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HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS RALLY ACROSS WORLD AS ISRAEL CONTINUES BOMBING GAZA Monday, 13 November, 2023 I 28 Rabi us Sani, 1445
HEALTH MINISTRY SAYS DEATH TOLL FROM ISRAELI BOMBARDMENT ON BESIEGED ENCLAVE RISES TO 11,180
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Rs 50.00 | Vol XIV No 134 I 40 Pages I Lahore Edition
80 FOREIGNERS, SEVERAL INJURED PALESTINIANS CROSS INTO EGYPT IN FIRST EVACUATIONS SINCE FRIDAY
AGENCIES
UNDREDS of thousands of protesters poured onto streets across the world in support of Palestinians, condemning Israel’s ongoing aggression in Gaza Strip and calling for an immediate ceasefire. On the other hand, Israeli army said it was ready to evacuate babies from Gaza’s largest hospital on Sunday, but Palestinian officials said people inside were still trapped, with two newborns dead and dozens at risk from a power outage amid intense fighting nearby. Al-Shifa and other hospitals in northern Gaza, the focus of Israel’s month-old war to wipe out Hamas and free hostages held by the group, were barely able to care for patients. More people are wounded daily by fierce Israeli bombardment. More than 11,000 Palestinians have lost their lives since Israel started its ruthless bombardment campaign on the besieged enclave over a month ago in response to Hamas’ surprise attack. Israel has put Gaza — home to 2.3 million people — under siege amid ongoing ground battles with Hamas. In the last few days, more than 20,000 Palestinians have been forced to relocate to the south of the strip as Israeli forces have laid siege on major hospitals in the enclave. Israeli attacks on Gaza have prompted protests in various countries including England, Indonesia, Spain and others. Government says Gaza death toll hits 11,180 The government in the Gaza Strip has said the death toll from fighting between Hamas and Israel in the Palestinian territory has risen to 11,180, AFP reports. The government media office said the dead included 4,609 children and 3,100 women, whilst a further 28,200 people have been wounded. Speaking from inside the biggest hospital, Al-Shifa, Gaza health ministry spokesman Ashraf Al-Qidra told Reuters Israeli fire had not hit it directly overnight but was “terrorising medical officials and civilians alike”. Israel’s chief military spokesperson, Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari, said on Saturday Israel’s military would
Justice (r) Arshad Hussain sworn in as caretaker KP chief minister PESHAWAR/ISLAMABAD STAFF REPORT
Justice (r) Arshad Hussain Shah sworn in as the caretaker Khyber Pakhtunkhwa chief minister on Sunday, a day after his predecessor Azam Khan passed away after a brief illness. KP Governor Haji Ghulam Ali administered oath to Shah at a ceremony at Governor’s House in Peshawar hours after former CM Mahmood Khan met former opposition leader Akram Khan Durrani for consultation on the appointment of the new interim chief executive. On Saturday, the KP governor had penned letters to for the former CM and the opposition leader, inviting them to begin consultation process under Article 224(1A) of the Constitution for the next chief minister’s appointment. In the letter, the governor had said he was under constitutional obligation to call upon them. He added that as per the Constitution, the process should be completed in three days. According to a notification issued after today’s meeting, Durrani and Mahmood had agreed to appoint Shah as the caretaker CM under clause 1(A) of Article 224 of the Constitution. The same was subsequently sent to the KP governor, who approved it. Shah was appointed as the law minister in former CM Azam Khan’s cabinet earlier this year. Previously, he also served as the chief justice of Gilgit-Baltistan. LEGAL CONUNDRUM: Azam Khan’s demise had stirred a debate as to how a new caretaker chief executive of the province would be appointed since there were no explicit constitutional provisions about procedures to be adopted in such a scenario.
help evacuate babies from the hospital at the request of staff there. Al-Qidra had said there were 45 babies in total and two had already died. Asked about the evacuations, Al-Qidra said: “We have not been informed about any mechanism to get the babies out to a safer hospital. So far we are praying for their safety and not to lose more of them.” In the Indonesian Hospital in Beit Lahiya in the northern Gaza Strip, Mosab Subeih, a baby boy, Mosab Subeih, had been rushed in from a house that was struck by an Israeli missile. “He has a direct injury to the head and bleeding, and we have no surgeries,” said one of the medics, who were treating him with a manual resuscitator as power had been cut. The Palestinian Red Crescent said medical staff at another hospital in northern Gaza, Al-Quds, were struggling to care for those there with little medicine, food and water.
