Epaper_22-09-30 KHI

ISLAMABAD s ta f f r e p o r t

THe Islamabad High Court (IHC) has overturned the conviction of Mar yam Nawaz vice pres dent of Pak stan Mus m League Nawaz (PML N) and her husband retired Capt Safdar Awan in the Avenfie d House reference

In Ju y 2018 an accountabil ty court ruled that deposed prime minister Nawaz Sharif and his fam ly laundered money in the 1990s to pay for four uxur y apartments n Park Lane, central Lon don drawing on al egat ons that resur faced in the 2016 Panama Papers

Accountability Court judge Moham mad Bashir sentenced Nawaz to seven years’ imprisonment, fined the family £10 million and ordered the se zure of the Avenfie d properties She also received an additional one year sentence for pre senting forged documents in court

Simultaneously, Nawaz ’s husband, Awan, was sentenced to a year ’s rigor ous imprisonment for not cooperating with the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) authorities

In October last year she along w th her father and husband approached the high court to annul the verdict

The family has long strugg ed to ex plain how the Avenfield f ats came nto their possess on Family members in tially told different stories During the NAB trial, Sharif s defence claimed that a qatari investment fund gave the expensive properties to the family to repay a debt owed to Shar f s father M an Muham mad Shar f

£7 mi lion: Avenfie d House (above), is located in Park Lane central London and has a view of Hyde Park

Commentators in 2017 mocked a letter from a qatari prince apparently testify ng to that deal as a rabbit pul ed out of a hat

Sharif and members of his family have den ed any wrongdoing, and sup porters claim the charges against them are politically motivated

On Thursday, responding to the judgement the prime m nister said the “edifice of lies, slander and character as

sassination had come crumb ing down

“ Mar yam s acquittal n the Avenf eld reference s a slap in the face of the so called accountabi ty system that was employed to target the Sharif family My congratulations to Mar yam beti (daugh ter) and Safdar he tweeted Whi e a short order is awaited, based on the verdict Nawaz is now eligible to contest e ections

“A person who has been convicted of a crime involving corrupt on or moral turpitude is disqua ified from contesting elections unless a period of five years has lapsed since their release accord ing to Mir za Mo z Ba g, a lawyer

Wh le the Supreme Court has in the case of Samiullah Baloch held that a dis qua ificat on under Article 62(1)(f) contin ues for l fe a d squa ification under Article 63(1)(g) isn’t ncurable,” he expla ned “ Mar yam Nawaz unlike her father was never declared to fall short of the requ rements enshr ned under Art c e 62(1)(f) On the contrar y the only bar to her contesting elections was her conv c

Petroleum prices likely to witness

‘significant cut’ on October 1

Prices of al petroleum products are ikely to witness substantial cuts if the ru ing coali tion government passes on the downward trend in the internationa o l market and does not increase the tax & evy with the start of next month of October

According to sources n oil industr y, the per tre prices of petrol and diesel are likely to be decreased by Rs 7 24 and Rs 16 61 during the next fifteen days of October if the government passes on the impact of the decl ning trend in the g oba oil market by not jack ng up the rate of tax, levy imposed n the per litre of petroleum products

At present the government is charging zero general sa es tax (GST) on petroleum products whi e the rate of petro eum levy (PL) on petrol is Rs37 42 and on diese it is Rs 7 58 per l tre said sources adding that the average price of crude oil has re ma ned around 91 dol ar per barrel from September 16 to 28 while the average prices of diesel and petrol rema ned at

tion n the Avenf e d reference With the conviction being overturned by the Is lamabad High Court, Mar yam Nawaz s candidature for an election to the Par l ament wil no onger trigger Article 63(1)(g)

ACQUITTAL EXPOSED IMRAN S FAKE AC COUNTABILITY NARRATIVE: PML N vice President Mar yam Nawaz on Thursday said her and Capt (r) Safdar s acquitta in the Avenfield case had not only ex posed Imran Khan s fake accountab lity narrative, but a so vindicated Nawaz Shar f from baseless and unfounded al legat ons of corrupt on Talking to med a persons outside Is lamabad H gh Court (IHC) she thanked her counse advocates Amjad Per vez and Sa man Akram Raja for vigorously pursuing the case

“The A lah A mighty has exonerated PML N supremo Muhammad Nawaz Sharif family of all base ess and fake a legations leveled aga nst them Soon Nawaz Sharif will arrive in countr y she added Mar yam Nawaz also lauded the

I

$115 and $ 81 per barrel respective y n the international oi market

Sharing details of oil industr y ’s working regarding next fortnight the sources said that ex depot price of petrol has so far (!6th September to 28th September) reg stered Rs 7 24 decrease to Rs 230 19 per itre for the next fortnight compared to ex sting price of Rs 237 43 per litre

Similarly, the ex depot price of diesel has decreased by Rs 16 61 to Rs 230 82 per l tre for the next fortn ght compared to current price of Rs 247 43 per tre Like w se the ex depot price of ight diesel has been reduced by Rs 10 87 to Rs 186 41 per litre for the upcoming fortn ght com pared to Rs197 28 per litre presently More over the ex depot pr ce of kerosene has recorded a decline of Rs 14 20 to Rs 187 82 per litre against Rs 197 28 per l tre currently

According to the sources the above ment oned ca culation of the ex depot prices of petroleum products is based on the existing rate of petroleum levy marg n and commission which are part of per litre price of petroleum products

e

IHC s verd ct

Lash ng out at Imran Khan, she said the Pakistan Tehreek e Insaf (PTI) chair man was a liar conspirator and tra tor “ He w ll have to answer for his mis eading propaganda and al egations H stor y will seek answer from him for sul ying a respectable family,” she added

She said Imran Khan was imposed on the countr y under a well hatched consp racy to oust Nawaz Sharif as t was difficult for the former to become prime m nister of the countr y n the pres ence of latter Nawaz fami y has re mained steadfast n facing unfounded allegations against him and his fami y for six years and eventually Allah Almighty exonerated them she sa d

She sa d her father had decided to face Panama cases despite the fact that his friends and well w shers foretold him about his likely punishment

She said Imran hatched conspiracy to sabotage deal with International Monetar y Fund (IMF) attempted to di vide Amred Forces and tried to make

election commiss on of Pakistan (eCP) controversial

The PML N vice pres dent de manded const tution of a h gh powered probe comm ttee to probe into consp r acies hatch by Imran Khan and also ca led for his arrest at the earliest

Referring to Imran and his principal secretar y ’s aud o leak, she said Imran was heard in the leaked audio as say ng that let s play with the cipher

The bureaucrat then told Imran how to use the conspiracy card to fool the people she added

“ Imran must be pun shed for playing with the countr y s national interest and secur ty Perhaps he was treating the countr y as Lahore’s Gaddafi Stadium,” she remarked sarcastically

She said the leaked audios had proved that the PML N leadership was pa triot and had always talked about respect ing law of the and even n their private conversations whi e the leaked audio of Imran Khan had proved him a traitor

Responding a question, she said the power plant s machiner y for her son n law was mported during the govern ment of PTI and Imran should be ashamed of it She felt pride that Prime M nister Shehbaz Sharif could be heard refusing to import the machiner y from India due to ban on imports in his leaked audio

The health programme was launched by the government of her fa ther Nawaz Sharif and she cou d not suggest c os ng such people friendly programme, she clarified

MARYAM NAWAZ MEETS PM AFTER AC QUITTAL: Minister for Information and Broadcasting Marr yum Aurangzeb on Thursday sa d that PML N v ce Pres dent Mar yam Nawaz met Prime Minister She hbaz Sharif after the dec sion of Islam abad H gh Court In a tweet she said that Shehbaz Sharif congratu ated Mar yam Nawaz on her acquitta and Captain Safdar s acquittal While ex pressing her gratitude to A lah Almighty over acquittal of Mar yam Nawaz she sa d Allah A mighty has done great grace, Allah has given great honour ”

MUZAFFARABAD

Former prime minister and Pakistan Tehreek Insaf Ch ef Imran Khan on Thursday dec ared that the leaked audio conversation between him and his principal secretar y had damaged Shahbaz Sharif s reputa tion and not his Address ng the pub ic gathering in Muzaffarabad Imran Khan said that over 100,000 people have sac rificed the r lives in the struggle for Kashm r s independence He said that he would fight for the Kashmir cause until he is al ve

He added that their government ended all ties w th India when Naren dra Mod s government ended Kash m r ’s specia constitut ona status Trade with Ind a would be beneficial but we did not prefer it over our Kash mir brothers ’ struggle, he added

Imran Khan thanked Shahbaz Sharif for allegedly leaking his audio conversat on with his pr ncipal secre

tar y Azam Khan The PTI chief said that Sindh is submerged in floods while Bilawal Bhutto s touring America Shehbaz Shar f begged a fema e journalist for funds, he added Ishaq Dar who was an abscon

der for five years has returned to the countr y and has been appointed the finance min ster, he added If these power ful people are g ven NRO, then why are the poor people booked? Imran Khan questioned

ISLAMABAD a h m a d a h m a da n i

P M O R D e R s u R g e N t A C t i O N t O e N s u R e u N i N t e R R u P t e D g A s s u P P ly t O D O M e s t i C C O N s u M e R s i N w i N t e R

ISLAMABAD S ta f f R e p o R t

PR I M E Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Thursday directed the authorities concerned to chalk out an urgent action plan in view of uninterrupted gas supply to consumers during the upcoming winter season

The prime minister issued the instructions while chairing an emergency meeting to address the challenge regarding

provision of gas to domestic and commercial consumers PM Sharif warned that any negligence and maladministration in provision of gas supplies would not be tolerated He emphasized ensuring gas supply to domestic consumers particularly in hours of cooking

The prime minister pointed out that the government of Pakistan Tehreek e Insaf ignored getting benefit of purchasing gas from international market at cheaper rates during the COVID 19 pandemic

ADB to mobilize over $2b to suppor t post-flood relief measures in Pakistan

ISLAMABAD

S ta f f R e p o R t

The Asian Development Bank (ADB) will approve funding to the tune over $2 billion to support Pakistan s post flood relief and resilience activities by the end of current year, ADB Director General for Central and West Asia Eugene Zhukov told a virtual press conference from Manila on Thursday Expressing sympathies and grief over the huge devastation caused by the recent floods and torrential rains in Pakistan, he said the ADB had already provided $3 million grant for the immediate purchase of relief goods such as food supplies and tents The press conference was arranged as part of the 55th annual meeting of ADB Zhukov said the ADB was also aiming to mobilize a $500 700 million package for the much needed immediate relief assistance early recovery and rehabilitation and reconstruction The package would be approved by the end of current year “The ADB is processing another $1 5 billion countercyclical support to mitigate the impacts of rising food prices and other external shocks on the poor and vulnerable in Pakistan,” he added He said the ADB had been providing unprecedented support of $100 billion to deliver climate financing to its developing member countries from 2019 to 2030 Responding to a question with respect to the post flood relief and resilience measures in Pakistan, Zhukov said, “We are working in close collaboration with the local government and other international development partners to finalize the damage needs assessment that might be finalized by mid of the next month ” He said in the agriculture sector yields of major food crops (wheat rice, and maize) in the CAREC (Central Asia Regional Economic Cooperation) region had declined by 3 10% Disasters were increasing in intensity as seen in the recent flooding in Pakistan, with 33 million people affected and over 600,000 in relief camps, and 1 7 million homes damaged he said

Over Rs48b disbursed to 1.9m flood affectees so far: NFRCC

ISLAMABAD S ta f f R e p o R t

The National Flood Response and Coordination Centre (NFRCC) on Thursday informed that the government has disbursed over Rs48 60 billion in emergency flood relief cash assistance of Rs25 000 per household to 1,943,907 flood affectees so far According to the NFRCC central dashboard highlighting the Flood Response Management 2022, the government had earmarked a total of Rs 68 99 billion to provide emergency cash relief to a total 2 759 601 flood victims However, the cash disbursement was underway on daily basis where some 815,694 were remaining as per the Benazir Income Support Programme (BISP) data and the available remaining funding was Rs 20 39 billion The devastating torrential rains have damaged some 2 056 805 houses washed away 410 bridges and 13 074 kilometers road network across the country from June 14 till date after the onset of the monsoon season

He regretted that the entire population especially the common man was suffering the consequences of the ill planning of the previous government Sharif said his government believed in practical steps rather than boasting false statistics and making tall claims

The meeting was chaired by former prime minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, Finance Minister Ishaq Dar, State Minister for Petroleum Mussadik Malik, Adviser Ahad Cheema and senior officials

P M at t e n d s r e c e P t i o n o n 75 y e a r s o f Pa k U s t i e s

explainer: Why climate - change ‘ loss and damage’ will be a hot topic at coP27

BARCELONA R e u t e R S

As large parts of the planet struggle with climate inflicted woes from floods in Pakistan to forest fires in the United States, the thorny issue of how to address loss and damage driven by global warming has risen up the political agenda

N i n e y e a r s a g o , U N c l i m a t e n e g o t i a t o r s a g r e e d t o s e t u p a f o r m a l mechanism to tackle loss and damage b u t l i t t l e c o n c r e t e h a s e m e rg e d , beyond a donor backed effort to boost insurance against weather disasters in developing countries

Wi t h f r o n t l i n e n a t i o n s l i k e s m a l l

i s l a n d s b e i n g h i t h a r d e r, t h e y b a c k e d b y c l i m a t e a c t i v i s t s a r e pushing for funding and other help to d e a l w i t h l o s s a n d d a m a g e f r o m w o r s e n i n g f l o o d s , d r o u g h t s , s t o r m s , heat and rising sea levels

At September ’s United Nations General Assembly, UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres waded into the debate with a controversial proposal for rich governments to tax “windfall” profits by fossil fuel companies

The money, he proposed, should be redirected to countries suffering loss and damage caused by climate change, as well as to people struggling with rising food and energy prices

Here’s why loss and damage is set to be a hot topic at November ’s COP27 UN climate change conference in Egypt: W h at i s c l i m at e c h a n g e l o s s a n d d a m a g e? L o s s a n d d a m a g e r e f e r s t o t h e h a r m a n d d e s t r u c t i o n t h a t h a p p e n s w h e n p e o p l e a n d p

drought and sea levels creeping higher

A large share of “loss and damage” can be measured in financial terms, like the cost of lost homes and infrastructure

But there are other “non economic” losses that are harder to quantify, such as graveyards and family photos being washed away or indigenous cultures that could disappear if a whole community must move because their land is no longer habitable

A June 2022 report on 55 economies hit hard by climate change from Bangladesh to Kenya to South Sudan found they would have been 20 percent wealthier today had it not been for climate change and the $525 billion in losses inflicted on them by shifts in temperature and rainfall over the past two decades Often the poorest families, including some in richer societies, lack the means to recover what they have lost particularly as aid flows fail to keep up with growing needs

Honda repudiates rumours of delaying or putting off Honda HR-V

LAHORE

Honda Atlas Cars Pakistan Limited (HACPL) has dismissed various media reports that HACPL will either delay or outright put off the launch of its upcoming HR V crossover sport utility vehicle (CUV) Maqsood Ur Rehman Rehmani, Vice President and Company Secretary of HACPL, and Amir Nazir, General Manager Sales & Marketing at HACPL have both denied the rumours that there have been any alterations in HACPL s plan to release the Honda HR V In conversation with Profit, both have stated that the HR V will be released per HACPL s original timeline Neither of the two could quote an exact release date for the HR V However, Nazir stated that the announcement for the launch of the HR V will be made very soon

Bilawal highlights urgent need for assistance as flood losses exceed $30b

$30 billion ”

Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari in a meeting with James Elroy Risch a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee of the United States, highlighted the devastating impact of the floods on Pakistan which resulted in more than one third of the country being submerged in water

The floods affected 33 million people, “more than the population of Australia the foreign minister stressed in the meeting held late Wednesday

Appreciating the $66 1 million assistance from the US he highlighted Pakistan needs much more as initial estimates indicate damages of more than

He underscored the challenges being faced by the affected population including impending health catastrophes, particularly outbreaks of malaria, dengue and water borne diseases in the affected population food insecurity and more

He emphasized Pakistan was a victim of climate change despite being minimally responsible for greenhouse emissions

Pakistan was committed to building back better and greener climate resilient infrastructure but the scale of the calamity necessitated international support Bhutto said the US Congress had historically stood by Pakistan in natural disasters and urged continuing cooperation

“Providing an exact date would reduce the surprise that HACPL has prepared for customers, said Nazir when asked if he could provide a particular timeline in terms of weeks and/or months Profit, like most other media outlets had reported that the HR V would be released later in 2023 HACPL’s urgency to release the HR V is likely an attempt to galvanise its sales after the forgettable showing by the entire automotive industry in FY 2022 23 HACPL in particular saw month on month (MoM) contractions of 35% and 29% in July and August respectively The launch of the HR V might provide the company with the ability to rally customers behind the ongoing CUV bonanza The HR V already has a history in Pakistan Its Japanese iteration, the Honda Vezel has long been imported in Pakistan by private dealerships as a CBU However, this is the first time HACPL will be introducing the automobile themselves as a CBU This will also be HACPLs first foray in the crossover SUV segment Nazir had told Profit in an earlier conversation that the HR V would be released in both hybrid and non hybrid variants”

U n to l a u n c h rev i s e d $ 6 0 0 m a p p e a l fo r Pa ki s t a n fl o o d e ffe c te e s

ISLAMABAD S h a h z a D pa R ac h a

The United Nations will reportedly launch a revised humanitarian appeal for additional $600 million for immediate relief assistance of flood affectees in Pakistan

Acting Secretary Economic Affairs Division Humair Karim informed this during the second meeting of the Steering Committee for Coordination Regarding International Assistance for Flood Relief Activities in the Ministry of Economic Affairs Islamabad The agenda of the meeting was “Mapping of Humanitarian Assistance and Relief Efforts ”

