E-Paper PDF 2nd November (KHI)

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Saturday, 2 november, 2019 I 4 Rabi-ul-Awwal, 1441 I Rs 17.00 I vol X no 123 I 16 Pages I Karachi edition

‘minus imran’ MAMMoth cRowd led by JUI-F chIeF MAUlAnA FAzl gIveS PRIMe MInISteR two dAyS to ReSIgn

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JuI-f chIef SayS proteSterS wIll change Strategy If need arISeS

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Shehbaz callS Imran ‘arrogant’ leader, who Snubbed opp’S reconcIlIatIon offerS

won’t resign, PM vows

bIlawal aSSureS Support for ‘democratIc movement’, SayS ‘Selected’ pm haS to go home ISLAMABAD

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HAMID KHAN WAZIR

amiat Ulema-e-islam-Fazl (JUi-F) chief maulana Fazlur Rehman on Friday gave the final ultimatum to Prime minister imran Khan, saying the joint opposition parties would be forced to think of another strategy if the prime minister failed to “resign within two days”. addressing a massive gathering at the H-9 venue in the federal capital where the azadi march culminated on thursday, maulana Fazl said it will come down to the voters to decide the next move for the azadi march. He said the vote of the public was “stolen” hence it will be for the people to decide the strategy for the protest. “this mammoth crowd has the power to arrest the prime minister from his residence,” Fazl warned.

“We will not be able to exercise any patience after that point,” he said, calling upon the country’s “institutions” to remain impartial to avoid “conflict”.

“People say we are using the religious card, but if the Constitution allows us to use islam, i will use it. Who are you to stop me? Pakistan and islam cannot be separated,” he said.

Fazl also criticised the government’s

economic policies allegedly dictated by the international monetary Fund (imF), saying the opposition cannot accept a “slave” economy imposed by the Pakistan tehreek-e-insaf (Pti) government.

He claimed that the country’s current economic managers have been appointed by the imF and the government is bent upon implementing a “western” economic system in the country.

‘PPP SUPPORTS DEMOCRACY’: Speaking at the rally, Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari assured the JUi-F chief and the azadi march protesters that the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) will stand by them “every democratic step of the way” in their fight against the government. “i want to assure you on PPP’s behalf that we are with you and we will send this puppet prime minister home.”

Bilawal said the people of Pakistan do not accept the “selected” and “puppet” government system in place in the country. He also called out the government for the alleged media blackout of opposition leaders at the azadi march jalsa. the PPP chairman accused the government of having committed the “economic murder” of the people. He said Prime minister imran Khan gives “pain” to the public but provides relief to the wealthy classes. He said the government

was putting burden on the common man because it wanted to continue to please the “selectors” that brought it into power.

Our economy is not free, decisions being taken abroad, he said, adding that the budget implemented by the government is a “Pti-imF budget”.

SHEHBAZ SAYS IMRAN ‘ARROGANT GOOF’: addressing the azadi marchers earlier in the day, Pakistan muslim League-Nawaz (PmL-N) President Shehbaz Sharif said that following the 2018 general election, “arrogant” Prime minister imran had refused to collaborate with the opposition on a ‘charter of the economy’ floated by the opposition. the National assembly opposition leader, who joined the JUi-F’s azadi march after the Friday prayer, reminded the premier: “You started this container politics, you said you will burn down parliament, you said things about me. i will not respond to you in your language.”

STORY ON PAGE 03

Army is ‘impartial’: ISPR

CONTINUED ON PAGE 03

govt seeks meeting with fazl STORY ON PAGE 03

STORY ON BACK PAGE

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02 NEWS PPP calls for restoration of parliament's supremacy ISLAMABAD INP

The Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) on Friday termed the rule by ordinance undemocratic and called upon the chairman of the Senate and the speaker of the national assembly to reassert the parliament’s legislative role. PPP leaders said that that all laws promulgated by the president were unconstitutional since they did not have the approval of parliament. They said that parliament has virtually shut down as eight ordinances had been passed by the presidency overnight while over 20 ordinances have been promulgated by the prime minister’s selected coterie of supporters. Apart from bypassing parliament, the government has violated the spirit of the constitution as well. According to Article 89(1) of the Constitution, an ordinance can only be promulgated if both houses are not in session and if the president considers the matter urgent and necessary. The last eight ordinances concerned court dresses, changes in civil procedure code, changes in family law, none of which were urgent matters. In addition, the NAB ordinance also violates the principals of democracy. It’s an absolute shame that National Assembly sessions are canceled so that the ordinance is brought thereby making a mockery of the legislative body, they said. The PPP alleged that since assuming office the PTI government has turned its back on parliament and has resorted to passing ordinances to fulfill their agenda. They said that the PPP empowered the parliament in its five-year rule but the PTIs selected government has converted the system into a semi-presidential one. “We reject these underhanded methods and warn the government that marches and movements against this selected system undermining the parliament will only increase with the passage of time if democratic institutions are suppressed,” they said.

Khursheed Shah’s three cardiac veins clogged, says medical report SUKKUR INP

Three arteries of Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) leader Syed Khursheed Ahmed Shah have been clogged, hospital sources said citing the angiography report results. Khursheed Shah underwent an angiography procedure at National Institute of Cardiovascular Diseases (NICVD) in Sukkur on Thursday. His blood pressure had shot up and impacted his cardiac arteries, hospital sources said. The doctors have started medication for opening the clogged arteries, according to the sources. The decision to conduct angioplasty or bypass surgery will be taken if medicines fail to open the clogged veins, sources said. Any further decision with regard to his treatment will be taken by the medical board, hospital sources said. The medical report of Shah has been handed over to the officials of the National Accountability Bureau (NAB), which will be submitted in the accountability court Sukkur on Monday. The PPP leader had been shifted to the medical facility after he had complained of chest pain on October 27.

Saturday, 2 November, 2019

‘No force caN stop Kashmiris from attaiNiNg freedom’ GILGIT

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STAFF REPORT

RIME Minister Imran Khan on Friday paid tribute to the martyrs of Gilgit-Baltistan and said no force can stop the people of Indian Occupied Kashmir (IOK) from attaining their freedom.

Addressing the 72nd independence day celebrations in Gilgit-Baltistan, the premier reiterated Pakistan’s support for the people of the occupied region, adding that he is the ambassador and spokesperson for the Kashmiris and will plead their case at every forum.

Criticising Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the premier said his counterpart in New Delhi has played his “last card” by revoking special status of occupied Kashmir, adding that once the draconian curfew is lifted, the people would take to streets in protest against the Indian government. Paying tribute to the struggle of thousands who sacrificed their lives for the country, the premier noted that if Gilgit had not fought the war against the Dogra regime, they too would be suffering Indian oppression today.

“I congratulate the people on this Independence Day as they fought a war to win their freedom,” said the premier who

earlier visited the graveyard of the martyrs of the war of independence.

The premier also appreciated the beauty of Gilgit, adding “I’ve seen the whole world but the beauty in GilgitBaltistan I’ve never seen anywhere”.

Referring to the steps taken by the government to promote tourism in the country, he said visa requirements for the citizens of seventy countries have been abolished and expressed confidence that tourism in the country will flourish.

PM Imran also said the region would benefit from the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) as it serves as a gateway to the multi-billion project.

Short circuit sets ablaze two bogies of Sukkur Express SHIKARPUR INP A day after 74 people lost their lives in the Liaqatpur train incident, two bogies of Sukkur Express caught fire on Friday, raises questions on the safety standards of Pakistan railways.

However, no casualties have been reported as of yet. According to details, the blaze broke out on the train due to a short circuit.

Following the incident, security personnel and firefighters reached the scene shortly and gave a go-ahead to the train after extinguishing the blaze.

IHC issues fresh contempt notice to Firdous after accepting apology in another ISLAMABAD STAFF REPORT

The Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Friday accepted Special Assistant to PM on Information and Broadcasting Firdous Ashiq Awan’s apology in contempt of court notice and issued her a fresh contempt notice for making a statement regarding a pending criminal proceeding.

The court had earlier reserved its verdict in the case. During the hearing, presided over by IHC Chief Justice Justice Athar Minallah, Awan had tendered an unconditional apology for “scandalising the judiciary”, which the high court later accepted.

On Wednesday, an IHC bench had issued a contempt of court notice to Awan for “criticising the institution of

the judiciary”. The show-cause notice, issued under Section 3 of Contempt of Court Ordinance 2003, had said that Awan maligned the IHC while saying that hearing of a petition on the release of former prime minister Nawaz Sharif was “a special dispensation”.

The court directed Awan to appear in person on Nov 1 at 9:00 am to explain as to why she should not be proceeded under the contempt law. In Friday’s proceedings, Justice Minallah told Awan that she had committed contempt of court on two counts — for ridiculing the court for entertaining the case as a “special dispensation” and for trying to influence a pending proceeding of the court related to the bail petition for Nawaz.

To which, Awan assured the court that she would be “extremely careful in

the future” and placed herself at the mercy of the court. The IHC chief justice remarked that Prime Minister Imran Khan had fought for the rule of law, adding that he was sure that the premier had never instructed her to use such language against the courts. After accepting her apology in the first notice, the court issued Awan a fresh contempt notice and directed her to “satisfy” the court that her press conference was not intended to influence a pending court proceeding. “[We] cannot overlook matters when the principles of a fair trial are opposed,” remarked Justice Minallah.

The IHC sought her reply by Monday. Additionally, the court directed Awan to appear before the court on Nov 5. Awan requested that the proceedings be adjourned till after Tuesday due to a

Funerals held as Mirpurkhas mourns victims of Tezgam fire RAHIM YAR KHAN AGENCIES

Distraught relatives gathered on Friday for the first funerals of some of the 74 people killed when a fire ripped through a crowded train in Pakistan, with many of the victims residents of a single town.

The sobbing family crowded an official building in Mirpurkhas overnight as the first bodies covered in white cloth began arriving by ambulance from the scene of the disaster.

After morning prayers, with women watching from nearby rooftops, more than a hundred men attended the first funeral — of a car mechanic named Mohammad Saleem, who was in his late 40s. It was held at the Bismillah

Mosque, from which at least 42 pilgrims had left to board the train one day earlier bound for a religious festival near Lahore.

Officials say as some of the train’s passengers cooked breakfast around dawn on Thursday, two of their gas cylinders exploded, sending flames racing through three carriages as the train passed near Rahim Yar Khan, in Punjab province.

At least 74 people died, some after jumping through windows on the still-moving train to escape the blaze. Local media reported that rescue officials found bodies and some injured people along a two-kilometer stretch of track.

Dozens more were wounded and rushed to nearby hospitals.

One of the carriages — Wagon No.12 — was carrying mainly

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people from Mirpurkhas, the town’s deputy commissioner, Attaullah Shah, told AFP. “There was never such a tragic incident to happen to Mirpurkhas,” he said.

Eight of the bodies had been confirmed as being residents of the town so far, he said. Twentyfour Mirpurkhas residents were among the injured. But at least another 40 are still missing, he said. Officials in Rahim Yar Khan have said many of the bodies are charred beyond recognition and will have to be identified through DNA testing — a process that could take up to one month. Shah said the government was arranging to send families of the missing from Mirpurkhas to the hospital in Rahim Yar Khan where the bodies have been taken.

cabinet meeting; however, the court rejected the request and said that as it is a criminal proceeding, her appearance is mandatory.

THE CASE: The notice, issue to Awan, had observed that the special assistant to the PM, while holding a press conference on Oct 26, had “criticised the judiciary” and stated that bail granting the order to Nawaz Sharif will “open a floodgate of similar requests by prisoners suffering from various diseases”.

On Oct 26, PML-N President Shehbaz Sharif had filed a petition in IHC, requesting the court to hear the bail plea sooner than Oct 29 owing to Nawaz’s “extremely critical condition”. After the hearing, which went into the evening, the court had granted Nawaz bail on medical grounds until Oct 29.

Pakistan honoured its commitment, ICJ tells UN The International Court of Justice (ICJ) President Judge Abdulqawi Ahmed Yusuf has submitted a report to United Nations (UN) Secretary General Antonio Guterres, wherein he said that Pakistan honoured its commitment of granting consular access to Indian spy Kulbhushan Jadhav. The ICJ president said that on August 1, Pakistan had notified the international court about its commitment to implement the July 17 verdict as it had informed the Indian spy of his rights under the Vienna Convention, and had invited Indian officials to visit him. “In particular, Pakistan stated that Mr Jadhav had been immediately informed of his rights under the Vienna Convention and that the consular post of the High Commission of India in Islamabad had been invited to visit him on 2 August 2019,” the report stated. Writing about the reparation and remedies in line with the court’s ruling, the ICJ president said that an appropriate remedy was effective review and reconsideration of Jadhav’s conviction and sentence. “The Court moreover clarified what it considered to be the requirements of effective review and reconsideration. NEWS DESK

CMYK Saturday, 2 November, 2019

NEWS

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No Nro, No resigNatioN, vows imraN PM CRITICISES PPP CHIEF BILAWAL FOR JOINING HANDS WITH RIGHT-WING JUI-F, CALLS HIM ‘LIBERALLY CORRUPT’ GILGIT

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STAFF REPORT

RIME Minister Imran Khan on Friday categorically told the Azadi March protesters congregated in Islamabad that when they run out of food, more will be sent to them, but their leaders should not expect any amnesty from him nor would he step down from his office.

While addressing a public rally in Gilgit-Baltistan, the premier said: “Gone are the days when one used to use Islam to gain power. This is a new Pakistan. Sit however long you want,” he said, adding “When your food runs out, we will send more. But we will not

SAYS GOVT WILL SEND FOOD TO AZADI MARCHERS BUT THEY SHOULD NOT EXPECT ANY AMNESTY FOR THEIR LEADERS

give you an NRO”.

The comments came shortly before the fiery speech of Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) President Shehbaz Sharif who joined the Azadi March in Islamabad after the Friday prayer. ”You started this container politics, you said you will burn down the Parliament, you said something about me. I will not respond to you in your language,” Shehbaz said to the marchers.

Visiting the mountainous region on the occasion of its independence day, the prime minister regretted that while the day marked a glorious event, a movement was on that day seeking disruption in Islamabad.

“We are celebrating your independ-

ence while an Azadi March [is ongoing in Islamabad]. Who are they wishing to gain freedom from?”

“I want the media to go there and ask people who they wish to free themselves from,” said the prime minister, stating that all his opponents appear disjointed in their thoughts and aims.

“If you ask PPP, they will talk about inflation; if you talk to PML-N they won’t know why they are there. JUI-F will decry a ‘Jewish conspiracy’ [to undermine Pakistan].”

“When Maulana Fazlur Rehman is there [in Islamabad] we have no need of foreign conspiracies,” said the premier.

“The way the Indian media is celebrating [this march], it makes it seem he

UK court to begin Altaf's trial in hate speech case on June 1 LoNDoN STAFF REPORT

‘MINUS IMRAN’ CoNTINUeD fRoM PAGe 01 “Despite such blatant rigging, for the benefit of the nation, we said we were ready for a charter of economy,” he said, adding that the PM rejected the “offer with extreme pride and arrogance”.

Questioning Imran Khan’s competence, the former Punjab chief minister called him a “goof” whose decisions were more dependent on “sorcery” and “supernatural guidance”.

“If God gives us the opportunity, we will put up a united front and work on fixing Pakistan’s economy. Imran Khan has a lot of support from all institutions – if we had the only 10pc of this support, we would have taken Pakistan on a Sputnik-like flight,” said Shehbaz.

“This protest will sweep away Imran Khan and his government,” he warned.

“If Imran Niazi remains in power any longer, Pakistan’s situation will only further deteriorate.

This sea of humans has made it clear that now is the time for

change. We will rebuild Pakistan once again under the leadership of Nawaz Sharif and our economy will be on its feet again within six months,” said Shehbaz.

Addressing the protesters, Awani National Party (ANP) leader Mian Iftikhar and Ghulam Ahmed Bilour said the first and foremost demand of the Azadi March protesters was the resignation of Prime Minister Imran Khan.

Bilour asked participants of the Azadi March gathering not to return to their homes until Prime Minister Imran Khan has tendered his resignation.

“To his (Imran Khan’s) selectors, I tell you that you have made the wrong selection,” said the senior ANP leader, alleging that the prime minister has ruined the country.

The March led by the JUI-F, calling for the resignation of Prime Minister Imran Khan and reelection, entered Islamabad last night. The sit-in would be attended by the opposition parties, including the PMLN, Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) and Awami National Party (ANP).

PM announces special waivers for Sikh pilgrims ahead of Kartarpur opening Prime Minister Imran Khan on Friday announced that Indian Sikh pilgrims arriving from India to visit Gurdwara Kartarpur Sahib will no longer need a passport to cross over into Pakistan as long as they “have a valid identity”.

In a tweet posted on Friday morning, the premier also announced that he had directed that the condition for pilgrims to register 10 days before their arrival to the Kartarpur shrine also be waived off.

The prime minister further announced that the pilgrims who arrive on the day of the Kartarpur corridor’s opening and on Baba Guru Nanak’s 550th birth anniversary will not be charged any fee to visit.

Following several rounds of tough negotiations between Pakistan and India, the two countries had finally signed an agreement last month paving the way for the inauguration of the Kartarpur Cor-

ridor on Nov 9 ahead of the 550th birth anniversary of the founder of Sikhism, Guru Nanak Dev. From the Indian side, Prime Minister Narendra Modi will inaugurate the corridor in Gurdaspur while his Pakistan counterpart, Imran Khan, will declare it open from the other end.

In Pakistan, the ceremony will feature former Indian premier Manmohan Singh as the chief guest. Indian cricketer-turned-politician Navjot Singh Sidhu will also attend the ceremony.

Sidhu was invited upon the directives of Prime Minister Imran. He had attended the groundbreaking ceremony of the Corridor earlier this year.

The four-kilometer-long corridor will provide pilgrims a visa-free link between Darbar Sahib in Kartarpur and the Dera Baba Nanak shrine in Indian Punjab. Up to 5,000 Indian Sikhs have been allowed access daily, with plans to eventually double the capacity. NEWS DESK

The Central Criminal Court of London on Friday extended the bail of Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) founder Altaf Hussain in the incitement to violence case after he appeared before a judge via video link. The court also decided to hold a preliminary hearing on March 20, 2020, and begin the trial on June 1. Hussain appeared before Justice Sweeney via video link at the crown court famously known as Old Bailey, after a Magistrates court on October 10 passed his case here for trial. It is not uncommon for a hearing of this nature to be conducted via video link. Courts in England may opt for prisoner video link (PVL) to save costs, for security measures or at the request of a lawyer. On October 11, Hussain was formally charged by the Crown Prosecution Service under Section 1(2) of the Terrorism Act 2006 for encouraging terrorism during a speech he made in August 2016.

If convicted, he could face a maximum prison sentence of 15 years along with a fine. The court last month had granted him bail based on conditions, which include restrictions to broadcasting speeches, a curfew which limits his movements outside his residence, a warning against application for a travel permit and the custody of his passport to police. The conditions will remain in effect while he is on bail. This is the first time the MQM supremo has been charged with any offence in the United Kingdom, where he has been living in self-imposed exile since 1991. The move comes as a blow to the party, which has maintained that Hussain is innocent and that the allegations against him are fabricated. On Aug 22, 2016, hours after Hussain had delivered the incendiary speech, MQM workers had attacked the ARY News office in Karachi. Shortly after, the Rangers had detained a handful of senior MQM leaders overnight. While addressing the MQM workers protesting outside the Karachi Press Club against “enforced disappearances and extrajudicial killings of workers”, the MQM supremo had not only raised slogans against Pakistan but also called the country “a cancer for entire world”. On Sept 12 this year, the MQM chief was grilled for five hours at the same police station in connection with the case. He was released with an extension in his bail. The MQM founder was arrested by the Met Police on June 11 as part of the investigation into his alleged hate speeches. However, he was released on bail a day later by the British authorities without filing charges relating to the probe. Police officers had in June searched two addresses linked to the MQM founder in northwest London. Police had also said that its officers had been liaising with the authorities in Pakistan in relation to their ongoing inquiry.

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[Rehman] himself is (an Indian) national,” he added.

The prime minister regretted the use of Islam for shoring up votes. “The youth will be misled. They will think he [the Maulana] is the caretaker of Islam. Instead of coming to Islam, people will leave religion after looking at him.”

“People are on to you now, Fazl. This is the age of social media. People know there is no substance in your statements.

People remember that when PTI gave a dharna [in 2014], what the PPP, PML-N had said at that time,” he said.

