Epaper – November 13 KHI 2020

Friday, 13 November, 2020 I 26 Rabi-ul-Awwal, 1442 I Rs 15.00 I Vol XI No 134 I 12 Pages I Karachi Edition

PM urges overseas Pakistanis to invest in nPCs for better returns

ISLAMABAD

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staff report

Rime minister imran khan has urged overseas Pakistanis to invest in their home country and earn better returns. addressing the launching ceremony of Naya Pakistan Certificates (NPC) on thursday, the prime minister asked the State bank of Pakistan (SbP) to devise a new product to attract overseas Pakistanis to invest in the country. “it is when you’re away from your country, you care about it the most. this is

true for Pakistani expatriates who are the biggest investors for the country,” the premier stated. he said that overseas Pakistanis have proven their mettle in every field and they own wealth equal to the total GdP of Pakistan. “We can convince overseas Pakistanis to invest their dollars in Pakistan by providing them with an enabling environment.” talking about the government’s efforts to revamp the economy, imran khan said that all economic indicators are showing a positive trend. he said the current account deficit has become surplus for the

first time in the last 17 years; exports have witnessed an increase of 24pc; while remittances have been on the rise for the last five months.

“Record cement sales indicate that the construction industry is flourishing,” the Pm noted. “the economy is now heading in the right direction and Pakistan has come out of the difficult period.” on inflation plaguing the country, the Pm said untimely rainfalls caused great damage to wheat crops, while food security issues also surfaced due to the Covid-19 outbreak. he added that the “mafia” in sugar industry played an instrumental role to cause the crisis and asserted the government will henceforth ensure to tighten the noose around them. imran khan linked rupee devaluation to hike in commodity prices, saying “when the dollar appreciates against the local rupee, it renders commodities and groceries expensive; however, the rupee has been performing well now and it is towards stability”. it may be noted that Naya Pakistan Certificates (NPCs), which are being introduced to facilitate overseas Pakistanis in the opening of a Foreign Currency Value account (FCVa), are for those who have declared assets abroad with the Federal board of Revenue (FbR). earlier, Senator Faisal Javed had said that NPC holders will get up to 7pc return in US dollars and 11pc in Pakistani currency, whereas islamic Certificates (Shariah-compliant) are also being offered by the central bank. “the certificates will be made available for a period of three months to five years while early encashment is allowed,” said Faisal Javed. “No tax filing is required for Non-Resident Pakistanis (NRP) and only 10pc withholding tax will be charged on profits.”

LHC suspends JIT, FIA notices to sugar mills of Sharif family, Tareen LAHORE staff report

the Lahore high Court (LhC) on thursday declared null and void the notices sent to sugar mills owned by the Sharif family and Pakistan tehreek-e-insaf (Pti) leader Jahangir khan tareen by the joint investigation team and Federal investigation agency (Fia). in its inquiry report made public last month, the Competition Commission of Pakistan (CCP) had noted that the Pakistan Sugar mills association (PSma) has maintained cartels among its members not only to protect inefficient mills but also to keep the commodity’s prices high. in their petitions, the complainants had maintained the agencies did not have the authority to conduct such inquiries. their respective counsels told the court the federal government constituted an inquiry commission to probe the sugar crisis on march 16. the commission, they said, levelled “baseless” allegations of “corporate fraud” on the mills. according to the petitioners, the cabinet’s directive to take action against the mills was unlawful. in their appeals, the petitioners had requested the court to declare the Jit’s notice seeking records from the Sharif family’s alarabia Sugar mills as null and void.

Pakistan

Bilawal, Maryam foreseeing defeat in GB polls: Faraz

CONFIRMED CASES:

g

Coronavirus in

349,992

Sheikh RaSheed teRmS PmL-N VP's StatemeNt ‘iRReSPoNSibLe’ ISLAMABAD

DAY'S DEATH TOLL:

34

RECOVERED:

NEW CASES:

1,808 DEATHS:

320,849 7,055 SINDH:

PUNJAB:

152,072

108,221

KP:

BALOCHISTAN:

AJK/GB:

ISLAMABAD:

41,258

16,226

5,041/4,409 22,765

Federal minister for information and broadcasting Senator Shibli Faraz has said that the meeting of Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) Chairman bilawal bhutto-Zardari and Pakistan muslim LeagueNawaz (PmL-N) leader maryam Nawaz is indicating their defeat in Gilgit-baltistan (Gb) elections. in a tweet on thursday, the information minister said that these parties are planning how to make hue and cry by using a rigging mantra in the elections after their defeat. he said that only those elections are fair for these parties in which they secure victories. he added that such meetings cannot brighten the bleak future of the Pakistan democratic movement (Pdm). meanwhile, Railways minister Sheikh Rasheed on thursday termed PmL-N Vice President maryam’s statement ‘irresponsible’. talking to a private tV channel, Rasheed said that people gave mandate to Pak-

more inside

Mob vandalises mosque in India’s Bihar after BJP win STORY ON BACK PAGE

staff report

LAST UPDATED AT 7:30 AM ON NOVEMBER 12, 2020

the two-member LhC bench, comprising Justice Shahid karim and Justice Sajid mehmood Sethi, accepted the mills’ petition while announcing the reserved verdict on thursday. the court also quashed the notices sent to the sugar mills by the Securities exchange Commission of Pakistan (SeCP). the bench further observed the SeCP failed to play its role in accordance with the law. it further maintained that the Fia had the right to conduct an inquiry but the laws under which the inquiry can be conducted have to be ascertained. the court observed that it will elaborate on the Fia’s powers in the detailed order that it will issue. the complainants had also prayed to the court to also declare unlawfully, and consequently null and void, the federal government’s directives to the commission to conduct an inquiry against the al-arabia Sugar mills and tareen’s Faruqi Pulp mills. the court was also asked to have the show cause notices issued to the mills retracted and bar the commission from harassing them. the LhC had earlier reserved the ruling in the case after listening to all the arguments, and on thursday, temporarily accepted the petitioners’ appeals while announcing the verdict.

PhC Chief Justice Waqar Seth dies of coronavirus STORY ON PAGE 03

Maryam says talks with establishment conditional to PTI's ouster STORY ON PAGE 03 istan tehreek-e-insaf (Pti) in general elections 2018. the government is not going anywhere, he added. terming maryam’s statement as a sign of her immaturity, he said that when PmL-N has decided not to meet anyone,

why is she [maryam] now talking about contacts and meetings.

Rasheed said that PmL-N wants to come into power by overthrowing the incumbent government. he said that PmLN’s narrative will not serve and the people in Gb will vote for Pti.

Lahore sees peak pollution as coronavirus surges STORY ON PAGE 02

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Friday, 13 November, 2020

NEWS

LAhOrE sEEs PEAk POLLutION As COrONAvIrus surgEs LAHORE

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AGENCIES

THICK blanket of smog enveloped Lahore on Thursday, prompting officials to warn that tens of thousands of the provincial capital’s residents risk respiratory disease and eye-related problems while doctors urged people to stay at home.

The air quality in Lahore deteriorated to hazardous levels, putting an additional burden on the fragile healthcare system amid a surge in coronavirus deaths and new infections. The Air Quality Index at one point rose to 750 in the city’s poorer

areas — about 12 times the recommended level. A day earlier, Switzerland-based air quality information platform IQair declared Lahore the second most polluted city, after New Delhi, India’s capital.

Pollution indexes peak dramatically in Pakistan in winter, when farmers burn off stubble in the fields. Winds worsen the pollution by further spreading smog across the region.

“The air quality level was hazardous today,” said Sajid Bashir, a spokesman for the Environmental Protection Department.

By mid-day the situation had improved, he said, as authorities took steps to keep smoke emitting vehicles off the roads and shut brick kilns across the

Additional sessions judge dies of Covid-19 LAHORE: Lahore Additional District and Sessions Judge Azfar Sultan Ibrar Syed passed away of coronavirus late Wednesday night. According to a spokesperson for the Lahore High Court (LHC), Syed was under treatment after he was diagnosed with the disease a few days ago. Syed had been posted in Lahore’s Sessions Court. Following the confirmation of him contracting the virus, the courtroom was sealed and staffers were tested for the Covid-19. “The tests of the employees remained negative”, the LHC spokesperson said. The courtroom was also disinfected, he added.

Pakistan on Thursday reported 1,808 infections of the novel coronavirus after conducting 36,686 tests — a positivity ratio of 4.93 per cent. The health authorities have been sounding the alarm about a second wave of the virus for several weeks now, with health officials warning it appears deadlier than the first. Daily infections and deaths are once more on the rise, raising fears that disease is making a comeback as the public becomes more apathetic toward social distancing measures. Meanwhile, the country has yet to fully utilise its top testing capacity of 73,572 and is currently testing significantly below numbers proposed by global health experts. According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), Pakistan’s testing policies likely only record the most symptomatic patients while ignoring the spread among asymptomatic carriers, which recent studies have suggested comprise the majority of infections in the country. STAFF REPORT

FM calls upon OIC to play role in resolving issues of Muslim world ISLAMABAD: Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi has called upon the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) to play its due role in resolving issues being faced by the Muslim world. In a telephonic conversation with OIC Secretary General Yousef bin Ahmad Al-Othaimeen on Thursday, he said that there are strong reservations about the growing trend of Islamophobia in some countries and Pakistan considers OIC as an important platform to resolve this issue. The foreign minister said that India has become a threat to the entire region including Kashmir due to its hateful and aggressive actions. Qureshi said that the statements issued by OIC condemning Indian atrocities in Occupied Jammu and Kashmir is commendable. STAFF REPORT

province of Punjab, where Lahore is the provincial capital.

Lahore, once dubbed as the city of gardens, remained pollution-free for months after March when the government imposed a lockdown to contain the spread of coronavirus. But the restriction was lifted in May, allowing a return to industrial activities and normal businesses.

With cars back on the roads, the air quality gradually deteriorated, falling again to unhealthy levels.

Pollution is no stranger to Pakistan, a country of 220 million — or Lahore, with some 12 million people. Cars are the top pollutants in Lahore but the city also has other sources of pollution, including stubble

burning, steel manufacturing furnaces and the city’s famous brick kilns.

“Coughing, throat infection and irritation in the eyes are common,” said Anza Farid, an environmental expert, warning that the situation could worsen in the coming weeks as more people burn garbage in the cities and farmers burn off the stubble in their fields. Dr Talha Ayub urged people to wear face masks for protection, both from pollution and the coronavirus. “People should try to stay at home if they can,” he appealed. The government portal on Thursday reported 1,808 infections of the novel coronavirus after conducting 36,686 tests — a positivity ratio of 4.93 per cent — despite government-imposed partial lockdowns in 4,136 residential areas across the country. The government is turning to sealing off hotspots in a bid to contain rising fatalities and infections from coronavirus.

Authorities also banned large gatherings, shut shrines, cinemas and theaters to contain the spread of the virus, which has infected more than 348,000 people across the country and killed 7,021 since February.

Sugar millers to pay Punjab farmers 11pc mark-up on delayed payment LAHORE TLTP

Cane Commissioner of Punjab has announced Thursday the government’s step towards eradicating farmer exploitation as sugar millers will pay an 11 per cent markup to farmers upon delay or deferment on payments.

The decision came following the pleas by sugarcane growers to the Punjab government seeking redressal of their long-standing grievances caused by sugar millers.

Now the millers who delay the payments to sugarcane growers by 15 days from the delivery date will have to pay 11pc on the overall payment as a markup as to protect and compensate farmers.

Punjab Cane Commissioner Muhammad Zaman Wattoo announcing the development said this step will put an end to farmer exploitation and will ensure them payments of their harvest. Wattoo said that it will instil the habit of timely paying in millers and encourage farmers. Earlier last month on the eve of cane crushing season, the government decided the minimum price for a maund of sugarcane to be Rs200. It was when the crushing season was to formally begin across the districts of South Punjab by for the current year. It is pertinent to note that the government of Punjab mandated the sugar millers to carry out their transactions to sugarcane growers via banks in order to avoid complications that may lead to exploitation of the farmers.

Ex-PM, others to be indicted in LNG case on Monday ISLAMABAD TLTP

An accountability court on Thursday set 16th of November for the indictment of former prime minister and PML-N leader Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, ex-foreign minister Miftah Ismail and other co-accused in the LNG terminal case. During the course of the hearing, accountability court Judge Muhammad Azam Khan directed former prime minister Abbasi, ex-foreign minister Ismail and other accused nominated in the case

to ensure their attendance on next date of hearing.

Earlier, the court accepted the requests of Abbasi and Ismail for one-day exemption from hearing. At the outset of the hearing, Abbasi’s lawyer Barrister Zafarullah adopted the stance that the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) had written to make Miftah Ismail as an approver in this case while his client had been charged under section 3. The documents of this were not with the defence, he said. “Charges could not be framed against them until provision of these documents to them,” Zafarullah added.

PM approves funds for purchase of Covid-19 vaccine ISLAMABAD STAFF REPORT

Prime Minister Imran Khan has approved specific funding for the advance purchase of the Covid-19 vaccine, according to a statement released by the Ministry of National Health Services Regulation on Thursday. The Health Ministry said that the prime minister has shown special interest in ensuring quality vaccines at the earliest and has approved specific funding in this regard. The ministry said the government has developed a Covid-19 vaccine strategy in response to global best practices.

According to a statement issued by the ministry, under this strategy, the government has prioritised the groups most likely to be the initial recipients of a potential vaccine. It said an expert committee on the Covid-19 vaccine has been working on technical oversight and review of safety and efficacy data coming in from trials. Earlier, Special Assistant to the PM on Health Dr Faisal Sultan confirmed that the PM has approved funds to purchase the possible vaccines of Covid-19 in advance. The funds were approved after the Ministry of National Health Services Regulations and Coordination had written a letter to PM Imran Khan to seek permission for advance booking of coronavirus vaccines.

Pakistan's testing capacity increases with launch of robot-operated facility NEWS DESK Future Trust and Opencell UK have worked together to launch a Covid-19 testing facility in Islamabad that is wholly operated by robots in an effort to increase the country’s overall testing capacity, it emerged on Wednesday. The new facility, known as Future Labs, can conduct up to 2,000 tests a day while requiring as little as six human staff members to operate it. It was built in the United Kingdom by Opencell.

The laboratory is a Biosafety Level 2 plus (BSL2+) facility built to ISO 15189 standards and is designed to meet the requirements for high throughput

Covid-19 RT-qPCR testing. The laboratory was set up

by Future Trust, a non-profit organisation that is a part of the JS group. The lab was inaugurated by British High Commissioner Christian Turner, who thanked Ambassador-at-Large for Foreign Investments Ali Jehangir Ambassador Siddiqui for “making him excited about the project”.

“UK is proud of having been in the forefront of the fight against Covid-19 in its efforts to pursue a vaccine and its distribution internationally, as well as for providing development assistance to a broad spectrum of Covid relief, through UK Aid, to Pakistan,” he said during the launch event.

COAs reiterates Pak army's commitment to kashmir cause RAWALPINDI: Chief of Army Staff (COAS) General Qamar Javed Bajwa reiterated on Thursday Pakistan Army's utmost support and commitment to the Kashmir cause and the people of Indian Occupied Kashmir (IOK). He was talking to Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) Prime Minister Raja Muhammad Farooq Haider, who called on him in Rawalpindi. They discussed matters of mutual interest particularly situation on the Line of Control (LoC) and IOK, said the InterServices Public Relations (ISPR). Separately, COAS Bajwa on Thursday welcomed the new Afghan Ambassador Najibullah Alikhil, saying his services would help optimise PakAfghan bilateral relations. The COAS was talking to the Afghan ambassador, who called on him, ISPR Director General Major General Babar Iftikhar said in a tweet. During the meeting, matters of mutual interest, including regional security situation, ongoing Afghan Peace Process, border management, and defence and security cooperation, were discussed. STAFF REPORT

Court sends Arzoo’s ‘abductor’ to jail on judicial remand KARACHI: Police on Thursday produced the accused Ali Azhar in the Arzoo Fatima case before the court of Judicial Magistrate South after completion of his remand period. Arzoo Fatima, a Christian girl, was allegedly abducted and forced to convert and marry to Ali Azhar 44. The police also informed the court about the details of the investigation.

