Epaper_22-10-11 LHR

Dr AlvI DIStAnceS from ImrAn KhAn’S ‘US conSPIrAcy’ theory

g DOeSN ’T AGRee WITH KHAN ’S vIeW

consp racy and called for an nvestiga tion n to the matter as he wasn t con vinced of the theor y “

PReSIDeNT Dr Ar f A vi on Monday took an ndependent stance over

to the stance adopted by his party ch

and former

me m n ster Imran Khan, saying he was not an

of

emphasised that the

won’t

remarks

in

to

be

It would be better if the name [of new army chief]

suggested after

sultations,” he said back ng the

of hold ng extensive consultat ons

order to arr ve a consensus

A vi has been constantly backing the idea of grand dialogue between the politica parties as he believes issues can be resolved through dia ogue

NOT CONVINCEd Of US CONSPIRACy

ThEORy: President Arif A v a so raised h s suspic ons regarding PTI s alleged uS

The letter [foreign cypher] has been sent to Chief Just ce of Pakistan umar Ata Band al and an investigation should be made into these allegations ” Alv said PTI Chairman Imran Khan had brandished a threat letter wh ch was the cypher on March 27 at a public gather ng before h s ouster, claiming that h s government had been threat ened by the uS and the then oppos tion was involved n the conspiracy a claim rejected by the government as we l as the un ted States

C o m

m n

c

Saving $6 bln on fuel impor ts, Thar Coal Project to be a game-changer: PM

Mines project had contr buted to the provis on of job opportun ties to the loca people of Thar thus mproving their ifesty es

He sa d under pub ic partnership projects the barren desert of Thar was now witness ng crop irr gat on and fish breeding even with the use of hard water Bilawal stressed for replicating co laborative pro ects n other parts of the countr y and expressed confi dence that the pr me minister w th his inspir ng ‘ Shehbaz Speed ’ , would materialize the deve opment plans at a fast pace Chief Minister Sindh Murad Al Shah said the S ndh govern ment al ocated 40 percent equity along w th 60 percent contributed by S ndh engro in the pub ic pr vate part nersh p on Thar Coal mines project

Pr me M n ster Shehbaz Sharif on Mon day said amid skyrocketing fuel prices, the nexpensive energy pro duction from Thar Coal Mines Pro ect would prove to be a game changer of deve opment for the entire countr y The Thar Coa Project he said cou d help the government save up to $ 6 bi lion as the expenditure on the m port of energy including petrol and l quid petroleum touched $24 b ll on Addressing the inauguration of commercial operations of Phase I of Sindh engro Coa Mining Company (SeCMC) during his vis t to Thar Coal M nes Block II he sa d the Thar Coal Project was high on the agenda for the government in view of reduced cost of power generation The prime m n ster on the occasion inaugurated a 330 MW Power Plant of Thar energy Limited (TeL) and a so inspected the construction site of SeCMC Mine Phase II at Islamkot

Shebaz Sharif said not benefiting from the countr y s ndigenous coal re ser ves was a huge m stake and an nounced to convene a meeting of stakeho ders on Thar Coal mines next week to discuss the forma ities He sa d the federal government in co labora t on w th the Sindh government wou d cha k out a pol cy framework on the Thar Coal mines project, with an ob ect ve to connect it with other

coal powered power plants in the countr y produc ng 4 000 megawatts

He mentioned the nternational cost of coal had come down from $67 to $44 and had prospects of fur ther reduct on up to $ 30 The coal powered p ants he said would prove to be a feasib e operat on for electr c ty production at the rate of Rs 10 per unit The prime minister said Thar Coal pro ect wou d save the countr y ’s for e gn exchange and help thrive the nat onal economy On March 2023 he said the Thar Coal Mines Project would be connected through a freight rai track for the transportation of coal to other parts of the countr y He lauded the Sindh government, Hubco the Government of China and the Ch nese compan es for train ng the local profess onals and work ers and also apprec ated the women working n the f eld including at water plants and dumping trucks

He expressed satisfact on that Thar was undergo ng fast develop ment after former Prime M n ster Be nazir Bhutto f rst visited the area in 1996 and env sioned a prosperity p an for the locals

Foreign Minister Bilawa Bhutto Zardari said that Thar once used to be known for ma nutr tion, and infant and maternal mortal ty rate had now emerged as a game changer and a pub ic partnersh p model of develop ment

He mentioned that the Thar Coal

He regretted that had the work on Thar coal not stal ed since ts first m n ing of reser ves in 1991 the project would have produced 10 000 megawatts

People set to take on Sharifs, their handlers: Imran Khan

Chinese Ambassador Nong Rong congratu ated the Government of Pakistan on the successful comple tion of the project and auded Pr me Minister Shehbaz Sharif for his consis tent devotion and firm support n strengthen ng Pakistan China cooper ation inc ud ng in CPeC

He hoped that the

power bloc wou

shortage, and

and affordable electricity The envoy thanked the Pakistan Army for

to the

proof

ing

professionals work ng in the

As an Iron Brother he said China would be happy to cont nue assisting Pak stan to help it achieve prosperity Cha rman Hub Power Company Lim ted (Hubco) Habibu lah Khan said Hubco continued to be Pak stan s largest Independent Power Producer and contributed $uS 5 b llion to the countr y n four CPeC pro ects

He said Hubco s investment in the production of the cheapest power was s gn f cant for ensur ng long term energy secur ty in the countr y

Pakistan Tehreek i Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan on Monday warned Shehbaz Shar f and Rana Sanaullah that these thieves and the r handlers should listen as a sea of people’ would march on Islamabad, wh ch they would not stop come what may Speaking at PTI workers convention here Imran Khan said that he was plann ng and preparing his workers for the historic long march ver y care fu ly because they were doing ihad not pol tical to iberate the countr y from these thieves I know the planning of Rana Sanaullah and Shehbaz but they don t know about my game p an he added They can plan whatever they want, the sea of people wil be unstoppab e” he vowed “A lah has put love for PTI in the peop e of Pakistan That s why they come to our publ c rall es When you do protests it is the duty of the party workers to bring people out of their homes,” he stated “ The more cowardly the person is, the more oppressor he becomes PDM did ong marches four times dur ng my tenure Once Mariam tr ed but it finished on her way at GT Road; Second y Bilawal came with his party and there were no conta ners or F R lodged aga nst his party workers; Faz ur Rehman d d twice, he added He went on to say that h s party has no fear of anything because the pub ic s with them and the PDM fears us Whenever I take a decis on to march aga nst them the r egs started shivering ” he added He went on to say that phones were being tapped ever ywhere due to which he d d not disclose his planning to anyone adding that they even tried to buy oy a ty of his ser vants PTI Cha rman further said that the work of the agenc es was not tap the phone or to ntimidate, as people of soc al media were being threatened add ng that the nat on would not accept these bandits at any cost Lash ng out at Ishaq Dar mran Khan said that he escaped the countr y n the Prime M n ster s p ane and returned again to the countr y in the PM s p ane We did not bring the Panama Papers we were not in the government at that time and Nawaz Sharif and Mar yam were not even arrested unti the tria was comp eted, Imran Khan stated PTI Chairman said that Nawaz and Mar yam were complaining of great injustice as if the jud ciar y did wrong cases aga nst them add ng that they were blaming the ud ciar y and the estab ishment but they cou d not g ve the money trail of the r London f ats t ll date He said that after Mar yam s acquittal now Asif A i Zardari would be also be acquitted be cause these th eves made person specific amendments in the NAB to save the skin of Zardari, Nawaz Shar f and Shahid Khaqan and many others If th s system works in th s fashion then your chi dren w ll have no future in the countr y as the nations w ll be destroyed if the b g robbers are not caught ” he added

THAR s ta f f r e p o r t

RAWALPINDI

s ta f f r e p o r t

SHeHBA Z SHArIF geTS vICe-CHAIr oF Key CoP27 mooT

ISLAMABAD a p p

IN view of the proactive leadership of Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on the climate change action plan, the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP27) has announced to hand over him the vice chairmanship of the conference

Among the 195 member countries of the United Nations, Pakistan has received the honour as a result of the effective voice raised by PM Shehbaz Sharif at global and regional forums, regarding the need for an urgent climate action plan

Egypt s President Abdul Fattah Al Sisi has invited Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif to co chair the COP 27 meeting

PM Shehbaz will jointly chair the roundtable conference along with the president of Egypt and the prime minister of

Norway, being held in Egypt’s Sharm el Sheikh from November 6 8

The meeting will be attended by world leaders, think tanks, and the heads of governments and international financial institutions This will be the 27th meeting organized by the United Nations regarding the problems of climate change and the need for sustainable solutions

Following the recent floods in Pakistan, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif effectively voiced for immediate action on challenges of climate change, at the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) Council of Heads of State and Government Samarkand and the 77th session of the United Nations General Assembly, New York

The prime minister ’s proposal for global cooperation in addressing the challenge of climate change had received endorsement by several countries

PM Shehbaz soon after the heavy downpour in Sindh and Balochistan that

IHC ser ves notice on PTI plea against FIA action

ISLAMABAD: The Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Monday served notices to respondents on a petition of PTI challenging FIA’s investigation in foreign funding case Justice Aamer Farooq of IHC heard the case filed by Senator Saifullah Niazi regarding the aforementioned matter The court inquired that whether it was similar case which was already fixed for hearing on October 19 Petitioner ’s lawyer Barrister Gohar answered in yes He stated that previously banking circle of FIA was probing the matter but

to

crime wing was interrogating

the

court

with the

Zardari shifted to Bilawal House from hospital

KARACHI: Former President and Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) co chairman Asif Ali Zardari has been discharged from hospital and shifted to Bilawal House on Sunday evening after recovering from his illness Dr Asim Hussain, personal physician of former President, confirmed that Asif Ali Zardari has been discharged from Ziauddin Hospital, Karachi after recovering from his illness Asif Ali Zardari was taken to Ziauddin Hospital on September 27

IHC asks PTI to remove section-144 from Punjab, KP, then come to court

I S L A M A B A D : T h e I s l a m a b a d H i g h C o u r t ( I H C ) o n M o n d a y r e s e r v e d j u d g m e n t o n m a i n t a i n a b i l i t y o f t h e P T I ’s p e t i t i o n c h a l l e n g i n g a c t i o n s u n d e r s e c t i o n 1 4 4 T h e c o u r t a s k e d t h e p e t i t i o n e r t o r e m o v e t h i s l a w t h r o u g h t h e a s s e m b l i e s o f P u n j a b a n d K P K f i r s t w h e r e h i s p a r t y w a s a l r e a d y i n p o w e r, a n d t h e n c o m e h e r e C h i e f J u s t i c e A t h a r M i n a l l a h h e a r d t h e c a s e f i l e d b y P T I s S e c r e t a r y G e n e r a l A s a d U m a r T h e p e t i t i o n e r a d o p t e d t h e s t a n c e t h a t t h e l a w o f s e c t i o n 1 4 4 w a s u n c o n s t i t u t i o n a l a n d i t w a s u s e d t o s t o p t h e p e a c e f u l p r o t e s t s B r i t i s h r u l e h a d i n t r o d u c e d t h i s l a w w h i c h s t i l l e x i s t s i n t h e c o u n t r y, h e a d d e d T h e c o u r t i n q u i r e d t h a t h o w t h e p e t i t i o n e r w a s a n a ff e c t e e o f t h i s l a w W h e t h e r a n y o n e s t o p p e d A s a d U m a r f r o m t a k i n g o u t a p e a c e f u l p r o t e s t , i t a s k e d T h e c h i e f j u s t i c e r e m a r k e d t h a t t h e t o p c o u r t h a d d e c l a r e d t h e p e r m i s s i o n c o m p u l s o r y f o r e v e r y o n e t o h o l d a p e a c e f u l p r o t e s t T h e c o u r t q u e s t i o n e d w h e t h e r t h e p e t i t i o n e r ’s p a r t y h a d n o t i m p o s e d s e c t i o n 1 4 4 i n t w o p r o v i n c e s w h e r e i t w a s i n p o w e r W h e t h e r t h e P T I g o v e r n m e n t d i d n ’t i m p o s e s e c t i o n 1 4 4 w h e n i n f e d e r a t i o n , h e a s k e d S ta f f R e p o R t

threatened to turn into devastating floods, galvanized the Federal Government and all relevant institutions to immediately gear up for rescue and relief operations

He also visited the affected areas on a daily basis to ensure that food medicine and relief goods were being dispatched to these areas Shehbaz Sharif, in all his pronouncements at home and in his exchanges with foreign leaders, highlighted the unprecedented nature of the colossal loss from the floods Consequently the devastation in Pakistan received huge coverage in the international media and also resulted in highly supportive messages from global leaders and heads of international organizations

The friendly countries, including China, Turkey and the Arab nations responded within no time to announce their support and solidarity with the Pakistanis in their hour of distress As PM Shehbaz Sharif ensured that the world’s response to Pakistan’s losses

remained substantial, UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres visited Pakistan to personally oversee the scale of damages and assess the country’s post flood requirements This helped greatly in sending a powerful message to the international community as Pakistan suffered on an unprecedented scale

Notwithstanding his desire to stay in the country and visit the flood affected areas on a daily basis, Shehbaz Sharif took the decision to travel to Samarkand for the SCO meeting so as to use the forum to highlight the issue of climate change in all his sideline meetings as well as in his address at the summit

Also during his interactions at the UN General Assembly, the prime minister highlighted the issue of climate change in general and the devastating floods in Pakistan in particular The prime minister on the occasion galvanized global opinion in favour of meaningful initiatives that needed to be taken by the developed countries

The prime minister, at the international forums, highlighted the need for a fresh charter of global understanding to assist all those countries that were vulnerable to the adverse effects of global climate change

It was during his meeting with French President Macron in New York that the latter informed the prime minister that he had been so moved by the suffering of the people of Pakistan and would be willing to take a lead in organizing a global conference to determine Pakistan s long term rehabilitation and reconstruction, in the flood affected areas The upcoming COP27 will be another important opportunity for the prime minister to highlight this issue The conference will be yet another opportunity for the prime minister to urge the developed countries to abide by the provisions of the Paris Agreement 2015, in which the industrialized countries had committed to mobilizing $100 billion per year to support the developing countries on a climate action plan

Army contingent leaves for Qatar to provide security during FIFA World Cup

RAWALPINDI

security

In

The

government

Last week the

motion

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Pakistan rejects unwarranted remarks of Indian MEA

ISLAMABAD S ta f f R e p o R t

Pakistan has rejected the unwarranted remarks made by the official spokesperson of the Indian Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) on the recent joint press stakeout of the foreign ministers of Pakistan and Germany during the official visit of Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari to Berlin

The Foreign Office (FO) spokesperson said in a statement Highlighting the centrality of the Jammu and Kashmir dispute, both the foreign ministers agreed that there was a role and responsibility of the international community as well as a need for intensified efforts from the United Nations (UN), with regards to a peaceful and just resolution of the Jammu and Kashmir dispute

“While the views expressed by the foreign ministers elucidated the growing urgency and concern in the international community on the Kashmir dispute, the MEA’s gratuitous remarks have exposed the desperation of a country that finds itself increasingly isolated on the issue of its illegal occupation of Jammu and Kashmir and the reprehensible human rights violations being perpetrated by its ruthless occupation force in the occupied territory ”

“India’s proclivity to hoist the bogey of cross border terrorism whenever there is a call for increased scrutiny of its unlawful occupation and brutality in Jammu and Kashmir, is well known It must, however, realize that no amount of

A DG FIA in ever y john?

boy, the father wanted him qualified to play for Yorkshire

obfuscation will change the reality of its repression in the Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK)

“India’s credentials as a purveyor of state terrorism in the IIOJK and as an instigator of cross border terrorism in Pakistan need no reiteration Hollow denials and evasion of responsibility will no longer cover up India’s mischievous strategy of posing as a victim of terrorism while shifting blame elsewhere ”

The FO spokesperson said, “Pakistan’s achievements and contribution to the cause of counterterrorism are globally acknowledged On the contrary, India’s allusion to FATF, displaying its characteristic bias hostility and partiality towards Pakistan, corroborates Pakistan’s long standing view that India has been politicizing FATF and trying to misuse its membership of FATF to target Pakistan FATF needs to take note of the irresponsible statement by India ”

