Epaper – July 3 ISB 2020

CMYK

Friday, 3 July, 2020 I 11 Dhū al-Qa‘dah, 1441 I Rs 15.00 I Vol XI No 5 I 12 Pages I Islamabad Edition

army denies PresenCe of Chinese trooPs on Pakistani territory g

ISPR DG says reports of Chinese troops using Skardu Airbase are ‘ false, irresponsible and far from the truth’

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Militar y ’s spokesperson rubbishes ‘ false’ Indian reports of increase in troops presence along LoC

RAWALPINDI STAFF REPORT

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NTeR-SeRvICeS Public Relations (ISPR) Director General Major General Babar Iftikhar on Thursday termed reports by the Indian media that Pakistan had deployed additional troops along the Line of Control (LoC) in Gilgit-Baltistan as “false” and “irresponsible”.

Multiple reports circulating in Indian media have claimed that Pakistan has deployed “almost 20,000 additional soldiers” along the LoC in Azad Jammu and Kashmir and GB “to match Chinese deployments on the LAC [Line of Actual Control] in the east”.

In a series of tweets, Gen Babar said that there was no truth to Chinese troops were using the Skardu Airbase, saying that the reports were “false, irresponsible and far from [the] truth”.

“The level of troops Pakistan has deployed is more than what it did after the Balakot airstrikes. Pakistani radars are believed to be fully activated all along the region too,” economic Times reported.

“No such movement or induction of additional forces has taken place. We also vehemently deny the presence of Chinese troops in Pakistan,” the ISPR chief said.

The eT publication also claimed that meetings have been held between China and Pakistan officials and the former is also holding talks with the Al-Badr, a pro-freedom group based in held Kashmir, in order

CORONAVIRUS CLAIMS 31 MORE LIVES IN SINDH, INFECTS 2,430 OTHERS ISLAMABAD STAFF REPORT SAPM SAYS SMART The national tally of Covid-19 LOCKDOWN IS THE ONLY cases has soared to 217,809 with the addition of 4,339 cases during SOLUTION TO CONTROL the last 24 hours, said the National Command and Operation Centre COVID-19 SPREAD (NCOC) on Thursday.

to “incite violence” in occupied territory.

The reports come after Prime Minister Imran Khan said on Tuesday that Pakistan had no doubt that its arch-rival neighbor was involved in the attempted attack on the Pakistan Stock exchange earlier this week.

India is currently engaged in a conflict with China at the LAC in the Galwan valey of the disputed Ladakh region. Last month, as many as 20 Indian soldiers were killed in a violent clash between the two armies, the deadliest in decades.

Pakistan has repeatedly expressed its concern that India may initiate a “falseflag operation” to divert attention from its casualties in the conflict with China.

Coronavirus in

Pakistan

CONFIRMED CASES:

220,239

DAY'S DEATH TOLL:

NEW CASES:

78

4,339

RECOVERED:

DEATHS:

SINDH:

PUNJAB:

104,694 4,504 89,225

77,740

KP:

BALOCHISTAN:

AJK/GB:

ISLAMABAD:

26,938 1,135/1,511

Coronavirus cases soar to 217,809 while 104,694 have recovered so far

10,608 13,082

Both India and China have accused each other of instigating the clash between their forces in the valley.

India can't wash away truth about callousness, inhumanity of occupation forces: FO STORY ON BACK PAGE

The virus claimed lives of 78 people across the country during the last twenty-four hours taking the death tally to 4,473.

Out of 217,809 Covid-19 positive patients, 104,694 have so far recovered from the disease across the country. In Punjab, out of 77,740 coronavirus patients, 28,266 have recovered. In Sindh, 86,795 confirmed cases of coronavirus have been reported. Of these, 48,527 have recovered.

A total of 26,938 cases have so far been reported in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) and of these 13,584 have recovered. In Balochistan, 10,608 coronavirus cases have so far been reported and of these, 4,764 have recovered.

A total of 13,082 cases have so far been reported in Islamabad

Govt decides against privatisation of PIA’s Roosevelt Hotel ISLAMABAD STAFF REPORT

The Cabinet Committee on Privatisation (CCoP) on Thursday decided that Roosevelt Hotel in New York, a property of Pakistan International Airlines (PIA), will not be privatised, rather it would be run under a joint venture with private sector.

The decision was taken by the cabinet committee, which met on Thursday under the chairmanship of Adviser to Prime Minister on Finance Abdul Hafeez Shaikh.

According to a Finance Division statement, the CCoP directed the Privatisation Commission to hire the services of a financial adviser to start the process for the transaction in light of a report by accounting firm Deloitte from July 2019 which recommended that “the highest and best use of the Roosevelt Hotel property is to redevelop the site into a mixed-use [property] (through joint venture) of primarily an office tower over retail and condominium.”

The meeting was informed that Deloitte would update its study on the hotel transaction in the next four weeks and the same will be shared with the CCoP.

CABINET COMMITTEE ON PRIVATISATION DIRECTS APPOINTMENT OF FINANCIAL ADVISER FOR THE HOTEL Additionally, "as requested by the Aviation Division", the CCoP also decided to de-notify a task force formed last year to develop a business plan and for framing the terms of reference for leasing the Roosevelt’s site and setting up a joint venture project, the press release added.

The task force, whose formulation was approved by the CCoP in its meeting in November last year, was chaired by Minister for Privatisation Muhammad Mian Soomro and included Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on Overseas Pakistanis Zulfi Bukhari and other officials as members.

The meeting was attended by representatives of ministers for communications, law and justice, privatisation and power and advisers on commerce and investment and institutional reforms and austerity.

A special invitation was also given to the Minister for Industries and Production Hammad Azhar and Governor State Bank of Pakistan Reza Baqir, among others.

Meanwhile, SAPM Bukhari said that the government is re-

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structuring the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) and Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) to improve their performance.

He said that the government is taking action against the pilots holding bogus degrees or licenses. He said that Prime Minister Imran Khan has directed for scrutiny and forensic report of 262 pilots which would be made public. Bukhari said that fake degree holders would be terminated from service to avoid untoward incidents like Karachi plane crash. On Wednesday, amid reports that the government was holding the CCoP meeting to discuss the plan to sell the Roosevelt Hotel, the PPP had opposed the move, terming it ill-timed.

“Is this the time to sell Roosevelt Hotel, when due to the pandemic property prices have come down significantly and it will result in a loss to Pakistan as we will not get the right price?”

PPP’s parliamentary leader in the Senate Sherry Rehman had questioned in a statement.

CONTINUED ON PAGE 05

and recoveries are 7,850. In Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK), there are 1,135 confirmed cases of coronavirus and of these 557 have recovered whilst in Gilgit-Baltistan (GB), out of 1,511 cases, 1,146 patients have recovered.

A total of 22, 128 coronavirus tests were carried out during the last 24 hours, said NCOC. CORONAVIRUS CLAIMS 31 MORE LIVES IN SINDH: Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah, in a statement said, that 2,430 new cases of coronavirus were detected in the province when 9,436 tests were conducted raising the tally to 89,225 cases while 31 more patients died lifting the death toll to 1,437.

CONTINUED ON PAGE 05

more inside

Held Kashmir sees 229 civilian killings in first half of 2020: report STORY ON BACK PAGE

Forget ‘minus one’, it’s going to be ‘minus PTI’: PML-N STORY ON PAGE 02

Govt defends decision to make pilots’ licences probe public STORY ON PAGE 02

SC dismisses govt's petition to set aside stay on sugar probe report's suggestions STORY ON PAGE 03

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Friday, 3 July, 2020

NEWS

Forget ‘minus one’, it’s going to be ‘minus Pti’, says PmL-n ISLAMABAD

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STAFF REPORT

AKISTAN Muslim LeagueNawaz (PML-N) leaders on Thursday, while terming the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) as the “most corrupt” party in the history of the country, claimed that there is not going to be “minus one”, rather “minus PTI” in the coming future.

Addressing a press conference at the Parliament Lodges on Thursday, PML-N leader and former interior minister Ahsan Iqbal said that Prime Minister Imran Khan is defaming Pakistan due to his ego, adding that it was not opposition

but the rulers themselves were undermining due to their actions.

He said that the government’s performance has raised questions on every institution, adding that the PIA plane crash incident caused damaged to Pakistan’s credibility all over the world.

He alleged that the officials in GilgitBaltistan (GB) were being bribed but they cannot allow rigging. “Transparent elections should be held,” the PML-N leader said and added they cannot afford anyone’s conflict.

Regarding yesterday’s tragic incident that took place in occupied Kashmir, Iqbal said that a grandfather was martyred by the Indian Army in front of a three-year-old

govt 'facilitates' JWP's shazain bugti ahead finance bill voting ISLAMABAD AHMAD AHMADANI

The federal government has paid a hefty sum to lure its disgruntled ally Jamhoori Watan Party (JWP) ahead of the voting on the Finance Bill 2020, Profit has learnt. According to sources, the PTI government has put a heavy burden on the national exchequer in a bid to lure Nawabzada Shazain Bugti, a leader of JWP. On the advice of the federal government, Oil and Gas Development Company Ltd (OGDC) Managing Director Shahid Saleem has approved to pay Nawabzada Shazain Bugti an additional 36pc as rent for 2,500 acres of oil and gas fields situated at Uch, Dera Bugti. OGDCL has paid Rs79,000 per acre rent to Nawbzada Shazain Bugti with effect from 1st January 2018, despite the land not being in OGDC's use since February 2017. Sources said that former OGDC MD Zahid Mir had surrendered 2,500 acres of oil and gas fields and had kept 1,300 acres of land as additional land. "Approximately Rs8 billion worth heavy burden has been put on the national exchequer due to approval by Shahid Saleem. A cheque worth Rs77.2 million has been issued to Nawbzada Shazain Bugti and his two brothers before inking of the amended agreement," an insider said.According to sources, a special committee had earlier verified the use of only 800 acres of oil and gas fields at Uch by OGDC. Subsequently, the OGDC board of directors had refused to pay rent for the additional land, keeping the lease agreement intact till 2036."Although the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) has been conducting an inquiry into the payments for vacant land, yet the OGDC MD, while misusing his powers, has placed billion rupees additional burden on national exchequer allegedly on the pressure of the federal government," said a source privy to this development.

boy, adding that this picture has shaken the whole world.

The former minister went on to say that the lockdown in IOK is about to complete one year but Pakistan’s government could do nothing except making speeches.

“People are being slaughtered in Kashmir every day in front of their young children but the government has wasted a year,” Iqbal said and demanded to convene a meeting of the National Assembly (NA) on the Kashmir issue.

“The prime minister should have telephoned the United States president, British prime minister and all members of the Security Council to discuss the issue, he added.

Speaking on the occasion, PML-N leader and former prime minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi said that the vote is the voice of conscience and if someone sold his conscience, he will be held accountable before God. Speaking about the ban on Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) flights abroad, he said that the licence is issued by the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) and not the government, adding that this is a matter of employment of 262 pilots and Pakistan s honour.

Regarding sugar scandal, Abbasi said that sugar was procured by paying more than Rs8,300 per tonne on the old tender, adding that the Supreme Court (SC) should take suo motu notice of the issue while his party would also file a petition.

He alleged that there were so many chapters of corruption in the government that they would never end. The sugar problem has been going on in Pakistan for 21 months, adding that sugar is being sold at the price of Rs85 but the government does not care.

Govt defends decision to make pilots’ licences probe public FARAZ SAYS ALL STEPS AFOOT TO RESTORE PIA’S PAST GLORY; PILOTS NOW OPERATING FLIGHTS ARE 100PC CLEAN ISLAMABAD TLTP

Minister for Information and Broadcasting Syed Shibli Faraz on Thursday said that all the pilots, currently operating Pakistan International Airlines flights (PIA, 100 per cent clean and clear to fly a plane after passing through a complete scrutiny.

Addressing a joint press conference along with Minister for Maritime Affairs Ali Zaidi and PM's aide Shahzad Akbar on Thursday, the information minister said the government is making all-out efforts to restore the past glory of the national flag carrier.

The information minister said that all the pilots, currently flying airplanes, have successfully gone through the scrutiny process. "Anyone travelling right now should know that pilots flying right now have gone through the scrutiny process," he added.

Minister for Maritime Affairs Ali Haider Zaidi said when the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government came into power, it discovered some "irregularities" in the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA). "We verified the charges

and immediately 54 people were grounded and a detailed forensic inquiry was initiated under wraps of the whole organisation," he said.

He said that the inquiry found that a new licencing system was introduced in 2010. Out of all the licences granted till 2018, the inquiry found that there were 236 which had irregularities, he said, adding that the pilots were then grounded and suspended.

"Our target is safety first. We will prioritise safety so that all the question marks that have been raised can be addressed," he said, adding that that the CAA is now taking steps to strengthen its IT systems. He further said that officials found guilty of being involved have been suspended pending an investigation.

"Everyone involved will be taken to task. By the time this inquiry is finished, which will be in a few months, the CAA will become the top authority when it comes to safety and PIA will become one of the region's top airlines," he further said, adding that this was inevitable once all the "bad eggs" were removed from the system.

Defending the government's decision to make the information public, the minister said that the current government is of the people.

"This is an issue of safety and about improving institutions. When you take the public on board, you change public perception. I will give you a simple example. When parents see their child being administered an injection, they feel pain but they know that it is necessary for their child's future. So, this is necessary for our future [...] we have to bear the pain so that we can see an improvement."

PM announces establishment of 15 national parks PERFORMS GROUND BREAKING OF VARIOUS UPLIFT PROJECTS IN CAPITAL ISLAMABAD STAFF REPORT

Prime Minister Imran Khan on Thursday announced the establishment of 15 national parks in all the federating units as part of efforts to protect nature.

Launching the ‘Protected Area Initiative’ on Thursday, the prime minister said that guidelines will be given to the provinces to preserve these national parks. He said that this is a major initiative for future generations.

He expressed satisfaction that all the provinces are participating in this initiative which will also provide job opportunities to the youth. The prime minister pointed out that global warming and climate change pose serious threat to Pakistan. “This is the reason we launched Ten Billion Tree Tsunami Programme to counter this threat.

Protecting green areas and parks will also help in this endeavour,” he added. The premier directed the provinces to take the threat seriously and undertake the requisite steps

for the protection of green areas. He said that Pakistan has a diverse landscape and has 12 ecological climatic zones.

He, however, regretted that nothing was done in the past 70 years to protect the forest cover. He stressed for developing master plans for the cities and making protection of green area basic component of town planning.

Highlighting the potential of eco-tourism in the country, he said, “We are opening areas for tourism.” He, however, asked the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) government to frame bylaws before opening the tourist spots. “We also need to prepare plans to protect endangered species such as snow leopards with the support of local people,” he added. He called on his aide Ameen Aslam to study the way national parks were preserved and maintained in the US and implement the same in Pakistan. Under the Protected Area Initiative, a national park will be made in each province. Under the initiative, the coverage of the protected area in the country will be enhanced to 15 per cent of the country’s land area from the current 13 per cent.

Out of these, nine are new and recently-declared national parks while six others were notified but never protected.

All parks will be made fully functional national parks for the first time, with proper ecological management and governance. In the initial phase, almost 5,000 direct nature jobs will be generated for the youth.

Pakistan welcomes unsC ‘strongly condemning’ PsX attack ISLAMABAD INP

Pakistan on Thursday welcomed the United Nations Security Council’s (UNSC) “strong condemnation” of a terrorist attack on the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) in Karachi.

Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi in a statement posted on his official Twitter account said: “Pakistan welcomes United Nations Security Council (UNSC) strong condemnation of attempted terrorist attack on #PakistanStockExchange.” “Perpetrators, organisers & sponsors of such reprehensible acts must indeed be brought to justice. Terrorism most serious threat to regional & Int’l peace.” The UN Security Council strongly condemned the “heinous and cowardly” terrorist attack – a move that India, according to government-run wire service, tried to block through its friends on the 15member body, but failed. “The members of the Security Council underlined the need to bring perpetrators, organizers, financiers and sponsors of these reprehensible acts of terrorism to justice and urged all States, in accordance with their obligations under international law and relevant Security Council resolutions, to cooperate actively with the Government of Pakistan and all other relevant authorities in this regard,” the Council said in a press statement.