“The police have completed its investigation with no more requirement of further remand of the accused,” the investigation officer informed the court. “The Nikah Khawan who solemnized the marriage of Arzoo and Ali Azhar, has been on interim bail,” the IO said.

“The police conducted raids in search of the lawyer who presented an independency certificate to the Nikah Khawan but he is absconding,” investigation officer said. “The in-dependency certificate has the stamp of the Justice of Peace,” Nikah Khawan said in his statement. “The Nikah was solemnized in presence of the witnesses of Arzoo and Ali Azhar,” he stated. The court sent accused Ali Azhar to jail on judicial remand and ordered the investigation officer to submit a chargesheet after completion of the investigation. In an earlier hearing the counsel of the complainant said that “Arzoo is minor and her age has now been substantiated (by medical report)”. TLTP

NAB closes investigations against Pervaiz Elahi ISLAMABAD: The Executive Board Meeting (EBM) of National Accountability Bureau (NAB) on Thursday authorised closing investigations against Punjab Assembly Speaker Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi owing to the absence of evidence. The EBM also approved to file seven corruption references, conducting six investigations and three inquiries against various personalities. The meeting, chaired by Justice (r) Javed Iqbal, made it clear that the investigations were being initiated on the basis of allegations and decision to go ahead with the case is given after assessing the merits of the case and knowing flip side of the coin, said NAB spokesman. The meeting was attended by NAB Deputy Chairman Hussain Asghar, Prosecutor General Accountability Syed Asghar Haider and Director General Operations Zahir Shah, whereas director generals of regional bureaus and other senior officers attended the meeting via video-link. APP

Friday, 13 November, 2020

MAryAM sAys tALks WIth EstABLIshMENt CONdItIONAL tO PtI’s OustEr PML-N VP CLAIMS MILITARY HAS REACHED OUT TO OPEN DIALOGUE

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NEWS DESK

AKISTAN Muslim LeagueNawaz (PML-N) Vice President Maryam Nawaz has claimed that the military has reached out to her people to open dialogue and that she willing to do so as long as the talks are held in the public eye.

She said that above during an interview with BBC Urdu, adding that these talks should be held “within the ambit of the Constitution”.

Furthermore, in response to a question on whether she would be willing to hold talks with the current military leadership, which her father, former premier Nawaz Sharif, had lambasted during a Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) rally, she said, the “possibility of initiation of dialogue from the PDM’s platform could be thought about but after the selected government

had been sent home”.

“The army is my institution,” Maryam said, clarifying that while she is not against state institutions, she believes that if the incumbent government needs to be ousted for the country to move forward. Maryam added that members of the military establishment had contacted “many people around me but nobody has directly contacted me”.

“The dialogue is with the people now,” she said, adding that she was ready to talk to “all stakeholders”.

In response to a question about whether or not she would talk to Prime Minister Imran Khan or members of his government, she said, that the incumbent government is worried and that the real dialogue will take place with the people of Pakistan.

“They are so worried they do not know how to react and they’re making such mistakes in their confusion that the mind is shocked,” she said.

JUNIOR OFFICERS WERE SACRIFICED IN KARACHI INCIDENT, CLAIMS MARYAM Maryam refused to offer further comments on this “minus-Imran Khan” strategy, insisting that the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) needs to be removed to pull Pakistan out of its current crisis. “I do not even want to take Imran Khan’s name but he represents everything that should not be in this country. So when I talk about the inflation in prices of flour, sugar, gas and electricity, who else can I name but Imran Khan? And the biggest problem of the people is that their vote has been stolen.” “Whenever the government takes notice of a commodity, its prices shoot up,” she claimed.

She also purported that the “people’s mandate” has been stolen and that there is a dire need for free and fair elections.

“It is time for the incumbent government to be held accountable,” she said, ruling out any possibility of political “understanding” with the PTI, which she claimed was “weakened.”

She added that any alliance with the

Sindh police get remand of suspect in Kashmore gang-rape case KARACHI STAFF REPORT

An additional district and sessions court in Kashmore on Thursday granted Sindh police a three-day physical remand of a suspect accused of molesting a minor girl and her mother.

The arrest of the “main” suspect was confirmed by Adviser to Sindh Chief Minister Murtaza Wahab.

The police informed the judge its personnel were conducting raids to arrest the other suspects in the case.

The woman and her four-year-old daughter were allegedly gang-raped by a gang on Tuesday after being called on the offer of a job in Kashmore.

Reports suggest the woman was called in from

Karachi for a job but when she reached there with her daughter, the assaulters allegedly gang-raped them and left them there for dead.

Another report citing sources said the victim duo was subsequently sold off to some buyer where the police recovered them in a sensitive state.

Kashmore Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Amjad Sheikh said two suspects have been detained for involvement in the case.

Taking notice of the incident, Minister of Human Rights Dr Shireen Mazari said the rape case “shows how despite laws a bestial mindset continues to ravage [our] society violating [our] children”.

Mazari also called on the Sindh government to ensure “strict enforcement of the law”.

FO summons Indian diplomat over LoC ceasefire violation ISLAMABAD STAFF REPORT

The Foreign Office (FO) summoned a senior Indian diplomat on Thursday and lodged a formal protest over recent ceasefire violations that injured a civilian along the Line of Control (LoC).

“Due to indiscriminate and unprovoked firing by the Indian occupation forces in Rakhchikri Sector of the LoC, 26-year-old Sagheer Ahmed s/o Rasheed Ahmed, resident of Village Kirni, sustained serious injuries,” a Foreign Office statement said.

“The Indian occupation forces along the LoC and the Working Boundary (WB) have continuously been targeting civilian populated areas with artillery fire, heavy-calibre mortars and automatic weapons,” the statement read.

In 2020, India has so far committed 2,660 ceasefire violations, killing at least 20 and wounding 203 people.

Condemning the deplorable targeting of innocent civilians by the Indian occupation forces, it was

underscored that such senseless acts are in clear violation of the 2003 ceasefire understanding, and are also against all established humanitarian norms and professional military conduct.

“These egregious violations of international law reflect consistent Indian attempts to escalate the situation along the LoC and are a threat to regional peace and security,” the statement maintained.

The statement also stated that by raising tensions along the LoC and the WB, India cannot divert attention from the grave human rights situation in the Indian Occupied Kashmir (IOK).

The Indian side was called upon to respect the 2003 ceasefire understanding; investigate the current and other such incidents of deliberate ceasefire violations and maintain peace along the LoC and the WB. The Indian side was also urged to allow the United Nations Military Observer Group in India and Pakistan (UNMOGIP) to play its mandated role as per the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) resolutions.

IHC moved against indoor wedding ban ISLAMABAD STAFF REPORT

The Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Thursday asked the National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC) to explain its decision of imposing a ban on large public gatherings while the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government continues to hold mega rallies, the most recent being in Hafizabad.

The NCOC on Wednesday called for a ban on largescale public gatherings and enhancing restrictions in high-risk areas as a second wave of the coronavirus sweeps through the country. The high court sought the explanation during the hearing of a petition challenging the suspension of indoor wedding functions from November 20 amidst virus outbreak.

The government last week announced the ban on indoor wedding functions while allowing outdoor marriages with an upper limit of 1,000 persons. “The ban will be enforced with effect from Nov 20 so that already arranged marriages at indoor venues can take place,” the forum had said at the time.

During the hearing, the IHC called out the federal government for what it said was its “double standards”.

On one hand, you ban large gatherings, [while] on the other the government continues to hold mega rallies, the court noticed. The petitioner’s counsel told the court that while indoor marriage functions were being banned, the government and the opposition parties were holding mega rallies. He said a marquee can only be shut down if it is found violating the standard operating procedures (SOPs).

PTI would be akin to “forgiving” them, which she felt was “not fair”.

Taking another jab at PM Imran, she went on to say that it would be a “sin” to talk with the PTI-led government.

Furthermore, the PML-N VP said that the party was not heading “towards a dead end.”

Instead, she added, the ones going towards a dead-end were those who had tried to make this temporary government.

When asked about the PML-N working with the PTI in regard to granting provincial status to GB, she said, “The people know whose plan this was”.

She claimed that the PTI would not take this matter to the parliament, but that the PML-N would, expressing a hope that the people of GB would support her party during the upcoming elections on November 15. She claimed that the PMLN “would not only turn the region into a province but also oversee the constitutional amendments”.

NEWS

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PhC ChIEF JustICE WAqAr sEth dIEs OF COrONAvIrus ISLAMABAD: Peshawar High Court (PHC) Chief Justice Waqar Ahmed Seth has passed away, a spokesperson for the provincial top court confirmed late on Thursday. He was 59. Justice Seth had tested positive for the coronavirus on October 22 and was subsequently admitted to a hospital in Peshawar, the spokesperson said. He was later shifted to Kulsoom International Hospital in Islamabad where he succumbed to the deadly illness earlier in the day, the spokesperson added. His funeral prayers will be offered on Friday in Peshawar at 2:30 pm. He was most famous for being on the bench that handed the death penalty to former president General (r) Pervez Musharraf in the high treason case. Justice Seth’s controversial observation in the detailed verdict of the high treason case — sentencing former military dictator Pervez Musharraf to death — had the government opt to take legal action against the judge.

The special court had sentenced Musharraf to death under Article 6 of the Constitution on December 17, 2019. In the detailed verdict, Justice Seth said in the paragraph 66: “We direct the law enforcement agencies to strive their best to apprehend the fugitive/convict and to ensure that the punishment is inflicted as per law and if found dead, his corpse be dragged to the D-Chowk, Islamabad, Pakistan, and be hanged for 03 days.” The verdict appeared to have irked many quarters and Law Minister Farogh Naseem announced on December 19, 2019 that the federal government would file a reference against Justice Seth under Article 209 of the Constitution in the Supreme Judicial Council (SJC). APP

Friday, 13 November, 2020

04 NEWS

Punjab aPex committee recommenDs ban on Public gatherings amiD rising coviD cases LAHORE

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STAFF REPORT

HE Punjab Apex Committee has decided to take effective measures to stem the spread of the coronavirus’ second wave and ensure strict enforcement of health guidelines, including wearing of masks at public places.

A special meeting of the Apex Committee was held with Punjab Chief Minister Sardar Usman Buzdar in the chair at his office on Thursday. Lahore Corps Commander Lt Gen Majid Ehsan, 10-Div General Officer Commanding Maj Gen Muhammad Aniqur Rehman Malik, Punjab Rangers DG Maj Gen Muhammad Amir Majeed and high-

ranking military officials attended the meeting. The meeting reviewed in detail the measures taken to overcome the second wave of the coronavirus. The participants expressed concern over the increasing number of corona patients and the death rate.

The political and military leadership of the province decided to take effective measures and make collective efforts to cope with the second wave of the Covid-19. The meeting agreed to chalk out an effective strategy in advance, keeping in view possible future situations with regards to the coronavirus.

The meeting decided the strict implementation on wearing masks in the province, saying violation of SOPs will not be tolerated under any circumstances. It was further

decided to run an effective public awareness campaign. It was also decided in the meeting that all necessary arrangements and strategy will be given final shape before the start of winter season.

It was recommended to quarantine people coming from abroad, especially from India, and to impose a ban on political, social, cultural and religious gatherings in the province.

Similarly, it was recommended to restrict the number of invitees for marriages at open places. The meeting also dilated on the proposal to reserve some hospitals of the province especially from southern Punjab for coronavirus as well as starting winter vocations in education institutions.

Lahore Corps Commander Lt Gen Majid

Ehsan asserted to extend all possible cooperation with the Punjab government. Pakistan Armed Forces assured their full support to the civil government as coronavirus is a national challenge. The Pakistan Army is standing with the government to make people's lives safer and ready to tackle the second wave of coronavirus through collective efforts, he added.

Buzdar said that public support is utmost necessary to deal with coronavirus. The government will continue to take steps for protecting the lives of the people. The people have to show responsibility in this situation.

The more precautionary measures people take the safer they will be, the CM added.

The final decision will be taken by the

technical team after reviewing all the recommendations. The government will ensure the implementation of the decision taken by the technical team. The government will work more efficiently for safeguarding the lives of the citizens. He said that the Pakistan Army has always vigorously supported the nation in its time of trial. The chief minister also thanked the military leadership for their cooperation to deal with the corona pandemic.

The medical experts gave suggestions and recommendations to stop the spread of coronavirus in the province.

Law Minister Raja Basharat, Health Minister Dr Yasmin Rashid, Special Assistant for Information Dr Firdous Ashiq Awan, Chief Secretary Jawad Rafiq Malik, IGP Inam Ghani, additional chief secretary (home), additional chief secretary higher education, secretary specialised healthcare and medical education, secretary primary and secondary health, secretary schools education, secretary information, medical experts, head of Special Monitoring Unit and concerned officers were also present on this occasion.

Death toll in Kohlu cylinder blast reaches two KOHLU TLTP

The death toll in Kohlu cylinder blast reached two on Thursday as another injured girl succumbed to her burns. More than 28 people were injured in a gas cylinder blast in Kohlu on Wednesday last during a marriage ceremony. The cylinder exploded in the Bohri area of Kohlu. The injured are under treatment at the Burns Centre, where the condition of 11 is said to be critical. Earlier on January 8, a cylinder blast occurring was reported in Quetta, resulting in injuries and damage to infrastructure.

Punjab reports another polio case; tally reaches 14 KARACHI: A policeman stands alert to deal with any unexpected situation ahead of resumption of Pakistan Super League (PSL) in Karachi. INP

LAHORE TLTP

Disunity harmful for Kashmir cause, warns Masood ISLAMABAD STAFF REPORT

Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) President Sardar Masood Khan has said that he does not believe in isolationism but establishing good relations with India depends on the Kashmir policy of New Delhi.

In an interview with a private television channel, Khan said that despite hurdles created by India, the Kashmir issue had been frequently projected across the world and the global media has played an active role in this regard.

Responding to a question, he said that pro-India politicians of occupied Kashmir like Farooq Abdullah and Mehbooba Mufti showed their sympathy with the Kashmiri people only when they lost power. In the lust of power, these elements have repeatedly deceived the people of the occupied territory and never hesitate in

stabbing in their back for their petty political interest.

He said that the arrest of Farooq Abdullah and Mehbooba Mufti along with Hurriyat leaders after August 5 last year was nothing but to provide political mileage to them.

Khan said that the majority of the Hurriyat and resistance leaders arrested last year are still rotting in prisons, while Farooq Abdullah and Mehbooba Mufti have been released to do politics and once again deceive the people of occupied Jammu and Kashmir.

To a question about the sedition case registered against AJK Prime Minister Raja Farooq Haider, the state president said that this was a wrong move. "It has been my firm position that if Pakistan is to make some achievement on the Kashmir issue, it would have to promote unity and cohesion on every level," he added.

"The global media had published significant reports on the situation in occupied Kashmir in September and

October last but later, some other developments in the world diverted its attention from Kashmir, and it could not give due coverage to the Kashmir issue," he regretted.

The AJK president said that in order to hide the ground realities from the international community, India has banned the entry of not only media but the human rights groups also into occupied Kashmir.

“However, whatever reports are leaked, are alarming, and in this state of affairs, the responsibilities of Pakistani media have enormously grown while correspondents of international news agencies and TV networks in Pakistan can apprise the world of the plight of Kashmiri people,” he added.

To yet another the question, Khan said that a systematic anti-Muslim campaign under the garb of so-called secularism has been carried out by India since 1947.

However, the incumbent BJP-RSS regime has publicly started massacring the Muslims.

He unveiled its Hindutva doctrine under which all non-Hindu minorities particularly the Muslims have been declared enemies. "The Hindutva doctrine is a hanging sword on the heads of the Muslims of India and occupied Kashmir as well as the people of South Asia," he said and asserted that we would have to prepare ourselves to cope with this challenge.

Role of maritime security pivotal in CPEC: Admiral Niazi ISLAMABAD STAFF REPORT

Chief of Naval Staff Admiral Amjad Khan Niazi has said that maritime security has a pivotal role with regards to the development of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC).

The naval chief said this during his visit to Pakistan navy units at coastal areas of Turbat, Gwadar and Ormara to review operational preparedness and combat readiness.

Admiral Niazi highlighted the importance of maritime security of the entire coast which has increased manifold in con-

text of the ongoing CPEC project. He highlighted the dividends of CPEC related projects which are intrinsically linked with the security of maritime domain.

