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Floods wreak havoc on vill ages in Balochistan, southern PunjaB 2 e La r e E d O T I U E D O N PA G E 05 LAHORE S ta f f R e p o R t federa Minister and pakistan Musl m league nawaz (pMl n) eader Mian javed latif has c aimed that the party supremo nawaz shar f will return to the countr y in september to rep resent the people the announcement comes at an nterest ing juncture as some important persona ities are in london thee days and there have been reports of qu et meetings taking place n th s backdrop the announcement from the pMl n is interesting a d d r e s s n g a p r e s s c o n f e r e n c e a o n g w t h p M l n p u n j a b s p o k e s p e r s o n a z m a B u k h a r h e r e o n M o n d a y h e s a i d t h a t “ d o c t o r s k e p t c h a n g i n g t h e i r o p n i o n a t t i m e s h e s a i d t h a t p e o p l e w e r e h i s d o c t o r s a n d t h e y g a v e t h e v e r d i c t t h a t n a w a z s h a r i f s h o u l d c o m e b a c k a d d i n g t h a t l e v e p l a y i n g f i e l d n pa k i s t a n p o l i t c s w a s i m p o s s i b l e w i t h o u t n a w a z s p r e s e n c e h e f u r t h e r s a d t h a t n a w a z s h a r i f w a s n o t a f r a i d o f g o i n g t o j a i l h e w e n t t o a i l o n h i s r e t u r n f r o m a b r o a d w h e n h e w a s s e n t e n c e d h e s a i d a d d n g t h a t t h e p M l n w o u d n o t a o w t h e p a r t y c h i e f t o g o b a c k t o j a i l u p o n h i s r e t u r n, a s t f e l t t h a t i n u s t i c e w a s c o m m i t t e d e a r e r he said that after the announcement of fore gn fund ng case by the election commis sion a segment was not ready to accept it whereas it had been proved that pakistan tehreek e insaf (pti) cha rman imran Khan re ceived funding from foreign compan es and ind vidua s j a v e d l a t i f c r i t i c s e d i m r a n K h a n o v e r f o r e i g n f u n d n g s s u e s q u e s t o n n g t h a t i f t h e f u n d s w e r e g i v e n t o t h e h o s p i t a , t h e n w h y t h e y w e r e d e p o s i t e d i n p a r t y s a c c o u n t s f t h e f u n d s w e r e g v e n t o t h e p a r t y, t h e n w h a t w a s t h e a m o f t h e f u n d i n g h e a d d e d he said that imran Khan damaged the economy during h s tenure n power now when the value of dol ar had started going down then imran Khan had started g ving threats of staging a sit in again Nawaz Sharif to retur n in September, claims Javed Latif ISLAMABAD S ta f f R e p o R t the pr me m nister and Mohammed bin salman the crown prince of saud ara bia, on Monday expressed the resolve to further strengthen the strong long standing fraternal t es between the two nat ons in a telephon c conversation the two eaders also exchanged views on s sues of mutua interest, the prime M n s ter s office (pMo) said n a statement according to the statement sharif conveyed his “deep respects ” to salman bin abdulaz z, the oil rich king dom s king the call comes a day after saudi arabia agreed to renew a $3 b ll on de pos t at the state Bank of pakistan (sBp) to bolster the countr y ’s depleted fore gn reser ves as is amabad negotiates an aid package w th the internat onal Mon etar y fund (iMf) the wor d s top oi exporter which has trad tiona ly provided financia a d to islamabad, has a so agreed to sup port pakistan with $1 b ll on n petroleum products over 10 months the financia times reported the assistance could he p pakistan secure a $1 2 bil ion payment from the iMf, whose board is set to meet th s month to approve the d sbursement during the conversation Monday the crown pr nce congratulated the prime minister and the people of pak stan on the 75th anniversar y of pak stan’s independence he also conveyed h s best wishes for the continued progress prosper ty and development of pakistan the two also reviewed the progress made on the decisions taken by the two sides dur ng the ma den v sit of shehbaz sharif after assum ng the top off ce n apr l they reso ved to expedite the ongo ng cooperation in investment energy and trade fields recall ng the historic support ex tended by the kingdom to pakistan n testing times the pr me minister thanked the crown prince for the recent eco nomic and development support his government provided to is amabad shar f also reiterated his cordial nvi tat on” to the crown prince for a visit which he grac ously accepted the statement announced Saudi crown prince express saudi
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ISLAMABAD S ta f f R e p o R t prime M nister shehbaz sharif on Monday directed to en sure the provis on of rs 50 000 rel ef to each f ood af fected fami y in the f ood hit areas through a transparent process within the three days Benazir income support programme (Bisp) wil provide rs 50 000 cash re ief to ever y flood affected family under the super vis on of na t onal disaster Management author ty (ndMa), he added the prime min ster was presiding over a meeting of the rel ef coordination comm ttee constituted for the flood affected areas the meeting was attended by federal Ministers M ftah ismail, ahsan iqba , Marriyam aurangzeb, Murtaza javed abbasi Mau ana asad Mehmood advi sor to pM Qamar Zaman Ka ra, cha rman ndMa lt Gen akhtar nawaz and relevant sen or off cia s M n ster for housing Mau ana abdu wasay ch ef Minister Balochistan abdul Quddus B zenjo and Member provicial assembly (Mpa) Balochistan sanaullah Baloch attended the meet ing through video ink the pr me minister further said that the disbursement of cash rel ef should be ensured through e ectronic transfer so that the deser ving peop e get rel ef he directed the flood rel ef coordination committee to f nalize the process of rs 50 000 cash relief disbursement and present its report by today even ng the prime min ster said that the joint sur vey in coordina t on w th the provinc al governments for the assessment of f ood re ated losses should be comp eted n three weeks instead of five weeks the provinc al governments should also cooperate and coordinate with ndMa re garding the oint sur vey at the earl est and to ensure timely re ief for the f ood affected people he added the prime minister said that it was the provinc al govern ments prerogative to become part of the federal gov ernment s flood relief efforts adding however the federal government would ensure the re ief and rehab li tation of the flood affected people through ts own re sources he also directed the Minister for information and Broadcast ng to formulate a comprehensive awareness campaign n that regard the meet ng was told that a sur vey would be conducted n coord nation w th the prov ncia governments to assess the damages caused by the recent spell of rains and f oods it was further to d that by the t me sur vey was comp eted the government through Bisp wil provide rs 30 000 cash re ief to each flood affected fam ly the prime minister, however, di rected to enhance the cash rel ef to rs 50 000 for each affected fam ly and disburse the same under the super vi sion of ndMa PM to provide Rs 50,000 cash relief to each flood affected family within 3 days
resolve to boost relationship g latest call coMes a day after
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F loods have wreaked havoc on villages in Baloch stan and southern punjab eaving the flood h t peop e trapped under the open sky, wa ting for some a d from the government on Monday as many as 19 people were drowned in f ash floods in Musa Khel in Baloch stan and dera Ghaz Khan in punjab wh le the rescuers f shed out n ne dead bodies reportedly a dam in Musa Khel, Ba ochistan swept away fol lowing the torrent al ra ns on Mon day as a result 12 people drowned in the f oodwaters the rescue offic als took out four bod es wh le the search for 8 others was under way while confirming the news, deputy comm ssioner yas r iqbal dasht said that hundreds of houses co apsed dur ng the re cent spe l of heavy rains accord ng to off cia data the death toll n Ba ochistan has reached 194 in punjab seven people have swept away in the hil torrent from Koh e suleman in tuman Qais arani in dera Ghazi Khan so far five dead bodies have been fished out the rescuers have saved one person while another is stil m ss ng a woman died due to land sliding in the area dear Ghazi Khan has been cut off from the rest of the countr y due to h ll torrents from the su e man range mountains in Balochistan the nul ahs and streams n Kohlu Barkhan dera Bugt , jha Magsi and jafarabad have over f own threatening flood ing of the areas r ver nari and river til are facing medium flood accord ng to off cia data the death toll n Balochistan has reached 194 f oods have wreaked havoc on vi ages in Baloch stan and southern punjab leaving the flood h t people trapped under the open sky wait ng for some aid from the government the heavy rain has a so left the sewerage system of many areas choked forcing the people to reach their dest nat ons after pass ing through the dirty water accu mu ated in the streets and roads DozENS of VILL AgES IN SIbI AND KoT ChuTTA SubMERgED: dozens of vi lages were flooded in lehri tehsi s bi d strict Baloch stan due to the inflow of 140,000 cusecs of water in lehr river dozens of villages were flooded in lehri tehs l, sib d strict, Ba ochistan due to the nf ow of 140 000 cusecs of water n lehri river Bakhtiar abad domki dargah Katbar sharif tanya and wazira are among the v llages that were submerged the road connect ing dargah Katbar sharif to other areas of Baloch stan, has a so fallen prey to the f ood residents of dargah Katbar sharif and adjoining villages are trapped in flood under the open sky rescue teams have not been ab e to reach the f ood hit areas due to a lack of land connect v ty the vil agers of dargah Katbar sharif suffering from a lack of food including clean drink ng water, are waiting for aid under the open sky a f t e r s u b m e r g i n g d o z e n s o f v i l l a g e s i n le h r i t e h s i l t h e f l o o d i s n o w m o v i n g t o w a r d s n a s e e r a b a d g rescuers fish out nine dead Bodies in south punjaB
araBia renewed a $3 Billion deposit in central BanK g 19 people drown in fla sh floods in Musa Khel; thousands stranded a s fla sh floods hit Balochistan, south punjaB hard C O N T I N U E D O N PA G E C05 O N T I N U E D O N PA G E 05 01 FRONT PAGE (16-8-2022) (LHR-ISB)_Layout 1 8/16/2022 1:06 AM Page 1
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Exchange Companies Association of Pakistan (ECAP) General Secretary Zafar Paracha said He added that because of the positive developments, exporters who had been previously holding onto dollars were looking to sell them but importers were waiting for the greenback to fall further Paracha said there were reports that Saudi Arabia would roll over a $3 billion loan and provide oil on deferred payments while the IMF tranche would be received soon which is why the PKR was recovering
ISLAMABAD S ta f f r e P o r t
INdUS wATER
The Indus River has been in medium flood at Taunsa Barrage and low flood at Guddu and Kotri barrages
Tuesday, 16 August, 2022 | LAHORe 02 newS neWS DeSk I N D
Pakistan Meteorological Department (PMD) has predicted above normal rainfall in August this year in most parts of the country In its monthly weather outlook, the PMD forecast above normal rainfall in northeastern Punjab, Kashmir, southern parts of Sindh as well as coastal areas of Balochistan during August
The inflow of river water at Taunsa Barrage has been measured 3,99,740 cusecs, while the discharge of water has been recorded 3,94,440 cusecs The inflow of river water at Guddu Barrage has been measured 2 64 167 cusecs while the outflow has been recorded 2,61,159 cusecs The inflow of river water at Sukkur Barrage has been measured 1 92 430 cusecs, while the discharge has been recorded 1,61,710 cusecs
StAff report
The Pakistani rupee continued to strengthen against the US dollar for the tenth successive working day gaining Rs1 51 to close at Rs213 98 in the interbank market on Monday In light of the news pertaining to foreign exchange inflows from Saudi Arabia have strengthened the PKR rally in the interbank market According to a report by Bloomberg, the Saudi Finance Ministry is planning to renew its $3 billion deposit with the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) as soon as this week The kingdom is also considering to provide $100 million a month for 10 months in petroleum products that will be granted as additional support FAP Chairperson Malik Bostan attributed the rupee’s rise to the International Monetary Fund s (IMF) letter of intent and reports of assistance from friendly countries, especially Saudi Arabia He said the market expected that payment from the IMF would be received soon which would increase the country’s foreign reserves The FAP chairperson said the greenback’s real price was between 190 and 200 but speculators had “artificially increased it because of the economic issues and the risk of default” He added, however, that the dollar would come back to its real price soon Mettis Global Director Saad bin Naseer said the local currency had risen because dollars were flowing into the country, adding that more inflows were expected Exporters who had been holding their dollars abroad, are also bringing them into Pakistan now because the greenback is depreciating quickly,” he added Naseer said there was “pressure” as exporters were approaching the government and other bodies to urge them to stabilise the exchange rate since they are facing losses But this will always happen The best suggestion is that the dollars should be converted into rupees the same day that the export [consignment] is sent and the government and banks should sign a memorandum of understanding in this regard which will end the uncertainty ” He said that the rupee will continue to strengthen and gain in the coming days if the political situation remained stable “This week’s start has been very good Positive news is coming from every front because of which sentiments have changed,”
OGRA reduces prices of impor ted RLNG by up to $0.51 per MMBTU
The inflow of river water at Chashma has been gauged 2,63,456 cusecs, while the outflow has been measured 2 45 057 cusecs
FBR to brief PM on upcoming ‘mini budget’
U S river water level at Guddu Barrage has surged to low flood again after a water flow of 57,000 cusecs reached to the barrage in upper Sindh on Monday
Pakistan In a statement issued in this regard, the central bank clarified that this decision has been taken to enable the e x c h a n g e c o m p a n i e s t o d i v e r t t h e f l o w o f f o r e i g n e x c h a n g e , m o b i l i s e d b y t h e m , t o w a r d s t h e i n t e r b a n k market I t h a s b e e n d e c i d e d t o a l l o w t h e e x c h a n g e companies to export US dollar on a consignment basis t h r o u g h c a rg o / s e c u r i t y c o m p a n y, ” t h e S B P s a i d , directing firms to ensure the availability of a sufficient amount of US currency notes at their counters to meet the demand of the general public T h e c e n t r a l b a n k s a i d t h a t i t s h o u l d a l s o b e e n s u r e d t h a t t h e p r o c e e d s o f s u c h e x p o r t m u s t r e a c h i n U S d o l l a r a c c o u n t o f t h e e x c h a n g e c o m p a n i e s m a i n t a i n e d w i t h b a n k s i n P a k i s t a n w i t h i n t h r e e d a y s o f s u c h e x p o r t “ E x c h a n g e c o m p a n i e s s h a l l s u r r e n d e r 1 0 0 % o f f o r e i g n e x c h a n g e r e c e i v e d o n t h e e x p o r t o f U S d o l l a r, i n t h e i n t e r b a n k m a r k e t o n t h e s a m e d a y, ” t h e s t a t e m e n t r e a d , a d d i n g t h a t t h i s f a c i l i t y w i l l b e a v a i l a b l e u n t i l S e p t e m b e r 3 0
The Met Office has cautioned that heavy rainfall can trigger flash flooding in hilly areas of Punjab AJK and KP as well as urban flooding in plain areas i e major cities of Punjab, Sindh and KP “Due to extreme hydro meteorological events over catchment areas, riverine floods can t be ruled out, according to the weather department “Above normal temperatures in high altitudes are likely to increase rate of snowmelt in the Northern Areas subsequently increasing the chances of base flow in the Upper Indus basin,” the PMD said in its weather outlook LEvEL SURGES TO LOw FLOOd AT GUddU BARRAGE AGAIN Elahi gives directive to expedite relief operation in flood-affected areas
The State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) Monday allowed all exchange companies to export foreign currencies other than the US dollar and bring in the greenback in their f o r e i g n c u r r e n c y a c c o u n t s m a i n t a i n e d w i t h b a n k s i n
ISLAMABAD S h a h z a d Pa r ac h a The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) will brief Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on the upcoming mini budget on Tuesday In this regard, while addressing the eighth computer ballot on POS Prize Scheme Member Admin FBR Dr Faiz Illahi Memon also said that FBR will give a presentation to the PM Shahbaz Shairf on August 16 on the overall strategy for the achievement of the revenue collection target of Rs7 4 trillion for 2022 23 (FY23) Sources said that FBR has almost completed its work related to this matter whereas the mini budget and the ordinance will be presented within the next few days They said that the government has a plan to increase regulatory duties on items on which the government recently lifted a ban The FBR estimated to collect Rs15 billion by increasing RD on these 83 tariff lines,” sources said, adding that the government will also increase taxes on tobacco and cigarettes besides introducing a SWAP system in withholding tax payments Member admin of the tax department said that the FBR will present a detailed roadmap to the PM covering Inland Revenue and Customs for the new fiscal year for documentation of the economy, reforms and meeting the assigned revenue collection target