Rather than making preposterous remarks about statements made by foreign ministers, India would do well to introspect, address the international community s valid concerns and mend its conduct in the IIOJK ”

“Pakistan urges the international community, particularly human rights and humanitarian organizations to condemn India’s barbaric state terrorism in Jammu and Kashmir and ensure that Kashmiris are given their right to self determination as enshrined in the relevant UNSC resolutions and as per their own wishes,” it concluded

assignment In addition to Pakistan and Turkey, the US, UK, France, and Italy will also provide military support to contribute to Qatar s security during the tournament

Further, Qatar has called hundreds of civilians, including diplomats summoned back from overseas, for mandatory military service operating security checkpoints at World Cup stadiums, according to a source and documents seen by Reuters

The deployment of conscripts some of whom would normally defer national service because their work is considered vital, highlights the logistical challenge faced by the tiny Gulf Arab state hosting one of the world’s biggest sports tournaments

The civilians were told they had been called up to assist with the World Cup and that it was their “patriotic duty” to do so, a source said Some volunteers are also training alongside the conscripted force according to the source who has direct knowledge of the plan and the training

Pakistan repatriates 19,000 nationals out of 32,000 imprisoned abroad

ISLAMABAD S ta f f R e p o R t

As many as 19,000 Pakistanis imprisoned abroad have been repatriated from different countries from out of a total of 32,000 nationals imprisoned currently in various countries, Parliamentary Secretary for Foreign Affairs Hussain Tariq told National Assembly Replying to the question of Shams Un Nisa, he said recently 21 Pakistanis imprisoned in India have been repatriated to the country Pakistani Missions abroad were continuously engaged with the respective local governments to facilitate Pakistani prisoners in the best possible manner He said a sum of $3 000 to $ 5 000 per person has been allocated for each Pakistani imprisoned abroad under Pakistan Community Welfare and Education Fund (PCW&EF) to provide them legal assistance and other services The Pakistan Community Welfare and Education Fund (PCW&EF) being administered by Ministry of Foreign Affairs was utilized to extend legal assistance to Pakistanis imprisoned abroad, including payment of lawyers fees, fines and const of repatriation of destitute Pakistani prisoners Pakistani missions provide legal assistance to Pakistani prisoners on need basis The assistance includes hiring of lawyers payment of lawyers’ fee hiring of law firms and provision of translator for cases Some countries provide facility of interpreters/translators and lawyers to all prisoners on their own, whereas in other countries was for provision of legal assistance, all efforts were made for provision of effective assistance

Shan Masood is a reasonable player, but surely he s not in the class of Sachin Tendulkar Tendulkar went there in1992, bringing an end to it’s prejudice against players not born in Yorkshire

It’s not always been so Lord Hawke, the 19th century Yorkshire captain who made it Yorkshire, and with eight Championships still remains the captain with the most County Championships, was born in Lincolnshire, of all places, and only played for Yorkshire because of a residential qualification It was a far cry from the time when a Yorkshire captain insisted on his wife being rushed to Yorkshire when she was about to give birth, because if it was a

One wonders if Shan is some sort of token I mean, you’ve got lads of Pakistani origin with impeccable Yorkshire birth qualifications from Bradford who’ve played for Yorkshire, and who have complained how they ve experienced racism in the dressing room including from Mark Vaughan, who was also England captain at the time

And Shan has also got the captain s job after a stint as an ordinary overseas player I don’t know if anyone has noticed, but Shan doesn t captain his country That s quite apart from Lord Hawke spinning in his grave, of course

I wonder if Shan is some sort of revenge for Lord Harris Lord Harris was another 19th/20th century cricketer, and he skippered Kent for many years He was also

Governor of Bombay in later life, and got decidedly bad reviews, being called quite simply the worst governor ever sent out to India Now if Shan can destroy Yorkshire Yorkshire is trying to recoup, and has signed an agreement of sorts with the Lahore Qalandars That’s why theory had Haris Rauf as their overseas player Of course getting over the racism charge will involve more than just a Pakistani captain, especially one who doesn’t even captain his domesticT20 team (Multan Sultans which he led until he was sacked, because Rizwan joined the side ) It will take at least 10 to 15 years before some Bradford kid born to Pakistani parents, joins Yorkshire, plays for a decade, and then becomes captain Ranjitsinhji created the myth of the magical Indian batsman, but it should reassure Yorkshire fans of the old school that Pakistan produced Mudassar Nazar

who broke the record for the slowest century in Test cricket back in 1977 8 The tradition of dour openers, who refuse to score, and and perfectly happy to let the overs go by, was a peculiarly Yorkshire thing, exemplified by Sir Len Hutton before and after the Second World War and then Geoff Boycott, in the 1960s through 1980s Shan doesn t have that particular quality But it is to be presumed that the Yorkshire Committee knows what it’s about Cricket is not as dangerous as football it seems, with a stampede in an Indonesian football stadium in Indonesia, Persebaya Surabaya lost 3 2 to Arema Football Club in a league match, and its supporters invaded the pitch Then there was a stampede and 123 people were killed It didn’t help that the police used teargas You don t have stadium stampedes in cricket, do you?

We should hope that there are no such disasters in cricket Two major factors seem to have been behind the disaster First the stadium was overcrowded, with 42,000

tickets sold against a capacity of 38,000 Second, everyone tried to get out at the same time, to avoid the teargas It s perhaps lucky that we didn’t need any audio recording of the stampede Imran has said that the last leaks (released on Friday) were doctored But then there’s confirmation from Bashir Memon, the former DG FIA, who admits having been in PM’s Principal Secretary Azam Khan’s bathroom The hacker had threatened to leak clips involving him and a john Memon admitted that there was an episode involving the PM, Azam Khan, him and a john

Whatever happened one thing is sure There’s been a lot of worry expressed about foreign visitors and their willingness to speak freely But what about the PM’s closest confidants, and perhaps the PM himself?

Everybody with a smartphone has got to worry about being hacked, but now it is clear that not even face to face conversations are safe And all this has been achieved without putting a DG FIA in every john

SA Ad rAFIQue QuASHeS rumourS ABouT rePorTed SAle oF PIA

S ta f f R e p o R t

FE D E R A L

Minister for Railways and Aviation Khawaja Saad Rafique on Monday said that Pakistan International Airline (PIA) was not being sold and offered to anyone Addressing a press conference at Allama Iqbal International Airport, here, he said those spreading such rumors should refrain from doing so and added that Roosevelt Hotel in New York was also not being sold

Saad Rafique said that Islamabad and Karachi airports were being made like that of international model, adding that the airports would be outsourced to ensure best facilities there

He said that all over the world airports were upgraded on same pattern, adding that

the airports would be in ownership of the government, but international practices would be followed for bringing investment and to ensure facilities

The Aviation Minister said that recommendations were being sent to federal cabinet so that certain part of Roosevelt Hotel could be reopened He said if it would be delayed then the case of this country’s expensive property would go to landmark commission, adding that if it would be declared as landmark in that case it would lose its value

Khawaja Saad Rafique said that in future under a joint venture a high rise building would be constructed and the country would fully benefit from it As per initial proposal work on its 300 to 400 rooms would be started, he added

Regarding PIA, he said that this year the

revenue target of Pakistan International Airline was Rs 138 billion He said the PIA during current year would earn between Rs 155 to 160 billion

He further said that PIA management and its entire staff were making all out efforts to overcome problems which PIA was facing The fare of PIA was very less as compared to that of Chinese Airline and recently PIA had reduced the fare by 22 percent, he added

He said due to Covid related restrictions PIA could not directly fly to Beijing and due to which PIA operational expenses were increased

He said as PIA would get permission for direct flight to Beijing, he hoped that ticket price would further reduce by Rs 100,000

Speaking about Hajj operation, Saad Rafique said that this time 300 Hajj flights

were conducted and 275 000 Hajj pilgrims had been provided travelling facilities He said Hajj pilgrims were facilitated under city check in formula

On the occasion of ‘Ashura’ and Arbaeen flights were operated to Najaf and Damascus and efforts were being made to improve operation on these routes he maintained

He said that quarterly earning of PIA was Rs 50 billion which was highest earning as compared to any past quarterly earnings

The Minister said efforts were being made to give charge of PEC complex to Ministry of Defence and this would help PIA to save Rs 650 million annually

About infrastructure, he said, that business class lounges of Karachi and Lahore airports were being renovated and it would be completed by the end of ongoing month He said that a latest simulator had arrived in Karachi for A320 planes and this simulator would help save Rs 250 million annually He further said that by the end of this month 24 planes would be operational adding that PIA needed 40 planes including wide body aircraft and efforts were being made in this regard

Business class seats of 777 planes were being changed while seats of economy class would be repaired locally He further said that in coming 90 days new seats would be installed in seven A320 planes

He said a tender had been issued for flight entertainment system so that it could be applied in PIA 777 long haul planes to provide best entertainment to passengers

Regarding Heathrow slots, the Aviation Minister said that the country faced humiliation due to an irresponsible statement of a certain minister He said that PIA flights were banned in UK and Europe and added that efforts were being made to overcome this ban He said, “Efforts are being made that these hurdles get overcome in 5 to 6 months as we have qualified all tests ” He said, “Our delegations had visited Brussels and Montreal to reach out authorities so that Europe and USA could be opened for Pakistan

He said, “Our Heathrow slots had been

IHC imposes fine on CA A for not filing comments

ISLAMABAD a p p

The Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Monday imposed a fine worth of Rs 25,000 against Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) over not submission of comments in a plea seeking increase in pension of retired employees Justice Baber Sattar of IHC heard the case filed by retired employees including Liaqat Ali Malik The petitioner’s lawyer adopted the stance that the delay or denial of pension of retired employees was a violation of Article 25 of the constitution The retired employees were not being treated equally in this matter, he said He said that pension was increased only for the employees who were retired before June 30, 2014 The petitioners had given application to the department but nothing availed he said The petition prayed the court to issue directives for increase in pension under pension regulation 2014 Meanwhile, the court imposed fine at the CAA for not filing comments despite the court orders

Senate passes resolution to allow private sector to produce 30 mW electricit y

ISLAMABAD S ta f f R e p o R t

The Upper House on Monday passed a resolution to allow private sector and public private partnership to install their own solar energy parks in the country with minimum 30 Mega Watts electricity generation capacity The resolution was laid before the house by Senator Taj Haider which won the appreciation of the senators and support of the entire house Senator Taj Haider presenting the resolution said that the Senate of Pakistan is cognizant of the longstanding electricity crises in the country and high electricity tariffs in the country causing heavy burden on domestic commercial and industrial consumer The resolution said that “The House recommends that the government may allow public private partnership and private sector to install their own thermal, wind, coal or solar energy parks in the country with minimum thirty mega watts electricity generation capacity” “The House further recommends that the said energy parks may be authorized to sell electricity to the consumers on pre determined tariff formula and install their own captive transmission and distribution grids for domestic commercial and industrial consumers ” said the resolution Senator Taj Haider in support of his resolution said that power distribution companies sell the electricity to the consumers at exorbitant rates whereas they generate the same electricity on much lower and cheaper rates

Elahi assures every

S ta f f R e p o R t

Punjab Chief Minister Chaudhry Parvez Elahi said on Monday that the provincial government had taken all measures on time for rehabilitation of the flood victims

In a statement issued here, he said that along with the Provincial Disaster Management Authority (PDMA) and Rescue 1122 the district administrations also worked hard to help the flood victims

The chief minister said that the families of those who died due to floods and rains had been given financial assistance of one million rupees per person Dry ration had also been provided to more than 168 000 victims while more than 5 000 blankets and 44,000 plus tents had been distributed among the flood victims, he added

He said that more than 1

C h i e f C o m m i s s i o n e r I C T a s s u r e s t o ex p e d i t e p o s t - f i r e s t r u c t u r e s t a b i l i t y r e p o r t o f C e n t a u r u s M a l l

ISLAMABAD S ta f f R e p o R t

Chief Commissioner Capt (Retd) Muhammad Usman on Monday assured that he would expedite the post fire structure stability report of the Centaurus Mall and move master to finalize its matters

He also allowed the Centaurus management to arrange the cleaning of the mall besides allowing owners to collect their possessions from the mall said a press release He said this while talking to a delegation of Islamabad Chamber of Commerce and Industry (ICCI) that called on him led by its President Ahsan Zafar

Bakhtawari Sardar Yasir Ilyas Khan former President

ICCI and CEO Centaurus Mall, Muhammad Ejaz Abbasi former President ICCI and Naseer Ahmed senior member ICCI were in the delegation Ahsan Zafar Bakhtawari, President ICCI and Sardar Yasir Ilyas Khan former President ICCI and CEO Centaurus briefed the Chief Commissioner and Chairman CDA about the fire incident in the mall and thanked him for monitoring the rescue and firefighting operations in his presence

They also thanked Corps Commander 10 Corps Rawalpindi Pakistan Air Force Pakistan Navy Rescue 1122 and Fire Brigade for their active role in bringing the fire under control due to which the Centaurus Mall was saved from serious damages They assured that ICCI and the Centaurus Mall Management would fully cooperate with the ICT Administration in completing the technical report and restoring the mall back to its normal operations

Sardar Yasir Ilyas informed the Chief Commissioner ICT that the mall is perfectly fine and fire did not penetrate the structure of the tower due to which the structure is sound & safe

He requested that the tenants and residents may be allowed to reside in Tower B

He said that each component of the complex is independent therefore the entire complex may not be sealed

Sardar Yasir said they would provide full support to the CDA and the administration for inspection of the mall adding that the complex may be de sealed and the residents may not be asked to leave as it will create problems for them

S enators demand share in PAC C hairpersonship

ISLAMABAD S ta f f R e p o R t

The Senators on Monday unanimously demanded share in Public Accounts Committee (PAC) chairpersonship on rotation basis for a period of two and a half years each from both of the Houses of the Parliament

The Upper House of the Parliament passed a resolution to rotate the members of Senate and the National Assembly for Chairpersonship of Public Accounts Committee for its half terms respectively

Senator Zeshan Khanzada on behalf of other Senators including Mian Raza Rabbani Sarfraz Ahmed Bugti, Naseebullah Bazai, Molana Abdul Ghafoor Haideri, Mohammad Abdul Qadir, Dr Zarqa Suharwardy Taimur Saifullah Abro Dilawar Khan Muhammad Tahir Bizinjo, Sana Jamali, Anwaar ul Haq Kakar, Taj Haider, Hidayat ullah Khan, Jam Mahtab Hussain Dahar Manzoor Ahmed Muhammad Azam Khan Swati, Zeeshan Khan Zada and Danesh Kumar moved the resolution

The resolution states that “The Constitution of Pakistan creates two co equals House of the Parliament, the Senate providing equal and adequate representation to the federating units hence creating equality amongst

the provinces and the National Assembly allocating seats on the basis of population hence providing the principle of majority

The Constitution empowers the Parliament to exercise parliamentary oversight on public exchequer to ensure transparency and accountability in the public spending

The Public Accounts Committee acts as extension of the both Houses of the Parliament to effectively carry out the scrutiny and oversight on public exchequer by examining auditor general s report relating to the Accounts of Federation laid before the both the Houses of the Parliament and other related matters

As per the Constitutional scheme, the Senate promotes national cohesion and harmony by alleviating fears of the smaller provinces regarding domination by largely populated provinces in the National Assembly

