Epaper_25-03-20 LHR

In par tnership with Pakistan, China reaffirm commitment to CPEC: FO

Profit

President Alvi writes to PM for ‘on tiMe Polls’, end to Hr Abuse by ‘AutHorities’

Plea filed in SC for polls in Punjab, KP

g s ay s p e n n I n g l e t t e r I n V I e w o F e V e n t s I n V o lV I n g V I o l at I o n s o F F u n d a M e n ta l h u M a n r I g h t s

iSLAMABAD S tA f f R e p o R t

g s t r e s s e s p o l l s I n t w o p r o V I n c e s a s p e r t I M e F r a M e e s s e n t I a l to aV o I d F u r t h e r c o M p l I c at I o n s l a

PresIdent dr ar f alvi on Friday wrote a letter to pr me Minister shehbaz shar f, emphasiz ng all relevant executive authorities of federal and provinc a governments shou d be directed to refrain from abuse of human rights and assist the ecp in ho ding general elections n punjab and khyber pakhtunkhwa within the given timeframe ho ding of elect ons in the two provinces as per the constitutional timeframe, in compliance with the supreme court ’s order dated March 1 2023 is essential to avoid further compl cations including contempt of court president dr alvi wrote the president sa d he was writing the letter as events had taken place in the recent past involv ng glaring violations of fundamenta and human r ghts that were highlighted by the print electronic and social med a and needed to be brought to the prime minister ’s notice to ensure remedial measures and prevent ve act on dr alvi sa d the elections of provinc al assemb es in case of their dissolution under article 105 or article 112 were required to be he d within 90 days under article 224 (2) of the constitution

he added that the supreme court of pakistan vide its order dated 1st March, 2023 had directed the ecp to propose date(s) to the president for holding the pol with n 90 days or on a date that deviates to barest min mum from aforesa d deadline

he said the governor of khyber

pakhtunkhwa was also d rected by the supreme court to appoint a date for holding the general election for the provinc al assembly of khyber pakhtunkhwa as per above t meframe subsequently the ecp had pro-

posed holding of general elections between apr l 30 and May 7 2023 and genera elections for the provincial assembly of punjab were announced to be held on april 30 2023 and the same was notified by the ecp

pres dent a vi said that it appeared that federal and care-taker governments in punjab and khyber pakhtunkhwa advised the heads of departments concerned to indicate their inability to provide the necessar y support for hold ng general elections he referred to article 220 of the constitut on wh ch states that it shall be the duty of all executive authorities n the Federat on and n the provinces to assist the commissioner and the election comm ssion in the d scharge of h s or the r functions he underlined that in his opinion flagrant violation of the constitut on had been committed by the executive authorities and government departments and that the ecp had not implemented his announcement of holding general e ections n punjab on 30th april 2023 and also blatant y violated the supreme court ’s order dated 1st March 2023

Sanaullah to President: Stay in constitutional domain

ISl AMAbAd: Minister for Interior rana sanaullah on Fr day said president dr arif a vi should work in his const tut ona domain and better write a letter to pakistan tehreek-e-Insaf chairman Imran khan to return 190 mi lion pounds to the national exchequer he (president) should also seek answer from the ptI chief for acts of terrorism bes des accepting tyrian as his daughter and fac ng the toshakhana and foreign funding cases in courts he said while reacting to a letter written by pres dent a vi to prime Min ster shehbaz sharif the minister sa d the president should not act on the orders of Imran khan and becomes his puppet but unfortunately “a person breaking the constitution and law had been appointed to the constitutional posit on” he added he said the question arose why president alvi d d not act over violation of human rights when a person was arrested n a fake case of 15kg of heroin whether putting the oppos tion leader and the sisters and daughters of pol tical opponents in death cel s were not the v olation of human rights, he further questioned rana sanaullah sa d journa ists were tortured during the Imran khan-led government which was also sheer vio ation of human rights but the president rema ned si ent at that time he also questioned the president s si ence over human rights violations of po icemen who were targeted with petro bombs grenades and s ingshots S tA f f R e p o R t

Pakistan’s weekly inflation jumps to 46.65pc

g prIces oF 26 IteMs Increa sed, 12 IteMs decrea sed

g wherea s those oF 13 IteMs reMaIned stable

Pr ofit I n p t h e w e e k l y i n f a t i o n, m e a s u r e d b y s e n s t i v e pr i c e I n d i c a t o r ( s p I ) , w i t n e s s e d a n n c r e a s e o f 1 8 p e r c e n t t o j u m p t o 4 6 6 5 p c o n a y e a r- o n - y e a r b a s i s f o r t h e w e e k e n d e d o n M a r c h 2 2 a c c o r d i n g t o a r e p o r t i s s u e d b y t h e pa k i s t a n b u r e a u o f s t a t s t i c s ( p b s ) o f t h e 5 1 i t e m s t r a c ke d t h e p r i c e s o f 2 6 t e m s i n c r e a s e d 1 2 i t e m s d e c r e a s e d w h e r e a s t h o s e o f 1 3 i t e m s r e m a i n e d s t a b l e d u r n g t h e w e e k u n d e r r e v i e w t h e i t e m s w h o s e p r i c e s i n c r e a s e d t h e m o s t c o m p a r e d t o t h e p r e v i o u s y e a r w e r e to m a t o e s ( 7 1 7 7 % ) w h e a t F l o u r ( 4 2 3 2 % ) po t a t o e s ( 1 1 4 7 % ) b a n a n a s ( 1 1 0 7 % ) te a l i p t o n ( 7 3 4 % ) pu l s e M a s h ( 1 5 7 % ) te a pr e p a r e d ( 1 3 2 % ) a n d g u r ( 1 0 3 % ) n o n - f o o d i t e m s g e o r g e t t e ( 2 1 1 % ) , la w n ( 1 7 7 % ) a n d lo n g c l o t h ( 1 5 8 % ) t h e p r o d u c t s w h o s e p r i c e s d r o p p e d t h e m o s t c o m p a r e d t o t h e p r e v i o u s w e e k w e r e c h i c ke n ( 8 1 4 % ) c h l l i e s po w d e r e d ( 2 3 1 % ) l p g ( 1 3 1 % ) M u s t a r d o & g a r l i c ( 1 1 9 % ) e a c h pu l s e g r a m & o n i o n s ( 1 0 6 % ) e a c h Ve g e t a b l e g h e e 1 k g ( 0 8 3 % ) c o o k n g o i l 5 l i t r e ( 0 2 1 % ) pu l s e M o o n g ( 0 1 7 % ) pu l s e M a s o o r ( 0 1 5 % ) a n d e g g s ( 0 0 3 % )

China approves rollover of $2b S AFE deposits

g IMF puts pressure on pakIstan to brIdge $6b gap, urges bIlateral partners to FulFIll coMMItMents

Pr ofit rePort I S L A M A B A D

china has given approval for the rollover of $2 b llion state administration of Foreign exchange (saFe) deposits for one year F nance M nister Ishaq dar confirmed this when asked by the news of Fr day the rollover of chinese saFe deposits is one of the requirements set by the IMF for pak stan to meet its external financ ng needs and move towards a staff-level agreement one of the nine tables under the Memorandum of econom c and Financia po icies (MeFp) is re ated to the net Internat onal reser ves (nIr) which cannot be fulfi led w thout ncorporating externa financ ng needs until the end of

No bailout before agreement on Pakistan’s new fuel pricing scheme: IMF

g MInIstry gIVen sIx weeks to work out prIcIng plan whIch says assuMed prIces to be rs250 For ‘poor’, rs352 For ‘rIch’

Pr ofit

R e u t e R S

June 2023

the IMF has asked pakistan to b r i d g e a $ 6 b i l l i o n g a p t o m a i nt a i n i t s c r e d i b t y a s f a i l u r e t o d o so may resu t n default this cond i t i o n w a s s e t d u e t o c o m m i tments made by gulf countr es on t h e e x e c u t i v e b o a r d f o r f n a n c i a l a s s s t a n c e t o pa k i s t a n i n v a r i o u s f o r m s i n c l u d n g d e p o s i t s a n d i nvestments t h e I M F h a s a d v i s e d I s l a mabad that ts cred bil ty is at stake i f i t f a s t o m a t e r i a l i s e c o m m i tm e n t s f r o m i t s b a t e r a l p a r t n e r s a n d t h e s u p p o r t o f s a u d i a r a b i a t h e u a e a n d Q a t a r i s c r u c i a l i n s t r k i n g a s t a f f- l e v e l a g r e e m e n t only china has fulf lled its commitments to pak stan so far including r e f i n a n c i n g c o m m e r c i a l l o a n s and roll ng over saFe deposits

a long-awaited loan agreement between pak stan and the International Monetar y Fund (IMF) wi l be signed once a few remain ng points ncluding a proposed fuel pricing scheme are sett ed an IMF offic al confirmed on Friday the coalition government and IMF have been negot ating since ear y Februar y on an agreement that would re ease $1 1 billion to the cash-strapped countr y of 220 million peop e the atest ssue s a p an announced by prime M nister shehbaz sharif last week, to charge affluent consumers more for fuel with the money raised used to subsidise prices for the poor who have been hit hard by inflation which in Februar y was at its h ghest in 50 years petroleum Minister Musadik Malik told reuters on thursday that his m nistr y had been given six weeks to work out the pricing plan but the IMF s resident representative n pakistan esther perez ruiz said the government d d not consult the fund about the fuel pric ng scheme ru z in a message to reuters confirmed a med a report that a staff- evel agreement wou d be signed once a few remaining points inc uding the fuel scheme were settled she added that the fund would ask the government for more deta ls about the fue proposa including how it would be imp emented and what protect on would be put in place to prevent abuse the petro eum and finance ministr es did not mmed ately respond to a request for comment with enough fore gn reserves to only cover about four weeks of necessar y imports pakistan is desperate for the IMF agreement to disperse a $1 1 billion tranche from a $6 5 billion bai out agreed upon in 2019 the government has a ready mplemented several f scal measures ncluding devalu ng the rupee lifting subsid es and raising energy pr ces as preconditions for the agreement wh ch Finance M nister Ishaq dar said this month was ver y close

IMF has nothing to do with delayed polls. but are we surprised at tr ust deficit with the fund?