The naval chief stressed that responsibilities of the Pakistan Navy would continue to grow in coming years. He reaffirmed Pakistan Navy's resolve to safeguard the maritime boundaries and maritime interests of the nation at all costs and also appreciated the morale, selfless devotion and commitment of the deployed troops to defend the maritime frontiers of the country.

Earlier upon arrival at PNS Siddique, the naval air station at Turbat, the chief of the

naval staff was received by Pakistan Fleet Commander Rear Admiral Naveed Ashraf.

The naval chief was briefed on the operations of the naval air arm followed by interaction with the troops. Later, the chief of the naval staff departed for Gwadar, where he was apprised of the ongoing operations of Maritime Security Task Force-88, Coastal Security and Harbour Defence Force, established by Pakistan Navy to ensure maritime security of Gwadar Port and CPEC projects.

The naval chief also visited Jinnah Naval Base and PN Cadet College Ormara where he was received by Coast Commander Vice Admiral Zahid Ilyas.

A fresh polio case has been reported in Punjab’s Layyah district, taking the overall number of cases to 14 in the province, said incharge of the anti-polio programme.

According to details, a new case of the crippling disease was reported in Layyah.

Both lower limbs of the child have been paralysed. With this addition, the number of polio cases detected this year from Punjab has reached 14. Meanwhile, the overall number of crippling disease cases in the country has jumped to 81 this year so far. Earlier on October 17, Balochistan’s health department had reported two more cases of poliovirus in the province. With two fresh cases the tally of poliovirus infections this year had soared to 23 cases. A case of the crippling disease had been reported in Chiltan Town of Quetta, the provincial health department had said in a statement. A four-year child had been confirmed to be infected by the poliovirus in the city. A 15-month child in tehsil Barshor in Pishin district had been confirmed to be infected by poliovirus, in the second case in the province.

Friday, 13 November, 2020

PM to launch Ehsaas scholaRshIP foR PRIMaRy school chIldREn ISLAMABAD

P

shahzad Paracha

RIMe Minister Imran Khan on Friday will launch ehsaas Taleemi-Wazaef’ for primary school children under the Waseela-e-Taleem programme, which will aid 2 million children nationwide.

The above was stated by Special Assistant to Prime Minister on Poverty Alleviation and Special Initiatives Dr Sania Nisthar, who in a media briefing, said that Rs8 billion have been allocated this year for the programme.

The welfare scheme will provide stipends of Rs1,500 for boys and Rs2,000

for girls who attain 70 per cent attendance in school.

She added that this is now a paperless system run completely on locally developed apps. Furthermore, the removal of non-government organisations from the operation brought the running costs down as well, she added.

In the past, the programme encountered a number of challenges, namely high administrative cost, weak compliance monitoring system, low stipend amount and high error rates, and fraud due to a paper-based approach.

Pakistan currently has 19.1 million out-of-school children in the country and it is hoped that such programmes will reduce that number and improve literacy.

ISLAMABAD TLTP

ISLAMABAD GhuLaM abbas

WaPda seeks Rs2 per unit hike in hydel power tariff ISLAMABAD ahMad ahMadani

National electric Power Regulatory Authority (NePRA) has completed its hearing on an application of the Water and Power Development Authority (WAPDA), seeking Rs2 per unit increase in hydel power tariff. According to sources in the power sector, if NePRA grants approval on the request of WAPDA, then the price of hydel power price will go up from Rs5.67 per unit to Rs7.67 per unit. earlier, WAPDA Hydroelectric had filed a petition with NePRA seeking Fy21 tariff revisions for supply of power from WAPDA hydel power stations. The hearing on the tariff petition, filed by WAPDA Hydroelectric, was held recently under the chair of NePRA Chairman Tauseef H Farooqi.

Speaking on the occasion, the NePRA chairman said that a final decision in this regard would be taken after scrutiny of data and verification of facts and figures. “It is important to determine whether the concerned forums have given their approval to those projects for which WAPDA has been seeking grants or not,” he added. NePRA also expressed annoyance over the absence of WAPDA Chairman Lt Gen (r) Muzammil Hussain during the course of hearing and late submission of tariff hike petition for the current financial year.

05

PM Imran directs finalisation of incentives for special technology zones

Big industry expands 7.65pc in September Continuing with the positive trend, the country’s large-scale manufacturing registered a growth of 7.65pc yoy in September 2020, when compared with the same month of last year.

The growth in September is the third consecutive increase in LSM output since the revival started in July. Cumulatively, LSM jumped 4.81pc yoy in the first quarter (JulySept) of Fy21 as compared to JulySept Fy20.

When compared with Aug 2020, large-scale industrial output grew more than 10pc during the month under review.

According to data released by the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics on Thursday, the rebound in LSM output, which came after months of damage inflicted by Covi-19, was mainly due to positivity in construction, sugar, automobile, and pharmaceutical sectors.

Lowering of interest rates and reduction in duties on raw materials are expected to further spur economic activities in the current fiscal year, it added.

The monthly data of manufacturing showed that 9 out of 15 subsectors in LSM rose in September.

As per the data, production of 11 items under the Oil Companies Advisory Committee dipped 2.84pc year-on-year during September; 36 items under the Ministry of Industries and Production rose 7.92pc; while 65 reported by the provincial bureaus of statistics increased 9.34pc.

NEWS

The LSM constitutes 80pc of the country’s total manufacturing and accounts for nearly 10.7pc of the national output. In comparison, the small-scale industry makes up for just 1.8pc of GDP and 13.7pc of the secondary sector.

PBS data showed the auto sector posted a massive year-on-year growth in September 2020. The sector saw the production of tractors rising by 13.42pc, trucks 3pc, buses 34.29pc, jeep and cars 40.14pc and motorcycles 24.3pc.

Likewise, cement output surged 21.32pc in Sept 2020 mainly due to greater demand following the start of construction and exports from the country. The production of paints and varnishes were up 42.82pc.

Meanwhile, cigarettes production soared 7.71pc year-on-year in September. In pharmaceuticals, the

output of tablets grew 18.51pc, syrups 5.88pc, injections 53.84pc, capsules 51.04pc and ointments 2.14pc. The production of tea, cooking oil, and vegetable ghee production dipped 13.27pc, 2.98pc and 6.61pc, respectively.

The production of electronic goods contracted except deep freezers, air-conditioners, electric meters, transformers, storage batteries, and electric bulbs.

The data further showed that the output of petroleum products dipped by 2.84pc in Sept. The output of two oil products — petrol and kerosene — was up 5.38pc and 13.45pc, respectively. The production of LPG was up by 9.65pc during the month under review. The production of furnace oil, Jet (airline) fuel, lubricating oil, jute batching oil, and solvent naphtha also registered growth.

Prime Minister Imran Khan has directed the officials concerned to finalise incentives plan for special technology zones so that foreign investment could be brought to the country.

Chairing a meeting on Thursday, the PM emphasized that Pakistan has immense potential in the IT sector, which needs to be optimally tapped so as to fulfill the country’s domestic requirements and meet its export targets. He said the young Pakistani population would get maximum benefits from the uplift of the neglected IT sector of the country.

Rupee ascend continues as dollar slips to Rs158.33

Pakistani Rupee maintained its winning run against the US Dollar for 21st consecutive day, gaining another 16 paisas in the interbank market on Thursday. According to a State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) tweet, the US dollar opened at Rs158.49 on Thursday and closed at Rs158.33. PKR has gained Re0.76 against the greenback in the last four days. “Stable foreign exchange reserves and a return to currentaccount surplus for the first time in five years, thanks to record remittances, have helped shore up the currency,” said Bloomberg in its report.

“The nation separately won $1.4 billion in emergency loan from the International Monetary Fund this year, while it also received funds from the World Bank and Asian Development Bank to deal with the economic impact of the Covid-19 outbreak.” The recent appreciation in the rupee is mainly driven by FX inflows, positive market sentiments, and it is broadly in line with global USD weakness across major currencies,” said Pervez Shahbaz Khan, Global Treasurer at Askari Bank Ltd, in Karachi. “Future direction will depend on upcoming current account numbers.” news desk

Rigging is in the eye of the beholder ciTy noTes

c

M a niazi

LeARLy, outgoing United States President Donald Trump did not know what he was talking about when he said there had been rigging. The best way of rigging, as any observer of Pakistani elections knows, is to kill the opposing candidate. Of course, in the US, that just means the vice-presidential candidate is sworn in on Inauguration Day, but what if the opposing candidate kills them both?

As a matter of fact, one of the most time-honoured tactics, that of aerial firing in the opponent’s strongholds, preferably outside a women’s polling station, was not used, even though it would have been effective in those inner-city neighbourhoods that voted so heavily for Joe Biden (though there was the danger that some drug dealers in line to vote might have fired back). Multiple voting, impersonation and suborning the polling staff, and other classic tactics seem not to have been tried. Perhaps

because the election staff are not government servants, like school and college teachers, or the staff of publicly owned enterprises.

As a matter of fact, the election authorities are not even at the state level. The states merely tabulate the count delivered to them and then declare elected the presidential electors, who then go to Washington to vote in the new president. So, you are dealing with about 3000 election authorities, and it is not really possible to rig that election.

There were no reports of booth capturing, which means that you take over the booths for a while, and some of your workers stamp ballots while others, armed to the teeth, ensure that the polling staff goes along. The delicacy of the operation demands that either the returning officer (RO) accepts the results of the polling station without ensuring that the polling agents named by each candidate have agreed to the count, or that the polling agents shut their eyes to what is going on.

The result was also not compiled electronically, nor was the army called out to maintain peace. No polling stations were labelled dangerous, which means that there was a likelihood of a clash. Americans do not seem to

CMYK

take elections seriously. But then, who takes parties seriously? Here, election clashes do not occur because people support the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) or the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), but because they belong to the Jat or Arain biradri. Win or lose, for the PTI it does not matter. But for the Jats or Arains, it does. And people get killed because of that. And not only that, but elections may set off a chain of violence, or merely be a part of it.

As a matter of fact, there was no indication of whether the Trump biradari or the Biden biradari played a role in this election. And do not tell me Americans are above biradri politics. Biden picked a black woman, Kamala Harris, for his vice-presidential candidate because she was a black woman. And what else is biradari politics, but voting for people from the same group? Like voting for Harris, and also Biden, if you’re a black. Or voting for Trump, who is of German descent, because he is a fellow-white.

Speaking of black women, they have picked a black actress, Lashana Lynch, to be James Bond in the 25th film in the franchise. The film, No Time To Die, will be

released next year. I wonder what will replace the Bond Girl, who was almost as much of an institution as Bond himself. I wonder if the knowledge that he was being succeeded by a black woman played any role in killing Sean Connery last week. Or was it old age? He was 90.

Of course, that still leaves our own Imran Khan able, at 67, to say that he is still young. Well, he might be young, but he’s vacillating. I mean, look at how he got rid of Fayyazul Hassan Chauhan as Punjab information minister. Again. But Chauhan should not worry. He has been replaced by Dr Firdous Ashiq Awan. After having been federal information minister under the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP), she became Information SAPM after Fawad Chaudhry but was sacked. Now she has come back as SACM. She is living proof, if Chauhan needs any, that you can come back from the dead twice.

That might explain why Jahangir Taren, who left the country in a hurry to escape the blame for the sugar shortage, is coming back. He only lost Imran’s favour twice.

He is quite a guy, because he worked first with Shehbaz Sharif, then with General Musharraf.

Friday, 13 November, 2020

06 COMMENT

Resetting the US

The PTI government versus PDM Will the alliance remain united?

Trump is not going to fade away like previous one-termers

T

he attempts by the government to break up the opposition alliance have failed so far. The PDM comprises 11 parties. Two of these are moderate mainstream parties who happen to be traditional rivals.

Unlike them, the JUI(F) draws support from religious seminaries as does JAH, another alliance component.

Nationalist parties are secular outfits drawing support from their respective ethnic groups. Some of the alliance components have at times aligned themselves with the PPP or PML(N) or both. There are enough differences between the allied parties but unlike PTI leadership these are led by hardheaded politicians. The alliance which has already held three mega rallies remains united and is now bracing for a fourth one in Peshawar to beard the lion in his den.

The PML(N), PDM’s main source of strength in Punjab remains united, defying several timelines for a split announced by PTI leaders. Despite facing hardships both the soft liners and the hard liners remain united over Nawaz Sharif’s combative narrative.

The PTI government has also tried to cause estrangement between the PPP and PML(N) by allegedly engaging elements in the ISI and Rangers, who are technically under PM’s control. The attempt boomeranged and caused embarrassment to the military, which was unnecessarily dragged into an ugly political standoff.

Attempts were made to use Bilawal’s "It saddens me to see Generals names being taken at rallies” to incite the PML(N) against PPP. The PML(N) leaders however did not take the bait. Bilawal backtracked by maintaining that the PDM had not barred the allies from taking names during rallies. The PPP and PML(N) have displayed more maturity than many had expected during the ongoing Gilgit-Baltistan elections. Despite the stiff electoral rivalry, the leadership of the two parties maintained amicable relations. JUI(F) Secretary Information Hafiz Hussain Ahmad had lashed out at Nawaz Sharif on a TV show for the latter’s anti-establishment stance.

This was considered to be a divisive move and his party promptly removed him from the office.

The PDM has yet to go through several endurance tests, the most challenging being resignations from the assemblies. Unless it qualifies in all these, it would be premature to pass judgment over the alliance’s mettle.

At Penpoint M A NIAZI

J

oe Biden has been elected President of the USA, but his predecessor is not going to do as his own four predecessors as one-term Presidents in the 20th century, Robert Taft, Herbert Hoover, Jimmy Carter and George Bush, which was to fade out. Though Trump has lost, the margin has not been narrow enough to drive him from politics.

It has already been accepted that in 2024, the Republican nominee will have to win Trump’s support to win the nomination, and to have any fair chance of winning office. The election was perhaps even narrower than in 2016, when it was narrow enough, and Biden’s victory in the popular vote meant that if Trump had won, it would have been for the second consecutive time that someone would have won the electoral College, while losing the popular vote.

That is why there is already talk of Trump running again in 2024. There is only one precedent of someone losing the Presidency, and then contesting it again to win it, that of Grover Cleveland. However, there are certain differences, as well as certain similarities.

The biggest difference is that Grover Cleveland was a Democrat. In fact, Cleveland was the only Democrat to win the Presidency between 1856 and 1912. He won in 1884, lost in 1888, and won again in 1892. He too was from New York, but he had entered politics more normally, having won elections as Mayor of Buffalo and as Governor of New York.

There are some similarities, like the fact that he was involved in dicey elections. There appears to have been some rigging in Indiana. The theme of rigging has been struck again, this time by Trump himself. Pakistan has been spared the sight of incumbent rulers alleging rigging only because there are caretaker governments conducting elections. 1990 was the last time that caretakers contested polls. The USA seems to have solved the problem by not allowing the government to control the polls, but that does not seem to have prevented the allegations. one reason for such allegations is to allow supporters to indulge in wish fulfillment. The motive is more rooted in psychology than politics, for it ap-

peals to basic feelings that ‘the system’ is at fault, not Trump. It appeals to all of those who feel alienated from the system, with the subtext that Trump is one of them, and a vote for him is a vote for empowering themselves.

The net result is that the primary symbol of US democracy, the election process, is discredited. This would not mean damage to the USA, but to elections everywhere. Pakistan is a prime example. even before the US Presidential election result, the PDM was holding rallies, and PML(N) supremo Mian Nawaz Sharif attacked the military for manipulating the election results. The primary argument against this is that elections cannot be manipulated so easily, but Trump seems to be saying that manipulation is possible. of course, this defeat is of a pattern the 2016 win was not: white supremacists do not win elections. However, even though elections are not won, the right has been making strides, to the extent that mainstream politicians like emanuel Macron of France and Boris Johnson of the UK have been making gestures towards racists and white supremacists. Trump was one of those rightist politicians who obdurately refused to condemn the white supremacists who endorsed him, as his behaviour during the Black Lives Matter movement showed. Trump has been defeated by the first black President’s (white) Vice-President and a black woman.

