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Monday, 4 May, 2020 I 10 Ramzan-ul-Mubarak, 1441 I Rs 15.00 I Vol X No 306 I 12 Pages I Islamabad Edition
Govt says loCkdown will remain intaCt, may ease some restriCtions g
MINISTeR SAyS GOVT CAN’T AFFORD TO lIFT lOCKDOWN COMPleTely AS IT CAN leAD TO OVeRBURDeNING OF heAlThCARe SySTeM
ISLAMABAD staff report
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he federal government on Sunday said that the restrictions imposed to curb the infection would continue to remain intact in the country due to the rising number of coronavirus, however, a decision regarding ease in the lockdown to facilitate the businesses will be taken on May 9. As of Sunday 11 pm, the country’s coronavirus cases stood at 20,130 with 5,114 recoveries and 459 deaths. Punjab had 7,494 cases, followed closely by Sindh with 7,465. Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) had 3,129 cases, Balochistan 1,218 Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT) 393, GilgitBaltistan (GB) 356 and Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) 67. Addressing a press conference at the National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC) in Islamabad, Federal Minister for Planning and Development Asad Umar said that Prime Minister Imran Khan will be briefed on the current COVID-19 situation
g
SAyS PAKISTAN hAS lOST RS119BN IN ONe MONTh, 2070 MIllION PeOPle COUlD FAll BelOW POVeRTy lINe
in the next few days, assuring that any decision with regard to the national quarantine will be taken after consulting all the stakeholders. Commenting on the severity of the epidemic in the country, Umar noted that the coronavirus situation in Pakistan was not “as fatal” as it was in the rest of the world especially the West — which the World health Organisation (WhO) had declared as the new epicentre of the pandemic. he compared Pakistan’s death rates to that of the rest of the world. “The coronavirus has caused 58 per cent more deaths in the United States, 201 per cent more in Spain and 124 per cent more in the United Kingdom,” he said. Referring to the foreign media’s focus on the concept of “flattening the curve”, Umar explained that countries worldwide were “not focusing on eliminating the virus but on controlling it”. he added that even they have realised that the actions needed to eliminate the virus would be “too strict for the people to bear”. Speaking about Pakistan’s situation,
Coronavirus in
Pakistan
Umar said that the country was reporting 24 deaths daily on average for the past few weeks and if this was extended to a month, it would amount to nearly 720 deaths per month. “Comparatively some 4,000 people die in traffic accidents across the country each month. But we still allow traffic because it is necessary,” he said. “If we focus on bringing deaths due to coronavirus to zero, we have to realise that we cannot bear the measures it would take [to do that],” he added. ‘FOOD CONSUMPTION REDUCED AMID EPIDEMIC’: Talking about the impact of coronavirus on poverty and hunger, Umar cited a research by Pakistan Institute of Development economics (PIDe) which showed that between 20 million to 70 million people could fall below the poverty line. he added that according to PIDe’s calculations, 18 million people could lose their jobs due to COVID-19. he added that a recent Gallup survey found that one in four Pakistanis saw a reduction in their diets because of the virus. Umar underscored the economic devastation caused by the virus, saying that while the virus was not as fatal in Pakistan as in other countries, its economic impact was worse. “We have seen revenues decrease by Rs119 billion in just one month. Sustainable Development Policy Institute (SDPI) has shown that some 1 million small organisations might shut down permanently,” he said. he added that research by a renowned university revealed that “the cost imposed by economic and social distancing may be large in terms of immediate deprivation and hunger”. Quoting another Gallup survey, he said that Pakistanis’ livelihoods were more affected by the virus than the people of any other country.
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Faraz says govt will resolve media workers’ woes g
MINISTeR SAyS VIBRANT MeDIA AND DeMOCRACy GO hAND IN hAND, GOVT FIRMly BelIeVeS IN FReeDOM OF exPReSSION ISLAMABAD staff report
Federal Minister for Information and Broadcasting Senator Shibli Faraz on Sunday said the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government would take all possible steps for resolving the financial problems being faced by journalists. Addressing the participants of a media workers’ sit-in in front of Parliament house, the minister said he would strongly advocate the cause of the media industry at all relevant forums and play a proactive role in finding a durable solution. he said journalism was a noble and very important profession keeping in view its role in the political and social culture. “An independent and vibrant media, and functioning democracy were inter-dependent,” he said, adding that the media’s role in the ongoing fight against coronavirus was appreciable. Faraz said Prime Minister Imran Khan after coming into government took practical measures for the welfare of vulnerable segments of the society. he said the media workers had also been facing financial hardships for quite a while, assuring the participants that the govern-
Pakistan calls for end to media repression in Kashmir staff report
CONFIRMED CASES:
20,130
RECOVERED:
5,114 SINDH:
7,465
DEATHS:
459
PUNJAB:
7,494
KP:
BALOCHISTAN:
AJK/GB:
ISLAMABAD:
3,129 67/364
1,218 393
CONTINUED ON PAGE 02 fiqah-e-hanfia
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ISLAMABAD Pakistan has called for an end to the “campaign of harassment and intimidation” of Kashmiri journalists, as it condemned India’s repression of the media in occupied Kashmir. In a statement issued on World Press Freedom Day, Foreign Office Spokesperson Aisha Farooqui said that Pakistan expressed solidarity with the journalist community in Indian occupied Jammu and Kashmir. “While saluting their exceptional courage, we also honour the sacrifice of those Kashmiri journalists who have laid down their lives in the line of duty. The latest among those martyrs was Shujaat Bukhari in June 2018.” The FO spokesperson also expressed appreciation for the work journalists in the occupied valley are doing. “It is commendable that Kashmiri journalists continue to work with conviction and professionalism, despite the heavy handedness of Indian occupation forces acting with impunity under the draconian Public Safety Act, the Armed Forces Special Powers Act, and Unlaw-
ment would address their problems on a priority basis. he expressed the hope that there would be good news for the media before eidul Fitr, adding that major chunk of their outstanding salaries would be paid. he said he had come to the sit-in to express solidarity with them and to get information about the problems being faced by media workers. he said the media persons remained in the forefront of PTI’s struggle against the status quo and its government would never let them down. he said he himself belonged to a literary family. As his father was related to the pen profession, he considered himself part of that tribe, so he could not think of going against the interests of that profession. The minister said the government appreciated the “constructive criticism” by the media as the watchdog, which was helpful in improving governance. he expressed the hope that the media would also highlight the constructive and positive steps taken by the government. earlier in the day, Faraz said the government firmly believes in the fundamental, constitutional and legal right of freedom of expression.
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more inside
Govt to take big steps to accelerate economic activities: PM STORY ON PAGE 02 ful Activities Prevention Act. “Global media watchdogs, Indian and international human rights groups, and civil society organisations have expressed deep concerns over unprecedented restrictions imposed on the media, the widespread intimidation of Kashmiri journalists, and the precarious state of their work environment,” she said. The statement added: “It is clear that the RSS-inspired Bharatiya Janata Party government is motivated by the sole objective of hiding its blatant human rights violations in occupied Kashmir and is bent on muzzling independent voices of the media and journalists.” According to the spokesper-
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son, the situation has become increasingly alarming since India’s “illegal and unilateral” actions on August 5, 2019, when it revoked the region’s special autonomy through a presidential decree. The FO called upon India to lift all communication restrictions in occupied Kashmir, withdraw “frivolous cases” against Kashmiri journalists and restore the fundamental freedom of the people of the occupied valley. In June 2018, Bukhari — a veteran Kashmiri journalist — was shot dead in Srinagar. On April 20, police in occupied Kashmir said they were investigating two journalists for allegedly spreading “fake news”.
COVID-19 death rate surging at alarming rate, says Bilawal STORY ON PAGE 03
NAB summons Shehbaz for third time
STORY ON PAGE 03
Misuse of CNICs: FBR unearths scam worth billions in auto industry
STORY ON PAGE 09
02
Monday, 4 May, 2020
NEWS
GOVt MullS SMArt lOCkDOwN AMID rISe IN COVID-19 CASeS IsLAMABAD
A
MIAN AbRAR
MID surge in coronavirus cases, the Federal government is mulling options for relaxing the restrictions and shifting to smart lockdowns in areas where coronavirus cases are being traced. Sources told Pakistan Today that the federal government is mulling proposals floated by the National Control and Operation Center (NCOC) of easing restrictions and shifting to smart lockdowns in areas with high number of infections. The source said that a strategy would be finalized before May 9.
PROPOSALS CONCERNING DECREASE IN WORKING DAYS ALSO UNDER CONSIDERATION The source said that the NCOC had been deliberating upon various proposals and it would soon come up with a practical solution to handle the situation while easing the restrictions. “After deliberations, we have agreed that this pandemic may not go early and we may have to live with it. So we have to adopt long term policies to deal with it. We also have to ensure monitoring and NCOC may also become a permanent fea-
ture till the disease is over,” an official said. “We are contemplating proposals of giving an end to lockdown. In this regard, we are mulling options of allowing selected staff in federal and provincial offices. But we believe that easing restrictions should be gradual. Moreover, we are also planning to allow three holidays a week instead of two and the public sector offices may be off from Friday to Sunday. Working days may be from Mon-
Govt to take big steps to accelerate economic activities: PM IsLAMABAD StAff RePoRt
day to Thursday under the proposal,” the official said. The official said that markets may also be allowed to open in phases and adopting social distancing. “Markets may be allowed to work but there would be strict monitoring of social distancing. Moreover, the working hours would also be curtailed. The official said that May and June would prove to be very crucial in dealing with the epidemic and the government was taking all possible measures to deal with any challenging situation. The official said that Pakistan is well equipped to face any challenging situation regarding coronavirus.
safety measures will be ensured before a session of the National Assembly (NA) is convened. On Saturday, PM Imran had once again said that the country could not withstand an extension in the coronavirus lockdown as labourers and daily wagers were suffering due to economic hardships. “The entire world is trying to restart its economy. Places like New York where thousands are dying, have also decided to re-open their industries,” PM Imran had said at the launch of a web portal supporting individuals rendered jobless due to the pandemic. “Even rich governments are reopening because they realise they cannot keep the country under lockdown for long. This is why we have decided to open our construction industry,” he had said. “Never in the history of this country have we given such huge incentives to the construction industry as we have done now,” he had noted. The prime minister had said that the main aim of his government was to make sure the people of the country were not burdened. “This is why we brought down petrol prices by Rs30. Earlier we brought the price of diesel down by Rs27. Even India does not have these low prices,” PM Imran had remarked. He had added that since the price of petrol was slashed, prices of everything should fall as well.
Prime Minister Imran Khan on Sunday said that the federal government is utilising all resources to contain the spread of the novel coronavirus and will take some big steps to accelerate economic activities in the country. Talking to his Adviser on Parliamentary Affairs Babar Awan, who called on him in the federal capital, the prime minister said that the biggest challenge was to provide relief to a common man hit the hardest by lockdown restrictions enforced to stem the spread of the deadly virus. He said that he is happy that his economic team hammered out an emergency action plan in a timely manner. He announced that the government is going to take big steps to accelerate economic activity in the country. In his remarks, Awan said the government rolled out poor-friendly relief packages for the first time in the country’s history. The government exhibited statesmanship in
testing times, he maintained. Taking aim at opposition leaders, he said that they have been playing politics of accusations and have no manifestos for the wellbeing of the people. He said that
President to represent Pakistan at NAM virtual summit on coronavirus
Mirza seeks citizens' support for smart lockdown implementation
IsLAMABAD
IsLAMABAD APP
INP
A virtual summit of Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) will be held on Monday which would identify measures for enhanced coordination among member states in their common fight against the respiratory disease caused by the novel coronavirus. The summit of the heads of state and government of NAM member states has been convened at the initiative of President Ilham Aliyev of Azerbaijan, in his capacity as current chair of the movement. President Dr Arif Alvi will represent Pakistan at the summit. The online session will conclude with a political declaration of the movement "uniting against Covid-19" as well as identified measures for enhanced coordination among NAM members in their common fight against Covid-19. President Aliyev's efforts aim at bringing the movement, at the highest decision-making level, for assessing the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on member states and identifying needs and steps for possible remedies and follow-up measures. The NAM represents the biggest grouping of countries outside the United Nations, comprising 120 developing countries from Asia, Africa and Latin America. A number of heads of state and government will participate in the virtual summit.
Four PIA employees test COVID-19 positive
Special Assistant to Prime Minister on National Health Services Dr Zafar Mirza on Sunday asked the citizens to support the government’s efforts in the fight against COVID-19 and to help it effectively implement its smart lockdown policy. Dr Mirza, in a news briefing, said that the policy of smart lockdown could be successfully implemented if the citizens fully cooperated with the government and followed all the standard operating procedures (SOPs). He said that the people would be informed through the media about their responsibilities and they could also visit official websites to know about the SOPs. He urged the citizens to take preventive measures against COVID-19 during the holy month of Ramzan to mitigate the pandemic in the country. He said that there were still threats of spread of the disease and asked the citizens to continue implementing protective measures as per directions to stem the increase in coronavirus cases. He also said that in order to create public awareness about the preventive measures during Ramzan a communication material had been prepared for the awareness of citizens. He said that SOPs had been prepared for all the persons concerned keeping in view the prevailing disease
situation and asked the citizens to read them. He said that the coronavirus situation was better in Pakistan as compared to other countries. The government was gradually normalising the lockdown in order to give relief to the common man and poor segments of the society. He said that initially those businesses were allowed to operate who had low chances of spreading the virus but later the government made it obligatory to follow the SOPs which were prepared to continue uninterrupted business activities. Dr Mirza asked the citizens to strictly follow all the SOPs issued by the government, including those for shopping, for use of masks, for business activities, for quarantine and for mosques, to protect themselves against the disease.
Govt says lockdown will remain intact, may ease some restrictions
News Desk
CoNtINueD froM pAge 01
One pilot and three flight attendants of Pakistan International Airlines (PIA), who had performed duties on a special flight from Melbourne to Lahore, have been tested positive for coronavirus. A pilot of Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) and three flight attendants tested positive for coronavirus after they returned from the Lahore-bound special flight from Australia one week ago. The crew members of PIA were waiting for their COVID-19 test results for one week and later they were shifted to Combined Military Hospital (CMH) Lahore. The flight attendants include Waqar Farooqui, Sofia Shaikh and Ahmed Ammad and first officer Shakil Akram was also shifted to the CMH Lahore. It is pertinent to mention here that more than 200 Pakistanis had returned home from Australia through a special flight of Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) on April 26.
LIFTING LOCKDOWN NOT AN OPTION: However, he added that the government could not “open everything and ease the lockdown completely” to prevent the healthcare system from being overburdened. “The two most important factors to consider here are the number of beds in intensive care units (ICUs) and the number of ventilators,” he said. Umar said that there were nearly 5,000 beds in ICUs across the country, of which 1,500 were dedicated for virus patients. He added that the country also has 5,000 ventilators and the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) was trying to import even more. “We will discuss with the prime minister within two to three days and then take a decision in the National Coordination Committee (NCC) meeting about restrictions after May 9 [when the lockdown is due to end],” he said. PUBLIC HEALTHCARE NEEDS IMPROVEMENT: Umar said that what the government has to do is to “continue increasing the health capacity. Our health capacity
has increased a lot from a few months ago and we will continue working to increase that”. Adding that the government received a “splendid response” from public and private manufacturers, he said that the country was producing personal protective equipment locally. “We have also received some great, workable designs for ventilators,” he said. The minister added that the government also needed to increase the testing capacity. “We have 55 laboratories that can conduct virus tests. If they work in single shifts, we can conduct some 14,700 tests every day which is close to our target of 20,000. If we do double shifts, we can also double the number the tests that can be conducted daily,” he said. Umar added that even countries in Europe where thousands of deaths occurred such as Spain, Italy and France have started easing lockdowns to keep the “wheel of the economy turning”. “What is important is that we do not burden our healthcare system while also preventing hunger and poverty,” Umar concluded.
