Epaper – May 15 LHR 2020

CMYK

Friday, 15 May, 2020 I 21 Ramzan-ul-Mubarak, 1441 I Rs 15.00 I Vol X No 317 I 12 Pages I Lahore Edition

Pakistan’s defiCit and Poverty rate to soar due to Coronavirus g

Poverty headcount likely to rise from 24.3pc to a base case of 29pc, and a worstcase scenario of 33.5pc

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At least 3m people will lose their jobs – 1m in industrial sector and 2m in services

ISLAMABAD AGENCIES

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AKISTAN’S fiscal deficit will be significantly worse than projected this fiscal year, with the fallout from the novel coronavirus pandemic pushing millions into unemployment and poverty, according to government estimates reviewed by Reuters.

Pakistan began a phased lifting of its countrywide lockdown last week despite a rising rate of cases – a move pushed primarily by fears of an economic meltdown. The country has reported 35,788 Covid-19 cases and 770 deaths.

Due to “a shortfall in revenues; re-prioritising of expenditures and increase in public spending,” the post-pandemic fiscal deficit could reach as high as 9.4pc against an earlier projection of 7.4pc, one of the finance ministry documents seen

by Reuters said.

Two government officials told Reuters on condition of anonymity that in recent meetings on the financial situation there were fears the deficit could even hit double digits.

That is higher than the previous upper estimate of 9pc predicted by Pakistan’s finance chief Abdul Hafeez Shaikh in a May 9 interview with Reuters.

The impact on workers and poorer people is also stark, with estimates that the poverty headcount will rise from 24.3pc to a base case of 29pc, and a worst-case scenario of 33.5pc, the documents said.

At least three million people will lose their jobs - one million in the industrial sector and two million in services.

The documents noted that Pakistan Institute of Development Economics, an autonomous research organisation set up by the government, has projected job losses could reach 18 million.

Tax collection dropped sharply by 16.4pc in April, the internal estimates showed. They also stated that exports are likely to fall by $2.8 billion to $3.8 billion, with a negative impact on remittances from the Middle East, USA and Europe, which are likely to remain around $2021bn against $21.8bn in 2019.

However, a slump in imports will cut Pakistan’s current account deficit to $4.5 billion in the fiscal year, from $13.8 billion in 2019. The estimates say the economy will contract 1.5pc for financial year 2020 against a rise of 3.29pc in 2019.

Pakistan has already rolled out a 1.24 trillion Pakistani rupee ($7.71 billion) stimulus to support the economy and cash handouts to the poor.

Moody’s on Thursday placed Pakistan’s local and foreign currency longterm issuer B3 ratings under review for downgrade, citing a potential default on private sector debt.

EXTERNAL HELP: Officials say Pakistan is

Coronavirus in

Pakistan

36,717

RECOVERED:

DEATHS:

SINDH:

PUNJAB:

9,695 14,099 KP:

5,423 AJK/GB:

91/482

788

13,561 BALOCHISTAN:

2,239

ISLAMABAD:

822

CONTINUED ON PAGE 03

Hafeez Shaikh expects 2pc GDP growth in next fiscal year STORY ON PAGE 09

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Sindh CM writes to PM Imran, says inclusion of finance adviser in commission is unconstitutional KARACHI STAFF REPORT

The Sindh government on Thursday rejected the recently-constituted 10th National Finance Commission (NFC), terming its formation unconstitutional.

In a letter addressed to Prime Minister Imran Khan, Sindh Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah expressed his government’s reservations over the formation of the 10th NFC, aimed at announcing a new award for sharing of federal divisible resources between the Centre and provinces.

The Sindh chief minister stated that the appointment of certain members of the commission was in contravention of the constitution, adding that the prime minister’s adviser on finance and revenue could not head the commission. “Only the finance minister is authorised to lead the commission,” he stated.

Shah added that though it is the prerogative of the president to constitute the NFC, he has to appoint the provincial representatives after consulting the respective governors and chief ministers. He also said that since the Centre would bear the expenses of the Kashmir and GilgitBaltistan areas, it should increase the financial share of these areas.

The NFC Award was notified on May 13. As there was a constitutional issue in presiding over the NFC meeting by the adviser on finance in the absence of the finance minister, the president, through a notification, allowed Hafeez Shaikh to preside over the commission’s functions.

As per the composition of the NFC, the finance minister would be the chairman while the provincial finance ministers will be members of the commission. Other members (experts) include PM’s finance adviser, Tariq Bajwa from the Punjab govern-

Govt and Opp remain at odds over Covid-19 measures g

CONFIRMED CASES:

confident of getting at least $5.4 billion in external financial help, including $1.386 billion already received from the IMF as rapid financing to mitigate the corona losses, and a debt rescheduling of $1.8 billion from G20 countries.

That is aside from money expected from the IMF’s three-year $6 billion support programme the country entered last year, according to two officials familiar with the situation.

Sindh govt rejects ‘unconstitutional’ NFC

PM Imran misses Senate session yet again as Opp continues criticism of govt’s anti-coronavirus measures

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ISLAMABAD STAFF REPORT

The government and opposition continued with their blame game on Thursday as the Senate continued the debate on the Covid-19 outbreak in the country.

Prime Minister Imran Khan, who skipped the earlier sessions of both the Houses, was absent from Thursday’s session as well.

Addressing the House, Federal Minister for Information and Broadcasting Shibli Faraz said the government has always taken all provinces on board while taking decisions. Responding to former prime minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi’s criticism of the government, Faraz asked the opposition to appraise the government regarding their “parallel strategy”.

“Does the opposition have their own strategy?” the minister asked. “Do they want a curfew to be imposed? Why did they not participate in the session when they called it?”

Faraz told the opposition to answer the questions rather than claiming to be a “political victim”.

The information minister also said the federal government had provided every province with personal protective equipment (PPE) to tackle the

Senate passes unanimous resolution condemning ‘baseless propaganda’ against China over Covid-19 outbreak

virus and added that the federal government wants to facilitate daily wagers affected by the pandemic on a top priority.

“Prime Minister Imran Khan had announced a relief package for the daily wagers despite the country having limited resources,” he said.

Regretting the absence of Prime Minister Imran Khan from the session, Pakistan Muslim LeagueNawaz (PML-N) Senator Mushahid Ullah Khan said that it was “very unfortunate” that the premier “did not fulfill his responsibilities” during the health crisis.

The PML-N, which is critical of Prime Minister Imran’s Covid-19 approach, has time and again accused the government of rejecting opposition’s help in dealing with the crisis.

Senator Mushahid recalled that his party’s president Shehbaz Sharif and Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) Chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari had offered the government help in dealing with the crisis.

“Ask Shehbaz, ask Bilawal, ask Sirajul Haq. They are ready to help,” he said, adding: “Even [JUI-F chief] Fazlur Rehman said that 40,000 volunteers from his party were ready to help with coronavirus relief efforts […] but the government rejected the offer.”

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CONTINUED ON PAGE 03

ment, Dr Asad Sayeed from Sindh government, Musharraf Rasool Cyan from KP government and Javed Jabbar from Balochistan government.

Under the existing NFC arrangements, the Federal Divisible Pool (FDP) is distributed under the ratio of 57.5 per cent to 42.5 per cent among the provinces and the federal government, respectively.

The NFC Award is a constitutional obligation, which is clearly mentioned in Article 160 of the 1973 Constitution. The constitution has made it mandatory for the government to compose the NFC Award at an interval extending not more than five years for the distribution of finances between the Centre and the provinces.

According to Article 160 of the Constitution, after every five years, the president will constitute the NFC for a period of five years.

It is worth mentioning here that soon after becoming the finance minister, Asad Umar had directed the finance secretary to initiate the new NFC Award. Later, President Dr Arif Alvi had reconstituted the 9th NFC in January 2019, and the thenfinance minister Umar had started negotiations with the provinces.

However, after his resignation as the finance minister, the process of the consultation had come to a halt as the newly-appointed adviser on finance could not chair the NFC meetings due to legal reasons.Moreover, the new NFC Award also asked the province to pay for defence and other expenditures. They included the assessment and allocation of resources to meet expenditures made on security and natural disasters and calamities.

As the provinces objected to additional share for the heads of security and national disaster institutions in the past, it is likely that they will object to this as well.

fiqah-e-hanfia lahore sehr: 3:33 aM iftar: 6:55 PM

karachi sehr: 4:23 aM iftar: 7:10 PM

islaMabad sehr: 3:30 aM iftar: 7:03 PM fiqah-e-jafaria

lahore sehr: 3:22 aM iftar: 7:04 PM

islaMabad sehr: 3:21 aM iftar: 7:12 PM

karachi sehr: 4:13 aM iftar: 7:20 PM

more inside

Tareen urges govt to increase revenue to fix NFC hiccups STORY ON PAGE 03

Moody’s says Pakistan’s B3 rating under review for downgrade STORY ON PAGE 09

PM, world leaders demand free Covid19 vaccine for all STORY ON BACK PAGE

Covid to shrink world economy by 3.2pc STORY ON BACK PAGE

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Friday, 15 May, 2020

NEWS

StudentS of 9tH, 11tH ClaSSeS promoted to next GradeS ISLAMABAD

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APP

EDERAL Minister for Education Shafqat Mahmood has said that all decisions relating to the education sector under COVID-19 situation, particularly the promotion of students to the next grades, have been made with the consensus of all boards.

Talking to media persons here on Thursday, Shafqat Mahmood said the students who had not given exams of 9th and 11th classes have been promoted to the next classes.

They include regular as well as private

disgruntled ptI stalwart discusses Karachi issues with pm Imran ISLAMABAD: Najeeb Haroon, the disgruntled lawmaker of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), called on Prime Minister Imran Khan to discuss issues faced by the citizens of Karachi and the measures needed to resolve them, a local news outlet reported on Thursday.

The PTI founding member had resigned from his position as an MNA on April 18 to protest the lack of funds provided to him for development in his constituency. While announcing his decision on Twitter, he had said that he wanted to do something for the city but since he had not been able to improve his constituency or his hometown, he could no longer stay in his position. Soon after his announcement, reports emerged that the premier had telephoned Sindh Governor Imran Ismail and had directed him to approach Haroon to persuade him to withdraw his resignation.

Imran had reportedly told Ismail that Haroon was the founding member of his party and his grievances should be addressed. Reportedly, Thursday’s meeting came after the premier summoned the PTI stalwart to redress his grievances. During the meeting, Haroon told PM Imran that Karachi deserves special attention as it awarded an extraordinary mandate to the party in the 2018 general election. STAFF REPORT

IHC seeks fIa record in judge video leak case ISLAMABAD: The Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Thursday directed the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) to submit the entire record of the inquiry into the judge Arshad Malik video scandal. A two-member bench headed by IHC Chief Justice Athar Minallah and also comprising Justice Aamer Farooq was hearing the plea of the accused the case, Mian Tariq Mehmood, who sought bail on medical grounds. The IHC chief justice asked the investigation officer of the case as to what constitutes a crime from the FIA’s perspective and whether or not a judge could adopt the stance that he was drugged before being filmed. The head of the FIA investigation team told the court that that the video, in which the judge could be seen in a compromising position, was filmed between 2001 and 2003 and a forensic examination had proved that it was genuine. “How did the judge realise after so many years that he was drugged and filmed?” Justice Minallah inquired. He added that the judge had admitted himself that the video was genuine and confessed to his misconduct. The court raised questions over the performance of the FIA team and sought the investigation record of the case. STAFF REPORT

students. They will not need to give a composite exam next year; rather they will give one-year exam. The marks of their previous class will be awarded based on their performance in the next class.

He said only those students will be promoted whose performance in previous exams will be satisfactory. He said a three percent increase has been made in previous results of those students based on statistical formulas. He said a student who fails in 40 percent of subjects will be given passing marks. Shafqat Mahmood said special exams will be conducted for the students who were trying to improve the results of their class 11th. The same will be applicable

SHC SayS SCHoolS Can’t expel StudentS over non-payment of feeS KARACHI: The Sindh High Court (SHC) said on Thursday that schools could not fire students over non-payment of fees during the coronavirus lockdown. The Sindh government had made it mandatory for private schools to reduce their fees, but the court had suspended the government’s notification. At this, parents grew concerned that their children might be expelled from school, if they failed to pay the dues. The provincial government again approached the court and requested clarification on the matter. The court then said that school management could not expel students who were unable to pay their dues to the lockdown. Sindh has been under a lockdown since the last week of March due to the coronavirus pandemic. The restrictions have rendered hundreds of thousands of people without any means of income. The virus has claimed 200 lives in the province, with the number of known cases exceeding 12,000. STAFF REPORT

for students giving composite exams, or students preparing for some subjects. He said the result will be calculated on a cumulative basis and not subject-wise.

The minister said the students desirous to participate in special exams should indicate to their respective boards by the 1st of

pm’s aide razak dawood records statement in sugar probe

Firdous was never eligible for Information Ministry, says Fawad NEWS DESK Federal Minister for Science and Technology Fawad Chaudhry on Thursday said that former special assistant to prime minister on information and broadcasting Dr Firdous Ashiq Awan was “never eligible for the Information Ministry” and “should have been removed earlier”.

On April 27, Prime Minister Imran Khan appointed Senator Shibli Faraz as the new information minister and Lieutenant General (r) Asim Saleem Bajwa as his special assistant on information and broadcasting.

The latter was appointed in place of Dr Firdous Ashiq Awan, who was de-notified as the SAPM with immediate effect. During an interview, Fawad, who previously served as the information minister until he was replaced by Firdous, said that managing the Information Ministry is not an easy task and the way the former SAPM managed it caused damage to the Prime Minister’s Office and the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI). The minister also said that Firdous was only assigned to the position after lobbying for the role. Regarding Lieutenant General (r) Bajwa’s appointment, Fawad said that he would be of great help to the newly-appointed information minister as “he understands how the media functions”.

On May 2, Firdous broke her si-

July this year. The examination could be held anywhere between September to November this year.

Replying to a question, he said over two hundred universities exist in Pakistan that are largely independent in decision making in their matters.

ISLAMABAD STAFF REPORT

lence over her dismissal from the post and not only denied the allegations of corruption and misuse of power against her, but she also blamed “multiple pseudo-information ministers” for her ouster.

While speaking to a local news outlet, the former SAPM said that during her tenure, there were multiple pseudo-information ministers who may have hindered her progress at a few instances or confused the narrative she wanted to present as a government representative. She added that she was sure that PM Imran would not want a handicapped minister working in his cabinet. The premier would also not like bureaucracy

and politicians trading blows or leveraging blames, she further said.

The former SAPM said that during her tenure, she was concerned about stories being leaked to the media instead of going through official channels. She said that she gave the office her best but “there was infighting in the ministry for the past three months as some people appointed to the office were not required”. “PM Imran took a decision about Fawad Chaudhry after eight months and I too was sidelined after a year,” she added. Firdous said that to her knowledge, the premier was satisfied with her performance but wanted someone else to take charge.

ISLAMABAD Former prime minister and Pakistan Muslim LeagueNawaz (PML-N) senior leader Shahid Khaqan Abbasi on Thursday said the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) summoned him as a reaction to his speech in which he had criticised the government’s “ineffective strategies” regarding coronavirus in the country.

“I have been a guest of NAB for 77 days, [but] today for the first time the anti-corruption watchdog asked for my tax details,” he told reporters outside NAB Rawalpindi.

Govt to bring opp on board regarding new laws NEWS DESK

Abbasi says NAB summoned him after anti-govt speech STAFF REPORT

Prime Minister’s Adviser on Commerce and Investment Abdul Razak Dawood appeared before the sugar inquiry commission on Thursday. According to details, the commission had summoned Dawood for questioning him about the export and subsidy of sugar. The Sugar Advisory Board, presided over by Dawood, had recommended the export of sugar after which the Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) had allowed export of 1.1 million tonnes of the essential commodity in October and December of 2018. On Wednesday, Punjab Chief Minister Usman Buzdar had also appeared before the commission and recorded his statement regarding the Punjab government’s role from the crushing season to the freight support and export subsidy of sugar in 2018-19 financial year. Earlier, Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) leader Shahid Khaqan Abbasi had appeared before the commission on Saturday and Federal Minister for Planning and Development Asad Umar had recorded his statement on the decisions taken by the Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) and the federal cabinet regarding sugar and its export on Tuesday.

