, the production of mango is being multiplied because farmers are developing mango orchards as per international standards, besides adopting modern techniques to produce high-quality mangoes.

They said the chances of mango production in Khyber Pakhtunkwa have also been enhanced and in the next five years, Pakistan would witness an exorbitant production from the province.

In order to take advantage of these opportunities, they said, it is imperative for the government to organise mango promotion events. It is also important to pay more attention to the promising markets of Japan, USA, South Korea and China, as export to such countries would significantly enhance the quality of local produce, they added.

The exporters noted that the export mango from the country is around 10-11pc of the total export of the horticulture sector, adding that it could be enhanced to 25pc in next five years with revenue up to $200 million per season.

Current account deficit dips 55pc in two months The current account deficit (CAD) shrank by a massive 55 per cent in the first two months of the current fiscal year as compared to the corresponding period last year, reported the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) on Thursday. The CAD — for the two month period — reduced by $1.56bn to $1.29 billion from $2.85bn during the same period last year. This was in line with the downward trend witnessed throughout 2018-19 when the deficit stood lower by 31pc to $13.58bn, from $19.8bn in FY18 — recording a decrease of $6.3bn. This must be a relief for the government which has been struggling to plug the deficit through borrowing from donor agencies, commercial banks and friendly countries. The major cause of the shrink is the decline in the trade deficit. According to the trade summary issued by the commerce ministry for the two months, exports jumped to $3.738bn as compared to $3.650bn during the same period last year — showing a decrease of 2.41pc or $88 million. Similarly, imports for the period under review declined to $7.553bn as compare to $9.768bn during the same period last year — showing a decline of 22.68pc or $2.215bn. In total, the trade deficit for the two months of the current fiscal year stood at $3.815bn as compared to $6.118bn during the corresponding period last fiscal year. The heavy reduction in CAD will also help State Bank accumulate its dollar reserves which have failed to hit double digits despite continued inflows from friendly countries and donor agencies. Bankers say the fall in the deficit will help bring some stability to the exchange rate and provide support for both import-reliant and domestically sufficient manufacturers. BUSINESS DESK

SBP RESERVES SURGE 138M TO STAND AT 8.6BN Pakistan's total liquid foreign reserves stood at $15.898 billion on September 13, a press release issued by the State Bank of Pakistan on Thursday said. The central bank's reserves witnessed an increase of $138 million to reach $8.6 billion during the week ending September 13. According to a breakup of the foreign reserves position, foreign reserves held by the State Bank of Pakistan stood at $8.6 billion, while net foreign reserves held by commercial banks were recorded at $7.3 billion. The central bank also reported that the dollar shed 2 paisas in interbank trade and was traded at Rs156.23 as compared to the last closing at Rs156.25. BUSINESS DESK

OECD cuts global growth outlook to post-crisis low PARIS AGENCIES

The trade war between the United States and China has plunged global growth to its lowest levels in a decade, the OECD said on Thursday as it slashed its forecasts.

The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development said that the global economy risked entering a new, lasting low-growth phase if governments continued to dither over how to respond.

The global economy will see its weakest growth since the 2008-2009 financial crisis this year, slowing from 3.6pc last year to 2.9pc this year before a predicted 3.0pc in 2020, the OECD said.

The Paris-based policy forum said the outlook had taken a turn for the worse since it last updated its forecasts in May, when it estimated the global economy would grow 3.2pc this year and 3.4pc in 2020.

“What looked like temporary trade tensions are

turning into a long-lasting new state of trade relationships,” OECD chief economist Laurence Boone told Reuters.

“The global order that regulated trade is gone and we are in a new era of less certain, more bilateral and sometimes assertive trade relations,” she added.

Trade growth, which had been the motor of the global recovery after the financial crisis had fallen from 5pc in 2017 into negative territory now, Boone said.

Meanwhile, trade tensions have weighed on business confidence, knocking investment growth down from 4pc two years ago to only 1pc.

Boone said that there was evidence that the trade standoff was taking its toll on the US economy, hitting some manufactured products and triggering farm bankruptcies.

The world’s biggest economy would grow 2.4pc this year and 2.0pc next year instead of the 2.8pc and 2.3pc respectively that the OECD had forecast in May. BREXIT BRITAIN: China would also feel the pain

with the second-biggest economy growing 6.1pc in 2019 and 5.7pc in 2020, outlooks the OECD cut from 6.2pc and 6.0pc previously.

The OECD estimated that a sustained decline in Chinese domestic demand of about 2 percentage points annually could trigger a significant knock-on effect on the global economy.

If accompanied with a deterioration in financial conditions and more uncertainty, such a scenario would mean global growth would be cut by 0.7 percentage points per year in the first two years of the shock.

Meanwhile, uncertainty over government policies was also hitting the outlook for Britain as it lurches towards leaving the European Union.

The OECD forecast British growth of 1pc in 2019 and 0.9pc in 2020, but only if it left the EU smoothly with a transition period, a far from certain conclusion at this stage. The OECD had forecast in May growth of 1.2pc and 1.0pc.

If Britain leaves without a deal, its economy will be 2pc lower than otherwise in 2020-2021 even if its exit is relatively smooth with fully operational infrastructure in place, the OECD said.

The euro area would not be spared from negative spillovers under such a scenario and would see its gross domestic product cut by half a percentage point over 2020-2021.

The OECD trimmed its forecast for the shared currency block, largely due to the slowdown in its biggest economy, Germany, which was estimated to be in a technical recession.

Euro zone growth was seen at 1.0pc - down from 1.2pc in May - this year and 1.0pc in 2020 - down from 1.4pc in May. Boone said Germany’s economy had probably shrunk in the second and third quarters with a slump in car manufacturing, which accounts for 4.7pc of German GDP, knocking three-fourths of a percentage point off German growth.

Friday, 20 September, 2019

12 BUSINESS

sBP CoMMiTTed To ‘hoMe-GroWn’ eConoMiC reForMs, iMF Told

MaRket Daily

KARACHI

stocks stage 628-point comeback rally KARACHI STAFF REPORT

Bulls of the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) staged a strong comeback on Thursday, with the KSE-100 Index ending above the 32,000 mark. Foreign investors closed as net sellers on Wednesday with a net outflow of $0.743 million.

On the economic front, Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) into the country declined 58pc to $156.7 million in JulyAugust period (the first two months of FY20) as compared to $376.9 million in the same period last year. Moreover, FDI shrank to $83.36 million in August 2019 as compared to $197.95 million in August 2018. Gaining 679.82 points, the KSE-100 index marked its intraday high of 32,235.29.

It closed higher by 628.56 points at 32,184.03. The KMI-30 Index gathered 1,307.24 points to end at 51,114.11, while the KSE All Share Index accumulated 306.21 points, closing the day at 23,429.34. Out of the total traded shares, 217 advanced and 82 declined. The overall trading volumes increased from 99.36 million in the previous session to 136.57 million. Lotte Chemical Pakistan Limited (LOTCHEM -0.68pc), Pakistan International Bulk Terminal Limited (PIBTL +10.38pc) and TRG Pakistan Limited (TRG +6.52pc) remained the volume leaders of the day.

