IMF approves d a b o u t t h e f l o o d s i t u a t i o n i n t h e Ka b u l r i v e r shehzad bangash, chief secretar y of Khyber pakhtunkhwa deputy commis sioner of nowshera and representatives from ndMa and pdMa briefed the prime min ster about the rescue relief and rehabilitation operations n now shera district fo lowing the devastating f ood of august 27 that wreaked havoc to people s l ves and properties bes des infrastructure, crops and livestock during the briefing at Mardan bridge, the authorities apprised shar f of the ongoing rescue and relief operation as well as other facilities being provided to the displaced people at the relief camps he was to d that med cal camps had also been established to provide requ red medical support to the flood vict ms staying at camps as we l as at their own houses h e w a s i n f o r m e d t h a t 7 0 r e l i e f a n d 1 1 m e d c a l c a m p s w e r e e s t a b l i s h e d f o r f l o o d v i c t m s a t j h a n g i r a t e h s i l s pa b b i a n d n o w s h e r a a n d a s s i s t a n c e w a s b e n g p r o v i d e d t o t h e a f f e c t e e s t h e p r m e m i n i s t e r w a s i n f o r m e d t h a t t h e s t o p p a g e o f ta r b e l a d a m ’ s w a t e r h a d h e l p e d t o p a s s o f f t h e f l o w o f f l o o d s i n r i v e r Ka b u l w i t h o u t i n f l i c t i n g f u r t h e r l o s s e s the pr me minister was accompa nied by members of his cab net inc ud ing Murtaza javed abbasi, amir Muqam and ikhtiar wali Khan later, the prime minister eft for charsadda where he wou d interact with the flood victims and d stribute cheques of assistance among the f ood v ctims later he is a so scheduled to vis t the s te of Mohmand dam where he would be briefed about the progress on the pro ect s execut on PM calls for utilisation of resources for rescue, relocation of flood victims
t o 2 4 5 6
ISLAMABAD I N P shahbaz gi l, chief of staff to former prime minister imran Khan, is wi ling to apologise for his remarks cr ticising the army, h s lawyer to d a d str ct and sessions court n is amabad as t resumed hear ing on his bail p ea in the so cal ed sed tion case on Monday on august 9 gill was arrested from islamabad a day after mak ng the comments on arY news he was subsequently booked on charges of sedition and inciting members of state inst tutions against the pakistan army at the outset of the hearing the islamabad po ice presented the case record n court as directed by the judge at the last hear ng of his bai plea additional d strict and sessions judge zafar iqba resumed the hear ng on the bai plea this morning dur ing the hearing, gill ’s awyer burhan Moazzam asked if he can see the case records subm tted in court by inspector arshad the court directed the inspector to show the record to the lawyer however prosecutor ra a rizwan abbas objected that they cannot show the supplementar y challan of the case later the court ad ourned the hearing shortly after the hearing restarted gill s awyer maintained that the police didn’t show the statement recorded under section 161 the police is showing a l statements except for gill s the lawyer said at this, the court d rected the pol ce to show g ll ’s initial statement to the defence lawyer in the ast hearing the islam abad court gave the cap tal s police the last chance to subm t records pertaining to the sed tion case against the pti leader by Monday with h s lawyers terming the delay unfortunate the po l ce during that day s hearing to d the court that the invest gation officer who is in Karachi and has the records could not be reached and h s phone has also been switched off special prose cutor rizwan abbas told the court that he wanted to see the records first before he could present his arguments at this gil ’s lawyers sa d that it was extremely unfortunate that the pol ce were delaying the matter in response, addit onal district and sess ons judge tahir Mahmood supra said that he was giving one last chance to the police to present the records by today (Monday)
$1.17 bIllIon loan For pakIstan Tu e s d a y, 3 0 A u g u s t , 2 0 2 2 I 2 S a f a r, 1 4 4 4 I R s 1 5 . 0 0 I Vo l X I I I N o 6 1 I 1 2 Pa g e s I I s l a m a b a d E d i t i o n NOWSHERA S ta f f R e P o Rt pr me Minister shehbaz sharif on Mon day directed the authorities to util se all out resources for immediate rescue and re ocation of the flood h t people t h e p r i m e m i n i s t e r w h o a r r i v e d h e r e t o r e v i e w t h e r e s c u e a n d r e l i e f a c t i v i t i e s n t h e f l o o d r a v a g e d c i t i e s o f K h y b e r pa k h t u n k h w a , w a s b r i e f e
Petrol price likely to go down for first half of September 2022
Gill willing to apologise, clear misunderstanding on comments: law yer
g t o t a l loan size increa sed to $7 billion g g o v t s o fa r h a s n ot a d j u s t e d t h e e x c h a n g e lo s s w h i c h i s r s 2 3 p e r l i t r e o n p e t r o l
ISLAMABAD S h a h z a d Pa R ac h a t h e i n t e r n a t i o n a l M o n e t a r y fund (iMf) on Monday rev ved pa k i s t a n s p r o g r a m m e a n d i t s board approved the revival of e x t e n d e d fu n d fa c i l i t y ( e f f ) program for disbursement of $1 17 bil lion for seventh and eight tranche the global lender also approved to increase the oan size to around $7 bil lion and extended t ti june 2023 fi n a n c e M i n i s t e r M i f t a h i s m a t o o k t o s o c a l m e d i a b l o g g i n g s i t e tw i t t e r t o congratulate the nation over the devel opment a l l e x e c u t i v e d i r e c t o r s s u p p o r t e d pa k s t a n ’ s r e q u e s t f o r l o a n a p p r o v a l a n d e x t e n s o n e x c e p t i n d i a t h a t a b s t a n e d f r o m t h e v o t i n g t h e b o a r d members ra sed quest ons over the re v e r s a l o f t h e c o m m i t m e n t s t h a t pa k istan had given in februar y this year but a c k n o w l e d g e d t h e p o l i t i c a y d i f f i c u l t s t e p s t h a t pa k s t a n t o o k t o r e v i v e t h e programme t h e b o a r d h a s a p p r o v e d c o m p l e t i o n o f t h e c o m b i n e d 7 t h a n d 8 t h r e view under the eff and release of the tranche of sdr 894 m lion or $1 17 bil lion according to the pakistan officia s t h e b o a r d h a s a l s o a p p r o v e d t h e e x t e n s o n o f t h e p r o g r a m m e t h r o u g h e n d j u n e 2 0 2 3 , a n d a u g m e n t a t i o n o f a c c e s s b y s d r 7 2 0 m i l i o n o r $ 9 3 0 m l i o n w t h t h e a u g m e n t a t i o n t h e p r o g r a m m e s z e h a s b e e n i n c r e a s e d t o t h e s d b i l l i o n w h i c h s e q u v a e n t p e r c e n t o f q u o t a o f pa k s t a n t h e i M f b o a r d e x p r e s s e d c o n d o l e n c e s a n d s y m p a t h i e s w i t h pa k s t a n i a u t h o r i t i e s o v e r t h e t r a g i c l o s s o f v e s and ivelihoods caused by the floods in the countr y, according to the sources t h e b o a r d a p p r e c i a t e d t h a t pa k s t a n i g o v e r n m e n t m a d e e f f o r t s t o p u t t h e p r o g r a m m e b a c k o n t r a c k a n d r e n e w e d c o m m i t m e n t t o p r o g r a m m e policies and targets a s p e r t h e c o m m i t m e n t, pa k s t a n w i l l h a v e t o s h o w p r i m a r y b u d g e t s u r p l u s t a r g e t o f r s 1 5 3 b i l l i o n o r 0 2 % o f t h e g d p, u n t i l t i s m u t u a l l y r e v i s e d i n consultation w th the iMf staff the sources said that the executive d i r e c t o r s r e p r e s e n t n g t h e u a e s a u d i a r a b a a n d Q a t a r a l s o g a v e a s s u r ances to provide additional financing to pakistan as agreed between islam abad and the iMf staff t h e p r e v i o u s g o v e r n m e n t o f t h e pakistan tehreek i insaf (pti) had signed t h e 3 9 m o n t h e f f i n j u l y 2 0 1 9 a m e d a t a v o i d n g d e f a u l t o n f o r e i g n r e p a y ment obligations however, the countr y r e m a i n e d i n t u r m o i l a n d d e s p i t e r e maining in the iMf programme its for eign exchange reser ves remained thin amid heightened external debt related vulnerabilit es d u e t o f a u l t y e f f p r o g r a m m e d e s i g n u n r e a l s t i c t a r g e t s a n d l a c k o f p o l i t i c a c o m m i t m e n t t o i m p l e m e n t w h a t f o r m e r p r e m i e r a n d p t i c h i e f i m r a n K h a n h a d h i m s e l f a g r e e d t o t h e p r o g r a m m e r e m a i n e d s u s p e n d e d f o r a l m o s t t w o y e a r s o u t o f t h r e e y e a r s P M c o M M E N d S M I f TA h : c o m m e n d ing finance M nister M ftah isma and h i s t e a m a n d o t h e r s t a ke h o l d e r s f o r t h e r h a r d w o r k o v e r t h e i s s u e, pr i m e Min ster shehbaz sharif n a twitter post said: “ the formal resumption of an iMf programme is a major step for ward in o u r e f f o r t s t o p u t pa k s t a n s e c o n o m y back on track it s outcome of an ex cellent team effort i t i s p e r t i n e n t t o n o t e t h a t t h e e x e c u t v e b o a r d m e e t i n g o f t h e i n t e r n a t i o n a M o n e t a r y f u n d c o n s i d e r e d t h e p r o v i s i o n o f c r e d i t t o pa k i s t a n ’ s b a i l o u t p a c k a g e a n d a p p r o v e d t h e 7 t h a n d 8 t h t r a n c h e o f $ 1 1 7 b l l i o n b e s i d e s e x t e n d n g t h e p r o g r a m f o r o n e m o r e y e a r prev ously in july iMf had reached a s t a f f e v e l a g r e e m e n t w i t h pa k i s t a n paving the way for the disbursement of $1 17 billion subject to approval by the iMf’s execut ve board t h e i M f t e a m h a s r e a c h e d a s t a f f l e v e l a g r e e m e n t ( s l a ) w i t h t h e pa k i s t a n a u t h o r i t i e s f o r t h e c o n c l u s i o n o f t h e c o m b n e d s e v e n t h a n d e i g h t h r e v e w s o f t h e e f f s u p p o r t e d p r o g r a m t h e a g r e e m e n t i s s u b j e c t t o a p p r o v a l b y t h e i M f s e x e c u t v e b o a r d s u b e c t t o b o a r d a p p r o v a l a b o u t $ 1 1 7 7 m i l l o n ( s d r 8 9 4 m i l l i o n ) w i l b e c o m e a v a i l a b l e, b r i n g i n g t o t a l d i s b u r s e m e n t s u n d e r t h e p r o g r a m t o a b o u t $ 4 2 b i i o n t h e i M f s a d i n a s t a t e m e n t a t t h e t i m e ISLAMABAD a h m a d a h m a da N I the price of petrol s l kely to go down in the range of rs14 to 20 per litre while the price of high speed diese (hsd) may be jacked up between rs1 to 4 per litre for the first fif teen days of september 2022 h o w e v e r, t h e r e w l l b e n o r e d u c t o n i n p e t r o l p r i c e i n t h e n e x t f o r t n g h t f t h e g o v e r n m e n t i n c r e a s e s t h e p e t r o e u m l e v y ( p l ) a n d a d u s t s t h e a r r e a r s o f e x c h a n g e l o s s o n t h e f r e e o n b o a r d ( f o b ) b a s i s , s a i d s o u r c e s i n t h e o i l i n d u s t r y o n M o n d a y sources said that petrol price is likely to b e d e c r e a s e d n t h e r a n g e o f r s 1 4 t o 2 0 p e r l i t r e w h e t h e p r c e o f h s d i s e x p e c t e d t o g o u p b e t w e e n r s 1 t o 4 p e r l i t r e t h e y s a i d t h a t t h e c a s h s t a r v e d g o v e r n m e n t may jack up the pl and is also like y to ad j u s t t h e a r r e a r s o f e x c h a n g e l o s s i n p e t r o l e u m p r i c e s f o r t h e f r s t h a l f o f s e p t e m b e r t h e y s a d i f t h e g o v e r n m e n t n c r e a s e s t h e p l a n d a d j u s t s t h e a r r e a r s o f e x c h a n g e l o s s t h e n t h e r e a r e e s s c h a n c e s t h a t t h e p r i c e o f p e t r o l w o u l d g o d o w n w h i l e t h e h s d p r i c e m a y w i t n e s s s u b s t a n t i a l h i ke i f t h e g o v e r n m e n t m p o s e s s a l e s t a x o n t h e s a l e o f d i e s e l i n t h e f r s t f i f t e e n d a y s o f s e p t e m b e r 2 0 2 2 however the petrol price has witnessed a cut in the globa o market, said the sources in the o l industr y they added that the government has so far not ad usted the exchange loss which is at rs23 per itre on petrol and rs13 on diesel inflation hit masses might not receive the benef t of petroleum price cut in the n ternational o l market particu arly of petrol and may face a hike in the price of diesel during the first half of september 2022 said sources they added that the government is likely to collect rs60 billion n the month of september on account of pl and rs31 b llion under the head gst reportedly the government s more likely to collect 10 5 percent gst which s frozen for the last six months and rs30 per litre petroleum evy in addition to the col lection of dealers and distr bution compa nies marg ns it is pertinent to mention that the petro is currently available at rs233 91 per l tre, d esel at rs244 44 per itre kerosene oil at rs199 40 per l tre and light diesel o l s be ng sold at rs191 75 per l tre in pakistan
r 4 9 8 8
The prime minister said Rs one million each would be provided to the heirs of deceased Federal ministers Marriyum Aurangzeb and Murtaza Javed Abbasi PM’s Adviser Engr Amir Muqam, Qaumi Watan Party Chairman Aftab Sherpao and Aawami National Party President Aimal Wali Khan also accompanied the prime minister during his visit to the relief camps Shehbaz Sharif said the federal government had provided funds of Rs 15 billion to Sindh and Rs10 billion to Balcohistan while the special grant for the KP flood victims would be announced soon He said some 242 people lost their lives in flood related incidents in the KP with millions of houses either damaged or destroyed His government would continue its efforts till the rehabilitation of the last affectee, he vowed The prime minister said all important necessary items including food water and medicines were being provided to the flood victims in the camps Shehbaz Sharif mingled with the flood victims and showed his affection with the children inside their tents He inquired about their health and also offered Fateha for their loved ones who had lost their lives in floods He heard the problems of flood victims and issued directives for their resolution
The inflows and outflows of River Indus at Tarbela, Jinnah and Chashma, River Kabul at Nowshera and River Jhelum at Mangla have been reflected as mean flows of 24 hours whereas the other flows have been gauged at 6 00 a m
In October 2020 Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (PEMRA) had barred television channels from airing the speeches of the absconding accused and proclaimed offenders The regulatory body in a handout issued barred to broadcast the speeches and interviews of proclaimed offenders and absconders on national television The PEMRA had also barred the broadcast of any sort of debate on the possible outcome of the undergoing trials The decision has come after the speeches of the absconding three time Prime Minister and PML N Quaid Nawaz Sharif were broadcasted on the national television and the government demanded the authorities to take notice of it On 21 August 2022, the Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (PEMRA) slapped a ban on broadcasting live speeches of former prime minister and Pakistan Tehreek e Insaf Chairman Imran Khan on all TV channels
The Red Cross Society of China will provide US$300,000 emergency cash assistance to the Pakistan Red Crescent Society while the all Pakistani Chinese Enterprises Association has donated Rs15 million to the Prime Minister ’s flood relief fund He remarked a ruthless disaster can bring out the best of humanity, adding, “We will not forget that in the wake of the Wenchuan earthquake in 2008, the brotherly Pakistani people rushed to our assistance and sent all their tents in reserve to the earthquake stricken area in China The Chinese people were deeply moved ” Now as the Pakistani people grapple with the floods, the Chinese side is standing with them
At least 10 drown as boat capsizes in Indus river
C hina pledges to expand cooperation with Pakistan in flood relief effor ts, post- disaster reconstruc tion
R ising trend of water level in rivers flows, reser voirs level in countr y continues
The affected people expressed happiness while seeing the prime minister among them They thanked the prime minister for the compensation package
The spokesperson said, “China and Pakistan are all weather strategic cooperative partners and true friends and good brothers sharing weal and woe Since, Pakistan was hit by the floods, our thoughts have been with the people in the affected areas We feel deeply for the Pakistani side in this difficult time ” He informed that China s State Councilor and a Foreign Minister Wang Yi expressed sympathy to his Pakistani counterpart Bilawal Bhutto Zardari upon learning the news of the floods Zhao Lijian said, under the social and Livelihood Cooperation Framework of China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), China has provided 4000 tents 50,000 blankets and 50,000 pieces of tarpaulins to Pakistan They have been delivered to the frontline of disaster relief In light of the situation on the ground, and based on Pakistan’s needs, China has decided to provide an additional batch of emergency humanitarian supplies including 25,000 tents and other supplies in dire need
Pakistan to face big challenge of food securit y due to floods, torrential rains: Ahsan Iqbal Minister for Planning, Development, and Special Initiatives Ahsan Iqbal Monday said that the country might face a big challenge of food security as rice, banana, onion and other agriculture produces had been badly affected by the recent floods Addressing a press briefing here, he said that the recent floods and torrential rains had also damaged 40 to 50 percent cotton crop across the country The minister said the country was witnessing more devastation than that caused by the floods in 2010 He informed that 0 9 million livestock and one million houses had been washed away in the recent floods while over 1000 people lost their lives In 2013, he said when the PML N government took the charge the country had already faced devastated floods in 2010 and it launched the fourth phase of Pakistan flood protection programme to minimize the impacts of such floods In May 2017 we got approved the Programme from Council of Common Interest duly signed by all the provinces and it was agreed that new infrastructure would be built under the programme he added The minister said it was also agreed that Rs 177 billion would be spent under the programme and the provinces would contribute half of the amount However, he said despite completing the final roadmap to spend Rs 177 billion under the programme, the next PTI government dumped this programme in the cold storage and not a single rupee was spent on it Had we spent Rs 177 billion under the programme, the loss would be far less than what we were facing now he added Ahsan Iqbal said a big challenge was ahead as 30 million people had been affected and the government had to help them standing on their feet He expressed his resolve that under the leadership of Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, the government would complete the rehabilitation process of the flood hit areas a p p