The PML-N leader added, “If you stay at home, NAB does not say anything, however, if you give [two] speeches or criticise the government, the bureau takes immediate notice.”

Maintaining that accountability should be according to the rule of law and not to suppress anyone’s political views, the former prime minister said, “I don’t know who Shahzad Akbar is. Maybe Imran Khan has created a new institution [of his own].”

NAB had summoned the former prime minister and his son in the LNG scam on Thursday. The Bureau has already filed a supplementary reference in an accountability court on misuse of authority against them.

To put an end to the controversy concerning new legislation, the federal government has decided to take the opposition parties on board before tabling any new bills in the National Assembly. On the directives of PM’s Adviser on Parliamentary Affairs Dr Babar Awan, the parliamentary affairs ministry has issued a communiqué to other ministries telling them to inform the parliamentary parties about any new bill two days before it was due to be tabled in the legislature. The document further read that no ministry or division had informed the parliamentary affairs ministry about any legislation so far. If they intend to present any bill in the National Assembly, they should complete the consultation process at the earliest so that it could be introduced in the ongoing session of the lower house of parliament, it added.

Resolution of Kashmir issue vital for regional stability: moot NEWS DESK Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Senator Mushahid Hussain Sayed on Thursday said that the significance of addressing Kashmir was important in view of the dangers it poses to the whole region of South Asia.

“The just resolution of Kashmir conflict will bring peace and prosperity to the region of South Asia,” the senator said while participating in a virtual conference on Kashmir titled ‘Kashmir’s Double Lockdown and the Global Response’.

“The issue of Kashmir is a movement for self-determination inspired by a spirit for freedom and it has its legitimacy in the United Nations Security Council resolutions. The struggle remains alive and vibrant…aims at regaining the freedom and economic justice that the foreign occupation has usurped,” he added.

It is vital for the world powers not to lose sight of the true objective in determining peace in South Asia,

he said, adding that the settlement of the Kashmir conflict is central to the purpose of stability and security in the region.

World Kashmir Awareness Forum President Dr Ghulam Nabi Mir said Covid-19 has devastating physical, psychological and economic impact on Kashmiri people. He also suggested that extensive use of social media, especially webinars, videos, will become instrumental in highlighting the struggle of people of Kashmir.

“And an effective outreach campaign on Kashmir dispute towards the peace-loving sections of the world community, including Indian civil society and diaspora is the need of the time.”

He said India may be ‘the largest democracy’ but its policy towards Kashmir has been uniformly brutal and deceitful. The impartial and neutral agencies of the world testify that when it comes to Kashmir, India is nothing but an occupier.

Abdul Rashid Turabi, Member, Azad Kashmir As-

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sembly said, the self-determination of the people of Kashmir and international peace and security are inter-related.

Julie Ward, a British parliamentarian said that people of Kashmir deserve to be granted the right of selfdetermination. She said that she was convinced that the people of Jammu and Kashmir constitute the principle stakeholders and should be an integral component of any future peace process along with India and Pakistan.

She suggested that the Labour party head cannot change the party policy on Kashmir. Our policy has to be that world powers must intervene and bring peace to the region of South Asia and help resolve the conflict over Kashmir which is pending for the last 72 years.

Sikandar Siddique, Member of Danish Parliament, said the knowledge of the average European regarding Kashmir is insignificant. The sentiments and aspirations of the people of Kashmir are overshadowed by the commercial interests and business deals of the world powers.

Friday, 15 May, 2020

Govt may partially resume domestic flight operations before eid NEWS DESK The federal government may partially resume domestic flight operations before Eidul Fitr amid return of Pakistanis stranded in Saudi Arabia and Pakistan International Airlines’ (PIA) decision to send more relief flights to Europe, a local news outlet reported on Thursday. Reportedly, flight operations may be partially resumed at airports of Islamabad, Karachi, Lahore and Peshawar with only 50 per cent passengers allowed on board. According the standard operating procedures (SOPs) under consideration, social distancing and wearing of face masks would be ensured and all inbound and outbound passengers would have to undergo a full medical examination. Meanwhile, the national flag carrier will bring home 250 people from Saudi Arabia to Lahore on Friday via a special flight and more flights would be sent to Europe to bring back stranded Pakistanis. Reportedly, flights will depart from Islamabad to Barcelona on May 17, Lahore to Frankfurt on May 19 and Islamabad to Milan on May 22. It is pertinent to mention here that the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) had banned domestic flight operations till May 29.

pakistan’s deficit and poverty rate to soar due to coronavirus CoNtINuED froM pAgE 01 “Our external finance outlook appears to be very good at the moment,” one of the top officials told Reuters. “Our expectation and our assessment is very positive.” The officials said Pakistan was receiving $500 million in coronavirus-related support from the Asian Development Bank, and around $1 billion from the World Bank, that will also carry forward another $700 million in projects from last year.

Pakistan has also requested long time ally China to roll over payments related to the power projects set up as part of Belt and Road initiative. Finance chief Shaikh is to present a budget in two weeks aimed at finding ways to generate revenues and cut expenditures.

loCKdown damaGed eConomy Severely, SayS pm Imran ISLAMABAD

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APP

RIME Minister Imran Khan on Thursday said the countrywide lockdown was only a stopgap measure to contain the coronavirus which has so far claimed over 780 lives in Pakistan.

Chairing a meeting of Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) chief ministers via video link to review coronavirus situa-

tion, the PM said the coronavirus lockdown damaged the economy severely. He said there was a need to create a balance between the lockdown and saving vulnerable people from starvation.

Special Assistant to Prime Minister on Health Affairs Dr Zafar Mirza briefed the meeting on the virus statistics, its spread in the hotspots, rate of testing and availability of medical facilities to cater to the virus patients.

The meeting was also briefed on the

NCOC analyses available health facilities in hospitals to fight Covid-19 ISLAMABAD APP

National Command and Operation Center (NCOC) on Thursday took an in-depth analysis of existing beds, ventilators and other facilities in the hospitals given possible spread of the virus according to the projections and available data of reported coronavirus cases in the country.

With an aim to examine to existing facilities in medical centres and to collect real-time data and gauge capacity of the hospitals, the 20th consecutive meeting of the NCOC during Ramadan also reviewed the latest situation of COVID-19, progress on implementation of standard operating procedures (SOPs) and guidelines at the provincial level.

Addressing the meeting in chair, Federal Minister for Planning, Development, Reforms and Special Initiatives Asad Umar said: "The provinces and hospital

management had the responsibility to ensure verified data of coronavirus affected patients in order to take effective measures for mitigating the risk of the pandemic outbreak."

The minister went on to add that the management of the provinces and hospitals had an eminent role to play for providing credible information. In this context, the provinces and the administration were doing a commendable job and should continue to maintain a systematic record.

"The implementation of SOPs to curb the spread of coronavirus during the past day at the provincial and district level was encouraging", Umar stated, adding that the practice of SOPs and guidelines for containing the risk of COVID-19 would ensure public health and safety.

According to NCOC, the SOPs and guidelines for religious congregations, mosques and markets have also been issued previously.

Govt and Opp remain at odds over Covid-19 measures CoNtINuED froM pAgE 01 He criticised the government for not having a national strategy. “[The government] says we hold meetings every day. Where are the decisions from those meetings?” he questioned.

Mushahid also questioned the timing of controversy surrounding the National Commission on Minorities, saying the government “couldn’t spare the issue during the pandemic”. “Why is Noorul Haq Qadri (religious affairs minister) talking about these things [now]?” he asked.

“We can compromise on everything except our faith. I request the government to protect our faith. Put them [Ahmadis] in the minority commission but they must admit that they are non-Muslims,” he said.

In response, Faraz advised the opposition not to raise sensitive issues that would hurt the nation’s sentiments as the country is in need of unity and not division during this difficult time. Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Senator Mohsin Aziz claimed that the reason behind fewer coronavirus cases in Pakistan is due to the current government’s strategy.

“The government’s efforts should be appreciated,” Aziz said. “Pakistan is dealing with the pandemic with limited resources.

Even developed countries are helpless in the wake of the deadly virus.”

He said that the opposition had called a special Senate session to insult the government rather than giving suggestions on how to deal with the health crisis.

Pakhtunkhwa Milli Awami Party (PkMAP) Senator Mohammad Usman Khan Kakar said conspiracies against the 18th

NEWS

Amendment have been going on for a “long time”. “The government is unhappy as the people [provinces] were being empowered, the 18th Amendment gave the provinces equal powers in some areas,” the senator said.

Speaking about the government’s antiCovid-19 measures, Kakar claimed that the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) has not provided “even one ventilator” to Balochistan. He said there was a shortage of testing kits in the province, adding that there was only one laboratory in the country.

“People have to wait for 15 days to receive their test results,” he said.

Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) chief Senator Sirajul Haq called out the Centre and Sindh government for failing to unite to deal with the coronavirus crisis.

Regretting that the two were fighting each other instead of the pandemic, Haq said that it was a “moment of reflection” when the national leadership was unable to “come on the same page even in the face of such a serious pandemic”.

The senator also chided the government for exorbitant rates of Covid-19 tests. “A coronavirus test costs Rs9,000 [but] you have paid poor people only Rs3,000. Do they feed themselves or get tested?” he questioned.

He added that the government should have included free testing in its relief package.

PPP Senator Rehman Malik called on the House to pass a resolution that poor people will be tested for the disease free of cost.

“They have the foremost right to get tested,” he said. Malik expressed reservations about the number of coronavirus cases in the country, claiming that according to calculations he

made in conjunction with doctors, Pakistan has at least 800,000 cases.

Another PPP senator, Rubina Khalid, said that more than 100 doctors at Peshawar’s Lady Reading Hospital have been infected by the coronavirus because of “government negligence”. She said that frontline workers needed “weapons” to fight such as protective gear and questioned the government’s strategy for doing so.

PML-N Senator Mushahid Hussain Syed said that the government’s message to the people regarding the epidemic lacked clarity, saying “it’s not the messenger but the message” which is problematic.

Syed said: “As a former journalist and information minister, I will give a few words of advice to the government because I think that we are all in the same boat. The message from the start should have been that this outbreak is bigger than one party, one leader and one government.”

He added that every crisis was an opportunity and urged the federal government to declare a national health emergency, announce a political ceasefire and redefine national security to include health emergencies.

RESOLUTION IN CHINA’S FAVOUR: The Senate also adopted a bipartisan resolution rejecting “baseless propaganda” against China for its alleged role in the origin of the Covid-19 pandemic which has so far affected over 4.4 million people the world over.

The resolution, introduced by Senate Opposition Leader Raja Zafarul Haq, thanked China for its support to Pakistan and for the provision of personal protective equipment (PPE) kits as well as other medical assistance.

availability of personal protective equipment (PPE) to the doctors and paramedics and measures needed to improve health facilities in both the provinces. “Lockdown is only a temporary measure to avoid coronavirus not a cure of it,” he said, adding that they had to take decisions keeping in view their ground realities. He said that the shutdown of businesses has caused unbearable losses to the country’s economy.

Terming coronavirus a reality, Imran

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stressed upon the masses to adopt preventive measures to avoid it. “We had to implement the devised standard operating procedures (SOPs) at all cost,” he said while stressing upon the need to launch an awareness campaign among masses on the preventive measures.

He further directed the provincial authorities to ensure that police treat the masses in a friendly manner during the lockdown.

Pakistan among countries forecast with surge in child mortality due to Covid-19 NEWS DESK A United Nations report has named Pakistan among 10 countries where deaths from preventable diseases in children under five could rise by almost 45 per cent over the next six months as the coronavirus pandemic could divert scarce health resources.

Poorer nations in Africa, Asia and Latin America could see an additional 1.2 million infants die over the period, according to the study published by The Lancet Global Health. About 56,700 more maternal deaths could also occur in six months, beyond the 144,000 deaths that already take place in the same 118 countries, a rise of about 40 per cent. The findings were based on a computer model that calculated the impact of a reduction in family planning, antenatal and postnatal care, child delivery, vaccinations and preventive and curative services. “Under a worst-case scenario, the global number of children dying before their fifth birthdays could increase for the first time in decades,” said UNICEF executive director Henrietta Fore.

“We must not let mothers and children become collateral damage in the fight against the virus. And we must not let decades of progress on reducing preventable child and maternal deaths be lost.”

The greatest number of additional child deaths would come from undernourishment and a reduction in the treatment of neonatal sepsis and pneumonia.

The study found that the 10 countries that could have the largest number of additional child deaths were Bangladesh, Brazil, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ethiopia, India, Indonesia, Nigeria, Pakistan, Uganda and United Republic of Tanzania. UNICEF said it was especially alarmed at the knock-on effects of the pandemic. This included tens of millions of children missing out on measles vaccinations and some 370 million children who normally rely on school meals having to look for other sources of food.

UNICEF said it was launching a new global campaign called “#Reimagine” to prevent the pandemic from becoming a lasting crisis for children.

Tareen urges govt to increase revenue to fix NFC hiccups NEWS DESK Former finance minister Shaukat Tareen has urged the government to increase its tax-to-GDP ratio in order to resolve the issues concerning the provincial and the Centre’s shares in the National Finance Commission Award.

Speaking on a TV show with senior journalist Arif Nizami, Tareen said the provinces share in the 7th NFC Award was increased to 57.5 per cent after the devolution of ministries to the provinces in line

with the 18th Amendment. After the passage of the legislation, the Centre also allocated additional resources to the provinces to run these sectors and eliminate the redundant ministries. However, many of these departments still exist, he added.

Moreover, things went downhill when the Centre failed to increase its tax revenue that should have been at 19 per cent instead of 9 per cent within 10 years. Another reason that the Centre and provinces are in a deadlock on the issue is the piling losses of the state-owned enterprises.

04 LAHORE

Friday, 15 May, 2020

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Lahoris bLatantLy vioLate soPs after govt reoPens markets SHOPKEEPERS SAY GOVT RESPONSIBLE FOR CONTROLLING OVERCROWDING LAHORE

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SHAHAB OMER

HE Punjab government and its administrative institutions could not enforce the standard operating procedures (SOPs) defined to curb the spread of coronavirus, as the citizens of the provincial capital repeatedly thronged to markets without any considering for social distancing and other preventive measures.

Before the government relaxed the lockdown, traders had assured the government that the SOPs defined by them would be strictly followed and only one customer would be allowed into a shop, however, as soon as the restrictions were eased, the ground situation was in direct contrast with the traders’ assurances.

Pakistan Today has observed massive violations of government’s SOPs in Brandarath Road Market, Anarkali Bazaar, Ichra Bazaar, Shadman Market, Ferozpur Road, Gulberg’s Main Market,

Township, Johar Town, Faisal Town, Hall Road Market, Abid Market and various markets of DHA. Moreover, roads across the city remained packed with traffic and the police appeared to be helpless.

Sources informed Pakistan Today that during a high-level meeting chaired

by Punjab Chief Minister Usman Buzdar, this unsatisfactory situation was discussed, prompting the authorities to consider shutting down some markets.

According to the spokesperson of the Primary and Secondary Healthcare Department, 336 new cases emerged in the province in the past 24 hours, taking the total number of cases to 13,561, with 6,699 cases present in Lahore. The spokesperson added that 223 people have already succumbed to the virus.

A cloth merchant in Anarkali Bazaar told this scribe that the shopkeepers cannot control the influx of customers. “It was the government’s responsibility to control overcrowding as these shops were opened after 50 days and the people

LHC suspends convict’s sentence in child pornography case LAHORE APP

The Lahore High Court (LHC) on Thursday suspended the sentence of a man convicted in child pornography case and also released him on bail.

The court ordered for submitting two surety bonds of Rs200,000 for availing the relief of bail. Justice Farooq Haider heard the petition filed by Sadat Amin against the seven year sentence awarded by a trial court to him. The defence counsel argued before the court that his client was implicated in a baseless case on a

complaint by a liaison officer of Norwegian police. He submitted that it was alleged that the convict sent objectionable pictures and videos of minor children to a Norwegian citizen.

He submitted that the trial court failed to appreciate case facts and awarded the year jail term despite insufficient evidence.

He submitted that the convict was arrested in 2017 whereas his appeal was also pending before the LHC since 2018 whereas the convict had already served half of his sentence and pleaded with the court to suspend the verdict and order release of the convict till final decision of his appeal.

naturally rushed to buy things,” he said.

