Epaper_10-04-2023 LHR

THE federal cabinet on Sunday directed the Ministry of Finance to prepare a summary for taking guidance from the Parliament on the matters related to recent verdict of Supreme Court and provision of funds to the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) for Punjab and Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa elections.

The federal cabinet took the decision in its meeting held with Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif in the chair here on the weekly holiday (Sunday) to deal with the “current political and constitutional crises” in the country.

The cabinet members also held legal consultations and discussed the coalition government’s

CABINET DECIDES TO SEEK ‘PARLIAMENT’S INPUT’ ON JUDICIAL MATTERS, ELECTIONS FUNDS

strategy in view of the Supreme Court’s April 4 verdict ordering elections in Punjab on May 14.

The cabinet also deliberated on tabling the Supreme Court (Practice and Procedure) Bill, 2023 – which aims to curtail the powers of the Chief Justice of Pakistan to take suo moto notice and constitute benches on his own – in the joint session of Parliament for approval as President Dr Arif Alvi has returned it for reconsideration without signing it.

The two-hour-long meeting of the federal cabinet considered the detailed decisions of four judges and the court order issued with the majority of “four to three.” They also held a detailed consultation on the resolution passed by the National Assembly on April 6, 2023.

It is to be recalled that the

Supreme Court last week directed the federal government to provide funds to the tune of Rs21 billion to the ECP by April 10, directing the electoral body to present a report on the issue by April 11 to the court.

The verdict also said that the Supreme Court will issue instructions to the authorities concerned in case the funds are not provided.

Despite the court’s order, apparently instead of issuing funds, the federal cabinet opted for debating the matter in Parliament before approval and release funds for the provincial elections.

Minister for Law Senator Azam Nazeer Tarar briefed the meeting about different constitutional and legal matters and responded to the questions of the cabinet members.

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PTI to oppose judicial reforms bill

LAHORE: Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) has decided to oppose Supreme Court (Practice and Procedure) Bill 2023, which aims at curtailing the suo moto powers of office of the Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP), in joint session of Parliament. According to PTI sources, the party Chairman Imran Khan has instructed his party Senators to attend the joint session of Parliament. Meanwhile, a meeting of PTI’s parliamentary party has been summoned at 3pm on Monday (today). The meeting will be chaired by Senator Shehzad Wasim. The meeting – which will be attended by members of both house of Parliament – will prepare a strategy regarding the joint session.

FAISALABAD

S ta f f R e p o R t

fe d e r a l Interior Minister rana

Sanaullah on Sunday urged the nation to show political maturity and elect sincere leadership instead of depending on the politicians promoting hate and anarchy in the country

He was addressing a public gathering at the inauguration of a road constructed with

an estimated cost of rs81 706 million from Makhan Wala Bridge to Bypass via Chak 116/JB here on Sunday He said that Pakistan Muslim league-Nawaz (PMl-N) always worked for public welfare and betterment

“The PMl-N constructed motorways and roads in addition to establishing hospitals and universities The country was making progress at a much faster pace when PMl-N government was ousted and an incompetent man (Imran Khan) was imposed on the

soldier mar t yred, two terrorists killed in nor th, south Waziristan encounters

RAWALPINDI

S ta f f R e p o R t

a Pakistan army soldier embraced martyrdom, while two terrorists were killed, in separate encounters occurred in North and South Waziristan districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) province according to the InterServices Public relations (ISPr), on Sunday, a fire exchange took place between the army troops and terrorists in the general area of razmak, North Waziristan district on april 8 The army troops effectively traced the terrorists’ location and resultantly a terrorist was neutralized However weapons and ammunition were also recovered from the killed terrorist In another fierce encounter between the army troops and terrorists in the general area Karama South Waziristan district the troops effectively traced the terrorists location and killed a terrorist However during the intense exchange of fire Naik Fazal Janan (age 32 years, resident of district Hangu) having fought gallantly, embraced martyrdom in the process The sanitization of the area was being carried out to eliminate any other terrorists found in the area “Pakistan’s Security Forces are determined to eliminate the menace of terrorism and such sacrifices of our brave soldiers further strengthen our resolve,” the ISPr said

ihc schedules hearing of imran’s disqualification case for april 19

ISLAMABAD S ta f f R e p o R t

The Islamabad High Court (IHC) will hear Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) chairman Imran Khan s appeal against the election Commission of Pakistan s (eCP) decision to disqualify him in the Toshakhana repository case on april 19 The petition will be heard by Chief Justice aamer Farooq according to the cause list issued by the registrar s Office Khan was disqualified by the eCP on October 21 under article 63(1)(p) for making false statements and incorrect declarations regarding gifts he received from foreign dignitaries during his tenure as prime minister The decision led to protests in various cities Following this, on October 25, the eCP withheld the notification of Khan’s victory in six National assembly seats he won in the October 16 by-elections while also de-seating him as an MP from Mianwali his hometown The eCP also de-notified Khan from the six Na seats on February 24 Khan moved the IHC against the decision and the court restrained the polls supervisory authority from conducting the election at Na-95 Mianwali the National assembly seat that he had retained after becoming prime minister in august 2018 In addition to this, the IHC will also hear Imran Khan s application seeking permission to appear in Islamabad courts through video on april 12 The application will be heard by Chief Justice Farooq The court has already sought replies from the Ministry of Interior, law and Justice, inspector general of police (IGP), and others last week, the registrar ’s Office was directed by the court to schedule the application for the hearing

KP gov t star ts preparations for budget f Y-2023-24

PESHAWAR a z i z B u n e R i

The interim government of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) has started budget preparation process for the financial year 2023-24 Through a letter issued to all administrative departments the KP Finance department said that the process has been initiated to finalise grants for the current expenditure The letter said, “details of grant – including the grant number of each department, relevant codes and web portal of each department – required for the financial year 2023-24 should be sent as soon as possible to the finance department The notification further directed that if the grant provided in the past is also required for the next financial year it should be forward separately to the finance department

nation , he claimed PTI chief ruled the country for four years but failed to launch any worth-mentioning development or public welfare project during his tenure”, he added The minister said that PMl-N always strived for providing much-needed relief to the masses “I also got development projects of rs4 000 to rs4 500 million for Na-106” he said and added rs3 billion was also spent on reconstruction of Bypass road from Sarogdha road to Sammundri road via

Jhang road He said that PTI government failed to undertake any road project during its tenure due to which the present government had to focus on main roads However, village side roads would also be reconstructed and improved soon He said that two Nadra offices were working in Na-106 whereas more offices along with passport counters would also be established in this constituency to facilitate people of the area He strongly criticized PTI

Table talks crucial to bring down politic al merc ur y, says Mushahid

ISLAMABAD S ta f f R e p o R t

Senator Mushahid Hussain Syed of Pakistan Muslim league-Nawaz (PMl-N) expressed his serious concern over the current political situation and suggested a grand national dialogue for all political parties to ease the tension

Speaking to a TV station, he said the political confrontations needed to be resolved through table talks and mutual consultations among politicians, with the best forum being the parliament However the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) has already resigned from this platform he noted while emphasising that PMl-N had always been open to dialogues with its opponents to address issues

Syed who is chairman of the Senate defence Committee urged former prime minister Imran Khan to come into the parliament as it was the only way for civilian supremacy and highlighted the dire

need to take matters

When asked about PMl-N s stance he said the party would continue to struggle for the survival of democracy and justice, while not fearing elections

2 T TP members arrested for ex tor tion, target killing of K arachi businessmen

KARACHI S ta f f R e p o R t

The Sindh rangers and police jointly conducted an intelligence-based operation in Karachi resulting in the arrest of two terrorists belonging to the proscribed Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) on Sunday T h e a r r e s t e d t e r r o r i s t s i d e n t i f i e d a s M u h a m m a d K a m a l K h a n a n d a b d u l Q a d i r w e r e i n v o l v e d i n e x t o r t i o n a n d t a rg e t k i l l i n g o f t r a d e r s i n v a r i o u s n e i g h b o u r h o o d s o f K a r a c h i i n c l u d i n g S a d d a r M a n g h o p i r a n d B a n a r a s To w n K h a n w a s t h e l e a d e r o f t h e g r o u p a c c o r d i n g t o a r a n g e r s s p o k e s p e r s o n , t h e a c c u s e d r e c e i v e d i n s t r u c t i o n s f o r t h e i r c r i m i n a l a c t i v i t i e s f r o m a f s a r K h a n a l i a s a r s h a d , a T T P t e r r o r i s t b a s e d i n a f g h a n i s t a n

T h e a r r e s t e d t e r r o r i s t s w o u l d s h a r e t h e m o b i l e n u m b e r s o f l o c a l b u s i n e s s m e n w i t h t h e i r b o s s i n a f g h a n i s t a n , w h o w o u l d t h e n d e m a n d e x t o r t i o n m o n e y f r o m t h e t r a d e r s , t h e s p o k e s p e r s o n s a i d i n a s t a t e m e n t I f a t r a d e r r e f u s e d t o p a y, t h e t e r r o r i s t s w o u l d i n j u r e o r k i l l t h e m , h e a d d e d “ a c c o r d i n g t o i n i t i a l i n v e s t i g a t i o n s , t h e s u s p e c t s h a v e c o n f e s s e d t o s h a r i n g t h e n u m b e r s o f f i v e l o c a l t r a d e r s s e n d i n g e x t o r t i o n s l i p s a n d k i l l i n g t w o t r a d e r s f o r r e f u s i n g t o h a n d o v e r t h e e x t o r t i o n m o n e y t h e s t a t e m e n t s a i d r a i d s w e r e b e i n g c o n d u c t e d t o a r r e s t t h e s u s p e c t s a c c o m p l i c e s t h e t w o a g e n c i e s s a i d T h e S i n d h r a n g e r s a n d p o l i c e h a v e h a n d e d o v e r t h e a r r e s t e d t e r r o r i s t s t o t h e p o l i c e f o r f u r t h e r l e g a l a c t i o n

Islamabad police vow to provide ‘world- class ’ sec urity to NZ cricket team

ISLAMABAD S ta f f R e p o R t

The Islamabad Capital Police

(ICTP) on Sunday said that it is capable of and fully equipped to provide world-class security to New Zealand cricket team during its upcoming Pakistan

tour

In a tweet on Sunday, the ICTP said that it “shall provide end-to-end foolproof and worldclass security to New Zealand Cricket Team during their forthcoming visit to Pakistan

The Kiwis are scheduled to arrive in Pakistan this month to play T20 International and Oneday International series between the two countries from april 14 to May

7

It furthered that the police “has provided the highest level of security during the visit of the english cricket team and PSl 8 flawlessly in 2022-23 ”

“[The] ICTP shall be playing a key role for the provision of flawless security in collaboration with other stakeholders in Islamabad and rawalpindi IGP dr

akbar Nasir Khan ” it added Islamabad police announcement comes a day after a local TV channel report had stated that the ICTP had refused to provide security for the series due to a lack of resources

The visit by the Black Caps comes two years after it pulled out of the one-day international (OdI) and Twenty20 series

The kiwis had reached Pakistan on September 11, 2021, for the first time in 18 years to play three OdIs and five T20s but abandoned the tour moments before the start of the first OdI in

Trump and other cowards surrender to cour ts

You might like donald Trump or not, you might think his politics is your cup of tea or not you might consider him a racist and a misogynist but you would never have thought he was a coward Well that s what he showed he was by tamely surrendering before the court and entering a plea On the other hand we have Imran Khan who refused to surrender to the minions of the oppressive apparatus that overthrew him, neither at Zaman Park, nor at the Judicial Complex Islamabad Surely Trump could have got some of the luminaries who attacked the US Capitol on 6 January 2021, to appear for his court

appearance He could have made it clear that wearing a Viking s headdress was not compulsory and thus made sure that more people would flock to the courtroom where he was to appear There are two other luminaries who are running away from the law rahul Gandhi has actually been convicted of libel and turfed out of India s Parliament He is a perfect example of why Imran shies away from receiving the indictment even more than a horse stung under its tail by a wasp Kangaroo courts can convict, and then there you are, banned from Parliament Of course, rahul has shown that he too is a coward Surely there are enough Congress supporters to prevent the court from pronouncing sentence I don t know what Imran is worried about He would always get bail He has

rawalpindi claiming security threats

The cricket team then flew out of Pakistan on a chartered flight from Islamabad to dubai a global intelligence alliance had issued the security threat which led to the cancellation of the New Zealand cricket team s tour to Pakistan, according to NZ Herald

The New Zealand daily, quoting overseas media, reported that the intelligence came from Five eyes – an intelligence alliance of New Zealand, australia, Canada the United States and the United Kingdom

chief and said that he was not a man of words as he earlier claimed that he would prefer to commit suicide instead of going to International Monetary Fund (IMF) but later he made a deal with IMF on hard conditions The present price spiral was the outcome of these conditionalities However, PMl-N government would soon overcome the situation, he added He said that Imran Khan was not sincere with the nation but he was befooling the people through his false claims Imran Khan looted national wealth through his crony Farah Gogi and shifted it aboard In this regard, a bank transaction of rs12 billion was also surfaced Imran also stole a wrist watch a precious pen and other items from Toshakhana on bogus receipts Worth of these items was about rs100 million dollars in the market which he sold and brought defame for the country

cabinet decides to seek ‘Parliament’s input’ on judicial matters, elections funds