A f t e r K e n y a ’s m e s s y p r e s i d e n t i a l e l e c t i o n w h e r e i t s e e m s c o r r u p t i o n w a s n o t a n i s s u e , P a k i s t a n h a s b e e n s h o w n h o w t h i n g s a r e d o n e i n T h a i l a n d , w h e r e the PM has been slung out of office on his e a r, b e c a u s e h e w a s d i s q u a l i f i e d b y t h e Supreme Court He has been replaced by a f o r m e r A r m y c h i e f w h o w i l l a c t a s a caretaker till elections are held The PTI is not sure For it, the key question is whether the dismissed Prime Minister was corrupt The really key question is whether Thailand has got anyone like Imran Khan or whether they have to rely on the old fashioned, boring and fallible method of actually putting an accused person on trial and getting a conviction If you have anImran Khan, then accusation is guilt Imran’s saying that someone is corrupt, imported or traitorous automatically means that that person is corrupt, im p o r t e d o r t r a i t o r o u s T h e r e ’s a n o t h e r t h i n g w e h a v e n ’t t r i e d , a n d t h a t i s t o h a v e a f o r m e r A r m y C h i e f a s c a r e t a k e r P M T h a t i s a f r u i t f u l a v e n u e , a n d m i g h t c o m e c l o s e r t o t h e r e a l i t y o f t h e c o u n t r y We v e h a d r e t i r e d j u d g e s w h i c h r e p r e s e n t s a n o t h e r p a r t o f t h e e s t a b l i s h m e n t , s o w h y n o t a m i l i t a r y m a n ? Wi l l t h i s l e a v e c h i e f s l e s s i n c l i n e d t o i m p o s e m i l i t a r y r u l e r k n o w i n g t h a t t h e y c o u l d b e c o m e c a r e t a k e r P M s ? I m n o t s u r e , b e c a u s e a C M L A ( o r C h i e f E x e c u t i v e a s M u s a h a r r a f w a s ) i s m a s t e r o f a l l h e s u r v e y s , a n d c a n a m e n d t h e C o n s t i t u t i o n a n d l a w w i t h o n e s t r o k e o f h i s p e n A c a r e t a k e r P M i s b o u n d b y t h e C o n s t i t u t i o n A l s o , i f y o u i m p o s e m i l i t a r y r u l e , y o u r e m a i n C O A S A r e t i r e d c h i e f i s j u s t t h a t : r e t i r e d T h u s h e c a n ’t d o a s m u c h f o r h i s i n s t i t u t i o n a s a C M L A c a n S t i l l , i t ’s b e t t e r t h a n n o t h i n g A s d a Te s t c a s e , o ff e r M u s h a r r a f t h e j o b (he’s eligible as a former chief) And then w a t c h h i m j u m p a t i t A t t h e m o m e n t , t h o u g h , I d o n t t h i n k w e c a n e x p e c t t h e C O A S t o w a n t t h e j o b o f c a r e t a k e r P M T h e r e h a v e b e e n s o m e o f t h e w o r s t f l o o d s o f o u r h i s t o r y We l l , a c t u a l l y o f t h i s c e n t u r y w h i c h i s n o t t h a t very old The magnitude of the floods can b e j u d g e d b y h o w s t r i d e n t a r e t h e c r i e s d e m a n d i n g a i d T h e a rg u m e n t i s t h a t P a k i s t a n i s s u ff e r i n g a b n o r m a l w e a t h e r b e c a u s e o f t h e p o l l u t i n g a c t i v i t i e s o f d e v e l o p e d c o u n t r i e s It’s a little like the argument in favour o f k i d d i e p o r n A t l e a s t w e r e e a r n i n g f o r e i g n e x c h a n g e P e r v e z M u s h a s r r a f o n c e f a m o u s l y s u p p o r t e d B a s a n t b e c a u s e i t e a r n e d f o r e i g n e x c h a n g e T h i s w a s w h e n g l a s s c o a t e d t w i n e w a s s l i c i n g t h r o u g h c h i l d r e n s t h r o a t s N o o n e w a s t o u g h e n o u g h t o a c t u a l l y s a y i t b u t t h e f i l m s o f k i d d i e p o r n s e n t a b r o a d e a r n e d f o r e i g n e x c h a n g e S o I s u p p o s e i f a f e w k i d s d r o w n i n g i n t h e f l o o d s e a r n s o m e f o r e i g n e x c h a n g e f o r t h e c o u n t r y, t h e i r s i s a s m u c h a n a t i o n a l s e r v i c e a s t h a t o f t h o s e k i d s w h o s e t h r o a t s w e r e c u t b y g l a s s c o a t e d t w i n e o r t h o s e w h o w e r e c r i m i n a l l y a s s a u l t e d o n c a m e r a i n K a s u r I k n o w f l o o d s c o m e e v e r y y e a r, b u t t h e s e w e r e b e y o n d t h e a v e r a g e L u c k i l y, Lahore has not had it worse than average b u t t h a t ’s n o c o m p e n s a t i o n f o r t h e d e v a s t a t i o n t h a t o c c u r r e d i n S i n d h a n d B a l o c h i s t a n B u t t h e n y o u v e g o t t h o s e p e o p l e w h o s e o n l y c o n c e r n i s t h e f o r e i g n e x c h a n g e T h e y a r e a l s o b e i n g d i s t r a c t e d b y t h e i n v e s t m e n t s o f $ 3 b i l l i o n e a c h b y S a u d i a n d Q a t a r i b u s i n e s s g r o u p s , w h i c h a r e t h i n l y v e i l e d f r o n t m e n f o r t h e r o y a l f a m i l i e s O f c o u r s e a s t h e r e s n o s u c h t h i n g a s a f r e e l u n c h , t h e i n v e s t m e n t s a r e t o b e a c c o m p a n i e d b y a h a n d i n g o v e r o f t h e f a m i l y s i l v e r L i k e P I A’s R o o s e v e l t H o t e l i n N e w Yo r k , w h i c h s o m e Q a t a r i s a r e i n t e r e s t e d i n P r o b l e m s w i l l a r i s e w h e n t h e r e ’s n o m o r e f a m i l y s i l v e r B u t u n t i l t h e n , l e t s g o g e n e r a t i n g f o r e i g n e x c h a n g e R e m e m b e r t h e We s t w i l l p a y h e a v i l y f o r u s t o g i v e u p o u r n u c l e a r a s s e t s A n d w h a t p r i c e r e c o g n i s i n g I s r a e l ? W h a t d e a l n e e d w e s t r i k e t o a c k n o w l e d g e I n d i a a s t h e r e g i o n a l h e g e m o n ? M e a n w h i l e P r i m e M i n i s t e r S h e h b a z S h a r i f h a s b e e n r e c e i v i n g t h e p h o n e c a l l s t h e c a l l e r s d r e a d e d m a k i n g T h e P r e s i d e n t s o f U A E Tu r k e y a n d I r a n a l l p h o n e d t o e x p r e s s t h e i r s y m p a t h i e s , a n d t h o u g h t h e y p r o b a b l y t r i e d t o k e e p q u i e t , c o u l d n t h e l p b l u r t i n g o u t S a a d d a y l a i q k o i k h i d m a t ? ” ( C a n w e h e l p ? ) A n d t h u s a l l o w i n g S h e h b a z t o s a y t h a t P a k i s t a n i s a p o o r c o u n t r y w h i c h h a s a l w a y s l o o k e d t o i t s b r o t h e r s T h a t w o u l d l e a v e t h e I r a n i a n P r e s i d e n t t o d a y t h a t h i s c o u n t r y w a s u n d e r s a n c t i o n s t h e Tu r k i s h t o s a y t h a t h i s i s a p o o r c o u n t r y, a n d t h e U A E P r e s i d e n t t o m u m b l e exchange StAff RepoRt P R I M E Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Monday said all flood victims in the country, including Khyber Pakthunkhwa, would receive cash assistance of Rs 25,000 each through the Benazir Income Support Programme by September 3 The distribution of cash assistance among the flood hit people was underway in all the provinces, including Sindh and Balochistan, as the federal government had allocated Rs 28 billion for the purpose, he said while talking to the flood victims here at the relief camps
BeIJING S ta f f R e p o Rt China will continue to enhance cooperation with Pakistan in disaster prevention and mitigation as well as global climate response and provide more assistance to Pakistan in its flood relief efforts and post disaster reconstruction, Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesperson, Zhao Lijian said on Monday “Recently, on television, through newspapers and online, we have seen a lot of information on the ravaging floods in Pakistan, which are heart wrenching,” he said during his regular briefing in response to a question asked by APP regarding devastated floods caused by heavy monsoon rains in Pakistan
The Federal Flood Commission (FFC) has said that very high and above level flooding is likely to continue in River Kabul at Nowshera during next 24 hours
According to daily FFC report on Monday, River Swat is flowing in “low flood” at Chakdara, Munda Head Works and Charsadda Road while in Normal Flow Condition” at Khwazakhela River Kabul continues to flow in “very high flood” at Nowshera since 26th August 2022 (0900 hours) It has experienced highest flood peak of 336 000 cusecs on 28th August 2022 at 1900 hours, however, now flows are receding (today at 0900 hours it was flowing in “very high flood” with discharge of 297 000 cusecs)
ISLAMABAD S ta f f R e p o Rt Advocate Azhar Siddique, who has fought multiple cases as a PTI counsel has approached Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (PEMRA) against the broadcast of PML N supremo Nawaz Sharif ’s speech on television channels who is convicted by courts Azhar Siddique wrote a letter to the PEMRA chairman and argued that the speech of an absconding suspect Nawaz Sharif was aired on television channels which is against the rules of the regulatory authority
River K abul still in ver y high flood: FFC
02-03 NEWS 30 AUGUST_Layout 1 8/30/2022 1:17 AM Page 1
StAff RepoRt
Tuesday 30 August 2022 IsLAMABAD 02 news City NoteS M a N i a z i Earning foreign
At least 10 people have died after a boat loaded with passengers capsized in River Indus near Bilawalpur, Jamshoro Deputy Commissioner Jamshoro Farid Uddin Mustafa said 10 bodies had been retrieved from the river so far, and shifted to the Abdullah Shah Institute of Medical Sciences The boat was carrying 20 passengers when it capsized in the flooded river Those who died in the unfortunate incident were identified as Vakila Khokhar, Rehan Khokhar, Reshmaan Khokhar, Samina Khokhar Manzoor Khokhar Farooq Khokhar Iqra Imrani, Shabana Rahputo, Shahzoor Chana and Zubeida Chana N e w S D e S k
Pemra’s action sought against broadcasting live speech of convicted Nawaz Sharif
StAff RepoRt The position of the river inflows and outflows at Tarbela AJK based Mangla reservoirs as well as Chashma barage along with the reservoirs levels and the barrages remained on Monday as under: Rivers: Indus at Tarbela: Inflows 264700 cusecs and Outflows 264700 cusecs, Kabul at Nowshera: Inflows 318500 cusecs and Outflows 318500 cusecs, Jhelum at Mangla: Inflows 39400 cusecs and Outflows 10000 cusecs, Chenab at Marala: Inflows 60300 cusecs and Outflows 32900 cusecs official sources told APP here Barrages: Jinnah: Inflows 420100 cusecs and Outflows 416100 cusecs, Chashma: Inflows: 518100 cusecs and Outflows 513300 cusecs, Taunsa: Inflows 567100 cusecs and Outflows 567100 cusecs, Guddu: Inflows 500900 cusecs and Outflows 500900 cusecs Sukkur: Inflows 530800 cusecs and Outflows 530800 cusecs Kotri: Inflows 338400 cusecs and Outflows 336900 cusecs Trimmu: Inflows 51400 cusecs and Outflow 39300 cusecs Panjnad: Inflows 57800 cusecs and Outflows 50900 cusecs Reservoirs (Level and Storage): Tarbela: Minimum operating level 1398 feet, present level 1550 00 feet maximum conservation level 1550 feet, live storage today 5 827 million acre feet (MAF) Mangla: Minimum operating level 1050 feet present level 1184 30 feet, maximum conservation level 1242 feet, live storage today 3 412 MAF Chashma: Minimum operating level 638 15 feet present level 640 50 feet, maximum conservation level 649 feet, live storage today 0 032 MAF
The prime minister also distributed compensation cheques among the flood affectees on the occasion
KP Chief Secretary Dr Shahzad Bangash and Deputy Commissioner Nowshera briefed the prime minister about rescue, relief and rehabilitation operations in Charsadda
Over 1000 people have died from floods and around 40 million have been displaced as results of floods in different parts and region of the country
G o v t G r A N t S r S 2 5 , 0 0 0 A I d t o e A c h f lo o d v I c t I m
03news Tuesday, 30 August, 2022 | IsLAMABAD MANAL JAffeRy
The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) on Monday adjourned the Toshakhana reference hearing against former prime minister Imran Khan till September 7 Toshakhana is a government department under the control of the cabinet division Its main purpose is to keep gifts which are received by members of parliament ministers, foreign secretaries, the President and PM Imran has been blamed for keeping the gifts he received as premier for his personal use and later selling them at a higher price During the hearing conducted today, Chief Election Commissioner Sikandar Sultan Raja questioned Pakistan Tehreek e Insaf (PTI) chairman s lawyer Barrister Gohar Khan about the delay in submission of his client’s asset details to the ECP In response, Barrister Khan said he was unable to submit the details because he was involved with a case of the Federal Investigation Agency Speaking to the media outside the election commission Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz (PML N) leader Mohsin Shahnawaz Ranjha lashed out at ex premier Imran for not declaring his assets in the ECP Last month on July 3 Economic Affairs Minister Sardar Ayaz Sadiq had sent the Toshakhana reference against Imran to National Assembly Speaker Raja Pervaiz Ashraf
ISLAMABAD S ta f f R e p o Rt Chinese President Xi Jinping Monday sent a message of condolence to Pakistani President Arif Alvi over the ongoing calamity of floods in Pakistan
The water level in Kabul River still ranges from medium to very high flow Data available from the flood cell showed that a decrease of 41,000 cusecs was recorded in the river s water level and 296 731 cusecs were passing through the river at Nowshera which was still “very high” flow Moreover the water level in Indus River is also rising near Guddu Barrage, Kandhkot, reaching approximately 500,944 cusecs The water level in Manchhar Lake has reached 120 75 feet, which if reaches 123 feet, will be very dangerous according to Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah Meanwhile, the Flood Forecasting Division revealed that a fresh deluge from the northern parts of the country entered South Punjab and Sindh, inundating parts of Nowshera and Charsadda According to FFD, a very high flood of 307,000 cusecs hit Nowshera Sunday morning and by noon the water submerged the GT Road as another massive flood torrent of 130,000 cusecs from Swat entered the River Kabul near Charsadda, at the confluence of River Swat and River Kabul
Commander Peshawar Corps Lieutenant General Hassan Azhar Hayat Monday visited the flood affected areas in Swat Valley The Commander interacted with the flood effected people and tourists who were evacuated by Pakistan Army from Kalam and Kumrat the Inter Services Public Relations (ISPR) said He also met the locals and troops busy in rescue, relief and rehabilitation efforts in the area
StAff RepoRt
The Sindh High Court (SHC) has barred Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) from taking action in a case pertaining to the contempt notice issued to Pakistan Tehreek e Insaf (PTI) leadership on Monday According to details the SHC has barred the electoral watchdog from making final decision on contempt notice issued to PTI Chairman Imran Khan, Asad Umar and Fawad Chaudhry for allegedly using contemptuous remarks During the hearing, Asad Umar s counsel Anwar Mansoor argued that Section 10 of Election Commission Act 2017 is unconstitutional “ECP is not a court of tribunal, he said, adding that Article 204 of the Constitution does not apply to the electoral watchdog After hearing the arguments, the high court issued notices to Election Commission and Attorney General (AG) It also directed the ECP to continue the investigation but refrain from taking final decision until the court’s orders It is pertinent to mention here that PTI Secretary General Asad Umar challenged a contempt notice from Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) in the Sindh High Court (SHC), terming it unconstitutional In a petition filed before the high court, the PTI general secretary said that the contempt notice served to him on August 19 was against the Constitution and the ECP should be stopped from taking action until the high court decides on the matter On August 19, the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) issued a contempt notice to Pakistan Tehreek e Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan Asad Umar and Fawad Chaudhry According to details, the ECP has issued a contempt of court notice to Imran Khan Asad Umer and Fawad Chaudry and ordered them to report themselves or via an attorney to the ECP to submit their answer to the notice on August 30
NewS DeSk
Ashrafi urges people to help flood victims without prejudice
flood-rAvAGed PAkIStAN: deAth toll toPS 1,136, ANd reScue oPerAtIoN uNderwAy
NewS DeSk
02-03 NEWS 30 AUGUST_Layout 1 8/30/2022 1:17 AM Page 2
StAff RepoRt
Notice:
Former PM aide Khan challenges keeping his name on FIA stop list
Contempt SHC bars ECP from ac tion against PTI leaders
property
a p e r s o n c o u l d
Azam
relIef
C hinese President sends condolences to D r Alvi over floods damages
As all weather strategic partners and “ironclad” friends, China and Pakistan have long supported each other through thick and thin and worked shoulder by shoulder to cope with natural disasters and other major challenges, Xi said China has responded immediately after the floods, and will continue to provide much needed assistance to the Pakistani side and support it in its relief efforts he added “I believe that with the joint efforts of the Pakistani government and people the people in the affected areas can overcome the floods and rebuild their homes as soon as possible said the Chinese president On Monday, Chinese Premier Li Keqiang also sent a message of condolence to Pakistani Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif China, under the social and livelihood cooperation framework of the China Pakistan Economic Corridor has provided Pakistan with 4,000 tents, 50,000 blankets and 50 000 pieces of waterproof canvas, which have been delivered to the front lines of disaster relief in the country, Zhao Lijian, spokesperson for the Chinese Foreign Ministry, said on Monday Considering the current situation and based on the needs of Pakistan, China has decided to provide another batch of emergency humanitarian supplies, including 25,000 tents and other supplies in dire need, said Zhao
ISLAMABAD a p p Special Representative of the Prime Minister for Interfaith Harmony and Middle East Hafiz Tahir Mehmood Ashrafi on Monday urged the people to help the flood victims without any prejudice Addressing the ‘Paigham e Pakistan Ulema Conference’ held at the Rawalpindi Arts Council and organized by the Punjab government in collaboration with International Islamic University Islamabad’s Islamic Research Institute, Ashrafi said the people should set aside their religious and ethnic affiliation and come forward for the assistance of the distressed people Shedding light on the significance of Paigham e Pakistan, the chairman of Pakistan Ulema Council said it was a complete doctrine which taught respect of other ’s sect and faith, while remaining in one’s own religious domain It was signed by more than 15,000 Ulema, Mashaykh and religious scholars of all schools of thought in a bid to bring social, political and religious reforms in all segments of the society, he added He said the Paigham e Pakistan also determined the rights of minorities as enshrined in the Constitution of Pakistan “Our worship places should be used for mutual love and respect, and not for hatred or bigotry against each other Ashrafi said He further said that in near future, another document titled ‘Sahiban e Pakistan’ would be launched on the rights of women in the light of the divine command and the constitution He credited the Pakistan Army for rendering their matchless services to save the lives and properties of the flood ravaged people across the country Ashrafi said Pakistan s enemy wanted to destabilize the federation by creating division between the nation and the armed forces through fifth generation warfare “It is our national resolve to counter the propaganda being made against our security institutions through all possible means ” He also reminded the hoarders and the profiteers about the wrath of Allah Almighty had they not amended their conduct, and asked them not to take advantage of the people’s miseries as they were already in financial crisis due to torrential rains and flash floods in the country Responding to a question, he expressed dismay over former finance minister Shaukat Tarin’s audio leaks, and said it was beyond comprehension that how a man who had been at a responsible position could direct the two federating units to write letters to the International Monetary Fund in a bid to sabotage the federal government’s deal with it He appreciated the Punjab Chief Minister Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi who did not pay any heed towards such a move that could bring Pakistan’s economy on the brink of destruction The Paigham e Pakistan Conference was attended by a large number of renowned Ulema and Mashaykh renewing their pledge to defend the Pakistan Army from all propaganda, and help the flood affected people with national and religious spirit
technical fault in PtIc optic fibre in Quetta region removed: PtA StAff RepoRt Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) on Monday said that a technical fault in the PTCL optic fibre cable that occurred due to flash floods has been removed in Balochistan Voice and data services of PTCL, Ufone, and Telenor are working as per normal whereas Jazz and Zong voice services are also operational in the Quetta region said a news release Efforts are underway to restore services in other affected areas commander Peshawar corps visits flood-hit areas in Swat
The floods also left a devastating impact on the crops, as 375,171 acres of crops have been destroyed in Rajanpur, DG Khan on Monday Secretary Agriculture South Punjab Saqib Ali Ateel revealed that different kinds of crops on 375,171 acres witnessed complete destruction due to floods in Districts Dera Ghazi Khan and Rajanpur Cotton field at 176,012 acres damaged completely in both the districts Similarly the floods damaged 53,532 acres of paddy, 21,784 acres of “Til & Mong”, 28,272 acres of sugarcane, and 77,556 acres of fodder
m r a n
t H E situation across the flood ravaged Pakistan continues to worsen as the nation wide death toll topped 1 136 on Monday with a lingered threat of more flooding in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa According to the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) report, 1,634 individuals were injured in various rain and flood related incidents and over 735,375 livestock animals were lost Additionally, over 3,451 kilometres of roads 149 bridges 170 shops and 949 858 houses were damaged across the country
