E paper pdf 24 may (khi)

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Thursday, 24 May, 2018 I Ramzan 8, 1439 I Rs 17.00 I Vol VIII No 326 I 20 Pages I Karachi Edition

being punished for going after mush, nawaz insists g

Prayer tiMings Fajar : Dhuhur : asr : maghrib : isha :

04:19am 01:30pm 05:10pm 07:14pm 08:58pm

dEPOsEd PM sAys wAs wARNEd iN AdvANCE Of huRdlEs if hE PROCEEdEd with high tREAsON CAsE AgAiNst fORMER MilitARy diCtAtOR

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ClAiMs hE wAs ‘sAddENEd’ AftER sPy ChiEf ‘AdvisEd’ hiM tO REsigN OR gO ON A lONg lEAvE duRiNg 2014 Pti-PAt sit-iN PROtEsts

Khursheed Shah says parliamentary committee likely to decide caretaker PM g

NA OPP lEAdER sAys PM hAs NO AuthORity tO REjECt OPPOsitiON’s NOMiNEEs fOR CAREtAkER PM

Pakistan witnesses 23% increase in voters since 2013, reveals ECP STORIES ON PAGES 02 & 03

more inside stories

Bullet in body reminder of need to remove seeds of hatred, says Ahsan Iqbal STORY ON PAGE 03

President’s salary raised from Rs80,000 to Rs846,550 STORY ON PAGE 04

Indus Water Treaty: WB vows to resolve issues in ‘amicable manner’ STORY ON PAGE 11

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STAFF REPORT

ElEAguEREd Pakistan Muslim league-Nawaz (PMl-N) leader Nawaz sharif on wednesday claimed that corruption references were framed against him as a punishment for his unwavering stance on civil supremacy — and particularly for filing a high treason case against former military dictator, general (r) Pervez Musharraf.

Making his submission in the accountability court hearing corruption references against him and his children, the deposed prime minister alleged that the cases against him were drafted after he refused to endorse the 2007 martial law imposed

by Musharraf and instead filed a treason case against the former military strongman.

Nawaz was responding to a 29-page questionnaire handed to him by the accountability court in the Avenfield reference, which is one of the three cases filed against the former prime minister by the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) last year on the supreme Court’s directives.

Referring to deteriorating civil-military relations, Nawaz began his answer by referring to the coup in 1999 which led to his ouster

by Musharraf.

“On October 12, 1999, a general named Pervez Musharraf captured power by betraying the Constitution. the judges who welcome dictators in every era came forward to welcome him. Eight years later, on Nov 3, 2007, he [Musharraf] broke the constitution again in the name of emer-

gency, he put a martial law, holding 60 judges including the then chief justice captive in their homes,” he maintained.

“As a democratic party, the PMl-N took a clear stance against Musharraf’s acts. keeping this stance, we clearly stated during the election campaign for the 2013 elections that Musharraf will be tried for high treason, under Article 6 of the Constitution, if the PMl-N formed a government.” he continued that after the PMl-N formed its government in 2013, it initiated making contacts with legal experts on the case. “i was advised to let go of this decision.

Messages were delivered that nothing would happen to him [Musharraf] because of the cases but a lot of difficulties would be created for me. ignoring these suggestionlike-threats, i remained steadfast in my aims,” he added.

‘NO COMPROMISE ON CIVILIAN SUPREMACY’: “PPP chief Asif Zardari, along with a prominent political personality, approached me and suggested we legitimise the 2007 martial law imposed by Musharraf towards the end of his tenure, through parliament. he explained to me that such compromises are imperative for stability, but i told him that for the last 65 years we have been making such compromises, and that time has now past,” the former premier said. “when the proceedings started against Musharraf, i realised that it would be hard to get the former dictator convicted,” he said, adding that “all the weapons are made for politicians”. “when Musharraf left for the court in 2014, he directly went to the hospital as it

was decided from before. Musharraf pretended to be sick and avoided the case hearings,” Nawaz said, adding the judges failed to send Musharraf behind bars for even an hour. the former PM claimed that it was no longer a secret how the plan for the 2014 islamabad sit-in was made, who supported the protesters for four months, and who made them call for his resignation as prime minister over alleged rigging in the 2013 election.

Pti Chairman imran khan “himself spoke of the umpire’s finger being raised”, Nawaz said. “who was the umpire?” he asked.

“Before the filing of the treason case, i had met imran khan at Bani gala and he never demanded my resignation. But surprisingly after Musharraf was booked, he met tahirul Qadri in london where they decided to stage a sit-in against my government.”

‘RESIGN OR GO ON LONG LEAVE’: the PMl-N supreme leader alleged that the purpose of the 2014 sit-in was to remove him from power so that a treason case against Musharraf could be dropped. “during those days, an intelligence chief had sent a message to me that i should resign or go on a long leave,” he said, adding that it was very saddening. “the purpose behind my attempted ouster was that it would not be difficult to wrap up the case against Musharraf if i had been removed,” he alleged. the PMl-N leader praised the armed forces’ sacrifices and pointed out that he had increased the defence budget and also refused $5 billion offered by the united states to not conduct the nuclear test in the 90s.

CONTINUED ON PAGE 03

related stories on pages 03 & 10

Opp leaders reject Nawaz’s allegations, demand probe My ouster affected Pakistan’s progress, says Nawaz

Arrests can only be made if sufficient evidence exists, rules SC

fiqah-e-hanfia lahore sehr: 3:25 aM iftar: 6:59 PM

islaMabad sehr: 3:22 aM iftar: 7:09 PM

fiqah-e-jafaria karachi sehr: 4:17 aM iftar: 7:14 PM

lahore sehr: 3:15 aM iftar: 7:09 PM

islaMabad sehr: 3:12 aM iftar: 7:19 PM

karachi sehr: 4:07 aM iftar: 7:24 PM

NAB turns its guns towards Multan Metro Bus project STORY ON PAGE 02

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STORY ON PAGE 10

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02 NEWS

Thursday, 24 May, 2018

arreSTS CaN oNLy be Made IF SuFFICIeNT evIdeNCe exISTS, ruLeS SC APEX COUTRT BARS POLICE FROM REGISTERING MULTIPLE FIRS IN A CASE ISLAMABAD

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STAFF REPORT

HE Supreme Court (SC) on Wednesday ruled that no person can be arrested immediately after he is named in a first information report (FIR) unless sufficient material or evidence exists of his crime.

This was ruled by a seven-member larger bench of the court, headed by Justice Khosa, hearing a case. The court passed the orders in connection with an application filed with the Human Rights

Cell of the apex court. The top court said that no person is to be arrested straightaway only because he has been nominated as an accused person in an FIR or in any other version of the incident brought to the notice of the investigating officer by any person until the investigating officer feels satisfied that sufficient justification exists for his arrest.

For such justification, he is to be guided by the relevant provisions of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1898 and the Police Rules, 1934. The court also declared that multiple FIRs cannot be registered in any case. “There is no

ground for another FIR after lodging the first FIR in a case,” read the verdict.

Instead of lodging a new FIR, the investigation officer of a case should record the statement of the relevant person if a new angle surfaces during a probe into a case, the court verdict read.

The apex court said in its verdict that it is an obligation for an investigation officer to investigate all aspects of a case.

The officer is responsible for highlighting the truth. The purpose of filing a case is to unveil the truth and catch the guilty people. A challan should be submitted to a trial court after completion

Pakistan witnesses 23 per cent increase in registered voters ISLAMABAD STAFF REPORT

The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) on Wednesday published the final electoral rolls ahead of recent polls, showing a 23 per cent increase in the total number of voters as compared to the 2013 elections when the total number of voters stood at 86.19 million.

According to the rolls, 105.96 million voters will be able to cast their vote in the upcoming elections. Of these, 59.22 million are male and 46.73 million are females, with the gender gap between male and female rising to around 12.5 million.

According to the figures, 55.9 per cent of

the registered voters in Pakistan are males while only 44.1 per cent are females.

Punjab tops the list with the largest number of voters with a total of 60.67 million voters (23 per cent increase from 2013), of which 33.68 million are male and 26.99 million are female. A total of 22.39 million voters, an 18 per cent increase over 2013, are registered in Sindh, according to the figures proved by the ECP, of which 12.44 million are male and 9.95 million are female. Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, the third largest province of the country, is home to 15.32 million registered voters – 25 per cent higher than 2013 – including 8.71 million male and 6.61 million female voters. Balochistan

has a total of 4.3 million registered voters — 29 per cent more than 2013 — including 2.49 million male and 1.81 million female voters. In the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA), 2.51 million voters would be able to exercise their right of voting while 0.77 million were registered with the ECP from the capital territory. The publishing of electoral rolls comes as the commission awaits president’s final decision on the exact dates of the elections and a name for the caretaker prime minister.

ECP on Monday proposed July 25-27 as possible dates for the upcoming elections and forwarded a summary in this regard to President Mamnoon Hussain,

of investigations into the case. The court decided and directed the authorities to send copies of the ruling to all police chiefs. The bench also directed all inspector generals to ensure implementation of the verdict in letter and spirit.

The human rights application was filed by a petitioner Sugran Bibi who had approached Chief Justice Saqib Nisar’s car in Lahore, seeking the top court to listen to her plea. According to her statement, her only son was killed in a “fake encounter” with police when she refused to hand over her home to Azam Butt and his accomplices. Later, Azam Butt got her implicated in a kidnapping for ransom case and she had to serve a 10-month jail term.

TOTAL NUMBER OF VOTERS INCREASE TO 105.96MN AS COMPARED TO 86.19MN IN 2013

requesting him to set one of the proposed dates as the day of the polls according to Elections Act 2017, Section 57(1).

SC reFuSeS To aLLoW More TIMe To TaLLaL For PreSeNTINg More WITNeSSeS ISLAMABAD STAFF REPORT

The Supreme Court (SC) on Wednesday rejected Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) leader Tallal Chaudhry’s request seeking time to produce more witnesses in the hearing of the contempt case against him. The defendant’s counsel presented a list of 17 witnesses and sought time to summon and record statements, during the hearing of a case pertaining to contemptuous statements made by Chaudhry during a rally in January. Justice Gulzar Ahmed, while turning down the plea, observed the trial cannot be stretched further.

“It is impossible to get hold of all witnesses on a short notice. Some are scared to appear before the court to record their statement,” said Chaudhry’s lawyer. Justice Ahmed asked why so many witnesses were needed. “Your witness list includes parliamentarians and lawmakers, what will they do by recording their statement?” he said that there was a possibility of the witnesses backtracking their statements.

The SC turned down the request to grant one week’s time and adjourned the hearing until May 24. On March 15, a three-judge bench of the SC indicted Tallal on contempt of court charges.

PM suggests formation of commission to investigate past political landscape ISLAMABAD APP

Workers party’s greatest asset: Zardari LAHORE: Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) President Asif Ali Zardari on Wednesday said that the party workers were the real asset of PPP and “anti-Bhutto elements” faced defeat every time owing to the workers’ passion. Talking to a delegation led by Tasnim Qureshi, which called on him at Bilawal House Lahore on Wednesday, Asif Ali Zardari said that PPP would reclaim Punjab with the help of these workers in the upcoming elections and everyone would see the workers of the party succeed. He said that anti-PPP elements had nothing except hollow slogans and false promises. “PTI did nothing for KP and similarly PML-N failed to provide jobs to the youth and relief to the people of Punjab. PPP will provide jobs and other reliefs according to the manifesto of the party,” he added. Zardari said that whenever PPP came to power, it increased the salaries of government employees and looked after the peasants of the country. “Every citizen, from labourers to the growers and from government employees to traders, benefits from PPP’s government,” he maintained. The PPP leader further said that with the help of Allah, the hard days for the honest hardworking Pakistanis were about to end.

Separately, Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari called on the party leaders and workers to put in all their efforts in the upcoming general elections and play their role in strengthening the party. Speaking to various delegations of party leaders and workers, which called on him at Zardari House in Islamabad on Wednesday, Bilawal said that unlike other political parties, PPP supported the masses.

Those who called on the PPP chairman included MNA from FATA Sajid Hussain Toori, MPA Ziaullah Afridi, Nawab Mohsin Ali Khan and PPP representatives from Mandi Bahauddin while Opposition Leader in National Assembly Khursheed Ahmed Shah and Faisal Karim Kundi were also present on the occasion. He said that PPP had done a lot for FATA reforms and Asif Ali Zardari finalised the merger of FATA with KP. He asked workers from Mandi Bahauddin to work very hard for success in the general elections. STAFF REPORT

Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi Wednesday floated the idea of formation of a Truth and Reconciliation Commission with consensus of all the political parties, so that the facts shaping major events in the annals of history could be exposed.

In a TV programme aired by a private news channel, the prime minister said that the objective of formation of such a commission would not be to persecute anyone, or to award the punishment, but at least the facts behind the major events could be unfolded before the people. The prime minister said whatever happened during Pakistan Tahreek-e-Insaf’s sit-in should also be brought before the public. “All this can be possible through formation of a Commission with consensus in the parliament as it was practiced worldwide,” he added.

To another question, the prime minister said all the institutions in the country should work under their constitutional domains. All the institutions including judiciary and National Accountability Bureau should give consideration whether with their acts, they were hampering the functioning of the government, he added.

About the consensus nominee to run affairs of the government during the caretaker set up, the prime minister expressed the hope that the issue could be resolved by Thursday. “If there is no consensus, then the issue will go to the parliamentary parties committee for consideration. The last forum to address the issue is Election Commission of Pakistan,” he added.

He reiterated that elections would be held on time. “The country can no longer afford ploys of entering through backdoors,” he emphasized.

He maintained that any delay caused in the holding of elections would amount to constitutional violation.

The prime minister further elaborated about the commission that he was in favour of sifting through the history of last seventy years and would support whoever would be in the government. He also cautioned to learn from the bitter lessons of the past and insisted on finding solutions to all issues under the constitution.

“The Constitution is supreme and gives us power to run affairs of the country. I have to perform under the constitution and ensure supremacy of the parliament,” he added. The prime minister to a query regretted that judicial activism and NAB had paralyzed the functioning of the government and he had brought such issue on the floor of the House. He said it was his opinion that the judicial activism and the NAB’s actions were causing immense loss to the country. Under such conditions, the government functionaries were not performing due to lingering fear of being dragged in the courts, he said. He insisted that all the institutions should focus on their responsibilities and avoid interfering into the domains of others. The chief executive was accountable if it did not perform well, he added. About merger of Federally Administered Tribal Areas

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(FATA) , the prime minister said efforts were being afoot with all the political parties on board.

The prime minister said the tribal areas would retain their national assembly seats whereas delimitation for the provincial assembly seats would be done after one year. About PMLN legislators leaving the party, the prime minister said that he respected their political decisions, but he never saw such people earning respect in the past. He said the PML-N had strong candidates to contest the general election and win. To another question, he said Nawaz Sharif’s interview with daily The Dawn was quoted out of the context and distorted by the Indian media.

His statement was misreported outside the court and the newspaper created a wrong impression, the prime minister said, adding Nawaz Sharif’s stance was consistent with Pakistan’s foreign policy. He never said that people were sent to attack Mumbai. “I have great respect for the media but it spread Indian propaganda without consideration. Such things were not in national interest.

There ought to be responsibility over such issues. He also maintained that Nawaz Sharif did not violate sanctity of his oath as he had his narrative enshrined under the constitutional provisions. The prime minister also termed the Panama issue as ‘mere a political case’. He said in the instant case, the justice was not seen to have been done. From 1999, cite any National Accountability Bureau case in which at least two hearings were held, he questioned. The prime minister maintained that the Avenfield apartments were not owned by Nawaz Sharif. Whoever claimed their ownership should be summoned and questioned, he added.

Five PML-N MPs defect to PTI NEWS DESK Five members of the Pakistan Muslim LeagueNawaz (PML-N) defected to Pakistan Tehreek-eInsaf (PTI) on Wednesday in a yet another setback to the ruling party.The defecting members include MNA and Federal Parliamentary Secretary for Interior Dr Afzal Khan Dhandla, MPA Malik Ghazanfar Cheena, and MPA Amir Inayat Shahani.

Later on, Narowal MNA Mian Rasheed and MPA Awais Qasim also joined PTI.Last week, a sitting lawmaker of the ruling PML-N had defected to the PTI, along with two former legislators.PML-N member of the National Assembly Jaffar Leghari announced joining the PTI at a meeting with Imran Khan in Lahore.Former MNA Dr Meena Leghari and ex-senator Mohsin Leghari followed MNA Jafar Laghari in joining the PTI. In April, eight lawmakers announced quitting the ruling PML-N and later joined the PTI.Those deserting the ruling party included 6 MNAs and 2 MPAs, who announced to launch of a mass movement for making southern Punjab a separate province. Of late, PML-N has suffered a number of defections, mostly to rival PTI.

CMYK Thursday, 24 May, 2018

NEWS

Shah SayS ParLIaMeNTary body LIkeLy To deCIde CareTaker PM NA OPP LEADER SAYS PM HAS NO AUTHORITY TO REJECT OPPOSITION’S NOMINEES FOR CARETAKER PM ISLAMABAD

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STAFF REPORT

EADER of Opposition in the National Assembly Khursheed Shah on Wednesday said that the matter of interim prime minister is likely to be forwarded to the parliamentary committee for decision as the government is backtracking on its commitment regarding the appointment of caretaker prime minister.

“At this point, it is appearing that the matter regarding the appointment of the caretaker prime minister will be settled through a parliamentary committee as the government is backtracking on its

commitment,” Shah said while speaking to reporters in his chambers at Parliament House.

“Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi has no authority to reject our nominees for caretaker premier,” the Pakistan People’s Party senior leader said. Shah continued, “Names suggested by the opposition cannot be rejected, in fact, they will be sent to a parliamentary committee.”

On Tuesday, PM Abbasi and opposition leader Shah had failed to reach consensus on the name for the position of caretaker premier during a meeting held at Prime Minister’s House.

Talking to reporters after the meeting, Shah had said he will hold another

meeting with Abbasi either on Wednesday or Thursday to finalise the name for the caretaker premier. The opposition leader said that he and the prime minister had both agreed to think some more on the matter. “It would be good for parliament if this matter can be agreed upon in [the upcoming] meeting,” he added.

“If not, then [a committee] will be constituted, to which the names will be sent within three days and the majority decision will be [implemented],” Shah had said, adding that he has put forward names of senior bureaucrats for consideration for the post of caretaker PM. According to details, the government has suggested names of former chief justice of Pakistan Justice (r) Nasirul Mulk, Justice (r) Tassaduq Hussain Jillani – also a former chief justice – and former State Bank governor Dr Shamshad Akhtar. Pakistan’s permanent representative to the United Nations Dr

Mush was ‘obsessed’ with regaining kargil: ex-ISI chief LAHorE SALMAN FARRUKH

Maleeha Lodhi, who was earlier touted as among the favourites for the post, is missing from the list, according to details. The Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) has finalised the names of Zaka Ashraf and Jalil Abbas Jilani for the caretaker prime minister. Khursheed Shah had reportedly forwarded these names to PM Abbasi and PPP Co-Chairman Asif Ali Zardari had telephoned Ashraf and Jilani informing them of the party’s decision.

Former Pakistan Ambassador to the United Nations Abdullah Hussain Haroon and former State Bank governor Dr Ishrat Hussain are also being speculated for the post.

The current government is expected to conclude its five-year term on May 31, after which the caretaker government will take over to hold the general elections, which are expected to be held in the last week of July or the first week of August.

My ouster affected country’s progress, says Nawaz NEWS DESK Former prime minister Nawaz Sharif said that Pakistan’s progress was affected by his ouster from the office.

Sharif was addressing a workers’ convention in Attock on Wednesday, where he said that Pakistan Tehreeke-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan has deceived the people of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP).

The former prime minister said that his relation to Attock goes back to his days in jail there. He said that in 2013, there was no electricity and there was load shedding of 18 hours.