Private sector offers services for construction of 5,000 low-cost houses ISLAMABAD SHAHZAD PARACHA

The private sector has offered its services to the federal government for the construction of 5,000 low-cost houses as well as 50,000.

Talking to media on Thursday, renowned businessmen of Islamabad and members of the Blue World City administration Chaudhry Shahzad, Munir Nawaz, Waseem Abbasi stated that Blue World City was not only making investments in Pakistan but also in foreign countries. They welcomed the government's construction package, saying that the incentives would "surely kickstart economic activities in the country". The businessmen also hailed the recently announced measures for the construction industry in the federal budget. This is unprecedented and the business community is optimistic that the construction sector will provide the job opportunities to the masses, they added. They expressed willingness in helping the government realise its dream of constructing lowcost houses for the poorest segment. "We thank Prime Minister Imran Khan and the administration of Naya Pakistan Housing Scheme, including Chaudhry Saad Nazir, Nadeem Ijaz, Brig (r) Shahram for approving new and important projects in Islamabad like the PWD Underpass, Rawal Dam Interchange and Korang Bridge," Chaudhry Shahzad stated. "This will change the structure of the city, as these projects will not only link important areas with the motorway but also with the China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) routes."

NAB summons Asif today in housing society case LAHORE INP

The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) has summoned former foreign minister and Pakistan Muslim League – Nawaz (PML-N) leader Khawaja Asif today (Friday) in a case pertaining to alleged corruption in the Sialkot housing society, sources said.

The anti-graft watchdog directed him to appear on July 3 (Friday) along with relevant documents.

The PML-N leader on June 26 had skipped NAB appearance in the Kent View Housing Society case. A lawyer appeared before the bureau on behalf of the PMLN leader stating that his client can’t appear today because he will be attending a post-budget session in the National

Assembly. He submitted the relevant documents to the NAB. The former federal minister has been accused of illegally building a private housing scheme, Kent View Housing Society, in Sialkot. He is required to provide the money trail of the funds invested in the scheme.

Last year in March, he was summoned by the NAB to record his statement in connection with its probe into a complaint against him for allegedly accumulating assets beyond known sources of income.

The bureau had asked Khawaja Muhammad Asif to bring the relevant record of the assets he owns in the country and abroad. The Executive Board of the NAB had approved an inquiry against him last year.

He further mentioned that China has become Pakistan's largest trading partner, largest country of origin

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for imports, largest foreign direct investor and its thirdlargest export destination, while Pakistan has become China's largest investment destination in South Asia due to the construction of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC). The exhibition is hosted by Shandong Provincial Department of Commerce. Pakistani Consulate General in Shanghai, Pakistan Chemical Manufacturers' Association (PCMA), Pakistan Hardware Merchants Association (PHMA), etc. have provided great support to the event.

According to the event organizer Inter Commerce Expo (ICEC), deals worth $2.94 million were agreed at the first round of 2020 Shandong Export Commodities (Pakistan) Online Exhibition, with 28 Pakistani enterprises being invited this May.

Friday, 3 July, 2020

NEWS

sC Dismisses govt's Petition to set asiDe stay on sugar Probe rePort's suggestions ISLAMABAD

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STAFF REPORT

HE Supreme Court on Thursday dismissed the federal government’s petition to set aside the Sindh High Court’s (SHC) order which has prevented it from taking action against sugar mill owners in light of recommendations of the sugar inquiry commission.

The three-member bench under Chief Justice Gulzar Ahmed heard the petition.

During the hearing, the government’s counsel asked the court to check whether the commission was impartial and heard the stance of the sugar mill owners which include PTI leader Jahangir Tareen.

The chief justice inquired as to how the inquiry report can impact the mill owners, asking them about their concerns on the matter.

Justice Gulzar added that the situation was caused by the government itself

as it opened an inquiry that lead to court cases.

Government’s lawyer Makhdoom Ali Khan said that the Pakistan Sugar Mills Association (PSMA) had approached the Islamabad High Court (IHC) in personal capacity and the commission only provided recommendations. “If there are impactful fact-findings in any report then a claim can be made,” he told the bench.

To which Justice Ajazul Ahsan said that apparently the commission did factfinding and it identified a cartel and several other aspects. “If the state institutions issue show-cause notice then present your stance over there,” said the judge. The CJP then remarked that so far no action has been taken against any sugar mill.

Justice Ahsan said that according to the commission report the sugar mills owners were not heard, adding that their rights will be protected.

The attorney general, in his statement, said that the commission pointed

PsX sets up rs10m fund for martyred security personnel KARACHI

out political nexus, however, he believes that no medial trial should be carried out against anyone. “I have told the government not to give instructions to any institution over the matter,” he said, adding that he has urged the government to let the institutions work independently in this regard.

“The federal cabinet took back instructions earlier given to the institutions

upon my recommendation,” said the AG. He continued that the report brought forth the nexus behind the crisis, to which Justice Ahsan said that it seems that the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) and other institutions lack capabilities to perform well.

After the arguments, the apex court subsequently turned down the plea and adjourned the case until July 14.

Yusuf censures reports that Pakistan 'exported' pandemic ISLAMABAD

MEIRYUM ALI

STAFF REPORT

The board of directors of the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) has set up a Rs10 million fund to financially assist the families of both the martyred security personnel and those who were injured defending the PSX in a terrorist attack on June 29. According to a statement issued by the exchange, this fund has been endowed with an upfront donation of Rs10 million, but the size of the fund is expected to grow substantially. "This is because the PSX management is in discussion with brokers, other capital market organisations and institutions who have reached out and expressed a desire to support this effort. PSX staff and directors in their individual capacity have also committed their support."The PSX stated that the objective of setting up the fund is to ensure that the families receive consistent financial support. "While PSX fully understands that monetary reward is no compensation for loss of life or serious injury, yet the exchange is committed to easing the suffering and contributing to alleviate the financial worries of families of those who lost their lives in the line of duty." The PSX will also contribute to medical expenses and continue paying the salary of two injured guards until they are fit to resume their duties.Earlier on Monday at 10:02 A.M., four heavily armed terrorists attempted to enter the PSX. However, they were stopped by security forces, and all four terrorists were killed. The situation was brought under control in 12 minutes.Three security personnel, including two private security guards and one assistant sub-inspector, lost their lives, while two security personnel were injured. The deceased were identified as sub-inspector Muhammad Shahid and security guards Khuda-e-Yar and Iftikhar Wahid. Militants from the Baloch Liberation Army (BLA) later took responsibility for the attack.

The BLA is an armed separatist group that had previously carried out an attack on the Chinese consulate in Karachi in 2018. In its statement after the incident, the PSX had condemned the 'dastardly and cowardly' attack by terrorists. "This was an attack which targeted not only innocent people but also the economic stability and the investment environment of Pakistan. The board deeply appreciated the bravery of the security personnel, who risked their lives, and indeed some of them paid with their lives, to defend the Exchange and Pakistan," it added.

Dr Moeed Yusuf, special assistant to the prime minister on national security, on Thursday denied the impression that Pakistan has been a source of the coronavirus in other countries, saying that the country has “been the most responsible” in the world.

Last week, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) temporarily stopped receiving passengers on flights coming from Pakistan. The suspension, the UAE civil aviation authority said, will last until a special laboratory to conduct coronavirus tests is established. The decision was taken after as many as 30 passengers aboard an Emirates flight tested positive for coronavirus.

Addressing a press conference in Islamabad, Yusuf said: “Over the

past three months, Pakistan conducted tests and quarantined several people so that they won’t be the source of spread. No one appreciated us for that […] We will not allow Pakistan to be singled out.”

He said that Pakistan’s government had also contacted the British High Commission and the latter’s officials had assured that this was not the position of the United Kingdom’s government.

Yusuf told reporters that only 30

people who had travelled from Pakistan had tested positive. “This [impression to ‘export’ coronavirus] is absolutely false,” he said.

Yusuf also urged people to avoid unnecessary travel as the government “cannot guarantee that the airspace will remain open three weeks from now”.

He said that Pakistan has been “the most responsible among all developing countries in repatriating people as well as sending them away”.

According to him, any passenger who is showing symptoms will not be allowed to leave the country. The SAPM told people to follow the guidelines set by the airlines they are travelling from and their destination countries as it would be a source of embarrassment for the country if the rules were violated.

Top court issues contempt notice to cleric for hurling threats at Justice Isa ISLAMABAD STAFF REPORT

The Supreme Court on Thursday rejected the unconditional apology offered by cleric Agha Iftikharuddin Mirza for making derogatory remarks and hurling threats at Justice Qazi Faez Isa and other judges and issued him with contempt notice. Mirza on Wednesday had submitted an affidavit before the apex court, tendering an unconditional apology for “unintentionally” uttering some words against the honourable judges in a “private meeting”.

Rejecting his apology, a two-judge bench comprising Chief Justice Gulzar Ahmed and Justice Ijazul Ahsan directed him to respond in seven days and to personally appear in the next hearing. During the hearing, Justice Ahsan questioned whether such language could be allowed and if an apology can be accepted in such a case.

The chief justice remarked that there was “no room for mercy” in the case while Justice Ahsan said that the video “was not made by a child but by Mirza himself”.

The court further observed that Mirza had a YouTube channel and he earned money through it.

“Such curse words are not used even in the streets.

Islamic scholars recorded such a video and then made it public. He [Mirza] accepted in front of the Federal Inves-

tigation Agency that he recorded the video in the presence of seven worshippers,” Justice Ahsan said.

The judge pointed out that on the one hand Mirza had accepted his crime by submitting an apology but he still claimed he had not committed a crime.

Sarkar Abbas, Mirza’s lawyer, said his client was a heart patient and should be forgiven to which the chief justice said he [Mirza] should have kept his “tongue in check”. The chief justice berated Mirza’s lawyer for not understanding the importance of the case and for taking it lightly. “We can send Iftikharuddin [Mirza] to jail for six months,” he said. Justice Ahsan said according to Attorney General Khalid Jawed Khan, the video could also be classified as a crime under the Criminal Procedure Code and anti-terrorism laws, adding that there was no room for forgiveness in such cases.

“The video was planned and pictures were used as well. These words [in the video] have been used against institutions. Forgiveness cannot be asked after using such words,” Justice Ahsan remarked.

Attorney General Khalid Jawed Khan argued that Mirza had used “strong words” against the judiciary which had damaged its respect. But the AG did acknowledge that Mirza had been shifted to a hospital on complaints of heart pain and dizziness.

03

DraP directed to explain hike in price of potential Covid-19 drugs LAHORE: The Lahore High Court (LHC) on Thursday granted more time to Drug Regulatory Authority Pakistan (DRAP) to furnish response on a petition against the sale of face marks, temperature guns, and life-saving drugs at exorbitant rates. Justice Sajid Mahmood Sethi directed the drug regulator body to file a response by July 6. The petition, submitted by Judicial Activism Panel Chairman Advocate Azhar Siddique, contended that coronavirus cases are on the rise in the country but prices of hand sanitisers, masks, and life-saving drugs have gone up exponentially. He told the LHC that one packet of Chloroquine tablets, a potential drug to treat COVID-19, has been sold at Rs3,000 while Actemra injection is being sold at Rs1 million. Masks, temperature guns and plasma of recovered patients, which is donated free-of-cost for transfusion, are too being sold at exorbitant rates, he added. STAFF REPORT

tDaP refuses to issue permits to jewellery exporters ISLAMABAD: The Trade Development Authority of Pakistan (TDAP) has refused to issue permits to jewellery exporters who have been unable to manage receipts of earlier export proceeds within 120 days. In a letter sent to Ministry of Commerce (MoC), Pakistan Gems Jewellery Traders and Exporters Association has complained that instead of facilitating fresh exports, TDAP has disallowed jewellery exports despite a relaxation of 90 days granted by State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) for all exporters of the country. The association claimed that the exports of jewellery have almost remained suspended for five months causing huge losses to the exporters and the national exchequer. As per the letter, proceeds in respect of jewellery exported from Pakistan should be received within 120 days. However, recently there have been delays in receipt of payments by some members of the association due to the prevailing worldwide economic crunch caused by the Covid-19 pandemic. “TDAP is not permitting exporters who could not manage the receipt of export proceeds from buyers of their earlier exports, to undertake fresh exports,” the association said while requesting the ministry for early resolution of the issue. According to jewellery exporters, importers of finished Pakistani gold products based in the United Kingdom (UK), United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Gulf countries have threatened to cancel import orders due to the delays caused by TDAP’s refusal to allow exports. GHULAM ABBAS

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Friday, 3 July, 2020

NEWS

PunJab government aPProves interim wheat PoLicy 2020-21 LAHORE

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INP

He Punjab government, in its meeting held on Thursday, approved the interim wheat policy 2020-21 for release of wheat to flour mills. With the release of government wheat, the 20-kg flour bag will be available at Rs850 instead of Rs1050 in the market.

During the provincial cabinet meeting,

held with Chief Minister Usman Buzdar in the chair, it was decided to provide wheat to flour mills at the rate of Rs1,475 per maund and interim wheat policy will be continued for two months.

The food department will provide government wheat quota to functional flour mills only and the decision to release government wheat to flour mills, two months earlier, is made to provide flour to the people at an affordable rate while the interim policy will be

strictly monitored. The cabinet directed the food department to submit a targeted subsidy plan adding that recommendations be submitted within 30 days.

One-year extension in the contract of Punjab Forensic Science Agency DG Dr Muhammad Ashraf Tahir was given along with the approval of draft bill of amendment in Punjab Commission on the Status of Women Act, 2014-15. Approval of constitution of search committee for the appointment

of vice-chancellor of public sector universities working under Higher education Department Punjab was given along with the approval of amendments in Punjab Infectious Diseases Ordinance, 2020, to ensure its effective implementation.

Meanwhile, the cabinet approved amendments in Punjab Urban Immovable Property Tax Rules, 1958 and also decided to table an act in the Punjab Assembly for the establishment of Time Institute in Multan. The deci-

Prof Ignacio J Ansotegui offers advice on managing allergies

PRESS RELEASE The World Allergy Week is being marked from June 28 to July 4. Prof. Ignacio J. Ansotegui, the former p resident of World Allergy Organization, answers some questions about allergies, their causes and management.

Q. What are skin allergies?

A. The main skin diseases are Urticaria, Dermatitis, Atopic Dermatitis and Angioedema which is an inflammation of the skin, when we have transformation of the lips, of the eyes and of the face. Urticaria is swelling with some wheals together with itchiness.

Atopic Dermatitis is a more severe condition that usually affects the skin more intensely.

Q. What are airway

allergies?

A. Amongst airway allergies, the most common is Allergic Rhinitis. When we have a feeling of a cold, runny nose, itchy nose, watery eyes, watery nose, and sometimes nose blockage during the night. The other common allergy is Asthma.

Q. How can one distinguish an allergic reaction?

A. If the symptoms occur always under the same situations, in certain periods and are repeated over time, it can be classified as allergic reactions.

Usually, allergies without fever are not an infection; another sign is that the nasal mucus or discharge is watery and clear (not colored).

Q. What are the most common causes of skin and airway allergies?

A. It depends on the period of the year and our living conditions, but the most allergenic molecules are household mites that are inside the house as they are indoor allergens. Pollen of trees, grass and plants are also major causes of allergies.

Q. What should be done to manage an allergic

episode?

A. There are many kinds of allergic reactions.

Some are simple allergic reactions like allergic rhinitis without complications and that is not a problem - you just need to take an antihistamine.

But sometimes allergic reactions can also be severe like anaphylaxis where breathing stops suddenly or there is loss of consciousness. In such cases it is necessary to use adrenalin. But it all depends on the kind of allergy. Sometimes there is itchiness on the face or body; at other times, there is swelling of the lips.

There can be many different presentations induced by an allergic reaction.

Q. What is the most common cause both in skin and airway allergies?

A. That depends on the period of the year and how we are living but the most allergenic molecules for us are household mites that are mainly in inside house, they are indoor allergens; pollens of trees, grass, plants, are also creating other allergies.

