Epaper – May 3 LHR 2021

Monday, 3 May, 2021 I 20 Ramzan-ul-Mubarak, 1442 I Rs 40.00 I Vol XI No 304 I 52 Pages I Lahore Edition

Coronavirus deaths Cross 18,000 mark as new hotspots emerge g

VeNTILATOR OCCUPANCY ReACheS ALARMING LeVeLS IN PUNJAB CITIeS, MINISTeR ASSUReS GOVT MAKING eFFORTS TO ShORe UP FACILITIeS

ISLAMABAD/LAHORE staff report

T

he death toll from the novel coronavirus reached over 18,000 in Pakistan, according to a government tally on Sunday, as new cases spike in several cities.

Data released by the National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC) suggested 113 people died of coronavirus-related complications in the last 24 hours while 4,414 fresh infections took the total caseload to 829,933.

Furthermore, 5,193 patients completely recovered from the contagion disease during the period, raising the recoveries to 722,202 with a recovery rate of 87 per cent.

Active cases and the transmission rate were recorded at 89,661 and 9.74 per cent, respectively.

284,738 cases have been confirmed in Sindh, 304,889 in Punjab, 119,277 in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP), 75,892 in Islamabad, 22,528 in Balochistan, 17,297 in Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) and 5,312 in

Gilgit-Baltistan (GB).

Moreover, 8,550 people have so far lost their lives to the pandemic in Punjab, 4,658 in Sindh, 3,350 in KP, 691 in Islamabad, 477 in AJK, 237 in Balochistan and 107 in GB. The authorities conducted 45,275 coronavirus detection tests on Saturday, taking the total number of samples tested to 11,882,14 since the beginning of the pandemic in February last year.

VENTILATOR OCCUPANCY IN PUNJAB REACHES ALARMING LEVELS: In a press conference, Punjab health Minister Dr Yasmin Rashid warned that almost all ventilators in Gujranwala were occupied while the occupancy rate in Lahore had arisen to 81.5 per cent.

Giving details of healthcare facilities, the minister said that there were 2,730 beds in district headquarters hospitals (DhQs) across Punjab. Of these, around 600 were currently occupied.

There were 97 ventilators in the DhQs, of which 20 were in use, she disclosed.

“All facilities and human resources are available,” Rashid assured. The health depart-

Coronavirus in

pakistan

CONFIRMED CASES:

829,933

LAST UPDATED AT 8:28 AM ON MAY 2, 2021

DAY'S DEATH TOLL:

NEW CASES:

113

4,414

RECOVERED:

DEATHS:

722,202 18,070 SINDH:

PUNJAB:

284,738

304,889

KP:

BALOCHISTAN:

119,277 AJK/GB: 17,297/5,312

22,528 ISLAMABAD:

75,892

ment was making efforts to shore up facilities, she added.

She said that the transmission rate in Lahore, which had been significantly high previously, had now been reduced in comparison to other cities, crediting the district administration’s efforts to ensure strict compliance with health guidelines.

She said that 280 beds had been added to the high dependency unit (hDU) at expo Centre in Lahore while 10 ventilators were also being added as a “backup option” in case the hospitals were strained.

Rashid said the ventilator occupancy rate in Multan stood at 88 per cent, followed by Sargodha at 80 per cent, Bahawalpur at 52 percent, Dera Ghazi Khan at 39 percent and Faisalabad at 38 per cent.

She disclosed 78,000 doses of coronavirus vaccine were administered on Saturday, expressing satisfaction that Punjab was “ahead of all other provinces” when it came to administering the jabs.

She said that there had been an increase in the number of people wanting to get immunised since the government allowed walkin vaccinations for people aged 50 to 59.

Around 219,000 healthcare workers have been vaccinated so far, the minister said, adding that the government was setting up a separate centre to vaccinate their privatesector counterparts.

“The vaccines available are [from] Sinopharm, CanSino and Sinovac. We received 2.1 million doses, we have 0.82 million right now,” she said.

“There is no problem regarding vaccines because according to our information, the [federal] government is receiving 2 million vaccines before May 10 of which a big portion will be given to Punjab.”

Inbound movements from Afghanistan, Iran banned by NCOC STORY ON PAGE 02

fiqah-e-hanfia lahore sehr: 3:45 aM iftar: 6:45 PM

karachi sehr: 4:32 aM iftar: 7:04 PM

fiqah-e-jafaria lahore sehr: 3:35 aM iftar: 6:55 PM

islaMabad sehr: 3:34 aM iftar: 7:03 PM

karachi sehr: 4:22 aM iftar: 7:14 PM

Shehbaz declines Imran’s offer for talks on election reforms

LAHORE staff report

Pakistan Muslim LeagueNawaz (PML-N) president and National Assembly Opposition Leader Shehbaz Sharif on Sunday rejected a proposal presented by Prime Minister Imran Khan to employ electronic voting during elections to restore credibility of elections.

The prime minister on Saturday once again invited the opposition parties to participate in selecting from electronic voting machines (eVM) models “available to us to restore the credibility of our elections”.

Responding to the invitation through a statement, Sharif said that the whole world — including the election Commission of Pakistan (eCP) — has already turned down the concept of electronic voting.

“Such kind of important

Former FIA boss U-turns on claim of Imran directing him to book Justice Isa ISLAMABAD staff report

Days after he accused Imran Khan of directing him to prepare a charge sheet against Justice Qazi Faez Isa, former Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) chief Bashir Memon retracted his claim, saying the prime minister did not take the judge’s name during meetings with him.

Speaking on a television programme late on Saturday night, Memon said that he had called on the prime minister for a meeting which lasted for “two to three minutes” in which “no particular case was discussed”. however, when the host asked Memon whether Imran had taken Justice Isa’s name during the meeting, he responded in the negative.

Memon, however, remained firm on the names of other ministers — Minister for Law and Justice Farogh Naseem and Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on Accountability and Interior Mirza Shahzad Akbar — who he claimed had pressured him to initiate a case against the Supreme Court (SC) judge.

Memon, who had resigned

islaMabad sehr: 3:44 aM iftar: 6:53 PM

national decisions cannot be implemented on the orders or will of a specific person,” he added. he added said that electoral reforms can only be introduced with a consensus and said his party did the same in the past with consensus.

The PML-N president said that claims of opposition demanding the National Reconciliation Ordinance (NRO) were raised when it was forwarding positive suggestions for reforms.

Terming the parliament a centre and reflection of the aspirations of people, he said: “It has been locked up for the last three years.” “We can undertake electoral reforms as we have the patience and will to take political rivals along and im plement their proposals.”

CONTINUED ON PAGE 05

more inside

NCOC issues guidelines for Youme-Ali (AS), other occasions STORY ON PAGE 02

PM wants new budget focused on uplift projects, inflation STORY ON PAGE 03

from service in December 2019 as a mark of protest against being posted out close to his retirement date, had opened a pandora’s box last week when he accused the government — Prime Minister Imran, in particular — of attempting to “use the agency for political purposes” and “pressurising” him to book Justice Isa. Speaking to a television programme, Memon had further claimed that he was also summoned and asked to take notice of a picture of the first lady tweeted by Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) Vice President Maryam Nawaz and

to charge her under terrorism clauses, something he claimed he refused to do. he added that the government had also asked him to imprison Maryam for delivering anti-state speeches, which he refused to do as well.

Memon said that once Prime Minister Imran summoned him and said that LeAs ignore charges against deposed prime minister Nawaz Sharif, PML-N leader Khawaja Asif and others while they are after former chief of now-defunct Abraaj Group Arif Naqvi. he said that the prime minister told him that Naqvi was a friend.

US commander warns against attacks on troops in Afghanistan as deadline passes STORY ON BACK PAGE in today’s issue

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Contact: 0307-7338168 irfan.farooq@pakistantoday.com.pk

02

Monday, 3 May, 2021

LAHORE

NEWS

NCOC issues GuideLiNes fOr YOuM-e-ALi (As), Other OCCAsiONs

t

News Desk

HE National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC) has issued guidelines for Youm-e-Ali (AS), Shab-e-Qadr and other occasions to curb the spread of coronavirus.

The NCOC stated in its guidelines that Youm-e-Ali (AS) processions are completely banned, whereas clerics and zakireen will make the citizens aware of the virus. However, majalis will be allowed to be organised where all participants will undergo thermal screening and it will be mandatory to wear face masks.

One metre distance will be maintained in all indoor and outdoor majalis among all participants besides completely complying

with the standard operating procedures (SOPs).

Those having symptoms of coronavirus will be barred to participate in majalis held in connection with Youm-e-Ali (AS). The NCOC also advised organisers to conduct majalis online or at outdoor areas besides ensuring to make special arrangements for sanitisers and soaps for washing hands.

People aged 50 or above and children are advised not to attend majalis, whereas the religious gatherings of Youm-e-Ali (AS) will not allowed to be held in congested localities. Clerics and zakireen will have to undergo a coronavirus test and only covidnegative clerics and zakireen will be allowed to attend a majlis.

Thermal screening should be made on the gates of Imambargahs and mosques and

Govt extends coronavirus vaccination for health workers till May 31 ISLAMABAD: Registration of health care workers for the coronavirus vaccination has been extended by one month. The registration of healthcare workers for the coronavirus vaccine will continue till May 31.

NCOC asks healthcare workers who have not yet registered for the vaccine to get themselves registered as soon as possible. According to the National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC), the registration will continue until May 31. The NCOC said healthcare workers who have not yet registered for the vaccine should do so as soon as possible. The registration for healthcare workers was opened last month, after which the government had announced the re-registration of health workers, again, for coronavirus vaccination. PM Imran Khan’s aide on health Dr Faisal Sultan had said four weeks had been given earlier for health worker’s registration for the coronavirus vaccine. However, he said health workers did not take interest and most of them did not show up for the registration. He had maintained that the government cannot ignore the safety of the frontline workers, therefore, re-registration for the vaccination would begin soon. On March 17, the government abruptly stopped the registration of health workers across the country. On the other hand, a government official, speaking on condition of anonymity, told that health workers had shown no interest in registering for the vaccine despite earlier appeals, threats, and even announcements of benefits. INP

Compliance rate at 95pc after mask-wearing in public made mandatory: Lahore CCPO LAHORE: Lahore Police chief on Sunday said that 95 per cent of the people have started to wear face masks in public after the government made it mandatory with violations punishable by fines and imprisonments. Lahore Capital City Police Officer (CCPO) Ghulam Mahmood Dogar appreciated the increasing use of masks in the city, adding that the flag march of the law enforcement agencies has left a positive impact on Lahore. “The people were now recognising the presence of coronavirus as a reality,” he said. He said creating public awareness helps in curtailing the spread of the Covid-19 epidemic.

Dogar further said that filing cases over violation of the guidelines was the last resort to tackle the issue.

Pakistan Army soldiers have started to patrol the roads in Lahore along with police and district officials to ensure enforcement of Covid-19 standard operating procedures (SOPs). Covid-19 awareness messages were displayed on the vehicles of the troops patrolling the city. “Join hands in the fight against coronavirus,” one of the awareness messages read.

The military was called in to ensure strict adherence to the SOPs. A third peak of the coronavirus claimed 113 more lives across Pakistan over the last 24 hours, pushing the death toll from the disease to 18,070.

According to the National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC) data, 4,414 new infections were detected when 45,275 samples were tested during this period. The positivity rate of new cases was recorded at 9.74 per cent, the NCOC said. The number of Covid-19 patients in critical care across the country has climbed to 5,448. INP

marking should be made for the sitting arrangements for people to maintain a distance of at least 3 feet during majalis. The organisers of majalis will be bound to ensure disinfectant sprays at the venues daily.

The centre asked those people having Covid-19 symptoms to observe aitekaf at their homes instead of coming to mosques and Imambargahs. However, those going to the mosques should bring their beds and other necessary items from homes and avoid joint meals of Sehri and Iftari.

The NCOC directed to make separate entry and exit routes at the venues of Jummatul Wida gatherings. Special arrangements must be made for thermal scanning and sanitisation of people arriving at the venues for offering Jummatul Wida prayers. People have also been asked to

perform ablution at their homes before arriving at the mosques or other venues for Jummatul Wida gatherings.

People over 50 and children have been advised to stay at their homes instead of going to the mosques, whereas Shab-e-Qadr gatherings should be organised at outdoor spots. It has been directed not to use carpets and mats during the prayers.

Citizens were also asked to refrain from shaking hands and hugging during the Eidul Fitr gatherings, as well as avoiding to unnecessarily travelling and family events.

It has been directed to maintain one metre distance during an outdoor event along with the family members on Eid. The administrations of mosques have been ordered to keep doors and windows open during the Eid prayers and refrain from using

water coolers.

Separately, in a telephonic conversation with Sajid Ali Naqvi on Sunday, President Dr Arif Alvi stressed strict observance of standard operating procedures (SOPs) during Ramadan and majalis on the eve of Youm-e-Ali (AS) to contain the spread of coronavirus.

During the conversation, the president further said that people should wear face masks and observe social distancing. Elderly people should perform religious duties at home. The cleric assured the president of a complete observance of health guidelines during majalis, a press statement said.

The president also urged the scholars to advise people to stick to the guidelines. He underlined the need for acting upon the advice of Prophet Muhammad (Peace Be Upon Him) with regard to the pandemic.

He said the nation with a united stand has to overcome the trying times of coronavirus.

The president also contacted Wifaqul Madaris Al-Arabia General Secretary Muhammad Hanif Jalandhari and said that clerics should advise their followers to observe guidelines in mosques.

Wifaqul Madaris Al-Arabia has already written a letter to the seminaries to implement SOPs at their premises.

Inbound movements from Afghanistan, Iran banned by NCOC News Desk The National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC) has banned the inbound movement of pedestrians from the neighbouring countries of Afghanistan and Iran after a review of the border management situation in light of the new, emerging variants of Covid-19, it emerged on Sunday.

“The current policy of Land Border Management with Afghanistan and Iran has been reviewed to ensure regulated inbound pedestrian movement and

effective management of Covid protocols at Border Terminals (BTs),” read the statement issued by NCOC. The new policy will come into effect from midnight May 4-5 and will be valid until midnight May 19-20.

Moreover, the policy will hold an exception for Pakistani nationals in Afghanistan and Iran who desire to return to their country and in extreme medical emergency cases and so on.

The policy only pertains to inbound pedestrians and would have no effect on the existing bilateral cargo/trade

movement.

The BTs will remain open for seven days a week, informed the NCOC. “Employment strength of LEAs/health staff at BTs will be increased for implementation of testing protocols and to control high traffic density,” read the statement.

It also said that all outbound pedestrian movement is permissible.

Highlighting the testing and quarantining protocols, NCOC said inbound pedestrians will undergo Rapid Antigen Test (RAT). Positive

KSA travellers must undergo Covid-19 testing before travelling, says PIA News Desk Travellers from the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) must undergo Covid-19 testing prior to travelling to Pakistan, Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) said in an advisory notice issued on Sunday.

All travellers coming into the country from May 5 – with the exception of children and those with disabilities – will need to show their test

results.

The PIA officials said that those who test positive for Covid will not be allowed to travel via the national flag carrier.

They also said that the test results should not be more than 72-hours old.

Previously on April 24, KSA imposed a travel ban on various countries including Pakistan and India amid the growing number of Covid-19 cases.

cases (for Pakistani nationals only) will be shifted to nearby quarantine facilities.

“Inbound pedestrian with Afghan exemptions will also undergo RAT testing at BTs. Positive cases, if any, will be reverted back to Afghanistan,” read the NCOC statement.

It also said that thermal scanning for all drivers and co-drivers will be carried out on arrival at the BTs. Symptomatic cases will undergo RAT testing, positive cases will be dealt with as per the procedure spelt above.

The kingdom also implemented the ban on the Philippines, Sri Lanka and Indonesia whereas the Saudi Civil Aviation Authority General Authority of Civil Aviation (GACA) issued a notification imposing a temporary travel ban on European Union (EU) countries and Switzerland.

Saudi residents were given 72 hours to return to KSA. On April 23, Canada’s government said it would temporarily bar passenger flights from India and Pakistan for 30 days as part of stricter measures to combat the spread of the coronavirus.

The centre-left Liberal government of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau acted after prominent right-leaning politicians complained Ottawa had not done enough to combat the third wave of infections ripping through Canada.

PPP to appear before ECP for responding to plea challenging NA-249 results News Desk The Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) has decided to appear before the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) with regard to a petition challenging NA-249 bypoll results. According to details, the party has established a legal team comprising of Farooq H Naek, Latif Khosa, Qadir Khan Mandokhel and others that would plead the party’s case before the election commission.

Divulging details on the matter, the PPP candidate who won from NA-249, Mandokhel said that he would be leaving for Islamabad from Karachi tomorrow to appear before the ECP. “The PPP will respond to every query raised by the ECP and will present evidence of transparency during polls if needed,” he said.

