Epaper_22-09-25 LHR

Dar likely to repl ace Miftah as following return next week

Suffering of people continues as respirator y diseases breakout

islamabad

Khan and rather take strong actions to end politica cr sis n the countr y

The sources said that Prime Minister She hbaz Sharif met w th PML N supremo Nawaz Sharif and discussed a future strategy Accord ing to the decis ons reached during the meet ing Ishaq Dar will return to Pakistan and assume charge as the f nance minister most probably on Tuesday while the current Fi nance Minister Miftah Ismail will a so continue to be a part of the government Miftah might be given another portfolio PM Shehbaz s set to leave for Pak stan on Sunday and it ’s not clear yet whether Dar wi l fly with the premier or ater The source said that Nawaz had not been happy with the eco nom c polic es of Miftah and had cal ed for a change n the direction of econom c policies Nawaz according to the source is worried that the r se in prices of commodities had di rectly affected ordinar y people which has im pacted the support base of PML N Nawaz, during the meet ng, also spoke to zardari and Maulana Fazlur Rehman and decided to take stringent measures against Imran Khan and also bring in some new faces to help stabi ise the polit ca situation

The sources said that the trio also decided to give tough time to Imran Khan and Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif wi take other allied parties into confidence on the decisions taken after his return to Pakistan

fORMER Finance Minister Ishaq Dar is set to return back to Pakistan and take up the charge of Finance Ministr y wh ch the ru ing government believes has been messed with by outgoing fi nance minister M ftah Ismai

Well placed sources have to d Pakistan Today that the change of guard at finance ministr y was decided by PML N supremo Nawaz Sharif during his meeting w th Prime M n ster She hbaz Sharif he d at h s London residence

The meet ng, also attended by Ishaq Dar, also decided to take immediate but concrete measures to tackle Imran Khan s planned long march, end political uncerta nty and ap point Ishaq Dar as f nance minister

Separate y Interior Minister Rana Sanaullah also confirmed that PML N ’s former m nister Ishaq Dar an absconder in NAB case would return to the county next week and would fa cilitate the government ’s economic team

Addressing a news conference n Lahore Sanaul ah said Dar would be able to help Pr me Min ster Shehbaz Shar f manage the countr y s econom c affairs better

For weeks there has been speculation that incumbent Finance Minister Miftah Ismail would be replaced by Dar w th certain top members of the PML N like Mar yam Nawaz and Javed Latif on several occasions pub icly attacking and disowning his policies in particu ar the inevitable reversa of the costly fuel subsidy ntroduced by the previous PTI government

The sources sa d that Nawaz Sharif be ieves that Miftah had m shandled the affa rs of finance min str y which had cost the countr y and the party dearly The sources said that Sharif believed that Dar had the relevant skills and ab lity not only to hand e the ministr y w th prudence but also he has a plan to give relief to the masses in the near future

The sources said that Nawaz Shar f wants to g ve relief to the public and go into the next e ect ons with a better plan after giving a respite to the general pub ic which is suffering badly at hands of skyrocketing inf at on and price hike Pakistan has recently touched high est inflat on rate n past five decades and this has hurt the image of the ruling party badly among the pub ic at large

The sources sa d that Nawaz Shar f also decided not to bow to the threats of Imran

Meanwhile, Is amabad Capital Territor y po l ce have finalised a strategy to deal with Pak istan Tehreek e Insaf s (PTI) possible long march towards Islamabad to put pressure on the gov ernment for fresh e ections in the countr y

A high level meet ng was held in Islam abad on direct ons of Interior Minister Rana Sanau lah to deal with PTI s planned long march towards the federa capital The meet ing was chaired by IG Islamabad Akbar Nasir and Commandant FC Salahuddin Mehsud

A l DIGs, AIGs, SSPs and other senior offi cials attended the meeting and a detailed br efing was given to counter sit in ca l

The meeting reviewed the overal law and order situation and decided to ensure effec t ve security measures in the city besides en hancing vigilance

It was decided that any law and order sit uat on n Is amabad would be dealt w th by using modern techniques Commandant FC assured that required the FC personnel would be prov ded to deal with the sit in and a reg ular plan had been prepared n this regard

IGP Islamabad said that a the off cers should be ready at all times to dea w th the law and order situation in the wake of an up coming protest march

Thousands of peop e in flood hit areas of Sindh continued suffer as d sease outbreaks continue to be a concern in the province where another 11 month old child died due to respirator y failure According to the provincial health department, some 71,398 peop e were logged by authorities to have arrived for treatment at the various medical camps set up across the province, with complaints largely linked to waters that have stagnated n the aftermath of the floods Of the thousands of people who were tended to, a disproportionately high number of acute respirator y infect ons 13 989 were mentioned in offic a Sindh hea th department data Some 12 777 people complained of diarrhoea, 13,672 of skin d seases, 8 515 of suspected malaria with 415 confirmed and 33 had dengue Another 22 413 were ll w th other ailments

Cumulatively, more than three million displaced peop e have received treatment since July 1 Sindh where floodwaters descending from the countr y s north and h ll torrents from Baloch stan have converged to g ve rise to a health crisis has seen thousands displaced by deluges and now be ng infl cted by various d seases, mainly water borne Dr Karim Mirani a surgeon at the Dadu C vil Hospital said that near y 5 000 people in the district were brought to the hospita in the last few days Separately, the National D saster Management Authority said that 10 f ood related deaths had been reported countr yw de over the past 24 hours, taking the cumulative toll since mid June to 1 606 The Nat onal F ood Response and Coordination Centre (NFRCC), in its da ly update today, said that Qambar Shahdad Kot Jacobabad Larkana Khairpur Dadu Noshero Feroz Thatta and Badin were the areas worst affected by the floods In Ba ochistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Quetta Naseerabad Jafarabad Jhalmags Bolan, Sohbatpur, Lesbe a, Dir, Swat, Charsadda, Kohistan, Tank and Dera Ismail Khan had recorded the highest losses The body highl ghted that rescue operation by the Pakistan Army was under way n al these areas

So far 147 re ief camps and 235 relief collection points in Sindh South Punjab and Balochistan have been established across the countr y for f ood affectees,” it sa d More than 300 medica camps have also been estab ished so far in wh ch more than 565 359 patients have been treated al across the countr y and provided free medicines, it added Dadu Assistant Comm ssioner Sonu Khan Chandio said that there was sti l up to six feet of water in the district, and adjo ning areas such as Mehar and Khairpur Nathan Shah Earlier media reports said that under the super vision of d strict admin stration, labourers with the he p of desperate loca residents widened the breach of Johi branch dyke at Kal Mori The horrific situation n the town had developed on August 31 after huge deluges caused breaches n Suprio bund near Gozo a smal settlement in KN Shah Gozo was also heavily flooded The water leve of Manchhar Lake has also significant y dropped It was recorded at 119 75RL on Friday almost three feet below the danger level, accord ng to rrigat on engineer Mahesh Kumar Dr Khalil S kandar Kunharo a resident of KN Shah wh le eading local residents n widening the Kal Mori breach, revealed that around 3,000 men, women and ch ldren were present in their houses n the town and staying in upper storeys or on the rooftops They had chosen not to leave the town when t was hit by flood, said the doctor

Pakistan has no future if cor r upt clique continues to r ule: Imran

RaHimYaR KHaN ta f f r

Former pr me minister and PTI Cha rman

Imran Khan Saturday said that Pak stan has no future if corrupt clique, inc uding PM Shehbaz Sharif who were set to be indicted in money laundering case, continued to rule

Addressing a mammoth gathering of party workers in Pun ab’s Rah m Yar Khan distr ct Imran said they had g ven themselves an NRO and closed down corrupt on cases worth Rs1,100 billion

Fore gn powers imposed corrupt leaders so that they can be controlled easily The movement for ‘ real freedom’ aga nst the coa it on government wil not stop unt l the announcement of early and transparent elections he said

You remain prepared I will give you [protest] call when my opponents be lieve that Imran Khan has g ven up and that day is not far,” he said while ad

dressing a charged crowd I will give ca l when I be ieve I can take three wickets in one ba I am monitoring the preparat ons of our ac tivists and I w ll give call the day when I believe we are ful y prepared ” Imran sa d that his much hyped call for next protest aga nst the coalition government will be the last and added that after that call he would not stage any protest or hold ong march

That call wi l be g ven to save Pak istan through free and transparent elec t ons We don’t have any other way other than the elections to save the countr y

Without political stabi ity and stable government, the countr y ’s economic woes cannot be solved sa d Imran adding that only free and transparent elections can bring stabi ity to the econ omy and the countr y

Responding to Interior Min ster Rana Sanaul ah s warn ng against marching on Islamabad Imran wh le addressing

h m sa d it was his party ’s democrat c right to stage peaceful protest This per son [Rana Sanaul ah] who should be in jai is lecturing us on democracy

Rana Sanau lah isten with open ears that this t me we will come with ‘ ful plan ning Ever yone knows what Rana Sanaullah will do but no one knows what I w ll do,” he sa d whi e referring to vio lence his party workers were subjected to dur ng their short ived long march in May I have never w tnessed such an awareness among masses which I am witnessing today I have never seen my nation coming out of their homes during hot weather he added Imran said no one can get high pro f e position in this government un ess without committing any major crime Neither we stopped opposition dur ing my government from stag ng protest nor we created hurd es and did not place any containers instead we offered food to their participants he added

At the start of his address Imran thanked the supporters for turning up in arge numbers and waiting for his speech They [PM Shehbaz and his delegat on]

are staying at expensive hotels to show off to those from whom he [PM Shehbaz] is asking donations,” he remarked

g R A N A S A N A u L L A H C O N F I R M S I S H A Q D A R W I L L R E T u R N TO PA K I S TA N N E x T W E E K

g N A W A z S P E A K S TO z A R D A R I, FA z L, TA K E S B OT H O N B O A R D F O R S T R O N G A C T I O N A G A I N S T P T I LO N G M A R C H

S H A r I f l A U d S M A l A l A ’ S A d v o C A C y o f E q U A l E d U C AT I o n

the damage and destruction caused by the recent flash floods which have inflicted losses of nightmarish proportions

SH E H B A z Sharif has lauded the international advocacy work of Nobel Laureate Malala Yousufzai on social issues, particularly girls’ education, his office said The prime minister met Yousufzai on the sidelines of the 77th annual session of the United Nations General Assembly in New York, which the young campaigner from Pakistan also attended During the meeting, the prime minister highlighted

Adiala Jail inhabiting 6,000 prisoners against 2,100 capacit y, CJ IHC told

RAWALpINDI

S ta f f R e p o R t

Chief Justice Islamabad High Court (IHC) Athar Minallah on Saturday paid a visit to Central Jail Adiala Rawalpindi and he received a briefing that the Jail was inhabiting 6 000 prisoners against it’s existing capacity of 2,100 He visited the jail on the petition filed by Human Rights Commission (HRC) against torturing the prisoners corruption and other violations said a press release issued here During the visit, he was flanked by Justice Mohsin Kayani, Justice Tariq Mehmood Jahangiri and Justice Babar Sattar along with District and Sessions Judge Islamabad East and West, Special Secretary Home Department and Secretary Human Rights On the occasion the Chief Justice reviewed the number of prisoners, facilities and also took stock of complaints and hearings related to the jail During the visit the Chief Justice visited various prisons including the women’s barracks, and listened to their problems Earlier, IG Prisons Shahid Saleem Baig, DIG Jail, Superintendent Adiala Jail Ijaz Asghar gave a detailed briefing to the Chief Justice regarding all the issues of the jail He also inspected the barracks of dangerous inmates females and juveniles and paid a visit to the kitchen, hospital and other workshops

IHC bins PTI plea to scrap colonial-era sedition law

ISLAmABAD

S ta f f R e p o R t

The Islamabad High Court (IHC) has turned down a petition moved by Shireen Mazari, a former rights minister and Pakistan Tehreek i Insaf (PTI) MP, which called for a colonial era sedition law to be scrapped In her petition, Mazari challenged Section 124 A of the Pakistan Penal Code (PPC) which pertains to sedition accusing the government of the Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) of trying to suppress dissent after it was invoked against Shahbaz Gill, chief of staff to former prime minister Imran Khan The law carries a maximum penalty of life imprisonment Athar Minallah chief justice of the court heard the petition and, in a short order issued Saturday, declared it non maintainable He observed legislation was the sole prerogative of Parliament and his court won’t intervene in the process A detailed verdict is expected to be issued later The law reads: Whoever by words either spoken or written or by signs or by visible representation or otherwise, brings or attempts to bring into hatred or contempt, or excites or attempts to excite disaffection towards, the federal or provincial government established by law shall be punished with imprisonment for life to which fine may be added or with imprisonment which may extend to three years, to which fine may be added, or with fine ”

Sharif expressed his concern about the aftermath of these floods on educational infrastructure Appreciating Yousufzai s courage and dedication he highlighted his government’s efforts in the fields of education, gender equality and increased learning opportunities for students in Pakistan

T h e p r i m e m i i ’s projects and schemes to prioritise and incentivise the e d u c a t i o n o f g i r l s i n P a k i s t a n a n d a p p r e c i a t e d t h e

partnership of the Malala Fund with the Ministry of Education to support its existing STEAM programme

Yo u s u f z a i r e a ff i r m e d h e r c o m m i t m e n t t o p r o m o t i n g t h e r i g h t t o e d u c a t i o n f o r a l l g i r l s a n d regretted that many schools had been destroyed in the floods

S h e e x p r e s s e d h e r r e s o l v e f o r h e l p i n g underprivileged children, especially girls Yousufzai a l s o a s s u r e d o f t h e M a l a l a F u n d s s u p p o r t f o r I s l a m a b a d ’s e ff o r t s t o m i t i g a t e t h e i m p a c t o f t h e c a t a s t r o p h i c f l o o d s , i n p a r t i c u l a r o n g i r l s ’ a c c e s s t o education

CONTINUED fROm

PM Shehbaz was imposed upon the country not because he had any leadership qualities but because he would take dictation from all powers including IMF he added

“If we accept the theft of Rs11,000 billion and slavery of these ‘imported rulers then we have no future Taking a jibe at PM Shehbaz for seeking donations from international community for flood victims Imran said the country would have to compromise on national interest by receiving foreign aid as “there is no free lunch

He said incumbent rulers were trying to disqualify him as they are scared of the people s power Four people have made a decision behind closed doors to have me assassinated they are still

working on this plan,” he claimed

As part of the assassination plot, Imran said PML N leaders Javed Latif and Maryam Nawaz distorted his remarks during a press conference to provoke the people to attack him and would later term it an attack by religious fanatics

Imran also called upon his workers to break the ‘fear factor ’ , urging them to combat threat calls with counter threats

“Our supporters are being threatened through unknown numbers this does not does not happen in independent country ” he lamented

“If someone threatens you from unknown number, threaten them back you have to tell them that the Constitution and law gives me right to freedom of expression and independent judiciary allows people to stand for

freedom of expression

No one gives freedom easily history tells us that freedom can only be achieved through struggle and jihad ” Imran said the time has come to stand against the “thieves and dacoits who have been imposed upon the country” Their cases are being closed down every day and now Ishaq Dar is returning he himself had confessed that he had been doing money laundering for Sharif family ” He reiterated that all sectors of economy including exports, remittances and others were growing when a ‘conspiracy’ was hatched to topple his government “I am asking establishment is it only my responsibility to stop corruption in the country is it not your responsibility as well,” he asked Imran said the establishment has

India ‘principal ’ perpetrator of terrorism in S outh A sia, Pakistan tells UN

neighbours” by nurturing terrorist groups, and destabilising and blockading neighbours to do its strategic bidding

power but they remained ‘neutral’ when his government was overthrown through a vote of no confidence

“Allah has not allowed us to remain neutral these thieves who looted the country for 30 years and now they have returned and getting relief in corruption cases under the deal

“Only real freedom can pave way for real democracy,” he added

Earlier, the PTI chief had arrived at the venue amid loud cheer from the huge crowd Imran, the deposed premier, on Wednesday announced that the final phase of his party’s movement for “Haqeeqi Azaadi” ‘real freedom’ would begin from September 24 PTI leaders in major cities including Karachi Islamabad Lahore, Multan, Peshawar and others have set up screens in their respective areas to show his live speech

Pakistan has no future if corrupt clique continues to rule: Imran NATIONS

ECP notice: Asad Umar moves SHC for early hearing of appeal

Pakistan has rejected India’s allegation of Islamabad’s involvement in acts of terrorism citing instances of New Delhi’s sponsorship of militancy and aggression against its neighbours which it said makes the nuclear nation the principle perpetrator sponsor financier and abettor” of terrorism in South Asian region

“The myth of terrorism against Pakistan, created and propagated by India cannot and will not hide the stark reality that people of Pakistan, the occupied Jammu and Kashmir and its own minorities are victims of its state sponsored terrorism Saima Saleem a counsellor at Pakistan’s Mission to the United Nations, told the General Assembly late on Friday Saleem was exercising her right of response to Mijito Vinito, an Indian diplomat, who accused Pakistan of sponsoring cross border terrorism and making untenable territorial claims against neighbours” a thinly veiled reference to the disputed region of Kashmir Vinito made her claim in response to Shehbaz Sharif ’s speech to the 193 member bloc in which the prime minister drew the world community’s attention to New Delhi s grave rights violations in occupied Kashmir, and called for resolving the UN recognised dispute in accordance with Security Council resolutions

In her remarks, Saleem said India has sponsored and perpetrated terrorism and aggression against all its

In Pakistan, she said, India was funding and supporting terrorist groups like the Tehreek i Taliban Pakistan (TTP) and the Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA) who have killed thousands of innocent people in terrorist attacks