Q. Are allergies contagious?

A. No, allergies are not contagious.

Q. Should antibiotics be used to treat allergies?

A. No, because allergies are not caused by bacteria.

They are allergic conditions induced by allergens- the substance that we are allergic to, not by any bacteria.

Antibiotics are for infections. For allergic conditions, we usually use antihistamines.

Q. Are airway allergies and skin allergies inter-connected? If a person has a skin allergy, are they likely to also have airway allergy?

Yes. Allergy is a systemic problem. It is not related to one organ. It is very normal for people who have suffered from skin conditions to also be affected by allergic rhinitis or asthma.

Many people suffer from all the features of allergies.

Q. What is that one precaution one should take to avoid allergies?

A. The first thing to identify is the allergen - the thing that induces the symptoms. Once you identify your allergens or triggers, you can then avoid them.

Q. Can recurrent allergies lead to complicated diseases?

A. Sometimes, yes. For instance, if we start with mild allergic rhinitis, and do not take appropriate treat-

ment, it can become complicated with time and lead to an infection. It starts to exacerbate and can increase the symptoms. To avoid the onset of complications, we need a proper diagnosis and start of treatment / medication.

Q. Are allergies hereditary or familial?

A. There is a familial component, but it is not really a hereditary illness. It is true, that families often have the same allergies and we always ask patients this question. So there is a familial component but it is not a typical illness that you will have in the family for sure.

Q. Do children & adults have different clinical presentations for allergies?

A. Not clinical. Usually they are induced by different allergens. For instance, regarding foot allergies in children, the most prevalent allergens are milk and egg, but in adults, usually they are induced by nuts, fish and other kind of products like shellfish.

Q. What about workplace or occupational allergies?

A. Of course, it is an important factor. Our occupation or workplace can cause an allergic reaction.

For example, a person working in or living close to industry has much more ex-

posure to certain allergens as compared to someone working or living in a nonindustrial area. Some people become allergic to components used in industries.

Q. Are allergies curable?

A. It depends. For some allergies, we have treatment such as immunotherapy.

What we do in immunotherapy is we sensitize the patients, so that the patients will be able to support the allergens without symptoms.

Q. There are treatments available, which cause sedation. Do you believe in modern treatment or do we have other options?

A. No doubt, we do not need to induce sleepiness in our patients. That is why we need to use modern second generation of antihistamines that do not induce drowsiness, do not interact with other drugs or other functions. They are safe, compatible with normal life.

They are good, modern, non-sedative second generation of histamines.

Q. What about other treatment options like homeopathic & herbal medicines?

A. They have not demonstrated efficacy.

There is no scientific study that supports the use of contemporary medicines with herbal medicines.

sions made in the special meeting of cabinet standing committee for finance and development on May 13, 2020 about budget and ADP 2020-21 were also endorsed by the cabinet.

The decisions made in the 26th meeting of the cabinet standing committee for legislation were endorsed as well. Addressing the meeting, CM Buzdar asserted that the government is committed to providing relief to the people despite economic crunch and vowed that the public welfare journey will be moved forward with speed. The team is working hard and every necessary step will be taken for giving relief to the citizens. The availability of oxygen in the hospitals will be ensured and the CM directed the health department to take necessary steps in this regard so that there should be no shortage of oxygen.

Ministers, advisers, special assistants and concerned secretaries attended the meeting.

Female nurse gang-raped during robbery bid in Lahore LAHORE INP

A female nurse was gang-raped by four muggers during a robbery bid in Lahore on Thursday as police claimed that they had arrested two suspects for their involvement in the heinous act. According to police, the incident occurred within the remits of Gujjarpura police station when a woman was returning to her home after closing down the clinic, where she works as a female health worker. “The robbers intercepted the nurse on her way home and dragged her to nearby fields,” read the FIR lodged into the incident, further claiming that she was gang-raped by four muggers, who also deprived the nurse of her belongings. The muggers snatched Rs 10,000, a mobile phone, and earrings from her. A heavy contingent of police later reached the incident site and started a search for the culprits. In a later development, the police arrested two suspects for their involvement in the dacoity-cumgang rape incident. We have sent samples of the arrested suspects for DNA to ascertain their involvement in the case, said the CCPO Lahore, vowing to bring the culprits involved in the heinous act to justice.

Paragon city case adjourned till July 8 LAHORE APP

An accountability court on Thursday adjourned hearing of Paragon City case against former railways minister Khawaja Saad Rafique and his brother Khawaja Salman Rafique till July 8. Accountability Court Judge Syed Jawadul Hassan conducted the case proceedings, wherein the Khawaja brothers also appeared. The court recorded statement of a prosecution witness, Nazir Patwari, during the proceedings. However, approver Qaiser Amin Butt did not appear before the court. At this, the court expressed serious annoyance and issued his arrest warrants. The court also issued a notice to National Accountability Bureau (NAB) chairman, besides directing the capital city police officer (CCPO) Lahore for ensuring presence of the approver on the next date of hearing. The bureau had alleged that Khawaja brothers, through their “benamidars” and with the abetment of former MPA Qaiser Amin Butt and Nadeem Zia, established a housing project in the name of Air Avenue. The project was later converted into a new housing project namely Paragon City (Pvt) Ltd, which NAB said was an illegal society and not approved by the Lahore Development Authority. The former railways minister and his brother received monetary benefits of Rs 58 million and Rs 39 million, respectively, from the society through proxy firms under the grab of consultancy services, it added. The Khawaja brothers are on bail from the apex court in the case.

Friday, 3 July, 2020

NEWS

PLRA PRePARING LIst OF CORRUPt stAFF memBeRs LAHore SHAHAB OMER

The Punjab Land Record Authority (PLRA) has decided to take action against corrupt staff members of the department as the preparations of a secret list of corrupt officials is under the works, Pakistan Today learnt reliably on Thursday.

Well maintained sources in PLRA informed this scribe that the purpose of establishing the authority [PLRA] was to eradicate Patwari culture because of the innumerous complaints of corruption in all areas where the Patwaris manage land records and other related matters. Sources believe that the authority had digitised the land records but at the same time, corrupt elements had become active within the authority.

Sources said that many complaints regarding the corruption of service centre officials kept coming to the authority’s head office wherein people divulged that they were asked for a bribe in exchange for changing the land record.

Punjab governor approves Baba Guru Nanak University Bill, 2020 LAHORE: Punjab Governor Chaudhary Muhammad Sarwar has approved Baba Guru Nanak University Bill, 2020. A notification has been issued in this regard. In a statement, Punjab governor said Baba Guru Nanak University will be made according to international level. On June 27, Punjab’s CM Usman Buzdar approved ‘Baba Guru Nanak University Budget Bill, 2020’ for the second phase of construction at Baba Guru Nanak University, under which Rs1 billion will be spent for the construction of hostel, administrative block, and classrooms. A wave of ardency is being observed among the Pakistani Sikhs as soon as the completion of construction work at Baba Guru Nanak University is heading towards completion. Baba Guru Nanak University will benefit thousands of students living in villages nearby to Sri Nankana Sahib, Sheikhupura, Jaraanwala and Okara, etc. It may be recalled here that the foundation stone of Baba Guru Nanak International University (BGNU) was laid in Nankana Sahib on July 12. TLTP

Similarly, some employees were also found to be involved in corruption in matters related to the issuance of computerised land documents.

Sources revealed that some of the staff of the head office were also involved with these corrupt elements and many officers received monthly bribes from the staff of service centres.

In this regard, when PLRA Director General (DG) Moazzam Iqbal Sipra was contacted, he admitted the loopholes and said that the Punjab government was committed to providing transparent services to the people which would be ensured.

However, he added that people were not benefiting from the computerised land records system due to long queues at Land Record Centres, the complexity of documents, delays in land transfers and slow procedures in general.

“We are committed to eliminating all such issues and shortcomings. Issues such as limited use of technology, unfamiliarity with the law, incompetence of some staff and corruption have undoubtedly affected the function-

OGDCL begins commercial production from two newly discovered wells ISLAMABAD APP

ing of the authority,” he said.

Regarding the services provided to the public, corruption, incompetence and forgery, the DG clarified that corruption and incompetence would not be tolerated in the PLRA. “I have issued instructions to my staff for completing all pending departmental inquiries regarding corruption and incompetence. We recently fired an official from the Gujar Khan Land Record Centre who, according to our reports, was found guilty of corruption and involvement with Tout Mafia and was also humiliating the common man,” he told this scribe.

Sipra added that a number of new reforms have been initiated to improve the performance of the authority.

“Computerised registration of evaluation tables has been made mandatory for the prevention of tax evasion and exploitation of people in matters of land transfers.

Further, work is being done to pay government fees through e-payments and debit cards for the convenience of people. The authority also plans to provide centralised data to all service centres and expand service outlets,” he concluded.

China to install phytosanitary facilities, build agriculture institutes in Pakistan ISLAMABAD APP

China will help Pakistani install phytosanitary facilities to boost the country’s fruit export, besides building vocational and technical agriculture institutions for training farmers and general public.

The decision to this effect was taken in a meeting between Minister for National Food Security and Research Syed Fakhar Imam and Ambassador of China Yao Jing on Thursday.

Speaking on the occasion, Syed Fakhar Imam mentioned that Prime Minister Imran Khan aimed to revive agriculture in Pakistan adding that technical experts from both sides collaborate and come up with concrete projects or agricultural research.

He added that the Plant Breeders Act and Plant Seed Act will provide new opportunities to brand Pakistan's

agricultural products.

The minister said that Pakistan is facing a problem of low yield, adding that Pakistan and China should cooperate in the field of germ plasm to develop high yielding seed varieties for cotton, fruits, hybrid rice and wheat.

Syed Fakhar Imam further said that China is one of largest markets in the world for export of meat and meat products, however, Pakistan lacks access to the Chinese market.

He urged the need for collaboration to increase access to the Chinese meat market for Pakistan.

The Chinese ambassador also expressed interest in mutual cooperation pertaining to fishery at Gwadar.

Last year, China-Pakistan Joint Working Group on Agricultural Cooperation was established in pursuance of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) November 2, 2018 and a framework agreement

signed on June 26, 2019.

Earlier, China has provided an inkind donation of locust control equipment to the tune of around Rs4.94 million to Pakistan including 300,000 liters of pesticide.

Another request for the provision of 200 drones worth $2.6 million is under process with the Economic Affairs Division. China has also donated medical equipment including 30,000 surgical masks, 1,000 protective suits and 1,000 protective goggles for continuation of locust control activities during the coronavirus pandemic. Moreover, China had also previously donated $100,000 in cash to support locust control activities.

Additionally, an MoU was signed in March 2020 between Pakistan and China aimed at establishing a Joint Plan Pest and Disease Control Centre in Pakistan.

Navy ready to deal with traditional, non-traditional challenges: Admiral Abbasi ISLAMABAD STAFF REPORT

Chief of the Naval Staff, Admiral Zafar Mahmood Abbasi has said that Pakistan Navy is fully capable to deal with both traditional and non-traditional challenges.

The naval chief said this while addressing the course participants of 49th PN Staff Course during his visit to Pakistan Navy War College Lahore, said a press statement issued on Thursday.

The chief of the naval staff dilated upon evolving geo-strategic environment and its interplay with prevalent security dynamics and focus on maritime security challenges. While focusing on threat perception, the admiral dwelled on various initiatives and developmental plans in line with his vision for Pakistan Navy to be a formidable regional maritime power.

The naval chief also underscored Pakistan Navy capabilities to deal with both traditional and non-traditional chal-

lenges by ensuring combat readiness, instituting effective measures in ideological domain while catapulting Pakistan's maritime sector to promote national maritime interests.

He advised the course participants to instil Pakistan Navy's core values of faith, character, courage and commitment in their noble and demanding profession and draw inspirations from true Islamic values and ideology of Pakistan.

Preceding to the address by the chief

05

of the naval staff, a panel of course participants presented research paper on 'Hindutva Ideology and its fallouts on Muslims of India and Pakistan'.

The admiral appreciated the efforts of Pakistan Navy War College for providing the academic stimulus and honing professional knack of the course participants.

Earlier on his arrival, the naval chief was received by Commandant PN War College Rear Admiral Muhammad Zubair Shafique.

Oil and Gas Development Company (OGDCL) on Thursday announced that it has started commercial production of gas from two newly discovered deposits including Thal East Well-1 and Bhimbra Well-1, which is being added in the national grid for onward supply to consumers. The company has been producing 10 Million Cubic Feet per Day (MMCFD) gas and 2.25 MMCFD gas from Thar East Well-1 and Bhimbra Well-1 since June 26 and June 28 respectively, a news release said. With addition of newly discovered wells in the national grid Pakistan would be able to save foreign exchange and provide sufficient supplies to domestic and industrial consumers, said OGDCL. Earlier, on Wednesday, the company also announced initiating commercial production of gas and condensate for its Dhoke Hussain Field Well-1, located in Kohat district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP). From Dhoke Hussain Field Well-1, OGDCL intends to produce 300 barrels per day oil and 12 MMCFD gas. The first gas production from the well had been injected in the system of Sui Northern Gas Pipelines Limited on June 28.

UNFPA to assist Pakistan in formulation of population development strategies ISLAMABAD: The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) will extend technical assistance to the government to formulate population development strategies and their onward implementation in the country. Special Assistant to the Prime Minister (SAPM) on Youth Affairs Muhammad Usman Dar and UNFPA Country Representative Lina Mousa signed the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on Thursday in this regard, said a news release issued by the office of Usman Dar who leads two flag-ship initiatives of the government on youth including the Prime Minister’s Kamyab Jawan Program and Corona Relief Tiger Force. APP

Govt decides against privatisation of PIA’s Roosevelt Hotel contInueD froM pAge 01 “The property is worth billions and it was making a profit when I was serving as ambassador to the US,” she added. The PIA-owned 19-storey hotel with 1,025 rooms plus allied facilities in New York is considered a valuable property that also carries cultural significance for Pakistan. It has remained in the news for the last several years over its proposed auction. However, the management of PIA in the past had always rejected the claims of auction, etc. The hotel was acquired by PIA Investment Limited on lease during the year 1979 with an option to purchase the property. The airline had purchased the hotel for $36.5 million against a demand of $59.5m by contesting a lawsuit against the owner in 1999.

The Roosevelt has been managed by Interstate Hotels & Resorts since 1997.

Coronavirus cases soar to 217,809 contInueD forM pAge 01 The chief minister said that 9,436 samples were tested against which 2,430 new cases of coronavirus emerged constituting the 26 per cent detection rate.

He added that so far 471,023 tests have been conducted which diagnosed 89,225 cases all over Sindh, of them 49,926 have been cured, including 1,399 overnight.

“The recovery rate in the province stands at 56 per cent,” he said.

CM Murad said that 31 more patients died lifting the death toll to 1,437 that constituted 1.6 per cent death rate.

He added that currently, 37,893 patients of Covid-19 were under treatment, of them, 36,072 are in home isolation, 243 at isolation centres and 1,578 at different hospitals.

He disclosed that currently, 754

were in critical condition, of them, 101 have been shifted onto the ventilators. He prayed for their early recovery. Giving the district-wise break-up, the chief minister said that out of 2,430 new cases, 1,177 have been detected from all six districts of Karachi division. They include 389 South, 296 East, 168 Central, 117 Korangi, 111 Malir and 96 West.

He added that Hyderabad has 89 new cases, Dadu 58, Ghotki 55, Thatta 51, Shaheed Benazirabad 48, Tando Allahyar 47, Larkana 47, Naushehroferoze 41, Sukkur 38, Khairpur 37, Tando M. Khan 37, Shikarpur 35, Sujawal 30, Matiari 21, Jamshoro 19, Badin 17, Jacobabad 16, Sanghar 15, Umerkot 13, Mirpurkhas 11, Kambar and Kashmore one each.

CM Murad urged people of Sindh to stay safe by observing social distancing, wearing masks

while going out, washing hands and avoiding going into crowds.

‘SMART LOCKDOWN ONLY SOLUTION’: Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on National Health Services Dr Zafar Mirza said that the number of coronavirus cases in the country is decreasing while monsoon season would further help in reducing the cases. Talking to a private news channel, Dr Mirza said that smart lockdown is the only solution to control the spread of Covid-19 and to improve the national economy.