The inflow of river water at Kalabagh has been measured 1,96,722 cusecs, while the discharge has been recorded 1,90,222 cusecs
The inflow of river water at Kotri Barrage has been measured 2,23,177 cusecs, while the outflow has been recorded 2 10 102 cusecs
PKR appreciates against US dollar in 10th consec utive session
The Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority (OGRA) on Monday slashed the prices of Re gasified Liquefied Natural Gas (RLNG) on networks of the SSGCL and SNGPL by up to 2 92 per cent for the current month According to the details, the authority has decreased the price for the consumers of SNGPL by $0 5107 MMBTU which is 2 92 per cent lower than the price in July After the cut the price of RLNG will go down to $16 9496/MMBTU for August from $17 4603/MMBTU during July Similarly, the price for consumers of SSGCL has been reduced by $0 4792/MMBTU which is 2 67pc less than the previous month s notified price After the reduction the price of imported RLNG will go down to $17 4783/MMBTU for August from $ 17 9575/MMBTU during July According to OGRA, a total of six LNG cargoes were imported by Pakistan State Oil (PSO) under two long term contracts with Qatar while Pakistan LNG Limited (PLL) procured one LNG cargo during August The main reason for the decrease in RLNG prices in August is because of the procurement of only one expansive LNG cargo under the spot purchase Under long two term contracts with Qatar, PSO is procuring LNG at 13 37pc of Brent and 10 20pc of Brent crude The decrease in rates will also reduce the cost of electricity generated from RLNG based power plants during August
As per the figures shared by authorities, the inflow of river water at Tarbela Dam has been measured 2,44,800 cusecs, while the outflow has been 2,15,500 cusecs
SBP allows exchange firms to expor t forex other than US dollar
Punjab Chief Minister Chaudhry Pervez Elahi has directed Provincial Disaster Management Authority (PDMA) and district administrations to expedite relief operation in flood affected areas of Dera Ghazi Khan and Rajanpur districts He also directed to shift people to safer places besides establishment of relief camps in the affected areas The Chief Minister said all necessary facilities should be ensured to flood affected families The operation should be continued until the last victim is transferred to a safer place”, CM Pervaiz Elahi added Sindh revokes domicile, PRC condition for admission in intermediate StAff report
Fi n a n c e m i n i s t r y s e e k s d e t a i l s o n c l o s u re o f N B P Pa r i s b r a n c h
The ministry of finance has sought details from National Bank of Pakistan as well as State Bank on closure of the Paris branch Sources said that the ministry of finance has written a letter to NBP as well as governor SBP with regard to closure of the Paris branch of the government owned bank The finance division has asked the SBP and President NBP to furnish details at the earliest Earlier it was reported that NBP shut down three foreign branches in different countries namely Bangladesh (Sylhet) Afghanistan (Jalalabad) and Uzbekistan (Tashkent) The closure of foreign branches is being done under the bank management s plan to overcome losses from these markets due to multiple operational challenges in the host countries Reportedly the bank s management planned to scale down its foreign operations last year which included several branches and subsidiaries for up to 14 entities The bank reviewed its plan and focused on seven markets for winding up operations in the first phase whereas the rest of the closures will be decided later M o n I to r I n g r e p o r t
Balakot hydropower projec t faces fur ther delay
ISLAMABAD S h a h z a d Pa r ac h a
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peSHAWAr a z i z B u n e r i The 300 megawatts (MW) Balakot Power Project has been delayed due to the slow pace of land procurement as local people are refusing to provide their land on rates fixed by the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) government It is pertinent to note that the Asian Development Bank (ADP) approved the loan facility for the project and an agreement in this regard was signed in March, this year The dam will be constructed in KP’s Balakot district at the cost of Rs85 billion The foundation stone of the project was expected to be laid in May, however, several key issues regarding land acquisition are pending The donor has directed the authorities responsible to start work after completing the purchase of the land Officials privy to the matter informed Profit that land has yet to be purchased at several sites including Paras Bela Sacha and Sanghar Sources also informed that local people are not ready to provide their land at the rate fixed by the deputy commissioner as they are of the view that the market rate is much higher Special Assistant for Population Welfare Syed Ahmed Hussain Shah has held several meetings with the locals in this regard but they have refused to accept the official rates As a result, the mega power project is being delayed further
Sindh on Monday revoked the condition of submission of domicile and PRC at the time of admission in Intermediate The director of colleges Sindh in a press release announced to extend the date of admission in the first year till August 20 owing to continuous rain across the province The condition of submitting domicile and PRC has been revoked and now the students will submit the said documents at the time of examination of intermediate and registration In this context, the directions have been forwarded to all colleges in the province Earlier, the Board of Intermediate Education (BIEF) Karachi postponed all examination papers that were scheduled for Thursday (August 11) According to a notification issued by the BIEK, the papers were postponed in line with the rain forecast issued by the Pakistan Meteorological Department (PMD) Cour t adjourns post-arrest bail petition of Gill till Tuesday StAff report A lower court here on Monday adjourned hearing on post arrest bail petition of PTI’s leader Shahbaz Gill due to non appearance of the case record Additional District and Session Judge Zeba Chaudhry heard the bail case of Shahbaz Gill in FIR registered by the Kohsar Police Station with regard of his controversial statement about the state institutions during a TV program At the outset of hearing, the court noted that an identical matter was already pending with the Islamabad High Court (IHC) Gill’s counsel Faisal Chaudhary Advocate said that matter related to the order of judicial magistrate was pending with IHC adding that this court still court hear the matter The prosecutor adopted the stance that the IHC had served notices to respondents in plea regarding the further physical remand of Shahbaz Gill The police said that the case record could not be produced this day as it was currently with IHC The court asked the Gill’s lawyer to give arguments and instructed the police to present the record tomorrow The judge said it was a common case like others The court held a recession in the hearing and asked the prosecution to present the case record However, later on, the judge adjourned hearing on the case till tomorrow and instructed the prosecution to ensure production of case record on next hearing LAHore n e w S d e S k
Kashmir cells to be established in bar councils in across Pak istan
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03newS Tuesday, 16 August, 2022 | LAHORe StAff report N AT I O N A L Assembly (NA) Speaker Raja Pervaiz Ashraf o n M o n d a y p a i d t r i b u t e t o t h e l a t e A h m a d A r i f N i z a m i L a t e Z i a u d d i n a n d L a t e A t t a U r R e h m a n f o r b e i n g n o m i n a t e d a s r e c i p i e n t o f S t a r P a k i s t a n H e e x p r e s s e d t h e s e v i e w s w h i l e c o n g r a t u l a t i n g r e n o w n e d j o u r n a l i s t s f o r b e i n g n o m i n a t e d f o r t h e N a t i o n a l C i v i l Aw a r d 2 0 2 2 o n t h e o c c a s i o n o f 7 5 t h I n d e p e n d e n c e D a y o f P a k i s t a n T h e s p e a k e r s a i d t h e j o u r n a l i s t c o m m u n i t y h a d a l w a y s p l a y e d a n i m p o r t a n t r o l e i n s t r e n g t h e n i n g d e m o c r a c y i n t h e c o u n t r y a n d p r o m o t i n g d e m o c r a t i c v a l u e s i n t h e s o c i e t y T h e s p e a k e r s a i d t h e r o l e o f t h e m e d i a in the promotion of democratic values was commendable in the country However he a p p r e c i a t e d t h e r o l e o f t h e j o u r n a l i s t c o m m u n i t y f o r t h e p r o m o t i o n o f f r e e d o m o f e x p r e s s i o n a n d s u p r e m a c y o f t h e P a r l i a m e n t H e f u r t h e r c o n g r a t u l a t e d M u j i b u r R e h m a n S h a m i A l t a f H a s a n Q u r e s h i ( H i l a l P a k i s t a n ) , J a v e d C h a u d h r y ( S i t a r a Pakistan), Nadeem Malik, Tikka Khan and H a f i z Ta h i r K h a l i l f o r b e i n g n o m i n a t e d f o r t h e P r e s i d e n t i a l Aw a r d f o r t h e i r s e r v i c e s H e a l s o p a i d t r i b u t e t o l a t e A j a y L a l w a n i , l a t e I r s h a d M a s t o i , l a t e M u s a K h a n K h e l a n d l a t e A r i f K h a n , l a t e Z i a u r R e h m a n F a r o o q u i a n d l a t e S h a h i d Z a h r i f o r b e i n g n o m i n a t e d f o r Ta g h m a P a k i s t a n a w a r d R a j a P e r v a i z s a i d t h e j o u r n a l i s t s n o m i n a t e d f o r t h e N a t i o n a l C i v i l Aw a r d s h a d p e r f o r m e d o u t s t a n d i n g s e r v i c e s i n t h e f i e l d o f j o u r n a l i s m i n r e c o g n i t i o n o f w h i c h t h e y w e r e b e i n g a w a r d e d w i t h t h e N a t i o n a l C i v i l Aw a r d s H e s a i d a w a r d w i n n i n g j o u r n a l i s t s w e r e t o r c h b e a r e r f o r y o u n g j o u r n a l i s t s i n t h e f i e l d o f j o u r n a l i s m N A S P E A k E R PAy S T R I B U T E T O A R I F N I z A M I , L A U d S O T h E R J O U R N A L I S T S O N N O M I N AT I O N O F N AT I O N A L C I v I L Aw A R d S 2 0 2 2
The speakers in a seminar on M o n d a y urged the Pakistan’s legal fraternity to a d v o c a t e t h e K a s h m i r c a u s e a n d e s t a b l i s h K a s h m i r c e l l s i n a l l d i s t r i c t and high courts A seminar titled ‘August 15 Black D a y : E x p o s i n g I n d i a s s h a m p r e t e n c e o f d e m o c r a t i c v a l u e s i n I I O J K ’ w a s o rg a n i z e d j o i n t l y b y I s l a m a b a d H i g h C o u r t B a r A s s o c i a t i o n ( I H C B A ) a n d L e g a l F o r u m f o r K a s h m i r ( L F K ) t o mark August 15, India’s Independence day as Black Day S p e a k i n g o n t h e o c c a s i o n , P r e s i d e n t I H C B A S h o a i b S h a h e e n Advocate said that India had failed to u p h o l d d e m o c r a t i c v a l u e s a n d t h e I n t e r n a t i o n a l c o m m i t m e n t s p e r t a i n i n g to Human Rights He further said that I n d i a w a s a d a m a n t a b o u t e m p l o y i n g v i o l e n c e a s a n i n s t r u m e n t t o c o e r c e u n a r m e d K a s h m i r i s t h e r e b y p e r p e t r a t i n g g r a v e H u m a n R i g h t s Violations A s s i s t a n t P r o f e s s o r I I U I P r o f A b d u r R a u f K h a t t a n a e l o q u e n t l y e x p o u n d e d o n t h e d i s p u t e d s t a t u s o f IIOJK and also the tactics employed by India to illegally occupy the territory D u r i n g h i s a d d r e s s , h e e x p o s e d t h e farce democratic face of India which is being used to whitewash the denial of Kashmiris’ rights and the violation of H u m a n R i g h t s i n t h e o c c u p i e d t e r r i t o r y H e f u r t h e r e x p l a i n e d t h e l a w f a r e m e a s u r e s u n d e r I n t e r n a t i o n a l l a w w h i c h c o u l d b e e m p l o y e d t o e n s u r e t h a t t h e p e r p e t r a t o r s o f w a r crimes in IOJK were held accountable H e r e c o m m e n d e d t h e documentation of all such war crimes a n d a l s o l o o k i n g f o r a v e n u e s l i k e Universal Jurisdiction to build pressure on Indian government R e s e a r c h A s s o c i a t e I n d i a S t u d y Centre, Muhammad Ali Baig said that t h e K a s h m i r i s a n d P a k i s t a n i s h a v e b l o o d t i e s w i t h e a c h o t h e r H e a d d e d t h a t t h e d e n i a l o f b a s i c r i g h t s o f Kashmiris was in contravention to the multiple UNSC resolution H e a s s e r t e d t h a t t h e d e c e p t i v e i n s t r u m e n t s a n d t a c t i c s l i k e t h e a c c e s s i o n a n d h o l l o w p r o v i s i o n o f internal autonomy to the erstwhile state o f J a m m u K a s h m i r h a d e n s u r e d a n d aided the Indian occupation of IIOJK H e f u r t h e r s t r e s s e d t h a t P a k i s t a n n e e d e d t o u p t h e a n t e a n d l a u n c h a n o ff e n s i v e d i p l o m a t i c p r o g r a m a g a i n s t I n d i a t o e x p o s e i t s f a k e d e m o c r a t i c facade Senior Lawyer, Muhammad Ashraf Qureshi highlighted the shortcomings i n t h e c o n s t i t u t i o n a l s e t u p o f A z a d J a m m u K a s h m i r ( A J & K ) , w h i l e e x p o u n d i n g o n t h e l a c k o f c l a r i t y i n P a k i s t a n s s t a n c e p e r t a i n i n g t o t h e constitution of AJK He urged all the Kashmiris to unite a n d w o r k c o l l e c t i v e l y i n s y n e rg y against the occupier India Executive Director LFK Advocate Nasir Qadri said India s independence a c t o f J u l y 1 9 4 7 m a d e n o m e n t i o n o f J a m m u a n d K a s h m i r, r a t h e r i t w a s i l l e g a l l y o c c u p i e d b y I n d i a s o c c u p y i n g f o r c e s w i t h o u t a n y v e n e r a t i o n t o t h e a s p i r a t i o n s o f Kashmiris H e f u r t h e r h i g h l i g h t e d t h e importance of the legal fraternity’s role i n t h e L a w f a r e f o r K a s h m i r a n d proposed the establishment of Kashmir c e l l s i n a l l t h e D i s t r i c t / H i g h C o u r t s a c r o s s P a k i s t a n , p a r t i c u l a r l y i n I s l a m a b a d , L a h o r e , K a r a c h i , a n d Peshawar Vi c e P r e s i d e n t D i s t r i c t B a r A s s o c i a t i o n A d v o c a t e M a l i k Q a m a r A b b a s s l a u d e d L F K a n d I H C B A f o r jointly organizing a seminar to expose India’s fake democratic values
On this occasion, Chief Secretary Balochistan Abdul Aziz Aqili informed the meeting about the losses relief activities and the needs of the province CS said that the notification of flood affected union councils has been issued and sent to the federal government He said that according to the preliminary estimate 15 billion rupees are required for the recovery of the damages and 20 billion rupees for the rehabilitation phase in Balochistan
PSX hits t wo -month high with KSe-100 index over 43,000-mark
Justice Syed Mansoor Ali Shah on Monday replaced retired judge Sajjad Ali Shah to become a member of the Judicial Commission of Pakistan (JCP) Justice Shah was nominated for the post after the retirement of Ali Shah as a judge of the Supreme Court He retired on August 13 The commission is a commission which makes appointments and elevation of judges to the superior courts of the country Chief Justice Umar Ata Bandial heads the apex body ISLAMABAD S ta f f r e P o r t
Robber gunned down, another injured in Islamabad police encounter
The Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif appreciated the prompt response of the provincial government institutions and assured that the federal government will fully cooperate with the provincial government in the recovery and restoration phases
The KSE 100 index of the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) witnessed bullish trend on Monday gaining 764 25 points hit a two month high at 43,450 points during the day trade on Monday The stock market closed at 43 621 82 points against 42,857 57 points on the last working day A total of 541,548,244 shares were traded during the day compared to the trade of 373,855,747 shares the previous day, whereas the price of shares stood at Rs16 836 billion against Rs10 613 billion on last trading day
StAff report
ISLAMABAD S ta f f r e P o r t
ISLAMABAD S ta f f r e P o r t
Bizenjo appreciates PM’s special suppor t for Balochistan flood affec tees
