Monday, 6 March, 2023 I 13 Shaban, 1444
Suspension of online processing of ST refund claims adding to exporters woes
KPRA records 30.6pc growth in revenue collection in 2022-23
Bilawal hints at ‘parting ways’ if Centre doesn’t address reservations
DOHA Staff RepoRt
Primeminister muhammad
Shehbaz Sharif and emir of Qatar Sheikh tamim bin hamad al thani on Sunday discussed a wide array of mutually beneficial issues and exchanged views to further strengthen the excellent cooperation between the two countries in diverse fields including in the economic and investment sectors.
During a meeting, the prime minister appreciated Qatar’s consistent support to the development projects in Pakistan and highlighted the vast opportunities of cooperation between the two countries.
the emir of Qatar lauded the contributions of Pakistani manpower in his country’s development and especially referred to the excellent performance of Pakistani security authorities during the fifa football world cup 2022 successfully hosted by Qatar, Pm office media wing said in a press release.
During the meeting, both leaders also discussed further cementing of bilateral cooperation, investment, trade and sending of further Pakistani skilled workers to Qatar.
sectors of Pakistan's economy.
During the meeting, al-mahmoud and Prime minister Sharif highlighted investment opportunities in the energy and infrastructure sectors of Pakistan. it may be recalled that a detailed discussion had been initiated between the two sides during the Prime minister's visit to Qatar in august 2022.
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coverage,
the Qatari emir welcomed the prime minister and reiterated his keen interest in strengthening the economic cooperation between Qatar and Pakistan. he also reiterated his resolve to continue Qatar’s complete cooperation and support in the development and progress agenda of Pakistan.
meanwhile, the emir of Qatar accepted an invitation from the prime minister to visit Pakistan. earlier, the prime minister arrived in Qatar on a two-day official visit where he would participate in the 5th united nations conference on the least Developed
countries (lDcs). the conference, being held from 5-9 march 2023, will consider steps for accelerating sustainable development in the least Developed countries, helping them make progress on the road to prosperity.
PM, CEO QATAR INVESTMENT AuThORITy DISCuSS INVESTMENT OP-
PORTuNITIES: chief executive officer (ceo) of Qatar investment authority mansoorebrahim al-mahmoud called on Prime minister Shehbaz Sharif here on Sunday to exchange views on progress made on various investment proposals in multiple
LAHORE Staff RepoRt
Pakistan tehreek-e-insaf (Pti) chairman imran khan on Sunday penned a letter to chief Justice of Pakistan (cJP) umar ata Bandial, requesting adequate security arrangements for his court appearances due to “another assassination attempt” on his life. in the letter, the former prime minister said: “i wish to draw your attention to a very critical issue. ever since the removal of my government through a regime change operation, i have been confronted with questionable firs, threats and finally an assassination attempt.”
he complained of not being provided proper security despite being a former prime minister, alleging that the current prime minister, interior minister, and a senior intelligence agency officer were involved in the failed assassination plot against him.
“there are clear indications of another assassination attempt being plotted on my life,” he said.
“to date, there are 74 cases against me and i am being made to appear in court for hearings time and often. i am chairman of the largest political party in the country and wherever i go massive crowds naturally follow. this further
aggravates the prevailing security threat. right to life is fundamental right under the constitution and there is a grave
threat to my life,” he added. in his last appearance before the lhc, imran said that there was a “total failure” of official security, and the same happened in islamabad when he had to appear before different courts.
the Pti chief requested the cJP to take action on this threat being faced by him from those in power and to ensure that adequate security arrangements are made if his appearance is necessary. he also requested a video link facility for court appearances due to severe threats to his life, which would prevent massive crowds from showing up in support whenever he has to make a court appearance.
CONTINUED ON PAGE 02
ISLAMABAD: what is being described as surprise, the Pakistan electronic media regulatory authority (Pemra) Sunday imposed a blanket ban on broadcasting live or recorded speeches of former prime minister and Pakistan tehreek-e-insaf chairman imran khan on all satellite tv channels. “it has been observed that mr imran khan, chairman Pakistan tehreek-e-insaf, in his speeches/statements is continuously…levelling baseless allegations and spreading hate speech through his provocative statements against state institutions and officers which is prejudicial to the maintenance of law and order and is likely to disturb public peace and tranquillity,” read an order issued by the media regulatory authority on Sunday. Staff RepoRt
FAISALABAD Staff RepoRt interior minister ranaSanaullah khan said on Sunday the arrest of imran khan was not a big issue for the government, but it wanted the courts to convict him under the law. talking to the media after inaugurating tentpegging championship at the university of agriculture faisalabad (uaf), he said if the court ordered for imran’s arrest, he would instantly comply with the orders without any fear of law and order situation or resistance from the Pakistan tehreek-e-insaf (Pti) workers.
the interior minister clarified that in present instance, the police had gone to Zaman Park to comply with the court orders, and the government had nothing to do with it. he said that multiple cases had been registered against imran khan. in toshakhana case, he was nominated, but indict-
ment was yet to take place, he added.
the minister said that he [imran] was maligning others, adding that under his nose, his crony farah gogi kept looting the country and shifting her wealth abroad.
ranaSanaullah said that holding of election was a responsibility of the election commission of Pakistan (ecP), and Pakistan muslim leaguenawaz (Pml-n) was fully ready to participate in the democratic process.
the minister appreciated the uaf administration especially vice chancellor Prof Driqrar ahmad khan for organising healthy extracurricular activities. he said that sport events could help develop sound mind of the nation. tent pegging is part of Punjab’s cultural activities, he said and added that such activities should be promoted at grassroots level so that it could play a role in establishing a healthy society.
the Qatar investment authority has expressed a keen interest in investing in lng power plants, airports, and solar power parks in Pakistan. al-mahmoud also concurred with the prime minister regarding the importance of bilateral trade and investment between Qatar and Pakistan while expressing his desire to strengthen their bilateral economic ties.
Prime minister Sharif thanked almahmoud for his interest in enhancing cooperation with Pakistan in the economic sphere and invited Qatari investors to take advantage of the investment-friendly policies of the Pakistani government.
Both countries remain optimistic about working closely to translate existing understandings to strengthen their economic ties and further diversify them in the future in line with Qatar's vision 2030.
CONTINUED ON PAGE 02
TORONTO/ISLAMABAD: veteran star Pakistani showbiz, Qavi khan passed away in canada due to a prolonged illness. he was 80. in a statement, arts council President muhammad ahmed Shah confirmed the death of senior Pakistani actor, saying that the veteran actor had been undergoing treatment in canada for different health complications for some time. Staff RepoRt
in today’s issue
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FINANCeMinister Ishaq Dar applauded the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the People’s Republic of China’s response to the western media who raised a question regarding China’s loans awarded to Pakistan. Pakistan is experiencing economic testing times and China has extended its financial support. Bloomberg asked Mao Ning,
COntInuED fROM pAgE 01
spokesperson of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, China, at the Regular Press Conference on March 2, “Both Moody’s and Fitch say Pakistan has $7 billion of debt due by June, including those from China. So will the loans be rolled over?”
The diplomat responded, “To give you our principled position, China and Pakistan are all-weather strategic and cooperative partners and iron brothers. The two sides have always shared weal and woe together and supported each other. China has been in close economic and
Later, the minister distributed shields and gifts among the position holders of various competitions, organised by the UAF in connection with the spring festival celebrations.
‘Borrow some “courage” from PmL-N
suPremo’: Meanwhile, Defence Minister Khawaja
Asif on Sunday advised Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan to borrow some “courage” from Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) supremo Nawaz Sharif. Taking to Twitter, Mr Asif expressed his thoughts in connection with the potential arrest of Mr Khan, saying, “Imran is asking his workers to court arrest. But he himself escaped from getting arrested.” He reminded Mr Khan that it was normal for the political leaders to make their sacrifices for the sake of their beliefs and ideologies.” Continuing to take a dig at Imran Khan, Mr Asif said, “The political leaders bear the difficulties of imprisonment with great respect and prestige.” Talking about former South African President Nelson Mandela, Mr Asif said, “Imran gives the example of Nelson Mandela. But having no shame himself.”
COntInuED fROM pAgE 01
‘Public trial of Toshakhana case’: earlier in the day while addressing the party workers, the former prime minister demanded a “public trial” of the Toshakhana case, hours after police claimed he was avoiding arrest after they returned empty-handed from his Lahore residence without even meeting the PTI chairman. He said while others, who had looted the Toshakhana, had been allowed to go scotfree, he was being summoned in the same case despite the fact that he had done nothing wrong. “I want public hearing of the Toshakhana reference,” he demanded. Imran Khan said how ironic it was that while he was being implicated in false cases, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and other leaders of the coalition government were given a ‘clean chit in corruption references. Similarly, he went on to say, he was not present at the time of protest outside the eCP building, but he was still implicated in the case. Imran made it clear that if somebody was under the impression that he would give up on his struggle, he was grossly mistaken. He said he never bowed before any individual or institution in his life, nor he will let his workers bow down to anyone. Appreciating the workers, he said he could see a crowd become a nation. The extent to which these “thieves and robbers” have taken Pakistan, only a nation can compete with them, he declared. “No one can stand in front of this nation. Our nation was built on a specific slogan,” Imran Khan said. The PTI chief said a nation that is a slave to someone can never do achieve greatness. Taking a jibe at the current ruling parties, Imran said they were never loyal towards Pakistan, adding that they are well settled abroad. Challenging the government to place his name in the exit Control List, he said he did not wish to leave the country. He said there were no security arrangement at courts, and that he knew his life was still in danger.
LaHore: The caretaker government of Mohsin Naqvi in Punjab has given assurance that it will not impede Aurat March protesters in the province, saying all concerns raised by the organisers of the country’s largest women’s rights event had been addressed. Last month, the Aurat March organising committee requested a no-objection certificate (NOC) from the district administration to stage a demonstration on International Women’s Day on March 8 at Nasir Bagh in Lahore, followed by a march around the park’s perimeter. However, the deputy commissioner, Rafia Haider, declined the plea, citing the current security scenario, threat alerts, and law and order situation. Subsequently, the organisers petitioned the Lahore High Court (LHC), challenging Haider’s decision, calling it “arbitrary, discriminatory, and ultra vires” of various constitutional articles. The petition is set to be heard on Monday by Justice Muzammil Akhtar Shabbir. Staff RepoRt
financial cooperation with Pakistan and supported its efforts to maintain economic stability, improve lives and achieve selfgenerated development.”? She noted, “I need to point out that the radical financial and monetary policies of a certain developed country and their serious spillover effects are the primary cause of the financial difficulties experienced by Pakistan and many other developing countries.
The Western-dominated commercial creditors and multilateral financial institutions account for the lion’s share of
developing countries’ debt. China calls on concerted efforts from all parties to play a constructive role in Pakistan’s economic and social stability efforts.” Responding to this, Ishaq Dar according to Gwadar Pro, went on to social media to publicly acknowledge the response of China on the current economic situation of Pakistan. “China’s reply to Bloomberg on 2nd March 2023 reflects the depth of friendship between the two countries and beyond,” said Ishaq Dar.
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PM arrives Qatar on two-day official
visit: Prime Minister Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif on Sunday arrived Qatar on a two-day official visit where he would participate in the 5th United Nations Conference on the Least Developed Countries (LDCs).
The conference, being held from 59 March, will consider steps for accelerating sustainable development in the LDCs, helping them make progress on the road to prosperity.
The prime minister will address the conference on March 6, PM Office
Media Wing said in a press release.
The prime minister will also attend a reception hosted by the Amir of Qatar in the honour of heads of state and governments.
In Doha, the prime minister will hold bilateral meetings and interactions with participating leaders and heads of delegation on the sidelines of the conference. At the conference, the leaders will mobilize additional international support measures and action in favour of LDCs and agree on a renewed partnership between LDCs and their development partners. On his Twitter handle, the prime
minister posted that he had just reached Doha on the invitation of his brother Sheikh Tamim Bin Hamad Al-Thani, the Amir of Qatar to attend the 5th UN Conference on Least Developed Countries (LDCs).
“I will share Pakistan's perspective on the socio-economic challenges facing LDCs in Asia & Africa,” he added.
In a related tweet, the prime minister said that LDCs had been badly affected by climate change, post-pandemic and geo-strategic disruption in food and energy supply chains. These global events had left them vulnerable. LDCs would be better
ISLAMABAD Staff RepoRt
Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) Chief Organiser Maryam Nawaz on Sunday took a jibe at Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan and asked her father Nawaz Sharif to lend some of his courage to the PTI chief who had allegedly escaped from his residence Zaman Park fearing arrest.
In a statement on Twitter, she mocked the PTI chief, saying that despite being innocent, her father Nawaz Sharif flew back to Pakistan from London with his daughter’s support and courted his arrest, unlike a “thief[referring to Imran] who would use daughters of others as a shield”.
Maryam Nawaz further criticised the former prime minister, stating that “people can now differentiate between a national leader and a ‘phony’.”
Reacting to the unruly behaviour of PTI workers, Maryam Nawaz called on Imran Khan to be ‘brave’ and surrender to the police. She also criticized PTI workers for their alleged unruly behaviour and quipped Imran Khan that he should not panic.
“Today the nation has recognized who is brave and who is a coward. Be brave and surrender yourself to the law,” Maryam Nawaz tweeted. “This is not the first time the law has come knocking on the doors of those in power. Don’t panic, and don’t let your workers create chaos,” she concluded.
below a certain value. The government of Shehbaz Sharif has accused the former prime minister of concealing information about gifts he retained from the repository.
