Epaper_22-11-29 LHR

P T I h u d d l e g I v e s n o d T o P u n j a b , K P a s s e m b l I e s ’ d I s s o l u T I o n

ForMEr nformation minister Fawad Chaudhr y on Monday said that PTI s senior leadership has approved the dec sion to dissolve the Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) assemblies

“ The date of dissolut on will be an nounced after consultat on with the par l amentar y party he to d media persons n Lahore over the weekend, PTI ch ef Imran Khan n a mammoth gather ng n rawa pind had announced his party ’s intention to d sassociate tself from the current corrupt po it cal sys tem by qu tt ng the assembl es of KP and Pun ab

However a f nal dec sion would on y be taken after consultations w th ch ef m n sters in both provinces, while a final decis on in this regard would be made after a meeting of the PTI s parl amen tar y party, Imran had said Later Punjab Chief Min ster Chaudhr y Per vez E ahi had brushed as de concerns of any res stance from him regarding PTI s plan acknowledging that he owed his government to Imran

and wou d obl ge to his nstructions m mediate y In a med a ta k today Fawad Chaudhr y sa d that the PTI ch ef had met KP Chief Min ster Mahmood Khan on Monday and had a meeting sched uled with Punjab’s E ahi today (Tuesday) The process of a lotting tickets has b e g u n [ ] 5 6 3 s e a t s f r o m a c r o s s t h e countr y wil be vacated and elect ons w i b e h e l d o n t h e m o n Fr i d a y a m e e t i n g o f t h e Pu n j a b p a r l i a m e n t a r y p a r t y h a s b e e n s c h e d u l e d, w h i l e a meeting in KP has been called on Sat urday he said

“After these meet ngs, the assem

blies w ll be d ssolved the PT eader as serted saying that the party would also tender resignations n the Sindh and Balochistan assemb ies

We have written to the National As semb y speaker regarding our res gna tions as well he said Chaudhr y also stated that the oppo sition wou d a so be invited to hold con su tat ons with the government in both the provinces over the format on of the nterim government

We st ll want to go ahead w th gen era elections [ ] be it 7 or 8 months and PTI wil w n for sure ”

T h e P T I e a d e r t h e n c a l l e d o n t h e g o v e r n m e n t t o a n n o u n c e t h e d a t e f o r general elections and disso ve the Na t o n a A s s e m b l y “ I f y o u d o n ’ t t h e n t h e P T w i l l d i s s o l v e t h e a s s e m b i e s w h e r e v e r i t r u l e s We are here to save Pak istan [from default] and we wil save it ” he added Fawad Chaudhr y said that with resignation by PTI lawmakers 64 per cent of the seats in all assembl es would fa l vacant They PDM, he said, won t agree to hold immediate elections but the PTI wou d compel them to do so Fawad said it won t make any differ ence f no confidence mot ons are n troduced in provincia assemblies

Meanwhile, Pakistan Tehreek i Insaf (PTI) Central Secretar y General Asad Umar ashed out at the mported gov ernment for destroying the ndustries n short span of six months due to ts flawed short term cosmet c measures

In a statement on Monday, PTI Sec retar y General sa d that the mported government ru ned the IT industr y which was growing at more than 30%, now with zero growth

Asad Umar stated that he met two guys one from the IT sector and another from texti e H e s a d t h a t t h e y b o t h n a r r a t e d h o r r o r s t o r i e s o f t h e d e v a s t a t o n

t h a t h a s d e s t r o y e d t h e r i n d u s t r i e s i n t h e l a s t 6 m o n t h s The future of the countr y made hostage to the greed and amb tion of a corrupt e ite, he added

He stated that to artificially control do lar rate and payments against con tracts are being withheld that bad y tar nished the trust of ma or global players

“ Desperate short term measures de stroying future, as the IT industr y which was growing at over 30% now with zero g r o w t h S t o p t h i s n i g h t m a r e n o w ” h e added Talking about Azam Swat arrest, Asad Umar sa d that there was a clear d e c i s i o n o f t h e S u p r e m e C o u r t t h a t t h e r e c a n n o t b e l o d g e d m o r e t h a n one FIr for a single charge So he said u n d e r w h i c h l a w m o r e t h a n a d o z e n F I r s h a v e b e e n r e g s t e r e d a g a n s t Azam Swati?

“ How ong will the Supreme Court watch the human rights violation as a si ent spectator he questioned

Asad Umar sa d: “ Histor y tel s ever y thing, as ne ther histor y can be threat ened nor histor y can be stopped He sa d that even histor y cannot be put in ja l; hence now histor y wou d tel al Who did what why for whom all wi l be revealed now he concluded

Malik leads Pakistani delegation to Russia to secure oil on cheaper rates

TTP ter minates ceasefire agreement with gover nment

iSLAMABAD

ag e n c e S

Banned outf t Tehreek i Taliban Pakistan (TTP) on Monday cal ed off the ceasefire agreement with the government and or dered ts m litants to stage attacks across the countr y, accord ing to a statement from the group The government and intel igence agencies are yet to comment on the matter As m litar y operations are ongo ng against mu ahideen n differ ent areas [ ] so it is mperative for you to carr y out attacks wherever you can in the ent re countr y the statement said wh le address ng its mi itants The decision, it stated, was taken after a series of non stop attacks were launched by the mil tar y organ sations on TTP in Baanu s Laki Mar wat d str ct The banned group said it had repeatedly warned the people of Pakistan and cont nued to be pat ent so that the negotiation process s not sabotaged at east by us But the army and n tel igence agenc es did not stop and continued the attacks [ ] now our reta iator y attacks wil a so start across the coun tr y the statement cla med Talks between Pakistani officia s and the mi itant outfit f rst started in october last year but broke down n December These later resumed in May this year The process however broke down once again due to a deadlock on the revocation of the merger of erstwhile tribal areas with Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Subsequently, attacks by the TTP have been on the rise s nce September after the group s ceasefire w th the army ended Most of the attacks have happened in and around Dera sma l Khan, Tank, South Waz r stan, and North Waziristan districts in KP n october the Ministr y of Interior had warned that more than year long peace negot at ons be tween the TTP and the government of Pakistan had come to a standst ll wh ch had led to unease w thin the TTP s ranks

M n ster of State for Petroleum Mussad k Malik f ew out from Lahore yesterday to hold talks about securing the supply of russ an crude o l at a discounted rate Ma k s eading a delegation to the russ an Federation that is hoping to secure a dea with Moscow that cou d he p ease the skyrocketing price of fuel n the countr y

Why is russia se ling cheaper oi ?

The issue of importing cheap russian oi had been a major talk ng point when the in cumbent PDM government came to power Ever since its invasion of Ukraine in March russia has been selling oi at a d scounted rate to the As an market India and China have been at the forefront of acquiring this discounted oil and their combined oi m ports have overtaken those from the 27 EU member states

C o u n t r e s l ke I n d a a r e n o t o n y i m p o r t ing cheaper fuel from russia and undercut t n g t h e g l o b a l e c o n o m i c c r i s i s domestical y by hav ng cheaper o l but are e v e n e x p o r t n g t h e o i l a t h i g h e r r a t e s t h a n t h e y g e t f r o m r u s s i a

Many had suggested that Pakistan should also cap tal se on the s tuation and strike a dea with russia In fact, when former prime minister Imran Khan had been ousted as a result of a no confidence mot on in par l ament, he cla med that he had reached an understanding w th the russians to buy cheap oil from them and was deposed by an nternational consp racy as a result

Despite the cla ms the russian Ambas sador to Pakistan had conf rmed that no MoU was signed on the trade of wheat and oi at cheaper pr ces with Pak stan However the suggestion was stil a cause of great debate

What are the issues with importing russ ian o l?

So why hasn t Pakistan been ab e to do the same up unt l now? The problem s three f o l d Fo r s t a r t e r s g i v e n o u r p a r t i c u l a r d i r e

straits t m i g h t p r o v e t o b e m o r e e c o n o m c a y d i s a s t r o u s t o t e s t t h e p a t i e n c e o f t h e U n i t e d S t a t e s a n d o t h e r We s t e r n p o w e r s t h a t h a v e p u t s a n c t i o n s o n r u s s i a I t w o u d a l s o o l t t h e r e l a t i o n s h i p w e h a v e b u i l t w t h t h e A r a b w o r l d o v e r d e c a d e s f w e s t a r t e d b u y n g r u s s i a s U r a l b l e n d o f c r u d e o i l o v e r t h e A r a b b l e n d T h e s e c o n d p a r t o f t h e equation s the fact that currently we do not h a v e t h e f a c l i t e s t o p r o cess russ an crude o l n Pak stan

The fina ssue is that Pakistan as a market is not arge enough for russ a to consider sel ing their oil at a d scounted price Wh ch means any deal struck w th russia might not be worth the d plomat c r sk Apart from this another technicality that is often ignored is the fact that the russ an Ural oi has a re a tively higher content of sulphur therefore the price of this blend is ower than the market benchmark refining high sulphur crude oil is costly ow ng to ts h gh oxidation and corro s on propert es The costs of excessive oxida t on and corrosion damage caused to a refiner y not adequate y equipped to sustain high sulphur crude w ll outweigh the revenues from the cheaper o l There s also an ssue with how we wou d pay for t To get russian oi nations must first purchase the currency, which may be done at the Central Bank of russia or on the for e gn exchange market Deal ng direct y with russ a ’s Central Bank, wh ch has been sanc tioned wi l be difficu t Buy ng rubles on the open market w ll necess tate the use of non sanctioned russ an banks to comp ete the transaction Consider ng Pakistan has just gotten out of the FATF grey list and that there is st ll an IMF programme hang ng in the ba ance the r sk might be massive So what is the plan for the Pak stan dele gation?

Mussadik Ma k flew out from Lahore bound for Moscow with a trim team Besides him, were the secretar y petro eum and an other officia of the petroleum division For the vis t the ministr y has dent fied four areas of cooperation between Pakistan and the russian Federat on in the o l and gas sectors

The Petroleum Divis on n a Most Imme d ate” letter dated 23 11 2022 carr y ng the subject Strategy for Upcoming Strategic Meet ngs w th russian Federation has ad vised all concerned Directorates and organ isat ons to make necessar y full preparations for upcoming meet ngs w th russian Feder ation, said the sources

The immediate start of the Pakistan Stream Gas Pipel ne project wil also be dis cussed dur ng these strategic ta ks w th the russian Federation besides the supply of russ an crude oil and gas to Pakistan at dis counted rates they added

Perhaps more important y, Pakistan refin er y Limited and Pak Arab refiner y Company (PArCo) have been ass gned to prepare comprehensive strategy documents and presentations regarding cooperation of the Pakistan & russian Federat on on crude o and DG (oil) Currently, Parco s ref ner y is the only mild convers on ref ner y in Pakistan wh ch means it is the on y ref ner y in Pakistan a ready equipped to refine russian oi Meanwh le the countr y s state owned oi g ant Pakistan State oi (PSo) has a so been asked to deve op comprehensive strategy documents and presentations regarding co operation between the two countries More over, DG (LGs), PSo and Pakistan LNG Lim ted (PLL) have been advised to formulate com prehensive strategy documents and presen tations regarding cooperation of the two countries (Pakistan & russ an Federat on) in gas (LNG)

t is pertinent to mention here that the russ an Pres dent Vlad mir Put n met w th Pak istani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on the s delines of the Shanghai Cooperation or gan zat on summ t in Samarkand Uzbekistan in the month of September 2022 Both lead ers agreed to continue econom c coopera tion with particu ar regard to energy projects wh le it was a so agreed to hold the next IGC (Pak russ a Inter Governmental Commission) meet ng n Islamabad And the petroleum d vision is fina is ng necessar y paper work for the upcoming meetings with the russian Federation

iSLAMABAD

pR Ofit REpORt a h m a d a h m a da n i

LAHORE S ta f f R e p o R t

g P T I c h i e f h o l d s c o n s u l t a t i o n w i t h K P C h i e f M i n i s t e r, Pe r v a i z E l a h i t o m e e t t o d a y

g P T I M P s t o r e s i g n f r o m t o t a l 5 6 3 s e a t s i n f o u r a s s e m b l i e s t o f o r c e f r e s h p o l l s

C h i n a , Pa k i s ta n w e lC o m e t h i r d Pa r t y Pa r t i C i Pat i o n i n C P e C C o n s t r u C t i o n

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n t , C h i n e s e F o r e i g n M i n i s t r y S p o k e s p e r s o n , Z h a o L i j i a n s a i d o n Monday

T h e C h i n a P a k i s t a n e c o n o m i c Corridor is an open and inclusive platform C h i n a a n d P a k i s t a n w e l c o m e a n y e ff o r t s that support Belt and Road Initiative and the building of CPeC, he said during his regular briefing in response to a question asked by APP Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif addressing a joint a press conference along with Turkish President Recep Tayyip erdogan in Istanbul during his recent visit to Turkiye invited Turkyie to participate in the construction of China Pakistan economic Corridor project, and said he was

Pm for int’l communit y’s enhanced effor ts to end endless violations of Palestinians’ rights

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has said that the dire situation in Occupied Palestine posed a serious challenge to international peace and security and the international community must enhance its efforts to bring an end to the endless violations of the rights of the Palestinians “To improve the prospects of a two state solution, it is essential to stop Israel from expanding its illegal settlements in occupied Palestinian territories including east Jerusalem,” the prime minister said in his message on International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People annually observed on November 29 On behalf of the people and Government of Pakistan, the prime minister expressed their unwavering support to the people of Palestine especially on the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People he said it was a matter of grave concern that the Palestinians had continued to suffer under illegal Israeli occupation for over seven decades The prime minister said that in addition to many injustices, the Palestinians endured in their daily lives at the hands of the occupying force the brutal occupation has resulted in misery, frustration and hopelessness “The most recent example of the incessant Israeli violence was seen in August this year, when Israeli bombing in Gaza resulted in deaths of approximately 50 Palestinians, including 17 children and injuries to more than 300 he remarked he said Israel’s actions were emboldened by impunity As long as the international community does not take any concrete action to bring an end to the atrocities, the Palestinians will continue to suffer deaths, injuries and egregious violations of their human rights, the prime minister commented The prime minister reiterated Pakistan’s consistent support for the two state solution of the Palestinian issue, as enshrined in relevant Security Council and General Assembly resolutions “We reaffirm our solidarity with the people of Palestine and call for the establishment of a viable, independent and contiguous State of Palestine on the basis of internationally agreed parameters of the pre 1967 borders, with Al Quds al Sharif as its capital, he added

willing to discuss the matter with Chinese leadership if Turkiye moved ahead with the idea of joining the flagship project

I n h i s c o m m e n t s , Z h a o L i j i a n t e r m e d the CPeC flagship project as an open and i n c l u s i v e p l a t f o r m a n d a f l a g s h i p p r o j e c t u n d e r t h e B e l t a n d R o a d I n i t i a t i v e a n d b o t h t h e C h i n e s e a n d P a k i s t a n i s i d e s w o u l d w e l c o m e c o u n t r i e s a n d i n t e r n a t i o n a l o rg a n i z a t i o n w h i c h w e r e ready to join it

“ We h o p e c o u n t r i e s a n d i n t e r n a t i o n a l o rg a n i z a t i o n s t h a t a r e r e a d y t o c o n d u c t m u t u a l l y b e n e f i c i a l c o o p e r a t i o n a n d

achieve common development,” he added h e r e m a r k e d t h a t t h a t s u c h c o u n t r i e s a n d o rg a n i z a t i o n s c o u l d j o i n C P e C i n appropriate ways to share the dividends of Belt and Road cooperation

It is worth mentioning that the CPeC a pilot project of the BRI was launched in 2 0 1 3 f o c u s i n g o n c o o p e r a t i o n i n G w a d a r Port energy infrastructure and industries

T h e t w o c o u n t r i e s h a v e r e c e n t l y expanded their cooperation to the fields of s c i e n c e a n d t e c h n o l o g y a g r i c u l t u r e p e o p l e ’s l i v e l i h o o d , i n f o r m a t i o n technology industries

Fearing custodial death, Swati asks IHC to ensure his rights are upheld

ISLAMABAD S ta f f R e

p o R t

A day after the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) arrested Azam Khan Swati for a second time in less than two months on charges of sending out tweets critical of the outgoing army chief and featuring slurs, the Pakistan Tehreek i Insaf (PTI) senator told the Islamabad high Court (IhC) he feared custodial killing and requested that fundamental rights be ensured in his trial he had been arrested in October as well for using “ o b n o x i o u s a n d i n t i m i d a t i n g ” l a n g u a g e t o c r i t i c i s e Gen Qamer Javed Bajwa, state institutions and other g o v e r n m e n t o ff i c i a l s A t a c o u r t a p p e a r a n c e a t t h e t i m e h e a l l e g e d h e w a s s t r i p p e d a n d t o r t u r e d b y o ff i c i a l s f r o m t h e I n t e r S e r v i c e s I n t e l l i g e n c e ( I S I )

SC delists Imran Khan’s case against NAB amendments

The Supreme Court (SC) of Pakistan on Monday delisted Pakistan Tehreek e Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan’s case against recent amendments to the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) ordinance

According to details the Supreme Court registrar has issued a notification, delisting Imran Khan’s case against recent amendments to the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) ordinance