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“While China has largely helped out Pakistan but we have also developed our own capability. Today, we only have 440 patients allover Pakistan on ventilators, while the number of ventilators in the country is 500,” he claimed. The official said that public and private companies were actively engaged in developing all sorts of medical equipment including ventilators, masks, protective suits, protective goggles and other items needed to treat the Coronavirus patients. “In this regard, SPD is working with other companies and we are in a comfortable situation,” the official said.
Doctors' opinion on COVID-19 is of utmost importance: Bilawal KARACHI: A Pakistan Medical Association (PMA) delegation met Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) Chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari at Bilawal House on Sunday and apprised him about the problems being faced by doctors and paramedics across the country. Bilawal hailed doctors for playing an effective role in the fight against coronavirus. He said that doctors and paramedical staff are the real heroes and their valiant role in protecting lives during coronavirus attacks would never be forgotten by the nation. Bilawal said that PPP understands that the most important opinion about coronavirus rests with doctors, stressing that governments and responsible persons should formulate their policies in the light of views from the medical and professionals. PPI
Health Ministry asks customers, traders to strictly follow SOPs ISLAMABAD: The Ministry of National Health Services has asked the customers, retailers and traders to strictly follow standard operating procedures (SOPs) related to business activities to ensure safe working conditions to reduce the impact of COVID-19 spread. According to a report quoting an official of the Ministry of National Health Services, the government has allowed necessary small and large businesses to meet the public needs with condition to implement the concerned SOPs prepared for store owners, managers and general public or customers. The official said that all concerned business owners and employees in industries should enforce these SOPs. PPI
Faraz says govt will resolve media workers’ woes CoNtINueD froM pAge 01 In a series of tweets in connection with World Press Freedom Day, he expressed the determination to provide all possible facilities for the promotion of independent and responsible journalism. He said freedom of expression is the basis of a civilised democratic society and the fundamental right of a human. Faraz applauded the immense sacrifices rendered by the journalists for the sanctity of the pen. Like elsewhere in the world, Press Freedom Day is being observed in Pakistan on Sunday. The theme of this year is ‘Journalism without Fear or Favour’. United Nations Secretary-General (UNSG) António Guterres, in his message on World Press Freedom Day, said that the media has a crucial role in helping the people make informed decisions amidst the coronavirus challenge. He said the media provides an antidote to the misinformation surrounding COVID-19. Meanwhile, press freedom is under a severe and sustained attack in Indian Occupied Kashmir (IOK) where journalists are being booked under draconian laws for reporting the truth. Indian government has banned social media networking sites to suppress public dissent in the occupied territory.
Monday, 4 May, 2020
NEWS
tHINk tANk tO reVIew IMPleMeNtAtION OF rS1.2tr PACkAGe ON reGulAr BASIS BODY SELECTS SIX DOMAINS TO HANDLE COVID-19 SOCIO-ECONOMIC IMPACT IsLAMABAD
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StAff RePoRt
THINK tank recently formed by Prime Minister Imran Khan on Sunday selected six broad priority domains to boost social safety nets, ensure food security and give maximum boost to the country’s economy through accelerating aggregate demand, easing out supply concerns and ensuring stability of financial system. Adviser to the Prime Minister on Finance and Revenue, Dr Abdul Hafeez Shaikh chaired the 3rd meeting of the think tank to
assess the emerging situation resulting from the Covid-19 related economic slowdown and its impact on individuals and businesses. The forum selected six broad priority domains including boosting social safety nets (Ehsaas and allied initiatives), food security and safety of supply chains, boosting role of banks and financial institutions in appropriately designing incentives for market participants, kick-starting low and medium cost housing projects, making PSDP and Provincial ADPs responsive to labour intensive propositions and business facilitation through fiscal interventions,” said a press statement issued by the Finance ministry.
The forum decided that fiscal proposals including changes in rates of Sales Tax, refunds etc. would be deliberated with FBR in detail, so that the next federal budget addresses these burning concerns which are essential to spur consumer spending, it added. Moreover, proposals related to financial and banking matters including review of payroll refinancing scheme, incentives to banks to finance MFIs and MFB, measures for enhancement of remittances and injecting additional liquidity to commercial banks by cutting CRR/SLR and CCB, were decided to be dealt by forum in more details. The think tank has devised an “Impact and Urgency Response Matrix” by identifying multiple actionable themes with low, medium and high economic impacts, pitched against short, medium and long time horizons. According to the statement, the forum has the mandate to provide cognitive support
to on-going response of the federal government apart from extending help in designing new initiatives and mid -course correction of interventions already under execution. The forum has representation form eminent public finance practitioners, financial analysts, bankers, development and monetary economists and academia, the statement said adding the participants included PM’s Adviser on Commerce, Finance Secretary, Dr Ishrat Husain, Shaukat Tareen, Dr Ijaz Nabi, Sultan Ali Allana, Arif Habib and Dr Waqar Masood. During the meeting, the adviser engaged all participants in extensive deliberations, while defining that the focus of the forum would remain on the short term urgently needed measures to give boost to economy, which is under acute stress due to both demand and supply compression. He emphasised the need to learn from international experience in designing fiscal,
COVID-19 death rate surging at alarming rate: Bilawal PPP CHIEF SAYS LOCUST ATTACKS ANOTHER DISASTER IN THE MAKING kArAChI INP
Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) Chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari on Sunday said the coronavirus death rate was increasing at an alarming rate. The PPP chief and Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah held a meeting to discuss coronavirus situation in the province and the steps taken to contain the pandemic.
Sindh Health Minister Dr Azra Fazal Pechuho also informed Bilawal about the measures being taken by the provincial health department to combat the spread of the virus. On the occasion, the PPP leader appreciated the steps taken by the Sindh government to control the spread of COVID-19 pandemic in the province. He said that Sindh govt took timely and effective measures that were also lauded by the world community.
Firdous challenges Hamid Mir to prove corruption allegations News Desk Former special assistant to prime minister on information and broadcasting Dr Firdous Ashiq Awan on Sunday challenged anchorperson Hamid Mir to prove the allegations of corruption and misuse of power against her. Taking to Twitter, she challenged the senior journalist to prove that she had misused her power while approving appointments in Press Information Department (PID). “Hamid Mir sahib, your journalism experience is more than my political experience. Do not leave this matter here. Show me the domicile of my constituency among the appointments I did in PID. If you cannot do this, then you have to admit that Maulana Tariq Jameel was telling the truth. Sach jaan kar geo [know the truth and live],” she tweeted. On Friday, Dr Firdous had denied the allegations of corruption and misuse of power during her time as the PM’s aide. Speaking to a local news outlet, she had said that how could she take 10 per cent commission while giving advertisements when no such advertisements were given to the media during her tenure. She had said that the files related to her ministry were never shown to her, but rather they were taken to Prime Minister Imran Khan directly by the secretary for six months. “A case pertaining to an advertisement company who I supposedly gave money to, they got through to me after six months of trying even then they remain unpaid,” she had claimed.
“The situation could have worsened in the country if Sindh government had not taken immediate measures in the fight against coronavirus,” he added. The PPP leader further said that increase in the death rate due to coronavirus is alarming for the federal and provincial governments. Separately, Bilawal also criticised the lack of action on the part of the Federal Ministry for Food Security to tackle the menace of locust attacks on crops. “Fed Ministry for food security is again missing in actions as locusts attack crops across Pakistan. Last year despite our pleas provinces were left at the mercy of locusts,” he wrote on his official twitter handle, sharing a British daily’s news story about risks locust swarms posed to
the country’s food security. “If the federal govt fails to act this is another disaster in the making,” he cautioned. Sindh Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah, in a letter to Prime Minister Imran Khan, had also drawn his attention to the federal government’s assurance to improve coordination between the Centre and provincial authorities and had instructed for provision of aircraft and pesticides for aerial spray in the affected areas. “A massive locust attack is expected in Sindh next month. Farmlands in Sindh would once again come under attack of locust swarms from Iran by May 15, 2020, which could prove more harmful for the crops in the province as compared to the locust attack of last year,” he said.
PSX urges govt to eliminate or reduce CGT for two years shAhzAD pArAChA ISLAMAbAD
The Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) has requested the government to eliminate or reduce the Capital Gains Tax (CGT) for next 24 months. The request has been made by the exchange in its proposals for the fiscal year 2020-21 budget. PSX has proposed to the government to eliminate or reduce CGT for two years or at a minimum align rates of capital gains tax on the disposal of securities with other regional exchanges and OECD countries of the world. In addition, the exchange asked the government to introduce a mechanism and regulatory structure for the launch of registered savings and investment accounts (RSIAs) to help channel savings towards productive investments. RSIAs would help bring capital from a large undocumented sector into the formal economy. Further, it is also crucial that firm guarantees be offered and contributions be subject to full amnesty – aside from AML and Terrorist Financing issues due diligence. The PSX has also proposed that the government should start funding its pension liabilities to avert a future pension crisis and encourage capital formation in Pakistan. An adequately funded pension scheme would offer oldage benefits to retired employees in public sector enterprises and government workers, without putting a burden on the annual budget. Further, it is recommended that a certain percentage of the funded pension scheme be invested in the capital markets. It is also recommended to align the rate of capital gains tax on the disposal of equities’ securities of non-residents with that of debt securities for non-resident companies having no permanent establishment in Pakistan. It was proposed to allow carry forward of losses for six years rather than for three years as stated in the Proviso of Sub-Section 5 of Section 37A of the Income Tax
Ordinance, 2001. The exchange has also proposed that in order to facilitate the market for Exchange Traded Funds, the transfer of Portfolio (basket of securities) from Authorised Participants (AP) to ETF’s Account should not be treated as disposal and therefore holding period of ETF constitutes be carried forward to the ETF, upon conversion of Portfolio Deposit to ETF units, for the purpose of CGT calculation. It was further proposed to reduce the rate of withholding tax on the gross income earned on the MF transactions from 10pc to 2.5pc. Furthermore, it was also proposed that the government should introduce a mechanism to remove the double taxation of the company’s profit – once in the hands of the company and once in the hands of shareholders as dividends – so that the tax rate on dividends is on par with profit on debt. The PSX also proposed to rationalise the current tax rate on dividends to make it equal to the tax rate on the profit of debt, provided that there should be no withholding tax on dividends up to Rs100,000 per annum. The applicable rate of tax on the dividend by a REIT scheme should be levied as it is applicable for mutual funds. To encourage small and medium enterprises to get listed on the SME Board, it was proposed that the rate of tax for such listed SME companies be permanently lowered by giving tax credit of 50pc of tax payable. It was further proposed that the Shariah compliance criteria under the income tax laws be modified to make it practically possible to meet it as it would help the promotion and development of Islamic capital markets by encouraging new listings of companies on PSX through mobilising resources towards faith-based investor savings. PSX also proposed that the government must move away from short term measures and frequent changes to the tax treatment and adopt long term measures to promote savings and investment besides development of the capital market.
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monetary and other policy responses by the Federal as well as provincial governments. Abdul Hafeez Shaikh emphasised the need for evolving road map for chosen domains, thereby bringing clarity about what needs to be done and who will do it. The need for real-time data and research was highlighted in development of clear roadmap and implementation framework. The Adviser concluded the session with the consensus decision that detailed roadmaps for chosen six domains would be prepared so that respective ministries are engaged, to create further value in on-going plans meant for giving economic boost. It was further decided that implementation review of the PM Economic Stimulus Package (worth Rs 1,240 billion) would be a regular feature in next think tank meetings to ensure value for money apart from smooth service delivery to deserving segments of society.
PM phones trudeau, urges Canadian support for global debt relief initiative ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Imran Khan Sunday held a telephone conversation with his Canadian counterpart Justin Trudeau and while discussing the COVID-19 situation, thanked Canada for its support for Pakistan’s inclusion in the G20’s debt relief initiative.Underlining the need to create greater fiscal space for developing countries to save lives, and undertake coordinated action to ward off socioeconomic challenges, the prime minister hoped that Canada would lend support to the ‘Global Initiative for Debt Relief.’Both the leaders discussed the situation arising out of the COVID-19 pandemic, and other matters of mutual interest, a PM Office statement said.Offering deep condolences over the loss of precious lives, the prime minister underscored that the pandemic was an unprecedented calamity necessitating closer international cooperation. He said Pakistan along with other developing countries was confronted with the twin challenge of saving lives and containing the infection, while simultaneously shoring up the economy.The two leaders also discussed the status of repatriation of each other’s nationals from their respective countries and appreciated the facilitation provided by the two sides in this context. APP
NAB summons Shehbaz for third time LAHORE: The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) has issued a call-up notice to Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) President Shehbaz Sharif in a money laundering case, asking him to appear in person at its Lahore office on Monday. This is the third time that the accountability watchdog has summoned the National Assembly opposition leader. Shehbaz had skipped two previous hearings on account of the prevailing Covid-19 situation in the country. According to the notification, Shehbaz has been directed to appear before it with documents detailing the properties inherited by him. The bureau has alleged that assets worth Rs3.3 billion had been identified so far as illegally accumulated by Shehbaz and both his sons — Punjab Assembly Opposition Leader Hamza Shahbaz and Suleman Shehbaz, who are also nominated in the reference. It said the whole family committed massive money laundering in the name of foreign remittances and loans. “As a public office holder Shehbaz needs to explain the increase in his assets,” NAB said. Suleman was declared proclaimed offender in October last year after he failed to appear before the court despite repeated orders. He is currently residing in London. NAB has also asked Shehbaz to submit bank transaction details along with the loan taken from Barclays, a Britain based investment bank, between 2005 to 2007 while he was living in exile in London. StAff RePoRt
04 ISLAMABAD
Monday, 4 May, 2020
WEATHER UPDATES MONDAY
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PRAyeR tImINgS FAJR SUNRISE
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KP to enhance testing caPacity to 10,000 Per day, says Wazir PESHAWAR
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DVISOR on Information and Public Relations Ajmal Wazir has stated that the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) has prepared a revised policy for Corona virus testing. He informed that initially, the testing will be increased to 2000 per day which will be later enhanced to 5,000 and then10,000 tests per day. Ajmal Wazir informed that the government has prioritized health staffers to be
tested on priority basis as they were fighting on the frontline a policy has been framed for family members of a corona virus patient. He stated that if a Covid-19 patient had five members in his/her family, all would be tested however if the number was higher, than five at higher risk should be prioritized for testing adding closed relatives of the patient will also be tested. According to Ajmal Wazir, passengers who arrive from other countries should be tested within 48 hours adding armed forces, those in contact with patients including bank
employees, shopkeepers and others are also part of the policy. The advisor informed that a total of 19543 Covid-19 tests were carried out by April, adding the testing began from 20 per day but was increased to 1000 per day. While talking about updates on the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic, Wazir informed that with 108 new cases confirmed during last 24 hours, the total number of coronavirus cases has reached 2907 where a total of 172 people have lost their lives with 11 during last 24 hours. He informed that with 38 persons who recovered in last 24 hours, 728 persons have recovered
CDA to resume work on Signal Free Controlled Access Corridor ISLAMABAD: The Capital Development Authority (CDA) will resume work on construction of Signal Free Controlled Access Corridor shortly. In this connection, bids for construction of Korang Bridge have been invited. The NIT cost of the project is Rs741.395 million. The project Signal Free Controlled Access Corridor was approved under PSDP. Considering the need of this facility it was decided that a phased wise approach will be followed and in phase-I, Korang Bridge and PWD underpass are needed to address most complicated of the issues. The Devel-
opment Working Party (DWP) in its last meeting held in the previous week approved project construction of Korang Bridge and Construction of PWD underpass. Upon approval by CDA Management, a transparent bidding process has been initiated, and bids for construction of bridge has been sought under Single Stage Two Envelope procedure from Firms registered with Pakistan Engineering Council having valid registration Certificate. Similarly, instructions have been also issued to invite bids for construction of PWD underpass at earliest. INP
from the viral infection. On the World Press Freedom Day, Wazir said that Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government believes in the freedom of the press. The advisor lauded untiring efforts of media persons who have been playing a vital role in sensitizing the general public on Covid-19 adding with their untiring effort, many media persons also contracted the virus. He also talked about reducing the petroleum prices will benefit the general public adding that provincial transport authority has already announce reducing fares aimed at providing relief to the general public.