It is expedient to provide adequate representation to the Members of Senate in the Chairpersonship of PAC to ensure that diversity present in the Senate is recognized and respected; and whereas rotation of Chair of PAC amongst the both Houses of Parliament will ensure that no part of the country is left without adequate representation in the state institutions more so in the ethnically diversified state like Pakistan

be made to rehabilitate flood victims on time

more than

were

Pervez

boats

mQm-P’s Kamran Tessori takes oath as Sindh governor

The Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) of the Cabinet has deferred the decision on the support price of Wheat Crop for fiscal year 2022 23 on possible increase in food inflation Federal Minister for Finance and Revenue Senator Mohammad Ishaq Dar presided over the meeting of the Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) of the Cabinet The Ministry of National Food security and Research informed the ECC that wheat is the staple and a strategic crop of the country and in order to ensure its maximum cultivation and to achieve self sufficiency, the government fixes its Minimum Support Price (MSP) to assure fair return to the farming community MSP for the current year was fixed at Rs 2200/40 Kg and on the other hand, the Agriculture Policy Institute (API) has worked out Rs 2,495/40 Kg cost of production of wheat crop Rabi 2022 23 for the average farmer and Rs 2,427/40 Kg for the progressive grower It is pertinent to note that the National Assembly Standing on NFS&R also recommended that the federal government may announce the MSP of wheat not less than Rs 3,000/40 Kg Sources said that the Ministry of Food has shared the estimated costs with the provincial governments in a meeting chaired by the Minister for NFS&R and their proposals range between Rs 2,600/40 Kg to Rs 3,000/40 Kg Sources said that provincial cabinets of Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa have endorsed the price of wheat at Rs 3,000/40 Kg while the government of Balochistan has not announced the price yet On the other hand, the provincial cabinet of Sindh has announced the support price of wheat at Rs 4 000/40 Kg The meeting was also informed that a cabinet committee met with CM Sindh with request to review the MSP, however, no feedback has been received, sources added The ECC meeting was informed that the recommendation of the Sindh government is expected to have multi dimensional effects, and likely to increase food inflation In addition, PASSCO may not be able to procure wheat from Sindh, while other provinces may impose a ban on the movement of wheat across borders

participated in relief activities to

victims to safe places and

of flour were also distributed

the victims he added

The growers and middleman will use the price disparity amongst provinces to distort the market and hoarding and smuggling is likely to occur sources added

LAHORE

KARACHI S ta f f R e p o R t

MQM Pakistan’s Mohammed Kamran Khan Tessori was sworn in as 34th Sindh Governor in a simple ceremony held at Governor house here on Monday Chief Justice of Sindh High Court Mr Justice Ahmed Ali M Shaikh administered the oath to the newly appointed Governor Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah Speaker Sindh Assembly Agha Siraj Durrani, ministers and other high level officials attended the ceremony The new Governor Kamran Tessori on the occasion said that he would take the issues of the province to the forums concerned for their resolution He thanked for trusting him and said that he would try his best to live up to expectations He also received felicitations after formally becoming the Governor of Sindh

eCC defers wheat suppor t price decision due to food inflation threat

ISLAMABAD S h a h z a d pa R aC h a

CPEC

BEIJING a p p

Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson said on Monday that China Pakistan Economic Corri dor (CPEC) was a landmark project for coop eration between China and Pakistan and the Chinese side would continue to work with Pak istan to deliver more benefits to people in the region

is an important pilot project for belt and

Pakistan cooperation in the new era,” Mao Ning said during her regular briefing in response to

tion asked by

T wo terrorists killed in operation in Nor th Waziristan: ISPR

ISLAMABAD S ta f f R e p o R t

Two suspected terrorists were killed in a counter ter rorism operation in the North Waziristan district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, the military said late on Sun day According to a statement released by the Inter Services Public Relations (ISPR) the media wing of the Pakistan Army, security forces conducted an intel ligence based operation in the Mir Ali town of the dis trict During the counter terror operation an intense exchange of fire took place, “resulting in the killing of two terrorists,” the ISPR said Weapons and ammuni tion were seized from the terrorists it added The ISPR said that the killed terrorists had been actively involved in terrorist activities against security forces and the killing of innocent people

Kalat IED blast claims two innocent lives

QUETTA S ta f f R e p o R t

Advisor to Chief Minister Balochistan on Home and Tribal Affairs Ziaullah Langau on Monday reiterating government s resolve said that stern action would be taken against the perpetrators of the Kalat blast At least two persons died in the Improvised Explosive De vice (IED) blast planted by unknown miscreants in the Johan area of Kalat district Anti peace elements will not be allowed to create law and order in the province,” he said and added that Balochistan will be made a cradle of peace Advisor on Home and Tribal Affairs sought a report of the incident from the Com missioner Kalat division He also prayed for the high est place in Jannah for the departed souls and courage for the bereaved families

foR ChINa-PaKISTaN

IN NEW ERa: mao NINg

According to a report titled “Overview of Pakistan’s Power Sector and its Future Outlook recently published by China Three Gorges International some 46 500 Pak istanis had been employed so far in the energy project completed under the CPEC framework

Noting the relevant report and news the spokesper son said that energy was the most heavily invested area with the most rapid progress and fruits of outcomes

the country’s socio economic development,”

Mao Ning informed that the Chinese side had trained many personnel and technicians for the opera

tion, construction and management of projects and highly acclaimed by the government

“We will continue to work with Pakistan to make the CPEC an exemplary project for high quality BRI co operation and deliver more benefits to people in the re gion she added

“The report added, considering the various eco nomic fissures prevailing in Pakistan, the CPEC power plants have performed commendably in raising overall direct local employment (46,500) throughout Pakistan ”

“The overall socioeconomic demographic of around 46 000 families had been raised while thus skilled work forces enjoys on site training by both local and interna tional professional ”

President confers Hilal-e-Pakistan upon MWL Secretary General

S ta f f R e p o R t

President Dr Arif Alvi on Monday con

ferred Hilal e Pakistan on Secretary General of the Muslim World League Dr Muhammad bin Abdul Karim Al Issa in recognition of his services to Pakistan in different fields at a special investiture ceremony held at Aiwan e Sadr

The award was conferred in recogni tion of his services in strengthening the brotherly relations between Pakistan and Saudi Arabia; for being an instrument for the award of scholarships to Pakistani students in educational institutions and higher learning in Saudi Arabia; for pur suing and safeguarding the rights of Pak istani expatriates in Saudi Arabia; for promoting peace and harmony by hold ing conferences, seminars and dialogues within the Muslim societies and also with rest of the world with the objective to create harmony and unity in the Is lamic world; and showcasing a peaceful harmonious and tolerant picture of Mus

lims in the world

Later, Dr Muhammad bin Abdul Karim Al Issa and his delegation called upon the president Minister for Reli gious Affairs & Interfaith Harmony, Mufti Abdul Shakoor Ambassador of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia Nawaf bin Saeed Al Malki also attended the meet ing President Secretariat Press Wing said in a press release

Talking to the secretary general, the president termed Islamophobia one of the biggest challenges being faced by Muslims, and urged the need to allay the fears of the world regarding Islam He said that Islam advocated for peace, sol idarity and harmony among the people of the world, and people from different na tions needed to be educated about the true message of Islam

The president urged the need to high light the true and harmonious nature of Islam in the Muslim world and beyond He said that Islamophobia needed to be countered and eliminated through peaceful and harmonious actions in the Is

lamic world He also underlined the need to hold inter faith conferences, dialogues and meetings to exchange ideas with reli gious scholars and leaders of other reli gions to explain the real message of Islam

The president said that moderation in Islamic societies could go a long way in not only eradicating extremism, terror ism and intolerance but would also en sure the promotion of peace and socio economic justice He also ex pressed his concern over the increasing trend of Islamophobia in India, adding that Islamophobia in India was deep rooted and being patronized at the state level He urged the need for taking con crete actions to provide relief to the Mus lims of India from the negative impacts of Islamophobia

During the meeting, the president urged the Muslim World League to con sider initiating scholarships for students of Shariah, Islamic Studies as well as the scientific and technical disciplines He also emphasised the need for an ex change programme for the government

No let up in dengue fever cases

officials to study governance, particu larly the regulation of religious affairs

The president appreciated the Mus lim World League’s efforts for the cause of Islam and the welfare of the Muslim World and commended its work in set ting up vocational educations and train ing centres, provision of water, and renovation and construction of mosques and religious institutions

The president also appreciated the implementation of his idea communi cated to the ambassador of Saudi Arabia in Pakistan to set up an Islamic Museum in Pakistan He said that after the comple tion of this museum, the people of Pak istan and the rest of the world would benefit from the exhibits and would be able to learn about the different aspects and phases of the life of the Holy Prophet (PBUH) The president thanked the King dom of Saudi Arabia for providing valu able support to Pakistan to help overcome its most pressing financial needs and for providing generous help to alleviate the sufferings of the flood victims

Railways conducts sur vey to restore track between Peshawar-Landi Kotal

The number of dengue fever cases keeps increasing in Pakistan amid an outbreak due to floods trig gered by heavy monsoon rains in the country Sindh reported 351 new in fections, said the provincial health department on Sunday night The worst hit area was Karachi which reported 247 new

cases

With the newly reported dengue cases, the October figure to date for the province has risen to 2,793, bringing the local total to 12,947 this year

Punjab reported 277 new cases in the last 24 hours, the provincial health authorities said Lahore reported 100 new cases, followed by Rawalpindi with 79 cases The total number of dengue cases in Punjab this year has now

gone up to 8 938 In the last 24 hours, 254 more people were diagnosed with the disease in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa

The number of active cases in the province currently stands at 2,326 and the total number of cases this year has reached 11,613 Islamabad reported 75 new dengue cases

t o r a t i o n o f r a i l w a y s e c t i o n c l o s e d f o r t r a i n s e r v i c e i n 2 0 0 7 d u e t o f l a s h f l o o d t r i g g e r e d b y h e a v y r a i n s T h e 5 9 1 5 k i l o m e t e r s t r a c k h a d c a u s e d s u b s t a n t i a l d a m a g e o f i n f r a s t r u c t u r e , i n c l u d i n g b r i d g e s r e t a i n i n g w a l l s a n d e m b a n k m e n t a n o ff i c i a l i n t h e M i n i s t r y o f R a i l w a y s t o l d A P P H e s a i d a c c o r d i n g l y, P C 1 a m o u n t i n g t o R s 1 9 8 2 4 7 0 m i l l i o n f o r t h e r e s t o r a t i o n o f t r a i n s e r v i c e o n t h i s s e c t i o n h a s b e e n p r e p a r e d t o b e s p o n s o r e d b y g o v e r n m e n t o f K h y b e r P a k h t u n k h w a T h e P C 1 w o u l d b e c o n s i d e r e d b y t h e a p p r o v a l f o r u m o n c e t h e G o v e r n m e n t o f K h y b e r P a k h t u n k h w a a g r e e s t o f i n a n c e t h e p r o j e c t e x e c u t i o n , t h e o ff i c i a l a d d e d To a q u e s t i o n , h e s a i d P C 1 o f t h e M a i n L i n e I o f t h e P a k i s t a n R a i l w a y s w a s p r e p a r e d a s p e r t h e P l a n n i n g C o m m i s s i o n g u i d e l i n e s a n d a l l t h e r e q u i r e m e n t s h a d b e e n f u l f i l l e d w h i l e p r e p a r i n g t h e P C 1 o f t h e p r o j e c t H e s a i d t h e p r o p e r f o r u m f o r a p p r o v a l o f P C 1 f o r a n y p r o j e c t w a s P l a n n i n g C o m m i s s i o n , E C N E C a n d t h e P C I f o r M L I w a s d u l y a p p r o v e d b y t h e E C N E C o n t h e r e c o m m e n d a t i o n s o f P l a n n i n g C o m m i s s i o n T h e o ff i c i a l s a i d a l t h o u g h t h e r e w a s n o p o l i c y, g u i d e l i n e s t o c o n s u l t P a k i s t a n E n g i n e e r i n g C o u n c i l ( P E C ) , h o w e v e r, f o r M L I p r o j e c t t h e c o n s u l t a t i o n f r o m P E C w a s m a d e d u r i n g a p p r o v a l p r o c e s s o f t h e P C 1

Olive oil output likely to reduce by 30 percent during current season

ISLAMABAD

Owing

The downfall in

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ing

lated

Dr

ISLAMABAD

ISLAMABAD

EId MIl adun nabI (PbuH) CElEbraTEd wITH

rElIgIouS fErvour

iSLamaBad S ta f f R e P o R t

MUSLIMS across the globe, in cluding Pakistan, celebrated Eid Milad un Nabi (PBUH) with religious and traditional zeal on Sunday The day dawned with a 31 and 21 gun salute in the federal and provincial capitals respectively to pay homage to Holy Prophet Muhammad (PBUH)

Special conferences, events and Mehfil e Milad were arranged to pay respect to the last messenger whose life and teachings are a beacon of light for the mankind People are also taking out processions on the occasion

All government and private buildings, including streets markets and mosques had been decorated with colourful lights and buntings

In a message Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif congratulated Muslims on the eve of the Eid Milad un Nabi (PBUH)

Muslims across the world observe the Prophet Muhammed’s (PBUH) birthday on the 12th day of the Islamic month of Rabi ul Awwal PM urges following Holy Prophet’s (PBUH) Seerah to transform coun

panions, the country could only be trans formed into a welfare entity on the pattern of Riyasat e Madina

Addressing a Seerat un Nabi confer ence The prime minister said Pakistan was achieved after huge sacrifices

He said Allah Almighty had bestowed upon them a rare opportunity in the form of an independent country, and they should not waste it, but value the blessing of freedom

The prime minister stressed the need to re juvenate the spirit of ‘faith, unity and disci pline to steer the country out of the present day issues

The prime minister stated that a welfare governance system could only be achieved through the Quranic teachings and principles of Seerah (PBUH), and emphasised the im portance of reforming the governance and judicial systems creating equal and judi cious opportunities for all, and prioritising the needs of widows and orphans

Imran lays stress on following teachings of Islam

iSLamaBad

Former prime minister Imran Khan has stressed the need for following Islamic teachings to cope with challenges

A person who follows the Sunnah becomes a great person, and a nation that follows the prin ciples of the state of Madinah be comes a great nation, he said in his address at the Rehmatulil Aalameen Conference in Islam abad on Eid Miladun Nabi

He said he wanted to tell the youth about his life changing moment, saying that following

the teachings of Islam brings a big change to in life

“Our Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) brought the biggest rev olution in history There is a need to make our students aware of Seeratun Nabi,”he said adding that he is not a scholar but he can talk about his experiences

He highlighted the need of dispensing justice and rule of law He laid emphasis on follow ing in the footsteps of the Pak istan Movement leaderless and having faith in the Almighty

He said fear is the biggest barrier to the achievement of a person The PTI chief said that

after studying Seerat un Nabi PBUH his internal fear has van ished

He said he has earned more honour despite smearing and po litical persecution by opponents during the last six months

Imran Khan said that he has never witnessed the supremacy of law in Pakistan as compared to other countries like Britain and Switzerland

H e s a i d t h a t p o o r p e o p l e w e r e t r a p p e d i n j a i l s b u t t h e r i c h p e o p l e w a l k f r e e P a k i s t a n c a n c o m e o u t o f a l l c r i s e s a f t e r f o l l o w i n g t h e t e a c h i n g s o f I s l a m , h e a d d e d

Saving $6 bln on fuel impor ts, Thar Coal Project to be a game-changer:

Continued

Sindh Energy Minister and Chairman SECMC Imtiaz Ahmed Sheikh said the Thar energy power project would contribute to adding elec tricity to the national grid He mentioned the support of Shanghai Electric Power Company Limited and the experts from China, who worked hard to materialize the project The Sindh Chief Minister presented samples of in digenous Thar coal to PM Shehbaz Sharif, FM Bilawal Bhutto, and Chinese envoy Nong Rong Former Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, senior officials, and representatives of Chinese companies were present

A JK government sees conspirac y behind fire at Centaurus M all

iSLamaBad N P

A spokesperson for Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) Prime Minister on Mon day blamed the federal government for fire in Centaurus Shopping Mall, which is owned by AJK PM Sardar Tanveer Ilyas

Talking to journalists AJK PM s spokesperson, Raja Usman, claimed that the fire in Centaurus Mall was result of a conspiracy and the federal government was behind the conspiracy in an apparent bid to politically victimise the AJK PM

He claimed that the federal govern ment wants to make it a bigger incident than Model Town massacre, accusing

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and Inte rior Minister Rana Sanaullah of involve ment in Islamabad’s shopping mall fire

The spokesperson further said that the Islamabad administration was responsible for the inferno and the Inspector General, Commissioner and Deputy Commissioner were directly involved in the incident

Meanwhile, AJK Food Minister Ali Shan announced that the territory s Presi dent and premier along with thousands of Kashmiris will stage a sit in on Tuesday if the mall is not reopened

“We don’t want to politicise the matter nor are we doing that,” the minister said that they have come to express solidarity with the AJK premier

A day earlier a fire broke out in the food court of a popular shopping mall in Is lamabad Sunday, but was quickly brought under control The building under the or ders of the deputy commissioner, was sealed after the completion of rescue oper ation Islamabad police said that the mall s building would remain sealed until a probe into the matter has been carried out Until then entry into the building would remain prohibited to the public