The scripts had exchanged 15.51 million shares, 7.99 million shares and 7.78 million shares respectively.

Kohinoor Energy Limited (KOHE +2.55pc) declared its financial results for FY19. The company announced a final cash dividend of Rs2 per share. Sales declined by 9pc YoY, while earnings per share depreciated from Rs4.31 in FY18 to Rs3.25 in FY19. At-Tahur Limited (PREMA +4.43pc) also announced its financial performance for FY19. The company declared a final cash dividend of Rs0.37 along with bonus shares of 10pc. Sales increased by 26pc YoY, while EPS appreciated from Rs1.62 in FY18 to Rs1.86 in FY19. Balochistan Wheels Limited (BWHL +4.98pc) posted an EPS of Rs5.36 for FY19 (Rs6.58 in FY18) along with with a final cash dividend of Rs2; while Berger Paints Pakistan Limited (BERG 0.00pc) announced an EPS of Rs4.93 (Rs4.99 in FY18) along with a final cash dividend of Rs1 per share.

nishat Mills posts rs9.65bn profit for Fy19 Nishat Mills Limited, in a letter to the Pakistan Stock Exchange on Thursday, announced a consolidated after-tax profit of Rs9.65 billion for the financial year 2019, an increase of 9.16 per cent from the Rs8.84 billion company made during FY2018. The consolidated revenue of the company stood at Rs96 billion for the period under consideration against Rs84.7 billion in FY2018, according to the letter. The company also announced Earnings Per Share (EPS) of Rs22.20 for 2019, against Rs20.72 in 2018.

In its 9-month report earlier, the company attributed its better financial performance to the favorable rate variances both in export and local sales and rapid depreciation of Pak Rupee against the US Dollar. Established in 1951, Nishat Mills Limited is one of the largest vertically integrated textile companies in the country. Its production facilities comprise of spinning, weaving, processing, stitching and power generation. BUSINESS DESK

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delegation of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), led by its Middle East and Central Asia Director Jihad Azour, called on State Bank of Pakistan Governor Dr Reza Baqir on Thursday in Karachi.

Azour was accompanied by IMF Mission Chief to Pakistan Ernesto Ramirez Rigo, Resident Representative of IMF for Pakistan Teresa Daban Sanchez and Special Assistant to the Director of the IMF’s Communications Department Olga Stankova.

The delegation also met with the senior management of the SBP.

Speaking on the occasion, the SBP governor stated that Pakistan has embarked on its “homegrown economic reform programme”, adding that he looked forward to furthering the relationship with IMF and other stakeholders in the international financial community to support the reform programme.

He observed that transition to a market-based exchange rate system, building of the foreign exchange reserves, and bringing down inflation were among the key elements of the SBP’s reform programme to restore financial stability and to lay the foundations for sustainable and shared growth.

“The initial results from the reform programme have been encouraging. The earlier volatility in the exchange market and associated

uncertainty has subsided and the confidence is slowly improving,” he stated. “Inflation had risen due to the economic imbalances accumulated from previous years but inflationary pressures are expected to recede in the second half of the current fiscal year.”

The governor emphasised that these were the early stages of the reform process and it was essential to sustain the reform momentum and to keep the policies focused on stability and sustainability.

The IMF director shared with the SBP governor his views on how central banks in the region were responding to the challenges being faced by them, particularly with regard to capital flows, the role of technology, and the role of central banks in economic management.

Govt reschedules NFC meeting after five-month break

ISLAMABAD After a break of around five months, the Ministry of Finance has decided to reschedule the National Finance Commission (NFC) meeting, which would deliberate on the next NFC Award.

According to the ministry sources, a meeting to discuss issues related to the next NFC Award was held recently at the finance ministry wherein it was decided that all provinces would be asked to resume the meetings of NFC sub-committees formed previously. Former finance minister Asad Umar, while chairing the inaugural meeting of 9th NFC, had constituted various sub-committees to deliberate the issue.

"Taking the lead, the ministry will now hold a meeting of the central committee of NFC by the end of this month," sources said. "The six subcommittees/groups will make proposals and recommendations for the next award."

The committees were assigned the task of giving proposals/recommendations on macroeconomic framework and benchmarking (to be coordinated by Punjab); vertical distribution of the divisible pool taxes between federation and provinces, including the needs of AJ&K and GB (to be coordinated by the federal government), horizontal distribution of divisible pool taxes among provinces (to be coordinated by Balochistan), straight transfers (to be coordinated by Balochistan), measures required for simplification of tax procedures and payment systems to facilitate businesses (to be coordinated by Sindh) and integration/merger of FATA in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (to be coordinated by KP).

Earlier, the ministry had postponed the NFC meetings indefinitely on legal grounds after a technocrat was appointed as the adviser to prime

LONDON AGENCIES

MOF HAD EARLIER POSTPONED THE NFC MEETING INDEFINITELY ON LEGAL GROUNDS AFTER A TECHNOCRAT WAS APPOINTED AS ADVISER TO PM ON FINANCE GHULAM ABBAS

oil prices rise as saudi supply risks come into focus

minister on finance and revenue.

The ministry, through a letter, had informed the provinces that “since Adviser to PM on Finance Dr Hafeez Shaikh cannot chair the NFC meetings until he is promoted as a federal minister, the meeting of NFC has been postponed for an indefinite duration”.

Meanwhile, the ministry had also sought the opinion from the Law Division regarding the legitimacy of the adviser. In case of objection by the provinces, the finance ministry has to wait for promotion of the advisor to the post of federal minister to convene the next NFC meeting.

According to sources, the ministry is yet to receive a reply from the Ministry of Law regarding legal hindrance in chairing of the NFC by the adviser.

The last meeting, which was scheduled for April 29, 2019, was not held owing to the absence of the then finance minister. As per rules, the finance ministers from federal and provincial governments are required to attend the NFC meeting.

In case of absence of the finance ministers, the prime minister and the provincial chief ministers can attend the NFC meeting.

Soon after the appointment of Hafeez Shaikh as head of the finance ministry, officials at the finance ministry had formally started assessing the legal options to legitimise the adviser's role as the NFC head. The department concerned had suggested the premier to chair the next meeting or postpone it till the constitutional obligations are met.

It may be recalled that in order to empower the adviser, Prime Minister Imran Khan had appointed Dr Abdul Hafeez Shaikh as the chairman of Economic Coordination Committee (ECC), chairman of the Cabinet Committee on Energy (CCoE) and chairman of the Cabinet Committee on Privatization (CCoP).

Oil prices rose sharply on Thursday, supported by supply risks as the market assesses the fallout from last weekend’s drone attacks on Saudi oil infrastructure.

Brent crude futures LCOc1 gained 96 cents to $64.56 a barrel by 1347 GMT, while US West Texas Intermediate crude CLc1 was up 51 cents at $58.62 a barrel.