As per the notification, the former premier ’s case against NAB amendments was scheduled for hearing on November 29 “however the case has now been

delisted due to Reko Diq and other cases,” it added In the last hearing conducted on November 17, Chief Justice Umar Ata Bandial discussing the amendments in the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) law, said that the error was not in the law but in its misuse The Chief Justice told Imran Khan’s lawyer Khawaja haris that he was right that corruption was a disease and accountability of corruption was necessary for constitutional governance adding the economy was also affected due to this problem he said that the question before the court was where to draw the line that fundamental rights had been affected The fault was not in the NAB law but in its misuse, he added

s p y a g e n c y S w a t i w a s c h a rg e d w i t h l i b e l a n d appeared before a judge on Sunday who allowed the agency to interrogate the senator for two days h e w a s b e i n g h e l d a t a f a c i l i t y i n I s l a m a b a d his petition recalled he was subjected to “worst custodial torture last time The senator claimed he had been “informed” that he can be killed in custody “Azam Swati can be subjected to any sort of inhuman treatment,” read the petition Swati shouldn t be transferred to any o t h e r p l a c e o r h a n d e d t o a n y o t h e r a g e n c y s u c h a s t h e m i l i t a r y, r e q u e s t e d h i s c o u n s e l t h r o u g h t h e p e t i t i o n T h e a g e n c y f i l e d a s l e w o f c a s e s a g a i n s t h i m u n d e r t h e d r a c o n i a n P r e v e n t i o n o f e l e c t r o n i c Crimes Act (PeCA), the petition noted with concern, s e e k i n g t h e d e t a i l s o f t h e f i r s t i n f o r m a t i o n r e p o r t s ( F I R s ) r e g i s t e r e d a g a i n s t h i m

over half of Pti mPs don’t want resignations to be accepted: kh asif

ISLAMABAD S ta f f R e p o R t

ISLAMABAD

The Islamabad high Court (IhC) has dismissed 13 cases filed against Pakistan Tehrik e Insaf (PTI) leader Ali Amin Gandapur for violence during the May 25 protest and march against the election Commission of Pakistan’s (eCP) decision to disqualify party chief Imran Khan Justice Tariq Mehmood Jahangiri accepted Gandapur ’s petition for the dismissal of cases against him however, two of the pleas were withdrawn by the PTI leader s lawyer

Station house officers and investigating officers of about 15 police stations in Islamabad appeared in the court who failed to produce any evidence to substantiate their claim

During the hearing Justice Jahangiri issued the order on the PTI leader ’s petitions When the high court serves notice, one should be unable to sleep at night the justice said while taking a jibe at the police

On May 28, the Islamabad Police registered cases against PTI Chairman Imran Khan and other senior leaders including Shah Mahmood Qureshi and Asad Umar following riots in the federal capital during the march

Punjab govt launches web 3.0 por tal

committee

A special web portal was launched here on Monday for registration of Web 3 0 contributors including researchers, scientists and IT industry experts whereas national and international companies working with Web 3 0 technology will also be able to submit their valuable feedback through the portal

T h e p o r t a l ( w e b 3 p u n j a b g o v p k / ) was launched during the first meeting o f t h e h i g h p o w e r e d c o m m i t t e e c o n s t i t u t e d b y P u n j a b C h i e f M i n i s t e r ( C M ) C h a u d h r y P a r v e z e l a h i o n Adoption of Web 3 0 in the province

The meeting held at Arfa Software Te c h n o l o g y P a r k ( A S T P ) , w a s p r e s i d e d b y P u n j a b F i n a n c e M i n i s t e r M o h s i n L e g h a r i a n d P u n j a b Information Technology (IT) Minister Dr Arslan Khalid

The distinguished members of the

I n f o r m a t i o n a n d Te c h n o l o g y B o a r d (PITB) Syed Bilal haider, Policy and D o m a i n e x p e r t D r h u s s a i n N a d i m , I C T I n d u s t r y e x p e r t s i n c l u d i n g A n o o s h a y S h a i g a n , S a b i n a Z a f a r, B a d a r K h u s h n o o d a n d F a i s a l Chaudhry were present in the meeting O t h e r s i n c l u d e d N e t S o l C e O S a l i m G h a u r i S y s t e m s C e O A s i f P i r Te c h l o g i x C e O S a l m a n A k h t a r, S T e P S C e O U m a r F a r o o q , P @ S h A C h a i r m a n Z o h a i b K h a n I T U V C D r Sarfraz Khurshid, representatives from SBP, NBP, BOP, FBR, SeCP and PITB DG e Governance Sajid Latif e x p r e s s i n g h i s v i e w s o n t h e o c c a s i o n , P u n j a b F i n a n c e M i n i s t e r Mohsin Leghari said that the complete a d o p t i o n o f We b 3 0 w i l l c r e a t e j o b o p p o r t u n i t i e s l e a d i n g t o e c o n o m i c growth and rise in GDP

“Tourism, education, Government services, Retail and Real estate will be

t h e m a i n b e n e f i c i a r i e s o f t h e n e w technology,” Leghari added

P u n j a b I T M i n i s t e r D r A r s l a n Khalid remarked that the technologies l i k e B l o c k c h a i n , A r t i f i c i a l Intelligence, Machine learning etc are t h e b a c k b o n e o f We b 3 0 a n d a ff o r d m o r e p e r s o n a l i z a t i o n a n d s e c u r i t y t o internet users around the globe

“ A d o p t i o n o f We b 3 0 i n t h e p r o v i n c e w i l l f a c i l i t a t e m o r e i n t e r a c t i v i t y b e t w e e n d i ff e r e n t u s e r s and websites enabling them to access c o n t e n t f r o m m u l t i p l e s o u r c e s a t t h e same time, without having to leave the website they are surfing at any point in time,” Khalid said

PITB Chairman Syed Bilal haider was very optimistic about the development and stated, “Web 3 0 will enable PITB to buy lounges in Metaverse to hold meetings/sign agreements Citizens would be able to use Metaverse to interact with the

government ” C h a i r m a n P B I T f u r t h e r s a i d t h a t with the support of SBP in adopting the We b 3 0 e c o s y s t e m , p a y m e n t s c o u l d also be made in the form of NFTs

PITB DG e Governance Sajid Latif gave a comprehensive presentation on TORs, constitution of sub committees, p r o p o s a l f o r a d d i t i o n o f c o o p t e d m e m b e r s t e n t a t i v e r o a d m a p a n d a brief introduction of Web 3 0 portal Under Web 3 0, avenues in new economy’ ‘tech R&D’ will be explored and a pool of new talent will be created that can be part of the Web 3 0 ecosystem Web 3 0 is the third iteration of the i n t e r n e t t h a t c o m b i n e s t e c h n o l o g i e s l i k e B l o c k c h a i n , A u g m e n t e d R e a l i t y ( A R ) Vi r t u a l R e a l i t y ( V R ) C l o u d e d g e , I n t e r n e t o f T h i n g s ( I o T ) , G e o l o c a t i o n t e c h & 5 G e t c T h e u n d e r l y i n g B l o c k c h a i n t e c h n o l o g y p r o v i d e s v i r t u a l l y f o o l p r o o f d a t a security

Defence Minister Khawaja Asif has said that over half of Pakistan Tehreek e Insaf (PTI) lawmakers are in contact with the ruling coalition and they don t want their resignations to be accepted Per details, the Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz (PML N) leader alleged that PTI Chairman Imran Khan is using constitution for his personal gains “he has revealed his last card and his all steps have failed miserably They [PTI] should first get accepted their resignations from the National Assembly,” he maintained The minister said it was yet to be seen that how many PTI lawmakers will resign More than half of PTI lawmakers don’t want their resignations to be accepted,” he insisted The PML N stalwart added that new elections will he held if provincial assemblies of Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) are dissolved Referring to the statement of Punjab Chief Minister Chaudhry Pervaiz elahi wherein he said that the provincial assembly will be dissolved on Imran’s orders in no time, the minister said elahi had not taken any big risk in his political career he always supports the winning side The minister went on to say that the government would try to provide relief to the common man by reducing inflation in the coming days We will try to breathe new life into economy ”

Zardari, maqbool discuss lG polls, senate elections

ISLAMABAD

Sadiq Iftikhar, Dr Asim and Senator Saleem Mandiwala were also present at the meeting Speaking on this occasion, Zardari said they (the coalition PDM government) were taking everyone on onboard in the national government, which he termed as their success MQM Pakistan’s Siddiqui said his party would continue to play its positive role in the government

LAHORE S h a h a b o m e R

included Chairman Punjab

ISLAMABAD S ta f f R e p o R t

ISLAMABAD S ta f f R e p o R t

Former president Asif Ali Zardari and MQM Pakistan Monday deliberated on a possible no confidence motion in the Senate besides holding LG elections in Karachi and hyderabad, sources said Sources, privy to the inside details of an otherwise regular political meeting, said the MQM Pakistan had assured Asif Zardari of all possible cooperation in this regard MQM Pakistan delegation led by convener Khalid Maqbool Siddiqui discussed the political situation in Karachi and the upcoming local elections with the PPP supremo Federal IT Minister Aminul haq,

IHC dismisses 13 cases filed against PTI leader Ali Amin Gandapur

P i a G r a n t e d a P P r o v a l t o o P e r at e i s l a m a B a d - X i a n - i s l a m a B a d d i r e C t F l i G h t s

PA K I S TA N International Airlines

(PIA) has been granted approval by the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) to operate direct weekly passenger flights on the Islamabad Xian Islamabad route from next

month PK 856 will depart from Islamabad International Airport every Tuesday for Xian and PK 857 will return to Islamabad on the same day official sources told APP here

The Islamabad Xian Islamabad will be the third direct flight of the national flag carrier between Pakistan and China PIA was already operating weekly

hina khar to lead delegation for political dialogue with afghan interim gov t

ISLAMABAD

Minister of State for Foreign Affair hina Rabbani Khar will lead a delegation to Kabul for a one day visit on November 29 In Kabul the minister of state will hold political dialogue with Afghan interim government Bilateral relations, including cooperation in the areas of education trade and investment, regional connectivity, people to people contacts and matters related to regional security will be discussed ” the Foreign Office spokesperson said in a press release on Monday hina Rabbani Khar will also reaffirm Pakistan’s continued commitment and support for all efforts aimed at strengthening peace and enhancing prosperity in Afghanistan As a friend and neighbour of Afghanistan Pakistan will reaffirm its abiding solidarity with the people of Afghanistan, in particular through its efforts to ease the humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan and to create real opportunities for economic prosperity of Afghan men, women and children, it was further added

mna mohsin dawar ‘barred’ from travelling to tajikistan for securit y dialogue

ISLAMABAD ag e n c e S

Member of National Assembly (MNA) Mohsin Dawar has said he was stopped by the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) at Islamabad International Airport on Sunday before his departure to Tajikistan for the herat Security Dialogue In a series of tweets, Dawar condemned the outrageous incident he emphasised that his name had been removed from the exit Control List (eCL) and attached a memorandum from the ministry of Interior which had granted him permission to travel abroad multiple times “Once again Neutral havaldar demonstrates that he has more authority than the federal government,” claimed the lawmaker he furthered that civil society had recently celebrated Chief of Army Staff Gen Qamar Bajwa’s speech wherein he accepted the military s interference in politics and announced a non interference policy in this politics” “Is this “neutrality” and “non interference” a privilege limited to Punjab only?” he Dawar Dawar maintained that barring an elected representative of thousands of Pashtuns from travelling to a regional dialogue was “testimony to the fact that in the coming years Pashtuns will continue to become victims of military establishment policies protecting their corporate interests

passenger flights on Islamabad Beijing Islamabad and Islamabad Chengdu Islamabad routes on Sunday and Wednesday respectively

The local office of the airline has informed the head office about the approval and is making all necessary arrangements for the start of the smooth flight operation

It is worth mentioning that the CAAC

accorded approval to PIA to restart its direct flight operation between Islamabad and Beijing from October 30, considering Pakistan as its all weather strategic cooperative partner of China PIA is among the few international airlines allowed to operate three direct flights a week Pakistani officials, traders and students

have warmly welcomed the launch of PIA’s direct passenger flight between the two countries They said the direct flights of national flag carriers between various Pakistani and Chinese cities would also facilitate Chinese personnel working on different projects being completed under China Pakistan economic Corridor (CPeC) in Pakistan

ECP spokesman’s by elec tion remarks repor ted ‘out of context ’

The election Commission of Pakistan (eCP) on Monday roundly denied issuing any official statement concerning the by elections of national and provincial assemblies in case of the resignations of Pakistan Tehreek e Insaf (PTI) legislators

A journalist asked questions about the law, rules and expenditures to be incurred on holding the by elections of national and provincial assemblies, in case PTI quit assemblies

The election Commission of Pakistan (eCP) spokesman in a statement lamented that his answers to the queries were reported out of context

I t m e r i t s m e n t i o n i n g h e r e t h a t P T I Chairman Imran Khan, while addressing a h u g e g a t h e r i n g o n S a t u r d a y l a s t announced quitting the assemblies T h e P T I i s , c u r r e n t l y, i n p o w e r i n t w o p r o v i n c e s P u n j a b a n d K h y b e r Pakhtunkhwa and it also has presence in Balochistan and Sindh assemblies We w i l l h o l d b y e l e c t i o n s o n t h e

Exhibition of ar tisans-at-work major attrac tion for visitors at Lok Mela

Besides several other features for families and children at the on going Lok Mela organized by Lok Virsa exhibition of artisans at work is a major attraction for the visitors Over five hundred craftspeople are seen actively demonstrating their works in artistically designed cultural pavilions putting their creativity in arts, crafts and innovation They are mesmerizing the visitors with their unique artisanship

The crafts on display are embroidery including Multani, Bahawalpuri hazara Swati Balochi and Sindhi embroidery) block printing, lacquer work, Khussa making, pottery, tie and dye doll making khaddar weaving, truck art, wood carving, wood work, papier mache, namda and gabba, metal work shawl weaving zari work motikari, traditional carpets, blue pottery, Ajrak, wax printing, stone work, wooden spoon making, pattu weaving and many others

Being a prime institution dealing with Pakistani folk culture, Lok Virsa is cognizant of the need for gender equality which is seen in each event that it holds from time to time, because in this way both male and female practitioners afford equal opportunity of showcasing their talent and getting due recognition thereof

In the present event too, one can see a number of female artisans demonstrating their skills The most prominent among them is Kaneez Fatima and Shakar Bibi from Balochistan They practice Balochi embroidery and have carried on this centuries old tradition from their

mothers and devoted 30 to 35 years of their life to this profession They stand out not only for their excellence but also in their tireless propagation of this art by imparting it to the future generations

Another craftswoman Pari Bibi hailing from Badin Sindh weaves “Farasi” (traditional rug) She is a 70 years old artisan having expertise in the art of weaving since her childhood

Male artisans are also equally good in showing their artwork Muhammad Waseem, lacquer work from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa is showcasing excellent display his father was also an accomplished master craftsman of lacquer art who received pride of performance award in recognition of his talent

Ameer Bukhsh is an expert in natural dyes from Kahror Pucca The ancient art of wooden block making has its centres in the lower Indus valley encompassing southern Punjab and all of Sindh he has not only trained his family members but also imparted training to many artisans in other crafts of textile

hajira Bibi from Bahawalpur is an

accomplished artisan in basketry She makes colourful baskets Changair decorate items from fibroins plant Pakistan with its rich and varied heritage has a craft tradition of more than 9,000 years dating back to the Mehergarh civilization in Balochistan, when reveals the earliest evidence for pottery production

The Indus Valley civilization of Mohenjo Daro in Sindh and harappa civilization in Punjab (5,000 B C) indicates impressions of woven cloth production from cotton and wool The dominant historical influence still to be seen in the form, design and colour of Pakistani handicrafts is essentially Islamic, a fusion of Turkish, Arab, Persian and the indigenous Mughal traditions

The crafts represent a valuable material heritage, which forms a tangible part of our historical and contemporary culture Unlike the west, most traditional crafts in Pakistan is neither a profession nor a hobby but an essential component of the diverse cultural patterns a product of the ethnic and communal attitudes and practices

vacant seats, if PTI members resign from the assemblies holding by election in an provincial constituency cost between Rs 50 million to Rs 70 million By elections in Punjab a n d K h y b e r P a k h t u n k h w a a s s e m b l i e s will cost nearly Rs 22 billion, ” a section o f m e d i a q u o t e d t h e s p o k e s m a n a s saying

ihC seeks police repor t on Bradford biochemist Farooq murder case

ISLAMABAD

expressing dismay over lackluster performance of the Islamabad Police that failed to submit report in response to a plea seeking trial against perpetrators allegedly involved in assassination of a Bradford biochemist Farooq Ali the Islamabad high Court (IhC) Monday directed police to furnish report in the matter on December 20 Over alleged assassination of Farooq Ali, 44, who found dead in his room at the Ramada by Wyndham Islamabad hotel on March 16 Islamabad, the deceased’s sister Dr Rehiana B Ali has invoked jurisdiction of Session Court Islamabad for registration of First Information Report (FIR) but all in vain as concerned police officials failed to take measures in the matter It is pertinent to mention that Station house Officer (ShO) Secretariat police station Qurban Ali Anwar failed to register FIR of this congnizable offence to which Dr Rhiana invoked the jurisdiction of trial court under Section 22 A of the Criminal Procedure Code and sought direction for registration of FIR Despite registration of the FIR No 204 in April 11 this year under Sections 302/34 of the Pakistan Penal Code in response to the trial court directions, the police failed to conduct the investigation properly as it didn t apprehend and investigate the nominated accused persons so far Upon failure of the police in the matter, again the petitioner filed a complaint under Section 200 of the Criminal Procedure Code before trial court to adjudicate the case but the Additional District & Session Judge dismissed the complaint in October 22 Filing criminal revision petition before the IhC against impugned order of Additional District & Session Judge, Advocate Sharafat A Chaudhry urged the high court to set aside the session judge dismissal and issue directives to adjudicate the case on merit in the large interest of justice Challenging the Additional District & Session Judge decision before the IhC in the matter the petitioner’s counsel Advocate Sharafat Ali Chaudhry filed a criminal revision and urged the single member bench comprising Justice Arbab Muhammad Tahir to pass an order for resumption of the complaint against preparators while turning down the decision of the Session Judge

