E-Paper PDF 17th January 2020 (LHR)

CMYK

Friday, 17 January, 2020 I 20 Jamadi-ul-Awwal, 1441 I Rs 20.00 I Vol X No 198 I 16 Pages I Lahore Edition

UNSC moot oN KaShmir refleCtS SerioUSNeSS of SitUatioN: Pm imraN

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chamber, confirming that the council had reviewed the situation in occupied Kashmir.

“The issue of India and Pakistan is always on the agenda of the Security Council,” said the Chinese ambassador while pointing out that “recently, we have also seen some tensions.” Earlier, Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi said that the United Nation’s recognition of the alarming situation in occupied Kashmir on Wednesday reaffirmed it is an internationally recognised dispute.

staff report

day after the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) held a meeting to review the situation in the Indian occupied Kashmir, Prime Minister Imran Khan on Thursday reiterated that Pakistan will continue to “provide moral, political and diplomatic support to the Kashmiri people until they secure their inalienable right to self-determination”.

In a tweet, the premier said: “Pakistan welcomes UN Security Council discussing the situation in Jammu & Kashmir again. An internationally recognized dispute, J&K remains on the Security Council’s agenda & its consideration by the Council reflects a recognition of the seriousness of the prevailing situation.”

In a subsequent tweet, the prime minister said

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that the Jammu and Kashmir dispute must be resolved in accordance with the relevant UNSC resolutions and the will of the Kashmiri people.

India asks China not to raise Kashmir issue at UN g

QureShI SayS uN’S reCogNItIoN oF aLarMINg SItuatIoN IN IoK reaFFIrMS It IS aN INterNatIoNaLLy reCogNISeD DISPute

New DeLhI SayS KaShMIr IS a BILateraL Matter BetweeN PaKIStaN aND INDIa STORY ON BACK PAGE

PML-Q, BNP fall in line, MQM-P wants more from govt STORY ON PAGE 02

Gen Iftikhar to head ISPR after Ghafoor's removal Musharraf challenges conviction in treason case in SC STORIES ON PAGES 03 & BACK

Zulfi gets clean chit, NAB to file fresh references against Nawaz, Zardari, Gilani STORY ON PAGE 03 more inside

Qureshi says Afghan Taliban showing 'willingness' to reduce violence STORY ON BACK PAGE

Foreign Direct Investment surges 68pc in six months STORY ON PAGE 11

Climate Change Ministry, MoST won’t have any say in EV policy now STORY ON PAGE 05

Although the UNSC meeting on Wednesday took place behind closed doors, Chinese Ambassador Zhang Jun had spoken to journalists outside the

high-level civilmilitary meeting discusses Kashmir situation STORY ON PAGE 03

Friday, 17 January, 2020

02 NEWS

PML-Q, BNP faLL iN LiNe; MQM-P waNts More froM govt iSLAmABAd

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STAFF REPORT

HE Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) has managed to persuade the Pakistan Muslim LeagueQuaid (PML-Q) and Balochistan National Party-Mengal (BNP-M) to stay part of the government,while hoping to convince the Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P) in the next couple of days.

Sources close to the negotiation process told Pakistan Today that the meetings with the PML-Q and BNP-M have paid off and that these parties had committed to continue supporting the ruling party in return for the acceptance of their demands.

About the tough statements made by

PML-Q leaders against the ruling party, the sources said that the PTI delegation had taken up the issue with the PML-Q senior leadership. “PML-Q has assured us that it would ask its leaders to refrain from making such statements in public,” sources said. Meanwhile, Prime Minister Imran Khan has also directed Punjab Chief Minister Usman Buzdar to improve his relations with the allied parties in the province amid increasing trust deficit.

Buzdar called on PM Imran Khan at his office in Islamabad and briefed him about his negotiations with the allied parties, especially the PML-Q. GOVT TAKES BNP, GDA INTO CONFIDENCE: The government’s dialogue committee, comprising Jahangir Tareen, Pervez Khattak, Farogh Naseem

PM directs to fill 129,300 vacant posts ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Imran Khan on Thursday directed authorities to immediately fill the vacant posts in multiple federal ministries and their subordinate divisions. The data of 129,300 vacancies in the federal ministries and divisions was compiled

by Prime Minister Office’s Delivery Unit. Prime Minister Imran was briefed by the concerned officials. Later on, he issued directives for the 129,301 vacant positions lying in different government departments. According to the report, there is a shortage of grade 16 to 22 officers in 13,421 vacant posts, while 51,000 posts are to be filled by employees in grade-1 to 7. Moro ever, 41,000 posts of grade 8 to 15 are also vacant and 96 posts of 21 to 22 grade also lying vacant. The report further said as many as 4,000 jobs across the country would be filed through the Federal Public Services Commission (FPSC). PM Imran Khan has declared 2020 as the year of a stable economy besides holding a detailed discussion for making improvements in the economic roadmap of the country. STAFF REPORT

and Azam Swati, met a BNP-M delegation and assured the party that its demands would be met.

The dialogue committee assured maximum coordination by the PTI-led government to BNP-M, including the resolution of issues regarding the missing persons and miseries of Balochistan people.

Earlier in the day, a government team led by Jahangir Tareen held a meeting with a Grand Democratic Alliance (GDA) delegation to discuss reservations and demands of its coalition partner in Sindh.

GDA leader Fehmida Mirza expressed grievances and complained that the federal government was not providing funds for the development in its constituencies, leaving the allies in a tough spot. The alliance was not being taken into confidence over

decisions related to Sindh, the political base of GDA, she complained. The government team assured that the GDA grievances would be addressed and that the party would be a part of future decisions.

“All allies are respectable to the government and their reservations will be addressed,” Jahangir Tareen said in the meeting. He also assured that the development funds to the coalition partners would be issued soon.

MQM-P NOT SO HAPPY: Meanwhile, the MQM-P continued to ramp up pressure on the government, as the resignation letter written to Prime Minister Imran Khan by its chief, Khalid Maqbool Siddiqui, was mysteriously leaked to the media and no one from the MQM-P wanted to talk about it.

Sources linked this development to the MQM-PTI rift and said issues between the federal government and MQM-P could not be resolved and the Karachi-based party was in no mood to mend fences with the ruling party, at least for now.

“In view of my decision not to continue as Member of the Federal Cabinet, I hereby tender my resignation as Federal Minister for Information Technology and Telecommunication w.e.f 12th January 2020. It is requested that my resignation may be accepted accordingly,” the resignation letter stated. On Jan 12, Khalid Maqbool Siddiqui had announced that he was resigning as the federal minister for information technology citing the government’s non-serious attitude towards resolving the issues facing Karachi.

‘Boot stunt’: Vawda to stay off-air for two week, Kashif Abbasi let off MEDIA BODY QUESTIONS ‘UNUSUAL HASTE’ REGARDING BAN ON ANCHORPERSON LAHORE STAFF REPORT

Anchorperson Kashif Abbasi was allowed to resume to his talkshow, Off the Record, after a brief ban by the Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (PEMRA) as a result of an unconditional apology by the host channel and the anchorperson for unintentionally hurting the repute of state institutions.

The show was banned for 60 days after Federal Minister Faisal Vawda brought an army boot in the show to mock the opposition parties and subsequently attracted a two-week TV ban on the orders of the prime minister.

The prime minister has also restricted the federal minister from appearing on any talk show for the next two weeks, said PM’s Special Assistant Firdous Ashiq Awan in a tweet.

“Prime Minister Imran Khan has demanded an explanation from federal minister Faisal Vawda for his behaviour in a private channel’s talk show,” Awan added. “The prime minister has restricted Faisal Vawda from appearing on any talk show for the next two weeks.”

On Tuesday night, Vawda appeared on Abbasi’s show alongside PPP Central Punjab President Qamar Zaman Kaira and PML-N Senator Javed Abbasi, during which he used a boot to ridicule the opposition parties for voting in favour of the recently amended Army Act. The next day, as criticism poured in from opposition leaders as well as people on social media, Vawda said that Prime Minister Imran Khan was

“not happy” over his action. Appearing in another talk show in the evening, he took the responsibility of the incident but made it clear to anchor that he would not apologise for bringing the boot to a live TV show. After the announcement of two-month ban on Abbasi, many questioned the harsh punishment meted out to the anchorperson. They said the decision to bring the boot to the show was taken

by Vawda, but he got away with it without any serious repercussions and that anchorperson was being treated as a scapegoat.

The minister should have been banned from TV instead of the journalist because the latter was not responsible for the former’s action, an editor who works in a national daily commented.

In a statement, the Association of Electronic Media Editors (AEMEND) and News Directors strongly condemned the decision and questioned as to why the prohibition order was issued late at night. “This unusual haste, where neither the channel nor the anchor was given a chance to explain their position, shows that PEMRA acted with malafide intent,” it stated.

It also questioned why PEMRA, instead of asking the government to take action against the sitting minister who performed a “questionable act”, instead banned the show and anchor even though the latter had never endorsed the action.

“AEMEND believes the decision is against the fundamental right to a fair trial under Article 10A of the constitution. It is a direct attack on the freedom of expression guaranteed by the Constitution,” read the statement.

PEMRA BANS ABBASI: According to the media regulatory body, during the programme under discussion, one of the panelists (Vawda) “performed [a] very unethical act” while starting his arguments on the subject being discussed.

“Subsequently, arguments made by Mr Vawda were not only extremely frivolous and derogatory but also an attempt to debase a state institution,”

the notification dated Jan 15 read.

“Whereas, role of programme host Mr Kashif Abbasi was quite unprofessional who actually did not intervene or stopped (sic) that unethical act performed by one of the panellists during a live show rather took the entire incident casually and kept smiling/cherishing such occurrence,” it said, adding the media body was taking this action under Section 27(A) of the Pemra Ordinance 2002 as amended by Pemra (amendment) act 2007.

Section 27(A) of the ordinance states: “Broadcasting or re-broadcasting or distributing any programme or advertisement if it is of the opinion that such particular programme or advertisement is against the ideology of Pakistan or is likely to create hatred among the people or is prejudicial to the maintenance of law and order or is likely to disturb public peace and tranquillity or endangers national security or is pornographic, obscene or vulgar or is offensive to the commonly accepted standards of decency.”

Subsequently, the media regulatory body said that Abbasi’s appearance is also banned for the 60day period. According to PEMRA, Abbasi cannot conduct his show, appear on his channel or any other television channel as a guest/analyst or expert. PEMRA said the content aired during the live programme “appears to be a willful attempt to debase and demean a state institution by dragging it unnecessarily in a debate”.

“The act of the host is also in violation of clauses 3(l)(e,j), 4(7)(b), 4(10), 5, 13 and 17 of Electronic Media (Programmes and Advertisements) Code of Conduct, 2015, read with Section 27(a) of Pemra Ordinance 2002 as amended by Pemra (Amendment) Act 2007,” the notification stated. As per the regulatory body, in case of non-compliance by the television channel, action can be taken under PEMRA laws “which may result in suspension/revocation of satellite TV channel conferred to M/s ARY Communication Pvt. Ltd. [ARY News]”.

UNSC moot on Kashmir reflects seriousness of situation: PM COntinuEd fROm pAgE 01 The “final disposition [of the dispute] must be done in accordance with relevant security council resolutions and the popular aspirations of the Kashmiri people,” he said.

Qureshi’s remarks came during a media talk in New York following yesterday’s meeting of the UN Security Council (UNSC) where the situation in occupied Kashmir was reviewed, the foreign office said in a statement issued Thursday morning.

The foreign minister is currently in the United States on the third leg of his mission to defuse tensions in the Middle East, having already visited Tehran and Riyadh as part of Pakistan’s diplomatic efforts to mediate between Iran and the US. Commenting on the meeting, Qureshi said he had previously addressed several letters to the security council, informing them of the “serious threat to international peace and security posed by India’s unilateral measures of Aug 5 in occupied Kashmir, its continuing violations of human rights [in the valley], and its belligerent posture and actions against Pakistan”.

“In view of the seriousness of the situation and the risk of further escalation, our Permanent Representative was instructed to request the [UNSC] to give immediate consideration to the situation in occupied

Kashmir. China echoed our request,” the statement said.

Representatives from the UN and the United Nations Military Observer Group in India and Pakistan (UNMOGIP) briefed the council during the meeting, it added.

“The UN in its briefing has confirmed [that] India’s Aug 5 measures resulted in the rise of tensions and that the local situation remains tense.

Political leaders remain detained, with internet and communications blockages in place. There is also deployment across the LoC [Line of Control] — UNMOGIP is also facing restrictions on the Indian side.

“The UN also reported on the human rights situation in occupied Kashmir and mentioned the excessive use of force, tear gas, rubber bullets and killings. The UN secretary general is monitoring the situation. A solution should be found in accordance with the UN Charter, UNSC resolutions and bilateral agreements.

“Several countries expressed serious concern regarding the situation in occupied Kashmir, including the continued curfew and blackout imposed on the Kashmiri people and the potential threat of a conflict,” the statement added.

“Pakistan is gratified that the UNSC has once again decided to consider the situation in occupied Kashmir.

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“Such continuing international scrutiny will exert pressure on [the] Modi government to reverse its unilateral measures and stop its human rights and ceasefire violations and threats against Pakistan.”

The foreign minister also had a message for the people of Kashmir.

“Pakistan will continue to serve as the voice of the oppressed Kashmiris in the world. We continue to advance their inalienable right to self-determination as provided by several Security Council resolutions,” he said.

QURESHI CALLS ON UN CHIEF: During the first day of his visit to the US, Qureshi also met with UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres. “I thanked the SecretaryGeneral for his continuing efforts to address the human rights situation in occupied Kashmir and the threat to peace in South Asia,” the foreign minister said in his statement.

“I briefed the secretary general on Pakistan’s ongoing efforts to defuse […] tensions between Iran, Saudi Arabia and the US following recent events.

“Pakistan has affirmed that it will not participate in any conflict in the region. It will be a partner for peace. To defuse tensions and promote peace, I visited Tehran and Riyadh earlier this week and will visit Washington tomorrow,” his statement read.

Qureshi also met the president of

the security council, Dang Dinh Quy, and informed him president about the impact of India’s five-month-long clampdown in the occupied valley.

He also stressed that India’s “persistent warmongering and aggressive rhetoric” posed a threat to regional peace and security, the report said, adding that Qureshi urged the UNSC to act decisively to prevent a war between the two countries.

The foreign minister also held talks with UN General Assembly President Tijjani Muhammad-Bande, the report said.

INDIA SAYS UNSC MOOT ‘REPRIMANDS PAKISTAN’: On the other hand, India’s Permanent Representative to the UN, Syed Akbaruddin, took away a different outcome from the meeting.

Taking to Twitter, Akbaruddin stated: “Those that launched a ‘False Flag’ effort got a stinging response from our many friends […].”

Speaking to NDTV, he said, “Pakistan’s practice of using false pretences to distract from addressing the malaise that afflicts it, has run its course today”.

“We are happy that neither alarmist scenario painted by the representatives of Pakistan nor any of the baseless allegations made repeatedly by representatives of Pakistan in the UN fora were found to be credible today,” the report quoted Akbaruddin as saying.

Friday, 17 January, 2020

geN iftikhar to head isPr after ghafoor’s reMovaL OUTGOING CHIEF MILITARY SPOKESMAN TO SERVE AS OKARA GOC RAWALpindi STAFF REPORT

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AJOR General Asif Ghafoor was on Thursday removed from the position of Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) director-general (DG) and replaced by Maj Gen Babar Iftikhar.

Maj Gen Ghafoor’s services were transferred to the 40th Infantry Division (Okara), where he will serve as the general officer commanding (GOC). According to sources, Gen Ghafoor will relinquish charge when his successor will take oath in Febru-

ary. Till then, Gen Ghafoor will remain on his post of the army spokesperson.

“Thanks to everyone I have remained associated with during the tenure,” Maj Gen Ghafoor wrote on Twitter from the @OfficialDGISPR handle as news of his transfer broke. “My very special thanks to Media all across. Can’t thank enough fellow Pakistanis for their love and support [sic],” he said in his farewell message, while also wishing his successor the best.

Maj Gen Ghafoor had headed the military’s media wing since December 2016. The announcement of his departure comes after Chief of Army Staff (COAS) Gen Qamar Javed called on Prime Minister Imran Khan.

WHO IS MAJ GEN BABAR? Maj Gen Iftikhar was commissioned in 6 Lancers in March 1990. He is a graduate of the Command and Staff College Quetta, National Defence

University (NDU) Islamabad and Royal Command and Staff College Jordan. The General Officer carries with him a rich command, staff and instructional experience.

He has served as Brigade Major in an Armoured Brigade, Brigadier Staff in an Infantry Division in North Waziristan and Chief of Staff in Corps Headquarters. He has commanded an Armoured Brigade and infantry Brigade in North Waziristan (Operation Zarb-e-Azb). He also served on the faculty of Pakistan Military Academy (PMA) and NDU Islamabad. He is married with four sons. An avid reader and golfer, Maj Gen Iftikhar was presently commanding an Armoured Division before being appointed as the military spokesperson.

PROFILE OF GEN GHAFOOR: Maj Gen Asif Ghafoor was appointed as the DG ISPR in December 2016.

He had replaced Lt Gen Asim Bajwa.

Zulfi gets clean chit, NAB to file fresh references against Nawaz, Zardari, Gilani iSLAmABAd APP

The Executive Board Meeting (EBM) of the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) on Thursday authorised filing fresh corruption references against former prime ministers Nawaz Sharif and Yousaf Raza Gilani and former president Asif Ali Zardari for allegedly causing losses worth billions of rupees to the national exchequer, while closing the inquiry against prime minister’s close friend and special assistant on overseas Pakistanis, Zulfi Bukhari due to lack of evidence.

The meeting, chaired by NAB Chairman Justice (r) Javed Iqbal, authorised filing three corruption references against Gilani, Sharif, Zardari, Khawaja Anwer Majeed and Khawaja Abdul

Ghani Majeed in the fake bank accounts case.

The suspects have been accused of receiving gifts and vehicles from the government in violation of rules and regulations which inflicted losses to the national exchequer, said a press release issued by the accountability watchdog on Thursday. The meeting also approved filing a corruption reference against former ambassador Kamran Shafi and former high commissioner in United Kingdom Wajid Shams-ul-Hassan for causing losses of $27,000 and GBP 28,000 to the national exchequer, respectively. Besides, the meeting accorded approval for filing a corruption reference against Abdullah Alvi, the honorary secretary of the State Bank of Pakistan Staff Cooperative Housing Society, and others for cheating people and depriving them of Rs7.8 million.

According to the ISPR website, Maj Gen Ghafoor was commissioned on Septemeber 9, 1988, in 87 Medium Regiment. He is a graduate of Command & Staff College Quetta, Command & Staff College Bandung (Indonesia) and NDU Islamabad. He holds a master’s degree in strategic studies. The general has held various staff, instructional and command assignments including Brigade Major Infantry Brigade, Assistant Military Secretary MS Branch, GHQ, Directing Staff Command & Staff College Quetta and Director Military Operations in Military Operations Directorate, GHQ. He has commanded his parent unit in Operation Al-Mizan, Artillery Brigade at the Line of Control, Infantry Brigade on the eastern border and a Division at Swat, Malakand. Maj Gen Ghafoor is a recipient of the COAS Commendation Card for operations in Bajaur in 2008.