Khan, who is recovering from gunshot wounds sustained during an assassination attempt last year, has skipped three scheduled hearings in the case on grounds of needing medical treatment.
According to a series of tweets by the Islamabad police, the “superintendent of police (SP) has gone to Khan’s room but he’s not there.”
“The team sent to arrest him is still waiting outside his residence,” the police added. “The operation to arrest Khan is being conducted in partnership with the Lahore police.”
The police said they will take legal action against individuals who obstruct the implementation of court orders.
LAHORE/ISLAMABAD
Staff RepoRt
As workers and supporters of Pakistan Tehreek-iInsaf (PTI) surrounded the residence of Imran Khan in the Zaman Park neighbourhood of Lahore Sunday, vowing to prevent his arrest, Islamabad police claimed the “reluctant” former prime minister appears “hesitant to be arrested” and has vanished into thin air. A contingent of police from Islamabad collaborated with Punjab police and reached the residence of Khan shortly before noon to arrest him, accusing him of prolonged absence from the trial proceedings in the Toshakhana case.
The case centres on a government department known as Toshakhana — which during the Mughal era referred to the treasure houses kept by the subcontinent’s princely rulers to store and display gifts lavished on them.
Government officials must declare all gifts to the Cabinet Division, but are allowed to keep those
I mean, he didn’t present himself for arrest, and there were some mean-spirited people who wanted to know why he was so anxious to get people arrested when he was not willing to get arrested himself.
Meanwhile, TV footage has captured police officers in Islamabad and Punjab police uniforms being restrained by PTI workers outside Khan’s residence. On February 28, Additional District and Sessions Judge Zafar Iqbal issued non-bailable arrest warrants for the former prime minister after he failed to appear in court for indictment.
On that day, Khan had four court hearings, and he was granted bail in three of them.
The warrant cited Khan’s repeated failure to appear in court and accused him of picking and choosing which cases and courts he would attend, with this particular case not being a priority.
The warrant further demanded that the accused be summoned through a non-bailable arrest warrant for March 7.
Responding to the warrant issuance, Fawad Chaudhry, senior vice president of the party, tweet the document pertains solely to attendance, and the police’s insistence on effecting an arrest is illegal.
It seems that the Jail Bharo Tehrik was not as serious as the 2014 dharna. That was ended with the APS Peshawar massacre, the Jail Bharo Tehrik was ended aft6er the Supreme Court verdict stating the obvious: when an assembly is dissolved, elections must follow in 90 days.
It is true that the dharna had run out of steam when it was called off, and Imran Khan was casting about for excuses to bring it to an end. But it had not become a joke, which the Jail Bharo Tehrik had been, from the get-go. Once again, Imran proved right.
I wonder now how those arrested on the first day are doing. In particular, I wonder how Makhdoom Shah Mahmud
Qureshi is holding up. It took the Jail Bharto Tehrik for it to be disclosed in court that he suffers from piles.
That put me in mind of a nickname that was inflicted on a fellow who was a year senior to me in college, Maulvi Bawaseer. He was thus ennobled because a) he had a beard and b) because he had once in an unguarded moment admitted to some classmates that he was a martyr to them.
What is one supposed to call, Qureshi, Makhdoom Bawaseer? I don’t quite see why, but I was irresistibly reminded of the advertisements that were daubed on so many walls, all over the city, and on roads outside it, for a remedy for ‘Khooni Bawaseer’. The remedy was not mentioned in words as prominently as the disease. I presume Makhdoom Sahib has avoided that particular complication. However, he should not be ashamed of the disease, for one of his fellow sufferers was Napoleon. He wasn’t a very healthy man, for he also had a bad gastric ulcer. Do you remember his most famous pose? With one hand in his coat? Well, that was because he used to get some relief by pressing bon the painful spot. Ask a doctor, and he will tell you
served by putting welfare of people at the center of public policy, he added.
‘PM condoles loss of lives in traffic accident’
Prime Minister Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif on Sunday expressed grief and sorrow over the traffic accident near DaraZinda in Dera Ismail Khan. The prime minister condoled with the bereaved families and prayed Allah Almighty to elevate the ranks of the deceased in paradise. He also prayed for the early recovery of the injured. Meanwhile, the PM directed the provision of all possible medical assistance to the injured.
LAHORE Staff RepoRt
The appointment of retired Lt. Gen. Nazir Ahmad Butt as the new chairman of the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) for a three-year term has sparked controversy, with Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) leader Omar Sarfaraz Cheema announcing that his party plans to challenge the appointment in court. The former governor of Punjab argued that the appointment was illegitimate, given that the National Assembly speaker allowed PTI dissident Raja Riaz Ahmad to continue as the opposition leader, despite no longer having majority support from the opposition benches. Cheema pointed out that Riaz’s confession of being an aspirant for a ticket from the ruling PML-N in the upcoming elections further undermines his legitimacy. The PTI had previously written to the National Assembly speaker requesting the appointment of PTI deputy chairman Shah Mehmood Qureshi as the opposition leader, but the request was denied. Cheema believes that this decision, along with Ahmad’s questionable status as opposition leader, taints the appointment of the new NAB chairman and warrants a challenge in court.
LAHORE Staff RepoRt
Hamza Shehbaz, vice president of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), is set to return to Pakistan next week after spending two and a half months in the US, his party said. According to media reports, it has not been decided whether Hamza and his cousin Maryam Nawaz will run the party’s election campaign together in the upcoming general elections in Punjab. Hamza, the son of Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, previously served as the Punjab chief minister from April 30 to July 26 last year. He had also been a member of the National Assembly from June 2008 to May 2018 and a member of the Punjab Assembly from August 2018 to January 2023. It is rumoured that Hamza may be given important responsibilities upon his return to Pakistan, although it is unclear what those responsibilities may be. He had flown to the US in protest against some decisions made by the party leadership, and has been away from politics since then. The upcoming general elections in Punjab are expected to be closely contested, and Hamza’s return is likely to have a significant impact on the party’s election strategy.
that you have to be pretty bad for pressing it to give your relief. Well, at least no one has claimed an ulcer as grounds for bail.
Perhaps the PTI should revise its attitudes towards bails. For a start, mo one dresses for the part. No yellow qameezes with blue polka dots, no colourful dhotis, no pumps without benefit of socks, no fright wigs, no warts on the cheek. How do they expect to get bail if they don’t look the part?
Of course, it’s all political persecution.
Like is happening in India, where the Delhi Deputy CM, a stalwarts of the Aam Admi Party, has been nabbed for corruption. even though the AAP, like the PTI, had campaigned to get rid of corruption. The BJP is bent on making up charges, just like the ones bout the Toshakhana watches.
The government is focusing on nonissues, instead of dealing with real issues, like the Barkhan IeD blast, which probably
got something to do with the private prison of Abdur Rehman Khetran.
Though I would be very surprised if the struggle for the Sardar-ship of the tribe, did not figure, if only as a motive for the last murder which revealed through autopsy, where the body was not that of Khan Muhammad Marri’s wife, but of a young woman criminally assaulted, who was shot dead, and over whose face acid was poured. Sounds like someone didn’t want to get caught. Sounds like the same motive was at work in the butchering of Kong Kong socialite Abby Choi, whose body parts were found in a fridge, and whose head, torso and hands are still missing. Among the suspects is her former father-in-law, an ex-cop. I think that makes sense, because an ex-cop would want the corpse dismembered and never found. You get off when the prosecution can’t prove anybody dies.
ISLAMABAD aNadolu ageNCy
peeRpressure, desire for a “better” life in europe, and sheer desperation all made Muhammad Ali board an overcrowded boat that last month set off on the world’s most dangerous migrant sea crossing.
Unfortunately, Ali, 21, did not make it to his desired destination. The boat capsized in the rough waters of the Mediterranean Sea shortly after leaving the Benghazi coast in Libya for Italy. Ali and more than a dozen died, their dreams and hopes drowning with them.
“His friends had all gone to Italy and were persuading him to join him. We tried stopping him, but he didn’t listen. He wanted
to go to europe,” a heartbroken Chaudhry Mansha Bhojpur, uncle of the deceased Ali, spoke to Anadolu Agency on the phone from their hometown Gujrat.
Ali was on the Italy-bound boat, which on February 22 met an accident, resulting in the death of 16 people. Islamabad says that at least seven people who died were nationals.
The high number of casualties of migrants in shipwrecks has once again put the spotlight on refugees who are using dangerous sea routes to get to europe.
Since the beginning of the year, 327 migrants have died or gone missing in the Mediterranean Sea, according to the Missing Migrants Project. The project is an initiative of the UN’s International Organisation for
Migration (IOM) to document such migrants. Recent incidents with a high death toll include a boat capsizing off the coast of Libya, in which 18 people died and 55 are missing. On February 26, an overcrowded wooden boat smashed into the rocks off the coast of southern Italy and killed at least 67 people, including men, women and children. Ali’s family, who are mourning his death, say it is a time of sadness. “Ali kept on persuading his parents, why can’t he live with his friends? Why can’t his parents send him? Why can’t his parents do anything for him? It was emotional blackmail,” says Bhojpur. On February 17, Ali took a flight to egypt from Dubai and then headed for Libya, where he met the agent who made arrangements for the sea travel.
Before getting on the boat, Ali talked to his family and told them that he would text them when he had an Internet connection. For two days, they had no information about him. Then the family got news from international media about the boat crash. Ali was recognised by his family from videos and pictures circulating on social media.
“Please don’t be influenced by anyone.
Ali’s friends had made it to Italy and he thought he would do too. But this is a dangerous route,” his uncle pleas, saying they are in touch with authorities in Libya to bring him home. migraNT rouTes: Conflicts, poverty, wars, and violence are the reasons why people are leaving their home countries and, in some instances, forced to migrate,
ISLAMABAD aNadolu ageNCy
Pakistan was among the first countries to send search and rescue teams to Turkey following last month’s deadly earthquakes in the nation’s southern parts, the concerned authority said in its report to Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif, who has shown full support to the nation during the challenging time.
The government immediately dispatched a 33member Pakistan Army Urban Search and Rescue Team (USRT) on February 6, shortly after twin devastating earthquakes struck southern Turkey, the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) said in the report.
The following day, another 51-member Rescue 1122 squad left for Turkey.
The death toll from two powerful earthquakes has risen to over 45,000, while the relief and rehabilitation phase has begun for over 13 million people in 11 provinces affected by the natural disaster.
Over 9,000 international search and rescue personnel, including three teams from Pakistan, had flown into Turkey to assist the Turkish government in saving people trapped under the collapsed buildings.
During the rescue and search operations, Pakistani teams saved 14 people independently, in addition to the same number pulled to safety in collaboration with other teams, while also recovering 201 bodies and clearing 237 sites. “The team was able to recover a young boy 148 hours after earthquakes,” according to the NDMA report.
Furthermore, the Rescue 1122 team alerted the country’s USAR teams, who rescued five people from the collapsed buildings.
ISLAMABAD Staff RepoRt
Indonesian Ambassador to Pakistan Adam M. Tugio
on Sunday has said that there are enormous scholarship opportunities for Pakistani students in Indonesia because many universities offer full scholarships to Pakistani students. He made these remarks while visiting a two-day International education Summit 2023, on 4-5 March 2023 to promote the education system in Indonesia and provide access to information on scholarships being offered by universities in Indonesia.
Ambassador Tugio said that the expo is also a good opportunity for the embassy since it can introduce some best universities in Indonesia.
The event is organized by the Rawalpindi Chamber of Commerce Industry (RCCI) with the objective to inspire Pakistani students with great educational prospects in Pakistan.
Ambassador Tugio commended the initiative of RCCI in organising the first-ever educational expo and underscored the important role of the university. He encouraged business community to play proactive role by connecting innovations from university labs to the markets.
Speaking on the occasion, the President of RCCI, Saqib Rafiq reminded the audience that to have a strong economy, it is very important to first make Pakistan academia stronger. “Although we have brilliant students, they need to have proper guidance so that they could excel to their full potential”, he added.
The embassy’s stall attracted the interest of students from the twin cities who sought detailed information on educational systems in Indonesia and scholarships being offered by universities in Indonesia, including those from five of the world-class best Indonesian universities based on the QS World Ranking 2023, namely Gajah Mada University (UGM), Institute of Technology Bandung (ITB), University of Indonesia (UI), Airlangga University (UNAIR), and Bogor Agriculture University (IPB).
Representatives from the embassy assisted students with free advising services that entail offering accurate, comprehensive, and up-to-date information about opportunities to study at over 30 accredited Indonesian universities.
The Pakistan Army team returned on February 24, while the Rescue 1122 team arrived a day earlier.
“Pakistan immediately extended full support in search, rescue and medical assistance along a provision of aid, and relief activities,” the NDMA stated in the report, adding that a medical team of 10 members was also deployed there.
“Overall, Pakistan’s swift response and deployment of trained teams played a crucial role in providing much-needed aid and support to the affected areas of Turkey and Syria. Their selfless efforts and dedication towards assisting their fellow humans in times of need are commendable and appreciated by the international community,” the authority said. reLief suPPLies: On Tuesday, a Pakistan Navy ship carrying 1,000 tons of relief supplies, 1,800 large family-sized winterized tents, and 29,000 blankets sailed from Karachi to Turkey.
Apart from the fresh batch of relief goods, the NDMA has already sent nearly 10,069 winterized tents, 745 tons of relief assistance goods, and more than 33,000 blankets to affected areas via air and road
routes. According to the report, a total of 26 flights, including 10 special chartered aircraft, were utilised to transport such relief items.
Last month, Prime Minister Sharif said Islamabad will send 100,000 tents to Turkey in the coming days.