A case over the fire incident was reg istered at Margalla Police Station on be half of SHO Mateen Chaudhry under the Section 436 The FIR stated that the unidentified men set the shopping mall ablaze under unknown motives

UN D isarmament Fellows briefed on Pakistan’s perspec tive on arms control, nuclear non-proliferation

iSLamaBad a P P

A group of UN Disarmament Fellows com prising of officers from 24 countries, cur rently on a visit to Pakistan from October 8 10 as part of their international study tour under the auspices of UN Office for Disar mament Affairs (UNoDA), visited the Min istry of Foreign Affairs

During the visit, they received a briefing on Pakistan s perspective on Arms Control, Disarmament and Nuclear Non Prolifera tion as well as the imperative of unhindered access to dual use technologies for peaceful socio economic applications a press release

issued by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Monday said

The group of UN Disarmament Fellow comprised of officers from 24 countries in cluding Algeria Angola Antigua & Bar buda, Argentina, Cambodia, Egypt, France,

study tour for UN Disarma ment Fellows

Police finalizes securit y arrangements for by-election

S ta f f R e P o R t

T h e K a r a c h i P o l i c e o n M o n d a y f i n a l i z e d t h e s e c u r i t y a r r a n g e m e n t s f o r b y e l e c t i o n o n t w o n a t i o n a l a s s e m b l y s e a t s t o b e h e l d o n O c t o b e r 1 6 D e p u t y I n s p e c t o r G e n e r a l o f P o l i c e ( D I G P ) S e c u r i t y b r i e f e d a b o u t t h e s e c u r i t y m e a s u r e s i n a m e e t i n g c h a i r e d b y A d d i t i o n a l I G P K a r a c h i J a v e d A l a m O d h o a c c o r d i n g t o s p o k e s p e r s o n f o r K a r a c h i P o l i c e T h e p o l i c e d e p l o y m e n t h a d b e e n i n c r e a s e d i n b o t h N a t i o n a l A s s e m b l y c o n s t i t u e n c i e s i n K a r a c h i K a r a c h i P o l i c e w a s t a k i n g c o n c r e t e s e c u r i t y m e a s u r e s t o e n s u r e t h e p e a c e f u l c o n d u c t o f p o l l i n g p r o c e s s d u r i n g t h e b y e e l e c t i o n D I G P E a s t , D I G P A d m i n K a r a c h i , S S P M a l i r a n d S S P K o r a n g i a t t e n d e d t h e m e e t i n g

People set to take on Sharifs, their handlers: Imran Khan

Ta l k i n g a b o u t h i s p a r t y l o n g m a r c h I m r a n K h a n r e i t e r a t e d t h a t t h e y w e r e d o i n g j i h a d n o t p o l i t i c a l t o l i b e r a t e t h e c o u n t r y f r o m t h e c a b l e o f c r o o k s , a s w o m e n a l s o h a v e t o c o n v e y t h e m e s s a g e o f r e a l f r e e d o m t o t h e i r h o m e s “ W h a t I e x p e c t e d f r o m t h e P T I t i g e r s o f P i n d i o n M a y 2 5 d i d n t h a p p e n , I m r a n K h a n s a i d “ I w i l l m o n i t o r e v e r y t h i n g f r o m m y o ff i c e , w h o e v e r w i l l p e r f o r m w i l l b e t h e o n e i n t h e p a r t y a n d y o u p e o p l e w i l l n o t d i s a p p o i n t m e , n o w I w i l l m e e t y o u d u r i n g t h e m a r c h , ” h e a d d e d “ A l l t h e b a n d i t s a r e t a k i n g P a k i s t a n t o w a r d s d e s t r u c t i o n a s h u m a n r i g h t s o rg a n i z a t i o n s d o n o t s e e t h a t f r e e d o m o f e x p r e s s i o n i s b e i n g s u p p r e s s e d , h e m a i n t a i n e d P T I C h a i r m a n s a i d t h a t t h e s e p e o p l e c a n n o t c o m e o u t i n p u b l i c a n d a r e r u n n i n g a w a y f r o m t h e e l e c t i o n s b e c a u s e t h e y k n o w t h e m o o d o f t h e p e o p l e I m r a n K h a n s a i d : N o w I w i l l m e e t y o u i n t h e l o n g m a r c h , I a m p r e p a r i n g m y n a t i o n , t h i s l o n g m a r c h w i l l b e t h e b i g g e s t m a r c h i n h i s t o r y w e w i l l p r o t e s t p e a c e f u l l y w h i l e l i v i n g w i t h i n t h e c o n s t i t u t i o n a n d l a w D u r i n g t h e w o r k e r s ’ c o n v e n t i o n , P T I S e n a t o r S h i b l i F a r a z t o o k a n o a t h f r o m t h e w o r k e r s t o p a r t i c i p a t e i n t h e r e a l f r e e d o m m a r c h

KaraCHi

Happy to be spied upon..

Fe W can find fault with PTi chief imran Khan’s expression of concerns at the recent and ongoing series of audio leaks, purportedly from both the Pm House and the Pm Secretariat “as Pm my secure line at my residence was also bugged, he exclaimed in the tweet from his official account

These are very valid concerns if such sensitive data can be leaked from what is supposed to be the highest office in the land, one wonders how compromised the rest of our official sensitive government correspondence will be

There are, however, some points that need to be talked about before this issue is meaningfully addressed The former Pm had, in an interview not so long ago, said that not only did he know that all his communication was being listened in on by the intelligence agencies but also that he approved of it The hapless television anchor who was conducting the interview spoke of the impropriety even illegality of this practice but the then prime minister dug in his heels and repeated his approval of the same

Though the former premier has only spoken of his own tenure, by implication, he also condemns the leaks from the office of his successor as well He needs to be more vocal about this and the government also needs to point this out, instead of gloating every time a compromising audio of the former ruling party is leaked

The political class needs to realise that they are all in this together Politics is by its very nature adversarial; that is how the process has been designed and there is nothing wrong with that But that, unfortunately, creates a situation where, as opposed to the military, the civil service or even the news media there is no common ground to rally around developed and mature democracies, however, do see the sparring political parties converge on some minimum common agendas some non negotiables at the moment, it is not quite clear where the leaks are originating from Yes, there appears to have been a hack, but it is a database where such recordings were stored in the first place that was hacked Why were they recorded at all?

The need of the hour is for there to be a consensus against such illicit practices and for any sitting government not to take such encroachments lying down

Innovation and innovativeness

And that little thing called

not wearing helmets Gas station managers knew that even counting the perpetually dangling on the han dle but never worn variety few of their patrons were ever going to wear (or even carry) helmets Not to be daunted, they showed resourcefulness characteristic of all shopkeepers when they arranged for helmets to be temporarily provided to each biker during the fill ing duration That is a solid innovative solution right there

Before the British colonisers brought tea to the Subcontinent, the locals were blissfully unaware of its existence

deed, modern problems require modern solutions, often available indigenously

Qu a i d e a z a m muhammad ali Jinnah not only won a sepa rate homeland for the muslims of the Subcontinent but also identi fied the issues that confronted the new state which needed to be addressed on priority basis and how Pakistan could be made happy and prosperous addressing the Constituent assembly on 11 august 1947 he said that the first duty of the state was to maintain law and order so that the life, prop erty and religious beliefs of its subjects were fully protected He observed that bribery and corruption really were a poison and needed to be put down with an iron hand He also identified black marketing nepotism and jobbery as other ills afflicting the society which had to be eliminated in regards to putting Pakistan on the path of prosperity he said “Now if we want to make this great State of Pakistan happy and prosperous we should wholly and solely concentrate on the well being of the people, and especially of the masses and the poor if

TH e people of the indian Subcontinent are often criticized for a lack of resourcefulness on their part What makes the criticism valid is the fact that the Subcontinent folks have hardly distinguished themselves when it comes to inventions Some critics go further than this and complain that the Subcontinent folks try and gen erally succeed in making a mess of other nations’ in ventions as well This latter charge, one cannot help feel is unfair While it is true that there is no inven tion to their credit that shook the world after they in vented the charpoy (many centuries ago), the Subcontinent folks have shown rare initiative and en terprise when it comes to adapting to and adopting others inventions a case in point: originating in Central asia the shalwar owes its arrival into the Subcontinent (among other places) to the Turkish empires of the 12th cen tury Starching of garments (initially shirt collars) on the other hand, was initiated in elizabethan London in the 16th century While the Subcontinent folks are not to blame for a combination of the two that most uncomfortable piece of attire known as the starched shalwar the item was used in a technological appli cation by a Pakistani for the first time in history to distribute air cooled by a strategically placed air cooler to two adjacent rooms

What also needs to be stressed here is that inno vation includes, but is by no means limited to, invent ing gadgets For solutions to most problems of life require innovative thinking if i am not mistaken the face mask that stays perpetually on the chin (or hangs from one ear) is a distinctly Subcontinental innova tion though the mask itself is anything but Subcon tinental in its origin See how beautifully it prevents inconvenient breathing, foggy glasses, skin issues and other problems associated with masks

So too the safety helmet that is never worn but can always be found hanging from the motorbike handle On the subject of helmets some years ago the government posed a stiff challenge to gas station owners when it made it unlawful to sell fuel to bikers

The British, in turn, got to know about tea from the Chinese Of course, they subsequently pro ceeded to elevate tea drink ing to an art form (By way of repaying this Chinese debt to their culture they in sisted on introducing opium to the Chinese masses, but that is a separate story ) Cookies and rusks are said to have been invented in Persia in the seventh cen tury The pound cake is a worthy North european in vention of the 18th century

With all the raw materials at hand, and not to be outdone in innovativeness stakes by anybody, it was the Subcon tinent folks who first came up with the marvellous idea of dunking cookies and rusks in tea There has been no looking back ever since

For all sorts of things roti, bread, paratha, last night’s naan leftovers duly fried in oil, and what have you are all being dunked now This is the indian Subcontinent s contribution to world food culture Sadly, this is rarely recognized still less ac knowledged

r i e s a n d g a d g e t s . I n a l l f a i r n e s s h ow ev e r, a t l e a s t t h ey p o s s e s s t h e g o o d s e n s e t o e n s u r e t h a t t h e i r q u a l i t y o f l i f e i s n o t m a r r e d by m i n d l e s s i n n ova t i o n s . I t i s i n t h i s s p i r i t t h a t t h o s e o f t h e m w h o l i v e a b ro a d o f t e n p u l l o n e o r t wo w i r e s o u t o f t h e i r s m o k e a l a r m s , a s i m p l e a c t t h a t a l l ow s t h e m t o c o o k p a r a t h a s w i t h o u t s e t t i n g o f f t h e a l a r m .

Those who drive cars and are additionally of a philosophical disposition know that nothing disrupts the free flow of thought quite like the seat belt beeps The earliest solution to the problem amounted to keeping the seat belt per petually in a ‘fastened’ position That got rid of the infamous beeps, but it was a case of one problem solved another problem created For the seat belt (quite literally) fastened behind one’s back rendered impossible the necessary procedure of manually low ering the seat belt on spotting a policeman in order to deceive him into believing that one was wearing it Before long therefore, an attachment (minus the belt) was introduced in the market that clicked into the locking mechanism, shutting the beeps forever in

it is enough to merely observe common folks in our part of the world going about their everyday lives to know how innovative they are even in little mat ters their understanding of distance and energy man ifested so evidently and frequently in shortcuts and their driving on the wrong side of the road although to the best of my knowledge no Pakistani has ever con tributed to formulating any of the laws of classical me chanics, the layman with a flat rear tire shows a pro found understanding of mo ments of forces when heading to the puncture shop when he drives his bike while sitting on the fuel tank a rather uncomfort able place to sit and one which those too young or too ignorant to know the principles of mechanics are apt to find rather funny a flat front tire is similarly ne gotiated by sitting on the carrier of the bike The au thor has known at least one Pindi boy justifying his one wheeling to an overly in quisitive policeman by claiming that it was to save his flat front tire from fur ther damage his mantra being: Take care of your bike and it will take care of you No matter is too small to offer substantial scope for innovative thinking admittedly, the Sub continent folks need to catch up on innovation, es pecially as the word is used in its narrow sense namely inventing scientific theories and gadgets in all fairness however at least they pos sess the good sense to en sure that their quality of life is not marred by mindless innovations it is in this spirit that those of them who live abroad often pull one or two wires out of their smoke alarms, a simple act that allows them to cook parathas without setting off the alarm The smoke alarms, no doubt, have saved countless lives by preventing deadly fires; but what is the fun in living if one cannot eat parathas? it is not that we Subcontinental folks like innovation less, but that we love wisdom more

The author is a connoisseur of music, literature, and food (but not drinks) He can be reached at www facebook com/hasanaftabsaeed

G i v e n t h e w i l l n o t h i n g i s i m p o s s i b l e

you will work in cooperation forgetting the past, burying the hatchet, you are bound to succeed if you change your past and work together in a spirit that every one of you no matter to what community he belongs, no matter what relations he had with you in the past no matter what is his colour caste or creed, is first, second and last a citizen of this State with equal rights, privileges, and obli gations there will be no end to the progress you will make ” it is regrettable to note that after more than seven decades of independence we as a nation have failed to tread the path envi sioned by the founder of Pakistan and imple ment the priorities outlined by him all the ills identified by him have made deep in roads into the social fibre and we have taken a detour from the path envisioned by him to put Pakistan on the road to prosperity Our civilian and military rulers both have worked to perpetuate the archaic colonial system of governance with inbuilt avenues of corrup tion and entitlement

Their machinations have promoted an elitist culture in the country leaving the masses in abject poverty This has not only hindered socio economic development of the country but has given rise to fissiparous tendencies and also caused emergence of a host of social fault lines, marring national in tegration and unity The detour from the vi sion of the architect of Pakistan has brought the country at the crossroads

Our survival as a respectable and vibrant nation surely hinges on path correction on pri

ority basis by going back to the drawing board to rediscover our national ethos and the way we were supposed to follow in regards to con solidation of gains of independence and eco nomic prosperity due to the shenanigans of military dictators and insensitivity of the politicians to the plight of the masses, xo the country remains one of the poorest entities in the world ruled by elit ist classes who mo nopolize political power The contin uation of this phe nomenon poses existential threat to the country it has been rightly said that is lands of affluence cannot exist in oceans of poverty Poverty alleviation is really the way forward as prescribed by the father of the nation Our great friend and iron brother China owes its phenomenal economic progress and the con sequent elimination of poverty to the dy namic and visionary leadership of deng Xiao Ping and President Xi Jinping Lifting 100 million people out of poverty is an un matched phenomenon in the world s history No growth model in the world can compete with the Chinese model in this regard

Perhaps a beginning can be made through letting the bygones be bygones to enlist the cooperation of all the

as against this Pakistan has been ruled by self seeking politicians and military dic tators whose top priority has been to orches trate the longevity of their tenures The masses never figured in their scheme of things Pakistan has endured innumerable tragedies including dismemberment of the country But the rulers, particularly the politicians, refuse to learn from the past fol lies The present confrontation and political polariza tion in the country is pushing the coun try towards the edge of a precipice

which undoubtedly have suppor t

There are men on both sides of the isle who are benefi ciaries of the ar chaic colonial system of gover nance and have built fortunes thriv ing on the inbuilt avenues of corruption in the system They have a vested interest in the perpetuation of that system The country, however, needs a break from this unenviable situation by bringing systemic changes to remove the obstacles in pursuing pro masses policies That will require breaking the hold of the elitist classes on the political power it can be done by switching over to the system of pro portional representation most of our political woes are the outcome of the single member constituency system which promotes power

politics and perpetuates the hold of the elitist classes on political power The switch to pro portional representation under which people vote for parties instead of individual candi dates, effectively eliminates the role of the electables in horse trading and destabiliza tion of governments The change will also eliminate manipulative power of the non de mocratic forces in regards to making and breaking the governments drastic changes in the system of dispensation of justice are also needed This is possible only when the political forces abandon their self seeking agendas, cooperate with each other in effect ing the required changes in the system it should be remembered that develop ment is always culture bound We will have to create a culture which is conducive to de velopment and instrumental to promoting the well being of the masses While one can take inspiration from the philosophy and growth model of another country it cannot be implemented lock stock and barrel in Pakistan We will have to evolve our own growth model tuned to our own national ethos and culture it is really a daunting task in view of the given circumstances but given the will, nothing is impossible