The former PM said that his party alleviated the power crisis and brought electricity. He lamented that he was

TWo MarTyred IN INdIaN FIrINg aLoNg Wb SrINAgAr AGENCIES

At least two persons, including a hawaldar, were martyred on Wednesday after Indian forces resorted to unprovoked firing along the Working Boundary near Sialkot. The residential areas of Sialkot along the WB are under intermittent shelling from across the border since last week. On Friday, at least four civilians, including 3 children, were martyred as a result of the shelling; following which Pakistan had summoned the Indian high commissioner to lodge a strong protest over the ceasefire violations

by Indian forces near Sialkot. On the other hand, a mortar and gunfire battle between Indian and Pakistani forces along the border has claimed five lives–all civilians– claimed Indian officials on Wednesday. In order to restrain the violations, Pakistan Rangers and Indian Border Security Force officers spoke by telephone on Monday following the ceasefire violations.

serving the people when one day he was ousted from the office. Sharif said that Attock is turning into one of Punjab’s best districts. He asked the crowd to chant along with him the party’s mantra of “respect the vote”.

Earlier, Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) leader Maryam Nawaz addressed the gathering. The PML-N leader said that when the result of the Panama case came, nothing was proved against

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Sharif. Maryam said that on the basis of iqama her father was ousted from the office. She said that despite all conspiracies in NA-120, PML-N had emerged victorious.

Former Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) director general (DG) General (r) Asad Durrani, in his newly released book, termed the Kargil operation as former chief of army staff (COAS) General (r) Pervez Musharraf’s “obsession”, claiming that even during Benazir Bhutto’s second term in office as the prime minister (PM), Musharraf, as director general of military operation (DGMO), told her “prime minister, we can do that”. He said that Musharraf relied on the principle of “nuclear immunity” and presumed that India would not be able to do much in response to the Kargil operation, however, he said that this theory was “flawed” in many ways.

Agreeing that 95 percent of the times this theory could have worked if it came to nuclear escalation between Pakistan and India but it did not take into account the severity and magnitude of risk that the remaining 5pc would carry with itself. The retired general also said that Musharraf failed in assessing that the global community could consider him as “unwise” or “reckless”.

Musharraf was taken by surprise when the world community had responded to his ‘irresponsibility’, the former ISI chief added.

Durrani also said that in the year 2000, one Indian general accepted that India had plans to make a further ingress into Siachin like it did in 1984. The retired general exclaimed that it seemed that Musharraf’s narrative about the Kargil operation was nothing but a preemptive strike to prevent India. Speaking about Nawaz Sharif’s involvement, he said that Sharif was unaware of the operation’s “extent” but the former PM had to take political responsibility because he gave the “go ahead” for the Kargil operation. Durrani maintained that the ousted PM Nawaz Sharif had better options than travelling to Washington and on July 4 in 1999. The former ISI chief claimed that Pakistan was also in contact with China and the neighbour had asked Pakistan to withdraw since it had “made its point”.

Durrani said that Sharif could have taken advantage of Atal Bajpayee’s call to withdraw the forces since he thought that the issue could be consequential for his party in the next elections rather than asking for American aid.

Being punished for going after Musharraf, Nawaz insists coNtINuED froM pAgE 01 However, he said, it is also a “prerequisite for the sanctity of the armed forces that if any person suspends the constitution then he should be held accountable”.

“Only a few people in the armed forces stage a coup but the entire institution has to pay the cost,” he added.

“If only you could summon the souls of Liaquat Ali Khan, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto and Benazir Bhutto and ask them what happened,” he said, adding “If only all PMs could be summoned and asked why weren’t they allowed to complete their constitutional tenure?

“I want to say that the reason for my removal and the unfounded, malicious allegations against me is that I had refused to obey the orders,” he said, adding that he, being in power, had been considered a barrier to

the achievement of certain goals so he was removed from the party’s chairmanship. At the last hearing on Tuesday, Nawaz Sharif had criticised the Supreme Court-mandated Joint Investigation Team (JIT) for not making any “serious efforts” to record the statement of Qatar’s Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim bin Jaber AlThani despite the prince’s willingness to testify.

‘NOT EASY TO BRING DICTATOR TO JUSTICE’: Separately, addressing a press conference at Punjab House, Nawaz repeated his allegations, saying “it is not easy to bring a former dictator to court”. “I am holding this presser to reveal and bring on record why the Avenfield reference was filed against me,” Nawaz said, adding that “baseless cases have been filed against me following Panama Papers”. He continued, “I have never been allowed to fulfill the con-

stitutional term.” “I have said this before and will say it again, decisions should be taken by the people.”

The ousted premier rejected the impression that he was against the army. “I know that the army’s weakness is the weakness of our defences. I recognise the services of the soldiers who lay their lives,” he said. “Was there a Panama at that time? The answer is simply no. At that time, too, I was demanding civil supremacy. I wanted foreign and domestic policies to be in the hand of the elected representative.”

Claiming that he strengthened Pakistan’s defence, Nawaz said, “I advised the then army chief to carry out nuclear tests within 17 days.”

“Pakistan’s respect is important not dollars and had I not carried out the nuclear test, India’s military might would have been established in the region.”

Bullet in body reminder of need to remove seeds of hatred: Ahsan Iqbal INTERIOR MINISTER SAYS WHOEVER DISCRIMINATES ON BASIS OF RELIGION NEGATES IDEOLOGY BEHIND PAKISTAN’S CREATION ISLAMABAD APP

Federal Minister of Interior Ahsan Iqbal on Wednesday said the bullet in his body is a constant reminder to remove the seeds of hatred sown in the country.

Speaking during a National Assembly session, the minister termed his assailant “a coward”.

“On May 6, a coward fanatic attempted to take my life but He [God] who is our protector is greater than the attacker,” he said. “I am standing here today, blessed with a new life and just as a Pakistani, not a minister or member of the parliament, I want to say that the bullet lodged in my body will remain there forever. It will keep reminding me of the impending need to remove the seeds of

hatred sowed in the country.” “We have spread the narrative of hatred in politics,” Iqbal observed. Expressing the hope that political parties would unite against extremism, he said that “increasing hatred and extremism are major threats to the country’s peace”. “No society can go forward and progress with such kind of mindset,” the minister added.

He particularly urged religious leaders to play a role to ensure elimination of religious extremism, saying that no individual or group had the right to punish anybody when state institutions like parliament and judicial system were there.

The minister said individuals and groups have no right to issue decrees of killing on the basis of religion, saying that “who is Muslim and who is non-Muslim, the constitution of the country decides,

the parliament decides, we cannot issue decrees in streets on it”.

“No individual has this right to kill anybody with his own caprice of mind that he/she should be killed. This is anarchy,” he said. He categorically rejected division on the basis of race, religion and colour, saying that whosoever holds the Pakistani identity card, should be respected and loved without any prejudice.

He said that prejudice against Muslims in India was the reason behind the creation of Pakistan and that was why Muslims demanded their homeland where they were not subjected to such prejudice. If any group in Pakistan was subjected to the same prejudice, this would be a negation of basic ideology of creation of Pakistan, he remarked.

Earlier, the Pakistan Muslim League

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– Nawaz (PML-N) leader appreciated Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari for lending support to his family during the tough time.

“I cannot forget how Bilawal Bhutto stood united with my family, his eyes were moist [when he denounced the attack.]” The interior minister also expressed his gratitude for PTI Chairman Imran Khan for having sent a bouquet while he was in the hospital, however, he expressed his discontentment at the individuals chosen by the latter to inquire about his health.

“I am grateful that Imran sent a bouquet but I would have been happier if the bouquet was delivered to me by Shafqat Mehmood, Shireen Mazari, Asad Umer, Arif Alvi or some other friend.”

“Unfortunately the people who you [Imran] sent with the bouquet were later defending the assassin on a television show, saying that he did the right thing which is regrettable,” remarked Iqbal.

An assailant had shot at Iqbal, earlier

this month, during a rally in the latter’s constituency Narowal. The minister underwent two operations — one aimed at removing the bullet from Iqbal’s lower torso and the other to mend his broken elbow bone. Iqbal had sustained a fracture after the bullet scraped his elbow and then hit his lower abdomen.

However, the bullet that entered Iqbal’s abdomen — specifically, the lower part of his stomach — was not removed, as per the doctors’ decision, for it was not harmful to him anymore and pulling it out at present could have proved to be risky.

An initial investigation report on the failed assassination attempt suggested that the main accused, Abid Hussain, 21, planned the attack on the interior minister with careful deliberation.

According to the report, Abid had told police that he had a dream in which he was ordered to assassinate Ahsan Iqbal. He wrote down his thoughts in a diary over the past three or four months.

04 NEWS

Thursday, 24 May, 2018

GoveRnment to vacate illeGal occuPation of its land in KaRachi 7,882 GOVT ACCOMMODATIONS REMAIN SINCE 1970S, 4,100 HOUSING UNITS HAVE BEEN ILLEGALLY OCCUPIED OCCUPIED IN THE FINANCIAL HUB

BY FAMILIES OF RETIRED GOVERNMENT EMPLOYEES ISLAMABAD

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HAMID KHAN WAZIR

N pursuance of the directives of the Supreme Court, Ministry of Housing and Works (H&W) spurred into action on Wednesday and decided to vacate the illegal and unauthorised occupation of government-owned accommodations in Karachi.

A senior official told Pakistan Today that in the first phase, the illegal and unauthorised occupation of government accommodations would be vacated in the financial hub where a total of 7,882 government residences were illegally occupied, including those held by families of the deceased government servants since 1970s.

The official said that the unauthorised occupation of government accom-

modations in other cities including in the federal capital would also be vacated in the second phase.

It is pertinent to mention here that Supreme Court on May 10, 2018, took notice of illegal and unauthorised occupation of government residences in a human rights case and directed the federal government as well as the provincial governments to provide details of such properties. Seeking a report from the related departments with respect to irregularities in the allotment of the residences within 15 days, the top court had given an ultimatum of one month to all illegal allottees to vacate the government residences.

In pursuance of the direction of the Supreme Court in Human Rights Case no 20746/2018, a meeting was held here on Wednesday which was chaired by

sco holds tremendous potential for the region ISLAMABAD APP

Foreign Secretary, Ms Tehmina Janjua said here on Wednesday that the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) held tremendous potential for connectivity, trade, energy and economic development.

She said this during the inaugural session of the Shanghai Cooperation OrganizationRegional Anti-Terrorist Structure (SCO-RATS) Legal Experts meeting being held here from May 22 to 25. The Foreign Secretary said that the SCO had had special significance for Pakistan as it offered a unique model of inter-state cooperation for peace, security, connectivity and sustainable development. She said that the organization could lead to progress and prosperity for the entire region, adding“We look forward to bringing further vitality to this vibrant organization.” Tehmina Janjua said that with a consumer market of over 200 million people, vast business potential and a rapidly modernizing infrastructure, Pakistan offered the SCO enormous opportunities for mutually beneficial cooperation. She said that Pakistan’s historical and cultural ties and strong economic and strategic links with the SCO members, could act as an enabler in realizing the SCO’s vision.

“Pakistan is cognizant of the threats posed by terrorism, separatism and extremism to our region and beyond. Having fought terrorism, we have lost thousands of our citizens and law enforcement personnel, with many more injured. We have also suffered economic losses of over US$120 billion,” the Foreign Secretary added. But neither the human nor the financial losses had diminished the country’s resolve to fight this menace, she said. Tehmina Janjua said, “Through our comprehensive efforts, over the past several years, supported by a firm domestic political consensus, we have been able to turn the tide. Our National Counter Extremism Policy focuses on the Rule of Law, Service Delivery, Citizens Engagement, Media Engagement, Integrated Education Reform, Reformation, Rehabilitation, Reintegration, and Renunciation of terrorism by extremist elements and Promotion of Culture as its major facets.”

federal secretary of H&W and attended

by Zulfiqar Ali Shah, Secretary (General Administration) of Sindh government, Lt Col Arshad (GSO-1 Works) of Sindh Rangers and Sindh Police DIG Dr Amin Yousufzai.

The purpose of the meeting was to formulate a strategy to get vacated the government accommodation from illegal and unauthorised occupants. During the meeting, it was principally decided that the government accommodation shall be vacated from the occupants.

The H&W ministry has decided that the government accommodation shall be vacated from illegal and unauthorised occupants. To strategise it, the next meeting shall be held at Karachi in the coming days.

The advocate on record informed the Supreme Court about the unautho-

rised occupants of government land at which Chief Justice Saqib Nisar inquired about the efforts made by the state to vacate the residences from these occupants. The major chunk of the unauthorised occupation of government-owned land is in Karachi, where a total of 7,882 such accommodations are at the pool of estate office, out of which 4,100 housing units are in the occupation of retired government employees or families of deceased government servants since 1970s.

The association of retired employees approached different quarters including the President of Pakistan, Sindh High Court and Supreme Court for the grant of ownership rights. While the country’s chief executive rejected their request, the Supreme Court also dismissed the petition.

MPs bail out on Shehbaz during Chiniot visit NEWS DESK The absence of three Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) parliamentarians-two MNAs and one MPA-from the district, during the visit of Punjab Chief Minister Shehbaz Sharif, caused embasement to the chief minister and the ruling party, reported a private media outlet.

The absence of all MPs from the stage during the speech of Shehbaz Sharif was all more shocking for the PML-N because it had won all the national and provincial assemblies seats in the district during 2013 general elections.

Shehbaz Sharif must have felt very lonely at the start of the rally where chairs of MPs, Mehr Saqlain

Anwer Sipra, Maulana Rehmatullah, and Mehr Imtiaz Lali besides those of MNAs Qaisar Ahmad Sheikh and Mehr Ghulam Muhammad Lali were vacant. The PML-N president, how-

ever, got some company when provincial assembly members, Maulana Ilyas Chinioti, Mr Sipra and Maulana Rehmat Ullah arrived at the rally after some delay.

President’s salary raised from Rs80,000 to Rs846,550 ISLAMABAD SHAHZAD PARACHA

The embattled government has decided to increase the salary of the president of Pakistan from Rs80,000 to Rs846,550.

Just one week before the expiry of its tenure, the federal cabinet, in its meeting held on Tuesday, gave the approval to amend the president’s Salary, Allowances and Privileges Act 1975.

The Cabinet Division had presented the bill in the federal cabinet meeting held under the chairmanship of Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi. “Cabinet Division proposes that the federal cabinet, in terms of Section 16 (a) of the Rules of Business 1973, may approve the (amendment) bill in the President’s Salary, Allowance and Privilege Act 1975”, the document stated.

Sources said that the bill will be presented in the National Assembly (NA) for approval and eventually the president’s salary will be Rs846,550 per month. The cabinet had withheld the summary in the last week but the prime minister, as the minister in charge of the Cabinet Division, has authorised the resubmission of the summary, the document added. The salary, allowances and privileges of the president are governed by the President’s Salary, Allowances and Privileges Act 1975. The document stated that the salary of the president was last revised in December 2004 at Rs 80,000 per month. The document further stated that as the head of state, salary of the president must be a symbolic one rupee higher than the remuneration package of any public functionary of the government of Pakistan. Cabinet Division proposed that the salary of the president may be re-fixed at Rs846,550, one Pakistani Rupee higher than the salary of the chief justice of Pakistan. This requires amendment in section 3 of the President’s Salary, Allowance and Privilege Act 1975. The document added that the Law and Justice Division had also vetted the draft (amendment) bill regarding the President’s Salary, Allowance and Privilege Act 1975.

Pakistan Today tried to contact secretary cabinet to inquire about the reason for the surge in the president’s salary but no response was received by the time of filing of this story.

Daniyal says slapping incident was ‘pre-planned’, Naeem says it wasn’t PML-N LEADER SAYS PTI WANTED TO PROVOKE HIM, BUT PTI LEADER SAYS INCIDENT WAS ‘UNFORTUNATE SPUR OF THE MOMENT REACTION’ ISLAMABAD STAFF REPORT

Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PMLN) leader and Federal Minister for Privatisation Daniyal Aziz on Wednesday remarked that the slapping incident that took place on the set of a private news channel on Tuesday night was a preplanned move of the Pakistan Tehreeke-Insaf (PTI) to provoke him.

“It shows the frustration of PTI leaders and their handlers,” Aziz said while talking to journalists outside the judicial complex in the federal capital.

“Despite throwing their weight behind the Pakistan Army and the judiciary, their public support dwindles daily, leading to internal rifts between the top leadership,” he said, adding that instead of promoting Pakistan along the lines of development, PTI was promoting a culture that is polarising Pakistani society.

He added they were setting “elements

of a fascist state in motion“.

When asked if he would pursue the matter legally, Aziz questioned the use of pursuing the matter in court and referred to PTI Chairman Imran Khan’s acquittal in the SSP torture case. He further alleged that the act was caught on camera and broadcasted live while the “Supreme Court buckled under PTI-led contempt through lockdown of the capital and then reversed its order” and the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) was “humbled into withdrawing contempt proceedings” against the PTI leader. Aziz said the PTI will suffer in the upcoming elections because they have been collecting people left and right for their political party, which will lead to their downfall in the upcoming elections.

Meanwhile, talking to the media outside the accountability court conducting corruption proceedings against him, Nawaz Sharif criticised “PTI’s cul-

CMYK

ture”, while weighing in on the slapping incident, in which PTI’s Naeemul Haque physically assaulted PML-N’s Daniyal Aziz on live television.

“Situation is quite sad,” lamented the former premier.

Earlier, on Tuesday night, Imran Khan’s Spokesperson Naeemul Haque slapped Aziz on air during a live programme telecast on Geo News.

The privatisation minister apparently called Naeemul Haque ‘chor‘ (thief) on which the latter could not keep his calm and spontaneously slapped the minister.

Reflecting on the incident, Haque termed it an “unfortunate spur of the moment reaction.” He tweeted, “While it was an unfortunate spur of the moment reaction, Daniyal Aziz’s abusive language against PTI leadership and his attack on Pakistan army are regrettable unacceptable and condemnable. I hope he can mend his ways and stop spinning mistruths.”

Earlier in 2011, Naeemul Haque threw a glass containing water at a Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) leader Jamil Somro on air after which he left the studio during the live telecast.

WEATHER UPDATES 0 THURSDAY

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PROMOTiON Of HATREd, dividE wON’T BE AllOwEd: CM SHAH ‘OUR PEOPLE ARE STRONG ENOUGH AND THEY ARE ENJOYING THE FRUIT OF THE PEACE RESTORED IN THE CITY AND ARE ROAMING FREELY’ KARACHI

S

INP

INDH Chief Minister (CM) Syed Murad Ali Shah has said that he has always promoted politics of brotherhood, fraternity, equality and humanity but some people are trying to earn political sympathies by advancing the arguments of hatred and divide but they won’t be allowed to fulfill their nefarious designs.

The Chief Minister stated this while talking to media persons during his visit to the heat stroke centers set up by district administration along the roadside all over the metropolis on Wednesday. He was accompanied by provincial ministers, Syed Nasir Shah, Saeed Ghani, Principal Secretary to CM Sohail Rajput and Commissioner Karachi.

Murad Ali Shah said that some people are again trying to ignite the fire of hatred and divide in Karachi

but “This is now history -You destructed this city and we have reconstructed it again, you divided the people on linguistic and sectarian grounds and we inculcated the spirit of fraternity among them, you destroyed the institutions and we are rebuilding them – that was your time and this is our time and our time is of prosperity and unity because we have restored peace in this city.”