BAkht Noor

the IMF (International Monetar y Fund) has again contradicted the government s claims that t is the IMF programme that is making finances for the elections unavailable both cs punjab and secretar y Finance had stated IMF targets as the primar y reason why fnances for elect ons wouldn’t be avaiable taimur khan Jhagra the former khyber pakhtunkhwa Minister of Finance excla med on twitter the tweet came n response to the secretar y F nance s remarks about the government s inabil ty to release funds

for the genera e ect ons due to the targets set by the IMF program for the ma ntenance of f scal discipline and defic t Jhagra s party has been coming down hard against the pdM government both po itica ly and on their economic per formance this recent episode involving the de aying of elections seems to have touched a ver y part cular ner ve In response esther perez ruiz the IMF pakistan representative clarified that there was no requirement under pakistan s eFF-supported (extended Fund Faci ity under IMF) program which cou d inter fere with pak stan s ability to undertake constitutiona activ ties the

decisions regarding const tut ona ty feasibility and timing of the prov ncial and general elections rested so ely with pakistan s institutions there has been an ongo ng tussle between Ishaq dar, Finance Min ster of pak stan and the IMF on the 9th of March dar said that the countr y was ver y close to signing a staff level agreement with the IMF, which wou d offer a critical lifel ne to tame the balance of payment cris s an agreement would release $1 1 b llion to the crisisridden national economy these funds are part of a $6 5 bi lion bailout package that the IMF approved in 2019 which according to analysts cou d pre-

vent pakistan from default ng on external debt ob igations

The Nuclear Program debacle the funds were however being delayed on 16 March Veteran po itic an senator raza rabbani eluc dated whether the delay in the imp ementation of the IMF program was due to some sort of pressure exerted on pakistan s nuc ear or is it that there is some pressure on the strategic relationship between us and china? or is t that some mperial power in the new context of the world order wants a presence in the

the countr y s nuclear and miss le programs were concerned these statements paved the path for specu ation and eventually the pakistan tehreek-eInsaf (ptI) Vice chairman and former Foreign Minister, shah Mahmood Quresh also called the government for an explanation r u z t h e I M F r e s i d e n t r e p r e s e n t at i v e i n I s l a m a b a d c a s t i g a t e d t h e s e c a i m s a s s e r t n g t h a t t h e r e i s “ a bs o l u t e y n o t r u t h t o t h i s o r a n y i n s i n uated ink between the past or current IMF supported program and decision b y a n y pa k i s t a n g o v e r n m e n t o v e r i t s nuclear program

Shehzad Ata Elahi steps down as AGP Toyota announces second plant shutdown for 2023

g goVt ha s seVerely JeopardIzed Its credIbIlIty wIth Fund and contInued wIth busIness a s usual

ISLAMABAD

S h a h z a d Pa r ac h a

tH E Ministry of Foreign Affairs has declined request of the Ministry of Religious Affairs to grant diplomatic status to Director General Hajj designate, Abdul Wahab Soomro, a BS-21 erstwhile DMG officer

Sources said that the Prime Minister on the recommendation of the Ministry of Religious Affairs approved posting of BS-21 officer Abdul Wahab Soomro as DG Hajj in Jeddah However there is no provision to grant diplomatic status to an officer of BS21 in Esta Code So now MoFA has asked

Religious Affairs to get an approved upgradation of the seat of Minister from BS20 to BS-21 from the competent authority Reliable sources in the Ministry of Religious Affairs informed that diplomatic status to Abdul Wahab has been denied owing to the reason that rule 6 1 of Estacode provides for grant of diplomatic status to civilian officers of other ministries from grade 17 to 20 only The highest diplomatic status under these rules is Minister which is grade 20 Under current rules, Designate DG cannot be granted diplomatic status and hence cannot proceed on posting Sources also said that the Ministry of Religious Affairs is very keen to send the

cour t hands over imran’s nephew Hassaan niazi to Quetta police on transit remand

ISLAMABAD

S ta f f r e P o r t

A Judicial Magistrate here on Friday handed over Advocate Hassaan Niazi – the nephew and focal person on legal affairs to Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI)

Chairman Imran Khan, to Quetta police on a one-day transit remand Judicial Magistrate Murid Abbas handed over Niazi to the Quetta Police following the request for a transit remand so that Niazi could be shifted to Quetta and produce in a court there Magistrate Abbas directed the Quetta police to ensure that Niazi will be produced by the investigating officer (IO) in the relevant court in Quetta on March 25 The Quetta police then took Niazi from Islamabad to Quetta for the hearing of a case registered against Niazi at the Airport Police Station in Quetta on March 18 under the provisions of incitement Yesterday, the judge rejected the Punjab Police’s request for a fiveday extension in Niazi’s physical remand and had, instead, directed the police to take him to jail on judicial remand Niazi was arrested on Monday outside an AntiTerrorism Court (ATC) in Islamabad on charges of “misbehaving with the police” According to details of the case against Hassaan Niazi, Imran Khan’s focal person was not named in the Quetta case, and was arrested among unknown suspects A case was registered on March 18 on the complaint of a Sub-Inspector of the Airport Quetta Police Station According to the subinspector, when he was on patrol he was informed that 150 people had blocked the Quetta-Chaman Road Subsequently, a case was registered in Quetta against the protestors under the provisions of incitement official interference and other provisions As per the first information report (FIR) PTI leader Inayatullah Kakar and others were creating provocations and raising slogans to protest against the PTI chief ’s arrest The FIR also alleged that the protestors were inciting people and using foul language The complainant reported in the FIR that he had tried to reason with the protestors but they blocked the road for an hour It is pertinent to mention here that last week the Punjab Police in Lahore raided Khan’s residence to arrest him under the orders of an Islamabad court in the Toshakhana case This resulted in a stand-off that lasted several days between the police and PTI supporters who had gathered outside Khan’s residence On March 18 Khan finally appeared before the court where Additional Sessions Judge Zafar Iqbal cancelled his non-bailable arrest warrants after an hourslong drama at the Federal Judicial Complex

iHc quashes Fir against shandana gulzar

ISLAMABAD

S ta f f r e P o r t

The Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Friday ordered to quash a first information report (FIR) on charges of sedition against PTI’s leader Shandana Gulzar Justice Mohsin Akhter Kayani announced the verdict which was earlier reserved in the said case registered by the Women Police Station Islamabad The court had reserved its judgment on March 14 after hearing arguments in the case

designated DG and he is also very confident to get the rules “molded” for him in a couple of days This rule has to be amended by the Establishment Division in consultation with the Ministry of Finance and Foreign Affairs with final approval of the PM

It is also of interest that the post of DG Hajj is also not yet upgraded to grade 21 and the PMO s blue-eyed boy was still able to manage his notification as DG in grade 21 Now, along with the upgradation of status of Minister from grade 20 to 21, Post has to be upgraded to grade 20/21 from competent authority after notification Sources in the PM office said that one grade 20 officer in the panel had ongoing

corruption investigations but there was a serious consideration in PMO for sending the first woman officer to serve as DG Hajj

However in the end the PMO s blue-eyed – Abdul Wahab Soomro was preferred for two reasons one for his belonging to erstwhile DMG and the other factor was that a prestigious figure in the ministry was not ready to accept a woman as organizer of the Hajj, the sources added Sources also said that DMG has entrenched themselves so well and deep that no well-placed posting can go out of the family and they guard these postings with “jealousy ” All 23 DGs of Hajj and 18 out of 24 Directors posted at Jeddah in the last 76

years were from DMG which is too glaring to deny the existence of monopoly

Why was it so that out of eleven officers of various occupational groups, all three belonging to DMG reached the top and landed in the panel sent to PM and finally got selected for the prized slots

“Does it exhibit that officers from other services are incompetent and they are always outshined by DMG officers or it reflects systematic hold of DMG group Surely the reason is in the later part of the sentence” sources added It is a commonly observed practice that in all competitive exams whether they are for Trade & Investment

Officers by Ministry of Commerce Community Welfare Officers by Ministry of Overseas Pakistani or Director Hajj by Ministry of Religious affairs & interfaith harmony, Officers of DMG have to just pass the written exam to get their aspired seats However, officers from other services struggle to get their due right In all of this, first, they are supported by the composition of Superior Selection

Cour t grants interim bail to Swati, post-arrest bails to 63 workers

ISLAMABAD S ta f f r e P o r t

An Anti-Terrorism Court (ATC) on Friday granted interim bail to PTI’s leader Azam Khan Swati and post-arrest bails to other 63 accused in FIRs pertaining vandalizing in judicial complex Islamabad ATC Judge Raja Jawad Abbas

Hassan granted the bail to Azam Swati till April 5 against surety bonds worth Rs50 000 and stopped the police from arresting him till the said date Swati s lawyer Dr Baber Awan appeared before the court and adopted the stance that his client had been involved in the FIRs on political basis There were no grounds to apply terrorism law clauses in the case

registered by Golra Police Station Meanwhile the same court also granted post arrest bail to 63 accused including former member national assembly Amjad Khan Niazi in FIR pertaining riot, pelting stones on police and vandalizing in judicial complex during the appearance of Imran Khan The bails were accepted against surety bonds worth Rs50,000 each

gov t ready to hold comprehensive dialogue on all issues: Kh asif

ISLAMABAD S ta f f r e P o r t

Minister for Defence Khawaja Muhammad Asif has stated that the government is ready to hold comprehensive dialogue for the sake of the country covering all the issues but engaging in transactional dialogue will be a waste of time

NAB submits details in LHC: Cour t changes Imran’s non-bailable arrest warrant to bailable

A district and sessions court in Islamabad on Friday changed Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) chief Imran Khan’s non-bailable arrest warrant to a bailable warrant in the case of hurling threats at a woman judge Additional District and Sessions Judge Faizan Haider Gilani disposed of the PTI s plea to extend the suspension of the arrest warrant against the former premier Earlier the judge had reserved his verdict after hearing arguments During the hearing prosecutor Raja Rizwan Abbasi argued that Imran must be ordered to appear before the court for the next hearing Imran s lawyer, Ali Gohar, argued that the PTI chief would appear before the court on March 30 for the Toshakhana case and requested that the court give the same date for hearing of this case He asked the judge to uphold the warrant’s suspension and said that he would go to the civil courts and get the arrest deadline changed from March 29 to 30 The judge maintained that this was an odd request as the warrant provided the date of March 29 but the lawyer was insisting on March 30

The prosecutor questioned if the plea meant that the court could not dare to issue an arrest warrant adding that arguments to suspend the warrant should be made on merit He furthered that the accused was a blue-eyed boy of the courts, but even he was not favoured that much” Imran’s counsel pleaded for the extension of the PTI chairman’s warrant suspension till March 30, to which the judge remarked that the court could issue any decision on March 29 The lawyer reiterated that the warrant related to the Toshakhana case was suspended till March 30 to which the judge inquired whether Imran would ever appear before the court in the case of threatening a judge The prosecutor informed the court that Imran had never appeared in this case and had to be given a copy of the case and added that lawyer Gohar Ali did not have power of attorney in the reference Later the court reserved its decision on the plea The case against the former prime minister was registered on August 20, 2022, with Margalla police station in the federal capital over his remarks at a rally in F9 Park where he warned Additional District and Sessions Judge Zeba Chaudhry and police high-ups of dire consequences for what he called their “biased” attitude towards his party

Briefing the foreign media along with Minister for Information and Broadcasting Marriyum Aurangzeb in Islamabad on Friday about prevailing political situation in the country K Asif said Imran Khan has not offered materially anything for negotiations with the coalition government The Defense Minister said Imran Khan is a desperate man and believes in violence, which he demonstrated during the last week which was never happened even in the history of Pakistan He said during the past few days the constitution was undermined and violated He said we are handling the crisis precipitated by Imran Khan on daily basis Kh Asif expressed the confidence that the government would come out of the prevailing s i t u a t i o n s u c c e s s f u l l y i n c l u d i n g f r o m t h e e c o n o m i c f r o n t

Regarding allegations of Imran Khan being levelled against ‘some personalities’ about killing him the Defence Minister said these are baseless with no reality Replying to another question he said holding elections is sole responsibility of the Election Commission of Pakistan However, the security situation in the country has deteriorated and the Finance Ministry has not enough funds to hold elections separately So the Election Commission decided to hold the elections in October he added Answering yet another query about recent statements of the former US Special Representative for Afghanistan Reconciliation about Pakistan’s internal politics and in favour of the PTI Chief Khawaj Asif said Zalmay Khalilzad should have also spoken about grim human rights situation in Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir, Palestine and also about the Afghan refugees, who have been hosted by Pakistan for the past many decades and about their repatriation as well