CoNtINuED FRoM PAgE 01

after closely reviewing all aspects and detailed consultation the federal cabinet unanimously directed the Ministry of Finance to prepare a summary according to the procedure and rules and in consultation with the Ministry of law to take guidance from the Parliament on judicial matters The summary will be presented in the next meeting of the cabinet the prime minister has summoned on Monday (today) at 10am at the Parliament House in Islamabad Moreover, the federal cabinet also approved the decisions taken by the National Security Committee (NSC) in its meeting on Friday The highlevel huddle had decided to launch a comprehensive operation against terrorists, as the country’s civil and military leadership virtually issued a charge-sheet against the previous government and the establishment for allowing the banned TTP to regroup The federal cabinet meeting took place as the coalition government faces off with the judiciary following the Supreme Court s ruling that directed the election Commission of Pakistan (eCP) to hold elections in Punjab on May 14

Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan has claimed that the PdM coalition government called the NSC meeting in an attempt to use national security as a pretext for the postponement of elections He said that the government brought in an unconstitutional bill on the apex court, and a National assembly resolution against the judiciary earlier, the National assembly had passed a resolution declaring that parliament rejected the SC verdict regarding the election in Punjab The lawmakers in the resolution had also barred the prime minister and the federal cabinet from implementing the decision while urging the top court to form a full court to review the rewriting of the Constitution under article 63-a

dacoit killed, six held as Punjab Police moving in on dacoits in katcha area

One dacoit was killed and six others were arrested during a grand operation of the Punjab Police under the supervision of IG Police dr Usman anwar against dacoits in Katcha area of rahim Yar Khan on Sunday according to details, one police constable was also injured due to fierce firing from both sides The injured head constable was shifted to a nearby hospital for medical treatment a huge cache of weapons was also recovered from their possessions

The Punjab Police launched the grand operation against the bandits in Katcha areas along border with Sindh province Punjab IG Police Usman anwar himself is leading the operation

On the occasion IGP Usman anwar informed the media that the exchange of fire between the police and the outlaws was going on Several police posts have been fully restored in the Katcha area and the operation is intelligence-based, he claimed He stated that the sanctuaries of criminals would be completely eradicated from the area The Punjab top cop said that modern weapons and armored vehicles are being used in the operation

The Punjab IG Police said that a force of 2 000 soldiers has been sent from Punjab while a total of 11 000 soldiers are participating in the operation 2 000 more personnel from PC and various districts have been dispatched to participate in the Katcha operation dr Usman anwar added He added that the operation was being conducted with the utmost care to minimize civilian casualties Meanwhile Sindh Police also announced that they would begin similar operations in their areas to root out the menace of dacoits The situation in the Kacha area remains tense as the police continue their operation against the criminals The authorities expressed their determination to continue the operation until all the criminals were apprehended and brought to justice

been which has got the Parliament so upset that it passed a resolution against the Supreme Court even though the Constitution itself forbids Parliament from discussing the courts The Speaker was not down upon the offending members like a ton of bricks expunging the offending remarks A n o t h e r c o wA r d i s B e n j A m i n n e tA n yA h u , w h o i s r u n n i n g B r e At h l e s s ly A h e A d o f A c r i m i n A l : Trump surrenders to court; proves he’s a coward, Netanyahu is actually being tried, and has not succeeded yet in reforming the judiciary True Imran doesn’t have to deal with judges who are like the Israeli Supreme Court under the influence of the left-wing the press and the opposition which is out to get him Netanyahu is accused of accepting bribes

and gifts to help the donors in their business endeavours Maybe he s trying to find solace from his legal troubles by ordering the forces into al-aqsa mosque That has virtually become an annual event for ramadan: raiding al-aqsa Mosque during ramadan It’s an annual fixture like the bombing of the Gaza Strip actually the Supreme Court should go according to the law rather than its convenience The learned judges should keep in mind the fate of all those who favoured Imran like Jahangir Tareen aleem Khan and Gen (retd) Qamar Javed Bajwa But despite what the parties might say, I m sure the Court is deciding according to the law and Constitution I don t want to be subject to contempt proceedings, so I apologize in advance for anything and everything, including being born It continues to be a mild ramzan though I notice that finally the weather seems to be heating up Of course heat is not something to mention in Bangladesh

where there was a massive fire in Banga Bazaar, dhaka s main cloth market What added urgency was that shopkeepers had just stocked up for the eidul Fitr sales a lot of Bangladeshis are going to have to make do with last summer ’s clothes Imagine if that was to happen over here

Imagine azam Cloth Market going up in flames in lahore Or the Bara Market in rawalpindi Or the Zainab and empress Markets in Karachi

What the fire was not was a celebration of Bangldesh s win in the one-off Test against Ireland Y know Bangladesh is the team everyone plays to create a record To take one example, australian pacer Jason Gillespie scored a double hundred against Bangladesh His next best score was 54 not out against New Zealand However, Bangladesh seems to have3 found their Bangladesh in Ireland I don’t think any records were broken by the Bangldeshis but for once they won That gives a feeling that beats being cheerful in defeat

n u m E r at i n g P m L - n f E at s , s a n a u L L a h u r g E s n at i o n t o E L

LE a d E r s E x t E n d W a r m W i s h E s t o c h r i s t i a n c o m m u n i t Y o n E a s t E r

tH e Christian community around the world is celebrating easter today and in Pakistan the community is also participating in special prayers and events with religious enthusiasm

Special prayers and events are being held in churches across the country with a large number of Christian community members attending The government has made special arrangements for prayers, and tight security measures have been taken outside churches

In Karachi, a colourful easter celebration was held at Holy Trinity Church,

alvi criticises safet y watchdog for rejecting harassment complaint , orders review

ISLAMABAD

S ta f f R e p o R t

President dr arif alvi has ordered the Federal Ombudsman for Protection against Harassment of Women at Workplace (FOSPaH) to review the alleged sexual harassment case at air University in Islamabad

The president said the previous decision made by FOSPaH did not allow both parties an opportunity to be heard or to produce evidence and as a result the complaint was rejected in a slipshod manner The woman complainant alleged that she was harassed by a senior university official in 2019, after reporting on MBBS students using drugs and engaging in immoral activities on campus FOSPaH rejected her complaint, saying that she had failed to provide evidence and her allegations were of a general nature The complainant then appealed to the president, who found that denying the opportunity to produce evidence was a violation of article 10-a the Protection against Harassment of Women at the Workplace act and the principles of natural justice The president has asked for the case to be reviewed by FOSPaH and for both parties to be given a full opportunity to be heard including the chance to produce evidence He noted that the allegations made by the complainant were of a serious nature and required appropriate investigation and evidence to reach a fair conclusion

three killed in clash with police in Karachi

KARACHI

M o n to R n g R e p o R t

Three people were killed in a clash with police in the port city of Karachi on Saturday the police said in a statement “The police stopped three people on two motorbikes during routine patrolling across the city but rather than stopping they opened fire at the police the statement read all three suspects were killed in retaliatory fire by the police who later seized their weapons and motorbikes according to the statement

The killed street criminals were later identified and an investigation about them is underway, the police statement said The local law enforcement agency has intensified operations against street criminals, following an increase in incidents of snatching and robberies in the city On Saturday morning, police launched operations in various areas of the city and arrested five suspects, the statement added

uK-based Pakistani family gives over £500,000 to suppor t needy back home

ISLAMABAD a p p

a UK-based Pakistani family has been distributing over £500 000 in the last five years to help whitecollar destitute individuals in Pakistan without hurting their self-esteem The family comprises abid Hussain rukhsana Shaheen and their two daughters who personally locate those in need and provide them with groceries medical aid wheelchairs assistance in establishing businesses and other facilities The family has also installed more than 600 tube-wells in water-scarce areas of Pakistan constructed a mosque in Yemen and established religious seminaries in africa Syria and lebanon They are currently searching for land to establish a large shelter home in Islamabad with all the necessary facilities despite receiving offers from various charity organisations to join them the family prefers to work independently In the UK they distribute groceries and other necessities to the homeless and unemployed while in Pakistan they distribute flour cash prayer mats and Qurans among deserving domestic workers in Media Town Islamabad

where carols related to easter were sung at a ceremony easter does not fall on the same date every year, and the second major festival for the community is celebrated on the first Sunday of the Christian calendar President dr arif alvi, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, and Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari all tweeted

felicitations to the Christian community living in Pakistan Similarly Punjab

Governor Baligh ur-rehman and caretaker

Chief Minister Mohsin Naqvi also congratulated the Christian community on easter The governor said that Prophet Isa taught restraint, brotherhood, and love for humanity, and added that all minorities have equal rights in Pakistan He

maintained that the Christian community has played a positive role in the establishment of the country since the Pakistan Movement

Naqvi also wished a happy easter to the Christian community, remarking that they equally share the joys of the Christian community in celebrating easter He assured the Christian community that it would be provided with a peaceful environment to celebrate easter in the true spirit of the festival

In a statement on Saturday the caretaker chief minister acknowledged the significant role of the Christian community in the progress of Pakistan and directed to ensure foolproof security arrangements on easter across Punjab Naqvi also asked the police and law enforcement agencies to remain on alert

50th anniversar y of 1973 Constitution is an impor tant milestone: HRCP

LAHoRE S ta f f R e p o R t

Marking 50 years to the day since the Constitution of 1973 was passed by the National assembly the Human rights Commission of Pakistan (HrCP) notes that in a history interspersed with periods of autocratic military rule and attempts to grossly undermine representative governments, this was the first time that a constitution was drafted and passed unanimously by a democratically elected assembly

While it is not a perfect document, the 1973 Constitution has played a pivotal role in shaping the country’s democratic system and federal character, and in upholding the fundamental rights of its citizens

The moral worth of a country’s constitution lies in its ability to put in place a structure of government that defines limits to the exercise of authority by institutions of the state and to lay down the rights obligations and

attendant principles that must be drawn upon when interpreting the law In this sense, the 1973 Constitution was significant in recognizing and guaranteeing certain basic rights to all citizens, regardless of their religion, race or gender It enshrined fundamental rights such as freedom of speech religion assembly and association freedom from slavery as well as the right to a fair trial due process and equality before the law

It also

Marriyum c alls out Imran for ‘denying fatherhood to his own daughter ’

ISLAMABAD S ta f f R e p o R t

Minister for Information and Broadcasting

Marriyum aurangzeb on Sunday termed Pakistan

Tehreek-e-Insaf Chairman (PTI) Imran Khan an impudent and coward person for denying that he had a daughter

The minister in a news statement said ironically Imran Khan had also failed to give respect to his own daughter in the society a man who hesitates to own his own daughter for the sake of power is regarded as the most shameless person, she added She said Imran Khan was a dishonorable person who used female members of his family to launder his ill-gotten money Imran Khan staged a drama of “Haqeeqi azadi” (real freedom) just to ensure his return to the power, she said, wondering how a person who himself was slave of a foreign lobbying firm could fight for independence Marriyum said Imran Khan was such a “coward person who did not leave his house without covering his head with a black box Imran Khan did not have courage to leave his house without protection but ironically called Nawaz Sharif

coward the minister remarked sarcastically

Shameless and coward are those people who used women and children as human shield for their protection, she said while referring to Imran Khan, who according to her, hid under his bed to prevent his arrest She alleged that Imran Khan hatched a conspiracy against the country to prevent his ouster from the power last year when the then opposition moved a no-trust motion in the National assembly against him

Meanwhile Minister for Information and Broadcasting Marriyum aurangzeb on Sunday wished Happy easter to the Christian community in Pakistan and around the world

In a tweet, the minister extending congratulations to the Christian community said that the efforts of the Christian community in the creation of Pakistan and the nation-building process were commendable and unforgettable

We want to see all the minorities, including Christians moving forward in every sphere of life Marriyum aurangzeb said

Zardari reiterates resolve to protec t Constitution

ISLAMABAD S ta f f R e p o R t

President of Pakistan People’s Party Parliamentarians (PPPP) asif ali Zardari on Sunday expressed his unflinching resolve to render any sacrifice necessary for the protection of the Constitution

The constitution of 1973 was gifted to the Pakistani nation by Quaid-e-awam Shaheed Zulfikar ali Bhutto which was formed by the consensus and signed by all the members of the National assembly,” Zardari said in a message issued by his office on the occasion of the Golden Jubilee of the 1973 Constitution

He paid homage to all the politicians who signed the 1973 Constitution and the heroes of PPP who rendered great sacrifices for the restoration of the Constitution under the leadership of the Mother of

democracy Begum Nusrat Bhutto and Shaheed Mohtarma

Benazir Bhutto

The former president highlighted that the restoration of the Constitution in its original form was the mission of Shaheed Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto s life and was achieved through the 18th Constitutional amendment

Furthermore he also stated that some elements had deviated from the Constitution leading to the country s present difficulties

He urged everyone to follow the Constitution for the nation and the country s sake, leaving the power to make future decisions for the country to the Parliament

established an independent judiciary to protect these rights and ensure they were enforced It sought to protect the rights of women, religious minorities and marginalized communities, and provided for affirmative action to address historical injustices

Perhaps most significantly the 18th amendment to the Constitution passed in 2010 is a testament to the resilience and evolution of Pakistan s democratic system

It devolved greater powers to the provinces transferred key powers from the president to the prime minister and the Parliament and ensured greater financial autonomy for the provinces

In a time fraught with political discord, HrCP calls on all political stakeholders and citizens to rally behind the shared values of the 1973 Constitution at the same time, HrCP believes that the spirit of the Constitution provides the necessary room to review and improve the state’s ability to secure all people’s rights without any grounds for discrimination

