Epaper_24-05-22 LHR

WORKING TO FACILITATE PRIVATE SECTOR TO HELP PUSH

ON RIGHT TRACK:

IHC issues notices on pleas challenging Dar ’s appointment as

Haider Panjhuta said that this matter has already been settled and the verdict was also uploaded on the website Panjhuta said that after the verdict was removed from the website, the bench was reconstituted through a press release Justice Jahangiri asked Panjhuta if he was a lawyer in this case To this he replied that he was a proxy counsel

The judge then said that Justice Kayani and Justice Tahir gave an opinion in this case At this, Advocate Shah said that this was the opinion of two judges and the verdict was not signed by the chief justice “How can we provide relief when the petition has been dismissed? questioned Justice Jahangiri Advocate Shah said that he needed some time to prepare adding that he could only assist the court after reading the verdict Justice Jahangiri said that the IHC CJ recused himself from the bench and two judges had given their verdict The court said that the disqualification

IMF seeks draf t of

Iranian people not to forget concern of Pakistan over death of President Raisi: Envoy

ISLAMABAD S ta f f R e p o R t Ambassador of Iran Reza Amiri Moghadam has extended his heartfelt gratitude to the government and people of Pakistan for expressing sympathies and solidarity over the martyrdom of President Seyed Ebrahim Raisi Foreign Minister Hussain Amirabdullahian and other dignitaries

tragic incident Ambassador Reza Amiri Moghadam while describing Pakistan a great friend of Iran said that President Raisi s vision of strengthening and promoting Pakistan-Iran relations would continue and all the agreements inked on the occasion of his recent visit to Pakistan will be implemented letter and spirit and that there will be no change in the foreign policy of Iran He especially expressed his thanks to President and Prime Minister of Pakistan for sharing their deep concern and grief over the tragedy S p e a

President Ahsan Zafar Bakhtawari

O pposition, civil society bodies, journalists rejec t Punjab Defamation Bill as ‘regressive’

It

voting on the bill, even for a week, at the request of journalists On the occasion, the press gallery members walked out of the assembly to boycott the proceedings They rejected the bill as a curb on free media

It said that the bill s provisions which allow defamation actions to be initiated without proof of actual damage

and imposing extortionate fines, amounted to nothing less than legal intimidation tactics Furthermore the bill’s broad definition of journalists and newspapers to include social media users set a dangerous precedent for stifling freedom of expression online, the statement said “The proposed punishments, including the possibility of blocking social media accounts are disproportionate and antithetical to democratic principles it said

The alliance urged the Punjab government to heed civil society and stakeholders voices and reverse the effort to pass another regressive legislation akin to Peca (Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act) It called for the defamation bill to be scrapped entirely demanding the gov-

ernor of Punjab to not sign the bill It said that future attempts to address disinformation and hate speech on online platforms should be initiated with inclusive consultations at the national level

Meanwhile, Leader of the Opposition in the National Assembly Omar Ayub Tuesday said that a black law is being implemented Speaking to the media outside Lahore s Anti-Terrorism Court (ATC) Omar stated that they will resist the black law in the national and provincial assemblies He stated that according to the constitution, no one’s speech can be banned Omar Ayub added that whosoever talked about Ayub Khan’s martial law ask him what Nawaz Sharif did He further said that Babar Awan

and

the

Pakistani mountaineer Sirbaz Khan scales Mount Everest without supplementar y ox ygen

Earlier this year Sirbaz had to delay his plan to summit Shishapangma his 14th and final eightthousander after Chinese authorities refused to open the mountain for climbing this season

KARACHI S TA

Senior Sindh Minister Sharjeel Memon has announced that the provincial government is set to purchase modern weapons to counter the heavily armed robbers operating in the region

Speaking to the media, Memon revealed that the robbers in the Kacha area are equipped with advanced weaponry, prompting the Sindh government to seek federal assistance for acquiring similar arms for the police force The delivery of these modern weapons is expected soon

Memon emphasized that joint operations by police

and Rangers are ongoing in Kutch, with Rangers deployed wherever necessary

Additionally, the minister highlighted

and other drugs, labeling users as “suicide bombers” for society He affirmed that comprehensive operations by excise and narcotics control along with active police involvement are targeting the gutka mafia and other drug-related activities S indh govt to purchase modern weapons to combat robbers: S harjeel Memon