Since the Hindutva inspired RSS BJP government’s unilateral and illegal actions on August 5, 2019, termed as ‘Final Solution’ (a Nazi plan for the genocide of Jews during World War II) India s 900 000 occupation forces in occupied Kashmir the ‘densest’ occupation in history have escalated their oppression of 8 million Kashmiri men women and children in the world’s largest ‘open air prison’,” she said She accused India of extra judicial killings in staged encounters; enforced disappearances of 15,000 youth; incarceration of the entire pro freedom leadership; bringing about demographic change by issuing millions of domicile certificates to non Kashmiris; gerrymandering of electoral boundaries for reducing Muslim representation; curbing religious freedom and media and internet blackout

Since 1989, India has committed over 0 1 million extra judicial killings, around 162,000 cases of arbitrary arrests and torture, over 25,000 pellet gun injuries, 11,250 cases of rape and gang rape, and 8,652 unmarked mass graves, attesting to the genocide which is being committed in occupied Kashmir

Punjab governor refuses to sign LG Ac t 2021

LAHORE: Punjab Governor Balighur Rehman on Saturday refused to give his assent to Punjab Local Government Act 2021 The governor, who belongs to the Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz (PML N) has returned the act and even provincial minister for local bodies failed to convince Balighur Rehman over the matter Mian Mehmoodur Rasheed said that the governor ’s objections will be addressed and expressed confidence that the government will manage to get the act passed It merits mention that Punjab Assembly had passed the Local Government Act on September 14 S ta f f R e p o R t

Former Planning Minister and Pakistan Tehreek i Insaf (PTI) leader Asad Umar on Saturday moved Sindh High Court (SHC) for early hearing of appeal against the contempt notice issued by Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) According to details, the former federal minister has filed an application in Sindh High Court (SHC) for an early hearing of an appeal against contempt notice Asad Umar has also submitted his affidavit in SHC It is pertinent to mention here that the court had adjourned the hearing of the application till October 24 Later, taking to media, Asad Umar said that the notice was contrary to the provisions of the Constitution as the ECP had no jurisdiction to punish any person for contempt In prohibited funding case, the ECP said such things that were out of its jurisdiction, he added Criticising the government, the PTI leader said that the Pakistan’s economy was currently on the verge of collapse Factories are closing down in the country due to government measures”, Asad Umar added He further said that the country was witnessing historic inflation and unemployment due to government’s flawed policies “The incumbent rulers’ only focus is to end corruption cases against them he added Giving details about the PTI’s strategy, the former planning minister said that public gatherings will be organized in different cities of the country “The PTI will stage protests in all the district headquarters of the country today he noted Last month the ECP issued notices to the PTI chief and party leaders Fawad Chaudhry and Asad Umar for levelling allegations against the commission and Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Sikander Sultan Raja The ECP spokesperson in a statement maintained that notice had been issued to the PTI chairman for using “insulting and unparliamentary language against the electoral body in various speeches

ISLAmABAD

Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) MNA Nafisa Shah on Saturday shared a video of men wading through deep flood water in district Khairpur s Talpur Wada area in Sindh province Nafisa urged the concerned authorities to allow the water to be drained out to Indus River from surrounding areas and stated that people kept asking her why nothing was being done In another tweet, the PPP leader said that Pakistan was bearing the burden of the richer and prosperous world in facing climate catastrophe which has entered every home here The world must rise to the occasion and announce our debt retirement It’s a fair demand,” she wrote Unprecedented monsoon downpours flooded

a third of the country an area the size of the United Kingdom killing nearly 1,600 people and displacing more than seven million

The UNHCR said an estimated 16 million children have been impacted and at least 3 4 million girls and boys remain in need of immediate, lifesaving support

The country received 391 mm (15 4 inches) of rain, or some 190% more than the 30 year average through July and August, a monsoon spell that started early and stretched beyond the usual timeline Rainfall in Sindh shot up to 466% of the average The Express Tribune earlier reported that the allegedly inadequate supply of the relief items and the perceived delay in draining water out of submerged areas have been provoking protests across the province

People are venting their anger against the

government with protests taking place in all the disaster hit districts

“People here are starving,” claims Talib Siyal, who led a protest in Padedan town of Naushehro Feroze the district that received the highest rainfall in the province “We have been living in this situation for one and a half months but no government functionary has reached out to us with proper aid ”

The protesters said sometimes ration and Biryani are distributed but only to those who are close to area’s influential people

The residents of the flooded villages of Johi town of Dadu district complained at a protest that they have been marooned at their homes for the last three weeks but the government has not even bothered to send teams to check how many people are staying in submerged villages ’s Shah shares video of men wading through deep floodwater in Khairpur

KARACHI

MIfTAH, dAr TogETHEr CAn’T fIx EConoMy: SH rASHId

RAWALpINDI S ta f f R e p o R t

fO R M E R I n t e r i o r M i n i s t e r S h e i k h R a s h i d o n

S a t u r d a y s a i d t h a t e v e n w i t h c o l l e c t i v e e f f o r t s F i n a n c e M i n i s t e r M i f t a h I s m a i l a n d

I s h a q D a r c a n n o t f i x t h e c o u n t r y ’s e c o n o m y I n a s t a t e m e n t i s s u e d h e r e , S h e i k h R a s h i d w h i l e t a l k i n g a b o u t a l i k e l y l o n g m a r c h b y P a k i s t a n Te h r e e k i I n s a f ( P T I ) , s a i d t h a t d r o n e s a n d b u l l e t s c a n n o t s t o p p u b l i c f r o m m a r c h i n g t o w a r d s t h e f e d e r a l c a p i t a l C r i t i c i z i n g g o v e r n m e n t f o r h i k e i n p r i c e s o f

p e t r o l e u m p r o d u c t s t h e f o r m e r m i n i s t e r s a i d t h a t c r u d e p r i c e s a r e i n d e c l i n e i n i n t e r n a t i o n a l m a r k e t b u t t h e i n c u m b e n t g o v e r n m e n t , i n s t e a d o f p r o v i d i n g r e l i e f t o m a s s e s i s i n c r e a s i n g t h e p r i c e o f t h e c o m m o d i t y E a r l i e r, t h e R a w a l p i n d i p o l i c e r e g i s t e r e d a c a s e a g a i n s t u n i d e n t i f i e d p e r s o n s f o r m a k i n g t h r e a t e n i n g c a l l s t o f o r m e r i n t e r i o r m i n i s t e r a n d Aw a m i M u s l i m L e a g u e ( A M L ) c h i e f S h e i k h R a s h e e d o n F r i d a y A c c o r d i n g t o d e t a i l s , t h e f o r m e r f e d e r a l m i n i s t e r f i l e d a n a p p l i c a t i o n w i t h t h e Wa r i s K h a n p o l i c e s t a t i o n a g a i n s t u n i d e n t i f i e d p e r s o n s a s h e

r e c e i v e d t h r e a t e n i n g c a l l s I n t h e a p p l i c a t i o n , S h e i k h R a s h e e d s a i d h e h a d b e e n r e c e i v i n g t h r e a t s o f k i d n a p p i n g a n d m u r d e r f o r m a n y d a y s o n h i s m o b i l e p h o n e T h e A M L c h i e f a d d e d h e h a d i n f o r m e d t h e a u t h o r i t i e s c o n c e r n e d b y s e n d i n g t h e c a l l e r s ’ m o b i l e n u m b e r s H o w e v e r, h e d i d n o t n a m e a n y p e r s o n o r d e p a r t m e n t i n t h e a p p l i c a t i o n U p o n t h e c o m p l a i n t , t h e p o l i c e r e g i s t e r e d a F i r s t I n f o r m a t i o n R e p o r t ( F I R ) u n d e r S e c t i o n 2 5 D o f T h e Te l e g r a p h A c t , 1 8 8 5 ( p e n a l t y f o r c a u s i n g a n n o y a n c e ) a l s o i n c l u d e d c h a r g e s o f h u r l i n g l i f e t h r e a t s

Customer files rs10m suit against company over delay in deliver y

LAHORE a customer Maqsood Ahmed, a consumer from DHA, moved the consumer court via Muhammad Tariq advocate to seek justice In Saturday’s hearing the judge heard the case and accepted the plea for hearing and issued notice to the car company dealer and its owner He alleged that the private car company located in Gulberg has not been providing his car despite he deposited Rs5 9 million amount to the dealer The consumer alleged that the owner and dealer of the private car company now delaying the delivery of the car

Punjab set to get 0.5m ton wheat as row with centre ends

LAHORE S ta f f R e p o R t

The “reported tug of war” between the federal and Punjab governments over the provision of wheat has been settled with the former agreed to provide the province with 0 5m tonnes of wheat, sources informed on Saturday According to the Punjab Food Ministry sources the provision of wheat would help lower prices of wheat across the province The sources informed that the PML N led federal government has settled its dispute with the Punjab government over wheat provision, agreeing to provide 500,000 tonnes of wheat to the province on an urgent basis The Food Ministry sources said wheat prices have come down from Rs3,800 to Rs3,300, and would drop further to Rs3,000 in the coming weeks The Federal government’s decision to provide Punjab wheat would discourage hoarders in Sindh they added Flour mill owners would also lower prices as the smooth supply of wheat is restored and hoarding halts, the food ministry claims Earlier on September 13 Punjab Chief Minister (CM) Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi said that the federal government is ‘behaving like a stepmother ’ toward the Punjab government, especially on the wheat provision matter The chief minister, in a session on September 13, ordered to register an official protest against the federal government for the ill provision of wheat to the most populous province of the country O v E R 8 664 m i L L i O n tO n s w H E At AvA i L A b L E: Strategic wheat stocks of the country are recorded at 8 644 million tons, which are sufficient to tackle with the domestic food requirements as well as maintain smooth demand and supply in local markets during current food year The food year in the country starts from May 1 to April 30 every year and government has also allowed import of 3 million tons of wheat to bridge the gap, said Food Security Commissioner (FSC) in Ministry of National Food Security and Research Dr Imtiaz Ali Gopang He said that traditionally government was releasing average 46 300 metric tons per day including 25 000 metric tons by Punjab, 10,000 metric tons by Sindh, 5,000 metric tons by Khyber Pakthunkhwa, 1,000 metric tons by Balochistan and average release of 5 300 metric tons by Pakistan Agriculture Storage and Supply Corporation

C M c o n s t i t u te s c o m m i t te e to re s o l ve p u b l i c g r i eva n c e s a b o u t i l l e g a l h o u s i n g s c h e m e s

LAHORE S ta f f R e p o R t

Punjab Chief Minister Chaudhry Parvez Elahi on Saturday took stern notice regarding the increasing complaints of the people abo u t t h e i l l e g a l h o u s i n g s c h e m e s a n d c o n s t i t u t e d a s p e c i a l c o m m i t t e e t o r e v i e w t h e m a t t e r s i n t h a t r e g a r d P r i n c i p a l S e c r e t a r y t o C M P u n j a b M u h a m m a d K h a n B h a t t i had issued a notification about the constitution of a committee

The CM would be the head of the committee and A d v i s e r t o C M A m i r S a e e d R a w n S e c r e t a r y H o u s i n g ( C o m m i t t e e S e c r e t a r y ) , S e c r e t a r y L o c a l Government, Director General Lahore Development A u t h o r i t y ( L D A ) a n d t h e d e p u t y c o m m i s s i o n e r s concerned would be members of the committee The special committee will be authorised to include any officer in the committee

The committee would category wise identify the

FM Bilawal stresses int ’l suppor t for rehabilitation of flood-hit people

NEW YORK ta f f R

The Pakistan government took “swift and effective” action to deal with the unprecedented floods that have caused ‘colossal’ destruction, Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto zardari said Friday, as he called for generous international support during the next phases of rehabilitation and reconstruction

Addressing a press conference as he wrapped up his engagements at the 77th session of the UN General Assembly, he called for “climate justice” for Pakistan, as this disaster has clearly been caused by climate change and global warming

“This is a tragedy of monumental proportions,” the foreign minister told journalists at UN Headquarters in New York

Extreme heat this summer melted many of Pakistan’s glaciers, with early flood outbreaks, and the heat intensified precipitation led to above average rains

Pakistan, he said, estimated that the total flood damage was over $30 billion, 10% of its gross domestic product (GDP) with one third of the country under water

Over fifteen hundred people were killed and

thousands injured Thirty three million have been affected; 6 million are destitute Over a million homes 7000 kilometers of roads 300 bridges and 5 million acres of crops/orchids were destroyed

With a minuscule contribution of 0 8% to the Global Green House Gas (GHG), Pakistan, for many years, is being listed among the top 10 countries that are most vulnerable to the impacts of climate change At the same time, FM Bilawal said Pakistan was working on plans for rehabilitation once the flood waters recede, and would rebuild the lost infrastructure in a much better way so that they could withstand future natural calamities

The August 30 joint UN Pakistan Flash Appeal of $160 million was being upgraded, and when the damage estimates are completed, a donors conference will be held to raise funds for rehabilitation and reconstructions in the devastated areas he said Replying to a series of questions the foreign minister said Pakistan believes that engagement with the Afghan Interim Government was essential to promote the international community’s aims to promote human rights, including women s rights, political inclusivity and effective and comprehensive action against the terrorist organizations in Afghanistan

USF awards 10 contrac ts wor th Rs21b for connec tivity of remote areas

ISLAmABAD

The Universal Service Fund (USF) Board approved an award of 10 contracts worth Rs21 billion for connectivity of under served communities of Balochistan, Punjab, Sindh and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KPK) provinces

The high speed mobile broadband projects highways and motorways projects and optical fiber cable (OFC) projects will provide 4G LTE connectivity and backhaul connectivity to approx 3 5 million people by connecting 187 Union Councils (UCs) with 1,554 km of OFC and providing seamless

connectivity to 622 km of unserved road segments on the M 8 motorway and N 35 highway

The Additional Secretary (Incharge) for Ministry of Information Technology (IT) and Telecommunication and Chairman USF Board, Mohsin Mushtaq Chandna chaired the Board of Directors meeting of USF said a news release issued here on Saturday While congratulating the USF Board on the launch of 10 projects, the Federal Minister for Ministry of IT and Telecommunication Syed Amin Ul Haque, in his message, said, Ministry of IT and Telecommunication through USF has taken another concrete step to fulfil the vision of Digital Pakistan

C hinese experience to turn flood into resource

ISLAmABAD ta f R R t

Chinese experience could turn flood into resource by using their latest technologies, said Joudat Ayaz, a senior official of Ministry of Climate Change of Pakistan

In an interview to Gwadar Pro, he mentioned some latest technologies that China uses to tackle climate change, which can be imported to Pakistan “China has weather monitoring equipment and glacier melting equipment which can monitor glaciers melting and conduct satellite imaging They can help not only in flood control, but also in agriculture, such as crop

pattern optimization ”

“We have not yet solved the smog issue in Lahore, while China has controlled the pollution in big cities like Beijing and Shanghai ”

Joudat Ayaz suggested learning some green lifestyles of Chinese people “For example, electric vehicle is rarely seen here in Pakistan, while it is quite common in China At home, they use air purifiers, and energy saving lamps are also very common We can learn a lot about local solutions from China ” he added Pakistan has almost more than three thousand glaciers in northern areas When they melt, water gathers down there and makes a lake When the

lake is quite big, it forms a flood condition,” explained Joudat Ayaz, about the flood causation

Since mid June 2022, Pakistan has been drenched by extreme monsoon rains that have led to the country s worst flooding in a decade, and had many losses of precious lives and infrastructure

The ministry of climate change in Pakistan is doing a project, in which we are measuring the melting of glaciers From that we come to know before the time that this lake is about to burst or has gone bigger in size

Although it cannot help us to save the lake from getting burst we can control its damage, like saving the villages on its way

The complete equipment has not been installed yet It is my will that this equipment should be installed in 24 valleys ” He added

Apart from analyzing the reason for the floods and how to prevent the losses, Joudat Ayaz also stressed the importance of turning the floods into water supplements with technologies “There have been floods since the earth was created Floods are not a bad thing if we utilize flood water properly ”

“The flood water brings good fertile alluvial soils, which can helps improve agriculture In China there is a concept of sponge city, where the water is absorbed in the soil through leakage The Sponge city model which is also called green development interventions and green infrastructure, is used for flood control with enhanced ecological infrastructure and drainage channels

total number of illegal housing societies and would a l s o r e v i e w t h e h o u s i n g s o c i e t i e s b e i n g m a d e w i t h o u t t h e a p p r o v a l o f c o m p e t e n t a u t h o r i t y w i t h p o o r p l a n n i n g a n d h a v i n g l a n d i s s u e s T h e c o m m i t t e e a f t e r r e v i e w i n g t h e p r e s e n t r u l e s a n d regulations would submit its recommendations and proposals The special committee would propose a comprehensive solution of the problems being faced b y t h e r e s i d e n t s o f t h e u n a p p r o v e d a n d i l l e g a l housing societies