The attacks knocked out around half of Saudi Arabia’s crude production and severely limited the country’s spare capacity, a cushion for oil markets in any unplanned outage. “Global available spare capacity is extremely low at present following the weekend attacks, leaving little room for additional outages, which tends to be price supportive,” UBS oil analyst Giovanni Staunovo said. Earlier this week Saudi Arabia set out a timeline for a resumption of full operations, saying it had restored supplies to customers at levels prior to the attacks by drawing from its oil inventories. It said it would restore its lost production by the end of this month, and bring its output capacity back to 12 million barrels per day by the end of November. “These plans suggest Saudi Arabia will have no spare capacity for at least the next two and a half months and therefore no way to absorb any further shocks,” consultancy Energy Aspects said.

Saudi Arabia, the world’s leading oil exporter, has said the crippling attack on its oil sites was “unquestionably sponsored” by regional rival Iran. US President Donald Trump said there were many options short of war with Iran and added that he had ordered the US Treasury to “substantially increase sanctions” on Tehran. Iran has denied involvement in the strikes. Iran warned President Trump against being dragged into all-out war in the Middle East. US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has described the weekend strike as an act of war and has been discussing possible retaliation with Saudi Arabia and other Gulf allies.

NePRa trashes CaSa-1000, urges govt to revisit power supply agreement ISLAMABAD AHMAD AHMADANI

The National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (NEPRA) has asked the government to revisit Central Asia-South Asia (CASA-1,000) electricity supply agreement, saying that it "will not be a cheap solution".

NEPRA, in its State of the Industry Report 2018, has said that the electricity planned to be imported through CASA1000 would be expensive when compared with the locally-produced electricity.

"This imported energy (electricity) will not be available during the winter season when there will be an acute shortage of fuel and when hydro energy will also be at the minimum level," NEPRA stated. "The CASA-1000 project will also require the National Transmission and Dispatch Company (NTDC) to construct

a 100km transmission line from the PakAfghan border to Peshawar, besides a 1,300MW converter station at Peshawar."

As per the report, the import of electricity through CASA-1000 would not be a cheap solution, as it would not help lower the overall energy cost of the country. "The federal government may consider revisiting the agreements."

Recommending the retirement of inefficient power plants to lower the costs of energy, the regulatory authority asked the government to take early decisions on the fate of inefficient GENCOs. "In order to reduce the impact of idle capacity on the overall tariff, the government should carry out a thorough analysis of any requirement for the import of additional power by K-Electric from NTDC system. Sales growth policies are to be vigorously pursued by bringing more consumers to the DIS-

COs' network and encouraging existing paying consumers through reliable power availability.

"Load shedding policies must be targeted only to those who are not paying. Separation of feeders may be considered to isolate paying and non-paying areas. Regressive policies to impose load shedding on larger areas would result in higher tariffs for the rest of the paying consumers. DISCOs, NTDC and K-Electric are urged to revamp their data reporting by including necessary quality checks and preferably ISO certification so that consistent and accurate information is provided to the regulator and other stakeholders," the report added.

NEPRA recommended NTDC to continue with its work on the strengthening of its network so that constraints are removed expeditiously. Similarly, it

added, the overloading of its transformers should be addressed so that further hotspots are not introduced.

In order to address litigation and 'right of way' issues, special energy courts may be introduced in the country, NEPRA stated.

According to the report, public sector power generation companies are producing expensive energy due to their inferior efficiencies and NEPRA has decided not to renew the licences of those power plants which have the worst performance levels. "Power distributing companies (DISCOs) have failed to control losses due to which the power sector's circular debt reached Rs1,000 billion."

NEPRA has decided to review the returns offered in the power sector and revise certain benchmarks and ceilings to be allowed for tariff components of generation projects; the government should

immediately decide closure of all those GENCOs whose performance is not satisfactory.

"After the addition of more than 10,000MW of new generation capacity over the last five years, the transmission sector only has shown improvement to some extent whereas the distribution sector has totally collapsed."

About K-Electric, NEPRA said governance issues have been noted in the performance of K-Electric. KE has failed to anticipate the impending gas depletion and to take any remedial measures in the absence of a long-term gas supply agreement with Sui Southern Gas Pipeline.

The installed power generation capacity of Pakistan as of June 30, 2018, stands at 36,010MW, of which 33,126MW is connected with NTDC system and 2,884MW is connected with KElectric system, it stated.

Walk DoWn the MeMory lane- Favorite ShoWS We WatcheD Back in the 90S Taking a trip down the memory lane is fun, soothing and beautiful particularly if you have lovely memories to reminisce. Some of my favorite memories from my childhood revolve around watching some great and even silly shows, cartoons and dramas with family. Today, I’d like to recall some of those shows and I’m sure you too will enjoy walking down the ‘television’ memory lane with me. By Sharoon Yasir

AINAK WALA JINN

vorites particularly because I loved picking up trash from roads and kept my house nice and tidy.

My siblings and I used to play Captain Planet a lot and my super power was always heart.

SCOOBY DOO

THE SMALL WONDER

This has to be my most favorite TV show as a kid. My siblings and I were glued to how Ainak wala jinn and Zakuta save the day every time Hamoon jadugar and Bilbatori do something nasty, and that epic ‘Zabinaa’ by Zakuta is unforgettable. I remember even having an audio cassette of the show that I used to listen for hours. Those were truly golden days.

ALPHA BRAVO CHARLIE

Among the few cartoons that I enjoyed back then was Scooby Doo. My favorite characters were Welma and Daphne, and Fred and Scooby never failed to amuse me. Now when I watch the same episodes with my son, I laugh, but back then the scare they brought about was legit.

HAQEEQAT I never really watched this drama properly, but I clearly remember it being the scariest Pakistani drama back in the days. Muqadas was the girl haunted by a demon and the scares she brought about during the show were quite real. I was forced by my friends to watch it and once I did, I kept staring at the wall of my bedroom for the entire night and just couldn’t sleep for days.

CAPTAIN PLANET

I still clearly remember this fun science based sitcom wherein a robotics engineer creates a robot to help out with household chores ‘Vicki’ who is perceived by all of their neighbors and friends as his daughter. I eagerly used to wait for its episodes and had an entertaining watching them with my sister.

CRYSTAL MAZE A few days back, I came across a video of this show and I fell in love with it all over again.

It was a mystery based reality show wherein a group of participants need to find crystals locked in different rooms by playing games to win exciting prizes. It kept me hooked to it for hours and after every episode, my sister and I used to create crystal mazes inside our house.

The largest known living organism is an aspen grove. Pando (Latin for "I spread out") is a group of genetically identical quaking aspens in Utah with an interconnected root system. It's an estimated 80,000 years old and takes up more than 100 acres.

Neil Armstrong didn't say "That's one small step for man." The astronaut insists he actually stated, "That's one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind." "That's the only way the statement makes any sense," Armstrong told biographer James Hansen. And for the record, no real astronaut ever uttered "Houston, we have a problem" — Tom Hanks only said that in the movie Apollo 13.