EX-PMS AND PRESIDENT ACCUSED OF RECEIVING GIFTS AND GOVT VEHICLES IN VIOLATION OF RULES The meeting also authorised conducting four investigations against various personalities including officials of Nishat Chaunian Limited, Nepra and Central Power Purchasing Agency, officers of the Sindh Health Department, programme manager of Hepatitis Prevention and Control Programme, Government of Sindh and others, Balochistan Health Minister Rehmat Baloch and former MNA from district Jacobabad Ejaz Hussain Jakhrani. The accountability watchdog has filed 630 corruption references in various accountability courts in the last 28 months, while a total of 1,275 corruption references valuing Rs943 billion are currently in various accountability courts.

Sindh govt writes to Centre for IGP Imam’s removal KARACHi STAFF REPORT

The Sindh government on Thursday formally asked the Establishment Division to repatriate Sindh Inspector General of Police (IGP) Dr Kaleem Imam.

The letter written by Sindh Secretary of Services Navid Ahmed Shaikh cites “compelling reasons” for the IGP’s transfer.

It stated that a review of the crime situation in Sindh has shown an “increase in the incidence of crimes such as kidnapping for ransom, extortion, mobile snatching and vehicles snatching during the tenure of the current IGP”.

The letter further noted that the law and order situation in the province has “deteriorated during the past one year”. The letter finds “loose administration of police under the current IGP Sindh” to be the cause of this increase in crime.

According to the letter, the IGP has “not only willfully defied the lawful directions of the provincial government but also violated the Sindh Government Rules of Business 1986” and other rules and regulations by “communicating directly with the foreign missions, indulging in unnecessary media

talks against the provincial government, placing services of provincial police personnel directly under the FIA — without the approval of competent authority.”

Other charges against the IGP include, “Not complying with the decisions of Sindh Public Safety Commission asking for specific reports and leaking official correspondence to the media apparently to embarrass the provincial government.”

The letter further stated that the cabinet believes that the Sindh IGP was provided ample opportunity to improve his performance.

The letter demanded that IGP Imam be removed from his post and an additional IG oversee matters until a new inspector general of police can be chosen through the mutual understanding of the provincial and federal governments.

On Wednesday, Sindh Minister for Information Saeed Ghani told reporters that the provincial cabinet had decided to move the Establishment Division for Imam’s removal.

Ghani had further said that the cabinet also requested the chief minister to initiate disciplinary action against Imam by sending a detailed statement, with proof of his misconduct, to the Establishment Division.

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high-level civil-military meeting discusses kashmir situation ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Imran Khan on Thursday chaired a high-level meeting to review the situation in Indian-occupied Kashmir. According to a press release from the Prime Minister’s office, the meeting was attended by Chief of Army Staff General Qamar Javed Bajwa, Special Assistant to the Prime Minister Dr Moeed Yousaf, Director General Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) Lt Gen Faiz Hameed, Foreign Secretary Sohail Mehmood and other senior military and civilian officials. During the meeting, the prime minister “reaffirmed Pakistan’s unshakeable political, diplomatic and moral support and solidarity with the Kashmiri people until the realisation of their inalienable right to self-determination.” The participants of the meeting condemned India’s lock-down in Kashmir for over 165 days. The meeting also discussed the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government’s ‘Hindutva’ mindset, with its antiMuslim and anti-Kashmiri obsession, which it said was responsible for creating a perilous situation for regional peace and stability. The meeting also welcomed the United Nation Security Council’s discussion on Kashmir and “noted that it reflected the international community’s recognition of the seriousness of the situation,” the press release said. It was also decided to observe the Kashmir Solidarity Day on February 5 in a befitting manner. On August 5, 2019, India, amid a harsh security and communication lockdown, revoked the special status of occupied Jammu and Kashmir under Article 370 of the Indian constitution. On October 31, Indian authorities formally revoked the restive area’s constitutional autonomy and split it into two federal territories: one Jammu and Kashmir, and the other the Buddhist-dominated high altitude region of Ladakh. STAFF REPORT

senator sarfaraz Bugti arrested in kidnapping case QUETTA: The police on Thursday arrested Senator Sarfaraz Bugti after the court turned down his bail plea in a kidnapping case. The senator was on interim bail in the case of alleged kidnapping of a 10-year-old girl. The sessions court rejected Bugti’s bail and ordered police to arrest him. A woman has alleged Sarfaraz Bugti’s hand behind the kidnapping of her 10-year-old granddaughter.

The case was registered at Bijli Road police station. The woman said that her daughter Sehrish was killed in 2013, after which a court had given her custody of the minor girl.

The woman alleged that Tawakkal Ali, who was also named in the FIR, forcefully dragged the girl into the car and took her to Senator Bugti’s house. STAFF REPORT

04 LAHORE LAHORE STAFF REPORT

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UNJAB Chief Minister Sardar Usman Buzdar has directed to initiate indiscriminate action against flour mills involved in the sale of allocated wheat in the open market and added that no flour mill can be allowed to do so. Action will be initiated against such flour mills, he added.

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CM direCts aCtion aGainst sale of alloCated wheat in open Market He issued these directives on Thursday while presiding over a meeting at his office to review prices as well as demand

and supply of flour and wheat along with ongoing sugarcane crushing and payments to farmers in the province.

Buzdar also directed to further streamline the monitoring of exit points as public interest is supreme. I shall not tolerate any hurdle in the provision of flour at the suitable rate and people should not face any difficulty with regard to the provision of flour in their areas, he said.

Action will be initiated in case of any complaint and the wheat procured by the flour mills from the food department must be made available in the market in the shape of flour. Hundred percent grinding of procured wheat should be ensured and this should also be regularly monitored along with submission of a report about it, the chief minister directed.

He reiterated that there should be no shortage of flour anywhere in the province and directed the food department that flour mills should be bound to establish fair-

price shops where flour should be available at ex-mill rate.

Buzdar said that the provincial minister for food should take a lead for the solution of different issues and indiscriminate action should also be taken against the corrupt elements of the food department. Secretary food told that food department is daily releasing four thousand metric ton wheat to flour mills and ample wheat reserves are available in the province. The wheat quota of flour mills, failing to abide by the rules and regulations, has been suspended and there is no dearth of wheat or flour in the province, he added. Food Minister attended the meeting from Bahawalpur through video link. Director Food and others also attended the meeting.

The meeting also reviewed the sugarcane crushing season and payments to the farmers. The chief minister was told that sugar mills are currently engaged in crushing. Ten million metric ton crushing has been done and 10.51 lac ton sugar reserves are available in the province. Last year, 99 percent payments have been made to the sugarcane farmers and

around 80 percent payments have also been made this year.

Buzdar assured that interests of sugarcane farmers will be safeguarded by the government adding that, in compliance with the clear-cut instructions of the Punjab government, some non-functional sugar mills have also started crushing. I am a custodian of the farmers and no compromise will be made on their interests, he assured. He further said that sugar mills will never be allowed the deduction of sugarcane weight and farmers will be given a full reward of their hard work.

The PTI government has protected farmers’ rights by increasing the support prices of wheat and sugarcane crops, he said and regretted that the past government exploited the farmers by not increasing the support-prices of these two crops. The incumbent government is farmer-friendly because Punjab would only be prosperous if its farmers are rich and contented. The Punjab government is striving to financially strengthen the farmers along with the promotion of the agriculture sector on modern lines, concluded the chief minister.

Major development in corruption probe against Shehbaz Sharif’s ‘frontman’ LAHORE STAFF REPORT

The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) has made major development in corruption probe against Nisar Ahmed, an alleged frontman of Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz (PML-N) President Shehbaz Sharif on Thursday.

The anti-corruption watchdog investigators have traced transactions worth over Rs226.5 million to Nisar Ahmed from a foreign country within the period of one year which was later transferred to Salman Shehbaz, NAB sources said.

The transactions’ records revealed that Rs226.625m had been transferred to the two bank accounts of Shehbaz Sharif’s frontman, Nisar Ahmed, in 2016

from a foreign country in shape of US dollars and Telegraphic Transfers (TTs).

It was also revealed that the amount of $769,511 had been transferred to Nisar Ahmed’s bank accounts only in a month, whereas, the money worth more than Rs20.8m was separated transferred on September 30 and October 13 in the same year. The documents stated that Ahmed had received more than R s 3 0 . 1 2 m through TTs. NAB sources said that the accused person has not satisfied the joint investigation team regarding the transferred of money. He is said

Court adjourns hearing in illegal recruitment case against Pervez Ashraf LAHORE: An accountability court on Thursday granted time to the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) to submit reply over acquittal petition of former prime minister Raja Pervez Ashraf in illegal recruitment case. The accountability court was hearing a case of illegal recruitment in Gujranwala Electric Power Company (GEPCO) against Raja Pervez Ashraf. In the petition Ashraf’s Lawyer argued that the NAB has already denied irregularities in recruitment. He also contended that the court have no jurisdiction to hear the case after recent amendment in the NAB Ordinance. The investigation officer of the bureau pleaded to court for more time to submit reply of the NAB over the plea. The court granted the request and adjourned further hearing of the case till January 24. Raja Pervez Ashraf and seven other defendants facing charges of illegal recruitment in GEPCO and indicted in the case. STAFF REPORT

LHC orders action against factories involved in burning tyres LAHORE: The Lahore High Court (LHC) on Thursday ordered action against factories involved in burning tyres.

The court also sought a compliance report from all deputy commissioners in this regard. LHC Chief Justice Mamoon Rashid Sheikh passed the orders while hearing petitions for controlling environmental pollution and smog. At the start of proceedings, the petitioner's counsel Ahmad Rafay Alam questioned the steps taken by the environment protection department for monitoring and controlling of smog. To which, a provincial law officer submitted that a meeting of the environmental committee would be held soon wherein air quality standard would be fixed. He further submitted that 747 brick kilns were sealed across the province to overcome smog whereas low interest loans were being provided to brick kilns for transfer on zigzag technology. A Lahore Development Authority representative submitted that furnace oil was being prepared in factories by burning tyres and it was also a cause of pollution. He submitted hat at least 500 such factories were working in Punjab. APP

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to be the responsible person who took care of financial matters of undisclosed and fake companies including Good Nature Trading Company which was established to hide black money. The investigators have not been provided with the financial reports of the companies as well which enables the anti-corruption watchdog to get details of investments, sources added.

Friday, 17 January, 2020

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GHULAM ABBAS

ESPITE the fact that Ministry of Climate Change’s proposal for the first-ever Electric Vehicles (EV) policy was accepted by the federal cabinet, it emerged on Thursday that the policy will now be redrafted and implemented by the Ministry of Industries and Production (MoIP) through its attached department Engineering Development Board (EDB).

During the 30th meeting of the Auto Industry Development Committee (AIDC) on Thursday, Adviser to Prime Minister on Industries & Production, Commerce, Textile and Investment Abdul Razak Dawood announced that the MoIP would be the only authority to deal with the policy.

The meeting was attended by all major stakeholders, including Pakistan Automotive Manufacturers Association (PAMA), Pakistan Association of Auto Parts and accessories Manufacturers (PAAPAM), senior officials from MoIP, EDB, Federal Board of Revenue (FBR), Planning Commission of Pakistan, Ministry of Science and Technology (MoST), Ministry of Commerce and leading vehicle manufacturers.

The adviser announced that the pol-

Climate Change miniStry, moSt won’t have any Say in ev PoliCy now INDUSTRIES MINISTRY WILL REDRAFT AND IMPLEMENT ELECTRIC VEHICLES POLICY icy is now the domain of the MoIP as per the rules of business and EDB has been designated at the secretariat of the EV policy.

Officials at MoIP said that the adviser had authorised the preparation of the policy to the EDB and it has to submit the first draft within a month.

Sources informed this scribe that FBR has opposed the extraordinary concession proposed under the EV policy.

Sources also said that Dawood too expressed displeasure over the way the policy was approved by the cabinet because he was abroad when the meeting had taken place.

Sources said that representatives of PAMA suggested to the MoIP that con-

cession should be given on only those parts, which are needed for manufacturing electric vehicles. “There are only 8 to 10 parts/items that would be imported in order to make electric vehicles while the rest of parts and the body are locally manufactured and assembled,” sources quoted the representatives as saying.

Sources informed this scribe that the relaxed taxes and other facilities being proposed by the Ministry of Climate Change and MoST were not justified since they would hurt auto companies.

However, as per the officials at MoIP, the entire automotive sector expressed relief on the announcement by the adviser because it believes that the task is now handed over to a technical organisation

which is the most relevant body for the promotion of the automotive industry.

Moreover, various tariff and non-tariff proposals were discussed in the meeting. The participants were of the view that the adviser may grant 15-20 days for the submission of concrete proposals on the local manufacturing of electric vehicles.

The EDB chairman advised the participants from various segments of the automotive sector to expedite the submission of their proposals to EDB in view of the timeline given by the advisor.

According to sources, PAMA has submitted its report while other stakeholders would be sharing their proposals with the ministry soon.

Investment under the Auto Development Policy (ADP 2016-21), proposals by various companies to invest in electric vehicles under ADP, standardisation of equipment, promotion of localisation, exports of parts and components in the long

NAB to continue investigating Malam Jabba case ISLAMABAD STAFF REPORT

In line with the terms and conditions of the amended ordinance, the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) has decided to continue investigating the Malam Jabba scandal until the case reaches a logical conclusion.

The anti-graft watchdog reviewed the case in light of the National Accountability (Second Amendment) Ordinance, 2019, during a pre-executive board meeting which was held at the NAB headquarters on January 13. Along with four other inquiries, the anti-corruption body decided to continue investigating the Malam Jabba scandal because it was started before the promulgation of the amended ordinance on December 28, 2019.

The meeting reviewed the case and forwarded the matter to the executive board for taking a decision on the filing of references against Defence Minister Pervaiz Khattak, former additional chief secretary Khalid Pervaiz, Tourism Development Cor-

05

ANTI-GRAFT WATCHDOG’S EXECUTIVE BOARD TO DECIDE ON FILING REFERENCES AGAINST PERVEZ KHATTAK, OTHERS

poration Managing Director Mushtaq Khan and other government officials.

The anti-graft watchdog is currently investigating the former Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) government (2013-2018) for illegally leasing out 275 acres of land in Malam Jabba to

a private company in violation of KP Forest Ordinance, 2002, which prohibits the use of the protected forest for any other purpose.

NAB claimed that initially the government leased out 17 acres to a private company for 15 years for the

construction of a hotel and a chairlift project, however, it later leased out 275 acres for 33 years.

As the investigation surfaced, the provincial government claimed that the forest and tourism departments were involved in a dispute over the ownership of the land. It added that the land was gifted to the government in 1969 by the former ruler of the princely state of Swat for the promotion of tourism in the country.

The provincial government also claimed that it had sought parties experienced in tourism through an advertisement issued in March 2014 in order to award the lease for 275 acres of land (five acres for the construction of a hotel and 270 acres for a ski/chairlift site) for 33 years, which could be extended for another 20 years. However, according to sources, the private company which eventually was given the lease of the land was not eligible for the contract and the officials had misused their power to award the contract to their favourite company in violation of rules and regulations.

Sindh energy minister running crime ring, claims Shikarpur police chief IMTIAZ SHEIKH REJECTS ALLEGATIONS, SINDH GOVT SPOKESMAN SAYS MINISTER HAD INFORMED IG OF SSP’S ACTIONS KARACHI STAFF REPORT

An investigation report by Shikarpur Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Dr Muhammad Rizwan Ahmed Khan has accused Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) lawmaker and Sindh Energy Minister Imtiaz Ahmed Sheikh of patronising criminals and using them for political and financial gains.

The report comes in the backdrop of the Sindh government’s decision to replace the provincial police chief, IG Dr Kaleem Imam, citing “compelling reasons”.

Earlier, on December 6, the Sindh government had also tried to transfer SSP Dr Rizwan to the Establishment Division, saying his services were no longer required. Subsequently, the SSP had approached the Sindh High Court against the move, which suspended the notification.

Meanwhile, Dr Rizwan had also taken the matter to the newly-created Provincial Public Safety and Police Complaints Commission, saying he was “surprisingly surrendered from province of Sindh without any prior notice, complaint or inquiry”. At the time, the IG had written a letter to the Sindh chief secretary, complaining about not being informed of the decision in advance and raising concern that such moves “demoralised the police”.

Dr Rizwan is also a member of the joint investigation team as well as the investigating of-

ficer (IO) in the Naqeebullah Mehsud murder case, which is pending before an antiterrorism court, where he is representing the state.

The SSP’s report accuses Sheikh of using “his criminal wing against his political opponents and for creating his fear in society”, adding that “his men” also killed the son of a political opponent, Shah Nawaz Brohi.

According to the report, which is marked ‘secret’ and addressed to the deputy inspector general of the district, “Sheikh has unsatiable hunger of his control over police [and] constantly pressurises the SSP of the district for posting his loyal police personnel who then leak secret information to him.”

“Furthermore, Imtiaz Sheikh interferes in postings, transfers of police personnel on key posts, such as SHOs, and continuously exerts

pressure on the undersigned for posting of police personnel for gaining their loyalty,” it adds. As proof of his allegations, the SSP has also attached cellular record data of the energy minister, his secretary, son and others close to him, highlighting the number of times they have contacted “wanted” criminals, such as Atto Sheikh, who have dozens of cases registered against them.

“Imtiaz Ahmed Sheikh MPA has a gang of criminals who reside in and sell drugs from Chingi Muqam in the jurisdiction of PS New Faugdari, district Shikarpur. Imtiaz Ahmed Sheikh, his brother Maqbool Ahmed Sheikh and his son Faraz Ahmed Sheikh have private guards who are proclaimed offenders and recorded criminals,” the report states.

Asked about the serious allegations made in the report during a press conference on Thursday, the Sindh government’s spokesperson, Barrister Murtaza Wahab, questioned why a “secret” report was being circulated in the media. “Their job is police, not politicking,” said Wahab.

With regards to the contents of the report, Wahab defended the energy minister by saying that the latter had on multiple occasions complained about the concerned SSP to the IG in cabinet meetings. “The SP is working on vested interests,” Wahab quoted Sheikh as having told the IG in a cabinet meeting.

Addressing a press conference in Karachi later in the evening, Sheikh rejected the contents of the report, saying they were “based on lies”.

“Who is stopping him from arresting the criminals? He is scared of going to their areas,” said Sheikh. The energy minister added that the only reason the report was issued was because he had pointed out the SSP’s mistakes.

CMYK

run, employment generation and positive impact on national exchequer were the main discussion points in the meeting.

During the meeting the adviser also emphasised that the policy will be prepared to best suit the needs of the country and the investment in the manufacturing of parts will also be safeguarded. Explaining the importance of EVs, he emphasised that synchronized efforts are required to shift to electric vehicles in order to achieve best possible results.

The adviser, while announcing the way forward, urged that the “Make in Pakistan” agenda will be supported in each policy, including electric vehicle manufacturing. Imports will be discouraged and provision of jobs to youth will be targeted while aiming to achieve environmental goals, he added.

Later the EDB CEO ensured submission of first draft of the policy to MoIP within stipulated the timeframe.

Personnel who commit suicide not entitled for Shuhada package: SC ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court (SC) on Thursday declared that the families of personnel, who commit suicide during service, would not be entitled to receive Shuhada package. The top court maintained that the Shuhada package was only for the personnel, who lost their lives in terror incidents or encounters, and dismissed a petition filed by a family of FC personnel Naseeb Nawaz. At the outset of hearing, Justice Ijaz ul Ahsan remarked that Naseeb died with the bullet of his own gun.