Iranian President R aisi ’s sudden death teaches us lessons

TH I S was a commonality that Pakistan and Iran, which share many commonalities could have done without Back in 1988, Pakistan went through the trauma of losing a head of state in an air crash Almost 36 years on, Iran is going through the same experience There are large differences The Pakistani who was killed, Gen Ziaul Haq, was a military ruler, who had the same year dismissed the elected government and taken back power into his own hands President ebrahim raisi was the eighth elected President of Iran and was merely head of government He had only been elected once Apart from the first and second Presidents, seven have served two terms It is not that Iran has not lost a president before President muhammad Ali rajai was assassinated at a meeting along with the Prime minister (a position now abolished) President raisi was accompanied by the Foreign minister A lesson to the world should be how the Iranian state has recovered The first vice-president, mohammad mokhber, has stepped up to the plate and will act as President till the June 28 presidential elections (like Pakistan’s and unlike the USA’s there is an election to a full term if there is a midterm vacancy; no one serves out the remainder of the term Come July, Iran will have a new President in place This is exactly what happened when President rajai was assassinated in 1981 At that time, the country was already at war with Iraq, the conflict having started the year before It is a coincidence that another country at war Ukraine also should have had polls and its President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, actually had his constitutionally prescribed term come to an end, but he will continue in office on the greyhound that there’s a war on Iran didn’t think of that excuse back in 1981 nor did the other combatant in the war with Ukraine, which went ahead with presidential elections this march However Pakistan delayed its last elections on less solid reasons than a war being on; simply because of delimitations The excuse that Pakistan is not an old democracy won t wash either, for nor is Iran, while Ukraine actually started having consecutive elections after Pakistan did While Pakistan joins Iran in its sorrow, it must also take to heart the example of a system that functions, no matter what happens

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

M A Niazi Editor Pakistan Today Babar Nizami Editor Profit

of 96 By any def-

was courageous and selfless on the battlefield, fearless and principled in elective office, an advocate for justice and equity, and, in all instances a truth-teller even when he paid a price for speaking out Pete entered the national consciousness in 1967 when following the death of the incumbent representative he won a special election to Congress There were two aspects about that contest that attracted attention Pete’s

Campaign (PHrC) and was looking for members of Congress to support cases of Palestinian victims of rights abuse Knowing that he was a courageous advocate I went to see him Being young and intense I sat down across from him and immediately began pressing my case At one point, Pete cracked a joke, but too intent on pressing forward I continued He stopped and asked what I thought of what he had said I responded that what I was saying was serious and continued He stopped me again and said I ll tell you what s serious I have supporters in my district who ve been friends of mine for years who would be upset if they even knew I was meeting with you to discuss Palestinian rights You don’t know me yet want me to take a stance on something that would offend them Why don t you think that over get a sense of humour and come back and see me? I was stunned and left After reflecting on what he had said, I never approached another elected official the same way I

that an election could be won by opposing the war in Vietnam once in Congress, Pete continued to challenge both his party and the nation As a recipient of two of the highest awards the military gives for valor and two Purple Hearts, Pete knew the horrors of combat and was compelled to oppose a war that had already taken too many lives and could never be won He opposed Nixon s continuation of the conflict and after the 1972 election when it was revealed that Nixon ordered covert operatives to break into his Democratic opponent s headquarters and then tried to cover up this crime Pete became the first republican in Congress to call on Nixon to resign from office I first met Pete a few years later in the mid-1970s and in that first meeting he taught me a lesson I never forgot I had started the Palestine Human rights

Is Indian democracy a hoax?

business in India, impeding investment, limiting innovation, and distorting market dynamics The BJP regime, which has been in power since 2014 has exploited these fault lines in Indian society to stir hate but gather popular nationalist and religious extremist votes The BJP is a political offshoot of the rSS a rightwing Hindu fundamentalist group which not only advocates racial superiority but regards Nazi Germany as an ideal The BJP after coming to power has started working on rSS’ decades-old agenda; religiously cleansing India only for Hindus rewriting Indian history through textbooks even changing centuriesold names of Indian cities only because of muslim affiliation and ultimately establishing a greater Hindu rashtra There has been a great surge in hate crimes against muslims other minorities and even lower-caste Hindus with entrenching BJP rule over the last decade According to Hindutva Watch a USA-based research organization 255 incidents of advocacy of hatred and violence targeting muslims were recorded in the first six months of 2023 The US State Department in its annual report on religious freedom expressed concerns over open calls for genocide against muslims lynching and other hate-fuelled violence attacks on places of worship and home demolitions, and in some cases impunity and even clemency for those who have engaged in attacks on religious minorities” in India The fascist and authoritarian measures have not been limited to religious minorities After dismantling and crushing India s secular face through actions like revoking article 370 and 35-A in the disputed Kashmir region, now the BJP regime prior to election 2024, has been on a sprint to neutralize any political threat through coercive government force Cm Dehli Arvind Kejriwal was arrested just days before elections without any conviction or money trail while the media was forced to stop covering the news of the biggest electoral bond scam which was linked to the ruling party moreover, top opposition party Congress c o m p l a i n e d t h a t i t s b a n k a c c o u n t s w e r e frozen to sabotage its election campaign and the income tax department issued Congress a fine of rs 17 billion in a case several years