DHUAN

HOLLYWOOD BOLLYWOOD

I remember falling in love with this drama when I was around 9. The storyline was brilliant, the direction was excellent and the actors did a commendable job portraying the different roles.

I am sure you too laughed at the mischievous antics of Kashif and Gulsher, felt sad when Gulsher went missing and secretly prayed for him to return to his wife Shehnaz. This was one amazing show that is sure to live in our hearts for good.

Every time I listen to Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan’s ‘saya bhi sath jab chor jaye aisi hai tanhayi’, I can’t help but recall this classic drama from the 90’s. It was beautifully directed and touched a chord in all of our hearts. Even to this day, watching its episodes make me teary eyed.

Captain Planet was one of my absolute fa-

These were my top favorites from those days. What about yours? (www.scaryaami.com)

M&M stands for Mars and Murrie.

Forrest Mars (son of the Mars Company founder) first spotted the British confection Smarties during the Spanish Civil War and noticed the candy shell prevented the chocolate from melting. He teamed up with Bruce Murrie (son of Hershey Chocolate's president) and the company later trademarked the "Melts in Your Mouth, Not in Your Hand" slogan.

Hugh Jackman Rumored For Wolverine vs Hulk in MCU

Zoya Factor vs Prassthanam vs Pal Pal Dil Ke Paas. Who’ll win?

Sunny, Karisma allegedly delayed a train by 25 minutes while shooting

It is claimed that Hugh Jackman is wanted by Kevin Feige and Marvel for the rumored Wolverine vs Hulk movie. "It's Hugh Jackman's part to turn down," says TVO from the Lords of the Long Box YouTube channel. "They are leaving the door open for him." TVO does note that it is apparently up to Hugh Jackman to return, as the 50-year-old actor could always feel too old to do the role again.

It's also said to ignore any rumors about casting Wolverine in the MCU as everything is still in the early stages of development.

Further details that are new surrounding the Wolverine vs Hulk movie include that for some reason the Professor Hulk from Avengers: Endgame changes and becomes the Immortal Hulk from the comics and goes off to Canada where he is deemed a threat, so Alpha Flight responds by sending Weapon X (Wolverine).

As I previously said, this would be good news to me as I was really disappointed by the goofy Hulk from Avengers: Endgame, and the Immortal Hulk comic is awesome and currently one of my favorite comics to read (it's more mature and horror-oriented, almost R rated) and has even outsold Batman.

This Friday will witness a triple clash at the box office with The Zoya Factor, Prassthanam and Pal Pal Dil Ke Paas lined up for release. The three films are set to face a stiff competition from holdovers Dream Girl and Chhichhore, which continue to remain steady amid positive word of mouth.

Film trade analyst Girish Johar expects each of the three films to open at around Rs 1-1.50 crore. Talking about the clash, he said, “This week is really crowded. Dream Girl and Chhichhore are already doing well and then these three films releasing together. Hollywood film Rambo is also a decent release on the same day. How they will fare in their opening weekend depends on their content and word of mouth. But if they fail to impress, the two films (Dream Girl and Chhichhore) will dominate them at the box office.”

On being asked which of the new releases can dominate this weekend, Girish added, “All the three films cater to different target groups. Prassthanam is an action film and may cater to the masses.

The Zoya Factor is niche upmarket film and may mostly cater to the multiplex audience.

More than 20 years after Bollywood actor-turned-politician Sunny Deol and actress Karisma Kapoor allegedly pulled the emergency chain of a train while shooting for a film, the railway court has framed charges against them.

The duo challenged the order in a sessions court on Wednesday, A K Jain, counsel of Kapoor and Deol, said. The actors were accused of illegally pulling the chain of train 2413A Uplink Express, which led to its delay by 25 minutes. The counsel said the charges were initially read out against both the actors in 2009, which they challenged in a sessions court in April 2010. The session court exonerated both the actors, but on September 17, the railway court again framed the charges against the two, Jain said.

Besides Deol and Kapoor, stuntman Tinu Verma and Satish Shah were also accused in the case but they had not challenged the charges against them in the sessions court in 2010. The railway court has scheduled the next hearing in the 1997 case on September 24.

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Friday, 20 September, 2019

14 SPORTS

PSG thRASh ReAl In ChAMPIOnS leAGue OPeneR AS MAn CIty CRuISe Paris

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Agencies

ARIS Saint-Germain launched their latest quest for Champions League success with a statement win over Real Madrid on Wednesday, while a late Atletico Madrid comeback foiled Juventus as Manchester City eased to victory in Ukraine.

French giants PSG have failed to make their mark in Europe, crashing out of the Champions League in the last 16 each of the past three years despite the huge sums of money spent by their Qatari owners.

With Neymar suspended and Kylian Mbappe and Edinson Cavani sidelined by injury, Angel Di Maria stepped up in their absence by grabbing two first-half goals in a 3-0 triumph at the Parc des Princes.

Thomas Meunier added the third late on as Madrid, who beat PSG on the way to lifting the trophy in 2016 and 2018, were soundly beaten in their Group A opener with Eden Hazard kept quiet on his full debut. "There's no message sent, but we dominated this game very well," PSG captain Thiago Silva told RMC Sport. "We have to play like this all the time, in the league as well, with character and hunger."

Real, the 13-time European champions, are still favourites to advance from a section that includes Club Brugge and Galatasaray, who drew 0-0

in Belgium, but the nature of the loss underscored the work that lies ahead for coach Zinedine Zidane. "They were superior to us in everything they did, and in intensity, which annoys me the most," said the Frenchman.

Diego Simeone's Atletico clawed their way back from two goals down in the final 20 minutes to rescue a 2-2 draw at home to Juventus in Group D. The anticipated clash between Cristiano Ronaldo and Joao Felix, the teenager touted as the heir to Ronaldo's throne, took a backseat to a Atletico rousing comeback after second-half goals from Juan Cuadrado and Blaise Matuidi put Juve in control.

Stefan Savic nodded home from point-blank range to give Atletico hope and substitute Hector Herrera headed in a corner in the final minute to snatch a point. "I think we played well but we have a bitter taste in our mouth now because we felt we had the game in our hands," said Juventus boss Maurizio Sarri.

Both sides trail Lokomotiv Moscow following the Russians' 2-1 win at Bayer Leverkusen. Grzegorz Krychowiak and Dmitri Barinov scored for Lokomotiv either side of an own goal by former Germany defender Benedikt Hoewedes. Premier League champions City bounced back from defeat by Norwich at the weekend with a

I deserve more Ballon d'Or awards than Messi, says Ronaldo Turin: Juventus forward Cristiano Ronaldo said he deserves to end his soccer career with more Ballon d’Or awards than Barcelona counterpart Lionel Messi and hopes to establish himself as the greatest player of all time. Ronaldo, 34, has won the renowned France Football magazine trophy for the world’s best player five times - as many as Messi - but is eager for more as he moves into the twilight of his career. “Messi’s in the history of football,” Ronaldo told broadcaster Piers Morgan in an interview with Britain’s ITV on Tuesday. “But I think I have to have six or seven or eight to be above him,” he said, referring to the Ballon d’Or awards. “I’d love it; I think I deserve it.” The Portugal captain said he was no friend of the Argentine but credited his rival for helping push him further in his own career. “My relationship with him is, we are not friends, but we have shared this stage for 15 years,” Ronaldo said. “I know that he has pushed me to be a better player and I have pushed him to be a better player as well.” Agencies

comfortable 3-0 victory against Shakhtar Donetsk in Kharkiv.