Moreover, local charities such as the Al-Khidmat Foundation, edhi Foundation, Baitussalam Welfare Trust, Sailani Welfare Trust, and Pakistan Red Crescent have been involved in relief and rescue efforts in the earthquake-ravaged regions. Teams’ work Lauded: On Wednesday, Sharif hosted members of Pakistani teams who participated in the search, rescue, and relief efforts, thanking them for their efforts and assisting their Turkish brothers and sisters.
“The government and the people of Pakistan are grateful to all of you as you were the ones who arrived in Turkey soon after the earthquakes to help your Turkish brothers and sisters in a difficult time,” Sharif said, adding that they will remember these services for a long time.
“I saw my team working diligently on the occasion of the visit to Turkey, I have invited you all here to thank you all of you for your efforts,” he added.
earlier that day, Army Chief Gen. Syed Asim Munir visited the Headquarters engineers Division in Rawalpindi and met with his army team that had returned from Turkey. He interacted with the rescue team members and appreciated their professionalism and commendable work during rescue efforts.
“Gen. Asim highlighted the importance of our enduring strategic relations with Turkey and Syria and the need to assist, particularly in times of crises,” the army’s media wing said in a statement.
ISLAMABAD
Staff RepoRt
Saudi Prince Fahad bin Mansour Al-Saud is all set to launch the Saudi-Pakistan Tech House in Islamabad at a ceremony scheduled to be held here on Monday (today), according to the Saudi tech firm.
The Saudi Prince is the co-founder of tech giant ILSA Interactive, which was first founded in 2009 by a Pakistani entrepreneur and has offices in Lahore and Riyadh. The company aims at enhancing cooperation between the two countries in diverse technical fields. ILSA Interactive stands as a great hallmark of Pakistan-Saudi digital collaboration excellence.
“HRH Prince Fahad bin Mansour Al-Saud is visiting Pakistan to launch Saudi-Pakistan Tech House to enhance cooperation between the two countries in diverse technical fields,” the firm said in
a statement.
The company said it reflects the determination of both Pakistani and Saudi leaders to further deepen the existing strategic relationship in all fields.
Federal Minister for Investment Mr Chaudhry Salik Hussain will the chief guest at the ceremony, while Special Assistant to Prime Minister on Youth Affairs Ms Shaza Fatima will be the guest of honour.
The Saudi Prince has strategic plans to forge partnerships with IT companies, universities and big enterprises in Pakistan. He is looking forward to creating more than 1,000 jobs in Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and globally. The company has more than 300 projects, with a minimum total project value of $100 million. The Saudi prince first announced the initiative in January at Future Fest 2023, the largest tech event in Pakistan, held in January.
ISLAMABAD Staff RepoRt
In Indian illegally occupied Jammu and Kashmir, political experts and analysts have said that Narendra Modi-led fascist Indian government is rendering the Kashmiris homeless in their own homeland on one pretext or another.
According to Kashmir Media Service, the occupation authorities attached the ancestral houses of two Kashmiris under draconian law Unlawful
Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) in Srinagar and Sopore and properties of 168 Kashmiris in Doda, Kishtwar, Rajouri and Poonch districts of Jammu region. The political experts and analysts in their interviews and statements in Srinagar said confiscation of the properties of Kashmiri people is sheer political vendetta on part of the Modi regime. They said the Indian authorities are confiscating the properties of Kashmiris to punish them for their affiliation with the ongoing freedom movement.
LAHORE Staff RepoRt
Caretaker Chief Minister Mohsin Naqvi presided over a meeting to review Spring Festival arrangements in which a final shape was given to the celebrations.
The festival will be fully sponsored for the first time in Punjab, as not a single penny will be spent from the government exchequer.
It was informed during the meeting that the Spring Festival celebrations are being held in Lahore and Faisalabad. The caretaker CM was informed that a Food Fun Mela is also being held from 5th to 12th of March at the Jilani Park, where stalls of top 20 food brands of Lahore would be set up.Famous singers will present musical show at the Lahore Hockey Stadium every evening. Rahat Fateh Ali Khan, Sahir Ali Bagga, Bilal Saeed, Aima Khan and other singers will present their musical performances. Mehfil-eNaat and Mehfil-e- Sama will be organised at various shrines including Data Darbar. Punjabi folk music shows will be organised at the Jilani Park.
It was further informed during the briefing that the main boulevards of the city will be decorated
and ‘Canal Mela’ as well as ‘Sports Mela’ will also be organised. Three shows of Lucky Irani Circus will be organised at the Greater Iqbal Park for seven consecutive days.
Marathon race competitions will be held on March 12. Race On Wheel and Fun Race will also be organised. Professional cyclists will participate in the 42-km long cyclothon. A ‘Digital Journey’ show will be organised to create awareness about ‘Formation of Pakistan’ in the National History Museum.
It was informed during the Walled City Authority briefing that Light and Music extravaganza show will be presented at the Shahi Fort in the evening. ‘Roshan Galian’, ‘Vakeh Lahore’, ‘Rangeela Rickshaw’, ‘Dastan Goi’, ‘Heer Gaiki’ and ‘Drum Circle’ shows will also be held. It was informed that special celebrations will be organised in connection with International Women’s Day on March 8, and a Women Mushaira will also be held.
Commissioner Faisalabad, while giving briefing through the video-link, apprised that Spring Festival celebrations will be organised at the Iqbal Stadium, Agriculture University and at various places of Faisalabad.
explains a professor of International Relations at Yasar University, Ayselin Yildiz.
Most migrants come from countries such as Afghanistan, Pakistan, Somalia, and Iran. “More than 90 percent of migrants arriving in Italy from Afghanistan are using Turkey as transit,” Yildiz said.
According to her, migrant smugglers are one of the key actors that are influential in determining the route and, sometimes, diverting the routes. In the last few years, migrant smugglers have been “marketing” Italy more as the destination for migrants since migrants are facing increasing pushback from the Greek authorities.
“One of the reasons might be that. Because there are increasing number of pushbacks by the Greek authorities. This is what we criticise a lot because this is completely infringing the international law and human rights law.”
But the route to Italy through the Mediterranean Sea is dangerous, long, and expensive. Italy can be a transit with people using the route to go to Germany or North europeans countries or a final destination for those with families.
LAHORE Staff RepoRt
Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) Leader Musarrat
Jamshed Cheema claims that the people of Pakistan have already decided to support the opposition party even before the election campaign begins. She tweeted that the party chairman Imran Khan is hosting a welcoming ceremony on Sunday to honour those who were arrested in the court arrest movement. She criticized the government and called the gathering of thousands of people to listen to his address as a referendum against the stubbornness of the Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM). She urged the country to announce general elections across the country and bring back the fugitive leader, Nawaz Sharif, so that the opposition party doesn’t have a chance to say their leader was not in the country after the defeat. Cheema also lambasted the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) leadership, stating that Hamza Shahbaz was persuaded to return by the lure of a big position after being cornered. She expressed utmost confidence in PTI’s victory in the forthcoming elections and advised the PML-N to form a preliminary committee to find out the facts of their disastrous defeat in the elections.
ISLAMABAD Staff RepoRt
Minister for Information and Broadcasting Marriyum
Aurangzeb on Sunday derided
Pakistan Tehreek-e-
Insaf (PTI)
Chairman
Imran Khan for allegedly evading arrest. In a tweet, the minister said that Imran Khan, who allegedly stole Toshakhana gifts and was “responsible” for economic destruction and inflation in the country, “escaped from Zaman Park residence fearing imminent arrest”. She said that the PTI chief had allegedly “dodged his daughter”, and now escaped from Zaman Park residence by “dodging children, party workers and women” [gathered outside his residence]. Sharing a picture of Nawaz Sharif, she said that genuine leaders bravely face arrest even in sham cases, but “jackal criminals like Imran flee away [fearing arrest]”. In another tweet, Marriyum Aurangzeb called Imran Khan a “jackal” for hiding behind his workers to prevent his arrest in corruption cases. The minister said ironically, Imran Khan got bail in almost every case, whether it was related to “abusing a female judge or launching an attack on the court and police or concealing information about his [alleged] daughter from the court”. Marriyum in a satire asked Imran whether this time he would go to the court by a “truck”. “A proven jackal calls himself a leader,” she quipped.
KARACHI
Staff RepoRt
Chairman Pakistan Peoples Party & Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari inaugurated Seed `Subsidy Programme: Reimbursement for wheat Seed’ by pressing a key of the computer and transferred Rs8.39 billion to Benazir Income Support Program (BISP) which started disbursing an amount of Rs5000 per acre to the small growers holding agricultural land up to 12 acres. The programme was organized by the agriculture department in collaboration with BISP here at the Banquet Hall and was attended by Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah, MPA Ms Faryal Talpur, former chief minister Syed Qaim Ali Shah, Sindh PPP President Nisar Khuhro, Federal Minister Shazia Mari and Advisor to the CM Manzoor Wassan, provincial ministers, MPAs, MNAs. earlier, Chairman Bilawal Bhutto, through a presentation was told that the Floods of 2022 destroyed 3.6 million Acres of Kharif crops out of 4.4 million Acres. The Farmers suffered a loss to the tune of Rs. 421 billion. The Chief Minister said that the disruption of the crop cycle threatened our food security, livelihoods, and economy. He added that the Sindh government, on the directives of the party leadership planned to support the farmers in the form of enhancing the support price of wheat and Agriculture inputs to revive the agriculture sector.
PTI chief Imran Khan’s aversion to arrest is wellknown, but nothing showed it more than the resistance that was put up to the Islamabad police team, backed by reinforcements from the Punjab police, that reached his Zaman Park residence to execute the arrest warrants issued by a sessions judge in Islamabad, which had seen Mr Khan fail to appear four times for the reading to him of the indictment, following which he would plead, and after which the trial would duly proceed.
It may be remembered that the trial is for his having filed an incorrect declaration before the election Commission of Pakistan in the forbidden funding case. The eCP’s finding is the basis of this trial, where if he is found guilty, he would be disqualified from membership of the National Assembly.
The resistance to arrest saw Mr Khan add insult to injury for the Islamabad police team, when after being told he was not available, it learnt that he was addressing the workers who had assembled to protect him from arrest. Mr Khan apparently saw no irony in saying that he wanted to thank the workers for their participation in the Jail Bharo Tehrik, which had recently been called off. Mr Khan’s resistance to arrest was attended by an atmosphere of violence, for despite pious talk from PTI spokesman Fawad Chaudhry, Mr Khan was resisting compliance with a warrant. When he was PM, the opposition provided many examples of leaders submitting to arrest, even in cases which later proved to be without any evidence. Mr Khan claims the cases against him are political persecution, but in this case, the arrest has been ordered by a court, not the government, in a case initiated by the eCP, not the government.
All the talk of the arrest being a ‘red line’ for PTI supporters gives the impression that his arrest would be followed by acts of open rebellion by PTI supporters. PTI supporters are plentiful, and may even be a majority, but the response to previous calls to arms, like the Long Marches on Islamabad and the Jail Bharo Tehrik, seem to indicate that PTI supporters are ready enough to vote for it, as seen in the series of recent by-elections, but are not ready to commit any violence. Mr Khan would do well to styop trying to show that he is above the law, and submit to it, even if he does not agree with it. After all, that is why he is afforded a rial, so that he can present his defence without restraint or restriction.
Arif Nizami Yousaf Nizami Editor
A neighbourhood provides a case study for everywhere
of that is disposed of in ubiquitous open dumping sites.
Bara Kahu is in Islamabad’s fourth peripheral zone. According to local municipal authorities, its population is 450,000, mainly in unplanned residential areas. It is continuously expanding in population and infrastructure, posing serious administrative challenges. CDA estimates approximately 6 to 8 tons of solid waste being produced by Barakahu per daily.
Barakahu lacks systematic coordination between the local Union Councils, responsible for the primary waste collection and CDA, responsible for the secondary collection. Thus the dwellers have no choice but to dispose of their domestic waste in open dumping sites or nearby passing nullahs, or to burn it.
participate in such projects, how much the authorities are concerned about the issues and also the depth of their implications on the residents. electronic media such as TV commercials, advertisements on social media and ringtones can serve as a beneficial and efficient source for raising awareness among the residents of the area. Also, cautionary ads should be run on TVs and social media for example regarding the burning of household waste in open areas being fined, and dumping of hazardous chemicals or waste in open water reservoirs should be prohibited and people should be reminded that they would bear the consequences if caught doing such acts.
Men, women and children should be trained and guided according to their specified role that they can play in managing solid waste at personal and community level.The 5 Rs strategy should be advertised and marketed through posters and commercials.
Environmental security is one of the most under emphasixed topics of the non-traditional security concerns the world is facing now. Particularly for developing countries like Pakistan, that lack both resources and effective administration to tackle the challenges. Among these long-standing issues is the rising challenge of managing solid waste, of which the country produces approximately 50 million tons annually with a 2.4 percent increase.
Barakahu, a suburb of Islamabad provides a case study. According to reports, Barakahu alone produces six to right tons of solid waste daily. Previously in 2020, CDA tried to clean its streets but it was not sustainable.
According to an international solid waste association report, municipal waste is the second largest component of global solid waste. In less developed countries like Pakistan the mechanism of waste collection is not according to international safety and hygiene standards. The solid waste situation in Asia is alarming and needs prudent handling. Of the 50 largest dumping sites, 17 are in Asia, two in Pakistan.
Unplanned urbanization is a key cause. According to a Pakistan environmental Protection Agency report, of the 37.9 percent of urban population, 2530 live in scattered settlements with no proper water and sanitation infrastructure. According to an estimate by the Climate Change Ministry, Pakistan produces 71,000 tonnes of solid waste daily.