As many as 368 companies transacted shares in the stock market,272 of them recorded gain and 75 sustained losses, whereas the share price of 21 companies remained unchanged The three top trading companies were K Electric Ltd with a volume of 58 624 500 shares and price per share of Rs 3 35, Pak Refinery with volume of 38,745,080 and price per share of Rs 19 72 and WorldCall Telecom with volume of 37,753,500 and price per share of Rs 1 35 Nestle PakistanXD witnessed a maximum increase of Rs 250 per share, closing at Rs 6,150 whereas the runner up was Sapphire Tex the share prices of which climbed up by Rs 73 78 to Rs 1 136 72 Bhanero Tex witnessed maximum decrease of Rs106 38 per share closing at Rs 1 318 62 followed by Indus Motor Company, the share price of which declined by Rs15 71 to close at Rs 1,048 08 It is pertinent to mention here that the IMF executive board is scheduled to meet on August 29 to approve the release of $1 2 billion out of the promised $7 billion to Pakistan Stocks and the rupee have held their ground following news of the Fund providing an additional $2 8 billion loan to Pakistan, which will be in addition to the current one under the $7bn revival phase
ISLAMABAD M o n i to r i n g r e P o r t
A robber was shot dead and another was arrested in injured condition in Islamabad during a police encounter on Monday According to police, the incident occurred within the remits of I 9 police station after Eagle Squad intercepted muggers looting a citizen “As soon as the police engaged them, the robbers opened fire on police, ensuing an encounter which resulted in the death of one of the suspect and injury to another,” they said The injured robber was later arrested and shifted to a hospital for treatment Mugging incidents have been reported in the country and police nationwide have taken measures to curb such incidents Recently, three robbers were killed in a police encounter in Orangi Town area of Karachi while a policeman was injured According to ARY News, police spotted three robbers in Orangi town’s 11 1/2 area when they were looking for their next target The robbers opened fire at the police when they saw them chasing them, and the police fired back, killing the three robbers The police told that all three of the robbers died on the spot, bodies were transferred to a nearby hospital Sharif offers condolences over deaths in Egypt church fire
The CM Balochistan agreed for conducting a joint survey of damages with the federal institutions, for which the CM Balochistan was the focal point of the province The chief minister also underlined the need to start the survey immediately and reduce its duration
Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif expressed grief over the loss of lives after a fire ripped through a packed Coptic Orthodox church during morning services in Egypt’s capital on Sunday, quickly filling it with thick black smoke and killing 41 worshippers The blaze started just before 9:00 am in the Abu Sifin church in the city of Giza where about up to 1,000 people had gathered The fire blocked an entrance to the church, causing the stampede the two sources told Reuters adding that most of those killed were children The prime minister, on behalf of the people of Pakistan, extended his condolences to Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah El Sisi and the families of the deceased, his office said on Monday Shah becomes JCP member
App Chief Minister Balochistan Abdul Quddus Bizenjo on Monday expressed his gratitude on behalf of the people and government of the province for the special interest of Prime Minister Mohammad Shehbaz Sharif in the relief and rehabilitation of flood ravaged people of Balochistan During the Relief Coordination Committee meeting chaired by the Prime Minister through video link, the Chief Minister said that Balochistan has been severely affected by the rains and the government is using all resources to provide immediate relief to the victims “The cooperation of the federal government for relief and rehabilitation operation is very important as the Prime Minister has personally visited the affected districts and reviewed the prevailing situation, The Chief Minister however emphasized the need to speed up the efforts of NDMA
PAKIstAn exPedItInG MArKetInG eFForts For MAnGo exPorts: PAK Consul GenerAl In shAnGhAI
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Those who do not have sufficient knowledge of French language are re quired to undertake French language course in their country by enrolling at ap propriate center dedicated for this pur pose like Alliance Francaise French Cultural Center etc In the linguistic fields, Arabic litera ture and Islamic studies are taught in Arabic and applicants of these fields must be fluent in Arabic and in posses sion of proficiency certificate Applicants must fulfill other requirements set by the concerned university in Morocco The candidate must not be sus pended/ expelled from Kingdom of Mo rocco earlier due to any criminal activity The application who succeeds in the French language training program, organ ized in their country of origin, should be in the possession prior to their arrival to Morocco for the academic year 2022 23, of the documents including a long term visa (student visa) and health certificate attesting that they are vaccinated against infectious and contagious diseases, in the particular for Tuberculosis
Terming the youth an asset to Pakistan, First Lady Samina Alvi on Monday said their im mense talent and passion would take Pakistan to new heights of development and prosperity Speaking at an event organised by a university to mark the 75th anniversary of independence, she urged the youth to step forward and con tribute to national development by showing ex emplary performance in all fields of life Alvi stressed the importance of dedication, hard work and perseverance to achieve the goals of making the country stand out proudly among the comity of nations “Every individual, partic ularly youth and students has to play their role to make Pakistan a great country,” she said She said Pakistan’s youth was second to none with regard to their capabilities She however also pointed out the need for a level playing field for them to excel She emphasised getting advanced knowledge as per the contemporary needs how ever, called upon the youth not to forget their roots while pursuing their studies abroad Alvi highlighted the beautiful culture and traditions imbibed in the ethos of Pakistani society, which she stressed, needed to be promoted at all lev els The first lady said the education of women was vital for the progress of the country besides their mainstreaming in all fields of life Staff RepoRt The Moroccan Agency of International Cooperation (AMCI) has offered schol arships to Pakistani students for pursu ing education in the Moroccan Public Institutions of Higher Technical and Vocational Education for the academic year 2022 23 A c c o r d i n g t o o ff i c i a l s o u r c e s t h e deadline for receiving nominations by t h e H i g h e r E d u c a t i o n C o m m i s s i o n o f P a k i s t a n ( H E C ) i s f i x e d a s 2 0 t h S e p tember 2022 As per the details, the can didate must be a Pakistani/ AJK national and permanent resident of Pakistan/ AJK Dual nationality holders are not eligible for this offer
Morocco announces scholarships for Pakistani students
The selected scholars would be able to start their academic studies in the Moroc can universities by the start of the aca demic year in (September/October 2023) By closing date of application, appli cant must hold a minimum of 12 years of education (FSc/A level) for the under graduate programme He/ she must be aged from 19 23 years For master ’s pro gramme, the applicant must have com pleted 16 years of education in relevant fields of study Likewise a minimum of 18 years of education in the relevant field of study is required for getting admitted to the PhD program in respective Moroc can university The mode of study is French lan guage and only students who have shown satisfactory result in the French language learning program will be given the green light to travel to Mo rocco to pursue their scholarship/ train ing, in French language, in the Moroccan public institution for higher Education No one will be allowed to avail scholarship without having shown satisfactory mastery in French language
Shahbaz Gill Acting Chief Justice Aamer Farooq heard the case seeking review the decision of judicial magistrate reject ing the request of prosecution for further physical remand of the accused Advocate General Islamabad Barrister Jahangir Jadoon, Special Prosecutor Chaudhry Haseeb Muhammad and Rizwan Abbasi Advocate appeared before the court At the outset of hearing the court asked the lawyers to give arguments firstly on maintainability of the review petition Rizwan Abbasi Advocate gave references of var ious judgments of the court and argued that this case was maintainable The advocate general Islamabad said that PTI Leader Shahbaz Gill had given a controversial statement on a TV channel with regard to the state institutions The govern ment had taken serious notice of this statement and an FIR was registered against Gill he said Jahangir Jadoon said that in his statement Shahbaz Gill had targeted sensitive state institutions which had given numerous sacrifices for the country The court asked the prosecution why it required more physical remand and case was at what stage The advocate general said that the case was about the decisions of lower court The court observed that one fact was that the lower court had dismissed the review petition of prosecution and second was that the physical remand of the accused had expired The advocate general contended that laptop and other devices were yet to be recovered from the accused due to which the prosecution required his further physical re mand The court adjourned the case till tomorrow It may be mentioned here that previously a lower court had dis missed the request of prosecution for further physical re mand of Shahbaz Gill and he was sent to jail on judicial remand Meanwhile, Shahbaz Gill s legal team also ap proached IHC for seeking termination of FIR against him It prayed the court to quash the FIR registered against Mr Gill as it didn t meet the merits
IHC ser ves notices to Islamabad police seeking physic al remand of Gill First lady urges youth to work for countr y’s progress ISLaMaBaD A P P
Tuesday 16 August 2022 | LAHORE 04 NEWS
Staff RepoRt C O N S U L General of Pak istan in Shanghai Hussain Haider has said there was a plan to establish long term relations between Pakistani mango exporters and Chi nese mango importers The Consul General highlighted that in an interview with China Eco nomic Net (CEN) after the great suc cess of the 2022 Pakistan Mango Festival and Pakistan Promotion Conference held on August 1, in Shanghai There has been an obvious de cline in the production of Pakistani mangoes this year due to harsh weather Almost a 60% decline has been observed However Hussain Haider gave a positive response, saying that the normal output of mangoes in Pak istan equates to 1 8 million tonnes per year, and exports comprise 150,000 tonnes of it So, although production has de creased there is still adequate ca pacity for export Though the mangoes that Pak istan exports to China on a com mercial basis are not of a substantive quantity, in 2021, sup ply almost increased by 10% in comparison to 2020 Hussain Haider believed that with continuous marketing efforts Pakistani mango exports would gain substantial traction When informed that the Chi nese market already consists of mangoes imported from other coun tries in much larger quantities, how will the production of Pakistani mangoes compete in China? Our mangoes have a distinct advantage in taste and aroma which you will not see in the mangoes from other countries, Hussain Haider replied in confidence adding that Pakistan would have to sustain marketing ef forts The Consul General noted, “Last year we also conducted a B2B webinar between Pakistani mango exporters and Chinese mango importers ” This year, we invited not only Chinese consumers but also Chi nese companies in the mango in dustry Our purpose was to establish long term relationships between Pakistani exporters and Chinese mango importers ”
aNKaRa A N A D o l u Ag e N c y Pakistan s embassy in Türkiye s capital Ankara on Sun day marked the country’s 75th Independence Day Ambassador Muhammad Syrus Sajjad Qazi hoisted the national flag to the tune of the national anthem in the presence of the Turkish dignitaries, Pak istani community and media Messages of the president and prime min ister of Pakistan were read out on the occasion In their messages, the country’s leadership paid tribute to the sacrifices of ancestors and vowed to transform Pakistan in accordance with the vision of the nation’s founder Quaid i Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah and national poet Allama Muhammad Iqbal The leadership also expressed solidarity with the people of Indian occupied Jammu and Kashmir who are facing military siege for the past three years and reassured Pak istan s political moral and diplomatic sup port for their legitimate right to self determination Speaking on the event Qazi felicitated the nation particularly the Pakistani community in Türkiye, on the 75th anniversary of the independence Qazi stated: August 14 reminds us of the epic dem ocratic struggle of our ancestors to secure a separate homeland for the Muslims of the subcontinent where they could live according to their own will It is a day to reiterate the firm resolve to uphold our national values of unity, faith and discipline as en visioned by our Quaid and renew our commitment to the objectives of the creation of Pakistan The ambassador also thanked the Turkish leadership and people for congratulatory messages and for partic ipating in the Pakistan Independence Day cel ebrations Ankara’s landmark, ‘Atakule’, the tallest tower and best lit building will be showcas ing messages of Pakistan Türkiye brother hood and solidarity Moreover, bridges in Istanbul on the Bosporus linking Asia with Europe will be illuminated in Pakistan’s flag colours this evening On August 14 1947 the independent state of Pakistan appeared on the world stage for the first time when the Indian subconti nent was formally divided into two new do minions of India and Pakistan under the terms of the Indian Independence Act, adopted by the British Parliament The Muslims pro Pakistan’s Independence D ay celebrated in Ank ara Staff RepoRt T h e I s l a m a b a d H i g h C o u r t ( I H C ) o n M o n d a y s e r v e d notices to respondents in a case filed by Islamabad Po l i c e s e e k i n g f u r t h e r p h y s i c a l r e m a n d o f P T I ’s l e a d e r
The British Council and Koel Gallery have partnered to launch the ‘Saahil Ki Kahaaniyan Stories from the Coast’ project exhibition at the Koel Gallery in Karachi on August 12 The exhibition which continues until Au gust 19 features multidisciplinary works that aim to raise awareness of the impact of climate change on the coastal areas of Pakistan, particularly its fragile man grove ecosystem with a view to promoting sustainable coastal development The project is part of the British Council s Pakistan UK Season: New Perspectives pro gramme to mark the 75th anniversary of Pakistan
Minorities subjected to atrocities in India due to Modi’s fascist policies: A JK President app President Barrister Sultan Mehmood Chaudhry said on Monday that India is not a secular democracy, but in the form of majority of Hindus, there is an imposition of tyranny Muslims Sikhs Christians and minorities are being subjected to atrocities in India due to Modi’s fas cist policies India’s face has been exposed in the world, India s independence day is being celebrated as a black day by Kashmiris all over the world The time is not far when India will have to give their right to self determi nation according to the intention of the Kashmiris, more than nine lakh Kashmiris are fighting with the Indian oc cupying army Against the attempt to change the status of Occupied Kashmir on August 5, this problem will be highlighted in the international forum aggressively in America, Europe, Middle East from next month He ex pressed these views while addressing the Meet the Press” program at the Central Press House in Muzaf farabad Information Advisor Rafiq Nair, Chairman MDA Azhar Geelani, President Press Club Syed Afaq Hussain, General Secretary Masoodur Rehman Abbasi were also present on this occasion State President Bar rister Sultan Mehmood Chaudhry further said that India imprisoned Hurriyat leaders Hurriyat leader Yasin Malik is still imprisoned in Tihar Jail The Kashmir Committee has been organized in the European Parlia ment The Secretary General of the OIC has also assured that he will intensify his efforts to give Kashmiris the right to self determination British Council par tners with Koel Galler y on Ar t for Climate Change for Pakistan’s 75th anniversar y KaRaCHI N e w s D e s k
S teps being taken for tourism development in merged distric ts: O rakzai
The eminent scientists emphasized de sign policies, indigenous farming solutions, and better management of the most impor tant resources of soil and water to address the climate change crisis Chairman Punjab Higher Education Commission (PHEC), Prof Shahid Munir in augurated the symposium saying that food security is strategically important for Pak istan to feed its growing population, and the research and industry linkages could play a vital role in developing new technologies and promoting farmers to enhance their yield under the changing climatic conditions
PM to provide Rs 50,000 cash relief to each flood affected family within 3 days
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Floods wreak havoc on villages in Balochistan, S outhern Punjab