Mushaal lauds oIC’s suppor t for Kashmir cause, demands practical steps

ISLAmABAD

Mushaal Hussein Mullick Chairperson Peace and Culture Organisation, eulogized OIC Contact Group on Jammu and Kashmir for its support and said that world leaders participating in the UNGA to play their due role in solving Kashmir conflict to avoid a nuclear war in the region Mushaal, wife of incarcerated senior Hurriyat leader Yasin Malik in a statement on Saturday said that the OIC Contact Group reiterated their stance that final settlement of Kashmir dispute in accordance with UN Security Council resolutions and a UN supervised plebiscite was indispensable for durable peace and stability in South Asia, said a press release The chairperson praised that the group also denounced India s illegal and unilateral actions and subsequent steps as well the sham trial and conviction of Yasin Malik on concocted charges However, the Hurriyat leader urged that the OIC should go step ahead of rhetoric and should take practical and tangible steps to press the Indian government to ensure settlement of decades old dispute fearing that the conflict could lead to a nuclear conflict Mushaal lamented that India was always trying to mislead the world in UNGA from grave human rights violations and continued genocide of people of the valley Therefore, she appealed that the OIC and the leaders and representatives of the countries participating in the ongoing UNGA should take up the case of Kashmiris vociferously as the fascist Indian government was trying to change demographic situation of the occupied valley Mushaal maintained that time was ripe to force the supremacist Indian government to find out resolution of Kashmir conflict as per the UNSC agreed formula and aspirations of Kashmiri people She feared that if the major world powers did not fulfil their responsibilities on the Kashmir issue in time, then Kashmir dispute could lead to a major nuclear conflict because it was not an internal matter of India, but a nuclear flashpoint in South Asia and a matter of political future of the 22 million Kashmiris Mushaal said that the fascist Narendra Modi led government unleashed a wave of barbarism and state terrorism to silence the dissenting voices of Kashmir but all such and tactics failed

Army, Admin continue relief, rehAb in flood-hit bAlochistAn

PA K I S TA N Army and Frontier Corps (FC) are engaged in reha bilitation and relief activities for the flood victims in respective areas of Balochistan

In the flood affected areas, Pakistan Army and FC Jawans are working day and

night in the rehabilitation and relief activi ties of the victims along with the civil ad ministration

According to press release issued here a farabad Naseerabad Sahabatpur and Jhal Magsi where cooked food and significant items were provided to 12,344 flood vic tims along with other facilities Besides ration packets are also being delivered to the affectees by helicopters in the flood hit areas During the last 24 hours, 4 044 victims were provided rations in Killa Saifullah, Killa Abdullah, Bolan, Awaran, Kalat, Khuzdar, Bela, Sabi, Nasir abad Jhal Magsi Jaffarabad and other dis tricts besides 4,320 bottles of water, 533 bags of flour, 360 edible oil cartons, tea,

Co u r t i s s u e s w r i t te n ve rd i c t o n s u s p e n s i o n o f D a r ’s wa r r a n t s

An Accountability Court (AC) on Sat urday issued written order regarding suspension of arrest warrants against former finance minister Ishaq Dar

The order said that the National Ac countability Bureau (NAB) h e p e t i t i o n filed by former finance minister

According to the application, Ishaq Dar could not appear before court due to illness and suspension of his passport It further said that the purpose of the

issuance of the arrest warrants was to ensure attendance of the accused during trial It was necessary to grant him an opportunity to appear if he wants to sur render, the court added

The court said that it was giving a chance to Ishaq Dar for surrender before the court till October 7, after returning the home country The arrest warrants against him would remain suspended till that time The court stopped the author ities from arresting Ishaq Dar and in structed him to surrender voluntarily AC Judge Muhammad Bashir issued the written order in the case

Jokhio’s family tells cour t of compromise with accused

The heirs of deceased Nazim Jokhio on Saturday filed an affidavit of out of the court compromise with accused in the high profile murder case In October last year the family of Nazim Jokhio said that PPP MPA Jam Awais Gohram Jokhio and his men had allegedly tortured Nazim Jokhio to death as he tried to stop his for eign guests from hunting houbara bustards in the Memon Goth area of Karachi

Police registered a murder case against PPP MPA Awais, his brother MNA Jam Kareem and others The court had to take up the matter today to frame the charges against the suspects “We have reached to a settlement with accused,” family members of the murder victim said

in an affidavit submitted in the court of the Additional District and Sessions Judge Malir We have reached to a compromise with the accused and have no objection to dismiss the case,” heirs of the slain youth journalist told the court

The affidavit has been signed by mother of late Nazim Jokhio, his widow and his children The court sought a report from NADRA with regard to the family till the next hearing of the case, which has been adjourned for further hearing till Oc tober 15 MPA Jam Awais along with his servants or guards Haider Ali, Meer Ali Muhammad Mairaj Mohammad Saleem Salar, Mohammad Doda Khan, Ahmed Khan Shoro and Mohammad Soomar has been booked and detained for murdering 26 year old Nazim Jokhio at the MPA’s farmhouse in Malir

IGP takes notice of journalist ’s murder

LAHORE: Inspector General of Police (IGP) Punjab Faisal Shahkar on Saturday took notice of the killing of Kot Sultan Layyah based journalist Abdullah Nizami and his wife by firing on car in Muzaffargarh and sought from regional lice officer Dera Ghazi The I

tents, blankets, 3000 mosquito nets and other items have also been distributed among the deserving victims On behalf of Pakistan Army and FC Balochistan six collection points were es tablished in Quetta, Chaman, Nushki and Dalbandin for flood victims To conduct survey about property losses 10 teams have completed their 94 percent task in Lasbela district During last 24 hours, Pakistan

Army and FC have set up 63 Free Medical Camps to control epidemics and other dis eases in the flood affected districts wherein 14946 patients were treated

Pakistan Army FC Balochistan Coast Guard, National Highway Authority and civil administration are making efforts to restore the means of transportation and have successfully opened all the highways of the province for traffic

APHC-A JK holds anti-India protest outside UN office

ISLAMABAD

The All Parties Hurriyat Conference Azad Jammu and Kashmir (APHC AJK) chapter held a sit in protest outside the United Nations office in Islamabad against the address of In dian Foreign Minister S J Shankar to the UN General Assembly, today, on Saturday

The sit in protest was led by APHC AJK chapter Convener, Mehmood Ahmed Saghar and joined by all members and AJK leaders

The speakers while addressing the protest opposed the Indian Foreign Minister ’s address and said that India is using violent brute force and imposing Hindutva BJP RSS agendas in

Indian illegally occupied Jammu and Kashmir to suppress righteous demand of right to self determination

They said that more than one lakh inno cent Kashmiris had been martyred and lakhs were injured by the Indian troops and police personnel in the territory during the past thirty 34 years

The Hurriyat leaders said that thousands of Kashmiris including APHC leadership men and women facing illegal detentions under black laws in Indian and IIOJK jails since years 2016 in IIOJK

They said that in the present worst circum stances in IIOJK the Indian Foreign Minister had no justification and right to address the

UN General Assembly They added that Kash mir neither is neither India s integral part nor is a territorial dispute, rather it is an issue con cerning the political future of millions of Kashmiris

The Hurriyat leaders said the main pur pose of the Indian Foreign Minister ’ visit to the US is to fool world community divert at tention of the world community from the Kashmir dispute and worst situation facing In dian minorities mostly Muslims, Sikhs, Dalits and Chirstains

At the end sit in, the Hurriyat leaders pre sented a memorandum addressed to the UN Secretary General containing details of human rights violations by Indian troops in IIOJK

Judicial Conference urges to raise funds for flood affec tees

ISLAMABAD a p p

The participants of Judi cial Conference held here on Saturday urged to raise funds for the lives affected by the calamitous floods of 2022 and the impact of climate change was greatly emphasized, along with environmental re forms required to address these issues

The 9th International Judicial Conference, or ganized by the Law and Justice Commission Pak istan under the leadership of the National Judicial (Policy Making) Commit tee, was held here on Sep tember 23 and 24, 2022 in the Supreme Court of Pak istan

In honour of the 75th year of Pakistan’s inde pendence, the theme of the Conference centered on past issues, and how the various organs of the state, and other stakeholders must proceed to ensure a better future

Both days of the con ference were widely at tended by members of the superior judiciary and dis trict judges, foreign am bassadors and dignitaries, renowned academics and members of the legal com munity from across the na tion The Inaugural Session began with ad dress by the Secretary of

the Law and Justice Com mission of Pakistan Ms Riffat Inam Butt, who shared the LJCP’s vision for the Conference to not only devise innovative so lutions for our nation’s ex isting problems, but to ensure our continued progress in times to come Supreme Court Justice, Aminuddin Khan, Chairman of the Organiz ing Committee, then elab orated on the main themes of the conference and spoke of how optimum co ordination and cooperation among various stakehold ers of the judiciary are cru cial in bringing efficiency and fairness to our judicial system The first session of the Conference was chaired by the Chief Jus tice of Pakistan, Umar Ata Bandial and highlighted the role of the judiciary in maintaining the rule of law and upholding the su premacy of the Constitu tion The other speakers included members of the superior judiciary from across the country that used their platform to elaborate on the manner in which the rule of law has been upheld in the past and highlighted is sues specific to their provinces along with mechanisms to counter these issues

The second day of the event hosted four thematic

sessions which delved fur ther into the issues touched upon in the first session, in cluding the role of various stakeholders in the admin istration of justice, current global challenges, global economic challenges and alternative dispute resolu tion mechanisms, and the digitalization of legal processes to improve ac cess to justice Each ses sion was chaired by a Justice of the Supreme Court and was followed by a Q&A session, allowing participants to interact with the speakers

The day commenced with a dynamic session chaired by Supreme Court Justice, Yahya Afridi It centered on the role of the police, the prosecution, and lawyers in improving the administration of jus tice, and the importance of enhanced legal education, especially with regard to IT learning, in achieving this The speakers empha sized on the need for over sight in Federal Agencies to prevent and curb mal practice and cited the Fed eral Ombudsman’s office as an example for a direct means to redress griev ances of the citizens and promote alternative dis

pute resolution mecha nisms

The need for promot ing coordination between the police and prosecution was stressed, as well as the need for Bar Councils to take proactive steps to in troduce mandatory voca tional programs and coordinate efforts with provincial academies to carry out the same An other point that was high lighted was the potential conflict of interest arising from members of the Bar serving as elected repre sentatives on other posts, and the need to address such issues to ensure trans parency and stringent reg ulation

The Third Session was chaired by Supreme Court Justice Qazi Faez Isa and addressed current global challenges and the re sponse of the judiciary; this included issues relat ing to water scarcity, pop ulation growth, gender inequality climate change and terrorism

The Speakers empha sized that these issues af fect the vulnerable segments of our society to a greater extent and stressed the need to de velop a more sophisticated

understanding of the causes of these natural dis asters to enable us to de velop cohesive and coherent policies regard ing disaster management Justice Qazi Faez Isa noted that the injunctions of Islam, too, place an ob ligation on us to protect the environment, preserve resources such as water and food, and mitigate the impact our activities have on the environment The need to raise awareness re garding population control and contraceptives was also emphasized, along with the role that gender inequality plays in exacer bating this issue The sig nificance of ensuring FATF compliance was also elaborated on The Fourth Session was chaired by Supreme Court Justice Ijaz ul Ahsan, the theme of which was economic global chal lenges and dispute settle ment mechanisms The speakers of the session highlighted the role of Ar bitration in commercial disputes the use of tech nology in resolving dis putes, the importance of ADR Centers and training of lawyers and judges in this respect

MUZAFFARABAD: A big protest rally was held in Muzaffarabad the capi tal of Azad Jammu and Kashmir, against the use of the United Nations General Assembly plat form by Jaishankar, the foreign minister of India soaked in blood with the innocent people of ille gally occupied Jammu and Kashmir The protest rally was organized by Pasban e Hurriyat Jammu and Kashmir A large number of people participated in the demonstration The protesters carried banners, placards and black flags and were shouting cott

ISLAMABAD

KARACHI

Anti India protest blasts Jaishank ar over speech at UN

StANforD rePort UNeArtHS INDIAN SoCIAl meDIA

CoorDINAteD, mAlIgNINg ProPAgANDA

ISLAMABAD S ta f f R e p o R t

AN analytical report of Stanford a global internet observatory center, has exposed Indian government backed social media accounts spreading plethora of fake news and propaganda against Pakistan on popular social media platform

The report published under title, ‘My Heart Belongs to Kashmir: An Analysis of a Pro Indian Army Covert Influence Ope ration on Twitter ’ is available on the Stan ford’s official website

The report said on August 24, Twitter shared 15 datasets of information operations it identified and removed from the platform with researchers in the Twitter Moderation Re search Consortium for independent analysis

One of these datasets included 1,198 ac counts that tweeted about Pakistan Twitter sus pended the network for violating their platform manipulation and spam policy, and said that the presumptive country of origin was India Stanford built its analysis on a report on the same network by the Australian Strategic

Director Safe Cit y Project found hanged in house

ISLAMABAD

Islamabad police were trying to determine Saturday whether they had a suicide or a murder mystery on their hands after director of the Safe City Project was found dead apparently garotted, in his house in Margalla Town neighbourhood of the capital Abdul Qadeer, a BPS 19 officer in the National Telecommunication Corporation (NTC) who was working as director of systems at the project, was discovered hanging from a ceiling fan in the bedroom, the police said in a series of tweets The police failed to immediately determine the cause of death but said the incident appeared to be a suicide A policeman said they will be in a position to give a statement once the autopsy was conducted Taking notice of the incident, Akbar Nasir Khan, chief of Islamabad police, directed his deputy inspector general (DIG) for operations to probe the death from every angle

The Safe City Project was made operational in June 2016 with 1,950 close circuit television (CCTV) cameras but since then not a single incident or crime has been prevented through the system Besides, no criminal, suspect or proclaimed offender was arrested through the surveillance of the cameras

The project also failed to assist the police in chasing and arresting culprits who escaped after criminal activities

Policy Institute

The network tweeted primarily in Eng lish but also in Hindi and Urdu Accounts claimed to be proud Kashmiris and relatives of Indian soldiers Tweets praised the Indian Army’s military successes and provision of services in Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK) and spew venom against Pakistan and China

Two accounts existed to target specific individuals who were perceived as enemies of the Indian government, the report said

The Stanford Internet Observatory, founded in 2019, is a cross disciplinary pro gramme of research, teaching and policy en gagement for the study of abuse in current information technologies, with a focus on social media

The center also cited certain articles in the Indian press carrying Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram posts and the accounts which had been previously suspended including the offi cial accounts for Chinar Corps, a branch of the Indian occupation army operating in the IIOJK

“Twitter accounts, we note that official Chinar Corps Twitter, Facebook and Insta gram accounts were temporarily suspended

in the past, and Indian Army officials told re porters that the stated reason for the Face book and Instagram suspensions was Meta s policy on coordinated inauthentic behavior The content of the Twitter network discussed in this report was consistent with the objec tives of the Chinar Corps,” the report said

The Asian News International the Print the India Express, English Jagram, and the New Indian Express had reported suspension of these accounts for coordinated inauthen tic behaviour”

The report further said that the Chinar Corps Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter ac counts were all currently live, establishing that the content of the Twitter network was consistent with the Chinar Corps’ objectives of praising the Indian army in IIOJK

Many of the accounts in the network claimed to be Indians, often Kashmiris, and frequently said they were located in Kash mir One bio said “Proud Indian and Proud Kashmiri My Heart belongs to Kashmir, Soul to India and Life to Humanity It was common for account bios to say that they were relatives of Indian army soldiers

Certain accounts claimed to be freelance

reporters or volunteers in Kashmir; one said they were an aspiring YouTuber while many claimed to be students

Account bios frequently linked to Face book, Instagram, and YouTube accounts, some of which were live and some sus pended, Stanford further digs into the trends

The suspended network s tweets tagged both authentic and suspended accounts, in cluding regional journalists and politicians Tweets tagging journalists aimed either to bring events to the attention of reporters, or to bring the reporter to the attention of fol lowers often in an apparent attempt to tar get the reporter

The accounts had similar usernames and tweets liked ‘KashmirTraitors’

The Twitter accounts and YouTube chan nel targeted specific individuals focusing on what the account deemed “anti India” journal ists, calling reporters “#whitecollarterrorist,” for example; saying that they were working to corrupt the minds of Kashmiris; and accusing them of taking money from Pakistan

The accounts also targeted activists One @KashmirTraitor1 thread, for example, tar geted the activist and author Pieter Friedrich

These two Kashmir traitor accounts also targeted the Pakistani government In calling out particular individuals @KashmirTraitors would sometimes tag the official Chinar Corps account, @Chinar corpsIA, to draw their attention to a thread

Research suggests inauthentic accounts have amplified articles from these domains and that the domains shared anti Pakistan and anti China content, along with false news stories

They highlighted university student protests in Balochistan negatively One tweet said, “Students protesting in Islamabad against the inaccessibility of internet in #Balochistan

Accounts accused Pakistan of spreading unfounded claims of Indian army atrocities, and accused Pakistan of committing human rights abuses and protecting terrorists

Tweets propagated that Pakistan was not safe for Hindus nor Muslims, and that Pak istan abandoned Pakistani citizens in China when the COVID 19 pandemic began Tweets also criticized women’s rights in Pakistan and supported terrorists in Balochistan

Arrest warrant issued for journalist over daughter-in-law ’s murder

ISLAMABAD

S ta f f R e p o R t

APHC lauds Shahbaz for raising Kashmir issue at UN

ISLAMABAD: Altaf Hussain Wani a senior All Parties Hurriyat Conference (APHC) leader, has expressed gratitude to Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif for vociferously raising the issue of occupied Kashmir during his speech to the UN Terming the premier ’s landmark speech as a true reflection of Kashmiris’ sentiments, Wani said: “The people of the occupied Jammu and Kashmir owe a debt of gratitude to the people as well as the government of Pakistan for their continued support to their cause and raising global awareness on early resolution of Kashmir ” Lauding Pakistan s consistent support of Kashmiris legitimate struggle, he said: “I would like to express my gratitude to Prime Minister Sharif for his strongly worded statement on the Kashmir in the UN calling for an early resolution of the lingering dispute through peaceful means of dialogue and diplomacy He also thanked the foreign minister, Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, for raising the issue of rights violations in the region at the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) and other forums Referring to Kashmiris’ indigenous struggle for, and the urgent need to settle, the lingering dispute in line with the UN resolutions, Wani said it was high time the world should not ignore the decades long struggle and their sacrifices for the right to self determination