Pakistan is confronted with serious environmental challenges, and has the least support in the fight against climate change Strong economic growth and contributing industrialisation has led to an uncontrolled increase in solid waste production. The country generates about 20,000,000 tonnes of solid waste yearly, increasing at over two percent annually. Much is burned or dumped in open air landfills creating serious environment and public health risks.
Among the various reasons for the persistence of environmental catastrophes, unprocessed solid waste is at the top. Research shows that only 60 percent is collected from major cities in Pakistan. and 90 percent
Pakistani default will mean terrorists on the rise
age and never flunk in the 21st Century. If Pakistan flunks, the jihadist and terrorist factions will be empowered to intrude in the domestic setup of the country. This will cause social discontent and social anarchy in Pakistan. If these social anomalies exist in Pakistan they will not stop here. The will spread like a contingent pandemic across the globe.
The heaps of garbage in the empty plots in Barakahu bear testimony to the inefficiency and indifference of administrative authorities to solid waste management.The natural water springs that flow from Margalla hills and pass through the areas of Malpur, Barakahu and Bani Gala have becomes a pollution hub and have turned into stinky drains because they have become dumping grounds for domestic waste. According to WASA, if a 250-ml polythene bag was dipped into the lake one could find 500 coliform bacteria per millilitre in it (coliform: a bacteria found in human faeces, causing hepatitis). Despite various proposals to find alternatives and to clean these streams by building filtration plants, nothing has been implemented and no action taken by the authorities to address and resolve these issues permanently.
Keeping in view the socio-political aspects of Barakahu, the following policy recommendations are being made. The strategy is divided into three phases including surveys of the local residents to get an understanding of the overall awareness level and the consent of the citizens. This will also help indicate the root causes of the issue at primary and secondary level. The second phase would be to increase awareness of the message. The final phase will include implementation of solid waste management and recycling of international standard.
Initially a KAP (Knowledge, Attitude, Practices) survey should be conducted and followed with indepth interviews to get detailed information about the issue from the residents which will help to point out the root causes of the issue at both primary and secondary level. This will help to get a knowledge about the present practices of the individuals and how they manage their household waste, their willingness to
Pakistan can herald a double crisis— economic and security— which can spread to other states. Due to the connectivity of a large flux of stakeholders and internationalist agendas, the decline of Pakistan is directly linked to the decline of many countries. On these bases, they will never let down the economic collapse but they will shoulder the Pakistani economy to survive on ventilator.
The Pakistani economic meltdown has metastasized into a full-blown payments emergency. After 75 years Pakistan’s economy is in a sagging position. here the proposed prospects to discuss are the concerns about the default of Pakistan in 2023.
Pakistan is a sandwich state which is the hallmark of global convulsions. The convergence of all global stakeholders is at the core of this state. The Pakistani economy is at a critical juncture because of imbalances and many other factors like more consumption and inadequate savings, deficit of balance of payments, poor social indicators, and loss incurring state-owned enterprises. The economic insecurity is directly linked to insurgency and terrorism which is again at the surface in the state of affairs. Pakistan will not default in any circumstances due to many reasons.
Pakistan has a prime position geographically and globally in the region. Pakistan is the favorite state of the global community to man-
At this critical juncture of the Pakistani economic meltdown, the USA should push the Pakistani government toward a debtrestructuring procedure. China should give credit for debt repayment. If Pakistan is stuck in debt stress, then it is inevitable that we will stumble into an economic slowdown and become more barren
We are living in the neoliberal economic setup where the depression of one state causes the depletion of other states due to the interconnectivity and interdependence of the social and economic stakeholders. Terrorism, immigration, migration, and unemployment will vertically rise in case of the economic collapse in Pakistan. That will also cause a burden on the Western and Middle eastern states. States in the international system are very calculated to avert the risks. Realists’ perspectives on International hierarchy propel states to curb the rising threats to their stability. Codependency even for security concerns is the central question of existence for any state. The issues in the world’s fifth largest country can be a tipping point to export social schism, polarization, an extension of extremism, and mass depression into the other recipient states in the Middle east, China, and even some states of the Western world.
The Pakistani economy is at a critical juncture because of imbalances and many other factors like more consumption and inadequate savings, deficit of balance of payments, poor social indicators, and loss incurring state-owned enterprises.
The anarchy in Pakistan can upset China and its flagswhip projects in Pakistan. For instance, the threat to Pakistani internal economic infrastructure is also vulnerable to Chinese investment. Chinese investment is at a challenge if Pakistan defaults and becomes a client of any imperial power of the Western world. For example, the resurfacing of TTP in
As for solutions, Pakistan’s economy is in a challenging position just like the Indian economy at the end of the 20th century. Pakistan must learn some lessons from the Indian strategies at that time to combat the malice of economic discontinuity.
The macroeconomic imbalances can be dealt with through the mature digitization of the economy, boosting credit growth, and GDP growth over the medium term. Opening the market and creating digital ventures in commerce will open the global markets for the smallest of businesses. The road to the boom in the Pakistani economy and the health of economic expansion can be ensured through the privatization of government entities, new reforms, prioritization of infrastructure spending, deregulation, and considering prospects to increase the net FDI-to-GDP ratio. At this critical juncture of the Pakistani economic meltdown, the USA should push the Pakistani government toward a debt-restructuring procedure. China should give credit for debt repayment. If Pakistan is stuck in debt stress, then it is inevitable that we will stumble into an economic slowdown and become more barren.
The writer is a transportation engineer with postgraduations in English literature and political science
During this process, the government should provide several incentives to engage and get public attention.For example, giving away free clothmade reusable grocery bags to the residents and thus initiating “refuse the use of plastic bags”.Public should also be made aware of the “segregation of solid waste” strategy. The government should provide three different colours of bins in the streets and bags should be provided to the dwellers to segregate the solid waste. The most harmful and non-useable materials such as broken glass, electric wires and switches, expired medicines, and such things should be kept in a separate bag and disposed of separately.Secondly the food waste or the kitchen waste should be packed separately so that it can be used to make organic fertilizers.If mixed with other trash, it would cause enormous air pollution because of the humble gas emissions that will eventually lead to several diseases.And lastly, the reusable materials, such as plastic bottles and paper, should be placed in a separate container.
If the segregation of solid waste is successfully done at household level, it will prove very convenient for the waste collectors to sort the waste.For example, the harmful waste that is non-reusable can be burned to generate electricity.Food waste can be sent to the fertilizer industries and used to make organic fertilizers and pet foods. The reusable plastic and paper can be recycled to make new materials again.The capital gain from these industries can then be used to buy logistics for managing solid waste and hiring labor and waste collectors.Thus it can generate a circular economy which can prove to be very beneficial for the area if implemented.
The writer is a freelance columnist
Send
ThIS is with reference to the report ‘School promises strict action in torture case’ (Jan 26). It seems quite plausible to say that the more people have written about bullyism in educational insti-tutions, the more it has been overlooked. The recent incident of bullyism at an elite school in Lahore proves that our students have not been sensitised about the menace of bullyism and its traumatic impact on the victims.
Actually, in the pursuit of elitist snobbery and adventurism, elite schools facetiously reckon skirmishes among students a part and parcel of academic life. At public schools, teachers’ apathy regarding bullyism has plummeted to an all-time low. Out of numerous individual and structural reasons, one is the tendency on the part of the teachers to keep themselves aloof from frictions and conflicts among the students. They hush up the matter, asking the victims to avoid the bullies. Secondly, and structurally, they are helpless because government educational policies are silent on punishing or rusticating the bullies.
There is no chance of teachers not being aware of the aggressive behaviour of such students. They just prefer to look the other way at the tell-tale signs of recalcitrant attitude in certain students. Why? The whole rub lies in the answer to this interrogative exclamation.
Private institutions value education as a merchandise. even if such bullies are reported to the school management concerned, the latter is reluctant to take any action against them. In fact, all efforts are aimed at somehow simply sweeping the matter under the rug.
When teachers report bullying to the management, it prefers to dillydally the matter, encouraging the teachers to ignore such students. In the recent incident in Lahore, had it not been recorded and posted on the social media where it went viral, the bullies would have gone scot free. That is precisely what happens in most such cases, leaving more and more students vulnerable to violence.
In the presence of such miscreants, school life becomes miserable for the students. Sometimes the victims do not share their trauma even with their parents, and internalise such an agonising experience that eventually results in psychological aberrations. It also affects adversely the victims’ studies and attendance at school.
The viral video showing the bullies sitting astride the victim was enough to send shivers down one’s spine, and brought to mind the “I can’t breathe” helplessness in the final words of the man who was killed by a chokehold in the United States, which led to the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement. It was hard for any parent to merely watch the video in full without feeling the pain, anguish and helplessness of the poor girl. It was nothing short of horrible.
The apathy of the school management and the spinelessness of teachers give bullies a sort of carte blanche to commit such inhumanity. A teacher backed by the management can easily rein in the bullies. In contrast, a teacher devoid of any say in such matters fails to nip such tendencies in the bud. The failure to address such complaints early emboldens the bullies.
Children learn to become aggressive at home. Parents’ ignorance of their children’s aggressiveness leads to a violent streak in the latter. So, first of all parents should be held responsible if their child gets rusticated from school for bullying.
It has been proven by many a research that mental or behavioural bullying precedes the physical one. Before being physical, bullies put the victims to mental torture and deterrence by trolling, threatening, calling nicknames and snatching the belongings of victims.
Vigilant parents and empowered teachers can together stem the rot. Yes, they can. Wholesome moral nourishment can save our younger ones, who would sooner or later find that the more we hate ourselves — indicating low self-esteem — the more we want others to suffer. That is what bullying actually is.
If the segregation of solid waste is successfully done at household level, it will prove very convenient for the waste collectors to sort the waste.
LAST week I had a group call with school friends living abroad for the last three to four decades.
Conversation with schoolfellows is always a blessing because it makes you as young as a 10year-old boy; at least for some hours— nostalgia is the biggest reality of middle age. Almost all of my friends were expressing worries about the motherland they left behind and everybody was asking me questions about what would be next as Pakistan, according to them, is on the verge of economic collapse.
I had no answer to share with them although I had many covert answers for myself. We have already collapsed morally and socially, and that would later or sooner result in economic collapse. I know I live in a state where thousands of former employees of the State take half a million rupees as their monthly pensions, over one and a half million as monthly salaries and even there are many who take double the figures I mentioned above as monthly salaries and pensions while the poor are selling their bodies for Rs 1000 or so because they do not have anything left to sell.
A video report I recently watched explains the prostitution business is thriving in Lahore, particularly in slum areas. When we probe the situation we find that prostitution is not being chosen for money making but rather for clearing electricity and gas bills by a large number of people who have lost hope and seek opportunities to survive. A single-question survey can be conducted in which you can ask people randomly in the street “Whom the state
of Pakistan is serving?” I believe you will find the majority of answers telling you that the state is working only for state institutions and state employees while the economic opportunities are squeezing every passing day for the 230 million population with over 50 percent youth.
Regrettably, our youth is mostly unskilled or semiskilled, so what option is left with them? I believe that the ongoing census will tell us horrific data about the reality of our social structure (if this census is being done honestly and if its actual report is ever shared with the public). I trust our State knows the reality but it does not want to indulge in fixing or rectifying and it is following the policy of “let people decide themselves”. I firmly believe that the State is waiting for an explosion because this is the best option to fix the situation once social collapse completes its natural cycle.We will see how long it will take to complete the cycle.
As I mentioned above that people think that State is the mother of only state institutions and its employees, I would share recent news that would give my reader an idea how the State is working for state employees.
The meeting of the Senate Standing Committee on Aviation, on March 3, found an overpayment of Rs272 billion to Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) pensioners. A special audit was recommended by the committee but I know nothing would come out of this and nobody would be tried for this mess because they all belong to an all-powerful cadre of society.
in an overpayment to CAA pensioners, the disbursement of which amounts to Rs 272 billion. Just imagine how the State is working for State employees.
Foreign media claims that Pakistan’s external debt and liabilities have virtually reached $130 billion, that according to foreign media is 95.39 percent of Pakistan’s GDP.
Pakistani media is confirming that inflation is at its highest in 48 years as food inflation reached 42.9 percent compared to 12.8 percent last year, bringing the country into a severe economic crisis. In these circumstances, the State is ensuring that its employees must get more benefits. Since the lower staff in the Federal government has access to all documents about what the elite superclass is getting as salaries, perks, privileges, and packages, so satisfying the lower staff is an excellent move for bureaucrats before they start sharing data with the public out of their “Pakistaniat”, so sharing more benefit with them was also the need of the day. In the second week of February 2023, the Finance Division notified special dispensation for the federal government employees from pay scale 1-15 with retrospective effect, January 1. BPS-01 to BPS-05 will be granted two higher pay scales as a one-time dispensation if they have not availed of time scales under timescale policy-2022.
The federal wage bill multiplied 2.9 times during the decade, while the strength, which had actually been on a declining path until 2016, remained unchanged at one million.
The meeting observed the payment of pensions and emoluments to retired employees of the CAA that retired between 2014-2015 and 2022-2023.