Perhaps a beginning can be made through letting the bygones be bygones to en list the cooperation of all the political forces, which undoubtedly have support among the masses False egos must give way to national outlook if a real change in the fortunes of the people and the country is desired

Malik Muhammad Ashraf is an aca demic He can be contacted

ashpak10@gmail

M

An Accident does not occur abruptly

formation of iJi and 2000s moderate enlighten ment the 2010s Naya Pakistan project and many more incidents i must refrain from men tioning here?

letter from Prometheus

Ba C K TO B a C K audio leaks of for mer Prime minister imran Khan are obviously not a pleasing development for the Pakistan Tehreek e insaf (PTi) Those who were fearing wrap ping up of the parliamentary chessboard are now thinking otherwise Now they say game is over” for Khan Sahib However, i believe verac ities are still behind the smokescreen and only God knows what would be a new scene on the stage when the smokescreen would dissipate

Last week i saw one of my friends who is a senior journalist commenting on a television show that imran Khan’s speech he delivered at the Taxila public meeting had crossed all limits of political decency my friend was of the view that nobody in the history of Pakistan had ever abused, taunted, and challenged the Pakistan army in such a derogatory way as imran Khan had been doing He expressed his shock that such behaviour of imran Khan had yet not faced the fate that several politicians in Pakistan had to face in the past without doing anything wrong He claimed imran Khan was instigating the pub lic to stand against the Pakistan army Yes, in stigating the public against the Pakistan army is unprecedented in Pakistan my friend believes that imran Khan is the greatest political accident in our history after listening to his television talk, i texted him one shair (verse) written in the 50s by Qabil ajmeri that answers today s situa tion in two folds Qabil writes:

Vaqt kartā hai parvarish barsoñ

Hādisa ek dam nahīñ hotā

(Time nurtures it for years/ an accident does not occur abruptly)

His response to my text message was a cry ing face emoticon tical history then we should remember he had been nurtured for years at least since 2007 if his talks against the Pakistan army are the greatest accident, then we should recollect the long history of political meddling of adventurists since the 1950s do we not recall the 1964 elections of Fatima Jinnah, the 1979 hanging of former Prime minister zulfiqar ali Bhutto the 1985 party less elections the 1988

The majority of my readers may not know who Qabil ajmeri was although a line of his po etry “Hādisa ek dam nahīñ hotā” is very popular among writers and journalists Born on august 27, 1931, in Churli, ajmer Sharif, abdul Rahim popularly known as Qabil ajmeri was a character of Roman tragedy who died in 1961 after living a very short life of 31 years Qabil lost his father when he was seven years of age and his mother died within two months after the death of his fa ther Their deaths were followed by the deaths of his brother and sister and he was all alone in the world when he was just 20 years of age all ac cidents in his life were caused by tuberculosis which was an incurable disease at that time

Qabil was also exposed to tuberculosis and had been fighting against death while writing awesome poetry in 1960, he was admitted to Railway Sanatorium Quetta for treatment where he met a Chris tian nurse Susan who knew that Qabil could not survive tuberculosis but fell in love with Qabil ajmari and de cided to marry him

They were married and had ason Qabil ajmari died on the first birth day of his son on Octo ber 3 1962 Susan who embraced islam before her marriage, died in 2001 as Nargis Qabil and their son zafar Qabil is an activist who lives in Sakhur

between cause and effect and one cause can cor respond to different effects in different circum stances, therefore philosophy places the issue of cause and effect in the domain of “metaphysics” instead of logic One must not forget that the entire Causation Chain (conversion of effect into the cause of the corresponding effect) has the same essence Therefore, if the first cause is based on “bad”, the entire chain shall never bring “good” Therefore, in metaphysics (for ex ample in mysticism), we believe one should do a good deed that will bring another good and this chain will continue

Climate and Agriculture

T H e efficient management of the agriculture industry using appropriate adaptation strategies has become a necessity Focussed policy responses that boost the development and dissemination of suitable farming practices and technologies will be crucial to find lasting adaptation solutions for the agriculture sector in this context there should be implementation of revised agro ecological zones in Punjab, and diversification of crops and growth of pulses and edible oil development of weather resistant seeds is also needed apart from adoption of climate smart agriculture and improving climate forecasting for farmers

TAIMOOR AKBAR KHAN CHISHTI FAISALABAD

Proper t y tax

T H e Walton Cantonment Board, Lahore, has increased the property tax manifold this year for the residents of defence Housing authority (dHa), Lahore The property tax, which was Rs24,516 for my house last year, has been increased to Rs112,278 for the current year, which means an abnormal increase of 357 per cent in property tax over the last year

Such an increase in property tax is unprecedented and unheard of in Pakistan Generally speaking, it is almost impossible to absorb such a sudden and high increase in the domestic budget of the residents, especially where widows and retired individuals are involved We are already facing high inflation in the country which has squeezed people’s spending power On top of that, we now have this exorbitant increase in property tax How can one manage his/her budget with such increase in taxes? The management of Walton Cantonment Board should review this unbearable increase and bring the tax down to a realistic level

Greed for power

S TaT e institutions are the primary facilitators of social and economic stability in this context, the opposition’s tirade against such institutions is something that deserves nothing but condemnation

Since the ouster from the seat of power, which came about through parliamentary procedure, the opposition has been involved in creating one crisis after another

T h e p o l i t i c a l s t a g e Pa k i s t a n

Since the Rise of Khan , the military estab lishment had been facing criticism for allegedly creating a hybrid creature as well as a hybrid system While giving the example of “Frankenstein’s mon ster , the majority of us believe hybrid crea tures only bring “bad”

i s g o i n g t h ro u g h i s a n

o u t s t a n d i n g s a m p l e t h a t

o n e c a u s e c a n c o r r e s p o n d t o d i f f e r e n t e f f e c t s i n d i f f e r e n t c i rc u m s t a n c e s . Po l i t i c a l e n g i n e e r i n g a n d c r e a t i n g h e ro e s h a d b e e n s u c c e s s f u l a n d t e r m i n a t i n g p ro j e c t s h a d b e e n e a s y i n t h e p a s t , bu t t h i s t i m e i t i s a f f e c t i n g t h e e n t i r e f a b r i c o f s o c i e t y a n d t h e r e a r e f e a r s i n t h e m i n d s o f p e o p l e l i k e m e t h a t i t w i l l b e d i s a s t ro u s w h e n t h i s e f f e c t w i l l wo r k a s a “ c a u s e ” fo r t h e c o r r e s p o n d i n g e f f e c t

Qabil’s opinion that accidents do not occur abruptly and time nurtures them is actu ally a simple explana tion of the Theory of Cause effect infer ence” which describes that at least two causes are needed for an effect to take place and then that effect changes into cause for the correspon ding effect This process is also known as Causality and Causation in political philos ophy We find the best explanation of “Causa tion” in aristotelian philosophy He says that cause is an explanation or answer to a “why” question He says everything happens due to a cause Further explanation of this theory indicates that there must be more than one cause for any effect There is no doubt that aristotle’s explanation is lengthy and somehow difficult to explain He categorizes the four types of causes include material, formal, efficient, and final Since we cannot always find a logical linkage

However, i wish to refer to one character from Greek mythology that was the offspring of the mythological couple Typhon and echidna and he was considered a “good creature” The couple in quest of saving goats from lions created a hy brid “Chimera” and this fire breathing hybrid monster was composed of a lion, with the head of a goat and a tail that might end with a snake’s head Since the idea behind creating this monster was “good” for saving goats from the lion, therefore Chimera is known for bringing good to soci ety i must not say imran Khan is a hybrid creature but i have no reason not to believe there was an experi ment for installing a hybrid political system Should we not ask whether this experi ment brought good or bad?

The political stage Pakistan is going through is an outstanding sample that one cause can cor respond to different effects in different circum stances Political engineering and creating heroes had been successful and terminating proj ects had been easy in the past, but this time it is affecting the entire fabric of society and there are fears in the minds of people like me that it will be disastrous when this effect will work as a cause for the corresponding effect

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

By levelling baseless accusations and using vile language against political opponents, the opposition’s attack against the neutrality of the institutional leadership has jeopardised national security Besides public blackmailing of senior judges has undermined the sanctity of the judicial system in the country it is clear that the opposition’s lust for power knows no bounds it is feared that such politics of divide might cause further polarisation in an already sensitive country Political statements by opposition leaders are against democratic ethos and need to be condemned a country struggling with the climate crisis and the corresponding economic downturn needs a voice of unity, not division AHMED HASHMAT KARACHI

Extremism

i R a N i a N woman mahsa amini was arrested by morality police for not complying with the official dress code and later died after torture in custody iran has been witnessing protests on amini s death The reaction started in Tehran but then spread across the country

Wearing hijab to cover hair, and loose clothing is underpinned by stringent iranian law Whosoever violates the law stands accountable, as this is punishable Protection of women is the rationale behind having morality police and dress code for women in iran

it is believed that inappropriate dressing of women provokes men, and as a result crime flourishes Whether or not the law negates one s right to freedom is a matter for everyone to have an opinion on in recent years, the hijab debate has grabbed media attention from time to time Hijab is becoming a matter of freedom and some quarters consider it a coerced implication by the state Three different hijab related occurrences in different countries have put the matter under the spotlight on a large scale in the last couple of years

France was the first country that banned the veil apparently to bolster the country’s secular system and image, which drew extraordinary condemnation across the world a couple of months ago, a shocking incident happened in the Karnataka state of india, where junior students who wore hijab were denied entry to their college on the pretext of violating the dress code of the institution

This was followed by a massive reaction from muslim states especially Pakistan, as the incident debunked the notion of india being a so called secular state in response to the ban, many muslim countries even considered discontinuing commercial relations with india as a mark of protest Now we see upheaval in iran, which has already taken precious lives The Western media has largely managed to raise serious questions over the freedom of women in iran ever since the incident took place Be it the outright ban on hijab or the imposition of it as part of the dress code, it is always an attack on the freedom of women international laws protect the right to live without suppression as well as the right to carry out religious activities any form of strict rules in any country causes an abyss of gloominess and disrupts the mental health of the citizens

Women should have the liberty to breathe easy, like men do Violent behaviour against non compliance with some dress code in this modern world would take us back to dark ages international institutions should also make tangible deliberations to push back uncomfortable regulations of any country which often cause unrest following horrible incidents within the state

EJAZ AHMAD MAGOON LAHORE

The besT way To respond To saudi arabia’s embrace of puTin

TH i S week, Saudi arabia colluded with Russia deciding to cut 2 million barrels a day of oil production at the oPEc+ meeting, thus raising the price of gas to Russia’s advantage the shocking move will worsen global inflation, undermine successful efforts in the U S to bring down the price of gas, and help fuel Putin’s unprovoked invasion of Ukraine the Saudi decision was a pointed blow to the U S , but the U S also has a way to respond: it can promptly pause the massive transfer of amer ican warfare technology into the eager hands of the Saudis Simply put, america shouldn t be pro viding such unlimited control of strategic defense systems to an apparent ally of our greatest enemy nuclear bomb extortionist Vladmir Putin that is why we are proposing bicameral leg islation in the Senate and House on tuesday that will immediately halt all U S arms sales to Saudi arabia For several years now our colleagues have been considering similar proposals, but those measures haven t passed Due to intense bipartisan blowback to Saudi’s collusion with Russia we think this time is different Based on our conver sation with colleagues, our legislation is already garnering bipartisan support in both chambers

What would lead the Saudis so unwisely to err with their recent oPEc+ mistake? Stunned en ergy commentators have suggested that the Saudis were merely concerned about their endangered fi nancial returns, acting rationally Denying any po litical motives ali Shihabi a Saudi analyst insisted in the New York times that the move was merely “to keep the price in an acceptable band ”

But this claim is unjustified oPEc has never cut production in such a record tight market and these production cuts will lead to unsustainably low oil inventories sending the price of oil sky rocketing out of any “acceptable band ” Further more, the G 7 oil price caps plan is not targeted at oPEc; it is strictly limited to Russian oil

Nor can this Saudi move be justified by the non existent global recession its leaders cite Presently markets are very tight, with lush 73 per cent profit margins for Saudi arabia in other words there was no immediate need for Saudi arabia to reduce supply unless they were seeking to harm the U S to the benefit of Russia Every oPEc member has been making massive profits recently except Russia because it is oPEc’s least efficient producer it costs Russia $46/barrel to extract oil but with U S technology, the Saudi’s cost is only $22/barrel Plus, only Russia has had to offer huge $35/barrel discounts to customers like india and china since few others want sanctioned Russian oil to be clear, Saudi arabia remains important to energy security and stability in the Middle East to global economic prosperity, and as a regional ally against iran, but it made a terrible mistake this week the country s support for Russia should spark a far reaching review of the U S Saudi re lationship even as the regime tries to “sports wash its international image in the wake of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi’s brutal murder and the humanitarian disaster caused by the war in Yemen Members of congress are al ready talking about how best to respond Some propose extending domestic antitrust laws to in ternational commerce others propose reviving a GoP initiative to withdraw U S troops from Saudi arabia But that idea has failed previously given that the U S would rather have its own troops there than Russian or chinese troops a simpler far more urgent move to fortify U S national se curity would be to pause all U S military supplies, sales and other weapons aid to Saudi arabia this includes the controversial, new and hastily planned Red Sands testing facilities in Saudi arabia

U S military collaboration with the Saudi regime is more extensive than many realize, but that also gives the U S significant economic and security leverage over Riyadh today Saudi ara bia is hugely dependent on U S defense assis tance, purchasing the vast majority of its arms from the United States the country cannot sub stitute defense suppliers unless it wishes to partner with Russia, iran or china for far inferior systems which have no interoperability with their existing weaponry (While Saudi does source some mili tary technology from other countries, that s typi cally low grade weaponry and small arms such as legacy grenade launchers, rifles and ammunition )

Perhaps even more important than Saudi’s re liance on U S arms is its reliance on U S compa nies to help build up the local defense industry through big ticket joint ventures these sensitive and intensive arrangements which have re ceived little public attention were largely ini

h

tiated in 2017 and have outsourced U S sensitive technology and U S jobs to Saudi arabia without any U S control the U S doesn’t have arrange ments of this magnitude with any other allies

Given the early stage nature of these joint ven tures as well as minimal interoperability between Saudi’s current weapons system and potential for eign replacements, Saudi can do little to respond to this proposed legislation other than come back to the table and negotiate with the U S in good faith as one expert noted, it would take decades to tran sition away from U S and UK aircraft, for exam ple, to Russian or chinese aircraft Same is true for tanks, communication and other hi tech equip ment ” it would be a severe challenge if not down right impossible, for Saudi to execute an overnight short term sourcing pivot if faced with a ban on arms sales and any ban could be temporary until Saudi arabia reconsiders its embrace of Putin Maybe it is worth considering some ancient Russian wisdom ourselves over a century ago Russian playwright anton chekhov warned, Knowledge is of no value unless you put it into practice ” Perhaps the same is true about leverage it is of no value unless used

Richard Blumenthal a Democrat is senior U S senator representing Connecticut He serves on the Senate Armed Services Committee

Ro Khanna a Democrat represents the 17th district of California He serves on the House Armed Services Committee

Jeffrey Sonnenfeld is senior associate dean of leadership studies and Lester Crown professor of leadership practice at the Yale School of Management The opinions expressed here do not reflect the opinions of Yale University

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Issues & InsIghts

o l i t i c a l cartoonist Michael Ramirez has won two Pulitzer Prizes an achievement only a handful of others in his cate gory have achieved as well as countless other awards for his unmatched mastery of his craft His cartoons, syndicated by creators, run in publications around the world

Yet to Google s content police Ramirez s cartoons are shocking content” and it is restricting ads on a page where a catalog of them ap pears How do we know this? Because it’s against our site that Google has taken this action

Google’s adSense network which is used by some 3 5 million web sites to generate revenue defines “shocking content” as content that:

8 contains gruesome graphic or disgusting accounts or imagery

8 depicts acts of violence

8 contains a significant amount of or prominently features ob scene or profane language

We appealed this ruling with Google and were denied No explana tion was offered, of course and there’s no possible way to know what would constitute a fix that would satisfy Google

Ramirez’s cartoons can be provocative they can be hilarious they can be deadly serious But they are works of art there’s a reason we label him World s Greatest cartoonist

this isn’t the only content Google is attacking Every day we get alerts from Google adSense of “policy violations” by one of our edito rials or op eds Some are even more idiotic than the label they re slap ping on Ramirez cartoons

8 an i&i/tiPP poll asked registered voters if they were worried about President Joe Biden s mental health Google labeled our re port on the poll’s findings as “dangerous and derogatory ” How, exactly, are we supposed to “fix” this to Google’s satisfaction? change the poll results? it s worth pointing out that our polling partner, tiPP, is a highly respected firm that has had the most ac curate forecasts for every presidential election since 2000 8 Google s content police said that an article about the Supreme court ruling that the EPa had exceeded its constitutional authority in capping co2 emissions from power plants is “dangerous and derogatory Google never provides specifics, but we suspect the leftists running the place recoiled at this line: “today’s decision reaffirms that this Supreme court takes the language and structure of the constitution seriously and will no longer automatically defer to federal agency statutory interpretations or exertions of broad au thority ” can’t have people reading that, now can we?