However, it was not clear whether he had committed suicide or the bullet was fired accidentally. The petitioner’s counsel pleaded that Naseeb Nawaz died while performing duty at a picket. Justice Sajjad Ali Shah asked whether someone had fired a bullet on him (Naseeb Nawaz). The counsel said that no one had targeted him. Chief Justice of Pakistan Gulzar Ahmed remarked that the personnel, who were killed even in a personal conflict, could not be declared martyred. One could not be entitled for Shuhada package if he committed suicide on the enemy’s soil. The bench dismissed the petition after the family of Naseeb Nawaz withdrew its case. APP

Friday, 17 January, 2020

06 WORLD VIEW

The aTTacks on Two Delhi universiTies reveal MoDi’s TargeTs: MusliMs anD Their allies THE BJP WANTS TO SUPPRESS INDIAN MUSLIMS AND SECULARISTS WHO SEE THEM AS EQUAL CITIZENS. BUT POLICE VIOLENCE HAS BACKFIRED

guardian

i

Mukul kesAvAn

N the middle of December, Delhi police tried to shut down university protests against the religiously discriminatory Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA) by caning Muslim students into submission. Police officers smashed their way into the library at Jamia Millia Islamia university (where I teach history), trashed bookcases and beat the students inside, badly damaging the eyesight of one in the process. They threw teargas grenades into the reading room to force students out. Their excuse was they were chasing violent demonstrators who had taken refuge in campus buildings.

Last week, Delhi police also assembled outside another educational establishment. This time the police remained decorously outside the gates of Jawaharlal Nehru University, India’s most well known, cordoning off the campus as masked goons armed with iron rods and improvised bludgeons ran riot inside. They broke into a hostel reserved for women students, inflicted head injuries on the president of JNU’s student union, who is a woman, and attacked faculty members who tried to protect them. Some 20 students and teachers were hospitalised. After three hours of thuggery the police entered the university at the vicechancellor’s belated invitation but made no arrests because the criminals had mysteriously slipped away despite the police cordon.

The Delhi police was the common factor in the two assaults, in the first instance as perpetrator and in the second as auxiliary. The force reports to the home affairs minister, Amit Shah, prime minister Narendra Modi’s right-hand man. Jamia and JNU are centrally funded universities that have attracted the violent dis-

pleasure of Modi’s government for different but related reasons.

Taken together, these reasons define the ruling Bharatiya Janata party’s majoritarian project – its reason for being.

The attack on Jamia was triggered by the BJP government’s determination to snuff out protests against the CAA, which excludes Muslim migrants from the amnesty given to others from Afghanistan, Pakistan and Bangladesh. Having smuggled into law a religious test for citizenship for one class of migrants, the government hopes to press its advantage further by forcing Indians to prove their citizenship to a latterday inquisition, the National Register of Citizens. The NRC is the citizenship act’s evil twin; those who aren’t able to document their claim to being Indian before the tribunals of the NRC will be cast into limbo – but nonMuslims among them can hope to be rescued by the CAA’s amnesty.

Undocumented Muslims will have no such recourse; they will be interned and deported as Amit Shah promised in the speeches he made all over the country. This destabilisation of Muslim citizen-

ship is a great prize for a majoritarian party such as the BJP which sees India as a Hindu nation, Hindus as its natural citizens and Muslims as potential fifth columnists with extraterritorial loyalties.

Jamia was brazenly attacked by the police of this would-be Hindu nation because the government was confident that making a violent example of a Muslim university would play well in public.

It had good reason to be confident. Modi had won an absolute majority in parliament for the second time in 2019; the supreme court had awarded the site of a mosque demolished in 1991 by Hindu mobs, led by BJP leaders, to Hindu litigants who claimed it was the god Ram’s birthplace; the government had successfully reduced India’s Muslim-majority Indian held Kashmir, into two Delhi-administered union territories, and the citizenship amendment bill had been expertly ushered through both houses of parliament with hardly any resistance from a divided and demoralised opposition.

Against the odds, this attempt to shock Indian Muslims into submission by brutalising a Muslim

university backfired – for two reasons. First, the assault galvanised Muslims all over the country into spontaneous and sustained resistance to the CAA and NRC. Second, the police atrocities in Jamia led to huge demonstrations of solidarity in colleges and universities all over India and sparked a fire of resistance, against the furtive bigotry of the CAA, which continues to burn.

The BJP has long believed that its anti-Muslim project has two enemies: Muslims, and those non-Muslims who see Muslims as equal citizens under the constitution. The Delhi police made an example of Jamia as a warning to India’s Muslims. When that didn’t go according to plan, the same police travelled several miles across the city to help make an example of a university that the BJP sees as the institutional incarnation of the secularism that might yet thwart its dreams of a Hindu nation.

Since majoritarian parties are constitutionally incapable of empathy, the BJP understands JNU’s brand of secular solidarity as a form of Hindu self-hatred.

For the better part of Modi’s first term in office, there has been a running battle between JNU students and central government, a David and Goliath standoff that has turned student politicians into national figures. But the BJP’s

loathing of the university is obsessive and wildly out of proportion to the threat that its students and teachers pose. Stung by the panIndian support that Jamia’s antiCAA protests have provoked, Modi’s government seems to have concluded that it was all JNU’s fault. Otherwise it is hard to believe that a dispute over accommodation charges – the last source of conflict between JNU students and the authorities to make headlines – could goad a national government into risking complicity in this violent charade. The only other explanation for the attack is that it was an attempt to turn attention away from the anti-CAA protests by giving people something else to be outraged about.

It’s hard to predict what lasting effect the assaults on these two universities will have on Indian politics. A party that controls the state will generally outlast spontaneous civil society movements that lack political leadership. For the moment, though, the passion (and existential panic) that has powered this campaign against sectarianism seems to have deranged Modi’s leviathan.

Mukul Kesavan is an essayist and author who teaches history at Jamia Millia Islamia university in Delhi.

New book portrays Trump as erratic, ‘at times dangerously uninformed’

Washington Post Ashley PArker

President Trump reveals himself as woefully uninformed about the basics of geography, incorrectly telling Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, “It’s not like you’ve got China on your border.”

He toys with awarding himself the Medal of Freedom.

And, according to a new book by Washington Post reporters Philip Rucker and Carol D. Leonnig, Trump does not seem to grasp the fundamental history surrounding the attack on Pearl Harbor.

“Hey, John, what’s this all about?

What’s this a tour of?” Trump asks his then-Chief of Staff John F. Kelly, as the men prepare to take a private tour of the USS Arizona Memorial, which commemorates the December 1941 Japanese surprise attack in the Pacific that pulled the United States into World War II. “Trump had heard the phrase ‘Pearl Harbor’ and appeared to understand that he was visiting the scene of a historic battle, but he did not seem to know much else,” write the authors, later quoting a former senior White House adviser who concludes: “He was at times dangerously uninformed.”

“A Very Stable Genius” — a 417page book named after Trump’s own declaration of his superior knowledge — is full of similarly vivid details from Trump’s tumultuous first three years as president, from his chaotic transition before taking office to special counsel Robert S. Mueller III’s Russia investigation and final report. The story the authors unfurl, as they explain in the prologue, “is intended to reveal Trump at his most unvarnished and expose how decision-making in his administration has been driven by one man’s self-centered and unthinking logic — but a logic nonetheless.”

The book by the two longtime Post reporters — who were part of the team that won a 2018 Pulitzer Prize for its reporting on Trump and Russia — was ob-

tained ahead of its scheduled release Tuesday. Many of the key moments reported in the book are rife with foreign policy implications, portraying a novice commander in chief ploughing through normal protocols and alarming many both inside the administration and in other governments.

Early in his administration, for instance, Trump is eager to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin — so much so, the authors write, “that during the transition he interrupts an interview with one of his secretary of state candidates” to inquire about his pressing desire: “When can I meet Putin? Can I meet with him before the inaugural ceremony?” he asks.

After the two leaders meet face-toface for the first time — 168 days into his presidency at the Group of 20 summit in Hamburg — Trump promptly declares himself a Russia expert, dismissing the expertise of then-Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, who had worked closely with Putin since the 1990s, when Tillerson was working his way up the ExxonMobil corporate ladder and doing business with Russia. “Tillerson’s years of negotiating with Putin and studying his moves on the chessboard were suddenly irrelevant,” the duo writes. “ ‘I have had a two-hour meeting with Putin,’ Trump told Tillerson. ‘That’s all I need to know. . . . I’ve sized it all up. I’ve got it.’ ” In spring 2017, Trump also clashed with Tillerson when he told him he wanted his help getting rid of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, a 1977 law that prevents U.S. firms and individuals from bribing foreign officials for business deals.

“It’s just so unfair that American companies aren’t allowed to pay bribes to get business overseas,” Trump says, according to the book. “We’re going to change that.” The president, they go on to explain, was frustrated with the law “ostensibly because it restricted his industry buddies or his own company’s executives from paying off foreign governments in faraway lands.” The book, the duo writes in an author’s note, is based on hundreds of hours of interviews with more than 200 sources, corroborated, when possible, by calendars, diary entries, internal memos and even private video recordings.

(Trump himself had initially committed to an interview for the book, the authors write, but ultimately declined, amid an escalating war with the media).

The White House did not immediately respond to requests for comment

Wednesday. One government aide tells the authors that Trump has destroyed the gravity and allure that used to surround the presidency, regardless of the Oval Office occupant. “ ‘He’s ruined that magic,’ this aide said of Trump,” Rucker and Leonnig write. “ ‘The disdain he shows for our country’s foundation and its principles. The disregard he has for right and wrong. Your fist clenches. Your teeth grate.’ ” Anthony Scaramucci, who served as Trump’s communications director for just 11 days, recounts the president’s response when he asks him, “Are you an act?” “I’m a total act and I don’t understand why people don’t get it,” Trump replies, according to Scaramucci.

Yet the people in Trump’s administration and orbit don’t behave as if the president is simply playing a part or acting a role. At the Justice Department, thenDeputy Attorney General Rod J. Rosenstein and other senior officials run through private fire drills in case Trump triggers a “Saturday night massacre” — an allusion to the series of resignations under President Richard M. Nixon following his order to his attorney general to fire the Watergate independent special prosecutor.

“They prepared for several scenarios: If Trump fired [then-Attorney General Jeff] Sessions, if Trump fired Rosenstein, and if Trump ordered the firing of Mueller,” the authors write.

The officials have reason to be concerned, according to the authors, who report that Trump muses about using a memo by Rep. Devin Nunes (R-Calif.) as the justification for firing Rosenstein and reining in Mueller’s investigation. He also rails against his own Justice Department, furious that the agency isn’t being sufficiently loyal to him personally.

At one point, after the department blocks the release of what the president believes was a pro-Trump memo, he calls Kelly ranting. “ ‘This is my Justice Department. They are supposed to be my people,’ Trump told Kelly,” the authors write. “ ‘This is the ‘Deep State.’ . . .

Mueller’s all over it.’ ” Some details are more harmless than disconcerting. Early in his presidency, Trump agrees to participate in an HBO documentary that features judges and lawmakers — as well as all the living presidents — reading aloud from the Constitution. But Trump struggles and stumbles over the text, blaming others in the room for his mistakes and griping, “It’s like a foreign language.”

In another scene, Axios reported in December 2018 that former New Jersey governor Chris Christie and Trump met privately to discuss Christie possibly becoming his next chief of staff. After Christie respectfully turns down the job, he asks Trump how the details of their meeting leaked out, since it was just the two of them and first lady Melania Trump in the room. “Oh, I did it,” said Trump, who has long vented about leakers, revealing himself to be among them.

Other moments have a darker tinge.

Rucker and Leonnig write that during the early days of the Mueller investigation, both Donald McGahn, then the White House counsel, and Stephen K. Bannon, then a senior White House adviser, try to persuade Ty Cobb — the lawyer tasked, at the time, with overseeing the White House’s involvement in the probe — to remove Trump’s daughter Ivanka and son-in-law Jared Kushner, both senior advisers, from the White House staff, to protect the president during the ongoing investigation. “ ‘You need to shoot them in the [expletive] head,’ Bannon jokingly told Cobb,” the authors write.

Trump was “verbally and emotionally abusive” toward then-Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen, the book reports, and routinely complained she was not doing enough about illegal immigration and the border.

According to the book, “He made fun of her stature and believed that at about five feet four inches she was not physically intimidating. ‘She’s so short,’ Trump would tell others about Nielsen.

She and Kelly would try to make light of it. Kelly would rib her and say, ‘But you’ve got those little fists of fury!’ ” When Nielsen — who had received threats against her life as the public face of the administration’s hard-line immigration policy — eventually left the government, she did so without any prearranged continuing security detail, which must be requested by the chief of staff and authorized by the president.

“When some of her international counterparts visited Washington, they offered to hire personal security for Nielsen to protect her, but she declined,” write the authors. “ ‘That would look horrible,’ Nielsen told them. ‘Can you imagine the story? Foreign governments provide security because the U.S. won’t?’ ” The duo opens one chapter with the case of Rob Porter — the former White House staff secretary who was ultimately

pushed out of his job amid allegations of domestic abuse from his two ex-wives.

After a photo surfaces on the Internet of Colbie Holderness, one of his ex-wives, sporting a black eye that she alleges Porter gave her, Trump offers a competing theory. “Maybe, Trump said, Holderness purposefully ran into a refrigerator to give herself bruises and try to get money out of Porter?” they write.

Near the end of the book, Rucker and Leonnig delve into tensions between Mueller and Attorney General William P. Barr. Mueller and his team are frustrated when Barr releases an initial, four-page letter summarizing the “principal conclusions” of Mueller’s 448-page report, which they do not think sufficiently captures the context, nature and substance of Mueller’s full investigation.

“Inside the bunker of Mueller’s lawyers, Barr’s letter stung,” write the authors. “Members of the special counsel team would later describe Mueller’s reaction: He looked as if he’d been slapped.”

After Mueller writes a letter to Barr expressing his frustrations, the authors report that Barr calls Mueller, resulting in a testy phone conversation. “ ‘What the hell, Bob?’ Barr asked,” they write. “ ‘What’s up with this letter? Why didn’t you pick up the phone and call me?’ ” Barr complains that his team offered Mueller’s team an opportunity to review his letter before it went out and they declined — “We’re flabbergasted here,” Barr says, according to the book — but the call ultimately ends on “an uplifting note.”

Some of the modest details in the book end up having larger consequences.

After Trump bungles his India-China geography and seems to dismiss the threat China poses to India, for instance, the authors write that “Modi’s eyes bulged out in surprise.” “Modi’s expression gradually shifted, from shock and concern to resignation,” they continue, adding that one Trump aide concludes Modi probably “left that meeting and said, ‘This is not a serious man. I cannot count on this man as a partner.’ ” After the meeting, the aide explains to them, “ ‘the Indians took a step back’ in their diplomatic relations with the United States.”

Ashley Parker is a White House reporter for The Washington Post. She joined The Post in 2017, after 11 years at the New York Times, where she covered the 2012 and 2016 presidential campaigns and Congress, among other things.

Friday, 17 January, 2020

FOREIGN NEWS 07

I

AGENCIES

rAn’S foreign minister said on Thursday that three European states had succumbed to US threats of new tariffs on their goods when they triggered a dispute mechanism in a nuclear pact, a step that could lead to the reimposition of United nations sanctions.

The 2015 nuclear deal signed in Vienna — known as The Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPoA) — has a provision that allows a party to claim significant non-com-

Iran says EuropEans yIEldIng to ‘hIgh school bully’ trump In nuclEar row pliance by another party before a joint commission. US President Donald Trump withdrew from the deal in 2018 and imposed stringent sanctions on Iran, telling Tehran he wanted a new broader deal on nuclear

and other issues. Iran had intensified activities to enrich uranium, in response to Trump’s pulling out of the deal.

“Appeasement confirmed. E3 sold out remnants of #JCPoA to avoid new Trump

Outgoing Iraqi PM says US troop ouster up to next govt BAGHDAD AGENCIES

Iraq’s outgoing prime minister said on Wednesday it was up to the next government to see through the parliament’s decision to oust US troops. Prime Minister Adel Abdul Mahdi’s comments came ahead of planned protests against the American military presence in Iraq called for by an influential cleric. Washington has responded to Iraq’s requests to initiate troop withdrawals with blunt refusal. And on Wednesday, US officials said the US military is resuming operations against militants in Iraq and is working to soon restart training Iraqi forces. The officials spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss decisions not yet made public. Meanwhile, Qatar said it was seeking to play a mediating role amid escalating tensions following a US drone strike that killed a top Iranian general in Baghdad. Abdul Mahdi’s government is in caretaker status following his resignation in December under pressure from mass demonstrations. “I request that the president, parliament and political parties nominate a new prime minister, a new government that has full authority because these difficult, complicated circumstances, especially with pulling of the troops […] that needs a government with full authority so it can go forward,” Abdul Mahdi said in comments aired Wednesday from a cabinet session the previous day. The US strike prompted Iraq’s parliament to pass a non-binding resolution requesting the government end the presence of American troops in the country. Abdul Mahdi has stood by the resolution despite signs of de-escalating tensions between Washington and Tehran. Iran retaliated for the killing by hitting two military bases hosting US troops but did not cause casualties.

Last week, Abdul Mahdi asked US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to work out a road map for an American troop withdrawal, but Washington responded saying the two sides should instead discuss how to recommit to their partnership. Abdul Mahdi’s recent remarks suggest he is keen on maintaining good relations with Washington yet firm that US troops must leave. “I am determined to keep our friendships with all.

They all helped us, they all scarified for us, some with blood, some with financial aid in fighting (the Islamic State group),” he said. “We also respect the parliament’s decision and we are working on implementing it in the right manner that guarantees Iraq’s sovereignty.”

tariffs. It won’t work my friends. You only whet his appetite. remember your high school bully?” Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif wrote on Twitter.

The Washington Post reported on Wednes-

day that the Trump administration had threatened to impose a 25 per cent tariff on European automobile imports if Britain, France and Germany did not formally accuse Iran of breaking the nuclear deal.

Friday, 17 January, 2020

10 FOREIGN NEWS

donald trump ImpEachmEnt artIclEs dElIvErEd to sEnatE WASHINGTON

a

Thursday, and preparations will get underway for an impeachment trial that will open on Tuesday, January 21.

“This is a difficult time for our country, but this is precisely the kind of time for which the framers created the Senate,” McConnell said, referring to the authors of the US Constitution.

“I’m confident that this body can rise above short-termism and factional fever and serve the long-term best interests of our nation. We can do this, and we must.”

The two articles of impeachment — one for abuse of power and the other for obstructing the House investigation — were delivered in blue folders in a solemn procession by the newly appointed House managers, seven Democrats who will

AGENCIES

rTICLES of impeachment charging President Donald Trump with abuse of power and obstruction of Congress were delivered to the Senate Wednesday, setting in motion a historic trial that threatens the US leader with removal from office. republican Senate leader Mitch McConnell announced that the articles would be formally read to the chamber Thursday at noon (1700 GMT), after which Supreme Court Chief Justice John roberts will be sworn in to preside over the trial.

Senators will then be sworn in as jurors on

south Korea to decide on first transgender soldier amid debate SEOUL

prosecute the case against the president.

“So sad, so tragic for our country, that the actions taken by the president to undermine our national security, to violate his oath of office and to jeopardize the security of our elections, has taken us to this place,” Democratic House Speaker nancy Pelosi said as she signed the articles. “This president will be held accountable,” she said, adding: “no one is above the law.”