“Al Quds hospital has been cut off from the world in the last 6-7 days. No way in, no way out,” Tommaso Della Longa, spokesman for the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, told Reuters. Shifa was also out of reach for the newly wounded, said Mohammad Qandil, a doctor at Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip, who is in touch with colleagues there. “Shifa hospital now isn’t working, no one is allowed in, nobody is allowed out, and if you are wounded or injured around Gaza area you can’t be evacuated by our ambulance to Shifa hospital, so Shifa hospital now is out of service,” he told Reuters. On Sunday, Israel said people could safely evacuate from three hospitals in northern Gaza, including Shifa via one of its exits. Hospital director Mohammad Abu Selmeyah told Al Arabiya television that there was no safe passage out.
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PM Kakar, Malaysian counterpart agree to further bilateral ties RIYADH
STAFF REPORT
Caretaker Prime Minister Anwaarul Haq Kakar on Saturday held a meeting with Prime Minister of Malaysia Anwar Ibrahim on the sidelines of the Joint Arab Islamic Extraordinary Summit. The prime minister reiterated Pakistan’s strong condemnation of the ongoing brutal campaign by Israeli forces against the Palestinian people in Gaza. The leaders emphasized on the urgency of galvanizing efforts against the ongoing Israeli brutalities that had resulted in huge loss of precious lives and forced displacement, PM Office Media Wing said in a press release. Prime Minister Kakar and Prime Minister Ibrahim also reviewed Pakistan-Malaysia bilateral relations with special focus on strengthening economic cooperation between the two countries. Prime Minister Kakar briefed his Malaysian counterpart on the establishment of Special Investment Facilitation Council (SIFC), which worked on the whole of government approach to facilitate foreign investments in the country and ensuring ease of doing business. The two leaders also highlighted the revitalization of the Joint Ministerial Commission, collaboration in the vocational training sector
and export of manpower as key areas for further cooperation. POWER DIVISION’S ANTI POWER-THEFT MEASURES Meanwhile, Caretaker Prime Minister Anwaarul Haq Kakar on Sunday appreciated the crackdown on power-theft efforts of the Power Division which were bearing excellent results. “My government will continue to support this campaign with more vigour so that our annual losses can be further minimized,” the prime minister posted on X. The caretaker prime minister also shared an earlier post of Secretary Power Division Rashid Langrial, who on his social handle announced that an amount of Rs46 billion had been recovered from the power pilferers from September 7 to October 31 during the ongoing
anti-power theft campaign. Caretaker PM appreciates Power Division’s anti power-theft measures “Today as the results for the first two months (53 days to be exact) are out, I must put things in perspective. Our estimated annual losses across the national grid for the current year are Rs589 billion. Of total Rs589, roughly Rs199 billion come from ex-FATA, Balochistan tube-wells and AJK,” he further posted. He said that they were working on the remaining problem space of Rs390 billion of which they were able to recover Rs46 billion in 53 days i.e. PKR 867 million per day. “If the same level of state support and field effort can be maintained (and that is a big if, I must admit), 80 % of the problem space gets resolved,” he added.
IN TODAY’S ISSUE
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PPP’s Mandviwalla calls into question ‘selected privatisation’ of PIA irfan.farooq@pakistantoday.com.pk
ISLAMABAD STAFF REPORT
PPP Senator Saleem Mandviwalla on Sunday called into question the “selected privatisation” of Pakistan International Airlines’ (PIA), expressing serious concern that procedure was not being followed in the privatization of the state asset. Speaking during an interview on a private TV channel, Mandviwalla said he had come to know about a meeting on the “disinvestment of the PIA” chaired by Interim Privatisation Minister Fawad Hasan Fawad, which was also attended by PML-N stalwart Saad Rafique, who had been railways and aviation minister in the last PDM government. “Now you tell me what is this? You (PML-N) are saying we (PPP) agreed to the privatisation and allowed the caretaker government to do so, but if a previous minister is attending that meeting then this is selected privatisation instead of being transparent,” the PPP stalwart said. With the appointed a financial adviser for the transaction by the Board of Privatisation Commission, the formal process for the divestment of Pakistan International Airlines Corporation (PIACL) commenced on Friday. The national flag-carrier has been plagued with crisis after crisis as Pakistan State Oil (PSO) has refused to supply fuel to the airline on account of payment issues. The weeks-long ordeal led to the cancellation of hundreds of flights, pushing the national carrier to the verge of collapse. The PPP senator said he was concerned that the airline would be sold to “whoever you want however you want”. “There will be no transparency and then obviously, the people we will protest. We will protest politically and PIA employees, everyone, will protest. People will go to court as well,” he added. When asked whether he thought the PML-N was “on board” with the privatisation process, Mandviwalla said: “[Obviously], the PML-N is doing it.” Senator Mandviwalla again questioned the capacity in which Rafique attended the meeting. The senator when asked to comment on the perception that the airline would be sold to some blue-eyed boy of the PML-N, replied that this was not a mere perception but “a fact”. “When you do privatisation like this then you must have prepared a buyer and done an agreement with them that ‘no one else will bid in the privatisation so we will give to you’,” Mandviwalla said. He reiterated that privatisation carried out in such a manner would not be acceptable to the PPP and the party would protest against it. Earlier, PPP Senator Raza Rabbani had also opposed PIA’s privatisation in all its forms and said: “It seems questionable that PIA planes were functioning normally when the fuel supply was abruptly halted and then resumed. There should be an investigation into the precise events.” He had sought an inquiry into PSO’s refusal to supply fuel. “Through a deliberate campaign … PIA is being prepared for a loot sale,” he had said. The PIA’s recent descent came after the government said in August it would privatise the airline as part of a fiscal discipline plan agreed under an International Monetary Fund bailout.