50 years of constitution: national assembly begin celebrations today

The National assembly under the leadership of Speaker raja Pervez ashraf is set to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Constitution of Pakistan 1973 a landmark document that laid the foundation of a democratic and progressive society in the country Starting on april 10 a month-long celebration will consist of a series of events that commemorate the founding principles of federal parliamentary democracy, social justice, and equality, as enshrined in the Constitution The Parliamentary advisory Committee, constituted by the speaker and headed by Senator raza rabbani, has meticulously planned these activities with members from both houses of Parliament The speaker will inaugurate the celebrations by laying the foundation stone of the Constitution Monument at the site approved by the committee opposite Parliamentary lodges Islamabad which will serve as a permanent reminder of the importance of the Constitution in the nation s history after that a wreath-laying ceremony will be held at the Memorial of the Unsung Heroes of democracy in the Parliament House paying homage to those who fought for democracy and constitutionalism in Pakistan an exhibition showcasing rare pictures of the Constitution s framers, a commemorative stamp, and original Constitution and other manuscripts will be inaugurated by the Speaker The celebration will culminate in the National assembly Session (National Constitution Convention) in the main assembly hall, attended by MPs and people from all walks of life chaired by the speaker Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif rabbani and other attendees will pay tribute to the framers of the Constitution and reflect on how it has served as a cornerstone of democracy justice and equality in Pakistan The session will also pass a number of resolutions related to the Constitution s recognition as a binding document its incorporation into the national curriculum, a homage to the Constitution s framers, and declaring the State Bank of Pakistan building (old National assembly Hall) as a National Monument The celebrations will be followed by a joint session of the Parliament, scheduled for 2 pm, which will continue the discussions and reflections on the importance of the Constitution in shaping the destiny of Pakistan The month-long activities include speech contests in educational institutions quiz competitions exhibitions special programs by electronic media newspaper supplements and an international constitution convention on May 10 Pakistan celebrates the golden jubilee of the Constitution of 1973 a landmark event in the country s history that celebrates the ideals and principles defining Pakistan s democratic and progressive identity

Q uds Day - An existential threat to the hegemonic powers

JARAR R oNAS

BY

every year without fault, swathes of the world's population have gathered from every corner of the world, flying the flag for Palestine while bolstering the resistance front But what is it in particular about the Quds day marches that has triggered heavy counter-demonstrations and mammoth efforts to get it banned as has been the case in Berlin? This article seeks to break down the philosophy behind Quds day which singles it out as one of the strongest forces of mobilization and changes against the unjust status quo, which the enemies of liberation fear greatly

1) Z i o n i s t c o n f r o n tAt i o n s h i f t s f r o m t h e r e g i o n A l to t h e i n t e r n At i o n A l A r e n A

Quds day calls for international grassroots mobilization transferring the confrontation from one confined in the

region of West asia to concern the masses of the world In the same way the world superpowers conspired to uproot the Palestinian nation and established the Wrong State, from Britain to the United States and the Soviet Union, reversing this biggest shame to have occurred before the conscience of the world requires a global effort of unity Quds day raises the slogan of complete liberation for all historical Palestine, and it is unity in potent solutions reflecting the true reality on the ground that the hegemonic powers fear

2) t h e v e ry e x i s t e n c e o f t h e w r o n g s tAt e i s c A l l e d i n t o q u e s t i o n Mobilization occurs on an annual basis regardless of whether there are heightened aggressions by the occupation forces as the partial issues themselves are not the frame of reference, such as the transgression on alaqsa Mosque, the release of prisoners,

dismantling the settlements in the West Bank etc The dismantling of the Wrong State is echoed as the only way to achieve justice and the only solution to this is through armed struggle until liberation

3) fA c i l i tAt i n g t h e d o w n fA l l o f o P P r e s s i v e s y s t e m s i s o n PA r w i t h d i v i n e w o r s h i P Imam Khomeini chose a significant time for the Muslims, a Friday, and during the Holy month of ramadan when they are fasting and engaging in perpetual worship signifying the act of resistance against systems of oppression is a religious duty before it is to be classified as socio-political activism Once the seeds have been planted in the hearts of two billion Muslims globally that Palestine is an obligatory religious commandment a strong united front is formed that cannot be broken by the hegemonic Powers, as the basis for this unity is God Himself

4) centrAliZing the PAlestiniAn

cAuse, the focAl Point of unity for All muslims Quds day centralized the Palestinian cause as the cause that all Muslims should unite on From a religious perspective all Muslims unite on the fact that this is a blessed land, it is the third holiest site in the religion, it is the land of the Prophets of God, and this land has been usurped Palestine, therefore, represents the point of unity between the Muslims and all justice seekers of the world One of the greatest tactics of the enemies of liberation is to split the Muslims and to use the cover of sectarianism because the reality is that they bet on this weakness It is not the strength of the aggressor that allows the unjust status quo to continue but the weakness of the oppressed The stance of the Islamic republic revived the Muslim Ummah at large, at a time

when it was in complete slumber, humiliation, and captivity to external aggressors, and those four decades post the Islamic revolution cannot be compared to the decades before it, as the revolutionary line breathed life into resistance movements in the region that took up arms and forced the change From a political perspective centralizing the Palestinian cause signifies the unique nature of Palestinian oppression which took the form of the world superpowers conspiring to steal a land uproot its people and maintain a perpetual hegemonic order feeding their interests 5) quds is stAmPed for eternity

Quds day was the first call of its kind for all people of the globe to rise and mobilize, and until today there is not a single day stamped in which people globally come out for the cause of Palestine, regardless of the regional developments Since this day is stamped it will continue to be commemorated for eternity even after Palestine s liberation; Quds day will still be commemorated and the call for the liberation of all the oppressed will be in the light and legacy of Palestine

TH E capture of Gulzar Inam, one of the leaders of the Balochistan republican Army, represents a signal success on a number of levels As the BrA was part of the terrorist nexus which had grown after the withdrawal of uS forces from Afghanistan, the arrest will put a significant cramp in its activities Mr Imam stll leads the group which he founded One of the most important dampeners is that the nexus he was developing with the Tehrik Taliban Pakistan will be affected and thus the resulting expansion in the ability of the Baloch separatists and sectarian forces to strike anywhere in Pakistan, will be countered Not just vBaloch separatism, but terrorism as a whole, will be significantly hurt As Mr Inam was such a leading terrorist, whatever he spills under interrogation while in custody, will prove helpful

However, just asking him about terrorism and terrorists will make this merely a temporary victory The root cause of terrorism must be addressed This involves an acceptance that incorrect policies have made recruits available to Mr Inam and the BrA Balochistan is the country’s largest province but that should not imply as it does, that its people must have the worst scores on the Human Development Index That is not the only problem, for that is caused by interference in the province s politics, which has not just meant that distortion of the province s politics to fit certain objectives but also the creation of the problem of enforced disappearances of all those who stood out politically

It has now become imperative for the federation to let Balochistan develop politically socially and economically so that it achieves its true potential If it does not do so it will keep on being confronted with separatist movements

At the moment the real danger is posed by separatists joining hands with sectarians operationally The moment to really be dreaded is if there is ever an ideologically combination At such a point, those little men who presently are so blithe in their management of Balochistan s affairs, will not know how to handle the situation Apart from leaving Balochistan’s politics to its people there is a relatively small expenditure of resources which can easily be made from the rich natural resources of the province that need to be made to solve the problems of the people That must be made

Dedicated to the legac y of late Hameed Nizami

Arif Nizami (Late)

Founding Editor

Yousaf Nizami

Editor

M A Niazi Joint Editor Umar Aziz Executive Editor

A challenging global economic outlook

Nelson Mandela once said: I have discovered the secret that after climbing a great hill, one only finds that there are many more hills to climb ”

TH I S feels like the story of the past three years climbing one great hill after another, only to discover there are many more to come First was COVID-19 then russia’s invasion of ukraine, inflation and a cost-ofliving crisis that hit everyone So far, we have proven to be resilient climbers But the path ahead and especially the path back to robust growth is rough and foggy, and the ropes that hold us together may be weaker now than they were just a few years ago ’ –

An excerpt from a recently delivered address by managing director of International Monetary Fund (IMF)

Kristalina Georgieva Austerity policies were adopted after the 2007-08 Global Financial Crisis in the eurozone area overall but it did not bring macroeconomic stability, and also created hardship Not learning many lessons from this, austerity policies have again been pushed upon countries both by domestic policymakers for instance the uS Federal reserve has significantly increased policy rate by around 475 basis points, over a year, while inflation being significantly determined by supply shock as well has not come under much control and by both domestic policymakers and IMF, especially in developing countries under an IMF programme for instance, in Pakistan for severe austerity policies have been adopted since the later part of 2021, and particularly since around a year, whereby CPI inflation since then increased from around 13 percent to 35 percent and policy rate from around 12 percent to 21 percent currently

Former acting governor of State Bank of Pakistan (SBP), Murtaza Syed, in a recently published article ‘Politicians and the IMF are failing Pakistan’s most

W h a t i s t o b e d o n e ?

Seeking a way for ward

Iam of the firm opinion whatever Parliament decides or has decided must and has to go through that is if we want our Parliament to be supreme However this should only be done with a full representation of the electorate The PDM is not the complete Parliament Imran made a political faux pas by coming out of the National Assembly, complicating the political forum further

To come out of this enigma, elections are the only answer and parties have been labelled in particular on corruption namely the PPP the PML(N) and the rest of the assassins

The Hashshashin the original assassins first got their start in Persia Syria and Turkey and eventually spread to the rest of the Middle East, taking down political and financial rivals They are political Khalsa Force who in due course will revert back to their usual selves; they are brigands who wait for the big kill, and eventually will be a thorn in the sides of the two main parties

The three parties the PPP the PML(N) and the PTI have to play a proactive role collectively To move forward either a truth and reconciliation commission is formed to finish once and for all each others follies, and give a rest to the courts, who once they give a decision then go back on it though one or the other means or we keep on seeing this circus embedded deep in our roots Our justice system has failed to give complete justice, and judges have acted like puppets on a string

We still are not a democratic nation because our attempted democracy has not grown; the very same politicos who deafen our ears in the name of democracy do not even have their internal party elections, and even those are influenced, since we always vote on a baradari system I respect the children of Nawaz Shehbaz Benazir; they have all grown up in front of me but have they all gone through the mills of political labouring? No doubt they are doing a good job for their parties but what about the system?

Do they fit the system or does the system fit them? Let me tell you it breeds discontent in party circles Knowing people in both the parties they show scorn behind their leaders backs Indeed there are exceptions, those are also the dangerous ones, who later on become turncoats Our parties are run by sycophants they

mislead and misguide their leaders the latest bad advice being Imrans departure from Parliament, then Shehbaz s misadventures We cannot and must not run the country on these lines this is not building a nation but a clan of convenience on a myopic approach The incumbent Head of State listens to the opposition rather than carrying on criticising Taking Imran’s example on the target shooting has done no good but then the incumbent ones are no different I fear the Army will have no choice but to come to the aid of this crass dismemberment of the system These politicians are an extremely disconnected discontented breed who have no love for the country and by country I mean the people They show sympathy care affection dramatic gestures in speeches when going for votes but that’s about it, there is a serious disconnect from the people and the media after elections; particularly after winning the elections they are too busy in the exuberance of verbal verbosity We boast agriculture contributes 85 percent of our GDP but what have we done to enhance it?

The farmer still bleeds

Pakistan Steel Mills which was running in a much Better form than before under General Qayyum is now in the doldrums

PIA was trundling on, but this PTI minister buried it with fabricated information which led to PIA’s funeral, and even now the Prime Minister is doing nothing to get it back to life

vulnerable laments Murtaza Syed’ with The Economist pointed out in this regard The country s economic crisis has brought it to the brink of default Pakistan’s politicians and the IMF are failing people It did not have to be this way Scarcely 18 months ago Pakistan was doing relatively well It handled covid19 successfully, keeping casualties and economic fallout to a minimum The pandemic saw public debt soar across the world but it fell in Pakistan as a result of commendable fiscal discipline Foreign-exchange reserves rose to all-time highs of over $20bn ’ In a report ‘Expanding opportunities: toward inclusive growth recently released by World Bank it was pointed out For example, the State Bank of Pakistan has increased its policy rate more than other central banks in South Asia from 7 to 20 percent but the currency has still depreciated by 27 percent since June 2020 The largest downward adjustment (1 6 percent) is projected for Maldives and Pakistan The latter is now expected to grow at a mere 0 4 percent in the current fiscal year implying negative per-capita GDP growth Hence, it is quite clearly evident that overall, more creative fiscal policy non-neoliberal economic institutional reform greater debt relief and adequate provision of special drawing rights (SDrs) by IMF, is needed instead of relying heavily on austerity policies, and that too in a procyclical way, to properly tackle macroeconomic issues originating from the supply side, which has an even bigger role in determining inflation in developing countries, like Pakistan than developed countries The world is in the grips of two existential threats fast-unfolding climate change crisis, and as one of the main consequences of this in the shape of a likely Pandemicene crisis Both of these challenges need countercyclical non-austerity policies in an overall non-neoliberal policy environment Hence, both finances, and efficient economic institutions, are needed for a resilient inclusive green and sustainable economic growth, and economies On the contrary, lack of movement towards this

