Epaper – May 16 LHR 2021

CMYK

16 May, 2021 I 4 Shawwal, 1442 I Rs 25.00 I Vol XI No 315 I 32 Pages I Lahore Edition

IsraelI aIr strIke flattens Gaza buIldInG as vIolence spIrals

JeruSALeM agencies

a

N Israeli airstrike targeted and destroyed a high-rise building in Gaza City that housed offices of The Associated Press and other media outlets hours after another Israeli air raid on a densely populated refugee camp killed at least 10 Palestinians from an extended family, mostly children, on Saturday.

The strike on the high-rise came nearly an hour after the military ordered people to evacuate the 12-story building, which also housed Al-Jazeera, other offices and residential apartments. The strike brought down the entire structure, which collapsed in a gigantic cloud of dust.

Israel gave advance warning of the strike so it could be evacuated and said later the building contained military assets of Hamas, the group that runs Gaza.

‘RADICALISING PALESTINIAN MOOD WITHIN BOTH ISRAEL AND WEST BANK’: The United States told Israel “that ensuring the safety and security of journalists and independent

media is a paramount responsibility,” White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said.

The earlier Israeli airstrike on the Gaza City refugee camp was the deadliest single strike of the current conflict between Israel and the militant group Hamas. Both sides are pressing for an advantage as cease-fire efforts gather strength.

Later on Saturday the Israeli military said it bombed the home of Khalil al-Hayeh, a top

coronavIrus In

pakIstan

CONFIRMED CASES:

874,751

LAST UPDATED AT 9:50 AM ON MAY 15, 2021

DAY'S DEATH TOLL:

NEW CASES:

83

1,531

RECOVERED:

DEATHS:

783,480 19,467 SINDH:

PUNJAB:

297,078

324,589

KP:

BALOCHISTAN:

126,614

23,814

AJK/GB: ISLAMABAD: 18,212/5,417 79,027

Hamas leader.

The Israeli military said that the home served as part of what it said was the group’s “terrorist infrastructure.”Al-Hayeh’s fate after the strike was not immediately known.

FEARS OF A NEW INTIFADA: The latest outburst of violence started in Jerusalem and spread across the region over the past week, with Jewish-Arab clashes and rioting in mixed cities of Israel. There were also widespread Palestinian protests Friday in the occupied West Bank, where Israeli forces shot and killed 11 people.

The spiraling violence has raised fears of a new Palestinian “intifada,” or uprising, when peace talks have not taken place in years.

Palestinians on Saturday were marking Nakba (Catastrophe) Day, when they commemorate the estimated 700,000 people who were expelled from or fled their homes in what was now Israel during the 1948 war surrounding its creation. That raised the possibility of even more unrest.

US diplomat Hady Amr arrived Friday as part of Washington’s efforts to de-escalate the conflict, and the UN Security Council was set to meet Sunday (today). But Israel turned down an Egyptian proposal for a one-year truce that Hamas rulers had accepted, an Egyptian official said Friday on condition of anonymity to discuss the negotiations.

CONTINUED ON PAGE 05

IMRAN, ALVI CONDEMN ISRAEL'S USE OF FORCE IN GAZA ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Imran Khan and President Dr Arif Alvi on Thursday reaffirmed Pakistan’s support for the rights of the people of Palestine and their struggle for a homeland. In a telephonic conversation with Palestine Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas, Imran reassured him of Pakistan’s support in mobilising the international community against “flagrant violations” of human rights and international law. “He reaffirmed Pakistani leadership’s complete support during this time of crisis,” the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) said in a statement. Abbas welcomed the gesture and appreciated Islamabad’s response and its statements condemning Israel’s attacks in Gaza and Al-Aqsa Mosque. He also briefed the prime minister on the recent developments and exchanged views on the future course of action. staff report

CONTINUED ON PAGE 05

Shops to remain open till 8pm from Monday: NCOC ISLAMABAD staff report

Shops will be able to stay open until 8:00 pm five days a week when they reopen on Monday, the government announced on Saturday.

The decision to extend the trading hours was taken during a special session of the National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC) held here to review the implementation of Covid-19 guidelines during the Eidul Fitr holidays.

The move is likely to be welcomed by shoppers who moved online after businesses were closed last week to fight a third peak of the pandemic, and retailers whose finances have been badly damaged by enforced store closures. Shop staff, however, may be less enthusiastic about working late into the evening. Shops will be able to extend their opening hours to 8:00 pm to help customers avoid peak times and ease transport pressures, officials said.

The announcement came as the Health Ministry registered 1,531 new infections of Covid-19 after conducting 30,248 tests,

Won’t let terrorists disrupt peace on Western border: Bajwa ISLAMABAD staff report

Army Chief General Qamar Javed Bajwa on Friday vowed not to let militants disturb the peace in the areas along the Western border with Afghanistan, the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) said.

The army chief celebrated the first day of Eidul Fitr (Thursday) with troops stationed along the Line of Control (LoC), APP reported. On arrival, he was received by Rawalpindi Corps Commander Lt Gen Azhar Abbas at the de facto border.

There, he also offered Eid prayers with troops.

Speaking at the occasion, Gen Bajwa lauded the high morale, devotion, and operational preparedness of the troops, said the ISPR press statement.

He also appreciated the formation for all-out assistance extended to civil administration to combat the Covid-19 pandemic and stressed the need to exercise maximum caution.

“Security, safety, and wellbeing of people of Pakistan is our responsibility. Pakistan Army will do everything to live up to the expectations of our nation,” the chief said.

receiving back a positivity rate of 5.06 per cent. This is the first time the portal reported less than 2,000 infections since March 9, when 1,786 cases were reported.

The country also reported 83 deaths in the past 24 hours.

The meeting also decided to resume interprovincial, intra-city, and inter-city public transport from Sunday. It was further decided to continue running trains with limited, 70 per cent seat capacity to ensure social distancing.

The businesses will also resume their normal operating schedule of 9:00 am to 5:00 pm from Monday. However, the condition of 50 per cent workforce will remain in place.

During the meeting, the NCOC also reviewed and “expressed satisfaction” on the implementation of standard operating procedures (SOPs) during the holidays.

Advising the public to continue with the implementation of guidelines, the meeting further urged the people to ensure registration by dialing 1166 prior to visiting vaccination centres.

CONTINUED ON PAGE 05

more inside

Coronavirus, Palestine violence stifle Eid celebrations STORY ON BACK PAGE

Shehbaz Sharif’s name not added to ECL: Rasheed STORY ON PAGE 02 Gen Bajwa also paid tribute to the martyrs for their sacrifices.

“As soldiers, we take pride to be on duty and defending the motherland irrespective of the front or occasion,” he said.

He further said: “On this Eid day we must not forget the valiant struggle of brave people of [Indian-occupied] Kashmir.”

It was time to end this human tragedy and resolve the dispute as per aspirations of the people of the held region and UN Security Council (UNSC) resolutions, Gen Bajwa concluded.

The army chief spent the second day of Eid with troops deployed on the Western border along Timergara city of Lower Dir district in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP).

During the visit, he was briefed on the security situation and measures taken to ensure effective management of the Pakistan-Afghanistan border, the ISPR said.

“COAS said [to the troops] that terrorists would never be allowed to disturb the hardearned peace in these areas.

Pakistan Army and LEAs will do whatever it takes till the job is fully accomplished,” the ISPR quoted Gen Bajwa as saying.

There, he again paid tributes to the martyrs who had laid their lives in the line of duty. He also lauded the troops for their contribution in aid of civilian administration to control the pandemic and directed strict adherence to guidelines in this regard.

Indian police jail 21 Kashmiris amid pro-Palestinian rallies STORY ON BACK PAGE in today’s issue

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02

Sunday, 16 May, 2021

LAHORE

NEWS

ShehbAz ShArif’S nAMe not Added to eCL: rASheed ISLAMABAD

P

TLTP

AKISTAN Muslim LeagueNawaz (PML-N) President Shehbaz Sharif’s name has not been added to the Exit Control List (ECL) so far, clarified Interior Minister Sheikh Rasheed Ahmed on Saturday in a video statement shared on his social media accounts.

The minister added the summary forwarded by the interior ministry to place the former Punjab chief minister’s name on the ECL has not yet been received. “The summary can be received by Monday or Wednesday,” he further said, adding that the names of 14 co-accused with the PML-N leader are already placed on the ECL. “Five members of the Sharif family are absconders in this case and he (Shehbaz Sharif) is Nawaz Sharif’s guarantor,” the minister noted. He said the leader of the opposition in the National Assembly was not directly flying to London but wanted to go to Qatar, where he was to complete a 15-day quarantine period, before flying to the UK. He said that so far, the government has not received any medical report from the former Punjab chief minister. The interior

MINISTER SAYS MUSLIM COUNTRIES MUST TAKE IMMEDIATE NOTICE OF GENOCIDE OF PALESTINIANS BY ISRAEL minister said after the summary is received from the cabinet, the law ministry and the interior minister will take a joint decision on whether or not Sharif’s name can be placed on the ECL. “So you will have to wait for the summary, after which the law ministry and the interior ministry will take a decision on the matter,” he said. “The decision will be in accordance with the law, Constitution and Article 25,” he added.

The federal minister also lauded the Pakistan Army, National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC), police and other institutions for doing a commendable job in helping decrease the Covid-19 positivity rate in the country by ensuring compliance with standard operating procedures (SOPs) during the Eid holidays. He also recognised the efforts of the public.

“In comparison, the Indian variant of the virus has spread to the United Kingdom and is infecting 0.4 million people and claiming 4,000 lives [in India] on a daily basis. In

such a situation, I applaud all the Pakistan’s institutions for a job well done,” he said.

Talking about Israeli aggression, the interior minister said that Israeli aggression against oppressed and unarmed Palestinians continues for the fifth day. According to international media, Israel has martyred more than 130 Palestinians so far.

“Muslim countries must take immediate notice of the genocide of Palestinians by Israel, and it is the responsibility of the world nations to stop Israeli aggression and extremism,” Rasheed maintained.

Separately, talking to a private news channel, Rasheed said the opposition is not ready to sit with treasury benches to discuss and introduce the electoral reforms and make the electoral system transparent. He said the opposition is not serious in resolving the national issues by working with the government.

The minister said Prime Minister Imran Khan wants to uplift the living standards of common people and for working towards

this end, he has taken several initiatives for the welfare of the masses.

Replying to a question, he said the prime minister, being well aware of the country’s politics, would never dissolve the assemblies.

Rasheed said that Kashmir is a core issue

between Pakistan and India, hence its resolution is essential for the establishment of durable peace in South Asia. He said Pakistan will never leave Kashmiris alone and continue to extend moral, diplomatic and political support for their independence movement.

Pakistan to receive 1.2m Covid jabs from China today ISLAMABAD TLTP

PM expresses grief over demise of party leader in Peshawar ISLAMABAD TLTP

Prime Minister Imran Khan has expressed grief and sorrow over the demise of Zahid Mohmand, the central deputy secretary information of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa chapter of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI). In a condolence message on Saturday, the prime minister expressed sympathies with the bereaved family. “Today we lost a dedicated young PTI worker Zahid Mohmand to Covid 19. Zahid worked to organise our party at grassroots level in Peshawar,” the PM tweeted. The prime minister once again urged the nation to follow standard operating procedure (SOPs) of Covid-19 pandemic and wear face masks. Pakistan on Saturday reported 1,531 new cases of coronavirus during the past 24 hours and 83 deaths. The most number of coronavirus deaths were reported in Punjab, followed by Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province. The NCOC shared that 783,480 patients have recovered from the virus out of 874,751 positive cases and added that Punjab reported the most 324,589 cases and 9,322 deaths followed by 297,078 cases and 4,793 deaths in Sindh, 126,614 cases and 3,743 deaths in KP while Balochistan being the smallest province reported 23,814 cases and 262 deaths.

Pakistan will receive another batch of Covid-19 vaccine, comprising 1.2 million doses, from China on Sunday (today).

According to sources privy to details regarding vaccine arrival, 1.2 million doses of the Chinese vaccine will reach Islamabad on Sunday (today). “The doses include a million jabs of China’s Sinovac vaccine and 200,000 vaccines of single-dose CanSino,” they said.

The sources further shared that another batch of two million Covid vaccine Sinovac will reach Islamabad on May 21.

Pakistan is already vaccinating its population over 40-year old, besides the National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC) on Wednesday allowing citizens aged 30 and above to sign up for Covid-19 vaccination from Sunday (today).

Taking to Twitter, Planning and Development Minister Asad Umar, who heads the NCOC, said, “As vaccine supply continues to improve and vaccination capacity is being enhanced in all federating units, we continue to expand the categories of those who are eligible to get vaccinated.”

“Starting Sunday (today), registration will be open to all 30 years and older citizens.”

Firdous flays PML-N leaders for defending party president LAHORE TLTP

Special Assistant to Punjab CM on Information Dr Firdous Ashiq Awan has criticised the Pakistan Muslim LeagueNawaz (PML-N) central and Punjab information secretaries for defending the party’s President Shehbaz Sharif’s right to bail and visit abroad for medical treatment.

In a statement on Saturday, Dr Firdous Ashiq Awan said, “Both the PML-N ladies have broken records of falsehood in order to please the party supremo and his daughter for the sake of confirming their employment.”

She alleged that both the spokespersons are defending the corrupt mafia, which has been involved in corruption from head to toe. Firdous reminded the PML-N leadership that Nawaz Sharif is a convicted criminal and the time of receiving kickbacks through

China, Pakistan discuss Gaza situation, Afghan peace process ISLAMABAD MIAN ABRAR

In a major development, Pakistan and China Saturday discussed the situation developing in Palestine, Afghanistan peace process and bilateral relations. Foreign Minister Makhdoom Shah Mahmood Qureshi held a telephonic conversation with the Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi. Both the dignitaries discussed the Palestinian issue, peace process in Afghanistan, and Pakistan-China bilateral relations. Qureshi congratulated the Chinese leadership and people for successful landing of Chinese spacecraft on Mars, and underlined that it was a historic milestone for China in the technological area. Qureshi underscored that the year 2021 has a special significance as it marked 70th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic ties between the two countries. He said that Pakistan and China should continue to deepen their cooperation in fighting Covid-19.