“Even Asfandyar [Wali] is there, who used to speak against JUI-F all the time,” remarked the prime minister.

The prime minister also asked what

Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) Chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari, who usually takes progressive political positions, is doing joining hands with a right-wing Islamist party.

“Bilawal, who calls himself a liberal, has also joined the jalsa. [It seems] the only thing ‘liberal’ about Bilawal is that he is liberally corrupt,” he said.

He asked all parties who had gathered in Islamabad to tell people what their real motive is. “Tell people why you have really gathered,” he dared the opposition.

He said the real reason was that their corruption cases are “laid bare for everyone to see. They are all afraid they will be next.”

The prime minister vowed to turn a new page in the history of the country.

“We will not be a country which allows such thieves to live in palaces. You will [all] go to jail. And then people will be afraid to do [what you have done].”

Government seeks meeting with Fazl REHBAR COMMITTEE HEAD AKRAM DURRANI CLAIMS GOVT VIOLATED AGREEMENT BY CENSORING AZADI MARCH COVERAGE As the Azadi March led by Maulana Fazlur Rehman, the head of his eponymous Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam, steps up pressure on the government demanding the resignation of Prime Minister Imran Khan, a government committee, headed by Defence Minister Pervaiz Khattak, has decided to approach Fazl with a request to backtrack from his demands for Imran Khan’s resignation and snap polls.

However, the sources within the Rehbar Committee said the government delegation has yet to approach the opposition and that any decision regarding talks with the government would be taken once it is approached by the committee.

On the other hand, JUI-F leader Akram Khan Durrani accused the government of violating the agreement it had

reached with the opposition’s Rehbar Committee by allegedly staging a media blackout of the Azadi March.

Meanwhile, the prime minister has summoned a meeting of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) core committee after the JUI-F announced to extend their stay in the federal capital for an indefinite period. Besides the JUI-F march, the meet will discuss the Kartarpur Corridor and the Kashmir issue.

Separately, the government chief spokesperson Dr Firdous Ashiq Awan said the Pakistan Army would be on standby and could be called in if “needed”.

She added that there would be threetiered security, police would be at the forefront, followed by the Rangers personnel and then there would be the army to ‘quell any unrest’. NEWS DESK

JUI-F allows female journos to cover protests after uproar After barring women from participating in the Azadi March, Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) has announced that there is no ban on female journalists from covering the Azadi March and has directed the participants of the march to treat all women with respect.

“Senator Maulana Abdul Ghafoor Haideri announced from Azadi March stage that women journalists should not be stopped from covering the march and treat all women with respect no ban on entry of women in dharna,” said anchorperson Hamid Mir in a tweet on Friday.

Previously, women appeared to be absent from the march. Earlier in October, reports had claimed that JUI-F chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman had imposed a ban on the participation of women in Azadi March but as the march reached Lahore on October 30, JUI-F Senator Maulana Abdul Ghafoor Haideri had said that only female party members have been banned from participating in the ‘Azadi March’. “Other parties may call in their fe-

male members if they wish. There is no restriction on them,” he had added.

He had further said that female journalists wishing to cover the march are allowed to do so and denied knowledge of a female reporter in Karachi being prevented from reporting on it.

When a journalist asked a marcher about the absence of women from the march, he said that what distinguished JUI-F from other political parties was the way men in the party stood of for the rights of their women. “Our women, who are sitting at home, will agree that the men represent them,” he said.

On Twitter, female journalists complained about the ill-treatment they suffered at the hands of the marchers. Nadia Suleman from BBC Urdu said that a volunteer in the march harassed and insulted her. Another female reporter from Independent Urdu said that the security personnel of JUI-F asked her to leave because she is a woman. NEWS DESK

04 KARACHI

Saturday, 2 November, 2019

WEATHER UPDATES SATURDAY

340C 220C

SUNDAY

340C 220C

MONDAY

350C 220C

TUESDAY

340C 220C

CyClone maHa poSeS no tHreat to pakiStan’S CoaSt KARACHI

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S Cyclone Kyaar dissipates off the coast of Somalia, another cyclonic storm building up in the Arabian Sea is being predicted to gain intensity and turn into a severe cyclonic storm over the next 24 hours, a Meteorological department official stated on Friday.

Maha — the current cyclonic storm — is far away from Pakistan and poses no threat to its coast.

“Cyclonic storm Maha has moved north-north westwards during the last 12 hours and is likely to track north-westwards and intensify more as a severe cyclonic storm during the next 24 hours,” says the Met department website.

According to the department’s spokesperson, Maha was 1,400km away from Karachi’s coast on Thursday night, surrounded by winds having a speed between 63km per hour and 87km per hour.

“It’s likely to gain more intensity and move towards Oman gradually whereas Cyclone Kyaar is currently moving parallel to Oman and Yemen. It’s likely to weaken into a depression by tomorrow and gradually dissipate over waters off the coast of Somalia,” said Sardar Sarfaraz. After cyclone Kyarr hit several coastal villages and localities of Karachi this week, Pakistan Meteorological Department had warned on Thursday that a new cyclone was in the making.

A spokesperson for the Met Office informed in the latest advisory that “the deep depression previously located over

Govt discusses $2.77bn projects with World Bank

the South-east Arabian Sea has rapidly intensified into a new cyclonic storm Maha last night.”

“Maha is likely to track northwestwards and intensify more as SCS during the next 24 hours,” said the spokesperson.

According to the Met Office, Kyarr, over the Arabian Sea, already lost its intensity before the cyclonic storm ‘Maha’ emerged.

“Kyarr is now at about 910 km southwest of Karachi, 722 km south of Gwadar and 317 km southeast of Masirah Island (Oman). Kyarr is likely to weaken further into a Severe Cyclonic Storm (SCS) and move to the Gulf of Aden during the next 24 hours,” said the Met Office.

“There is no direct threat to Pakistan coast; however light or moderate rain is expected at a few places along Makran Coast during the next two days.”

Govt prepares draft of law to regulate charity activities

KARACHI: Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah in a meeting with World Bank President David Malpass discussed $2.77 billion projects and got $1.93 billion new projects approved including rehabilitation of Guddu, Sukkur barrages and revamping of Karachi water and sewerage board (KWSB). The other World Bank delegation members who attended the meeting here at CM House on Friday include Vice President World Bank South Asia Hartwig Schafer, Regional Vice President IFC Nena Stoiljkovic, Vice President EFI Ceyla Pazarbasioglu, Country Director Pakistan Illango Patchamuthu and others. The chief minister was assisted by Chief Secretary Mumtaz Shah, Nisar Khuhro, Ismail Rahu, Saeed Ghani, Imtiaz Shaikh, Azra Pechuho, Shahla Raza, Nasir Shah, Murtaza Wahab, Chairperson P&D Nahid Shah, SRB Chairman Khalid Mahmood and others. Sindh Chief Minister through a presentation told the World Bank Group President that the Sukkur Barrage was amongst important barrages of the country and a lifeline of rural economy.

Similarly, Guddu Barrage is also important for agro-economy of the province. He said that there was a proposal to construct a new barrage at Sukkur but as it would be a huge project in terms financial implication; therefore, the provincial government has decided to rehabilitate the Sukkur and Guddu barrages. The World Bank agreed to finance $328 million for rehabilitation of both the barrages.The chief minister said that on Sindh government request the World Bank undertook a Karachi Diagnostic Study in 2016 leading to Karachi Transformation Strategy which developed a holistic plan to revitalize the megacity. This plan has helped roll out dedicated reforms and investments in the water & sanitation; urban transport system and local government governance. STAFF REPORT

KARACHI STAFF REPORT

The Government of Sindh has drafted a legislation bill to regulate charity activities in the province on Friday.

The proposed law will provide a legal basis for action against the organizations involved in criminal or political activities while operating under the veil of charity.

The draft of proposed Sindh Charities Act 2019 will regulate

charity activities including those donating and those receiving donations for charity. The proposed law makes it necessary to register the charity organizations, promoters and the fundraising campaigns.

The donors would have to inform about their source of income, the draft of the law suggests.

The draft required the charity organizations to clarify the aims and objectives of their collection of funds for charity. Sindh Charity

Commission and Charity Registration Authority will also propose to be established under the law.

The charity organizations will be bound to keep a detailed record of their all financial transactions and the charity amount and donations will not be utilized for any business or political objective.

All financial and social activities of a charity organization will be monitored and the Sindh Charity Commission could cancel the registration of a charity over violation of the law. The draft of the bill also suggests depositing all donations above Rs 50,000 in banks.

A charity organization, trustees will be liable to imposition of a fine up to one million over violation of the law, the draft proposes.

Chief Minister of Sindh Syed Murad Ali Shah recently said the draft law had been approved by the provincial cabinet. He also said that after enactment of the Sindh Charities Act 2019, action will be launched against unregistered nonprofit organizations.

Police busts network of maids looting homes in city KARACHI: Police arrested a nine-member gang of maids involved in looting homes for years, from the Gulshan-e-Iqbal area of Karachi.

As per Assistant Superintendent Police of Gulshane-Iqbal Maroof Usman, the network of maids used to rob houses in Malir, Gulistan-e-Jauhar, Gulshan-e-Iqbal, Safoora, New Karachi and FB area. The gang was also involved in street crimes and mugged shops as well.

Three laptops, 10 mobile phones, two cameras, gold jewellery and five pistols were recovered from thieves.

Four of the gang members are on run while others

have been caught, as per police.

Earlier in Oct, another criminal gang, Shahid Burger Group, was arrested by Ferozabad police which was involved in over 30 robberies in Karachi, wherein they mugged around 520 tola gold and more than eight million rupees in cash. During various robberies, they also stole foreign currency, prize bond and mobile phones, the report said. The group, wanted by the police of three cities, confessed to committing crimes in the areas of Defence, Korangi, Gulistan-e-Jauhar, KDA, Gulshan-eIqbal, Ferozabad and other areas of Karachi. STAFF REPORT

Demonstrators demand national ship-breaking policy KARACHI PPI

A rally of workers, including shopbreaking workers of Gadani, here Friday demanded of the government to announce national ship-breaking policy and withdraw heavy taxes from this crucial sector of the economy.

According to details, a big protest rally was staged a Gadani by the National Trade Union Federation (NTUF) and Gadani Ship-breaking Workers Union on the occasion of the third anniversary of the martyrdom of 29 workers in Gadani ship-breaking fire mishap.

Addressing the rally, the speakers said three years have already passed to this tragedy, but the government of Balochistan so far has failed to provide legal protection to the ship-breaking workers. As a result of ship-breaking workers, today are compelled to work in the worst conditions. For the implementations of labour laws and health and safety is a distant dream. Despite the passage of three long years to no proper law-making for shipbreaking workers is done which could result in a

big mishap. It is necessary that to bring the ship breaking in industrial sector proper lawmaking should be done. A draft bill made with extensive consultation of labours should be tabled in assembly at the earliest. Health and safety laws should implemented and contract labour system in this sector be ended.

The rally was led by NTFU central

president Rafiq Baloch, and Union President Bashir Ahmed Mehmoodani. A large number of workers carrying flags and banners chanted slogans for their rights. The speakers said that they have been lodging complaints about long against non-implementation of health and safety measures at the Gadani shipbreaking yards, but the government,

CMYK

yard owners and related departments of government have never taken these complaints seriously. They said that on November 01, 2016 and then in 2017 many big mishaps took place in Gadani ship-breaking yards in which more than 33 workers died and 54 others injured.

They said these mishaps still continue.

They said Balochistan labour department, social security institutions, EOBI, environmental agencies, local police, administrations and owners of ships and labour contractors are responsible for the problems faced by the workers, as they are refusing to accept the constitutional and legal rights of the ship-breaking workers. They said workers are still being denied of their basic rights like appointment letters, union making, collective bargaining, social security and pension. They said that due to the flawed policies of the sitting government and its undemocratic steps ship-breaking industry has braved a huge loss. They said excessive taxes have made this ship-breaking yard empty and abandoned and thousands of labour of ship-breaking and iron rerolling industries are rendered jobless.

276 more denGue CaSeS deteCted in City KARACHI: At least 276 more dengue fever cases were reported across Karachi city in 24-hours, taking the reported cases’ toll to 8,976 since January 1, 2019.

Spokesman Prevention and Control Program for Dengue (PCPD) Sindh, while talking to PPI, informed that as many as 304 new dengue fever cases emerged throughout the Sindh province in a day, out of the 276 were detected in Karachi and 28 in other districts. A total of 26 people had died due to dengue viral fever in Sindh’s government and private sector health facilities of the city this year so far. In October, a total of 6,337 dengue positive cases was reported across the province out of the 5,932 were confirmed from Karachi and 405 from other districts. In 2019, a total of 9,554 dengue cases were detected in Sindh province so far out of which, 8,976 happened in Karachi and 578 in other districts. PPI

SHC orders federal govt to legislate for transgender persons' employment KARACHI: The Sindh High Court (SHC) on Friday asked the Federal Ministry for Human Rights to make rules for the provision of jobs to the transgender community. A two-member bench of the SHC, headed by Justice Muhammad Ali Mazhar, heard a petition against no implement on the law pertaining to the rights of the transgender community. The Federal Ministry through its counsel submitted a reply to the bench and informed it that the process of rules formulation has been started. The ministry informed that a committee had been formed to draft rules for transgender. At which, the bench remarked law was formed in 2018 but rules are not made yet. Justice Mazhar remarked: “Transgender would be prevented from begging but what about their jobs.” Justice also remarked that how transgender would be given jobs, rules must be formed. Tariq Mansoor, the counsel of the petitioner, submitted with the bench that a law was adopted in 2018 for transgender but rules could still not be made to implement that law. He said a law had been adopted but transgender was still begging.

SHC oRdeRS tRAnSpoRt dept to fIx fARe RAteS: The Sindh High Court (SHC) on Friday ordered the Sindh Transport Department to immediately fix transport fare as per law. A two-member bench, headed by Justice Muhammad Ali Mazhar, heard a petition against unjustified fare rates of public transport and ordered Sindh Transport Department to fix them as per law. The bench remarked contempt of court plea should be filed if the Transport Department does no fix transport fares.

Justice Mazhar observed that who has given such permission to transport mafia.

He asked does the transport department has any mechanism of transport fares.

However, Deputy Inspector General (DIG) Traffic Police submitted his reply but the bench expressed anger at his reply for not making the signature. Justice lashed out at DIG Traffic and asked are you not aware that signature is necessary for a written reply. STAFF REPORT

Saturday, 2 November, 2019

NEWS

05

ChINA SuPPoRTS PAkISTAN’S eFFoRTS To CuRb TeRRoR-FINANCINg BEIJING/ISLAMABAD

Seven journalists killed in past year: Freedom Network At least seven journalists have been killed with impunity over past one year, said the Freedom Network in a report released on the International Day for the Elimination of Crimes against Journalists, celebrated on Nov 2 every year.

According the reports, a total of 33 journalists were killed in six years, which was a matter of grave concern. According to Pakistan Impunity Score Card, between 2013 and 2019, 33 journalists were killed, out of which 32 filed an FIR, in which police could submit charge sheets in only 20 cases or 60% of cases. According to the report, out of 33 cases, the courts declared only 20 cases as subjects for trial, out of which only 6 cases, i.e. 18%, completed the prosecution and trial. In only one of the six cases where the trial was completed, the killer was convicted, but he also managed to escape the conviction after filing an appeal, after which the victim’s journalist family withdrew from pursuing justice due to lack of resources. According to the Freedom Network, Pakistan counts as one of the country’s most prone to journalist killings. NEWS DESK

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STAFF REPORT

HINESE Foreign Ministry said that it supports Pakistan’s efforts to improve the country’s counter-terrorism financing system.

The ministry also said that FATF’s purpose is assisting countries to combat illegal activities such as money laundering and terrorist financing in a better way, rather than sanctioning them. Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Geng Shuang issued the statement while responding to a question on the comments of a senior Chinese official who said that Beijing is opposed to

blacklisting of Pakistan by FATF. The official also mentioned the

FATF plenary’s appreciation of Islamabad’s progress. “Not long ago, the

SC upholds life imprisonment in double murder case

President, PM condole death of PTI founding member Ashiq Qureshi

Zia Mohyeddin awarded prestigious Jinnah Medal

ISLAMABAD STAFF REPORT

LAHORE: President Arif Alvi and Prime Minister Imran Khan expressed grief at the death of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf founding member Ashiq Qureshi. The prime minister took to twitter to express his sorrow over the death of his old friend and party worker. Ashiq Qureshi was the son of former Punjab Governor Sadiq Hussain Qureshi and was also one of the earliest financiers of the Shaukat Khanam Memorial Hospital. He died on early Friday morning after suffering a cardiac arrest at his residence in Lower Mall Road, Lahore. STAFF REPORT

The Supreme Court (SC) on Friday rejected the petition against life imprisonment of two convicts, Daud Baig and Sabir Hussain, in a double murder case on Friday.

The top court preserved the high court’s verdict that pronounced jail-term for life to the persons who were convicted in murdering two citizens including Mazhar Hussain and a woman. It is pertinent to mention here that a trial court had sentenced to death to Baig and Hussain in the same case which was later converted to life sentence by a high court.

As the hearing went underway, Justice Sajjad Ali Shah expressed outrage over the

lawyer of the convicted persons. He remarked it seems that the counsel has not read out details of the case, adding that the apex court has thoroughly reviewed all of its aspects.

Justice Qazi Faez Isa remarked that the arguments of their lawyer led towards hanging to death for the convicted prisoners and he should not tell the court for the points which would go in favor of his clients.

Later, the top court dismissed the petition for review the life sentence. In March, the Supreme Court had upheld the death sentence awarded to convicts in a triple murder case.

A three-judge bench headed

by Chief Justice Asif Saeed Khosa had rejected appeals moved by the convicts who assailed the Lahore High Court

(LHC) ruling that had awarded them capital punishment in the case. In 2007, Ilyas Gujjar, Hera Gujjar and Zahid Gujjar were murdered while Naved Ilyas and Tahir Mehmood wounded by a rival group over a petty issue in Lahore’s Azimpura neighborhood. Elaborating details of the case, Justice Khosa remarked that the victims were not murdered in one place but at three different places after being chased down by the convicts.

Justice Khosa said the relevant trial court incorporated terror charges in the case which were later excluded by the high court during the hearing of the accused’s appeals. The murders didn’t constitute terrorism but were the result of personal enmity, he explained, upholding the LHC verdict.

World leaders extend ‘deepest condolences’ to Liaqatpur train fire victims ISLAMABAD STAFF REPORT

Several world leaders, including Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and British royal couple William and Kate, have offered their condolences to families of the victims who were killed in the devastating Tezgam fire and wished a “speedy recovery to the wounded survivors”.

“On behalf of my country, I extend my deepest condolences to the people of Pakistan — our friends and brothers,” Erdogan said in a video message, posted from the Turkish president’s official account on Friday.

About 74 people perished in the Liaqatpur city of Rahim Yar Khan district when three carriages of a Tezgam train caught fire on Thursday. According to initial reports, the fire was caused by a cylinder blast that occurred when passengers were preparing breakfast for themselves in a moving train. Condolence messages were also sent by the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, UK Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab, United States’ Acting Assistant Secretary of

FATF plenary meeting decided to keep Pakistan’s rating unchanged. It shows the FATF membership’s recognition of Pakistan’s progress in improving the system of countering the financing of terrorism, as well as encouragement for Pakistan’s efforts,” he said.

Geng said that the decision was in line with the FATF purpose of fighting terrorist financing and upholding the security of the international financial system. The spokesperson reemphasised that Beijing will always support Pakistan’s efforts to improve its counter-terrorism financing system. “China will work closely with other FATF members to assist Pakistan,” he added.

State Alice G. Wells, the Chinese embassy in Pakistan and former British high commissioner to Pakistan Thomas Drew, among others.

“Having just returned from visiting Pakistan, we were horrified and deeply saddened to hear about the tragic fire on the Tezgam train near Rahim Yar Khan,” a statement posted by Kensington Palace on behalf of Prince William and Duchess Kate Middleton said. “Our thoughts and prayers are with all the people

and families affected by this heartbreaking disaster.” Raab wrote to Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi “to express condolences on behalf of the UK” over the “tragic Tezgam train fire”, the British foreign office said in a tweet.

“Our thoughts go out to all those affected and their friends and families,” the tweet added.

Wells also extended her “deepest condolences” to families of victims of the “heartbreaking train accident”.