‘new-normal’ as was quite vociferously talked about by both domestic policymakers and by multilateral institutions in the heyday of the pandemic, has resulted in a very challenging economic outlook Global commodity supply shock as a consequence of weakening of supply chains due to continued entrenchment of market fundamentalism, and in turn diminishing regulations and greater outsourcing in public sector weakening its capacity under the overall neoliberal order taking deep roots over the last many decades, seriously adding to this economic challenge; not to mention the war in ukraine further exacerbating the supply chain crisis Kristalina Georgieva, in her same address, pointed out in this regard

‘Let me start with the economic landscape After a strong recovery in 2021 came the severe shock of russia s war in ukraine and its wide-ranging consequences global growth in 2022 dropped by almost half from 6 1 to 3 4 percent The slowdown has continued this year About 90 percent of advanced economies are projected to see a decline in their growth rate this year For low-income countries, higher borrowing costs come at a time of weakening demand for their exports And we see their per-capita income growth staying below that of emerging economies That is a severe blow, making it even harder for low-income nations to catch up Poverty and hunger could further increase a dangerous trend that was started by the Covid crisis

The writer holds PhD in Economics degree from the University of Barcelona and previously worked at International Monetary Fund Prior to this he did MSc in Economics from the University of York (United Kingdom) and worked at the Ministry of Economic Affairs & Statistics (Pakistan) among other places He is author of Springer published book (2016) The economic impact of International Monetary Fund programmes: institutional quality macroeconomic stabilization and economic growth He tweets @omerjaved7

Global commodity supply shock, as a consequence of weakening of supply chains due to continued entrenchment of market fundamentalism, and in turn diminishing regulations, and greater outsourcing in public sector weakening its capacity, under the overall neoliberal order taking deep roots over the last many decades, seriously adding to this economic challenge

country collectively

Incompetence in traffic police has resulted in deaths of citizens why is it after independence when there were no traffic lights tongas and bycyclists all used to stop at traffic points manned by a single policeman who only had hand movements There was rule of law where has it gone? The answer is simple, the police have been politicised Their behaviour is barbaric and so is the public s there is no mutual self-respect but who will educate them speaking about the roots of disease prevailing? People pay huge amounts for education yet they don’t get jobs specialists end up in other jobs resulting in incompetence have we thought of temporarily getting them engaged in polytechnics?

E d i t o r ’ s m a i l

S e n d y o u r l e t t e r s t o : L e t t e r s t o E d i t o r Pakistan Today, 4 - S h a a re y F a t i m a J i n n a h L a h o re P a k i s t a n E - m a i l : l e t t e r s @ p a k i s t a n t o d a y c o m p k L e t t e r s s h o u l d b e a d d re s s e d t o Pakistan Today e x c l u s i v e l y

Wild overbilling in the power sector

The big question is of today. What next? Either both sides sit tog ether for a dialogue , or we continue on this path of economic destruction and speaking ill of our institutions

Where is the NCHD? A good move by a military Govt, but simply it was from them, could not get better, BB Income Support changes name for own political gains roads towns built by people get changed with those who have done nothing for what has been done Politics in Pakistan require money to make money at least today If anyone has an argument on this I am open to it My few hard-earned rupees will not get me anywhere because i sit in a fractured damaged system, I don t have a place here I was offered two prominent positions by three Prime Ministers, did not accept them, because I would have let them down in a system which will not let me work, I told them, in fact I told Imran to send me out where I can project the country, told Nawaz Sharif en route to Peshawar where he offered me to be his secretary, told him will only work if I am right next to him even then I didn’t

C u r r E N T Ly the government is under immense pressure from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to improve recoveries from the power sector to lessen the burden of circular debt The Ministry of Energy has been continuously pursuing the distribution companies (Discos) particularly those in Punjab, to raise the recovery level well beyond the 100 per cent mark However, one major issue is being ignored totally which is not justifiable; the rampant overbilling to industrial tube well commercial and bulk consumers particularly by Lahore Electric Supply Company (LESCO), Gujranwala Electric Power Company (GEPCO) and Multan Electric Power Company (MEPCO) unfortunately the ministry is completely and criminally silent over the excess billing done by these companies and the consumers are being harassed, rather tortured, by rogue field officers who have billed up to 500 000 units to many tube wells of just 10HP Small and medium industries (batch 46) are being charged 10 000 to 90 000 extra units and then no bill correction is made even if the customer runs from one office to another Even the customer complaint redressal forums, like the Federal Ombudsman, the Provincial Office of Inspection (POI) and the National Electric Power regulatory Authority (NEPrA) have not been successful in curbing these practices What to talk of others, even high-end real estate tycoons have not been successful in getting their bills corrected worth millions of units despite all the evidence and regulatory directives in their favour In one of the Discos about eight powerful sub-divisional officers (SDOs) were even removed from service on account of overbilling and other such charges, but they were reinstated to their positions over the reported recommendations of the powerful persons in the Ministry of Energy

The ministry can easily get the billing data of these customer groups from the Power Information Technology Company (PITC), where the billing is exorbitantly above the NEPrA standard load factors The government should initiate legislation to declare overbilling a major offence punishable under CrPC with three years of imprisonment Such legislation was under active consideration in 2017-18, but then things changed on the political front and the matter died a silent death In the present situation no visible step is taken to curb the menace of overbilling and that is why no major improvement in recovery is visible despite daily meetings of the ministry with Disco chiefs The prevailing corrupt practices of Disco field officers and the increasing power tariffs have put a heavy burden on the people

We do not expand our tax base to the grassroots because the vote bank shrinks because the poor man is the man who votes because he is illiterate, misguided and succumbs to monetary and guilt subservience

Traffic fines are not increased because people won t vote for them In this playoff both the government and the opposition damage the

The big question is of today What next? Either both sides sit together for a dialogue, or we continue on this path of economic destruction and speaking ill of our institutions

This cannot, should not, will not happen, if the powers to be continue to sit in their flanks, I rest my case

The writer is a freelance columnist

Tide of extremism

A S another accused was beaten to death over allegations of blasphemy outside a police station in Nankana Sahib, it appears that mob lynching is becoming a new normal in the country This incident is reminiscent of the episodes of mob attacks that took place in Sialkot and Karachi unfortunately, these incidents slipped into oblivion after mere condemnations They present a grim picture of poor law enforcement in the country and the government’s indifference towards such incidents regrettably those who incite the mob disappear from the scene once they succeed in their cruel mission They do not meet the same fate as victims, or given exemplary punishments for taking the law into their hands Such incidents show the emotional enigma of our society and fan extremism This practice of punishing the alleged perpetrators according to one s own idea of justice without taking the role of law-enforcement authorities into account should be dealt with sternly Denouncing such practices should be the first and foremost priority of all segments of society There is a dire need to control this dangerous tide of extremism If the government wants to raise slogans against Islamophobia in the West, it should first ensure fulfilment of human rights in the country

Capture of Gulzar Imam is cause for celebration, but should also mean answers to embarrassing questions

a Letter from Prometheus

o our judges politicians and Army Generals realize where Pakistan stands today? This question has been raised by Atif Mian who is a Pakistani-American top economist He is a professor of economics at Princeton university

In a desperate mood on April 5, the professor took to Twitter and asked several questions that the majority of Pakistani people are asking today One can visit his Twitter handle to read a series of questions and I believe his questions were simple and honest

I wish to add one more question to the list Why should the power elite (whom I always call superclass ) care about Pakistan when its members have all opportunities and resources to fly to any country of their desire to spend the rest of their lives? Atif Mian was shy to add business tycoons to the list but I include business tycoons because they are equally responsible and are an indigenous part of the “superclass”

Every sane person who loves this country is asking for how long two Pakistans (one a gated-communities Pakistan and the second is real Pakistan) will survive side by side Pakistan had been recolonized for the last 75 years by Government Officers residences (GOrs) Judicial colonies, Muhafaz colonies, Cantonments, Defence Housing Societies (DHAs), Bahria Housing Societies Anchorage Housing Societies Fazaia Housing Schemes Army Welfare Trust (AWT) colonies etc

There is also a long list of second-tier gated-communities spreading all over the country The population is divided into two categories: zombies who live outside these gated colonies and humans who live inside gated colonies This all happened not in one decade, rather we tirelessly contributed for over 75 years to establish this New Pakistan

Gated neighbourhoods are also called gated communities and gated housing Can you believe that over

Markers of the Superclass COMMENT 05

1 500 such gated neighbourhoods are spread all over Pakistan? A gated neighbourhood is a residential area where the boundary of the society is marked and prot e c t e d b y w a l l s a n d t h e e n t r a n c e s a n d e x i t s a r e guarded Many of them have their own policing syst e m a n d t h e s t a t e s p o l i c e c a n n o t e n t e r s u c h g a t e d communities

Developers of gated housing target the wealthier categories of customers by promoting high standards

They promote that such places offer a sense of security, privacy cleanliness peacefulness and being a member of an exclusive residential community of like-minded peace and privacy seekers The construction of gated communities has become one of the fastest-growing real estate trends in Pakistan that is dividing the country into small states instead of estates because these communities have their own security arrangements and right of entry is reserved to the community

As a new style of residential development gated communities appear to be a reflection of territorial and social segregation since the early 1900s and no research

The unmendable social effect of increasing the number of GCs for residential integrity is evident and recogniz ed by many urban g eographers and sociologists who have analyz ed GCs in the context of social segregation and a number of researches are available , except any such from Pakistan

has ever been conducted in Pakistan to examine the psychological, social, economic, and barrier factors of gated communities’ impacts Even our universities are shy to conduct such research because almost all private universities are run by the superclass The issue of gated communities is delicate and reflects social stratification in Pakistani society by producing and reproducing societal power relations

In simple words, power to control (that is, who has c o n t r o l o f t h e h o u s i n g m a r k e t ) , p o w e r t o o w n / b u y (who can afford a specific form of housing) power to use (who is able to use the spaces) power to choose a l i f e s t y l e ( w h o c a n a ff o r d a s p e c i f i c l i f e s t y l e ) , a n d p o w e r t o r e s t r i c t a c c e s s t o ( w h o i s a b l e t o p r i v a t i z e s p a c e s ) a r e v e r y s e n s i t i v e q u e s t i o n s w h i c h w e a r e avoiding discussing as a nation

As a student of philosophy, I understand that the rich part of the Pakistani population fears the poor and t h e r e f o r e c h o o s e s g a t e d f o r m s o f h o u s i n g a n d t h i s class is the same that enacts laws and rules, therefore nobody dares to ask questions and raise fingers against t h i s d a n g e r o u s p h e n o m e n o n t h a t i s c o n s t a n t a n d unchecked

This phenomenon has disintegrated society and the population living inside gated communities live in a different kind of Pakistan having less physical psychological and social relationships with those who live outside gated communities The lifestyles of residents of gated communities are restricted to the private spaces of the cities: taking place between homes offices, and specific commercial areas

Sociologists believe that social status is not only defined by one’s profession but also by the location and form of housing one has access to in which architecture, surroundings, comfort, and security play a central role Gated communities are simply portrayed as the homes of people of “good taste” and “cultured” while people living outside of those whose reference is given by poet Sahir Ludhihavi in his popular piece “Madam”

He writes:

Aap be-vajah pareshān sī kyuuñ haiñ mādām

(Why do you worry for no reason at all, madam) log kahte haiñ to phir Thiik hī kahte hoñge

(If people say things they must be speaking the truth)

The Modi-led Bharatiya Janata Par ty (BJP), in power since 2014, is employing a strategy to win the nex t general elec tions in 2024 by consolidating the Hindu vote through cementing the narrative that Hindus are under threat from Muslims, says Harbans Mukhia, a historian of medieval India

nounced, and again earlier this week, criti c i z e d t h e N C E rT ’s w e a k j u s t i f i c a t i o n

In a scathing editorial they wrote that the g o v e r n m e n t w i s h e s t o e s c a p e u n p a l a ta b l e f a c t s

change NCErT s books over the years, inc l u d i n g a t t e m p t s i n t h e 1 9 7 0 s a n d e a r l y

mere ahbāb ne tahzīb na sīkhī hogī

(My friends must not have learned about manners)

mere māhaul meñ insān na rahte hoñge

(Human beings must not live where I do)

nūr-e-sarmāya se hai rū-e-tamaddun kī jilā

(The shine on the face of culture derives from the light of capitalism) ham jahāñ haiñ vahāñ tahzīb nahīñ pal saktī

(Civilization cannot thrive where we are)

muflisī hiss-e-latāfat ko miTā detī hai

(Poverty blots out the sense of finer things)

bhuuk ādāb ke sāñchoñ meñ nahīñ Dhal saktī

(Hunger cannot be cast into the mould of manners)

Those belonging to the middle and upper classes are attracted to gated communities whereas those situated lower on the social ladder are described as those living in regular neighbourhoods This psychological infighting between the “regular” and “elite” has become so intense that it is triggering hatred against those who are the permanent superclass in Pakistan The growing inequalities in any society are called extreme social fault-lines that later or sooner make the total social infrastructure collapse and Gated Communities (GCs) appear to be one of the symbols of territorial and social segregation

T h e u n m e n d a b l e s o c i a l e ff e c t o f i n c r e a s i n g t h e number of GCs for residential integrity is evident and recognized by many urban geographers and sociologists who have analyzed GCs in the context of social segregation and a number of researches are available except any such from Pakistan The majority of urban housing sociologists believe that when real estate tyc o o n s b e c o m e “ C l a s s M a r k e r s ” t h e n t h e y b e c o m e powerbrokers and this is what we have already seen in Pakistan I suggest our academicians and practitioners give some attention to this subject and they should engage students to review the situation in Pakistan and document it for those who really wish to mitigate class segr e g a t i o n b e f o r e i t t r i g g e r s a n t i - s t a t e f e e l i n g s a m o n g our youth

The writer is an international award winning journalist who has been in the field since 1988 and appears in national and international media as analyst and political scientist

Bitcoin is the future of free exchange

Where am I supposed to spend my cr yptocurrenc y?