He thanked China for the support it had extended to Pakistan in containing the spread of the pandemic, including provision of vaccines. He added that the violent attacks by Israeli forces against the innocent worshipers in Al-Aqsa Mosque, unarmed civilians and children in the occupied territories were against humanitarian norms as well as the international law. The foreign minister underlined the importance of urgent steps by the international community to stop the Israeli attacks, protect the civilian population, facilitate engagement of the parties, and ensure just and lasting solution based on relevant UNSC resolutions and the two-state vision.

Nisar may take oath as MPA after three years LAHORE TLTP

Former Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) leader Chaudhry Nisar is likely to take oath as a member of the Punjab Assembly on Tuesday.

According to a media report, Nisar is likely to take oath as member of provincial assembly (MPA) on the May 18 session of the Punjab Assembly.

It may be recalled that the Cabinet Committee on Legislation had passed an amendment to the Election Act 2017, according to which a seat will become vacant if the elected representative does not take oath within 60 days.

Chaudhry Nisar, who contested as an independent candidate in the general elections from NA-59 and NA-63, lost to Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI).

According to election results, Nisar lost to PTI’s Ghulam Sarwar Khan who got 89,055 votes in NA-59 while former interior minister Ch Nisar Ali Khan got 66,369 votes.

He lost to PTI’s Ghulam Sarwar Khan in NA-63 as well. Ghulam Sarwar won with 64,301 votes while Ch Nisar stood second with 48,497 votes. PMLN’s Sardar Mumtaz Khan stood third with 22,475 votes. However, he won his provincial assembly seat but did not take an oath on it.

fake development projects is over.

She said PML-N leadership must remember that the practice of so-called Khadim-e-Aala for increasing bank balance through fictitious telegraphic transfers have been exposed. She alleged that the PML-N governments broke all records of corruption and plundering of public money in development projects and those secrets are now open and known to everybody.

She said the PTI government made public the inquiry report of the Rawalpindi Ring Road project to expose their corruption before the public. She said immediate action would be taken against those responsible for irregularities and corruption in the project and they would be brought to justice. She claimed that nobody could raise a finger on the character and transparency of Prime Minister Imran Khan and Punjab Chief Minister Sardar Usman Buzdar.

Sunday, 16 May, 2021

LAHORE

buzdAr direCtS CrACkdoWn on ProfiteerS, hoArderS

LAHORE

P

STAff RePoRT

UNJAB Chief Minister Sardar Usman Buzdar has directed to launch an indiscriminate crackdown on the artificial price-hikers, profiteers and hoarders in the province.

In a statement on Saturday, the chief

minister directed the Cabinet Committee for Price Control to ensure availability of essential items at fixed rates to the public and warned that no negligence will be tolerated in this regard.

He further directed to initiate legal action against artificial price-hikers. He said that under Anti-Hoarding Ordinance 2020, action should also be taken against the hoarders. Buzdar said

that such elements do not deserve any leniency and the government will go to the last extent in providing relief to the people of the province. Curbing such mafia is necessary to safeguard the rights of consumers. He said that the government will take all possible administrative measures for ensuring the stability in the prices of essential commodities.

He said that illegal increase in the prices of essential items will not be tolerated. The rights of a common man will be protected in the present scenario.

All out measures will be taken in providing relief to the people. Those involved in hoarding and profiteering are not only the lawbreaker but also of the enemy of the society, he concluded.

Buzdar also condemned the opposition for politicising national issues like the coronavirus pandemic.

He said that opposition leaders have proved that they do not care for the public and these people have always promoted the politics of chaos and vested interest.

Their ruthless attitude shows that for them, human lives have no value.

Usman Buzdar bashed the rejected gang and said that these elements did not stop scoring points even on corona pandemic. He said that the opposition has always exhibited irresponsible behaviour on every important issue including corona.

Separately, Buzdar in his message on the occasion of International Day of Families, said that the purpose of celebrating this day is to strengthen the social ties for a sustainable development.

The role of digital technology cannot be ignored for social development as well as in family strengthening. Buzdar termed the deprived segment of the society a part of “our social family,” saying that taking care of them is also an important obligation. He said, “Birds, animals and trees are also like a member of our earth family, they also need to be looked after.”

Palestine violence is massacre, Mazari tells UN chief ISLAMABAD TLTP

Federal Minister for Human Rights Dr Shireen Mazari has taken exception to UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres for calling the current violence in the Middle East a “conflict,” saying it is instead a “massacre”.

“With respect honourable SG (secretary general) this is not a conflict but a massacre by an occupation power and UN needs to enforce its responsibility to protect the Palestinian people against Israel’s state terrorism,” Mazari said on Twitter on Saturday.

“Remember Ch (charter) VII of the UN Charter!” she added, referring to a section of the document allowing for the UN Security Council to determine the existence of any threat to the peace, or act of aggression, and to take military and non-military action to restore international peace and security.

On Friday, Guterres called for “deescalation” and “cessation of hostilities” in Gaza and Israel.

“I appeal for an immediate deescalation and cessation of hostilities in

Gaza and Israel. Too many innocent civilians have already died. This conflict can only increase radicalisation and extremism in the whole region,” he said in a tweet.

Israeli attacks on the blockaded Gaza Strip killed eight more Palestinians early Saturday, bringing the death toll to 139, along with 950 injured, according to Gaza’s health ministry. Six children and two women were killed by Israeli forces in the latest attack on a residence.

Tensions have been running high in the Sheikh Jarrah neighbourhood of East Jerusalem and at the Al-Aqsa Mosque since the holy month of Ramazan, as Israeli forces and settlers assaulted Palestinians.

Tensions spread from East Jerusalem to Gaza after Palestinian resistance groups there vowed to retaliate against Israeli assaults on Al-Aqsa Mosque and Sheikh Jarrah if they were not halted.

Israel occupied East Jerusalem, where Al-Aqsa is located, during the 1967 Arab-Israeli war. It annexed the entire city in 1980, in a move never recognised by the international community.

NEWS

03

nCiPh appeals for peace in eastern Mediterranean region LAHORE STAff RePoRT

Activists and scholars from Pakistan have issued an appeal for peace as they are deeply saddened by violence and ensuing escalation of conflict in the Eastern Mediterranean region. “We especially condemn acts of violence done within sacred spaces or to people on the way to and from sacred spaces; whether Al-Aqsa Mosque, a synagogue in Lod, or the Holy Sepulchre Church,” the National Council for Interfaith Peace and Harmony (NCIPH) said in a joint statement. “We grieve over the lives lost and the continued suffering of those involved in the ongoing conflict,” the statement said.

The council upholds the human dignity of members of all faith communities in the holy land, and around the world, it said. “We pray and call for an immediate cessation of violence and a commitment by all concerned to resolve conflicts through peaceful means, dialogue, and negotiation,” according to the statement. It said that the the National Council for Interfaith Peace and Harmony appeals the interfaith movements around the world and individuals of faith, morality, and good will to stand in resolve against violence and oppression.

no ban on Sinopharm vaccine in Sindh, clarifies Wahab KARACHI TLTP

The Sindh government has rejected reports that it has banned the Sinopharm coronavirus vaccine. The Sindh government spokesperson Murtaza Wahab on Saturday clarified in a tweet that fresh doses of the vaccine have been stopped for the time being. “This decision has been made to ensure adequate supply for people who have already received their 1st dose of Sinopharm,” he added. Wahab’s clarification was in response to a few media reports which claimed the provincial government had banned the use of the Sinopharm vaccine and had sought the names of officials who were still administering it to people. Meanwhile, Sindh Education Minister Saeed Ghani announced on Saturday that all educational institutions across Sindh will remain closed till May 23 to avoid a further surge in Covid-19 cases. The decision was taken in view of the current coronavirus situation, Ghani added.

“During this time, educational institutions will remain open and children will be educated through online classes, WhatsApp, email and other means,” the education minister maintained. He said that, while the suspension is in effect, the principal or head of any educational institution will be allowed to call in some teachers and non-teaching staff.

Bishop Marshall unanimously elected as Church of Pakistan head LAHORE STAff RePoRT

The supreme body of the Church of Pakistan (CoP) has unanimously elected Bishop of Raiwind Diocese Dr Azad Marshall as Moderator of the mainline Protestant church in Pakistan.

The election was conducted during the 16th Triennial Meeting of the CoP Synod on May 13-14 in which bishops of all eight dioceses of the CoP and members of the synod council were present.

In a statement after the election, Bishop Marshall said that he was grateful to the council members and his fellow bishops for reposing their trust in him unanimously.

“I’m humbled by the confidence shown in me by the synod members and I look forward to working closely with them to address the challenges facing the Church of

Pakistan and the community at large,” said the newly-elected moderator.

“The church has a key role in community building and ensuring the welfare and security of its followers. Pakistani Christians are facing extraordinary challenges and it is important that the church leadership engages with the government and other stakeholders to find concrete solutions to these problems,” he said.

Dr Marshall said that during his over 12 years of service as the Anglican bishop in Iran and the Middle East, he had always strived to promote interfaith harmony and regional peace.

“Being a Pakistani Christian, it is also my responsibility to remove the negative perceptions about my country. Issues like forced conversion and underage marriages of minority girls, misuse of the

blasphemy laws, rising intolerance in our society, poverty etc bring a bad name to Pakistan and affect the efforts being made to project a positive image of the country.

“Therefore, it’s important that

the government and other stakeholders work with us to address these crucial issues on priority so that we are able to allay the concerns in the Christian world emanating from propaganda by Pakistan’s

enemies.”

CONGRATULATIONS POUR IN: Bishop Marshall’s unanimous election as the Moderator of the CoP has been widely welcomed in the government, religious, political, and civil society circles.

In their congratulatory messages, the government’s representatives on religious affairs and interfaith harmony said that they acknowledged Dr Marshall’s efforts in fostering inter-religious peace and projecting Pakistan’s positive image abroad.

“As the new head of the Church of Pakistan, we hope Bishop Marshall will continue to use his influence and experience for the betterment of the Christian community and in the larger interest of the country,” they said in a statement.

Ordained as a Deacon in 1987 and a Presbyter in 1988, in the

Church of Pakistan, Bishop Marshall served as the Vicar of St. Andrew’s Church, Lahore. In 1994 he was consecrated Bishop by the Church of Pakistan to serve the Urdu-speaking congregations in the Gulf States. The following year he was made an Associate Bishop in the Province of the Middle East.

In 2003, Bishop Azad was appointed Vicar General in the Province of Jerusalem and the Middle East to have Episcopal oversight of the Church in Iran. In 2007, he was installed as Sixth Bishop of Iran and, in 2009, he was also made Assistant Bishop in the Diocese of Cyprus and the Gulf for Urdu-speaking Congregations. That same year he was elected as a member of the Standing Committee of the Anglican Consultative Council and also President of the National Council of Churches in Pakistan.

04

Sunday, 16 May, 2021

NEWS

renowned artist Farooq Qaiser passes away ISLAMABAD: Renowned artist Farooq Qaiser, who became famous for his character as "Uncle Sargam" in the popular PTV show Kaliyan, has passed away at the age of 75 in Islamabad after suffering a heart attack. The news was confirmed to Express News by his grandson Friday night. Uncle Sargam was a household name for Pakistani children of the 80s and 90s with his prominent puppet show Kaliyan at that time. Prime Minister Imran Khan has also condoled over the demise of renowned artist and puppeteer. "He was not just a performer but would constantly raise awareness about social injustices and issues," the premier said on Twitter in his condolence message. Expressing sadness over Qaiser's demise, the prime minister also conveyed his condolences and prayers for the bereaved family. Minister for Interior Sheikh Rasheed also expressed grief over the demise of Qaisar. In his condolence message, he prayed to Almighty Allah to rest the departed soul in eternal peace and grant courage to the bereaved family members to bear this irreparable loss with fortitude and equanimity.

The minister said that Qaisar was a great writer, artist as well as cartoonist. "He was king of social satire, comedy, puppetry and communication, and his services would be remembered along in the field of journalism and media," he added. INp

sindh extends closure of educational institutions until May 23 KARACHI: Sindh Education Minister Saeed Ghani announced on Saturday that educational institutions across the province will remain closed till May 23 to avoid a further surge in new infections. The decision was taken in view of the current coronavirus situation, he said. “During the period, educational institutions will remain open and children will be educated through online classes [and the material will be shared through] WhatsApp, email, and other means,” he maintained.

While the institutions will remain closed, their heads will be allowed to call in some teachers and non-teaching staffers, he announced. Ghani further directed institutions to ensure full implementation of the guidelines regarding the academic syllabus. The federal ministry of education on Friday directed the provinces to ensure the closure of educational institutions. “Educational institutions shall remain closed till May 23 in view of the directives of the NCOC [National Command and Operation Centre] to deal with the third wave of Covid,” read a communique issued by the body. It added that the directives apply to all government, private institutions, religious seminaries, and vocational and technical educational campuses. StAff REpoRt

11 killed as van falls into canal SHEIKHUPURA: A passenger van plunged into a canal in Sheikhupura district of Punjab on Friday evening, leaving 11 people dead, including seven children, media reported. According to the reports, the van carrying 11 people fell into the Mianwali Canal in the Khanqah Dogran area of the district. Police and rescue teams rushed to the site and took out bodies from the sunk vehicle. The deceased include seven children, three women, and one man, who belonged to the same family.

The family was going to Khanqah Dogran from the Gujranwala district after meeting their relatives. An eyewitness told media that the driver failed to control the overspeeding vehicle at the bank of the canal and caused the accident. Road accidents are quite frequent in Pakistan mainly due to poor roads, badly maintained vehicles, and unprofessional driving. StAff REpoRt

Malala joins ‘Friends’ cast for reunion special LOS ANGELES: The long-awaited “Friends” cast reunion will be broadcast on May 27 and will feature a slew of celebrity guests — including Nobel Peace Prize winner Malala Yousafzai, Justin Bieber and Lady Gaga — streaming service HBO Max said on Thursday. “Friends: The Reunion,” featuring all six of the original cast, was originally supposed to have been filmed more than a year ago but was repeatedly delayed by the coronavirus pandemic. The unscripted, one-off special was filmed earlier this year on the same sound stage in Los Angeles as the original comedy about six young 20-somethings, played by Jennifer Aniston, Lisa Kudrow, Courteney Cox, David Schwimmer, Matt LeBlanc, and Matthew Perry, living in New York. “Friends,” which ended its 10-year-run on NBC television in 2004, was one of the most popular TV shows of the 1990s and found a new life on streaming platforms where it is one of the mostwatched shows worldwide. News of the broadcast date for the reunion quickly became the top trending item worldwide on Twitter. AgENcIES

LAHORE

CyClone warning puts sindh on alert KARACHI

a

StAff REpoRt

S forecasters posted rain warnings and a cyclone watch for parts of Sindh, Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah on Saturday declared an emergency in coastal towns.