From FIA to ACE, massive crackdown continues on PTI leaders

ISLAMABAD S ta f f r e P o r t

A vigorous crackdown has been continued on Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf leaders and former lawmakers with inquiries and summons from the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) to Punjab Anti-Corruption (ACE) and the police In a fresh development ahead of the party’s

Minar-e-Pakistan rally on Saturday the Punjab police arrested organisers of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf s Minar-e-Pakistan public rally in Lahore

The Punjab Police continued raids on the houses of PTI leaders and workers in Lahore before the Minar-ePakistan public gathering Besides other second and third tiers leaders, the police arrested Malik Qaisar and Mian Nadeem, organizers of the Minar-e-Pakistan rally during these raids Furthermore, police detained PTI leader Shahid Hussain, who is a British citizen of Pakistaniorigin and remained the focal person of the task force during Imran Khan’s government

According to PTI leaders, the residence of Hafiz Zeeshan Rashid was also raided and the family accused the police of ‘misbehaving’ with them during the raid Rashid is contesting elections against Maryam Nawaz in PP-149 The residence of PTI leaders – Hamad Niazi and Bajash Niazi were also raided by Punjab police

The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf has also constituted a 1 0 - m e m b e r l e g a l t e a m f o r t h e r e l e a s e o f p a r t y workers – who have been arrested during the ongoing r a i d s i n I s l a m a b a d a n d L a h o r e T h e d e c i s i o n w a s t a k e n d u r i n g a l e g a l c o m m i t t e e m e e t i n g c h a i r e d b y PTI senior leader Dr Yasmin Rashid S e v e r a l P T I l e a d e r S c o m e u n d e r

a c e S c r u T I n y: On the other hand several PTI leaders including former MNAs – Ghulam Bibi Bharwana Farrukh Habib Amir Dogar former provincial education minister Murad Raas Waris Aziz and Ali Akhtar have come on Anti-Corruption Establishment s radar, it was learnt on Friday

According to details, the ACE detected a fraud in the possession of 50 acre state land in Chak 243 by the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf ’s former member of National Assembly Ghulam Bibi Bharwana The ACE spokesperson said that Bharwana did not submit fee for the 50 acre state land in the national treasury

He further revealed that PTI’s former federal minister Farrukh Habib has established an illegal car stand at a state land

G a n d a P u r e S c a P e S a r r e S T: Meanwhile Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) leader Ali Amin Gandapur escaped arrest during a police raid at his farmhouse Hathala Al-Amin Farm in Dera Ismail Khan on Friday The police raided the farmhouse to arrest Ali Amin Gandapur for inciting people against the state on social media and threatening to occupy Islamabad in case of PTI chairman Imran Khan’s arrest His brothers, Dera Ismail Khan Mayor Umar Amin Gandapur and Faisal Amin Gandapur, were present at the farmhouse during the raid

According to official sources Ali Amin Gandapur is on the run to avoid arrest by police and he is constantly changing his location

Meanwhile the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) issued a call-up notice to Ali Amin Gandapur for threatening the government and state institutions on social media and inciting people to armed actions

F o r e i g n o F F i c e d e n i e s g r a n t o F d i p lo m at i c s tat u s t o d g H a j j - d e s i g n at e

a j K , g B l a u n c H B u s s e r v i c e

MIrpur S ta f f r e P o r t

aZ A D Jammu & Kashmir (AJK) and Gilgit-Baltistan(GB) achieved a major breakthrough in bridging gaps between the two regions by launching direct bus service on the eve of the historic ‘Pakistan Day’ celebrated on Thursday

The inaugural ceremony was held at New Prime Minister(PM) House in the State capital city of Muzaffarabad AJK PM

Sardar Tanveer Ilyas Khan and the Chief Minister (CM) of GB Barrister Khalid Khurshid inaugurated the Gilgit-

Muzaffarabad Bus Service at a grand ceremony hosted in AJK State metropolis to facilitate commuters of both the regions The service has been started by the joint e ff o r t s o f t h e A J K a n d G B g o v e r n m e n t s which will restore historical relations and h a r m o n y b e t w e e n t h e p e o p l e o f t h e t w o regions Cultural social regional linkages industry, and tourism will also be promoted through this initiative

A d d r e s s i n g t h e c e r e m o n y, S a r d a r Tanveer Ilyas Khan said, “Today is a very i m p o r t a n t d a y f o r t h e M u s l i m s o f t h e I n d i a n s u b - c o n t i n e n t a s t h e ‘ P a k i s t a n

Resolution’ had passed this day in 1940 It is historic that the two regions were going

if not imF, then what?

ContInueD froM BACk pAge

This loan, unlike other Chinese loans, is not project financing but is a deposit from China s ICBC to Pakistan s State Bank He added: These loans are part of the SAFE deposits, which have a maturity of one year The borrower pays monthly interest and if the borrower is not in the condition to repay the loan by the 12-month mark the same conditions are usually extended for one more year and more loan is given ”

Essentially what Pakistan is doing is buying breathing space The country is taking long-term loans to meet its short-term financing gaps The IMF has asked the country to fill the financing gap of almost $7 billion Dar announced that ICBC has signed a loan of $1 3 billion of which $500 million were released the same week But to assume that China will help Pakistan to avoid default is also not necessarily a sure bet Over the last decade, the Chinese have invested heavily in the Belt and Road initiative in many parts of the world It is their coming out project across the developing world

On the one hand, giving Pakistan unilateral relief on CPEC loans could risk setting a precedent for its other debtors On the other hand it would be a shame for China if the BRI initiative is seen to have failed so early These two considerations will have to be carefully balanced by the Chinese as more countries face repayment difficulties on BRI projects due to tightening global financial conditions commented a China-based macroeconomic analyst who wishes to stay anonymous Then there is Saudi Arabia which isn t looking too sympathetic Although Riyadh has helped with easing the liquidity crunch in the recent past, with $3 billion in September 2022, this time around help from the brotherly country may not come easy At the World Economic Forum in January, Saudi Arabia’s finance minister Mohammed al-Jadaan made the kingdom’s policy very clear: “We used to give direct grants and deposits without strings attached and we are changing that We are working with multilateral institutions to actually say we need to see reforms We are taxing our people we are also expecting others to do the same to do their best We want to help but we also want you to do your part he continued This can be seen in Saudi Arabia s refusal to hand out money to its long-Arab allies such as Egypt Morocco and Jordan Pakistan, which is far more dysfunctional than all of the others, should have seen it coming, said Kamal Alam, a senior fellow at Atlantic Council, to Middle East Eye At the start of this year in January, army chief Asim Munir visited Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and discussed the possibility of an added loan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and finance minister Ishaq Dar both have been suggesting that there is a green light from Riyadh about incoming help but it hasn’t come yet Experts believe that this treatment is because Saudi Arabia like the IMF wants to see reforms in Pakistan before it sends in any more money The kingdom would want to see tax reforms in Pakistan too; want to see reforms There has been talk of investment in oil refineries but negligible work has happened on it With reforms Pakistan will look like an economy where Saudis might want to invest, said Khaqan Najeeb, former advisor to the ministry of finance But the given economic situation in Pakistan, ridden by high inflation, high-interest policy, and limitation on imports, is not ideal for foreign investment S o n o w w H aT?

“We still have alternative options, but we need to expedite and put our house in order Bilateral trade partners have all pledged financial assistance but they would like to see how quickly Pakistan finalises its transactional structures For example if we are pitching OGDCL to Qatar for investment they would like to see the structure of minority shares and governing structures The same goes for LNG plants in the UAE There needs to be due diligence in cleaning up and sorting the financial statements and fastening the process of inflow of money, said Dr Vaqar Ahmed, deputy executive director at the Sustainable Development Policy Institute (SDPI) “Similarly, almost $10 billion in program financing is pending from multilateral banks like ADB and AIIB just because the project proposal has to go to the provinces So, the provinces must quickly fulfil the prior condition for the project to kickstart and package the transaction ” Ahmed continued The only realistic alternative is debt restructuring This means admitting to all the bilateral lenders that the borrower cannot repay the debt It calls for either reprofiling the debt (delaying the maturity period) reducing the rate of interest or reducing the overall principal amount for the bilateral creditors

All the countries will receive equal treatment, no matter how much loan they have given The IMF makes the debt sustainability analysis and states the terms of debt restructuring

In return, the creditors ask for a guarantee of following the sustainability plan in the form of reducing subsidies and inefficiencies to see that the borrower country will stand at a point where it can promise to be in a set number of years If Pakistan declares default the IMF will be able to provide guarantee support and settle on an agreement with the creditors In such a case the World Bank actually gives more loans to help rebuild the house explained Javed Hassan a macroeconomist

to be restored yesterday ” “ T h e j o u r n e y o f r e s t o r a t i o n o f connectivity that we started yesterday will b e c o n t i n u e d A f t e r E i d t h e y w i l l s t a r t a tourism bus service from all major cities of Pakistan in AJK O n t h e o t h e r s i d e o f t h e L i n e O f

C o n t r o l ( L O C ) t h e K a s h m i r i p e o p l e a r e m a k i n g s a c r i f i c e s f o r t h e c o m p l e t i o n o f P a k i s t a n N o o n e c a n d e f e a t t h e d e t e r m i n a t i o n o f t h i s n a t i o n , w h o r a i s e t h e i r c h i l d r e n t o b e c o m e K h a l i d B i n Waleed India is not aware of our history I n d i a c a n c o n q u e r t h e w o r l d t h r o u g h i t s f i l m i n d u s t r y b u t t h e y s h o u l d r e m e m b e r that when Muslims go to Spain they burnt

the boats if India does not stop we will do the same ” T h e P M o f A J K s a i d T h e j o u r n e y b e t w e e n G B a n d A J K t h a t w e s t a r t e d yesterday we hope that future generations w i l l c o n t i n u e t h i s j o u r n e y i n f u t u r e a s well GB will support AJK in the fields of c o m m u n i c a t i o n , a g r i c u l t u r e , d e s i g n a n d h o u s i n g , w h i l e t h e g o v e r n m e n t o f A J K will benefit from the sectors in which GB is ahead ” “GB will establish a medical university w i t h t h e a l l i a n c e w i t h t h e g o v e r n m e n t o f A J K W h i l e o n t h e o t h e r h a n d A J K w i l l s u p p o r t t h e g o v e r n m e n t o f G B f o r t h e

establishment of an engineering college ” H e s a i d “ A n y p e r s o n f r o m G B w h o will come to AJK will get a 35% discount on purchases and a 25% discount on rent

The scope of AJK Bank will be extended to GB while the cooperative bank of GB will also be brought to AJK Sardar Tanveer Ilyas Khan said The quota of GB will be increased in universities and other educational institutions of AJK In the future, the officers of both regions will go on posting from one region to the other,” he suggested

He said, “The governments of both regions would create a special economic zone together ”

No bailout before agreement on Pakistan’s new fuel pricing scheme: IMF

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f u e l S u b S I d y: Earlier this week the government shared its strategy for the recently-announced fuel relief programme which is to be implemented in three phases and will provide a relief of up to Rs50 per litre to the poor

The scheme s announcement had come days after the government increased the prices of all petroleum products except the insignificant light diesel oil by up to Rs13 per litre for the next fortnight