The special assistant said that people should go to hospitals and laboratories for the Covid-19 tests.

He said that 128 laboratories have been established across the country for this purpose. He added that the government is taking actions against the medical stores and private laboratories for overcharging the people.

Friday, 3 July, 2020

06 COMMENT

Writing in the time of covid-19

Another crucial challenge for the PTI government Enforcing SOPs during Eidul Azha

Literature too will never be the same again

W

HILe eidul Azha comes at the end of July, the purchase of sacrificial animals has already started. Soon cattle markets will spring up around big cities where, in normal eids, entire families rush to buy sacrificial animals of their choice. Crowded cattle markets could cause a rapid spread of the coronavirus. On Wednesday, Pakistan Medical Association leaders and civil society activists in Karachi called on the government not to allow cattle markets within the city and ensure strict implementation of its standard operating procedures (SOPs) during the eidul Azha. They warned that unless SOPs were strictly enforced during the eid festival, the country would face another hard time, like it did after Ramzan.

The government cannot just ban the markets. Unlike the eidul Fiter, as much as 80 percent of the spending on the “Major eid” is on sacrificial animals. With cattle worth hundreds of billions of rupees sold, the eidul Azha marks a major trade event with money this time flowing from the cities to the countryside where the cattle are reared over a whole year to fetch a good price on the day.

Hundreds of thousands of cattle owners and tens of thousands of middlemen are involved in the business all over the country.

Cattle markets must be confined to areas outside the big cities. The entry of entire families including children should be banned in the markets. Proper SOPs need to be urgently evolved by provincial governments which should also oversee their implementation. It is a matter of concern that some of the provinces have yet to take important decisions in this regard.

Administrations at the district and city levels have to take the ulema, mosque committees and prayer leaders into confidence to ensure that social distancing is maintained during the eid prayers and the worshippers aren’t admitted without masks. The prayer leaders should be asked to advise the worshippers to curb festivities in view of the pandemic. Slackness during the Ramzan and eidul Fitr led to quadrupling of the corona cases. Unless the government succeeds in enforcing the SOPs, the eidul Azha too may significantly enhance the number of positive cases adding to the speed of the pandemic’s spread.

At Penpoint M A NIAZI

E

ven now, even though the covid-19 pandemic has yet to run its course, there is already much speculation on what the world will look like after it is over. One area where it is safe to say there will be changes will be in literature. Already, there has been some relief sought in narration, as literature consists of smaller sets of text than narration. Literature’s guardians have tried to achieve some relevance, as was seen by the Swedish Academy’s award of the nobel Prize for Literature to US musician Bob Dylan for his lyrics. It must also be accepted that film scripts have taken the place of play scripts, just as films have become much more popular than plays. Then there are the new media, which are often spin-offs from books and movies, mostly in the form of videogames, which are in themselves an appropriate means of passing time in the lockdown era, being computer-based and thus solitary, even if online there is an entire community playing.

The reader might notice the dominance of the USA in the existing narrations relevant to the era.

This reflects the cultural dominance of the USA, especially in the visual arts. It has a certain appropriateness, as the USA is presently leading the world in the number of cases (over 2.7 million as of yesterday morning) and deaths (over 130,000 by the same time). Additionally, it seems that the USA had the most recent material available, especially in the form of movies.

Yet these are not merely fiction, they are science fiction, being set in a future, usually a near future.

One of the most interesting movies on this theme has been World War Z (released in 2013), an obviously pre-epidemic movie about the spreading of an illness that converts people into zombies. This is meant as an explanation for how the Zombie Apocalypse, a common trope of horror films, might arrive. That is the movie which most clearly postulates that the Zombie Apocalypse is caused by a virus, with the mode of transmission being bitten by a zombie.

More action and less talk required to control rising prices

The custodians seem to have learnt their lesson

T

He world has changed. nothing is the same as before. But inflation continues to rear its head in Pakistan. It is hardly a new thing for the inflation target set by the federal government to be missed, but despite the rhetoric, it can hardly escape the blame for the inflation rate rising to 8.6 percent in June, up from 8.2 percent in May. This takes the average CPI inflation for FY20 to 10.74 percent against 6.8 percent in FY19. It is counter-intuitive for growth to be so high at a time when the economy is contracting because of the global slowdown caused by the lockdowns to stop the covid-19 pandemic. The contraction in demand should have caused prices to fall. Instead, food inflation leads the way.

This is an area where the government did not intend to contribute, but where ruling party figures have been implicated. Unfortunately for the government, its investigations, which were supposed to fix responsibility, have failed to bring down prices. Official figures show that food inflation was fuelled by a 17.7 percent rise in wheat prices, along with supply problems. The government’s failure to procure wheat was behind this hike. The decision to export sugar also played its role in sending up the price of that commodity. Though public outcry led the government to appoint an enquiry commission, those named in its report have gotten away scot-free. More importantly, artificially jacked up prices have not come down. As if food inflation was not enough, the government pushed through a massive hike in fuel prices. All the fierce talk 0f fixing the ‘fuel mafias’ has now dissolved in an abject surrender to the oil marketing companies though it is no skin off the government’s nose, it will be the beleaguered consumers who will be deprived of any benefit from the collapse of international oil prices.

Instead of trying to blame previous governments, or vague mafias, the government must pay more attention to rising prices. After all, it hurts the very class most which the Prime Ministers showed such touching concern by refusing to impose lockdowns. It is also no help to the government that there should be such a rate of food inflation.

All inflation is electorally bad, but food inflation is the worst.

Dr FArID A MAlIk

P

OLITICS in the land of the pure has suffered due to backdoor entries. The list is long and painful, from the Chaudhrys of Gujrat to the Sharifs of Lahore or the Wattoos of Okara, and so on, there are trails of corruption, nepotism and plunder. It is a great national tragedy that while the front door entrants have been blocked the Chor Darwaza’(backdoor) has been kept open for the entry of the unscrupulous by the halfeducated chowkidars. east Pakistan was the first to break off. The brilliant lawyer Hussain Shaheed Suhrawardy, the Chief Minister of United Bengal, was bypassed to establish back door links with his ordinary party worker Sheikh Mujib-ur-Rehman who later on rose to become the father of the Bangla nation ( Banga Bhandu ). nawabzada Liaquat Ali Khan, the first elected front-door Prime Minister, was assassinated and so was the second ( Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto ).

Khan Qayyum Khan, the undisputed leader of the Frontier Province, was humiliated in the dungeons of the Lahore Fort. From Balochistan the Khan of Kalat was also captured and kept under house arrest in Lahore. A Sarkari League was launched as a political entity called the Pakistan Muslim League ( Convention ) with its headquarters on Davis Road Lahore, the property is now under the control of PML(Q), led by the Chaudhrys of Gujrat.

The Quaid-e-Azam’s sister and mother of the nation, Mohtarma Fatima Jinnah, challenged the ‘Chowkidars ‘ in January 1965 in the first Presidential election held under the 1962 forced constitution.

She travelled the length and breadth of the country and addressed public gatherings. The old guard of the Muslim League ( Sardar Shaukat Hayat Khan, Khawaja nazimuddin, Mumtaz Daultana, among others) fully supported her campaign. naturally the Head Chowkidar had to rely on the coercive state apparatus to win the elections. The area SHO was tasked to deliver the BD Member (Basic Democrat

Dedicated to the legacy of the late Hameed Nizami

Arif Nizami Editor Umar Aziz

Asher John

Joint Editor

Executive Editor

Deputy Editor

Lahore – Ph: 042-36300938, 042-36375965

The writer is a member of staff.

Custodians of The Back Door

Inflation unchecked

Aziz-ud-Din Ahmad

Closer to actual events of illnesses are depictions of the plague. Daniel Defoe is most famous as the author of Robinson Crusoe, and thus one of the founders of the novel in english, but he also wrote the Journal of the Plague Year. Published in 1722, it was about 1666, when London was struck by the plague, as well as the Great Fire. But it was not covid19, but the bubonic plague. That era, and that plague, left us a nursery rhyme: Ring-a-ring-a-roses/ A pocketful of posies/ A-tishoo, a-tishoo/ We all fall down.

The roses and the posies were a reference to the only prescription the doctors of that era had: something to freshen up the air. But then came the sneezing as buboes developed in the lungs and windpipe, and ‘we all fall down.’

It may have been bacterial, but the bubonic plague, like covid-19, came from China and attacked the respiratory system. If it caught the imagination of Defoe, it affected at least two French writers, chronologically far apart. In 1585, the essayist Michel de Montaigne, was Mayor of Bordeaux, the French port, when it saw an outbreak of the plague as his tenure ended. The harrowing episode stayed with him, and informed his essays, which preceded those of Francis Bacon, much more familiar to the english-speaking world.

Then there was Albert Camus, whose La Peste (The Plague) describes an attack of bubonic plague in Oran, a port in French Algeria. It was both a description of one of the last outbreaks of plague in recent times, and also taken as a parable for the nazi Occupation of europe.

But while the bubonic plague was the most dramatic, there were other diseases which could be epidemic. One of the most common was cholera, which was caused by a pollution of the water supply. India suffered from it greatly, and one such epidemic is the springboard for Deputy nazir Ahmad’s Taubatun Nasuh, published in 1877. It begins with nasuh and his father getting up for the fajr prayer, having dined on rice the night before. The description is brief, but it gives an impression of the time: both fall sick, but nasuh’s father dies almost at once. That was characteristic of previous plagues; death was very sudden.

There is the trope, made familiar both by Defoe, and

by Samuel Pepys, whose diary includes life under the

plague in London, of the death-carts, with the carters shouting out the demand for corpses. even the, plague victims’ bodies were avoided, and were buried in mass graves.

Another book with cholera as the epidemic disease was Love in the Time of Cholera, published in 1986, Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s first book after winning the nobel Prize for Literature in 1982. Dealing with Latin America, and the travails of doctor combatting cholera, it shows what happens when a disease is endemic. There are outbreaks in the shape of epidemics.

That is what is being predicted for covid-19: that it will become endemic, in that it will not afflict many people most of the time, but there will be occasional epidemics, when the virus comes into contact with a population which lacks immunity to it.

One epidemiologist has said that the world will go back to an era resembling World War II, a world before antibiotics. Antibiotics were a really big deal, ending both the bubonic plague and cholera, both of which are bacterial diseases. neither has been completely wiped out, though neither assumes the proportions of an epidemic. (Though there is a report of a cholera epidemic in Yemen, caused by the breakdown of both safe water supply and medical services, due to the civil war.)

It is unfortunately true that viral diseases (such as smallpox, polio, AIDS and yes, covid-19) found no medicine, and all so-called antivirals are palliatives rather than cures. However, before antibiotics, people would go about their lives with the knowledge at the back of their minds that they could fall sick and die at any minute. Life becomes uncertain, but so does economics. What if a business partner fails to turn up? Or an employee? Because they fell ill suddenly in the night. And are now dead.

The great literature of the world was all created with this somewhere at the back of the writer’s mind.

Readers also had this as part of their mental furniture.

If Camus made the plague a metaphor for the nazis, his audience knew what a plague was. Thus literature, that lens through which men have grown used to looking at themselves, has already been changed forever. But it still has to be written, films to be made and videogames to be created.

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Karachi – Ph: 021-35381208-9

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) to vote for the dictator and then kept under watch tator who promised to hold elections on the basis of till the announcement of the results. Under the Pres- adult franchise. In 1996 two political parties appeared ident there were two iron-fisted rogue governors in the arena, both seeking change and offering a third (Ameer Muhammad Khan in West and Abdul option to the corrupt politics of the PPP and the Monem Khan in east Pakistan). While the rest of PML(n). Farooq Leghari formed the Millat Party the country surrendered to the whims of the first dic- which was announced with great fanfare at PC Latator, Karachi the city of Quaid, remained defiant hore while Imran Khan launched his Tehreek-e-Insaf till he was toppled. A strategy was developed to en- in a modest way. Leghari Sahib could not resist the sure free and fair election in the metropolis. The stu- temptation of power and decided to merge his frontdents surrounded the police stations after the door party with a backdoor entrant, the PML(Q) led morning prayers, not letting the SHOs take control by the Chaudhrys of Gujrat. Imran Khan kept his poof the BD members to ensure their vote for the dic- litical course to finally enter the corridors of power tator, and as a result Fatima Jinnah prevailed over in 2018. In the 2013 elections it was denied victory the President. It seriously dented the invincibility of by the ‘Chor Darwaza’ politics of the PML(n).

The current situation is quite interesting. The PTI the Head Chowkidar, which proved to be the beginhas entered the corridors of power through the front ning of the end for him. door after over 22 years In the Anarkali-nila of struggle.

The Gumbad area, Haider Ali PML(n), a backdoor inBhatti was a very comductee that was able to plaint BD member. He Finally after wasting a lot of reach the front door, is had a hair-cutting saloon close to the Tollington valuable time and enduring pain the now being pushed back from where they were Market intersection. For era of Chor Darwaza politics seems made to enter. The frontthe favours he received door political entrants from the authorities he to be fading away. The backdoor and the backdoor custoused to display lifesize portraits of the Presicustodians should now ensure for dians have joined hands to move the political dent. During the election the health of the nation that players to their respective campaign the students ends for normalcy to be gathered around his shop political players enter through the restored.

The PPP and forced him to re(Bhutto) was indeed a move the posters. Late in front door while only garbage is front door political entity the evening the poor felmoved out from the back to be but it has been disgraced low was summoned to

by Zardari to be brackthe Governor’s House dumped at the waste site eted with Chor Darwaza for a dressing down. parties like the PML (n) next day the posters and PML(Q). After were back. Finally under Zardari Trauma is over, pressure from both sides he went underground to emerge after the elections. the PPP may yet emerge as a national party but the This was typical ‘Chor Chowkidar’ (cos’n’robbers) era of backdoor parties is over, the custodians have democracy of the 196s. With backdoor entries, it learnt their lesson. In real life, as it is widely believed was called Basic Democracy or Controlled Democ- that there is no shortcut to experience; in politics, racy. The electorate consisted of 80,000 members, struggle is an essential ingredient for sustainability.

40,000 from each wing. It was Quaid’s sister who Loot and plunder alone cannot ensure long-term surhad the courage to challenge this charade and real- vival for a political outfit. Finally after wasting a lot of valuable time and enduring pain the era of Chor life political drama.

In the checkered political history of Pakistan very Darwaza politics seems to be fading away. The backfew real national political parties were formed. door custodians should now ensure for the health of Bhutto’s Pakistan People’s Party was the first politi- the nation that political players enter through the front cal entity to gain this distinction in november 1967. door while only garbage is moved out from the back YMCA Hall on the Mall was the venue where ZAB to be dumped at the waste site. challenged the ‘Custodian of the Back Door’. The Dr Farid A Malik is ex-Chairman, Pakistan Sciprogressives joined hands with him and soon it turned into an anti-establishment movement. The mighty ence Foundation. He can be contacted at: Ayub Khan was toppled to replaced by another dic- fmaliks@hotmail.com.

Islamabad – Ph: 051-2204545

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Email: editorial@pakistantoday.com.pk

Friday, 3 July, 2020

COMMENT 07 Editor’s mail Send your letters to: Letters to Editor, Pakistan Today, 4-Shaarey Fatima Jinnah, Lahore, Pakistan.

E-mail: letters@pakistantoday.com.pk Letters should be addressed to Pakistan Today exclusively

Punishment and discipline DISCIPLIne is the practice of training to obey rules or using punishments to correct disobedience.

It is the teaching of the boundaries. The teaching of what is right and what is wrong. Discipline can be both “positive and negative” For example the positive discipline is admiring children for doing something “Good”, or stopping them for doing wrong by counseling. negatives can be like smacking and threatening them for doing something inappropriate. Some Parents and most of the Teachers in school believe that they do well by punishing them or “safe smacking”, Whereas the actual discipline is helping them to understand why certain behaviour is unacceptable. Sometimes after getting smacked children (students) get impinge and start to think that it is alright to beat others. Punishment is not the way to motivate them in order to behave more properly.

Yes! Sometimes somewhere it is right to punish but many times the best way is to understand what was the reason behind the aggressive reaction, behaving in an inappropriate way or doing an offence .