The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) has issued a stay order on NA-249 by-poll results on Saturday after Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PMLN) candidate Miftah Ismail challenged the results.

Other than issuing a stay order, the ECP also set a hearing on the petition of Miftah Ismail for May 4.

Earlier in the day, the PPP fired shots at the PMLN after the latter accused the former of winning the NA-249 by-election through unfair means.

“The PML-N lost the NA-249 by-election owing to its own mismanagement and overconfidence,” said the minister Saeed Ghani while addressing a news conference. The minister’s press conference came a few days after the NA-249 by-election was held in Karachi, where PPP’s Qadir Mandokhail emerged victorious, triggering allegations the party had resorted to unfair means from rival parties.

The PML-N had also lashed out at the PPP,

PML-N LOST NA-249 BY-ELECTION DUE TO MISMANAGEMENT, OVERCONFIDENCE: SAEED GHANI accusing it of rigging the by-poll.

Ghani said there were videos doing the rounds on the internet in which a PPP polling agent can be seen being stopped by a Rangers official, who finds out the agent is carrying some money.

The minister said PML-N leaders were promoting the video and were claiming it was proof that the PPP had bought the NA-249 victory through its polling agents. “Anyone who has ever contested an election knows that whenever a polling agent contests a vote, there is a fee for that [which must be paid],” he said. “I don’t know the amount of the fee, but it must be a few hundred rupees. That is what our polling agents had,” he said, rejecting claims the PPP’s polling agents had handed out bribes.

On allegations that he somehow got a hold of the election results before they came out, Ghani said he had tweeted the numbers that were available to him from the form 45 issued by the ECP. He said the PML-N had no right to raise a hue and cry about the election results, adding that it was strange that no one bothered to raise their voices when the PPP candidate was trailing behind Miftah.

“This is very strange. Not a word of protest was said when the PML-N candidate was in the lead and when the voting process was underway,” he said. “It was after the election concluded and the results were announced that everyone started complaining.”

Ghani said the PPP also wanted answers as to why

the PML-N had started celebrating a victory in NA-249, in advance of the announcement of the results.

The minister advised the PML-N against taunting the PPP of “making a deal” to win the polls, adding that it was the PML-N itself that had benefitted from such deals in the past.

He recounted how former prime ministers Zulfikar Ali Bhutto and Benazir Bhutto had lost their lives in Pakistan and former president Asif Ali Zardari had been jailed for several years without ever being convicted.

The minister challenged the PML-N to “pull up a chart” and see which of the two parties, the PML-N and the PPP, had benefitted the most after the ’80s.

“If the elections can’t be won without striking a deal with the establishment, then the PML-N should tell us how it managed to win three elections?” he asked.

ELECTION STOLEN FROM PML-N, ALLEGES MARYAM NAWAZ: After the PPP candidate emerged victorious in the NA-249 by-poll, PML-N vice president Maryam Nawaz said the election had been “stolen” from the PML-N. In a statement on Twitter, Maryam had said the election was stolen from PML-N by only a few hundred votes. “ECP must withhold the results of one of the most disputed & controversial elections. Even if it doesn’t, this victory will be temporary and will Insha’Allah come back to PML-N soon.”

She added that the “vote is getting respect and will continue to receive it”.

Monday, 3 May, 2021

LAHORE

PM wANts New BudGet fOCused ON uPLift PrOjeCts, iNfLAtiON IsLAMABAD

P

Staff rePort

RIME Minister Imran khan has directed that development projects should be focused on in the next fiscal budget and special attention should be paid to reduce the inflation ratio. Chairing a meeting regarding the next fiscal budget and to review the economic situation on Sunday, the prime minister said that all development projects should be finalised keeping in view the public needs.

The prime minister stressed the need for the upcoming of the budget to be people-friendly.

He wants the focus to be on providing jobs to the youth in merged districts and uplift of the undeveloped areas. He said that relief should be provided to the oppressed classes.

The meeting sought suggestions regarding the incoming federal budget from senior leadership of the party. The meeting also discussed in detail the current economic situation, strategy to stop inflation and

eastbay expressway Gwadar to complete in October: Asim Bajwa IsLAMABAD Staff rePort

China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) Authority Chairman Lt General (r) Asim Saleem Bajwa on Sunday said that work on the Eastbay Expressway Gwadar project is in its final stage and it would be completed by October this year. In a tweet on Sunday, Bajwa said that the 14.5-kilometre offshore expressway has already been completed while the remaining 4.5-kilometre onshore road is under construction and 92 per cent of work has been completed. The CPEC Authority chairman said that the expressway will connect the port with the second phase of the Free Trade Zone which will facilitate the business climate of the zone and the port alike.

Earlier last week, Bajwa said that work on the CPEC western route was in full swing. Talking about the overall progress of CPEC, the authority’s official said that the mega project would move forward with more pace during the current year and the years ahead, which would further strengthen the bilateral relations between Pakistan and China. Their strategic relationship, which is being strengthened with every passing day, is of great importance both on regional as well as international fronts, he said.

He added that in the next phase, work on four important sectors, including industry, agriculture, socio-economic development and Gwadar New City would also be done at a fast pace. The official said that nine out of 22 energy projects have been completed, while five mega electricity projects in Thar, Kohala, Azad Pattan and others are in the pipeline. After completion of all the projects, Pakistan would not only become self-sufficient in energy with the addition of 17,000MW electricity to the national grid but would also be able to export it.

Pakistan received 4.06m doses of Covid jabs so far stAff RepoRt Pakistan has so far received a total of 4.06 million doses of vaccines for the novel coronavirus, including 3.5 million doses of the Chinese Sinopharm vaccine.

Other vaccines received include 60,000 doses of CanSino and 500,000 Sinovac vaccines – both also purchased from China. Of the total vaccines, 529,928 doses of the Sinopharm vaccine have been utilised so far. For healthcare workers, 134,218 first doses have been administered and 88,475 of the second dose have been administered so far. Out of the total figure, Sindh has received a total of 0.92 million doses of the vaccines. The province received a total of 832,000 doses of the Sinopharm vaccine,11,000 doses of the CanSino vaccine and 80,000 doses of the SinoVac vaccine. A total of 17,562 doses of coronavirus vaccine were administered to people in Sindh during the last 24 hours. As many as 15,723 shots were given to senior citizens whereas 1,829 were administered to healthcare workers. Another purchased batch of Chinese vaccines will also arrive in the country in early May. According to an announcement by Special Assistant to Prime Minister on Health Dr Faisal Sultan last week, Pakistan has purchased 13 million doses of Covid-19 vaccine from three Chinese companies and expects to receive them in the next two months. On April 29, National Command and Operations Centre (NCOC) chief Asad Umar stated that the country vaccinated over 100,000 people for two successive days.

development projects during next fiscal year.

The meeting was attended by National Assembly Speaker Asad Qaiser, Federal Ministers Shah

Mahmood Qureshi, Pervez Khattak and Shafqat Mahmood, governors of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) and Balochistan, and other high officials.

PM inspects Covid SOPs implementation in surprise visit in capital IsLAMABAD Staff rePort

At a time when it is reported that Prime Minister Imran Khan could dissolve assemblies at any time, the premier on Sunday paid a surprise visit to the different areas of Islamabad without any protocol and interacted with the general public, especially the street vendors.

“Prime Minister Imran Khan drove himself to public places in Islamabad without any security and protocol. The PM visited G-11 Markaz and talked to vendors,” said a statement issued by the PM Office.

The premier inquired about the business conditions from the vendors amid the coronavirus pandemic and instructed them to follow the standard operating procedures (SOPs) issued to contain the spread of Covid-19.

The prime minister himself drove the car in the city to observe the arrangements of local administration for the holy month of Ramadan.

Imran also visited Sewerage Plant I-9 and Korang Cricket Ground in the federal capital, as per the official communiqué. He also inspected the stone lining of storm water drains.

Senator Faisal Javed and Capital Development Authority (CDA) Chairman Amer Ahmed Ali also accompanied the prime minister.

Without creating any interruption in the traffic flow, the prime minister drove through the crowded streets of the city and also stopped at the traffic signal.

The people expressed pleasure and happiness on seeing their prime minister among them without any protocol.

Earlier a couple of days ago, Federal Minister for Planning, Development and Special Initiatives Asad Umer claimed that Prime Minister Imran could dissolve assemblies at any time.

The statement came following the uncertain political situation and poor performance of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government on the economic and administrative level and strong criticism from the opposition, especially when it has lost the fresh by-election on a Karachi seat.

Talking to a private channel on Friday, Asad said that Prime Minister Imran would not bother to curtail his period in the PM office at any stage and time and whenever he would think better, he would dissolve the assemblies.

On some queries, Asad said that he had no doubt about the PM’s state of mind as he could dissolve assemblies and he can do such things whenever he wants even just six months, one year or two years before completion of his government’s parliamentary tenure.

He said PM Imran has not come in power for just the sake of power and would not hesitate in dissolving the assemblies if he would not be given free hand to implement his plans. He said that the premier would prefer to go to people to get a fresh mandate by telling them about the hurdles he is facing to govern the country.

Hamdullah accuses PPP for conspiring against PDM IsLAMABAD MIaN abrar

It seems that efforts for reconciliation between the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) and the opposition alliance of Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) have suffered a hit as the newly appointed PDM spokesman Hafiz Hamdullah has strongly criticised the PPP for conspiring against the PDM. Reacting to a statement of PPP secretary information Faisal Karim Kundi, Hafiz Hamdullah said that PPP’s Yousaf Raza Gillani was elected senator with the votes of the PDM but said that the PPP betrayed the PDM and got elected Sadiq Sanjrani as the Senate chairman.

He accused PPP senators of purposefully putting double stamps on Gillani’s name.

Hamdullah further said that PPP did not give the vote of Senate deputy chairman to Maulana Abdul Ghafoor Haideri under a supposed conspiracy. He advised PPP leader Kundi not to try to elevate his political stature by criticising PDM chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman.

The PDM spokesperson also said that Kundi should speak according to his political stature as speaking against Fazl may prove to be detrimental to Kundi’s political career.

He maintained that PPP hypocritically handed over Yousaf Raza Gilani to Balochistan Awami Party (BAP). He said that the PPP has gone into an illicit relationship with the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) and BAP at the same time.

Hamdullah claimed that Bhuttoism is no more the PPP’s manifesto and it had become the B team of Zardari and PTI. He said that PPP had hurt the soul of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto and Benazir Bhutto by entering into an alliance with the BAP. The PDM spokesperson said that the language related to Fazl should be used correctly otherwise the matter would go too far.

He said that Jamiat Ulema-eIslam-Fazl (JUI-F) and PML-N are part of PDM, and PPP stands nowhere.

“I would advise the PPP leadership to stop looking at things with the prism of arrogance and selfishness and rather look at things with a bare eye,” he said.

Hamdullah said that Mufti Mahmood always pursued politics against dictatorship and martial law and Fazl was following in his footsteps.

“Who had elected Sadiq Sanjarani as chairman [of the] Senate in 2018 ignoring Raza Rabbani. Your own workers are laughing at your politics,” Hamdullah taunted the PPP leadership.

NEWS

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Over 15,000 ChiLdreN CONtrACted COvid-19 iN APriL: heALth MiNistrY ISLAMABAD: More than 15,000 children aged between one and 20 years have been infected by coronavirus across the country in April alone, as the country is battling with a staggering third peak of the pandemic, the Health Ministry said. Of them, the ministry said, 19 children have lost their lives due to the virus, six of them between one and 10 years of age. Out of over 15,000 cases reported among children in April, nearly 3,000 are between one and 10 years, while the remaining are between 11 and 20 years of age. A total of over 93,000 children from the same age groups have so far been infected across the country since the start of the pandemic in March 2020, according to the Health Ministry. Meanwhile, the government banned all the processions on Youm-e-Ali, falling on Tuesday, due to the rising numbers of infections. However, small in-door gatherings will be allowed with safety protocols. In the last 24 hours, Pakistan reported 4,414 new infections of Covid-19 after conducting 45,275 tests, receiving back a positivity ratio of 9.74 percent. The new infections took the total caseload to 825,519. Meanwhile, the death toll rose by 113 on Sunday to 18,070. Some 722,202 people have so far been recovered, while the total number of active cases in the country is 89,661. The government has so far inoculated slightly over 2 million people. aNadolu ageNcy

seveN POLiCe died Of COvid-19 iN isLAMABAd, 262 tested POsitive ISLAMABAD: At least seven personnel of Islamabad police passed away of Covid-19 and 262 contracted the contagious disease in the line of duty, Capital Police Chief Qazi Jameelur Rehman said in a video statement. Officers from the rank of constable to deputy inspector general (DIG) contracted the virus, he said. At present, over 300 policemen were on the frontline in the fight against the coronavirus, he said, adding that the morale of the force was high. “Every policeman is dedicated to public service,” he said. Islamabad police are assisting the local administration and sister law enforcement agencies in ensuring the implementation of standard operating procedures (SOPs) across the capital. Qazi further said that Islamabad police stood by its people in this difficult time. A ban was imposed on the issuance of driving licenses for a period of three months due to coronavirus while the traffic police have been directed not to penalise the drivers with expired licenses. Special squads of traffic police had been deployed on the highways, intersections, and bus stands across the city to educate the people about the spread of coronavirus and precautionary measures. Similarly, he said, senior officers of the force were educating the people about the coronavirus threat in collaboration with the local business community. He appealed to the residents to observe the guidelines so that they don’t get infected. aPP

GB package to uplift region: Gandapur ISLAMABAD: Minister for Kashmir Affairs and Gilgit-Baltistan Ali Amin Gandapur on Sunday said the billion-rupee development package of the federal government will usher in a new era of progress in the region. Paying rich tribute to Prime Minister Imran Khan, Gandapur said the uplift package will bring improvement in all sectors and the region will emerge as a base camp for development in the country. The minister said the Pakistan Tehreek-eInsaf (PTI) government has initiated development projects in Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) and Gilgit-Baltistan (GB) to remove the deprivation of people. Gandapur said the tourism sector is being promoted in the region and more funds will be allocated in the 2022 budget. Last week, Prime Minister Imran had unveiled a five-year Rs370 billion package for the scenic region. INP

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Monday, 3 May, 2021

LAHORE

NEWS

Massive inflow of lPG throuGh Port and taftan border continues without any check ISLAMABAD

r

AHMAD AHMADANI

EDUCTION in Petroleum Development Levy (PDL) and General Sales Tax (GST) on imported Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) has resulted in massive inflow of LPG to the country through port and Taftan border without any check in quality and quantity.

These revelations have been made by incumbent managing director (MD) of Oil and Gas Development Company Limited (OGDCL) in a letter to Petroleum Division secretary titled as “Problems being faced by OGDCL and other domestic LPG Producers due to subsidized LPG imports”.

Highlighting the problems being faced

by OGDCL and other domestic LPG producers due to reduction of PDL and GST on imported LPG, Shahid Salim Khan, MD,

LITTLE LEVY AND GST ON IMPORTED LPG MIGHT STOP DOMESTIC LPG PRODUCTION OGDCL has said that this has resulted into massive inflow of cheaper/poor quality imported LPG through the port and Taftan border without check in the quality and quantity.

Similarly, this huge inflow has compelled all local LPG producers, including OGDCL, to sell LPG at rates much lower than the Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority (OGRA) notified price to avoid lifting issues and closure of production at the fields, said OGDCL MD in his letter to Petroleum Division secretary.

According to OGDCL MD’s letter, PDL on domestic LPG is 4,669 while it is zero on imported LPG. Similarly, GST on locally produced LPG is at 17 per cent while only 10 per cent is imposed on imported LPG price.

“It is pertinent to mention here that the forced reduction in price is consistently

being done in the interest of maintaining continuity of operations otherwise non lifting of LPG would result in storage issues and resultant closure or curtailment of oil and gas production leading to major disruption of supplies of hydrocarbons in the country,” said Shahid Saleem Khan, OGDCL managing director in his recent letter dated April 30, 2021, to the Petroleum Division secretary.

He added that aforesaid situations would result in direct financial loss to the country and national exchequer.

The OGDCL MD also informed Petroleum Division secretary that since the recent winter season, OGDCL has been facing disposal issues from all its fields due to the influx of imported LPG. As per comparison of price disparity be-

tween OGDCL and OGRA price, OGDCL notified price of LPG for the month of January 2021 was Rs79,500 per metric ton (MT) and OGRA notified price was at Rs86,413/MT. Similarly, OGDCL notified price for February 2021 was Rs75,000/MT and OGRA notified price was at Rs95,283/MT. Likewise, OGDCL’s notified price for March 2021 was Rs71,000/MT and OGRA notified price was at Rs96,859/MT. Furthermore, OGDCL notified price for the month of April 2021 was Rs55,000/MT and OGRA notified price for the said month was at Rs84,812/MT. “It needs to be appreciated that approximately 70 per cent of LPG demand is met by local production and any policy favouring private importers at the cost of domestic producers without assessing cost/requisite qual-

ity standards may result in loss to the government,” reads OGDCL MD’s letter.