In a report that detailed the pricing strategy behind the Prime Minister s Petroleum Relief Programme the government said it has developed a twotier pricing programme that would provide relief to two-wheelers (motorcycles) three-wheelers (rickshaws) and small vehicles by dividing the consumers into the categories of poor and rich

The programme aims to target

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Later Dar retracted his previous claims and stressed that the IMF had raised no conditions or demands with regards to Pakistan s nuclear program The delay in the IMF staff-level agreement was attributed to technical reasons a l o n G e r H I S T o ry o f m I S T r u S T: Again, Dar has come under the limelight for linking the impracticality of conducting General Elections with the fiscal deficits arising from the IMF agreement Profit reached out to Jhagra who indicated that there is a longer history of acrimony between IMF and the government The reasons for consistent delays

roughly 20 million motorcycles and rickshaws (with a capping of 21 litres of fuel) & 1 36m small vehicles (with a capping of 30 litres of fuel) currently active across Pakistan the report stated

Using differential pricing wherein the base price of fuel is assumed to be Rs300 per litre the poor will be provided relief of up to Rs50 by charging the rich an additional Rs102 per litre

The resulting assumed prices would be Rs250 for the poor and Rs352 for the rich The report further said that the programme will use two models for its implementation an e-discount through OTP and a “fuel card” The implementation will be done in three phases with the first being an increment in the base fuel price (Rs300) of Rs75 setting the new price without relief at Rs375 and the collection of money in an escrow account In the second phase the government will use two different registration mechanisms to enrol the

beneficiaries” One mechanism would involve data being uploaded by the Vehicle Registration Authority to the National Database and

in the agreement predate Ishaq Dar

First, the set of steps that the government undertook to increase salaries on the first day were contrary to the terms agreed with the IMF The entire budget had to be changed as a consequence ” Jhagra said Another big step predating Dar was the ban on imports and LCs which was again contrary to what the IMF had wanted Jhagra adds In further defiance of the IMF the government committed to surpluses on part of the provinces, which are yet to materialise KP was the only province to put a caveat on surpluses “All of this eroded the IMF’s confidence in the government The

government severely jeopardized its credibility with the IMF and continued with business as usual ” Conclusively, we have now reached a point where there is already a long trail of trust deficit with the IMF Jhagra continued “when Miftah Ismail (former Finance Minister) concluded the deal with the IMF he made a commitment which he actually meant but he was fired within days Dar on the other hand has a more aggressive tone towards the IMF

To understand the present tension with the IMF, you need to understand what has been happening in the past There has been negligence on part of the government The ban on LCs for example was blatantly stupid ”

shortage of funds cited by the finance secretary which was due to the ongoing financial crisis While Sri Lanka secured financing from the multilateral lender and Bangladesh continues to implement IMF-mandated reforms Pakistan remains the only South Asian country without an IMF bailout

“You have gotten away with half truths in the past and you think you’ll get away with them in the future The government has this perception that we are too big to fail and because of this they will not allow us to fail exclaimed Jhagra

According to Jhagra while the government has already lost credibility with the IMF, it has also lost the confidence of the one or two friendly countries that would bail it out We need to take a few steps to get our house in order before seeking help from outside” he said

“This is true of Dar and of the bureaucracy also With the nuclear program conjecture Dar would have gone to the election commission to gain political populism Such statements are bound to make people justifiably angry What sort of a bizarre dispensation is this where the government of a country is bent on economic destruction? Jhagra asserted

President Alvi writes to PM for ‘on time polls ’ , end to HR abuse by ‘authorities ’ sharjeel memon appointed as incharge digital media of ppp

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The ECP had announced the date of October 8 2023 for holding general elections of provincial assemblies of Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa the president said

He wrote that it was a matter of concern that no meaningful consultation with the president on policy issues had been undertaken by the prime minister in line of Article 46 of the Constitution, which provided that the prime minister shall keep the president informed on all matters of internal and foreign policy and on all legislative proposals the Federal Government intends to bring before the parliament”

He added that Rule 15(5) of Rules of Business

1973 also highlighted the responsibility of the prime minister inter-alia to furnish such information relating to the administration of affairs of the Federation and proposals for legislation as the president may call for

In his letter the president also drew the attention of the prime minister towards the seriousness of incidents of human rights violations, atrocities of

LonDon S ta f f r e P o r t

police/law enforcement agencies and grossly disproportionate use of force against the citizens of Pakistan He said multiple fake and frivolous cases had been registered against politicians workers journalists and media persons; houses of political workers had been raided, and citizens had been abducted without warrants and lawful justification

The president said the incidents of human rights violations and oppression by state machinery against innocent citizens were in “clear breach and violations of fundamental rights” guaranteed by Article 4 of the Constitution that “provides for and guarantees citizens to enjoy the protection of law and to be treated in accordance with the law”

He also referred to Article 9 on security of person Article 10 on safeguards as to arrest and detention Article 10-A on right to fair trial Article 14 on inviolability of dignity of man etc Article 15 on freedom of movement etc Article 16 on freedom of assembly Article 17 on freedom of association and Article 19 on freedom of speech , and said the spirit and mandate of these articles were being clearly transgressed

forward that Imran Khan was not only a liar but he was also the biggest terrorist of the country

w e r e h u r l e d t o w a r d s p o l i c e s o t h a t G o d f o r b i d s t h e y c o u l d v e b u r n t H e s a i d t h a t t h e a t t i t u d e a n d behaviour of the PTI chairman was intolerable and unacceptable Nawaz Sharif further said that Imran Khan was a fraud and was involved in corrupt practices, which was known to the people He added that the onslaught on police personnel was unforgivable and any political party had

done anything like that for the first time

kArACHI

S ta f f r e P o r t

Chairman Pakistan Peoples Party Bilawal Bhutto Zardari has appointed Sharjeel Inam Memon as Incharge Digital Media of Pakistan Peoples Party with immediate effect Notification in this regard was issued from the Chairman s Secretariat by his Political Secretary Jameel Soomro here Friday Sharjeel Memon is currently serving as Minister for Information, Sindh, and has been instrumental in projection of the successes of the Sindh government in various fields

IMF has nothing to do with delayed polls. But are we surprised at trust deficit with the fund?

n d i a n i n t r a n s i g e n c e

In D I A has seen reason and issued an invitation to Pakistan for the Defence ministers’ meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation organization scheduled for Goa next month but not after making unwilling noises first It has yet to issue invitations for the SCo foreign ministers meeting in may, and the summit in June, which India hosts Pakistan has not decided about the invitation with Defence minister Kh Asif says the government will decide India might find that this action will make organisers of multilateral meetings think twice before choosing India as a host especially if Pakistan is also to be present India has already shut down SAARC by such bully-boy behaviour and now seems intent on extending this to multilateral forums This is unprecedented and even at the height of the Cold War, the USA never barred the USSR from attending the Un no matter how bad their relations

If India is unwilling to invite it seems equally unwilling to be invited It has made the Asia Cricket Cup the latest victim of this After its initial refusal to take part in the event which Pakistan hosts this year was met by Pakistan counter-boycotting the World Cup in India, it has now come up with the condition that its matches be played in neutral venues That not only poses a logistical nightmare for the pool matches, where each of the other teams will be forced to hare off outside Pakistan for just one match but makes the scheduled final impossible as India should get into it, as it has done 10 of the last 15 India should realise that Pakistan cannot be browbeaten in this way The BJP government may see the need to play to the gallery in this way, to build a narrative for a third successive electoral victory, based on muslimbashing and aggression against Pakistan Pakistan has not been entirely free of all blame, but India should realize that Pakistan has always said it wants to settle outstanding issues However this should not be interpreted as weakness Pakistan has no overwhelming compulsion to kowtow to India, and it certainly should not encourage such bad behaviour While Pakistan should keep in mind its needs in the SCo when answering the half-hearted invitation to attend, it must also take a firm line in the ACC It must not commit the Indian error and a boorish one too, of repeating its mistake of taking a bilateral issue to multilateral forums

Dedicated to the legac y of late Hameed Nizami

Arif Nizami (Late)

Founding Editor

Yousaf Nizami Editor

M A Niazi

Joint Editor Umar Aziz Executive Editor

Credibilit y of the higher judiciar y

imposing the second martial law of his tenure on 3

november 2007

TH I S time not any sundry audio or video leak but an issued video has initiated the turbulence bringing into question the conduct of the higher judiciary Reality is dawning to the dismay of many: the higher judiciary is standing short of meeting the requisite standards of conduct The tyranny is that each judge costs the national exchequer millions of rupees per month, both before and after retirement Judges of the higher judiciary are still living in a bubble ensuring their inviolability despite all indiscretions The bubble has been punctured by the confessions and revelations made by muhammad Khan

Bhatti who spoke in the video released recently He was the principal secretary to ex-Chief minister Chaudhry Pervaiz elahi

What he is saying is a matter of shame eroding t h e c r e d i b i l i t y o f t h e h i g h e r j u d i c i a r y T h e C h i e f Justice of Pakistan, mr Justice Umar Ata Bandial, cannot avoid taking the notice of growing discontent in the public impugning the credibility of the higher judiciary

There are two serious allegations: first, benches are contrived to dispense a kind of decision; and second judges are managed from outside the courts

An example can be cited In the LHC in January 2020 when a three-member bench comprising Justice mazahar Ali Akbar naqvi Justice Ameer Bhatti and Justice Chaudhry masood Jahangir was hearing the case of high treason (which had been committed by former military dictator General (retd) Pervez musharraf) it was being bandied about amongst court reporters that the decision would be delivered in the favour of General (retd) musharraf It was astonishing how the court reporters could predict so

Further, it was also being tossed around that, in return, one judge would be promoted to the SC and one judge would be made the Chief Justice of the LHC on January 13, the bench annulled unanimously the death sentence which had been delivered (on 17 December 2019) by a special court comprising Chief Justice Waqar Ahmed Seth (Peshawar High Court) Justice nazar Akbar (Sindh High Court) and Justice Shahid Karim (LHC) who had found General (retd) musharraf guilty of high treason and sentenced him to death under Article 6 of the Constitution for

The three-member bench of the LHC gave its u n a n i m o u s v e r d i c t o n t h e p r e t e x t t h a t t h e c a s e against General (retd) musharraf was not framed as per the law The lame excuse created is a major reason for not letting democracy be established in this country and for inviting more martial laws with impunity The decision is an example of how certain judges are always ready to serve the cause of military dictators The question is this: how do the court reporters know about the outcome of a case and the sequence of events afterwards? The probable answer is this: by attending courts the court reporters keep on observing judges over time exposure helps the court reporters predict a decision experience helps them overhear what is happening out of the court

In a bench the combination of judges reinforces the opinion of court reporters The terms such as bench fixation or the like-minded judges have also been devised by the court reporters That is, judges of the same opinion are assembled together in a bench (as a majority) to issue a verdict of choice A minority of dissident judges is added to get a split (but favoured) verdict to put on the semblance of authenticity This is how the higher judiciary allegedly works In 2019 and 2020 the government of the Pakistan Tehrek-e-Insaf (PTI) remained instrumental in stopping the special court from issuing a decision on the treason case of General (retd) musharraf The PTI government first moved the Islamabad High Court directly against the special court and then the LHC (indirectly through a lawyer) to seek the desired verdict Apparently, the LHC was selected for its amenability Consequently, the like-minded bench delivered the wanted verdict The impression was rife that the judges were managed both inside and outside the court During its stint in power, the PTI kept on chanting the mantra of the same page: the government and the military were one soul two bodies one was a reflection of the other on 23 november 2022 while delivering a speech at the Defence and martyrs day ceremony the outgoing Army Chief General (retd) Qamar Javed Bajwa made an unequivocal admission: the Army had been involved in politics till February 2021 obviously, the PTI had served the purpose by playing second fiddle to the Army one of the deliveries was saving the skin of General (retd) musharraf from Article 6 Afterwards, the PTI stood as a spent cartridge