Riyad Mahrez slammed home a rebound after Ilkay Gundogan hit the post, and the German international smacked in a second before Gabriel Jesus sealed the points on 76 minutes.

"When you win the manager makes the right decisions, when you lose the wrong decisions. We lost one game in eight months and we will not doubt who these players are. It is a joy to be their manager," coach Pep Guardiola told BT Sport. City are second to Dinamo Zagreb in Group C after the Croatian champions made it a night to forget for competition debutants Atalanta with a 4-0 rout.

Dinamo failed to score a single goal as they lost all six matches on their last group stage appearance in 2016-17.

However, Marin Leovac gave them a 10th-minute lead and Mislav Orsic bagged a hat-trick as Dinamo got off to a dream start ahead of a trip to City on October 2. Bayern Munich needed late goals from Robert Lewandowski and Thomas Mueller to make sure of victory against Red Star Belgrade in Group D. Kingsley Coman's bullet header gave Bayern a first-half lead but the German champions were forced to wait until the 80th minute before Lewandowski ended Red Star's threat.

Substitute Mueller volleyed in a third in stoppage time. Last year's finalists Tottenham blew a two-goal lead to draw 2-2 at Olympiakos.

Fight Mayweather or retire, Arum tells Pacquiao

New York Agencies

Veteran boxing promoter Bob Arum believes Manny Pacquiao should retire from the sport soon unless he can land a lucrative rematch with Floyd Mayweather.

Arum, who promoted Pacquiao during the Filipino icon's golden years, told the World Boxing News website he wanted to see the 40-year-old hang up his gloves soon. Pacquiao, who won a bruising 12-round battle with Keith Thurman to capture the WBA welterweight crown in July, has not scheduled his next fight.

But Arum said he believed Pacquiao, who turns 41

in December, would be risking lasting damage if he extends his career much further.

"Pacquiao, I promoted him for many, many years," Arum told World Boxing News.

"He's an exceptionally good human being, really a fine guy, extraordinarily charitable and a delight.

"But he's (almost) 41-years-old. And if you're 41 you can't take punishment. You can't take blows like he did in the Thurman fight.

"Sure, he won that fight – but he took a lot of punishment. That punishment is going to have a serious effect on how he lives the rest of is life."

Arum, who earlier this year said he feared Pacquiao risked brain damage before his fight with Thurman, said however the Filipino should consider a rematch with Mayweather. Mayweather, who is now retired, defeated Pacquiao in their 2015 "Fight of the Century" which largely failed to live up to the hype.

"If he gets Mayweather, do that fight and retire," said Arum. "If he doesn't get Mayweather he should retire. It's not worth it for him to continue boxing."

FIFA tells Iran it is time to allow women into stadiums ZuriCH: FIFA president Gianni Infantino has told Iran it is time to allow women into football stadiums and the global soccer body expects “positive developments”, starting with their next home match in October. While foreign women have been allowed limited access to matches, Iranian women have been banned from stadiums when men’s teams have been playing, since just after the 1979 Islamic revolution.

Infantino said in a FIFA statement he was hopeful that the Iranian football federation and government authorities had been receptive to “our repeated calls to address this unacceptable situation.” He added, “Our position is clear and firm. Women have to be allowed into football stadiums in Iran.

Now is the moment to change things and FIFA is expecting positive developments starting in the next Iran home match in October.” Iran, who have qualified for five World Cup finals, including each of the last two, host Cambodia on Oct. 10 in their first home game of the 2022 qualifying competition. This month, a female fan died after setting herself on fire to protest against her arrest for attending a match. Sahar Khodayari, dubbed “Blue Girl” for the colours of her favourite team Esteghlal, died in hospital after her self-immolation outside a court where she feared being jailed for six months, having attended the match in disguise as a man. Khodayari’s death has caused widespread outrage in Iran and internationally, prompting calls on social media for Iran’s football federation to be suspended or banned by FIFA. Critics say FIFA’s own statutes hold discrimination on grounds of gender punishable by suspension or expulsion. There were signs the situation regarding female fans in Iran was changing when a group of women was permitted to attend the second leg of the Asian Champions League final in Tehran last November, a match where Infantino was present. Female fans, however, have been denied access to matches since. At Iran’s friendly against Syria in June, women were locked out of the Azadi Stadium and detained by security forces. Infantino said a FIFA delegation was now in Iran. “I am looking forward to hearing good news from them,” he said. Agencies

'Jackass' Conte's Inter ready to kick back against AC Milan MilaN Agencies

Antonio Conte branded himself a 'jackass' for his tactical blunders which saw Inter Milan struggle to a draw in their European opener this week, but warned they would kick back into gear on Saturday against city rivals AC Milan.

Conte's side rescued a 1-1 draw against Czech outsiders Slavia Prague in the Champions League in the San Siro, and the former Chelsea manager said they should use that anger in their upcoming games against AC Milan and Lazio.

"I'm the biggest jackass," said Conte.

"I'm the one who's primarily responsible, both in terms of the selections made and because I obviously didn't make the lads understand what I wanted."

The former Juventus and Italy coach conceded his side could have been focusing too much on Saturday's game, as they look to stay top of Serie A. "Could be, but this is part of the growing process. I am

here to make them better players."

The Derby della Madonnina is always a fiery affair and Inter are unbeaten in their last six league games against arch rivals AC Milan.Inter have maximum points after three games and are two points ahead of Bologna and champions Juventus, with Napoli three points adrift in fourth.

AC Milan's focus this season is on Serie A after they lost their place in the Europa League for breaches in financial fair play rules. New coach Marco Giampaolo's side are seventh with two wins after their opening round defeat at Udinese. On Saturday, the two best defences in Serie A will face off in the San Siro, with both having only conceded one goal in the league this season.

Juventus host Verona after throwing away a two-goal lead to draw 2-2 at Atletico Madrid in their Champions League opener. It was the second consecutive stalemate for Maurizio Sarri's side who also dropped points last weekend in Fiorentina. "We need to improve in our aggressiveness and attention," said Sarri.

Carlo Ancelotti's Napoli travel south to promoted Lecce after punishing European holders Liverpool 2-0 in the San Paolo Stadium. It was a second match without conceding a goal after letting

CMYK

seven past in their first two games.

"We've been boosted by the improved fitness level of a number of players," said Ancelotti. "We've improved defensively in a short space of time."

But Ancelotti's side need to be wary of Lecce who shocked Torino 2-1 last Monday. Atalanta host Fiorentina after their Champions League baptism ended in a bruising 4-0 defeat at Dinamo Zagreb.