old on the other hand, newspapers have refused to publish paid advertisements of opposition parties According to the news agency mint opposition candidates are threatened through eD and IT to withdraw their nominations In one such incident T h e G u a rd i a n wrote mukesh Dalal, from the ruling Bharatiya Janata party (BJP) won the Gujrat seat by default after every other candidate was either disqualified or dropped out of the race It was the first time in

nuclear weapons led by a supremacist hyper-nationalist and fascist right-wing regime in a volatile region like South Asia? There has been a time-tested phenomenon that regimes and groups living upon hatred violence and dividing people are like the proverbial Frankenstein monster; they invariably outgrow their creators and sympathizers often turning on them Indian extraterritorial assassinations in Canada and the USA are a few such incidents and a possible glimpse of the future to come Ahmad Ali is a research fellow at Epis Think tank Germany and an intern at Kashmir institute of International relations He can be reached at Ali7664556@gmail com

There has been a time-tested phenomenon that regimes and groups living upon hatred, violence and dividing people are like the proverbial Frankenstein monster; they invariably outgrow their creators and sympathizers, often turning on them. Indian extraterritorial assassinations in Canada and the USA are a few such incidents and a possible glimpse of the future to come.

Tourism conundrum

Media representation

Why is the USA responsible for Raisi’s Heli Crash

Tand

thus faced significant limitations It was only equipped with outdated emergency Locator Transmitters, which often failed to activate during crashes and had high false alarm rates, making it difficult to locate downed aircraft radar tracking was limited by range and terrain creating blind spots in mountainous or remote areas while large expanses of ocean and remote regions were beyond radar reach manual position reporting by pilots was prone to human error and communication blackouts due to signal interference and range limitations Though ground-based navigational aids like Vor and NDB provided general directional information to the downed helicopter it lacked the precision needed for pinpointing crash locations Additionally, while Flight Data recorders (FDrs) and Cockpit Voice recorders (CVrs) were valuable for post-crash investigation they did not assist in the immediate location of the aircraft

Had there been no sanctions the helicopter carrying important passengers could have long ago been replaced, or upgraded with latest tracking devices, combining advanced GPS, ADS-B, and satellite communication technologies These devices include emergency Locator Transmitters (eLTs) like the

Kannad Integra and Artex 345, which use integrated GPS and dual-frequency transmitters for precise location tracking

It could have been equipped with Portable aviation GPS units such as the Garmin aera 660 and Garmin D2 mach 1 Aviator Smartwatch providing detailed flight mapping and real-time data, enhancing search efforts

Additionally it could also have been equipped with the Garmin GDL 52 a portable ADS-B receiver and the Garmin inreach mini satellite communicator which offers comprehensive tracking and SoS functionalities, ensuring effective rescue operations even in remote areas moreover, even the weather forecast system due to sanctions is outdated and does not give a full picture to the navigators about the weather conditions Had it been given the true picture the president may have advised to postpone the flight until flying conditions are improved

This is not the only tragedy faced by the Iranian nation due to the sanctions which had made air travel extremely dangerous and perilous and have so far resulted in the loss of 2000 precious lives due to the accidents which could have been avoided if the flying objects were upgraded, refurbished or replaced with new ones There have also been conspiracy theories circulating not only in the social media but as well as in the traditional media saying that somehow Israel was involved in this crash to avenge the Iranian attack on Israel with drones rockets and cruise missiles a few days ago If this theory hold ground now or any time in future the entire region will be plunged in total chaos as the alleged Iranian

proxies in the middle east like Hamas, Hezbollah, Iraq Brigade, Houthis and Iranfriendly armed groups in Syria will do whatever in their power to avenge attack on Iran’s second most important leaders who are known to be ultra hardliner highly religious and pro revolutionary person and are the most likely aspirant to replace the religious head of Iran Ayatollah Khomeini moreover, in a scenario which so far has no concrete evidence it cannot be ruled out completely if Israel was blamed for the crash of a helicopter carrying the Iranian president Iran would likely react with outrage, accusing Israel of an act of war, which could lead to military mobilization and retaliatory threats The regional implications would be significant with potential destabilization across the middle east Globally the United States as a key ally of Israel would be drawn into the conflict facing pressure to support Israel while trying to prevent a full-scale war USIran relations would likely deteriorate further, impacting diplomatic efforts and nuclear deal negotiations Internationally powers like russia China and the european Union would call for restraint and engage in intense diplomatic efforts to de-escalate the situation