However, there are some caveats. The black woman, Kamala Harris, like the black man, Barack obama, had only one Negro parent, and that too a migrant. That meant that obama, whose father was a Kenyan, had no ancestor who had undergone the experience of slavery which is the reality of the African-American’s background. Ms Harris’ father was a Jamaican immigrant. That means he was descended from people who had been slaves in Jamaica, not the USA. Also, Hispanic voters seem to be abandoning the Democrats. This highlights the diversity among Hispanics, and also the racism among them. It would be interesting to see if Hispanics identifying as white are more inclined to the Republicans.

In Pakistan, Harris’s mother’s Indian background is a cause for concern. She was a Tamil, which meant that she did not carry the almost instinctive anti-Pakistan bias common among the Cow Belt, but her father was a diplomat, which probably meant he carried the anti-Pakistan tilt standard in its entire establishment. Vice-President Harris was

close to him as a child, and would probably be a voice against Pakistan in the Biden Administration.

Her record as a human rights lawyer should incline her against the violations of human rights in Kashmir, but they would also incline her to raise issues of military interference in politics, as well as military backing of Islamic militants. The Pakistani establishment has always been inclined towards Republicans, while it has found Democrats asking embarrassing questions.

Perhaps the only thing worse that the Pakistani establishment can imagine is her becoming President. It is possible, for Biden is turning 78 in five days, and will thus be the oldest man to begin a presidency. The previous record was held by Trump, who is 74, and would have been 78 at the end of his term, had he won. That is perhaps one factor that might prevent him contesting in 2024.

He would be pretty old to contest, with inevitable questions about the fact that he would be 82 at the end of that term.

Kamala Harris is 56, while Vice-President Mike Pence is 60. Harris seems likely to be the future Democrat standard-bearer. That will depend on whether Biden serves two terms. They are only young compared to their principals.

However, it should be remembered that Biden has been elected to reconcile the USA, as well as US allies, to upset them. Trump was unpredictable, which was not a good thing for a superpower. If one remembers that the superpower is in decline, and looks as if it will be replaced by China, it may be that the Biden Presidency will be remembered as the time this happened. Pakistan hopes to benefit from all those years of friendship.

At the same time, China is not entirely comfortable with Biden. Surprisingly, neither Russia nor Israel seem that enthused by a Democrat winning, which indicates how good they felt Trump was for them. Ukraine, over which Trump got impeached, and where Biden is involved through his son, has also not reacted.

US Presidents are elected for eight years typically, with the election at the four-year mark being a sort of performance review. Trump has clearly failed his. Yet he still retains immense influence, which is why there is talk of his handing over to his daughter, with dynasticism creeping in, the example of the Bushes showing the way. Dynasticism is there in the Democrats too, as the Clintons showed.

Biden’s win represents the desire to arrest the trend Trump represents, to end democracy, just as it ended in Rome and was replaced by the empire.

The writer is a member of staff.

Floating a Eurobond

Deterrence in Cyberspace

A last-ditch effort to stay afloat?

T

He government, though it is not out of the FATF woods yet, seems confident enough about its financial future to be contemplating the issue of a billion–dollar eurobond. or is this merely a measure of desperation? Though the good news is that the pace of external debt accumulation has slowed, the bad news is that it continues to rise, and has reached $113.8 billion, which is 98.3 percent of the GDP estimate for the year. The danger is that the new loan will not go to any productive use, but will merely go to repay loans already incurred. one of the problems the country faces is that Saudi Arabia may decide not to roll over $2 billion it has lent Pakistan, a decision it will take for diplomatic reasons rather than financial. The eurobond issue will thus merely replace part of it, with a new Sukuk issue expected to replace the previous one. It is to be feared that the eurobond issue will be made at an interest rate that will attract lenders. That interest will have to be paid in foreign exchange, and it is to be feared that the only way of raising it will be by issuing another bond. It should not be forgotten that government debt may be paid in dollars, but the government revenues are raised in rupees, which may well be worth much less today relative to the dollar than they are today. The recent recovery in the rupee, modest as it has been, owes itself to greater remittances by overseas Pakistanis. That is hardly a dependable source, and sooner or later, the rupee will come under pressure because remittances are dipping.

The present government has blamed the nation’s indebtedness on previous government’s corruption, but has failed to recover any of the vast sums it claims were looted, and which it promised to recover. either it was wrong in its economics, or it is right but incompetent. either way, it is the present government which will be responsible for the collapse that seems to be just over the horizon.

A new battleground MAlIk MuhAMMAd kAshIf

T

He revolution in the field of Information and Communication Technology took place in 1969 when the Advanced Research Project Agency (an arm of the US Defence Department) built the first communication network by using computers, known as ARPANet. The preliminary objective of this network was to communicate and share the information among the four universities involved, by using packet switching.

Later on, the concept of Transmission Control Protocol/ Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) evolved, which was based on the principle of accuracy of communication and transmission among the different networks by using various layers.

Now in the contemporary hyper-tech world, any single device (computers, smartphones) is easily connected to the global network of communication.

This expeditious proliferation of cyberspace enhances global connectivity. According to the World Internet Stats third-quarter report during 2020, about 63.2 percent of the world population is connected with one another through cyberspace. Predominantly, cyberspace consists of physical infrastructure (hardware), software logics and data layers. Unequivocally, this revolution creates convenience in communication, sharing, connectivity, access to a global workforce, and brings ease in every aspect of life. on the other hand, as a result of the expansion of cyberspace and increased dependency (domestically and globally) on it, the possibilities of cyber-attacks are also imminent. A cyber-attack is “a malicious and deliberate attempt by an individual or organization to breach the information system of another individual or organization by using malwares, phishing, Structured Query Language (SQL) injection and denial-ofservice (DoS) attack.”

Usually, the attackers adopt such activities to seek some political or financial gain by attacking the victim’s network. These types of disruptions have the potential to extend quickly to affect not only individ-

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uals and society but also the critical infrastructure of been facing some major challenges. out of various the states (command and control systems). In 2007, challenges, the attribution dilemma is one of the estonia faced a series of cyber-attacks that temporar- major challenges. Attribution is the operational activily damaged its economy whereas Georgia endured ity in cyberspace to identify and track the origin of the same type of cyber-attack in 2008. South Korea the cyber-attack. In the cyber domain, attribution can and the USA also experienced a series of cyber-at- be achievable, but sometimes due to the complex structure of the internet, it tacks in 2009. In 2010, a can be difficult and timecyber-worm (namely consuming. Furthermore, Stuxnet) attacked the nupolitical and legal obstacles clear facility of Iran. may make attribution more After such conflicts and complex and take more time, perpetual threats to national Deterrence in cyberspace mostly when the government security, government and can be made more is required to determine the security analysts of the source of an attack. Another major powers started to constructive by enhancing challenge to cyber deterthink about “how to defend cyber security, resilience and rence is to get the exact inor prevent such attacks in formation about the hackers, the future.” They perceived forming alliances with their strategy and the mothat deterrence is a possible tives behind these attacks. strategy to prevent such atvarious countries to These attackers can be clastacks. Cyber deterrence is establish a joint forum to sified as criminal actors, vithe strategy of compellence, olent non-state actors, and of discouraging or prohibit minimize the cyber security state-sponsored actors. on someone in cyberspace threats. In order to make the other hand, it is quite diffrom taking unethical acficult to deter non-state actions. The strategy of detercyber deterrence more tors as compared to the rence can be either active or criminal and state actors. In passive in nature in cybereffective there is a dire need addition to this, the deterspace domain. Martin Lito formulate cyber laws like rence in cyberspace lacks the bicki in his book “Cyber comprehensive illustration Deterrence and CyberWar” Germany to draw red lines of principles of distinction classified deterrence into (thresholds) as no formal and proportionality of Intertwo types; deterrence by denational Humanitarian Law. nial or passive deterrence laws exist globally In short, deterrence in (the ability to counter the atcyberspace can be made tack) and deterrence by punmore constructive by enishment or active deterrence hancing cyber security, re(threat of retaliation). In silience and forming order to make deterrence efalliances with various counfective in the cyber domain, following elements must be met. First, the threat of tries to establish a joint forum to minimize the cyber punishment must be credible. Second, both actors security threats. In order to make cyber deterrence must have complete information about their capabil- more effective there is a dire need to formulate cyber ities. Third, the threat of consequences must be laws like Germany to draw red lines (thresholds) as no formal laws exist globally. clearly communicated and understood.

The traditional deterrence theory is more difficult Malik Muhammad Kashif is a freelance to implement in the cyber domain as compared to nuclear deterrence, as effective cyber deterrence has columnist

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Friday, 13 November, 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

Poor management of resources IT is a global fact that natural resources and minerals make a country rich and it's people auspicious. There are small countries like Kuwait and Brunei which are considered the richest countries of the world because of their natural resources. our country Pakistan has been blessed with countless resources which perhaps no other country has in the world. Yet, with plenty of natural resources and most importantly a huge human resource, the economy still suffers and development is slow because of mismanagement of resources. However, it has a large resource of water still it's people are deprived from drinking clean water. Though it has huge gas and oil resources it can not finish the gas and oil shortage. Today people are facing numerous problems due to gas and oil. There are many reasons for mismanagement of resources like lack of governance, corruption and more. So, it is high time that the government eschews maladministration and focuses on good governance to change the country's fortune.

SaMEEr aSLaM awaraN KULLI

Changing views on Indian State System State-centric or society-centric? dr rAjkuMAr sINgh

L

IKe others, the postcolonial state in India, its nature and role have been interpreted in different ways. In India's case, the liberals consider the active intervention of the state as an agent for recovering from centuries of colonial exploitation and underdevelopment. earlier during the nationalist movement the major policy initiatives stressed the need for the creation of an interventionist state. After independence the popular perception saw the state as an instrument of modernisation-socio-economic, political and cultural and the capitalists foresaw the state as an instrument to catalyze development. The Marxists criticised the national bourgeois, including a large section within the Congress party to support the capitalist path of development and reshape the economy and society with a view to expand national capitalism in India.

State capitalism in India performed dual functions immediately after independence – acquiring social legitimacy and accumulating capital without external dependency. According to C.P. Bhambhri, ‘the modern Indian state, like capitalism in the country was established by the Britishers to safeguard the class interests of the metropolitan capitalism. The active role of the state in development as explicated by the Nehruvian model of development, facilitated the mobilisation of economic resources for the interest of capitalist. Nehruvian socialism, in fact, strengthened the capitalist state. By controlling the state apparatus, the national bourgeoisie decisively influenced the developmental policies of the government.’

Thus from the beginning of the two prevalent approaches– state-centric and society-centric– in relation to the way in which society is organised and governed, India is clearly near the former. State-centricism is described as the perception that operators of the state system– politicians, bureaucrats, the military, industrialists and representatives– play the most decisive roles in the determination of public policies. Such actors influence the structure and content of public policies introduced by the state, which embodies a system of law and government; a structure of offices with jurisdiction over a definite territory in which its citizens are located; and a centre of bureaucratic skills focused on information, calculation and implementation. It also implies that the state is comprised of essentially of politicians and bureaucrats, since the making of public policy is the responsibility of the former while interpretation and implementation of public policy falls under the jurisdiction of the latter. For many developing countries, the state-centric approach becomes very useful when there are few sustained, well-organised social groups and when the population has limited international exposure. However its overdose may bring about dis-

in the confused welter of the modern state there must be some selection of problems as more urgent than others. It is necessary to select them as content among the population and diminish the urgent and to present solutions of them which acceptability of state elites. may be acceptable to the citizen body. It acts, in In contrast to the state-centric model which Lowell’s phase as the broker of ideas. From the assumes the state to be an autonomous entity, the mass of opinion, sentiments, beliefs, by which society-centric approach treats the state as an en- the electorates move, it chooses out those it tity dependent on society and on social forces. judges most likely to meet the general acceptAdvocates of this approach argue that causes of ance. It organises persons to advocate its own decisions about the public lie in understanding view of their meaning. It states that view as the relationships of power and competition among issue upon which the voter has to make up his individuals, groups or classes in society or in mind. Its power enables it to put forward for their international extensions. In this system the election candidates who are willing to identify state becomes a representative structure that themselves with its view. Countries which have translates the expressed demands of members of granted universal adult franchise expect their society into policy outputs. According to voters to exercise their franchise in a free and Blondel, a key function of government is to con- fair manner and also expect the political parties vert suggestions, values and ideas from inputs to to extend their support to ensure on their part puoutputs. Society is assumed to be comprised of rity and transparency in the electoral process as a large number of groups with varying interests held by Ivor Jennings, “in a democracy political and desires that they power rests in free pursue. The dominant elections”.’ or allied classes eventuWith the spread of ally influence and shape democracy, the role of the processes of the sonational as well as reThe opposition party is ciety. In a nutshell, gional political parties state-centric and socihas also assumed imalways on the lookout for an ety-centric approaches mense significance for differ in their emphasis participation in the opportunity to dislodge the on the values, percepelections, formation of ruling party from the seat of tions and preferences of the government and the state versus those of discharge of their funcpower through the electoral societal classes and tions as responsible opprocess, whereas the ruling groups in the political position parties for the decision-making success and smooth party becomes conscious of process. However, both functioning of democare used, in practice, deracy and its instituits rivals’ tactics and tries to pending on the type of tions, like Parliament, rectify its policies to remain activity sought; the prestate legislatures and so vailing social, political on.

The political parin power. In this manner and economic circumties serve as a link bepolitical parties play stances; and the time tween the ruler and the available to accomplish ruled. The party in significant role in the activity. Since the power is entrusted with state arises out of socithe task of running the strengthening the process of ety while society cannot government in accordemocracy and consolidating dance with the proexist without some kind of administration or the foundations of democracy grammes and policies state, it is difficult to envisaged in its maniconsider any of them as festo and the opposibeing independent of tion parties serve as a others in the decisionwatchdog on the acmaking process. The tions of the governsociety-centric approach emphasises the central- ment to find out its shortfalls and make the ity of social classes and interest groups in the ini- people aware of them. The opposition party is tiation of public policies, while the state-centric always on the lookout for an opportunity to disapproach focuses on the operators of the state lodge the ruling party from the seat of power system or the government. through the electoral process, whereas the ruling In a democratic setup, the party system of party becomes conscious of its rivals’ tactics and the state is essential and has profound effects on tries to rectify its policies to remain in power. In the process of social, economic and political this manner political parties play significant role changes. Democracy seems to be the order of the in strengthening the process of democracy and day, which is a widely accepted form of gover- consolidating the foundations of democracy. nance, and still activities are on to democratise the institutions, the organisations and the society.

The writer is head of the political science In a state, writes Harold J. Laski in his book, A department of the B.N.Mandal University, MadGrammar of Politics, ‘Parties arrange the issues hepura, Bihar, India and can be reached at raupon which people are to vote. It is obvious that jkumarsinghpg@gmail.com

Dr Abdul Salam Khowaja , an educationist of Sindh PRoMINeNT educationist, an Intellectual, and a literary figure of Sindh Dr. Abdul Salam Alidino Khowaja Passed away yesterday following a cardiac arrest at his residence in Hyderabad Dr. Salam was considered a reformist who made efforts for bringing educational reforms in Sindh. He started his career as a professor in Hyderabad, after gracing countless students with the jewel of knowledge he was promoted as the principal of Government College Kar Mori Hyderabad. During his tenure Government College Kari mori emerged as one of the significant educational institutes of Sindh. Because of his vision for education, he was appointed as Regional Director for Collages of Sindh. As a regional director, he proposed different ideas for improving the standard of colleges in Sindh and the quality of education being imparted there. Later he was appointed as the Chairman of Sindh TextBook board Jamashoro, where he contributed to bringing reforms in the curriculum being taught in schools and colleges of Sindh. Many educational conferences were held under his belt to promote the importance of education In Sindh. He was also an exponent of girls' education and he endeavored hard so that the process of education could be made easy for girls. Dr. G.A Allana Former Vice-Chancellor of Sindh University Said That Dr. Salam,s contribution to promoting education and especially female education were exemplary, he will always be remembered for his remarkable services.

KaMraN KHaMISO KHOwaJa SUJawaL

Struggle to defeat covid-19

SIR it is known to everyone that coronavirus is still here, it's cases are being reported from different areas in our country and many people have lost their lives because of the virus. The only and simplest way is to follow SoPs to get safe from the virus, try to avoid shaking hands to others and have social distance. In other words, today everywhere the virus is spreading rapidly in the world and we need to be careful by ourselves. Mostly in educational institutions the cases were reported and still being reported from the schools,colleges and universities. So the students plus teachers must follow SoPs and should struggle more to defeat covid-19.