A district and sessions court in Is lamabad has issued an arrest war rant for Ayaz Amir journalist and a former Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz (PML N) MP, and his wife, Samina Shah, in connection with the murder of their daughter in law who was killed a day earlier

Sara Inam, 37, a Canadian na tional, was bludgeoned to death in broad daylight allegedly by her hus band and Amir ’s son, Shahnawaz Amir, at a farmhouse in Chak Shahzad a suburb of Islamabad that falls in the jurisdiction of Shahzad Town police station

The police arrested the suspect

from the crime scene on Friday and booked him the following day under Section 302 (punishment for murder) of the Pakistan Penal Code (PPC) on the complaint of station house officer (SHO) Nawazish Ali Khan

Inam was killed a day after she arrived from Abu Dhabi where she was working as a financial special ist She got married to Shahnawaz three months ago in Chakwal, the hometown of Amirs It’s believed the couple knew each other before marriage and the marriage was of their own choice, not arranged by their families

On Saturday, the police pre sented Shahnawaz before District and Sessions Judge Mubashir Hassan Chishti and sought his 10 day phys

ical remand But the judge granted only two day remand of the accused

The police also requested the court for the issuance of arrest war rants for the suspect s parents to record their statements, which was granted Interestingly, according to the first information report (FIR), Khan said it was the suspect’s mother who called the police and in formed them that her son had killed his wife “with a dumbbell”

M y s o t the report quoted Shah as saying H r e w e r e s t a i n s o f b l o o d s t a i n s o n S h a h n a w a z ’s h a n d s a n d clothes,” it added

Saudi Ambassador to Pakistan

Nawaf bin Said Al Malki has said the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) paid special attention to all Islamic countries but Pakistan was the most important in the Islamic world that enjoy indeed cordial and brotherly relations with Saudi Arabia

Addressing the 92nd Saudi Na tional Day ceremony here he said political, religious, military, culture and diplomatic relations between the two brotherly countries had a proud history

The ambassador said the rela tions between two countries nothing but based on sincere Islamic broth erhood and true love with each other

Meanwhile, Senate Chairman Muhammad Sadiq Sanjrani, extend ing well wishes to the leadership of Saudi Arabia and its people, said the KSA enjoyed a very elevated posi tion as the religious home of Mus

lims all around the world, as it was the sacred land of our beloved Prophet Muhammad (Peace Be Upon Him)

He also appreciated the efforts and initiatives of the Saudi leader ship for continued improvement of services related to Hajj “Despite the disruption due to COVID 19, this year ’s Hajj arrangements were un matched,” he added

He said Crown Prince Muham mad Bin Salman, as a young vision ary leader had introduced remarkable new facilities for the pil grims through use of information technology and other innovations

Commending the role of the crown prince, the Senate chairman said Muhammad Bin Salman was a leader on mission, whose progressive and modern ideas continued to inspire the youth His initiatives like Misk Founda tion, multi billion dollar tech city of Neom, e sports strategy, and envi ronmental efforts to combat climate

change seemed to only be the tip of the iceberg, he added

Besides calling for increased ex changes as they help to further strengthen the bond between two countries, he underlined that contin ued engagement and collaboration was required in order to achieve shared goals

Sadiq Sanjrani thanked Saudi leadership for its timely support to Pakistan in helping the flood af fected people of Pakistan

He also appreciated the Saudi ambassador for personally reaching out to flood affected people in far flung areas of the country

On the occasion, the Senate chair man cut the cake of Saudi National Day hand in hand with Saudi Ambas sador Nawaf bin Said Al Malki

These beautiful moments were shared by a large number of people hailing from various segments of the society, particularly, politicians, diplomats, religious scholars, armed forces, academia and many more y S a u d i e nvoy

Tasks after return from Gen Assembly

FROM Monday to Friday, Pakistan delegation at UNGA presented the country’s case on key issues

In his speech before UNGA the PM also talked about the Kashmir dispute and Afghanistan, but he re mained focused on the colossal human suffering caused by this year ’s unprecedented rains and floods and their devastating impact on the infrastructure he made a pas sionate appeal to the world to undo the ‘climate injustice’ done to countries like Pakistan

The UNGA session helped Pakistan to bring the human tragedy to the notice of the world at large Coin ciding with the UNGA, young activists rallied for climate action at 450 locations from one end of the world to the other Pakistan’s case was specially mentioned to demon strate what lay ahead for many countries hollywood actor and UNhCR Goodwill Ambassador Angelina Jolie meanwhile urged the international community to help Pakistan in grappling with the relief effort

What is required now is to conduct a well thought out campaign to actually get the climate injustice undone For this Pakistan needs to make use of its diplomatic channels to project its stand take up the issue at influential US and european think tanks and project its views through impor tant world newspapers It should go fully prepared to the international conference being convened by French Presi dent Macron to contribute to the rehabilitation and recon struction of flood affected areas of Pakistan

Back home the PM and his team will have to cope with PTI chief Imran Khan Instead of abiding by the ad vice of Chief Justice Supreme Court to return to parlia ment to fulfill its constitutional obligations the party wants change of government through street power As IK has put it, the struggle for ‘haqiqi Azadi’ had entered its decisive and final phase and he would soon give an ulti mate call to rid the country of these “crooked rulers” to achieve real freedom and independence There is a need on the part of the federal government to exert patience and allow PTI to hold public protests, rallies and sit ins as long as there is no breach of law by the party The PTI however must not be allowed to impede government working, create problems for commuters or indulge in vi olence The government should try to resolve issues with the PTI through talks

Dar’s return

AFTeR months of speculation, former Finance Minister Ishaq Dar, who has been in self imposed exile in the UK for the past 5 years is all set to re turn next week as per Interior Minister Rana Sanaullah, following the suspension of an accountability court arrest warrant against him Officially according to PML N s statements, he is coming back to aid the current finance team being run by Miftah Ismail, but there has been talk of him replacing the latter altogether One indication of this is that very soon, for Miftah to continue in his current role, a senate seat will have to be found for him, while in Dar ’s case he already possesses one pending an oath taking for mality that he will presumably fulfill once he is back A section within the PML N does not want the present order of the economic team to be disturbed and has very publicly thrown its support behind Miftah, clearly display ing an aversion to Dar It does not bode well for a party re sponsible for navigating the country through one of its worst economic crises in decades that a leadership crisis exists at the very top with Mian Nawaz Sharif supporting Dar and PM Shahbaz Sharif throwing his weight behind Miftah Apart from the internal politics creating division in the PML N, a relentless Imran Khan is keeping the pres sure on the federal government fueled by regaining Pun jab and so far avoiding arrest or disqualification from holding office in the many cases against him

The possible return of ‘Darnomics’ is a dangerous prospect as it did not work back then and it will definitely not work now As finance minister in the Sharif regime, being an inflation hawk, he attempted to keep the Rupee artificially appreciated against the dollar using scarce for eign exchange reserves, much to the detriment of stability in the currency market his propensity to undermine the office of the SBP governor, at times by announcing the monetary policy statement prematurely and regularly in tervening in the interbank market, was not only a nuisance for the central bank itself but the IMF as well

Miftah Ismail has taken the brunt of the blow emanat ing from executing tough unpopular inflationary measures to introduce relative stability in the economy his profile is that of an experienced businessman and academic who understands the mechanics and technicality of economics very well But perhaps the most fundamental reason to not replace Miftah with Dar, apart from his better credentials and relatively acceptable performance given the circum stances, is the instability it will introduce in the market and destabilize the economy further One hope PM Shah baz Sharif sees the bigger picture in this instance

D o P r o v i n c e s n e e d c h i e f s e c r e t a r i e s ?

A co l o n i a l re l i c i n t h e m o d e r n a g e

fairs adopted the same colonial scheme of reserving provincial posts for central services without law to carry on controlling the provinces The same practice is still in place in 2022 despite the promulgation of the 18th Amendment

of chief secretary if it is not willing to abolish the post of chief secretary

The post of chief secretary is not a con stitutional office hence it is an admin istrative post of a province ordinarily created like so many others according to Article 240 (b) of the Constitution and the Provincial Civil Servants Act The province has an exclusive legislative, executive and financial com petency on the post of chief secretary The post and allied functions can be organized according to Article 240(b) and Article 139 respectively by the legislative and executive competency of the provincial govern ment Competently, the provincial government can abolish, modify, amend not only the service rules of the post but also the functions of the post Then the office of a Chief Minister is a constitutional office ac cording to Article 130 of the constitution of Pakistan historically the east India Company formalized a patronage system for tg nomination of civil servants within the elite club, barring a competitive process The Government of India Act 1853 substituted the system of nomination with an open competitive ex amination to recruit civil servants Progressively, the Government of India Act 1858 afforded that India shall be governed by and in the name of her Majesty Consequently, this authorized the Secretary of State for India to make regulations for admission of candi dates to the civil service of India Accordingly, the civil service became competitive and accountable to the British Parliament Similarly the office of chief secretary was established under the direct control of the Secretary of state for India as to head the admin istration of a province The role of Indian politicians was merely advisory On the way to Independence, section 10 of the Indian Independence Act expunged all the provisions relating to reservation of posts oblit erating the colonial scheme of civil service however, the centralists then at the helm of af

The only argument the centralists contend is that the mode of appointment and subsequent functions are vital to the connectivity between federation and provinces This argument is absurd from the outset and carries no constitutional or legal substance Con stitutionally, it is the Council of Common interests (CCI) that provides connectivity between the federa tion and provinces according to the Federal Legisla tive List Part II Besides, there is the office of governor established under the Constitution is a linchpin between federal and provincial governments Is it essential to preserve the post of chief secretary where the Chief Minister is the chief executive of the province? Article 130 of the Constitution provides that there shall be a Cabinet of Ministers, with the Chief Minister as its head, thus con stituting a provincial govern ment This categorically ascertains the Chief Minister as the sole chief executive of the province Against this constitutional backdrop, the post of chief secretary should not exist at all as the chief minister is a chosen represen tative by the people and holds an exalted office, that of chief executive L e t t h e a rg u m e n t b e crossed! Article 139 of the C o n s t i t u t i o n e m p o w e r s p r o v i n c i a l g o v e r n m e n t s t o make rules of business The Punjab Government formulated the Rules of Busi n e s s i n 2 0 11 S e c t i o n 5 o f t h o s e r u l e s i l l u s t r a t e s the functions of the Chief Minister whereas section 9 p r o v i d e s t h e f u n c t i o n s o f c h i e f s e c r e t a r y Ye t , Ironically, the functions of Chief Minister are less e x e c u t i v e t h a n t h o s e o f t h e c h i e f s e c r e t a r y N o n e other but the provincial government has to take the blame of making a mockery of the office of Chief Minister The provincial government should realize the constitutional and democratic responsibility to re organize the functions of the chief secretary so as to make the office facilitator not a commander of the provincial government Amendments thus are required to firstly take the powers o Cabinet Secretary and then appointing an exclusive minister for the department of Services and General Administration Department The pProvincial government should at least re organize the functions

W h y i s i t m a n d a t o r y f o r t h e p r o v i n c i a l g o v e r n m e n t s t o k e e p a n o f f i c e d i r e c t l y i n c o n f l i c t w i t h t h e p o w e r s o f t h e c h i e f m i n i s t e r ? H e n c e , t h e o f f i c e o f c h i e f s e c r e t a r y e i t h e r s h o u l d b e a b o l i s h e d o r r e o r g a n i z e d i n a m a n n e r t o f a c i l i t a t e t h e C h i e f M i n i s t e r f o r a t t a i n i n g g o v e r n a n c e a n d s e r v i c e d e l i v e r y

Who is preventing the provincial governments from abolishing the post or re organizing the func tions of Chief Secretary ? Paradoxically, there has al ways been a marriage of inconvenience between the de jure and de facto power corridors in Pakistan De spite the de jure proposition, there is a de facto colo nial hangover around the office of chief secretary Centralists prefer it over the representative office of the Chief Minister Political leaders love to concen trate all the powers in themselves barring the devolu tion of political powers to junior leadership Ostensibly, it is in their interest to keep the power of appointing chief secretary in order to control the provincial governments This scripted confusion often leads to the confrontation among involved parties owing to the inherent flaw of keeping two offices of chief executive alive Then, it is compulsory for provincial political leaders to impose their constitutional authority to upkeep the only valid of fice of chief executive Likewise, the position of chief secretary is against the canons of cabinet gover nance and halts the processes of cabinet gover nance It brings in bureau cratic slowdowns, and layoffs in the cabinet gover nance The worst procedure is routing the official busi ness through the office of chief secretary It creates delays, pendency, obstruc tions and hiccups The oper ations of chief secretary create unnecessary financial and structural cost for the cabinet governance Nonetheless, the chief secretary is also the cabi net secretary and controls the processes of legislation, administration and policy decisions Comparatively, the federal government does not maintain the office similar to that of chief secretary in order to warrant smooth delivery of official business

Why is it mandatory for the provincial govern ments to keep an office directly in conflict with the powers of the chief minister ? hence, the office of chief secretary either should be abolished or re orga nized in a manner to facilitate the Chief Minister for attaining governance and service delivery

The writer is a civil servant serving in Punjab and leading a society for implementation of Admin istrative Federalism He can be reached at musa tariq2016@gmail com

W h e r e i s t h e a i d t o f l o o d v i c t i m s ?

G ove r n m e nt i s s h ow i n g i t s i n e p t i t u d e a g a i n

is enjoying the rule as the opposition is busy in awak ening the people by demanding elections The irony is that the country and the nation are in a serious crisis and the coalition’s members are celebrating the re mission of their cases

At t i yA M u n e r

The entire nation is reportedly mourning the flood disaster in the country but this time it is a matter of concern for the whole nation that year after year, the performance of inept rulers has been so inadequate that they can not even provide their people with a tent or two meals of bread to hide their heads in times of trouble They seem unable to construct small dams to protect their people from flooding nor can they open the doors of their palaces to hide their heads If they cannot open the doors for the people, then how can these hard hearted rulers feel the pain of the poor people?

Undoubtedly, the rulers of this country have never felt the sentiments nor have they ever felt the pain of the people More than half of the country has been submerged in flood water, crops have been de stroyed, and people’s livestock have been subjected to flood epidemics are emerging flood victims are forced to live with their children under the open sky deprived of hunger and treatment The people of this country are being pitied by those living abroad while the political leadership is engaged in pursuing its pol itics even in the hour of trouble The ruling coalition

The indifference of our rulers is that the world is sending relief goods to the flood victims but the government seems to be unable to deliver the aid to the victims If we look at the internal and external aid the victims should get all the facilities by now even though today the flood victims are still help less Seeing the helplessness of the flood victims, the Chief of Pakistan Army Gen Qamar Javed Bajwa, left his other duties and rushed to help the flood victims and visited China to receive emer gency aid of 500 million yuan Imran Khan is also claiming to have collected more than Rs 10 billion, whereas NGOs continue to bring all their perform ance to the public every week yet the domestic and foreign aid that is coming and as many announce ments as there are in this regard, the victims do not seem to be getting any relief

Indeed, the coalition government has not made any mechanism for the flood victims, nor has it set any priorities The Prime Minister and the Chief Min isters along with other officials are visiting the entire country but they go back in a non committal manner only after the photo session It seems like there is a dispute between the provincial and federal govern ments over the flood fund instead of their restoration of the flood defenses On the one hand poor people are helpless victims of floods and on the other hand, the rulers are struggling to get aid money Seeing all this the leaders of many foreign countries have started to express their concerns They have started to say in very clear and blunt terms that the aid that is being given must reach the flood victims but de spite all the concerns, relief materials are not reaching the flood victims

It is a fact that despite receiving a large monetary aid from all over the world, the victims are still long ing for flood aid where private voluntary organiza tions are reaching out to the flood victims across the country While suspicions are being expressed on the government from all sides, the government institu

tions are continuously reporting the number of casu alties and damages but they are not declaring any thing about the aid received, nor are they delivering the goods from abroad to the victims Where are these relief supplies going? According to the Sindh high Court Sukkur Bench, the flood relief supplies have been placed in the houses of the officers The people of Pakistan saw a similar scene during the first earth quake and now the scenario is being repeated during the flood crisis Pakistani institutions are also ex pressing concern that Pakistan is losing its credibility regarding aid funds

At this time, there is a need for Pakistan to re store its lost credibility and for this the government should create a system that the world can trust In this regard, the special donation campaign of Lahore College for Women University (LCWU) with Akhuwat Foundation has been exemplary Funds and supplies were collected during a 15 day flood relief campaign organized by the institute’s own flood re lief committee chaired by Dr Arifa Tahir The cam paign was aimed at helping flood affected people across the country LCWU Vice Chancellor Prof Dr Bushra Mirza handed over the relief commodities and a check of Rs 4 million to Akhuwat Foundation chief Dr Amjad Saqib LCWU students, faculty members and administrative staff have not only ac tively participated in the flood relief donation drive individually but have also taken special care for transparency by collecting a large number of relief goods and funds

I f p r i v a t e v o l u n t a r y o rg a n i z a t i o n s a n d e d u c a t i o n a l i n s t i t u t i o n s f r o m a c r o s s t h e c o u n t r y c a n prove themselves credible by helping the victims then the government should also restore its credi b i l i t y b e f o r e a s k i n g f o r h e l p f r o m o t h e r s O n t h e one hand, set up a website or a database that can be shared with the world to describe how many of the 30 million flood affected people have been rehabil i t a t e d a n d h o w m a n y a r e l e f t O n t h e o t h e r h a n d , large relief camps should be made in flood affected areas and officers should be appointed on merit so t h a t a s s i s t a n c e c a n b e p r o v i d e d i n t h e r i g h t w a y with the registration of the real victims otherwise t h e f l o o d s u r v i v o r s w i l l n o t b e b e h e l p e d o r P a k istan be saved from infamy

The

tA

Possibilities

AT the time of partition back in 1947, as much as 91 per cent of the economy of what constituted the subcontinent was controlled by what subsequently became India, and just 9pc was controlled by areas that later comprised Pakistan Keeping the channels of travel, trade and investments open with India would have made sense had it not been for the political tensions between the two countries The biggest issue was, and remains, the status of India occupied Kashmir

Since 1971, right after its birth as an independent nation, Bangladesh has established firm relations with India without losing, or even compromising its identity The issues between Pakistan and India may take time to get sorted out, but people s welfare comes first

Pakistan has seemingly insurmountable issues to deal with We will do ourselves no harm in being mentally sharp and alert to various possibilities ahead

NAVAID HUSAIN KARACHI

Natural disasters or human errors?