Furthermore, the floods also left a catastrophic effect on a dog shelter house in Sardaryab area of Charsadda district Lucky Animal Protection Shelter that was home to more than 250 stray and abandoned dogs has been badly hit by floods in Charsadda and we have to evacuate the animals in emergency reads an SOS call made by Zeba Masood, founder of the sanctuary “We managed to evacuate around 150 dogs on the night when flood water reached Charsadda, and around 100 are left there which took shelter at the kennel top and other places Zeba revealed While the floods continue to wreak havoc across the country, much needed rescue and relief operations are also expediting from within and outside of the country In a major development today, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif announced a cash assistance of Rs 25,000 through the Benazir Income Support Programme by September 3 for all flood victims in the country including Khyber Pakthunkhwa
ecP adjourns toshakhana hearing against PtI chief till September 7
The death toll from the monsoon flooding in Pakistan since June has reached 1 061 according to the latest figures released Sunday by the country’s National Disaster Management Authority In the message Xi noted that the severe floods in Pakistan have caused significant losses of life and
Former prime minister Imran Khan s principal secretary Azam Khan has filed a plea in the Islamabad High Court against placing his name in the Stop List on Monday In his plea Azam Khan challenged the decision of placing his name in the stop list and requested to the court to declare the decision as void “Placing the name in stop list is unlawful and violation of the court orders former aide to PM pleaded “I had sought leave for going abroad and my leave from August 25 to September 25 was approved,” Azam Khan said “After getting leave, I came to know that my name has been added to the stop list again My name was added in the stop list on the night of the vote of confidence and the high court had ordered removal of name from the list on April 18 according to the petition It is pertinent to mention here that the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) had placed the names of six key aides of former PM Imran Khan on the stop list The names included Khan’s former principal secretary Azam Khan, ex special assistant Shahbaz Gill, ex adviser to PM Shahzad Akbar, Director General Punjab Gohar Nafees, and DG Federal Investigation Agency Punjab Zone Mohammad Rizwan B e i n g o , not travel abroad without permission T I Khan were placed on the stop list after K him on April 11
n t h e l i s t
h a n w a s r e m o v e d f r o m t h e o ff i c e t h r o u g h a p a r l i a m e n t a r y v o t e a g a i n s t
h e n a m e s o f f o r m e r a i d e s o f
On behalf of the Chinese government and people, and in his own name, Xi expressed deep condolences for those deceased and sincere sympathies to their families, the injured and the people in the affected areas
r
e p
t d u r i
u r
In his opening remarks, Senator Mushahid Hussain Sayed Chairman of Senate Committee on Defence & Pak istan China Institute, thanked China for donating 25000 tents and cash for flood victims He said that the core message emanating from President Xi Jinping’s leadership is people centric development and human security He said that the Global Development Initiative (GDI), in troduced by President Xi Jinping on Sep tember 21, 2021, promotes inclusive and open collaboration & is a crucial plat form for international cooperation and the public good that China offers Similarly, this year, President Xi Jin ping announced the Global Security Ini tiative (GSI), which, as President Xi Jinping, said is meant to ‘uphold the principle of indivisible security, build a balanced effective and sustainable secu rity architecture, and oppose the building of national security based on insecurity in other countries’ Commenting on the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) launched by President Xi Jinping in 2013, he termed it the most important developmental and diplomatic initiative of the 21st century, terming China as a leader in Climate Change and Globalization He also dismissed the no tion of a ‘New Cold War, ‘ advocated im plicitly by some hawkish quarters, and said the region could not afford another cold war since it would destabilize the whole region needlessly He also lauded President Xi Jinping for achieving the goal of making China a moderately prosperous society by eradicat ing absolute poverty in China in 2021 Commenting on the 20th Congress of the Communist Party of China, he hoped this would be a landmark conference that would set policy directions for China, Asia, and the whole region Lastly, he wished the 20th CPC Congress great suc cess Nong Rong, Ambassador of China to Pakistan, expressed China s sympathies to Pakistan in lieu of ongoing flooding in the country and said China wouldn’t leave Pakistan in such testing times Pakistan, he said has always supported China in such situations He recalled how Pakistan do nated all the available stock of tents to China in the 2008 earthquake Commenting on NPC, he said it is the most important political agenda of this year end CPEC he said has trans formed Pakistan’s socio economic land scape by overhauling infrastructure and alleviating the energy crisis Ambassador Nong Rong termed Pakistan China rela tions as ‘rock solid’
d f
PMA delegation visits flood relief camp in Rojhan to examine patients MULtAN S ta f f R e p o Rt
h
Syed Ali Geel Ani’S fiRSt MARt yRdoM
bund
h
Experts laud Chinese leader Xi Jinping’s vision for transforming China
g t h
A R K I N G the first martyrdom anniversary of the iconic leader, Syed Ali Geelani on Thursday September 1st, the people of In dian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK) will march towards Hyderpora Srinagar, where the deceased leader was forcibly buried against his will after taking his family hostage The veteran leader had breathed his last at 10:30 p m on September 1st, 2021 His body was forcibly taken away by occupation forces and buried at 4:30 a m on September 2nd, even before the relatives living outside Srinagar could have arrived Only close rel atives and neighbours were allowed to par ticipate in the funeral at the local graveyard that was completely sealed by occupation forces The family was denied to bury him at the Martyrs’ Graveyard in accordance with the will of the late leader All these repressive measures were taken because the occupation authorities knew that the martyred Geelani was more dangerous for them than the live one They realized al lowing the proper funeral would trigger massive uprising at a time when India had already made massive deployment of forces to suppress Kashmiris following revocation of article 370 in August 2019 The All Parties Hurriyat Conference (APHC) has already given call for shut down and a march towards the martyrs grave to pay tributes to the iconic leader on September 1st 2022 APHC General Secre tary Molvi Bashir Ahmad Irfani in a state ment issued in Srinagar also called for protest demonstrations There is no denying the fact that Kash miris have lost a great leader in the form of Geelani He on the basis of his vision and foresight guided Kashmiris towards a path that heads towards a certain promising fu ture i e freedom from Indian subjugation Geelani was crystal clear in his understand ing that slavery was worse than death so Kashmir people must struggle for freedom from Indian slavery that would result in freedom of Kashmir from India He (Geelani) thought that slavery was harder than death and that is why he kept on insisting the Kashmiri nation that if they want to live, they have no option but to struggle,” said Senior All Parties Hurriyat Conference (APHC) leader Ghulam Muhammad Safi Syed Ali Shah Geelani considered Kashmir as part of Pakistan on the basis of logic and reasoning He firmly believed that Muslims are a complete separate nation keeping in view their religion civilization culture, customs and thought He believed that their unity was based on the concept of Muslim Ummah and not their homeland, race, language, colour or economic system This thought was the basis of his ideology that Kashmir is part of Pakistan Throughout his life, he not only strug gled for this ideology but also instilled spirit among Kashmiris He was staunch advocate of Kashmir ’s merger with Pak istan and had given a strong slogan to cul tivate spirit of belonging with Pakistan among Kashmiri people His slogan ‘Hum Pakistani hain, Pakistan Hamara hai’ (We are Pakistanis and Pakistan is ours) has be come famous slogan for Kashmiris and is resounding in every nook and cranny of oc cupied territory Geelani’s sacrifices for the freedom struggle would be remembered always He followed the path which he believed was right and become a very strong symbol of resistance for Kashmir and for people strug gling for freedom across the world “Syed Ali Geelani’s life long struggle for the Kashmir cause would be written in golden words in the annals of Kashmir ’s re cent history,” said another Senior APHC Leader Nayeem Ahmed Khan in his mes sage from Tihar Jail At hydeRPoRA to MARK AnniveRSARy
f
I h a v e t o t a k e d e c i s i o n s t o s a v e c i t i e s f r o m
a n c h h a r L a k e s u rg e s t o 1 2 3 f e e t , h o w e v e r h o p e d
Pakistan Medical Association (PMA) Multan chapter visited a flood relief camp established at Rojhan for check up and provision of free medicines to flood hit public of the area
ISLAMABAD S ta f f R e p o Rt All Parties Hurriyat Conference (APHC) reiterated the call for a shutdown in oc cupied Kashmir and a march towards the grave of veteran pro freedom leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani at Hyderpora town of capital Srinagar on the eve of his first death anniversary on Thursday In a statement, Molvi Bashir Ahmad Irfani general secretary of APHC urged the people of Kashmir living on either side of the Line of Control (LoC) and abroad to hold demonstrations to expose India’s crimes against humanity in the occupied region He said Geelani was the leader of the century who dedicated his life and sacri ficed everything for the sacred cause of freedom His struggle and sacrifice is the role model for the generation to come, he added Irfani said India can kill the people of Kashmir but cannot defeat their spirit and passion for freedom He appealed to the United Nations, Organisation of Is lamic Cooperation (OIC) and interna tional rights organisations to take cognisance of rights violations by India in Kashmir and take immediate and con crete steps to stop Indian state terrorism Aga Syed Yusuf, a senior leader of APHC in a statement said the best way to pay tribute to Geelani is to accomplish his mission of freedom from India and resolution of the dispute as per aspira tions of the people He said that Geelani dedicated his whole life to the freedom cause and New Delhi kept him under house detention until his death In viola tion of basic human rights, Yusuf said, Geelani was not even provided medical facilities during house detention He appealed to the people to arrange prayer sessions and recitation of the Quran in their houses and at mosques for the departed souls
K AShMiRiS to ASSeMBle
04 NEWS 30 ISLAMABAD_Layout 1 8/30/2022 12:04 AM Page 1
The water level has reached to 120 75 feet in Manch har Lake, Sindh’s chief minister was briefed on Mon day during his visit of the area If the water level in Manchhar Lake will surge to 123 feet, it will become dangerous,” Chief Minis ter Syed Murad Ali Shah said Murad Ali Shah visited Manchhar the largest nat ural fresh water lake in Pakistan, which is swelling with water of flash floods in Kachho and flooding in Indus River Sindh chief minister was informed about a breach i n S u p r i o B u n d n e a r Q a i m J a t o i v i l l a g e a n o b e c e s i n F P B u n a t C a k k i p o i n n e briefing He said it will be dangerous if the water level in M that the water level will go down in next eight days in the lake CM S indh briefed on breaches at S uprio, FP
d
Federal Minister for Finance and Revenue Miftah Ismail held a meeting with newly appointed governor of State Bank of Pakistan Jameel Ahmad at Finance Division The Finance Minster welcomed the newly appointed governor of SBP and shared about fiscal measures being undertaken for economic revival of the economy of Pak istan It was also shared that fiscal and monetary policy coordination is imperative for sustainable and effective economic growth Governor SBP Jameel Ahmad ex pressed keen willingness for taking the feasible mone tary policy actions in line with the objectives of fiscal policy for putting the economy on the path of long term economic development Further the governor SBP as sured the Finance Minister of his full support S
Tuesday 30 August 2022 ISLAMABAD 04 NEWS ISLAMABAD a p p M
tA f f R e p o R t
The dialogue featured speeches by the chief guest, Hina Rabbani Khar, Min ister of State for Foreign Affairs, Senator Mushahid Hussain Sayed, Chairman Senate Committee on Defence & Pak istan China Institute, Nong Rong, Am bassador of China to Pakistan, Senator Farhat Ullah Babar, Secretary General Pakistan People’s Party (PPP), Senator Anwaar ul Haq Kakar, Parliamentary Leader of Balochistan Awami Party, and Senator Dr Zarqa Suharwardy Taimur of the PTI The dialogue was moderated by Mustafa Hyder Sayed, Executive Direc tor Pakistan China Institute The panelists discussed the prospects of the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China (CPC) which will be held later in 2022 This congress is held every five years, where China watchers look for clues to the country’s future President Xi Jinping is expected to be re elected for his third term as Sec retary General of CPC and President of China Moreover, the Party Congress will set key priorities for the next five years in particular as well as China’s two stage development plan for the mid dle of the twenty first century A special documentary titled ‘China’s Governance under President Xi Jinping in the New Era (2012 2022) was also screened, depicting China’s achieve ments under President Xi Jinping The content of the documentary re flected the on ground realities in China & aspirations of Chinese people who re gard President Xi Jinping as the core leader ’ of the Communist Party of China, who, through his people centered ap proach to governance and development has proven to be the worthy successor to Chairman Mao and Deng Xiaoping Mustafa Hyder Sayed, Executive Di rector Pakistan China Institute, intro duced the Friends of Silk Road Initiative which has become the premier platform to understand China, bridge people to people connectivity between Pakistan and China, serving as a platform to gather political leaders students media professionals, and think tanks to brain storm new ideas of thought which both countries can further cement their rela tionship in various fields
ISLAMABAD S ta f R o Rt Pakistan China Institute organised a spe cial event for the upcoming 20th Na tional Congress of the Communist Party of China under its flagship Friends of Silk Road’ initiative
ISLAMABAD S ta f f R e p o Rt
a
APHC reiterates call for Kashmir shutdown on Geelani ’s first death anniversar y
A spokesperson for PMA said that a group of doctors led by its president, Dr Masood Hiraj paid a visit to the camp He informed that around 500 patients were examined in the camp and free medi cines were provided to them He stated that PMA also distributed ration among the victims Dr Sheikh Abdul Khaliq Dr Zulqernain Haider Dr Amir Dr Sharif Dr Ahmad and others were part of the group, the spokesperson concluded Miftah meets Governor SBP
ptCl group pledges 1.75 billion to support Flood Affectees
ISLAMABAD PReSS ReleASe PTCL Group, country’s largest telecom services provider, has come forward to aid communities affected by floods across various provinces of Pakistan through a relief package worth PKR 1.75 billion. The package includes donation to the Prime Minister’s Relief Fund, NGOs, provision of free calls in flood affected areas, housing loans to displaced people and medical facilities. PTCL Group will be providing medical services to affectees in its health Centers, where a total of 13 doctors and 27 paramedical staff in 8 districts will perform their duties. To further extend Group’s support, Ufone 4G has announced free calls for people in the flood affected communities so that they can keep them connected with their families & friends, and to help them establish contact with the aid agencies and the Government. Moreover, U Microfinance Bank has pledged towards providing low-cost house loans for flood-affected families to rebuild their homes. In addition to this, PTCL Group has decided to contribute to the Prime Minister’s Flood Relief Fund in order to support Government of Pakistan’s efforts for the rehabilitation of the communities and also donate to various leading aid agencies working in Balochistan and Sindh provinces to provide immediate relief assistance in the affected areas. PTCL Group’s employees and staff will voluntarily give donation that will be matched by the organization and the total amount will be donated to a leading charity. Sharing his thoughts on pledging support, hatem Bamatraf, President and Group CeO, PTCL & Ufone, stated; “These are trying times for millions of people across Pakistan, with everything including lives, shelter and sources of income taken away by one of the worst natural calamities in modern times. At a time like this, a collective responsibility falls on individuals and local organizations alike to stand with their brethren in assisting their journey of rehabilitation.
The meeting paid tribute to the federal and provincial governments, federal and provincial departments, army, navy, air force and every person involved in extending emergency assistance and succor to the afflicted countrymen and saluted all of them for their national passion to extend round the clock help to the people stranded in floods. They thanked the international partners, world community, the United Nations, development agencies and especially friendly countries for their help in tackling the natural disaster and expressed the hope that they would fully extend additional help in the assistance and restoration of the flood affectees. They expressed complete solidarity with the flood affectees and also conveyed determination that the coalition government would not let up till the rehabilitation of the flood affected brothers, sisters, and children in their homes, would not leave alone the citizens in distress and would utilize all available resources for bringing normalcy in their lives. During the meeting, it was proposed that keeping in view the largescale devastation caused by floods, a national level comprehensive plan should be formulated for reconstruction. It was decided that the federal government would complete the final assessment of the losses in a transparent manner in consultation with the provincial governments and institutions and effective plans would be made for the restoration of the affectees within a given timeframe. The participants endorsed the proposal to prepare a comprehensive strategy for future by learning lessons from the threat of the climate change and present conditions, so that all efforts could be made for ensuring preemptive preparation against a natural disaster. It was decided to take necessary measures to enhance the capability and capacity of the administrative machinery for eradicating the illegal constructions on the rivers and waterways. Steps should also be taken for storage of the flood water. The meeting supported the decision of Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif to set up the Prime Minister Relief Fund 2022 and agreed with the decision to launch an extensive campaign to collect funds inside the country and from abroad. In this connection, a campaign would be run at the government, party and individual levels so that the task of rehabilitation of the flood affectees could be accomplished with the cooperation of philanthropists, institutions, international partners and friendly countries.
Sportsmen express solidarity with flood victims; plan fund-raising KSA Crown Prince express condolences with President Dr Alvi over loss of lives 05-NEWS 30-August 2022_Layout 1 8/30/2022 1:37 AM Page 1
heallied parties in the government on Monday after mutual consultation decided to establish a National Flood Response and Coordination Center to tackle the situation of floods in the country and undertake restoration of the flood affectees. The announcement to establish the center was made in a statement issued after the meeting of the allied parties chaired by Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif. The Chairman of National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) briefed the meeting in detail about the situation of floods in the country and rescue and relief activities.During the meeting, the situation arising out of the devastating floods in the country was reviewed in detail. In the meeting, Fateha was offered for those who lost their lives in the floods and prayers were offered for the early recovery of the injured and grief and sorrow was expressed for the families of the victims.