The meeting was attended by

representatives from United Nations Development Program, UNOCHA, Embassies of Turkey and China British High Commission Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ministry of Health, BISP, Ministry of Food Security, NDMA and Senior Officials of Ministry of Economic Affairs

The first meeting of the Steering Committee was chaired by the Federal Minister for Economic Affairs on 21st of September While highlighting the agenda of the meeting, Mr Karim warmly welcomed the representatives of embassies and international organizations and government representatives to the meeting

He stated that he is attending the meeting on the behalf of the Minister for Economic

Affairs He further briefed that the Steering Committee was formulated by the Prime Minister of Pakistan with the purpose to encourage better coordination between Government of Pakistan and International Development Partners for the effective and efficient provision of International Assistance to the flood affected areas

During the meeting, the chair requested the Joint Secretary EAD to briefly present the current status of International Assistance coming from International development Partners Islam Zaib, Joint Secretary EAD presented the flood situation and flood relief assistance coming from Donor Partners including; World Bank, ADB, USA through USAID, UK through FCDO, JICA, Turkey,

China, EU, Sweden, Denmark, Belgium, Germany, OPEC, UAE, Italy through AICS, New Zealand Australia Canada Qatar Uzbekistan, Singapore, Saudi Arabia, Oman, Norway, Jordan, Austria, Nepal, France, Turkmenistan, Jordan, Russia, Indonesia, Greece and UN Agencies including; UNFPA, WHO, FAO, UNICEF, UNHCR, and WFP

The chair stated that the Government of Pakistan is thankful to the International Community for providing humanitarian assistance for the catastrophe faced by the country due to unprecedented rains and flash floods He further apprised the participants that the United Nations is in the process of launching Revised Humanitarian Appeal on 4th of October in which additional USD 600

million will be asked for immediate relief assistance He stated that the UN launched the Flash Appeal on 30th August 2022 with the assistance of USD 160 Million Grant for flood relief support Since the devastation is huge, the grant was not enough to meet the needs of the affected population

He further highlighted that currently Pakistan is in the first phase of providing immediate relief to the flood affected areas with the provision of food, shelter, medical facility, mosquito nets etc

The Ministry of Health apprised the donors about the spread of water borne diseases, malnourishment in children and urgent need of proper medical care to pregnant women in the flood affected areas

WASHINGTON S ta f f R e p

R

LAHORE: Punjab CM Chief Minister Ch Pervaiz Elahi presents symbolic key to DG Rescue 1122 Dr Rizwan to inaugurate Motorbike Ambulance Service at district level across province photo by zubaiR Mehfooz

ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Thursday attended a diplomatic reception held at the US embassy here to commemorate the 75 years of relations between Pakistan and the United States The reception started with a one minute silence to express condolence over the death of people and convey grief to those who had lost their livelihood in the devastating floods The federal ministers and US Ambassador in Pakistan Donald Blome attended the reception In his address, the US ambassador said the people of the United States continued to stand with Pakistan The strength of the bilateral friendship is demonstrated by the more than $66 million in US support for flood response S ta f f R e p o R t

M y s t e R y s H R O u D s F R A u D u l e N t t R A N s F e R s O F

R O yA l PA l M C l u B M e M B e R s H i P s

LAHORE

sO M E former and current management staff of Royal Palm Golf and Country Club (RPGCC), both at the junior and senior levels, had sold premium membership of unsuspecting members and fake affidavits were allegedly used to sell the membership

without the consent or knowledge of original holders of the membership, Pakistan Today has reliably learnt reliably RPGCC memberships are easily p u r c h a s a b l e f r o m

either the club or the secondary market in the form of fresh or existing memberships, respectively Original transferable memberships cost between Rs1 3 million while non transferable memberships can be purchased

imran claims ‘audio leak ’ damaged s hehbaz ’s reputation and not his

CONTINuED fROM pAGE 01

The PTI chief told that the rupee has depreciated 33% since this government took charge In 2018, Pakistan had its highest current account deficit of over $20 billion Addressing the ECP Chief Sultan Sikander Raja Imran Khan said that if he has any shame, he should resign immediately He added that the current government reduced Kashmir s budget from Rs200 billion to Rs60 billion He urged the people of Kashmir to come out with their families on his call Imran thanks people for generous donations: Former prime minister and Pakistan Tehreek e Insaf (PTI) chairman Imran Khan on Thursday thanked people who generously donated for the flood victims in Pakistan PTI Senator and former BISP chairperson Dr Sania Nishtar called on former prime minister Imran Khan to apprise him of the donations collected for the flood victims so far Senator Shibli Faraz, chief of staff of Imran Khan and Salman Aftab were also present in the meeting Speaking on the occasion former prime minister and PTI chairman thanked the people for generously donating for the people affected due to floods He vowed to distribute the funds to the flood victims as the catastrophe has badly affected a large portion of the country’s population Earlier this month, former prime minister and PTI chairman khan held third telethon to raise funds for the rehabilitation of flood victims in Pakistan Addressing the telethon, Khan had said that never in the history, Rs10 billion were collected during five hours of two telethon “We would be using these funds in a transparent manner and will devise a system that will bring transparency in their utilization, he had assured

Mar yam walks free

CONTINuED fROM pAGE 01

acQUittal oF maRYam, saFdaR a slaP in Face oF so called accoUntaBilitY sYstem: Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Thursday said that the acquittal of Maryam Nawaz Sharif and Capt (r) Safdar in Avenfield Reference was a slap in the face of so called accountability system that was employed to target Sharif family “The edifice of lies, slander, character assassination has come crumbling down today,” the prime minister wrote on Twitter He congratulated the Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz Supreme Leader Nawaz Sharif over the decision announced by the Islamabad High Court a while ago “Maryam Nawaz’s acquittal in the Avenfield Reference is a slap in the face of so called accountability system that was employed to target Sharif family My congratulations to Maryam Beti Safdar the prime minister added He also hoped that justice would prevail in the matter of evidence regarding late Judge Arshad Malik Finally Maryam and Safdar got justice We bow before Allah Almighty who blessed us with success, he added The prime minister said with the court verdict, another chapter of political victimization reached to its end and innocent people stood vindicated,” he added He said both Maryam Nawaz Sharif and Captain (retd) Safdar faced the worst conditions with patience and steadfastness

for Rs 900,000 Exiting memberships that can be transferred sell for close to prevalent fresh membership rates in secondary market It is to be noted that RPGCC charges Rs130, 000 for transfers to any member looking to sell his/her membership to a willing buyer

T h e r e m a i n d e r o f t h e s e l l i n g p r i c e i s paid by the buyer directly to the seller, and the club is not involved in this latter part of

t h e t r a n s a c t i o n a n d n e g o t i a t i o n o f p r i c e

According to sources at RPGCC, in order to avoid suspicion, the illegally transferred m e m b e r s h i p s w e r e f u l l y c h a rg e d a n d r e c e i v e d b y t h e c l u b f r o m s e c o n d a r y

market buyers and documentation to reflect the same, prepared

It is pertinent to mention that back in 2019, during PTI’s tenure, the apex court had directed to hand over the Royal Palm

Justice Sheikh Azmat Saeed and Justice Ijazul Ahsan had issued the verdict at the Supreme Court Lahore Registry The court ordered the Railways administration to handle all the affairs of the Royal Palm Golf and Country Club and to determine rules and regulations regarding the new management in three months

The order further directed Pakistan Railways to float international tender for Royal Palm Country Club Reportedly, two local companies, namely Hashoo Group and Habib Rafiq Group are bidding for the club and the process is in its final stage

s A F RO n co n ce r n e d a b o u t i n fl ow o f i l l e g a l

Afg h a n n at i o n a l s i n Pa k i s t a n

ISLAMABAD S ta f f R e p o R t

The National Assembly Standing Committee on States and Frontier Regions (SAFRON) on Thursday showed great concern over illegal inflow of Afghan nationals to Pakistan at large number without their registration by the quarters concerned after regime change in the war torn country

The Committee which met here with Ibadullah Khan in the Chair expressed deep concern over the freely moment of unregistered Afghan nationals without any restrictions and occupied major businesses in big cities especially in Karachi and Peshawar without paying taxes to the government of Pakistan

The NA body recommended that Secretary, Ministry of Interior, Secretaries, Home Departments of all the provinces would be invited in the next meeting to discuss the issue of unregistered Afghan nationals living mostly in urban areas of the country to chalk out a mechanism to stop them on border areas

Additional Secretary, Ministry of SAFRON, informed while briefing the Committee that Pakistan generously hosting millions of Afghans for the last four decades He said that currently, there were three categories of Afghans living in Pakistan that includes 1 4 million Registered Proof of Registration (POR) Card holders, 840,000 Afghan Citizen Card holders (ACC) and estimated by various agencies 0 7 million undocumented Afghans

federal c abinet approves countr y ’s largest initiative of Living indus: s herr y

ISLAMABAD S ta f f R e p o R t

Federal Minister for Climate Change Senator Sherry Rehman on Thursday announced that the Federal Cabinet have approved the country s largest Living Indus initiative that aimed at protecting the cradle of civilizations which was under serious threat due to environmental degradation and anthropogenic activities

Addressing a media briefing flanked by Secretary Ministry of Climate Change Asif Hyder Shah the Minister unveiled the salient features of the project that has been conceived after thorough consultations with the academia, experts, stakeholders and provincial governments

Senator Sherry Rehman said River Indus was

the mother of the nation as it fed the entire agriculture and humanity living around it from the north to the south “We will have to ensure development in harmony with nature not against the nature The United Nations she said had assisted the Ministry of Climate Change to develop a detailed report on River Indus to devise a well thought strategy to initiate its conservation and restoration as a living river The Minister underlined that the nature, topography and biodiversity of Indus River changes with every area it passes by

“The marine species is under threat whereas the most at risk are the humans living across the mighty river The River Indus has exploded due to massive floods in 2010 and in recent torrential rains We will have to find ways to revive natural routes of Indus River

finance minister held vir tual meeting with iMf Mission c hief nathan Por ter

Federal Minister for Finance & Revenue Senator Muhammad Ishaq Dar held a virtual meeting with IMF Mission Chief Nathan Porter The Finance Minister briefed on the economic situation caused by the devastating floods in the country affecting infrastructure, crops and the livelihood of the people The Finance Minister stated that the government would take measures to reduce the burden on the economy while protecting the vulnerable sections of the population

The Minister further said that the government aims to address structural issues so that Pakistan is able to end its fiscal deficit and move towards sustainable growth

The Finance Minister recalled the meeting of

Prime Minister Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif with MD IMF during his visit to the US in which MD IMF has vowed to support Pakistan in this difficult situation caused by the flashfloods and reconsider the program conditions

The Finance Minister further reaffirmed the government s commitment to undertake the reforms envisaged under the program

IMF Mission Chief, Nathan Porter extended felicitations to the Finance Minister on assuming the Finance Ministry and shared IMF’s assessment of the challenges facing the economy He also expressed IMF s support for Pakistan in this hour of need and in this context mentioned the meeting of the MD IMF with the Prime Minister of Pakistan The IMF Mission Chief also discussed the support of international lenders for the country to mitigate the effects of flashfloods

Pakistan would ac t as ‘ bridge’ between c hina, Us: Bilawal

ISLAMABAD ag e n c i e S

Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari on Thursday has said that in times of geopolitical division Pakistan wants to be a ‘bridge by uniting’ the United States and China

The PPP scion s remarks came during an interview with Foreign Policy where he maintained that Pakistan’s unique position as a friend of both the United States and China” could help encourage cooperation between the two countries

Dubbing the claim of China not coming to Pakistan’s aid in its recent time of need as “absolutely incorrect”

He maintained that Islamabad s relationship with Beijing was not new and had long bipartisan roots

And I like to say that we wanted to be friends with China when nobody wanted to be friends with China Now, everybody wants to be friends with China ” Bilawal added

Responding to the interviewer ’s assertation that the US did not want to be friends with China Bilawal said that “not everything is about the geopolitical conflict of the United States and China”

He stated that it was preposterous and “absolutely ridiculous” that a conversation about US and China relations was occurring while talking about Pakistan’s survival and ability to

deal with cataclysmic flooding

The minister emphasised that climate change could not be confronted if the two superpowers did not work together

Commenting on Beijing’s lack of aid to Colombo during their economic crisis Bilawal maintained that Pakistan’s context was “completely different and that while the country was going through a climate catastrophe

The interviewer argued that Pakistan was going through both an economic and a climate crisis

“In the sense that that was solely an economic crisis of its own dynamics But as far as what China does whether it’s with Sri Lanka or Pakistan that’s

totally China s decision Just like it s 100 per cent America’s decision in either of these circumstances,” the minister replied

He retained that Pakistan would rather continue to play its past role of bridging the gap between the two countries than exacerbate the gap

“Right now, particularly when we’re drowning in floods, I don t want to play any part in exacerbating any tensions or being a geopolitical football,” he said Regarding the Russia Ukraine war, the foreign minister was of the belief that the “broad consensus” within Pakistan had declared that the country did not want to be dragged into this conflict”

The Commissioner, Afghan Refugees Headquarter shared the issues and challenges in repatriation of the Afghan refugees including the insufficient livelihood opportunities and non conducive environment in Afghanistan He informed the Committee that the process of repatriation of Afghan refugees remained slow, after withdrawal of US NATO forces from Afghanistan The Committee deferred the agenda item regarding alleged possession of FATA House Islamabad by the Federal Government however, the said House was constructed from FATA Annual Development Fund for official use by the Parliamentarians and officers of FATA with the direction that the Secretary, Ministry of Interior must attend the next meeting to brief the Committee on the said issue

ssP south enquires after injured Chinese nationals

KARACHI S ta f f R e p o R t

The Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) South district on Thursday visited hospital and enquired after the heath of injured foreign nationals who were shot injured in Saddar area the other day According to spokesperson for District South Police the SSP assured the injured foreign nationals that the culprits involved in the firing would be brought to book The foreign national Dr Hu along with his wife was shot injured by unidentified accused the other day at a dental clinic in Saddar area

Constable mar t yred, Asi among injured in dacoits firing

LAHORE/RAHIM YAR KHAN S ta f f R e p o R t

Punjab Inspector General of Police Faisal Shahkar paid tribute to Constable Muhammad Akbar, who was martyred in Rahim Yar Khan due to the firing of dacoits in Katcha area The IG Police said that brave martyrs like Constable Muhammad Akbar are pride of the Police Department and Punjab Police will never forget the sacrifices of its martyrs He said that Constable Muhammad Akbar sacrificed his life in the line of duty, carrying forward mission of the martyrs Punjab Police is committed to ensure all possible protection of life and property of the people and elimination anti social elements ” Faisal Shahkar directed to provide best welfare to family members of martyrs and also ensure best medical facilities to the injured personnel He expressed these views while paying tribute to the eternal sacrifice of Constable Muhammad Akbar According to details another son of the Punjab Police embraced martyrdom in the line of duty, whose funeral prayer was offered at Police Lines Rahim Yar Khan Constable Muhammad Akbar was martyred when dacoits in Katcha area opened fire on a police mobile avn Resultantly, ASI Ijazuz Nabi, Constable Azhar Hussain Najam and driver Naveed sustained injuries On the instructions of IG Police Faisal Shahkar, Additional IG South Punjab Dr Ehsan Sadiq and other officers attended funeral prayer of the martyr Officers of various security agencies including DPO Rahim Yar Khan, DPO Bahawalpur, Sector Commander of Cholistan Rangers District and Session Judge participated in the funeral prayer held at Rahim Yar Khan Police Lines The body of Shaheed Constable Muhammad Akbar was taken to his native Chowk Bahadurpur near Sadiqabad for burial, where funeral prayers were offered again at Abdul Wahid Cemetery in which DPO Rahim Yar Khan and other officers were present Constable Muhammad Akbar Shaheed is survived by his aged parents, wife, one son, three daughters and a younger sister Earlier, Additional IG South Punjab Dr Ehsan Sadiq, DIG Admin Chaudhry Muhammad Saleem along with DPO Akhtar Farooq visited the injured personnel in the hospital The officers met relatives of Constable Akbar Shaheed and expressed their condolences

G o l f a n d C o u n t r y C l u b t o P a k i s t a n R a i l w a y s a f t e r n u l l i f y i n g t h e p r e v i o u s c o n t r a c t T h e c l u b h a p p e n s t o b e t h e

R a i l w a y s ’ o n l y p r o f i t m a k i n g e n t i t y

ISLAMABAD

PAkistAn-ChinA friendshiP Continues to flourish with every PAssing dAy: exPerts

ISLAMABAD S ta f f R e p o R t

eX P E RT S and officials from Pakistan said the ironclad friendship between Pakistan and China continued to flourish with each passing day and year, and remained steadfast despite changes in the regional and global arena

The deep rooted friendship between the two countries is achieving new heights of

O ne dies of corona, 67 new c ases repor ted

strength based on trust and mutual support, and Pakistan and China will continue to work together to further cement the friendly relations, the experts said at a celebration ceremony related to the 73rd anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic of C h i n a o rg a n i z e d b y t h e P a k i s t a n C h i n a F r i e n d s h i p A s s o c i a t i o n ( P C FA ) K h y b e r Pakhtunkhwa chapter A d d r e s s i n g t h e c e r e m o n y, K h y b e r