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No flood relief camp has been set up for the flood hit people who are also facing food shortages Water accumulation, poWer suspension after rain: Bakhtiar Abad Domki, Dargah Katbar Sharif, Tanya and Wazira are among the villages that were submerged The road connecting Dargah Katbar Sharif to other areas of Balochistan, has also fallen prey to the flood Residents of Dargah Katbar Sharif and adjoining villages are trapped in flood under the open sky Rescue teams have not been able to reach the flood hit areas due to a lack of land connectivity The villagers of Dargah Katbar Sharif, suffering from a lack of food including clean drinking water, are waiting for aid under the open sky After submerging dozens of vil lages in Lehri tehsil the flood is now mov ing towards Naseerabad Some of the villages of Lehri tehsil in cluding Allah Wah Trihar, Murad Wah Rilo, Gulab Khan Rilo, Mian Khan Wazir and Machhi Thidi Brahmani have been com pletely submerged The standing cotton crop over thousands of acres has been destroyed; hundreds of tube wells and cattle heads have been washed away in gushing floods The land connection of Lehri tehsil with the rest of Balochistan has been cut off due to the washing away of roads in floods For two days, the flood victims have been lying under the open sky without any help hungry and thirsty They say that the government should im mediately move them to a safe place by hel icopter and arrange food and water for them It is to be noted here that at least 10 people have fallen prey to the gushing floods in the district during the last three days In Southern Punjab, the flood has wreaked havoc on dozens of villages in Kot Chutta It has been learnt that dozens of villages in Chak No 1 were completely submerged and hundreds of houses in Chah Lindwala, Basti Shahani and Basti Jadiani were de stroyed People are moving to safe places on a self help basis Apart from Rescue 1122, the officials of the tehsil administration are nowhere to be seen No flood relief camp has been set up for the flood hit people who are also facing food shortages Water accumulation, poWer suspension after rain: In Nawab shah, intermittent heavy rain with strong winds continues in different areas of Nawab shah Due to continuous rain, several feet water has accumulated on the main high ways of the city Besides, several feeders were tripped due to rain, and the power sup ply has been suspended in many areas Moreover, many areas of Nawabshah were flooded due to heavy rain including Dor Bandhi Qazi Ahmed and Sakrand In Hafizabad, the incompetence of the munici pal committee came to the light after the dirty water from drains accumulated on the roads due to heavy rain in the district The rain also turned the roads across the city into a pond forcing the girl students to reach their schools after passing through dirty water The municipal committee staff is unable to ensure cleanliness at the educa tional institutions across the city Weather situation: Weather would remain partly cloudy in most parts of the country with a forecast of rain with gusty winds and thunderstorms for some areas islamabad Weather: Rain with strong winds and thunderstorms is ex pected in Islamabad, whereas, heavy rain is also likely at some places in the federal capital, according to the Meteorological Department sindh Weather: Weather is expected to remain partly cloudy in most districts of Sindh, the Meteorological Department said Rain is likely in Tharparkar, Umerkot, Mirpur Khas, Shaheed Benazirabad, Badin, Thatta, Dadu, Hyderabad and Karachi Heavy rain is also likely in Thatta, Badin, Karachi and Hyderabad balochistan Weather: Partly cloudy weather with gusty winds and thun derstorms is likely in most districts of Balochistan, the Meteorological Department said Heavy rain is also expected at a few places in Barkhan, Sibi, Zhob and Kalat punjab Weather: Strong winds and thundershowers are likely in Mianwali Sar godha, Bhakkar, Layyah, Dera Ghazi Khan, Gujranwala and Potohar region, the Meteor ological Department said Rain with strong winds and thunder showers is expected in Sialkot, Lahore, Toba Tek Singh Mandi Bahauddin and Faisalabad too Rain is also likely at some places in Sahiwal, Multan, Bahawalpur, Bahawalna gar and Rahim Yar Khan Moreover, there is also a possibility of heavy rain at some places in Punjab Khyber paKhtunKhWa Weather: There is a possibility of rain with strong winds and thundershowers in Dir Chitral Swat Mansehra Abbottabad Haripur, Buner, Mardan, Peshawar, Kohat, Bannu, Kurram, Dera Ismail Khan and Waziristan Moreover, there is also a possibility of heavy rain at some places, according to the Meteorological Department a j K & G b W e at h e r : I n A z a d J a m m u a n d K a s h m i r ( A J K ) a n d G i l g i t B a l t i s t a n (G B), there is a pos s ibility of rain at s ome p l a c e s w i t h s t r o n g w i n d s a n d t h u n d e r s h o w e r s H e a v y r a i n i s a l s o e x p e c t e d i n A J K , a c c o r d i n g t o t h e M e t e o r o l o g i c a l D e p a r t m e n t
PAKiStAN’S food SecuRit y chALLeNge NeedS A SySteMAtic APPRoAch: exPeRtS
President Alvi appoints Syed Mehdi Shah as GB governor
Continued from page 01
By poll on Karachi’s NA 245 seat hangs in balance due to heav y rain
The by election on a Karachi National Assembly seat, NA 245, ap peared to be hanging in the balance as District Returning Officer (DRO) received a report of more monsoon rains from August 15 to 21 on Monday According to details, the District Returning Officer (DRO) has received a report of expected rains in Karachi from Pakistan Mete orological Department (PMD) In the report, the Met office warned of monsoon rains from August 15 to 21 “There are 80 percent chances of heavy rains from August 16 to 18 while the city may witness light rain from Aug 19 to 21,” the letter stated The by election on Karachi’s NA 245 is scheduled to take place on August 21 S ta f f R e p o Rt
05NEWS Tuesday 16 August 2022 | LAHORE app S
PEAKERS at an international symposium on “Climate Smart Sustainable Rice and Wheat Pro duction System held on Monday stressed the need to have a system atic approach to address food security chal lenge in the country
The meeting was further told that as the federal gov ernment was in contact with international donors and other welfare institutions, the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and World Bank had already assured to provide necessary funds for the reconstruction of de stroyed infrastructure and rehabilitation activities in the flood affected areas Besides, the meeting was told that teams of doctors and paramedics had been sent to the flood affected areas and the Higher Education Commission (HEC) was assessing the damages in af fected educational institutions Chief Minister Balochistan and Provincial Chief Secretary briefed the meeting in detail about the life and material losses in Balochistan due to recent rains and the rescue and re lief measures taken by the provincial government Nawaz Sharif to return in September, claims Javed Latif
o h a t M a j o r G e n e r a l A k i f I q b a l M e m b e r P r o v i n c i a l A s s e m b l y G h a z a n J a m a l , P r o j e c t D i r e c t o r Tourism Authority of merged districts I s h t i a q K h a n D e p u t y C o m m i s s i o n e r O r a k z a i , P
Continued
The federal minister questioned what was the road map of the ‘Haqiqi Azadi March’, mentioned by the PTI chief Will this revolution come in such a way that if you come to power, debts will rise, corruption, unemploy ment and inflation will also increase? He said that if in dependence and revolution meant that power should be given to the PTI chief again, “then it was not acceptable to us” If it means that Imran should not face trial under Article 62 and 63, and no Tosha Khan reference be filed, then it was not acceptable to people, he added from page 01
Some of the villages of Lehri tehsil including Allah Wah Trihar, Murad Wah Rilo, Gulab Khan Rilo, Mian Khan Wazir and Machhi Thidi Brahmani have been completely sub merged op over thousands of acres has been destroyed; hundreds of tube wells and cattle heads have been washed away in gushing floods The land connection of Lehri tehsil with the rest of Balochistan has been cut off due to the washing away of roads in floods For two days, the flood victims have been lying under the open sky, without any help hungry and thirsty They say that the government should im mediately move them to a safe place by hel icopter and arrange food and water for them It is to be noted here that at least 10 peo ple have fallen prey to the gushing floods in the district during the last three days In Southern Punjab, the flood has wreaked havoc on dozens of villages in Kot Chutta It has been learnt that dozens of villages in Chak No 1 were completely submerged, and hundreds of houses in Chah Lindwala, Basti Shahani and Basti Jadiani were de stroyed People are moving to safe places on a self help basis Apart from Rescue 1122 the officials of the tehsil administration are nowhere to be seen
Staff report Secretary Department of Tourism, Cul ture, Sports, Archeology, Museum and Youth Affairs Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Muhammad Tahir Orakzai has said that pragmatic steps are being taken for the development of infrastructure and pro motion of tourism in the merged dis tricts (MDs) Addressing Tour the Orakzai Fes tival” Ghailjo Sports complex in con nection with 75th Independence day diamond jubilee celebration of Pakistan as a chief guest he said that multiple events and programs have been planned to promote the soft image of the province as well as the merged districts across the globe G O K r e s i d e n t o f F r o n t i e r 4 × 4 C l u b B a b a r K h a n Yo u s a f z a i , S y e d A z h a r A l i S h a h o f C y c l e F e d e r a t i o n President of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Cy c l i n g A s s o c i a t i o n N i s a r A h m e d a n d o t h e r i m p o r t a n t p e r s o n a l i t i e s w e r e p r e s e n t o n t h e o c c a s i o n T h e f e s t i v a l o rg a n i z e d 4 × 4 f r o n t i e r j e e p c a r r i a g e s cycle races and motorbike rallies while m u s i c p e r f o r m a n c e s a n d c u l t u r a l dances were also part of the event Secretary Tourism Muhammad Tahir said that such events would attract more foreign tourists to the Orakzai district He said the festival was arranged on the special instructions of Chief Minister Mahmood Khan adding that such events would be organized in other merged dis tricts every year with more different and attractive programmes including paragliding He said that Orakzai district would be declared as the cycling destination of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa A large number of participants from different areas including Peshawar, Kohat, Kurram, Hangu and Khyber par ticipated in the festival In the frontier 4×4 jeep race, Babar Khan Yousafzai won the first position while Khizr Hayat and Nadeem Akhtar Bhatti clinched the second and third position respectively Staff report P r e s i d e n t A r i f A l v i h a s a p p o i n t e d S y e d M e h d i S h a h a s t h e g o v e r n o r o f t h e G i l g i t B a l t i s t a n ( G B ) r e g i o n n e a r l y t w o m o n t h s after Raja Jalal Yasin resigned from his post The president approved the appointment of Syed Mehdi Shah as the governor of the G B o n t h e a d v i c e o f P r i m e M i n i s t e r S h e hbaz Sharif after the seat fell vacant on June 24 The Presidency in a message from Twit t e r s a i d t h e a p p o i n t m e n t w a s m a d e u n d e r s e c t i o n 3 3 ( I I I ) o f G i l g i t B a l t i s t a n O r d e r 2018 on the advice of the prime minister The seats for KP and Sindh governor are still lying vacant after the two PTI loyalists at the slots resigned following election of Shehbaz Sharif as prime minister On May 30, President Arif Alvi approved the appoint ment of Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz (PML N) leader Muhammad Baligh Ur Rehman as the new Punjab governor
The symposium was held at the Faculty of Agriculture, University of the Punjab in cooperation with COMSTECH, UPSIGN, SAWIE SACAN and Dawood Agro
Prof Munir said that the per capita an nual water availability in Pakistan has dropped to 1,017 cubic meters from 5300 in 1947 and may lead to absolute water scarcity by 2025 He said this will result in severe water shortages for the next generation of farmers Future water requirements and challenges impose a serious threat to Pakistan due to its agrarian economy where wheat and rice are primary food crops, he informed There is an urgent need to develop inno vative solutions for efficient and sustainable use of water, improving nutrient use effi ciency, reducing the crop losses from pests and diseases both pre and post harvesting, and thus requires utmost priority in our na tional planning, he suggested Prof Munir mentioned that Pakistan will be importing four million tons of wheat this year to meet its food demand, which is quite an alarming situation for our nation Program Manager COMSTECH, Ms Khazima gave an overview of COM STECH s support for promoting science and innovation in the Muslim world to tackle the food security challenge Co founder UPSIGN, Dr Khalid Mah mood emphasized on the need to better build collaboration, cooperation, and communica tion among all the stakeholders Dr Mahmood Farooq from Sultan Qa boos University said that Pakistan is one of the most vulnerable countries severely af fected by climate change causing unprece dented droughts floods the influx of pests diseases and locust attacks in 2020, and the severe heat wave in 2022 affecting wheat crop The heavy rains and hailstorms have ad versely impacted the wheat crop with reduc ing yields by 25% to 30% in 2020 CEO of SAWIE/SACAN, Eng Mushtaq Gill (TI), said Pakistan needs to address its rice and wheat system on an emergency basis Wheat prices around the world are soaring due to the Ukraine war and the cli mate change crisis Pakistan is ranked 77/113 in the Global Food Security Index, 71/113 for food affordability, and 74/113 for food quality and safety, having few food safety net programs, and scoring 40 5% below average Director of Rice Research Institute, Syed Sultan Ali said our Rice production is 100% dependent on flood irrigation which con sumes 35% of total water available in the country Its future is at risk if we do not pro mote sustainable practices Rice crop sup ports foreign exchange earnings by more than $2 5 billion Director General Punjab Agriculture Re search, Mr Muhammad Nawaz Khan, chaired the first session and shared develop ments of the Punjab Agriculture Department to develop climate smart varieties to address the water scarcity and heat challenge He said that Rice and Wheat crop yields in Pakistan are low compared to the rest of the world due to an array of factors such as water shortage, crop pests and disease infes tations, and improper use of fertilizers like nitrogen Director of Wheat Research Institute, Dr Javed Ahmad said AARI is taking a chal lenge in developing new germplasm to tol erate drought and heat and also improving the nutrients uptake Dr Abdul Wakeel, from the University of Agriculture Faisalabad, said that the nu trient use efficiency of wheat and rice crops is the lowest in the region We use more ni trogen fertilizer compared to other countries in the world Only one third of the nitrogen is available to plants and the rest all gets wasted This is not only a loss for the farmer but causing damage to our environment due to NO2 emissions International speaker, Prof Bijay Singh from Punjab Agriculture University Ludhi ana said there is a dire need for a second green revolution to enhance our grain yields based on developing strong communication links between farmers academicians plan ners, and politicians Abdul Hanan explained the features of SAWIE App that are available for farmers for free SAWIE outreach program is sup porting more than 0 6 million farmers across Pakistan to provide the knowledge base and smart weather and crop advisory Adil Farooq, from Dawood Agro, said, through mechanical planting, we can in crease the plant population of 120,000 plants per acre to achieve 40 mounds yield com pared to 15 mounds This will help to spare land to grow other crops FAO in charge of Conservation Agricul ture, Prof Kassam said that we need to edu cate our farmers about conserving our natural resource soil and water by promoting practices like zero tillage method, optimal agronomic practices such as balanced appli cation of fertilizer and irrigation schedule that not only improve input use efficiency but also will make the Rice and Wheat pro duction system more sustainable in the con text of environment and economics
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Yousaf Nizami Editor
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t h o u t a p o l o g i z i n g f o r s i m i l a r c r i m e s u n d e r P T I A year
06 Tuesday, 16 August 2022 COMMENT Lahore Ph: 042 36300938, 042 36375965 I K arachi Ph: 021 35381208 9 I Islamabad Ph: 051 2204545 I Web: www pakistantoday com pk I Email: editorial@pakistantoday com pk
A curious fact of life is that photographic images appear infinitely more fascinating than the real life situations they capture. Meticulously rehearsed and carefully taken photographs therefore make one’s life appear much richer and significantly more exciting than is actually the case.