The decision came hours after the Pakistan Meteorological Department issued a cyclone alert after a depression formed in the southeast Arabian Sea started to intensify, predicting rainfall and gusty winds in part of the province from May 17 to 20.

The department said the depression has intensified into Tropical Cyclone Tauktae and lay centred at a distance of about 1,460 kilometres south-southeast of Karachi.

“Maximum sustained winds around the system centre are 70-90kmph [kilo-

metre per hour], gusting to 100kmph. The system is likely to intensify further into a severe cyclonic storm and move in northnorthwest direction and reach Indian Gujarat by the morning of May 18,” it said.

“A control room be established at the chief secretary’s office for smooth coordination […] in respect of their [districts] requirements and giving them necessary instruction on behalf of the government,” Shah said.

The cyclone could become one of the strongest to threaten parts of western India and eastern Pakistan in more than two decades, The Weather Channel reported. Given an ample supply of warm — about 88 degrees Fahrenheit — deep ocean water, humid air, and low wind shear, Tauktae could rapidly intensify into the equivalent of a formidable hurricane over the weekend.

Widespread rain-dust and thunderstorms with few heavy to very heavy falls

and gusty winds of 70-90 kilometres per hour are likely to occur in Thatta, Badin, Thar, Mirpurkhas, Umerkot, and Sanghar districts, the alert said.

“Rain-dust/thunderstorm with few heavy falls and gusty winds of 4060kmph also likely in Karachi, Hyderabad, Jamshoro, Shaheed Benazirabad, Sukkur, Larkana, Shikarpur, Jacobabad and Dadu from May 18 to May 20.”

“Sea conditions will be rough to very rough and fishermen are advised not to venture in the sea between May 16 and May 20,” the Met department advised.

Cyclones in Pakistan are rare. Only four cyclones of at least tropical storm strength have tracked within 70 miles of Karachi in records dating to 1902. A weakening Cyclone Phet was the last to do so as a tropical storm, then depression, in 2010.

But Pakistan’s strongest cyclone was the aforementioned 1999 landfall south-

east of Karachi near the India border at Category 3 intensity and wind speeds of 119 to 157 kilometre per hour.

According to the Hurricane Research Division of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), an estimated 6,200 were killed in Pakistan from storm surge and heavy rain, despite warnings from the government.

In a separate notification, the department also issued a heatwave warning for Karachi from Sunday (today) to Monday.

“Hot/very hot weather is likely to occur during the next two days. Day time maximum temperature may rise to 40-42 degrees Celsius and winds likely to blow from northeast/east especially on Sunday (today) and Monday.

“Tropical cyclone (Tauktae) has formed […] at a distance about 1,460km south-southeast of Karachi. Maximum sustained wind around the centre 7090kmph gusting to 100kmph,” it said.

Peshawar BRT to resume service from today PESHAWAR AZIZ BUNERI

The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) government has decided to resume Peshawar Bus Rapid Transport (BRT) service from Sunday (today) after the announcement to resume public transport.

The BRT spokesperson said that the transport will resume its operations from Sunday (today).

The service was temporarily suspended as a part of coronavirus guidelines ahead of Eidul-Fitr.

According to the spokesperson, the passengers will require to wear face masks during travelling in BRT. "No

one will be allowed to travel in BRT without face mask. Citizens should not travel if they have symptoms of coronavirus, such as fever," the spokesperson said.

On the other hand, the National Command and Control Centre (NCOC) has said that from Sunday (today), the public transport will run with 50 per cent passengers while the railways will be in operation with 70 per cent passengers.

According to the NCOC, markets and shops will remain open from May 17 until 8pm.

The NCOC said that the working hours of government and private offices will be usual from

May 17 as only 50 per cent of the employees will be allowed to attend

the offices while 50 per

cent of the staff will work

from home.

Sunday, 16 May, 2021

LAHORE

NEWS

IsraelI aIr strIke flattens Gaza buIldInG as vIolence spIrals continued from page 01

Since Monday night, Hamas has fired hundreds of rockets into Israel, which has pounded the Gaza Strip with strikes. In Gaza, at least 139 people have been killed, including 39 children and 22 women; in Israel, eight people have been killed, including the death Saturday of a man killed by a rocket that hit in Ramat Gan, a suburb of Tel Aviv.

The strike on the building housing media offices came in the afternoon, after the owner received a call from the Israeli military warning that the building would be hit. AP’s staff and others in the building evacuated immediately, and were reported safe.

Al-Jazeera, the news network funded

by Qatar’s government, broadcast the airstrikes live as the building collapsed.

“This channel will not be silenced.

Al-Jazeera will not be silenced,” an onair anchorwoman from Al-Jazeera English said, her voice thick with emotion.

“We can guarantee you that right now.”

The bombardment earlier Saturday struck a three-story house in Gaza City’s Shati refugee camp, killing eight children and two women from an extended family.

Mohammed Hadidi told reporters his wife and five children had gone to cele-

brate the Eid al-Fitr holiday with relatives. She and three of the children, aged 6 to 14, were killed, while an 11-year-old is missing. Only his 5-month-old son Omar is known to have survived.

Children’s toys and a Monopoly board game could be seen among the rubble, as well as plates of uneaten food from the holiday gathering.

“There was no warning,” said Jamal Al-Naji, a neighbour living in the same building. “You filmed people eating and then you bombed them?” he said, addressing Israel. “Why are you confronting us? Go and confront the strong people!”

The Israeli military did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Hamas said it fired a salvo of rockets at southern Israel in response to the airstrike.

A furious Israeli barrage early Friday killed a family of six in their house and sent thousands fleeing to UN-run shelters. The military said the operation involved 160 warplanes dropping some 80 tons of explosives over the course of 40 minutes and succeeded in destroying a vast tunnel network used by Hamas.

Lt. Col. Jonathan Conricus, a military spokesman, said the military aims to minimize collateral damage in striking military targets. But measures it takes in other

strikes, such as warning shots to get civilians to leave, were not “feasible this time.”

Israeli media said the military believed dozens of militants were killed inside the tunnels.

The Hamas and other groups have confirmed 20 deaths in their ranks, but the military said the real number is far higher.

Gaza’s infrastructure, already in widespread disrepair because of an Israeli-Egyptian blockade imposed after Hamas seized power in 2007, showed signs of breaking down further, compounding residents’ misery. The territory’s sole power plant is at risk of running out of fuel in the coming days.

The UN said Gazans are already enduring daily power cuts of 8-12 hours and at least 230,000 have limited access to tap water. The impoverished and densely populated territory is home to 2 million Palestinians.

The conflict has reverberated widely.

Israeli cities with mixed Arab and Jewish populations have seen nightly violence, with mobs from each community fighting in the streets and trashing each other’s property.

Late on Friday, someone threw a firebomb at an Arab family’s home in the Ajami neighbourhood of Tel Aviv, striking two children. A 12-year-old boy was in moderate condition with burns on his upper body and a 10-year-old girl was treated for a head injury, according to the Magen David Adom rescue service.

In the occupied West Bank, on the outskirts of Ramallah, Nablus and other towns and cities, hundreds of Palestinians protested the Gaza campaign and Israeli actions in Jerusalem.

Waving Palestinian flags, they trucked in tires that they set up in burning barricades and hurled stones at Israeli sol-

diers. At least 10 protesters were shot and killed by soldiers. An 11th Palestinian was killed when he tried to stab a soldier at a military position.

In east Jerusalem, online video showed young Jewish nationalists firing pistols as they traded volleys of stones with Palestinians in Sheikh Jarrah, which became a flashpoint for tensions over attempts by settlers to forcibly evict a number of Palestinian families from their homes.

On Israel’s northern border, troops opened fire when a group of Lebanese and Palestinian protesters on the other side cut through the border fence and briefly crossed. One Lebanese was killed.

Three rockets were fired toward Israel from neighbouring Syria without causing any casualties or damage. It was not immediately known who fired them.

The tensions began in east Jerusalem earlier this month, with Palestinian protests against the Sheikh Jarrah evictions and Israeli police measures at AlAqsa Mosque, a frequent flashpoint located on a mount in the Old City revered by Muslims and Jews.

Hamas fired rockets toward Jerusalem late Monday, in an apparent attempt to present itself as the champion of the protesters.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed that Hamas will “pay a very heavy price” for its rocket attacks as Israel has massed troops at the frontier. US President Joe Biden has expressed support for Israel while saying he hopes to bring the violence under control.

Hamas has fired some 2,000 rockets toward Israel since Monday, according to the Israeli military. Most have been intercepted by anti-missile defences, but they have brought life to a standstill in southern Israeli cities, caused disruptions at airports and have set off air raid sirens in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem.

Shops to remain open till 8pm from Monday: NCOC continued from page 01 A nationwide partial lockdown to curtail the spread of the contagion disease began at the weekend and will last until next week. All non-essential businesses have been closed, while domestic tourism has been banned.

Officials expressed hope that reducing transmission rates now will not only save lives but also prevent further, more stringent lockdowns. The army has been called in to help ensure the restrictions are being followed, and last week a small fleet of police and paramilitary rangers descended on another normally crowded market. Only the grocery stores were open.

Meanwhile, the registration for people aged 30 and above to receive the Covid-19 vaccine will open on Sunday, Minister for Planning and Development Asad Umar announced.

The government launched a nationwide Covid19 vaccination drive for the general public, starting with older people, in March. The drive began with a focus on the oldest people in the community, generally over the age of 80.

Battling a third peak of the virus, the authorities began the vaccination with Chinese Sinopharm and CanSino jabs.

Private hospitals in major cities are also using the Russian Sputnik-V vaccine that has been imported by a local pharmaceutical company.

The government has also approved the emergency use of Oxford-AstraZeneca and China’s CoronaVac vaccines, but both are yet to be used in the country. The government received its first shipment of AstraZeneca doses through the Covid-19 Vaccines Global Access (Covax) facility last week.

The government is aiming to ramp up the immunisation campaign in the summer and expects to receive 13.2 million doses of Covid19 vaccines by the end of June.

According to Minister of State for Health Dr Faisal Sultan, the government has so far placed orders for 30 million doses with different companies.

He had last month announced that by the end of June, the government would have a stock of 17 million vaccine jabs but stopped short of identifying the developer.

cmYK

05

Imran, alvi condemn Israel's use of force in Gaza continued from page 01 The statement further said the prime minister strongly condemned the attacks on innocent worshippers in Al-Aqsa mosque and lethal air strikes by Israel in Gaza. The two leaders also agreed to continue to closely engage on the ongoing situation. Separately, Alvi also assured Abbas of support and raising voice for his people. In a letter addressed to the PA president, Alvi said that Israel’s violent acts were against humanitarian norms, human rights, and international law. “I reassure you of our efforts in mobilising the international community for the Palestinian cause and to continue raising voice for the Palestinian people,” the president said. He also reaffirmed Pakistan’s abiding support for a just settlement of the Palestine issue in accordance with the relevant UN Security Council (UNSC) resolutions and for the establishment of an independent, viable, and contiguous Palestinian state, with pre-1967 borders with Al-Quds Al-Sharif as its capital. At least 132 people have been killed in Gaza since Monday, including 32 children and 21 women, and 950 others wounded, Palestinian medical officials said. Alvi, in his letter, conveyed the deep sadness and concern over the series of violent attacks against innocent worshippers at the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound during the holy month of Ramadan. “Your Pakistani brothers and sisters, including myself share your pain and distress caused by Israel’s indiscriminate killing of innocent Palestinians, including children in Gaza,” he wrote. “We express our profound sympathies and condolences for the victims of these attacks and pray for speedy recovery of the injured.” Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi also reiterated “unequivocal support” for the cause, Radio Pakistan reported. In a telephonic conversation with his Palestine counterpart Riyad Al-Malki, Qureshi strongly condemned attacks Israel’s attacks. He briefed Al-Malki on Pakistan’s efforts to sensitise the world on the “serious situation” and the violations of rights and international law.

Qureshi reassured Al-Malki of steadfast support to Palestine during these testing times. Al-Malki updated on the dire situation on the ground, as well as the efforts being made to prevent its further worsening.

Sunday, 16 May, 2021

06 COMMENT

Superstitious decision-making

The Doha moot Another round of shaky peace talks?

A

A nervous government at the centre

S the Biden Administration went back on US President Donald Trump’s May deadline for the pullout of allied troops from Afghanistan, the Taliban called off talks. The Taliban spokesman said on Twitter that “until all foreign forces completely withdraw from our homeland, the Islamic emirate will not participate in any conference that shall make decisions about Afghanistan”. The Taliban also expressed unwillingness to attend a scheduled conference co-sponsored by the United Nations and Qatar in Istanbul. Further, the Taliban threatened a long war. This led to US and allied pressure on Pakistan to persuade the Taliban to return to the negotiation table.

Over the last few weeks, Pakistani officials met both the Taliban and the Afghan government leaders, telling both sides that there was a need for ceasefire and a resumption of the parleys. The announcement of a three day ceasefire by the Taliban during the eid festival was a widely appreciated gesture, responded yo by a corresponding move by the Afghan government. Meanwhile two major terrorist attacks in Kabul within a week have failed to derail the ongoing attempts to bring peace to Afghanistan.

On Friday, the second day of a three-day ceasefire, the Taliban and Afghan government negotiators held a meeting in Doha, which came as a happy surprise to many. What strengthens hopes is that peace is the need of not only the people of Afghanistan but also of the neighbouring countries like Pakistan, China, Iran and the Central Asian states, as well as the USA and Russia. An Afghanistan at peace with itself and its neigbours stands to gain much from the ongoing attempts to connect Central Asia with South Asia, particularly from CPeC. There are however contentious issues that can derail talks, like a new constitution desired by the Taliban, the mode of elections, women's rights and a political roadmap to the government sharing power with the Taliban. As the intraAfghan talks have continued for months without any discussion on a single core issue, this shows the seriousness of the differences. While one wishes the parleys Godspeed, one fears it might not take long before the latest move to resolve differences runs out of steam.