He said that our time would lost long because we serve the people irrespective of any discrimination and top of it people of this city believe in us, therefore they are with us. The people of Karachi were well educated and they know who has their pain and who would lead them to the development and prosperity, he added. The Chief Minister said, “I am sorry, my words have been taken wrongly but I am clear that who were trying to divide Sindh now stand divided themselves- Sindh is our mother land and nobody whether he is Sindhi speaking Sindhi or Urdu

32-ton BP Tugboat handed over to Pakistan Navy KARACHI: Karachi Shipyard and Engineering Works (KS&EW) Wednesday handed over a 32-ton Bollard Pull (BP) Tug to Pakistan Navy. Vice Chief of Naval Staff, Vice Admiral Kaleem Shaukat was the chief guest at the handing over ceremony held at KS&EW in Karachi, which was attended among others by high ranking officials from government, Pakistan Navy, Corporate Sector and the shipyard. “The 32 Tons BP Tug has a 34 meter overall length with displacement of 481 tons. It has maximum speed of 12 knots and propelled by 2 x Diesel Engines and same number of Azimuth Thrusters. It is fitted with a very robust fendering arrangement for all round tugging operation of almost all sizes of ships and crafts of Pakistan Navy,” said a press release issued here. Vice Admiral Kaleem Shaukat said it was indeed a clear manifestation of the vision of Pakistan Navy to pursue self-reliance in the field of ship construction. APP

Shopkeeper rapes girl in Karachi

speaking Sindhi would never allow division of his mother land. Now nobody can sell narrative of divide and hatred in Sindh.”

Talking about his visit to the city, Murad Ali Shah said that he wanted to witness the heat stroke centers set up by district administration.

He said, “I am satisfied that necessary facilities have been provided at the centers and also met with the people present there and listened to their grievances. Our people are strong enough and they are enjoying the fruit of the peace restored in the city and are roaming freely.”

Murad Ali Shah visited heat stroke centers established in District East and South and met with the people there. When the chief minister reached at a center at Saddar an elderly man was pouring water on his head just to make him cool. The Chief Minister met him and asked him about his feeling after getting his head soaked with cold water. The elderly men thanked the chief minis-

ter for personally interacting with him and setting up such centers.

The Chief Minister also visited Jinnah Post Graduate Medical Center (JPMC) and visited the wards set up for heat stroke patients. Briefing the Chief Minister, the Executive Director JPMC Dr Seemi Jamali said that the ratio of heat stroke patients was not more than four per day.

When the chief minister was coming out of the JPMC one patient of heat stroke was brought there. He met him and assured him that he would be treated properly.

Mercury remains over 40 celcius as heatwave continues RANgERS SET uP HEAT STROKE REliEf CENTRES

KARACHI StAff RePoRt

The Pakistan Meteorological Department (PMD) on Wednesday stated that the ongoing heatwave is said to continue for the fourth day in Karachi, with maximum temperature hovering in the 4143°C range. It has been reported that the ‘hot to very hot weather is likely to prevail’ in the metropolis until Friday, with highs of 4344°C predicted during the period.

Earlier, on Tuesday, the city saw the mercury climb to 43°C, as sea breeze remained halted exacerbating the heatwave. The hottest weather was recorded in

KARACHI: Sindh Rangers set up heatstroke relief centres in the view of the sizzling weather in different parts of the metropolis.

These centers were set up to provide relief to the citizens in Karachi who are affected due to extreme heat wave. The doctors, paramedical staff, medical facilities and cold water were made available at each center to cure heatstroke patients. The Sindh Rangers have appealed to citizens seeking assistance to reach the nearest heatstroke relief centre established at the following locations: North Karachi, Dr Ziauddin Chowrangi, Sohrab Goth , Hydri Market, Qalandria Chowk in North Nazimabad, SITE Stadium, Hub River Road, Shah Nawaz Chowk Pak Colony, District Central Office North Nazaimabad, Orangi town near Allawala Collage Sector-13 and Mawach Goth. StAff RePoRt Chhor, Sindh where the temperature went up to 47°C. The latest heatwave coincides with the beginning of the Ramzan. The frequent and unannounced load shedding and lack of green spaces will make the heat harder to bear.

Furthermore, people living on Karachi’s crowded streets have little access to shelter or safe drinking water, making them

acutely at risk in blistering temperatures.

In June 2015 about 1,200 people died in southern Pakistan during a heatwave, with nearly two-thirds of the victims’ being homeless people.

As the heatwave continues, residents have been advised to take precautions while venturing outdoors to prevent a heat stroke.

Federal government to install desalination plant in Karachi KARACHI PPI

KARACHI: A young girl was raped by a shopkeeper in Jinnah Square area of Malir Tuesday night. According to the police, the 11-year-old girl had gone to a burger shop when the shopkeeper assaulted her. The girl’s elder sister shared that she had sent her younger sister to the shop to get food for her as she wasn’t feeling well. “However, when she didn’t return for more than an hour we started to get worried. I told my mother to not worry and I went to check on my younger sister along with some friends from the neighbourhood.” Upon reaching the burger shop, she discovered that the shopkeeper had assaulted her sister. “I only want justice, such a person deserves to be punished,” she added. The police had conducted a medical examination of the survivor which confirmed the rape. Police have arrested the 22-year-old suspect, identified as Asif, and registered a case against him.

The suspect will be presented before the judicial magistrate on Thursday. StAff RePoRt

Governor Sindh has said that availability of water is one of most significant concern for Karachiites as the same was of pivotal importance for human consumption. This he said during a briefing by HUBCO team led by its chief executive officer Khalid Mansoor here this morning at Governor House. The governor said that keeping in view increasing shortage of water, the federal government had formulated and announced water policy with the consensus of all four provinces. While acknowledging the unavailability of required water in Karachi, he said that the first phase of K-IV had been initiated which would add 260 MGD water to Karachi.

He said that the federal government had also announced a desalination plant in the budget to desalinate the sea water. This would be an immense step in providing potable water to citizen of Karachi. While lauding the proposed desalination project of HUBCO at its hub plant, Zubair said that the project would also be a welcome addition in this regard. He also appreciated the plan of HUBCO to make electricity from garbage of city

and then use this energy for desalination of sea water and recycling of sewerage water for human and industrial use, respectively. He also commended the efforts of the company in energy sector in Thar and said that Engro and HUBCO are the pioneer in utilization of Thar coal.

Their plants once operational would produced more then 5000 mega watts of electricity, he added. The governor was briefed about HUBCO’s waste to energy and water solution plan in detail on the occasion. It was informed that existing HUBCO plant could be utilized for desalination of sea water. Initially 300 MGD potable water could be obtained which would be scalable to 1200 MGD with further expansion, it was added.

It was further informed that Karachi produces 470 MGD of waste water while requirement for industrial use is around 200 MGD. KW&SB has 3 water waste treatment plants with a combined capacity of 150 MGD it was briefed. It was stated that HUBCO plans to take over operation and maintenance of these treatment plants and install tertiary treatment and RO to produce industrial water. It was briefed that according to an estimate, around 16500 tons of solid waste is generated in Karachi daily.

KARACHI

05

HESCO clarifies news about death of a pregnant woman during protest HYDERABAD: The management of Hyderabad Electric Supply Company (HESCO) has clarified a news item appeared in a section of press about the death of a pregnant woman during protest against power breakdown. In a statement issued here on Wednesday, the HESCO spokesman maintained that no woman had lost life during protest against power closure.

Muhammad Yameen, the husband of deceased woman made it clear that death of his wife was natural as she was working in home instead of attending protest, the spokesman said and added that the husband of deceased woman also clarified that his wife was first shifted to Bhitai Hospital Latifabad and later moved to Civil Hospital Hyderabad where she breathed her last during treatment. The HESCO spokesman informed that death certificate of the hospital which is in possession of the husband of deceased woman ascertained the cause of death as natural. The above facts clarified that the woman was not died due to heat stroke during protest against power outage. APP

Mayor vows to remove encroachments from parks KARACHI: Mayor Karachi Waseem Akhtar said illegal restaurants and other encroachments from the Hill Park have already been removed and such actions will be taken in other parks and playgrounds of the megacity also. Reviewing ongoing operation against encroachments in the megacity, he said the campaign against encroachments was initiated on the orders of the Supreme Court and it will continue till removal of all encroachments for the port city. He said complaints are being received about these encroachments and as such encroachers and people using parks and playground for commercial activities are asked to voluntarily stop their activities; otherwise, action will be taken against them. He said anti-encroachment operation around Empress Market in Saddar will continue throughout this Ramazan to free the whole area from encroachments. PPI

Outbreak of measles claims three lives in Tando Allahyar TANDO ALLAHYAR: As many as three children died and other seven were rushed to the civil hospital due to an outbreak of Measles in Taluka Jhando Mari on Wednesday.

According to the details, three children in Pyaro Lund of Taluka Jhando Mari, Tando Allahyar lost their lives due to disease of measles, whereas 7 other faint, who are admitted in the Tando Allahyar Hospital. Residents of the area have complained shortage of health facilities including medicines in the area due to which they are compelled to travel towards Tando Allahyar in case of any eventuality, they added. Mefical Incharge Dr. Moeen Akhtar said that the treatment of the children underway, he took notice of the shortage of medicines and said that no negligence will be tolerated in this regard. StAff RePoRt

Sindh government is corrupt: Mumtaz Bhutto KARACHI: Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) leader Mumtaz Ali Bhutto said on Wednesday that it was anguishing that rulers, on one hand, were manhandling protesting Sindhi girls outside Karachi Press Club (KPC) seeking recovery of their missing persons while on the other, the police were protecting a quack in Banguldero who abused a girl of Bhutto community.

He said the residents of the area were on the roads for justice but there was nobody to support them. "It is a shameful act for the rulers that police were providing security to the house of the criminal in Banguldero," said Bhutto. He said that such tragic incidents did not even take place during the British era. PPI

06 FOREIGN NEWS

Thursday, 24 May, 2018

PomPeo 'very hoPeful' North Korea talKs will still taKe Place WaSHiNGTON

s

Agencies

ECRETARy of State Mike Pompeo said Wednesday he was "very hopeful" that the U.S.North Korean nuclear summit would take place as planned next month, although he laid the meeting's fate squarely on Kim Jong Un. The decision about whether the June 12 meeting in Singapore between Kim and President Donald Trump happens is "ultimately up to Chairman Kim," Pompeo told the House Foreign Affairs Committee.

On Tuesday, Trump expressed doubts about the June 12 meeting taking place as scheduled when he hosted South Korean President Moon Jae-in at the White House, amid concerns that the North isn't committed to discussing dismantling its nuclear program.

President Donald Trump said he will

mh370 search to end next week: malaysian minister Kuala lumpur

know next week whether his planned summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un is still on, as his administration looks to keep the historic meeting on track.

"We will know next week about Singapore and if we go I think it will be a great thing for North Korea," Trump said.

Speaking from the White House before boarding Marine One on Wednesday, Trump said, "Someday a date will happen" for the North Korea talks, adding, and "it could very well be June 12."

Lawmakers' questioning of Pompeo followed Trump's comment Tuesday that "there's a very substantial chance" the meeting would not proceed as scheduled.

Pompeo said the North Korean leader "asked for the meeting, the president agreed to meet with him. I'm very hopeful that meeting will take place."

The former CIA director, who has met twice with Kim since the start of April, told the committee that it's his hope that when

pariS

The search for flight MH370 will end next week, Malaysia's transport minister said Wednesday, more than four years after the plane disappeared and triggered one of the world's greatest aviation mysteries. The Malaysia Airlines jet vanished in March 2014 with 239 people -- mostly from China - on board, en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing. No sign of the jet was found in a 120,000 square kilometre (46,000 square mile) sea search zone and the Australian-led hunt, the largest in aviation history, was suspended in January last year. After pressure from family members, the former Malaysian government struck a deal with US exploration firm Ocean Infinity to restart the search in January on the condition it would only be paid if the Boeing 777 or its black boxes were found. The firm stood to make up to $70 million if successful but did not find any sign of the jet despite scouring the seabed with some of the world's most hi-tech search equipment. Malaysia's Transport Minister Anthony Loke, part of the new government that came to power following May 9 elections, said the hunt was officially meant to finish in April but had been extended, and would come an end next week.

"The search will continue until May 29," he told reporters. Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad had said earlier that the contract with Ocean Infinity was being reviewed, as his administration seeks to cut costs after accusing the allegedly corrupt former regime of leaving the public finances in bad shape.

Agencies

GarOWE, SOmalia Agencies

More than 50 people have died in Somaliland, livestock has been wiped out and hundreds of farms destroyed by heavy rains and floods caused by a tropical cyclone that hit the Horn of Africa, officials and aid agencies in the breakaway Somali region said. Somaliland broke away from Somalia in 1991 and operates as an independent state but has not won international recognition. “The death toll from the cyclone is so far over 50 people,” vice president Abdirahman Abdullahi Ismail told reporters late on Tuesday in Somaliland’s capital Hargeisa. “(The) death toll may rise because there are other people who are still missing.” Tropical cyclone Sagar made landfall on Saturday in north-western Somaliland and Djibouti, three days after it formed in the Gulf of Aden, according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA).

Emmanuel Macron heads to St Petersburg on Thursday seeking to win concessions from Vladimir Putin, but with Europe-US ties strained over Iran, the Russian leader may have little incentive to offer the French president a diplomatic success.

A year after hosting Putin in the regal halls of the Chateau de Versailles, Macron wants to find common ground on Syria and Ukraine during his two-day visit, while opening a broader dialogue on Iran after President Donald Trump’s withdrawal from the nuclear deal.

“The weakness of the transatlantic relationship does not give Macron sufficiently strong positions to counter Putin,” said Tatiana Kastoueva-Jean, director of the Russia center at the Paris-based Institute for International Relations.

“Putin knows that there are dif-

ferences in the Western camp and as soon as someone shows weakness he exploits it.”

Macron has bet on nurturing relationships with leaders such as Putin to appear engaged but noncommittal, trying to mediate among the sides without unsettling anyone.

That policy is now being tested after Trump shunned his closest allies and slapped on extraterritorial

may not be able to do exactly that."

Trump suggested the summit could be delayed rather than canceled: "It may not work out for June 12, but there is a good chance that we'll have the meeting."

He did not detail the conditions he had laid out for Kim but said if they aren't met, "we won't have the meeting." His spokeswoman, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, said Trump was referring to a commitment to seriously discuss denuclearization.

Skepticism about the North's intentions have mounted in recent weeks after Kim's government pulled out of planned peace talks with the South last week, objecting to long-scheduled joint military exercises between U.S. and South Korean forces. The North also threatened to abandon the planned Trump-Kim meeting over U.S. insistence on rapidly denuclearizing the peninsula, issuing a harshly worded statement that the White House dismissed as a negotiating ploy.

reas, as well as concern whether the selfproclaimed deal-maker can deliver a nuclear accord with Kim. "The fate and the future of the Korean Peninsula hinge" on the meeting, South Korea's president, Moon Jae-in, told Trump in an Oval Office meeting Tuesday.

Trump said Kim had not met unspecified "conditions" for the summit. But Trump also said he believed Kim was "serious" about negotiations. Moon expressed "every confidence" in Trump's ability to hold the summit and bring about peace.

"I have no doubt that you will be able to ... accomplish a historic feat that no one had been able to achieve in the decades past," Moon said.

Trump said he didn't want to "totally commit" himself on whether North Korea should denuclearize all at once or in phases.

"It would certainly be better if it were all in one," Trump said, before adding, "you do have some physical reasons that it

Trump factor leaves Macron scrambling ahead of Russia trip

APP

storm in somaliland kills dozens, wipes out farms, livestock

Trump and Kim confer, "we can get the North Koreans to make this strategic shift about how best to serve the country — that the nuclear weapons program isn't in fact the thing that keeps the regime in power, but the thing that prevents the regime from being in a place it wants to be with economic success."

Pompeo said he had raised the issue of human rights with Kim "and it will be part of the discussions as we move forward."

Asked by lawmakers whether he had a commitment from Kim to make it part of a deal, Pompeo said, "We have broad outlines of what it is that each nation is prepared to do."

The summit would offer a historic chance for peace. But there also is the risk of a diplomatic failure that would allow the North to revive and advance its program.

Trump's newfound hesitation appears to reflect recent setbacks in efforts to bring about reconciliation between the two Ko-

sanctions on Iran, having already pulled out of the global climate pact and threatened the EU with tariffs on metals.

The US move has left Paris, London and Berlin scrambling to salvage the nuclear deal knowing full well that their interests are not necessarily aligned with the two remaining signatories – Russia and China.

Protester dead on second day of south india clashes: police TuTicorin, india: A protester was killed by a rubber bullet in a second day of clashes in southern India Wednesday, after 10 were shot dead when police opened fire on a rally demanding the closure of a copper plant, officials said. Police fired rubber bullets at the crowd and sent volleys of live ammunition overhead, officials and witnesses said, after protesters in the port city of Tuticorin hurled home-made bombs and pelted stones at them. "We fired live ammunition in the air to disperse the protesters. But the mob continued to pelt stones and bombs.

They were setting fire to vehicles," a police officer told AFP. "We were forced to fire rubber bullets which unfortunately hit one man in the spine and he died," he added. Another police officer at the scene also said that a 22-year-old man had died. Police have faced intense criticism over their handling of the protests after they opened fire to disperse a crowd of several thousand on Tuesday, leaving 10 people dead and about 80 wounded. The demonstrators are demanding the closure of a copper plant on the outskirts of Tuticorin in southern Tamil Nadu state owned by British-based mining giant Vedanta Resources which they say is causing environmental damage. APP

Indian child killer sentenced to death 23 days after arrest, raises fears over trial fairness iNDOrE Agencies

Naveen Gadke was arrested on April 20 and charged with the rape and murder of a baby girl in central India.

Three weeks later a court sentenced the 26-year-old odd-job man to death in the fastest such trial known to have happened in modern India, a nation where public outrage is running high because of a series of rapes and related killings.

Police, prosecutors and the district court in the city of Indore worked at a furious pace to get the conviction quickly, amid a backlash on the streets, including marches in this city of about 2 million, 550 miles south of Delhi.

This is in a country where Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government last month introduced the death penalty for rapes of girls under 12 years in response to public pressure but which has a notoriously slow court system, with cases taking at least six years on average to final ruling, according to governance tracking group Daksh.

But the pace of the trial, the intensifying push for speedy hearings in rape cases, and questions about the legal de-

fense provided to Gadke – who pleaded not guilty – have raised concerns among some legal rights advocates.

They are fearful there will be wrongful convictions and hangings when a defendant cannot afford to hire a good lawyer.

“While expeditious trials are ideal, these should not be at the cost of fair trial safeguards like the right to adequate time to prepare a defense and the

presumption of innocence,” said Leah Verghese, senior campaigner at human rights group Amnesty International India, in an email response to questions.

Senior Supreme Court lawyer Rebecca John said she was concerned. “As a principle, I am opposed to rushing through investigative processes and trial processes” she said.

But reflecting the mood of the nation, well-known Supreme Court

lawyer Dushyant Dave, a vocal supporter of capital punishment, said India “needs to send at least 500 people to death in the next one year to end this endemic” of rape.

“Our system is archaic and extremely inefficient,” he added.

Such views have resonated with the mother of the dead three-month-old girl as she sat on the front yard of a 200year-old palace where her homeless family sleeps in the open.

She told Reuters she was happy with the swift verdict but her daughter would get justice only when Gadke is hung to death, just as quickly.

“Once such men are hanged, no one will dare to do anything like this to any girl,” she said.

Rape victims and their families cannot be identified under Indian law.

Gadke could not be contacted as journalists are not allowed to speak with convicts in jail as per a home ministry directive.

Sachin Verma, Gadke’s lawyer, said his client told him that his estranged wife “framed” him, but said little else.

Reuters could not trace Gadke’s wife to seek comment.