Indonesian envoy urges enhanced OIC cooperation for developing Traditional Herbal Medicines

Ambassador of Indonesia Mr Adam M Tugio Monday emphasized the need to accelerate collaborative efforts among the OIC countries for the development of Traditional herbal Medicine (ThM) in the wake of growing popularity of natural remedy methods and global awareness to protect environment for ensuring Greener Future

Addressing the participants of International Seminar on herbal and Traditional Medicine organized by the embassy of Indonesia Islamabad and COMSTeCh Islamabad, the Ambassador said that ThM offer tremendous economic opportunities and innovation for the OIC countries since more than 80% people in developing countries and around 10 to 50% people living in the developed countries have trust in the effectiveness of traditional herbal medicines highlighting the economic prospects of

trending global ThM market, the Indonesian envoy apprised the audience that the herbal medicinal products market revenue reached US$ 171 62 bn in 2021 and estimated to be worth $190 4 Billion by 2027 while the east Asia market alone is set to grow at 9 5% owing to high herbal yield he said that in OIC geography, the rising popularity of ThM is in tandem with growth of halal products market and its estimated market size was measured at USD 3 7 trillion in 2020 and projected to reach USD 4 7 trillion in 2024

In view of the high herbal products demand, the leading pharmaceutical companies are also investing in this sector as one out of four prescriptions in the US contained at least one

active ingredient derived from plants, the envoy said

Referring to the old Islamic history, Ambassador Adam said the practice of using traditional Greco Arab and Islamic medicine was quiet common among the Muslim countries during the Golden Age of Arab Islamic civilization from the seventh to fifteenth century he said that Indonesian traditional herbal medicine known as Jamu and Pakistani Unani traditional medicines are considered reliable source of healing on both sides Presently, we all are witnessing changing lifestyle patterns globally and a significant shift among the consumer behaviors of millenials with the trending popular concepts of Back to

Nature’, ‘Go Organic’, and ‘Go Green‘, Grow your own”, he remarked Pointing out the challenges for the protection of herbal medicines in the context of Intellectual Property Rights (IPR), Ambassador Adam urged to adopt a forward looking approach by the OIC countries for the protection of this ancient knowledge with improved quality standards he also proposed to establish national database of traditional knowledge and folklore and to include the living tradition of ThM into school curriculum in the wake of prevailing challenges earlier, the Coordinator General COMSTeCh Prof Dr M Iqbal Chaudhry in his welcoming remarks said that Pakistan and Indonesia are rich sources of herbal medicines and has potential to meet the global demand Considering the increasing Interest in herbal medicine and traditional knowledge he said that there is urgent need for research based scientific development, and standards based quality control of herbal

drugs as well as relevant regulatory enforcement

he also appreciated and welcomed the participation of 12 member delegation from University of Sumatra (USU) Indonesia In the Conference and hoped that such bilateral activities would continue to flourish further

The Technical Session of the Conference was joined online by eight speakers from different countries including Prof Dr Muhammad Iqbal Choudhry Coordinator General COMSTeCh, Prof Dr Miranda Risang Ayu Palar Prof Dr Nurul Bariza Prof Dr Apt elfahmi from Indonesia, Prof Dr Farzad Kobarfard Shahid from Iran, Prof Dr May Azzawi from Manchester Metropolitan University and Prof Dr Atia tul Wahab and Prof Dr Yan Wang from Pakistan

The seminar was attended by students researchers, and experts from the pharmaceutical industry from Indonesia, Bangladesh Djibouti egypt Azerbaijan Gabon, Sudan, Nigeria, Morocco, Iran, Uganda, Pakistan, and Malaysia who joined online

BEIJING

ISLAMABAD

S ta f f R e p o R t

ISLAMABAD

S ta f f R e p o R t

ISLAMABAD S ta f f R e p o R t

‘ D I f f I C u lt ’ t R A n S I t I o n : f o S S I l f u e l S w I l l

B e h A R D t o q u I t, PA K I S tA n w A R n S

foSSIL fuel producers benefited from sympathetic treatment in Egypt at the CoP27 climate talks, govern ment officials said bringing their in fluence to bear in rushed final negotiations and frustrating those who hoped for a more ambitious outcome officials said the host Egypt, a natural gas exporter and frequent recipient of funds from Gulf oil producers, was partly respon sible, although the war in Ukraine and the subsequent European energy crisis also had an impact Egyptian officials have said their priority was to provide a conducive atmosphere for negotiations and act as a neutral mediator The presidency denied that fossil fuel pro ducers had been given sympathetic treat ment

“The end decision at CoP27 was a com pilation of inputs reached by consensus of all the UNFCCC parties who were all con sulted ” it said in a statement referring to nearly 200 countries taking part in the sum mit under the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change

Demands from environmental groups

and scientists that governments and compa nies should leave oil and gas in the ground have had less traction this year, since Euro pean countries have scrambled to replace Russian gas

The CoP27 meeting yielded mixed re sults, with a hard fought agreement on a fund for countries most harmed by climate change being welcomed by vulnerable na tions, but a cover text that some officials said lacked ambition due to the influence of fossil fuel producers The cover text summarises the key outcomes of the summit

The cover decision and the mitigation work program does not fully reflect the ur gency of the climate crisis and did indeed cater too much to the more fossil and back wards looking forces ” said Espen Barth Eide, Norway’s minister of climate and en vironment

Some of the countries that had pushed hardest for the new fund for loss and damage simultaneously tried to weaken language around phasing down fossil fuels he added LOW EMISSION ENERGY: The CoP27 agreements are in line with what came out of the Glasgow meeting last year to accelerate “efforts towards the phasedown of unabated coal power and phase out of inefficient fossil fuel subsidies” rather than being strength

ened to phasing down fossil fuels as some countries had pushed for

It also included a new reference to “low emission and renewable energy” The Egypt ian presidency said the language reflected part of the “just transition” adopted by all parties, which includes the use of hydrogen and nuclear energy to reduce emissions

Egypt’s CoP27 President Sameh Shoukry acknowledged there had been “dis appointment in certain quarters but told re porters after the deal that “a single party cannot achieve all their ambition, and this does not take away from the value of what was reached”

For some, the Egyptian presidency had delivered a satisfactory deal by forging the agreement to set up a loss and damage fund The idea had been resisted for years by some of the largest emitters, such as the United States and Europe who were worried about the extent of liabilities

Loss and damage was the one thing we wanted a lot for ages and that being solved at a CoP being hosted by a developing coun try, that in itself is a great win because it shows their diplomatic strength ” said Sela mawit Wubet, an adviser to a group of coun tries highly vulnerable to climate change But climate activists and some delegates

said little progress had been made on most other issues contending that the tone had been set by fossil fuel producers who played a more public and prominent role in Sharm el Sheikh than at previous summits

‘DIFFICULT TRANSITION’ “It has now become quite clear that the transition away from fossil fuels is going to be a difficult one,” said Pakistan’s UN Ambassador Munir Akram, citing the impact of the war in Ukraine

In the final 24 hours, the CoP presi dency held a meeting where calls from ne gotiators from countries and groups including Switzerland, the United States, Latin America and small island states, for Egypt to include language initially proposed by India to phase down all fossil fuels were unheeded, officials said

AT LEAST 80 COUNTRIES SUppORTED SUCh LANGUAGE, ThEY SAID

Some negotiators expressed concern that Egypt had advanced its proposal without thorough consultation as major emitters and producers took a stand against more ambi tious goals on limiting fossil fuel use

The Egyptian presidency told Reuters the process was “praised by all parties for being focused and streamlined

“The issue of phasing down all fossil

New anti-polio drive launched amid spike in c ases

c a s e s a n d t h e o u t b r e a k h a s b e e n s e e n a s a b l o w t o t h e efforts to eradicate the disease, which can cause severe paralysis in children

The authorities launched a new nationwide anti polio drive on Monday amid a spike in new cases among children health officials said It is the sixth such campaign this year and will last for five days aiming to inoculate children under the age of 5 in high risk areas

The newest drive was aimed at Islamabad and in the high risk districts in Punjab and Balochistan A similar campaign will be launched in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa in the first week of December

Pakistan regularly launches polio campaigns despite attacks on workers and police assigned to inoculation drives Far right groups falsely claim that vaccination cam paigns are a conspiracy to sterilise children S i n c e A p r i l , P a k i s t a n h a s r e g i s t e r e d 2 0 n e w p o l i o

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

2 billion to the effort to end polio worldwide The money will be used for the Global Polio

ISLAMABAD

M o n to R n g R e p o R t M i n i s t e r f o r P l a n n i n g a n d D e v e l o p m e n t A h s a n I q b a l h a s r e i t e r a t e d t h e g o v e r n m e n t s c o m m i t m e n t t o u p l i f t B a l o c h i s t a n a rg u a b l y o n e o f t h e m o s t u n d e r d e v e l o p e d p a r t s o f t h e c o u n t r y

Addressing a conference organ ised by the Pakistan Institute of De velopment Economics (PIDE) in Quetta the minister stressed the need for investing in the higher education

sector of the province to create up ward social mobility in it

Emphasising the importance of in clusive development in the country, he said the government had started a spe cial project to uplift 20 poorest dis tricts of Pakistan, out of which 11 are from Balochistan

The project is the first of its kind in the economic history of Pakistan where the federal government is un dertaking a national intervention to uplift the poorest districts and address the disparity in economic develop

ment, Iqbal added

He also highlighted a short term economic agenda of the government with a specific focus on enhancing the prospects of enterprise exports and equity in society through the strengthening of the health and edu cation sectors

The identification of the 20 poor est districts for accelerated growth program empowerment of youth en ergy efficiency and conservation, the environment, and food security are part of it the minister said

11 killed, several hurt in road accidents

fuels was not agreed upon by many coun tries it said

ALL NIGhT TALKS: Ahead of the final plenary meeting where a deal was struck just after 5:30 am local time, a Reuters reporter saw some delegates caught off guard by the presidency’s last minute announcement of the session Guards had to wake up some delegates sleeping on couches and chairs outside the plenary hall after 3:00 am, in structing them to go inside

“It was very rushed towards the end,” said Shauna Aminath, Maldives environment minister The normal procedure is that there would be more consultation and open dia logue on these things,” she said

The European Union, which had threat ened to walk out fell reluctantly in line to preserve the deal on loss and damage

Egypt will hold the CoP presidency until it hands over to the United Arab Emi rates (UAE), an ally and a major hydrocar bon producer, in just under a year

“Holding CoPs in petro states may seem counterproductive but actually we can t ignore these countries They need to be engaged in the process and putting pressure on them as a CoP host may provide bigger gains, said Mohamed Adow, founder of think tank Power Shift Africa

KS-Relief Center star ts distribution of winter relief project in Pakistan

ISLAMABAD

King Salman Humanitarian Aid and Relief Center (KSRelief) has started a project to distribute 25,000 winter kits among recent flood affected and deserving people living in Pakistan in collaboration with NDMA This year, life threatening floods caused by unusual heavy monsoon rains have affected 33 million people The King Salman Hu manitarian Aid and Relief Center is engaged in providing emergency aid to the flood af fected areas of Pakistan to help people to cope with the disaster, said a press release issued by the Embassy of the Saudi Arabia The winter relief package will be distributed in 14 districts of Pakistan (Ganache, Skardu, Nagar, Astor, Ghazar, Chitral, Swat, Upper Dir Mansehra Dera Ismail Khan Dadu Jamshoro & Qamber Shahdakot) The pack age includes 50,000 Polyester Quilts and 25,000 winter kits, including warm shawls for men and women and warm clothes for children and adults King Salman’s relief package will be distributed transparently with the help of NDMA and provincial gov ernment, which will benefit more than 175,000 people in these districts

Imran secures bail extension over violation of administrative authorit y

An

court in Islamabad ex

until December 9 the interim bail of

prime minister

Khan in a case pertaining to violation of Section 144 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC)

law empowers district administration to issue orders in the public interest that may place a ban on an activity for a spe cific period of time Such a ban is enforced by the police who register cases under sec tion 188 of the Pakistan Penal Code (PPC) for violations of the ban Section 188 car ries a maximum penalty of six months in prison or a fine, or both In August, a first information r e p o r t ( F I R ) w a s r e g i s t e r e d a g a i n s t K h a n o n c h a rg e s o f f l o u t i n g a b a n o n p u b l i c g a t h e r i n g s e x c e e d i n g f o u r p e r s o n s i m p o s e d u n d e r S e c t i o n 1 4 4 b y h o l d i n g a r a l l y t o p r o t e s t a g a i n s t t h e a r r e s t a n d p u r p o r t e d t o r t u r e o f S h e h b a z G i l l , h i s c h i e f o f s t a ff , i n I s l a m a b a d o n t h e 2 0 t h B a b a r Aw a n c o u n s e l f o r K h a n s u b m i t t e d t h e m e d i c a l r e p o r t o f t h e f o r m e r p r i m e m i n i s t e r t o j u d g e R a j a J a w a d A b b a s H a s s a n o n M o n d a y H e a l s o r e q u e s t e d t h e c o u r t t o e x e m p t K h a n , w h o i s c u r r e n t l y i n L a h o r e r e c o v e r i n g f r o m g u n s h o t w o u n d s , f r o m p e r s o n a l a p p e a r a n c e

Pakistan’s anti polio campaigns are also supported by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation which last month pledged $1

Eradication Initiative s strategy through 2026

The initiative is aimed at ending the polio virus in Pak istan and Afghanistan, the last two endemic countries, the foundation said last month

ISLAMABAD S ta f f R e p o R t

anti terrorism

Imran

All SeT AS Gen ASIm munIr TAKeS over Army’S CommAnd TodAy

country has reportedly seen about 30 prime ministers during the same period The newly appointed military chief has a distinction as he served at the country s two most influen tial intelligence agencies, the Inter Services Intelligence (ISI) and the Military Intelli gence (MI)

Meanwhile, Gen Qamar held separate farewell meetings with President Alvi and PM Shehbaz who expressed their good wishes to him during their meetings Later, PM Shehbaz held a luncheon in honour of Gen Qamar at the Prime Minister House

services of Gen Qamar for Pakistan Army national defence and national interests

Gen

The prime minister also appreciated the

While bidding farewell, PM Shehbaz noted that the army under the leadership of Gen Qamar, rendered exemplary services in various crises, including the removal of Pak istan s name from the Financial Action Task Force’s (FATF) grey list, the outbreak of Covid 19 pandemic and the climate induced floods that inundated almost half of the country He said that the armed forces crushed the menace of terrorism with valour and bravery under Gen Qamar s leadership He added that Gen Qamar took charge as the

IHC seeks police repor t on Bradford biochemist Farooq murder case

ISLAMABAD S ta f f R e p o R t

Expressing dismay over lackluster per formance of the Islamabad Police that failed to submit report in response to a plea seeking trial against perpetrators allegedly involved in assassination of a Bradford biochemist, Farooq Ali, the Islamabad High Court (IHC) Monday directed police to furnish report in the matter on December 20

Over alleged assassination of Fa rooq Ali 44 who found dead in his room at the Ramada by Wyndham Is lamabad hotel on March 16, Islam abad the deceased s sister Dr Rehiana B Ali has invoked jurisdiction of Ses sion Court Islamabad for registration of First Information Report (FIR) but

all in vain as concerned police officials failed to take measures in the matter

It is pertinent to mention that Sta tion House Officer (SHO) Secretariat police station Qurban Ali Anwar failed to register FIR of this congniz able offence to which Dr Rhiana in voked the jurisdiction of trial court under Section 22 A of the Criminal Procedure Code and sought direction for registration of FIR

Despite registration of the FIR No 204 in April 11 this year under Sections 302/34 of the Pakistan Penal Code in re sponse to the trial court directions the police failed to conduct the investigation properly as it didn’t apprehend and in vestigate the nominated accused persons so far Upon failure of the police in the matter, again the petitioner filed a com

plaint under Section 200 of the Criminal Procedure Code before trial court to ad judicate the case but the Additional Dis trict & Session Judge dismissed the complaint in October 22

Filing criminal revision petition be fore the IHC against impugned order of Additional District & Session Judge, Advocate Sharafat A Chaudhry urged the high court to set aside the session judge dismissal and issue directives to adjudicate the case on merit in the large interest of justice Challenging the Addi tional District & Session Judge decision before the IHC in the matter the peti tioner’s counsel Advocate Sharafat Ali Chaudhry filed a criminal revision and urged the single member bench compris ing Justice Arbab Muhammad Tahir to pass an order for resumption of the com

army chief during one of history’s toughest moments

Gen Qamar also played a key role in making Pakistan’s defence impregnable ” PM Shehbaz said, adding that Qamar ’s leadership role set the direction for dealing with security challenges in a complex regional situation