"These are games that teach you important lessons," said coach Gian Piero Gasperini.

"We can learn from it even in Serie A." Bologna, flying high in second despite the absence of their coach Sinisa Mihajlovic who is undergoing cancer treatment, face a tough visit from Roma, who earned their first win of the season last weekend. In-form Napoli forward Dries Mertens will be looking to find the net for the fourth game this season as he closes in on club legend Diego Maradona's mark of 115 goals for the southerners. The 32year-old Belgian international has scored three goals in two Serie A games and converted a penalty in the 2-0 win over Liverpool this week, to bring his tally to 113 -- two shy of Argentine Maradona's total from 1984 to 1991. Slovak Marek Hamsik leads both with 121.

Friday, 20 September, 2019

SPORTS 15

SRI lAnkA tOuR OF PAkIStAn tO GO AheAd AS PlAnned lahore

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Agencies

RI LANKA'S tour of Pakistan will go ahead after SLC confirmed that the Pakistan government had "reaffirmed" its desire to provide the Sri Lanka team with the same level of security afforded to visiting heads of state.

"The Pakistan High Commissioner to Sri Lanka, on behalf of the Pakistan Government, has reaffirmed to the Sri Lankan government Pakistan's desire to provide the Sri Lankan National Team with the same level of security as that provided to a head of state," SLC Secretary Mohan De Silva stated.

The tour had been thrown into serious doubt last week after a warning of a terror attack on the Sri Lankan team was received by the Sri Lankan Prime Minister's Office. Following this, SLC deferred any fresh security assessment to the Sri Lankan government.

The PCB, thereafter, engaged the Pakistan government, which wrote to the Sri Lankan government assuring head-of-state-level security to the

visiting team. It is understood that the Pakistan high commissioner to Sri Lanka was actively in touch with the Sri Lankan defence secretary as part of confidence-building.

It is also understood that there has been no change to the level of security from what was initially proposed, with the Sri Lankan government said to be satisfied with the arrangements already in place.

Before news of the possible terror threat emerged, SLC had been happy with its own security assessments, and had committed to the tour, announcing ODI and T20I squads shorn of ten prominent names who had refused to travel to Pakistan.

Through all the uncertainty, Pakistan have continued working towards their preparation for the series, naming 20 probables for the series, settling on their team-management group, and reaffirming their faith in their captain Sarfaraz Ahmed. The PCB had

PCB AnnOunCeS tICket PRICeS Lahore: The interest and convenience of families and general public was the focus for the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) which on Wednesday announced ticket prices for the upcoming ODI and T20I series between Pakistan and Sri Lanka,, starting on 27 September. The online sale of tickets will commence from 20 September and cricket fans can buy these online from www.yayvo.com,, while select outlets of TCS (list attached) will commence sales a day later,, on 21 September. For the Karachi 27 and 29 September and 2 October ODIs,, the PCB has retained the same price as HBL PSL 2019 playoff matches,, ranging from PKR500 to PKR3000,, said a spokesman of the PCB here. APP

Zimbabwe aim to make it a memorable farewell for Hamilton Masakadza sPorts desk This game is the first of two dead rubbers in this tri-series, but try telling that to Hamilton Masakadza. This will be his last international match and, having contributed for so long to Zimbabwe cricket, a win over a side that has totally dominated them in T20Is will make for a sweet exit.

Afghanistan, on the other hand, will once again rely on their heavy hitters and their spin attack to stop Zimbabwe, a formula that has worked on each of the eight occasions the teams have met in this format. In this series, Asghar Afghan, Najibullah Zadran and Mohammad Nabi have scored most of the runs but Afghanistan will also hope to see Hazratullah Zazai recover from a batting slump. Rahmanullah Gurbaz, who impressed on his debut earlier in the tri-series, would look to bounce back from the first-ball duck in the second game.

Among their bowlers, Mujeeb Ur Rahman stopped Bangladesh in their tracks with his maiden four-wicket haul in the previous game, also his T20I best. Fareed Ahmad, the left-arm

quick, also looked impressive, although medium-pacer Karim Janat hasn't been among the wickets.

Zimbabwe haven't had as many impressive individual performances.

Richmond Mutumbami did justice to his call-up against Bangladesh on Wednesday with a half-century but his efforts did not have an impact on the result. Ryan Burl, who made a quickfire fifty in the first game against Bangladesh, has struggled for consistency, as has Regis Chakabva. And the side's senior batsmen, including Masakadza, haven't scored enough to put pressure on the opposition.

They have some variety in their bowling attack but apart from Kyle Jarvis, the others haven't quite stepped up. Neville Madziva, Ainsley Ndlovu and Sean Williams will look to do a better job with the ball.

Like his team, Hamilton Masakadza, too, has had a rough time in the tournament, scoring only 62 in three innings so far. In his final match, a big knock from the Zimbabwe captain could well have a big impact on the morale of the side.

With two matches to go before the

also issued visa supporting letters for the Sri Lankan players' and officials. Arrangements at the stadiums have also been beefed up, and tickets for the matches will go up for sale starting tonight.

The PCB had refused to shift the series to a neutral venue, with chairman Ehsan Mani reiterating his confidence in Pakistan hosting Sri Lanka later this month.

With this series going ahead, Pakistan will be hosting their longest bilateral series in a decade. The National Stadium in Karachi will host the ODIs, while the T20Is will be held at the Gaddafi Stadium in Lahore. These will be the first ODIs to take place in Pakistan since Zimbabwe toured for a three-match ODI series in 2015; all the international cricket here since the 2017 PSL final has been in the form of T20Is.

CA chief Kevin Roberts cautious but hopeful over future Pakistan tours

final, this would be the right time for Hazratullah Zazai to get back among the runs. The opener hasn't scored a fifty in his last 14 international innings, after his 67 against Ireland in March this year.

Having played their first two matches in the series with an unchanged XI, Afghanistan now have the luxury of two matches to test out their bench strength. Fast bowlers Dawlat Zadran and Naveen-ul-Haq, seaming allrounder Fazal Niazai and wicketkeeper Shafiqullah and left-arm spinner Shahidullah and Sharafuddin Ashraf are their options should they rest a few key players.

Richmond Mutumbami's fifty should keep him in the side but Zimbabwe might consider recalling quick bowler Tendai Chatara and allrounder Tony Munyonga to bolster the bowling.

PiTCH AnD COnDiTiOnS In the match between Bangladesh and Zimbabwe, the Zahur Ahmed Chowdhury pitch offered runs to batsmen, who were ready to take time to assess the situation. There's chance of a late shower on Friday evening.

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BrisBaNe Agencies

Kevin Roberts, the Cricket Australia chief executive, remains cautious about the prospect of Australia resuming tours to Pakistan but said "things are heading in the right direction" following a brief visit to the country this week.

Australia haven't played in Pakistan since 1998 (although current Test captain Tim Paine was part of the World XI which travelled for T20Is in 2017) and are not scheduled to visit again until 2022 as per the Future Tours Programme.