The committee was informed that the said retired employees were supposed to be paid pensions and other emoluments according to the CAA Pay and Pensions Regulations, 2014 (amended 2019); however, instead have been paid according to the Government of Pakistan as per the CAA Service Regulations 2000. It was observed that employees were granted pension increases in line with the federal government till 2019. This resulted
BPS-06 to BPS-15 will be granted the next higher scale as a one-time dispensation if they have not availed of time scale under the time scale Policy2022. employees in BPS-16 will be granted one additional increment as time dispensation, the post of lower division clerk (LDC) will be upgraded from BPS-09 to BPS-11 and that of upper division clerk (UDC) from BPS-11 to BPS-13 along with incumbents, and recruitment rules will be amended by establishment Division accordingly as per upgradation policy.
According to an article by Dr. Ishrat husain titled “3.2 million government employees: Is the bureaucracy too big?”, the government employs 3.2 million. Total government expenditure is around 22 percent of GDP. The strength of government employees in 2009-10 was 2.7 million—federal 0.9 million and provinces 1.8 mil-
PAKISTAN’S ENTIRE ANNUAL REVENUE CAN NO LONGER SERVICE PAYMENTS ON ITS DEBT
industrial supply chains and consumers.
Researchers at the World Resources Institute tallied the carnage of last August:
seven programs derailed by “substantial policy slippages”. Despite IMF efforts, tax revenue actually fell in that period to 12.1 percent of GDP, from 13.5 percent.
lion. In absolute terms, there has been an addition of 0.4 million over a decade– almost all of it in the provincial governments, which now have 2.2 million employees, or 70 percent of the total, up slightly from 66 percent a decade ago. he writes that the wage bill of the four provincial governments was Rs 350 billion in 2009-10 and has escalated more than four times by 2019-20.
The federal wage bill multiplied 2.9 times during the decade, while the strength, which had actually been on a declining path until 2016, remained unchanged at one million. In 2016-2017, the federal government added 116,000 new employees, the majority of whom were in lower-level positions. For the first time since then, there has been a reduction in the number of employees in 2019-2020 as a result of the restructuring of the federal government, but this reduction is only in lower grades.
Dr. Ishrat husain says that from a citizen’s perspective, the critical question is what functions these 3.2 million employees perform in the delivery of basic public goods and services for which they are paid.
While providing break-up of services he indicates that 35 percent of federal employees are serving in security, and law and order agencies (civilian armed forces such as the Rangers, Frontier Constabulary, police, FIA, Intelligence Bureau, and civilians working at GhQ, PAF, and PN headquarters and establishments), 20 percent were engaged in the provision of infrastructure services including in Railways, postal services, highways, ports, and aviation. Power generation, transmission, and distribution, and oil, and gas have 18 percent. The remaining 27 percent are engaged in social sectors, commercial and trade promotion, tax collection, regulatory, judicial and quasi-judicial (tribunals), training and research, external relations, media relations, parliamentary support, and the Islamabad Capital Territory.
A reader is better to judge what kind of services they are providing to a common Pakistani who is serving them with her or his blood and sweat. None of them looks ready to sacrifice for the country by accepting reductions in pensions, salaries, perks, allowances, and so` on. Why should they sacrifice their packages because the country had readily available 230 million sacrificial heads if ever there is a need for enhancing tax collection?
The writer is an international award winning journalist who has been in the field since 1988 and appears in national and international media as analyst and political scientist.
Phenomenal World
tIM Sahay and KatE MacKEnzIE
IN the torrent of criticism of the IMF and World Bank for their role in deepening Pakistan’s economic troubles (there is plenty of blame owed to them) the role of Pakistan’s own ruling class often gets pushed to the background. What you may not have heard about Pakistan—notorious for having received 23 IMF bailouts, for being a nuclear-armed state with terrorist groups, for suffering climate catastrophe of biblical proportions—is that the nation of 220 million people is being screwed by its domestic elites.
IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva got it right this past weekend at the Munich Security Conference when she argued for reforming domestic tax collection. “It shouldn’t be that the wealthy benefit from subsidies. It should be the poor,” Georgieva told a German broadcaster.
The recent floods which devastated onethird of the country are an emergency of unprecedented scale, and Pakistani diplomats have been shrewd in using the crisis to press for an urgently needed global “Loss and Damage” fund. What the floods must not become is more cover for the country’s ruling elites to defer domestic reform. earlier this month, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif complained that the IMF was giving his country a “tough time” over accessing funding, in the midst of an “unimaginable” economic crisis. Former PM Imran Khan, recovering from a failed assassination attempt, is preparing for a dramatic election season ripe with IMF-bashing. But domestically, none of these warring factions has proposed reforming the regressive tax code, which is riddled with exemptions for powerful military generals, judges, and landowners.
During periods of crisis, the parliament frequently resorts to raising sales and fuel taxes, and levies on less politically powerful sectors, increasing cost-of-living burdens on consumers and rural peasants while driving more ordinary economic activity into the sprawling black market.
On February 14th, the federal tax board raised the goods and services tax from 17 to 18 percent, following recent increases to petroleum tax, in a move that would deepen Pakistan’s existing revenue woes. Pakistan’s federal income tax ordinance “contains 118 pages of exemptions and low rates of taxes granted to the rich and powerful,” writes huzaima Bukhari, an attorney and tax expert, while “those who can hardly afford to eke out a decent human living are expected to contribute to the treasury.”
For the coming year, Pakistan’s government estimates tax revenue of PKR 5 trillion. With interest rates rising another 300 basis points, the new estimate of debt servicing costs has soared to PKR 5.2 trillion. In other words, Pakistan’s entire annual revenue can no longer service payments on its debt. Meanwhile, central bank reserves have dipped precipitously in the last year. At present they are not enough to cover the cost of three weeks of imports, further hammering
“Torrential rains and flooding impacted 33 million people and caused more than $40 billion in economic damages. The catastrophic flooding left 1,700 people dead, 2 million homes destroyed and killed over 900,000 livestock… The country is now experiencing mass displacement, food insecurity, loss of livelihoods and an increased risk of waterborne disease, drowning and malnutrition.”
Under these strained conditions, Pakistan’s legislature is now negotiating a $6.5 billion bailout package with the IMF. The nation has gone to the IMF more than any other country, including Argentina. But this time—in the wake of the floods, and recent terrorist attack in Peshawar reviving geopolitical fears of Pakistan as a “too nuclear to fail” state—the crisis has a new urgency.
SOLDIERING ON? Given dismal tax revenues, how is Pakistan’s economy functioning? The eU’s geo-economic decision to include Pakistan in its free-trade zone has helped. It is europe, and not China, that is the largest importer of Pakistani export goods. And sales, dominated by textiles, have soared since 2014, when the eU lowered import duties to zero. But that GSP status is up for renewal in 2023, conditional on labor, environmental, and good governance standards.
Meanwhile, the ongoing oil boom in the Gulf means 9 percent of Pakistan’s GDP comes in the form of remittances from millions of its citizens working there. Dollar infusions from Saudi Arabia are also a crucial lifeline. The Kingdom has stepped in with multi-billion dollar credit lines, sent dollarsfor-military-aid, and requested nuclear knowhow as they seek to deter Iran. But these are temporary measures—as were, after all, each of the IMF’s successive rescue packages.
In a 2012 LSe paper, former IMF economists ehtisham Ahmed and Azeali Mohammed explain Pakistan’s twinned domestic inertia and inconsistent relationship with official external financing. They see the “stop-go” of official debt, particularly from the US, as delaying the day when Pakistani rulers would be held accountable for building domestic state capacity.
“exceptionally favorable conditionality and flexibility in giving waivers, on not meeting even soft conditionality standards, has led successive Pakistani governments to treat lightly the fundamental issue of domestic resource mobilization,” they write. This extended the rule of “weak civilian governments vying for popularity, and military governments without political support seeking legitimacy.” Already by the 1980s, Pakistan had broken the “golden rule” of fiscal prudence, and began borrowing to fund current spending. Nearly every subsequent government deferred the need to expand the tax base and close loopholes.
Pakistan made and abandoned attempts at reforms to raise tax revenue throughout this period, including in the mid-1980s, the late 1990s and mid-2000s. each effort foundered when geopolitical events led to a surge in US support and cheap dollars. The IMF’s own Independent evaluation Office in 2002 pointed out that the country was almost continuously in Fund programs between 1988 and 2000, with all but one of the
Ultimately, Pakistani elites’ resistance to broadening the country’s tax base point to the primacy of geoeconomics in determining the country’s fortunes. To the US, Pakistan is above all a military outpost—which can always be propped up with accommodative lending. That has pushed the IMF to play a role that IMF economists themselves say is toxic for the country’s ambitions to be a modern, tax-collecting state.
What revenue Pakistan does collect is not always effectively channeled into urgent investment.
POWER AND POWER: The country’s energy infrastructure illustrates this. Ahmed and Mohammed wrote in 2012 that under-investment in energy had led to planned power cuts which particularly affected the industrial and export sectors. Today the country’s power generation capacity well exceeds the demand on it, but a quarter of the population still has no electricity at all, mostly because the grid doesn’t reach rural areas.
Burned by europeans outbidding them for LNG shipments last year, the country is now declaring it will increase coal-fired power generation four-fold, running on domestic fuel that doesn’t require precious hard currency. It was not “immediately clear” how the coal plants would be financed, Reuters noted, when even China and Japan are backing away from such projects. Nor is it clear how building more of the centralized over-indebted coal power would improve an energy system already hampered by inadequate transmission infrastructure.
The World Bank, hardly a champion of climate action, said in 2020 that even Pakistan’s locally fuelled coal power was uneconomic due to falling costs of renewables like wind and solar, which only supply about 2 percent of Pakistan’s power. Tax breaks on solar and wind equipment were reversed early last year in a dash to unlock another tranche of IMF finance. Improving a country’s energy system requires the patient policymaking that neither the government of the day nor international financial institutions have brought.
The available solutions to the crises that Pakistan faces raise suspicions domestically and internationally: While the IMF worries that bailouts will pass through directly to Pakistan’s elites, the US worries that any debt haircuts it accepts will only furnish repayments to Pakistan’s Chinese creditors.
As finance ministers gather this week in India, the G20 leader is putting more pressure on China to take haircuts on distressed debt. But with China continuing to call for multilateral lenders to take losses in the restructuring—an unreasonable and perhaps deliberately obstinate request, as Brad Setser has argued—Pakistan’s nest of international lenders looks as intransigent as its brazenly elite-captured domestic economy.
Tim Sahay is Senior Policy Manager at the Green New Deal Network. Kate Mackenzie is an independent writer, researcher and consultant who advises organizations seeking to achieve the Paris Agreement goals. She is a regular contributor for Bloomberg Green.
AROUND GENERATIVE AI
legislation aimed at curbing the worst harms associated with artificial intelligence.
While generative AI is a Wild West right now, says henry Ajder, an expert on generative AI who contributed to the guidelines, he hopes they will offer companies key things they need to look out for as they incorporate the technology into their businesses.
Raising awareness and starting a conversation around responsible ways to think about synthetic media is important, says hany Farid, a professor at the University of California, Berkeley, who researches synthetic media and deepfakes. But “voluntary guidelines and principles rarely work,” he adds.
Agroup of 10 companies, including OpenAI, TikTok, Adobe, the BBC, and the dating app Bumble, have signed up to a new set of guidelines on how to build, create, and share AI-generated content responsibly.
The recommendations call for both the builders of the technology, such as OpenAI, and creators and distributors of digitally created synthetic media, such as the BBC and TikTok, to be more transparent about what the technology can and cannot do, and disclose when people might be interacting with this type of content.
The voluntary recommendations were put together by the Partnership on AI (PAI), an AI research nonprofit, in consultation with over 50 organizations. PAI’s partners include big tech companies as well as academic, civil society, and media organizations. The first 10 companies to commit to the guidance are Adobe, BBC, CBC/Radio-Canada, Bumble, OpenAI, TikTok, Witness, and synthetic-media startups Synthesia, D-ID, and Respeecher.
“We want to ensure that synthetic media is not used to harm, disempower, or disenfranchise but rather to support creativity, knowledge sharing, and commentary,” says Claire Leibowicz, PAI’s head of AI and media integrity.
One of the most important elements of the guidelines is a pact by the companies to include and research ways to tell users when they’re interacting with something that’s been generated by AI. This might include watermarks or disclaimers, or traceable elements in an AI model’s training data or metadata.
Regulation attempting to rein in potential harms relating to generative AI is still lagging behind. The european Union, for example, is trying to include generative AI in its upcoming AI law, the AI Act, which could include elements such as disclosing when people are interacting with deepfakes and obligating companies to meet certain transparency requirements. The european Union is planning new
While companies such as OpenAI can try to put guardrails on technologies they create, like ChatGPT and DALL-e, other players that are not part of the pact—such as Stability.AI, the startup that created the open source image-generating AI model Stable Diffusion—can let people generate inappropriate images and deepfakes.
“If we really want to address these issues, we’ve got to get serious,” says Farid. For example, he wants cloud service providers and app stores such as those operated by Amazon, Microsoft, Google, and Apple, which are all part of the PAI, to ban services that allow people to use deepfake technology with the intent to create nonconsensual sexual imagery. Watermarks on all AI-generated content should also be mandated, not voluntary, he says.
Another important thing missing is how the AI systems themselves could be made more responsible, says Ilke Demir, a senior research scientist at Intel who leads the company’s work on the responsible development of generative AI. This could include more details on how the AI model was trained, what data went into it, and whether generative AI models have any biases.
The guidelines have no mention of ensuring that there’s no toxic content in the data set of generative AI models. “It’s one of the most significant ways harm is caused by these systems,” says Daniel Leufer, a senior policy analyst at the digital rights group Access Now.
The guidelines include a list of harms that these companies want to prevent, such as fraud, harassment, and disinformation. But a generative AI model that always creates white people is also doing harm, and that is not currently listed, adds Demir.