FOREIGN NEWS 07

Thursday, 24 May, 2018

saudi-led coalition destroys houthi boats targeting tanker in red sea DuBai Agencies

A Saudi-led military coalition destroyed two Houthi boats threatening an oil tanker in the Red Sea on Wednesday, state media reported. United Arab Emirates (UAE) coalition forces destroyed two boats deployed by yemen’s Iranaligned Houthi movement “which were threatening a commercial oil tanker in the Red Sea”, while two other boats escaped, the UAE state news agency WAM said. There was no mention of whether the tanker had been damaged in the incident, which was also reported by Saudi-owned broadcaster Al Arabiya television. No details about the tanker were provided. Last month, a Saudi oil tanker was hit off yemen’s main port city of Hodeidah, suffering limited damage, in what coalition forces said was an attack by the Houthis, without identifying the type of weapon used in the assault. The Houthis said they had targeted a coalition warship. The Western-backed coalition of mostly Gulf Arab states intervened against the Houthis in yemen’s war in 2015 to restore the internationally recognised government in exile and push back the Houthis, who still control the north of the country.

syria says iranian withdrawal not up for discussion BEiruT Agencies

The withdrawal of Iranian forces is not up for discussion, the Syrian deputy foreign minister was quoted as saying on Wednesday, after Washington demanded they pull out of Syria’s conflict.

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has demanded Iran make sweeping changes — from dropping its nuclear program to leaving the Syrian war — or face severe economic sanctions.

“Whether Iranian forces or Hezbollah withdraw or stay in Syria is not up for discussion because it’s the (business) of the Syrian government,” Lebanon’s alMayadeen TV cited Syrian Deputy Foreign Minister Faisal Mekdad as saying.

In Syria’s seven-year conflict, Iran has provided vital support to President Bashar al-Assad’s military. Its forces and the militias it backs from the region, including Lebanon’s Hezbollah, helped Damascus claw back control of major cities from militants and rebels.

Russia has also deployed forces to help the Syrian state. Pompeo said Iran must withdraw all forces under its command in Syria. Tehran dismissed the US ultimatum and one senior official said it showed the United States seeks “regime change” in Iran. Mekdad added that Damascus plans to take back every inch of the country, and the next target could be north or south after crushing insurgents in a string of enclaves around the capital.

iraNiaN officials sPlit over resPoNse to us demaNds aNKara

f

Agencies

OR all of Iran’s fierce verbal response to fresh US threats of tougher sanctions, some senior officials in Tehran believe the door to diplomacy should stay

open.

On Monday, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo presented a list of sweeping demands for Iran, including abandoning nuclear enrichment, its ballistic missile program and its role in Syria, Lebanon and yemen, or face “the strongest sanctions in history”.

Four senior Iranian officials contacted by Reuters interpreted Pompeo’s remarks as a “bargaining strategy”, similar to Washington’s approach to North Korea.

Last year US officials were pressing for tougher sanctions against Pyongyang and sent an aircraft carrier to the region in a show of strength before relations eased to a point where President Donald Trump may hold talks with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. “America does not want to get involved in another war in the region. Iran also cannot afford more economic hardship … always there is a way to reach a compromise,” said one of the Iranian officials, who was involved in Iran’s nuclear talks with major powers for two years.

“The era of military confrontations is over,” the official said. Like others giving their views on relations with the United States, the official asked not to be named because of the sensitivity of the matter.

However, it will be difficult for Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei to back any diplomatic solution, because doing so could undermine his credibility among his hardline power base, who reject any detente with the West.

“They (Americans) are lying. Even if Iran accepts all these demands, they will

continue to demand more. Their aim is changing Iran’s regime,” said one official who is close to Khamenei’s camp.

“Americans can never be trusted. We don’t give a damn to their threats and sanctions,” he said, echoing Khamenei’s public statements.

Pompeo’s speech did not explicitly call for a change in leadership in Iran, but he urged the Iranian people to reject their clerical rulers. “cuP oF PoiSon”: Earlier this month the United States withdrew from a 2015 multinational deal which restricted Iran’s nuclear program in return for lifting sanctions that had crippled the economy.

Tehran says its right to nuclear capabilities and its defensive missile program are non-negotiable.

But with Iran’s economy so fragile, weakened by decades of sanctions, corruption and mismanagement, Khamenei may yet consider diplomacy over confrontation with the United States.

Some insiders said that, though difficult, he could drink “the cup of poison,” as his predecessor Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini described it when he reluctantly agreed to a UN-mediated truce that ended the 1980-88 Iran-Iraq war.

“For most Iranians, the economy is the main issue, not what Iran does in the

region or the country’s nuclear program,” said a senior Western diplomat in Tehran.

“That is why Iranian leaders will show some flexibility despite the harsh rhetoric.”

TrouBLE aT HoME: It was Iran’s weak economy that forced Khamenei to give tentative backing for the 2015 nuclear agreement with major powers. The deal, engineered by pragmatist President Hassan Rouhani, ended the country’s economic and political isolation.

The establishment’s core support comes from lower-income Iranians, who joined anti-government protests in January. The unrest was a reminder to authorities that they were vulnerable to popular anger fueled by economic hardship.

“If they fail to manage the economy, then the regime will not be able to resist the pressure. It does not mean it will fall apart, but the economy could reach its worst ever breaking point,” said Meir Javedanfar, an Iranian-born expert on Iran at the Interdisciplinary Center Herzliya in Israel.

European parties to the nuclear deal are trying to rescue it after Washington’s exit by keeping Iranian oil trade and investment flowing. But they concede it will be difficult.

A third Iranian official said he ex-

Shooter in Panama City, Florida standoff dead: officials paNama CiTY, FlOriDa Agencies

An armed man who barricaded himself inside a Panama City, Florida, apartment complex on Tuesday was found dead by authorities, officials said in a news conference.

The suspect, identified as Kevin Holroyd, 49, fired multiple rounds at officers from a second-floor apartment before he was found dead inside, Tommy Ford, sheriff of Bay County where Panama City is located, told a news conference.

“We’re just blessed that we didn’t lose multiple officers and citizens today,” Ford said. Another complex resident sustained a minor injury.

Holroyd was wanted in connection with a homicide investigation in nearby Walton County, the Bay County Sheriff’s Office said on Facebook.

The homicide victim, 30-year-old Clinton Street, died from multiple gunshot wounds before 9 am CDT on Tuesday, Walton County Sheriff’s spokesperson Corey Dobridnia said in a phone interview.

The homicide and active shooter in-

cident were related, the Walton County Sheriff’s Office said on Twitter.

Fire officials received a 911 call about a gas smell at the apartment complex, Ford said.

Officials tried to contact the suspect, who officials believe lived at the complex, but he would not come to the door and began firing from the apartment with a rifle, the sheriff said.

“Law enforcement officer’s worst nightmare. Very difficult tactical situation,” Ford said, referring to shots being fired from an elevated position. “Luckily none of the good guys were hurt.”

US warns citizens in China after 'abnormal' sound injures consulate worker BEiJiNG Agencies

An American citizen working at the US consulate in the southern Chinese city of Guangzhou has reported suffering from “abnormal” sounds and pressure leading to a mild brain injury, the US embassy said on Wednesday.

The embassy, which issued a health alert to Americans living in China, said it could not link the case to health issues suffered by US government staff in Cuba dating back to late 2016.

The unnamed American citizen assigned to the consulate in Guangzhou had reported a variety of “physical symptoms” dating from late 2017 to

pected that the United States would eventually have to accept some level of Iranian uranium enrichment activity and ballistic missile work, because “these are Iran’s red lines”.

In his speech, Pompeo tried to quash talk of war by saying Washington would lift punishing sanctions it is now moving to impose, restore diplomatic and commercial ties and allow Iran to have access to advanced technology if Washington saw tangible shifts in Iran’s policies. “dEcLaraTion oF War”: Several Iranian officials told Reuters that the hardline elite, including Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), viewed Pompeo’s demands as a “declaration of war” against Iran.

Analysts said the risk of a broader conflict could not be ruled out, despite running counter to Trump’s own stated desire to disentangle the United States from a generation of costly conflicts in the Middle East.

“If Americans push Iran to the corner … then Iran will have no other option but to react harshly,” said Tehran-based analyst Saeed Leylaz. “This is what hawks want.”

While Tehran has said it would respond to any military aggression by targeting US interests in the region and Israel, some experts said the country would struggle to defend itself against a direct, multi-fronted attack.

“Iran has done well in proxy wars, but they cannot confront Israel or the US in a direct war,” said the Western diplomat. “They don’t have modern weapons.”

Shi’ite Muslim Iran backs President Bashar al-Assad in Syria’s civil war, Shi’ite militias in Iraq, Houthi rebels in yemen’s conflict and Lebanon’s Hezbollah movement.

Washington’s regional allies, Sunni Gulf Arab states and Israel — staunch foes of Tehran — have all praised the United States’ toughening stance on Iran.

April this year, the US embassy in Beijing said in an email.

The worker was sent to the United States for further evaluation. “The clinical findings of this evaluation matched mild traumatic brain injury (MTBI),” the embassy said.

The State Department was taking the incident very seriously and working to determine the cause and impact, the embassy said.

It added the Chinese government told the embassy it is also investigating and taking appropriate measures.

“We cannot at this time connect it with what happened in Havana, but we are investigating all possibilities,” a US embassy official told Reuters.

China’s Foreign Ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The US government on Wednesday issued a health alert to Americans in China, warning them about the incident it described as “subtle and vague, but abnormal, sensations of sound and pressure”.

“While in China, if you experience any unusual acute auditory or sensory phenomena accompanied by unusual sounds or piercing noises, do not attempt to locate their source. Instead, move to a location where the sounds are not present,” the emailed alert said.

The US government in October expelled 15 Cuban diplomats from the

CMYK

United States for what it said was Cuba’s failure to protect staff at the US embassy in Havana from mysterious health incidents at one point thought to possibly have been acoustic “attacks”.

Staff there reported symptoms including hearing loss, dizziness, fatigue and cognitive issues, though Cuban officials dismissed the idea of acoustic strikes as “science fiction” and accused Washington of slander.

The cause of those incidents remains unresolved.

The Canadian government in April said it would remove families of diplomats posted to Cuba after Canadian personnel there in 2017 also reported similar health symptoms.

female climber wants to be an inspiration to women NEpal Agencies

The most successful female climber of Mount Everest who just returned from her ninth ascent of the highest peak said she wants to be an inspiration to all women so they too can achieve their dreams. Lhakpa Sherpa was guiding some 50 climbers with her brother when she scaled the 8,850metre peak last week, breaking her own record for the most climbs by a woman. “If an uneducated woman who is a single mother can climb Everest nine times, any woman can achieve their dreams,” Sherpa said in Kathmandu on Wednesday, where she and Kami Rita, who climbed Everest for the record 22nd time, were honoured by the tourism community. The 44-yearold Sherpa never got a chance to get formal education because had to start earning a living by carrying climbing gear and supplies for trekkers. She said she wants to return next year for yet another climb.

“People who are 70 years old are still climbing Everest, I am nowhere there,” she said, adding that she was still healthy and fit. Her most recent climb was the toughest, she said, adding there was a lot of wind and snow and her group had to wait a few days to get to the summit. She said she's looking forward to seeing her three children back in Connecticut, where she works as a dishwasher at the Whole Foods Market in West Hartford.

08 COMMENT

Thursday, 24 May, 2018

Sabika Sheikh and gun laws of the United States

Pak-India relations The initial signs of a thaw?

D

UrING the last two years and a half there has be a constant deterioration in Pak-India relations. The period is marked by the Pathankot terrorist attack in January 2016, arrest of Kulbhushan Jadhav in March the same year for spying and involvement in terrorist activities, and the Uri attack by militants in September 2016 followed by Indian claims of a surgical strike on this side of the LoC, which was vehemently denied by Pakistan. Soon after Uri India boycotted the SAArC summit making the organisation dysfunctional. Firing and rocket attacks across the LoC intensified after June 2017 and climaxed during the nearly five months of the current year. In March there was a serious diplomatic standoff between the two countries that led Pakistan to boycott the WTo meeting in India.

Coming as it does in the midst of a steady drum beat of bad news, the arrival of the Indian delegation to attend the three day SCo–regional Anti-Terrorist Structure moot hosted by Islamabad is the first breath of fresh air after a long and humid summer. Finally, the Shanghai Cooperation organisation has brought the two neighbours to the negotiating table. During the moot, the legal experts from eight member countries will discuss terrorist threats being faced by the region and ways and means to enhance counter-terrorism cooperation between the SCo states.

In September, Pakistan and India are to participate in joint counter-terror military drills in the Ural mountains of russia under the rubric of SCo. The aim of the exercise is to enhance counter-terror cooperation among the SCo member countries. The interaction though limited could help build a modicum of trust that is currently in deficit. The positivities in Pak-India relations are of an incremental nature. But even baby steps of the sort should be welcomed as these can be precursors to more meaningful moves towards the improvement of ties without which the two countries cannot hope to improve the livelihhood of millions of people currently living below poverty line. only after elections have been held in both Pakistan and India can one expect bolder moves towards improvement of relations.

Gutter politics And discourteous politicians

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oLITICAL exchange between parties has become so unpleasant, to say the least, that it is difficult to remember who was the first to drag parliamentary politics into the gutter. Sure, Daniyal Aziz will never win any prizes for political finesse – nor for clean, constructive debates – and is known for deliberately pushing people into angry reaction, but nothing justifies PTI leader Naeem-ul-haq physically slapping Aziz during a heated TV appearance on Tuesday. This was not the first time haq lost his temper on TV. everybody remembers how he threw a glass at PPP’s Jamil Soomra during a talk show a few years ago.

Pakistani politics has been predominantly antagonistic since well before PTI’s arrival on the scene.

In the so-called ‘decade of democracy’ especially, people from opposing parties were not just political opponents but, often enough, also existential adversaries. Yet PTI has introduced a unique, aggressive and hostile manner of political activism that revolves primarily around badmouthing and insulting others, even people occupying very senior and prestigious government positions. And it’s not as if the hostility has not made its way inside the PTI’s own machinery as well. Newspapers around the country have flashed the Shah Mahmood-Jahangir Tareen spat on their front pages, with good reason.

Imran Khan never tires of projecting his own party has the only true champion of democracy in the country.

Yet from internal elections, or lack thereof, to the dharna and jalsa form of agitation instead of parliamentary protest, there is always plenty of daylight between his words and actions. Now, as his party is gaining momentum ahead of the election, it seems some of his senior lieutenants are acting in an increasingly unacceptable manner. The party leadership should take strong notice of the behaviour of Naeem ul haq and others like him before they drag the whole system further down the gutter.

Dedicated to the legacy of the late Hameed Nizami

Arif Nizami Editor Aziz-ud-Din Ahmad

Umar Aziz

Asher John

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Deputy Editor

Lahore – Ph: 042-36300938, 042-36375965

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Pakistanis can be victims as well

aminaH moHsin

D

oNALD Trump being given the seat of the president of the United States generated a wave of prolepsis all over the world regarding his long-lasting impact on the face of the globe. The first thing Pakistani students underwent was the change in policies of its Fulbright Program which was originally managed and funded by the United States educational Foundation in Pakistan but later only managed under Fulbright policies and regulations. There does not seem to be any ostensible difference between the before and after situations but surely reflects the other side’s seriousness to continue the programme the way it was established. Becoming hostile towards Pakistani students was, perhaps, their way of telling us that the United States of America is no more safe for us, for if you send your children to that country, its shady policies will turn them into lifeless bodies and return them to you in coffins.

The dark law, however, is not a problem of the Trump regime. It dates back to 15 December 1791 when the Bill of rights comprising ten amendments to the US Constitution were ratified.

The second one stated: “A well-regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.” Being a pivotal element of the canvas, the Second Amendment is most widely debated on its de jure role of protecting all Americans’ individual right to bear arms and its de facto position of acting as an obstacle on how far it can be regulated. The fact that this privilege has caused imbedding of gun culture in the US is not unknown. And the main problem exists in America not realising the seriousness of the situation.

Donald Trump’s initial speech following the Parkland, Florida shooting in February 2018 included a vague reference to “gunfire” which was his only mention of guns. Despite promising to work “with state and local leaders to help secure our schools and tackle the difficult issue of men-

tal health” the matter has never really been taken up. The real solution is to first acknowledge that the problem is guns, not mental illness.

Attempts to create soft corner for the culprits, the father of the 17-year-old Santa Fe shooter calling him a “victim” and the incident a result of bullying for example, is as absurd as turning blind eye to gun laws of the country and blaming family system and violent video games for increasing number of incidents. humans all over the world get into arguments with family, friends and strangers but in America, the probability of getting into an argument and pulling out a gun and killing someone is very high.

A research conducted in Columbia University in 2015 suggests that only 52 out of 235 killers in the database, approximately 22 percent, had mental illnesses. The researcher concluded: “The mentally ill should not bear the burden of being regarded as the ‘chief’ perpetrators of mass murder.”

The nature of the problem that has resulted in the loss of hundreds of lives is two-fold: America having far higher levels of gun ownership than any other country in the world, and it having way more gun deaths than any other developed nation.

According the human Development Index data compiled by the Guardian, as for 2012, the US the highest number of homicides by firearms per 1 million people, the figure resting at 29.7 as compared to 5.1 for Canada and 1.9 for Germany.

According to an article titled “how US gun culture compares with the world in five charts” published by CNN, “The US makes up less than five percent of the world’s population, but holds 31 per cent of global mass shooters”.

Also, as reported by the Washington Post, the number of civilian-owned firearms in the US had reached as high a figure as 88.8 guns per 100 people by 2007.

If we are still unable to establish an obvious link between the two then we better wait for the figures of gun-owners and victims to rise. If this is not an alarming situation for America and the world, then God knows what will be. researchers quote the 1996 mass shooting in Australia and the legislation that followed to prove that gun control can produce fruitful results.

When a 28-year-old man killed 35 and wounded 23 people in Port Arthur using a semiautomatic

The war of ideas A new idea of war!

Hussaan Tariq To quote Sun Tzu, a Chinese general, military strategist, writer, and philosopher: “The supreme art of war is to subdue the enemy without fighting.” he only way, remember, to contain a wild bush from growing is to de-root it.

The National Counter Terrorism Authority (NACTA) Pakistan seems to have wake up to the aforementioned reality in the form of realisation of the significance to counter extremism, which happens to be the root cause of violent terrorism, in order to eradicate the evil for good.

The finalised counter-terrorism narrative along with National counter extremism guidelines (seeking approval from the government), devised in an 18-month long consultation process with Ulemas, academics, and the media, is focused on themes like “service delivery, people’s engagement, education reforms, enabling environment, rehabilitation, reintegration and renunciation and also the promotion of culture,” stated Ihsan Ghani, the NACTA coordinator.

Designated as the primary institution to overlook the National Action Plan (NAP), which largely remains selectively applied till date, NACTA in a step further to strengthen its ongoing Tat’heer (Cleansing) drive, has launched mobile applications compatible with Android as

T

Karachi – Ph: 021-35381208-9

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well as iPhones enabling the citizens to report any hate speech, or display of such content within their local vicinities, while maintaining their anonymity to ensure their security. This is in addition to the launch of an online portal, named assurf-space, serving the same purpose.

A decade since its inception, primarily aimed at counter extremism and terrorism, and formulation and promotion of a strong national narrative, while NACTA has faced off with multiple issues pertaining to issuance of sufficient funds, and required political and bureaucratic support, it is nevertheless encouraging to see light at the long tunnel’s end in the form of some positive steps by the internal counter terrorism body.

Whereas the landmark successes in the war on terror have majorly been military oriented, a political contribution is critical, and a mandatory pre-requisite to a lasting, and sustainable resolution to the problem of extremism and thus, terrorism. NACTA, therefore, must prepare itself to face off with tough on-ground challenges.

The first and the foremost challenge, for NACTA, lies in infiltrating into the religious seminaries which, if not all of course, then many ironically remain the core of sowing the seeds of extremism into the underprivileged section of the society which turns to them for acquiring religious knowledge. The number of madrassahs, as per a recent survey, stands at 28,982 hosting over three (3) million students as compared to only 2861 back in 1988. Although the ministry of interior claims that 90pc of the madrassahs are registered, it seems highly unlikely on ground.