After this if they are wrong, the better way is admonishing them to make them stop from doing something unacceptable! not using corporal punishments.

AriFA SAEED LArkANA

Crash of PK-8303 And the Black Box

SultAN M HAlI

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AKISTAn International Airlines flight PK8303, an Airbus A320 carrying 91 passengers and eight crew from Lahore, crashed just short of the Karachi Airport on 22 May. Two passengers miraculously survived, while 97 perished, including the aircrew.

There have been a lot of speculation about the causes of the air crash. The government instituted an Aircraft Accident Investigation Board to look into the causes while the Airbus aircraft manufacturing company dispatched its own technical team to thoroughly investigate the causes.

Besides taking briefings from PIA and the Civil Aviation Authority and obtaining video and audio recordings of the air accident, the team took charge of the Cockpit voice Recorder (CvR) and the Black Box, which will provide important clues to the fatal crash.

The decoding of the Black Box and the Cockpit voice Recorder laid the blame squarely on the Cockpit Crew as well as negligence on the part of the Air Traffic Control. The Federal Minister for Aviation has already disclosed the contents of the investigation to Parliament and measures are being adopted to avoid the recurrence of such an accident in future.

Many readers may be wondering what is a “Black Box”, which has an interesting background. With the rapid development of jet fighters during the Second World War, the British began developing the first jet-powered airliner, the famous Comet, which flew in the 1950s. The Comet however, seemed to be jinxed, and in 1953 a number of the aircraft crashed inexplicably, putting doubt in the public’s mind about the safety of jets.

Aeronautical engineers and scientists all over the world were puzzled. Unless they found the cause of the crashes, the Comet would be doomed to failure. Unfortunately, no clues could be found. There were no witnesses, no survivors, and all that was left of the aircraft were massive tangles of bent metal. Dr David Warren of the Aeronautical Research Laboratories (ARL) in Melbourne, a chemist specializing in aircraft

fuels, became interested in the mystery. As he lis- and record data from a variety of airplane tened to the frustrating discussion of possible sensors onto a medium designed to survive an causes, he began to conceive the idea of some accident. The most modern weigh about 7.7 sort of recording of the flight crew’s conversa- kg and measure approximately 12 by 15 by tion, and of protecting the record so that it could 50 cm and can record data continuously for survive the crash. He reasoned that while the ac- 25 hours. It keeps a record of the operating cident analysis committees found it difficult to data of an aircraft such as airspeed, altitude trace the cause of the crash, there was a good and compass heading.

The FDR unit is capable of withstanding an chance that the flight crew might have known, and it might well have been revealed in their con- impact with force equal to one thousand times the value of gravity and is located at the rear of versation in trying to deal with the emergency.

Warren propagated his concept, and in 1954 the aircraft. The Black Boxes are required to be outlined his ideas in a report titled “A device for painted bright orange or bright yellow, making Assisting Investigation into Aircraft Accidents” them easier to locate at a crash site. They have and put theory into practice with the support of his pingers and give out radio signals. After the acSuperintendent, Tom Keeble, and an Instrument cident the pinger locates the recorders and the orange and reflecengineer, T. Mirtive stripes are refield, designing it moved from them. with steel wire as the The information is recording medium. It and was fully automatic The number of parameters that the extracted processed using adfor fit-and-forget opFDRs can monitor will continue to vanced computer eration with a “memequipment. Someory” mechanism that increase as they continue to get times a computer would store four hours of pilot voice even more sophisticated, and they model is created as a reconstruction of and instrument readmay even store video images from the whole flight to ings at the rate of enable a sophistieight per second up the cockpit to complement the cated analysis of to the moment of any the flight informaaccident but would crew voice recordings. Recently a tion at any point automatically erase during the flight. older records for the company called Flight Vu has The number of wire to be re-used. It started to produce cameras, which parameters that the was given the project FDRs can monitor name of “The ARL record the events in the cockpit will continue to inFlight Memory Unit” and the origiand others that are mounted on the crease as they continue to get even nal is now displayed wings and tail of the aeroplane to more sophisticated, in the Science Muand they may even seum, Melbourne. record the condition of the plane store video images By 1958, Flight Recorders were during flight. Air travel has become from the cockpit to complement the adopted by the US safest form of transport because of crew voice recordFederal Aviation Recently a Administration extensive fault analysis, making it ings. company called (FAA) for use in all Flight vu has commercial airimperative for other forms of started to produce craft. The Flight cameras, which Recorder comdomestic transport to use record the events in prised a Cockpit recorders to investigate accidents the cockpit and othvoice Recorder ers that are (CvR) and a Flight and improve their safety. mounted on the Data Recorder wings and tail of (FDR). The CvR the aeroplane to records the converrecord the condition sations between members of the flight crew and other sounds of the plane during flight.

Air travel has become safest form of transin the cockpit as well as radio transmissions and communication with air traffic control port because of extensive fault analysis, making units. The most modern versions weigh about it imperative for other forms of domestic trans7.3 kg and measure approximately 12 by 15 by port to use recorders to investigate accidents and 33 cm. The CvR records four audio tracks improve their safety.

Hopefully, the Black Box and CvR report which are all taken from separate microphones, in the crew members’ headsets and a will provide closure to the families of the vicmicrophone placed in an overhead panel be- tims of Flight PK 8303 although a new Pantween the pilots which records sounds such as dora’s Box has been opened with the issue of engine noise, stall warnings and landing gear fake degrees but that will be discussed some extensions and retractions, and these sounds other time. are then used to determine parameters such as Sultan M Hali is a retired Group Captain engine rpm and the times at which certain and author of the book Defence & Diplomacy. events took place.

The FDR is considered the more valuable Currently he is a columnist, analyst and TV talk of the two recorders. Its purpose is to collect show host.

Opening parks IMRAn KHAn has decided to open at least 15 national parks in pakistan.

Its a sensible commitment during his unfavourable government. nation has been fooled with uncompleted promises and hopes for this to be done.

“Imran Khan narrated that the population has increased and is trying to reach every corner of Pakistan, I fear if we would not preserve it in the form of parks, our generation will not be able to witness the beauty of pakistan, which I did in my childhood.” nevertheless it is a huge achievement for Pakistan if it’s done. Global warming, high temperatures, lack of pure drinking water are the main reasons behind it. Since the government has been making irrelevant orders, it is a perfect time to serve the public.

Parks are not only to enjoy and relax but they are the source for a delightful environment, configuration of charm and to beautify the generosity of pakistan. Keeping the national parks is not an easy task, the government should make strict rules for the nation, so as they could not fly it out of the window.

Furthermore, it’s also our duty to keep the country the way it is, because somehow the government as well as the nation is kept responsible for building and breaking of a country, in the same way we must be very kind to tourism places and upcoming national parks.

Suhail Saeed Tunio Larkana

Administration?

OveR the past few days, I have come across to learn a new word, kakistocracy which means government by least suitable or incompetent citizens. It can be said that it’s an accurate elaboration of the current government. Since the very day, PTI has possessed treasury benches is in limelight due to the irrelevant statements and slanderous speeches made by cabinet ministers that have caused more gap in opposition and government than anything else. Recently, science & technology minister Fawad Chaudhary spilled the beans about party’s internal affairs on which PM has shown displeasure, on the other hand, climate change minister Zartaj Gul Wazir breaking the internet as she purported that covid19 means Coronavirus has 19 points applied in any country based on its respective immunity levels, further PM Khan called Osama Bin Laden martyr in national assembly which has taken him to new heights of criticism internationally. Whereas PM IK has set a new infamous trend of giving preference to nonelected professionals over elected parliamentarians and, the number of special assistants had been varying between three to thirteen in past but, Imran Khan has appointed fifteen special assistants which are highest in the history of Pakistan and that is against the parliamentary ethos, while the pandemic stares us in the face the government continues to exaggerate confusions with its flip-flops, and our PM has puzzled nation with smart lockdown mantra that caused lack of communication between state and people, as a result, economy is in shambles, the government has failed to protect people from coronavirus, statics show government is failing to control inflation. The PTI should set their house to focus on real issues of economy and coronavirus before it gets too late.

MiAN rAFiu TuNio Miro khan

PUBG hacks SO finally PTA took a wise decision by Banning Pubg. As soon as this announcement was made, it went vigorously viral on social media.

Dividing social platforms into a battellfield of two groups. One side was happy about this decision and other was mourning over it.

Until the gamers came up with a solution to this problem. exactly after 3 hours of this announcement, an alternative was found by the users to fill their need for this game. A software called vPn was used to manipulate the location of users from one country to another country allowing them to play as much as they want. So the question is, was it really wise to ban because now the chances of increment in the addiction of the playing has elevated than ever before. The addiction level that this game has created will not just go away just by banning it, the government and PTA has to come with a better plan to influence the youth to overcome their addiction for it.

MiAN AiZAZ AHMED SHADAkoT

Friday, 3 July, 2020

08 WORLD VIEW

Israel's annexatIon excuses are all factually, legally and logIcally wrong THE BAN ON ANNEXATION WAS NOT INVENTED TO IRRITATE ISRAEL, BUT TO HELP THE WORLD: IT HAS CONTRIBUTED TO A REMARKABLE DECLINE IN CONVENTIONAL WARFARE AND BY SOME MEASURES, A DECLINE IN CONFLICT AT LARGE nEWsWEEk daHlia sCHeindlin and limor yeHuda

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N July 1st, Israel's governing coalition has pledged to begin a process placing parts of the West Bank under Israeli sovereignty.

While ideological battles are reaching a fever pitch, one point should be unambiguous. As United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres told the UN Security Council on June 24th, annexation would be a "most serious violation of international law." Yet beyond openly ideological arguments, annexation supporters repeatedly and brazenly employ international law justifications to support the policy.

The right-wing claim that annexation is acceptable in international law tends to rest on three main points. First, they argue that "extending sovereignty" is not annexation at all, because the West Bank was not recognized sovereign territory when captured in 1967; these arguments insist that annexation refers only to acquiring territory owned by a state. Second, annexation advocates argue that it is legal to extend Israeli law to territory captured in a defensive war. A third prominent legal argument is that the original British Mandate over Palestine, established

by international agreement, afforded national self-determination rights to the Jewish people alone. Other religious communities were guaranteed only civil and religious rights.

These points are factually, legally, and logically wrong.

Few principles of international law are as important or as consistent as the prohibition on acquiring territory by force. At first glance, there is in fact a basis for the idea that the prohibition on territorial conquest applies to sovereign states. The United Nations Founding Charter, Article 2.4 states "All Members shall refrain in their international relations from the threat or use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of any state..." The very notion of non-intervention generally refers to refraining from interference sovereign affairs, and the inviolability of sovereign boundaries, dating back the Treaty of Westphalia of 1648.

But the international system has evolved following the establishment of the United Nations in 1945. Article 2.4 itself continues, "...or in any other manner inconsistent with the Purposes of the United Nations." The purpose of the UN was as clear as it was audacious: "To maintain international peace and security," as stated in the first lines of the charter. These opening lines also enshrine the right of peoples and nations to self-determination, while outlawing resolution of

Pfizer coronavirus vaccine shows early promise DR ANTHONY FAUCI, THE INFECTIOUS DISEASE EXPERT WHO HAS BECOME THE MOST PROMINENT PUBLIC HEALTH VOICE DURING THE PANDEMIC, MAINTAINS THAT HE IS “CAUTIOUSLY OPTIMISTIC” THAT A VACCINE WILL BE AVAILABLE BY 2021

WAsHIngTOn ExAmInER Cassidy morrison

A coronavirus vaccine candidate from pharmaceutical company Pfizer has shown potential in healthy volunteers. Stocks jumped on the announcement Wednesday.

The experimental vaccine developed

by Pfizer and the biotech firm BioNTech produced promising results in early-stage human trials, in which 45 volunteers were given doses of the vaccine. Each participant received 10, 30, or 100 microgram doses of the vaccine or a placebo.

Overall, the vaccine was shown to be safe when given to healthy volunteers, but it also caused fever and other mild side effects, especially at higher doses. Volunteers who took the lower doses of the vaccine each got a second injection and had higher antibody levels than patients who just got a single 100-milligram-dose.

Researchers don’t know if higher antibody levels create immunity to the coronavirus. Pfizer will have to create larger clinical studies with the hope of proving that people who have received the vaccine are at least 50% less likely to become infected, per guidelines from the Food and Drug Administration. Pfizer also said larger human trials, which are set to begin this summer, will have to include a more diverse population.

Pfizer shares jumped 7% in premarket trading Wednesday after announcing that the vaccine candidate showed potential.

Shares in BioNTech rose 8%. The company’s reporting has yet to be peer-reviewed, and Pfizer’s is one of more than a dozen vaccines currently in human trials.

Biotech company Moderna has also developed a leading vaccine candidate, which uses the same technology to use genetic material to create a protein that the immune system learns to attack. The company has not published data on the vaccine yet, but it is expected to enter a late-stage trial this summer.

Pharmaceutical companies and biotech firms are all racing to develop a safe and effective vaccine for COVID-19 as part of President Trump’s coronavirus vaccine initiative, Operation Warp Speed. Trump and members of his administration have said a vaccine could become available as soon as late 2020 or early 2021. Dr. Anthony Fauci, the infectious disease expert who has become the most prominent public health voice during the pandemic, maintains that he is “cautiously optimistic” that a vaccine will be available by 2021.

Vaccines typically require years to be developed and proven safe and effective.

Among the fastest vaccines to be developed was the current vaccines for mumps, which took four years

disputes by force. In short, the UN sought to put an end to war.

In 1970, the General Assembly adopted Resolution 2625, the "Declaration on Principles of International Law concerning Friendly Relations and Cooperation among States in accordance with the Charter of the United Nations." The resolution states bluntly: "No territorial acquisition resulting from the threat or use of force shall be recognized as legal." It thus clarifies that the Charter's prohibition on the use of force to acquire territory is not limited to the lands of sovereign states, but applies to all territorial conquest. The resolution also outlined specific cases: "Every State has the duty to refrain from the threat or use of force to violate the existing international boundaries of another State or as a means of solving international disputes, including territorial disputes and problems concerning frontiers of States. " "Every State likewise has the duty to refrain from the threat or use of force to violate international lines of demarcation, such as armistice lines..."

Notably, while the use of force is prohibited, international law does make an exception for wars in self-defense. But even if territory was occupied in a defensive war, permanent unilateral acquisition (annexation) of that territory by the occupying state is not legal. One of the main reasons is that annexation undermines self-determination.

Resolution 2625 states: "Every State has the duty to refrain from any forcible action which deprives peoples ...of their right to self-determination and freedom and independence." [All emphases are ours] Both the West Bank and Gaza are a matter of international and territorial dispute.

Forceful acquisition of territory would be taking place across armistice lines (the "Green Line" demarcating the cessation of hostilities in 1949), and as the International Court of Justice (ICJ) determined in 2004, even de facto annexation (based on the route of the separation wall) "severely impedes the exercise by the Palestinian people of its right to self-determination, and is therefore a breach of Israel's obligation to respect that right."

A REMARKABLE DECLINE IN WARFARE: Since the Second World War, the prohibition on acquiring any territory by force has become sweeping and binding.

Any lingering claims that annexation "doesn't count" in previously non-sovereign areas dissolve under Security Council resolutions confirming the inadmissibility of "the acquisition of territory by war," the illegality of annexing occupied territory, and the ban on force to prevent self-determination even in non-self-governing territories, which law scholar James Crawford has called "straightforward." Numerous UNGA resolutions, have established the Palestinian people's right to self-determination in these territories. In 2004, the ICJ—the most important judicial body in the international arena—observed that the right of the Palestinian people to self-determination "is no longer in issue."

Finally, the notion that the British Mandate determines which groups enjoy self-determination, and within which boundaries, is full of pitfalls. Right-wing interpretations of the specific international decisions leading

to the Mandate are already ideological and debatable. But from the legal perspective, international law simply did not end in 1922; it evolved in the directions examined above, as the world itself changed—particularly after the war.