He also informed that all the provincial government machinery led by chief minister Mahmood khan was involved in order to defeat coronavirus adding that religious scholars stood by the government. He informed that the government provided all facilities to those in quarantine centers. It is a great grace of Allah Almighty that we have got a Prime Minister like Imran Khan who always talks about the poor and is taking steps to uplift the lower class" he added.
Islamabad Police to ensure implementation of SOPs to avoid coronavirus ISLAMABAD APP
Deputy Inspector General of Police (Operation) Waqar Uddin Syed has directed all officials to ensure implementation on Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) issued by government to avoid coronavirus and maintain high vigilance during Ramzan to provide effective security to citizens. Reviewing the overall security arrangements in the city and policing efforts for awareness against COVID-19, the DIG (Operations) directed to ensure implementation on all government directions to avoid coronavirus and give awareness to people about precautionary measures including advantages of social distancing. He also appealed the citizens to cooperate with Islamabad Police in its efforts to curb COVID-19. He directed to ensure use of
sanitizers by those visiting police stations and give them safety tips against COVID-19 including social distancing and others. Waqar Uddin Syed directed all police officials for effective security duties at all mosques as per plan and also brief volunteers in this regard. In coordination with Islamabad Traffic Police, he also asked for effective action against one-wheelers and ensure crackdown against them. He directed police officials for strict patrolling and high vigilance in their respective areas from Iftar to Sehr timings. The special duties should be assigned during these timings and patrolling to be made more effective, he maintained. DIG Operations Waqar Uddin Syed directed to check car and bike lifting and ensure strict action against anti-social elements having illegal weapons or involved other acts. It was also directed to ensure
effective crackdown against proclaimed offenders and constitute special squads for their arrests. He directed all SPs, SDPOs and SHOs to brief policemen themselves performing duties at police pickets and check the safety equipment like bullet proof jackets, official weapons themselves. He asked to provide hand sanitizers and masks to cops before sending them to duty. He directed to check the performance of investigation officers and take disciplinary action against those involved in sluggish policing. He asked to boost morale of the personnel performing well and urge them to adopt decent attitude during interaction with citizens. Islamabad police has policy of zero tolerance against corruption, he said and directed all police officials for effective policing measures in the city to curb crime.
Beauty salons foreseeing business loss on Eid demand incentives ISLAMABAD APP
The owners of the beauty salons foreseeing acute business loss during the upcoming festival of Eid-ulFitr amid lockdown situation in the country in wake of prevailing health crisis demanded incentives from the present government. The beauty salons industry usually earns the most on the occasion of Eid-ul-Fitr when majority of the customers especially women avail different services including facials, haircut, henna applying and makeover. However, this year, majority of the women customers are avoiding visits to the salons due to the risks of violating social distancing measures and catching coronavirus which may affect their families. "Lockdown situation in the country has undoubtedly affected many of the businesses but beauty salons were among the most affected as we cannot provide all the beauty enhancement and other services through adopting social distancing", Saiqa Awan, owner of a salon said. "Physical contact with the customers is unavoidable in different services we provide to enhance the beauty of the customers. Even, we offered these services at their homes with using masks and other precautions but not even a single customer expressed willingness to get any of the services out of fear of the
COVID-19", she said while talking to APP. Shaheen Mushtaq, who runs a parlour to meet her household expenses, said that she is the only earner in her family as her husband is critically ill. She said, since lockdown, I have not earned any significant amount due to closure of parlours. I have spent whatever saving I had. Now I don't have money to pay fees of my three school going children and bear the medical expenses of my bed-ridden husband. She urged the government to provide some incentives to the owners of the small beauty salons so that they can also compensate their employees who are facing it difficult to make their both ends meet. Azhar Saeed, who is also an owner of a beauty salon said the salon owners wait for Eid during the whole year to get maximum profit on this occasion so that they can meet their unusual expenses. However, on this Eid, it seems difficult for us to earn due to lockdown. Our services cannot be digitalised and are contactless which is the main reason behind our severe business loss. He said we earn the most from bridal make over but this time majority of the weddings were cancelled and those who have managed simple weddings are also not visiting parlours for makeovers. He urged the present government to consider the miseries of salon owners and provide them some incentives through its welfare schemes as well as tax exemption.
4 new COVID-19 positive cases traced in AJK MIRPUR APP
With the appearance of four more cases of novel coronavirus in Azad Jammu Kashmir during last 24 hours, the number of confirmed coronavirus positive cases surged to 71 in the State on Sunday, AJK Health department said. At the same time, the samples of new 142 suspects were tested in the labs. In a statement on the updated situation of pandemic in AJK, issued on Sunday, the State Health Authorities confirmed registration of 4 new cases in AJK including 03 in Kotli district and one in Bhimbher district. According to the report issued by AJK Health Department Sunday evening a total of 2227 suspected cases were sent for test, of whom the result of 2156 had been received with 71 positive cases. Out of the total of 71 coronavirus positive cases, 44 have been fully recovered and discharged from the different health facilities across the state by Sunday. Out of existing 27 active cases, 07 are receiving treatment in Isolation hospital in Muzaffarbad, 07 in
DHQ Hospital Palandri, 02 in THQ Hospital Dadayal, 07 in isolation hospital Muzaffarabad, 2 in THQ Hospital Dudayal, 2 in DHQ Hospital Bagh 01 in Bhimbher DHQ Hospital and 08 in DHQ Hospital Kotli. Three positive patients belonged to Sargodha, Pakistan were also under treatment in DHQ hospital Kotli. 2085 persons were tested negative for COVID-19 while results of 71 cases are awaited which are scheduled to reach in a day or two next. Those 44 patients discharged after complete recovery include 12 from CMH Rawalakot, 15 from DHQ hospital Bhimbher, one from Kotli DHQ hospital, 12 from New Mirpur city teaching hospital, one from THQ Hospitla Dadayal and 03 from DHQ hospital Palandri. The government has established 61 quarantine centers in all ten districts of the state while officials of the health departments deputed at entry points of the state were busy round the clock in screening the visitors. PCR testing is being done at Virology Lab Abbas Institute of Medical Sciences, CMH Rawalakot and Divisional Headquarter Hospital Mirpur.
Monday, 4 May, 2020
MINIster says CaN’t afford INdefINIte LoCKdoWN, Pays trIbute to doCtors LAHOR
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OREIGN Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi on Sunday paid tribute to the doctors and healthcare workers who lost their lives in the fight against the coronavirus. Speaking to the media outside Services Hospital in Lahore, Qureshi said: “I received news that two more doctors lost their lives today fighting the pandemic.” “Pakistani doctors especially those in the UK have raised the country’s stature everywhere. They are Pakistan’s ambassadors and I salute them for their service,” he said. Responding to a question regarding Prime Minister Imran Khan’s statement that “elite-imposed lockdown”, the foreign minister said: “There is a certain, mostly upper-class, segment which wanted to have a complete lockdown in the country.” “Their intentions were good and they wanted to protect human life. But in the prime minister’s eyes, there was another
factor. There are pros and cons to this and a balance is needed to maintain this. This is not just in Pakistan but everywhere around the world,” Qureshi noted. He added that there was a global debate on the lockdown and its extension. “There are several levels of lockdown and each country is taking decisions according to the situation,” he said.
Indian forces martyr 20 Kashmiri youth in two weeks SRINAGAR: In occupied Kashmir, Indian forces have martyred 20 youth in eight different cordon and search operations in the past two weeks in South Kashmir, Indian police said. On April 17, Indian troops martyred two Kashmiri youth in an operation at Dairoo-Keegam in Shopian and the forces’ personnel took their bodies to a far off Baramula village for burial. On April 22, four youth, hailing from Shopian and Pulwama villages, were killed in a CASO at Melhoora village in Zainapora area of Shopian and their bodies were too taken by police to Ganderbal for burial. On April 24, Indian forces martyred two youth in a cordon and search operation in Heri-Kharipora village of Frisal in Yaripora, Kulgam. The bodies of the duo hailing from Ashmuji and Bugam villages of Kulgam were also taken by police to a far off Baramulla village for burial. On April 25, three youth were martyred during an operation by Indian forces’ personnel in Goripora, Barsoo village of Awantipora police district. Their bodies were taken by police to Ganderbal for burial. On April 26, Indian police martyred four youth including an engineering graduate in a CASO in Achthal-Guddar village of Kulgam district. On April 27, Indian troops martyred three youth in Lower-Munda Qazigund area of Islamabad town in the police jurisdiction of Kulgam. All of them were from Kulgam villages. Their bodies were taken by police to Baramulla for burial. As many as 14 civilians were injured when an unexploded device suddenly went off from the rubble of the damaged houses. On April 29, Indian forces again killed three youth in Melhora, Zainapora area of Shopian. PPI
Food ministry rejects Sindh’s statement on locust swarms ISLAMABAD APP
The Ministry for National Food Security on Sunday categorically rejected the statement given by the government of Sindh in relation to locust swarms. The ministry spokesperson said that locust swarms have taken over, attacked and destroyed crops in various parts of the country. He said that the federal government along with the Ministry for National Food Security is cognizant of its duties and obligations and is playing a part to the best of their abilities. The spokesman also said that Prime Minister Imran Khan has called three meetings on the matter knowing the gravity of the situation, the locust swarms endanger crops in 60 countries across the globe and Pakistan’s province of Sindh is in no way being singled out. The Prime Minister formulated a National Action Plan (NAP) to deal with the menace with consensus and input from all provincial stakeholders, entailed the spokesperson. “More than 100,000 litres of ULV insecticides and pesticides have been stored in Sindh to tackle the issue at hand, various districts of the provinces have also been designated their separates ECs.” “A further order of 87 ULV sprays
CITY NOTES M A NIAZI
NE of the boons of Ramzan has been the balmy weather. Not exactly cool, because it’s not really been cool, but at least not as hot as it usually is at this time of the year. I mean, we’re into May, as the wind hasn’t been as searing as it is. Good news, surely, not to mention that it means that people find the energy to attend the taraweeh prayers in greater numbers than usual. Apart from that working to prevent social distancing from working, what about the heat killing off the coronavirus? It seems that isn’t happening. It seems they have hopes in Sindh, where they’ve asked people to keep their ACs off during a heatwave that’s coming. But the heat isn’t coming to rescue, as Imran hoped it would. Of course, that just goes to show how the evil Sindh government is trying to do down the PTI. As everyone knows, jiyalas are busy spreading the coronavirus just to make the PTI look bad. It seems that Imran’s solution is to sack Dr Firdous Ashiq Awan. A rather peremptory sacking, not even a statement saying that he was releasing her so she could treat COVID-19 patients in her native Sialkot. She was replaced by Lt Gen (retd) Asim Bajwa, who brought his experience as DG ISPR to the job. However, while Dr Awan had no boss, as SAPM being in charge of the Information Ministry, General Bajwa has as his boss the new Information Minister, Senator Shibli Faraz. He is the son of a very great poet, who led a sort of fightback against the Progressive Writers, even though he was left-leaning himself, and
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“We need to tailor our strategy according to our needs. We don’t know how long this pandemic will last. It could last from six months to a year,” Qureshi remarked. He added that the country was fighting on two fronts. “On one hand we are fighting the coronavirus pandemic and on the other, we are fighting hunger. I met with some Multan traders the other day who
told me they were suffering due to the pandemic. We need to think about people such as those,” the foreign minister said. In response to another question, Qureshi said the national action plan is made keeping in mind the current situation. “PM Imran will move forward while taking into account the ground realities,” he said. When asked if Islamabad was in contact with Beijing regarding vaccine trials, the foreign minister said Pakistan was in contact with all the countries in this regard. “China has helped us in these difficult times and we are thankful to them,” Qureshi said. In response to a question about the global economy and debt relief, Qureshi said, there was an economic downturn which was being felt by all the countries. “The economists say the world is moving towards recession which means there will be losses in trillions of dollars and Pakistan is no exception,” he said. “This is why the prime minister launched a global campaign for debt relief for all the developing countries.”
NEWS
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PML-N leader asks CJP to take notice of abandoned sports complex LAHORE: Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) stalwart Ahsan Iqbal urged Chief Justice Gulzar Ahmad to take notice of the “injustice done to the Narowal Sports Complex”. Talking to reporters on Sunday, he said: “He was punished for building this sports city project for the people of Narowal, not for any corruption or embezzlement of funds. He said he is guilty of building sports infrastructure for the youth of this city.” Ahsan asked the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) chief, who would pay for the cost overrun and growing cost of the project which is making its feasibility more and more flimsy. He said justice demands that the additional cost of this project should be paid by Imran Khan and NAB. This project is the textbook example of how the PTI government puts development projects in the reverse gear. The government’s vengeful agenda has destroyed Pakistan’s development projects, he added. He said Narowal Sports city was going to be the launchpad for the future athletes of Pakistan. A PSL match was also scheduled to be held this year at the complex. he reminded. He said Rs 2.5 billion have already been spent on the project and only Rs 400 million more are required to complete it. The cricket ground where Pakistan team played an international match has now turned into a jungle. He said Imran Khan will pay for the lies in the court of the people of Pakistan. These actions, Ahsan said, will lead to a total rejection of PTI at the ballot and this party will beg people but won’t even find candidates to take their election tickets. He said he would present himself for accountability to the people of Pakistan if he were proven guilty of even a rupee of corruption out of the Rs 3200 billion budget. He said politics of accusation, prejudice and arrogance can never succeed. He pointed out that the CPEC’s western route from Hakla to Dera Ismael Khan was scheduled to be completed by December 2018 but it is only 67 percent done even by the mid of 2020 and seems unlikely to be complete by year end. StAff RePoRt
Web portal launched for emergency cash applications: Nishtar
has been given for purchase with the help of National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA),” added the spokesperson. Earlier, the government of Sindh decrying a lack of support from the Centre to tackle locust attacks, decided on Friday last to register a strong protest with the federal government over the issue. Sindh Minister for Agriculture Ismail Rahoo said swarms of locusts have
entered Sindh and Balochistan from the neighbouring countries of India and Iran. “Locusts will prove more dangerous than coronavirus,” he cautioned. He said the provincial government has been informing the Centre about the locust attacks for a year but in vain. Rahoo noted that 60 per cent of the country’s rural population that relies on agriculture will suffer if locusts are not eliminated.