What’s critical to note here is that, other than registry, the curriculum being taught in these seminaries is neither reviewed, nor approved by a central authority, and even being talked about ignites fury in the relevant circles, that adds reluctance to the political and bureaucratic power structure’s will to act. The funding to these madrassahs remains another big question mark on the financial control measures in place, as approximately 300 seminaries are receiving foreign funding. The unchecked curriculum and funding

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rifle, Australian legislators banned automatic and semiautomatic rifles and shotguns by introducing the National Firearms Agreement and confiscated 650,000 such weapons through a mandatory buyback programme. As a result Australia’s firearm homicide and firearm suicide rates declined by approximately 42 and 57 percent, respectively, in seven years after the law was passed, as stated in Firearms research Summaries provided by the harvard Injury Control research Center.

The Public Safety and recreational Firearms Use Protection Act signed by President Bill Clinton in 1994 banned the ability to “manufacture transfer, or possess a semiautomatic assault weapon,” unless its possession was lawful “under Federal law on the date of the enactment of this subsection” for a period of ten years. Multiple futile attempts have been made to renew the ban, with President Barack obama delivering his final State of the Union address before the Congress with an empty seat in the first lady’s guest box as a tribute to victims of gun violence still resonating in our minds.

The latest incident has consumed a Pakistani exchange student’s life as well, a 17-year-old girl who intended to return home in a few weeks’ time. She was killed by an American in America and the world is silent. Not being a targeted victim justified President Donald Trump issuing a general statement regarding the shooting without any mention of the loss a Pakistan has suffered at the hands of an American terrorist. of all the identities Sabika Sheikh possessed – a Pakistani, a Muslim, and an exchange student in America – the world is highlighting the last one because Dimitrios Pagourtzis did not carry out targeted killing. Then why is it that when an American commits a similar crime and is found to have the first two tags is identified only by the labels ‘Muslim’ and ‘Pakistani’? Why aren’t mental illnesses or contributory factors from the American society taken into account in those cases? Why is their crime always associated with entire communities from which they originally hail?

Perhaps, Sabika Sheikh had to die in order to prove to the world that Pakistanis can be victims as well, our lives are as precious as of Americans and our loss is as big as America’s.

Aminah Mohsin is a freelance columnist. will remain a grave challenge to the counter extremism guide unless intercepted and scrutinised.

The second challenge in line would be the Afghan refugees. Stats reveal a number of two (2) million plus Afghan refugees (registered and unregistered) dispersed, and diffused across Pakistan.

Under-privileged in their economic status, these refugees are a constant threat to Pakistan’s national security as they are vulnerable to external influence, and abuse against the host country. NACTA along with other relevant institutions must work on either rehabilitating or repatriating these refugees, for the counter extremism guide to be effective.

Certainly not to be left out, the third challenge lies in the provision of appropriate and rational understanding of religion. While the clerics guilty of ingraining extremism through false propagation of the message of Islam need to be highlighted, and isolated, it is crucial to engage reputable Ulemas, muftis, and religious scholars and provide them with an effective platform to spread the true spirit of Islam among the masses.

The media also needs to play an active role here.

Left unaddressed, these challenges will continue to emerge as hurdles in the effectiveness of the counter extremism guide, and the nightmare of terrorism will, thereby, continue to haunt us.

Almost two decades into the war on terror, the world powers, with all their combined economic and military might, still find themselves short of devising an absolute and sustainable solution to the menace of terrorism, which has managed to expand its span of operations across regions. A critical ingredient of terrorism, however, underestimated and left un-addressed to a great extent in this war on terror is extremism; the root cause, and the primary triggering element of terrorism. To cut it short, the world is fighting a war it has failed to understand, and without hitting at its root cause.

Finding itself in the midst of the misunderstood, and inappropriate global anti-terror drive cum carnage, lies Pakistan, to which the western idea of Islamic terrorism does not fit. It is imperative to adopt a more feasibly applicable solution rather than adapting to an imported version.

NACTA, along with all other stakeholders, must remain proactive, and persistent in their counter terrorism and extremism drive!

Hussaan Tariq is an HR professional. He can be contacted at hussaantariq@gmail.com

Email: editorial@pakistantoday.com.pk

COMMENT 09

Thursday, 24 May, 2018

Editor’s mail SCO moot

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

Indian threat to regional security

Caretaker PM

India cannot wriggle out of that commitment through the use of guns

malik muHammad asHraf

U

NProVoKeD firing by the Indian security forces along the ceasefire line and working boundary targeting civilian population continues incessantly in breach of the ceasefire agreement of 2003. The Indian side does not seem inclined to put an end to its bellicose adventurism in spite of repeated protests by Pakistan and its willingness to engage in a dialogue process to defuse the situation, continuation of which could have disastrous consequences for peace and security in the region. reportedly Indian security forces have carried out more than 1,050 ceasefire violation along the LoC and the Working Boundary in 2018 resulting in the martyrdom of 28 innocent civilians and causing injuries to 117 people. Last Friday morning six people embraced martyrdom and 22 sustained injuries in the shelling by the Indian forces in the Marajke, harpal, Suchaitgarh, Chaprar and Bajwat sector. As usual the Pakistani security forces responded befittingly to answer the aggression.

Pakistan, to be honest, has shown remarkable restraint in refusing to escalate the situation and invariably opted for diplomatic initiatives to cool down the situation. In the backdrop of the Friday morning firing by the Indian forces, the Indian high Commissioner Ajay Bisaria was summoned to the foreign ministry and told, “The deliberate targeting of civilian populated areas is indeed deplorable and contrary to human dignity, international human rights and humanitarian laws. The ceasefire violations by India are a threat to regional peace and security and may lead to a strategic miscalculation.”

Nobody in his right mind can take an exception to the consequences of the continued Indian aggression as pointed out by the ministry of for-

eign affairs. Pakistan and India are both nuclear powers and there is a limit to restrain and tolerance in the face of incessant provocations. The world acknowledges the fact that Kashmir is a nuclear flash point and an armed conflict between the two countries can have dreadful consequences for the region and the world at large.

The ground realities do demand a saner approach

by India and the resolution of her disputes with Pakistan including the core issue of Kashmir which a major cause of continued hostility between the two countries.

India is not only persisting with violation of the ceasefire agreement along the LoC and the Working Boundary but is also continuing with its ruthless persecution of the people of Kashmir who are waging a war for their right of self-determination as enunciated in the UN resolutions. During the last five month 115 people have been killed by the Indian security forces in different operations and crackdown against the militants in Kashmir. The freedom struggle that the people of Kashmir launched in 1989 continues unabated and the martyrdom of Burhan Wani in 2016 has orchestrated a discernible cultural transformation in the valley as the movement continues to gather moss. The youth and even the highly educated segments of the Kashmiri society feel more inclined towards defiance and resistance against the Indian oppression. reportedly Indian Army Chief Bipin rawat in his recent interview to the Indian express confessed, “The youth has got into the trap of violence and attacks forces without any fear of retribution and that people incite security forces by pelting stones at them to disrupt the operations.” The situation in Kashmir admittedly has worsened since Modi-led BJP government came into power. Its coercive policies have visibly led to the intensification of resistance by the people of Kashmir and the canvass of resistance is expanding with every passing day and every individual killed. The phenomenon has also led to increase in pro-Pakistani feelings among the people of Kashmir.

Bashir Manzar, a journalist based in Srinagar who is essentially hostile and long-time critic of Pakistan, has pointed out this reality in his comment on Facebook. he said, “Whether we like it or not, the policy adopted by Modi regime in Kashmir has made Pakistan much more relevant than it was

Regrettably, the Modi-led government encouraged by its western allies who are showing criminal indifference to what is happening in Kashmir

PAKISTAN has become member of Shanghai Cooperation organization (SCo) in June 2017 and it is good to note it is hosting for the first time ever SCo’s regional AntiTerrorist Structure Legal experts three day meeting in Islamabad which got underway on Wednesday.

The meeting , according to statement issued by the Foreign office, is being attended by legal experts from eight member states including China, India, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, russia, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan besides host Pakistan as well as representatives of SCo-rATS executive committee which will be discussing terrorist threats being faced by the region and devise ways and means to enhance counter-terrorism cooperation between the SCo member states. on the eve of the moot, Pakistan has availed the opportunity to reiterate its supports for the efforts for regional cooperation in fighting terrorism,drug trafficking and organized crime, we are ready to share our experiences in tackling the menace of terrorism through the SCo rATS, Pakistan is happy to welcome delegates from SCo member states in Islamabad.

Presence of an Indian delegation for the first time may prove a thaw in the relationship between the two neighbouring countries which are somehow not having good friendly cordial relations for quite sometime.

Besides this SCo moot, India and Pakistan will also be participating in a joint military exercise in russia under the aegis of the SCo in September 2018 for the first time ever.

Pakistani and Indian troops have been together in peacekeeping assignments with the United Nations but this upcoming joint military exercise is going to be first timer and may prove good in bringing the neighbouing countries closer to each other and may break the ice it is sincerely hoped, please.

M Z RIFAT Lahore

in 1947. Pakistan has a strong constituency in Kashmir and not of separatists alone.”

In view of the fast deteriorating situation in Kashmir, saner voices in Indian have urged the need for cessation of hostilities and initiation of dialogue to resolve the conflict. Citizen groups led by former external affairs minister Yashwant Sinha have supported the popular demand of ceasefire and urged the government of India to recommence a purposeful dialogue with all stakeholders. Former chief minister of IhK Dr Faooq Abdullah has also repeatedly emphasised the need for dialogue with Pakistan. Director General Police Jammu and Kashmir SP Vaid responding to live questions on Twitter recently said, “personally feel gun is not the solution. every party concerned, including even our neighbour should sit together and talk it out. Violence is not the solution.”

The foregoing ground realities prove beyond an iota of doubt that the struggle of the people of Kashmir cannot be subdued through barrel of the gun and war is also not a credible option. World history is witness to the fact that freedom struggles cannot be suppressed with swords and guns and the solution to the conflicts invariably comes through dialogue and purposeful engagement. regrettably, the Modi-led government encouraged by its western allies who are showing criminal indifference to what is happening in Kashmir — blurred by their strategic and commercial interests — is recklessly engaged in reversing the historic lessons and consigning the region to perennial instability which in the end could also prove detrimental to her own security and progress. Thanks to the tragic attacks of 9/11 human rights violations by state forces have generally become a legitimate tool to suppress dissent and freedom struggles which is manifestly evident in regards to the oppression by the Indian forces in Kashmir.

People of Kashmir and Pakistan are party to the dispute as Kashmir is an unfinished agenda of the partition. It is not a territorial dispute between Pakistan and India. It is about the inalienable right of self-determination of the people of Kashmir as enunciated in the UN resolutions and the commitments given by the Indian leadership at the time. India cannot wriggle out of that commitment through the use of guns and its refusal to open its eyes to the ground realities. The irrefutable reality is that there can be no peace and progress in the region without the resolution of the Kashmir conundrum. Sooner, India and its allies wearing blinkers on their eyes and stuffed ears realise this reality the better.

Reportedly Indian security forces have carried out more than 1,050 ceasefire violation along the LOC and the Working Boundary in 2018

Malik Muhammad Ashraf is an academic.

He can be contacted at: ashpak10@gmail.com.

IT is a matter of some regret that Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi and opposition Leader in the National Assembly Syed Khurshid Shah have not so far been able to reach consensus over a non-controversial person to be the caretaker Prime Minister for running day to day government affairs and holding of general elections in a free, fair, transparent and conducive peaceful atmosphere on a date to be announced by the President after the incumbent federal government steps down on may 31,2018 on completion of its five years constitutional tenure overcoming may challenges squarely.

As the time is running out, the matter may be referred to a committee of the outgoing National Assembly members in accordance with the provisions of Article 224A of the Constitution which inter-alia reads:” In case the Prime Minister and the Leader of th opposition in the outgoing National Assembly do not agree on any person to be appointed as the caretaker Prime Minister, within three days of the dissolution of the National Assembly they shall forward two nominees each to a Committee to be immediately constituted by the Speaker of the National Assembly , comprising eight members of the outgoing National Assembly ,… having equal representation from the Treasury and the opposition to be nominated by the Prime Minister and the Leader of the opposition respectively.

The Committee so constituted shall finalize the name of the caretaker Prime Minister within three days of the referral of the matter and in case the Committee also fails, the names of the nominees shall be referred to the election Commission of oakistan for final decision within two days.

Though time is fast running out but still it is hoped that the PM and the opposition leader do reach a consensus on a name of a person to be the caretaker Prime Minister otherwise the above-mentioned Constitutional provision of a Committee will be applicable, such a situation should be avoided by both of them in a spirit of accommodation,please.Thanks.

MUHAMMAD MURTAZA ZEESHAN Lahore

An unfortunate spokesperson The recent incidence where PTI spokesman Naeemul haq slapped a PML(N) federal minister Daniyal Aziz in a live telecast does not bode well for future of parliamentary democracy,where tolerance for dissent is one of the prerequisites for any individual aspiring to hold political public office. Naeemul haq has previously displayed similar rash behavior on another talk show while arguing with a PPP representative.

Mr Daniyal himself has a reputation for not using soft parliamentary language in his public address or while engaged with his political adversaries, during his tenures in PML(N) led government and Musharraf junta rule, in which he also held public office. one shudders at the thought of how PTI will behave if it comes to power. They have had a history of a very hostile social media network which resorts to abuse and slander against their political opponents and anybody who dares to be critical. Calling political opponents a thief etc has been the practice of not only PTI but all other political parties. Democracy without tolerance for dissent and criticism is a sham. electoral mandate is a dignified universally accepted modus-operandi to give majority party role of custodian of constitution and national exchequer, while the opposition has an equally important function of checks and balances, ensuring that there is no abuse of power and violation of prescribed constitutional limits within which elected government has to function.

GULL ZAMAN Peshawar

10 NEWS

Thursday, 24 May, 2018

PM to announce GilGitBaltistan order on 27th ISLAMABAD

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GHULAM ABBAS

ESPITE the protest of opposition parties and severe criticism in social media over the proposed Gilgit Baltistan Empowerment Order 2018, the centre is all set to approve it on Thursday. With the approval from the cabinet and a subsequent sign of president of Pakistan, Gilgit Baltistan (GB) Order will replace the GB Self Governance Order 2009.

Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, who reportedly signed the draft order on Tuesday, will visit Gilgit on May 27 to address a joint session of GB Legislative Assembly (GBLA) and GB Council. During his address, the PM will share detail about the reform order introduced by his government after deliberation for over two years.

According to insiders, a special meeting of the cabinet will be held in Islamabad on Thursday to approve the GB Order. The president of Pakistan will sign the order on Saturday making it law before the visit of the PM to Gilgit on Sunday.

As per a letter of GBLA secretariat sent to governor GB on Tuesday, Speaker GBLA has de-

‘Disenchanted’ Fauzia Kasuri quits PTI Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) leader Fauzia Kasuri on Wednesday announced her decision to quit the party saying that she had sent her resignation to party Chairman Imran Khan and other PTI members. “It should come as no surprise to you that I have decided to leave the PTI,” read a letter forwarded to the PTI chief by Kasuri.

Thanking Imran for providing her with a platform to develop her political career on, she said that since 2013, she had become increasingly disenchanted by the direction the party had taken and no longer saw it as representative of aspiration of millions of undersized citizens seeking transformative change in Pakistan. “Furthermore, you opted to hand the reins of the party to those electables we fought against since our inception, at the cost of workers who in some cases laid down their lives for the cause,” the letter read. “Sadly, this was the final nail in the coffin.” Kasuri further stated that this letter should be accepted as her formal resignation from the party. Wishing luck to Imran, she expressed hope that if the PTI chief was granted the opportunity to form a national government, he would strive to bring about the change he once promised. NEWS DESK

ANti-grAft Body Approves corruptioN refereNces AgAiNst ex-pM shAukAt Aziz, LiAquAt JAtoi, isMAeL qureshi, shAhid hAMid, Arif ALLAuddiN AMoNg others ISLAMABAD MIAN ABRAR

The top decision-making body of the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) – the Executive Board Meeting (EBM) – on Wednesday approved of filing corruption references against top guns of Musharraf regime, including former prime minister Shaukat Aziz, former minister for water and power, Liaquat Ali Khan Jatoi, former secretary water and power Ismael Qureshi, Ministry of Water and Power former additional secretary Muhammad Yousaf Memon, former Ministry of Water and Power joint secretary Ghulam Nabi Mangrio, former section officer Umer Farooq, Air Marshal (r) Shahid Hamid, former Alternative Energy Board chairman, Naseem Akhtar Khan, and former AEDB secretary Arif Allauddin for illegally appointing Basharat Hassan Bashir as con-

sired to summon the Joint Session of the GBLA and Gilgit-Baltistan Council on 27′ May 2018 at 10:00 hours at Assembly Hall Chinar Bagh Gilgit. The PM of Pakistan will address the Joint Session. It is, therefore, requested that approval for the summoning of the Joint Session GBLA and Gilgit-Baltistan Council under Article-40 of Gilgit-Baltistan (Empowerment and Self Governance) Order 2009, and formal approval to prorogue the Joint Session on the same date may also be obtained from governor Gilgit-Baltistan.

It may recall here that the proposed GB order has drawn immense criticism on social media. It is regarded as eyewash which has deprived the people of GB of their basic constitutional and political rights. The proposed reform bill has drawn much ire and criticism of different stakeholders.

According to opposition parties in GB and legal experts, the order, if implemented in the current shape, would do away with the little autonomy that was granted by the 2009 ordinance.

The proposed reform ordinance gives overriding powers to the prime minister of Pakistan.

It confers legislative, executive and judicial powers to the prime minister, whereas people of Gilgit-Baltistan don’t have any representation in Pakistan’s federal legislature, thus effectively de-

prived of any role in PM’s election.

Termed as ‘G-B Emperor Order’ on Social Media, the proposed order suggests that: “The prime minister shall have the powers to adopt an amendment in the existing laws or any new law in force subject to the legislative competence under sub-section 2,” As many as 50 subjects of legislation have been conferred to the prime minister. As per Article 41 of the proposed order, the legislative authority of GilgitBaltistan Assembly in its own subjects is subservient to the prime minister.

Similarly, the articles, 60 (4), 60(6), (d) and 99 (2) also suggest that the Law passed by the prime minister will prevail in case a law on the same subject is passed by G-B Assembly. The proposed order also gives the right to levy taxes on the people of Gilgit-Baltistan to the prime minister of Pakistan. The judicial powers have also been vested on the prime minister. The right to appoint judges to the Supreme Appellate Court of Gilgit-Baltistan and other sub-courts has been granted to the prime minister whereas the jurisdiction of G-B courts is effectively zero in mainland Pakistan. This would make the prime minister immune to any decision of G-B courts as no decree can be passed against him.

kp-fAtA merger to benefit tribal people, further strengthen pakistan: pM Abbasi PESHAWAR STAFF REPORT

Describing the proposed KPFATA merger as a revolutionary step, Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi on Wednesday said that it would not only benefit the people of FATA but would also strengthen the country.

“I know there are different opinions on this subject, but the ultimate decision would be taken keeping in view the country’s interest as well as the aspirations of FATA people,” he said while addressing the inauguration ceremony of 132 KV Grid Station in Tehsil Jamrud of Khyber Agency.