He also lauded the army chief ’s services in terms of the role he played in line with the “geo economics”

In the meeting with the army chief PM Shehbaz noted: “All political forces must show collective wisdom and sign a charter of economy to make Pakistan an economic power ”

As PM said to Gen Qamar that he had the honour of leading the world s best army the outgoing COAS thanked the PM in re sponse for extending full cooperation in the execution of national affairs

SC orders audit of Gun & Countr y Club

ISLAMABAD

Imran Khan seeks justice for Swati

Insaf (PTI)

about where

was

the

in

case of

the PTI chief posted a series of tweets, saying “Senator Swati was stripped naked, tortured, humiliated through an illegal video sent to his wife For weeks he has sought justice from SC to no avail So when he re acts in justifiable anger & frustration, he is put in jail & at last count 15 FIRs registered against him across Pak istan ” “Again, I ask our Honorable judges where is the justice in all this? Is the Article 14 Constitutional provi sion only to be applied selectively for the high & mighty State functionaries?”, added Imran The PTI chief stated,“Article 14 of our Constitution refers to ‘Inviola bility of dignity of man ; so my question to our Hon ourable SC Judges is whether this provision is only applicable to the powerful of the State & for everyone else there is no protection of their basic human dignity?

plaint against preparators while turning down the decision of the Session Judge Among others the petitioner made three police officials as accused persons in the complaint namely, Tariq Mehmood, Sub Inspector/I O P S Secretariat Islam abad Police, Qurban Ali Anwar, S H O, Secretariat Police Station, Islamabad Po lice and Akram Nagra Inspector Islam abad Police in the matter

In November 11, Justice Arbab Muhammad Tahir of the IHC issued no tices for November 28, 2022 in the mat ter after hearing arguments of Advocate Sharafat Ali Chaudhry who appeared before the court on behalf of a UK AJK national Dr Rehiana B Ali and her septuagenarian parents who are running from pillar to post for justice over death of their son

C ampaign against gender-based violence launched

ISLAMABAD

S ta f f R e p o R t

Minister for Planning and De velopment Ahsan Iqbal launched a 16 day campaign against gender based violence in marking the International Day for the Elimination of Vio lence against Women

A gender unit has been es tablished in the ministry amid the socio economic empower ment of women, the ministry

said in a statement, adding that it is an annual international cam paign that will run until Human Rights Day on December 10

A d d r e s s i n g t h e l a u n c h c e r e m o n y, I q b a l h i g h l i g h t e d t h e s i g n i f i c a n c e o f w o m e n ’s p a r t i c i p a t i o n i n t h e d e v e l o p m e n t o f t h e c o u n t r y, s a y i n g that “the development process of any country remains slow if the women are not given equal opportunities ”

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

w o m e n ’s p a r t i c i p a t i o n i n t h e development process, unfortu n a t e l y, i s w e a k i n P a k i s t a n w h i l e t h i s c a m p a i g n a n d t h e g e n d e r u n i t w o u l d h e l p t h e country in getting the desired results in this regard

T h e c a m p a i g n w o u l d b e run in educational institutes of R a w a l p i n d i a n d I s l a m a b a d , during the 16 days in collabo ration with the Federal Inves t i g a t i o n A g e n c y ( F I A ) , t h e statement said

The Supreme Court on Monday ordered an immediate audit of the Gun and Country Club Islamabad A three member SC bench comprising Chief Justice Umar Ata Bandial, Justice Ayesha A Malik and Justice Athar Minallah heard the suo moto notice case regarding allotment of land worth billions by CDA to the Gun and Country Club, Islamabad at throw away price and application regarding extension of time in the matter of club During the course of proceedings, the chief justice while ordering an immediate audit of the Gun and Country Club, said that the Club was a national asset that the court only wanted to protect it He said that the government should complete the legislative process as soon as possible and take over the club s administration

Five abducted colliers return home; one still missing

Unknown gunmen had abducted six colliers from Mach on November 13 and five of them reached their homes safe and sound on Monday after being released by the kidnappers Ac cording to official sources, the victims were working in a coalmine in Mach area of Balon district when some armed men kidnapped them and took them to unknown destination Five colliers were released after 17 days The kidnapped min ers were reported to be resident of Marwar and Mach area of Bolan district One of the abducted labourers is still missing, while the administration is striving to recover him

TTP terminates ceasefire agreement with government

CONTINUED fROM pAGE 01

It had noted that the TTP accuses the Pakistani government of failing to fulfill its main demand the reversal of the merger of former FATA with KP as well as continuing to detain TTP members while a truce was still being negotiated The ministry had also highlighted the risk of TTP sub groups defecting to the militant Islamic State (ISKP) or joining hands with the Hafiz Gul Bahadur group to resume terrorist activities Meanwhile, in a press conference earlier this month, Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari had called for the government to revisit its strategy to deal with the mil itant outfit “It is time to review decisions we took or we were made to take with regards to internal security and ter rorism he had said Bilawal had also maintained that there was nothing wrong in admitting that “we were wrong about a few things and right about some other things and re examine our approach

China-Pakistan Science and Technology cooperation center inaugurated in Beijing

BEIJINGBEIJING

S ta f f R e p o R t C h i n a P a k i s t a n S

Te

o l o g y Cooperation Centre was inaugurated here on Monday to facilitate the Chinese tech n o l o g y c o m p a n i e s t o c o n d u c t b u s i n e s s e s i n P a k i s t a n , s t r e n g t h e n i n g b i l a t e r a l t i e s and acting as a bridge between the youth of two countries

P a k i s t a n A m b a s s a d o r t o C h i n a , M o i n ul Haque and President of Zhongguancun Belt and Road Industrial Promotion Asso ciation (ZBRA), Zhang Xiaodong inaugu rated the center while Special Technology Z o n e s A u t h o r i t y ( S T Z A ) j o i n e d v i r t u a l l y from Pakistan

T h e c e n t e r, a j o i n t p r o j e c t b y Z B R A

a n d S T Z A , w i l l a c t a s a p l a t f o r m b e t w e e n C h i n a a n d P a k i s t a n f o r f a c i l i t a t i n g t h e Chinese technology companies to conduct b u s i n e s s e s i n s p e c i a l t e c h n o l o g y z o n e s ( S T Z s ) i n P a k i s t a n ; s t r e n g t h e n i n g b i l a t e r a l t i e s i n c o o p e r a t i o n i n s c i e n c e a n d t e c h n o l o g y ; a s s i s t i n g C h i n e s e t e c h n o l o g y c o m p a n i e s i n t e r m s o f r e g u l a t o r y l a n d s c a p e o f P a k i s t a n ; a n d a c t i n g a s a b r i d g e b e t w e e n t h e y o u t h o f t h e t w o c o u n t r i e s

A d d r e s s i n g t h e a u d i e n c e , A m b a s s a d o r M o i n u l H a q u e s p o k e a t l e n g t h a b o u t t h e i n c r e a s e d i m p o r t a n c e o f s c i e n c e a n d t e c h n o l o g y c o o p e r a t i o n i n t h e b i l a t e r a l e c o nomic and development agenda, including u n d e r C h i n a P a k i s t a n E c o n o m i c C o r r i d o r ( C P E C )

H e b r i e f e d a b o u t t h e g o v e r n m e n t s v i s i o n t o c r e a t e a d i g i t a l e c o s y s t e m w i t h i n f r a s t r u c t u r e a n d i n s t i t u t i o n a l f r a m e w o r k s b y e n s u r i n g t h e a v a i l a b i l i t y o f a c c e s s i b l e , a ff o r d a b l e , r e l i a b l e a n d h i g h q u a l i t y I C T s e r v i c e s T h e o v e r a r c h i n g o b j e c t i v e r e m a i n s i m p r o v i n g c i t i z e n ’s q u a l i t y o f l i f e a n d t h e i r e c o n o m i c w e l l b e i n g I n t h i s r e g a r d , h e h i g h l i g h t e d t h a t t h e P a k i s t a n i y o u t h , f o r m i n g 6 0 % o f t h e t o t a l p o p u l a t i o n w h o a r e s k i l l e d , c o m p u t e r l i t e r a t e a n d t e c h s a v v y w o u l d p l a y a n i m p o r t a n t r o l e i n s t r e n g t h e n i n g t h e b i l a t e r a l s c i e n c e a n d t e c h n o l o g y c o o p e r a t i o n O t h e r s p e a k e r s i n c l u d e d L i u J i a n x i n g , Director of International Cooperation Na tional Development and Reform Commis

sion

During their remarks, the speakers high lighted various aspects of high quality de velopment cooperation between Pakistan and China and the role of IT, and science and technology in further strengthening this de velopmental agenda

They put forth their suggestions to fur ther enhance the effective working of the newly inaugurated Centre

Among the attendees were representa tives from NDRC the Beijing Municipal Development and Reform Commission, the

ISLAMABAD M i a n a b R a R

TH E outgoing Chief of Army Staff (COAS) General Qamar Javed Bajwa on Monday bid farewell to President Dr Arif Alvi and Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, as the stage is all set for the COAS designate Gen Syed Asim Munir to take charge at a Change of Command ceremony being held today at the GHQ

Asim is Pakistan’s 17th army chief since independence on August 14, 1947 The

LAHORE

S ta f f R e p o R t

Pakistan Tehreek e

Chairman and former prime minister Imran Khan on Monday said that he asks the honorable judges

justice

served

the

Azam Swati To raise

voice for senator Azam,

(NDRC); Zhang Xiaodong, President Z B R A ; H a m z a S a e e d , D i r e c t o r Strategic Planning, STZA; and Yang Dongri, Director of China Center for Information Industry Development Institute, Ministry of Industry and Information Technology

Beijing Investment Promotion Center, the Beijing Municipal Foreign Affairs Office, etc , as well as enterprises and development zones across different provinces of China and Pakistan More than 3,600 people viewed the event through various live streaming platforms

F i n a l l y, a s u m m o n s

The 190 million

pound question

Fi n a L Ly an inquiry into perhaps the biggest case of alleged corruption of the PTi’s stint at the federal government if the figures are taken into account it might well be the biggest case of corruption of any dispensation ever since democracy returned to the country in 2008

it really was a bizarre incident in 2019 the then prime minister ’s accountability czar had tabled a sealed envelope containing a non disclosure agreement in a meeting of the federal cabinet and asked the latter to sign off on it Some befuddled ministers did remark how they were being asked to sign off on something they had absolutely no idea about it had later transpired that the agreement pertained to an asset forfeiture case by the UK’s national Crime agency, who sent the Pakistani government GBP 190 million settlement it had reached with property magnate Malik Riaz, who then tweeted that he used this amount to pay the Supreme Court as per the settlement deal that he had arrived upon with the court over the Bahria Town Karachi case

Why this money was given to him, and not kept by the government, as is the case when the UK’s nCa sends such ill gotten gains to the respective countries that were defrauded, under what arrangement was this money used to settle Mr Riaz’s case with the Supreme Court, and was the money transferred to the Supreme Court s account? We know none of this, because the deal was mired in secrecy, and the PTi’s corruption watchdog, Shehzad akbar, who has since quit the government before the no confidence vote that had led to the government’s fall said that the non disclosure agreement prevents him from giving any details if the sheer amount concerned is staggering, then the double standards of the national corruption watchdog the infamous naB, is even greater The body, which has been known to jail honest civil servants and politicians for, at times not dotting the is and crossing the Ts left this absolutely opaque transfer of a massive amount more or less untouched

This brings into focus the immense power and immunity enjoyed by some sections of the nation’s business elite Politicians, civil servants are fair game and, every now and then even the military is criticised for political expediency if not principle but some of these titans of commerce and industry get away nigh completely unscathed Toshakhana records are being dug up to be used against the previous government, but the relatively lower hanging fruit of this massive multimillion pound, whose potential of being weaponised by the other political parties is much higher, has more or less been untouched This conspicuous silence by the other two major parties is suspicious and points yet again to the nexus between politicians and big business in the country

A little learning

drawback that it places God inside the scheme of things (time and space) Consequently, instead of an swering the question of the existence (cause) of the universe, the ‘explanation’ merely shifts the question one step back For it immediately invites a (quite log ical) question in return namely the ‘existence’ of God or God’s cause Bertrand Russell fondly ac knowledged in his autobiography the debt he owed to John Stuart Mill from whom he had learned to deal with the persistent, irksome question, ‘Who cre ated you? That is, asking in return, Who created God?’ Russell was not averse to having fun at the ex pense of the theists, although he too was far too in telligent to have genuinely believed it to be a valid retort

ists that have read just enough philosophy to have doubts stirred up in their minds but not thoroughly enough to think their thoughts through that feel themselves obliged to choose between burying their heads in the sand or throwing in the towel in response to what feels to them like the overwhelming power of such arguments it is for precisely this reason that alexander Pope, three hundred years ago, warned against a little learning in these immortal words: A little learning is a dangerous thing; Drink deep, or taste not the Pierian spring: There shallow draughts intoxicate the brain And drinking largely sobers us again

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

DaV i d H U M E’S best known contribution to philosophy is his scepticism, which is unique even in the sceptical tradition no doubt possessing first rate intelligence, Hume was probably the first to realize that extending the absence of any correlation between cause and effect (even if he was justified in making the assertion) to enunciate scepticism about God was shoddy thinking at best For surely, he was too intel ligent not to realize that God at any rate the God believed in by sensible souls could hardly be de pendent on the cause effect mechanism in order to create or run the universe The smart money therefore is on Hume being perfectly aware that God could not be ruled out by his rejection of cause and effect, even if the latter is accepted in toto

How sincere Hume was when he made the exten sion is a moot point anyway What is of infinitely more importance is the fact that most atheists con sider the argument to be good enough to have effec tively ended the God debate once for all Mission accomplished! if their discomfiture (bordering on panic) is any indication, many theists also consider it a pretty serious challenge to the continuation of their belief in God if only these atheists and theists had any idea what they were talking about! it is certainly not the first time in history that a bad argument has enjoyed widespread popularity owing to the philo sophical incompetence of the public

The problem with debunking the First Cause argument (as Hume is widely regarded to have done) is that the original argument itself is representative of a group of extremely poor demonstrations for the ‘ex istence of God This was clearly shown to be so at least eight hundred years ago, if not earlier But tired old philosophical ideas have this way of being recy cled every few years with each new generation think ing how fresh and brilliant they are Here, in short, is what is wrong with it: Like other ‘logical’ arguments that propose to demonstrate the existence of God the ‘First Cause’ argument suffers from the fatal

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

Returning to Hume and why his rejection of cause effect is not good enough for his purposes, in no sensible world view is God obliged to operate on the basis of the cause effect correlation or any other mode or mechanism for that matter Considering God s acts to be subject to any such mechanism al ready in place is to regard God as just another entity in space time subject to the laws of the universe; and not as the Creator of those very laws and therefore beyond their jurisdiction any discussion that starts from the point of considering God to be like anything else in the universe is bound to be a non starter if even one of the parties in the exchange is interested in a sensible discourse Francis Bacon had a point when in 1625 he fa mously observed that a little philosophy inclined man’s mind to atheism, but that depth in philosophy brought men s minds back to religion it is neither those unsophisticated theists that have no time or pa tience for fancy philosophising, or those on the op posite extreme of the spectrum that are well versed in philosophy, who feel threatened by the teachings of Hume and others like him instead, it is those the

T h e p ro b l e m w i t h ‘ d e bu n k i n g ’ t h e ‘ F i r s t C a u s e ’ a r g u m e n t ( a s H u m e i s w i d e l y r e g a rd e d t o h a v e d o n e ) i s t h a t t h e o r i g i n a l a r g u m e n t i t s e l f i s r e p r e s e n t a t i v e o f a g ro u p o f e x t r e m e l y p o o r d e m o n s t r a t i o n s fo r t h e ‘ e x i s t e n c e ’ o f G o d .