The global oil markets would likely see a spike in prices due to fears of supply disruptions, affecting economies worldwide Longterm effects could include accelerated nuclear proliferation in the middle east and shifts in geopolitical alliances as countries reassess their security and foreign policy strategies At least as if now the darkness the weather in the mountainous region of what is called in local language Tawal, located between Azerbaijan and Iran, is still under deep fog very cold and raining which has turned

IN November as India s election campaign was beginning to take shape, a catchphrase coined by Prime minister Narendra modi s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) started gaining traction “modi ki guarantee” (modi’s guarantee) was positioned by the governing party as the personal promise of the vastly popular prime minister to Indian voters as the BJP tried to draw a contrast with the seemingly hodgepodge coalition of opposition parties railing against it The BJP launched advertisements on Google with that tagline in the third week of November But around the same time, another organisation started pumping in millions of rupees into an almost identical-sounding campaign: “modi sarkar ki guarantee (modi government s guarantee) The videos in that campaign which would continue for months often referred simply to modi s guarantee In one such advertisement, aired on February 23, an actor portraying a young entrepreneur reassures a father apprehensive about his son’s career choice by telling him “Papa there is modi’s guarantee modi ji has promised that he will make India one of the places with the most unicorn startups Towards the end he confidently asserts that thanks to modi s guarantee every startup will start in India only these advertisements were not from the BJP They were paid for by the Indian taxpayer and were part of a campaign rolled out by the Indian government’s advertising agency the Central Bureau of Communication (CBC) At least one other campaign with multiple advertisements unveiled in march also echoed the wording and look of the BJP s election slogans on march 22, the country s largest opposition party, the Indian National Congress, filed a complaint with the election Commission of India (eCI) – the constitutional body overseeing the country’s elections – alleging that these CBC advertisements violated election rules by misusing public funds for the governing party s campaign Now an Al Jazeera investigation reveals the scale of

pattern modi ensures that he and he alone will exercise any power in India, marathe said Al Jazeera sought responses from the CBC’s director-general Dhirendra ojha and two additional director-generals rajesh Kumar Jha and Ajay Agrawal to the allegations against the organisation on may 10 They have not responded

‘TAKING MISUSE TO NEW HEIGHTS’ In early march, Lalu Prasad Yadav, a veteran opposition leader, mocked the Indian prime minister for not having a family: modi left his wife when he was younger and has no children In response BJP leaders changed their social media profiles adding modi ka parivar (modi s family) next to their names As with modi ki guarantee , the CBC released advertisements with similar themes on YouTube and Google Ads, promoting the “modi ka parivar” campaign These advertisements are some of the agency’s most expensive individual advertisements to date In an advertisement published on march 9 modi is seen celebrating the festival of Diwali with the armed forces The family members of a soldier missing – who miss their son, husband and father – say modi celebrates Diwali with soldiers because he is part of their family They announce “We are all modi’s family” For the advertisement which ran for five days to reach between 6 and 7 million people the government agency spent about 550 thousand rupees ($6 600) one of its most expensive individual advertisements

In its complaint to the election Commission, the Congress also accused the modi government of politicising the country’s armed forces Then, in April, a week before the first phase of India’s mammoth election the BJP released its campaign manifesto featuring a photo of modi the party s saffron colours and the slogan modi ki guarantee all elements used in the CBC s publicly funded advertisements