The solemn formalities underscored the grimness of the occasion, Trump becoming only the third US president in history to be placed on trial in the Senate.

“We feel we are carrying out the will of the framers of our constitution, and that’s a pretty serious load,” said Adam Schiff, the Democratic lawmaker tapped

to lead the prosecution team.

‘TWO WEEKS’:Trump is accused of secretly holding up $391 million in aid to Ukraine between July and September to pressure Kiev to investigate former vice president Joe Biden, the Democratic frontrunner in this year’s White House race.

The president is also charged with obstruction for holding back witnesses and documents from the House impeachment investigation in defiance of Congressional subpoenas. He was formally impeached on December 18.

“President Trump put his own personal interests above the national interests… and if not stopped, he will do it again,” Schiff said.

“The appropriate remedy, indeed the

French unions block ports as pension strikes lose steam

AGENCIES

South Korea’s military said on Thursday it will hold a meeting to discuss whether it will discharge the first soldier to have undergone gender reassignment surgery, which has sparked national debate about the treatment of LGBT troops. The soldier, who holds the rank of staff sergeant and is stationed in Gyeonggi Province, north of Seoul, received the operation overseas last year while on leave, and expressed hope to continue serving in the female corps, an army official said. The military has not identified the soldier. The official said the soldier was at a military hospital receiving post-surgery treatment. The military will hold discussions as early as next week to decide on the soldier’s fate as there are no regulations in Korea concerning transgender troops, the official said.

“We’ll have to see it as a partial change in the body which we apply for those who were injured in accidents,” the official told reuters. “We will likely discharge the soldier as there are different qualifications for men and women to meet in joining the military.” The case has triggered debate over the treatment of transgender troops and soldiers from the wider LBGT community in the country, which requires all able-bodied men to serve for around two years.Gays are not banned from the South Korean military but sex acts between two male soldiers are punishable by up to two years in prison.

PARIS French trade unions blocked ports and disrupted power production on Thursday, searching for a way to force President Emmanuel Macron to ditch a planned pension overhaul as the impact of transport strikes weakens.

Ferry services to Britain suffered delays and at least 20 bulk carriers waiting to export cereals were kept at anchor outside France’s major ports, data from financial data provider refinitiv showed. Electricity output was down about 9% of available capacity.

The public sector strikes are now in their 43rd day but the industrial action has lost momentum since Macron’s government made a concession over the age of retirement and as strikers face mounting financial pressure to return to work.

Only 10 percent of workers at the state-run SnCF railways walked out on Thursday, compared with more than half when the strikes began on Dec. 5. Data collated by reuters from public transport agencies show the number of SnCF and Paris metro trains operating has risen and strike observance has fallen.

Prime Minister Edouard Philippe has offered to withdraw plans to raise the retirement age for

full pension benefits by two years to 64 if the pension budget can be balanced another way, driving a wedge between unions determined to see the reform scrapped and those more open to reform.

“It’s never too late to force a government to cave in,” said Philippe Martinez, head of the far-left CGT union, before a street march in Paris in a sixth round of nationwide protests. Macron, a former investment banker, wants to streamline France’s convoluted pension system and give French people an incentive to stay in work longer to pay for some of the most generous retirement benefits in the industrialised world.

It would be the biggest overhaul of the system since World War Two and is central to the president’s drive

to make the French labour force more flexible and more competitive globally.

Trade unions accuse Macron of eroding hard-earned benefits.

The CGT this week set its sights on French ports as participation rates in strikes on Paris public transport services declined.

On Thursday, vessels set to export a total 536,000 tonnes of cereals, mostly wheat, were held up outside French ports, data showed.

The three-day walkout by dockers which began on Tuesday has already led to production outages at some livestock feed factories. Imported soybean meal is used to provide protein in livestock feed rations, alongside cereals that offer energy.

Prince Harry resurfaces after royal bombshell Britain’s Prince Harry was to make his first public appearance on Thursday since he and his wife Meghan’s bombshell decision to quit as full-time royals.

The Duke of Sussex was to host the 2021 rugby League World Cup draw at Buckingham Palace — with all eyes on whether he will address the still-unresolved royal crisis.

Harry, 35, is patron of the rugby Football League, the sport’s governing body in England, and his participation in the draw was planned long before last week’s shock announcement.

The couple want to step back as senior royals, split their time between Britain and Canada, become financially independent from official royal funding and pull out of the palace’s media arrangements. They made the announcement unilaterally on a new website — without first squaring their wishes with Queen Elizabeth II. Harry was summoned to a hastilyarranged family meeting on Monday with his grandmother, father Prince Charles and brother Prince William to thrash out a way forward.

The final outcome is set to be determined in the coming days.

Harry will now face the tricky de-

cision of whether to say anything about the rolling storm as he hosts the draw from 1200 GMT. INVICTUS GAMES: Harry, who is sixth in line to the throne, might attempt a business-as-usual approach. On Wednesday, he announced in a video message that the sixth Invictus Games for wounded military veterans will be held in Dusseldorf in Germany in 2022.

He made no mention of the crisis or his future plans.

“They (Dusseldorf) will be exemplary hosts in picking up the mantle and showcasing what sport continues to do for these inspirational men and women in their recovery,” he said.

Harry, who spent 10 years in the British army, serving two tours of duty in Afghanistan, founded the Para-

homeless issues puts Irish pm on electoral backfoot DUBLIN AGENCIES

AGENCIES

AGENCIES

only remedy, is the conviction and removal from office of President Donald Trump.”

But Pelosi held back on delivering the articles to the Senate as she pressured McConnell to agree to subpoenaing the witnesses and documents that the White House blocked from the House probe.

McConnell has refused to commit, saying the issue will only be decided after the trial’s opening arguments and questioning, which could take two weeks.

lympics-style event in 2014. It is considered as one of his major achievements.

VANCOUVER VISITS: Harry and Meghan spent six weeks over Christmas on Vancouver Island on Canada’s Pacific west coast and the duchess has returned after briefly coming back to Britain.

The 38-year-old US former television actress visited two women’s charities in Vancouver on Tuesday.

One was the Downtown Eastside Women’s Centre, a non-profit organisation that provides support to women who are fleeing violence, dealing with homelessness or living in poverty.

“She was very interested in what goes on for women in this community, who we all know are marginalised,” said Kate Gibson, the centre’s acting executive director. The second, Justice for Girls, also said Meghan had stopped by, tweeting photos on Wednesday.

She discussed “climate justice for girls and the rights of Indigenous peoples”, said the group, which helps teenage girls who live in poverty.

Queen Elizabeth, 93, is Canada’s head of state and Harry is therefore sixth in line to the Canadian throne. Despite Canadians’ affection for the royal couple, who married at Windsor Castle in May 2018, a large majority (73 percent)

CMYK

do not wish to foot security or other costs for their relocation, according to an Angus reid Institute survey.

LEGAL BATTLE: Besides the ructions in the royal family, Meghan could face yet more upheaval with her own family — potentially facing her own estranged father Thomas Markle in court.

He showed The Mail on Sunday an August 2018 handwritten letter to him from his daughter, which the weekly tabloid published in February last year.

Meghan filed a claim in October against publishers Associated newspapers over the alleged misuse of private information, infringement of copyright and breach of the Data Protection Act 2018. The weekly newspaper has now issued its defence, raising the possibility that Meghan and her father could be called to testify against each another in England’s High Court.

The front page of the Daily Mail — The Mail on Sunday’s sister paper — said Wednesday that Thomas Markle was prepared to give evidence.

Meanwhile, William, 37, visited one of Britain’s most diverse cities — Bradford in northern England — with his wife Kate on Wednesday, as they returned to business as usual since Monday’s summit at Queen Elizabeth’s Sandringham country residence.

The plight of a homeless man badly injured when city workers cleared the tent he was sleeping in put Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar on the backfoot on Thursday as housing issues dominated the start of his campaign for re-election. A housing shortage that has sparked sharp hikes in rental costs and homelessness has been the defining domestic issue of Varadkar’s near three-year premiership and is the focus of opposition criticism ahead of the Feb. 8 poll. Dublin City Council said the man was injured on Tuesday when tents placed in precarious and dangerous locations were being removed. His case put paid to Varadkar’s hopes of framing early campaigning on his diplomatic successes on Brexit and Ireland’s fast growing economy. national broadcaster rTE said the man was in a serious condition in hospital after his tent was removed by an industrial vehicle. The council said the matter was being investigated by police and had no further comment. The story dominated newspaper front pages on Thursday. Opponents accused Varakdar of politicizing the issue by calling on Dublin’s lord mayor to make a statement on the issue. The lord mayor, Paul McAuliffe, is running for parliament for the rival Fianna Fail party. The lord mayor is primarily a ceremonial role filled by an elected local councilor. Varakdar said he was not seeking to make it a party political issue.

Epstein abused young girls as recently as 2019, lawsuit says NEW YORK AGENCIES

The late disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein sexually abused and trafficked girls as young as 12 on his private Caribbean island until as recently as last year, a new lawsuit alleged Wednesday.

The suit, filed on behalf of the US Virgin Islands government and which sues Epstein’s estate for damages, sheds new light on the extent of the 66-year-old’s alleged criminal behavior. Epstein, who killed himself last summer in a highsecurity new York jail while awaiting trial for sex crimes, raped and held captive dozens of women on Little Saint James Island, according to the civil action. The suit, filed by Virgin Islands Attorney General Denise George, accuses Epstein of bringing girls between the ages of 12 and 17 to his 577-million-dollar estate by boat, helicopter and plane between 2001 and 2019. He also kept a computerised list of potential victims, prosecutors allege, and ran a “trafficking pyramid scheme” whereby underage victims were forced to recruit other women to perform sexual acts. “Jeffrey Epstein carried out an expansive scheme of human trafficking and sexual abuse of young women,” George told a press conference.

Friday, 17 January, 2020

08 COMMENT

US forces staying put

Kashmir in UNSC Strengthening Pakistan is best help to Kashmiris

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n Wednesday the situation in Indian Occupied Kashmir (IOK) came under discussion in the UnSC a second time after August 16. Without the crucial help of China, it would not have been possible to take the issue to the most powerful world forum. As the meetings were held behind closed doors, nothing was officially given out to the media. Ambassador Zhang Jun, Chinese permanent representative to the United nations, however confirmed to the journalists that the Council had reviewed the situation in the Occupied Kashmir as it received a briefing on the situation from its secretariat.

A second Security Council meeting in five months to discuss the situation in IOK indicates that despite Indian propaganda, the international community remains concerned about the developments in the region. even though there was no tangible outcome of the moot, the most powerful Un forum is obviously not content with the Indian stand that none other than the two neighbouring countries has a right to discuss the matter.

The meeting would definitely boost the morale of the Kashmiris struggling for their rights.

There is a need on the part of Pakistan to continue to steadfastly extend its moral and political support for the Kashmir cause and to raise the issue at all world forums.

The government however needs to take into account the ground realities. As things stand, China has a clear stand on Kashmir and is willing to stand by it publicly. As ambassador Zhang put it, China recognises Kashmir as disputed territory and supports Islamabad’s demand for a plebiscite. Pakistan’s Arab friends have extended loans to Pakistan when it needed them urgently and supplied oil to Pakistan on deferred payment. They are however unwilling to displease India where they have invested heavily. This explains why the OIC has not gone beyond making ineffectual statements on the issue.

The Kashmir issue will take time to resolve. A Pakistan commanding international respect on account of a strong economy, internal unity buttressed by a genuinely federal governance and a democratic set up with civilian supremacy will be of greater help to the Kashmiris than a poor country carrying a begging bowl and ridden by internal dissensions.

US-China trade truce An example of how trade talks can help peace

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he US-China trade agreement, signed on Wednesday, has left no losers. As it is only the first phase, and the second is expected, it represents a truce rather than peace, in what had developed into a full-fledged trade war between the world’s two largest economies, and the greatest single bilateral trading relationship. Started by US President Donald Trump in fulfilment of populist campaign promises, the trade war did not just affect the USA and China, but the whole world. Particularly affected were the european Union, and the two countries’ as mutual trading partners, like Taiwan and Japan. An important consideration was how the trade war disrupted supply chains. A product shipped from a third country grew pricier because it was supplied to one country by the other as part of a subassembly for the exporting country.

Another dimension was the search by importers in both countries for new supplies, such as the Chinese hunger for South American soybean to replace US soybean, priced out of the market by tariffs. Soybean went from $12 billion imported from the USA to just $3 billion.

The deal requires China to import $200 billion worth of US goods over two years. During President Trump’s setting off the trade war, some economists expressed concern that the USA was using its economic power instead of leaving the markets to determine relative positions. It is true that President Trump has brought an element of mercantilism to the free market, but his agreement is an indication that the trade war was hurting the US economy enough for him to be concerned about his re-election, due at the end of this year.

Apart from trade problems, the USA and China have got security issues because of Chinese disputes with US allies over islands in the China Sea. There is also a naval confrontation between the two in the South China Sea. Yet that did not stop them from hammering out this interim trade deal, which will lead to a final one. India and Pakistan could profit from this example. The Indian government in particular should note how President Trump did not let his anti-China election rhetoric from making a deal. Both Pakistan and India could settle trade issues for greater mutual prosperity, leaving security issues for another time.

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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Downing airliner while taking revenge created a mess for Iran

At Penpoint

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M.A. NIAZI

he downing of a Ukrainian airliner as it took off from Tehran airport, the same day as Iranian missiles hit Iraqi air bases housing US forces, was first strenuously denied by the Iranian government, but on Sunday it admitted that the downing was the result of Iranian air defence personnel being too quick on the trigger. The admission was greeted by protests against the authorities, the arrest of the British Ambassador from the midst of one protests indicating that the protest had been taken over by the anti-regime forces.

It was a surprise admission at one level, for military forces around the world are not inclined to admit anything less than perfection. Take Pakistan and India. Both claim victory in the 1965 War, and Pakistan loudly proclaims that 1971 was not a military defeat but a political one. (That this was the first time that a distinction between political and military defeats has been drawn is as conveniently ignored as the fact that Pakistani politics was then under the military with Army C-in-C Gen Yahya Khan then President and COAS.) It should also be noted that the downing of the Malaysian Airlines flight Mh17 on 17 July 2017, in which it went down over eastern Ukraine, no admission of guilt has been made by the Ukraine government and the pro-Russian Ukrainian separatists blame each other for the missile. Whoever was actually responsible, it is fairly certain that it was a Ukrainian who pulled the trigger.

It would be too much to assume that Iran was taking some sort of revenge on Malaysia’s behalf, but it is true that it has been warming up to Malaysia recently, attending the Kuala Lumpur Summit, which Saudi Arabia saw as enough of a threat to stop Pakistan from attending, because it saw the Summit as an alternative to the OIC, which it dominates.

Iran knows the other side of the picture. Back in 1988, a US frigate, the USS Vincennes, shot down an Iran Air A-300 Airbus with 290 aboard on the Persian Gulf, after it had taken off from Bandar Abbas en route to Qatar. Initially, the USA refused to admit culpability, but later did. The career of the Commanding Officer of the Vincennes was ruined, and he never received another sea command.

One of the questions the protesters are asking, and which is perhaps the most pertinent in the whole

NAeeM KhAN QAIsrANI

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he USA and China have a decades-old trade relationship when in 1979 both nations established diplomatic relations and signed a bilateral trade agreement. In 1984, the USA was the third largest trade partner of China while China was the 14th largest trade of partner of the USA. They started from $4 billion trade and the volume was about $600 billion in 2018. It is necessary to mention here that due to the US-China Relation Act of 2000, China was allowed to join WTO (World Trade Organization) in 2001, when the US Congress approved the US-China trade agreement and China’s accession to the WTO. That time the US government was of the view that China’s joining the WTO would enhance and advance the USA’s economic interests but after this joining, the USA has continuously been accusing China of failing to comply with the international trade laws, rules and regulations and not addressing the grievances of Washington. The current US Administration is fully convinced that due to China’s manipulating their currency and trade, US companies cannot compete with Chinese companies without imposing a heavy tariff on Chinese exports, because in 2017 the USA had a $336 billion trade deficit with china of an overall $556 billion deficit. In view of this deficit, President Trump imposed a 10 percent tariff of almost $300 billion on Chinese imports. China, in response, announced plans to implement its own tariffs on 128 US products. Of those products, 120, such as fruit and wine, will be taxed at a 15 percent duty and the remaining eight, including pork, at 25 percent.

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matter, is why the Tehran airport was allowing any take-offs in the first place. Commentators have noted that a distressing lack of coordination between the military and civilian aviation authorities. Also a factor, and perhaps the decisive one, is that in a desire to maintain secrecy, the military aviation authority kept the civilian authority in the dark.

Thus commercial airliners continued to take off, and air defence personal had to decide what to do about the various aircraft in the sky. These air defenders must have preferred being safe rather than sorry. Presumably they were equipped with the kind of radar which would recognise the plane’s transponder signal. That signal operates as an IFF (Identify Friend or Foe) for military aircraft, and as an identifier for civilian air traffic controllers. An air defence radar needs to be able to identify planes appearing on it, because the air defence team to take very different action towards friendly and enemy aircraft.

In fact, in modern air combat, the person manning the radar, and who is in constant communication with his side’s pilots over the radio, has an important role in fighting the air battle.

There is no longer any room for the dogfights of the first two world wars, because of the speed and complexity of modern air warfare. The plane is no longer seen as a plane, but as a weapons system. The pilot is more the weapons master, and while his on-board systems do help him in combat, the radars and sensors on ground (or airborne in AWACS planes) are now essential.

Iran has a separate Air Defence Force, somewhat like the Soviet model, where air defence has been hived off the air force and the army to create a separate service. The Iranian Air Defense Force was created in 2008, hived off from the air force. In Pakistan air defence is still part of the Army and the PAF, though it has been elevated to a separate arm in the Army, carved out of the artillery. There is also a separate Army Air Defence Command, headed by a lieutenant general, which operates independently, virtually as a separate corps. A PAF Air Defence Command also exists, under an air marshal.

One of the most important takeaways from the shooting down of the Ukrainian airliner is that the pilots of the Iranian air force will feel mistrust towards the air defence personnel.

Whereas Iran gained professional credit for its missile attacks, which got through US defences, it lost credit by shooting down the Ukrainian air-

liner. The concerned personnel might be hoping against hope that the latest attack will somehow draw attention away from them, for the Iranian government is showing no sign of protecting them now that it has admitted responsibility. however, the Iranian government may be moving on to the next crisis looming in the Middle east, that of the withdrawal of US forces in Iraq. Iraqi Parliament has passed a resolution asking the US forces to leave. The USA shows no signs of intending anything of the kind. More than anything else, it shows that Iraq, even though it has had two elections since the US capture of Iraq, is not sovereign.

US armed forces cannot be removed from its soil.

One problem with Iraq as it is, is that the Iraqi government has resigned, and is holding office now in a caretaker capacity, pending the formation of a new government, or fresh elections. It should not be forgotten that the Iraqi government had resigned on 29 november last year, and a replacement is yet to be found. The government of Adil Abdul Mahdi, formed with difficulty after the 2018 election, had to resign after protests of sweeping magnitude took place, in which 319 people were killed by the law enforcing agencies. The government is not firmly enough in place to defy public opinion.

Though there has been some high feeling in Iraq about the violation Of Iraqi sovereignty that the killing of General Soleimani (who had been invited by the Iraqi government) represents, there is also the feeling that US forces have allowed Shias and Kurds to escape the domination of Sunni Arabs, who had ruled the roost till then.