The body of missing driver, who drowned along with six members of a family after taxi swept away in flash flood in Malir River, was recovered after 12 days on Monday. According to details, the body of the driver – Abdul Rehman –was recovered after 12 days from the bushes near the Malir River. Meanwhile, the police have informed the driver’s family in hyderabad. It is pertinent to mention here that a couple and their four minor children travelling in a cab drowned in the flooded Malir river on link road in Memon Goth on Aug 17 after heavy flow of water swept away the vehicle. Seven people were inside the car when it drowned in the river, with six family members and their driver. The family was heading back to hyderabad after attending a marriage in Karachi.
05newS Tuesday, 30 August, 2022 | ISLAMABAD body of missing driver in Malir River recovered after 12 days
“We are standing by our people in this difficult time, as the floods affected more than 80 percent area of Pakistan,” he said. elders of the area including Khalid Bashir, Asif Zaman, Arhsad Khan, Farhan Nawaz, Ashfaq Khan, haji Zahid Zaman, members of the Jamaat ul Dawa, representative of the Dry fruits Association, Coil Association, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, were also present. The meeting also decided to hold a football match in Peshawar Sports Complex next week wherein former international footballers, players of the current national football team and a team from all across Khyber Pakhtunkhwa would play a fund-raiser match.
Various sportspeople have expressed solidarity with the flood victims, and decided to hold a football match for fund-raising to join efforts in extending relief to the calamity-hit people. Renowned sportsmen, including squash wizard Jan Sher Khan, former World Champion Qamar Zaman, hockey Olympians Rahim Khan and Mussadiq hussain, international footballers and former skippers Pakistan football team Arshad Khan, Gohar Zaman and Basit Kamal, the country’s top badminton player Murad Ali have come together to hold various fund-raising activities for the flood affectees. A meeting was held here on Monday with former national footballer Shahid Khan Shinwari, former Pakistan team skipper Arshad Khan and elders of the famous Nawa Khali. Shahid Khan said that a fund-raising campaign ‘Sports Legends Relief Fund for Flood Victims’ would be launched during which the participants would go door to door and collect funds.
The meeting noted that the damage caused by the floods due to rains across the country particularly in the provinces of Sindh, Balochistan, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, South Punjab and Gilgit Baltistan was unprecedented in the last 60 years.
The participants appreciated the untiring efforts made under the leadership of Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif for the rescue of flood affectees, for undertaking emergency steps for relief, regular visits of the flood affected areas and for uninterrupted assistance to theTheyvictims.alsolauded the federal government for its immediate relief to the flood victims, release of Rs five billion to NDMA, Rs 15 billion to Sindh province, special grant of Rs 10 billion to Balochistan province and payment of Rs one million to the family of every deceased and grant of money to the injured and for damages to the houses and for other losses.
HYDeRABAD StAff RePoRt
The meeting emphatically applauded the decision of the Prime Minister to give immediate assistance of Rs 25000 in cash to every person affected by the floods.
Almighty to preserve the President and people of Pakistan against any harm,” the contents of the cable shared by President of Pakistan’s Press Wing and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia on its official Twitter handle on Monday. While in his cable, the Saudi Crown Prince and Deputy Prime Minister expressed his profound sorrow and sincere sympathy with the President of Pakistan and the families of deceased.healso prayed for the deceased and wished speedy recovery for the injured people.
Allied govt estAblishes NAtioNAl Flood RespoNse CeNteR FoR RehAbilitAtioN oF Flood AFFeCtees
App Custodian of the Two holy Mosques King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud and Crown Prince, Deputy Prime of Kingdom of Saudi Arabia Minister Mohammed bin Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud have expressed their condolences and sympathies with President Dr Arif Alvi over the loss of lives and injures to scores of others in the recent floods, inundating different regions of Pakistan. “In his cable, the King expressed profound sorrow and sincere sympathy to the President of Pakistan, families of the deceased and the friendly people of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, wishing the deceased Allah Almighty’s mercy and forgiveness, their relatives every patience, and the injured a speedy recovery and appealing to Allah
StAff RepoRt
Shahid Khan said Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Mahmood Khan, Sports Minister Muhammad Atif, former Sports Minister Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Senior Vice President Pakistan Olympic Association Syed Aqil Shah, Secretary Sports Tahir Khan Orakzai, Director General Sports Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Khalid Khan, representative of the Olympic family, members of various sports associations and international players would be part the football match. Shahid also expressed the hope that members of the provincial assembly, irrespective of their political affiliation, would also join the campaign. he said it was open to all and the aim was to extend relief to flood victims, besides playing a role in their rehabilitation as massive downpours, flash floods had forced millions of people to leave their homes.
shutdown strike in Jammu observed on call of legal fraternity NewS DeSk Shutdown was observed in Jammu region on the call of Jammu and Kashmir high Court Bar Association, on Monday in Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK). According to Kashmir Media Service (KMS), call for the strike was given by the Bar Association Jammu in protest against non-serious attitude of the Modi government towards the miseries of the common people as well as the problems faced by the legal fraternity. The strike was supported by some political parties and organizations. Markets were mostly closed while transport was thin on the roads. “We have support of almost all the traders’ organizations as well as Chamber of Commerce and Industry,” President of the Bar Association M.K Bhardwaj said.
ISLAMABAD APP t
The D ementor ’s Kiss
Social Media
Muslims for many centuries now are so strikingly at odds with the spirit of the Quran is one of the enduring mysteries of all time That is why the Quran fails in so many cases to cure its believers of prejudices and fairy tales they gradu ally come to believe in the name of Islam What makes it even more perplexing is that Quran is hardly an obscure or secret text in possession of a select few that is inaccessible to the average Muslim To the con trary, the Quran can be found in every Muslim home (if not in every room), and (at any rate, in theory) forms the cornerstone of every Muslim s religion This brings us to the two ways Muslims seek to learn and benefit from the Quran The first way is to consult the Quran as one would any other thing that claims to pertain to reli gion Simply put, this approach goes something like this: Add what you read in the Quran to the hotch potch of all the cumulated ‘knowledge’ and your prior understanding of Islam based on all other sources: Kalam, Fiq h (jurisprudence), hadees, Bible history, Western philosophy, stories told by your maulvi saab, fairy tales narrated by your mother and nurse when you were a toddler, and what have you That way, things one reads in the Quran take their place as just another set of ingredients in the eclectic mix of ideas comprising one’s mental furniture This sort of study does little to improve under standing of one’s religion For inevitably there are n s s unambiguous hierarchy among the sources there is no rational way to decide any such issue It then be c s a m a t t e r o f c a p r i c e a n d / o r c o n v e n i e n c e which of the various options is adopted making it essentially a case by case approach with no logical c o h e r e n c e b e t w e e n i s s u a n c e a n d a c c e p t a n c e o f o n e ’s o p i n i o n s o n v a r i o u s matters The price one pays f o r s t a c k i n g e v e r y i n p u t from all sources, one on top of the other, without grad ing the information in terms of worth and credibility is a s h a k y s t r u c t u r e t h a t d o e s n o t h o l d u p t o a n y s o r t o f scrutiny That this approach t a k e s o n e a b s o l u t e l y n o w h e r e i s c l e a r t o e v e r y b o d y b a r r i n g t h o s e s u ff e r ing from extreme forms of doublethinkTheothe r w a y t o c o n sult the Quran is to consider it as the criterion to exam ine the validity of ideas of f e r e d b y a l l o t h e r s o u r c e s
g
A perception that important officials that include chiefs of NBP, FIA and FBR are close to a certain party creates doubts about their independence and needs to be removed
Another substandard culture induced by social
media is influencer culture Influencers are creating these unrealistic and fake living standards that when one compares oneself to them, one becomes dis tressed and depressed The notion of beauty is con fined to the filtered and photoshopped images of models, and the idea of being healthy is broken down into six pack abs and zero sized figures These fic tional lives are staged as realities on social media that propel young women and men into an inferiority complex They consider this posed and artificial ma terial on social media as their normal measures of beauty and perfection, they begin to expect that for themselves, and when they, inevitably, can’t reach that measure of false perfection they begin to ques tion and even dislike them selves, thus experiencing lower self esteem and happi ness in general Solitude has become a luxury in this digital age People have severe separa tion anxiety from their phones, they feel left out and uncomfortable if asked to spend some time with themselves The attention span of a teenager has be come less than a house fly The idea of giving up on so cial media seems like an in sufferable kind of torture, it leads to panic and trepida tion in individuals What is more noticeable is the im mediate gratification we re ceive from social media; the boredom that is momentar ily eased; the security that is artificially felt and the recognition that is insin cerely and ineffectually given We have confined our attention to notification alerts and happiness to ex ternal recognition Another very common but extremely toxic culture on social media is the meme culture It has diminished all the boundaries of humor, the misery of an individual is clothed as a joke People are always eagerly waiting for someone to take a fall so they can morph his torment into a joke for a few views and likes Nowadays, everything can be made fun of, even death has fallen prey to this culture Memes are not inherently bad; they provide a sense of community in groups with a shared interest, but their messages still matter, also not everything is made fun of The threat of misinforma tion, the spread of harmful rhetoric or language, and the normalization of self deprecation to get a few laughs walks closer to the line between humor and the socially unacceptable Many a time in the past when an explicit chat, video, or audio of someone become viral and converted into a joke It clearly shows where our priorities, as a society, lie We all are just a viral chat, video, or audio away from becoming a joke Like the dementors in the wizarding world of harry Potter, social media also seems to be draining energy, happiness, joy, and hope from the individuals who enter its domain The happiness that is seeping out however, is so slow and steady that we barely seem to notice it Although social media has proved to be helpful in many cases, nowadays the cost of social media usage is more than its benefit This cost benefit analysis of social media needs to be done by every one who wishes to enter its realm Everyone should spend more time with them selves know the line be tween fake and real, and their needs and wants, also, People need to be far more conscious and cautious when it comes to consum ing online content
The author is a connoisseur of music, literature, and food (but not drinks) He can be reached at www facebook com/hasanaftabsaeed N a F Ta B S a E E T h e p r i c e o n e p ay s fo r s t a ck i n g ev e r y i n p u t ro m a l l s o u rc e s , o n e o n o o f t h e o t h e r, w i t h o u t r a d i n t h e i n fo r m a t i o n i n t e r m s o f wo r t h a n d c r e i b i l i t y i s a s h a k y s t r u c t u r e t h a t d o e s n o t h o l d u p t o a ny s o r t o f s c r u t i ny A l t h o u g h s o c i a l m e d i a h a s p rov e d t o b e h e l p f u l i n m a ny c a s e s , n ow a d ay s t h e c o s t o f s o c i a l m e d i a u s a g e i s m o r e t h a n i t s b e n e f i t . T h i s c o s t b e n e f i t a n a ly s i s o f s o c i a l m e d i a n e e d s t o b e d o n e by ev e r yo n e w h o w i s h e s t o e n t e r i t s r e a l m B a da r K h a l i d
After the deluge B a t t l e o v e r k e y a p p o i n t m e n t s
T h E scale of the calamity that is currently unfolding across a huge swathe of the landmass of the country isn t correctly being comprehended by most of the citizens in the major tier urban metropolitan areas of the country yes, terrible video clips do elicit a feeling of sympathy and dread, giving way to an impulse to contribute money (something that our nation has, thankfully, been doing in every natural disaster ) But after a while, the clips seem to meld into each other giving viewers the impression that only some areas are currently affected by the deluge That is not the case It is a significant proportion of the total landmass of the country that is inundated There are the lives of stranded people to be saved, yes, but then there is also taking care of those people, then, the rehabilitation of the presently inundated areas, and, lastly, protocols to deal with the crippling food inflation that is going to play out as a result of the devastation of our crops All of the above doesn’t lend for a situation conducive to politics as usual yes, the very nature of democratic politics is adversarial in nature Parties jostle for the public s favour and try to make their case at the expense of the others But when the scale of the calamity is so massive there shouldn t be any petty bickering Even though the ruling PDM isn’t exactly a prize on this front, it is the PTI that is clearly guilty of playing politics over the relief activities First, there was the chairman’s statement that he won’t raise money because he didn t know how it would be spent A bizarre thing to say Disaster management can be coordinated by the federal government and mitigated through federal departments like the armed forces and civil armed militias, but it is the provinces that do most of the heavy lifting here For the chairman of a party that runs two provinces, cumulatively more of Pakistan than not, to say he can t think of where charity funding could be spent, not even, say CM emergency funds, is quite callous
A report tells of PML N and PPP being involved in a tug of war over the appointment of the next president of National Bank of Pakistan (NBP) Reportedly the PPP is adamant to get its nominee selected for the slot after losing a similar battle to Finance Minister Miftah Ismail who got his preferred candidate appointed as Governor State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) National Bank of Pakistan is one of the largest banking institutions of the country with seventy three years of service to its credit It has branches spread over a number of world capitals Political parties are keen to fill the jobs with their nominees Among the tasks undertaken by the NBP is providing credit to the unbanked market segment that includes small and medium enterprises, agricultural sector and large corporate customers All this makes the post of NBP president attractive to political parties Accusations of misuse of powers have in the past led to NAB cases against two former presidents of the bank In the Park Lane case several important officials of the National Bank of Pakistan were among the accused There is therefore a need to develop a procedure for selection of NBP President on purely professional basis and without a role by the ruling party After the treatment meted out to politicians by NAB during the last four years, one had hoped that a lesson would have been learnt by the PPP and PML N
For everything from fundamental beliefs and acts t o c o m p a r a t i v e l y m i n o r o n e s t r a c e s b a c k t o t h e Quran and therefore forms part of a unified, consis tent framework: a superstructure with the Quran as its coreThe Quran explicitly favours the latter approach It calls itself Al Furqan (the Criterion of true and false), Al Mizan (the Balance to weigh right and wrong) and Muhaiman (quality control) According to the Quran itself then, it is not just another source of religious information it is the principal source of Islam For those then who have bothered to find out howsoever inadequately what the Quran has to say on fundamental matters of life and death, there is only the one way the second one really to consult and benefit from the Quran Of course, as things stand more Muslims than one cares to admit are adamant that reading the Quran blindly is a great idea For them, the discus sion of what status to accord to the Quranic teachings hardly carries any meaning not until they recognize that there is some meaning there to begin with Of course, the idea of reading the Quran for blessings is completely alien to the Quran The source of this belief can be traced back on the one hand, to a misplaced reverence for the Quran; and on the other to certain prophetic narrations that were mistakenly supposed to have put emphasis on reading the Quran even if one did not understand a word of it Of course, the Quran says no such thing far from it! For all its teaching urges man to ponder on its verses and on the signs and symbols found everywhere in the universe The trouble is that the proponents of recitation for blessings are not inter ested in what the Quran has to say on this, as indeed on any other issue of fundamental importance, be cause they have been too busy collecting blessings
and contradictions between the various sources; and owing to the absence of any
g
d
T w o w a y s t o c o n s u l t t h e Q u r a n
Ac t u a l l y, t h e re i s o n l y t h e o n e way
p
d
o m e
06-07 Comments - 30th August 2022_Layout 1 8/29/2022 10:35 PM Page 1
“ H a r ry felt a chill in his stomach, as Professor McGonagall strug gled to find words to describe what had happened He did not need her to finish her sentence He knew what the Dementor must have done It had administered its fatal Kiss to Barty Crouch It had sucked his soul out through his mouth He was worse than dead ” Dementors are the foulest of the creatures from the fictional world of harry Potter who thrive on the souls of their victims and leave them deprived of happiness and intelligence Though it seems that such a diabolical creature can exist only in a fictional world but we all have a dementor every time in our pockets, i e the smartphone and its social media ap plications that are sucking the happiness of its users and leave them hungry for recognition and attention According to Eric Berner, a renowned Psychia trist, the idea of infants desiring physical contact can be applied to adults as well however physical con tact in adults does not necessarily need to be physical, it can be symbolic, verbal, or a gesture like a hug, smile or compliment Unfortunately in this digital age, the need for physical contact or recognition has been replaced with digital recognition A click on the like or dislike button from a stranger can alter our moods and mental condition This has carved us into unsocialized creatures who are continuously seeking recognition and acceptance from strangers
columnist Yousaf Nizami Editor Dedicated to the legac y of late Hameed Nizami Arif Nizami (Late) Founding Editor M A Niazi Joint Editor Umar Aziz Executive Editor Aziz ud Din Ahmad Joint Editor W h
The is a freelance y
No time for bickering
The desire to have a NBP President of one’s choice indicates that little has been learnt One can understand the need for a bank chief sufficiently receptive to the needs of the farming community or the small industry But this could have been made a part of the criteria for selection rather than a hunch for particular persons known to the politiciansThereis a need to have officials with professional excellence and sufficient independence to be appointed to key posts without political interference