SC H O O L textbooks have become the latest battleground for Hindu nationalism in India, as education officials have deleted key passages about Muslim rule during the Mughal empire

The textbooks, released in early April, are missing sections that covered hundreds of years of the Mughal empire the 2002 Gujarat riots in which hundreds of Muslims died while current Prime Minister Narendra Modi was chief minister and the assassination of Mohandas K Gandhi who was targeted by a Hindu extremist India’s National Council of Educational research and Training (NCErT) announced changes to the syllabus last April, which recently sparked a backlash from critics on social media Indian students in class 12 relying on NCErT textbooks will no longer study chapters based on the Mughal empire, which was in power from the early 1500s until the mid 1700s

NCErT textbooks are used by thousands of schools across the country, and the country’s most populous state uttar Pradesh recently announced that it would be using these textbooks for the school year that began this week

NCErT Director Dinesh Prasad Saklani blamed the cuts on a rationalization process prompted by COVID-19 and the need to lighten the workload for students

“They recommended that if this chapter is dropped it won t affect the knowledge of the children and an unnecessary burden can be removed ” Saklani said

But the changes to the textbooks fit into a larger trend pushed by the BJP in Indian politics that emphasizes India as a nation of one religion experts say “They are saying there s nothing political about it

But it s got nothing to do with COVID, says Aditya Mukherjee, an Indian historian who taught at Jawaharlal Nehru university for more than four decades It has all got to do with their politics

The newspaper Indian Express which published investigations on the omissions l a s t y e a r w h e n t h e c h a n g e s w e r e f i r s t a n -

The Modi-led Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in power since 2014 is employing a s t r a t e g y t o w i n t h e n e x t g e n e r a l e l e ctions in 2024 by consolidating the Hindu vote through cementing the narrative that H i n d u s a r e u n d e r t h r e a t f r o m M u s l i m s says Harbans Mukhia, a historian of med i e v a l I n d i a I n d i a ’s H i n d u s m a k e u p a b o u t 8 0 % o f t h e c o u n t r y ’s p o p u l a t i o n ; Muslims account for 14% The new textbook guidelines are just the latest in a ser i e s o f p o l i c i e s d e s i g n e d t o e r a s e o r belittle Muslim contributions to Indian soc i e t y w h i l e s i m u l t a n e o u s l y g l o r i f y i n g Hindus, historians argue Some BJP leaders have defended the textbook changes including Kapil Mishra who applauded in an April 3 tweet that Mughal emperors are not in the history books they are in the dustbin ” Modi spoke broadly last year about how Indian history was full of concocted narratives that needed to be corrected Amid the political fighting historians worry about the effect on students who will use these altered textbooks in school you cannot understand modern India without the Mughals so it seems to be a silly and self-defeating embrace of ignorance about one’s own origin, says Audrey Truschke, associate professor of South Asian history at rutgers university Erasing Mughals from textbooks does not erase them from India’s history ”

TORY: Mughal rule was a crucial time period in India’s development leading up to British colonization and Mughal influence still permeates Indian culture When India became independent in 1947, Prime Mini s t e r J a w a h a r l a l N e h r u d e l i v e r e d h i s s p e e c h a t t h e r e d F o r t b u i l t b y M u g h a l E m p e r o r S h a h J a h a n s r u l e I n f a c t , M u g h a l s b u i l t m a n y o f I n d i a ’s f a m o u s m o n u m e n t s i n c l u d i n g t h e Ta j M a h a l

T h e y h e l p e d m a k e b i r y a n i a n d m a n y

everyday spices popular Traditional dress, such as men’s kurta pajama and women’s

shalwar kameez became common during t h e e m p i r e u n d e r M u g h a l r u l e , k a t h a k dance flourished and so did Indian classical music Many Indian languages including urdu and Hindi evolved T h i s i s n t t h e f i r s t t i m e I n d i a h a s fought over the contents of its textbooks

NCErT was created in 1961 after Indian independence; it assigned a committee of h i s t o r i a n s a n d a c a d e m i c s t o h o l i s t i c a l l y document the country’s history in school t e x t b o o k s B u t t h e B J P a n d r i g h t - w i n g H i n d u p a r t i e s h a v e r e p e a t e d l y t r i e d t o

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2 0 0 0 s t h a t w e r e u n s u c c e s s f u l f o l l o w i n g protests from historians In the early 2000s, the hardline Hindu g r o u p r a s h t r i y a S w a y a m s e v a k S a n g h ( r S S ) t o w h i c h M o d i u s e d t o b e l o n g prompted the NCErT to delete sections on t h e o p p r e s s i o n o f l o w e r c a s t e I n d i a n s a s w e l l a s M a h a t m a G a n d h i ’s a s s a s s i n a t i o n by Nathuram Godse who some historians s a y w a s a n r S S m e m b e r ( T h e c u r r e n t t e x t b o o k s m e n t i o n t h e m u r d e r b u t l e a v e out key context about the Hindu right’s inf l u e n c e o n t h e k i l l e r ) M u k h e r j e e w a s among a handful of historians to publish a detailed booklet documenting the numero u s e r r o r s i n t h o s e t e x t b o o k s f r o m t h e early 2000s which helped get those books thrown out N C E rT ’s c u r r e n t e ff o r t s t o s t r i k e M u g h a l h i s t o r y f r o m s c h o o l t e x t b o o k s c o m e s a m i d a s e r i e s o f o t h e r m o v e s a i m e d a t o b s c u r i n g M u s l i m i n f l u e n c e i n I n d i a i n c l u d i n g t h e c h a n g i n g o f c i t y n a m e s t o e r a s e M u s l i m o r M u g h a l o r ig i n s , h y p e r n a t i o n a l i s t B o l l y w o o d f i l m s a n d p o l i t i c i a n s f u s i n g H i n d u m y t h o l o g y w i t h h i s t o r y ; a n d o p e n c a l l s f o r g e n o c i d e o f M u s l i m s f r o m r e l i g i o u s l e a d e r s g o i n g u n p u n i s h e d “ G l o b a l l y w h e n e v e r a p a r t i c u l a r c o m m u n i t y i s d e m o n i z e d o v e r a l o n g p er i o d o f t i m e , w h e n t h e y a r e e r a s e d f r o m h i s t o r y, t h e s e a r e s i g n s o f a n i m p e n d i n g g en o cid e ” s ay s A d ity a M u k h er jee an I nd i a n h i s t o r i a n w h o t a u g h t a t J a w a h a r l a l N e h r u u n i v e r s i t y f o r m o r e t h a n f o u r d e c a d e s a n d h a s c l o s e l y f o l l o w e d e ff o r t s t o c o m m u n a l i z e t e x t b o o k s “ I t d o e s n ’t h a p p e n a l l o f a s u d d e n I t i s p r e c e d e d b y

this kind of isolation of a community so t h a t i n o r d i n a r y l i f e p e o p l e d o n ’t r e a d t h e i r h i s t o r y ; a l l t h e y h e a r a b o u t t h e m i s h o w t h e y a r e t e r r o r i s t s

In the absence of sound history being taught in schools some organizations are trying to provide an accurate portrayal in other ways

Eshan Sharma, founder of Karwaan, a student-led history collective features free conversations with prominent historians which are available online The internet is a liberal medium; it allows you to create a repository that could be looked at by generations long after we are gone, says Sharma (Sharma is also a fan of the memes that have emerged over the textbook controversy; one depicts a theory that the Taj Mahal must have been built by aliens, since the Mughals weren’t around ) But efforts like Sharma’s may not be enough to match the influence of the NCErT textbooks used throughout the country “unless there is a political change we are not going to be able to combat this says Mukherjee

T

But those days are long gone Today, millions of people especially in dictatorships and collapsing economies rely on bitcoin to give them liberty that governments and corporations try to steal away Most bitcoin users aren’t “freedom fighters or dissidents in the classic sense

Some are: human rights activists in Belarus, investigative journalists in russia, humanitarians in ukraine feminists in Nigeria prodemocracy organizers in Togo educators in Taliban-ruled Afghanistan, and even whistleblowers in the West But the vast majority are simply people finding value in a financial network that can t be devalued, censored, or stopped One doesn t need to see oneself as a revolutionary to want a digital form of cash that doesn t require ID and doesn t need permission from the state to operate One might just be trying to escape from a broken fiat system If liberty is freedom and self-sovereignty, then bitcoin is the purest expression of financial liberty It gives anyone regardless of birthplace nationality age gender, creed, skin color, education, or wealth access to the best-performing financial asset of the last decade It lets anyone with a cellphone send and receive value from anyone else, regardless of what governments think and regardless of borders and political restrictions Bitcoin is a superb tool for fundraising for human rights groups and journalists at risk But it’s also much more importantly in terms of global economic volume a superb tool for merchants accepting payments from customers in a different country for employers making payments to employees or contractors half a world away, or for laborers sending remittances to families overseas For people in the Global South bitcoin might be much more valuable than for people in advanced economies For example Africa is still divided by more than 45 central banks and 45 different fiat currencies It is also exploited by colonial currencies like the French CFA franc, and by a neocolonial payment infrastructure where 80 percent of all inter-African payments are processed by American or European companies and where the average fee to send a $200 cross-border payment or remittance from the u S or Europe to sub-Saharan Africa is 7 percent Making matters worse corrupt gov-

H E r E was a time when it was fair to question whether bitcoin was an effective tool for liberty In its first few years, when the digital currency didn’t have many users, wasn’t worth very much and lacked global markets it was more a dream than a lifelineernments enforce a fake official rate of exchange in many countries In Nigeria, the dollar trades for 750 naira on the street but just 450 at regulated institutions For many companies in Africa, bitcoin is a major upgrade It allows them to send and receive value at the real exchange rate in seconds from anywhere in the world colonial boundaries and rent-seeking intermediaries be damned Bitcoin can also be an important tool for liberty for citizens of the united Kingdom or Japan or the united States What if they have family living in the Global South where sending money is a persistent problem? What if they have friends or clients in Palestine or Cuba, where economic barriers make it difficult if not impossible to send money digitally through the legacy system? What if they have upset the administrators of the payment platform du jour Patreon or PayPal perhaps and are no longer able to collect donations from their fans? Then despite their financial privilege, bitcoin can be a big help At its core bitcoin protects one of the most fundamental liberties property rights All it takes is a few minutes of WiFi to download a bitcoin app back up the seed phrase and generate an address Then voila: you now have a way for anyone else in the world to pay you No one can confiscate your funds without access to your private key No one can debase your earnings No one can prevent you from sending value to anyone else

Before Satoshi Nakamoto invented bitcoin in 2009, property rights existed at the pleasure of the state A group of men with guns enforced them Today in the post-bitcoin world property rights exist regardless of the state Now they are protected by math Bitcoin inarguably has room to grow Its privacy user interface and liquidity leave much to be desired and are constantly improving These upgrades will be desperately needed as the world edges closer to a place where governments consolidate power over citizens through central bank digital currencies and the elimination of paper cash

Vast strides have been made in each of bitcoin s weak areas in the past five years For someone living in war-torn ukraine or drought-stricken Somalia it’s easy enough to receive bitcoin from a donor abroad and to sell it for cash, all in minutes No passport or bank account or technical expertise is required In sub-Saharan Africa, it s even possible to use bitcoin (with a few tradeoffs) with no internet whatsoever through a popular mobile text messaging protocol Bitcoin s critics have generally never had to deal personally with financial repression When their bank accounts eventually get frozen when their payment apps deplatform them, when their wages get devalued, or when their government shows up at their doors asking where a certain bank wire came from, then finally they ll understand bitcoin s value proposition

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canadian trade minister condemns hate crime at mosque

TOR ONTO

Ag e n c e s

BAGHDAD

A F P

IS R A E L launched artillery strikes on Syria Sunday morning the Israeli army announced, after several rockets were fired from there and landed in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights

Israel s retaliatory strike to rocket attacks from Syria which no one has claimed is the latest episode in escalating violence in the region

In response to the rockets fired from Syria at Israel earlier today IDF Artillery is currently striking in Syrian territory, the military tweeted

A drone was also “currently striking the launchers in Syria from which rockets were launched into Israeli territory

Six rockets were launched towards Israel Saturday night, with two landing in the Golan Heights the army said At least one was intercepted by the Israeli air-defence system

The 1 200 square kilometres (460 square miles) region patrolled by Israeli soldiers and bordering Lebanon was seized from Syria in the 1967 SixDay War Israel later annexed it in a move that was never recognised by the international community Syrian state news agency SANA

said the Israeli strikes took place around 5:00 am (0200 GMT)

Citing an unnamed military source, SANA said Syria’s military had “intercepted the rockets [ ] and brought down some of them

The surge in violence and unrest comes as the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan Jewish Passover and Chris-

tian Easter coincide

On Wednesday, Israeli police stormed the prayer hall of Al-Aqsa mosque Islam s third-holiest site in a pre-dawn raid aimed at dislodging law-breaking youths masked agitators” they claimed

Pope francis returns to public eye after illness for easter vigil mass

Pope Francis returned to public view on Saturday, presiding over Easter vigil Mass in St Peter ’s Basilica, a day after unseasonably chilly weather in Rome convinced the recently ailing pontiff to skip Good Friday s nighttime procession at the Colosseum