In d i a n Muslims constitute about 14 2 percent of india s population (Census 2011) But their contribution to the Lok Sabha and economic life is abysmal The share of Muslims in the Lok Sabha india’s 545 seat lower house of parliament, is in decline Muslims have al ways been underrepresented here, but they are currently at a 50 year low in the 1980 election, almost 10% of those elected were Muslim in 2014 and 2018, it was less than four per cent The Muslim candidates could n’t register an impressive run in the india’s parliamentary elections as only 27 of them could make it to the 543 strong parliament (four more than the number of Muslim members, 23, in the last parliament)

A vo i c e l e s s m i n o r i t y: The Bharatiya Janata Party won over 300 seats However none of the six Muslim candidates it fielded could succeed in the polls in 2014 also, no Muslim candidates of BJP could win Several indian commissions of inquiry have tried to ferret out reason for miserable life of the indian Muslims For instance, the 2006 Sachar Committee Report commis sioned by the Congress party led govern ment, identified many inequities for india’s Muslim society The indian government is opposed (november 14, 2022) granting Scheduled caste status to the Muslims to en title them to some privileges They are too weak to be a threat to the

dominant Hindu majority (79 percent) They even join Muslim munch (Muslim wing) of the Hindu extremist Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh to avoid wrath of persecution at the hands of the extremist Hindus BJP ruled in dian government is never short of grounds to persecute them on one ground or another to persecute them (Citizenship amendment act and national Register of citizens, Muslim preachers as carriers of Corona virus say ing azan (prayer call) aloud) to disturb sleep of non Muslims in vicinity, offering prayers in open space or in houses and so on) at Haridwar, a so called Hindu religious assembly exhorted Hindus to buy the latest arms and ammunition to kill Muslims india s Supreme Court, though ostensibly secular pro nounce judgments that are against common be liefs of indian Muslims For instance they declared a mosque inessential to Muslim wor shipping, non necessity of hijab, Muslims of fering prayers in open space at Gurgaon and even those praying in congregation within houses were beaten up a Muslim could be lynched even for wearing a prayer cap Hindus are exhorted not to buy goods from Muslim vendors on the streets

D i s c r i m i n At i o n : in January 2022, Gregory Stanton, the founder of Genocide Watch publically warned that india could very well be sprinting into genocide of Mus lims, comparing the situation to the environ ment in Rwanda in 1994 He drew comparisons to the current situation in india; the time period just prior to the mass vio lence that erupted in Rwanda, resulting in deaths of over half a million Tutsis, or 70%

of the Tutsi population Stanton utilised 10 Stages of Genocide as a rubric to investigate the current state of affairs in india

U n i t e D n At i o n ’ s D Ay A g A i n s t g e n o c i D e: Each year on the ninth day of december, the United nations observes the Un day of Commemoration and dignity of the Victims and Crimes of Genocide as usual, the day comes and goes by quietly with a few perfunctory functions The geno cide underway against indian Muslims in riots, lynching, etc needs to be focused more keenly before the advent of the day

c o D i f i c At i o n A s A “ c r i m e ”

Genocide was first recognised as a crime under international law in 1946 by the United nations General assembly (a/RES/96 i) it was codified as an inde pendent crime in the 1948 Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide (the Genocide Convention) The Convention has been ratified by 149 States (as of January 2018)

The international Court of Justice (iCJ) has repeatedly stated that the Convention embodies principles that are part of general customary international law This means that whether or not States have ratified the Geno cide Convention, they are all bound as a matter of law by the principle that genocide is a crime prohibited under international law The iCJ has also stated that the prohibition of genocide is a peremptory norm of inter national law (or jus cogens) and conse quently, no derogation from it is allowed e l e m e n t s o f “ g e n o c i D e ” in the present Convention, genocide means any of the following acts committed with intent to

destroy, in whole or in part, a national, eth nical, racial or religious group, such as: (a) Killing members of the group; (b) Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group; (c) deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part; (d) imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group; (e) Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group

s tA n to n’s p r e D i c t i o n: according to dr Gregory Stanton, the founder of Geno cide Watch “india has all of the preparatory stages for more genocidal massacres” dr Stanton had predicted a genocide in Rwanda years before it took place in 1994 now he has warned of an impending genocide of Muslims in india, comparing the situation of the country under the narendra Modi gov ernment to events in Myanmar and Rwanda analysts believe that india is becoming a Hindu Rashtra where Muslims will be forced to live as second class citizens and will be persecuted and murdered The WiRE dated May 08 2022 reported that The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MLa Mr Hari Buhushan Thakur Bachaul on Saturday May 7 2022 said that Muslims should be set ablaze just as Hindus burn Ravana effigies during the festival of dussehra” in October this month The Bridge ini tiative under Georgetown University in the US published a report claiming that Mus lims are in the 8th stage of genocide in india Echoing the claims of islamists and left liberals alleging persecution of Muslims in india the report titled I s G en o cid e o f M u s lim s u n d er w a y in I n d ia ? concludes that “the process of genocide of Muslims is

underway in india” islamophobia is central to this process, which is occurring at both a top down and bottom up level, as Hindu nationalists across the country have been emboldened by the right wing BJP led government both share the same goals of remaking india as a homeland exclusively for Hindus,” the report claims

The 40 page report alleges that india has experienced a dangerous rise in islamopho bia over the past decade The rise in this bigotry has largely come into being with the election of Prime Minister narendra Modi and his Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) a right wing Hindu nationalist party,” it says The report says that it has examined the situation in india using Gregory Stanton s 10 stages of genocide, and finds that exam ples of the first 8 stages of genocide are pres ent in india The ten stages of genocide are: classification, symbolization, discrimination, dehumanization, organization, polarization, preparation persecution it claims that the first eight stages are prevalent, and the ninth stage has started to emerge according to Gregory Stanton s 10 stages of genocide, the eighth stage includes expropriation, forced displacement, ghettos, and concentration camps The 9th stage is mass killing, so the report claims india is en tering the stage of mass killing of Muslims c o n c l U D i n g r e m A r k s: india em inently qualifies to be an offender of “geno cide The government abets mass murder of the terrified minorities in riots Occupied Kashmir has been turned into a Guantanamo Bay prison (Mehbooba Mufti)

The writer is a freelance journalist, has served in the Pakistan government for 39 years and holds degrees in economics business administration, and law He can be reached at amjedjaaved@gmail com

AmjED jAAvED

H A S A N A F TA B S A E E D

Hume, cause effec t, atheists and theists

Yousaf Nizami Editor

Dedicated to the legac y of late Hameed Nizami Arif Nizami (Late) Founding Editor

M A Niazi Joint Editor

Umar Aziz Executive Editor Aziz ud Din Ahmad Joint Editor

Righting the wrong

Dr AloN BEN mEir

Brazil

tected the jungle from unauthorized clearing Criminal organizations, aptly called rainforest mafias ” allow cattle ranchers to operate with impunity, and according to the US State depart ment possess the logistical capacity to coordi nate large scale extraction processing and sale of timber, while deploying armed men to protect their interests it is hard to fathom the sheer scale of de struction that was wreaked by Bolsonaro upon the amazon Such rampant deforestation is tragic on many levels it is destroying habitats and countless species being pushed to the brink of extinction when we are already in the midst of a mass extinction of this planet’s animals in sects, and plants it is hastening the onslaught of climate change when we are already facing the dire effects of a warming planet and it is oblit erating the lands of indigenous people who have already suffered and been persecuted and mur dered for decades

pens to be found it is not the exclusive resource of those companies that are able to exploit it, ap propriate its resources and destroy it with im punity The amazon is part of our collective patrimony, a heritage beyond price which we are duty bound to pass on to future generations re gardless of the profits that we may yield from its systematic rape and let us make no mistake, or mince words the amazon is being raped hour by hour, month by month, year by year, and the world is watching in silence as this violation is repeated daily The time is running out for us to act in a meaningful way to stop this mindless decimation of one of the world s greatest natural wonders

With the election of Lula as President of Brazil, we now have a historic opportunity to support and encourage him to immediately start working on a plan to reverse Bolsonaro’s disas trous policies in three main areas: the environ ment, public security, and scientific discoveries

Right to move freely

C L O S i n G roads during demonstrations with the help of containers or using water cannons to stop a demonstration or to disperse a gathering have all become a part of life in Pakistan it does not who matter who is taking out the procession and who is trying to stop it, this is one of those rare things that enjoy absolute consensus among political and religious parties of all shades of opinion Even trade unionists, who claim to be an integral part of the ‘civil’ society, are no different in this regard What all these people end up doing is to deprive the common man of the right to move freely Just note the timing of such demonstrations and processions demonstrators love evening rush hours like toddlers love candy

The funny thing is that while taking out rallies and holding demonstrations are claimed to be part of the democratic rights, blocking roads and shutting down thoroughfares are unlawful acts even if governments present them as legal remedies

The political parties, in order to achieve their objectives and to serve their vested interests, hold demonstrations and long marches, forcing the government to take illegal steps, like blockades This only causes misery to the man on the street who has a constitutional right to move freely around and across the country Whether the government blocks roads, or the political parties do, it is nothing but illegal This is abuse of power, be it street power or state power Blocking roads means misery for the helpless Their rights are violated Patients are deprived of timely treatment academic activities of students are affected Hired workers are unable to deliver services Only the criminals love the traffic logjams because they have a chance to go on a snatching, mugging spree

The only actual remedy is to reserve places for demonstrations, sit ins or protests so that the gatherings may not lead to unnecessary disturbances for the community of commuters at large no law allows disturbing routine life Sensible people are the ones who care about others Else, there is no rule of law and there is nothing but chaos and anarchy

Human dignity and freedom of movement are fundamental rights of every citizen it is everyone s right to reach the intended destination with ease The right to freedom of expression cannot be used by affecting the fundamental rights of the rest of the population Roads cannot be and should not be used for gatherings, especially when one is planning something for an indefinite period Those who obstruct the right of people to use roads deserve to be punished regardless of who they happen to be instead of demonstrations, rallies and long marches, the political parties should adopt some other methods to express their opposition and to show their popularity and, by the way, the government should also reconsider its options in terms of managing the so called ViP movement There can be any number of ways if the intention is there

Human dignity and freedom of movement are part of the basic rights Violation of such rights, whether by the government, the opposition, or any group of people is immoral and illegal Let us agree on at least this much

GHULAMULLAH KIYANI MUZAFFARABAD

Culture of sit-in

a historic

to begin undoing some of the great harm that was inflicted on Brazil’s amazon rainforest over the last four years Since taking office in January 2019 Bol sonaro has ravaged the earth for short sighted gains, turning back environmental regulations that any thinking human being would wish to preserve in the face of such unprecedented global degradation Bolsonaro systematically dismantled environmental protections so that those who could not care less about the environ ment would be free to clear the land and turn it into pastures without any accountability The un folding crisis of the amazon is a catastrophe for climate change, biodiversity, indigenous people of the region and the untold wonders that human science has yet to understand a 2020 study published in the journal Na ture has shown that if the systematic destruction of the Brazilian amazon continues unabated, much of it could become an arid savannah, or even dry scrubland within decades given the rate of deforestation, largely due to deliberate and illegal fires that are meant to permanently convert forest into pastureland With the devas tation of the rainforests has also come the dev astation of those indigenous people whose homelands and livelihood are being destroyed by deforestation

Just imagine, between august 2020 and July 2021 over 5,000 square miles of rainforest were lost in the Brazilian amazon that is an area larger than the land area of Connecticut in fact, under Bolsonaro the rate of destruction reached a ten year high, as his administration turned a blind eye to illegal logging, the defor estation of indigenous land, and, as amnesty in ternational notes, the “violence against those living on and seeking to defend their territories ”

Under Bolsonaro s reckless and corrupt rule his government deliberately “weakened environmental law enforcement agencies, un dermining their ability to effectively sanction environmental crime or detect exports of illegal timber,” as Human Rights Watch describes Fines for illegal logging in the Brazilian ama zon were suspended by presidential decree at the beginning of October 2019 illegal seizures of land on Reserves and indigenous territories in Brazil’s amazon became routine as Bol sonaro slashed the budget of agencies that pro

To be sure, the ex tent of devastation of the rainforest under Bolsonaro was so enormous that we can barely begin to com prehend the loss to humanity, to science, and to our knowledge of undiscovered plants and animals that hold the answers to questions of which we have not even dreamt This is a shameful loss to the entire world and to generations hence

The Bolsonaro government failed miserably to act as a responsible custodian of the amazon and Pantanal (the world s largest tropical wetland lo cated mostly within Brazil, which along with the amazon has some of the world’s most biologi cally diverse ecosystems) instead it helped in every way it can to hasten this unimaginable dev astation dr Michelle Kalamandeen, a tropical ecologist on the amazon rainforest, observed that “When a forest is lost, it is gone forever Recov ery may occur but never 100% recovery ”

B o l s o n a ro ’s w e l l d e s e r v e d d e f e a t c o u l d h e l p s a v e t h e A m a z o n r a i n fo r e s t , w h i c h h a s b e e n r a va g e d u n d e r h i s c r i m i n a l r u l e , a n d t h e p ro c e s s o f r e v e r s i n g t h e l o o m i n g cl i m a t e c h a n g e c a t a s t ro p h e c a n b e g i n

First President Lula should start by prohibit ing deforestation, illegal logging, and land grab bing To that end, he must stop short of nothing to pass a new law to be enshrined in the Brazilian constitution that puts an end to the systematic destruction of the rainforest The law should include mandatory prison sen tences as well as heavy fines to prevent cattle ranchers and illegal loggers from commit ting such crimes ever again with impunity

Second, he must develop a comprehen sive plan to protect the human rights of indige nous communities from the criminal networks that use violence, intim idation and terror to cow the locals into si lence He should make such a plan the center of his domestic policy while improving security and providing the necessary funding for environmental agencies to perform their tasks with zeal

P E a C E F U L protests and freedom of speech are fundamental rights of every citizen However, when these rights infringe upon other basic human rights, they lose their status according to the Universal declaration of Human Rights (UdHR), 1948, there are several other basic rights of a citizen, including the freedom of movement, assembly and of security of life

The so called culture of political sit ins violates a number of basic human rights of citizens For instance, article 26 of the UdHR and 25 a of the Constitution promise education The sit ins and closures hurt that right, don t they? Political parties think that the only way to force their political demands is a sit in against the government, or a long march even if it happens to be a rather short one This sit in culture challenges public rights as well as the writ of the state

The government, in turn, puts containers on the main highways, choking the point of entry to cities, damaging a number of sectors that are critical parts of the national economy in fact, violent protests that disrupt the normal activity do not fall under the definition of fundamental rights or freedom of speech it is the duty of the government to allow peaceful demonstrations, but when protesters turn violent, or violate the constitutional right to freedom of movement the law enforce ment agencies must tackle them firmly

UMAIR SALIK ISLAMABAD

Ever y life matters

WHiLE there has been a political storm and a furore over the Wazirabad incident the people and the media have completely ignored the man who died on the spot i have no words to express my sorrow on the tragic scene which was captured in a short video on social media about the man lying dead in the street and his three little children trying desperately to help their bleeding father, unaware that the man had died already

We must bring this travesty to a halt By this wanton and dismally short sighted decima tion of the rainforests we are depriving human ity of knowledge which could alter medicine, improve our lives and transform the world from the way we build our cities to the ways we make our homes

Plant and animal species inspire new tech nologies, new forms of architecture, new kinds of design and materiality yet probably less than 1 percent of rainforest trees and plants have been studied by science though not less than 25 percent of Western pharmaceuticals are de rived from rainforest ingredients By allowing rampant deforestation to continue, we are doing ourselves and future generations untold and un conscionable harm

Let us remember that the amazon does not simply belong to the countries in which it hap

Third President Lula should invite the global scientific community to further study the won ders of the amazon and in partnership with them initiate scores of scientific projects from which the whole world would benefit, while preserving the glory of the amazon as one of the central pil lars in the fight against climate change

Finally, President Biden, who understands full well the danger that climate change poses, should provide political support and financial as sistance to President Lula to help him reverse some of the damage that was inflicted on the amazon by his predecessor

President Lula must view his rise to power and the responsibility placed on his shoulders as nothing less than a holy mission that will help save the planet from the man made looming ca tastrophes of climate change

Dr Alon Ben Meir is a professor of international relations at the Centre for Global Affairs at NYU He teaches courses on international negotiation and Middle Eastern studies alon@alonben meir com

The most brutal part was the complete, utter and shameful reaction to his death by those who were around including policemen and security officials They could be seen taking up positions to tackle the ‘attacker ’ while ignoring the man on the ground who was hit by a bullet and was lying in a pool of blood as if he was dead already Maybe he was but the point is that nobody had the good sense to check if he needed help it was callous, to say the least

Was the man s life not as important as any other life? To his family especially the children, he was the world it was clear evidence how society treats us based on our ‘status’, and in the end the life of the poor turns out to be less precious than of the elite Even the poor believe that much, or, else, they would have nothing but hatred for the elite

Our society has become insensitive it stands desensitised to human misery Why do we expect only our politicians to lead us to the right path? Every individual has to play a role to make society a better place to live in

We have been struggling for the last 75 years for equality, but it looks like we still have a colonial mindset which has programmed us to automatically, perhaps unconsciously, care about the high and mighty while treating the masses us like dirt

We may never prosper as a nation unless we free ourselves of this colonial mindset and work for the welfare of the people, who are the real owners of the state

JALAL ANWAR MARDAN

PR E S i d E n T E L E C T Luiz inácio

Lula da Silva’s victory over Jair Bol sonaro in

represents

chance

B

Race foR RussIan oIl begIns

M o d i ’ s I n d i a : t h e d a n g e r o f e x p o r t i n g H i n d u c h a u v i n i s m

aT the initiative of the United States, the G7 nations have agreed to set a fixed price cap on Russian oil from Decem ber 5, the cutoff date for the european Union’s (eU) import of Russian oil The price cap is a novel approach energy sanc tions generally target export volumes but this plan would instead cut prices Crucially, the G7 also bans eU companies from providing shipping in surance, brokering services, or financing for oil exports from Russia to third countries

The G7 s price cap calculus was always rather ambiguous, ostensibly aimed at trimming Russia’s oil revenue, but also making sure Russ ian oil kept flowing

The level of the cap is to be announced, but Bloomberg reported last Wednesday that the G7 is expected to settle on a figure from within the $65 $70 range This is intriguing since it will be a level rather generous to Moscow, well above its cost of production, which is estimated to be less than $10 per barrel

Russian oil currently trades at a significant discount compared to Brent around $65 per barrel and if the G7 price cap is going to be set at a similar level, it wouldn’t do much harm to Russia The US and its european allies made such a fuss about India’s purchase of Russian oil but only to veer around to possibly adopting roughly the same price at which India is purchasing as their ceiling What a delightful irony!