The PTI was also required to undo the 18th Constitutional Amendment but the party could not serve the purpose, owing to performing poorly on the economy

The reverse side of the argument is that if the PTI had performed well on the economy an attempt could have been made to revoke the 18th Constitutional Amendment through introducing another amendment However the PTI s underperformance dismayed the handlers who left the party to its own

Islamophobia — a conspiracy

terrorists in South Waziristan s Angoor Adda

ALI SUKHANVER

So m e things are simply bad but some are horrifically worst; successful are only those who face the worst with undefeatable determination and a never-dying hope of good days We the people of Pakistan are no doubt among those successful ones who never bend down in front of hardships and trials A bright ray of hope always circles around us and keeps us alive The people of Pakistan are always hopeful that someday in the near future, things will be alright

At present Pakistan is passing through the most drastic phase of its life The hardships this nation is facing would not have been so severe in nature if they were not accompanied by insurgent terrorist activities Though our security agencies are doing all their best to curb the menace of terrorism the stormy ocean still seems adamant on giving us a tougher time In spite of all those hurdles and obstacles hardships and hurdles, the most pleasant reality is that we have not lost hope of a sunny day after this troublesome weather We have our own happiness and our own joys; the hope of happy days to come is no doubt the most beautiful of all these joys

The month of march always adds a lot to the beauty of natural scenery in Pakistan as this is the month associated with the spring season

This is the month when everyone could feel the presence of a comparatively mild blowing breeze eager-to-shower clouds ice-crystal hailstones lush green trees and colorful flowerbeds; certainly it all makes the whole atmosphere enchanting and mesmerizing Another salient feature of this month is 23rd march the day when in 1940 the foundation stone of Pakistan was laid in Lahore by the passing f the Lahore Resolution

The Pakistan Armed Forces usually hold an elegant military parade in the Capital Islamabad to celebrate this great day but it is something very pinching that the anti-Pakistan elements always try to add some pain and some agony to the colorful and fragrant happiness associated with the month of march through their lily-livered activities The killing of Brigadier mustafa Kamal Barki on march 21 is also one of such

chickenhearted activities by the terrorists Brigadier Barki was a high-ranking officer of Pakistan s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) and was leading an encounter with the hard-core

There are serious allegations leveled at cer tain judg es of both the SC and the LHC, which run on the taxpayers’ money Time is running out The higher judiciar y has to come clean about its credibility

devices 10 April 2022 saw the exclusion of the PTI from the national Assembly through a vote of noconfidence The PTI was left with the higher judiciary the third part of the nexus that helped the party reach the corridors of power in 2018 The higher judiciary is the last man standing to buttress the PTI now in the streets nevertheless, the emerged video broadcasting the confessional statement of muhammad Khan Bhatti has exposed the last man, who is standing by the PTI

The Chief Justice of the SC is overlooking the fact that all judges work under the Constitution and law no judge is above the law The Chief Justice has no authority to support the fellow judges by including them in benches and by not resorting to holding an inquiry against them The higher judiciary is lucky that petitioners have not boycotted those judges whose repute is in question

There are serious allegations leveled at certain judges of both the SC and the LHC, which run on the taxpayers money Time is running out The higher judiciary has to come clean about its credibility

The writer can be reached at qaisarrashid@yahoo com

E d i t o r ’ s m a i l

This place is in Pakistan s northwest region bordering Afghanistan The martyred Brigadier Barki s vehicle was targeted by the terrorists in the dark of night His driver also sacrificed his life during that incident After the incident, Pakistan military media wing, the Inter Services Public Relations (ISPR) said in an official statement that an intense exchange of fire took place between the two sides Brigadier Barki and his team “put up a valiant resistance against the terrorists during the encounter and the officer sacrificed his life for the peace of the motherland

The ISPR further said that the defence forces of Pakistan and intelligence agencies pledge to reaffirm and demonstrate firm resolve to eliminate the menace of terrorism from every inch of the country ”

In the last three years

left more than 200 seriously injured on February 17 a group of armed men attacked the central police station in Karachi Two policemen lost their lives and nine others were seriously injured in that attack on February 23, at least two policemen were killed in a remote-controlled blast in Baluchistan s Khuzdar district on February 26, a blast at a crowded market in Balochistan province killed at least four people and wounded 14 on march 6, a suicide bomber in Balochistan killed nine policemen on march 13 two more people were killed in another Khuzdar bombing; and now the recent incident which took the precious life of another son of Pakistan Brigadier Barki

It is as clear as daylight that we could never be friends to someone we are frightened of In this rapidly changing world, we need friends not foes.

a very alarming rise in terrorist activities in Pakistan is being observed In 2022 compared to 2021 there was a 27 percent spike in terrorist attacks and now in 2023 this rise seems reaching above that range of 27 percent A very shocking beginning of the new wave of terrorism in 2023 was noticed on January 30 when a mosque in Peshawar was targeted by a suicide bomber at around 1:30 p m The mosque was located inside a high-security compound that included the headquarters of the provincial police force and a counterterrorism department At the time of the bombing between 300 and 400 police officers were offering their prayers in the mosque This terrorist activity killed more than 100 people and

It is something very astonishing that after every terrorist activity the responsibility is allegedly claimed by some Islamist militant organization; all those who lose their lives in all such incidents are the muslims and the majority of the targeted ones belong to the law-enforcement agencies It means muslims are killing muslims This situation is giving birth to a feeling of fear and horror; the world around us calls this feeling Islamophobia

It is as clear as daylight that we could never be friends to someone we are frightened of In this rapidly changing world, we need friends not foes Internationally, intelligent and wise nations are trying their utmost to settle down their conflicts with their once rival nations in a cordial way How can we develop a friendly relationship with the world around us in the presence of ‘Islamophobia’ type of feeling?

The writer is an Associate Professor of English at Govt College of Science Multan

S e n d y o u r l e t t e r s t o : L e t t e r s t o E d i t o r Pakistan Today, 4 - S h a a re y F a t i m a J i n n a h L a h o re P a k i s t a n E - m a i l : l e t t e r s @ p a k i s t a n t o d a y c o m p k L e t t e r s s h o u l d b e a d d re s s e d t o Pakistan Today e x c l u s i v e l y

Costly education

T H e country has yet to fully recover from the economic setback caused by the floods last year, and the extreme political instability over the last few months has not helped either Price hike can be observed everywhere In fact, this is not something one has to observe ; it is right there in everyone s face Amid all this, there are people trying to enlarge their share in the pie in the name of education educational institutions have become a major source of income and profiteering Well over 75 per cent of our population is already living below the poverty line The increase in educational fees and other related charges has forced many families to withdraw their children from schools The academic journey for many has been over They are now working on the streets just to keep the wolves away from the door Is this not adding to the burden of child labour in society? In the current scenario the country needs to improve the quality of education but what is happening on the ground is just the opposite many are not getting any education worth its name The policymakers and other relevant stakeholders must remember that the country cannot progress without education It is the educated, the learned, who happen to be the torch-bearers in any society, leading the nation on the road to prosperity The govern-ment must make quality education accessible to every person so that the motherland may make progress by leaps and bounds in the years ahead

MUHAMMAD WAJDAN FAISALABAD

Austerit y measures

I n a state of peak upheaval where the country is facing trouble on three fronts economic, political and terrorism-related chaos the government announced an austerity drive aimed at reducing government expenditure by 15 per cent This involved requiring all federal officials to forgo salaries and privileges, and to pay their utility bills out of their own pockets Luxury vehicles have been done away with, staying at five-star hotels has been prohibited, and the import of luxury items for government officials has been banned Among other things, virtual meetings have been prioritised over in-person meetings that may save travelling and allied costs These measures are great At least they sound logical Having said that are these meagre reforms a solution to the incumbent mess? This mess is the outcome of decades of faults in the system The government should have slashed the number of officials in what happens to be the biggest cabinet ever in the history of the country but that has not been done The only solution to this dilemma is basic structural economic reforms which unfortunately are not on anyone s agenda as these will resist extravagant expenditure and ostentatious fancy lifestyles on which the taxpayers money is spent GHULAM SHAH KARACHI

A Japanese poem

T H I S is with reference to an article published in a local newspaper recently which left me rather astonished with its quotation of a poem supposedly by the iconic Amjad Islam Amjad titled The Wind Cannot Read The writer is apparently unaware that this is actually an unattributed Japanese poem which reads: Though on the sign it is written Do not pluck these blossoms , it is useless against the wind which cannot read maybe it is a haiku, as the article suggests, but it is Japanese Some of the readers would surely know of the 1958 film with the same title, based on a novel by Richard mason and starring Dirk Bogarde It is a touching story of a romance between a British officer and a Japanese woman during World War II Is it really possible that Amjad Sahib wrote, and claimed as his own, the Japanese poem The Wind Cannot Read?

The B hatti video is par tic ularly damaging

India helps Bangladesh meet energy needs

in Bangladesh reported a fall in production by up to 50 percent last year thus affecting the country s export earnings

In D I A n Prime minister narendra modi and his Bangladeshi counterpart Sheikh Hasina Wajid inaugurated a 131 5-kilometre-long IndiaBangladesh Friendship Pipeline (IBFPL) from Siliguri in north Bengal to Parbatipur in Banglaesh s Dinajpur province last week

The pipeline built with Rs 3 77 billion drawn from a line of credit offered by India to Bangladesh will carry one million tonnes of high-speed diesel from numaligarh refinery in Assam to Bangladesh Petroleum Corporation s Parbatipur depot

The ground-breaking ceremony for the pipeline, which starts from numaligarh refinery’s marketing terminal in Siliguri and enters Bangladesh through the Banglabandha border post was held in September 2018

The pipeline will go a long way in meeting Bangladesh’s burgeoning energy needs Apart from meeting Bangladesh s acute energy needs India s help to its eastern neighbour is also aimed at strengthening ties with all neighbours furthermore it will usher a new era of bilateral energy cooperation not only that through Bangladesh it can fulfil the untapped potential of its northeastern region So both Bangladesh and India came forward to enhance their energy security based on reciprocity and enhancing South Asian regional cooperation

The pipeline will go a long way in meeting Bangladesh’s burgeoning energy needs The new pipeline is another milestone in Indo-Bangladesh ties Bangladesh’s rapid development is fuelling its hunger for more power Bangladeshis are happy that India is meeting this demand not only through this pipeline but also other projects like the maitree Super Thermal Power Plant and supply of power from the Godda thermal power plant in Jharkhand Bangladesh faces a major energy crisis that threatens to hobble its growth Long power cuts are common even in the capital Dhaka and this has stunted production in key export industries especially the ready-made garments sector that accounts for nearly 85 per cent of the country s exports

In early october last year, Bangladesh suffered a grid failure that left nearly 80 percent of the country without power Due to daily power outages, many industrial units