It is worth mentioning here that incumbent OGDCL MD had on January 29, 2021, written a letter to Secretary Petroleum Division with same title “Problems being faced

by OGDCL and other domestic LPG Producers due to subsidised LPG imports”. But no improvement regarding uplifting local LPG Producers and production as well has forced the OGDCL MD to once again sensitize the matter before the Petroleum Division secretary.

Besides, the government constituted Inquiry Commission on petrol crisis in June 2020 has revealed that petrol smuggling has been causing Rs240 billion annual loss to the national exchequer. However, after revelation of petrol’s smuggling, the disclosure of smuggling of poor quality of LPG into the country has also been causing heavy loss to the national exchequer while this might cause closure of local LPG production soon.

PIC&ID issues report regarding sale of essential commodities in Ramadan bazaars LAHORE SHAHAB OMER

LAHORE: A view of a deserted road in the provincial capital as NCOC guidelines restrict public activities on weekends. ZUBAIR MEHFOOZ

Govt believes in composite development: Buzdar LAHORE TLTP

Punjab Chief Minister Sardar Usman Buzdar has said that the incumbent government believes in composite development and is taking the backward areas along in its journey of development and progress.

The chief minister said this while talking to Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) lawmakers Raees Nabeel Ahmed and Ghazanfer Ali Khan, from PP-265 and PP-255 respectively, who called on him and expressed their complete confidence in his leadership.

The PPP’s MPAs also apprised the chief minister of the problems and the needs of the people of their constituencies.

Buzdar said that remote and backward areas were intentionally neglected during the previous regime as development and progress is the right of every city and town. He said that former rulers deliberately plundered the funds of backward areas and this unjustified distribution of re-

SAYS PRESS FREEDOM LINKED WITH SENSE OF SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY sources in the past substantially increased the deprivations of backward areas.

He said that anti-development elements cannot befool the people any more through their false propaganda. Pakistan is moving ahead on the road to progress under the leadership of Prime Minister Imran Khan. He asserted that the government will continue its mission of public service without caring about the criticism. He added that genuine and legitimate work of elected representatives will not be stopped, he added.

Meanwhile, Buzdar on World Press Freedom Day paid tributes to the services of journalists who rendered sacrifices for the freedom of press and played an unprecedented role for creating collective awareness among the people.

He said that those who stand for supremacy of truth and righteousness become the torch-

bearer of the society. He termed the freedom of press a mirror of collective consciousness of any society. A responsible journalist should not cross the religious and social limits. Free and responsible media is the best representative, informer and critic of the society. He said that truth cannot be hidden, adding that freedom of press is linked with a sense of social responsibility.

He appreciated the role of those journalists who bring the truth in the limelight for the interest of the people. He said that the PTI government believes in freedom of expression. Prompt measures have been taken on the public complaints in print, electronic and social media.

The Punjab government is striving for the promotion of regional and national journalism.

Providing a secure environment to the journalist during the performance of their duties is the top priority of the government.

The Punjab Industries, Commerce & Investment Department (PIC&ID) has issued a monitoring report regarding the sale of flour and sugar across the province, according to which 6,390,035 bags of 10 kg flour have been supplied so far in Ramadan bazaars across the province, Profit learnt on Sunday.

Regarding the sale of flour, the report further said that out of the above-mentioned bags of flour, 5,442,501 bags were sold at the rate of Rs375 per bag whereas on May 1 as many as 299,960 bags were distributed in Ramadan bazaars, of which 278,056 bags of flour were sold.

Similarly, regarding the supply, purchase and sale of sugar, the report indicated that so far 21,736,401 kg of sugar had been extracted from the sugar mills out of which 13,092,482 kg of sugar was sold while on May 1 as many as 969,982 kg of sugar was picked up from sugar mills and 894,259 kg of sugar was sold in Ramadan bazaars at Rs65 per kg.

The report also mentioned the price of poultry, eggs and the subsidy given in Ramadan bazaars, according to which 1,186,597 kg of chicken meat and 61,228 dozen eggs were sold in Ramadan bazaars so far whereas on May 1, chicken meat was sold at Rs339 per kg in Ramadan bazaars and Rs349 per kg in the open market.

Eggs were sold at RS 137 in the

Ramadan bazaars and RS 142 per dozen in the open market.

According to the report, 13 other items including onions, potatoes and tomatoes were sold at 25 per cent below the notified DC rates at the agricultural fair price shops in Ramadan bazaars, while the average prices of essential commodities in the open market were 20 kg of flour bag of Rs872, ghee Rs250 per kg, basmati rice 128, mutton 815, beef 413, chicken 352, dal chana 128, dal masur 136, dal mash 239, dal mung 194, sugar 85, fresh potatoes 46, tomato 24, onion Rs22 per kg, bread at Rs7, milk at Rs82 per liter and eggs at Rs145 per dozen.

An official of PIC&ID said that 1,201 price control magistrates were performing their duties to monitor the supply and demand, prices and quality of essential commodities during Ramadan. “On May 1, the magistrates conducted 9,426 inspections. These inspections revealed 1,207 overcharging, hoarding and other violations on which 57 cases were registered and 51 persons were arrested. A fine of RS 1,845,900 was imposed on the violators whereas the highest fine of Rs198,000 was imposed for violations in Gujranwala district and the lowest fine was Rs1,000 in Jhang district. Similarly, 1,249 inspections were carried out to check the scales, 19 violations were found and legal action was taken against them,” he concluded.

Woman dies, two injured as passenger bus overturns FAISALABAD INP

A woman died while two others were injured when a passenger bus overturned while trying to save a motorcycle on Sunday, rescue sources said. According to details, an over-speeding bus of private company overturned on Samundri Road Faisalabad when the driver suddenly applied brakes to save a motorcycle which suddenly appeared before it. A woman Nasreen Akhtar, 50, died in the accident while Abdul Aziz, 55, and Shahid, 45, were injured. The body and injured were shifted to hospital for medico-legal formalities and police after registering a case into the incident have started investigation.

LAHORE: Citizens flout coronavirus SOPs for Eid shopping. ZUBAIR MEHFOOZ

Monday, 3 May, 2021

LAHORE

NEWS

GettInG away froM accountabIlIty I don’t know if he refused because it was wrong, or because he simply couldn’t. I mean, kudos to him for refusing to register a terrorism case against Maryam Nawaz, but if he had agreed, he would probably have wondered how to register the case. I know cops come up with these ridiculous stories about police encounters, but Maryam the terrorist? That would be a whole new level. And I’m afraid Memon was not up to it. Imran will probably turn to more imaginative police officers now. The PTI reply to the charges is not to deny them, but to say that Memon has been promised a senatorship by the PML(N). Would it be able to deliver in 2024? And Memon’s political connection was supposed to have been Asif Zardari?

Speaking of police officers, the supporters of the estranged Jahangir Tareen, whose father was a police officer, had a meeting with Imran. They seemed happy with the assurance that justice would be done. What is Jahangir Tareen worried about? What does he know about Imran that we don’t? Why was he worried about fair treatment? Does he believe that Imran can interfere in the

ciTy noTes M a niazi

I

am amazed at the reaction on the net to the Supreme Court’s decision in the review petition filed

by Justice Qazi Faez Isa. The decision was obviously important to Justice Isa, but it was hardly one of those moments in national life where one would be inspired to do something radical, like change one’s political affiliation.

I’m surprised that the reaction has been so negative. Makes me suspect that the PTI is behind it, and not just the PTI, but the fans of Shehzad Akbar within it because a lot of it was about accountability, and how the judges were escaping it. Shehzad Akbar also has a starring role in Bashir Memon’s claims that he had been told, as DG FIA, to stitch up Mr Justice Isa. Memon is a police officer, so don’t tell me no one ever told him, during his entire career, to fix up somebody who disturbed the sleep of someone important. So he would know what he was being told.

Mentally challenged girl gangraped for two months LAHORE TLTP

In another horrific incident, a mentally challenged minor girl was subjected to rape in Lahore for two months by her two relatives. According to police, the 13-year-old mentally challenged girl was subjected to rape in the Nawankot area of Lahore by two suspects. “Two suspects Shah Mir and Ali Sajid subjected her to rape for two months,” the police said, adding that it emerged when the victim was taken to a hospital over the deterioration of her health condition, where the doctor found that she was pregnant.

They said that both the suspects are close relatives of the girl and are currently being investigated, besides undergoing medical examination. Earlier in March, a deaf and dumb girl, 17, was allegedly raped by a man at her house in Chiniot. According to the details, a man allegedly raped the deaf and dumb girl after entering her house in Bhanianwala area of Chiniot.

The accused managed to escape from the scene when the family members reached there. Later, her uncle approached the police and lodged an FIR against the suspect. Taking swift action on the report, the police conducted a raid at a house in the area and arrested the accused.

process of justice? Because the only person who can assure that he won’t interfere is someone who can.

For example, I would never make such an assurance. Nobody would believe me even if I did, and rightly so.

Still, Tareen has obviously got more support in the TI than the members who called on Imran. These were the members who were willing to go to the PM for Tareen. What about those who want to maintain plausible deniability? I wonder how many those are? I wonder if they too are just weathercocks, like the voters of NA 179, who didn’t repeat the splendid victory of Faisal Vawda in the general election. The PPP man pipped the PML-N’s Miftah Ismail. Miftah has been Finance Minister, but towards the end of the PML-N regime, technically seeking a seat in the house, which he couldn’t find.

Miftah might have lost, but he will be pleased to know that Sindh CM Murad Ali Shah will not be forced to take a cup of hemlock. Only PTI CMs are allowed to lose by-elections and live. Otherwise, maybe Bilawal Bhutto Zardari would have got a fish dropped off outside his house as if to say,

“Tonight Murad Ali Shah sleeps with the fishes.”

I’m sure Faisal Vawda is chuffed by the result. After all, he had won the seat, not come in fifth. Imran should think, because now it’s not a matter of picking up seats, but keeping the ones you have.

He hasn’t even got any good news from the field, because not only did Shaheen Shah Afridi, who might one day replace him as the recipient of the youth vote, get four wickets, but only Fawad Alam exploited the Zimbabwean attack to get a century. Pakistan collapsed to 476, instead of posting the 20000-plus score they should have.

Being them inside four days shows that Pakistan could have batted a day more. It seems as if it’s open season, what with Sri Lanka slaughtering Bangladesh, though there’s a chance they might escape with another draw. I wonder why somebody doesn’t take on Ireland or Afghanistan. Maybe it’s time for Imran to take his gear out. Meanwhile, it seems India has set a record, for the number of coronavirus deaths there. Well, we also posted our first 200plus deaths in a single day. And we also cancelled exams.

IHC finds no incriminating material against Miftah in LNG case, says verdict iSLAmABAd TLTP

While issuing detailed verdict about granting post-arrest bail to Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) leader Miftah Ismail in the liquefied natural gas (LNG) case, the Islamabad High Court (IHC) has said that it found no incriminating material against the petitioner.

In December 2019, Advocate Umer Ijaz Gillani represented Miftah Ismael before a two-member of the IHC bench – comprising Chief Justice Athar Minallah and Justice Miangul Hassan Aurangzeb. After hearing the case, the bench issued a short order, granting bail to Ismail against surety bonds of Rs10 million in the matter.

The National Accountability Bureau had apprehended Ismail on August 07, 2019 who served as the finance minister for hardly over a month in 2018 in the LNG import scandal and he after undergoing a series of investigations had been sent to Adiala Jail on judicial remand on September 26.

According to NAB documents, the existing chemical terminal of Engro Group was rented out by the government at a whopping cost of Rs27 million per day for 15 years — with a total amount of Rs15 billion. The rent was paid by the Sui Southern Gas Company (SSGC) and Pakistan State Oil (PSO) to Engro for handling LNG imported from Qatar on behalf of the government/PSO. In its 6-page detailed judgement released on Saturday, the bench said allegations had been levelled against Miftah regarding commissioning of the LNG Terminal, appointment of the consultants and award of the Agreement.

The bench cited Miftah’s statement that he has nothing to do with selection or appointment of consultants. Miftah was ap-

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Shehbaz declines Imran’s offer for talks on election reforms cOntinuEd fROm pAgE 01 Shehbaz recalled that the PML-N undertook historic political reforms in 2017 with the consultation of all political parties, including the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI). The PML-N government had okayed reforms to electoral laws making it mandatory for political parties to allot five per cent of their tickets to women candidates.

“No one had objected to those reforms as it was a reflection of endorsement by all,” Sharif said.

Imran has on several occasions expressed his desire to pursue electoral reforms in order to ensure that in future, elections are not disputed and winners and losers both accept the result. Votes, the prime minister says, can be miscounted, misread, or even simply misplaced. In the manual practice, counts consist of thousands of people across the country who stay up all night manually sorting and counting those votes. When they go wrong, there’s no easy way to trace the problems back to their source, and no easy way to fix them other than simply restarting the count. But in the past, the opposition has rejected these proposals and has said it would bring its own set of proposals for a comprehensive reform of the electoral process. Opposition leaders explained that while they will not engage with the government as a matter of principle, they will continue to proceed with their parliamentary duties as well as their work in the committees.

Responding to Shehbaz’s comments, Federal Minister for Information and Broadcasting Fawad Chaudhry said that PML-N’s escape from negotiations on electoral reforms in the country was very unfortunate. The information minister took to the twitter and said that PML-N’s claim that the reform process has to be done by the Election Commission instead of the parliament showed that they have no understanding of the system and no interest in reforms. Why a party always coming to power through conspiracies would go for electoral reforms, he remarked.

Miftah seeks shifting of by-polls record to safe location under army’s supervision KARAcHi TLTP

pointed as non-executive director on the Board of Sui Southern Gas Company Limited (SSGC) and later it’s chairman. The bidding process that had ultimately led to execution of the agreement was completed through an entity controlled by the government of Pakistan.

The bench revealed Miftah saying that assistance was also provided by consultants appointed by the USAID pursuant to mutual assistance between two sovereign States. It added that consultant-1 was appointed by the USAID whereas consultant -II was appointed by the Consultant-I. “The Bureau has not been able to explain how offences under the Ordinance of 1999 are attracted in relation to ap-

pointment of the consultants….There is no incriminating material brought on record so far to indicate involvement of the petitioner in acts which would, prima facie, attract the offences under the National Accountability Bureau Ordinance, 1999”, the order stated.

Declaring the allegations of NAB in the matter as based on conjectures and presumption the bench said in its order, “There is also nothing on record to show that the petitioner had misused his authority. “Moreover, there must be sufficient incriminating material against an accused in order to order the arrest of the latter in exercise of powers vested under the Ordinance of 1999”, the bench said.

Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) candidate Miftah Ismail has requested the chief election commissioner (CEC) to take emergency steps for taking the custody of the NA-249 byelection record, which is currently under the custody of the police. Miftah, in his plea, sought emergency action by CEC to seize sealed ballot papers and other election material used in NA-249 by-polls. He stated that the election material should be kept at a secure location until the emergence of the final results of the by-polls. He demanded the CEC to keep the election material at a safe location under the supervision of Rangers or Pakistan Army. He thanked the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) for issuing a stay order on the results of NA-249 by-election. Ismail claimed that the majority of presiding officers (POs) and election staff belonged to the Sindh government, who illegally supported the provincial government, adding every political party has filed its complaints against it. He expressed suspicions over the security of the ballot papers that are currently under the custody of the police forces which is a subordinate department of the Sindh government. He added that suspicions are prevailing for changes in the ballot papers, counter files, ballot paper accounts and stamped copies of electoral lists.

Explainer: Why India’s pandemic data is vastly undercounted? nEW dELHi agencies

Even after more than a year of devastating coronavirus surges across the world, the intensity and scale of India’s current crisis stands out, with patients desperate for short supplies of oxygen, pleas for help from overwhelmed hospitals, and images of body bags and funeral pyres.

As daily case counts soar far beyond what other countries have reported, experts caution the official Covid-19 numbers from the world’s second-most populous country are likely a massive undercount. But why is India’s data considered inaccurate? Is the data any less accurate than what other nations report? And which numbers give a

good indication of the crisis?

IS INDIA COUNTING EVERY CASE? India is not counting every coronavirus case, but no nation can. Around the world, official tallies generally report only confirmed cases, not actual infections. Cases are missed because testing is so haphazard and because some people infected by the coronavirus experience mild or even no symptoms.

The more limited the testing, the more cases are being missed. The World Health Organisation (WHO) says countries should be doing 10 to 30 tests per confirmed case.

India is doing about five tests for every confirmed case, according to Our World in Data, an online research site. The US is doing 17 tests per confirmed case. Finland is doing 57 tests per confirmed case.