“We already suffered a lot of financial losses during the lockdown, so we too are helpless because we cannot stop the customers from coming into our shops,” he added.

He further said that the people who visit shops are responsible for their own safety, not the shopkeepers. “We wear masks and gloves but we cannot force the customers to do the same as 6,000 to 10,000 people visit the markets daily after the relaxation in lockdown,” he added. Fouzia Saleem, who was out shopping in Ichra Bazaar, did not appear to be afraid of the coronavirus outbreak.

“We have been locked down in our homes for such a long time without any recreation and for women, the most common recreation is shopping,” she said, adding that she had been waiting for the markets to reopen for a long time.

“We need to buy clothes for Eid, and we need to buy routine items as well,” she further said.

Dr Ahmad Hassan, who works at a

government hospital, lamented the government’s decision. “Relaxing the lockdown has disturbed the medical community as this decision would result in casing rising rapidly and the situation can get worse,” he said, adding that the government should reimpose the lockdown because “only this approach can help in controlling the outbreak”.

When contacted, Lahore Deputy Commissioner Afzaal Talib said that the district administration of Lahore is working at its best to ensure that precautionary measures are taken in the market. “All assistant commissioners, police and health teams are out in the field for the implementation of the SOPs,” he said.

He also said that on Thursday 215 shops were sealed in different parts of the city for not following the SOPs. “We are taking strict action against those who are violating the SOPs and any shop or market found to be violating them would be sealed immediately,” he added. It is pertinent to mention here that according to the government’s decision regarding easing restrictions, markets would remain open from Monday to Thursday and would be closed from Friday to Sunday.

Markets to be sealed over SOPs violation: Buzdar PUNJAB CM LAYS FOUNDATION OF CARDIOLOGY INSTITUTE IN DG KHAN LAHORE STAFF REPORT

The Punjab cabinet on Thursday made a series of decisions for containing the spread of coronavirus pandemic, including a final decision that markets violating standard operating procedures (SOPs) would be shut down without exception from now on.

The provincial cabinet’s meeting was chaired by Punjab Chief Minister (CM) Usman Buzdar during which a briefing was given over violation of SOPs in different markets.

Buzdar said that the government will not tolerate any law breaking during a global catastrophe and announced that all markets will be closed for three days, including Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

The meeting was informed that 456 shops have been fined and issued warnings in major districts as well as the provincial capital.

In another decision, Buzdar announced a historical package for Vehova, including 47 development projects. He said that Vehova is like his second home and he will make making efforts for its development and prosperity. The chief minister announced to construct a cricket stadium in the town besides upgrading basic healthcare centres and the upgradation of a civil dispensary besides the establishment of a

new dispensary.

Furthermore, three development projects in the town will be initiated by irrigation and environmental protection departments who will also overlook the establishment of a handicraft development centre.

The chief minister vowed that power supplies will be expanded to the suburban villages of Phagli, Koh Suleman and others, whereas, 10 roads will be constructed and repaired in Vehova.

Later, the Punjab chief minister laid down the foundation stone of the two hundred bed Sardar Fateh Muhammad Khan Buzdar Institute of Cardiology in Dera Ghazi (DG) Khan at cost of Rs4.28 billion which will be completed within the next two years.

He also laid down foundation stone of construction and expansion and beautification project of ancient bridge Sangam Chowk with cost of about Rs400 million and a state-of-the-art bus terminal project for citizens of Dera Ghazi Khan with Rs326 million.

Speaking on the occasion, Buzdar said that thousands of patients from all four provinces will be benefited from the establishment of Sardar Fateh Mohammad Khan Buzdar Institute of Cardiology. He said that opening of nearly one and a half kilometer long bridge will benefit 100,000 citizens from local and other cities.

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sarwar stresses implementation of soPs to contain CoviD-19 LAHORE STAFF REPORT

Punjab Governor Chaudhry Mohammad Sarwar has said that the non-seriousness shown by people may lead to spread of coronavirus beyond the handling capacity of the healthcare system, therefore the only option is left is to observe the SOPs in letter and spirit. He was speaking to media persons after inaugurating Water Filtration Plant at Central Police Office here on Thursday. Speaking at the water filtration plant inauguration ceremony at CPO, Sarwar said the filtration plants were being installed in jails and police lines in Lahore and other cities in the province. He said the Punjab Aab-e-Pak Authority had also started functioning to provide clean drinking water to masses across the province. The governor said four filtration plants were being installed in Balochistan in collaboration with the Al-Khair Foundation, which had donated 20 filtration plants. Sarwar Foundation Vice-Chairperson (VC) Begum Perveen Sarwar said the Sarwar Foundation had become the largest social welfare organisation involved in providing safe drinking water and added that it was primarily focusing on areas where people were compelled to drink unsafe water and were becoming victim to water-borne diseases. Perveen Sarwar said the Al-Khair Foundation had signed an agreement with the Sarwar Foundation to install 20 filtration plants and added that three plants had already been installed. She said the work on remaining 17 plants was in full swing. “I do hope that more filtration plants would be inaugurated before Eid-ul-Fitr. It may be noted here that the governor received masks and PPEs worth Rs3.5 million from ABWA Hospital’s Managing Director (MD) Khurram Iftikhar on the occasion.

Friday, 15 May, 2020

NEWS

05

IHC gIveS Centre one week to exPlaIn delay In enforCIng PolICe reformS ISLAMABAD

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STAFF REPORT

HE Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Thursday granted a one-week time to the federal government to submit its response in a case related to the delay in the administration of justice.

The development came as the IHC resumed hearing into the case pertaining to the non-enforcement of Police Order 2002. Last week, IHC Chief Justice Athar Minallah had converted the matter into public interest litigation and sought reports from the interior secretary, the chief commissioner of Islamabad and judges of trial courts working

within the IHC’s jurisdiction.

As the hearing resumed on Thursday, Additional Inspector General (AIG) Kamran Adil apprised the court that the Islamabad police are paid only Rs350 as an investigation allowance for each case. Justice Minallah observed that the investigation officer also has to take evidence to the laboratory in Lahore.

Last week, Islamabad Inspector General of Police Muhammad Aamir Zulfiqar Khan had submitted a report on the problems arising during the investigation of crimes that hindered administration of justice. In the report, IG Khan said that the investigation officer of a case had to pay Rs5,000 parcel fee from his own pocket to send evidence to a

Govt to provide Rs37bn subsidy on fertilizers ISLAMABAD APP

The government would provide subsidy of Rs37.00 billion on fertilizers to growers under its agriculture relief package in order to cope with the Covid-19 after-effects to maintain food safety and security in the country.

The relief package also aims to boost agriculture production, support farmers and enhance per acre farm income to alleviate poverty from the country.

The subsidy would be provided for next Kharif Season Crop, which started from April to October, said a senior official in the Ministry of National Food Security and Research. Talking to APP on Thursday, he said that a subsidy of Rs925 per bag to DAP and other phosphatic fertilizers and Rs243 per bag on urea and other nitrogen fertilizer has been worked out. He further informed that estimated urea off take will be 3.04

million tonnes and DAP was estimated at 0.95 million tonnes for the Kharif season. The total amount of the subsidy would be Rs37 billion, he added.

The subsidy scheme, he said, would be implemented by the provinces and the amount would be disbursed through scratch card scheme, already being implemented by the Punjab government.

He said that the fertilizer share in cost of production for major crops was around 10 to 15 per cent, adding that provision of subsidy will reduce cost of production for farmer and increase the affordability of farmer to adopt the recommended level of fertilizer nutrient use and best agricultural management practices. It is pertinent to mention here that the government has announced a fiscal package of over Rs1,200 billion in the wake of COVID-19 pandemic. Out of this package, Rs100 billion have been earmarked for relief to agriculture and small and medium enterprises.

A beacon of hope in troubling times MUHAMMAD SHAFIQ CH How to get out of the implications of a lockdown, maybe no one of has time but Punjab Land Record again emerged as a beacon of hope in this difficult arena. The authority benchmarked its quality of services in line with the coronavirus SOPs. When the shutter was down, the capitalists have closed their doors. People were becoming unemployed. Hunger, starvation and poverty are rampant.

When, the nation was in a strange dilemma, what to do, with every passing day the difficulties were increasing. Fear has taken hold on all sides. The coronavirus has jammed the wheel of life.

Meanwhile, the federation and all its units do not appear on one page. East of the Federation and West of the provinces.

The government and the opposition are also engaged in a five-pronged effort.

Political dilemmas are also being tested as well. The situation was getting worst.

How many stoves will be turned off during this time? How many children go to bed hungry? Maybe no one knows.

The contagious virus spreads from human to human in much the same way as seasonal flu, potentially through touching a surface or the hand of a person contaminated with the virus. The most common mechanisms by which it spreads are by droplets from coughs and sneezes of infected people.

Pandemic not only ruined the economy but also collapse most of the businesses that may not able to recover in the longer future. This should be considered blessing in disguise and keep focus to discover the new and innovative way of business. The best way is a promote small and medium industry operated through face and spaceless places. It is the time when challenges need to convert into opportunities. Only those will survive who will change in accordance with the changing circumstances.

The contagious spread increasing pressure on the economy day by day. It’s

very simple, the businesses exist only if they produce something if they can’t, they can’t sell it. If they can’t sell, they can’t be sustained. What makes the difference is the use of wisdom. Exercise wisdom and go one step forward.

The surprise move was taken by taking lead from the front and opened its remote Arazi Record Center to extend relief to the poor masses by opting all precautionary measures to curb the spread of Covid-19.

A comprehensive standard operating procedure introduced keeping in view the social distancing practices opted. The initiative took place at the time when it was beyond imagination to accept the challenges and afford such risks.

The authority not only caters to the needs of people but also introduced its modern and innovative style of service delivery through its helpline and online services. Now, people are enjoying free of cost express service delivery which was earlier offered for five thousand per time slot as processing charges for express services. Institutions like NADRA, LDA etc. are also seeking help to replicate similar version as the model introduce by PLRA. The public is praising the concept of the reserved time slot for service delivery and appreciating the initiative took by the present regime. We only talk about strengthening institutions when they are needed. In general, no one is interested in increasing their capacity.

The ARCs officer and the official played a pivotal role in regulating the quarantine center and Ehsaas program in most of the districts. In this most troubling time, the PLRA has been seen as the most active player in compliance and extending necessary support to all its aligned department. The Punjab Disaster management authority also seeking the technological and human resource support from PLRA in the guidance of the Board of Revenue, Punjab which is a splendid example of horizontal coordination among the pear department.

have not learnt anything from the coronavirus, he added.

“Had justice been a priority in this country, our courts would not have been in shops,” said the judge, adding: “The common man should be our priority, practices violating basic human rights should end.”

Additional Attorney General (AAG) Tariq Khokhar asked the court to grant the government two weeks to submit its response. The CJ asked the government lawyer if he had considered the number of cases, which would be awaiting justice during those two weeks.

Justice Minallah also noted that Islamabad did not have its own jail and there was no prosecution either. Referring to the tem-

forensic laboratory for analysis.

“There should not be any laboratory fee or it should be the responsibility of the district administration [to pay the fee],” he said.

Justice Minallah noticed that by paying a meager sum of Rs350 to the investigation officer of a case, the system itself sets him up for corruption. “This a big failure of justice, our priorities are wrong,” the judge remarked. He also said VIPs only use the police force for their own purposes.

The chief justice observed that Police Order, 2002 has been enforced and hence what is happening in Islamabad now is illegal. High profile cases are highlighted in the media but real issues are neglected, added Justice Minallah. Regretfully, we

porary lock-up in the city, Bakshi Khana, the judge asked if the additional attorney-general had ever visited the lock-up and if he would deem it fit for any human to live.

The deputy commissioner is also responsible, he should have visited each police station and inspected them in line with the police rules, remarked the Justice Minallah.

The court directed the federal government to submit its response within a week and adjourned the hearing till May 21.

The court also fixed the court reporters’ body – IHC Journalist Association – as court assistants. The bench noted that the media was also an important stakeholder and directed the body to submit its written recommendation within a week.

Pakistan condemns extrajudicial killings in occupied Kashmir FO SAYS AFGHAN PEACE ACCORD PROVIDED A WINDOW OF OPPORTUNITY FOR RECONCILIATION IN WAR-TORN COUNTRY ISLAMABAD APP

Pakistan on Thursday strongly condemned the continuing extrajudicial killings by Indian occupation forces in fake encounters and phony cordon and search operations in India-occupied Kashmir.

In a weekly news briefing, Foreign Office Spokesperson Aisha Farooqui said May 14 was the 284th day of the continued oppression, deliberate acts of terrorising, inhuman lockdown, and military siege faced by the innocent people in occupied Kashmir.

She called upon the international community to take immediate notice of the alarming situation in occupied Kashmir and hold India accountable for state-terrorism, extra-judicial killings, and systematic violations of human rights.

She said it was a shared responsibility of the world community to seek immediate resolution of the dispute in accordance with the relevant UNSC Resolutions and aspirations of the Kashmiri people.

Regarding the framework agreement by Israel’s coalition government proposing annexation of the West Bank, the spokesperson said Pakistan always opposed any move for

the annexation of the occupied Palestinian territories, as it would be a serious violation of international law.

She reiterated Pakistan’s consistent support for the two-state solution of the Palestine issue as enshrined in the relevant Security Council and General Assembly Resolutions.

Farooqui said Pakistan condemned the cowardly terrorist attack on a medical facility in

SBP reserves fall $59m to $12.2bn KARACHI MEIRYUM ALI

Foreign exchange reserves held by the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) decreased by $59 million to $12,270.7 million during the week ending May 8, 2020, according to data released by the central bank on Thursday. The SBP stated that the decrease could be attributed to external debt repayments. Net foreign reserves held by commercial banks increased very slightly, from $6,425.7 million to $6,473.8 million. The total liquid foreign reserves held by the country fell marginally from $18,755.1 million in the week ending April 30, to $18,744.5 million during the week under review. In the previous week ending April 30, foreign exchange reserves held by the SBP actually increased by $259 million to $12,329.4 million, though at the time the SBP did not cite a reason for the increase.

From the beginning of 2020, SBP reserves steadily increased to a peak of $12.8 billion in the first week of March. However, beginning mid-March, reserves began to decline. SBP reserves fell from $12.8 billion to $10.8 billion between March 13 and April 17.

However, in the week ending April 24, SBP reserves got some significant help from the IMF, jumping from $10,889.2 million to $12,070.3 million. This can be mainly attributed to the $1.39 billion received from the IMF under the Rapid Financing Instrument (RFI), to address the economic impact of the Covid-19 shock.

The central bank had previously announced the IMF funds would be part of SBP weekly reserves data as of April 24.

Kabul as well as the suicide attack at a funeral in Nangarhar province, which resulted in the loss of precious lives.

To a question, the spokesperson said Pakistan’s embassies and consulates were working round the clock in facilitating the repatriation of its citizens back home. She said so far 24,466 Pakistanis had been repatriated from more than 35 countries.

She said the weekly number of nationals returning home had been steadily increased from 2,000 to about 7,000 per week.

To a question, she said, Pakistan believed that the US-Taliban Peace Agreement had provided a window of opportunity to the people of Afghanistan to work together for the ultimate aim of peace and reconciliation in Afghanistan. “We hope that the Peace Agreement is implemented in its entirety so that it leads to the next stage of intra-Afghan negotiations.”

To another question, she said, Pakistan was fully cognizant of the difficulties being faced by the traders from Pakistan and Afghanistan. A number of steps have been taken in this regard to facilitate the movement of people and cargo trucks and containers.

She said Pakistan had opened border crossing point at Chaman and Torkham to ease cross border movement of trucks. The current mechanism is functioning and any modification in it to enhance trade between the two countries will be considered after implementing all necessary protocols related to COVID-19, she added.

Friday, 15 May, 2020

06 COMMENT

Playing with fire

NAB at it again

Need to revisit and amend the law

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ESPitE an out-of-control chaotic situation caused by the covid-19 pandemic that is gaining steam with each passing day, the government continues to invest its time in, and divert resources towards, an accountability process that is neither fair nor transparent, is opposition-specific and has so far failed to produce any meaningful convictions. During the first few weeks of the lockdown, the focus had somewhat shifted to the more critical matter of dealing with a lethal virus. that did not last long and now the government’s accountability czar Shehzad Akbar and NAB have come out all guns blazing against opposition leaders. Mr Akbar held a press conference earlier in the week, in which he made the same bold claims that he has so many times before, that he was finally in the possession of irrefutable evidence proving how PMl (N) President Shehbaz Sharif had laundered billions of rupees over the years through benami accounts.