umerous cla
Need for neutral selec tion mechanism
writer
The principal benefit of this approach is that wherever there is a clash between the various sources, the Quran’s verdict is consid ered to be decisive and binding Consequently in stead of considering each matter as a separate one t o b e c o n s i d e r e d i n i s o l a t i o n , e v e r y i s s u e i s a p proached from a Quran centric perspective Any be lief/act will be accepted/rejected based on either an e x p l i c i t Q u r a n i c v e r s e o r a s a n a p p l i c a t i o n o f a Quranic principle This makes for a much sounder more consistent and simpler approach to religion
f
h a S a
he
06 Tuesday, 30 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
t
Minor vendors
Freelancing in Pakistan
Although the working hours of government offices are from 8am to 4pm, no staff was available till 9 30am, though there was a long queue of worried students and their parents outside the office Domicile is a documentary proof of permanent residence for citizens, which was enforced in 1952 under Section 17 and Rule 23 of the Pakistan Citizenship Act 1952 According to the law an applicant of domicile must be a resident of Pakistan for a period no less than one year and intends to live permanently in Pakistan Serious complaints of corruption, bribery, forgery and issuance of fake domicile are common Due to this academic careers of talented students are being destroyed The PRC was introduced in Sindh in 1971 under the PRC Rules of 1971, and this was not a legislative Act but an administrative order Under this rule a citizen having permanent residence in Sindh for a three year period becomes eligible for PRC Surprisingly, this law, among all provinces, is applicable only in Sindh I am unable to understand the legal justification for a parallel system which requires domicile and PRC as proof of being a citizen when we have CNICs and other Nadra identification documents
According to Jawad Syed from Uni versity of Kent UK, “Affirmative action (AA) is an effort to undo the unfair prac tices of the past in the organizations AA is a means to level the play ing field for females, excluded groups, indi viduals with disabilities, underprivileged classes and minorities as a logi cal step towards equal employment Equal Em ployment Opportunity (EEO) prohibits dis crimination against any one on any pretext Pakistani law makes it obligatory for employ ers to follow EEO principles Affirmative Action however is expected to be implemented as a vol untary component of EEO Policy EEO does not, in any circumstance, mean that the managers should hire unqualified candidates in breach of merit This is only a mechanism to avoid unfair practices and biases during employment process ”
I T is quite a natural phenomenon in human society that people venerate group norms & values and remain committed & loyal to their respective cluster People consider group norms and values as a protection because this relates them with an identity thus they abide with collective preferences Group af filiations promote harmony among members sometimes at the cost of serious compromises and even sacrifices Rob Wengrzyn argues In dividuals being part of a group conform to the norms, or rules, specific to that group In groups there are forces that shape how we behave while in that group These forces influence how we act as individuals without us knowing if there are things going on behind the curtain that con sciously or subconsciously impact how we act ” Studies in organizational behaviour appreciate recognizing group dynamics yet advocate incul cating culture of diversity while keeping group norms & values intact Diversity and group iden tification collectively have the potential to bring value to organizational operations People al ways try to guard group reputation while diver sity brings strength, innovation, expansion and competitive advantage for the group the organ ization and the society Today we can t deny the significance of di versity and inclusion for the success of any or ganization Rose Velazquez from Louisiana State University suggests, Diversity in the workplace means that an organization should employ a di verse team of people that’s reflective of the soci ety in which it exists and operates Inclusion is always an achievement of any work environment where all individuals are treated fairly and re spectfully, have equal access to opportunities and resources and can contribute fully to the organi zation’s success Inclusion is the practice of pro viding everyone with equal access to opportunities and resources Workplaces that pri oritize diversity and inclusion efforts have been statistically proven to be safer, happier and more productive work environments In the context of diversity utilizing group dynamics wisely can certainly bring significant benefits for the organ ization When it comes to religious orientations it is quite hard to imagine escape from given group, faction or sect According to the estimates almost 55% population of Pakistan follows Barelvi school of thought, 25% Deobandi, 15% Shia and 5% Ahl i hadith school of thought When we look at the composition of Shariah boards of Islamic banks in Pakistan, it reflects
D i v e r s i t y f o r g r o w t h d r a B d u S S aT Ta r a B B a S i W h e n w e l o o k a t t h e c o m p o s i t i o n o f S h a r i a h b o a rd s o f I s l a m i c b a n k s i n Pa k i s t a n , i t r e f l e c t s d o m i n a n c e o f o n e s p e c i f i c m a d r a s s a a n d i t s a f f i l i a t e s f ro m a D e o b a n d i s ch o o l o f t h o u g h t , ex c e p t a few ex c e p t i o n s , w h i ch r e s u l t s i n s ev e r a l ch a l l e n g e s fo r I s l a m i c b a n k i n g s e c t o r M o re i n c l u s i v i t y re q u i re d i n I s l a m i c B a n ki n g Sy s te m 06-07 Comments - 30th August 2022_Layout 1 8/29/2022 10:35 PM Page 2
E d i t o r ’ s m a i l S e n d y o u r l e t t e r s t o : L e t t e r s t o E d i t o r Pakistan Today 4 S h a a re y F a t i m a J i n n a h , L a h o re , P a k i s t a n E m a i l : l e t t e r s @ p a k i s t a n t o d a y c o m p k L e t t e r s s h o u l d b e a d d re s s e d t o Pakistan Today e x c l u s i v e l y
ISRAR AYOUBI KARACHI
INSAF ALI BANGWAR KANDHKOT
dominance of one specific madrassa and its af filiates from a Deobandi school of thought, ex cept a few exceptions, which results in several challenges for Islamic banking sector Some madaris within Deobandi school of thought, Barelvi school of thought and other religious factions feel excluded from the Islamic banking sector and opportunities it offers This percep tion trickles down to their respective followers thus hinders their participation in the Islamic banking sector On the other hand this perception of exclusion also results in strategic loss for the Islamic Banking and finance (IBF) that religious scholars of other schools of thoughts remain away from the conceptual and practical devel opments taking place in the sector thus impedes their learning to better understand IBF and ex tending that knowledge to their followers Equal opportunity is the hallmark of modern business environment The regulator has to make sure that the perception of exclusion or discrim ination in Shariah gov ernance bodies of IBF sector is eliminated and inclusion of every reli gious school of thought is ensured
The writer is associate Professor Management SciencesHead, Center of Islamic Finance at COMSaTS University (CUI) Lahore Campus
HIRA AMAN KHAIRPUR
PRC and Domicile for admissions
A S the month of Independence will be over soon, I want to share an incident that I witnessed on the eve of the Independence Day I saw many child vendors trying to sell national flags at traffic signals across Karachi Some people gave them a little change in lieu of the flags, while others just ignored them This made me wonder if we have achieved true independence when our children are still out on the streets trying to earn a living Sovereignty and independence seemed to be two different entities to me Every day we encounter such sights, but we turn a blind eye to them We need to ask ourselves what does independence truly mean Even after so many years of freedom, women cannot pursue education or career not just due to social patterns, but because of fears in their own minds related to their own safety Even on social media not all women are comfortable expressing themselves as they see other women being trolled all the time Independence Day is a day to feel national pride, but it is also an occasion for introspection We have to suppress social evils, especially intolerance, and learn to accept differences and celebrate them I hope some day I will see those children in schools unfurling the national flag instead of selling its replicas on traffic signals
W I T h the process of admission to universities having started in Karachi students are being advised to submit domicile and permanent residence certificate (PRC) along with other documents I along with my son visited the deputy commissioner ’s (DC) office in the central district for the issuance of these documents There was no official to explain the procedure for submitting the forms, fees and the application for the two documents On someone’s advice I approached an agent outside the DC office who told me I would have to submit 15 attested documents, including the computerised national identity cards (CNICs) of father and mother, National Database and Registration Authority (Nadra) verification copies of utility bills attested copies of all education related documents of the applicant, attested copies of CNICs of two neighbours and bank challan of Rs350 I agreed and provided him all the copies of relevant documents and he did the needful
Finally, the country needs to increase and improve online training platforms, like, say, DigiSkills, for further development of the freelance community
In principle after the establishment of Nadra domicile and PRC should not be required the way Punjab government has abolished the old system, deciding that the permanent address in the CNIC will be considered the domicile It seems that the Sindh government is deliberately ignoring this important issue that is being faced by thousands of students in the province The CNIC is a comprehensive identity document issued after extensive verifications The Sindh government should follow the Punjab example, and make CNIC the sole document for determining the citizenship and the residence status of a person
The least the government of Pakistan regardless of who is heading it at any given point in time can do is to provide a hassle free environment for the freelancers to expand the scope of their activity and enlarge their footprint on the digital economy They are based in Pakistan and every dollar they earn lands in Pakistan Even when the country is desperate for foreign exchange, the government is reluctant to provide the freelancers any kind of relief or facilitation For sure, the freelance community needs government attention the most The more dollars they would earn, the more stabilised the rupee would be The very cause of the devaluation of the rupee is dwindling dollar earnings I am sure once free and fair way to work is provided to the freelancers, rupee will gain strength This is not mere talk, but a well studied conclusion by economists across the world honestly, one does not need to be a rocket scientist to comprehend this simple phenomenon The major cause of worry for the freelancers is the issues they face while receiving dollar based payments owing to the lack of digital platforms for remittances such as PayPal, which does not operate in Pakistan No government in Pakistan has even tried to see what can be done in this regard Another headache is the rate of taxes on the earnings of the freelancers It is digital freelance community that has been bringing in dollars, which is helping the country in a critical area, but they are being discouraged by the government The previous government was the actual culprit as it had imposed unjustified taxes on freelance income from abroad The government should facilitate the freelance community not just for the sake of the freelancers but also for the sake of the national economy that badly needs foreign exchange to keep itself afloat
There might be several excuses such as religious scholars from other schools of thoughts are not developed enough is terms of relevant education and experience, in this case it is again the responsibility of the regulator to develop them give them exposure to the bank ing operations, evolve policies for the diversity of Shariah boards ensuring representation of all schools of thoughts for the satisfaction of their respective religious segments that IBF maintains considerations of their sects There is another perception in the IBF sector that religious scholars from other schools of thoughts are not really interested to join IBF sec tor which isn t accurate assessment We exe cuted a training program sponsored by the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) specifically designed to ensure participation of religious scholars from all schools of thoughts of Islam The program got overwhelming response from all schools of religious thoughts in terms of participation and interest in IBF We were surprised by the depth of their awareness about IBF and the eagerness to join the sector Most of the participants from excluded schools of thoughts were com plaining of glass ceil ing effect to limit their participation in the IBF sector Therefore SBP should ensure di versity and inclusion in the Shariah boards of IBF institutions in Pakistan for the expan sion and swift growth of the sector SBP can enact a regulation en suring participation of all school of thoughts in the Shairah govern ing boards of IBF in stitutions Financial burden of this inclu sion can be addressed through different ini tiatives such as job sharing or part time arrangements If we can overcome this challenge and transform Shariah boards of IBF institutions I think we can turnaround the whole IBF sector with excep tional growth and market share
D E S P I T E the dismal state of education in the country, Pakistan ranks fourth in the global freelance marketplace where hundreds of thousands of individuals generate money in the dollar economy It is the individual enterprise that is prevailing over official laggardness All that is happening is despite the system not because of it From the quality of education to lack of facilitation for the community of freelancers, the government of Pakistan can take no credit for the massive progress made by Pakistanis in the global market
07 Tuesday, 30 August, 2022 COMMENT
A January 2022 blog post from Meta notes that the company uses a “balancing test that weighs the public interest against the risk of harm” for content that would normally violate company rules but pro vides no information as to what that test actually en tails or who conducts it Whether an attempt to document atrocities or mourn a neighbor killed in an airstrike is deemed glorification or in the public interest is left to the subjective judgment calls of Meta s overworked and sometimes traumatized con tent contractors, tasked with making hundreds of such decisions every day
We welcome the High Court directive to treat all citizens of the country equally under the law, and hope it sends a strong message to the government to prioritise protection of the public from corrupt public officials not vice versa
Few would dispute that the images from Ukraine described in the Meta policy updates documenting the russian invasion are newsworthy, but the doc uments obtained by The Intercept show that Meta s whitelisting of material sympathetic to Ukraine has extended even to graphic state propaganda
public officials Star E d i to r i a l W e
pegaSuS report
Critics pointed to the disparity to question why online speech about war crimes and human rights offenses committed against europeans seems to warrant special protections while speech referring to abuses committed against others do not Meta should respect the right for people to speak out, whether in Ukraine or Palestine,” said Shakir, of Human rights Watch “By silencing many people arbitrarily and without explanation Meta is replicating online some of the same power imbal ances and rights abuses we see in the real world ” While Meta seems to side against allowing Palestinian civilians to keep graphic content online, it has intervened in posting about the Israeli Pales tinian conflict to keep images live by siding with the occupying Israeli military In one instance, Meta took steps to ensure that a depiction of an attack against a member of the Israeli security forces in the occupied West Bank was kept up: “An Israeli Border Police officer was struck and lightly wounded by a Molotov cocktail during clashes with Palestinians in Hebron,” an undated memo distributed to modera tors reads “We are making an exception for this par ticular content to Mark this video as Disturbing welcome the High Cour t ’s decision to stop safeguarding unethical applaud the High Court for declaring illegal Section 41 (1) of the Public Service Act, 2018, a provision that required law enforcers to get prior approval from the government or relevant agencies if they wanted to detain government officials in criminal cases a provision that should not have been formulated in the first place
The internal materials show that it has on mul tiple instances whitelisted Ukrainian state propa ganda videos that highlight russian violence against civilians, including the emotionally charged “Close the Sky” film Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy presented to Congress in March Though the video depicting mutilated hu mans outside of a medical setting is prohibited by VGC policy the footage shared is in an awareness raising context posted by the President of Ukraine, said a March 24 update distributed to moderators On May 13, moderators were told not to delete a video posted by the Ukrainian Defense Ministry that included graphic depictions of burnt corpses
tribune t H AT the Central Government did not cooperate with the investigation by a Supreme Court appointed committee into the Pegasus spyware cases does not come as a surprise It had given ample indication of its intentions when it refused to divulge information, citing national security, as the case was taken up for hearing in 2021 on petitions alleging targeting of mobile phones for surveillance on certain citizens The setting up of a panel of experts thereafter to look into the charges of illegal snooping by government agencies using Pegasus was viewed as a bold step by the apex court to uphold the right to privacy
Previously unreported policy language obtained by The Intercept shows that this year the company repeatedly instructed moderators to deviate from standard procedure and treat various graphic im agery from the russia Ukraine war with a light touch Like other American internet companies Meta responded to the invasion by rapidly enacting a litany of new policy carveouts designed to broaden and protect the online speech of Ukraini ans, specifically allowing their graphic images of civilians killed by the russian military to remain up on Instagram and Facebook No such carveouts were ever made for Palestinian victims of Israeli state violence nor do the materials show such lat itude provided for any other suffering population
intercept S a m B d d l E a n d a l i c E S p E r i a F T e r a series of Israeli airstrikes against the densely populated Gaza Strip earlier this month, Palestinian Facebook and Instagram users protested the abrupt deletion of posts documenting the resulting death and de struction It wasn’t the first time Palestinian users of the two giant social media platforms, which are both owned by parent company Meta had complained about their posts being unduly removed It’s become a pattern: Palestinians post sometimes graphic videos and images of Israeli attacks and Meta swiftly re moves the content, providing only an oblique refer ence to a violation of the company’s “Community Standards or in many cases no explanation at all Not all the billions of users on Meta’s plat forms, however, run into these issues when docu menting the bombing of their neighborhoods
The internal materials reviewed by The Intercept show no such interventions for Palestinians no whitelisting of propaganda designed to raise sympa thies for civilians or directives to use warnings instead of removing content depicting harm to civilians
The ACC unfortunately is independent in paper only with little visible success in catching corrupt officials high up in the command chain Meanwhile, we see different manoeuvres at play to provide indemnity to public officials for their wrongdoings, which send a dangerous message: Swindle the public all you want, the government will still protect you!