8 it even labeled one of our What We re Reading articles which is simply a list of links to stories we find of interest as both “dangerous and derogatory” and as containing “unreliable and harmful claims ” the bulk of Google s attacks on our content fall into three cate gories: politics the environment and coViD in other words the bulk of what we write about is in the tech giant’s crosshairs

We recently stripped all but one of Google s adSense ads from our site But we decided to keep one running at the very bottom of the page just so we can keep track of its actions as we noted in this space recently, we re not sure anymore if it s just leftists at Google who are making these decisions or if the company is working in concert with the Biden administration Either way, it s a disgrace

e n s

no sooner had the oPEc+ oil producers’ al liance decided last week to reduce output in November by 2 million barrels per day, than a barrage of criticism from Washington was homing in on its target like a heat seeking missile and that target was, of course, Saudi arabia Sen chris Murphy of connecticut (D) called for “a wholesale re revaluation of the US alliance with Saudi arabia, and White House press secretary Karine Jean Pierre said it was “clear oPEc+ is aligning with Russia ” one wonders where these people were in March, when Saudi arabia joined 140 other countries at the UN in denouncing the Russian invasion of Ukraine one also wonders if any of them listened to Saudi Energy Minister Prince abdulaziz bin Salman s thorough

rationale after the oPEc+ meeting He explained, among other things that the alliance had to be proactive as cen tral banks in the West moved to tackle inflation with higher interest rates which would make a global re cession more likely and lead to reduced demand for oil conspiracy theorists can say what they want, but the job of oPEc+ isn’t to give Washington a slap in the face, or to side with Moscow against Ukraine the alliance ex ists to safeguard the stability of the oil market a mar ket that keeps the world turning Now it is true that the Kingdom has maintained good relations with Moscow, and offered to be a reliable me diator in this conflict However, when the value of these relations is recognized by none other than Volodymyr Ze lensky, one has to wonder whether those Democrats in Washington think they are more committed to Ukraine’s interests than the country s own president! in a video in terview with arab News last week, Zelensky thanked the Kingdom and crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman for their efforts to broker the largest prisoner swap of the war with almost 300 detainees exchanged “Given the ties that the crown prince has with Russia, probably it was, you know a good chance of success and i m very much thankful to him for this brilliant result,” he said incidentally, among the prisoners released by Russia were two americans and while the White House and

the State Department issued brief statements thanking Riyadh for its role the silence from Saudi arabia’s critics in congress was deafening of course, the mid term elections are only four weeks away, and thanking the Kingdom doesn’t win votes this is not a criticism only of Democrats; Riyadh has worked very well in the past with both major US po litical parties Rather it is a plea to opportunist politicians to stop treating the Kingdom like an electoral football, to be given a kicking every time americans go to the polls Saudis are not responsible for your internal woes or your ill advised decisions take the recent call by some Democrats for a halt to US arms sales to Saudi arabia While this obviously goes down well with some voters, it raises serious questions about these politicians’ understanding of basic logic allow me to simplify it for them the tehran backed Houthi militia in Yemen use iranian drones (the same drones used by Russia against Ukraine) to target not only Saudi civilians but also Saudi energy infrastructure Now, what happens when the Kingdom’s ability to de fend itself is limited because of ill advised US decisions, and fuel supplies are restricted because a drone has blown up a refinery? Basic economics: prices will go up precisely the outcome these politicians say they are trying to avoid!

americans must understand that the price of fuel at the pump for US motorists the issue that so exercises US politicians as polling day draws closer is a conse quence of decisions made not in Vienna or Riyadh, but in Washington as the Saudi Minister of State adel al Jubeir so cogently observed to Fox News: “the reason you have high prices in the US is because you have a re fining shortage that has been in existence for more than 20 years You haven’t built refineries in decades ” one final point: if the price of gasoline is such a worry for the Biden administration then the solution surely lies closer to home; the US is the world’s biggest oil producer, and texas is a lot nearer than Riyadh But perhaps the president feels hamstrung by the pledge he made on the election campaign trail in New Hampshire in February 2020: “No more drilling on federal lands, period Period, period period another error of judgment for which the blame can hardly be laid at the door of Saudi arabia like so many US issues, fuel prices can be solved in america itself But that would require the Democrats to swallow their pride, to be reasonable in negotiation with the other side of the House, and to put america first something they have not yet proved they can do!

Faisal J Abbas

CO N S P I R AC Y T H E O R I S T S C A N S AY W H AT T H E Y WA N T, B U T T H E J O B O F O P E C+ I S N’ T TO G I V E WAS H I N G TO N A S L A P I N T H E FAC E, O R TO S I D E W I T H M O S COW AG A I N S T U K R A I N E T H E A L L I A N C E E X I S T S TO S A F E G UA R D T H E S TA B I L I T Y O F T H E O I L M A R K E T A M A R K E T T H AT K E E P S T H

WO R

D T U R N

S T U N N E D E N E R GY CO M M E N TATO R S H AV E S U G G E S T E D T H AT T H E S AU D I S W E R E M E R E LY CO N C E R N E D A B O U T T H E I R E N DA N G E R E D F I N A N C I A L R E T U R N S, AC T I N G R AT I O N A L LY. D E N YI N G A N Y P O L I T I C A L M OT I V E S, A L I S H I H A B I, A S AU D I A N A LY S T, I N S I S T E D I N T H E N E W YO R K T I M E S T H AT T H E M OV E WAS M E R E LY “ TO K E E P T H E P R I C E I N A N ACC E PTA B L E B A N D ”

N C S W, U N F PA v i S i t F lo o d - h i t A r e A S o F S o U t h P U N j A b

social welfare, as well as representa tives of NGOs on post flood relief ac tivities

AioU to hold int’l symposium on turkey-South Asia relations

Islamabad s ta f f r e p o r t

Allama Iqbal Open University (AIOU) and Istanbul Uni versity of Turkey have jointly organized a two day interna tional symposium on "Turkey South Asia Relations in Historical Perspective" which will be held on October 25 and 26 at Istanbul University It is pertinent to mention here both universities signed an MoU in 2021 to initiate different collaborative projects and joint degree programs Vice Chancellor, AIOU, Prof Dr Zia Ul Qayyum along with his team will participate in this symposium The speakers of the symposium will determine the ways to make the

between Turkey and South Asia stronger and more

The delegation of AIOU will make a serious effort to further promote educational coop eration with Istanbul University and other universities in Turkey Director International Collaboration and Ex change, AIOU, Dr Zahid Majeed said that with the coop eration of Istanbul University, an international conference on Eastern language and literature in the postmodern era will also be held next year

CHAIRPERSON National Commission on the Status of Women (NCSW) along with Sec WDD Punjab UNFPA Mission team and local partners, visited the flood af fected areas in South Punjab on 7th and 8th Oct, 2022 to assess and high light the needs of women, girls and women with disabilities in camps lo cated in the region

The team visited DG Khan and Ra janpur s highly affected areas i e Mangrotha Maghrib, one of the most highly affected areas of Taunsa and Dera Ghazi Khan a basti consisting of more than 150 women and children se verely affected by the floods

At Rajanpur the team visited one of the most vulnerable areas in the re gion, Fazilpur, which was one of the last remaining relief camps Focus group discussions were held with preg nant and lactating women, as well as those with disabilites

Chairperson NCSW actively advo cated for the problems and needs for these vulnerable groups to local the ad ministration and relevant departments i e health With the support of UNFPA more than 250 women re ceived dignitary kits, which included essential hygiene items, in order to ease the lack of women friendly sani tation needs

A detailed briefing by Deputy Commissioners of DG Khan and Ra janpur were given which included rel evant departments i e the health and

Meticulous data related to women, including the number of preg nant women the amount of deliveries and births as well as current condi tions of their health and social well being were also noted

T h e C h a i r p e r s o n l a u d e d t h e e f f o r t s o f t h e d i s t r i c t a d m i n i s t r a t i

with

The need for support of relevant

work on family planning by relevant au thorities donors/NGOs and they must address this issue on priority basis Moreover, she said that the affected families were relocating to their homes they must get the same attention to have proper shelter and basic needs that were provided to them otherwise the already miserable condition would worsen Upon directions of the Chairperson, a medical camp was immediately set up the next day to provide free medical services to pregnant women and girls

The team also visited a very re mote area within Rajanpur within which the UNFPA, with its partner ACT are opening a Women and Girls Friendly Space

partments was highlighted

ensure that Fazilpur camp be visited by Lady Health Workers, receive medicines,

tritional supplements and construct

cially designed latrines for women Chairperson NCSW, Ms Nilofar Bakhtiar highly emphasized

to

T h e C i t y S c h o o l G - 1 5 J u n i o r B r a n c h h o l d s I n v e s t i t u r e C e r e m o n y

D C AT e x a m t o b e h e l d o n N o ve m b e r 1 3

Islamabad on a single day and time: Bolan University of Medical & Health Sciences (Baluchistan)

CONSTITUTION OF THE COUN

CIL: After the appointment of the new council of the Pakistan Medical Com mission from the worthy Prime Minis ter of Pakistan, the council after assuming the charge on 7th September 2022, took the following necessary steps to resolve the genuine and rele vant issues of doctors students and relevant stakeholders

PROVINCIAL PUBLIC UNIVER

SITIES

TO HOLD MDCAT: Almost 2 lac 10 thousand candidates have been registered for MDCAT whereas the total seats for medical and dental Col leges are 20800 (Twenty thousand two hundred) in the country

MDCAT exam will be held on 13th November 2022, through the following public universities of all provinces and

• University of Health Services (Punjab) Khyber Medical University (KPK) Dow University of Health Sciences (Sindh)

• Shaheed Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto Medical University (Islamabad, AJK, Gilgit Baltistan)

All the vice chancellors of public universities and important concerned stakeholders were taken on board to decide the conduct of MDCAT through meetings in every province to smooth conduct of the exam

Exam conducting universities will decide on the modalities of conducting exam i e either by themselves or through testing agency

NUMS for NUMS constituent and affiliated Medical and Dental Colleges NUMS MDCAT will be under um

PASS PERCENTAGE MDCAT:

In order to facilitate Pakistani students seeking admission in recognized col leges offering MBBS and BDS pro grams, the Council decided that the pass percentage of MBBS will be 55% and that of BDS will be 45% so that the maximum number of students are catered in the country

• Moreover, FSc (Pre Medical) or Equivalent with 60% marks will be el igible to apply for admission to MBBS or BDS The pass percentage has been reduced from 65% to 60%

MDCAT exam will be paper based manual exam and the answer keys of the papers will be uploaded by the con cerned universities on the PMC website on the same day after the exam

PROVENCIAL CENTERS

OF MDCAT FOR PAKISTANI CANDIDATES:

Punjab: Lahore, Gujranwala, Sialkot, Faisalabad, Sahiwal, Multan, Bahawalpur Deara Ghazi Khan

Sindh: Karachi, Hyderabad, Nawab shah, Khairpur

KPK: Abbottabad Peshawar Swat Dera Ismail Khan Baluchistan: Quetta Gilgit / Baltistan: Gilgit AJK: Mirpur AJK, Muzaffarabad ICT: Islamabad

CENTERS OF MDCAT FOR FOREIGN CANDIDATES:

The Council decided to conduct the MDCAT in two international centres i e UAE and Saudi Arabiadue to the maximum number of students in these countries Accordingly candidates in other countries may either change their centres to UAE and Saudi Arabia or come to Pakistan for the exam

US coast guard ships conduc t maritime exercises with PN & PMSA in Karachi

completion of the port visit, joint maritime exercises between USCG, PN & PMSA Ships were conducted in North Arabian Sea

US Coast Guard Ships CHARLES MOULTHROPE and EMLEN TUNNELL visited Karachi as goodwill gesture Upon arrival at Karachi Port, USCG Ships were received by officials of Pakistan Navy and US Embassy with traditional warmth and cordiality

The US ships visit includes various op erational activities including professional ex changes through meeting sessions at harbour and joint maritime exercises

During the stay Commanding Officers of USCG Ships called on Commander Pakistan Fleet and Director General Pakistan Maritime Se

Agency

discussed during

exercises comprised defense against Asymmetric Attacks, Boarding, Search & Rescue Operations and Patrolling

The aim of the exercise was to build syn ergy and enhance interoperability Visit of USCG Ships and conduct of joint maritime ex ercises is indicative of PN's recognition as a reckonable force and shows its resolve to main tain regional stability and good order at sea under collaborative framework to cooperate with partner countries operating in the region

of mutual interest

meetings

It is expected that the visit of USCG Ships and conduct of bilateral exercises will further promote the existing cooperation be tween the two countries in general and navies in particular

ISLAMABAD:

brella of PMC and shall only be valid for admissions in NUMS constituent and affiliated Colleges

76 people killed in nigeria boat accident

a F P

aL M O S T everyone on board a boat died when it capsized in a flood swollen river in Nigeria s Anambra state, President Muham madu Buhari said on Sunday

An estimated 85 people were taking the overloaded boat on Friday when flooding of the Niger River caused it to tip over

“The boat reportedly carrying 85 persons capsized following rising floods in Ogbaru area of the state, with emergency services confirming

a death toll of 76,

quoted him

Uae president to visit putin in Moscow

ABu DhABI a F P

The United Arab Emirates’ president will Tuesday visit his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin, state media reported one of the few leaders to make the trip to Moscow since the Ukraine war started Sheikh Mo hamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan “will discuss with Presi dent Putin the friendly relations between the UAE and Russia along with a number of regional and interna tional issues and developments of common interest,” the UAE s state news agency WAM said Monday The visit comes days after the Saudi led OPEC oil cartel and its allies including Russia, known as OPEC+, de cided to cut oil output in a bid to raise prices despite appeals from the United States to increase production Tuesday’s Russia visit will be Sheikh Mohamed’s third foreign trip since officially taking the reins as presi dent following his brother ’s death in May

instagram, t witter restrict kanye West accounts over posts deemed anti Semitic

wAShINGTON a F P

Instagram and Twitter said they have restricted the ac counts of US rapper Kanye West over posts slammed as anti Semitic A spokeswoman for Twitter told AFP on Sunday that West’s account was locked due to a violation of the social media platform’s policies And a spokesper son for Instagram parent Meta told AFP the group had deleted content without specifying which posts from West’s account for violating its rules Instagram also restricted his account, which may involve preventing him from posting commenting or sending private messages according to the same source In the tweet, which is no longer visible on West’s account, the rapper said, “I’m a bit sleepy tonight but when I wake up I m going death con 3 On JEWISH PEOPLE,” in an apparent reference to a US military readiness code known as DEFCON The restrictions come after West a Black artist who now goes by Ye, stirred controversy by wearing a “White Lives Matter” T shirt during the recent Paris Fashion Week, in a misappropriation of the slogan Black Lives Mat ter ” The phrase “Black Lives Matter” became a rally ing cry for protests against racism and police brutality sparked by the 2020 murder of George Floyd On Fri day, 45 year old West posted screenshots on Instagram of a conversation with rapper Diddy, who called out West over the T shirt and its message Ima use you as an example to show the Jewish people that told you to call me that no one can threaten or influence me I told you this was war Now gone get you some business he wrote The posts have since been deleted from the platform but images can still be found online