The evening basilica service began in darkness Then the basilica s cavernous interior was suddenly bathed in light, reflecting the Christian beliefs that Jesus rose from his death by crucifixion and that goodness can triumph over evil The 86-year-old pope is recuperating from bronchitis which saw him hospitalized on March 29 for three days On Sunday, tens of thousands of faithful are expected to join the pope in St Peter ’s Square for Easter Mass at the end of Holy Week

In his homily Francis sought to spur Catholics to be renewed by Easter

“At times we may simply feel weary about our daily routine tired of taking risks in a cold hard world where only the clever and the strong seem to get ahead, Francis said At other times, we may feel helpless and discouraged before the power of evil ”

He cited other sources of discouragement: the attitudes of calculation and indifference that seem to prevail in society, the cancer of corruption, the spread of injustice, the icy winds of war ”

But Easter motivates us to move forward to leave behind our sense of defeat, to roll away the stone of the tombs in which we often imprison our hope ” Francis said The power of Easter brothers and sisters summons you to roll away every stone of disappointment and mistrust, the pope said His stamina appeared to hold during the vigil which lasts more than two hours although Francis at times coughed or cleared his throat

At the start of the Easter vigil, Francis, who arrived in a wheelchair he uses to cope with knee pain incised in the wax of a tall candle a cross the first and last letters of the Greek alphabet alpha and omega and the numerals of this year Then the lit candle was carried by a cleric up the basilica s centre aisle past darkened pews filled with some 8,000 faithful Dozens of cardinals and other prelates followed, each carrying a smaller, lit candle “The Church calls upon her sons and daughters scattered throughout the world to come together to watch and pray, Francis said, beginning the service

Later, the basilica bells tolled, resounding in the night

had barricaded themselves inside The next day more than 30 rockets were fired from Lebanese soil into Israel, which the Israeli army blamed on Palestinian groups saying it was most likely Hamas which rules the Gaza Strip Israel then bombarded Gaza and southern Lebanon, targeting “terror infrastructures” that it said belonged to Hamas

It was the biggest salvo fired from Lebanon since Israel fought a devastating 34-day war with Iran-backed group Hezbollah in 2006 and the first time Israel has confirmed an attack on Lebanese territory since April 2022

Israel and Lebanon are technically in a state of war and the ceasefire line is patrolled by the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL), deployed in the country’s south On the Syrian side Israel has recently intensified its raids targeting positions of pro-Iranian groups v i o L e n c e i n i s r a e L: On Friday evening an Italian tourist was killed and seven other people injured in a suspected car-ramming attack on pedestrians on the Tel Aviv seafront

In response Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu instructed the police to “mobilise all reserve border police units

He also directed the army to mobilise additional forces”, his office said Earlier Friday two British-Israeli sisters aged 16 and 20 were killed and their mother seriously wounded when their car was fired on in the Jordan Valley in the Israeli-occupied West Bank Police said four reserve battalions of border police would be deployed in city centres from Sunday

The defence ministry confirmed late Saturday it had mobilised soldiers to support the police, and that it would tighten entry restrictions into Israel for Palestinians from the West Bank and Gaza, in particular workers

China in second day of ‘Joint Sword’ militar y drills encircling Taiwan

BEIJING A F P

China deployed dozens of fighter jets and warships around Taiwan on Sunday for a second day of large-scale military drills, in an angry show of force following a meeting between the island s president and the US House speaker

The move sparked condemnation from Taipei and calls for restraint from Washington, which said it was “monitoring Beijing s actions closely Dubbed Joint Sword , the three-day operation which includes rehearsing an encirclement of Taiwan will run until Monday, the People s Liberation Army’s (PLA) Eastern Theatre Command said

I am a little worried; I would be lying to you if I say that I am not ” said 73-year-old Donald Ho who was exercising in a park on Sunday morning in Taipei, in the far north of the island

“I am still worried because if a war broke out both sides will suffer quite a lot, he told AFP

China’s war games saw

planes ships and personnel sent into the maritime areas and air space of the Taiwan Strait, off the northern and southern coasts of the island and to the island’s east the army said as it launched the exercises, engineered to flex Beijing’s military muscles in front of Taiwan and the world

A report from state broadcaster CCTV said: “The task force will simultaneously organise patrols and advances around Taiwan island, shaping an allround encirclement and deterrence posture

The patriotic write-up went on to detail the type of weaponry China was putting through its paces including long-range rocket artillery, naval destroyers missile boats air force fighters bombers jammers and refuellers Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen immediately denounced the drills which come after she met with US House Speaker Kevin McCarthy in California

She pledged to work with the US and other like-minded countries in the face of contin-

ued authoritarian expansionism”

In Washington a State Department spokesperson said the United States had consistently urged restraint and no change to the status quo but noted it had ample resources to fulfil its security commitments in Asia

The United States has been deliberately ambiguous on whether it would defend Taiwan militarily although for decades it has sold weapons to Taipei to help ensure its self-defence L i v e - f i r e e x e r c i s e s :

Exercises on Monday will include live-fire drills off the rocky coast of China s Fujian province, about 80 kilometres (50 miles) south of Taiwan’s Matsu Islands and 186 kilometres (115 miles) from Taipei

“These operations serve as a stern warning against the collusion between separatist forces seeking Taiwan independence and external forces and against their provocative activities said Shi Yin, a PLA spokesman

“The operations are necessary for safeguarding China’s national sovereignty and territorial integrity

Deadly terrorist attacks rock northern Burkina Faso, leaving 44 dead

OUAGADOUGOU BURKANIA FACO

Ag e n c i e s

At least 44 civilians lost their lives in two separate terrorist attacks that took place in the Sahel region of northern Burkina Faso

According to Sahel Region Governor Lt Col Rodolphe Sorgho the attacks occurred overnight on Thursday in the villages of Kourakou and Tondobi, which are situated in the Seno province, about 5 kilometers from the Seytenga commune

Sorgho stated that out of the 44 people killed 31 were in Kourakou while the remaining 13 were in Tondobi Additionally, several people were injured and property damage was also reported

The security forces are currently working to stabilize the region and ensure the safety of the residents The insurgency, linked to terrorist groups such as al-Qaeda and Daesh/ISIS has been a major source of insecurity for Burkina Faso with the violence spreading from neighboring Mali over the past decade

According to the latest Global Terrorism Index

(GTI) for 2023, the number of deaths attributed to terrorists in Burkina Faso rose by 50% in 2022 as compared to the previous year with a total of 1 135 deaths recorded The security analysts point out that the political situation in the Sahel region further complicates the challenge of tackling terrorism In June last year, a horrific massacre claimed the lives of over 100 people in Seytenga, a town located 15 kilometers away from the Niger border

The recent attacks have once again highlighted the pressing need for effective measures to counter the threat of terrorism in Burkina Faso

The impoverished Sahel country is grappling with a seven-year-old campaign by jihadists linked to al-Qaida and Islamic State

A resident of Kourakou told AFP that “a large number of terrorists burst into the village late on Thursday All night long, we heard gunfire It was on Friday morning that we saw that there were several dozen dead ” he added

Local people said the village had been targeted in retaliation for the lynching of two jihadists a few days earlier who had tried to steal cattle

Canada’s Trade Minister Mary Ng condemned on Saturday a hate crime at a mosque saying the incident which an Islamic society said had apparently involved an attempt to tear a copy of the Holy Quran, had no place in Canadian society

The Islamic Society of Markham (ISM) said in a statement that an individual had come into the mosque in Markham, 30 kilometres north of Toronto, on Thursday and apparently torn a cope of the Holy Quran ranted at worshippers and then tried to ram them with his vehicle Deeply disturbed to hear of the violent hate crimes and racist behaviour at the Islamic Society of Markham Ng said in a post on Twitter She did not give details of the incident, but said: This violence and Islamophobia has no place in our communities ” Muslims see any attempt to damage the Holy Quran as blasphemous because they consider the book to be the literal word of God

The incident comes during Ramadan, when worshippers throng to mosques Thousands of people attend the mosque at Markham the society said The National Council of Canadian Muslims said in a post on Twitter it was “greatly distressed” by the incident

messi and ramos give PsG win to ease pressure on coach Galtier

PARIS A F P

Lionel Messi scored one goal and set up another for Sergio Ramos as Paris Saint-Germain won 2-0 at Nice on Saturday to restore their six-point lead at the top of the Ligue 1 table and ease the pressure on coach

Christophe Galtier

Messi converted a Nuno Mendes cross in the 26th minute before Gianluigi Donnarumma produced several key saves and Dante was denied by the woodwork as PSG s goal lived a charmed life on the Cote d Azur Ramos then ended any doubt about the outcome when he headed in a Messi corner with 14 minutes remaining as PSG bounced back from suffering consecutive home defeats Those losses had piled the pressure on Galtier amid reports he may not even see out the season

The result clearly meant a lot to Galtier who was in charge at Nice last season and expressed his displeasure at a banner unfurled by the home supporters aimed at his mother “My mum is 83 and has just had cancer That’s all And if these people in the stands have been watching games in Europe this season it is because of the work I did last season,” said Galtier, who led Nice to fifth in his single campaign at the club

A win for PSG s nearest challengers Lens on Friday had cut their lead at the top of the table to just three points before this game and before the top two meet in Paris next weekend

We knew we had a lot of pressure on our shoulders both because of our poor performances and because of Lens winning and especially because Nice are a really good team who have been on a great run Galtier told broadcaster Canal Plus

“It was definitely not our best performance of the season but the players fought for each other and it is obviously three important points

He added: It is better to have a six-point lead than be chasing after a six-point deficit but we know we have a very important match next weekend

It was a first defeat in 15 matches in all competitions for Nice since former PSG midfielder Didier Digard replaced Lucien Favre as coach in January The Ineosowned club remain eighth in the table

D o n n a r u m m a s ta r s: Messi s 14th Ligue 1 goal of the campaign that opened the scoring came at the end of a week in which it emerged he was likely to leave Paris when his contract expires in the summer

Before that, Danilo Pereira had already hit the woodwork for the visitors who also saw injury-prone midfielder Renato Sanches come off hurt early on Donnarumma saved well from Nicolas Pepe and Terem Moffi before half-time, and Dante then sent an effort off the underside of the bar six minutes into the second half with the ball bouncing down onto the line and then hitting the post

It was an incredible let-off for the league leaders, who were grateful to Donnarumma again as he made further stops from Pepe and Youssouf Ndayishimiye Ramos made it 2-0 but there was still time for Danilo to head against his own crossbar late on Marseille can rejoin Lens and close back to within six points of PSG with a win at Lorient on Sunday

Earlier, bottom side Angers claimed their first Ligue 1 win since September as they beat European hopefuls Lille 1-0 Substitute Halid Sabanovic scrambled in the only goal of the match with six minutes left as Angers ended a run of 21 matches without a win

That means they will not match the French top-flight record for the most games without a win in a single season that record is held by Arles-Avignon who went 23 matches without a victory in 2010/11

They nevertheless remain seven points adrift at the bottom of the table and 12 away from safety with only eight games left

British-Pakistani, Enaam sets 3rd fastest time at Indianapolis

ISLAMABAD

Ag e n c i e s

Enaam Ahmed a British-Pakistani Formula racer, set the third-fastest time during the morning session on the 2 4-mile road course at the prestigious Indianapolis Motor Speedway

The road course comprises 14 corners and is renowned for hosting some of the world’s most talented racing drivers

Only the elite racers are hired by brands and groups to drive cars on these unusual tracks, says a message received here on Sunday The test took place in preparation for Round 2 of the Firestone Indy NXT Championship

The day started on a chilling morning which led to an hour delay and cancellation of lunch break As soon as action started 20 drivers got down to business

Enaam was racing against several experienced drivers in the series which made his third fastest time of 1:14 86 even more impressive The fastest time of 1:14 62 was set by Hunter McElrea of New Zealand

Enaam Ahmed told this reporter that he is racing with support from US-based Pakistani professionals who are keen to see him compete in the Greatest Spectacle in Racing Indianapolis 500 in 2024

Enaam Ahmed His next race is on April 30th at Barber Motorsports Park in Birmingham Alabama Enaam Ahmed is the first ever and the only Pakistani to be a World Champion in Karting, beating the records of Formula One drivers Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen Not only that, Enaam Ahmed is also the British Formula 3 Champion the first ever high-level Formula Championship winner in the history of Pak-

istan and beating the record of Ayrton Senna by winning 13 races in one season

The 23-year-old is going places around the world with his winning streaks on the dangerous tracks driving cars at an average 200 miles per hour – making sure that his car carries both British and Pakistani flags Enaam is one of the brightest and most exciting young racing talents in motorsport He has been winning Championships and breaking records from the age of 14 Enaam Ahmed is also the most successful Pakistani heritage racing driver ever in the history of motorsport because he is also known as the most successful British Formula 3 driver in history

Enaam Ahmed was born to Pakistani parents in London 23 years ago

It was at the age of eight that he started taking interest in racing His parents started funding their son s passion by sending him

to local Go-karting tracks for children but they had no idea that their son would become a European and world champion at the age

of 14 winning it one year younger than Lewis Hamilton who was 15 when he became the world champion

corporate corner

Tight monetar y polic y, rising energy tariffs slowing down economic growth: APBF

ISLAMABAD: The All Pakistan Business Forum (APBF) has said that the record high key policy rate coupled with strict fiscal measures, like energy price hike, have continued to slow down economic growth, which is now estimated to be significantly lower than the post-floods assessment for the fiscal year 2022-23