08 WORLD VIEW 30th August 22_Layout 1 8/29/2022 10:07 PM Page 1
Central to the issue is the deployment of new tools and technologies in a manner that compromises the rights of citizens
The court, in its landmark judgment, observed that providing such protection to a particular section of the population was contradictory to articles 26, 27 and 31 of the constitution Article 26 says that laws inconsistent with the fundamental rights are to be void and articles 27 and 31 guarantee equality before the law and the right to protection of the law
I n t e r n a l m e m o s s H o W m e ta d e e m e d at ta C k s o n U k r a I n I a n C I v I l I a n s “ n e W s W o r t H y ” P r o m P t I n g C l a I m s o f a d o U b l e s ta n d a r d a m o n g Pa l e s t I n e a d v o C at e s Fa c e B o o K t e L L S M o D e r at o r S t o a L Lo W g r a p h i c i M a g e S o F r u S S i a n a i r S t r i K e S B u t c e n S o r S i S r a e L i at ta c KS Stop protecting the corrupt We
“The video very briefly depicts an unidentified charred body lying on the floor, the update says “Though video depicting charred or burning people is prohibited by our Violent & Graphic Content pol icy the footage is brief and qualifies for a news worthy exception as per OCP’s guidelines as it documents an on going armed conflict ”
This provision of the law as had been outlined by legal experts and civil society members when it was first proposed contradicted the Anti Corruption Commission (ACC) Act, curtailed the authority of the ACC, and in essence protected corrupt public officials At a time when rampant corruption across all the sectors in Bangladesh has all but eroded the foundations of our public institutions, we need stricter laws that hold corrupt officials accountable not provide them with impunity to carry out their illegal activities without so much as a slap on the wrist Corruption seems to have become a “way of life” for an overwhelming majority of our public officials, who increasingly use their political affiliation as a licence for abuse of power and pocketing of taxpayers’ money Despite media reports and research studies conducted by reputed national and international institutions, detailing corruption across every sector year after year we don t see any initiative from the government to so much as investigate the allegations, much less hold the corrupt officials accountable
Too many government officials have long forgotten their constitutional obligation to the people of Bangladesh They have sacrificed all ethics to the altar of their own selfish interests The government must wake up to the reality that such rampant, ruthless and unrepentant corruption is simply unsustainable in the long run, and that it is eating away at whatever economic and social progress the government has made over the last decade
A global consortium of media groups had revealed in July last year that the spyware had been used by several governments around the world to snoop on opponents, journalists, businessmen and activists Developed by the Israeli cyber arms company NSO Group Pegasus allows operators to invade a mobile device, giving access to contacts, messages and movement history However, NSO has been connected to a number of scandals as a result of the alleged misuse by customers of its flagship Pegasus phone surveillance software Pertinent in the two pronged probe are the recommendations pertaining to tightening the laws to protect cyber security data privacy and protection against surveillance of citizens These include formation of a special investigation agency for cyber attacks creating a mechanism to complain about surveillance and implantation of malware in personal devices, as well as prosecution of private firms resorting to illegal surveillance Forward movement on the suggestions would be in national interest
It’s unclear which specific facet of Meta’s byzan tine global censorship system was responsible for the spate of censorship of Gaza posts in August; many posters received no meaningful information as to why their posts were deleted The Meta spokesperson declined to provide an accounting of which other policies were used Past takedowns of Palestinian content have cited not only the Dangerous Individu als and Organizations policy but also company pro hibitions against depictions of graphic violence, hate symbols and hate speech As is the case with Meta s other content policies, the Violent and Graphic Con tent prohibition can at times swallow up posts that are clearly sharing the reality of global crises rather than glorifying them something the company has taken unprecedented steps to prevent in Ukraine Meta s public facing Community Standards rule book says: “We remove content that glorifies violence or celebrates the suffering or humiliation of others be cause it may create an environment that discourages participation” noting a vague exception for “graphic content (with some limitations) to help peo ple raise awareness about these issues The Violent and Graphic Content policy places a blanket ban on gruesome videos of dead bodies and restricts the view ing of similar still images to adults 18 years and older In an expanded, internal version of the Commu nity Standards guide obtained by The Intercept, the section dealing with graphic content includes a series of policy memos directing moderators to deviate from the standard rules or bring added scrutiny to bear on specific breaking news events A review of these breaking news exceptions shows that Meta directed moderators to make sure that graphic imagery of Ukrainian civilians killed in russian attacks was not deleted on seven different occasions beginning at the immediate onset of the invasion The whitelisted con tent includes acts of state violence akin to those rou tinely censored when conducted by the Israeli military including multiple specific references to airstrikes According to the internal material, Meta began instructing its moderators to deviate from standard practices to preserve documentation of the russian invasion the day after it began A policy update on February 25 instructed moderators to not delete video of some of the war’s earliest civilian casualties “This video shows the aftermath of airstrikes on the city of Uman Ukraine the memo reads At 0 5 seconds innards are visible We are making an allowance to MAD this video” a reference to the company prac tice Mark As Disturbing or attaching a warning to an image or video rather than deleting it outright On March 5, moderators were told to “MAD Video Briefly Depicting Briefly Mutilated Persons Following Air Strikes in Chernigov” again noting that moderators were to deviate from standard speech rules Though video depicting dismem bered persons outside of a medical setting is pro hibited by our Violent & Graphic Content policy,” the memo says the footage of the individuals is brief and appears to be in an awareness raising con text posted by survivors of the rocket attack ” The graphic violence exceptions are just a few of the many ways Meta has quickly adjusted its moderation practices to accommodate the Ukrain ian resistance At the outset of the invasion the company took the rare step of lifting speech restric tions around the Azov Battalion, a neo Nazi unit of the Ukrainian military previously banned under the company’s Dangerous Individuals and Organiza tions policy In March, reuters reported that Meta temporarily permitted users to explicitly call for the death of russian soldiers speech that would also normally violate the company’s rules rights advocates emphasized that their griev ance is not with added protections for Ukrainians but the absence of similar special steps to shield be sieged civilians from Meta s erratic censorship ap paratus nearly everywhere else in the world “Human rights is not a cherry picking exer cise, said Fatafta It s good they have taken such important measures for Ukraine but their failure to do so for Palestine emphasizes further their discrim inatory approach to content moderation It’s always been about geopolitics and profit for Meta How exactly Meta decides which posts are cel ebrating gruesome wartime death and which are raising awareness of it is never explained in the company’s public overview of its speech rules or the internal material reviewed by The Intercept
“This is deliberate censorship of human rights documentation and the Palestinian narrative,” said Mona Shtaya, an adviser with 7amleh, the Arab Cen ter for the Advancement of Social Media, a civil so ciety group that formally collaborates with Meta on speech issues During the recent Israeli attacks on Gaza, between August 5 and August 15, 7amleh tal lied nearly 90 deletions of content or account suspen sions relating to bombings on Meta platforms, noting that reports of censored content are still coming in Marwa Fatafta, Middle east North Africa policy manager for Access Now, an international digital rights group said “Their censorship works almost like clockwork whenever violence escalates on the ground, their takedown of Palestinian content soars Instances of censored Palestinian content re viewed by The Intercept include the August 5 re moval of a post mourning the death of Alaa Qaddoum a 5 year old Palestinian girl killed in an Israeli missile strike, as well as an Instagram video showing Gazans pulling bodies from beneath rub ble Both posts were removed with a notice claim ing that the imagery “goes against our guidelines on violence or dangerous organizations a ref erence to Meta’s company policy against violent content or information related to its vast roster of banned people and groups Meta spokesperson erica Sackin told The Inter cept that these two posts were removed according to the Dangerous Individuals and Organizations policy pointing to the company s policy of censor ing content promoting federally designated terrorist groups Sackin did not respond to a follow up ques tion about how an image of a 5 year old girl and a man buried in rubble promoted terrorism Palestinians in Gaza who post about Israeli as saults said their posts don t contain political mes sages or indicate any affiliation with terror groups “I’m just posting pure news about what’s happen ing said Issam Adwan a Gaza based freelance journalist “I’m not even using a very biased Pales tinian news language: I’m describing the Israeli planes as Israeli planes I m not saying that I m a supporter of Hamas or things like these ” rights advocates told The Intercept that the ex emptions made for the russia Ukraine war are the latest example of a double standard between Meta’s treatment of Western markets and the rest of the world evidence of special treatment of the Ukrainian cause on Meta’s part since the beginning of the war and something that can be seen with media coverage of the war more broadly Though the majority of users on social platforms owned by Meta live outside the United States critics charge that the company’s censorship policies, which affect billions worldwide, tidily align with U S for eign policy interests rights advocates emphasized the political nature of these moderation decisions Meta was capable to take very strict measures to pro tect Ukrainians amid the russian invasion because it had the political will,” said Shtaya, “but we Palestini ans haven t witnessed anything of these measures By taking its cues from U S government policy including cribbing U S counterterrorism black lists Meta can end up censoring entirely nonvio lent statements of support or sympathy for Palestinians, according to a 2021 statement by Human rights Watch “This is a pretty clear example of where that s happening Omar Shakir Human rights Watch’s Israel and Palestine director, told The Intercept of the most recent takedowns While Human rights Watch s accounting of recent Gaza censorship was still ongoing, Shakir said what he’d seen already indicated that Meta was once again cen soring Palestinian and pro Palestinian speech in cluding the documentation of human rights abuses
Probe findings fail to allay fears of illegal snooping
The findings on the digital forensic aspects that while five out of the 29 devices examined appeared to be infected by a malware, it remained inconclusive as to whether that was due to Pegasus or other malware or lack of cyber hygiene are unlikely to allay fears of sophisticated hacking, and the continued use of such illegal tactics
Tuesday, 30 August 2022 08 WORLD VIEW
Islamabad: (PR) Benazir Income Support Programme (BISP) in coordination with district administration, banks and police officials deputed at the special payment campsites is fully mobilized and ensuring speedy disbursements of Rs. 25000 per family to the flood affectees of Balochistan, Sindh, Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. As of Monday evening a total of Rs. 8882068536 have been disbursed among 353119 flood affected families all across Pakistan under the Flood Relief Cash Assistance program. So far, 42862 affected families of Balochistan have received Rs. 1,085,312,744; 211235 families have received Rs. 5,307,078,670 in Sindh; 35053 families of KP have received Rs. 881,137,000 and 63,969 flood affected families have received Rs. 1,608,540,122 in Punjab. The payment process is likely to see a boom in the coming days as flood affectees in huge numbers are visiting special payment campsites which have been established to ensure fair and transparent payment of financial assistance worth Rs. 25000 per affected family.
09NEWS Tuesday, 30 August, 2022 | ISLAMABAD CORPORATE CORNER the Bank of Punjab to arrange over rs 20bn for Punjab thermal Power Project
CoUnCIl PartnErS
IslAMABAD Press release "Without a shared vision that taps into a larger pool of intellectual and physical resources, we cannot do justice to our mandates," said SECP Chairman Aamir Khan while addressing the first ever meeting of Economic Cooperation Organization (ECO) Heads of Capital Market Supervisory Authorities, on Monday, August 29. The meeting arranged was arranged by the ECO Secretariat, and hosted by the SECP, to promote sustainable socio-economic development of the region through collaboration between member states. The meeting was attended by representatives from eight of the total 10 ECO member countries, including Republic of Azerbaijan, Islamic Republic of Iran, Republic of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyz Republic, Islamic Republic of Pakistan, Republic of Turkey, Turkmenistan, and Republic of Uzbekistan. Mr. Khan, speaking at the occasion, stressed upon the importance of collaboration and knowledge sharing between member states, which will enable the region to achieve shared success. He also briefed participants about recent reforms carried out by SECP to improve Pakistan’s capital markets. Mr. Khan reiterated SECP's commitment for enhancing cross-border cooperation, recalling the earlier meeting of capital market regulators forum of Central Asia Regional Economic Cooperation Forum hosted by SECP in 2019. He added that, "Our glorious shared and individual histories place a burden on us today to create the environment that fosters a sustainable future for posterity". Ms. Musarat Jabeen, Executive Director SECP, welcomed the participants, and stated that through leveraging the experience of other member states, ECO members have huge potential for advancement in the realm of capital markets. Seyed Mohsen Esperi, Deputy Secretary General, ECO Secretariat, spoke about market connectivity and benefits of information sharing to make effective use of available opportunities in the region. The participants exchanged views on establishment and mandate of the Capital Market Supervisory Authorities' Forum; opportunities and challenges of faced by member countries, and deliberated on mechanism for information sharing and regulatory capacity building of ECO members. Representatives of member states appreciated this initiative, and shared their views on current state of their capital markets. Meysem Hamedi from Iran expressed appreciated establishment of the forum, stating that the forum will enable innovation in regional markets, which will benefit all countries. Ms. Selcan Olca, from Turkiye, expressed that participating countries may learn from each other's experience, which will lead to overall strengthening of regulatory framework in the region.
Following the workshops, a panel discussion was organized, rounding off the day with a discussion between each of the project leaders in the talk, “From Art School to Research: A Guide Towards Navigating Through the Arts.” In conversation with the ASAP team, each project leader discussed how to best approach a career in the field of modern and contemporary South Asian art, helping to map out clear paths for artistic practitioners, whose interests lean more towards research, curating and other roles, rather than solely becoming a visual artist.
BrItISH wItH art SoUtH aSIa ProjECt for art & rESEarCH In PakIStan
Dr. Hathal Homoud Alotaibi, President, International Islamic University (IIU) visited the flood relief camp organized by the university, here at the new campus. The IIUI President said on the occasion that the recent flood situation is unprecedented and it is our responsibility to come forward. He said service of humanity is the message of Islam and same IIUI had already been disseminating, therefore, such camps be contributed at maximum level. He added that no one alone can cope with such floods and rains. Referring to the pain of the victims, he said the entire IIUI community must come forward to help the flood victims. He said floods have caused widespread devastation, let’s get out of this ordeal and be a hand to the ones who are trying to help and rehabilitate the victims. IIU President appreciated the effort of the IIUI community and hailed the initiatives of setting up the camps in the IIUI campuses. Prof. Dr. N.B. Jumani, Vice President, Administration & Finance of the University was also present on the occasion.
Benazir Income Support Programme launches Emergency Helpline numbers
Mariya Afzal, Director Pakistan/UK New Perspectives, British Council Pakistan said, “The British Council is pleased to be part of this research and capacity building initiative with Arts South Asia Project. Through this work we aimed to give young artists, curators and researches the opportunity to identify and subsequently fill gaps in research in the arts, something which is not commonly available to them. This is also a great occasion for them to form linkages with their peers in the UK, learning from and sharing knowledge and ideas from the best in the field, locally and globally. Mastering Art and Research in Pakistan will help build innovative partnerships in the field of art between Pakistan and UK. About ARt South ASIA PRoject (ASAP): Art South Asia Project is a UK based arts education and development non-for-profit. It supports initiatives to widen and deepen the engagement with modern and contemporary visual arts from South Asia and its diaspora. ASAP works with institutions and individuals, supporting selected research projects, publications, exhibitions, and events. It offers grants and facilitates access to wider knowledge networks, in collaboration with expertise across the nations of Bangladesh, India, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka and its diaspora. About PAkIStAn/uk: new PeRSPectIveS: Pakistan/UK: News Perspectives marks the 75th anniversary of Pakistan, Pakistan/UK: New Perspectives will take place from March to August 2022. The programme will showcase the cultural wealth and contemporary creativity of both countries; facilitate professional collaboration for culture, creative and education sectors; and focus on a shared future through building lasting partnerships. It will focus on challenging perceptions, particularly amongst the younger generation in both countries. An expansive programme will explore collaborations across the themes of culture and heritage, environment and sustainability and women & girls.
MaStErInG
Police to donate two day’s salary for flood victims: IGP Islamabad (PR): Inspector General of Police Islamabad Dr Akbar Nasir Khan on Monday announced that the officers of grade 17 and above would donate a two day salary to help the flood victims. The decision was taken in line with the directives of Federal Minister for Interior Rana Sana ullah Khan, to support thousands of individuals and families affected by recent flash floods. Similarly, the personnel from grade 1 to 16 would also contribute their one day salary in the form of aid to help the people of flood affected regions. The IGP said Islamabad capital police were standing shoulder to shoulder with the families of flood victims in this hour of grief. Press releAse As the flood calamity is affecting all across the country, Chief of the Air Staff while taking stock of the deteriorating condition of the flood affected areas has given instructions to enhance PAF efforts into an aggressive flood relief campaign. CAS has also directed all bases to generate intrinsic support to flood affectees in coordination with local civil authorities for directed efforts. Additionally, PAF Flood Relief Donation Account is being established to assist flood victims.
Chief of the Air Staff's Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Relief campaign is aimed to be a targeted effort, in order to make it more effective and efficient by reaching out to affected people in far flung areas stranded due to severed land routes. All branches of PAF have been directed to provide whole hearted efforts and support for this campaign. A focal point has been established at Air Headquarters, Islamabad to monitor the efficiency of the relief operations. For effective management, 03 relief zones have been established under Regional Air Commands whereas more than 25 helicopters and 08 C-130 aircraft of PAF Air Mobility Command are to be utilised for a swift reach out to inaccessible areas. For this effort, an Air Support Bridge is being established. For a concentrated relief support, tent cities are being established at appropriate locations for the displaced where they are being provided with free food, shelter and medical facilities. PAF help desk established at Disaster Relief Cell can be reached on 051-9260835 and 0519262404 for any relief and rescue related information.
Power schedulessuspensionfortoday Press releAse According to Islamabad Electric Supply Company (IESCO)’s spokesman, System Maintenance/Development Work is in process. Therefore power supply of below mentioned feeders/areas will be temporary suspended as per given schedule: On 30 th August, From 07:00 AM to 12:00 Noon, Mandi Bhalwal, Frash Town, I- 14/3, Mushtaq Shaheed, Jalala, Nawababad, PMC Colony, Nadtopa, Visa, Shakrela, Samot, Kangar, Islampura, Union Council Road, Masrial Road, Ameer Hamza, Radio Pak, Milatabad, Peshawar Road, Range Road, Dharabi, Akwal, Bilalabad, Mugla Feeders, From 06:00 AM to 02:00 PM, Birut Gala, Darbar Mai Toti, Churahi, Dana Bhal, Charohi Dongi, Surrey, City, Kariala, Jandrot Dabsi, Ditot, Majajan Feeders, From 08:00 AM to 12:00 Noon, NDC. I & II, I-10/3, PHA-II, I-11/3, Metro, Islamic University, Bahria University, Dr. AQ Khan, I-10/2, Nust University, New Exchange, U Phone, PTCL, SES, Fazal Ghi, TB Hospital, Dhok Najo, Raja Sultan, Eid Gah, Bagh Sardaran, Mohammadi Chowk, Khayaban Sir Syed, Ali Market feeders and surroundings will be closed. IESCO management apologizes to its esteemed customers for the power outage. If the work is completed ahead of time, the power supply can be restored even before the scheduled time.
The three workshops hosted were “Challenges of Research” by Dr. Samina Iqbal and Professor Salima Hashmi, “Museums and the Self: Memories, Identities and Stories” by Sophia Balagamwala and Dr. Shaila Bhatti, and “ASAP presents Art Murmur: Professional Development in the Visual Arts” by Ambereen Siddiqui. Nour Aslam, Executive Director ASAP said, "Art South Asia Project is excited to be partnering with the British Council Pakistan to present Mastering Art & Research in Pakistan with COMO Museum, Lahore. We are extremely grateful to Seher Tareen, Founder of COMO Museum, Lahore, for hosting ASAP's first in person event in South Asia. Thanks to the partnership with the British Council, we have identified the urgent need for artists and academics within Pakistan to be able to collaborate on research and knowledge sharing. This is attested to by the popularity of the workshops and panel discussion for this event. We hope these workshops will produce ongoing partnerships amongst the participants with and without ASAP’s facilitation.”
Argentinian envoy briefed on low cost housing projects in country
Pakistan Air Force Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Relief Campaign Ramped Up in Flood Affected Areas
A signing ceremony for the award of debt arrangement mandates exceeding PKR 20Bln to The Bank of Punjab (BOP) by Punjab Thermal Power Limited (PTPL) and Energy Department, Government of the Punjab (GoPb), was held on 26th August, ’22 at BOP Head office. The ceremony was attended by Mr. Ajmal Bhatti (Secretary Energy, GoPb), Mr. Salman Zakaria (CEO, PTPL), Mr. Ghazanfar Jillani (Director & Acting, BOP) and Mr. Zafar Masud (President & CEO, BOP) along with other senior officials of PTPL and BOP. PTPL, sponsored by Energy Department, GoPb, is developing a 1,263MW RLNG-fired power plant to provide clean energy in Pakistan with a project outlay of PKR 120 billion. It is one of the largest and most efficient independent power producers in Pakistan, which shall help in addressing energy deficit problem of the country at an affordable cost. The award of debt arrangement mandates is a testament of PTPL and Govt. of the Punjab’s trust on the investment banking capabilities of The Bank of Punjab under its new leadership. Mr. Salman Zakaria appreciated the role of BOP, which is fast emerging as one of the most active commercial banks in the market, for supporting PTPL in arranging project debt at the time of financial close and extending all possible support till date. Mr. Ajmal Bhatti stressed upon the need for public sector enterprises to work together for betterment of public at large. BOP’s President and CEO, Mr. Zafar Masud, expressed his keen desire to work with Govt. of the Punjab in arranging financing for projects of national importance.
sTAFF rePOrT B RITISHCouncil is partnering with Art South Asia Project (ASAP) and COMO Museum for a one day symposium of events, “Mastering Art and Research in Pakistan”, as part of its Pakistan/UK: New Perspectives Season, marking the 75th anniversary of Pakistan. The event aims to facilitate three research and professional development projects between Pakistan and the UK in 2022. The symposium consists of three workshops and panel discussion by project leaders, held at COMO Museum, Lahore. New Perspectives showcases the cultural wealth and contemporary creativity of both countries, facilitating professional collaboration for culture, creative and education sectors, with a focus on a shared future through building lasting partnerships.
09 Business 30 August 2022_Layout 1 8/29/2022 10:29 PM Page 1
APP Secretary Ministry of Housing and Works Iftikhar Ali Shallwani on Monday apprised Argentinian envoy to Pakistan Leopoldo F.Sahores about the ongoing low cost housing projects and the work being done for flourishing housing sector in the country. During the meeting both the dignitaries discussed various bilateral issues, said a news release issuedIftikharhere. Shallwani briefed the ambassador regarding the upcoming First International Housing Expo-2022 and invited him as well. Leopoldo F.Sahores assured Argentina’s participation in the International Housing Expo-2022. He appreciated the efforts of Secretary and expressed his pleasure over the work done so far by the Government of Pakistan especially by Housing Ministry. Leopoldo F.Sahores also appreciated the hard work of Ministry of Housing and Works to provide shelter to the homeless and to provide quality residential facilities to the government employees and general public at affordable rates.