Earlier, Mr Sharif had reluctantly appeared before NAB for questioning in another case against him. Similarly, PMl(N) Senior Vice-President Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, who has already spent over 200 days in jail, 77 of which were in NAB custody for the ‘lNg scam’ case, and was able to secure bail from iHC, was again summoned yesterday for more questioning. if NAB’s prosecution was unable to produce credible evidence from questioning Mr Abbasi for over two months under detention then it seems unlikely it will be able to get any useful information now. if the idea is to create a crime out of thin air, NAB has and will continue to fail at that.

On the flip side, Pti’s allies are also feeling the heat. the Chaudhry cousins of the PMl(Q) got wind of the reopening of a 19-year-old NAB inquiry against them and have since been knocking on the doors of the higher judiciary and the PM Office for reprieve. Meanwhile, federal minister Khusro Bakhtiyar and his younger brother, Punjab Finance Minister Hashim Jawan Bakht, face an ‘assets beyond means’ case that was originally filed in Multan before the 2018 general elections. the case was conveniently transferred to lahore by the NAB chairman soon after Pti formed a government. Arrests are nonexistent and summons, rare, when it comes to favorites of the ruling party.

An ordinance that was passed to clip NAB’s wings, restricting it from going after bureaucrats and businessmen, has lapsed and will now have to be amended through an act of Parliament. it is a good opportunity for both sides of the aisle to rationalize this draconian law and make it more effective in curbing actual corruption.

Easing the lockdown may be premature At Penpoint m A NIAZI

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AKiStAN has opted to ease its lockdown, even though it has not yet hit peak of the pandemic, nor has it got in place the testing facilities that are supposed to be an essential concomitant of any easing of the lockdown. Prime Minister imran Khan seems inclined to do what is necessary to revive the economy, even though it is not clear why he needs to do so, or whether the easing will revive the economy or not.

While US President Donald trump has a clear electoral target for trying to end the US lockdown, facing a re-election vote in November, imran does not have the same electoral compulsion. He might look at Narendra Modi in next-door india, who has been extending a similar lockdown, which he has imposed on his country. Modi has not shown any haste, perhaps because he came off an election last year, and does not need to face the electorate until 2024. imran’s own election was earlier, but as he does not have to go to the electorate until 2023, he has no reason to be hasty.

A further incentive not to rush things is that Pakistan is not an engine of the world economy. Pakistan’s economic activity will not pick up until the world economy does, and with the world looking likely not to revive until the USA comes out of the surge that it now seems to be undergoing, it is possible that the re-opening will be premature. China has experienced its surge, as has Europe, and the USA is left.

However, the surge’s passing does not mean the end of the crisis. it might merely prove to be a pause between waves. Another thing is the events of the present rather than the future, which show that the number of casualties in Europe and China are still occurring, new cases are still appearing, the only change being a decrease in the number of deaths. this decrease should last, but already there are fears being voiced that there will be a winter surge. the virus will appear to die down over the summer, but will make a comeback over the winter, when it gets the chances given to it by existing viral infections, which will reduce immunity to other infections. there is something called herd immunity, when people do not catch the disease because they’ve already had it. Also, they can’t act as carriers because they can’t catch it, which means that the chain of transmission will be broken, making it even harder to catch the disease. At that point, it is thought, even people who have not had the disease will not catch

Nowhere in sight

Gilgit Baltistan: In constitutional Limbo

Not just recent attacks, but reticence about responsibility, bode ill

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HE signing of a peace deal between the USA and the taliban should have moved Afghanistan, which has been in conflict ever since the 1978 Soviet invasion, towards peace. But two recent attacks show that the deal is all but dead, especially with the prior failure of the government and taliban to carry out the prisoner swap that was to have paved the way for the talks between the Kabul government and the taliban which would have led to a comprehensive settlement. the suicide blast at the funeral prayers of the police chief of Nangarhar and the attack by armed gunmen on a Kabul Hospital’s maternity ward both took place on tuesday morning, took 24 and 25 lives respectively, causing the Ashraf ghani government to announce a resumption of the offensive against the taliban. the taliban have made a belligerent response, saying they are nothing loath. the women, newborns and nurses killed in the Kabul attack have not had anyone own responsibility, and seems intended merely to spread terror. if it is an attempt by other groups to sabotage the peace process, it is not clear whether the objection is to the peace process, or to being excluded from it. thus three natural suspects emerge: the Kabul government or elements of the taliban, or other militant groups, like iSiS. the Kabul government will have to be reined in by the Americans, who are the ones needing the deal; the taliban negotiators must ensure that they can deliver on any promises, and any third party should be dealt with condignly, by both the Kabul government and the taliban themselves. Pakistan can do nothing more than help find out who was responsible, and pass that information on. At most, it can use its good offices in getting the deal back on track, but it should not think it can do so without all players being on board. that is how the initial deal came about. the cost of continued conflict is much too high for not just Afghanistan, but also Pakistan. that should guide our policymakers in dealing with this issue.

Gilgit Baltistan is still given the short end of the stick Abul HAscHAm bArkHAyA

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ilgit Baltistan is a 74,000-km2 territory over which two nuclear-armed arch-rivals, Pakistan and india, have been equally contending for over seven decades. the territorial conflict over Kashmir and gilgit Baltistan has brought india and Pakistan in multiple ferocious wars, over which the loss of both nations is inconceivable. the barometer of patriotism and nationalism on both sides of the line of Control depends on detestation and bigotry towards each other.

However, in all this hate-centered nationalism, the people of gilgit Baltistan and Kashmir are the ones who are suffering the most. it is pertinent to note that gilgit Baltistan is the only region which annexed itself with Pakistan by choice not by default. After getting sovereign independence under the indigenous leadership of Col Mirza Hasan Khan and Major Babur Khan from the then Dogra raj on 1st November 1947, gilgit Baltistan remained an independent state for 14 days. On 15 November, gilgit Baltistan voluntarily annexed itself to the newly-born state of Pakistan under the anonymous Karachi agreement, without knowing the fact that Pakistan would again bind it with the tendentious Kashmir squabble.

Putting a perennial question mark on the status of gilgit Baltistan, the state of Pakistan implemented inhumane laws in the disputed region. in gilgit Baltistan, the problems are uncountable in all spheres of life, for instance, lack of education, health, unemployment, energy crisis, infrastructure, poverty and much more.

However, after seven decades of so-called independence, the real problem of the people of gilgit Baltistan is the identity crisis afficting both them and the region.. the nonrepresentation, and sometimes misrepresentation, of the region in both national and international arenas, is also troubling. there is no voice of gilgit Baltistan in the democratic system of the Pakistani Parliament. the people of gilgit Baltistan are not allowed to represent themselves in the National Assembly and Senate of Pakistan, rather an elected politico from Dera ismail Khan has been given the responsibility of representing the disputed region. Unfortunately he himself had never been to the region before being given that position, which means he is unaware of the real prob-

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also been a staunch friend of China, not just because both countries fought wars with india in the 1960s, but because their cooperation across a broad spectrum of activities has been greater than the benefits Pakistan has got from the USA. With China and the USA using the covid-19 pandemic as an arena of competition, Pakistan is being forced to choose between the two. Pakistan does not it, because they would not have been exposed to it. there is a problem with such an approach, like the USA’s growing closeness to india, seeing this though, and that is the high number of deaths that as a preliminary to being forced to follow the indian would take place if it was followed. the number of lead in settling the Kashmir issue. the recent partition infections would have to cover 30 percent of the pop- of Kashmir state into two separate union territories ulation, which would undergo a fatality rate of some- indicates a movement towards an independent Kashthing like 10 percent, which would work out to three mir. the USA can be expected to exert pressure on percent, which would mean about 6 million people in Pakistan to accept this.

While this sort of politics continues, the process Pakistan. Apart from the extreme lack of concern shown for human life, the healthcare system, already of global warming continues. the result of economic collapse has meant the shutting down of a lot of polcreaking at the joints, would collapse early on. this scenario would likely play out sooner rather luting factories, and the unexpected return of wildlife. there has not been an irrethan later, because the versible change, but the weather is not acting so as to takeaway is clear: there meet imran’s belief (and fershould be a lot fewer indusvent hope) that the virus Imran might do well to tries, probably even a lot would be killed off by the dry fewer people. And it seems heat of summer. Nature remember that he does face an that that is the direction seems to be conspiring imran has chosen. against Mankind, particularly election until 2023, unless he Of course, it might be in the South Asian region. dissolves earlier (and the last incompetence rather than However, this conspiracy has that is certhe same origin as the virus time that happened was in 1993; malevolence. tainly what trump is acitself. Just as the coronavirus is the latest, and so far most the only time a PM dissolved off cused of, in his response to the crisis, as well as his rush successful, to make the leap his own bat was in 1977). His to reopen, even before the from species endangered by USA has gone through its global warming to human behandling of the pandemic may own surge. the high casuings, so is the failure of the alty rate, which is the highweather to grow hotter to be be either hamfisted or est in the world, is to an ascribed to the effects of sagacious, only the electorate extent because of a large global warming. population. the claim that incidentally, another efwill decide. the Chinese launched the fect of this relatively pleaspandemic to get him to lose ant weather during Ramadan the election is perhaps a bit is that the monsoon will of explaining in advance to probably fail, with the resultant agricultural disaster to be laid at the door of the his base of why he will lose. this rush to reopen conpresent government. Apart from the monsoon failure, trasts with British PM Boris Johnson, who is taking there is also a locust invasion, again to be attributed it relatively slowly, now that his country is past the to global warming, which has made the locust spread surge of its first wave; but then, Johnson doesn’t face into areas which are newly becoming attractive to it. an election until 2024. imran might do well to remember that he does that was the reason for the dengue fever epidemic: the increasing warmth made the climate more hos- face an election until 2023, unless he dissolves earlier (and the last time that happened was in 1993; the only pitable to the mosquito carrying the germ. this puts Pakistan on unpleasant territory. US time a PM dissolved off his own bat was in 1977).

President Donald trump claims that not only is His handling of the pandemic may be either hamglobal warming a hoax, but it is a Chinese conspiracy fisted or sagacious, only the electorate will decide. to stop the USA becoming great again. Pakistan has However, elections are not about the past. the next been a loyal ally of the USA, which still feels it can poll will probably be about who is most likely to premake it use its influence with the taliban over the pare for the Next Big One. prisoner swap with the Kabul government that is The writer is a member of staff. causing difficulties in the peace process. Yet it has

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Karachi – Ph: 021-35381208-9

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their accounts are frozen, their mobility is restricted, lems of the people of gilgit Baltistan.

An unjust law is the operation of a section of the and it is like an open prison.

Another major concern among the dwellers of the draconian anti-terrorism act, popularly known as AtA, Fourth Schedule, in the disputed region. the basic disputed region is the violation of the UNCiP 1948 purpose of the law was to prevent terrorism and sec- resolutions. After the inception of the China-Pakistan tarian violence, and to speed up the trials of heinous Economic Corridor, the state of Pakistan is following offences as well as keep a check on extremist elements in the footsteps of indian government. thousands of affiliated with any proscribed, sectarian or religious acres of land have been allotted to the outsiders to groups. However, in gilgit-Baltistan, the local author- change the demography of the disputed region, which ities (district administration) have used the AtA as a will ultimately convert the local majority to a minortool to intimidate progressive and nationalist political ity, which will make the Kashmir dispute incapacitated internationally. the workers, educated youth and same strategy is under social media activists to supprocess in indian Occupied press dissent voices. Baba after the abrogation Jan, the former vice-presiThe only demand of the people Kashmir of Article 370 of the indian dent of the Awami Workers Constitution. the indian Party, and his companions of Gilgit Baltistan from last government has multiple are convicted under this seven decades are the times used this as a strong despotic law for raising weapon against the state of voices for the political and constitutional rights for the Pakistan to malign it in the social rights of gilgit international arena. Pakistan Baltistan. Currently, Baba region but the state of Pakistan needs to stop this, if they Jan has been sentenced to want to solve this cause of life imprisonment after being seems too busy to hear the disagreement, under the convicted by an anti-terrorvoices of the oppressed. In United Nation resolutions. ism court for raising a voice Despite of all this injusagainst the barbaric murder such conditions, there are tice, atrocities and colonial of a disaster-affected man attitude of the federation toand his son by the gilgit greater chances for the wards the disputed region Baltistan police on 11 Auantagonistic powers to use this the people of gilgit Baltistan gust 2011 at Aliabad, Hunza. loyal to Pakistan and However, the irony is disenchantment to create chaos are their hearts beat with Pakthat terrorists and other reliistanis. the only demand of gious fanatics are roaming in the disputed region the people of gilgit Baltistan freely in the region destroyfrom last seven decades are ing girls’ schools or attackthe constitutional rights for ing security personnel, while those political and social activists who are raising the region but the state of Pakistan seems too busy to their voice for the fundamental rights of the disputed hear the voices of the oppressed. in such conditions, region are persecuted under the notorious Schedule there are greater chances for the antagonistic powers Four of the AtA. Recently, a month ago another mis- to use this disenchantment to create chaos in the disuse of this Act was carried out by the Assistant Com- puted region. Recently, many national and internamissioner (AC) of Skardu, Baltistan, who had placed tional rights bodies have expressed concerns over the the names of dozens of students on a watch-list under violation of fundamental rights in gilgit Baltistan.

Section 11 of the AtA, because they protested against thus it is of the utmost importance for the responsible the inept AC and the inefficiency of the local admin- individuals to address these issues before it becomes istration in the city. Under this draconian law, the sus- too late. pects are not allowed to move out of their hometowns Abul Hascham Barkhaya is a freelance columnist without the permission of the relevant police station.

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Friday, 15 May, 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

Easing the lockdown i want to take your attention to the most important issue nowadays we are facing, and the issue is the ease in lockdown by our government despite upsurging in Corona cases. Are we in a position to make ease in lockdown? in my opinion easing in lockdown and opening markets and industries in situations where the spread of corona cases are going higher and higher. is it a good decision and will it make some sense in the upcoming weeks when we will face the peak of Coronavirus?

Although most countries are easing lockdown and implementing smart lockdown its effects will be horrible especially in Pakistan where people are not following SOP’S. the government should review its decision on this purpose before its too late to do that. And our hospitals are not in a position to get over such conditions which will arise due to this ease in lockdown in upcoming months. So the government should take some steps and make a vast plan for this. Because of each and every life matters.

ArSLAN kHAN rawalpindi

Ertugral debate

Arabs condemn India’s Islamophobia Indians’ own extremists are going too far for Arabs

sultAN m HAlI

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HE world is desperately engaged in combating the global pandemic of covid-19 but india, instead of focusing its efforts on saving its people from the dreaded virus, is hurling slander, accusing them of a ‘conspiracy’ to spread coronavirus. this despicable act by india has raised serious concerns amidst the gulf countries and OiC. it is heartening that two members of two different royal families have verbally lashed out against india.

Qatar based international tV channel Aljazeera, in its hard hitting opinion piece titled ‘Why Arabs are speaking out against islamophobia in india’ reports that in the past couple of weeks, the Organization of islamic Cooperation (OiC), the Kuwait government, a royal princess of the United Arab Emirates (UAE), as well as a number of Arab activists, have called out islamophobic hate speech by indians seen to be accusing the country’s Muslims of spreading the novel coronavirus.

Her Highness Mona bint Fahd al Said, an Omani princess, has boldly tweeted: “Oman stands with its Muslim brothers and sisters in india. if the indian government doesn’t stop the persecution of Muslims, then one million (indian) workers working in Oman may be expelled. i will definitely take up this issue with the Sultan of Oman.”