P a k h t u n k h w a M i n i s t e r f o r L o c a l G o v e r n

m e n t , E l e c t i o n s a n d R u r a l D e v e l o p m e n t

F a i s a l A m i n G a n d a p u r s a i d t h a t C h i n a h a s a l w a y s s t o o d b y P a k i s t a n i n e v e r y d i ff i c u l t t i m e “ C h i n a h a s h e l p e d P a k i s t a n i n i t s f i g h t a g a i n s t t h e C o v i d 1 9 p a n d e m i c a n d p r o v i d e d m u c h n e e d e d s u p p l i e s i n c l u d i n g v a c c i n e s e q u i p m e n t a n d m a s k s b e s i d e s s e n d i n g t e a m s o f m e d i c a l e x p e r t s , p l a y i n g a v i t a l r o l e i n s t r e n g t h e n i n g t h e h e a l t h c a r e s y s t e m o f P a k i s t a n ” h e s a i d

a d d i n g t h a t C h i n a h a s n o w b e e n p r o v i d i n g r e l i e f g o o d s a n d c a s h s u p p o r t f o r f l o o d s v i c t i m s a s t h e r e c e n t c a t a s t r o p h i c f l o o d s i n P a k i s t a n a f f e c t e d m i l l i o n s o f p e o p l e

He said that Pakistan has a lot to learn from China s poverty alleviation program as China has lifted over 800 million people o u t o f p o v e r t y, s e t t i n g a n u n p r e c e d e n t e d example for the world to follow

T h e m i n i s t e r s t r e s s e d t h a t t h e r e i s a

need to further boost the all weather strate gic cooperative friendship and partnership s a y i n g t h e p r o v i n c i a l g o v e r n m e n t s a r e working to further enhance people to peo ple and cultural exchanges between the two countries

Yousaf Ayub khan, president of PCFA, s a i d t h a t a n u m b e r o f p r o j e c t s u n d e r t h e C h i n a P a k i s t a n E c o n o m i c C o r r i d o r ( C P E C ) , a f l a g s h i p p r o j e c t o f t h e C h i n a p r o p o s e d B e l t a n d R o a d I n i t i a t i v e h a s p r o v e d t o b e a s t i m u l u s f o r P a k i s t a n ’s economy

C P E C h a s h e l p e d P a k i s t a n i n a l l e v i a t i n g s e v e r e e n e r g y s h o r t a g e s a n d i m p r o v i n g i n f r a s t r u c t u r e i n t h e f i r s t p h a s e , ” h e s a i d a d d i n g t h a t t h e C P E C h a s n o w e n t e r e d i n t o a n e w h i g h q u a l i t y s t a g e o f d e v e l o p m e n t w i t h a s p e c i a l f o c u s o n b e n e f i t i n g m o r e p e o p l e

Tourism sector plays vital role in economic development: president

LAHORE: the country has reported one death during the past 24 hours from novel coronavirus as the num ber of confirmed positive cases has surged to 1,572,555 The nationwide tally of fatalities has jumped to 30,613 on Thursday According to the latest figures by the National Institute of Health (NIH) at least 67 persons were tested positive for COVID 19 across the country in the past 24 hours Pakistan has conducted 11 226 tests in the past 24 hours out of which 67 persons were tested positive for the disease The COVID Positivity Ratio was recorded at 0 60 percent

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

President Arif Alvi has said the tourism sector played a vital role in the country’s economic development and is an integral source of income for the people as well as relevant to the improvement of civic facilities in the far flung areas of Pakistan “Tourism is a source of earning foreign exchange, a tool for job creation and poverty alleviation It also creates harmony among people from different parts of the country,” the president said in his message on World Tourism Day Pakistan is a country that has attractive and wonderful tourist sites with its remarkable land scape, diversity and rich history of ancient civilizations,

he said, adding that there is a need to set priorities in considering the potential of the tourism sector in order to advance economic prosperity and progress N

Covid 19 pandemic first and now by the super floods Alvi said that the country must come up with long term strategic planning to boost the tourism industry on a sustainable basis and set new boundaries for se curing its future

“The government will utilize all its resources to turn the challenges into opportunities by restarting the industry from grass root level and ensuring the coop eration and collaboration of allied government agen cies to come out of the crisis and rebuild better the president added

Uz b e ki s t a n s e n d s a n o t h e r h u m a n i t a r i a n a i d c a rg o to Pa ki s t a n

Uzbekistan Air Force’s another special aircraft, car rying humanitarian aid goods arrived in Karachi to support the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees for Central Asia’s relief efforts for people of Pakistan affected by massive flashfloods

The assistance was delivered on behalf of the Uzbekistan government and the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) for Central Asia, said a news release

“We greatly appreciate the support of the Govern ment of Uzbekistan to enable the UNHCR to provide quick humanitarian assistance when it is needed most,” said Hans Friedrich Schodder, UNHCR Rep resentative for Central Asia

Humanitarian aid consists of housing units to pro vide temporary housing for flood victims and basic

necessities to mitigate the consequences of a natural disaster by providing immediate relief to those who were deprived of their homes

The representatives of the National Disaster Man agement Authority and officials of the Foreign Office, on behalf of the Pakistan government received the cargo at the Jinnah International Airport in Karachi

“This humanitarian aid is very important for strengthening friendly ties between our peoples An outstretched helping hand in difficult days is a sign of brotherhood and solidarity We express our sincere gratitude to the leadership and friendly people of Uzbekistan and the Office of the UN High Commis sioner for Refugees for Central Asia,” said Ashique Ali, official of the Foreign Office

Earlier, on September 1, on behalf of President of Uzbekistan Shavkat Mirziyoyev, a humanitarian cargo carrying 40 tons of relief goods for the flood affected had arrived in Pakistan

Armenia not interested in peace, says A zerbaijan’s envoy to Pakistan

ISLAMABAD

Friday 30 September 2022 | KARACHI 04 NEWS Pakistan reiterates commitment to green marine environment through eco -friendly technologies

ISLAMABAD

S ta f f R e p o R t

Pakistan is committed to the preservation of its green marine environment and greener shipping through the advancement of eco friendly technologies, Minister for Maritime Affairs Faisal Ali Subzwari said

Despite contributing less than 1 percent of the global greenhouse gases, Pakistan is the fifth most vulnerable country to climate change, yet the country has been doing utmost efforts to make shipping green and protect the marine environment, the minister said in his message on the World Maritime Day, which falls on Thursday Noting that about 90 percent of the world’s trade is transported by sea, Subzwari said the global shipping industry is coming under increasing

pressure to cut the pollution created by the world’s merchant fleet, highlighting the enormous cost to the environment due to the industry Pakistan s shipping industry contributes immensely to the national economy as 95 percent of its overall trade is carried via ocean freight, he said, adding that to promote green shipping, the country has adopted mandatory measures to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases

In efforts to ensure a clean marine environment and shipping security, the minister said that Pakistan has been using diesel oil for crafts as compared to heavy fuel oil to reduce emissions, carrying out ship ping activities in the shortest possible time to avoid extra running of main engines and generators, main taining oil and garbage record books, and ensuring no emission of fumes and gases

Azerbaijan’s ambassador to Pakistan has accused Arme nia of committing large scale provocations at their state border and planting landmines in the liberated territo ries Speaking at a news conference to commemorate the second anniversary of the “Patriotic War” in the Karabakh region, Ambassador Khazar Farhadov said that Armenia is not interested in peace Azerbaijan of fered Armenia peace immediately after the war, he said, adding that Baku offered peace despite the fact its lands remained under occupation for 30 years, people lived in suffering and deprivation, historical and religious monu ments were destroyed, and cities were razed to the ground, and more than a million mines were planted He added that in a few months, Armenia committed re peated military provocations against Azerbaijan More than 1,400 new landmines were planted in the Lachin district alone, and these mines were planted in 2021, after the war This is a flagrant act of terror against Azer baijan ” he lamented So far more than 240 Azerbaijani cit izens have been killed or seriously injured due to landmine explosions since the war ended, he said Relations between the former Soviet republics of Azerbaijan and Armenia have been tense since 1991, when the Armenian military occupied Nagorno Karabakh, also known as Upper Karabakh a territory internationally recognized as part of Azerbaijan, and seven adjacent regions Lachin, Kalba jar, Aghdam, Fuzuli, Jabrayil, Qubadli, and Zangilan

Large scale clashes erupted in the Karabakh region on Sep tember 27, 2020, when the Armenian army launched at tacks on civilians and Azerbaijani forces, violating several humanitarian cease fire agreements Azerbaijan then launched a counter offensive operation, later dubbed “Iron Fist, which led to the 44 day conflict ending with the lib eration of Azerbaijani lands from the occupation of the Ar menian forces The fighting ended with a deal brokered by Russia “The Patriotic War put an end to Armenia’s nearly 30 year long policy of aggression Azerbaijan ensured its territorial integrity, and the fundamental rights of nearly one million displaced Azerbaijanis were restored

C P E C t o h e l p r e v i ve Pa k i s t a n ’s t o u r i s m s e c t o r d e s p i t e c h a l l e n g e s o f f l o o d : o f f i c i a l

ISLAMABAD

X i n h ua

The China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) will help revive the tourism sec tor of Pakistan, which has faced a serious setback due to recent floods, Managing Director of Pakistan Tourism Department Corporation (PTDC) Aftab ur Rehman

Rana said

CPEC has spread a vast network of roads from the south, east and north of Pakistan, making the tourist resorts in north Pakistan accessible to tourists and it will play a vital role in the revival of the tourism sector when the situation be comes normal after floods Rana told Xinhua

Talking about the potential of the tourism industry after the normalcy in the country following the floods he said that it will not only create economic activity in the local areas but will also have a pos itive impact on the national economy

Currently, 300,000 people in the country are associated with the tourism industry and with an uptick in the num ber of tourists in the country due to better roads and connectivity, the number is likely to increase to 500 000 in the com ing years, he added Ta l k i n g a b o u t t h e d e v a s t a t i n g floods which killed over 1 600 people and affected over 33 million others, the official said that the flashflood had hit the tourism industry hard as tens of ho

tels and restaurants in tourist resorts of n o r t h w e s t K h y b e r P a k h t u n k h w a province were swept away by flood wa t e r s , a n d m a n y o t h e r s w e r e s e r i o u s l y damaged Flood happened during the last days of the peak season of tourism in the northern areas of Pakistan when usually hundreds of tourists throng to the north ern areas This year, dozens of tourists were trapped due to floods, and the tourism activities were abruptly sus pended,” he added Rana said that teams have been formed to assess the losses incurred to the tourism industry due to floods, and ac cording to rough estimates it will take at least two to three years to rebuild infra

structure for tourists in the northern areas

P a k i s t a n g e n e r a t e s g o o d r e v e n u e from foreign tourists visiting the coun t r y f o r a d v e n t u r e t o u r i s m H o w e v e r, this year ’s floods also discouraged for eign tourists he said

The PTDC official told Xinhua that global warming is also feared to pose a great threat to his country s adventure t o u r i s m i n d u s t r y a s t h e g l a c i e r s a r e m e l t i n g a t a r a p i d p a c e , a n d o v e r a l l temperatures in the country are rising

He said that the department is try ing to create awareness against climate c h a n g e e ff e c t s a n d f a c i l i t a t e p r i v a t e tour operators to boost tourism and pro mote the country’s image in the inter national arena

ISLAMABAD S ta f f R e p o R t

HEC CHAIRmAN, UOS VC UNDERSCORE SkILL BASED EDUCAtION fOR ECONOmIC GROWtH

less competitive

corporate corner

IM PA RT I N G skill based knowl edge to students will better help in accelerating the process of development and economic growth, this was the crux of a meeting held between Chairman Higher Education Commission (HEC) Pakistan, Prof Dr Mukhtar Ahmad and Vice Chancellor University of Sar godha (UoS) Prof Dr Qaisar Abbas here on Thursday

According to details, UoS VC Dr Qaisar Abbas called on the HEC chair man to discuss the issues and chal lenges related to higher education

During the meeting, Dr Mukhtar Ahmad stated: “Education, skills, and technical training are at the heart of eco nomic growth that is sustainable, inclu sive, and adds value Both the latent and

DP

active workforces need to be built up for future investment and self employ ment He added that management training programmes and business in cubators can help a lot in this regard

Dr Mukhtar further expressed that

effective industry participation is one of the most important parts of the skill development system that is missing in Pakistan He said this makes it harder for graduates to get skills that employ ers want leading to making businesses

There is a dire need for focusing on training as an investment to pro duce technically equipped students who could better compete in the mar ket, said Dr Qaisar Abbas, adding that an unequivocal and clearly articulated national agenda for skills development should be introduced as a policy at higher education institutions

The UoS VC stated that linkage between industry and academia is es sential for transforming the higher ed ucation sector, enabling it to compete on global level By strengthening ties between academia and industry, Pak istan can also achieve economic pros perity, he stressed

Moreover, he said, “We must focus on human resource development and equip our youth with the skills neces sary to fully explore domestic and in ternational markets ”

Police secure release of abductee amid rising kidnapping for ransom in Kashmore

identified as Wali Dad Khoso

The Kashmore Police claimed to have recovered an abductee after a shootout with kidnappers in katcha area of Durani Mahar late night the other night

According to the Kandhkot District Police Headquarters, the police launched an operation against the criminals in katcha area, especially Durani Mahar for release of a man abducted some couple of days The po lice said upon sighting heavy contingent of police, the criminals resorted to indis criminate firing, which the police retaliated As the firing subsided, the criminals man aged to flee from the scene, leaving behind the abductee

Kashmore Police Chief Zeeshan Shafiq Siddiqui told this reporter that watchman at a fish farm, Wali Dad Khoso was kidnapped from the limits of A Section police near Haibat pull area some days back He added that police set the criminals hideouts on fire during the operation and re moved all the hurdles, resolv ing that the operation would continue till elimination of the last criminal from the area

On other hands civil soci ety social activists traders local businessmen and na tionalists have expressed grave concern over increasing cases of kidnapping for ran som, theft and street crime throughout Kashmore They regretted repeated incidents of kidnapping of innocent and

poor people in Kashmore have exposed efficiency of the police

M o r e o v e r, l o c a l p e o p l e h a v e e x p r e s s e d t h e i r u t t e r d i s a p p o i n t m e n t o v e r p o o r p e r f o r m a n c e o f t h e d i s t r i c t p o l i c e a n d t e r m e d o n g o i n g operation as mere eye wash to win sympathies of people I t i s i m p o r t a n t t o m e n t i o n h e r e t h a t d u e t o i n c o m p e t e n c e a n d l e t h a rg i c a t t i t u d e o f t h e d i s t r i c t p o l i c e l a w and order situation in Kash m o r e h a s g o n e w o r s t f r o m b a d a s k i d n a p p i n g o f i n n o c e n t p e o p l e h a v e b e c o m e order of the day As many as f i v e p e o p l e i n c l u d i n g t w o students of class 8th and 9th w e r e a l s o k i d n a p p e d i n t h e same month but police so far h a v e f a i l e d t o l o c a t e t h e i r whereabouts

Cour t extends physic al remand of

ISLAMABAD S ta f f r e p o r t

An Islamabad district and sessions court on Thursday granted the police a further four day physical remand of main accused Shahnawaz Amir in murder case of his Canadian national wife Sarah Inam

On Thursday the accused was produced before the court of Central Civil Judge Muhammad Aamir Aziz by the police as the investigation officer requested the judge to grant further physical custody of the accused for more investigations

The IO said that the police wanted to get the accounts’ details of the accused, adding that so far the police only managed to get the five days remand After listening arguments, the court granted the police a four day physi

cal remand of Shahnawaz Amir

Meanwhile, Ayaz Amir ’s lawyer requested the court to approve the provision of his client’s mobile phone, adding that it had no connection with the case investigation

The court asked the prosecution team to handover the device if it had no objection The prosecutor replied that the mobile phone had been sent for the forensic analysis He said that Ayaz Amir himself had admitted “that there was a picture in his mobile ” The court held that it would pass an order regarding the ‘su pardari of the mobile phone The court had al ready discharged senior journalist Ayaz Amir from the murder case of his daughter in law

The Shahzad Town Police Station had reg istered a first information report (FIR) against Shahnawaz Amir for allegedly killing his wife with a dumbbell

Send- off ceremony held for students proceeding on Chinese scholarships

ISLAMABAD

The Higher Education Com mission (HEC)on Thursday organised a send off cere mony for 36 Pakistani stu dents, who were awarded scholarships to study in Chi nese universities under the Chinese Government Schol arship Programme

The programme was launched in 2019 for the Pak istani students to study in 289 designated Chinese universities

So far, 193 Pakistani stu dents had been awarded scholarships under this pro gramme, including 40 in 2019 58 in 2020 59 in 2021 and 36 this year

Chairman Higher Educa tion Commission (HEC) Dr Mukhtar Ahmed and Ambas sador of China to Pakistan Mr Nong Rong graced the ceremony, alongside Execu tive Director (HEC) Dr Shaista Sohail, Adviser Global Engagement (HEC) Mr Awais Ahmed Director

General (Scholarships) Ms Aayesha Ikram, and HEC and Embassy officials Addressing the ceremony, Dr Mukhtar Ahmed said that Pakistan and China enjoyed cordial relations as they had a long history of cooperation He said Pakistan acknowledges the support China had been extending at all testing times He underlined that HEC has turned 20 and, during the last two decades it has worked together with China institutions on different collaborative programmes

Rotar y hosts meeting on ‘Literacy and its impor tance in National Growth

i s L A m A b A d: Rotary Club of Islamabad Metropolitan arranged a special talk on “Literacy and its role in National Growth” at a local hotel Guest Speaker was Admiral Mohammad Asif Sandila (Retd) NI(M) former Chief of Naval Staff and presently running NPO “Moawin Foundation” promoting quality education in elementary and primary education Dr Azra Yasmin Secretary of the club introduced the guest speaker Admiral Asif Sandila emphasized on the importance of elementary and primary education The change in society can only occur when a child has good and quality basic education taught in national language “There is a need to engage and collaborate with private sector in bringing quality education within public sector schools specially in teachers training and monitoring there performance” said Admiral Asif Sandila Presently Moawin Foundation has collaborated with public sector and running more than 200 government schools across Pakistan which is an amazing success story Rotary District Governor Barrister Adnan SaboorRohaila also graced the occasion In his address, District Governor highlighted the importance of basic values which can build strong foundation for a child Rohaila said that character of a person shapes in initial years of childhood, strong values system and social ethics are crucial for any resilient nation We should make people literate with a focus on character building President Imran Ghaznavi in his welcome address pointed out that Rotary International has marked September as literacy month and indeed literacy can play major role in national economic development pr

Adamjee Insurance honoured with 1st Position at Best Corporate & Sustainabilit y Report Awards 2021

L'Oréal Paris,

partner

street harassment

ISLAMABAD

KANDHKOT

KARAcHi:

by

Asim

Adamjee Insurance The award recognizes Adamjee Insurance s commitment to presenting accurate, transparent, relevant and timely corporate information in compliance with regulatory requirements to its shareholders and stakeholders Muhammad Ali Zeb Chief Executive Officer commented, "We feel greatly honoured to receive this prestigious award which clearly demonstrates Adamjee s focus on corporate accountability, transparency and efficient reporting systems I would like to take this opportunity to thank all the employees and stakeholders of Adamjee Insurance who are the reason behind our success " pr

KARAcHi: L Oréal Paris and foodpanda Pakistan partner to Stand Up Against Street Harassment in Pakistan The partnership, which was announced via an MoU signing event in Karachi recently, includes training foodpanda riders on this initiative The event was attended by L'Oréal Paris spokesperson “Iqra Aziz” alongside teams of L’Oréal Pakistan and foodpanda pr

KARAcHi: His Excellency Sheikh Sultan Ahmed Bin Sulayem, owner and Chairman of DP World, the largest port operator of the world arrived in Pakistan on invitation of Pakistani celebrity and

on

Distinguish Journalist Mehmood Sham addressing at Shura Hamdard'session at Hamdard Corporate Head office, Karachi under the auspicious of Hamdard Foundation Pakistan Mrs Sadia Rashid, President Hamdard Foundation Pakistan

also

the picture

LAHORE:

at Punjab Institute

Cardiology Staff photo

S w a p p i n g t h e m a n o r t h e m o n e y ?