If proponents draw on the mandate, they cannot then ignore that the purpose of international mandates in general to advance, not deny self-determination. In 1950, in an ICJ judgment regarding Namibia, the court observed that the mandate concept broadly was established "in the interest of the inhabitants of the territory," who did not yet govern themselves. The court stated that "two principles were considered to be of paramount importance...non-annexation and the principle that the wellbeing and development of such peoples form "a sacred trust of civilization'." These developments of international law have long superseded 1922, but they far pre-date the present debate over what Israel is trying to do, and why it is wrong.

The ban on annexation was not invented to irritate Israel, but to help the world: it has contributed to a remarkable decline in conventional warfare and by some measures, a decline in conflict at large. Legal acrobatics in support of a land grab should end, and annexation proponents must be truthful: their desire to own the land in perpetuity overrides fundamental moral and legal obligations as a member of the community of nations.

Those obligations are the cornerstones of international peace and security—as well as basic human decency.

Dahlia Scheindlin is a political analyst based in Tel Aviv and a policy fellow at the Century Foundation. She holds a PhD in comparative politics from Tel Aviv University, and has worked as a political strategist in Israel and in 15 other countries. Limor Yehuda is a post-doctoral fellow at the Minerva Center for Human Rights at the Faculty of Law at Tel-Aviv University. She holds a PhD in Law from The Hebrew University, and practiced human rights and international humanitarian law at the Association for Civil Rights in Israel (ACRI).

On India’s first COVID-19 vaccine HInDu India’s first indigenous COVID-19 vaccine (COVAXIN) developed by a Hyderabadbased company in collaboration with the ICMR is all set to be tested on humans. The permission from the Drugs Controller General of India to carry out phase-1 and phase-2 human clinical trials was based on the safety and efficacy results of studies on mice, rats and rabbits. The phase-1 trial of the candidate vaccine using inactivated (killed) novel coronavirus will begin this month to test its safety.

The virus used for developing the vaccine was isolated by the Pune-based National Institute of Virology from samples collected in India. Meanwhile, a Pune-based company is all set to manufacture two-three million doses of the University of Oxford vaccine if the results of its phase-1 clinical trial, which are expected in the first week of July, are encouraging. Millions of doses more will be manufactured if the results of the combined

phase-2/3 trial are reassuring. In addition, the two companies are collaborating with universities and a biotechnology company to develop three more vaccines. With the pandemic raging and no antivirals available to treat severe COVID-19 patients, a vaccine that is even partially effective and protects for about a year will be in demand. Thus, an indigenous vaccine will mean guaranteed availability for Indians, while a significant percentage of the Oxford vaccine manufactured in India will be earmarked for local consumption. This is one reason why many countries are earnestly attempting to develop a vaccine. According to WHO, 17 candidate vaccines are in various stages of a human clinical trial, while 132 are in a pre-clinical trial stage. On June 25, China’s CanSino Biologics COVID-19 vaccine, became the first off the block when it was approved for use by the military for a period of one year. The phase-1 and phase-2 trials found the vaccine to be safe with a “potential to protect” against the disease.

Time to take army out of radio EDITORIAL Jerusalem Post

The supreme role of the Israel Defense Forces is to do what its name says: defend the State of Israel. Considering our rather inhospitable neighborhood, that is a big and challenging enough job as it is. The IDF’s role is to protect and defend the nation. Its primary role is not to educate troubled youth, perform conversions or supply the country with 24/7 radio programming.

Now, if educating troubled youth and performing conversions helps soldiers better carry out their primary soldiering tasks, then an argument can be made to continue with those programs in the name of building a better and more cohesive army.

But radio programming? Should the army in 2020 be in the public broadcasting business, having two radio stations – Army Radio (Galei Tzahal) and the music-centered Galgalatz – under its wings? What does endless current-event news and talk shows have to do with defending the homeland?

Is it seemly in a democratic society to have an army-controlled radio station? And since some of the bosses at the station are civilians, is it fitting to have them not under direct IDF command?

Furthermore, should the army be essentially running an elite hands-on journalism

school, with soldiers fortunate enough to land a job there during their service often going on to lucrative media jobs afterward?

Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen. Aviv Kochavi doesn’t think so, and in late June recommended to Defense Minister Benny Gantz that Army Radio be taken out of the army. His predecessor, Gadi Eisenkot, made a similar recommendation to then-defense minister Avigdor Liberman, who rejected it.

Interestingly, Kochavi’s arguments are not budgetary, even though the issue has reportedly come up when discussing the IDF’s new multi-year budget. With an eager and cheap pool of manpower, the radio station’s budget is estimated at only some NIS 50 million a year, compared to the nearly NIS 850 million annual budget for the KAN public broadcaster. No, this is not an issue about money, though the IDF could certainly find something else to do with a savings of more than NIS 50 million a year. Rather, Kochavi has reportedly said there is simply no “value” in the army running the station, and that he spends way too much time dealing with ricochets from its programming. This is about the army – the army of all the people – not needing to wade into divisive political commentary. It is not the IDF’s place to give Yaakov Bardugo on the Right a daily platform from which to rip into MKs, judges and ministers with whom he does not agree, while making

It is unclear if the vaccination will be optional or mandatory.

While this is not the first time that countries have made vaccines under development available to the military even before the completion of the trial, there is growing concern that speeding up vaccine development by bypassing certain crucial stages of the trial process may prove counterproductive.

In a poll in the U.S., one-third have said they would not get immunised against COVID19 even if a vaccine was widely available and affordable. While many expect science to find a quick-fix, experts envisage 12-18 months to get a vaccine commercialised, if at all. But that timeline is already seen as aggressive. If scientists develop a safe, efficacious vaccine soon, public trust in science could grow substantially but there would be serious consequences if it fails, particularly on the safety aspect. Regulatory agencies have a responsibility to ensure COVID-19 vaccines deliver what they promise.

the “etrog protection” that the media wrapped around Ariel Sharon before disengagement from Gaza look like an eggshell compared to the defense he provides Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Nor does the army have to give a daily platform to Rino Tzror, whose voice drips with cynicism and contempt when interviewing ministers from the government, settlement figures or those on the Right. Nor, as it happened during Operation Protective Edge, should an IDF radio station be interviewing Hamas operatives even as IDF soldiers were fighting Hamas terrorists inside Gaza.

Both Bardugo and Tzror are entitled to their opinions, and might be welcomed on any of the other radio stations or social media platforms that now exist in abundance. But their musings do not have to come under the IDF’s auspices. Army Radio, established in 1950, played an important role in forging Israeli culture in the first three decades of the new state.

It led the way in innovating programming over the years, with programs such as the popular “Kola shel Ima” (“A Mother’s Voice”) on Friday mornings, where parents send Shabbat greetings to their children in the army, and vice versa, and the highly informative “University on the Air.” But, as evidenced by the decline of the kibbutz movement, merely because an institution has played an important and even crucial role in the early days of the state, and has numerous achievements listed under its name, does not mean it needs to – or should – live forever.

It is time to take the army out of the radio.

Friday, 3 July, 2020

BUSINESS 09

PAkiStAn'S exPoRtS Decline 6.8Pc YoY in June COMMERCE MINISTRY TERMS THE SINGLE-DIGIT REDUCTION IN JUNE AS A 'SIGN OF RECOVERY', AS EXPORTS HAD DECLINED 54PC AND 33PC IN APRIL AND MAY ISLAMABAD

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GHULAM ABBAS

HILE the official data is yet to be released by Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS), the Ministry of Commerce (MoC) has claimed that the country's exports in June 2020 witnessed a decline of 6.83pc, terming it a "sign of recovery after the historic fall of 54pc in April".

According to the ministry, the singledigit decline in June showed a clear improvement in the country's export trend, particularly after a fall by 8pc, 54pc and 33pc in March, April and May, respectively.

"Pakistan's exports are showing clear signs of recovery due to the efforts of the exporters to diversify their products in the wake of Covid-19 pandemic, and also due to the support extended by the government in this regard," said Adviser to Prime Minister on Commerce and Investment Abdul Razak Dawood while chairing a meeting to discuss the export strategy of Pakistan on Thursday.

During the meeting, the adviser was briefed on the current facts and figures related to the trend of Pakistani exports.

It was informed that before the outbreak of the pandemic near the end of February 2020, Pakistan's exports were on an upward trajectory, showing an increase of 14pc YoY

'Askari Airline not to take off anytime soon' ISLAMABAD SYEDA MASOOMA

FAskari Airline has no plan of going into operations anytime soon, not at least in 2020, an official of Askari Aviation Services (AAS) informed Profit on Thursday.

An Urdu newspaper headline from 2018 has been circulating on social media, stating that Askari Airline, a project of Army Welfare Trust, will soon commence operations for Islamabad, Lahore and Karachi. The news has garnered social media hype due to the recent complications being faced by the national airline of Pakistan, including cases pertaining to fake licences and Karachi plane crash. However, this scribe has learned that Askari Airline management had decided, even before Covid-19 and suspension of global flights, that they would not be launching their operations any time soon.

Askari Air Pakistan has already received the licence for airline operations but the rest of the infrastructure is not yet nearly complete enough for flights to go into operation at the moment. Askari Airline is one of the five airlines that were issued licences in 2019 after the government had introduced a new aviation policy, encouraging new airlines in the country. AirSial, Go Green, and Liberty Air are some of the other airlines in the works at the moment. AirSial was to commence operations formally from June 2020 as was reported back in February. But with economic conditions and travelling bans imposed as a result of Covid-19 crisis, the airline has been forced to postpone its official launch.

in dollar terms. The February momentum continued despite the initial outbreak of Covid-19 in the country, as exports in the first 10 days of March 2020 registered an increase of 13pc as compared to last year.

According to officials, after the mid of March, Pakistan's export-oriented industry felt the impact of Covid-19 lockdowns as well as the global economic slowdown. This led to an 8pc decline in March exports as compared to the same month of last year.

The situation persisted and, in April 2020, the exports showed a downward trend of 54pc as compared to April 2019, they added. Following the month of April and with the efforts of the government to encour-

age the export sector, the first signs of recovery were observed in the month of May 2020, which saw 33pc decline in exports as compared to the same month last year. The momentum continued in June 2020, as the downward trend was brought down to a meagre 6.8pc.

In addition to a positive trend in exports, the figures also indicated that the ministry's strategies for geographical and product diversification were bearing fruits. For instance, there was a significant improvement in the exports to Africa, which was an outcome of 'Look Africa Policy', as well as the Middle East.

Similarly, the export of meat products has shown also decent growth, while tobacco depicted a promising future.

In the textile sector, value-added products showed an improvement, while at the same time, the export of cotton yarn and fab-

OICCI elects Shell Pakistan CEO Haroon Rashid as president FORMER PRESIDENT SHAHZAD DADA HAD RESIGNED FROM OICCI AS WELL AS STANDARD CHARTERED AFTER TAKING OVER AS UBL'S PRESIDENT KARACHI STAFF REPORT

Shell Pakistan Limited Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Haroon Rashid has been elected as the Overseas Investors Chamber of Commerce and Industry’s (OICCI) president with effect from July 1.

Haroon Rashid’s appointment comes after the resignation of OICCI’s former president Shazad Dada. The OICCI former president had earlier also resigned from Standard Chartered Bank after taking over as United Bank Limited’s president.

Additionally, Meezan Bank President and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Irfan Siddiqui has also been elected as the OICCI vice president with effect from July 1. Irfan Siddiqui is credited with the formation of Al-Meezan Investment

Bank in 1997, which was later converted into a full-fledged scheduled Islamic Commercial Bank in May 2002.

Commenting on his appointment as the OICCI president Haroon Rashid said: “It is really an honor to have been elected as the president of a prestigious organisation like the OICCI, which is the largest chamber in the country in terms of economic contribution, contributing over one third of all government levies and is also the largest foreign investor in the country”.

“OICCI members are fully cognizant of the need to ensure that the wheels of economy keep moving and business activities continue while ensuring the implementation of all safety guidelines,” he added. “OICCI believes in the economic and investment potential of Pakistan which, with forward-looking policies and

their robust implementation will put Pakistan among the most promising countries for foreign and local investors.”

Haroon Rashid is currently the chief executive and managing director at Shell Pakistan Limited, where he has been a director on the board since 2011.

He joined Shell in 1995 after graduating from The Lahore University of Management Sciences (LUMS). Haroon has had a diverse experience across Shell in Pakistan, United Kingdom and Singapore and has held various senior leadership roles in sales, marketing, downstream strategy consultancy, trading and supply and aviation.

After working in retail sales, nonfuels retailing and network planning from 1995 to 2000, he took time off in 2001 to complete an MBA from INSEAD, after which he rejoined Shell as

LSE hold webinar to discuss Covid-19 impact on overseas Pakistani workers PRESS RELEASE Almost 5 million households or around 15pc of the total in Pakistan have a family member working abroad. These families would be seriously negatively impacted by a fall in remittances to Pakistan as would both the unemployment and poverty levels in the country. This was stated by Dr Rashid Amjad, Director, Center on International Migration, Remittances and Diaspora, Lahore School of Economics at the start of a Webinar held on June 30th 2020.

The Webinar was organized by CIMRAD, Lahore School of Economics.

The discussion highlighted the varied impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic on the current situation of overseas Pakistani workers and the government efforts to facilitate their orderly and safe return. Mr. Kashif Noor, DG of the Bureau of Emigration and Overseas Employment, elaborated upon the role that government agencies are playing in ensuring a smooth re-absorption of returnees, many of whom had to leave under fairly dire circumstances. He also reflected on future

ric went down. As a result of overall progress, the trade balance has improved by $8.7 billion, indicating that the current account deficit was also at manageable levels.

Commenting on the trends of exports, Razak Dawood underscored that the export sector was given a new impetus by the government by allowing the export of Personal Protective Equipment, barring three items, which was indicated by the surge of exports in the month of June.

He added that other government policies for diversification of exports and international markets would enable the exporters to continue the thrust in the current fiscal year as well.

The advisor noted that the traditional exports of Pakistan, like garments and bedwear etc., were also picking up and would show improved performance in the financial year 2020-21.

prospects of jobs for Pakistani workers in an increasingly competitive job market in the Gulf countries and elsewhere. While commenting on Pakistan’s experience, Dr. Piyasiri Wickramasekara, an international migration expert, appreciated the government’s efforts in this regard.

He also emphasized the need for facilitating the overdue payments of workers and the protection of migrants in an irregular situation.

Remittances have been a lifeline for the Pakistani economy for several years. Covid-19 pandemic is expected to significantly dampen these flows as economic activity in countries from which majority remittances are received shrinks.

Ms Almazia Shahzad, presented her projections for future remittance flows, that are expected to decline by 21.2 percent in 2020 and 19.4 percent in 2021, from the earlier projections. Ms. Asma Khalid, Senior Economist at the State Bank of Pakistan, shared her expectation that the impact of Covid-19 on remittances will begin to show after June, and will mainly be visible in the next 12 to 18 months.

Pakistan has been one of the major countries

sending migrants to the Gulf region, especially Saudi Arabia and the UAE. It sent a record 1 million migrant workers in 2015, followed by a major annual decline until the numbers increased to more than 600,000 in 2019. Dr. GM Arif, commented that the pandemic is likely to cause a big decline in new outflows, in addition to the large influx of returnee workers. As many as 1 million migrant workers may be expected to return back, primarily to Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

Dr. Asad Sayeed shared some additional thoughts about this matter. Finally, Dr. Nasra Shah presented her views on some of the unofficial and socio-cultural factors, such as the Kafala system in the Gulf and the global anti-immigration attitude in host countries, that are likely to affect the demand for future migrants, and Dr. Nasir Iqbal elaborated further on the ideas presented by her.

The webinar was attended by 40 participants from various countries including renowned migration experts from ILO, ICMPD, and some non-governmental organizations.

a consultant in downstream management consultancy in London.

In 2005, Haroon was appointed as a downstream competitor intelligence manager in London, before moving to Singapore in 2008 as the global marketing manager for aviation.

In 2011, Haroon returned to Pakistan as the general manager supply and distribution for the Middle East South Asia Region. In 2016 he was appointed as general manager lubricants. Haroon has been on the boards of a number of leading industry associations and social cause organisations.

Established in 1860, OICCI is the largest chamber of commerce in Pakistan based on economic contribution in form of taxes and investment by its members.