After Sindh, Nawaz ‘eyes’ Balochistan to rope in regional parties ahead of polls ISLAMABAD
STAFF REPORT
To further expand PML-N’s alliance with regional players and strengthen its footing ahead of the scheduled general elections, Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) supremo Nawaz Sharif is scheduled to fly to Balochistan Monday (today) to review the situation and party organization. On Tuesday last, the PML-N formed an alliance with the MQM-P and announced to reach out to other parties in Sindh. To further this strategy, a PML-N team Sunday reached Karachi to meet Muttahida Qaumi Movement Pakistan (MQM-P) and other parties’ leadership. In the first leg of the trip, senior leaders of PML-N including Khawaja Saad Rafique met with Pir Pagara and conveyed him Nawaz Sharif’s message. Meanwhile, former federal minister and Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz (PML-N) central leader Khawaja Saad Rafiq said that parley with Pakistan Muslim League Func-
tional (PML-F) President Pir Pagara on upcoming elections was positive. There will be a positive outcome of the talk and both the parties are agreed to continue such meetings in future with a positive approach, the PML-N leader said. He added that the meeting with Pir Pagara was held on the instructions of PML-N Supremo Nawaz Sharif. PML-N leader Ayaz Sadiq and newly-nominated Sindh President Bashir Memon were also present in the meeting. “We came here on the instructions of Nawaz Sharif. Meeting with the Pir was very positive. I hope such meetings will continue in a positive manner in future,” Saad told the media after the meeting. Nawaz Sharif, who returned last month after around four-year stay in London, will hold meetings with PML-N Balochistan’s leadership during his visit to Quetta. Scores of Balochistan Awami Party (BAP) leaders and some other distinguished Baloch leaders likely to announce join the PML-N, sources said. Meanwhile, PML-N is also eyeing an-
other alliance with the JUI-F, ANP and Pashtunkhwa Milli Awami Party in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KPK) province. It is pertinent to mention here that the PPP chairman too is expected to visit KP from November 16 to 21, according to the party’s information secretary Faisal Kareem Kundi. JUI-F CLARIFIES STANCE ON SEAT ADJUSTMENT, ELECTORAL ALLIANCE: Meanwhile, Jamiat Ulema-eIslam Fazl (JUI-F) leader Maulana Abdul Ghafoor Haideri clarified his party position on seat adjustment and electoral alliance ahead of the general elections 2024. He clarified that the JUI-F central leadership allowed provincial chapters to go for seat-to-seat adjustment, however, it has not made a decision on electoral alliance with any political party so far. He said that JUI-F safeguards the Islamic Constitution of Pakistan and the religio-political party could transfer the country into an Islamic welfare state. He criticised that the Constitution was approved in Zulfikar Ali Bhutto’s era but Islamic laws were not implemented.
Haideri added that all former prime ministers including two-time PM Benazir Bhutto late and three-time PM Nawaz Sharif had not implemented Islamic laws. He vowed that JUI-F would implement
the Islamic governance system after coming into power. Unveiling the JUI-F manifesto, Haideri said that JUI-F would raise labourers’ salaries to Rs50,000, end corruption and commission practices and send looters to jails.