To be clear, transparency experts and former election officials say that parties in power have long tried to use public infrastructure for their campaigning In June 1975 India’s then-Prime minister Indira Gandhi was disqualified from office after a court found her guilty of using government machinery for her campaign This government has not invented the misuse of public funds for self-promotional advertisements, said Vipul mudgal, the chief executive of Common Cause, a New Delhi-based watchdog civil society organisation, whose petition with the Supreme Court also led to the scrapping of the modi government s controversial electoral bonds scheme in February 2024

ing the misuse to new heights

MORE MONEY, MORE FREEDOM TO ADVERTISE

In may 2023 nearly a year before the start of India’s 2024 elections an executive order by the modi government increased the budget of the CBC by 275 percent from 2 billion rupees ($24 million) to about 7 5 billion rupees ($90 million) This order required ministries and government departments to allocate 40 percent of their advertising and publicity budgets to the CBC, significantly expanding the agency’s resources in an election year on social media platform X Congress leader Jairam ramesh criticised the budget increase and said that like other government agencies the CBC would be the spearhead of the modi Govt s election campaign for 2024 But the BJP s Kutty said the increase in the government s promotional budget was only in keeping with the country s economic growth “India is a developing country and the sixth-largest economy globally India’s budget allocations are expected to increase naturally he said These allegations are baseless Still that budget needed one more rule tweak to enable the CBC s online spending

That change came in November 2023, when the government adopted a new Digital Advertisement Policy, which allowed the CBC – which until then could only advertise via traditional mediums such as newspapers TV radio and outdoor advertisements – to post advertisements on digital platforms like Google Within days the organisation began to swamp Google with the modi Sarkar ki guarantee advertisements

While the CBC s $4 65 million spending on Google advertisements pales in comparison with its total advertisement spend of 30 billion rupees ($360m) across mediums in the four years between 2018-2019 and 20222023 it reflects a broader surge in digital political spending in the 2024 election

Before the 2019 general election in India between November 1, 2018, and march 15, 2019, the total spending on political Google advertisements was 11 77 million rupees ($140,000), of which more than 99 percent was spent by the BJP

In the same period before the current elections between November 1 2023 and 15 march 2024 the total political advertisement spend amounted to nearly 1 3 billion rupees ($15 9 million) more than 100 times the 2019 figure

party had spent in almost six years– between June 2018 and march 15 2024 – according to Google Ads Transparency data in this period And many of the CBC advertisements were part of the campaigns with slogans that independent election transparency activists and the opposition say were too close to the BJP s promotional messages opposition

Abdulla Kutty the BJP s national vice president told Al Jazeera that government advertisements promoting their work, schemes and programmes have been a common practice since independence” In 2003 and then again in 2022 Common Cause filed petitions with the Supreme Court seeking stricter regulation over government advertising that tips over into promotional campaigning for the governing party In 2015, the Supreme Court established guidelines stating that government advertising should not promote political interests and must be related to the government’s responsibilities But nearly a decade later, the challenge has only grown say transparency activists

SY Quraishi a former chief election commissioner who oversaw Indian elections between 2010 and 2012 said that the election Commission has long been demanding that government advertisements with political connotations be made illegal for at least six months before the elections to maintain the level playing field”

“However government after government ignored the proposal ” Quraishi said And mudgal of Common Cause said that while all political parties in power had exploited government resources for campaigning this government is responsible for expanding the game, tak-

The 2023 Google News Initiative and Kantar survey showed that 93 percent of Indian language users access news via YouTube About 80 percent of Indian internet users who are eligible to vote consume content via YouTube making it one of the most influential media platforms in India more than 90 percent of the CBC s advertisement spend on Google was on videos

The surge in spending on Google promotions also exposes weaknesses in India’s regulatory mechanism to oversee political advertisement spending by the government say experts

PERILS OF A ‘BRUTE MAJORITY’

The 2015 Supreme Court order barring overt political partisanship in government advertisements led to the creation of the Committee on Content regulation of Government Advertisements (CCrGA), which was tasked with watching over all publicly-funded advertisements But the committee s members are appointed by the very government whose advertisements it is meant to scrutinise And it only has the power to recommend suggestions on advertisements to India s ministry of Information and Broadcasting – to which the CBC reports Since it was set up in 2016, the CCrGA’s actions have primarily targeted the Aam Aadmi Party’s government in New Delhi which has also been criticised by the Supreme Court for a bloated advertising budget meanwhile once elections are announced the election Commission is in charge of ensuring that campaign rules are followed opposition parties have repeatedly criticised the poll panel, accusing it of bias in favour of the BJP marathe, the AAP spokesperson, and senior Congress leader Prithviraj Chavan told Al Jazeera they had little hope that the electoral Commission would act on the complaints against the CBC Quraishi the former election commission boss said that while the electoral Commission ought to act against all complaints, its mandate on election spending

Qamar bashir

IRANIANS PAY L AST RESPECTS TO L ATE PRESIDENT RAISI KILLED IN HELICOPTER CRASH

RDA SEES OVER 6% DROP IN APRIL INFLOWS, SBP REPORTS

of the country s women who face physical and emotional violence was launched her at a local hotel in the federal capital on Tuesday