Farid raises a more fundamental issue. Since the companies acknowledge that the technology could lead to some serious harms and offer ways to mitigate them, “why aren’t they asking the question ‘Should we do this in the first place?’”
COMPANIES INCLUDING OPENAI AND TIKTOK HAVE SIGNED UP TO A NEW SET OF GUIDELINES DESIGNED TO HELP THEM BE MORE TRANSPARENTa letter from Prometheus agha Iqrar haroon
Agencies
BEFOREthe Turkish earthquake, Abdullah Senel had nerves of steel. But these days, just being inside a house makes him nervous — and it only takes the sound of a plane flying overhead to put him on edge.
“I was fearless in the past, but now a single noise is enough to freak me out,” the 57-year-old former weightlifter told AFP.
“Everything reminds me of the earthquake — even the sound of a plane,” he said.
Last month’s devastating 7.8-magnitude earthquake flattened entire cities, killing more than 50,000 people across southeastern Turkey and parts of Syria.
In Kahramanmaras, a Turkish city near the quake’s epicentre, survivors remain haunted by the trauma one month on.
“It’s been a month now but for me, it feels like yesterday,” said Adem Serin as he watched heavy machines remove the piles of rubble in the complex of high-
rises where hundreds lost their lives.
“We couldn’t get over the shock. I was caught by the quake on the 11th floor of a high-rise building,” said Serin, whose wife is five months pregnant.
“I can still hear the screams of people crying for help on every floor. This pain will never go away.” Efforts to remove the ubiquitous rubble now dominate the
LAHORE stAFF rePort
FG Polo clinched the coveted trophy of the 2nd President of Pakistan Polo Cup 2023 sponsored by Takmeel Square after edging past BN Polo by 9½-9 in the main final here at the Jinnah Polo Fields.
The main final of five rounds remained very enthralling and interesting. Raul Laplacette was the hero of the final as he amused the spectators with his outstanding mallet and polo pony skills and techniques. He contributed with superb six goals while his teammates Ramiro Zavaleta, Saqib Khan Khakwani and Mian Abbas Mukhtar converted one goal apiece. For BN Polo, Hamza Mawaz Khan fired in four goals while Tito Ruiz Guinazu contributed with a hat-trick and Baber Naseem with a brace.
The main final saw both the teams scoring one goal each in the first chukker to end it at 1-1. FG Polo started the second chukker with a conversion of 30-yard penalty to take a 2-1 lead but BN Polo bounced back well by thrashing in two back-to-back goals to earn a slight 3-2 lead. FG Polo then dominated the third chukker by cracking a classic quartet against one goal by BN Polo to gain a healthy 6-4 lead.
The highly-charged fourth chukker saw both the sides playing out their hearts and scoring one goal after another but BN Polo played better polo and smashed in five goals against three goals by FG Polo to draw the score at 9-9. It was a half goal handicap advantage that helped FG Polo emerge as winners of the prestigious tournament and clinch the coveted trophy, handed over to them by President of Pakistan Dr. Arif Alvi. Chris Hyde and John Fisher officiated the match as field umpires.
Earlier, Master Paints defeated Remounts by 9½-7 to win the subsidiary final. Manuel Crispo emerged as star of the day for Master Paints, which had a half goal handicap advantage, as he smashed in superb five goals while Sufi Muhammad Haroon banged in a brace and Agha Musa Ali Khan and Pelagio Balazaldi struck one goal each. For Remounts, Manuel Sundblad hammered five goals while Ahmad Zubair Butt and Jota Chavavanne converted one goal each.
President of Pakistan Dr. Arif Alvi grace the final as chief guest and witnessed and enjoyed the enthralling and entertaining final. Jinnah Polo Fields Patron, President, Secretary as well as Takmeel Square CEO Dr. Kamran Fazal, and people from different walks of life were present on the occasion.
At the closing ceremony, President of Pakistan Dr. Arif Alvi distributed prizes among the winners and top performers. Man of the match trophy was awarded to Raul Laplacette while the best mare of the match trophy was awarded to Mian Abbas Mukhtar’s polo pony Funa. Army band also amused the spectators with their impressive performance. Rangers and Aitchison College boys and girls team also put on a spectacular display of tent-pegging.
ISLAMABAD stAFF rePort
wind and generating grey clouds seen from kilometres away, blurring the visibility in the region surrounded by mountains.
“200 to 250 tons of debris is removed here daily, we are irrigating so that it will not disturb the environment and not create dust,” said Eren Genc, of the forestry directorate in the eastern Sivas province. He said: “We didn’t spot any bodies but yesterday there was a strong smell,” directing a hose at the concrete slabs. “I think it will be done here in 10 days.” Operators sometimes come across precious objects while working to remove the rubble.
The National University of Sciences and Technology (NUST), with coordination of China Study Center, signed three documents of understanding with relevant parties in China to boost agriculture productivity in Pakistan. NUST officials say the Pakistan-China Agriculture Project is a significant initiative and would serve as a model for other countries in the region to emulate and reinforce the belief that cooperation and partnership could lead to significant achievements and benefits for all.
city of 1.1 million people. Workers who arrived from all over Turkey spray water on the debris and rubble-laden trucks trundle along the road waiting to dump the waste into a landfill outside the city.
– Clouds of dust –Columns of dust emerging from the clean-up cover the horizon, carried by the
Levent Topal, from the waterworks authority in the Black Sea region, said his team spotted a safe deposit box in the rubble full of dollars, euros, gold and documents. “We never touch them, we deliver it to the police who find the owner,” he said. A 54-year-old man took a big risk and climbed to the seventh floor of his building to retrieve items — despite the danger and the more than 11,000 aftershocks that followed the earthquake.
ISLAMABAD stAFF rePort
Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) has announced the commencement of its flight operations for Hajj from May 21 until August 2.
According to a statement issued by the flag carrier, it will transport over 38,000 intending pilgrims to Saudi Arabia during this operation. Hajj season is expected to begin on June 26 in 2023.
The government of the Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) coalition has introduced incentives for pilgrims willing to pay their dues in US dollars, in an effort to bolster foreign reserves, which have been dwindling rapidly. A 25 percent special quota has also been allocated for those who choose to deposit the amount in the greenback, and those who pay the application fees and other charges in the American currency will receive a discount.
The Hajj Policy 2023 allows pilgrims to choose the currency they wish to pay in, and those paying in dollars will be exempt from balloting.
COVID RESTRICTIONS EASED: Saudi Arabia has removed Covid-19 restrictions for the forthcoming season and will host pre-pandemic numbers of pilgrims, the kingdom’s Ministry of Hajj and Umrah announced in January.
In 2019, the last year before the pandemic struck, some 2.6 million people performed the Hajj. The kingdom allowed only limited numbers from its residents in 2020 and 2021 before it welcomed back one million foreign pilgrims in 2022.
The ministry said the kingdom will impose no restrictions, including age limits, for this season.
Access was restricted in 2022 to pilgrims aged 18 to 65 who have been fully vaccinated or immunised against the coronavirus and did not suffer from chronic diseases.
On the instructions of Punjab Inspector General of Police Dr Usman Anwar, priority measures are being taken for the welfare of the families of police employees who died during service and in this regard, the Lahore Police recruited 59 children of deceased and martyred employees as constable in the department.
According to the details, IG Police Dr Usman Anwar invited the children and families of 59 employees to the Central Police Office where he delivered appointment letters to them during the meeting.
A lady constable is among the young constables recruited on family claim. The IGP congratulated all the young constables for becoming part of the force and directed them to perform their duty conscientiously and diligently. Dr Usman Anwar said that Punjab Police was like a family and it was his responsibility to take care of all members of the family. He said that all the young constables who were part of the police force should follow in the footsteps of their father and spare no effort in serving and pro-
tecting the citizens. Addressing the newly-recruited constables, Dr Usman Anwar said that the protection of life and property of the citizens was the first and foremost priority of the police and all the young constables who became part of the force should pledge to carry out this responsibility honestly.
The IGP while addressing the (family claim based) constables said that measures are being taken on a priority basis for the best welfare and capacity building of constables. In this regard, MoUs have been signed with several schools and colleges for providing higher education to the children of the employees who passed away during service.
He said that the constables are the part of the police force who have to represent the department by performing their duties in the field, so all the constables should consider the spirit of service and protection as their mission and play their effective role in eradicating crime from the society. Dr Usman Anwar ordered the constables to perform their duties with high morale. DIG Headquarters Humayun Bashir Tarar and SSP Administration Lahore Atif Nazir and other officers were also present on this occasion.
PARIS: Kylian Mbappe became Paris Saint-Germain’s all-time top scorer with his 201st goal for the club as the Ligue 1 leaders warmed up for their crunch trip to Bayern Munich with a 4-2 win over Nantes on Saturday. The France superstar had equalled Edinson Cavani’s previous record mark of 200 goals with a brace in last week’s win at Marseille and went one better by netting in stoppage time at the Parc des Princes. PSG had earlier squandered a two-goal lead, with Lionel Messi putting them ahead and a Jaouen Hadjam own goal making it 2-0 inside 17 minutes before Nantes fought back to draw level. Ludovic Blas pulled one back for the visitors and Ignatius Ganago equalised, but Mbappe set up Danilo Pereira to put PSG back in front on the hour mark and then claimed his record-breaking goal late on. Mbappe reached the record in just 247 appearances since signing from Monaco aged 18 in 2017. Uruguay star Cavani needed 298 games, and seven years, to establish the previous record in 2020. AFP
RAWALPINDI
stAFF rePort
Islamabad United sealed a sensational final over-win against Quetta Gladiators to confirm their spot in the playoffs of the Pakistan Super League season 8.
Najibullah Zadran and Mohammad Nawaz scored valiant fifties before Umar
Akmal made a quickfire 43 from just 14 balls to take Quetta Gladiators to a respectable target despite early setbacks against Islamabad United on Sunday. United pacers wreaked havoc early on, sinking Gladiators to 17/4 inside the powerplay
before Nawaz and Zadran led the fightback with an astounding 104-run partnership and helped their side reach 179/6 in the 20 overs.
Zadran made 59 from 34 balls including five fours and three maximums while Nawaz scored 52 off 44 laced with six scintillating boundaries. The stellar partnership between the two sailed their side to 121/4 in 16 overs before Fazalhaq Farooqi found the breakthrough.
Farooqi removed Nawaz in the 17th over and had an impressive outing with the ball overall as he dismissed the two openers, Will Smeed (0) and Yasir Khan (5), in his first spell. Akmal, however, justified his return to
the playing XI as he smashed five maximums and two four during his brief stay at the crease and minted out 21 runs in the final over to finish the proceedings in style for Gladiators.
For United, it was a mixed performance from the bowlers with spinners conceding runs at an economy above 10 and remaining wicketless while fast bowlers except Hassan Ali claimed scalps.
Faheem Ashraf bagged two wickets in the middle dismissing Sarfaraz Ahmed for 3 and Iftikhar Ahmed for 2, while Ruman Raees cleaned up Zadran in the penultimate over to register a wicket to his credit.
According to Gwadar Pro, they highlighted that the accords were inked in the field of agriculture with Weifang Engineering Vocational College, Shandong, China, the Government of Qingzhou, Shandong, China and Weifang National Agricultural Open Development Comprehensive Pilot Zone, Shandong, China in a ceremony held here.
ISLAMABAD stAFF rePort
A Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Member of the National Assembly (MNA) is expected to join Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) as he held a meeting with the PPP leadership. Media reports said that PTI MNA Dr Haider Ali Khan from PK-86 Swat contacted and met PPP leadership in Islamabad the other day and he is expected to make the announcement about joining the PPP soon. Dr Haider Ali Khan had joined PTI after parting ways with the Awami National Party (ANP) in 2014 and had also been a Member of the Provincial Assembly (MPA) in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) from the same constituency.
KARACHI stAFF rePort
The longest cycling race was organized in Karachi on Sunday under the aegis of Karachi Metropolitan Corporation. The 35-kilometer long race was started from Mazar-e-Quaid. Almost 95 participants took part in the race who reached at Governor House through Shahrae Quaideen, (Stargate Shahrah-e-Faisal).
Governor Sindh Kamran Khan Tessori and Karachi Administrator Dr Saif-ur-Rehman also attended the event and participated in the race.
The governor lauded the holding of Karachi games after a hiatus of 15 years and said that this had reminded him of his childhood years when he used to ride bicycle. International cyclist Naeem Ahmed won the first position in cycling race. Zohaib Baloch got second position, Zohaib Ahmed clinched third position and Azan Baloch won the forth position in race. Sindh Governor Kamran Tessori also distributed prizes to the winning cyclists.
KARAChI SNOOKER TOuRNAmENT: The Snooker tournament got off to a flying start at Legends Snooker Club, located in the area of Gulistan-e-Johar Karachi, reported 24NewsHD channel. The MQM leader Farooq Sattar inaugurated the event and welcomed the Karachi events.
LAHORE stAFF rePort
A civil court has restrained Reverend Nadeem Kamran from exercising authority as the Bishop of Lahore Diocese of the Church of Pakistan after a priest challenged the former’s “illegal” election to the office. The Church of Pakistan is facing a crisis since Jan 18, following the controversial election of Rev Kamran as the 10th diocesan bishop. On March 3, Lahore Civil Judge Ayaz Mahmood admitted a petition filed by Rev Samuel Barkat, the priest in-charge of Saint John’s Church of the Lahore Diocese, and barred Rev Kamran from using the bishop’s office and spending church funds. “All constitutional provisions related to election of a bishop were violated. Only a handful of people knew the actual purpose of the diocesan executive meeting held on Jan 18, while the other participants only found out about the election after they were locked in the room and forced to vote for Rev Nadeem Kamran,” said Rev Barkat. The priest said the election and subsequent consecration of Rev Nadeem as bishop by three retired bishops –Alexander John Malik, Samuel Robert Azariah and Irfan Jameel – had pushed the diocese into chaos and put the CoP unity at risk.