NawazULLaH FazaL BaLgaTar

What you feel, you can heal WHAT you feel you can heal is an extraordinary book which is composed with the thirteen chapters and each chapters is containing different topics. It was written a great and motivational writer who is known John Gray and it was the first book of John Gray to give real insight into understanding human emotion, and interpersonal dynamics. However, the main hypothetical of the book is that you expressed emotion and blocked the flow of love in your life. It is love that brings happiness. John makes it easy to understand why people behave in certain way and how to response accordingly it. John illustrated his own drawings cartoons through out book to better explain how to handle the stressful time in your relationship. What you feel you can heel, explains what anger is all about, the solidification of the emotional body, the benefits of pain, and most importantly the nature's own way of healing.

The author explains if you watch infants or any young children, when they are upset and cannot deal with any more emotional or stress, they will realise and you clearly see and know how the process of nature work.John Gray tells us that " loving yourself in the presence of others means being able to express your inner gifts and talents without fear. When you do not love yourself and mask your real self, the cycle works in the opposite direction decreasing love and true self expression." John Gray discussed that idea or Felling which are lost in our regaining respect, love for yourself, motivate others and numbers off. Finally, it conveys a true understanding message into human nature, and offers the methods to become a whole integrated person. This book has the ability to inspire change for those who make the effort to heal themselves, so let your commitment to be and become the turning of your life. raHIM HaMraz LaHOrE

Friday, 13 November, 2020

08 WORLD VIEW

WIll A BIden-HArrIs AdmInIstrAtIon stAnd up to modI’s toxIc rule In IndIA? THE INDIAN PRIME MINISTER’S BROMANCE WITH PRESIDENT TRUMP WAS NO SECRET, BUT HIS BLATANT DISREGARD FOR HUMAN RIGHTS AND HIS AUTHORITARIAN STYLE, INCLUDING HIS CRACKDOWN IN INDIAN OCCUPIED KASHMIR, IS REALLY WHAT WILL MAKE IT HARD TO ESTABLISH A RELATIONSHIP BASED ON MUTUAL RESPECT AND COOPERATION

WAshington Post

o

rana ayyuB

N November 7, the first woman elected vice president of the United States, Kamala D. Harris, dominated Indian social media, newspapers and television coverage. the daughter of a Jamaican father and an Indian mother was making history and being celebrated as a national icon. Just hours before she took the stage to introduce Joe Biden, Prime Minister Narendra Modi tweeted a picture with the president-elect, assuring the world that his presidency will take India-U.S. relations to new heights.

As chairman of the Senate Foreign Re-

lations Committee and later as vice president, Biden advocated a stronger relationship with India. In 2006, he said, “My dream is that in 2020, the two closest nations in the world will be India and the United States.”

But Modi might complicate this goal. the Indian prime minister’s bromance with President trump was no secret, but his blatant disregard for human rights and his authoritarian style, including his crackdown in Indian Occupied Kashmir, is really what will make it hard to establish a relationship based on mutual respect and cooperation.

When India revoked Indian Occupied Kashmir’s special status in August 2019 — placing the Kashmir Valley under an indefinite curfew and communications blackout, and unleashing human rights abuses on those who dissented — trump’s response was perfunctory at best. In February 2020, as trump dined with the political elite in New Delhi during an official visit, an explosion of anti-

Muslim violence, stoked by government officials, raged within miles of the venue.

When questioned by journalists in a news conference the following day, trump punted, choosing to ignore one of the worst episodes of communal carnage in India’s recent history. Modi could not have been more pleased.

In contrast, Biden published a policy paper on his campaign website calling for India to “take all necessary steps to restore rights for all the people of Kashmir," adding “restrictions on dissent, such as preventing peaceful protests or shutting or slowing down the Internet, weaken democracy.” the paper also expressed disappointment over the controversial and discriminatory Citizenship Amendment Act and the implementation of the National Register of Citizens. “these measures are inconsistent with the country’s long tradition of secularism and with sustaining a multi-ethnic and multi-religious democracy,” it said.

Harris herself offered a strongly worded statement in 2019 on the human rights abuse in Indian Occupied Kashmir by the Modi government. “We have to remind the Kashmiris that they are not alone in the world," she said. "We are keeping a track on the situation. there is a need to intervene if the situation demands.”

In the U.S. Congress, Rep. PramilaJayapal (D-Wash.) introduced a resolution on Indian Occupied Kashmir, urging India to lift communications restrictions and preserve religious freedom. Outraged by the resolution, Indian External Affairs Minister SubrahmanyamJaishankar, who was visiting the Unites States, abruptly cancelled a meeting with senior members of Congress that included Jayapal. “this only furthers the idea that the Indian government isn’t willing to listen to any dissent at all,” the congresswoman said.

It was Harris who offered one of the most resounding statements of support for

Jayapal. “It’s wrong for any foreign government to tell Congress what members are allowed in meetings on Capitol Hill,” Harris tweeted. these are all encouraging signs that a Biden administration might not look away when abuses such as closing the offices of Amnesty International India, incarcerating students and human rights activists and introducing the citizenship law.

A former Obama administration adviser who has been keeping a close watch on the India-U.S. relationship told me that even with Biden’s commitment to maintaining good relations with a strategically important country, he and Harris certainly will not align themselves with the demands from Hindu American groups to blindly support all of Modi’s policies.

With trump out of the White House, defenders of democracy, pluralism and human rights in India have great expectations. the actions and statements about India from the Biden administration will be looked at with hope but also anxiety.

In a speech in 2015, after an attack on Christian minorities in India, President Barack Obama invoked Mahatma Gandhi to criticize religious intolerance and bigotry.

“In past years, religious faiths of all types have, on occasion, been targeted by other peoples of faith, simply due to their heritage and their beliefs — acts that would have shocked Gandhi-ji," Obama said.

Many in India bristled at the remarks, but Obama was right to take a strong stand.

Now Indians will wait to see if Biden will emulate Obama’s moral clarity and will extend his promised healing touch against division and demonization to India.

Rana Ayyub is an Indian journalist and author of “Gujarat Files: Anatomy of a Cover Up.”

I’m not yet ready to abandon the possibility of America AtlAntic

A

Barack OBama

t the end of my presidency, Michelle and I boarded Air Force One for the last time and traveled west for a long-deferred break. the mood on the plane was bittersweet. Both of us were drained, physically and emotionally, not only by the labors of the previous eight years but by the unexpected results of an election in which someone diametrically opposed to everything we stood for had been chosen as my successor. Still, having run our leg of the race to completion, we took satisfaction in knowing that we’d done our very best—and that however much I’d fallen short as president, whatever projects I’d hoped but failed to accomplish, the country was in better shape than it had been when I’d started.

For a month, Michelle and I slept late, ate leisurely dinners, went for long walks, swam in the ocean, took stock, replenished our friendship, rediscovered our love, and planned for a less eventful but hopefully no less satisfying second act.

For me, that included writing my presidential memoirs. And by the time I sat down with a pen and yellow pad (I still like writing things out in longhand, finding that a computer gives even my roughest drafts too smooth a gloss and lends halfbaked thoughts the mask of tidiness), I had a clear outline of a book in my head.

First and foremost, I hoped to give an honest rendering of my time in office—not just a historical record of key events that happened on my watch and important figures with whom I interacted but also an account of some of the political, economic, and cultural crosscurrents that helped determine the challenges my administration faced and the choices my team and I made in response. Where possible, I wanted to offer readers a sense of what it’s like to be the president of the United States; I wanted to pull the curtain back a bit and remind people that, for all its power and pomp, the presidency is still just a job and our federal government is a human enterprise like any other, and the men and women who work in the White House experience the same daily mix of satisfaction, disappointment, office friction, screwups, and small triumphs as the rest of their fellow citizens. Finally, I wanted to

I HOPED TO GIVE AN HONEST RENDERING OF MY TIME IN OFFICE—NOT JUST A HISTORICAL RECORD OF KEY EVENTS THAT HAPPENED ON MY WATCH AND IMPORTANT FIGURES WITH WHOM I INTERACTED BUT ALSO AN ACCOUNT OF SOME OF THE POLITICAL, ECONOMIC, AND CULTURAL CROSSCURRENTS THAT HELPED DETERMINE THE CHALLENGES MY ADMINISTRATION FACED tell a more personal story that might inspire young people considering a life of public service: how my career in politics really started with a search for a place to fit in, a way to explain the different strands of my mixed-up heritage, and how it was only by hitching my wagon to something larger than myself that I was ultimately able to locate a community and purpose for my life.

I figured I could do all that in maybe 500 pages. I expected to be done in a year.It’s fair to say that the writing process didn’t go exactly as I’d planned. Despite my best intentions, the book kept growing in length and scope—the reason I eventually decided to break it into two volumes. I’m painfully aware that a more gifted writer could have found a way to tell the same story with greater brevity (after all, my home office in the White House sat right next to the Lincoln Bedroom, where a signed copy of the 272word Gettysburg Address rests inside a glass case). But each time that I sat down to write—whether it was to describe the early phases of my campaign, or my administration’s handling of the financial crisis, or negotiations with the Russians on nuclear-arms control, or the forces that led to the Arab Spring—I found my mind resisting a simple linear narrative.

Often, I felt obliged to provide context for the decisions I and others had made, and I didn’t want to relegate that background to a footnote or an endnote (I hate footnotes and endnotes). I discovered that I couldn’t always explain my motivations just by referencing reams of economic data or recalling an exhaustive Oval Office briefing, for they’d been shaped by a conversation I’d had with a stranger on the campaign trail, a visit to a military hospital, or a childhood lesson I’d received years earlier from my mother. Repeatedly my memories would toss up seemingly incidental details (trying to find a discreet location to grab an evening smoke; my staff and I having a laugh while playing cards

aboard Air Force One) that captured, in a way the public record never could, my lived experience during the eight years I spent in the White House.

Beyond the struggle to put words on a page, what I didn’t fully anticipate was the way events would unfold during the more than three and a half years that have passed since that last flight on Air Force One. the country is in the grips of a global pandemic and an accompanying economic crisis, with more than 230,000 Americans dead, businesses

shuttered, and millions of people out of work. Across the nation, people from all walks of life have poured into the streets to protest the deaths of unarmed Black men and women at the hands of the police. Perhaps most troubling of all, our democracy seems to be teetering on the brink of crisis—a crisis rooted in a fundamental contest between two opposing visions of what America is and what it should be; a crisis that has left the body politic divided, angry, and mistrustful, and has allowed for an ongoing breach of institutional

norms, procedural safeguards, and the adherence to basic facts that both Republicans and Democrats once took for granted. this contest is not new, of course. In many ways, it has defined the American experience. It’s embedded in founding documents that could simultaneously proclaim all men equal and yet count a slave as three-fifths of a man. It finds expression in our earliest court opinions, as when the chief justice of the United States bluntly explains to Native Americans that their tribe’s rights to convey property aren’t enforceable, because the court of the conqueror has no capacity to recognize the just claims of the conquered. It’s a contest that’s been fought on the fields of Gettysburg and Appomattox but also in the halls of Congress; on a bridge in Selma, Alabama; across the vineyards of California; and down the streets of New York—a contest fought by soldiers but more often by union organizers, suffragists, Pullman porters, student leaders, waves of immigrants, and LGBtQ activists, armed with nothing more than picket signs, pamphlets, or a pair of marching shoes.

At the heart of this long-running battle is a simple question: Do we care to match the reality of America to its ideals? If so, do we really believe that our notions of self-government and individual freedom, equality of opportunity and equality before the law, apply to everybody? Or are we instead committed, in practice if not in statute, to reserving those things for a privileged few?

I recognize that there are those who believe that it’s time to discard the myth—that an examination of America’s past and an even cursory glance at today’s headlines show that this nation’s ideals have always been secondary to conquest and subjugation, a racial caste system and rapacious capitalism, and that to pretend otherwise is to be complicit in a game that was rigged from the start.

And I confess that there have been times during the course of writing my book, as I’ve reflected on my

presidency and all that’s happened since, when I’ve had to ask myself whether I was too tempered in speaking the truth as I saw it, too cautious in either word or deed, convinced as I was that by appealing to what Lincoln called the better angels of our nature I stood a greater chance of leading us in the direction of the America we’ve been promised.

I don’t know. What I can say for certain is that I’m not yet ready to abandon the possibility of America—not just for the sake of future generations of Americans but for all of humankind. I’m convinced that the pandemic we’re currently living through is both a manifestation of and a mere interruption in the relentless march toward an interconnected world, one in which peoples and cultures can’t help but collide. In that world—of global supply chains, instantaneous capital transfers, social media, transnational terrorist networks, climate change, mass migration, and ever-increasing complexity—we will learn to live together, cooperate with one another, and recognize the dignity of others, or we will perish. And so the world watches America—the only great power in history made up of people from every corner of the planet, comprising every race and faith and cultural practice—to see if our experiment in democracy can work. to see if we can do what no other nation has ever done. to see if we can actually live up to the meaning of our creed. the jury’s still out. I’m encouraged by the record-setting number of Americans who turned out to vote in last week’s election, and have an abiding trust in Joe Biden and Kamala Harris, in their character and capacity to do what is right. But I also know that no single election will settle the matter. Our divisions run deep; our challenges are daunting. If I remain hopeful about the future, it’s in large part because I’ve learned to place my faith in my fellow citizens, especially those of the next generation, whose conviction in the equal worth of all people seems to come as second nature, and who insist on making real those principles that their parents and teachers told them were true but that they perhaps never fully believed themselves. More than anyone else, my book is for those young people—an invitation to once again remake the world, and to bring about, through hard work, determination, and a big dose of imagination, an America that finally aligns with all that is best in us.

BARACK OBAMA was the 44th president of the United States.

Friday, 13 November, 2020

BUSINESS 09 corporate corner Project Sarbulandi: K-Electric exempts Warsia Colony from load shedding KARACHI: K-Electric is empowering and uplifting underprivileged communities as part of its Project Sarbulandi. In continuation of this vision, Warsia Colony, located in Orangi Town - the largest slum in Asia, has been exempted from load shedding. Previously, the area was subject to 7.5 hours of scheduled load shedding per day, owing to high propensity for power theft and low rates of recovery. According to a KE spokesperson, “Under Project Sarbulandi, our teams have successfully converted 22 out of 32 feeders in the area to ABC, which is not only theft-resistant but also safer. Similarly, 642 out of 644 PMTs in the area are no longer categorized as Very High Loss (VHL) and have been upgraded to Low Loss (LL) or Medium Loss (ML). More than 240 camps were set up in the area to facilitate residents in paying their bills. We are thankful to local representatives and community elders for their support in this regard.” PRESS RElEASE

PM urgES OVErSEaS PaKIStanIS tO InVESt In nPCS fOr BEttEr rEturnS ISLAMABAD

P

STAFF REPORT

RIME Minister Imran Khan has urged overseas Pakistanis to invest in their home country and earn better returns. Addressing the launching ceremony of Naya Pakistan Certificates (NPC) on Thursday, the prime minister asked the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) to devise a new product to attract overseas Pakistanis to invest in the country. "It is when you’re away from your country, you care about it the most. This is true for Pakistani expatriates who are the biggest investors for the country," the premier stated.

He said that overseas Pakistanis have proven their mettle in every field and they own wealth equal to the total GDP of Pakistan. "We can convince overseas Pakistanis to invest their dollars in Pakistan by providing them with an enabling environment."

Talking about the government's efforts to revamp the economy, Imran Khan said that all economic indicators are showing a positive trend. He said the current account deficit has become surplus for the first time in the last 17 years; exports have witnessed an increase of 24pc; while remittances have been on the rise for the last five months.

"Record cement sales indicate that the construction industry is flourishing," the PM noted. "The economy is now heading in the right direction and Pakistan has come out of the difficult period."

On inflation plaguing the country, the PM said untimely rainfalls caused great damage to wheat crops, while food security issues also surfaced due to the Covid-19 outbreak. He added that the "mafia" in sugar industry played an instrumental role to cause the crisis and asserted the government will henceforth ensure to tighten the noose around them.