Atwo member islamabad High Court bench has acquitted Maryam nawaz and Captain (rtd) Saf dar in the Avenfield case According to the judg ment nAB failed to prove the case against the accused A judge remarked "We cannot announce a verdict on the basis of public knowledge of some hearsay " Maryam is now free to contest elections, whether provincial or na tional, as decided by the PML(n) leadership

Among PTichief imran Khan’s recent upsets, the judgment in the case against Maryam and Captain (rtd) Safdar could be the most damaging Among PML(n) leaders currently in Pakistan Maryam is the sole crowd puller and a daunting opponent The PTi chief always taunted her for being a convict now she is no more so in the eyes of the law Her release is expected to put some fight in the otherwise languishing PML(n) This has also given rise to hopes among party workers that PML(n) supreme leader nawaz Sharif might soon return The way PTi leaders have reacted to the judgment indicates the depth of their frustration As far as former federal minister Fawad Chaudhry is concerned Pakistan’s institutions have lost people s faith Somewhat similar views were also expressed by PTi Secretary general Asad Umar

The iHC judgment is a reflection on the way how nAB got the government s opponents sentenced without solid evidence Mr Justice Shaukat Aziz Siddiqui’s com ment regarding a senior uniformed officer pressurising him to deny Maryam and her father bail resulted in the judge losing his job but didn’t even lead to the officer being asked to answer on oath As PM Shehbaz Sharif put it, Maryam’s acquittal is a slap in the face of the so called accountability system that was employed to target the government’s opponents

Maryam nawaz’s acquittal is however no guarantee of the PML(n)’s rise in Punjab which used to be its strong hold The PML(n) is unpopular due to the implementa tion of iMF’s austerity programme, with no end to the rise in prices unemployment and decline in the value of rupee The PML(n) has no inspiring narrative either De spite Maryam leading the campaign during the last by election in Punjab, the PML(n) was trounced by the PTi Mr Khan continues to gather big crowds even in districts where the PML(n) had won almost all national Assembly seats in the general election Those attending PTi rallies are generally more charged than the ones in the PML(n)’s gatherings There are more young people and women in the PTi’s rallies Winning back Punjab is going to be no cakewalk for the PML(n)

The

effect

u p e e c o n s e q u e n t u p o n t h e r e t u r n o f i s h a q D a r t o P a k i s t a n h a s l e d t o t h e r u p e e g o i n g f r o m a l o w o f R s 2 3 9 3 2 o n S e p t e m b e r 2 , t o R s 2 2 9 0 6 o n T h u r s d a y, b u t w h i l e i t m u s t b e s a t i s f y i n g t o M r D a r t o l e a r n t h a t h i s r e t u r n t o t h e F i n a n c e M i n i s t r y m e a n s t h a t b r o k e r s a r e r u n n i n g s c a r e d e n o u g h o f h i m t o b r i n g d o w n t h e r u p e e o n t h e i r o w n M r D a r ’s m a i n p o l i t i c a l t a s k i s t o r e i n i n f l a t i o n , a n d t h a t h e p r o b a b l y p l a n s t o d o b y r a i s i n g t h e v a l u e o f t h e r u p e e T h a t t h e y a r e l i q u i d a t i n g t h e i r p o s i t i o n s i n d i c a t e s t h a t t h e y e x p e c t h i m t o r e p e a t w h a t h e h a d d o n e i n h i s l a s t s t i n t a s F i n a n c e M i n i s t e r, w h i c h w a s t o b o r r o w d o l l a r s f r o m t h e m a r k e t a n d u s e t h e m t o p u s h u p t h e p r i c e o f t h e r u p e e b y c r e a t i n g s u ff i c i e n t l i q u i d i t y i n t h e m a r k e t

He can’t do it now; the iMFvwon’t let him The forex reserves are at the moment too low to allow such a policy so he will have to let the rupee find its true value What exactly that value is, is subject to a number of factors, to do both with foreign trade and domestic policy, but it is not known what, if any, figure of a fair value Mr Dar car ried in his head even if that figure is reached, Mr Dar will still have to face the morning after, when the rupee begins to slide again

The rupee has moved from being a means of ex change, its dollar parity determined by its trade pat terns, to an object of speculation, with a volatility that gives exporters and importers headaches The present bull run will end, just like the bull run caused by the re sumption of theiMF programme, and the real test of Mr Dar ’s nerve and abiliieswill begin hen, when the rupee begins to fall Mr Dar has become a factor in his own right but it is to be seen how he handles the downside

TWO major economic developments appear unrelated, but will not work without the other The first is the resignation of Finance Minister Miftah ismail so that he can be re placed by ishaq Dar, expected to return soon, and the second is the debt swap proposal at the Un by Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif it is possible to see the two as linked

The return of ishaq Dar is meant to solve two problems The first is that it will be a sort of test bal loon for the real return the PML(n) wants, that of Mian nawaz Sharif it is not just Mian nawaz who needs to come back but the party also wants him back, mainly because it needs him to lead the party’s campaign in the general election,which will have to be held next year

While it is reasonably clear that Mian nawaz’s utility is that of a vote getter, as no one expects Mi anShehbaz to win as PM not on his present perform ance The PML(n) has done its best to blame the PTi for the country s economic woes This is not entirely untrue but the electorate seems to blame the PDM government for the woes it is facing, in terms of in flation and unemployment The floods have not helped Mian Shehbaz is not really going to be a vote winner in the next election So far, his electoral wins (in 1999 and 2013) in Punjab have been on his brother ’s coat tails and he lost his last election as Punjab CM in 2018

The only achievement he and Fifth can claim is that they restored the iMF programme That meant reversing the PTi government’s policy of subsidizing fuel prices, and they did it However, that meant ac cepting the transfer of the political cost from the PTito the PML(n) However, rising inflation and the depreciating rupee (which will have its own infla tionary effects) mean that the PTi is now calling the PDM coalition government’s economic performance inept The PML(n)’s only reply is that this is the pot calling the kettle black not to argue that it is actually doing well

One of Dar ’s functions is to reverse this, to bring the economy back under control and thus to restore the PML(n)’s electoral viability How exactly he pro poses to correct the economy is not known

The problem he faces is that beasts are not easily controlled Once inflation sets in, it may not be easily brought under control The methods used by Dar in his previous stint at Finance will not be available this time, at least not while remaining within the iMF pro gramme, of borrowing commercially, and then using that money to prop up the rupee The reserves simply

are not enough for any such exercise The market scare about Pakistani paper has also made it difficult to try this option

That scare was caused by the rumour of a Pak istani default sparked by a policy paper saying Pak istan should ask for debt relief so as to be able to afford post flood rehabilitation The scare was only ended when Pakistan clarified that it only wanted debt relief on bilateral loans not on commercial paper and Sukuk bonds

Such relief from the Paris Club was only made available after 9/11 when the loan rescheduling was part of the price of Pakistani cooperation against the Taliban While that gets thew borrower off the hook for the time being and the danger of a Pakistani de fault was averted, it did not prove the way the country could wean itself off the vi cious cycle it faces, where it borrows to keep up its pay ments Mian Shehbaz’s call for debt swaps is a better ef fort than simply asking for rescheduling However it goes one step further, and asks for a writeoff

U n d e r t h i s a r r a n g e m e n t , t h e d e b t o r c o u n t r y s t i l l h a s t o m a k e t h e d e b t servicing payment only it m a k e s i t o n a n a g r e e d o b jective, usually some form o f d e v e l o p m e n t a n d t h e country owed the payment w r i t e s o ff t h e d e b t O n e p r o b l e m i s t h a t i t d o e s m e a n t h e c r e d i t o r c o u n t r y can dictate what the debtor spends on but the spending i s o n d e v e l o p m e n t i t a l s o allows the debtor to refrain from obtaining foreign ex change for the repayment in Pakistan’s case, if it was allowed, would the debt swap money go into prevention or rehabilita tion? The former is important because this year ’s floods are by no means a one off There are going to be an increased frequency and it is likely that in tensity will worsen So far, no debt swap is on offer Creditors are not sure that there is any nobler mo tive for getting out of the debt trap than to borrow o n c e a g a i n B o r r o w i n g d o e s n o t g o d i r e c t l y i n t o anyone’s pockets

reaucrat, would be skimming something off the top

Debt swaps, or some other form of debt relief, would be a feather in the cap of ishaq Dar if it came off, though there seems no reason for a relief on the scale of 9/11 is the nuclear programme supposed to be surrendered? is israel to be recognized? is China to be abandoned? is indian hegemony to be accepted?

is the price settled or still to be negotiated? The fact that Dar has not been held back shows that the PML(n) is running scared Miftah has done all the heavy lifting, Shehbaz faced the obloquy now that the time has come for them to reap the highly uncer tain rewards of a recovering economy, ishaq Dar is arriving, instead of being held back for the general election much as Mian nawaz is (if and when he re turns, he will not be PM)

The PML(N) is thus obliged to go for the gamble of switching horses in midstream The nation as a whole cannot afford but to wish it well, because if Ishaq Dar fails, the entire PDM has no alternative And to be fair, nor does Imran Khan

The PML(n) feels the econ omy is unravelling and needs fixing imran has once again floated the idea of overseas Pakistanis getting Pakistan out of debt, but that seems to be electoral rheto ric rather than a serious proposition After all, he pro posed it in 2018, and had enough time to implement with results that all can see

There is another factor: n a t i o n a l i n d e p e n d e n c e which imran has evoked so s t r o n g l y T h e P D M h a s f a i l e d t o d o s o i t h a s p a r t i a l l y c o u n t e r e d t h i s w i t h t h e n a r r a t i v e o f i m r a n ’s i n c o m p e t e n c e b u t i t h a s h a r d l y b e e n a p a r a g o n o f g o o d m a n a g e m e n t i t s e l f i t m a y h a v e e x c u s e s a p l e n t y b u t p e o p l e h a v e b e e n t a u g h t t o v o t e w i t h t h e i r p o c k e t b o o k s T h e P M L ( n ) i s t h u s f i n d i n g i t s e l f f o r c e d t o b r i n g i n D a r, i n t h e h o p e t h a t i t c a n i m p r o v e t h e c o u n t r y ’s e c o n o m i c p e r f o r m a n c e t o t h e p o i n t i t c a n g o i n t o t h e n e x t e l e c t i o n w i t h s o m e t h i n g o f a c h a n c e i t s h o u l d n o t f o rg e t t h a t i m r a n h a s c o v e r e d h i s m i s m a n a g e m e n t o f t h e e c o n o m y b y p l a y i n g t h e A m e r i c a n c o n s p i r a c y c a r d , a n d n o t o n l y h a s i t n o t p r o d u c e d a n y c o u n t e r n a r r a t i v e t o s h o w h o w i n d e p e n d e n t i t i s , b u t i t h a s a l s o n o t g o t m u c h t o s h o w o n t h e e c o n o m y

Of course, parking a large sum of money in someone’s account would mean a sum in interest making an individual rich Then development loans mean kickbacks when contracts are awarded, whether at home or abroad Swap money would finance proj ects, which would mean some politician, some bu

The PML(n) is thus obliged to go for the gamble of switching horses in midstream The nation as a whole cannot afford but to wish it well, because if ishaq Dar fails, the entire PDM has no alternative And to be fair, nor does imran Khan

The writer is a member of staff

Workplace Harassment Act And the The Awareness Dilemma

Being a signatory of international instru ments on human rights Pakistan is sup posed to fulfil certain international commitments such as the Universal Dec laration of Human Rights, tinternational Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (iCCPR), the international Covenant on economic, Social and Cul tural Rights (iCeSCR), the Convention on the elim ination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CeDAW), and the iLO Discrimination (em ployment and Occupation) Convention

Such international legal instruments should be in corporated in domestic laws of a signatory country in fact, the domestic laws of a signatory country are framed under the umbrella of its international legal commitments However, Pakistan lags behind achiev ing its international commitments especially regard ing human rights because people do not have awareness about the relevant laws and remedies they can avail employees and students in public and pri vate organizations are reluctant to raise a voice in ha rassment cases That is why the legal gap has been filled with implementation of Protection against Ha rassment of Women at Workplace Act 2010 with quick remedies and justice Being subjugated seg ments of our society, the women and transgender communities have been enmeshed in numerous chal lenges Workplace harassment of students and em ployees is one of the most existential challenges Male teachers in colleges and universities harass stu dents to give them good marks They misuse their au thority to satisfy their sexual pleasure These are the stories of every higher educational institution

Consequently, parents have severe concerns over the reputation and bad character of teachers, and they are always reluctant to send their females for higher education The most problematic aspect is that parents as well as students do not have an awareness about the legal remedies which can be used to expose such black sheep Federal and provincial governments have

enforced strict laws in the shape of Protection against Harassment of Women at Workplace Act 2010 follow ing its international commitment to protect the rights of all sexes However, parents and students are not much aware of the act, or the process of lodging com plaints, and availing other legal remedies

The prolonged problem of definition has been ad dressed beautifully in Protection against Harassment of Women at Workplace Act, 2010 it defines the word harassment very precisely and comprehen sively According to the section 2 (h) (i) of Protection against Harassment of Women at Workplace 2010, any unwelcome sexual advance, request for sexual favours stalking or cyber stalking or other verbal vi sual or written communication or physical conduct of a sexual nature or sexually demeaning attitudes, including any gestures or expression conveying derogatory connotation causing interference with work performance or creating an intimidating, hostile or effective work environment or the attempt to pun ish the complainant for refusal to comply to such a request or is made a condition for employment Fur thermore according to the section 2 (h) (ii) of Pro tection against Harassment of Women at Workplace 2010, discrimination on basis of gender, which may or may not be sexual in nature but which may em body a discriminatory and prejudicial mind set or no tion, resulting in discriminatory behavior on the basis of gender against the complainant

Socially constructed phenomena under cultural relativistic values are endangering women’s rights at large People are more committed to societal norms and values regarding females Family members of ha rassment victim avoid reporting such cases of sexual assault or harassment because it is perceived as source of shame and disrespect even, if the harassment of a girl is reported, there would be severe questions she and her family have to face from society about the character of the girl even, there would be severe hur dles in the marriage of such a girl because she would be given the tag of bad character without any logical footing That is why; thousands of harassment cases go unreported because of cultural pressure

Unfortunately we inherited socially constructed

values which are full of hypocrisy and dual standards if any elder person of a family especially male com mits such harassment or something bad for others, women or younger children would be instructed to hide such happenings because of family honour The internal resistance within a family is curbed by elders in the name of respect or honour of the family elders while guiding youngsters about values of family in doctrinate “subordination” and “defence” of misad ventures of elders They teach that youngsters are supposed to protect the immoral and bad steps of eld ers in life because it is a matter of family reputation if a woman commits something immoral, her life is made miserable However when a male of a family commits the same immorality, he is left free by stat ing that he is a boy and will learn eventually as such acts are done at the age of immaturity So these are our dualistic moral standards which lead to indoctri nation, stopping critical thinking in the young for generations and preparing the mindset of the next generation to transfer the outdated, illogical, futile and dual standards of morality

So the circle will continue as generations will continue to pass on such dualistic values Conse quently, such a cycle paves the way of subjugation, unreported harassment and silence on immoral and illegal acts even, our family patterns are major bar riers in the implementation of Protection against Ha rassment of Women at Workplace Act 2010 in its true spirit According to Section 11(2) of Protection against Harassment of Women at Workplace Act, 2010, the management shall display copies of the Code in english as well as in language understood by the majority of employees at conspicuous place at the organization and the workplace within six months of the commencement of this act”

governments should take strict actions to force public and private organizations regarding compli ance of the Section 11 (2) for public awareness Stu dents, parents, and employees should be given awareness about this act so that they could stand up against violation of their rights

The writer is a Lahore based practicing lawyer and can be reached at ch changezi sandhu111@gmail com

The arrival of Ishaq Dar has seen the rupee rise But will this last?

to the legac y of late Hameed Nizami Arif Nizami

C

m

n

D i s a s t e r i s w a i t i n g f o r t h e M y a n m a r m i l i t a r y j u n t a ?