Arif NizAmi

T

he sombre atmosphere pervading the country was not unexpected in the wake of the rampant Covid-19 pandemic. The strict SOPs (standard operating procedures) put in place for eid holidays obviated any kind of social interaction between family and friends.

But what was really shocking was the haphazard and shoddy manner in which eid was announced as late as 11:30pm on Wednesday evening. hitherto, the message emanating through the electronic media was clear: there was no moon in sight. The maulanas of the Ruet-e-hilal committee were in unison on the matter.

The only exception was the enigmatic information minister Fawad Chaudhry. The minister since formerly holding the portfolio of science and technology seems still fixated upon moon-sighting. he was harping on the theme that the Ulema were trying to locate a moon that did not exist.

In this atmosphere of utter confusion-worst confounded by the government itself-the citizenry late at

Palestine convulsions

T

URKISh President Recep Tayyip erdogan has said that if the Organisaton of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) takes no decisions leading to a resolution of the Palestinian problem it might act on its own. The OIC has had to move from taking a position on the Israeli police raid on Masjid Al-Aqsa to dealing with the increasing violence of the Israeli attack on Gaza, which it has bombed repeatedly in response to Palestine firing off rockets into Israel. While the rockets have killed no one, the Israeli bombings have killed 139 Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, while 13 have been killed in the occupied West Bank. Now there are signs that Israel is preparing to launch a ground assault. This is dangerous, for all the regional players are part of some alliance system or the other, and there is the danger of an Israeli-Palestinian conflict developing into a more general, even global, conflict.

Though the OIC resolution, passed by the Permanent Representatives meeting, calls for a meeting of the OIC Foreign Ministers, more crucial will be the meeting of the UN Security Council. The OIC came into being because of the reaction by all Muslim states to an act of arson on Al-Aqsa Mosque by an Australian, while the UN Security Council was not only seized of the creation of Israel when it came into existence in 1948, but when it occupied West Jerusalem after the 1967 Six-Day War. It does not seem that the Muslim world will do now what it has been unable to do for the last half a century, nor that the UN will suddenly wake up and enforce their resolutions. however, will they go forward and allow the world to slip into the conflict that looms? The only way of resolving this issue will be to end the conflict that is poisoning the entire region. The USA, and those of its european allies, who have defended the Israeli airstrikes as self-defence against the rockets, should realise that the entire world is threatened by the encouragement the are giving Israel.

rAbiA Ahmed

A

ND so here we go again, yet another moon sighting fiasco, while a fatigued populace waited for a group of men to decide if the new moon had been seen or not. The Ruet e hilal Committee (RhC) took its time, its members no doubt milking their moment of power for all it was worth; it was almost midnight before they ended their ‘deliberations’ and declared the moon had been sighted and it would be eid the following day. Sehri was hastily exchanged for sheer khurma, and in many homes people woke up to fast only to find that it was eid that day.

One of the many memes on the subject said the new moon was not a normal delivery. They’re right, it wasn’t. Leave it to the clergy to make a laughing stock of religion.

One of the biggest factors this exposes is that if the authorities are unable to handle even such a trivial thing as moon-sighting, no wonder the country is in the state it is. Mr. Fawad Chaudhry obviously prefers if technology were to take over, as would most rational persons, yet the fact that technology and science cannot seem to do so thanks to the country’s right wing battalion also shows how utterly helpless the authorities are in the face of right wingers. You can see why it is that groups such as the TLP, the TTP and the ASWJ and others are so out of control.

The head of the Ruet e hilal Committee

Arif Nizami Editor Joint Editor

Umar Aziz Executive Editor

Lahore – Ph: 042-36300938, 042-36375965

Arif Nizami is Editor, Pakistan Today. He can be contacted at arifn51@hotmail.com.

Why can’t we avoid such fiascos?

Dedicated to the legacy of the late Hameed Nizami

Managing Editor

A belated Eid Mubarak to our readers! But even at the risk of being branded a cynic, there was nothing much to celebrate.

The caesarian moon

As the slaughter continues, the world tries to stop a war

Yousaf Nizami Aziz-ud-Din Ahmad

night was duly convinced that eid was to fall on Friday.

But suddenly like a bolt from the blue it was announced that tomorrow (Thursday) will be eid day.

This threw into utter disarray any plans for eid that families were left with.

In the absence of any credible empirical evidence, the popular theory doing the rounds was that eid was foisted on the nation a day earlier simply to avoid a ‘two khutbahs (sermons) situation’ on Friday.

According to anecdotal information, it is popularly considered that the sermons are ‘bhaari’ (literally meaning heavy) for the government in power or the powers that be. It is narrated that during the late field marshal Ayub Khan’s decade long tenure, the eid moon was once sighted as such that eid was to fall on a Friday.

To obviate that possibility, the late dictator declared eid on Thursday.

Led by founder of Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) Maulana Maududi the Ulema were in revolt. Resultantly, the JI chief was arrested and eid was celebrated as per Ayub Khan’s command.

Whether Khan is such a superstitious person remains a moot point. however, the discreditable manner in which the eid matter was handled amply demonstrates that this government is quite capable of beating its own record for incompetence.

Post eid, it seems business as usual: a more acrimonious and confrontational tug of war between the ruling coalition and the opposition is on the cards.

Similarly, the combined opposition parties in the form of PDM (Pakistan Democratic Movement) are scheduled to meet tomorrow to sort out its own intra-party differences.

Whether and when to go for the long planned en masse resignations and the ‘long march’ is a hobson’s choice for both PML-N and the PPP. The latter, it’s government quite secure in Sindh would rather

prefer to go for a no- confidence move against numerically vulnerable the PTI-led weak and insecure governments at the centre and Punjab.

Obviously the PML-N wants the whole piece of pie at the Punjab and Federal level. Buoyed by its recent successes at the by- elections, the Sharifs perhaps really feel that the PTI governments are sitting ducks. The only dilemma facing Khan is the threat being felt from Shahbaz Sharif since his recent release on bail by the full bench of the Lahore high court, absolving him of money laundering charges.

The prime minister is so miffed by Sharif’s release that he has really gone out of his way in a concerted bid to stop him from traveling abroad, ostensibly for medical treatment. According to some in Khan’s inner circle, there is a school of thought that the younger Sharif unlike his elder brother is now acceptable to the ubiquitous establishment.

It is speculated that one of the real reasons Sharif was keen to meet ‘bhai jan’ in London was to convince him of the game-plan he had chalked out in consultation with his interlocutors. hence the visible nervousness within the Khan camp.

The panic button has been pressed to the extent that a long-closed case regarding money laundering by the Sharifs, that of hudabia Paper Mills, has been revived in unholy haste. Similarly, efforts are afopot to put Sharif on the eCL (exit control list) as per recommendation of the relevant cabinet committee.

Unlike his predecessors, Khan has learnt nothing from history. Unfortunately, the self-professed ‘tabdeeli Sarkar’(harbinger of change) is, to quote from the French writer Jean-Baptise Alphonse: “the more things change they remain the same.”

I

Karachi – Ph: 021-35381208-9

I

Maulana Azad said “We are engaged with clerics rift is that which has been created by a clergy that of all schools of thought and various groups, in- seeks to ‘keep power unto itself.’

In the time of the Prophet Mohammad (PBUh) volving them in the process.” This newspaper reported that earlier, in an attempt to ensure that there was no other way of telling when a new month eidul Fitr is celebrated the same day across the began except by sighting the new moon. It has now country this year, RhC members had approached been more than a thousand years since and we have and tried to persuade the clerics who have publicly other ways of determining such things. Despite that, opposed the announcement related to Shawwal if one must stick to the way it was done in the Prophet’s (pbuh) time, why moon-sighting by the nathen are we trying to collect tional body (RhC) in the sighting information from past. While separately, in all kinds of remote areas bePeshawar, the Qasim Ali fore declaring the month of Khan mosque’s Mufti It’s time we stopped making a Shawwal. how come we try Popalzai heads the local to follow Saudi Arabor any unofficial moon-sighting mockery of religion. That has to other place? They could not committee. do all this then. They had no That is good of course, be the real blasphemy, when phones in the Prophet’s but why do we even need religion and its prominent (pbuh) time to relay mesthe RhC? Why can dates to a central authority. for eid not be fixed years in figures are made into a laughing Ifsages we must stay in the past, advance? do exactly what was Is it really un-Islamic to stock by its own people. When let’s done then and sight the use technology and a fixed moon in individual villages, calendar in lieu of physiwill we learn to respect Islam separate sightings in cally sighting the moon? Is and allow it to be what it is, a Mozang, the different science really incompatible phases of DhA, Gulberg, with Islam? manual for life and a set of etc etc and everyone celeIslamic history shows eid according to evidence of a productive rebeliefs that allows us to grow as brate whether or not the new lationship between faith and moon was seen in their science. Muslim scientists persons and progress as neighbourhood. That is how took an early interest in astronomy, since keeping time nations? Islam is a religion that it used to be.

It’s time we stopped accurately was important lays stress on education and making a mockery of relifor the performance of the That has to be the real five daily prayers. They rational thought, research and gion. blasphemy, when religion constructed astronomical taand its prominent figures are bles specifically to deterenquiry. That is something we made into a laughing stock mine the exact times of by its own people. When prayer for specific locations fail to recognize will we learn to respect around the continent, servIslam and allow it to be ing effectively as an early what it is, a manual for life system of time zones. and a set of beliefs that alIn other words they did lows us to grow as persons not try to check the position of the sun five times a day to determine the time for and progress as nations? Islam is a religion that lays stress on education and rational thought, research and each prayer.

The world of science is full of names of Muslim enquiry. That is something we fail to recognize. scientists, Jabir ibn e hayyan, Al Khwarizmi, Ibn e Rabia Ahmed is a freelance columnist. Read more Sina, Ibn e Rushd and scores of others. So no, there is no dichotomy between science and Islam. The only by her at http://rabia-ahmed.blogspot.com

Islamabad – Ph: 051-2204545

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Web: www.pakistantoday.com.pk

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Email: editorial@pakistantoday.com.pk

Sunday, 16 May, 2021

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

Save al aqsa ThROUGh the columns of your esteemed newspaper I would like to draw the attention of muslim brother about the recent attack of al aqsa masjid. Jerusalem is the home of islam third holiest site after macca and madina.but the Muslim leaders of the world don't care enough to protect al aqsa .Instead, its left to the Palestinian people with zero help from the world.The entire Muslim world is responsible for the safety and security of al-Aqsa Mosque.every Muslim-majority country should take action for Palestine. haFsamalik kaRaChi

Uncharted territory

Cries of anguish, testaments of valour Underneath a barrage of unremitting fire, a saga of undying faith

Candid Corner rAoof hAsAN “The eyes still aglow with a trickle of light Can see fire raging across the valley of the Sinai Beckoning the hearts to be cleansed As a new contract may yet be drawn The rich having embraced the infliction of savagery And the pious learnt to chant the hymns of humiliation To alter the tradition of capitulation Echoes the command of rebellion” –Faiz ahmad Faiz

T

he story of Palestine is as old as the story of blood, pain and suffering. It is a story of rights usurped and lives slaughtered. It is a story of homes burnt and children put to the sword. Written in a million hues and shades, it is the story of a people who have been denied their right to a place and peace.

This story of blood is encapsulated in a proclamation of injustice. Lord Balfour, the author of the declaration granting Jews a national home in Palestine, declared that “Zionism, be it right or wrong, good or bad, is rooted in agelong tradition, in present needs, in future hopes, of far profounder import than the desires and prejudices of 700,000 Arabs who now inhabit that ancient land”. Quite simply, the very origin of the Zionist state is based on a foundation of appalling injustice, of discriminating one people from the other and helping one take root by uprooting the other.

Noam Chomsky, a vibrant voice internationally for the rights of the deprived people, has recently said that “the Israeli government’s immediate policy is to construct a “greater Israel”, including a vastly expanded Jerusalem encompassing surrounding Arab villages, the Jordan Valley, a large part of the West Bank with much of its arable land, and major town deep inside the West Bank, along with Jewsonly infrastructure projects integrating them into Israel. The project bypasses Palestinian population concentrations, like Nablus, so as to fend off what Israeli leaders describe as the dread “demographic problem”: too many nonJews in the projected “democratic Jewish state” of “Greater Israel”— an oxymoron more difficult to mouth with each passing year. Palestinians within “greater Israel” are confined to 165 enclaves, separated from their lands and olive groves by a hostile military, subjected to con-

stant attack by violent Jewish gangs protected by the Israeli army”.

Why is it that a problem that emanated from the grave injustice done to the Jewish people by a western country during the World War II, with which the inhabitants of this swathe of land did not have a connection, has been tackled at the cost of the right to statehood of the Palestinian people? Is it justified by any stretch of the law or ethics that the proclamation of statehood is granted to one people by depriving another of the same? Is it justified that the tiny enclave within which the Palestinian people are herded as cattle is constantly showered in fire; that their young are butchered in cold blood and their new-born snatched from the cradles; that their mothers are molested and raped; that their old are denuded of their self-respect and denied the right to be buried with dignity; and that the future of an entire people is consigned to virtual hell? Can any of this be justified, or should it be accepted as fait accompli simply because the world conscience is driven by profit, and it would not be moved by the infliction of the gravest injustice upon a caged people?

I don’t write as follower of one faith or another, of one creed or another. I don’t write as adherent of one system or another. I don’t write as friend of one and foe to another. I don’t write as of the left or the right. I don’t write for the fair-skinned or those not so fair of skin.

I don’t write for the east or the West. My pain is not sensitive to any one breed of people alone. I write as a human being whose heart aches for all who have been deprived of their rights and who are being wrongfully subjected to deprivation.

My heart aches for the land of Palestine as it does for the land of Kashmir, or any other place where people may be suffering from the yoke of captivity.

They all have an equal right to their freedom which should not be compromised under artificially created conditions and circumstances. Their right should always be ascendant and should supersede the strategic needs of states and political expediencies of their rulers. It is the exercise of this inherent right that brings states into being. People craft states, states don’t make people. The power of the state emanates from the power of the people.