Moreover, collectively the chamber consists of over 200 foreign investors in Pakistan, including over 50 Fortune 500 companies which contribute about onethird of the total tax collection in the country and a significant portion of the Gross Domestic Product.

Replace or convert Rs40,000 bonds by Dec 31: SBP KARACHI MEIRYUM ALI

The deadline for the replacement or conversion of Rs40,000 national prize bonds has been extended to December 31, according to a State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) circular. In Circular No. 4 of the SBP’s Currency Management Department, the SBP noted that the Finance Division had extended the last date for conversion, replacement or encashment of prize bonds till December 31, 2020, via Notification No. F.16(3)GS-I/2014-797, dated June 30. Therefore, commercial banks were also advised by the SBP to accept requests for conversion or redemption of Rs40,000 national prize bonds till that date. The SBP reiterated that cash payments against encashment of these bonds would not be allowed. Instead, bondholders have three options: they can convert the bond to premium prize bond, replace it with a Special Savings Certificate or Defence Savings Certificate, or encash at face value into a bank account. The head offices of commercial banks will need to solicit details of prize bonds physically held by each branch or regional office on December 31, and report a consolidated bank-wide position to the SBP-BSC by January 2, 2021. In February this year, the SBP had set a deadline for the conversion of bonds to March 31. The Rs40,000 bond is the highest graded prize bond out of a total of eight denominations, starting from Rs100 to Rs40,000, and was introduced in 2017. The government took the decision to stop issuing these bonds primarily to prevent the ‘whitening’ of ‘black’ money, and to stop tax-evasion.

MARKET DAILY

Stocks post modest gains amid volatile activity KARACHI STAFF REPORT

The Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) witnessed a volatile session on Thursday, as the KSE-100 Index failed to capitalise on gains accumulated in early trade and closed the day with nominal gains.

"The stock market headed north right from the word go, thanks to the rally in cement

and fertilizer stocks. However, both the sectors faced profit booking in the latter part of the session," said a report issued by Arif Habib Ltd. "The banking sector gained further as investors showed renewed interest after the release of the Consumer Price Index (CPI) data."

Gaining 287.98 points in early trade, the benchmark KSE-100 Index surged to its intraday high at 35,177.39. However, failing to maintain its flight, it settled higher by

88.77 points at 34,978.18.

Among other indices, the KMI-30 index lost 78.98 points to end at 56,482.67, whereas the KSE All Share Index gathered 88.19 points, settling at 25,047.63. Of the total shares traded, 190 advanced and 125 declined.

The overall market volumes inflated from 315.52 million shares in the previous session to 382.41 million shares. Average traded value also increased by 17pc, from

$63.9 million to $74.9 million. Worldcall Telecom (WTL +11.70pc), TRG Pakistan Limited (TRG +3.87pc) and Maple Leaf Cement Factory Limited (MLCF -0.36pc) led the volume chart, exchanging 52.67 million, 28.63 million and 21.13 million shares, respectively.

Sectors that brought positivity to the benchmark index included banking (+57.51 points), technology (+24.17 points) and food

& personal care products (+15.90 points).

Among the companies, Nestle Pakistan Limited (NESTLE +19.57 points), MCB Bank Limited (MCB +18.47 points) and United Bank Limited (UBL +18.10 points) remained the top contributors.

Adding 4.65pc to its cumulative market capitalization, the technology sector turned out to be the top gainer of the day, with Pakistan Telecommunication Company Ltd (PTC +8.96pc), TRG Pakistan (TRG +3.87pc), Hum Network (HUMNL +5.76pc) and Worldcall Telecom (WTL +11.70pc) posting decent gains.

friday, 3 July, 2020

10 foreign newS

Kremlin calls vote allowing Putin to rule until 2036 a ‘triumPh’ MOSCOW

t

AGENCIES

He Kremlin said Russians had shown how much they trusted President Vladimir Putin with a nationwide vote that gave him the right to run for two more terms while people wondered on Thursday whether he really would stay on until 2036.

Announcing final results of the weeklong vote, officials said nearly 78 per cent of voters had backed changes to the constitution allowing Putin, whose fourth term as president ends in 2024, to run for two more back-to-back six-year terms.

That means that the 67-year-old former KGB officer, who has ruled Russia for over two decades as either president or prime minister, could be in power until he is 83.

An independent monitoring group said the vote was deeply flawed but Dmitry Peskov, Putin’s spokesman, said the emphatic nature of the result was a measure of how deeply Russians trusted Putin to run the country.

“It’s definitely considered a triumph.

What took place was in effect a de facto tri-

umphant referendum on trust in Putin,” said Peskov. Putin thanked voters for their support and trust.

“We need stability and time to strengthen the country,” he said.

Golos, a non-governmental organisation that monitors elections, said it had

recorded numerous irregularities during the vote, including ballot stuffing and widespread cases of employers forcing staff to cast a ballot.

Already the longest-serving leader in modern Russian history since Josef Stalin, Putin has said he has yet to decide on his

political future but wanted officials to avoid getting distracted by the question of who one day might succeed him.

NO WORTHY SUCCESSOR? Public opinion on his intentions was divided on Thursday.

Some people said they were sure he would try to stay in the Kremlin for as long as he could while others predicted he would step down in 2024 but thought he wanted to keep his options open so as not to become a lame duck before then.

“He might still surprise us all,” said Abdulmadid Luluev, 51, head of a national environmental organisation for Chechnya in the southern Caucasus region, adding that Putin might refuse to run, depending on how the situation unfolds. evgeniy Somov, member of a patriotic organisation in the central Russian republic of Udmurtia, said Putin would not necessarily stay in power until 2036, describing the vote as a “safety net” in case no one emerges who could replace him.

“Running such a country is very difficult and apparently there is no worthy successor yet, or they are just not ready,” he said.

At least 126 killed as Myanmar jade mine collapse buries workers HPAKANT AGENCIES

A landslide at a jade mine in northern Myanmar killed at least 126 people, with more feared dead, authorities said on Thursday, after a heap of mining waste collapsed into a lake and buried many workers under mud and water.

The miners were collecting stones in the jade-rich Hpakant area of Kachin state – the centre of Myanmar’s secretive jade industry – when the “muddy wave” crashed onto them, after heavy rain, the fire service department said in a Facebook post.

By late afternoon rescue workers had recovered 126 bodies, the department said, but more were missing.

“Other bodies are in the mud,” Tar Lin Maung, a local official with the information ministry, told Reuters by phone. “The numbers are going to rise.”

Deadly landslides and other accidents are common in the poorly regulated mines of Hpakant, which draw impoverished workers from across Myanmar in search of gems mostly for export to China. But Thursday’s accident was the worst in over five years.

About 100 people were killed in a 2015 collapse which strengthened calls to regulate the industry. Another 50 died in 2019. Many of those killed are freelance “jade pickers” who scour tailings – the residue from mining – for gemstones overlooked by larger operators. One good piece of jade, worth tens of thousands of dollars, could transform their lives. Video footage on social media showed frantic miners racing uphill to escape as a towering pile of black waste cascaded into a turquoise lake, churning up a tsunami-like wave of mud.

Photos showed rows of dead bodies laid out on a hill, covered by tarpaulin.

In a statement posted online on Thursday evening, the armed forces commander-in-chief, Senior General Min Aung Hlaing, said military officers would continue the rescue efforts.

‘RUN, RUN’: Maung Khaing, a 38-year-old miner from the area who witnessed the accident, said he was about to take a picture of the precarious waste mound he felt looked set to collapse when people began shouting “run, run!”

“Within a minute, all the people at the bottom (of the hill) just disappeared,” he told Reuters by phone. “I feel empty in my heart. I still have goose bumps…There were people stuck in the mud shouting for help but no one could help them.” Than Hlaing, a member of a local civil society group helping in the aftermath of the disaster, said those killed were freelancers scavenging the waste left by a larger mining firm.

Slain journalist Khashoggi's fiancee hopes Turkish trial will reveal fresh evidence ISTANBUL AGENCIES

A Turkish court will open the trial on Friday of 20 Saudi officials indicted over the 2018 killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, a step his fiancee hopes will shed more light on the death and reveal where his body was hidden.

The indictment by Istanbul prosecutors accuses the former deputy head of Saudi Arabia’s general intelligence, Ahmed al-Asiri, and former royal court adviser Saud alQahtani of instigating “premeditated murder with monstrous intent”, the prosecutor’s office said in March.

It says 18 other defendants carried out the killing by suffocating Khashoggi, who had grown increasingly critical of Saudi Arabia’s de facto ruler Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. All 20 defendants are expected to be tried in absentia. The October 2018 attack at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul prompted widespread revulsion, damaged relations between Ankara and Riyadh, and tarnished the prince’s international image. Some Western governments, as well as the CIA, have said they believed he ordered the killing – an accusation Saudi officials denied.

Khashoggi was last seen entering the consulate seeking documents for his impending wedding. Turkish offi-

cials said his body was dismembered and removed from the building. His remains have not been found.

“I hope this criminal case in Turkey brings to light the whereabouts of Jamal’s body (and) the evidence against

CMYK

the killers,” his fiancee Hatice Cengiz, who was waiting for him outside the consulate on the day of his killing, told Reuters. Asked whether Saudi Arabia would cooperate with the Turkish legal proceedings, the kingdom’s United Nations ambassador said Riyadh asked Ankara to share evidence with Saudi investigators but received no response. “Turkey is not cooperating with Saudi Arabia,” Abdullah al Mouallimi told reporters.

In December a Saudi court sentenced five people to death and three to jail for Khashoggi’s killing after a largely secretive trial. Khashoggi’s family later said they forgave his murderers, paving the way for their formal reprieve. Cengiz said neither the trial nor the pardon followed due process. “No one can take the ‘trial’ that took place in Saudi Arabia legitimately; it was done in secret and the individuals sentenced are unnamed,” Cengiz said.

Turkey has accused Saudi officials of obstructing investigations, while Riyadh repeatedly said the Istanbul prosecutor has not complied with requests to share information.

Prince Mohammed has denied ordering the killing but said he bore ultimate responsibility as the kingdom’s de facto leader. Saudi Arabia initially denied any involvement in or knowledge of Khashoggi’s death but later changed its position several times.

Palestinian rivals Fatah, hamas pledge unity against israeli annexations RAMALLAH AGENCIES

Rival Palestinian factions Fatah and Hamas pledged a united campaign against Israel's prospective plans to annex territory in the occupied West Bank, in a rare joint press conference on Thursday. "We will put in place all necessary measures to ensure national unity" in efforts against annexation, senior Fatah official Jibril Rajub said in Ramallah at the news conference, also addressed by Hamas official Saleh al-Arouri by video-link from Beirut.

"Today, we want to speak in a single voice," Rajub said. Fatah, which controls the Ramallah-based Palestinian Authority, and Hamas that runs the Gaza Strip have been plagued by divisions for more than a decade. The joint press conference was spurred by their common opposition to US President Donald Trump's Middle east plan. The plan paves the way for Israel to annex roughly 30 percent of the occupied West Bank, including Jewish settlements in the territory considered illegal under international law.

24 shot to death in attack on drug rehab centre in mexico MEXICO CITY AGENCIES

Gunmen burst into an unregistered drug rehabilitation center in central Mexico and opened fire Wednesday, killing 24 people and wounding seven, authorities said. Police in the north-central state of Guanajuato said the attack occurred in the city of Irapuato. Three of the seven wounded were reported in serious condition. Apparently the attackers shot everyone at the rehab center. State police said nobody was abducted.

Photos purporting to show the scene suggest those at the center were lying down when they were sprayed with bullets. Guanajuato is the scene of a bloody turf battle between the Jalisco cartel and a local gang, and the state has become the most violent in Mexico. No motive was given in the attack, but Gov. Diego Sinhue Rodríguez Vallejo said drug gangs appeared to have been involved. “I deeply regret and condemn the events in Irapuato this afternoon,” the governor wrote. “The violence generated by organized crime not only takes the lives of the young, but it takes peace from families in Guanajuato.” Mexican drug gangs have killed suspected street-level dealers from rival gangs sheltering at such facilities in the past. It was one of the deadliest attacks on a rehab center since 19 people were killed in 2010 in Chihuahua city in northern Mexico. More than a dozen attacks on such facilities have occurred since then. Mexico has long had problems with rehab centers because most are privately run, underfunded and often commit abuses against recovering addicts.

uK to ditch travel quarantine for 75 countries LONDON AGENCIES

The British government will effectively ditch its air bridge plans and simply end the coronavirus quarantine rules for those arriving from 75 countries so that people can go on holiday, the Daily Telegraph reported. The newspaper said the UK would shortly lift a ban on non-essential travel to nearly all eU destinations, the British territories including Bermuda and Gibraltar, and Turkey, Thailand, Australia and New Zealand. A spokesman for the transport ministry declined immediate comment. Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s government has been grappling with how to open up international travel after it imposed a 2-week quarantine for arrivals, which has added to the woes of the shuttered tourism and travel industry. Britain said on Friday that it would ditch a 14-day quarantine period for people arriving from countries such as France, Greece and Spain. Simon Clarke, a junior housing, communities and local government minister, said the government was working on an announcement on travel. “We will provide this announcement as soon as it is safe,” Clarke told Sky. “We will be talking further about this week.” “Clearly we want to get the tourism sector back on its feet as quickly as we can and I’m sure that we will be able to give good news in the near future,” he said.

Friday, 3 July, 2020

EERiE AtMosphERE foR EARLy ARRiVALs At BELAtED foRMuLA onE opEnER SPIELBERG

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AGENCIES

ARLY arrivals at the Red Bull Ring on Thursday faced an eerie and unprecedented scenario as they donned protective masks and went in search of their workplaces.

Signs at the entrance made clear safety face gear is compulsory for all entering the paddock for this weekend’s belated season-opening Austrian Grand Prix.

Inside, there was none of the onceusual hubbub of gossip as team members and journalists obeyed social distancing protocol and remained in defined ‘bubbles’ in the sunshine of the Styrian Alps.

Outside, there were no fans gathering in hillside campsites. Instead the fields were filled with grazing cattle.

Tents and canopies replaced the usual high-rise team motor homes as the F1 circus came together for the first time in seven months following the COVID-19 pandemic. The teams arrived at nearby Zeltweg on private charter flights before being transferred to hotels from which they are shuttled to the circuit.

Under a strict protocol, the teams are not allowed to meet and mix and within each team ‘mini-bubbles’ of staff function separately to minimise the risk of contact.

The news media contingent, amounting in the past to more than 300 people, is

severely pruned with only around 20 journalists confined to the media centre - all reliant on video interviews without any direct contact with drivers or teams.

Everyone had passed a coronavirus swab test before travelling.

“It is more like a private test than the start of a season,” said Jonathan Noble of Autosport. “There’s not much security outside the venue, but pleas for fans to stay away seem to have worked.” On arrival, all went through temperature tests and a handwash before a final identity check.

Inside, the media centre operates a one-way system and uses a sealed room for controlled news conferences.

“Media scrums and live questions are

out,” said Noble. “Everything is being done remotely.... Media have to pre-submit questions to be asked by the host. Zero risk is being taken in terms of mixing the social bubbles.” Reporting on the Autosport website, he added secret chats with team people were out, too. “WhatsApp will be the place for that!”

Even UK rights-holders Sky were operating under restrictions with Sky Sports News reporter Craig Slater back in London, instead of at the track, hosting reports with Sky Sports’ Ted Kravitz.

This weekend’s race is the first of two on successive weekends in Austria, followed by the Hungarian Grand Prix a week later as F1 holds nine races in 11 weeks.

SPORTS 11

Danish Cup final interrupted as fans refuse to keep distance COPENHAGEN AGENCIES

The Danish Cup final was interrupted for almost a quarter of an hour because fans refused to comply with the social distancing rules inside the stadium, police said. The two finalists, Aalborg (AaB) and SonderjyskE, were each allocated 750 tickets for the match in Esbjerg on Wednesday evening. During the first half, “the referee had to suspend the match for up to 15 minutes, when the AaB fans refused to stay in the designated seats and huddled together in violation of the Covid rules,” Sydjylland police said on Twitter.