On the Powder keg

I centresare up in uncommon sight 22 year the capital city Tehran after being detained by the “Morality Police” or Irshad has practically galvanized the common Iranian, especially the younger generation against what they call an “inefficient Nezam” The clarifica tion video aired in the state TV, showing the girl collapsing in the police office could not dampen the public anger Almost after sunset or during the afternoon hours, young crowds; usually with out any ring leader can be observed rampaging about the place and beating any police informer, or the police itself, mercilessly

The biggest question mark which strikes any observer, is as to why a nation with an oth erwise aesthetic sense to vent even their anger, is resorting to violent acts to make its voice heard In fact, in many cities, the Iranian flag has been burned In a few cities the incumbent supreme leader s banners and those of the late founder of the Islamic regime, have been torn down and burned In one such video; whose au thenticity could not be independently verified slain Iranian IRGC commander Qasem Soleimani posters in his hometown Kerman have been torn down and burnt

Years of sanctions could be identified as a cause for such anger however, years of mis management as well as failure to distribute the benefits to all, creation of a privileged class of “revolutionaries” having all the comforts, while common Iranians are living a desperate life have all added up to the current situation

In today’s Iran; the term “Aghazadeh”, used for sons and daughters of influential officials, is treated more as an insult than as a badge of ho nour An otherwise going by the book state TV like IRIB has aired multiple seasons of the serial “Aghazadeh”, which centres around people with influence indulging in profiteering, murder, pas sion (portrayed within the censor s limits); pre cisely because the people want to see the art form and because the said serial has grossed well in terms of advertisements revenues earned by the state TV

No doubt, Iranians have fared well in many aspects of life Today Iran is a banked society, w i t h m o r e p e o p l e h a v i n g d e b i t c a r d s u s i n g electronic payments, and benefiting from sub sidy programmes managed through the bank i n g s y s t e m I t s e n g i n e e r i n g s e c t o r h a s b e e n able to help the country save foreign exchange b y m a n u f a c t u r i n g l o c o m o t i v e s w i t h i n t h e c o u n t r y T h e I r a n i a n a i r c r a f t m a n u f a c t u r i n g sector has been able to keep much of its US b u i l t f l e e t , c o m p r i s i n g F 1 4 To m c a t s , F 4 Phantom and C 130 hercules aircraft airwor t h y w i t h o u t m u c h h a s s l e a s w e l l a s m i n i m a l c r a s h r a t e s , w h e n c o m p a r e d w i t h t h e PA F o r t h e I n d i a n A i r F o r c e L i k e w i s e i t s c r e a t i v e s e c t o r t o o h a s f a r e d w e l l I t s m o v i e s h a v e g r o s s e d w e l l i n i n t e r n a t i o n a l f e s t i v a l s I t h a s got into joint ventures with Russian and Turk ish collaborators for production of movies and serials on civil wars or ancient mystics even today a movie on Maulana Roomi called Mast Ishq, a joint venture between Iran and Turkey, is just ready for the worldwide release

The management of the state economy as well as the failure of the system to respond to the grievances; coupled with a widening gulf be tween the ruler and ruled for various reasonshas helped create a state of affairs where any layman would suggest what is called a regime change

For the rural people the gulf is not visible how ever for the urban middle class, the reality has been too stark Iran’s recent experiences with the world at large have suggested that its dialogue with the capitalist world has fallen flat repeatedly The JCPOA could not survive the switch over from De mocrats to Republi cans in the USA Iran has found com mon cause with Rus sia and China easier Anyone in the US and Saudi bloc has found relations with Iran a troubling af fair, the foremost ex ample being the transformation from “brotherly countries of Iran and Pakistan” to skeptical fel lows” looking over their shoulders in constant gaze!

The talk of regime change in such an environment in Iran is generally observed with skep ticism as if the West is again orchestrating a 1953 type coup in Iran The Iranian so ciety as a matter of fact is in for a change of regime; not the one what the West might want; but the one which is the in digenous need of the society and polity We can say; like Pakistan whose po litical/social and eco nomic model needs a change of priority the battle line up and sovereign control of policies Iran too needs a change of guard or its priorities

i n c i d e n t s g a v e t h e p o w d e r k e g o f d i s c o n t e n t t h e n e e d e d s p a r k t o e x p l o d e

An indecent article in the state mouthpiece

Itlaat about Ayatollah Khomeini let loose the discontent in January 1978 On December 10, the Pahlavi regime was almost over the final demise formalized 11 February 1979

The new government for all practical pur poses opened the gate for the common Iranian to make it to the top on the basis of his hard work Qasem Soleimani, son of a farmer who might have ended up in a petty job in his home town under the Pahlavis, found his way to the top; rattling the geopolitics of the region for quite a considerable time however these success stories were also matched by the widening of the gulf between the ruler and the ruled The somewhat rigid interpretations of reli gion as well as consti tution did not help d e c e n t r a l i z a t i o n , rather it helped create a deadlock, rise of in efficiency and cre ation of a class of privileged called Ag hazadeh

Of importance will be the behaviour of the West as to how much they resist the calls of intervention and let the Iranians decide. The Iranians need to be left alone to decide which path is correct for them A change in constitution; redefining the limits of the state, decentralization; a constitutional toning down of the “rule of clergy”, can be the desirable takeaways from the crisis. Any show of force, can force a change which might be as astonishing for the international watchers as well as the Iranians themselves. The next few weeks as JCPOA winds down either way will decide how the regime change will take place; from within or from external thrust; time will tell

I r a n o n c e r u l e d b y S a f a v i d y n a s t y w h i c h g a v e t h a t c o u n t r y i t s u n i q u e s t a t e c r e e d o f S h i a I s l a m , h a s c o m e a l o n g w a y t o t h e p o s i t i o n o b s e r v e d t o d a y T h e p e r i o d b e t w e e n 1 7 0 0 t o 1 9 0 0 h a s b e e n v e r y m u c h l i k e t h e r e s t o f t h e M u s l i m w o r l d D e c a d e n c e w i t h i n g a v e w a y f o r c o l o n i a l i s t s t o i n t r u d e i n t o t h e ev er y d ay liv es o f th es e s tates I r an to o h ad its s h a r e o f m a n m a d e f a m i n e s l i k e t h e o n e w h i c h a ff l i c t e d i t a t t h e s t a r t o f 1 9 0 0 T h e m o d e r n p o l i t y, c o u r t e s y t h e P a h l a v i s , g a v e t h e c o u n t r y i t s f i r s t t a s t e o f t h e i n d u s t r i a l r e v o l u t i o n T h e m o d e r n s t a t e h o w e v e r s t i f l e d f r e e s p e e c h a n d t r i e d t o f o r c e u p o n t h e b e l e a g u e r e d n a t i o n i t s w o r l d v i e w I n 1 9 7 7 t h e p a t i e n c e r e a c h e d t h e p o i n t w h e r e s m a l l

As things stand, Iranians might not settle for small con cessions It seems necessary that the people who matter talk directly to the common man and try to sort out differences through constitutional way That situation keeping in view the Middle eastern mind set seems a distant possibility

The remarks by a senior grand ayatollah in Qom, who is not part of the regime; ad vising that the hijab row should not be dealt with by bayo nets can be a step in the right direction however, despite these saner voices the Iranian polity and so ciety is ready for yet another change here that point needs to be taken into account that palace decisions might not hold much to diffuse the crisis Iranians need to de cide fairly what they want

Of importance will be the behaviour of the West as to how much they resist the calls of in tervention and let the Iranians decide The Ira nians need to be left alone to decide which path is correct for them A change in constitution; re defining the limits of the state, decentralization; a constitutional toning down of the rule of clergy”, can be the desirable takeaways from the crisis Any show of force, can force a change which might be as astonishing for the interna tional watchers as well as the Iranians them selves The next few weeks as JCPOA winds down either way will decide how the regime change will take place; from within or from ex ternal thrust; time will tell

The is a

The recent torrential rains have caused a massive disaster in Sindh and Balochistan, resulting in floods, landslides, and other severe weather related catastrophes Quite a few politicians and civil servants have been heard trying to save their skin by calling it a divine punishment which is beyond human control

The truth is that they are using religion for political ends to hide their apathy and failure in managing the affairs they are supposed to manage Disasters are not caused by nature, but by natural phenomena when man fails to realise the gravity of the situation, and refuses to pay heed to the warning signs that science and technology keep putting up In simple terms what we have seen in recent days is nothing but a man made disaster, and one needs to be man enough to own it

Climate change is a serious issue, but no one takes it seriously Capitalists are only increasing the size of their carbon footprint whereas deforestation, cutting down of trees and such other follies are having a negative impact on the planet

The monsoon rains wreaked havoc across the country from Gilgit Baltistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa to Sindh, southern Punjab and Balochistan All this happened because of the failure of municipal policies and town planning In many parts of Pakistan today, there is no properly managed sustainable drainage systems in order to help manage surface water runoff

To make matters worse, people routinely throw trash into sewers, clogging them and preventing rainwater from flowing causing the sewers to overflow After a short spell of rain, it is usual to see flooded streets with trash floating around Such events lead to extremely unhygienic circumstances for local people and worsen the state of the environment And what about those structures up north that were built right down the riverbed? We are not they man made?

The monsoon season in Pakistan is becoming a routine affair which was not always the case, and in order to avoid deadly floods, it is mandatory to have highly effective drainage systems in place to ensure free flow of water during and after downpours Relevant experts need to step forward and educate the nation whether or not we need more dams, and, if we need them, where and how many and of what size Water reservoirs are apparently needed to save water for future use instead of letting it create disasters owing to bad governance and corruption

Natural disasters are actually man made disasters that are made worse by man led mismanagement They reflect failure on the part of those responsible to act in time and to be consistent in their acts

We have technology that allows us to predict natural disasters before they happen, as well as to mitigate the damage and the consequent economic losses If we still suffer let us not blame nature for it

On its part, the international community needs to reduce carbon emissions for which it must go beyond the Kyoto Protocol Locally, environmentalists and the media should educate the public about the unnecessary risks that we face as we go about our daily lives

If the government and society do not take action now, the disaster will be worse in the future, and, again, it will be man made

NAIMATULLAH GADHI KHAIRPUR MIRS

Climate Change or Wrath of God

The recent monsoon rains have caused death and destruction across the country Millions of people in Sindh Southern Punjab and Balochistan are without shelter The horrible destruction demands rigorous research to find out why we cannot prevent predictable catastrophes every year Religious narratives have been embedded so deep in the fabric of our society that we find a safe refuge under them to avoid accountability for our wrongdoings

The ruling elite and powerful clergy term excessive rains as divine punishment for our sins, and they do so to escape the blame for their inaction in averting the crisis

There is enough scientific evidence to prove that the flawed and greed driven economic development model is exacerbating climate change The heavy injection of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere manifests in increased atmospheric temperatures, resulting in increased water carrying capacity of clouds The consequent heavy downpour leads to floods, playing havoc with fragile infrastructure The country’s poor urban planning has resulted in a lack of proper water flood channels that can direct excessive rainwater to its intended destination The excessive water inundates sewage pathways and spreads everywhere, destroying communication networks and residential homes The desperate situation calls to step up efforts to provide immediate relief to the affectees in the form of shelter and food Various NGOs and volunteers are working tirelessly to collect funds and provide relief however, political parties seem apathetic to the miseries of the ordinary people while the media is equally worthy of blame for not providing the requisite coverage in vulnerable areas

SHAHZAIN JAFFERY LAHORE

Iran seems ready for another change

city journal

M a r k P M L L s

wa R S are fought on many fronts So far, Russian president Vladimir Putin is win ning the energy war High energy prices, triggered by supply disruptions, have neutered Western sanctions Russia’s cur rent account balance stands at record highs Meantime, the same forces are de industrializing Europe right be fore our eyes Industry after industry is throttling back shutting down, or considering doing so if the energy chaos continues Britain is staring at the potential shut down of 60 percent of its manufacturers Germany and most of Europe are on the same track

Discussions of how to rebuild Ukraine when the ground war eventually ends are prevalent but the ques tion of the decade will be how to rebuild Europe’s indus trial infrastructure Industrial facilities and supply chains that use and produce energy can’t easily be restarted once stopped that’s one lesson, at least, that policymakers should have taken from the Covid lockdowns Europe is learning the importance of energy re silience and reliability and seeing just how pivotal en ergy intensive industries are for an economy With gas and electricity prices soaring by as much as 1 000 per cent, the fuel bills to make steel, aluminum, glass, or fer tilizer in Europe far exceed what the final products can be sold for hence the closures those products are in puts to other domestic industries, from cars and beer to agriculture, that are scrambling for other sources or clos ing down themselves all this economic carnage and geopolitical leverage arises from Europe losing just 5 percent of its total en ergy supply Most of that loss comes from an overall 20 percent drop in available natural gas (courtesy of Rus sia’s maneuvers), which itself constitutes about one quarter of overall EU energy that gap cannot be closed by surging Europe’s vaunted renewable energy sources the extent of this still developing energy crisis, and the collateral damage in inflation jobs and exports depends now on the vicissitudes of nature (a cold winter could be catastrophic) and what unfolds from the war in Ukraine Europe doesn t have many options to deal with the immediate shortages Essentially everything that can be done quickly has been done: installing floating liquified natural gas (lNG) import terminals reanimating old coal plants, preserving nuclear plants that had been scheduled for decommissioning, switching many industrial boilers from natural gas to more fungible oil and sending sym bolic messages about reducing demand via cold showers and the dimming of lights Europe’s remaining near term

E u r o p E I s lo s I n g T h E E n E r g y wa r

alternatives are now a brutal combination of more shut downs, outright rationing, massive inflationary subsidies for citizens, and bailouts for industries Some are already talking of nationalizing critical industries, which would hand Putin another victory

Policymakers are doubtless praying that the energy chaos will be short lived, after which most appear to think that life will go back to normal Unfortunately, that means a return to the same energy policies that facilitated the chaos in the first place advocates of the “energy transition are already saying that the path to recovery and independence from Russian hydrocarbons is to re double commitments to alternatives, meaning solar, wind, and battery (SWB) technologies

What many policymakers have yet to understand or admit, is that the energy policies of recent decades were made possible by depending on massive amounts of cheap conventional hydrocarbons from Russia that is in the main, what enabled the continent to halt usage of its own conventional domestic energy supplies while continuing to operate critical energy intensive industries and those low cost imports freed up the cash to spend a couple of trillion dollars, directly and indirectly, on building SWB machines

the consequences of those energy policies were being exposed before Russia invaded its neighbor Oil prices were already in the $100 per barrel range before the inva sion Natural gas and electricity prices saw a similar 1,000 percent spike in late 2021 when northern Europe experi enced a week long wind drought: the kind of event that oc curs regularly in nature but is inherently unpredictable the existential economic issue facing Europe in the aftermath of the twenty first century s first energy war then, is whether the continent can fully rebuild many of the energy intensive industries already shut or facing stoppages (Certain classes of machinery notably some in glass and steel manufacturing, can be irreparably dam aged if shut down ) Whether such businesses decide to risk deploying capital to reopen involves speculation about whether foreseeable energy supplies will be both reliable and cheap If the answer is found in locations in asia or africa and even Russia that s where those sup ply chains, jobs, and economic benefits will migrate European policymakers should know by now that depending on SWB technologies instead of hydrocar bons requires answering a basic question: How does an economy store enough energy to survive the week long natural droughts of wind or sun that are common or longer disruptions resulting from both natural and man made disasters and geopolitical meddling? We know the answer for conventional energy

On average, economies the size of the U S (and in normal times, the EU) store one or two months’ worth of coal oil or natural gas Stowing away such quantities of hydrocarbons is relatively easy and inexpensive advo

cates of the energy transition propose that building more batteries can store excess energy from solar and wind in stallations But matching the energy value of the two months’ worth of natural gas Europe now has in storage would require building $40 trillion worth of batteries, which would take all the world’s battery factories com bined about 400 years to produce Handwaving about more factories and better batteries in the future is irrele vant to the task of what can be built now to keep economies, businesses, and people alive Or consider Europe s rush to increase gas imports from non Russian sources by installing some 20 lNG im port terminals, the biggest single get out of jail factor for the continent Many will be online shortly; the rest will come next year the terminals will cost a total of about $15 billion and deliver enough fuel annually to produce a quantity of electricity that would require building $200 billion of wind turbines those hypothetical wind turbines of course, would still require natural gas backup for wind droughts that is, trillions of dollars of batteries these realities are why liz truss the new U K prime minister, has announced that the country will pursue shale gas and oil Naysayers, including Britain s chancellor of the exchequer said earlier that fracking wouldn’t solve the energy crisis even “if we lifted the fracking moratorium tomorrow, for it would take up to a decade to extract sufficient volumes ” Obvious and true but the point is to forge an energy path that gives businesses enough confi dence about the future to deploy capital today and that confidence will rest on whether planners see a future with sufficient, resilient, and cheap energy China is now building the world’s biggest natural gas storage facility drilling more and increasing its coal use What does China know about the future of essential en ergy intensive industries?