What we are witnessing in the Gaza Strip is not just annihilation of some people. It is the annihilation of humanity itself. A war that begins here can consume the region, even the world. It

has been simmering for a long time and has been barely kept from raging across lands and seas far away. But the afflicting powers must not forget that suppression, no matter how brutal it may be, has never kept people captive eternally. The chains will break someday and the same fire that is burning the Palestinian and Kashmiri people today will be heaped upon the oppressors.

It is Noam Chomsky again who said thus: “You take my water, burn my olive trees, destroy my house, take my job, steal my land, imprison my father, kill my mother, bombard my country, starve us all, humiliate us all, but I am to blame: I shot a rocket back”.

Retribution can be bitter. It can bring cataclysmic destruction in its wake. Wisdom demands that time is not stretched to a point where it may be too late for amends to be made and the suppressed anger may surge forth in waves upon waves. Shooting a rocket carries a message of rebellion. It is a sign of living people fighting to be free of the chains of slavery they have been tied in. Resistance is a natural instinct. It can spew fire. An Arab woman has spoken the mind of a whole people who have lived through endless pain: “I am an Arab woman of colour and we come in all shades of anger Allow me to speak my Arab tongue before they occupy my language as well Allow me to speak my mother tongue before they colonise her memory as well I am an Arab woman of colour Beware, beware my anger!”

Gaza simmers with anger. Gaza resonates with valour. Gaza will not be subdued. It pricks the world conscience to awaken from its slumber. Justice cannot be put off endlessly. here is Faiz testifying to its inevitability: “Let the clarion call go forth to the mighty To stand sentinel to the measure of their deeds When the wretched of the earth shall surge entreating for vengeance None shall come to the rescue.

Reward and punishment shall be dispensed here For here shall be enacted hell and paradise here shall be raised the call for the hereafter here shall be the doomsday.”

Retribution can be bitter. It can bring cataclysmic destruction in its wake.

Wisdom demands that time is not stretched to a point where it may be too late for amends to be made and the suppressed anger may surge forth in waves upon waves. Shooting a rocket carries a message of rebellion. It is a sign of living people fighting to be free of the chains of slavery they have been tied in.

Resistance is a natural instinct. It can spew fire

The writer is a political and security strategist, and heads the Regional Peace Institute – an Islamabad-based think tank. Email: raoofhasan@hotmail.com. Twitter: @RaoofHasan

IT depends upon political leadership and their awareness of science and history, which will determine intensity of damage inflicted by this contagious pandemic COVIT-19. This is unchartered territory, where medical scientists and biologists have still to find a vaccine which can prevent infection from being contracted and give people confidence to overcome fear. We, however can learn lessons from history and authentic hadiths which quote holy Prophet(PBUh) on how to cope with such pandemics and plagues. This can be a long wait till we find the cure, just like it took almost 5 years by researchers to offer a vaccine for ebola. however we can pray to Almighty that a vaccine is developed within a year, as predicted by those who specialize in control and cure of contagious infections and hopefully offer a therapeutic medicine in the interim period for those already infected.

Lock-down, self isolation and following advice of doctors is our only safe option. however if political leaders were to ape course adopted by President Trump or PM Boris, than they should be prepared for quantum of fatalities and infections citizens of these countries have suffered. Adopting preventive measures with strict oversight by the State is a safe option. In any case it is the constitutional and moral obligation of a legally elected executive to protect lives of citizens. A poor under-nourished family is more likely to die in case of being exposed to COVIT19 than being underfed with one meal a day. malik TaRiq ali lahore

Politics and Covid-19 I want to take your attention to the most important issue which nowadays we are seeing and observing. Political parties and their leaders in this disastrous situation of COVID-19. Despite the whole world and all nations are United in this situation, our political parties and opposition leaders are blaming the government for each and every move which they make for the betterment of our country and people. They are supposed to support the government and their policies in such a disastrous situation but they blame them every day for their every move. The opposition are supposed to help the government and unite not to blame them. Because united we can beat this deadly disease but if we start blaming games, we will lose this fight against this deadly disease. So we have to unite and fight this disease before it's too late for us. aRslan khan Rawalpindi

History of Ertugrul Ghazi eRTUGRUL Ghazi is the founder of the Ottoman Caliphate. he was born in 1188 AD and died in 1280 AD. Some books mention 1281. he had three sons Gohar, Shehryar and Usman he later established the Khilafah.The caliphate was named after the same son of Uthman of ertugrul, the Ottoman Caliphate, but the foundation of the caliphate was laid by ertugrul Ghazi.The same caliphate then defended the Muslim Ummah with the swords of these Turks for 600 years, from 1291 AD to 1924 AD.ertugrul Ghazi's family came here from Central Asia and his ancestor Amjad Oz Khan Oghuz khan had twelve sons from whom they became twelve tribes, one of which was the Kayi tribe to which ertugrul Ghazi belonged.Your father's name was Suleiman Shah, Artagul Ghazi had three more brothers, Sarem, Zaljan, Guldaro, your mother's name was haima.Your tribe first came from Central Asia to Iran and then from Iran to Anatolia. To escape the Mongol invasion where Sultan Ala-ud-din who was the Sultan of the Seljuk Seljuk empire and this Seljuk Turkish empire was founded by Sultan Alap Arslan.By defeating Byzantine in the battle of Manzikert in 1071, Sultan Alp Arsalan was a great figure in history and went on to become the head of the same empire. These 12 tribes lived under the shadow of Sultan Alauddin Oghuz Khan.

And ertugrul Ghazi became the chief of the Qai tribe. After the death of his father Suleiman Shah, the Ahl al-Ahl came first.Then he went to Aleppo.

1232 Where Sultan Salahuddin Ayubi's grandson Aziz ruled, first ertugrul Ghazi befriended Aziz then married Sultan Alauddin's niece halima Sultan with whom he had three sons.he befriended the Ayyubids and the Seljuks, conquered a stronghold of the Crusaders near Aleppo, and then became very close to ertugrul Sultan Allauddin. As the Mongol invasion approached, ertugrul Ghazi defeated Noyan, a key Mongol leader. Noyan was the right hand of the Mongol king Ogtai Khan, Ogtai Khan was the son of Genghis Khan, and Ogtai's son was hulagu Khan Was running.And then ertugrul Ghazi led his tribe to So Gut Sogut near Constantinople near Constantinople, and first there he conquered an important fortress of Byzantine Byazantine and gathered all the Turkic tribes.After the death of Sultan Allauddin, ertugrul Ghazi became the sultan of the Seljuk kingdom and his descendant was Sultan Muhammad the Conqueror, who conquered Constantinople in 1453 and thus fulfilled the prophecy of the holy Prophet(saw).Fighters like ertugrul Ghazi are rare in history, but unfortunately our generation does not know them.

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 (may God have mercy on him) was behind this warrior ertugrul Ghazi and by the grace of the holy Prophet (PBUh) it was Sheikh Mohi-ud-Din Ibn Al-Arabi who came from Andalusia to help ertugrul Ghazi.This is not emotional or exaggerated. Only he who has received this light of spirituality can understand all this. And he who does not receive this light is blind and will not understand. Such as the Liberal Secular Brigade. The beautiful hadith of the holy Prophet (saw) is as follows: “Fear the believer's vision; Translation: Fear the believer's vision, for he sees with the light of God. maleeha shoaib Rawalpindi

Sunday, 16 May, 2021

08 WORLD VIEW

Palestinians in israel now face far right mob violence backed by the state PROTESTS BY PALESTINIAN CITIZENS ARE BEING GREETED WITH A MIX OF POLICE VIOLENCE AND VIGILANTE-STYLE ATTACKS FROM JEWISH FASCISTS

middle easT eye

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JoNAthAN Cook

ITH Jerusalem ablaze and Gaza on the brink of another major Israeli onslaught, it has been easy to overlook the rapidly escalating ethnic violence inside Israel, where one in five of the population is Palestinian. These 1.8 million Palestinians - Israeli citizens in little more than name - have spent the past week venting their frustration and anger at decades of Israeli oppression directed at their own communities inside Israel, as well as at Palestinians under more visible occupation. already the protests, which have been sweeping Palestinian communities inside Israel, have been greeted with a savage backlash - a combination of official violence from Israeli police and vigilante-style violence from far-right Jewish gangs.

Israeli politicians have been warning noisily of “arab pogroms” against the Jewish population. But with the rising influence of the openly fascist far-right in Israel - many of them armed settlers, some with ties to military units - there is a much greater danger of pogroms against the Palestinian minority.

Israel’s Palestinian citizens have been at the heart of the wave of protests in occupied east Jerusalem that began a month ago, at the start of ramadan. With the aid of their Israeli ID cards and relative freedom of movement, many travelled to east Jerusalem in organised bus convoys. They bolstered numbers in the demonstrations at sheikh Jarrah, where many Palestinian families are facing expulsion from their homes by Jewish settlers, backed by the Israeli state. They also participated in the defence of al-aqsa mosque. But last weekend, as social media was flooded with clips of police storming al-aqsa and of Jewish extremists excitedly cheering a fire near the mosque, protests erupted inside Israel too. There have been nightly demonstrations in larger Palestinian towns, including Nazareth, Kafr Kanna, Kafr manda, umm al-Fahm, shefa-amr and Beersheva. Police have responded in familiar fashion, firing stun grenades into the crowds and smothering them with tear gas. There have been large numbers of arrests.

BOILING POINT: some of the most violent clashes, however, have been taking place elsewhere, in communities misleadingly described by Israel as “mixed cities”.

Israel has traditionally presented these cities - lod (lydd), ramle, Jaffa, Haifa and acre (akka) - as examples of “Jewish-arab coexistence”. The reality is very different. In each, Palestinian citizens live on the margins of a former Palestinian city that was ethnically cleansed upon Israel’s founding in 1948 and has been aggressively “Judaised” ever since.

Palestinian residents of these cities have to deal daily with the racism of many of their Jewish neighbours, and they face glaring institutional discrimination in planning rules designed to push them out and help Jews - often members of the settler movement or extremist religious students - take their place. all of this occurs as they are tightly policed to protect Jewish residents’ rights at their expense. resentment and anger have been building

steadily for years, and now seem to have reached a boiling point. and because the “mixed cities” are among the few places in Israel where Jewish and Palestinian citizens live in relatively close proximity - most other communities have been strictly segregated by Israel - the potential for inter-communal violence is especially high.

The roots of what some still view as a potential new intifada, or Palestinian uprising, risk being smothered in areas of Israel. The more the Palestinian minority protests against the structural discrimination it faces, the more it risks inflaming the passions of the Jewish farright. These Jewish fascists are riding high after their parties won six parliamentary seats in Israel’s march election. They are seen as integral to any coalition government that caretaker Prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu may put together.

DRIVING PALESTINIANS OUT: For years, the settler right has been trying to drive remaining Palestinian families out of the “mixed cities”, especially those in the centre of the country, next to Tel aviv. They have received state help to set up extremist religious seminaries in the midst of Palestinian neighbourhoods.

Now under cover of protests, the far-right has the chance to up the stakes. Its newest legislator, Itamar Ben Gvir, has claimed, fancifully, that police are being prevented from dealing with the protests firmly enough. The barely coded message is that the far right needs to take the law into its own hands. more surprisingly, Ben Gvir was echoed by the government’s police minister, amir Ohana, who called on “citizens carrying weapons” to work on the authorities’ behalf by “immediately neutralising threats and danger”. social media has also been awash with calls from activists to arm themselves and attack Palestinian communities in Israel. On Wednesday, the results of the incitement were all too evident. Jewish gangs, many of them masked, smashed and looted arab-owned shops and food stalls south of Tel aviv. Hundreds of onlookers were filmed by an Israeli TV crew watching as a driver was dragged from his car and severely beaten. Though the rampage had been going on for much of the evening, police were nowhere in sight.

Palestinian residents of mixed cities have been hurriedly organising defence patrols in their neighbourhoods. But with many members of the Jewish far right licensed to carry firearms, the reality is that Palestinian communities have few ways to protect themselves effectively. some of the worst scenes have emerged from lod, where local Palestinians live in a few ghettoised neighbourhoods stranded in the midst of what is now effectively a Jewish city next to Tel aviv.

'IRON FIST' Confrontations on monday led to an armed Jewish resident fatally shooting a Palestinian father-of-three, musa Hasuna. The next day, his funeral escalated into a riot after police tried to block the mourners’ route, with the torching of cars and visible symbols of the Jewish takeover of central lod, including a synagogue. On a visit to the city, Netanyahu denounced the

events as “anarchy” and warned that Israel would use an “iron fist if necessary”.

On Wednesday night, a curfew was imposed on the city, and under a state of emergency, control passed from the local council to police. Netanyahu said he had been working to overcome legal obstacles to give police even greater powers. echoing Netanyahu and the Jewish fascist parties, Israeli Police Commissioner Yaakov shabtai argued that the explosion of Palestinian unrest had been caused by police being “too soft”.

Over the past few days, there have been tit-for-tat violent attacks on both Jewish and Palestinian citizens, with beatings, stabbings and shootings that have left many dozens injured. But claims of an imminent “civil war” in places such as lod, as its Jewish mayor characterised the situation this week, fundamentally misrepresent the dynamics at play and the balance of power. even if they wanted to, Palestinian communities have no hope of taking on heavily armed security forces and Jewish militias.

ERUPTION OF ANGER: What the state is doing in lod and other communities - through the police and proxy settler allies - is teaching a new generation of Palestinian citizens a lesson in Jewish-state civics: you will pay a deeply painful price for demanding the rights we pretend to the world you already have.

Certainly, Netanyahu seems to have no real commitment to calming the situation, especially as violence between Jewish and Palestinian citizens takes his corruption trial off the front pages. It also feeds a right-wing narrative that is likely to serve him well if, as expected, Israel heads back to yet another general election in a few months’ time.

But other Israeli officials are stoking the flames, too - including President reuven rivlin, who unlike Netanyahu, is supposed to be a unifying figure. He denounced Palestinian citizens as a “bloodthirsty arab mob” and, in an inversion of the rapidly emerging reality, accused them of conducting what he called a “pogrom” in lod. For decades, Israel has tried to cultivate the improbable notion for western audiences that its Palestinian citizens - restyled as “Israeli arabs” - live happily as equals with Jews in “the only democracy in the middle east” Israel has carefully obscured the minority’s history as Palestinians - clinging on to their lands during Israel’s mass ethnic cleansing operations in 1948 - as it has the systematic discrimination they face in a self-declared Jewish state. as a consequence, the eruption of anger in Palestinian communities inside Israel is always difficult for Israel to manage narratively.