Developed by women’s rights

CSO Shirkat Gah – Women s Resource Centre in collaboration with the National Commission of Status on Women (NCSW) and the technical support from LUMS, the Humqadam App connects survivors with legal and other services The project was funded by the UN Trust Fund

The App was widely appreciated by all speakers, including Ms Nilofar Bakhtiar, Chair NCSW, five MNAs, and senior government officials who called the App timely and much needed while they lamented the lax implementation of relevant laws the absence of integrated data and persistent negative cultural norms that allow impunity for violence against women Shirkat Gah Executive Director

Farida Shaheed said, “Genderbased violence is a huge issue across Pakistan But when violence happens women as well as their helpers rarely know who to call where to go what their rights are or what services exist The Humqadam App provides the answers, detailing national and provincial resources and details of existing services in 16 districts ” Speaking on the occasion NCSW Chairperson Nilofar Bakhtiar said there was a need to re-prioritise policies concerning women, which had been on the backburner for quite some time, and the GBV was a first priority for NCSW

The chairperson said Sindh Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa did not have the NCSW chapters while the commission itself was working without a regular board for more than one year “A woman who is a victim of domestic violence cannot look towards her family for support and this is where this [mobile] application helps she said adding that the initiative would also help in the capacity building of law enforcers and the health authorities Former MNA, Mehnaz Akbar Aziz stressed the need to raise awareness to make this initiative successful by introducing this in universities among women lawyers, and influencers which she termed the pockets of change Her talk was followed by a detailed presentation by Shirkat Gah coordinator Sana Raza and Dr Salman Shahid from LUMS who played a key role in the development of the application Ms Raza said the platform was developed to create awareness from the grassroots to the very top” in a bid to engage the whole society

Bank of K hyber profits dip as expenses rise

KP govt decides to close B oK's Islamabad head office

has directed the Bank of Khyber (BoK) to immediately shut down its Islamabad head office and relocate its employees to Peshawar

The BoK had established a 2nd head office in federal capital Islamabad without permission of the provincial government incurring a budget of Rs

PM SHEHBA Z SHARIF UNDERTAKES VISIT TO UAE TODAY AMID PUSH FOR INVESTMENT

Hassan was bleeding profusely after the attack and was immediately taken inside the TV channel’s office by staff members An investigation into the inci-

Faizabad Sit-In: Cabinet dissatisfied with repor t of probe commission

The federal cabinet on Tuesday directed to constitute a special committee of the cabinet to submit its recommendations about Faizabad sit-in (dharna) after expressing dissatisfaction with the report of an Inquiry Commission constituted to probe the sit-in

The cabinet at a meeting chaired by Prime Minister Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif, expressed dissatisfaction with the Inquiry Commission report of the Faizabad sit-in (dharna) saying that the commission had not adhered to its Terms of Reference (ToR)

The meeting directed to constitute a special committee of the cabinet that would submit its recommendations in this regard

During the meeting the Attorney General for Pakistan submitted an inquiry report about the matter and gave a detailed briefing to the cabinet members

The cabinet also adopted a resolution expressing condolences over the shahadat of Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian and their companions in a helicopter crash

The meeting also approved the recommendation of Ministry of Interior for duty and tax exemption on the equipment donated to Balochistan police by Guangdong Public Security Department China However under Federal Excise Tax 2005 the federal excise duty would be imposed on these items

The cabinet directed that in future, such donations and grants

would be exempted from taxes

It also approved signing of memorandum of understanding between Pakistan and the United Kingdom with regard to handing over of three accused of Pakistani nationality following recommendations of the Ministry of Interior

During the meeting the National Livestock Breeding Policy 2022 was presented by the Ministry of National Food Security and Research and the cabinet directed it to resubmit it after holding consultations with the private sector

While on the recommendation of ministry of national food security and research the cabinet approved in principle the legislation work related to National Animal Health, Welfare and Veterinary Public Health Act 2024 A Cabinet Committee on Legislative would comprehensively look into the matter

The prime minister also directed for formulation of a mechanism under a private-public partnership project for establishing a quality slaughterhouse for Islamabad and its surrounding areas

The cabinet on the recommendation of National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) granted its approval to ex-post facto on the relief goods dispatched to the Palestinians by the NDMA

The meeting was apprised that the government of Pakistan had sent 931 tons of relief goods via six airplanes and two ships