ISLAMABAD: Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on Social Protection and Poverty Alleviation Dr Sania Nishtar on Sunday said that Prime Minister Imran Khan has launched a web-portal to solicit Ehsaas Emergency Cash Programme applications from COVID19 affectees. In a tweet, she said the Category-4 beneficiaries who qualify for PM’s COVID-19 fund assistance will get emergency cash of Rs12,000. She said that the COVID-19 fund would continue to be realised for those in need of assistance and for each rupee donated by donors, four rupees will be committed by the government. Dr Sania said the existing transparency principles, rule-based controls, and deployment of data analytics that have been applied to emergency cash transfers will be fully upheld for the selection of Category-4 beneficiaries who qualify for PM’s COVID-19 fund. StAff RePoRt
The heat is staying away must be counted as a progressive. You see, the progressive writers inclined to the boy-meets-tractor school, but Shibli’s father, the great Ahmad Faraz, went for a more old-fashioned sort of boy-meets-girl romance. For decades, he was the turn-to poet for young people, and he still should be, for he wrote some of the most exquisite lines ever penned. I hope Shibli gives readings to the Cabinet. I’m sure the Senate must be a very lyric sort of place, and thanks to the PTI, what with Faraz’s son and Iqbal’s grandson in its delegation. That’s a little touching, because the party chief is as dedicated a Philistine as the rest of them. One can recall Benazir Butto quoting Frost back in her first speech as PM, but Mian Nawaz Sharif, his daughter Mariam, and Asif Zardari, and his son Bilawal, are not known as fans of poetry. Well, maybe they incline to the modern school, scorning the traditional ghazal in favour of azad nazm and nasri nazm. And I don’t know about General Bajwa’s bent. I mean, the SAPM, not the COAS, who we know has a bent towards economics. Shibli’s predecessor as Minister, Fawad Chaudhry, may or may not have a bent for poetry. I suspect not. His revelation of an app for predicting moon-sighting makes me suspect he’s the sort of person who plays with gadgets too much. And the app was nowhere in sight for this Ramzan moon-sighting, unless it was taken there by the Science and Technology official who Fawad Chaudhry sent to assist the Ruet-e-Hilal Com-
mittee. I suppose Mufti Muneeb should be grateful that Fawad Chaudhry didn’t arrive himself to snatch the credit for allowing people to fast (as Mufti Muneeb puts it, can’t be done without his say-so) More mundanely, some people who have tried to turn the COVID-19 pandemic to advantage have been winos who normally drink cough syrups. They’ve been downing hand sanitisers for the alcohol content. It doesn’t cure COVID-19, but at least they die happy. Because it’s the same alcohol as they put in country liquor to give it more kick, and which usually causes people to go blind, usually somewhere in Tamil Nadu. I wonder who gave them the idea that alcohol was a cure for COVID-19. Probably Donald Trump. He said that bleach was a cure or a preventive. It wasn’t, though it seems they’ve found a medicine that helps. It doesn’t cure, but it seems to help enough so that, taken with other drugs (perhaps like the one Japanese researchers have found promising, it would be a huge help. Wonder which drug companies are going to make a lot of money from this? Meanwhile, online education is continuing. I wonder who attendance is marked these days. And whether proxies are marked as before. I’ve heard a hushed discussion wondering about how medical students were carrying out dissections, and how much of a premium there was on snagging a younger sibling. Of course, that would probably depend on connectivity. Two figures who have passed on, but not because
of Covid-19, though in the danger range, were Indian actors Irfan Khan and Rishi Kapoor. Khan’s departure created a gap, for he was a great actor, but Rishi Kapoor meant the passage of their youth to a whole generation. He was the face of the 1970s for so many. And it seems we must go on the death-watch again, as we first watched Prithviraj’s sons pass, and now the first of his grandsons to go. True, there’s fourth generation in showbiz, in Rishi’s own son Ranbir, as well as his nieces Karishma and Kareena. But none really sums up an era. Did Umar Akmal represent an era? Not enough to stop him from getting a three-year ban for not reporting bookies approaching him during the PSL. I wonder if his exposing himself at the National Academy had anything to do with it? Monty Panesar, the England leftarmer, got thrown out of the game for doing the same, but then he was totally sozzled.
Monday, 4 May, 2020
06 COMMENT
The ‘New’ Normal
World Press Freedom Day Not the healthiest of pictures
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AKISTAN has found itself on World Press Freedom Day (Sunday) to have a press which is under two types of attack, both through censorship and other means of repression, and on the other, economically. It faces the challenge of operating in the post-covid-19 world, but that it shares with everyone. Otherwise, its specific challenges are those it faces because the government wants it be an official channel of carefully selected information rather than a check on it, an exposer of its misdeeds and a provider of the information that a citizen needs to make informed electoral choices. The paradox is that the present PTI government claims that it is a champion of press freedom, and constantly congratulates itself on its giving of freedom to the press. However, the media has a different experience. Blocking of newspapers and TV channels happens. Threats are made. Journalists disappear. Some are found dead. Some go into self-exile, others are shot. Messages are sent. More wearing, it used to be that rules were clear; now they are not. It used to be made clear how far reporting could go. Now hints are dropped. What is today kosher is forbidden totally tomorrow. It is as if it is expected that newsrooms will practice self-censorship, and will obey the wishes of unseen hands. Another tool of manipulation that is being used is that of government advertisements. Their role has become all the more prominent now that the covid-19 pandemic has sent the economy, and thus advertising revenues, tumbling, but even before the pandemic, print and broadcast media both faced shrinking revenues as readers and viewers began abandoning them, choosing to go to online sources of news and entertainment. At this time, for the government to hold back on dues because of advertisements which have already appeared, is to hobble the press. A rank favouritism continues to be practiced in the giving of advertisements, not according to merit, but the readiness of the publication to be pliable. It had been claimed by the PTI that it would bring tabdeeli (change); that it has not in the area of press freedom. There it seems that the tired old methods of the past continue to be used, with what space is being created from freedom is created by the media itself.
Humayun GauHar
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spent a large part of my life, along with my late father, hankering after the New World Order. It had become fashionable in certain circles from both First- and Third-World countries. The Willy Brandt Report or the North-South Report had just come out. But despite the efforts of Sir Shridath Ramphal, a member of the Brandt Commission and also Secretary-General of the Commonwealth Secretariat, it did not find much traction. Some years later, we of the Third World Foundation were to launch our own South-South Report with the help of Dr. Mahathir Mohammad, the Prime Minister of Malaysia, following a South-South conference in Kuala Lumpur. Mahathir wanted to be the Chairman of the Commission but Ramphal and his cabal preferred former Tanzanian President Julius Nyerere. Mahathir would have been much better because as serving prime minister, he could have opened many doors and his voice would have been heard. Nyerere was no longer in office and was regarded by the majority as a failed leader, unsuccessful at making ‘African socialism’ succeed. So they opted for Nyerere thinking that the pygmies of the Commission (and there were many) could manipulate him and get the kind of report that they wanted. In the end, the report was an even bigger damp squib than the Willy Brandt Report. So much for history being changed due to the foibles of mice and men, especially where mice abound. Now after the covid-19 pandemic, the world has changed by itself and will remain changed when our practices of today will become the ‘normal’ thing to do. One big change we can see is the self-distancing between people, even relatives. This tiny virus, which the naked eye cannot see, weighs so little that all the coronavirus in the world put together has hardly the weight of one gram. Yet this insignificant little pestilence has stood the world’s most powerful nation, economically and militarily, on its head. When the carnage is over and we settle down to what we call ‘business as usual,’ we will find the ‘new normal’ or
In the name of accountability Giving bureaucrats another reason to run scared
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He decision of the present government to retire prematurely civil servants for corruption is problematic for a number of reasons. While there is no doubt that corruption among the bureaucracy is rife, and while there is no smoke without fire, premature retirement is obviously a penalty, and as there is no opportunity given to the officer concerned to defend himself or even hear the charges against him, there is no indication of the criteria on which such retirements are to be carried out. Another is the failure to indicate who the persons are whose recommendations are to be carried out, and thus there is no information on how they are to be vetted. While the rooting out of corruption means that political leaders are hounded, their bureaucratic accomplices must be rooted out too. However, using the existence of NAB cases is not such a good idea. Bureaucratic resentment against this was so strong that the NAB Ordinance had to be amended to keep NAB away from civil servants. The Ordinance has now lapsed, meaning NAB can go after civil servants again. At that time, it had led to a reinforcing of a do-nothing culture: after all, if a civil servant has not initialed a file, NAB may note he has an untidy desk, but can’t prosecute him for that. Now, for NAB cases involving a civil servant to exist, is a strong incentive to do nothing even harder. With bureaucrats notorious for their slow pace of work, the government may be approaching paralysis. The most problematic thing is that this is not meant merely to burnish the image of a government elected on an accountability platform, but to enable a cabal of bureaucratic insiders to gain a tool against their opponents. While both the Cabinet Secretary and the establishment Secretary have a hand in dealing with the civil service, the role of the Secretary to Prime Minister, while minimal formally, is informally crucial. An attempt to make space for party favourites will merely strengthen the role of certain insiders.
Hope of the Helpless Staying sane also matters akif rasHid
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few pretentious philosophy students might tell you that time is just a manmade social construct, but I didn’t really believe it until this lockdown went into effect. “I don’t know if it’s Wednesday, Friday, or Sunday. I just know if it’s today, yesterday, or tomorrow,” said a person trying to adapt to our new, uncertain way of life. On the other side of madness, I spoke with our gardener (with six degrees of separation, of course), and learned that his village doesn’t even know that this virus exists. Meanwhile, I look to the rebellious roads of Lahore, as full of life as ever. The crowds have merely learned how to live without Alfatah’s free air-conditioning; their spirits are uninvaded. The story of people’s lives has been encased, the fourth wall carefully preserved, and the discontent seeps through. The people are not fighting against this virus, they have yet to even consider that war in its entirety. They are fighting against the rules of combat. If the office is closed, then the company becomes a start-up in a garage, with mummy bringing in tea and biscuits. If the schools are off, then get a free grade and hope you can get your act together in Fall. Maybe somewhere between allergy season and the monsoon rains, the heat will cure our land of at least one of its inflictions. So, some people sit at home, looking at the facts and fearing the toll, but they accept their limitations. What could a teacher do when the students can’t access the Internet? Who does a lawyer defend when everyone has the same alibi? People watch the markets run short as doubt grows longer. They sit in the family circle, tell each other to be careful, and try not to be bitter about the claustrophobic air. They are helpless, it feels like the only way they can convince themselves to hope is by giving in. There is someone
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of hackers. In the New Normal or the New World Order there will be new political systems too because the current ones are only throwing up bad governments the ‘new world order.’ Until then, it is difficult to say which are at the mercy of the rich and powerful. There what it is likely to be or what its longevity will be. might be new internationals borders too. I will not go into detail here because acres of artiAs for me, I love the isolation because it gives cles and papers have been written on covid-19. Suffice me time to watch things on television which I it to say, if you have the eyes to see, there is no super- couldn’t before, read unread books and above all, it power of any kind left in the world. The USA’s biggest gives me time to think. And the most beautiful part disaster will be when its currency, the dollar, will cease of it is that I am getting time to hang out with my 12to be the world’s reserve currency. What will replace year-old granddaughter, Zara, which at my age makes it is anybody’s guess, but if one had to choose, it is life worth living. likely to be either the Chinese yuan or a new currency What of Third-World debt? Prime Minister Imran forged by the Russia-China combine with other coun- Khan has taken the lead, and may I say, a very sensitries jumping onto the bandwagon. However, the ques- ble lead, in saying that it should be written off. And tion still remains what the new currency will be based it should. Because the bulk of it was given to rulers on. It certainly cannot be a return to gold because at who the lender knew were corrupt up to their gills least to my small mind, all the countries of the world and would steal and mismanage the money, lending buying gold, when America has actually bought most their countries in the red. There is no way this debt of it, does not sound feasible. So what happens, re- can be repaid. It is like chains of colonialism and mains to be seen. George Packer of The Atlantic has slavery wound around Third-World countries. And it already written an article entitled, ‘We are living in a suited the rich countries more, especially the USA, Failed State. The Coronbecause they could blackavirus didn’t break America. mail poor countries into It revealed what was already doing their will. broken.’ One good thing that has The good things to come out of come out of this pandemic is Szu Ping of the BBC says that with the coronthat the Iran-US war and posthis pandemic are many, but one sibly avirus, the “world faces the the North Korea-US worst recession since the war that seemed to be loomthat springs to mind is the low Great Depression” and that ing, have receded into the the global economy will oil prices… Another is the sharp realm of the stupid. The good shrink by 3% this year. As things to come out of this drop in the amount of pollutants pandemic are many, but one countries around the world shrink at the fastest pace in that springs to mind is the in the atmosphere decades according to the Inlow oil prices, making life ternational Monetary Fund easier for energy-deprived (IMF), the pandemic has countries, if only they are inplunged the world into a “critelligent enough to take adsis like no other.” And the IMF’s chief economist pre- vantage of it. Another is the sharp drop in the amount dicts that the crisis could knock $9 trillion off the of pollutants in the atmosphere: my daughter tells me global GDP over the next two years. Many businesses that the Himalayas can be seen from Delhi and that the big and small, like aviation and restaurants, will either largest Arctic ozone hole ever recorded is now closed. close down or become puny. Social distancing will be This is so good that at the risk of being booted out, I practiced everywhere. Wives will stop kissing hus- would suggest that lockdown should take place for one bands. Schooling from home might well become a reg- quarter every year country by country, that vehicular ular facet of life as could working from home. Going traffic be reduced and those running on alternative enoff and traipsing all over the world on a whim will vir- ergy should be encouraged. Alternative energy reminds tually stop and people will only travel if they have to. me that solar energy and wind energy should now be Friends and relatives will often be frightened of meet- taken much more seriously by governments. So the ing one another. Knowing how to use computers, and process of healing the world has started and hopefully, other kind of digitization, will become as important as climate change will come to be taken seriously now. knowing how to use a pen. The world’s economic phiThis is a subject that one can go on and on about losophy and systems will change and capitalism, raw because one is in the realm of conjecture but of one and market driven, will meet the same fate as Soviet thing I am certain, a new world order with new suCommunism, and hopefully a more equitable system perpowers and a new reserve currency will be upon will emerge. I believe that there will be need for a sec- us. I will write more about this when there is more to ond Yalta and a new Bretton-Woods type of agreement write about. which creates new institutions to replace the BrettonWho says the world isn’t interesting? Woods institutions. I think coins and paper currency will come to an end and be replaced instead with credHumayun Gauhar can be reached at: its recorded in a bank. But one will have to be on top humayun.gauhar786@gmail.com
Covid-19 is establishing a New World Order
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to learn it. Of course, this is a situation where the right answer, the perfect move to make, changes quickly. If a full lockdown is enforced, the people will starve, rebel, and go mad (in whatever order of events seems most convenient to them). If it isn’t, and the economy is prioritized, then funeral homes will be colin charge, and that person has to know what they’re lecting both blue bills and blue bodies. It appears that doing. The rest of the lot don’t want to see how much we are paralyzed with fear, making no committed longer the road is. choice until someone else proves what the right path On the other side of the coin, there is a bit of a is. How long will loud words and public bolstering mixed bag. The smart ones have rationalization, and keep us safe– or better yet, keep us sane? The the foolish ones aren’t conPathani chest-beating or the cerned with rationality. The regal moustache-twirling only thing common bedon’t save you from infectween a 20-year-old thinktion; self-defeating words or If a full lockdown is enforced, ing his natural immunity purposeful ignorance do not will save him and a 50-yearbring peace of mind. The the people will starve, rebel, and patron old thinking this is a govis now looking for ernment hoax is the fact the artist’s escapism. Is the go mad (in whatever order of they both bought cigarettes pretty picture shiny enough events seems most convenient to keep one’s eye off the from a coughing khoka uncle. Of course, no one clock? to them). If it isn’t, and the wants to die, but they don’t Which brings me back want to live like this either. to the opening quote; this economy is prioritized, then Maybe if enough people person that has resigned take precautions, they don’t funeral homes will be collecting themselves to helplessness, have to, right? because it only feels like the both blue bills and blue bodies. eggshell walls are closing in In a way, you have to wonder how anyone would if there is a world out there It appears that we are paralyzed to be truly afraid. The best and push the plaster and morthe brightest of LUMS with fear, making no committed tar. The man with a masters walked over a river of in civil engineering is learnchoice until someone else sewage on their way to ing how to help his mother class every day. People are in the kitchen, the woman proves what the right path is used to being told no, being who fought for the right to told to obey rules they don’t an education tries to tutor understand, and most of all, her neighbour’s son on being told that this is all for Skype. They want to save their own good. The people are so practiced at skirt- the mind, even if it kills the heart. And those that view ing the edge of decency and disobedience, that this the lockdown as a voluntary activity, they want to is merely the latest challenge for them to do as they save the heart, even if it kills the body. People are please. The elder sibling ready to get into trouble, helpless, and they hope they can make it out of this while the younger one tries to behave. In the end, mess. both will get the belt, and both will blame the other. The smell of decomp doesn’t seem to matter anyAkif Rashid is a student of literature, and the more. If there is a lesson here, people are too angry author of the short stories, Encounters.