While Iraq was outside the ambit of Persia in Ottoman times, and fought a war with Iran as recently as the 1980s under Saddam hussain, after the US invasion, there were two major developments: the creation of a Kurd-majority region at Mosul, and the coming to national power of Shia PMs. That has led to an increase in Iranian influence. Getting the USA out of Iraq would not only suit Iranian strategic goals, but it would also improve its street cred in Iraq, at present badly battered by the failure of the governments it has supported. The USA would not like to get out, first because it would represent a blow to US prestige, and more practically, reduce its presence in the region. need it be there if it has not just Israel to protect its interests, but also Saudi Arabia?

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

The US- China Trade War Though there has been a truce, there are still problems ahead electric vehicle maker Tesla’s factory in Shanghai and other significant investments in manufacturing sectors.

Due to ongoing trade conflict between the two countries, now American companies are doing business with enormous risks because not only trade war but the other major reason of pro-democracy protests in hong Kong is also there. Though there has been a truce in the trade war, the protests continue. experts are agreed China’s economic slowdown and trade conflict with the USA have already created huge risks for business. The tariff imposed by the China was also having significant impact on US business in China; specially small business have been slammed by the China tariffs and it has been observed that the China tariffs have enhanced the cost of business for 37 percent or more than one-third of the small businesses across the USA. Meanwhile China has offered tax incentives to motivate US companies to sustain and stay in China and it has announced the exemptions of foreign companies from paying income taxes are under consideration so that the foreign companies, especially US companies, can continue their businesses in China.

Some experts are saying that China’s exemption from certain taxes are a way to boost business as well as to counter the US incentives.

Tesla was just one automotive and energy company, but during the current trade dispute it has gained the confidence of China, and has been given status as one of China’s own companies, even though it is not in fact owned by the Chinese. China thinks that the success of Telsa is not

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only success of Telsa but also the success of China, as it can lower the level of pollution in the country.

Meanwhile Tesla also slammed the tarriffs imposed by China and has stated its cars cost 60% more than its competitors. Tesla Inc buitd a factory in China in less than a year near to Shanghai. In view of its successful business, the company has manufactured Model 3 ahead of schedule, and it was expected that this development would help in reduction of tariff and transport cost.

The Telsa Gigafactory in Shanghai is one its most precious assets and is being a main source of its expansion. now the company is claiming the Model Y production will start almost half year before schedule in China. even before the trade truce was agreed, recent developments and negotiations had motivated investors that there was a trend towards de-escalation between the two nations and they had been optimistic for at least a couple of months as J. P Morgan was already hopeful that the things will move forward smoothly and without any further trouble. JP Morgan has offered investment products, which may include bank managed investment to show trust and fiduciary services. In its annual report of Cross-Border Consumer Research and marketplace progress with a snapshot of the where, why and how of international commerce, Paypal has also said that in the start of the new Year Chinese shoppers will enjoy new things from abroad. It is necessary to mention here that despite the trade tension China’s central bank permitted the US companies to take and make payments by Chinese

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payment group Gopay. But the Paypal has licences to provide domestic and cross-border web and mobile payment services in China.

As per People’s Bank of China, almost Rmb277 trillion ($39 trillion) of mobile payments made in last year. There is no doubt that PayPal has already successfully challenged the dominance of national players in China and in future it will also pay a vital role in payments of business transactions, especially in cross-border payments.

Before discussing the future of US businesses in China it most pertinent to mention here that the USChina Business Council (USCBC) survey concluded that 80 percent of US companies have been badly affected by the recent trade tensions between the two nations and only 20 percent are optimistic about their future prospects in China in the next five years. Some indications show it may take more than a decade to reestablish confidence among US companies. Some experts said the trade war had entered Phase 2 and it has been observed by economic analysts that the tariffs imposed by the US President and his counterpart have hit in their own countries.

A US jounal Foreign Policy has said that Washington needs longer term plan to deal with the Beijing.

US companies say that they are not playing on same level field and they are also criticizing that China is not fair with them but they are not going anywhere and they will compete with the domestic companies, even though they get heavy government subsidies. Tesla CeO elon Musk says that “China is a future.”

Email: editorial@pakistantoday.com.pk

Friday, 17 January, 2020

COMMENT 09 Editor’s mail

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

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Need for proactive diplomacy

US Congress refuses dictation from India on IOK US Congress wants to know about Kashmir and the CAA riots

sultAN M hAlI

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nDIA has been continuing its oppression of the Muslims of Indian Occupied Kashmir (IOK) and is expecting that major powers like the USA will support it. India was in for a rude shock, when on 20 December 2019, Indian Minister for external Affairs (MeA) Subrahmanyam Jaishankar cancelled a meeting with a very high-profile and important Congress house Committee on Foreign Affairs, but received a sharp rebuke at the hands of US lawmakers.

This harsh reaction by the Indian MeA came in response to house Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Republican eliot engel refusing a request from Jaishankar to exclude Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal from the meeting. As a member of the Democratic Party, she represented the 37th legislative district in the Washington State Senate from 2015 to 2017.

She is the first Indian-American woman to serve in the house of Representatives. The district’s first female member of Congress, she is also the first Asian-American to represent Washington in Congress.

Congresswoman Jayapal had moved Resolution 745 in Congress on 6 December 2019 against Indian atrocities in IOK. Twenty-nine members of Congress co-sponsored that resolution, which is most likely to be adopted soon.

In the resolution, Congresswoman Jayapal had asked India to lift the communication blockade imposed since 5 August 2019 in IOK, restore all political rights of Kashmiris, release political prisoners and detainees, and allow human rights organizations and journalists access to the territory. On 22 October 2019, when the subcommittee of the Foreign Affairs Committee on Asia had held a scathing hearing on IOK, Congresswoman Jayapal had strongly highlighted the abuse of human rights in IOK after August 5.

US Congress members have refused India’s moves to dictate or silence US legislators on the issue of atrocities in IOK. A host of US lawmakers, including Senator Bernie Sanders and Senator elizabeth Warren, two leading Democratic Party candidates for the

2020 US presidential elections; the Co-Chair of the Tom Lantos human Rights Commission, Congressman Jim McGovern, and a number of other members of the US Congress, have expressed concern at India’s attempts to silence or dictate reactions of US legislators to the restrictions and human rights abuse in Indian-held Kashmir.

Before cancelling his important meeting with the house Committee on Foreign Affairs, Jaishankar had commented that Congresswoman Jayapal “did not understand” the occupied Kashmir issue and he was not interested in meeting her. Reacting to the Indian minister’s decision, Senator Bernie Sanders remarked: “Shutting out US lawmakers who are standing up for human rights is what we expect from authoritarian regimes, not the government of India. Congresswoman Jayapal must not be excluded for being outspoken about the unacceptable crackdown on Kashmiris and Muslims.”

Another Democratic Party candidate for the US presidency, Senator elizabeth Warren, wrote: “efforts to silence Pramila Jayapal are deeply troubling. The US and India have an important partnership, but our partnership can only succeed if it is rooted in honest dialogue and shared respect for religious pluralism, democracy, and human rights.”

Republican Jim McGovern, the co-chair of the Tom Lantos human Rights Commission, commented: “no foreign government should dictate who is or is not allowed into meetings on Capitol hill. I stand with Representative Jayapal and applaud Representative engel (chairman US house Foreign Relations Committee) and others for doing the same.” Senator Kamala harris, who till recently was a presidential candidate, remarked: “It’s wrong for any foreign government to tell US Congress what members are allowed in meetings on Capitol hill. I stand with Representative Jayapal and I’m glad her colleagues in the house did too”.

Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib reacted: “That’s because they [Indian officials] know they are violating international human rights laws that is leading to innocent lives being lost and causing irreparable harm to children in Kashmir.” The reaction from Congresswoman Ilhan Omar was: “True democracies tolerate dissent.” She commended Jayapal for being “a moral voice on this and so many issues before us. Just like students across India are holding the Indian government accountable, we need to continue to do so in Congress!”

Representative Jayapal remarked, “The cancellation of this meeting was deeply disturbing. It only furthers the idea that the Indian government isn’t willing to listen to any dissent at all”. The Indian government is also under pressure from US lawmakers on the recently passed Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), which has sparked widespread protests and resulted in 17 deaths.

The US Ambassador at Large for International Religious Freedom, Ambassador Sam

Brownback, recently stated that the USA is concerned about the implications of the Indian Citizenship Amendment Act and hoped that Indian government would abide by its constitutional commitments, including religious freedom. The US Congress house Foreign Affairs Committee has separately stated that any religious test for citizenship undermines the most basic democratic tenet of religious pluralism.

US Assistant Secretary of State for Democracy and human Rights Robert Destro has also expressed severe reservations about the law in a recent congressional hearing. Likewise, the US Commission on International Religious Freedom has asked for sanctions against Indian home Minister Amit Shah (widely perceived to be the architect of the bill) and others who moved the controversial law.

Republican Rashida Tlaib had also filed Resolution 724 in the US Congress on 21 november 2019 which, in addition to seeking an end to human rights violations, reaffirms Kashmiris’ right to self-determination. Indian external Affairs Minister Mr Jaishankar had spent a week in October trying to win over US legislators and think tanks on the BJP government’s policy on occupied Kashmir. During his recent US visit for 2+2 ministerial meetings, Mr Jaishankar had again tried to convince US legislators about new Delhi’s occupied Kashmir and citizenship policies.

Indian home Minister Amit Shah ended up in an unexpected spat with the US house Committee on Foreign Affairs, which has oversight over the US State Department and its policies.

This is likely to further weaken India’s case on IOK and citizenship legislation among US lawmakers and put pressure on the US State Department to take a stronger position to address these issues which concern South Asian and global peace and development.

It is believed that India-US relations are headed for a low because of the current situation of Indian internal affairs, human riots violations, anti-Muslim and anti-minorities sentiments.

Meanwhile, Pakistan has decided to host a ministerial meeting of the 57-member Organization for Islamic Cooperation (OIC) on Jammu and Kashmir in April. This has been received with chagrin by India as disclosed by the Indian media. The development, according to diplomats, is linked to a broader Saudi-Pakistan deal.

Pakistan’s Foreign Minister, Shah Mahmood Qureshi, has stated he informed his Saudi counterpart that the OIC must make a strong statement on India’s Citizenship Amendment Act as well as on the situation in [Jammu and Kashmir]. his request was acceded to by Saudi Arabia, which has directed the OIC to plan for the summit to take place. Pakistan welcomes this chance to expose Indian atrocities against Muslims of Kashmir and elsewhere in India.

Sultan M Hali is a retired Group Captain and author of the book Defence & Diplomacy.

Currently he is a columnist, analyst and TV talk show host.

SIR, the failure by our government to proactively launch a diplomatic offensive and and expose Indian designs to annex IOK, even after the decision by Modi’s government to isolate valley from media, foreign visitors, and hindu pilgrims, exposes a lack of professional analysis and competence of those who have been placed at the helm in Foreign Office and diplomatic missions. It takes specific skills and knowledge of international events acquired through years of training and postings under senior diplomats to enable an individual to possess abilities required before he/she is posted as the head of a foreign mission.

Foreign diplomatic assignments have become a tool for obliging political cronies and members of powerful institutions. It is indeed a matter of grave concern and embarrassment that President Sirisena of Sri Lanka, a country with which we have had good relations, had to issue a clarification contradicting press release of Pakistan high Commissioner Maj. Gen. (retd.) Dr Shahid Ahmed which he issued after meeting President.

There is no doubt that Pakistan’s Armed Forces are among the best qualified and trained in the world. We live in a world where specialists alone can be given key important assignments. For decades, this country’s economic policies, its academic institutions, sports bodies, and technical organizations have been placed under civil bureaucrats or retired uniformed officers who are trained for administrative assignments but lack both the qualifications and expertise needed to make key policy decisions. In these days of specialization, such postings or lateral appointments are akin to a Dentist serving as Oncologist or Cardiologist. For Pakistan to come out of its impasse it is important to make appointments strictly on merit, qualifications, and competence in the relevant field.

ALI MALIK TARIQ Lahore

Boots on table We have heard about boots on ground, or nancy Sinatra’s song “These Boots Are Made For Walking”, but it is perhaps for first time, courtesy ingenuity of this government’s federal minister that Boots on Table were displayed on television. earlier the same minister attired as a cowboy, with semiautomatic revolvers was seen on the scene when there was a terrorist attack in vicinity of Chinese embassy in Karachi.

It would be much better if this government tackles menace of poverty, illiteracy, inflation, unemployment, tax evasion, decline in exports etc. with same zeal that they confront their political opponents. The Founding Fathers of Pakistan under dynamic and visionary leadership of Quaide-Azam and Allama Iqbal struggled to create a modern democratic welfare state, whose citizens could enjoy basic human rights and live in safety, with right to dissent and no fear or threats of intimidation. MAJ tasked First Constituent Assembly to finalize the constitution, on which foundations of modern democratic welfare state could be built. Jinnah’s Pakistan was created for self-rule through elected representatives of the people with no place for any autocratic dictatorship.

It takes planning and concrete steps to improve governance and give relief to people, which seems to be absent here. Merely referring to “Madinah Republic” or “Quaid’s Vision” and ideals which Allama Iqbal stood for and instead resorting to such tactics like putting shining boots on table makes no sense to those, who had high hopes that Imran Khan might deliver. People expect federal ministers to act with responsibility and serve as role models. enough damage has been done and half country lost by vision-less mediocrity that has held power.

MALIK TARIQ ALI Lahore

Some observations SIR, it has been observed that when the former ruling parties PPP alias Zardari Party and PML(n), which have been brokered and brought together by the Maulana who is obviously quite hurt on being out of corridors of powers after being there doing nothing for more than 10 years, win and secure a victory in any matter, then everything is right, there is no rigging; there is no irregularity as such as well.

For instance recently held Ghotki by-election which the PPP, the ruling party in Sindh province, won.

When the opposition headed by these parties loses some case or matter then everything is wrong, rigged, and horse trading, and what not is committed by the winning side. For instance, the failure of the combined opposition onslaught to oust the sitting Chairman of the upper house of the Parliament, the Senate, apparently for no crime of his on Thursday. The losers hurled all sorts of accusations on the winners intentionally brushing aside the Chhanga Manga excursion trip which the people still remember, particularly in Punjab province.

And, the combined opposition had put up a candidate for the top slot who after losing the “battle” unwarrantly attacked the chief of the premier national institution which is quite deplorable and regrettable to say the least, please. Thanks.

M Z RIFAT Lahore

Friday, 17 January, 2020

BUSINESS 11

Over 46Pc under-InvOIcIng recOrded In IT IMPOrTS, SenaTe BOdy TOld

CORPORATE CORNER Shan Foods leads fight against plastic pollution KARACHI: One of the leaders in the spice industry, Shan Foods has furthered its commitment for a cleaner, greener Pakistan by joining the fight against plastic pollution. Understanding the negative impact plastic waste has on our environment Shan Foods has donated more than nineteen thousand eco-friendly bags to Naheed Supermarket, as an alternative to conventional plastic bags. The bags are available for customers free of cost. The company has also handed out the bags to its entire staff in its Head Office. Speaking about this initiative, Shan Foods Marketing Communications & Ecommerce Manager Maria Rashdi said, “At Shan Foods we care about our environment. Plastic is not only harmful for animals but for humans as well. Every year, 8 million metric tons of plastics enter our ocean on top of the estimated 150 million metric tons that currently circulate our marine environments.”. P R E S S R E l E A S E

KARACHI: Internationally recognized VavaCars has launched its operations in Pakistan. The company has appointed Mujahid Khan as the new Country Manager for Pakistan. PRESS RElEAS E

ISLAMABAD

a

GHUlAM ABBAS

S the menace of under-invoicing is causing a loss of over Rs150 billion per annum to the country, the IT sector imports have topped the list in this regard with over 46pc under-invoicing.

Under-invoicing could be simply defined as "stating the price of a good on an invoice as being less than the one actually paid to the supplier". It occurs if the importer and/or exporter "wishes to save on a tariff/duty" or if a buyer and/or seller wishes to "understate their apparent profits” so as to pay less in taxes.

"During the last five years, under-invoicing in the IT sector has caused a loss of Rs3.70 billion to the national exchequer," officials of the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) informed Senate Standing Committee on Commerce on Thursday.

The committee meeting was chaired by Senator Mirza Muhammad Afridi.

Additional Secretary Commerce Tariq Huda claimed that cases against those involved in under-invoicing were pending at the Sindh High Court. He informed that at least 35 million mo-

LAHORE

LAHORE: The Cube Design Services sets new trends in the property market by organizing a one-of-a-kind OpenHouse/Networking event. Notable cricketers, including Babar Azam and Azhar Ali, were also present on the occasion. PRESS RElEAS E

bile phone sets were being smuggled into the country every year.

"Surprisingly, smuggling of oil from Iran has also increased with annual estimated smuggling worth $2 billion," he stated. "Another major item being smuggled into Pakistan was tyres from the porous borders." According to the commerce ministry officials, the Ministry of Interior was tasked to take appropriate action against smuggling.

They said details of who sent dollars abroad illegally through money laundering have been sought from the Financial Monitoring Unit of the State Bank of Pakistan, adding that the ministry would be sending the cases of under-invoicing to courts by March 2020.

Earlier, the committee was informed that FBR has detected under-invoicing on 17 goods

imported from abroad. The watchdog is also preparing to approach a court of law against importers who allegedly imported over $10 million worth IT goods from abroad.

It was informed that the banking channels were being monitored to detect what procedures they adopted to transfer money abroad and to check whether the procedure comes under the money laundering crime.

FBR's Jawad Awais Agha informed the meeting that as many as 17 importers were importing IT good through under-invoicing. He said following the reports in this regard, the department has approached manufacturers for confirmation, adding that a letter has also been dispatched to Singapore High Commission for this purpose.

Meanwhile, Senator Shibli Faraz censured the relevant officials for their poor performance and non-seriousness towards matters of national interest. He observed that FBR, Customs and other relevant departments' officials performed poorly, pointing out the no audit could be conducted by the departments so far. Responding to Shibli Faraz, FBR and Custom Intelligence officials informed the meeting that they received the audit report of Custom on January 8, 2020.

Commercial banks disburse Rs80m loans among farmers SHAHAB OMER

ISLAMABAD: National Energy Efficiency and Conservation Authority, for the first time in the history of Pakistan, has launched the Minimum Energy Performance Standards (MEPS) for LEDs. All the LEDs available in the market and sold to the consumers will have to adopt these standards & energy labelling in two phases. PRESS RElEASE

‘APART FROM 35 MILLION MOBILE PHONES, OIL WORTH $2BN IS BEING SMUGGLED INTO PAKISTAN EVERY YEAR’

Four commercial banks have pledged an area of 6,275,267 square feet against 47 mutations in the different areas of Punjab to give loans to farmers, Pakistan Today has learnt.

In November 2019, Punjab Land Record Authority (PLRA) had given access to digital land records to 28 banks. Since then, an amount of Rs80,09 million has been issued to the farmers through these banks.

According to documents available with this scribe, Zarai Taraqiati Bank Limited has approved a mutation of land stretched on 287,957sq.ft in Bahawalpur, 117,232sq.ft in Sahiwal, 3,858,924sq.ft in Ba-

hawalnagar, 408,000sq.ft in Multan, and 401,148sq.ft in Gujranwala. An area stretched on 582,896sqft in Bahawalnagar has also been pledged by the bank but the status of the loan showed “cancelled”.