The Junta s support among the populace has been eroded by this indiscriminate violence against the civilian population, which has brought the nation dangerously close to civil war as more civilians take up guns to oppose the mil itary regime

The failure of the Junta military to take con trol of the country is due to the lack of popular support brought on by the indiscriminate vio lence against the country's population, the Myanmar military's lack of professionalism and corruption at every level of its military leader ship and law enforcement agencies

ing tens of thousands of people from almost every region to flee the country

Since the coup, at least 1 3 million people have been forcibly evacuated in an effort to flee military attacks he claimed adding that the ef fects of this refugee flow would be felt through out the entire indo Pacific region and beyond

The largest increase in the number of refugees arrived in the indian state of Mizoram

Since the military overthrew the government in 2021, and about 30,000 people from Myanmar have sought refuge in Mizoram, according to Hindustan Times

Bangladesh is also seeing a small influx of refugees despite intensive monitoring and sur veillance in border regions A minimum of 10 15 Rohingya have sought refuge in the Kutupalong and Balukhali shelter camps in Cox s Bazar since September 10 as a result of re sumption of hostilities between the the Myanmar military and the Arakan Army in Rakhine

The "spectre of violence" in Myanmar has started to compel ASeAn members to take ac tion against Myanmar This is a very significant development

Covid restriction

WHen the Covid pandemic gripped the world in its claws some three years ago hospitality and aviation sectors around the world were affected rather badly But after the threat subsided, most countries started taking measures to lift up their respective economies

The very first step in this regard was relaxation in Covid related restrictions in order to revive tourism and aviation activities The governments removed all sorts of restrictions for both vaccinated and non vaccinated passengers travelling by any mode of transportation, keeping just one condition; PCR test done 72 hours prior to the commencement of travel This immediately produced positive results and the tourists and home visitors started moving around easily

A dominating factor behind the decision to do away with Covid related restrictions was that despite the fact that 85 95 per cent population had already been vaccinated, hospitals again became crowded because of some other diseases that appeared among the vaccinated population which may or may not be the side effects of the vaccine

Only in Australia, despite 96pc population having been vaccinated, including boosters hospitals were found to have no empty beds because some other diseases cropped up, and the doctors were not sure if the Covid vaccine had anything to do with it

T h e r e f o r e m o s t c o u n t r i e s d e c i d e d t o l i f t C o v i d r e s t r i c t i o n s o n a n y m o d e o f t r a v e l , w h i c h w a s a l s o a ff e c t i n g t h e i r e c o n o m i e s v e r y b a d l y P a k i s t a n h a s a l s o b e e n s a i l i n g i n t h e s a m e b o a t i t i s a c t u a l l y s u ff e r i n g m o r e b y n o t r e l a x i n g t h e c o n d i t i o n s i n f a c t s u c h s t r i c t c o n d i t i o n s h a v e b e e n d i s c o u r a g i n g t o u r i s m , b u s i n e s s t r a v e l f r o m f o r e i g n c o u n t r i e s t o P a k i s t a n , a n d o v e r s e a s P a k i s t a n i s v i s i t i n g t h e i r f a m i l i e s it is ultimately affecting the national economy to a great extent because in view of strict Covid guidelines locally, locals as well as overseas Pakistanis have been opting to spend their holidays in countries where there are no restrictions except the PCR test

Therefore, it is suggested that in order to revive aviation, hospitality, tourism business and travel sectors Covid related conditions restrictions and procedures should be simplified as has been done by a number of other countries around the globe

SAJID MAHMOOD ANSARI ISLAMABAD

Mind your words

An individual’s inherent dignity and self respect is an inalienable right a person enjoys legally morally and ethically it is sacrosanct and must not be violated under any circumstances Peo ple with disabilities are equal citizens Discrimination of any kind against them is a gross violation of their rights that have been enshrined in our Con stitution When it comes to choice of words while referring to people with disabilities, prudence and civility demand us to avoid hurtful and demeaning words such as disabled physically handicapped and mentally retarded in this regard, clear directions have already been issued by the Supreme Court of Pakistan Yet, the belittling words, regrettably, like ‘blind’, ‘crip pled , handicapped , etc , can still be seen in our communication, both spo ken and written

A r P I tA h A Z A r I k A

THe piercing sound of air raids mortar shelling, and gunfire on our southern border not only violates Bangladeshi territorial integrity and sovereignty but also presents a gloomy image of an un certain future for the people of Myanmar, Bangladesh and the entire region

The sound of gunshots also serves as a metaphor for the Myanmar Junta's struggles and failures in establishing control over its own na tion The present violence in Myanmar has all the characteristics of a civil war

Myanmar is already engulfed in a civil war Organized opposition groups, credible chal lenges to state authority, ground presence, alter native governance infrastructure (usually), and external recognition are often necessary for civil conflicts All those components exist in Burma The opposition is not organized along ethnic lines They have had success in battling the se curity forces and Burmese army

Aung San Suu Kyi's national League of Democracy was democratically elected to power in Myanmar, but that government was over thrown last year, and the military took its place The recent trend of increased fighting and vio lence in Myanmar is evidence of a growing un rest against the military establishment (nDL)

Following the military takeover a sizable pro democracy movement emerged, which later evolved into armed resistance in response to the Junta s violent assault on dissent which claimed the lives of at least 2,300 civilians throughout Myanmar

The People's Defence Force (PDF) an anti coup resistance force, has been in charge of a widespread armed resistance campaign since the coup The national Unity government (nUg) a shadow government in exile run by Suu Kyi's nLD s expelled MPs, served as the foundation for the PDF

Frequently armed only with handmade weapons and a thorough understanding of the terrain the PDF has managed to astound the mil itary with its capabilities

To put an end to the resistance movement, the Junta in reaction conducted indiscriminate airstrikes, shelling, and arson attacks against cities and villages

ethnic Armed Forces Organizations (eAOs), also known as powerful ethnic armed organizations, have formed coalitions to combat the Junta on the battlefield as a result of the Junta's failings There are some of them that have friendly ties to the military establishment in light of recent developments the heads of Myanmar s seven most potent ethnic armed groups, including the Arakan Army, recently met in the remote WA area bordering China to strengthen their alliance

Some of these eAOs have actively given military training and other types of support to the anti coup resistance, even if they are not ac tively engaged in the campaign to topple the Junta regime in Myanmar, which is the PDF's main goal

The crisis in Myanmar has already served as a flashpoint for major world powers, just like every other contemporary conflict throughout the globe

A semi proxy battle has already developed in this conflict China firmly supports the Burmese government Western nations have de nounced Burmese activities, supported the op position diplomatically and helped them make their voices heard

Myanmar has been attempting to take ad vantage of the West's diversion in attention away from this region due to the conflict in Ukraine to annihilate its rivals on the battlefield

The Junta has been looking for supporters domestically and abroad as part of its so called counter terrorism drive to combat the diplo matic isolation the west imposed on the country last year

Last June, the Un general Assembly passed a resolution urging nations to stop arming Myan mar However, the call was ignored China, Rus sia, and Serbia are now Burma s top three weaponry suppliers

To m A n d r e w s , t h e U n S p e c i a l R a p p o r t e u r o n t h e h u m a n r i g h t s s i t u a t i o n i n M y a n m a r c r i t i c i s e d R u s s i a a n d C h i n a f o r c o n t i n u i n g t o s u p p l y t h e J u n t a w i t h w e a p o n s d e s p i t e " p r o o f o f t h e h o r r i f i c c r i m e s b e i n g c o m m i t t e d w i t h i m p u n i t y " s i n c e l a u n c h i n g a c o u p l a s t y e a r i n h i s r e p o r t r e l e a s e d i n F e b r u a r y H o w e v e r, R u s s i a i s s t i l l s e l l i n g t h e J u n t a m i l i t a r y e q u i p m e n t a n d a s p a r t o f a 2 0 1 8 c o n t r a c t , i t w i l l s o o n s e n d b r a n d n e w S u k h o i S U 3 0 S M j e t f i g h t e r s

Due to an uptick in violence conditions in Myanmar have recently gotten worse for a great number of innocent people This brutal crack down has unleashed a major refugee crisis forc

Bangladesh and Thailand have both been pa tient and cautious in their response (to airspace violation and artillery shelling), but if conflict persists and such violations become routine, Burmese provocations will in the future be re sponded to and that might create region wide in stability and chaos

The indo Pacific region s stability is threat ened by the recent flare up of fighting in Myan mar, which has alarmed neighbouring nations The continuous insecurity and instability in Rakhine state has produced a spillover impact across the region

everyone worries that terrorist groups like iSiS and al Qaeda may exploit the deteriorating situation in Rakhine state if the situation there is not adequately addressed The world must em phasise the necessity of taking action on a global scale to address the security risk brought on by the unrest in Myanmar

Bangladesh and Myanmar share a turbulent, almost 300 km border, which has the potential to have negative repercussions on both coun tries

For more than a month, tensions have been rising between Dhaka and naypyidaw On the Bangladesh side of the border, numerous in stances of Myanmar's brutal army airspace vio lations deadly shelling and gunfire have been documented Bangladesh s Foreign Ministry summoned Myanmar s Ambassador in Dhaka Aung Kyaw Moe, to express opposition to the provocation following a recent incidence of mortar fire in Bangladesh that resulted in the death of an 18 year old Rohingya boy in the no land man's near Bandarban

Bangladesh must support the international Court of Justice (iCJ), gambia, the Organiza tion of islamic Cooperation (OiC), and other international organisations leading the efforts to hold the Myanmar military accountable for t h e i r a c t i o n s a g a i n s t t h e R o h i n g y a p e o p l e i n order to ensure the sustainable repatriation of t h e R o h i n g y a r e f u g e e s B a n g l a d e s h n e e d s t o t a k e t h e r i g h t a c t i o n s t o r a i s e t h e R o h i n g y a p e o p l e ' s v o i c e s a n d t h e i r g r i e v a n c e s t o t h e world community The regional countries' tar get should be strict against the brutal Myan m a r m i l i t a r y T h e w o r l d , i n c l u d i n g r e g i o n a l countries, must realise that the Rohingya issue i s l i k e l y t o r e m a i n s t u c k u n t i l t h e M y a n m a r junta is kicked out of power and this could take a long time

The writer is a freelance columnist

Such ill choice of words condemns people with disabilities to limitation, and reduces them to worthlessness, which is indeed painful and shameful, to say the least

There are some terms to be considered in this regard to cleanse our vo cabulary of inconsiderate and unkind words while addressing to the people with disabilities Using the term ‘normal’ to refer non disabled person implies that being disabled is ‘abnormal’, which is not true We must prefer ‘non disabled instead of normal expressions like ‘confined to a wheel chair ’ or ‘wheelchair bound’ must be avoided and be replaced by ‘wheelchair user ’ The term, ‘differently abled , too, is not considered appropriate it is pertinent to mention that some consider it even condescending or simply a way of avoiding talking about disability Here, ‘person with a disability’ is a better choice as it is a people first language

A proper and respectful choice of words from our part can help lessen the sufferings of already marginalised, and, in some cases, stigmatised peo ple, giving them their due rights and respect The derogatory words against them must be shunned in the same way we avoid slurs and profanities in our everyday conversations

KHADIM HuSSAIN SuBHpOtO HyDERABAD

Have we learnt our lesson?

iT is a shame that we have learnt no lessons from the devastating floods of 2010 A decade later we are facing the same crisis same negligence and pretty much the same of everything; only worse

We live in a country where the authorities seem to be unaware of the complete reality of the climate change phenomenon and do not plan or pre pare to avert a disaster The recent floods have left millions of people home less Tons of wheat have been washed away in floodwater, and there is apparently not enough for distribution among the homeless and the needy Tents and mosquito nets are sold at sky high prices even potatoes are sold at Rs200 per kilogram

We live in a wretched country where helicopters fail to rescue people from floodwater, but are available for any other purpose howsoever frivolous it may be Funds and donations are consumed by the corrupt, while the vic tims remain hungry and empty handed

We all must wake up and feel the misery of our own people We need to hold the relevant authorities accountable and make them do what they are supposed to do

tASAwuR FAtIMA NAuSHAHRO FEROzE

Pathetic road conditions

THe road connecting Surjani to Khuda Ki Basti has been rebuilt many times, but it develops potholes and breaks every now and again because of the substandard material used in construction The road also leads to Hub dam and has to sustain heavy traffic that has left the road in a bad condition The city administration needs to take up the matter and do what is needed to end the misery of the area people

Hajra Rauf Karachi

Tro u b l e l o o m s o n m o re t h a n o n e f ro n t

d

FeUdal overlords sTill rUle THe world

UnHerD M A r K S h i F F M A N

aS far as “world order” is con cerned the future may resemble the pre modern past The charac teristic political institution of modernity is the nation state But before the era of european nation states was inaugurated in Westphalia in 1648, europe and much of the rest of the world was feudal Today, the nation state appears to be disin tegrating As it does, we should expect rela tionships of power around the world to again take on a feudal character, similar in form to pre modern feudalism but operating on very different foundations

I’m not referring to the so called “neo feudalism” described by Joel Kotkin a so cially ruinous and politically dangerous polarisation of wealth within nations where the middle class is rapidly vanishing This primarily economic phenomenon is more ac curately described as an extreme form of oli garchy It is a product of liberal globalisation

What I see developing is an alternative system of relationships among armed world powers, one which we might call feudal globalisation ” Liberal globalisation seeks to universalise a “rules based” order of nation states cooperating to facilitate economic prosperity and to elevate mutual consent as much as possible over physical violence, which serves as a last resort when negotia tion fails Feudal globalisation embraces in timidation and violent domination of people and resources embraces it forthrightly, except when trying to play the rhetorical game of liberal norms for diplomatic pur poses, as Vladimir Putin occasionally does in his territorial claims

Putin is one of the great lords in this al ternative system his vassals include the presidents of Syria Belarus and (to a lesser degree) Turkey When Viktor Yanukovich was president of Ukraine, his was shaping up to be such a vassal regime and there are rumours that when Putin began his invasion he had hopes of reinstalling him Iran, Xi s China and Maduro’s Venezuela are also players in this alternative system A year ago, Anne Applebaum dubbed this cadre of heads

of state “Autocracy Inc ”

Meanwhile, in the US, Shivshankar Menon a former National Security Adviser to Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, recently observed that large a part of the foreign policy establishment has em barked on an ideological quest to divide the world between democracies and autocra cies This is certainly how the Biden admin istration frames the stakes of its opposition to Russia in Ukraine

This belief rests on the assumption that we are engaged in a struggle over what kind of nation states will shape world politics But if this 400 year old premise is really what is at issue, then something structurally deeper than democracy is at stake namely, the question of whether world politics will op erate according to nation state logic or feu dal logic

Applebaum helpfully points out how the feudal alternative functions as a system: “Nowadays, autocracies are run not by one bad guy, but by sophisticated networks connected not only within a given country but among many countries The corrupt, state controlled companies in one dictator ship do business with the corrupt state con trolled companies in another The police in one country can arm, equip, and train the po lice in another Their links are designed to take the edge off Western economic boy cotts

It is crucial to recognise however that these networks do not only consist of states and entities within them Since the end of the Cold War militarised “sub state actors” have multiplied and taken on increasing impor tance in this system As strategic analysts

Ramon Blecua and Douglas Ollivant ob serve: “The influence of powerful non state actors is becoming more relevant at shaping state policy than the classic power competi tion among states The presence of this myriad of sub state actors means that if one is looking only at states one is missing a good part of the picture ”

In feudal globalisation, these sub state actors serve as lesser vassals to the lords who, in the classic formulation by Max Weber, maintain a monopoly on the permis sible use of violent force within their defined territories In Blecua and Ollivant’s words, sub state actors’ “capacity to mobilise sup port among local constituencies gives them some sort of legitimacy, and their control

over the use of force in a certain territory provides a quasi state character to them”

In Syria for example Iran and Russia finance their proxies directly without going through the Syrian Government, and thus exert real control over military operations This means that Assad finds himself in the uncomfortable position of being a vassal sovereign in a land ruled by armed bands of uncertain allegiances ” Similarly, the militias that Russia has supported in the Donbas re gion of Ukraine for nearly a decade have prepared the ground for the recent “refer enda” held there

The basic character of the state as a mo nopoliser of violence is crucial for under standing the history that is playing itself out now as these monopolies increasingly falter In land based feudalism, the capacity for vi olence is necessarily decentralised; it resides in and is primarily for the defence of local agrarian economies Only rarely and with difficulty can it be organised to serve the purposes of monarchs

After the Second World War and the founding of the UN, and especially during the period of decolonisation, the aspiration to a global system of nation states dominated the political imagination Our world maps with their clearly drawn national borders re inforce this wishful picture Nevertheless there continued to be plenty of “failed states or in other words, regions of the world where the nation state never managed to really catch on and sub state groups con tinued to exercise violence and local control The history of Colombia for instance is a story of ever recurring civil wars, and today roughly two thirds of the territory of this “nation state” is ruled by rival militant groups, corporations employing mercenar ies, and drug cartels

During the Cold War a kind of vassalage to one of the competing Superpowers was usually the best option for sub state groups seeking more power The Superpowers gen erally hoped to help their vassal groups be come the monopolising state powers, and thus the illusion could be sustained that in one way or another, history was moving to ward a global nation state system And so for decades the United States supported the Nicaraguan Contras as a rival to the socialist Sandinista regime, though the Contras seem to have had more success entangling them selves with drug profiteers than in making

progress toward taking over the state

Now, after the Cold War, the illusion that the nation state system is history s endgame is ceasing to be quite so convincing Decen tralised feudal order is returning and sub state groups have a variety of attractive options for alliances with powerful patrons