The energy crisis in Bangladesh which is an energydeficit country was intensified by the conflict between Russia and Ukraine and the consequent exponential increase in oil and gas prices This compelled Bangladesh to stop purchase of gas and shut down several diesel-run power plants

In the near future, Bangladesh needs to transition from conventional energy sources to ensure its energy security and long-term sustainability Following the Ukraine crisis energy security has become a major concern for developing and least-developed countries In this context cross-border energy cooperation could perhaps help Bangladesh to mitigate its energy crisis

During Prime minister Sheikh Hasina s visit to India in September 2022 Bangladesh requested that it be allowed to import power from nepal and Bhutan via India

The nepal electricity Authority (neA) sought approval from the Indian authorities to export 40-50 mW of electricity to Bangladesh through India s existing transmission infrastructure

In August 2022, Bangladesh and nepal decided to request India to allow the export of 4050 mW of electricity from nepal to Bangladesh in the initial phase by utilising the high-voltage BaharampurBheramara cross-border power transmission link As per the understanding reached during the secretary-level Joint Steering Committee (JSC) formed for nepal-Bangladesh energy cooperation the neA and the Bangladesh Power Development Board requested India for a trilateral energy sales and purchase agreement utilising the power line

Given this scenario the India-Bangladesh Friendship Pipeline (IBFP) will mark an important milestone in Bangladesh s quest to fully meet its energy needs the country s energy minister nasrul Hamid said recently He said that the IBFP would have been commissioned earlier had it not been for the pandemic that disrupted construction

“This pipeline will result in quick transport of diesel into Bangladesh and will do away with our reliance on importing the petroleum product in oil tankers by road and rail from India that take a long time and are subject to procedural delays at times ” said Hamid

Apart from this project that will go some way in meeting Bangladesh s energy demand the first unit of the $2 billion maitree Super Thermal Power Production at Rampal in Bangladesh s Khulna province is already supplying 660 mW to the country s national grid

The 1320 mW maitree project is being built under a

Macron plays for time as France burns

a climate-related diesel fuel tax turned into a yearlong leaderless movement that upended macron’s policy agenda for months

The government is closely watching to see if these protests go in the same direction

concessional financing scheme offered by India to

Bangladesh

The two countries set up the Bangladesh India Friendship Power Company Limited (BIFPCL) a 50:50 joint venture between India s national Thermal Power Corporation and Bangladesh Power Development Board once completed this will be Bangladesh s largest power plant Prime ministers modi and Sheikh Hasina jointly unveiled the first unit of the plant during the latter s visit to new Delhi in September last year Bangladesh is also awaiting power from the Adani

India is also playing a key role in helping Bangladesh access clean and cheap energy from Bhutan and Nepal New Delhi has proposed expansion of power trade within the BBIN (Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Nepal) framework and multilateral talks facilitated by New Delhi are currently on in this regard

group s 1600-megawatt thermal power station at Godda in Jharkhand Tawfiq-e-elahi Chowhury the energy Advisor to Prime minister Sheikh Hasina had said last month that Bangladesh is looking forward to importing at least 600 mW of power from this plant to meet its peak summer demand

The first unit of this plant has already been synchronised with Bangladesh s power grid and after completion of some formalities and last-minute negotiations between the two sides, export of power to Bangladesh from the plant is expected to commence within the next few weeks

Bangladesh power minister nasrul Hamid said that his country wants to import more energy from India

“We are holding talks with India on this We’re exploring all possibilities The maitree power plant is just the beginning and we can have more such projects India is already playing a large role in helping us meet our growing energy needs and we expect this role to grow exponentially in the coming months and years he said India s help to Bangladesh in meeting its energy needs is also aimed at offsetting that country s dependence on China, whose investments in Bangladesh s energy sector stand at $ 8 31 billion

Beijing has offered to help Bangladesh’s transition to renewable sources of energy This time, new Delhi has also nudged the USA to step up its energy cooperation with Bangladesh especially in the field of renewables US Presidential envoy on climate John Kerry offered to help Bangladesh in strengthening its power grid and transition to clean energy India is also playing a key role in helping Bangladesh access clean and cheap energy from Bhutan and nepal new Delhi has proposed expansion of power trade within the BBIn (Bangladesh Bhutan India nepal) framework and multilateral talks facilitated by new Delhi are currently on in this regard

India has also promised to export power generated from its upcoming hydro-power projects in Sikkim and Arunachal Pradesh once these are commissioned “We are keen on importing power generated from hydel plants in India as well as nepal and Bhutan in order to transition to clean energy India’s help in this transition is critical ” said the Bangladesh power minister

The India-Bangladesh Friendship Pipeline is thus a major milestone in India s efforts to help Bangladesh tide over its energy crisis It is also part of new Delhi s efforts to strengthen ties in the neighbourhood

The writer is a freelance columnist

S h o u l d t h e U S b a n

t h e d i s t r i b u t i o n o f t h e a p p t h r o u g h

Aday of nationwide strikes against French President emmanuel macron’s pension reform has paralyzed France for the ninth time in recent months

The big question now is whether macron will blink and retract the law which he pushed through last week without a parliamentary vote

The legislation would lift the French retirement age by two years from 62 to 64 At the moment France has one of the lowest retirement ages in europe contrasting with 67 in Italy, 65-67 in Germany and 66 in the United Kingdom The French president has infuriated unions and much of the public by bypassing a parliamentary vote after it became clear he would lose, using clause 49 3 of the constitution to enact the law Parliament still could have overturned the reform with a vote of no-confidence in the government monday but that mention fell short by just nine votes macron is benefiting from France s presidential system which affords the executive much more power compared to many other countries including the United States macron lost his parliamentary majority last year, a rarity for a French president Since then, he has relied on forming ad hoc coalitions with opposition lawmakers to pass laws on a case-by-case basis, but it was clear that would not work this time Today’s strike has disrupted train service and airport travel, closed schools and blocked energy deliveries macron has requisitioned refinery workers to keep energy flowing macron finally addressed his decision to bypass parliament in an interview dismissing calls to fire his prime minister elisabeth Borne and instead tasking her with broadening her working coalition in parliament and holding talks with unions But it is now clear he is playing for time, looking for a way to defuse a political crisis of his own making The unrest threatens to turn the four remaining years of his second term into an extended lame-duck period and could even result in the dissolution of parliament and a new election though macron’s position as president would not be affected

This is the most serious challenge to macron s authority since the violent Gilets Jaunes or Yellow Vest protests of 2018 and 2019 when a spontaneous backlash against

So far the latest protests have been mostly peaceful in part because they have been organized and chaperoned by France s labor unions which have security details in place to maintain order But they are becoming more violent In recent days protesters burned macron in effigy, threw molotov cocktails at town halls, cut off electricity to banks, all while dockers blocked ports many observers have condemned acts of police violence against the protesters, with the United nations special rapporteur on freedom of assembly stating that he is following the demonstrations closely and calling on French police to “avoid any excessive use of force ” macron does have one excuse to wait before responding to the protest movement s demand to retract the law: The constitutional court needs to review it before it can be promulgated Polls have shown that twothirds of the public is opposed to raising the retirement age, and more than three-quarters disapproved of macron s decision to bypass the parliament to enact it even among those who recognize the need to raise the retirement age, there is anger that macron dropped his first-term plan to make the change just one part of a broader reform of the pension system to treat workers more fairly That plan was in the final stages of parliamentary consideration in the first months of 2020 but was ultimately abandoned due to the onset of the coronavirus pandemic now macron is under pressure from Brussels to get the change done quickly because of France s fragile economic situation and high public debt In his Wednesday interview, macron said that because of the economic impact of the pandemic, the war in Ukraine and rampant inflation, the pension reform needed to be executed faster and more simply than he originally wanted But macron cannot wait this crisis out forever It seems unlikely that simply changing prime ministers a long-standing tradition for French presidents under fire will be enough to calm things down and he has ruled it out for now And maintaining the current strategy of seeking ad-hoc opposition support in parliament no longer seems sustainable Already some legislators within his party are talking about forming an official parliamentary coalition with the centerright Les Republicains, but that would anger the progressive members of his camp At the moment, macron has little before him but an angry country and a bunch of bad options

Dave Keating is an American-European journalist who has been based in Brussels for 12 years Originally from the New York City area Dave has in the past covered the halls of Congress in Washington the courtrooms of Chicago the boardrooms of London the cafes of Paris and the climate campaigns of Berlin

TI K To K Ceo Shou Zi Chew testified before the House energy and Commerce Committee on march 23 2023 amid a chorus of calls from members of Congress for the federal government to ban the Chinese-owned video social media app and reports that the Biden administration is pushing for the company’s sale The federal government, along with many state and foreign governments and some companies has banned TikTok on work-provided phones This type of ban c a n b e e ff e c t i v e f o r p r o t e c t i n g d a t a r elated to government work But a full ban of the app is another matter which raises a number of questions: What data privacy r i s k d o e s Ti k To k p o s e ? W h a t c o u l d t h e C h i n e s e g o v e r n m e n t d o w i t h d a t a c o llected by the app? Is its content recommendation algorithm dangerous? And is it even possible to ban an app?

VACUUMING UP DATA: As a cybersecurity researcher, I’ve noted that every few years a new mobile app that becomes popular raises issues of security privacy and data access Apps collect data for several reasons Sometimes the data is used to improve the app for users However most apps collect data that the companies use in part to fund their operations This revenue typically comes from targeting users with ads based on the data they collect The questions this use of data raises are: Does the app need all this data? What does it do with the data? And how does it protect the data from others? So what makes TikTok different from t h e l i k e s o f P o k e m o n - G o , F a c e b o o k o r even your phone itself? TikTok’s privacy policy which few people read is a good place to start overall the company is not p a r t i c u l a r l y t r a n s p a r e n t a b o u t i t s p r a ct i c e s T h e d o c u m e n t i s t o o l o n g t o l i s t here all the data it collects which should be a warning There are a few items of interest in TikTok s privacy policy besides the information you give them when you create an account – name, age, username, password, language, email, phone number, social media account information and profile image – that are concerning This information includes location data data from your clipboard contact information website tracking plus all data you post and messages you send through the app The company claims that current versions of the app do not collect GPS information from U S users There has been speculation that TikTok is collecting other information but that is hard to prove If most apps collect data, why is the U S government worried about TikTok? First, they worry about the Chinese government accessing data from its 150 million users in the U S There is also a concern about the algorithms used by TikTok to show content

DATA IN THE CHINESE GOVERNMENT’S HANDS: If the data does end up in the hands of the Chinese government, the question is how could it use the data to its benefit The government could share it with other companies in China to help them profit which is no different than U S companies sharing marketing data The Chinese government is known for playing the long game and data is power so if it is collecting data it could take years to learn how it benefits China o n e p o t e n t i a l t h r e a t i s t h e C h i n e s e g o v e r n m e n t u s i n g t h e d a t a t o s p y o n people particularly people who have acc e s s t o v a l u a b l e i n f o r m a t i o n T h e J u s t i c e D e p a r t m e n t i s i n v e s t ig a t i n g Ti k To k s p a r e n t c o m p a n y, B y t e D a n c e , f o r u s i n g t h e a p p t o m o n i t o r U S j o u r n a l i s t s T h e C h i n e s e g o v e r n m e n t h a s a n e xt e n s i v e h i s t o r y o f h a c k i n g U S g o v e r nm e n t a g e n c i e s a n d c o r p o r a t i o n s a n d m u c h o f t h a t h a c k i n g h a s b e e n f a c i l itated by social engineering – the practice o f u s i n g d a t a a b o u t p e o p l e t o t r i c k t h e m i n t o r e v e a l i n g m o r e i n f o r m a t i o n