SECP hosts first Meeting of ECO Heads of Capital Market Supervisory Authorities meeting
IIUI President visits flood relief camp
“For a party that’s gone in quite a populist direction in recent years, she s been able to present herself as more authentic more ordinary than Rishi Sunak, who is all too easily presented as part of the global elite, said Tim Bale from the Queen Mary University of London Like Boris Johnson, she is keen on the idea that there is some kind of elite that has to be countered and she sets herself up as being outside the es tablishment despite having been in government for eight years ” Sunak, 42, the grandson of Indian immi grants grew up as the son of a doctor and a pharmacist in Southampton, on England s south coast He attended the prestigious fee paying Winchester College school, then Oxford University
One of the primary objectives of the mission is to test the capsule’s heat shield, which at 16 feet in diam eter is the largest ever built On its return to the Earth s atmosphere the heat shield will have to withstand a speed of 25,000 miles per hour and a temperature of 5,000 degrees Fahrenheit (2 760 degrees Celsius) That is half as hot as the Sun
NASA’s most powerful rocket yet is set to blast off Monday on the maiden voyage of a mission to take hu mans back to the Moon and eventually to Mars Fifty years after the last Apollo mission, the space program called Artemis is to get under way with the blast off of the uncrewed 322 foot (98 meter) Space Launch System (SLS) rocket at 8:33 am (12:33 GMT) from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida Tens of thousands of people are on hand along the beaches of Florida to watch this launch that’s been decades in the making They include Vice President Ka mala Harris Hotels around Cape Canaveral are booked solid with between 100,000 and 200,000 spectators expected to attend the launch The goal of the flight baptized Artemis 1, is to test the SLS and the Orion crew capsule that sits atop the rocket The capsule will orbit the Moon to see if the vessel is safe for people in the near future At some point Artemis will see a woman and a person of colour walk on the Moon for the first time “This mission goes with a lot of hopes and dreams of a lot of people And we now are the Artemis genera tion, NASA administrator Bill Nelson said Saturday The massive orange and white rocket has been sit ting on the space centre’s Launch Complex 39B for a week Its fuel tanks were to be filled overnight Sunday into Monday with more than three million liters of liq uid hydrogen and oxygen
ture,” he said, assessing that he has come across as “a wee bit brittle” under pressure “You can see that she’s been in the game for longer,” he added P o l i t i c a l j o u r n e y: Truss, 47 has described her ascent towards the top of British politics as a “jour ney that has seen her criticised for being ambitiously opportunistic She comes from a left wing family and initially joined the cen trist Liberal Democrats before jump ing ship to the right wing Conservatives She became MP for the South West Norfolk constituency in eastern England in 2010, surviving revela tions of an affair that almost cost her the nomination Since 2012, she has held a series of ministerial posts in the education finance and departments as well as a difficult spell in justice
W h at n e x t f o r B o r i s J o h n s o n ?
LONDON A F P Liz Truss has emerged as the clear favourite to succeed Boris Johnson as leader of the ruling Conservative party and UK prime minister, using her political experience to pull ahead of challenger Rishi Sunak Sunak helped to spark the con test after resigning in opposition to a series of government scandals prompting others to follow and Johnson to step down But although considered a better public speaker, he has come under fire for clinging to fiscal orthodoxy to tackle the economic crisis and hamstrung by his image as a wealthy technocrat Sunak, who would be come Britain’s first prime minister of colour, has also faced accusations of treachery for bringing down the Tories’ Brexit hero Johnson Truss meanwhile has doggedly hammered home a direct and consis tent message, promising massive tax cuts, and has shied away from criti cising Johnson “She’s a better politician,” said John Curtice, a po litical scientist at the University of Strathclyde in Glasgow “If you ask me what Liz Truss’s campaign was about I will immedi ately say to you: ‘a tax cut not a handout’ Very clear,” he told AFP There is no strapline for Sunak, nothing ” For Curtice Truss has ef fectively conveyed “traditional Con servative messages to Tory members while Sunak has been more nuanced “It’s also a bit of a lec
The next mission, Artemis 2, will take astronauts into orbit around the Moon without landing on its sur face The crew of Artemis 3 is to land on the Moon in 2025 at the earliest And since humans have already visited the Moon, Artemis has its sights set on another lofty goal an eventual crewed mission to Mars The Artemis program is to establish a lasting human presence on the Moon with an orbiting space station known as Gateway and a base on the surface
In 2016, she campaigned for the UK to remain in the European Union but quickly became one of its strongest supporters when Britons voted for Brexit When the UK left the EU, John son put her in charge of negotiating new free trade deals before appoint ing her as foreign secretary last year In the role she took on the con troversial task of trying to overhaul differences with Brussels about post Brexit trade in Northern Ireland Like Johnson, she has talked tough on Russia and given unswerv ing backing for Ukraine Truss’s dress sense and photo opportunities posing in a tank in Estonia and wearing a fur hat in Moscow have earned her com parisons to Tory icon Margaret Thatcher Her sometimes stiff style has become visibly more relaxed and allies have sought to soften her image, revealing her love of karaoke and socialising e s ta b l i s h m e n t e l i t e?
NASA said there is an 80 percent chance of accept able weather for a liftoff on time at the beginning of a launch window lasting two hours For the first time a woman Charlie Blackwell Thompson will give the final green light for liftoff Women now account for 30 percent of the staff in the control room; there was just one back with Apollo 11 Cameras will capture every moment of the 42 day trip and include a selfie of the spacecraft with the Moon and Earth in the background The Orion capsule will orbit around the Moon, coming within 60 miles (100 kilometers) at its closest approach and then firing its engines to get to a distance of 40,000 miles beyond, a record for a spacecraft rated to carry humans t e m P e r at u r e s h a l f a s h o t a s t h e s u n: Besides the weather, any kind of technical snafu could delay the liftoff at the last minute, NASA officials have said stressing that this is a test flight
b e r a t i o n A r m y s a i d i t h a d f o l l o w e d a n d c l o s e l y m o n i t o r e d t h e U S w a r s h i p s a n d r e m a i n e d o n h i g h a l e r t a n d r e a d y t o t h w a r t a n y p r o v o c a t i o n s China urges US not to be ‘troublemaker ’
a ’s Ta i w a n r e g i o n o n A u g u s t 2 T h e p a s s a g e o f t h e U S w a r s h i p s w a s “ v e r y c o n s i s t e n t ” w i t h t h e U S “ o n e C h i n a p o l i c y ” a n d s e e k i n g “ a f r e e a n d o p e n I n d o P a c i f i c a W h i t e House official said
Taking the place of people, for now, dummies fitted with sensors will take the place of crew members, recording acceleration vibration and radiation levels It will deploy small satellites to study the lunar sur face A complete failure would be devastating for a pro gram that is costing $4 1 billion per launch and is already running years behind schedule l i f e o n t h e m o o n: “What we are starting with the launch Monday is not a near term sprint, but a long term marathon to bring the solar system and beyond into our sphere,” said Bhavya Lal, NASA associate ad ministrator for technology, policy, and strategy
E x p e r i e n ce d Tru s s f avo u r i te to b e n ex t U K PM 10 Foreign 30 AUGUST_Layout 1 8/30/2022 12:13 AM Page 1
NASA shoots for the Moon, on its way to M ars
10 FOREIGN NEWS Tuesday 30 August 2022 ISLAMABAD a dancing hillar y Clinton comes to finland leader’s defense
WASHINGTON A F P “Keep dancing,” former US presidential candidate Hillary Clinton tweeted Sunday lending her personal support to Finland Prime Minister Sanna Marin, whose taste for partying has drawn global attention Clinton s post included a photo of herself dancing with a big smile on her face in a crowded club during a 2012 trip to Colombia while still secretary of state It concluded with the words Keep dancing @marinsanna ” Marin quickly responded, tweeting back, “Thank you, @Hillary Clinton,” and including a heart emoji A recently leaked video showed Marin dancing and partying with a group of friends and celebrities Critics said it showed inappropriate be haviour for a prime minister while others now in cluding Clinton have defended the 36 year old politician’s right to enjoy a private event with friends Marin told fellow members of her Social Democratic party that it was important to cut loose at times “I am human And I too sometimes long for joy light and fun amidst these dark clouds said Marin, the world’s youngest prime minister She added that she had not missed “a single day of work But she encountered further blowback when a photo emerged of two women lifting their tops dur ing a party at the prime minister ’s residence in July Marin again apologised Clinton, who is 74, headed the State Department from 2009 to 2013 under presi dent Barack Obama In 2016, she was the Demo cratic candidate for US president Though heavily favoured, she lost to real estate magnate Donald Trump in a stunning upset
BEIJING S tA F F R e P o Rt China on Monday urged the United States not to be the “troublemaker for peace and stability of the Taiwan Straits,” one day after two U S warships sailed through the Straits The U S cruisers Chancellorsville and Antietam sailed through the Taiwan Straits on Sunday, the first such transit publicized since U S House Speaker Nancy Pelosi made a provocative visit to Chin on Sunday, accord i n g t o R e u t e r s Z h a o L i j i a n s p o k e s p e r s o n f o r t h e C h i n e s e F o r e i g n M i n i s t r y, r e f u t e d t h e U S c l a i m a t a r e g u l a r p r e s s b r i e f i n g o n M o n d a y i n B e i j i n g U S warships frequently flex their m u s c l e s u n d e r t h e p r e t e x t o f f r e e d o m of navigation,” which is not a commit m e n t t o f r e e d o m a n d o p e n n e s s , b u t a p r o v o c a t i o n t o s e e k f r e e d o m o f w i l l f u l t r e s p a s s i n g , ” Z h a o t o l d r e p o r t e r s “ C h i n a u rg e d t h e U S s i d e t o s t o p hollowing out the one China principle a b i d e b y t h e o n e C h i n a p r i n c i p l e a n d t h e p r o v i s i o n s o f t h e t h r e e C h i n a U S j o i n t c o m m u n i q u e s h o n e s t l y, a n d n o t t o b e t h e t r o u b l e m a k e r f o r p e a c e a n d s t a b i l i t y o f t h e Ta i w a n S t r a i t s h e s a i d O n S u n d a y, t h e E a s t e r n T h e a t e r C o m m a n d o f t h e C h i n e s e P e o p l e s L i for p in Taiwan Straits
eace
WASHINGTON A F P
If the rocket is unable to take off on Monday Sep tember 2 and 5 have been penciled in as alternative flight dates
LONDON A F P f O L L O W I N G a spectacular fall from grace and power, speculation is rife about what outgoing British Prime Minister Boris Johnson will do next Will he plot a comeback from the backbenches in parliament or cash in and wreak revenge as a political pundit? Johnson, 58, famously signed off his final performance as prime minister in the House of Commons by telling MPs: “Hasta la vista, baby” He may as well have used another line from the “Terminator” films “I’ll be back” as it only fuelled speculation that he has unfinished political business Allies said he wants to lead the Conser vative party at the next general election, due in two years time, even though a new leader will be crowned on September 5 I suspect he s not totally given up on the idea of a comeback,” politics professor Tim Bale, from the Queen Mary University of London, told AFP “I suspect friends of Boris Johnson [ ] will be talking to journalists off the record all the time and criticising, albeit not openly, his successor ” Despite being ousted by his own MPs following a string of scandals, Johnson re mains popular with many party members According to Daniel Bowman, a political researcher at the University of Liverpool, he could leverage that power to settle some scores “Boris Johnson is a well known agitator I think revenge may be on his mind, he said This could be as a member of the cabi net, he said, pointing out that Liz Truss, the favourite to succeed him, had not ruled out giving Johnson a ministerial role “He could also be an agitator on the backbenches, said Bowman r i s k : Whoever takes over will immedi ately face the task of tackling the soaring cost of living and rampant inflation and is likely to hear calls for a general election to legitimise their power Should he stay on as a rank and file MP, Johnson could make mischief for his succes sor, as his predecessor Theresa May did for him It would also be the ideal position for him to lie in wait in case his replacement is felled But that choice may not be entirely in his own hands Parliament’s Privileges Commit tee is due to report on whether he committed “contempt of the House of Commons” by saying that he believed no lockdown rules were broken in his Downing Street office Johnson wife Carrie and leadership can didate Rishi Sunak, whose resignation as fi nance minister triggered his eventual demise received fines for attending a birth day celebration in June 2020 He risks losing his seat if the committee rules that he should be suspended from par liament, triggering a by election at a time when the ruling Conservatives trail dismally in the polls c a s h : Even if he survives the investiga tion Bowman said Johnson may quit parlia ment anyway, if Labour look set to take the next election and he loses his seat So maybe he might acknowledge that actually his political career his time is run ning out, and he will be better on the side lines, using the power of the media” to realise his ambitions, said Bowman Having reportedly complained that he was struggling to make ends meet on his £164,000 ($193,000) prime ministerial salary, Johnson could accept lucrative offers to become a columnist or a pundit His former employer The Daily Tele graph and the popular conservative newspa per the Daily Mail are both likely suitors According to the parliamentary register of members’ interests in 2018 Johnson was paid £275,000 a year to write a weekly column in the Telegraph As a former prime minister, he would likely command even more money “I think Boris Johnson will inevitably go to the highest bidder, said Bowman His predeces sor May not known for her rhetorical flair earned more than £1 million in speaking fees in the year after she left office in 2019
Pa k i s t a n h o c k e y l e g e n d M a n z o o r H u s s a i n J r p a s s e s aw ay
Neymar scored from the penalty spot but Paris Saint Germain’s perfect start to the French campaign was ended in a 1 1 draw with Monaco on Sunday, while Alexis Sanchez scored his first goals for Mar seille in a 3 0 win at Nice In Paris, Neymar rolled in his eighth goal in five matches this season from a penalty awarded when the VAR alerted the on pitch referee to a foul on the Brazil ian by Monaco defender Guillermo Mari pan midway through the second half Monaco had taken the lead when Kevin Volland burst forward, holding off Presnel Kimpembe, before firing past Gi anluigi Donnarumma 20 minutes in at the Parc des Princes
C OA S G R I E V E D O V E R D E M I S E O F M A N Z O O R J U N I O R 11 Sports 30 AUGUST_Layout 1 8/29/2022 11:59 PM Page 1
ISLAMABAD S ta f f R e p o Rt Pakistan and India have always put on an enticing display for neutrals Despite the fierce rivalry be tween both nations, the temperatures often run ex tremely high and giving birth to historic moments Shahid Afridi who was arguably involved in one of the most heated moments with Gautam Gamb hir, has once again reignited the feud during an in terview with a local media outlet The clash between Afridi and Gambhir took place back in 2007 when both teams met each other for an ODI game in Kanpur It is not like I have fought with any Indian players,” Afridi clarified the situation Former T20 World Cup winner claimed that fol lowing his confrontation with Gambhir in 2007, he started to believe that nobody likes him, proba bly not even his Indian teammates “Yes, some times there are some arguments with Gautam Gambhir on social media And I think that Gau tam is a sort of character which no one likes even in the Indian team, Afridi further added AgencIeS Veteran star strikers Robert Lewandowski and Karim Benzema both hit doubles on Sunday in contrasting victories for Barcelona and La Liga leaders Real Madrid Lewandowski scored twice for the sec ond game in a row as Jules Kounde made his debut as Barcelona cruised past Valladolid 4 0 In the late game on Sunday, Real Madrid struggled for 88 minutes at Es panyol With the scores tied and time run ning out, Benzema put Real ahead before sealing a 3 1 victory after 10 eventful added minutesReal saved their perfect start to the sea son and climbed back to the top of the table on nine points after three games, ahead of Real Betis on goal difference Barcelona rose to third, two points fur ther“backTohave Lewandowski in your team is a blessing,” said Barca coach Xavi Hernan dez He s an extraordinary player Spectac ular A natural leader It’s a blessing to have him with us, it’s marvellous He s a model, a born worker He s hum ble, he works for the team, he helps the coaching staff, he makes the difference ” At the Camp Nou, Xavi handed Kounde his first start after the club was finally able to register the France defender they signed from Sevilla last month for a reported 50 million euros ($49 8 mn) Lewandowski hit the post with an early header Pedri then spotted the run of Raphinha in behind but the Brazilian was thwarted by goalkeeper Jordi Masip, who was well beaten moments later when Ousmane Dem bele’s venomous shot clipped the crossbar Barca’s pressure told after 24 minutes as Raphinha whipped in a teasing cross which a gambling Lewandowski stabbed home A marauding Dembele tested Masip from range, and then created the second for Pedri by rolling a perfectly weighted ball for the midfielder to bury on the stroke of half time Lewandowski all but put the game be yond reach on 64 minutes running onto a pass from Dembele and cleverly backheeling past Masip with the help of a deflection off Joaquin Fernandez Valladolid nearly pulled one back but Marc Andre ter Stegen saved well from Oscar Plano and Kounde stuck out a leg on the line to keep out the follow up effort from Roque Mesa Barca grabbed a fourth in stoppage time as Roberto volleyed home after Lewandowski was denied a hat trick after Masip, a former Barcelona player, tipped his shot onto the bar ‘We were quite slow’ In the late game, Vinicius Junior ran on to a sharp diagonal pass in the 12th minute to slide the ball into the far corner and give Real the lead Espanyol fought back Joselu levelled after 43 minutes He burst through and when Thibaut Courtois saved his first thump at goal and the ball bounced off Eder Militao the Espanyol striker beat both Real players to the ball and scuffed it in Lewa
PAndyA combines cAlmness And cl Arit y to be more effective
PARIS S ta f f R e p o Rt
LAHORe S ta f f R e p o Rt Pakistan hockey legend former national cap tain, Olympian and 1984 Los Angeles hero, Manzoor Hussain Junior died of heart attack here on Monday The former hockey icon, suffered a heart attack this morning and was taken to hospital where he breathed his last after doctors put three stents to save his life, said his son Faisal Manzoor 65 year old former stalwart of Pak istan hockey, is survived by a widow, three sons and a daughter Down to earth, humble and soft spoken Manzoor was a master of the game and he served hockey with pride and distinction in different roles Presently, he was serving as the Chairman of national selection committeeHisskills and expertise earned him the title of golden player during his playing day Under the leadership of Manzoor Hussain, Pakistan won the only Junior World Cup title in 1979Manzoor Hussain played as an outstand ing forward and as a world know striker be tween 1975 and 1984 and was capped 175 times with 86 goals to his credit He was part of the Pakistan team that won the Bronze Medal in the 1976 Olympics in Montreal Eight years later, he was Captain of the Pakistan team that won the Gold Medal at the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles
P M
PSG’s per fec t record ended by Monaco
n d ows ki b a g s d o u b l e fo r ‘ b l e s s e d ’ B a rc a , B e n ze m a s r i ke s l ate fo r Re a l
The principality side played well, yet PSG deserved at least the draw from a game in which they hit the woodwork threeNtimesevertheless the result does slightly puncture their momentum after a start to the season in which they had won their opening three league games scoring 17 goals in the process They also beat Nantes 4 0 in the sea son opening Champions Trophy but Monaco were easily the most accom plished side they had faced yet We had difficulties in the first half against a European level opponent but we deserved to win the game based on our second half showing, PSG coach Christophe Galtier told broadcaster Ama zon PPrimeSGhave 10 points from four games and are top of Ligue 1, but only on goal difference from Lens and Marseille Volland silenced the home crowd when he ran through to fire Monaco in front, although that was to be his last in volvement as he hurt himself while shoot ing PSG were denied an equaliser right on the stroke of half time in remarkable fashion, as Lionel Messi smashed a long range shot off the left hand post before Kylian Mbappe hit the opposite upright from the rebound Monaco were also grateful to goal keeper Alexander Nuebel for saving from Neymar from point blank range after the restart, but PSG got their equaliser with 20 minutes to go, as Mbappe left the penalty duties to his Brazilian teammate The order was Kylian number one and Neymar number two but I saw they had an exchange and Neymar spoke to Kylian before taking the penalty, said GaltierPSG then had chances to win all three points, with Achraf Hakimi s fierce shot hitting the post in the 74th minute before Nuebel denied Mbappe late on Sanchez netted a first half brace as Marseille eased to victory in Nice to main tain their unbeaten start to the season