Similarly, Khushali Microfinance Bank Limited has pledged an area of 63,203sq.ft against a mutation in Lahore but its status was “still pending”. First Microfinance Bank Limited has also pledged a land stretched on an area of 375,238 against nine mutations in Lahore but its status was also “pending”.

A case of mutation in Sialkot was pending in Habib Bank Limited whereas Mobilink Microfinance Bank Limited has cancelled a mutation in Lahore.

PLRA Director Nadia

Ahmad informed this scribe that an amount of Rs80,095,300 has so far been given to the farmers through these banks.

“Previously, it was a hectic exercise for those who wanted to get loans from the banks.

They had to go to the bank and then go to the revenue officer to verify their mutations. But now, it is a one-window operation as the applicants just have to go to the bank. The listed banks have access to land records and they can verify the status of land through one click.

“The bank itself can process the mutation and after verification from our revenue officer, they can issue the loan. Only the lands which have problems in their ownership are unable to get the loan,” she explained.

PIA joins hands with AccesRail to facilitate passengers KARACHI: Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) has announced a major partnership with AccesRail, the world’s leading provider of air-rail intermodal solutions. “The partnership will allow PIA to use AccesRail's expertise to enable its customers to book train tickets in UK, Spain, Norway and Canada by using PIA’s booking platform, or through travel agency Global Distribution System,” a statement issued by PIA read. This new arrangement provides convenient, easy rail/bus connections at PIA’s key

gateways in UK, Europe and Canada, enabling PIA passengers to reach cities and destinations other than those served by PIA and to reach their end destinations seamlessly with the best fares available as per desired itinerary and same ticket.- PIA passengers will be able to connect to and from their international flights onto a number of rail/bus routes operated by major railway/bus companies in combination with PIA operating flights. The transport providers include: RENFE in Spain, VIA

RAIL Canada, VI in Norway as well as Great Western Railways and Avanti West Coast in the United Kingdom.

This partnership also includes luxury coach routes in the United Kingdom operated by National Express to major British towns and cities from London Heathrow Airport and from Manchester Airport.

PIA CEO Air Marshal Arshad Malik congratulated the airline’s marketing team for providing this added facility to the passengers. STAFF REPORT

SBP reserves up $82m to $11,58bn The foreign exchange reserves held by the State Bank of Pakistan increased 0.71pc on a weekly basis, according to data released by the central bank on Thursday. On January 10, the forex reserves held by the SBP were recorded at $11,586 million, up $82 million compared with $11,503.7 million in the previous week. The central bank cited no reason for the increase in reserves. The overall liquid foreign currency reserves held by the country, including net reserves held by banks other than the SBP, stood at $18,123.6 million.

Net reserves held by banks amounted to $6,537.6 million. BUSINESS DESK

Malaysia talks to India over palm curbs KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia is talking to the Indian government and trade officials in a bid to resolve concerns over New Delhi’s new palm oil import restrictions, a minister in Kuala Lumpur said on Thursday amid a trade spat between the countries. India’s Hindu nationalist government has repeatedly objected to Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad speaking out against recent policies which critics say discriminate against Muslims. Malaysia is a Muslim-majority nation. India, the world’s biggest buyer of edible oils, last week placed curbs on imports of refined palm oil and has informally asked traders to stop importing all kinds of palm oil from Malaysia, the world’s second biggest producer and exporter of palm oil. Reuters reported on Wednesday, citing sources, that New Delhi could also restrict imports of petroleum, aluminium ingots, liquefied natural gas, computer parts and microprocessors from Malaysia. AGENCIES

Govt striving to bring back 60s’ glory: minister ISLAMABAD SYEDA MASOOMA

Science and Technology Minister Fawad Chaudhry said on Thursday that the government is aiming and planning to keep the hi-tech industry tax free with zero customs duty for ten years.

He said this while speaking at the AI National Conference titled ‘AI Implications in National Security and Hybrid Warfare’.

The conference was organized by the Center of Pakistan and International Relations (COPAIR).

The minister said that back in the 80s’ when Pakistan was fighting the world’s war, the then establishment made two crucial mistakes. “We established many madrassas but did not bring to our country the campuses of Oxford and Harvard universities. Our second mistake was to

CONFERENCE ON AI IMPLICATIONS IN NATIONAL SECURITY AND HYBRID WARFARE BRINGS TOGETHER PROFESSORS, EXPERTS, GOVERNMENT OFFICIALS not focus on research and development.”

He said that countries all over the world focus on building their military capabilities but also invest in the research and development sector. “We have state of the art drone technology, but we are not using them for agriculture as is being done elsewhere in the world. We make equipment for JF-Thunder and tanks but cannot manufacture our TVs or phone chargers.”

The minister emphasized public private partnership in research and development projects. He said that the world today makes plans spanning single

decades. “One Elon Musk or one Steve Jobs can end up changing the entire dynamics of science and therefore future can only be planned in short periods.”

He said that the incumbent government is attempting to bring back the glory of Pakistan’s development in the sixties.

He said, “We are in efforts to regain the country’s past glory when it established the organization like SUPARCO and the countries like India and China were not even in the list of our competitors. Today when we talk about sending Pakistan’s first space mission in 2022, people show a surprising attitude.”

Fawad Chaudhry said that his ministry was in contact with the authorities to bring PayPal account in Pakistan which would remove hurdles for Pakistan’s IT experts in receiving payments after selling their products internationally. “Pakistan has 527 research and development institutions but lacks proper coordination.

The government will take steps to bring all these institutions under one umbrella to increase their effectiveness,” he said.

The conference also included a panel discussion, during which former DG FIA Ammar Jafri said, “I will be very frank with all of you. We are not prepared to deal with a human hacking a Facebook account, so how can we be prepared for computers doing the hacking?” He said that Pakistan is among the only three countries in the world without a cyber security policy. He said that in the future wars will not involve boots on the

ground, but it will be through technology.

“The kill switch is already working. It took three minutes to shut down the internet in Iraq.” Answering a question he said, “Our infrastructure is not prepared for a zero day attack and there are several vulnerabilities.”

Professor Dr Zafar Nawaz Jaspal from School of Politics and International Relations, Quaid-i-Azam University Islamabad said, “We try to take on new challenges with a traditional approach without realizing the limitations of the traditional methods.” He gave a fourpronged proposal to deal with the new challenges arising out of AI influence, mentioning research centers, legislation, law enforcement agencies, media, and academia as the stakeholders and agents of change that can bring about the needed preparedness and capabilities to deal with the challenges.

Friday, 17 January, 2020

12 BUSINESS MaRket DaIly

kSe-100 gains 72 points in volatile session KARACHI STAFF REPORT

HIT By POwer SHOckS, aPTMa SeekS PM’S aTTenTIOn LAHORE

Investors of the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) witnessed another jittery session on Thursday, with the indices changing positions before helping the benchmark KSE-100 Index end in green. Foreign investors ended as net buyers on Wednesday with a net inflow of $2.21 million. The benchmark KSE-100 Index slipped to its intraday low at 42,805.73 after losing 187.30 points. It then managed to recover some losses and touched its days high at 43,205.26 (+212.23 points). The index settled higher by 72.07 points at 43,065.10. The KMI-30 index, on the other hand, lost 40.47 points to close at 70,103.89, whereas the KSE All Share Index inched up by 21.68 points, ending at 29,914.47. Out of the total traded shares, 187 advanced and 125 declined. The overall market volumes increased from 171.13 million to 229.86 million. Shares worth Rs6.55 billion were traded on Thursday. The Bank of Punjab (BOP +4.67pc), Worldcall Telecom (WTL -2.99pc) and TRG Pakistan Limited (TRG -0.35pc) remained the volume leaders of the day, exchanging 60.41 million, 11.67 million and 9.09 million shares, respectively. Sectors that helped keep the index from the negative zone included banking (+62.80 points), textile composite (+20.53 points) and cement (+12.55 points). Among the companies, Fauji Fertilizer Company Limited (FFC +17.45 points), Meezan Bank Limited (MEBL +16.68 points) and MCB Bank Limited (MCB +16.53 points) added maximum points to the index. The refinery sector gained +1.21pc in its cumulative market capitalization. Byco Petroleum Pakistan Limited (BYCO +2.00pc), Attock Refinery Limited (ATRL +0.56pc) and National Refinery Limited (NRL +0.20) closed in the green zone. Meanwhile, the Board of Directors (BoD) of Ghani Automobile Industries Limited (GAIL +15.07pc), in a notification to the exchange, announced that it has considered the proposed merger within and into Ghani Value Glass Limited (GVGL +4.59pc).

SBP raises around rs275bn through MTB auction

T

HASSAN NAQVI

HE leadership of All Pakistan Textile Mills Association (APTMA) is seeking appointments from Prime Minister Imran Khan and his finance adviser Abdul Hafeez Shaikh to discuss the five-year long-term export policy, including the Power Division’s recent decision to backtrack from providing regionally competitive energy price to the export sector i.e. 7.5 cents/kilowatt-hour.

The Power Division, through a statement issued on January 13, had directed the distribution companies to charge all add-ons to the competitive price of 7.5cents/kWh, including fixed charges of Rs0.60/kWh, variable charges of Rs12.98/kWh, financial cost surcharge of Rs0.43/kWh, Neelum Jhelum surcharge of Rs0.10/kWh, electricity duty (1pc) on the total bill at 0.06, and Quarterly Tariff Adjustments (QTA) at 1.80 in the first and second quarter and at 0.63 in the third and fourth quarter.

APTMA, in its letter to the Ministry of Commerce on January 15, had asked the ministry to immediately submit a summary to the Economic Coordination Committee seeking withdrawal of the Power Division’s Jan 13 letter.

A commerce ministry official told this scribe that the prime minister and his economic team have understood the importance of regionally competitive electricity rates and had reiterated time and again that they would provide electricity at 7.5 cents/kWh (all inclusive) to the exportorientated industry.

"But unfortunately, the prime minister is

APTMA OFFICIAL SAYS ADD-ONS TO REGIONALLY COMPETITIVE ENERGY PRICE WILL MAKE PAKISTANI EXPORTS UNCOMPETITIVE IN GLOBAL TEXTILE MARKET backing off from the commitment he made to the export sector," he stated.

Rejecting the add-ons to the competitive price of electricity, APTMA’s Group Leader Gohar Ijaz said, “We need a clear export policy to move forward as we (textile industry) cannot run pillar to post every day.”

He continued, “Seventy per cent of Pakistan’s exports are now stitched products and we reached this target because the government provided us electricity on competitive rates; we could also convert the remaining 30pc in next five years provided we are given a five-year policy which includes competitive energy pricing as one of its components.”

Talking to Profit, APTMA Punjab’s Senior Vice Chairman Abdul Rahim Nasir said that the government was providing electricity to the export sector at 7.5 cents/kWh since January 2019, but unfortunately the Power Division is now backtracking from its stance.

“Textile, which has shown over 25pc growth in terms of quantity, will be hit very hard if electricity rates are increased, as it would make Pakistani exporters uncompetitive in the global

Foreign Direct Investment surges 68pc in six months

KARACHI

KARACHI

STAFF REPORT

MEIRYUM AlI

The State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) has reported that the government raised Rs274.7 billion through T-bills, against the target of Rs400 billion. The SBP conducted the auction for the sale of 3-month, 6-month and 12month Government of Pakistan Market Treasury Bills (MTBs), and received bids amounting to over Rs1.1 trillion. Bids worth Rs695.4 billion were received for 3-month T-bills, Rs148.1 billion for 6-month T-bills while 12-month government papers fetched bids amounting to Rs269.4 billion. Out of the received bids, the federal government raised Rs170.4 billion from 3month bids, Rs22.3 billion from 6-month T-bills, and Rs82 billion from 12-month T-bills. The total acceptance in the auction, including non-competitive bids, was Rs327.1 billion. Most of the bidding was concentrated in the short term 3-month T-bills, reflecting a possible anticipation of a policy rate cut.

The current interest rate has remained stubbornly at 13.25pc since July 16, 2019, despite speculation in the subsequent months that there would be a rate cut. Most recently, the government has hinted at a potential cut at the end of January. However, the SBP has been relying on the high-interest rate, as foriegn investment has dramatically increased in the last few months. Delaying a rate cut has been part of the SBP’s recent effort to attract ‘hot’ money. According to the state bank, foreign investment in T-bills in cumulative net inflows Special Convertible Rupee Accounts (SCRA) surged to $1.7 billion between July 2019 and January 2020. The next auction date for T-bills is set for January 28, with a target amount of Rs500 billion.

Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in Pakistan rose 68.3pc to $1.34 billion in the first half of the fiscal year 2019-20 (July-Dec FY20), according to data released by the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) on Thursday.

During the same six-month period a year ago, FDI in the country stood at $796.8 million.

On a year-on-year basis, FDI increased to $487 million in December 2019, against $319.5 million recorded during the same month in 2019.

The overall foreign investment in Pakistan stood at $1.8 billion during the six-month pe-

riod, compared to $377 million during the same period last year.

The foreign portfolio investment from July to December amounted to $452 million.

Country-wide data released by the central bank shows that China remained the largest investor, with net FDI of $422 million during the six-month period, compared with net investment of $217 million during the same period last year. The second-largest investor was Norway, with a net FDI of $289 million, compared with $9 million during the same period the year before.

The highest amount of FDI was in telecommunications, at $420 million, followed by power at $290 million.

Unilever Pakistan announces change in leadership BUSINESS DESK: Unilever Pakistan Limited has announced a change in its senior leadership in Pakistan, with Amir Paracha taking over as the new chairman and CEO from Shazia Syed, effective 1st February 2020. Amir Paracha is currently the Vice President for Customer Development and Sales at Unilever Pakistan. He joined the organization in 2000, after starting his career in the oil & gas sector. Over the past twenty years at Unilever, Amir has been instrumental in reshaping sales and marketing across Pakistan as well as in the North Africa & Middle East business. As VP for Customer Development and Sales in Pakistan, Amir has delivered solid results and maintained a strong growth mindset, successfully delivering a vision focused on the future. He has also led the digital transformation agenda at Unilever, whilst championing inclusion, development and wellbeing successfully in the Unilever sales ecosystem.

textile market,” Nasir said, adding that the Power Division wants to add all additional taxes now, including QTA, FPA and other surcharges, which would be a huge blow to the export sector.

According to sources, the APTMA leadership, in its meeting with PM Imran Khan, would also discuss reduction in corporate tax rate for exporters; while recommending that upper cap should be fixed at 25pc and subsequently reduced to 15pc, besides exemption from 1pc of turnover tax and adjustment of input tax on materials used for building of 1,000 new plants that would convert raw materials into finished products and made-up garments.

The APTMA leadership would further discuss reduction in sales tax rate, simplification of refunds system, besides asking the government to setup a specially designated FBR cell to deal with their complaints.

“We will recommend the PM and finance adviser to implement no sales tax on machinery imports,” a senior APTMA official, who would be part of that meeting, told Profit. “They will also discuss allocation of funds to operationalize sustainable production centres to provide services to the entire textile value chain.”

He said the APTMA officials would ask for government’s assistance to set up effluent plants to meet European Union (EU) and American criterion through subsidized credit or grants.

“The APTMA members will also discuss the setting up of duty-free warehouses, formation of sustainable production and consumption policy, revival of power looms industry in clusters, construction of integrated textile parks and product development centres.

Trump all praise for ‘momentous’ uS-china trade deal WASHINGTON AGENCIES

President Donald Trump has ended two years of escalating trade battles with China, with a partial agreement to resolve some areas of conflict.

“Today, we take a momentous step, one that’s never taken before with China,” that will ensure “fair and reciprocal trade,” Trump said at a White House signing ceremony on Wednesday.

“Together, we are righting the wrongs of the past,” said the president, who also announced he planned to visit China in the “not too distant future.”

However, tariffs will remain in place on hundreds of billions of two-way trade until the second phase of trade agreement is completed. Trump hailed the “phase one deal” during a lengthy ceremony taking place as the Democratic-led House of Representatives prepares to prosecute the president in a historic Senate trial. Describing the agreement as “a transformative deal that will bring tremendous benefits to both countries,” Trump said China understands “there has to be a certain reciprocity. It cannot continue like this.” Chinese Vice Premier Liu He read out a letter from President Xi Jinping which described the deal as “good for China, for the US and for the whole world.” It shows “our two countries have the ability to act on the basis of equality,” Xi wrote, adding that he hopes “the US side will treat fairly Chinese companies” as well as researchers and others. Trump said the deal was worth more than $200 billion, tears down barriers to US food and agricultural exports, and contained “substantial and enforceable commitments.”

Joint committee formed to deliberate Ml-1 financing: Chinese envoy ISLAMABAD STAFF REPORT

Chinese Ambassador to Pakistan Yao Jing has said that China and Pakistan have constituted a joint committee to explore financing modalities and to find an appropriate financial package for the Main Line (ML-1) railway project.

Addressing the media late Wednesday, the envoy said that due to huge financial implication, the project was facing little delays. “However, this won’t be the case as the committee would soon finalise an appropriate financial package to fund the project.”

YAO JING URGES JOURNALISTS TO NEGATE WESTERN MEDIA’S PROPAGANDA AGAINST CPEC, SAYS PROJECTS BEING EXECUTED AS PER PLAN The Chinese embassy had arranged a reception for media persons in connection with the Chinese Lunar Year.

The ML-1 project is part of China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), under which 1,872-km railway track from Peshawar to Karachi would be upgraded at an estimated cost of around $9 billion.

Yao Jing on the occasion rejected the

rumours regarding a slowdown in CPEC projects, saying that work on CPEC projects was being executed according to the plan. "There is no mega project being executed presently, which is why it seems that the project has slowed down," he said. “But there are a number of small projects currently being executed under the CPEC framework across the country. These may

not be tangible but are very important.”

Elaborating his point, the envoy said in Gwadar alone, five main projects were being executed under CPEC, including a vocational training centre, a 200-bedded hospital, a water desalination plant, and a new state-of-the-art airport.

In social, health and education sectors, he informed the media that there were 27 projects being implemented under CPEC across the country.

The envoy pointed out that the CPEC had entered in its second stage where social, industrial and agriculture sectors would remain areas of special focus.

He said that a number of Chinese

agriculture companies were coming to Pakistan to purchase more value-added agriculture products.

“As per the vision of Prime Minister Imran Khan to alleviate poverty, several villages of backward areas of the country are being made a model of poverty alleviation,” he said. “A new area – science and technology – is being included in the CPEC portfolio to produce more valueadded products in the country.”

He said the Western media was against Pak-China relations, especially CPEC, adding that this propaganda must be negated via dissemination of positive and true picture by the media of both countries.

in ConversAtion with

AsmA ChohAn

Despite facing criticism for her initial pitch Asma Chohan has gone on to become the successful CEO of Funholics. The company is a pioneer in premium quality entertainment and provides one of the best recreational activities for children and young adults: laser tag.

1

Where did the inspiration to start Funholics come from?

The inspiration for the whole Funholics project actually came from my three kids. They teach me to see the fun side of every situation and have always had a huge influence on me. I wanted there to be some premium quality entertainment for them and other Pakistani youths. I was already looking for a way to invest my money once I’d moved to Pakistan from England so I thought why not?

2

Why did you decide to invest in laser tag over other activities such as ice skating or escape rooms?