This feudal order, however, is not based on agrarian economies It is based on re sources and products that yield money The money supports warlords and soldiers and buys sophisticated weapons, and the war lords’ well armed soldiers control the re sources petroleum, minerals, narcotic crops that generate money Like the Mafia, many militarised groups straddle the lines drawn by “rules based” liberalism be tween criminal and legitimate profit Mexi can gangs, reports The economist, “are no longer just drug peddlers They traffic peo ple, steal oil and control the markets for av ocados, tortillas and chicken in some states ” They have also doubled in number since 2010, and their violence plagues Mexico Now that Cold War pressures no longer give a decisive advantage to a small number of large groups with putatively state building aspirations opportunities abound for mili tarised local powers to forge profitable do minions and alliances of interest

There are even reasons to think that in the competition for access to and control of resources, feudal globalisation has begun to have some advantages over liberal globali sation Cartels, militias and autocrats don’t have to worry much about satisfying liberal international norms or watchdog groups when offering carrots and sticks to local pop ulations or corruptible governments

One of the great liabilities of liberal democracies in this contest may be the very one that seemed to be its great strength in the end of history euphoria: its faith in its own legitimacy When I earlier cited Weber ’s de scription of the state, some will have noticed that I substituted monopoly on permissible violence” for Weber ’s “monopoly on legiti mate violence” the latter being more apt as a description that privileges the self con ception of the liberal state The “monopoly on permissible violence” better reflects the psychology of autocratic states and is adapt able to the brutal reign of sub state actors

While all ruling bodies offer justifications for their rule the need for a sense of legiti macy, of being fundamentally in accord with

a deeper lawfulness, is in some way distinc tive to liberal states

The historical reasons for this need are complex, with roots in the legal culture de veloped in medieval europe But it is not hard to see that liberal democracies are ex periencing an acute crisis of legitimacy in our time Liberal political theory legitimates the state s monopoly on violence by promis ing to use it to protect potential victims of violence, but liberal states are riven by dis agreements about who qualifies as victim and deserves this protection, what consti tutes violence, and what forms of violence are permissible or tolerable

These internal crises of legitimacy ren der it increasingly difficult for foreign policy elites to sustain national commitments to lib eral globalisation Citizens are asked to make real sacrifices in the service of a proj ect that shows little promise of succeeding and seems increasingly fantastical; and the unwavering commitment of many to this quixotic agenda further erodes the sense of liberal democratic legitimacy at home While Putin may have unexpectedly breathed some new life into the Nato al liance the cost of sanctions for domestic pol itics within the member states may be further loss of trust in ruling elites and, along with it of faith in the legitimacy of the liberal order

During the Cold War, liberal states could ally themselves with some unsavoury rulers and sub state actors under the colour of ulti mately promoting the vision of liberal glob alisation in opposition to the communist vision This accorded tolerably well with the need for a sense of the legitimacy of their foreign policy choices

Today, however, as the rest of the world turns increasingly feudal, realistic foreign policy may require liberal states to ally themselves with forces manifestly out of step with the programme of liberal globalisation Failure to resolve this conundrum is likely to hasten their collapse and thus ensure the victory of globalised feudalism

Mark Shiffman is Associate Professor of Philosophy, Classical Studies and Social and Political Theory at Villanova University He is the translator of Aristotle’s De Anima (Focus Books) and Descartes’s Rules for the Direction of the Mind (Saint Augustine s Press forthcoming)

H o w U K l a w h e l p s o l i g a r c h s s i l e n c e j o u r n a l i s t s

The UK has nothing so crude as censorship: oligarchs cannot have British journalists arrested for writ ing the truth about their stolen for tunes Britain has a far subtler system Instead of journalists being told what to do, we are threatened with seven fig ure legal fees, so we preemptively avoid any discussion of oligarchs known to be liti gious The result is the same as you would find in an authoritarian country oligarchs are left in peace to enjoy their hard stolen wealth, undisturbed by tiresome publicity but the way Britain gets there is so much more sophisticated

This week it was revealed that open Democracy is being sued alongside the Bureau of Investigative Journalism, the Tele graph and the Organised Crime and Corrup tion Reporting Project (OCCRP) after reporting on a fund linked to the former Kazakh dictator Nursultan Nazarbayev that controlled billions through a UK registered company The case has been described as ‘an egregious example of a SLAPP

I am no stranger to SLAPPs Perhaps the

most sophisticated example I have ever been involved in was in 2019 I was going to name the legendarily aggressive legal firm involved, but have been advised that this could be legally risky so I ll just call them a ‘law firm’

This ‘law firm’ was retained by the fugi tive financier Jho Low to prevent a book about him from being published The book

‘Billion Dollar Whale’ had been well re ceived in the United States, and sold 200,000 copies in its first year, but no British pub lisher would touch it thanks to the prospect of litigation When one eventually did, I wrote about it only for the ‘law firm’ to turn on the newspaper that had commis sioned me to do so

“Referring to the firm in the Proposed Article puts you at risk of defaming the firm and/or publishing a significantly inaccurate, misleading distorted and manipulative arti cle,” its letter said My editor took fright and spiked the story, thus censoring an article about censorship

The important point is that the article was not suppressed in a legal proceeding; no court ordered it to be blocked It was not published simply because of the risk of hav ing to pay legal fees Just the prospect of dealing with Britain’s ruinously expensive lawyers was enough to make a cash strapped media organisation back down In the cir cumstances is it any wonder that oligarchs

keep threatening legal proceedings?

Wouldn t you? This is such a well estab lished tactic that it even has its own acronym: SLAPP, which stands for a Strate gic Lawsuit Against Public Participation

This is a very British form of censorship, built on convention and understanding, rather than hard and clear rules We have no idea how many times this dynamic is re peated, and how many articles have been quashed because wealthy people don t like them We don’t know where exactly the line is that defines what we’re actually allowed to say, so we have to find it for ourselves Similarly, we have no idea how many jour nalists choose never to start investigating these individuals in the first place, because they don’t want to waste time writing words that will never be published

And we have no idea what the conse quences are of this information not being pub lished: how many legal investigations never got started because police officers lacked the information to begin a case; how many oli garchs successfully slipped into the upper reaches of the establishment because Google revealed nothing bad about them when they offered a political donation to the Tory party

We can safely say, however, that oli garchs and their lawyers are able to exploit British defamation and data protection laws to suppress scrutiny on an industrial scale “For me the problem is that the UK is the

greatest place on earth to be a financial crim inal You have everything at your fingertips: all the private spooks, all the law firms that know how to target journalists That s the problem you need to solve ” Bradley hope co author of ‘Billion Dollar Whale’, told me when I still thought I could publish an article about his book

Over the past 12 months, three consecu tive cases those brought by Russian oli garchs against Catherine Belton; by Kazakh businessmen against Tom Burgis; and by Brexit funder Aaron Banks against Carole Cadwalladr have drawn attention to the jeopardy faced by journalists who delve into the secrets of the rich and powerful

The journalists won or in Belton s case, settled in exchange for a few unimpor tant alterations to her book ‘Putin’s People’ But the cases still obliged the Ministry of Justice to wake up, finally, to the fact that we might have a problem particularly when combined with the disquiet over the influ ence of oligarchs in Britain that followed Russia’s assault on Ukraine in February

In July it announced plans to cap the level of costs that journalists can end up pay ing, and proposed to give judges the powers to toss out cases that appeared manifestly abusive “We won’t let those bankrolling Putin exploit the UK’s legal jurisdiction to muzzle their critics So today I m announc ing reforms to uphold freedom of speech, end the abuse of our justice system, and de fend those who bravely shine a light on cor ruption,” said then justice secretary Dominic Raab at the time

This looked like good news If oligarchs are not able to threaten journalists with bank ruptcy or bring baseless cases to tie media

outlets up in legal knots, they will lose the major weapons they are able to wield against scrutiny however, these reforms would cut off well connected lawyers from lucrative revenue streams Those lawyers may not have been publicising their disquiet about the reforms, but you can be sure they will be working behind the scenes to weaken them

This has been the fate of other anti oli garch measures introduced this year by the government including long delayed trans parency for property owned via shell com panies; as well as measures to clean up the mess that is Companies house which have proved to be far less fearsome in practice than they sounded when first proposed Be sides that politicians have failed to give long term extra funding to our law enforce ment agencies, which are as terrified as the newspapers by the legal costs that result from taking on oligarchs

And there is an extra problem now too Raab backed Rishi Sunak s bid to become prime minister, and lost his job when Liz Truss won instead he is therefore no longer in any position to push through his proposed reforms which is why his proposed “bill of rights”, in tended to allow the government to break eu ropean human rights rules if it wanted to has already been (mercifully) scrapped

Will Truss prioritise tackling SLAPPs, or will these proposals crawl off to die in the folder marked ‘when parliamentary time al lows’? In the omni crisis that awaits us this winter there is little likelihood that parlia mentary time will be found without enthusi asm from Downing Street, and the best chance in a generation of finally setting our journalists free to investigate the wrongdo ing of the wealthy could be lost

Open DemOcracy

l i v

r B u l l O u g h

THIS FEUDAL ORDER, HOWE VER, IS NOT B ASED ON AGR ARIAN ECONOMIES. IT IS B ASED ON RESOUR CES AND PR ODUC TS THAT YIELD MONE Y. THE MONE Y SUPPORTS WARLORDS AND SOLDIERS AND BUY S SOPHISTIC ATED WEAPONS, AND THE WARLORDS’ WELL ARMED SOLDIERS CONTR OL THE RESOUR CES PETR OLEUM, MINER ALS, NAR COTIC CR OPS THAT GENER ATE MONE Y

T H E P R O B L E M I S T H AT T H E U K I S T H E G R E AT E S T

P L A C E O N E A RT H TO B E A F I N A N C I A L C R I M I N A L

corporate corner

22 SAudI AIr FOrCE CAdETS AmOng 147 rOll OuT AT grAduATIOn CErEmOny AT PAF ASghAr KhAn ACAdEmy

TH E Graduation Ceremony of 146th GD(P), 92nd Engg, 102nd Air Defence, 92nd & 94th Royal Saudi Air Force Engg Cadets Courses were held at PAF Academy Asghar Khan, Risalpur on Thursday General Nadeem Raza, Chairman

Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee was the chief guest on the occasion On ar rival at the Academy, the chief guest was received by Air Vice Marshal

Muhammad Qaisar Janjua Air Officer

Commanding, PAF Academy Asghar Khan A total of 115 Aviation Cadets, 10 Gentleman Cadets and 22 Royal Saudi Air Force Cadets graduated at the passing out parade ceremony The

Chief Guest awarded branch insignias to the graduating cadets and Trophies to the Distinction Holders Chairman

Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee Tro

phy for the best performance in Gen eral Service Training was awarded to Aviation Cadet Academy Under Offi cer Sabeeh ud Din, whereas Chief of the Air Staff Trophy for best perform ance in Engineering discipline was awarded to Aviation Cadet Squadron Under Officer Mohammad Saqib Sher Chief of the Air Staff Best Pilot Trophy for outstanding performance in Flying Training was awarded to Avia tion Cadet Ahsen Ali Khattak Best Al lied Cadet Trophy for 92nd Royal Saudi Air Force Cadets’ Course was

won by Royal Saudi Air Force Cadet Fahad Mobarak Al Johani whereas, Best Allied Cadet Trophy for 94th Royal Saudi Air Force Cadets’ Course was awarded to Royal Saudi Air Force Cadet Waleed Khalid Abdullah Al Turki Sword of Honour for overall best performance in College of Aero nautical Engineering was won by Avi ation Cadet Squadron Under Officer Mohammad Saqib Sher whereas Sword of Honour for overall best per formance in College of Flying Training was awarded to Aviation Cadet Mo

Pakistan Nav y celebrates World Maritime Day

islamabad

Three-day campaign kicks off for road safet y of motorcyclists

Pakistan Navy celebrated World Maritime Day (WMD) 2022 The theme of WMD for this year is 'New Technologies for Greener Shipping' which reflects the need for greener transition of maritime sector for its sustainable future, in line with the UN sustainable De velopment Goals Chief of the Naval Staff Admiral Muhammad Amjad Khan Niazi in his message on World Maritime Day high lighted that greener shipping calls for new technologies that enable

production of clean, cost effective and energy efficient fuel The Naval Chief underscored that the newer technologies must also aim to reduce impacts on marine en vironment which requires close collaboration between Govern ments, industry, academia and maritime sector On the occa sion, Pakistan Navy organized a range of activities to highlight the significance of maritime sector

Major events include a seminar organized at Pakistan Navy War College Lahore under the aus pices of Maritime Centre of Ex cellence Seminar was attended

by students and faculty of various universities and think tanks Dur ing the seminar, prize distribution for 3rd Inter University Essay Competition was also held Other activities across PN units in cluded awareness walks, Karachi harbour cleaning maritime awareness lectures at Bahria Col leges/ Universities and Essay competitions at Field Commands A comprehensive media aware ness campaign on World Mar itime Day was also launched highlighting the theme and poten tial of maritime sector of Pak istan Events organized on World Maritime Day play an important role in enhancing maritime awareness among the masses Pakistan Navy is fully cognizant of the importance of creating maritime awareness and exploiting full potential of Blue Economy On this important day, PN pledge to optimally contribute towards sustainable development of maritime sector in Pakistan

Dar reviews FBR per fromance in maiden meeting

iSLaMaBaD: Islamabad capital police on Thursday launched three day campaign for motorcyclists to ensure their safety during ride on bikes and control the violation of traffic rules, a police public relations officer said He said that, this campaign has been launched in collaboration with a private company and educations teams of ITP would give safety tips to bike riders and give awareness about traffic laws Following the directions of Inspector General of Police (IGP) Dr Akbar Nasir Khan Islamabad capital police is taking special measures to ensure the integrated traffic system in the city and provide all the travel facilities to the citizens In this regards, following the instructions of DIG Operations Sohail Zafar Chatha, three day special campaign has been started to ensure the safety of the citizens who use motorcycles for travel purpose

Special teams of Islamabad capital police and representatives of private company would perform duties at main roads of the city and to brief the motorcyclists about safe journey p r

SNGPL announces momentous Q2 and Q3 profits for FY21 22

In a historic development, Sui Northern Gas has announced its highest ever half yearly and nine monthly profits for the period ended December 31, 2021 and March 31, 2022 Profit after tax of Rs 6,887 million was declared for second quarter of FY 2021 22 as compared to profit after tax of Rs 5,917 million during the corresponding period of last year EPS of Rs 10 86 was achieved as compared to EPS of Rs 9 33 during the corresponding period For third quarter of FY 2021 22, profit after tax of Rs 9,437 million was achieved as compared to profit after tax of Rs 8,939 million during the corresponding period of last year EPS of Rs 14 88 was achieved as compared to EPS of Rs 14 09 during the corresponding period of last year The Company has also proposed interim cash dividend of 25% in 2nd quarter of FY 2021 22 The historic increase in the Company s profitability came as a result of implementation of UFG Reduction Plan in true and letter spirit under the esteemed leadership of Managing Director SNGPL Ali J Hamdani p r

hammad Saad Bangash While address ing the audience, the Chief Guest said, “Pakistan is a peace loving country that stands committed to the ideal of mutual respect and peaceful co existence Pak istani nation and our Armed Forces have rendered great sacrifices in the quest of regional stability and global peace We are fully cognizant of the evolving regional and global dynamics and shall not let any country to exploit the volatile regional situation against Pakistan " Addressing the graduating cadets, Gen Nadeem Raza said, “At the outset of this very demanding profes sion, remember that you carry the big responsibility on your shoulders of de fending the aerial frontiers of Pakistan Hence, both in peace and war, it must be your prime obligation to give the best of your abilities to meet your pro fessional challenges In doing so, you should seek inspiration from the heroic deeds of our legendary predecessors for keeping Pakistan’s flag flying high ”

BOP President highlights ‘Blue Economy’ potential to meet external account challenges

islamabad

The Federal Minister for Finance and Revenue Ishaq Dar visited the FBR and presided over a meeting on the revenue performance of FBR The Chairman FBR and Members of the Board (FBR) at tended the meeting Mr Asim Ahmad, Chairman FBR extended a warm welcome to the Minister on behalf of the FBR team Chair man gave the presentation and ex plained various revenue initiatives taken by FBR and issues currently being faced in revenue administra tion It was briefed to the Minister

HBL clarifies news item

that FBR has successfully achieved its monthly targets for the months of July and August, 2022 and In Sha Allah will also achieve the quarterly target up to Septem ber, 2022 This performance is de

K A r A c h I: HBL is aware of the news item published by Bloomberg The allegations in the complaints which have been pending in the U S Court for more than two years are meritless, and HBL is contesting them fully and vigorously The public record is clear that HBL is unwavering in its commitment to combating the financing of terrorism HBL’s extensive global implementation of anti money laundering and counter terrorism financing compliance controls is well documented and has been highly successful and lauded by regulators around the world HBL’s preliminary motion was successful in two respects: The Court dismissed the primary liability claims and narrowed the case substantially The Court also stated that the secondary liability claims will be evaluated for dismissal upon following due legal proceedings, and no judgment was passed by the Court on the matter Indeed, the Court specifically invited HBL to renew its motion to dismiss all remaining claims for lack of jurisdiction after the parties have exchanged certain factual information concerning jurisdiction p r

spite the slowing down of econ omy in the month of September due to floods, import contraction and shrinking of demand due to in flation in the country as well as no sales tax on POL products