Meanwhile President Pakistan Hockey Federation Brigadier (Retd) Khalid Sajjad Khokhar and Secretary Haider Hussain have expressed deep sorrow over the death of Man zoor Hussain They said legendary Manzoor Hussain Jr was one of the pillar of Pakistan hockey and the void created due to his death will not be filled
ISLAMABAD S ta f f R e p o Rt Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Monday expressed grief over the death of Pakistan’s hockey legend Olympian Manzoor Hussain Junior“Gold medalist Manzoor Hussain Jun ior was an asset for the nation His services for Pakistan Hockey will always be remem bered,” he remarked in a tweet He prayed for peace for the departed soul and strength to the bereaved family to bear the loss with fortitude Manzoor Jun ior, 64, passed away at a private hospital in Lahore after cardiac arrest Former captain of Pakistan Hockey team, Manzoor Junior was part of the team which won bronze and gold in the 1976 and 1984 Olympics respectively He was also part of the hockey teams which won glory for the country in the 1978 and 1982 Hockey World Cups Separately COAS General Qamar Javed Bajwa also offered condolences on the sad demise of hockey legend Manzoor JuniorRemembering him as his ‘personal friend’, COAS said that Olympian Man zoor Hussain, Junior was his personal loss Gen Qamar Javed Bajwa said: May Allah bless his soul & give strength to the bereaved family to bear this irreparable loss, Ameen ” ,
Tuesday 30 August 2022 | ISLAMABAD 11SPORTS DUBAI a f p
H A R D I K Pandya’s talent was never in doubt and the India all rounder has now combined a calm mind with an uncluttered approach to emerge as a serious match winner as he demonstrated in Sunday s Asia Cup thriller against Pakistan Emotions run high whenever India and Pakistan clash in a cricket match and many a player has buckled under the pressure that accompanies these contests between the archPrivalsandya appeared cut from a different cloth though as he defied the mounting pres sure in the closing stages of India s nervy chase and secured victory with a nonchalant six with two balls to spare The same calmness was evident in his muted celebration when he just did a fist bump with batting partner Dinesh Karthik, who bowed before Pandya Pandya’s 3 25 with the ball and 33 not out off 17 deliveries made him an obvious choice for the man of the match award “In all these years I’ve understood that if I stay as calm as possible, it’s going to help me to execute all my plans the 28 year old said after collecting the prize “The 50 50 chances which I take, if I’m calmer it helps me to pull it off Needing 21 runs from 12 balls, India looked in trouble but Pandya hit three boundaries in the penultimate over from Haris Rauf to ease the pressure Spinner Mohammad Nawaz dismissed Ravindra Jadeja with the first ball of the final over but Pandya flat batted the fourth deliv ery over long on to give India a winning start to their title defence Pandya said he was clear about how to accomplish the chase and knew the pressure was heavier on the bowler at that stage “The (target in) last over was seven runs, but even if it was 15 I d have fancied my chances,” Pandya said “I know it’s (a matter of) one six, and I feel the bowler is much more under pressure bowling to me in 20th over ”
Afridi takes a dig at Gambhir, again
Manzoor Hussain was also a member of Pakistan team that won the World Cup in 1978 and 1982 He was known for his excep tional stick work and one of its remarkable displays was in the 1982 World Cup final where he scored the goal by dodging six Ger man defenders The hockey world still recog nizes him as the hero of the 1982 World Cup final In recognition of his meritorious serv ices for the cause of game he was also awarded the Presidential Medal Manzoor Hussain and his two brothers, Maqsood Hus sain and Mahmood Hussain represented Pak istan in the 1984 Men’s Hockey Champions Trophy in Karachi in a match
The Chilean former Arsenal star, who signed a one year contract after leaving Inter Milan, opened the scoring in the 10th minute, firing into the roof of the net past goalkeeper Kasper Schmeichel On loan Arsenal wing back Nuno Tavares made it 2 0 in the 37th minute, his low strike from outside the area beating Schmeichel at the goalkeeper ’s near post It was his third goal in four games since arriving on loan from the Gunners, and Sanchez then followed in to make it 3 0 before the interval after a Tavares shot had been parried Ivory Coast international Nicolas Pepe failed to make an impact for Nice on his debut after also signing on loan from ArsenalElsewhere, Junya Ito became just the third Japanese player ever to score a Ligue 1 goal as Reims drew 1 1 with Lyon Signed from Belgian club Genk last month, Ito headed Reims in front in the first half to follow in the footsteps of com patriots Daisuke Matsui and Hiroki Sakai in scoring in Ligue 1 Reims had Dion Lopy sent off in the second half and could not hold on as Moussa Dembele equalised late on Meanwhile Montpellier recorded their biggest ever top flight away win, hammering Brest 7 0 in Brittany Elye Wahi and Valere Germain both scored twice, while Pierre Lees Melou was sent off for Brest, whose coach Michel Der Zakarian was formerly in charge of Montpellier “I’ve already taken two paracetamol and I am going to take two more said Der Zakarian
a n d w e d i d n t d o i t J h a g r a h a s challenged
o
e
ISLAMABAD S ta f f R e p o Rt Minister for Finance and Revenue Miftah ismail on Monday accused the Pakistan tehreek i insaf (Pti) for hatching con spiracies to sabotage the much needed re lease of the $1 17 billion tranche under the international Monetary Fund (iMF) programme addressing a presser here, Miftah said the Pti had committed a “heinous and shameful act against national inter ests and an attempt to push the country into economic default Referring to the recent audio leaks be tween Pti leaders, Miftah said the former finance minister was misleading the fi nance ministers of Punjab and khyber Pakhtunkhwa about the iMF programme He accused tarin for asking Punjab Fi nance Minister Mohsin Leghari to write a letter to the iMF to convey that the provin cial government could not fulfil its commit ment made with the Fund due to the enhanced expenditure on account of floods in the province Prior to the audio leaks Pti leader Fawad Chaudhry, in a statement, had claimed that the provincial governments would not accept the iMF conditions and cooperate with the Centre in that regard the kP finance minister also circu lated a letter of not complying with the iMF condition just 72 hours before the iMF board’s meeting to derail the pro gramme, he added He said the tele phone calls leaks” had unveiled the dirty politics of Pti and the faces behind the conspiracy the conspirators should re sign from their offices and better quit the politics ” Miftah said it was the Pti govern ment that had initially finalized the pro gramme with the iMF on tough terms and condition, and later deviated from it by providing unjustified subsidy on petro leum and electricity prices to pile up the “historic deficit” the Pti rulers also took record loans of over Rs 20,000 billion, which was about 80 percent of the total loans taken all the previous regime he added the Pti leaders, he alleged, were making such “cheap efforts for their vested political interests they were least bothered about national interests and were hell bent on to achieve their political mo tives at all costs, the minister added Miftah claimed that the Pti had not brought any worthwhile change in khy ber Pakhtunkhwa even in power there for the last 10 years it had not set up any ed ucational institution or international stan dard in the province, he said, adding 50 percent of children in the kP were out of schools today the minister alleged that the imran khan led government led had committed historic corruption Every transfer or posting was made against “di amond rings”, he added Due to incapability and mismanage ment of the Pti regime, he said, the coun try had reached on the verge of default, with the petroleum and electricity prices at the highest level, and the inflation rate also at the all time high at such a crucial time, the Pakistan Muslim League with its allies decided to accept all the challenges to steer the coun try of out of economic crisis, he added the minister said the country was now facing the worst floods of its recent history all resources would be utilized for the relief and rehabilitation of thee af fected people the federal government had already allocated Rs 28 billion for the purpose and would provide more funds in that regard
respond to t h e q u e s t i o n s a s k e d w h e t h e r t h e P t i h a d
e
our stance all we w a n t e d t h e G O P t o r e a l i s e t h a t d u e t o f l o o d s t h e r e m a y n o t b e s u r p l u s e s a v a i l able said shaukat tarin while speaking to P a k i s t a n to d a y W h e n c o n t a c t e d b y P a k i s t a n to d a y, a t l e a s t t w o i M F o ff i c i a l s based in Pakistan
e
e e t
e x
u
y f u e
o
ISLAMABAD S ta f f R e p o Rt P akistan tehreek i insaaf (Pti) former federal Finance Minister shaukat tarin and khyber Pakhtunkhwa (kP) Finance Min ister taimur khan Jhagra on Mon day challenged Miftah ismail to prove his allegation that Pti had leaked a copy of Jha gra’s letter addressed to Miftah to the inter national Monetary Fund (iMF) attributed to tarin, kP Finance Minister taimur Jhagra and Punjab Finance Minister sardar Mohsin Leghari the telephonic con versation revealed that Finance Ministers of Punjab and kP were asked to write a letter to Miftah ismail explaining that the commit ment made to the federal government cannot be fulfilled due to the recent devastation cause by floods in both the provinces it is pertinent to mention here that in the leaked phone calls, shaukat tarin is only di recting both kP and Punjab finance minis ters to write the letters to Miftah ismail and it is inconclusive whether or not any direc tion to leak the letter to the iMF is made in the phone calls, some options of how to get the letter to the iMF are discussed but shaukat tarin clarifies that any final decision over the matter will only be taken by the party Chairman i e imran khan Both the Pti leaders asserted that Jha gra’s letter was addressed to Miftah and no copy was leaked to the iMF Jhagra also de fended the conversation between him and shaukat tarin in the audio leaks, saying that the floods had changed the situation and the provinces had to meet requirements of re construction and rehabilitation of the af fectees and could not send surpluses to the federal government “We had no intention to leak [letter] to M F Miftah on this and today’s iMF board approval validates chose not to leaked the letter to the iMF shaukat tarin also responded to the crit icism by Miftah ismail taking to social media blogging site, twitter, shaukat tarin said that the Pti is alerting the Federal govt that due to floods, provincial surpluses may not be possible as funds should be spent on the marooned people of Pakistan at a press conference here on Monday, Jhagra, flanked by secretary General asad Umar, acknowledged the authenticity of a letter penned to the Finance Minister three days earlier by the kP government whereby the international money lender was informed that the province would not be able to meet the agreed upon budget surplus the letter came three days before the all important ex ecutive board meeting of the iMF was to be held in Washington where the provision of credit to Pakistan’s bailout package is being considered Pinning the province s inability to meet the surplus target on the former Federally administered tribal areas (Fata) merger with k P province and related administra tive concerns, the minister said, “i own the letter” and “i wrote it myself” and re quested the federal government to resolve the budgetary issue Defending the leaked conversation in a press conference, Umar said that there was “nothing wrong” with tarin “advising” the ministers as he “understands the country’s economy and that the request was in fact “needed” considering the current natural dis aster the country faces in an attempt to make the people aware of the facts, the Pti leader alleged that the government was guilty of “cutting, pasting and editing” the leaked audio
ISLAMABAD S ta f f R e p o Rt the islamabad High Court (iHC) has suspended a ban on the live broadcast of former prime minister imran khan s addresses, issued ear lier this month by the Pakistan Elec tronic Media Regulatory authority (PEMRa) Chief Justice athar Minallah, after taking up the matter on an application moved by the Pakistan tehreek i insaf (Pti) chair on Monday observed the electronic media watchdog “exceeded its authority in imposing the ban and directed the body to appoint an officer who could justify the suspension in a court of law Barristers syed ali Zafar repre sented khan during the hearing headed by Justice Minallah During the proceedings he argued that khan was scheduled to conduct a live telethon tonight to generate funds for flood victims and, there fore, sought the lifting of the ban after hearing the arguments, the judge suspended the notification and issued notices to PEMRa and ashtar ausaf ali, the attorney general khan has regularly addressed large anti government rallies of his opposition party since his ouster from power in a contentious no con fidence vote in april On august 20, hours after he spoke at a massive rally in islam abad, the agency ordered television networks to not show his live speeches in future it however al lowed the airing of pre recorded speeches the directive followed the speech in which he vowed to sue the chief of islamabad police and a jun ior judge and alleged that his chief of staff, shehbaz Gill, had been tor tured after his arrest PERMa asserted in its statement that khan was “leveling baseless al legations and spreading hate speech through his provocative statements against state institutions and offi cers khan addressed another big rally in Rawalpindi the following day to reiterate his criticism But the speech was not broadcast live and authorities also blocked Youtube to disrupt the speech the fascist imported [govern ment] sunk to a new low today by banning live coverage of my speeches on tV [and] then blocking Youtube temporarily during my speech at Liaquat Bagh,” khan tweeted after the rally all this after continuous intimidation of media persons and taking channels off the air earlier floods deal fresh blow to struggling small businesses
t h e i
t o t
Prime Minister Muhammad she hbaz sharif on Monday stressed the need to immediately shift the country s power generation ca pacity to solar and wind power production systems as the costly power generation was continu ously depleting the national ex chequer During a briefing at the Mohmand Dam site, the prime minister said Pakistan had been facing a very acute problem of costly power generation due to import of expensive fuels, and then subsidizing it for the con sumers H e s a i i t w a s t h r i e r l o s s s h n a t i o n a l c h e q e r, a s t h c o u n t r y h a d b e e n i m p o r t i n g c s t l l s r t h e power generation and then re d u c i n g t h e c s t o f t h e p o w e r for the consumers the prime minister refer ring to the timely completion of the hydel power projects, opined that those projects and tapping of other natural resources like solar and wind “are our future and we need to immediately shift to that direction, otherwise the economy will continue bleeding annually He also expressed his seri ous concerns over the damages caused to dykes and the con struction site of the dam in the recent floods, which, he said, would delay its completion time and could hamper the country’s progress He said the dam s construc tion was carried out by the Chi nese and Pakistani people, and it would generate 800 MWs of in expensive power, besides help ing in water reservation and pro viding protection against flash flooding the prime minister also ap preciated China as the best friend of Pakistan, and said they had complete confidence in its support about the recent floods, he reiterated that with collective efforts and support of the people they would over come the losses
KARACHI R e u t e R S
f o
e a n w h i l e , f o r m e r H u m a n R i g h t s M i n i s t e r s h i r e e n M a z a r i a l s o d e f e n d e d t h e l e a k e d c o n v e r s a t i o n s a y i n g t h a t “ t h e r e i s n o t h i n g i l l e g a l o r w r o n g i n t h e c o n v e r s a t i o n ” Pakistan’s future hinges upon solar, wind power generation: PM IHC suspends PEMR A ban on live broadcast of Imran’s speeches P T I d I s P u T e s M I f Ta h ’ s c l a I M I T l e a k e d J h a g r a ’ s l eT T e r T o T h e I M f M if tah accuses PTI for ‘ hatching conspiracies to sabotage’ IMF deal BACK PAGE 30 August 2022_Layout 1 8/30/2022 1:09 AM Page 1
d
ISLAMABAD S ta f f R e p o Rt Pakistan on Monday said that it was seriously con cerned by the news emanating from the indian and Us media that the indian government had attempted to infiltrate the security system of eminent social media platform twitter by forcing it to employ an indian “agent/representative” as per media reports, the matter came up during twitter ’s briefing to india’s Parliamentary standing Committee on infor mation and technology where legal depositions made in the Us by a former twitter employee were also discussed, a Foreign Office (FO) statement said Regrettably it said a large number of twitter handles particularly those belonging to kashmiri political leaders and media persons continue to re main blocked due to india’s frivolous legal objec tions Only last month, Pakistan also registered its strong protest with the indian government over the blocking of access to content of several twitter han dles of Pakistan s diplomatic Missions as well as the national broadcaster Radio Pakistan, it added “Pakistan deplores india’s brazen abuse of state power and strong arm tactics to manipulate and force regulate the internet sphere these actions are not only against international standards obligations norms, and framework of flow of information but also reflect the alarming pace of shrinking space for pluralistic voices and curbing of fundamental free doms in india,” the statement added Pakistan also called upon india to immediately reverse the block age of twitter accounts of Pakistan’s diplomatic missions and Radio Pakistan, to adhere to the estab lished international norms and standards of freedom of expression as espoused by the United nations, and desist from employing subterfuges to control the global internet domain
Dipping a roller into a tray of blue paint, Moham mad Rashid counts his losses after record monsoon rains forced him to hang up his overalls for weeks on end, adding to his money worries as a financial crisis grips Pakistan Millions of low income small business owners and self employed workers like Rashid are struggling to repair damage and recover lost earnings due to the torrential rains and flooding that have killed more than 1,000 people since June in Rashid’s home city of karachi, weeks of rain left the streets knee deep in water and sludge and meant he could only work five days in July Pakistan’s wettest for three decades “i earned not more than Rs10 000 Rashid 43 said comparing that to his usual monthly earnings of up to Rs100,000 Facing a balance of payments crunch, Pakistan is finding it difficult to fund reconstruction efforts after the floods due to spending curbs as it awaits bailout money from the international Monetary Fund (iMF) the government has announced cash support to families, but almost nothing has been offered to small businesses for damaged property and goods, and many traders say they feel abandoned (the government) is killing us slowly,” said Mohammad Hamid, 27, at his shop where he sells and repairs printers He said he suffered losses due to getting stuck daily for hours on karachi’s flooded roads But his biggest problem is soaring prices that are hiking the cost of doing business and undoing his gradual recovery from the impact of Covid 19 annual consumer price inflation reached nearly 25 percent in July, the highest in 14 years the pow der used in the ink cartridges of printers has become expensive, but customers refuse to pay me if i in crease my charges proportionately, said Hamid, who has been dipping into his savings to provide for his family of seven MONSOON DESTRUCTION: While the mon soon brings a wave of destruction almost every year, successive governments have failed to ade quately warn and prepare for its impact, say climate experts, warning that climate change is fuelling ex treme weather “What you see today is just a trailer of what s in store for us with poverty, hunger, mal nutrition and disease if we don’t pay heed to climate change,” said climate change and development ex pert ali tauqeer sheikh the Global Climate Risk index 2021 an annual ranking from research group Germanwatch, ranks Pakistan eighth among coun tries most vulnerable to extreme weather caused by climate change
Umar argued that tarin had merely “told both ministers to tell the federal gov ernment they should go back to the iMF and inform them that we have been hit by floods and face extraordinary circumstances” Can anybody claim the advice isn t good?” retorted Umar as he held that the ministers had been asked to seek concessions in the previously signed budget surplus agreement and added that the decision was in line with party chief imran khan’s policy during the Covid 19 pandemic as well “Why can’t you ask the iMF to give some space this year to use our money for flood related expenses when Prime Min ister shehbaz sharif is asking countries for funds to provide relief to the flood af fectees , he argued M
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 4:13 5:40 12:09 4 46 6 36 8 03 Tuesday, 30 August 2022 NEWS Published by Arif Nizami at Plot # 7 Al Baber Centre F/8 Markaz Islamabad for PT Print (Pvt) Limited Ph: 051 2204545 Email: newsroom@pakistantoday com pk STAFF REPORT
Pakistan ‘seriously’ concerned over India’s T witter securit y breach