The prime minister said that the consultation continued on KP-FATA merger over the last three-and-a-half months and even today, there was a lengthy meeting on the subject, adding that the National Assembly and Senate would take the decision in the interest of the people of tribal areas.

opp leaders reject Nawaz’s allegations, demand probe ISLAMABAD: The opposition Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) and Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) have criticised deposed prime minister Nawaz Sharif for “playing politics in court”, and called for an investigation into the allegations made by the latter in his statement before the court and in a presser later in the day. Commenting on Nawaz’s statement, PTI spokesman Fawad Chaudhry said Nawaz will have to pay for the politics he tried to play in court. He said this in response to the former prime minister’s statement earlier on Wednesday that the Avenfield reference was filed against him as a punishment for taking legal action against former military dictator Pervez Musharraf despite being warned not to do so. Chaudhry said that what Nawaz Sharif said is a political statement, something that he says during his rallies and the question remains regarding what is his legal stance. “Nawaz was asked only two questions regarding the Avenfield properties and the money in the bank accounts but he neither spoke about the money trail nor the source of the money,” Chaudhry said, adding that Nawaz’s statement did not answer the court’s questions. “His conspiracy theory will not be able to influence the court,” he concluded.

PPP DEMANDS PROBE: Meanwhile, PPP Information Secretary Maula Bux Chandio rejected Nawaz’s claim that former president Asif Ali Zardari had conveyed a message to him to endorse the second martial law imposed by Musharraf. Chandio termed Nawaz’s allegations ‘dangerous,’ and said that a non-partisan investigation should be conducted. “Nawaz Sharif will have to answer several questions after these allegations,” Chandio said. STAFF REPORT

Parliamentary leaders endorse KP-FATA merger amendment

He said it was a long process involving financial and administrative measures.

Under the proposed merger, FATA would be provided Rs100 billion per annum for the next ten years as against the current Rs25 billion to bring this area as well as the people at par with other areas of the country in terms of education, health, infrastructure and other facilities.

He said that Pakistan Army was extending full support in the implementation of FATA reforms.

Separately, PM Abbasi on Wednesday also said that with a 6 per cent GDP growth in the fiscal year 2017-18, and fast development of infrastructure and tackling energy issues over the last five years, the PML-N government had established a solid economic base for the country.

“Today, Pakistan is presenting itself as a model of high-growth,” the prime minister said while addressing the inauguration ceremony of the expansion of Bacha Khan Airport in Peshawar.

ISLAMABAD: A day after the cabinet committee accorded approval to put before parliament the amendment for the Federally Administered Tribal Areas’ (FATA) merger with Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP), the parliamentary leaders on Wednesday also finally gave a nod to amend the constitution to bring the merger into effect.

The decision was taken on Wednesday at a meeting of the parliamentary leaders chaired by Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi. The session was attended by Barrister Zafarullah, Senate Opposition Leader Sherry Rehman, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf leader Shah Mahmood Qureshi, and Aftab Sherpao. Reports said that earlier the government allies had a difference of opinion over the issue of FATA reforms. The coalition partners demanded that their 12 seats should be allotted in the National Assembly. The coalition members demanded that when the internally displaced people (IDPs) return to their homes, the new census should be held. The Jamiat Ulema-eIslam-Fazl and Pakhtunkhwa Milli Awami Party members boycotted the session. The amendment bill for the merger is expected to be presented to the National Assembly on Thursday. STAFF REPORT

NAB on move against bigwigs NAB chief approves probe into Multan Metro The accountability watchdog on Wednesday approved launching a probe into purchasing land for the Multan Metro Bus Project (MMBP), illegally. National Accountability Bureau (NAB) Chairman Justice (r) Javed Iqbal, during an Executive Board Meeting (EBM), approved an investigation into the mass transit project and demanded that records pertaining to the project be presented for investigation. The meeting

sultant in abuse of authority, which caused losses up to Rs20.16 million.

The meeting, chaired by Justice (r) Javed Iqbal, authorised seven inquiries, five investigations and also approved two plea bargain applications against various accused.

The EBM decided to refer the case to relevant ministry to conduct departmental level scrutiny of illegal appointments.

authorized another inquiry against Multan Waste Management Company Caretaker Managing Director Imran Noor, HR Manager Aamir Maqbool and others. They have been accused of illegal appointment of Imran Noor as the chief financial advisor by abusing authority, inflicting losses of Rs104 million to the national exchequer. In December, 2017, NAB chief had ordered investigation into the alleged corruption in MMBP after a Senate

NAB, however, has clarified that the inquiries, investigations and references are filed against the accused on alleged involvement in corruption and causing losses of multi-billion rupees to the national exchequer.

“The investigations are not final.

NAB investigates, scrutinises the accused to make investigations, inquiries, complaints and verifications as per law,” said

CMYK

panel had decided to expand the scope of its investigation into alleged corruption of $17.5 million in MMBP and the transfer of money abroad, as fresh details revealed a link between a top official of China-based Yabaite Technology Company Limited and the Yabaite Pakistan Construction Group Private Limited. NAB also approached the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) to ask for complete records of the MMBP after initiating a probe.

an official handout.

The EBM meeting authorised investigations against officers of CDA, Messers Pak Line Estate Company Private Limited and others. They have been accused of illegally allotting Forest Department land to Park Line Estate Company Private Limited, which caused heavy losses to the national exchequer.

EBM authorised the closing of inquiry

against National Fertilizer Marketing Limited Managing Director Tariq Shafi Khan, General Manager Fakhar Zaman Ali Cheema and others owing to the absence of evidence.

The EBM authorised conducting an inquiry against the management of EOBI and officers of Bank of Punjab (BOP) Lahore. The EOBI management has been accused of illegally buying Rs3.8 billion shares from BOP. The EBM approved Rs177.794 million plea bargain application of Saith Nisar Ahmed son of Muhammad Latif.

The application would be sent to Accountability Court for final approval.

The EBM approved another inquiry against former Punjab Cooperative Board for Liquidation chairman Mushtaq Anjum and others. They have been accused of illegal transfer of Punjab Cooperative Board for Liquidation’s land, inflicting losses of Rs53.93 million to the national exchequer.

EBM authorised inquiry against the officers/officials of Lyari Expressway Resettlement Project, Karachi. The officers have been accused of involvement in China cutting, occupying commercial and residential plots which inflicted Rs2,792 million to the national exchequer.

EBM authorised investigation against the officers/officials and others of Revenue department taluka Sajawal.

Thursday, 24 May, 2018

Govt’s incoMPetence inflates cost of construction Project exPonentially ISLAMABAD

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SHAH NAWAZ MOHAL

HE cost of a years-old project involving the construction of federal courts and tribunals in the premises of the building of State Bank on the Mall, Lahore, which was originally estimated at Rs184 million, has ballooned to Rs2,150 million in latest revisions, Pakistan Today has learnt.

According to documents available with Pakistan Today, the original PC-1 was submitted to the Planning and Development Division (P&D) for revision at a cost of Rs1,145 million back in February 2009. The P&D Division returned the PC-1 in June 2011 for upgrading the cost estimate as per prevailing market rates to avoid further revision of PC-1.

Later on, NESPAK submitted a draft of revised PC-1 at a cost of Rs1,200 mil-

Political activities reach new high in Swat’s PK-5 ahead of 2018 polls SWAT HAROON SIRAJ

With the general elections approaching, a battle line has been drawn between the ticket aspirants of different political parties, striving hard to run for office.

Swat is quite popular for its natural landscape and scenic beauty, but a rather interesting fact is that it has always remained a hub for political activities as well. PK-5 is the biggest and most important constituency of the Swat district. It contains areas of the city including Saidu Sharif, Mingora, Makanbagh, Watkay Shahdara, Nawakaly, Rangmohalla, Landikass, Malakanan Mohalla, Rahimabad Qamber and Bunr to name a few. Several influential political families as well as dignitaries live in the said constituency and it has seen quite tough competitions among different political players in the past. In general elections of 1993, Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) candidate Dr Mehboobur Rehman (late) won the PA seat with 9,097 votes. In 1997, Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) candidate, Asfandyar Amirzeb (late) secured 12,136 and won the provincial assembly seat. In 2002, Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) candidate Muhammad Amin bagged 15,594 votes and won the seat while in 2008, Awami National Party (ANP) candidate Wajid Ali Khan secured 4,904 votes. This year, major political parties like the PPP, PML-N, and Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) are having a hard time selecting their candidates from the pool of ticket aspirants.

The aspirants are lobbying within their party’s ranks to clinch the ticket. On the other hand, small political parties are struggling to find influential candidates to represent them in the upcoming polls. With the elections nearing, internal disputes over the nominations have also started to surface. While PML-N’s four members have submitted nominations for the party ticket, the party leadership hasn’t finalised a candidate yet.

Political pundits say if PML-N awards a ticket to Abdur Rahim, who is also Swat Trade Federation’s president, the race will be very tough. On the other hand, PPP too seems to be confused as it hasn’t yet fielded its candidate either.

According to reports, two aspirants, Ameerzeb Sheheryar and Akhtar Hussain, have submitted their names for the slot. Akhtar Hussain is PPP Mingora president and is young and energetic.

He also is more experienced than his opponent. PPP workers and supporters are also reportedly supporting Akhtar for the slot. Meanwhile, KP’s ruling party, PTI’s eleven aspirants have submitted their nominations for the seat to PTI general secretary. Many of them are young, but sources inside the party told that chances of the current MPA from the constituency, Fazal Hakim, who secured 18,080 votes in the 2013 general elections, are vibrant.

cost of coNstructiNg federAL courts, triBuNALs iN LAhore BALLooNs froM rs184M to rs2,150M lion, which was later tabled and approved by division concerned and also by Lahore High Court (LHC) in October 2015.

According to the latest revised PC1, the cost of the project stands at Rs2185.762 million which originally stood at Rs184 million.

The plight of the project, however, doesn’t stop here as the bureaucracy of Punjab resorted to delaying tactics like delays in issuance of NOC of Environment Protection Agency and Traffic Engineering and Transport Planning Agency (TEPA) and approval of the drawings from a competent forum.

TEPA gave its approval in February 2017 while EPT Punjab, later on, gave its approval on March 28, 2017.

Since April 2017, despite several reminders and letters that were written

by Ministry of Law and Justice to Punjab chief secretary requesting his office to convene a meeting of the special committee and expedite formal approval of the building drawing has not been accorded hitherto. The latest letter, a copy of which is available with Pakistan Today, was written on March 30 and met the similar fate.

The repeated requests for a meeting fell on deaf ears for the past two years.

A source in Ministry of Law and Justice, on condition of anonymity, confided in Pakistan Today that the indifference of Punjab government and immense lack of seriousness has caused

NEWS

a loss of millions to the national exchequer. “It has been almost a decade-and-ahalf now, yet the project remains in limbo. Punjab chief secretary is even shying away from giving us an hour of his precious time. No wonder the state of affairs have come to such a grinding halt,” he said. It is pertinent to mention here that Law, Justice and Human Rights Division is the sponsoring and implementing agency of the project while Pakistan Public Works Department is the executing agency and NESPAK is its consultants.

The project aims to renovate old State Bank building where 25 courts and tribunals of different disciplines including customs, excise, special courts, commercial courts, drug courts, federal service tribunal and environmental protection tribunal are to be housed in a building spanning over a total covered area of 253,300 square ft.

khursheed shah calls for promoting tolerance in political system ISLAMABAD STAFF REPORT

Leader of the Opposition in the National Assembly Syed Khursheed Ahmed Shah on Wednesday called for promoting tolerance in society and in political system as intolerance could create anarchy in the country.

Speaking on a point of order in the National Assembly, he said Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) has always condemned incident of un-parliamentary attitude in politics. “This parliament not only represents 220 million people of Pakistan but also protects their rights,” he said.

He said the parliament was going to complete its constitutional term and we should end it with a positive note and tradition rather than promoting hatred. He said this house witnessed heated arguments and debates on various issues but no abusive or unparliamentarily language was used.

Condemning last night incident during a talk-show, Khursheed Shah said we should respect each other. He said the incident was too grave that Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf has to take serious notice of it.

He also welcomed the interior minister in house also prayed for his early recovery.

Muttahida Quami Movement central leader Dr Faqoor Sattar said arrogant language was used for his community by the Sindh Chief Minister in the provincial Assembly. He urged PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto and Co-Chairman Asif Ali Zardari to take notice of remarks made by the Sindh Chief Minister as these words would increase hatred. Responding to points raised by Farooq Sattar, the leader of the Opposition said we would condemn all those who would utter words against dividing Sindh province. How we can tolerate words against Sindh, he questioned.

He said people belonging to all

Indus Water Treaty: WB vows to resolve issues in ‘amicable manner’ ISLAMABAD STAFF REPORT

The World Bank has said that it would continue to work with Pakistan and India to resolve all issues relating to Indus Water Treaty, including Kishanganga hydroelectric project, in an “amicable manner” and in line with the Indus Water Treaty provisions.

According to a statement issued by the World Bank on Wednesday, senior World Bank officials met on May 21 and 22 with a delegation from the Government of Pakistan to discuss issues regarding the Indus Waters

Treaty and opportunities within the Treaty to seek an amicable resolution.

The delegation of the Government of Pakistan also shared with the Bank their concerns about the recent inauguration of the Kishanganga hydroelectric plant. Several procedural options for resolving the disagreement over the interpretation of the Treaty’s provisions were discussed.

While an agreement on the way forward was not reached at the conclusion of the meetings, the World Bank will continue to work with both countries to resolve the issues in an amicable manner and in line with the

Treaty provisions.

The Indus Waters Treaty is a profoundly important international agreement that provides an essential cooperative framework for India and Pakistan to address current and future challenges of effective water management to meet human needs and achieve development goals, the statement added.

As a signatory to the Treaty, the World Bank’s role is limited and procedural. In particular, the role in relation to “differences” and “disputes” is limited to the designation of people to fulfil certain roles when requested by either or both parties.

11

sabika sheikh laid to rest in Karachi KARACHI STAFF REPORT

A Pakistani exchange student killed in a mass shooting in Texas last week was buried in her hometown of Karachi on Wednesday, her coffin draped with Pakistan’s green and white flag. Sabika Sheikh, 17, was among eight students and two teachers killed in Texas when Santa Fe High School, southeast of Houston, on Friday joined a grim list of US schools and campuses where students and staff have been gunned down, stoking a divisive debate about gun laws. The funeral prayers for Sabika Sheikh were offered at Karachi’s Hakeem Saeed Ground at 9am. Security arrangements were tight at Hakeem Saeed Ground, where a number of government officials and political leaders, including Sindh Chief Minister Murad Shah, Sindh Governer Muhammad Zubair, Sindh Home Minister Sohail Anwar Siyal and hundreds of others attended her funeral prayers. About 100 police officers were deployed at the ground, where a bomb disposal squad had conducted a sweep to ensure security for attendees. The body of Sabika Sheikh arrived at cargo complex of Karachi airport in the wee hours on Wednesday.

Bajwa says junior officers ‘extremely important’ in modern warfare SHINKIARI STAFF REPORT

Chief of the Army Staff (COAS) General Qamar Javed Bajwa visited the Junior Leaders Academy (JLA), Shinkiari on Wednesday where he was given detailed briefing by the commandant. The JLA is a premium army institution which imparts training of basic professional skills and leadership traits to the Junior Commissioned officers (JCO) and Non-Commissioned Officers (NCO) of the Pakistan Armed Forces as well as those from friendly foreign countries. On directions of the COAS, the academy is being upgraded as the “Centre of Excellence for the Junior Military Leadership” with enhanced capacity and facilities. COAS said that the training of junior leaders is extremely important because in modern warfare they have a critical role to play. COAS also interacted with the faculty and was pleased to see young officers from Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) and Malakand as instructors. IGT&E Lieutenant General Hidayatur Rehman and Rawalpindi Corps Commander Lieutenant General Nadeem Raza were also present on the occasion.

Ministry seeks more time over testimony of indian nationals Atc directs iNterior MiNistry to suBMit its repLy By JuNe 6 ISLAMABAD STAFF REPORT

The Ministry of Interior on Wednesday sought more time to apprise an anti-terrorism court hearing the 2008 Mumbai attacks case whether 27 Indian nationals will testify in the case or not.

The ATC judge, allowing the request, directed the ministry to inform it until June 6 in this regard.

At the previous hearing, the judge noted that the case had entered the final phase as only two witnesses from Pakistan were to record their depositions.

The judge observed that the court has been awaiting Indian response over whether 27 witnesses from India will

testify in the case or not and directed the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Ministry of Interior to inform him in this regard.

He said that so far, 85 witnesses presented by FIA have recorded their statements. A list of 150 witnesses was provided to the court, out of which 63

were stricken off the list for being unnecessary, the judge said.

A total of eight suspects were nominated in the case, including alleged mastermind Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi, Abdul Wajid, Mazhar Iqbal, Hammad Amin Sadiq, Shahid Jameel Riaz, Jamil

Ahmed and Younus Anjum.

Lakhvi was granted bail by the Lahore High Court (LHC) in December 2014, but he was detained under the maintenance of public order (MPO).

The court also set aside his detention later, clearing the way for his release.

The ATC had earlier asked the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to approach India to allow the witnesses in the case to appear before it, but no progress so far has been made in this regard.

Moreover, Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) Additional Director General Wajid Zia also recorded his statement at the court on Wednesday. The court directed another witness Zahid Akhtar to appear on next hearing on June 6 for cross-examination by the defence side.

It is pertinent to mention here that the case is related to the attacks in India’s financial capital Mumbai on November 26, 2008, in which at least 166 people were killed.

12 BUSINESS

Thursday, 24 May, 2018

TRouBled PAAPAM APPRoAcheS couRT AgAInST dISSoluTIon oF edB ISLAMABAD

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GHULAM ABBAS

S the automotive and parts manufacturers have so far been unsuccessful in convincing the government to review the proposed dissolution of the Engineering Development Board (EDB), the automotive parts manufactures have decided to approach the Islamabad High Court (IHC) instead, to appeal against the dissolution.

In a petition (Petition 1966 of 2018) filed by Pakistan Association of Automotive Parts and Manufacturers (PAAPAM), the court has been appealed to stop the implementation on the dissolution of EDB. Subsequently, the court has issued notices to the government through the secretary cabinet division and three others on Monday.

A similar petition was also filed in the court by employees of EDB seeking reversal of the cabinet decision. The court has also issued a similar notice to the government.

In the petitions, the learned counsels contended that the previous decision of EDB’s dissolution was due to mala fide intentions and thus not sustainable.

Earlier, the Pakistan Automotive Manufacturers Association (PAMA) through a letter had requested the government to review the decision of dissolving the body or announce a successor to take over the existing day to day affairs.

In the letter written to the Prime Minister of Pakistan Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, PAMA stated that the cabinet’s decision to dissolve the Engineering Development Board will create a vacuum as there is no mention of any suc-

Five new projects worth Rs480 mn to commence in petro sector ISLAMABAD PPI

The Petroleum and Natural Resources Division has planned to execute five new projects worth Rs480 million to accelerate oil and gas exploration activities under the Public Sector Development Programme (PSDP).

According to a report quoting official sources, the projects will focus on up-gradation of testing laboratories of Hydrocarbon Development Institute of Pakistan to ensure provision of quality petroleum products to consumers. The government has allocated an amount of Rs220 million for the strengthening and up-gradation of Karachi Laboratories Complex. Rs100 million would be utilised for expansion and up-gradation of Pakistan Petroleum Core house to facilitate oil and gas exploration research in Pakistan.

SBP to announce fiscal policy for two months on Friday

cessor organisation or mechanism to look after the ongoing affairs.

“It has been the EDB, an arm of the Ministry of Industries, that provided support to the auto industry’s operations and also controlled and regulated the growth of the auto industry since the early nineties,” said PAMA DG Abdul Waheed.

“Whilst there have been critics and some deserved criticism, the EDB has also successfully developed sound procedural and legal framework for the growth of the industry and generally played a positive role,” he said adding that the human resource and specific technical know-how has helped to create a framework and policies that enabled both the local and international investors to grow indigenously.