TREATED AS AN 'ENEMY': since the grip of a military government was loosened in the late 1960s, the Palestinian minority has staged constant protests. But massive, nationwide street demonstrations have erupted only once every generation - and they are always brutally crushed by Israeli forces.

Badly bloodied, Palestinian citizens have been forced to retreat into unhappy, and temporary, quiescence. That was what happened in the 1970s during land

THE MORE THE PALESTINIAN MINORITY PROTESTS AGAINST THE STRUCTURAL DISCRIMINATION IT FACES, THE MORE IT RISKS INFLAMING THE PASSIONS OF THE JEWISH FAR-RIGHT

Day, when Palestinian communities launched their first one-day general strike to protest the state’s mass theft of their historic farming lands so that Jewish-only communities could be established on them. Israeli officials, including then-Prime minister Yitzhak rabin, were so incensed by the strike that they sent in tanks. six Palestinian citizens were killed as a result.

The protests returned in October 2000, at the start of the second Intifada, when the Palestinian minority took to the streets in solidarity with Palestinians under occupation who were being killed in large numbers in the West Bank, east Jerusalem and Gaza.

Within days, 13 demonstrators had been gunned down, and hundreds more were seriously wounded as Israeli police used live ammunition and rubber-coated metal bullets as their first-line of crowd control. a subsequent judicial inquiry, the Or Commission, concluded that police viewed the minority as an “enemy”.

DOUBLE DISCRIMINATION: The new generation protesting this week knows of the October 2000 protests chiefly as stories told by their parents. They are finding out first-hand how much has changed in Israel’s racist policing in the intervening two decades.

In fact, questions about the role of Israeli police and their relationship to Palestinian communities inside Israel have been at the forefront of political debates raging among Palestinian citizens over the past two years.

The Palestinian minority has long suffered a doubly discriminatory approach from Israeli security forces. On one hand, police have shirked a normal civilian policing role in Palestinian communities in Israel. That has allowed criminal elements to flourish in the vacuum created by this neglect. murders and shootings are at an all-time high. On the other hand, police are quick to crack down when Palestinian citizens engage in political dissent. The current arrests and police violence are part of a familiar pattern. many of the factors that brought Palestinians out into the streets in 2000 have not gone away. Violent, politically repressive policing has continued. House demolitions and racist planning policies still mean that Palestinian communities are chronically overcrowded and suffocated. Incitement from Jewish politicians is still the norm. and Palestinian leaders in Israel continue to be excluded from the government and Israel’s main institutions.

PERMANENT UNDERCLASS: But in recent years, matters have deteriorated even further. The passage of the 2018 nation-state law means the minority’s legal position is formally worse. The law has explicitly relegated Palestinian citizens to a permanent underclass - not really citizens at all, but unwelcome guest workers in a Jewish state. Further, the ascendant Jewish far-right has a mounting grievance against the Palestinian minority for standing in the way of its securing a solid electoral majority in a run of elections over the past two years. The success of Palestinian parties is seen as effectively blocking Netanyahu from heading a stable coalition of the ultra-nationalist right. and, with a two-state solution firmly off the table for all of Israel’s Jewish parties, Palestinian citizens are staring at a political and diplomatic cul-de-sac.

They have no hope of emerging from under the shadow of an Israeli security paradigm that readily views them as a fifth column, or a Palestinian Trojan horse inside a Jewish state. It is that very paradigm that is currently being used against them - and justifying police and settler violence in places such as lod, Jaffa and acre.

Jonathan Cook, a British journalist based in Nazareth since 2001, is the author of three books on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Israeli actions in Jerusalem endanger recent detente with Gulf Arabs PROVOCATIONS AROUND AL-AQSA MOSQUE JEOPARDISE RELATIONS WITH MUSLIM COUNTRIES

Financial Times

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DAVID GARDNER

erusalem, the holy city sacred to the three abrahamic and monotheist faiths of Judaism, Christianity and Islam, is threatening to ignite once more. Israeli settlers and their extremist allies have been stoking tensions throughout the muslim holy month of ramadan, with a campaign of incitement inside occupied arab east Jerusalem ahead of new evictions of Palestinian families. They have also been stirring trouble at religious sites such as al-aqsa mosque.

Israel is risking its security. These farright provocations provided the perfect excuse for Hamas, the Islamist politico-military group that controls the Gaza strip, to fire hundreds of rockets into Israel, eliciting scores of air strikes in response — with the risk of a re-ignition of the Gaza wars of 2009, 2012 and 2014. al-aqsa mosque is in a religious sanctuary in the heart of Jerusalem, known to muslims as the Haram ash-sharif, or Noble sanctuary, and to Jews as Temple mount. It also houses the Dome of the rock, from which in Islamic tradition the Prophet mohammed (PBuH) made a journey to heaven, and the Western Wall, sacred to Jews as the surviving structure from the second Temple and its Holy of Holies, begun by Herod the Great and destroyed by the romans in 70Ce. Israel seized east Jerusalem from Jordan in the 1967 six-day war, annexing and gradually colonising its arab quarters. But successive governments have usually preserved the religious status quo in the 36-acre compound, treating it with the care due a ticking

bomb. Jordan’s Hashemite royal family, by tradition and treaty, is the custodian of muslim and Christian holy places in Jerusalem.

Trifling with the rival traditions of deeply emotive holiness in the holy city, which have collided across the millennia, always risks igniting a rocket-fuelled clash of politico-religious identity. Yet that is what is happening. Israeli riot police stormed the al-aqsa compound on monday, attacking stone-throwing protesters with rubbertipped bullets and stun grenades, spraying tear gas and putrid “skunk water”. about 600 Palestinians, including worshippers inside the mosque, have been injured in Jerusalem’s clashes since Friday. In the weeks leading up to this eruption, passions boiled ahead of an Israeli supreme Court judgment on the eviction of Palestinian families in sheikh Jarrah, a middle-class area of arab east Jerusalem. most of the world does not recognise Israel’s annexation of east Jerusalem. This is the latest thrust in a four-decades-long campaign by Israeli settlers to clear the areas in and around the old city of Palestinian fami-

lies who have lived there for generations. aside from evictions, they are being driven out by a panoply of zoning and residence laws, building restrictions and the bulldozing of Palestinian properties.

But now there is a political vacuum.

Benjamin Netanyahu, the five-term premier on trial for corruption, has been unable to form a government despite his embrace of the religious and extreme right. mahmoud abbas, president of the increasingly irrelevant and corrupt Palestinian authority that has quasi-municipal powers over 40 per cent of the occupied West Bank, has again deferred what would have been the first elections since 2006 — which Hamas won. extremists are running riot.

Itamar Ben-Gvir, leader of the far-right Jewish Power party and a Netanyahu ally, tweeted that “it is time to liberate the Temple mount and Jerusalem, and show them who owns the house once and for all”.

Ben-Gvir’s behaviour recalls that of ariel sharon, the late prime minister and settlers champion, chaperoned past the Haram ash-sharif towards Temple mount in september 2000 by hundreds of Israeli riot police. That lit the powder trail to a second Palestinian uprising, known as the alaqsa intifada.

The riot police inside the holy sanctuary this week crossed a dangerous line. a con-

flict ostensibly over land is acquiring menacing religious overtones that encourage a collision of irreducible identities in a region with no shortage of fanatics.

Former president Donald Trump emboldened the Israeli right on Jerusalem by moving the us embassy there. and Netanyahu, to try to stay in power, has courted overtly racist anti-arab groups determined to take control of the Haram ash-sharif. stirring unrest in the holy city weakens Israel’s credentials. as a strategy to enlarge the occupation and install more settlers it forecloses on the possibility of a Palestinian state and forces Palestinians to struggle for equal rights inside a Greater Israel, undermining Israel’s legitimacy in world opinion.

It also puts at risk Israel’s relations with its arab neighbours, as well as muslims worldwide. There have been protests from Turkey to Jordan, as well as in arab towns and cities inside Israel. relations with Jordan are at rock-bottom. Jordan, along with egypt, was part of the first wave of “normalisation” with Israel, through their respective peace treaties of 1994 and 1979.

But the united arab emirates and Bahrain, pioneers of last year’s so-called abraham accords with Israel, are now loud in protest at events in the city of abrahamic faiths. In Jerusalem, Israel is risking its second wave of detente with the arabs.

Sunday, 16 May, 2021

BUSINESS 09

LAHORE

WB lisTs EhsAAs ProgrAmmE AmoNg World's ToP four soCiAl ProTECTioN PlANs

New WhatsApp privacy policy comes into force As WhatsApp’s new privacy policy goes live, the messaging platform announced it will not delete user accounts if they don’t accept the new terms. Users can accept the new terms at any time, the company tweeted.

However, that seems to be the only option. Users will eventually face limited functionality if they don’t accept the new privacy policy update. “For the last several weeks we’ve displayed a notification in WhatsApp providing more information about the update,” the company said in a statement. “After giving everyone time to review, we’re continuing to remind those who haven’t had the chance to do so to review and accept. After a period of several weeks, the reminder people receive will eventually become persistent.” WhatsApp initially set a deadline of February 8, 2021, however, the date was extended after receiving backlash from users and privacy activists who questioned the company’s “accept our data grab or get out” move on Twitter. WhatsApp said users can also export their chat history to Android or iPhone, and download a report of their account. “You can export your chats and download a report of your account on your own”. MONITORING REPORT

Tesla in talks with China’s EVE for low-cost battery supply deal SHANGHAI AGENCIES

Tesla Inc is in talks with Chinese battery maker EVE Energy Co to add the firm to its Shanghai factory supply chain, four people familiar with the matter said, as it seeks to boost procurement of lower cost batteries. EVE makes lithium iron phosphate (LFP) batteries, which are cheaper to produce because they use iron instead of more expensive nickel and cobalt. But LFP batteries generally offer a shorter range on a single charge than the more popular nickel/cobalt alternative. EVE would become the second supplier of LFP batteries to Tesla after China’s Contemporary Amperex Technology Co. The talks are advanced and the Palo Alto, California-based company is seeking to finalise the partnership in the third quarter, said two of the people. Shenzhen-listed EVE is running some final-stage tests of its products for Tesla, said one person. Shares of the Chinese battery firm jumped more than 10% in afternoon trade on Friday following the Reuters report about the talks. All sources declined to be identified as the discussions are private. Tesla and EVE did not reply to Reuters requests for comment. Tesla CEO Elon Musk said this year the company was shifting standard range cars to an iron cathode due to concerns about the supply of nickel for scaling up battery production. The talks come as Tesla faces growing competition from Chinese rivals such as Nio (NIO.N) and Li Auto , as well as mounting cost pressure. Tesla raised the starting price of a standard range Model 3 sedan in China by 1,000 yuan ($155) on Saturday to 250,900 yuan, citing cost fluctuations. Data showed this week that China’s factory gate prices rose at their fastest in three and a half years in April as the world’s secondlargest economy gathers momentum. read more Tesla also faces mounting regulatory pressure in China after consumer disputes over product safety and scrutiny over how it handles data. read more The company is using batteries from China’s Contemporary Amperex Technology Co (CATL) and South Korea’s LG Chem for its China-made Model 3 and Model Y cars. CATL has been the sole supplier of the LFP batteries for Chinamade Model 3 cars with standard driving ranges since late last year. Three of the sources said Tesla has been working closely with EVE to get its batteries to meet its requirements, as it aims to bring in the supplier as, what one of the sources called a “check and balance” against CATL. One of the sources said Tesla could start using EVE’s LFP batteries in the China-made Model 3 and Model Y vehicles within the next six months and EVE had ramped up production in order to be prepared for the possible partnership. EVE, which supplies batteries to Chinese EV maker Xpeng Inc (XPEV.N), said in March it also has battery supply partnerships with BMW (BMWG.DE) and Daimler AG.

PAKISTAN ALSO AMONG TOP 5 LOWER MIDDLE INCOME COUNTRIES BY LEVEL OF SOCIAL PROTECTION SPENDING ISLAMABAD

W

MIAN ABRAR

ORLD Bank (WB) has listed Ehsaas Emergency Cash among top four social protection interventions globally in terms of number of people covered.

In this regard, the World Bank released a report on global social protection responses to Covid-19 on Saturday. This report is called the 'living paper' and it is a partnership effort involving 18 co-authors and a large number of contributors; the paper presents a 650-page volume and accompanying database documenting how countries and territories are planning, implementing or completing social protection measures in the context of the pandemic.

The report states that there has been an exponential growth in social protection measures between March 20, 2020 and May 14, 2021 and that a total of 3,333 social protection measures have been planned or implemented in 222 countries or territories.

Pakistan ranks fourth globally in terms of the number of people covered and 3rd globally in terms of percentage of population covered amongst those that covered over 100 million people; the World Bank has stated that only “select countries have attained impressive six-digit levels” in this regard. Pakistan’s Ehsaas Emergency Cash is one of them.

The lead author of the paper is Ugo Gentilini, lead of Social Protection at the World Bank. The report is accompanied by an excel sheet as well to make available the larger volume of data.

According to the report, Pakistan’s Ehsaas also ranked high amongst the programs that did well in terms of Planned versus actual coverage rates According to the report, most of social protection measures are provided as social assistance. These represent 55 per cent of global programs and are the predominant form of support in most regions. Among social assistance measures, cash transfers remain the premier instrument. A total of 734 cash-based measures have been planned or implemented in 186 countries. Highest level of spending in lower middle-income countries category is observed in Mongolia Zimbabwe, Bolivia, and Pakistan.

One of the special features of the report is on delivery matters. According to the report, globally, there were essentially four ways to find and enroll new beneficiaries, the first of which was to simply add households to the list from an existing social registry.

Pakistan adopted an innovative hybrid targeting approach to enroll new beneficiaries combining emergency assistance for the known vulnerable with demand-based support for the “new poor”. Requests were sought through an 8171 SMS short code service and web-portal. Data analytics enabled eligibility ascertainment, using unique national identification numbers, and drawing on the national socioeconomic registry and wealth proxies including travel, taxes, billing, assets ownership data and government employment status.

The system was end-to-end data-driven, fully automated, rule-based, transparent, and politically neutral. Payments were biometrically verified Ehsaas Emergency Cash delivered cash stipends of Rs12,000 to 15 million households last year, which meant helping over 100 million people or half the country’s population, representing the largest and most extensive social protection intervention ever in the history of the country.