Imran an enemy of countr y, public: S harjeel Memon

K A r A c h I: Sindh Minister for Information, Transport and Mass Transit Sharjeel Inam Memon has said that Imran Khan is an enemy of Pakistan and Pakistanis who is following the lines of anti Pakistan forces In his press statement on Thursday Sharjeel Inam Memon said that PTI chief Imran Khan was responsible for imprisonment of 10 Pakistani nationals in suadi Arabia who were bread earners of their families The minister termed Imran Khan as cunning person who can go to any extend for the sake of gaining power He said: Imran Khan has targeted not only the state institutions but also the 230 million people of Pakistan for his own interests The provincial minister said that it is Imran Niazi's left hand game to mislead innocent Pakistanis by fabricating lies upon lies The minister said that Imran Khan s American conspiracy narrative has been badly damaged after the revealation of recent Audio leak, but this man has no regrets about it p r

ISLAMABAD: The launch ceremony of report Pathways to a Sustainable Blue Economy: Role of Financial Institutions” organized jointly by the Sustainable Development Policy Institute (SDPI) and the Bank of Punjab (BOP) was held at Serena Hotel, Islamabad A round table discussion was held which was led by Mr Zafar Masud (President & CEO BOP) and Dr Abid Qaiyum Suleri (Executive Director SDPI) Mr Zafar Masud (President & CEO BOP) stated that the enormous potential of the Blue Economy to contribute towards economic growth and improvements in livelihoods has not been fully realized by the policy makers of Pakistan and across the world The maritime sector provides significant opportunity to meet the external financing requirement in short to medium term through raising funding through Green and Blue bonds on extremely attractive terms (vis a vis plain vanilla offering of Sukuks and Eurobonds), enhancing fish exports offering coastal tourism etc Global sustainable bond market is estimated to be around US$ 1 trillion China and India have taken the lead in terms of issuance of global sustainable bond with over US$ 12 billion raised by each of them hitherto In India the corporate sector raised nearly US$ 10 billion through ESG and Green bonds in 2021 While Pakistan tasted success in its first green bond issuance in 2021 there is a need to develop a larger pipeline by identifying green assets and scaling up capacity to meet the international standards

ISLAMABAD: The Anti Narcotics Force (ANF) Pakistan seized 1277 771 kg drugs worth $ 27 357 million internationally arrested 33 persons including 1 Foreigner and impounded 15 vehicles while conducting 28 counter narcotics operations throughout the country The seized drugs comprised 14 803 Kg Heroin, 596 870 kg Hashish, 613 200 Kg Opium, 52 664 Kg Methamphetamine (Ice) and 0 234 Kg Weed ANF Balochistan recovered 654 Kg drugs in 4 operations while arrested 2 accused persons including 1 foreigner in drug smuggling and seized 3 vehicles The seized drugs comprised 5 Kg Heroin, 96 Kg Hashish, 552 Kg Opium and 1 Kg Methamphetamine (Ice) ANF Punjab recovered 12 156 Kg drugs in 3 operations while arrested 4 persons in drug smuggling and seized 1 vehicle The seized drugs comprised 2 206 Kg Heroin, 7 200 Kg Hashish, 2 400 Kg Opium and 0 350 Kg Methamphetamine (Ice) ANF KPK recovered 3 142 Kg drugs in 2 operations while 2 persons arrested in drug trafficking

Managing Director Pakistan Baitul Maal, Amir Fida Paracha discussing about a Disabled Person with CEO Paraplegic Centre Ilyas Syed, during his visit to Paraplegic Centre in Peshawar pr

RuSSia pOiSed TO annex FOuR

Occupied uKRaine RegiOnS TOday

son and Zaporizhzhia regions are occu pied by the Russian army, which Putin sent over the border in February

Over two lakh Sikhs take par t in Khalistan Referendum held in four countries

ISLAMABAD Ag e n c i e s

Around 208,000 Sikhs took part in Khalistan

Referendum held across four countries to demand the liberation of Indian Punjab from Indian occupation and the establishment of a sovereign Sikh state Starting in October last year four referendums have so far been held in UK, Geneva, Italy and Canada in which the Sikh community actively participated in a huge number

The latest exercise in this regard was held in Brampton, Canada on September 18, in which approximately 110,000 Sikhs 20% of the adult Sikh population voted for a sovereign state

The first Khalistan referendum was held on October 31, 2021, in the UK, in which 30,000 Sikhs participated Over 6,000 people voted for a sovereign Sikh state in Geneva on December 10, last year A similar exercise was held in Italy with the participation of 62,000 Sikhs and around 110,000 in Canada The referendum in Canada was organized by Sikh for Justice (SFJ) under the leadership of Sikh leader Gurpatwant Singh Pannu in a peaceful and democratic way

During interaction with media outlets, Gurpatwant Singh showed a proposed Khalistan Map with Shimla as its capital

The huge turnout for the Sikh Referendum depicts that the issue of ‘Sikh Independence Movement’ is becoming a mainstream movement

During the referendum Sikh community raised anti India and pro Khalistan slogans and more than 2,000 cars took part in the pro Khalistan rally

The referendum campaign by SFJ has raised awareness in a global community with regard to atrocities committed against Sikhs by India This will also further pressurize India to hold an official referendum Under the UN Article which gives people the right to self determination, holding a referendum for independence in a peaceful and democratic way is the right of everyone

Using its typical tactics India issued multiple requests to the Canadian government to stop the Khalistan Referendum

The Canadian government refused to stop the SFJ from holding a referendum and categorically informed the Indian government that it was held in a peaceful and democratic way within the legal parameters of Canadian Law

The Indian Ministry of External Affairs strongly objected to the referendum and termed it as a ‘farcical exercise held and supported by politically motivated extremist elements

n

d a y ( t o d a y ) , P r e s i d e n t

a d i m i r P u t i n s s p o k e s m a n s a i d

T h u r s d a y

“Tomorrow in the Georgian Hall of the Grand Kremlin Palace at 15:00 (1200 GMT) a signing ceremony will take place on the incorporation of the new territories into Russia,” spokesman Dmitry Peskov said

He added that the Russian leader will make a major speech at the event Ukraine’s Lugansk, Donetsk, Kher

Moscow organised what it called referendums in the four regions that it controls, with Kremlin installed offi cials saying this week residents backed joining Russia

All four Moscow backed leaders of the regions said they were in Moscow and expecting a meeting with Putin

The move comes eight years after Moscow annexed the Crimea peninsula from Ukraine and would mark a signifi cant escalation in the conflict

The West has warned Russia not to press ahead with he annexations, with the G7 saying it would “never recog nise the move

K re m l i n s u s p e c t s fo re i g n ‘s t ate i nvo l ve m e n t ’ i n No rd S t re a m l e a k s

Five years on, how #MeToo shook the world

PARIS

A F P

By forcing the world to wake up to the daily sexual abuse suffered by women, the #MeToo movement became a social revolution of historic importance Its legacy is still being determined

It began with a tweet: on October 15, 2017, US actor Alyssa Milano invited women to share their experiences of sexual harassment under the words “Me too” Within a year, the hashtag had been used more than 19 million times according to Pew Research Center pushing the issue of sexual assault to the top of the global agenda

Of course the movement sat on the shoulders of decades of feminist struggle even the phrase “Me Too” was a decade old, created by activist Tarana Burke for a charity aimed at survivors of abuse

It caught fire in the wake of an explosive New York Times investigation about film producer Harvey Weinstein who, it transpired, had for years been raping and assaulting women, many in the industry, and getting away with it

A reckoning came for many powerful figures in the entertainment industry

Kevin Spacey was dropped from “House of Cards” and Ridley Scott’s “All the Money in the World” was reshot to replace him with another actor

The heads of Amazon Studios, Fox News, CBS and Vox Media were forced out

Actor James Franco opera singer Placido Domingo comedian Louis C K , fashion photographer Terry Richardson, celebrity chef Mario Batali barely a week went by without another illustrious name being shamed

The most serious allegations led to jail time for previously untouchable figures: Bill Cosby, once considered “America’s dad”, singer R Kelly, and the ultra connected financier Jeffrey Epstein

The pressure spread beyond the entertainment business to embroil politicians, sports stars and major tech firms such as Google and Uber

T

that a foreign state was likely re sponsible for an incident that re

Stream 1 and 2 gas pipelines link ing Russia to Europe

It s very difficult to imagine that such a terrorist act could happen without the involvement of a state,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said in his daily press briefing

After explosions were reported earlier this week in suspected sab otage, a fourth leak was detected in the undersea gas pipelines linking Russia to Europe on Thursday

“This is an extremely danger ous situation that requires urgent in vestigation,” Peskov said On Wednesday, Russia launched an in ternational terrorism probe

Peskov said such an investiga tion required the cooperation of several countries” but denounced an “acute shortage of communica tions and unwillingness of many countries to contact” Russia

Moscow and Washington both h

The Nord Stream 1 and 2 pipelines have been shrouded in po litical tensions since the Kremlin sent troops to Ukraine

Russia cut gas supplies to Eu rope in suspected retaliation against Western sanctions, but the pipelines still contained gas though they were not operational

Fourth leak detected at Russian gas pipeline to Europe

A fourth leak has been detected in undersea gas pipelines linking Russia to Europe, the Swedish Coast Guard said Thursday, after explosions were reported earlier this week in what NATO called “reckless” sabotage

The Nord Stream 1 and 2 pipelines link Russia to Germany, and have been at the centre of geopolitical tensions as Russia cut gas supplies to Europe in suspected retaliation against Western sanc tions following Moscow s invasion of Ukraine

The Swedish Coast Guard confirmed Thursday there were four leaks in total on the pipeline

in the Baltic Sea two on the Swedish side and two on the Dan ish side Three leaks were previ ously reported

While the pipelines operated by a consortium majority owned by Russian gas giant Gazprom are not currently in operation, they both still contained gas

On Thursday, NATO declared that the damage was “the result of deliberate reckless and irresponsi ble acts of sabotage”

“These leaks are causing risks to shipping and substantial environ mental damage,” the Western mili tary alliance said in a statement

Russia has denied it was behind the explosions as did the United States saying Moscow s sugges tion it would damage the pipeline was “ridiculous”

Russia s security service launched an “international terror ism investigation into the gas leaks, saying the damage had caused “significant economic dam age to the Russian Federation It said Thursday suspects a foreign state of being behind the leaks

The UN Security Council will meet Friday to discuss the matter

‘A r e vo l u t i o n’: Its strength lay in making visible what had always been lying in plain sight “#MeToo showed that sexual and sexist violence was a daily reality, that it was banal,” said Sandrine Ricci a sociologist at the University of Quebec in Montreal “The movement allowed people, especially victims, to better understand what was being done to them

The epicentre was the United States, but the aftershocks were global

When abuse cases emerged, they were harder to ignore, whether it was a Serbian drama teacher accused of rape, abuse by ultra Orthodox leaders in Israel, or a “sex for grades” scandal at a Moroccan university The Pew study found that a third of #MeToo tweets in the first year were written in a non English language seven percent were in Afrikaans, four percent in Somali and that didn’t count the regional variants, such as #YoTambien in Spanish or #BalanceTonPorc (“rat out your pig”) in French “People were surprised they didn’t know how common sexual harassment is,” said Hillevi Ganetz at Stockholm University

Day after day there were testimonies it was overwhelming,” she added “It was a revolution and it was wonderful ”

r e s i s tA n c e: The backlash was almost immediate By its nature, #MeToo targeted behaviour that was often hard to prove in court, and led to accusations that people were being “cancelled” without a proper enquiry

Some fretted that it spelled the end of flirting that it could strip the tension out of sexual tension French film icon Catherine Deneuve was one who spoke out against the movement s puritanical streak that threatened to turn women into “eternal victims”

Xi, Kishida urge ‘stable’ Sino -Japan ties 50 years af ter normalisation

Chinese President Xi Jinping and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida on Thursday exchanged congratulatory messages over the 50th anniversary of the normalization of China Japan diplomatic relations

The two leaders both mentioned that the development of China Japan relations is vital to promote peace and prosperity within the region and the world

In his message, President Xi said that in the last 50 years, the two sides have signed a number of crucial documents that provided the foundation for bilateral ties

He added that communication and coop

eration on various fronts has been enhanced with joint efforts from both China and Japan

The Chinese president said he attaches great importance to the development of China Japan relations and is willing to work with Prime Minister Kishida to take the 50th anniversary of the normalization of diplo matic relations as an opportunity to jointly build China Japan relations that meet the de mands of the new era For his part, Japanese Prime Minister Kishida said that 50 years ago, the previous leaders of Japan and China had shown their wisdom and courage in forging bilateral relations between the two countries

Kishida said during the past 50 years economic, cultural and people to people ex changes have witnessed tremendous growth and Japan is willing to embrace the next five decades with China towards building con structive bilateral ties

In Chinese Premier Li Keqiang’s con gratulatory message to Kishida, he said that China will work with Japan to push for peaceful co existence and the proper han dling of differences and disputes

Li called on the two sides to stand at a new starting point to continuously promote healthy and stable bilateral ties

MOSCOW

incident The UN Security Coun cil will meet on Friday to discuss the leaks

1 2 f o r e i G n p l ay e r s a r r i v e t o ta k e pa r t i n pJ l

total of 12 foreign players, includ ing eight from the United King dom three from Afghanistan and one from Sri Lanka, have arrived here on Thursday to take part in the first edition of the Pakistan Junior League (PJL) which begins at Gaddafi Sta dium on Thursday (October 6)

The players expressed their excitement at playing the PJL in the presence of some o f t h e g r e a t s o f t h e g a m e w h o w o u l d b e working as mentors during the tournament

The mentor roster includes legends of the game Javed Miandad (league mentor), Imran Tahir (Bahawalpur Royals) Shoaib M

Richards (Gwadar Sharks), Daren Sammy (Hyderabad Hunters) Shahid Afridi (Mar d a n Wa

M

C

the weekend

d t h i s m o r n i n g i n c l u d e A l l a h M u h a m m a d G h a z a n f a r ( R a w a l p i n d i R a i d e r s ) , A r c h i e L e n h a m ( M a r d a n Wa r r i o r s ) J a m e s R o s s Wo o d ( H y d e r a b a d H u n t e r s ) , J o s e p h E c k l a n d ( G w a d a r S h a r k s ) , I b r a h i m M a s o o d ( H y d e r a b a d H u n t e r s ) G a b r i e l G a l l m a n F i n d l a y ( B a hawalpur Royals), George Thomas (Mar d a n Wa r r i o r s ) , L u c M a r t i n B e n k e n s t e i n (Gwadar Sharks) Shevon Daniel (Gujran wala Giants), Thomas Aspinwall (Gujran w a l a G i a n t s ) , N a n g e y a l i a K h a r o t a i (Bahawalpur Royals) and Olly Cox (Mar dan Warriors)

s ) a

(Rawalpindi Raiders) Nangeyalia Kharotai

Bahawalpur Royals said : This is a great opportunity for us at this new and exciting platform for young players from around the world I aim to help my team win the tour nament and work closely with my mentor I m

and has a great experience of leagues and T20 format around the world ”

Thomas Aspinwall Gujranwala Giants said : The Pakistan Junior League is a great initiative and I am thrilled to be a part of this tournament At Gujranwala Giants we have Shoaib Malik as our mentor who is a T20 legend I look forward to talking to him and taking his guidance which will help me in my future cricket There are also some won derful mentors with the rest of the teams and I look forward to chatting with them ”

Joseph Eckland Gwadar Sharks said :

“This is an exciting time for all of us and I am really looking forward to playing the Pakistan Junior League for the Gwadar Sharks We have an all time legend of the game Sir Vivian Richards as our mentor his presence will be a huge motivation for me and my team There are some incredible mentors in other sides and it will be great to

interact with them ”

James Ross Wood Hyderabad Hunters said : “The Pakistan Junior League is a very exciting platform and I can’t wait for the tournament to begin I am delighted to be here in Lahore and look forward to joining my team Our mentor is Daren Sammy who has won T20 World Cups, he is one of the

greats of this format and I am keen on spend ing time with him and learning all about this format of the game

Archie Lenham Mardan Warriors said : “I am delighted to be here in Lahore for the inaugural edition of the Pakistan Junior League There is so much to gain for all our youngsters and I am looking forward to pick ing the brains of Shahid Afridi who is our team mentor Imran Tahir is another mentor I would be interested to talk to as he is also a wonderful leg spinner and I want to de velop that skill of mine

Allah Muhammad Ghazanfar Rawalpindi Raiders said : “I am excited about playing the Pakistan Junior League for the Rawalpindi Raiders I aim to give win ning performances for my side while work ing closely with our mentor Colin Munro I am looking forward to joining the team and making my presence felt in the tournament ”

Gujranwala Giants and Mardan War riors

played from 2000 next

l be played on a single league basis with the s i x t e a m s c o m p e t i n g a g a i n s t e a c h o t h e r o n c e T h e t o p f o u r s i d e s w i l l c o m p e t e i n the playoffs, the final will be played on Fri day, 21 October

Covid bowls Naseem S hah out of England series

ISLAMABAD

s ta f f R e p o R t

Pakistan fast bowler Naseem Shah Naseem Shah tested positive for COVID 19 on Thursday

army chief inaugurates cricket ground

RAWALPINDI

Army Chief Gen Qamar Javed Bajwa on Thursday inaugurated the newly renovated 501 Central Work shop cricket ground rebranded as Chaklala Cricket Ground The ground was upgraded to provide state of the art sports facilities to athletes and fans espe cially to the youth of Rawalpindi and Islamabad, an Inter Services Public Relations (ISPR) statement said It added the sports ground would be available to stu dents and cricket clubs of twin cities to promote the game of cricket and provide a healthy sports environ ment Gen Bajwa appreciated the effort of Rawalpindi Corps in renovating the old ground and providing an excellent facility to the city

injured Buttler ‘progressing well’ ahead of t20 World Cup

WEB DESk

England’s limited overs captain Jos Buttler said he is making good progress in his recovery from a calf in jury but will not rush his return ahead of the Twenty20 World Cup, which begins in just over two weeks The 32 year old who has not played since August 18 after sustaining the injury playing in The Hundred, is currently with the England squad in Pak istan watching the team from the sidelines in their seven match T20 series “I am progressing well,” Buttler told Sky Sports “It would be nice to play but with the World Cup round the corner we are taking a cautious approach “I am running a few drinks, get ting the loads up, feeling good