A statement posted by the US State Department’s Bureau of South and Central Asian Affairs’ Twitter account said: “Terrible news out of Rahim Yar Khan about the heartbreaking train accident today. I send my deepest condolences to the families of the passengers and the people of #Pakistan. AGW.” The Chinese embassy in Pakistan said it was “saddened by the tragic accident” and extended “heartfelt condolences and sympathies” to the families of the victims. “The Embassy is saddened by the tragic accident of the Karachi-Rawalpindi Tezgam Express fire that caused losses of lives in Liaqatpur near Rahim Yar Khan earlier today. Our heartfelt condolences and sympathies go to the bereaved families and we wish the injured a speedy recovery.”

Sharing a news story of the incident, Thomas Drew said: “Horrific news. My thoughts are with the victims, their families and friends.”

The Saudi embassy in Islamabad also extended its heartfelt sympathies to the aggrieved families of the train inferno victims.

KARACHI: The Board of Directors and Management of the National Academy of Performing Arts (NAPA) awarded Zia Mohyeddin the prestigious Jinnah Medal.

It was presented to him by the Pakistan Society (in the UK) in a ceremony in London. The Society, whose Patron-in-chief is Prince Phillip, The Duke of Edinburgh, was founded in 1951. Sir William Blackburne is its current President. The event is annually held in the Great Hall of Lincoln’s Inn, the Inn of Court which called Mohammad Ali Jinnah to the English Bar in 1895. The Jinnah Medal is usually presented to someone who, in the judgment of the Society’s executive body “has contributed significantly to the advancement of public knowledge and understanding in the UK of Pakistan, its culture, languages, peoples and affairs.” Mohyeddin is well known as an eminent actor, director, producer and author. In the words of Sir William Blackburne, he is the “Gielgud of Pakistan.” He received his training at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London and went on to an international career that has spanned over 65 years. He has achieved wide critical acclaim in a great number of successful stage, film radio and television performances in London. STAFF REPORT

Twitterati condemn leaking of Rabi Pirzada’s personal videos Twitterati on Friday condemned leaking of Rabi Pirzada’s personal videos and called out the double standards of people who had been criticising the singer over the videos instead of the person who had leaked them to the public. On Thursday, compromising videos of the singer leaked on social media and were shared by thousands of users. While some were quick to criticise the singer for making such videos, others pointed out the way she had been bullied by the person who leaked them in the first place. Some users also pointed out that if they were condemning Pirzada for making such videos, they should also condemn the act of sharing them on social media. Meanwhile, Pirzada approached the Federal Investigation Agency’s (FIA) Cyber Crime Wing , seeking action against those involved in the privacy breach. She said that she had earlier sold her cell phone to a shop and her data must have been stolen from that phone. She added that she had also filed an application against that shop. Last month, CCTV footages of couples engaging in acts of intimacy in a cinema hall and a hospital’s private room, were leaked on social media ostensibly by employees of both facilities. The scandal raised concerns about citizens’ privacy and brought the inefficiency of state institutions in protecting the rights of people into focus. Under the Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act, 2016, an offender may be imprisoned for five years for violating a person’s privacy with or without a fine of Rs10 million.

The law explicitly states that whoever facilitates the production and distribution of material that breaches someone’s privacy shall be liable to imprisonment for six months with or without fine of Rs50,000. NEWS DESK

Saturday, 2 November, 2019

06 WORLD VIEW

Can you really ‘deradiCalise’ a terrorist?

AFTER YEARS OF EFFORT TO PREVENT AND REVERSE RADICALISATION, THE JURY’S STILL OUT ON WHETHER IT WORKS

MIT Technology RevIew Obi AnyAdike

M

alam aminu is a slight, bespectacled man with a neat goatee and a disconcerting droopy eyelid that by turns makes him look sinister and then not quite all there.

When I first met him, in 2015, he was an inmate in Nigeria’s Kuje Prison, and one of the most senior members of Boko Haram being held in custody. He was also one of 41 subjects in a new experiment being conducted by the government.

Faced with a difficult war against insurgents in the remote northeast, Nigeria had decided on a new strategy to tackle extremism: a mixture of amnesty, demobilization, and reprogramming to whittle away jihadist recruits. The idea was to undermine Boko Haram through bloodless attrition, not just by slugging it out on the battlefield.

The program was designed and run by Fatima akilu, a softspoken psychologist who had trained in the UK and the US. She drew on prison-based schemes under way in Saudi arabia, Singapore, and australia, adapting them to Nigeria. The new approach involved changes across a range of policy areas: shifting the school curriculum to promote “critical thinking,” overhauling a sclerotic justice system, tinkering with the health services so that psycho-social care could be expanded.

“The solutions are as complex as the reasons for radicalism,” akilu told me. The most visible part of her strategy, though, was in Kuje. Directed at prisoners who were convicted or suspected terrorists, it aimed at more than just getting detainees to renounce violence. Its goal was thorough deradicalisation: totally expunging extremist beliefs, values, and behavior.

This represented an immense cultural shift for Nigeria. Its jails

are notorious for their neglect and abuse of inmates, but in Kuje’s “de-rad” wing—built with funds given to Nigeria by the European Union—the focus was different.

The idea was to build a human connection between the alleged extremists—known as “clients” rather than inmates—and the wardens, who were retrained and renamed the “treatment team.”

Their job was to assess the needs of the militants under their care, and to identify the most effective ways to deprogram them.

When I first met aminu, he was dressed in a crisp white dashiki and seated in an air-conditioned classroom in a new wing segregated from the rest of the overcrowded and unsanitary jail.

Here on the de-rad side, clients were treated differently. They could wear their own clothes and had access to a new mosque, a sports area, and properly equipped vocational training programs. Not surprisingly, they were roundly hated by the hundreds of long-suffering regular inmates.

“We try as much as possible to help them. We tell them we are not police or security—we’re doctors.

That’s why it’s called treatment.”

PROTECT AND PREVENT Over the past 20 years, as detentions of terrorists have mounted around the world, a dizzying range of de-rad programs like the one in Kuje have sprung up in almost every major country. authorities in Nigeria and elsewhere worried they were simply creating a revolving door if they released terrorists back into the community once their sentences had been served. Yet indefinite detentions, such those at Guantánamo Bay, weren’t a popular or legal way to deal with the problem either. So began the explosion of post-crime deradicalisation schemes.

Prison-based initiatives vary, from monitored informal chats with a local imam (a technique favored in Victoria, australia) to structured models like that run by the government in Saudi arabia.

The Saudi approach includes a prison-based counseling phase, rehabilitation therapy, and then postrelease “after-care”—all touted as something of a gold standard.

Riyadh claims recidivism is extremely low, but independent researchers are skeptical of the official numbers: there have been

at least 11 high-profile cases of participants who have returned to terrorism. Saudi methods have also been questioned. For a start, participants are usually low-level supporters of dangerous organizations rather than hard-core militants. The program is also focused on preventing domestic terror attacks. It may therefore turn a blind eye to the export of jihad abroad, which means deradicalisation “is not truthfully being achieved,” wrote Tom Pettinger, a researcher at the University of Warwick, in a 2017 paper.

Other models, many of them in Europe, seek to prevent people from becoming radicalized in the first place. Britain’s Prevent program, for example, seeks both to educate communities on the risks of radicalization and to stage interventions. Public workers in schools, universities, and local councils are required to report on anyone who shows radical tendencies, a system that the government says has diverted more than 1,200 people from extremism.

Increasingly, though, prevention efforts have focused on the internet. The web is seen as a dangerous shortcut to radicalization, providing “a cheap and effective way to communicate, bond, and network with like-minded movement members,” says Daniel Koehler, founding director of the German Institute on Radicalization and De-Radicalization Studies. looking at former right-wing German extremists, Koehler found that the perceived anonymity of the internet encouraged people to take more extreme positions. Being part of a radical echo chamber online “creates a kind of ticking time bomb: a rapidly decreasing amount of alternatives and options in combination with an increasing amount of ideological calls for action,” he says.

The argument is that the speed and saturation of online communication can easily accelerate radicalization. Stuck inside an information bubble, impressionable people are exposed to more and more extreme viewpoints until—finally—their activities shift to the next, horrifying level.

Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube have been visible parts of this machine, driven in large part by ISIS, which has placed great value in its social-media operations. at the height of the

“caliphate” in 2014, it had teams devoted to creating and uploading ISIS-branded propaganda from afghanistan to West africa in a round-the-clock news cycle. In 2014, there were estimated to be between 46,000 and 90,000 active ISIS support accounts worldwide, both official and unofficial, in a variety of languages. most attempts to stamp out radicalism online have focused on shutting down the accounts of those who preach violence: Twitter claimed to have suspended more than 1.8 million accounts from 2015 to 2018. This has been effective when done rapidly and consistently. The ISIS presence on Twitter has diminished in quantity and visibility.

But taking down social-media accounts goes only so far, and there are many platforms for extremists to inhabit. Twitter is merely “one node in a wider jihadist online ecology,” pointed out a study last year by British and Irish researchers on platforms’ takedowns of terrorist material.

Pro-ISIS users also favor services like Google Drive, Sendvid, and especially Telegram, where group “owners” have much greater control over membership and access.

ONLINE OBSESSION attempts to control or ban extremists online are repressive rather than preventative, but critics also say they end up displaying the biases of platform owners and the media rather than focusing on where the greatest threat is. ISIS has received disproportionate attention compared with other jihadist groups, for example. and only recently, in the wake of atrocities like the Christchurch mosque shootings in New Zealand, has the far right attracted attention, despite years of increasing white supremacist activity online.

There’s also been a lot of attention and funding for fighting online activity compared with other avenues for radicalization.

One reason is the “relative ease of creating and quantifying social media datasets compared to other forms of field work,” wrote J. m.

Berger, an author and analyst on extremism, in a paper last summer. Yet there are still no established causal links between online extremism and offline violence. a Unesco report in 2017 concluded that “social media constitutes a facilitating environment rather than

a driving force for violent radicalization or the actual commission of violence.” and a review of 227 convicted UK terrorists concluded that the vast majority of online extremists don’t become terrorists. However, those who commit terrorist acts “regularly engage in activities in both [online and offline] domains,” noted Elizabeth Pearson of Kings College, london, in a 2017 paper.

Finally, of course, there’s little consensus on where to draw the line between extremism and what’s merely offensive to some people or threatening to a certain group in power. That makes it easy for governments to suppress political speech in the name of clamping down on extremism— it’s how China justifies the detention of more than one million muslim Uighurs, for example.

LEARNING FROM THE PAST Whether they focus on technology or ideology, many de-rad and disruption programs have encountered trouble in the long term.

Nigeria’s fell out of favor when the government changed; it is now under the control of the military, with a far less strategic role.

In France, one early project was shut down amid protests from locals, and two other proposals have similarly struggled. last year Prime minister Édouard Philippe announced a fresh attempt at de-rad but admitted that the technocratic approach had been optimistic. “No one has a magic formula for deradicalisation, like you might de-install dangerous software,” he said.

This has led some governments to lean on older, more trusted tactics. Radio and TV programming are long-established ways of encouraging behavioral change. From Bosnia to mali, research-driven storylines have been shown to slowly alter the values and behaviors of the audience. In northeast Nigeria, Radio Dandal Kura (“meeting place”) broadcasts phone-ins, education programs, and peace messages across the region. It has been successful, not least at getting under the skin of Boko Haram: the movement’s leader, abubakar Shekau, released a video threatening its female presenters and calling them “prostitutes.”

The last time I saw malam aminu was in 2018. He was living quietly in a village in central

Trump takes his insults to a new low IT’S ONE THING TO THROW MUD AT CRITICS AND COMPETITORS; IT’S SOMETHING NEW TO ATTACK THE PATRIOTISM OF ONE OF HIS OWN SOLDIERS

BlooMBeRg TimOThy L O’brien

The commander in chief of america’s armed forces took to Twitter on Tuesday morning to shred the reputation of one of his own soldiers — lt. Col. alexander Vindman, an army officer with more than 20 years of service, including a tour in Iraq in which he was wounded and awarded a Purple Heart.

Vindman, the White House’s top Ukraine specialist on the National Security Council, was testifying to impeachment investigators Tuesday about how Trump and his administration tried to strong-arm Ukraine into conducting a sham corruption probe of a political rival, former Vice Pres-

ident Joe Biden. Vindman knew about this because he, among others, participated in a July phone call in which Trump asked Ukraine’s leader to do exactly that. Vindman had also joined an earlier White House meeting in which Trump’s ambassador to the European Union, Gordon Sondland, told a Ukrainian delegation that a meeting with Trump (quid) would only occur if their country investigated Biden (quo).

Trump, confronted by a mounting pile of damaging evidence, would have none of this. So he reverted to form, hopping on to Twitter to lash out at Vindman.

“How many more Never Trumpers will be allowed to testify about a perfectly appropriate phone call when all anyone has to do is REaD THE TRaNSCRIPT!” he offered. “I knew people were listening in on the call (why would I say something inappropriate?), which was fine with me, but why so many?”

White House phone calls involving national security issues have multiple monitors in every administration, Republican and Democrat. a short while later, Trump tweeted

again: “Supposedly, according to the Corrupt media, the Ukraine call ‘concerned’ today’s Never Trumper witness. Was he on the same call that I was? Can’t be possible! Please ask him to read the Transcript of the call. Witch Hunt!”

Vindman is a soldier and an adult, and undoubtedly he knew this would be coming. He was also born in Ukraine when it was still part of the Soviet Union and migrated with his family to the U.S. in 1979 when he was 3 ½ years old. On monday night, Fox News host laura Ingraham and John Yoo, a former Justice Department official, jointly suggested on TV that Vindman might be a spy. Brian Kilmeade, a host of the morning show “Fox & Friends,” had fun Tuesday speculating about Vindman’s “affinity” for Ukraine. all of this probably explains why, at the top of his testimony, Vindman offered a synopsis of his career.

“I have a deep appreciation for american values and ideals and the power of freedom. I am a patriot, and it is my sacred duty and honor to advance and defend OUR country, irrespective of party or pol-

itics,” he noted in his prepared remarks. ”For over twenty years as an active duty United States military officer and diplomat, I have served this country in a nonpartisan manner, and have done so with the utmost respect and professionalism for both Republican and Democratic administrations.”

Vindman’s service and patriotism don’t matter much to the president or his TV apologists. Vindman’s service and patriotism should matter to everyone else, though, regardless of party or ideological persuasion. Trump’s attacks on institutions and the rule of law are old hat. His personal attacks on individuals are even uglier, if just as depressingly familiar. and Trump has been at this a while.

He spent decades in New York slagging local politicians, business competitors and the media before climbing onto the national stage. Embracing birtherism and casting doubt on Barack Obama’s nationality was one of his early political parlor tricks, and proved to be a warm-up act for his 2016 presidential bid.

Early in that campaign he called into question the late Senator John mcCain’s

Nigeria, having been released from Kuje—along with 14 other former jihadists—not long after we first met.

In the old days, he said, he believed that “if you were ready to use violence, you could achieve your aims.” He wasn’t radicalized by the internet, but by experience and outrage. He’d once been a senior commander in Boko Haram and a member of its shura, or consultative council. Now, though, he’d learned tolerance and knew how to listen to others’ points of view. much of this he attributed to akilu, the psychologist at Kuje. He also said the imams on the treatment team eventually got him to reconsider his views.

But he remained firm in his core beliefs. The poverty of northern Nigeria and the indifference of the wealthy had stirred him to action, he explained, and he still thought the solution was strict sharia, Islamic law. What he disagreed with was Boko Haram’s extreme violence. He had fallen out with Shekau, questioning his religious knowledge, strategy, and tactics.

But living outside the prison again, he felt abandoned by the Nigerian government. akilu had privately paid for him to go back to school, but there had been no reintegration package from the government, not even a parole officer to report to. One day he was in jail; the next he had to fend for himself.

Six of the men who were freed from Kuje with him were “his boys,” and he stayed in touch. Three have since rejoined Boko Haram. He said it wasn’t necessarily ideological: one of them—a man I’d been introduced to in Kuje as “the Commander”— had been rejected by his family and was sleeping on the streets.

His former comrades found him and persuaded him to rejoin. aminu said he would not return to violence. But his beliefs would still be considered radical by most. “It’s only because I’ve repented,” he told me. “[It’s] the reason why I don’t backslide.”

I couldn’t help wondering whether it wasn’t in fact Boko Haram that had left him.

Obi Anyadike is a journalist and researcher based in Kenya, and editor at large for The New Humanitarian.

military valor. mcCain, you remember, was held captive for six years during the Vietnam War. (Trump, on the other hand, successfully engineered five deferments so he wouldn’t have to serve in Vietnam.)

Trump also went out of his way during the campaign to smear Khizr and Ghazala Khan, american muslims whose son, a soldier, was killed during the Iraq War. another memorable moment during the 2016 campaign occurred when Trump repeatedly attacked Gonzalo Curiel, a federal judge who was presiding over fraud litigation involving Trump University. although Curiel was born in the U.S., Trump said the judge’s mexican heritage made him unfit to hear the case. Earlier this year, Trump repeatedly suggested that four female Democrats of color, three of whom were born in the U.S., “go back” to their ancestors’ countries. last week, Trump repeatedly questioned the patriotism of William Taylor, a career soldier and diplomat who is now the senior U.S. representative in Ukraine. Taylor has also testified that Trump personally and explicitly tried to force Ukraine to investigate the president’s political opponents. and Trump has tried to put Taylor in the same barrel as Vindman, also labeling him a Never Trumper. The president has put exhibitionism and gimmickry ahead of public service his entire life. and that’s reminder enough why this is a moment for everyone else to stand behind patriots like Vindman and Taylor who have chosen to step into Trump’s crosshairs.

Saturday, 2 November, 2019

FOREIGN NEWS 07

iraqis pour into streets for biggest protest day sinCe saddam BAGHDAD

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AGENCIES

HOUSANDS of Iraqis thronged central Baghdad on Friday demanding the root-andbranch downfall of the political elite, in what was expected to become the biggest day of mass antigovernment demonstrations since the fall of Saddam Hussein.

Protests in which 250 people have died over the past month have accelerated dramatically in recent days, drawing huge crowds from across Iraq’s sectarian and ethnic divides to reject the political parties in power since 2003. Thousands have been camped out in Baghdad’s central Tahrir Square, with many thousands more joining them by day. Friday, the Muslim day of prayer, was expected to draw the biggest crowds yet, with many taking to the streets after worship.

More than 50 people were wounded overnight and early Friday morning, police and hospital sources said. By late morning hundreds were marching to the square from side streets, condemning elites they see as deeply corrupt, beholden to foreign powers and responsible for daily privations.

In recent days protests have been comparatively peaceful by day, joined by

elderly people and young families, becoming more violent after dark as police use tear gas and live ammunition to battle self-proclaimed “revolutionary” youths in the street. Amnesty International said on Thursday security forces were using “previously unseen” tear gas canisters modeled on military grenades that are 10 times as heavy as standard ones.

In Baghdad, protesters had set up checkpoints in the streets leading into and surrounding Tahrir Square, redirecting traffic. New arrivals joined and assisted those who had camped overnight. A group of young people were sweeping the streets in to “make things comfortable” for fellow protesters.

Mohammed Najm, an engineering graduate with no job, said the square had become a model for the country he and his comrades hope to build: “We are cleaning streets, others bring us water, they bring us electricity, they wired it up.

“A mini-state. Health for free, tuktuks transporting for free,” he said. “The state has been around for 16 years and what it failed to do we did in seven days in Tahrir. If they can’t do it, leave.”

Many were singing about the sit in.

Helmets and gas masks were now a common sight. A group of middle-aged women sat making falafel sandwiches. “We are making food for the protesters. They are

our sons and brothers,” said Umm Idrees, mother to three university graduates who have all failed to find jobs. “We are here until the regime falls, every day.”

‘NOT ENOUGH’: In his weekly sermon, top Shi’ite cleric Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani warned of “civil conflict, chaos and destruction” if the security forces or paramilitary groups crack down on the protests. And he gave an apparent nod to protesters who say the government is being manipulated from abroad, above all by Iran.

“No one person or group or side with an agenda, or any regional or international party, can infringe upon the will of Iraqis or force an opinion upon them,” Sistani’s representative said during a sermon in the holy city of Kerbala.

Despite OPEC member Iraq’s vast oil wealth, many Iraqis live in poverty or have limited access to clean water, electricity, basic health care and education.

The protests are driven by young people who above all want jobs.

The government of Prime Minister Adel Abdul Mahdi, in office for a year, has failed to find a response to the protests. A crackdown that saw police fire into crowds from rooftops has only inflamed the anger of the crowds.