Imran Khan linked rupee devaluation to hike in

October remittances grow 14pc to $2.3bn

LAHORE: Kashf Foundation, with support from The CocaCola Foundation, launched six state-of-the-art training facilities in Lahore and Faisalabad under a special programme titled ‘recycling for women empowerment’ to provide skill-based training to hundreds of deserving women belonging to low-income households. PRESS RElEASE

FAISALABAD: Zero Carbon - a renewable energy company dedicated to combat climate change through the provision of clean, reliable and resilient solar solutions, conducted a ‘project commissioning ceremony’ for solarizing The Chenab Club, Faisalabad, with an on-grid solar power plant of 280.3kW power capacity. PRESS RElEASE

ISLAMABAD: In its effort to fight and respond to Covid19 and increase domestic testing capacity for Covid-19 diagnosis, Future Trust in partnership with technology from Opencell UK has launched Future Labs. British High Commissioner Dr Christian Turner inaugurated the robotoperated Covid-19 testing lab. PRESS RElEASE

Workers’ remittances amounted to $2.3 billion during October 2020, showing an increase of 14.1 per cent when compared with October 2019.

This is for the fifth consecutive month that workers’ remittances remained above $2 billion, according to latest figures released by the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) on Thursday.

A large part of the year-on-year (YoY) increase in October this year, 30pc, was sourced from Saudi Arabia, 16pc from the United States of America and 14.6pc from the United Kingdom (UK).

"Improvements in Pakistan’s FX market structure and its dynamics, efforts under the Pakistan Remittances Initiative (PRI) to formalise the flows and limited cross-border travelling contributed to the growth in remittances," the SBP stated.

Meanwhile, on a cumulative basis, workers’ remittances rose 26.5pc to $9.4bn during the first four months of FY21, when compared with July-Oct FY20.

"These numbers were expected. The whole South Asia region is getting above-average inward remittances due to lockdown and reduction in flights and movement of unofficial funds," said Muhammad Sohail of Topline Securities. "In the short-run, this [the increase in remittances] will support local currency," he added.

Earlier, a World Bank report had projected that remittances to Pakistan to grow at about 9pc in 2020, totalling about $24bn. The World Bank attributed this increase to the diversion of remittances from informal to formal channels due to the difficulty of carrying money by hand under travel restrictions. NEWS DESK

FCCL eyes double-digit growth in cement despatches this year LAHORE HASSAN NAQVI

The management of Fauji Cement Company Limited (FCCL) is expecting a double-digit growth in cement despatches for the financial year 2019-20 (FY21), it was revealed during a corporate briefing.

An additional 2.5MW solar capacity will also come online during 3QFY21 (Jan-2021), taking total capacity to 17.5MW. Shankar Talreja, deputy head of research at Topline Securities Limited, said the company has signed a shared services agreement with Askari Cement, which can result in annual savings to the tune of Rs90-Rs100 million.

He said the company is in advance of acquiring a no objection certificate (NOC) to set up a green field cement plant in DG Khan.

"More details regarding the expansion will be shared over the next 3-6 months. The expansion can come with a capital structure

of 60pc debt and 40pc equity," Talreja informed. "Due to reduction in peak power tariff, the management expects savings of Rs25-30 million. Similarly, if discounted tariff materializes (on incremental consumption), management sees savings to the tune of Rs80-85 million."

According to the management, cement demand from the amnesty scheme has yet to kick in, as most of the projects are in the registration phase. Talreja said that if the input costs do not increase, then cement prices are likely to remain stable. "Current market share of Fauji Cement (8.0-8.5pc) is likely to sustain till next expansions."

He predicted that Dasu and Bhasha dam will generate cement demand of 2.5 million tonnes and 3.5-4.5 million tonnes, respectively, over a period of 5-6 years. "There is good progress on Dasu dam, however, work on Bhasha dam work may start gradually," he concluded.

MARKET DAILY

Bears dominate trading as PSX sheds 632 points KARACHI STAFF REPORT

Bearish sentiments prevailed at the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) on Thursday, with the indices accumulating losses all day long while volumes increased from last session.

Global equity markets displayed a mixed performance, whereas crude oil prices continued to move north with WTI crude price appreciating 0.17pc to $41.52 while Brent crude oil price increasing 0.14pc to $43.87.

"The market took a hammering on Thursday, mainly on the back of rising Covid-19 cases and government's initiative to increase social distancing measures. Selling activity was witnessed across the board, with major impact coming from exploration & production and banking sectors. Cement stocks carried the negative vibes from yesterday that came from the lower number of despatches recorded in the first week of November," a report issued by Arif Habib Ltd read.

The KSE-100 Index remained in the negative zone throughout the session, registering its intraday low at 40,492.75 after losing 704.57 points.

It settled lower by 632.77 points at 40,564.55.

Among other indices, the KMI-30

Index plunged 1,126.87 points to end at 64,977.62, while the KSE All Share Index dropped 415.95 points, closing at 28,448.21.

The overall market volumes surged from 244.26 million shares in the previous session to 328.01 million

CMYK

shares (+34pc). Average traded value also increased by 31pc, from $54.5 million to $71.4 million. Unity Foods Ltd (UNITY -3.37pc), Soneri Bank Ltd (SNBL +6.84pc) and TRG Pakistan Ltd (TRG -4.95pc) led the volume chart, exchanging 29.57 million, 22.54 million and 19.63 million shares, respectively.

Sectors that drove the benchmark index south included banking (133.72 points), oil & gas exploration (-117.49 points) and cement (-82.64 points). Among the companies, Habib Bank Ltd (HBL -42.84 points), Oil and Gas Development Company Ltd (OGDC -42.82 points) and Pak Petroleum Ltd (-40.58 pts) dented the index the most. Shedding 5.47pc from its cumulative market capitalization, the refinery sector ended as the session’s top loser, with Attock Refinery Ltd (ATRL -7.41pc), Pakistan Refinery Ltd (PRL -7.15pc), National Refinery Ltd (NRL -6.94pc) and Byco Petroleum Pakistan Ltd (BYCO -4.24pc) posting significant losses.

commodity prices, saying "when the dollar appreciates against the local rupee, it renders commodities and groceries expensive; however, the rupee has been performing well now and it is towards stability".

It may be noted that Naya Pakistan Certificates (NPCs), which are being introduced to facilitate overseas Pakistanis in the opening of a Foreign Currency Value Account (FCVA), are for those who have declared assets abroad with the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR). Earlier, Senator Faisal Javed had said that NPC holders will get up to 7pc return in US dollars and 11pc in Pakistani currency, whereas Islamic Certificates (Shariah-compliant) are also being offered by the central bank.

"The certificates will be made available for a period of three months to five years while early encashment is allowed," said Faisal Javed. "No tax filing is required for Non-Resident Pakistanis (NRP) and only 10pc withholding tax will be charged on profits."

Pakistanis can no longer subscribe to Zee5, other Indian SVODs KARACHI ARIBA SHAHID

The State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) has directed all banks to stop processing subscription payments for Indian Streaming Video on Demand platforms (SVOD). In a recent notification to the presidents and CEOs of all banks, equated monthly instalments (EMIs), Payment System Operators (PSOs), and payment service providers (PSPs), the central bank has ordered to stop processing different mode of payments, including credit cards for subscribing to Indian content in Pakistan, specifically mentioning Zee5. The SBP made this decision after receiving a letter from the Cabinet Division in order to curb or ban the viewership of ‘Indian content’ in Pakistan. The banks, EMIs, PSOs, and PSPs are expected to comply with the decision by November 13. Profit asked the SBP spokesperson if the banning of Zee5 has to do with the show, Churrails, to which the spokesman asked to refer to the bank’s notification. In addition to Churails, the platform streams Jhooti Love Story, another all-Pakistani cast show. Zee5 is an Indian video on demand service launched in 2018 in India, with content in as many as 12 languages.

Hafeez Shaikh calls for early completion of telecom spectrum sale process ISLAMABAD: Stressing the need to release the unsold spectrum of Next Generation Mobile Services (NGMS), Adviser to Prime Minister on Finance and Revenue Dr Abdul Hafeez Shaikh on Thursday directed the Ministry of Information Technology to hire a consultant at the earliest for the sale of available spectrum.

Chairing the meeting of the advisory committee, the adviser stated that the entire process of auction must be transparent and an officer may be designated to apprise the public about the progress regarding the sale of spectrum on a regular basis. Among others, Science and Technology Minister Fawad Chaudhry also participated in the meeting, according to a statement issued by the Finance Ministry. The sale [of spectrum] would contribute towards strengthening and expanding communications/information technology services across the country, besides creating job opportunities for youth and improving ease of doing business, the adviser noted. The next meeting of the advisory committee is expected to be held next month. Earlier, the committee was briefed by the PTA chairman and IT secretary about the latest developments on the sale of available spectrum of next generation mobile services. The members of frequency allocation board also shared their input on the subject. The committee was briefed that the process to hire a consultant for the sale of available spectrum would be completed within 60 days and a report would be prepared and submitted before the committee accordingly. It is expected that the initial report would be ready by December 2020. The process for the sale of spectrum would follow after the hiring of a consultant and would be completed within the current financial year. STAFF REPORT

Bonanza Satrangi migrates eCommerce from Magento to Shopify KARACHI: After running its eCommerce operations on a Magento platform for nearly two years, Bonanza Satrangi has completed a migration to Shopify Plus through Shopistan.

“We’ve migrated from Magento 2.3 after working on it for two years and realized that the support is very limited and there are not a lot of resources that are Magento equipped,” said Nidia Siddiqui, head of eCommerce at Bonanza Satrangi. “Any query would take [the longest among of time] to be resolved and in order to make the slightest change on the website - on Magento it takes a while.” She added that in contrast to the Adobe opensource e-commerce platform, Shopify has relatively better support where requests are turnaround within a day. Siddiqui said that she and the management felt the Magento website began looking obsolete and there were very limited features available. BABAR KHAN JAVED

Friday, 13 November, 2020

10 FOREIGN NEWS

TrumP mAy be misleAding donors soliciTed for ‘elecTion defence fund’ WASHINGTON

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AGENCIES

S US President Donald Trump seeks to discredit last week’s election with baseless claims of voter fraud, his team has bombarded his supporters with requests for money to help pay for legal challenges to the results: “The Left will try to STEAL this election!” reads one text.

But any small-dollar donations from Trump’s grassroots donors won’t be going to legal expenses at all, according to a Reuters review of the legal language in the solicitations.

A donor would have to give more than $8,000 before any money goes to the “recount account” established to finance election challenges, including recounts and lawsuits over alleged improprieties, the fundraising disclosures show.

The emailed solicitations send supporters to an “Official Election Defense Fund” website that asks them to sign up for recurring donations to “protect the results and keep fighting even after Election Day.” The fine print makes clear most of the money will go to other priorities.

A large portion of the money goes to “Save America,” a Trump leadership PAC, or political action committee, set up on Monday, and the Republican National Committee (RNC). Under Federal Election Commission rules, both groups have broad leeway in how they can use the funds.

The Trump campaign, the RNC and Trump’s new Save America PAC did not respond to requests for comment.

Leadership PACs such as Save America are often set up by prominent political figures to spend money on other candidates, while also paying for personal expenses, such as travel and hotel stays.

The disclosures would allow Trump and the RNC to channel the donations into other political causes or campaigns, such as the two high-stakes January Senate runoff races in Georgia that could determine control of the Senate and are likely to rank among the most expensive races in U.S. history. Trump’s solicitation website carries a banner headline that says “OFFICIAL ELECTION DEFENSE FUND” and “CONTRIBUTE NOW.” Scrolling down the page would take a donor to the fine print, which shows that donations are split between “Save America,” which gets 60% of the money, and the RNC, which gets the other 40%. None of the money flows to Trump’s official “recount” committee fund until Trump’s Save America share reaches the legal contribution limit of $5,000, according to the disclosures.

That means that, before a dollar goes into the recount fund, Save America would receive $5,000 and the RNC around $3,300. Donations to the recount committee are legally limited to $2,800.

If a Trump donor gave $500, for instance, $300 would go to Trump’s Save America PAC, $200 would to the RNC — and nothing would go to his election defense fund.

One Republican political strategist said Trump is misleading supporters who might give small donations to whatever cause he approves.

Australia appoints investigator to probe troops’ war crimes in Afghanistan CANBERRA AGENCIES

Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison has said that the nation must be prepared to deal with “brutal truths,” as officials are gearing up to examine the report on its troops’ alleged misconduct in Afghanistan. The government is appointing a special investigator to examine and potentially prosecute the allegations of misconduct of the troops in Afghanistan, Morrison announced.

The inquiry into the actions of the army was commissioned in 2016. The redacted version of the final report is due to be released next week.

However, portions of the document leaked to the Australian media have already painted a harrowing picture with stories of commandos allegedly torturing and executing civilians and prisoners.

Morrison warned that the details of the report may shock the public. “This will be difficult and hard news for Australians, I can assure you,” he said.

The PM added that the future legal procedures would “require us to deal with honest and brutal truths, where expectations and standards may not have been met.” When asked if the soldiers found guilty of crimes could be stripped of their medals, Minister for Defence Linda Reynolds said that all “options and recommendations” will be considered. Reynolds noted, however, that the contents of the report in “no way” have cast a shadow on the vast majority of the 39,000 Australians who had served in Afghanistan and had done so “with great distinction.” Australian commandos were deployed alongside the US and allied forces in Afghanistan to fight the Taliban and Al-Qaeda militants after the 9/11 terrorist attacks as part of the US-led ‘War of Terror’.

“It’s important to be up front with people – especially those who are digging deep into their pockets to come up with $25,” said Michael DuHaime, a former political director at the RNC. “If you tell them it’s going for legal fees, well then it should go for legal fees.”

Darrell Scott, an Ohio pastor who helped found the National Diversity Coalition for Trump and served on the president’s 2016 transition team, says he sees no problems with diverting the money to the leadership PAC or the RNC. “I see this as two pockets on the same pair of pants. It doesn’t matter if it goes into the left or the right pocket,” Scott said.

“In the end, the money will be used for a legitimate purpose that his supporters will get behind.”

FLURRY OF LAWSUITS: The fundraising pitches have channeled Trump’s rage and his refusal to accept the results of an election that major media outlets called on Saturday for his Democratic opponent Joe Biden, the former Vice President. Most of the Republican Party has fallen in line with Trump’s rhetoric, either by staying silent or publicly supporting the election challenges.

Trump’s campaign has filed a flurry of lawsuits to overturn the results in key states without producing evidence to back his charges of illegal voting. Trump’s lawsuits have instead generally alleged violations of process, such as a lack of access for Republican observers. Legal experts said none of the cases were broad enough to invalidate the number of votes required to overturn Biden’s presumed victory.

Judges have quickly dismissed many

of the lawsuits. State election officials, including Republicans, have said there was no widespread fraud. Just a handful of Republican senators have recognized Biden’s win. Many more have not but some Republicans have suggested their patience with Trump’s legal fight may run out soon.

As the president fights what Democrats have called his inevitable ouster from the White House, his fundraising campaign seeks to replenish campaign coffers that were depleted during the presidential race, according to Federal Election Commission data.

Trump’s re-election team kicked off 2020 with an impressive cash advantage, thanks to a massive fundraising operation, including joint efforts with the Republican Party. But the advantage evaporated as Trump’s campaign burned through $1.4 billion of the $1.6 billion raised over the past two years.

By mid-October, the Trump campaign and the Republican Party reelection team were left with $223.5 million and had to scale back advertising. The Trump campaign itself only had $43 million entering the final three weeks of the presidential election, while Biden and the Democrats had $432 million in cash for the final stretch, including $177.3 million in Biden’s campaign.

‘LAVISH LIFESTYLES’: Trump’s postelection fundraising emails — sometimes issued hourly over the last several days — used names such as the Election Defense Task Force and the Official Election Defense Fund. Initially, the disclosures said that Trump would steer a large part of the contributions to pay down campaign debt.

India to regulate streaming services, online content NEW DELHI AGENCIES

India’s federal government will regulate content on video streaming platforms, including global services such as Netflix, Amazon Prime Video and Walt Disney’s Hotstar, as part of rules announced this week.