“There are still lots of people who are not getting tested,” said Dr. Prabhat Jha of the University of Toronto. “Entire houses are infected. If one person gets tested in the house and reports they’re positive and everyone else in the house starts having symptoms, it’s obvious they have Covid, so why get tested?”

Jha estimates, based on modeling from a previous surge in India, that the true infection numbers could be 10 times higher than the official reports.

WHAT ABOUT DEATHS? Deaths are a better indicator of the shape of the pandemic curve, Jha said, but there are problems with the data here too.

“The biggest gap is what’s going on in rural India,” Jha said. In the countryside, peo-

cmYK

ple often die at home without medical attention, and these deaths are vastly underreported.

Families bury or cremate their loved ones themselves without any official record. Seventy percent of the nation’s deaths from all causes occur in rural India in any given year.

Counting rural deaths can be done, as Jha’s work with the Million Death Study has shown. The pre-pandemic project used inperson surveys to count deaths in rural India, capturing details of symptoms and circumstances with results of the “verbal autopsies” reviewed and recorded by doctors.

Many low- and middle-income countries have similar undercounts of death data, Jha said, but India could do better.

“It’s a country that’s got a space program. Just counting the dead is a basic func-

tion,” he said. “India should be doing much, much better.”

DOES IT MATTER? Knowing the size and scope of the outbreak and how it is changing helps governments and health officials plan their responses.

Even with the known problems with the data, the trajectory of Covid-19 cases and deaths in India is an alarming reminder of how the virus can rocket through a largely unvaccinated population when precautions are lifted.

“What happens in India matters to the entire world,” said Dr. Amita Gupta, chair of the Johns Hopkins India Institute in a Facebook conversation Thursday. “We care from a humanitarian perspective, a public health perspective, and a health security perspective.”

Monday, 3 May, 2021

06 COMMENT

The winds of change in Karachi

NA 249 by-election

The ECP has much to learn still

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The by-election shows the way

haT there is to be a recount in Na 249 does not reflect election irregularities, so much as the closeness of the result. When the winning margin is five percent or less, there is an automatic recount. still, that does not mean there was a clean election. There were several thousand irregularities noted, and there was a clear problem with the result reporting mechanism. Prime Minister imran Khan called for electoral reform, which is not likely to do much to reverse the dismal fifth-place showing of his PTi, which is a nightmarish result for a party that had won the seat at the last general election.

One of the most important features of the by-election was the evidence that the election commission of Pakistan (ecP) has still not mastered the result-reporting technology it had put in place since the 2018 general election. The software had led to delays in the declaration of results then, and that it did so again shows that the ecP has still not worked out the kinks. if one is to accept the opposition’s narrative that that was the method used to ‘select’ the PTi, the flaw remains. The PTi, instead of redressing that issue, is resting its effort at electoral reform on electronic Voting Machines (eVMs). several countries have tried this particular technology, but it has created more controversies than it has settled.it is (as its name testifies) electronic. can the ecP take responsibility for conducting a general election using such technology, with all the room it creates, if not necessarily for manipulation, but for allegations by losing parties? The ecP has to realize that its conduct of this by-election has lost it some of the credibility it built by the way it stamped on attempts to rig the Na-175 bypoll. another factor which the PTi should consider, and which was implicit in the Opposition Leader’s prompt rejection of Mr Khan’s reform call, is that the Opposition cannot be constantly called thieves and plunders, and then expected to cooperate in taking action on something as basic as election reform. The PTi should not forget that electoral systems are even more basic for politicians than accountability laws, for the latter only matter if the former allow a politician the exercise of power.

MUSTAFA ABDULLAH BALOCH

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arachi’s demographic features are multi-cultural and at the same time interesting, which is why it is called mini-Pakistan. The city comprises multiple ethnic pockets and almost all the political parties have their footprint in this metropolitan city, but unfortunately after the 1980s the rigging factor took a rise after the MQM was thrust upon the peaceful and progressive people of Karachi.

But today the MQM factor is gone and all the parties have a level playing field. The creation of MQM and PPi in the mid 1980s was a deliberate attempt to prevent the PPP getting an absolute majority in sindh, but this mechanism turned out to be futile as later Karachi became the victim of regional and ethinic politics for the past three decades. recently there was a by-election in Karachi’s Na-249 after PTi’s federal minister Faisal Vawda resigned from the seat to go into the senate. This was a pyrrhic victory for Vawda and PTi as this decision exposed the so-called myth of PTi’s support base in Karachi. The nail-biting by-election of Karachi gathered the attention of the entire nation, media and political analysts as it was considered as a litmus test for the upcoming local bodies and general elections in Karachi, and in gauging the strength and weakness of all the parties flexing their muscles. The PPP brilliantly gained the seat, leaving all the parties and analysts to a shock who were underestimating its

Not getting ready in time What false pride is stopping a full lockdown?

a

s the number of coronavirus infections keeps on piling up, and as the number of deaths keeps growing, it would seem obvious that the government’s hopes that the discovery of a vaccine would stop the coronavirus from spreading has failed. it has not helped that the rollout of the vaccine has been less than impressive, and the inevitable is happening after the government frittered away the time it had been given by the dying down of the first wave in selfcongratulatory rhetoric about how the world was following its example, instead of building the capacity of the healthcare system by inducting more equipment, and building up the capacity of industry to produce and supply oxygen. The inevitable has happened, and the healthcare system has actually collapsed. if the government continues the nonchalance it has shown so far, what is happening in india will happen here as well: patients lying on floors in corridors gasping for oxygen, the sick dying in the streets after being refused admission to hospitals, and the dead lying unburied because the cemeteries are stuffed beyond capacity.

The government has refused to do what is apparent to the layman, and impose a strict lockdown. it has insisted that such a lockdown would bring about economic ruin for daily wagers, ignoring two salient facts. First, the previous lockdown did not cause the mass starvation so confidently predicted. second, the policy of smart lockdowns has clearly not worked. indeed, it has collapsed. so many areas now qualify for one, that there might as well be a general lockdown.

The government should realize that if divine intervention saves lives, failure to take advantage of the consequent reprieve is punished as severely. The only thing preventing a strict lockdown being imposed is a false pride, and a failure to realize that economic disaster is very painful, but even more painful is death. sticking to economics, if people (who are, after all, economic actors) are dying in large numbers, there will be no economy left to protect.

AMjAD ULLAH

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he Post cold-War world witnessed certain changes in the international system. a major shift could be seen in the state policy objectives and the way they pursue them. This, consequently, has given rise to a new international order, characterized by state policies shifting from geo-politics to geo-economics, and a, of the security and economic realms. The underlying material transformation and economic restructuring is constantly threatening the status quo, and potentially creating the precondition for asian countries, particularly china, to strongly assert themselves in the new world order.

World War ii proved to be disastrous for european powers and demolished Britain’s long-established hegemony. so, the Usa, with its overwhelming economic muscle, imposed herself in the international system, and established a highly institutionalized system that reflects its own normative preferences. But, the current trends; domestic and international, manifest that Us ascendancy has stretched to its breaking point. The Miracle of the east asian states and the rise of india, Malaysia and indonesia as emerging markets strengthened the global shift from West to east. Moreover, the rise of china as the fastest growing economy shows that asia is on an irreversible path of prosperity, and rising as the hub of the global economy.

The shift is primarily driven by the policy orientation of the two leading world powers. china’s military advancement in the south china sea and the Belt and road initiative manifest that it, simultaneously, uses two categories of policy instrument; the strategic military and strategic economic. On the other hand, the Usa’s unnecessary interventions in afghanistan and iraq, and its meddling in the Middle east to seek regime changes of its choice shows that it still remains firm on the security paradigm to advance its geostrategic goals. such policy practices on the part of the Usa, and china’s emphasis on the geo-economic element of its foreign policy provides the latter with an opportunity to reassure those neighbours who are alarmed by its more assertive strategic

Editor Joint Editor

Umar Aziz Executive Editor

Lahore – Ph: 042-36300938, 042-36375965

This domino effect will not just end here in NA 249 but this wave will shatter PTI in all the districts of Karachi.

After the heavy disappointment from the PTI, the Karachi voters are keen to give PPP a chance which happens to be a national party with a track record of past performances and which can better address the core issues of the city.

Moving from geo-strategy to geo-economics

Arif Nizami

Managing Editor

of tabdeeli.

While at the same time the immature response from Maryam Nawaz on this by-poll result was certainly in bad taste, as no major discrepancy was reported throughout the polling day. it is high time she must learn to accept defeat which is part of politics.

The confused policy of the PML(N) of calling for resigning from Parliament and at the same time contesting by-elections, is beyond any logical sense. rather than celebrating the opposition’s victory against the ruling party Maryam is busy creating unnecessary feuds within the opposition.

The result also shows that Karachi is distancing itself from the ethno-regional parties that kept the voters hostage for the past 30 years with their militancy and rigging. Today Karachi is engaging and trusting a national party like the PPP so that they can get their due share and legitimate ownership from the centre. had imran not bagged crucial seats from Karachi in 2018 general elections he wouldn’t have been able to form his government in the centre, but he miserably failed to reciprocate through deliverance as the issues of Karachi are far more complex than he ever considered seriously and the result of this by-election is a wake-up call for the PTi that it has lost the confidence which Karachiites reposed in them and that is a mighty fall.

This domino effect will not just end here in Na 249 but this wave will shatter PTi in all the districts of Karachi. after the heavy disappointment from the PTi, the Karachi voters are keen to give PPP a chance which happens to be a national party with a track record of past performances and which can better address the core issues of the city. if PPP becomes the representative party of Karachi, then the urban-rural divide and polarization of sindh will come to an end and this will be the panacea of all political ills.

The writer can mustafarind01@gmail.com

be

reached

at

China’s Ascendency in the Changing World Order

Dedicated to the legacy of the late Hameed Nizami

Yousaf Nizami Aziz-ud-Din Ahmad

presence and roots in public.

Most people are unaware of the fact that PPP had a strong vote bank in this constituency. My father abdullah Baloch, a founder-leader of the PPP, won this seat in 1970 and 1977 and during that period PPP provided electricity, gas, water and lease to the people of Baldia Town and areas nearby. in 2008 general elections again, as the PPP candidate my father bagged 61,000 votes from Na-240 which included Baldia Town, which is today in Na249 after delimitation. But despite rigging by MQM and the support they had from Musharraf who was the president at that time, the PPP gathered record votes but still was deprived from this seat. Today after 13 years when PPP has managed to gain back its lost seat, critics are unreasonably questioning its victory.

The demographics of Na-249 comprises Pushtoon and Punjabi voters mainly, who were earlier considered as the vote bank of the PTi and PML(N), but the myth has been broken by PPP in this by-election. The voter turnout was predictably low because of the multiple factors like extreme hot weather, third wave of covid19 and ramadan, but still the PPP managed to secure the number one position and deserves applause for winning against all the odds.

The people of Baldia Town rejected the PTi because their MNa, Faisal Vawda, did not bother to visit the constituency in the past three years, and despite being Minister for Water resources he failed to provide water to the people of this constituency which is the main issue of this area. The other major factor for the PTi’s defeat was the rising inflation and poor governance of the PTi and Prime Minister Khan’s negligence towards Karachi. This will bring a domino effect in Karachi’s politics, as the voters after getting ditched by the MQM and then by the PTi seek hope in the PPP and its young leadership. PPP chairman Bilawal Bhutto who has shown utmost maturity and decency in the hostile political environment

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Karachi – Ph: 021-35381208-9

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policies. it also offers china the oportunity to create an alternative institutional forum for those chinese policy makers who have long chafed at the Us dominance in the iMF and the World Bank.

Unlike Washington, Beijing associates potentially less stringent demands of economic reforms with its new economic model. These make the chinese institutions, like the asian infrastructure investment Bank (aiiB), very attractive to asian and african leaders desperate for infrastructure and investment. Though aiiB reflects china’s norms, preferences and interests, these leaders are no more enamoured of the liberal political and economic reforms.

The centre of geo-economic rivalry between the two giant powers seems to be asia and africa, and it also defines the future of these continents. in parts of asia, the Us military capabilities still dominate; promising security for the region. But, china’s growing military power and economic leverage are displacing the decades-old american preeminence. The regional countries are caught to choose between chinese wealth and american security. apparently, the transition of asia is in china’s favour as the asian economies, and therefore their domestic politics, rely more on Beijing than Washington. Meanwhile, the Usa’s longtime allies like the Philippines and indonesia are also moving closer to china.

Us and chinese involvement in africa, a hub of natural resources, define their course of competition in the region. The geo-political codes of the african countries reflect the challenges of economic transformation for china and global hegemony maintenance for the Usa. Beijing looks at africa as a geo-economic space: to find a market for its manufactured goods and recycle its massive foreign exchange re-

Islamabad – Ph: 051-2204545

serve into profitable investment in the region. The Usa largely views the region as a site of humanitarian intervention, resource extraction and security.

This manifests that the Usa exploits regional vulnerabilities for its own gains while china is more intent on pursuing “win-win” diplomacy. This forces the african leaders to rethink their strategic orientation. china’s sheer material importance in ،the global economy has already given it the potential to play a central role in the international system. But, many scholars are of the view that china’s ascendency to global hegemony is still in the formative stages. The Us initiatives, like the Quadrilateral security Dialogue (QUaD), provide a template for counteracting china specifically in the indoPacific and the south china sea. also, many developing countries look at china’s economic design as more ambitious than chinese assertion of mutual benefits.

The development of infrastructure projects across asia, particularly in strategically vital ports and transit corridors, initially seemed like joint developments but eventually ended up in chinese hands. sri Lanka, in December 2017, was unable to pay debt on the port construction so it granted hambantota port to china on a 99-year lease. This, and other examples from africa, are mentioned frequently by the Usawhile tring to counter chinese claims of disinterestedness. however, along with all the challenges to china ascendancy, the Usa can do much less to stop a fundamental restructuring of global economic activity and its concomitant consequences, because Washington itself is a beneficiary of, and highly dependent on china economic development. again, it has kept its rivalry with china mainly economics while the rivalry it had with the Ussr was primarily geostrategic.

However, along with all the challenges to China ascendancy, the USA can do much less to stop a fundamental restructuring of global economic activity and its concomitant consequences, because Washington itself is a beneficiary of, and highly dependent on China economic development

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Web: www.pakistantoday.com.pk

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The writer is a freelance columnist

Email: editorial@pakistantoday.com.pk

Monday, 3 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

Future of B.A/ ADP students at stake ONLiNe education system and the contemporanous Pakistani social setup, compatible or incompatible ? every societal setup has its own pros and cons .What’s applicable in one civilisation may not necessarily be applicable in others as the environmental and social settings vary considerably .The social order of the monetarily sound and developed Western nation-states has been synchronized with online education system but has our social setup been preconditioned with it? can we see the preconditions and prerequisites of such a scheme in Pakistan at present ? Obviously for an overwhelmingly small yet immensly privelleged class, linked with high budgeted academic institutions (even international ones) it is suitable . But what about the rest- the majority ? The management of Punjab University, Lahore , one of the lagest and oldest varsities of Pakistan is yet to make a declaration about the future of the pupils .hearsays and rumours have been circulating that online examination would be conducted for all the aDP/B.a candidates which seemingly would result in a mess as the students as well as the administrative officials aren’t that equipped with such technological skills as to enable them to make the process happen smoothly and flawlessly . This has resulted in bewilderment and perplexity among the baccalurate students .it would be much better to postpone the examination till the end of the pandemic and then conduct it on the traditional pattern . The second apt option is to promote the students to the next stage on the basis of ther past(intermediate) result percentage .

Otherwise we may see a tremendously large amount of students failing miserably just because of the newly introduced system as they may not be able to appropriately deal with it . The pupils have never had experienced such a channel before . We are lagging far behind in terms of resources , skills and experience when it comes to online examination.

MuhaMMad ahMad QaSMi (M.a.Q) Chiniot

Survival of the fittest!

Stigmatizing Covid-19 infected

We must take the responsibility ourselves

ATTiyA MUnAwer

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he third wave of the coronavirus continues to invade Pakistan, and is more damaging than the earlier ones. The government is taking all possible steps to control the spread of the coronavirus pandemic. in this regard, the people are constantly being advised not to leave their homes unnecessarily and to follow the sOPs fully on the way out. apart from deploying troops across the country to help in the enforcement of the sOPs,, help is also being sought from the ulema for the implementation of the sOPs. in this regard, the ulema assured that they will persuade the people in the mosques to implement the sOPs so that the coronavirus pandemic does not spread further. The government’s efforts to control the pandemic have their place, but the real success will come when the people across the country, realizing their responsibility, fully implement the coronavirus sOPs. The ulema are particularly important because the first task is to convince many people that there is a pandemic, and that there is a need to follow the sOPs. There is no doubt that the people are more to blame for the spread of coronavirus than anything else. On the one hand, there is the onslaught of the third wave of the coronavirus and on the other hand, the people are not ready to follow the sOPs, even though the consequences of this careless approach are dire. according to official figures, more than 800,000 people in the country have been affected by the pandemic, while more than 17,000 have died.