Pakistani President Arif Alvi thanked the Omani government and Royal family in a tV talk show, quoting the tweets by the Omani princess. india tried to spin-doctor the powerful statement by the Omani princess, claiming that the tweet was fake, but subsequent investigations prove its veracity. it is recommended that the higher echelons in Pakistan’s political hierarchy verify social media messages before quoting them on the electronic media in this age of fake news. luckily this particular message by the Omani Princess turned out to be true. it is no coincidence that Princess Hend alQassimi, a member of the UAE royal family,

also warned “openly racist and discriminatory” indians in the gulf that they “will be fined and made to leave” the country. According to Aljazeera, Princess al-Qassimi, who has emerged as one of the most prolific Arab voices against islamophobia in india, last week wrote a column for Gulf News, in which she said: “the world doesn’t need another Hitler, but it needs another hero like Martin luther, Nelson Mandela, or gandhi. Killing your brethren doesn’t make you a hero, it makes you a dictator and murderer. A snowballing movement has been started, which has reverberated across the Arab world,” she wrote in her piece, titled ‘i pray for an india without hate and islamophobia’. the anger and angst of the gCC members became visible when right-wing Hindus accusing Muslims of a “conspiracy” to spread the coronavirus after dozens of cases were linked to a congregation of the Tablighi Jamaat, a Muslim missionary movement, at its headquarters in New Delhi, in the middle of March.

Hashtags such as #CoronaJihad trended for days on twitter and panelists in tV debates called them “human bombs”, while many called for a ban on the Jamaat. its New Delhi office has been sealed. On April 19, india’s Ministry of Home Affairs said more than 4000 of the nearly 15,000 cases detected until that day were linked to the Jamaat, whose chief Mullah Saad Kandhalvi was charged with “culpable homicide” and money laundering and is likely to be arrested.

Following the Jamaat issue, a wave of islamophobic posts was unleashed on social media by the propounders of Hindutva, some of them employed in gulf countries. Dubai-based indian, Saurabh Upadhyay, asked Muslims to “accept they were the source of the pandemic” and called for the death of Jamaat members, describing them as “terrorists”. “the level of hubris of the Hindutva fascists shocked people throughout the world, changing previously held opinions,” Dr Farhan Mujahid Chak, who teaches political science in the gulf Studies programme at Qatar University, told Al-Jazeera. it is noteworthy that in the past month, at least six Hindus working in the gulf region have lost their jobs or have been charged for their social media posts. About 8.5 million indians live and work in gulf countries, a significant number of them Hindus. india is rocking the boat with its extremist Hindutva mentality and jeopardizing its $100 billion trade with the gCC countries. “Every year, more than $55 billion are transferred to india from the gulf countries, and more than $120 billion annually from all Muslim countries. indians (mostly Hindus) are treated well in these countries,” Kuwait-based activist Abdur Rahman Nassar tweeted. “in return, how are Muslims treated in india?” he asked.

Another Kuwaiti national, lawyer and director of international Human Rights group, Mejbel al-Sharika, tweeted that he will “adopt the cause

of Muslims in india” at the UN Human Rights Council in geneva “for free”.

On April 20, in what was a clear sign of the issue escalating in the Arab world, Kuwait expressed its “deep concern” over the treatment of india’s Muslims and asked the OiC to intervene.

“Did those who commit crimes against humanity against Muslims in india and violate their rights think that Muslims in the world will remain silent about these crimes and do not move politically, legally and economically against them?” a statement by the general secretariat of the Kuwait Council of Ministers said.

Earlier, on April 18, the OiC had issued a statement, urging india to take urgent steps to “stop the growing tide of islamophobia” in the country.

A day after the OiC statement, indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi tweeted: “Covid-19 does not see race, religion, colour, caste, creed, language or borders before striking. Our response and conduct thereafter should attach primacy to unity and brotherhood. We are in this together.”

Sultan Barakat, Drector of the Centre for Conflict and Humanitarian Studies at Qatar’s Doha institute, told Al-Jazeera that people in the gulf countries “felt outraged” over the way indian Muslims were being blamed for the coronavirus pandemic. “Such stupid assertions angered people here, not only because it is islamophobic but more importantly, because it is counterproductive to a global pandemic that is blind to religion and recognizes no borders,” he said.

“Millions of indians have been living in Arab countries for decades with hardly any discrimination against indians─ Hindu, Muslim or any other. Such islamophobic comments are particularly hurtful when originating from individuals who have lived and worked in the gulf.” india’s former ambassador to the UAE, talmiz Ahmed, called the indians who posted comments against the Arabs and Muslims in india “extremely foolish individuals with very limited knowledge of politics or international affairs”.

Simultaneously, on 30 April, the US Commission on international Religious Freedom dropped a bomb when its 2020 report urged the State Department to designate india as a “country of particular concern” over “severe violations” of religious freedom. Although india rejected the US report, calling it “biased”, it will be hard for the country’s Hindu nationalist government to ignore a growing global concern over the targeting of india’s Muslims. in a concerted effort in damage control, indian media is propagating that a foreign security agency is behind the growing trend of spoiling india’s image in the gulf countries. india will have to control its loose cannons indulging in islamophobia. it may remain oblivious to Pakistan’s concerns regarding the targeting of indian Muslims, but it cannot ignore the loud and clear condemnation by the gCC states and the OiC. Sultan M Hali is a retired Group Captain and author of the book Defence & Diplomacy.

Currently he is a columnist, analyst and TV talk show host.

tURKiSH television series Resurrection: Ertugrulis set to break aworld record.in this series shows our religion islamic values, traditions, customs and culture.there are many examples of Muslims who have completely forgotten their religion.

All the fighters who have gone through islam who have done something for islam, they must have a spiritual aspect, behind them there must be some spiritual personality (Wali Allah) whose duty is imposed by Allah. Pick up the history from the beginning of islam till now even today if anyone is doing any duty for islam and for the Muslim Ummah then they must have some spiritual aspect(Sheikh Mohi-ud-Din ibn Al-Arabi) A character like this is shown who takes people on a straight path. He tells people about islam, the Qur’an and the Holy Prophet (PBUH).

Fighters like Ertugrul ghazi are rare in history, but unfortunately our generation does not know them. One is the leader, one is the man, one is the mujahid, one is the admin.whose life has been based entirely on islamic slogans.this is the reason for its success.Never let the self prevail over the truth. What he did was to exalt the religion of Allah. His life has been a constant struggle and he has never sat comfortable. Every day a new challenge, every day a new goal. this is a great example of brotherhood Children who had no one were raised by the chief like their own children.then his loyalty did not refrain from sacrificing his life for him.Justice is the real purpose of life Justice has never been called. Whether this. Why is it not the fault of his family?A far-sighted man who did not see the obvious things that came out with his conscience completely sincere.

Don’t miss out the weariness of Muslims treason to be greedy Playing in the hands of disbelief for personal gain He pulled himself out of all of them.A man who never gave up He was also imprisoned and tortured. there were also allegations i also went to prison.

But still pulled a star of a shining sun.

What was behind it was just a matter of right and justice which made it immortal.At the highest level of trust, Faiz Man, who never wavered, was given by his brothers and his tribesmen against his state, but he kept on giving.

Not only sound education but his alertness and dedication too are most required.An excellent spy management.Pioneer of Jihad.

Which is abandoned by Muslims today When someone talks today, the whole society covers him in a strange way in this case, it is Nijaat ha.An eternal life.today, no one mentions socalled peace-loving leaders in the same way as Ertgirl does.Don’t call them dead today, they are alive there is no mention of Yazid in Karbala, such as imam al-Mukam. it is done.

A pioneer of interest free economic system Who does not spare his son.the one who feeds his meth to sit with him.

Nowadays, this is not the case.When the false Makdas was victorious, Hazrat Amr R. And how about a slave if he remembers.

MALEEHA SHoAiB islamabad

Useless time iN today’s modern world all of us have an approach to online shopping sites. But not everyone feels inclined towards online shopping because of different reasons. i always receive reminders and messages from different brands and companies that encourage me to visit their sites to avail of seasonal sales and discounts. instead of developing my interest these untimely and unnecessary messages are becoming a headache for me. Whenever my notification tone rings, i check it up because i don’t want to miss an important message from my fellow students or teachers: as online classes are being conducted by universities. But when i find out such lame message related web shopping, it disappoints me. Not everyone has time and necessity to read and follow such message. i accept that most people find these messages useful for them because they differ in their interests but not all of us are the same. interested people can visit the websites of these brands on their own because most of them are from elite class and they know how to explore their point of interest. But let’s not forget, that still there are people who use mobile phones just as a tool of communication especially the old people who contact their children through mobile phones. One cannot Denny that these messages are troublesome fro such people. Brands and companies should think over this and plan their strategy accordingly.

ArSALAN kHAN Lahore

Friday, 15 May, 2020

08 WORLD VIEW

Managing the coMing global debt crisis THE DEVELOPING WORLD IS ON THE CUSP OF ITS WORST DEBT CRISIS SINCE 1982

Project Syndicate

t

BARRY EICHENGREEN

HE economic crisis that has befallen emerging and developing economies is being treated as temporary, with a moratorium on interest payments and a promise of commercial credits remaining valid only through the end of the year. In other words, the policy response is woefully inadequate to these countries' situation.

The developing world is on the cusp of its worst debt crisis since 1982. Back then, three years had to pass before creditors mounted the concerted response known as the Baker Plan, named after then-US Treasury Secretary James Baker. This time, fortunately, G20 governments have responded more quickly, calling for a moratorium on

payments by low-income countries.

Predictably, perhaps, the G20’s declaration resembles the Baker Plan. There’s just one problem: the Baker Plan didn’t work.

The crisis currently engulfing the emerging and developing world is unprecedented.

More than $100 billion of financial capital has flowed out of these markets – three times as much as in the first two months of the 2008 global financial crisis.

Remittances are poised to fall by an additional $100 billion this year. Developing countries’ oil and gas revenues may plunge by 85%. Global trade is on course to fall by up to 32%, three times as much as in 2009.

All this is unfolding against the backdrop of a plague of locusts in Africa.

The financial context is an international monetary system that is still disproportionately dollar-based. For five years, we have been reassured that emerging economies have fully atoned for their “original sin.” In other words, their governments now can borrow in their own currencies, allowing them greater leeway to use monetary and fiscal policies.

Unfortunately, this observation ignores the inconvenient truth that these countries’ private companies borrow in dollars. It ignores that the dollar debts of emerging markets (excluding China) have

doubled since 2008.

It also ignores that emerging markets, aside from the “Favored 4” (Mexico, Brazil, Singapore, and South Korea), lack swap lines with the US Federal Reserve. True, the Fed recently added a “repo facility” through which central banks can borrow dollars against their holdings of US Treasury securities. But that is cold comfort to countries that have already run down their reserves.

All of this means that, when it comes to the stabilizing use of monetary and fiscal policies, emerging markets are hamstrung.

Which is why we are back to Baker Plan 2.0. The G20 has offered to suspend interest payments on intergovernmental loans for the poorest countries. Private creditors, for their part, agreed to roll over an additional $8 billion worth of commercial debt. That, at least, is something.

But, to borrow the baseball apostle Yogi Berra’s line, it is also “déjà vu all over again.” The Baker Plan likewise proceeded on the premise that the shock was transient and that a temporary debt standstill would be enough. Creditors would roll over their loans. Growth would resume. Interest arrears then would be paid off once the crisis passed.

This of course was not the case. There was no “Phoenix miracle” in low- and middle-income countries; instead, there was a

The New York Times surrendered to an outrage mob. Journalism will suffer for it

lost decade. Not only were emerging markets unable to repay; because their debts had not been restructured, they also were unable to borrow.

The creditors’ commitment to put in new money was particularly problematic. In practice, each bank preferred that other banks contribute new finance – a free-rider problem if ever there was one.

By 1989, seven unproductive years after the onset of the crisis, the Baker Plan finally was superseded by the Brady Plan, named after a subsequent US Treasury secretary, Nicholas Brady. Debts were written down.

Bank loans were converted into bonds – often a menu of securities from which investors selected their preferred terms and maturities.

Advanced-economy governments facilitated the transaction by providing “sweeteners” – subsidies that collateralized the new securities and enhanced their liquidity.

Today’s crisis is also being treated as temporary, with a moratorium on interest payments and a promise of commercial credits remaining valid only through the end of the year. The reality is different. Weak global growth and depressed primary commodity prices will persist. Supply chains will be reorganized and shortened, auguring further disruptions of trade. Receipts from tourism and remittances will not pick up anytime

JONATHAN HAIDT

NADINE STROSSEN

STEVEN PINKER

Politico In a time in which even a virus has become the subject of partisan disinformation and myth-making, it’s essential that mainstream journalistic institutions reaffirm their bona fides as disinterested purveyors of fact and honest brokers of controversy. In this regard, a recent course of action by the New York Times is cause for alarm.

On December 27, 2019, the Times published a column by their opinion journalist Bret Stephens, “The Secrets of Jewish Genius,” and the ensuing controversy led to an extraordinary response by the editors.

Stephens took up the question of why Ashkenazi Jews are statistically overrepresented in intellectual and creative fields. This disparity has been documented for many years, such as in the 1995 book Jews and the New American Scene by the eminent sociologists Seymour Martin Lipset and Earl Raab.

In his Times column, Stephens cited statistics from a more recent peer-reviewed academic paper, coauthored by an elected member of the National Academy of Sciences. Though the authors of that paper advanced a genetic hypothesis for the overrepresentation, arguing that Ashkenazi Jews have the highest average IQ of any ethnic group because of inherited traits, Stephens did not take up that argument. In fact, his essay quickly set it aside and argued that the real roots of Jewish achievement are culturally and historically engendered habits of mind.

Nonetheless, the column incited a furious and ad hominem response. Detractors discovered that one of the authors of the paper Stephens had cited went on to express racist views, and falsely claimed that Stephens himself had advanced ideas that were “genetic” (he did not), “racist” (he made no remarks about any race) and “eugenicist” (alluding to the discredited political movement to improve the human species by selective breeding, which was not remotely related to anything Stephens wrote).

It would have been appropriate for the

New York Times to acknowledge the controversy, to publish one or more replies, and to allow Stephens and his critics to clarify the issues. Instead, the editors deleted parts of the column—not because anything in it had been shown to be factually incorrect but because it had become controversial.

Worse, the explanation for the deletions in the Editors’ Note was not accurate about the edits the paper made after publication.

The editors did not just remove “reference to the study.” They expurgated the article’s original subtitle (which explicitly stated “It’s not about having higher IQs”), two mentions of Jewish IQs, and a list of statistics about Jewish accomplishment: “During the 20th century, [Ashkenazi Jews] made up about 3 percent of the U.S. population but won 27 percent of the U.S. Nobel science prizes and 25 percent of the ACM Turing awards. They account for more than half of world chess champions.” These statistics about Jewish accomplishments were quoted directly from the study, but they originated in other studies. So, even if the Times editors wanted to disavow the paper Stephens referenced, the newspaper could have replaced the passage with quotes from the original sources. The Times’ handling of this column sets three pernicious precedents for American journalism.

First, while we cannot know what drove the editors’ decision, the outward appearance is that they surrendered to an outrage mob, in the process giving an imprimatur of legitimacy to the false and ad hominem attacks against Stephens.

The Editors’ Note explains that Stephens “was not endorsing the study or its authors’ views,” and that it was not his intent to “leave an impression with many readers that [he] was arguing that Jews are genetically superior.” The combination of the explanation and the post-publication revision implied that such an impression was reasonable. It was not.

Unless the Times reverses course, we can expect to see more such mobs, more retractions, and also preemptive rejections from editors fearful of having to make such retractions. Newspapers risk forfeiting decisions to air controversial or unorthodox ideas to outrage mobs, which are driven by the passions of their most ideological police rather than the health of the intellectual commons.

Second, the Times redacted a published essay based on concerns about retroactive moral pollution, not about accuracy. While it is true that an author of the paper Stephens

mentioned, the late anthropologist Henry Harpending, made some deplorable racist remarks, that does not mean that every point in every paper he ever coauthored must be deemed radioactive. Facts and arguments must be evaluated on their content. Will the Times and other newspapers now monitor the speech of scientists and scholars and censor articles that cite any of them who, years later, say something offensive? Will it crowdsource that job to Twitter and then redact its online editions whenever anyone quoted in the Times is later “canceled”?

Third, for the Times to “disappear” passages of a published article into an inaccessible memory hole is an Orwellian act that, thanks to the newspaper’s actions, might now be seen as acceptable journalistic practice. It is all the worse when the editors’ published account of what they deleted is itself inaccurate. This does a disservice to readers, historians and journalists, who are left unable to determine for themselves what the controversy was about, and to Stephens, who is left unable to defend himself against readers’ worst suspicions.