If European policymakers want to restore energy sanity, they should reanimate North Sea oil and gas pro duction and reopen the Netherlands’ massive Gronin gen natural gas field which alone has the capability to make up most of the potential near term shortfall if Eu rope sees a cold winter the Dutch government has made it clear that the long planned voluntary shutdown remains on track the bedrock sources for future hydrocarbon sup plies for Europe are found in three domains: OPEC deep water rigs (global and U S offshore), and amer ican shale fields So restoring energy sanity would also i n c l u d e s t r i k i n g c o m p r e h e n s i v e l o n g t e r m b u y e r agreements with fuel suppliers, not just in the Middle E a s t w h i c h E u r o p e h a s a l r e a d y r u s h e d t o d o b u t also in the U S Of course for the U S to step up as a significantly greater supplier, that would require gov ernment policies that facilitate, not oppose, domestic hydrocarbon expansion theoretically, Congress could enact the necessary

legislation and it’s something that would not cost tax payers money but instead generate profits for american firms It would also, in due course, reduce energy prices for consumers because it would ultimately oversupply markets, which always reduces prices and inflation But the only way to do that would be to reset the regulatory structures that impede major development It would re quire, in short, a political attitude change

But if the EU and the U S were to work together for a major reset of energy supply and production, that would send precisely the market signals needed for rein dustrialization and recovery any reset would have to be enshrined in legislation, not rhetoric, to be credible enough to inspire major private capital commitments None of that would require governments to repeal their ambitions for SWB technologies

alas, promoters of magical thinking about the en ergy transition are redoubling their PR and lobbying ef forts the champion of the transition, IEa’s executive director FatihBirol, recently took to the pages of the Fi nancial times to clear up what he called the “three myths about the global energy crisis ”

Birol is wrong on two counts and misguided on the third Birol first claims that far from winning the energy battle, “Moscow is doing itself long term harm by alien ating the EU and damaging long term mutually benefi cial relationships But much of the rest of the world from China and India to many african nations, don’t care about that damage and are instead enjoying the fruits of buying Russian commodities at a discount Russia is also a major (often a top three) producer of many critical minerals, from copper to nickel to aluminum

Birol then writes that it s absurd to claim that “today’s global energy crisis is a clean energy crisis,” and that leaders he talks to “regret not moving faster to build solar and wind plants Doubtless some people be lieve this, but Europe’s electric grids and industries can not operate without hydrocarbons the issue for Europe is who supplies them and at what price

Finally, Birol says that he doesn’t see the energy cri sis as a “huge setback” for climate policy On that, at least the jury is still out Even a mild winter will damage Europe’s industrial core European governments are talk ing even more massive subsidies or nationalization ef forts to regain footing that outcome would qualify as a huge setback for the continent the alternative? a return to energy sanity, in partnership with america’s mighty hydrocarbon machine

Mark P Mills is a senior fellow at the Manhattan In stitute a strategic partner in the energy tech venture fund Montrose Lane author of The Cloud Revolution: How the Convergence of New Technologies Will Unleash the Next Economic Boom and a Roaring 2020s and host of The Last Optimist podcast

bottom up approach, is the key challenge we face today and not just in the EU On the contrary, the EU can be viewed as an ongo ing experiment that can help to guide others toward an effective model

the FdI’s goals extend beyond Italy; the Brothers hopes to reshape European politics Meloni also heads the European Conserva tives and Reformists Party which includes dozens of right wing formations, including Poland s law and Justice, Spain s Vox, and the Sweden Democrats

Pr oject Syndicate

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Ita ly might soon be led for the first time in its postwar history, by a party with roots in the detritus of Mussolini’s Fascist movement If the Fratellid I talia (FdI) (“Brothers of Italy”) does end up at the helm of the governing coali tion, as appears likely, European politics will be profoundly changed

GiorgiaMeloni, the FdI’s charismatic leader, has been accused of being a neo fas cist”, and both the FdI and its coalition’s sec ond largest member, lega, have been labelled populists Both labels miss the point yes, these parties have harnessed the seething discontent some voters feel, and they would take a tough stance on immigra tion and security But the Brothers is hardly seeking to upend liberal democracy the FdI s ambitions lie elsewhere Recognising that the key to the success of Europe’s two big political families, Christian democrats and democratic socialists, has been their well developed political and eth ical cultures, the Brothers is seeking to lay similar foundations for the right, thereby en abling it to gain and retain power well into the future this is the insidious challenge that progressive thinking must confront

On what pillars would the right’s new in tellectual edifice stand? In a recent interview, Meloni expressed admiration for the late British philosopher Roger Scruton, a conser vative who was neither a fascist nor a pop ulist and whose views like those of Meloni cannot be neatly categorised as pro state or pro market For both, the free market is a necessary institution but monopoly power needs to be limited by regulation

Nor did Scruton fundamentally oppose the European Union He believed that a sys tem of trans European cooperation was nec essary, but it should not come at the cost of national sovereignty in all the areas that mat ter likewise, an FdI led coalition would not seek to exit the EU or the eurozone Rather, the Brothers envisions the EU as a loose con federation of sovereign states, rather than an “ever closer union”, with aspirations to be come a semi federal state Nationalism and conservatism go hand in hand

In a 2019 interview, Scruton explained that for him conservatism was not about “putting things back” to how they were in the past, but “conserving them”, and that this was not a matter of ideology but of love “there are things that are threatened and you love them, so you want to keep them We have something this country and its institu tions and our way of being, and that’s what we’re holding on to ”

What do Europeans love? One of Mel oni’s talking points is that our identity is de fined by our community a sense of belonging, of social membership is central to determin ing what we “love” and enabling us to express ourselves this is the basis of freedom this vision has noble origins having been shaped by the ideas of the greatest philosophers, especially Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel but also Karl Marx and adam Smith But it does not necessarily lead to conservatism, nor does it mean that iden tity must be defined in national terms the FdI’s conception of the EU repre sents a sharp break from the past: Italy s leadership like that of the Union’s other core members, has traditionally supported deeper integration, despite disagreements about

pace and modality and it is a rupture that would come at a time when deeper coopera tion, inevitably involving some compro mises on national sovereignty such as in energy and foreign policy, is badly needed almost all of the most urgent impera tives we face today demand some form of centralised decision making capacity and policies that account for the regional or global nature of public goods including cli mate, health, financial stability and energy security as a result, the overlap between the locus of decision making power and the polity has been dwindling Devising new forms of governance that allow for the interoperability of different lev els of government and give voice to civil so ciety, thereby combining a top down with a

the new conservatives have gotten one very big thing right: Without a European so ciety the project of “ever closer union” rests on a fragile foundation But the solution is not to halt, let alone reverse, progress In stead we must build a polity that can sustain the institutions of European governance

Conservative forces like the FdI appear bent on doing the opposite By attempting to conserve existing systems and define iden tities by ethnicity and religion, rather than broader political or cultural affiliations, con servativism plays into people’s fears and di vides rather than unites them Cultural and political integration is to be replaced by poli cies that exacerbate the marginalisation of vulnerable groups and fail to tackle broadly shared challenges

If it is true as the conservatives assert that a functional view of the EU is bound to fail it is also true that the functional and the political interact, helping to redefine the con tours of the polity In an ever evolving world a defensive, static understanding of commu nity will inevitably lead to economic failure and can nurture racism and social conflict yet it is precisely this understanding that seems likely to shape governance in the EU s third largest member country a fierce battle of ideas is in store for the EU, with potentially se rious consequences for the integration process to win the fight, the Union’s supporters must not demonise conservatives like Meloni and misrepresent their views Instead they must confront criticism head on and devise credible ways to buttress the European polity that must exist if the European project is to succeed

B R I TA I N I S S TA R I N G AT T H E P O T E N T I A L S H U T D O W N O F 6 0 P E R C E N T O F I T S M A N U FA C T U R E R S . G E R M A N Y A N D M O S T O F E U R O P E A R E O N T H E S A M E T R A C K

LucreziaReichlin, a former director of research at the European Central Bank is professor of Economics at the London Business School and a trustee of the International Financial Reporting Standards Foundation

T h e I t a l i a n r i g h t i s c o m i n g A F I E R C E B AT T L E O F I D E A S I S I N S TO R E F O R T H E E U , W I T H P OT E N T I A L LY S E R I O U S CO N S E Q U E N C E S F O R T H E I N T E G R AT I O N P R O C E S S

GB CM inaugurates school program for teaching of Computer Science, STEAM

Today the Honorable Chief Minister Gilgit Baltistan Mr Khalid Khursheed inaugurated a special program for the teaching of Computer Science, STEAM and Entrepreneurship in government schools all across Gilgit Baltistan This is the first of its kind program in Pakistan where 100 experts “Technology Fellows” will be trained by private service provider to teach these courses in 200 public schools all across GB The program will be run by a joint venture led by the Rupani Foundation, Learn O Bots Rupani Academy and GBee Techhive

This program will Insha Allah be the start of a STEAM revolution in the public sector education of Pakistan Through this program students from grade 6 to 8 will be taught the following:

Computer Science: The various SLOs as per the SNC will be the minimum standards Students in addition to these SLOs will also be taught block programming through Scratch, python coding and basics of freelancing STEM: Through integrated project based learning students will be taught about latest technologies, science, engineering and mathematic The students will make multiple hand on projects and they will use latest LMS as aids in learning

Entrepreneurship: This course is being introduced for the first time in Pakistan A specially designed curriculum is being developed to promote entrepreneurship and business sense amongst students so that they can become job creators rather than job seekers The CM also opened the first makerspace in GB at the Begum Viqar un Nissa Government High School for Girls in Kashrote This novel lab has robotic kits for students, electronic kits and 3D printer p

First Pakistani boy earns YouTube ‘Diamond Play Button’

M i l l AT T r A C T o r S E n D S Y E A r w i T h r S 5 . 4 B P r o F i T

LAHORE n ya

MI L L AT Tractors Limited (MTL) released their fi nancial results for the year ended June 30 2022, on Friday MTL saw a 6 per cent year on year (YoY) decrease in profit after taxation amounting to a dip of Rs354 million

MTL s overall revenue grew 21 per cent from Rs43 9 billion to Rs53 3 bil lion despite seeing a YoY decline in sales of 1 47 per cent which amounted to 522 fewer units sold This additional revenue from fewer units sold suggests greater profitability per unit sold, how ever, this was not reflected in MTL’s gross profit margin (GPM) The GPM shrank YoY from 21 per cent to 19 per cent The most likely explanation for this contraction is the 25 per cent YoY increase in the cost of goods sold, amounting to an additional Rs8 49 bil

LAHORE: Social media is reaching the heights of growth day by day and the revolution coming through it is exposing us to new dimensions every minute with information New talent is also emerging in every field, a great example of which is a ten year old model and actor Musa Musa Tanveer, at the age of only ten, is ruling the hearts of millions of people with his acting and modelling skills His following reached in millions when he started uploading videos But due to his young age, TikTok blocked his ID, but Musa Tanveer did not did not leave hope and started a channel on YouTube called ‘Entertainment with Musa’ and kept uploading videos based on social issues in a light hearted way His videos were liked all over the world and his channel subscription crossed ten million readers Having ten million subscribers on YouTube is a great honour Musa Tanveer is the first Pakistani individual who got this honour Keeping in view his popularity and following , YouTube has awarded Musa Tanveer with the diamond play button in Pakistan which is a unique achievement by a teenager One thing is certain that success is the blessing of Allah, but it is conditional with your determination and courage Difficulties have to be endured to travel on difficult paths, but how can a ten year old child reach the heights of fame?

This is also a big question Seeing Musa Tanveer's passion, his family supported him, especially Musa's mother and father Tanveer Riaz helped Musa to move forward with hard work and encouraged him to achieve the goal That ’s the reason that Musa Tanveer, at the age of 10, has made the national flag respectable all over the world On individual level this is a great achievement for Musa Tanveer Musa s family belongs to Lahore but are settled in Dubai Musa is also continuing his education along with his passion Musa Tanveer along with his two sisters uploads videos on YouTube with positive messages on his channel ‘Entertainment with Musa’ His family did not know that this Musa’s passion would take him to the heights of fame during a very short period Musa Tanveer s continuous hard work, passion and determination have made him a bright example for others s ta f f r e p o rt

A prominent housing society, Sialkot Motor way City (SMC) has entered into a partner ship with the world’s renowned company, Surbana Jurong (Sj) to plan and design the iconic residential project The agreement signing ceremony took place in Sialkot, where officials of both the companies signed the agreement Other senior officials of SMC and Sj were also present at the occaion

The Sialkot Motorway City project was launched with the aim to deliver an iconic residential project to redefine the luxurious lifestyle for living in Pakistan Like Singa pore and other world’s top class cities, the SMC residential project will be the first mas ter plan of its kind in Pakistan The project

Rs227 million with a Rs218 million YoY increase The spike in the KIBOR across 2022 is likely to have contributed to the increases in both values

The 55 per cent YoY increase in taxes paid saw MTL pay an additional Rs1 159 billion in taxes for a total of Rs3 258 billion The increase is likely in part due to the imposition of the super tax as MTL’s effective tax rate clocked in at 38 per cent compared to last year ’s 27 per cent

The year ahead, however, looks far more difficult for MTL The company has recorded a total of 3,567 units sold, according to sales figures released by the Pakistan Automotive Manufacturers Association, in July and August for the 2022 23 fiscal year These figures amount to 1,373 fewer units sold than last year over the same period for a 28 per cent YoY decline September s sales forecast also looks to fare simi larly as MTL has observed non produc tion days for the majority of the month

The Federal Bureau of Revenue (FBR) has issued a statement dis missing media speculation that it had issued a Statutory Regulatory Order (SRO) on Friday to exempt senior army personnel from pay ing duties levied on vehicles upto 6,000cc The statement itself was issued by Asad Tahir Jappa Chief PR/Director Media, FBR

The FBR’s statement is as fol lows “FBR categorically denies re ports appearing in some sections of media that it has issued an SRO al lowing taxes and duty free import of bullet proof vehicles Federal Cabinet had allowed such facility

in 2019 but no notification to this effect has been issued so far ”

Numerous media reports cited over the course of the past twenty four hours stated that FBR had is sued an SRO stating that “the Federal government is pleased to exempt customs duties, sales tax, federal excise duty and withhold ing tax on import of bullet proof vehicles falling under PCT Code 87 03 for Lieutenant Generals and above on retirement by the con cerned authorities”

The reports suggested that the import of two vehicles for four star Generals (Chairman Joint Chief of Staff Committee and Services Chiefs) and one vehicle for Lieu tenant Generals had been sanc

tioned The reports had suggested that the notification had been ap proved by the Law Division, and that it was with the Prime Minister Secretariat awaiting imminent ap proval However, neither of the two had issued any statement re garding the matter In view of their silence and FBR’s statement makes it likely that the aforemen tioned two have used the FBR as a conduit to dismiss the speculation

The prompt nature of the state ment is likely due to the fact that many saw this as a means to cir cumvent the various duties and taxes that the government had levied on the import of cars as part of its policy to stem the outflow of foreign exchange

ISLAMABAD

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RAWALPINDI

Syed Hussain Jahania Gardezi, Minister for Agricul ture Punjab inaugurated Precision Agriculture Cen ter here at Pir Mehr Ali Shah Aird Agricultural University, Rawalpindi, to help in modern agricultural technology transfer and our production will increase with the use of modern IT Mr Gardezi said that the objective of establishing the center is to promote digital and precision agricul ture at the national level so that the farmers will be aware of the needs of their crops in real time

Provincial Agriculture Minister said that high losses are being faced by Pakistan due to Climate Change He maintained that the establishment of this center will be effective in bringing modern agricultural

will attract huge investment in the country

As Exclusive Sales partner the 5G Group of companies is ensuring the project The SMC residential project is the joint venture of MAZ developer and 5G Group of companies

Surbana Jurong is the world’s renowned town designing, planning, managing and de livering consultancy firm with 70 years of successful track record Sj has built more than a million homes in Singapore created master plans in more than 60 countries and developed over 100 industrial parks globally

Sj said that as a master planner of the SMC housing society, the company will prepare bet ter plan for the SMC project as compared to the Singapore city They said that SMC will

technology to the farmers He asked the vice chancel lors of the universities to facilitate the access of farm ers to farms like this so that digital agriculture and precision agriculture can be popularized in Pakistan

The provincial minister further said that by pro moting modern agricultural technology and digital agriculture, Pakistan can not only become self suffi cient in agricultural production but also realize the dream of exporting agricultural products

He congratulated Pir Mehr Ali Shah Arid Agricul ture University for organizing this center and empha sized on updating its data on back end on daily basis

On this occasion, the Provincial Minister congratulated Dr Qamar ul Zaman Vice Chancellor of Pir Meher Ali Shah Agricultural University, Rawalpindi, for introduc ing modern digital and precision agriculture for the first time in Aird Agricultural University Rawalpindi t t

FBR denies duty waiver for army personnel on impor ted c ars residential projec t Motor way C ity

Chairman CDA and Chief Commissioner Islamabad Captain (R) Muhammad Usman Younis inaugurated Stray Dogs Population Control Center Islamabad Saturday A large number of civil society representatives, NGOs, CDA officers and citizens attended the inauguration ceremony Speaking on this occasion Chairman CDA and Chief Commissioner Islamabad Captain (R) Mohammad Usman Younis said that Islamabad is the only city in the country where such center has been established He further said that complaints of stray dog bites have been received from different areas of Islamabad, especially from rural areas But due to lack of effective solution, it was not getting a permanent solution however due to the special interest of the current CDA administration, this center has been established Chairman Capital Development Authority Captain (R) Muhammad Usman Younis while addressing the participants said that this dog center has the capacity to keep more than 500 dogs Similarly, a play area for dogs, a rest area including a surgical unit, a vaccination center and a separate area for the laboratory have also been allocated in this dog center Chairman Capital Development Authority Captain (R) Muhammad Usman Younis while speaking added that human rights as well as animal rights are protected in developed countries

give a new identity to Sialkot as well as Pak istan as a whole Mr Muhammad Usman Khan, Chairman 5G Group of Companies was present on the occasion of the contract signing ceremony He discussed the revolutionary business opportunities that the SMC game changing project is expected to offer

The housing society is easily accessible from main Sialkot city and the nearby towns The project is located on the main Wazirabad Road on Motorway starting junction and at 10 minutes’ drive from Sialkot Cantonment Motorway and Sialkot Airport are situated in close vicinity of the housing society For Further details Sialkot Motorway City offi cial UAN number is 0304 11 12 013 p r

lions, that MTL incurred Other notable YoY changes was a 41 per cent increase in other income a 2355 per cent increase in cost of finance, and

55 per cent increase in tax levied MTL’s other income stood at Rs940 million with a Rs273 million YoY increase whereas other finance costs rose to

CDA Chief, Capt (r) Muhammad Usman inaugurates stray dogs population control center

W e s t : M o r e s a n c t I o n s , I s o l at I o n

I f P u t I n c a r r I e s o u t t h r e at s

WASHINGTON t h e A s s o c i At e d P r e s s

hO W do American leaders and their allies intend to respond if President Vladimir Putin seeks to escalate his way out of a bad situation on Ukraine s battlefields, and makes good on renewed threats of annexing territory or even using nuclear weapons?