To begin with, we were restraining funding to test the project out. Hence we started with a single activity. The reason I chose laser tag was because it provides the ideal opportunity for families and young adults to develop team work and communication skills in a fun and healthy way. This is something that I noticed was missing from the existing recreational industry of Pakistan.

3

HOLLYWOOD BOLLYWOOD

Was it difficult to start such a project?

Yes it was difficult in many ways. Starting a business is never easy. Finding others who believe in the project, hunting down a prime location, and promoting the business are all very challenging things to do. Moreover it’s so important to receive the right type of support especially when you take on a project as adventurous as Funholics.

4 5

Do you plan on expanding into other cities and activities?

Yes, there are a couple of further projects so be on the look out!

How is Funholics different from other companies offering similar services?

Funholics believes in giving something back to the community. Other businesses strive to make a profit. Funholics believes in giving people an opportunity to have fun and build their relationships. We aim to improve ourselves with the money we make and expand further. That way we can perpetuate a cycle of improvement within ourselves.

And hence, we can continue to provide the best quality of innovative and fun recreational activities.

6

What is Funholics target age group and how do you manage to appeal to them?

Funholics activities are open to all ages. However, we do specialize in the entertainment for teenagers and young adults. We manage to attract them though our fun and fast paced idea of laser tag. The experience and fun we provide is so unmatched that clients spread our initiative through word of mouth. And they aren’t able to resist coming back for another round of laser tag with new friends.

7

What are some of the most valuable lessons running Funholics has taught you?

Starting up and running Funholics has taught me so much. I’ve learned to believe in my ideas despite what other people may say. The experience has also taught me the value of hard work and focus and how gearing my potential towards a project can make it come alive. Last but not least I learned resilience. Not many people believed in the project but I learned to keep going in spite of the negative criticism.

PANTONE ANNOUNCES ‘CLASSIC BLUE’ AS ITS 2020 COLOUR OF THE YEAR

Pantone has announced its Colour of the Year for 2020, revealing “Classic Blue“ as the “reassuring” shade to represent the coming year.

Every year since 2000, the Pantone Colour Institute has selected a colour as its Colour of the Year that the organisation believes is representative of contemporary society.

This marks the seventh time that a shade of blue has been chosen, with Cerulean being selected during the inaugural year, Aqua Sky in 2003 and Blue Turquoise two years later.

Leatrice Eiseman, executive director of the Pantone Colour Institute, states that “we are living in a time that requires time and faith”, which is why the “constancy and confidence expressed” by the “solid and dependable” Classic Blue was selected.

“Imbued with a deep resonance, Pantone Classic Blue provides an anchoring foundation,” colour specialist Eiseman states.

“A boundless blue evocative of the vast and infinite evening sky, Pantone Classic Blue encourages us to look beyond the obvious to expand our thinking; challenging us to think more deeply, increase our perspective and open the flow of communication.”

Pantone explains that in a digital age where technology continues to evolve at a rapid pace, society is seemingly gravitating towards colours that are soothing and have a protective quality.

“The Pantone Colour of the Year highlights the relationship between trends in colour and what is taking place in our global culture at a moment in time, a colour that reflects what individuals feel they need that colour can hope to answer,” said Laurie Pressman, vice president of the Pantone Colour Institute.

“As society continues to recognise colour as a critical form of communication, and a way to express and affect ideas and emotions, designers and brands should feel inspired to use colour to engage and connect.”

The deep blue colour ultramarine, the most expensive shade of blue used by Renaissance painters, was made from the semi-precious stone lapis lazuli.

Once discovered in ancient mines in Afghanistan, lapis lazuli was imported into Europe in the 14th and 15th centuries by Italian traders.

Robert Downey Jr. Would Return To Iron Man Under One Condition

The First Poster for Netflix’s Taylor Swift Doc Is Here, and It’s Surprisingly Dark

What would it take to get Robert Downey Jr. back as Iron Man in the MCU, as The Avengers: Endgame saw the culmination of 12 years or so of films that have spanned 22 movies?

Turns out quite a lot.

The Avengers: Endgame saw Robert Downey Jr. don the Infinity Gauntlet where he reversed the events from Infinity War, but it wasn't without a cost -- as he perished in the process.

The end was a fitting tribute to Robert Downey Jr. and Tony Stark as RDJ kicked off the MCU as we know it today back in 2008 with Iron Man, and Endgame saw Stark save and restore the MCU. There has been a rumor that Robert Downey Jr. may return in an Iron Heart Disney Plus series as the voice of an AI, but from what the actor has to say above that seems unlikely.

Likewise, Jeff Goldblum is reported to have mistakenly confirmed RDJ for the upcoming Disney Plus What If? animated series, but again, it's said to be not happening and that RDJ is not providing a voice in the series.

With her 2019 album Lover, and especially the visuals for singles like “ME!”, pop-country sensation Taylor Swift rebounded from her dark-and-moody black-and-white Reputation vibes to a full-color, raucous, even joyful experience. However, it might be wise not to expect those kinds of vibes in Miss Americana, the upcoming Netflix documentary about Swift from filmmaker Lana Wilson (After Tiller). Based on its new poster, the look at Swift will likely be raw, unfiltered, and dark. Well, in this case, the poster is literally dark. But you see my point.

Beyond her unimpeachable bangers like “We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together” and the entire 1989 album (frontto-back, stone-cold classics), Swift has known a fair amount of controversy in her career. She’s gotten in feuds with Katy Perry, stayed queasily silent on politically progressive issues, got knocked for appropriation when deciding to speak up on politically progressive issues, and, um, well, Cats.

Will Miss Americana delve into all of these? Maybe not specifically.

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Relative to their bodies, Chihuahuas have the biggest brain in the dog world.

The "mystery" flavor of Dum Dums is a combination of the end of one batch of candy and the beginning of another.

In 1971, a Dallas man named Mariano Martinez invented the frozen margarita machine. The 26year-old was inspired by the Slurpee machine at 7-Eleven.

Priyanka can’t handle people responding with ‘Ok’ or ‘Take care’, says she has 3 million unread e-mails on her phone Priyanka Chopra, who is all set to feature in her husband Nick Jonas’ next song, has said that there is so much information about them on Google that it’s overwhelming. The actor has also revealed that she has more than 3 million unread e-mails on her phone.

Calling it a party trick, Priyanka told Harper’s Bazaar in an interview, “I’ll show people my home screen. You can’t even see all the numbers on the little mail icon—there are too many.” She went on to reveal, “I like to get work done on my phone, but I hate e-mails. Why do people respond with “Ok” or “Take care,” and not tell you anything useful? I can’t handle it. I have almost three million unread e-mails on my phone.”

She also made it clear how people need to text or call her if they wanted to reach her and that she doesn’t check messages on her Instagram account. The actor who never fails to make a style statement during her regular public appearances also revealed that she doesn’t have a workout routine.

Friday, 17 January, 2020

14 SPORTS

South AfricA lAnd twin blow in third teSt v englAnd S OUTH Africa grasped the initiative by dismissing both England opening batsmen between lunch and tea on the first day of the third Test at St George’s Park on Thursday.

England were 117 for two at tea after captain Joe Root won the toss and decided to bat on a placid pitch on a hot, sunny day.

Zak Crawley and Dom Sibley gave England a solid start, reaching lunch at 61 for no wicket.

But South Africa came back strongly, dismissing both opening batsmen in similar circumstances and keeping a tight rein on the scoring rate after lunch.

Kagiso Rabada had Sibley caught at backward square leg for 36 and Anrich Nortje had Crawley caught in the same position for 44.

Left-arm spinner Keshav Maharaj conceded only 22 runs in 19 unbroken overs from the northern end of the ground, enabling South African captain Faf du Plessis to rotate his four fast bowlers from the southern end.

With the four-match series tied at 1-1, batting first appeared to be a considerable advantage on a pitch which had a fair covering of grass but which offered no help to the bowlers. It was the sixth successive Test toss lost by Du Plessis.

South Africa picked new cap Dane Paterson as a specialist fast bowler in place of all-rounder Dwaine Pretorius.

"He’s a skiddy bowler who hits the top of the stumps," said Du Plessis, who surprisingly decided that Paterson would

PCB eyes hosting rights for major ICC events SpoRtS deSK Buoyed by successfully hosting Sri Lanka and convincing Bangladesh to tour as well, the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) has now set its sights on bringing a major cricket tournament to the country.

Manu Sawhney, the chief executive of the International Cricket Council (ICC), is expected in Pakistan on a twoday visit from Jan 22 to 23.

Daily Jang, citing its sources, has reported that PCB officials will explore the possibility of bringing a major ICC tournament to Pakistan between 2023 and 2031.

The Urdu daily further states that there will be eight men’s and as many women’s ICC tournaments during the nine-year period mentioned above. The same time period will also accommodate four U-19 tournaments.

The PCB, in the light of its recent achievements, is hoping to have done enough to gain the trust of the rest of the cricketing world.

And although decisions on tournament rights are decided in ICC meetings, the PCB is planning to lay the groundwork when Sawhney visits Pakistan next week. The PCB has set up Sawhney’s meetings with federal minister Fehmida Mirza as well as officials of the interior ministry. He will also be given a security briefing.

The exercise, the PCB believes, will help it in bringing top cricketing nations to Pakistan, while its long-term target remains on securing the right to host a major tournament.

Pakistan last hosted a major ICC tournament (the World Cup) in 1996.

In 2008, it hosted the Asia Cup — an event regulated by the Asian Cricket Council.

Scottish FA set to ban children from heading in training London Agencies

Children in Scotland could be banned from heading the ball in training due to links between football and dementia, reports said on Thursday.

BBC Scotland said the Scottish Football Association (SFA) was set to announce the ban for under-12s later this month.

The United States has had a similar ban in place since 2015 but Scotland would become the first European country to impose such a restriction.

The decision follows the release of a report by the University of Glasgow in October that discovered former footballers were three-and-a-half times more likely to die from a degenerative brain disease than the general population.

A spokesman for the SFA said proposals would be finalised shortly.

“Given the study was undertaken using medical records from Scottish

footballers, there is an additional onus on the national governing body in this country to take a responsible yet proportionate approach to the findings,” the spokesman added.

Former Arsenal and Celtic striker John Hartson praised the SFA for their stance.

“Heading was a massive part of my game,” he said. “Managers bought me because I could head the ball. There have been some serious situations where players have lost their lives and ex-legends suffering from dementia, so I’m glad the SFA are leading the rest of football and doing something about it.” Brain injury association Headway called for further research to be undertaken.

“The difficulty we face, in the absence of meaningful research relating to the modern game, is where we draw the line in terms of acceptable risk versus the rewards we know healthy exercise can bring,” said chief executive Peter McCabe.

share the new ball with Philander, with the quicker Rabada and Nortje having to wait for their turn.

England brought back fast bowler Mark Wood in place of the injured James Anderson. Wood has not played since the

Peterhansel sneaks 11th stage win in dakar rally Stephane Peterhansel snatched a dramatic 11th stage of the Dakar Rally on Thursday when he pipped Nasser Al-Attiyah to the line by just 10 seconds.

Frenchman Peterhansel won his fourth stage of this year's race in his Mini ahead of Toyota's Al-Attiyah in Haradh, and finished more than eight minutes ahead of overall leader and teammate Carlos Sainz.

"We fought hard, we pushed all day long and we gained some time, but not enough. Now, if Carlos can bring it home, it'll be great for the team," said Peterhansel. Sainz, 57, remains 10 minutes 23 seconds ahead of Peterhansel, who is third in the overall standings going into Friday's final 374-kilometre stage between Haradh and Qiddiya, and the Spaniard is still on course for his third Dakar victory. "Just one day to go. I'll keep an eye on the gaps and stay focused for tomorrow," said Sainz However 'Mr. Dakar' Peterhansel, who has won the rally 13 times (seven in a car, six on a bike), is just six seconds behind Qatari defending champion Al-Attiyah, who sits second. On the bikes Pablo Quintanilla won the 11th stage by just nine seconds ahead of Red Bull's Matthias Walkner, significantly closing the gap between him and overall leader Ricky Brabec, who finished the stage 11 minutes 48 seconds back in 10th. Chilian Quintanilla is however still nearly 14 minutes behind Brabec going into the final stage. "I'm really happy with this stage. It is always a nice feeling to win a stage. It was really difficult and I gave it my 100 percent from the beginning," said Quintanilla. "I took back a lot of time from Ricky, but there is still a bit difference between us.

We still have a few kilometres to push tomorrow." Agencies

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Judge orders Rio 2016 Olympic Games venues shut on security grounds Rio de JaneiRo Agencies

World Cup final in July because of a knee injury but has been working on his fitness since the beginning of the tour.

Wood has not played in a red-ball match since a Test series in the West Indies last February. Agencies

A Brazilian court on Wednesday ordered that the 2016 Rio Olympic Games facilities be closed to the public over safety concerns.

The Rio Games -- the first to be held in South America -were heavily criticized for their extreme costs, estimated around $12.5 billion, and corruption scandals that surrounded the construction sites.

A Rio de Janeiro judge ruled in favor of closing the grounds after a request from the Rio prosecutor's office asking for a ban on all major events at the facilities until authorities had seen certificates demonstrating their safety.

The judge said the decision was to "preserve the security of the population," noting that thousands of people regularly went to the venues for concerts or exhibitions.

"This situation, in sites damaged by the lack of surveillance and with thousands of people present, can lead to tragedies," Judge Eugenio Rosa de Araujo wrote in a decision seen by AFP. Rio's mayor's office said the city would appeal the ruling.

Dhoni released from BCCI's list of centrally contracted players SpoRtS deSK The Indian cricket board signalled it is ready for life without Mahendra Singh Dhoni after dropping the long-serving wicket-keeper from its list of centrally contracted players on Thursday.

The former captain quit Test cricket in 2014 and has not played for India since taking a break after the team’s semi-finals exit at the 50-overs World Cup in England last year. Coach Ravi Shastri said earlier this month that Dhoni, who will turn 39 in July, could be considered for this year’s Twenty20 World Cup in Australia.

The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), however, seemed to have made up its mind and Dhoni, who has stonewalled retirement talks in his rare media interactions, was conspicuous by his absence in the 27-player list.

In the new list, captain Virat Kohli, opener Rohit Sharma and pace spearhead Jasprit Bumrah have retained their place in the A+ grade, worth 70 million Indian rupees ($986,923) a year.

The 11 players grouped in the A grade with retainers of 50 million rupees include Rishabh Pant, who is seen as Dhoni’s successor in limited-overs cricket.

Test wicket-keeper Wriddhiman Saha was promoted to grade B where he joins opener Mayank Agarwal and three others who will earn 30 million rupees each.

The final group comprises eight players with retainers of 10 million rupees for the period from October 2019 to September 2020.

Dhoni, who was in grade A in the previous list, remains India’s most successful limited-overs captain who led the team to World Cup victories both in the 20-overs (2007) and 50-overs (2011) formats. Dinesh Karthik, Khaleel Ahmed and Ambati Rayudu also missed out on a contract.

Grade A+ - Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma, Jasprit Bumrah Grade A - Ravichandran Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Cheteshwar Pujara, Ajinkya Rahane, KL Rahul, Shikhar Dhawan, Mohammed Shami, Ishant Sharma, Kuldeep Yadav, Rishabh Pant Grade B - Wriddhiman Saha, Umesh Yadav, Yuzvendra Chahal, Hardik Pandya, Mayank Agarwal Grade C - Kedar Jadhav, Navdeep Saini, Deepak Chahar, Manish Pandey, Hanuma Vihari, Shardul Thakur, Shreyas Iyer, Washington Sundar.

Shapovalov falls to French qualifier in Auckland aUCKLand Agencies

World number 13 Denis Shapovalov crashed out of the ATP Auckland Classic Thursday, beaten in straight sets by French qualifier Ugo Humbert.

There was only one break in each set of the evenly contested clash with Humbert winning 7-5, 6-4, clinching the victory with the Canadian’s sixth double fault.

“I’m really, really, happy, it’s one of the biggest wins of my career,” the 57thranked Humbert said as he advanced to a semi-final showdown big-serving American John Isner. “I tried to play each ball, I tried to stay focused and my plans were working.”

Isner survived on his thunderous serve with an impressive 25 aces to overcome Kyle Edmund in the opening quarter-final.

While Edmund had the better of the fourth seed for much of the match, Isner

served his way out of trouble when it mattered and the Briton was unable to convert any of his nine break points.

Both sets went to a tiebreak before the American won 7-6 (7/5), 7-6 (7/5) and expressed relief at making the final four.

“I know I was a bit fortunate to win today, that’s how tennis goes, but I’m happy I’m in the semi-finals,” said the two-time Auckland champion who holds the world record for the most aces in a match with 113 against Frenchman Nicolas Mahut at Wimbledon two years ago.

“That match point, I played it very aggressively and very well. Winning a match like this can give me a lot of confidence going forward for the rest of this tournament, the Australian Open and for the rest of the year.”

The remaining quarter-finals are between fifth-seed Frenchman Benoit Paire and Australian John Millman, while sixthseed Hubert Hurkacz of Poland will play Spain’s Feliciano Lopez.

Friday, 17 January, 2020

SPORTS 15

MAlik, hAfeez return to t20i SquAd for bAnglAdeSh SerieS LahoRe

P

Agencies

AKISTAN have recalled veteran all-rounders Shoaib Malik and Muhammad Hafeez in the 15-man squad for the three Twenty20 Internationals (T20Is) against Bangladesh, which will be played in Lahore at the Gaddafi Stadium.

The first T20I will be played on January 24, with the second being played just a day after on January 25 and the last match will be played after one-day gap on January 27.

The matches are a part of series which is divided into three phases. Bangladesh will leave after three-T20Is series and then return afterwards for the first Test of the International Cricket Council (ICC) Test Championship. They will leave again only to return to Pakistan after Pakistan Super League’s (PSL’s) fifth edition to play oneoff ODI and the second Test.

The 15-man squad, which was announced by Pakistan head coach-cum-chief selector Misbahul Haq and Babar on Thursday, also includes the uncapped trio of Ahsan Ali, Amad Butt and Haris Rauf.

“26-year-old Ahsan scored 131 runs in five matches at a strike-rate of just under 149 in the National T20 Cup in Faisalabad in October after scoring 178 runs at a strike-rate of over 130 for Quetta Gladiators in the HBL PSL 2019, while 24-year-

Amir reveals reason behind omission from T20I squad SpoRtS deSK Left-arm pacer Mohammad Amir, in a tweet, claimed that his retirement from Test cricket is the reason behind his exclusion from Pakistan’s Twenty20 International (T20I) squad for the upcoming Bangladesh series.

In a reply to a tweet of sports anchor Zainab Abbas about Amir’s omission, the left-arm pacer tweeted: “Reason test cricket.” The 27-year-old soon deleted his tweet and vowed to make a strong comeback in the Pakistan’s T20I squad. “No worries chill everyone I will come back stronger InshAllah,” wrote Amir. However, Amir’s earlier statement didn’t go down well with his followers, as they criticised the left-arm pacer for deleting the tweet. Many Pakistan greats have openly criticised Amir for retiring too early from Test cricket. Last year, former legendary pacer Wasim Akram said that the Men in Green have been severely affected by the retirements of Amir in the longest format. "What really happened was that two of our premium bowlers [Amir, Wahab] just retired from Test cricket," said Akram. “The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) and the whole country invested five years in Amir. He's 27 and should have come here and played a Test series and then maybe next year retired.

old Amad scored 80 runs at a strike-rate of 170 and also took 10 wickets at an economy-rate of 7.62 in the Faisalabad event.