Pictures show members of the Aalborg staff unsuccessfully encouraging their supporters to return to their designated seats. Between 40 and 50 of the fans were expelled from the ground and put on a bus and sent back to Aalborg with a police escort.The match resumed after 14 minutes and ended in a 2-0 victory for SonderjyskE, who won the competition for the first time.

Juventus’ ‘top quality’ Mavididi joins Montpellier MONTPELLIER AGENCIES

Montpellier announced on Thursday they had signed English striker Stephy Mavididi from Juventus for a reported 6.3 million euros ($7.12million). Arsenal youth product Mavididi, 22, has signed a four-year deal with the French club after scoring eight goals in 28 games on loan at Ligue 1 side Dijon last season. Mavididi will join Michel Der Zakarian’s attack which includes Africa Cup of Nations winner Andy Delort and Gaetan Laborde who were on the scoresheet 19 times across all competitions last season. “It’s a satisfaction to recruit of a top quality supplementary forward as the coach wanted. I hope our crack pair of forwards will become a good trio,” president Laurent Nicollin said.

The former England youth international will fill the gap left by veteran former Senegal forward Souleymane Camara who retired earlier this year. Montpellier finished eighth in the Ligue 1 table after the campaign was declared over due to the coronavirus pandemic and are also seeking to sign a goalkeeper to replace Geronimo Rulli who has returned to Real Sociedad after a loan spell at Stade de la Mosson.

Worcestershire: Pakistani players practice for the upcoming series against England. INP

Arsenal still in chase for Champions League spot, says Bellerin LONDON AGENCIES

Hector Bellerin says Arsenal remain in the hunt for Champions League qualification after recovering from a slow restart following the coronavirus shutdown. The Gunners lost their opening two matches as the Premier League returned following the three-month hiatus. But a resounding 4-0 win over Norwich on Wednesday, including two goals from PierreEmerick Aubameyang, followed victory against Southampton last week. With Chelsea and Leicester losing on the same night and 10 points separating third-placed Leicester and Burnley in ninth, Bellerin believes Arsenal can still secure a return to the Champions League.

Arsenal are seventh, eight points off Chelsea, who occupy the fourth and final Champions League spot. “For us that has been the goal since the beginning of the season,” said the right-back. “And obviously coming back from lockdown that has always been our goal. “It wasn’t the best of starts to our Premier League return, but we have been working really hard through the whole of quarantine — not just physically but tactically as well.” If Arsenal are to achieve their ambition then the goals of Aubameyang will be a big factor. His first effort was his 50th Premier League goal in just his 79th appearance in the competition. “I think the stats speak for themselves,” Bellerin said. “It is very hard nowadays to get a striker that can score that many goals in that many games. We are very happy to have him.”

Valencia hit by Rodrigo injury

Novak Djokovic, his wife test negative for coronavirus BELGRADE AGENCIES

Novak Djokovic and his wife Jelena, who last week both tested positive for coronavirus following his exhibition tournament in the Balkans, have now tested negative, his press service said Thursday.

Neither the 33-year-old player or his partner felt any symptoms, the statement said. The couple had been self isolating since returning to Belgrade from

Zadar in Croatia, the town which hosted the second leg of Djokovic’s ill-fated Adria Tour.

Four players — Djokovic, Grigor Dimitrov, Borna Coric and Viktor Troicki — tested positive for the virus after the event which saw little social distancing and packed stands. The world number one’s coach Goran Ivanisevic also contracted COVID-19.

Players had embraced across the net, played basketball and even danced in a nightclub during the week of the first leg

played in Belgrade. Djokovic was widely criticised for hosting the tournament. The Serbian star issued an apology, saying he was “so deeply sorry” that the tournament “caused harm”.

On Wednesday, the player donated more than 40,000 euros ($45,000) to Serbian town Novi Pazar which has been badly affected by the pandemic.

Serbia, with a population of about seven million people, has registered nearly 15,000 coronavirus infections and 281 deaths.

MADRID AGENCIES

Valencia striker Rodrigo Moreno is expected to miss the rest of the season after the club confirmed on Thursday he had sustained a knee injury. Rodrigo felt pain in his right knee towards the end of the loss to Athletic Bilbao on Wednesday. “Valencia player Rodrigo Moreno suffered a partial tear to the lateral collateral ligament of his right knee during yesterday’s game against Athletic Club,” a club statement said. “His recovery will be assessed in the coming weeks.”

Rodrigo has scored 10 goals in 38 games this season and is one Valencia’s most important players. His injury is another massive blow to the club, who sacked manager Albert Celades this week after falling out of the running for La Liga’s top four. Valencia sit 10th, with five games left.

World Rally Championship to resume in Estonia in September PARIS AGENCIES

The World Rally Championship (WRC), interrupted in March by the coronavirus pandemic, will resume in Estonia in September, the organisers and the International Automobile Federation (FIA) announced on Thursday.

“Today’s restart announcement sends a clear signal that the 2020 WRC is back in business,” said Oliver Cielsa, WRC Promoter’s managing director, on the organisation’s website.

The championship will comprise at least eight rounds, including the three (Monte Carlo, Sweden and Mexico) raced

before the COVID-19 outbreak.

The Estonia Rally will run September 4-6 and will be the first in the country.

It will be followed by a race in Turkey (24-27 September) which like Germany (15-18 October) and Japan (19-22 November) will run on its original dates.

The Italian Rally on Sardinia, which should have taken place the beginning of June, has been rescheduled for October 29 to November 1.

“Preparations for these rounds are now in full swing while paying the greatest attention to key planning recommendations for mass gatherings in the current COVID19 context,” said FIA rally director Yves Matton.

CMYK

The WRC said it was in discussions for two additional races: an Ypres Rally in Belgium on October 2-4 and a race in Croatia on an undecided date.

The WRC also announced the Argentine rally, originally postponed in March, had been cancelled, joining Portugal, Kenya, Finland, New Zealand and Wales as legs which were on the original 2020 calendar but will not be run.

Estonia, home of reigning world champion Ott Tanak hosted a promotional event in 2019. But for its WRC debut, the event, held around Tartu in the east of the country, will be shortened, with only two stages on Saturday and Sunday.

Frenchman Sebastien Ogier leads the

drivers’ standings and his Toyota team leads the manufacturers’ standings.

Revised 2020 calendar: January 23-26: Monte Carlo (Winner: Thierry Neuville) February 13-16: Sweden (Winner: Elfyn Evans) March 12-15: Mexico (Winner: Sebastien Ogier) September 4-6: Estonia September 24-27: Turkey *October 2-4: The Ypres Rally in Belgium, to be confirmed October 15-18: Germany October 29- November 1: Italy November 19-22: Japan TBC: Croatia

Friday, 3 July, 2020

NEWS

Held KAsHMIR sees 229 cIvIlIAn KIllInGs In FIRsT HAlF oF 2020: RepoRT SRINAGAR

I

AGENCIES

NDIAN occupied Kashmir has seen at least 229 killings during more than 100 military operations since January, a rights group said on Wednesday.

The Jammu and Kashmir Coalition of Civil Society (JKCCS), which operates in the region, said in its bi-annual report that from January 1 to June 30, the region witnessed the extrajudicial executions of at least 32 civilians and the killing of 54 armed forces personnel.

It also saw 55 internet shutdowns and the destruction of 48 structures, it said.

The report said three children and two women were also killed, while at least “107 cordon-and-search operations and cordonand-destroy operations were conducted in the region”.

In addition, during search operations and encounters, “vandalism and destruction of civilian properties were reported”.

MEDIA MUZZLED: The report said that in the first six months of 2020, the media continued to be at the receiving end of pressure, intimidation

and harassment by authorities, with several incidents involving the beating of journalists.

“Besides physical assaults, a few Kashmir-based journalists were also booked under stringent charges and cases were filed against them,” it said.

The report noted that the police filed cases against two Kashmiri journalists under the Unlawful Activities Act, which clearly infringes on the right to freedom of expression and freedom of the press as “such tactics signal a forewarning for media personnel

to adhere to the state narrative”.

It also said that high-speed mobile internet services have remained banned since August 5, 2019, noting that in the last six months, there were 55 instances of internet blockades.

DEMOGRAPHIC FLOODING: The report said India is paving the way for demographic change in occupied Kashmir on a large scale, thus institutionalising a system of domination over indigenous populations.

“The order is a clear violation of the 4th Geneva Convention,” it noted.

The report cited observers as warning that the new domicile law could permanently alter the demography of the disputed region.

It also touched on the recently introduced new media policy wherein the government will examine the content of the media.

According to the policy, the government will decide what is “fake,” “unethical” or “anti-national” news and take legal action against the journalist or media organisation concerned, including sharing information with security agencies.

PANDEMIC AND HUMAN RIGHTS: The JKCCS’s report said that after the first case of the novel coronavirus was declared

in the region in March, the local government clamped down with restrictions and curfews, even when people had already been locked up since August 2019.

It said roads were barricaded while surveillance tools were used to track down people. “Until April 16, around 2,303 people were also arrested in the region for defying lockdown orders while many shops were sealed and vehicles seized in the region,” it said. The report also said that 345 prisoners were released amid the pandemic, but many prisoners are still being held in Indian jails, giving the example of J&K High Court Bar Association President Mian Abdul Qayoom, who has been detained since August 5, 2019.

It said during the Covid-19 crisis, many doctors in the region have been harassed and beaten by government forces while performing their duties.

Anadolu Agency attempted to contact government adviser Farooq Khan on the issues covered in the report but received no response despite repeated calls.

It also contacted government spokesman Rohit Kansal, who is yet to respond to a texted query.

India can't wash away truth about callousness, inhumanity of occupation forces: FO ISLAMABAD STAFF REPORT

Fascist Indian govt killing innocent civilians in held Kashmir: Alvi ISLAMABAD STAFF RPORT

President Dr. Arif Alvi on Thursday urged the world community to hear the lament of the three-year-old boy sitting over the dead body of his grandfather who was killed by Indian forces in occupied Jammu and Kashmir. He was referring to the merciless killing of an elderly Kashmiri, Bashir Ahmed Khan, by Indian forces in Sopore district during a gun battle with freedom fighters. “Modi’s fascist India kills innocent civilians even for raising slogans for liberation of Kashmir. The lament of this 3 yr old boy sitting on the chest of his killed grandfather must be heard by the world,” the president tweeted. The president also shared a video clip of Khan’s daughter crying and narrating how her father was pulled out of the vehicle only for raising pro-freedom slogans.

Time for human rights watchdogs to shun silence on Kashmir: FM ISLAMABAD APP

Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi on Thursday said oppression and barbarism in the Indian Occupied Kashmir (IOK) had crossed all limits and called upon the international community and human rights watchdogs to take notice of the worsening situation in the valley. The foreign minister mentioned Wednesday’s incident of killing a man in front of his three-year-old grandson in the occupied Kashmir, saying the painful event was an eye-opener for the world. “How long the human rights organisations will remain silent on the persistent subjugation and cruelty in the occupied valley,” he raised a question Qureshi said he had updated the European Union (EU) over the brutal incident that was clearly an extrajudicial killing of a civilian. He vowed to continue raising the issue of human rights abuses in IOK at all international fronts. He pointed out that Kashmir faced the communication and Internet blackout as India wanted to conceal the ongoing situation. “It is the moral duty of the champions of human rights to raise voice for the rights of Kashmiris,” he said.

Foreign Office (FO) Spokesperson Aisha Farooqui on Thursday said India could not wash away the truth by fake news after the images flashed across the world depicting callousness and inhumanity of the occupation forces.

“The heart-wrenching picture of the three-year-old boy in Sopore will forever remain seared in the imagination of all those who believe in humanity, human rights and fundamental freedom,” she said in her opening statement at a weekly press briefing here at the FO. A 64-year-old civilian was shot dead in front of his toddler grandson by security forces in Indian Occupied Kashmir (IOK), leaving a big question mark on the human rights situation in the valley.

Aisha said that as occupied Kashmir braced the 332nd day of continued brutalization, the sufferings of innocent people could not remain hidden from the world. “India cannot wash away the truth by fake news and turning its propaganda machinery faster,” she said.

On the Line of Control (LoC), she mentioned that 1,546 ceasefire violations took place in the first six months of this year, resulting in 14 martyred and 114 seriously injured.

The FO spokesperson said that Pakistan categorically rejected the grant of domicile certificates in occupied Kashmir by the Indian authorities to reportedly 25,000 Indian nationals.

“The certificates issued to nonKashmiris including, among others, the Indian government officials under ‘Jammu and Kashmir Grant of Domicile Certificate (Procedure), 2020’ are illegal, void and in complete violation of the relevant United Nations Security Council Resolutions, and International law including the 4th Geneva Convention,” she added.

Aisha said that Pakistan remained ready to engage in endeavours to facilitate closer Pakistan-Afghanistan economic partnership and regional connectivity projects.

About meeting between Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi and United States Special Representative for Afghanistan Reconciliation Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad, she said Pakistan’s commitment to continue working with regional and international partners to support efforts for a peaceful, stable and prosperous Afghanistan was highlighted.

She said that the Foreign Minister

highlighted Pakistan’s positive contribution to the US-Taliban direct talks culminating in the Peace Agreement of February 29 and stressed that the Afghan leaders should seize this historic opportunity and work together to ensure a comprehensive and inclusive political settlement.

She also said that Pakistan had been consistently sensitizing the international community about the Indian leadership’s threatening statements to use terrorism as a tool to destabilise Pakistan. Pakistan has already shared with the international community, incriminating evidence about the Indian Intelligence Agency RAW’s involvement in terrorist activities, she added.

On repatriation of stranded Pakistanis abroad in the wake of coronavirus pandemic, the FO spokesperson said embassies and consulates were working round the clock in accordance with a comprehensive repatriation plan.

She said that 257 Pakistanis in past few days were repatriated from Malaysia, Cambodia, Singapore and Brunei, 9,504 from Dubai and Northern Emirates, 1,430 from Jeddah, 25 from Dushanbe and 96 from Kazakhstan. So far, 113,154 Pakistani nationals have been repatriated from different parts of the world, she added.

SBP reserves surge $1.27 billion to $11.23billion KARACHI

KARACHI

MEIRYUM ALI

The net foreign exchange reserves held by the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) increased by $1.27 billion to $11.23 billion during the week ending July 2, 2020, according to data released by the central bank on Thursday.

Net foreign reserves held by commercial banks decreased very slightly, from $6.76 billion to $6.74 billion.

The total liquid foreign reserves held by the country rose from $16.73 billion in the week ending June 19 to $17.97 billion during the week under review.

This sharp increase has come on the back of $2.05 billion worth of official inflows received by the SBP during the period under review. This included $737 million from the World Bank, $503 million from Asian Development Bank, $500 million from the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank and $300 million as GOP loan disbursement from China.

The current SBP reserves figure has

Gold soars to record high of Rs105,200 per tola ARIBA SHAHID

been calculated after taking into account government external debt payments of $809 million. During the ongoing week, the SBP has received an additional $1 billion as GOP loan disbursement from China. These funds will be part of SBP weekly reserves data as of July 3, and will be released on July 9.

These funds are critical for the SBP, as they act as an important buffer. Analysts

had previously said that the surprise decision to cut the interest rate by 100 basis points to 7pc on June 25 took into account the incoming inflows, among other factors.

The logic is that the SBP waited in order to make sure it had some reserves before cutting the interest rate again. That way, the extra reserves could act as a buffer to offset any outflows due to the reduced policy rate.

Published by Arif Nizami at Plot # 7, Al-Baber Centre, F/8 Markaz, Islamabad. Ph: 051-2204545. Email: newsroom@pakistantoday.com.pk

Gold prices in the country increased by Rs700 per tola to reach an all time high of Rs105,200 per tola on Thursday. The price of 10-gram gold increased by Rs600 to reach Rs90,192. In the international market, gold prices rose by $12 per ounce to $1,782. Earlier, on June 24, the price of gold had increased to Rs105,100 per tola which was the highest recorded price of gold in the domestic market till then. According to sources, despite the low purchasing power in the country domestic gold prices have soared owing to a rally in international gold prices and speculation of a further increase in gold prices.