We strongly oppose racism, anti-Semitism and all forms of bigotry. And we believe that the best means of combating them is the open exchange of ideas. The Times’s retroactive censoring of passages of a published article appears to endorse a different view. And in doing so, it hands ammunition to the cynics and obfuscators who claim that every news source is merely an organ for its political coalition.

Pamela Paresky writes for Psychology Today and is a visiting lecturer at the University of Chicago. She served as primary researcher and in-house editor for The Coddling of the American Mind. Her current project is Habits of a Free Mind: Psychology for Democracy.

Jonathan Haidt is the Thomas Cooley Professor of Ethical Leadership at New York University Stern School of Business. He is the author of The Coddling of the American Mind (with Greg Lukianoff).

Nadine Strossen is the John Marshall Harlan II Professor of Law Emerita at New York Law School and is the immediate pastpresident of the ACLU. She is the author of HATE: Why We Should Resist It With Free Speech, Not Censorship.

Steven Pinker is the Johnstone Family Professor in the Department of Psychology at Harvard University. He is the author of Enlightenment Now.

Barry Eichengreen is Professor of Economics at the University of California, Berkeley, and a former senior policy adviser at the International Monetary Fund. His latest book is The Populist Temptation: Economic Grievance and Political Reaction in the Modern Era.

We can't reopen schools while a rare Covid-linked disease is spreading

FOR THE TIMES TO ‘DISAPPEAR’ PASSAGES OF A PUBLISHED ARTICLE INTO AN INACCESSIBLE MEMORY HOLE IS AN ORWELLIAN ACT THAT, THANKS TO THE NEWSPAPER’S ACTIONS, MIGHT NOW BE SEEN AS ACCEPTABLE JOURNALISTIC PRACTICE PAMELA PARESKY

soon. And unless the debt overhang is addressed, capital flows will not resume.

Now – and not seven years from now – is the time for a new Brady Plan, in which debts rendered unsustainable through no fault of the borrowers are written down and converted into new instruments. This can be done without destabilizing the banks, because emergingmarket bonds are held mainly outside the banking system. A large-scale conversion would also be an occasion for many countries to issue innovative instruments with stabilizing properties, such as GDP-indexed and commodity-price-indexed bonds, without requiring them to pay a novelty premium.

This debt crisis is also a humanitarian crisis and a global public-policy crisis. The appropriate entity to organize the response is therefore the International Monetary Fund, not the Institute of International Finance, the house organ of the creditors (as recommended by the G20). As a United Nations organization, the IMF could request that Chapter VII of the UN Charter be invoked to shield debtors from disruptive legal action by opportunistic investors. A crisis of this magnitude warrants no less.

indePendent JAMES MOORE

Some spectacularly stupid narratives have emerged from the pandemic that Britain is at the European epicentre of. The ones surrounding schools are a case in point. They make it very clear that it isn’t just on matters concerning Brexit that this country and its government excel themselves in all-round s**t-headery.

The story goes something like this: Teachers, and especially teaching assistants who get paid 39p and a packet of fruit gums if they’re lucky, aren’t really people so we can send the kids back because they’re clear; they don’t get Covid-19. So let’s chuck ‘em in together, and let them do what kids do; get mucky, hug each other, spit at each other, and sometimes at their teachers and teaching assistants (who aren’t people, see above).

They need to learn! And (more to the point) get out from under our feet. If that means their educators have to take one for the team, so be it. This is a war, dammit.

Except, it seems that maybe children can get burned by the virus. Rarely, it should be said. Covid-19 is a much bigger issue for their grandparents (and we seem to have forgotten that they’re people too).

But it has recently emerged that a number of kids are getting hit, and in a quite nasty way, from a rare inflammatory disease that can prove fatal.

"This shouldn't stop parents letting their children exit lockdown," Russell Viner, president of the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health said.

Yes, ok, it’s probably true that the bigger risk posed by allowing them to emerge blinking into the sunlight has four wheels, an exhaust pipe, and a muttonhead holding a mobile phone in one hand at the wheel.

But the striking thing about the novel coronavirus SARS-CoV-2, which I can speak to having dealt with six weeks of surreally weird and unpleasant sickness, is how much we don’t know.

The short little strand of RNA that encodes it is having an effect on human beings that those of a religious bent might describe as “demonic”.

The emergence of inflammatory disease among children is just the latest in a series of unexpected twists. They outdo anything M. Knight “Sixth Sense” Shyamalan has yet conceived.

There is also little confidence that children won’t spread the thing to their families and spark a fresh round of cases. Let’s not forget that.

Combine all this with a government characterised by a murderous mixture of callousness and incompetence, and is it any wonder that a change.org petition calling for parents to be given the option to keep their children at home has topped 500,000 signatures and counting?

Is it any wonder that teachers’ unions have baulked in the face of ministers wagging their fingers and talking at them?

If I were working for the National Education Union or NASUWT, the Teachers’ Union, I’d be paying close attention to Section 44 of the 1996 Employment Rights Act. It confers the right to walk out without detriment on employees who first raise health and safety concerns.

They may have to make use of it because it doesn’t appear that the government is minded to listen, just as it didn’t when people were screaming “care homes, care homes, care homes”. Thousands of dead residents and their carers stand as mute testimony to that.

In the meantime, we’ve been treated to a dismal parade of headlines falsely accusing unions of being wreckers for daring to raise the issue of their members' health, and perhaps now the health of the children they teach, and of their families. It doesn’t take an epidemiologist to guess who’s been feeding spin to the writers of the stories they appear above.

And then there's Denmark. Denmark has reopened its schools, as the BBC was keen to show us this morning. The crucial difference between Denmark and the UK, however, is that Denmark got to grips with the issue early.

It didn’t have a prime minister who waltzed around pooh-poohing the danger and shaking hands with people to show just what a tough guy he was.

It hasn’t racked up a death toll topped only by that of the US. It also has smaller class sizes, and has handled schools reopening with care. The ministers in Denmark's government appear to have engaged their brains.

Children’s education matters and they would surely benefit from being able to get back into the classroom. I’ve watched my own kids struggle while working through an online curriculum, so I can see that clearly.

It is also the case that some people are being left on the horns of a horrible dilemma with the government’s “partial and conditional” lifting of the lockdown. Some bosses are already showing a lamentable lack of sympathy over their inability to access childcare.

But that doesn’t change the fact that the first order of business should be keeping people safe, and alive.

There may be solutions to the challenges faced by schools. But finding them demands engagement and flexibility and there isn’t much sign of that in Whitehall at the moment.

The NASUWT’s call for the government to “step back” from its June 1 partial reopening plan is therefore well made.

Friday, 15 May, 2020

BUSINESS 09

HAfeez SHAikH exPeCTS 2PC GDP GrowTH iN NexT fiSCAl yeAr

CORPORATE CORNER

ISLAMABAD

KARACHI: Considering the growing need to strengthen the national healthcare systems in the fight against COVID-19, JS Bank, Mahvash and Jahangir Siddiqui Foundation and its partners have donated over Rs10 million to the Sindh Institute of Urology and Transplantation (SIUT).

LAHORE: A team from CR-NORINCO pose for a group photo following the successful integrated test and commissioning witness test of the project.

CCP launches 'paperless' merger application system BUSINESS DESK In order to facilitate the local and foreign investors intending to invest in Pakistan through mergers, acquisitions, and joint ventures, the Competition Commission of Pakistan (CCP) has launched an 'Online Merger and Acquisition Application' filing system.

Pakistan is a compulsory merger regime where companies/undertakings seeking mergers, acquisitions or JVs, must apply for clearance from the CCP under section 11 of the Competition Act, 2010. "The CCP, keeping in view the difficulties faced by the local and foreign investors in filing the merger applications in paper form amid the COVID-19 pandemic, has launched the online application filing system," the commission said in a statement. "Through this system, companies can submit the required documents electronically using a predefined format through an online software application provided by the CCP." An undertaking anywhere in Pakistan can now request for 'Merger and Acquisition NOC' and also track the application online through this system, which can be accessed at CCP’s website. Moreover, to clear the backlog of various cases pending at CCP, hearings have been resumed and keeping the health and safety of the respondents at forefront amid COVID-19, they have been allowed to participate in the hearings using video conferencing and other online tools. This week, the commission conducted two hearings using video conferencing. For the facilitation of the general public, CCP’s online Complaint Management System is in place to facilitate the consumers and businesses in the submission of complaints regarding violations of competition law. Any complaint received at the commission is fed into the online system and a tracking number is issued to the complainant.

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STAFF REPORT

ITH current projections of -1.5 GDP growth rate owing to the impact of COVID-19 pandemic, the country's economy would turn around to witness 2pc growth in upcoming fiscal year (2020-21), Adviser to Prime Minister on Finance and Revenue Dr Abdul Hafeez Shaikh said on Thursday.

Participating in a webinar on "Pakistan Economy: Post COVID-19", organised by the Institute of Chartered Accountant of Pakistan (ICAP), the adviser said that Pakistan was initially expecting around 3pc growth during the current fiscal year, however, it would end up being -1pc to 1.5pc due to coronavirus impact.

"With improvements in corona situation, the GDP rate is expected to grow by 2pc next year,"

he claimed. The adviser resolved that the fiscal deficit, which was projected at 9pc this year as against the target of 7pc, would be brought down next year, while the debt to GDP ratio would also be reduced.

Talking about the post-COVID-19 situation, Shaikh said the contraction in global economy has been badly affecting Pakistani exports, as witnessed in April, when exports had declined by 40pc as compared to the same month last year.

He noted that low economic activity due to countrywide lockdown had increased the ratio of unemployment, while revenue collection had also declined in recent months which would add to the fiscal deficit.

Shaikh said that the government had taken comprehensive measures and had announced a Rs1.2 trillion economic stimulus package to help businesses and vulnerable segments of the society to deal with the challenges of coronavirus.

Exporters urged to adapt to global changes post-coronavirus ISLAMABAD APP

Adviser to Prime Minister on Commerce Abdul Razak Dawood has stressed the need to exploit economic and trade opportunities expected in the global market post-coronavirus pandemic.

"We perceive and expect more opportunities to promote bilateral trade and strengthen linkages with potential markets, including the European Union, China, Central Asian states, Middle East and Africa, once the pandemic is over," he said in an exclusive talk with APP on Thursday.

He stated that coronavirus has changed the world and that business processes would now be completely different. "Such difficult periods always bring out new opportunities, products, and new ways of thinking," he opined.

Dawood further said that the government was equally focusing on all sectors of the economy, including textile, non-textile, agriculture and engineer-

ing sectors, in order to build the country's export potential in the coming months.

Talking about the external trade situation during the past three months, he said Pakistan's export situation was not good, as they declined by around 54pc in April 2020 as compared to the same month of last year. In the first 10 months (July-April) of the current fiscal year (FY20), the overall exports declined by four per cent as compared to the corresponding period of last year.

"The exports had increased by 13pc in February, however, they started reducing from March, following the closure of global markets, declining by 6.5pc as compared to March last year."

However, the adviser said, even during the current lockdown situation, Pakistan exported textile and non-textile products while the country's food exports also increased, especially to the Middle East.

Likewise, he added, exports in steel articles also increased in the last three months despite critical situation.

"The IMF has also been supportive of government's stimulus package, which was introduced by the government to check contraction of the economy, while the package given to construction industry will also help keep economic activities on."

He said that when the government came to power, the country was facing a severe economic crisis, however, tough but necessary decisions were made to rescue the crippling economy.

Due to those policies, he said, the current account deficit was reduced from $20 billion to just $3 billion.

Likewise, stagnant exports started witnessing growth whereas rupee was allowed to find the correct value in the market, he added.

"In addition, confidence was restored in global players and financial institutions after the country entered a programme with IMF, which provided $6 billion. Asian Development Bank (ADB) and World Bank (WB) are also backing the country."

NTDC energises first 500kV HVAC transmission line BUSINESS DESK The National Transmission and Despatch Company (NTDC) has connected the High Voltage Direct Current (HVDC) system with High Voltage Alternating Current (HVAC) system for the first time in Pakistan, according to a statement issued on Thursday. For this purpose, the NTDC spokesman said, around three kilometres long 500kV AC transmission line i.e. 500kV double circuit transmission line on quad-bundled drake conductor, for looping in/out of the second circuit of 500kV Lahore (south) grid station to Sheikhupura transmission line at Balloki Lahore HVDC Converter Station, has been completed and energised.

The spokesman said that the government has planned the installation of about 4,000MW power plants, including imported coal-based power plants at Bin Qasim and Hub and Thar coal-based Power Plants in Thar area of the country.

MARKET DAILY

Fertiliser sector helps stocks add 111 points KARACHI STAFF REPORT

Following the recent trend, indices of the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) continued to move in a narrow range on Thursday, with the benchmark KSE100 Index recording modest gains after a good start to proceedings.

Foreign investors ended the last session (Wednesday) as net sellers, registering a net outflow of $4.08 million.

"Fertiliser sector played an important role in posting gains on the index today, primarily due to the government's announcement of a 'relief pack-

age' for farmers," said an analyst at Arif Habib. "Cement, steel, banks and exploration & production sectors, on the other hand, couldn't excite the investors and remained range-bound."

The KSE-100 Index gathered 303.88 points in early trade to record its intraday high at 33,996.92. It closed higher by 111.86 points at 33,804.90.

Among other indices, the KMI-30 Index accumulated 171.77 points to settle at 54,764.84, while the KSE All Share Index added 135.21 points to end at 24,019.98. Of the total traded shares, 174 advanced and 127 declined.

The overall volumes appreciated

from 219.10 million shares in the previous session to 240.21 million. However, the average traded value declined by 25pc, from $51 million to $38.5 million.

TRG Pakistan Limited (TRG +6.86pc), Unity Foods Limited (UNITY +2.82pc) and Agritech Limited (AGL +18.48pc) topped the volume chart, exchanging 20.95 million, 18.64 million and 14.80 million shares, respectively. Sectors that kept the benchmark index in green included fertiliser (+79.59 points), investment banking (+31.26 points) and food & personal care (+26.66 points). Among the companies, Fauji Fertilizer Com-

pany Limited (FFC +48.08 points), Nestle Pakistan Limited (NESTLE +26.16 points) and Dawood Hercules Corporation Limited (DAWH +26.14 points) remained the top contributors.

The fertiliser sector added 1.94pc to its cumulative market capitalization following the Economic Coordination Committee's approval of a multi-billion agriculture package for farmers. Fatima Fertilizer Company Limited (FATIMA +5.34pc), Fauji Fertilizer Bin Qasim Limited (FFBL +7.47pc), Engro Fertilizer Limited (EFERT +1.19pc) and Arif Habib Corporation Limited (AHCL +1.33pc) closed with decent gains.

Moody’s says Pakistan’s B3 rating under review for downgrade KARACHI ARIBA SHAHID

Moody’s Investors Service (Moody’s) has placed the government of Pakistan’s local and foreign currency long term issuer and senior unsecured B3 ratings under review for downgrade. This comes as a result of the growing expectation regarding the government requesting bilateral sector debt service relief under the recently announced G20 initiative.

Moody's has placed the B3 foreign currency senior unsecured ratings for the Third Pakistan International Sukuk Co Ltd under review for downgrade. The associated payment obligations are, in Moody's view, direct obligations of the Government of Pakistan.

Pakistan's Ba3 local currency bond and deposit ceilings remain unchanged. The B2 foreign currency bond ceiling and the Caa1 foreign currency deposit ceiling are also unchanged. The short-term foreign currency bond and deposit ceilings remain unchanged at Not-Prime. These ceilings act as a cap on the ratings that can be assigned to the obligations of other entities domiciled in the country.

The rating would likely be confirmed at its current level should Moody's conclude

that participation in bilateral official sector debt service relief would unlikely entail default on private sector debt or, if it would, that any losses experienced would likely be minimal.

WHY IS THERE A POSSIBILITY OF A DOWNGRADE: A key reason behind the initiative for a downgrade is the likelihood of Pakistan requesting bilateral debt service relief from G20 creditors following the recently announced initiative. This, as a result will result in losses to private sector creditors.

Due to the spread of COVID-19 and the subsequent impact the lockdown has on the economy, the government has been in the search of relief with regards to its debt. However, while such relief would help the government with fiscal expenditure, the suspension of debt service obligations would weigh negatively on rating.