Islamabad – Ph: 051-2204545
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Monday, 4 May, 2020
COMMENT 07 Editor’s mail Send your letters to: Letters to Editor, Pakistan Today, 4-Shaarey Fatima Jinnah, Lahore, Pakistan. E-mail: letters@pakistantoday.com.pk Letters should be addressed to Pakistan Today exclusively
High prices in Ramadan THROUGH the columns of your esteemed newspapers, I would like to draw the kind attention of the concerned authorities towards problem high price in Ramadan. We have been facing and watching this problem form long time. When the month of Ramadan we know that Ramadan come once in a year and during this month the prices of different fruits and vegetable and other food item drive up as compared to the normal days before Ramadan. All the people are in stress when the prices are double .We all know price make everybody disgraceful in the month of Ramadan. During Ramadan we know the month of blessing price are commodities in this month and during this month shopkeeper should not double the price of food item and at this time when the world is facing corona virus and there is lock down and everything are closed and this year Ramadan is very difficult for all of us when we are facing corona also and price of all food item are also high in the month of Ramadan. These prices of commodities are adding to stress and worries poor people. Why the shopkeeper not follow official rate list of commodities in the month of Ramadan because during this month food item become unaffordable for the poor people and now a days almost it’s difficult for all the people because due to corona there is lock down in a country and all the people jobs are also stop due to this current situation. Shopkeeper should not commodities price in the month of Ramadan which is the month of blessing in which Allah send blessing in this month of Ramadan. FATIMA GUL Islamabad
Water crisis
Animal rights Torturing animals is pure cruelty
syed kaswar Gardezi
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MONGST all of God’s creation, mankind is supreme and has remained so owing to the ability to speak, listen and apply a conscious mind. This superiority, indeed, sets us apart from the rest of the creation which inhabits the planet. However, under no circumstances does it give us a right to be cruel and abuse our position of power. Around the world, dozens of laws are enacted and implemented for the protection of humans. These laws are vigilantly updated in accordance with the changing circumstances of the global village. Yet, animals who occupy the earth alongside humans receive little or no protection. It is true that laws have been enacted worldwide according some protection to wildlife and animals in general. However, negligible implementation of these laws is witnessed. In Pakistan, penal laws pertaining to animals focus indirectly on human protection. For instance, an owner of an animal shall be liable in case any harm is caused by the animal to any other human being. The little protection to the animals themselves includes prohibition of carnal intercourse against the course of nature with an animal and the poisoning and killing by mischief of animals. However, these few provisions of law are seldom implemented and convictions on offences of animal cruelty are unheard of. Our Constitution rigorously protects the rights of humans, but makes no mention of any protection to the animals. Protecting the animals is not only ethically the correct thing to do but traces its roots to Islam, which teaches that we must be kind to all of Allah’s creation. We do consider ourselves the best of God’s creation and yet are unable to protect or even be kind to the others created by the same God. In fact even the most literate of humans do not flinch at animal cruelty. Quite recently, a video was widely circulated on social media in which a guard at Bahria Town Karachi is caught aiming and shoot-
ing a resting dog at point blank range. Immediately general populace falls back on religion to supafter mercilessly filling the dog with pellets from port its many adventures and highlight the influhis shotgun, the guard heartlessly abandoned the ence of western media on our younger whimpering dog and boarded his jeep to continue generation. Unfortunately for them, animal his patrolling for the night, leaving the writhing rights have been ordained in our religion cendog to bleed to death. Apparently the dog in ques- turies before these rights movements came into tion is rumored to have been a ‘mad dog’ who had existence. We simply choose to ignore them and bitten a couple of people earlier and there were nu- continue to infringe them on a daily basis. Islam merous complaints against the dog. educated and has revered those who have been kind to animals literate people defended the shooting of the dog and in fact the latter have also been mentioned on the pretext of providing a safe environment for and praised in the Holy Quran. A little guidance from therein would do no harm. their children in the locality. The idea isn’t to exclude animals from all The safety of humans is paramount, forms of daily life, inmankind won’t let us cluding labour, but to debate that. However, regulate all activities, there can be some regwhich include animals, ulation in ensuring The poor donkey, overladen at the least. The poor such safety or does crudonkey, overladen with elty have to form the with a heavy cargo, may have a heavy cargo, may bedrock of securing have some respite if the our neighborhoods? some respite if the weight of weight of the cargo alThe same dog could the cargo allowed to be carried lowed to be carried behave been captured and hind an animal was to terminated in a more behind an animal was to be be restricted and strictly painless and profesimplemented. Killing of sional manner. Perhaps restricted and strictly dogs by merciless an injection by a qualishooting should be fied veterinary doctor? implemented. Killing of dogs banned under all cirOr else, the dog could by merciless shooting should cumstances, with the have been captured and exception being self-dereleased into the wild, be banned under all fense. Another more away from the city. The humane mechanism to point blank shots fired circumstances, with the get rid of ‘mad dogs’ from behind on a sleepexception being self-defense. should be employed. ing dog, coupled with Colonial-era laws leaving the dog bleed Another more humane which mention protecto death, cannot be extion to animals should cused on the pretext of mechanism to get rid of ‘mad be amended and upsafety. The act is outdogs’ should be employed. dated in accordance right murder and the with the present day circoldest forms of cruColonial-era laws which cumstances. At the very elty, as it is against a we can try to adbeing which can’t mention protection to animals least here to the Holy speak for itself. Not Prophet (PBUH)’s only does it vitiates the should be amended and teaching; ‘Whoever is ethics of an educated updated in accordance with kind to the creatures of society, it explicitly viis kind to himself.’ olates divine teachings. the present day circumstances GodRaising a voice The Holy Prophet against any cruelty (PBUH) taught being against a human race is kind to all of Allah’s one thing but calling creation, including animals. In fact, animals required to be slaughtered out for protecting the animals is on an altogether in connection with religious rites are to be sac- different tangent. Animals cannot speak for rificed using a sharp blade in order to minimize themselves. They cannot protect themselves pain. That is how explicitly kindness towards an- within our society. It is we, the humans, who are imals has been taught by our religion and yet, burdened with protecting them and be mindful even the most saint-like preachers of today do for what Allah has ordained in the Holy Quran: “There is not an animal (that lives) on the not highlight these teachings as rigorously as they should. Apart from the aforesaid recent in- earth, nor a being that flies on its wings, but cident which gained social-media traction, hun- (forms part of) communities like you. Nothing dreds of dogs are brutally killed by municipal have we omitted from the Book, and they (all) officers, thereby extending state cover to these shall be gathered to their Lord in the end.” brutalities. No calls for protecting those who are Syed Kaswar Gardezi is a lawyer and a unable to voice their concerns are made. I refer to the religion for the sole reason that columnist. He can be contacted at where worldly morals and ethics are disliked, the kaswargardezi@gmail.com
I wish to draw the attention of local authorities of “water supply department”towards the problem of water supply in our sector.For the last two years .The water supply in our colony has become very irregular.Out of the seven days,the supply was given three days only and that too for only one hour per day.Yesterday the water was supplied only for 35 minutes .When connected, the Assistant Director concerned replied that due to some problems the water supply has become irregular.I was not satisfied with the reply.It appears that the Assistant Director concerned is not taking the problem seriously.In the summer season,water is the biggest necessity.I hope you will be kind enough to publish this letter in your daily,so that the higher authorities can solve the actual problem immediately and take action against those who are responsible for it. TAHIR AyAz Islamabad
Plunging oil demands THe oil markets have been revoked by sharp price swings in recent days , with traders concerned a drop in demand caused by the coronavirus pandemic which would lead to storage problems for the oversupply of oil . Since many countries are now moving toward in rebuilding their economy which would lead to a rise in the demand for oil . Many oil industries in the world remain underdeveloped and due to COVID-19 crisis Andy I shutdown worldwide, the pandemic is likely to result from the oil price crash and upending the current balance of power. The key-oil producing countries like Iraq and Nigeria can’t find way to be free from crisis with less interest loans. Oil prices have been rebounded recently after the reports that a key measure of oil inventories showed lower than expected demand for storage and oil- focused exchange trade-funds appeared to have finished selling June futures contracts. In Pakistan oil prices have been cut and reduce the price by at least 50 litres . This is very crucial during the current state of affairs due to the joblessness during COVID-19 . In this regard the government of Pakistan needs to be active and deliver a financial relief package to the poor and reduce the commodities prices . BARKATULLAH Turbat
Dysfunctional families WHeN will we talk about the children coming from dysfunctional families and how they end up choosing the most toxic life partners ahead? When will we talk about the children coming from a broken household searching for friendships everywhere yet unable to keep any of those friends for a long term? When will we talk about children coming from a neglected background accepting any abuse that comes with the tag of love just because they don’t know the difference? When will we talk about children coming from a dining table where dishes are broken and curses exchanged, never knowing how to maintain a decent conversation at dinner? How can we talk on such issues? We are just so indulged in thinking about ourselves and about our hopeless desires we need to change for our own sake. A child’s whole life and mentality depends upon his/her childhood yet people don’t take this seriously not even their families. Sometimes parents’ worng decisions damage their child and put him in a situation which could be change with little bit of patient. everyone make mistakes but those parents are criminal who grow their egos rather than their kids. TEHREEM TARIq Islamabad
Indian firing INDIA has at least committed 940 Ceasefire violation so far . Recently a civilian was seriously injured after Indian troops again resorted to unprovoked aggression along the Line of Control ( LOC) . The military's media said that Indian forces used small arms, rockets , heavy mortars and artillery in the Hajipir and Sankh sectors . Due to Indian indiscriminate and unprovoked firing the innocent civilians are being victimized . The Indian occupation forces along tht LOC and the Working Boundary ( WB) have been continuously targeting the civilians populated areas . The Working Boundary is being a threat to regional peace and security . I request the authorities to attempt urgent response regarding Indian repeated firings and secure the civilians. B KHAN Turbat
Monday, 4 May, 2020
08 WORLD VIEW
The perfecT sTorm THE MODERN WORLD FACES A PERFECT STORM: THE COMBINATION OF A DEADLY AND HIGHLY INFECTIOUS VIRUS, AN EMERGING WORLDWIDE ECONOMIC DEPRESSION, THE COLLAPSE OF GLOBAL GOVERNANCE, AND AN ABSENCE OF COORDINATED AND EFFECTIVE INTERNATIONAL RESPONSE
NatioNal iNterest
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Dimitri K SimeS
f ever the modern world faced a “perfect storm,” this is it. The combination of a deadly and highly infectious virus, an emerging worldwide economic depression, the collapse of global governance, and an absence of a coordinated and effective international response—all have contributed to a tragedy of historic magnitude, one that will not be easily overcome. While quarantines and self-isolation have helped mitigate the crisis, few believe that these measures alone can solve it, let alone provide a roadmap for the future. How this storm will end remains unknown, beyond the virtual certainty that the world will eventually weather it. At the same time, the general approach of governments around the world of narrowly defining their priorities created a climate and context in which the virus emerged and in which necessary precautions were ignored. Ending the pandemic requires effective responses, both individual and collective, from key political and economic powers such as the United States, China, the European Union, Russia, Great Britain, and Saudi Arabia. for any broad solutions to emerge to combat the coronavirus and to prepare the world for similar challenges in the future, we must first explore why and how this unprecedented medical, political, and economic threat developed. One lesson we should learn is the primacy of sovereign states. The notion that sovereignty is outdated is itself outdated. It is patently obvious that the pandemic is prompting governments to focus on their national interests first. Only on that basis can they then seek to engage in international cooperation. However, the governments of the great powers should acknowledge their collective culpability for failing to identify global priorities and instead taking imprudent steps that diverted attention from issues of major global concern in favor of non-essential and outright cavalier pursuits. Even less justifiable was the near destruction of the international system designed to create and enforce a rules-based mechanism of international trade, and the weaponization of global commerce by states to promote their unilateral interests, subjective values, or domestic political ambitions. Institutions like the UN, World Trade Organization, and World Health Organization (WHO) are not a panacea for world ills. But they can provide useful, if limited, signals ahead of trouble and serve as shock absorbers for international disagreements. As Henry Kissinger has eloquently expressed in the Wall Street Journal, “No country, not even the U.S., can in a purely national effort overcome the virus. Addressing the necessities of the moment must ultimately be coupled with a global collaborative vision and program. If we cannot do both in tandem, we will face the worst of each.” It is not as though we couldn’t have seen this coming. In the past twenty years alone, there were three major global outbreaks of deadly viruses: SARS from 2002–2004, H1N1 in 2009–2010, and Ebola from 2013–2016. None of these outbreaks created the type of global devastation we currently face, as these viruses lacked the specific combination of lethality, ease of transfer, delayed manifestation of symptoms, and the lack of vaccines and widespread testing infrastructure which allowed the coronavirus to thrive. But each epidemic made clear the prospect for global disaster. In a globally connected world with increasingly interdependent economies and an unprecedented high-speed flow of both people and goods across the world, it did not require an excessive imagination to foresee the risk of a future pandemic. In-
deed, international bodies such as the World Health Organization, non-profits such as the Bill & Melinda Gates foundation, and domestic government agencies such as the Center for Disease Control all sounded the alarm on the lack of preparedness. The 2019 Worldwide Threat Assessment of the Intelligence Community, issued by President Donald Trump’s own Director of National Intelligence, warned “that the United States and the world will remain vulnerable to the next flu pandemic or large-scale outbreak of a contagious disease that could lead to massive rates of death and disability, severely affect the world economy, strain international resources, and increase calls on the United States for support.” Like most countries, the United States tended to address immediate challenges that had receptive audiences at home. Congress devoted much of its energies to debating the use of economic sanctions against any nation that did not comply with America’s perceived interests and values, regardless of whether that state was a true threat to America’s national interest, or even whether these “values” were backed up by a domestic political consensus. With the Trump White House continuing the pattern of post-Cold War administrations to employ trade as a political weapon which could be used to achieve both international and domestic goals, major trade confrontations quickly followed. The European Union went even further, determining that its mandate expanded far beyond the questions of tax and economic policies which inspired its inception. Instead, the EU sought to impose its values beyond its borders, including with relying on force in the Balkans, where Europeans had strong political opinions but limited geopolitical and economic interests. The world’s most powerful nations began thinking not in terms of their fundamental national priorities, but, rather, how they could maximize their immediate competitive advantages. Domestic problems also crowded out any space for action on this issue. Contrary to what George H.W. Bush said about America becoming a kinder, gentler nation, what we need is for it to become tougher and more focused. Consider illegal immigration. The liberal social engineering engaged on immigration—most prominently by the Obama administration—ensured that cities and states devoted precious resources to integrating illegal immigrants, both in terms of education and healthcare costs. Had America not expended huge sums on those who were in the United States illegally it would have had the resources to focus on looming threats such as a pandemic. The pandemic illustrates that America cannot indulge in what seems desirable, but must remain alert to top threats and challenges. In the increasingly politically polarized United States, inattention to viral threats was one of the few matters which crossed party lines. While congressional Democrats focused heavily on the threat posed by climate change, no such call to action emerged to address the demonstrable threat of global pandemics. furthermore, since Trump was elected president, the Democrats adopted a “take no prisoners” war against the administration, culminating in february’s failed attempt to remove the president from office, which many Republicans interpreted as little short of an attempted coup. Trump easily survived impeachment and, until the virus became an epidemic, was on something of a roll. But with so much of his administration’s attention constantly turned toward waging partisan struggles, there was little push from inside the White House to focus the federal government’s energy on less obvious but still existential threats. There were senior officials in the Trump administration who sounded alarms about the pandemic danger but went unheeded. festering partisanship rendered any attempts at longterm planning wholly unrealistic. While there are hopeful signs coming from China and elsewhere that social distancing and carefully designed quarantines can work, the time and the economic and human sacrifice needed for these measures
to end the crisis are impossible to predict. The president appears to believe that he can master this crisis in a matter of weeks, and there is something to be said for projecting hope and optimism to a country that is currently short on both. What is not acceptable, however, is to act cavalierly upon these optimistic assumptions. As Dr. Anthony fauci suggests, when it comes to health crisis contingency planning, the only correct approach to the current crisis is to assume the worst precisely in order to avoid it. for a country as rich as the United States, there is no good reason not to spend the requisite funds to acquire any equipment, supplies, and manpower needed to prepare for this worst-case scenario. Should this money prove to have been spent needlessly, it would still pale in comparison to the costs that would be incurred should the worst come to pass. finally, America requires an effective communication strategy. Congress, the administration and the Democrats’ likely presidential nominee Joe Biden cannot reasonably be expected to speak with one voice, especially during an election year. However, it is not unreasonable to expect the Trump administration to present a clear, unified message to the American people. Every day, Americans receive multiple contradictory statements from the administration about the nature of the crisis, the government’s response, and what is ex-
true strategic direction. Indeed, American triumphalism after 1989 boomeranged. Too often Washington defined countries as enemies not on the basis of clashes of military or economic interests, but merely if they subscribed to a disagreeable political system. Nations such as Russia bridled at America's claim to primacy, partly due to predictable pride, partly on the basis of real national interests. The irony was that in cavalierly treating these nations as adversaries, America made it difficult to work with them in international institutions to create a new and stable global framework. America became preoccupied with parochial pursuits at the expense of the issues which are truly essential for American prosperity and security. It was in this climate that existential global threats such as the current pandemic were left unaddressed in favor of the unilateral pursuit of shortterm objectives and outright posturing, often producing results that proved inimical to America’s national interest. for instance, the administration’s campaign against Nordstream II, which Russia perceives as an effort to elevate the United States as the global leader in oil and gas production, has contributed to Moscow rejecting the continuation or expansion of current OPEC-initiated constraints on oil production, which established limits on Saudi Arabia and Russia that allowed American energy growth to skyrocket.