1.73% or Rs4.61 in the inter-bank market.
ISLaMaBaD: University of Essex graduates and award winners join special graduation in Pakistan. Delighted graduates, their friends and families came together for the University of Essex’s first graduation ceremony in Pakistan, held at a local hotel in Islamabad. More than 50 University of Essex graduates joined the celebrations at the Serena Hotel in Islamabad with hundreds of supporters watching and applauding their achievements at what is believed to be the first Graduation ceremony organized by a leading UK university in Pakistan and attended by its Vice-Chancellor.
Vice-Chancellor Professor Anthony Forster said: “We have received such a warm welcome from everyone in Pakistan and this was a fitting climax to an inspirational week. Our alumni community is incredibly important to us, and I felt absolutely privileged to meet so many of our amazing Pakistani graduates.” Vice-Chancellor Awards were presented to two outstanding graduates. Education and environment campaigner Nasira Habib and heritage and human rights champion Nasiruddin Mirza, both received awards during this historic event. In her acceptance speech Nasira said: “I feel honoured, humbled and excited at the same time. No award is more prestigious than getting recognized by your alma mater. PR
KaraChI: The University of Turbat (UoT) and Sindh
Madressatul Islam University (SMIU), Karachi signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) at SMIU. University of Turbat’s Vice Chancellor Prof Dr Jan Muhammad and SMIU’s VC Prof Dr Mujeebuddin Sahrai Memon signed on the document. According to the agreement, both Vice Chancellors agreed on implementation plans for the MoU, from both universities two of the senior faculty members including Director ORICs shall jointly workout the necessary practical implementation plans so that the students and faculty can benefit from the collaboration. Under the MoU both institutes will conduct faculty and student exchange program, joint academic and research projects, participation in research conferences, lectures, seminars, symposia, short-term academic programs and academic meetings. Both Vice Chancellors also agreed to conduct joint initiatives for establishment of entrepreneurial eco-system.
Thai Food Festival kicked off
KaraChI: Ms. Siriporn Tantipanyathep, Acting Consul General of Thailand, along with Mr. Arif Suleman, President Pak-Thai Business Forum, inaugurated the Thai Food Festival at "Chop Chop Wok" Restaurant in DHA. It was attended by diplomats from UAE, Malaysia, directors of the "Chop Chop Wok" Salman Naqi, Arsalan Ali, Rashid Siddiqui, Thai Airways, and many more. Arif Suleman said that on this occasion that Thai Chefs are specially flown to Karachi for his festival. He said that Thai Chef Ms. Prompron Sodsai, has 48 years of experience and Mr. Leem Mat Ahin, has 23 years of experience the Thai authentic food and they will present quality Thai Food and the test throughout the festival.
LAHORE Staff RePoRt
tHEFederation of Pakistan Chambers of Commerce & Industry’s Businessmen Panel (BMP) on Sunday said that the country’s economy has nosedived partly due to external factors but majorly due to non-serious and poor domestic policy decisions and mismanagement of the economic managers.
In a statement issued here, FPCCI former president and BMP Chairman Mian Anjum Nisar observed the rupee saw yet another dramatic fall in just over a month, plummeting 6.66% while the key interest rate have been escalated by the central bank by 300 basis points to the record historic level of 20%, which will destroy the economy completely.
Asking the authorities to include serious and progressive fiscal reforms in the IMF program, the BMP
chairman observed that it is very clear that IMF programs focus on stabilization and crisis management rather than growth-oriented policies that require structural reforms.
He stressed need for a revisit of government policies including the coordination exercise between the Ministry of Finance and SBP, as no independent economist could support the economic policies that are currently in place.
He said that rupee has plummeted 6.66% against the US dollar during the trading session on Thursday, as it settled at 285.09 against the greenback, a decline of Rs18.98 in the inter-bank market. Earlier during the day, the rupee had depreciated to 284.88 against the US dollar in the inter-bank market before posting a minor recovery that proved short-lived. The rupee had plummeted against the US dollar on Wednesday as well but the fall was less severe as the currency settled at 266.11 after a depreciation of
The local currency had earlier suffered a dramatic fall when it went from 230.89 to 255.43 on January 26 as the government loosened what were seen as administrative measures to keep the currency in check.
In the open market, the rupee lost 14 rupees for buying and selling against USD, closing at 285.00 and 288.00, respectively.
He said that reports around International Monetary Fund (IMF) are not positive, denting investor sentiment. He added volatility would remain until IMF program is revived and inflows are materialized. He said the delay in IMF funding is creating uncertainty in currency market and added that a number of payments related to imports have been made, leading to pressure on the rupee, as the move to a marketbased currency exchange rate regime is one of a list of actions the IMF wants Pakistan to complete to clear its 9th review.
KARACHI Staff RePoRt
Unity Foods and JDC Foundation have launched the biggest campaign to eradicate malnutrition across the country and jointly organized a grand launch ceremony of Sunridge Taqatwar Pakistan App at a local hotel that was attended by Air Vice Marshal Khalid Mahmood, Air Vice Marshal Husain, Shehzad Memon (Advisor to Chief Minister Sindh), Director General NADRA, Anees Khan, Chairman EPZ, Saifuddin Junejo, Chairman Sunridge Taqatwar Pakistan Idrees Ghighi, Murad Somro, Maheen Khan, and dignitaries from different walks of life including businessmen, entrepreneurs, bankers, industrialists, and others.
This platform is in line with the company’s single-minded vision of countering the pressing issue of food in-
security in Pakistan, especially in light of the socio-economic circumstances in which the country has been entangled. Through this platform, we aim to support the underprivileged community by providing them with high-quality ration supplies so they too may lead healthier, happier lives. Together we can
make a Taqatwar Pakistan.
Addressing the ceremony, Sindh Governor Kamran Khan Tessori said that it is ironic that we are running around the world to acquire the monetary help of one or two billion dollars. It is necessary to find the right direction to reach the destination. We have not become a good
LAHORE Staff RePoRt
Samina Alvi, wife of President Dr Arif Alvi said on Sunday that it was a collective responsibility to carry out welfare-oriented work for underprivileged segment of the society.
Addressing the annual event of Soliton Group here, she said that there was a need to change the approach of just depending on the government.
She said that no doubt, a lot of work on voluntarily basis was ongoing in the country to support deserving people.
Samina Alvi said that there was a need to do work for women empowerment, adding that focus should be on imparting skill education.
She further emphasized on promoting the concept of inclusion for differently abled per-
sons as this would yield positive results in the society. Efforts were also being made to create maximum awareness on breast cancer and its early diagnosis.
The First Lady said, “There is a recovery rate of 98 to 99 percent if breast cancer is diagnosed at early stage.” She appreciated the Soliton Group for its initiatives aimed at wellbeing of deserving people.
Soliton Group Chairman Mansoor Khan briefed about the working of group.He said it was very important to stop brain drain from the country, adding that all energies should be utilized to boost country’s export.
Soliton CEO Fauzia Khan also spoke on the occasion.Later, a shield was presented to the first lady by Soliton Chairman. Samina Alvi also interacted with beneficiaries of Soliton Foundation.
LARKANA Staff RePoRt President, Hamdard Foundation, Sadia Rashid said that Greek medicine is a living and dynamic science and art, which has been proving its importance for centuries. Pakistan is a self-sufficient country in terms of Greek medicine. May God not repeat the mistake of adopting the alternative treatment method of the neighboring country and sending herbs with which our Sindh province is rich.
She was speaking at a seminar held at Sir Shahnawaz Bhutto Memorial Library on Greek Medicine, Background and Prospectus here on Sunday.held under the auspices of Pakistan Eastern.
She said that at that time, the people of the country need to evaluate this serious situation and to avoid expensive treatment, the competent officials of the Ministry of Health should be assured to take real decisions so that expensive treatment can be avoided. Otherwise, we will be in need in this sector like other sectors.
Prof. Dr. Azhar Ali Shah, Pro Vice Chancellor of Sindh University Campus, said that Greek medicine started in Sindh province, Eastern medicine is our great heritage, which our ancestors have given us in the form of civilization. He said Dr. Hakeem Muhammad Saeed
gave this earth, enlightening the society with knowledge and awareness is not only a national service but also a religious duty which is needed by our society.
He suggested that a medical institution should be established in Larkana in the name of Shaheed Hakeem Muhammad Saeed. Professor Dr. Hakeem Abdul Hanan said that Greek medicine has been a proven and easy treatment method for centuries, but like other sciences, keeping in mind the modern era, research in Greek medicine is limited and students should be introduced to the innovations of medicine. He said post-corona, the world is focusing on alternative therapies. It is estimated that the worldwide Greek medicine industry will reach 200 billion dollars in the next few years, but only a few countries are benefiting from the growth of this industry.
He said that due to founder Hamdardard Foundation Shaheed Hakeem Muhammad Saeed, Pakistan is included in the list of few countries which are according to international standards and are beneficial, Pakistan is in a position to emerge as a global leader in Greek medicine, but it requires joint efforts, so symposia are being organized to create awareness among the public as to the progress of Pakistan in Greek medicine so that Pakistan can be made a developing country in Greek medicine.
nation or a good human being. We are divided into different factions, and we have lost the identity as a Pakistani nation. How pitiful is that Aqeel Karim Dadi, Zafar Abbas, Farrukh Amin, and others are doing the work that is supposed to be done by the state.
Provincial Minister of Sindh, Nasir Hussain Shah, said that it is a big project indeed and we are all on the same page to work together for this divine cause. Such thought and courage come from Allah who paves the way to accomplish the task.
Speaking on this auspicious occasion, Chief Executive Officer Unity Foods, Farrukh Amin said that our vision and commitment is to eradicate malnutrition and food insecurity in Pakistan. One of the important steps to achieving food security is to provide food items, which is physically and economically accessible to the public.
ISLaMaBaD: The National Highways and Motorway Police (NH&MP) can be compared with any other police force on the basis of its performance. Motorway Police is considered as the role model institution of Pakistan and is regarded as the crown of all police forces. The NH&MP has won hearts of the people by offering a culture of helping people during difficulties faced by them in travelling. Hardly any other police force can be matched with Motorway Police. It is a matter of pride for me to be the head of an organization like the Motorway Police. These views were expressed by Inspector General National Highways and Motorway Police, Khalid Mahmood while addressing the officers at an Ijlas-eAam at Training College Sheikhupura. Regional Commander DIG Shahid Javed, Commandant Training College Syed Hashmat Kamal, Zonal Commander Motorway Cental 1 Ahmad Nasir Aziz, Zonal Commander N5 Cental Muhammad Nadeem and Deputy Commandant Atif Shezad were also present on the occasion. IG Khalid Mahmood said one cannot blame Motor way Police due to its honesty and polite behaviour with public. These qualities are our honour and distinction. PR
ISLaMaBaD: According to Islamabad Electric Supply Company (IESCO)’s spokesman, System Maintenance/Development Work is in process. Therefore power supply of below mentioned feeders/areas will be temporary suspended as per given schedule: On 06th March 2023, From 09:00am to 2pm, Islamabad Circle, Azad Shaheed, Rahara, Isolation Hospital, Chhata Bakhtawar, Tiramari, Lahtrar Road Feeders, Rawalpindi City Circle, Al Noor Colony, Khanna. II Feeder, Rawalpindi Cantt Circle, Chahan, Chontra, Rajar, Chakri, SPD, SPF, Defense Road, Askari. 14 Sector D, Humayun, Park View, Morgah, RBISE, Fuji Foundation Hospital Feeders, GSO Circle, From 8am to 4pm PTCL, I-10/2, Fazal Ghee Mill, CWO, Kidney Centre, I-11/3, Metro, NDC-2, G-9/1, New Exchange Feeders and surrounding areas will remain closed. IESCO management apologizes to its esteemed customers for the power outage. If the work is completed ahead of time, the power supply can be restored even before the scheduled time. PR
KARACHI
PR
Dawood Global Foundation held the 14th LADIESFUND Women’s Awards for Pakistan 2023 at Sindh Governor House, Karachi, honoring the nation’s most distinguished and significant women of the year, and aligning Pakistani women and businesses to the UN Sustainable Development Goal., in partnership with the UN Global Compact Pakistan and Girl 2030. The event was made possible by the generous Gold sponsorship of Bank Alfalah and Artistic Milliners Pvt. Ltd. “These awards
are about highlighting the best of Pakistani women, and also a gathering of the most dynamic and enterprising minds,” said Dawood Global Foundation President Tara Uzra Dawood, “We cannot thank enough the Governor Sindh, State Bank Governor, and incredible women and men who attend and make these events so alchemic and significant for our nation.
It’s truly humbling.” Sindh Governor Kamran Tessori was Chief Guest, speaking about the government’s commitment to women.
“We commend and appreciate Dawood Global Foundation's efforts to educate thousands of girls in Sindh and across Pakistan
through their Educate a Girl program, including the daughters of the staff here at Sindh Governor House. Their tireless efforts are also laudable for extending relief to the flood affectees with food, rations, and bamboo houses and distributing wheelchairs across Sindh and Pakistan. I would also acknowledge their initiatives like the Karachi Night Market for the promotion of women SMEs and artisans. Once again extend my heartiest admiration to LADIESFUND and congratulate every recipient of the award here and wish for their more accomplishments in days to come,” said Sindh Governor Kamran Tessori.