The G20 has, however, called on private sector creditors to participate in the initiative on comparable items. This suggests that, for the countries that elect to seek official sector debt service relief, the initiative may also lead to the suspension of payments or renegotiation of private sector debt service obligations. the review period will allow the rating agency to assess whether Pakistan’s partici-

pation in the initiative will likely entail default on private sector debt, notwithstanding the intended voluntary nature of private sector participation and the fact that the country has not, to Moody’s knowledge, indicated an interest in extending the debt service relief request to the private sector; and, if so, whether any losses are expected to arise from that participation will be consistent with a lower rating.

Despite the repercussions of the slowdown in economic activity in Pakistan as a result of COVID-19, the ongoing reforms by the government, that point to the developing improvement in credit fundamentals prior to the outbreak, and financing from development partners contain the pressure on the sovereigns liquidity and external positions.

As per Moody’s assessment, the major impact of COVID-19 is on Pakistan’s economic growth which raises fiscal challenges and delays the government’s fiscal consolidation and debt reduction efforts. Moody's expects Pakistan's economy to contract by around 1% in fiscal 2020 (ending June 2020), and to grow by 2-3% in fiscal 2021 - below potential.

This, however, is being countered through effective use of monetary policy and

technical support from development partners, in attempts to hamper the impact on sovereign liquidity and external positions.

Moody’s commented on the lack of trade integration and how Pakistan is a relatively closed economy.

The economic slowdown will weigh on government revenue and modestly raise spending, in turn pushing the fiscal deficit wider to close to 10% of GDP in fiscal 2020.

As a result, Moody's projects the government's debt burden to reach around 85-90% of GDP in fiscal 2020.

However, the government's commitment to fiscal reforms, including under its 2019-22 International Monetary Fund program, provides a crucial anchor for the continued expansion of its revenue base when economic activity gradually normalizes. Overall, Moody's expects that the debt burden will return to a downward trend after the initial shock.

Moody's projects the current account deficit to be relatively narrow, around 2% of GDP in this and the next fiscal year, as lower goods and oil imports offset a fall in remittances inflows.

IMPACT OF CLIMATE CHANGE: Moody’s commented on the seriousness of climate issues with regards to Pakistan by

calling it vulnerable to climate change risk.

Pakistan is significantly exposed to extreme weather events, including tropical cyclones, drought, floods, and extreme temperatures.

In particular, the magnitude and dispersion of seasonal monsoon rainfall influence agricultural sector growth and rural household consumption. The agricultural sector directly accounts for around 20pc of GDP and exports, and nearly 40pc of total employment. As a result, both droughts and floods can create economic, fiscal, and social costs for the sovereign.

Social considerations are material to Pakistan's credit profile. Access to quality healthcare, education, and utilities such as electricity and water remains limited, especially in rural areas, although the government is addressing these issues as a key priority through its "Ehsaas" program that is aimed at reducing poverty and inequality, strengthening social safety nets and promoting human capital development. Moody's regards the coronavirus outbreak as a social risk under its ESG framework, given the substantial implications for public health and safety. For Pakistan, the epidemic exposes the challenge to the government in enhancing healthcare and public services provision.

Friday, 15 May, 2020

10 FOREIGN NEWS

Wave of Covid-19 bankruptCies poses next threat to us eConomy WASHINGTON

L

AGENCIES

ARGER companies have generally survived the initial blow from the coronavirus crisis, but still face existential challenges to get through what will probably be a long and grinding recovery.

Since COVID-19 shuttered much of the global economy, airlines, major retail chains, oil companies and other hard-hit businesses have been able to tap bank facilities and public debt markets for the funds they need to keep paying the bills and stay afloat.

But many firms now bleeding cash are in for a tough ride until the economy fully rebounds, which likely will come only after a vaccine is developed and broadly employed. That has raised worries about a much bigger wave of bankruptcies beyond the handful of retailers that have sought to restructure through the US process known as “Chapter 11.”

The US Congress moved with remarkable speed to approve rescue measures for small businesses, large industries and workers, amounting to nearly $3 trillion.

But that infusion simply “bought time… it postponed” bankruptcies, David Kotok, cofounder of Cumberland Advisors, said of the massive federal push to support the economy. Kotok — who thinks it will take around five years for the US economy to fully recover — expects casualties in other sectors, including travel, leisure, real estate, energy and “more that haven’t surfaced yet,” he told AFP this week.

Federal Reserve Chief Jay Powell warned Wednesday of a potential “wave of bankruptcies” that could cause lasting harm to the world’s largest economy, and said more fiscal support may be needed to prevent the devastation, despite the massive cost. Powell, who has launched a host of key programs to support credit markets and provide funds directly to companies, said there are limits to how far the Fed can go.

“We can make loans to solvent businesses,” Powell said, but cautioned that “The passage of time is all that is needed for a liquidity problem to turn into a solvency problem.”

HIGHER UNCERTAINTY, COSTS: Retailers Neiman Marcus and J. Crew have filed for bankruptcy protection, and though other struggling companies have held on so

far, there are plenty of signs of hardship.

US airlines already have already grounded thousands of planes and hinted at layoffs amid cost cuts, and Boeing Chief Executive David Calhoun said this week it was “most likely” that a major carrier would go under since the travel market is not expected to return to precoronavirus trends for five years.

To save cash, oil driller Nabors Industries plans to suspend its dividend after already cutting expenses and reducing its capital budget, the company said last week.

Still, Credit Suisse said in an analysis that Nabors likely would need relief from its lending agreements by early 2021, which would require the firm to pay higher interest rates.

Royal Caribbean Cruises launched a $3.3 billion bond offering Wednesday, using its ships as collateral. Around 45 percent of guests from canceled cruises have requested cash refunds amid “significant uncertainty regarding worldwide port closures and availability,” the company said in a securities filing. Similar offerings from other cruise companies have demanded interest of more than 12 percent.

Higher borrowing costs are just one reason analysts say it will be difficult for companies in badly-hit industries to be profitable even

once the strictest COVID-19 restrictions are lifted. Until there is a vaccine, many businesses will need to respect social distancing protocols that will be demanded by consumers even if government restrictions ease.

Stores will need to limit the number of consumers who shop, movie theaters will need to keep empty aisles and hotels and cruise ships will be expected to keep guests apart. On top of that, companies will need to adopt impeccable hygiene and provide employees with personal protective equipment, adding cost.

PRICING ‘SURVIVAL’ FINANCING: The Fed’s efforts to support the credit markets are a key reason there have not been more bankruptcies, and Powell acknowledged an “announcement effect” that already helped ease credit strains even before some programs are fully operational.

S&P Global pointed to the Fed’s April 9 announcement allow the central bank to pur-

chase of corporate bonds recently downgraded to “junk” status, which includes Ford, Delta and Occidental Petroleum.

April and March were the two richest months ever for corporate debt issuance, and since March 23, investment-grade companies have raised nearly $530 billion in US credit markets, according to data from Refinitiv. The speculative, or junk bond market also opened up compared with mid-March, albeit at higher interest rates and with shorter-duration issues, S&P said.

In one indication of the tension, United Airlines last week withdrew a $2.25 billion offering. Sources said the carrier planned to revive the offer when market conditions improve. Kotok said the issue is the cost of the “gap-financing” needed to survive over two or three years. “What is the price that market agents want to be paid to finance the gap across the valley?”

Amazon could be next virus hot zone: scientist BELEM AGENCIES

The next pandemic could come from the Amazon rainforest, warns Brazilian ecologist David Lapola, who says human encroachment on animals’ habitats — a likely culprit in the coronavirus outbreak — is soaring there because of rampant deforestation.

Researchers say the urbanization of once-wild areas contributes to the emergence of zoonotic diseases — those that pass from animals to humans. That includes the new coronavirus, which scientists believe originated in bats before passing to humans in China’s rapidly urbanizing Hubei province, probably via a third species. Lapola, 38, who studies how human activity will reshape the future ecosystems of tropical forests, says the same processes are in play in the Amazon.

“The Amazon is a huge reservoir of viruses,” he told AFP in an interview. “We’d better not try our luck.” The world’s biggest rainforest is disappearing at an alarming rate.

Last year, in far-right President Jair Bolsonaro’s first year in office, deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon surged 85 percent, to more than 10,000 square kilometers (3,900 square miles) — an area nearly the size of Lebanon.

The trend is continuing this year. From January to April, 1,202 square kilometers were wiped out, setting a new record for the first four months of the year, according to data based on satellite images

from Brazil’s National Space Research Institute (INPE).

That is bad news, not just for the planet but for human health, said Lapola, who holds a PhD in earth system modeling from the Max Planck Institutes in Germany and works at the University of Campinas in Brazil.

“When you create ecological disequilibrium… that’s when a virus can jump” from animals to humans, he said.

In virus-hit Iraq, shrine visits go virtual BAGHDAD AGENCIES

The spread of the new coronavirus in Iraq has prompted the closure of major mosques to visitors, including the ornate burial place of Hazrat Ali (R.A.), the fourth Islamic caliph and relative of the Prophet Mohammed (PBUH), in the shrine city Najaf.

Just a few hundred meters from the mausoleum, Rubaye — at home because of lockdown measures — extends one hand towards the sky in prayer and holds his mobile phone with the other. On the screen flash images of the shrine: its large plaza, the marble floors and intricate calligraphy — and finally, the glittering mausoleum itself. “I visit you, Commander of the Faithful,” Rubaye recites, adding a COVID-19-mandated amendment: “…from a distance.”

Iraq has reported over 3,000 coronavirus infections and more than 110 deaths since its first case was recorded nearly three months ago in Najaf.

Authorities have since imposed a nationwide lockdown that has shut airports, restaurants and schools and prohibited travel between provinces.

‘VALID’ VISIT: The pandemic has battered Iraq’s religious tourism sector, which constitutes around half of its non-oil economy. A normal year would see millions of Shiite pilgrims visit shrines in Najaf and nearby Karbala, travelling from neighbouring Iran or even India.

The billions of dollars generated from pilgrims an-

CMYK

nually create jobs for hundreds of thousands of Iraqis — constituting almost the only form of tourism in a country ravaged by decades of conflict. But the narrow alleyways radiating out from the shrines, typically bustling with locals and tourists en route to prayer, are now eerily empty.

Wooden stalls where religious trinkets and other souvenirs are usually laid out have been shrouded in plastic for weeks. The sounds of an occasional tweeting bird and the call to prayer five times daily — followed by an addendum to do so at home to avoid crowds — have replaced the din of bartering, clinking coffee cups and shuffling feet.

“In these current circumstances, with the confinement imposed by governments across the world, virtual pilgrimages are as valid as the normal ones,” said Ali alAtabi, a sheikh in Najaf’s Old City. Religious tourism had already seen a dip since October when anti-government protests erupted in Baghdad and across the country’s Shiite-majority south.

OLD RITES, NEW TECH: The closures are particularly jarring as most shrines remained open during the bloodiest years of Iraq’s sectarian violence, which saw suicide bombers target religious sites and densely populated neighbourhoods. But over time, some shrines have developed new ways for the faithful to experience a centuries-old tradition. TV channels air round-the-clock images from the mausoleums, and in Najaf, a hotline provides a free audio guide to visit the site.

Friday, 15 May 2020

SaInz To SuCCEED VETTEL aT FErrarI aS rICCIarDo hEaDS To MCLarEn Barcleona

S

Agencies

PANISH driver Carlos Sainz will replace four-time Formula One world champion Sebastian Vettel at Ferrari next season, while Daniel Ricciardo has signed a “multi-year” deal with McLaren from 2021.

Sainz, 25, will leave McLaren following the 2020 season to partner 22-year-old Charles Leclerc at Ferrari, forming the team’s youngest pairing in the past 50 years. “With five seasons already behind him, Carlos has proved to be very talented and has shown that he has the technical ability and the right attributes to make him an ideal fit with our family,” Ferrari team boss Mattia Binotto said in a statement on Thursday.

“We’ve embarked on a new cycle with the aim of getting back to the top in Formula 1. It will be a long journey, not without its difficulties,” he added, referring to the additional challenges created by the coronavirus pandemic.

“We believe that a driver pairing with the talent and personality of Charles and Carlos... will be the best possible combination to help us reach the goals we have

set ourselves.” Sainz emerged in pole position to succeed Vettel at Maranello after the German announced Tuesday he was quitting Ferrari after talks over a new contract broke down.

Sainz, whose father, also Carlos, is a two-time world rally champion, has previously driven for Red Bull’s feeder team Toro Rosso and Renault before impressing with McLaren last season.

He secured the once all-conquering British team’s first podium place in almost six years in Brazil last year.

Signing Sainz will also end any lingering speculation about six-time champion Lewis Hamilton leaving Mercedes for Ferrari. “I am very happy that I will be driving for Scuderia Ferrari in 2021 and I’m excited about my future with the team,” said Sainz, who is expected to play a supporting role alongside Leclerc. “I still have an important year ahead with McLaren Racing and I’m really looking forward to going racing again with them this season.” doMino eFFeCT: Australian Ricciardo will drive for McLaren next season when

he takes over the seat left vacant by Sainz.

Ricciardo, 30, will line up alongside Britain’s Lando Norris, 20, in 2021 after he leaves Renault at the end of this season.

“Daniel is a proven race-winner and his experience, commitment and energy will be a valuable addition to McLaren and our mission to return to the front of the field,” said McLaren team principal Andreas Seidl. “With Daniel and Lando as teammates, I believe we have two racers who will continue to excite our fans and help the team grow.”

Ricciardo has won seven races and recorded 29 podium finishes since his F1 debut with the HRT team at the British Grand Prix in 2011.

He drove for Red Bull’s junior team Toro Rosso in 2012 and 2013 before making the jump to the flagship Red Bull team in 2014. He finished third in the drivers’ standings in 2014 and 2016. However, he failed to muster a single top-three finish in a disappointing first season at Renault.

Ricciardo’s exit at Renault could open the door for Fernando Alonso to reunite with the team he won world titles with in 2005 and 2006, although they are reportedly keen to find an in-house replacement.

Alonso, 38, quit F1 in 2018 but hasn’t ruled out a return to the sport.

Dortmund braced for ‘most unusual derby in history’as Bundesliga returns Berlin Agencies

Du Plessis backs double quarantine to salvage T20 World Cup Cape Town: Former South Africa skipper Faf du Plessis said quarantining players for two weeks before and after the Twenty20 World Cup could allow it to take place in Australia this year despite the coronavirus pandemic. The tournament is due to be played in OctoberNovember but there is uncertainty after the cancellation of other major sporting events.

Some countries have also grounded international flights. “I read that travelling is going to be an issue for lots of countries,” du Plessis said during a live conversation on Facebook with Bangladeshi opener Tamim Iqbal late Wednesday. “Obviously Australia is not affected like other countries, but to get people from Bangladesh, South Africa or India where there is more danger with the virus, obviously it’s a health risk to them. “But you can actually go in before the tournament (for) two weeks’ isolation and then play the tournament and afterwards, two weeks’ isolation.” The game’s governing body, the International Cricket Council, on Tuesday postponed qualifiers for next year’s women’s World Cup and the 2022 Under-19 World Cup. Both were due to be held in July.

The ICC said in April that planning for the Twenty20 World Cup was still going ahead as scheduled. Agencies

Borussia Dortmund’s young stars Erling Braut Haaland and Jadon Sancho will be hunting more goals on Saturday in “the most unusual derby in history” against Schalke as the German Bundesliga returns behind locked doors.

Dortmund usually expect 82,000 spectators at Signal Iduna Park for a home derby, but the stadium will be near-empty with only a handful of media and officials admitted. Even national team coach Joachim Loew will not be allowed in to watch his Germany players live on their return to action.

“It will be the most unusual derby in history,” former Dortmund captain Sebastian Kehl told German daily Welt.

Normally, a home derby against Schalke comes alive “through the fans, from their emotions, from the enthusiasm in the stadium,” Kehl added. Dortmund are looking to close the four-point gap behind leaders Bayern Munich, who visit Union Berlin on Sunday. However, Dortmund’s iconic south stand, dubbed “The Yellow Wall” and normally packed with 25,000 passionate fans will - like the rest of the stadium - stand empty.

“The players will miss the chance for extra motivation by the fans and the atmosphere,” admitted Kehl.