26-year-old Haris, who took six wickets in Faisalabad, is the second leading wickettaker with 16 in Australia’s Big Bash League,” read a PCB press release.

The newly announced squad basically omitted seven players from the previous line-up, which lost 2-0 to Australia. “Play-

ers missing out on selection are Asif Ali, Fakhar Zaman, Haris Sohail, Imam-ulHaq, Mohammad Amir, Mohammad Irfan and Wahab Riaz. Asif, Fakhar, Haris, Amir and Wahab were also members of the squad that lost 3-0 to Sri Lanka at home in October,” the PCB press release said.

Misbah said eight defeats in last nine T20Is forced him to make drastic changes to the squad. “We have lost eight of our last

nine T20Is and as the number-one ranked side, this is unacceptable. We need to end our losing cycle and get back to winning habits leading into the upcoming Asia Cup and ICC T20 World Cup. This has played a critical role in our decision-making.”

Former skipper then termed squads he pitted against Sri Lanka and Australia as ‘alternate combinations’ and said the mixture of experience and youth is important. ““We tried our alternate combinations in the series against Sri Lanka and Australia, and obviously, these didn’t work the way we had expected. Hafeez and Shoaib bring a total of 200 T20Is between them and if you mix these with the other youngsters we have in the side, then I think it becomes a good blend of experience and youth.”

Meanwhile, Babar was happy to see the returns of Malik and Hafeez. “I am happy with the selected squad and want to thank the selection committee for entertaining my request for Hafeez and Malik. I believe they still have plenty to offer to Pakistan cricket in the shortest format and their experience can be critical to our performances in the upcoming series.”

Pakistan’s 15-man squad: Babar Azam (c), Ahsan Ali, Amad Butt, Haris Rauf, Iftikhar Ahmed, Imad Wasim, Khushdil Shah, Muhammad Hafeez, Muhammad Husnain, Muhammad Rizwan, Musa Khan, Shadab Khan, Shaheen Afridi, Shoaib Malik, Usman Qadir.

Juventus score 'goal of rare beauty' in Italian Cup cruise

MiLan Agencies

Cristiano Ronaldo was too ill to play, while Zlatan Ibrahimovic spent the evening resting on the bench, but even without their biggest stars, Juventus and AC Milan cruised into the last eight of the Italian Cup on Wednesday.

Juventus beat visiting Udinese 4-0 in the late game, after Milan had dispatched SPAL, 3-0. In the first game of the evening, 10-man Fiorentina beat Atalanta 2-1.

Ronaldo was sidelined after suffering an attack of sinusitis in the afternoon, but

he is not the only ace in the Juventus pack.

After 16 minutes, Paulo Dybala carved through Udinese with a series of quick onetwos, finishing with a couple of exchanges with center forward Gonzalo Higuain.

When his Argentine compatriot played a pass one little behind him, Dybala spun and floated the ball onto Higuain's chest and he strode forward and scored.

"That was a goal of rare beauty, to see three or four exchanges like that at high speed. It was worth the price of the ticket," said Juve coach Maurizio Sarri.

"I love to see goals like that with fast passing, but they can only work with play-

ers of great technical quality."

Ten minutes after the opener, Udinese goalkeeper Nicolas tripped Federico Bernardeschi and Dybala converted the penalty.

Dybala scored a in the 58th minute, clipping the ball over Nicolas from the right edge of the box. Two minutes later Douglas Costa converted Juve's second penalty after Bram Nuytinck handled.

In Milan, Krzysztof Piatek, who is reportedly on the verge of a move to Tottenham Hotspur, outpaced the sluggish SPAL offside trap to give the home team the lead after 20 minutes.

Samuel Castillejo curled a precise left-foot shot inside the far post just before half time.

Fullback Theo Hernandez added a third in the 66th minute, surging upfield and smashing home a left-foot shot from just outside the penalty area. In Tuscany, Spaniard Pol Lirola collected Erik Pulgar's long pass before charging towards goal and slotting home his first Fiorentina goal six minutes from time, winning the tie for the hosts despite German

Pezzella's sending off 14 minutes earlier.

Patrick Cutrone also scored his first goal for the club when he put Fiorentina ahead in the 11th minute of his first start since arriving on loan from Wolverhampton Wanderers last week.

The away side scored a deserved leveller when former Fiorentina man Ilicic turned in a superb Ruslan Malinovskiy cross. But Lirola won the tie to set up a tough match with Serie A title chasers Inter Milan. The winner of that clash face either Lazio or Napoli in the semifinals.

On Tuesday, Inter thumped Cagliari 41 with Romelu Lukaku scoring twice.

Holders Lazio, who are on a clubrecord run of 10 straight wins in Serie A, made short work of Cremonese in their 40 victory in Rome.

Troubled Napoli eased into the quarters with a 2-0 win over Perugia thanks to two Lorenzo Insigne penalties.

In the last eight, AC Milan will face Torino who beat Genoa on penalties last week. Juventus will play the winner of the last tie of the round, Roma at Parma on Thursday.

Australian skipper wary of India fightback in second ODI MUMbai Agencies

Australia are braced for an Indian backlash when they meet Friday in their second one-day international, captain Aaron Finch said. The hosts suffered a crushing 10wicket defeat Tuesday in the opening game of the threematch showdown after Finch and opening partner David Warner hit unbeaten centuries in Mumbai. Finch, who smashed 110, believes the loss will sting India into action in Rajkot on Friday.

"They will fight back, no doubt," Finch told the Cricket Australia website.

"They are a great side, got some world-class players."

Left-handed Warner led the rout of the Indian bowlers with a destructive 128 off 112 deliveries in Australia's chase of 256. The openers put on a record 258-run stand -- the highest for any wicket in a 50-over game against India -- as Australia reached their target with almost 13 overs to spare. Finch said Warner is playing unbelievably well. "I think it's so hard to bowl to him once he gets in," he said. "His footwork is pretty good, his mental state is unbelievable when he is out in the middle. He is just so clear with his thoughts and his game. He is in top shape." Australian bowlers also played their part, with pace pair Mitchell Starc and Pat Cummins sharing five wickets. Finch lauded his lead bowlers, but hinted paceman Josh Hazlewood could still be involved in the series which ends in Bangalore on Sunday. "With backto-back games... and a reasonably heavy Test load, I'm sure Josh will come in for one of them at some point," he said.

Bushfire smoke hits Australian Open again, but rain raises hopes CanbeRRa Agencies

Bushfire smoke disrupted the Australian Open build-up on Wednesday for a second straight day to deepen concerns about the fate of the year's first tennis Grand Slam, but a cool change late in the day raised hopes of rain soaking the blazes.

The toxic haze that descended on Melbourne, where the Australian Open is due to begin next week, drifted down from out-of-control fires that have endured for months in eastern and southern Australia. The bushfires, unprecedented in their duration and intensity, have claimed 28 lives while raising awareness about the type of disasters that scientists say the world will increasingly face due to global warming.

In Melbourne, a picturesque bayside city famed as one of the most liveable in the world, the bushfire smoke raised pol-

lution levels to "hazardous" at the start of the week. Smoke from the Victoria bushfire fills the sky over Melbourne city on January 14, 2020. — AFP The bleak conditions continued on Wednesday, with residents donning face masks while dozens of flights were cancelled at Melbourne airport because of poor visibility.

Australian Open organisers pushed ahead with qualifying rounds on Tuesday.

But dramatic scenes of players dropping to their knees and choking, and one retiring due to the smoke, led to complaints about them being forced to stay out on the court. With the air still tasting and smelling of smoke on Wednesday morning, organisers suspended qualifying rounds until 1:00pm (local time) on Wednesday.

Racing Victoria also cancelled twohorse race meetings on Wednesday.

With the pollution levels improving slightly, Australian Open organisers

restarted play on Wednesday afternoon under better but still hazy conditions.

RAIN HOPES: Thundery weather then swept in late on Wednesday afternoon,

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bringing heavy rain that forced play to be cancelled for the day but raised expectations of clearer air for Thursday.

There were also hopes that the rain

would extend to other parts of southern and eastern Australia where dozens of fires are still raging out of control and threatening to devastate many more rural towns. Some bushfire and drought-hit areas could see 50-100 millimetres of rain, the Bureau of Meteorology said.

However, it said the "hit and miss" nature of thunderstorms meant it was difficult to predict exactly where the heaviest rain would fall. The fires have already destroyed more than 2,000 homes and burnt 100,000 square kilometres of land — an area larger than South Korea or Portugal.

The confirmed death toll rose to 28 on Wednesday when authorities said they had confirmed a firefighter who died in late November in a traffic incident had at the time been trying to contain a blaze. The fires have dominated headlines around the world and led to an international outpouring of aid for victims, as well as animals that have been injured in the blazes.

Friday, 17 January, 2020

NEWS

IndIa asks ChIna not to raIse kashmIr Issue at un new delhi says kashmir is a bilaTeral maTTer beTween pakisTan and india NEW DELHI

I

AGENCIES

NDIA on Thursday asked China to avoid raising the Kashmir dispute at the United Nations Security Council, insisting it is a bilateral matter between India and Pakistan.

The government issued a statement on Thursday, a day after China requested a review by the UN Security Council of the UN observer mission in Kashmir.

“China should reflect on a global consensus on Kashmir and avoid raising it at the United Nations,” India’s External Affairs Ministry spokesman Raveesh Kumar told reporters in New Delhi.

Most countries on the 15-member council have urged India and Pakistan to cool the dispute and resolve it between themselves. But on Wednesday, China’s UN ambassa-

india To inviTe pm imran aT 19Th sco council oF heads oF govT mooT

dor warned against further escalation of strife between Islamabad and New Delhi over occupied Kashmir and expressed hope that a Security Council meeting called by Beijing might help both countries seek a solution through dialogue.

Kumar said India has raised the matter with China in the past.

The latest flareup in conflict was sparked by India’s Hindu nationalist-led government’s decision to end the semi-autonomous status of Muslim-majority occupied Kashmir on August 5.

A harsh crackdown ensued, with New Delhi sending tens of thousands more troops to the already heavily militarised region, imposing a sweeping curfew, arresting thousands and cutting off virtually all communications.

Authorities have since claimed to have eased several restrictions, lifting roadblocks and restoring land-

ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Imran Khan holds a meeting with Punjab Chief Minister Usman Buzdar, who called on him at the Prime Minister Office on Thursday. INP

lines and cellphone services, but Internet service is yet to be restored in the occupied valley.

Also Thursday, India’s External Affairs Ministry said India will invite Prime Minister Imran Khan to attend the 19th council of heads of government of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation which will be hosted by India later this year.

“As per the established practices and procedures within SCO, all eight members of SCO as well as four observer states and other international dialogue partners will be invited (by India),” the ministry said.

India and Pakistan both became full members of the SCO in June 2017. The SCO was founded at a summit in Shanghai in 2001 by the presidents of Russia, China, Kyrgyz Republic, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan to promote multilateral economic cooperation.

imran says escalation of iran conflict would be 'disastrous' premier says pakisTan is doing iTs besT For peace in aFghanisTan and iT hopes all sTakeholders will soon come To a seTTlemenT NEWS DESK

Qureshi says Afghan Taliban showing 'willingness' to reduce violence NEW YORK: Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi on Thursday said the Taliban have shown “a willingness” to reduce violence in war-torn Afghanistan after more than 18 years of fighting with the US, sparking speculation that a potential breakthrough in talks with the Americans may be near. Negotiations between the Taliban and the US have repeatedly stalled, with Washington calling on the insurgent group to reduce violence before they can resume. “Today, positive progress has been made, the Taliban have shown their willingness to reduce the violence, which was a demand… it’s a step towards the peace agreement,” said FM in a video statement. However, he gave no further details. Zabihullah Mujahid, the official Taliban spokesman, told AFP the Taliban were looking into the comments. The Taliban and the US were on the brink of announcing a withdrawal deal in September last year when President Donald Trump abruptly declared the process “dead”, citing Taliban violence. Talks were later restarted between the two sides in December in Qatar but were paused following an attack near the Bagram military base in Afghanistan. Islamabad has helped facilitate the talks between the militants and Washington in Qatar over the past year, seeking an agreement that would pave the way for a US troop withdrawal from Afghanistan in return for various security promises from the insurgents. AGENCIES

Three ministers among 318 lawmakers suspended for not declaring assets ISLAMABAD STAFF REPORT

The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) on Thursday suspended the memberships of 318 lawmakers of the provincial assemblies, National Assembly and Senate, including Minister for Science and Technology Fawad Chaudhry, Law Minister Farogh Naseem and Minister for Religious Affairs Noorul Haq Qadri for failing to submit the annual details of their assets within the deadline. The lists include the names of lawmakers, both federal and provincial, who have been suspended due to their failure to submit a list of their assets and liabilities by the end of year 2019. The failure to submit the statement of assets and liabilities is a violation of Section 137 (1) of the Elections Act, 2017 and Rule 137 (1) of the Election Rules, both of which dictate that elected members should submit the documents to the ECP by December 31 of each year. According to the ECP notification, 12 senators and 70 MNAs have been suspended. Among provinces, 115 MPAs were suspended from Punjab Assembly, 40 from Sindh Assembly, 60 from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly and 21 from Balochistan Assembly. According to Section 137 (3) of the Elections Act, 2017, members who fail to submit the statements by January 15, will be suspended until they turn in relevant documents.

Prime Minister Imran Khan on Thursday said that any escalation of the tensions between Iran United States would be “disastrous” for the country, which is why the government was trying to defuse the situation.

He said this in an interview with German international broadcaster Deutsche Welle (DW) which was held at the Prime Minister House in the federal capital and published on Thursday.

Responding to a question by DW Editor-inChief Ines Pohl about the difficulty Pakistan faces in balancing its relationship with its neighbours, the premier said, “It’ is true that we live in a difficult neighbourhood and we have to balance our actions. For instance, Saudi Arabia is one of Pakistan’s greatest friends and has always been there for us.

Then we have Iran, with which we have always maintained a good relationship.”

“Therefore, a military conflict between Saudi Arabia and Iran would be disastrous for Pakistan. We are trying our best to make sure that ties between these two countries do not deteriorate. It is a region that cannot afford another conflict,” he added.

The prime minister said Pakistan is also “doing its best” to bring peace to Afghanistan.

“It is a country that has suffered so much in the past 40 years. We pray that the Taliban, the Americans and the Afghan government achieve peace,” he added. His comments come a week after the United States and Iran came to the brink of war after Iran launched missile attacks on US-led forces in Iraq, in retaliation for the US drone strike on Iranian commander Qasem Soleimani whose killing raised fears of a wider war in the Middle East.

The situation de-escalated after US President Donald Trump, while delivering a televised address, extended an olive branch to the “people and leaders” of Iran to work together for “shared priorities”. In the same breath, he announced more “punishing” economic sanctions against Tehran.

Taking note of the dangerously high tensions, PM Imran sent Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi to Tehran and Riyadh to encourage exercising of “maximum restraint” in the dispute. Qureshi is currently in Washington as part of his efforts to reduce tensions between Iran and the US. When asked whether he would be interested in holding talks with his Indian counterpart, the premier said, “After I became prime minister, I made an effort to talk to the Indian government and Prime Minister Narendra Modi. In my first speech as prime minister, I said that if India moved one step forward, we would take two steps toward them to resolve our differences.

But I soon came to know that India did not respond well to my offer because of the RSS’ ideology. It became quite clear last year when it unilaterally annexed Kashmir, which is a disputed territory between Pakistan and India according to several United Nations (UN) resolutions.” Speaking about the situation in Indian Occupied Kashmir (IOK), he said, “We invite anyone from anywhere in the world to visit the Pakistan side of Kashmir and then go to the Indian side. Let them decide.”

“Azad Kashmir holds free and fair elections and it elects its own government. Like any other administration, they have their problems. But as I said, let us invite observers from all over the world. I assure you that they can go to the Pakistan side of Kashmir but won’t be allowed on the Indian side,” he added.

“Let the people of Kashmir decide what they want. Pakistan is ready for a referendum or a plebiscite. Let them decide whether they want to remain with Pakistan or to be independent,” he further said.

When asked whether he was satisfied with international media’s converge of the Kashmir crisis, PM Imran said, “Sadly, yes. Consider the sort of media attention the Hong Kong protests are getting.

Musharraf challenges conviction in treason case in SC Former presidenT’s plea says senTence should be seT aside since Trial againsT him was conducTed ‘in sheer violaTion’ oF consTiTuTion ISLAMABAD STAFF REPORT

Former president General (r) Pervez Musharraf on Thursday submitted an appeal in the Supreme Court (SC) against the special court’s decision that handed him a death sentence under Article 6 of the Constitution in the high treason case.

In a 90-page criminal appeal, the former president named as respondents the federation through Federal Interior Secretary Yousaf Naseem Khokhar, the special court and the State of Pakistan. He called for the order of the special court to be set aside.

It merits a mention here that the appeal was filed just days after the Lahore High Court (LHC) quashed the high treason verdict against him, declaring the formation of the special court as “unconstitutional”.

On Dec 17 last year, a special court handed a death sentence to Musharraf in a verdict split 2-1. It was the first time in Pakistan’s history that a military chief was declared guilty of high treason and handed a death sentence.

In his appeal against the verdict submitted, Musharraf said that based on the grounds of the application, since the trial had been conducted and completed “in

sheer violation” of the Constitution and the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC), 1898, the special court’s judgment should be set aside.

“Any other remedy that the honourable court deems fit and proper may also be granted,” the appeal added.

As per the preliminary submissions: “In a nutshell, it is the case of the appellant (Musharraf) that he was being tried for an alleged constitutional crime in an entirely unconstitutional manner.”

The grounds for the application challenging the special court’s verdict include: a delay (noticeable and unexplained in initiating high treason case), no offense of high treason made out, prosecutorial misconduct and discriminatory/selective prosecution (aiders and abettors), complaint filed without “federal government/cabinet” approval,

coram non-judice — the special court was not constituted in the appropriate manner, special court had concluded the proceedings without examining the accused, mode, manner and language of the judgment, status as absconder and trial in absentia, right to counsel and judicial bias. According to Musharraf’s appeal, the prosecution’s case had suffered from an “admitted, noticeable and unexplained delay” of over five years from the date of the alleged offence and the initiation of proceedings. “That the malice of the federal government is apparent from the ‘selective’, ‘discriminatory’ and ‘biased’ nature of the investigation and prosecution,” the appeal stated.

LHC DECLARES SPECIAL COURT ‘UNCONSTITUTIONAL’: The LHC on Monday declared the formation of the special court bench – which heard the treason

Published by Arif Nizami at Qandeel Printing Press, 4 Queens Road, Lahore. Ph: 042-36300938, 042-36375965. Email: newsroom@pakistantoday.com.pk

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case against Musharraf – as “unconstitutional” as it announced its verdict on a set of petitions filed by the former president, challenging multiple cases against him, including his conviction in the case.

In its detailed judgment, the bench also ruled that the treason case against Musharraf “was not prepared in accordance with the law”.

Musharraf had been sentenced to death by a special court on December 17, 2019, after six years of hearing the case, which was filed against him by the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) government after it assumed office in 2013.

In his petition filed in December last year, Musharraf had asked the LHC to set aside the special court’s verdict for being “illegal, without jurisdiction and unconstitutional for violating Articles 10-A, 4, 5, 10 and 10-A of the Constitution”.