It would be pertinent to mention that this is the fifth consecutive year

that the auto industry, comprising OEMs and part manufacturers, has grown in double digits, improving its position from sixth to third in the largescale manufacturing sector. The cumulative contribution to the national exchequer stands over Rs120 billion, second only to the petroleum sector.

As the demand for local automobiles is growing, there has been significant interest from several new players to enter the sector. The favourable response to the government’s new entrant policy has also attracted big names from both the East and the West. Some have already started constructing factories whilst others are in the process of selecting dealerships. The existing players are also ramping up their capacities with most sectors – cars, tractors, truck/bus and two/three wheelers – in different stages of expansion.

Pakistan once again turns to China to avoid financial crisis amid political uncertainty NEWS DESK Once again, Pakistan has sought China’s help in avoiding a foreign currency crisis by borrowing $1 billion from Chinese commercial banks in April.

In an interview with the Financial Times, State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) Governor Tariq Bajwa confirmed the loans were made by Beijing-backed banks on good rates.

The publication reported that the money received from China strengthens the financial, political and military ties between the two historically friendly countries.

Pakistan's foreign exchange reserves have dropped from $18.1 billion in April last year to $10.8 billion in May this year. According to the publication, Pakistani officials also hope that borrowing from Chinese banks will also save Pakistan a trip to the Internation Monetary Fund (IMF).

Pakistan has had nine separate engagements with the IMF since December 1988. Three of them were double programmes. That means

there have been 12 IMF programmes in Pakistan in the last 28 years. Only four of them which initiated in the 2000s and 2010s were completed successfully; all the rest were abandoned halfway in the 1990s.

Lending money to Pakistan also favours China, said FT quoting Pakistani officials, as it does not wish to disclose details of the loans that are part of the CPEC project. China is investing almost $60 billion on building infrastructure in Pakistan; however, it is reluctant to reveal the sum it is lending to Islamabad as part of the CPEC project.

“The Chinese are not keen on western institutions learning the minute details of CPEC projects," an unnamed official in Islamabad was quoted as saying. "An IMF programme will require Pakistan to disclose the financial terms to its officials.”

According to the publication, prior to last month's loan of $1 billion, Pakistan had borrowed almost $1.2 billion from Chinese banks since April, 2017 and more loans might follow. Another anonymous

official quoted by the publication claimed that Pakistan's finance ministry has held "informal discussions" with the Chinese to lend at least an additional $500 million before the end of the financial year April, 2019.

“The article also touches upon the skepticism around the Chinese loans. A former SBP economist Mushtaq Khan said, “Pakistan’s policymakers are not doing enough to narrow the external deficit, instead, they’re just financing the gap."

Pakistan secured a $1 billion commercial loan from a Chinese bank a day after the announcement of the federal budget 2018-19 on April 27 which is repayable in three years. This improved the country's total foreign exchange reserves to $17.7 billion, jacking up official reserves held by the State Bank of Pakistan by 5.5 per cent to $11.5 billion.

Questions have consistently been raised against Pakistan’s financial reliance on China within and outside the country with many divided over the repercussions of Pakistan’s recurring financial dependency.

PIA revenues, operational costs rise in Q1 2018 KARACHI STAFF REPORT

Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) in the first quarter of the year 2018, has generated Rs23.5 billion in revenues, up

by Rs1.6 billion or 7 per cent when compared with the same period last year.

A PIA spokesman said on Wednesday.

The key contributors in revenue growth are aggressive sales and marketing, increased schedule reliability (now standing at the highest ever mark of 91 per cent), discipline and serious efforts into product improvement such as cabin cleanliness and refurbishments, food quality, changed attitudes etc. The operational cost also showed escalations and increased by Rs1.3 billion. The costs escalations are primarily due to increase in fuel prices by 31 per cent over the same period and rupee devaluation by 15 per cent . However, the financial statements have not been approved as yet. Furthermore, the SAFA has shown confidence on the airline’s safety standards. It would be worth mentioning here that the PIA management is committed in overall fixing and transforming the organisation for not only growth but sustained profitability.

Up till few months ago, the aircraft fleet, the revenue earner entities, were in unkempt state with several aircraft grounded due to lack of spares and cannibalisation, broken down lavatories to dirty seats to worn out carpets. All of these have been fixed with complete cabin refurbishment of the fleet. The relentless efforts towards getting the long ground aircraft back in the air have yielded results. That is a huge feat considering the overall capability and financial situation of the airline.

Pakistan International Airlines is turning around and all the major stake holders are showing confidence on the efforts that are being undertaken in that regard.

The recent release of funds by the Government of Pakistan, which was not done previously due to apprehensions as well as debt restructuring negotiations are themselves the acknowledgment of performance and initiatives. PIA spokesman said that certain elements are trying to malign the management which is committed to bring positive improvements in the airline with the combined efforts of all employees. The management and its employees are committed to bring improvements for the progress of the national flag carrier of Pakistan.

ISLAMABAD ONLINE

The State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) will announce the fiscal policy for next two months on Friday. As per a statement issued by SBP, policy rate will be announced for two months in the fiscal policy. Owing to reduction in the inflation rate in the country, SBP had decided to set the policy rate at 6 per cent in the previous fiscal policy. The government is taking comprehensive steps to promote the role of the private sector in the national economy so that targets set for development in the national economy could be achieved.

UK and LCCI commit to strengthening trade ISLAMABAD PPI

The British High Commission (BHC) and the Lahore Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI) have committed to strengthening trade collaborations.

The British High Commission’s Acting High Commissioner Richard Crowder and Deputy Trade Director Matt Lister met with LCCI President

Malik Tahir Javaid and Secretary General Shahid Khalil on Wednesday to discuss strengthening trade between the UK and Pakistan.

Both sides welcomed the recent increase in bilateral trade, which in 2016 stood at £2.7 billion, and agreed that this figure should rise further in the future. In particular, they agreed on the scope for growth in sectors such as finance, legal and business services and IT, and on the importance of reforms to make Pakistan an easier and more

attractive destination for businesses, including in the tax environment.

Deputy High Commissioner Richard Crowder said: “Pakistan is South Asia’s second largest economy with a growing middle class and close ties to the UK. And the UK is Pakistan’s largest export market in Europe. As the UK leaves the EU, we want to deepen our economic relationship with Pakistan, with more trade and investment flowing in both directions.”

MarkeT DaIly

The day ends on a flattish note with the 100 Index closing up 27.43 points at 42,772.25 LAHORE STAFF REPORT

What an anticlimax to such a brilliant run-up from the 22nd of May, as market momentum fizzled out in the wake of concerns on rising CAD, depleting Forex reserves, increasing cost of doing business and highly fluid and unpredictable politics. A follow through move would have contributed towards lifting the overall sentiment and allaying pessimism.

Volume and Turnover for the 100 Index came down along with risk appetite (-17 per cent and -30 per cent on d/d basis) perhaps amid concerns arising from heavy selling from FIIs in the previous session. Market activity was mostly confined to Financials (28 per cent of total

turnover; down 23.1 per cent on d/d basis) Materials (25.7 per cent of total turnover; down 44.7 per cent on d/d basis) and Utilities (16.6 per cent of total turnover; down 11 per cent on d/d basis).

Within these sectors FABL (9.8 per cent of total turnover), UBL (4 per cent of total turnover), BAHL (3.6 per cent of total turnover), DGKC (4.2 per cent of total turnover), FCCL (4 per cent of total turnover) and SNGP (12.6 per cent of total turnover) managed to garner investor interest. The day ended on a flattish note with the 100 Index closing up 27.43 points (+0.06 per cent) at 42,772.25 Today’s mix performance came amid gains in Utilities (+1.20 per cent), Financials (+0.50 per cent) and Health Care (+0.14 per cent) while Consumer Staples

(-1.89 per cent), Consumer Discretionary (-0.50 per cent) and Materials (-0.48 per cent) weighted down on market performance. Contribution to upside came from HUBC (+1.9 per cent), SNGP (+2.12 per cent), KAPCO (+1.09 per cent), MCB (+1.34 per cent), BAHL (+1.37 per cent), NBP (+2.81 per cent) and SEARL (+3.1 per cent) while NESTLE (-5 per cent), KTML (-2.32 per cent), THALL (-1.38 per cent), LUCK (-1.21 per cent), ENGRO (-0.66 per cent) and DAWH (1.34 per cent) weighed down on market performance. On the political front, PMLN politician Nawaz Sharif has claimed that the NAB references against him are byproducts of him filing a high treason case against former military dictator Pervez Musharraf. Moreover, DGKC has

completed the installation of Pakistan’s largest cement plant at Hub, Baluchistan.

Market participation for the 100 Index declined to 76.69mn shares (-16.9 per cent on d/d basis). Major contribution to total market volume came from FABL (-0.08 per cent), PAEL (-0.75 per cent) and FCCL (-0.43 per cent) churning 32.1mn shares out of the All Share volume of 131.33mn shares. Daily traded value for the 100 Index declined to USD 38.55mn from USD 54.93mn in the previous session (29.8 per cent on d/d basis); SNGP (USD 4.87mn), FABL (USD 3.79mn) and OGDC (USD 2.25mn) were among top contributors from traded value perspective.

Major contribution to the 100 Index upside came from HUBC (+1.90 per cent), PAKT (+4.83 per cent), MCB (+1.34 per cent),

BAHL (+1.37 per cent) and NBP (+2.81 per cent) adding 102 points. On the flip side, LUCK (-1.21 per cent), AICL (-4.77 per cent) and ENGRO (-0.66 per cent) took away 44 points. The 100 index is 13 per cent above its 52-week low of 37,736.73 reached on December 12, 2017 and 19 per cent below its 52-week high of 53,127.24 touched on May 25, 2017.

Technically speaking, the day ended on an indecisive note amid thin participation with a Doji like candle having a long upper shadow. The Index is still trading above 10EMA (42,704) / 50 per cent retracement (42,440) support. However, the 100 Index risks entering a Death Cross (negative crossover of 50/200EMA) .

Next resistance is 20EMA (43,394) and previous weeks high (43,595).

BUSINESS 13

Thursday, 24 May, 2018

CORPORATE CORNER engro Foods-sponsored school raises literacy in Sahiwal Karachi: Engro Foods Limited (EFL) has taken up the responsibility of increasing the literacy levels in Pakistan. Over the past seven years, a Government Boys School adopted by Engro Foods in Sahiwal, has had a substantial impact on the quality of education in that region. In 2011, this school had a total number of 180 students. Due to the higher quality of this institution, this enrollment figure has grown to 480 students within a short span of only 7 years. This was achieved by making generous investments to improve the academic systems and train the faculty at the institution. PR

Silkbank signs Mou with Jubilee general Insurance

gAS conSuMeRS In SIndh, BAlochISTAn To ReceIve RS18Bn FRoM SSgcl In 5 yeARS ISLAMABAD

T

AHMAD AHMADANI

HE federal government in an apparent bid to benefit influential shareholders of Sui Southern Gas Company Limited (SSGCL) has resolved that SSGCL will have to pay back Rs18 billion to gas consumers in Sindh and Balochistan in five years.

Well-informed sources disclosed to Pakistan Today that although the SSGCL had over-charged its consumers in Sindh and Balochistan with a total of Rs36 billion in the past, the SSGCL will now pay back Rs18 billion to its consumers on the orders of federal government during the next five years as the gas utility (SSGCL) has already paid Rs18 billion to its consumers on the order of Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority (OGRA) in a single year. However, instead of instantly paying back the

SSGCL HAD OVER-CHARGED ITS CONSUMERS IN SINDH AND BALOCHISTAN WITH A TOTAL OF RS36 BILLION IN THE PAST over charged amount to the consumers by SSGCL, the government has ordered to clear the amount in five long years, said sources.

The sources added that the government has allowed retaining the remaining amount of Rs18 billion in five years instead of immediate payments to the consumers on certain grounds. They said SSGCL is to pay back Rs18 billion in five years because of reasons such as poor financial conditions of SSGCL, possible dent on liquidity, and also the matter that banks may decline to give loans to SSGCL The sources also told that a summary was moved through the energy ministry asking the government to allow payments of the re-

maining Rs18 bn out of 36 bn to gas consumers of SSGCL in five years.

And, government granted approval in this regard. They said initially OGRA has expressed reservations on the decision of federal government but allegedly preferred to keep silence on a matter of public interest apparently to not affect the operation of SSGCL. Sources which shared the details of SSGCL’s dilemma, said that influential shareholders of SSGCL had approached the Sindh High Court (SHC) and obtained a stay order over a decision of the OGRA regarding the ratio of gas losses and theft it (OGRA) allowed the gas utilities to charge the consumers. They said that the

World markets dive as Trump sparks trade, N korea worries

Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority set ‘unaccounted for gas’ (UfG) bench mark at 4.5 per cent. And, influential shareholders approached SHC and pleaded that the previous UfG ratio should be maintained. The matter remained pending with the SHC for five years and then the honourable court made a judgment in the favour of public/consumers of SSGCL. And, SSGCL was ordered to pay back Rs36 billion to the consumers.

It is worth mentioning that SSGCL has not only over charged the consumers for five years as per the previous UFG benchmark but it has also allegedly been found sending inflated bills to its customers in the name of Passing Unregistered Gas (PUG) during the last year.

SSGC imposed the additional PUG levy without informing customers or serving any notice. The PUG levy was used to improve the company’s overall financial health.

Pakistan exports IT products, services to over 100 countries ISLAMABAD APP

Karachi: Silkbank Limited signed a strategic partnership agreement with Jubilee General Insurance.

Now Silkbank Credit Card Holders can avail “Purchase, Travel and Motorbike Protection” insurance policies against purchases through Silkbank Shop Smart Installment Plan. Silkbank Group Head, Retail Banking Raza Bakhtiari and Jubilee General Insurance Branch Development and Coordination Head Azfar Arshad signed the agreement. PR

vivo announces 2018 FIFA WoRld cuP RuSSIA campaign

BEiJiNG: Vivo, the official smartphone sponsor of the 2018 FIFA World Cup Russia, has launched a new global campaign titled “My Time, My FIFA World Cup”, at Beijing’s Olympic Forest Park. The campaign comprises of advertising spots, and special music and photography-led marketing activations. These include the Vivo Super Fan Photographer programme, providing fans with unprecedented pitch-side, stadium and warm up session access, as well as the Vivo Super Time project, which will elevate the fan experience during the FIFA World Cup finals performance segment. PR

Shaukat Khanum cancer hospital to hold charity Iftar dinner LahorE: Annual Iftar dinner of Shaukat Khanum Memorial Cancer Hospital and Research Centre SKMCH&RC) for collection of Zakat is to be held on Friday 25 May at Hotel Shiraz Peshawar. The event is annually organised to honor the hospital donors and wellwishers in recognition of their support and cooperation for the hospital. Imran Khan, Chairman Board of Governors, Shaukat Khanum Memorial Trust, will be the chief guest at the event. PR

LONDON: Global stocks sank Wednesday after US President Donald Trump said he was not satisfied with talks that are aimed at averting a trade war with China.

Equities were also dented by poor eurozone economic data, and as Trump cast doubt on a planned summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. "Trump is continuing to drive uncertainty over global trade," said an analyst.

"European markets are following their Asian counterparts lower, as a pessimistic tone from Trump is compounded by downbeat economic data," he added.

Markets had surged Monday after US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and Chinese Vice Premier Liu He said they had agreed to pull back from imposing threatened tariffs on billions of dollars of goods, and continue talks on a variety of trade issues.

However, Trump has declared that he was "not satisfied" with the status of the talks, fuelling worries that the world's top two economies could still slug out an economically painful trade war.

Investors sought to dump risky equities as they fretted over the news, as Trump also warned that there was "a very substantial chance it won't work out" when asked about next month's landmark talks with Kim. He added the summit could be delayed or even called off if the North did not agree to give up its nuclear weapons.

"Markets traded lower ... as risk sentiment was dealt a blow by Trump who said that he was not pleased with how the talks with China went and that he was not satisfied," wrote FX Pro analysts.

"He also said that there was a substantial chance that the summit with North Korea in June would not work out.

"This led to a fall in US indices ... and a rebound higher in the dollar."

In late morning European trade, Frankfurt sank 1.5 per cent and Paris shipped 1.2 per cent, while London lost 0.8 per cent on news also of slowing UK annual inflation.

And the euro briefly sank to $1.1699 -the lowest level since mid-November.

Adding to nerves, a key survey showed Wednesday that the pace of growth of eurozone business activity continued to slow in May, as companies became less optimistic about the state of the economy in Europe.

Data monitoring company IHS Markit also flagged strong slowdowns in France and Germany, though employment growth in the 19-country single currency bloc remained robust.

The purchasing managers' index (PMI)

by IHS Markit fell to 54.1 in May, which was lower than forecast by analysts. A figure over 50 indicates the economy is expanding.

"A whole raft of eurozone PMI surveys have continued to shed a worrying picture of economic progress within the region," noted analyst Mahony.

Later on, dealers will digest minutes from the US Federal Reserve's most recent policy meeting for some clarity on plans for raising interest rates this year.

Elsewhere on Wednesday, Turkey's embattled lira lost over 3.5 percent in value to hit new historic dollar lows, as markets watched to see if the nation's central bank will take emergency action to buttress the currency. APP

The Information Technology (IT) export market of Pakistan has expanded to over one hundred countries during the last five years of the incumbent government, Minister for Information Technology and Telecommunication, Anusha Rahman said. “Pakistan’s IT and Information Technology enabled Services (ITeS) Industry has exported software development services, and IT enabled services such as call center services to over 100 countries, since 2013,” the minister told the National Assembly in a written reply to a question. She informed the house that top three export destinations during the period were United States, United Arab Emirates and United Kingdom, accounting for over 71 per cent of the total Information and communication technology (ICT) exports. Based on the current year’s trade in services data for the first two quarters reported by State Bank of Pakistan (SBP), other prominent ICT export destinations in descending order included, Singapore, Malaysia, Ireland, China (including Hong Kong), Saudi Arabia, Canada, Germany, Japan, Norway, Netherlands, Finland, Australian, Sweden, Indonesia, Afghanistan, Switzerland, South Korea, Denmark, Belgium, Sri Lanka, South Africa, France, Oman, Turkey, Qatar, Spain and Kuwait. She said that the MoITT through PSEB continues to strengthen and promote IT and ITes industry Pakistan through initiatives and programmes such as Industry advocacy and policymaking, international marketing and promotion, domestic facilitation of businesses and investors’ capacity building through company certifications, IT trainings and internships and establishing IT Parks and ITenabled office space (STPs). At present, she added, incentives for IT and ITes industry include zero income tax on IT exports till 2019, three-year tax holiday for IT startups with no minimum tax and withholding tax. It addition, 100 per cent equity ownership has been allowed to foreign investors while 100 per cent repatriation of capital and dividends are allowed, and tax holiday for venture capital funds till 2014. She further informed the house that MoITT does not export software, however, its affiliated organization, Pakistan Software Export Board (PSEB) is responsible for facilitation, advocacy and promotion of the local IT and ITes Industry with an aim to boost IT and ITes exports.

Pak-Qatar General Takaful maintains ‘a’ IFS rating from PaCra KARACHI STAFF REPORT

The Pakistan Credit Rating Agency (PACRA) has maintained PakQatar General Takaful Limited (PQFTL) as an ‘Insurer Financial Strength (IFS) Rating’ of ‘A’. This rating has been maintained since PQGTL’s initial rating in 2016.

PQGTL’s ‘Future Outlook’ has also remained constant at ‘Stable’.

As per PACRA’s report; both ‘General’ and ‘Family’ has achieved good brand recognition, giving strength to PQGTL’s business profile. The rating reflects sound-risk absorption capacity of the company. The rating is dependent on the management’s ability to

cohesively execute the business plan. PQGTL is the only Takaful operator graded by both rating companies operating in Pakistan namely JCR-VIS Credit Rating Company and PACRA. PQFTL’s Chief Financial Officer Kamran Saleem stated that “It is a pleasure for all the stakeholders to witness that the excellent per-

formance of PQGTL, in all aspects of its business, is being recognized by a credible rating agency like PACRA. It is a reflection of the consistent hard work of our highly committed team. I congratulate all team members on winning this accolade for a strong financial stature and earning more respect as a robust financial institution”.