While league action in England, Spain and Italy is still at least a month away, the German Football League (DFL) has drawn up detailed hygiene

SPORTS 11

West Indies players will not be forced to tour England: chief Trinidad: West Indies cricketers will not be “coerced” into touring England if they are reluctant to do so during the coronavirus crisis, according to West Indies chief executive Johnny Grave. The Caribbean side are due to travel to play a three-Test series, which has been postponed until July at the earliest. Grave said a “wide pool” of players had been consulted and none of them would be obliged to tour. “There will be no coercing players into this tour,” Grave told BBC Radio.

“If you grow up in a country where the population might only be 60,000 or 70,000 people, to be thinking the UK has had over 30,000 deaths is a massive figure.” The England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) is considering the use of bio-secure venues and quarantining players. Matches would likely be staged behind closed doors. Grave said he was optimistic the series would go ahead but that would depend on whether it was deemed safe.

“The ECB (England and Wales Cricket Board) have got a long way to go to get UK government approval to be absolutely certain that bio-secure cricket will work,” he said.

Grave admitted that with West Indies players coming from different islands that have different levels of restrictions due to the virus, getting them onto one plane would be a challenge but not “insurmountable”. “The players would be very much in a bubble,” said Grave. “We said to the ECB we’d want four weeks of preparation before the first Test.

We’re probably looking at three back-to-back Test matches. Agencies

Jose Mourinho ‘desperate’ for Premier League return

guidelines to restart.

The Bundesliga is set to become the first top European league to return during the pandemic, which has so far claimed around 7,700 lives in Germany.

At games around the country, substitutes will wear masks, goal celebrations will be replaced by elbow taps while handshakes and hugs before kickoff are a no-go. “A lot of things will start from scratch on Saturday,” Dortmund winger Julian Brandt told Sky. “There will be no real advantages and disadvantages to playing home or away. “In the end, it depends on who best accepts this situation and can best deal with it.”

The pressure is on Haaland, 19, and

Sancho, 20, to continue their goal-rich partnership, despite the empty terraces, and steer injury-depleted Dortmund to victory. Midfield enforcers Emre Can and Axel Witsel are out with muscle strains, while playmaker Marco Reus is recovering from a groin problem.

Haaland was in stunning form when the league was suspended in mid-March with nine goals in eight Bundesliga appearances since joining from Salzburg. Sancho also terrorised defences with 14 goals and 16 assists in 23 league games. At third-placed RB Leipzig, Germany striker Timo Werner is aiming to move closer to his goal target for the season against Freiburg on Saturday.

London: Tottenham manager Jose Mourinho says he is “desperate” for the return of Premier League action despite mounting concerns about the English top-flight’s restart plans. Several stars including Sergio Aguero, Raheem Sterling and Danny Rose have gone public with fears about resuming the season during the coronavirus crisis. Some top-flight bosses are also understood to have expressed concerns about the plan to play from mid-June when they spoke during a League Managers Association meeting on Wednesday. But Mourinho said he would relish the chance to get back to work despite the challenges and risks posed by the pandemic. “I have not asked for any delay,” Mourinho said in a statement on Thursday. “I want to train, and I am desperate for the Premier League to return as soon as it is safe to do so, particularly now we are seeing other leagues preparing to return to action.” Mourinho was forced to apologise in April after being spotted breaking lockdown restrictions to hold a training session with midfielder Tanguy Ndombele in a public park. Serge Aurier and Moussa Sissoko also had to say sorry after the Tottenham pair flouted social-distancing guidelines to train together. Despite those incidents, Mourinho is happy with the way his squad have kept themselves fit during the lockdown. Agencies

Ronaldinho closing in on 70 days detention in Paraguay rio Agencies

Brazilian great Ronaldinho’s lawyers are hoping the former world player of the year will be allowed to go home after more than two months of detention in Paraguay over a forged passport.

“We’re hoping to convince the prosecution to allow Ronaldinho and his brother to return to their country. We can do nothing but wait for the investigation to end,” a defense source told AFP. Former Barcelona, AC Milan and Paris Saint-Germain star Ronaldinho and his brother, Robert de Assis Moreira, are facing up to five years in jail if convicted. The brothers spent more than a month behind bars after they were accused of entering Paraguay in possession of false passports.

The 2005 Ballon d’Or winner and his

brother posted bail of $1.6 million and have been under house arrest at the plush Palmaroga Hotel in the historic centre of the Paraguayan capital Asuncion since April 7.

The public prosecutor has six months to investigate the case, and has ordered the arrest of 18 in connection with it.

“There is not one single serious proof that incriminates him,” Rogelio Delgado, president of Paraguay’s footballers union told AFP. “Although he has a luxury prison, it’s very unfair that he’s still being detained,” added Delgado, a former Paraguay international.

The 40-year-old Ronaldinho has been keeping a low profile since being released from behind bars, not least because of coronavirus lockdown measures.

“I was completely caught off guard when I found out that these passports were

not valid,” Ronaldinho told Paraguayan newspaper ABC last month in his only public statement since his release.

Ronaldinho, considered one of the greatest footballers of all time, was crucial in Brazil’s 2002 World Cup win.

He and sibling Robert — who is also his business manager — initially encountered no problems after arriving in Asuncion from neighboring Brazil on March 4.

However, shortly after their arrival, the pair were taken into police custody when investigators raided their hotel following discovery that their passports were fake.

Ronaldinho, given a rock star’s welcome to Asuncion by around 2,000 children and teenagers, said the documents had been given to him by sponsors of a charity working with disadvantaged children.

The investigation has since expanded into a case of possible money laundering.

CMYK

Friday, 15 May, 2020

NEWS

Coronavirus Crisis to shrink world eConomy by 3.2pC: un report NEW YORK

t

AGENCIES

HE United Nations (UN) has projected that the coronavirus pandemic will dwindle the global economy by 3.2% in 2020, wiping out all gains of the last four years.

The UN World Economic Situation and Prospects (WESP) report predicted the sharpest downturn for the global economy since the Great Depression in the 1930s, suggesting that $8.5 trillion will be lost over the next two years.

In January, the UN had estimated the global economy would experience 2.5% growth in 2020. However, now, the UN predicts a modest rebound next year, mostly making up for lost output.

“Developing countries are also likely to experience large fiscal deficits and high public debt,” the report highlighted.

The report also suggested the pan-

demic is causing an increase in poverty and inequality as 34.3 million people are expected to fall below the extreme poverty line this year, with 56% of them in Africa.

Another 130 million are expected to join the list by 2030.

The UN report stated that without “quick breakthroughs” in COVID-19 vaccine and treatment developments, “the post-COVID19 world will likely be vastly different.”

“The possibility of a slow recovery and prolonged economic slump — with rising poverty and inequality — looms large,” the report underscored.

“Stronger development cooperation— supporting efforts to contain the pandemic and extending economic and financial assistance to countries hardest hit by the crisis— will remain critical for accelerating recovery and putting the world back on the trajectory of sustainable development,” it added.

According to data from Johns Hopkins University, an American research institu-

tion, the pandemic has thrown a wrench in economies around the world, as several countries had to shut down businesses to prevent further community spread. The coronavirus has infected more than 4.3 million people worldwide, causing at least 294,155 deaths.

“The global economic outlook has changed drastically since the launch of WESP 2020 in January”, Elliott Harris, UN Chief Economist and Assistant SecretaryGeneral for Economic Development, told reporters at the launch of the report.

“With the large-scale restrictions of economic activities and heightened uncertainties, the global economy has come to a virtual standstill in the second quarter of 2020,” he added. “We are now facing the grim reality of a severe recession of a magnitude not seen since the Great Depression.”

Meanwhile, to fight the pandemic and minimise the impact of a catastrophic eco-

nomic downturn, governments globally are rolling out fiscal stimulus measures that equal roughly 10% of the world’s GDP. Although new infections and COVID19-related death rates have recently slowed, the pandemic’s future course remains uncertain, as does the economic and social consequences that will follow.

Torn between saving lives and reviving the economy, some governments are already beginning to cautiously lift restrictions to jump-start their economies.

But recovery will largely depend on how well public health and fiscal measures work together to stem the spread of the virus, minimising reinfection risks, safeguarding employment and restoring consumer confidence, so that people start spending again.

“The pace and strength of the recovery from the crisis”, explained Harris, will also rest on “the ability of countries to protect jobs and incomes, particularly of the most

PM Imran, world leaders demand free Covid-19 vaccine for all LETTER SIGNED BY OVER 140 WORLD LEADERS SAYS VACCINE SHOULD NOT BE PATENTED, SCIENCE SHOULD BE SHARED AMONG NATIONS ISLAMABAD STAFF REPORT

World leaders past and present insisted on Thursday that any eventual Covid-19 vaccines and treatments should be made available to everyone free of charge.

Prime Minister Imran Khan was among more than 140 signatories of a letter saying any vaccine should not be patented while the science should be shared among nations.

The World Health Assembly, the policy-setting body of the UN’s World Health Organisation (WHO), holds its

annual general meeting next week.

The signatories called on the WHA to rally behind the cause.

“Governments and international partners must unite around a global guarantee which ensures that, when a safe and effective vaccine is developed, it is produced rapidly at scale and made available for all people, in all countries, free of charge,” the letter said.

“The same applies to all treatments, diagnostics, and other technologies for Covid-19.”

The letter was signed by Senegalese President Macky Sall and Ghanaian Pres-

ident Nana Akufo-Addo.

Former presidents and prime ministers among the signatories included Shaukat Aziz, Jan Peter Balkenende, Jose Manuel Barroso, Gordon Brown, Helen Clark, Felipe Gonzalez, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, Aleksander Kwasniewski, Mary McAleese, Olusegun Obasanjo and Juan Manuel Santos.

The letter comes amid fury in France after French pharmaceutical giant Sanofi said it would reserve the first shipments of any Covid-19 vaccine for the United States. The multinational’s chief executive Paul Hudson

Coronavirus may never go away: WHO WASHINGTON AGENCIES

The new coronavirus may never go away and populations around the world will have to learn to live with it, the World Health Organisation (WHO) warned Wednesday.

As some countries around the world begin gradually easing lockdown restrictions imposed in a bid to stop the novel coronavirus from spreading, the WHO said it may never be wiped out entirely.

The virus first emerged in Wuhan in China late last year and has since infected more than 4.2 million people and killed nearly 300,000 worldwide.

“We have a new virus entering the human population for the first time and therefore it is very hard to predict when we will prevail over it,” said Michael Ryan, the WHO’s emergencies director.

“This virus may become just another endemic virus in our communities and this virus may never go away,” he told a

virtual press conference in Geneva. “HIV has not gone away — but we have come to terms with the virus.”

More than half of humanity has been put under some form of lockdown since the coronavirus crisis began. But the WHO warned there was no way to guarantee that easing the restrictions would

not trigger a second wave of infections.

“Many countries would like to get out of the different measures,” said WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.

“But our recommendation is still the alert at any country should be at the highest level possible.”

‘LONG WAY TO GO’: Ryan added that

said the United States would get first dibs because its government was helping to fund the vaccine research.

His comments drew outrage Thursday from officials and health experts.

The letter ahead of the WHA said it was not the time to leave the task of resolving the pandemic to market forces or let the interests of wealthy companies and governments come before the need to save lives.

African Union Chairperson Ramaphosa said: “As the countries of Africa, we are resolute that the Covid-19 vaccine must be patentfree, rapidly made and distributed, and free for all.

“Nobody should be pushed to the back of the vaccine queue because of where they live or what they earn.” there was a “long, long way to go” on the path to returning to normal, insisting that countries would have to stay the course.

“There is some magical thinking going on that lockdowns work perfectly and that unlocking lockdowns will go great. Both are fraught with dangers,” the Irish epidemiologist said.

Ryan also condemned attacks on healthcare workers that were linked to the pandemic, saying more than 35 “quite serious” such incidents were recorded in April alone in 11 countries.

He said the attacks were often overreactions from ill-informed communities — while others were more sinister.

“Covid-19 is bringing out the best in us, but it’s also bringing out some of the worst,” he said. “People feel empowered to take out their frustrations on individuals who are purely trying to help.

“These are senseless acts of violence and discrimination that must be resisted.”

But he insisted that in finding a way to conquer the virus was a chance for humanity to take major steps forward by finding a vaccine and making it widely accessible. “It’s a massive opportunity for the world,” Ryan said.

vulnerable members of our societies”.

Without a quick breakthrough in vaccine development and treatment, he said that “the post-COVID-19 world will likely be vastly different from the one we knew”.

Although a modest rebound of around 3.4%, mostly recovering lost output, is expected for 2021, the report spelt out that “the possibility of a slow recovery and prolonged economic slump, with rising poverty and inequality, looms large”.

Trade and tourism are paralysed, while large deficits and high levels of public debt will pose significant challenges for developing countries and small island States.

The UN forecast makes clear that stronger multilateral support and solidarity to contain the pandemic, along with economic and financial assistance to countries hardest hit by the crisis, will remain “critical for accelerating recovery and putting the world back on the trajectory of sustainable development”.

imF assures pakistan of economic support ISLAMABAD: The International Monetary Fund (IMF) will continue to cooperate with Pakistan for sustainable economic growth in future. This was stated by IMF Resident Representative in Pakistan Teresa Daban Sanchez during a meeting with Federal Minister for Economic Affairs Makhdoom Khusro Bakhtiar on Thursday. The minister appreciated and thanked the IMF's support of $1.386 billion under the Rapid Financing Instrument to address the socio-economic impact of the COVID-19 outbreak. He stated that the government and IMF are working together for much needed structural reforms for fiscal consolidation and long-term sustainable economic growth. STAFF REPORT

Germany charges indian national with spying for raw NEWS DESK German prosecutors have charged an Indian man with spying on the Sikh community and Kashmir activists in Germany for Indian spy agency Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) for more than two years, AlJazeera reported. The federal prosecutor’s office said on Wednesday that espionage charges against the suspect, identified only as Balvir S. in line with German privacy rules, were filed at a state court in Frankfurt.

He is accused of agreeing to pass the information on Sikhs and the Kashmir freedom movement and their relatives to an employee of RAW on or before January 2015. According to prosecutors, the suspect was in regular telephone and personal contact with the Germany-based intelligence officer and passed on information “in numerous cases” until December 2017.

They did not specify whether he is in custody. “He allegedly provided information about figures in the Sikh opposition scene and the Kashmiri movement and their relatives in Germany, and passed this on to his handlers who were working at the Indian consulate general in Frankfurt,” the higher regional court in the city said in a statement earlier this week.

US religious freedom body calls out India for arresting peaceful Muslim protesters NEWS DESK The US Commission for International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) on Thursday noted with concern reports that the Indian government is arresting Muslim activists during the Covid-19 crisis who protested against the country’s contentious Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA).

“At this time, India should be releasing prisoners of conscience, not targeting those practising their democratic right to protest,” the USCIRF said in a tweet. It specifically mentioned the arrest of Safoora Zargar, a pregnant activist who was arrested in connection with the communal violence that flared up in Delhi in February over the CAA. According to reports, 27-year-old Zargar was arrested on April 10 and charged under the country’s Unlawful Activities Prevention

Act, 2019 (UAPA). She was three months pregnant at the time of her arrest.

Zargar was a research fellow at the Jamia Millia University in Delhi and the media coordinator for the Jamia Coordination Committee (JCC) which organised weeks of protests against the citizenship law passed by the government in December of last year.

In a second tweet, the USCIRF noted that in its annual report for 2020, the commission had recommended that India be designated a Country of Particular Concern for its “systematic, ongoing, and egregious violations of religious freedom” during 2019.

“Unfortunately, this negative trend has continued into 2020,” the US agency said.

The designation by the US Secretary of State is used against a nation guilty of particularly severe violations of religious freedom under the US International Religious Free-

dom Act (IRFA) of 1998. The panel noted last month that this was the first time since 2004 that India was being recommended to be designated on the religious freedom blacklist.

The report had particularly criticised the enactment of India’s new citizenship law, which eases the path for non-Muslims from neighbouring Muslim-majority countries to gain citizenship. The passage of CAA had triggered weeks of sometimes violent protests against Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government. At least 78 people were killed in demonstrations triggered by the law across the country, a large number of them in a part of Delhi in clashes between Hindus and Muslims.

Critics say the law discriminates against Muslims and it has deepened concern that Modi’s administration is undermining India’s secular traditions.

Published by Arif Nizami at Qandeel Printing Press, 4 Queens Road, Lahore. Ph: 042-36300938, 042-36375965. Email: newsroom@pakistantoday.com.pk