Overall, the positive case rate in the country has reached 9.61 percent. To prevent this situation from get-

ting worse, it has been decided to deploy troops in the cities, because instead of understanding the need of the hour when told with love and affection, we obey orders with the use of force and sticks.

The government’s strict implementation of sOPs is correct, but so far it has failed to develop vaccines on its own, or even to import a sufficient quantity from abroad. The public has so far received free vaccine aid, which is insufficient to meet the needs of a country of 220 million people.

This is why the federal government has allowed the provincial governments to buy vaccines, as well as permitted the private sector to import vaccines to ensure timely vaccinations to as many people as possible, but this became a matter of price dispute.

Now, as per the order of sindh high court, in the light of the recommendations of the Drug regulatory authority of Pakistan, the cabinet has fixed the price of two doses of the russian sputnik-V vaccine at rs 8449, so that the country’s affluent class can be vaccinated privately against the deadly disease.

The elite in this country have had the same motto as ever of saving themselves and pushing the poor into the abyss of death. The same thing is happening with the supply of the coronavirus vaccine, wher the elite has put the general public in the line of relief vaccines.

The price of two injections of the vaccine is fixed in the same way as the price of a brand of jeans, or of fast food. in a country where the majority of the population lives below the poverty line, it is not easy for the common man to pay such a large sum. The federal and provincial governments should expedite the process of procuring vaccines for the general public on a war footing by allocating funds on a regular basis, so as to prevent loss of human

The government’s efforts to control the pandemic have their place, but the real success will come when the people across the country, realizing their responsibility, fully implement the Coronavirus SOPs. The ulema are particularly important because the first task is to convince many people that there is a pandemic

lives. also it should be remembered that vaccination is the only path to successfully combating the disease. if there is insufficient vaccination, there will be repeated waves of the disease, with the result that not only will the uncertainty and the atmosphere of fear continue, but people will go on dying. in view of the changing situation in the country due to the coronavirus pandemic, the government and the people have to make a complete change in their behaviour. While the government has to realize its responsibilities, the people also have to ensure implementation of sOPs. if we as a nation decide to cooperate with the government on sOPs, the situation may change overnight. Life is a God-given blessing. everyone should appreciate this blessing. People should not risk their lives and the lives of others by being obsessed with politics and shopping. The third wave of coronavirus has reached alarming levels. if the pandemic is not controlled immediately through better strategies, there will be no room for patients in hospitals.

The deteriorating situation caused by the coronavirus pandemic in our neighboring country india is instructive. scattered corpses can be on the sidewalks in india and a large number of sick people are seen begging for oxygen. a large number of people are losing their lives every day in india due to the coronavirus. There is a shortage of stretchers after the better-known one of oxygen, in indian hospitals; the indian media is showing how the medical staff is dragging the bodies of the deceased to the ground for cremation due to lack of stretchers. if Pakistanis do not change their reckless attitude, it will not take long for the catastrophe to spread in our country as well. One should assume the implementation of sOPs as a responsibility for oneself because the message of survival of life is hidden in caution, while the slightest carelessness will lead to the Valley of Death. The people have done as much carelessness as they should have, now it is time to decide whether we are going to choose between life or death. surely the desire of every soul is life, so our only survival depends on taking precautions.

While the actions of the government might matter at one level, at another they don’t, because the real key is actually how we behave ourselves.. it won’t matter if it’s someone else’s fault; we will still be dead.

A large number of people are losing their lives every day in India due to the coronavirus.

There is a shortage of stretchers after the betterknown one of oxygen, in Indian hospitals; the Indian media is showing how the medical staff is dragging the bodies of the deceased to the ground for cremation due to lack of stretchers. If Pakistanis do not change their reckless attitude, it will not take long for the catastrophe to spread in our country as well

The writer tweets @AttiyaMunawer

a doctor in Karachi infected with covid-19 chose not to go to hospital but remain in his house, because of the inhumane manner in which patients suffering from this pandemic have been treated by administration. he died under tragic circumstances. Why should patients, such as this doctor feel stigma associated with this pandemic?

By the time, first patient tested positive in Pakistan, an sOP (TesTiNG, TraciNG, TreaTiNG) approved by WhO had been laid down and all we had to do was adopt it. The Federal Government should have declared Medical emergency by acquiring all civil, military and private hospitals and clinics to meet this challenge, pooling available infrastructure. hospitals which cater to specific sicknesses like cancer, cardiology related issues etc. should have been excluded and instead all such patients in other hospitals shifted there. instead what followed was chaos. health specialists should have been placed at helm and their instructions followed.

What made matters worse was confusion created by federal and provincial governments with their conflicting statements. Blaming tax paying middle class for imposing lockdown without bothering about poor daily wagers is living in denial. The elite that decides fate of this country live in palatial villas and farm houses, spread over several acres, totally secluded from citizens, while it is mostly middle class that live in 1-kanal or 10-marla plots in Dha and Gulberg Lahore. The real elite get tax exemptions and sell plots which are allotted to them or were irregularly acquired.

The administration given task to manage this pandemic lacks basic skills to handle patients, while simultaneously ensuring that their sensitivities and self-respect are not tarnished. People infected could have been approached discreetly instead of loads of security personnel invading their privacy, making a spectacle. The infected should have choice of self-isolation at their residence provided they have sufficient rooms. People were infected because state failed to follow proper procedures to quarantine those who returned from cOViT19 infected countries at our border crossings and airports, with many leaving without any protocol being followed.

Malik tariQ ali lahorE

Fate of students WiTh corona Virus cases increasing dad by day and no hope of decreasing there is no idea when would this lockdown be lifted. Due to this reason the fate of students at intermediate and matric level is at risk. They are worried about their future. False news is spreading that on the basis of their academic performance they will be given grades. No one is sure that a student who performed poorly previously would not do well in future and vice versa. if the exams get cancelled they will lack behind their studies and the year would be wasted. There is no surety how much further the exams will be delayed. students are only hoping and praying for this corona curse to be lifted so that they could go back to their normal routine. tEhrEEM tariQ iSlaMabad

Online classes The normal class setup is perfect if you are the the average student and started straight out of high school. however, if you are a non-traditional student you are slightly hindered by the class choices presented to you. according to the higher education commission of Pakistan, a nontraditional student is largely categorized as someone over the age of 24.

These students typically have families that impact their ability to successfully complete a higher education and/or work full time. as a nontraditional student, i feel that if universities were to expand on the selection of online classes, enrollment would go up for those nontraditional students. UT currently offers only a select few online courses, especially compared to other schools. On the other hand many college students and their dad and mom are of the opinion that online training are pressure approaches by non-public universities to extract prices. if these institutions are so involved approximately training they ought to waive the expenses altogether after which ask the federal and provincial authorities for compensation.i can say with full authority that private universities are continuously deleting students’ remarks on charge submission posts that they add on their reliable pages. tahir ayaz iSlaMabad

Monday, 3 May, 2021

08 WORLD VIEW

Mayday, Mayday — How Modi govT led india inTo a perfecT sTorM

Print

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Shekhar Gupta

he timing of the headline of this column on 1 May is purely coincidental. It isn’t meant to be some kind of a play on words either. It is, unfortunately, the best description of the state of distress India is in. It’s calling out to all major nations for assistance, from oxygen to N-95 masks, to oximeters and vaccines. And when these arrive by the giant cargo-plane load, we have central cabinet ministers tweeting in joy.

Until a few weeks back, they’d be dismissing any suggestion of the ‘new’ India seeking foreign aid with contempt.

We aren’t scoring a point. We can’t afford to. We are all in it together. It is, in fact, to be welcomed that the government is open to foreign aid in such a colossal national emergency, and is also seeking it.

The european Union and the UK have both said they are responding to requests from India. The UK’s assistance is coming from its Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO), and the US’ from USAID. Modi government’s ministers are hailing these as shining examples of shared values, friendship and so on. We learnt this growing up in our humble small-town homes that when your kitchen runs out of sugar, you are not ashamed of borrowing a cup-full from the neighbour. As the neighbour might in need.

Our situation is a little bit worse than a household running out of sugar. When both Imran Khan and Xi Jinping rise generously to offer assistance, you know you are in a bind. If you read between their lines, one is

TRIUMPHALISM, PREMATURE DECLARATION OF VICTORY MEANT NO ONE CHECKED IF INDIA HAD ENOUGH VACCINES, OXYGEN, REMDESIVIR, BRINGING US BACK TO A CRISIS WHERE WE NEED FOREIGN AID AFTER FOUR DECADES telling us we aren’t such a big power compared to it that we pretended to be. The other, patronisingly, is showing us our place in the region. especially as, at the same time, it also calls a meeting of the subcontinent’s foreign ministers to discuss mutual cooperation.

Subtext is Covid assistance.

The message to our immediate neighbourhood, which India protectively seeks as its own zone of influence, is that we know how you all need help with your Covid counter-measures. Don’t count on India. At this point it is India that needs help from the world. What China means to say is, see, India cannot even ship the vaccine doses and pharmaceuticals you ordered earlier. Of course, it was said that the meeting was open to India’s foreign minister too. That was just some unsubtle turning of the knife.

That’s the reason we say, no harm seeking assistance from your friends and saying grateful thanks when your adversaries are sneering. In perfectly nice and decent diplomatic jargon.

WHAT ARE WE THEN ARGUING ABOUT? here is a proposition. While offering help to another country in need requires a big heart, it equally needs one to seek it. That level of humility cannot come from a closed mind. Because then you’d be a North Korean, Cuban or the current Venezuelan regime. And yet, if we can have such a large heart and an open mind when in a murderous quagmire, would it have hurt if we had displayed some of it earlier? Particularly when we were declaring victory

over the virus and declaring ourselves the ‘Vaccine Guru’.

The prime minister told the world that India was its pharmacy when less than 1.5 per cent of our population was vaccinated. I would welcome letting Serum Institute of India (SII), our largest vaccine manufacturer, fulfil its contracted foreign orders, or even our government gifting some to friendly nations and talk about ‘Vaccine Maitri’ (friendship).

Large nations should do those things.

But only if those large nations also look within and ensure they’d not be out in the world market looking for the same thing they gifted away. Do you give away a katori of sugar to your neighbour if that is all you have left?

Once again, this isn’t so much a lament about the fact that we sent away a little over 6 crore doses that would have come handy now when our vaccination centres are logging desultory, pedestrian daily numbers.

Another 6 crore, for a population like ours, would have cushioned us for a couple more weeks if a real vaccination drive, of the kind India needs right now, begins. But, the fact that we kept sending these away while not placing orders with our two brilliant domestic companies to scale up production and keep stockpiling for domestic needs, underlines terrible over-confidence.

We know that placing these orders in advance would need faster price negotiations, maybe that margin price of rs 150 or about $2, when the UN was apparently paying $3, was seen to be a big political win. Also, an order of the necessary volumes would have required payment of sizeable advances and

run the risk of audit trouble later. Those are things bureaucracies worry about. Not a leader who came to power on the promise of cutting through these.

What we have right now is a self-created perfect storm. We have this algebraically confusing differential pricing where the Centre pays one price and the states another. I’d have no argument with what price the private sector charges or pays as long as enough doses are available with the government.

Second, there is the age-group based policy and pricing confusion and distinction.

Third, the Centre has had to finally pay the sizeable advances the two manufacturers had asked for much earlier. If only this decision was taken in time. And, finally, after all this, there aren’t enough doses. While the programme gets opened to all adult age groups this May Day, most states won’t have enough to provide their share for the doses. how perfectly does it echo the familiar old story of the man in a village caught stealing onions? he was held guilty by the panchayat and given a choice of eating a hundred onions or shoe-beatings. he chose the onions first, gave up after ten, the shoe-beatings next, quit after ten, went back to onions, and so on until he ended up having both.

Trickle-down economics never worked, President Joe Biden said in his address to the joint session of Congress earlier this week. he also tweeted that economics would now grow bottom up and middle out. There will be many sharp, and smart voices countering it, with equally sound intellectual arguments.

It’s an eternal debate in political economies.

But one area where the trickle-down ef-

fect can’t be contested is leadership. Leadership trickles top down. And the more successful the leader, stronger this downpour.

Triumphalism, premature declaration of victory goes straight into the heads of the teams also.

That’s why nobody checks if you have enough vaccines, oxygen, remdesivir, even paracetamol in store or not. Because there isn’t one major country in the world where the virus hasn’t returned with a second wave. everybody celebrates victory, and refuses to see the signs of trouble as they emerge.

Delhi’s test positivity rates didn’t go from a ‘goodbye Covid’ 0.23 per cent to 32 per cent overnight. This kept growing over four weeks until it exploded. Nobody woke up. The top leadership was busy winning elections and dissing federal counterparts just when India needed unity and consolidation. The headiness trickled down.

Not even the explosion in Kerala and Maharashtra woke anybody up. It was seen as a problem of two distant states. If we were hoping that our state boundaries will protect us from a virus that treats the oceans with contempt, we were setting ourselves up for slaughter. And, bringing India back to a crisis where it needs foreign aid after four decades.

Of course, that still doesn’t mean our triumphalism has subsided yet. If it were so, we won’t embarrass ourselves again by using our top diplomats to complain about foreign media coverage of the gravity of this crisis, what brought us here, while we seek and accept help in the same crisis, from the same countries.

Iran’s struggle for national security PERHAPS MOST INTRIGUING OF ALL IS A QUOTE ASCRIBED TO THE HEAD OF SAVAK’S MIDDLE EAST BRANCH REGARDING SUCH COVERT OPERATIONS: “WE SHOULD COMBAT AND ARREST THE DANGER [OF NASSERISM] ON THE BEACHES OF THE MEDITERRANEAN SO WE DO NOT HAVE TO SHED BLOOD ON IRANIAN SOIL”

Middle east Monitor

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Omar ahmed

here is a common assumption that the Islamic republic of Iran’s strategic thinking and foreign policy are fundamentally different from those of the pre-revolution era. The theocratic government’s worldview and its enmity towards the US and Israel are certainly noteworthy points of departure from the Imperial State of Iran before it. however, it has been argued that the underlying national security concerns of the Islamic republic are ultimately the same as those under the monarchy. Indeed, books by scholars and academics about these similarities are nothing new.

Ariane Tabatabai’s No Conquest, No Defeat: Iran’s National Security Strategy is the latest addition to the list. The book explores the way that Iran’s past has shaped its approach to statesmanship and national security, and goes a step further by starting in the eighteenth century with the Qajar period, the genesis of the modern Iranian state.

This legacy and the nation’s collective memory, the author contends, consists of deeply entrenched distrust of foreign powers and international laws and institutions, as well as negotiations and treaties. hence, to help us to understand the decisions made by Iran today, we “must examine Iran’s historical experiences and its perceptions thereof.” Tabatabai makes it clear that whilst her focus here is on Iran’s strategy and security policy, it is less concerned with analysing the what and how, and instead examines the why when it comes to a plethora of seemingly contradictory actions on the international stage.

The dominant theme in No Conquest, No Defeat… is one of continuity. We read that the two defining military defeats of the Qajar state by imperial russia led to humiliating treaties and significant loss of territory.

Against the backdrop of “betrayal” by both France and Britain in terms of honouring agreements, “Persia’s defeats were also tied to its leaders’ inability to successfully balance the powers.” This “balancing” policy, although

flawed and detrimental to Iran’s interests, was practical in the absence of self-sufficiency and the ability to stand on its own two feet.

These weaknesses would form the basis for subsequent statesmen to prioritise the need for a strong military to deter and stand up to foreign powers, a doctrine which remains to the present-day. Domestically, the Qajars also sought to strengthen the centralisation of power; Tehran was made the country’s capital in 1796 by the dynasty’s founder Agha Mohammad Khan. however, it was only with the Pahlavi dynasty (1925-1979) which supplanted the Qajars that the Iranian military (the Artesh) would become the largest force in the Middle east, along with a developed internal security apparatus, namely the notorious SAVAK intelligence service and secret police.

Despite never being colonised, Iran under the Qajars faced frequent violations of its sovereignty by the competing powers of Britain and russia engaged in the socalled “Great Game”, and the granting of numerous concessions. “The concessions fed into the country’s distrust of foreign powers,” writes Tabatabai, “and contributed to its drive to become self-reliant.”

Domestically, these concessions also helped to forge the growing alliance between the merchant class, or bazaaris, and the Shia clergy who were becoming increasingly active politically, in ways which would later become self-evident. Moreover, foreign intervention in the form of neutral Iran being forced into World War One and the ensuing Great Persian Famine “remains engraved in the Iranian psyche”; Iran’s neutrality was also disregarded in the Second World War. Crucially, for Tabatabai Iran’s suspicions of the West stem from neither the Islamic revolution in 1979 nor the CIA-backed coup in 1953, but “the country’s defining experiences during the nineteenth century.”