India’s ministry of information and broadcasting will oversee streaming video content, which was previously unregulated, a brief government circular said on Tuesday, without providing further details.

Earlier this year, more than a dozen local and global streaming

services, including Amazon Prime Video, Netflix and Hotstar, had signed a code for self-regulation.

India’s internet and mobile lobby group, and Netflix declined to comment, while Amazon and Hotstar did not respond to requests for comment.

Filmmaker Vikram Malhotra said the industry will have to “wait and watch” how the government’s regulation of online content unfolds.

“My only concern is that rules that currently govern access to content as well as its creation and distribution on other platforms, cannot and should not be simply applied to the online medium,” said Malhotra,

whose studio Abunduntia Entertainment produces films and shows, including for Amazon Prime Video.

Streaming services have gained traction in India because of the availability of affordable smartphones and cheap mobile data, making the South Asian nation a battleground for Amazon, Netflix and Disney as they seek to expand outside their home markets.

That growth in streaming services, along with internet advertising, sports and music, is expected to help India’s media and entertainment industry increase 10.1% annually on average to reach $55 billion by 2024, PwC predicts.

German economic advisers cut growth outlook for 2021 BERLIN AGENCIES

The German government’s council of economic advisers expects Europe’s largest economy to shrink less than initially feared this year thanks to a strong summer, but a second wave of the Covid-19 pandemic is clouding the growth outlook for next year.

“We’ve not yet overcome the coronavirus crisis,” council head Lars Feld said, adding that the economic recovery remained fragile due to the rapid rise in new coronavirus infections. “Further developments depend on how the pandemic can be contained and how other economies abroad fare,” Feld said in reference to Germany’s relatively large reliance on exports. The council now sees the economy shrinking by 5.1% this year which translates into a calendar-adjusted and internationally comparable drop

of 5.5%. In June, it had forecast -6.5% (or -6.9% in calendar-adjusted terms). This means that the economic devastation caused by the pandemic could be smaller than the shock suffered during the global financial crisis in 2009, when the German economy shrank by 5.6%.

For 2021, the council lowered its GDP growth forecast to 3.7% from its previous estimate of 4.9%. The advisers expect economic output to shrink slightly in the fourth quarter and merely grow in the first quarter as a second wave of infections has led to renewed lockdown measures.

The council lauded the various rescue and stimulus measures put in place by Chancellor Angela Merkel’s government and European Union leaders as mostly right and effective. It cautioned, however, that the EU should not make its debt-financed 750 billion euro ($881 billion)recovery funds a permanent tool unless member states transferred fiscal sovereignty to Brussels.

Pacific isles, secretive states among last virus-free places WELLINGTON AGENCIES

From Argentina to Zimbabwe, from the Vatican to the White House, the coronavirus has spread relentlessly. It’s been confirmed on every continent but one and in nearly every country. Yet a few places have yet to report even a single case of infection. Some have been genuinely spared so far, while others may be hiding the truth. Here’s a closer look: PACIFIC ISLANDS: The largest cluster of countries without the coronavirus is in the South Pacific. Tonga, Kiribati, Samoa, Micronesia and Tuvalu are among the small island nations yet to report a single case. They haven’t been spared from the pandemic’s effects, however. Tonga managed to keep the virus out by stopping cruise ships from docking and closing the airport in March, says Paula Taumoepeau, the president of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry. He says the government even imposed a lockdown, even though there were no known cases. These days, only people who have first tested negative are allowed to return on occasional repatriation flights. He says he finds it hard to believe the confirmed death toll in the U.S. alone exceeds twice his entire nation’s population of just over 100,000. “I think the government has done a good job keeping Covid away from Tonga, but it has had a big impact on businesses, especially tourism and accommodation. It’s very, very bad,” Taumoepeau says. “None of the businesses have escaped.” Indeed, many of the South Pacific islands rely on tourism as a major source of revenue and have seen unemployment spike and their economies struggle since the pandemic began. Much of the South Pacific is relatively poor and has basic health systems that would be ill-equipped to deal with major outbreaks. Not everywhere in the South Pacific has been spared, either. Over the past two weeks, Vanuatu and the Marshall Islands reported their first cases, from quarantined travelers. Fiji and the Solomon Islands each count a handful, while Papua New Guinea has reported about 600 cases and seven deaths.

French Polynesia has been particularly hard hit, with more than 11,000 cases and 50 deaths.

ANTARCTICA: There has been perhaps no place on Earth where people have been more vigilant in keeping out the virus than Antarctica, the only continent which remains virus-free.

That’s because any outbreak would be difficult to control in a place where people live in close quarters and where medical capabilities are limited. People who do get gravely ill on Antarctica typically must be evacuated, a process that can take days, or even weeks, due to the extreme weather conditions, which can delay flights. While most countries have been reducing the number of scientists and staff they are sending to Antarctica this Southern Hemisphere summer, hundreds of people still have been arriving to ensure bases are maintained and longterm scientific programs continue to tick over.

Michelle Rogan-Finnemore, the executive secretary of the Council of Managers of National Antarctic Programs, says people planning to travel to Antarctica are typically tested in their home countries before leaving and then quarantined for at least two weeks in their final gateway country before flying to Antarctica.

Once there, she says, people are typically tested again and are required at first to remain socially distanced and wear masks. Rogan-Finnemore says they’re making every effort to keep the virus out. “We’re doing our best in a global pandemic,” she says.

NORTH KOREA: With a population of more than 25 million, North Korea is by far the largest nation yet to report a single case, although there’s widespread skepticism over leader Kim Jong Un’s claim of a perfect record in keeping out the “evil” virus. North Korea says its anti-virus campaign is a matter of “national existence.” It has severely restricted cross-border traffic, banned tourists, flown out diplomats and mobilised tens of thousands of health workers to screen entry points, monitor residents and isolate those with symptoms.

Leading tech companies seek tougher antitrust action against Google WASHINGTON AGENCIES

A group of leading tech companies has joined over 100 Google critics in calling on the EU to take tougher antitrust action against the company, saying the tech company unfairly boosts its own services on the site’s web searches.

As many as 165 critics, including Yelp, Expedia, and Trivago, have accused Google of promoting its own services above others

in search results, demanding immediate action to halt this. The letter argues that “Google gained unjustified advantages through preferentially treating its own services within its general search results pages.”

The joint letter was signed by companies and industry groups from the UK and the US, as well in 21 countries across the European Union and was addressed to Margrethe Vestager, a European Commission vice president and the body’s chief antitrust enforcer.

Google, under its parent company Al-

phabet, has rejected the allegations. In a statement, the company said, “People expect Google to give them the most relevant, high quality search results that they can trust.

They do not expect us to preference specific companies or commercial rivals over others or to stop launching helpful services.”

While the EU has passed new rules under the Digital Markets Act, which would stop tech companies from favoring their own services in search results, the letter claims Google’s competitors do not “have

the strength and resources to wait” until it comes into effect. In the past three years, the EU antitrust body has fined Google a total of €8.25 billion ($9.7 billion) over claims that it has abused its power and control over the market to boost its shopping service, Android operating system, and advertising businesses. Following the previous punishments, Google’s critics claim nothing substantial has changed, as they believe the EU has, on the whole, left Google to fix the alleged issues.

However, Google’s spokesman disputes that by stating that the EU’s previous investigations led the company to introduce “intensive monitoring” and generate “billions of clicks for more than 600 comparison shopping services.” The letter was released a few weeks after the US Department of Justice (DOJ) filed a lawsuit against Google similarly accusing the company of misusing its power and holding an illegal monopoly over search and search advertising.

Friday, 13 November, 2020

PCB Confirms Younis as Batting CoaCh for two Years LAHORE

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AGENCIES

ormer captain Younis Khan will continue as the men’s batting coach of Pakistan until the T20 World Cup in 2022, the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) said on Thursday. Younis is the only Pakistani batsman in Test cricket’s 10,000-run club

and accompanied the side on their tour of england this summer.

“The PCB will also be utilising Younis Khan’s expertise and skills when he’s not on national duty as he will help local batsmen hone their skills,” PCB Chief executive Wasim Khan said in a statement. “This is part of the PCB’s strategy to appoint highly-qualified and respected coaches across all major centres of the

country so that we can start producing cricketers who can represent Pakistan with distinction.”

The board said the appointment of Younis will be “until, at least” the 2022 T20 World Cup, which is scheduled to be held in Australia in october-November.

Younis scored 10,099 runs and 34 hundreds in 118 Tests, and also played 265 one-dayers and 25 T20 internationals

for Pakistan.

The 42-year-old said he was pleased to take up the job on a long-term basis.

“I am particularly happy that my scope of work has been extended beyond the national duties,” he added.

“I am equally interested and keen at working at the domestic level by identifying potential batsmen and then helping them improve their skills.”

Binotto’s voice will be heard ‘loud and clear’ despite Turkey absence, say Ferrari AGENCIES With just four races left to go in 2020, Ferrari Team Principal mattia Binotto has made the decision to skip the Turkish Grand Prix in order to spend more time overseeing development of his team’s 2021 car. But according to Ferrari’s Sporting Director Laurent mekies, Binotto’s presence will still be well and truly felt in the Ferrari camp over the Istanbul weekend…

Binotto had hinted at the previous Grand Prix at Imola that he was considering missing some races at the end of the 2020 season, telling the media: “When you’re responsible for an entire team, certainly the race event is important, but the entire… management of the entire team

is even more important.”

And with Ferrari confirming ahead of Formula 1’s return to Turkey that Binotto would not be in attendance physically, mekies said that the Team Principal would nonetheless still play a key role in the running of Ferrari’s weekend. “mattia has always approached his role in an innovative way, trying to think outside the box,” said mekies. “He has come up with a method of working that gives the flexibility to manage the priorities in the most efficient way possible.

He had already adopted this approach when he was Technical Director and has applied it even more so now as Team Principal.

“At first it might seem strange not to

see him physically in the briefings or on the pit wall, but he will make use of all the current communication technologies so that his voice and input will be loud and clear to everyone, both inside and outside the team!”

Being present at the circuits this year hasn’t always been the most pleasurable experience for Binotto, with Ferrari currently sixth in the constructors’ standings, having scored a full 223 points less in the 13 races so far in 2020 than they managed in the same period last year.

And looking ahead to the Turkish Grand Prix, mekies was predicting a challenging weekend for Ferrari at the power-sensitive Istanbul Park circuit, as they seek to claw their way into the tight battle for third place with renault,

mcLaren and racing Point.

“Looking at the track characteristics, it won't be an easy weekend for us,” said mekies. “Nevertheless, the pecking order behind the top three drivers is always very close as it has been all season and the slightest thing can make the difference between fighting for a place on the second row or not making it to Q2. “our main aim is to confirm the small progress we have seen in recent races, and if possible, reduce the gap to those ahead of us in the constructors’ championship,” he added. “We are fortunate to have Sebastian [Vettel] who has already raced here four times, while Charles [Leclerc] will be tackling it for the first time, having been able to try it out on the simulator.”

Mick Schumacher on racing under another name, his F1 prospects and becoming a complete driver AGENCIES With two rounds to go in the 2020 Formula 2 campaign, mick Schumacher heads the standings by 22 points, while the son of seven-time F1 champion michael is hotly-tipped to bring his famous family name back to the top level of motor sport in 2021. But as the 21year-old reveals, if getting to Formula 1 is going to happen, he wants it to happen on his terms...

“If I’m not racing, I am thinking about racing,” says mick Schumacher midway through our deep-dive into his career to date.

He is calm and relaxed when he talks, sat in full Ferrari gear, including the baseball cap and now mandatory mask. He’s currently in the best form of his F2 career, leading the championship with 191 points to fellow Ferrari Driver Academy member Callum Ilott’s 169, and seemingly on the cusp of making the step up to Formula 1. “my dream is F1,” he adds, “my dream is motorsport, and therefore, I am always thinking about it and always dreaming about it.”

But while the dual pressures of racing at this level, combined with those that come with having such a famous surname, are undoubtedly present in Schumacher, the smiley 21-year-old is certainly good at hiding them.

Schumacher’s been faced with this attention from the very first time he raced in go-karts to the moment he first set foot in the Formula 2 paddock in Bahrain, where he was greeted by an ocean of reporters and journalists jostling to speak to him at the back of the PremA garage.

It’s the reason why he initially chose to race under the pseudonyms of Betsch – his mother’s maiden name – and Junior, back in karting.

“We tried to keep it on the less noticeable side as long as possible,” he explains. “Trying to have as much freedom for myself as possible. It gave me the opportunity to grow on my own and to understand how to be a normal kid and a

normal racing kid.

“Coming to formula racing, we knew that there was going to be more attention.

I wanted to race under my full name anyway and I am proud to have it on my car, I am proud to have it on my suits.

“The media have always been around me a bit more than others, but we’ve always been quite respected in that area, in terms of, if I ask for the privacy I need, then they give it to me and I’m very grateful for that.”

STEPPING UP TO FORMULA 2: Schumacher’s rise through the ranks has been more steady than rapid – and that’s by design. The German’s goal of reaching F1 has always been very much long-term, and there were to be no shortcuts – he wanted to arrive ready. Finishing second in both German and Italian Formula 4 in 2016, he went on to clinch the european F3 title in 2018, in his second season at that level.

Then came the step up to F2 and the re-introduction of the Schumacher name to a Grand Prix weekend. This was the biggest challenge of his fledgling career, and he openly admits that the initial adaptation period “took a bit longer than I thought it would”.

“The Hankook tyres used in european F3 were more durable,” he explains. “I was coming onto a Pirelli tyre in F2 that degrades a lot, so you have to change your driving style. There is also the turbo, and the fact the cars are a lot heavier and a lot more powerful.”

The jump between categories was massive, and not purely due to the change in tyre. From the outside, there was a certain expectation placed upon him, partly because of that name, and partly because the previous two champions, Charles Leclerc and George russell, had both won the category at the first attempt – an important distinction being that they had risen from GP3, which used the same Pirelli tyres as F2.

2019 was also stacked with experienced talent, the eventual top four made up of drivers with at least two years’ ex-

perience under their belts. For this reason, Schumacher insists that 2019 – which saw him finish 12th in the standings – was always intended as an acclimatisation year. “everything is a learning curve,” he says. “If you take the time to go into detail, if you take the time to learn things right, in the longterm it will work out better than if you try and rush things.

“In the long-term, what I want to do is to create the perfect racing driver and become the complete racing driver.

That’s why last year was so important, trying to understand every single bit of detail before thinking of the results. “I don’t want to talk about luck, but in ways, last year was a very unlucky season – we had a few reliability issues and some contact which was unfortunate, but I think that we always showed good pace, which is what mattered to us. Ultimately, I want to go to F1 being as best prepared as I can be and to do so, I have to also go through tough times, because during those, you learn the most.”

A CAREER-DEFINING SEASON: With his first season of F2 under his belt, Schumacher put pen to paper on another deal with PremA and returned to the F2 paddock. If 2019 was about the experience, though, then he knew that 2020 would need to be a results-based campaign. except it didn’t initially work out that way. He failed to enjoy the start of the season he would have envisaged, watching on as his fellow Ferrari juniors Callum Ilott and robert Shwartzman took wins, podiums, and an early lead in the championship.

Schumacher steadied the ship though, going on to become arguably the most consistent, and the most complete, driver on the grid. His management of the new tyres this year has been exemplary, and it’s helped him to reverse a deficit of around 40 points to now lead the series by 22. “I am enjoying every day, just having fun,” he beams. “I am enjoying the driving, I am enjoying the work behind the

CMYK

scenes and I think that’s really one of the keys which has put me in this position.

We’ve had some difficult races, we’ve had our ups and downs, but I think that’s brought us to where we are now and I feel very, very comfortable in the car.”

Having complete trust in his PremA team has also been a significant factor.

“I think this is now our fifth season together, which is more than any other junior driver in this field. That shows that I have a lot of trust in them and that they have a lot of trust in me. I think that’s what is very important in this sport.

“You try and grow together and PremA have done a fabulous job. I am not saying that I’m ready yet 100% [for F1], but I am saying that we are fairly close.”