Expressing serious concern over the recent hike of benchmark policy rate by 100 basis points to new record high at 21% APBF President Syed Maaz Mahmood said the action would not stop the elevated inflation reading rather the move might mitigate the estimated economic growth blow 2% for the current fiscal year APBF Chairman Ibrahim Qureshi said the IMF loan would have devastating effects on the economy, as with more taxes and increased rates of utilities, cost of production would further increase

This will render Pakistani exports uncompetitive in the global market He warned the record inflation and high cost of doing business would hurt economic growth demanding a careful policy to keep it in control He said that the most serious threat to the economy in the current fiscal year would be inflation as the government plan of approaching the International Monetary Fund for financial assistance has brought a fresh wave of price-hike because inflation is already hitting due to continuous raise in oil prices and depreciation of local currency Ibrahim Qureshi predicted that inflation would remain high and may even increase further due to market frictions caused by relative demand and supply gap of essential items, exchange rate depreciation and recent upward adjustment of administered prices of petrol and diesel

The APBF President said that due to the lagged effect of floods production losses especially of major agriculture crops has not yet been fully recovered Consequently the shortage of essential items has emerged and persisted Inflation may further jack up as a result of second round effect S ta f f R e p o R t

Lack of growth, investment exacerbate economic challenges: PIAF

ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan Industrial and Traders Associations Front (PIAF) on Sunday called for putting the economy on a sustainable growth asking the government to provide incentives to the trade and industry as the business confidence has taken a significant hit due to ongoing political and economic crises leading to a lack of investment and growth, exacerbating economic challenges further

PIAF Chairman Faheemur Rehman Saigol asked the government to address the underlying structural vulnerabilities through smooth energy supply at competitive rates, as country’s overall export proceeds continued to shrink, showing pessimism about the conditions and prospects of the businesses amidst political instability combining with various economic crises to worsen business insecurity

The PIAF chairman said that the export drop shows the government would find it difficult to achieve the industrial growth and export target leading to more pressure on foreign exchange reserves of the country Quoting the data he pointed out that remittances witnessed significant drop during the first half of the current year, exports declined by 6 6 billion dollars, foreign direct investment dipped by 654 million dollars, portfolio investment plummeted from negative 45 5 to negative 1032 million dollars, Public Sector Development Program decreased by 122 billion rupees and credit to private sector from 1043 1 to 703 6 million rupees Around 70% of businesses perceive bad conditions in Sindh and KPK and 64% in Punjab The report highlights that 61% of businesses in the first quarter of 2023 said future expectations are negative while the Net Future Business Confidence score has worsened by 11% since the previous quarter and is now at -22% S ta f f R e p o R t

Ready to resolve problems of people: Tessori

KARACHI: Sindh Governor Mohammed Kamran Khan Tessori on Sunday reiterated that he was ready to do everything to resolve the problems of the people while interacting with citizens during visit to Kharadar area here The Governor said: I am grateful to the people for the title of people s Governor The citizens were in surprise while seeing the Governor among them Kamran Tessori said that the purpose of visiting such places was to meet the people and listen to their problems He said that the administration should visit markets and implement official prices He said that the Iftari would be held in Governor House during the whole month of Ramzan

The Governor said that he would visit every place and met the people He also did 18 Sehri at Kharadar Meanwhile Sindh Governor Kamran Tessori said he was under fire for criticising street crime and gas loadshedding About gas load-shedding Sindh Governor Tessori said big suppliers were of the view that gas was available and they were ready to supply gas On the occasion, he said it was true that no one was working for betterment of the city He said on issuing statements over gas load-shedding and street crimes in the city he was being criticised However, he maintained, he would keep on pinpointing every wrongdoing being meted out to the people in the city Tessori further said that he wanted the trade and business in city and the province to keep going S ta f f R e p o R t

Pak-Uzbekistan striving to increase trade volUme to $1b from cUrrent $250m: envoy

ISLAMABAD a p p

aM B A S S A D O R of Uzbekistan to Pakistan Oybek Arif Usmanov on Sunday said that bilateral trade volume between Pakistan and Uzbekistan had reached over $250 million by the end of 2022 and both countries were focusing on exploring more avenues of trade and investments in multiple sectors to enhance trade

He said that the implementation of the Preferential Trade Agreement (PTA) between Pakistan and Uzbekistan and the recently signed nine Memorandum of Understanding (MoUs) would further increase trade volume to $1 billion between both countries The Ambassador made these remarks while talking to APP during an Iftar dinner hosted by the Embassy of Uzbekistan for journalists and experts here Sunday

M a n a g i n g D i r e c t o r o f A s s o c i a t e d

P r e s s o f P a k i s t a n ( A P P ) , M u h a m m a d A s i m K h i c h i w a s t h e c h i e f g u e s t o f t h e e v e n t The Ambassador welcomed a l l t h e g u e s t s a n d s a i d t h a t t h e P a kUzbekistan friendship had reached new h e i g h t s B o t h t h e c o u n t r i e s h a v e v e r y cordial relations and their leadership is playing role in deepening bilateral ties and cooperation E x p l a i n i n g t h e t r a d e t u r n o v e r b et w e e n U z b e k i s t a n a n d P a k i s t a n t h e A m b a s s a d o r s a i d t h a t t h e t r a d e v o l -

u m e i n 2 0 1 4 w a s a m o u n t e d t o $ 3 6 m i l l i o n , i n 2 0 1 8 i t b e c a m e $ 9 8 m i ll i o n , i n 2 0 2 0 a m o u n t e d a r o u n d $ 1 2 0 m i l l i o n a n d i n 2 0 2 1 i t r e a c h e d $ 1 8 0 m i l l i o n a n d n o w i n 2 0 2 2 , i t r e a c h e d t o $ 2 5 0 m i l l i o n h e a d d e d H e s a i d t h a t t h e s e f i g u r e s s h o w t h a t U z b e k - P a k t r a d e v o l u m e i s i n c r e a s i n g r a p i d l y Now Uzbekistan is a largest trade partner of Pakistan in Central Asia and Pakistan has been listed among the top 10 main foreign trade partners for

Imran pushing countr y towards destruc tion, says S harjeel Memon

KARACHI S ta f f R e p o R t

Sindh Information Minister Sharjeel Memon on Sunday said that the country is getting divided because of Imran Khan saying [this person] is pushing the country towards destruction

Sindh Information Minister Sharjeel Memon while holding a press conference on Sunday here in Karachi, said a fake, deceitful, corrupt prime minister was re-

moved from the country legally while being within the framework of the constitution Imran Khan was the only Prime Minister of the country who was sent home according to the practice of Parliament he pointed out He said that Imran Khan s party was the only party which said criminal investigation should not be done against us KPK BRT is enough to expose the entire PTI

What is the justification for not investigating Imran Khan? During Imran Khan s tenure, the Election Commission was also involved

Uzbekistan, he added

The envoy further stated that the Pakistani importers were interested in Uzbek textile, petrochemical products, foodstuff, pure Uzbek silk products and agricultural machinery

"The Uzbek importers are receiving Pakistani textile and leather garments pharmaceutical products chemicals food items and agricultural products

The Government of Uzbekistan he told has created a favorable and attract i v e i n v e s t m e n t e n v i r o n m e n t f o r t h e P a k i s t a n i b u s i n e s s c o m m u n i t y a n d around 207 joint venture companies are s u c c e s s f u l l y o p e r a t i n g i n U z b e k i s t a n Moreover, the two sides have started to w o r k o u t t h e j o i n t m a n u f a c t u r i n g f o r agricultural machinery and home appliances products with Uzbek investments i n P a k i s t a n T h e i m p l e m e n t a t i o n o f these projects in Pakistan can help the m e c h a n i z a t i o n a n d m o d e r n i z a t i o n o f the agricultural sector and decrease the prices for electronic products within the country he concluded

ISLAMABAD S ta f f R e p o R t

More than 2 800 Sikh pilgrims from India reached Lahore via Wagah border to attend the annual Baisakhi festival starting from Sunday (today)

According to details, Sikh pilgrims from India will participate in the main event at Gurdwara Panja Sahib Hasan Abdal on April 14

During the visit, pilgrims will visit Dera Sahib, Panja Sahib, Nankana Sahib and Kartarpur Sahib

The Additional Secretary of Evacuee Trust Property Board Rana Shahid while talking to a private news channel has welcomed the Sikh brothers and said all arrangements related to clean drinking water clean washrooms trains sitting arrangements and security have been made available for the Sikh yatrees After attending the main ceremony at the Gurdwara Panja Sahib (Hasanabdal), the pilgrims would also visit Nankana Sahib and other places, he added

A Sikh delegate commented that they were very happy to come to Pakistan as its people give a message of brotherhood by promoting peace in the subcontinent The arrangements made by the Pakistan government for us are impressive said another delegate

LAHORE S ta f f R e p o R t

Caretaker Punjab Chief Minister Syed Mohsin Raza

Naqvi Saturday ordered to immediately launch Mera Pyara app designed to reunite the lost children and people with their families

A meeting was held at the CM Office in Lahore under the chair of Chief Minister Naqvi to review the progress on “Mera Pyara” app Under the direction of the chief minister, a record management system has been developed for the app Naqvi ordered steps to launch the “Mera Pyara” app immediately and directed that the app should be made foolproof and as authentic as possible

Sikh pilgrims will leave for India on April 18 after performing religious rituals

It should be remembered that every year a large number of Sikh pilgrims from India visit Pakistan to participate in various religious festivals and events

o n t h e p e o p l e o f S i n d h T h e y w a n t p e o p l e w h o s e salary is less than 50,000 to be provided with Rs65 p e r k g o f f l o u r M o r e b u s s e r v i c e s a r e g o i n g t o b e started in Karachi EV bus service is being started in Malir from April 13

He said there will be another route from Bahria Town to Tank Chowk and Exhibition on April 14 Two routes of EV buses are starting, People's Bus route will start from North Karachi to New Karachi, Sohrab Goth, FB area to Tower and Dock Yard

CDA chief announces Easter bonus for Christian employees

ISLAMABAD: In a heartwarming gesture, Capital Development Authority (CDA) Chairman Noorul Amin Mengal announced an additional salary for all Christian employees, both regular and daily wages, on the occasion of Easter This announcement was made to appreciate and acknowledge the valuable contributions of the Christian community towards the development and prosperity of the federal capital Moreover to further enhance the festivities of the day Mengal announced that all swings and entertainment facilities at Lake View Park F-9 and Daman-e-Koh would be made free for children He also directed the concerned estate commissioner and officers to ensure that all facilities are provided free of cost to the Christian community Mengal further emphasized the resolution of problems faced by Christian employees working in the Sanitation Wing, directing for their immediate resolution S ta f f R e p o R t

Government launches mobile app, helpline for mental health

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan launched a mobile application and helpline to address the issues related to mental health in marking World Health Day On this day I am pleased to announce the launch of the government s first dedicated mental health application Humraaz and helpline Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif tweeted Citizens well-being especially mental health is of paramount importance for the improvement of society he said We need to remove the taboo around mental health, said the prime minister Citizens in need can seek psychotherapy and talk to over 140 psychologists on the app, Salman Sufi, head of the Prime Minister’s Strategic Reforms, tweeted M o n i to R i n g R e p o Rt

recovered children will be possible through this app I n t h e b r i e f i n g

i t w a s f u r t h e r i n f o r m e d t h a t 2 629 missing children have been registered in Punjab while 259 children have been recovered and 25 m i s s i n g c h i l d r e n h a v e b e e n s u c c e s s f u l l y r

IESCO notifies power suspension schedule

ISLAMABAD: The Islamabad Electric Supply Company (IESCO) on Sunday issued power suspension programme for Monday for various areas of its region due to necessary maintenance and routine development work According to IESCO Spokesperson, the power supply of different feeders and grid stations would remain suspended for the period from 07:00 AM to 11:00 AM, Islamabad Circle, Anguri, NCP, Mengyal, Shahdara, Shahpur, Iqbal Street, Peer Suhawah, Quaid-e-Azam University, Punjab House, Bri Imam, Mandala, Athal, NIH Feeders, Rawalpindi City Circle, Medina Colony, Masryal Road, Multabad, Dhok Chowdhury, Nogzi, Bajnyal Feeders Cantt Circle Rawalpindi Chahan Chontra Rajar Chakri SPD SPF Feeders Chakwal Circle Mayani Munara feeders Jhelum Circle Domeli Bhagwal feeders and surrounding areas S ta f f R e p o R t

UAE CG urges donors to suppor t genuine charities

Consul General of the United Arab Emirates in Karachi

Bakheet Ateeq Al Remeithi has urged the concerned philanthropists and donors in Pakistan to wholeheartedly support genuine charities engaged in educating children belonging to the downtrodden communities

The UAE Consul General expressed these remarks while speaking at an iftar dinner held at Karachi Golf Club to present to prospective donors the achievements of the non-profit Al-Furqan Welfare Organization in the schooling of children from deprived classes

Mr Remeithi said the genuine non-profits doing charitable work in the education sector were truly engaged in the service of Pakistan whose progress and de-

velopment could only be achieved after tackling the issue of out-of-school children

While advising the prospective donors to generously donate to the charities like Al-Furqan

He said that only proper education could empower the coming generation from the lesser-privileged areas to support their families and enable them to defeat poverty and serve the country in the best possible manner

He urged the Al-Furqan Welfare Organization to continue with its movement to overcome the issue of illiteracy in Pakistan affecting several destitute families