Following on from the Qajars, the book turns to the relatively short-lived but influential Pahlavi dynasty founded by reza Khan, an “upstart officer” in the Cossack Brigade. Just like Turkey’s Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, Khan believed in modernisation by way of Westernisation and tried to continue his predecessors’ ambitions to reduce foreign interference by developing self-sufficiency, paying special attention to modernising the military and

laying the foundations for Iran’s defence industry. Yet again, though, we see the unreliable policy of balancing international powers during his rule — this time the British and the Union of Soviet Socialist republics (USSr) — while gravitating increasingly towards Nazi Germany. The more authoritarian approach would also bring together what Tabatabai describes as a “trinity of forces” composed of the bazaaris, the clerics and intellectuals, which would ultimately bring down the dynasty.

Despite his efforts, reza Khan is said to have failed to deter foreign interference, and was eventually forced to abdicate in favour of his son Mohammad reza Shah Pahlavi, known to posterity simply as “the Shah”. As with his father, he was also committed to rapid modernisation and wanted to regain, as he saw it, Iran’s “rightful place in regional affairs”. This was propelled by increased oil revenues and closer alignment with the US during the Cold War. Critics of the contemporary Islamic republic’s support of non-state actors may be surprised to learn that this was a policy of the Shah. “[he] largely relied on covert operations to expand his country’s influence in the region,” explains the author, cultivating ties with Iraqi Kurds and Lebanese Shia, despite possessing one of the largest militaries in the world. Tehran’s controversial nuclear programme, as with its missile and drone development, are also policies revived from the Shah’s era and reminiscent of his drive towards greater self-reliance.

Perhaps most intriguing of all is a quote ascribed to the head of SAVAK’s Middle east branch regarding such covert operations: “We should combat and arrest the danger [of Nasserism] on the beaches of the Mediterranean so we do not have to shed blood on Iranian soil.” As Tabatabai points out, there is a striking resemblance to the language used to justify the Islamic republic’s interventions, with Ayatollah Ali Khamenei explaining Iranian presence in Iraq or Syria as a means of confronting a perceived “takfiri” threat overseas rather than on the streets of Tehran. “The reality of the situation is this: It is the defence of Iran,” the Supreme Leader is quoted as saying.

The remainder of the book covers the Islamic revolution up to the present day, including a comprehensive, yet concise, chapter on the Iran-Iraq War which has left an enduring imprint on the Iranian psyche, especially one of an isolated, largely one-sided and devastating war re-

inforcing the notion that Iran cannot rely on outsiders for its security or defence. After a period of focusing inwards and turning back on the prospects of exporting the revolution in the 1990s, we find that the early 21st century enabled Tehran to project its power and influence in the region following the post-9/11 conflicts and the Arab Spring. “These events would afford Tehran the opportunity to assert itself regionally in a manner that the Shah could only have dreamt of,” writes Tabatabai.

Despite a few editorial oversights (in more than one place there are duplicated sentences), I found that No Conquest, No Defeat: Iran’s National Security Strategy argues convincingly that rather than being divorced from pre-revolutionary Iran, the Islamic republic is no different fundamentally in terms of its strategic thinking; it presents thought-provoking reasons as to why this is so.

This helps to explain Iran’s diplomatic posturing and foreign policies for those who hold preconceived notions that it is an irrational and non-pragmatic state.

The book also contextualises the inherent distrust and scepticism towards international institutions which permeates Iran today with the ongoing negotiations over its nuclear programme and sanctions. It is also interesting to note that despite the overtures about self-sufficiency and military expansion, Tehran has still not managed to relinquish its policy of trying to balance foreign relations — today its russia and China, for example — which we saw the Qajars doing a century before the Islamic revolution.

No Conquest, No Defeat- Iran’s National Security Strategy by Ariane M. Tabatabai

Monday, 3 May, 2021

BUSINESS 09

LAHORE

InflaTIon rISES To 11pc In aprIl ISLAMABAD

p

Trade, industry ask govt to cut short Eid holidays The business community on Saturday asked the government to cut the “unprecedentedly long” six day Eid holidays, saying it will be counterproductive for the economy. “Shutting down the country for nine consecutive days was unacceptable would create a lot of problems for the economy and the business community,” Businessmen Group Chairperson Zubair Motiwala said.

“It will particularly hurt exporters, who will not be able to dispatch shipments to foreign countries due to complete closure of banks, ports, customs and all other departments during excessive holidays. The government must review this decision and announce Eid holidays from May 12 to May 15, which will enable exporters to dispatch shipments on May 10 and May 11. “We cannot afford prolonged holidays as they result in losses worth billions, terribly affect trading activities particularly exports, and deprive daily wagers from desperately needed earnings,” he added. AGENCIES

US Treasury's Yellen tamps down inflation fears over Biden spending plan

GHULAM ABBAS

AKISTAN’s inflation rate has increased to 11.1 per cent in April, up from 9.1pc in the previous month mainly due to increase in food commodities prices, data released by the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics on Saturday showed.

Inflation has been increasing for the last couple of months. Measured through Consumer Price Index (CPI), on a month-on-month (MoM) basis, inflation increased by 1pc in April 2021 as compared to an increase of 0.4pc in the previous month, mainly due to an increase in prices of chicken, cooking oil/ghee, sugar, wheat, and pulses for the end consumers. At the same time, non-food inflation has steadily been on the rise for the past few months due to higher energy prices.

It may be mentioned that Prime Minister Imran Khan has made several changes to his economic team in the past last month, aiming to bring policies to control the upward trend of inflation.

Newly appointed Finance Minister, Shaukat Tarin, while chairing the National Price Monitoring Committee (NPMC) meeting on April 26, had

asked authorities concerned to take all possible measures to control the soaring inflation rate with the help of provinces.

However, the month of April coupled with start of fasting in the middle of the month noted an accelerated growth in prices of vegetables, fruit, chicken and oil especially in the province of Punjab, followed by Sindh, Balochistan, Islamabad and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP).

In urban areas, food items that saw a jump in prices in April from the previous month included tomatoes 67.70pc,

Exports cross $2bn for seventh consecutive month

WASHINGTON AGENCIES

U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen on Sunday tamped down concerns that President Joe Biden’s plans for infrastructure, jobs and families will cause inflation, saying the spending will be phased in over a decade. “It’s spread out quite evenly over eight to 10 years,” Yellen, former Federal Reserve chair, said in an interview with NBC’s “Meet the Press.” She said the Federal Reserve will monitor inflation carefully and has the tools to address it if necessary. “I don’t believe that inflation will be an issue but if it becomes an issue, we have tools to address it. These are historic investments that we need to make our economy productive and fair.” Biden’s plans are paid for by a series of tax increases on the wealthiest Americans, less than 1% of the population, and on raising corporate taxes. Some Democrats have expressed concerns that the tax increases would slow economic growth. Yellen would not speculate on whether Biden would accept a bill from Congress that does not include a way to pay for the spending increases in his plans. “He has made clear that he believes that permanent increase in spending should be paid for and I agree,” she said.

vegetables 29.55pc, fruits 22.32pc, potatoes 15.81pc, chicken 7.31pc, cooking oil 2.99pc, vegetable ghee 2.01pc, meat 1.64pc, condiments and spices 1.54pc, and gram whole 1.25pc.

The items whose prices declined in urban areas were wheat 9.14pc, onions 8.33pc, wheat flour 1.94pc, sugar 1.83pc and pulse moong 1.59pc.

In rural areas, tomatoes prices are higher by 55.54pc, fruits 25.20pc, vegetables 21.71pc, potatoes 12.15pc, cooking oil 2.25pc, vegetable ghee 1.83pc, meat 1.59pc and mustard oil

1.15pc. However, the prices of onions decreased by 14.47pc, wheat 10.23pc, sugar 3.13pc, pulse masoor 2.57pc, besan 2.24pc, pulse moong 1.68pc, wheat flour 1.56pc and chicken 1.12pc.

Non-food inflation in urban centres was recorded at 8.2pc year-on-year increase and 0.5pc month-on-month increase, whereas in rural areas it rose by 8.9pc and 0.3pc, respectively. The month-on-month increase in non-food inflation indicates a further increase in coming months.

The urban CPI covers 35 cities and 356 items, while the rural one tracks 27 centres and 244 products. The former grew by 11pc year-on-year in April whereas the latter jumped by 11.3pc.

Core inflation in urban areas was recorded at 7pc in April, compared to 6.3pc in the previous month. In rural areas, it edges up to 7.7pc in April from 7.3pc in the previous month.

Average inflation measured by the Sensitive Price Index surged to 21.3pc in April from 18.7pc during the previous month. On month-on-month basis, it increased by 2.6pc in April.

The Wholesale Price Index (WPI) was slightly up from the previous month’s 14.6pc to 16.6pc in April, showing month-on-month increase of 2pc.

Pakistan’s exports have crossed the $2-billion mark for seven successive months (Oct-April) of FY21, according to a tweet by Adviser to Prime Minister on Commerce

Abdul Razak Dawood on Sunday.

Taking to Twitter, Dawood said that Pakistan’s export for April 2021 stood at $2.191 billion.

“This is the first time since

2011 that our monthly exports have crossed the 2-billion mark for 7 consecutive months.”

He said that the commodities sent abroad reported a growth of 129 per cent over April 2020; however, the month could not be taken into account due to lockdown last year.

He added that exports for JulApril 2021 grew by 13pc to $20.879 billion as compared to $18.408 billion during the same period last year.

Although the country’s exports are expected to face the impact of Covid-19 in the current fiscal year, the International Trade Centre’s latest export potential assessment for Pakistan sees the country’s exports rising by up to $12 billion by 2024.

The report, which is based on a survey of 1,152 importers and exporters, identifies the toughest trade hurdles facing Pakistani businesses.

It gives policymakers insight into which policies, procedures and facilities must be strengthened to reduce trade costs and boost competitiveness. AGENCIES

Bitcoin rises 6.54pc to $57,098.08 NEW YORK AGENCIES

Bitcoin rose 6.54% to $57,098.08 on Friday, adding $3,504.11 to its previous close.

Bitcoin, the world’s biggest and best-known cryptocurrency, is up 105.9% from the year’s low of $27,734 on Jan. 4. It is down 12% from the year’s high of $64,895.22 on April 14.

Ether , the coin linked to the ethereum blockchain network, rose 1.06 % to $2,787.35 on Friday, adding $29.29 to its previous close.

Turkey added cryptocurrency trading platforms to the list of firms covered by antimoney laundering and terrorism financing regulation, it said in a presidential decree. The Official Gazette said the country’s latest expansion of rules governing cryptocurrency transactions would take immediate effect and cover “crypto asset service providers”, which would be liable to the existing regulations.

Warren Buffett touts US economy’s unexpected strength as Berkshire rebounds Warren Buffett said on Saturday that Berkshire Hathaway Inc (BRKa.N) is being lifted by a U.S. economy faring far better than he predicted early in the coronavirus pandemic, though investor euphoria is making it hard to deploy cash.

Speaking at Berkshire's annual meeting, Buffett said the economy has been "resurrected in an extraordinarily effective way" by monetary stimulus from the Federal Reserve and fiscal stimulus from the U.S. Congress.

"It did the job," Buffett said. "This economy, right now, 85% of it is running in super high gear."

Buffett lamented how an influx of socalled special purpose acquisition companies and inexperienced investors hoping for quick riches have made markets feel like a casino, making it hard for Berkshire to deploy more of its $145.4 billion cash hoard.

But the 90-year-old retained his optimism for the future of the company he has run since 1965, including after he's gone.

"We've seen some strange things happen in the world in the last year, 15 months," Buffett said. "It has reinforced our desire to figure out everything possible to make sure that Berkshire is, 50 or 100 years from now, every bit the organization and then some that it is now."

REINFORCEMENTS: The annual meeting was held in Los Angeles, where Buffett joined Berkshire's 97-year-old vice chairman Charlie Munger, to answer more than three hours of shareholder questions.

Greg Abel and Ajit Jain, Berkshire's other vice chairmen and potentially successors to Buffett as chief executive, also fielded several questions.

Asked about their rapport, Jain said that they don't interact as much as Munger and Buffett, but they talk every quarter about businesses they oversee.

Berkshire scrapped for a second year its annual shareholder weekend in its Omaha, Nebraska, hometown, an extravaganza that normally attracts around 40,000 shareholders.

But Saturday's meeting, broadcast online on Yahoo Finance, was "kind of what you

come to love about Berkshire," said Steve Haberstroh, a partner at CastleKeep Investment Advisors in Westport, Connecticut. "It's a little bit less about learning new things and more about being reminded about the old things."

Many of Berkshire's dozens of operating units, which include Geico car insurance and the BNSF railroad, have been rebounding as anxiety over Covid-19 lessens, more people get vaccinated, stimulus checks are spent, business restrictions are eased and confidence about the economy grows.

Gross domestic product grew at an annualized 6.4% rate from January to March,

CMYK

according to an advance government estimate. [ Some economists project the economy will grow in 2021 at the fastest clip in nearly four decades.

Buffett conceded that the recovery made his decision last year to exit stakes in the four major U.S. airlines -- American, Delta, Southwest and United -- appear ill-timed.

Munger, meanwhile, downplayed concern that Congress and the White House might raise the corporate tax rate to 25% or 28%, saying it wouldn't be "the end of the world" for Berkshire.

Shareholders rejected proposals requiring Berkshire to disclose more about its efforts to address climate change and promote diversity and inclusion in its workforce.

But both proposals received about onequarter of the votes cast, suggesting greater discontent than Berkshire shareholders historically demonstrate. Buffett, who controls nearly one-third of Berkshire's voting power, opposed both proposals.

Saturday’s meeting came after Berkshire said first-quarter operating profit rose 20% to about $7 billion, while net income including investments totaled $11.7 billion.

CAUTION, SPACS AND ROBINHOOD: But there were signs Berkshire has grown more cautious about the markets.

While Berkshire repurchased $6.6 billion of its own stock from January and March, the pace of buybacks slowed.

Berkshire also said it sold $3.9 billion

more stocks than it bought, though it still owned $151 billion of stock in just two companies, Apple Inc (AAPL.O) and Bank of America Corp (BAC.N).

Buffett acknowledged that low interest rates made Berkshire's $140 billion of insurance "float," which it uses for investing and acquisitions, less valuable.

He also said the growth of SPACs, which take private companies public, has made buying whole companies pricey for Berkshire, which hasn't made a major acquisition since 2016. "It's a killer," Buffett said, referring to SPACs. "We've got probably $70 or $80 billion, something like that maybe, that we'd love to put to work, ... but we won't get a chance to do it under these conditions."

Berkshire's leaders also heaped criticism on trading apps such as Robinhood, with Buffett saying they encourage a "gambling impulse" and Munger saying it was "just god-awful that something like that would draw investment from civilized man and decent citizens. It's deeply wrong."

Buffett stood by Apple, calling the iPhone maker an "extraordinary business" with "indispensable" products, and admitted he erred by selling a small percentage of Berkshire's shares late last year.

As the meeting concluded, Buffett said the odds were "very, very good" that next year's meeting would include shareholders again.

“We really look forward to meeting you in Omaha,” he said. AGENCIES

Monday, 3 May, 2021

10 FOREIGN NEWS

LAHORE

SeVen rePorteD kIlleD aS MyanMar ProteStS aIM to ‘Shake the worlD’

M

AGENCIES

YANMAR security forces opened fire on some of the biggest protests against military rule in days on Sunday killing seven people, media reported, three months after a coup plunged the country into crisis.

The protests, after a spell of dwindling crowds and what appeared to be more restraint by the security forces, were coordinated with demonstrations in Myanmar communities around the world to mark what organisers called "the global Myanmar spring revolution".

"Shake the world with the voice of Myanmar people's unity," the organisers said in a statement.

Streams of demonstrators, some led by Buddhist monks, made their way through cities and towns across the country, including the commercial hub of Yangon and the second city of Mandalay, where two people

were shot and killed, the Mizzima news agency reported.

The Irrawaddy news site earlier posted a photograph of a man it said was a security officer in plain clothes taking aim with a rifle in Mandalay.

Two people were killed in the central town of Wetlet, the Myanmar Now news agency said, and two were killed in different towns in Shan State in the northeast, two media outlets reported. One person was also killed in the northern jade-mining town of Hpakant, the Kachin News Group reported.

Reuters could not verify the reports and a spokesman for the ruling junta did not answer calls seeking comment.