MAKING THE FINAL STEP INTO F1: Schumacher may well feel like he is close to being ready for F1, but so do two of his fellow Ferrari juniors, Ilott and Shwartzman. All three drivers have led the F2 table at various points in the season, and all have their eyes fixed on a prized F1 berth in 2021 – with the Haas team seen as the most likely destination following Alfa romeo’s confirmation of Kimi raikkonen and Antonio Giovinazzi for next year.

But Schumacher, for one, doesn’t appear fazed by the scrap between the trio.

“I wouldn’t say it puts more pressure on me because my goal is to be at the top and to fight with the top guys,” he says. “If that wasn’t my FDA team mates, it would be someone else. “The ultimate goal is F1 and I guess that is the same for everyone who is in F2, but there are very limited seats in F1. Who gets them in the end is something that only the bosses know. We don’t really speak about it and we don’t really get information about it.

“For me, it’s important to talk about Formula 2, to focus on that 100% and to do my job right there. If I do that, then the attention is brought on to me – and the guys up there do notice what is happening.”

SPORTS 11

Joan mir on the brink of world title ahead of Valencian grand Prix AGENCIES

Suzuki ecstar rider Joan mir stands of the brink of claiming a maiden motoGP world championship in Valencia this weekend. mir is now 37 points clear of his nearest rival in the race to replace the injured marc marquez at the top of the Premier Class pile.

MIR IN POLE POSITION IN MOTOGP CHAMPIONSHIP: After clinching his first win of a remarkable 2020 season last weekend, mir dimissed any suggestion that he was under pressure. “People who can’t pay rent, that’s real pressure. This is my job,” mir said when he became the ninth man to win a race this season. mir had already held the championship lead thanks to his consistency in landing himself on the podium and finishing in the points, but extended his advantage over Frenchman Fabio Quartraro after the Petronas Yamaha rider crashed out in the first race in Valencia (the european Grand Prix). motoGP is now guaranteed to crown a new champion for the first time in seven years and if mir can clinch another podium at the in the Gran Premio motul de la Comunitat Valenciana he will be the one to lift the trophy. Should he succeed mir will also become the first former moto3 champion to win the premier class crown and the first Suzuki rider to achieve the feat in two decades. Chasing down mir will be longshot title contenders Quartraro, teammate Alex rins and Yamaha’s maverick Viñales.

Both rins and Quartraro are 37 points off the lead with Viñales really needing a win to stay in the championship hunt as he is 41 points back. Further back but still mathematically in the equation are two-time champion Franco morbidelli (Petronas Yamaha SrT), and Andrea Dovizioso (Ducati Team) who is now sixth overall although equal on points with his compatriot and 45 points off of mir.

BINDER LEADING ROOKIE OF THE YEAR STAKES: South Africa’s Brad Binder (red Bull KTm Factory racing) is currently at the head of an intriguing battle to be crowned motoGP rookie of the Year. His incredible ride last week scored him vitals points that allowed him to move ahead of fellow greenhorn Alex marquez (repsol Honda Team). The Circuit ricardo Tormo will have a big say in who claims the championship and other honours as the rollercoaster motoGP season nears its conclusion. Valencia will be the penultimate stop for the motoGP circus in a chaotic and unpredictable season and we cannot write off the prospect of further drama at the Circuit ricardo Tormo.

Valentino rossi tests positive for Covid-19 again AGENCIES

Yamaha motoGP rider Valentino rossi has tested positive for Covid-19 again just a week after testing negative following a two-round layoff with the virus last month. rossi was forced to miss the Aragon double-header in october when he caught the virus between the French and Aragon Grands Prix. The Yamaha rider tested positive for the virus last Tuesday at home, but another test on the Thursday cleared him to head to Valencia where he underwent another PCr test. Passing this on the Friday of the european GP, rossi was able to take part from Saturday onwards, having been replaced by American World Superbike rider Garrett Gerloff for the first two practice sessions. rossi’s race ended after only five laps due to a mechanical issue, meaning he hasn’t seen a chequered flag since the emilia romagna GP. And his participation in this weekend’s Valencia GP is now in doubt after testing positive for Covid-19 on Tuesday, motorsport.com has learned. rossi will need to undergo another test to determine wither he will miss this weekend's race. With the final round of the 2020 season coming up in just over a week’s time in Portugal, rossi could well miss his final race as a factory Yamaha team rider. rossi’s latest positive tests raises questions about the PCr tests he passed last week, particularly on Friday before being allowed to enter the ricardo Tormo Circuit, and whether he was still positive without knowing it or has been reinfected since Saturday. While scientists are still discovering how the virus works, cases of reinfection have been reported throughout the world in recent months. Five members of Yamaha have been forced into quarantine since last weekend when one of maverick Vinales’ crew tested positive for Covid-19. This follows on from six Yamaha team members being forced to isolate ahead of the French GP when one member tested positive for the virus. Yamaha named Gerloff as rossi's his official standby replacement for the european GP, and the American will remain ready to take over should rossi test positive once more.

Friday, 13 November, 2020

PrAyEr TImINGS

NEWS

Mob vAndAliSeS MoSque in indiA’S biHAr AfTer bJP win

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NEWS DESK

IVE worshippers were injured after the supporters of the hardline Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) vandalised a mosque in Jamua village in Bihar following a victory in India’s first state assembly election since the outbreak of coronavirus pandemic.

The mob, The Print said, was part of a victory procession.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s coalition retained power in India’s poorest state in what was a referendum on his handling of Covid19 and which may boost his chances in three more state elections next year.

At the time of vandalising, five people

were inside the mosque offering Maghrib prayers and received severe injuries.

Three people received head injuries, apart from injuries on their backs and are currently admitted to a hospital. One person received injuries to his nose.

Several vehicles were also vandalised, the report said. The mic of the mosque and its two gates were broken during the incident.

Mazhar Alam, the caretaker of the mosque, said that the mosque was pelted with stones during the Maghrib prayers.

He told The Wire: “There were about 500 people in this juloos (procession) who were celebrating the win of Pawan Jaiswal in the assembly elections. When they came near the mosque, they started pelting

stones at it. They broke its gates, its mic – all while chanting Jai Shri Ram (Hail Lord Ram).” He said added that the mosque is one of the oldest in the area.

“Wo humko keh rahe the, tum log yahan se chale jao. Tumhara desh nahin hai ye (They told us to leave the country.

This country is not yours),” he added.

“The Muslim families are scared now.

But the administration has assured us that they are with us, and will not let anyone harm us,” he further said. Abhay Kumar, station house officer of the Dhaka police station, confirmed the incident took place on Wednesday evening.

He said that an FIR has been registered and two people were arrested in the case so far.

A first information report (FIR) was registered and the police have invoked several sections of the Indian Penal Code including 145 (joining or continuing in unlawful assembly, knowing it has been commanded to disperse), 148 (rioting, armed with deadly weapon), 153 (wantonly giving provocation with intent to cause riot), 295 (injuring or defiling place of worship with intent to insult the religion of any class) and 307 (attempt to murder). Jamua has a small Muslim population of about 20-25 families and a large Hindu population of 500 families. The village falls in the Dhaka state assembly seat, where a local BJP leader, Pawan Kumar Jaiswal, emerged victorious in the election results that were announced on Tuesday.

Asian leaders to sign China-backed trade deal amid US election uncertainty JAKARTA AGENCIES

Southeast Asian leaders start meetings on Thursday that are expected to lead to an ambitious China-backed trade deal at a time the still uncertain election result in the United States leaves questions over its engagement in the region. Leaders of the 10-member Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN), China, Japan, South Korea, Australia and New Zealand are scheduled to conclude talks on the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) this Sunday.

The deal, which is expected to be signed later on Sunday on the sidelines of a mostly online, four-day ASEAN summit in Hanoi, will take years to complete but will progressively lower tariffs across many areas and could become the world’s biggest trade agreement.

The 15 participating RCEP countries make up nearly a third of the world’s people and account for 29% of global gross domestic product. China is already the biggest source of imports and destination for exports for would-be RCEP members.

“The signing of RCEP will provide momentum for regional trade, particularly between signatories,” said Nguyen Quoc Dung, deputy foreign minister of Vietnam, which is chairing ASEAN meetings this year.

The summit comes while the result of the U.S. presidential election has yet to be declared despite Democrat Joe Biden projected to have comfortably won the 270 electoral votes needed for victory. Biden, who was vice president during President Barack Obama’s “Asian pivot”, is expected to steer away from Trump’s “America First” agenda and re-engage more actively in the region.

But legal challenges to the election result and the fir-

ing of the U.S. defense secretary by Trump risk raising concerns among U.S. allies at a time that China’s influence is growing. Trump’s tariff-raising trade war with China has given extra impetus in recent years to push ahead with the RCEP, which had otherwise progressed only sluggishly since negotiations began in 2012.

The deal, which is expected to be the most significant agreement at this year’s ASEAN summit, will likely cement China’s position more firmly as an economic partner with Southeast Asia, Japan and Korea, and put it in a better position to shape the region’s trade rules.

“The uncertainty regarding the U.S. election raises questions regarding U.S. participation in relevant meetings and may give China a chance to influence the narrative about America’s engagement with the region,” said Le Hong Hiep, a fellow at Singapore’s ISEAS Yusof Ishak Institute.

FAJR SUNRISE

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Saudi embassy in The Hague sprayed with gunfire, no injuries AGENCIES Unidentified assailants sprayed the embassy of Saudi Arabia in the Netherlands with gunfire before dawn on Thursday, police said. No one was hurt in the incident. Dutch police said there had been no arrests after the building was hit just before 6 am (0500GMT). Images on Dutch television showed casings scattered on the street and bullet holes in the windows. A police spokesman said the motive was under investigation and it was unclear who might have been responsible.

In a statement, the embassy condemned the “cowardly attack” and urged Saudi citizens in the Netherlands to be on high alert and to exercise caution. The embassy praised Dutch authorities for their prompt response, saying it looks forward to investigating the circumstances, knowing the results and bringing those behind the incident to justice. The Dutch foreign ministry said in a statement that it was taking the shooting extremely seriously and was in close contact with Saudi authorities. The incident occurred a day after an explosion at a World War One remembrance ceremony involving foreign embassies in the Saudi city of Jeddah, which wounded several people. The explosion was the second security incident to take place in the Red Sea port city in the last couple of weeks, and the first apparent bomb attack targeting foreigners in the conservative kingdom.

Trump moves court to block Michigan vote results from being certified WASHINGTON

Second Afghan journalist killed in a week KABUL AGENCIES

A radio journalist has been killed in the southern Afghan province of Helmand in a targeted bomb blast, officials said, the second journalist to be killed in less than a week. Elyas Dayee, who worked for RFE/RL’s Radio Free Afghanistan, was killed on Thursday in a blast from a bomb attached to his vehicle in Lashkar Gah, the provincial capital. Omer Zwak, spokesman for the provincial governor in Helmand province, said the blast also wounded three others, including Dayee’s brother. Mohammad Saber Fahim, a freelance journalist based in Kabul, a friend of Dayee’s who also worked with him for more than 15 years as a freelance journalist, said it was a “great loss for the country”. “He was a very good friend of mine. We were selected for a fellowship in England in 2008 and spent much of the time together there. Elyas never uttered a harsh word for anyone, he was a very passionate journalist and always helped others. We are all mourning his death,” Fahim said. “Journalists are living in fear here, we can be targeted by anyone. I could be next.” Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission condemned the attack in a statement on Thursday calling it an attack on the right to freedom of media and expression. “The Human Rights Commission strongly condemns the attack on Elyas Dayee and his assassination, calling it a violation of international human rights and an attack on the right to freedom of the media and expression,” it said, adding the commission calls for an investigation into the crimes committed against all journalists in the country. Afghan Journalist Safety Committee (AJSC) in a statement posted on twitter also called for an immediate investigation into the attack. “The Afghan government should take serious measures towards safety of journalists. AJSC also requests Afghan media and journalists to put safety as their highest priority. Killing of journalists must stop!!!” The killing comes days after a local journalist, Yama Siawash, was killed when a bomb attached to his vehicle exploded near his residence in Kabul.

Biden names longtime adviser chief-of-staff in first key hire WASHINGTON AGENCIES

President-elect Joe Biden has named longtime adviser Ron Klain as his White House chief of staff in his first important appointment, as he builds his administration regardless of whether President Donald Trump accepts the election results.

Klain, 59, was Biden’s chief of staff when the 77-yearold was vice president under President Barack Obama and had been widely expected to be named chief of staff. He also has experience battling a public health crisis, as he worked as Obama’s “Ebola Czar” in 2014. A fierce critic of Trump’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic, Klain is expected to be a key figure in Biden’s response to the health crisis.

“His deep, varied experience and capacity to work with people all across the political spectrum is precisely what I need in a White House chief of staff as we confront this moment of crisis and bring our country together again,” Biden said in a statement.

As Biden moves forward with the transition, Trump has refused to concede or cooperate and his campaign has continued its legal efforts to overturn the results in key states. Biden clinched victory last Saturday as he won a series of battleground states to claim the 270 electoral votes needed in the state-by-state Electoral College that determines who wins the presidency. Biden was also ahead in the popular vote by more than five million ballots with a few states still counting votes.

Trump is the first US president to lose a re-election bid since 1992.

AGENCIES

U.S. President Donald Trump's re-election campaign has filed a lawsuit in a federal court in Michigan in a bid to block the midwestern state from certifying its final presidential election vote count until allegations of irregularities are addressed, local media reported. It is the second legal challenge the Trump campaign has filed in Michigan, where a judge previously rejected a similar one earlier this month. The new lawsuit is expected to have little chance of swaying the outcome in Michigan, where Democrat Joe Biden beat Trump by roughly 145,000 votes, according to a report by The Hill. The Trump campaign has also filed legal challenges in states of Georgia, Pennsylvania since Nov. 3 Election Day, and it has said it will pursue a recount in Wisconsin. Georgia in the southern United States will conduct a statewide full hand recount of presidential election ballots, Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger announced. According to local media reports, Biden is leading in each of those states, and the Trump campaign has so far failed to present concrete evidence of fraud on a widespread scale despite claims from the president.

Pfizer CEO sells his 60pc shares on record surge day, denies insider trading NEW YORK AGENCIES

CEO Albert Bourla sold off 60 percent of his shares in drugmaker Pfizer the day its stock price peaked following a favorable report on the effectiveness of its Covid-19 vaccine – but the company insists the sale was kosher.

Pfizer defended its CEO’s sale of 132,508 shares the other day at near-peak value, claiming in a statement on Wednesday that the trade had been set up back in August as “part of Dr. Bourla’s personal financial planning” in keeping with a pre-established plan allowing

“major shareholders and insiders of exchange-listed corporations to trade a predetermined number of shares at a predetermined time.”

The stock was sold at $41.94 per share, near the peak of its value on Monday, netting Bourla a cool $5.6 million.

Share price would climb to $41.99, buoyed

by Monday’s report that Pfizer’s vaccine was 90 percent effective against the novel coronavirus, before inching back down – as of the close of trading on Wednesday, it sits at $38.50.

Bourla isn’t the only Pfizer exec to cash in suspiciously on the vaccine news, either. Executive vice president

and chief corporate affairs officer Sally Susman made $1.8 million off her sale of 43,000 shares in the company. The company’s claim that Bourla's sale was prearranged is only likely to fuel conspiracy theories that Pfizer deliberately waited until after the US elections last week in order to release the positive news. President Donald Trump’s son, Donald Trump Jr., sarcastically tweeted that the timing was “pretty amazing” after the company unveiled the results on Monday, snarking “nothing nefarious about the timing of this at all right?”

With a sizable minority of Ameri-

cans openly balking at taking a vaccine connected to the Trump administration, Pfizer has attempted to distance itself from the administration’s push to develop a Covid-19 shot, Operation Warp Speed. Pfizer’s head of vaccine research and development Kathrin Jansen claimed on Sunday that “we were never part of the Warp Speed,” denying the company had taken any money from the US government “or from anyone.” But the firm received $1.95 billion from the US government in July, a sizable sum by any estimation and one it’s hard to imagine the company’s executives forgetting about.

Published by Arif Nizami at Plot No 66-C, 1st Floor, 21st Commercial Street, Phase-II (Extension), DHA Karachi and printed at Ibn-e-Hassan Printing Press, Hockey Stadium, Karachi, for PT Print (Pvt) Limited. Ph: 021-35381208-9. Email: newsroom@pakistantoday.com.pk