At least to start with, by trying to dou ble down on the same tactics that have helped put Russia in a corner in Ukraine, the US and European leaders have made clear: more financial penalties and inter national isolation for Russia, more arms and other backing for Ukraine

That won t necessarily be easy It s been tough enough staying the current course of persuading all of the dozens of allies to stick with sanctions and isolation for Putin, and persuading more ambiva lent countries to join in Global financial and energy disruptions from Russia’s war in Ukraine already promise to make the coming winter a tough one for countries that have depended on Russia for their energy needs

And there’s no sign of US or NATO officials matching Putin’s renewed nu clear threats with the same nuclear blus ter, which in itself might raise the risks of escalating the conflict to an unimaginable level Even if Putin should act on his nu clear threat, President Joe Biden and oth ers point, without details, to an ascending scale of carefully calibrated responses,

Death toll doubles in ‘harrowing’ Iran protest crackdown

based on how far Russia goes

To start with, “they’ll become more of a pariah in the world than they ever have been,” Biden told CBS’ “60 Min utes” just ahead of Putin’s new wartime measures and renewed nuclear threat

“What they do will determine what response would occur, Biden said on the nuclear side, adding that the US re sponses, in that case, would be “conse quential

“I do not believe the United States would take an escalatory step” in the event of a one off, limited nuclear deto nation by Russia aimed at trying to scare Ukraine and its supporters off, said Rose Gottemoeller, former deputy NATO sec

retary general and former US undersec retary of state for arms control

Certainly it would not respond with nuclear weapons ” Putin this week pledged to use “all available means” to stave off any chal lenges as Russia moves to summarily claim more Ukrainian territory despite heavy losses on the battlefield to NATO armed Ukrainian forces In case, NATO missed the point another senior Russian political figure specified the next day that included nuclear weapons Putin also mobilised Russian fighters to throw into the seven month invasion of Ukraine, and announced votes in parts of Ukraine that the West says are meant to provide

political cover for illegally absorbing those regions into Russia US and European Union officials say new sanctions are in the works in re sponse to Putin’s latest moves

“Russia, its political leadership, and all those involved in organising these ‘referenda’ as well as in other violations of international law and international hu manitarian law in Ukraine will be held accountable,” EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell pledged this week, on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York

But political declarations are the easy part It’s unclear what type of measures can be agreed upon, as the financial pun ishments against Russia are also increas ingly inflicting pain on other European economies weighed down by high elec tricity and natural gas prices and spiraling inflation Hungary has led resistance to sanctions that might hit its supplies from Russia, but it isn’t alone in hesitating New sanctions may come only after much debate and hand wringing among the 27 EU member countries in the com ing weeks, probably only after Russia has held its referendums

The last round of sanctions over Rus sia s invasion of Ukraine was announced on May 4, but only agreed on four weeks later, as concerns over oil divided mem ber countries Rather than a new set of sanctions, a “maintenance and align ment” package was sealed in July, mostly to close loopholes on measures already agreed upon

At UN, Pakistan calls out Indian sponsorship of terrorism in South Asia

PARIS: The official death toll has nearly doubled to 35 in a crackdown by Iran’s security forces on more than a week of protests that erupted after the death of a young woman in custody Angry demonstrators have taken to the streets of major cities across Iran including the capital Tehran, for eight straight nights since the death of 22 year old Mahsa Amini

The Kurdish woman was pronounced dead after spending three days in a coma following her arrest by Iran s feared morality police for wearing the hijab headscarf in an “improper” way “The number of people who died in recent riots in the country has risen to 35 state media said, raising the official toll from at least 17 dead, including five security personnel Protests were held around the Islamic republic on Friday, with online videos showing some turning violent in Tehran and other major cities including Tabriz In some of the footage, security forces could be seen firing what appeared to be live ammunition at unarmed demonstrators in the northwestern cities of Piranshahr, Mahabad and Urmia

In one video shared by the Oslo based Iran Human Rights non governmental organisation, a uniformed member of the security forces is seen shooting an AK 47 assault rifle at protesters in Tehran’s Ferdowsi Boulevard It said other footage showed a stream of state security forces on a Tehran highway” on Friday night

Security forces have carried out a wave of arrests of activists and journalists including Niloufar Hamedi of the reformist newspaper Shargh, who reported on Amini’s death A F P

UNITED NATIONS tA F

Pakistani diplomat Saima Saleem has categorically rejected India’s allega tions about Pakistan’s involvement in terrorist acts citing instances of the Indian sponsorship of terrorism and aggression against all its neighbours that makes New Delhi the “principle perpetrator, sponsor, financier and abettor of terrorism in South Asia

“The myth of terrorism against Pakistan, created and propagated by India cannot and will not hide the stark reality that people of Pakistan, the Indian Illegally occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK) and its own minorities are victims of its state sponsored terrorism, Saima Saleem, counselor at the Pakistan Mission to the United Nations, told the UN General Assembly on Friday night

Saima Saleem was exercising her right of reply to Indian delegate Mijito Vinito s allegations about Pakistan sponsoring cross border terrorism and accusing it of making ” untenable territorial claims against neighbours” an obvious reference to Jammu and Kashmir

The Indian delegate made that statement in response to Prime Min ister Shehbaz Sharif speech to the

193 member Assembly in which the Pakistani leader drew world commu nity s attention to New Delhi s grave human rights violations in occupied Kashmir and called for resolving the UN recognized dispute in accordance with Security Council resolutions

In her remarks, the Pakistani del egate said that India has sponsored and perpetrated terrorism and ag gression against all its neighbours by creating terrorist groups, and desta bilizing and blockading neighbours to do its strategic bidding

In Pakistan, she said India was funding and supporting terrorist or ganizations like the TTP (Tehreek e Tliban and the BLA (Balochistan Liberation Army), whose attacks have resulted in the killing of thou sands of innocent Pakistanis

Since the Hindutva inspired RSS BJP Government’s unilateral and illegal actions on August 5, 2019 termed as Final Solution , India s 900,000 occupation forces in occu pied Kashmir the ‘densest’ occupa tion in history have escalated their oppression of 8 million Kashmiri men women and children in the world’s largest ‘open air prison’,” the Pakistani delegate said She accused India of extra judi cial killings in fake encounters; en

forced disappearances of 15,000 young Kashmiri boys; incarceration of the entire Kashmiri leadership; bringing about demographic change by issuing millions of fake domicile certificates to non Kashmiris; gerry mandering of electoral boundaries for reducing Muslim representation; curbing religious freedom and media and internet blackout ”

Since 1989 Indian occupation forces had committed over one lakh extra judicial killings, around 162 000 cases of arbitrary arrests and torture, over 25,000 pellet gun in juries, 11,250 cases of rape and gang rape, and 8652 unmarked mass graves, attesting to the genocide which is being committed in occu pied Kashmir

“Yet, we fear that these discov eries of Indian crimes are but the tip of the iceberg,” Saleem said “If India has nothing to hide, it must grant access to Occupied Jammu and Kashmir to human rights mecha nisms, accept a UN Commission of Inquiry and agree to implement the Security Council resolutions ”

Highlighting India s reign of ter ror against its minorities, the Pakistani delegate said, Islamophobia has pen etrated into the very foundations of the Indian state

Bangladesh PM denounces ‘tragedy’ of rich nations on climate

NEW YORK

A F P

A country of fertile, densely populated deltas, low lying Bangladesh is among the most vulnerable nations in the world to climate change

But the urgency of the situation is not being matched by the actions of countries responsible for emissions, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina said “They don’t act They can talk but they don’t act,” she told AFP on a visit to New York for the United Nations General Assembly

“The rich countries, the developed countries, this is their responsibility They should come forward But we are not getting that much response from them That is the tragedy,” she said

I know the rich countries, they want to become more rich and rich They don’t bother for others ” Bangladesh has produced a miniscule amount of the greenhouse gas emissions that have already contributed to the warming of the planet by an average of nearly 1 2 degrees Celsius above pre industrial levels

The Paris accord called for $100 billion a year by 2020 from wealthy nations to help developing nations cope with climate change That year, $83 3 billion was committed, including through private sources, according to Organization for Economic Co operation and Development figures

One key issue facing the next UN climate summit to take place in Egypt in November, is whether wealthy nations also need to pay for losses and damages from climate change not just to pay for adaptation and mitigation

“We want that fund to be raised Unfortunately, we didn’t get a good response from the developed countries,” Hasina said

Because they are the responsible ones for these damages, they should come forward,” the 74 year old added

Wealthy nations have agreed only to discuss the loss and damage issue through 2024

This year ’s General Assembly featured repeated calls for climate justice The leader of tiny Vanuatu urged an international treaty against fossil fuels while the prime minister of Pakistan warned that floods that have swamped one third of his country could happen elsewhere

Iranian pro-gov t marchers call for execution of ‘rioters’

TEHRAN Ag e n c i e s

Days after anti regime demonstrations mass protests have been held in support of the Iranian government in several Iranian cities on Friday to counter the anti government protests triggered by the death of a youth in police custody, with marchers calling for the execution of the anti government protesters The demonstrations followed the strongest warning from the authorities yet when the army told Iranians it would confront the enemies behind the unrest a move that could signal the kind of crackdown that has crushed protests in the past Demonstrators condemned the anti government protesters as “Israel’s soldiers”, live state television coverage showed They also shouted “Death to America” and “Death to Israel”, common slogans the country’s clerical rulers use to try and stir up support for authorities

“Offenders of the Qur ’an must be executed,” the crowds chanted Iranians have staged mass protests over the case of Mahsa Amini, 22, who died last week after being arrested by the morality police for wearing “unsuitable attire”

The morality police, attached to Iran’s law enforcement, are tasked with ensuring the respect of Islamic morals as described by the country s clerical authorities

Wang Yi, Blinken discuss challenges to Sino -US relations

NEW YORK Ag e n c i e s

Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minis ter Wang Yi met with U S Secretary of State Antony Blinken at the Permanent Mission of the People’s Republic of China to the UN in New York Wang Yi said that the current China U S relations are facing the gravest challenge There are lessons that the U S needs to learn from it

China U S relations are at a critical juncture, and it is urgent for both sides to es tablish a right way for the two major coun tries to get along with each other in a responsible attitude towards the world his tory, and the peoples from two countries, to promote the stability of the relationship be

tween the two countries Wang Yi compre hensively expounded China’s solemn posi tion focusing on the recent wrongful actions of the U S on the Taiwan question

Wang Yi emphasize that the Taiwan question is the core of China’s core interests The United States has made a solemn com mitment to China on the Taiwan question

There are three China U S joint commu niques, and the current U S government has repeatedly expressed that it does not support Taiwan independence

However, the actions of the U S run counter to this They attempt to undermine China s sovereignty and territorial integrity engage in the so called “contain China with Taiwan”, sending a very wrong and danger ous signal

The U S should return to the three China U S joint communiques and the one China principle, and make it clear that it op poses all kinds of Taiwan independence separatist activities

Wang Yi also emphasize that Taiwan question is China s internal affair and the U S has no right to interfere China’s posi tion on resolving the Taiwan question is con sistent and clear, and will continue to adhere to the basic policy of “peaceful reunification and one country, two systems China will take strong measures to respond to all “Tai wan independence” attempts aimed at split ting China in order to firmly defend national sovereignty and territorial integrity Wang Yi stressed that China and the U S have both common interests and profound

differences, which will not change From the first day of contact, the two sides knew that they were dealing with countries with differ ent systems This did not prevent the two sides from cooperating based on common in terests, nor should it be a reason for the con frontation between China and the U S

It is hoped that the U S will correct its perception of China, change its China policy with containment and suppression, and stop trying to deal with the Chinese with its posi tion of strength, stop thinking about hinder ing China’s development, and stop unilaterally bullying It is necessary to create a favorable atmosphere for the resumption of normal exchanges between the two sides, and to push China U S relations back to a healthy and stable development track

Blinken said that U S China relations are currently in a difficult period, and it is in the interests of both sides to bring bilateral relations back to a stable track The two countries have successfully managed differ ences in the past, and the U S is willing to have candid communication and dialogue with China to avoid misunderstandings and misjudgments and find a way forward

Blinken reiterated that the U S does not seek a new “Cold War”, the one China pol icy has not changed, and the U S does not support “Taiwan independence”

The two sides also exchanged views on the situation in Ukraine Both sides believed that the meeting was candid, constructive and important, and agreed to continue to maintain communication

Pa R t O f m e l e av e s w i t h R O g e R f e d e R e R , s ay s e m O t i O n a l R a fa n a d a l

AgENcIES

sI T T I N G courtside Rafa Nadal cried as his great rival, Roger Fed erer bid an emotional farewell to tennis at the Laver Cup on Friday, later saying an important part of him was also leaving the men s tour with the retirement of the Swiss Pictures and videos of Federer and Nadal who shared one of tennis s most en thralling rivalries crying together after combining for Team Europe in a doubles de feat at London s O2 Arena went viral on so cial media, leaving their legions of fans highly emotional

Nadal who has won a men s record 22 Grand Slam singles titles, said it was a diffi cult night for him emotionally as the defeat to the American pair of Jack Sock and

Frances Tiafoe marked the end of the 41 year old Federer ’s dazzling career

For me, has been a huge honour to be a part of this amazing moment of the history of our sport, and at the same time a lot of years sharing a lot of things together, the Spaniard said of Federer

“When Roger leaves the tour, yeah, an important part of my life is leaving too be cause all the moments he has been next or in front me in important moments of my life So has been emotional [to] see the family, see all the people Yeah, difficult to describe But, yeah, amazing moment ”

Federer, who won 20 major singles ti tles played Nadal 40 times in one of the most compelling rivalries across any sport

Despite the ferocity on the court, they have remained friends off the court It was perhaps most apt that the Swiss chose to

have his final dance with Nadal on his side of the net Loud cheers accompanied Federer and Nadal, or Fedal as they are jointly nicknamed, on to court After entertaining the sellout crowd during the match, both were overcome by emotions

“I think every year the personal relation ship gets better and better, on a daily basis,” Nadal, 36, told reporters I think in some way we understand at the end we have a lot of things similar We approach the life prob ably similar

“On court, we have completely opposite styles, and that’s what probably makes our matches and our rivalry probably one of the biggest and most interesting

“Very proud to be part of his career in some way But even happier to finish our ca reer like friends after everything we shared on court like rivals ”

england’s wood hoping to hit top gear in time for world Cup

KARAcHI

England bowler Mark Wood said he is hopeful he can return to full fitness and hit his peak at the right time ahead of this year s Twenty20 World Cup in Australia Wood, who missed the entire English sum mer due to an elbow injury, marked his return to inter national cricket with three wickets in England s 63 run win over Pakistan in Karachi on Friday “My body feels OK,” Wood told Sky Sports after the win I ll probably live on an ice machine now What s important for me is that I don’t want to go too hard now and then I’m not ready for Australia I’ve got to peak at the right time and then when it comes to that World Cup, I’m fit and firing “I’m just a little bit tired It’s my first game in a while but actually I felt pretty good leading into it I ve done loads of time in the gym, lots of running, but nothing is the same as playing a game ” England, who took a 2 1 lead in the seven match series with the win will next face Pak istan on Sunday as both sides continue preparations for the October 16 November 13 T20 World Cup

MIAMI s ta f f R e p o R t

Lionel Messi s expertly taken double helped seal a comprehensive 3 0 win for Argentina over Honduras in Miami on Friday to extend their impressive un beaten run ahead of the Qatar World Cup