India enjoys considerable discounts for Russ ian crude and can purchase as much as it likes

from its time tested friend From a marginal presence in the Indian market before the Ukraine war began, Russia figured as the top supplier in October According to Russia s Ministry of Fi nance the average price of Urals (Russian blend) in October was $70 6 per barrel, while the average price of Brent was $93 3 ie , the average dis count of Russian oil to Brent was about $22 7 (or 24%) now, with Brent trading at around $85 a barrel last Wednesday, that would imply a price of $50 $60 a barrel of Urals which is below the cap under discussion by the eU!

Interestingly, the latest US treasury guidance published last Tuesday says the cap will be placed on what are known as Free on Board (FoB) prices, which do not include the cost of insurance and ship ping (FoB would be the price that the crude would be sold if a buyer picked it up from a Russian ter minal ) Indian refiners typically pay for crude to be delivered to them and that price includes insurance and freight That is, India is paying $15 $20 a barrel below Brent for delivered Urals crude

The G7 s price cap calculus was always rather ambiguous ostensibly aimed at trimming Rus sia’s oil revenue, but also making sure Russian oil kept flowing In effect the reported G7 price cap may be actually softening the impact of the impend ing eU sanctions on Russian oil Indeed, that could be the hidden agenda

The oil market is full of clever, rapacious peo ple who are virtuosos in bending or breaking rules If a price cap is imposed economic theory will col lide with the messy reality of the market Steven Mnuchin, the former US Treasury Secretary, said recently that the plan by the G7 countries to impose a price cap on Russian oil was ‘not only not feasi ble, I think it’s the most ridiculous idea I’ve ever heard Mnuchin added that the market is going to set the price ’

Russia has warned of consequences Trust the Kremlin to make the G7 a laughing stock if these westerners are indeed bent upon their professed in tent to control Russia’s national income Since de

mand for cheaper Russian oil will outstrip supply, the price cap will create multiple prices: the global crude price, the capped price, and a shadow price that would settle somewhere between the two That will open flood gates for traders and middlemen Monitoring and enforcement will be challeng ing Ship to ship transfers, illicit tanker trade, crude blending etc will proliferate Besides if the price of Russian brands with a discount exceeds the likely G7 price ceiling, alternative carriers and in surers in the regions outside the eU will be found The local non eU tanker fleet will have insurance from state reinsurance companies, too Since the G7 price cap does not include transportation and insurance costs, all that may eventually increase the export of Russian oil Thus, the end result would be the loss of lucrative business for London as the world’s leading centre for maritime insurance serv ices, including P&I and for Greek shipping companies Will G7 trigger such a calamity?

The bottom line is that although the G7 is try ing to sell the price cap plan to the world audience as an anti Russian masterstroke the hidden agenda is something else: to adjust the ceiling to the real selling price of Russian oil in the Asia Pacific countries which is now just approach ing $70 by building the system in such a way that it would be beneficial for Russia to join it

Optics apart by imposing a ceiling on Russian oil prices, the West in reality seeks to gain access to Russia’s domestic hydrocarbons on equal terms with Asian buyers If the flow of Russian raw ma terials continues to go mainly to Asia China and India principally this region will gain compet itive advantages in the global economic struggle

The big picture is that Russia is, after all, not facing defeat in Ukraine, and europe will need Russ ian oil in future In fact G7 has exempted a number of european countries and Japan from the December 5 embargo on Russian oil The sound of muffled laughter can be heard filtering through the walls of Shastri Bhawan and north Block on the ceremonial boulevard of the Indian Government in Delhi

Wh e n the US state department recently told a court that the Saudi Arabian crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman should have immunity in a lawsuit over the murder of the journalist Jamal Khashoggi, it portrayed its argument as a legal and not moral position By way of evidence it pointed to a rogues’ gallery of foreign leaders previously afforded similar protection nestling between Zimbabwe’s Robert Mu gabe, who, it was claimed, assassinated political rivals, and Congo’s Joseph Kabila whose security detail was accused of assaulting pro testers in Washington, was India’s narendra Modi

Dropping Mr Modi into such a list was no accident It is a reminder that while new Delhi basks in its diplomatic success at recent G20 and Cop27 summits, it might find the international environment less ac commodating if Mr Modi and his hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata party (BJP) continue to stir up hatred to win elections Washington s gesture suggests that its strategic partnership with India cannot be com pletely insulated from domestic political issues Mr Modi’s failure, as chief minister of Gujarat to prevent anti Muslim riots in 2002 that left hundreds dead saw him denied a US visa, until he became Indian prime minister The message from Foggy Bottom was that the ban had not been withdrawn but suspended because Mr Modi ran a country that Washington wanted to do business with India is considered a geopo litical counterweight to China and, in many ways, an indispensable actor on the world stage But Mr Biden s team appears to see the posi tion as more contingent, and will be less tolerant than the Trump ad ministration of Mr Modi’s attempts to remould Indian democracy so that hindus become constitutionally pre eminent with minorities re duced to second class citizens Last week, the US Commission on In ternational Religious Freedom accused new Delhi of a “crackdown on civil society and dissent and religious freedom violations The In dian foreign ministry hit back at “biased and inaccurate observations” Officials would do better to reflect on where their country is going

While a rising power India s ascent depends on building bridges with others The Middle east is a key energy supplier and regional trade partner that supports 9 million Indian workers India’s security depends on Arab states sustaining a hostile environment for terrorism So when BJP functionaries made derogatory remarks about the Prophet Muham mad (PBUh) this summer, Gulf states lodged formal protests with new Delhi Chastened, the Modi government was spurred into action sus pending one party official and expelling another, as well as saying it accords “the highest respect to all religions”

Bland assurances may not be enough The intimidation of India s 200 million Muslims is hiding in plain sight State elections in Gujarat begin on Thursday, weeks after BJP ministers approved the premature release of 11 men convicted of rape and murder of Muslim women and children during the riots On the campaign trail last Friday India’s home minister claimed troublemakers had been “taught a lesson” in 2002 This sounded like a signal to hindu mobs that they could do as they pleased

Worryingly there are signs that the communal clashes seen in India are being copied elsewhere In Leicester, many south Asian Muslims like the city s hindus have Indian roots Yet when violence erupted be tween these communities this September escalating into attacks on mosques and temples, the Indian high commission in London condemned the violence perpetrated against the Indian community in Leicester and vandalisation of premises and symbols of [the] hindu religion” Pointedly there was no condemnation of hindus’ violence against Muslims Once careful to proclaim its secularism, India s government appears content to export its hindu chauvinism That should trouble everyone

Western hypocrisy knows no bounds

Uncovered, one commentator questioned how european fans would be able to reach Qatar This a valid question, but why isn’t this asked about Middle eastern, African and South American fans when the World Cup is hosted in eu rope which it has been close to a dozen times

rope s holidays?

Foreign workers in the construction and hospitality sectors in all Gulf states, including Qatar, suffer from poor working conditions, long hours and low wages, but safety measures for large infrastructure projects are rel atively good In addition, Qatar and other Gulf states have reformed the kafala sponsorship system, which previously restricted workers from changing jobs with out the permission of their employers Qatar also re cently introduced a minimum wage

tax free salaries

Western hypocrisy is also evident as British journal ist Piers Morgan has pointed out, in the behaviour of media corporations While condemning Qatar s human rights record and labour conditions for foreign workers in relation to the World Cup, these same companies have sent their staff to enjoy the affordable luxuries made pos sible by these very workers

Western media coverage also focused on the soaring summer heat in Qatar, which is why the tournament was ultimately scheduled for november and December Ac cording to the Daily Mail this decision “robbed us of a summer of football” But why must all countries sched ule their most significant international sporting events according to europe’s holidays? There is no answer ex cept, eurocentrism

Th e 2022 World Cup in Qatar has been the focus of unprecedented debate since the Arab state won its hosting bid in 2010 While many international sporting events have fuelled moral discussions over the human rights records of the host countries such as the controversy over China’s suppression of Uyghurs in Xinjiang ahead of the Olympics in Beijing this year none have been as vi ciously attacked as Qatar

This debate is brimming with hypocrisy, Orientalism and eurocentrism The main criticisms centre on Qatar ’s treatment of foreign workers, particularly those em ployed to build World Cup projects The country has spent an estimated $220bn on building stadiums roads and other infrastructure to support the international tour nament, and was aiming to prepare 130,000 hotel rooms

Why must all countries schedule their most signif i c a n t i n t e r n a t i o n a l s p o r t i n g e v e n t s a c c o r d i n g t o e u

While these changes in labour laws are positive they don’t go far enough, and western media have rightly con demned the poor working conditions for foreign labour ers ahead of the World Cup But the reporting on this issue has been rife with hypocrisy

Indeed, many of the biggest construction firms that have worked on World Cup projects along with many hotels and residences, are western based Westerners in these industries also earn higher salaries in Qatar These facts however are rarely addressed by western critics of Qatar ’s human rights record

‘DESERT WORLD CUP’ Western ex pats are among the biggest beneficiaries of the unfair and unjust wage distribution in Gulf states, including Qatar, but this issue has not gained traction in western coverage They are often offered attractive compensation packages, includ ing relocation and accommodation expenses, along with

Criticisms over the Qatar World Cup have tended to feature a mix of white supremacy and Orientalism Some have dubbed it a desert World Cup In covering the de bate over the tournament, the BBC used another tired trope, asserting that it was “blighted by a dust storm of controversy The Daily Star meanwhile published an “exclusive” article headlined: “Grunting camels outside england’s Qatar hQ leave team facing sleepless nights”

Such coverage relies on a stereotypical Orientalist picture of those who live in the Arab world, conveying an inaccurate impression to western readers While Qatar might have been a small desert nation before it gained independence from British colonialism in the 1970s, it is now a bustling country with outstanding infrastructure, beaches buildings and human development And for the record: I lived in the Gulf for close to a decade, and never once saw a camel

GLOBAL GAME: eurocentrism is another factor in the debate over the Qatar World Cup In the netflix series FIFA

A French reporter was asked about his first impres sion of Qatar and he replied that it had “lots of mosques” Such comments reinforce the notion of west erners feeling discomfort outside of the traditional eu ropean environment But why shouldn’t other countries be able to host the World Cup and showcase their own cultures and traditions?

Yes europe has a strong football tradition and has won more World Cups than any other continent But foot ball is a global game and its biggest tournament should showcase various countries regions and continents

The 2022 World Cup offers an opportunity to ad dress human rights issues in Qatar and other Arab states At the same time it provides a chance to highlight hypocrisy, Orientalism and eurocentrism in western media coverage The World Cup should be a celebration and an opportunity to improve the sport in all countries across all continents

Feras Abu Helal is the Editor in Chief of Arabi

news website

tribune M K b H a d r a K u M a r

G 7 TO S E T P R I C E C A P F R O M D E C E M B E R 5,

T H E C U TO F F DAT E F O R E U ’ S I M P O RT

N E W D E L H I’S FO R E I G N P O L I C Y WO N’ T BE

N S U L AT E D F R O M I TS D O M E S T I C P O L I T I C S, W H I C H D E M O N I S E I N D I A’S 200 M I L L I O N MU S L I M S

Middle east eye

M E D I A C O V E R A G E O F T H E TO U R N A M E N T H A S B E E N R I F E W I T H O R I E N TA L I S M A N D E U R O C E N T R I S M

Guardian E d to r a l

31st C A S Challenge Cup Polo Tournament 2022 to commence today

NEws DEsk

IN a high level meeting Secre tary Transport and Commis sioner Karachi resolved to swiftly release required funds and the Right of Way (ROW) permissions to utility services to shift their network from the BRT s pro posed route The delayed development work on the BRT project is already causing public ire and adding to the misery of commuters

The Commissioner Karachi Iqbal Memon summoned an urgent huddle in his office, which was also attended by Mushtaq Sheikh Additional Sec retary Transport Capt (R) Altaf Hus sain Sario MD Sindh Mass Transit Authority, and Moonis Abdullah Alvi CEO K Electric and Amer Zia Chief Distribution Officer were also

FFC 's Green Team bags winning trophy of S ona

tric also shared the efforts made to sup port the mass transit project In a sepa rate statement issued by KE later in the evening the CEO KE was sighted say ing that the company was in fullest support to the project, however also sought a swifter release of funds to ex pedite work on the project from the power provider ’s side

As per the statement from KE, Moonis Abdullah Alvi also said “BRT Line is an excellent project that will not only assist the citizens of this city in mass transit but will also reduce the load on roads, making it easier for util ities operating in the city to reach out to its consumers quickly We are com mitted to supporting the completion of the project within it s deadline and are making all efforts to achieve this goal while liaising closely with relevant government stakeholders

corporate

manifestation of the PAF's commitment in promoting sports p r

Team

FFC

Resident Manager FFC Brigadier Talat Mehmood Janjua (Retd) distributed prizes to the players and thanked the participants for their zealous participation and excellent game played by the players

On this occasion, Commander Cholistan Rangers, Brig Rizwanullah Nazir, SSP Motor way Police Rana Sarfaraz Ahmed, DSP Mo

(Retd) were

distribution ceremony

A great game was played in the beautiful green ground consisting of 36 holes by over h u n d r e d g o l f e r s f r o m a l l o v e r t h e c o u n t r y

Participation by women and children added a c o

quality measures

measures The SFA has appreciated the HSE & Manufacturing practices and commended National Foods’ efforts in promoting technology enabled manufacturing He also emphasized upon the importance of better regulation and monitoring of the food business The visit comprised of an informational session on various aspects of manufacturing; the sourcing of ingredients, multiple stages of Quality checks, modern technology available for storage and warehousing, as well as a tour of the 10 acre facility SFA was briefed regarding strict procedures to maintain quality of all products including pickles as the company is the market leader in this category also with 71% market share Dr Fayyaz Director QIRD, NFL informed the Authority that the company’s philosophy is to create food that enriches the lives of people everywhere, across multiple platforms and geographic regions It is pertinent to mention that National Foods exports their products to 40 countries and holds quality standard certifications recognized globally, among them being ISO 9001, 45001, 22000, 17025, BRC and SEDEX Certifications to ensure that the customers receive the highest quality of products p r

R s 1 2 . 5 9 b n s u b s i d i e s b e i n g p r ov i d e d t o f a r m e r s t o h e l p i n c r e a s e p e r a c r e w h e at p r o d u c t i o n : G a r d e z i

S ta f f r e p o r t

Punjab Agriculture Minister Syed Hus sain Jahania Gardezi Monday said that the under National Plan to increase Wheat Production subsidies worth Rs 12 59 billion are being provided to the farmers to increase the production of wheat per acre

The campaign to grow more wheat under Agriculture Department Punjab concluded on Monday as its last pro gram was held at Khawaja Farid Uni versity of Engineering and Information Technology Rahim Yar Khan

On this occasion, Agriculture Min ister Syed Hussain Jahania Gardezi, while speaking as a chief guest, said that wheat is our strategic crop in which self sufficiency increases the country s prestige

H e s a i d t h a t i f w e i n c r e a s e t h e production by 4 to 5 maunds per acre, t h e n w e c a n m e e t t h e f o o d n e e d s o f t h e c o u n t r y F a r m e r s o f R a h i m Ya r

K h a n a r e i n n o v a t i v e a n d t h i s i s t h e reason why this district excels in crop production

H e f u r t h e r s a i d t h a t t h i s y e a r,

On this occasion Vice Chancellor Prof Dr Muhammad Sulaiman Tahir said that promotion of mechanization is necessary for innovation in agricul ture The University is taking practical measures for this purpose

On this occasion Director General Agriculture Extension, Punjab Dr Muhammad Anjum Ali said that this year 50 thousand students from uni versities participated in the campaign to grow more wheat The aim is timely

herbicides Apart from this, in

to promote mechanized cultiva tion of wheat the implementation of the program of providing modern agri cultural machinery worth billions of rupees to the farmers at 50 percent sub sidy is also continued Any kind of delay at this stage can affect the pro duction

The staff of the Department of Agriculture (extension) is present in the field alongside the farmers for the awareness and technical guidance of the farmers regarding modern produc tion technology of wheat In addition,

print, electronic and digital media is also being used to ensure the achieve ment of the target of increasing produc tion per acre

The farmers can take full advan tage of the ongoing farmer friendly projects of the Punjab government and achieve the wheat production target of Punjab province by cultivating wheat on maximum area They should play their role for food security On this oc casion Dr Saeed Iqbal an agronomist of a private company, recommended the farmers in the wheat crop to ensure the balanced and timely use of phos phorus and nitrogen fertilizers in the wheat crop On this occasion the Director of Agriculture Extension Jamshed Khalid Sindhu, Dr Lal Hussain Akhtar, Dr Ghulam Abbas and other experts also informed about modern production technology of wheat

Deputy Director of Agriculture In formation Punjab Navid Asmat Kahlon, Deputy Director of Agricul ture Extension Iqar Hussain and a large number of officers of Agriculture De partment and progressive farmers par ticipated in this Kissan Convention

present along with their teams The meeting was organised in the back drop of a recent meeting chaired by Sharjeel Memon, who under pressure of upcoming local bodies elections, tried to put blame of delays in the project on Utilities including KE The discussion during the meeting re

volved around how to push the BRT Project, which was earlier subject to criticism from the environmentalist groups like the National Forum for Environmental and Health (NFEH) for cutting a large number of trees from the city, to pick pace During the meeting, CEO K Elec

pR

The 22nd Annual Invitational Golf Tournament of Fauji Fertilizer Company Gothmachi has concluded today