“I pray for the repose of the souls of the deceased and for every one’s safety, as well as the well being of the family members of the victims of this tragic accident he added

Earlier on Sunday, the emer gency services said the rising water level was hampering rescue efforts

“The water level is very high and too risky for a smooth search and rescue operation,” Thickman Tanimu, the southeast coordinator of the National Emergency Manage ment Agency (NEMA) told AFP

He said the flooding was the worst the country has seen in years,

with the water level around one tenth higher than a decade ago

NEMA requested the Nigerian Air Force provide helicopters for the rescue operation Anambra state governor Charles Soludo urged res idents of flood ravaged areas to re locate while adding that the government would provide relief to those affected by the disaster

This development is still a shock to the government and good people of Anambra State I sympa thise with the families of people in volved,” Soludo said in a statement

Boat accidents occur regularly in Nigeria because of overloading,

speeding, poor maintenance and dis regarding navigation rules

Since the start of the rainy sea son, many regions of the West African nation of more than 200 million people have been devas tated by floods

More than 300 people have been killed and at least 100,000 made homeless, according to the emergency services

The continuous rain has washed away farmland and crops, sparking fears of food shortages, famine and hunger in a country already strug gling with the impact of the Covid 19 pandemic and the war in Ukraine

Putin says response to Ukrainian attacks will be ‘severe’

MOScOw ag e n c i e s

President Vladimir Putin said Monday that Russia’s response to any further Ukrainian attacks would be “severe”, after Moscow s forces carried out retal iatory missile strikes across Ukraine

“It was not possible to leave (Ukrainian attacks) unanswered If at tempts at terrorist attacks continue the response from Russia will be severe and correspond to the level of threat,” Putin said at the start of a televised meeting of his security council “Let there be no doubt about it,” Putin said His remarks come after a huge

blast on Saturday damaged a key bridge in Crimea, Putin s flagship project and a vital transport link between Russia and the peninsula Moscow annexed in 2014

In response to the attack, Putin said Russia carried out a massive strike with high precision, long range weapons on energy, military command and com munications facilities in Ukraine

Russia’s defence ministry said in a statement that the series of strikes it fired have achieved their objectives All tar gets have been hit”

Putin also accused Ukraine of launching three attacks on the Kursk nu clear power plant in Russia, about 85 kilometres (53 miles) from the Ukrainian

border and of attempting to hit the Turk Stream gas pipeline running from Russia to Turkey under the Black Sea Ukraine’s capital Kyiv was hit by multiple Russian strikes early on Mon day the first since late June AFP jour nalists witnessed Russia’s former president Dmitry Medvedev said the strikes were only the “first episode” and that Russia’s goal should be “the complete dismantling of Ukraine s political regime Russia also launched attacks on sev eral other cities across Ukraine, particu larly targeting energy infrastructure Electricity cuts were reported in sev eral regions, including Ukraine’s second

city Kharkiv and its surrounding region plus the northeastern Sumy region, Zhy tomyr region in the north and Khmelnit skyi region in the west

‘B orn to fly ’: Indian pilot blazes trail for women in aviation

NOIDA a F P

India has the world’s highest rate of women pilots, but when Zoya Agarwal said she dreamed of conquering the skies, her mother cried and told her to wait for a “suitable boy” to marry in stead

Agarwal has enjoyed an illustrious career since gaining her wings in 2004, including her inauguration last year, with an all woman crew, of the longest non stop Indian commercial flight

After helming the 17 hour San Fran cisco to Bangalore route, Agarwal was feted on national television during India s Republic Day celebrations, and later became a spokesperson for the UN agency for women

Her achievements are as impressive as they once seemed unlikely When she settled on her dream, she had no role models in her network and no sense that women had access to a career in the flight deck

I didn t even have the right to such a crazy thought as that of becoming a pilot,” she tells AFP at her family’s home outside New Delhi, a few hours before her departure to New York

“I was born in an era where the girls in India were expected to get married, have children and look after their fami lies,” she adds And I was not there to do any of

those things I always wanted to spread my wings and fly away ”

It took years for Agarwal to persuade her “very, very conservative” parents that she wanted to pursue a life beyond the horizons of an arranged marriage to “a suitable boy”

“My mum cried the first time I told her I wanted to be a pilot, Agarwal says “She wondered ‘why did God give us a dysfunctional daughter? ”

Agarwal had to pay for her univer sity studies using her meagre savings gifted to her on festive occasions

throughout her childhood and stored in a piggy bank in her bedroom

At night she did her homework on the roadside, under the light of street lamps, because frequent power cuts left her family s home in darkness

She still managed to top her classes and her parents, impressed by her deter mination after years of trying to dissuade her surprised her by agreeing to pay for her flight training

‘ W o r k i n g t W i c e a s h a r d ’:

Agarwal who sports a tattoo with the words “Born to Fly” on her shoulder

blade was one of a small handful of women pilots when she began flying with Air India, the national carrier

She felt an additional burden to suc ceed, not just for herself but those that would come after her

I always made sure that I (was) working twice as hard,” she says, “be cause I knew this was paving the way for the future of women in aviation in India

The passage has been smoother for those that followed, and India is now the country with the highest rate of female aviators, according to the International Society of Women Airline Pilots

Nearly one in every eight pilots in India is a woman, according to the or ganisation more than double the fig ure in the United States despite India having only one in four women overall working in the formal economy

Local media reports attribute the high proportion of women to active poli cies by Indian airlines who have offered flexible work arrangements, subsidised study, childcare and lengthy maternity leave

“I want this percentage to be 50,” Agarwal says “Until then, I will not be happy

One day she hopes to open her own air taxi service to be able to directly em power women pilots

“I want to help women to emanci pate themselves, to give them wings,” she says

C P C c e n t r a l c o m m i t t e e t a ke s key d e c i s i o n s fo r t h e l a n d m a r k N P C s e s s i o n

The Congress also thoroughly reviewed the international and do mestic situations, comprehensively grasp the new requirements for the development of the cause of the Party and the country on the new journey in the new era, as well as the new expectations of

The Congress will formulate ac tion plans and major policies, mobi lize all Party members and people from all ethnic groups across the country to firm up confidence in his tory strengthen historical initiative innovate on the basis of what has been done, and bravely charge ahead

It was decided that all Party members and people from all ethnic groups across the country will be mobilized to continue advancing the five sphere integrated plan and the four pronged comprehensive strat

egy in a coordinated manner, push ing forward common prosperity for all, advancing the great new project of Party building, and promoting the building of a community with a shared future for humanity

The meeting also decided that all CPC members and people from all ethnic groups across the country will be mobilized to work together for building China into a modern social ist country in all respects and advanc ing the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation on all fronts A new CPC Central Committee and a new CPC Central Commission for Disci pline Inspection will be elected at the Congress All preparatory work for the Congress is proceeding smoothly and preparations should be continued earnestly to ensure a successful con gress, according to the meeting

LAGOS

the

PCB unvEIls sChEdulE For nEW ZEal and's uPComIng tour

ISLAMABAD t h e A s s o c i At e d P R e s s

nE W Zealand will tour Pakistan twice in five months to play two Test matches, eight One Day In ternationals (ODIs) and five T20s, the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) said Monday

The two Test matches which will be part of the World Test Championship, will

be played at Karachi from December 27 31 and Multan from January 4 8 Karachi will also host the three ODIs from January 11 15 as part of the ICC World Cup Super League

New Zealand will return to Pakistan in April and will play four T20s at Karachi from April 13 19 Lahore will host the fifth T20 and two ODIs from April 23 28 and the remaining three ODIs will be played at Rawalpindi from May 1 7

New Zealand aborted its tour to Pak istan last year just hours before the first ODI in Rawalpindi because of an undisclosed se curity concern Ramiz Raja the PCB chairman said at the time it was “frustrating” to see the Black Caps walking out of the tour by taking a uni lateral approach and not sharing the security threat with Pakistan

England subsequently abandoned a short scheduled tour to Pakistan due to se

curity concerns However, England last month arrived for its first tour of Pakistan in 17 years, winning the seven match T20 se ries 4 3

England will also tour Pakistan in De cember for three Test matches

New Zealand and Pakistan share a ter rific history in international cricket and there is genuine respect between the two teams as well as the two boards, David White New Zealand Cricket chief execu

tive, said in a statement

“The recent tours from Australia and England have left us in no doubt regarding the quality of the Pakistan side across all formats and the extent of the challenge that awaits us ”

Zakir Khan, PCB director of interna tional cricket said that the ODIs against New Zealand will help Pakistan prepare for next year s Asia Cup and the World Cup, which is being held in India

R i z w a n c l a i m s I CC p l aye r o f t h e m o n t h aw a r d f o r S e p t e m b e r

LAHORE

s tA F F R e P o R t

Pakistan’s Mohammad Rizwan claimed the ICC Men s Player of the Month award for the first time as The International Cricket Council (ICC) on Monday an nounced the winners of the ICC Player of the Month awards for September 2022

England captain steers clear of controversy after Wade obstruction

MELBOURNE R e u t e R s

E n g l a n d c a p t a i n J o s B u t t l e r d e c l i n e d t o a p p e a l a g a i n s t A u s t r a l i a ’s M a t t h e w Wa d e f o r o b s t r u c t i n g t h e f i e l d i n t h e s e r i e s o p e n i n g T 2 0 m a t c h i n P e r t h o n S u n d a y b u t s a i d h e m i g h t b e l e s s f o rg i v i n g i n t h e u p c o m i n g Wo r l d C u p T h e m a t c h w a s d e l i c a t e l y p o i s e d w i t h A u s t r a l i a n e e d i n g 3 9 o ff 2 3 b a l l s t o w i n w h e n Wa d e t o p e d g e d a s h o r t b a l l f r o m M a r k Wo o d i n t o h i s h e l m e t T h e b a l l c a r e e n e d i n t o t h e a i r a n d Wo o d r a n d o w n t o Wa d e s e n d t o a t t e m p t a c a t c h b u t t h e A u s t r a l i a n w i c k e t k e e p e r b a t s m a n s t u c k a n a r m o u t t o i m p e d e h i m B u t t l e r s a i d h e w a s a s k e d b y t h e o n f i e l d u m p i r e s w h e t h e r h e i n t e n d e d t o a p p e a l b u t d e c i d e d t o l e t t h e m o m e n t p a s s E n g l a n d w e n t o n t o w i n b y e i g h t r u n s T h e y a s k e d i f I w a n t e d t o a p p e a l a n d I s a i d ‘ n o ’ I ’ v e o n l y j u s t g o t t o A u s t r a l i a s o I t h o u g h t j u s t c a r r y o n w i t h t h e g a m e , ” B u t t l e r t o l d r e p o r t e r s I t w a s h a r d b e c a u s e I d i d n t k n o w w h a t I w a s a p p e a l i n g f o r I c o u l d h a v e a s k e d s o m e o f t h e o t h e r b o y s t o s e e i f t h e y h a d a b e t t e r v i e w b u t t h o u g h t I w o u l d g e t o n w i t h t h e g a m e ” A s k e d w h e t h e r h e w o u l d a p p e a l f o r a s i m i l a r i n c i d e n t a t t h e Wo r l d C u p , B u t t l e r s a i d : M a y b e Wa d e w a s c r i t i c i s e d h e a v i l y o n s o c i a l m e d i a f o r b l o c k i n g Wo o d a n d h i s f o r m e r Te s t t e a m m a t e U s m a n K h a w a j a s a i d o n Tw i t t e r : C a n t b e l i e v e ( E n g l a n d ) d i d n t a p p e a l ” A u s t r a l i a a l l r o u n d e r M a r c u s S t o i n i s d e f e n d e d Wa d e “ T h e r e ’s a l o t t h a t g o e s o n t h e r e w h e n y o u g e t h i t i n t h e h e a d a n d y o u r e r u n n i n g a r o u n d ” h e t o l d r e p o r t e r s “ Yo u d o n ’t k n o w w h e r e t h e b a l l i s i t i s c h a o s ” D i s m i s s a l s f o r o b s t r u c t i n g t h e f i e l d a r e r a r e i n c r i c k e t b u t E n g l a n d a l l r o u n d e r B e n S t o k e s f e l l f o u l o f t h e r u l e w h e n h e b l o c k e d a t h r o w a t t h e s t u m p s f r o m b o w l e r M i t c h e l l S t a r c i n a 2 0 1 5 O D I a g a i n s t A u s t r a l i a a t L o r d s S t o k e s w a s g i v e n o u t a f t e r Wa d e a p p e a l e d f o r h i s w i c k e t f r o m b e h i n d t h e s t u m p s T h e s e r i e s m o v e s t o C a n b e r r a o n We d n e s d a y

Pakistan ace Mohammad Rizwan claimed the ICC Men s Player of the Month award, while India’s inspirational captain Harmanpreet Kaur is named the recipient of the ICC Women s Player of the Month award said a statement of the ICC here

In a highly competitive field, Rizwan secures his first ever ICC Men’s Player of the Month crown after a remarkable spell of scoring throughout September, and sees him overcome fellow nominees Cameron Green (Australia) and Axar Patel (India) to the prize

The Pakistan star amassed a mam moth 553 runs from ten T20Is, covering performances in the Men s Asia Cup and the subsequent home T20I series against a touring England side With an eye catch ing batting average of 69 12 during the

month, the talismanic opener also regis tered seven half centuries to illustrate why he sits atop the MRF Tyres ICC Men’s T20I batter rankings

Rizwan will be a key figure for Pak istan heading into the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup in six days’ time, and he em phasised his importance during Pakistan s surge to the Asia Cup Final registering three half centuries in the latter stages of

the tournament, including scores of 71 against India and 55 in the Final against eventual winners Sri Lanka

He carried his impressive form into the series against England, notching four further half centuries the highlight being his unbeaten 88 in partnership with cap tain Babar Azam as his side claimed a ten wicket victory in the second T20I chasing down an imposing target of 199

S pirited Atish Toriyali Tank clinches Peshawar Football League S eason 5 title

PESHAWAR

s tA F F R e P o R t

Spirited Atish Toriyali Tank clinched the coveted trophy of the Peshawar Football League Season 5 defeated Popo Club Islamabad by a tennis goal margin 7 1 in final played in front of the jumped packed Tehmas Khan Football Stadium on Monday

Former Secretary KP Football Association Basit Kamal, former national team captain Gohar Zaman, Chief Organizer and Chairman of Youth Glam Welfare Organization Gul Haider and other important personal ities were present

The final started on a fast tempo between Atish Toriyali Tank Club and Popo FC Islamabad and the play ers of the two finalists teams raided each other ’s defence with some fine attacking moves As a result Popo Islam abad club succeeded in getting an early goal lead through center striker Zain in the 15th minute of the first half

The early goal deficit created a panic like situation in the rank of super fit Atish Club Tank which soon managed their position accordingly and it was in the 29th minute when right winger Abdul Samad slammed in a beautiful goal through field attempt

Leveling the tally 1 1, Atish Club Tank kept up more pressure and dominated the proceedings by scor ing five more goals, one after the other Jameel in the 31st, 35th, 39th and 65 minute scored four goals through field attempts making the tally 5 1 Najibullah and Abdul Samad scored other goals in the dying moments of the final match and thus Atish Club Toriyali Club Tank took the lead of 7 1 Jameed

S u p e r - p u m p e d

PARIS

A F P

Novak Djokovic believes his prolonged but self inflicted absences in 2022 make him even more “super pumped and motivated” to finish a year which started with the ignominy of deportation from Australia on a high

The 35 year old swept to back to back ti tles when he comfortably defeated Stefanos Tsitsipas 6 3 6 4 in the Astana final on Sun day, a week after securing the Tel Aviv trophy

“I could not ask for a better restart of the season I m super pumped and motivated to end the season as well as I have done these past couple of weeks,” said the former world number one

Djokovic now has four titles from just 10 events this season following victories in