Umar Aziz Executive Editor Aziz ud Din Ahmad Joint Editor
Black
06-07 Comments - 16th August 2022_Layout 1 8/15/2022 10:31 PM Page 1
Founding Editor M A Niazi Joint Editor
I t is said that a picture is worth a thousand words A digital photograph, with all its megapixels, is probably worth ten thousand the digital camera is an invention of great util ity It is indispensable in many professions today the domains of aesthetics and entertainment are virtually unthinkable without this technology Life would certainly be much less informed and colourful without it For example, future generations will have the benefit of knowing how Ata ul Haq Qasmi looked like only because of the digital cam era Like all good things however, the digital camera has a dark side to it as well: the digital camera is an integral part of all cell phones and therefore it is rather easy to overuse it, with some very unfortunate consequences For if all one does is keep taking self ies and photos of everything under the sun, it has ob viously become a serious problem Use of the digital camera above a certain threshold is a mental disorder that is obvious to everybody except those who are afflicted with the same malady to be sure, the analog camera had its problems too But it came with a major blessing in disguise that is, photographs taken from it came at a pre mium You spent money on every photograph so you thought twice before every click the digital photo graphs being ‘free’ remove this impediment mak ing it extremely tempting to be on a photography spree all the time Why should it be so hard to resist the temptation of capturing everything and sharing it on the social media is not easy to know, especially by the addicts themselves And this is true not only of those happy go lucky souls who do not bother much with analy ses of their actions, because even the more thoughtful individuals often deceive themselves regard ing their fixation For the most part they do not ac knowledge that they have a problem Even if they do, they are for the most part less than honest with them selves regarding the seri ousness of the issue Every individual needs to feel good about himself, and there are few things that help achieve that goal better than being convinced of the utility of their own existence their raison d’être Now there could be any number of such reasons in fact as many reasons as there are people, because every man starts his life with immense potential Sadly, many of them spend their lives in such a way that even they know in their hearts of hearts that they do not re ally add anything meaningful to the world Others, who have a definite and unique utility, fail to appre ciate their own quite genuine worth and therefore feel miserable about themselves for not being more glam orous than they are Each group craves outside vali dation of their lives, and therefore wants the world to notice and acknowledge them ‘Look! We exist,’ they are effectively saying And if you doubt it, here is the photographic evidence of the fact ’ A curious fact of life is that photographic images appear infinitely more fascinating than the real life situations they capture Meticulously rehearsed and carefully taken photographs therefore make one s life appear much richer and significantly more exciting than is actually the case Consciously or subcon sciously, these images are aimed to impress others by misleading them But since one can hardly deceive anybody without first deceiving oneself, the act in evitably involves a great deal of self deception Our best memories are not phases of life but par ticular moments But the moments that stick in the mind and get recalled as happy memories invariably are unplanned ones In our desire to have more and more of these happy memories, we often forget that spontaneity is a major ingre dient in the making of the moments and events that one looks back fondly at When one attempts to artificially create happy memories by immortalizing events by the act of photographing them one seldom succeeds that is because spontaneity and therefore genuineness is so obviously lacking In fact, one hardly ever looks at most of the innumerable photo graphs of these ‘happy’ mo ments What is even more unfortunate about perpetu ally seeing the world through the lens of the camera (so to speak) is that by not living in the moment one always loses something of value With many individuals the obsession of photograph ically ‘documenting’ every thing becomes so unshakable that they practically live their whole lives as a kind of photoshoot strictly fol lowing a script that they themselves write, direct and shoot Life to them is not something to be lived to the fullest in the moment but something to be treasured in photographs later It is obvious that human beings, who are often accused to be rational animals are capable of displaying spectacular levels of irrationality
The author is a connoisseur of music literature and food (but not drinks) He can be reached at www facebook com/hasanaftabsaeed a S a N a F ta B S a E E d
S a j j a d S h a u k at T h e c u r s e o f t h e d i g i t a l c a m e r a A n d w hy i t i s s o h a rd n o t to ke e p c l i c ki n g away Day Day Kashmiris
E v E rY year, when India celebrates Inde pendence Day on August 15 Kashmiris liv ing on both sides of the Line of Control (LoC) and Pakistanis, including those of rest of the world observe it as the Black Day to convey the message to the international community that New Delhi continues to usurp their inalienable right of self determination On this very day in 1947, the historical resolution was adopted by the All Jammu and Kashmir Muslim Conference in Abi Guzar Srinagar with 59 prominent leaders in attendance the resolution was unani mously adopted, indicating that existing religious, ge ographical cultural economic ties and the aspirations of millions of Kashmiri Muslims warrant accession of the state of Jammu and Kashmir (J&K) with Pakistan During the partition of the Sub continent the people of the J&K which comprised Muslim majority decided to join Pakistan according to the British led formula But Dogra raja Sir Hari Singh a Hindu who was ruling over the J&K in connivance with the Indian Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru and Gover nor General Lord Mountbatten joined India the design to forcibly wrest Kashmir began to un fold on August 16, 1947, with the announcement of the radcliffe Boundary Award It gave the Gurdaspur Dis trict a majority Muslim area to India to provide a land route to the Indian armed forces to move into Kashmir there was a rebellion in the state forces against the Ma haraja and were joined by Pathan tribesmen Lord Mountbatten ordered armed forces to land in Srinagar However Indian forces invaded Srinagar on Oc tober 27, 1947 and forcibly occupied Jammu and Kashmir in utter violation of the partition plan and against the wishes of the Kashmiri people When Pakistan responded militarily against the Indian aggression, on December 31, 1947, India made an appeal to the UN Security Council to inter vene and a ceasefire ultimately came into effect on January 01, 1949, following UN resolutions calling for a plebiscite in Kashmir the Security Council’s resolution 47 of April 21, 1948 promised a plebiscite under UN auspices to en able the people of Jammu and Kashmir to determine whether they wish to join Pakistan or India On Feb ruary 5, 1964, India backed out of its promise of hold ing plebiscite Instead, in March 1965, the Indian Parliament declared Kashmir an integral part of the Indian union In fact, the very tragedy of Kashmiris had started after 1947 when they were denied their genuine right of self determination they organised themselves against the injustices of India and launched a war of liberation which New Delhi tried to suppress through various forms of state terrorism Since 1989, various forms of state terrorism have been part of a deliberate campaign by the Indian army and paramilitary forces against Muslim Kashmiris It has been manifested in brutal tactics like crackdowns, curfews illegal detentions massacre targeted killings sieges, burning the houses, torture, disappearances, rape, breaking the legs, molestation of Muslim women and killing of persons through fake encounters After the Indian fanatic Prime Minister Narendra Modi the leader of the extremist ruling party BJP came to power in 2014 he took various drastic steps such as abrogation of the special status of the disputed territory of the Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK) revocation of articles 35A and 370 of the Constitution bifurcation of the IIOJK into two territories to be ruled directly by New Delhi, contin ued lockdown there deployment of more than 900,000 military troops who have martyred thousands of the innocent Kashmiris through brutal tactics, amendment of the law allowing Indian citizens to buy land in the IIOJK and issuance of domicile certificates to more than 800000 non Kashmiris And Indian forces have been also availing various draconian laws such as Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA), the Public Safety Act (PSA) etc in mar tyring the Kashmiri people and for arbitrarily arrest of any individual for an indefinite period Indian forces had also accelerated shelling inside Pakistani side of Kashmir by violating the ceasefire agreement across the LoC and compelled Pakistan Army to give a matching reply In February 2021, the Director Generals of Military Operations of Pak istan and India had agreed to strictly observe the 2003 ceasefire agreement at the LoC and other sec tors, including Working Boundary from the midnight of February 24 and 25 At present, Indian atrocities in the IIOJK have come in the limelight of the international community In this connection various world leaders particularly those of the Western countries, their law makers, media and human rights groups such as Human rights Watch, Amnesty International etc and UNO have repeatedly condemned Indian illegal measures and human rights violations In this respect, UN human rights experts on Au gust 4, 2020 called on India and the international community to take urgent action to address the alarming human rights situation in Jammu and Kashmir to investigate all cases of human rights vi olations, including extrajudicial killings, enforced disappearances, torture and arbitrary detentions Amnesty International said in 2020 that it is “stopping its work in India because the government has frozen its bank accounts for highlighting rights violations in Jammu and Kashmir the government had sought to punish it for that” Amnesty International has also stated that it is “deeply concerned about the disregard for the lives of people in Jammu and Kashmir the right to life is laid down in major international human rights treaties, including the International Covenant on Civil and Po litical rights which India has ratified the language publicly used by state officials in Jammu and Kashmir betrays and strengthens disregard for the most funda mental of all rights” In the recent past, the UN Security Council in its meetings has thrice reiterated that the Kashmir issue requires to be settled according to the related Security Council resolutions But without bothering for the fact that Kashmir remains a nuclear flashpoint, Modi led regime’s ex tremist moves have completely ended any sort of di alogue with Islamabad to settle the Kashmir issue It seems that New Delhi reached to a conclusion that only bullet is the right way of dealing with the Kashmiris Nevertheless, like the past years, Indian Inde pendence Day will be commemorated as the Black Day by the Kashmiris Pakistanis and in rest of the world to encourage and re affirm the Kashmiris’ commitment to continue their struggle for their legit imate right of self determination as recognised by the related resolutions of the UNO and till the attainment of the liberation against Indian illicit occupation Sajjad Shaukat writes on international affairs and is author of the book: US vs Islamic Militants, Invisible Balance of Power: Dangerous Shift in International Relations and can be reached at: sajjad logic@yahoo com
H A r D LY four months in opposition and former PM Imran Khan is moaning that there can be no real independence without free media the realisation would have been welcomed if it was really genuine With media having passed through a virtual nightmare during the PtI rule many would question the credibility of the statement Media curbs combined with harassment of journalists multiplied during the era of reading from the same page Senate committees received several complaints regarding intimidation from a number of media outlets three anchor persons with liberal and democratic views were pressured to leave in the first year of PtI rule Within months three private tv channels were pulled off the air without following due process the next year saw abductions of media persons A journalist was severely beaten up by unidentified assailants outside his residence in Islamabad Another was shot at while exercising in a park Independent media faced suspension of advertisements under PtI, the aim being to ruin it financially PEMrA was used to harass media houses Considering this insufficient the government proposed to set up the draconian Pakistan Media Development Authority through executive ordinance Last year the then Information Minister Fawad Chaudhry tried to cover up actions against media persons He claimed in a tv programme that some journalists staged attacks on themselves to strengthen their case for seeking political asylum abroad He expressed the same view in his BBC interview that some journalists are accusing ISI just to get immigration Imran Khan however is not yet willing to realize that he was wrong when he tried to muzzle the media and harass the journalists He is only concerned about the crackdown against media houses and media persons airing PtI’s narrative this is a purely partisan stand Imran Khan should have accepted his government’s role in the suppression of media and promised never to do it again this could have been a step towards bringing all stakeholders together to defend media freedom Failing this, few outside his own party would pay heed to his narcissistic “if methods employed to target PtI and me are allowed to succeed dark days of dictatorship will return when there was no space for free media ad freedom of expression Wailing over suppression of media freedom Kabul’s fall r O U G H LY a year ago, when Kabul fell to the taliban, there was a rather perplexing sense of jubilation in Pakistan this sense of euphoria bordered on the bizarre, given how vast sections of society were cheering on the success of an organisation an offshoot of which had been killing our own soldiers and civilians, an organisation the campaign against which was even used to justify some human rights excesses by the state they are two different organisations, we were told by talking heads generally known to be taking their cue from the security establishment that the Afghan taliban are an entity distinct from the Pakistani variety Even if this were to be true (and it wasn’t) the morality here was still problematic: why should we be cheering on the ascent to power of what most certainly is a medievalist totalitarian regime, one that gleefully used to take responsibility for placing IEDs at busy marketplaces, schools and hospitals? But if the national hive mind has no moral qualms about the citizens of another country, they should know that the cosmic balance keeps a ledger and there are debts to pay with interest Having acquired a strategic depth of their own, the zealots are very much back in action in Pakistan Already, there is credible information that cabinet members of the KP government have been paying protection money to the regrouped and remobilized taliban Horrible reports are emerging from Swat And the ttP is, as per undenied reports, in peace talks with the security establishment As for Afghanistan itself, that beleaguered nation finds itself on the brink of a catastrophe even more stark than what it has faced the ragtag militia that can t govern at the best of times, has had a drought, earthquake and some floods on its hands All on top of financial reserves that are due to the government but not being released by the western powers, on grounds that they will be used for terror financing the West has blood on its hands when it comes to Afghanistan they should hold the new regime to high standards, but keep the interests of the Afghan people (who didn’t even choose the new regime) higher Wi of dismay
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Dedicated to the legac y of late Hameed Nizami Arif Nizami (Late)
Indian Independence
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s p re a d i n g p o i s o n o u s m i s i n f o r m at i o n a l l i n t h e n a m e o
August , the month of freedom
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AMID a pall of gloom owing to murky political and economic scenario, Pakistani weightlifter Nooh Dastagir Butt brought joy for the nation by clinching the first gold for the country at the recent Commonwealth Games that were held in Birmingham Just as I was enjoying the great piece of news, there came another one; Arshad Nadeem the athlete who sent his javelin sailing over 90 metres, which is considered the mark of greatness in the sport In doing so, Arshad became the first South Asian ever to cross that mark the Independence Day this year is sweeter than ever and we must thank our sports heroes who came from nowhere to make us feel proud to be Pakistanis In the 109+kg category, Nooh lifted 173kg in snatch, while in clean and jerk he lifted a massive 232kg setting another record Overall Butt lifted 405kg, which is also a Games’ record In the 2018 Commonwealth Games in Gold Coast, Australia, he had won the bronze, and had a silver medal at the World Championships in tashkent last year in December After lifting 170kg, Nooh improved it to 173kg in his second attempt He emerged winner over New Zealand’s David Andrew Liti (170kg), while India s Gurdeep Singh had a tie for the third place with England s Gordon Shaw at 167kg then in clean and jerk competition, Nooh twice beat marks of 218kg and 224kg by Liti, and a lift of 223kg by Gurdeep, lifting 225kg in his first attempt before lifting 232kg to finish with a total of 405kg Nooh also earned honour of improving the record of 403kg by Liti who had won the gold four years ago Nooh has dedicated his gold to his father, saying he was the motivational force behind his success As for Arshad, he was nursing an elbow injury in his throwing arm and yet made it big, breaking his own personal best thrice in the same competition He was clearly giving it all that he had got and then some more Overall, Pakistan had one of its best outing in the Commonwealth Games, finishing in the top 20 on the medals table, with two golds, three silvers and as many bronze medals this is a proud moment for Pakistan and a reason to celebrate these achievements by Nooh, Arshad and all the winners clearly tell us what our athletes can do if they get the support they need in terms of training and fitness they certainly made the 75th anniversary of our independence a little more memorable thank you, folks! PARVEZ IQBAL LAK CHINIOT