The protests are only one of the problems the generals have brought on with their Feb. 1 ouster of the elected government led

by Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi. Wars with ethnic minority insurgents in remote frontier regions in the north and east have intensified significantly since the coup, displacing tens of thousands of civilians, ac-

Police, protesters clash during May Day rallies in Berlin AGENCIES Around 30,000 protesters took to the streets during May Day rallies in Berlin on Saturday, police said, adding around 30 officers were injured as some of the demonstrations turned violent. Police made around 240 arrests, Berlin's head of police Barbara Slowik was quoted as saying by local broadcaster rbb24. "The violent riots that occurred is something that I very much regret," Slowik said. Some of the injuries occurred after some demonstrators threw fireworks, bottles and rocks during protests over social inequality. About 5,600 police were deployed, and some responded with pepper spray. The demonstrations were the second May Day protests since the start of the coronavirus pandemic. Turnout was much higher than last year, even though social distancing requirements remain in place. Protests hit other European capitals too, most notably Paris, where police made 46 arrests as garbage bins were set on fire and the windows of a bank branch were smashed. In Berlin, police used water cannon to extinguish fires as protesters set ablaze waste bins, barricades and cars. Demonstrations also took place in several other German cities, including Hamburg and Leipzig, despite Europe's largest economy grappling with a third wave of the pandemic. On Sunday, data from the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) for infectious diseases showed that the number of confirmed coronavirus cases in Germany increased by 16,290 to 3,416,822.

Vote count in five Indian states begin amid pandemic NEW DELHI AGENCIES

India’s election officials on Sunday started counting votes in five states from elections held in March and early April at the start of a surge in Covid-19 cases that has overwhelmed the country’s healthcare system. The state election results are seen as a test of the impact the devastating second wave of the pandemic is having on support for Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his far-right BJP party. The counting of votes in Assam, West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Puducherry is scheduled to end on Sunday as well, with results to be announced once the tallies are done. While Modi’s ruling BJP is seeking to consolidate its hold over more states, the main opposition Congress party and regional parties hope to regain political turf. Over 1,000 election observers will conduct the counts with each expected to produce a negative Covid-19 test report or show they have been fully vaccinated. Most of the votes were cast in March but polling in some constituencies continued through April, just as India started detecting thousands of fresh coronavirus infections every day. New cases hit a record daily high of 401,993 on Saturday. The second wave has overwhelmed hospitals, morgues and crematoriums and left families scrambling for scarce medicines and oxygen. While India is the world’s biggest producer of Covid-19 vaccines, shortages of the shots in some states have hindered the start of a mass vaccination drive. Ahead of the surge in cases, leaders of all political parties, including Modi, led political rallies where large crowds flouted rules on social distancing and maskwearing. Political analysts said these elections hold a crucial chance for Modi to extend his national domination, expand his party’s footprint and dislodge one of his sharpest critics. Modi has been criticised for focusing on the state elections instead of making the pandemic his top priority. Some experts blame the rallies and mass religious gatherings attended by millions for the severity of the second wave. The federal government has also been accused of failing to respond to a warning in early March from its own scientific advisers that a new and more contagious variant was taking hold in the country.

cording to United Nations estimates.

In some places civilians with crude weapons have battled security forces, while in central areas military and government facilities that have been secure for generations have been hit by rocket attacks and a wave

of small, unexplained blasts.

There have been no claims of responsibility for the explosions.

'HANDMADE BOMBS': Khit Thit media reported a blast outside a police barracks in Yangon early on Sunday. Vehicles were

ablaze it said, but it gave no information on any casualties.

Later, it reported another blast in the city.

A news portal in Shan State reported a blast outside the home of a prominent businessman. The state-run broadcaster in its main evening news bulletin on Saturday gave details of at least 11 explosions over the previous 36 hours, mostly in Yangon. It reported some damage but no casualties.

"Some rioters who do not want stability of the state have been throwing and planting handmade bombs at government buildings and on public roads," the broadcaster said.

The Assistance Association for Political Prisoners advocacy group says security forces have killed at least 759 protesters since the coup. Reuters is unable to confirm the toll.

The military, which ruled for almost 50 years until launching a tentative reform process a decade ago, acknowledged in midApril the death of 248 protesters, saying they were killed after they initiated violence.

The protests and a civil disobedience campaign of strikes have crippled the economy and raised the prospect of 25 million people sliding into poverty, the U.N. Development Programme has warned.

The military said it had to seize power because its complaints of fraud in a November election won by Suu Kyi's party were not addressed by an election commission that deemed the vote fair. Suu Kyi, 75, has been detained since the coup along with many other members of her party.

Israel observes day of mourning for religious festival dead AGENCIES Israel observed a day of mourning on Sunday for 45 people crushed to death at a Jewish religious festival, with flags lowered to half-staff and questions raised about accountability for one of the country's worst civilian disasters.

In accordance with Jewish tradition, funerals were held with as little delay as possible. More than 20 of the victims of Friday's disaster on Mount Meron were buried overnight after official identification was completed. Witnesses described a stampede and a pyramid of bodies, including several children, in a slippery metal-floored passageway at the annual pilgrimage of ultra-Orthodox faithful to the tomb of a second-century Jewish mystic, Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai, in northern Israel.

"We're all heartbroken, saddened, shattered into a million pieces. There are no words to describe the feeling of the entire country," Rabbi Velvel Brevda, 66, said on Sunday on Mount Meron, where prayer vigils were being held.

Israeli media estimated that some 100,000 people attended the event on Friday, numbers that underscored a relaxing of coronavirus restrictions in a country that

had sped ahead of others in its vaccination rollout.

Questions were being raised as to whether the government and police had been reluctant to limit the crowd size at the site - labelled hazardous years ago by state inspectors - so as not to anger influential ultraOrthodox rabbis and politicians.

"A thorough inquiry is required," Culture Minister Hili Tropper told Kan public radio. "This terrible disaster will help everyone understand ... that there should be no place where the state does not set the rules."

The Justice Ministry said investigators would look into whether there had been any police misconduct. But police commissioner Yaakov Shabtai, in a message to the police force, said that police should not be singled out.

"We are working to discover the truth and produce educated and balanced lessons for all organisations involved in this complex event," he said.

FOREIGNERS AMONG VICTIMS: In his noon address in St Peter's Square in the Vatican, Pope Francis said he would remember the victims and their families in prayer.

"With sadness, I express my closeness to the people of Israel for the incident last Friday on Mount Meron that caused the death of 45 people and numer-

ous injuries," Francis said.

Police and regional government officials said the Mount Meron site was administered by four separate private religious groups, making oversight difficult.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu promised an investigation. His presidential mandate to form a new government, after an inconclusive March 23 election, expires on Wednesday, but public calls to determine responsibility for the tragedy seemed certain to hound any incoming administration.

An official list of fatalities showed that five of the dead were visiting U.S. nationals. Two Canadians, a British citizen and an Argentinian were also killed.

Avigdor Chayut, who was injured in the crush, buried his 13-year-old son Yedidya overnight in a cemetery in Bnei Brak, a largely religious town near Tel Aviv.

He told Kan public radio he and Yedidya had become separated in the passageway. But a younger son, Shmuel, was at the father's side as people fell on top of them. Shmuel survived with a sprained limb.

"Dad, I am about to die. Let's say 'Shema Yisrael' (Hear, O Israel: the Lord our God, the Lord is one)," he heard 10-year-old Shmuel say - a prayer traditionally spoken by Jews facing imminent death.

N Korea warns US of ‘very grave situation’ over Biden speech SEOUL AGENCIES

North Korea on Sunday warned the United States will face “a very grave situation” because President Joe Biden “made a big blunder” in his recent speech by calling the North a security threat and revealing his intent to maintain a hostile policy against it.

Last week, Biden, in his first address to Congress, called North Korea and Iran’s nuclear programs “serious threats” to American and world security and said he’ll work with allies to address those problems through diplomacy and stern deterrence.

“His statement clearly reflects his intent to keep enforcing the hostile policy toward the DPRK as it had been done by the US for over half a century,” Kwon Jong Gun, a senior North Korean Foreign Ministry official, said in a statement. DPRK stands for the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, the North’s official name.

“It is certain that the US chief executive made a big blunder in the light of the present-day viewpoint,” Kwon said. “Now that the keynote of the US new DPRK policy has become clear, we will be compelled to press for corresponding measures, and with time the US will find itself in a very grave situation.”

Kwon still didn’t specify what steps North Korea would take, and his statement could be seen as an effort to apply pressure on the Biden administration as it’s shaping up its North Korea policy.

The White House said Friday administration officials had completed a review of US policy toward North Korea, saying Biden plans to veer from the approaches of his two most recent predecessors as he tries to stop North Korea’s nuclear program. Press secretary Jen Psaki did not detail the findings of the review, but suggested the administration would seek a middle ground between Donald Trump’s “grand bargain” and Barack Obama’s “strategic patience”

approaches. Kwon’s statement didn’t mention Psaki’s comments. After a series of high-profile nuclear and missile tests in 2016-17, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un launched summit diplomacy with Trump on the future of his growing nuclear arsenal. But that diplomacy remains stalled for about two years over differences in how much sanctions relief North Korea could win in return for limited denuclearization steps.

In January, Kim threatened to enlarge his nuclear arsenal and build more high-tech weapons targeting the US mainland, saying the fate of bilateral ties would depend on whether it abandons its hostile policy. In March, he conducted short-range ballistic missile tests for the first time in a year, though he still maintains a moratorium on bigger weapons launches.

“If Pyongyang agrees to working-level talks, the starting point of negotiations would be a freeze of North Korean testing and development of nuclear ca-

pabilities and delivery systems,” Leif-Eric Easley, a professor at Ewha University in Seoul, said.

“If, on the other hand, Kim shuns diplomacy and opts for provocative tests, Washington will likely expand sanctions enforcement and military exercises with allies.” Also Sunday, an unidentified North Korean Foreign Ministry spokesman vowed a strong, separate response to a recent State Department statement that it would push to promote “accountability for the Kim regime” over its “egregious human rights situation.” He called the statement a preparation for an “all-out showdown with us.”

Kim’s powerful sister, Kim Yo Jong, also slammed South Korea over anti-Pyongyang leaflets floated across the border by a group of North Korean defectors in the South. The group’s leader, Park Sanghak, said Friday he sent 500,000 leaflets by balloon last week, in a defiance of a new, contentious South Korean law that criminalizes such action.

Monday, 3 May, 2021

SPORTS 11

LAHORE

‘My aiM was to Make a coMeback so tHat tHe worLd wiLL reMeMber Me’: Hasan aLi aGENCIES Recalling his “difficult journey” back to the Pakistan side, having fought through injuries and form issues, Hasan Ali has underlined the importance of the first-class grind for youngsters in their quest to play top-flight cricket.

Ali missed a major chunk of international cricket between 2019 and 2020 due to multiple injuries ranging from back strain to broken ribs. But he played a key role in Central Punjab’s run to the Quaid-e-Azam Trophy final. In all, he played nine games, with the best performance reserved for the final, where he made a century and picked up a five-for. He was named Player of the Series for his 43 wickets at an average of 20.06. That performance put him back on the national radar and he is back leading Pakistan to victories, most recently in the first Test against Zimbabwe in Harare.

“It’s very simple: if anyone intends to play long for Pakistan and is free, he should play first-class cricket,” Hasan said after the innings and 116-run victory on Saturday. “I made my international debut in 2016 and since then until last year I did-

BRUISED BY INJURIES AND FORM ISSUES, THE FAST BOWLER HAS TAKEN THE TOUGH ROUTE BACK TO THE TOP n’t get a chance to play the entire first-class season. “If you play the full long season, it will certainly help you a lot in many ways.

You get to bowl longer spells with the new and old ball. It lifts your skillsets. The long spells may tire you, but eventually it prepares you for international cricket by enhancing your temperament and making you tough.

“I know everyone has their own thoughts about cricket. Some like to play the shorter formats but for me, I love to play Test cricket. It’s an interesting format and it actually tests your temperament and patience in every possible way. I always wanted to wear a Test cap and it is like a dream that comes true for me that I am representing Pakistan in this format and staying relevant with my performances.”

Since his return after over two years, he’s been in roaring form. He picked a match-winning ten-for against South Africa

Mercedes to start contract talks with Hamilton soon LONDON

in Rawalpindi; it helped Pakistan clinch their first Test series win over South Africa since 2003. He picked up 4 for 18 to help Pakistan beat Zimbabwe in the T20I decider last month. In his most recent Test outing in Harare, he finished with a nine-for.

This upswing was far from his mind when he went into oblivion two years ago, after his body nearly ditched him. He fought through injuries in his groin, back and ribs. He lost his PCB central contract, even though the PCB continue to pay him a monthly retainer from the cricketers’ welfare fund, apart from also footing his medical bills. There were talks of surgery in Australia, but Ali eventually settled for several video sessions that helped him through his rehabilitation during the pandemic last year.

“There was a phase when I lost nearly everything,” Ali said looking back on the tough phase. “It was a difficult journey. I was

Guardiola will watch Man Utd’s Liverpool clash as title triumph looms

out of cricket for nearly two years, fighting with multiple injuries but came back after getting fitter. It was a frustrating time and I used to cry. But one thing I never forgot was to try and work hard. Because that was the only thing I had in my hands. “I had one aim and that was to make a comeback so that the world will remember [me]. I had a lot to prove on my fitness and performances for my comeback. I did well and carried on the same performance in international cricket. It was the hard work that paid off.”

Waqar Younis, who took over the charge as bowling coach in 2019, was one of the mentors who stood by him during the tough times. “He has this never-giveup attitude that drives him,” Waqar said of Ali.”He is mentally a strong character, otherwise what he had been through anyone could have collapsed. “With such injuries, only a strong-minded cricketer can make a comeback. In my years I too had back injuries and people thought I was done. The same thing happened with Hassan. These negative things disheartened [me] at times but when you have the attitude you can always come back. His commitment and attitude made a massive difference.”

Jayawickrama and Mendis set up Sri Lanka’s victory push

AGENCIES

Mercedes expect to start contract talks soon with Lewis Hamilton after the seven-times Formula One world champion indicated he intends to race on next season, team boss Toto Wolff said on Saturday. The sport’s most successful driver is out of contract at the end of this year but at the Portuguese Grand Prix on Thursday Hamilton told reporters: “I plan to be here next year”. Hamilton and Mercedes spent much of last year negotiating before they announced a one-year deal in February, with the season starting in March, and Wolff has said they would not leave it so late again. “I think we are in a very good place,” the Austrian said on Saturday. “Our relationship is growing stronger every year and it’s about time to really give it a little nudge and start to speak and this is what we are going to do soon,” he added. Wolff answered ‘no’ to a question about whether negotiations had already started. Team mate Valtteri Bottas, who qualified on pole for Sunday’s race at the Algarve circuit with Hamilton second, is also out of contract at the end of the year with Mercedes-contracted driver George Russell a possible replacement.

KaNDy AGENCIES

Bad light cut short Sri Lanka’s charge to a series win on the fourth evening of the second Test in Pallekele.

Bangladesh were tottering at 177 for 5 when play was called off an hour before the scheduled close.

Despite losing three wickets before tea, Bangladesh continued to bat aggressively in the final session, perhaps mindful of the pitch continuing to offer sharp turn and bounce to the spinners. Ramesh Mendis, the offspinner, took three wickets while Praveen Jayawickrama, the debutant left-arm spinner, picked two to take his match tally to eight wickets. He is now the third Sri Lankan after Akila Dhananjaya and Ajantha Mendis to take so many wickets on Test debut, eight wickets on Test debut.

Jayawickrama struck to remove Saif Hassan and Najmul Hossain Shanto before tea. Hassan struck five fours and a six in his 34, before holing out to cover point off an ungainly shot.

Shanto, who made 163 followed by two Silva at short leg.

Bangladesh’s 437-run target was set ducks, survived an early lbw appeal, but had his forward press breached when up by Sri Lanka, who declared on 194 Jayawickrama got the ball to spin for 9 shortly after lunch. They added 177 runs 35.2 overs, with Dimuth through his defence on 26.

Karunaratne’s 66 being the Five overs into the final top score. It took his sesession, Bangladesh lost ries tally to 428 runs, their captain, Mominul 251 BANGLADESH which made him the Haque, when he inAND 177 FOR 5 second Sri Lankan side edged an innocuous Mendis (MUSHFIQUR 40, MENDIS 3-86, to score 400-plus in a Test sedelivery onto his JAYAWICKRAMA 2-58) TRAIL SRI runs ries against stumps on 32.

Mushfiqur Rahim LANKA 493 FOR 7 DEC AND 194 B a n g l a d e s h . added hung around to FOR 9 DEC (KARUNARATNE 66, 73Karunaratne for the fourth make 40, but his DE SILVA 41, TAIJUL 5-72) wicket with Dhananwas a chancy knock. jaya de Silva, who First, Lahiru ThirBY 260 RUNS chipped in with 41. Sri imanne dropped him on Lanka lost most of their 6. Then, Niroshan Dickwickets on the fourth day trying to wella missed a stumping chance when a Mendis delivery slipped through bat aggressively, helping Taijul Islam his legs as Mushfiqur, bizarrely, left the to a five-wicket haul, his second on forball through his legs after stepping out. eign soil. But that may prove to only be But his end came soon, when Mendis academic with the hosts having every got one to jump on him, taking his glove chance to wrap up the game on the to be an easy catch for Dhananjaya de final day.