pected of them. This confusion, often highlighted by the media, is unacceptable, and it is the responsibility of the president to put an end to it. A prudent international response is also required. It is clear that America’s primary foreign policy focus should be on stopping the pandemic, that steps such as travel bans and quarantines must continue, and that some limits on exports of essential medical supplies are appropriate and inevitable. But, in trade policy as in life, there can be too much of a good thing. The last thing America needs is to allow necessary restrictions to produce further animosity, and particularly trade wars, with other major powers. China is the most obvious point of concern. While America’s excessive reliance on Chinese medicine and manufacturing clearly must be addressed, these problems must be attacked with a scalpel rather than an axe to avoid triggering a global economic depression through further U.S.-China trade confrontation. Of course, China remains a potent geopolitical rival to the United States and each side bears some blame for the erosion in the longstanding ties between the two nations. Beijing may even emerge as a stronger one from the coronavirus crisis and Washington must seek to ensure that it does not supplant its influence and power in the Pacific. Then there is Russia. American actions may have contributed to a deterioration in our relations with Russia, but that does not mean that it should lurch to the extreme of dismissing the challenge posed by Moscow. Nor does it imply that America should hesitate to defend NATO members in the face of genuine Russian aggression. Quite the contrary. furthermore, American politicians must be realistic about the potential consequences of its foreign policy. We must recognize at long last that, since the end of the Cold War, U.S. foreign policy has lacked a
While the resulting collapse in oil prices is beneficial in the short term to the American consumer, they are devastating to America’s Gulf allies such as Saudi Arabia and damaging in the long run to the U.S. shale industry, which cannot survive if oil prices remain anywhere near their current low levels. That this dramatic decline in oil prices has upended international markets at the least opportune moment for the United States is particularly frustrating, since America’s primary interest in stopping Nordstream II (forcing Russia to continue using Ukrainian pipelines), pales in comparison to its interest in a stable oil market. Reforming American foreign policy requires nothing less than the recognition that the liberal world order—the battle cry of global elites on both sides of the Atlantic— was largely a myth rooted in illusions and double standards. Since the times of Aristotle, there has always been a debate over the relative merits of democracy and autocracy and what combination of the two is the most appropriate for a particular society under particular circumstances. Rendering democracy promotion one of America’s defining foreign policy objectives was always bound to create a powerful international backlash. It ensured that China and Russia would combine against American interests and forced the United States and Europe to whitewash misbehavior by their allies as they proclaim loyalty to the new Atlanticist hegemon. By what perverse logic, for instance, could it be considered a priority for the West to demand Crimea’s return to Ukraine when Crimea was not only historically a part of Russia, but had an overwhelming Russianspeaking majority which repeatedly indicated its preference for association with Moscow, including in elections under Ukrainian control? America should have anticipated that Russia would consider it unacceptable to return Crimea to Ukraine in the
interest of Ukrainian unity, just as it would be unreasonable to support a proposition that Ukraine be returned to Moscow’s control in the name of Russian unity. That America would actively pursue this objective knowing full well that Russia would not relent barring a massive military defeat or an outright collapse is especially perplexing. America’s entire system of alliances, particularly NATO, appears increasingly obsolete in their current form. A variety of statesmen and experts, most notably George f. Kennan, warned that NATO expansion into the Baltics would turn Russia, a nation after the Soviet collapse was eager to join forces with the West, into a dangerous adversary. The United States did not heed these cautions and instead created a self-fulfilling prophecy in which NATO’s expansion ironically enhanced the threat posed by Russia to the very states it sought to guarantee. These alliances currently serve primarily to entangle the United States in the internecine disputes of European nations. As George Washington presciently asked in his farewell address, “Why, by interweaving our destiny with that of any part of Europe, entangle our peace and prosperity in the toils of European ambition, rivalship, interest, humor or caprice?” As a candidate, Trump correctly identified the fundamental deficiencies of America’s European alliances, which are based on pretenses of moral superiority and are bereft of a strategic vision. European elites became habituated to a relationship in which America advances their parochial objectives without question, leaving them free to introduce new tariffs and taxes against American companies and openly challenge the United States on issues like climate change or immigration. The infamous “European solidarity” was a myth championed by Poland and other Eastern European states seeking to gain NATO support against Russia. As the pandemic crisis made particularly clear, however, European nations are not only reluctant to assist the United States, but even each other, as many rapidly moved to limit exports on medical supplies as the coronavirus crisis took shape. It is only in its historical animosity to Russia that most of Europe truly remains united. And signs are that even that unity may prove elusive if tested by a real confrontation. Make no mistake: withdrawing from NATO or undermining its foundations is not a sensible approach. America cannot not remedy one extreme by going to another. What is needed instead is a keen appreciation of the status of American alliances, their relative costs and benefits, how each supports America’s national interest, and how to reform them effectively. In place of a preoccupation with parochial alliances, the United States must focus, in addition to its unilateral efforts and bilateral diplomacy, on working with institutions from the G20 to a reformed WHO. Neither America nor the rest of the world can afford to again fall prey to emotionally appealing, but less than essential distractions that impede them from addressing key threats to global stability. And indeed to the very survival of millions of people in civilized societies. What the United States confronts, then, is a moment of truth. Unfortunately, there is scant evidence that we are learning lessons about the imperative of strategic thinking. It’s encouraging that Trump played a key role in helping to reach a useful, if uncertain, deal in reducing foreign oil production with Russia and Saudi Arabia. Less encouraging are the strident voices in Congress and elsewhere about the need to punish China for the coronavirus, which would lead to a resumption of the trade war at the least opportune moment. Old habits are dying hard: little attention is being paid to averting a closer alignment between Beijing and Moscow. In addition, the nuclear arms-control regime is collapsing and signs of animosity between great powers are growing. The perils of an outright conflict should not be wished away for the current pandemic demonstrates how the unthinkable can quickly occur. America was and remains an exceptional nation in terms of the spirit of its people, creativity of its economic system, and ability to adapt to new circumstances. But exceptionalism is not a mandate for the reckless pursuit of peripheral objectives at the expense of real global priorities, nor for championing short-term gains over America’s long-term interest without anticipating predictable consequences. The Chinese character for “crisis” famously carries a second meaning: “opportunity.” Although the world currently finds itself in the center of an existential crisis, a promising opportunity may well rest just over the horizon. Dimitri K. Simes, publisher of the National Interest, is President and CEO of the Center for the National Interest.
Monday, 4 May, 2020
busiNess 09
Swat cuLtivatOrS SuFFer heavY LOSSeS aS haiLStOrM DevaStateS FieLDS PESHAWAR
Mango exports likely to drop this year due to coronavirus KARACHI INP
As the mango exports from Pakistan are expected to kick off with a delay and in apparently less quantity due to the coronavirus pandemic, the exporters have requested the officials to allow the labour from South Punjab to travel and work in mango orchards to save billions of rupees worth of yield. In a statement issued on Sunday, former chairman FPCCI Standing Committee on Agriculture Ahmad Jawad said Pakistan annually produces roughly 1.7 million tonnes of mangoes, which are exported to more than 50 countries, mainly to UAE and Saudi Arabia. He said last year the country recorded five-year high mango exports of 115,000 tonnes and earned $80 million in foreign revenue. Jawad fears low chances of mango exports especially from Sindh this year due to the COVID-19. “The mango harvesting season usually begins from May 15 in Sindh. Majority owners of mango orchards hire skilled labour from south Punjab for harvesting, grading, processing and packing of export quality mangoes.” But due to COVID 19, there is no transport and the labourers could not travel so mango harvesting could likely to suffer, he said, Sindh sets the trend for mangoes exports. “Similarly there’s hardly any availability of commercial flights to transport mangoes. The available cargo planes and freighters have got their costs tripled compared to normal rates. This has another impact to compete in the market, based on price,” Jawad said. He urged that Ministry of Commerce (MoC) and the Trade Development Authority of Pakistan (TAP) to come forward and help promote pulp industry for a long term gains from mangoes. According to Jawad, the average shelf life of mango pulp is about two years and due to COVID-19 the government should extend loans on low interest rate to pulp industry and its exporters. He also stressed the need to pay more attention to high value and huge potential promising markets of Japan, USA, South Korea and China to exploit potential. Currently the mango exports are around 10-11 per cent, which could be further enhanced to 25pc if the ministry approve 50pc airfreight subsidy from the Export Development Fund to make exports more competitive, Jawad added.
Sufficient POL stocks available for next 15 days: Petro Division
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HE farmers of Swat Valley have recently suffered heavy losses after hailstorm and downpour battered the valley decimating orchards and standing crops. They say the damage is enormous and widespread as 80 per cent of peach, plum, persimmon, apple and pear orchards on more than 35,000 acres in the valley have affected. On the one hand, the Swat district, whose major source is agriculture and tourism, has been hit by heavy rain and hailstorm this year, but on the other the tourism industry is already shattered by the coronavirus pandemic. Cultivators say in addition to their financial woes there will also be a shortage of fruits in Peshawar, Islamabad, Lahore and Karachi and other
THE KOKARI KISAN COUNCIL’S SURVEY ESTIMATES RS30BN LOSS OF ORCHARDS AND CROPS STANDING ON 200,000 ACRES cities of the country. Fruits will have to be imported that will results in the increase of its prices, they add. The farmers have demanded Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Mahmood Khan, who also belongs to an agriculture family in Swat district, to immediately visit his home district and announce a financial package for farmers. Fazal-e-Maola Zahid, an agriculture expert from Swat, told Pakistan Today that thousands of acres of orchards in Kokari, Shamozai, Amlok Dara, Barikot in Lower Swat, Matta Tehsil in Upper Swat, Charbagh and Khawaja Khel had been hit by fierce weather conditions during the last few days.
He said more 50,000 families depended on these orchards, adding besides orchards, standing wheat crops on 100,000 acres in Swat district has also damaged which was about to ready for harvesting within four weeks. Officials of the Kokari Farmers' Board also demanded the provincial government to immediately compensate the calamity-affected agricultural sector of the valley and announce adequate financial assistance to the farmers. Muhammad Ishaq, an orchard owner in Swat district, said he had planted peach and plum orchards on 50 acres of leased land and spent millions of rupees on its look after, fertilizers and pesticides by
Misuse of CNICs: FBR unearths scam worth billions in auto industry ISLAMABAD ShAhzAd PArAchA
The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) Karachi chapter has recently detected a fraud worth millions of rupees in which car dealers were found involved in registering vehicles by misusing the computerised national identity cards (CNICs). Sources said the FBR’ Anti-benami Karachi office, during an investigation in a case against Muhammad Khadeen, had detected a big fraud as well as tax evasion in which some dealers were found involved in registering around 400 luxury vehicles worth billion of rupees in the name of Khadeen. Sources said Suzuki Riaz Motors, Zeeshan Autos and Suzuki south and some other sub dealers have been involved in registering vehicles in unknown persons’ names. FBR has received details of millions of people from gas and electricity departments who pay bills in millions on yearly basis but are not paying any tax. Sources said that the FBR’ broadening of tax base has also collected data of 0.748 million people from 10 motor vehicles registration authorities of 10 large cities of Pakistan. These
people had purchased vehicles above 1300cc in different times, but are not paying taxes, they added. The Karachi’s Motor Vehicle Registration Authority had provided details of 0.297million, Excise Department Islamabad 0.127, Motor Vehicle Registration Authority Faisalabad 13,523, Motor Vehicle Registration Authority Gujranwala 3,805, Motor Vehicle Registration Authority Rawalpindi 1,490, while Motor Vehicle Registration Authority Lahore had shared details of 0.34472 million people. On the other hand, car manufacturers had also provided details as well as records of some 0.271 million people. Sources said the anti-benami initiative zone-III has also summoned car dealer who had made purchase/booking in the name of Muhammad Khadeen from Pak Suzuki Motors. The owner of the showroom showed willingness to deposit the amount worth millions, sources added. Earlier, a case was also emerged in which a front man of a leading car assembler purchased 32 vehicles on a deceased man’s CNIC and subsequently FBR initiated an in-
quiry against him. The Financial Action Task Force (FATF) in its report had revealed a nexus between a commercial enterprise including used car dealerships, restaurant franchises and terrorist organisations. The government has started compliance against the anti-money laundering in different sectors on the recommendation of FATF but car manufacturers are not properly doing enhanced due diligence (EDD), customer due diligence(CDD) and AML compliance to check the misuse of CNICs. Sources said FBRs anti-benami is considering referring this case to the Federal Investigation Agency and the FBR’ Intelligence and Investigation directorate on account of misuse of CNIC and tax evasion. An official of a car manufacturing company told this scribe that they have many times communicated to car dealers to stay away from fake CNIC booking. The Engineering Development Board (EDB), the regulator of the auto sector, is also acting as silent spectator about this matter. “We deal with manufacturing of cars and not sales,” an EDB official told this scribe.
Coronavirus crisis an opportunity to revive Pakistan's economy: business experts KARACHI ISLAMABAD
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The ongoing coronavirus crisis has brought in a golden opportunity to revive Pakistan's economy by prioritising e-commerce and online trading. This was said by international business experts on Sunday at the concluding session of the Pakistan's first 'Virtual Retail Conference 2020' held via Zoom videoconference platform. Organised by the HR Legends Forum in collaboration with Chase Up Shopping City, the international retail conference was participated by over 200 retail professionals and business executives from Pakistan, the Middle East and the United States. The primary objective of holding the retail conference was to discuss at length new challenges in the dy-
There is sufficient stock of the petroleum products available in the country for the next 15 days, a spokesman of the Petroleum Division said on Sunday. In a statement, the spokesman said there is a stock of 285,000 million tonnes of petrol and 50,000 million tonnes of diesel available in the country. In addition, two ships laden with petroleum products including 50,000 million tonnes of petrol and 50,000 million tonnes of diesel are docked at Kimari and Port Qasim, he added. The spokesperson appealed to the people to purchase the petroleum products as per the requirement and avoid unnecessary stock.
namics of retail businesses and their operations post Covid-19 crisis. Speaking on the occasion, Muhammad Raihaan Siddequee, the head of Human Resources Chase Up Shopping City, said the on-going coronavirus pandemic is turning out to be a game changer in the world of retail trade and shopping, creating millions of new jobs and online trading ventures as well as generating trillions in new business revenues around the world. "The retail and e-commerce sector in Pakistan has now been thrust in an ideal position to make the most of the internet, computing and communication technologies in order to revive the national economic outlook by introducing innovations and bringing in new online services and shopping solutions available to people round-the-clock," he added.
borrowing from middlemen. He explained the farmers had come under debts of middlemen as they had already obtained loans to look after the orchards. “When the crop isn’t produced, how they will repay the loans,” Ishaq questioned. In a survey conducted by its Agricultural Advocacy Unit and the Khapal Kaliwal organisation, Kokari Kisan Council has estimated the cost of one acre crop as Rs150, 000. In the context, the survey added, the total loss of crops and orchards on 200,000 acres across Swat is about Rs30 billion. The farmers demanded the government to announce a financial package to compensate for the irreparable damage caused to the agricultural sector by the natural calamity. They also sought the government to help them purchase fertilisers and high-quality seeds to make them able to stand on their feet.