Digital capabilities established over the past year

as part of Ehsaas, Pakistan’s new poverty alleviation framework, were adapted to deliver Ehsaas Emergency Cash, in particular, a new biometric payment system, a demand side SMS based request seeking platform and a new wealth-profiling big data analytics mechanism.

The legacy of this programme is not just shortterm relief. Ehsaas Emergency Cash will be an important component of the redesign of social protection, post Covid-19 and will help in the great global reimagination of social welfare envisaged in Ehsaas.

In terms of global experience sharing, the case of Pakistan provides useful lessons for other countries that utilise unique personal identification systems. It shows that by combining phones, internet connectivity, national IDs and commercial payment systems, a digital and innovative demand-based social protection system can be created to enable those in distress to seek social support during crises.

Ehsaas Emergency Cash also demonstrated how cash transfer programmes can be deployed to counter socio-economic fallouts due to external shocks such as Covid-19 which present a long-term predicament. The approach can also address rising inequality and advance attainment of SDGs in a post Covid-19 world.

Pakistan economic growth projected at 3pc for FY21: Baqir

Pakistan’s economic growth rate is expected to be three percent this fiscal year, State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) Governor Dr Reza Baqir said.

In an interview with Khaleej Times on Friday, Dr Baqir said that Pakistan’s economy has the potential to grow at a high rate. “Yes, we have a potential to

grow at much higher rate in coming years. The State Bank of Pakistan projects three per cent GDP growth in financial year 2020-21 and four per cent in 2021-22,” he said.

“We have strong economic indicators this year despite the Covid-19 pandemic challenges and this is a good omen for the economy. The government ensures more than Rs2 trillion stimulus to steer the economy out of Covid crisis by supporting the businesses through much-needed liquidity and funds distribution at grass root level,” Dr Baqir said.

He informed that the central bank offered Rs450 billion liquidity under its Temporary Economic Refinance Facility (TERF) to the private sector to absorb the coronavirus shock, while another Rs240 billion was provided as working capital to avoid layoffs and job losses.

“The central bank also offered a Rs900 billion cushion to banks to en-

sure relief to distress businesses in deferment and restructuring of principal payment and mark-up charges. These are some of the measures which helped the economy to bounce back quickly to meet global demand after the lockdown period,” he said.

It may be recalled that the IMF has projected four per cent GDP growth for Pakistan during fiscal year 2021-22, which starts in July. Islamabad is expected to post a 1.5 per cent expansion during the current fiscal year ending on June 30 after a rare contraction of -0.4 per cent last year.

Moreover, newly-appointed Finance Minister Shaukat Tarin said Pakistan will go for an ambitious six per cent economic growth target in the next two years as the IMF shows its willingness to renegotiate tough conditions for a $6 billion loan in the wake of rising Covid-19 cases. MONITORING REPORT

Chip shortage to cost automakers $110bn in revenues in 2021 MICHIGAN AGENCIES

The global semiconductor chip shortage will cost automakers $110 billion in lost revenues this year, up from a prior estimate of $61 billion, consulting firm AlixPartners said, as it forecast the crisis will hit the production of 3.9 million vehicles.

The chip crunch has driven home the need for automakers to be “proactive” right now, and create “supply-chain resiliency” longer term to avoid disruptions in the fu-

ture, the firm said on Friday.

Automakers have in the past had direct supply agreements with producers of certain raw materials, including precious metals such as palladium and platinum, used in exhaust scrubbing systems.

The more direct approach to securing precious metal supplies was launched after a supply and price disruption in that market.

Automakers are now looking at developing direct relationships with semiconductor makers, said Mark Wakefield, co-leader of AlixPartners’ global automotive practice.

“These things are shocked into existence,” he said. Automakers have been reluctant in the past to make long term commitments to buy semiconductors or other raw materials and take on the financial liabilities for such agreements, Wakefield said.

Now, “the risk is real. It’s not a potential” risk of losing production to semiconductor shortages, he added.

Separately, Ford Motor Co (F.N) said on Thursday it is redesigning automotive parts to use more accessible chips, in response to the global semiconductor shortage.

CMYK

Sunday, 16 May, 2021

10 FOREIGN NEWS China successfully lands its Zhurong rover on Mars News Desk China has successfully landed a spacecraft on Mars, state media announced early on Saturday. The six-wheeled Zhurong robot was targeting Utopia Planitia, a vast terrain

in the planet’s northern hemisphere. The vehicle used a combination of a protective capsule, a parachute and a rocket platform to make the descent. The successful touchdown is a remarkable achievement, given the difficult nature of the task.

LAHORE

UN Security Council to meet today about Israel, Gaza New YORk Agencies

The UN Security Council will publicly discuss the worsening violence between Israel and Palestinians on Sunday (today) diplomats said, reaching a compromise over US objections to a meeting on Friday.

Diplomats said the United States, a close ally of Israel, had initially suggested a virtual public meeting could be held on Tuesday.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Thursday he hoped waiting a few days would allow for “diplomacy to have some effect and to see if indeed we get a real de-esca-

lation,” adding that Washington was “open to and supportive of a discussion, an open discussion, at the United Nations.” Hostilities entered their fifth day on Friday, with no sign of abating. Israel fired artillery and mounted more air strikes against Palestinian fighters in the Gaza Strip amid constant rocket fire deep into Israel’s commercial centre. The 15-member council has met privately twice this week about the worst hostilities in the region in years, but has so far been unable to agree on a public statement, diplomats said. Such statements are agreed to by consensus, and the United States did not believe it would be helpful, they said.

All council members also have to agree to

IndIa’s daIly CovId-19 deaths near 4,000 as polICe sent to halt dumpIng of bodIes New Delhi

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Agencies

NDIA reported on Saturday its smallest daily increase in coronavirus infections in nearly three weeks, but deaths stayed near the 4,000-mark as the World Health Organisation (WHO) warned that the second year of the pandemic could be worse than the first.

In the past 24 hours, India reported 326,098 new infections, taking its tally to 24.3 million, with 3,890 deaths, for a toll of 266,207, health ministry data shows. But the slow growth may also reflect test rates that are at their lowest since May 9.

In Geneva, the World Health Organisation's chief said India was a huge concern, with the second year of the pandemic set to be more deadly than the first.

Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus's remarks to an online meeting came after Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi sounded the alarm on Friday over the rapid spread of the disease through the vast countryside.

During the past week, the South Asian nation has added about 1.7m new cases and more than 20,000 deaths in a second wave of infections that has overwhelmed hospitals and medical staff.

Police are patrolling the banks of the Ganges in India's most populous state of Uttar Pradesh to stop any dumping of corpses in the river, a government official said.

“We keep recovering 10 to 20 bodies every now and then,” Navneet Sehgal, a spokesman for the northern state, which has more people than Brazil, told Reuters.

“We have put a police force on the river and have also sent communications to local authorities that this practice be stopped.”

Sehgal was denying a re-

port in the Asian Age newspaper, citing federal government sources, that nearly 2,000 bodies of possible virus victims had been pulled from the river in the past week or so.

Some riverside villages did not cremate their dead in line with Hindu tradition during certain periods of religious significance, he added.

The state's virus infections officially peaked late last month but experts say many more cases are going undetected in the villages home to the bulk of the state's 240m people.

LOCKDOWNS HELP: Cases have fallen steadily in some Indian states hit by an initial surge in infections, such as the richest state of Maharashtra and the capital New Delhi after they imposed stringent lockdowns.

Delhi's positive cases as a share of tests have fallen to 11 per cent, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal told a news briefing, from more than 30pc early this month.

But the eastern state of West Bengal, which held elections last month, had its biggest single-day spike.

On Saturday, it ordered a state-wide lockdown for 15 days until the end of May. Some other states, such as Karnataka in the south, have also reported recent rises, implying a fall in overall cases is still some time away.

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Boris Johnson vowed to accelerate Britain's vaccination programme, reducing the gap between doses for the vulnerable, to try to contain a fast-spreading variant first detected in India.

Johnson's comments came soon after India accepted a government panel's recommendation to double to 12 to 16 weeks the gap between doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine.

a meeting under rules guiding the body’s virtual operations during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Israel unleashed its offensive on fighters in Gaza after Hamas fired rockets at Jerusalem and Tel Aviv in retaliation for Israeli police clashes with Palestinians near al-Aqsa mosque in East Jerusalem during the holy month of Ramadan. Worried that hostilities could spiral out of control, the United States is sending an envoy to the region. “The US will continue to actively engage in diplomacy at the highest levels to try to de-escalate tensions,” US Ambassador to the United Nations Linda ThomasGreenfield posted on Twitter after the Sunday meeting was agreed.

Sunday, 16 May, 2021

SPORTS 11

LAHORE

MANy plAyerS refuSed vAcciNATioN Before ipl CHeNNAI

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news Desk

T’s been 13 days since the Indian Premier League (IPL) was postponed but the cricket fraternity is still feeling the after-effects. While Sunrisers Hyderabad’s Wriddhiman Saha has tested positive again, KKR’s Prasidh Krishna is still in home quarantine after testing positive in Bangalore, Times of India reported. CSK’s batting coach Mike Hussey and bowling coach L. Balaji tested negative on Thursday and the Aussie is likely to fly out to Australia on Sunday.

While poor handling of the situation and BCCI’s reluctance to move the tournament to UAE were the prime reasons for the bubble breach, the lack of awareness among players, support staff about the situation was also key to the proliferation of cases inside the bubble.

Many players refused to get vaccinated before the IPL even though they were unofficially offered jabs by the franchises. “The players were simply reluctant about taking the vaccine when they were offered. It was not their fault, it was more about a lack of awareness,” a source said.

While a couple of franchises were able to convince their players to take the vaccine, most couldn’t. Many players were apparently wary of the fact that they might be a little feverish after taking the vaccine and turned down the proposal in the lead-up to the tournament. “Players felt the bubble that they were in was secure enough and there was no need to take the vaccine. The

franchises, too, didn’t push for it. Then things suddenly spiralled out of control,” the source added.The foreigners, in fact, were more open to taking the jab but it was not possible to vaccinate them because it wouldn’t have been legal. “Foreigners, especially many members of the support staff, were keen to take the vaccine. But it wasn’t possible to vaccinate them,” the source added.

While reluctance to take vaccines was one of the issues, many in the franchises

felt they were “sitting ducks” when they were made to travel to New Delhi at the peak of the pandemic.

“Yes, we were in charter flights.

Still, the small private terminals were full of CISF and airline staff and we had no clue about their Covid status,” the source added.

It will be a major worry for both Saha and Prasidh because they haven’t yet tested negative. Both will have to report in Mumbai on May 25 and will subsequently have

to undergo three negative tests before flying out to England for the World Test Championship (WTC) final.

Mike Hussey had twice tested positive, but his negative report on Friday afternoon was a relief. The CSK management is making arrangements for him to fly back home without a quarantine period in the Maldives. “Australia is opening flights from India from May 15 and that is a bit of a relief. It was extremely stressful for him mentally,” a CSK source said.

Federer calls for end to Tokyo Games uncertainty TOkYO Agencies

Tennis great Roger Federer has called on Olympics organisers to end the uncertainty around the Tokyo Games, with the 20times Grand Slam winner saying he was still in two minds whether to compete.

The Olympics are set to run from July 23 to August 8 after being postponed in March last year over the coronavirus pandemic.

But Japan, battling a surge of infections, has extended until the end of May a state of emergency in its capital, Tokyo, and three areas.

“Honestly I don’t know what to think.

I’m a bit between the two,” Federer, who won a doubles gold in the 2008 Beijing Games and a silver in singles four years later in London, told Swiss television station Leman Bleu on Friday.

“I would love to play in the Olympics, win a medal for Switzerland. It would make me especially proud. But if it doesn’t happen because of the situation, I would be the first to understand.

“I think what the athletes need is a decision: is it going to happen or is it not going to happen?

“At the moment, we have the impression that it will happen. We know it’s a

fluid situation. And you can also decide as an athlete if you want to go. If you feel there’s a lot of resistance, maybe it’s better not to go. I don’t know.”

A petition calling for the cancellation of the rescheduled Games garnered 350,000 signatures in nine days and was submitted to organisers on Friday, raising new questions about whether the Olympics should go ahead.

Rafael Nadal, who is tied with Federer at 20 for the most Grand Slam singles titles in men’s tennis, and 23-times Grand Slam winner Serena Williams this week said they were still unsure of competing in Tokyo.

Japan’s top-ranked women’s and men’s tennis players — Naomi Osaka and Kei Nishikori — also added their voice to the concerns, saying the risks of holding the Olympics amid the pandemic should continue to be carefully discussed.

Federer, a father of four, said he had taken the Pfizer-BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine.

“I’m glad that I could do it, with all the travelling I do,” said Federer, who will play the Geneva Open next week, his second tournament since returning in March after a year out due to knee problems.

“Even if I’m staying in Switzerland,

I think there are advantages. Above all, I did it for others because I don’t want to give it to anyone else, even if I still re-

main very careful.

“We’re very careful with the family and with our friends.”

Sam Burns shoots careerlow 62 to secure lead at AT&T Byron Nelson News Desk Sam Burns fired the lowest round of his PGA Tour career to race into the halfway lead at the AT&T Byron Nelson in Dallas.

Burns, who broke into the world’s top 50 with his win at the Valspar Championship earlier this month, birdied six of the last eight holes to card a 10-under 62 and hit the front on 17 under par after another day of low scoring at TPC Craig Ranch. Overnight co-leader Jordan Spieth struggled to overcome a “bad mood” as a 70 left him six off the pace, but Lee Westwood returned to form with a 64 getting him to nine under – two better than Jon Rahm and Bryson DeChambeau – while Brooks Koepka will head to Kiawah Island earlier than scheduled after missing the cut. The 24-year-old was three under through eight holes before making five birdies over the next six, including one at the 14th when he skied his tee shot and barely reached the fairway, atoning with a wedge to 17 feet and a perfect putt. A birdie, birdie finish capped a superb day at the office, which he felt was just reward for all his hard work in practice, which he continued to devote himself to even after his impressive three-shot victory over Keegan Bradley at the Valspar Championship. “The biggest thing for me is just seeing the hard work that we put in it, start seeing results from that,” he said. “A lot of times you don’t know how long the results are going to take. Golf is a fickle game! Burns is clearly still high on confidence following his PGA Tour breakthrough victory in Tampa, and he put himself in prime position to make it back-to-back wins following his birdie frenzy on the inward nine. Alex Noren emerged as Burns’ closest challenger after the Swede carded an eightbirdie 64, although he spurned a great chance to reduce the deficit to just one stroke when he missed a six-foot birdie putt on his final green.