The Argentina captain scored a goal in each half, his opener doubling the lead given to Lionel Scaloni s team by Lau taro Martinez early on Argentina haven’t lost in 34 matches heading into Tuesday s game against Ja maica in New York

With their last defeat coming in the 2019 Copa America semi final the thou sands of Argentina fans who packed Hard Rock Stadium in a crowd of 64,420 were in an expectant mood and left de lighted as a combative Honduran side were firmly put to the sword

The game was what we expected Argentina coach Scaloni said “I am sat isfied with that

As far as players who didn t play as a coach I have to manage minutes and rest some players Most important thing is that whoever plays proves they can be long and can play ”

Honduras failed to qualify for Qatar and were under pressure from the off Alejandro Gomez blazing an early effort over before Rodrigo De Paul screwed a shot just wide

The South Americans were dominat ing possession with Messi beginning to weave some magic despite being tightly man marked by the Honduran defence

And it was the Paris St Germain for

ward who started the move which cre ated the opener for Martinez on 16 min utes an excellent pass freeing Gomez on the left hand side and his cross was tapped home with ease Honduras were undeterred however and even though they saw little of the ball, the challenges were flying in, much to the anger of an increasingly irritated Argentina side who were left constantly complaining to the officials

A pull on Giovani Lo Celso s shirt however on the stroke of half time was deemed a penalty by referee Rubiel

Vazquez and Messi coolly rolled in the penalty to double the lead for Scaloni s men

The former Barcelona star, who played for the full 90 minutes, remained in the thick of the action and almost grabbed his second on 56 minutes but failed to finish off an excellent, free flowing move when his shot sailed over the bar

Julian Alvarez, the Manchester City striker was introduced in the second half and was denied by Honduras keeper Luis Fernandez as Argentina searched for fur

Nadal pulls out of L aver Cup af ter doubles with Federer

The Spaniard, who has won a men’s record 22 Grand Slam titles, later said that an important part of him was also leaving the Tour with the retirement of Federer “Rafael Nadal withdrew for personal reasons He will be replaced by Cameron Norrie,” the organisers of the tournament said on Saturday

Nadal is also expecting his first child with wife Mery Perello soon but made the trip to London to play

Federer was replaced by Italian Matteo Berrettini in Team Europe, who were tied at 2 2 with Team World after the opening day s matches

Novak Djokovic will also return to action on Sat urday for the first time since winning his 21st major singles title at Wimbledon last month He is scheduled to play American Frances Tiafoe and then in the dou bles with Berrettini

Chinese teen Zheng Qinwen powers into first WTA final in Tokyo

Messi scores twice as Argentina down Honduras n a f t e r a b a t t l i n g 5 7 , 6 3 , 7 6 ( 7 / 3 ) w i n o v e r Ve r o n i k a K u d e r m e t o v a T h e 1 9 y e a r o l d Z h e n g w h o k n o c k e d o u t t o p s e e d P a u l a B a d o s a e a r l i e r t h i s w e e k , w i l l f a c e R u s s i a s L i u d m i l a S a m s o n o v a i n t h e To k y o f i n a l a f t e r s l u g g i n g h e r w a y p a s t n u m b e r f o u r s e e d K u d e r m e t o v a Z h e n g w a s r a n k e d o u t s i d e t h e t o p 1 5 0 t h i s t i m e last year but she has since made the world sit up and t a k e n o t i c e w i t h a s t r i n g o f i m p r e s s i v e p e r f o r m a n c e s

She took a set off world number one Iga Swiatek i n t h e l a s t 1 6 a t t h e F r e n c h O p e n a n d h a s n o w r i s e n t o n u m b e r 3 6 i n t h e w o r l d r a n k i n g s She will face Samsonova in the Tokyo final after t h e i n f o r m R u s s i a n b e a t C h i n a s Z h a n g S h u a i 7 6 ( 7 / 4 ) 6 2 i n t h e d a y ’s o t h e r s e m i f i n a l T h e 2 3 y e a r o l d S a m s o n o v a h a s w o n t h e t i t l e a t t w o o f h e r l a s t t h r e e t o u r n a m e n t s a n d s h e w a s a g a i n c l i n i c a l a s s h e d i s m a n t l e d Z h a n g i n 9 0 m i n u t e s S a m s o n o v a k n o c k e d o u t Wi m b l e d o n c h a m p i o n E l e n a Ry b a k i n a e a r l i e r t h i s w e e k i n To k y o a n d d e f e a t e d t w o t i m e G r a n d S l a m w i n n e r G a r b i n e M u g u r u z a i n t h e q u a r t e r f i n a l s S a m s o n o v a w o n t i t l e s i n Wa s h i n g t o n a n d C l e v e l a n d i n A u g u s t b e f o r e l o s i n g t o A u s t r a l i a ’s A j l a Tomljanovic in the last 16 of the US Open

ther goals to reinforce their total domi nance It was left to Messi to bring the house down with a brilliant lofted finish over Fernandez on 69 minutes to leave the re sult in no doubt Argentina face Saudi Arabia, Mexico and Poland in Group C at the World Cup and on this evidence albeit against lim ited opposition, will arrive in Qatar as one of the favourites to lift the trophy Even with the World Cup looming Scaloni said it was key that his players enjoy themselves

Raducanu retires hur t from Korea Open semi-final

SEOUL s ta f f R e p o R t

Former US Open cham pion Emma Ra ducanu retired hurt during the third set of her Korea Open semi final on Saturday against Jelena Ostapenko The 19 year old Briton who later said it was a left glute injury, took a medical time out in the second set and was down 3 0 in the deciding set She had won the first set 6 4 before fellow former major champion Ostapenko hit back 6 3 in the second The Latvian top seed, ranked 19 in the world, will face Ekaterina Alexandrova of Russia on Sunday in the final in Seoul Raducanu had been chasing a first final ap pearance since her fairytale US Open title last year She started strongly, winning the first set despite some early nerves, but then required a lengthy medical timeout just the latest in a series of minor injuries that have stunted her blossoming career Raducanu stunned the tennis world when she emerged from qualifying to win at Flushing Meadows, but she has struggled to build on that and her Grand Slam defence ended in the first round last month After reaching a career high 10 in the world, Raducanu slipped to 77th going into the Korea Open

LONDON

Rafael Nadal Laver on the Swiss great s glittering tennis carer Pictures and videos of Federer and Nadal who shared one of tennis’s most enthralling rivalries sitting on a chair and crying after combining for

Team Europe in a doubles defeat at London’s O2 Arena on Friday went viral on social media

alongside Federer in the Swiss maestro’s final profes sional outing

SHAHBA z to worlD on FlooDS: toDAy It’S

PAKIStAn, toMorrow It CoUlD Be yoU

FL O O D I N G likely worsened by climate change has submerged one third of Pakistan s territory and left 33 million of its people scrambling to survive, accord ing to the prime minister, who says he came to the United Nations this year to tell the world that tomorrow this tragedy can fall on some other country ”

In a wide ranging interview with The Associated Press Shahbaz Sharif exhorted world leaders gathered for their annual meeting at the General As sembly to stand together and raise re sources “to build resilient infrastructure, to build adaptation, so that our future generations are saved ”

The initial estimate of losses to the economy as a result of the three month flooding disaster is $30 billion, Sharif said, and he asked UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres on Thursday to hold a

donors’ conference quickly The UN chief agreed Sharif said Thousands of kilometres of roads have been smashed, washed away railway bridges, rail way tracks communications under passes, transport All this requires funds,” Sharif said “We need funds to provide a livelihood to our people ”

While climate change likely in creased rainfall by up to 50 percent late last month in two provinces, global warming wasn’t the biggest cause of the catastrophic flooding according to a new scientific analysis Pakistan’s over all vulnerability, including people living in harm’s way, was the chief factor

But human caused climate change also plays a really important role here, study senior author Friederike Otto, a climate scientist at Imperial College of London said earlier this month

Whatever the case, Sharif said the impact on his country is immense More than 1,600 people have died, including hundreds of children Crops on four mil

lion acres have been washed away Mil lions of houses have been damaged or completely destroyed, and life savings have disappeared in the devastating floods triggered by monsoon rains Framing Pakistan as a victim of cli mate change worsened by other nations’ actions, Sharif said Pakistan is respon sible for less than 1 percent of the car bon emissions that cause global warming “We are,” the prime minister said, “a victim of something we have nothing to do with He echoed the sentiments on Friday when addressing fellow leaders at the General Assembly, telling them that other places were next “One thing is very clear, he said What happened in Pakistan will not stay in Pakistan ” MONEY AND FOOD: Even before the floods began in mid June Pakistan was facing serious challenges from grain shortages and skyrocketing crude oil prices sparked mainly by Russia s Feb ruary 24 invasion of Ukraine and the cri

sis that has followed Sharif said sky rocketing prices have put the import of oil “beyond our capacity,” and with the damage and destruction from the massive flooding solutions have be come “extremely difficult ” Pakistan may have to import about a million tons of wheat because of the destruction of farmland He said it could come from Russia but the country is open to other offers The country also needs fertiliser because factories in volved in their production are closed Sharif said the country has “a very robust, transparent mechanism already in place” to ensure that all aid items are de livered to people in need In addition, he said, I will ensure third party audit of every penny through international well reputed companies ” The leader said he met top officials from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank and appealed for a moratorium on loan repayments and deferment of other con ditions until the flood situation improves

Fawad Ch was planted to harm Imran, claims Hamid Khan

ISLAMABAD

S ta f f R e p o R t

Founding member of Pakistan Tehreek e Insaf (PTI) Hamid Khan on Saturday criticised party leader and former information minister Chaudhry Fawad Hussain, alleging that he was planted to harm Imran Khan and PTI In an interview with a private TV channel, he revealed that Aleem Khan and Jahangir Tareen had also “stabbed Imran Khan in the back”

Talking about his differences with the former prime minister, Hamid said that the inclusion of Jahangir Tareen and Aleem Khan in PTI and the filing of reference against Justice Qazi Faiz Isa was the main reason for his tiff with Imran

KP rejects Centre’s request for providing police personnel

PESHAWAR S ta f f R e p o R t

The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government on Saturday refused a federal request to provide police personnel to stop Pakistan Tehreek e Insaf ’s long march

KP Chief Minister Mahmood Khan informed the federal government that the law and order situation in the province requires attention, and during this time, providing security personnel to stop the long march was not feasible

Mahmood Khan added that at a time when Interior Minister Rana Sanaullah should himself be present in Swat to assist in controlling the security situation, the federal government is seeking help from K P police forces

The Special Assistant to KP Chief Minister Barrister Muhammad Ali Saif also criticised the government’s request saying the police force is direly needed in KP to maintain peace in the province “Rana Sanaullah needs our police force to stop Pakistanis from entering Islamabad The KP government cannot give its police to Centre just to torture citizens,” he added

JUI-F to join Balochistan gov t with two key ministries

ISLAMABAD

The Jamiat Ulma e Islam (JUI F) will reportedly join the Balochistan government and acquire two key ministries, irrigation and finance, in the provincial cabinet

Sources said that the Balochistan Awami party led government has finalized the plan to induct the JUI F into the government and give them two key ministries

Sources said that multiple ministers, including Sardar Saleh Bhutani and Ahsan Shah, would be removed to accommodate JUI F

Additionally, all PTI ministers, barring Nassebullah Murree, would be removed from their positions Nawabzada Tariq Magsi would be the new Minister of Irrigation, and Noor Muhammad Damar would take charge as the Finance Ministry the provincial government sources said Speculations about the JUI F joining have been circulating for a few days especially after a detailed meeting of a JUI F delegation with Chief Minister Abdul Quddus Bizenjo in Islamabad

With 11 out of 65 MPAs, the Fazlur Rehman led party is the second largest party in the house and the largest opposition party

LAHORE S ta f f R e p o R t

Interior Minister Rana Sanaullah on Saturday dropped a hint of re turn of party chief Nawaz Sharif next year before general elec tions and said the PML N lead ership had requested him to be present to lead the party’s elec tion campaign next year

Addressing a press confer ence here, Sanaullah said Nawaz Sharif was the party leader and the PML N could not impose any decision on him, but it had requested him to be present to lead the party’s election cam paign next year

“He has accepted this and whenever elections happen, Nawaz Sharif will be back in Pakistan before that,” he added

PTI Chairman Imran Khan was only trying to push the coun try towards chaos, adding that it was condemnable

Regarding reports of the government adopting a strict ap proach towards the PTI, the inte rior minister questioned the gathered media representatives that if a party said it was march ing on to Islamabad then what other response it could be given

He said that if an “armed gang” came then it was obvious that law enforcement agencies would have to act and stop any such attempt

“If he comes with the aim to protest, I am saying this on record we will give them the place, give them security and even food But if they want to trample over the state or head to wards the Red Zone, then it is our constitutional responsibility to stop such people ” He said that it would be the government’s at tempt that any power that used is done so carefully” to keep losses to a minimum

The interior minister also as

sailed the PTI government’s eco nomic performance and blamed it for the current issues in the country He added that the results of the PTI s tenure were now coming to the fore and “expos ing” the party

Meanwhile, the Islamabad police has said that on the inte rior minister ’s instructions an important meeting was held to devise a plan for the PTI rally

The meeting decided that any required number of Frontier Constabulary personnel would be provided and also instructed officers to prepare for dealing with any law and order situation in accordance with the law Islamabad Inspector Gen eral of Police Dr Akbar Nasir Khan said that the police would not allow anyone to disturb peace and order in the city and would take all necessary meas ures to protect the life and prop erty of citizens

Customs foil smuggling of impor ted I-phones and Macbook Pro laptops

From the beginning, it was brought to the knowledge of Imran Khan that Aleem Khan and Jahangir Khan have come to hijack the party,” he added Hamid claimed that Jahangir Tareen and Aleem Khan had a big role in overthrowing the Imran Khan government earlier this year

The PTI leader said that he took a firm stance over the reference of Justice Qazi Faiz Isa, saying that he had said that the reference against an honest and capable judge was being made on the orders of some forces “It was later proved that my fears and claims about Jahangir Tareen Aleem Khan and Justice Qazi Faiz Isa were not wrong,” he added Hamid Khan claimed that Imran Khan had sent Shah Mahmood Qureshi to convince him after the issues he brought came to light However, he responded by asking Imran to restart the journey from where it had stopped

Balochistan flood toll rises to 322 as 12 more die, PDMA repor ts

QUETTA S ta f f R e p o R t

The death toll from floods in Balochistan reached 322 with 12 more reported deaths on Saturday, the Provincial Disaster Management Authority (PDMA) reported

Sources said that Additional Collector Asim Rehman clear the huge quantity of items

However, sources said that Additional Collector Asim Rehman foiled the attempt of clearing non duty paid items and confiscated the goods

Sources said that Customs officials on a daily basis clear huge quantities of non duty paid items from airports and the high ups do not pay heed

Customs officials on a ques tion of alleged involvement of officials posted at the airport replied that we have collected all details from baggage counters and other places where they abandoned them

Sources said that the above m e n t i o n d C a l s o h e l p e d t h e p a s s e n g e r s t o r u n a w a y f r o m t h e a i r p o r t i n o r d e r t o s a v e t h e m s e l v e s f r o m any inquiry

According to the PDMA, over 500,000 head of cattle have dead in the province, and 185,000 homes damaged due to the calamity Similarly 65 000 homes were completely destroyed while 120,000 were partially damaged, the PDMA informed

On the other hand 103 dams have also been damaged due to heavy rainfall and flooding in the province while crops over 900,000 acres of land were also damaged

Besides, 2,198 km of roads and 22 bridges have also damaged amid the calamity

After September 15 five more persons lost their lives including two men and three children today, taking the death toll in devastating floods in Balochistan to 322 so far

Five more people including two men and three children were killed due to floods in Balochistan

The spokesperson for the Provincial Disaster Management Authority (PDMA) confirmed that the death toll in Balochistan floods reached 322 including 156 men, 73 women and 90 children

Imran links PTI’s return to Parliament with probe into ‘cipher

ISLAMABAD

S ta f f R e p o R t

Former prime minister and PTI Chair man Imran Khan has expressed ‘condi tional’ willingness to return to the National Assembly, saying that his party may rejoin the lower house of parliament if diplomatic cypher on ‘regime change conspiracy’ was investigated properly

Speaking to journalists in Islamabad on Saturday, he said that the establish ment is a reality in Pakistan’s politics as it has all the powers

The former premier said his govern ment had cordial ties with the establish ment and he did not know as to how the ties deteriorated Imran said governments in Pakistan needed establishment’s support more than opposition Now we are in opposi tion so how can we maintain cordial ties with the establishment,” he remarked

The former prime minister said that he wanted friendly relations with all countries including the United States and India in national interest However, Imran said he cannot accept any policy which

advocates India’s supremacy in the re gion and recognition of state of Israel “[Indian PM Narendra] Modi in tends to break Pakistan ”

Commenting on PM Shehbaz’s UNGA address, Imran said the pre mier s speech was announcement of the country’s bankruptcy PM Shehbaz and Finance Minister Miftah Ismail have sunk the country s economy he claimed

“The current government has brought the economy to such a point that it needs surgery instead of medicine while Miftah is treating cancer patient

with aspirin,” said the PTI chief Imran said the government s priority is not the economy but ending its cor ruption cases and incumbent rulers have closed down corruption cases worth Rs1,100 billion

Ishaq Dar is ready to return home as soon as the NAB case against him is over Later, Nawaz Sharif will also re turn to the country the former premier said, adding that he won’t repeat the past mistakes that he made during his first stint at power if he returned to the power corridors again