A U G U S t is one of the happiest months for us as our beloved country was born on the 14th of this month We celebrate independence from the clutches of the colonial power on this day every year I took part in the freedom movement and witnessed the brutality of the Gorkha unit on a street in rawalpindi Cantt where they ruthlessly killed innocent people the struggle and sacrifices of people to gain freedom are unfathomable for today s generations this was the last leg of the freedom movement, and the British could see the inevitable, that is, they had to give freedom to people of the sub continent However the cunning British were in no mood to go peacefully they sowed the seed of hatred among communities who had struggled together to free themselves from the clutches of the colonial power the viceroy Lord Mountbatten did everything from abruptly changing the date of partition to changing agreed upon boundaries at the last moment to weaken the newly formed Pakistan the struggle and sacrifices of people to gain freedom are unfathomable for today s generations Although we were not treated fairly, we still celebrate freedom with joy However, our celebration and spirit of nationalism seem limited to August 14 only We celebrate the day as a ritual but don t really treat the country as our own Although the Quaid successfully got us freedom and saved us from complete annihilation, he did not live long to put the country on a real path to prosperity His predecessors did nothing but live beyond their means adopting a lavish way of living and sinking the country into massive debt People also seem self centered and not willing to work hard and pay taxes Politicians tend to become more self serving by the day and don t care about anyone but themselves While I congratulate my fellow citizens on the day of independence, I also request everyone to work and pray for the country RAJA SHAFAATULLAH ISLAMABAD 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 Pakistan today
07 Tuesday, 16 August, 2022
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COMMENT Great reasons to celebrate Independence Day
Zealot conser vative news outlets shatter the vir tue of free speech d r a l o N B E N M E i r What Verizon and AT&T have done is admirable . Now it is time for them and many other carriers such as Comcast, Spectrum, and DirecTV to consider dropping the biggest culprit of all the fake and manipulative media outlet Fox News f f f p e c
Th e y h ave b e e n e n g a g e d i n t h e s e d e l i b e rate p ra c t i ce s o
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Righting the Wrong the harm that trump has done to this coun try dividing it against itself undermining trust in the legitimacy of our democratic norms and institutions, threatening the peaceful transfer of power promoting outrageous and destructive lies that have misled tens of millions of Ameri cans and normalized the insertion of violence into politics all of this and more has been made possible by the relentless right wing propaganda machine that is Fox News Until we reckon with the disastrous reality that a major news network has effectively abandoned the news, abandoned any semblance of objectively reporting what in fact has occurred abandoned any fidelity to facts upon which all reasonable people can agree, we will not pull ourselves away from the existential precipice where we now find ourselves tom Nichols, contributing writer to the At lantic, observed that the January 6 hearings “are crucial and every American should be watching them,” but added that “the alternate reality that about forty percent of us live in will never be breached by actual facts Fox News, more than any other media organization, bears responsibil ity for this dismal state of affairs By continuing to defend trump and his fol lowers, downplaying, or simply ignoring the events of January 6 and what led up to it, Fox News is pressing our republic ever closer to self dissolution and authoritarianism this is not simply about republicans versus Democ rats; it is about what kind of regime we are going to live under: whether we will forfeit the rule of law and sink into the quagmire of neo fascism and right wing extremism, where prop aganda has supplanted evidence based analysis; or whether we will condemn political violence, demagoguery and the cult of person ality and insist that our public officials uphold their oaths of office and abide by our demo cratic norms, the rulings of our courts, and the results of our elections
Consider the moral cowardice of Fox News host Sean Hannity, who exchanged text mes sages with trump’s Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany a day after the riot, where Hannity urged no more crazy people and no more stolen election talk and in a January 10 text message to former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, Hannity wrote that [trump] can t mention the election again Ever I did not have a good call with him today And worse, I’m not sure what is left to do or say ” Yet Hannity could still dismiss the Select Com mittee investigating the January 6 attack as en gaging in “the dullest, the most boring Democratic fund raiser the moral harm that Fox News is inflicting on America goes in fact beyond January 6, and even beyond trump: the Fox News primetime lineup which includes tucker Carlson and Laura Ingraham is serving to unburden the American public of conscience, concern for the welfare of the less fortunate and commitment to something higher and worthier than party loy alty What if we just cut off unemployment? Ingraham suggested during an interview last year, “Hunger is a pretty powerful thing ” Fox News, One America News (OAN), Newsmax and talk radio constitute a right wing media ecosystem, and as a research team based at Harvard Uni versity observed: “these reinforce the message provide the president a platform, and marginalize or at tack those republican leaders or any conserva tive media personalities who insist that there is no evidence of wide spread voter fraud ” I n h i s n o w c l a s s i c s t u d y, P ro p a g a n d a , F r e n c h p h i l o s o p h e r Jacques Ellul identifies t h e s p e c i f i c m e t h o d s that modern propagan d i s t s u s e t o o rg a n i z e a “mass of individuals t h r o u g h p s y c h o l o g i c a l m a n i p u l a t i o n s t o u n i f y i t s m e m b e r ’s b e h a v i o r a c c o r d i n g t o a pattern ” and directly influence the public’s beliefs attitudes and judgments these tech n i q u e s i n c l u d e “ t h e s e l e c t i v e r e n d e r i n g o f facts; deliberate use of falsehoods; spreading of rumors; descriptions of groups and individ u a l s t h r o u g h s t e r e o t y p i n g a n d i n n u e n d o ; t h e i n v o c a t i o n o f p r e j u d i c e , f e a r, a n d h a t r e d within the populace; and the incessant repeti tion of emotionally laden cultural myths and divisive slogans ” We may also add the use of loaded terms, watchwords, dog whistles, and appeals to na tionalism A team at MIt, analyzing propaganda techniques in the news, underscores the use of logical fallacies such as strawmen (the misrep resentation of the other ’s position), red herrings (the provision of irrelevancies), false di chotomies (offering two alternatives as the only possibilities), and whataboutism (a diversionary tactic to avoid directly addressing an issue) Whataboutism is worth considering more closely because it is becoming ubiquitous among republicans perhaps this is not surprising given that it is certainly trump’s “favorite dodge ” It is one of the fundamental rules by which he operates: when you are criticized, say that someone else is worse In an interview with trump, Bill O’reilly states the obvious fact that “Putin is a killer,” and who can forget trump s response: there are a lot of killers You got a lot of killers What, you think our country is so innocent?” that is classic whataboutism And it is also of course all over Fox News’ most popular line up For example, when Biden denounced the in surrection as the worst attack on our democ racy since the Civil War,” tucker Carlson’s response was “really? the worst at tack on our democracy in 160 years? How about the Immigration Act of 1965?” Carlson is refer ring to the Hart Celler Act which brought an end to the national origins quota system and ef fectively banned racial discrimination from im migration policy: so, by his inane logic, a legitimate anti racist law constitutes a greater affront to democracy than the attempt to over throw a free and fair election Fortunately, we are beginning to see some of the network carriers awaken to the damage that these right wing propaganda machines are causing to our culture, beliefs, and political dis course the three right wing media organiza tions noted above are discovering that there may indeed be a steep price for systemati cally spreading misin formation and bald faced propa ganda: they have all been hit with billion dollar lawsuits by Do minion voting Machines which ac cuses them of “spread ing conspiracy theories that it rigged the presi dential election against Donald trump and skewed results in favor of now President Joe Biden,” according to Newsweek In another blow to these masters of spreading fake news verizon will stop carrying One America News on its Fios television service beginning Saturday this so called news outlet has been spreading the most outlandish lies about the legitimacy of the 2020 elections verizon’s decision to drop OAN was preceded by At&t s earlier decision in April to ditch OAN the decisions of the two carriers will undoubtedly inflict massive finan cial losses to the network, which is overdue given the unspeakable harm they have inflicted on our country What verizon and At&t have done is ad mirable Now it is time for them and many other carriers such as Comcast, Spectrum, and Di rectv to consider dropping the biggest culprit of all the fake and manipulative media outlet Fox News this would send a clear message to all right wing news outlets that they will no longer be the carrier of fake news and poisonous propaganda that polarize the public, instill ha tred and distrust, and promote conspiracy theo ries all in the name of free speech regardless of the horrific harm they inflict on our democracy Dr Alon Ben Meir is a professor of international relations at the Centre for Global Affairs at NYU He teaches courses on international negotiation and Middle Eastern studies alon@alonben meir com
D A D U District is famous for its political and social activism Like the rest of Sindh and the whole of Pakistan this social and political activism has gradually waned and replaced with opportunism and greed the marginalized people s rights were protected by politically conscious and socially active political workers and pressure groups from the powerful nexus of feudal and officialdom But since the 1990s power politics first inflicted central leadership of the political parties and it trickled down to local leaders and workers With rare exceptions, everybody wanted position, power and wealth the public suffered and this suffering is intensifying with the passage of time In this milieu different corrupt and criminal mafias emerged and they have become movers and shakers of the system these mafias have strong political links and they fiercely resist any public servant s action to perform his/her duty honestly transfer of government officers is common and considered normal practice all around the world including in Sindh and Pakistan But the frequency of transfers is speedier in Dadu District A category of public servants is those who resist all temptations and pressure and work according to the rules of the game they take on the mafia and make their lives difficult these kinds of officers become popular among the public but when the same officers are punished for their public service and honesty the poor working class is unable to protect them from the wrath of the powerful status quo as working people have no organized setup or time to stand up in support of such kind officers According to social media postings, the recent casualty is an upright officer SSP Irfan Samoon Within months of his posting, Irfan Samoo brought normalcy and restored public confidence in the law Perhaps the reason behind his purported transfer might be the criminal mafia and different kinds of criminal gangs who have found their nefarious activities completely hampered thus it is strongly speculated that those powerful political masters of the criminal mafia might be behind reported transfer of SSP Irfan Samoon GULSHER PANHWER JOHI
Tuesday, 16 August 2022 08 WORLD VIEW IrAN lIkely To Be The WINNer From NeW NUcleAr deAl
First of all, the regime desires a deal that removes all US and european financial sanctions immediately rather than a step by step lifting of the sanctions based on peri odic verifications that Tehran is complying with the terms of the deal This will make it much more difficult for the international community to reimpose sanctions, even if the iranian regime were to be found to be secretly advanc ing its nuclear program in violation of the nuclear deal For example, as part of the 2015 agreement, known as the Joint comprehensive Plan of Action, the Un lifted all four rounds of crippling sanctions that took decades to impose on the regime, since they required consensus among the five permanent members of the Un Security council (the UK, china, France, Russia and the US) even after the theocratic establishment violated all terms and restrictions of the nuclear deal in June 2020 and in spite of the fact that it is now close to obtaining nu clear weapons the Un Security council has not reim posed these sanctions due to a current lack of consensus and the veto power of china and Russia The new nuclear pact, which is reportedly close to being agreed appears to meet this demand of the iranian leaders With the removal of sanctions upon the signing of the deal, the agreement will lead to the lifting of eco nomic pressure on iran which will likely help Tehran to regain its financial power, halt its currency devaluation and reignite its economy iran s staggering economic problems thanks to reduced oil sales, spiking inflation, an increase in un employment, domestic discontent toward the govern ment the devaluation of the currency and Tehran s geopolitical isolation are bringing the government to its knees by significantly endangering the hold on power of the ruling clerics However, the proposed deal will allow Tehran to more freely trade in its metal industry, sell oil, receive several billions dollars of previously frozen assets, lure back Western oil companies, suppress domestic activists and exercise its hegemonic ambitions
The regime also wants a deal that will remove a deep concern of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, which emerged after the recent widespread protests and demon strations: The possibility of the West attempting to sub vert the regime by supporting opposition parties and human rights and democratic movements in iran Domestically speaking, iranian human rights ac tivists and dissidents are genuinely concerned, believing that a nuclear deal will allow the ruling clerics to sup press domestic opposition with renewed vigor and with out reservation
The iranian regime also wants the nuclear deal to have an expiration date The sunset clauses in the nuclear pact fulfill that objective These clauses pave the way for the iranian regime to resume enriching uranium to any level it chooses after the period of time specified in the agreement in addition the iranian leaders desire a deal that will give it global legitimacy and make the international com munity less likely to hold Tehran accountable for its military adventurism in the region The regime will see any new nu clear deal as a green light to pursue its political agenda and ambitions in the region, as well as to consolidate its power and influence in Yemen Syria Lebanon and iraq it will also be a powerful platform, giving iran the capability to militarily and economically back its proxies throughout the region including the Houthis and Hezbollah
Financial Times A n n i e P f o r z h e m e r S i n c e the Taliban s violent takeover of Afghanistan one year ago the coun try’s 40mn inhabitants have faced a hellish existence of political repression and economic crisis For the US and other allies that supported Afghan progress for 20 years, this nightmare sce nario prompts the question: how do we help re lieve the immense suffering of Afghans after abandoning them and surrendering most of the levers of influence we previously wielded? To begin with, we must remain engaged with, if not in, Afghanistan That requires facing up to our painful role in enabling last year s traumatic turn of events That history is something Ameri cans want to forget, and the Taliban’s active re pression of media and human rights defenders make it hard for even the closest observers to see the full extent of their iron rule We have a moral obligation to the Afghan people we left behind to endure the rule of the Taliban We also have a strategic self interest in preventing Afghanistan from becoming once again, a destabilised environment where terror groups freely live, train and recruit Moving ahead our engagement should be multilateral principled and clear in its application The era of unilateral US policy leadership on Afghanistan is over The Un, World Bank and Asian Development Bank are examples of the ap propriate faces of international community in volvement with Afghanistan imperfect as these institutions are, they at least represent broad world opinion and include Afghanistan’s neigh bours and other regional actors The US is, ad mirably, the top financial donor to Afghanistan, but it is not now in a position to cut the best deals The US should therefore get out of the way of those who can make effective contributions it must throw its weight behind a well co ordinated international effort We also have to stick to our principles as in divisible elements of policy Having an “ideol ogy is not only the Taliban s prerogative We should fight without reservation for the essence of the Un’s Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which Afghanistan signed decades ago and which calls for respect for human rights free dom from fear and individual liberty Finally, Afghanistan has to be clearly linked to, and nested within, broader US strategic goals Beyond the siloed and unworkable vision from the past of either total success or complete policy failure in Afghanistan alone, we should incorpo rate it back into our other international impera tives These include stability in the nuclear armed neighbourhood of south Asia counterbalancing chinese and Russian influence in central Asia, worldwide counter terrorism co operation, atroc ity prevention, global principles of women s rights, peace and security, and diversification of mineral and energy sources To achieve these ends, we should match our remaining tools of influence in Afghanistan as precisely as possible to the outcomes we want Getting the Taliban to respect human rights in Afghanistan should be coupled with a range of diplomatic tools that measure out the legitimacy it wants We should provide the Taliban with nei ther bilateral diplomatic recognition nor a Un seat until they honour international human rights norms A recent Un report that spelt out appalling violations of human rights in Afghanistan sug gests that the Taliban are frighteningly far from meeting that goal counter terrorism and stability goals are best matched to tools like the current Un sanctions regime, aimed at mitigating the rise of terror groups not only should we deny any sanctions relief until the Taliban truly address the issues of terrorism and national inclusion, we should con sider additional sanctions against those who are creating suicide units within the security forces and recruitment focused madrassas to take the place of schools As for the sorely needed goal of putting Afghanistan s severely broken economy back on track our efforts must be matched with Taliban acceptance of the international community’s oversight of cash assistance and release of frozen assets There also needs to be transparency about where their own funding comes from and how they spend it We have a mess to clean up in Afghanistan And it is in our interest to do so as a part of the larger world system, with principles guiding our actions and by advancing our broader interna tional security agenda