ISLAMABAD Shahzad Paracha
THEFederal Board of Revenue (FBR) has suspended online processing of Sales Tax Refund claims under the Fully-Automated Sales Tax e-Refund (FASTER) system. Sources said that the FASTAR system of FBR is suspended since January 6, 2023 due to which exporters are unable to file Rs70 billion Sales Tax Refund claims.
It is pertinent to mention that the FBR has introduced FASTER in July, 2019 for processing refund claims of exzero-rated exporters at a fast-pace of 72 hours in the aftermath of the rollback of zero-rating. However, the FBR reportedly not processing refund claims of exporters in three days time period.
Recently, FBR officials have held meetings with representatives of leading textile exporters on suspension of online processing of Sales Tax Refund claims.
The FBR officials claimed that the processing of refund claims is suspended as the hardware and the software of the FASTER system is being upgraded.
The officials also pointed out certain individual cases involving sanctioning of inadmissible refund claims such as dupli-
cate Invoice claims by certain taxpayers, duplicate claims of Goods Declaration, Processing of excess refund through FASTER over & above the maximum limit of 12% of export value, Transfer of excess amounts of refund in the accounts of the exporters and Check/restriction regarding debit /credit note.
Sources said that FBR claimed that it has also suspended some officials of PRAL with regard to sanctioning of inadmissible refund.
Sources also said that FBR officials
ISLAMABAD Shahzad Paracha
Pakistan Customs has seized over 1,000 precious imported mobile phones, Drones as well as Play Stations worth Rs100 million at Lahore Airport.
Sources said that on the information of Collector Customs
Lahore Airport
Mehreen Naseem, Customs Authorities led by AC Customs Sobia Azam seized the electronic gadgets, including: 1,044 Mobile Phones – i 11, i 12, i 13 etc, Drones & 5 Play Stations from a man and his son travelling from Abu Dhabi to Lahore on Flight No EY-241. The sources said that the value of the seized devices/goods is estimated to be above Rs100 million. They also said that passengers with the connivance of the notorious customs superintendent wanted to clear the smuggled goods, however, the highups of customs foiled the attempt. The superintendent on a regular basis remains in touch with ‘khepiya’ in order to mint money and high-ups of Customs have this information but everyone keeps silent, the sources added. This scribe contacted Collector Mehreen Naseem for comment but she did not respond despite reading the query.
ISLAMABAD Staff rePort
The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) Sunday officially released the results of the Karachi local government elections, according to which both the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) and Jamaat-i-Islami (JI) won equal number of union council (UC) seats. The ECP had withheld the results of 20 UCs due to complaints and recounting requests. The local body elections in Karachi and Hyderabad divisions were held on January 15. According to the final results, both Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) and Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) have got an equal number of seats in the local bodies’ elections from Karachi.
Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) bagged 40 UCs while the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz won five seats and Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) secured one seat. There are 246 UCs in Karachi, however, the election was held in 235 UCs due to the death of 11 candidates. The ECP is yet to hold polling on the remaining 11 union councils in the provincial metropolis to complete the electoral process. It is to be noted that the election of mayor requires 124 votes.
also proposed to increase the limit of minimum value addition from 10% to 20% However, the same was accepted at 15% for an interim period of two months which will be reviewed after two months.
In addition, the Maximum limit of processing by FASTER will remain intact at 12 % till further review after two months.
Sources said that Textile stakeholders raised the issue of undue delay in payment of outstanding refunds which is creating a severe cash flow crunch for exporters. They pointed out that refunds of
Provincial taxes have been outstanding since 2013; whereas processing of deferred sales tax and outstanding income tax refunds is also suspended.
FBR officials responded that steps are being taken for the disbursement of all outstanding refunds to release the financial stress of textile exporters, sources added.
Sources also said that textile stakeholders also pointed out that since the rate of sales tax has been increased from 17% to 18%; therefore the threshold for tax refund may also be increased from 12% to 13%.
Moreover, they also pointed out that enterprises engaged in domestic businesses are getting adjustment of input tax on capital goods including building materials whereas exporters are being deprived of the same as refund is being denied. Chair assured the stakeholders that steps are being taken for the disbursement of all outstanding refunds to release the financial stress of textile exporters.
Sources said that FBR has also slowed down the processing of the income tax refunds for the last seven months and taxpayers are approaching FTO to release refunds.
ISLAMABAD ahmad ahmadani
A former Director General Petroleum Concession (DGPC) and DG Gas who was earlier removed from both the posts on the basis of a spy agency’s report has been currently working as Provincial Director representing the Sindh province in the office of DGPC.
According to sources in the petroleum division, Qazi Muhammad Saleem Saddiqui had worked in the Ministry of Petroleum as former DGPC and former DG Gas. They said that Qazi Saleem was removed from both the important positions allegedly on the basis of a report issued by the Intelligence Bureau (IB), which is currently available with the Ministry of Petroleum. However, they said Qazi Saleem has now been working as Provincial Director representing the Sindh province in the office of DGPC. Qazi Saleem is allegedly on the payroll of Exploration & Production (E&P) and service companies, said sources.
They added that Qazi Saleem is illegally harassing and influencing the officers of DGPC and DG Gas and coercing them to provide state secrets.
When contacted with the incumbent Secretary Petroleum to know the status of Qazi Saleem, he con-
firmed the information, saying, yes, he (Qazi Saleem) was removed from both positions on the basis of the IB reports. And, reports are available with the Admin of this Ministry (Petroleum division).
Responding to a question, the Petroleum Secretary said that Qazi Saleem was appointed by the Sindh Government and “we are sure that the Sindh Government doesn’t know about his reputation”.
The Secretary Petroleum also confirmed that he has heard that Qazi Saleem has been providing services to few companies including the service company.
About pressurizing the officers of DGPC for sharing the state secrets, the Secretary Petroleum also confirmed that Qazi Saleem has approached officers of DGPC for the provision of information many times. “When all officers were told not to share information then he tried to influence the lower staff,” claimed the Secretary Petroleum.
It is also learnt from the sources that Qazi Saleem was removed from DGPC in the year 2013. But he was transferred again to DGPC in the year 2017, they added.
Pakistan Today/Profit has repeatedly tried to secure the precious words/stance of Qazi Muhammad Saleem Saddiqui. But he preferred not to speak and all attempts to get his stance remained in vain.
KARACHI Staff rePort
Foreign Minister and Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari on Sunday hinted at tendering resignation if the Centre fails to fulfill its promises regarding the digital census and assistance to the flood victims of Sindh.
Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, while addressing an event in Karachi, expressed concerns over the delay in fulfillment of promises made by the Centre regarding the digital census and assistance to the flood affectees.
He said that it would be difficult for them to retain the ministries if promises were not fulfilled.
The PPP chairman said that the announcement of the digital census was not the resolution of the issues at the time of the elections. He added that the elections in Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) are being held on the old census.
Bilawal raised concerns about the country’s first-ever digital census, terming it a “flawed” exercise while calling on the federal government to address the PPP’s concerns in this regard. FM Bilawal said that judging from the feedback received so far, the PPP and many citizens from other
PESHAWAR
aziz Buneri
The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Revenue Authority (KPRA) has recorded a 30.6% increase in revenue in the first seven months of the current fiscal as compared to last year. KPRA’s spokesman Sohail Khattak informed that the authority has generated revenue of Rs17.5 billion in the first seven months of FY 2022-23. Khattak said the KPRA was assigned to collect Rs35 billion in the current financial year of which the authority has collected sale tax of Rs15.3 billion on services while Rs2.1 billion as infrastructure development cess.
The spokesman further claimed that in the past, KPRA has always achieved the annual tax target and will also achieve the tax target set for the current financial year. The KPRA has generated the highest tax revenue in telecom, oil and gas and sectors. According to sources, last year KPRA collected Rs13.3 billion in the first seven months, while in the first seven months of this financial year, the authority has collected Rs17.5 billion so far. The authority collected Rs2 billion in January last year, while in comparison, the KPRA collected Rs2.5 billion in the month of January during current fiscal year. Furthermore, the authority has outstanding dues against FBR of around Rs7 billion of input tax adjustments, which the Federal Government will pay to KPRA for the year 2020-21 and 2021-22.
The KPRA has been tasked to collect Sales Tax on Services and Infrastructure Development Cell (IDC) in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and it contributes to more than 60 percent of provincial own source revenue. The KPRA collects the IDC at entry and exit points of Pak-Afghan Border including the Torkham, Ghulam Khan, Angoor Ada and Kharlachi checking points of Pakistan Customs.
ISLAMABAD
Staff rePort
provinces had reservations about the exercise.
“I got to know that a digital census is under way when it was extended. If this is a census where you have to enter your information yourself on the internet and if I as a federal minister did not know, then it means the people must not know [about it] either.”
The PPP chairman said the party wanted a “just and right” census and not a “flawed” digital census being conducted in a similarly “flawed” manner. He further said Sindh Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah had apprised the federal government about the PPP’s concerns in this regard. “If on someone’s instructions, elections in one or two provinces will take place based on a different census, and other provincial polls will be carried out based on a flawed digital census, then this is not acceptable to the PPP.
The self-enumeration process, part of the country’s first-ever digital census, began on Feb 20 and was supposed to end at 12am on Saturday but was extended for another seven days after requests from various quarters that the time allotted for the exercise was too short. The optional self-registration is followed from March 1 by a month-long collection of details by more than 120,000 enumerators using tablets and mobiles, which organisers say will make the process more accurate, transparent and credible.
The two-day Counter-Terrorism Dialogue between Pakistan and the United States (US) are scheduled to begin on Monday (today), the Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced on Sunday. According to an FO curtain raiser on Sunday, the two countries will hold the Counter Terrorism Dialogue on 6-7 March 2023 in Islamabad, the statement said. It said, Syed Haider Shah, additional secretary (UN and ED) will lead the Pakistan delegation and the US delegation will be headed by Acting Coordinator for Counterterrorism Christopher Landberg. The event is aimed at discussing the common threat of terrorism, cooperation at multilateral fora and countering the financing of terrorism. The two-day dialogue will provide an opportunity for both sides to exchange views and share their experiences and best practices in the domain of counter-terrorism. Earlier in February, the US had reiterated that the security relationship with Pakistan is ‘important’ and that many of the threats that Islamabad faces “could well in turn be threats to us”.
However, Washington shied away from confirming reports of a possible resumption of security cooperation with Islamabad which was suspended during the Trump era. State Department Spokesperson Ned Price, when asked about the visit of a defense delegation from Pakistan and the rumored resumption of security cooperation, stated that Islamabad is “valued across many realms”. Refraining from providing any details on the matter, Price said that “Pakistan is a valued partner of the United States. Of course, we have a security relationship that is important to us knowing that many of the threats Pakistan faces could well in turn be threats to us. And so we value the work we do together, but I’m just not in a position to offer anything beyond that.” During the briefing, in response to another question, the spokesperson also reiterated the US’ resolve to support “the peaceful upholding of democratic, constitutional, and legal principles” and that it values the “longstanding cooperation with Pakistan” that it enjoys.
DOHA afP
A top UN official has warned that “urgent” measures are needed to help 52 countries facing debt repayment problems that put some at risk of default.
Achim Steiner, head of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), told AFP that 25 of the 52 were spending more than a fifth of government revenues servicing external debt.
“The situation right now for developing countries when it comes to the national debt is indeed very, very serious,” Steiner said in an interview on the sidelines of the Least Developed Countries (LDCs) summit in Doha.
Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif is scheduled to travel to the gas-rich Gulf nation later today to attend the summit on the invitation from its emir, Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, the Foreign Office said Saturday.
While in Doha, Sharif will also hold bilateral meetings and interact with other par-
ticipating leaders and delegation heads on the sidelines of the conference, according to the press statement issued by the Foreign Office.
At the conference, the leaders will discuss ways to mobilise additional international support and action in favour of the LDCs and agree on a renewed partnership between them and their development partners.
The UN agency estimates that “52 countries are either in debt distress or one step away from debt distress and potential default,” he said.
Steiner did not name the countries involved but the UNDP last week released a report which called for a 30 percent write-off of external debt for 52 countries at 2021 values.
The 52 included Argentina, Lebanon and Ukraine alongside 23 countries from sub-Saharan Africa, 10 from Latin America and the Caribbean, and eight from East Asia and the Pacific. Steiner said “the financial markets are not paying enough attention” as the 52 account for only three percent of global external debt, but one-sixth of the world’s population.
Development shocks: 25 countries spending one-fifth of government revenues on debt servicing is “not sustainable”, he added.
“Therefore, we have called very clearly for urgent ways to inject liquidity while also restructuring and rescheduling debts, because otherwise, we may see country after country falling into that territory of debt distress.”
On Saturday, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres slammed the world’s rich countries and energy giants for burdening LDCs with “predatory” interest rates. Poor nations’ debt has multiplied over the past decade because of the coronavirus pandemic, high food and fuel bills and financial crises. Several have defaulted over the past two years. Steiner said that African countries such as Nigeria, Mali and Burkina Faso have lost up to 20 years of development progress amid a rise in political violence and government failures to provide basic services, security, health and education. He said total debt was difficult to estab-
lish as more than 60 percent is owed to pri-
vate creditors.
“Now you have the war in Ukraine, you have the impact on the global food and energy prices and particularly when it comes
to debts, the impact of inflation is driving in-
terest rates up,” he said. Rising fuel costs have caused “a short-term shock” for countries struggling to maintain basic fiscal stability, according to Steiner.