Green

was declared winner of the trophy and prizes were distributed amongst the winning players

torway Police Hasnain Abbas,Senior Vice Pres ident Sona Golf Club Mr Tariq Sajjad Vice President Sona Golf Club Mr Mahmood Iqbal Waraich, General Secretary Sona Golf Club Mr Mohammad Abbas Shakir Deputy Man ager Admin Lt Col Ehtesham Gul (Retd) and Senior Executive Admin Major Ejaz Sarwar Shamsheri

also present at the award

LAHORE

KE s Chief Executive Officer, Syed Moonis Abdullah Alvi and Chief People Officer Muhammad Rizwan Dalia visited customers to personally deliver the new, environmentally friendly 'Hara Bill'

Salman A Siddiqui

Head of Corporate Communications Sui Southern Gas Company inaugurated a computer laboratory at Karachi s historic Government NJV School that is operational under the management of a leading Not for Profit organization AKHUWAT This computer lab has been gifted to the students of NJV school by SSGC under its CSR program p r

speech

A group photo of eminent educationists and journalists on the occasion of completion of 25 years of Brick School Lahore Eminent analyst Sohail Warraich Amjad Warraich Liaquat Javed and others are also present p r

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

e n c i e s

UKRAINE said on Monday that Russia was preparing for a fresh wave of missile attacks on its en ergy grid that have plunged swathes of the country into the cold and dark

The warning came as foreign ministers from several European countries, including NATO hopefuls Finland and Sweden, ar rived in Kyiv for unannounced visits in a show of support

A Ukraine military spokesman said a Russian warship capable of firing cruise mis siles had recently deployed to the Black Sea with Kalibr type missiles on board This indicates that preparations were u n d e r w a y, ” s a i d s p o k e s w o m a n N a t a l i a Gumeniuk “It’s quite likely that the begin ning of the week will be marked by such

sikhs launch campaign in melbourne with ‘haryana Banay Ga khalistan theme’

MELBOURNE W e b D e s k

The pro Khalistan secessionist group Sikhs For Justice (SFJ) launched Khalistan Ref erendum Campaign in Melbourne Australia with thousands participating in Nagar Kir tan calling upon Australian Sikhs to vote on January 29 with the aim of “Haryana Banay Ga Khalistan During the past decades a large influx of Indians from the state of Haryana has migrated to Australia Several hundred Sikh youths holding Khal istanflags wearing Shaheed Bhindranwale t shirts and raising “Haryana Banay Ga Khalistan” slogans campaigned for January 29 voting in Melbourne Khalistan Refer endum Voting Centre in Melbourne has been dedicated to Shaheed Satwant Singh and Shaheed Kehar Singh the assassins of Indira Gandhi who were hanged on Jan uary 6, 1989, in Tihar Jail Delhi

an attack, she added

With temperatures dipping below zero repeated Russian attacks have left Ukraine’s energy grid teetering on the brink of collapse and have disrupted power and water supplies to millions over recent weeks

In its most recent barrage, Russia fired dozens of cruise missiles at targets across Ukraine last week, and an official in Kyiv said Monday that residents in and around the capital were still suffering disruptions as a result

“Emergency electricity shutdowns are ongoing in the Kyiv region About 40 per cent is currently without power These are the consequences of the massive rocket at tack that happened last week governor Oleksiy Kuleba told local media President Volodymyr Zelensky cau tioned in an address to Ukrainians late on Sunday that Russia was preparing new aerial attacks Moscow’s forces would continue the

campaign of systematic attacks for as long as they have missiles he said

Zelensky added that the military was preparing itself, alongside Western allies, who have been delivering new air defence systems to Ukraine Russia has said it only targets military linked infrastructure facili ties and blamed the blackouts and their civil ian impact on Kyiv’s refusal to negotiate with Moscow

The Ukraine presidency said Monday that Russian strikes had left four people dead in frontline regions a day earlier Prime Min ister Denys Shmygal meanwhile announced that he had received the foreign ministers of the three ex Soviet Baltic states Latvia, Lithuania Estonia as well as those from Finland, Norway, Sweden, Iceland

He said the country representatives had discussed the tightening of sanctions the reconstruction of energy infrastructure and financial support ”

Muslim student in India calls out teacher for calling him a ‘terrorist ’

AGENCIEs

A Muslim student at the Manipal Univer sity in India s Karnataka lashed out at a teacher who allegedly called him a “terror ist” during class, the Indian media reported on Monday

The 45 second video of the incident which is being widely circulated on social media, shows a young man confronting the professor in a classroom full of students A report by the Hindustan Times quoted the student as saying: How can you pass such statements?”

In his response, the professor clarified that he had passed the remarks as a joke , to which the student replied: “26/11 is not funny, being Muslim and facing such things in this country is not funny

According to the Hindustan Times re port, the professor subsequently apologised to the student, saying that he was equal to his son Will you treat your son like this? Will you label him as a terrorist, in front of

KOCHI R e u t e R s

More than 80 people were wounded in southern India as villagers halting the construction of a $900 million port clashed with police the latest escalation of a months old protest waged by a mostly Christian fishing community against Asia s richest man The protests are a major headache for Gautam Adani’s $23 billion ports and logistics company which has been forced to stop work on the Vizhinjam seaport that is seen winning business from rivals in Dubai, Singapore and Sri Lanka Construction, how ever, has been halted for more than three months after villagers blocked the entrance of the site, blaming the port for causing coastal erosion and depriving them of their livelihoods Over the weekend, police arrested several pro testers after they blocked Adani’s construction vehicles from entering the port, despite a court order for work to resume

“The

react The professor ’s remarks drew the ire of a number of Indian journalists and ac tivists Ashok Swain a professor at Upp sala University, called the incident “what it has been to be a minority in India”

Journalist Swati Chaturvedi said the video was “shameful, yet so [is] every day in Modi’s India”

AJ English journalist Said Khalid as serted that calling a student terrorist was “not funny” and demanded that the teacher should be fired

Actor Arfi Lamba highlighted that “ha tred and communalism have reached the temples of learning adding that a student should not have to defend himself against bigotry The Hindu reporter Syed Muhammed also stressed that calling a Muslim a terrorist was not a joke “There are many Muslim students who’ve been discriminated against, pigeonholed, and are victims of biases of teachers It is unfortu nate that the brave student has been put in that position, he tweeted

Saudi Arabia announces plans for six-runway hub airpor t in R iyadh

Ag e n c i e s

Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman announced on Monday plans to transform Riyadh airport into a massive aviation hub with six parallel runways and designed to accommodate up to 120 mil lion travellers by 2030, state news agency SPA reported

Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund the Public Investment Fund (PIF), will build King Salman International Airport, which should stretch over 57 square kilo metres (22 01 square miles) and include current King Khaled airport, SPA said Aviation is part of a government strat egy to become a global transportation and logistics hub by 2030, with Riyadh airport as the operation base of a brand new air line, RIA, that would compete with re

gional heavyweights Emirates and Qatar Airways The kingdom has set itself high targets for diversifying its economy and re ducing its dependence on oil, pouring hun dreds of billions of dollars into a plan called Vision 2030 initiated by the king dom’s de facto ruler Prince Mohammed

The airport project is in line with Saudi Arabia’s vision to transform Riyadh to be among the top ten city economies in the world and to support the growth of Riyadh’s population to 15 20 million peo ple by 2030,” SPA said

It added King Salman airport would create 103 000 direct and indirect jobs handle 185 million travellers and process 3 5 million tons of cargo by 2050

It did not give details on the planned investments but a person familiar with the plans has told Reuters the PIF’s aviation department is getting hefty funds to create

an ecosystem of cargo and passenger air lines, repair companies and airports

The 77 year old state airline Saudia will be based out of the Red Sea city Jed dah under the transportation strategy that

calls for the establishment of the two hubs

The kingdom is already in talks with planemakers Airbus SE (AIR PA) and Boe ing Co (BA N) on orders for the two carri ers Saudia and RIA

C hina, Mongolia injec t impetus into ties through three engines

BEIJING

benefit the people of both countries, Xi vowed

Mongolian

is paying a state visit to China just two days after the Zuunbayan Khangi railway, the third railway to connect Mongolia with China started operations on November 25

Apart from boosting connectivity, the two neighbors joined hands to fight the COVID 19 epidemic by gifting one another with sheep and tea as well as deepened co operation and exchanges in various fields

The two countries have set a good exam ple for state to state relations, Chinese Pres ident Xi Jinping noted on Monday during his meeting with President Khurelsuh

In the face of the rising instability and uncertainty in the international environment, China is willing to work with the Mongolian side to build a community with a shared fu ture and promote the bilateral comprehen sive strategic partnership so as to better

China Mongolia inject impetus into ties through three engines Three engines

Xi urged the two sides to deepen the three alignments between the Belt and Road Initiative and Mongolia’s Prairie Road de velopment strategy, the Global Development Initiative and Mongolia’s New Revival Pol icy, and China’s “two stage” strategic plan and Mongolia s long term development pol icy so as to create three engines for further development of bilateral relations

In 2013, Xi proposed the Belt and Road Initiative to improve regional connectivity and economic integration The Prairie Road development strategy, an economic plan in troduced by Mongolia aims to boost trade with neighboring markets

Mongolia’s New Revival Policy covers comprehensive reforms in the areas of port energy, industry and green development, among others While Xi on Monday voiced

China’s willingness to deepen bilateral co operation in areas such as economics and trade energy and mining connectivity in formation technology and deep processing of livestock products Xi said China supports Mongolia’s “Planting One Billion Trees” plan and is willing to explore the possibility with the Mongolian side of setting up a Sino Mongolian cooperation center for desertifi cation control

The Chinese president also called for promoting the construction of the China Mongolia Russia Economic Corridor and the project of laying the China Russia gas pipeline traversing Mongolia

The first China Europe freight train from Jinzhou Port in northeast China’s Liaoning Province to Helsinki Finland via Choibal san City in Mongolia, was launched in Au gust this year, which is in line with the construction of the China Mongolia Russia Economic Corridor China, Mongolia inject impetus into ties

through three engines

ExcEEding $10 billion: As China is pursuing national rejuvenation by following the Chinese path to modernization, Xi told Khurelsuh that China will not only achieve own prosperity and development but will also deliver more development dividends to its neighbors and the world

China has been Mongolia’s top invest ment source and trade partner for 18 consec utive years Last year, the trade volume exceed $10 billion for the first time

Total trade between China and Mongolia accounts for more than 60 percent of Mon golia’s foreign trade volume according to data from the Inner Mongolia Academy of Social Sciences

Customs data also showed that bilateral trade hit $9 68 billion in the first 10 months of this year

Chinese President Xi Jinping holds a welcome ceremony for Mongolian president Ukhnaagiin Khurelsuh in Beijing, China,

November 28, 2022 /Xinhua

Chinese President Xi Jinping holds a welcome ceremony for Mongolian president Ukhnaagiin Khurelsuh in Beijing, China, November 28, 2022 /Xinhua

Join Efforts for world pEacE, dEvElopmEnt: The two lead ers agreed on Monday to make joint efforts for world peace and development

The Chinese president urged the two sides to team up to foster a new type of in ternational relations and contribute to the building of a community with shared future for mankind

China and Mongolia are both develop ing countries in the Asia Pacific region and have extensive common interests in inter n a t i o n a l a n d r e g i o n a l a ff a i r s X i p o i n t e d out, adding China is willing to coordinate closely with the Mongolian side to jointly defend genuine multilateralism resist bloc rivalry and maintain international solidar ity and cooperation

KYIv UKRAINE Ag

everyone in the class? Sorry alone will not help, sir It doesn’t change how you portray yourself here, the student was quoted as replying

professor later had a conversation with the student and issued a personal apol ogy too the report claimed citing sources

“The matter was also said to be resolved between the student and the professor ” Meanwhile, a report by NDTV said that the university has initiated a depart mental inquiry against the teacher and the student has been given counseling ‘Shameful’: Indian journalists activists

M i A n A b R A R

President Ukhnaagiin Khurelsuh

RIYADH

more than 80 injured as indian police clash with adani por t protesters

E n G l a n d t o p l ay a G G r E s s i v E C r i C k Et a G a i n s t pa k i s ta n i n t E s t s E r i E s : B r E n d o n M C C u l l u M

RAWAlPINDI ag e n c i e S

England head coach Brendon McCullum said on Monday that England would be try ing to play an aggressive brand of cricket against Pakistan in the three match Test se ries to entertain people

The England team arrived in Pakistan on Saturday after their Test camp at the Abu Dhabi Cricket and Sports Hub This is Eng land’s first visit to Pakistan in 17 years to play a Test series The first Test starts in Rawalpindi on Thursday

“One of the things we try and do is to re spect the conditions but at the same time if we are given the opportunity to try and play aggressive and attacking cricket then we’ll try and take that option, he told media here at a news conference

“It’s authentic to the line up that we’ve That s how the guys who are in our squad play and that is what gives them the most freedom and best opportunity to perform at the highest level We know it might not be as prominent aggressive cricket as we’ve seen in the past but there will be opportuni ties to try and play positively I expect our

guys to take on those opportunities

He noted that Test cricket was not as popular as it used to be in the past hence it was necessary to make red ball cricket en tertaining and exciting We see an obliga tion that if people turn on the TV anywhere around the world or they pay their money to come and watch you play that they head away somewhat entertained For us it’s about trying to play that style We know it is not always going to be successful What we have seen over a short period of time is it can un lock your skill

If we re trying to put a positive slant on the style of play then it allows the talent to come out That is what we believe We have had some success in the recent history with it I expect us to still play positively given the opportunities ”

According to McCullum, winning away from home was the biggest accomplishment one could achieve as a Test player and as a Test team We understand the size of the challenge in front of us But that’s great That’s why you want to play the game You don t want easy challenges, you want to take on the best in their own conditions and you want to try and test where you’re at as a side

I’m really excited

“The boys [too] have already said they re pretty excited about playing in front of a full house here That’s what we want from red ball cricket all around the world, stadiums packed out and fans getting behind their local team ”

To a question about Pakistan pacer Sha heen Shah Afridi was ruled out due to a knee injury, he said his absence was a big

loss for Pakistan

“I know him pretty well I played many years in the PSL [Pakistan Super League] with Shaheen as well He’s a wonderful bowler and he’s turned into a fine leader as well He s a big loss no doubt

“But one thing when you play against P a k i s t a n , y o u l o o k a t t h e i r t e a m a n d y o u s e e t a l e n t A n d y o u s e e s o m e t h a t m i g h t not be developed talent but it’s talent You

Enter the draw for first ticket sales for Paris Olympics

Those emerging as ‘winners’ from this draw will be able to apply for tickets for the opening and closing ceremonies

need to respect that and you need to find a way to be able to be well researched and well planned about what’s going to come at you, but also try and find out a way to put that talent under pressure and see how it responds ”

He said Pakistan was a very good squad it would be tough challenge to face it It s well rounded It’s got some experience and some youth, in both batting and bowling We know we ll have to play well if we are going to be successful ”

He said Pakistan was a great country to visit and its people were really hospitable

“This is obviously a great place to tour It’s been starved of international cricket for a l o n g p e r i o d o f t i m e We u n d e r s t a n d h o w p a s s i o n a t e p e o p l e a r e h e r e i n P a k i s t a n a b o u t t h i s f o r m o f c r i c k e t a n d w e u n d e r s t a n d t h e o b l i g a t i o n t h a t w e h a v e a s a n England side and we are looking forward to coming over here and playing an enter t a i n i n g s t y l e o f c r i c k e t w h i c h h o p e f u l l y e n d s u p i n r e s u l t s w h e t h e r t h a t ’s i n o u r favour or in Pakistan’s favour

Meanwhile, both teams took part in bat ting bowling and fielding sessions at the Pindi Cricket Stadium

Morocco World Cup match triggers riots in Brussels, dozen people detained

Sports fans around the world can take their first steps to acquiring tickets for the 2024 Paris Olympics by entering a draw this week, organisers announced on Mon day Those wishing to enter the draw have from this Thursday until January 31 with organisers hoping that ticket sales re alise 1 2 billion euros ($1 25 billion), al most a third of the budget of the organising committee (Cojo)

“It is not a sprint,” said Paris 2024 chief executive officer Etienne Thobois at the announcement at the Eiffel Tower

The successful applicants will be al located 48 hour time slots between Feb ruary 13 and March 15 to purchase their tickets

Apart from the opening ceremony and the surfing which is being held in Tahiti they can select three sessions of any sport subject to availability and apply for up to six tickets per session

The cheapest package for three tickets

will be 72 euros with the most expensive priced at 1,150 euros However, 20% of sessions involving the most in demand finals (the 100 metres in athletics and basketball) will not be

Gap-toothed assassin

Fullkrug digs Germany out of World Cup hole

available Following

There will follow a third and final ticket selling phase at the end of 2023

Organisers said in a statement that for the first time in Olympic history all tickets will be sold exclusively on a single, centralised and digital platform which will be open to all fans at the same time

Through that platform almost 10 mil lion tickets will be on sale 3 million of those will be in the first draw

A million tickets will cost 24 euros ($25) and almost half will be priced at 50 euros or less

“Half the tickets will be 50 euros or less, it is very important for us that this is the case said Tony Estanguet President of the Paris 2024 organising committee