City will be crowned champions with third Premier League title in four seasons, if second placed United lose to Reds LONDON AGENCIES

Manchester City boss Pep Guardiola will tune into Manchester United’s clash with Liverpool on Sunday as he counts down to a third Premier League title in four seasons.

Guardiola’s side moved 13 points clear at the top with a 2-0 win at Crystal Palace on Saturday and will be crowned champions if second placed United lose to Liverpool at Old Trafford. If City don’t get a helping hand from Liverpool, they still have four games left to earn the one victory required to seal the trophy, starting at the Etihad Stadium against Chelsea next Saturday. After second-half goals from Sergio Aguero and Ferran Torres saw off Palace, Guardiola was asked if he would rather win the title on home turf. “No, as soon as possible,” he said. “I will take a look at the Manchester United game and what happens, happens, but the most important thing is the fact we do not need them to be champions. “Again it is in our hands. If we don’t win it tomorrow, we try to do it next week, if not next week, the next week. We have four games to be champions.” Aguero’s superb strike was key to City’s success after Palace had been able to frustrate the visitors in the first half. Aguero, City’s record goalscorer, will depart at the end of the season, following a difficult year where he has struggled with injuries. Guardiola was quick to pay tribute to the Argentine striker after his 258th City goal. “He is an absolutely top, legend, extraordinary player behaving as the most humble and nicest human being and it is not easy to find that,” Guardiola said.

“That’s why I love him as a man, another player in his situation and what he has done could create conflict and a difficult situation.

“When one guy is beloved like he is for all our fans, it is not just for scoring a thousand million goals. It is because he is something that the people realise, that you cannot hide away as a person. “This season we took a decision, a difficult one, one of the toughest ones I took especially because he was injured for a long time and this club next season needs to make another step to maintain this level for a longer time.”

City remain on track for a treble and turn their focus to Tuesday’s meeting with Paris SaintGermain, where they could progress to a first ever Champions League final. Guardiola’s team hold a 2-1 lead from the first leg in Paris and having Aguero firing on all cylinders would be a welcome boost for the crucial second leg. “What he has done in this club will remain forever and we want to finish the best way possible,” Guardiola said.

“And he is going to help us in the Champions League and going to help us in the Premier League to finish it.”

BCCI mulls moving T20 World Cup to UAE in ‘worst-case scenario’ NEW DELHI AGENCIES

As India battles a raging Covid-19 pandemic, the BCCI is preparing for the “worst case scenario” of moving the 2021 men’s T20 World Cup to the UAE. The marquee event, comprising 16 countries, is scheduled to take place in India between October and November this year, with the final on November 14.

“I hope so. I am doing everything we can to make sure that it happens,” Dhiraj Malhotra, the tournament director for the T20 World Cup, said on the BBC’s Stumped podcast this week. “We will be doing normal scenario, Covid-scenario, worst case scenario. All that we are in talks with the ICC at the moment.”

The record surge in the Covid infections in the country recently, including a mounting death count, has prompted the cricket fraternity to start asking whether India could be fit to host the World Cup which is less than six months away.

According to Malhotra, who took charge this February as BCCI’s general manager of cricket operations and game development, the Indian board had plans to “take” the T20 World Cup to the UAE as a contingency measure if the ICC found India to be unsafe. “It would be (the) UAE. And we are hoping it will again be done by BCCI - we will take the tournament there. So it will be still run

by BCCI.” Recently, the BCCI proposed to the ICC nine

venues across India to stage the T20 World Cup: Ahmedabad, Bengaluru, Chennai, Delhi, Dharamsala, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Lucknow and Mumbai. Ahmedabad, which houses the world’s largest cricket stadium, was slotted in for the final.

The BCCI is using the two-venue caravan model in play during the 2021 IPL as a dry run to determine whether the same can be replicated for the World Cup, which will be the first multi-team global event staged by the ICC after the World Health Organisation declared Covid-19 as a pandemic in 2020. An ICC team including experts from the events, security and biosafety departments, was scheduled to arrive in India to inspect the venues and plans, but that plan had to be shelved with the UAE banning travel to India recently.

Malhotra pointed out that currently the BCCI was still going ahead with the original plan of India hosting the tournament. “As of now we are looking at ticket sales, people travelling from all over the world, but again we don’t know what the situation would be at that point of time.” Speaking to Indian media agencies on April 7, two days before the start of the IPL, Geoff Allardice, the ICC’s interim chief executive officer, said that although there were back-up plans in place, the global body had not “activated those plans” and was “preparing to go ahead with the event in India as scheduled.”

Since then though, the situation in India has become grim by the day. As per Covid-19 data logged on Friday

CMYK

morning by the US-based Johns Hopkins University, India has reported over 18 million Covid-19 positive cases (second behind the USA) and is fast moving to become the third on the list of most deaths globally with the current count over 208,000.

Consequently, countries have banned flights to and from India as well as stiffening their quarantine protocols for travelers coming into the country. That move prompted four overseas players from two IPL franchises to return home while also leaving several more uneasy.

BOND - ‘EXTRA FUNDING’ NECESSARY TO HAVE T20 WORLD CUP IN INDIA: One of those feeling uneasy is former New Zealand fast bowler Shane Bond, who is the bowling coach with defending champions Mumbai Indians. “That is the biggest stress for all of us who are over here is how to get home,” Bond said from Delhi on Friday during a virtual media briefing, organised by the Sydney Thunder, the BBL franchise where he was stepping down as head coach.

“There’s no doubt from my perspective, that’s the only thing that keeps you awake at night is thinking: am I going to be able to get in and what are the rulings of the government. But the other is, what you don’t want to be doing is, sitting around all day talking about that stuff because that just wears you down.”

Asked about the feasibility of India hosting the T20 World Cup, Bond said it would be “certainly challenging” compared to hosting the IPL. “There’s no doubt

about that. The uniqueness of obviously having something that is privately owned (franchise) is we have our own hotel, we have net bowlers and all the little things that are helping you as a cricket team taken care of. I know when I have been to ICC tournaments the numbers are limited to 23, so if you are carrying only those sorts of numbers and there’s challenges getting in and out of the country then it is going to make it pretty tough.”

Recently the ICC agreed to increase the squad strength to 30 for the T20 World Cup and the women’s ODI World Cup (scheduled in New Zealand in 2022) to help teams use additional players and coaching staff as cover during the pandemic. Bond remained confident that India could still host the T20 World Cup if the organisers put in some additional measures to create a secure bubble like the IPL model.

“The only way I can see that happening or making it easier to happen is just extra funding. It just comes down to the level of security in the bubble and the extra staff that you might be able to carry here. If you can do that there’s no doubt… in this competition (IPL) the bubble is pretty strong, our one (Mumbai) is outstanding.

“The other thing is in six months’ time things might look drastically different because of the vaccinations or lockdowns that are going on. I’m sure there will be contingencies put in place by the BCCI and the Indian government but there’s still a long way to go before the World Cup is held.”

Monday, 3 May, 2021

prayer Timings

news

FAJR SUNRISE

ZUHR

ASR MAGHRIB ISHA

3:54

12:00

4:44

5:21

6:39

8:07

US CommaNdEr warNS aGaINST aTTaCkS oN TrooPS IN aFGhaNISTaN aS dEadlINE PaSSES

KABUL

T

agencies

HE commander of foreign forces in Afghanistan warned on Saturday it would be a mistake for insurgents to attack foreign troops still present in the country after the passing of a May 1 deadline for withdrawal agreed last year with Taliban militants.

US Army General Scott Miller’s comments followed what a US forces spokesman described as “ineffective indirect fire” at an airfield in Kandahar that had caused no injuries or damage. The Taliban did not immediately respond to request for comment on whether it was involved in the incident.

Under a February 2020 deal between former US President Donald Trump’s administration and the Taliban, foreign forces were to withdraw from the country by May 1 while the hardline Islamist group held off on attacking foreign troops and bases. But US President Joe Biden announced last month after reviewing the situation that

forces would stay in the country for months beyond May, withdrawing by September 11.

Kabul was braced on Saturday for a reaction from the Taliban, with a visibly increased military presence and security at checkpoints. A security source said the Afghan capital was on “high alert”, while military patrols and security were being increased in main cities around the country.

In a video posted to Twitter by a spokesman for US Forces in Afghanistan following Saturday’s incident in Kandahar, General Miller said it would be a mistake to move towards attacking foreign troops.

“Make no mistake, we have the military means to respond forcefully to any type of attacks against the coalition and the military means to support the [Afghan] security forces,” he said.

Violence against Afghans has escalated in recent weeks, with more than a hundred Afghan security forces personnel killed. On Friday, a huge blast in eastern Logar killed dozens as they broke their fast during the holy Islamic month of Ramadan.

It was not clear who was behind the at-

tack, but the government blamed the Taliban who said they were looking into the matter.

The Taliban responded to the Biden administration’s move with fiery rhetoric and threatened consequences, boycotting a crucial conference in Turkey planned for last month to help jump-start stalling Afghan peace talks.

Official and Taliban sources say contacts have been maintained to try to get the Taliban back to the negotiating table and agree to the extended foreign troop presence but no announcement on an extension had been made by Saturday.

THREATS SERIOUS: Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid tweeted on Saturday that the passing deadline meant “this violation in principle has opened the way for (Taliban fighters) to take every counter-action it deems appropriate against the occupying forces.”

But he added that fighters were waiting on the decision of Taliban leadership.

Earlier in the week Mujahid told Reuters conversations were continuing, saying: “Discussions between the US and

Taliban and […] within the Taliban’s leadership are under way whether to extend that or not.”

Washington has also warned that if foreign forces were attacked while carrying out the withdrawal they would defend themselves “with all the tools at our disposal”.

Experts said the Taliban threats should be taken seriously, but a number of factors meant that full-scale attacks against foreign targets could be averted, as the Taliban continued negotiations.

“We can’t rule out attacks,” said Michael Kugelman, deputy director of the Asia Programme at the Woodrow Wilson Center in Washington. “That said, the Taliban is less likely to attack foreign forces now that it knows there is a specific date when they will be leaving.”

NEGOTIATIONS ONGOING: In the lead up to May 1, sources said there was a flurry of meetings as negotiations with the Taliban over the deadline extension continued.

The US special envoy for Afghanistan, Zalmay Khalilzad, had met with the Taliban’s head of political office, Mullah Baradar, in Doha, a Taliban spokesman said on Friday.

Also on Friday, the eve of the agreed deadline, envoys from Russia, China, Pakistan and the United States held meetings with Taliban officials and Afghan government negotiators in the Qatari capital. The Taliban said they discussed the peace process and their request that Taliban leaders be removed from sanctions lists.

Sources also said a delegation of Taliban political leaders had been in Pakistan’s capital Islamabad this week.

Two Taliban sources and one official source said negotiations had revolved around the proposed deadline extension in exchange for the United States not getting involved in Afghan military operations against the Taliban; getting the Taliban to commit to re-joining the Turkey conference if they were provided with an agenda on what would be discussed there, and possibly declaring a ceasefire over the upcoming Eid holiday.

Pakistan’s Foreign Office did not immediately respond to request for comment.

India’s Covid-19 daily cases hold close to record, another state imposes lockdown NEW DELHI agencies

India’s new coronavirus cases dipped marginally on Sunday but deaths due to the infection jumped by a record 3,689, with one more state going into lockdown as the nation’s creaky healthcare system is unable to cope with a massive caseload. Authorities reported 392,488 new cases in the previous 24 hours to push total cases to 19.56 million. So far, the virus has killed 215,542 people.

Indian hospitals, morgues and crematoriums have been overwhelmed as the country has reported more than 300,000 daily cases for more than 10 days straight. Many families have been left on their own to scramble for med-

icines and oxygen.

Nearly 10 Indian states and union territories have imposed some form of restrictions, even as the federal government remains reluctant to impose a national lockdown.

The eastern state of Odisha became the latest to announce a two-week lockdown, joining Delhi, Maharashtra, Karnataka and West Bengal. Other states, including Uttar Pradesh, Telangana, Assam, Andhra Pradesh and Rajasthan, have either imposed night curfews or weekend lockdowns.

The Indian Express newspaper reported on Sunday that the country’s Covid-19 task force has advised the federal government to impose a national lockdown.

Last month Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said all efforts should be made be avoid a lockdown.

The federal government fears another lockdown will have a devastating impact on the economy. The lockdown imposed last year after the first Covid-19 outbreak led to job losses as economic output fell a record 24 percent in AprilJune 2020 compared with the same period a year earlier.

Modi’s government has been criticised for letting millions of largely unmasked people attend religious festivals and crowded political rallies in five states through March and April. Daily cases in these states have spiked since then.

Reuters reported on Saturday that the federal government has been accused of failing to respond to a warning in early March from its own scientific advisers that a new and more contagious variant was taking hold in the country.

Indian scientists flag coronavirus mutations that could ‘evade immune response’ A forum of scientific advisers set up by the Indian government has told authorities about minor mutations in some samples of the coronavirus that could “possibly evade immune response” and require more study, a leader of the forum has told Reuters.

However, the advisers said while they were flagging the mutations, there was no reason currently to believe they were expanding or could be dangerous.

Scientists are studying what led to the current surge in cases in India and partic-

ularly whether a variant first detected in the country, called B.1.617, is to blame.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) has not declared the Indian variant a “variant of concern,” as it has done for variants first detected in Britain, Brazil and South Africa. But the WHO said on April 27 that its early modelling, based on genome sequencing, suggested that B.1.617 had a higher growth rate than other variants circulating in India. The forum of advisers, known as the Indian SARS-CoV-2 Genet-

ics Consortium, or INSACOG, has now found more mutations in the coronavirus that it thinks need to be tracked closely.

“We are seeing some mutation coming up in some samples that could possibly evade immune responses,” said Shahid Jameel, chair of the scientific advisory group of INSACOG and a top Indian virologist. He did not say if the mutations have been seen in the Indian variant or any other strain.

“Unless you culture those viruses and test them in the lab, you can’t say for sure.

At this point, there is no reason to believe that they are expanding or if they can be dangerous, but we flagged it so that we keep our eye on the ball,” he said.

INSACOG brings together 10 national research laboratories. India reported more than 400,000 new Covid-19 cases for the first time on Saturday. The rampaging infections have collapsed its health system in places including capital New Delhi, with shortages of medical oxygen and hospital beds. agencies

UNICEF to provide protective gear to Pakistan to fight Covid-19 ISLAMABAD app

The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) will provide $14.5 million worth of personal protective equipment (PPEs) to Pakistan to help contain the spread of the Covid-19 in the country. Pakistan chapter of UNICEF is supporting the Ministry of National Health Services, Regulations and Coordination in procuring the gear, test kits, and medicines with funding support from World Bank, Asian Development Bank and Gavi, The Vaccine Alliance. The safety gear will be distributed to hospitals, isolation and quarantine centres and frontline vaccinators. So far, PPEs worth US$2 million have been delivered and handed over to the Health Ministry for distribution. UNICEF is arranging the shipment of the consignment through WFP Transport Common Services to arrive through Karachi on 13 July on behalf of the Health Ministry. The WFP flights are being made available for free to all Covid-19 response humanitarian actors. A total of 168 test kits with a total value of $2.4 million, funded by the World Bank, are expected to arrive.

Iranian foreign minister apologises for leaked comments about General Soleimani Iran’s foreign minister apologised on Sunday for recorded comments that were leaked to the public last week, creating a firestorm in Iran less than two months before presidential elections. The recordings of Mohammad Javad Zarif included frank comments on powerful late Iranian General Qassem Soleimani, who was killed by a US drone strike in 2020. The attack at the time brought the US and Iran to the brink of war.

Soleimani’s funeral processions in Iran drew millions of people to the streets. In the recordings, Zarif criticises Soleimani’s separate relations with Russia and for refusing to stop using the national carrier Iran Air for Syrian operations despite Zarif’s objections. Iran Air has been sanctioned by the US. Zarif said in an Instagram post on Sunday that he hoped Soleimani’s family would forgive him. “I hope that the great people of Iran and all the lovers of general (Soleimani) and especially the great family of Soleimani, will forgive me,” he said.

Zarif’s leaked comments were highly controversial in Iran, where officials mind their words amid a cut-throat political environment that includes the powerful Revolutionary Guard, ultimately overseen by the country’s supreme leader. Besides the criticism of Soleimani, a top commander in the Guard, Zarif’s leaked remarks included cutting references to the limits of his power in the Islamic Republic. Zarif can be heard saying at various points in the seven-hour tape that it was not meant for release. “If I had known that a sentence of it would be made public, I certainly would not have mentioned it as before,” he said in his Instagram post. Zarif has said he will not run for president in the upcoming election.

Some had suggested him as a potential candidate to challenge hard-liners in the vote. agencies

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