Seafood exports surge 8pc to $317m in 3QFY20 ISLAMABAD APP
The export of fish and fish preparations surged by 7.97 per cent during the first three quarters of the current fiscal year as compared to the corresponding period of last year. The seafood exports during JulyMarch (2019-20) were recorded at $317.307 million against the export of $293.895 million in July-March (2018-19), showing a growth of around 8pc, according to the Pakistan Bureau of statistics (PBS). In terms of quantity, Pakistan exported 133,226 metric tonnes seafood during the period under review against the export of 129,704 metric tonnes last year, showing an increase of 2.72pc. On year-on-year basis, the fish exports from the country declined by 15.74pc by going down from $45.895 million during March 2019 to $38.669 million in March 2020. On monthon-month basis, the seafood exports, however, increased by 51.67pc in March 2020 when compared to the export of $25.495 million in February 2020, the PBS data revealed. Overall food exports from the country increased by 1.43pc during the first nine months of the current year compared to last year. The food exports from the country were recorded at $3396.022 million during July-March (2019-20) against the export of $3348.104 million during July-March (2018-19). The country’s overall merchandise trade deficit witnessed a significant reduction in the first three quarters of the current financial year as it declined by 26.45pc as compared to the corresponding period of last year. During the period under review, the country’s exports registered about 2.23pc growth, whereas imports reduced by 14.42pc. During the period from JulyMarch (2019-20), the exports witnessed an increase of 2.23pc and reached to $17.451 billion against the export of $17.071 billion of the same period of last year, stats added. The country’s imports witnessed significant decrease of 14.42pc and went down from $40.679 billion in the first three quarters of last financial year to $34.814 billion of same period of current financial year, it said. Based on the figures, the trade deficit during the period under review was recorded at $17.363 against the deficit of $23.608 during last year, showing a decline of 26.45pc.
Coronavirus: CNG sector seeks gas tariff relief package PESHAWAR STAFF rePOrT
The CNG owners and dealers Sunday urged Prime Minister Imran Khan to announce special gas tariff relief package for neglected and coronavirus lockdown hit CNG sector. They asked the government to take immediate steps for the sector that is a prime source of employment for many people and huge contributor to the national exchequer.
The demands came at a joint meeting of the representatives of CNG Stations Owners Associations, office-bearers and dealers, held at the Chamber House under Sarhad Chamber of Commerce and Industry (SCCI) President Engineer Maqsood Anwar Pervaiz in chair. The participants demanded that under the special fiscal relief package, the reduction should be made in gas tariff to Rs780 per MMBUTU (special gas tariff) for CNG
sector in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and the rest of the country that would result in good parity between CNG and petrol. They furthermore asked to charge sales tax on the cost of gas only @ 17 per cent, while seeking 4pc income tax exemption as well. Furthermore, the participants called to charge electricity tariff on the general industrial tariff and also demanded to allow payment of upcoming month gas bill in four
equal installments to rescue the CNG industry in the wake of the coronavirus. They were of the view that the special relief financial package would not only prevent the CNG industry from further decline or closure, but it would also maintain parity between CNG and petrol. The participants said Rs1,238 per MMBTU is currently being charged, so it should be reduced to Rs780 per MMBTU because the present rate is very high as
compared to other industries, particularly the petroleum prices are gradually decreasing in global market so it is essential to maintain good parity between CNG and petrol under the prevailing scenario. Therefore, the participants stressed the need of reduction in gas tariff. The meeting was informed that the SNGPL’s average cost is approximately 581 per MMBTU and the country would move toward self-reliance with such initiative.
Monday, 4 May, 2020
10 FOREIGN NEWS
Iran to reopen many moSqueS deSpIte CoVId-19 deathS TEHRAN
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RANIAN President Hassan Rouhani said Mosques would reopen across large parts of the country Monday, as officials reported a drop in the number of deaths from the novel coronavirus. Health ministry spokesman Kianoush Jahanpour said 47 people died of the virus over the past 24 hours, the lowest daily count in 55 days. He told a news conference he hoped “the trend will continue in the upcoming days”. His remarks came as President Hassan Rouhani said 132 counties, around one third of the country’s administrative divisions, would “reopen their mosques as of tomorrow”. “Social distancing is more important than collective prayer,” he said in a televised meeting of the country’s virus taskforce.
The president argued that Islam considers safety obligatory while praying in mosques is only “recommended”. Mosques and some key Shiite shrines in Iran were closed in early March amid the Middle East’s deadliest COVID-19 outbreak. The targeted counties are “low-risk”, Rouhani said. The virus taskforce was also mulling reopening schools by May 16 to allow for a month of classes before the summer break. According to Jahanpour, the 47 new deaths brought to 6,203 the total number officially recorded in Iran since it reported its first cases in mid-February. He added that 976 fresh infection cases were confirmed in the past 24 hours, bringing the total to 97,424. Over 78,420 of those hospitalised have since been discharged, while 2,690 are still in critical condition.
Experts and officials both in Iran and abroad have cast doubts over the country’s COVID-19 figures, saying the real number of cases could be much higher than reported. QODS DAY CANCELLED: Rouhani claimed hospital visits over potential infections were “much lower” compared to recent weeks. The Islamic republic has tried to contain the spread of the virus by shutting universities, cinemas, stadiums and other public spaces since March. But it has allowed a phased reopening of its economy since April 11, arguing that the sanctions-hit country cannot afford to remain shut down. Only “high-risk” businesses like gyms and barbershops remain closed. “We will continue the reopenings calmly and gradually,” Rouhani said. Yet he warned that Iran should prepare
for “bad scenarios” too, saying “this situation may continue into the summer”. Iran’s Revolutionary Guards on Sunday announced they were cancelling the annual day of protests against Israel known as Qods (Jerusalam) Day seemingly over the coronavirus pandemic. Spokesman Ramezan Sharif, quoted by Fars news agency, said the move was in line
UK pushes back against comparison with Italy as COVID-19 death toll passes 28,000 LONDON AGENCIES
Sudan criminalises female genital mutilation ISLAMABAD AGENCIES
Sudan has criminalised carrying out female genital mutilation (FGM), making it punishable by three years in jail. The United Nations Childen’s Fund (UNICEF) has welcomed the landmark move by Sudan’s transitional government to criminalize female genital mutilation/cutting (FGM/C), with a three-year jail sentence for offenders. “This practice is not only a violation of every girl child’s rights, but it also is harmful and has serious consequences for a girl’s physical and mental health,” said Abdullah Fadil, UNICEF Representative in Sudan. Sometimes called female circumcision, the traditional practice involves the partial or total removal of the external female genitalia for no medical reason. “This is why governments and communities alike must take immediate action to put an end to this practice”, he added. Some 87% of Sudanese women aged between 14 and 49 have undergone some form of FGM, according to the UN. In Sudan, it is common for women to get the inner and outer labia, and usually, the clitoris, removed. FGM can result in urinary tract infections, uterine infections, kidney infections, cysts, reproductive issues and pain during sex. Girls get cut because of a widespread cultural belief that it is essential for girls’ reputations and future marriage prospects. There has been a global trend towards banning the practice. However, according to a UNICEF report carried out in 29 countries in Africa and the Middle East, the practice is still being widely carried out, despite the fact that at least 24 of these countries have legislation or some form of decrees against FGM. FGM was already illegal in some Sudanese states but these bans were widely ignored. Under the new law, anyone who performs FGM, either inside a medical establishment or elsewhere, faces three years’ imprisonment and a fine. The move comes following years of persistent and forceful advocacy, including by the National Council for Child Welfare, women and child advocates, UN agencies and international, national and community-based organizations. Estimates show that more than 200 million girls and women alive today have undergone female genital mutilation in the countries where the practice is concentrated, according to the World Health Organization (WHO). And Sudan is considered to have a very high FGM/C prevalence rate, which UNICEF’s Multiple Indicator Cluster Surveys (MICS) revealed was at 86.6 per cent in 2014. FGM/C has no benefits and not only poses immediate health risks, but also long-term complications to women’s physical, mental and sexual health in addition to their well-being. A reflection of deep-rooted inequality between the sexes, the practice is internationally recognized as a violation of human rights of girls and women and as an extreme form of gender discrimination. Moreover, WHO points out that every year, before they turn 15 years old an estimated three million girls risk being cut without their consent, making the practice also a violation of the rights of children.
Facing questions over why Britain’s death toll from the new coronavirus was now the second-worst in Europe after Italy, a British minister said on Sunday people should not jump to conclusions and the full picture was not yet clear. The death toll was 28,131 as of May 1, just short of the Italian total, increasing pressure on the conservative government which has been accused by the opposition of having acted too slowly in the early stages of the outbreak. Ministers have rejected comparisons of the headline death toll with that of other countries, saying that excess mortality — the number of deaths from all causes that exceed the average for the time of year — was a more meaningful metric. The most recent available data showed there were almost 12,000 excess deaths in England and Wales in the week to April 17. Of these, just under 9,000 were linked on the death certificates to COVID-19, the respiratory disease caused by the new coronavirus. Analysis by media including Sky News and the Financial Times suggests those figures are worse than
in other European countries. Appearing on Sky News on Sunday, transport minister Grant Shapps rejected a suggestion that the evidence on excess mortality showed the government’s response to the outbreak had failed. “You need to look at that over a much longer period of time. So we’ll have to look back over a year I’m afraid, not to be evasive but we just won’t have that information,” Shapps said. “It’s much more complex than
you’re making it sound.” He said some impacts of the outbreak would not be known for a long time and that differences in the age and health profiles of nations, as well as population size and density, were among many factors that would have to be taken into account. “You have to look at the whole picture and that information simply isn’t available as yet,” he said. “We shouldn’t look at the raw data and jump to conclusions.”
with the cancellation across Iran of other ceremonies and the closing of holy places. “Let’s not worry about what the enemy might say,” he added. The day has been held every year since the 1979 Islamic Revolution to show support for the Palestinians and is usually marked on the last Friday of the holy fasting month of Ramadan, which falls on May 22 this year.
Syrian tycoon decries 'inhumane' security forces in unprecedented criticism AMMAN: Sanctions-hit Syrian tycoon Rami Makhlouf said on Sunday that security forces were arresting employees at his companies “in an inhumane way” amid pressure on him to step down from his business empire and pay millions of dollars in tax. Makhlouf, a cousin of President Bashar al-Assad and widely considered part of the president’s inner circle, has a business empire that ranges from telecoms and real estate to construction and oil trading. He played a big role in financing Assad’s war effort, Western officials have said. “Today pressures began in an unacceptable ways and the security forces, in an inhumane way, are arresting our employees,” Makhlouf said in a video in an unprecedented attack on the powerful security forces by one of the country’s most influential figures. “Mr President (Assad), the security forces have started attacking people’s freedoms. These are your loyal supporters… The situation is dangerous and by God, if we continue, the situation of the country will be very difficult,” Makhlouf said. The security forces did not immediately reply to a request for comment. Makhlouf said in the video he had been asked to step down from his companies, including Syriatel, the main mobile operator and main source of revenue for the sanctions-hit government. “I have been asked today to step down from my companies and take instructions while I close my eyes. Authority is not given to put pressure on people to give in,” he said. AGENCIES
Oil-hungry Asian nations pounce on low prices to build stockpiles SYDNEY AGENCIES
Some oil-hungry Asian nations are taking advantage of the collapse in prices caused by the coronavirus pandemic to build up their crude stockpiles. Here are some questions and answers about strategic reserves and the region’s oil supplies: What are strategic oil reserves and why do countries need them? Strategic reserves are stockpiles of oil and other fuels held by governments in secure storage facilities to cover unexpected disruptions to energy supplies. Major economies such as the US, China and Russia began to build up reserves after oil shocks in the 1970s, according to Ravi Krishnaswamy, regional senior vice president for energy and environment at consultancy Frost & Sullivan. The events that spurred them to take action were principally the 1973 Yom Kippur War between Israel and the Arab nations, and the 1979 Iranian revolution, which fuelled worries about supplies. How big are the strategic reserves across the region? China is believed to have the biggest in the Asia-Pacific. Beijing does not give an official estimate but analysts say it is at around 550 million barrels. In comparison, the United States’ strategic reserves currently hold around 630 million. State-owned China National Petroleum Corporation said recently that the country’s reserves were “obviously insufficient, and have not yet
reached the international standard ’90day safety line'”. The International Energy Agency requires its members to hold emergency oil stocks equivalent to at least 90 days of net oil imports. China is an associate member, but not a full member. Japan’s oil reserves were around 500 million barrels at the end of February, equivalent to national consumption for more than seven months, according to the latest official data, while South Korea had around 96 million barrels in strategic reserves as of December 2019, enough for 89 days. India, by contrast, has reserves with storage capacity of approximately 40 million barrels — which
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would last just 10 days in the country of 1.3 billion people. How are reserves stored? Strategic reserves are stored largely in secure underground depots like natural rock caverns. The US Strategic Petroleum Reserve, the world’s largest supply of emergency crude, is stored in huge underground salt caverns along the Gulf Coast. But building underground storage is challenging as it needs to have the right geological formation, and countries also need to build infrastructure to pump oil in and out. The high cost of building reserves has stopped many countries developing them to sufficient levels.
In Asia, India uses caverns to store its reserves but other countries, such as Japan, put theirs in above-ground tanks. Which Asian countries are pouncing on low prices to build up stockpiles? Australia, which has long had one of the lowest levels of emergency stockpiles in the developed world, said it will take advantage of the fall in prices to develop a strategic reserve in the United States. The country’s own storage capacity is already full but it has an agreement with the US allowing it to lease space in its Strategic Petroleum Reserve. In China, the Shanghai International Energy Exchange last month gave approval for state-owned Sinopec Petroleum Reserve to add more storage capacity. One storage depot in southern Guangdong province can hold up to 600,000 cubic metres (3.8 million barrels), while another in northern Hebei province can hold up to one million cubic metres. India’s Ministry of Petroleum tweeted on April 15 it was buying crude to fill its reserves, stored in rock caverns, “to their full capacity”. Madhu Nainan, editor of industry publication PetroWatch, however, questioned whether the country had enough available storage space to build up capacity quickly. “In India, storage tanks and pipelines are full and dealers’ tanks are full,” he told AFP. Japan and South Korea, with ample stockpiles, have not announced plans to build up their reserves substantially.
Monday, 4 May, 2020
SPORTS 11
PCB to Provide fiNaNCiaL aid to CriCketers, staff amid PaNdemiC Lahore
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HE Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) on Sunday announced to provide financial help to cricketers, match officials and ground staff facing hardship amid the Covid-19 pandemic. According to a statement, the board will provide Rs25,000 to first-class cricketers, Rs15,000 to match officials and Rs10,000 to scorers and ground staff who fulfill the conditions set by the body. The PCB, which according to the statement will ensure only the deserving candidates are supported, has rolled out an eligibility criterion, according to which: First-class cricketers who featured in the 2018-19 season and have played at least 15 first-class matches in the past five seasons from 2014-15 to 2018-19
Match officials and scorers who have officiated in PCB-organised events over the past two seasons Ground staff which had been employed by the now-defunct re-
gional/district cricket associations before Jan 1, 2013 (should have approximately eight years of service) According to the statement, PCB chief
Ehsan Mani said that the cricket board is aware of its “duty of care towards its stakeholders and, as such, it is imperative that we stand by our people during the lockdown period and support them in the lead up to Eid Al-Fitr”. The statement noted that “it was the right time to support cricketers, match officials, scorers and grounds staff” when the epidemic has virtually brought life to a standstill leading to a halt in economic activity. “It is also heartening to see our cricketers coming out and supporting the people in need by auctioning their prized possessions and through various charities. While I am sure many players are making donations in private, I want to applaud and appreciate Shahid Afridi, Rumman Raees and Azhar Ali who have been at the forefront of this noble cause and have been doing outstanding work,” Mani said.