To that end organisers will underwrite almost 100 000 tickets in order to give people who ordinarily could not afford them a chance to attend the Games

Those who buy tickets can also offer their ticket as a gift

Pakistan announces team for ‘O

KARACHI

Pakistan Over 50s veteran cricket team was announced Monday for participation in the Over 50s World Cup to be held in Cape Town from March 5 to 20 next year

The announcement was made by by Fawad Ijaz Khan, Chairman Pak istan Veterans Cricket Association

Nothing

Belgian police detained a dozen people and made one arrest on Sunday after Morocco’s victory over Bel gium in the World Cup match in Qatar triggered riots in Brussels with a car and some electric scooters set on fire

The riots took place in several places across the Belgian capital where dozens of soccer fans, some draped in Moroccan flags clashed with riot police with water cannons and tear gas

A r o u n d 7 p m , c a l m r e t u r n e d a n d p r e v e n t i v e p a t r o l s r e m a i n i n p l a c e i n t h e s e c t o r s c o n c e r n e d ” p o l i c e s p o k e s p e r s o n I l s e Va n d e K e e r e s a i d

The rioters used pyrotechnic material, projec tiles sticks and set fire on the public highway ” the p o l i c e s a i d “ A l s o , a j o u r n a l i s t w a s i n j u r e d i n t h e face by fireworks It is for these reasons that it was decided to proceed with a police intervention with the deployment of water cannon and the use of tear gas,” it added

The Group matches will start from March 6 The final match will be played at the iconic Test venue, The Wanderers Stadium on March 19, 2023

Pakistan had lost in the final to Australia in the inaugural Over 50s World Cup held in Sydney in 2018 and the Second Over 50s World Cup held in Cape Town in 2020 was can celed due to the Covid 19 outbreak

away in the second division, far from the national team radar after four major knee operations It was around that time Fuellkrug hit a rich vein of form which propelled Werder Bremen back into the top flight A return to the elite has not slowed Fuellkrug, who is the top German scorer in the Bundesliga this season with 10 goals in 14 matches With Germany in danger of a second successive World Cup group stage exit, Flick turned to Fu ellkrug to come off the bench against Spain and the striker deliv ered what could prove a turning point for the four time world champions Speaking after the 1 1 draw at the Al Bayt Stadium, Flick summed up Fuellkrug s value to the team, saying he showed us how to score goals” While Flick’s statement may have been made partly in jest, it does strike at the heart of a problem German football has had since the retirement of all time top scorer Miroslav Klose after their World Cup win in 2014 Germany scored 18 goals on their way to the 2014 title, seven of which came in the semi final demolition of Brazil In 2010, the Germans scored 16 on their way to a third place finish When they crashed out in the first round in 2018, their earliest World Cup elimination in 80 years, they found the net only twice After losing 2 1 to Japan in their opening game in Qatar Germany were again teetering on the precipice Enter Fuellkrug, whose last Germany appearance before he made his senior debut in a pre tournament friendly against Oman had come for the Under 20 side eight years ago He became Germany’s oldest outfield debutant for 20 years as he scored against Oman hours before arriving in Qatar and his well timed purple patch has thrust him onto the big stage

ago

Fourteen Countries are divided into two groups Group A includes Pakistan, South Africa, England, Wales India Namibia and USA while Australia, New Zealand, West Indies, Zimbabwe, Canada, Sri Lanka and UAE are included in

group B Players above 50 years of age will be playing in this World Cup Each team will play six group matches and the top two teams in each group will go into the semifinals of the tournament The opening and closing ceremonies will be held on March 5 and 20 respectively

DOHA

Brazil must do without injured star forward Neymar against Switzerland at the World Cup on Monday as Cris tiano Ronaldo looks to lead Portugal into the last 16 in Qatar

Five time world champions Brazil could secure a spot in the knockout phase with a win over the Swiss depending on the outcome of the day’s early game between Serbia and Cameroon

Brazil kicked off their campaign in Qatar with a 2 0 victory over Ser bia in Group G but Neymar limped off with a sprained ankle

“At the time it was difficult for him and after the game, he was sad which I think is normal given how much he has dreamt of this,” said Brazil centre back Marquinhos

Now, after the tests and the treat ment, he is doing physiotherapy 24 hours a day which shows how much he wants to be back with us We don t know when, but we hope it’s as soon as possible ” Ronaldo became the first man to score in five World Cups after converting a disputed penalty in Por tugal’s opening 3 2 victory over Ghana in Group H

The Portuguese will qualify for the second round if they beat Uruguay at the Lusail Stadium, which will host

Pakistani squad consists of 7 Batsmen 7 Bowers 3 All rounders and a Wicket keeper Former Test Player Zahoor Elahi will be the Cap tain Jaffer Qureshi Vice Captain and Dr Asjad Ali will be the Manager of the Team

the final on December 18

Danilo Pereira has been ruled out of the rest of the group stage after fracturing three ribs in training, mean ing 39 year old Pepe is likely to start in defence It would make him the second oldest outfield player ever to appear in a World Cup match, after Cameroon great Roger Milla

Cameroon lost to Switzerland in their first game so will attempt to bounce back against Serbia, who are being investigated by FIFA after the team hung a controversial flag depict ing Kosovo in their changing room before their loss to Brazil

South Korea coach Paulo Bento says the team will see a different

Asjad Ali (Manager)

Son Heung min against Ghana after the forward got used to his protective face mask during their 0 0 draw with Uruguay

Before coming to Qatar, Son had surgery to repair a fracture around his left eye he suffered while playing for Tottenham Hotspur earlier this month First he needed to feel at ease with his teammates and afterwards with the opponents The second game will be different, said Bento Germany have hoPe: Ger many gave themselves a chance of qualifying for the last 16 after substi tute Niclas Fuellkrug snatched a late equaliser to earn a 1 1 draw with Spain on Sunday

PARIS ag e n c i e S

that, phase two of the tick eting process will involve applicants en tering a draw for single tickets from March till May next year

BRUSSElS

R e u t e R S

Al KHOR, QAtAR ag e n c i e S

A wildcard selection in Germany’s World Cup squad, journeyman striker Niclas Fullkrug nicknamed ‘Gap’ due to a missing front tooth may have plugged coach Hansi Flick s biggest hole in Qatar Stalked by misfortune in an injury hit career, Fuellkrug’s late equaliser against Spain on Sunday revived Germany’s splutter ing World Cup campaign and offered a lesson in perseverance

has come easy for the 29 year old Fuellkrug who 12 months

was toiling

P M S h e h B a z , z a r d a r i d i S C u S S o P t i o n S t o h e l P f o i l P t i ’ S r e S i g n at i o n P l a n

iSLaMaBaD S tA f f r e p o r t

HE federal government has de cided to employ all possible tools to help foil PTI s plan to dissolve provincial assemblies of Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) to help keep itself in the saddle

In this regard, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif held a telephonic conversation with Pakistan Peoples Party co chairman Asif Ali Zardari and discussed matters pertain ing to PTI’s threat to dissolve Punjab and KP assemblies

The PM called the former president to discuss the political situation in Punjab, es pecially the dissolution of provincial as semblies and the over all political situations in the country, the sources said

Sources from the Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz (PML N) revealed that in order to change the Punjab government, all legal and constitutional options are under review Moreover an appeal in the Supreme Court for an early hearing of the party s petition is also under discussion

The insiders further revealed that PM Shehbaz has advised his son Hamza She

hbaz to consult with the Pakistan Demo cratic Movement (PDM) leadership over the current political situation

Meanwhile, the PML N has vowed not to leave any stone unturned to halt the dis solution of assemblies

The decision was taken at an emer gency party huddle held in Lahore’s Model Town two days after former PM and PTI chairman Imran Khan announced quitting

all legislative assemblies in the country

During the meeting, the PML N lead ers deliberated upon as how to tackle the political challenges that may arise after the dissolution of assemblies

In this regard PML N s Punjab parlia mentary advisory group held a meeting presided over by Hamza Shehbaz that lasted for more than two hours

The huddle discussed possibility of

governor s rule among other options in the wake of PTI’s warning of resigning en masse

Soon after the meeting, Special Assis tant to Prime Minister Ata Tarar along with PML N leader Uzma Bukhari told the media that, We will go to any extent to stop the dissolution of assemblies”

The leaders added that, “We have also requested the Supreme Court for an early hearing of the PML N petition” in this con nection

The leaders further stated that a no confidence motion will be moved against Punjab CM Pervaiz Elahi”, while adding that the Punjab governor may also ask the chief minister to take vote of confidence

The leaders revealed that apart from these two options, many other options are also being considered

Special Assistant to Prime Minister Ata Tarar went on to add that, Many PTI lead ers are themselves not in favour of disso lution of assemblies, as many of them are in contact with us

Uzma Bukhari concluded by stating that “Imran Khan is dissolving the assem blies at the hands of his own miserable state but we won t let him succeed

SC expresses concerns about safet y of people to be employed in Reko D iq Projec t

signatory

Bloody Monday: Pakistani Capital markets in disarray after unexpected rate hike

Karachi

The Supreme Court on Monday asked the additional attorney general amicus curae and the Barrick Gold counsels to conclude their submission by Thursday

The court directed them to finalize their arguments as they also have to write the judgment, before the deadline, which is December 15, 2022

The CJP said Our desire will be to finish the case well before the time We don’t want to disturb the arrangement,” he added

He inquired from Barrick Gold counsel can the deadline be delayed little further Makhdoom Ali Khan who represented Barrick Gold, informed that they have tried, but Antafogasta, which will quit the project after receiving $900 million wanted the settlement by December 15

A five judge bench, headed by Chief J u s t i c e U m a r A t a B a n d i a l a n d c o m p r i s ing Justice Ijaz ul Ahsan, Justice Muneeb Akhtar, Justice Yahya Afridi and Justice Jamal Khan Mandokhail heard the pres idential reference on the Reko Diq proj e c t a n d e x p r e s s e d c o n c e r n a b o u t t h e

safety and welfare will be working in the Reko Diq project

Justice Bandial expressing concern about the safety and welfare of people, who will be employed for Reko Diq proj ect, questioned what do the workmen will get? He asked the Barrick Gold’s counsel do you have in mind what will be mini mum wage of the workers for the gold mines project?

The CJP further said that the salary structure of the workers in the international

organisations and the petroleum companies is much better

M a k h d o o m s a i d r i g h t n o w c a n ’ t t e l l a b o u t m i n i m u m w a g e , b u t i t w o u l d b e h i g h e r t h a n t h e m a n y c o m p a n i e s p a y i n g i n P a k i s t a n H e i n f o r m e d t h a t w o r k i n g c o n d i t i o n o f t h e l a b o u r e r s w i l l a l s o b e b e t t e r t h a n t h e p e o p l e w o r k i n g i n o t h e r p r o j e c t s

He said United National Human Right protocols will be fully observed and the ILO protections will be complied as it also

as no safety measures and security system placed for them

Justice Ijaz said those companies are Pakistanis, adding it was responsibility of the government to protect them He said there are concerns all over the world about the exploitation of the local labourers Makhdoom said there will be local mech anism for the addressing the complaints

“We will not fall below the local stan dard ” The State owned enterprises (SOEs) are required that no human rights violation is committed Barrick Gold counsel also informed that all environmental concerns of the Court will be addressed and environ ment high standards will be followed

He said that the underground water, which will be used for the project is not suitable for drinking purpose

Following an unexpected rate hike on Friday after market hours, the Pakistan Stock Ex change (PSX) the Rupee and the secondary market yields suffered a battering Investor confidence is shaken after the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) unexpectedly increased the in terest rate last week On the first trading day following the decision, the PSX benchmark index KSE 100 plummeted 865 39 points los ing 2 02% closing at 42,071 34 points The index remained on a downward trajectory, crossing down below the psychological barrier of 42,000 to touch an intraday low of 41,963 94 points “Stock market took the hit as the attractiveness of equities vs fixed in come asset class further deteriorated,” says Fahad Rauf, Head of Research at Ismail Iqbal Securities Continuing the negative trend of weakened confidence, the 6 month Karachi Inter Bank Offered Rate (KIBOR), surged 91 basis points in a day to touch an all time high of 16 81% The 3 month KIBOR increased by 89 basis points to 16 76%, the 9 month KIBOR increased by 90 basis points to 17 07% and the 1 year KIBOR increased to 17 09% It is important to note that the 1 week KIBOR rose by 99 bps to 16 39%, 2 week KIBOR by 99 bps to 15 47%, and the 1 month KIBOR to 16 55% As per analysts, the rising policy rate, the government s rising borrowing needs owing to the floods, and upcoming ma turity payments are likely to persist as pressure on the KIBOR; which means this impact on the KIBOR is not a knee jerk reaction “The markets reacted to a negative surprise in the monetary policy Mostly the fixed income market has been accurate in incorporating rate hikes, however, this time around, it was also caught off guard, says Rauf This resulted in post facto yields and KIBOR adjustment ” says Rauf The secondary market yields also declined by 97 bps for the 3 month Market

Treasury Bills (MTB) 104 bps for the 6 month, 106 bps for 1 year, 55 bps for 3 year, 45 bps for 5 year, and 56 bps for the 10 year MTB; bringing the yields to 16 75% 16 83% 16 86%, 14 77%, 13 74%, and 13 49% respec tively While not a significant drop, the Rupee shed further against the US Dollar (USD) de preciating by 0 01% and closed at Rs 223 95 against the greenback; quoting an intraday low of Rs 224 40 This is the fourth consecutive day of loss for the rupee The SBP Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) hiked the policy rate keeping the inflationary pressures in mind The MPC was of the view that inflationary pressures are stronger and more persistent than expected The market however was not pric ing in a rate hike

P r i c e h i ke o n t h e c a r d s a s Pa k i s t a n l i ke l y t o ex p o r t s u r p l u s s u g a r

for which the sugar advisory board would forward its recommendations

Dar had been in favour of exporting the sugar to bring in much needed foreign exchange

Powerful sugar millers had been anx ious to export over 1 2 million ton sugar, which they term surplus stock, but were being opposed by the Ministry of Food Se curity and Research (MoFS&R), which was anticipating a shortage in this year ’s sugar crop owing to massive flooding in the coun try earlier in the year

The matter had escalated in a meeting between representatives of the sugar indus

However Tariq Baseer Cheema, who is also chairman of the Sugar Advisory Board, had in a speech in the lower house sworn to stop the export of sugar and threatened to resign as chairman of the board if the government allowed it Back then, Tariq Basheer Cheema had claimed that the sugarcane crop had been damaged by the floods in Sindh, and there was a genuine fear of a shortage of sugar in the country Therefore, it was decided

that the Ministry of National Food, Secu rity and Research would collect data from provincial sugar commissioners about availability and surplus sugar before taking the final decision, since exporting the sur plus sugar could result in a price hike in the domestic market

However, now, the food ministry seems to have allowed the export of a smaller amount of the essential commodity During the second meeting held to review the option of export of sugar,chaired once again by Ishaq Dar, it was decided that the matter would be discussed in a meeting of the Sugar Advisory Board meeting sched uled to be held today (Tuesday) Subse quently the proposals of the board would

be forwarded to the Economic Coordina tion Committee (ECC), which is also scheduled to be held

Talking to Pakistan

Chairman P a k i s t a n S u g a r M i l l s A s s o c i a t i o n ( P S M A ) C h M u h a m m a d Z a k a A s h r a f s a i d t h a t t h e g o v e r n m e n t h a s a l r e a d y much delayed the export of surplus sugar “The country could have earned over $ 1 b i l l i o n f r o m e x p o r t o f t h e s u r p l u s s t o c k had it exported the surplus stock timely, he said, adding that the government may now earn over $500 million through ex porting 1000000 tons He claimed that the g o v e r n m e n t h a s a g r e e d i n p r i n c i p l e t o allow a limited quantity of surplus stock

H e s a i d t h e s u g a r i n d u s t r y h a s c o n stantly been appealing to the government t o a l l o w t h e m t o e x p o r t t h e s u r p l u s s u g a r s o t h a t t h e n e w w o r k i n g c a p i t a l c o u l d b e p r o v i d e d b y t h e b a n k s f o r t h e n e w c r u s h i n g s e a s o n I n d i a s o f a r h a s e x p o r t e d s i x million tonnes of sugar and converted the r e m a i n i n g i n t o e t h a n o l t o s a v e f o r e i g n e x c h a n g e

“The prices of sugar would ultimately go up by 35 percent as the sugarcane prices have jumped up by the same percentage,” he said in reply to a query about impact of the sugar export on local prices

T h e m e e t i n g w a s a l s o a t t e n d e d b y S A P M o n F i n a n c e Ta r i q B a j w a , S A P M on Revenue Tariq Mehmood Pasha, Sec retary NFS&R, Special Secretary Finance a n d o t h e r s e n i o r o ff i c e r s f r o m F i n a n c e and NFS&R

try with MoFS&R minister Tariq Basheer Cheema chaired by finance minister Ishaq Dar According to sources present at the meeting held on the 21st of November,

on the same date sources informed

Today,

iSLaMaBaD

S tA f f r e p o r t

of ILO convention It is the Canadian organization and providing these protections to its workers in Canada Justice Afridi asked the counsel to pro vide the comparative minimum wages that your client providing to the worker in other projects Amanullah Kanrani representa tive Balochistan Bar Council, through video link, contended that people working in the coal mines in Balochistan are dying