The writer is a former acting US deputy assistant secretary of state for Afghanistan and a member of the steering committee of Alliance in Support of the Afghan People
The FBI is now the Federal Bureau of Intimidation WE SHOULD PROVIDE THE TALIBAN W I T H N E I T H E R B I L AT E R A L D I P LO M AT I C R E CO G N I T I O N N O R A U N S E AT U N T I L T H E Y H O N O U R I N T E R N AT I O N A L H U M A N R I G H T S N O R M S 08 WORLD VIEW 16th August 22_Layout 1 8/15/2022 11:14 PM Page 1
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W I T H T H E R E M O VA L O F S A N C T I O N S U P O N T H E S I G N I N G O F T H E D E A L , T H E A G R E E M E N T W I L L L E A D TO T H E L I F T I N G O F E CO N O M I C P R E S S U R E O N I R A N , W H I C H W I L L L I K E LY H E L P T E H R A N TO R E G A I N I T S F I N A N C I A L P O W E R , H A LT I T S C U R R E N C Y D E VA LU AT I O N A N D R E I G N I T E I T S E CO N O M Y
W h y U S m u s t e n g a g e w i t h A f g h a n i s t a n news D r m A J D r A f i z A D e h W H e n it comes to the nuclear deal there are several important parameters the iran ian leaders want in order to ensure that the regime emerges as the sole winner as a result of the agreement
N o T H i n G symbolizes the decline of the American republic better than the weaponization of justice that we saw last week when the FBi raided the home of former President Trump And nothing bet ter represents the divide that now exists between Democrats and Republicans than the fact that some people still have faith in the FBi Aren’t they paying attention? Heck, that’s like a citizen of the old Soviet Union saying they had faith in the KGB yeah, to crush dissent and lock up opponents of the regime in a Siberian gulag The evidence is overwhelming The Federal Bureau of investigation is now the Federal Bureau of intimidation or more appropriately the Federal intimidation Bureau whose acronym would spell out FiB, as in the Big Lie Face it, noth ing the FBi has said for the last six years since they joined with the Democratic Party to invent the Russia collusion hoax can be taken seriously is there any need to go through the whole laundry list of lies and fabrications that the FBi with the aid and comfort of the Justice Department, has foisted on the American public? You can start with the extraordinary 2016 press confer ence when FBi Director James comey detailed crimes com mitted by presidential candidate Hillary clinton related to her improper use of a private email account to store classified ma terial Moments after saying she had broken the law comey announced with a straight face that “no reasonable prosecu tor” would ever bring a case against her Yeah, because she was a Democrat! A couple months later, comey set up President Trump’s na tional Security adviser, Gen Michael Flynn, by sending agents to interview him about his supposed contacts with Russians “What’s our goal? Truth/Admission or to get him to lie, so we can prosecute him or get him fired?” wrote Bill Priestap in a memo before the interview Priestap was counterintelligence director at the FBi, and it became evident later that the agency’s goal was indeed to get him fired and more importantly to get Trump impeached fired humiliated you name it comey himself admitted that the FBi targeted Flynn and chose not to approach him through the White House legal counsel but informally with a direct phone call to arrange an interview As comey later told a reporter, it was “something i probably wouldn’t have done or maybe gotten away with in a more organized administration What about the FBi s abuse of carter Page and George Papadopoulos? The agency made up evidence in support of subpoenas, FiSA warrants, whatever it took to get the desired result What about the FBi and Department of Justice targeting parents at school boards as “domestic terrorists” because they demanded that their elected representatives actually represent them? What about the unilateral rescission of executive privilege and attorney client privilege wherever it would have protected President Trump and his advisers? The purpose of all of this activity, along with the raid at Mar a Lago, was to intimidate not just Trump, but also his supporters Anyone other than Donald Trump would have given up long ago Who could possibly withstand the power of the state marshaled against you for six long years through multiple FBi investigations through two impeachments through relentless persecution of your children and your friends and family? Finally what about the double standard that allows De mocrats and their government allies to go unpunished for a multitude of sins? notwithstanding Attorney General Merrick Garland s feigned indignation on behalf of the bureau what about the FBi agents who lied repeatedly during the Trump Russia investigation, sometimes under oath even more stun ning has been the FBi s monumental failure to investigate presidential son Hunter Biden, even though it received his laptop with extensive incriminating evidence of criminal ac tivity in 2019 even when the laptop was made public during the 2020 presidential election, the FBi stood silent and thus gave tacit approval to the cynical Democratic Party talking point that the laptop was somehow a GoP dirty trick it would be inter esting to know if the FBi had anything to do with the letter signed by 51 national security experts falsely claiming that the laptop was “Russian disinformation”! Maybe, like comey before him, FBi Director chris Wray thought he could “get away with it That is certainly the only explanation for the raid on the president’s personal residence it was not appropriate it was not reasonable it had no precedent The FBi claims that the pre dawn raid by more than 30 armed agents was for the pur pose of collecting presidential papers that the national Archive wanted The Washington Post says that Trump reportedly had documents with nuclear secrets on them, and the legacy media went ballistic with the story But wait a minute, isn’t that the same Washington Post that won a Pulitzer Prize for collabo rating with the FBi to invent the Russia collusion hoax? Don’t believe a word from either the Washington Post or the FBi Trump had been cooperating with the national Archive and had already turned over 15 boxes of documents all of which he could have made a claim to legally possess if they wanted papers turned over, they could have gone through Trump’s lawyers no they wanted the spectacle They wanted the sizzle They wanted the headlines This wasn t about the rule of law; it was about the rule of the schoolyard Bullies get what they want through force and intimidation, and there is no reason for any of us to believe that the raid had any purpose other than to intimidate Donald Trump into backing down from his plans to run for president in 2024 essentially what the FBi was saying is “We know where you live, and we aren t afraid to come for you They even ri fled through Melania Trump’s closet as if she might have been hiding top secret documents in her hat box When do we find out they also spent an hour sorting through her lingerie? This is sickening no matter how much MSnBc and the Washington Post want you to think you can still trust the FBi Fool me once, shame on you Fool me twice, shame on me Fool me over and over and over again and i must be a Democrat Frank Miele, the retired editor of the Daily Inter Lake in Kalispell Mont is a columnist for RealClearPolitics His new book “What Matters Most: God Country Family and Friends,” is available from his Amazon author page
Furthermore, the iranian regime is searching for a deal that does not give the international Atomic energy Agency full access to its military sites which reportedly have connections to Tehran’s nuclear program it has a history of building clandestine nuclear sites, which have been revealed and verified in other words the regime will be able to reap the advantages of the nuclear deal while continuing to enrich uranium to a high level at un declared underground nuclear sites As a result, the iranian regime will be in a much stronger position after the nuclear deal is agreed, feeling less pressure to dismantle its nuclear facilities and end its uranium enrichment There is also the issue of its plu tonium reactor, which is believed to have no purpose other than to militarize iran s nuclear program Finally, iran wants a deal that does not address or constrain its ballistic missile program, which is linked to its nuclear program in a nutshell, the proposed nuclear pact appears to meet all the iranian regime’s key demands, which will make Tehran the winner after the agreement is signed Dr Majid Rafizadeh is a Harvard educated Iranian American political scientist RcP f r A n k m i e l e
D u r i n g t h e w e e k , o u t o f 5 1 i t e m s , p r i c e s o f 2 6 i t e m s i n c r e a s e d , 9 i t e m s d e c r e a s e d a n d 1 6 i t e m s r e m a i n e d s t a b l e T h e i t e m s , w h i c h r e c o r d e d d e c r e a s e i n t h e i r a v e r a g e p r i c e s o n Wo W b a s i s i n c l u d e d o n i o n s w i t h a decrease of 10 18pc, bananas 2 71pc, chicken 1 03pc, vegetable ghee 1 kg 0 7 9 p c v e g e t a b l e g h e e 2 5 k g 0 55pc, mustard oil 0 36pc, rice Bas m a t i b r o k e n 0 3 3 p c , c o o k i n g o i l 5 litre 0 17pc and LPG 1 10pc The commodities that witnessed increase on WoW basis included toma toes 10 35pc salt 3 73pc eggs 3 67pc pulse mash 3 65pc, pulse moong 3 18pc, pulse masoor 2 13pc, garlic 2 03pc, firewood 1 36pc and tea packet 1 29pc On year on year basis, the com modities that witnessed decrease in prices included chillies powder with a decrease of 43 42pc, sugar at 16 27pc and gur 1 86pc The commodities that witnessed increase in prices included diesel 109 15pc , pulse masoor 111 90pc, diesel 109 15pc onions 90 05pc petrol 88 94pc, vegetable ghee 1 kg 70 54pc, chicken 57 14pc, and electricity for Q1 at a 52 61pc hike in its price
Islamabad P r e s s r e l e a s e
The digital banking service of NBP to allow customers to con duct banking transactions at their fingertips NBP is expanding its range of products and services by including Shariah Compliant Banking Products available through dedicated Islamic Bank ing Branches Each Islamic Bank ing Branch is fully equipped to cover all aspects of Islamic finan cial transactions As one of the largest commer cial banks of Pakistan, NBP be lieves in empowering women by ensuring they have equal opportu nities for growth and develop ment Over the years, National Bank of Pakistan has taken multi ple steps to encourage women to enter the workplace by building a conducive environment that boosts gender equality and devel ops women’s leadership roles A t t h e e n d o f t h e c e r e m o n y the President NBP thanked all the e m p l o y e e s f o r a t t e n d i n g t h e event All the participants prayed for the progress, peace and pros p e r i t y o f t h e c o u n t r y a n d w e l l being of the nation hBl islamic Banking continues to scale up its footprint in Pakistan lahore P r e s s r e l e a s e HBL inaugurated its Islamic Banking Branch in Bahria Town, Lahore The launch is part of HBL s continuous efforts to expand its branch network to better serve Shariah compliant products and services to its clients HBL Is lamic offers services to clients in 300 cities across the country, through a network of 273 dedicated branches and 572 windows, with plans to expand its reach in more cities across the country by adding 33 new branches by De cember 2022 HBL Islamic Banking also of fers a complete product suite for its SME and Commercial Banking clients, ranging from short term working capital financing to long term project financing It has also established 8 trade centers in key markets across the coun try to provide Shariah compliant solutions for the domestic and international trade finance requirements of clients Shahzad Babar, Head Retail Banking Islamic HBL, commenting on the Bahira Town Lahore Branch inauguration said, “HBL Islamic Banking continues to ex pand its footprint across the country to better serve the Islamic Banking needs of our clients The demand for Shariah compliant banking solutions and services has seen a sharp in crease, and this expansion highlights HBL Is lamic Banking’s commitment to support our clients’ strategic needs
Weekl y inflation goes down by 0.08pc
Islamabad a P P The Sensitive Price Indicator (SPI) based weekly inflation for the week ended on August 11 for the combined consumption group, witnessed a de crease of 0 08 per cent as compared to the previous week T h e S P I f o r t h e w e e k u n d e r r e v i e w i n t h e a b o v e m e n t i o n e d g r o u p w a s r e c o r d e d a t 2 0 9 0 1 p o i n t s a g a i n s t 2 0 9 1 7 p o i n t s r e g i s t e r e d i n t h e p r e v i o u s w e e k , a c c o r d i n g t o t h e latest data of Pakistan Bureau of Sta t i s t i c s ( P B S )
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P r e s i d e n t A lv i u P h o l d s F t o ’ s o r d e r s o n i n c o m e tA x F o r lo w - PA i d e m P lo y e e s NBP celebrates Pak istan’s Diamond Jubilee
09NEWS Tuesday 16 August 2022 | LAHORE CORPORATE CORNER ntdc completes augmentation work of 220/132kv transformer at 500 kv grid station new multan lahore P r e s s r e l e a s e National Transmission and Desptach Company (NTDC) has successfully augmented a 160MVA, 220/132kV transformer to 250MVA rating at 500 kV grid station New Multan The transformer was energized today The NTDC spokesman said that the company has chalked out a comprehensive plan for phase wise removal of system constraints to alleviate overloading on the system especially during summers This augmentation of transformer will improve the loading ca pacity of the grid station & provide relief to MEPCO The spokesman further said that since electricity demand surges during summers due to increased use of air conditioning loads throughout the country, the enhanced capacity of re placed transformer of 160MVA rating with 250MVA rating will reduce transmission losses and facilitate the intercon nected DISCOs The induction of new transformer will ben efit the industrial rural and urban consumers of MEPCO MD NTDC, Engr Dr Rana Abdul Jabbar Khan appreciated the concerned project team and other allied departments for early completion of the project 75th independance day celebrations at pnsc KARACHI: PNSC organised a function to commemorate the 75th Independence Day of Pakistan The celebration commenced with recitation of Holy Quran Chairman PNSC, Rizwan Ahmed, hoisted the national flag and ad dressed the attendees Chairman PNSC while addressing emphasised that today was the day of reflection He also reminded that we should always remember and salute the shuhada of armed forces and law enforcement forces who laid their lives in defending the country He also congratu lated and appreciated the efforts of PNSC Management and staff while announcing the acquisition of two second hand oil tankers Executive Directors along with officers and staff of PNSC participated in the event At the end of the event a palm tree was planted by Chairman PNSC in the building premises P r e s s r e l e a s e dhAi-r cycling race to obser ve independence day celebrations On 75th Independence Day of Pakistan, DHAI R Cycling Race 2022 was held on 14 August 2022 at Sir Syed BLVD, DHAI R Phase 2 At the end of the competition prize dis tribution ceremony was held at JFC Imperial Hall where Administrator DHA Islamabad distributed the prizes among the winners Long Live Pakistan Poolkaro ride ser vice obser ves 75th independence day of Pakistan
On the occasion of Pakistan’s 75th Independence Day, Blue World City organized flag hosting cere monies in Lahore and Rawalpindi/Islamabad Chair man Blue World City, Saad Nazir and CEO, Chaudhry Nadeem Ejaz hoisted the national flag in Rawalpindi/Islamabad and congratulated the nation on 75 years of freedom At the same time, flag hosting ceremony and a two day Family Gala was organized at Blue Town with Smart Features in Lahore where the senior man agement of Blue World City, Blue Town and a prom ising strength of families attended the event The Family Gala featured jumping castles, food stalls, jug gling exhibition, magic and fire show which ensured the enjoyment of all the participants including the kids S p e a k i n g o n t h i s o c c a s i o n , C h a i r m a n B l u e World City Saad Nazir said that the Independence Day preaches unity to all Pakistanis The country boasts an army and population that is ready to sac rifice themselves in the way of Allah This day also teaches us to achieve freedom from submission to o u r e g o s L e t u s r e s o l v e t o p r o g r e s s t h e s p i r i t o f f r e e d o m b y f o l l o w i n g t h e e s s e n c e o f P a k i s t a n s meaning La Ilaha Illallah and to contribute to w a r d s t h e p r o s p e r i t y o f t h i s n a t i o n t o t h e b e s t o f our abilities CEO Blue World City Chaudhry Nadeem Ejaz remarked that it is imperative for us to realize our na tional duty on Independence Day To make Pakistan a peaceful and prosperous nation time demands us to put our best in the fields of education, health, socio economic development, sports, tourism, culture, sci ence and technology Blue World C ity organized grand celebrations for 75th Independence D ay in L ahore and Rawalpindi/Islamabad
As compared to the corresponding week of last year, the SPI for the com bined consumption group in the week under review witnessed an increase of 37 69 per cent The SPI for the lowest consump tion group up to Rs17 732 witnessed a 0 12pc decrease and went down from 216 03 points in last week to 215 76 points during the week under review Similarly, the SPI for the consumption groups from Rs17,732 22,888, Rs22 889 29 517 Rs29 518 44 175 and above Rs44,175 decreased by 0 10pc, 0 09pc, 0 08pc and 0 07pc, re spectively