Many see the political class as subservient to one or another of Baghdad’s

main allies, the United States and Iran, who use Iraq as a proxy for a struggle for regional influence.

“The leadership is controlled by Iran,” said barber Amir, 26. “When we make demands we shouldn’t even talk to the government, we should talk to Iran.

We don’t have a government.”

Reuters reported this week that a powerful Iran-backed faction had considered abandoning Abdul Mahdi, but

decided to keep him in office after a secret meeting attended by a general from Iran’s Revolutionary Guards. An Iranian security official confirmed General Qassem Soleimani had attended Wednesday’s meeting, saying he was there to “give advice”.

President Barham Salih said on Thursday that Abdul Mahdi was willing to resign if parliament’s main blocs could agree on a replacement.

Trump's claim to Syrian oil raises many questions WASHINGTON AGENCIES

Turkey begins joint patrols with Russia in northern Syria ISTANBUL: Turkey started joint patrols with Russia in northern Syria Friday to verify whether Kurdish forces have withdrawn from a key border zone in compliance with a deal reached between the two governments. The patrols, which began just before noon (1000 GMT), follow an agreement they signed in the Black Sea resort of Sochi last week which gave Kurdish forces 150 hours to withdraw from a band of territory along the border, in a process that Russia said was now complete. They add to the complicated mix of forces operating along the frontier, including US troops who patrolled an eastern section on Thursday for the first time since US President Donald Trump said last month the troops were withdrawing. The patrols on Friday began near the border town of Derbasiyeh, from which Kurdish fighters have already pulled out, an AFP correspondent on the Turkish side of the border reported.

The soldiers headed to the east of Derbasiyeh in a convoy of Turkish and Russian military vehicles to patrol a strip of territory several dozen kilometres long, according to Turkish military sources.

The Russian army said in a statement that the convoy consisted of nine vehicles, protected by an armoured personnel carrier, and that it would cover more than 110 kilometres (68 miles). The Turkish defence ministry confirmed in a tweet that the patrols “with the ground and air units are underway”.

TEMPORARY DEAL: Last week’s Sochi agreement halted a Turkish operation launched against Kurdish forces in northeastern Syria on October 9, which left hundreds dead and prompted tens of thousands to flee their homes. Under the deal, Turkey is to assume control over one 120 kilometre (75 mile) wide section in the centre of the border, while Syrian government forces are to deploy to the east and west. Along the whole length of the border, a 10-kilometre-deep buffer zone is to be created on the Syrian side which will be jointly patrolled by Russian and Turkish troops. Turkey intends to set up a “safe zone” 30 kilometres deep, in which some of the 3.6 million Syrian refugees it is hosting could be resettled. The Kurds spearheaded a US-backed military campaign against the Islamic State group that deprived the jihadists’ of their final sliver of Syrian territory in March this year but Ankara views the Kurdish forces as “terrorists”.

By claiming a right to Syria’s oil, President Donald Trump has added more complexity — as well as additional U.S. forces and time — to an American military mission he has twice declared he was ending so the troops could come home. Extending the mission to secure eastern Syria’s oilfields happens to fit neatly with the Pentagon’s view — supported by some Trump allies in Congress — that a full withdrawal now could hasten a revival of the Islamic State group, even after the extremists lost their leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, in a U.S. raid.

The military acknowledged on Thursday that an Army unit with armored vehicles, including Bradley infantry carriers, is now operating in the Deir elZour oil region. It did not say how many soldiers are being added there, but officials have said the eventual force there likely will be about 500, including roughly 200 who had been there even before Trump was persuaded to revise his plan for a near-total withdrawal, which he announced on Oct. 14.

Trump has offered varying descriptions of the military’s role in eastern Syria.

On Oct. 25 he said, “We’ve secured the oil, and, therefore, a small number of U.S. troops will remain in the area where they have the oil.”

Three days later, he went further, declaring the oil to be America’s.

“We’re keeping the oil — remember that,” he said in Chicago. “I’ve always said that: ‘Keep the oil.’ We want to keep the oil.

Forty-five million dollars a month? Keep the oil.” White House officials since then have declined to explain what Trump meant by “we’re keeping the oil” or his estimate of its value. Pentagon officials have said privately they’ve been given no order to take ownership of any element of Syria’s oil resources, including the wells and stored crude.

Defense Secretary Mark Esper said Thursday he interprets Trump’s remarks about keeping Syria’s oil as meaning that the extremists must be denied access to it.

Syria has been mired in civil war since

2011. Since that time, its oil production has shrunk from a peak of about 400,000 barrels a day to an estimated 80,000 barrels, said Jim Krane, an energy expert at Rice University.

Russia has expressed outrage at Trump’s claim to the oil, calling it “state banditry.”

Foreign Ministry spokesman Maj. Gen. Igor Konashenkov said grabbing the oil belies U.S. claims to be fighting terrorism and “lies far from the ideals that Washington has proclaimed.” For years the U.S. has said its military interventions abroad are meant to enhanced peace and security, not to take any nation’s territory or resources. Stephen Vladeck, a national security law professor at the University of Texas at Austin, said there is no solid legal argument the Trump admin-

istration can make for claiming Syria’s oil.

Beyond the legal question, analysts say the mission is fraught with danger.

“This is a sensitive gunpowder barrel of a mission,” said Loren DeJonge Schulman, deputy director of studies at the Center for a New American Security who was a senior Pentagon and White House official under President Barack Obama.

“U.S. forces are being sent with only the shakiest possible legal authorization, knowing their commander-in-chief may change his mind as he has multiple times in the past,” she said, adding that an oil grab is what many in the Middle East have long suspected is the purpose of U.S. wars.

Trump also has said he wants a U.S. oil company to enter eastern Syria to invest in restoring oil production. Private experts, however, say that is problematic.

“The modest size of the resource, risk of conflict, and legal obstacles to investment from U.S. sanctions make it unlikely that a U.S. oil major would find it commercially attractive to invest in the Syrian oil sector,” said Jason Bordoff, director of an energy policy center at Columbia University.

“Syria could be a bigger energy supplier than today, but years of mismanagement have left the fields in disarray, so it would require a lot of political stability and investment to bring them back to where they were,” said Michael Webber, a professor of energy resources at the University of Texas at Austin.

Esper has said that securing the Deir elZour oilfields is a legitimate move to block a major source of income for the Islamic State and to provide funds for the Syrian Kurds who are still fighting IS. A few years ago, the extremists were exploiting the oil to finance its so-called caliphate, carved out of large swaths of Syria and Iraq with an army now all but extinguished. In 2015-16 the U.S. military carried out an air campaign — dubbed Operation Tidal Wave II, after a World War II operation against oil facilities in Romania — that destroyed tanker trucks used by the extremists to transport oil for black market sales and damaged many oil facilities. “We weren’t going after the militants at all, we were going after the money, and by blowing them up we actually weakened them significantly,” said Katherine Zimmerman, a counterterrorism expert at the American Enterprise Institute. “Denying them access to resources like the oil is a way that we’re going to need to fight them,” she added.

Since then, U.S.-supported Syrian Kurdish forces have controlled the oil, supported by a small contingent of U.S. troops. A quiet arrangement has existed between the Kurds and the Syrian government, whereby Damascus buys the surplus through middlemen in a smuggling operation that has continued despite political differences. The Kurdish-led administration sells crude oil to private refiners, who use primitive homemade refineries to process fuel and diesel and sell it back to the administration.

Saturday, 2 November, 2019

08 COMMENT Government should get off its high horse Both sides should avoid confrontation

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He Azadi March was the largest protest march in the country’s history that traversed over 1000 kilometres from Karachi to islamabad. As it progressed, it was joined by marchers from Balochistan, KP and AJK. on his way to islamabad, Jui-F leader Maulana Fazlur rehman addressed the crowds that had gathered to greet the march in major cities. While the marchers were highly charged, they remained completely peaceful throughout the long route.

The March had the endorsement of all major opposition parties, who agreed on two points: the PTi government had been catapulted into power by offstage actors rather than being genuinely elected, and therefore it must go.

There were however differences also. The PPP did not support the sit-in as a tactic to remove the government. despite nawaz Sharif’s full support for the march the PML-n’s paltry participation led to the conclusion that the party was either unwilling or unable to collect its supporters. its announcement to postpone the rally in islamabad till Friday was also confusing and met with a snub from the Jui-F chief. Similarly, Maulana Fazlur rehman’s decision to keep his plan secret betrayed a lack of confidence in allies. in their speeches, PML-n President Shahbaz Sharif and PPP Co-chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari referred to the offstage players’ role in politics, the first complaining that had the PML-n got 10 percent of the support provided by the Army to Prime Minister imran Khan, its government would have resolved most of the economic issues. Mr Bhutto Zardari critcised the Army deployment during the elections. The Maulana wanted the Army not to be seen as being supportive of a party. With the PM claiming every other day that his actions had full support of the Army, the comments were not unexpected, Maulana Fazl-ur-rehman has put up an impressive show of force. instead of dividing the opposition by using the religious card and getting involved in premature confrontations, he should bring greater unity in the ranks of the opposition and move step by step. demanding fresh elections is by no means undemocratic, but there is a need first to improve the election laws and change the practices that create doubts about the genuineness of the exercise. no movement can be successful unless all major opposition parties are united on how to conduct it.

Rogue element in Afghanistan Recent talks didn’t take them into account

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He Human rights Watch (HrW), a uSA-based advocacy group, has said in a report that CiAbacked paramilitaries commit extrajudicial killings, orchestrate forced disappearances and attack medical facilities, in short, commit war crimes. As the report notes, these militias nor their activities have been discussed during the uSA-Taliban talks, presently stalled, raising the spectre of these elements, brutalised ad even dehumanised by their activities, remaining to serve the government of the day in their peculiar grisly way. This only adds to the many problems faced by an already warravaged country. Apart from the ravages of war going back to the 1979 Soviet invasion, there are also the endemic problems of corruption, poverty and lawlessness which have afflicted post-Taliban Afghanistan.

The HrW report also discloses that the uSA has changed the rules for targeting air strikes, with the new rules leading to disproportionate harm being caused to civilians. The really shocking aspect of the report is to what extent the uSA has been using paramilitaries, even though it has already raised the Afghanistan national Forces and to which it says it will transfer the role presently played by the uS forces. The use of paramilitaries was also a marked feature of the Vietnam War, and the grave difficulties in resettling these forces that occurred later. it might be noted that members of these forces were treated as traitors by the north Vietnamese forces when they achieved a final victory, and there is no reason to believe that the Taliban would render condign justice if they ever came to power. That is a possibility that cannot be ruled out.

The talks, which had reached the stage of an agreement, had dealt with such human rights issues as the Taliban attitude towards the woman’s rights achieved under the post-Taliban regime, or constitutionally guaranteed fundamental rights, had not dealt with the paramilitaries issue, even though it too was a rights issue. Those responsible for such an institutionalised means of violating fundamental rights need to be brought to book, even if it means the uSA accepting the jurisdiction of international courts over its government personnel for war crimes, something it does not do at present. The Afghan people have enough problems as it is, and do no need another one.

Dedicated to the legacy of the late Hameed Nizami

Arif Nizami Editor Aziz-ud-Din Ahmad

Umar Aziz

Asher John

Joint Editor

Executive Editor

Deputy Editor

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‘Consumer data protectionAre we really safe?’

Big Brother is watching you ARhAm Atiq

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LTHougH he lived in an era when the idea of infringement of privacy had not been conceived, george orwell’s magnum opus 1984 took a daunting leap into a dystopian society where nothing was ever truly hidden. Seventy years later, the reality seems much closer to what should have been nothing more than fiction at best. The recent video leaks by a cinema in Lahore sparked a furious debate online about the privacy of individuals, with parties hitting at the breach of privacy and on the morality of being engaged in such ignominious acts in the first place. The videos recorded by the “self-proclaimed champions of moralities”– the cinema staff– showed couples engaged in intimate acts with the faces of the victims clearly discernible.

Having remained a hot topic following the incident, the lack of government action or a committed resolve by the private institutions, Consumer data Privacy fades into obscurity once again.

As a matter of fact, this is not something new. extremely intimate photos were leaked in the past by safe city cameras of Lahore and islamabad which also drew national attention, with critics pointing out how the right to privacy had been infringed by the very authorities that were appointed to protect it, but failed to elicit government action or counter-policy making.

Furthermore, earlier in the year, customers were horrified when they saw notifications from Careem, a prominent ride hailing company, about breach of consumer data which resulted in hackers exploiting the personal data of up to 14 million customers and 558, 000 captains. even more surprising was the fact that the notification came more than three months after the leak had happened, and even though the company maintains it did so to make sure it was providing the most accurate information before notifying people, the question of online security protrudes to the surface yet again. This year also witnessed the inability of banks to protect their customers’ information in face of the notorious bank leaks on the dark web. The first set of card dumps ap-

peared on the dark web on 24 January 2019 and had details of 1535 cards of which Meezan Bank issued 1457. The second dump was even greater, featuring details of more than 67,654 cards. each card was sold at $50 and also included the Pin code. regrettably, events like these have had their fair share of spotlight until all settled quiet again without any potent measure being established to prevent future inconvenience. it is also important to note that despite enacting cyber-crime laws in 2016, Pakistan currently has no set of laws intended to secure consumer data privacy.

The leaks have come in direct violation of The Constitution which enshrines the right to privacy as a fundamental right. Article 14(1) of the Constitution confirms that “[t]he dignity of man and, subject to law, the privacy of home, shall be inviolable”.

Furthermore, Article 18 of the Cairo declaration on Human rights in islam (signed in August 1990) affirms that “everyone shall have the right to privacy in the conduct of his private affairs, in his home, among his family, with regard to his property and his relationships. it is not permitted to spy on him, to place him under surveillance or to besmirch his good name.” in the light of the aforementioned circumstances, the government took some steps to combat the anomaly. A draft bill, the Personal data Protection Bill, was presented before Parliament in 2018 with the motive of granting greater rights to the consumers. unfortunately, the bill stands nowhere near its european corresponding law gdPr– general data Protection regulation– a hallmark in granting security over a broad spectrum of threats to one’s privacy online. The draft faces various shortcomings, notably the immunity granted to government institutions possessing vast amount of consumer data. government institutions like nAdrA have already faced various data leaks, some committed by their very staff members, which

brings into question the accountability of the state and public institutions in charge of such sensitive data. The exemption provided to government institutions means that in the event of a data leak, state-owned institutions cannot be held responsible. Moreover, despite having addressed the issue of timeframe for data containment under section 9, which requires data to be held no longer than needed, the bill clashes with section 32 of Prevention of electronic Crimes mandating service providers to preserve data for a minimum of one year. Added to that, while the gdPr requires service providers to notify customers in event of any security breach, no such obligation is due under the drafted bill meaning customers may continue to be exploited without even knowing their privacy has been compromised. under such circumstances, the solutions tend to be multi-layered. Firms must be bound by law to ensure that the data of individuals is kept safe from hackers or malignant staff members, with an emphasis on compensation being provided to the affected customers. Frameworks must be put in place ensuring that the sensitive data is reserved exclusively to the office system and not kept in the personal possession of the staff. A comprehensive training of staff should be in place to ensure that their work is regulated by strictly professional behavior and that the data is not misused to satiate personal senses of morality or social expectations. The government should take the initiative by reconsidering the draft bill to make it better suit the needs of the modern day, taking inspiration from the gdPr to ensure the rights guaranteed to the people by the constitution of Pakistan and broadly categorized in the united nations Human rights charter which Pakistan is a signee to.

Firms must be bound by law to ensure that the data of individuals is kept safe from hackers or malignant staff members, with an emphasis on compensation being provided to the affected customers

Arham Atiq can be arhamatiq21@gmail.com.

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Willie Wonka’s chocolate factory revisited Was the Chocolate factory a contest, a supply chain, marketing or a combined effort?

AsAd RAzA

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ondering if you heard of this somewhere? Yes, it refers to the blockbuster movie Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. The discourse is intended not to undermine the importance of either of the two fields of business, rather it aims at bringing forward arguments in favor of the relative importance of both the areas with regard to a fictional case in order for the reader to map and develop an understanding of the vitality of both departments to the success of a business.

The news of an upcoming event spreads like fire across the jungle downtown, with promotional campaigns full blazing over different mediums including television campaigns, retailers willing to sell Willy Wonka’s chocolate bar by the millions with only a few having the golden ticket passes sealed in the packaging. Till here, it’s done and dusted that it were the marketers who have been quite successful in creating the necessary hype for attracting waves of customers.

However, could this campaign have grabbed the same attention had the chocolate bars not reached on time at the registered retailers and had a handful of golden tickets not been calculatedly placed by the order entry and management department in the stocks provided to each retailer?

That’s where the supply chain comes into play. A marketer may make tall claims, but those would remain only claims until backed by the evidence (timely delivery of the product) which is ensured by the transportation head of a supply chain.

Similarly, moving on in the movie it is depicted that children from the elite as well as a child as poor as Charlie have the ability to buy the chocolate bars, betting on their luck that they Karachi – Ph: 021-35381208-9

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might just become the owners of one of the prized tickets. This goes to show that Willy Wonka and his hypothetical team of marketers deserve all applause for positioning the chocolate bar as a commodity for all classes, in other words, for selecting the right target market. But again had the chocolate not been manufactured using good quality plus cost effective methods, it would not be affordable by an unfortunate child nor preferred by a pampered elite-class child. So the sourcing of good quality raw materials at the least cost resulted in a reasonable price of the product. once the ticket-possessing children and their guardians enter the factory, at each stage of the competition Willy Wonka acts as a brand ambassador, raising awareness about the quality of the chocolate offerings all around. But it would at the same time be an injustice to ignore the role the oompa Loompas, or the inventory managers, were playing to maintain the harmony of the processes and taking corrective measures in case of any mishap, which again is a part of Supply Chain Management. Also, an interesting point to note here would be that the oompa Loompas were actually acquaintances of Willy Wonka with whom he partnered later on, and set an example of a trust-based supplier partnership, based on their value-enhancing performance.

So be it Marketing or Supply Chain behind the success of the contest, one thing is common, seeing it from both angles; that is, to make the end user satisfied is the ultimate objective of both departments which is not possible to achieve without being a passionate marketer or a supply chain expert. is Supply Chain a photosynthetic process?

Though it the supply chain and photosynthesis belong to different disciplines, it is no exaggeration to say that the supply chain is like photosynthesis, which plays an anchoring role in a plant’s existence.

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The dictionary is very candid in describing the ability of an organism or plant to convert light energy into chemical energy acting as fuel for its activities, and naming it “Photosynthesis”. Have you ever observed that a typical supply chain from sourcing of materials up till the delivery of the final product similarly involves conversion of energy and acts as a fuel for the end user?

A plant sources sunlight, oxygen and water as inputs to process to produce outputs. Simple as it seems, a supply chain, right from the procurement up to the transportation of the goods and services, follows a similar pattern. The minute difference comes in the process. Where a plant is self-sufficient and may procure sunlight, water and oxygen for free, a supply chain has to purchase the raw materials from different vendors. However, modern day farming techniques are also employing other sources for light and water, apart from rain and sunlight, such as in the case of greenhouse farming, or even of hydroponics.

A major difference in the two processes is that a plant converts the light energy into chemical energy by itself. However a supply chain is not accountable for converting raw materials into a finished or semi-finished product, rather it provides the raw materials to other departments which further refine them into semi-finished or finished good to be inventoried and then distributed to the assigned destinations.

Photosynthesis is also a means to an end and not the end, in that it results in further activities like producing chlorophyll that is food for the soul of the plant. Supply chain is also the foundation on which the marketing, sales, and ultimately all activities creating satisfied customers, rest upon.

That’s why not only is a functioning supply chain vital for the harmony of all departments of a firm, but also to deliver value to the main stakeholder that is, the customer, in the same way that a healthy plant becomes part of a balanced diet.

Email: editorial@pakistantoday.com.pk

Saturday, 2 November, 2019

COMMENT 09 Editor’s mail

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

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

Who let the dogs out?

Container Pros and Cons Containers should be used positively

muhAmmAd sohAil Ahmed

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S islamabad a city of containers? Physically, yes, it looks like a city with a large number of containers, placed at Chowk points or routes in a standby mode. if you want to dispatch your goods from islamabad to Karachi, the cost of transportation is half the cost of transport from Karachi to islamabad.

The reason is that there are more imports received at the port city of Karachi. Afghan transit trade adds to this traffic upcountry. However, for a trader, the confiscation of containers is causing anxiety. different traders have shown apprehension that their export orders are getting delayed which could result in a financial loss to them as well as the loss of foreign exchange to Pakistan.