ESPNcricinfo reported in May that Roberts' trip - the first by a CA chief executive in more than ten years - was due to take place and he said he was keen to visit the country well ahead of Australia's next potential tour but reiterated that CA would never take any risks with the safety of their players and staff. Roberts visited Islamabad where he met with the PCB and Ministry of Interior officials to be briefed on the latest security situation. "Things are heading in the right direction, but in saying that we were travelling in armoured cars and escorted by police and felt very safe. Certainly, that level of security is still required," he told SEN radio.

"I hope we do [go back], for the sake of world cricket and Australia's important relationship with Pakistan. As I said to Pakistan, we share their desire to see international return, [but] we'll never jeopardise the safety

of our people and will continue to take advice from experts on the way.

"We've got the next couple of years to hopefully plan for a tour in 2022 but we have to set that out carefully rather than rushing into it." Roberts was accompanied on the trip

by CA's head of integrity and security Sean Carroll and he will now put together a report on the visit with proposals of what has to happen next to give the 2022 tour a chance of taking place in Pakistan.

"It's really good that's the cricket world is opening its hearts and minds to the role of Pakistan and looking proactively and what it will take to return international cricket," Roberts said. "There are parts of the country that are unfortunately very unsafe but there are parts where I think a number of countries would contemplate playing in the future when Pakistan are ready."

Pakistan did not host international cricket for six years after the terror attack on the Sri Lanka team bus in 2009. Zimbabwe were the first country to return in 2015 since when Bangladesh women, a World XI, Sri Lanka and both West Indies' men and women have made brief trips.

The most significant tour since 2009 is due to start later this month when Sri Lanka visit for three ODIs and three T20Is - split between Karachi and Lahore - although a host of their leading names have made themselves unavailable for the trip. CA chairman Earl Eddings is due to attend one of the T20Is in early October.

Friday, 20 September, 2019

NEWS

imran meeTs sauDi royals To Discuss kashmir lockDown IMRAN MEETS PAKISTANI COMMUNITY IN KSA, SAYS PM ASSURES SAUDIS OF SUPPORT AFTER DRONE STRIKES ON SAUDI OIL INSTALLATIONS HE WILL UNDERSCORE KASHMIRIS’ WOES AT UNGA ISLAMABAD

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STAFF REPORT

AKISTAN Prime Minister Imran Khan on Thursday separately called on Saudi King Salman Bin Abdul Aziz and Crown Prince Mohammad Bin Salman to discuss “grave situation” in Indian occupied Kashmir in the wake of the abrogation of its special status, leading to escalated tensions between two neighbouring countries.

According to a statement issued by the Prime Minister’s Office, the PM, who is on a two-day visit to the Kingdom, apprised the crown prince of the latest developments in Kashmir and also expressed solidarity with the prince over drone strikes on Saudi oil installations.

The strikes were said to involve at least 20 drones and several cruise missiles and forced Saudi Arabia to shut down half its oil production capacity, or 5.7 million barrels per day of crude — 5% of the world’s global daily oil production.

The leadership of both countries also discussed ways to strengthen economic ties between Pakistan and Saudi Arabia, the PMO statement said.

The visit to the Kingdom came after Saudi Minister of State for For-

eign Affairs Adel Ahmed Al Jubeir visited Islamabad as a result of direct telephone calls by the premier to the crown princes of the two countries.

The PM has been in “regular contact” with the Saudi crown prince over the Kashmir issue, part of his efforts to highlight Kashmir issue internationally.

He will also underscore the Kashmir crackdown at the United National General Assembly (UNGA) platform during his visit to New York by the end of this month. The meeting was attended by Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi, Special Assistant to the Prime

Minister on Overseas Pakistanis Syed Zulfikar Bukhari, Foreign Secretary Sohail Mehmood, and Pakistan’s ambassador to Saudi Arabia Raja Ali Ejaz.

In an address to the Pakistani community, Prime Minister Imran Khan said the people of Kashmir were passing through a critical situation and that he would raise the issue “forcefully” at the upcoming United Nations General Assembly session in New York.

The prime minister said Kashmir has become an international issue and the entire world has “accepted Pakistani narrative” on the issue, said a

statement issued by the PM Office here said. The prime minister said Pakistan’s founder Muhammad Ali Jinnah perceived that the Muslims in India would not get their rights and that was why he opted for an independent country for the Muslims of sub-continent.

He said the Kashmir had become a global issue and the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) had also supported Pakistan’s stance on Kashmir dispute. The prime minister informed the overseas Pakistani community that the government inherited a debt-ridden economy, but it was working on reforms to fix the economy.

KASHMIR LOCKDOWN: The Indian government has continued the shutdown of internet and mobile phone services, while simultaneously banning public meetings and imposing restrictions on freedom of movement since August 5.

HRW’s latest report, India: Free Kashmiris Arbitrarily Detained, documents the detention of over 4,000 Kashmiris, including politicians, activists, separatist leaders, lawyers, and journalists, who have been held in detention camps since Aug 5.

Approximately 400 elected officials and political leaders, as well as former chief ministers of Jammu and Kashmir belonging to the National Conference and the Jammu and Kashmir People’s Democratic Party have also been detained.

Iran warns against war as US and Saudi weigh response to oil attack DUBAI/JEDDAH AGENCIES

Iran warned U.S. President Donald Trump on Thursday against being dragged into all-out war in the Middle East following an attack on Saudi Arabian oil facilities which Washington and Riyadh blame on Tehran. US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has described the weekend strike that initially halved Saudi oil output as an act of war and has been discussing possible retaliation with Saudi Arabia and other Gulf allies.

Trump on Wednesday struck a cautious note, saying there were many options short of war with Iran, which denies involvement in the Sept. 14 strikes. He ordered more sanctions on Tehran. Iran’s foreign minister responded by telling CNN that the Islamic Republic “won’t blink” if it has to defend itself against any U.S. or Saudi military strike, which he said would lead to “all-out war”.

Mohammed Javad Zarif said Pompeo was part of a so-called “B-team”, which Tehran says includes Saudi Arabia’s crown prince and is trying to dupe Trump into opting for war. Pompeo said on Wednesday the attack was an act of war against the Saudis. Riyadh, which called the assault a “test of global will”, on Wednesday displayed what it described as remnants of 25 Iranian drones and missiles used in the strike, saying

it was undeniable evidence of Iranian aggression.

BUILDING A COALITION: The United Arab Emirates on Thursday followed its ally Saudi Arabia in announcing it was joining a global maritime security coalition that Washington has been trying to build since a series of explosions on oil tankers in Gulf waters in recent months that were also blamed on Tehran.

Pompeo, who arrived in the UAE from Saudi Arabia on Thursday, welcomed the move on Twitter: “Recent events underscore the importance of protecting global commerce and freedom of navigation.”

Britain and Bahrain previously said they are participating but most European countries have been reluctant to sign up for fear of stoking regional tensions. Iraq said it would not join the mission, and also rejected any Israeli role in it. Yemen’s Iranaligned Houthi movement, which is battling a Saudiled military coalition, claimed responsibility for the assault on two Saudi oil plants, including the world’s largest processing facility. U.S. and Saudi officials rejected the claim, saying the attack had not come from the south.