The second issue that the U S government has raised is algorithm bias or algorithm manipulation TikTok and most social media apps have algorithms designed to learn a user s interests and then try to adjust the content so the user will continue to use the app TikTok has not shared its algorithm, so it’s not clear how the app chooses a user ’s content

The algorithm could be biased in a way that influences a population to believe certain things There are numerous allegations that TiKTok s algorithm is biased and can reinforce negative thoughts among younger users and be used to affect public opinion It could be that the algorithm s manipulative behavior is unintentional but there is concern that the Chinese government has been using or could use the algorithm to influence people

CAN THE GOVERNMENT BAN AN

APP? If the federal government comes to t h e c o n c l u s i o n t h a t Ti k To k s h o u l d b e banned is it even possible to ban it for all o f i t s 1 5 0 m i l l i o n e x i s t i n g u s e r s ? A n y such ban would likely start with blocking

A p p l e s a n d G o o g l e s a p p s t o r e s T h i s might keep many users off the platform, but there are other ways to download and i n s t a l l a p p s f o r p e o p l e w h o a r e d e t e rmined to use them

A more drastic method would be to force Apple and Google to change their phones to prevent TikTok from running While I m not a lawyer I think this effort would fail due to legal challenges which include First Amendment concerns The bottom line is that an absolute ban will be tough to enforce

There are also questions about how effective a ban would be even if it were possible By some estimates, the Chinese government has already collected personal information on at least 80% of the U S population via various means So a ban might limit the damage going forward to some degree but the Chinese government has already collected a significant amount of data The Chinese government also has access – along with anyone else with money – to the large market for personal data which fuels calls for stronger data privacy rules

ARE YOU AT RISK? So as an average user, should you worry? Again, it is unclear what data ByteDance is collecting and if it can harm an individual I believe the most significant risks are to people in power, whether it is political power or within a company Their data and information could be used to gain access to other data or potentially compromise the organizations they are associated with The aspect of TikTok I find most concerning is the algorithm that decides what videos users see and how it can affect vulnerable groups particularly young people Independent of a ban, families should have conversations about TikTok and other social media platforms and how they can be detrimental to mental health These conversations should focus on how to determine if the app is leading you down an unhealthy path

Doug Jacobson is professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering Iowa State University

TIkTOk CEO grIllEd by skEPTICAl Us l AwMAkErs

WASHINGTON

Ag e n c e s

Anearly six-hour grilling of TikTok’s CEO by U S lawmakers on Thursday brought the platform’s 150 million U S users no closer to an answer whether the app should be wiped from their devices

The U S House Energy and Commerce Committee hearing came after the Biden Administration indicated it may ban the app outright in the U S if its Chinese owner, ByteDance, refused to sell its stake in TikTok to an American company China will firmly oppose a forced sale of TikTok, the Chinese Ministry of Commerce (MOFCOM) said on Thursday, adding that the sale or divestiture of TikTok is subject to Chinese laws

Although TikTok’s CEO Shou Zi Chew a Singaporean who speaks fluent English repeatedly emphasized that TikTok hires over 7 000 employees in the U S and it does not operate in the Chinese mainland at all many U S congressmen seem to have only one thought: ban TikTok

In Thursday s hearing, U S lawmakers pressed Chew over data security and harmful content, responding skeptically during a tense committee hearing to his assurances that the hugely popular video-sharing app pri-

oritizes user safety and should not be banned due to its Chinese connections Chew spent most of the hearing attempting to push back assertions that TikTok, or its Chinese parent company ByteDance, are tools of the Chinese government, arguing the platform was doing everything to ensure safety for its 150 million American users

Shelly Palmer a professor of advanced media at Syracuse University who studies social network business models said Chew did the best he could given the grilling he received from lawmakers who in my opinion were not actually listening but instead were grandstanding The U S congress, the White

Nor th korea tests new nuclear-capable under water drone

SEOUL

ready for deployment North Korea intends to signal “to the United States and South Korea that in a war the potential vectors of nuclear weapons delivery that the allies would have to worry about and target would be vast said Ankit Panda senior fellow at the U S -based Carnegie Endowment for International Peace

There would be silos railcars submarines and road mobile missile launchers And now they re adding this underwater torpedo to the mix, he said On Monday, the isolated country flew a short-range missile from a buried silo, a departure from usual basing methods Dubbed “Haeil”, or tsunami, the new drone system is intended to make sneak attacks in enemy waters and destroy naval strike groups and major operational ports by creating a large radioactive wave through an underwater explosion the KCNA said “This nuclear underwater attack drone can be deployed at any coast and port or towed by a surface ship for operation the news agency said adding that Kim oversaw the test

A South Korean military official said they were analysing North Korea s claims A U S official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said there was no indication of a nuclear test It is unclear whether North Korea has fully developed miniaturised nuclear warheads needed to fit on its smaller weapons

House U S armed forces and more than half of U S states have already banned the use of the app from official devices Similar bans have been imposed in other countries including Denmark, Canada, Great Britain and New Zealand, as well as the European Union A complete TikTok ban in the U S would risk political and popular backlash from its young user base and civil liberties groups said U S Rep Dan Crenshaw David Kennedy a former government intelligence officer who runs the cybersecurity company TrustedSec said he agrees with restricting TikTok access on government-issued phones but that a nationwide ban might be too extreme

ISLAMABAD M

China has expressed its grave concern and firm opposition after the US the UK and Australia pushed forward nuclear-powered submarine cooperation and coerced IAEA Secretariat to endorse the cooperation Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin said on Thursday at a routine press conference in Beijing

The nuclear submarine cooperation between the US, the UK and Australia fully exposes the double standards and hypocritical nature of the three countries on nuclear non-proliferation, Wang said at a press conference in Beijing, explaining China’s stance on the topic, which was delivered on March 20 in the Chinese commission to the UN’s note verbale in response to IAEA Director General’s Statement in Relation to the AUKUS Announcement

The Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) capped Iran s stockpile of enriched uranium at 300 kilograms of uranium gas enriched to 3 67% purity whereas the AUKUS involves US and UK s transfer of several tons of weapons-grade highly enriched uranium of more than 90 percent to Australia a non-nuclear-weapon state The risk of nuclear proliferation is obvious, Wang said

This sheds light on the nature of the three nations which use non-proliferation as a geopolitical tool They try to woo allies at the price of nuclear proliferation, while citing non-proliferation as an excuse to suppress others, Wang said The trilateral cooperation reflects the three countries’ hegemonic practices that flout international rules They have pressed the IAEA to invoke Article 14 of the Comprehensive Safeguards Agreement (CSA) to make safeguards arrangements which is essentially coercing the IAEA Secretariat into making safeguards exemption arrangements despite the huge divergences among the international community on the interpretation and applicability of this Article, Wang stressed

We have Tesla in China we have Microsoft in China we have Apple in China Are they going to start banning us now? Kennedy said It could escalate very quickly If you think the U S needs a TikTok ban and not a comprehensive privacy law regulating data brokers, you don’t care about privacy, you just hate that a Chinese company has built a dominant social media platform ” Eva Galperin the director of cybersecurity at the Electronic Frontier Foundation wrote on Twitter Will TikTok access U S home wifi networks? U S Congressman Richard Hudson asked Chew if TikTok accesses U S home wifi networks Only if the user turns on the wifi, I m sorry, I may not understand that, Chew answered Hudson asked, If I have TikTok on my phone and my phone is on my home wifi network, does TikTok access that network?”

“It will have to to get the access to [the] network it gets connections to the internet if that s the question Chew said in response Is it possible it can access other devices on that home wifi network? Hudson further asked We do not do anything that is bey o n d a n y i n d u s t r y n o r m s I b e l i e v e t h e a n s w e r t o y o u r q u e s t i o n i s N o , said Chew

French MPs battle over AI video sur veillance cameras at Paris Olympics

PARIS

A F P

French government’s plans to trial surveillance cameras upgraded with artificial intelligence at the 2024 Olympics have opponents fuming at what they say is unnecessary and dangerous security overreach While the government says such systems are needed to manage millions-strong crowds and spot potential dangers critics see the draft law as a gift to French industry at the cost of vital civil liberties

Last week around 40 mostly left-leaning members of the European Parliament warned in an open letter to French lawmakers that the plan creates a surveillance precedent never before seen in Europe , daily Le Monde reported Debates kicked off late Monday in the National Assembly, France’s lower parliamentary chamber, with discussions to continue Friday Even before the debates started, MPs had already filed 770 amendments to the government’s wide-ranging Olympics security bill many aimed at its Article Seven That section provides for video recorded by existing surveillance systems or new ones including dronemounted cameras to be processed by algorithms Artificial intelligence software would detect in real-time pre-determined events likely to pose or reveal a risk of terrorist acts or serious breaches of security such as unusual crowd movements or abandoned bags Systems would then signal the events to the police or other security services, who could decide on a response Biometric or not?

The government is at pains to reassure that the smart camera tests would not process biometric data and especially not resort to facial recognition, technologies the French public is wary of applying too broadly “The experiment is very precisely limited in time (and) the algorithm does not substitute for human judgement which remains decisive Sports Minister Amelie OudeaCastera told MPs

Throughout the history of the IAEA, the formulation and improvement of all types of safeguards agreements were done through consultation of interested member states before being reviewed and adopted by the Board of Governors

The US the UK Australia and the IAEA Secretariat have no right to take the matter of applicability into their own hands still less strike a deal between themselves and impose it on the entire membership Wang also warned the the AUKUS nuclear submarine cooperation seriously undermines the international nuclear non-proliferation regime It will place large amounts of weapons-grade nuclear material in the hands of a country in a nuclearweapon-free zone beyond the effective reach of the international safeguards system This clearly contravenes the object and purpose of the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT)

The AUKUS nuclear submarine cooperation will set an egregious precedent and encourage others to follow suit It will have a negative impact on the resolution of regional nuclear hotspot issues and may eventually lead to the collapse of the international nuclear non-proliferation regime and backfire on the three countries themselves Wang said

We urge the US the UK and Australia to earnestly fulfill their international obligations change course, and not unlock Pandora s box on nuclear proliferation, Wang stressed China also calls on the IAEA to live up to its nonproliferation responsibilities and refrain from endorsing the three countries’ acts of nuclear proliferation A t t h e s a m e t i m e , C h i n a h o p e s a l l m e m b e r s t a t e s o f t h e I A E A w i l l a c t i v e l y m o v e f o r w a r d t h e i n t e rg o ve r n m e n t a l p r o c e s s a n d s e e k a w a y t o r e s o l v e t h e s a f eg u a r d s i s s u e w i t h r e g a r d t o t h e A U K U S

The interior ministry highlights a February survey for the Figaro daily suggesting that large majorities back using the cameras in public spaces and especially in stadiums

But opponents say the plans overstep the bounds of the French constitution and European law Digital rights group La Quadrature du Net (QDN) wrote in a report sent to lawmakers that the systems would in fact handle sensitive “biometric” data under a broad 2022 definition from France’s rights ombudsman As biometric data, those characteristics would be shielded by the European Union’s powerful General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) QDN argues