What is interesting for us is that these containers which provide safe means of transportation through shipments are an important tool for effective utilization in trade and politics. For example, in the past political upheavals, the containers were used by the politicians to stage protests at d-Chowk islamabad or approach routes to islamabad. one such container offered a luxurious stay to the political leadership for boarding and lodging with friends around. it also provided a readymade stage to mount and start fireworks of politics. Although, such demonstrations create a pull on economics, the trade, the environment and distraction from core burning issues such as Kashmir. Since August 5, the indian government has turned Kashmir into a closed container for the Muslims and put them in a state of fear, anguish and trauma. With 100,000 martyred, 150,000 arrested, leaving 100,000 orphans, their homes turned into closed containers now for about 90 days.

They can, however, dig the graves in their houses where it is different from containers.

They can’t speak from the rooftops of their houses to complain or ask for help. Containers are a wakeup call for the so-called champions of peace, a wakeup call for the women’s rights

champions, a wakeup call for un and a matter of shame for the indian fascist leadership. it has been reported that the government and opposition have reached an agreement to allow the opposition to hold its rally at H-9 ground islamabad instead of d-Chowk. Being close to Kashmir highway this activity is likely to interfere in the public route particularly those passing on the Kashmir highway. We should remember Kashmir on Kashmir highway.

Containers provide a secure means of transportation through the sea. uS ports receive thousands of containers on a daily basis. After the attack on Afghanistan in 2002, there came a brain wave in the minds of policymakers. uS forces started to transport Afghan prisoners in the containers. it was thought that these will be safe as well as a discreet means of transporting Taliban prisoners, particularly while transiting through the war-torn terrain of Afghanistan where the uS forces had no authority or control. during this process, they failed to appreciate and arrange the provision of fresh air and human transportation conditions, appropriate for prisoners of war. There was an absence of human rights representatives, who could not monitor the situation as they were not present on the ground, which resulted in mass casualties of Afghans due to asphyxia. unfortunately, no one has taken up the matter in the iCJ or un. no cases of war crimes could be reported against the invading forces by any independent organization to date.

Besides, human traffickers also gave it a try for illegally transporting human beings into the uSA as illegal immigrants. This option did not work well and the inhabitants of these locked containers died en route for various reasons.

These events made the uS government think of introducing the container security initiative, or CSi, which bounds the container-dispatching nation to get it inspected and sealed prior to shipment. This seal is then opened in the uSA by the Customs authorities. Therefore, the probability of receiving a surprise on the uS ports was reduced. The Congressmen moving these bills had feared that a nuclear device could be shipped on a uSA-bound vessel for detonation in a uS port. one can well understand that a docile container lying on the roadside is not that simple, as it covers the entire spectrum of conflict starting from a political

speech to a nuclear holocaust.

What is there for us? in Pakistan, the answer is that it should be intelligently used to boost our exports. The livestock export through improvised containers should be planned. The Prime Minister has recently approved medium and small scale entrepreneurship development program. The Ceo of this authority is likely to be appointed in december 2019. A three-year strategy is being planned for implementation. it is time to develop a livestock export plan in this model. The completion of the first phase of CPeC provides better road connectivity.

Firstly, a national level CPeC utilization plan should be prepared. The containers from China to gwadar, on their way back to China, should be loaded with Pakistani goods exported to China.

Pakistan exports livestock as a byproduct of its dairy industry which generates 14 percent of its gdP. its index grew up to 141 in 2015, indicating that it has a great potential for exports if investments are made in breeding animals in farms. The investment can either be made through government or Foreign direct investment. The initiative of the government for enterprise development and financial support can bring a large influx of exportable livestock.

The government should consider establishing livestock handling zones at gwadar. one plant for slaughtering and packing meat should be established at Karachi Bin Qasim Port. Frozen or chilled meat should be shipped or airlifted for exports. during eid-ul-Azha season there is a demand for sacrificial animals in the gulf countries. Small size dhows should be used for their shipment on the model of African nations (Somalia and Sudan). i believe that livestock export model using the investment from local or foreign resources and utilizing CPeC infrastructure will be very helpful in boosting exports from Pakistan, leading to poverty alleviation, economic growth, food production and addressing climatic change. After all the livestock does not involve any rocket science, it is all the expertise of Allah the only and only one with no helper or idols to share in His domain.

Livestock exports, using the investment from local or foreign resources and utilizing CPEC infrastructure, will be very helpful in boosting exports from Pakistan, leading to poverty alleviation, economic growth, food production and addressing climatic change

Muhammad Sohail Ahmed is a retired commodore of the Pakistan Navy, and can be reached at msohailyz@gmail.com

on Friday, imran Khan gave a historical yet thought-provoking speech in 74th session of the united nations general Assembly. Millions of people are appreciating his words as they create an impact on the audience. His speech comprised of several social and international relation issues that need immediate attention from various countries across the world.

Mr. Khan started his speech with the immediate threat of climate change which affects the entire world. However, a critical aspect that he pointed out was how the rich countries need to be more active in terms of minimizing their carbon emissions. As per Mr. Khan, the poor countries suffer the most, including Pakistan being an agricultural country that relies on glaciers which are melting too fast. i believe Mr. Khan’s attempt to focus on this issue was indeed important given the recent Climate March. it reflects on the fact that Pakistan and its people are aware of how climate change is affecting everyone.

The second point in consideration of the speech by Mr. Khan was global corruption and money laundering being critical issues that make a poor country poorer. As per the speech, rich countries in Western part of the world are acting as a tax haven for most of the corrupt corruption. Mr. Khan highlighted that Pakistan has significant debt to pay due to money laundering and lack of access to the plundered money. in my opinion, this part of the speech was an indirect attack to other political parties in Pakistan which have formerly ruled the country. While it was vital to let the people know about the graveness of money laundering, it just added to the extra time Mr. Khan took for his speech.

The third part of the speech revolved around islamophobia, an issue being faced by Muslims, especially in the Western countries. Time and time again we hear how people in other countries treat Muslims with hatred. Mr. Khan was vocal about the fact that there is no such thing as radical islam. He also highlighted how islam teaches everyone to treat minorities and women with respect. nonetheless, i feel this is a controversial aspect since minorities in Pakistan are treated poorly. From stopping minorities to enter the shops to burning down their religious places, Pakistan has failed to protect them. And let us not forget, Pakistan is one of the few countries who voted no against un’s willingness to investigate the situation in Yemen.

The last point of Mr. Khan’s speech focused on india’s treatment towards Kashmir and Pakistan. He talked about how he, as the Prime Minister showed his intent to work things out with Mr. Modi, india’s Prime Minister but was only met with hostility. Mr. Khan encouraged the un to let Kashmir decide about what it wants rather than letting india set a curfew there.

This was not a threat but a warning.

SyEdA ALiNA ZAidi Karachi

PM’s speech PM imran Khan delivered a passionate long speech while addressing Annual un general Assembly. He poured his heart out and touched upon benign role of Muslim majority countries, who instead of standing up to expose tyranny and conspiracy behind proponents of islamophobia, chose to go along, trying to adopt a convoluted version of enlightened Moderation, with likes of Musharraf aping to tunes of Zionist lobby. imran Khan exposed tortuous treatment meted to Kashmiri population, who have faced collective punishment, being confined to their homes for almost 55 long days. He also spoke against extensive money laundering being indulged by corrupt civil, uniformed and political elite who have been involved in institutionalized corruption plundering their countries and transferring black money to foreign safe havens. However he must understand that Western economic system encourages such money transfers, because instead of physical colonial occupation, like over 200 year British raj, the new mode is economic colonization. iK should focus on taking concrete steps, through legislation and implementation of laws, to stop flight of capital by corrupt elite from Pakistan. PM Khan should ensure that likes of Admiral Mansoor ul Haq, Musharraf, Kayani clan, iqbal Saeed, nawaz Sharif, Asif Zardari, Shujaat, Altaf Hussain etc and super bureaucrats like Shahid rafi, Capt naseer, Qamar Chaudhry, Lashari, Salman Siddiqui etc who were involved in daylight robberies, are prevented from robbing this country and face sever prosecution and punishments.

GuL ZAMAN Peshawar

Manufacture of solar panels We missed a golden opportunity of setting up manufacturing plants for solar panels in the country for harnessing abundant solar energy potential in the country about two decades ago when a Pakistan born uS scientist and owner of solar panels manufacturing plants in the united States , dr. Lubna , offered the government of Pakistan to set up solar panels manufacturing plants across Pakistan. Looking into the future , she made the offer for exploiting the solar energy for its maximum utilization in order to provide clean reliable and affordable power to its citizens and for the national power grid. dr. Lubna ( an old ravian ) holding many prestigious awards , including einstein award , wanted to do some service to her motherland without any financial gains in her mind , as she was quite rich already by the grace of god , having a happy family living very comfortably in the uS. Alas, her passionate and appropriate offer was not entertained by our greedy , incompetent and corrupt people who mattered! instead of accepting her meaningful offer , they were interested in uS visas & personal benefits for their children and families !

ENGr riAZ BhuttA Lahore

Saturday, 2 November, 2019

10 NEWS

China warns it won't tolerate 'foreign interferenCe' in hong Kong BEIJING

Many support probe against Trump, but it’s not top priority WASHINGTON AGENCIES

More Americans approve of the impeachment investigation into President Donald Trump than disapprove of it, though only about a third say the inquiry should be a top priority for Congress, according to a new poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research.

That solid, if measured, support serves as a warning sign for Trump’s White House and reelection campaign, which have insisted that pursuing impeachment will end up being a vulnerability for Democrats heading into 2020. But the findings present some red flags for Democrats, too: More people say House members are motivated mainly by politics rather than by duty as they investigate the Republican president’s dealings with Ukraine and whether he abused his office or compromised national security when he tried to pressure the country to dig up dirt on a political rival. And assessments of the president’s performance generally have remained remarkably stable even as the investigation has unfolded at a rapid clip. Overall, 47% said they support the impeachment inquiry, while 38% disapprove. Like most assessments of Trump and Washington, views of impeachment are starkly polarized. A vast majority of Democrats approve of the inquiry, including 68% who strongly approve.Among them is Sandra Shrewsbury, 70, who lives in Greencastle, Indiana. She said that Trump’s impeachment is long overdue. “I am really concerned about our country if this does not stop,” she said of Trump’s time in office. She voiced concerns that Trump doesn’t have the temperament to be the nation’s commander in chief and is doing serious damage to the country’s standing. She was relieved, she said, that after months of hemming and hawing, impeachment proceedings were finally underway. “I was getting very frustrated with Congress and those investigating because I felt like they were just dragging their heels,” she said.

“I wish they’d stop worrying about getting reelected themselves and get down to the business they’re supposed to be doing. … We pay them to do this job.” “They should have done it a long time, a way long time ago,” agreed Monica Galindo, 32, who lives in Camilla, Georgia. It’s another story among Republicans, who overwhelmingly disapprove of the inquiry, including 67% who do so strongly. “I think its garbage,” said Sara Palmer, 42, a staunch Trump supporter who lives in Pocatello, Idaho, and accused Democrats of wasting time and money trying to take down Trump when there are far more important things they should be doing for the country. “I mean come on!” she said. “There’s nothing there. … He didn’t do anything wrong.” That’s a sentiment shared by a majority, 64%, of Republicans. Yet even among members of Trump’s party, a modest share think he did do something wrong. About a quarter, 28%, think he did something unethical, while 8% think he broke the law.

The public overall has mixed views of whether the president committed any wrongdoing. Most say his interactions with the president of Ukraine were at least unethical.

C

AGENCIES

HINA warned on Friday it would not tolerate any challenge to Hong Kong’s governing system, as it laid out plans to boost patriotism in the city and change how its leader is chosen or removed after months of pro-democracy protests.

The unrest in the semi-autonomous city was an important topic at a major, four-day meeting of the Communist Party chaired by President Xi Jinping this week in Beijing, said Shen Chunyao, director of the Hong Kong, Macau and Basic Law Commission.

The central government in Beijing has so far voiced its confidence in Hong Kong chief executive Carrie Lam and the city police to put a lid on the increasingly violent protests.

But all eyes have been on whether the party leadership will assert more control over the situation if the demonstrations spin out of control.

The former British colony has been rocked by months of protests with citizens lampooning the city’s pro-Beijing leaders and erosion on basic rights.

Shen said party leaders agreed to “further improve the central government’s system of governance over the region” and maintain its “long-term prosperity and stability”. China, he added, will “never tolerate any act that challenges the bottom line of ‘one country, two systems’, never tolerate any act that splits the country and endangers national security, and resolutely prevent and

contain foreign forces’ interference in Hong Kong and Macau business”.

Hong Kong’s chief executive is not directly elected, a source of major friction and a headache for the leaders themselves because they have no popular mandate.

Currently, the city’s leader is chosen by a 1,200-strong committee that is stacked with Beijing loyalists. Lam, who now boasts record-low approval ratings, became the leader in 2016 after securing 777 votes from that committee.

Shen said the party leaders discussed ways “to improve the mechanism of appointing and removing the chief executive

and key officials of the Special Administrative Region by the central government”. The legal system of the city will also be improved to “safeguard national security”, he said, without providing more details.

The party elite have decided to step up patriotic education as a way to curb youth-led protests.

“We should educate Hong Kong and Macau society, especially public officials and teenagers, about the constitution […] and strengthen the national consciousness and patriotism of Hong Kong and Macau compatriots through the education of history and Chinese culture,” said Shen.

Schools in New Delhi shut until November 5 as air pollution severe NEW DELHI AGENCIES

Schools in the Indian capital will be shut until Nov. 5, the city government said on Friday, as residents breathed the season’s worst air for a third straight day.

As farm fires from New Delhi’s neighbouring states sent swathes of smoke into the capital, the city’s chief minister Arvind Kejriwal ordered schools to be closed, the minister said in a tweet he posted in Hindi.

Earlier on Friday, a government-ap-

pointed environment panel declared Delhi’s air pollution a public health emergency, according to report by Reuters partner ANI that quoted a letter from the Environment Pollution Control Authority.

“This is a public health emergency as air pollution is now hazardous and will have adverse health impacts on all particularly the children,” ANI quoted the letter.

Government-monitored indices that track air pollution hit 500 in several parts of the capital, the maximum

recorded by the government’s Central Pollution Control Board.

The index measures the levels of PM 2.5, tiny particulate matter that goes deep into the lungs.

Levels above 400 indicate severe conditions that put people with healthy lungs as well as those with respiratory illnesses at risk.

The government will also restrict the number of private vehicles in the city from next week under an “odd-even” scheme based on the number of plates.

Not out of woods yet, but winds driving California fires die LOS ANGELES AGENCIES

Calmer weather allowed crews to increase containment on wildfires after a three-week siege of gusts fanned blazes across California and led utilities to cut power to prevent winds from blowing branches into electric lines and igniting an inferno.

Winds subsided in virtually all parts of the state, though Red Flag warnings for fire danger because of winds and ultradry conditions remained in place through Friday evening for some inland areas to the north and west of Los Angeles. Lingering winds were blamed for churning up a wildfire that erupted Thursday evening and quickly spread from a hilltop near Santa Paula, north of Los Angeles.

Authorities ordered evacuations for about 7,500 people in an area that includes roughly 1,800 buildings as the blaze threatened the small unincorporated rural community of Somis.

Hundreds of firefighters raced to attack the blaze, which initially was fanned by moderate winds and then was fueled by tinder-dry brush in canyons. It grew in

only a few hours to over 6 square miles (16 square kilometers).

For most of October, fires sprang up across the state, forcing residents to flee homes at all hours as flames indiscriminately burned barns, sheds, mobile homes

and multimillion-dollar mansions.

The good news was that dry, dangerous winds that swept both ends of the state this week had mostly subsided and forecasters predicted an upcoming week of placid conditions.

Nearly 200,000 Sonoma County residents were allowed to return home even as the 120-square-mile (311-squarekilometer) fire that forced them to evacuate continued to burn. At least 140 homes were destroyed.

Brenda Catelani choked up as she recalled driving back home to Windsor with her husband. “I think when we left, and especially Sunday, we didn’t think we’d be coming back,” Catelani said.

Chunks of burnt embers, burned leaves and ash littered the outside of her house.

The fire had come within 500 yards (457 meters) of their house — closer than the wine country fires of 2017 that killed 44 people and destroyed 8,900 homes and other buildings in Sonoma and Napa counties. “We feel extremely lucky,” Catelani said.

Evacuations were also lifted for two small fires, fed by gusts up to 60 mph (96 kph), that destroyed homes early Thursday in the heavily populated inland region east of Los Angeles. One of those blazes, in Jurupa Valley, was caused when a stolen car chased by police tried to escape through fields and ignited dry grasses.

The wildfires came even as many were in the dark from the intentional outages. In places where the power stayed on, utility lines and other electrical equipment were suspected or confirmed as the cause of several fires, including the one in Sonoma, another that started on a hillside above the San Fernando Valley of Los Angeles and one that burned around the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley on Wednesday.

Pacific Gas & electric finished restoring power to dozens of counties in the north and central regions after a third round of shutoffs this week designed to protect power lines from being fouled or toppled by high winds and sparking fires.

However, about 80,000 Southern California Edison users remained without power by late Thursday night.

The most devastating wildfires in California’s history have occurred in the past two years in the fall, fueled by a combination of built-up brush, dry conditions and extreme winds. The anniversary of the deadliest of those — last year’s fire that torched the town of Paradise and killed 85 — is next week.

Saturday, 2 November, 2019

BUSINESS 11

‘CeNtre, ProviNCeS WorkiNG CloSely oN fiSCal, taxatioN iSSueS’

CORPORATE CORNER

ISLAMABAD: The delegation of China Radio International (CRI), led by its Urdu Service Director Zhao Qiao, poses for a photo at a luncheon hosted by Syed Pakistan China Friendship Association Secretary General Ali Nawaz Gilani. PrESS r E l E A S E

LAHORE: Adnan Ishtiaq of Almas Jewellers and Bond Advertising Executive Director Siraj Siddiqui pose for a photo at the Almas Jewellery Fair. P r E S S r E l E A S E

dr haFeez shaIkh says contInuous dIalogue between centre and ProvInces has resulted In better budget and exPendIture ManageMent ISLAMABAD

a

STAFF rEPOrT

DvISOR to Prime Minister on Finance and Revenue Dr Abdul Hafeez Shaikh has said the federal and provincial governments are in continuous dialogue to improve coordination and create harmony on issues related to fiscal and management, multiplicity of tax rates and reconciliation of input adjustment.

He made this observation while chairing a meeting at the Finance Division to review the implementation of fiscal policies in the provinces under the International Monitoring Fund (IMF) programme.

IMF Mission Chief Ramirez Rigo Ernesto, Punjab Finance Minister Makhdoom Hashim Jawan Bakht, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Finance Minister Taimur Saleem Khan Jhagra, Balochistan Finance Minister Zahoor Ahmed Buledi, Federal Finance Secretary Naveed Kamran

Baloch, Sindh Special Finance Secretary Baqir Abbas Naqvi, senior officials from the Finance Division and local IMF officials were also present on the occasion.

Dr Hafeez Shaikh pointed out that tax harmonisation, as well other fiscal issues within the constitutional framework, was a challenging process but continuous dialogue and coordination between the centre and the provinces and among the provinces themselves had resulted in better budget and expenditure management.

He added that definitional issues related to what constituted a service and what rate of tax applied to it in different regions were also being resolved in a spirit of mutual understanding and accommodation.

The provincial ministers also shared their experiences and briefed the IMF mission chief about various measures and strategies put in place in their respective provinces to achieve better fiscal and budget management.