ECB and CWI hold ‘positive’ talks on rescheduling West Indies tour London Agencies
Gary Neville claims Premier League clubs ‘frightened’ to publicly back restart London Agencies
Gary Neville has accused Premier League clubs of being “frightened to death” to publicly back the plan to restart the season. Premier League stakeholders met on Friday to debate how to finish the current campaign, with reports that some clubs want to abandon the season due to the pandemic and others are keen to play all remaining 92 fixtures. Former Manchester United defender Neville believes clubs do not want to be held liable should a player become ill with the coronavirus if the English season resumes. The French and Dutch seasons have been called off because of the health crisis and while the Premier League have apparently ear-marked a June return, that date is far from set in stone. Claiming there needs to be more public comment from clubs, Neville wrote on Twitter: “The PL are having a CV nightmare. They keep spouting Health First but then brief constantly ‘We have to Re-Start’. “I’d respect them more if they said ‘We accept the increase in Health Risk but it’s one we are willing to take’. They won’t as they are frightened to death!” When Neville was asked by a Twitter user what would happen if someone died as a result of the restart, he said: “That’s why we haven’t heard one single prominent CEO / Chairman / Owner or Executive open his mouth to back the re-start ! Brief / Brief / Brief ! Scared to death of the liability and blame.” Before making an exception for Brighton as the “only club willing to take a stand”, Neville added: “It would be good for them to speak at least once. Any of them! Clubs included. They are bottling this virus on comms. Very Happy to tell us when they are delivering food parcels though.” Brighton have held virtual press conferences during the shutdown and chief executive Paul Barber voiced opposition to the idea of finishing the season at neutral venues on his club’s official website on Saturday. Despite Neville’s outspoken claims, Crystal Palace chairman Steve Parish did make the case for returning to action in a Sunday Times column. “I believe that just as Formula One is often the precursor to developments that become standard in general road vehicles, so Premier League football with its physical science, medical infrastructures and resources for looking after its people, can begin to define how the ‘new normal’ might look for a lot of working environments,” Parish wrote. “Not only that, in our country and beyond, people need to find ways to move forward mentally, to experience some small relief from the worries of this crisis.
Representatives from England and West Indies, including Test captains and , have been involved in “positive ongoing discussions” about rescheduling their forthcoming series, the ECB has said. West Indies were due to arrive in the UK this month ahead of a three-Test tour, but that has now been delayed due to the Covid-19 pandemic. The English season is currently on hold, with no cricket planned before July 1 and the ECB working on contingency plans to try and fulfil its international fixtures once lockdown restrictions are lifted. CWI chief executive Johnny Grave has previously outlined how . That would have involved a clash with the Hundred, but the ECB has subsequently put back the launch of its new tournament until 2021. Any moves to put on Tests behind closed doors will need the approval of the UK government, however. Meetings with the Department of Culture, Media and Sport were held during the week, with the ECB understood to be for the resumption of professional sport. On the cricketing side, Root and England’s coach, Chris Silverwood, took part in a video conference with their West Indies counterparts, Holder and Phil Simmons. “Positive ongoing discussions with the ECB and CWI continued on Friday,” an ECB spokesperson said. “Both boards were represented including captains, coaches, administrators and the chief medical officers from the respective boards. “Discussions were wideranging including dialogue around revised schedules and COVID-19 med-
ical and biosecurity planning. “Meetings will be ongoing over the next few months to reach an outcome of when international cricket could potentially return. This is a long and detailed process and is very much in the early stages of planning. The guidance from the government will emphasise what we can do.” CWI has also kept the West Indies Players’ Association (WIPA) in the loop on the England tour. CWI and WIPA had a call on Wednesday and both parties committed to have more discussions on the possibility of the tour going ahead. Speaking in a recent interview with Caribbean TV channel CNC3, Holder said that all sides were involved in a “waiting game” but hopeful of a positive outcome despite ongoing wor-
ries about the coronavirus. “We’re still sitting back and waiting. I just think it’s a situation where we’re all monitoring the situation over in England, particularly in Europe as well,” Holder said. “I’ve seen a few things in other sports where they’ve pushed the schedules back and not having fans … but it’s a waiting game. We can only sit tight and hope and pray we resume some type of normalcy in the not-too-distant future. “This thing has been really, really serious, as we all know, and has claimed quite a few lives throughout the world, and that’s the last thing any of us would really want. I think we’ve got to play the safety card first before we can even think about resuming our normal lives.”
mGm pitches plan for NBa to finish season in vegas: report new York Agencies
MGM Resorts International has pitched a proposal to the NBA to complete the coronavirus-halted 2019-20 season on courts in Las Vegas convention centers, the New York Times reported. The plan, according to the newspaper, would have players and their families, plus other essential personnel, stay in a quarantined area in MGM hotels along the Las Vegas Strip while practicing and competing on courts in the same facilities. Players and broadcasters would have access to the usual resort facilities while in the protected area under the plan by MGM, which has 13 Vegas resort properties. The plan would convert MGM convention centers into 24 basketball courts, five of them equipped with cameras to permit television coverage, and players would reside in connected or nearby hotels. ESPN has reported the NBA is looking at a similar quarantined area in Orlando involving hotels and courts in private Disney World areas. The NBA halted its season in March after Utah’s Rudy Gobert tested positive for the deadly virus and the league has announced no plan for resuming games or even a timetable for returning to competition. The league will allow players to conduct individual workouts at team facilities starting Friday in areas where stay-at-home laws allow, the first small step toward resumption. No plan among those floated in US media has included spectators at games, most focusing on a one-site bubble where players might live and play and only once coronavirus tests are available in sufficient numbers to the public and the NBA has enough tests for everyone involved. The Mandalay Bay resort, with 4,700 rooms available over three connected hotels, would be the central hub of the MGM Vegas plan. An enclosed walkway would connect the Luxor, where caterers and housekeepers would reside. The Las Vegas Aces of the Women’s NBA play at Mandalay Bay. In such a plan, players are expected to need a training camp of more than three weeks to prepare for games, which could include the final month of the regular season and two months of playoff contests.
Pogba using lockdown to prepare for return after injury woes London Agencies
Manchester United midfielder Paul Pogba is using the coronavirus lockdown to step up his return to fitness after an injuryplagued season. Pogba had made just eight appearances for United this season before the health crisis forced the suspension of the Premier League in March. The French World Cup winner hasn’t played a single match in 2020 due to his persistent ankle problems. His last appearance came in a December 26 win over Newcastle, but Pogba has been keeping fit during the virus break and hopes to be ready if the Premier League
can return in the summer. “I have a little home gym in my house,” Pogba told United’s website. “I can do some training, some running, some bike, go outside and do some things with the ball. I am just keeping busy and keeping healthy. “We have got to stay motivated, there is no other choice. It is a period and we don’t know until when it will be like this, but I still have goals in my head and one day hopefully this (pandemic) will stop. “And then we have to get back on the pitch, so we have to be ready. “For myself, I have been out for a long time as well, so for me I just want to come back playing football.” Pogba, 27, has been in regular contact with his United team-mates during
CMYK
the lockdown as they follow the club’s fitness regime from home. Linked with a move away from fifthplaced United earlier this season, Pogba’s presence would boost their bid for Champions League qualification if matches can
be played again eventually. “My advice first of all is to stay safe, stay at home and keep practising,” Pogba said. “There is always a way to work, you can work with anything you have at home, you can still do sit-ups, push-ups.”
Monday, 4 May, 2020
NEWS
EuropE prEparEs for morE lockdown EasIng as vIrus hopEs rIsE PARIS
E
Agencies
UROPE on Sunday prepared for a further cautious easing of coronavirus restrictions following signs the pandemic may be slowing, with hard-hit Italy set to follow Spain in allowing people outside. More than 243,000 people have been killed and 3.4 million infected worldwide by the virus, which has left half of humanity under some form of lockdown and pushed the global economy towards its worst downturn since the Great Depression. With signs that the spread of the contagion has been brought under control, parts of Europe, Asia and the United States have begun to lift restrictions to try to inject life into economies crippled by weeks of closures and ease the pressure from populations wearying of confinement. After a two-month lockdown in Italy — with the second-highest number of virus deaths in the world — people on Monday will be allowed to stroll in parks and visit relatives. Restaurants can open for takeaway and wholesale stores can resume business, but there was some confusion about the extent of the easing. “I’m hoping this morning’s paper will clear up some of the many questions about what we can and can’t do,” said Pietro Garlanti, a 53-year-old cleaner, as he queued at a kiosk. “I want to take my old mum to the sea-side, can I?”
Italian authorities have stressed that preventative measures are still needed. “On the one hand, we’re super excited for the reopening, we’re already organising various activities the kids will be able to do with their grandparents outdoors, workshops in the garden, that sort of thing. The kids can’t wait to see them,” said Marghe Lodoli, who has three children. “On the other hand, it’s disorientating. The rules are not clear, and we’re not sure if just using common sense will do.” Elsewhere in Europe, Germany will continue its easing on Monday, while Slovenia, Poland and Hungary will allow public spaces and businesses to partially reopen. With health experts warning the disease could hit hard once again, governments are sticking to measures to control the spread of the virus and more testing to try to track infections even as they relax curbs on movement. Face masks will be mandatory on public transport starting Monday in Spain, where people were allowed to go outdoors on Saturday after a 48-day lockdown. LOCKDOWNS EASE IN ASIA: With pressure growing on governments worldwide to balance public health requirements with the need to ease intense economic pain, some nations in Asia announced similar measures. South Korea — once the second worst-hit nation on the planet — said Sunday it would ease a ban on some gatherings and events as long as they “follow disinfection measures”. Thailand meanwhile allowed businesses such as restaurants, hair salons and outdoor
markets to reopen on Sunday so long as social distancing was maintained and temperature checks carried out. Despite the reopenings, experts have cautioned that many countries are still not through the worst of their outbreaks yet. In the latest sign that the pandemic remains a serious threat, the Philippines suspended all flights into and out of the country for a week starting Sunday in a bid to ease the pressure on its congested quarantine facilities. And to boost morale in what many expect to be a long fight, the armed forces of India — where the world’s biggest lockdown
is in force — organised tributes to the nation’s medical workers, including helicopters showering petals on hospitals. Elsewhere, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani announced that mosques would reopen across large parts of the Islamic Republic, after they were closed in early March to try to contain the Middle East’s deadliest COVID-19 outbreak. Rouhani warned, however, that while Iran would reopen “calmly and gradually”, it should also prepare for “bad scenarios”. BEYOND BREAKING POINT: Across the Pacific, the pressure to ease virus meas-
Iran warns of nuclear deal 'death' if arms embargo extended TEHRAN Agencies
A top Iranian official on Sunday warned that a nuclear deal the US withdrew unilaterally from would “die forever” if an arms embargo on Tehran is extended. The United States is campaigning to extend the ban on selling conventional weapons to Iran, which is set to be progressively lifted as of October. The ban’s lifting is part of a 2015 United Nations Security Council resolution that blessed the nuclear accord reached between Iran and world powers. Ali Shamkhani, the secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, on Sunday tweeted that the nuclear deal “will die forever” by “circumventing 2231 Resolution & continuing Iran’s illegal weapons sanction”. He also questioned what would Iran’s EU partners to the deal do in such a case. “What will #EU do: Save dignity & support multilateralism or accept humiliation & help unilateralism?” Shamkhani said. Iran and the United States have been at loggerheads for decades. Tensions escalated in 2018 when President Donald Trump unilaterally withdrew the US from the nuclear deal and reimposed sanctions as part of a campaign of “maximum pressure”.
ures is intense on leaders in the United States, where the economy has been hammered with tens of millions left jobless. The United States has the most coronavirus deaths in the world and President Donald Trump is keen for a turnaround to help reduce the economic pain. Florida is set to ease its lockdown on Monday, as authorities in other states wrestle with pressure from demonstrators — some armed — who have protested against the lockdowns. There are signs that the pandemic is slowing down in some parts of the United States. In New York City, the epicentre of the US outbreak, an emergency field hospital erected in Central Park is set to close, the Christian charity running it said Saturday, as virus cases decline in the city. But authorities are wary of letting their guard down too fast, with fears the virus could wreak havoc in the most vulnerable communities in the United States. A massive wave of infections is sweeping through America’s prison population — the world’s largest at 2.3 million — with coronavirus deaths on the rise in jails and penitentiaries across the country. Riots over inadequate protection and slow responses by authorities have already taken place in prisons in Washington state and Kansas. “Things are beyond breaking point at this facility,” said Brian Miller, an officer at the Marion prison in Ohio. “Right now it’s hell.”
‘Enormous evidence’ links virus to Wuhan lab, says Pompeo WASHINGTON Agencies
US Secretary of State Michael Pompeo said “enormous evidence” shows the novel coronavirus outbreak began in a laboratory in Wuhan, China, and that Beijing has refused to give international scientists access to learn what happened. “I can tell you that there is a significant amount of evidence that this came from that laboratory in Wuhan,” Pompeo said on ABC’s “This Week.” “These are not the first times that we’ve had a world exposed to viruses as a result of failures in a Chinese lab.” Pompeo stopped short of saying the virus was man-made, noting that he agreed with a report by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence that ruled out genetic modification or it having been man-made. The virus’s origin has become a flash point in the pandemic and ratcheted up tensions between the U.S. and China. President Donald Trump has escalated efforts to attach blame to China as U.S. pandemic deaths pass 66,000. “I’ve seen what the intelligence community has said,” said Pompeo. “I have no reason to believe that they’ve got it wrong.” Pompeo declined to say whether the Chinese
North Korea's Kim did not have surgery, South says, as shots fired at DMZ SEOUL Agencies
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un did not undergo surgery during almost three weeks of absence from public life, a South Korean official said on Sunday, as the two Koreas exchanged gunfire at the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) separating the two sides. The government official declined to provide reasons, but said speculative reports that Kim had had an operation, citing some differences in his leg movements, were untrue. “Our assessment is that (Kim) did not undergo surgery,” the official, who declined to be identified, told reporters. Asked if media reports of Kim having undergone a simple medical treatment were also untrue, the official simply said: “Yes.” North and South Korea exchanged gunfire around a rural guard post, raising tension a day after North Korean state media showed Kim visiting a factory, the first report of him making a public appearance since April 11. Multiple gunshots were fired from North Korea towards a guard post in South Korea, the South’s Joint Chiefs of Staffs (JCS) said in a statement. South Korea responded by firing two shots towards North Korea, the JCS said. No casualties were reported. After weeks of intense speculation about Kim’s health and whereabouts, which included one report he had undergone cardiovascular surgery, North Korea’s official media published photographs and a report on Saturday that Kim had attended the completion of a fertiliser plant. Kim was seen in photographs smiling and talking Published by Arif Nizami at Plot # 7, Al-Baber Centre, F/8 Markaz, Islamabad. Ph: 051-2204545. Email: newsroom@pakistantoday.com.pk
to aides at the ribbon-cutting ceremony and touring the plant. State TV footage showed Kim’s leg movements appearing stiff and jerky. The authenticity of the photos, published on the website of the official Rodong Sinmun newspaper, could not be verified. Reclusive North Korea for years pursued nuclear and missile programmes in defiance of UN Security Council sanctions. Talks between North Korea and the United States, highlighted by three meetings between Kim and U.S. President Donald Trump, are at a standstill. The exchange of gunshots on Sunday was the latest confrontation between the rival Koreas that technically remain still at war after their 1950-53 conflict ended in a truce, not a treaty. In a lengthy briefing held later on Sunday, an official at South Korea’s JCS said the gunshots did not seem a planned provocation. The US-led UN Command, which oversees affairs in the heavily fortified DMZ, said it was working with the JCS to assess the situation. “The UNC will conduct a thorough investigation tomorrow to determine if there was an Armistice Agreement violation, and will provide the report to the appropriate authorities once completed.” Choi Kang, vice president of the Asan Institute for Policy Studies, said he believed the timing of the provocation shows it could have been planned to show that Kim was still in charge of the North Korean military. “Yesterday, Kim was trying to show he is perfectly healthy, and today, Kim is trying to mute all kinds of speculation that he may not have full control over the military,” Choi said.