An interior ministry spokesman rejected that finding insisting that the planned processing did not use any biometric data or any facial recognition techniques ‘State of emergency’

The camera test period is slated by the bill to run to the end of 2024 well after the end of the games and covering other major events including the Rugby World Cup later this year Once the law is passed, public authorities such as the emergency services and the bodies responsible for transport security in the Paris region will be able to request its use The interior ministry said it “should cover a significant number of large events” for “the most complete and relevant evaluation”

But QDN activist Naomi Levain told AFP: “It’s classic for the Olympic Games to be used to pass things that wouldn t pass in normal times It s understandable for there to be exceptional measures for an exceptional event but we re going beyond a text aimed at securing the Olympic Games Socialist MP Roger Vicot told the chamber on Monday

C hina opposes AUKUS nuclear submarine program, coercion of IAEA S ecretariat into endorsing it

PM ShEhbA z in FiEld tO EnSuRE hASSlE

FREE SuPPly OF whEAt FlOuR: MARRiyuM

sacks in a transparent manner The prime minister had categorically stated that there would be no compromise on quality of the edible and transparency in the distribution process

MI N I S T E R for Information and Broadcasting Marriyum Aurangzeb on Friday said some 4 2 million people had so far received sacks of free wheat flour under the Ramazan Package launched by the government to reduce burden of inflation on lower-middle class and poor people

Addressing the media persons the minister said so far free flour sacks were distributed among more than 4 1 million people in Punjab, while some 72,000 from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and 20 000 from Islamabad had benefitted from the historic and unprecedented scheme on the very first day of its launch in these areas

She said all was set for starting the free flour supply in Giglit Baltistan while efforts were also underway to replicate this initiative in other parts of the country in-

K o r e a n c a r s g e t d e a r e r a s P K R c o n t i n u e s t o s l i d e a g a i n s t d o l l a r

cluding Sindh and Balochistan Marriyum said data of the Benazir Income Support Programme was being used to distribute the free flour

Pakistan, China reaffirm commitment to CPEC: FO

ISLAMABAD

S ta f f R e p o R t

She said the prime minister had a track record of pursuing the best governance model to execute people-centric projects

Whether it was related to flood or any other emergency the PM himself had led from the front and always personally monitored the services being offered to the people in such critical times, she added

The prime minister himself paid surprise visits to flour distribution centers in Kasur and Lahore to ensure uninterrupted supply of quality flour, she said, adding more visits were on the cards in the coming days

She said during his visits the prime minister had held interactions with women children, and persons with disabilities who were sitting in the waiting areas to wait for their turn

Toyo t a a n n o u n ce s s e co n d p l a nt s h u td ow n fo r 2 0 2 3

COMPANY AT TRIBUTES NON-PRODUC TION DAYS TO FAILURE IN ACCESSING LOCS

LAHORE

Pakistan and China have reaffirmed their commitment to China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) and agreed to remain engaged in its expansion At her weekly news briefing here in Islamabad on Friday, Foreign Office Spokesperson Mumtaz Zahra Baloch said the affirmation to this effect was made during the Third Round of Pakistan-China Bilateral Political Consultations held in Beijing

She said the two sides also agreed to expand and reinforce political and security cooperation bilateral trade, economic and financial cooperation, cultural exchanges tourism and people-to-people ties

The Spokesperson urged India to stop suppression of journalists and human rights defenders and its policy of stifling freedom of expression and assembly in the occupied territory

Earlier the third round of Pakistan-China bilateral political consultations (BPC) was held in Beijing

Foreign Secretary Dr Asad Majeed Khan led the Pakistan delegation while the Chinese side was led by Vice Foreign Minister Sun Weidong Foreign Office Spokesperson said in a press release on Sunday

HYUNDAI, KIA INCREASE PRICES

BY AS MUCH AS RS 750,000 AND RS 500,000

LAHORE

Da n i ya l a h m a D

Hyundai and Lucky Motors have introduced their fifth and sixth price increase for 2023 respectively

The price increases come after the two had previously revised their prices upwards on March 13 and March 10 respectively following the Federal Board of Revenue s (FBR) decision to increase the GST levied on automobiles to 25%

The decisions by the Korean manufacturers are more likely attributable to the US Dollar settling at the new threshold of upwards of 280 against the Rupee This is because both companies only cited the FBR’s decision to increase the GST as the basis for their previous price increases earlier this month It was expected then that a further increase was probable if the Dollar remained above the 280 threshold, which it has since done so

KIA

The new prices for KIA s portfolio are as follows:

Da n i ya l a h m a D

Toyota has notified the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) that it will observe non-production days (NPD) from March 24 to March 27 The company has attributed the decision to its inability to access letters of credit needed to import the requisite materials to engage in production activities

This is the second spell of NPDs that Toyota will observe in 2023 The company previously observed NPDs from February 1 to February 14 with the decision to observe a single shift from February 15 in perpetuity until further notice The company has yet to withdraw the statement pertaining to its decision to a single shift, therefore, it is most likely that it will persist even when production resumes on March 27

Explaining the letter of credit and import conundrum

The State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) announced EPD Circular Letter No 20 of 2022 on December 22, 2022, as a substitution to its governance over the import of products under Chapters 84 85 and certain items of Chapter 87 This new system empowered authorised dealers (banks) to validate all transactions for these imports providing some solace to the ailing automotive industry that had been gravely impacted by the prior mechanism

Authorised dealers were, however, instructed to prioritise essential imports over those aligned with conspicuous consumption prompting concerns about the depth of relief the automotive industry would receive in the immediate future Firms that were able to obtain raw materials from their foreign suppliers on usance letters

If not IMF, then what?

This marks the sixth upward price revision that KIA has made in 2023 The previous price revisions came on January 31, February 21, February 24, and February 28, and March 10 Hyundai

The new prices for Hyundai s portfolio are as follows:

The ninth review of Pakistan’s International Monetary Fund (IMF) programme has become a bit of a running joke – even though, for the country, it is no laughing matter

Originally scheduled for November, the review is to release over $1 1 billion in critical funds However despite assurances from the government that the initial Staff Level Agreement will come soon, it shows no signs of arrival I n t h e m e a n w h i l e P a k i s t a n ’s c u r r e n t a c c o u n t s i t u a t i o n r em a i n s p r e c a r i o u s There was a grandstanding by

finance minister Ishaq Dar that Pakistan would have to work out alternative options if the IMF remained tough on Pakistan What seemed to be a simple negotiating bluster is now being thought of as a possible outcome Profit spoke to some analysts to find out if there were any alternative options

Well the short answer is ‘no’ Friendly countries?

One option quoted as a possible alternative was aid from friendly countries

The first that comes to mind is China Historically, Pakistan’s relations with China have been fairly amicable The obvious reason behind this is China s foreign policy

of credit, or were able to meet their payment obligations outside of Pakistan were to also be given preference The circular however explicitly created a hierarchy of imports which evidently has not benefited Toyota Industry wide woes Toyota s decision comes a mere few days following Ghandhara Tyre & Rubber Company’ and Hinopak Motors decision to observe NPDs from March 24 to April 3 and March 24 to April 4 respectively

Previously, Suzuki decided to halt motorcycle production for the remainder of March for the very same reasons Previously Honda had announced to observe the industry’s longest spell of NPDs amidst the current crises from from March 9 to March 31

Noting the completion of a decade of the ChinaPakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) the two sides reaffirmed their commitment to CPEC which remained a major pillar of bilateral cooperation and a symbol of ever-deepening friendship between Pakistan and China They also agreed to remain engaged in the expansion of CPEC including on participation of third parties to enhance regional connectivity and cooperation Pakistan and China will also enhance high-level engagements and dialogue mechanisms and make the channels of communication even more robust ” the two sides agreed The foreign secretary thanked the Chinese side for its consistent and generous support for the economic stability of Pakistan and the humanitarian assistance during the devastating floods in 2022 Vice foreign minister Sun reaffirmed China s support for Pakistan s sovereignty, territorial integrity and economic security

Shehzad Ata Elahi steps down as AGP

The country’s top law officer, Barrister Shehzad Ata Elahi on Friday stepped down from his position as Attorney General Pakistan (AGP)

of looking for trade and markets

So China has poured a lot of money into Pakistan in the form of loans and grants “China does this for countries that it thinks are too big to fail or in which the Chinese have already invested and have their investments at stake also,” said Ammar A Malik senior research fellow at Aiddata at William and Mary Essentially, China s investment in CPEC is at stake in case Pakistan s economy crashes and so even now Pakistan keeps receiving more loans (Just recently) China released a tranche of $500 million

According to sources and media reports, Elahi was asked to resign in view of “his failure to defend the unconstitutional move of ECP to postpone the elections in Punjab despite a clear order from the Supreme Court ” Elahi is the grandson of former president Fazal Ilahi Chaudhry and enjoys a good reputation for his hard work integrity and understanding of legal issues He is also a young corporate lawyer with experience in commercial, tax and banking laws civil commercial corporate constitutional litigation, etc He has worked with the famous law firm, Cornelius, Lane and Mufti Shehzad Elahi’s resignation comes nearly seven weeks after his appointment was confirmed by President Arif Alvi on Feb 2 He is also a corporate lawyer who has rich experience in commercial, tax and banking laws civil commercial corporate constitutional litigation etc The AGP office had been vacant since last October when Ashtar Ausaf Ali resigned, citing health reasons In January, the apex court had held that the AGP was a constitutional post and it could not be left vacant since there was no mention of an acting AGP in the Constitution Interestingly Supreme Court judge Justice Ijazul Ahsan also worked with this firm before his elevation to the bench Hamid Khan and Salman Aslam Butt are senior members of this firm and former chief justice Jawad S Khawaja had also worked with it

Between a rock and a hard place; is the middle class dream of car ownership over?

Manufacturers seem to be in a race to increase prices, leaving prospective buyers reeling In just one year, prices have risen by a staggering 53 83% with customers now paying an average of Rs 2 8 million more for a car than they did a year ago This bleak situation leaves many who have worked tirelessly to achieve their dreams of car ownership facing the prospect of giving it up or sacrificing other essentials to make ends meet

Read this week’s story in Profit Magazine to understand whether the middle class aspiration to own a car is completely over or not

Plea filed in SC for polls in Punjab, KP

RAWALPINDI

S ta f f R e p o R t

Awami Muslim League (AML) chief and former interior minister Sheikh Rasheed Friday filed a petition in Supreme Court (SC) Lahore registry for election in Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP)

As per details President Arif Alvi the federation and the Election Commission of Pakistan have been made respondents in the plea

The plea stated that the caretaker government should now be dissolved and a new setup should be in place

The plea further stated that the court should direct the ECP to hold the elections within 90 days

Sh Rashid seeks treason case against govt over

delay in polls: Awami Muslim League (AML) Chief

Sheikh Rashid Ahmed on Friday called for initiating treason case under Article 6 of the Constitution against the members of ruling coalition for delaying elections in Punjab In a series of tweets, the former interior minister said the PTI had dissolved assemblies in Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa so elections could be held in 90 days Article 6 should be imposed on the occupant group in a week otherwise, anything can happen in the country,” he wrote

He hoped that there would be clarity on the constitutional crisis created by the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) by Monday, adding that the PML-N was not interested in holding elections even in October as it was afraid of public