IMF Mission Chief Ramirez Rigo Ernesto

NRTC issued licence to manage tobacco tracking system ISLAMABAD: Special Assistant to PM on Poverty Alleviation/BISP Chairperson Dr Sania Nishtar presents souvenir to World Bank President David Malpass during his visit to the BISP headquarter. P r E S S r E l E A S E

KARACHI: The Little Art and Teachers’ Resource Centre (TRC) recently announced the 9th season of International Children’s Film Festival-Karachi (ICFF-Karachi) 2019 in collaboration with Cinepax Cinemas. PrESS rElEASE

Steel cutting ceremony of two frigates for Pak Navy held in China The steel cutting ceremony of two warships of Type 054 A/P Frigates Project being built for Pakistan Navy was held at Hudong Zhonghua (HZ) Shipyard China. Chief Naval Overseer (CNO) China, Commodore Azfar Humayun of Pakistan Navy and President China Shipbuilding Trading Company (CSTC) jointly performed the steel cutting of the two of the frigates. Speaking on the occasion, the chief guest highlighted that this programme is yet another manifestation of time tested and ever growing Pak-China friendship. He also acknowledged the commitment and dedication of CSTC team in this important programme.Type-054 A/P ships are the state of the art frigates equipped with modern surface, subsurface and antiair weapons and sensors. Once constructed, these ships will be the most technologically advanced platforms of Pakistan Navy which will strengthen its capability to meet future challenges and maintain peace, stability & power equilibrium in the Indian Ocean region. BUSINESS DESK

ISLAMABAD AHMAD AHMADANI

Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) has granted a licence to National Radio Telecommunication Corporation (NRTC) at price of Rs731 per 1,000 stamps for a period of five years to establish, maintain and operate the entire track and trace system for tobacco products.

In a letter issued by FBR's Track and Trace System Director Tariq Hussain Shaikh, it was revealed that a licencing committee was constituted on 26th February 2019, under the Licensing Rules, 2019, to submit recommendations regarding grant of licence for implementation of IT-based solution for electronic monitoring and track & trace system for tobacco products.

"The recommendations of the committee were considered in the board-in-council meeting dated 14th October 2019, wherein the board

unanimously decided that an FBR Member (IR-Operations) may take further steps in this regard.

"The board is pleased to grant the licence to NRTC to manage the entire process of track and trace system for tobacco products in Pakistan, subject to terms and conditions as stipulated in Licensing Rules, 2019, Invitation for Licensing (IFL) and other relevant laws," the letter stated.

Meanwhile, industry sources believe that the country would likely face a revenue loss as NRTC has no relevant experience and capability in the track and trace system. They said that the company is not technically qualified for implementation of IT-based solution for track and trace system.

Campaign for TobaccoFree Kids Country Representative Malik Imran, while talking to Pakistan Today, maintained the award of contract to NRTC is a conflict of interest and that

AGENCIES

Oil prices rose 2pc on Friday on signs of progress in US-China trade talks and stronger-than-expected economic data in both countries, including US employment and Chinese manufacturing activity numbers.

Brent crude LCOc1 was up $1.16, or 2pc, at $60.78 a barrel by 12:01 p.m. ET (1601 GMT), but remained on course for a drop of about 2pc for the week.

West Texas Intermediate crude CLc1 rose $1.1, or 2pc, to $55.28 a barrel, a

the FBR officials are allegedly involved in it. "The terms of reference of the contract have allegedly been changed only to accommodate this company," he alleged, adding that inclusion of mobile application for the track and trace system was dropped only because this feature is not available with this company.

He said Pakistan is likely to face Rs15 billion to Rs20 billion per annum loss due to absence of mobile app in the track and trace system.

"NRTC has no experience of installing track and trace system on a manufacturing site.

Its global partner is INEXTO, a company funded by the tobacco industry.”

The FBR spokesman did not respond to queries despite repeated attempts.

Pakistan is one of 181 parties to the Framework Convention for Tobacco Control since 2004 and is among 56 parties that have ratified the protocol to eliminate illicit trade in tobacco products. The protocol stipulates that any tobacco track and trace solution shall be independent of the tobacco industry.

‘sbP committed to streamlining its legal framework’ BUSINESS DESK State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) Governor Dr Reza Baqir has said that the central bank would further strengthen its legal framework to facilitate the masses.

In a statement received by a private media outlet on Friday, Dr Reza Baqir said keeping money in a financial system is much safer as compared to any other system. "The central bank is running an awareness campaign in this regard."

Baqir said that the central bank would

make 1 million new merchants in 2020. "A micro-payment gateway is in making which would provide facilities to the people performing finance-related duties," he stated.

He added that all stakeholders would have to follow the strategies while an easy and less cost-effective mechanism would be designed to provide database access to the new companies.

The governor said that Prime Minister Imran Khan has given approval to the demands tendered by the central bank for making improvements and simplification of financial matters.

Oil rises 2pc on US-China trade hopes NEW YORK

IMF MIssIon chIeF stresses 'sIngle tax base' In PakIstan as It dIrectly IMPacts ease oF doIng busIness and boosts Investor conFIdence

weekly loss of more than 2.4pc.

Both benchmarks fell earlier in the week after in hike in US crude inventories, especially at the Cushing, Oklahoma, delivery hub for WTI, and as the trade war between the world’s two biggest economies has weighed on prices, fanning fears that slowing economic growth could dent demand for oil.

Worries about global economic growth and oil demand eased after US Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross said on Friday the initial “phase one” trade pact with China is likely to be signed around mid-November.

President Donald Trump and US negotiators are “very optimistic” on a trade deal with China, White House adviser Larry Kudlow said on Friday in an interview with Fox Business Network.

“The market has been driven lower this week on fears of slowing demand growth because of uncertainty regarding US-China trade relations and a sizeable expected build in crude stocks,” said Gene McGillian, vice president of market research at Tradition Energy in Stamford, Connecticut. “I think today’s action is a reversal of that, and you’re probably also seeing some weekend covering.”

said he was impressed by what he described as "good financial and fiscal management and maintenance of expenditure within the budget".

However, he stressed upon complete use of development budget to achieve the development goals. He also emphasised upon harmonisation in the tax system and creation of a single tax base as it directly impacted the ease of doing business and went a long way in creating an enabling business environment and boosting the confidence of investors and businessmen.

Ernesto said that Pakistan had a continentalsize economy, much like Western Europe where everybody had the same definition of tax rate and services. “The same could be achieved in Pakistan through uniform tax rates and a single tax administration instead of two or three tax authorities in each province.”

He appreciated the current level of understanding between the centre and provinces and hoped such efforts would continue to build consensus and bring about greater harmony.

Pak-China JWG stresses crop productivity, technology transfer ISLAMABAD APP

The first meeting of the Pak-China Joint Working Group (JWG) on Agriculture has agreed to focus on the vertical increase in productivity of existing crops, transfer of knowledge and technology. Both sides agreed to protect germplasm resources in order to increase the production of agricultural products for food security in Pakistan as well as for export to other countries, according to a press release issued on Friday. The JWG met National Food Security Secretary Dr Hashim Popalzai on Friday to deliberate upon the execution methods with regard to the projects identified in the field of agriculture. Both sides agreed to establish technical linkages between research institutes for accreditation and certification in the agri sector. The Pakistani side offered to organise joint workshops and seminars in order to enhance cooperation on agricultural technology between the two sides.

The Chinese side agreed to provide technical assistance to Pakistan on dates processing and packaging technology. It also agreed to extend the ripened techniques and system of dry-land, deserts and coastal land agriculture to Pakistan.

It was decided that under-mulch-drip irrigation techniques would be applied in main cotton growing areas of Pakistan, while in the demonstration areas of water-saving irrigation, techniques including sprinkle irrigation, microsprinkle irrigation and drip irrigation would be extended. During the meeting, it was also agreed, on the basis of cooperation in protection and control of animal epidemics, to enhance the regional management of animal epidemics and foot and mouth disease free zone with the technical support of experts. The federal secretary said Pakistan has made a visible progress towards entering the next stage of FMD free zones.

US crude prices also received some support after a leak in North Dakota forced TC Energy Corp to shut its 590,000-barrel-per-day (bpd) Keystone pipeline that brings Canadian crude from northern Alberta to refineries in the US Midwest.

The pipeline also flows to Cushing, where the outage is expected to drain inventories.

Prices were also supported by expansion in China’s factory activity at the fastest pace since 2017, raising optimism over the health of the world’s secondlargest economy. US jobs growth also slowed less than expected in October.

“With the positive jobs report and the Fed recently lowering interest rates, I think it definitely eases some

concerns around US economic growth,” McGillian said. “Worries about economic growth are largely in Europe and Asia.”

A Reuters survey, however, showed that oil prices were expected to remain under pressure this year and next. The poll of 51 economists and analysts forecast Brent crude would average $64.16 a barrel in 2019 and $62.38 next year.

Another Reuters survey found output from the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries recovered in October from an eight-year low, with a rapid recovery in Saudi production from attacks on its oil infrastructure in September offsetting losses in Ecuador and voluntary curbs under an international supply pact.

Saturday, 2 November, 2019

12 BUSINESS MARKET DAILY PSx turns blind eye to political unrest; index up 173 points KARACHI STAFF rEPOrT

Stocks continued to rally for the second consecutive session as the indices marched north throughout Friday, turning a blind eye to the ongoing political events. Foreign investors offloaded shares worth $2.05 million on Thursday; equity of $12.93 million was sold in September 2019. Major selling was observed in the banking and oil and gas exploration sectors ($13.54 million and $4.90 million respectively) during the month. On the economic front, the total liquid foreign exchange reserves held by the central bank declined by $97 million to $15,090 million.

Previously, the reserves stood at $15,187 million.

Moreover, the government increased petrol prices by Re1 per litre for the month of November amid fluctuation in global crude oil. Gaining 285.83 points, the KSE-100 Index recorded its intraday high of 34,489.51 in the second half of the session. It ended higher by 173.93 points at 34,377.61.

The KMI-30 Index accumulated 238.96 points to close at 56,081.13, while the KSE All Share Index inched up 30.92 points, settling at 24,792.70. Sectors that added positivity to the index included cement (+66.59 points), banking (+63.44 points) and power generation and distribution (+41.42 points). Among the companies, Hub Power Company Limited (HUBC +39.26 points), Lucky Cement Limited (LUCK +31.02) and Mari Petroleum Company Limited (MARI +22.12) turned out to be the top contributors to the index. The overall trading volumes declined from the previous session and were recorded at 157.04 million. Cement giants, Fauji Cement Company Limited (FCCL +1.29pc) and Maple Leaf Cement Factory Limited (MLCF +6.17pc), held the first two spots on the volume chart with 12.86 million shares and 10.79 million shares exchanging hands respectively. Siddiqsons Tin Plate Limited (STPL +0.96pc) was third on the list with 9.05 million traded shares.

footwear exports surge 26pc in 1Qfy20

CPeC CoMMittee to take uP Ml-1 fiNaNCiNG iSSue With ChiNa ISLAMABAD

t

'Matters PertaInIng to develoPMent oF Ports and coastal belts, coMPletIon oF IslaMabad-Quetta Motorway and InauguratIon oF sezs wIll also be dIscussed durIng 9th Jcc MeetIng'

GHUlAM ABBAS

HE Cabinet Committee on China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) has decided to take up the financing issue of Main Line-I project with China during the upcoming Joint Cooperation Committee (JCC) meeting.

Earlier, it was feared that the government may refrain from discussing Karachi Circular Railway and ML-I projects with China owing to pressure from the International Monetary Fund.

“The government might not issue sovereign guarantees for the said projects until the IMF is convinced,” sources had told this scribe the other day.

On Friday, Planning Minister Makhdoom Khusro Bakhtiar chaired the meeting of the Cabinet Committee on CPEC to discuss the agenda and to deliberate upon the deliverables for upcoming JCC meeting, scheduled to be held on November 6th.

The meeting was attended by Railways Minister Sheikh Rasheed Ahmad, Maritime Affairs Minister Ali Zaidi, Communications Minister Murad Saeed, Revenue Minister Hammad Azhar, Privatisation Commission Deputy Chairman Mohammad Jehanzeb Khan and Planning Secretary Zafar Hasan.

The CPEC committee discussed the development of Gwadar as well as projects recommended by provincial governments; proposed projects related to energy, transport, infrastructure, water, industry and agriculture.

During the meeting, a detailed discussion was held on the ML-1 railway project, including the formation of a high-level financing expert group to deliberate upon loan modalities.

Meanwhile, addressing a press conference to brief the media about the agenda of the 9th JCC

meeting, the minister said many important projects were scheduled to be discussed in the meeting, particularly the ‘railway revamping project’ under which the old system would be replaced by a new and modern system to ensure fast-tract development.

He said that progress and development of Pakistan was directly linked to ports and coastal belts, hence a special focus was being laid on the development of these areas. “Gwadar Master Plan will be ready by November 6.”

The minister said that financing for the completion of Islamabad-Quetta Motorway project would be discussed during the JCC meeting, while inauguration dates for various special economic zones, which would help bring investments from China and other countries, would also be finalised.

Bakhtiar said that the federal government was taking CPEC to new heights, as it was an important pillar of the country’s economic structure.

“The ML-1 project will make Pakistan Railways compatible with modern requirements. The corridor’s western route, from Islamabad to Quetta, will be completed on a war footing. The development work on Gwadar Airport is contin-

uing with full pace. The government will complete the Karachi Circular Railway (KCR) project on a priority basis. It is taking solid steps to meet energy requirements. Special plans are being considered for the promotion of tourism in Pakistan,” the minister informed.

He said the projects initiated for the development of Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK), GilgitBaltistan (GB) and Balochistan were among the top priorities of the incumbent government.

“A joint forum has been constituted by Pakistan and China for the enhancement of the industrial sector,” Bakhtiar added.

Separately, IMF Mission Chief Ernesto Ramirez Rigo held a meeting with the planning minister to discuss Pakistan’s economic progress.

The minister thanked the IMF for reinforcing the need for higher public sector development spending. He highlighted contours of development budget and mentioned that focus of the development outlay was early completion of ongoing projects.

Bakhtiar said that the government was obligatory under the Water Policy to allocate 10pc of resources under PSDP for water sector to enhance the country’s water storage capacity.

“The government is trying to leverage private sector resources to complement development needs of the country,” he added.

Bakhtiar informed the IMF mission chief that the government envisioned to create more value through SEZs, better social sector outcome through investment in key social sectors and an effective social protection programme.

The IMF mission chief expressed his optimism over Pakistan’s economic future. “Pakistan’s economy is showing signs of recovery as more machinery is being imported which in itself reflects greater confidence in the country’s investment prospects.”

ISLAMABAD APP

Footwear exports from the country witnessed an increase of 26.3pc during the first quarter of the current financial year (1QFY20), as compared to the corresponding period of last year. Pakistan exported footwear worth $37.062 million during July-September FY20 against the exports of $29.344 million during the same period of last fiscal, according to latest data released by the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS). Among footwear products, the exports of leather footwear witnessed a growth of 22pc as it surged from $26.2 million in 1QFY19 to $31.961 million in 1QFY20. However, the export of canvas footwear decreased slightly by 6.06pc, from $0.033 million to $0.031 million. During the period under review, the export of all other footwear commodities increased by 62.97pc, from $3.111 million to $5.070 million. On a year-on-year basis, footwear exports increased by 59.62pc in September 2019 when compared with the same month last year. The footwear exports during the month under review were recorded at $11.269 million as against the exports of $7.060 million in September 2018. During the month under review, the export of leather footwear increased by 56.03pc, canvas footwear exports decreased 71.43pc while all other exports surged by 89.31pc. On a month-on-month basis, the export of footwear products went down by 12.29pc in September 2019 when compared with the exports of $12.848 million in August 2019. The export of leather footwear decreased by 15.09pc, canvas footwear by 68.42pc, however, the exports of all other footwear products increased by10.54pc. It is pertinent to mention that the country's merchandise trade deficit plunged by 34.85pc during the first three months of the current fiscal year as compared to the same month of last year. The trade deficit during July-September 2019-20 was recorded at $5.727 billion against the deficit of $8.791 billion during July-September 2018-19. The exports increased from $5.374 billion to $5.522 billion while imports declined by 20.6pc to $11.249 billion in 1QFY20.

vitol to increase financial holding in hascol

‘as Many as 35 new exPloratIon blocks wIll be awarded In next 12 Months’ ISLAMABAD APP

BUSINESS DESK vitol Group Ltd has decided to increase its stake in Pakistan fuel retailer Hascol Petroleum Ltd. Sahibzada Jahangir, Spokesperson of Prime Minister on Trade and Investment for the UK and Europe regions, who last month had accompanied a delegation from vitol, the largest independent oil company in the world, stated, “vitol has now decided to increase their financial holding in Hascol Petroleum Pakistan from 27pc to 41pc.”

He said vitol also has plans to invest up

to $100 million in oil-related infrastructure in Pakistan in 2020.

“More and more overseas Pakistanis are now positively looking at Pakistan as a safe and profitable destination for foreign investment. Inshallah 2020 will be a great year for Pakistan and its economy,” he remarked. vitol currently holds 27.5pc in Hascol, having gradually increased its stake in the fuel retailer since first buying 15pc of Hascol in 2016.

Between 2010 and 2018, Hascol saw its revenues climb at an astonishing average of 52.7pc per year, rising from Rs7.9 billion to Rs234.4 billion during that period.

Softening demand drags Indian factory growth to two-year low in Oct BENGALURU AGENCIES

India’s factory activity growth hit a two-year low in October as new orders and output rose at a slower pace, dragging business confidence to its weakest since early 2017, a survey showed on Friday, suggesting more policy easing is on the cards.

That mirrors a recent sharp deceleration in global manufacturing activity as a protracted US-China trade war took a toll on business sentiment, investment and overall growth.

The Nikkei Manufacturing Purchasing Managers’ Index, compiled

feasibility study underway to set up gas storage facilities: SaPM

by IHS Markit, dropped to 50.6 last month from September’s 51.4, confounding expectations in a Reuters poll for a rise to 51.8.

Just the same, it has held above the 50-point threshold mark that separates growth from contraction for the 27th straight month, an uninterrupted run not seen for around five years.

“PMI data for October showed a continuation of manufacturing sector weakness in India, with sales growth softening to the slowest in two years,” noted Pollyanna De Lima, principal economist at IHS Markit.

“Weakening demand had a domino effect in the manufacturing

industry, knocking down rates of increase in production, employment and business sentiment.”

The new orders sub-index, a proxy for domestic demand, slumped to 51.3 from September’s 52.3, its lowest since October 2017. That pushed firms to slow the pace of hiring to a six month low, which is likely to raise concerns for Narendra Modi’s government given it is under pressure to create more jobs.

Moreover, in a further sign the ailing economy will take a while to recover, optimism slipped in October to its weakest since soon after a 2016 high-value currency ban that affected

day-to-day operations of small- and medium-sized businesses.

The downturn in overall business activity and demand suggests the Reserve Bank of India might need to ease policy again, on top of the cumulative 135 basis points of rate cuts delivered this year.

Certainly, the inflation gauge in the PMI survey indicated the RBI has the headroom for further policy action, as input prices declined for the first time in over four years. While firms raised output costs at a faster rate compared to September it is unlikely to push overall inflation above the central bank’s medium-term target of 4%.

Special Assistant to Prime Minister (SAPM) on Petroleum Nadeem Babar said on Friday that the government has initiated a feasibility study to set up gas storage facilities in order to ensure smooth supply of the commodity during peak winter and summer seasons. "Currently, we have a system of 5 Billion Cubic Feet (BCF) gas. The demand will increase to 7BCF in the next two to three years, and we have no gas storage system, which is a major problem," he said while addressing a press conference along with Energy Minister Omar Ayub Khan, Planning Minister Makhdoom Khusro Bakhtiar, Railways Minister Sheikh Rasheed Ahmad and SAPM on Information and Broadcasting Firdous Ashiq Awan. Accordingly, he said a study has already been initiated and the Chinese government has been requested to incorporate this scheme in the China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) framework.

Commenting on the government efforts to step up oil and gas exploration activities in potential areas of the country, the SAPM said as many as 35 new exploration blocks would be awarded in the next 12 months. He said the bidding process to award 10-12 blocks would start in the coming month, while the same number of blocks would be offered during next summer and 10-12 more in December 2020. In this regard, Nadeem Babar said roadshows had been arranged in Canada and US, while the teams also visited Russia. "Now, we are planning to visit Middle Eastern countries next week." He said Chinese investors were also taking a keen interest in participating in oil and gas exploration activities in Pakistan. The SAPM informed that at present, 55pc needs of diesel and petrol were being met through the import of petroleum products in the finished form, while 40 to 45pc requirements were fulfilled by refining the crude oil at domestic refineries. Babar said the government was encouraging the establishment of new oil refineries in the country, besides upgrading the existing facilities to achieve self-sufficiency in the oil refining sector.

He said the uplift of Pakistan Refinery Limited (PRL) was being planned at a cost of $1 billion, adding that a Chinese company has been invited to participate in the project.

PINK BRUNCH

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HOLLYWOOD BOLLYWOOD

HE Breast Cancer Awareness Brunch by Scaryammi and Aimfit was arranged in collaboration with The Parenting Guide at The Spor at Park Lane hotel on the 29th of October'19. The aim of the event was to spread awareness about the increasing rates of breast cancer and to further mark the significance of October as Pink-Tober.