CMYK

14 SPORTS

Thursday, 24 May, 2018

SaLaH topS RoNaLdo tHIS SeaSoN, SayS LIveRpooL'S RUSH LIVERPOOL

L

AGENCIES

IVERPOOL great Ian Rush says Mohamed Salah has outshone Champions League final opponent Cristiano Ronaldo during an incredible record-breaking season.

The Egyptian forward goes into Saturday's showpiece against defending champions Real Madrid in Kiev needing an unlikely four goals to beat Rush's Liverpool goals record for a single season.

Salah currently has 44 goals, three short of Rush's mark from the 1983/84 campaign, when Liverpool won the European Cup, First Division and League Cup treble.

"If he beats my record I would actually bow down to him," Rush, a Liverpool club ambassador, told Britain's Press Association. "To score four goals in a final would be an incredible achievement.

"Fernando Torres and Luis Suarez were amazing in their first seasons at Liv-

erpool. "But I have to say Salah's been even better than them, not only his goals and assists but his all-round game. What I like about him is that he's such a humble guy -- if someone's in a better position he passes the ball."

Salah became the most expensive player in Liverpool history last year when he joined from Roma in an initial £37 million ($45 million) deal, although January signing Virgil van Dijk has since taken the record. But the 25-year-old has proved a bargain, with 11 of his goals coming in the club's march to the Champions League final.

He won the golden boot with 32 goals, becoming the highest scorer in a 38-game Premier League season.

And Rush has echoed those who believe Salah should be crowned world player of the year if Liverpool become European champions.

"The two best players in the world over a long time, without doubt, are Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi," Rush

World Cup 2026: Morocco write to Fifa as US territories permitted to vote RAbAt AGENCIES

said. "But over the last season Salah has been the best player.

"He played a huge role in helping Egypt to the World Cup and what he's

achieved at Liverpool has been amazing.

"If Liverpool win the Champions League he deserves the best player award, 100 percent," he added.

Riders stun Royals, will play Hyderabad in second qualifier

The Moroccan Football Federation has written to Fifa to complain about US territories being allowed to vote to decide the 2026 World Cup hosts.

Morocco are bidding to host the tournament, against a joint proposal from the USA, Mexico and Canada. Guam, American Samoa, the US Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico are able to vote on 13 June, but Morocco claim that is a conflict of interests. The 2026 World Cup finals will be the first to feature 48 teams. According to reports, the Moroccan FA first wrote to Fifa on 26 April, explaining that residents of Guam, Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands are US citizens while those of American Samoa are US nationals.

'Never criticised ICC’, clarifies Hafeez LAHORE

KOLKAtA

STAFF REPORT

AGENCIES

Nuremberg Cup: Heather Watson loses in second round NuREmbERg AGENCIES

Heather Watson's run at the Nuremberg Cup came to an end with a straight-sets defeat in round two to a qualifier ranked 117 places below her.

The Briton lost 6-3 6-3 to world number 203 Fanny Stollar from Hungary.

Watson lost her opening service game but although she broke back, she was broken again as Stoller, 19, made it 5-3 and then took the opening set.

Watson then dropped her serve twice in the second set to trail 4-1 and was unable to break back.

Meanwhile, British number five and world number 180 Gabi Taylor made it through the first round of French Open qualifying after beating China's Jing-Jing Liu 7-5 6-0.

It is her first attempt to qualify for an overseas Grand Slam and she will next face seventh-seed Mariana Duque-Marino from Colombia, who was pushed all the way by Britain's Katie Boulter before going though 7-6 (7-5) 7-5.

Kolkata Knight Riders restricted Rajasthan Royals at 144/5 to win the eliminator by 25 runs in Kolkata. Chasing 170, RR were in control with Sanju Samson and captain Ajinkya Rahane at the crease.

Samson went on to score 50 while Rahane scored 46. But the Rajasthan franchise lost wickets in quick succession and eventually lost the match to get eliminated.

Earlier, KKR rode on KKR skipper Dinesh 169 for 7 Karthik’s half-century (Karthik 52, Russell to score 169/7 in 20 overs. Chasing 170, 49*, Gowtham 2-15) Rajasthan Royals beat Rajasthan Royals at 87 for 1 in 10 lost wickets and only overs, but then they 144 for 4 (Samson 50, managed to score particularly captain Rahane 46, Chawla 144 in 20 overs.

Ajinkya Rahane - got Ajinkya Rahane and 2-24) by 25 stuck against spin and Sanju Samson added 62 runs left their weak middle runs for the second wicket. order too much to do. In 96 Dinesh Karthik (52) and unsuccessful IPL chases of targets of Andre Russell (49*) guided Kolkata Knight Riders to 169/7. Karthik and 170 or lower, only once has a side lost Shubman Gill (28) added 55 runs for the with more wickets in hand than Royals had in this Eliminator: six. Those wickets fifth wicket.

Rajasthan Royals got the best of the in hand proved to be no good as Rahane conditions but made a complete mess of watched the asking rate grow from overs a chase that seemed to be under control. 10 to 15.

Whether Rahane's innings was dicChasing 170, they seemed to be cruising

tated by the weak batting line-up that followed, only Rahane can tell. Kolkata Knight Riders, who will now face Sunrisers Hyderabad in Qualifier 2, had no such dilemma even though they got off to a poor start in sticky conditions. Even after being 24 for 3 they - led by captain Dinesh Karthik - attacked the sixth over of the Powerplay; even after they were reduced to 51 for 4 they batted with enterprise; and, when Andre Russell came in with 34 balls to go you knew the bowlers were in for a world of pain.

KKR will now play Sunrisers Hyderabad in the second qualifier on Friday.

All-rounder Mohammad Hafeez on Wednesday submitted his reply to the Pakistan Cricket Board's (PCB) showcause notice for criticising the rules of International Cricket Council (ICC) related to reporting suspect bowling actions. In his reply, Hafeez, who was recently cleared for bowling after a third suspension over suspect action, said that he had not criticised the ICC and that his interview was presented out of context and misinterpreted. He clarified, "I only touched upon the technical aspects," “There are so many things influencing [who gets called for suspect actions], it has a lot to do with the power of [some] boards and nobody wants to take them on,” Hafeez was quoted as saying in the interview.

He had reportedly said that when he was tested for suspect bowling action, he was surprised to find out that a naked eye was able to see that he was bending his arm a degree or two more than the maximum 15-degree limit.

“So, I have my doubts about this [calling system]. This is suspicious, why are match referees or on-field umpires not able to see those flexing up to 35 but me with 16 degrees?” the veteran campaigner, with 50 Tests, 200 ODIs and 81 T20 Internationals under his belt, had asked in his interview.

AB de Villiers retires from international cricket THis is a TougH decision, i Have THougHT long and HaRd abouT iT and i'd like To ReTiRe wHile sTill playing decenT cRickeT, says de villieRs JOHANNESbuRg AGENCIES

Cape Town: South Africa's star batsman AB de Villiers on Wednesday announced his surprise retirement from all international cricket after a glittering 14-year career playing for the Proteas.

De Villiers, 34, was famed for mixing traditional and unorthodox shots, as well as his fast scoring and ability to hit the ball to all parts of the ground.

He holds the world record for the

fastest half-century (16 balls), hundred (31 balls) and 150 (64 balls) in ODIs, and is one of the few batsmen to top the Test and 50-over rankings at the same time.

"I have decided to retire from all international cricket with immediate effect," he said in a statement.

"After 114 Test matches, 228 ODIs and 78 T20 Internationals, it is time for others to take over. I have had my turn, and to be honest, I am tired."

The middle-order batsman said it had taken him a long time to make the "tough" decision and that he decided to quit while still playing "decent cricket".

"After the fantastic series wins against India and Australia, now feels like the right time to step aside," he said.

"It would not be right for me to pick and choose where, when and in what format I play for the Proteas. For me, in the green and gold, it must be everything or nothing."

He added he had no plans to play

overseas but would continue in league competitions, saying: "It's not about earning more somewhere else, it's about running out of gas and feeling that it is the right time to move on."

'Mister 360': De Villiers retired with

CMYK

a Test average of 50.66 and as the fourthhighest run-scorer for South Africa with 8765 runs, with 22 100s.

In limited overs, he finished as the number two ranked batsman in the world and as the second highest run-scorer be-

hind Jacques Kallis with 9577 runs at an average of 53.50.

"AB is one of the all-time greats of South African cricket who has thrilled spectators around the world with his sheer brilliance, coupled to his ability to innovate and take modern day batting... to new levels," said Cricket South Africa (CSA) president Chris Nenzani.

"It goes without saying that he is going to be greatly missed wherever international cricket is played."

CSA chief executive Thabang Moroe said De Villiers' decision ahead of the 2019 World Cup in England and Wales was disappointing but respected.

"AB has been a colossus on the world stage for well over a decade,' he said.

"His ability to improvise has made him known as Mr. 360 degrees in white ball cricket and we will never ever forget those remarkable innings that earned him the fastest 50. 100 and 150 in ODI cricket."

CMYK

SPORTS 15

Thursday, 24 May, 2018

Rooney to meet dC United bosses over potential MLS move LIVERPOOL AGENCIES

Everton forward Wayne Rooney will break from his family holiday to travel to Washington this week to meet bosses at Major League Soccer side DC United, his spokesman confirmed on Wednesday.

Rooney has reportedly agreed "in principle" to a $17 million (£13 million) deal with the MLS club that would see the 32-year-old leave Everton, his boyhood club, just 12 months after rejoining them from Manchester United.

DC United coach Ben Olsen confirmed earlier this month that the club were interested in bringing Rooney to America but said the deal "is not done".

Sam Allardyce said before he was sacked as manager by Everton that Rooney had not asked to leave.

Allardyce and Rooney had their differences and the player's show of dissent when substituted in April's Merseyside derby resulted in clear-the-air talks between the pair.

The former England captain, who has been on holiday in Barbados, is to be accompanied on his trip to Washington by his long-time adviser Paul Stretford. News of the visit first emerged in a report in the Washington Post and a spokesman for the player confirmed that it is to take place in the coming days. Rooney, who first burst onto the scene aged just 16 at Everton, was the club's top scorer this season with 11 goals but last found the net on December 18. He left United last year on a free transfer following 13 trophy-laden years after becoming a peripheral figure under Jose Mourinho.

LORD’S TEST PREVIEW

do pakIStaN Have a SHot agaINSt eNgLaNd? LONDON

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KK ShAhId

AKISTAN head into the first Test England on Thursday having scrapped through the Ireland Test and having given convincing batting performances either side of it in warm-up matches against Northamptonshire and Leicestershire.

While warm-up matches are hardly the gauge to measure oneself with and edging our Ireland isn’t exactly a worldbeating result – although of course a swing of a few runs the other way, and the match could’ve made history for more reasons than it just being the first Test for Ireland – there is a sprinkling of optimism for Pakistan going into Lord’s.

What Pakistan don’t exactly have is history – or too much of the present for that matter – on their side.

Pakistan haven’t won a Test series against England since 1996. And considering that Pakistan’s record-breaking ICC Test Mace winning side took a 2-2 draw back home from England in 2016, which was indeed a commendable result, a drawn series for this Pakistan side would be an absolutely astounding achievement.

Barring the infamous English rain interfering – more than it did in Ireland, where it completely washed out the first day – even a drawn series should require Pakistan to win one match. For, either match ending in a draw might be highly unlikely, weather permitting.

So what do Pakistan need to do to get at least one win against England? For starters, they should aim for Lord’s to be the one.

Following the match against Leicestershire Azhar Ali (73) is finally among the runs as well. But so are Fakhar Zaman (71) and Usman Salahuddin (69*) neither of whom played against Ireland.

WOULD eitHer OF tHeM Get A LOOK iN At LOrD’s?: The only way that is happening is if Pakistan go with seven specialist batsmen including Sarfraz Ahmed, instead of the two allrounders – Shadab Khan and Faheem

Ashraf – that they had in Ireland. And if that change happens, it would be Faheem who would make way despite his matchwinning batting in the first innings against Ireland, and also because Shadab is the only frontline spinner that Pakistan have.

If Pakistan bring in a specialist batsman for Faheem, it would be evidence that they’re hoping to shore up the batting in a bid to bat out as many overs as possible, which would signify a negative approach.

The flipside here is that Faheem, in the side primarily as a bowler, didn’t exactly set the match alight with his bowl-

ing. But three pacers and Shadab would put a lot of burden on the young leg-spinner, who clearly ready yet to take up the sort of workload that Yasir Shah managed day in day out.

Since Test matches are won by taking 20 wickets, it is the bowlers who might have to do even more than they would normally be asked to do, should the batting waver under the onslaught of a dominant English attack in their conditions.

Mohammed Amir, who has all kinds of memories at Lord’s, has the opportunity to reignite his Test career amidst a mixed bag in the longest format since his return to international cricket, and more than just murmurs of him trying to reduce the number of Tests he plays.

Muhammad Abbas appears to be Pakistan’s specialist Test pacer, along with Rahat Ali, although the latter did have a strong PSL 3.

The likeliest match-winner for Pakistan might be Shadab Khan, who can definitely do damage – especially on the last couple of days. But it’s too soon for Pakistan to put that kind of burden on his young shoulders already.

The Lord’s Test is a great opportunity for the likes of Shadab, Imam-ulHaq, Babar Azam and Haris Sohail to announce their arrival at the biggest stage. For the likes of Azhar, Asad Shafiq and Sarfraz Ahmed it’s a test of whether or not they have what it takes to form the experienced backbone of a solid Test side.

I want Arsenal to be back among aamir '100 percent ready' Europe's elite: new boss Emery to face england: arthur LONDON

LONDON AGENCIES

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Unai Emery said he wants Arsenal to be among Europe's elite once more when he appeared at his first news conference since being appointed as Arsene Wenger's successor.

The 46-year-old was officially appointed on Wednesday before he, along with chief executive Ivan Gazidis, addressed a packed media room.

He said: "Success next season would be developing, but how? By battling for every title.

"That's in Arsenal's and my history."

Arsenal failed to qualify for the Champions League in 2017 and won't feature in the 2018-19 competition having previously been in every year since 1998.

Gazidis revealed that the Spaniard was on an eight-man shortlist for the job, but was the club's main target.

"All eight took part in extensive interviews and none of them withdrew from the process," said the chief executive, who added that the job was the most attractive in world football.

"We were in a fortunate position to name our first choice.

"Our first interview was on 25 April and our last was on the 15 May. A formal recommendation to the board was supported by a 100-page dossier with a great degree of background information.

"All of the board members were energised and enthused by our decision."

Gazidis said the former Valencia, Sevilla and Paris St-Germain boss impressed the interview panel with his "meticulous preparation".

"He was extraordinarily well prepared with a knowledge of Arsenal and an analysis of all of our players, their qualities and how he can help them develop.

"The thing that distinguished him above all that was the chemistry between us and the feeling for football in the room.

Pakistan spearhead Mohammad Aamir is “100 percent ready” for the first Test against England at Lord’s starting Thursday despite a knee injury, according to team coach Mickey Arthur.

The left-arm fast bowler was seen stretching out his right knee as Pakistan beat Test debutants Ireland by five wickets during a one-off match in Malahide, Dublin concluded last week.

Pakistan bowling coach Azhar Mahmood suggested Amir had suffered a recurrence of a “chronic” problem. But head coach Arthur, speaking to reporters at Lord’s on Tuesday, had no qualms about the fitness of Aamir. “He’s perfect, 100 percent,” Arthur insisted. “He’s fine he’s ready to go.”

As for Aamir, missing Pakistan’s final warm-up match ahead of the twoTest England series, last weekend’s drawn match against Leicestershire, Arthur added: “It was his rotation. (Mohammad) Abbas sat out the first (tour) game, Hasan (Ali) sat out the second, so he sat out the third.”

Aamir was the hottest property in world cricket after bursting on the scene as a teenager in 2009 and at 18 he was the youngest bowler to have taken 50 Test wickets.

But his world was turned upside down in 2010 when he became involved in a spot-fixing scandal after deliberately bowling no-balls during the Lord’s Test against England — an incident that would eventually see him sent to prison by an English court and given a five-year ban by the International Cricket Council.

Aamir’s first 14 Tests saw him take 51 wickets at just a fraction over 23 apiece, figures that had him on course to be an all-time great. But the 17 Tests since his comeback two years ago have seen him take 49 wickets at a more expensive average of 34.91 Aamir, and Pakistan for that matter, have not been helped by the fact that

"He has a feeling and competitive energy and it is this passion, love for football and will to win that made us feel it as exactly right for Arsenal."

Emery told the gathered media he flew to Atlanta with Gazidis, head of recruitment Sven Mislintat and head of football relations Raul Sanllehi in order to meet the club's major shareholder Stan Kroenke and his family.

"We want to work on this club together," he added. "I know my ambition and my passion and to know how I want to grow up with Arsenal.

"All the conversations I have had with the club shows we share the same vision for the club."

The Gunners finished sixth in the Premier League last season - their lowest position since they finished 12th during the 1994-95 campaign. One of the complaints from supporters was the lack of quality in the current squad.

Asked whether he will need a recruitment drive this summer, Emery said: "I believe we can grow with the players we have.

"The objective is to work hard together and with these talented players.

"It's very important for the club, after two years outside the Champions League, to work to be the best team in the Premier League and also in the world."

He also paid tribute to predecessor Wenger, who was in charge of the club for 22 years: "I want to say thank you Arsene Wenger for your legacy," Emery said.

"For all the coaches in the world, he is a reference. We learned, I learned from him all the things in football.

"It's a big challenge for me, but I have worked also in other projects, big projects. For me, I am proud to be here and to work after Arsene Wenger."

CMYK

those 17 Tests since 2016 have also seen 16 catches dropped off his bowling. The stigma of his spot-fixing exile has started to fade, with Amir playing for Pakistan during their 2-2 draw in a four-Test series in England two years ago.

He also starred for Essex as they won English domestic cricket’s first-class County Championship title last season.

Now the 26-year-old Amir is set to be the leader of an inexperienced Pakistan attack. England, who didn’t manage a single win during their recent seven combined Tests in Australia and New Zealand, collapsed to 58 all out in Auckland in March as Kiwi left-arm quick Trent Boult took six wickets.

And Arthur backed Aamir to do similar damage. “I think Mohammad Aamir is the finest exponent of pace and swing when he gets it 100 percent right,” Arthur said. “We’ve used that spell that Trent Boult bowled in Auckland. We’ve had a look at his lengths. We believe he (Aamir) bowls incredibly well at lefthanders and there will be three left-handers (Alastair Cook, Mark Stoneman and Dawid Malan) in the (England) top four.”

“He’s ready, I just hope it goes really well for him because he’s been unlucky at times with the amount of dropped catches. He’s ready, he’s determined, he’s fit, he’s strong, he’s excited, he’s in a very good place at the moment.”

Arthur is unusual in having served as the head coach of three leading nations — his native South Africa, Australia and Pakistan. But he was adamant he had no desire to replace Trevor Bayliss when the Australian steps down as England coach next year. “No, I’m very happy,” Arthur said.

“I’d like to keep going with Pakistan for as long as they will have me because it’s unfinished business for us at the moment. This is a very young cricket team and I worry if we move on what happens to these guys. Their fitness regime is outstanding, they are training hard and they are enjoying their cricket. I’m very, very happy with where I am at the moment,” he insisted.

Thursday, 24 May, 2018

Published by Arif Nizami at Plot No 79, Sector 24, Korangi Industrial Area Karachi. Ph: 021-35381208-9. Email: newsroom@pakistantoday.com.pk

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