RESIDENT Dr Arif Alvi, while rejecting 81 appeals filed by the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR), has upheld the orders of Federal Tax Ombudsman (FTO) to treat the income of low paid employees as salary in come under Section 12 of the Income Tax Ordinance 2001 for taxation pur poses “The President while disposing of the subject appeals observed that: The order of the learned FTO is based on valid justifications and sound legal footings Further the FBR vide its letter dated 11th April, 2022 has already de cided that the income of such employ ees hired under any of the forms i e regular, adhoc or daily wages, contin gency etc would be treated as salary income under Section 12 of the Income Tax Ordinance,2001 There remains no justification to treat the complainants differently Thus the representations of the FBR are liable to be rejected ac cordingly,” a press release issued by FTO Office on Monday said In the subject cases, according to the press release, the complainants were temporary lecturers hired by the Higher Education Department (HED) in Khyber Pakhutnkhwa and posted at various colleges in the province “The employer colleges were al leged to have been deducting excessive taxes at source from the meager salaries paid to the complainants “As a matter of concern for the complainants instead of treating them as salaried persons, to be treated u/s 149, they were rather subjected to un just deductions u/s 153(i) (b) of the In come Tax Ordinance, 2001 i e under head Services Rendered and that too treating the complainants as non filers This treatment was vehemently agi tated by the subject 81 complainants “When confronted the department defended the treatment stating; “Col lege authority has hired the subject complainant on semester basis and the taxpayer providing services to the Govt Degree College Kaki Bannu in private capacity upon which tax is withheld u/s 153(1) (b) of the Income Tax Ordi nance 2001 @ 10% in case of filer and @ 20% in case of non filer As the complainant is neither registered nor filed returns(s) of income therefore tax deduction @ 20% has rightly been made as per prescribed rates ” The Tax Ombudsman while dis posing off the subject complaints of low paid employees, whose services were hired by government educational institutions in KPK, had recommended to the FBR to treat the payment against services rendered as salary income The FTO had further recom mended FBR to: (i) Ensure that hired lecturers of Post Graduate College, Bannu or other such educational institutions are not burdened with excessive tax deduc tions at withholding stage While tax payers facilitation constitutes the core function of FBR, its implementation on ground should also be visible (ii) Direct RTO (Regional Tax Of fice) to process the instant cases on pri ority basis and under relevant legal provisions so as to save the com plainants from grave hardship they are suffering ever since hired by the con cerned institution (iii) Issue necessary clarification for all withholding agents to safeguard such employees against excessive de ductions
Press release National Bank of Pakistan (NBP) celebrated Pakistan’s 75th Inde pendence Day by organizing a flag hoisting ceremony at the Head Of fice The National flag was hoisted by Mr Rehmat Ali Hasnie, Presi dent & CEO, NBP (A) along with executives Paying tribute to the national heroes of Pakistan, Mr Rehmat Ali Hasnie said, “Pakistan was made as a premier Democratic Islamic Welfare state a country where all segments of society are provided equal opportunity to improve their lives NBP endeavors to create an inclusive economic system that will benefit the state, its citizens and the bank’s stakeholders ” Sharing his thoughts on the Diamond Jubilee of Pakistan, Mr Hasnie said ‘NBP is proud to have the leading role in economic growth of the country while focus ing on increasing financial inclu sivity across all strata of society ” NBP, as the largest public sec tor commercial bank of Pakistan has been aggressively working on creating avenues to attract the un banked business sector towards the banking sector through various financial schemes The Bank has a wide network for remittances as the customers are able to receive remittances from across the world To facilitate its customers and tourists National Bank of Pakistan has installed the world’s highest ATM at Khunjerab Pass setting a new record for Pakistan in the Guinness Book of World Records NBP was awarded as the Best Bank for Agriculture for 3 consec utive years at the Pakistan Bank ing Award National Bank of Pakistan also won Asian Banking & Finance (ABF) Corporate & In vestment Banking Awards
2020 To acknowledge NBP for its contribution towards the commu nity, NBP was conferred with Best Corporate & Sustainability Award 2020 The National Bank of Pakistan has always focused on developing profitable financial products to cater to the rapidly changing de mands of the Pakistani consumers
On the occasion of 75th Independence Day of Pakistan a ceremony was organized at the Lahore office of Poolkaro Ride Service A large number of dignitaries attended the event CEO Haris Noorani expressed his thoughts on this occasion He said undoubtedly, Poolkaro is the most ad vanced and safest ride service especially, for those women who will be able to choose their own ride Haris Noorani explained the benefits of using the Poolkaro app service at the end of the event He said that Poolkaro is a good serv ice for managing travel stress Islamabad s ta f f r e P o r t P
per litre 2,000 containers of unbanned items remain stuck at
PRAyeR timinGS FA J R S U N R I S E Z U H R A S R M AG H R I B I S H A 4:01 5:28 12:07 4 50 6 45 8 13 Tuesday, 16 August 2022 NEWS Published by Arif Nizami at Qandeel Printing Press 4 Queens Road Lahore for PT Print (Pvt) Limited Ph: 042 36300938 042 36375965 Email: newsroom@pakistantoday com pk LAHORE S tA f f R e P o R t i N a s u r p r i s e m o v e , P u n j a b C h i e f M i n i s t e r C h a u d h r y P e r v a i z E l a h i on M onday res huffled his cabinet and changed portfolios of provin c i a l m i n i s t e r s i n c l u d i n g b i g w i g s l i k e M u h a m m a d R a j a B a s h a r a t a n d D r Yasmin Rashid
In case of any issues the chief collectors may be contacted As a result of the is suance of SRO 598(I)2022 dated May 19, a large number of consignments were held up at different ports and land Cus toms stations across the country Recently, after the issuance of Office Memorandum F No 2(5)2021 IMP III dated July 22 is sued by the MoC, the clearance of such held up consignments has begun
OGra reduces prices of impor ted rlnG by up to $0.51 per MMbtu
ISLAMABAD S tA f f R e P o R t
The concerned officers will now assist importers suffering due to regulatory changes and approvals needed by the Min istry of Commerce (MoC), State Bank of Pakistan (SBP), Pakistan Standard & Quality Control Authority (PSQCA) and Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) It is pertinent to mention here that im porters can approach the concerned col lectors to get delay and detention certificates for a partial waiver of charges
Meanwhile, the Punjab chief minister ordered immediate recruitment of 664 va cant posts for differently abled persons He directed the Punjab Special Education De partment to send the summary to his office on the same day During a meeting with a delegation of physically challenged per sons called the CM at his office on Mon day, Elahi lamented that the Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz (PML N) led government ignored problems of disabled persons They are children of the nation and the government will solve their prob lems on priority he added He also announced increasing con veyance allowance for the blind, dumb, deaf and other differently abled employees in all government institutions of Punjab, up gradation of posts and recruitment against 664 vacant posts He issued directives to resolve their is sues without delay and informed them that the provincial government will give Rs10,000 monthly conveyance allowance to differently abled persons He also an nounced upgrading posts for disabled em ployees in all the provincial government departments and explained that posts for all those who cannot walk or hear would be upgraded Principal Secretary to CM Muhammad Khan Bhatti, finance secretary and others were also present in the meeting
Similarly, Dr Yasmin Rashid has been removed from the Ministry of Primary and Secondary Health and has been appointed as Minister for Specialised Health and Medical Education The charge of Primary and Secondary Healthcare Department has been given to Akhtar Malik Arsalan Khalid has been given the port folio of Punjab Information Technology Board (PITB), the office previously held by Raja Yasir Humayun Khurram Virk has been removed from the office of Ministry of Parliamentary Af fairs Most of these ministers were ap pointed last week, on August 7
ISLAMABAD S tA f f R e P o R t
KARACHI S tA f f R e P o R t
The HSD will now be available at Rs244 44 It was earlier available at Rs244 95 per litre Kerosene oil after a slight decrease of Rs1 67 will be avail able at Rs199 40 per litre from Rs201 07 Light Diesel Oil price was also de creased by Rs0 43 and it will now be available at Rs191 75 per litre from the previous price of Rs191 32 The finance ministry said in a statement that government had decided to revise the existing oil prices follow ing fluctuation in global oil prices and exchange rate variation It added that new prices of petroleum products will be effective from August 16, 2022 (Tuesday) Earlier the sources had said the prices of local petroleum products were likely to decrease by up to Rs15 per litre, as crude oil prices have de clined in the global market The HSD is mainly used in agri culture and transport sectors T h e r e f o r e , a n y i n c r e a s e i n i t s p r i c e s w i l l h a v e d i r e c t i n f l a t i o n a r y i m p a c t o n t h e l i f e o f t h e m a s s e s T h e f a r m e r s a r e a l r e a d y f a c i n g h i g h p r i c e s o f e l e c t r i c i t y a n d t h e H S D m i g h t c a u s e f u r t h e r h i k e i n t h e c o s t o f d o i n g b u s i n e s s e x p e r t s s a i d They added that the additional in crease in price of diesel will add mis eries of the people and farmers in agriculture sectors Due to hike in price of diesel, the transport fare might also go up, resulting in higher prices of commodities in the country T h e p e t r o l i s u s e d i n m o t o r b i k e s a n d c a r s I t s a l t e r n a t e i s c o m p r e s s e d n a t u r a l g a s ( C N G ) T h e C N G r e t a i l o u t l e t s i n P u n j a b h a v e b e e n o p e r a t ing on imported liquefied natural gas ( L N G ) a n d t h e c o s t o f i t h a v e g o n e u p m a n i f o l d d u e t o R u s s i a U k r a i n e c o n f l i c t ovt jacks up petrol price by Rs6.72 por ts ISLAMABAD A P P
ISLAMABAD G h u l A m A b b A S Around 2,000 containers of non banned items have been stuck at ports for the past over two months even as the incumbent government has started easing out restric tions on imported items after a strict con trol over for over two months, Profit learnt on Monday According to importers of machinery and engineering goods, hundreds of con t a i n e r s w i t h d i ff e r e n t i t e m s i n c l u d i n g p o w e r g e n e r a t o r s a n d o t h e r e l e c t r i c a l m a c h i n e r y a n d a p p a r a t u s e t c a r e n o t being cleared from the Karachi port due to the need for clearance from relevant institutions They informed that issues over the re lease of imported items had begun follow ing the circular of State Bank of Pakistan issued on May 20 with regard to curtailing imports The SBP had directed authorized deal ers to seek prior permission from Foreign Exchange Operations Department (FEOD), SBP BSC before initiating trans actions for imports including power gen erating electrical machinery and apparatus, mobile phone (CKD) and motor cars (CKD) However, when contacted, officials at Customs stated that there was no issue on their part as importers have to obtain all required approvals from other agencies, including the SBP Earlier, Minister of Finance Miftah Is mail was also informed that there are some serious issues confronting the business community due to the delay in shipment clearance of various goods belonging to the essential items category The commu nity had lamented that the backlog at ports was causing extensive financial damage to traders With the dollar experiencing fluc tuations daily, trade bodies throughout the country had urged the government to take immediate steps to maintain the balance between supply and demand in the coun try and to save industries from coming to a standstill Miftah was informed by various trade bodies that the situation has arisen due to a circular issued by SBP adding solar pan els, inverters, and batteries to the updated list of products for which “prior permis sion will be required when opening LCs for the import Besides, this circular also expanded its coverage to all items under HS codes 84 and 85 which also includes computer hardware items
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People of Kashmir on either side of the Line of Control (LoC) and the world over observed the 75th Independence Day of India as Black Day in protest against New Delhi’s illegal oc cupation of their homeland The day is marked by a complete shutdown and civil curfew in occupied Kashmir call for which was given by the All Parties Hurriyat Conference (APHC) and supported by pro freedom leaders and or ganisations Black flags were hoisted every where in the occupied territory The Kashmiris across the world are holding anti India demon strations to draw the world’s attention to the severe rights violations in occupied Kashmir APHC leaders in their statements said India has no locus standi to celebrate its Independ ence Day in Kashmir as it is holding the terri tory against the will of the people central gov t debt witnesses biggest monthly hike of PKr3,145bn
The Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority (OGRA) on Monday slashed the prices of Re gasified Liquefied Natural Gas (RLNG) on networks of the SSGCL and SNGPL by up to 2 92 per cent for the current month According to the details, the authority has decreased the price for the con sumers of SNGPL by $0 5107 MMBTU which is 2 92 per cent lower than the price in July After the cut, the price of RLNG will go down to $16 9496/MMBTU for August from $17 4603/MMBTU during July Similarly, the price for consumers of SSGCL has been reduced by $0 4792/MMBTU which is 2 67pc less than the previous month’s notified price After the re duction, the price of imported RLNG will go down to $17 4783/MMBTU for August from $ 17 9575/MMBTU during July According to OGRA, a total of six LNG cargoes were im ported by Pakistan State Oil (PSO) under two long term contracts with Qatar while Pakistan LNG Limited (PLL) procured one LNG cargo during August The main reason for the decrease in RLNG prices in August is because of the pro curement of only one expansive LNG cargo under the spot purchase Under long two term contracts with Qatar, PSO is procuring LNG at 13 37pc of Brent and 10 20pc of Brent crude The decrease in rates will also reduce the cost of electricity generated from RLNG based power plants during August Kashmir obser ves india’s independence Day as black Day
“In the 1960s, when Pakistan was in its adolescence the country brimmed with hope and promise We had a date with des tiny The nation was widely thought ready to become the next Asian tiger In 2022 however, Pakistan finds itself mired in its latest economic crisis,” Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif wrote in an article in the prominent magazine Economist Shehbaz Sharif stated, “This one is born out of the most challenging global policy environment of our lifetime, char acterised by a commodity supercycle, his toric monetary tightening at America’s Federal Reserve and a conflict in Europe that is tearing apart the post war global order But it also stems from home grown weaknesses: weaknesses that have been left unaddressed for the better part of five decades; weaknesses that have forced us to approach the IMF multiple times during that time This is not how successful na tions are built Although there are many, three critical structural flaws stand out These have pre vented economic take off, stunted our growth and led to repeated boom bust cy cles since the late 1980s First, our political environment has become increasingly polarised Instead of debating how to run Pakistan better and rid the country of poverty political parties have been at each other ’s throats Second, we have not invested enough in the nuts and bolts of development: education, health and infrastructure This is in part due to an abysmally low tax take, but it also reflects our priorities in public spend ing, some of which can be attributed to the complicated neighbourhood we live in, including a long standing adversarial relationship with India, the Russian and then the American invasion of Afghanistan and the influx of millions of refugees into Pakistan Navigating through economic crisis immediate priorit y: PM Shehbaz
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P e r va i z e l a h i r e s h u f f l e s P u n j a b c a b i n et
Meanwhile, the Federal Board of Rev enue (FBR) on Monday shared a statutory regulatory order (SRO) through which the tax body notified all designated chief col lectors to coordinate with terminal opera tors and shipping lines to provide relief to importers whose consignments are stuck at ports
According to a notification of the new portfolios, Raja Basharat has been removed from the office of Minister for Public Pros ecution and the charge has been given to Brig (retd) Muhammad Musaddiq Abbasi Raja Basharat has been assigned the portfolios of Parliamentary Affairs and En vironmental Protection
Attaullah Tarar, a Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz (PML N) leader and spe cial assistant to the prime minister, on Monday approached Islamabad High Court (IHC) seeking protective bail in a case registered against him in Lahore He requested the court that he may grant in terim bail in the case registered in the Qila Gujjar Singh police station in old Lahore His petition said the minister may be given a chance to appear before the relevant forum, Lahore High Court in that case, against the complaint, express ing fear that police will arrest him before he approaches the court The Lahore po lice initiated action against Tarar, as well as former PML N minister Rana Mash hood Ahmad Khan, in an attack on Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi, speaker of the Punjab Assembly at the time during the election of chief minister on April 16 Following the attack, Elahi, now chief minister of Punjab registered a case against PML N leadership for “torturing” him during the legislative session Subse quently on Saturday the police paid a visit to Tarar ’s residence in Lahore in the wee hours but returned empty handed as the suspect managed to escape to Islam abad It, however, delivered a notice or dering him to appear before the police for investigation In a tweet Hashim Muhammad Dogar, Punjab home minis ter, said if Tarar understood the law, he would follow the order However Azhar Mashwani, a Pakistan Tehreek i Insaf (PTI) focal person, claimed that the po lice had raided Tarar s house in connec tion with the party’s long march on May 25 Meanwhile, it emerged top PML N leadership has flown off to the safer confines of Islamabad, where their party is still in power, to evade arrests in various cases In addition to Tarar and Khan, a third suspect Malik Ahmad Khan, another assistant to the prime minister who is also wanted in this case, is already in the capital
Central government debt increased to PKR47 8trn after increasing 7% in a month during June 2022 making the PKR 3,145 bn jump in the total debt the highest ever monthly increase Pakistan’s total debt to GDP ratio in creased to 71 4% as of June 2022 compared to 69 4% as at June 2021 The total debt rose by 23 5% on a year on year (YoY) basis On a YoY basis, the government increased its re liance on long term debt primarily permanent debt in the form of bonds issued by the federal government which witnessed a 29 3% jump ‘fleeing’ tarar moves ihc for protective bail
ISLAMABAD S tA f f R e P o R t
The federal government on Monday increased the price of petrol by Rs6 72 per litre while slightly decreased the high speed diesel (HSD) by Rs0 51 per litre due to ‘fluctuations in the interna tional market and exchange rate varia tions’ The new prices will come into ef fect from midnight today, according to a notification issued by the finance ministry With the latest announce ment, the price of petrol has been in creased from Rs227 19 to Rs233 91 per litre