The PCB announced that their in house medical panel was monitoring him, and that any calls on his participa tion in the remainder of the ongoing se ries against England would be made after assessing his medical reports

H o w e v e r t h e d e v e l o p m e n t e ff e c t i v e l y r u l e s h i m o u t o f t h e e n t i r e t y o f

t h e L a h o r e l e g o f t h e T 2 0 I s e r i e s a g a i n s t E n g l a n d a n d a l s o l e a v e s h i m a s i g n i f i c a n t d o u b t f o r t h e f o r t h c o m i n g t o u r o f N e w Z e a l a n d , w h i c h i s d u e t o g e t u n d e r w a y i n C h r i s t c h u r c h o n O c t o b e r 7 , a s p r e p a r a t i o n f o r t h e T 2 0 Wo r l d C u p

The Pakistan squad leaves for New Zealand on October 3 to play a T20I tri series also featuring Bangladesh, with the final on October 14 They then depart for Australia for the World Cup, where, after a pair of warm ups including against England they play their first

group game in Melbourne on October 23 against India

Naseem featured in the first match of the current series against England, and also played a full part in the recently con cluded Asia Cup In the absence of Sha heen Shah Afridi, who is also currently ruled out with injury he had taken over the left armer ’s responsibility up top as Pakistan’s premier new ball bowler

Afridi who has been undergoing treatment in London for a knee injury, is expected to be available for Pakistan for the World Cup

Fawad Alam scores centur y as S indh all out on 368

in his 186 ball innings Captain Sarfaraz Ahmed (78 off 124, eight fours) fell 22 runs short of a century as Mo hammad Ali, who took four wickets for 84 runs, dis missed him

Central Punjab 170 for four in the second innings had stretched their lead to 230 with double centurion of the previous innings Abdullah Shafique (72 not out off 151) on song Abdullah had the company of Tayyab Tahir, who is unbeaten on 61, gathered in 115 balls The two have added 111 runs for the fifth wicket S c o r e S i n b r i e f:

Toss uncontested Sindh opt to bowl against Central Punjab at Pindi Cricket Stadium, Rawalpindi

Grealish says his best is yet to come at Manchester Cit y

MANCHESTER

The

S h a n M a s o o d n a m e d Yo r k s h i re’s

c a p t a i n fo r 2 0 2 3 c o u n t y s e a s o n

S

n M

s b e e n n a m e d a s Yo r k shire s captain for the 2023 season ahead o f h i s s i g n i n g a s t h e c o u n t y ’s o v e r s e a s player Yo r k s h i r e h e a d c o a c h O t t i s G i b s o n made the announcement following the de f e a t b y G l o u c e s t e r s h i r e a t H e a d i n g l e y o n We d n e s d a y

M a s o o d w a s i n d e v a s t a t i n g f o r m f o r

D e r b y s h i r e a c r o s s f o r m a t s i n 2 0 2 2 , a f t e r b e i n g t e m p t e d t o t h e I n c o r a C o u n t y

Ground by head coach Mickey Arthur, but h e c h o s e t o p u r s u e a d i ff e r e n t d i r e c t i o n

f r o m n e x t s e a s o n a n d i s c u r r e n t l y p a r t o f Pakistan’s T20I side against England

D e r b y s h i r e h a d p r e s e n t e d a s e r i e s o f contract offers to the 32 year old but he has been swayed by the opportunity to move to Yo r k s h i r e w h e r e h e w i l l w o r k w i t h G i b son, the head coach who is also in charge of Masood’s Pakistan Super League fran chise Multan Sultans

“ T h e c o n v e r s a t i o n w e ’ v e h a d w i t h Shan is that he is going to be club captain going forwards said Gibson The players know that Shan is going to be club captain, and he will bring his own style of leader ship

M a s o o d h a s s i g n e d a t w o y e a r d e a l

Central Punjab 428 all out, 102 2 overs (Abdullah Shafique 232, Aamer Yamin 70; Mir Hamza 3 72, Asif Mehmood 3 128) and 170 4, 62 overs (Abdullah Shafique 72 not out Tayyab Tahir 61 not out: Asif Mehmood 3 31) Sindh 368 all out, 85 5 overs (Fawad Alam 127 not out, Sarfaraz Ahmed 78, Saim Ayub 71, Saad Khan 30; Mohammad Ali 4 84, Aamer Yamin 3 80) Innings points Central Punjab (eight), Sindh (seven)

Manchester City playmaker Jack Grealish said he is “nowhere near” full fitness as he continues his recovery from a groin injury but is confident fans will see the best of him when he returns to the side Grealish picked up the problem in August and has been limited to six appearances in all competitions this season I am definitely nowhere near 100% at the moment,” Grealish told City’s website “I played 90 minutes against West Ham United and 45 against Bournemouth when I picked up my injury So I still have a lot of fitness to improve upon but that will come over time I just need to keep training to be the best of my ability and then I’ll get chances on the pitch And then you’ll see the best Jack Greal ish Grealish, who joined City from Aston Villa in August last year for a league record fee of 100 million pounds ($107 98 million), has scored only one goal this season but the England inter national is not worried about his numbers “For me, it’s not all about goals and assists [ ] they mean a lot for attacking players but I just don t think football is just about that ” he said

w i t h Yo r k s h i r e a n d r e p l a c e s J o n n y Ta t t e r s a l l i n t h e r o l e ; t h e w i c k e t k e e p e r h a s f u l f i l l e d t h e r o l e s i n c e S t e v e n P a t t e r s o n r e s i g n e d i n l a t e J u l y

“Shan is a world class batter who will contribute in all formats for us said Dar ren Gough, the director of cricket, when his signing was first announced

He s a great senior player and we ve s e e n f r o m h i s p e r f o r m a n c e s w i t h D e r byshire this year that he has what it takes to score a lot of runs in county cricket

“His experiences from playing around t h e w o r l d , i n c l u d i n g i n t e r n a t i o n a l c r i c k e t with Pakistan will be incredibly valuable to the squad we are building ”

RAWALPINDI s ta f f R e p o R t

Fawad Alam scored his 42nd first class century on Thurs day,

ACCEPT DEMAnDS LEST fACE CounTRy

wiDE BLoCk ADE, fARMERS THREATEn

heavy traffic jams were witnessed on Express Road and adjacent highways due to the sit in

TH O U S A N D S of farmers, protesting under the aegis of Kissan Ittehad, on Thursday gave a two hour ultimatum to authorities for negotiations threatening they would be forced to ‘jam’ the entire country if their de mands are not accepted

According to details, thousands of protesting farmers continued their sit in for the second day consecutive at the edge of Islamabad’s Red Zone to press the authorities accept demands

The protesting farmers reached Jinnah Avenue and were marching to wards D Chowk Red Zone for the ful fillment of their demands Meanwhile,

The farmers are demanding restoration of the previous tubewell electricity tariff of Rs5 3 per unit and abolition of all taxes and adjustments The demonstrators demanded an end to the black marketing of fertilisers and reduction in urea rate They also de manded that agriculture should be given the status of industry

The Kissan Ittehad has vowed to continue the protest till fulfillment of demands, warning of staging a sit in at D Chowk

In a statement, the police said that the farmers would not be allowed to enter the Red Zone as the demonstra tors may have batons or other

weapons The representatives of protesting farmers had assured to stage sit in in F 9, the police said, adding that the protesters were now deter mined to march towards D Chowk

The spokesperson assured that the police and administration would try to negotiate as much as possible, vowing that action would be taken against those who damage property He further said that the police and administration would take measures to disperse the protesters

The demonstrators claimed that the government has not yet sent any dele gation to negotiate with them and only local administration approached them to negotiate for providing a place for the sit in

Meanwhile, the protesting farmers warned of ‘jamming’ the whole coun try giving a two hour ultimatum to au thorities for negotiations

A day earlier, farmers led by Kissan Ittehad staged a sit in at Blue Area in Islamabad after the authorities barred them from protesting before the Parliament House

As soon as the rally of the Kissan Ittehad reached Faizabad, the local ad ministration asked them to stage a sit in at F 9 Park However, the protesters insisted on moving towards Parliament House and later blocked Blue Area over refusal from authorities

Pakistan- C hina agree on early launch of ML-1 projec t

LHC summons PEMRA boss over broadcast of Sharif, Dar speeches

LAHORE: A petition was filed in the Lahore High Court (LHC) Thursday against the Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (PEMRA) for allowing media coverage to former prime minister Nawaz Sharif and Minister for Finance Ishaq Dar The petition was filed after Sharif and Dar appeared on several TV chan nels including state owned PTV The plaintiff said the PEMRA imposed a ban on the broadcast of speeches of absconders and proclaimed offenders but despite it, the speeches of Sharif and Dar were being broadcast Dur ing the hearing, a counsel for PEMRA sought time for submission of a reply in the case The LHC, later, ad journed the hearing by summoning the PEMRA director general in person On May 27, 2019, the PEMRA banned the broadcast of speeches, interviews, and public addresses by absconders and proclaimed offenders Later on October 1, 2020, PEMRA issued notices to all television channels for defying the aforesaid ban by air ing the address of Sharif Two days later, the PEMRA also issued notices to the television channels for airing the interview of Dar, who was declared absconder in 2017 by the Supreme Court after he went into self im posed exile in London S

Buoyant rupee continues gains against greenback

ISLAMABAD: Pakistani rupee on Thursday gained Rs2 54 against US Dollar in the interbank trading and closed at Rs229 62 against the previous day’s closing of Rs232 12 According to Forex Association of Pakistan (FAP), the buying and selling rates of Dollars in the open market were recorded at Rs227 and Rs230 respectively Whereas, the price of Euro decreased by 15 paisa and closed at Rs 221 54 against the last day’s closing of Rs 221 69 The Japanese Yen lost 02 paisas to close at Rs 1 58, whereas a decrease of 37 paisa was witnessed in the exchange rate of the British Pound, which was traded at Rs 247 53 as compared to its last closing of Rs 247 90 The exchange rates of Emirates Dirham and Saudi Riyal decreased by 67 paisa each to close at Rs 62 51 and Rs 61 00 respectively S

Pakistan and China on Thurs day agreed to early launch of much awaited Mainline 1 (ML1) project, aim at revamp ing and modernizing the coun try s age old railway infrastructure

The agreement was reached between the two countries dur ing a dinner hosted by Chinese Ambassador to Pakistan Nong Rong in honour of Federal Min ister for Railways Khawaja Saad Rafiq here Railways Chairman, Additional Secretary, Secretary Aviation and Chief Executive Officer Pakistan In ternational Airlines (PIA) ac companied the minister

The minister invited the Chinese Ambassador to con

sider a partnership of budget air lines with PIA in order to make Pakistan’s small airports func tional and provide better travel facilities to the passengers

The Chinese ambassador assured the minister to discuss

his desired issue with the Chi nese private airlines

The envoy also assured of taking initiatives to allow direct flights from Pakistan to Beijing and Guangzhou for Pakistani airlines at the earliest

Imran’s refusal to NRO for M ar yam led to his ouster, says PTI

ISLAMABAD S ta f f R e p o R t

Strongly reacting to the acquittal of the PML N Vice President Maryam Nawaz in Avenfield case, the PTI Thursday said that the NRO was the “real reason” behind PTI Chairman Imran Khan’s ouster as prime minister

The PTI has been building a narrative since its ouster in April that the party s removal from the government was the incumbent rulers’ strat egy to get themselves acquitted of corruption

PTI Senior Vice President Fawad Chaudhry claimed that the state institutions have lost the nation’s confidence and said that their decisions have “no value” in the people’s court

“Beyond any doubt, it is another dark day in the history of Pakistan, he added

In a tweet, PTI Secretary General leader Asad Umar said: “Inflation is increasing day by day and cases of imported government leaders are being dismissed daily ”

“These are the main reason[s] for which Imran Khan was removed through conspiracy

Former energy minister Hammad Azhar said that the PML N was also a “bit embarrassed” after today’s ruling

PTI s Babar Awan said the jail department would teach lessons about the Sharif family to prisoners so that they can get NRO II as well

PTI leader Khurram Sher Zaman said “regime change conspiracy” has come out on top after the ruling and not the PML N

“Although Nawaz has no plans of coming back to Pakistan, Maryam will be planning on going to London after getting her passport he claimed

An accountability court, just ahead of the 2018 General Elections, slapped Maryam with a fine of £2 million and sentenced her to seven years of imprisonment for being “instrumental in concealment of the properties of her father and one year for non cooperation with the bureau sentences for which were due to run concurrently

It merits mention that the Islamabad High Court (IHC) exonerated PML N vice president and her husband Junaid Safdar in the Avenfield reference, nullifying the conviction handed to them in 2018 by an accountability court

Rana Sanaullah assures farmers of resolution of their issues

S ta f f R e p o R t

Federal Interior Minister Rana Sanaullah on Thursday assured leaders of the Pakistan Kissan Ittehad that the government would resolve their issues

In a meeting with Rana Sanaullah here late Thursday night, the Kissan Ittehad leaders presented their demands to the minister including the postponement of electricity bills and that power tariffs should be reviewed

“Expensive electricity is badly affecting the agriculture sector,” they said asking the minister to take talks with them seriously

The Minister assured leaders of the Pakistan Kissan Ittehad that the government would resolve their issues

Earlier, the Pakistan Kissan Ittehad announced to enter the Red Zone Focal person Pakistan Kissan Ittehad Altaf Chattha said members of his farmer community had been staying on streets for last one day He said their caravans had left for the federal capital city

“The government had promised to hold a meeting on September 28 with us However it has not given any timeframe yet,” he said adding that the caravans would directly reach D Chowk in Islamabad

He said they would not call off the protest until the government would accept their demands

Three million children may miss a semester in flood-hit cities

ISLAMABAD

t h e a S S o c i at e d p R e S S

Almost 3 million children in Pakistan may miss at least one semester because of flood damage to schools officials said on Thursday, following heavy monsoon rains likely worsened by climate change

Unprecedented deluges since mid June have affected more than 33 million people, inundated millions of acres of land and devastated infrastructure, including education facilities Local authorities have set up temporary learning centres in flood hit areas to enable children to keep studying However officials say these measures are not enough, given the scale of destruction

In Sindh, the nation’s worst hit area, flooding has damaged about 15 000 schools where 2 4 million children were enrolled, according to the local education department It has raised fears that at least 2 8 million children across the country may miss a semester, officials at the Planning Commission and National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) told The Associated Press Pakistan, UNICEF and other agencies have set up scores of temporary learning centres, they said On Thursday Planning Minister Ahsan Iqbal told journalists at the military backed National Flood Response and Coordination Center (NFRCC) that the deluges have caused so much destruction that relief and rehabilitation work will continue for two years

The floods have killed 1 666 people and damaged 643 schools in Balochistan, 109 in Punjab and 287 in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa The majority of those killed or affected by the disaster are women and children according to data released Wednesday by the NDMA

A World Bank report released Wednesday said the flooding had heavily impacted schools The Government High School Ahmadani, in Dera Ghazi Khan, had served generations of students since 1916 But it was no longer functional because of flood damage, it said “An estimated 3 5 million children have had their schooling disrupted the World Bank report said It quoted Gohar Abbas, an education activist, as saying many schools have been transferred to emergency shelters where families have temporary accommodation

The new government data comes as UK based charity Save the Children estimates that almost half of flood affected families are sleeping outside in tents or makeshift shelters It surveyed 1,200 households in the four worst hit provinces Most of the families surveyed had lost their homes and were living in squalid conditions near roadsides, using pieces of cloth or tarpaulin for shelter from monsoon rains Save the Children s country director in Pakistan Khurram Gondal said Pakistan was now in the grip of a major health emergency “In Sindh, I saw hundreds of thousands of people living in filthy conditions in makeshift camps some with only a plastic sheet to protect themselves from the heavy monsoon rains Gondal said

Pakistan ‘touched ’ by C hina aid for flood vic tims, Akram tells UN

NEW YORK

S

Munir Akram Pakistan s ambassador to the United Nations, has praised China’s leading role in the world body, saying Beijing’s poli cies are based on principles of the UN Char ter, support for multilateralism and “win win” cooperation

Speaking at a virtual reception, hosted by Chinese Ambassador Zhang Jun, to mark

his nation’s national day, he also spoke about the close Pakistan China friendship, saying the flood hit people were touched by the solidarity shown and the help provided by the Chinese friends in their difficult times

Our mutual friendship has a great fu ture,” Ambassador Akram said In his re marks, the envoy lauded China’s phenomenal progress, especially in bringing 700 million people out of poverty in only 30 years

China s phenomenal achievements in

the economic, social, scientific and techno logical fields reflect the vision and sagacity of its leaders especially President Xi Jin ping and the hard work of the Chinese people,” Ambassador Akram said Underlining that China and Pakistan are “old and trusted” friends, he said, “Our un breakable friendship is based on sovereign equality, non interference in each others’ in ternal affairs and mutual respect “We deeply value China s consistent and vital support for

Pakistan’s economic and social development and modernization,” the envoy said

Through the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), the Global Development Initiative (GDI) and other mechanisms, China sup ports all developing countries to enlarge prosperity around the world, Ambassador Akram said, highlighting the China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) was an “out standing example” of that cooperation

In 1971 as a young Pakistani diplomat

I participated in the adoption of the historic resolution restoring the PRC’s (People’s Re public of China s) legitimate seat in the UN he said, referring to the Pakistan led move that resulted in the expulsion of Taiwan, a per manent member of the UN Security Council and seating of China “I look forward to our continued close cooperation in promoting our shared aspiration for a world united in the search for a peaceful and prosperous future for all mankind Ambassador Akram added

ISLAMABAD

ISLAMABAD S ta f f R e p o R t

ISLAMABAD