"One in 8 women in Pakistan are suffering from breast cancer and around the world women are dying every single minute from breast cancer," said The Original Scaryammi Ayesha Nasir. "Breast cancer is a silent killer and one that is taking a greater number of women victim."

In honor of Pink-Tober everything at the event was pink ranging from the pink drinks to the pink ribbons artfully arranged on the walls.

Chughtai Labs arranged an informational session on how screening practices such as ultrasound, mammography and self breast exams need to be standard practice.

All the attendees put on pink ribbons and also hung pink ribbons with their names on them on a pink ribbon tree.

"I am so delighted that I came today and I am going back feeling motivated to spread awareness about breast cancer as well as becoming more careful myself," said Aisha Khattak.

Gulnaz Ayyaz, a breast cancer

survivor, told her emotional story of how her diagnosis of breast cancer led to the collapse of her marriage.

"It was when I was most alone that I realized that Allah is all we need," she said.

Ambrin Sipra, who is currently fighting cancer, spoke about how being positive is her greatest weapon.

It was like an emotional roller coaster ride, listening to their experiences and their inner thoughts and how they opened up and told us the details of how they developed the cancer and somehow detected it without knowing what it was and then got the diagnoses which later lead to the medication and other options. <br> The strength and the compassion these women possess could easily compel any woman going through the roughest times in their lives to think positive and view their life from a better perspective. They talked about how they defeated the odds, defeated the disease, defeated the society and defeated their own mental limitations and made something of themselves. Dr. Noureen Butt from Chughtai Labs spoke about how early detection is the solution to ensuring a full recovery.

Not only this, but a tribute was paid to all the cancer patients by writing our names on the ribbons and hanging it on the tree which was followed by a few fun filled activities like pink nail art and lucky draws.

5 NEW COLLECTIONS THAT QUICKLY STOLE OUR ATTENTION Every now and then, we are on the lookout to find clothes that perfectly align with modern-day trends. Every single week, one or the other clothing brand comes up with a new collection. But, do they really offer something new, unique and up to the mark? This is a tricky question. One should not just wear a dress that has a brand tag but

should go for comfortability and the variety that it offers.

For us, the most appropriate style is the one done with experimentation or the one that brings something out of the box. Behind each collection, there should always be a vision to bring something new, quirky and fun to wear.

These are 5 new collections that we absolutely loved and they have all the elements of class and sass that you need to pull any event.

SHISHA AW ‘19 BY ZARA SHAHJAHAN

SHAHNOOR BY ANUM HASSAN

Adorned with dainty and minimal sheesha work, these basic attires paired along delicate organza dupattas are sewn with a fair share of subtle oomph and grace. Immersed in sophistication, Zara Shahjahan’s new collection has got an edge to fit in the aura of any sumptuous event.

“Across the subcontinent, shisha embroidery has grown to be a symbol of identity, with various and particular styles of embellishment adopted across regions and borders. At home, it is commonly associated with Sindh, Pakistan but it is a practice that spans across Asia and afar, including Eastern Sumatra. It is claimed that the technique was introduced by the Mughals in the 16th century to the Indian subcontinent, with the Persian term ‘shisheh’ transferring over to Urdu/Hindi. We continue to look towards references that feel like home at Zara Shahjahan, and this technique is one that is heavily employed in this collection, hence aptly named ‘Shisha’. Take a closer look.” – Zara Shahjahan

Dainty, refreshing and quirky!!! Anum Hassan’s Shahnoor is a mix of charming and vivacious hues merged with lively patterns and coruscating details embedded in each outfit.

“Shahnoor means “royal glow”. I took the inspiration from my niece as her name is Shahnoor. So, the theme was to come up with bright and colorful patterns giving joyous vibes. To give it a subtle look, we have used darker tones as well. The main idea was to bring a range that is affordable for everyone. We have used a lot of stonework and threadwork on it. Its a fusion of tradition and modernity that goes very well with today’s trends.” – Anum Hassan

By Rohama Riaz

NOOR-UL-AIN BY ASIFA NABEEL Asifa Nabeel’s Noor-ul-ain creates magic with its fine craft and celebrates the glorious tradition with its vibrant hues, celestial cuts and magnificent embroidery put together in every outfit.

“This collection is a remembrance of the beautiful forgotten eras.

We have brought rich palettes, golds and stunning embroideries to keep the old school glamour intact. It’s created for the people who cherish their past and are in love with their present. It’s a bridge between the past and present. It’s an old tale, called: Noor-alAin.” – Asifa Nabeel

'Toxic Fandom' Blamed For Game of Thrones Creators Leaving Star Wars

Jumanji: The Next Level Gets Final Trailer and New Poster

Monday saw the news that Game of Thrones creators David Benioff and Dan Weiss have dropped out of doing their planned Star Wars trilogy, with details offering "toxic fandom" is in part to blame.

While LucasFilm president Kathleen Kennedy is said to have been concerned about the duo's ability to handle a new Star Wars movie and their $250 million Netflix deal at the same time, which may be a big reason why they left, it is reported David Benioff and Dan Weiss didn't want to deal with the Star Wars fans that have bullied actors and directors, especially following the controversial final season of Game of Thrones, something which caused them to cancel plans for a farewell Comic-Con appearance this past Summer in San Diego. The article also notes that the departure of Benioff and Weiss are the fourth directors to exit Star Wars under Kennedy, as Josh Trank was fired back in 2015, Chris Miller and Phil Lord were booted from Solo, and Colin Trevorrow dropped out of Episode IX, not to mention that Gareth Edwards was basically replaced by Tony Gilroy for Rogue One.

Sony has released the final trailer and a new poster for Jumanji: The Next Level which stars Dwayne Johnson, Jack Black, Kevin Hart and Karen Gillan.

"New Places. New Faces. Next Level," teases the trailer description.

In Jumanji: The Next Level, the gang is back but the game has changed. As they return to Jumanji to rescue one of their own, they discover that nothing is as they expect. The players will have to brave parts unknown and unexplored, from the arid deserts to the snowy mountains, in order to escape the world’s most dangerous game.

Jumani: The Next Level gets released December 13, 2019 directed by Jake Kasdan, written by Kasdan, Jeff Pinkner and Scott Rosenberg; produced by Matt Tolmach, Jake Kasdan, Dwayne Johnson, Dany Garcia, and Hiram Garcia; executive produced by David Householter, Melvin Mar, Scott Rosenberg, Jeff Pinkner, William Teitler, Ted Field, Mike Weber and Chris Van Allsburg.

CMYK

SAHELI BY ZAINAB SALMAN Keeping in mind the erratic fashion trends, Zainab Salman’s new collection Saheli is a pure portrait of traditionality soused in elegance and exceptional craftsmanship.

“Our new Bridal Campaign “Saheli” is about celebrating our legacy, empowering our craft and sharing a precious bond with the people we love. The pieces exude the deeply rooted, old-world charm. This collection is a translation of passion and love from our craftsmen and their expertise of turning materials into heirlooms, that can be cherished for the generations to come – Every piece in this collection has been curated with a lot of care and a lot of attention has been given to the detailing.” – Zainab Salman

LELA AW’19 BY NATASIA PAUL We were totally awe-struck by Natasia Paul’s debut collec tion. This is probably a rare embodiment of classic and contemporary coming together on a plain canvas. Each piece radiates royalty with a sheer glam incorporating modern age captivating details.

Whattay treat!!!

“Lela” is my first collection so goes without saying how special it is to me. The inspiration for “Lela” comes from gypsies around the world. I find the gypsy aesthetic quite appealing; it’s flamboyant, feminine and easy at the same time. They symbolise a nomadic lifestyle, freedom and progression. It feels like a wonderful fantasy as they’ve been able to escape from the hustling life that we have, but their reality is far from it.” – Natasia Paul

Rangoli Chandel wishes Aishwarya Rai on birthday, thanks her for her ‘unconditional love for Kangana’ Actor Kangana Ranaut is busy prepping for her next film, Thalaivi (Jaya in Hindi) but her sister Rangoli Chandel is making up for her absence. She wished Aishwarya Rai Bachchan on her birthday with an adorable picture of the actor and Kangana. Sharing the picture on Twitter, Rangoli wrote: “Happy birthday to the most beautiful person in every way, dear Ash thank you for your beauty, talent and unconditional love for Kangana.”

Kangana, meanwhile, has been off bounds for a while now. In Thalaivi, she will play actor and former chief minister of Tamil Nadu, J Jayalalithaa. Only recently, Kangana was spotted in Los Angeles for Jayalalithaa biopic preparation, where she also celebrated Diwali.

Kangana took out some time and held a little Diwali bash with the film’s team. A few pictures and videos were posted on Kangana’s official Instagram handle, which is managed by her team.

Saturday, 2 November, 2019

14 SPORTS

nAdAl EAsEs pAst WAWrinkA As djokoviC sEts up tsitsipAs ClAsh PARIS

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AFAEL Nadal and Novak Djokovic continued their battle for the year-end world number one ranking on Thursday as both players reached the Paris Masters quarter-finals with wins over Stan Wawrinka and Kyle Edmund respectively.

The 33-year-old Nadal is already guaranteed to usurp Djokovic at the rankings summit next week, but winning a maiden Bercy title would also secure the year-end top spot before next month’s ATP Tour Finals in London.

He produced an impressive display to take his career head-to-head record against three-time Grand Slam champion Wawrinka to 19-3 with a clinical 6-4, 6-4 victory. Djokovic had earlier booked his last-eight place with a 7-6 (9/7), 6-1 win over Britain’s Edmund.

Nadal has never won the Paris Masters or the ATP Finals and only two of his 84 titles have come indoors.

“That’s the beautiful thing about

this sport, (to) have the capacity to adapt yourself to the different conditions,” said the 12-time French Open winner, who called the doctor onto the court in the second set to help deal with a stomach problem.

Nadal will face 2008 champion JoWilfried Tsonga in the quarter-finals after the French wildcard saved two match points to edge out Germany’s Jan-Lennard Struff 2-6, 6-4, 7-6 (8/6).

“I have a match against a player

that is playing well,” said Nadal. “I need to do a lot of things well, but I hope to be ready to make that happen.”

Nadal took the first set thanks to a single break of serve in game three, saving break points in the second and eighth games himself before serving it out in style. Wawrinka’s backhand started to fire at the start of the second set, but Nadal kept the Swiss at bay, helped by one incredible forehand winner to direct a smash from his opponent

into the corner of the court.

The 19-time Grand Slam champion saw off Wawrinka’s challenge with a break to lead 5-4 in the second set and served out the match to make it his seventh Paris Masters quarter-final in as many appearances.

Top seed Djokovic needed seven set points in the first set before beating Edmund with relative comfort by racing through the second to make his eighth quarter-final in the tournament.

“I was feeling energy-wise better and felt more alert, just more strength, more energy, more speed,” said the 32year-old, who has been struggling with illness this week. The 16-time Grand Slam title-winner is chasing a recordextending fifth Bercy crown and will next face world number seven Stefanos Tsitsipas, who beat Alex de Minaur 6-3, 6-4. The 21-year-old Tsitsipas leads his head-to-head with Djokovic 2-1, after victories at the Shanghai Masters earlier this month and the 2018 Canadian Open. “He (Tsitsipas) is one of the best players in the world,” said Djokovic.

“He’s already (an) established player.”

Busy Inter Milan have another chance to overtake Juventus MILAN AGENCIES

Evergreen Aguero holds key to Man City's title defence MADRID: Sergio Aguero holds the key to Manchester City’s bid to overhaul Premier League leaders Liverpool as the Argentine striker reaps the rewards of the “best decision of his life”. When Aguero walks onto the Etihad Stadium pitch ahead of Saturday’s clash with Southampton, he will feel more at one with his surroundings than he would ever have imagined when he arrived eight years ago. Back then, Aguero was a talented but not yet fully rounded player hoping to thrive in England after a promising start to his European career with Atletico Madrid. The intervening years have been a dream come true for Aguero, who is now City’s record goal-scorer and has amassed four Premier League titles, one FA Cup and four League Cups while helping the club’s become top dogs in Manchester after decades of dominance from United. Aguero marked his 350th appearance with two goals against Southampton in the League Cup fourth round win on Tuesday, giving him 12 for the season and 243 in his City career. For all the brilliance of his City team-mates Raheem Sterling and Kevin De Bruyne, it is the 31year-old Aguero and the guarantee of goals which remains the key element in their bid for a third successive English title. “It was hard to imagine spending so long with one club when I first started off but as time went by, it became clearer to me that it was exactly what I wanted. And here I am, enjoying my eighth season with Manchester City,” Aguero said. “How couldn’t I feel like a Mancunian? I feel at home in this club and in this city. As soon as I arrived, I’ve felt like I belonged, that made the adaptation process much more natural. “I believe coming to Manchester City is one of the best decisions I’ve taken in my life.”

INTENSE COMPETITION: Chasing their first top-flight title since 1990, Liverpool are six points clear of City and remain a daunting obstacle for Aguero and company.

Jurgen Klopp’s side head to Aston Villa with nine wins from their 10 league games this season, a blistering streak that is fuelled by the intense competition for places and the high standards set by the European champions. Evidence of that desire was provided by Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, who scored a superb goal in the midweek League Cup win over Arsenal but then admitted he hadn’t done enough to deserve to retain his place against Villa. AGENCIES

It is early days in Inter Milan’s pursuit of perennial Serie A pacesetters Juventus, but already the chasers are worrying about flagging.

Inter travel to Bologna on Saturday in the 11th round and can briefly overhaul Juventus ahead of the Turin derby later in the day. Third-place Atalanta face in-form Cagliari on Sunday. Roma, in fourth, open the weekend against Napoli.

The top two flip-flopped in midweek. Inter won 2-1 at Brescia on Tuesday. Juventus, playing with 10 men, regained a one-point lead when Cristiano Ronaldo converted a 90thminute penalty at home to Genoa on Wednesday. After the victory at Brescia, Inter manager Antonio Conte, always a glass-half-empty type, complained that his squad is being asked to do too much.

“It becomes difficult to talk about the game because we’ve now played our fourth match in nine days with the same players,” he said. “We now have to recover because we’re only halfway there, I haven’t seen any other side having

to play seven matches in 20 days.

Next up it’s Bologna on Saturday and then we’ve got a Tuesday fixture away to Dortmund.”

Conte reportedly had meetings with Inter management this week to discuss adding one or two midfielders in the winter transfer period.

“We are pushing the engine to the max,” he said. Most of his players had got the message.

“We’re playing every three days and it isn’t easy. There is slight fatigue,” said Argentine striker Lautaro Martinez, who scored Inter’s opening goal in Tuesday, his fifth of the season. There was one dissenting voice. “It’s nice to play every few days,” said Dutch defender Matthijs de Ligt. “We footballers live to play games. It’s tiring but we’re happy.” Bologna are anchored

in mid-table after losing 3-2 away to Cagliari on Wednesday but defender Stefano Denswil promised Inter a tough match.

ONE TO WATCH: Meanwhile Juventus’s weekend opponents are in some disarray. Walter Mazzarri, the Torino manager, received the dreaded vote of confidence ahead of the Turin derby. Torino lost 4-0 at Lazio on Wednesday, although all the goals came after defender Nicolas Nkoulou received a second yellow card after 21 minutes.

Torino president Urbano Cairo was not happy.

“We have a derby ahead of us but above all a long championship ahead of us: I think it’s right today to examine everyone’s conscience.”

He added that he had confidence in Mazzarri.

ZidAnE sEttlEs on CorE sElECtion but MAdrid nEEd rEgulAr rEsults MADRID: Real Madrid’s 5-0 thumping of Leganes was their biggest win in La Liga since his first spell as coach but Zinedine Zidane was hardly in a celebratory mood. In the press conference after the match, one expectant journalist asked if it was Madrid’s best performance of the season. “No I don’t think so,” Zidane said. Another suggested this was at least their most complete showing so far.

“There are people who will think it’s our best game,” Zidane said. “Not for me, but we have to be happy.” A third finally questioned which matches did Zidane prefer, to which the Frenchman proposed the season’s opening win over Celta Vigo or last week’s 1-0 victory over Galatasaray in the Champions League.

The fact is there are few candidates, from a campaign in which Real Madrid have produced only in spurts, flitting between commanding and chaotic even within individual matches, let alone from weekto-week. Their win over Leganes was their most emphatic in the league since they beat Celta 6-0 under Zidane in May 2018 and there have also been resilient away victories at Galatasaray and Sevilla this term, not to mention goal flurries against Granada and Levante. But both Granada and Levante almost pulled off comebacks while miserable defeats away at promoted Mallorca and Paris Saint-Germain exposed a bluntness up front and fragility at the back that felt all-too familiar. “The problem is we have to show every three days that we are good,” Zidane said earlier this month. “That is the difficulty and that is what we do not do.” After 10 games, the juncture when teams can supposedly be judged, the picture is still not clear, yet there are signs, in Zidane’s selection at least, that his second tenure is taking shape. A spine has been established with the places of Thibaut Courtois, Sergio Ramos, Raphael Varane, Toni Kroos and Karim Benzema seemingly assured. Dani Carvajal has been more reliable at rightback than the erratic Alvaro Odriozola while on the other side Ferland Mendy has yet to dislodge Marcelo, despite his 50 million arrival last summer. Casemiro remains the squad’s only defensive midfielder and Fede Valverde has brought much-needed energy into the midfield, leaving the 34-year-old Luka Modric to be used more sparingly. AGENCIES

Dortmund hope cup 'balm for soul' will boost Bundesliga bid LONDON AGENCIES

Borussia Dortmund attacking midfielder Julian Brandt says he hopes his side’s 2-1 midweek win over Borussia Moenchengladbach in the German Cup will mark a turning point in the season.

While some had the black and yellows as a favourite to win the Bundesliga after an aggressive off-season recruitment effort, Dortmund sit in fifth place after nine rounds, with four wins, four draws and a loss.

New recruit Brandt scored two goals in three minutes in the second half of the German Cup tie, a welcome return to form for a player who had scored only once in 12 appearances for Dortmund prior to Wednesday night.

With pressure mounting on coach Lucien Favre, and a mounting injury list, Brandt said the win was just the tonic Dortmund needed. “These games, these difficult games, give you a lot of confidence,” said Brandt.

“We are a young team, and we definitely have a lot to learn. We don’t do everything right, but if you can manage to win despite these difficulties, it’s like

a balm for the soul. “And if you win, the pressure will of course subside.”

Brandt himself had come in for stinging criticism after his performance in the Champions League against Inter Milan the previous week.

Former Dortmund forward and captain Michael Rummenigge criticised Brandt’s attitude and commitment in the loss to their major group rivals.

“Normally I would never single out a specific player, but Julian Brandt in the game against Inter Milan? That was C-grade youth football, with no physical contact or assertiveness,” he said.

Brandt was unconcerned about any criticism he or the team may face for their performances, saying that difficulties were important in steeling the team for the challenges ahead.

ONE TO WATCH - JAVAIRO DILROSUN: Dutch winger Javairo Dilrosun has been a shining light in what has been a difficult season for Hertha Berlin, scoring three and assisting two in six games. Dilrosun will be crucial for Hertha as they make the trip to neighbours Union Berlin for the firstever top-flight derby between the two

CMYK

teams from the German capital.

A product of Manchester City’s academy, Dilrosun followed in the footsteps of Borussia Dortmund’s superstar winger Jadon Sancho by moving to the Bundesliga in 2018 after being frustrated at a lack of first-team opportunities with the English champions.

In addition to attracting the attention of English giants Chelsea and Liverpool, German media reports Dortmund are casting their glance towards Dilrosun, particularly if Sancho sets his sights on a move at season’s end.

KEY STATS: 15 – Robert Lewandowski’s goal tally for Bayern Munich so far this season. The next closest player? Timo Werner of RB Leipzig with 6.

9/9 – Lewandowski again, who became the first Bundesliga player to score in each of the first nine games of the season 300 – Lukasz Piszczek – and that man Lewandowski – will both play their 300th game this weekend. In addition to their time at Dortmund together, Piszczek and Lewandowski have also spent the best part of a decade playing for Poland at international level.