Ahmad, who scored four goals including the hat trick, was also declared as the best player of the League by scoring a total of 9 goals in the League while Abdul Samad scored two goals, the first and the last 7th goal Popo FC Islamabad only in the 88th minute reduced the margin through left winger Saddam on the field at tempt, making the tally 7 2 Atish Tank defeated North Waziristan and Popo FC qualified for the final by de feating Dara Nangyali A total of 16 different teams from across the province and Islamabad participated in the League Chief Organizer and Chairman Youth Glam Welfare Organization Gul Haider on this occasion thanked Commissioner Peshawar, Director General Sports Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Khalid Khan and Deputy Commissioner Shafi Ullah Khan for extending full sup port to the organizing committee He said the slogan of the League was “To Say No to Drug” and promote healthy sports activities At the end of former skippers national teams Basit Kamal and Gohar Zaman awarded winners and runners up trophies and cash prizes

Reacting to claiming the latest ICC Men’s Player of the Month crown, Rizwan commented: I would like to thank Almighty Allah and express my heartfelt delight to all that enabled me to achieve this award

“I want to give my high appreciation to all my teammates as they made things easy for me

These achievements boost your confi dence I am happy with my performance and I would like to take this momentum forward in Australia

“I would like to dedicate this award to the people in Pakistan who are affected by the floods and climate change Hopefully this will bring smiles on their faces ”

Former South Africa international and ICC Player of the Month voting panel member, JP Duminy added: “Mohammad Rizwan is an outstanding performer and his consistency has been amazing

He is a player that continues to inspire many around the world

Harmanpreet Kaur becomes India’s first winner of the ICC Women’s Player of the Month thanks to her leading role in her team s first ODI series victory in England since 1999

Finch reprimanded for breaching ICC code of conduct

ISLAMABAD Ag e n c i e s

Australia captain Aaron Finch has been handed an official reprimand for breaching Level 1 of the ICC Code of Conduct during the first T20I against Eng land in Perth on Sun day Finch was found to have breached Arti cle 2 3 of the ICC Code of Conduct for Players and Player Support Personnel, which relates to “use of an audible obscenity during an International Match In ad dition to this, one demerit point has been added to Finch’s disciplinary record, for whom it was the first of fence in a 24 month period said a press release The inci dent occurred in the ninth over of England’s innings, when Finch used inappropriate language which was picked up by the stump microphone Finch admitted the offence and accepted the sanction proposed by David Boon of the Emirates ICC Elite Panel of Match Referees, so there was no need for a formal hearing On field um pires Sam Nogajski and Donovan Koch, third umpire Phil Gillespie and fourth umpire Shawn Craig levelled the charge Level 1 breaches carry a minimum penalty of an official reprimand, a maximum penalty of 50 per cent of a player ’s match fee, and one or two demerit points

D j o kov i c e n d i n g t r o u b l e d ye a r o n a h i g h

Rome and at Wimbledon

His win in the Italian capital in May gave him a 38th Masters; his Wimbledon tri umph in July then equalled Pete Sampras’s mark of seven at the All England Club and took him to 21 Grand Slams

Only Rafael Nadal, with 22, has more men’s majors

All this in a year which saw him booted out of Melbourne and banned from travel ling to North America over his continued re fusal to be vaccinated

With the exception of the Laver Cup in London, which doubled up as Roger Fed erer s farewell Djokovic didn t play for the best part of three months after Wimbledon

His “restart” in Israel came 16 years after he last played in the country

Djokovic’s determination not to waver

over his vaccination stance meant he missed two of the year s four Slams, at the Aus tralian and the US Opens and four of eight Masters in Indian Wells, Miami, Montreal and Cincinnati

However his win in Kazakhstan on Sunday allowed him to book a place in the ATP Finals for the 15th time only Fed erer (18) and Jimmy Connors and Nadal (16 each) have reached the season ending show piece on more occasions

When the event takes place in Turin in November, the Serb will attempt to draw level with Federer as a six time winner hav ing been crowned champion in 2008 and every year from 2012 15

Before then, Djokovic, the only man to have won all Masters titles twice will de fend his Paris Masters crown

“I’m just very grateful and blessed to be able to play this well at this stage of my life Djokovic said on Sunday You know 35 is not 25 ”

When his roller coaster year ends, Djokovic will hope he ll be able to fly to Melbourne and claim a 10th Australian Open despite the cancellation of his visa in January triggering a three year ban on re turning

The signs are encouraging “We are on the right track to win back all the top play ers,” Tennis Australia chief Craig Tiley told The Australian newspaper last week

We are in a different time than nine months ago and I think the environment has completely changed People are moving freely around the world again and we hope to have the best players here in January ”

How amendments in nab law effect petitioner: sc probes

ISLAMABAD S ta f f R e p o R t

The Supreme Court of Pakistan on Monday ad journed hearing till October 11 on Pakistan Tehreek e Insaf (PTI)’s petition regarding NAB amendments A three member bench headed by Chief Justice Umar Ata Bandial heard the case

At the outset of hearing, Justice Syed Mansoor Ali Shah remarked that the court had to view whether the amendments in the NAB law were contradicting the basic rights or not The court would also view that how the amendments had affected the rights of the petitioner Justice Shah inquired whether the installments of plea bargain amount had been paid or not before amendments in NAB law in 2018 The section 25 of the NAB law was related to plea bargain, he said, adding that now the accused could demand the return of the amount paid as plea bargain, as per the fresh amendments in the law Chief Justice Umar Ata Bandial, heading the bench, inquired that whether the confession of an accused wouldn t be consid ered even after plea bargain PTI’s Lawyer Khawaja Haris argued that now cases were being sent back without giving applications by the ac cused adding the amounts submitted in result of plea bargain would also be returned now Khawaja Haris said that why an accused should pay the amount of plea bargain when he could get relief through the new law

Pm shehbaz set to depar t for kazakhstan on Wednesday

ISLAMABAD

S ta f f R e p o R t

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif will be leaving for Kazakhstan on October 12 for a two day visit to attend a summit Leaders of the “Confer ence on Interaction and Confidence Building Measures in Asia” (CICA) member countries and observer states and other special guests are also to attend the meeting A high level delega tion will also accompany Prime Minister Shah baz Sharif on his tour to Nur Sultan, Kazakhstan on October 12 and 13 Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif will also hold bilateral meetings with world leaders participating in the conference

rupee gains rs 1.96 against dollar

ISLAMABAD

S ta f f R e p o R t

Pakistan rupee on Monday appreciated by Rs 1 96 against the US dollar in the interbank trading and closed at Rs 217 96 against the previous day’s closing of Rs 219 92 According to the Forex Association of Pakistan (FAP), the buying and selling rates of dollars in the open market were recorded at Rs 218 and Rs 220 respectively

The price of Euro declined by Rs 3 94 and closed at Rs 211 53 against the last day s closing of Rs 215 47 The Japanese Yen lost two paisa to close at Rs1 49, whereas a decrease of Rs 4 23 was wit nessed in the exchange rate of the British Pound which was traded at Rs 241 33 as compared to its last closing of Rs 245 56

P T I T o m o v e c o u r T f o r P r o b e I n T o ‘ a u d I o l e a ks

ISLAMABAD S ta f f R e p o R t

PTI chairman and former prime minister Imran Khan on Monday said that his party would ap proach the courts to establish the authenticity of the recently leaked audio tapes and have a joint inves tigation team (JIT) constituted to bring to light those responsible for the bugging of the Prime Minister Office (PMO)

A series of audio recordings have sur faced of late, allegedly featuring the lead ership of the PTI and PML N holding informal conversations never meant to be heard by the public

Some of the clips featured purported conversations between the PTI chief and his former ministers and principal secretary about a cipher that he has for long pre sented as evidence of a “foreign conspir acy” to oust him from office

Last month a slew of audio recordings

of conversations between key government figures including Prime Minister She hbaz Sharif, PML N leader Maryam Nawaz and some members of the federal cabinet were released as well, triggering alarm bells with regard to national security

While the PML N has denied the con tent of the audios, the PTI chief has ac cused the government of “starting a new game of audio leaks In a series of tweets today, Imran said: “The audio leaks are a serious breach of national security as they call into question the entire security of the PMO, PMH As the prime minister, my se cure line at my residence was also bugged

We intend to go to court to establish the authenticity of leaks and then form JIT to investigate which intelligence agency is responsible for the bugging and who is leaking out the audios, many of which are edited/doctored,” Imran said

He asserted that the investigation was critical because sensitive security issues “are and have been illegally recorded and

subsequently hacked implying that the con fidentiality” of Pakistan’s national security had been globally exposed

Talking about the audio leaks later at a ceremony in Rawalpindi, Imran questioned the role of intelligence agencies

“I ask my agencies is your job to spy on your own people? Is it your job to de cide who needs to come and who needs to go? Do you even care about the country that you have imposed these people over us? That all these daaku are taking Pakistan towards destruction [ ] is this your job to tap phones and see what Imran Khan is saying?”

The PTI chief said that journalists and media houses were facing the worst form of crackdown under the incumbent setup, claiming that people were being threatened only so that they could accept the “im ported government”

So listen [ ] whoever these people are [ ] these chors and their handlers [ ] listen now, this nation will not accept you

Firing at school van in Swat claims one life, injures t wo

ISLAMABAD

A school van s driver was killed

unknown

children

Khyber

driver

rying

injured

The militants fled the scene after

to arrest them was underway in the area

The injured children were shifted to a nearby hospital by the rescue teams

Police cordoned off the attack site and an investigation into the incident was un derway People fear Tehreek i Taliban Pakistan (TTP) is making a comeback in Swat, despite government assurances to the contrary, after several attacks in the past month

A bomb blast on September 13, which killed a former member of the civilian resistance to the Taliban’s rule and seven other people, was followed a few weeks later by the abduction of a po liceman and two military officers The group has released videos of their cap tives Fayaz Zafar, a local journalist who has covered militancy in the area said the Taliban were taking a different approach from their early days

Before launching their insurgency and seizing control of Swat in 2007, the

Taliban had first infiltrated local commu nities, slowly gaining people’s confidence through religious sermons and charity work, Zafar said But “in this new resurrection, the Tal iban have directly taken up weapons, he said However, this time people have been quick to show their opposition to the mil itants, with thousands staging demonstra tions against their return and calling for peace in Swat

Such protests were rare when the Tal iban previously had a presence in the area, Zafar said

Meanwhile, the civil society, traders

Central meet concludes amid t

national records

RAWALPINDI

S ta f f R e p o R t

General Qamar Javed Bajwa, Chief of Army Staff (COAS) attended Closing Ceremony of the 42nd Pakistan Army Rifle Associa tion (PARA) Central Meet at Jhelum Garri son as Chief Guest

The mega shooting event was con ducted at Army Marksmanship Unit from 22 August to 10 October 2022 Over 2000 fir ers from Army, Navy, Air Force, Civil Armed Forces (CAFs) including Rangers(Sind, Punjab), Frontier Corps and GB Scouts as well as civilians participated in the competition that comprised numerous events involving different ranges and types of weapons Air Chief Marshal Zaheer Ahmed Babar Sidhu ,Chief of Air Staff (CAF) was present as a Guest of Honour who gave away the prizes In Inter Formation Competition Mangla Corps came first followed by Ba hawalpur Corps

In Civil Armed Forces(CAF) category, trophy was won by Punjab Rangers while Gilgit Baltistan Scouts were received run ners up trophy In Inter Services Matches, Pakistan Army won three out of four con tests including COAS, Chief of Air Staff (CAS) and Chief of Naval Staff (CNS) Matches, while Pak Navy won CISM Match Pak Navy remained runners up in COAS and CNS Matches while PAF came second in CAS Match

Pakistan Army won Shotgun, Long Range and Small Bore Trophies in Open National Matches Pakistan Navy won the Prime Minister Skills at Arms Big Bore National Challenge Match while Pakistan Army secured second position

The Biggest Military Shooting Honour ‘The Master at Arms’ Trophy along with Gold Medal of ‘National Rifle Association of United Kingdom(UK) was awarded to Lance Naik Syed Mansoor Ali Shah of 112 Wing Gilgit Baltistan Scouts

The President’s Cup National Challenge

Match Trophy was awarded to Maj Ahmad Jehanzeb of Army Marksmanship Unit The Prime Minister Skills at Arms Small Bore National Challenge Match was won by Pak istan Army The ‘Best Shot Match Trophy’ was awarded to Lance Naik Allah Ditta of 165 Field Regiment Artillery

Two new National Records were also made during the National Level matches Major General Ahsan Gulrez Director Gen eral Military Training (DGMT), participated and made a new PARA National Record by scoring 150/150 points with

in finals of

Yds Rifle Match whereas Lieutenant Colonel

Zulfiqar made New National Qualification Record by scoring

Bull Hit in

and general public here Monday staged a protest against firing a school van at Gul Bagh and demanded arrest of the attack ers The people staged a protest demon stration at Nishat Chowk Mingora to condemn the firing on a school van at Gul Bagh where the driver was killed and two students were injured Condemning the attack, the protestors demanded the KP Government to take prompt measures of arrest of the attackers and award them exemplary punishment They brought the body of the slain driver to Nishat Chowk and blocked Mingora Saidu Sharif road for traffic

I am telling you no matter how hard you try, you will only dishonour yourself be cause the nation won t accept them any more ” he said

The PTI chief urged PML N supremo Nawaz Sharif and his daughter Maryam Nawaz to reveal the names of the “powers” that created cases against them

The PTI chief ’s comments come a day after Nawaz in a pre recorded interview spoke about the trials and tribulations he and his family went through since his wife, Kulsoom Nawaz passed away

Referring to the interview in his speech today, Imran said: “Was it the judiciary or the establishment? Because when these cases were formed, we weren’t in power Also, give one answer on how did you pur chase these properties worth billions of ru pees abroad?

“Where did you get the money to buy them? Imran asked Nawaz Sharif re mained Pakistan’s prime minister thrice, why doesn’t he answer this?”

sbP to maintain policy rate at 15%

KARACHI S ta f f R e p o R t

lent standards of marksmanship Terming shooting

professional soldier, COAS said

proficiency

points with

Match

shooting must remain

military training objectives

11 participants and faculty

of First Sniper course of

Army Sniper School (PASS) were also awarded prizes and Sniper insignias

While interacting with participants, COAS appreciated the

Later, COAS visited Jari

Mirpur

Jari

Cantt,

State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) on Monday decided to maintain its policy (interest) rate at 15 percent for next two months SBP’s Monetary Policy Committee, in its meeting held here, noted the continued deceleration in economic activity as well as the decline in headline inflation and the current account deficit since its last meeting, SBP monetary policy statement said It also noted that the recent floods have altered the macroeco nomic outlook and a fuller assessment of their impact is underway Based on currently available information, the MPC was of the view that the existing monetary policy stance strikes an appropriate balance be tween managing inflation and maintaining growth in the wake of the floods On the one hand inflation could be higher and more persistent due to the supply shock to food prices It is important to ensure that this ad ditional impetus does not spillover into broader prices in the economy However, growth prospects have weakened, which should reduce demand side pressures and suppress underlying inflation In light of these offsetting considerations, the MPC considered it prudent to leave monetary pol icy settings unchanged at this stage Since the last meeting, the MPC noted several key developments: First the desired moderation in economic activity has become more visi ble and entrenched, signaling that the tight ening measures implemented over the last year are gaining traction With growth likely to slow further in the aftermath of the floods this tightening will need to be care fully calibrated going forward Second, after peaking in August as expected, headline in flation fell last month due to an administra tive cut in electricity prices However, core inflation continued to drift upwards in both rural and urban areas Third the current ac count and trade deficits narrowed signifi cantly in August and September, respectively and the Rupee has recouped some of its losses following the recent de preciation Fourth, the combined 7th and 8th review under the on going IMF program was successfully completed on August 29th, releasing a tranche of $1 2 billion The MPC discussed the post flood macroeco nomic outlook, noting that projections are still preliminary and would become firmer after the flood damage assessment being conducted by the government is finalized Based on currently available information, GDP growth could fall to around 2 percent in fiscal year 2022 23 , compared to the previous forecast of 3 4 percent before the floods Meanwhile, higher food prices could raise average headline inflation over the same period; somewhat above the pre flood projection of 18 20 percent The impact on the current account deficit is likely to be muted, with pressures from higher food and cotton imports and lower textile exports largely offset by slower domestic demand and lower global commodity prices As a re sult, any deterioration in the current account deficit is expected to be contained still leav ing it in the vicinity of the previously fore cast 3 percent of GDP