Torres hat-trick as record-breaking Man City beat Newcastle LONDON Agencies

Ferran Torres scored his first Manchester City hat-trick as the Premier League champions beat Newcastle United 4-3 to claim an English record 12th consecutive away league win on Friday.

With Pep Guardiola’s City having already bagged the title and Newcastle safe, there was nothing riding on the fixture but it served up some rich entertainment with Spaniard Torres especially enjoying himself at St James’ Park.“Incredible numbers and goals in his first season in the Premier League,” Guardiola said of the 21-year-old signed from Valencia for 20 million pounds ($28.20 million) last August. “He is so young and clinical. He is a guy brought as a winger but maybe we have to think as a striker.”

Twice City had to come from a goal down as they extended the gap at the top of the table to 13 points. Guardiola rested firstchoice goalkeeper Ederson and handed 35year-old former England player Scott Carson his first appearance for the club.

Carson’s first action was to pick the ball out of the back of his net after Emil Krafth found space to head home Jonjo Shelvey’s cross in the 25th minute.

Joao Cancelo’s deflected drive levelled it up in the 39th minute and Torres put City ahead with a superbly improvised flick to direct Ilkay Guendogan’s cross into the net.

But Newcastle were level in first-half stoppage time when Joelinton thumped a penalty past Carson after a complex VAR decision.

Joelinton was clearly taken down by Nathan Ake in the box but VAR was required to decide whether Allan Saint-Maximin had been

offside in the build-up. It was proving a busy night for Carson and he faced another penalty just past the hour when Kyle Walker barged over Joe Willock in the area.

Carson saved Willock’s effort but the Arsenal loanee turned in the rebound. But City were in no mood to offer any gifts and were level again within two minutes as Torres converted a cross by Raheem Sterling on the stretch.

Two minutes later he completed his hattrick when he showed great balance to volley home a rebound after Cancelo struck the woodwork with a fierce drive from outside the area.

Torres now has 13 goals in all competitions for City this season and while Carson’s contribution has been far less, Guardiola was full of praise for his standin keeper, too.

Sunday, 16 May, 2021

prayer timings

NEWS

Coronavirus, Palestine violenCe stifle eid Celebrations iSLaMaBaD

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staff report

uSLIMS celebrated Eidul Fitr in a subdued mood for a second year Thursday as the Covid19 pandemic again forced mosque closings and family separations on the holiday marking the end of Ramadan.

Eid prayers were held at open areas in mosques and Eidgahs across the country following governmentdevised guidelines and other measures to curb the spread of the contagion disease, Radio Pakistan said Special prayers were offered for the well-being of the country, while the clerics highlighted the significance of the festival. Prayers were also offered for Palestine and Indianoccupied Kashmir.

In their messages, Prime Minister Imran Khan and President Dr Arif Alvi called on the nation to strictly adhere to safety protocols while celebrating Eid, saying the measures were necessary to avoid a massive outbreak.

The prime minister urged the nation to strictly follow precautionary measures and show compassion to the less fortunate while celebrating.

The world is witnessing a third peak of the pandemic, he said, adding that people should exercise extra caution and strictly abide by guidelines. “The precautions are also the injunctions of Islam as well as the teachings of Holy Prophet Muhammad (PBuH),” he said.

He also asked the nation to take special care of the poor and needy, particularly the families suffering financially due to the pandemic while celebrating the festival. He also called for remembering those who had sacrificed their lives for a greater cause to bring pride to the nation.

Imran said the prayers and wishes of the nation were with the people of occupied Kashmir on the occasion.

In a series of tweets, he said that this was “a very different Eid” and that it must be celebrated in a quiet manner due to two important reasons.

“One, there is the corona pandemic. In Pakistan, we are now again beginning to control the spread so it is vital for our people to observe SOPs. Two, equally critical is the need for us all to show solidarity with the Kashmiris and Palestinians who are suffering oppression by occupation powers in complete violation of their international guaranteed basic human rights,” he said.

President Alvi greeted the nation as well as the Muslim world on the occasion and prayed that the day brings plenty of joy.

National Assembly Opposition Leader and Pakistan Muslim LeagueNawaz (PML-N) President Shahbaz

Sharif and his niece and PML-N Vice President Maryam Nawaz also wished the nation.

While Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) chief Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari said: “This Eid, we pray for the people of Kashmir and Palestine, who spend another Eid resisting oppression and fighting for freedom.

“In Pakistan, we welcome Eid with Covid wave gaining momentum and backbreaking inflation robbing joy of Eid for so many. Appeal to all, observe Eid with simplicity,” he said.

QUIET EID: In the embattled Gaza Strip, the call to prayer echoed over pulverized buildings and heaps of rubble as Israeli warplanes continued to pound the territory in the worst outbreak of violence since the 2014 war.

Hamas, the fighter group ruling Gaza, urged the faithful to mark communal prayers inside their homes or the nearest mosques and avoid being out in the open.

“It is all airstrikes, destruction and devastation,” said Hassan Abu Shaaban, who tried to lighten the mood by passing out chocolates to passersby.

Worshippers wearing masks joined communal prayers in the streets of Indonesia’s capital, Jakarta.

The world’s most populous Muslimmajority nation allowed mosque prayers in low-risk areas, but mosques in areas where there was more risk of the virus spreading closed their doors, including Jakarta’s Istiqlal Grand Mosque, the largest in Southeast Asia.

Indonesians and Malaysians were banned for a second year from traveling to visit relatives in the traditional Eid homecoming.

In Bangladesh, however, tens of thousands of people were leaving the capital, Dhaka, to join their families back in their villages for Eid celebrations despite a nationwide lockdown and road checkpoints. Experts fear a surge in cases in a country grappling with a shortage of vaccines and fear of Indian variants of the coronavirus spreading.

“I understand that we all miss our relatives at times like this, especially in the momentum of Eid,” Indonesian President Joko Widodo said in televised remarks. “But let’s prioritize safety together by not going back to our hometowns.”

Despite the similar ban a year ago, the number of daily cases in Indonesia had picked up by 37 percent three weeks after the holiday. Similar patterns followed other holidays in the country that has counted 1.7 million infections and more than 47,600 fatalities from Covid-19.

While police set up highway checkpoints and domestic flights and other modes of transportation were suspended, anxiety lingers that people will defy the prohibition. Television reports showed city dwellers hiding on disguised trucks or fishing boats and officers at roadblocks being overwhelmed by desperate motorists.

“We followed the government decision that banned us [from] visiting my parents for Eid last year, it’s enough! Nothing can stop me now,” said factory worker Askari Anam, who used alleys and shortcuts to avoid being stopped from visiting his hometown.

“Of course I’m worried,” he said when asked about possibly contracting the virus. “But I leave it to God.” Health Minister Budi Gunadi Sadikin expressed concern about a virus spike and feared people would travel despite the ban.

In the southern Philippines, coronavirus outbreaks and new fighting between government forces and Muslim insurgents in one province prevented people from holding large public prayers. Instead, most hunkered down in their homes, while in Maguindanao province, many families displaced by recent fighting marked the holiday in evacuation camps.

In Malaysia, Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin unexpectedly announced another nationwide lockdown from Wednesday until June 7 to curb a spike in cases. Inter-state

travel and all social activities are banned, which means that like in Indonesia, Muslims cannot visit each other or family graves.

Muhyiddin acknowledged that many are angry with the lockdown but defended the need for drastic measures, saying hospitals have almost reached their capacity.

Malaysia reported 4,765 cases on Wednesday, pushing its tally to 453,222, nearly fourfold from the start of the year. Deaths also rose to 1,761.

“Is this government tyrannical?

But I am not a tyrant,” Muhyiddin said, “Imagine if you have guests over, then the virus will spread. […]

If the guest visits 10 homes, then 10 families will be infected with Covid19 and in the end as soon as (Eid) ends, the number of positive cases in the country could jump to tens of thousands daily.”

Egyptians marked the holiday with group prayers outside, after the government imposed new restrictions on public gatherings. Hundreds prayed shoulder-to-shoulder in the courtyard of a historic Cairo mosque, almost all wearing masks. Group prayers were banned last year due to the pandemic.

“It is a feeling of happiness that we were missing,” said Ahmed Saeed, one worshipper. “We hope corona ends and we always gather together.”

The Egyptian government is trying to minimise a third wave of infections, with daily reported new cases surpassing 1,000 in the past two weeks. Last week, it ordered a 9 p.m. curfew for restaurants, shops, cafes and social clubs and closed the country’s public beaches and parks for the duration of Eid. Believers in Turkey were able to attend communal prayers in mosques, however. Hundreds prayed in Istanbul’s iconic Hagia Sophia, the sixth-century Byzantine cathedral which was reconverted into a mosque last summer.

At the end of April, the Turkish government imposed its strictest lockdown yet, until May 17, ordering people to stay home, but mosques have been open, citing strict adherence to rules to fight infections.

In Bosnia, the number of people allowed inside the mosques was limited and strict hygiene measures were in place. Older people were advised to stay at home.

Hadis Bajric, a resident of Sarajevo, Bosnia’s capital, acknowledged that this Eid would be different to some in the past. “We have to be responsible, considering all these epidemiologic restrictions,” he said.

“Eid is the crown of our belief, of everything that we did throughout the year, all that positive energy from the month of Ramadan.”

— With additional input from The Associated Press

FAJR SUNRISE

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Indian police jail 21 Kashmiris amid pro-Palestinian rallies

Srinagar agencies

Police in Indian occupied Kashmir said on Saturday that 21 people were arrested for disturbing public order by expressing solidarity with Palestinians and holding protests against Israel’s military offensive in Gaza.

Police said in a statement they were keeping a “close watch on elements who are attempting to leverage the unfortunate situation in Palestine to disturb public peace and order” in Kashmir. The statement said police were “sensitive to public anguish” but would not allow those sentiments to “trigger violence, lawlessness and disorder”.

Kashmiris have long shown strong solidarity with Palestinians and have often staged anti-Israel protests when fighting broke out in Gaza.

Police Inspector General Vijay Kumar told reporters that 20 people were arrested in Srinagar, the region’s main city, and one from a village in southern Kashmir.

A police officer, speaking anonymously in line with department policy, said the 21 were arrested for social media posts, taking part in anti-Israel protests and making graffiti in solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza and Jerusalem.

Some of the arrested could be soon released after “counselling and assurances from their parents that they would desist from such acts in future”, the officer said.

The officer said the arrested include Sarjan Barkati, a Muslim cleric and a prominent activist, as well as an artist. The artist was arrested for painting pro-Palestinian graffiti on a bridge in Srinagar on Friday showing a woman wearing a scarf made of a Palestinian flag and a tear tricking from her eye, with the words: “WE ARE PALESTINE.” The graffiti was later painted over by police.

Since Monday, Israel has pounded the Gaza Strip with air strikes and Palestinian fighters have fired hundreds of rockets into Israel. The latest round of fighting between the bitter enemies has already begun to resemble — and even exceed — a devastating 50-day war in 2014.

During that war, large antiIsrael protests erupted in occupied Kashmir, which often morphed into clashes with demands of an end of India’s rule over the region and causing dozens of casualties.

Relations between Hindumajority India and Israel have long been viewed with suspicion and hostility in Kashmir, and Israel has also emerged as a key arms supplier to India.

Pakistan won’t support return of Taliban to power, Ghani claims KaBUL staff report

Afghanistan President Ashraf Ghani on Thursday claimed Pakistan is not in favour of the Taliban returning to power in the wartorn country.

With the united States combat forces scheduled to be withdrawn from Afghanistan

by September 11, the Taliban are poised to return to power on the battlefield or through peace talks where they hold most of the cards.

Pakistan helped bring the Taliban to the table, ultimately resulting in a deal. Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi was also present at the peace deal signing in Doha in February last year, warmly congratulating both sides.

But in Kabul, concerns are mounting among the incumbent administration because the complete withdrawal of foreign troops could leave the country vulnerable to a Taliban takeover two decades years after it was ousted in a uS-led invasion but they still

control wide areas.

“Pakistan’s army, in utter clarity, announced that the revival of Islamic Emirate is not in Pakistan’s national interest,” Ghani said in a televised speech after Eidul Fitr prayers.

Ghani’s remarks came days after a visit from Army Chief Gen Qamar Javed Bajwa to Kabul.

“Afghanistan’s peace and stability means peace and stability in the region,” the president said, adding Gen Bajwa expressed his support for “the republic” — which is understood as Ghani’s government.

Pakistan has time and again urged the Taliban to remain engaged in the Afghan peace process and said so again last month after the group said it would now shun summits about Afghanistan until all foreign forces leave.

Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi Friday reaffirmed Islamabad’s support to the peace process for a sustainable political settlement in the country.

The intra-Afghan negotiations provide a historic opportunity to achieve an inclusive,

broad-based, and comprehensive political settlement in Afghanistan for ending the long-lasting conflict, Qureshi said in a telephonic conversation with his Afghan counterpart Mohammad Hanif Atmar, a Foreign Office (FO) statement said.

Qureshi further welcomed the announcement of the three-day Eid ceasefire by the stakeholders, adding that efforts should continue for a permanent ceasefire.

Both sides also agreed to maintain highlevel bilateral exchanges and work together for the further consolidation of PakistanAfghanistan relations, according to the foreign ministry.

Ties between Kabul and Islamabad have been historically tense but have soured even more in the past 20 years. Kabul accused Pakistan of backing the Taliban. Pakistan, analysts say, does not want an unfriendly government in Kabul — a government that is more friendly with India.

Pakistan, which hosts close to 3 million Afghan refugees and economic migrants, has

built 90 percent of a fence along its 2,500 kilometers (1,500 miles) border with

Afghanistan and would hopefully be completed by September, he said.

Published by Arif Nizami at Qandeel Printing Press, 4 Queens Road, Lahore, for PT Print (Pvt) Limited. Ph: 042-36300938, 042-36375965. Email: newsroom@pakistantoday.com.pk