FIXTURES (ALL TIMES 1330 GMT UNLESS STATED): FRIDAY: Hoffenheim v Paderborn (1830) SATURDAY: Bayer Leverkusen v Borussia Moenchengladbach, Werder Bremen v Freiburg, Eintracht Frankfurt v Bayern Munich, RB Leipzig v Mainz, Borussia Dortmund v Wolfsburg, Union Berlin v Hertha Berlin (1630) SUNDAY: Fortuna Duesseldorf v Cologne, Augsburg v Schalke (1600)

Saturday, 2 November, 2019

SPORTS 15

EnglAnd ClAiM first blood in nEW ZEAlAnd t20 sEriEs LONDON

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maiden half century from James Vince powered England to a convincing seven-wicket victory over New Zealand in the opening Twenty20 international in Christchurch on Friday.

Vince top-scored for the tourists with 59 as England chased down New Zealand’s 154-run target in 18.3 overs to take a 1-0 lead in the five-match series.

While Vince’s man-of-the-match performance caught the eye, captain Eoin Morgan was also full of praise for his bowlers, who laid the platform for victory by restricting the Black Caps to 153 for five. “The game was won and lost in the first innings… James Vince played outstanding well but all credit to the bowlers today,” he said.

A three-wicket haul from spinner Mitchell Santner was not enough to rescue the Black Caps, whose batting lineup failed to fire after Morgan won the toss and sent them in.

England’s win came despite the absence of several senior players, who have been rested for the series after a gruelling period that saw them win the World Cup and fail to reclaim the Ashes. A trio of debutants in the team facing New Zealand fitted in seamlessly, with Sam Curran and Pat Brown both snaring a wicket each.

All-rounder Lewis Gregory was not needed with either bat or ball and will hope to make an impression when hostilities resume in Wellington on Sunday.

Morgan said his squad was building its depth by blooding youngsters ahead of the T20 World Cup in Australia next year.

“It’s a chance for them to stake their

claim,” said the England captain, who emphatically ended the match with a six off the final ball to finish on 34 not out.

‘A BIT OFF’: New Zealand’s regular captain Kane Williamson is out of the series with a hip injury and the Black Caps sorely missed his batting prowess.

Stand-in skipper Tim Southee said there was room for improvement in bowling, batting and fielding.

“We were probably a little bit off in all three areas,” he said.

“We got a score on the board that we felt we could defend but we were a little bit off with the ball and in the field, which didn’t help.” The poor form that dogged Martin Guptill at the World Cup continued when Curran coaxed an inside edge that crashed into middle stump.

Fellow opener Colin Munro tried to break the shackles but was too aggressive against Chris Jordan and was caught on

the boundary for 21. In reply, Jonny Bairstow made a positive start for England and it took a spectacular catch from Guptill for dismiss him for 35.

Santner and fellow spinner Ish Sodhi had some success pegging back England’s run rate before Vince and Morgan combined for a 54-run partnership that proved decisive.

It is the first time the sides have met

since the one-day World Cup final in July, which ended with scores tied but England claiming victory because they had scored more boundaries.

However, both teams insist their focus for the series is on preparing for next year’s T20 World Cup. England are ranked second in the world in T20s behind Pakistan, while New Zealand are sixth.

Ahmad Shahzad fined, Azhar Ali and Sohail Khan reprimanded for breaching PCB Code of Conduct LAHORE AGENCIES

Central Punjab captain Ahmad Shahzad has been fined 50 per cent of his match fee, while his teammate Azhar Ali and Sindh fast-bowler Sohail Khan have received official reprimands for violating Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) Code of Conduct during their Quaid-e-Azam Trophy match, which ended in an exciting draw in Faisalabad on Thursday — PCB announced in a press release.

Shahzad was found guilty of committing a Level 1 offence under Article 2.14, which relates to changing the condition of the ball under non-identification process during a match. The incident occurred during the 17th over of Sindh’s first innings on Tuesday when, during a normal inspection of the ball, on-field umpires Mohammad Asif and Zameer Ahmed found that the ball had been unfairly changed by a member of the fielding side.

The matter was reported to match referee Nadeem Arshad who, on the basis of a preliminary review, determined that Shahzad, as captain, had a case to answer for the contravention as the incident related to non-identification of the player and a Notice of

Charge was issued to him under the PCB Code of Conduct. Shahzad pleaded not guilty to the charge, and, as such, a hearing took place after the match on Thursday, in which Shahzad was found guilty.

“We can agree to disagree in this incident as I maintain that the condition of the ball changed naturally due to the rough playing square and not artifi-

cially. I tried to convince the match officials, but they insisted and I accept and respect their decision," Shahzad stated later.

“I would never indulge in such an act, nor allow any of my teammates to disrespect the game. My priority is to play hard, competitive and result-oriented cricket, and at the same time inspire the younger generation, which watches us play the game,” he added.

In an unrelated incident, Azhar Ali and Sohail Khan have been handed official reprimands as the two players got into an argument after Central Punjab pushed for victory against Sindh.

Azhar Ali was found guilty of engaging in a Level 1 offence described in Article 2.9, which deals with throwing a ball at or near a player, support personnel, umpire, match referee or any other third person in an inappropriate and/or dangerous manner during a match. Sohail was found guilty of committing a Level 1 offense under Article 2.10, which pertains to time wasting by any player or team during a match.

Both the players were charged by on-field umpires Mohammad Asif and Zameer Ahmed. Since the players accepted the proposed sanctions by match referee Nadeem Arshad, there was no further need for formal hearings.

Grappling with change: Women's wrestling tones down razzmatazz in Riyadh RIYADH AGENCIES

Dressed demurely in black leggings and unflattering baggy t-shirts, rather than their trademark low-cut bikini tops, WWE superstars Natalya and Lacey Evans starred in the first-ever women’s wrestling match in Saudi Arabia on Thursday, the latest unlikely event in the kingdom as it attempts to shrug off an ultra-conservative image.

As they arrived in the ring, with their flowing blonde hair uncovered, three teenagers laughed out loud having earlier in the evening been entranced by the spectacle served up by male, shirtless fighters.

“It’s nonsense,” said one to the other, struggling to be heard above the fireworks and rock ‘n’ roll music which blasted into the Riyadh night. Evans, a former US Marine, and Natalya appeared at the King Fahd Stadium suitably dressed down for the occasion, their usual costumes left behind in the United States.

“Do you want them to be sent to jail?” said an expatriate fan who wished to remain anonymous when defending the dress code.

“Women’s wrestling in Saudi Arabia, yes, but only if they dress like that, otherwise it would not be possible, even if it’s a fact that the clothing is an integral part of the show,” added a young fan wearing a black World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) t-shirt, adorned with pictures of his favourite fighters.

Saudi Arabia is boosting entertainment that allows citizens to have fun, in what some see as an attempt to blunt public frustration over an economic downturn and high youth unemployment.

De facto leader Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has introduced reforms including allowing concerts, reopening cinemas, and lifting a prohibition

on women driving as part of a modernisation drive.

However, when it comes to women’s wrestling, it may be a long, hard road. Last year, a broadcast during a men’s wrestling match of a promotional video featuring scantily-clad female wrestlers sparked a scandal in the country, forcing the authorities concerned to apologise for the “indecent” images.

Ahmed, 24, who says he follows the sport from the kingdom, appeared disappointed with such furores. “I was waiting for the women’s match. Those

who want to see such a spectacle should have the right to access it, and those who do not like don’t have to come,” he said.

Ali, 40, attended with his two children and said he wanted to support the social changes in progress in the country. However, he thinks there should be “limits”. “These women’s shows, honestly…”, said Ali, wearing his country’s traditional all-white robe.

“That women drive, it’s already a shock for me.

I’m not against it but you have to get used to it.”

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olympic marathon to be moved as tokyo gives grudging support TOKYO: The 2020 Olympic marathon and race-walking will be moved to northern Japan overheat concerns, officials said Friday, after Tokyo’s governor offered her reluctant support. The International Olympic Committee’s plan had caught Tokyo and 2020 organisers by surprise, with Governor Yuriko Koike repeatedly expressing her opposition. But on Friday, she said the city would not stand in the way.

“We cannot agree with the IOC but we will not obstruct the decision made by the IOC, which has the final decision-making authority,” she said at a meeting with Olympic officials and organisers. “In other words, this is a decision without an agreement.” The IOC announced last month that it wanted to move the events north to Sapporo, citing concerns about the hot and humid conditions of the Tokyo summer.

John Coates, head of the IOC’s coordination commission, welcomed Koike’s statement as well as assent from Japan’s Olympic minister and the 2020 organisers. “I think then it’s clear we do have an acceptance of this proposal,” he said. “These are going to be outstanding, outstanding, successful Games.” Coates said the IOC had agreed with the Tokyo government and the organisers that no other 2020 events would be moved, and that Tokyo would not bear any costs related to moving the marathon and race-walking. He said the body would also look with Tokyo at expenses the city has already incurred to prepare for hosting the events that will now be held in Sapporo, in the northern island of Hokkaido.

‘SHOCKED BY DOHA’: Despite her comments, Koike made clear that the city remains aggrieved by both the decision and the abrupt way it was announced. She said she remained convinced that holding the events in Tokyo was “the best idea”, and evoked the disappointment of Tokyo residents who “have worked so hard in preparation for this event”. Speaking after the meeting she said some residents had already reserved seats at cafes or even bought condos with views of the route. But she said she had consulted legal experts but determined “the absolute power of the IOC.” Dragging out the issue “would only cause further burden on athletes,” she added. “That is not what we are trying to achieve.” Coates said the decision was triggered by the world athletics championships in Doha, which saw dozens of competitors receive medical attention in hot and humid conditions. “The IOC was shocked by what we saw in Doha in very similar conditions in terms of temperature and humidity to what’s expected here in Tokyo,” he said last month in defending the decision. AGENCIES

Saturday, 2 November, 2019

NEWS

ArMy IS ‘IMPArtIAl’, SAyS ISPr GEN GHAFOOR SAYS OPPOSITION SHOULD TAKE UP CONCERNS WITH RELEVANT INSTITUTIONS RATHER THAN AIRING DIRTY LAUNDRY IN PUBLIC

Musharraf declared absconder in Benazir murder case An anti-terrorism court in Rawalpindi on Friday declared former military dictator Pervez Musharraf an absconder in Benazir Bhutto murder case and ordered authorities concerned to seize his properties and bank accounts. The ATC also released permanent warrants for the former president over his continuous failure to appear before the bench in the case. On Aug 27, the ATC had summoned 12 branch managers of different banks along with details of Musharraf’s bank accounts. On February 15 this year, the FIA had submitted details of Musharraf’s properties in Pakistan. In August 2017, the ATC convicted former additional inspector general Saud Aziz and senior superintendent of police Khurram Shehzad in the Benazir murder case and awarded both of them 17 years imprisonment. It had acquitted five suspects belonging to the banned Tehreek-eTaliban Pakistan — Rafaqat Hussain, Hasnain Gul, Aitzaz Shah, Sher Zaman, and Rashid Ahmed. Musharraf is also absconding in the high treason case and the murder case of Lal Masjid cleric Abdul Rashid Ghazi and his properties have been confiscated in these cases as well. NEWS DESK

Kashmiris’ situation is unsustainable, Merkel says

NEW DELHI: The conditions in which the people of Kashmir are living are unsustainable and must be improved, German Chancellor Angela Merkel told reporters accompanying her on a trip to New Delhi where she is holding talks with India’s prime minister. She said she would raise the matter with Narendra Modi later on Friday evening, adding that while she was aware of India’s position regarding the Indian occupied Kashmir (IOK). She wanted to hear Modi’s plans for restoring calm to the region. “The situation for the people there is currently not sustainable and must improve,” Merkel said. The province has been convulsed by protests against New Delhi’s decision to revoke the mainly Muslim area’s political autonomy. AGENCIES

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NEWS DESK

OURS after Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman, without naming, warned institutions not to meddle in political affairs in the wake of the Azadi March, Pakistan Army’s chief spokesperson Major General Asif Ghafoor said the military was an “apolitical” institution, warning the opposition leaders against levelling allegations.

Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) Director General Major General Ghafoor said that the Pakistan Army has always supported the incumbents and that the army has nothing to do with politics.

He said that the issues faced by the country must be solved in a democratic framework. In a state-

ment, the military spokesperson asked the JUI-F chief to name the institutions he was referring to and said that the opposition leaders needed to take up their reservations to the relevant institutions.

He added that the army was an “impartial” institution. Referring to the deployment of the troops during the general elections last year, he said that the military fulfilled its “constitutional” responsibility.

He said that the Pakistan Army and the nation made immense “sacrifices” for peace and stability in the country and that the opposition should not make such statements that go against the “national interest”.

He also said that the military was busy at the eastern [India] and western [Afghanistan] borders of the country. “There is tension on the eastern border, while anti-terrorism oper-

ation Raddul Fasaad is also going on in the tribal areas,” he said, adding that the military was “befittingly” responding to the Indian aggression.

Addressing a massive gathering at the H-9 venue in the federal capital where the Azadi March culminated on Thursday, Maulana Fazl said that it will come down to the voters to decide the next move for the Azadi March. He said that the

vote of the public was “stolen” hence it will be for the people to decide the strategy for the protest.

“This mammoth crowd has the power to arrest the prime minister from his residence,” Fazl warned.

“We will not be able to exercise any patience after that point,” he said, calling upon the country’s “institutions” to remain impartial to avoid “conflict”.

Pakistani military, govt officials likely targeted in global WhatsApp hack CALIFORNIA AGENCIES

Senior government officials in multiple US-allied countries, including Pakistan, were targeted earlier this year with hacking software that used Facebook Inc’s WhatsApp to take over users’ phones, according to people familiar with the messaging company’s investigation.

Sources familiar with WhatsApp’s internal investigation into the breach said a “significant” portion of the known victims are high-profile government and military officials spread across at least 20 countries on five continents. Many of the nations are US allies, they said. The hacking of a wider group of top government officials’ smartphones than previously reported suggests the WhatsApp cyber intrusion could have broad political and diplomatic consequences.

Some victims are in the United States, United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Mexico, Pakistan and India, said people familiar with the investigation. Reuters, however, could not verify whether the government officials were from those countries or elsewhere. Some Indian nationals have gone public with allegations they were among the targets over the past couple of days; they include journalists, academics, lawyers and defenders of India’s Dalit community. WhatsApp filed a lawsuit on Tuesday against Israeli hacking tool developer NSO Group. The Facebook-owned software giant alleges that NSO Group built and sold a hacking platform that exploited a flaw in WhatsApp-owned servers to help clients hack into the cellphones of at least 1,400 users between April 29, 2019, and May 10, 2019.

The total number of WhatsApp users hacked could be even higher. A London-based human rights lawyer, who was among the tar-

gets, sent Reuters photographs showing attempts to break into his phone dating back to April 1. While it is not clear who used the software to hack officials’ phones, NSO has said it sells its spyware exclusively to government customers. NSO said in a statement that it was “not able to disclose who is or is not a client or discuss specific uses of its technology.”

Previously it has denied any wrongdoing, saying its products are only meant to help governments catch terrorists and criminals.

Cybersecurity researchers have cast doubt on those claims over the years, saying NSO products were used against a wide range of targets, including protesters in countries under authoritarian rule. Citizen Lab, an independent watchdog group that worked with WhatsApp to identify the hacking targets, said on Tuesday at least 100 of the victims were civil society figures such as journalists and dissidents, not criminals.

John Scott-Railton, a senior researcher at Citizen Lab, said it was not surprising that foreign officials would be targeted as well.

“It is an open secret that many technologies branded for law enforcement investigations are used for state-on-state and political espionage,” Scott-Railton said. Prior to notifying victims, WhatsApp checked the target list against existing law enforcement requests for information relating to criminal investigations, such as terrorism or child exploitation cases. But the company found no overlap, said a person familiar with the matter. Governments can submit such requests for information to WhatsApp through an online portal the company maintains. WhatsApp has said it sent warning notifications to affected users earlier this week. The company has declined to comment on the identities of NSO Group’s clients, who ultimately chose the targets.

India denies passage of Sikh religious procession into Pakistan LAHORE: Indian authorities at the Attari border crossing tried to stop the passage of golden ‘Palki’ Sahib to Pakistan after it denied permission to the bus carrying the palanquin to cross over to Pakistan.

The Nagar Kirtan (religious procession reciting holy hymns) was returning to Nankana Sahib, Pakistan, along with a gold plated ‘Palki’ Sahib to be installed at the Gurdwara Darbar Sahib, Kartarpur, in connection with the 550th birth anniversary celebrations of Baba Guru Nanak Dev. The ‘Palki’ Sahib, a gift from Shiromani Akali Dal Delhi, was being transported to Pakistan on a specially designed bus to house the ‘Palki’ Sahib and the Guru Granth Sahib. Pawan Singh Arora, PRO to the Punjab governor, told APP that Indian authorities refused to allow the bus cross over to Pakistan on its way to Nankana Sahib and Kartarpur. Upon refusal by Indian authorities, Sikh Yatrees carried the golden ‘Palki’ Sahib on their shoulders along with the Guru Granth Sahib and entered Pakistan via Wagha border crossing. Governor Chaudhry Muhammad Sarwar, alongside officials of the Evacuee Trust Property Board, Rangers, and Pakistani Sikh leadership welcomed the ‘Nagar Kirtan’ and ‘Palki’ Sahib and the Sikh Yatrees on the Pakistani side of the border. Pawan Singh Arora said the Sikh leadership and Yatrees condemned the Indian decision to deny permission to the holy bus to enter Pakistan, adding that the interior of the bus had been decorated as a Gurdwara. APP

IS names Baghdadi’s successor, threatens US

SYRIA AGENCIES

The Islamic State jihadist group confirmed the death of its leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi in a statement Thursday and named his replacement as Abu Ibrahim al-Hashimi al-Quraishi.

“We mourn you… commander of the faithful,” said Abu Hamza

al-Quraishi — presented as the jihadist group’s new spokesman — in an audio statement.

Baghdadi, who led IS since 2014 and was the world’s most wanted man, was killed in a US special forces raid in Syria’s northwestern province of Idlib on Sunday.

The group also confirmed the killing in another raid the following day of the group’s previous

spokesman Abu Hassan al-Muhajir.

The statement said the jihadist group’s legislative and consultative body convened after the 48-yearold Iraqi-born jihadist chief’s death.

“The Islamic State shura council convened immediately after confirming the martyrdom of Sheikh Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, and the elders of the holy warriors agreed” on a replacement, said the seven-minute message. Little is known about Hashimi, whose name was seldom mentioned as a possible successor the multiple times that Baghdadi was reported killed in recent years.

“We don’t know much about him except that he is the leading judge of IS and he heads the Sharia (Islamic law) committee,” said Hisham al-Hashemi, an Iraqi expert on IS. The IS spokesman also issued a stark warning to the US, whose President Donald Trump announced

Baghdadi’s death in a televised address from the White House.

‘CRAZY OLD MAN’: “He died after running into a dead-end tunnel, whimpering and crying and screaming all the way,” Trump said on Sunday, adding that Baghdadi “died like a dog”.

In the new audio message, the new IS spokesman described Trump as “a crazy old man” and warned the US that the group’s supporters would avenge Baghdadi’s death. “Do not rejoice America,” he warned, “the new chosen one will make you forget the horror you have beholden… and make the achievements of the Baghdadi days taste sweet”. The spokesman also referred to an earlier call by Baghdadi for the thousands of IS fighters held in Syrian and Iraqi prisons to be freed.

Syrian Kurdish forces run pris-

ons in northeastern Syria where they say around 12,000 IS suspects are held. Most of those prisoners are Iraqi and Syrian but the detainees also include more than 2,000 foreigners who hail from more than 50 different countries.

With aerial and logistical assistance from an international coalition led by the US, Iraqi and Syrian forces have wrested back all the territory lost to IS in 2014.

Fighters from the newlyformed IS group that year swept through much of the Sunni heartland in Iraq and Syria to declare a “caliphate” that further expanded to reach roughly the size of Great Britain. Years of battles led to the elimination in 2019 of IS’ self-declared territorial “caliphate”, ending an unprecedented experiment in jihadist statehood which saw a well-organised administration

mint its own currency, produce school textbooks and levy taxes.

But while that entity collapsed in March in the remote eastern Syrian village of Baghouz, the organisation went underground and reverted to well-honed guerrilla tactics that continue to do damage.

A recent Turkish invasion targeting the Kurdish forces that had fought against IS in Baghouz has wrought havoc in northeastern Syria, whose geopolitical map is being redrawn. Observers have warned that the power vacuum and confusion may create an opportunity for IS to rebuild and make fresh territorial gains. IS has a very horizontal structure, analysts say, and the impact of a decapitation strike may be more symbolic than operational, leaving the group’s global jihadist brand and efficiency as an insurgency largely intact.

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

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