Kuwait, which said earlier this week it was investigating the detection of a drone over its territory, has put its oil sector on high alert and raised security to the highest level as a precautionary measure.

Oil prices, which soared following the attack, steadied after Saudi Arabia pledged to restore full oil

production by the end of September.

UN MEETING IN FOCUS: Proof of Iranian responsibility, and evidence that the attack was launched from Iranian territory, could pressure Riyadh and Washington, which want to curb Iranian influence in the region, into a response.

Pompeo said the attacks would be a major focus of next week’s annual U.N. General Assembly meeting and suggested Riyadh could make its case there.

Iran’s Zarif accused Pompeo of trying to “dodge a U.S. obligation” to issue visas for Iran’s U.N. delegates. Tehran says the U.S. accusations were part of Washington’s “maximum pressure” policy on Iran to force it to renegotiate a 2015 nuclear deal with world powers, which Trump exited last year, reimposing sanctions to choke off Iran’s oil exports.

Tehran, which has gradually scaled back its nuclear commitments, has rejected any talks unless sanctions are lifted. “The United States is now using oil as a weapon; oil is not a weapon,” Iranian Oil Minister Bijan Zangeneh said. France, which is trying to salvage the deal, said the New York gathering presented a chance to de-escalate tensions.

“When missiles hit another country it is an act of war, but we have to go back to the principle of de-escalation,” French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said. “There is an international investigation, let’s wait for its results.”

UN chief calls for Indo-Pak dialogue to resolve Kashmir crisis NEW YORK AGENCIES

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Wednesday underscored the need for respecting human rights in Indian occupied Kashmir and urged India and Pakistan to find a solution to the grave crisis through dialogue. Indian occupied Kashmir has been under lockdown since August 5 after the Narendra Modi-led government revoked the special status of the valley. Responding to a question during a press conference marking the start of the General Assembly’s 74th session, Guterres said he would continue to advocate for the peaceful settlement of the decades-old Kashmir dispute. “The position of the United Nations on this region is governed by the [UN] Charter and applicable Security Council resolutions,” the UN chief said in his statement. When that the Kashmiris continue to suffer under the military lockdown and there has been no change in the situation and no movement towards an India-Pakistan dialogue and how he intended to bring it about, Guterres said his capacity for helping resolve the situation is “related to good offices and good office can only be implemented when the parties accept it.” “And on the other hand,” Guterres said, “it relates to advocacy. Advocacy was expressed and will be maintained.”

Dozens killeD as kabul, Taliban sTep up aTTacks KABUL: At least 50 Afghan civilians have been killed in separate incidents, as the West-backed Kabul government and Taliban fighters have stepped up attacks since a peace deal between the armed group and the US collapsed earlier this month, Al Jazeera reported on Thursday. A US-backed air raid conducted by the Afghan security forces accidentally hit farmland in Nangarhar province killing about 30 civilians and injuring 40 others, while at least 20 people were killed in Zabul province in a suicide car bomb claimed by the Taliban group. Afghan officials said the drone attack on Wednesday night was aimed at destroying a hideout used by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL, also known as ISIS) group fighters, but it accidentally targeted farmers near a field in Wazir Tangi area of Khogyani district in Nangarhar province. Sohrab Qaderi, a provincial council member in Nangarhar said a drone strike killed 30 workers in a pine nut field and at least 40 others were injured. The defence ministry in Kabul confirmed the strike but refused to share casualty details immediately. Attaullah Khogyani, a spokesman for the provincial governor of Nangarhar confirmed the air strike. AGENCIES

Lockdown in occupied Kashmir puts economy in tailspin SRINAGAR AGENCIES

In one of the world’s largest apple growing regions, a lockdown imposed more than 40 days ago, after Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi dramatically abolished occupied Kashmir’s special constitutional status, has cut transport links with buyers in India and abroad, plunging the industry into turmoil.

Modi sold the move as a way to spur growth by integrating Jammu and Kashmir with the rest of India. But, for now, the unrest that has come in the wake of his government’s action has upended the economy, say, fruit growers and traders, further fuelling resentment in the Muslim-majority territory where a struggle against Indian rule has ebbed and flowed over 30 years.

Despite being harvest time, the market in the northern Kashmiri town of Sopore — usually packed with people, trucks and produce at this time of year — is empty, while in orchards across occupied Jammu and Kashmir unpicked

apples rot on the branch.

At dawn late last week, the market in Sopore, a town known locally as “Little London” for its lush orchards, big houses and relative affluence, was deserted, its gates locked. “Everyone is scared,” a lone trader, rushing to an adjoining mosque for morning prayers, told Reuters. “No one will come.”

Apples are the lifeblood of occupied Kashmir’s economy, involving 3.5 million people, around half the population.

In a surprise move on August 5, just as the harvest season was starting, the government abrogated provisions in India’s constitution that gave Jammu and Kashmir partial autonomy and stipulated only residents could buy property or hold government jobs. Strict movement restrictions were imposed simultaneously, and mobile, telephone, and internet connections snapped.

The government said the immediate priority was to prevent an eruption of violence in occupied Kashmir, where more than 40,000 people have been killed since 1989. It claimed that curbs are slowly

being eased, including the opening up of landline phones.

BUSINESSES REELING: Business people who spoke to Reuters say it is not just the fruit industry that is reeling — two other key sectors of occupied Kashmir’s economy, tourism and handicrafts, have also been hit hard.

Shameem Ahmed, a travel agent who owns a houseboat in the summer capital Srinagar, said this year’s tourist season was completely wiped out.

“August was peak season, and we had bookings up to October,” he said. “It will take a long time to revive, and we don’t know what will happen next.” The near-

complete lack of tourists has also hit carpet traders, such as Shoukat Ahmed.

“When there are no tourists, there are no sales,” he said. “We are also unable to sell across India because communication is down.”

‘IT’S HOPELESS’: The latest bout of instability has been devastating to the likes of Manzoor Kolu, who runs a five-roomed houseboat on Srinagar’s mirror-calm Dal lake, framed by snowclad mountains.

Days before August 5, Kolu said police had come asking him to move tourists out of the property, fearing unrest.

“They told me that if anything happens, I would be responsible,” he said.

His four guests, all Indian tourists, left shortly after. No guest has come since.

“Now we have to wait until next April. It’s hopeless,” he said, sitting inside the living room of the 35-year-old boat, packed with intricately carved wooden furniture and traditional Kashmiri carpets. “So many times, I’ve thought of selling, but this is my father’s whole life’s achievement.”

Published by Arif Nizami at Plot No 66-C, 1st Floor, 21st Commercial Street, Phase-II (Extension), DHA Karachi and printed at Ibn-e-Hassan Printing Press, Hockey Stadium, Karachi. Ph: 021-35381208-9. Email: newsroom@pakistantoday.com.pk

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