Al-Furqan Welfare Organization President Faryal

Asif said that her non-profit had begun its journey 12 years back by launching a one-room charitable school with an enrolment of just 16 children

She expressed her sincere gratitude to the concerned

donors and supporters of her non-profit enabling it to establish 14 schools in Karachi having an enrolment of over 2,500 students from unprivileged families

She appealed to the concerned philanthropists to continue providing support to Al-Furqan schools that besides education also took care of the nutritional healthcare and vocational training needs of their students

She told the audience that Al-Furqan had been able to get support from two donor organizations that committed to sponsoring the higher education of the students who passed out from its schools to enable them to become productive members of Pakistani society She expressed her resolve to expand the number of Al-Furqan schools in order to enroll thousands of more out-of-school children in the deprived parts of the country

Imran SayS ‘reGIme CHanGe plOt HatCHed In pakIStan, nOt US’

LAHORE

S ta f f R e p o R t

ON the first anniversary of ouster from power, Pakistan

Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan on Sunday said the conspiracy for his removal was hatched by local players in Pakistan and not in the United States

On this day last year I left the Prime Minister s House with my diary and there was a conspiracy behind the ouster of my government ” Imran said on Sunday in a video address to his supporters from his Zaman Park residence in Lahore

Addressing PTI workers and supporters after one year of the regime change Imran said that PTI came into power during a difficult time and the economy was stabilised in the last year of the PTI government

The performance of this government is witnessed by everyone We [PTI] went from terrorism to tourism and the situation has worsened again

On April 9 last year Imran Khan was voted out from power through a vote of a no-confidence motion, becoming the first prime minister in the country s history to be unseated by a parliamentary revolt

Imran had initially accused the US of engineering his ouster from power by colluding with the then-opposition PDM However, later he backtracked on his allegations, saying he “wants a dignified relationship [with Washington] if re-elected In today s address, the ousted premier said he was told by a head of a Middle East country that “efforts are being made to remove you from power and your army chief is not happy with you

He claimed that General (retd) Bajwa brought incumbent PM Shehbaz Sharif into power and also saved him from corruption cases under the plot to topple his government

The ex-PM asserted that the ‘conspiracy for his ouster was not initiated from the US, as they had previously believed, but rather it was planned by local players

Cour t approves one-day remand of Gandapur in sedition case

ISLAMABAD

S ta f f R e p o R t

Ali Amin Gandapur a leader of Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI), has been granted one-day physical remand by a court in Islamabad on Sunday The court directed the police to present him in an anti-terrorism court (ATC) on Monday in connection with the case Gandapur was arrested by the Dera Ismail Khan police on Thursday after multiple cases were registered against him by the Islamabad and Punjab police He was later handed over to the Islamabad police on Saturday in relation to the case registered against him at the Golra police station in the capital

On Sunday the Islamabad police presented Gandapur before duty magistrate Naveed Khan s court During the hearing, the prosecutor informed the court that Gandapur had to undergo a test and the police had to collect evidence

According to the details of the complaint against Gandapur, he mentioned a plan to attack Islamabad in an audio clip linked to the case

and former Pakistan envoy to US Hussain Haqqani hired to label him as anti-American and promote General Bajwa Comparing his government’s performance with the PDM regime Imran said the country s economy had been destroyed by the incumbent rulers since his ouster from power

The current rulers removed their names from the exit control list (ECL) and later destroyed the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) and Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) The FIA was tasked to lodge cases against PTI and now overall 144 cases including 40 terrorism cases were lodged against me he pointed out

“Sedition case was filed against Ali Amin Gandapur The government was bound to give me security but it failed They issued a warrant for Bani Gala s residence and the DIG raided Zaman Park They tried to assassinate me like Salman Taseer, he added The former premier alleged that the joint investigation team (JIT) was sabo-

taged after a gun attack and later they attacked the residence They wanted to kill me like Murtaza Bhutto Imran insisted that for the first time in 17 years the country s economy witnessed a growth rate of 6 per cent and most money was invested in the agriculture sector “During our time inflation was 12 per cent and now it is at 35 per cent he said Criticising the PML-N government for runaway inflation, Imran said that a 20kg bag of flour was available at Rs1,200 during his tenure which is now being sold at Rs2,800 Moreover he also claimed that the media never enjoyed so much freedom in the history of the country as it had during his time in power PTI to ‘expose’ PDM govt’s performance through white paper Meanwhile, Pakistan Tehreek-eInsaf (PTI) Chairman and former premier Imran Khan will present a white paper against the Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) government s performance since they came to power

Imran can’t justify his ‘tenure of destruction’ with any white paper: Marriyum

ISLAMABAD S ta f f R e p o R t

Minister for Information and Broadcasting Marriyum Aurangzeb on Sunday said Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman could not justify his tenure of destruction including corruption and incompetency” by simply issuing a white paper Whether he issues white red or yellow paper, nothing can help Imran Khan cover up his corruption and incompetency besides the violation of the Constitution he committed during his government’s tenure ” the minister said in a news statement while reacting to the PTI s chief remarks She said it was the ruling alliance which had made concerted efforts to steer the country out of

SHO pursuing Imran’s assassination attempt case dies of ‘hear t attack’

WAZIRABAD: Station House Officer (SHO) Amir Shahzad, who was the complainant of first information report (FIR) registered against the attack on Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan died of heart attack on Sunday According to details, Sub-Inspector Amir Shahzad

who was the station house officer (SHO) of Wazirabad Saddr police station

died of heart attack

The case of assassination attempt on Imran Khan was registered in City Wazirabad police station on the statement of the deceased police officer

It is pertinent to mention here that Imran Khan and several other PTI leaders were injured after a man opened fire near the PTI reception camp at Allahwala Chowk during party s long march S ta f f R e p o R t

economic crises created by the previous government of Imran Khan

“How can Imran Khan, who himself plunged the country into economic quagmire which ushered in sheer poverty, extreme inflation and massive unemployment question performance of a government which came into power just one year ago ” the minister wondered

She said a person who brought the country at brink of default issued a white paper which ironically had no mention of a circular debt in power sector which jumped to Rs 2400 billion from Rs 1100 billion during his own government’s tenure

There was also no mention of a circular debt in energy sector which soared to Rs 1400 billion

Oct would be good option for general elections: Sanaullah

ISLAMABAD

S ta f f R e p o R t

Interior Minister Rana Sana Ullah Khan on Saturday said keeping in view the financial position of the country, holding of general elections in October would be a good option for the government

Talking to a private news channel Sanaullah said the judiciary should constitute a full court bench to hear plea of political parties regarding the elections

The Interior Minister said political groups have made a request to the Supreme Court for constituting a larger bench to listen to the genuine complaints of public representatives regarding elections in Punjab

He said the government is engaged in compiling the census and the security personnel have also been deployed for security of the staff collecting the census data The Interior Minister said the government will provide security and financial resources to the Election Commission of Pakistan to hold transparent elections in October Meanwhile, Federal Minister for Interiors Rana Sanaullah said his coalition government is making every attempt to bring the country out of catastrophe

during the PTI’s government tenure she added Marriyum said Imran Khan had not also dared to mention wrong policies of his government which resulted into a whooping increase in the prices of wheat and sugar that went up to Rs 100 from Rs 35 per kg and Rs 120 from Rs 52 per kg, respectively

She said he also forgot to highlight increase in the prices of electricity and gas which was raised to Rs 25 from Rs 11 per unit and from Rs 600 to Rs 1400 per MMBTU respectively

The minister said the PTI government had taken record loans of Rs 20,000 billion which was also not mentioned in the white paper It was the coalition government which had returned $11 billion in one year

He talked to the media on Sunday and chastised the previous government for failing to provide development funds for public welfare despite having resources

Rana Sanaullah claimed the PML-N was well-prepared for the elections, saying the government would complete its [term ] and that the election would be held [on time]

He blamed that due to poor performance the Imran Khan-led Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government had failed to control inflation and deliver any good for the masses He stated that the current government was devoted to controlling inflation and that citizens will see significant changes in a short period of time

‘Elections to be held in country in Oct’

Meanwhile Federal Minister for Planning and Development Ahsan Iqbal said on Sunday that elections would be held in October, saying the country was going through the political and constitutional crisis

The federal minister said problems would emerge if elections were held in Punjab only elaborating October was opportune time because assemblies would complete their five years tenure He added the decision to disqualify Nawaz Sharif was a wrong decision of the court as there was dictatorship in the Supreme Court

As a large number of officers from down country are presently holding key administrative positions in Gilgit Baltistan the local officers have started feeling marginalized seeing violation of vacancy sharing formula with the center In an interesting development a group of local civil service men have come out to show their concerns that they are not being given due position in administrative slots of GB where most of them are held/ occupied by those posted from the center or other provinces

The Gilgit Baltistan Civil Service Association (GBCSA) a representative body of the local officers submitted a petition to GB Chief Minister Muhammad Khalid Khurshid to remove the discriminatory clause” from GB Rules of Business The clause reserves the exclusive right of Federal officers on slots of Additional Chief Secretary (Development), Secretary Home and Secretary Finance which has no precedent in any other province

The GBCSA has claimed that a large number of officers from outside GilgitBaltistan are occupying key administrative positions in violation of the vacancy sharing formula with the center This has led to a sense of discrimination and frustration among local officers who feel that they are being restricted to remote areas with limited chances for progression and exposure

According to the GBCSA, officers from down country are occupying at least seven Assistant Commissioner positions (PAS officers/BS-17) three Deputy Commissioner positions (BS-18), and one Commissioner position (BS-19/20) in excess while depriving local officers of such positions Out of the 10 districts in Gilgit-Baltistan only two Assistant Commissioners from the local service are posted in headquarters, while eight headquarters slots are held by federal officers Furthermore out of 23 subdivisions, 11 are occupied by federal officers

The GBCSA has also demanded that the vacancy sharing formula ratios must be ensured while posting PAS & DMS officers in BS-17, 18, and 19/20 against active field positions of Assistant Commissioners in Sub Divisions/Tehsils Deputy Commissioners in districts and Commissioners in the division/s

In addition, the GBCSA has demanded that the tenure protection of at least two years on each posting must be ensured while discontinuing the practice of making frequent and premature postings of local officers The association has claimed that the posts of Deputy Commissioner Gilgit and Deputy Commissioner Skardu have practically been reserved for federal officers, and no local officer has been posted against these positions of Divisional Headquarters for quite some time

The association is of the view that in districts where the Deputy Commissioner is from the Federal services the Assistant Commissioner may be placed from provincial service,

and vice versa in district headquarters Furthermore, the GBCSA has demanded that for posting against the post of B5-20 it should be made mandatory that the officer/s should have served at least for two years in BS-19

The GBCSA has also claimed that many intruders have managed their way onto different posts and portfolios through breach of rules and procedure, hence all such appointments may be undone through a policy decision by the cabinet and all such individuals be repatriated to their parent departments Apart from the reservations shown regarding postings of outsiders on key positions the association has also demanded that local officers be posted in federal government departments/ministries to gain more experience and excellence The government of GilgitBaltistan may also launch a project with the specific objectives of providing foreign exposure and training to the cadre officers of the Gilgit-Baltistan government on the pattern of Punjab and Sindh The concerns raised by the GBCSA have highlighted the issues related to the deprivation that Gilgit-Baltistan faces as a region that is constitutionally disputed GilgitBaltistan, under the existing rule/position, is neither a province nor an independent entity like AJK for being linked with the longstanding dispute of Kashmir Therefore the GBCSA has urged the government to take immediate steps to address the concerns of local officers and ensure that they are not discriminated against in matters of postings and transfers

C a b i n e t a p p r o ve s e s t a b l i s h m e n t a n d o p e r a t i o n o f S CO U n i ve r s i t y

The Federal Cabinet through circulation of summary has granted its approval to the signing of an agreement on establishment and operation of Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) University in the country

According to sources, the Ministry of Federal Education and Professional Training has sought the federal cabinet’s approval on a draft agreement among member states of Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) on the establishment and operation of the SCO University And the cabinet through circulation of summary has granted its approval in this regard The Minister for Federal Education and Professional Training has authorized the submission of the summary to the Cabinet, said sources It was proposed that the Cabinet, in terms

of Rule 16 (1) (h) of the Rules of Business

1973 may accord approval to the signing of Agreement on establishment and operation of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization University ” sources added

As per details, Ministry of Federal Education and Professional Training, in a summary informed the cabinet that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has shared an agreement on establishment and operation of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) University with an objective of joint training of highlevel professionals in specific areas and disciplines that meet the demands of economic and social development of Parties to the SCO Agreement And the Law and Justice Division has cleared the Agreement from a legal point of view

As per sources the spirit for the establishment of SCO University is drawn from the SCO Inter-Governmental Agreement on Edu-

cational Cooperation signed on 15th June

2006 SCO University will be an online consortium composed of higher educational institutions of Parties to the Agreement It will aim at actualizing the objectives of the SCO Agreement through carrying out joint training schemes and undertaking academic scientific and technological cooperation Member Higher Educational Institutions will be identified by decisions of the meeting of Educational Ministers of the SCO Member States

These member institutions will join the SCO University by signing and complying with the SCO University Charter Member Institutions will, however, retain their independent status and legal entity according to laws of their respective countries, said sources They added that this agreement is expected to strengthen educational cooperation and promote mutual understanding and respect among the member states of the SCO

L o c a l s fe e l ‘m a r g i n a l i ze d ’ a s ‘o u t